Final Tuesday Male Beauty

Young Republicans - Feeling Blue, Dwindling in Numbers

The Washington Post has a story today that looks at the disspirited mood among young Republicans who fear that November will bring a blood bath for the GOP. Moreover, the story notes how the younger generation identifies two to onee as Democrats rather than as Republicans. I cannot help but wonder if the GOP's unholy alliance with the gay-hating Christianists is not one significant cause of this race from the GOP. Surveys show the younger generation of voters support gay marriage by a significant percentage and that they are far more likely than older voters to have gay friends. Thus it is possible that while using gays as a wedge issue was a winning proposition in the past, by tying itself so tightly to the Christianist, the party may have lost the future. It would certainly be a fitting result for those who so willingly sold their souls to Daddy Dobson, et al. Hatred of others and intolerance are not positive attributes, and that is pretty much all the Christianists now bring to the table. From talking with my children - all of whom are in the under 29 age bracket, both they and their friends dislike anti-gay politicians and anti-gay churches. And they WILL get out and vote come November. Here are some story highlights:

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David All glanced around Top of the Hill bar and saw the future of the Republican Party. It looked dim. A who's who of young conservatives had gathered, but they were few, and they were frustrated.

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"You don't hear Barack Obama going around saying, 'I'm John F. Kennedy.' He's saying, 'I'm Barack Obama,' " All says. "There's a reason for that. He's inspiring an entire generation, and it's a generation that's trying to change the world in 160 characters or less through text messages."

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Voters under 30 are more than twice as likely to identify themselves as Democrats, according to the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. All and his friends bravely offer bromides to fight off despair: "I think the Republican Party is staring down a very long, dark, quiet night," All says.

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In 1992, on the heels of the Reagan Revolution, voters under 30 split their allegiance about evenly between the two major parties. But every presidential cycle since then, Democrats have gained ground. This year, according to the Post-ABC poll, 44 percent of those under 30 call themselves Democrats, and only 18 percent identify as Republicans.

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Both parties had a tendency to shrug off the youth and young adult vote, because as a group they have been the least reliable to turn out on Election Day. But this year, record numbers have registered to vote and shown up at the polls. In the swing state of Virginia alone, 90,000 people under age 34 recently joined the voter rolls.

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[M]any of the party's newbies are preparing for the worst. Matt Lewis, 33, is hoping a trouncing in November will force the old guard aside and give his generation a shot. . . . David All points to a page on McCain's Web site as more old-fogy branding: The candidate is extolling his regulatory policies as friendly to small business, and the accompanying photo shows an old-time Main Street barbershop in the background. The young Republican techie, who raises money online for McCain, would have used the image of a young high-tech entrepreneur instead, someone to whom teenagers could relate. Seventy percent of high school students say they want to be entrepreneurs, according to a recent Gallup poll. But," says All, "they're not talking about opening a barbershop."

More Tuesday Male Beauty

More PFOX Lies and Distortions

Both Truth Wins Out and Pam's House Blend are carrying articles on the latest untruths being disseminated Parents and Friends of ExGays and Gays ("PFOX"). Like most of the Christian Right organizations, PFOX apparently considers itself exempt from the Commandment against bearing false witness and lying. Candidly, in my opinion, about the only thing truthful on PFOXis web site is the statement that "PFOX not a therapeutic or counseling organization." Beyond that, little or nothing should be deemed true or trustworthy, including the statement that "Each year thousands of men, women and teens with unwanted same-sex attractions make the personal decision to leave homosexuality." Neither PFOX nor any of the other Christianist organizations can produce any documentation to back up this claim and what one sees is the same handful of tired "ex-gays for pay" being trotted out to give witness to their alleged conversion. The lack of veracity demonstrated by PFOX is to be expected since as Ex-Gay Watch has reported it was founded by Family Research Council, which in turn was founded by Daddy Dobson. Here are some highlights from Truth Wins Out that address the false statements put out by PFOX in reaction to the Washington Post story on 15-year-old Saro who I did a post about a little over a week ago:

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On its website, PFOX expressed its displeasure with The Washington Post for publishing what it called “a sympathetic article about a 15-year-old boy named Saro who described his homosexual feelings and how Gay Straight Alliance student clubs help such gay teens to deal with discrimination and bullying in high school and middle school.” . . . [PFOX claimed that] Research has shown that the risk of suicide decreases by 20% each year that a person delays homosexual or bisexual self-labeling.* Early self-identification is dangerous to kids.”

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Dr. Remafedi’s study was the one cited by PFOX to back their unfounded conclusions. Today, Dr. Reamafedi [pictured above] released the following comments to Truth Wins Out:

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“My work has been cited by PFOX in response to a Washington Post article on gay-straight alliances (GSA),” wrote Dr. Remafedi. “PFOX misuses one of my studies on suicide attempts in gay youth to argue that people should not identify their sexual orientation at young ages. Our findings do not support the contention that young people choose their identity or the timing of events in identity formation. Nor is there any evidence that the availability of GSAs influences those developmental processes.”

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PFOX, as well as Focus on the Family, distorted his findings to make the case that young people should not learn about homosexuality because they were sexually confused, and could thus be influenced by educational material. Last year, several researchers held Dobson accountable for misrepresenting their work. Letters and videos from these scientists can be viewed at www.RespectMyResearch.org.

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Based upon my own interactions with Peter LaBarbera, Robert Knight, Stephen Bennett, and others with a vested - think FINANCIAL interest - in maintaining the ex-gay myth, if their lips are moving or they are typing a presentation, the safest assumption is that they are lying, they know they are lying, and that they have no regard for the truth and honesty and do not care that they are lying. They are, in my opinion, utterly disgusting people, not to mention false Christians.

U.S. House Armed Services Committee to Hold hearing on DADT Tomorrow

I suspect that Elaine Donnelly (pictured at left) is having ultra-frenzied hissy fits and convulsions over the pending U.S. House Armed Services Committee hearings tomorrow on the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Like so many of the professional gay-haters, Ms. Donnelly has associated herself with a Christianist organization with an official sounding name - the Center for Military Readiness - to serve as a platform for her efforts to forever condemn gays to less than full citizenship status. When not trashing gays, CMR also works to deny women equal treatment in the military, preferring apparently that women be kept in the home barefoot and pregnant. Would that Ms. Donnelly would stay in her home and keep her mouth shut. Here's what Ms. Donnelly, ever the martyr, is putting out about the hearings tomorrow:

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CMR has the facts, sound principle and common sense on its side, but faces large, well-funded activist groups that are devoted to one radical goal: repeal of the 1993 law, which is constantly mislabeled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

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Funny that the storyline being reported by USA Today differs significantly from Donnelly's whining. Here are a few highlights:

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Without this hearing, said former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman John Shalikashvili, "you will never repeal the law. It's a great idea." He is among more than 50 retired generals and admirals who have said it is time to rethink the policy. The hearing comes as the volunteer armed forces struggle to retain troops to fight two wars. Changing attitudes are seen in polls such as one by The Washington Post, published Saturday, showing that 75% favor allowing gays to serve openly, up from 44% in 1993.

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The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, has said that if elected, he would work to repeal the bar on open service — and the "don't ask" compromise designed to work around it. His Republican rival, John McCain, wants no change.

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Gay-rights advocates say they are disappointed at the Pentagon's no-show. "At a time when the military is relaxing every possible standard to attract new recruits, and at the same time is losing mission-critical specialists such as Arabic linguists, medical professionals and others, one would hope and expect that Defense Department leaders would be first in line to call on Congress to repeal the law," says Steve Ralls of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

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I guess under Ms. Donnelly's thinking, us gays have somehow recruited former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman John Shalikashvili and the more than 50 other retired generals and admirals who think DADT needs to go. Ms. Donnelly really needs to get a life and get her frigid nose out of the military's business.

Tuesday Male Beauty

Turkey's First Gay Honour Killing?

That's the question being asked by the Independent and others in the wake of the murder of Ahmet Yildiz, 26, a physics student who represented his country at an international gay gathering in San Francisco last year. Sadly, the reactionary power of religion - in this case Islam - and the slavish adherence to beliefs increasingly out of step with science and modern knowledge is most likely the motivation behind Yildiz's death. What is even more distressing is that some believe that Yildiz's family may be behind his murder. Now the question is whether or not any meaningful investigation of his death will actually occur and - if it was a so-called honor killing - will those responsible be properly prosecuted and punished. As a parent, I cannot conceive having one of my children killed - that mindset is so far beyond fucked up that I cannot even begin to understand it - and to be candid, I believe religious views that would cause such an act clearly need to be stamped out. One can only hope some in the European Union will keep up the pressure on Turkey and other reactionary member countries to either get with the 21st century and stop persecuting gays NOW or be expelled from the EU. Here are highlights from the Independent's story:

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In a corner of Istanbul today, the man who might be described as Turkey's gay poster boy will be buried – a victim, his friends believe, of the country's deepening friction between an increasingly liberal society and its entrenched conservative traditions. Ahmet Yildiz, 26, a physics student who represented his country at an international gay gathering in San Francisco last year, was shot leaving a cafe near the Bosphorus strait this week.

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"He fell victim to a war between old mentalities and growing civil liberties," says Sedef Cakmak, a friend and a member of the gay rights lobby group Lambda. "I feel helpless: we are trying to raise awareness of gay rights in this country, but the more visible we become, the more we open ourselves up to this sort of attack." Against this backdrop, the issues of women's rights, sexuality and the place of religion in the public arena have been particularly contentious. Ahmet Yildiz's crime, his friends say, was to admit openly to his family that he was gay.

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The family pressure increased, the friend explained. "They wanted him to go back home, see a doctor who could cure him, and get married." Shortly after coming out this year, Mr Yildiz went to a prosecutor to complain that he was receiving death threats. The case was dropped. Five months later, he was dead. The police are now investigating his murder. For gay rights groups, the student's inability to get protection was a typical by-product of the indifference, if not hostility, with which a broad swathe of Turkish society views homosexuality. The military, for example, sees it as an "illness". Men applying for an exemption to obligatory military service on grounds of homosexuality must provide proof – either in the form of an anal examination, or photographs.

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Turkey has a history of honour killings. A government survey earlier this year estimated that one person every week dies in Istanbul as a result of honour killings. It put the nationwide death toll at 220 in 2007. In the majority of cases, the victims are women, but Mr Yildiz's friends suspect he may be the first recorded victim of a homosexual honour killing. "We've been trying to contact Ahmet's family since Wednesday, to get them to take responsibility for the funeral," one of the victim's friends said yesterday, standing outside the morgue where his body has been for three days. "There's no answer, and I don't think they are going to come." The refusal of families to bury their relatives is common after honour-related murders.

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But according to the former neighbour, the physics student's blank refusal to hide who he was in any way may have been too much for his family. "He could have hidden who he was, but he wanted to live honestly," the neighbour said. "When the death threats started, his boyfriend tried to persuade him to get out of Turkey. But he stayed. He was too brave. He was too open."

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Stories like this one sicken me and reinforce my view that in many ways, religion (or at least some forms of it)is one of the greatest forces of evil on the planet.

Final Monday Male Beauty

Did Wrong South Carolina Public Official Resign?

I previously posted my thoughts on the idiocy and bigotry rampant in South Carolina where Governor Mark Sanford killed a tourist marketing campaign directed at gays in the UK, saying taxpayer dollars shouldn't be used "to promote any group with a particular social or political agenda." The state also said it would not pay the $5,000 tab for the marketing campaign. In addition, the employee at the state Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department who approved the ad has resigned (Voluntarily? I suspect not.), and Republican Sen. David Thomas has called for an audit of the state agency's spending.

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Meanwhile, of course, South Carolina has received massive amounts of negative coverage in the gay media and elsewhere worldwide. The reaction of travel and tourism experts: shock and surprise at South Carolina basically telling a $40 BILLION segment of the U. S. tourist market (not counting foreign tourists) to basically go f*ck itself. Hopefully, gay tourists will avoid South Carolina like the plague and tell their travel agents and the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism (ddawson@scprt.com or medmonds@scprt.com) why they are doing so. Who knows, perhaps before it's over Governor Sanford will be asked to resign for his bigoted stupidity which will cause the state to lose increasingly scarce tourist dollars. Here are some highlights from Page One Q:

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The state officials' position has befuddled experts in the field of gay travel. "South Carolina is not typically known as a gay travel destination," said John Tanzella, executive director of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association. "But there are things for gay people to do there. It's a beautiful state and that appeals to everybody." "The fact that they don't want to invest ($5,000) for the campaign for such a lucrative niche market to me is mind-boggling," he said.

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Bob Witeck, chief executive of Washington, D.C.-based Witeck-Combs consulting firm that specializes in helping businesses tap into the gay and lesbian consumer market, said a survey showed gay travelers accounted for about $40 billion of the $461 billion spent worldwide by U.S. leisure travelers in 2006. Gay travelers tend to stay longer at their destinations than other travelers and spend more money while they are there, Witeck said. Gays and lesbians also tend to travel more often than other tourists, he said. . . . . A statewide gay pride organization has said it plans to raise the $5,000 to pay the state's bill for the ads. The "so gay" ad campaign was done by OutNow Consulting, which is based in Australia and helps customers target gay consumers. The client was Amro Worldwide, which specializes in travel for gay clients.

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As I have said numerous times, bigotry needs to bear a price. I for one will make a point not even to stop to get gas if I am driving through South Carolina. Better to gas up in North Carolina or Georgia than provide a penny of revenue to such a bigoted state.

Irish MP: Gays More Vile Than Child Abusers

I am beginning to think that Strangford MP, Iris Robinson (at left), is Oklahoma Representative Sally Kern's Siamese twin who was spirited away at birth. She is just as mean spirited and judgmental as Ms. Kern. Like Kern, Iris Robinson doesn't know when to keep he mouth shut and seems to revel in looking like a homophobic bigot. I truly hope she comes to find herself with numerous LGBT children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, etc. It could not happen to a better person. OK, I take that back. Daddy Dobson's son coming out of the closet would be way more fun. :) I suppose in her delusions Ms. Robinson believes that her hateful comments have no impact on encouraging homophobes to engage in violence against gays. Here are some highlights from the Belfast Telegraph that expose Iris' latest diarrhea of the mouth (note how after utterly debasing gays, Ms. Robinson disingenuously claims that she bears no hate):

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Iris Robinson has walked into her biggest controversy yet after stating in Parliament that homosexuality is “viler” than child sex abuse, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal today. The First Minister’s wife made the controversial comments in the House of Commons in front of Policing and Justice Minister Paul Goggins and a committee of UK MPs during a debate on the assessment and management of sex offenders.

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Speaking about community concerns over sex offenders Mrs Robinson then stated: “There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality and sodomy, than sexually abusing innocent children.” Her comments have not been omitted from a written transcript of the debate which has been published on the Parliament website. When contacted by the Belfast Telegraph Mrs Robinson said she stood by her views and stated that homosexuality was “comparable” to child sex abuse.

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Mrs Robinson added: “I cannot think of anything more sickening than a child being abused. It is comparable to the act of homosexuality. I think they are all comparable. I feel totally repulsed by both.” . . . . Anything I say is out of love. I am not hate-mongering. I cannot leave my Christian values hanging at the door when I go into politics. “I am speaking out more now because we are getting it more and more rammed down our throats that the minority views are more important than the majority views.

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“She is being very irresponsible making these sort of cruel and frighteningly ignorant comments. “We [the Gay Rights Association] feel that a responsible MLA would be glad to listen to our views and she should meet with the health professionals who work in the gay and lesbian sector instead of making wild and totally unscientific statements.