More Wednesday Male Beauty

Majority of Workers Still Hide Sexual Orientation at Work

A new report confirms what I suspect most of us already had figured out: most LGBT employees hide their sexual orientation at work. It is an obvious result when the majority of states still provide no employment non-discrimination protections to their LGBT citizens. The irony to me is that all states have employment protections against workplace discrimination based on religion - which is EXACTLY the basis for anti-gay discrimination. But for religious discrimination kept alive by the professional Christian set and other religious extremists who demand that all live by their imposed religious beliefs, we gays would likely have few employment discrimination issues. Why the courts cannot see what's plain as day is beyond maddening. One can only hope that as religious belief fades - a topic by itself for another post - this circumstance will change. Here are highlights from the report which can be found here:

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[S]ignificant numbers of LGBT employees continue to experience a negative workplace climate that appears to be unaffected by organizational policies and which varies by location, manager and work team. The majority of LGBT workers (51 percent) hide their LGBT identity to most at work, the simplest indication that more work needs to be done to translate inclusive policies into an inclusive climate. Hiding one’s LGBT identity is even more pronounced among younger workers. Only 5 percent of LGBT employees ages 18 to 24 say they are totally open at work, compared to more than 20 percent in older age cohorts.

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Employees who are not open at work experience more negative outcomes from their workplace environment that affect productivity, retention and professional relationships. For example, 54 percent of LGBT employees who are not open to anyone at work report lying about their personal lives, compared to 21 percent of employees open about their LGBT identity. LGBT workers’ inability to participate honestly in everyday conversations hinders trust and cohesion with their co-workers and superiors.

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Derogatory comments and jokes still happen at work and are a major indicator that it is unsafe to be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity at work. A total of 58 percent of LGBT workers say someone at work makes a joke or derogatory comment about LGBT people at least once in a while.

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[D]omestic partner benefits have little effect on the number of employees who remain closeted. A total of 23 percent of employees at companies without equal benefits are not open to anyone, compared to 22 percent of employees at companies with the benefits. And whether a company has an EEO policy inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity does not change the number of employees who are not open to anyone (26 percent in both cases).
relationship.

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Overall, the report is pretty depressing in that it confirms that on the work front, most LGBT employees live in fear and feel the need play act a role that they perceive will be acceptable to their supervisors and company leaders. I played that game myself for over 30 years and it is very exhausting - even when one has not come out to themselves yet as gay. It definitely detracts from productivity and makes for a very unhappy work environment. And again, it ALL traces ultimately to religious based discrimination.

Equality Virginia 2009 Legend’s Honoree Announced

This is my fourth year of involvement with the Equality Virginia's Legends Gala fundraiser - last year I was co-chair of the event. This year's honoree is a wonderful friend, Cynthia Cutler, who is a one woman dynamo of civic involvement for both LGBT and other area non-profit organizations in the Hampton Roads area. Her involvement with the LGBT community is long standing and with eight intrepid other individuals and myself, she joined in founding Hampton Roads Business OutReach, a/k/a HRBOR, one of the fastest growing affiliates of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce ("NGLCC"). Cindy is very, very deserving of this honor. The following is the press release about the event which will take place on Saturday, November 7, 2009:

On November 7, 2009, Equality Virginia (EV) will pay tribute to local activist Cynthia Cutler as the honoree at its 4th annual “Legends Gala” to be held at Norfolk’s Waterside Marriot. Cutler joins past honorees Ann Dearsley-Vernon, Yvonne Miller and Claus Ihleman as exemplars in the continued fight for equality for all Virginians.

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Ms. Cutler is widely known in the Hampton Roads LGBT community as a relentless organizer and an outspoken advocate for LGBT equality. Shannon Bowman, EV Legends Committee Co-Chair, states, “Cindy has continued to inspire both the gay and straight community to demand change. She tirelessly takes on leadership roles to facilitate this change without regard to any negative implications her affiliation with LGBT organizations may bring personally.” Cutler, a mortgage specialist with Tidewater Home Funding, has an extensive résumé of community involvement. Among the organizations benefiting from her involvement are Equality Virginia, YWCA, ACCESS Aids Care and Hampton Roads Business OutReach to name but a few.

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The Legend’s Gala, now in its 4th year, is a fund raising event for EV in their continued efforts to bring equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Virginians. Equality Virginia, founded in 1989 as Virginians for Justice, is a statewide, non-partisan, education, outreach and advocacy organization. Its work includes research, voter education and advocacy on a broad range of issues of concern to LGBT Virginians including workplace discrimination, marriage and relationship recognition and anti-violence programs.

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Last year’s event, held at the Norfolk Yacht and Country Club was attended by over 250 and raised more than $45,000 for the organization. Cutler’s wide ranging network of friends, associates and admirers sets the stage for the 2009 event to far exceed this lofty goal.

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Sponsorship levels for the event range from $5000 to $500. For more information contact Mardi Krantz at 804.643.4816 or go to www.EqualityVirginia.org.

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Equality Virginia’s Board of Directors and the Legend’s Gala Committee are proud to honor Ms. Cutler as this year’s Legend’s Honoree. It is her selfless commitment to our ideals that gives hope to one day reaching the goal of a truly inclusive Commonwealth for all Virginians.
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This year’s event will be at the Marriott Waterside. Tickets are available now for $100 and will go up to $135 after Oct 1. Tickets can be purchased online at www.EqualityVirginia.org.

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The boyfriend and I will be "pit bosses" high end Monte Carlo night theme of the event and we hope local readers will make a point to attend the event and say hello to us.

Wednesday Male Beauty

Bob McDonnell Cited Michael ‘Porn Makes You Gay’ Schwartz in His 1989 Thesis

Poor Taliban Bob McDonnell - he just cannot seem to escape issues surrounding his Christianist blueprint for governing. Now it turns out that - h/t to The Washington Independent for noting this - Taliban Bob cited Values Voter speaker and certifiable nutcase, Michael Schwartz, as a credible authority. Indeed, Taliban Bob cited Schwartz twice, once on an article Schwartz wrote about daycare, once for a piece of political thinking about the “division between those whose conservatism is defined by dollar signs and those whose conservatism is rooted in the family.”

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For those who do not know who Schwartz is a longtime conservative activist-turned-Congressional Hill staffer who talked about the gay-making powers of pornography at the Values Voter Summit (coven) last weekend. Here's what Schwartz said on that issue via Talking Points Memo:

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In an infamous moment at the Values Voter Summit over the weekend, captured on video by Dave Weigel, Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) chief of staff Michael Schwartz made the case against pornography. "All pornography is homosexual pornography," said Schwartz, quoting an ex-gay friend of his, "because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards."

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Schwartz then explained the side benefit of this finding -- that if boys know pornography will make them gay, they'll never touch it, taking advantage of what Schwartz sees as a natural homophobia. "And if you tell an 11-year-old boy about that, do you think he's going to want to get a copy of Playboy?" he said. "I'm pretty sure he'll lose interest. That's the last thing he wants!"

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Is this the kind of craziness we want in the Governor's mansion in Richmond? I think not!!! Watch the video:

Navy To Revisit Inquiry into Hazing in Canine Unit

We heard recently about the outrageous abuse and hazing that occurred at a canine unit in Bahrain and the fact that - in all too typical Navy fashion - the man alleged to have orchestrated the abuse on sexual perversion received a raise while one of the victims, Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Rocha (pictured at left), broke down, confessed to being gay, and lost a commission to the U. S. Naval Academy (no doubt to the immense pleasure of wingnut, Elaine Donnelly). I for one was afraid that the mess would be swept under the rug by the Navy, but now such appears to not be the case. The Virginian Pilot reports that the investigation will be reopened and one can only hope that the individual(s) behind the deplorable conduct are disciplined, or better yet discharged from the military. Here are some highlights:

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Top Navy officials are re-examining an inquiry into hazing in a dog handling unit in Bahrain in which an investigator verified more than 90 instances of abuse, including sailors being force-fed dog treats, locked into a kennel and ordered to simulate oral sex. Despite those findings more than two years ago, Navy officials have not been able to say whether anyone was held accountable in the case, which came to light earlier this month.

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All the official attention was triggered by reports earlier this month that Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint, who headed the kennel at the time of the alleged abuses, has since been promoted to senior chief. Toussaint is now assigned to Oceana Naval Air Station's Dam Neck annex. A spokesman for Naval Special Warfare told The Associated Press that Toussaint is deployed and unavailable to comment.

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The documented hazing and abuse, much of it directed at Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Rocha, eventually drove Rocha out of the Navy. Rocha said he became the target after he refused the services of a prostitute, causing some sailors at the kennel to question his sexuality. Rocha, now 23, gave up an appointment to the Naval Academy after telling a commanding officer in 2007 that he was gay and suffering from post-traumatic stress brought on by the abuse.

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U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania, a retired three-star admiral, sent Navy Secretary Ray Mabus a letter on Sept. 11 asking about Rocha's treatment and Toussaint's promotion. Although the case doesn't involve any of his constituents, Sestak said he felt compelled to act after reading descriptions of hazing and apparent abuses in the kennel, which included having men and women simulate oral sex as part of dog-training exercises. He fully expected to find that someone had been held accountable, but the investigator's recommendations for action were redacted by the Navy. "There didn't seem to be any accountability in what occurred," said Sestak, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. He said he hopes the case is an aberration that somehow got lost in the chain of command.

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In particular, Rocha said, he hopes the renewed inquiry will provide some answers for the family of Jennifer Valdivia, Toussaint's second in command and a mentor to Rocha. In another videotaped "training scenario" in which Toussaint was implicated, Valdivia was handcuffed to a bed wearing only a bedsheet and told to simulate lesbian sex with another woman. Valdivia committed suicide Jan. 16, 2007, . . . "As a 26-year-old female, she could never have stopped Toussaint," he said. "He bullied her. He would humiliate her in front of us.

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Gays are alleged to be bad for unit morale - well what the hell did this crap do for morale? Just more of the "boys will be boys" mindset of the senior Navy command? People need to be thrown out of the military for this conduct. The question is, will anything happen.

Talented Workers Opting to Leave USA

There was a time when the USA enjoyed a constant influx of talented workers from around the world who sought to move to the USA and become citizens. Now, for the first time because of better opportunity elsewhere and a broken immigration system, such workers are either not coming to the USA or leaving after acquiring an education in this country. While not mentioned, I cannot help but believe that the rampant anti-immigrant hysteria of the GOP base and religious intolerance that tracks with it doesn't play some under the radar influence as well. USA Today looks at the phenomenon which ought to disturb rational thinking citizens even if not those who continue to call the GOP their political home. Here are some story highlights:

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More skilled immigrants are giving up their American dreams to pursue careers back home, raising concerns that the U.S. may lose its competitive edge in science, technology and other fields. "What was a trickle has become a flood," says Duke University's Vivek Wadhwa, who studies reverse immigration. Wadhwa projects that in the next five years, 100,000 immigrants will go back to India and 100,000 to China, countries that have had rapid economic growth. "For the first time in American history, we are experiencing the brain drain that other countries experienced," he says.

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Suren Dutia, CEO of TiE Global, a worldwide network of professionals who promote entrepreneurship, says the U.S. economy will suffer without these skilled workers. "If the country is going to maintain the kind of economic well-being that we've enjoyed for many years, that requires having these incredibly gifted individuals who have been educated and trained by us," he says. Wadhwa surveyed 1,203 Indian and Chinese immigrants who had worked or been educated here before returning to their homelands and found the exodus has less to do with the faltering U.S. economy than with other factors.

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Multinational companies that belong to the American Council on International Personnel tell Executive Director Lynn Shotwell that skilled immigrants are discouraged by the immigration process, she says. Some can wait up to a decade for permanent residency, she says. "They're frustrated with having an uncertain immigration status," she says. "They're giving up."

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Naturally, this issue either goes over the heads of the birther and teabagger crowd or, more likely, they welcome the exodus of those "foreigners." Truth be told, if I ever had the opportunity, I'd leave the USA as well for a country where gays are full citizens.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

Sex Abuse Cover-up by L.A. Archdiocese is Alleged

Meanwhile, even as the Roman Catholic Church is losing members, the hierarchy's cover up of the sexual abuse of minors continues to remain in the media, albeit not as much as deserved. The latest expose involves testimony that Cardinal Roger Mahony (pictured at left) covered up sexual abuse and ordered subordinates to not report it to authorities. It is beyond ironic that the Church is spending millions of dollars to defeat CIVIL marriage rights for NORMAL same sex couples in states across the country even as it continues to try to cover up for pedophiles and their enablers in the hierarchy in lawsuits brought by victims of sexual abuse by priests. Hypocrisy doesn't begin to describe the situation. Here are some highlights from the Los Angeles Times:

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The former vicar of clergy testifies under oath that Cardinal Roger Mahony ordered him in 2000 not to contact police about allegations of sexual abuse by a priest. In deposition papers filed Friday as part of a civil case, Msgr. Richard Loomis also testified that Mahony ordered him not to inform parishes of allegations against the now defrocked Rev. Michael Baker.In 2007, Baker was sent to state prison for 10 years after his conviction on molestation charges. He has been called before a federal grand jury investigating how the archdiocese handled priest abuse cases.Loomis is on leave from the archdiocese after also being accused of sexual abuse.

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Manly said in an interview Friday that, "because of Cardinal Mahony, they never called the police until 2002."In a 2002 interview, Baker told The Times that he had informed Mahony in the 1980s that he had sexually abused children. "I told Mahony I had a problem," Baker said.Mahony allowed Baker to remain active in the archdiocese and sent him to a New Mexico treatment center. Later, Baker was assigned to other parishes and, according to court records and interviews, abused other boys.

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John Aravosis at America Blog correctly sums up what in my mind is the only way the Catholic Church will ever be forced to impose accountability on the enablers and those who covered up for pedophiles:

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At what point does this stop being a church and start being a criminal conspiracy? We are talking pedophilia here. And it's clear that this "church" never quite got the message that raping children is a bad thing. The fact that these perverts who protected these other perverts remain in power in the church speaks volumes about the level of moral corruption in the Catholic leadership.

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Just how many children have to be raped before the Catholic leadership in America and Rome take pedophilia seriously? Maybe it's time we added prison sentences for the enablers as well.

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The thought of some of the pompous blowhards who make up the Church hierarchy sitting in prison cells is a wondrous vision to contemplate - especially when there are many in prisons right now who have done less heinous things than these bishops and cardinals - and dare I say Pope.

Survey Shows Decrease in Louisiana Catholics

I have maintained for some time that the Roman Catholic Church's refusal to address the issue of bishops and cardinals who enabled and/or covered up the sexual abuse of minors by priests and other Catholic clergy would eventually take a toll on Church membership and such seems to be the case in Louisiana based on a new American Religious Identification Survey that shows a significant drop in the number of residents identifying as Catholic. At least so reports the Daily Reveille. Given the Church hierarchy's continued rejection of modern knowledge on numerous issues - including sexual orientation - I suspect that the decline will continue except in backwards and uneducated parts of the world where the Vatican can still get away with its old ways and man made dogmas. Here are some story highlights:

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Scott Louque grew up indoctrinated in the Roman Catholic Church. After 22 years in the faith, the agricultural business senior abandoned his upbringing looking for something more. American Religious Identification Survey shows the population of Catholics in Louisiana has decreased 16 percent compared to survey figures gathered in 1990.“Younger people by and large are more likely not to identify with their parents’ religion,” said religious studies assistant professor Michael Pasquier said.

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This generational gap, along with migration of citizens out of Louisiana for economic reasons, has played a major part in this reduction of number of Catholics in the state, Pasquier said.

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Pasquier said the root cause for the priest shortage comes from changing social climate after World War II movement giving people new social causes to participate in besides religion.Catholics found different ways to benefit society like participating in or against the civil rights movement instead of trying to do good to society by joining an order in the church, Pasquier said.“Today, the reason for the[priest] shortage continuing has a lot to do with the sex abuse scandals which perpetuate a distrust of the priesthood,” Pasquier said.

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The reality s that modern, educated citizens will find it increasingly difficult to cling to the 13th century view of the world, science and sexuality favored by Pope Benedict XVI and similar bitter old queens in dresses at the Vatican. If Catholics continue to vote with their feet, perhaps some day change will come to the Church. However, I am not holding my breath to see it happen in my lifetime.