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Today is International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia

The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) was created in 2004 to draw the attention of policymakers, opinion leaders, social movements, the public and the media to this issue.

It is not one centralized campaign; rather it is a moment that everyone can take advantage of to take action.

The date of May 17th was specifically chosen to commemorate the World Health Organization’s decision in 1990 to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.

The International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia is now celebrated in more than 100 countries, in all world regions and in places as diverse as Australia, Iran, Cameroon or Albania.

Click here for more info. 

Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice has posted a video marking today’s International Day Against Homophobia.

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Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker sought for alleged murder

Bizarre turn of events for brief viral Internet sensation “Kai, the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker.”

From Reuters:

Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, 24, known as “Kai the Hitchhiker,” is considered “armed and dangerous,” said Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow.

Prosecutors suspect McGillvary killed 73-year-old attorney Joseph Galfy Jr. in his Clark, New Jersey, home on Sunday before making his way to southern New Jersey, possibly headed to Philadelphia.

Galfy’s body was discovered Monday after he didn’t show up for work at his law firm. An autopsy revealed that he died from “blunt force trauma,” Romankow said.

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said there was a host of evidence that led police to McGillvary including “video of him with the victim at a New Jersey train station.”

Investigators believe the two men met recently in New York City, but it was unclear how they linked up.

The day after the killing, McGillvary met up with “fans” in Southern New Jersey and told them he was on his way to Philadelphia, the prosecutor’s office said. He was last seen Tuesday waiting for a train in Camden County.

The suspect apparently claimed on his Facebook that he was drugged and raped, according to the Star-Ledger:

what would you do if you woke up with a groggy head, metallic taste in your mouth, in a strangers house... walked to the mirror and seen come dripping from the side of your face from your mouth, and started wretching, realizing that someone had drugged, raped, and blown their fuckin load in you? what would you do?

Stay tuned.

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The White House trumps tweet by Speaker Boehner

John Boehner, Speaker of the House, thought he would play along today with a current, popular hashtag on Twitter among the Tea people #ObamaCareInThreeWords as the House GOP tried for the 37th time to repeal the healthcare reform legislation:

Then, the White House decided to play along.  FTW:

To which the Speaker then tweeted:

It’s hardly “arrogance of power” for the White House to point out the obvious – that “ObamaCare” IS the law of the land.

Time to stop wasting the people’s time, Mr. Speaker. Time to get something done that actually accomplishes something.

The country is waiting.

(via JMG)

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Orange County: Betty Buckley in concert this weekend

Hey Orange County!  You have three opportunities to see the fab Betty Buckley this weekend at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, starting tonight at 7:30.

Betty will be performing her acclaimed “Ah Men – the Boys of Broadway” along with some songs from the follow-up “The Other Woman: The Vixens of Broadway.”  I’ve seen Miss Betty perform many times in concert, and every time I walk away breathless.  Here’s a link to my review of the show when Betty was in Las Vegas last fall.

What could be better than great songs performed by a great artist in a beautiful setting?

If you don’t have the opportunity to see Betty Buckley this weekend, you can enjoy this evening of songs on her CD of the same name. Check it out on Amazon. 

For more info, click here.  

Samueli Theater at the Segerstrom Center
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Sen. Harry Reid on ENDA

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid – yep, MY senator – has long supported legislation to ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.

However, yesterday he revealed a more personal reason for his support.

“My niece is a lesbian,” Reid said during a sit-down with reporters. “She’s a school teacher. Her employment shouldn’t be affected with that. We should have a law that says that, not just the good graces of wherever you work.”

Although she passed on making any pubic statements herself, Reid’s spokesman says she was fine with Reid making her sexual orientation public.

Reid spoke about being approached by the HRC in the 1990s for support regarding the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The bill would prohibit employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

The bill has been reintroduced in several Congresses and has gotten some hearings, but hasn’t had a vote on the House or Senate floor since Nov. 2007, when it passed the House by 235-184. ENDA was introduced in this Congress by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) in the House and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) in the Senate.

Reid said there’s “a chance” he’ll bring up ENDA for a vote this year, noting that he had a meeting about it just last week. He wondered aloud why it doesn’t have broad support to pass.

“It’s hard to comprehend that we haven’t done a better job,” he said.

(source)

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Trailer: “Test”

TEST, by writer/director Chris Mason Johnson, premieres at the Seattle International Film Festival on June 7, 2013.

From the film’s official website:

TEST is a poignant, powerful story of friendship and hope in a time of crisis, set in the San Francisco modern dance scene of 1985 in the early years of the AIDS epidemic: when headlines threatened a gay quarantine, when nobody knew for certain how the disease spread, when dancers were afraid to touch each other because they might get it from sweat…

The early history of the epidemic is big and complicated, and there are untold stories that frame the subject in a different light and need to be heard now as well.

TEST is one of these.

I was just beginning my career as a dancer in 1985, and I remember the fear and whispers at the time. A sad and dark period for a sad and dark issue.

For tickets to the premiere, click here.

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ICYMI: Acting IRS Commissioner resigns amid 501(C) scandal

According to USAToday, President Obama will name a new acting IRS commissioner by the end of this week:

Obama said on Wednesday that he’s accepted the resignation of acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Steven Miller in the aftermath of revelations that agency officials were putting extra scrutiny on Tea Party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status.

The official did not name who the replacement will be, and spoke on the condition of anonymity because the president has yet to make the personnel announcement.

In brief comments Wednesday evening after discussing the Internal Revenue Service controversy with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin, Obama vowed to take decisive action to ensure that the situation would not be repeated.

“It’s inexcusable and Americans are right to be angry about it and I am angry about it,” Obama said. “I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but particularly the IRS given the power that it has and the reach that it has in all of our lives.”

President Obama went on to say that installing new leadership at the IRS was the first step to restoring confidence in the IRS.