Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

In a first, President Obama nominates openly gay Latina judge for Federal court

President Obama submitted another list of judicial nominees today, including Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro, who is poised to become the first openly gay Latina jurist on the federal level.

Judge Alejandro is one of three nominees for seats on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

“These nominees are emblematic of the president’s commitment to nominating qualified, diverse nominees to the federal bench,” said Marge Baker of People For the American Way. “They are also a sign of the president’s commitment to solving the vacancy crisis in our federal courts without delay.”

PFAW notes that obstruction by Senate Republicans have kept numerous bench positions vacant for many months.

(via GLAAD)

Posted on

Associated Press doesn’t like the word “homophobia”

The Associated Press Stylebook, which most U.S. papers utilize as a usage guide, now frowns upon the use of the term “homophobia,” with editors saying it amounts to a diagnosis of mental illness.

“It’s just off the mark,” AP deputy standards editor Dave Minthorn told Politico. “It’s ascribing a mental disability to someone and suggests a knowledge that we don’t have. It seems inaccurate. Instead, we would use something more neutral: antigay, or some such, if we had reason to believe that was the case.”

The online version of the stylebook has recently added language saying writers and editors should not use “phobia” words such as “homophobia” and “Islamophobia” in “political or social contexts,” and next year’s print edition will include it as well, Politico reports.

George Weinberg, the psychologist who coined the word “homophobia” in his 1972 book Society and the Healthy Homosexual, said he disagreed with the AP’s decision.

“I just want to go on record as disagreeing with the AP’s decision not to use ‘homophobia,’ the word. I am a psychologist and author who coined the word a long time ago. It made all the difference to City Councils and other people I spoke to. It encapsulates a whole point of view and of feeling. It was a hard-won word, as you can imagine. It brought me some death threats. Is homophobia always based on fear? I thought so and still think so. Maybe envy in some cases. But that’s a psychological question. Is every snarling dog afraid? Probably yes. But here it shouldn’t matter. We have no other word for what we’re talking about, and this one is well established. We use ‘freelance’ for writers who don’t throw lances anymore, and who want to get paid for their work. Fowler even allows us to mix what he called dead metaphors. It seems curious that this word is getting such scrutiny while words like triskaidekaphobia (the fear of the number 13) hangs around.”

(source)

Posted on

When a straight blogger comes out

I love reading the blog posts of Dan Pierce who writes the wildly popular blog “Single Dad Laughing.”

In just a few years he’s developed a very large following, and his writing is full of fun, laughs and heart as he chronicles life as a single dad.

He also made a lot of “blog noise” with what is probably his most famous post “I’m Christian Unless You’re Gay” noting the often seen hypocrisy and thoughtless comments by some on the religious right and sometimes within ourselves.

Today, he posted what may be his most personal blog post to date as he comes out as bisexual. The post is lengthy and thoughtful as he offers an almost stream of consciousness of coming to grips with his sexuality at the age of 32. And how he’s endured the pressures and pain of family and friends either laughing at or openly denigrating the LGBT community.

I imagine the majority of those comments he’s witnessed and suffered through came from people who may have thought they didn’t know anyone in the LGBT community.

Now they do.

I know it took a lot of courage for Dan to not only “own” who he is for himself, but also to his family, friends and public who know him for his blog. I also know that “it gets better.” It’s not a cliche, it’s truth.

Dan’s coming out will have powerful impact not only on his own life, but his readers as well as they realize that the man they’ve come to know through reading his blog is still the same man. And even better, they have just a little more insight into who their LGBT neighbors, friends and family may be.

Here’s just bit of Dan’s courageous post. You can read the whole post by clicking here. Why not go take a read and leave a supportive comment. At last count, there have been over 900 comments in less than two hours. All of the ones I read were positive. Go show Dan some internet love and give him a pat on the back.

Bracing myself against both sides of my bathroom sink as I scrutinized something significantly deeper than my own reflection, I finally whispered aloud my first truly honest thought about my own sexual orientation.

You see, I’ve never wanted to be anything other than straight.

Since I was eleven years old, I’ve been desperate to only be attracted to those of the opposite sex. I’ve masked and obscured any feeling I’ve ever felt that threatened my place within the realm of what I’ve been coached is both normal and acceptable.

Several months ago, I was finally forced to an edge where I couldn’t pretend any longer. The act of pretending had pushed me continually deeper into life-threatening depression, and it was time to figure out how to admit my own secrets to the world, and far more importantly, how to admit them to the one person who could never be at peace until I did.

To do so became my only option if I ever wanted to be authentically happy, if I ever wanted to be authentically intimate with another, or if I ever wanted to finally stop existing as a fake.

And so, I’ll just say it.

I’m not straight.

Those words are by far the most difficult words I’ve ever typed, and I know they’ll be far more difficult to share.

[snip]

A few months ago, I used an admittedly effeminate hand gesture at family dinner. I naturally use it all the time, only this time it was shortly after the emotional shift toward coming out had started to happen within me.

My brother saw me do it. He laughed uncomfortably and then all too seriously said, “please tell me you’re still straight.”

There are many that have worried about my sexuality for a long time now. And the way he said it, I intrinsically knew that to be anything other than straight might do great damage to something between us. I just laughed it off. I wasn’t ready to tell him yet. I couldn’t tell him yet.

Dear God, please don’t let me be anything other than straight.

The thought pierced me then perhaps more than ever before, though I’ve struggled against the current of such thoughts thousands of times over the past 21 years.

Since that moment, I have been particularly sensitive and observational of such statements being made by others. My heart wants to tune them all out. My mind tries to absorb every one of them. It’s been a never-ending tug of war between the part of me that wants to maintain the love and admiration of those around me and the part of me that franticly seeks freedom to finally be who I have always dreaded that I am.

“I can’t stand fags,” a friend said so nonchalantly at game night one Friday evening. He then listed his reasons for his revulsion and the table got lost in jubilant conversation about how many gays there are where we live nowadays. Many thoughtless and vicious jokes were made within the group, all proceeded by raucous laughter. I laughed at some of them too so they wouldn’t suspect the truth that was melting me.

Dear God, please don’t let me be anything other than straight.

I brought a woman to a social event. I really liked this woman. I was very attracted to her. You see, I’m attracted to men, but I’m also very much attracted to women. Some friends we were with began joking about how we were all probably secretly bisexual. She turned to me and laughed, “there is no way I would ever date someone who was like that.” My heart bore its way into my stomach, and I did my best to maneuver the discussion elsewhere.

Dear God, please don’t let me be anything other than straight.

I was at dinner with some close friends. “I’m pretty sure those guys over there are gay,” one of them said, motioning to two men who were laughing together at another table. “It’s so weird and unnatural and I don’t think I’ll ever understand how people can be like that.” I assured them I didn’t understand it either.

Dear God, please don’t let me be anything other than straight.

Read the rest at Single Dad Laughing.

Posted on

Anti-gay bill first on Uganda Parliament’s schedule today

Click pic to enlarge

JoeMyGod points out that first up on Ugandan Parliament’s Notice of Business today is the infamous “Anti-homosexuality Bill” which would make being gay an offense worthy of being imprisoned for life.

The Washington Blade reports that American diplomats have again expressed concern to the Uganda government over its pending Anti-Homosexuality Act.

Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokesperson, said during a daily briefing Monday that Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson met with high-profile leaders in Uganda “over the weekend” and raised concerns about the bill, which among other things would punish homosexual acts with life in prison.

Posted on

Human Rights Campaign rates cities by LGBT inclusion

The Human Rights Campaign has released a new Municipal Equality Index designed to rate cities much like the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.

The index rates 137 cities, including the country’s 50 largest cities, the 50 state capitals, and 75 municipalities with a high proportion of same-sex couples.

From ThinkProgress: The index measured cities according to non-discrimination policies and partnership recognition, as well as LGBT inclusion in civil services and law enforcement. Eleven of the cities scored a 100 percent rating, while 25 percent had at least 80 points. Here are the cities with the perfect scores:

  • Long Beach, California
  • Los Angeles, California
  • San Diego, California
  • San Francisco, California
  • Boston, Massachusetts
  • Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • St. Louis, Missouri
  • New York, New York
  • Portland, Oregon
  • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Seattle, Washington

ThinkProgress points out that the index doesn’t necessarily rate a city’s “welcoming climate” but helps to point out where cities are making an effort to be inclusive of LGBT folks. And, it goes without saying, inclusiveness and equality makes for better business for attracting business talent and economic growth.

Check out the index at Human Rights Campaign.

Posted on

James Franco GREASE tribute footage in REM’s new video

Two years ago some footage was leaked of a possible GREASE sequence with James Franco and Anne Hathaway during their unfortunate Academy Awards hosting gig. It looks like it’s now turned up in a new video for R.E.M.’s song “That Someone Is You’ – with Franco as Danny Zuko and perhaps Anne Hathaway (with a big kitty head) as Sandy.

Not sure what the symbolism is with the cat head. What do you guys think?

(via Towleroad)

Posted on

Star of TWO AND A HALF MEN asks fans to stop watching show

Angus T. Jones made news today asking his fans to STOP watching “Two and a Half Men” claiming it’s nothing but “filth” that contradicts his deep Christian values.

19-year-old Jones — who makes $350k AN EPISODE playing ‘Jake’ on the show — is seen in a new video for the Forerunner Christian Church in which he talks about his commitment to his faith and explains, “If you watch Two and a Half Men, please stop watching ‘Two and a Half Men.'”

“I’m on Two and a Half Men and I don’t want to be on it.”

“Please stop watching it and filling your head with filth. People say it’s just entertainment. Do some research on the effects of television and your brain, and I promise you you’ll have a decision to make when it comes to television and especially with what you watch on television … it’s bad news.”

(via TMZ)

Posted on

Fox News ends interview after guest calls Fox News “a wing of the Republican Party”

Author and Pulitzer prize winner Tom Ricks had his time cut short on Fox News after pointing out that Fox News’s coverage of the Benghazi attacks has been inordinately heavy during an interview with the conservative network on Monday.

Ricks, who has written extensively on the American military, called Fox an “operating as a wing of Republican Party” that “hyped” the Benghazi attack as a faux-scandal.

Later, a “news staffer” told Ricks that he was rude while he was on air. Ricks’ segment, according to an interview he gave with the New York Times, was about “half as long as planned.” 

“I had told the producer before I went on that I thought the Benghazi story had been hyped. So it should have been no surprise when I said it and the anchor pushed back that I defended my view,” Ricks told Politico. Ricks also told the New York Times that he was going to discuss the “lack of combat readiness of some Army units” but he never got the opportunity,. “They seemed to lose interest in that,” he said.

(via ThinkProgress)