May 2010

  • Roy Ashburn Says He's Sorry . . . Sort Of

    By lisala on 5/30/10 1:53pm
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    First, we have California State Senator Roy Ashburn arrested for DUI, after leavng a gay bar with an unidentified passenger in the car. Then we have Ashburn, known for being openly hostile to queer issues and voting against them at every opportunity, announcing "I'm Gay." Now, we have Ashburn saying in an interview at Bakersfield.com, said with respect to his horrendous voting record on anything related to gay rights "I'm sorry for that."

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  • Let LGBT People Adopt!

    By sarajean on 5/30/10 10:33am
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    When I was in college, I led a forum on gay peoples’ rights to adopt. I was shocked to find out just how many of my peers disagreed with me! People my age—just out of high school—were simply outraged that I would even think of allowing a gay person—let alone a gay couple—to adopt. What if it “rubbed off” on the children? What if they abused the kid? I remember feeling the most outraged I’d ever felt since beginning school (which isn’t saying much, as it was early in the year). I don’t think much has changed since.

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  • Newsweek Editorial Asserts Gay Actors Can't Play it Straight

    By lisala on 5/14/10 10:53pm
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    In late April, Ramin Setoodeh wrote a Newsweek Editorial "Straight Jacket," in which he poses the question "Heterosexual actors play gay all the time. Why doesn't it ever work in reverse?" Setoodeh answers his own question, sort of, in a series of assertions. He opens by referring to the broadway play Promises, Promises starring Kristin Chenoweth and, as Setoodeh puts it "Sean Hayes, best known as the queeny Jack on Will & Grace. . . his sexual orientation is part of who he is, and also part of his charm. . . . But frankly, it's weird seeing Hayes play straight. He comes off as wooden and insincere, like he's trying to hide something, which of course he is." I note that Setoodeh's opinion is clearly a minority one; Sean Hayes has been nominated for a Best Actor Tony award for his performance.

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  • QLTBG: The Quiltbag

    By lisala on 5/14/10 5:35pm
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    I first saw the reference to Queer Lesbian Trans Bisexual Gay (QLTBG, pronounced quiltbag) in an essay by two SF writers, Nicola Griffith & Kelley Eskridge, "War Machine, Time Machine" published in 2009, but written, so Nicola Griffith says, in 2007. In the piece, Griffith is talking about the reception of her first SF novel, Ammonite. She writes:

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  • About That Gay Blog

    By lisala on 5/14/10 2:23pm
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    We live in an interesting time, one that much resembles the Chinese curse traditionally wished upon an enemy. We have states that are supporting same-sex marriage, and states that want to specifically forbid it, even at the cost of essentially negating all marriage. We have a federal Defense of Marriage Act, which "ensures that whatever definition of 'spouse; may be used in Federal law, the word refers only to a person of the opposite sex." DOMA specifically excludes same-sex couples from federal social security and tax benefits, which means same-sex couples pay for benefits that they do not receive.

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  • George Rekers, Christ, and "The Long Stroke"

    By lisala on 5/6/10 2:34pm
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    Rekers, who says his vacation with the male escort he hired on the rentboy.com site was all part of his Christian duty [sic], has told blogger Joe.My.God that, in as much as

    "My hero is Jesus Christ who loves even the culturally despised people, including sexual sinners and prostitutes," he said. "Like Jesus Christ, I deliberately spend time with sinners with the loving goal to try to help them.

    Apparently, full-body nude massage is also part of Reker's Christian duty. The male escort identified in the original story as "Lucien" consented to an interview by the New Times. Reker's escort told the New Times that Rekers:

    is a homosexual who paid him to provide body rubs, once a day, in the nude, during their ten-day vacation in Europe. Rekers allegedly named his favorite maneuver the "long stroke" -- a complicated caress "across his penis, thigh... and his anus over the butt cheeks," as the escort puts it. "Rekers liked to be rubbed down there," he says.

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  • Queer Acceptance in Pop Music

    By msarko on 5/6/10 1:00am
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    David Bowie and Marc BolanDavid Bowie and Marc BolanThere are two sides to the art of pop music. One side is concerned with upholding the status quo while the other busies itself with all the ways to tear it down. Though not everyone is into chemically-aided expansion of the mind and a lot of pop fans don't cotton to violence and destruction, everyone is interested in sex (especially the people who say they aren't). That's why challenging sexual taboos has been a staple of pop ever since there was pop. Before visual art, stage and even the ever-edgy world of film were willing to tackle the topic of homosexuality, pop embraced the subject and has even managed to make a string of hits out of it. Some gay pop songs are sneaky, others are overt. Either way, the following four artists have paved the way to queer acceptance by putting gay-themed lyrics into songs too catchy to ignore.



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  • Rekers and his Rentboy

    By lisala on 5/5/10 5:55pm
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    Given recent events, I'm going to start assuming that all homophobic self-described evangelical Christians and anti-queer politicians are self-loathing and closeted. To wit; yesterday the Miami New Times published an article asserting that Christian right leader, and homophobic hate-monger Dr. George Rekers was photographed on April 13 at the airport returning from a 10 day vacation to Europe with a hired rentboy codenamed "Lucien." The newspaper describes the arrival of Dr. Rekers and Lucien:

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