About Constance's prom...

There's probably not much I can say about the Itawamba Agricultural High School prom that hasn't already been said. I hope as they go through life, some of the students at Constance McMillen's high school have experiences that lead them to open their minds and learn to treat their fellow human beings with compassion. It's disheartening, though, that the adults in the town were complicit in the high school meanness bullshit, and in fact facilitated a lot of it. Strange, I thought parents and teachers were supposed to teach children about kindness, civility and, you know, manners. Shame on you, so-called grownups!

No homosex, please, we're British

Just a few days ago, I read (at Joe.My.God.) about an ad being run by Heinz in the UK that featured a kiss between two men. It's a very chaste kiss, and technically, it's a kiss between a husband and wife. Watch the ad and you'll see what I mean.

Very cute, n'est-ce pas? And well done*, too. They even got the New York accent accurately, which is apparently not easy ("Daleks in Manhattan," anyone?).

Today I found out (via Joe, again) that the ad is being pulled because of the huge number of complaints Heinz has received from people who are upset that it features ZOMG! BOYSEXXORZZ!!!1!!!ELEVENTY-ONE!!1!111, which has forced them to explain the wonders of same-sex attraction to the innocent little kiddos. Silly me, I thought the person in the white hat was meant to be a (presumably) British woman who just makes sandwiches as well as a New York deli counter man, not someone who actually is one. I'm always getting stuff wrong, aren't I?

I'm disappointed in Heinz knuckling under so easily, and in the ignorance of the letter-writers , too. The Brits are supposed to be more openminded about this sort of thing, amirite? After all, as Archie Bunker told us "England is a fag country... the whole society is based on a kind of a fagdom"?

*I do have one quibble with the ad. I'm from New York, and I like mayonnaise on my sandwiches, but I certainly would not call it a "New York deli" thing, nor put it on a lot of typical delicatessen sandwiches. You order a pastrami or corned beef with mayo in a NYC deli, and see the response you get. Go on, I dare you.

The Fag Bomb

I love Kirby Ferguson.



via joe.my.god.

x-posted

Mehdi Kazemi has been granted asylum in the UK

And about damn time. Full story here.


via Petulant at Shakesville

Heteronormativity and sexism go together like a horse and carriage

So, immediately after I read a post on Shakesville about how several bloggers have suggested the Obama campaign use Scarlett Johansson, who's campaigning for them, as some kind of sexy vote bait for Jason Rae, who at 21 is the youngest superdelegate, I read at Joe.My.God that "Gay Man is Youngest Superdelegate." Ha! Misogynistic and badly researched!

This is one gutsy young woman

QueerToday has an interview with high school student Claudia Contrada who came out as a lesbian to her mother, one of the founders of Mass Resistance.



via Joe.My.God

Small Town Gay Bar

I'm thinking of seeing this movie based on this promotional video alone. I've never seen any of Kevin Smith's movies (Bad film snob! No biscuit!), but he rawks!

Worst. Rap. Ever.

Apparently, God hates me personally, or I wouldn't ever have seen this. Someone on The Blend said these folks aren't supposed to listen to secular music. I ask you, do you see any evidence at all here that these kids ever have?

Yeah, I didn't mention the group by name, but I'm so sick of mentioning them that I just decided not to this time.

I swore I wasn't gonna mention him again...

But I couldn't help myself. Fred Phelps has an all-new website, called godhatesireland.com. Check out the banner he's using:



So, now God hates America, Canada, Sweden, Ireland, and, of course, "fags" of every nationality. The Westboro Baptist church would slash its webhosting bills dramatically by combining all of its websites into one. It could be called something like "God hates everyone except Fred Phelps, his wife, and those of his kids who are still speaking to him dot com."

The reason Ireland is now the object of Freddy's vitriol is that civil partnership legislation is being introduced there, with the full backing of the Prime minister. Read the story at 365gay.com.

via Pam's House Blend

Ex-gay-o-rama

There's some very interesting stuff about ex-gays and ex-ex-gays over at Pam's House Blend. If you want a good laugh, trust me--you must watch the video clip from Fish don't Fly.

Reading this post put me in mind of an experience one of my college friends had back in, oh, this would've been around 1980. This friend--let's call him Dick, whose hatband he equaled in gayness--had gotten a job in the mailroom at CBS headquarters in New York. The job made him nervous. It was a hotbed of guy culture, and what's more macho than mocking anyone who's different? Dick lived in fear that his queerness would be discovered and he'd be the next target of his coworkers' jokes.

One evening, though, Dick called me, breathless with excitement. For once, he told me, he was enjoying the tendency of the mailroom boys to stereotype and pigeonhole people. That day, they came into the mailroom from lunch laughing their heads off and talking about all the "faggots" outside the building. Why? It seems 60 Minutes had run a story on the possibility of changing one's sexual orientation which included an interview with a psychologist (or psychiatrist--sue me, I don't remember, it was over 20 years ago) who said essentially you are what you are, it's a waste of time to try to change homo- to heterosexual or vice versa. This got the panties of the ex-gay folks in a bunch, and they (I believe it was Exodus) organized a demonstration outside Black Rock to proclaim their success in converting to heterosexuality. As my friend described it, a line of men marched past the building, limp-wristedly holding picket signs and lisping the chant: "I changed! I changed!" Well, he had a tendency to exaggerate. Still, the point is, these so-called ex-gays weren't fooling anyone but themselves.

And of course, the minute anyone mentions Exodus and similar organizations, I think of Overcome, and this brilliant bit from Mr. Show:

Attack of the smooching baby dykes continues in the PNW

Two fourteen-year-old girls,
Maika Rich and Jocelyn O'Neal, were kicked off a bus in Portland, Oregon for kissing. Radical Russ has the story at Pam's House Blend.

The good news is the driver will be punished for violating the bus company policies against a) putting minors off a bus,and b) ejecting anyone from a bus without providing other means of transport. What the punishment will be is not clear yet.

The real question is: what the heck is going on in the Pacific Northwest with the extreme reaction to kissing teen lesbians? First, that incident in Gig Harbor, Washington when the school released the videotaped kiss to the parents of one of the kids, and now this. I've never been up that way, so I don't have a clue. Anyone?

Update from Fight OUT Loud via Russ at the Blend:

Fight OUT Loud has been in contact with the girls and their families. We have been guiding and assisting them in getting some sort of resolution. We have also issued an "action email alert" to our over 1000 members, which has resulted in flooding the offices of Trimet, the mayor's office, and the tourism board.

I have been in constant contact with the Portland Mayor's office as well, which has no direct control over TriMet or discipling the bus driver. While they cannot directly affect TriMet, I feel they have a duty and obligation to pressure the bus company to do the right thing and (a) fire the driver, (b) at the very least remove the driver from the route so the GLBT youth will not have to come in contact with him on the way to the Sexual Minority Youth Recreation Center, a safe haven for gay youth, and (c) make the punishment of the driver public to help put to rest the concerns of the girls and the community as a whole.

I would greatly appreciate if you could help spread the word about our efforts. To see how exactly what our efforts are and the services we provide, go to our webpage (www.fightoutloud.org) and check out our "action alerts". We really need to lend our voices to these girls and express our outrage at the whole situation.

-Waymon Hudson
President of Fight OUT Loud
www.fightoutloud.org

Once again, it's all about the dick

I've been following the story of Shumail Raj and Shahzina Tariq in various online news sources. The short version: the Pakistan married couple was sentenced to three years in jail for perjury because the husband, Raj, who is transgendered, was deemed female by the court. Same-sex marriage is illegal in Pakistan, as is sex reassignment surgery, but what they were convicted of was lying about the gender of Raj.

When I first read the story, it said that Tariq claimed she married Raj so she wouldn't be forced into a marriage with someone else, apparently a man to whom her uncle owed money. Since then, the couple have recanted that story, and say they married for love.

In a country where SRS is illegal, what happens with a person who's had it? How does does one decide this person's gender? At first I thought it was gonna be the old "you popped out of the womb looking female, therefore you're a woman.*" Nope, that wasn't it. I read story after story before it dawned on me how the court came to decision. What I discovered was that Shumail Raj doesn't have breasts or a uterus (they were surgically removed) or a vagina (sewn up), and does have--I'm sure this wasn't taken into account at all--a male self-identity. Sounds like a guy, don't you think? Well, no.

A couple of the stories I read referred to "problems with the surgery." And then it hit me--Raj doesn't have a penis! After all, what girlie parts you have or don't have is pretty meaningless in this world. How many times have we heard the difference between men's and women's genitalia explained as what men have and women don't? Yup, when you come down to it, the almighty 3-piece set (or lack thereof) determines all.

To demonstrate just how unimportant other (non-phallic) body parts are in the grand scheme of things, a doctor said Raj is a woman because, although it would take some special medical procedures, he could conceive and give birth to a child. This wasn't just any doctor, folks--this is the guy who removed Raj's uterus in the first place. Hmm, so maybe the surgeon didn't remove the ovaries when he did the hysterectomy, and I guess the vagina could be opened up to allow birth, and there's always the oh-so-popular C-section, but where exactly is this alleged fetus supposed to hang out while it's coming to term?

When is SRS not SRS? When you're the doctor who did it and you're under investigation, apparently.

The couple has been sent to jail in seperate women's prisons, but say the three-year sentence is no matter, because they are in love, and will be together eventually. Their lawyers plan to appeal is. The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission is involved, along with other human rights organizations. There is information on how to take action, and to offer moral and financial support at the IGLHRC website.

*This approach is the one taken by American writer Debra Dickerson, who wrote her reaction to the story at the time the press was still working the forced marriage angle.

OK, being jailed for being transsexual is, like, bad, but half a planet full of women who so fear marriage that they leap to marry transsexuals (i.e. women) to escape their fate also seems relevant.

So not only is this transsexual man a woman, says Ms. Dickerson, but objecting to being forced to marry against one's will to settle a debt--and not even one's own debt, mind you--means one fears marriage? I don't even know what to say to that.

I hope you're sitting down for this one, folks

David Hyde Pierce is gay.


via Joe.My.God.

For the second time this month, Tinky Winky breathes a sigh of relief

According to Pink News, Ewa Sowinska is dropping her investigation of whether Teletubbies turns kiddies teh ghey. If you recall, the Polish ombudsman for children's affairs was concerned about--yawn--the fact that the male character Tinky Winky carries a purse. When I read the article in a rather cursory fashion, I realized they aren't likely to say a television program with a big ol' fuh-laming queen might just be innocuous, or even beneficial, to early childhood development. That's fine, I'm just as happy with them admitting that television (and this show in particular) is fantasy, and that it shouldn't all be taken so damn seriously.

Then I looked at the article again, and this quote from Sowinska's spokeswoman caught my eye:

"They are fictional characters, they have nothing to do with reality, and the bag and scissors and other props the fictional characters use are there to create a fictional world that speaks to children," Ms Lipinska said.

My second thought was "Obviously, these folks aren't so hostile to The Homosexual Agenda™ after all." My first thought, of course, was "They spelled her name wrong."

I don't know how to tell you this, but Charles Nelson Reilly is (blank)

The Boy put it well: "...and the world is that much less flamboyant."

Fred Phelps--irrefragably evil

I've figured it out: Fred Phelps has a bet on with someone that he can use the word "irrefragable" in a speech every single day.

To hear what the hateful old bastard has to say about the new grandchild of another hateful old bastard, proceed to Pam's House Blend. You can even see his comments. I've transcribed them and put them in comments over there.

Honest to God, I'd like to go one fucking day without having to read about something like this. Just one. Is that too much to ask? I guess I could not read any blogs (or newspapers, or magazines), or turn on the TV, and live under a damn rock. Sometimes that rock seems pretty inviting.

Bisexual Judge In Sex Case Asked To Step Down

I saw this headline pop up on my site today, and of course I looked the story up. There's no further reference to the judge's sexual orientation, either as a source of the alleged bias or otherwise. I searched a bit on the judges name and "bias," and found no other accounts of this story. So, what the heck does this have to do with bisexuality? Anyone?

Klein Sexual Orientation Grid

Holy cow, I'm bisexual! Go figure.

I scored an average of 3.14

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Heterosexual

Bisexual

Homosexual

Meaning

This result can also be related to the Kinsey Scale:


0 = exclusively heterosexual
1 = predominantly heterosexual, incidentally homosexual
2 = predominantly heterosexual, but more
than incidentally homosexual
3 = equally heterosexual and homosexual
4 = predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally
heterosexual
5 = predominantly homosexual, incidentally heterosexual
6 = exclusively homosexual

Summary

The idea of this exercise is to understand exactly how dynamic a person's sexual orientation can be, as well as how fluid it can be over a person's lifespan. While a person's number of actual homo/heterosexual encounters may be easy to categorize, their actual orientation may be completely different. Simple labels like "homosexual", "heterosexual", and "bisexual" need not be the only three options available to us.

Take the quiz

Roommates

It's so nice to see these pictures from the good old days when two young, handsome bachelors could innocently share a home. They couldn't do it nowadays without some dirty-minded pervert trying to make a wholesome, manly friendship into something sexual.

Is kissing a girl "unusual behavior?"

Gig Harbor High School in Washington has changed the way in which it uses security cameras, and now says it will only use them for things like, you know, security. It caused quite a flap when someone from the school sent a video that showed two female students kissing to the parents of one of the girls because they had asked to be informed if their daughter engaged in any "unusual behavior." She was transferred to another school outside the district as a result, and the other girl says her privacy was invaded.
Not to get all legalistic, but these days, there's no way a reasonable person can have an expectation of privacy in the hallway of a high school. That being said, what the hell were the people in this school thinking when they sent to video off school premises to that kid's parents? And does anyone really believe they'd have done the same thing if the incident had involved a boy and a girl?
The story from the AP, here. The local TV news story (with audio of the transferred student's father, complete with the word "abomination") here.