Monday, January 24, 2011
Via JMG: Dan Savage Lands MTV Pilot
Entertainment Weekly reports: Savage Love may be coming to MTV. Columnist Dan Savage is working on an advice show for the network. MTV has ordered a pilot that follows Savage as he tours college campuses giving his brand of brutally honest (and sometimes graphic) sex and relationship advice. In the format, Savage takes questions from an auditorium audience (similar to his recently completed college tour).No start date for the show has been revealed.
Via JMG: Robert Gibbs Nearly Ends Press Conference Over Obama's Position On Marriage
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs today nearly cut his press conference short after Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson pressed him about the president's 1996 support of same-sex marriage, a position Obama later reversed. Gibbs resumed taking questions after other reporters complained. Johnson has been relentless on LGBT issues with Gibbs for the last couple of weeks.
reposted from Joe
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Via JMG: HomoQuotable- Dan Savage
"I’m not an idiot: Now that the Republicans hold the House, only wishful thinkers and the deeply delusional expect to see any movement on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender legislative agenda this year or next. Nevertheless, President Obama should address gay rights in his State of the Union speech this week, and he should tackle the biggest, most meaningful right of them all: the right to marry. [snip]"He can assure the lawmakers that, yes, there’s something in it for Americans who disapprove of homosexuality too. Social conservatives long to raise their children in a country where they don’t have to hear about homosexuality every time they turn on the news. I’d like raise my son in a country like that too. And guess what? In countries like Canada — where the fight over gay rights is essentially over, where there is gay marriage, open military service and employment protections — homosexuality hardly ever makes the front pages of newspapers. There’s nothing much to report. Conservatives can’t get rid of us, but they can hear less from and about us. They just have to bend toward justice." - Dan Savage, in an editorial in today's New York Times.
Dan Savage NYT op ed calls on Obama to endorse marriage in the SOTU
A snippet:
I’m not an idiot: Now that the Republicans hold the House, only wishful thinkers and the deeply delusional expect to see any movement on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender legislative agenda this year or next. Nevertheless, President Obama should address gay rights in his State of the Union speech this week, and he should tackle the biggest, most meaningful right of them all: the right to marry.The community is quickly propelling towards marriage, while politicians keep convincing themselves that if they just move forward on enough of everything else short of marriage, the community will be mollified. It clearly won't. Whether the Democrats like it or not, the gay community has its eyes set on marriage, and Democrats had better too.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Vua JMG: HomoQuotable - Elton John
"I think I have it all. I have a wonderful career, a wonderful life. I have my health, I have a partner of 17 years, and now I have a son. I don't have everything because I don't have the respect of people like the church or like politicians who tell me that I'm not worthy, that I'm lesser because I'm gay, well FUCK YOU!" - Elton John, speaking after performing at an AFER fundraiser in Los Angeles. The event raised $3M for the overturn of Proposition 8.Via JMG: DADT Cost $200M Since 2005
According to a just-released report from the federal Government Accountability Office, in the last five years almost $200M was spent on ejecting gay troops. Most of that money went to training replacements.
That means the average expulsion under DADT cost taxpayers $52,800, partly because a significant number of those discharged held a "critical occupation or important language skill," the GAO reported. At least "1,442 (39 percent) of the servicemembers separated under the policy held critical occupations, such as infantryman and security forces, while 23 (less than 1 percent) of the servicemembers held skills in an important foreign language, such as Arabic or Spanish," the report reads. "Seven separated servicemembers held both a critical occupation and an important foreign language skill."
PhoboQuotable - Andrew Breitbart
"I am not endorsing gay marriage, I'm not endorsing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I will be the harshest critic of the activist gay left, who I fear more than al-Qaida. But for these people not to exist in a two-party system, for you to tell them they're not welcome in the big tent, I have a huge problem with that and I'm going to indulge in my all '80s Depeche Mode, Cure, New Order fetish and we're going to have a big 'ol gay party at CPAC." - Wingnut commentator Andrew Breitbart, announcing that he has joined GOProud's board of directors.That's right, folks, GOProud has hired a guy who says that gay activists are worse than the terrorists who brought down the World Trade Center. You can't make it up. Soon to join GOProud: Bryan Fischer, Tony Perkins, Peter LaBarbera.
Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Michael Musto
"Calvin, darling, you're embarrassing yourself. What's worse, you're embarrassing the whole community. You were never really that much of a gay hero in the first place. Remember when you suddenly had a wife because, as AIDS made it uncool to be gay, you took the wussy way out and closeted yourself so you could sell more T shirts and perfume? That was a hideous approach and I screamed my lungs out about it--but it was better than now! Now you've hooked up with that almost-21-year-old ex-porn star, Nick Gruber, and you're fawning over him as if this were real love and not a massive late-life crisis being acted out for the horrified masses. It's not going to work!" - Michael Musto, dishing Calvin Klein for the invitation to Gruber's birthday party, which describes the event at "the hottest ticket for New York's gay and fashion elite!"Via JMG: HUD Proposes Regulations Banning Housing Discrimination Against Gays
From the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which notes that a 2007 study showed that 30% of same-sex couples in Michigan faced discrimination when attempting to rent or buy a home.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today proposed new regulations intended to ensure that its core housing programs are open to all eligible persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. View the proposed rule announced today. “This is a fundamental issue of fairness,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. “We have a responsibility to make certain that public programs are open to all Americans. With this proposed rule, we will make clear that a person’s eligibility for federal housing programs is, and should be, based on their need and not on their sexual orientation or gender identity.”HUD is also launching the first-ever national study of housing discrimination against LGBT Americans. On Monday HUD begins accepting public comments on the proposed law. I'll post a reminder, you know the haters will be ALL over it.
HUD is seeking public comment on a number of proposed areas including: Prohibiting lenders from using sexual orientation or gender identity as a basis to determine a borrower’s eligibility for FHA-insured mortgage financing. FHA’s current regulations provide that a mortgage lender’s determination of the adequacy of a borrower’s income “shall be made in a uniform manner without regard to” specified prohibited grounds. The proposed rule would add actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity to the prohibited grounds to ensure FHA-approved lenders do not deny or otherwise alter the terms of mortgages on the basis of irrelevant criteria.
(Tipped by JMG reader Anita)
Thursday, January 20, 2011
ViaJMG: IGLHRC Issues Statement On Iran
The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission has issued a statement on yesterday's story about the possible execution by stoning of two young men in Iran for having gay sex. At IGLHRC's request, I pulled my first post on the story while they investigated. Via email:The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has received reports of the imminent execution of two men in Piranshahr, Iran. By some media accounts, Ayub and Mosleh have been sentenced to death for raping a young man, filming their actions, and inserting images of President Ahmadinejad into the film. There have been reports that the men are scheduled to be killed by stoning on January 21. IGLHRC has been unable to confirm the allegations in this case.I will update you at once when further information is available.
This case is evidence, however, of much bigger problems in Iran: widespread abuse in the justice system and censorship of information. People, including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender may be arbitrarily arrested, tortured, and convicted on baseless charges. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to know the facts that lie behind convictions.
IGLHRC condemns the use of capital punishment in all instances, including this one, regardless of the alleged acts with which the individuals have been accused or convicted. Likewise, IGLHRC condemns all forms of sexual violence and rape. We call on the Government of Iran to immediately annul any execution order related to this case, to end the practice of death by stoning, and to repeal the criminalization of same-sex activity.
"Iran has an impenetrable and opaque criminal justice system that makes knowing what is really happening inside the country impossible," said Hossein Alizadeh, Regional Coordinator for IGLHRC's Middle East and North Africa Program. "What we do know is that killing is wrong in all its forms, even when committed by the State."
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