Via JMG: NETHERLANDS: Ten Years Of Marriage

Ten years ago this week, the Netherlands become the world's first nation to legalize same-sex marriage. Veteran reporter Rex Wockner was in Amsterdam's City Hall that night and today he reposts this excerpt from his report on the proceedings:

Amid an international media frenzy, the weddings took place at City Hall as the law became effective at the stroke of midnight. Mayor Job Cohen officiated. As Cohen finished his opening remarks at 11:58 p.m., the audience in the City Council chambers began syncopated clapping as they waited for the room's clock to click over to 12:00. When it clicked, cheers erupted.

Wocker notes: "In the intervening 10 years, 14,813 of the Netherlands' 55,000 gay couples have gotten married, according to Statistics Netherlands. Of those couples, 7,522 were female and 7,291 were male. There have been 1,078 same-sex divorces, 734 of them by female couples."

RELATED: Canada legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2005 in a ruling that made legal a gay wedding that had taken place in January 2001. Call it "ten years with an asterisk."

Labels: LGBT History, marriage equality, Netherlands, Rex Wockner

reposted from Joe

Mile-high madness with Richard Simmons! #RICHROLL

Michele Bachmann Saves America Ep. 1: What a God Wants

Via JMG: Matt Damon On Kissing Michael Douglas

"I never thought I would get to kiss Michael Douglas. I kind of think of it in algebra terms, back to my high-school days. It's like the transitive property - by kissing Michael Douglas, I am making out with Catherine. I was actually kind of upset that I never got to kiss Catherine. But now I get to kiss Michael. I thought it would have been better if I could have at least kissed them both." - Matt Damon, on his kissing scenes with Michael Douglas in the upcoming Liberace bio-pic.

Labels: Liberace, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, movies

re posted fromJoe

Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Bruce Bawer

"In 1989, thousands of gay activists, angry at the Vatican for preaching abstinence instead of safe sex, rallied outside a church in New York, some of them actually going inside and disrupting a worship service. In 2011, faced with far worse provocations by a faith that, unlike Roman Catholicism, poses a mortal threat to gays, gay-rights groups in London not only decided to remain silent lest they 'offend' Muslims, but in addition chose to turn on their own, denouncing fellow gays as 'racists' and 'Islamophobes' for feeling obliged to stand up — even if in the meekest of ways — to people who would, without question, murder them if they had the power to do so.

"No, the officers of London’s gay-rights organizations, and the commenters at Pink News, aren’t the only people in West who have responded to Muslim bullying with cowardly toadying. But British gays should damn well understand, at this point, that there’s no place for them in the sharia-run Britain to which millions of British Muslims openly aspire and that the Archbishop of Canterbury has already accepted as inevitable. If they’re so desperate not to offend Muslims, they’d better kill themselves pronto — for, as they still somehow fail to grasp, their very existence is an offense to these people." - Bruce Bawer, writing for the right-wing Pajamas Media about London's "Gay-Free Zone" controversy.

Labels: Bruce Bawer, homocons, HomoQuotable, Islam, London, religion, UK

reposted from Joe

Via Belirico: MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell Takes on the Catholic Church Over LGBTs

Filed by: Karen Ocamb

March 25, 2011 1:00 PM

The late author and AIDS activist Paul Monette must be doing a little jig in heaven right now. Wednesday night Lawrence O'Donnell, host of MSNBC's The Last Word, called out the antigay Catholic Church in an articulate, explosive, captivating fulmination that promoted goosebumps and teary eyes.

Monette, as some may remember, tore up a photo of the Pope during a Creating Change conference (caught on tape for the excellent 1996 documentary Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End) to protest the enormous and deadly sway the Church had over its followers.

It's a practice the Catholic Church appears to continue today, with some US Bishops threatening to withhold communion from Pro-Choice politicians and chastising the United Nations for its "radical agenda" to re-define gender. This at the same time the US is pushing the UN to expand it's recognition of human rights to include LGBT people. Here's the statement from the US UN Ambassador Susan E. Rice:

Continue reading "MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell Takes on the Catholic Church Over LGBTs" »

ViBelirico: Bioware's Dragon Age II Has Gay Scene that Some Straight Gamers Don't Like

Filed by: Alex Blaze

March 25, 2011 3:00 PM

Dragon Age II has a gay love story in it that's cute that led some straight gamers to complain. You see, since the majority of people are straight, that means that everything has to be washed clean of homosexuality lest it befuddle their minds:

When I say BioWare neglected The Straight Male Gamer, I don't mean that they ignored male gamers. The romance options, Isabella and Merrill, were clearly designed for the straight male gamers in mind. Unfortunately, those choices are what one would call "exotic" choices. They appeal to a subset of male gamers and while its true you can't make a romance option everyone will love, with Isabella and Merrill it seems like they weren't even going for an option most males will like. And the fact is, they could have. They had the resources to add another romance option, but instead chose to implement a gay romance with Anders.
I'm certain that some will declare "That's only fair!" but lets be honest. I'll be generous and assume that 5% of all Dragon Age 2 players are actually homosexuals. I'll be even more generous and assume that the Anders romance was liked by every homosexual. Are you really telling me that you could not have written another straight romance that would have pleased more than 5% of your fans?

It's a lot longer, but you get his point. While LGB people watch tons of movies, play lots of games, read lots of books, and watch lots of TV centered around heterosexuality, for a straight person to have to put up with a gay story (among straight love stories) in a video game is just too much.
But I don't have to respond. Bioware's response is definitely worth reading:
Continue reading "Bioware's Dragon Age II Has Gay Scene that Some Straight Gamers Don't Like" »

Via JMG: TENNESSEE: Housing Official Says Gays Are Like Murderers and Drug Dealers

In January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) invited public comment on proposed new rules banning discrimination against LGBT people in all its programs. That prompted Vicki Barnes, the executive director of Tennessee's Sweetwater Housing Authority to fire off a letter to HUD in which she compares gay people to murderers, cult members, prostitutes and drug dealers. According to Barnes, if HUD's proposed rules are adopted, landlords will opt out of Section 8 programs rather than "be bullied into accepting tenants who have chosen a lifestyle that goes against their moral convictions." Screen shots of Barnes' detestable letter are below.

 

I've posted Barnes' full letter to my Scribd account. I believe we'll have a little project here, come Monday.

(Tipped by JMG reader James)

Labels: assholism, bigotry, feds, housing, HUD, LGBT rights, Tennessee

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Liz Taylor Leaves Estate To AIDS Charities

Most of Elizabeth Taylor's massive fortune will go to the two AIDS charities with whom she was most famously associated.

Screen queen Elizabeth Taylor has left behind a fortune worth at least $600 million, much of which is expected to go to the AIDS charities she championed for decades. Her famous jewelry collection, valued at an eye-popping $150 million in 2002, is likely to be auctioned off with the bulk of the proceeds going to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and amfAR, the AIDS charity she helped found in 1985, according to WFLD/Fox TV Chicago. "From what I understand, she seems to have been very wise about her investments," said a financial planner who has worked with other Hollywood A-listers. At the time of her 1994 divorce from her last husband, Larry Fortensky, Taylor's net worth was estimated at $608.4 million. That figure could now be well in excess of $1 billion. During the 1990s, Taylor reportedly earned about $2 per second, or about $63 million per year. Her famed perfume, White Diamonds, earned more than $70 million last year, according to reports.

Our hero, even in death.

Labels: AIDS, amFAR, gay icons, heroes, Hollywood

reposted from Joe

Today's "The Republicans really are a bunch of bigotsm, huh?" Post":Haley Barbour: Amorous Gay Soldiers Are Going To Stop Us From Killing Bad Guys

Yesterday Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour became the third prospective 2012 GOP presidential candidate to promise to reinstate DADT if elected. Because gay soldiers are going to be too busy cruising other men to effectively kill the bad guys.

They did research to see what military people thought about this idea. The closest to the ground, the soldier on the ground, was the most opposed to this. And it's not necessarily over homosexuality. Its over the fact that when you're under fire and people are living and dying of split-second decisions you don't need any kind of amorous mindset that can affect saving people's lives and killing bad guys. You look at the data and it is the foot-soldier that is the person who is out there, boots on the ground, who was most against this. And it's because they live or die with this and that's who we ought to be listening to, that's who we ought to be caring about and that's why I am against it. I think it ought to be rolled back. I just don't see how you can take any other position if the person you are trying to protect is the soldier who is actually in combat.

Labels: 2012 elections, DADT, dumbassery, GOP

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Worst Ad Placement Ever

(Source)

Labels: abortion, advertising, dumbassery

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Canada To Help LGBT Refugees

In a partnership with an LGBT group, Canada has announced a landmark asylum program to assist LGBT refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries.

Through the project, Citizenship and Immigration Canada will work with the Rainbow Refugee Committee to share the cost of sponsoring gay, lesbian, transgender, transsexual and bisexual refugees overseas to Canada. The department will provide $100,000 in assistance to cover three months of income support for the refugees upon their arrival here, while the Rainbow committee will offer orientation services, accommodation, food and other basic needs. “These funds are a welcome first step in response to the crisis facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people around the globe, at a time when 77 countries continue to criminalize homosexuality and five prescribe the death penalty,” said Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, the country’s largest LGBT human rights organization.

Labels: asylum, Canada, immigration, LGBT rights

reposted from Joe

Lawrence O'Donnell - Majority Of U.S. Catholics Back Gay Rights In Survey

Via JMG: Photo Of The Day

A shrine to Elizabeth Taylor has sprung up in the West Hollywood gay bar The Abbey, where Taylor was known to drop in. This weekend the bar will donate proceeds from sales of their Blue Velvet martini to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

(Via - TMZ)

Labels: AIDS, California, photo of the day, West Hollywood

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Leonard Pitts On Majority Rule

"We are gathered here today to look a gift horse in the mouth. It seems a majority of the American people now favor allowing gay men and lesbians to wed. That majority, according to a Washington Post survey released last week, is slender, just 51 percent. But even at that, it represents a significant increase from just five years ago, when only 36 percent of Americans approved. [snip]

"But lurking at the edge of celebration there is, for me, at least, a nagging, impatient vexation. That vexation is based in what is arguably an esoteric question: In extolling the fact that the majority now approves same-sex marriage, do we not also tacitly accept the notion that the majority has the right to judge? [snip]

"That’s the pebble in the shoe, the popcorn hull between the teeth, that nags at the conscience when one reads polls tracking how many of us approve of other people’s lives and decisions. It’s all well and good that 51 percent of us support the right of gay men and lesbians to tell it to the judge, but really, what hubris makes us think we have a right to say yea or nay in the first place?" - Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts, writing for the Miami Herald.

(Tipped by JMG reader Will)

Labels: LGBT rights, marriage equality, polls

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Press Release Of The Day

Here's an excerpt from the U.S. State Department's press release on yesterday's historic United Nations resolution. A total of 85 nations have signed on the Obama administration's call to battle for LGBT rights around the world.

20 countries joined this statement that were neither signatory to the 2006 or 2008 statements. The statement garnered support from every region of the world, including 21 signatories from the Western Hemisphere, 43 from Europe, 5 from Africa, and 16 from the Asia/Pacific region. Delivered by Colombia on behalf of: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Central African Republic, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the former-Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mexico, Micronesia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Ukraine, Uruguay, Vanuatu, and Venezuela

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: "Gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights. We will continue to promote human rights around the world for all people who are marginalized and discriminated against because of sexual orientation or gender identity. And we will not rest until every man, woman and child is able to live up to his or her potential free from persecution or discrimination of any kind."

Labels: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, LGBT rights, Obama administration, State Department, United Nations

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: POLL: Majority Of Lay Catholics Support LGBT Rights And Same-Sex Marriage

In what may come as a shocker to the Vatican and Archbishop Timothy Dolan, a just-released poll shows that a slim majority of America's lay Catholics now support same-sex marriage and LGBT rights.

Overall, the survey found 53 percent of Catholics supported the idea of same-sex marriage, while the general public is evenly divided on the issue. Fifty-six percent of Catholics did not believe sexual relations between two adults of the same gender constituted a sin, compared to 46 percent of the general population. Sixty percent of Catholics favored adoption rights for same-sex couples, 49 percent think gays should be allowed to be ordained as clergy, and 73 percent believe they should have legal protections in the workplace – all higher percentages than found in the general population, PRRI said. There was a powerful generation gap found in the survey, with Catholics under 35 much more liberal than those 65 and older. The influx of Hispanic Catholics into the U.S. church in recent years did not skew the results, as the young newcomers were divided between liberal and conservative views of homosexuality.

A sample comment from Free Republic: "The majority of Catholics aren’t Christians either - by the standards of the Holy Bible. Among many things they do that are against God’s Word (the Pope just recently used a Hindu prayer), Catholics engage in witchcraft (praying to dead saints and statues). They also worship Mary instead of CHRIST as the mediator between man and God."

Labels: Catholics, LGBT rights, polls, religion

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: CALIFORNIA: Ninth Circuit Court Denies Request To Resume Same-Sex Marriages

Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request to vacate their stay on the overturn of Proposition 8 and allow the resumption of same-sex marriages in California.

Federal Judge Vaughn Walker ruled last year that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional and ordered that same-sex weddings be allowed to resume. That decision was appealed to the Ninth Circuit, where the case is tied up on a legal question the panel asked the California Supreme Court to rule upon: Do Prop. 8 sponsors have legal standing to defend the law in court when the state will not. The order [to deny] was filed by judges Stephen R. Reinhardt, Michael Daly Hawkins and N. Randy Smith.

Labels: California, marriage equality, Ninth Circuit Court., Proposition 8

reposted from Joe

Tribute to Dame Elizabeth Taylor