Obama Acceptance Speech On Gays

"I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination."

- Barak Obama last night, accepting the Democratic Party nomination for president.

Don't look for such a statement from the Republican nominee.

Is this enough to make me vote for Obama in November? I don't know yet.

Jim

Borgnine Is Old and Funny, But...

I have read where he has made homophobic remarks in the past. Now, I don't care what he does in the privacy of his bedroom at any age, so why should he be concerned with what I do?

Jim

The California Gay Marriage Battle

Another right wing religious group, the American Family Association, has made a big cash donation of $500,000. to support the anti-gay initiative in California. The gay community in this country had better get cracking to fight to preserve marriage rights in California. There should be a national campaign led by the major gay rights groups. If we lose this battle it will set back the entire gay rights movement by decades. Now is the time to harness the economic clout of gay people behind the battle to defeat the initiative. Where are the leaders of our gay rights groups? They need to join together and make a major unified effort. The clock is ticking.

PHOTO: I planted Dahlias in our deck pots. They really are thriving with all the care I give them.

Democrat Inaction On Gays In The Military

The Associated Press notes that while Democrats have controlled congress for the last two years, they have not done anything (hold hearings, etc.) on the issue of gays on the military, even though they talk a good game about allowing gays to serve openly. As usual, we get talk and little or no action. Will it be any different with Obama?

Jim

PHOTO: One of the distinguishing features of Gothic architecture, the "flying buttress," which allows for the soaring interiors of cathedrals like the one in Leon, Spain.

Read This Before You Buy Bolthouse Farms Products!

From Wikipedia:

"Bolthouse Farms, founded in 1915, is a vertically-integrated farm company located
in California's San Joaquin Valley
and headquartered in Bakersfield,
California. According to the business research company Hoover's, Bolthouse Farms is
one of the United States's leading
producers of carrots.[1] Madison Dearborn
Partners has a 57% stake in Bolthouse that was acquired in 2005, the
remainder of the company is still family-owned. The company has attracted
controversy due to their Conservative Christian political associations and due
to their handling of a botulism outbreak originating from their product."

Anti-Equality Activism
Bakersfield carrot farmer William Bolthouse donated $100,000 to an initiative aiming to fight gay marriage — a measure that will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot along with the presidential race. Source: http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/politicsanyone/27751

[edit] Bolthouse Foundation
Bolthouse Farms company profits are used to support the The Bolthouse Foundation[4], which supports groups including Evangelical Christian organizations.[5]
Controversy surrounds the foundation as it, along with figures such as Blackwater Worldwide founder Erik Prince, are major donors for the Alliance Defense Fund that is itself criticized for their perceived legal team offense against Separation of church and state (as defined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution), their stance against homosexuality, their focus on proselytism, as well as their opposition to birth control and sex education amongst other reasons.[5][6]
The controversy surrounding the company has led some Bolthouse consumers to boycott Bolthouse Farms products[7]

From the Bolthouse Farms web site:

Corporate Philosophy

The purpose of this Company is to glorify God through our business
transactions, our work, and our relationships. It is further our desire to bring
honor and glory to the Name of Jesus Christ by following God's Word in all of
our dealings with employees, suppliers, and customers. God's Work as contained
in His Inspired Scriptures will be the final authority in all Corporate matters
concerning direction, decisions, and disputes.

The California Marriage Battle Is Joined

Long time lesbian activist Robin Tyler over at Huffington:

...a majority of Californians (51 per cent) now supports same-sex marriage!
Only 42 per cent disapprove. But 62 per cent of born-again Christians in
California oppose permitting gay and lesbian couples to marry. I don't mind
these 62 per cent being born again, but why did they have to come back as
themselves?

Tell me about it.

So, Californians will get to vote in November on whether or not to amend their state constitution to enshrine discrimination against gay and lesbian people. Now is the time for the disorganized U.S. gay community to finally band together and flex its muscle. We have no leader, no Martin Luther King. We are not monolithic. Some gays are not in favor of marriage and some feel we're fighting the wrong battles (who really wants to serve in the army anyway?) But this battle in California is so important because if we lose it that could set back the overall gay equality movement by decades. Will we finally come together as gay people to fight the influence of the right and the religious bigots in California?

Jim

PHOTO: More beautiful stained glass in Leon

California Should Ignore Republican Bigots

The Attorney Generals of ten states have asked the California Supreme Court to stay its decision on gay marriages until after the voters have had a chance to ban gay marriages by constitutional amendment in November. The ten AGs are all Republicans. That's no surprise. The attorney general of the state of California, Jerry Brown, has told the court not to issue a stay. Lets hope California listens to Brown and not to the Republican bigots.

Small "d" democracy is not always a good thing. It's not a good thing to submit the rights of a minority to a popular vote. If you have a constitution that guarantees equal rights to all, then the very notion of a constitutional amendment that takes away rights of some should be out of order on its face. You can't have an amendment that goes against the rest of the document, it seems to me.

PHOTO: The spectacular Gothic cathedral in Leon, Spain. Wait until you see some of the beautiful stianed glass!

Jim

Ted Kennedy: An American Hero

Senator Kennedy is an American hero, a champion those of Americans who lack the power, wealth, and position to advance their own situation. No one has been more of a public champion in government for the gay community than this man. I wish him well as he battles his health issue. He certainly has fought many battles for us.

Jim

PHOTO: Fox kit from last year's litter - this photograph was taken at this time last year near the Sunken Forest on Fire Island.

Gay Is Good For Animals

One thing that does seem to be exclusive to humans is homophobia.

...from an article in today's New York Times on scientific research confirming that for many animal species homosexuality is a natural occurrence. Apparently only humans are capable of irrational bigotry and hatred, but that's not really a surprise, is it?

Jim

Gay Hillary Supporter? READ THIS!

Writer "Davidkc" over at the Daily Kos has the goods on Hillary's total disregard for the gay community:

In Hillary Clinton's disturbing attempt to rebrand herself as a Bible-totin',
gun-slinging Annie Oakley, complete with right-wing talking points, I guess it's
not surprising that gays would end up with the short end of the stick in Camp
Clinton these days. Hillary has given lip service to supporting GLBT rights, but
her actions over the past few months - not to mention the past few decades -
have shown that Hillary is not only trying to distance herself from the gay
community and GLBT issues but has done her best to use anti-gay sentiment to her
advantage. There's a disturbing pattern at work here, folks, that should outrage
any true Democrat who cares about equality.

Read the whole blog entry here. It' not a pretty picture.

Jim

Robbed Of Our Gay Adolescence

Why are so many gay men sexually promiscuous? This question has often been asked and in today's New York Times Magazine there is this explanation:

There was a reason, of course, why so many gay men my age and older seemed
intent on living a protracted adolescence: We had been cheated of our actual
adolescence. While most of our heterosexual peers had experienced, in their teens, socialization around courtship, dating and sexuality, many of us had grown up closeted and fearful, “our most precious and tender feelings rarely validated or reflected back to us by our families and communities,” as Alan Downs, the author of “The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man’s World,” puts it.

So, we who had no sexual adolescence feel compelled to make up for lost tine once we finally come out. It's a powerful argument and quite a revelation I suspect for many men. In my own case, not only was I robbed of my gay adolescence but I also married a woman in my early 20s, so I was robbed of that decade as well. Nevertheless, when I finally came out at age 29 I did not feel the need to "make up for lost time" by racking up a number of sexual conquests. Rather, I went looking for a partner to fall in love with and settle down. So I guess I don't quite fit the mold. But I can see how this could resonate with a lot of gay men.


The article in the Times, entitled "Young Gay Rites" focuses on gay men who get married in their 20s. It certainly is a different world for them than it was for us older gay men. By and large these young gay couples favor absolute monogamy and do not view the sexual and emotional components of their relationships as potentially separate entities as many older gay men do. I was at a cocktail party the other evening with a group of mostly older gays and I tried to make the argument that it is possible to separate out the two as in the case of loving but sexually "open" relationships, but no one would agree with me. Particularly, two younger 30 somethings professed their monogamy in response to my argument.


My own attitudes about monogamy have changed somewhat over the years. How to define monogamy is also something I'm not sure of. Strict monogamy means absolutely no sexual contact with others, I suppose. I think that's a tough standard for many people, both straight and gay. A casual one time contact, or even several with different people, or an occasional three way, are these violations of monogamy? Or, as I am beginning to believe, is an "affair" or a multi-session liaison with the same person that contains both sexual and emotional components what constitutes non-monogamy?


My own behavior actually fits the strict definition for the most part because I have just never felt the need to experiment sexually with a number of different men. I have a loving partner who I enjoy sexually and for those times in between I can look at porn and get off. That's always been enough for me. Come to think if it, porn and self release was enough for me during all of those bleak years of my tortured adolescence, and those years I spent married to a woman. Sure, I yearned for sexual contact with another male, but I never experienced it until my wife left me when I was 29.


I'm glad things are better now for younger gay people. I'm glad that they can come out earlier, date earlier, and marry earlier. They'll experience some of the same problems we all do in life, but at least they won't start out behind the eight ball to the same degree that we older gays did. No one should be robbed of their adolescence. There's no way to make up for that no matter how hard you try.

JIm


PHOTO; The Fire Island Pines Harbor on an early Spring morning

Pope Benedict Is Ashamed Of The Pedophile Scandal

As well he ought to be - with all of the cover ups over the years. Benedict also ought to be ashamed of his own record of demonizing gays and lesbians all the while his church has harbored and protected the real criminals among the ranks of the Catholic clergy. He'll be met with protests by gay Catholics but it won't matter because he won't change his hateful ways. Gay Catholics are like gay Republicans - in denial. They ought to quit the church.

Jim

PHOTO: The lovely blooming trees along the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park

The Clintons And Civil Rights

Hillary is out there comparing herself to Lyndon Baines Johnson on civil rights. But what is the real Clinton record on civil rights? Andrew Sulivan nails it - their record is horrible:

"In the 1990s, we saw a burst of grass-roots activism, protest and rhetoric
in defense of gay and lesbian equality. Out of the ashes of the AIDS epidemic,
the gay rights movement rose like a phoenix. And the Clintons, seeing a
fund-raising opportunity, reached out to some in the movement to finance their
own campaign. Those donors trusted them. I wrote the TNR endorsement. But as
soon as the gays had performed their role - financing the Clintons in power and
supporting their campaign - the Clintons turned on us. They dropped their
promise to end the military's ban instantaneously and then presided over a
doubling of the discharges of gay servicemembers under the hideous "Don't Ask,
Don't Tell" policy. They then used the other emerging civil rights issue -
marriage equality - to triangulate against gay couples. They ran ads on
Christian radio stations bragging about the Defense of Marriage Act that
president Clinton eagerly signed. And the only gay people they embraced were
those willing to continue to trade money for access - and loyalty to the
Clintons. Who helped them devise this anti-gay strategy? Dick Morris. Who
recommended hiring him in the first place? Hillary Clinton.
Johnson risked
his entire coalition on the issue of civil rights - a heroic act that still
reverberates today. The Clintons wouldn't risk a smidgen of a percentage point
in a Mark Penn poll for the duration of a news cycle. That's the difference. "

Jim

Obama's Iowa Win: Not Good For Gays

Richard Rothstein gets it right:

The Iowa primary represents a remarkable day in Black American history and
as an American I am deeply moved by the prospect of our first African-American
President. But as a queer I have to come to terms with the fact that as
President, an Obama
will not cross his power base and any hope of equal civil rights for queers
anytime in the near future was possibly run to ground last night in an Iowa
cornfield.

Don't forget, Obama sanctioned the inclusion of an anti-gay black clergyman as a part of his campaign. You can't be for social justice for gays and do something like that.

Jim

Not Liberal Florida Horror Story!

Our Friend Barbara writes:

"I am relieved to find your blog and so agree with all of it. I am living in a red state until I can figure out how to get back to NY. In the short course of my employment here I found out that Florida, land of the chad,is also an"at will" work state which means that individuals have no rights.As far as I can tell "At Will" "work is a polite descriptor for contemporary institutionalized slavery and is the creation by the same people who believe in outsourcing our work to countries who do use slaves to make goods. Now I can tell you this is an oxymoron: workers have no rights here and can be kicked out of work for any reason whatsoever with the exception of discrimination at the state level but I can tell you having been let go recently after two months of working for a company here in Florida that companies can make up any reason and throw the baby out with the bathwater. I was clearly discriminated against because I am an advocate for gay rights and suggested they create a support group for gay men in their facility.What's worse like a typical child sex abuse perpetrator I was told not to tell anyone or I would not get my severance pay. I had to sign a document that stated that I gave up all of my civil liberties under the law. This all in the context of a substance abuse treatment facility that wants the NY market! Can you imagine! In addition there is a move to create a Christian workplace in this facility as well. This is all mostly unspoken and happens underground since the company takes public monies. Each area of it has a Christian minister who presides over it overtly and not and I suspect weeds out those people who are not Christian or who are not invested in their agenda. I was fired because someone perceived me to have an interest in creating a "gay movement" on campus. "Don't talk, Don't tell" permeates the culture and workplace here.Make no mistake about it West Palm Beach is NOT a gay friendly place no matter how you look at it and if you have money Florida loves you but if you are a worker who needs work "fogetaboutit"."

Barbara Ann Levy
Barbaraannlevy@aol.com

Barbara, we're sorry that Florida didn't work out for you. Hurry back to New York.

I'm not surprised at this story. The town in Florida with the highest concentration of gay and lesbian people, Ft. Lauderdale, has a rabidly homophobic mayor (Naugle) who has joined with conservative fundamentalist religious leaders in a campaign to demonize gays. There's no way we're moving to Florida or even considering visiting again anytime soon.

Jim

Imus Behaves

Well, Don Imus apparently managed to get through the first show without any derogatory references to African Americans, gays and lesbians, or any of his usual minority group targets. See Imus, you CAN do good radio without putting people down because of who they are!

Jim

Here Comes The Pope

The news today includes a warning that Herr Pope will be visiting the States soon. Gosh, I can't wait. I think there will be demonstrations when he is here, and not the kind he is likely to be happy with. This person has a long history of virulently anti-gay writings and pronouncements. He should not get a free pass on that, and he won't.

PHOTO: One of the beautiful vistas that we enjoy on our daily river walks.

Jim

Gays And Bi Folk Are Transgendered

The battle within the gay and lesbian community over Barney Frank's decision to strip protections for transgendered people out of the Employment Non Discrimination Act continues to heat up. Yesterday Frank issued a press release critical of Lambda Legal, which opposes his political ploy, and today Lambda Legal shot back at Barney Frank.

To me, stripping the "Ts" out of ENDA to make it more palatable for some Democrats so as to get their vote is abhorrent. However, a number of gay bloggers and activists, notably John Avarosis and Rex Wockner, argue that the "Ts" are not gay folk and that we should take the ENDA bill we can get without protections for transgendered people and leave them behind. They want us to throw the "Ts" out of the LGBT movement. The least powerful sexual minority would then be left to fend for themselves.

The best argument I've read in favor of continuing the fight for a fully inclusive ENDA is made by Gabriel Rotello. Rotello points out that gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered individuals share an important characteristic: we all fall outside of accepted norms when it comes to gender identity. We all have traits, sexual for all of us as well as non-sexual for many or most of us, that go against "straight" norms of behavior.

Now, however, 21st-century research has produced a new concept: That the
root of our difference is not merely how we make love, but the larger fact that
we exist between the two genders in a variety of gender-atypical ways, some
sexual and some not.
This idea has immense implications, because if the
ultimate cause of our oppression is gender transgression, then shouldn't it also
be the focus of our identities and our movement? Shouldn't we stop being the
les-bi-gay-trans-whatever movement, with a new syllable added every few years,
and simply become the trans movement? I think we should. ...Yes, sure, all the
other arguments against the removal of transgendered people from ENDA are valid,
foremost among them that we are sacrificing the most vulnerable among us for the
political expediency of getting a bill passed. But if you look at LGBT people as
all, in a sense, transgendered, such a bill is not merely sacrificing the rights
of one sexual minority within our movement. It's betraying and denying the
strange, wonderful, mysterious and very human thing that makes us what we
are.

Read Rotello's essay here.

PHOTO: A boatload of "trans" people: gays, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals, invades the Pines on July 4, 2007. Don't throw anyone overboard when it comes to ENDA. Photo by Bob Russell

Jim

Thompson's Unique Anti-Gay Constitutional Amendment

A treat for early risers - The cresent moon and Venus at about 6 Am this morning.

Following up on Marc's remarks about Fred Thompson, I read that he favors a constitutional amendment that would stipulate that states would not have to recognize legitimate same sex marriages that are performed in other states or jurisdictions. How very creative! How very bigoted!

The Log Cabin Republicans are sure going to have a time of it this go around trying to figure out who is the least anti-gay presidential candidate in the Republican field.

Jim

Merv Griffin: A Failure As A Human Being

Dan captures a typical beach scene on Fire Island in this colorful painting.

Up until now, we've been fortunate so far this year in terms of tropical storms. "Dean," which is now threatening the Caribbean and the Gulf, is the first big storm of the season. Even though the storm is far away, the surf here on Fire Island is already rough.

In the news: Merv Griffin is outed posthumously by a Hollywood reporter. Griffin's sexuality was known for years in spite of his refusal to come out. He could have used his influence and his wealth, thought to be approaching a billion dollars, to help in the fight against AIDS and the struggle for gay civil rights. Instead, he chose to befriend the likes of Ronald Reagan and to remain firmly closeted. He was a collaborator in his own oppression, and his failure to join in the struggle for social justice for gays was a moral failure on his part. He stood by and did nothing when he could have helped immensely. As one observer puts it: he was a failure a a human being. I have to agree.

Jim