Box Turtle Bulletin

Wishing you happiness in the New Year

Happy New Year from Box Turtle Bulletin

(In 1908, J.C. Leyendecker painted his first Baby New Year for Saturday Evening Post. Baby New Year grew and lost wings over the years, in 1912 was a baby girl (to celebrate suffrage), gained a top hat in ’33 (seen above), and even wore a gas mask in 1940. The iconic image of a toddler in a top hat and sash, ubiquitous this time of year, is based on the image crafted and popularized by Leyendecker.)

The Daily Agenda for Saturday, December 31

TODAY IN HISTORY:
Is Homosexuality Normal or Not?: 1971. That was the burning question that Life magazine tried to tackle. They tackled it pretty much the way everyone tackled the question back then: by talking to a lot of straight people about gay people, but without quoting from a single gay person. Featured in the article was noted anti-gay therapists Edmund Bergler, Lawrence Hatterer (who conducted electric shock aversion therapy), Irving Bieber, and Charles Socarides — who would later go on to co-found the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). The article tried to present a rundown on what makes gay men gay (there was virtually no mention of lesbians in the article), and then without quoting from a single “homosexual militant”, asserted that these “homosexual militants” opposed all research on homosexuality. All of this led to the article’s final two paragraphs:

Whether liberationists choose introspection, militancy, or violence as a course of action, the basic stumbling block remains the same: heterosexual antipathy to homosexuality. Will this ever change? Dr. Hatterer has observed that society’s tolerance of homosexuality is increasing but he doubts that we will ever accept it as a desirable “alternative lifestyle.” Nonetheless he and virtually all other psychiatrists advocate repealing the laws that violate this minority’s civil rights.

On the question of “normality,” much remains to be learned. In opposing all inquiry, the militants expose fears of what science might find out about them. Dr. (Evelyn) Hooker’s task force on homosexuality makes the sensible recommendation that the National Institute of Mental Health fund a center for the study of all sexual behavior. “It is essential,” says the report, “that a study of homosexuality be placed within the context of the study of the broad range of sexuality, normal and deviant.”

You can read the article here.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

The Daily Agenda for Friday, December 30

I don’t have anything lined up for today. No birthdays or happenings in history on the calendar, and not much had been happening generally this month with gay community/organizations/celebrations, etc. I’ve been spending much of my own time off from work between the holidays doing a lot of historical research for a major side project that I’ve been working on. As part of that side project, I’ve gained a new appreciation for what gay people have gone through throughout the past two centuries of an emerging awareness of what has been variously labeled adhesiveness, degeneracy, psychopathia sexualis, uranism, contrary sexual instinct, sexual inversion and homosexuality, a term which had not quite taken hold when this sad letter to the editor was printed in the July 1919 edition of The American Journal of Urology and Sexology:

A PLEA FROM AN INVERT

To The Editor:

A plea to be heard before it is too late — will you not listen and perhaps advise me? If you only knew how I need help!

I am a misfit. I am a young man who has never cared for any women. Am I to blame because God has given me a feminine nature? Why should I be shunned by all people, loathed by them I

I am clean and refined, am well educated in the fine arts and have high ideals concerning all things. And yet men who are covered with filthy sores from evil living, who have never had a decent thought or ideal in their lives, sneer at me. I am an outcast: I am lower than the lowest!

What few who are kind to me are women who have praised me for my high ideal concerning life.

Because the custom is not that two men shall marry, is it so wrong? If I love and respect a friend and he loves me, is it not as pure a marriage as between a man and woman; and far more equal?

I wish I had a friend to go and live with, to work out our ideals, and to grow in every way. Yet this has made me accursed among men; I am damned to a living hell!

Must I — who have denied myself almost too much, to become worthy of the highest friendship — must I forever walk alone?

Is there aught but beauty in the love of Marius and Cornelius in “Marius the Epicurian” by Walter Pater? Is Marius to be considered vile, because he had that “feminine refinement” that made him idealize life, that led him finally to the Christian faith and martyrdom?

I am alone and tired. Is it not a sad thing that I and many other young men who are worthy of much, should have but one hope — that Death shall come soon!

I need advice. If some young man among your readers might write to me! Do you not think we would save each other?

You must not believe me physically or mentally deficient — though I am near to suicide! — Homo.

One thing that is apparent in going through the historical record is how rare it is to read the writings of gay people themselves. Most of the literature was written by straight men talking about gay men and women. Most of the writings by gay people themselves was keep private and secret between friends (see yesterday’s Agenda for an example), or if it was published, it was published privately and circulated among friends.

A century later, we live in an era where any queen with half an opinion and a quarter capacity for spelling can start his own blog. And we are also beginning to see the kind of progress that this young man from 1919 could scarcely dream of: marriage equality is slowly making its appearance in the land of the (mostly) free. There is much to be thankful for, and there is still a lot of work left to do.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

Gay baiting party loses in Jamaica

Election results are in and the ruling Labor Party’s appeal to homophobia did not save them from economically driven discontent. The People’s National Party won elections by a landslide.

The two parties are not starkly different and the new Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller will be challenged in finding solutions for the debt ridden and deeply impoverished nation.

But gay Jamaicans are without doubt celebrating the change in leadership. While no promises were made, the PNP has stated a willingness to at least consider revisiting the colonial-era sodomy law. And with the Labor Party’s last minute effort to make the election a referendum on institutionalized homophobia, there may even be a publicly accepted perception that it’s time for a lessening of the cultural revulsion towards gay people.

While I don’t predict any immediate adoption of pro-gay positions in what Time once labeled the Most Homophobic Place on Earth, this election is without question a cause for celebration.

Do You Have a Demon? Find Out for Just $9.95!!!

I'm butcher than a demon. And my cross is FABULOUSSS!

This is Reverend Bob Larson.  He makes (or has made) over $1.2 million a year. And for just $9.95 he will tell you if you have a demon:

Taking the Demon Test® may be the most important spiritual decision you make. This Test is the result of more than 30 years of research and thousands of hours in personal ministry with troubled souls. Through this vast experience we have been able to design this test so that we may quickly determine an individual’s spiritual condition.

Yes, the Demon Test® is a registered trademark. Or Bob simply thinks the ® looks cool.

The Demon Test® is just a first step, of course. What happens after you answer its 21 questions?

If you are concerned about your test score, we highly recommend that you schedule personal one-on-one time with Bob Larson. You may choose a one-hour Encounter Session or a full or half-day Intensive Session.

Encounter Session or Intensive Session — how to choose? It’s like picking between a happy ending and full release.

I have to admit, I’m fascinated. So here’s the deal: If I can get just one of you to sponsor me in the next AIDS/LifeCycle for $10 (or more), I will take the Demon Test® and report back on it, complete and replete with screen shots and frank analysis of my Demon Test® status (obviously, my strategy is to have LOTS of you donate $10, but don’t tell anyone I said that).

And then, along the way, perhaps we can answer the truly important question:

Is Rev. Bob Larson tougher than...BUFFY?

$10, folks. That’s all I ask.

H/T to slacktivist.

Going into today’s elections, Jamaican officials claim opposition funded by gays

Taking a page out of the politics of African politicians in Nigeria and Uganda, Daryl Vaz, a JLP member and (ironically) Minister of Information and Telecommunications, ran with the desperate claim that opposition party PNP is funded and obliged to nefarious gay advocates. (Jamaica Observer)

“We are not happy about the opposition leader introducing the issue of homosexuality into the campaign and we are wondering how deep it goes and how much involved the international gay community is with the PNP. We have been hearing of the interest that that community has taken in our elections since her pronouncement,” said Vaz. “It is the first time that we have seen such strong interest from the gay community in any Jamaican election,” he added.

Now he’s claiming that these mythical wealthy nefarious gay election manipulators have made threats on his life as the result of him exposing them.

According to Vaz, he got two calls on Sunday in which the callers, he said, admonished him for “fighting against” gays after threatening his life.

“Yu mus’ dead before election,” Vaz reported one of the callers as saying. The other, he said, told him: “Yu gwine cause PNP fi lose.”

Polls have closed in Jamaica and we’ll let you know the results when we know them.

Marriage equality comes to straightsville

Is there a city on the planet that screams “drunk heterosexual American college student” louder than Cancun? But the (admittedly beautiful) Mexican party city is now seeking to expand its appeal. So, due to a quirk in the law, Cancun and its neighbors in Quintana Roo County will begin offering same-sex marriages. (Foxipoo)

Novelo said that this “is something very positive. Besides the social part there are many economic benefits because the gay community generates between 45 and 60 percent more income on top of conventional tourism.”

She said gay and lesbian marriages are possible in Quintana Roo, “thanks to a legal gap in the Civil Code,” which only makes mention of “people interested in getting married,” without specifying their gender.

However, this was more of an accidental tourist attraction. At first Cancun officials just assumed that the law did not allow for same sex marriage. (Latin American Herald)

“We were more than two months going through the procedures in different Quintana Roo Civil Registry Offices – in Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Chetumal and elsewhere – and none would allow us to register,” she said.

According to Novelo, in none of those cities would authorities allow the couples to present their legal arguments.

But in Kantunilkin, Judge Maria Rosalia Balam Caamal and other members of the Civil Registry Office decided to give them the chance.

After an initial refusal, and after several days of analysis, “they finally told us that the marriage was possible and that they had no legal arguments to deny it,” she said.

Marriages conducted in states in which it is legal in Mexico are recognized throughout the whole country.

Joe King isn’t a sissy, he’s just a bigot

A cartoonist who is described in news reports as being “Christian” (though I think many Christian churches would find his “humor” to be unwelcome) has come up with a 2012 calendar that feels about 30 years out-of-date. Fag jokes don’t have the audience they once had, and even conservatives are no longer comfortable with “jokes” that feel mean-spirited and based solely in contempt. (WGAL)

Titled “I’m Not Gay, I’m Just A Sissy,” the calendar by Joe King has drawn staunch criticism for what many are calling homophobic humor and imagery, including one illustration which appears to poke fun at the HIV/AIDS crisis, the Huffington Post reported.

Another cartoon portrays Paul Revere on horseback shouting, “The sodomites are coming! The sodomites are coming!”

Take away the premise that gay people are, by definition, offensive and absurd, and there’s nothing comical left in King’s cartoons.

A number of gay sites reported that Amazon and Barnes and Noble carried the calendar and both companies received several complaints. Even GLAAD veered from their usual focus to object to the defamation that was occurring.

I fully support King’s right to be an ahole. And I support the right for distributors and stores to carry whatever bilious crap they want. But I don’t go where I know I’ll be offended, and I prefer not to shop at stores that profit from blatant anti-gay hate.

For what it’s worth, Barnes and Noble pulled the calendar from their website and noted that it never was available in stores. Amazon has yet to respond. (In a totally unrelated subject… I wonder whether B&N’s Nook or Amazon’s Kindle is interested in the gay market… just wondering)

The Daily Agenda for Thursday, December 29

John Addington Symonds (left) and Edward Carpenter (right)

TODAY IN HISTORY:
Letter from John Addington Symonds to Edward Carpenter: 1892. Symonds was an English poet and literary critic who, although married and a father, was an early advocate of male homosexuality (see Oct 5). Edward Carpenter was a poet, socialist philosopher, and an early gay advocate — and among the very few who lived openly as a gay man (see Aug 29) in Victorian England. In 1892, Symonds was beginning his collaboration with sexologist Havelock Ellis for Ellis’s first installment of his six-volume Studies in the Psychology of Sex, when Symonds wrote to Carpenter to discuss some of the topics he intended to cover. While Ellis intended to stick strictly to a psychological discussion on homosexuality (or Sexual Inversion, as it was called at the time), Symonds wanted to open the topics up to historical and ethical considerations:

It is a pity that we cannot write freely on the topic. But when we meet, I will communicate to you facts which prove beyond all doubt to my mind that the most beneficial results, as regards health and nervous energy, accrue from the seuxal relations between men: also, that when they are carried on with true affection, through a period of years, both comrades become united in a way which would be otherwise quite inexplicable.

The fact appears to me proved. The explanation of it I cannot give, & I do not expect it to be given yet. Sex has been unaccountably neglected. Its physiological & psychological relations even in the connection between man & woman are not understood. We have no theory which is worth anything upon the differentiation of the sexes, to begin with. In fact, a science of what is the central function of human beings remains to be sought.

This, I take it, is very much due to psychologists, assuming that sexual instincts follow the build of the sexual organs; & that when they do not, the phenomenon is criminal or morbid. In fact, it is due to science at this point being clogged with religious & legal presuppositions.

…My hope has always been that eventually a new chivalry, i.e.., a second elevated form of human love, will emerge & take its place for the service of mankind by the side of that other which was wrought out in the Middle Ages.

…How far away that dream seems! And yet I see in human nature stuff neglected, ever-present — pariah and outcast now — from which I am as certain as I live, such a chivalry could arise.

Whitman, in Calaumus, seems to strike the key-note. And though he repudiated (in a very notable letter to myself) the deductions which have logically to be drawn from Calamus, his work will remain infinitely helpful.

[From Chris White’s Nineteenth-Century Writings on Homosexuality: A Sourcebook, pp 92-94.]

Catholic Church Reaffirms Opposition to Homosexuality: 1975. It wasn’t the first time, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. But on this date in 1975, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — think of it as the Vatican’s equivalent of the Justice Department (so to speak) — issued Persona Humana, addressing “certain questions concerning sexual ethics.” On the subject of homosexuality, the Congregation stated:

A distinction is drawn, and it seems with some reason, between homosexuals whose tendency comes from a false education, from a lack of normal sexual development, from habit, from bad example, or from other similar causes, and is transitory or at least not incurable; and homosexuals who are definitively such because of some kind of innate instinct or a pathological constitution judged to be incurable.

In regard to this second category of subjects, some people conclude that their tendency is so natural that it justifies in their case homosexual relations within a sincere communion of life and love analogous to marriage, in so far as such homosexuals feel incapable of enduring a solitary life.

In the pastoral field, these homosexuals must certainly be treated with understanding and sustained in the hope of overcoming their personal difficulties and their inability to fit into society. Their culpability will be judged with prudence. But no pastoral method can be employed which would give moral justification to these acts on the grounds that they would be consonant with the condition of such people. For according to the objective moral order, homosexual relations are acts which lack an essential and indispensable finality. In Sacred Scripture they are condemned as a serious depravity and even presented as the sad consequence of rejecting God. This judgment of Scripture does not of course permit us to conclude that all those who suffer from this anomaly are personally responsible for it, but it does attest to the fact that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and can in no case be approved of.

The same statement also reaffirmed the Church’s opposition to premarital sex, extramarital sex and masturbation (which is also branded “an intrinsically and seriously disordered act”).

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Billy Tipton: 1914. It wasn’t until his death in 1989 when it became widely known that the American jazz pianist, saxophonist and bandleader had actually been born a woman. Early in his career, Tipton performed as a man while continuing to present as a woman otherwise, but by the 1940s, he had transitioned his gender identity fully to male — except for when he went home to his family, where he became Dorothy again. He entered into at least three long-term heterosexual relationships, including a marriage (although it may have been a common law marriage) with stripper Kitty Kelly with whom Tipton adopted three sons. One son, William, remembered Billy as a good father who loved to go on Scout camping trips. It was William who would learn that his father had been born a woman, when he was looking on as paramedics tried to resuscitate him after collapsing with a hemorrhaging peptic ulcer.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

Johnson runs as Libertarian

Evolved already.

As anticipated, Republican former governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson has reregistered as a Libertarian in order to seek that party’s nomination for president. (Foxipoo)

Gary Johnson has made it official. The Republican presidential candidate who got no respect has announced he will now seek the nomination of the Libertarian Party.

Johnson made the announcement Wednesday morning in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he served as the state’s Republican governor from 1995 to 2003.

“This was both a difficult decision – and an easy one,” Johnson said. “I have a lot of Republican history, and a lot of Republican supporters. But in the final analysis…I am a Libertarian – that is someone who is fiscally very conservative but holds freedom-based positions on the issues that govern our personal behavior.”

This is a very peculiar election season. A Libertarian candidate without an association with racism or state directors who are board members of a hate-group or touted support from dominionist extremists may find higher than expected support.

A Christian response to Cardinal George

A professor at the Chicago Theological Seminary has an unexpected response to Cardinal George’s wacky KKK comparisons. Well, it the seminary is affiliated with the United Church of Christ so it really isn’t all that unexpected. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite has invited the Cardinal to come experience the Pride Parade as her guest – because it would help him be a better Christian leader.

I would like to invite the cardinal because I have become an ally of the LGBTQ community and it has been an incredible spiritual and theological journey for me. I would like to share with him a small part of how important this journey can be for Christian leaders as well as parishioners.

I have learned so much from what a spirituality of truthfulness teaches, and how it can illumine a great deal about the Christian Gospel, as well as about theology, ethics, pastoral care, and worship. Over the years of teaching and learning with gay students, faculty, and staff colleagues, both at the seminary, around the nation and indeed around the world, I have gained from their courage in facing up to a world that is hostile to their very humanity, and challenging churches that claim they are not included in God’s love and care. Despite all the hurtful and harmful religious messages, many LGBT people nevertheless come to know God’s love and affirmation for exactly who they are.

The Cardinal may do well to listen to Thistlewaite, she’s no theological lightweight.

Woops, There It Goes

Phil Kayser's endorsement on Ron Paul's campaign website earlier today (above). That same page now (below) (Click to enlarge)

The press release from Ron Paul’s presidential campaign bragging about Christian Reconstrucitonist pastor Phil Kayser’s endorsement is gone. Poof! Just like that.  The Google Cache version is here. And for archival purposes, we’re keeping a copy of that announcement below. I wonder if the Paul Campaign is going to issue a statement, or if they’re going to try to sweep it under the rug just like they did with the newsletters? Anyone taking any bets?

Click here to see the original endorsement announcement

Watching Jamaica

There have been some interesting developments in Jamaica recently.

Institutionalized homophobia has died down a bit – or at least the press has fewer stories of mob murders or police cover-ups of homophobic violence. But as the elections are going into their final days, the sodomy law is becoming something of an issue. (USA Today)

But during a debate last week with Prime Minister Andrew Holness, opposition chief Portia Simpson Miller called for a review of the law. She argued that professional competence, not sexual orientation, will determine who is selected for a Cabinet post if her People’s National Party wins.

Since then, some top Labor candidates have made homophobic comments at political rallies, among them Cabinet minister Daryl Vaz, who said “God created Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve,” prompting applause and anti-gay slurs from his West Portland constituents.

Labor’s candidate for West Central St. James, Energy Minister Clive Mullings, asserted that easing up on laws against homosexuality would bring God’s wrath down on Jamaica, while West Kingston candidate, Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie, used an epithet at a rally while an anti-gay dancehall song played.

I’ll be watching the results of Thursday’s election to see if either party – currently neck and neck – is a clear winner.

There is another potential story to the uptick in homophobia, but I’m waiting on responses before discussing it further.

NOM runs anti-Ron Paul ad

While our community may be noting with discomfort the peculiar affiliations or view of a number of Ron Paul’s prominent supporters, that doesn’t mean that he is viewed favorably by those who dedicate themselves day in and day out to obsessing about Teh Ghey. It seems that Ron Paul is “a radical who would destroy traditional marriage in America.”

Whodathunkit? So pro-equality is Ron Paul that NOM has created an entire website for the purpose of “spotlighting Ron Paul’s unwillingness to defend marriage.”

But it seems that Ron Paul is not the only nefarious secret supporter of equality, Michele Bachmann has learned that Mitt Romney is pro-equality as well:

“Mitt Romney has defended gay marriage and even signed marriage licenses for same-sex couples and Ron Paul doesn’t believe the government should protect the institution of marriage,” Bachmann said. “I have a record of defending life, marriage and the family and I’ll protect them as president of the United States.”

But I just don’t think that Hatin’ on Teh Ghey is getting as much traction as it has in the past. There’s something about having real issues like a stagnant economy and high unemployment to make such issues seem as silly as they really are.

Cardinal George’s self-delusional narcissism

Have you heard of the Ku Klux Klan? They were that group best known for marching through cities in the forties in order to stifle Catholic worship. Or so Cardinal George seems to think.

In defending his bizarre comparison between the Klan and gay people, George issued the following statement:

The Chicago Gay Pride Parade has been organized and attended for many years without interfering with the worship of God in a Catholic church. When the 2012 Parade organizers announced a time and route change this year, it was apparent that the Parade would interfere with divine worship in a Catholic parish on the new route. When the pastor’s request for reconsideration of the plans was ignored, the organizers invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church. One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940’s, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside of the American consensus. It is not a precedent anyone should want to emulate.

It is terribly wrong and sinful that gays and lesbians have been harassed and subjected to psychological and even physical harm. These tragedies can be addressed, however, without disturbing the organized and orderly public worship of God in a country that claims to be free. I am grateful that all parties concerned resolved this problem by moving the Parade’s start time so as not to conflict with the celebration of Mass that Sunday.

Cardinal George is like a child in his thinking. He is only capable of seeing the world through the prism of his own immediate wants. And Cardinal George believes that as he is a child of God, his Father is very important and very powerful and therefore the Cardinal is entitled to get what he wants. When and how he wants it.

Cardinal George might be more compelling if he were not the spiritual equivalent of Veruca Salt.