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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyPosts Tagged As: Daily Agenda
May 6th, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Pride Celebrations Today: Brussels, Belgium and Houston, TX (Black Pride).
Other Celebrations Today: Hot Rodeo, Banning, CA; Boston LGBT Film Festival, Boston, MA; Purple Party, Dallas, TX; Frieberg International Gay Film Festival, Frieberg, Germany; and Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Miami, FL.
AIDS Walks Today: Atlantic City/Asbury Park/Morristown/Newark/New Brunswick/Pennsauken/Ridgewood, NJ; Orange County, CA; and Portsmouth, NH.
Karl-Maria Kertbeny's letter to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs with the word "Homosexualität" (Click to enlarge)
TODAY IN HISTORY:
The Word “Homosexuality” Coined: 1868. On this date, an Austrian-born Hungarian by the name of Karl-Maria Kertbeny (or Károly Mária Kertbeny) wrote a letter in which he used, for the first time in recorded history, a new word of his creation: Homosexualität. The letter was to German gay-rights advocate Karl Heinrich Ulrich.
Ulrich was, more precisely speaking, an urning-rights advocate. Ulrich defined urning as a “male-bodied person with a female psyche,” who is sexually attracted to men and not women. In fact, he had complex taxonomy to describe the many combinations and permutations of gender, gender role, attractions, and degrees of affection. In addition to urning, there was dioning (a heterosexual masculine man), uranodioning (a male bisexual), mannlinge (very masculine man with an attraction toward effeminate men), manuring (effeminate man who was attracted towards women), and virilisiert mannlinger (a “straight-acting” gay man) — and that was just for men. There was also a list of counterpart words for women. It was all very complicated to try to keep track of.
In English, the terminology was very simple — in fact, too simple. The word invert described gay men and women as embodying an inversion of sex-role behavior. But that term depended on a description of sex role behavior rather than sexual attraction, which meant that masculine men and feminine women who were attracted to the same sex fell outside of the definition.
And this is what set Kertbeny’s homosexualität apart. Hor the first time, here was a simple word that went straight to the heart of the matter: the object of sexual or romantic desire was separated from the gender role — but not the gender itself — of the subject as part of the definition. This eventually allowed for the discussion of everyone who was attracted to the same gender, men and women, masculine and feminine.
Homosexualität made its first known public appearance the following year, when Kertbeny anonymously published a pamphlet calling for the repeal of Prussia’s sodomy laws. Other German advocates picked up the word, and it eventually made its English appearance as “homosexuality” at around 1894, which Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s 1886 Psychopathia Sexualis was translated into English. Adoption in English was slow however. The famous English sexologist Havelock Ellis hated it on linguistic grounds: its mixture of Greek-based (“homo”) and Latin-based (“sexual”) roots were anathema to him. In his groundbreaking first volume of Studies in the Psychology of Sex published in 1897, Ellis clung to his favored term inversion, writing in a footnote on the first page of the text, “‘Homosexual’ is a barbarously hybrid word, and I claim no responsibility for it. It is, however, convenient, and now widely used.” But even as he saw the writing on the wall he resisted and suggested an alternative: ” ‘Homogenic’ has been suggested as a substitute,” he added.
His suggestion of homogenic never caught on, and even he declined to adopt it. Invert remained a common term, but its usage continued to diminish until it finally met its demise in the 1920’s. That’s when when the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, who preferred the word “homosexuality” and its counterparts “heterosexuality” and “bisexuality” became popular in the English-speaking world. We’ve been homos (or bi’s, as the case may be) ever since.
Students of the Deutsche Studentenschaft parading in front of the Institute of Sex Research.
Nazis Storm the Institute of Sex Research: 1933. The great German sexologist, Magnus Hirschfeld, established the Institute of Sex Research in 1919. Located in Berlin’s Tiergarten it became a major center for gay rights advocacy and research, with a massive research library archive. The Institute included medical, psychological, and ethnological divisions, provided marriage and sex counseling.
But when the Nazis came to power in January of 1933, the Institute quickly became a target of official ire. On May 6 of that year while Hirchfeld was on a lecture tour of the U.S., Students of the Deutsche Studentenschaft began parading in front of the Institute. That night, Nazis attacked it and looted the archives. Four days later, those archives served as the fuel for the famous book-burning rally, where some 20,000 books and journals, and 5,000 images, were destroyed. The Institute’s groundbreaking work came to an abrupt end. Hirschfeld remained in exile, first in Paris and later in Nice, where he died of a heart attack in 1935.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Rudolph Valentino: 1895. Known as the “Latin Lover,” Italina-born Rodolpho Guglielmi di Valentina D’Antonguolla’s appearances in films like The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik established him as one of moviedom’s earliest male sex symbols. When he died suddenly at the age of 31, his public viewing prompted near-rioting among his female fans. Valentino had married twice — once to a reputed lesbian actress (according to their divorce papers, they never consummated the marriage), and then to Natacha Rambova, the artistic director for an early film they both worked on. That marriage also ended in divorce.
Neither marriage did much to quell rumors of Valentino’s “effeminacy,” which critics believed they detected in his sensitive and stylish portrayals on the silver screen. One Chicago Tribune editorial blasted his androgynous image as the “Pink Powder Puff.” Wrote the writer, “When will we be rid of all these effeminate youths, pomaded, powdered, bejeweled and bedizened, in the image of Rudy–that painted pansy?” The evidence behind those rumors remains both skimpy and controversial. Oh well, his birthday is noteworthy regardless of whether he was gay or not. I mean, just look at him!
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May 5th, 2012
Before my senior year in high school, I had the privilege of participating in a summer-long exchange program with a host family in the beautiful colonial city of Orizaba, Vera Cruz, Mexico. (Here’s the map, and here’s a street view of the family’s home, behind the gate. The second story has been added since I was there. But otherwise, how cool is Google maps?) Orizaba was best known for two things: 1) it lay at the base of the Pico de Orizaba, a dormant volcano which is Mexico’s tallest peak, and 2) it was the orignal home of CervecerÃa Moctezuma, the brewer of Dos Equis, Tres Equis, Superiór, Sol and Noche Buena brands of beer.
It was the experience of a lifetime, and I learned so much about Mexico that I never would have learned any other way. For example, one of the surprises for me was how popular mayonnaise was there. You never would have guessed it, but it was used quite a lot. Whenever you bought a torta (a kind of sandwich) from a street vendor, it often had huge globs of mayonnaise oozing out the sides. I was especially shocked when my “brothers” slathered mayonnaise on their corn-on-the-cobs one afternoon.
I bring that up because mayonnaise, it turns out, played an important role in Mexican history. It was during the French occupation under Emperor Maximilian when le mayonnaise was introduced in Mexico, and for the next few years the national craze was satisfied by ships from France which brought the sought-after condiment in barrels carefully packed in ice through the port of Vera Cruz. But in 1864, a fierce Atlantic storm sank a fleet of ships carrying a very large supply, sparking a severe national shortage that lasted for weeks. And so on this date every year since then, Mexico commemorates that tragic event with the holiday they call…
Wait for it…
El Sinko de Mayo. (*)
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Okay, actually Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army’s surprise victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The victory proved temporary. As French forces withdrew from Puebla towards Vera Cruz, they were able to contain the pursuing Mexican army at Orizaba a month later. Outside of the state of Puebla, it is not an official Mexican holiday. In fact, it is more widely celebrated in the United States than it is in Mexico. Many Mexican-Americans look to the holiday as a celebration of their cultural heritage, but for everyone else it’s an excuse for faux-Mexican restaurants to break out their cheap tchotchkes, recycle bad 1950’s stereotypes, and promote happy hour specials on Coronas, margaritas and appetizers. Olé!
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Brussels, Belgium, Houston, TX (Black Pride); Norrköping, Sweden and Raleigh, NC.
Other Celebrations This Weekend: Hot Rodeo, Banning, CA; Boston LGBT Film Festival, Boston, MA; Purple Party, Dallas, TX; Frieberg International Gay Film Festival, Frieberg, Germany; and Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Miami, FL.
AIDS Walks This Weekend: Atlantic City/Asbury Park/Morristown/Newark/New Brunswick/Pennsauken/Ridgewood, NJ; Charlotte, NC; Ft. Wayne, IN; Orange County, CA; Poughkeepsie, NY; Portsmouth, NH and Raleigh, NC.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Marriage In Hawaii, Almost: 1993. In the case of Baehr v Lewin, Nina Baehr sued the state of Hawaii over the state’s refusal to issue her and her partner a marriage license. That refusal, according to their lawsuit, amounted to illegal discrimination. On May 5, 1992, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that her argument had merit. They didn’t rule Hawaii’s ban illegal, but remanded the case to a lower court, and placed the burden on the state to prove that it had a compelling interest under strict scrutiny for denying same-sex partners a marriage license.
The case would drag on for another six years with little doubt about where the state Supreme Court would go if the case made its way back there again. And so on 1998, voters approved Amendment 2 to the state constitution, which made Hawaii the first state to amend its constitution to address same-sex marriage. But unlike other state constitutional amendments that would follow, Hawaii’s Amendment 2 didn’t ban same-sex marriage outright. It granted Hawaii’s legislature the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples, which it later did by passing a law that banned same-sex marriage.
In February of 2011, Hawaii’s governor signed into law a bill granting civil unions to the state’s same-sex couples. That law took effect on January 1, 2012.
Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Del Martin: 1921. In 1955, Martin and Phyllis Lyon, her lifelong partner, along with six other women, founded the Daughters of Bilitis, which became the first major lesbian organization in the United States. Phyllis edited the DOB’s newsletter The Ladder beginning in 1956, with Del contributing a groundbreaking essay in the very first edition. Del herself edited The Ladder from 1960 to 1962. The Daughters eventually disbanded in 1970 after having established chapters all across the United States.
In 1964, Del and Phyllis helped to found the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, bringing together national religious leaders and gay and lesbian activists for a national discussion of gay rights. Later, Del was heavily involved in getting the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. In 2008, Del and Phyllis became the first same-sex couple to be married after the California’s Supreme Court ruling legalizing marriage equality. Del passed away two months later.
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(*) Obviously, mayonnaise was not shipped from France to Mexico. But in 1978 they did sell the American brand Best Mayonaise in local stores. And I may have exaggerated its popularity, but it really is true that my “brothers” coated their corn-on-the-cobs with it. Totally grossed me out.
May 4th, 2012
Keith Haring's "Flowers IV", 1990.
Today is Greenery Day, a Japanese holiday which originally stems from the celebration of Emperor Hirohito’s birthday. Following his death, the national holiday was changed to its present name and, like our Memorial Day, represents an important early summer vacation opportunity.
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Brussels, Belgium, Houston, TX (Black Pride); Norrköping, Sweden and Raleigh, NC.
Other Celebrations This Weekend: Hot Rodeo, Banning, CA; Boston LGBT Film Festival, Boston, MA; Purple Party, Dallas, TX; Frieberg International Gay Film Festival, Frieberg, Germany; and Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Miami, FL.
AIDS Walks This Weekend: Atlantic City/Asbury Park/Morristown/Newark/New Brunswick/Pennsauken/Ridgewood, NJ; Charlotte, NC; Ft. Wayne, IN; Orange County, CA; Poughkeepsie, NY; Portsmouth, NH and Raleigh, NC.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Keith Haring: 1958. Inspired by graffiti art in New York, Keith Haring’s bold lines, vivid colors, and simple, active figures became an iconic presence throughout the 1980’s. He was a huge proponent of public art, and that led to commissions and collaborations from around the world. The very out, HIV-positive gay man even found common ground in his collaboration with the visionary Baptist preacher/folk artist Howard Finster. From his diagnosis of AIDS in 1988 until his death in 1990 at the age of thirty-one, his artwork also became the de facto art of AIDS through the work of the Keith Haring Foundation. In 2008, Rizolli published a 522-page monograph
UPDATE: By the way, Google is celebrating Keith Haring’s birthday:
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May 3rd, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA:
One Colorado Rally for Civil Unions: Denver, CO. As Daniel Gonzales mentioned in Tuesday’s post the Colorado civil unions bill is headed to a crucial showdown in the House Judiciary Committee this afternoon at 1:30. One Colorado will hold a rally beginning at noon in front of the Denver City & County Building at 1437 Bannock Street. Information about the rally can be found on One Colorado’s Facebook page. Meanwhile, here is a list of state representatives who could use your persuasion.
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Brussels, Belgium, Houston, TX (Black Pride); Norrköping, Sweden and Raleigh, NC.
Other Celebrations This Weekend: Hot Rodeo, Banning, CA; Boston LGBT Film Festival, Boston, MA; Purple Party, Dallas, TX; Frieberg International Gay Film Festival, Frieberg, Germany; and Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Miami, FL.
AIDS Walks This Weekend: Atlantic City/Asbury Park/Morristown/Newark/New Brunswick/Pennsauken/Ridgewood, NJ; Charlotte, NC; Ft. Wayne, IN; Orange County, CA; Poughkeepsie, NY; Portsmouth, NH and Raleigh, NC.
Sir Francis Bacon, looking fabulous as always
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Sr. Francis Bacon Accused of “His Most Abominable and Darling Sin”: 1621. On May 3, 1621, Sir Simonds D’Ewes published his political biography of Sir Francis Bacon, in which he accuses the great lawyer, scholar and “father of empiricism” of “his most abominable and darling sin.” D’Ewes continued, “I should rather bury in silence than mention it, were it not a most admirable instance of how men are enslaved by wickedness and held captive by the devil.” D’Ewes accused Bacon of “keeping still one Godrick, a very effeminate-faced youth, to be his catamite and bedfellow… deserting the bed of his Lady.” That same year, Bacon resigned as Lord Chancellor over accusations that he accepted payment from litigants, which, while against the law, was a widespread and accepted practice at the time. He quickly confessed to accepting payments, a confession that may have been prompted by threats to charge him with the capital offense of sodomy.
Medical Report of a Gay Civil War Veteran: 1921. Dr. Clarence P. Oberndorf, a New York City psychoanalyst, spoke at the Annual Meeting of the Medical Society of the State of New York in Brooklyn about one of his patients, a 74-year-old Civil War veteran who suffered from depression, saying “For sixty years I have been leading a double life.” He became aware of his feelings for other men at a very early age. “He preferred rough, coarse men, like longshoremen, husky and full of vitality. These he sought at intervals, while his acquaintances knew him as a refined gentleman interested in art and literature.” He never married. “In my younger days,” he remarked, “I used to grieve because of my affliction, but in later years I have become indifferent.”
Oberndorf’s goal was not to cure homosexuality per se. “Where treatment is undertaken for passive homoerotism in the male,” — active homosexuals, or “tops,” were not considered truly homosexual in the early 20th century — “psychoanalysis may powerfully influence the attitude of the patient toward his malady by removing some of the urgent neurotic fears which accompany the inversion. After analysis such an invert at least feels himself more reconciled to his passive homoeroticism than previously. I have had male passive homoerotics seek treatment with just such stipulations — not to be cured but to be made more content with their lives.”
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May 2nd, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Wall St. Executives Discuss LGBT Equality: New York, NY. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan will host the second annual Out on the Street Leadership Summit at the Bank of American Merrill Lynch headquarters in New York. According to a press release, this “represents the first time that so many senior executives will meet to discuss LGBT equality.” The press release continues:
Building on the success of the inaugural summit in 2011, the 2012 summit will focus on the role that support for LGBT equality can play in the retention of talent and the conduct of business. In addition to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, featured speakers include, Lloyd C. Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs; Paul Singer, CEO of Elliott Capital Management; Ken Mehlman, head of global public affairs, KKR; Lynn Utter, president & COO, Knoll Furniture; John Veihmeyer, Chairman, CEO KPMG LLC; and special guest moderator George Stephanopoulos from ABC.
The senior-level representation at the full-day summit reflects the groundbreaking role financial services, in particular Wall Street banks, have taken in advancing LGBT rights. Whether reimbursing LGBT employees’ pay to address the tax inequalities of domestic partner benefits or taking highly visible stances on marriage equality, these leaders exemplify the willingness of financial services companies to go beyond the relative safety of employee engagement issues, such as support for LGBT employee groups, into larger issues affecting their LGBT employees.
The all day summit begins at 8:30 a.m. Information on the 2012 summit can be found here.
“Call Me Kuchu” Screening: Toronto, ON. The Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival in Toronto will set the stage for the North American premiere of Call Me Kuchu, which follows the story of Ugandan LGBT advocate David Kato’s struggle for LGBT equality in the face of the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which proposes the death penalty for gay people. The film includes the infamous tabloid campaign which outed “Kuchus” — the Ugandan word for gay people — along with the headline “Hang Them!” The unthinkable happened when Kato was brutally murdered in his home. All of this was captured in Call Me Kuchu, which screens tonight at the Isabel Bader Theater at 9:45. Additional showings are scheduled for tomorrow and Saturday. Additional information can be found here.
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Brussels, Belgium, Houston, TX (Black Pride); Norrköping, Sweden and Raleigh, NC.
Other Celebrations This Weekend: Hot Rodeo, Banning, CA; Boston LGBT Film Festival, Boston, MA; Purple Party, Dallas, TX; Frieberg International Gay Film Festival, Frieberg, Germany; and Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Miami, FL.
AIDS Walks This Weekend: Atlantic City/Asbury Park/Morristown/Newark/New Brunswick/Pennsauken/Ridgewood, NJ; Charlotte, NC; Ft. Wayne, IN; Orange County, CA; Poughkeepsie, NY; Portsmouth, NH and Raleigh, NC.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Disloyalty vs. Security Risk: 1950. So if you’ve been following along on the Daily Agendas (for example, Feb 28, Mar 14, Mar 23, Apr 18, Apr 26) you would have a pretty good feel for the incredible anti-gay hysteria that was sweeping the country in 1950. The twin scares — the Lavendar Scare and the Red Scare — cemented in everyone’s mind the argument that gay people in federal employment, particularly in the State Department and in the armed forces, represented a security risk which, in the words of the GOP chairman, were “as dangerous as the actual Communists” (see Apr 18). On May 2, columnist James Marlow took the opportunity to provide a couple of hypothetical situations to explain to readers the difference between being disloyal and being a security risk:
1. Jones, completely loyal, is a good worker, sober on the job. But at night, sometimes or often, he gets drunk and talks too much. In the non-sensitive agriculture department that might not make much difference, as long as Jones did his work and kept out of trouble when drunk. In the commerce department, if Jones held a sensitive job, he might be considered a security risk: he might blab secrets when drunk.
The commerce department could do one of two things: fire Jones on the ground that he was “unsuitable” for government work; or transfer him to a non-sensitive job. But state department officials say that if Jones worked there and was considered a security risk, he’d be fired. (The say emphatically they keep no known security risks or disloyal persons on the payroll, although Senator McCarthy, Republican of Wisconsin, says the place is full of them.)
2. Smith is found to be a homosexual. He’s completely loyal but because of his secret sex habits may some day run into an individual or group which would blackmail him. In the state department, he’d be considered a security risk and out, officials there say.
Officials of other government agencies, sensitive and non-sensitive, told this writer they would get rid of a homosexual on the grounds that he was “unsuitable” for government employment, not because he was a security risk.
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May 1st, 2012
Today is May Day, otherwise known as the International Workers Day. But that’s the dull version. Long before it was a national labor holiday in more than 80 countries around the world, it was among the most popular spring festivals throughout Europe. It’s still celebrated in Scandinavia and pockets of Germany and the UK with maypoles, ribbons, May Queen crowning, all-night revelry — so explain to me: how is it that none of this is gay? In Edinburgh, Scotland, May Day is celebrated with the Beltane Fire Festival on the city’s Calton Hill. Maypoles and bonfires are also a feature of rural German celebrations on May Day eve. May Day is reputed to be the only carnival-style festival in all of Finland. And if it can make the Finns smile, it’s probably not a bad holiday to keep around.
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Premiere of “American Transgender”: Nat Geo TV. The National Geographic’s cable channel tonight will premiere the hour-long documentary “American Transgender,” which examines the lives of three transgender people and their families. According to NGTV:
American Transgender takes us firsthand into the daily lives of three individuals—Clair, Jim, and Eli—who each identify with a different gender from the one in which they were born and raised. We witness their struggles and triumphs, and experience their hopes and fears. How do they manage at work, build careers, maintain friendships, and nurture lasting, intimate partnerships? Each of the characters in the film tells their story in their own words as we follow them through life’s daily battles and victories, both large and small.
You can read a brief Q&A with Clair, Jim and Eli here. The documentary airs tonight at 8:00 PM EST/PST.
Romaine Brooks, Self Portrait, 1923.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Romaine Brooks: 1874. The American painter worked mostly in France, where she was surrounded by the brilliant colors of Fauvism and the decompositional attitudes of cubism, but her work harkened back to the style of James Whistler. She was born Beatrice Romaine Goddard, and in 1903 she married John Ellingham Brooks. He was gay, but he couldn’t take her gender-bending manner of dress and hairstyle. Their marriage lasted only a year, but she wound up keeping his name. The following year, she discarded the bright colors of her works which were so fashionable and adopted the darker, more subdued colors which would become her trademark. she took a string of unconventional lovers, including the American heiress Winnaretta Singer and Lord Alfred Douglas (Oscar Wilde’s former lover), and the Russian ballerina Ida Rubinstein, who Brooks pained more than any other subject. Her paintings were almost all portraits, and very nearly all of them of women. By 1925, she had been featured in several successful solo exhibitions in Paris, London and NEw York, but after that year she produced only four more paintings. She briefly took up line drawing in 1930, but dropped that by 1935. Her longtime partner, Natalie Barney, also became her manager and continued to arrange shows for her. But after the Second World War, Brooks became increasingly reclusive and paranoid. By 1969, Brooks’s paranoia led her to stop communicating with Barney entirely. Brooks died in 1970 at the age of 96.
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April 30th, 2012
The Admiral Duncan immediately after the blast (Click to enlarge).
TODAY IN HISTORY:
London Gay Pub Bombed: 1999. It was the start of a bank holiday weekend in Britain, and the venerable Admiral Duncan pub in Soho was packed with people getting an early start. Londoners that Friday evening were only somewhat wary after two unsolved bombings earlier that month in Brixton (April 17) and East London (April 24). Police narrowed the search to neo-Nazi David Copeland based on a CCTV image from the Brixton blast. Some feared that the next target might be Jewish, or possibly gay. One gay pub in Soho had put up a poster warning customers to be vigilant, but most people thought that his motivations were more racist than homophobic. That theory was quickly dispelled at 6:37 p.m. when a nail bomb that had been left in a bag at the Pub’s entrance went off. Jonathan Cash, who would later write a play about the bombing, described it this way:
“The loudest, most alien sound I have ever heard ripped through the pub and smashed into my head. I don’t know how long it went on – a couple of seconds, perhaps – then the most enormous crunch of something structural and solid. I felt no pain, just terror. My eyes were ringing, my nose filled with sulphurous dust and, in the blink of an eye, I saw unrecognisable shapes flying past towards the doors. With the dust and smoke, I could see little more than six inches in front of me. Somehow I was on the floor. Then I heard the screaming. I didn’t make any sound. Or perhaps I did. I can’t remember.”
Four people were killed that night. Andrea Dykes, 27, who was four months pregnant, was killed instantly, along with two friends, Nik More, 31 and John Light, 32. About seventy were injured, including Dykes’s fiancee, who remained in a coma for three weeks. Four of the injured required amputations. Later that night, police were able to track down Copeland and arrest him. On June 30, 2000, he was sentenced to six life sentences, and in 2007 High Court ruled that he should remain in prison for at least 50 years, ruling out his release before the age of 73. There is now a memorial chandelier with an inscription and a plaque in the bar to memorialize those where were killed and injured.
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Alice B. Toklas: 1877. Born in San Francisco, she met Gertrude Stein on the very first day that she arrived in Paris, on September 8, 1907. The remained inseparable for the next thirty-nine ears, until Stein’s death in 1946. Together, they hosted on of the more illustrious salons that attracted the best writers and painters of the Paris avant-garde, including American expats Ernest Hemingway, Thorton Wilder, and Paul Bowles. Stein and Toklas also became early patrons of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Toklas was Stein’s partner in every way: cook, lover, editor, critic and muse. Stein gave her own autobiography the tongue-in-cheek title of The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas, while Toklas’s 1954 memoir was titled The Alice Be Toklas Cookbook. It was, technically I suppose, a cookbook — there are three hundred recipes, including the famous brownie recipe titled “Haschich Fudge” — but is was more accurately a memoir of the many dinners that Toklas and Stein hosted for their famous friends ove the years. In 1963, Toklas actually did write an autobiography, What Is Remembered, but it ends abruptly with Stein’s death in 1946, much as Toklas’s own life did in many ways. Their relationship being legally unrecognized, Stein’s relatives plundered the couples’ art collection and left Toklas in poor financial and physical health. She died in poverty in 1967 at the age of 89, and is buried next to Stein in the Peré Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
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April 29th, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Pride Celebrations Today: Philadelphia, PA (Black Pride) and Potsdam, Germany.
Celebrations Today: International Bears Meeting, Sitges, Spain and Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Miami, FL.
AIDS Walk Today: Utica, NY.
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).
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April 28th, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA:
White House LGBT Conference on Families: Minneapolis, MN. Officials from the Obama Administration, will join advocates, community leaders and members of the public to discuss efforts to ensure safety and security for LGBT people, with special focus on LGBT youth and families. Today’s conference will take place at Burroughs Community School at 1601 W 50th St, from 8:00 a.m. to noon.
A Night with the Soulforce Equality Riders: Portland, OR. Members of the Soulforce Equality Ride will be on hand at the Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center (2400 NE Broadway St) for a free screening of Equality U, a documentary that follows the first Equality Ride in 2006. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the 2012 riders, and after that, a and a social/dance party. It all takes place from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m.
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Beaumaris, Wales, UK; Philadelphia, PA (Black Pride); Phuket, Thailand and Potsdam, Germany.
Celebrations This Weekend: International Bears Meeting, Sitges, Spain; Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Miami, FL; Splash South Padre, S. Padre Island, TX.
AIDS Walks This Weekend: Kansas City, MO and Utica, NY.
TODAY’s BIRTHDAY:
Ryan Skipper: 1981. Ryan would be celebrating his thirty-first birthday if Joseph Beardon and William Brown, Jr., hadn’t stabbed him more than 20 times, slit his throat, stole his car, left his body on a dark rural road in Wahneta, Florida, and bragged to friends that they killed him because he was “a faggot” on March 14, 2007. Jurors in Beardon and Brown’s trial were visibly shaken when they saw the autopsy photos. The coroner testified that it was the cut to the throat that killed him.The cut was 3.5 inches deep, tearing through skin, tissue, muscles and, more fatally, an artery. Ryan quickly bled to death within minutes. Bearden and Brown tried to clean the car so they could sell it. But it was too badly soaked with blood to be cleaned and they didn’t have a copy of the car’s title to sell it, so they abandoned it on a dock on Lake Pansy in Winter Haven and set it on fire. The flames only caused minor damage, and investigators were able to retrieve both of their fingerprints from the car.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Bearden, but jurors found him guilty of second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder as charged. He was also found guilty of theft of a motor vehicle, accessory after the fact, tampering with evidence, and dealing in stolen property. He was sentenced to life in prison. A few months later, Brown was found guilty of first degree murder, robbery, arson, and tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the first degree murder conviction, another life term for the armed robbery with a deadly weapon, fifteen years for arson, and a five for tampering with evidence
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April 27th, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA (Ours):
By Way of Sorrow: Honor our Lost and Make it Better: Portland, OR. The Soulforce Equality Riders are on a nation wide tour this spring, and tonight they are in Portland to host “A night of poetry, performance, story-sharing and song to honor those who have taken their own lives as a result of bullying or spiritual violence against the LGBTQ community.” The event takes place this evening at Portland Metropolitan Community Church (2400 NE Broadway Street), from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Live-Audience edition of “Oklahoma: Inside Out” About Scott Lively’s Speaking Engagement: Oklahoma City, OK & Online. Scott J. Hamilton will host a live-audience edition of his weekly podcast this evening to discuss Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively’s appearance this weekend at Oklahoma City’s Draper Park Christian Church. Panelists for tonights podcast include Truth Wins Out’s Wayne Besen; Michael Kornblit, author of Until We Meet Again: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Holocaust
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Beaumaris, Wales, UK; Philadelphia, PA (Black Pride); Phuket, Thailand and Potsdam, Germany.
Celebrations This Weekend: International Bears Meeting, Sitges, Spain; Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Miami, FL; Splash South Padre, S. Padre Island, TX.
AIDS Walks This Weekend: Kansas City, KS and Utica, NY.
TODAY’S AGENDA (Theirs):
Holocaust Revisionist To Speak at Draper Park Christian Church: Oklahoma City, OK. At the invitation of pastor Jason Cameron, Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively will begin his three-day speaking engagement at Draper Park Christian Church. Lively, whose book The Pink Swastika blames Nazism and the Holocaust on gay people, will also preach at all three of Draper Park’s Sunday services. In 2009, when he gave a similar talk in Kampala which became known as his “Nuclear Bomb” against the gay agenda, he managed to blame the Rwandan Genocide on gays. There’s no telling what kind of atrocities he’ll try to pin on LGBT people in Oklahoma City. For those who have the stomach to listen, he will speak this evening from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. and tomorrow from 9:00 a.m. to noon. And if you still haven’t gotten your fill, he will preach again for Sunday services at 9:30 and 10:45 a.m., as well as during the youth services at 6:00 p.m. Draper Park is located at 8500 South Walker Avenue.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Eisenhower Signs Executive Order Banning Gays from Federal Employment: 1953. By the time Dwight D. Eisenhower began his first term as president, an anti-gay witch hunt jad been going on steadily for three years. When Undersecretary of State John Peurifoy, testifying before the US Senate Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Department, revealed that 91 employees “in the shady category” had resigned since 1947 (see Feb 28). Republican Senators took that admission to allege that President Harry Truman’s administration’s employment of “sexual deviants with police records” was recklessly endangering the country’s national security. The Republican Party’s national chairman sent a warning to 7,000 party members that, “Perhaps as dangerous as the actual Communists are the sexual perverts who have infiltrated our government in recent years.” (See April 18).
So when Eisenhower took office, he was keen to demonstrate that he wouldn’t be soft on the pansies. Three months after taking office, he signed Executive Order 10450 mandating that all federal employees who were determined to be guilty of “sexual perversion” be fired.The Executive Order declared all homosexuals to be “security risks,” regardless of whether they were actually disloyal or not. It didn’t matter how low or innocuous their position was; their mere presence in a government office was deemed a threat. Following Eisenhower’s executive order, more than 640 federal employees would lose their job because of allegations of homosexuality over the next year and a half. Unknown numbers of others resigned quietly. State and local governments and government contractors followed suit, tossing countless more innocent Americans out of their jobs.
Unintended consequences are funny things though. In 1957, a young astronomer by the name of Dr. Franklin Kameny was fired from the Army Map service because of his homosexuality (see Dec 20). After all of his court appeals were denied, he founded the Washington, D.C. Mattachine Society. He and Daughters of Billitis founder Barbara Gittings organized the first gay rights demonstrations in front of the White House, State Department and Philadelphia’s Independence Hall (see July 4) in 1965 to demand an end to the federal employment ban . This demand remained a key component of the whole gay rights movement from the 1950’s through the 1970’s. Much of today’s modern gay rights movement has its roots buried deep in the anti-gay and anti-red hysteria of the 1950’s and Executive order 10450.
The Civil Service ban on gays and lesbians would continue for the next two decades. In 1973, a federal judge ruled that a person’s sexual orientation alone could not be the sole reason for termination from federal employment. But even with that ruling, it wasn’t until 1975 when the U.S. Civil Service Commission notified Kameny that they had changed their policies and were now allowing gay people to work in federal jobs (see July 3).
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April 26th, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Press Conference To Spotlight Scott Lively’s Visit To Draper Park Christian Church: Oklahoma City, OK. A broad coalition of community leaders and pastors — including some pastors who don’t otherwise fall on the pro-gay side — are coming together for a news conference today to talk about Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively’s speaking engagement at a local church this weekend. The unusually broad-based coalition felt compelled to come together after learning that the author of The Pink Swastika, which blames Nazism and the Holocaust on gay people, will preach to the Draper Park congregation over three days this weekend, including during three Sunday services. The news conference will take place at the Church of the Open Arms (3131 N Pennsylvania Ave, OKC) beginning at 1:30 p.m.
Soulforce Equality Riders Visit George Fox University: Newberg, OR. The Soulforce Equality Ride, which had been traveling across the U.S. visiting schools schools that openly discriminate against LGBT individuals and their allies through their policies and practices, will visit with students at George Fox University in Newberg, about 25 miles south of Portland. But this time, the Equality Riders will be among friends — literally — because GFU is a Quaker university. While their time on campus is not open to the public, they will meet afterwards at Coffee Cottage Cafe (808 East Hancock Street, Newberg) from 1:00 to 3:00.
Then from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m., the Equality Riders will be back in Portland for a talk about Building Inclusive Communities at Central Lutheran Church (1820 NE 21st Ave). More details can be found at the Soulforce Equality Ride website.
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Beaumaris, Wales, UK; Philadelphia, PA (Black Pride); Phuket, Thailand and Potsdam, Germany.
Celebrations This Weekend: International Bears Meeting, Sitges, Spain; Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Miami, FL; Splash South Padre, S. Padre Island, TX.
AIDS Walks This Weekend: Kansas City, KS and Utica, NY.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
State Department Continues Homosexual Purge: 1950. In February of that year, Deputy Undersecretary of State John E. Peurifoy revealed in testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee that the State Department had gotten rid of 91 employees accused of being homosexual (see Feb 28) After that news of that testimony exploded onto newspapers across the country (see Mar 23, for example), Peurifoy was appointed ambassador to Greece and Carlisle H. Humelsine took over his post at the State Department. In testimony made public on April 26, 1950, Humelsine told the House Appropriations Committee that the purge of homosexuals from the state department was continuing, with the number forced out rising to 148 since 1947, with eleven more cases under investigation.
“There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind and there is no doubt as far as the State Department is concerned, that a homosexual is a security risk,” Humelsine told the panel. “We treat homosexuals as security risks. We are not attempting to run a campaign of going after people because of the fact that they have an illness. I think homosexuality is a type of illness. A homosexual, in my opinion, is just as sick as a person who has a cancer or some other disease. But it is absolutely apparent to us that these people are also security risks and we want them off our rolls. And we are going to get them off our rolls.”
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April 25th, 2012
Today is Anzac Day, a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand to mark the anniversary in 1915 when the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landed on Gallipoli during World War I. The goal was to capture the Gallipoli peninsula from the Ottoman Empire and take Constantinople, but the campaign quickly turned into a quagmire that went on for eight months before ANZAC forces were evacuated following heavy losses on both sides. ANZAC day observances began in 1916, and they have been an important day of remembrance since then for both countries.
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Soulforce Equality Ride Panel Discussion: Portland, OR. The Soulforce Equality Ride, which had been traveling across the U.S. visiting schools schools that openly discriminate against LGBT individuals and their allies through their policies and practices. The Equality Ride has moved on to Portland, Oregon, where tonight they will present “Intersectional Justice: A Panel Discussion and Networking Event” at Portland State University, beginning at 7:00 p.m. at the Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 296 (1825 Southwest Broadway Street).
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Beaumaris, Wales, UK; Philadelphia, PA (Black Pride) and Potsdam, Germany.
Celebrations This Weekend: International Bears Meeting, Sitges, Spain; Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Miami, FL; Splash South Padre, S. Padre Island, TX.
AIDS Walks This Weekend: Kansas City, KS and Utica, NY.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Gays Arrested At Philadelphia’s Dewey’s Malt Stand: 1965. Dewey’s on 17th Street in Philly’s Center City was a popular hangout, but the clientele disturbed the owners who decided to refuse service to those they deemed unworthy. First, it was “rowdy teenagers,” then it was those exhibiting “improper behavior” which some employees took to mean gay people and those wearing gender-variant clothing. On April 25, two teen boys and one teen girl were refused service. But instead of getting up and walking out, they remained seated and refused to leave. They were arrested along with Clark Polak, a gay rights leader, and found guilty of disorderly conduct.
The Janus Society, an early Philadelphia gay rights group, organized a five-day protest and leafletting campaign. Over 1,500 pieces of literature were distributed in front of the stand while gay rights leaders negotiated with the restaurant’s management. On May 7, protesters staged another sit-in. Management called police, but this time police determined that they had no authority to force the protesters to leave. After an hour, management gave in and agreed to “an immediate cessation to all indiscriminate denials of service.” It is believed to be the first documented instance when a sit-in was held in support of LGBT rights.
St. Paul Voters Overturn Gay Rights Ordinance: 1978. In 1977, a proposed state anti-discrimination law failed to pass the Minnesota legislature. That defeat, which occurred just three weeks before voters in Dade County, Florida voted down a similar measure that had been passed by the Miami-Metro government, emboldened anti-gay activists at St. Paul’s Temple Baptist Church to turn their attention to that city’s three-year-old gay rights ordinance. Pastor Richard Angwin, in launching the petition drive to put the ordinance’s repeal on the ballot, stated frankly, “I don’t want to live in a community that gives respect to homosexuals.”
Anita Bryant, fresh off her victory in Miami-Dade, joined the fray along with her husband, Robert Green. A week before the vote, Anita Bryant failed to show up at a rally, saying that she didn’t feel well. Some suspect that the pie throwing incident in Des Moines the previous fall may have unnerved her. Green showed up in her place and urged the crowd of 10,000 to stand against the forces of “moral breakdown of this nation,” saying “the devil is really working overtime.” Turnout was heavy for the special election, and St. Paul voters defeated the the gay rights ordinance by more than a two-to-one margin.
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April 24th, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA:
College Republicans Host Bradlee Dean to Speak: St. Cloud, MN. Bradlee Dean, whose You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Ministry is a one-man SPLC certified hate group, was invited by the College Republicans chapter at St. Cloud State College to speak today. The firebrand self-styled hard rock pastor once said that Muslims were more moral than Christians because Muslims don’t shy away from calling for the execution of gay people. The invite from St. Cloud’s College Republicans have drawn fire from the state GOP, with state party executive director Ben Zierke warning that if they go through with the event, they better not plan on any future jobs with the state GOP in the future:
“Sometimes young people need to have better judgment in who they invite to things under the Republican banner,” said Minnesota Republican Party chair Pat Shortridge. “If you are going to do dumb things, and not take the advice of the state college Republicans and the state chairman of the Republican party, it might have some consequences.”
But Abbey Gooch, chair of the St. Cloud College Republicans, is not backing down because, she said, Dean has been “so nice to us”:
“I have been praying and praying and praying and just saying lord I don’t know what to do any more,” she said. But she said they are going to go forward. “I am sticking with my guns and going through with it.”
So it looks like it’s game on, beginning at 7:00 p.m. at Richie Auditorium.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
University of South Florida President Denies Hiring Homosexuals: 1963. Dr. John Allen, president of the University of South Florida, strongly denied charges that the school “harbored homosexuals” on its faculty. He also denied that the school was “soft on communism,” was anti-religious or that controversial writings by “‘beatnik’ authors was typical of literature found in the school’s reading program.
All of those charges were levied against USF and other Florida state colleges and institutions by the Johns Committee, Florida’s version of the McCarthy Red and Lavender Scares in Washington. Named for its first chairman, state Senator and former Governor Charley Johns, the Johns committee was established in 1956 to investigate so-called communist links to the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1957, the Florida legislature broadened the committee’s mandate to investigate gays in the state’s colleges and universities, and reiterated that mandate again in 1961. Florida’s leaders of higher education proved eager to demonstrate that Florida’s sons and daughters were safe in their institutions, with many throwing their campuses open to heavy-handed investigators calling individual students and teachers out of class for interrogations. The results of those investigations were made public in a report in 1963, in which Johns claimed credit for “flush(ing) 71 homosexual public school teachers and 30 homosexual deans and professors of universities.” Dr. Allen responded, quite forcefully, that his school was certainly not infested with homosexuals. The committee, he pointed out, established only one clear case of a gay teacher among the entire 500 person-staff, which was only “one-fifth of one per cent,” as he put it. That person resigned immediately. Charges had been levied against two others which could not be supported, and reports indicated that they “later left the university for other reasons.”
New Orleans Police Institutes Massive Gay Roundup: 1981. In a 1982 article published in the Columbia Journalism Review, Randsell Pierson wrote a very informative piece wondering aloud, “Can the Straight Press get the gay story right?” Pierson had interviewed several closeted gay reporters at the New Orleans Times-Picayune who all said that they feared pitching gay-related stories to their editors for fear of being identified as gay. It was that silence, Pierson said, which helped to explain why homosexuality was still illegal in 25 states and the District of Columbia. Lapses in coverage of gay issues was surprising, and among the many examples that Pierson offered up was this one:
Over a period of three days on the weekend of April 24, 1981, New Orleans police rounded up and jailed more than 100 gay men and women in a series of raids in the French Quarter. Those arrested were charged with “obstructing sidewalks” in front of gay bars. The arrests prompted a vigorous political response from the local gay community, which charged that the police were trying to drive gays out of the French Quarter. A protest meeting attended by 700 gays helped to persuade Mayor Ernest Morial and Police Chief Henry Morris to promise to investigate charges of police harassment. All charges against the arrested gays were subsequently dropped.
Two of the city’s three television stations — WDSU (NBC) and WVUE )ABC) — followed the breaking story and sent film crews to the protest meeting held on the Tuesday following the weekend arrests. The Times-Picayine/States-Item waited five days after the first arrests to report on the story. The account, buried in section 5, said nothing about the protest meeting, which would seem to have been the logical peg, and failed to include in its tally the arrests a group of thirty-nine gay men picked up the previous Sunday. Reporter Allan Katz, who wrote the story, says: “They wanted somebody to do something in a hurry. You would think that because the story was four days old before they assigned it to a reporter they didn’t consider it a major story. About the only time in my experience we really try to relate to gay news is when something really controversial comes up.” Apparently, the arrest of more than 100 men and women in a city not under martial law was not considered “really controversial.”
[From Randsell Pierson’s “Uptight on Gay News: Can the Straight Press Get the Gay Story Straight? Is Anyone Even Trying?” Chapter 59 in Larry Gross & James D. Woods (eds.) The Columbia Reader on Lesbians & Gay Men in Media, Society, & Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999): 368-376]
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April 23rd, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Soulforce Equality Rider Meet with LDS Officials: Salt Lake City, UT. The Soulforce Equality Ride, which is in Salt Lake City through Tuesday, will meet today with officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints this morning from 10:00 a.m. to noon. The meeting came about from a letter addressed to the church’s First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve in March. A request to meet members from leadership was declined, but, according to Soulforce, weeks of negotiations led to the church agreeing to provide members of their PR and public policy teams for the meeting. The letter laid out four calls to action:
- Cut all ties with and denounce the group Evergreen International (and any other anti-LGBT group that supports dangerous “therapy” practices). Evergreen’s practices are not in accordance with church policies surrounding LGBTQ individuals. The church cannot say it no longer supports “ex-gay” or “reparative” therapy while sending General Authorities to speak at Evergreen events.
- Stop funding anti-LGBTQ groups that are fighting against civil marriage equality across the country, and stop encouraging your members to fund these groups. Civil marriage is a secular issue that does not affect the Church or inhibit the Church from refusing to accept or perform same gender marriages. The civil recognition of a same gender marriage in no way weakens the marriages or family bonds of members of the Church.
- Encourage LDS Business College to update their policies around LGBTQ individuals so that they are in accordance with current Church teachings.
- Add sexual orientation and gender identity/expression to your current non-discrimination/anti-harassment policy for church employees and volunteers. According to your own teachings LGBTQ individuals can be healthy and active members of the church. These individuals deserve the same protections and rights of other employees. They deserve a work environment free of bullying and shaming.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Hate Crimes Statistics Act Signed Into Law: 1990. Following strong support from the Administration and Congress, President George H.W. Bush signed the Hate Crimes Statistics Act into law in a ceremony at the Old Executive Office Building which, for the first time, included LGBT advocates, along with representatives from the ACLU, NAACP, and other groups that had criticized Bush’s record on civil rights. The LGBT representatives were invited only after agreeing not to turn the signing ceremony into an opportunity to protest the Bush administration’s AIDS policies. The law, which requires the Justice Department to institute a program to systematically collect hate crime statistics based on race, religion, ethnic background and/or sexual orientation, was the first federal law to specifically identify gays, lesbians and bisexuals. The Justice Department and FBI have been issuing annual Hate Crime reports since 1992. All reports from 1995 on are available on the web.
Sen. Rick Santorum’s “Man On Dog” Interview: 2003. In an interview printed in USA Today, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) was in the midst of blaming the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals on liberals and the “right to privacy lifestyle” (which Santorum made abundantly clear that he did not accept), Santorum then cast his eye toward the pending U.S. Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas which would strike down sodomy laws later that summer. Santorum defended sodomy laws and lanched his most infamous polemic against gay families:
AP: OK, without being too gory or graphic, so if somebody is homosexual, you would argue that they should not have sex?
SANTORUM: We have laws in states, like the one at the Supreme Court right now, that has sodomy laws and they were there for a purpose. Because, again, I would argue, they undermine the basic tenets of our society and the family. And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does. It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn’t exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution, this right that was created, it was created in Griswold — Griswold was the contraceptive case — and abortion. And now we’re just extending it out. And the further you extend it out, the more you — this freedom actually intervenes and affects the family. You say, well, it’s my individual freedom. Yes, but it destroys the basic unit of our society because it condones behavior that’s antithetical to strong healthy families. Whether it’s polygamy, whether it’s adultery, where it’s sodomy, all of those things, are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family.
Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. Why? Because society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that’s what? Children. Monogamous relationships. In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality —
AP: I’m sorry, I didn’t think I was going to talk about “man on dog” with a United States senator, it’s sort of freaking me out.
The AP reporter wasn’t the only one freaking out. Dan Savage wrote a New York Times op-ed calling Santorum out for his blatant bigotry. Noting that Sen. Trent Lott had lost his post as Senate majority leader over remarks praising staunch segregationist Sen. Stromm Thurmond’s (R-SC) 1948 presidential bid, Santorum was assured of escaping this outrage with no sanctions. “Unlike the former majority leader, Mr. Santorum didn’t slip up and say something in plain English that every good Republican knows must only be said in code. Unlike Republican appeals to racist voters, Republican appeals to homophobic voters are overt.”
But a month later, Santorum’s comments were largely forgotten, except among the LGBT community. Lamenting that “the Santorum scandal didn’t have legs,” a 23-year-old reader of Dan Savage’s “Savage Love” column suggested holding a contest to “‘include’ (Santorum) in our sex lives–by naming a gay sex act after him.” Savage agreed, and invited readers to send in their suggestions. By June, the votes were counted, and a definition was promulgated:
Hey, everybody: We have a winner. Savage Love readers, by a wide margin, want Sen. Rick Santorum’s name to stand for… THAT FROTHY MIXTURE OF LUBE AND FECAL MATTER THAT IS SOMETIMES THE BYPRODUCT OF ANAL SEX! It was a landslide for that frothy mixture; the runner-up, farting in the face of someone who’s rimming you, came in a distant second. So congratulations to WUTSAP, who nominated that frothy mixture, and a big thank you to the thousands who voted.
The definition was created, but it still wasn’t obvious that Santorum’s name would be equated with the aforementioned byproduct. Four months after Santorum’s infamous comments and two months after the definition was created, the neologism was still struggling to catch on. It wasn’t until the end of the year when a new web site was created that SpreadingSantorum ended up becoming the most successful Google bomb in history. And with that, a callow comment which almost faded into history has become the name by which Santorum will be known for the rest of his life.
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April 22nd, 2012
Today in Earth Day, which marks the anniversary of what many consider to be the birth of the modern environmental movement. The first Earth Day was in 1970, and was the brianchild of Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) in response to the massive 1969 oil spill off of Santa Barbara California. Back in the day when bipartisan and left-right cooperation was still considered a civil virtue, Nelson was joined by conservative Congressman Pete McCloskey (R-CA) to inaugurate the first Earth Day, which ultimately led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Richard Nixon and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and the Endagnered Species Act. Just try to imagine that kind of cooperation on anything today.
TODAY’S AGENDA (Ours):
Rally Against Amendment 1: Durham, NC. People of Faith to Protect ALL Families will hold a rally against Amendment 1, the North Carolina proposal to ban not just same-sex marriage (which is already illegal in the Tar Heel State), but all state and local recognitions of gay or straight relationships outside of marriage. The rally will feature Jay Bakker, the son of Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, and begins at 1:00 p.m. a the Trotter Building (410 W. Geer St.). Other speakers include Quaker peace activist David LaMotte, Pilgrim United Church of Christ pastor Rev. Ginger Brasher-Cunningham, evangelical author Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, charismatic Christian leader Jimmy Chalmers and Baptist minister Brian Ammons. Directly following the rally, attendees will march to the polls to take advantage of Sunday voting during the early voting period. The afternoon concludes with a party at Durham’s Fullsteam Brewery (422 Rigsbee Ave.), beginning around 3 p.m.
Fairness Campaign Protest Against Neo-Nazis: Frankfort, KY. The Fairness Campaign has joined other social justice groups planning to oppose a rally organized by the Neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM) at the Kentucky State Capitol this Saturday, April 21 at 3:00 p.m. Among the NSM’s myriad positions of prejudice, they believe, “Only those of pure white blood…may be members of the state…Accordingly, no Jew or homosexual may be a member…”
Protesting organizations include the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Standing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), W.E.N.C.H., and others. In Louisville, carpools to Frankfort will meet at 1:00 p.m. at the Fairness Campaign (2263 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville) and Carl Braden Memorial Center (3208 West Broadway). Opposition groups will convene at 2:30 p.m. in front of the Capitol Annex (702 Capital Avenue, Frankfort).
Soulforce Equality Ride to Attend Weekly Broadcast of Mormon Tabernacle Choir: Salt Lake City, UT. The Soulforce Equality Ride, which is in Salt Lake City for the next few days, will attend the weekly broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir this morning at 9:00 a.m. Then at 11:00 a.m. the group will go to Sacred Light of Christ Church (823 S 600 E) for morning services. Later that evening the Equality Riders will return to Sacred Light for a potluck dinner at 6:00 p.m. followed by ” Stories from the Road – A Fireside by the 2012 Soulforce Equality Ride,” beginning at 7:00 p.m, where Soulforce riders will share their experiences across the country.
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Mobile, AL; Phoenix, AZ and Potsdam, Germany.
Other Events This Weekend: Sunshine Stampede Rodeo, Davie, FL .
AIDS Walks This Weekend: Binghamton, NY and Miami, FL.
TODAY’S AGENDA (Theirs):
Family “Research” Council’s Values Voter Bus Tour: San Diego, CA. The Family “Research” Council, an SPLC-certified anti-gay hate group, will take its joint bus tour with the Heritage Foundation to San Diego for an all day event at Skyline Wesleyan Church (11330 Campo Road in La Mesa) to talk about their so-called “Saving the American Dream” plan. They will also be doing voter registration and signing up volunteers. Celebrities on hand will be televangelist James Robison, too-looney-even-for Fox commentator Glenn Beck, and “creationist” proponent Jay Richards.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
“Conquering AIDS” Op-Ed in the New York Times: 1983. The epidemic was coming on its two year anniversary, and as of April 13, 1983, 1,339 people had been diagnosed with AIDS, with 505 known deaths recorded. Nearly half of them were in New York City. Dr. Kevin M. Cahill, director of the tropical disease center at Lenox Hill Hospital, became alarmed at the lack of action, both on the part of federal officials as well as New York’s City Hall under Mayor Ed Koch. Cahill attributed that lack of urgency to “politicians (who) handled the epidemic with unaccustomed wariness. Almost without exception, public leaders evaded the epidemic issue, avoiding even the usual expressions of compassion and concern. The victims’ sexual orientation apparently made involvement risky,and the politicians directed their courage and energies elsewhere.” Cahill wondered why the medical community was “stragely absent” as the disaster escalated:
When a fatal infection struck down veterans attending an American Legion convention, health professionals across America joined in the search for a solution. When women using tampons became ill with toxic-shock syndrome, medical centers immediately focused their enormous talents on that problem. But when the victims were drug addicts and poor Haitian refugees and homosexual men, no major research programs were announced. Until it became clear that the disease could spread to the general population through blood transfusions, organized medicine seemed part of a conspiracy of silence.
Cahill applauded the “many instances of individual courage” by physicians, nurses and technicians who took up the fight with “a quiet dignity and decency that deserves special respect.”
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And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?
Featured Reports
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don‘t miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.
The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.
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