Box Turtle Bulletin

Heterosexual Menace: Cop Had Oral Sex With Cows And Got Off

Robert Melia (left) and Heather Lewis (right)

No, none of the cows are shown in these mug shots, but the guy did get off:

A New Jersey judge has dismissed animal cruelty charges against a cop accused of committing a sex act with young cows, saying a grand jury had no way of knowing whether the animals were “tormented.” Moorestown police officer Robert Melia, who is currently suspended, allegedly engaged in oral sex acts with five calves in Southampton in 2006. Since New Jersey currently has no law explicitly banning such an act, prosecutors in Burlington county brought animal cruelty charges against Melia, the Philadelphia Daily News reports. Judge Morely said it was questionable that Melia’s acts, though “disgusting,” constituted animal cruelty.

Burlington County assistant prosecutor Gevin Moran didn’t agree. “I think any reasonable juror could infer that a man’s penis in the mouth of a calf is torment.” But Melia’s lawyer, countering with the impeccable heterosexual logic, pointed out that as long as the calves in question don’t complain then everything’s copacetic. The judge agreed.

This is where the second mug shot comes in because they’re not ready to release Melia into greener pastures just yet. He and his girlfriend, Heather Lewis, are still being held on charges of sexually assaulting three girls over a five year period. After one of the girls reported the incident to her stepfather, authorities investigated and found videos on Melia’s computer which not only depicted him having sex with one of the girls, but also the romantic interludes with the buxom bovines as well. Lewis is also being accused of sexually assaulting an underage (human) male.

There’s more heterosexual menace here and in our report, “The Heterosexual Agenda, Exposing the Myths.”

Another View of Russia’s LGBT Community

All too often when we hear news of what’s happening with the LGBT community in Russia, the news is bad. It typically centers around the latest repressions in Moscow or virulently homophobic statements by public officials and other leaders. Against that backdrop, we’ve also noted the bravery and ingenuity of LGBT activists and their successes. But between stories of confrontation and open celebration, the sense of the ordinary often gets lost.

This post by Ruslan Porshnev of Russia’s Anti-Dogma web site reminds us that in the midst of the visible drama that we perceive from our vantage point in the West, life among Russia’s LGBT people goes on and often quite happily. LGBT advocates in the industrial city of Cheylabinsk (just to the east of the Southern Urals) sponsored a “Rainbow Strike” bowling tournament at a local alley and put together this very cool video of last night’s event.

El Salvador’s Gay Marriage Ban Fails

El Salvador’s governing leftwing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) voted as a block against amendments to the constitution that would ban same-sex marriage and civil unions and adoption of children by same-sex couples. Thus supporters were not able to get the required two thirds to write discrimination into their governing document. (IPS)

During the weeks running up to the vote on Thursday, Catholic and evangelical churches in El Salvador joined forces with rightwing parties to try to push through the constitutional reforms.

Hundreds of Catholics and evangelicals carrying placards with messages like “Marriage is Sacred, Let’s Defend It” marched through the streets of San Salvador on Saturday, Sept. 19 in support of the rightwing opposition bloc in parliament and to press the FMLN to ratify changes to three articles of the constitution.

The church groups held a permanent “prayer chain” and organised more street demonstrations early this week, in the hope that the reforms would be approved in the legislative vote on Thursday, Sept. 24.

Supporters of the reforms said they were defending public morality and the foundations of the family.

Gay Jamaicans get Church

Micah Fink went to Jamaica to see first hand how hungry gay Jamaicans were for a safe space to worship and socialize together. Rev. Robert Griffin, a preacher with the Metropolitan Community Church comes monthly from Florida to hold secret church services. (MinnPost)

“We have to operate underground because of the hostility towards the gay and lesbian community here in Jamaica,” said Griffin, explaining that the location of this meeting is a closely held secret and that every service is arranged through word of mouth. “If it was known publicly where this congregation meets, I’m pretty sure there would be some type of violence toward the congregation.”

He also reports some of the first-hand stories that parishioners have shared with him.

And while firm statistics detailing anti-gay assaults, beatings and murders are difficult to find — mostly because the police are as likely to harass a victim of a gay assault as they are to help — it seems that almost every member of Jamaica’s gay community that I encountered had at least one, if not several, personal horror stories to relate.

In just one packed afternoon, I met one woman who was shot several times by a gunman who shouted out “de lesbian fi dead” (the lesbian must die), as he pulled the trigger. One man told me his best friend was murdered, chopped into pieces with a machete, and had the skin flayed from his face; he then went on to relate how another gay friend was locked up in his parent’s house by a group of gunmen who then set the building on fire and burned him alive.

Then there was another congregant whose features appeared in video shot at a gay birthday party that became a black-market best seller after a copy was stolen and then released on the streets. He’s had to abandon his home twice, in two different cities, after neighbors saw the video, recognized him and made plans to kill him. And he’s one of the lucky ones, the man says, since he’s lived to tell the tale — unlike four other gay men he knows who had the misfortune to appeared in the video and were later hunted down and murdered.

And Griffin knows that those who should be standing against evil are instead encouraging it.

“Ministers here are endorsing violent acts, calls for murder, to incite riots,” Griffin said. “I hear it being done here, I read it in the papers here, I have even heard it myself. They tell me: ‘We don’t believe in homosexuality and homosexuals should be killed because that’s what the scripture says.'”

I commend Griffin for seeking to start a new dialogue, one in which religion is not a cover for murder, one which calls for decency and humanity. Truly he is putting his life at risk.

Scary Carrie

This year for Halloween you can go as your favorite opposite-marriage loving, values voting, bigger crown coveting skank.

Perhaps one of these modest little numbers will suit ya. They are costumes from Women of Marvel modeled by none other than biblically correct former Miss California Carrie Prejean. (TMZ)

Be careful, though. You don’t want to scare the kiddies.

Another New “No on 1” Ad

The No on 1 Campaign has another new ad out and rather than being in response to the anti-gay campaign, this one takes the issue on directly.

“People have a right to live how they want to live”

Bill Clinton Shifts on Marriage Equality

Former President Bill Clinton has taped a discussion with Anderson Cooper which will run tonight in which he explains his shift on same-sex marriage.

While the endorsement certainly could have been more stirring, let’s welcome this influential voice into the marriage equality camp.

Protect Maine Equality Responds Again: Outsiders Trying To Harm Our Kids

It’s good to see a pro-equality campaign taking the offensive — and not taking lies lying down. Now go here and help them blanket the airwaves.

Who Are We Without the Wall?

Yesterday, major media outlets reported that for the first time an AIDS vaccine has had partial success in humans. In trials, it was about 31 percent effective. This is a far cry from the 70- to 90-percent effectiveness typically required for a vaccine to be licensed, but it shows that a vaccine is possible and represents the first-ever major breakthrough.

Since the announcement, I’ve allowed myself to consider seriously what a world without AIDS would look like. I was born in 1983 and remember the late ’80s, early ’90s television reports on the devastation wrought by AIDS in the U.S. The reports were terrifying, and it is odd to look at them in retrospect, knowing what they foreshadowed:

Since then, even as medical advances have made AIDS a chronic illness instead of a death sentence, contracting HIV has been one of my biggest fears, which goes to show that the stigma associated with it remains. I fear hearing, “you’re HIV positive” more than being told I have an inoperable brain tumor, which I know is irrational. I’ve had probably five HIV tests, and for all except the first one, the anxiety of waiting a week for lab results has made me run to the nearest rapid HIV testing site and get an answer in 20 minutes, which is also excruciating.

I grew up understanding that gay = AIDS, an equation that I realize is outdated and perhaps prejudiced. But part of me fears that being infected with HIV would confirm all the dire predictions made for me by reorientation therapists and concerned family members. I’ve often felt the pressure to defy these predictions by leading an exemplary life — which I of course haven’t, and won’t. But the point is that AIDS has been framed as the natural “consequence” of homosexuality.

Perhaps the best-known piece of writing on the social meaning of AIDS was written by Susan Sontag, “AIDS and Its Metaphors,” in which the author talks about the ways in which we imbued a virus — which is inherently indifferent to human feelings, morals, and motivations — with exactly those attributes. AIDS was cited by people like Pat Robertson as divine retribution for sinful sex, an understanding that reversed the natural inclination to view the afflicted person as a victim. People with AIDS were “guilty,” or earned it, or something like that. You “get” AIDS; you don’t “get” a brain tumor. HIV in the blood is a “poison,” AIDS a “plague.” As dehumanizing as terminal disease is, even more dehumanizing — and disempowering — is how moral, religious, and political leaders talk about AIDS and its victims.

On the other hand, the AIDS crisis galvanized the gay rights movement, and many of the advances in equality were made during the late ’80s and early ’90s. The AIDS crisis was the tipping point for social acceptance of homosexuality, a change that is reflected in the language. It’s no longer politic to call gay people “homosexuals” or refer to the homosexual “lifestyle,” but in the ’80s these were standard phrases used by newscasters:

A lot of the momentum of Act-Up has waned, but AIDS consciousness still permeates gay culture. Gay people will tag “be safe” (code for “use condoms”) to a goodbye at the end of an evening. I’ve been accosted more than once at a New York gay bar by an awkward grad student wanting me to fill out a survey about my sex life, which includes transparent questions about condoms, meth use, and depression (I can save you the work: gays who are reckless with drugs are probably more likely to have sex without condoms, and are probably more likely to be depressed). Public health officials obsess over how to “reach” us and set up condom stands at every LGBT event imaginable. And we’ve been Riding For The Cure forever. What happens when the finish line appears beneath us?

We thought the wall would stand forever,
And now that it’s gone we don’t know who we are anymore.

The Hedwig quote probably implies a nostalgia for AIDS that I do not intend, so let me be clear: the day the AIDS crisis ends — whether it’s a gradual process or an all-at-once medical achievement — will be a great day, the end of suffering for millions around the world. But it will mark the beginning of a shift in the culture. Will condom use plummet? Will the rate of other STDs rise? Will it change the forms our relationships take?

Probably.

The brief window of worry-free (or at least more worry-free) sex ushered in by the discovery of antibiotics, the pill, and abortion would open again — to the chagrin of social conservatives who have made the regulation of  sex, reproduction, and sexuality an essential component of their agendas. It would deflate many of the biological justifications for religious arguments (or maybe we’d just be cheating God?).

Whereas earlier gay rights activists wanted nothing to do with heterosexual marriage, the shift has been toward assimilating and adopting marriage, which some people think is good and other people think is bad (I’m on the fence). Part of this has come from increasing social acceptance and support of gay couples, but it would be silly to deny that the re-medicalization of sex had anything to do with the rise of monogamy in the gay community. Will the end of AIDS reverse this trend? I am not saying that bathhouses will reopen their doors and meth-fueled orgies will mark the scene until the next pandemic comes around, but de-coupling sex and relationships from the fear of death, disease, and social stigma will change the dynamics. In a sense, though, sex will always be fraught with anxieties: the virgin won’t stop wondering whether he or she will be good for their partner, and people will still feel the sting of betrayal when they find out they are being cheated on.

I’ve hesitated to use the word “freedom” or “liberation” in discussing the de-medicalization of sex. There is something mundane about equating this with human freedom. It seems a rather nihilistic, ’60s-’70s understanding of it. I have no idea what it really entails, but I doubt that freedom just means you have nothing left to lose.

This commentary is the sole opinion of the author and does not reflect the opinion of Box Turtle Bulletin’s other contributors.

NARTH Helps Promote 2009 Anti-Heterosexism Conference

Well, sort of. They sent out an “action alert” to their email list yesterday begging its members to sign up for their own conference taking place in November in West Palm Beach, Florida. That email, complete with breathless exclamation points and red-alert lettering, reads:

Action Alert!
Gay Activists To Challenge NARTH by holding Counter-conference in Florida!

Soulforce and a host of gay activists are going to hold a counter-conference in West Palm Beach, Florida on the same weekend NARTH will be holding the 2009 NARTH Convention and Training Institute.

Fresh off their victory in getting the American Psychological Association to accept their recommendations in the form of a Gay & Lesbian task force report, gay activists want to convince the public that any attempts to reach out to those struggling with unwanted homosexual attractions are misguided and dangerous.

Their goal – Silence NARTH!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The choice is yours. We urge you to register for the most important NARTH Conference ever held. Do it today!

TO REGISTER – CLICK HERE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Soulforce Agenda (read it for yourself):

Aggressive outreach to confused youth – “queering our kids”.
Accuse those who question their agenda of genocide.
Attack the ex-gay movement (Exodus, Courage, etc.)
Finding ways to get even more media attention.
Hijack psychology to justify their political agenda.
And much. much more!

Yeah, like we’re going to “silence NARTH!” Puhleeze. Drama much? And isn’t it interesting how the last six red bullet points at the end mirror what NARTH, Exodus, Courage, JONAH and many, many others want to do?

Anyway, they followed that with a list of workshops that we will be presenting at the 2009 Anti-Heterosexism conference November 20-22 at the Crowne Plaza hotel in West Palm Beach. BTB contributors will present two of those workshops:

Media Access: Getting Through the Noise
Gabriel Arana
Even with the rise of blogging, reaching people on a large scale requires access to major media organizations. This presentation will give you the tools to effectively maneuver the media world and gain access to the print and online publications, PR reps, and journalists that will help you broadcast your story and become a more effective advocate.

Heterosexual Interrupted: What the Ex-Gay Movement Really Means By “Change”
Jim Burroway
The Ex-Gay movement claims that there are no homosexuals, just heterosexuals with a homosexual problem. This “Ex-Gay 101” workshop explores the heteronormative narrative which our culture expects young people to follow as they date, marry, and have families. When that narrative is interrupted, the ex-gay movement is there to explain what went wrong and how to fix it. But for many ex-gays and their families, the fix is not what they hoped for.

The NARTH email only contained the workshop titles and presenters, not these descriptions. But yeah, Gabriel’s and my names have now officially appeared on a NARTH action alert. Best of all, they spelled our names right. I would like to thank NARTH for helping to get the word out, even though they left out BTB contributor Daniel Gonzales, who will also be there facilitating a pre-conference institute, “A Gathering for ‘Ex-Gay’ Survivors.”

This conference that has NARTH so shaken up will be a very valuable opportunity for former ex-gays, allies and others to come together to examine the role that heterosexism and heteronormative attitudes play in ex-gay and anti-gay industries in particular, but also in the larger culture as well as in our own day-to-day dealings with peers, friends, families, co-workers, and even ourselves. These attitudes don’t just fuel much of the antipathy toward gay people, but on a more personal level they can also sabotage our own efforts to live normal, healthy and productive lives.

I’m very excited at the prospect of meeting so many people there to share information and ideas, and to have a chance to explore this very important topic in greater depth. I hope you can make it as well. Early registration with a substantial discount is open through October 5, and Soulforce has arranged for special rates at the Crowne Plaza. I know that some BTB readers have already emailed me to say they will be there. I hope many more of you can come as well. I hear Florida is wonderful in November.

The 2009 Anti-Heterosexism Conference is sponsored by Soulforce, Truth Wins Out, the National Black Justice Coalition, Beyond Ex-Gay, Box Turtle Bulletin, and Equality Florida.

Tenners File to Overturn Prop 8

The campaign to overturn Proposition 8, California’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, has officially begun. (LA Times)

The group Love Honor Cherish filed ballot language with the state today for a measure to overturn the ban on gay marriage in the state. That is the first step in getting the question on the ballot.

According to the group, if the state approves the language, they will begin the process of collecting the estimated 1 million signatures needed to get on the November 2010 ballot.

And while the twelvers would very much like to wait another two years to strategize, plan, and prepare, if the coalition of groups wanting to take this issue to the polls next year show that they are achieving signature collection goals, you can be certain that they will seek to become a part of the effort and to ensure that it has the best possible chance of success.

I had the opportunity to have a discussion with an organizer involved with training grass-roots leaders at a “boot camp” a week ago and he reports that those in favor of moving forward are somewhat inexperienced in campaign strategy and methodology. They are also highly suspicious of the counsel given by the boys and girls in suits.

Frankly, I don’t know if the tenners have the organization to get a million signatures and to plan a winning campaign. But I am delighted that they are suspicious of the leaders who arrogantly led a campaign that neither sought nor utilized our community’s best resources: gay people themselves. And what the tenners have today that the leaders of the No on 8 Campaign sorely lacked is passion, commitment, and a belief that the results of this election will have an impact on their life personally.

Should the tenners succeed in getting their signatures, I hope that technical support can be utilized from the larger groups but that the strategic decisions are made by those who are fed up with gay politics as usual.

The language of the ballot measure is:

This amendment would amend an existing section of the California Constitution. Existing language proposed to be deleted is printed in strikeout type. Language proposed to be added is printed in underlined type.

Section 1. To protect religious freedom, no court shall interpret this measure to require any priest, minister, pastor, rabbi, or other person authorized to perform marriages by any religious denomination, church, or other non-profit religious institution to perform any marriage in violation of his or her religious beliefs. The refusal to perform a marriage under this provision shall not be the basis for lawsuit or liability, and shall not affect the tax-exempt status of any religious denomination, church or other religious institution.

Section 2. To provide for fairness in the government\’s issuance of marriage licenses, Section 7.5 of Article I of the California Constitution is hereby amended to read as follows: Sec. 7.5. Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Marriage is between only two persons and shall not be restricted on the basis of race, color, creed, ancestry, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.

Obama Administration May Lift Ban on HIV+ Travel and Immigration

During the waning days of the Bush Administration, the President came to recognize that the country’s ban on travel and immigration for HIV positive persons was counter-productive and cruel. And, in a rare moment of compassion, he shepherded a bill through Congress allowing Health and Human Services to remove the ban.

Sadly, this change was included in the blanket reversal of last-minute policies when President Obama took office. But now it appears that the ban may finally be lifted. (Miami Herald)

Yesterday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issues a memo which instructs USCIS officers to place a hold on any green card applications which would otherwise be denied simply due to the applicant\’s HIV status. The hold is pending release of the final HHS rule change which will completely eliminate the ban.

The memo signals that the administration is very close to final repeal of the ban, and is now instructing agencies to be ready for the change. USCIS is clearly expecting guidance from HHS very soon, and has decided to hold applications by HIV-positive applicants rather than deny them, as the new rule will no longer prohibit their entry into the country.

HIV Vaccine Results Encouraging

Eventually it had to happen. Eventually one of the promising vaccines trials for HIV had to provide at least some protection.

And it has. Partly. The trial showed that a vaccine was about 31.2% effective. (NY Times)

“I don\’t want to use a word like ‘breakthrough,\’ but I don\’t think there\’s any doubt that this is a very important result,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is one of the trial\’s backers.

“For more than 20 years now, vaccine trials have essentially been failures,” he went on. “Now it\’s like we were groping down an unlit path, and a door has been opened. We can start asking some very important questions.”

This is not the vaccine that will announce the end of the era of AIDS. But it is the first vaccine that has shown any effectivity at all and it allows researchers an opportunity to build upon this start to find something that will really work.

New Investigations Into Navy Abuse

Former Petty Officer Third Class Joseph Rocha

Youth Radio, which first reported the story of the abuse of Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Rocha (who was expelled from the Navy) at the hands of Master-at-Arms Michael Toussaint (who was promoted), has a follow-up on the results of their report.

Since Youth Radio began reporting the story, Rear Admiral David Mercer has ordered a review of the outcomes of the investigation at the Bahrain Kennel. He\’s in charge of naval installations in Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia.

A Navy spokesman issued this statement:

“The incidents that occurred within the Military Working Dog Division at Naval Support Activity Bahrain do not reflect who we are as a navy. They are considered an anomaly based on sailors who were inproperly led.”

And yesterday, we learned yet another higher level review of the investigation has been ordered, this time by the Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy\’s highest ranking officer and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The deadline for that report is October sixth.

Dr. Carl Weber Can Cure You

Sometimes we have to recall that there are some extremes out there. And one such person is Dr. Carl Weber of the International Institute for Psychiatric Medical Research.

Dr. Weber, on his website claims:

What is the cure rate for homosexuals?
Virtually 100%. This is not consistent with current teachings but proper treatment in the western nations has not been available to patients since the late 1950s. Those nations which allowed treatment of sexual disorders have had very high cure rates of all psychosexual disorders.

Dr. Weber’s methods are quite international in their research:

Dr. Eric Svenson pioneered work demonstrating electroshock treatments following castration showed great promise for the more seriously disordered. When followed by a strict regiment of drug therapy for life nearly all patients never have return of symptoms. Japanese and Soviet researchers found that combinations of all these techniques for treatment have very high cure rates and insignificant fatalities when performed properly. Lobotomy, castration and electroshock, followed by drug therapy for the most difficult cases had 100% success in curing the patients and under 22% fatality in our own studies conducted in Argentina, Brazil, and Columbia. The milder cases had few fatalities.

Soviet studies by Dr. Sergei Voronkova and Dr. Andre Kotov beginning in 1946 on sexual criminals and children showing deviant sexual development demonstrated castration to be nearly 100% effective when performed early in curing the patient but castration alone is much less effective with older patients. Partial excision of the hypothalamus followed by drug and or aversion therapy is highly effective as his data shows.

Dr. Ryuiji Kajitsuka’s research near Harbin, China concluded that many suffering from various psychosexual disorders responded positively to aversion and chemical therapy when isolated for long periods during the treatments. Typical isolation during treatment was thirty months. Of thirty seven patients twenty three were cured without lobotomy or castration. Only nine were continuing drug therapy after two years and none had been arrested for sexual crimes including sodomy.

Alas, Lobotomy, castration, electroshock, induced vomiting, and years of isolation they are not generally offered in the United States as a cure for homosexuality. But Dr. Weber has hope that that due to “costs associated with treating HIV related disease” laws can be changed.

We are waiting for research to be approved and legal changes regarding the mentally impaired and their supposed right to refuse necessary treatment before we can continue here. Until it is approves it is largely academic. Parents needing treatment for their children must leave the country to have them treated and insurance does not cover the cost.

And loving parents can rest assured that it works. Consider Henry’s story:

Interviews demonstrated aggressive tendency and because of his age [19] castration was performed followed by weeks of further interviews. He continued displaying resentment of males and his doctors in particular. It was apparent that the castration alone could not make him productive and content.

Henry underwent partial excision of the his left frontal lobe and radiation therapy exposure to the hypothalamus 4 weeks after his first surgery. This was followed by aversion therapy consisting of exposure to male genitalia while injections of apomorphine to induce vomiting twice daily. His aggression ceased almost immediately and after only two weeks treatment he no longer showed any symptoms of psychosexual disorders.

It’s hard to imagine why he was resentful or paranoid about doctors. Well, before they hacked out chunks of his brain, that is.

Now, Dr. Weber is an anomaly. His intentions are hardly the medical standard or considered humane by even many of the more strident anti-gay activists. Or, not these days.

But let us not forget that there are still plenty of people walking around today who see homosexuality as such a curse, sin, or social threat that they could readily justify actions such as these in an effort to “cure and rehabilitate” gay people.