2
POPSACLU to the Rescue Speaking LGBT youth facing harassment in schools, it may be time for me to re-up my ACLU membership again, upon hearing that they've taken up the cause of a gay/straight student alliance in Florida's Okeechobee County, where the school board not only wouldn't recognize them, but wouldn't let them meet on school property. The group, formed in response to what students say is a serious harassment problem has been meeting in a nearby restaurant. (Maybe the kids are alright. And in California, the ACLU is defending students in California , after their school tried to stop them from publishing a series on sexual orientation in the school newspaper. And, yes, I know that means they also defend guys like this and other religious folks. And that's fine by me.
3
POPSWhen in Doubt, Distort It's easier to distort, as A. McEwen notes in his post about the six distortion techniques of the anti-gay industry. (Just six?) Also, keep an eye out for this blogger's upcoming book which shares the same title as his blog: Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.
0
POPSBack to the Bishops To take it all the way back to the Catholic Bishops, Straight But Not Narrow points out a Boston Globe column that draws a direct line between the them and Haggard's self hatred.
0
POPSCountry vs. Commitment Speaking of commitment, Chris Crain points out that USA Today published a letter from a heterosexual woman complaining about having to be separated from her new British husband for as much as six months. That letter got a response from a gay man who told of the 17 year wait for his partner to get U.S. citizenship. After 11 years, he gave up and left the U.S (because being gay in the America can sometimes mean choosing between your country and the person you love), traveled to Hong Kong to live with his partner and spend 7years there building their life and their careers together. But Exodus International says we don't make commitments to each other. Of course we do. And we often pay a price for doing so. But we do it anyway.
2
POPSTruth Can Win Out In writing about Haggard, and comparing Haggard's story to that of Neil "Doogie Houser" Patrick Harris coming out as "a very content gay man living my life to the fullest," one columnist says it better than I could. "That's the fallacy social conservatives miss. In a culture that allows gay people room to be gay people, there is no need of lies. In a culture that does not -- i.e., theirs -- lies are rampant. And that's unfortunate, not simply for the person in question, but for all the people in his or her life." But the preference seems to be for homosexuals like Haggard as opposed to Harris.
0
POPSHelp for the Self-Hating Homo Help embracing your self-hatred, that is. At least that's what NARTH's Dr. Nicolosi is offering Ted Haggard. The appropriate therapeutic response to self-abhorrence is affirmation, apparently. (i.e. "I hate myself." "Good. You should hate yourself.") Considering that Haggard has struggled unsuccessfully with this all his life, according to his letter, and that even his main man J.C. hasn't offered much help, It remains to be seen what Nicolosi can accomplish with Haggard. No worries though. The usual response when "ex-gay" therapy doesn't work is to say "You didn't pray hard enough." It's no sweat to add, "You didn't hate yourself enough.
1
POPSProphetic Penguins? Ecclesioleft gets all biblical on the penguin story and makes an interesting point about what could be learned from their story: "This is a teaching moment for us: how can we care for one another? ... I think we all ought to be more concerned about what we and our children aren't learning when we skip out on stories about love and support." Of course, to get there you have to make room for the notions that love and support happen in same-sex couples, that it's a good thing, and that it's something that should be encouraged because it benefits the greater good when that caring is extended to extended family, as in Rich's story. You'd have to skip out on stories of love and support that threatend to undermine the way you think the world must operate.
0
POPSTwo Years And Counting Theantidesi101 notes that Saturday was the two year anniversary of the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision that brought on the destruction of civilization. Just not yet. In fact, given the marriage updates from all over the world listed this diary, it's a wonder the world is still revolving around the sun (or is it the other way around?). Not to worry, though. As more and more same-sex couples make legally recognized commitments to one another, I'm sure the prophets of doom will be proven right, just as they were on everything from women being educated and owning property, to interracial marriage. Soon. Maybe even right ...... now. No, wait.
0
POPSTaking the Plunge, Without a Net I've read about lots of same-sex couples getting hitched this week; Dana and partner , Shannon and partner , Chase and partner . But it was Rich's post that really stood out to me, when he wrote about him and his partner sitting own and figuring out their shared goals, which include opening a business together, helping his niece get rhrough school, a helping both their parents financially in their old age. It occurs to me that this , of which Rich writes "We have agreed to be responsible for each other, to provide for each other, and to make long term plans together," that will be the end of civilization, accordign to people who prefer their homosexuals more like Ted Haggard or Mark Foley.
0
POPSNothin' Going on But the Rent Speaking of gay outreach, a New Jersey Unitarian church that rented a building from a Catholic church (I could have told them that wasn't gonna end well) got evicted after hosting an appearance by an activist from HeartStrong , a charity that reaches out to LGBT youth in religious schools. Heaven forbid gay youth hear anything positive about themselves, or anything that might pave the way to self-acceptance. You know, mental & emotional heath.
0
POPSSix Months in Hell, with the Heaven-Bound This Polish exchange student, who writes of his six months with a fundamentalist host family in Greensboro, NC was not gay(as far as I know) but can you imagine what those six months might have been like if he was (and made the mistake of telling his host family)? Wel, maybe he'd have gotten lucky and they would have just kicked him out.
3
POPSFear of Gay Penguin Parents Zero Boss has a post about parents in panic over a book about gay penguins . Maybe it's because we have bought the book for Parker, or maybe it's because now that we're out in the 'burbs, we spend more time with heterosexual parents than with other gay parents, but these things always strike me as kind of, well, dumb. Look. Your kid knows that families like ours exist. If he goes to school with my kid, then eventually he's going to figure out that my kid has a Daddy and a Papa; either the next time we take Parker to a birthday party, or show up to pick him up one evening. He'll play with my kid, maybe ride the bus with him later, and probably even hang out with him. He'll know we exist, and see what we're like for himself. And he'll make up his own mind about us. And, be honest, that scares you even more than we do. doesn't it?
0
POPSDoctor, Doctor This is what I'm talking about when I say being in the closet is unhealthy. Some 47% of gays polled at AOL Gay and Lesbian are not out to their primary physicians. That surprised me, until I remembered that I live in a metropolitan area were I can find gay and gay friendly doctors easily. (I've actually made it a point to have a gay primary physician since I've been in D.C.) But then I remember there are a lot of people living in places where they can't easily find a gay doctor, and living in some pretty conservative areas where they aren't likely to find a gay friendly doctor. So, they have to be closeted in the doctor's office, where your live may depend on being able to be honest, and what you can't tell your doctor is most likely to go untreated. I'm beginning to think the closet should come with a surgeon general's warning.
1
POPSGA Goes Gender Neutral This came as a shock, on the heels of news that the University of Arizona added gender neutral bathrooms. My alma mater where, while I was co-director of the the gay student group, we successfully fought to get a non-discrimination policy including sexual orientation , has followed Arizona's example and added gender neutral bathrooms too. And they have a LGBT Resource Center now. Lemme tell ya, that didn't happen by asking nicely. Not in Georgia.
0
POPSGay Outreach ... to Haggard I guess it's par for the course. Last week, we had a prominent evangelical calling for people to reach out to gays such as Haggard's favorite male escort, Mike Jones. Now Soulforce is reaching out to Ted Haggard. The website Soulforce.Org now features a section for visitors to send a letter of encouragement to Ted Haggard. I'm not sure whether Haggard will get any of these letters where ever he's tucked away his latest attempt at "restoration." But now that Dobson's not watching the door, perhaps there's a chance.
0
POPSDown Mexico Way That Mexico City law recognizing same-sex marriage is under fire from Mexico's ruling conservative party. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. South of the border is south , after all. And just about as religious too.
0
POPSMike Jones, American Hero Last week I asked if perhaps Mike Jones did us a favor by exposing Haggard, Now Queerbklynboy asks is we owe Mike a favor for exposing Haggard. Gay groups won't touch Jones. He's unemployed, probably unemployable, facing potentially huge legal bills, and death threats from some of Haggard's good Christian supporters. I don't know about you, but that's enough for me to kick in 20 bucks or so to a PayPal account set up for Jones.
0
POPSThe Ethics of Outing the Unethical Theantidesi makes a good point about the "fine line" one walks when outing the likes of Ted Haggard, yet I can't bring myself to be worried about more about Haggard than about the families that will be affected by the constitutional amendment he supported. Haggard took that stance from a position of privilege purchased at the cost of his honesty and integrity, from which he sought to exact an even greater price from others like himself, but who had chosen a life of honestly and integrity that that he couldn't choose without his world imploding. The only part of his story that elicits any sympathy from me is that his world imploded anyway. But gay families in Colorado will still have to live with the consequences of the amendment he backed.
0
POPSSchool Board Slur When a member of the school board refers to a gay/straight student alliance "a sex club" and gsy students as "fags," it safe to assume that gay students have no hope of being treated fairly. That is, unless it was "said in love," as the kind of harassment LGBT students need to herd them back with 'that necessary boundary" a'la NARTH.
0
POPSFrom Apartheid to Equality Theantidesi notes with pride that South Africa, the land of his ancestors, has leapt ahead of the United States and Europe in granting equal rights to same-sex couples. The flip side, though, is that gays and lesbians in South Africa are still subject to violence and murder . And, yes, I lay some of that at the door of the religion that colonialism brought into Africa, since some African cultures prior to colonialism found ways of integrating same-sex orientation . Colonizers, on the other hand, severely punished indigenous people for same-sex activity .
0
POPSThat Thin Line Between Love and Hate Tom P. points out that some religious folks have a way of tripping over that "thin line between love and hate." In this case it's North Carolina Baptists kicking any churches that are too nice to the gays out of their little club. Jesus, after all, never said anything about welcoming anybody. And as far as their "ministry" to the gay community, it's probably something along the lines of D.C.'s own Willie Wilson or Alfred Owens .
0
POPSDid Gays Deliver the Senate for Dems? It looks like they might have in Virgina where people mobilized (unsuccessfully) to defeat the anti-gay marriage amendment. I blogged earlier about how Virginia's amendment may have backfired on Republicans by bringing more African American voters to the polls, who were likely to vote for the amendment but against George Allen. Now it seems the gay and gay-friendly vote may have combined with the homophobic black vote to hand Democrats a victory in a close race. So, maybe gays did help deliver the Senate for Democrats. Now, what will we get for it? What can we reasonably ask for?
0
POPSWhile the Gettin' is Good Gays & lesbians started leaving Virginia before the passage of the anti-gay marriage amendment in that state. Now gay & lesbian faculty at the University of Wisconsin are talking about resigning and leaving the state after the passage of an amendment that bars recognition of same-sex marriages and civil unions. Given that some of these amendments are written in such a way that they might nullify legal agreements between same-sex partners, that give them a few protections that approximate marriage, can you blame them? It will be interesting to see how amendments like these affect cities where the phenomenon mentioned in "The Rise of the Creative Class" has led to more gay-friendly policies. Will gays who have the means to do so abandon states where their legal relationships are not or may not be recognized? Why shouldn't they?
0
POPSFBI Proves Foley He may be safely tucked away in rehab, not giving interviews, while Ted Haggard gets lots of ink, but Mark Foley isn't out of the news yet. Florida law enforcement have opened a criminal investigation, and the FBI is looking into whether Foley broke federal laws with his emails and instant messages. Federal laws that he helped write, that is. Funny thing is that Foley is, or was until dragged out of the closet, the "right" kind of homosexual to some people: quiet, closeted, sick, and ashamed. What exactly did he get for being a "good" gay?
0
POPSAgenda? Accurate? Not PFOX AgapePress thinks PFOX provides accurate information, sans agenda. Actually, I should have said "AgapePress believes..." Because there's no evidence that these people think much at all.
0
POPSThe Right Side of History Attention Michael Savage, you missed a chance to hang with some folks whose views might have jibed with yours. Fortunately, there's video. If you don't might visiting a gay blog to see it.
3
POPSWhy Should Being Gay Be a Crime? If Michael Savage is upset with the Catholic church, he ought to be downright livid if the United Nations adopts a resolution calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. And when he finds out the resolution was offered by a black gay Frenchman? Well he'll probably call for the bombing of the U.N. and for the U.S. to finally invade and occupy France. What will be interesting to see is where the Bush administration stands. After all, they flip-flopped on allowing gay human rights activists to have U.N. access. Post-election, where will the Bush administration come down on this? Where would their base want them to come down? Three guesses, and the first two don't count.
0
POPSHelping Make More Ted Haggards And if the Ohio Bishop doesn't quite get the point across, how about a Methodist minister who was once married to a gay man for 15 years before the marriage fell apart, and whose able to look at her own situation and see the role religion played in creating a situation that caused her, her husband, her children, their friends and family to suffer. How is this better than creating a reality in which same-sex orientation is accepted, and same-sex couples are encouraged towards commitment and fidelity? How many fewer broken families, and hearts, would there be? Or is it easier to just keep creating people like Ted Haggard and then condemn them when they inevitably fail at denying who they are?
0
POPSBishop Says Gay Couples Can Experience God's Grace Contrast the Catholic church's statement with that of the newly elected Episcopal Bishop in Ohio, who says, "I have a fairly settled conviction that any two persons who struggle to live and grow together in fidelity on a lifetime basis have the opportunity to experience God's grace and to use that relationship for holiness." Now, he won't perform any gay weddings unless he church approves, but tell me this: How many Ted Haggard's would that approach create?
0
POPSTolerance of Intolerance Again I do understand where Kip is coming from in his criticism of Elton John's statement. But the only problem is that gays and non-religious people are not the majority (in this country anyway) and have next to no authority. That brings me back to the question of whether the tolerance of intolerance is something we must necessarily embrace. If so, why? And where does it get us?
4
POPSJesus Freaks, Out on the Streets Elton John's remarks on religion may piss a lot of people off, but I ain't mad at him. Then again, I don't have much use for organized religion at this point in my life, any more than I would for a so-called friend who either consistently abused and/or insulted me. And when it comes to "escalating to World War Three," from the perspective of a non-believer, it's clearly religious conflict that's fueling it, and fanatical religious believers that are driving the bus over a cliff. Whether it's the Israel/Palestine conflict, Islamic fundamentalist, or "Rapture Ready" U.S. evangelicals who see was in the Middle East as the prelude to their meeting with Jesus, and who have some influence on foreign policy. Sure. Tell me about the good religion does. But then toss in the above, along with the Crusades, the Inquisition, and countless lives harmed by the use of faith as a weapon, and how much worse off could be we without religion?
2
POPSThe Kids Are Alright. Aren't They? On the one hand I'm glad there's a conference like this for gay youth to talk about their experiences with bullying and harassment in school. On the other I'm frustrated that there's still a need for a conference like this. Maybe that's because of what I went through growing up as a skinny, effeminate, nonathletic, black gay boy in the south, in the 80s, during the Reagan era. (Yeah.I might still have a few scars from that.) But what's truly disturbing are the people who says that an anti-bullying conference "affirms" the "gay lifestyle," and particularly the woman who said "There's something called therapy. A person can change if they want to, and they should be encouraged to change if they can." And if they can't or won't? Do they deserved to be harassed? Well, I remember NARTH suggested that it might do them some good.
0
POPSWisconsin Amendment Amended? It's been argued that the anti-gay marriage amendment in Wisconsin actually helped Democrats and cost Republicans control of the state senate. That may be, but it isn't stopping one Democratic state senator from taking on the amendment. He's not looking to make marriage a possibility. His proposal "respects the gan on gay marriages" but seeks to change the second sentence which he says strips unmarried hetero and homosexual couples of rights. So it could open up civil unions, if it makes it though the senate and survives the GOP-controlled Assembly.
0
POPSWaiting it Out & Changing Minds Another Christian blogger in support of gay marriage says that the trend of younger voters supporting marriage equality, and the recent increase in young people voting suggests that we could "just wait it out." After all, the over-60 voters will die off from one election to the next. But how long do we have to wait? And how do we protect our families while we're waiting? And who will stand with us while we wait.
0
POPSGay Marriage to Stop Abortion In another take on "pro-life" this blogger makes an interesting argument that people who oppose abortion should naturally support gay marriage: because it will increase the number of homes (two-parent homes, mind you) willing to adopt children. It's a rational idea, and rather radical too, if you put it together with the idea of encouraging committed monogamous relationships among gays and lesbians. The next logical step? Encourage same-sex couples to have families. Of course the major problem with this is that reason will appeal to many of the people who ware anti-choice, anti-gay, and anti-equality.
0
POPSHome and Family I've known about COLAGE since we first started talking about becoming parents, and I'm glad that it will be there for our kids. But reading this letter from a COLAGEr to the COLAGE community makes me even more grateful that COLAGE exists. It sounds like the kind of community I hope our kids become a part of. I can't really add anything to the letter. Just go read it, and know the kids are alright. They really are
0
POPSPro-Life is Anti-Gay It's encouraging that Democratic Sen-elect Bob Casey wants to pass hate crime legislation that includes LGBT people. It's also telling that the folks at Agape Press think that anyone who wants a works where LGBT people aren't targeted for violence and murder because they're LGBT people cannot possibly be pro-life. Maybe they'd be more comfortable in the Islamic republic of Iran, where homosexuals are hanged before cheering crowds.
0
POPSFrom the Legislature to the Courts Will the California Supreme Court do what the California legislature tried to do, only to be stopped by Ahnold? Boi makes an interesting case for why this should go to the legislature.
3
Clips
Latest Pops
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Tags
Print
Save
Turn on live update