The Bilerico Project

What You Need To Know This Week (5/19 - 5/25)

E. Winter Tashlin — Sat, 25 May 2013 15:00:00 -0500

Here's what you need to know from this past week:

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved an immigration reform bill that failed to include addressing inequalities for multi-national same-sex couples, after two key Democrats said they would join their GOP colleagues in voting against LGBT inclusion if it meant saving the overall bill.
A far-right French activist and historian committed suicide in Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral, ostensibly over the passage of same-sex marriage in that nation.

In a decision that was divisive on both the right and left, the Boy Scouts of America ended their ban on gay and bisexual boys participating in Scouting, while maintaining their ban on LGBT adult leaders within the organization.
Changes to the British marriage laws fought for by the gay community, fail to address serious inequalities faced by trans* people in the UK.
The Puerto Rico House passed an LGBT non-discrimination bill, which will now go to the governor, who has said he will sign it.
Concerns that his presence could be offending to Mormons, led Utah Pride to retract the invitation made to gay blogger Joe Jervis to be grand marshal of their pride parade.
Defying a ban from the courts, gay rights activists in the Ukraine held the first Pride in that nation, which went over without incident.
In light of a string of anti-gay attacks in NYC that has left at least one person dead, thousands of people gathered together to rally against homophobia.
The trio of GOP nominees in Virginia for governor, lt. governor, and attorney general represent some of the most extremely anti-LGBT voices in the party.
The text of Canadian Senator Grant Mitchell's speech on gender identity protections for Canadian citizens is something to be proud of.
The U.S. Peace Corps has announced that they will soon be accepting applications from same-sex couples to be posted overseas together. Married opposite-sex spouses have been allowed to apply to serve together since the Peace Corps was formed.

Immigration Reform, the BSA, & Making Peace [Weekly Reader]

Bil Browning — Sat, 25 May 2013 10:30:49 -0500

You weren't able to read every post on Bilerico Project last week? Don't worry! Every weekend I round up the best Bilerico posts from the past seven days to help you stay up to date on the latest queer news and analysis.

Saturday

What You Need To Know This Week (5/12 - 5/18) Filed by E. Winter Tashlin

Sunday

I Am Your Daughter: Making Peace Before Pop Dies Filed by Guest Blogger Pam Daniels
Tybee Island Georgia Has Its First Gay Days Filed by Father Tony

Monday

Mark and Kate Filed by Patrick J Hamilton
Charting a New Course for LGBT Youth Filed by Mark Segal

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Yes, the Boy Scouts' Decision Is a Victory

John M. Becker — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:00:00 -0500

Like many equality-minded Americans, I breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when I heard that the Boy Scouts of America's National Council had voted, by a landslide margin, to stop excluding gay kids from membership.

Yesterday's move by the Scouts was a landmark step in the direction of fairness and inclusivity, especially since it comes from an organization that's almost fetishized by the Religious Right as a symbol of "traditional" (read: exclusionary) American values. But it's still only a partial victory because the ban on gay adult scout leaders remains in place. In fact, the Scouts didn't consider repealing it at all.

This sends the confusing message that gay scouts are only capable of upholding the ideals of the Scout Law -- which defines a scout as someone who is "trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent" -- until their 18th birthday; at that point, they're apparently no longer able to be kind, brave, clean, etc. and essentially receive a dishonorable discharge from the organization.

Clearly, the Scouts have a lot of evolving left to do before they fully embrace equality. And let's not forget that we're only talking about gay scouts here. Trans people are still excluded from the Boy Scouts entirely.

Still, I thought it would be fairly self-evident that the end of a 103-year-old gay youth ban -- in a group that's a cultural touchstone of American life -- is something to applaud, affirm, and even celebrate. Judging by the reaction from some members of the LGBT community, though, it appears that I was wrong.

Continue reading "Yes, the Boy Scouts' Decision Is a Victory"...

Your Pre-Holiday Moment of Chocolatey Coolness

Bil Browning — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:45:00 -0500

It's the afternoon before a long holiday weekend. I've desperately tried to come up with something I want to write about, but so far all my head keeps saying is "Go buy stuff to grill out! Ask your friends if they'll still be in town! Make plans for Game of Thrones marathons, cook outs, and brunches with neighbors!"

And then I saw this.

I've lost all consideration for blogging. I'll be over here watching this cool-ass video of a zoetrope made out of chocolate for the rest of the day until it's time to go put burgers on the grill.

What're you doing for the weekend?

Glenn Beck: Atheists Planted Tornado Survivor in CNN Interview

John M. Becker — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:30:00 -0500

Manic right-wing conspiracy-monger Glenn Beck wants you to be veeeeery afraid...

On his show last night, Beck discussed a now-famous interview between CNN's Wolf Blitzer and a survivor of Monday's deadly tornado in Oklahoma. In that interview, Blitzer said to the woman, "I guess you gotta thank the Lord, right? Do you thank the Lord for that split-second decision [which saved her life]?" The woman politely responded, "Actually, I'm an atheist."

Well according to Mr. Beck, the whole thing "just wasn't natural," and therefore must have been a set-up by a CNN producer -- either someone "sympathetic to the atheist plight" or a person who "just doesn't like Christians."

Continue reading "Glenn Beck: Atheists Planted Tornado Survivor in CNN Interview"...

Bryan Fischer Freaks Out About BSA Policy Change

John M. Becker — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:30:00 -0500

"BSA now stands for Boy Sodomizers of America, because that's what will happen. Mark my words."

Bryan Fischer, Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association -- a SPLC-certified anti-gay hate group -- reacting on Twitter to the Boy Scouts of America's decision yesterday to no longer exclude gay Scouts.

Dachshund Cleans Lion's Teeth

John M. Becker — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:00:00 -0500

This is all kinds of amazing. But I do have to wonder, though, whose idea it was to put a dachshund into the lion's pen in the first place.

Anti-Gay Activist Commits Suicide in Notre Dame Cathedral: Updates, Analysis

John M. Becker — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:30:00 -0500

The iconic cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was evacuated on Tuesday after Dominique Venner, a 78-year-old far-right Catholic activist, shot himself in the mouth in front of the altar as a protest against France's new marriage equality law. Hundreds of tourists in the packed cathedral witnessed the grisly event.

Mr. Venner was a well-known essayist and a former member of a paramilitary group known as the Secret Army Organization (OAS), which waged a bombing and assassination campaign in the early 1960s to protest France giving Algeria its independence. He was also close to the anti-marriage equality movement and an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage, which French President François Hollande signed into law on Saturday.

Hours before his suicide, Venner published a homophobic, Islamophobic post on his blog denouncing the new law as "detestable" and condemning Islamic immigration from north Africa. (Venner did see a silver lining to an Islamist takeover of France, however: a hypothetical Islamist government would repeal marriage equality.) He also made reference to a planned May 26 protest against the law, writing:

It is not nice enough to organize street protests to prevent [marriage equality]... It certainly will require new, spectacular, and symbolic actions to wake up the sleep walkers, shake the anaesthetized consciousness, and awaken the memory of our origins. We are entering a time when words must be authenticated by acts.

And Venner made what seemed to be an ominous allusion to the symbolic action he planned to take later that day:

It is here and now that our destiny is played until the final second. And this final second has as much importance as the rest of a life. That is why we need to be ourselves until the very last instant.

I spoke with progressive talk-show phenom David Pakman yesterday about Venner's suicide. (Side note: if you're not yet familiar with Pakman's nationally syndicated political talk radio and TV program, The David Pakman Show, you'll want to be.) In the interview, Pakman wonders whether self-loathing homophobia may have fueled Venner's extreme anti-gay hatred.

Watch, after the jump.

Continue reading "Anti-Gay Activist Commits Suicide in Notre Dame Cathedral: Updates, Analysis"...

The Bilerico Editorial Team Welcomes John Becker

Bil Browning — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:00:00 -0500

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that we have a shift in the management team at Bilerico effective today.

John Becker has joined us as our new Managing Editor. James Holmes had to step down after he got a big promotion at his full-time job that eats up all of his time. (Congratulations to Jim!) Winter Tashlin and Sarah Blazucki will continue as Associate Editors and I'm still here as the Editor-In-Chief.

Most of you know and love John already. You might remember him for exposing Marcus Bachmann's ex-gay therapy practices, his prolific Facebook presence, or his free-lance writing. He's been a regular contributor since 2010.

You can reach him at johnbecker@bilerico.com. Please join me in welcoming him to the leadership team.

Sequestering the Next Disaster

Terrance Heath — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:30:00 -0500

President Obama has promised Oklahoma “everything that it needs right away” to begin the process of recovering and rebuilding, after the massive tornado touched down in the state on Monday, devastating the cities of Monroe and Newcastle. Already hundreds of Federal Emergency Management Association employees are the ground in Oklahoma, and millions of dollars in federal disaster relief will almost certainly follow. Oklahoma will recover.

But the debate in Washington is a reminder that we’re all threatened by a masssive, man-made disaster called sequestration, that could make the next natural disaster even worse.

Continue reading "Sequestering the Next Disaster"...

Robbie Rogers May Return to Pro Soccer

John M. Becker — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

Remember Robbie Rogers, the courageous (and gorgeous!) 25-year-old U.S. national soccer star who came out and retired from the sport earlier this year?

Well, it turns out that Rogers was so heartened by the overwhelming support he received from fellow players, fans, and the American public that he's apparently reconsidered his decision to retire. If he returns to active play, Rogers will be the first openly gay male athlete currently playing in Major League Soccer.

Gay Star News reports that Rogers has been practicing with the Los Angeles Galaxy in recent weeks. At the 2013 Voice Awards last Sunday, he greeted the crowd, thanked them for their support, and credited them for inspiring him to return to professional soccer.

Speaking to reporter Greg Hernandez, Rogers said that there are still some logistical hurdles to be sorted out with his former team, but he's optimistic:

It's just kind of being worked out. Chicago owns my rights and until they trade me to LA, I guess I'm owned by Chicago. It feels amazing to be back in California and obviously back on the soccer field. Just working away...

I'm excited to get back to [playing] and I hope it kind of creates a path for other footballers, for other soccer players to do the same.

Rogers chose not to return to the Chicago Fire because he wants to live closer to his family in Huntington Beach, California.

Here's hoping that everything gets sorted out so this LGBT trailblazer is able to get back on the field. Welcome back, Robbie Rogers!

Media Coverage of Murder: Remembering Sakia Gunn

Rev Irene Monroe — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:30:00 -0500

This May 11th sadly marked the tenth anniversary of the murder of Sakia Gunn of Newark, N.J. And her murder is mired, at best, by myths and, at worst, malicious intent.

Depending, however, on the LGBTQ circles you run in and where you get your news, you may or may not know who she was. For many, Gunn was and still is a small blip on the gay and national news radar screen.

While a nation cried out in horror in 1998 over the brutal killing of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old white gay male student at the University of Wyoming, and the murder of Teena Brandon, a 21-year-old white Nebraskan transgender man (the inspiration for the 1999 movie "Boys Don't Cry") untold numbers of hate crimes against LGBTQ people of color not only went unreported in mainstream papers, but they rarely saw the light of day in queer ones as well.

Gay and national media have also paid attention to homophobic bullying. The bullying that led to the suicide of LGBTQ youth was on its way to becoming a national epidemic. For example, in the month of September 2010, nine teen suicides were tied to sexual orientation or gender expression, highlighting the disproportionate bullying of our LGBTQ kids and those perceived to be LGBTQ.

One of the suicides that September was that of 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi. Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after finding out that his college roommate and another classmate had secretly used a webcam to broadcast his sexual encounters with another male, highlighting the dangers of "cyberbullying"-- teasing, harassing, or intimidating with pictures or words distributed online or via text message. The story of Clementi's suicide, and the many others that happened that month, went viral and saturated the media.

However, when the suicide of Joseph Jefferson, a 26-year-old African-American activist for LGBT youth, went largely unnoticed.

"I could not bear the burden of living as a gay man of color in a world grown cold and hateful towards those of us who live and love differently than the so-called 'social mainstream,'" Jefferson posted on his Facebook page the day he killed himself.

Issues of race, gender identity, and sexual orientation trigger a particular type of news broadcasting on major network channels. With many of these network channels' objective to provide viewers with "infotainment" rather than fair and balanced reporting, discerning television viewers--straight and gay--are most often incensed and insulted by the news than informed by it.

Continue reading "Media Coverage of Murder: Remembering Sakia Gunn"...

Slutty Clothes Season

Bil Browning — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:07:51 -0500

With the Memorial Day weekend approaching, we can all look forward to the beginning of slutty clothes season!

Michele Bachmann: God Will Repeal Obamacare

John M. Becker — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:00:00 -0500

"...I think before [President Obama's] second term is over, we're going to see a miracle before our eyes, I believe God is going to answer our prayers and we'll be freed from the yoke of Obamacare. I believe that's going to happen and we saw step one last week with the repeal of Obamacare in the House. We have two more steps. We serve a mighty God and I believe it can happen."

-- Michele Bachmann, in a radio interview with Focus on the Family founder and outspoken homophobe James Dobson on Tuesday.

Harvey Milk Day - Never Forget

John M. Becker — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:00:00 -0500

Today, May 22, 2013, would have been the 83rd birthday of Harvey Milk, an icon and martyr of the movement for LGBT equality (and one of my personal heroes) who was assassinated in 1978. The day is commemorated by supporters of LGBT rights around the world (and officially in the State of California) as Harvey Milk Day.

So, on this Harvey Milk Day, take a moment to reflect on how far we've come in the fight for equal rights in the nearly 35 years since Milk's murder. While there's still a staggering amount of work to be done, I wonder if even a visionary like Harvey Milk could have imagined the dizzying pace of our progress towards equality. Today and every day, we must be thankful for the generations of courageous LGBTs and allies who came before us and braved a world more hostile than most of us can comprehend in order to help build the one we now inhabit. We can never forget that we've come as far as we have because heroes like Harvey Milk and so many others -- many of whose names are forever lost to history -- stood up first, came out first, fought back first, suffered the beatings first, took the bullets first. For us. Thank you, Harvey Milk. May our work honor your legacy.

The Oppressed Shall Lead: Advocacy Through Empowerment - Part 2

Drew Cordes — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:30:00 -0500

Author's note: Part I of this essay is available here. As I was working on this essay, Sylvia Rivera Law Project released "From The Bottom Up: Strategies and Practices for Membership-Based Organizations," which is a much, MUCH more thorough, concise and effective resource on this subject than I'm able to produce from my own thoughts, by my lonesome, with a blog post. What follows is a very general outline and some suggestions. For anyone interested in community organizing and advocacy, I highly recommend "From the Bottom Up," as well as some other works I'll list at the end of this piece.

Because the theory of grassroots mobilization is easier to talk about vaguely in print than put into practice, and because I want to give anyone reading this (my fellow trans* people especially) some rudimentary tools and instructions to actually go organize and get some shit done, let's talk nuts and bolts.

These basic instructions are by no means exhaustive and problem-free. Sprawling tomes are written every year about organizing and advocacy, but with the few words I have in a space like this, I thought it would be good and productive to sketch out some guidelines. Besides, no matter how much research and reading you do, there will always be unavoidable problems. Solving them has more to do with inspiration, motivation, cooperation, and gruntwork than intimate knowledge of the organizational histories of labor and social movements.

So, no more of Part I's rhetorical academic onanism. No more Foucault. How do we create communities, coalesce, organize, and act effectively?

Continue reading "The Oppressed Shall Lead: Advocacy Through Empowerment - Part 2"...

Happy Harvey Milk Day!

Bil Browning — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:00:00 -0500

If you live in California, today is Harvey Milk Day - in honor of the gay politician assassinated in 1978. Milk is often held up as a hero of the LGBT movement.

If you don't live in California, find a way to celebrate anyhow. I uploaded a graphic from GLAAD to my fan page on Facebook. Feel free to go share it or swipe it for your own use. (I'd have linked them directly but couldn't find it on their site or their own Facebook page.)

(Video by Sean Chapin)

Orthodox Priests in Georgia Lead Violent Anti-Gay Mob

John M. Becker — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:00:00 -0500

In what must have been unbelievably horrifying, a mob of thousands -- led by a group of Orthodox priests -- attacked a small group of gay rights demonstrators in the former Soviet republic of Georgia on Friday.

Same-Sex Marriage Shouldn't Be the Focus of the Immigration Debate

Bil Browning — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:30:00 -0500

The LGBT news has been chock full of articles and op-eds decrying Senator Chuck Schumer's reluctance to include same-sex couples in the current immigration reform package. Advocates insist that the right of binational couples to sponsor their foreign partners for citizenship is a must-have to get their blessing.

This is an extremely short-sighted and dangerous game that should shame the LGBT movement, but, unfortunately, it's become a rallying cry for some leaders. Once again, the needs of gay couples are being put ahead of the welfare of thousands of LGBT people.

Continue reading "Same-Sex Marriage Shouldn't Be the Focus of the Immigration Debate"...

BREAKING: UK House of Commons Passes Marriage Equality

John M. Becker — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:15:00 -0500

Just now, the UK House of Commons gave final approval to a marriage equality bill. The vote was 366-161.

The bill now moves on to the House of Lords.

Here's a handy graphic representation of the bill's progress through Parliament. (Thanks to Joe Jervis for finding it!) Today the House of Commons just completed its third reading, meaning that the equal marriage bill is essentially halfway through the process of becoming law.