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British papers have been reporting on the possibility that Brian Paddick, the highest-ranking openly gay police officer, has been short-listed to run for the Liberal Democrats as a candidate for the Mayor of London.
If elected, Paddick would be joining several gay mayors of other major European cities, including Berlin and Paris.
Dear Anita -
Hey, girlfriend! Just wanted to drop you a note, letting you know that we gays have made a lot of headway in gaining our rights. True, you were successful back in the late 70s in fooling people in Florida that your "Save the Children" campaign was based on what Wikipedia quotes you as saying was "Christian beliefs regarding the sinfulness of homosexuality and the perceived threat of homosexual recruitment of children and child molestation."
We've come a long way, and it took a lot of effort on our part to prove how wrong you were. Many Christian denominations now fully accept being gay as just another part of God's schematic layout, and that "homosexuality" is also apparent in the animal kingdom.
As to recruitment, we've been able to convince many of your former supporters using the argument that how can people be recruited to be gay, when we gays grew up within straight families, living in straight neighborhoods, and had no contact with anyone gay. Nobody converted us, Anita, but it would have been helpful having a few mentors to show us as young people that we were not destine to be the decrepit demons you said we would be.
As to child molestation, honey, please! It's been shown that gays, based on percentages, are no less likely than straights to be child molesters, and therefore, as we are a minority within the general public, more straights are child molesters than gays.
Why you would ruin your career by getting involved in such a ploy as "Save the Children" is beyond most of us. However, the gay-hating you seeded and nurtured in our country, the deep-seated fear you caused innocent straight people, the damage you caused us that took a generation to overcome, and the lives you attempted to ruin, gives us great satisfaction in recalling the final undoing of your own. Well, that's about all for now.
Best, David
P.S. The Florida Orange Growers' Association sends their regards!
The Republican Party has quite a few closeted queens. They might consider themselves straight, they're married with children, but at the same time they seem to like dick, and I don't mean Cheney. Now, whether they're gay or bisexual doesn't matter, what does matter is that while they'll back home telling their constituents they're against gay marriage, they're pro-family, and that they're all for any anti-gay legislation, they're out at nights in the Capital looking for a quick sexual encounter with another guy.
You remember Republican Congressmen Mark Foley of Florida, when last year his provocative, evocative, instant messages to a young male page were disclosed, and found to contain very sexual language. Naturally, these homoerotic IMs caused his downfall.
Just last week, Republican State Representative Bob Allen, a foe of LGBT rights in Florida, was charged with offering a cop $20 for oral sex in a washroom at Veteran's Memorial Park in Titusville. The fact that he's a co-chair of John McCain's presidential campaign in Florida is a salient piece of information. Again, another gay-hating gay down for the count.
"Out" of the Beltway, and on a local level, who can forget Jim West, the Republican Mayor of Spokane (Washington), who was caught IMing and trying to pick up a 17 year-old guy online. Again, even though he was very anti-gay in his dealings as mayor, like proposing a ban on gays from working in Washington's schools, he was caught.
The fact is Foley, Allen, and West are gay-haters who, themselves, are "somehow" gay. They've contributed to making laws that are anti-gay, but think nothing of going out in search of a little hook-up with some guy. Further, they give fodder to those gay-haters who think all gay men are out for is nothing more than picking up some young hottie and having sex with them.
These gay-hating gays are not the first to get caught, there will be more, as there has been in the past, going back to when men first started making laws against homosexuality.
Take for instance John Atherton (1598-1640). Atherton came from a wealthy family in England, went to Oxford, and then became a priest in the Anglican church. Rumor has it he'd been fooling around with other guys since his school days. Atherton left England to move to Ireland, where he became Lord Bishop of Waterford and Lismore in 1636. In his role as Lord Bishop, he successfully campaigned for the passage of an act that instituted the death penalty for the vice of buggery, you know, anal sex. Well, within four years, Atherton became one of the first men accused under this statute, and was subsequently hanged for the very gay-hating law he himself had enacted.
Let this be a lesson to those closeted Uncle Toms of the gays who work to undermine gay equal rights; you will be found, caught, and your lives ruined. Either come out of the closet, or stop your anti-gay politics; being versatile doesn't always mean having it both ways.
Resident drag queen and answerer-of-all-questions Rita Booke is asked:
Hi, Rita -
I've heard that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is not really about homosexuality, but something to do with hospitality. I'd love to use this in an argument with some of my homophobic family members who refer to it, but need elaboration. Can you help?
Honey, this story in the Bible has been used against us time and again. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed not because the inhabitants were gay, but because they were inhospitable to Lot's visitors at a time when it was usual practice to help out travelers and strangers. In the time of Lot, if you had a long journey, people in other towns or cities would easily take you into their house, feed you, even let you sleep the night if need be. This goes back to, "do onto others as you would have others do unto you." It was considered the right thing to do. Not being welcoming to Lot's guests, who were actually angels in disguise, and being downright inhospitable to them, was what did Sodom and Gomorrah in.
Secondly, babycakes, many people make the mistake of believing that whenever the bible says "to know" someone that it means to have sex. Our Puritanical history is such that although many ultra-conservative religious folk have this disgust towards this wonderful thing God has given us, at the same time they have this unnatural fascination with it, especially gay sex. Therefore, any time they see in the Bible sentences like, "and they wanted to know them," they think it means "and they wanted to have sex with them."
Most Biblical authorities believe this is not the case, and that in most instances, when you see the bible saying, "to know," it means just that. So, when the men of Sodom asked Lot to bring out his friends so that they can know them, they were really just wanting to get acquainted with them, and to make sure they weren't spies from some other city-state in the area. However, this doesn't excuse them, and they were still a mob that was being mobbish, inhospitable, and acting very aggressively towards Lot and his guests.
At some point, the mob becomes so unruly, that Lot actually offers his daughter as a sex-toy to them, to save his guests from harm (women were considered property and sex-toys anyway). So, here's your best argument: if Lot had lived in this city for so long, one would think he would have known they were all gay, so why the hell would he offer his daughter to them? Remind your relatives this was the same daughter who he later had sex with...ahem!
Of course, your evil family members will come up with arguments like gays can convert, so it's possible to have sex with a women, but tell them that argument is not good enough, and demand again, if Lot knew he was in a city full of homosexuals, why would he offer them his own daughter? My stars, even Jesus knew it was a story of inhospitality, cited in the Bible when he told his disciples, "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town." Also remember that not once in the Bible did Jesus ever mention anything about homosexuality.
Remember, though, that people like this are never convinced, but at least you may have gotten them to think. As each of us has our own personal religious beliefs, tell them to believe what they want, but that you believe the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is about people who are inhospitable, unwelcoming, and not accepting of others to the table of God, and then ask these relatives which neighborhood in Sodom they're originally from.
Good luck, sweetie, you're going to need it!
Rita
It was a Fall evening in 1981, when a retired NYPD detective and an NYPD sergeant got together for dinner. The detective, Sam Ciccone, presented sergeant Charles Cochrane with the idea for creating a gay fraternal organization within the NYPD. The name of the organization would be Gay Officers Action League, and would represent gay and lesbian members of police service and would receive the same recognition, rights, benefits and privileges accorded to the more traditional fraternal groups. These groups had for many years influenced and dominated criminal justice agencies across the country. Lesbians and gays in the department had no such advocates.
A month later on November 21, 1981, Sergeant Cochrane, a 14 year veteran of the NYPD, created shock waves by testifying before a City Council hearing in favor of a gay rights bill. Following on the testimony of a Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association Vice President who denounced the bill and declared he didn’t know of any homosexual police officers, Cochrane stunned those present by announcing, “I am very proud of being a New York City Police Officer, and I am equally proud of being gay.” There was no turning back.
On April 19, 1982 Cochrane and Ciccone proudly signed their names to the legal and public documents that incorporated GOAL. By this action the Gay Officers Action League, Inc. became the first official police fraternal society in the world to represent lesbian and gay people within the criminal justice system.
It was not an easy start, and through the 1980s and into the 90s, GOAL continued to push for recognition and support of LGBT officers, sometimes having to bring lawsuits against the the PBA and city. Their efforts paid off, and GOAL attained full recognition as a true fraternal NYPD organization.
Since then, GOAL chapters have been created in every section of the United States. For more information on GOAL NYPD, Click Here. For a list of Gay/Lesbian Criminal Justice organizations, including GOAL chapters, Click Here.
(As much of this text is derived from NYPD GAOL's website, it remains Copyrighted 2006 - Gay Officers Action League)
You know how they say what comes around goes around? Well, in an interesting development, the American Psychological Association next week will discuss "Reparative Therapy," you know, the therapy that allegedly makes gay people straight (read "back in the closet"). What's ironically beautiful here is that there was a time when any attempt to turn gays straight was accepted by the APA. That changed, though, in 1973, when the APA finally agreed that being gay was merely another aspect of human sexuality--basically saying, "if you're gay, you're not a psycho."
In 2000, the APA Assembly and Board approved a statement saying they were concerned about the use of reparative therapy on gays and lesbians. However, the statement being discussed next week would directly confirm that reparative therapy is misleading, damages young gays and lesbians, aggravates internalized homophobia, and depresses those in therapy, pushing them deeper into states of self-loathing. So, now we come full circle, in that the APA will be discussing the idea that so-called psychiatrists who apply reparative therapy are, themselves, the psychos, and not the gays they're attempting to "cure."
Of course, the gay-hating religious organizations like Focus on the Family are declaring this as an anti-Christian ploy by the pro-homosexual lobby, and that Christianity is being unfairly targeted. Again, what comes around goes around, and it's delightfully delicious to have these right-wing, Bible-thumping, gay-haters on the defensive. There is a God.
Okay, so UPS isn't offering its gay unioned couples the same benefits they offer straight married employees, and by unioned we mean those who belong to a "workers" union, though of course they would still be required to be "civil" unioned by the state of New Jersey. See how confusing things are when state assemblies choose civil unions over marriage when it comes to same sex couples?
Actually, UPS offers its non-unioned unioned employees more benefits than you can imagine. According to a UPS statement, these include "health care, medical leave, pension rights, funeral leave, relocation and transfer benefits." According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), UPS does a pretty good job at equality for gays.
On October 25, 2006 The Supreme Court of New Jersey gave New Jersey lawmakers 180 days to rewrite the state's marriage laws to include same-sex marriage, or create a new system of civil unions for them. Sadly, they chose the latter, and thereby set confusion, and inequity, into motion.
In light of the recent US Supreme Court's ruling that basically rescinded the Brown v. the Board of Education ruling that desegregated the nation's schools, gays in the U.S. have a lot to fear.
As the current, highly conservative court shows it has no respect for stare decisis, a term meaning subsequent supreme courts will respect the decisions made by previous high courts, it is only a matter of time before some bible-thumping state sues to reinstate its sodomy laws, making it once again illegal to be gay in said right-wing, idiotic states--you know, the type that rhyme with shmoklahoma.
As the court has brought us right back to the 1950s on issues of civil rights for blacks, remember what it was like for gays back in the '50s, with the likes of Joseph McCarthy's witch hunts, and which included routing gays from their closets.
Yes, the current supreme court reflects a backward trend in this country, one that was set several years ago when George Bush became president. For those American readers of My Small Gay World who are ex-pats living abroad...stay put, it still ain't safe to come home!
A lot has happened this week on the world-wide political scene, and for those who've missed them, here's what happened, with critique and comment by My Small Gay World:
U.K. - Tony Blair Resigns
Announced a few months ago that after ten years as Prime Minister, Tony Blair officially stepped down this week. What's really queer is that despite being best buds with gay-hating president Bush, Tony-baby has been very supportive of gays in England, and in March he became the first British Prime Minister to address an LGBT civil rights group, telling Stonewall that the partnership law gave him "real joy". He said when the first set of ceremonies took place he did "a little skip" in celebration." Skip on, Tony, we'll miss you!
Russia - Gay Hating Mayor Yuri Luzhkov Re-Elected
Luzhkov-the-Terrible was re-elected to his fifth term as mayor of Moscow, just as police dispersed a small group of LGBT activists protesting against Luzhkov in front of the European Union office in Moscow. About two dozen gays were demanding that the EU impose a visa ban on the mayor over his opposition to LGBT rights. Luzhkov's re-election does not bode well for our gay brothers and sisters in Moscow. Hang in their you guys of All of Russia, we're rooting for you!
USA - Bush Plans to Veto Washington DC Budget Due to DP Registry
President Bush says he'll veto budget appropriations for the District of Columbia unless the measure contains language barring the district from using any of the money for its domestic partner registry. For those who may not be aware, the USA's Capital is listed as a "state," but as the seat of the Federal Government, is really a "Federal District," and lacks many of the autonomies and privileges that the States have, and many of its laws and budgets are at the discretion of Congress and the President.
Well, because of this, Bush can use his veto power over the Democratically passed D.C. budget, which included monies for Washington's Domestic Partner Registry, citing that "under Federal law, legal marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Federal tax dollars are not used to extend employment benefits to domestic partners of Federal employees, and D.C. should not enjoy an exception to this rule." Domestic Partnerships are not marriage, but it would take a president with an actual IQ to be able to figure that out. Gosh, 2008 can't come soon enough!
Canadian Anglicans Back-Track on Blessing Same Sex Marriages/Unions
We were all holding our breaths, but The Anglican Church of Canada let us down, and delegates voting Sunday at the General Synod rejected the idea of letting individual dioceses decide whether their priests could perform blessing ceremonies for same sex couples who were married in civil ceremonies.
However, the General Synod did agree that same sex blessings do not conflict with its core doctrine, a decision that paves the way for the practice. Two steps forward, one step back.
June 27, 1969 - Gay customers fight back during police raid on Greenwich Village gay bar called Stonewall Inn. It turns into a riot and marks the beginning of the contemporary gay liberation movement. Yep, tonight is historically the eveni
ng that set all of this in motion, when a bunch of queens at the Stonewall Inn gay bar threw down the gauntlet after repeated raids on the bar, and said they were'nt going to take police abuse any more. It created a riot, as other gays, bohemains, and other sympathizers joined the riot, which lasted the next few days.
Take a moment to think about these brave souls, whose actions launched a movement that has, to this day, brought us many good things.
Sitting on the messy floor of my den is a book whose cover shouts loud and clear "Faggots!" I've only been given it recently, and that's why it remains unread, but I promise to read it, for the shear historic and sarcastic content, context, and most importantly, it's author, who celebrates his birthday today. It is, of course, none other than Larry Kramer.
Kramer was born in 1935 to a professional family in Bridgeport, Connecticut. After receiving his B.A. from Yale in 1957, he joined the Army for a year. When he got out of the military, he entered the entertainment industry, working first for the William Morris Agency and then for Columbia Pictures. His love of words led him to his first screenplay for the 1969 movie adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love, for which he also co-produced, and received an Academy Award nomination.
According to Gregory Bredbeck, Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Riverside, "Kramer gained prominence in the world of gay writing in 1978, when his novel Faggots was published. A scathing satire of the gay circuit in Manhattan and on Fire Island, the novel traces the life and neuroses of Fred Lemish, a middle-aged Jewish gay man looking for love in a world that only wants to have sex. The world of fast-lane gay New York becomes the real subject of the book, and Kramer's narrative focuses on the drug and alcohol abuse, the sado-masochism and the promiscuity that he sees as both typical and reprehensible."
Spurned on by the fact that the media and government* were paying little attention to the "Gay Cancer" that was beginning to plague gay men, and which would later be known as AIDS, Kramer co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York in 1981. As Bredbeck notes, "Disenchanted with what he perceived to be the lethal dangers of an uncontrollable AIDS bureaucracy, he founded AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in 1988." Though non-violent, the organization led very provocative protests, doing anything to draw attention to the scurge. Their tactics were seen as distasteful by many, including within the gay community, but their loud voices could not be ignored, and through their efforts, attention started to be paid. Kramer was there, in the front lines, leading the way.
Larry Kramer, it is said, will be best remembered as the man who almost single-handedly began the gay political response to AIDS in America, launching a political activism within the gay community that to this day is reflected in other organizations like the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, HRC, LAMBDA Legal, and many others.
Happy Birthday, Larry!!!
*By the time President Reagan even mentioned AIDS, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with the disease and 20,849 had already died.
Yes, another post about Gay Marriage...this one I couldn't pass up, because as you readers well know, My Small Gay World isn't really supportive of the Log Cabin Republicans, and so this is more about them, than gay marriage.
Yesterday the New York State Legislature assembly passed a bill that would make same-sex marriage possible. Of course, a lot of this was voted on party lines, with most Republicans voting against it. However, with a heavy lobbying effort on the part of Log Cabin Republicans, they were able to get four Republicans to vote for the bill. No easy task, but it did make New York the first state to pass a same-sex marriage act with bipartisan support. Although California's assembly and senate have both voted for gay marriage (later to be vetoed by Arnold), not a single Republican in California voted for the measures.
So, although we're still a bit leery about the efficacy of the Log Cabin Republicans, in this case they've proved themselves well, and we wish them tons of luck working with the NY Senate's Republicans...they'll need it!
"The people of the United States don’t want same-sex marriage. Whether this is true or not doesn’t matter; on civil rights issues, what the people want is irrelevant. Opponents of gay marriage attack the Massachusetts SJC decision as judicial activism, but name me one significant civil rights victory in the last century that wasn’t the result of judicial activism. We celebrate the anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, not the anniversary of Congress or the people of Kansas voting to end segregation. The Supreme Court of the United States didn’t leave the question of segregation up to the people; it decided for itself that it was unconstitutional and had to be abolished. Thirteen years later it was another Supreme Court decision, Loving vs. Virginia, which outlawed anti-miscegenation laws, finally guaranteeing the right to interracial marriage. Does this mean the courts always ought to overrule the people? Of course not. But in matters of civil rights, when the legislature or the people are clearly unwilling to take on the work of reform themselves, the court must act."
This is from essayist Steve Shives, who modestly claims not to be "especially intelligent or eloquent." Steve's a handsome, straight, baseball-loving bearded dude who is, in fact, very intelligent and eloquent, and writes about a whole slew of topics. This was from an article posted on his website just this afternoon, and already picked up by American Chronicle. You can read the rest of Steve's article (and we suggest you do), by going to Steve's website, wonderfully named, Steve Likes to Curse.
Thanks, Steve! And although you're playing for the other team, it's good to know we have you rooting for us!
In the movie, Latter Days, as lead character Aaron Davis is about to be excommunicated by his Mormon leader dad for being gay, the following dialogue takes place, which we've seen powerfully quoted on other blogs, websites, etc.:
"This isn't easy for me Aaron. But in light of your abnormal and abominable state, and your refusal to see that you've been duped into some hogwash alternative lifestyle. I wish my shame was enough for the both of us. Not to mention the shame you've brought to our church, our family, our ancestors... "
"Wait a minute, our ancestors? Dad, your grandfather had at least a half dozen wives, and that goes for every single person in this room. I've say we're the original definition of 'alternative lifestyle.'"
A devout Mormon, Mitt Romney is dead-set against same-sex marriage, and a Romney administration would see little difference from that of the Bush administration on any gay-related matters.
As governor of Massachusetts, Romney did everything he could to circumvent gay marriage, and luckily enough for the gays of Mass, his circumventions were quite unsuccessful. However, he's been outspending the likes of opponent Giuliani on pre-primary spending, and is one of the front-runners for the presidential nomination. Here are just a few quotes from Romney, with comments from My Small Gay World (naturally):
"America cannot continue to lead the family of nations around the world if we suffer the collapse of the family here at home." So, with straights divorcing at 51%, families breaking up because of infidelity, and the continued escalation of children born out of wedlock, it makes perfect sense that gay marriage is the culprit...yeah, right!
"I feel very deeply about the need to respect and tolerate people of different social - or sexual orientation. But at the same time, I believe marriage should be preserved as an institution for one man and one woman." Mitt, baby, you've already shown that you don't respect us, because you don't respect our relationships. Further, don't insult us by saying you'll "tolerate" us, we're fighting for nothing short of acceptance.
"Like me, the great majority of Americans wish both to preserve the traditional definition of marriage and to oppose bias and intolerance directed towards gays and lesbians." Okay, we don't know which of Romney's speechwriters wrote this crap, but the word oxyMORONIC, certainly comes to mind.
Keep in mind this guy could be the next president. From what we've seen so far, as gay citizens, we are up against a mitt-igating danger.
Okay, we've won in Massachusetts, but what many folk don't realize is that within the next week and a half, it's possible that a marriage bill will be voted on in the New York Assembly. Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell (D-Manhattan, and yes, Rosie's out and proud gay brother) is spearheading the bill in the Assembly, which was initially introduced by Assemblymember Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) who has championed it since 2002.
Says Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle, “Each day that our families are without the hundreds of protections and responsibilities that the state provides through marriage is another day our families remain vulnerable. Passing this bill in the Assembly this year will continue the momentum that has already begun to put an end to the discriminatory denial of marriage to the hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples and their families who live in New York State.”
If you're in New York, and want to let your assemblymember know you want them to co-sponsor, or at least vote affirmatively, to this legislation, the Empire State Pride Agenda's website has an easy-to-use, pre-scripted email form you can send to your assemblymember, just Click Here. You don't even have to look up who your assembly member is, it's done automatically using your zip code.
Gay marriage is happening, it's coming, and our opponents are frightened, and it's causing them to be even more active, we need to be just as active.
Note: Okay, guys, because we've been a bit on the political side yesterday and today, here's a New York hottie for you, he needs your support, so if you're a NY resident, go to the Empire State Pride Agenda's website by clicking the hottie.
You gotta hand it to those crazy guys within the US Military. It's now been proven that they had requested over 7 million dollars in research funding for a pheromone bomb that would make opposing forces turn gay and screw each other silly and, well, how to put this succinctly, thus opening themselves wide for US Forces penetration.
Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed to CBS station KPIX-TV in San Francisco that military leaders had considered, albeit for a short time, building the so-called gay bomb. This all came about when Edward Hammond of Berkeley's Sunshine Project, a group dedicated to routing waste in government spending, used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.
The proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior," and suggested asking for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon. Okay, did they really have to use the word "distasteful?"
Frankly, a "gay bomb" attack on an opposing force that included enough "friendly fire" on our own guys could end war forever!
Oh, the gay-haters at Americans for Truth are really pissed off, and a tad afraid, because gays have enough power to prevent a gay-hating Surgeon General from being appointed! Here are some quotes from Americans for Truth's gay-hating president, Peter LaBarbera:
"Folks, anti-Christian homosexual activists and their liberal allies are out again in force to take down another good man — Dr. James Holsinger, Jr., President Bush's nominee for U.S. Surgeon General — who happens to agree with the ancient Judeo-Christian moral understanding of homosexual practice as unnatural, unhealthy and wrong."
When mentioning that gay-hating Surgeon General nominee Holsinger also believes homosexuality can be "cured," LaBarbera, ever the "expert" on things gay, says..."The fact is, thousands of men's and women's lives have been changed through ex-"gay" ministries and church outreaches to bringing healing to people with unwanted homosexual attractions. So the Left is now calling for “investigations” into Christian nominees’ churches?"
You'll also note that LaBarbera always uses quotes around the word "gay," because it's the "gay-haters" way.
So, guys, if you're reading this in the good ole USA, and want to further piss off the likes of LaBarbera, then send an easy pre-written email to your senators, courtesy of the Human Rights Campaign, telling them you think gay-hating Dr. James Holsinger shouldn't be the next Surgeon General:
Thank you for your activism!
Pride continues here at My Small Gay World during June, and today we're talking gay politics. This past weekend I was at a Pride event where I had the pleasure of running into a key staffer at the Log Cabin Republicans, himself a politician, and we discussed a number of things that I'll probably go into in another post, but for this more liberal leaning blogger, it was a very agreeable discussion (we also learned we live in the same village...and I thought I knew all the gays in town!). However, it got me thinking about gay politicians, and how bold one must be to be an openly gay politician in the world today.
For instance, the mayors of both Berlin and Paris are gay, and the next in line for the mayoral position in New York is lesbian Christine Quinn. But, that's only three, there are many out, gay politicians around the world, like Spain's Pedro Zerolo, or maybe Volker Beck of Germany, or even Israel's Uzi Even. The list is very impressive, and we should be proud that in many countries we are well represented by our gay brethren in congresses, parliaments, and caucuses around this Small Gay World.
For a list of openly gay politicians and their backgrounds and rise to power, Click Here!
"Milk's body lay in state alongside that of Mayor George Moscone in the City Hall Rotunda where a memorial service took place on November 29, 1978. Later the same day, a special memorial service was held at temple Emmanue-El, the first time an openly gay rabbi was permitted to officiate at that temple." Harvey Milk, Second Sight, by Bob Kelly.
In our continued Pride postings this month, we're taking a short pictorial look at photos of and by a young Harvey Milk, gaydom's first martyr. American politician and gay rights activist, Milk was the first openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco, California. He and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in 1978. Milk's assassin, Dan White, was sentenced to seven years in prison. Outrage over the verdict led to widespread rioting in San Francisco by enraged homosexuals and others. Milk lived openly at a time when doing so could severely restrict one's rise to success, in many it contributed to their failure. Not Milk, who rose to become one of the first openly gay politicians in gay history.
Harvey Milk, circa 1957
Harvey Milk and friends in New York, 1965
Joe Campbell, Milk's long-term companion
Milk, Miami Beach, 1965
Milk, circa 1963
For more information on Harvey Milk, check out Wikipedia's listing, and for more on the Harvey Milk pictorial, check out Bob Kelly's "Harvey Milk, Second Sight" display.
Gay news site 365gay.com reports today of the arrest of Eric Affholter, the head of the St. Louis office of the Missouri public defender's office. It appears Affholter allegedly arranged a sham marriage to keep his foreign gay partner in the country by having his partner marry a female subordinate within the public defender's office. Following his arrest, Affholter was released on $50,000 bond and has resigned his position.
Sadly, events like this are not uncommon, and gay US citizens and their foreign-born partners are constantly having to jump through hoops to keep their loved ones in the country. The straights have it easy, because all they have to do is marry their partners, but gays do not have this option because under the federal Defense of Marriage Act, immigration law does not recognize same-sex unions--hell, it doesn't even allow for sponsorships of a same-sex partner.
This means that same sex couples that have been legally married in Massachusetts, Canada, the Netherlands, or Belgium, will not be able to immigrate based on their marriage. Worse off are those partnerships where the partner facing deportation is about to be returned to a country that persecutes gays. Who can blame anyone for arranging sham marriages with female pals to keep ones partner from getting kicked out of the country.
However, things might be looking brighter, as the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), a bill sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), will allow citizens and legal residents in same-sex relationships to sponsor their partners for immigration purposes. The UAFA applies the same standards to same-sex couples that the United States applies to opposite-sex couples where one member is seeking to bring a foreign partner into the country.
For more information on how you can support bi-national gay couples, check out Immigration Equality's website. Also, if you'd like to send a quick and easy email to your congressperson in support of the Uniting American Families Act, Click Here to go to HRC's online Congressional Connection emailer.
Blonds, blonds, everywhere, and every one a twink?
British papers have been reporting on the possibility that Brian Paddick, the highest-ranking openly gay police officer, has been short-listed to run for the Liberal Democrats as a candidate for the Mayor of London.
Dear Anita - 
The Republican Party has quite a few closeted queens. They might consider themselves straight, they're married with children, but at the same time they seem to like dick, and I don't mean Cheney. Now, whether they're gay or bisexual doesn't matter, what does matter is that while they'll back home telling their constituents they're against gay marriage, they're pro-family, and that they're all for any anti-gay legislation, they're out at nights in the Capital looking for a quick sexual encounter with another guy.
Resident drag queen and answerer-of-all-questions Rita Booke is asked:
It was a Fall evening in 1981, when a retired NYPD detective and an NYPD sergeant got together for dinner. The detective, Sam Ciccone, presented sergeant Charles Cochrane with the idea for creating a gay fraternal organization within the NYPD. The name of the organization would be Gay Officers Action League, and would represent gay and lesbian members of police service and would receive the same recognition, rights, benefits and privileges accorded to the more traditional fraternal groups. These groups had for many years influenced and dominated criminal justice agencies across the country. Lesbians and gays in the department had no such advocates. 
You know how they say what comes around goes around? Well, in an interesting development, the American Psychological Association next week will discuss "Reparative Therapy," you know, the therapy that allegedly makes gay people straight (read "back in the closet"). What's ironically beautiful here is that there was a time when any attempt to turn gays straight was accepted by the APA. That changed, though, in 1973, when the APA finally agreed that being gay was merely another aspect of human sexuality--basically saying, "if you're gay, you're not a psycho."
Okay, so UPS isn't offering its gay unioned couples the same benefits they offer straight married employees, and by unioned we mean those who belong to a "workers" union, though of course they would still be required to be "civil" unioned by the state of New Jersey. See how confusing things are when state assemblies choose civil unions over marriage when it comes to same sex couples? 
In light of the recent US Supreme Court's ruling that basically rescinded the Brown v. the Board of Education ruling that desegregated the nation's schools, gays in the U.S. have a lot to fear.
A lot has happened this week on the world-wide political scene, and for those who've missed them, here's what happened, with critique and comment by My Small Gay World:
June 27, 1969 - Gay customers fight back during police raid on Greenwich Village gay bar called Stonewall Inn. It turns into a riot and marks the beginning of the contemporary gay liberation movement. Yep, tonight is historically the eveni
ng that set all of this in motion, when a bunch of queens at the Stonewall Inn gay bar threw down the gauntlet after repeated raids on the bar, and said they were'nt going to take police abuse any more. It created a riot, as other gays, bohemains, and other sympathizers joined the riot, which lasted the next few days.
Sitting on the messy floor of my den is a book whose cover shouts loud and clear "Faggots!" I've only been given it recently, and that's why it remains unread, but I promise to read it, for the shear historic and sarcastic content, context, and most importantly, it's author, who celebrates his birthday today. It is, of course, none other than Larry Kramer.
Spurned on by the fact that the media and government* were paying little attention to the "Gay Cancer" that was beginning to plague gay men, and which would later be known as AIDS, Kramer co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York in 1981. As Bredbeck notes, "Disenchanted with what he perceived to be the lethal dangers of an uncontrollable AIDS bureaucracy, he founded AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in 1988." Though non-violent, the organization led very provocative protests, doing anything to draw attention to the scurge. Their tactics were seen as distasteful by many, including within the gay community, but their loud voices could not be ignored, and through their efforts, attention started to be paid. Kramer was there, in the front lines, leading the way.
"The people of the United States don’t want same-sex marriage. Whether this is true or not doesn’t matter; on civil rights issues, what the people want is irrelevant. Opponents of gay marriage attack the Massachusetts SJC decision as judicial activism, but name me one significant civil rights victory in the last century that wasn’t the result of judicial activism. We celebrate the anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, not the anniversary of Congress or the people of Kansas voting to end segregation. The Supreme Court of the United States didn’t leave the question of segregation up to the people; it decided for itself that it was unconstitutional and had to be abolished. Thirteen years later it was another Supreme Court decision, Loving vs. Virginia, which outlawed anti-miscegenation laws, finally guaranteeing the right to interracial marriage. Does this mean the courts always ought to overrule the people? Of course not. But in matters of civil rights, when the legislature or the people are clearly unwilling to take on the work of reform themselves, the court must act."
In the movie, Latter Days, as lead character Aaron Davis is about to be excommunicated by his Mormon leader dad for being gay, the following dialogue takes place, which we've seen powerfully quoted on other blogs, websites, etc.:
Okay, we've won in Massachusetts, but what many folk don't realize is that within the next week and a half, it's possible that a marriage bill will be voted on in the New York Assembly. Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell (D-Manhattan, and yes, Rosie's out and proud gay brother) is spearheading the bill in the Assembly, which was initially introduced by Assemblymember Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) who has championed it since 2002. 
You gotta hand it to those crazy guys within the US Military. It's now been proven that they had requested over 7 million dollars in research funding for a pheromone bomb that would make opposing forces turn gay and screw each other silly and, well, how to put this succinctly, thus opening themselves wide for US Forces penetration.
Pride continues here at My Small Gay World during June, and today we're talking gay politics. This past weekend I was at a Pride event where I had the pleasure of running into a key staffer at the Log Cabin Republicans, himself a politician, and we discussed a number of things that I'll probably go into in another post, but for this more liberal leaning blogger, it was a very agreeable discussion (we also learned we live in the same village...and I thought I knew all the gays in town!). However, it got me thinking about gay politicians, and how bold one must be to be an openly gay politician in the world today.
"Milk's body lay in state alongside that of Mayor George Moscone in the City Hall Rotunda where a memorial service took place on November 29, 1978. Later the same day, a special memorial service was held at temple Emmanue-El, the first time an openly gay rabbi was permitted to officiate at that temple." Harvey Milk, Second Sight, by Bob Kelly.
Harvey Milk, circa 1957
Harvey Milk and friends in New York, 1965
Joe Campbell, Milk's long-term companion
Milk, Miami Beach, 1965
Milk, circa 1963
Gay news site 365gay.com reports today of the arrest of Eric Affholter, the head of the St. Louis office of the Missouri public defender's office. It appears Affholter allegedly arranged a sham marriage to keep his foreign gay partner in the country by having his partner marry a female subordinate within the public defender's office. Following his arrest, Affholter was released on $50,000 bond and has resigned his position.
