I've made it to the initial round for favorite progressive blogger in the Air America Cruise Contest. I have to stay in the Top 5 before the second voting round begins, so your vote is appreciated! First voting round:
The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
My introduction to my photostream from the 2009 San Diego Pride Parade (the video is all of one-and-a-half-minutes long, no editing of the intro either):
And the 250-ish photos I took of that parade:
I was there with my friend Vicki, her wife Lynda, Vicki and Lynda's friend Gail. I met my oldest son and his girlfriend at the parade too.
It was fun! I didn't go near the "free speech zone" to hear the conservative "Christian" spew their hate, but I decided I'd rather have fun yesterday than see & hear the crappy part of my home town's pride weekend. Sue me.
So hey, this too is an open thread, so blogwhore, discuss Pride events you've gone to this year...whatever!
Update: The San Diego Union-Tribune's take on the Transgender Comminity's float in the parade:
Gabriel Mason helped build a float with the facade of the Stonewall Bar behind the cab of a flatbed truck, with the letters L-G-B-T emerging from the front door of the club.
They placed the T in the back of the flatbed, as if it was leading a march into the street, Mason said, because he and his friends have suffered more discrimination than most.
"The transgender community has been knocked under the bus," said Mason, 44, a Golden Hill resident who lived as a woman until he was 38. "But it's our turn now. Transgender is the new gay."
It's nice to see such strong and direct action from one portion of the administration. (NYT):
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis issued a warning letter to departmental employees late last week, after posters celebrating Gay Pride Month hanging in 35 department elevators since June 22 have been either defaced or removed altogether.
In an e-mail message sent to the entire department, Ms. Solis, who helped found the House of Representative's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Caucus when she was in Congress, said she was outraged by the behavior.
"It appears, however, that some members of the Labor Department team have a different view, as it has come to my attention that most of the posters have been continually defaced or removed," Ms. Solis wrote. "On several occasions, even the poster frames have been torn completely off the elevator walls."
The defaced and stolen posters will be replaced. One friend noted to me that "In his speech yesterday, the President was right to acknowledge that there are some who still feel that LGBT citizens don't deserve equal treatment. He probably didn't count on the fact that they work for him."
The executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride, Ron deHarte, was attacked and beaten June 6 while waiving a large rainbow flag on Main Street in the San Diego working-class suburb of Lemon Grove.
DeHarte was participating in the "Equality Torch Relay," a daylong effort that saw an "equality torch" travel through and from all 18 incorporated towns and cities in San Diego County, ending with a rendezvous of the torchbearers and others in downtown San Diego...
More at Rex Wockner's blogsite.
Just unbelievable that this happened in broad daylight when so many cameras were around.
Hey, I was going to post this earlier today (Sunday), but I was busy on the Rob, Arnie, And Dawn In The Morning show story.
So on the very lighter side, here's my compensation-less endorsement of a product from P-Mate USA:
I get to talk about partying gay men spraying toilet seats in the video -- hard to keep from laughing while recording this. But hey, it's a serious product for a serious real world problem for women in some public restrooms.
Charlotte is such a strange city. It's a large business metropolis, is full of gay folks and LGBT-friendly businesses, so you'd think it would be progressive, but it has a large conservative church-going community that holds sway as well.
So it's no surprise that on July 25, when the city celebrates Pride, there will be an alternative gathering held by fundies called "God Has a Better Way." (G-A-Y):
JOIN US FOR A HISTORIC RALLY IN UPTOWN CHARLOTTE ON JULY 25TH!
GOD HAS A BETTER WAY!
What This rally is a Spirit-birthed response to Charlotte's annual gay pride event. More than one thousand believers will be gathering to worship the Lord, intercede in prayer, and proclaim that "God Has a Better Way"! Nothing like this has ever been done in conjunction with a gay pride event in any city before, and those who join together on this day will be part of history in the making.
Who Everyone can be involved! If you love Jesus and are walking with Him, then you qualify. We need worshipers, intercessors, musicians, soul-winners, walkers, talkers, and believers of every age, color, and size to stand together as a prophetic witness to our society. Everything we do will be law-abiding, safe, and honoring to the Lord in spirit and in word.
Why We have a unique opportunity to make an impact in our city that will be felt around the country. In the last five years, gay activism in Charlotte has been confronted with compassion and truth, and we have seen significant changes take place. In January, 2009, Focus on the Family's Citizen magazine carried a story called, "Something New in Charlotte," highlighting the work that has been in done in Charlotte and pointing to it as a model for other cities. We can send a wave of encouragement to our brothers and sisters across the nation!
The real fun begins over at the Facebook page for the event, where some familiar faces have invaded the fundie space and left a few messages. Surf over for a look.
The wisdom of Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Larry Langford, who insists he's not a bigot:
"I don't think I'm intolerant, I just don't condone the lifestyle. Your personal lifestyle should be nobody's issue but yours. It's not a civil rights issue, it's a personal choice issue."
Of course when Langford, in his capacity as mayor, refused to issue a permit for Birmingham Pride based on his personal issues with the LGBT community in his city, he should have expected to get slapped with a lawsuit. (SoVo):
According to Lambda, which is now representing CAP along with Birmingham attorney David Gespass, Langford also refused to let city workers hang banners for the Pride festival from city light posts, which was allowed for other events.
"Mayor Larry Langford denied government benefits to Central Alabama Pride solely on the basis of his personal beliefs," Lambda staff attorney Beth Littrell said in a press release. "A government official cannot pick and choose which groups get government benefits or free speech rights."
Central Alabama Pride (CAP) has held a gay pride parade in Birmingham every year since 1989, and its Pride banners have been displayed in accordance with city policy - the same policy that allows the display of banners for a variety of events and organizations, including religious events and organizations.
Extra bonus points for the fact that the city is being represented in federal court by Liberty Counsel (home of Bam Bam Barber, where he serves as "Director for Cultural Affairs").
Some great news from The Magic City, courtesy of Kathy over at Birmingham Blues -- Howard Bayless, the first out gay man elected to public office in Alabama, is running for Birmingham City Council. Kathy:
I'd love to see him go toe to toe in Council meetings with Larry Langford and Joel Montgomery, but with any luck they won't be around after October 2009.
One of my NC readers, Kristy Ford, went to Asheville Pridefest last weekend, and it turned out to be a very strange experience. Unlike NC Pride, held here in Durham, on September 27 (my report here), the Asheville "celebration" was kept in the closet by the organizers, who held the event on private property, so the MSM wasn't allowed to shoot video or stills of the festivities. Kristy ended up being the "official" photographer, with all photos cleared by organizers.
This is sad -- isn't Pride about celebrating life out of the closet, as allies and LGBT? Here's Kristy's partner's take on Asheville Pride.
Out in Asheville, but not at Pride Dr. Michelle Joshua
It's cool to be gay in Asheville, but don't be too proud about it. I recently participated in the 2008 Asheville Pridefest as a vendor. My company, Justly Wed, promotes wedding and commitment rings for the LGBT community. We're all about eradicating homophobia, one ring a time. And we thought that Ashville, during Pride weekend, would be a great venue. Even thought the weather was wonderful and the leaves had begun changing their brilliant fall colors, the turnout was shameful -- perhaps 500 people over the course of 8 hours.
We should have known something wasn't quite right when our friends, two out and proud lesbians who own a home less than a mile from downtown, suggested that they heard nothing about the Pridefest before this resident of Carrboro, NC, told them about it. They shrugged and suggested that perhaps it was not a big deal to attend a Pridefest when "everyday is like Pride around here." We got our second clue that something was not quite right when we pulled into the Pridefest venue, a private parking lot with a blocked entrance, across from a bar. It turns out that this spot, off a small side street and invisible to those downtown, was chosen, in part, because of its private property status, which allows organizers to prohibit media coverage and discourages protesters. Kali Brewer, Pridefest Organizer, told my colleague that the reason for the low-key status was because she wanted to respect some of the attendees' right to remain closeted. HUH?! It's a Pridefest, right?
The closet feel continued when Justly Wed co-owner, Kristy Ford, was granted the unofficial title of Photographer (the one and only). She was instructed to take shots of vendors and performers only. So, even though there were quite a few participants having fun last weekend, you won't see any of them in these photos.
More organizer-approved photos are here. What do you all think about this? Shouldn't an event of this sort, given Asheville is a progressive town, be a public event on public property so that people see there's nothing wrong with being out?
I can't imagine anyone proposing such restrictions on NC Pride.
Well, I'm at San Diego Pride this weekend. I was participating with the San Diego transgender community on our Pride Parade contingent, as well as staffing the Transgender Community booth.
The photo to the left is our transgender booth at the festival, and the photo on the right is our vehicle in the parade. I wish I had a pic of our contingent in the parade, but I was marching in the contingent. I have a friend who took some pics who hopefully will be getting me a few of her pics for posting.
Lot of fun, lot of work -- I'm tired. Hope to have more up on San Diego Pride tomorrow or Tuesday.
Here we go: What I've been reading online today, paired with an open thread to discuss these articles, or stuff you find interesting.
- Marriage rights celebration, 'D-List' celeb among celebration's highlights. Excerpt:
After 34 years of celebrating diversity and rights for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community in San Diego, the local organization Pride San Diego is reaping the rewards of activism and education.
Comment: I'm volunteering at the Transgender/TASC booth on Saturday, and the Scouting For All booth on Sunday.
The Scouting For All booth is extremely important to me. I have an Eagle Scout son, and I two other sons in scouting. If it were known that my two sons who are still in the Boy Scouts had a transgender parent, in accordance with how the Boy Scouts Of America's national policy is applied, my sons would be kicked out of scouting. For me, protesting against the Boy Scouts has a lot to do with them discriminating against youth because of how their parents identify their sexuality or gender identity.
- DiversityInc: Jena 6 Aftermath: Nooses Punishable By Prison. Excerpt:
Nine months after the nation began witnessing an uptick in the number of reported noose sightings following the furor over the Jena 6 incident in Louisiana, lawmakers there, as well as in Connecticut and New York, have made hanging a noose a crime punishable by imprisonment. And more states are likely to follow.
Since September of last year, the number of reported noose incidents nationally jumped to nearly 80, according to the DiversityInc Noose Watch, the first and only tracker of national reported noose sightings.
- San Francisco Chronicle: 24% of state high-schoolers likely to drop out. Excerpt:
Nearly 1 in 4 California students will drop out during high school, state educators said Wednesday, basing their prediction on what they said is the most accurate information about student attendance they've ever collected.
Using a new student-tracking system, state educators found that 127,292 high school students in ninth through 12th grade quit school during the 2006-07 school year. That means 24 percent of incoming freshmen won't stay in school long enough to graduate, researchers said, assuming that pace remains steady.
...The new dropout rate is far higher than the 13 percent educators had earlier estimated using less-sophisticated counting methods they had relied on for years.
Comment: I wonder what the graduation and dropout rates are for LGBT youth -- I did a quick look this morning, and couldn't find any statistics on the subject. I'm sure they're out there, but I'm not sure where to look for the stats.
- MSNBC: Gore pitches 10-year shift to clean energy; Former VP praises Obama, McCain on climate issue, sees huge opportunity. Excerpt:
Just as John F. Kennedy set his sights on the moon, Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other climate-friendly energy sources within 10 years, an audacious goal he hopes the next president will embrace.
- Bay Windows: A novel defense: Convict's bid for retrial hinges on alleged anti-trans discrimination against potential juror. Excerpt:
At first glance the murder trial of Roxbury gang member Sam Smith, known as "Fat Sam" according to press reports, seems to have little to do with transgender civil rights. In June 2001 a jury convicted Smith of first-degree murder for shooting and killing a member of a rival gang in Roxbury's Ramsey Park in 1991. But Smith and his attorney, David Mirsky, are hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court will force the state to grant Smith a retrial on the grounds that one of the prosecutors in the case allegedly dismissed a juror because the juror appeared to be transgender.
- Los Angeles Times: Blue Shield sued for allegedly lying about its coverage; L.A. city attorney's suit contends Blue Shield of California has illegally rescinded the coverage of more than 850 policyholders since 2002.
Comment: * sigh *
- The Lesbian & Gay Foundation (UK): Open meeting held for gay community and local police. Excerpt:
On Monday July 28, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community will have an opportunity to meet representatives from Merseyside Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to discuss homophobia and hate crime.
The meeting, organised by the Police, the CPS, Terrence Higgins Trust, Wirral LGBT forum and Trans Wirral will be held from 6.30 -8.30pm at The Lauries Centre in Birkenhead.
The open meeting, 'Merseyside Police and Hate Crime response' allows members of the LGBT community to meet directly with representatives of Merseyside Police and the CPS to address concerns around homophobic and transphobic incidents and other safety concerns. Homophobic incidents and attacks are often under reported and this meeting will provide a forum for open and honest dialogue.
Comment: I hope this clears some air, but my guess is that bad feelings from the incident that precipitated this meeting are going to linger for awhile.
Larry Kramer famously pointed out that gays had a terrible tendency to fight for the right to disco and have bathhouses instead of the right to marry.
We have organizations like the HRC which putatively exist to help us overcome legal discrimination but which are so ineffective that they turn off what should be their supporters, and seem more interested in their own financial well being than any accomplishments.
And then, we have South Carolina Pride - and organization that seems sprung from Monty Python.
It may seem strange, since I am a front-page blogger on one of the net's most kickass LGBT blogs, but...
Before today, I have never been to a gay pride parade.
I grew up in Nampa, Idaho, where there were no such things. Boise may have had a gay pride event; I don't know. Growing up straight in conservative Idaho, it's not something I thought to inquire about.
Don't get me wrong - Boise does have a strong gay community. And I had gay acquaintances, but never really any truly close friends. So the opportunity just never came up for me (or I never worked too hard to make it so, your pick.)
But now I live in Portland, Oregon. And though I get out a lot in my own community (the cannabis community here is huge, too, and shares a lot of overlap with the LGBT community), I've been rather cliquish and not gotten out to support other causes that I should.
Yesterday, my wife and I had a cookout with our couple-friends Scott & Kim. Kim just gave birth to Clara and we were dying to see her.
It was Scott who told us about their lesbian friend who had just gone out to one of her first parties in "the community". The girl is barely out and her only social groups to this point have been straight kids. It was then that Scott mentioned the parade and that they were going, would we like to join them?
It does my heart good to know Scott & Kim. They hail from Alabama and still have the most delightful li'l accents (bless their hearts!) Scott's got a long Ian-from-Anthrax-style goatee, too. So whenever I'm buying too much of my own "those red state rednecks" rhetoric, it's nice to hang with Scott & Kim and remember that good people live everywhere and to mind my own prejudices.
Anyway, today we caught the train downtown with Clara in a stroller and enjoyed the Pride parade. I loved it. I was particularly moved by the PFLAG moms. I raised an eyebrow at some of the clothing (or lack thereof) choices of some of the marchers (all I could think is what an interesting sunburn all those leather straps would leave...) And I did more than a couple of double-takes at gorgeous old-40's-movie-star looking women - who weren't, but dang, they were like living wax-sculptured works of art!
I didn't spot Peter LaBarbera, though. I was a bit disappointed.
UPDATE: I almost forgot about the Radical Faeries! If somehow all this intense recruitment from the radical gay agenda suddenly turns me gay, "Radical" Russ has a home in the Portland LGBT Community!
As we enter the Pride month I for one hope the community takes a moment to reflect back on all the effort put forth by gay men and women in the past to secure the freedom and acceptance we currently enjoy today. Fighting during a period in time where it was hazardous to one's physical health to be on the forefront. Stonewall was not simply an activist protest where they went home afterwards and partied. They were beaten and dragged away to jail by the police. It was a time when fag bashing was an accepted method of controlling homos and keeping them out of the neighborhood. There were no drag queens there at all. It was gay human beings simply standing up for being who they were. Making a stand even though they fully knew the dangers of doing so. That's true courage no different than that on a battlefield.
--Joseph DaBrow, Metroline (Late May, 2008, Connecticut, USA)
Joseph DaBrow's commentary on Pride Month is an objectionable to those of us who are proud that it wasn't only gay human beings simply standing up for being who they were, but instead know it was LGBT people standing up for who they were and who we are. As a term, gay isn't always seen as inclusive of us all, and in this case gay isn't an adequate descriptor of who was there at Stonewall.
So in this case, my peers a number of my Connecticut based peers and I are also making a stand: we will not stand by to be quietly homogenized away from the civil rights and social justice implications of Stonewall; we don't accept being hidden behind a non-inclusive use of the term gay.
Frankly, it's not in the best interest of those of us whose civil rights may depend on the language of gender identity and expression being included in civil rights legislation to accept when our members' contributions to our broad community's history are being in any way minimized or erased.
This is funny...why didn't anyone tell me this Pride flag was equivalent to poison gas or a nuke? (Interfax):
Roman Silantyev, director the World Russian People’s Council’s human rights center, compared gay-parades to weapons of mass destruction.
This comparison was prompted by the award given recently to the developers of a project for a “gay bomb”, a hormone weapon which turns an enemy’s troops into homosexuals. The authors were awarded the “peace prize” given by the so-called Shnobel Prize for the most dubious scientific achievements.
According to the project authors, special pheromones contained in a “gay bomb” dropped on an enemy’s territory would radically raise soldiers’ sexual attraction to each other, the BBC has reported.
According to Silantyev, “the development of this bomb means that the Pentagon equates the propagation of the idea of homosexuality to weapons of mass destruction.
In his interview with Interfax, the human rights advocate noted, “while the most liberal Euro-parliamentarians assailed Patriarch Alexy with criticism, demanding that he should respect the “fundamental rights” of sexual minorities, the American militarists stabbed them in the back by making public information about the creation of a demoralizing homosexual bomb”.
He told the agency that all structures concerned “should pay attention to the American know-how and consider ranking gay-parades among weapons of mass destruction with a consequent introduction of moratorium on its proliferation”.
When I began my transition in 2003, I remember having days where I didn't pass as my target female sex. I remember once being in a Veteran's Administration Medical Center parking lot, and a child pointing at me, saying to his mom "That's a man!"
Ouch. As I drove out of the parking lot on my way home, I remember crying about the reality that I didn't pass as Autumn. I knew that the process of changing from male-to-female (or female-to male, for that matter) is called a transition for a reason -- changes that allowed one to live as invisibly in one's target sex don't occur overnight. Emotionally, it was tough to live as my target sex but often be perceived as my natal sex.
How important is it to be photogenic to the general public when one identifies as LGBT? Should we, as a community, ever exclude emasculate appearing lesbian women, effeminate appearing gay men, drag queens, genderqueers, and non-passing transmen and transwomen from the LGBT community because they might not look straight? The obvious answer seems no, but the PC answer and reality sometimes clash.
The question of straight appearance is a question that's recently come up in San Diego. San Diego LGBT Pride Director Ron deHarte was quoted indirectly regarding drag queens after James Hartline, Set Free Ministries, and the Thomas More Law Center made a big deal about Pride buying a thousand ticket block for last Sunday's Padre game. The article had a some comment on the subject of appearance that reads as follows:
Folks are just loving that last photo post on fundies at Prides (which has unfortunately been derailed by house troll Josh). Let's see if we can do better on this one.
Another reader, Jacqui M., sent a photo in that she took at Atlanta Pride over the weekend.
I attended my very first Pride Festival and Parade this year. It was a great experience and I so look forward to doing it again next year. However what I was somewhat surprised to see was the airplane buzzing over Atlanta's Piedmont Park carrying a "Hope for Homosexuals" banner. I took a few pictures and decided I'd share since I am a constant reader of your blog.
This little gem was the effort of Peter LaBarbera's AFTAH, Family Policy Network (FPN), and the Ohio-based Mission America to save the homos.
Americans For Truth is joining with two other national pro-family organizations that are working together to form a multi-state outreach this weekend, designed to confront "gay pride" parade participants with the truth that Jesus Christ can set them free from the sin of homosexuality.
"Gay pride" parades in Chicago, Atlanta and Columbus, Ohio, this weekend will receive the hopeful message.
"The truth is, homosexuality is nothing to be proud of," said Americans For Truth president Peter LaBarbera. "Christ has helped set free thousands of people from this destructive lifestyle...and we hope that those who have not closed their minds to God's truth will go to HopeforHomosexuals.com and open their hearts to the life-changing Gospel truth on its pages."
The Virginia-based Family Policy Network (FPN), in an alliance with Naperville, Illinois-based Americans for Truth and the Ohio-based Mission America, will fly airplane banners over so-called "gay pride" parades in Georgia, Illinois and Ohio this weekend that read, "JESUS CHRIST: WWW. HOPE FOR HOMOSEXUALS.COM."
***
Also in Atlanta, Blender Robert B. sent two photos in. See them after the jump.
I received an email this AM from Blender Scott B. in Chicago. He attended Pride in the Windy City yesterday and he snapped some pix of a fundie on the street with a bullhorn bleating away. For your amusement...
His shirt says "Turn or Burn." Must be from the Westboro Gift Shop.
The sign on the left says "Neither fornicators, idolators, effeminite, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, swindlers..."
California Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-SF) updated the crowd at Pride 2007 in San Francisco on AB 43, his bill to provide marriage equality in California.
I've noticed several bloggers looking back on their first Pride for this year's Pride Month, so although brief, I'll comment on mine as well.
My first Pride was a decade ago, and it was unlike the Pride parade's you see on TV and in the media. You really won't be seeing that in any Kentucky city, although there's a decent sized gay community in each major city there.
Instead of that, it was more of a park "Pride fair", with fundraisers, vendors, live music, antique and hobby sellers, and people skating and horseback riding. Although there was certainly drag queen's and other colorful folks in attendance, you didn't see all that crazy shit you see when the media covers parade's in the US.
My first Pride was a community and family-oriented event, and anyone who could have had any issues over that is just a straight-up lunatic, and needs to be thrown away from the public.
And I have absolutely no problems with the wilder large-city Pride parades, although they aren't my cup of tea, and have never been to one. My reason - have you ever been to a large downtown DFW party in the gay strip? Shoulder to shoulder with everyone, people shoving and knocking people over when the line stops moving, nooooooooo thank you. If non-Pride events are that bad, I definitely wouldn't like the biggest yearly bash on the strip. I will just go to Kroger, have a cookout and invite my friends over to get fucked up, but I ain't dealing with crowds like that. No ma'am!
I don't see why the gay neo-con's get so worked up about the gays having their large Pride festivities. The only thing I can agree with is anyone there flashing off their dicks and asses, or worse, sucking dick or fucking in public is just trifeling, and they should absolutely be thrown out of the gates. I'm not for sure if gay parents are allowed to bring their children, but they shouldn't be, if people can't keep it clean, and save that shit for the hotel or whatever.
It's no secret the media almost strictly photographs and films the negative parts of Pride, such as those above-mentioned ho's, and totally ignores the commendable stuff, like the AIDS and charity fundraising going on, by performers and female impersonators; among other positive things going on there. And unlike those drunken idiots they're showing in the news, the people who are actually there busting their asses get no coverage and exposure. The only exception is local gay magazines, which always covers Pride well, every year.
My suggestion is Pride organizers need to make sure the events are a little more family-oriented, definitely nix anyone performing lewd acts in front of everyone, or else all you're doing is giving the fundie lunatics ammo, and masturbation material for Barbara (Peter LaBarbera). It would be a whole lot easier for the public to digest if they could just see a Pride event for what it really is - a colorful gathering of folks of the same kind, just like any other special event for folks of the same group, like the Million Man March.
Anyone who goes around saying Pride events are "nothing but a perverse parade of sexual deviants" is a total delusional nutty lunatic, and needs to be locked away from the public too. I don't partake in the wilder Pride events, and even I'm not that fucking stupid. EVERY event has a few idiots (can you say heterosexual "Spring Break" with all those dumb college bimbo's ending up on Girls Gone Wild, and all those frat guys getting STD's from total strangers?), and Gay Pride parades are no exception.
Before the "serious" posts go up today, I just thought I'd share some pictures from Parker's first Pride parade.
Rainbow Families DC had a great pre-parade event where parents and kids got together and decorated strollers, tricycles, wagons, bicycles, scooters and skateboards before the parade. Then we actually kicked off the parade. (Kudos to the organizers for putting the people with kids near the front of the parade. Not only did we not have to wait long to get started, but we finished early enough to get home for bedtime.)
It was great. The crowd cheered pretty loud when they saw us. Parker was a little nervous at first, but by the time we finished he actually didn't want the parade to be over. ;-)
There was one other thing that came to mind as I read the Express on the way to work today, and came across this quote from Capitol Hill Blue.
Is there really much that distinguishes gays from the rest of America anymore -- other, of course, than what we do in bed. (Although even on that front there is a growing convergence of behaviors and even choice of partners when it comes to recreational sex especially) In other words, do we need ?Gay Pride? anymore?
"A double-sided sword has been turned toward the community. The Knesset is crazy, with a crazy government where the tyranny of the majority is more important than human rights." -- Zahava Gal-On of the Meretz party, the only bloc to oppose the discriminatory bills.
"This is a dangerous bill, which could damage the bedrock of Israel's democratic principles because of narrow political interests. We will continue to fight it in parliament and through the Gay Pride Parade...I feel that we and democracy in general are being harassed." -- Noa Sattath, chairperson of LGBT org Jerusalem Open House, the principal organizer of the Gay Pride march
Right-wing zealots in Israel's Knesset passed two bills to ban the upcoming Pride celebration, which is slated for June 21. The nature of these bills is frightening in their scope -- banning not only Pride, in one case, but any public event that "offends the public."
Both bills were introduced by ultra-right religious parties. One bill -- introduced by a Uri_lupolyansky deputy from the right-wing National Religious Party, a Zionist party associated with the Israeli settlers in the Occupied Territories -- amends the Basic Law on Jerusalem to "enable the Jerusalem municipal council to ban parades and rallies in town for considerations of disturbance to public order, offending the public's sensitivities or for religious considerations," the Israeli news agency YNet reports. It passed on first reading by 40-23. Jerusalem is currently led by ultra-Orthodox Mayor Uri Lupolyansky.
The second bill, introduced by deputies from Shas -- an ultra-conservative party representing hyper-Orthodox Sephardic and Misrahi Jews -- "is more comprehensive and calls for a ban on pride parades throughout the country." This bill also passed on first reading by 41-21.
Israel is in the midst of a presidential election, and all of the candidates missed the vote because of the fear of roiling the religious members of the Knesset, whose support they need to win. (Sound familiar?).
Sadly, even the Prime Minister, who has reason to support Pride, isn't completely on board.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - who has a daughter who is openly lesbian - said that he did not believe Jerusalem was the "natural place" for the Gay Pride Parade because of the city's "special sensitivity." But while refusing to support the banning bills, Olmert "also declined to direct the coalition on how to vote on the bill, giving all the coalition members freedom of vote.
***
Other Pride news -- Russia and Latvia
Russia's still reeling from last week's violence against gay activists and pols occurred at a rally for Gay Pride parade in Moscow last week. British gay rights advocate Peter Tatchell and Right Said Fred singer Richard Fairbrass were among those attacked by the anti-gay thugs.
Rex Wockner has an interesting post about a happier, more hopeful time in Russia:
You may think the disastrous attempts to stage gay pride parades in Moscow last year and this year were the beginning of gay activism in Russia. Some people called last year's mêlée Russia's "Stonewall." In reality, Russia's Stonewall-ish thing took place in 1991, in Moscow and Leningrad, in the then-Soviet Union. And I was there.
Surf over to read Rex's article from 1991; he includes plenty of photos of the first-ever Pride events held in the then-Soviet Union. Nearly 20,000 people took part in events that were held in Moscow and Leningrad, including a film festival that attracted 16,000 people.
In contrast to the horrors in Russia last week, this year Latvia experienced a relatively peaceful Pride celebration, albeit under heavy security. The homophobes decided the best course of action was to hold a counter "celebration."
At the same time as the parade, more than 1,000 people attended a "World Against Homosexuality" concert in another part of town. Many attendees signed an anti-gay petition and were rewarded with a T-shirt showing two male stick figures engaging in rear-entry anal sex with the international circle-and-slash "no" symbol superimposed on top of them.
And the 250-ish photos I took of that parade:
I met my oldest son and his girlfriend at the parade too. 
It was fun! I didn't go near the "free speech zone" to hear the conservative "Christian" spew their hate, but I decided I'd rather have fun yesterday than see & hear the crappy part of my home town's pride weekend. 
Sue me. 
It's nice to see such strong and direct action from one portion of the administration. (
But hey, it's a serious product for a serious real world problem for women in some public restrooms.
JOIN US FOR A HISTORIC RALLY IN UPTOWN CHARLOTTE ON JULY 25TH!
Out in Asheville, but not at Pride
We should have known something wasn't quite right when our friends, two out and proud lesbians who own a home less than a mile from downtown, suggested that they heard nothing about the Pridefest before this resident of Carrboro, NC, told them about it. They shrugged and suggested that perhaps it was not a big deal to attend a Pridefest when "everyday is like Pride around here." We got our second clue that something was not quite right when we pulled into the Pridefest venue, a private parking lot with a blocked entrance, across from a bar. It turns out that this spot, off a small side street and invisible to those downtown, was chosen, in part, because of its private property status, which allows organizers to prohibit media coverage and discourages protesters. Kali Brewer, Pridefest Organizer, told my colleague that the reason for the low-key status was because she wanted to respect some of the attendees' right to remain closeted. HUH?! It's a Pridefest, right?
community in San Diego, the local organization Pride San Diego is reaping the rewards of activism and education. 
UPDATE: I almost forgot about the Radical Faeries! If somehow all this intense recruitment from the radical gay agenda suddenly turns me gay, "Radical" Russ has a home in the Portland LGBT Community!
This is funny...why didn't anyone tell me this Pride flag was equivalent to poison gas or a nuke? (
Americans For Truth is joining with two other national pro-family organizations that are working together to form a multi-state outreach this weekend, designed to confront "gay pride" parade participants with the truth that Jesus Christ can set them free from the sin of homosexuality.
