The Republic of T.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Log Cabin Democrats. Who else could come up with a statement like this.

An open letter signed by 16 LGBT and black religious leaders says that Obama is reaching out to bring blacks and homosexuals together. But Obama makes clear that even if he disagrees with African-Americans who are anti-gay, he still wants their votes.

“We believe that Barack Obama is constructing a tent big enough for LGBT Americans who know that their sexual orientation is an innate and treasured part of their being, and for African American ministers and citizens who believe that their religion prevents them from fully embracing their gay brothers and sisters,” the letter states. “And if we are to confront our shared challenges we have to join together, build on common ground, and engage in a civil dialogue even when we disagree.”

About a politician who says stuff like this:

2008 election, current events, elections, gay marriage, gay rights, homophobia, marriage, obama, politics, race, religion

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What’s up? Well, now we know. First Dumbledor, now this.

Only a week after the announcement that the character Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series is gay, the fictional world is again shocked with the revelation by Steven Blanc, son of voice artist Mel Blanc, that the perennial prankster “Bugs” Bunny of Looney Tunes cartoons is also gay. This announcement, while unexpected, give new and clearer meaning to many of the on-screen exchanges between the smart-aleck “wacky wabbit” and his put-upon nemesis, Elmer Fudd.

Bugs Bunny was in love with his male rival, Steven Blanc says.

The author of “Bugs and Elmer: A Forbidden Love,” stunned fans at the Academy of Motion Pictures annual Warner Brothers Looney Tunes Night, when he answered one young reader’s question about Bugs by saying that he was gay and had been in love with Elmer Fudd for years.

I wonder if the Fundies have heard about this yet, and if they’ve called the Cartoon Network yet. If not, somebody tell ‘em, quick. It might keep them busy for a while

Technorati Tags: bugs bunny, humor, gay, gay rights, television, cartoons

Update: Per the comments below, I have edited this post and updated the entry on that LGBT Hate Crimes Project to correct the error concerning Owen’s race.

Have you ever heard of Sean Ethan Owen? You’ve heard of Matthew Shepard. You’ve heard of Brandon Teena. You’ve probably even heard of Sakiah Gunn, Scotty Joe Weaver, and Sean William Kennedy. But you probably haven’t heard of Sean Ethan Owen, even though he died just one state north of Sean William Kennedy, and about three years earlier. I won’t speculate as to why, though I find it interesting that I can find all kinds of images of Sean William Kennedy, but not a single one of Sean Ethan Owen (though images of Owen’s killers are available online). It’s almost as if he not only died, but disappeared.

One of the reasons I started the LGBT Hate Crimes Project, was to tell the stories of people like Sean Ethan Owen, who were targets and/or victims of violence because they were LGBT, but whose names never made headlines. And it’s the reason I moved this project from Wikipedia to its own domain, because it’s likely that Sean Ethan Owen’s death would not be notable enough for Wikipedia. It wasn’t covered much outside of North Carolina, except for some gay publications. Sean Ethan Owen’s murder did not make national headlines. It didn’t inspire widespread protests. It didn’t inspire new legislation, let alone legislation that bears his name, not did it result in landmark court rulings. Probably the only people who even wept for him were his family and those who knew him personally. In my research, I didn’t read about candlelight vigils or public outpourings of emotion from perfect strangers, as happened in response to previous cases.

But Sean Ethan Owen was black gay man who was targeted for robbery by a man he met on a chat line; a man who wasn’t gay himself, thought that gay men on the chat line were easy targets for crime (maybe because he thought they’d be less likely to resist, less likely to report the crime, or that police would be less likely to pursue it). He was lured into meeting, and when he arrived found two other men there with the man he came to meet. He gave all three of them a ride, and then returned with them to a park where the men intended to smoke marijuana. Owen was shot in the head, but did not fall.

anti-gay violence, courts, crime, current events, gay bashing, gay rights, hate crimes, homophobia, politics, wikipedia

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When I started The LGBT Hate Crimes Project the Murder of Satendar Singh was one cases I wanted most to write about, because at the time I started the project it had just happened. But I decided to wait until more information about the case became available, as I wanted to avoid writing about the case as a hate crime only to have different information come out later.

But earlier this month, one of Singh’s attackers went to court, and that was the catalyst for starting to research the story.

One of the men accused in the beating death of Satender Singh was in court yesterday.

The the hearing, Aleksandr Shevchenko was told appear back in court next month.

Shevchenko is accused of being part of a group that allegedly used racial and homophobic slurs toward Satender Singh in July at Lake Natoma. A brawl ensued and Singh was severely beaten. He later died from head injuries.

Investigators say Shevchenko didn’t throw the punch that killed Singh but contributed to the crime.

What I found out made it even more convincing as a hate crime.
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People are always asking me about where to find vegetarian food in the metro D.C. area, and back in March I posted a review of several vegetarian or veg-friendly eateries in the area. Well I have another to add after this weekend, thanks to my ever-so-thoughtful non-vegetarian husband who — even though he’s so not a vegetarian — always keeps an eye out for vegetarian restaurants we haven’t been to yet. That’s the kind of guy he is, even though I like to joke that he was on the Atkin’s Diet before there was an Atkin’s Diet.

So I wasn’t surprised when he told me about Sunflower Restaurant, which was totally vegetarian and has locations in Falls Church and Vienna, VA. Initially, I thought maybe Cafe Sunflower, where Katharine and I had dinner once, had branched out of Atlanta. That would have been fine by me, but when I checked out the menu online I was even more intrigued. We made plans to visit for dinner
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Sen. Obama, unable and/or unwilling to rid himself of anti-gay “ex-gay” Donnie McClurkin, is seeking to balance things out by belatedly adding a pinch of fairy dust to his gospel tour of South Carolina.

An openly gay minister will open Barack Obama’s gospel concerts this weekend in South Carolina, two of his advisers told gay supporters on a conference call this afternoon.

Obama aide Steve Hildebrand, and a prominent gay adviser, Tobias Wolff, conceded that the campaign had failed to “vet” gospel singer Donnie McClurkin for his view that homosexuality is a “curse”, one person on the call said. But they said he would still perform at Obama’s concerts, which are aimed at tightening his bond to that state’s African-American community.

“They recognized that there was a mistake here,” the source said.

They also stressed Obama’s “unequivocal” commitment to gay rights, and defended McClurkin’s presence at the performance, he said.
“The perspective is that he can bring in different elements of the Democratic Party and American society,” the Obama supporter said.

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Donnie McClurkin, the anti-gay “ex-gay” bigot that Barrack Obama is keeping on his South Carolina tour, still think “gays are trying hurting our children.” [Via Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.]

McClurkin used his personal story to demonize the lgbt community as a whole. During an appearance on the 700 Club in 2003, he accused the lgbt community of wanting to harm children:

From GayWired:

McClurkin has accused gays of “trying to kill our children” and has called homosexuality “a curse”. The gospel singer who says he is a “reformed homosexual” in a 700 Club interview said he was ready to declare war on homosexuality.

Technorati Tags: child abuse, children, current events, family, gay rights, homophobia, parenting, politics

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It’s been a while since I added the “What I’m Reading” widget to the sidebar. (It’s actually my shared items from Google Reader, and it has its own RSS feed.) It’s intended to be a place to collect and display posts I’ve been reading from around the blogosphere. It’s also meant to be a source of material for “round-up” posts on days like today when I’m hunkered down over work-related stuff.

It’s also been a while since I’ve done a round-up post, and now seems like as good a time as any, with the Obama debacle so fresh that steam is still rising from it.

And why don’t we start with the whole religion thing, since that’s what got Obama inextricably bound up with McClurkin. Via Prometheus comes this video. But first a comment from Prometheus.

Technorati Tags: 2008 election, blogs, current events, gay rights, homophobia, obama, politics, religion

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I’ll give Obama credit. It took him less than a day to issue a statement on his association with Donnie McClurkin.

In a statement, Obama said he believes gays and lesbians are “our brothers and sisters” and should be afforded the same respect, dignity and rights granted all other citizens.

“I have consistently spoken directly to African-American religious leaders about the need to overcome the homophobia that persists in some parts our community so that we can confront issues like HIV/AIDS and broaden the reach of equal rights in this country,” Obama said. “I strongly believe that African Americans and the LGBT community must stand together in the fight for equal rights. And so I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkin’s views and will continue to fight for these rights as president of the United States to ensure that America is a country that spreads tolerance instead of division.”

The statement did not say whether McClurkin will still perform on the tour.

Well, there are a couple of things to be said about this.

Technorati Tags: 2008 election, civil rights, current events, gay bashing, gay marriage, homophobia, obama, race, religion

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How schizophrenic does a Democratic candidate have to be, or think he has to be, in order to win? How schizophrenic does a Democratic candidate have to be, or thinks he has to be, on gay issues if he wants to win? I don’t know but I’d have to ask Barrack Obama. He’d have to know. Why else is Obama touring with anti-gay “ex-gay” Donnie McClurkin?

As religious conservatives gather in Washington this weekend for the “Values Voters Summit,” Senator Barack Obama’s campaign announced its latest effort to attract people of faith to the campaign: a gospel concert tour.

All three of the dates of the “Embrace the Change” tour are in South Carolina, where Mr. Obama is locked in battle with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for black voters.

Gospel acts including Mary Mary, Donnie McClurkin and Hezekiah Walker, Byron Cage and the Mighty Clouds of Joy are scheduled to appear.

Who’s Donnie McClurkin, you ask?

Technorati Tags: 2008 election, anti-gay violence, current events, gay bashing, gay rights, homophobia, obama, politics, race, religion

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Chase in linking to my post about Popular Mechanics list of “25 Skills Every Man Should Know”, has come up with his own list of “must have” skills.

Here’s how I did.

1. Know basic nutritional needs & how to plan balanced meals
2. Hone your sense of direction & navigation so you don’t need step-by-step turns to find a location
3. Understand types of health insurance & terminology such as OOP max & co-insurance percentage
4. Maintenance of a personal computer
5. In-depth knowledge of your employment benefits
6. Change a flat tire
7. Wash & iron clothes
8. Balance a checkbook & manage your finances
9. Patch holes in walls
10. Fix a clogged toilet
11. Jump start a car
12. Use public transportation to get around
13. Write an effective resume cover letter
14. Professional oral & written communication
15. Basic math
16. Stay calm in emergencies
17. Know when to ask for help
18. Personal hygiene
19. Do your own taxes
20. Use internet search engines strategically (if you know how to do good searches, you can find any information you need on the web)

Not bad. Better than I did on the Popular Mechanics list.

Technorati Tags: blogs, masculinity, adhd

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I know it’s bad form to make fun of religious folks, but it’s not illegal. Yet. So, pardon me if I have a chuckle over one Muslim cleric’s idea to rid Uganda of gays.

Uganda’s leading Muslim cleric has proposed to President Yoweri Museveni that gays be rounded up and marooned on an island in Lake Victoria until they die.

Sheikh Ramathan Shaban Mubajje told reporters of his plan following a much publicized meeting with Museveni.

“I asked President Museveni to get us an island on Lake Victoria and we take these homosexuals and they die out there,” Mubajje told a news conference.

“If they die there then we shall have no more homosexuals in the country.”

Mubajje gets no points for originality, that’s for sure. People have been talking about putting all the gay folks on an island forever. He gets no point for logic or rationality either. But he probably doesn’t want any since he’s not a man who relies on reason anyway.

But there are at least a couple of reasons why his idea won’t work.

Technorati Tags: current events, gay rights, homophobia, human rights, politics, africa, religion

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You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct.It’s pretty obvious that you don’t make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you’re annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they’re only human. And it’s humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It’s Its There Their They’re Quiz

Well, my English degree finally pays off.

Technorati Tags: memes

I have a confession to make. When we go out as a family, there’s a part of me that’s always at least a little on guard when I’m out with my family. Maybe it’s because I know that, depending on where we are and who’s around, as an openly gay couple we may be targets for harassment or even attack. That’s something that, while I refused to get used to it, as a gay man I’m accustomed to it. I’m accustomed to scanning my surroundings for people who might be a source of trouble, and avoiding them. It requires me to make snap judgments about people that might actually be wrong, but I’d rather err on the side of misjudging them than risking my safety.

That’s part of what hate crimes do to people. When you hear news of someone like yourself being killed or beaten just for being who they are, you absorb the message that the same thing can happen to you if you’re not careful. And not because of anything you might do, or because you might be “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” but because any place might be the wrong place and any time might be the wrong time simply because you are who or what you are. It’s a lesson learned by many different groups at different times; African Americans in the segregated South, for example, or women who’ve absorbed the reality that being women makes the vulnerable to violence at them specifically because they’re women.

You are not safe. And if you are not careful, if you don’t watch yourself — and not just that but watch what you say and do, and around whom — you might get hurt. That means there may also be times when you don’t stand up for yourself, even if you’re being verbally or physically harassed because of who you are, you either ignore it, just take it, or try to get away as quickly as possible. Standing up for yourself might make things worse, and unless someone like Matthew Ashcraft happens to be around, you might not have anyone to defend you.

That’s kind of what happened to Lisa Craig. But the stakes were a bit higher. Because she had her partner and her kids with her.

Technorati Tags: children, courts, crime, current events, family, gay bashing, hate crimes, homophobia, parenting, politics

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In Canada, anyway.

In Cowansville, Quebec, two gay inmates are planning the first same-sex marriage in the federal penitentiary’s history.

David Bedard, 22, and Sony Martin, 26, are on different cell blocks, but can see each other during lunch, gym and outdoor activity periods.

The two will marry at the prison chapel before a Quebec judge, the CanWest News Service reported.

According to Lucette L’Esperance, assistant warden at the institution, the two will receive no special treatment.

“The fact that they are getting married does not grant them any privileges, they will remain in their respective cell blocks and won’t benefit from private family (conjugal) visits,” L’Esperance said.

What? No conjugal visits? Even here in the states gay jailbird couples get conjugal visits, even though they don’t have the benefit of marriage.

Technorati Tags: crime, current events, family, gay marriage, gay rights, marriage, parenting, canada

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As I write this, a hate crimes bill sits on the desk of George W. Bush; one that includes sexual orientation and gender identity in its definition of hate crimes. The bill awaits his signature or veto, with various groups urging him to apply one or the other. It is not the first time George W. Bush has dealt the issue of hate crimes. Just over 10 years ago, a hate crime against a gay male couple resulted in the murder of Fred Mangione. National gay organizations wrote to then Governor Bush, urging him to support effective hate crimes legislation that included attacks based on sexual orientation.

I don’t know how Gov. Bush responded then, but Mangione’s murder spurred Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee to urge hearings on hate crimes legislation, and to mention Mangione’s murder in her statement during a 1998 House Judiciary Committee hearing.

In the my hometown city of Houston in 1995, Fred Mangione, a homosexual, was stabbed to death, and his companion was assaulted. The two men, who were charged with Mangione’s murder, claimed to be members of the ”German Peace Corps”, which has been characterized in media reports as a neo-Nazi organization based in California. This crime did not meet the State of Texas’ threshold for trial as a capital offense, because the murder did not occur during the commission of a rape or robbery. Ironic, that someone can stab Mr. Mangione thirty times, steal his life away, rob the community of one of its members and rape our collective consciousness of its sense of security, and the penalty is not considered a capitol offense. In recent years, attacks upon gays and lesbians are increasing in number and in severity. During 1995, 2,212 attacks on lesbians and gay men were documented—an 8% increase of the previous year. We need the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and we need to ”become a more perfect union.”

Mangione’s murder took place just two years before James Byrd was dragged to death by white supremacists in Jasper, TX. It happened just give years after Paul Broussard was murdered in a gay bashing in Houston, and now one of his bashers — the one who struck the death blow — is up for parole again.

Technorati Tags: anti-gay violence, bush, courts, crime, current events, gay bashing, hate crimes, homophobia, politics

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Like the case of Nick Moraida in Corpus Christi, TX, when I came across the case of John Lloyd Griffin and Tommy Lee Trimble, I didn’t get their names right away. Instead, I found stories about the guy who shot and killed them — Richard Lee Bednarski — and the Judge — Jack Hampton — who gave their killer 30 years instead of a life sentence, because he killed a couple of “queers.” But, like other victims, their names were nearly buried under an avalanche of news stories about their killer and events in the aftermath of their deaths. Maybe that’s why I named the entry about their deaths after them, even though I found more information about the killer and the judge.

I still remembered the case and even the name of the killer, just under 20 years after it happened, because of how the case impacted me when I first heard about it all those years ago. It came a couple of years after the Bowers v. Hardwick decision from the Supreme Court, and the reason I pair the two stories in my mind is because the first one seemed to divorce people like me from the U.S. constitution, and the second one exemplified the mindset behind the Bowers decision, based on Judge Jack Hampton’s words.

A judge here has said he gave an 18-year-old murderer a more lenient sentence than prosecutors had sought because the two victims were homosexual and, the judge said, they would not have been killed “if they hadn’t been cruising the streets picking up teen-age boys.”

“I put prostitutes and gays at about the same level,” he said, “and I’d be hard put to give somebody life for killing a prostitute.” He said he stood by his decision to impose a 30-year sentence rather than life in prison on the defendant, Richard Lee Bednarski. “I did what I thought was right,” he said.

…This afternoon Judge Hampton said in an interview that he had received death threats and the police had advised him to leave Dallas for his safety.

In explaining the Nov. 19 sentence to The Times Herald, Judge Hampton said: “I don’t care much for queers cruising the streets. I’ve got a teen-age boy.”

Technorati Tags: anti-gay violence, courts, crime, current events, gay rights, hate crimes, homophobia, politics

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About You?

To be honest, I have no idea what this means.

What Your Hands Say About You

You are logical, analytical, and rational. You have good verbal skills. Idealistic and dreamy, you tend toward the impractical. You have a knack for getting yourself in sticky situations. Brainy and intelligent, you are intellectual to the point of being incomprehensible. Your emotions tend to be relaxed and uncomplicated. You don’t read too much into things.

Logical? Analytical? Rational? Isn’t that kind of the opposite of idealistic and dreamy? As far as being incomprehensible, some people have told me I am. If I can write that off to intelligence, I’ll take that. [Via Living the Scientific Life.]

I don’t remember where I heard it, but when I was growing up I remember hearing and “old wives’ tale” about reading the bible, and it was basically that if you read the bible from beginning to end, you’ll go insane. Now, I don’t remember why you’d go insane. Maybe if you read it all the way through in one sitting, you’re so sleep deprived by the time you get to Revelations that you’re already hallucinating and the imagery drives you over the edge. Or maybe it’s the effort of dealing with all the contradictions, and convincing yourself that there are no contradictions, that maintaining that cognitive dissonance is enough to drive you crazy. And in some cases, crazy enough to kill.

But how crazy is that? How many people get that crazy? And do they get crazy enough to kill? Yes, at least a few of them do. The men who killed Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder were that crazy. But they also believed that they were “obeying God’s law” and that the bible told them it was right.

But Williams insists that because the Bible holds that homosexuality is a sin that must be punished by death, the responsibility for the slayings rests with the victims.

“You obey a government of man until there is a conflict,” Williams said. “Then you obey a higher law.”

“It’s part of the faith,” he added. “So many people claim to be Christians and complain about all these things their religion says are a sin, but they’re not willing to do anything about it. They don’t have the guts.”

Matthew Williams had “the guts” when he killed Matson and Mowder. And Terry Mangum had “the guts” when he killed Kenneth Cummings Jr., because God told him to, because Kenneth Cummings was gay.
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I haven’t had a chance to address the news that Arkansas will have an anti-gay adoption initiative on the ballot if the Arkansas Family Council has it’s way, now that it has the go ahead to start gathering the necessary signatures. (And, no slight to any Arkansans reading this, but my guess is that they won’t have much trouble getting enough signatures.)

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel certified the Family Council’s proposed initiated act, clearing the way for the conservative organization to begin collecting signatures. If enough have been gathered by summer, the proposal will qualify for the ballot in the Nov. 4, 2008, election.

…The measure is the Family Council’s latest response to the 2006 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional the state’s administrative ban on homosexuals serving as foster parents.

After failing to get the Legislature to prohibit gays or unmarried couples from adopting and fostering children, the organization came forward with the proposed initiated act.

It would go farther than the foster parenting ban, also applying to adoption, but the current proposal doesn’t mention homosexuals.

The proposal would ban unmarried sexual partners who live together — same-sex or opposite-sex — from adopting or becoming foster parents. Cox said it wouldn’t apply to single people, whether gay or straight.

He said he’s been told that gay couples in Arkansas are adopting children.

“The door is wide open for that to occur,” Cox said. “What we want to do is close that door.”

And close it quick, because you don’t want any of those kids ending up in safe, loving, supportive, homes with two same-sex parents. After all, if only people who can make babies are fit to be married, only people who can make babies are fit to be parents. Right?
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