Can you imagine superheroes for lgbt rights in Colorado? If you can't, you aren't imaginative enough, because the GLBT Community Center of Colorado has just launched a website and a youtube cartoon featuring these spandex-wearing characters:
My only question is, where's Scoobie-Doo? There is also a full website where you can sign on for updates and take advantage of viral email to let other people know.
This quote, from David Mitchell's brilliant novel, Cloud Atlas:
And after the last weeks in Iran, electronically via internet and mobile communications as well. And we have seen how corporations that offer internet and mobile services can sell out to repressive governments to further their own interests.
Steven Colbert just gets more amazing every week. He went to Iraq and stood before a cheering crowd of soldiers as he made fun of Don't Ask Don't Tell — proof positive that the troops on the ground are more than ready to end this shameful charade perpetrated by successive administrations, Obama included.
And last night, he had as a guest on his show (after mercilessly hitting Obama for cowardice and duplicity in "stonewalling" the lgbt community) Jim Fouratt, veteran of GLF, GAA, former proprietor of Danceteria - the great 80s disco. (This Danceteria bit made Colbert's comment on surviving the Disco Inferno all the funnier, though if 5% of the audience understood the reference I'd be amazed)
Colbert usually interrupts his guests and they rarely get a chance to really deliver their message. That didn't happen last night, and Fouratt got a chance to tell the story of the Stonewall Uprising as it actually happened (as opposed to the mythology of the event) to a national TV audience (even if it's cable!). Colbert isn't mere satire, he is queering the news. Here is the interview:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Jim Fouratt | ||||
| ||||
New York State voters support 51 – 41 percent, with 8 percent undecided, a law allowing same-sex couples to marry, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
This is the first poll by the independent Quinnipiac University showing support for same-sex marriage in New York State, where voters split 46 – 46 percent on this issue in a May 14 survey and opposed same-sex marriage 55 – 37 percent in an April 15, 2004, poll.
In this latest survey, women support same-sex marriage 58 – 35 percent, while men oppose it by a narrow 48 – 44 percent margin. Same-sex marriage wins 65 – 28 percent from Democrats and 52 – 42 percent from independent voters, while Republicans oppose it 66 – 27 percent. The proposal wins 52 – 42 percent support from white voters and 55 – 39 percent from Hispanics. Black voters split with 43 percent in favor and 42 percent opposed.
Voters who attend religious services at least once a week are opposed 63 – 31 percent, while those who attend less frequently support same-sex marriages 61 – 31 percent. Support also rises with income and education level.
New York State voters support same-sex civil unions 68 – 25 percent, with support from all groups, including 55 – 37 percent among Republicans. Overall support was 65 – 27 percent May 14.
“It’s the slimmest of majorities, but for the first time in a Quinnipiac University poll of New York State, same-sex marriage is ahead,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Supporters have worked hard in the last six weeks, moving the needle from dead even to slightly ahead. Who knows how far they can move that needle in the next six weeks if the State Legislature doesn’t act.”
“It is interesting to note that support for same-sex civil unions, which gay marriage advocates say is an unacceptable alternative, has barely moved,” Carroll added.
Given three choices:
• 46 percent of New York State voters say same-sex couples should be allowed to marry;
• 27 percent say they should be allowed to form civil unions;
• 20 percent say there should be no legal recognition.
The first in two posts: today NewFest, tomorrow The Feigele Film Festival at the JCC.
The next 7 days in New York City is a great time to see films about what it means to be queer in Israel today — from the point of view of queer Jews across the religious and political spectrum, from secular Zionists to the orthodox, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And the distance between those two cities can seem like the distance between the 21st Century and the Iron Age.
First, there will be an encore screening of City of Borders at NewFest, the annual lgbt film festival, tomorrow night, Wednesday, June 10th at 6pm. It’s an amazing film that chronicles the story of Jerusalem’s only gay bar, through the eyes of its courageous owner (who also became a member of the city council) and its patrons — including a Palestinian man who would have to sneak into Israel to feel safe about being openly queer, and a young man from a settlement community who was one of the people stabbed by a crazed Haredi at the Pride parade in 2006. There is also a cross-national lesbian couple, Israeli and Palestinian, negotiating the rocky shoals of relationship with the added burden of war and oppression. This film asks all the right questions and shows Israeli society with all its beauty and ugliness, with its commitment to equality for all and the discrimination and danger faced by Muslim Israelis by Queer Israelis. This is a fully nuanced view of the multi-faceted reality free of the sloganeering of the knee-jerk crowds on all sides of the issues. And as such, is a film that is important for everyone to see.
It’s all the more interesting to see in the context of the news. The Jerusalem Post reports that international Israel advocacy organization Stand With Us has invited prominent gay opinion-shapers from around the world to Tel Aviv for the Pride celebrations, to show the progressive face of the country and a view that shifts the focus away from the conflict between peoples.
This is clearly a concerted PR effort that has the government behind it, even as the city government in Jerusalem prepares for violence by the Haredi against the upcoming Pride march in that city two weeks from now. Certainly in the face of protests by gay groups in Toronto and elsewhere against Israeli policies towards the Palestinians this is meant to mark the difference between the two societies in treatment of sexual minorities, and to say to these protesters, pardon my French, “what the fuck?”
Of course, you can’t make grey white by comparing it to black. And let’s be clear, while it is certainly true that I’d rather be queer in Israel than in Cairo or Damascus or Ramallah, I sure wouldn’t want to be Palestinian in Tel Aviv.
What’s more I feel used. Not like a politically active gay man wouldn’t feel used in the US today (are you listening Barack? I think not). But last year, when there was a pro-Israel demonstration outside the United Nations against Iran's president Ahmadinejad, I was asked by a Jewish organization called The Council of Presidents to help out by writing a print ad to help draw crowds to the demo by appealing to people concerned about human rights. My copy made it clear that many people were oppressed in today’s Iran, from religious minorities to women to gay men. At first they were happy. But of course, when push came to shove, queer folk got shoved. They didn’t really care about human rights — it was about Israel, pure and simple. And while I support Israel, I am not interested in being used by the Jews in this way.
Yes, my marriage (if I were married) would be recognized in Israel. And I would be killed in Egypt. Makes being an Israel supporter feel like being a Democrat in the US, huh?
Another reason for quick passage of the Reuniting American Families Act. San Angelo's mayor J.W. Lown resigned from office to stay in Mexico while his partner waits to receive U.S. citizenship.
He had just won re-election with 89% of the vote, after already serving several terms. Mayor Pro Tem Jon Mark Hogg said “it goes without saying we lost a great public servant with. He cared about and advocated for the city of San Angelo.”
This is TEXAS people!!!! The world is getting more interesting as more people not only come out, but take public stances on how their lack of legal status affects not only their lives, but the life of the wider community. This is where marriage equality on a federal level would make a complete difference.
As public servants like former Mayor Lown, and servicemenbers like Lt. Choi and Lt. Co. Ferhrehbach continue to come out, it's going to be harder for the right to make the case against us. Who is next?
Below is a story reported by the JTA. As a wire service report there is no analysis of anti-semitism in the lgbt community (particularly in Canada since that's where this story originates from):
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A Canadian Jewish human rights group is calling on the LBGT community to reject a "queers" anti-Israel apartheid program in Toronto.
"Queers Against Israeli Apartheid" is being held Saturday to "reignite Toronto’s queer community in the fight against apartheid," according to an announcement on the Ontario Public Interest Research Group Web site.
"Israel has now begun to frame itself as a tolerant, queer-positive democracy," the announcement read. "This can never be reality under occupation."
The keynote speaker is El-Farouk Khaki, co-founder of Salaam: Queer Muslim Community and Pride 2009 Grand Marshall.
B’nai Brith Canada called on members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to reject the program.
“It is the height of irony to single out democratic Israel in this fashion when it is the only country in the Middle East that guarantees the fundamental freedoms of all its citizens without distinction," said Frank Dimant, the executive vice president of B’nai Brith Canada. "In stark contrast, the rights of the LGBT community in neighboring Arab countries are routinely trampled on.
A website has been launched to promote gay tourism in Israel. From the images on the home page, you would never guess that lesbians existed. But hey, I don't any websites from Egypt extolling Pride celebrations in cities all over the country, as this site does. (The very fact that I praise something while at the same time criticizing it is about as Jewish as you can get). And I've got to say, the site certainly makes a visit look like a lot of fun.
I'd read James Kirkup's memoir of Japan, These Horned Isles, years back when I first moved to Japan. I was introduced to his poetry by the gay Canadian poet, bibliographer, archivist and activist, Ian Young, back in the 1970s.
His work stirred up a lot of trouble in Britain when one of his poems, about the love of a Roman Centurion for Christ on the cross, led to the last successful prosecution for blasphemy in that country. The Japanese of course, honored Kirkup, and he received prizes for his writing from the Heisei Emperor.
I will dig thru my books later to post something of his.
In today's front page story about the disorganization of opponents to marriage equality in NY State is this gem of a sentence that is very telling and extremely sad:
"The state's Roman Catholic bishops have been somewhat distracted, too, having focused their lobbying energies this session on defeating a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse to bring civil claims, and have appeared unprepared for the battle over marriage."
Caught with their pants down as it were.
