03.09.10
Posted in D's Thoughts at 6:48 pm by pikapp44
Sean Hayes, who played flamboyant Jack McFarland on NBC’s Will and Grace for eight years, has publicly confirmed his sexuality for the first time.
The resolutely private actor recently gave his first interview to gay newsmagazine The Advocate after many denied requests.
The Advocate and other media had long criticized Hayes, 39, for not confirming what many have called the “open secret” of his sexual orientation.
I never have had a problem saying who I am,” Hayes says in the new cover story.
“I am who I am. I was never in, as they say. Never,” he states.
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03.06.10
Posted in D's Thoughts at 10:55 pm by pikapp44
The Nevada Taxi Authority is under fire for a policy that groups gays with alleged criminals among those at high risk of giving communicable diseases to agency employees.
“The policy of the Taxicab Authority is to safeguard, to the highest degree possible, employees and the public who come in contact with people who have or are suspected of having communicable disease without sacrificing essential services to the community or individual citizens,” the policy reads.
Who else, besides the gays, poses a risk of transmitting communicable diseases? Sex workers and intravenous drug users.
The policy goes to great length to explain how “persons of high-risk groups, including homosexuals, intravenous drug users, prostitutes and others are to be treated with caution. Where violence or an altercation is likely, when practical, protective disposable gloves and an eye and face shield should be worn.”
Former TA Officer Scott Lewis told Las Vegas’ CBS 8 the policy shocked him.
“It took my breath away to read that. It lumps in homosexuals and gays with drug users and prostitutes. Drug users and prostitutes as we know are criminals,” he said. “My question is, what is a homosexual? How can you tell? Would you ask them, ‘Are you homosexual?’ and then stop, as it says, for your personal protective equipment.”
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03.05.10
Posted in D's Thoughts at 5:16 pm by pikapp44
My partner and I both love our pets and consider them our babies. This is a heartbreaking story.
For six weeks, the Coombs family searched in vain for their lost Bengal cat, O’Malley.
They held out hope that he eventually would be found and returned because they had implanted a microchip in him with their contact information.
But when Broward County’s animal control division found O’Malley in mid-February, it did not notify the Coombs family until after staff euthanized the cat.
“I just think they are euthanizing animals and not looking for the owners or anything because we had gone there and been reassured and were relying on them,” Deborah Coombs said. “We were so devastated because our animals are like our children and are part of our family.”
The cat’s death has the family and county commissioners wondering if the scandal-plagued agency – which was restructured in 2008 after facing criticism for animal abuse and misconduct – has reformed its ways. The county is apologizing, but officials aren’t sure what exactly happened and are waiting for an internal investigation to be completed.
O’Malley had been at the shelter four days when officers decided he was too sickly to live. Officials say no chip was found when O’Malley was initially scanned, but was discovered when he was scanned again after death.
The Coombses are even more infuriated over what they say happened when they picked up O’Malley’s body to be cremated. They say a shelter employee ridiculed them and suggested they should be cited for O’Malley being malnourished.
An audit of the agency two years ago found food for dogs and cats in short supply, animal carcasses rotted in maggot-infested bags and workers taking valuable dogs for their own profits. Officials were forced to change procedures to reduce the problems.
“I’m furious,” said Broward County Mayor Ken Keechl, who led the drive to reform the agency. “I’m tired of it – how many years will this keep going on?”
O’Malley, who was about 2 years old, was a house cat who enjoyed stretching out on a bed and fetching balled-up pieces of paper. The family adopted him as a kitten from Deborah Coombs’ father and didn’t keep a collar on him because he lived indoors.
On Jan. 3, Michael Coombs accidentally left the cover off a cat door in the garage and O’Malley got out. When the Coombes stopped by the county shelter as part of their search, they were assured the staff checks strays immediately for a microchip and calls the family if one is found.
Microchips are tiny transponders implanted under the skin that use radio frequency waves to transmit information about the pet. The chips can be installed by a veterinarian at a cost of less than $50 and can be read with a handheld scanner.
Animal groups say that microchips are helpful in the return of lost pets, but they warn that chips shouldn’t replace collars with ID tags.
Chips, which are designed to last 25 years, can occasionally get lost inside the pet and be difficult to scan. Also, until recently, there was no universal scanner to read all the different frequencies.
Beth Chavez, who oversees the animal services division as the county’s community services director, said the agency’s policy is to scan all animals and contact the owner. But she noted 20,000 animals a year go through the county shelters and that scanning is not foolproof.
“What happened with the cat is a very unfortunate situation and we do feel sorry to the family for what happened,” Chavez said. She could not discuss specifics of what happened because she is waiting for the internal affairs report.
Normally, the shelter waits three days before deciding whether to euthanize or put up for adoption an animal that does not appear to be owned. It makes that same decision after five days with animals that seem to be owned.
The Coombs family said they were called on Feb. 16 about O’Malley’s fate. They said they were told that O’Malley had an upper respiratory infection and was so malnourished that he would not have survived much longer.
The Coombses question the validity of the agency’s story and say they would have taken O’Malley to their veterinarian if the shelter had given them the opportunity.
They said O’Malley was naturally thin, had long suffered from respiratory problems and had lost muscle tone because of recent hip surgery. They also note O’Malley was clearly a house pet – declawed and neutered.
“We just miss him so much,” Deborah Coombs said. “We would have gone there immediately if they had called.”
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03.04.10
Posted in D's Thoughts at 12:13 pm by pikapp44
An anti-gay California state senator was placed under arrest for drunk driving after leaving a gay bar. A male passenger was in the vehicle along with the lawmaker was not arrested, reported Sacramento CBS affiliate Channel 13.
State Sen. Roy Ashburn was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol at about 2:00 a.m. on March 3 when his state-issued vehicle was observed being driven erratically. The driver, identified as Ashburn, was taken in and charged for driving under the influence. Channel 13 reported that unidentified sources said the senator had been at Faces, a popular gay nightspot, prior to his arrest.
In a March 4 article, the online news site Talking Points Memo characterized Ashburn, who is married and has four children, as “a fierce opponent of gay rights” who had led anti-marriage equality rallies.
Ashburn issued a contrite apology, stating, “I am deeply sorry for my actions and offer no excuse for my poor judgment. I accept complete responsibility for my conduct and am prepared to accept the consequences for what I did.”
Ashburn will not be able to drive for a month and the vehicle he was in at the time of his arrest has been impounded, reported online news site Bakersfield.com on March 3. If the state senator receives the same penalties as do others arrested for drunk driving, the article said, Ashburn could face three years of probation, fines of up to $1,000, attendance at a “DUI offender program,” and two days’ jail time.
It is uncertain how the arrest–or his reported presence at a gay bar–will affect Ashburn’s prospects for re-election. He already faces a fellow Republican for in the upcoming race for the seat he occupies in the state senate.
Anti-gay lawmakers who are alleged to engage in sexual activity with members of their own gender have attracted significant media attention in recent years. Among the high-profile cases in lawmakers with records of voting against gay equality measures is the arrest of former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, who was charged with soliciting another man for sex in an airport restroom, and a 2006 scandal involving Republican Sen. Mark Foley, who allegedly exchanged sexually charged text messages with teenaged male pages and young men who had formerly been pages.
A 2009 documentary titled Outrage noted that rumors have long swirled around Florida governor Charlie Crist, who supported a successful ballot initiative to amend the state’s constitution in a way that bars marriage equality for gay and lesbian families. The film also traced the careers of other anti-gay politicians rumored to be closeted gays themselves, such as Republican Congressman David Drier, a California representative.
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02.26.10
Posted in D's Thoughts at 4:13 pm by pikapp44
Daniel Radcliffe is explaining why he has just filmed a public service announcement for The Trevor Project, the leading organization focusing on suicide prevention efforts among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youth.
Because his parents were both actors, ”I grew up knowing a lot of gay men and it was never something that I even thought twice about — that some men were gay and some weren’t,” the ”Harry Potter” megastar said Friday. ”And then I went to school and (for) the first time … I came across homophobia. … I had never encountered it before. It shocked me.
”I have always hated anybody who is not tolerant of gay men or lesbians or bisexuals,” he added. ”Now I am in the very fortunate position where I can actually help or do something about it.”
The result is a PSA that was filmed Friday at the organization’s Wall Street offices. The announcement is scheduled to air sometime this spring.
Radcliffe first became aware of The Trevor Project, founded in 1998 by three filmmakers, while he was appearing on Broadway in the 2008 revival of ”Equus.” Their movie, ”Trevor,” which won an Academy Award for best short film, concerned a gay teen who attempts suicide. The Trevor Project allows young people to call in for counseling or just to talk.
”I have described myself as being ‘gently eccentric’ and slightly different as a person just because I’ve had a very different set of influences growing up than anybody else in my peer group did,” the 20-year-old Radcliffe said. ”I’ve always felt very lucky to have the life that I’ve had. I never had to cope with anything serious about my religion or sexual orientation or anything like that.
”I think it’s important for somebody from a big, commercial movie series like ‘Harry Potter’ and particularly because I am not gay or bisexual or transgendered. … The fact that I am straight makes not a difference, but it shows that straight people are incredibly interested and care a lot about this as well
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02.14.10
Posted in D's Thoughts at 8:50 pm by pikapp44
Kitty’s Toy Box is a lesbian owned online boutique for women.
Kitty’s Toy Box offers a private and comfortable atmosphere where women can shop and purchase e a wide selection of sex toys including dildos, vibrators, fetish gear, and other sexy adult toys and gifts in the comfort of your own home.
You can also find sex tips and how to guides.
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02.10.10
Posted in D's Thoughts at 10:58 am by pikapp44
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is recommending that President Obama nominate an openly gay man to serve as a federal judge for the first time. Daniel Alter has been designated by the senator for the U.S. district court for the southern district of New York, subject to Senate confirmation.
Schumer noted the historic nature of the recommendation in a statement, according to DC Agenda.
“His outstanding leadership skills, his commitment to justice, and his extensive experience make him an exceptional choice for a position on the federal bench,” said Schumer. “I’m proud to nominate Daniel Alter. Period. But I am equally proud to nominate him because he is a history-maker who will be the first openly gay male judge in American history.”
Schumer is the senior senator from New York. Presidents traditionally follow the judicial nomination recommendations of the senior senator from the state where this is a vacancy.
According to DC Agenda, Alter is a graduate of Columbia College and Yale Law School. His experience includes six years as an assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York and service as national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed Deborah Batts, an out lesbian, to serve as federal judge for the U.S. district court of the southern district of New York.
The Alter recommendation arrives as the San Francisco Chronicle reported this week that Judge Vaughn Walker of the U.S. district court for the northern district of California, who is presiding over the Proposition 8 trial, is gay. Walker has not commented on the report.
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02.07.10
Posted in D's Thoughts at 12:19 pm by pikapp44
Adm. Mike Mullen called for gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military: A curious silence befell much of the right.
John McCain, commandeering the spotlight as usual, did fulminate against the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” But the press focus on McCain, the crazy man in Washington’s attic, was misleading. His yapping was an exception, not the rule.
A large majority of voters — between 61 percent and 75 percent depending on the poll — now share his point of view. Most Americans recognize that being gay is not a “lifestyle” but an immutable identity, and that outlawing discrimination against gay people who want to serve their country is, as the admiral said, “the right thing to do.”
Mullen’s heartfelt, plain-spoken testimony gave perfect expression to the nation’s own slow but inexorable progress on the issue. He said he had “served with homosexuals since 1968” and that his views had evolved “cumulatively” and “personally” ever since. So it has gone for many other Americans in all walks of life. As more gay people have come out — a process that accelerated once the modern gay rights movement emerged from the Stonewall riots of 1969 — so more heterosexuals have learned that they have gay relatives, friends, neighbors, teachers and co-workers. It is hard to deny our own fundamental rights to those we know, admire and love.
As recently as 2004 — when Karl Rove and George W. Bush ran a national campaign exploiting fear of gay people — there is now little political advantage to spewing homophobia. Indeed, anti-gay animus is far more likely to repel voters than attract them. This equation was visibly eating at Orrin Hatch, the Republican senator from Utah, as he vamped nervously with Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC last week, trying to duck any discernible stand on Mullen’s testimony. On only one point was he crystal clear: “I just plain do not believe in prejudice of any kind.”
Now that explicit anti-gay animus is an albatross, those who oppose gay civil rights are driven to invent ever loopier rationales for denying those rights, whether in the military or in marriage. Hatch, for instance, limply suggested to Mitchell that a repeal of “don’t ask” would lead to gay demands for “special rights.” Such arguments, both preposterous and disingenuous, are mere fig leaves to disguise the phobia that can no longer dare speak its name. If gay Americans are to be granted full equality, the flimsy rhetorical camouflage must be stripped away to expose the prejudice that lies beneath.
The arguments for preserving “don’t ask” have long been blatantly groundless. McCain — who said in 2006 that he would favor repealing the law if military leaders ever did — didn’t even bother to offer a logical explanation for his mortifying flip-flop last week. He instead huffed that the 1993 “don’t ask” law should remain unchanged as long as any war is going on (which would be in perpetuity, given Afghanistan). Colin Powell strafed him just hours later, when he announced that changed “attitudes and circumstances” over the past 17 years have led him to agree with Mullen. McCain is even out of step with his own family’s values. Both his wife, Cindy, and his daughter Meghan have posed for the current California ad campaign explicitly labeling opposition to same-sex marriage as hate.
McCain aside, the most common last-ditch argument for preserving “don’t ask” heard last week, largely from Southern senators, is to protect “troop morale and cohesion.” Every known study says this argument is a canard, as do the real-life examples of the many armies with openly gay troops, including those of Canada, Britain and Israel. But the argument does carry a telling historical pedigree. When Harry Truman ordered the racial integration of the American military in 1948, Congressional opponents (then mainly Southern Democrats) embraced an antediluvian Army prediction from 1940 stating that such a change would threaten national defense by producing “situations destructive to morale.” History will sweep this bogus argument away now as it did then.
Those opposing same-sex marriage are just as eager to mask their bigotry. The big arena on that issue is now in California, where the legal showdown over Proposition 8 is becoming a Scopes trial of sorts, with the unlikely bipartisan legal team of David Boies and Ted Olson in the Clarence Darrow role. The opposing lawyer, Charles Cooper, insisted to the court that he bore neither “ill will nor animosity for gays and lesbians.” Given the history of the anti-same-sex marriage camp, it’s hard to make that case with a straight face. In trying to do so, Cooper moved that graphic evidence of his side’s ill will and animosity be disallowed — including that notorious, fear-mongering television ad, “The Gathering Storm.”
The judge admitted such exhibits anyway. Boies also triumphed in dismantling an expert witness called to provide the supposedly empirical, non-homophobic evidence of how same-sex marriage threatens “procreative marriage.” In cross-examination, Boies forced the witness, David Blankenhorn of the so-called Institute for American Values, to concede he had no academic expertise in any field related to marriage or family. The only peer-reviewed paper he’s written, for a degree in Comparative Labor History, was “a study of two cabinetmakers’ unions in 19th-century Britain.”
Polls consistently show that independents, however fiscally conservative, are closer to Democrats than Republicans on social issues. (In May’s Gallup survey, 67 percent of independents favored repealing “don’t ask.”) This is why Scott Brown, enjoying what may be a short-lived honeymoon in his own party, calls himself a “Scott Brown Republican.” A Scott Brown Republican isn’t a Boehner or Hatch Republican. In his interview with Barbara Walters last weekend, he distanced himself from Sarah Palin, said he was undecided on “don’t ask” and declared same-sex marriage a “settled” issue in his state, Massachusetts, where it is legal.
The more bigotry pushed out of the closet for all voters to see, the more likely it is that Americans will be moved to grant overdue full citizenship to gay Americans.
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01.30.10
Posted in D's Thoughts at 10:41 pm by pikapp44
CBS has recently denied a spot during the Super Bowl for a commercial promoting ManCrunch.com, a gay dating Web site, and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) wants to know why.
GLAAD has asked CBS to publicly address their advertising standards.
The letter GLAAD sent to CBS also mentioned the commercial the television station accepted from the Christian organization, Focus on Family, which also caused some controversy for CBS.
Jarrett Barrios, President of GLAAD, said to Entertainment Weekly,”This network should come clean to the public about what’s going on because this seems to be a homophobic double standard.”
According to Entertainment Weekly, CBS released a statement yesterday which said, “After reviewing the ad — which is entirely commercial in nature — our Standards and Practices department decided not to accept this particular spot. As always, we are open to working with the client on alternative submissions.”
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Posted in D's Thoughts at 5:48 pm by pikapp44
Gay groups are calling CBS homophobic for agreeing to air an antiabortion ad featuring Tim Tebow and not the ad for gay dating website ManCrunch. By changing its policy on advocacy ads, CBS invited the outrage.
By agreeing to show an “uplifting” antiabortion ad and rejecting a Super Bowl-style ad (read: funny) for a gay dating site, CBS is already feeling the effects of its decision to air “advocacy” ads for the first time on Super Sunday.
Working in a tough advertising climate, CBS surprised many Americans by explaining a new policy on advocacy ads after news emerged that it had agreed to show an antiabortion ad featuring Florida QB Tim Tebow and his mom, Pam.
That decision caused an uproar over the ad itself, the sponsor (the conservative organization Focus on the Family), and the prospect of politics seeping into a three-hour block where most Americans are trying to escape from the daily grind.
CBS opened itself to criticism
But after CBS on Friday rejected a potentially controversial ad from ManCrunch, a Toronto-based gay dating site, it opened itself up for criticism – which came fast and furious. The so-called “man-kiss ad” shows two football fans touching hands over a bowl of potato chips, which then leads, as the ad implies, to a make-out session.
“CBS has a problem when they do something like this at the same time as they allow an anti-gay group like Focus on the Family to place ads during the Super Bowl,” says Jarrett Barrios, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD.) “This network should come clean to the public about what’s going on because this seems to be a homophobic double standard.”
Pop culture expert Robert Thompson at Syracuse University agrees that CBS has opened itself up for criticism by accepting advocacy ads. But the network is also right, he says, when pointing out there’s a key difference between an advocacy ad from Focus on the Family and a commercial ad by Man Crunch.
Sources tell the Hollywood Reporter that the network felt the site was trying to generate free publicity by the “tried-and-true” method of submitting an ad they know will be rejected.
‘Ridiculous Super Bowl stunts’
Indeed, “it’s the time of year for ridiculous Super Bowl stunts, in which companies claim they’ve been censored by the hosting broadcast network and then laugh as gullible media outlets run with the story, but never checking to see if the ads were censored – or even if the company had the money to run it in the first place,” agrees Ad Age.
A ManCrunch.com spokesperson said the company had offered to pay for the $2.6 million ad slot up front. CBS tells Entertainment Weekly the network has no record of such an offer.
Essayist Michael Rowe on Huffington Post sides with ManCrunch’s assertion that CBS is discriminating against progressive ideas.
“The problem is not with the quality (or not) of the ManCrunch ad,” he writes. “The network’s rejection of it merely highlights the obvious: that CBS had already decided where its ethical priorities lay when they accepted the commercial from Focus on the Family last week. Those priorities clearly don’t lie with women, or with progressives, or with any group that happens to find itself on Focus on the Family’s no-fly list.”
But CBS has turned down other ads this year, including a racy one from GoDaddy.com, which stars a football player who becomes a fashion designer. “This ad has the potential to offend viewers,” CBS wrote to GoDaddy.com.
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