Mitchy’s blog

I really hope the Senate makes the right decision here.  It's about time that the government start making some appropriate legislation in support of gay marriage.

John McCain can suck it!

Advocate article

Sad story.  I certainly this poor guy gets out of here before he's too emotionally hurt...forever.

PinkNews Article

After a gay couple who kissed last weekend was in a slight altercation with police just outside of a Mormon church, a Kiss-In was established by a local LGBT community as a peaceful protest.  I say job well done!

Pink News Article

Homosexuality has been officially decriminalized in New Dehli, India!  This is an unbelievable step in the right direction for gay people in Inida.

Great Britain put the anti-gay laws in place back in the 1800's, and now they've been abolished in the capital city.  It is very likely that the laws will soon be abolished throughout the country following this legislation.  How exciting for the gays of India!

NYT articles

Huffington Post Article by Johann Hari

The Stonewall Riots Haven't Stopped-They've Gone Global

It is now forty years since the start of a riot for freedom in a small tavern in New York City - and the riot has never stopped. It is spreading slowly across the world, to every continent, to Mumbai and Shanghai and Dubai. Everywhere it goes, it wins, in time. Yet on June 28th 1969, it seemed only like another sixties ruck in the muck against corrupt cops.

The Stonewall Tavern was a bar in Greenwich Village where gay people huddled together to find friends and lovers in a hostile country on a hostile planet. It was a hang-out for everyone from macho bikers to drag queens making the pilgrimage from Ohio and Iowa and Kansas. One of the regulars said that until he discovered the bar, "I felt like I was the only one... I only knew enough to hide." The regulars were harming nobody; they were only enjoying themselves. But the local police force was fond of busting the bar, and beating and imprisoning the clientele. They only allowed the bar to stay open at all because they were being bribed by local gay gangsters.

But one day, gay people decided they had had enough of cowering and hiding and being told they were sick. On the day of Judy Garland's funeral, the police smashed their way into the Stonewall. The historian Martin Duberman distils what happened next into a single image: "A leg, poured into nylons and sporting a high heel, shot out of a paddy wagon into the chest of a cop, throwing him backwards." The drag queen yelled: "Nobody's gonna fuck with me no more!" And the global riot began.

It was the turning point in the fight for equality for gay people. Within four decades, goals that would have seemed impossible to those fighters that night were achieved: openly gay Prime Ministers, gay marriage in Europe and parts of the US, legal bans on discrimination. The gay rights movement was a cry for the right to love in the darkness. It is a model of democratic pressure: a minority peacefully appealing to the decency of the majority, and prevailing. It's the strongest antidote to cynicism that I know.

The conversation about gay people has been so soaked in theology for so long that it's important to state some hard empirical facts. Homosexuality is a naturally occurring phenomenon that happens in every human society. Everywhere, around 2-5 percent of human beings prefer to have sex with their own gender. It occurs at the heart of nature: only last week, a major study by Professors Nathan Bailey and Marlene Zuk of the University of California found: "The variety and ubiquity of same-sex sexual behaviour in animals is impressive - many thousands of instances of same-sex courtship, pair bonding and copulation have been observed in a wide range of species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, molluscs and nematodes."

Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. It doesn't mean anything. It is a harmless genetic quirk. It has always happened, and it always will. The only question is: do you want to be spiteful to gay people, or let them express their most natural urges peacefully?

In the US and Europe, steadily and remarkably quickly, the civilising voices are winning. There is still a lot to do - gay teenagers are six times more likely to commit suicide than their straight siblings - but the trajectory is ever-upwards. In much of the developing world, gay equality is inching forward too. After extraordinarily brave men and women fought back, India is poised to decriminalize homosexuality this year, and China has just seen its first ever Gay Pride parade.

But there are three great swathes of humanity still untouched by the spirit of Stonewall - and terrified, terrorized gay people there are screaming for help. In the Caribbean, majority-Muslim countries, and most of Africa, being gay is a death sentence - yet many people who should be showing solidarity choose not to see it.

Jamaica is Taliban Afghanistan for gay people. If caught, gays and lesbians face ten years' hard labour - but they are more likely to be lynched. The cases documented by Dr Robert Carr of the University of the West Indies fill whole books. Here's two from a single week. A father found a picture of a naked man in his 16 year old son's rucksack, so he produced it in the playground and called on his classmates to encouraged them to beat him to death - which they promptly did. Nobody was ever charged. In Montego Bay, a man was caught checking out another man - so the crowd lynched him. When the police arrived, they joined in. Hospitals routinely refuse to treat the victims of gay bashings, leaving them to die.

There is a Matthew Sheppard there every day, but people who wouldn't have dreamed of holidaying in Apartheid South Africa flock to Jamaica's beaches. A heroic Jamaican called Brian Williamson set up an organization called J-FLAG to campaign for the rights of gay Jamaicans. His body was found stabbed and slashed over seventy times. The police did nothing. The most popular song in Jamaica in recent years - by Beenie Man - choruses: "I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays... Take dem by surprise/ Get dem in the head."

Throughout Muslim countries, gay people are routinely jailed, tortured and hanged. Mahmoud Ahmadinejadh denies there are any gay people in Iran, but is happy to have them executed in public squares. In post-invasion Iraq, there has been a homo-cidal pogrom of gay people being led by private Islamist "morality squads". In the past two months, over 25 corpses of gay men have been found in one slum, Sadr City, alone, mutilated, with notes saying "pervert" pinned to their chests. Ayatollah Ali-Al Sistani, the country's leading religious cleric, says gays should be killed "in the worst way possible" - and they are obeying. Men are now being killed by having their anuses glued shut.

In Africa, one country has been a beacon for gay rights: post-Apartheid South Africa even gay equality written into its constitution. Yet even it is now headed by a man, Jacob Zuma, who brags about beating up gay men in his youth.

The gay people cowering in these countries are asking for our support - by funding their underground organizations, by putting gay rights on the diplomatic agenda, and by consistently granting asylum to the victims of homophobic persecution. Today, some gay people seeking safety are given the right to remain, while others are told to go back and hide their sexuality.

But too many people avert their gaze from the murderous homophobic persecution happening now - and, even more shockingly, some condemn the people who are trying to stop it. Peter Tatchell, one of the great figures of the fight for gay equality, has for years been organizing practical support for gay Jamaicans, Muslims, and Africans. They have been incredibly grateful - but he has been pilloried by people who pretend to be left-wingers here as "racist" and "imperialist".

How is it "racist" to side with black and Muslim people who are being hunted down and murdered by other black and Muslim people? How is it "imperialist" to peacefully support their struggle, as they are begging us to? Should we say to the successors of Brian Williamson - sorry, but we can't help you today, because the descendants of your torturers and murderers were subject to British imperial rape a century ago?

That would be real racism: to cheer a Stonewall for white people on the streets of New York City, but to ignore it on the streets of Kingston or Cairo or Kinshasa, just because the homophobic cops there happen to be black or Arab.

Homosexuality happens everywhere, so gay people fight for the freedom to be themselves everywhere. The Stonewall riot - and its high-heeled kick - isn't over. In many places, it's only just begun.

Awesome article!  Totally worth checking out.

The children of gay people are the untapped resource that the gay community needs to get the children's safety argument thrown out.  Yes, we can say it doesn't affect them all we want, but we need facts--statistics.  I mean, it doesn't hurt children to have same-sex parents, but the counter argument is so much better with fact.  Maybe this article is pushing onto that road.  I hope so.

Personal blog--Knoxville Pridefest happened yesterday, and here's how it went from my perspective.

This was my first ever Pride festival.  I didn't know there was one in Knoxville until this year, but I was so happy that I got to go.  I've always wanted to see massive grouping of gay people all in one place, just to feel the atmosphere of it.  I could not be like anything I'd ever experienced before.  I know it wouldn't compare to a Pride in NYC or LA, where thousands upon thousands come out, but it's still big for lil' ol' me.

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I worked all day with my UT organization, the Lambda Student Union.  I painted faces for the event as a way to bring people over to our table and get them to see that the Lambda name was out there.  We didn't charge for it because I knew that we would get way less customers if we did (especially since another booth was also painting faces--but not nearly as well, if I may say so myself), but I put a tip jar out that cleverly asked for tips for "a poor, gay, college student" instead of an organization, and we ended getting a bunch of tips out of it because people kept saying they wanted to tip the cute boy for his services.  Hehe, it was so much fun.

Several positives came out of painting faces, all of which I expected and was very pleased about.  Foremostly, I got to experiment with my artistic ability.  I've painted faces before, but never a bunch of rainbows, and let me tell you it was difficult.  I cant do an outline on someone's face, so I have to envision the work of art while painting it multicolored.  Some symbols, like the double gender signs for men and women, were quite to figure out at first, but I managed to even make them a little artsy in the way I did the colors.  Succes

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Secondly, painting faces, since I get so obscenely close to people whilst painting them, gives me a chance to do a bit of socialilizing with people.  I get to talk to the many gays of Knoxville, both young and old, and it's really exciting to get to see some of the different perspectives and how they live their lives in the same city I do.  There are some intersting characters here, needless to say.  One particular group of high schoolers (all gay and cool with it, btws) made sure that I painted all of their faces multiple times, even their arms.  They were all so chatty and fun though, I didn't mind at all.  They all developed this hilarious idea of getting the pot leaf painted in rainbow on their bodies, and that trend quickly picked up, even outside their little group.  I daresay I painted more rainbow pot leaves than hearts yesterday (in photo below).

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Kind of relating to the last point, getting all up on people to paint them let me get extra close to some cute guys.  Not that I'm looking at all (I'm madly in love with Danny and would never consider leaving him), getting to see pretty boys isn't a sin, and they have brains too for good conversation, just like everyone else.

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I didn't get to do much else that day because I was literally painting faces the entire time.  I had to even get a friend to go with my debit card and buy dinner for me; I couldn't take a dinner break because people kept wanting their faces painted.  Not that I was mad at all about this; it makes me so happy to see people glance at someone's rainbow design on their face and want for themselves.  Like my work is actually good or something.  That put a smile on my face.  And it make the time go faster, which is a much needed positive since I was out there the greater part of the day.

Overall, I really enjoyed Pride and think it was a great success.  There was a lot going on, with all the different and exotic booths, people out there to support it from the organizations (even gay-friendly churches came out!), and there were so so so many people (I heard it was the biggest turn out ever).  I can't wait til next year, when we do it so much bigger and better!

I hope this goes through.  It would be a major step in gay rights!!!!!!  Yay for progressives!

Pink News Article

Barneyfrank copy

As I'm typing this, I'm sure the events of Pride in Jerusalem are going on right now (because of the time difference).  I certainly hope everything is going well for them, as the event has been stricken with violence in the past.  My boyfriend is also in Israel today, so if he's there, I REALLY REALLY hope everything goes well today.

Ugh, I'm going to worry myself to death.

Pink News Article

Jewishgay

My roommate, who is from Chattanooga, TN, showed me this letter to the editor from her local newspaper, and I just had to show it off.  We all know I love making fun of ignorant, bigoted Christians, but this guy takes care of my job all by himself.

Same-sex marriage not what God meant

I say this because of same-sex marriage, and I think this is going to be the cause of the destruction of the world because God did not put up with it in the old Bible days nor is He going to put up with it now. I don’t understand what a man sees in another man or the same for two women. God meant for a man and woman to marry. He did not put Adam and Steve on Earth; He put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and that is the way He meant for it to stay.

How can two of the same sex have children? They can’t, and there should not be any children in a same-sex home. God does not approve of same-sex marriage. That is why He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

I think all of these gay couples marrying the same sex is going to escalate the second coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He said the next time he would destroy the Earth by fire, and between China and Iran all you gay people had better start living right or face the consequences.

H. BUDDY ROGERS

Red Bank

Original Article