First event of SC Black Pride 2008 a success!!!!

The first event of the 2008 SC Black Pride was a HUGE success. It was a get together at a local hotspot. People slowly gathered in but once they did, we all had a good time.

Big shout out to my friends from Houston - Sean and Melissa. Told ya I would mention you!!!!

Also, every fourth Saturday in June is now officially Black Pride Day in the city of Columbia. Thanks to Mayor Bob Coble and the Columbia City Council for that awesome proclamation.

The rest of the week promises to be better and I can't wait.


FX network and changing the game plan

But all isn't happiness as far as I am concerned. There is a recent controversy that has been on my mind. I'm calling some folks out.

And these folks aren't the opposition:

30 Days, FX Networks’ original series produced by Morgan Spurlock, "examines social issues in America by immersing individuals in a life that requires them to see the world through another’s eyes,’" according to the show’s Web site. In 2006, the series won a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Reality Program for the "Gay/Straight" episode.

During the June 24 episode, entitled "Same Sex Parenting," Kati, a woman who opposes gay and lesbian parents and their families, lives for 30 days with gay parents Dennis and Thomas and their four adopted sons. The episode includes the personal stories of kids raised by lesbian and gay parents.

Regrettably, the episode also features a defamatory statement by Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, an anti-gay activist organization, who claims: "Homosexuality is associated with higher rates of sexual promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, mental illness, substance abuse, domestic violence, and child sexual abuse, and those are all reasons for us to be concerned about placing children into that kind of setting." While there is no credible scientific research that backs Sprigg’s claim - and much that disputes it - the episode presents his assertion as if it were fact and offers no credible social science experts or child health authorities to challenge Sprigg’s assertion. Indeed, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the Child Welfare League of America, and many other child health and social services authorities who support parenting by qualified lesbian and gay parents dispute Sprigg’s claim.

From what I understand, the episode was worse than thought. Apparently it also allowed Dawn Stefanowicz (whom I have blogged about on numerous occasions) to spout her "story" about being a child in a gay home where the father was an irresponsible sex addict.

Some of us are up in arms because Sprigg and Stefanowicz was able to spout their lies unchallenged.

Now I have not seen this program, nor do I plan to. But here is what bothers me.

Why are we wasting time bitching at FX? Don't we have our own magazines? Don't we have our own network?

We know that the anti-gay industry routinely lies about lgbts. We know that they either rely on the discredited studies of Paul Cameron or distort legitimate studies.

So why hasn't there been a special report on it in our magazines or some type of documentary on it on the LOGO channel?

True, I wrote a book on the subject and I have devoted two webpages on the same subject, but let's be honest. In the great scheme of things in our community, my voice doesn't really amount to much.

That is to say, no one really knows who I am. Where are our prominent folks on this subject?

Speaking of my book, it was self-published and thus rough around the edges so I got some legitimate criticism over it. However, one criticism really pissed me off.

I was told that I was saying things that people already knew.

Oh really? How many of us know the entire history of Paul Cameron? Or the distortion of the 1997 Canadian study? Or the list of prominent doctors and researchers whose complaints about the distortion of their work have been ignored?

The sad thing is that many of us do not know because those of us in the lgbt community with some stroke, some degree of power over what gets chosen as news aren't doing their jobs.

That's why we look like we have been caught with our dicks in our hands when lies are spun about how anti-discrimination ordinances will lead to predators boldly walking into women's bathrooms.

and that's why we focus on irrelevant shit like Sally Kern's allegedly gay son rather than why is Sally Kern relying on the studies of a man who talked about tattooing AIDS victims.

The point is that we shouldn't be wasting time complaining that networks like FX aren't doing their jobs when we have the means to get the information out ourselves.

There needs to be a concerted effort by us to document and catalogue the specific distortions of the anti-gay industry.

Let's put folks like Peter LaBarbera and Concerned Women for America on the defensive for a change.