Know Your LGBT History - The Dynamic Superiors

The one thing I love about learning gay history is finding out about hidden figures, such as the Dynamic Superiors - one of the first soul groups with an openly gay lead singer:

The Dynamic Superiors

Joining forces in Washington, DC, in 1963, Tony Washington, George Spann, George Wesley Peterbank Jnr., Michael McCalpin and Maurice Washington had to wait a decade to win a recording contract. Motown Records president Ewart Abner saw them performing at a talent show in Atlanta, Georgia, and signed them to the label in 1974. They were teamed with the Ashford And Simpson writing and production team, and their debut album was a collection of romantic soul ballads that produced two hits, "Shoe Shoe Shine" and "Leave It Alone'. Their second album, Pure Pleasure, added a disco feel to the Superiors" sound, and spawned two further chart entries. In 1977, the group enjoyed some success with a disco rearrangement of the Martha And The Vandellas' hit, "Nowhere To Run", but they subsequently left Motown, and attempts to secure a major label recording contract elsewhere proved unsuccessful.

Two years later they got their big break when they were discovered Motown executive Ewart Abner at a 1972 dj convention in Atlanta and signed to the label. It apparently took Motown management awhile to figure out how to deal with the group, eventually teaming them with the writing and production team of Nikolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. To Motown's credit the label made no attempt to hide lead singer Tony Washington's openly gay lifestyle – a fact underscored by one quick look at "The Dynamic Superiors" cover art. Not that it mattered … Washington may have worn false eye lashes, rouge, lipstick, and occasionally performed in drag, but he had a killer voice. On tracks like 'Shoe Shine Shine' and 'Star of My Life' he was more than capable of hitting high notes a-la Russell Tompkins Jr.. At the other end of the spectrum Washington's falsetto was nicely offset by tenors Peterbark Jr and Spann.

According to Wikipedia, Washington passed away from AIDS. However,  the group is still going strong. Check out their webpage.

Past Know Your LGBT History posts:

'Religious right attacks GLSEN because of 'phased out' material' and other Friday midday news briefs

Focus On The Family Accuses GLSEN Of Promoting ‘Sexual Anarchy’ And ‘Sexual Chaos’ - The religious right is attacking the GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network) again. This time it's Focus on the Family attacking the organization with a phased out book. Almost every time a religious right group attacks GLSEN, the religious right group winds up slinking back with its tail between its legs. The last time, it was the Family Research Council. I guess Focus on the Family wants a turn on the Wheel of Embarrassment.

Video: WND's Mitchell links gays, 'the left' to violence; encourages conservatives to obtain concealed weapons - Oh great. World Net Daily's Molotov Mitchell has crawled out of his hole. For those who are not aware of this guy, Mitchell once cited Martin Luther King, Jr. in a defense of that Ugandan law which would put gays to death. That should give you a good impression of this guy.

  Candidate said he spent long time contemplating issue before changing his opinion - A Pennsylvania candidate for Congress finally support marriage equality.

 Rev. Irene Monroe: Nothing new in GOP’s anti-woman, anti-gay platform - Every four years, it's the same thing. 

AFA and FRC - enough religious right lies to shake a stick at

This morning, I am overwhelmed with religious right lies. Last night, I was contemplating what to write and was struck by the enormity of what I had to choose, so I am going to hit it with briefs:

AFA claims that its boycott of Home Depot is working

Yesterday, I got an email from the American Family Association which claimed that its boycott of Home Depot is working. AFA, you remember, is angry that Home Depot supports the gay community and maintains a presence at pride parades.

According to AFA:

AFA was recently contacted by a Home Depot employee who says the boycott of Home Depot is being effective. "We have customers who come into our store and confront our store managers over the HD's support of Gay pride. The AFA is having an effect on HD."

She also shared that many employees disagree with the company's pro-gay-marriage stand. In June, a "Gay Pride Month" poster was put up in her breakroom. "HD is as committed as ever to the changing of laws in favor of same sex marriage.They had absolutely no empathy for those employees who voiced offense with the display. This was mandated by corporate directive. Therefore the display was torn down at least 2 times."

An anonymous employee? Sure. And I am Paris Hilton with a good tan and a stunning personal trainer.

The Family Research Council gets a bit of help that it doesn't need

The Family Research Council got some positive pushback a few days ago against the Southern Poverty Law Center.

An editorial in Investor's Daily Business (IBD) defended FRC from charges that it is a hate group. However, unlike those who have said that the lies FRC says about the gay community isn't enough to label it a hate group, IBD stopped a bit lower:

On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign put on its blog a piece titled, "Paul Ryan Speaking at Hate Group's Annual Conference," referring to the FRC.

It said that the "FRC has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It's a group that has advocated for the criminalization of homosexuality, called for LGBT people to be exported from the U.S., and has pushed dangerous lies trying to link being gay to pedophilia."

The FRC has done none of those things but that didn't stop the Daily Kos from vilifying the FRC for its support of Chick-fil-A . . .

You read this right. According to the IBD, the Family Research Council never advocated for the criminalization of homosexuality:



According to the IBD, the Family Research Council never called for gays to be exported out of the United States:



And according to the IBD, the Family Research Council never pushed dangerous lies trying to link being gay to pedophilia:

"We believe the evidence shows … that relative to the size of their population, homosexual men are more likely to engage in child sexual abuse than are heterosexual men."
— Peter Sprigg, "Debating Homosexuality: Understanding Two Views." 2011.

“Gaining access to children has been a long-term goal of the homosexual movement.”
— Robert Knight, FRC director of cultural studies, and Frank York, 1999

“One of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of consent laws and to eventually recognize pedophiles as the ‘prophets' of a new sexual order.”
-1999 FRC pamphlet, Homosexual Activists Work to Normalize Sex with Boys.

“[T]he evidence indicates that disproportionate numbers of gay men seek adolescent males or boys as sexual partners.”
— Timothy Dailey, senior research fellow, “Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse,” 2002

“While activists like to claim that pedophilia is a completely distinct orientation from homosexuality, evidence shows a disproportionate overlap between the two. … It is a homosexual problem.”
— FRC President Tony Perkins, FRC website, 2010

If IBD is making this claim about FRC when the opposite is true, that would mean that the editorial it wrote was shoddy because the author obviously didn't spend enough time on getting the facts rather than pushing a false line that FRC is a victim.

You tell me.

NOM's Brian Brown's tries to pass himself off as the victim of Dan Savage

I am just FLOORED by Brian Brown's comments regarding his recent debate with gay activist Dan Savage.

Brown wrote a long-winded rambling piece which did nothing to recap the debate, but rather attempted to paint himself as David after he slew Goliath. Is this callous or what:

One thing is very clear to me after the time we spent together: Dan Savage believes that gay people are "a tiny defenseless minority," as he said during the debate.

He made this claim while defending the public tongue-lashing of Christian students that brought us together. He doesn't seem to realize that his position as a 47 year old adult—one with the power of fame, celebrity and access to not only the White House, but also MTV—requires a new mentality.

With power comes responsibility, including the responsibility to show how you intend to use your newfound power.

A grown man does not accept an invitation to speak to middle- and high-school students and proceed to insult their faith, and to call them names when they show their objection in the only polite way possible, by politely leaving.

Dan has apologized for the latter, but not the former. As I told him face to face: "To have a bunch of high school students and attack their religious beliefs is not appropriate, it doesn't show respect."

He appears unable to process this point of view.

He has become a hero to a lot of gay people not only for the good he's done (like telling gay kids their lives are precious—don't commit suicide!), but in some cases because Dan Savage is willing to insult and demean those with whom he disagrees.

I don't remember Savage demeaning Brown during the debate.

Needless to say Brown goes on like this - i.e.congratulating himself  and spotlighting the very few comments declaring him as the victor.

Naturally Brown omits the simple fact that the vast majority of comments on the youtube site of the debate points out that Savage basically handed him his ass.

And of course, Brown also omits the most telling moment of the debate when he totally undermined the argument for passing laws against marriage equality. You know the statement he made:

 

However, try as he might to come off as a winner, I think Brown knows that he laid a giant egg in the debate. Savage came to him with facts and when hit with these facts, Brown at times retreated to the standard talking points:

"We who believe in traditional marriage will be thought of as bigots."

"There is something special and unique about marriage as the joining of the two halves of humanity."

However, check out this passage from Brown's:

Let me pose a question to the Dan Savages of the world. Once gay people were a powerless and defenseless minority. Now, you have organized, protested, and become powerful through the use of democratic freedoms and intellectual debate, a powerful cultural force in our time. What use do you intend to make of your power?

The jury is out, as they say, on just how much power we as a community actually do have. But I am rather fond of what Brown said. Try as he might to pretend that he owns the high road, Brown sounds like he can't help but to respect us.

And it's not the respect that comes from us subjugating ourselves to him or those that believe as he does.

It's respect that from us taking him and others to task for their disrespect of us and our families.

So to answer your question Brian, I think that we intend to garner more of that respect. 

Because it's not about making folks like you like us or "tolerate" us.

It's about acquiring the things that belong to us. And these are the things that every human being deserves - respect and the freedom to live our lives by our standards and not by some one else's religious beliefs or  fevered imaginations of what we do in bed.

Vermont inn pays BIG TIME for anti-gay discrimination

The religious right will go crazy over this one, but who cares what they think. Personal religious beliefs is no excuse for a secular business to discriminate.

From blogger VTDigger:

A lesbian couple who sued a Vermont inn last year after they were turned away because of their sexual orientation won a settlement today.

The Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville acknowledged it had broken the law and agreed to pay $30,000 in fines and damages.

Kate Baker and Ming-Lein Linsley were outraged when they found out Linsley’s mother, who was organizing the reception for the New York couple’s destination wedding in Vermont, was turned away by the Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville.

Together with the Vermont Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the couple filed suit against the inn last July. In October, the Vermont Human Rights Commission joined in the lawsuit. The commission is the state body responsible for enforcing human rights laws.

Today, the parties settled the dispute, closing an unpleasant chapter for both the inn and the couple. According to the settlement, the Wildflower Inn was acting in good faith and in compliance with a 2005 decision by the Vermont Human Rights Commission that said that while no public establishment may refuse to serve a customer based on sexual orientation, the inn could advise potential customers of the owners’ Catholic beliefs. Based on that decision, the Wildflower Inn’s stated policy was to ignore all calls and emails from same-sex couples hoping to host a wedding or reception at the inn. If confronted, their policy was to advise the couple that the owners did not believe in same-sex marriage, but would host the reception if they really wanted to.

 . . .  Dan Barrett, an attorney for ACLU-Vermont, said the settlement asserted that the 2005 decision was no longer valid. “What this settlement makes clear is that you can’t discourage and get away with it. Discouragement or any unequal treatment of LGBT customers is [legally] the same as an outright refusal,” he said.

 . . . The Wildflower Inn must now pay a civil penalty of $10,000 to the Vermont Human Rights Commission and establish a $20,000 charitable trust for the Linsleys. Some of the money will go towards the legal costs the couple incurred over the past year while the vast majority will go to charities of their choosing.

Read here for more details.

Hat tip to Joe.My.God.

'Religious right groups want gay activist taken off the air' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Sally Kern, Matt Barber, Peter Labarbera, others sign letter demanding Fox News stop booking Wayne Besen - This is rich! Some major religious right groups and spokespeople are exploiting the FRC shooting to get Fox News to stop booking Wayne Besen. Dag, I am jealous!

 A 'Blacklist' is in the Eye of the Beholder - And a quick reminder of why the call against Besen is hypocritical.

 Anti-gay Organizations Exploit and Fundraise in Wake of Attack - We shouldn't be surprised by this, but it helps to point it out.  

Why FRC’s New “Religious Hostility” Report Is A Joke - Generally this is a joke because it comes from the Family Research Council, a group not known for being truthful. Equality Matters points out specific reasons.

Religious right spokesman continues fascination with perverting marriage equality

The Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber is giving 'Porno Pete' LaBarbera a run for his money when it comes to perverting marriage equality and the gay community in general as paens of sexual hedonism.



According to Right-Wing Watch:

Matt Barber declared that gay activists don't actually want marriage equality but rather are interested in "deconstructing the Judeo-Christian notion of marriage as marriage has always been."  In fact, Barber claimed, the institution of marriage has always been about restricting which sorts of relationships are legitimate, which is why "people can't marry children, people can't marry close relatives, people can't marry their favorite pet."  Barber then warned that if "we're going to break the institution of marriage and radically redefine it" then "polygamy is inevitable if same-sex marriage becomes the law of the land and we can no longer have prohibitions on incestuous marriage.

Related post - If Matt Barber hates gay sex so much, then why does he keep talking about it?