More right wing lunacy on Kevin Jennings courtesy of Kevin McCullough

President Obama's decision to appoint GLSEN(Gay Straight Lesbian Education Network) founder Kevin Jennings as Assistant Deputy Secretary in the Office of Safe Schools has really brought out the wolves.

Aside from the nonsense emanating from Concerned Women for America, Peter LaBarbera, and wannabe activist and expert Linda Harvey comes more nonsense from an old friend of mine, Kevin McCullough via the conservative Town Hall.

McCullough has written a column, Why Obama's Elementary Queering Must Be Stopped, that says less about our President and Jennings and more about the lunancy of those who continue to attack Jennings.

McCullough, who, based on some of his past writings, obviously thinks of President Obama as the Second Coming of Damien Thorne (i.e. The Omen) doesn't hold anything back:

While President Obama was in Cairo preaching Islamist propaganda to the ears of Muslim students this last week, his administration was carrying out an even more sinister agenda.

McCullough of course attacks Jennings for his activities at GLSEN. It disappointed me a little that he didn't pull the "fistgate" card. But not to worry, because McCullough still doesn't disappoint those who have come to anticipate his bizarre ravings:

Kevin Jennings is not just your normal activist nominee. He is a firm advocate of mandated affirmation of approval of homosexual actions by school children, and to this end, his involvement with the GLSEN's "Day of Silence" has moved them to go beyond that to demand "Queer Proms" in the local public schools, and to lobby for legislation in each state to change the definition of marriage to make it mean something it has never meant.

With Jennings' support, the GLSEN chapter in Connecticut has begun pushing not just for "tolerance" or "acceptance" of those who choose to engage in homosexuality in the public schools, but they have actually created an "activity" for the school systems which pushes "positive levels of attitude" such as mandated "admiration" and "nurturance."

In his past, Jennings has left quite a swath of destructive choices as well. He authored the forward for the book titled Queering Elementary which argues for the teaching of sexual "identity" (what you could easily call "indoctrination", "initiation", or "brainwashing") to the children in the elementary education stage of life. The book is so disturbing that it reportedly includes a description of how to "properly" teach a seven year old girl to masturbate.

Because we all know that seven year old girls don't already have enough challenges in this world without being quickly inducted into the "get yourself off" stage of life.

McCullough also proceeds to go into detail about an alleged incident involving Jennings counseling a young boy who was molested by an older teacher. McCullough charges that Jennings should have alerted the authorities but did not.

Now I don't know what exactly happened because McCullough does not give enough details, except for ones that cast Jennings as the bad guy (surprise surprise), but I do know Kevin McCullough enough to know that before I believe anything he says, I would first want two lie detector tests and an affadavit from Jesus Christ himself.

McCullough is not above stretching the truth to fuel his own agenda, such as his behavior in the David Parker controversy. I've talked about the phony claims of Parker before. The gist is that Parker falsely claimed to be persecuted because he wouldn't allow his son's school to teach him about homosexuality. The truth is a bit more complicated.

McCullough entered the situation when he helped to spread a phony story that Parker's son was attacked by a gang of students angry at his father's stance. He wrote a column about the incident - New liberal strategy: Assault 7-year-olds

When the truth came out (Parker's son had gotten into a fight with a friend over a cafeteria seat), McCullough issued no apology for his claim.

In April of last year, McCullough claimed that ENDA(Employee Non-Discrimination Act) would protect pedophiles; a baffling lie:

So stifling would ENDA be in fact that if a Youth Pastor who works with young boys in a church program got caught in an inappropriate relationship with them, ENDA would make it nearly impossible for the church involved to fire the youth pastor. ENDA would directly challenge and seek to limit religious expression, doctrine, theology, and practice.

And then there is my favorite McCullough piece in which he slanders the entire lgbt community:

The “alphas” in homosexual relationships, be they men or women, are many times recruiting younger partners. A vast percentage of those who enter the homosexual life do so after having been sexually initiated by an older person of their sex—be it consensual or not—it usually has the feel of enticement or seduction.

For the record, Jennings has done a lot of positive stuff with GLSEN. I support his appointment and hope he carries that energy into his new job.

The question is not who will protect children from him, but who will protect all of us from the lies of McCullough and company.

The State newspaper runs my column on lgbts of color

My column about lgbts of color is up and it looks good. From what I understand, it will be on The State's webpage until next Saturday. It is the first time that the State newspaper addressed lgbt issues from an African-American gay man's perspective on its editorial pages.

Click here for the link. One of my favorite highlights:

Instead of real conversations, gays and lesbians of color are supposed to be placated by ridiculous assurances that no one has a problem with our “lifestyle” as long as we aren’t in anyone’s faces about it.”

Then we are condemned about our supposed “lifestyle” — as if homosexuality was the original sin that drove Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden — while over-sexualized images in African-American entertainment, fornication and out-of-wedlock births are given a virtual pass in the pulpits. (When President Obama called out homophobia in the pulpits, he was given a standing ovation while his advice went unheeded.)

Meanwhile black-oriented television shows and motion pictures consider us as persona non gratis or simpering oversexed caricatures.

Gays and lesbians of color are being pushed in a psychological closet and muzzled by our own community. We are treated like dog dirt on the front lawn of black America, something to be avoided or eliminated with the utmost efficiency.

Like I said before, I deliberately avoided the tired comparison of the "black civil rights movement" and the "gay civil rights movement."

There have been very few words or columns that center on the plight of lgbts of color, period. When there are discussions about African-Americans and lgbts, there seems to be this need to separate the two entities. I can't tell you how many times that hurts me. I feel like a rope in a vicious tug war game.

I want some attention to be focused on lgbts of color; not how the black community ignores us affects the lgbt community at large, but how the lack of attention affects us.

And I don't want patronizing comments from well-meaning supportive black heterosexuals either. For a change, I want all words to come from us and all eyes to be on us.

Yes I sound selfish when I say this but I don't care. I've seen other people talk about lgbts of color for the longest time.

Now it's time for us to do the talking. Or rather the shouting because we have been talking but no one has cared to listen.

Also, to the side, I have added a new feature - The Best of Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, which features some of my best work. Message to the Religious Right is included.

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Everything still seems to be on deck for tomorrow regarding my column in The State newspaper.

But that's tomorrow. Let's get through today.

The blaxploitation period of American cinema was an interesting time. It was when filmmakers suddenly figured out that black folks liked movies, could write and direct films, and that black women could carry motion pictures.

The films from this period encompassed good(Blacula, the Cleopatra Jones series), bad (The Mack, Soul Vengeance), and so damned awful that you had to watch them for their campy quality (Dolemite, Truck Turner).

Still there were drawbacks. The films, for the most part, were violent and coarse. They took the stereotypes of the superstud black man and the extremely racist white man and blew them up to outrageous proportions.

And how these motion pictures portrayed lgbts were just awful. Gay men of all stripes were seen as weak.

And lesbians were portrayed as threatening. White lesbians in particular were seen as either subservient to black women or as criminals.

These two clips demonstrate my point.

The first is from Foxy Brown, a motion picture starring Pam Grier. Grier plays a woman seeking to free her neighborhood from a drug and prostitution cartel. In this scene, she is involved in a lesbian barroom brawl:




This second clip is from a more sophisticated movie, Cleopatra Jones. Tamara Dobson portrays Jones, an international super spy who is battling a lesbian drug lord named Mommy. That's right, her name is Mommy.

But it gets better. Mommy is portrayed by two-time Oscar winning actress Shelley Winters. And this performance didn't exactly hurt her career. She would later get another Oscar nomination for the Poseidon Adventure.

I'm ashamed to admit that despite how insulting it was, I enjoyed Winters's performance. It's obvious that she did not take this movie seriously. Winters doesn't just chew scenery, she grinds it into powder.

Her performance, in fact, softens the insult of the evil lesbian stereotype just a little.

In this clip, Winters explodes on the scene at 2:00 but watch the entire thing. It's entertaining as hell:

Friday midday news briefs

Pride & Prejudice - Just one state away from me comes a hot mess.

Fla. Bar support in gay adoption case upheld - I love to see the religious right lose not matter how big or small the court case.

R.I. lawmakers debate gay benefits, drop bill - Well this sucks. They want to help us when we pass away but not when we are alive.

'Ten Commandments Judge' Makes 2nd Run for Governor - Roy Moore is running for governor again and apparently it's OUR fault. Okay I will take being blamed for Bjork's dead swan dress at the Oscars before I'm going to be blamed for this.

Knoxville restores GLBT web access to schools - We win in Tennessee!!

Obama more than tolerant of homosexual lifestyle - Can someone please tell me what the "homosexual lifestyle" is. I'm a homosexual and even I don't know!

Truth Wins Out puts another nail in the coffin of the ex-gay farce

From Truth Wins Out:

For decades, anti-gay organizations have gleefully pointed to Masters & Johnson’s 1979 book, “Homosexuality in Perspective”, that claimed to cure homosexuality. Indeed, Dr. William H. Masters and Virgina E. Johnson, the husband and wife sex research team, went on Meet the Press on Sunday, April 22, 1979, to discuss their finding that homosexuals could be converted into heterosexuals. The book has since been used by the so-called “ex-gay” industry to “prove” gays could go straight, if they just tried hard enough.

In his groundbreaking new book, “Masters of Sex”, author Thomas Maier discovered through investigative reporting that the results of Masters & Johnson’s study were entirely fabricated. Virginia Johnson acknowledged that the results were fake. She had actually argued in 1978 that book should never have seen the light of day - but it was already to late in the publishing process to undo the damage.

One can not overstate the importance of Maier’s findings. They undo the very underpinnings of the so-called “ex-gay” therapy movement, further showing that there is no scientific evidence or data to support the outdated idea that gay people can become heterosexual through therapy. Indeed, many people who have undergone such “treatment” claim the experience was harmful and that they were psychologically damaged. The American Psychiatric Association says that attempts to change sexual orientation can lead to “anxiety, depression and self-destructive behavior.”



Yet another reason why Truth Wins Out is one of my favorite webpages!

My column 'drops' on Saturday

I have just received final confirmation that barring anything out of the ordinary, my column on the importance of Black prides and how the African-American community ignores lgbts of color will be appearing Saturday as a part of the State newspaper's Saturday Opinion Extra package.

This means that it will most likely appear online but not in the printed newspaper, which is okay by me. Progress is progress.

Of course I reiterate the "barring anything out of the ordinary part" because as many of you know, South Carolina is in the middle of a huge controversy regarding our Governor (Mark Sanford) and his refusal to accept $700 million of President Obama's stimulus package.

The General Assembly passed a budget including the stimulus money and Sanford vetoed it. The General Assembly overrode his veto thereby causing the situation to go to the State Supreme Court.

The court today ordered Gov. Sanford to accept the budget and thereby apply for the $700 million.

So in the middle of all of this lovely hullabaloo, my column will come out - the equivalent of finding out that you have won the Pulitzer Prize 60 seconds before Jesus comes back to Earth.

Still, my column appearing is a remarkable achievement which I will forever be proud of. As far as I know this will be the first time that the State newspaper will address lgbt issues from an African-American gay man's perspective on its editorial pages.

I've done a lot of good things with my book and this blog, but this column is special. It's personal. What I wrote isn't just for me but every lgbt of color, living or dead, who have been marginalized by an intentionally ignorant African-American community. Trust me when I say I am very proud of what I wrote. It's to the point and makes no apologies, especially about the role of God in our lives.

I have no idea what the fallout, if any, will be. I'm not going to lie about what I hope to accomplish. I want a nice controversy just in time for South Carolina Black Pride (June 18-21). I want comments both positive and negative, I want pastors to talk about it in church, and I want definitely want it to be read by as many folks as possible.

Like the proverb says, a man is like a turtle in that they both have to stick their necks out to move forward.

Thursday midday news briefs

Gay groups grow impatient with Barack Obama - I am of two minds about this.

Yes, we need to be very vocal and very pushy about our rights. But other than getting angry and bitching about how President Obama is being slow, is there anything else we can be doing?

It's as if we have surrendered all action to President Obama.

It reminds me of the small but very interesting argument the community is having about holding a national march.

Both ideas (i.e. a national march and dependence on President Obama) seem to push the notion that if something big and showy is done, then the lgbt community will be successful in getting our rights. This idea that if we all come together in a huge showy march or if President Obama does something demonstratively decisive for us then everything will be alright is simplistic.

Just like I hate the idea of a national march (when we should be building community power on a state and city level), I don't like the idea of depending too much on a "Great Father Figure" to come down from the Heavens and make things right for us. The struggle for lgbt equality does not belong to President Obama. It belongs to us.

And the struggle is not going to be won by a huge showing march nor will it be won from a legislative thunderbolt thrown from the White House. It will be won by us pushing forward and pressing on with dignity for what belongs to us. And sometimes that does take time.

Okay, I've rambled too much. If I haven't bored you or gotten you angry, read on:

Gay partner language could doom immigration reform - You cannot be serious

EXCLUSIVE: California lesbian couple allege discrimination at Fresno hospital - This is why those "court documents" are sometimes useless.

In NH and Iowa, gay marriage has political angle - Ya think?