Sunday, June 27, 2010

Horrible case of abuse highlights the cluelessness of 'pro-family' groups

The recent CNN special report Gary and Tony Have a Baby - about a gay couple seeking to adopt a child - is the subject of much discussion. While some in the lgbt community either praised it for showcasing lgbt families or criticized it for not enough diversity, some religious right leaders have been extremely negative with their comments.

Such as Family Research Council's Tony Perkins:
Equally tragic, one of the men said that no one has ever given him a reason why their lifestyle choice is harmful. Here’s one–they are deliberately and permanently depriving this child of a mother. CNN seems content to tug at the heartstrings rather than report the news. They imply that the “love” or affection that these men feel for each other and for the baby that they’ve manufactured is enough. Love is important, but it isn’t sufficient. Social science proves that children suffer from not having a married mom and dad, so why is CNN promoting two people who would deliberately put their baby in that situation?

Actually, Perkins continues to delude readers. He bastardizes the studies which compared two-parent heterosexual households to single parent heterosexual households to make a phony judgment on same-sex households.

He doesn't tell his readership that other studies, including the recent peer-reviewed one on lesbian households which Perkins and other religious right leaders have been attempting like mad to debunk, clearly shows that living in a same-sex household doesn't negatively affect a child.

But a recent horrific story of abuse highlights the intentional cluelessness of not only Perkins but others who rail against same-sex households while unfairly pushing up the "Ozzie and Harriet" model of family:

A California couple were charged with child abuse after police said they hit, starved and tied up the woman's two sons.

Cheryl Ann Stuart and Mario Alberto Colin of Santa Ana, Ca, allegedly caused malnutrition and dehydration to the two boys, aged 2 ½ and 5. The younger of the two boys had lips so dry and cracked that they bled, and his head was severely bruised, the Associated Press reported.

"She tied the kids to their beds using bandages, shoelaces or chains to keep them from taking off while she slept," Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, a spokesman for Santa Ana police told the AP. "She didn't feed the boys, especially the 2-year-old, because she was potty-training him" and was tired of changing his soiled sheets.

Stuart was giving the children two cups of water a day. She admitted to beating the two children, but said she didn't' think she was striking them excessively hard.

Colin is not the father of the two boys. He is married, with two children of his own. His wife did not even know of Colin's affair with Stuart.
 If this had been a same-sex household, Perkins and company would be putting out press releases, being interviewed for either One News Now or Fox News, and sending out action alerts.

But since this is a heterosexual household, you won't be hearing anything from the FRC about it. And this is a shame. You see in this case, some neighbors were quoted as saying that they blame themselves for either not paying attention to what was going on or not getting involved when they suspected the abuse.

 Will Perkins send out an action alert advising his readership to report anything they suspect as child abuse with as much fervor as he attacks a gay couple for daring to adopt a child?

Probably not.

For that matter, other than implying that same-sex households are dangerous for child, the Family Research Council, to my knowledge, never done anything in regards to fighting or speaking out against child abuse, domestic violence, or any other problems that would actually harm a child's home environment.

My mistake. There is an interesting report on the organization's web page which advocates spanking a child.




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Friday, June 25, 2010

Know Your LGBT History - Noah's Arc

In celebration of SC Black Pride, I want to focus on a television which really didn't get it's due - Noah's Arc:




From Wikipedia:

Set in Los Angeles, the show features the lives of four black gay friends dealing with everyday trials, tribulations, triumphs and tragedies. Noah's Arc premiered on October 19, 2005, on the Logo television network. The series was Logo's most popular program. Season 1 was filmed in Los Angeles, and Season 2 was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The show rose from humble beginnings. The pilot was produced independently; and, to assist in funding each episode, the show was originally envisioned as a DVD subscription series. During the pilot filming, Rodney Chester's (who portrays Alex) own truck was used for the actors to have their make-up, hair, and wardrobe fittings. Logo pursued the series after the pilot was well received at film festivals, independent circuits, and special screenings. Some scenes from the original pilot were either re-shot or removed for airing on Logo. The original pilot is included in the Season 1 DVD release. The opening credits theme song is "Remember The Love" (Samba Mix) by Adriana Evans.

In the summer of 2008, BET J, the spin-off cable television channel of BET, showed all episodes of Noah's Arc. The creator of the show Patrik-Ian Polk announced the broadcast schedule via MySpace. He hopes that the episodes air again in primetime on the BET network.

Shortly after the Season 2 finale cliffhanger aired, LOGO announced the show's cancellation. Surprised by the negative reaction of the show's fans, the network stated that the program may return if the film was a success. At the time of LOGO's announcement, however, none of the cast had yet been contracted for the film. "Noah's Arc" was said to be the network's highest-rated original series. The film had an opening weekend per screen average of $30,336 and narrowly came second for top per screen average by the Clint Eastwood/Angelina Jolie film Changeling, which opened in limited release the same weekend and averaged $32,601. Theaters playing the film opening weekend reported, by mid-December, it had taken just over $532,000 at the US box office, even though the film received little or no mainstream marketing support and never played on more than seven screens at once during its seven-week theatrical run. Despite the success of the film, LOGO failed to bring the program back to air and was criticized by African-American and LGBT communities as it represented a needed diversity in mainstream media.

I enjoyed this show. Another show, Queer As Folk, got a lot attention and was even featured on the cover of The Advocate. If you pardon me for saying so, Noah's Arc was a better and more positive show whose characters didn't come across as oversexed, self-absorbed, and vindictive. It should have gotten more respect.

Past Know Your LGBT History postings 

Know Your LGBT History - Ode to Billy Joe

Know Your LGBT History - Adorable Adrian Adonis

Know Your LGBT History - The Night Strangler

Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family

Know Your LGBT History - Tongues Untied

Know Your LGBT History - The Celluloid Closet

Know Your LGBT History - Querelle

Know Your LGBT History - Theatre of Blood

Know Your LGBT History - Strange Fruit

Know Your LGBT History - Designing Women

Know Your LGBT History - The Children's Hour

Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester

Know Your LGBT History - Once Bitten

Know Your LGBT History - The Boys in the Band

Know Your LGBT History - Christopher Morley, the crossdressing assassin

Know Your LGBT History - Midnight Cowboy

Know Your LGBT History - Dracula's Daughter

Know Your LGBT History - Blacula

Know Your LGBT History - 3 Strikes

Know Your LGBT History - Paris Is Burning

Know Your LGBT History - The Women

Know your LGBT History - Soul Plane

Know Your LGBT History - The Player's Club

Special Know Your LGBT History - Fame

Know Your LGBT History - Welcome Home, Bobby

Know Your LGBT History - Barney Miller

Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show

Know your lgbt history - Martin Lawrence and that 'gay guy' on his show

Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show

Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up

Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps

Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware

Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks

Know your lgbt history - Mannequin

Know your lgbt history - The Warriors

Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover

Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame

Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes

Know your lgbt history - California Suite

Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)

Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue

Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay

Know your lgbt history - Windows

Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla

Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles

Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son

Know your lgbt history - In Living Color

Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords

Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?

Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street

Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys

Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy

Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George

Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda

'Know your lgbt history - Cruising

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil

The Jeffersons and the transgender community   
 

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AFA's attack on 10-year-old and family gets them nowhere and other Friday midday news briefs

Fayetteville, Arkansas, to American Family Association: “No thank you!” - This what you get when you pick on 10-year-old children and their families.

The gay 'Brady Bunch' family - A much needed focus on African-American lgbt families

Screw this: When it comes to tools, it's nuts how many will bolt - Bear in mind this poll was taken by World Net Daily, the SAME publication which pushes the theory that President Obama is an illegal alien who had sex in a limo with a crazy white man while he and Damien Thorne was plotting to take over the world while messily eliminating everyone who got clued in to their secret while at the same time tricking children into being gay by noting the fact that there was only three female Smurfs present in Smurf village with a whole bunch of male Smurfs while . . .

At Chicago gay pride parade, some troops will be out and proud - Too bad I'm going to miss this.


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Situation on 'The View' demonstrates need for Black prides

As many of you know, it's  Black Pride week here in South Carolina.

Now rather than go into detail in terms of why black prides are needed for the lgbt community, allow me to point out an incident which I think best suits the situation - a Call To Action by GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation):

On the June 22 broadcast of ABC's daytime talk show "The View," host Sherri Shepherd and guest host D.L. Hughley perpetuated dangerous myths about African American gay and bisexual men.

While discussing the FDA's ban that prevents gay and bisexual men from donating blood, Shepherd and Hughley communicated misinformation about the causes of increased HIV rates among African American women and used the phrase "down low" to describe men who have sex with men but publicly identify as heterosexual.

Here are excerpts from a transcript of the segment:

Hughley: When you look at the prevalence of HIV in the African American Community, it's primarily young women who are getting it from men who are on the down low. That's the thing.

Shepherd: The down low is black men who've been going out. They are having sex with men and they're not telling their girlfriends or their wives that they're gay and their husbands, as well. And it's very prevalent with African American women because they come home and have sex with their wives or their girlfriends. And they're not telling them that they're gay.

Shepherd: It's so big in the Black community with women because they're having unprotected sex with men who have been having sex with... with men.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), however, has debunked the dangerous myth that Shepherd and Hughley cited on the program. Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention talked about his research to NNPA News in October 2009. Fenton said that the CDC "has looked to see what proportion of [HIV] infections is coming from male partners who are bisexual and found there are actually relatively few," and goes on to attribute most infections to other factors.

Read Fenton's entire interview.

I applaud GLAAD for shining a light on this awful display of ignorance by Hughley and Sheppard. I don't think their ignorance about the situation is intentional. Rather it's indicative of why we need more visible lgbts of color.

That's why black prides are important - to encourage and inspire more lgbts of color to be visible, take their rightful places in the lgbt community and also take ownership of their stories.

When you are not allowed to speak for yourself - and many lgbts of color do not have this right in the black community - others take it upon themselves to speak for you and in the case of Hughley and Sheppard, they get your story wrong.

GLAAD is encouraging everyone to take action:
Call on "The View" to issue an on-air apology and correct Sherri Shepherd and D.L. Hughley's misrepresentation of African American gay & bisexual men. This program reaches millions of viewers and ABC must ensure that its platforms are not used to perpetuate dangerous falsehoods that put our community in harm's way.

ABC Contacts:

Brad Jamison, Vice President Corporate Initiatives
ABC Television Network
818-460-6120
Brad.Jamison@abc.com

Julie Hoover, Corporate Communications Vice President        
ABC Television Network
(212) 456-6641                      
 julie.t.hoover@abc.com

Bill Geddie, Executive Producer
ABC "The View"
(212) 456-0910     
bill.geddie@abc.com

GLAAD Contacts:

Cindi Creager
Director of National News
(646) 871-8019
creager@glaad.org

Richard Ferraro
Director of Public Relations
(646) 871-8011
ferraro@glaad.org

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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Focus on the Family's Daly gets 'schooled' on the concept of family

In a piece today in The Washington Post, Focus on the Family's Jim Daly became the latest member of the religious right to criticize Obama's Father's Day proclamation for - you guessed it - acknowledging same-sex households:

In elevating and equating the influence of a two-father family to that of all other traditional forms, the administration is, perhaps unknowingly, depriving children of the opportunity to have the very thing the president has so strongly and eloquently suggested they need most: A mom and a dad.

As the product of a fatherless home myself, I am keenly aware and extremely sensitive to the harsh realities of a life that is less than ideal. In fact, the president and I share this common background, and so I immediately identify with his compassion and his desire to use the bully pulpit to ease suffering and meet the needs of the neediest among us.

But the fatherhood "effect" is not cumulative - two daddies are not better than one -- nor is a mother dispensable or replaceable. Instead of expending precious (and finite) energy and resources on selling the merits of two- father or two-mother families, the administration would be wise to invest and encourage the loving presence of both a mom and a dad.


However, Daly is being seriously schooled by many of the folks who left comments under his piece. The following are just a few:

Of all the things I disagree with on Obama, this is one thing I do agree with. Christianity imported homophobia into the America's with the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500's. Before then, many American Indian tribes supported the idea of a 3rd gender, and families that loved them. It wasn't until Christians used this to determine Indians "savages" and then subsequently killed them all off, that Indians were reprogramed in Christian "Indian Schools". Christians are murderers who stole Judiac ideals to meet their own ends. Jesus himself was a gay man, who never once married, but lived his entire life with other men. Until Christians accept this little fact of life, then well, they should stay out of deciding what is right in God's eyes.

As long as people consider themselves "conservatives" and "liberals" and NOT AMERICANS FIRST, they are nothing more than the original stuff they use to fertlize lawns. How abjectly INHUMANE of you to criticize some poor kid who lives in a same-sex household, or the same-sex couple that devote their lives toward bringing that same child up into the world. "Societal norms?" Gimme a break. It was a societal norm for black people to be in slavery. It was a societal norm for people to stone Jewish people and deprive them of their homes and property. It used to be a "societal norm" for men to steal women and forcibly take them to marry. What an unbelievably heartless Philistine you are. I fervently hope in your next life you are born gay so that you can experience first hand the bigotry you seek to uphold in the name of beliefs generated by the nomads of the Levant more than 2,000 years ago. I hope your doctors use their medical beliefs to treat you! These "Christians" are such shining examples of humanity!

Lots of GLBT parents seem to do a better job than straight parents. Many time they actually plan for and have to work hard at having children rather than the all to often hetero:"Whoops,honey guess what we're pregnant... what are we gonna do now we aren't so sure we really wanna have (another ) kid."

. . .Daly's argument implies that parents who are gay should enter into straight marriages for the sake of their children, or remain in such marriages. One could make a case that children raised by unhappy, miserable parents in loveless marriages are generally worse off than if their parents had gotten divorced. In any case, the burden of proof is on Daly to show how children under the care of opposite-sex parents would lose this care if same-sex-parent families were not treated as abnormal.

Mr. Daly, you had me at "The Obama administration is actively changing the cultural norms of our country." More power to him. The days of your bigotry are numbered.

I don't think "The Obama administration is actively changing the cultural norms of our country." What is normal in our country's culture today is two people, of the same sex and in a loving relationship, raising children together in happy, heathy homes. I find it offensive that the Post is providing a national forum for Mr. Daly to promote discrimination and incite hatred. If others want to read this outdated and hurtful nonsense they are free to go to the FOTF website--but the Post shouldn't be complicit in promoting Mr. Daly's incendiary diatribe.

My same sex partner and I have raised a son that is the envy of our straight friends. He is extremely successful, compassionate and a contributor to his community. I find it ironic if not somewhat sad that many of our opposite sex couple friends are constantly battling with their children to at least try to finish school, call them once and a while and quite living off the their parents and the government. Maybe we need more same sex parents.

One good thing about the so-called controversy involving Obama mentioning same-sex parenting in his Father's Day proclamation is how it is bringing the issue of lgbts raising children to the forefront.

It's an issue which needs to be discussed thoroughly. And as much as members of the religious right try to control this issue, their singular talking point of "a child needs a mother and a father" can't overcome the fact that too many people know that raising a child takes more than the "Ozzie and Harriet" concept of family.

Raising a child takes love, support, and sacrifice and many folks are providing this, whether they be heterosexual single parents, or lgbt parents.

My advice to Daly and other members of the religious right who continue to fight Obama on this is to give it up. You are only digging yourself deeper in a hole. 

Your talking points are incredibly polished but even talking points sometimes fall to reality. And the words that come out of your mouth, no matter how pretty they sound, can't stand up to the successful lgbt families that people see every day.


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American Family Association picking on 10-year-old and his family and other Thursday midday news briefs

Arkansas: American Family Association's Tim Wildmon stoops to an Action Alert against a 10 year old - So having a mother and father in the home is the best thing for a child, the religious right tells us. Unless the family is lgbt-supportive and participates in lgbt events. THAT is tantamount to child abuse, they tell us. Can you say horse @!%, boys and girls? I knew you could.

Court refuses to keep petitioner IDs private - The religious right loses BIG TIME and all is good in the world.

You can’t even buy a right - Great analysis of a nasty juxtaposition. In Philadelpha, the Boy Scouts can use a building paid for by tax dollars even though they discriminate against lgbt taxpayers. Meanwhile in Minneapolis, a gay pride paid the city a tidy sum for the use of a park for its festival, but city is trying to prevent them from keeping an anti-gay evangelist from coming in and causing confusion.

Focus on the Family to America: Listen to Price or pay the $ame! - So according to some folks, celebrating June as Gay Pride Month will cause God to turn His back on America. Listen, if God hasn't turned His back on us after that awful Jersey Shore reality tv show and the Donald Trump/Omarosa hot mess reality tv show on cable, I think it's safe to assume that America is somewhat home free.

Liberty Counsel's Odd Definition of "Fit Parent" - Meanwhile, the Liberty Counsel is still arguing on behalf on bad parent Lisa Miller even AFTER she kidnapped her and Janet Jenkins's daughter.

Wis. court: Gay parents do not have equal rights - Excuse the hell out of me! Hopefully this decision will be appealed again.


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False study proves Family Research Council's anti-gay animus

I was looking over a "study" published by the Family Research Council which supposedly proves that there is a "significant problem of homosexual misconduct in the military."

 FRC announced the study in May and no one really paid attention to it because the organization's bias against the lgbt community is commonly known.

But the study does need to be observed, not because it's credible but because it demonstrates how low FRC will stoop to malign the lgbt community.

The main point of the study is the following:

Homosexual activist groups themselves have admitted that less than three percent of Americans are homosexual or bisexual.

FRC has reviewed the "case synopses" of all 1,643 reports of sexual assault reported by the four branches of the military for Fiscal Year 2009 (October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009). Our startling finding was that over eight percent (8.2%) of all military sexual assault cases were homosexual in nature. This suggests that homosexuals in the military are about three times more likely to commit sexual assaults than heterosexuals are, relative to their numbers.

Or as it is put in a footnote on pg. 16:

134 of 1,643 reported assault synopses involved homosexual assault, or 8.2%. There were 124 male-on-male cases and 10 female-on-female cases.

By the way, the rest of the study is nothing more than details of the alleged sexual assaults written in a way that is so salacious, I'm sure  Peter LaBarbera has a published copy under the guise of "research."

Let's ignore the time consuming discussion of how many lgbts there actually are - no doubt FRC wouldn't mind to have the issue sidetracked by such discussion - and focus on how the group is manipulating via percentages.

The organization has chosen to play a silly game of percentages not unlike the one played by white racists when informed that the majority of people on welfare are not African-Americans.

"Well percentage-wise, black people do utilize welfare more," they say.

Or more to the point, FRC's phrase - homosexuals in the military are about three times more likely to commit sexual assaults than heterosexuals are, relative to their numbers - seems to be carefully worded parlor trick meant to push the claim that a high number of military gay men are committing sexual assaults in spite of the fact that the actual numbers don't back it up.

FRC's tactic reminds me of a passage in a situation comedy between a man and his date:
Man: Some folks say I look like Denzel Washington . . .

(His date looks at him in disbelief)

Man: . . . when I squint my eyes . . .

(The man's date still looks with more disbelief)

Man: . . . when there aren't that many lights on . . .

The man's date: I'm starting to see the resemblance!

FRC's study is not going to look credible no matter what the group does because all the lights are on for a change.



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