Know Your LGBT History - Famous bisexual men and women throughout history

While we all celebrate the immense victory given to our community today in New Jersey, let's also take the time to spotlight members of our community who don't get their due.

The following videos spotlight famous bisexual men and women throughout history.

Many have been verified, while others have the subject of much speculation. Whatever the case may be, it's important to remember that being bisexual has nothing to do with promiscuity.  The bisexual orientation is not a light switch to be turned on and off. It simply means you have an attraction to both men and women.

One more thing - to my transgender brothers and sisters, I have something special for you too, which will be featured next week. I want to create posts which specifically show bisexual and transgender men and women in their own spotlight because it's way past time that this is done.



Next list:

1) Leonard Bernstein
 2) Mick Jagger
 3) David Bowie
 4) Kurt Cobain
 5) Sammy Davis Jr. 
6) Billie Joe Armstrong 
7) Alec Guinness 
8) Merv Griffin
 9) Errol Flynn
 10) Gary Cooper 
11) James Dean 
12) Marlon Brando
 13) Howard Hughes 
14) Bret Easton Ellis 
15) Hans Christian Andersen 
16) William S. Burroughs 
17) Lord Byron 
18) Walt Whitman 
19) Langston Hughes
 20) Oscar Wilde 
21) St. Augustine of Hippo 
22) King Philip of Macedon 
23) Socrates 
24) Julius Caesar 
25) William Shakespeare 
26) Abraham Lincoln 
27) Alexander Hamilton 
28) Alexander the Great 
29) All 300 of the Spartan Warriors

 Information about Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed can be seen here.

Past Know Your LGBT History Posts:

Unsolved murders, attacks on lgbts of color NEEDS more attention

Editor's note - There will not be a midday post today due to prior commitments on my part.

Presented without jokes or wisecracks. Just a huge degree of sadness and prayers that these victims and their families get justice:

A class action suit against homosexuality? Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!

LaBarbera

Religious right spokespeople don't simply live in a bubble. They operate in a broken down rocket ship which they have fooled themselves into thinking has cruise control when it is actually lost in the deepest parts of outer space.

Case in point courtesy of Right Wing Watch:

Rick Scarborough invited Peter LaBarbera to address his Tea Party Unity group today, and the two anti-gay activists discussed ways to somehow file a “class action lawsuit” against homosexuality just like when attorneys general of many states filed a lawsuit against tobacco companies. LaBarbera was also upset that Fox News and other outlets aren’t covering the “wonderful stories of happy men and women who have left the homosexual lifestyle,” explaining that he wished there was an ad “of the kid in high school who was counseled by the official school counselor to just be gay, then he comes down with HIV.”

 . . .  LaBarbera: We need to work on our conservative, alternate media and say, ‘look, don’t do the pro-gay thing, why don’t you rather step out and support these ex-gays?’ We should encourage Fox News to tell their stories. Fox is now telling the stories of black conservatives because the other media is not doing that, we should all get on Fox and say, ‘come on, tell these stories, these wonderful stories of happy men and women who have left the homosexual lifestyle.’

Scarborough: Peter, the whole issue of a class action lawsuit, you and I have talked about this a little bit. I just wonder if you’ve explored that, talked to anyone about it. Obviously, statistically now even the Centers for Disease Control verifies that homosexuality much more likely leads to AIDS than smoking leads to cancer. And yet the entire nation has rejected smoking, billions of dollars are put into a trust fund to help cancer victims and the tobacco industry was held accountable for that. Any thoughts on that kind of an approach?

LaBarbera: Yeah I think that’s great. I would love to see it. We always wanted to see one of the kid in high school who was counseled by the official school counselor to just be gay, then he comes down with HIV. But we never really got the client for that.

Even though I know it won't happen, I really wish these folks would actually entertain an inane idea of a "class action suit against homosexuality."

Not only would they lose, but they would lose badly. A perfect example of how they would lose is demonstrated with that ridiculous statement from Scarborough regarding the CDC. The CDC has never made any type of inference of what he alludes to. Ironically, the CDC actually does says that when gays are susceptible to diseases or bad health behaviors, its due to the negative effects of a homophobic society rather than the lgbt sexual orientation.

Just imagine what other lies Scarborough and company have deceived themselves into thinking are facts.

And that last wish from LaBarbera (regarding the hypothetical HIV positive child) is just morbid. But if we played his game, wouldn't there be more evidence to bring a class action suit against the "ex-gay industry" on the grounds he alluded to.

Remember the 1998 campaign to mainstream the ex-gay movement and its star, Michael Johnston:

For those who don't know, this is what happened after the campaign in regards to Johnston:



Any ridiculous notion of a "class action suit against homosexuality" is just that - a  ridiculous notion. I've used many adjectives to describe the religious right, but I would never use the word "stupid." They have neither the guts nor the stupidity to do something so dumb. Not only would it embarrass them but it would totally wreck their credibility.

 To LaBarbera in particular,  the class action suit would probably end up with you still attending subcultural leather events, but you wouldn't be taking pictures in order to demonize the lgbt community. You would most likely be trying to make up the money to pay for your court loss. And that being the case, you had better work hard to make it all up.

 My pimp hand is strong. You get my drift?

'Fox News reporter claiming Obama will persecute Christians via military' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Starnes: Obama Will 'Turn The Military Against The People' And Attack Christians - Ten minutes following Fox News' Todd Starnes around with a tape recorder makes one weep for the state of American Christianity and the standards of those who chooses to practice it. 

Former NYT Editor Rebuts Stephen Jimenez's Claim About Matthew Shepard Story - And another claim in that awful Matthew Shepard book bites the dust. Or rather consumes the dust.  

NOM can’t buy a win. Literally. - Damn, NOM. Rather than wasting money on losing Congressional candidates, why not just cut ME a check.  

BRITAIN: "Ex-Gay" Group Sues Again Over "Some People Are Gay" Ad Campaign - I just LOVE British comedy.

The bizarre irony of Eminem's homophobic lyrics . . .

Now I generally don't like to cover entertainment issues because I feel that the lgbt community has too much celebrity on the brain. A lot of times, we are not in the business of training leaders because wait for the latest celebrity to come out of the closet and then anoint that person as our spokesperson.

However, I do believe in pointing out basic strange ironies and the situation regarding rapper Eminem's new album is a huge one. I am of the belief that if I don't point this irony out, no one will.

From the Huffington Post:

So is this the real Slim Shady?

Notoriously profane rap star Eminem has for years been criticized for lyrics that routinely use slurs of all flavors, not to mention violent and abusive rhetoric. Now the rapper has decided homophobic slurs are fair game once again, releasing a new single, "Rap God," which references "faggots" and "gay boys." 

More than six minutes long and chockfull of lightning-fast braggadocio, "Rap God" -- off the upcoming album "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" -- includes Eminem boasting in the first verse about how he'd like to "break a motherf----r's table over the back of a couple faggots and crack it in half." Later on in the second verse, the rapper includes the following description in a long riff on different kinds of "boys":

Little gay-looking boy / So gay I can barely say it with a straight face-looking boy / You witnessing massacre like you watching a church gathering taking place-looking boy / 'Oy vey, that boy's gay,' that's all they say looking-boy / You take a thumbs up, pat on the back, the way you go from your label every day-looking boy.

I want to get angry at Eminem because lyrics like this have no place in popular music, but I can't because the irony of the entire situation has me scratching my head.

Now I'm certainly not calling Eminem gay because I don't know his sexual orientation, but I am saying that his embracing of homophobic lyrics is bizarre in light of the fact that this young man has probably shown his bare butt more than most gay men I know.

So far, Eminem has mooned folks at the 2004 Video Music Awards

on a television show in Germany in 2004

and several other places including red carpet events and music videos.

And I haven't even mentioned the Sacha Baron Cohen incident where, while Eminem did not show his rear, he was in an extremely close proximity to buttocks.

My thing is this - come on, Eminem. If you are going to rap negatively about gay people, first let's hear about the fact that many of us have probably seen your butt more than that of George Michael's.

But at least George Michael kept his pants on.

'The two most important articles you will read about lgbt equality in a long time' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

For those who care about lgbt equality in the United States and worldwide, the following two articles by John Becker and John Aravosis are the most important posts you will read in a long time: 

Enthusiasm Gap on LGBT Issues at Values Voter Summit
 

Homophobia Inc. and America’s newest export: Hate (Part 3 of 3) 

In other news: 

 How Eager Is Conservative Media To Demonize Transgender Youth? - Very eager. Even to the point of spreading false stories. 

 5 Flawed Arguments Officials Are Using To Defend Utah’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban - to the lgbt community, flawed anti-gay arguments are like guests we can't get rid of, meaning that we have seen these before.  

MassResistance's Camenker: Gay Couples Enter Businesses And "Fondl[e] Each Other" To Test Owners' Tolerance - Just in case you need a primer, Camenker is lying through his teeth.  

Fox's Starnes Can't Stop Defending Anti-Gay Hate Group - Calling Todd Starnes out on his lies is so enjoyable that it should be fattening.

Attorneys calls attention to, refutes claims in Matthew Shepard book

It's safe to assume the new book regarding Matthew Shepard's murder is not exactly hitting the spots to change the narrative of that awful crime.

To recap - Author Stephen Jimenez claims via his book that Shepard's murder was not the result of homophobia but a drug deal gone wrong and that also Shepard and one of his murderers had sex.

The book, while celebrated by conservatives and the religious right, has been justifiably condemned pretty much everywhere else.

And since I am a proponent of smashing until consuming (it's a Biblical reference), allow me to spotlight another condemnation courtesy of Equality Matters. Amongst other things, apparently Jimenez's anonymous source for his ugly spin on the crime wasn't all that trustworthy:

The appellate attorney who represented an accomplice in the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard assailed author Stephen Jimenez's book suggesting that Shepard's murder was fueled by meth, not anti-gay hate.

In a statement provided to Equality Matters, attorney Tim Newcomb - whom Jimenez lists as a source in The Book of Matt - responded to Jimenez's claim in a recent interview that Newcomb's criticism of the book is invalid because Newcomb was an appellate attorney and not involved in the Shepard case from the beginning. As a longtime resident of Laramie, the small college town where Shepard was brutally murdered, Newcomb said in his statement that unlike Jimenez, he has a long-standing familiarity with the tight-knight community:

Unlike the author, who visited Laramie from New York a year and a half [after Shepard's murder], I was an attorney living in Laramie, and had been for several years, when Matthew was murdered. I mention that only because Laramie has few people and we tend to know of each other. Hidden truths behind notorious crimes are as rare as windless winters.

Moreover, as the appellate attorney for Russell Henderson, Aaron McKinney's accomplice in Shepard's killing, Newcomb dealt with one of Jimenez's apparent sources, who claimed to know the "hidden truths" in the murder. In his statement, Newcomb described how -- like many of Jimenez's other sources -- this man put forth multiple shifting stories, including the theory that Shepard's murder wasn't motivated by homophobia:

During the time I represented Russell, a man called his grandmother, saying he had been Matthew's lover and had his diary. I called him and asked if that was true. He told me it was, so I asked for a copy. His story shifted; his sister had the diary. I asked that she send me a copy. His story shifted again. She wouldn't show it to anyone because she feared for his life. I asked why he called Russell's grandmother then; eventually, he seemed to suggest that he didn't have enough money.

Our conversation ended but I'm told he became a source for a recently published book rewriting Matthew's murder, claiming that McKinney did not target Matthew because he was gay.

For more of this story, go here to Equality Matters.