05/16/2006
First of all, a load of thanks to everyone that left comments yesterday wishing me a happy birthday! They were much appreciated and you all made my day a lot more special. I am convinced I have the coolest readers out there. Thanks again!
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani removes gay fatwa from his website after negotiations. Gay Iraqi refugee: "We welcome the decision to remove the most murderously homophobic part of Sistani's fatwa from his Web site. This decision does not go far enough. The fatwa has been removed from Sistani's Web site only. It has not been revoked. We want the entire fatwa withdrawn, including the hateful denunciation calling for the punishment of lesbians."
Margaret Thatcher: gay icon? "You are looking at an intrinsic and steely power to self-transform, to lift yourself by your boot straps and make the best of yourself with a wry smile on your face and a click of your heels. This is the secret code that gay men understand."
Vienna to get memorial for gay and lesbian victims of the Holocaust: "A large basin filled with pink water will be built in 2007 in Morzinplatz...at the former Gestapo headquarters, to remember the homosexual victims of the Nazi regime...The basin will be inscribed with the word 'queer.'"
Howard Stern and Rosie O'Donnell get chummy over sushi. Stern: "I think she's great and I like her honesty now."
Will shareholders of ExxonMobil do the right thing and reinstate protections for gay and lesbian workers at their meeting on May 31st? "LGBT workers had been included in employment policies at Mobil. In December 1999 when Mobil merged with Exxon and under Exxon's direction, the policy was abandoned. At the same time, it closed Mobil's domestic partner benefits program to any more employees."
Ten sweet years of Cosmo nude centerfolds (male, that is).
Does Today in New York co-anchor Rob Morrison have a man crush?
Posted 9:30 AM EST by Andy Towle in Elsewhere | Permalink
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That memorial design sounds absolutely atrocious. Pink water with the word "queer" underneath? Who designed this thing? Vivienne Westwood?
Posted by: Brian | May 16, 2006 9:49:29 AM
Andy, very heartfelt belated Happy Birthday wishes to you. I was not certain that it was your birthday from the initial posts early yesterday. You are beautiful, uniquely talented and resourceful beyond imagination. Your ability to keep Towleroad fresh, concise and on target with your readers is a constant enjoyment. I believe that in the coming year you will see the fruits of your labor of love returned beyond your expectations.
All the best to you always........
Posted by: Johnny Lane | May 16, 2006 9:58:59 AM
Thatcher? Ugh! Why don't these people read a history book?
Posted by: noah | May 16, 2006 10:19:39 AM
I didn't know it was your birthday (or that you are a fellow Taurus)! Happy belated man!Yours is one of the, if not the, favorite blogs. Also, as a young-ish future editing world juggernaut (*smile*), you're quite the inspiration. Wish you the best in the days to come!
Posted by: Bobby Alexander | May 16, 2006 12:27:57 PM
Your juxtaposition of the ludicrous Thatcher item just above the item about the ludicrous Viennese memorial to Nazism was on point. A gay American friend went to Harrow for a year, resulting, through a connected classmate, in an intimate dinner with Madame Thatcher. As a not-yet-out teenager he could be forgiven his awe, but what is one to say of the adult gays referenced in this story? The author himself wrote, "the concept of gay icon is a cheap ticket now." He should have stopped there, for to have any positive feelings for the British bitch is beyond the pale.
Although, while a member of Parliament, she did support the Wolfenden Report, which resulted in decriminalizing "homosexual behavior between consenting adults in private," and, as PM, granted a knighthood to Ian McKellen in 1991 [his acceptance causing quelle surprise and stink among gay activists at the time], the hideous Clause 28 saga reflects the true Maggie. It's hardly remembered now outside of Great Britain, but a refresher serves both to illuminate her, despite the revisionists—who I expect to post fond defenses of her here the way they do periodically about her buddy and fellow fascist "Ronnie" Reagan—and a comparison with his witless, soulless heir Bush.
Like his premeditated gay bashing, Clause 28 was a mix of genuine homophobia and political cunning. Karl Rove, no doubt, studied it before taking his Ann Richards lesbo-baiting Texas tryout to the Great White Way, er, White House. Introduced in 1987, it made it illegal for local governments to "intentionally promote homosexuality" or anything that might recognize gay relationships as "a pretended family relationship." Just as with Bush/American Taliban plotting here, it threw gasoline on the flames of homophobia, which were already rising as AIDS fear and blame were peaking in England at the time. The rhetoric became so intense that a writer in the "London Times" said, "This country seems to be in the grip of a galloping frenzy of hate, where homosexuals are concerned, that will soon, if not checked, lead to something like a pogrom."
There's no room to explain how Thatcher's anti "socialism" played into it all, but, in short, the debate, similar to battles here, resulted in a ban on even remotely gay positive books in schools, closing of school GSAs, an increase in physical attacks, smears of political opponents as being soft on gays or, possibly gay themselves [again, this was after, with Thatcher's earlier help, gay sex itself was no longer illegal], and equating gay rights with danger to children. Thatcher herself said, "Children who need to be taught to respect traditional values are being taught that they have an unalieanble right to be gay."
Ironically, it was in response to Clause 28 that McKellen first came out, and helped start a group called Stonewall, the fight over the legislation generally considered their symbollic equivalent of those NYC riots. There were many demonstrations, but the most dramatic in the very proper Parliament was when three "Tarzan lesbians," as the press dubbed them, used ropes to dramatically drop from the public gallery to the chamber floor, yelling "It's our lives your dealing with!" Later they would invade the evening BBC TV news show, chaining themselves to desks and cameras. They had obviously studied their gay activist American history. Oh, where are our own "zappers" now?
Clause 28 passed, but was so vague that it was difficult to enforce. Yet, the greater damage was in the hatred it stirred up, demonizing us primarily for political gain, and, in turn, its positive effect was to kick start the modern British gay rights movement. The analogy with the Bush Reich is clear in a comment a Tory made to McKellan: "It was a piece of red meat which we have to throw out to our wolves every now and then to keep them quiet." Clause 28, but one of her many sins, was finally repealed in 2003, and, a year later, I watched Reagan's funeral simply in the hope that Thatcher would collapse and die on camera in a pool of piss and shit, a paralyzed look of fear and powerlessness slowly fading to black in her beady eyes. Alas....
Posted by: Leland | May 16, 2006 1:57:26 PM
Well said Leland. People seem to forget what a virulently homophobic place Britain was only a few years ago. Dismaying to see that some commentators here think you can easily forgive the decade of greed and hatred for "a strong economy":
http://towleroad.typepad.com/towleroad/2006/05/father_knows_be.html#comments
Posted by: John C | May 16, 2006 3:08:04 PM
PS: Happy birthday Andy. :)
Posted by: John C | May 16, 2006 3:09:12 PM
If we can turn Reba McIntire into a gay icon then why not Maggie.
History is written by the wieners.
Posted by: Chad Hanging | May 16, 2006 8:32:25 PM
Damn! Happy - belated - Birthday, Andy. You rock!
Posted by: stan | May 16, 2006 9:50:08 PM
Georgia's ban on gay marriage was struck down!
Posted by: Jase | May 16, 2006 11:10:46 PM
A belated Happy Birthday!
40 is the new 30. Oh wait, you just turned 39, right? Anyway you are the definition of "Hot" in my book baybee.
Posted by: honet child | May 17, 2006 4:19:53 AM