06/19/2007
News: Michael Moore, iPhone, Coral Smith, John Travolta
Coral Smith, former Real World housemate, comes out: "I’m definitely venturing toward my lesbian qualities. It’s been a long time coming. At that time, I was really unsure. That was not the proper venue, the proper platform. To come out to your parents on a fucking reality show, I think that’s just mean, so I didn’t."
Stavros Niarchos: Flying solo.
Dare Odumuye, founder of Nigeria's gay rights organization Alliance Rights Nigeria, has died at 41: "Although details of his death remain hazy, a friend confirmed that he died “after a long illness,” and Odumuye himself had noted that six members of the organisation’s board had died of AIDS between 2000 and 2002. Odumuye, the former manager of an insurance company, founded Alliance Rights on 2 July, 1999 after seeing friends, one of whom was a senior executive of a bank, sacked and harassed for being gay. In 2003, Alliance Rights Nigeria won a Breaker of Silence Award and in 2004 it was among the lesbian and gay organisations which, in a groundbreaking event for this deeply homophobic country, made the first-ever appearance at the country’s fourth national Aids conference in the capital, Abuja."
Blotter: Suicide bomber teams sent to U.S., Europe.
Lesbian blogger Jasmyne Cannick has begun a petition to get Isaiah Washington his job back on Grey's Anatomy, saying his firing was racist. (Petition)
It's coming: iPhone application list.
Religious groups hoping to "reclaim" a Moscow park from gay men who use it as a meeting place, say they were beaten up: "Interfax news agency has reported that late on Saturday night five young men went to the police to report an attack on them carried out by up by eight men."
Star Jones and hubby head out for a Hamptons birthday bash.
Michael Moore's Sicko pirated. Shows up on YouTube, others...
Scientologist John Travolta thinks he has the answer to what's behind Virginia Tech, Columbine, and all the other maniacal school shootings: "I still think that if you analyze most of the school shootings, it is not gun control. It is [psychotropic] drugs at the bottom of it."
Bush administration trying to muzzle hurricane director after he makes unfavorable comments about where the federal government's money is going.
Artist Eve Mosher is drawing a chalk line around New York City to bring awareness to the effect global warming could have on the city: "The chalk demarcates a point 10 feet above sea level, a boundary now used by federal and state agencies and insurance companies to show where waters could rise after a major storm. Relying partly on research conducted by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University, Ms. Mosher is trying to draw attention to projections that the chance of flooding up to or beyond her line could increase significantly as a result of global warming." (video)
Hillary Clinton has chosen Celine Dion's "You and I" as her campaign song.
British teacher who had mother-approved affair with underage male pupil is given a year in jail. Judge: "It is perfectly apparent that the boy was already a person who was attracted to you. Indeed, much that occurred was at his instigation. Sadly, though, this case is a classic example of a substantial and serious breach of trust."
346 same-sex couples have registered partnerships in the Czech Republic since they were legalized last July.
Posted 12:39 PM EST by Andy in Al Reynolds, Jr., Apple, Art & Design, Deaths, Election 2008, Gay Marriage, George W. Bush, Global Warming, Great Britain, Hillary Clinton, I'm Gay, Iraq, Isaiah Washington, John Travolta, Michael Moore, Moscow, New York, News, Nigeria, Reality TV | Permalink
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Sooo many comments to make.
A. I have no sympathy for religious fundamentalists who get smacked down - especially if it was by the people they target with impugnity.
B. I think John Travolta got backwards. Maybe if this kid was on medication he wouldn't have gone on a rampage. HELLO!
C. Who is Hillary Clinton trying to attract with Celine Dion?!? Blech!
D. OMG! Is that legal?!?!
Posted by: MT | Jun 19, 2007 12:50:12 PM
Celine Dion?! That makes me seriously question Hilary's judgement.
A friend of mine grew up with Stavros Niarchos and said Niarchos is one of the most homophobic people he's ever known.
Will someone slap some sense into Jasmyne Cannick?
Posted by: peterparker | Jun 19, 2007 12:56:20 PM
No, not Coral. Take her back, straight people! We dont want that skank on our side!
Posted by: Gregoire | Jun 19, 2007 1:01:09 PM
Soooo excited for the iPhone...
Posted by: Dave | Jun 19, 2007 1:01:36 PM
I'd be happy to bitch-slap some sense into her.
Not sure if it would do any good, however.
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | Jun 19, 2007 1:01:40 PM
Not wise to bitch slap Jasmyne. Some Lesbians, just like drag queens, love to beat the shit out of unpleasant gay men.
I think the word "unpleasant" is very civilized (heave and sigh).
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Jun 19, 2007 1:17:26 PM
Re: Coral. No surprise there.
Celine huh? If Obama chooses Lionel Richie then the Dems are REALLY in trouble.
Posted by: mark m | Jun 19, 2007 1:18:26 PM
Just a quick comment on Jasmyne Cannick's comments on her site about ABC canning a slew of black actors. She is grasping at straws. The "Lost" example is ridiculous. The father/son had run its course and the kid was growing like a weed. It made sense to write him and his dad out of the show rather than drag it out. No disrespect to Alfre Woodard, but her story on DH was AWFUL and showed that creating a character just to have an extended guest star is a bad idea. Star Jones and Isaiah Washington DO have a history of diva behavior with or without an organized conspiracy to write about it. And whether you agree with Rosie or not, The View's format is designed to breed controversy, so no one should be surprised when it crops up.
Posted by: James C | Jun 19, 2007 1:18:49 PM
Jasmyne Cannick is a stupid bitch and needs to be beat down. I wish the Post had titled the article something different, like "Stupid Dyke Whore Wants Isaiah Back and Falsely Claims Racism Against the Bigoted Asshole." Hmm - may be too long.
Is there some remote island we can send Jasmyne Cannick, Travola, and Moore to? Preferably one surrounded by sharks and with an active volcano? Pretty please?
Posted by: shane | Jun 19, 2007 1:23:16 PM
Shane,
Someone should send you to a goddamn island for being such a homophobic hypocrite.
Is this seriously how we are supposed to respond to issues like this?
Posted by: Andrew | Jun 19, 2007 1:33:57 PM
Jasmyne fails to mention or consider the fact that the creator and writer of Grey's Anatomy is an african-american woman. Why would she allow a star of her show to be fired because he's black? If ABC was in fact at all racist, why would they allow her to have a show at all? If they were racist, why would they create a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy that will feature two prominent african-american cast members?
Posted by: Carrie | Jun 19, 2007 1:36:42 PM
Who is this Coral and why did she get top billing over Stavros, Star, Celine, John and Star?
Posted by: gabe | Jun 19, 2007 1:47:40 PM
Celine Dion. Jesus fucking Christ, could Hillary have chosen a worse song?
This makes me question her abilities also!!
Posted by: worst choice | Jun 19, 2007 1:49:45 PM
Alas, poor Hilary...that same song was used by Air Canada to launch their new logo and uniforms a couple years back...
Posted by: marks | Jun 19, 2007 1:49:56 PM
I can't be the only one who enjoys some of Celine Dion's songs. She sells a lot of music and concert tickets. She's gay friendly. This video is old but pretty cool - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVYJyd9mL50
Posted by: phil | Jun 19, 2007 2:02:36 PM
I like Star Jones' new look, and her handsome husband looked good, too, if a bit nelly, even with the buzzed hair.
Posted by: sam | Jun 19, 2007 2:06:46 PM
I love when people say "they can not be racist, they have black people who work for them." ABC is just like any other company and yes you can have black people who work for you and be racist at the same time. grow up carrie, you sound like a naive little girl. If jasmine wants to do a petition, then let her...it is her right...fat donut eating rosie is off the air and it is homophobia but jasmine needs to be slapped....no wonder violence against gays is up.
Posted by: marlo | Jun 19, 2007 2:11:39 PM
Re: Religious the fuckwits getting attacked...
Schadenfreude.
Posted by: Iko | Jun 19, 2007 2:24:45 PM
While I agreed totally with her about "Shirley Liquor," and was beginning to think Washington had evolved, the pattern is clear: Ms. Cuntnik thinks anyone not of color is racist, and racism is the only factor in any decision involving people of color. "Noah's Arc" [for which she was a producer the first season] is apparently not being renewed by LOGO not because it was a mediocre show built around a modern day gay Stepin' Fetchit but because of racism. Angelina Jolie playing a mixed race woman [with the woman's blessing] in the movie about beheaded journalist Daniel Pearl is racism. If her favorite Starbucks ran out of pain au chocolat she would probably yell racism. The only thing I'm uncertain of is whether she thinks the "white gay mafia" is more or less racist than white straights.
She may have lost some 50 pounds on her current diet, but her ongoing nonsense suggests she will always be a fathead, and, much like Bush's invasion of Iraq, her methods are only worsening the real problem she wishes to solve.
Posted by: Leland | Jun 19, 2007 3:02:26 PM
The Moscow news seems to have been taken at face value. As revealed in some blogs in Russia (there's photographic evidence), what really happened was rather different: the religious fascists picked fights with a couple of gay men, then claimed to the police that gay people attacked them. It's being treated with great irony in the Russian press, and probably no charges will ever be brought. It's just PR on the part of a group that earlier tried to stop Madonna's concert and so on.
But the police (and Luzhkov) do seem sympathetic to these people and to the church, allowing them to set up a voluntary "patrol" while they forbid protests by gay Russians.
Posted by: KevinVT | Jun 19, 2007 3:36:09 PM
"...Noah's Arc...modern day gay Stepin' Fetchit."
Well, Leland, I must be a modern day gay Stepin' Fethit, because the characters on that show were the closest images I've seen of me ever on American television. Also, by the end of the second season many black gays who initially felt as you just described had begun to like the show and its characters. The cancellation of the show by Logo just further antagonized a spreading gulf between white and black gay Americans. I remember when Taye Diggs appeared on "Will and Grace" all I could think was, "this aint got nothin' to do with me."
It's funny, as Jasmyne becomes more controversial among white gays (those who know of her), the respect for her from black gays grows. She is an activist who speaks for a group feeling more and more marginalized by the larger gay community.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Jun 19, 2007 3:47:00 PM
Derrick, I only referenced the central character Noah, and the choice to portray him as just another nelly queen save that this one was Black. I think it was a poor one and prevented the show, regardless of whatever other strengths or weaknesses it had, from appealing to more than just a subculture within a subculture. It would be too easy to suggest he be like demigod "Trey," but why couldn't Noah have simply been written more like Chance?
I'm confidant you don't mean that you related to every character on the show, but totally get and respect how much a show even with lots of negatives could appeal to you because Ralph Ellison's "Invisible [Black] Man" is, today, the invisible black gay man. It's long been chic to condemn "The Boys in the Band," yet, because it was the first dramatization of any gay men's lives I saw, and I think it's positives outweigh its negatives, it remains deep in my heart. I've only seen the first five episodes of Noah, so can't speak to its growth, but concede that little white moi, too, was moved by seeing men of color hug and kiss.
As for Cannick, I respectfully suggest that she is no more universally admired among black gays than any gay white commentator is by all gay whites. Cannick and I were among those who loathed "Shirley Liquor" whereas RuPaul defended the white man who played "her." As for increasing feelings of marginalization, and a "spreading gulf between white and Black gay Americans," please be more specific.
Posted by: Leland | Jun 19, 2007 4:21:49 PM
On the widening gulf between white and black gay Americans. Leland, I've been hearing complaints by black gay people about the "attitude" of white gays since the late 1980s. Sometimes, I felt it was exaggerated by my friends, but other times I felt that I was so busy dealing with gay-bashing within the black community that I was blind to white racism coming from the white gay community. Of course, the Isaiah Washington affair seemed to bring these animositiies (and differences in our social/political priorities) between black and white gays to the surface. Did you know the feelings of separatism are so strong among some younger black gays that they've come up with new terms to call ourselves other than "gay." Many black gays believe that just as the rest of America is dominated by white people, so is gay America; and that domination is clearly influenced by (or even dictated by) racism. But I know that the comments posted on this blog concerning the Isaiah Affair are mild compared to what's being said in "white" gay bars across this country. Contrary to what my fellow black gays may believe who've read my posts, I am not that naive.
Posted by: Derrick from PHilly | Jun 19, 2007 5:08:33 PM
If Washington is to get his job back, Imus should get back his too. He also apologize, he met the women and did everything that it was asked of him. So, where is the equality this Lizzy wants?. Equality for blacks and the rest, like Bette said, "Fu** 'em". This woman is so racist and full of shit she's laughable. Miss Truckdriver please shut up.
Posted by: Oscar | Jun 19, 2007 5:21:04 PM
Thanks for the feedback, Derrick. I have no solution to suggest other than that which I try to practice: judge each person and situation on his/her/its unique characteristics, and challenge those who don't, and individual stupidity in whatever color it comes in.
Posted by: Leland | Jun 19, 2007 5:46:19 PM
How can the cancellation of a tv show "further antagonize a spreading gulf between white and black gay Americans"? What does one have to do with the other? I don't see the correlation at all.
TV shows are canceled by networks for economic reasons only. What does the cancellation of a poor-performing television series have to do with white gay Americans?
Posted by: Ray | Jun 19, 2007 5:54:00 PM
Air Canada also picked Celine's You & I as their official song. Have a safe journey and would you like something to suck on to prepare for a hard landing?
Posted by: Francoism | Jun 19, 2007 8:24:25 PM
Michael Moore is so fat 'cause he's so full of sh*t. In Cuba if you come with dollars or euros you go to a special hospital or ward for foreigners where they give you everything. If you are a cuban the ward you go have no sheets on the beds, there no band-aids, there is nothing. You have to bring everything with you. I know 'cause my friend's daughter had to have an operation and we had to send her everything from here. Antibiotics, gauze, everything. So SICKO is a total lie and a distortion of the truth and I dare Mr. Moore to prove me wrong. I lived thru this situation, he did not. Mr. Michael Moore you are a FAT LIER.
Posted by: Oscar | Jun 20, 2007 3:06:50 PM