09/24/2007
News: Ian Somerhalder, Frog, Marcel Marceau, Todd Oldham
Deaths: Legendary mime Marcel Marceau dies at 84. Stage actress and Bewitched star Alice Ghostley dies at 81.
Scientists develop see-through frog.
Fort Lauderdale debate over gay rights and Mayor Jim Naugle dividing South Florida's black community: "Despite the support that many black ministers showed for Naugle, the local NAACP took a public stand against the mayor, calling his crusade a 'hate campaign.'...'I'm not here to condone or condemn gay sex,' Marsha Ellison, head of the Broward NAACP, told The Miami Herald. 'This is a hate campaign against gays launched by the mayor.' She said the branch's position -- adopted after a unanimous vote of its 22-member executive committee as well as branch members -- echoes the national NAACP's position. 'Anytime any group is discriminated against it becomes a civil rights issue,' she said."
First conclusive evidence presented that velociraptors had feathers: "It's sort of as if you scaled up a chicken and then gave it really nasty teeth and big claws on its feet."
Your chance to have dinner and drinks with Michael Biserta, the New York firefighter renowned for his big hose.
Suburban Chicago teenage girl sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to write letters of apology for distributing anti-gay fliers with a friend outside Crystal Lake South High School: "Police arrested the two girls May 11 after they had distributed about 40 fliers in a student parking lot at the high school, 1200 S. McHenry Ave. The fliers had a photograph of two male students kissing and included inflammatory words."
Todd Oldham named creative director at Old Navy.
Israeli man detained in Lebanon on suspicions of murder and espionage tells authorities he is gay: "The events leading to Sharon's arrest last Thursday began when authorities in Beirut questioned a Lebanese security agent in connection with the shooting death of the man's roommate, according to a report in the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar. The agent claimed to have been with a German friend at a Beirut hotel at the time of the killing. When authorities questioned the German friend, they discovered he was an Israeli who spoke Arabic and who had repeatedly visited Lebanon, the report said. Sharon denied allegations he was spying for Israel, the reports said. He told police he visited Lebanon for tourism and that he was a homosexual who had relationships with Lebanese men, according to the reports."
Former model Ian Somerhalder returns to the runway.
PlanetOut seeks entries for short film awards: "Winners will be announced in January 2008 at PlanetOut's annual event during the Sundance Film Festival, and the Grand Prize Winner and four runners-up will be screened at a special ceremony and program in Miami as part of the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival on Sunday, April 27, 2008. The Grand Prize winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize and will be exhibited on PlanetOut.com and Gay.com, along with the runners up, who will each receive cash prizes ranging from $1,500 to $500...Judges will consist of film and TV executives from companies such as Bravo, Logo, and Sony Pictures Classics, and representatives from PlanetOut Inc. and MGLFF."
Rufus Wainwright wraps up his Judy tour with performance at the Hollywood Bowl: "The most striking costume change of all came during the encore's first song, 'Get Happy,' when Rufus pranced out in full Judy drag: fedora, diamond earrings, red lipstick, double-breasted tuxedo jacket, seamed black stockings, and high heels. The audience subsequently went crazy."
Posted 12:36 PM EST by Andy Towle in Chicago, Crime, Deaths, Fashion Men, Ian Somerhalder, Israel, Judy Garland, LEbanon, Nature, News, Rufus Wainwright, Todd Oldham | Permalink
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Boobs = Rufus.
Posted by: Lorna | Sep 24, 2007 7:53:55 PM
Lorna Luft was right there on stage with Rufus. She seemed to be having a great time--just like us in the audience.
Lorna=way too much peroxide is softening her brain.
Posted by: BOOBS | Sep 24, 2007 8:28:05 PM
Mr. Bedwell: As Judge Reinhardt from the Ninth Circuit noted in his 1996 decision in Watson v. Cohen, 124 F.3d at 1137-38, "I believe the status/conduct distinction to be irrational and without substance." Criminalizing conduct so closely alligned with one's identity comprises criminalization of the status. Even conservative Justice Kennedy gets this in his 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision which decriminlalized sodomy in all states. He acknowledges that by criminalizing the conduct of sodomy, intimate human relationships which are consitutitive of one's being are essentially criminalized. Even Catholic, Republican-appointed Justice Kennedy has given up on the status-conduct distintion. So what's your point?
Posted by: z | Sep 24, 2007 8:33:08 PM
Don't be too harsh to Michael, he's probably one of the idealistic people that thinks it's illegal to fire someone for being gay.
Posted by: Robguy | Sep 24, 2007 9:26:20 PM
My point is the difference between the functional and the philosophical, the latter of which both Reinhardt and Kennedy would concede they were expressing, to our benefit, while other judges made interpretations beyond the letter of the law to our detriment.
Yes, though sodomy laws, however defined from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, were rarely enforced in 1982 when Michael Hardwick was arrested by a police officer entering his Atlanta bedroom regarding a traffic citation and discovered he and another man engaged in fellatio, resulting in the ***ill-timed “Bowers v. Hardwick” case, and even less by 1992 when a cop in Houston investigating a false complaint of “weapons disturbance” discovered the eventual plaintiffs in “Lawrence v. Texas” engaged in anal intercourse, it was vital to overturn the laws entirely because of the frequency with which they were exploited by homophobic judges and others to justify discrimination in the workplace, in child custody cases, etc., based on the “presumption” of guilt and/or the belief of a court that one was an “habitual felon” as was applied when Sharon Bottoms lost custody of her son to her own mother in Virginia in 1995.
[***Sidenote: pursuing the Bowers case to the Supreme Court was another dumb decision by Evan Wolfson, who also lost there to the Boy Scouts. Now he’s insisting that gay voters throw Dem Presidential candidates over the cliff because he believes that gay marriage is more important than anything else.]
Nevertheless, I've yet to see any evidence that any civilian cop could simply walk up to anyone in 1961 and say, "I'm arresting your for BEING a homosexual" and have it stick. That’s my point.
Posted by: Michael Bedwell | Sep 24, 2007 10:27:09 PM