06/10/2008
News: Brody Jenner, Dolphins, Michael Cashman, DADT, Madonna
British MEP and former EastEnders actor Michael Cashman under fire for giving his boyfriend £30,000 secretary job.
Wet Willie: Prince of Wales gets royal dunking.
REPORT: Madonna hires Paul McCartney's lawyer for divorce from Guy Ritchie.
Canadian pastor censored and fined for anti-gay letters: "A former pastor will appeal a human rights ruling that orders an apology and the payment of thousands of dollars in fines for an anti-gay letter published in a central Alberta newspaper. The Alberta Human Rights Commission issued a written order on May 30 stating that Stephen Boissoin and the Concerned Christian Coalition must pay former Red Deer school teacher Darren Lund $5,000 in damages."
Mass dolphin death on Madagascar beach.
The story of the first Mrs. John McCain isn't pretty: "My marriage ended because John McCain didn’t want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens…it just does."
Kyle Hausman was locked in a Williamsburg, Brooklyn bar all night long. Here's his story, and here's the pre-story: "The hours melted away. Four a.m. approached, closing time, so Ms. Misagal tallied the night’s receipts as a worker cleaned up. Mr. Hausmann was milling about with the last stragglers. Then, around 4:30, he went into a bathroom. And for reasons that are unclear even to him, he stayed in there for quite a while."
Same-sex relationships more egalitarian: "When I look at what’s happening in California, I think there’s a lot to be learned to explore how human beings relate to one another. How people care for each other, how they share responsibility, power and authority — those are the key issues in relationships."
FAA says UFOs seen recently over San Jose recently were probably satellites reflecting the sun: "The appearance of at least two fast-moving shining objects in the weekend daytime sky over San Jose has local residents wondering if they were UFOs. Bob Lochridge, a local resident who recorded the objects, said they streaked across the skies. 'They appeared to be triangular pieces of metal,' he said. 'They were up very, very high. I couldn't see them without the camera.'"
Brody Jenner looking for a "bromance" in new reality series that will feature hot tub eliminations. That's his real "bro" by the way.
The Bachelorette: here's the only thing worth watching it for.
Federal appeals court upholds dismissal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" lawsuit: "A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by 12 gay and lesbian veterans who had challenged the military’s 'don’t ask, don’t tell' policy. The plaintiffs had all been discharged under the policy, instituted by Congress. 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jeffrey Howard said in the decision issued Monday that while some people may question the wisdom of the policy, the court had to defer to congressional decision making."
Amy Winehouse's racist song and subsequent apology - video.
Posted 1:20 PM EST by Andy in Amy Winehouse, Brody Jenner, Canada, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Gay Marriage, Great Britain, Guy Ritchie, John McCain, Madonna, Military, News, Prince William | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
That was a completely pointless NYT story about a total dipshit.
Posted by: 1Rover1 | Jun 10, 2008 1:39:53 PM
Re: the Canadian pastor
It freaks me out something awful to see the citizen of a modern democracy suffer legal penalties for the expression of an opinion.
Posted by: thin mint | Jun 10, 2008 1:44:39 PM
re: bachelorette:
nice faces and bods, but real men have a little more fur on 'em, IMO. These guys look way waxed.
Posted by: johnny | Jun 10, 2008 2:01:52 PM
Kyle Hausman can pass out after hours at my house any time he wants!!!
Posted by: peterparker | Jun 10, 2008 2:06:45 PM
I'm still trying to figure out why I'm supposed to care about Brody Jenner. He's in the same league as those other worthless cunts (the Kardashians, "The Hills"), but he has a penis and some muscles so I guess that makes him reportage worthy?
Posted by: Chas | Jun 10, 2008 2:09:45 PM
I hate when Dolphins die. They are the only species of animal I like--including humans...well, I like Zeke all right.
Posted by: Derrick from Phily | Jun 10, 2008 2:20:39 PM
I hope Guy gets a truckload of money. His career got destroyed.
Posted by: A.J. | Jun 10, 2008 2:35:31 PM
So sick of people claiming Madonna destroyed Guys' career, as if he was a great director before he met her. She did one film with him, and his last one sucked hard all on it's own. He's a marginally talented one note hack, and his career reflects that.
Having said that, her rep just issed a statement denying any divorce proceedings.
So there.
Posted by: michael | Jun 10, 2008 2:39:55 PM
Thin mint:
The "citizen of a modern democracy " you speak of.
Was not punished for stateing an opinion.
He was punished for breaking the law.
A law we have had in our Charter of Right's and Freedoms for more than 20 years.
In Canada it is illegal to distribute untrue information that,will or may, cause harm to another person or group.
It's called incitiment to hate.
It's how we can stop some one like your Reverend Phelp's.
If you don't like me...you can call me an ass, or anything else, but you can't call me a pedophile or drug dealer.
That is considered incitement to hate.
It's an untrue statement that is being used to convince others that one group is lesser than another.
If 'homosexual' where to be replaced with 'jew',as it was during the rise of nazi germany.
Or 'black' as it was in the US south 50 years ago.
Or 'immigrant' as it is used in a number of contries around the world today.
Would we still say that it's freedom of speech?
Posted by: griffin1573 | Jun 10, 2008 2:44:17 PM
RE: The Jason Mraz look-a-like trapped in the bar
I am so glad I quit drinking! How drunk do you have to be to be that stupid???
Posted by: RP | Jun 10, 2008 2:45:55 PM
Re the Canadian bigot:
There are undeniable links between hate speech and harassment, beatings and lynchings. We are in for another sharp spike in hate crimes like those of the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns.
Last year was just the run-up to the election but the GLBT focused National Coalition of Anti Violence Programs (NCAVP) 2007 report on anti-GLBT says hate crimes jumped 24 percent over 2006, the use of weapons was up 28 percent and the number of murders increased from 10 in 2006 to 24 in 2007. These figures are just the tip of the iceberg. Many, maybe most, hate crimes go unreported. That’s hardly surprising, even the FBI admits that the fourth largest group of gay bashers are cops.
The Quislings and bigots who run the Democratic Party gave us DOMA and DADT. They pigheadedly oppose same sex marriage. Last fall they ripped ENDA to shreds. Then they junked the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill AFTER it’d passed both Houses of Congress so the Republicans couldn’t claim they were GLBT friendly. As if. We desperately need that bill passed and a hate speech bill.
When Jimmy Swaggart says he’s going to kill any man who looks at him ‘that way’ he should lose his tax exemption, pay a heavy fine to compensate victims of hate crimes and their survivors and spend some time in jail. Here’s the video…
http://www.spike.com/video/jimmy-swaggart-would/2650343?sublisting=&sort=&&relatedPage=5&numPerPage=12
http://www.ncavp.org/common/document_files/Reports/2007HVReportFINAL.pdf
http://www.ncavp.org/
Posted by: Bill Perdue, RainbowRED | Jun 10, 2008 2:45:55 PM
Guy got what he deserved for being stupid enough to marry that hag. He knew he was signing up to be her chattel when he proposed to it.
Posted by: Chas | Jun 10, 2008 2:50:16 PM
"If 'homosexual' where to be replaced with 'jew',as it was during the rise of nazi germany. Or 'black' as it was in the US south 50 years ago. Or 'immigrant' as it is used in a number of contries around the world today. Would we still say that it's freedom of speech?"
Yes.
And I had to laugh at your comment, "The 'citizen of a modern democracy' you speak of. Was not punished for stateing an opinion. He was punished for breaking the law"
Um...he was punished for stating an opinion that was against the law to state. So much for Canadian free speech.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 2:53:25 PM
ROB and THIN MINT
Have you taken a minute to visit their website just for the sake of finding what they're all about?
http://www.realwomenca.com/page/pubanalys7.html
If this isn't an "intellectual" way of inciting bigotry and intolerance, I don't know what is.
Incitement to hatred whether masked or not is and should be illegal EVERYWHERE. For fellow gay men to excuse this and claim it to be "free speech" is beyong logic. Hate speech is incendiary and leads (potentially) to crime. Would you be crying free speech if these hateful comments were targeting BLACKS, JEWS, etc all in the name of religion?
Posted by: Shabaka | Jun 10, 2008 3:21:51 PM
Shabaka, I just scanned the page of you sent me to. Could you please cut-and-paste (or at least direct me to) SPECIFIC EXAMPLES of content that you think should be illegal? That's the only way we can get anywhere.
Also, I've already stated that yes, I would still be standing up for free speech if they were insulting Blacks or Jews.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 3:41:29 PM
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
- George Orwell
"For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."
- Th Jefferson
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 3:43:04 PM
Rob,
He was punished for calling a group of people "pedophiles and drug dealers".
That's not an opinion.
It's his statement of fact.
Unfounded by evidence.
If it where an individual,and not a group as a whole,it would be slander.
Don't be suckered into the idea, coming out of the right wing nuts, that anything can be said about anybody and it's protected under freedom of speech or freedom of religion.
Freedom is not free...and it comes with responsabilities.You better be able to prove what you say is true.
Or your going to pay for it...for an individual ,in the court system, it would be called slander.
When you say the same untrue about a group,it's called incitiment to hate.
You don't get to hide behind a freedom you would use against others.
Here we call it incitement
Posted by: griffin1573 | Jun 10, 2008 3:46:09 PM
Ohh puleese.
Vadge sucked the life blood out of him and now it's time to dispose of the remains. The sad but true story of the ultimate Praying Mantis.
Whoa. That should be the title of her next album! Vadge - Praying Mantis!
hahehahaehae! It's the heat.
Posted by: Br!on | Jun 10, 2008 3:51:52 PM
All I can say is this just breaks my heart.
Posted by: thin mint | Jun 10, 2008 3:56:12 PM
Does anyone have links to the actual letters he was convicted for? Because the article Towleroad linked to does NOT say he called gays pedophiles and drug dealers.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 3:57:54 PM
Alright Rob...
Let's use your logic for a moment.
I'm am here to say that all people named 'Rob' are indeed drug dealers and pedophiles.
I have the freedom of speech to say that.
Now...Joe down the street,hears this and belives it.
He's of the opinion that all "those people" should be handed a big can of whoop ass and he's going after every 'Rob' he can find with a pipe.Something he would never have done if he had'nt heard me say what I said...true or not.
That's Rev. Phelp's speech...not free speech.
Posted by: griffin1573 | Jun 10, 2008 3:58:50 PM
wow, the Madonna hatred on here as usual baffles me.
I really had no idea who he was until she began dating him. I don't think he was any great talent anyway. But my god, they've been together a long time for Hollywood standards (hell by my standards I can't seem to get past several months lately), so I find it hard to believe they didn't love each other.
I know it sounds weird, but I've always identified with Madonna's Type A craziness and when she and Guy married I felt there was hope for me yet. Yeah, I'm that gay. And WHAT? :)
Posted by: Alex | Jun 10, 2008 4:06:29 PM
Griffin, for your analogy to hold true, this man would have had to say that all homosexuals are pedophiles and drug dealers. We haven't established that. Again, does anyone have access to what he actually wrote?
There are two types of liberals when it comes to free speech: those who support the ACLU's efforts to protect Nazis' right to speak, and those who were horrified by it. Each group considers the other hopelessly misguided.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 4:06:47 PM
Thin Mint:
Nothing to heart break over. This is a well publicized case in which the pastor was blatantly anti-gay in multiple occassions. You know, there is a thing such as hate speech.
I guess you have to be a Jew in Europe during WWII to understand that.
Posted by: Landis | Jun 10, 2008 4:11:31 PM
Landis, Jews were imprisoned and gassed for saying things the Nazis deemed offensive, as were many non-Jews. Or is that not the parallel you're trying to draw?
In any case, you might want to google Godwin's Law.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 4:21:25 PM
Rob:
During that time - it was ok to say that Jews took away the jobs/stole from hard working people.
First comes the hate speech, then comes the homicides.
Posted by: Landis | Jun 10, 2008 4:30:08 PM
Sorry, wrong webpage, ROB. That was a link to REAL Women Canada which is a pro-family and christian group. What I should have posted is the link to the Concerned Christians Canada website.
Since you want specific passages where incendiary comments are being made, I'll just copy a segment from a letter sent by Jim Blake and Craig Chandler in regards to the Reverend's comments:
--"...As followers of Jesus Christ we still hold firm in our beliefs that homosexuality is a sin. Also, like Christ we love the sinner, not the sin..."
--"...because of religious reasons, we are against same-sex marriage and firmly believe homosexuality is a sin, we have never had an intention to make homosexuals uncomfortable in any manner..."
--"...Our views will not change, however, and if and when we discuss this matter again we will be careful to insure that our words are calculated before spoken."
The entirety of the letters can be found on their website.
As for the letter he initially wrote that sparked all this, here's the entirety of it.
Quite lengthy,though!
http://canadianpastor.blogspot.com/
P.S: Sorry about a hasty and possibly incoherent post. I'm leaving the office!
Posted by: Shabaka | Jun 10, 2008 4:30:49 PM
First come hate speech laws, then come thought police.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 4:31:40 PM
Rob - you already have thought police in America. Its called Fox.
Posted by: Landis | Jun 10, 2008 4:36:58 PM
Thanks very much for the reference. Okay, so he DID NOT say we are pedophiles and drug dealers. And Shabaka, I certainly hope you don't think it should be illegal to say any of the three quotes you listed.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 4:42:45 PM
Here in the U.S., our laws ban incitement to VIOLENCE. Personally, in the constant struggle to find a balance between freedom and security, I think banning incitement of hatred is going to far in privileging security over freedom.
Posted by: 24play | Jun 10, 2008 4:43:36 PM
"Rob - you already have thought police in America. Its called Fox." Landis, if you're going to trivialized the discussion, there's no point in continuing.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 4:46:18 PM
No, ROB, the quotes are from his defenders. He likened drug dealers and pedophiles to homosexual ACTIVISTS. He basically said the quite kind he can stand. Just not the vocal ones. Just read it here:
http://canadianpastor.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Shabaka | Jun 10, 2008 4:55:46 PM
The fact remains, contrary Griffin's legal reasoning, the man DID NOT accuse ANY homosexual of pedophilia or drug dealing (not in this letter, anyway). And I'm still waiting to be directed at the specific material that people think should be illegal.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 4:59:07 PM
Whups, sorry, he DID say that "some" gays are members of NAMBLA. Which is true.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 5:02:22 PM
"Don't allow yourself to be deceived any longer. These activists are not morally upright citizens, concerned about the best interests of our society. They are perverse, self-centered and morally deprived individuals who are spreading their psychological disease into every area of our lives. Homosexual rights activists and those that defend them, are just as immoral as the pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps that plague our communities."
This is a direct quote of the Pastors letter which can be found at
http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=1&STORY_ID=4014&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=1
Thinly vailed...hate speech non the less.
The law was created to protect the minority group from just this type speech.
Leading the ignorant to where you want them to go ,by manipulating your comments,is just as much of hate as picking up the pipe yourself.
Posted by: griffin1573 | Jun 10, 2008 5:13:54 PM
Griffin, everything you quoted falls into the category of opinion rather than fact, so your slander arguments doesn't apply.
But here's a question for you, and I hope you can give me an unambiguous yes/no reply. Would you want to criminally punish someone who wrote:
"Don't allow yourself to be deceived any longer. These so-called Christians are not morally upright citizens, concerned about the best interests of our society. They are perverse, self-centered and morally deprived individuals who are spreading their psychological disease into every area of our lives. Homophobic Christian activists and those that defend them, are just as immoral as the pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps that they denounce."
Because I certainly want to hold on to my right to say that.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 5:24:42 PM
Rob,
Yes...I would punish you.
We're on opposite side's of the same line.
The differance I see is that you but more weight on your right to say what ever you want regardless of the consequeces.
And I say you are resbonsable for the actions of others that your word's have spurred to act.
Freedom of speech vs. right to security.
A slippery argument on both side's.
We'll have to agree to disagree...because my supper is ready.
And my husband is calling.
It's been a pleasure to debat you.
Posted by: griffin1573 | Jun 10, 2008 5:40:27 PM
Hmm. I wonder...if you said that my words are harmful and I should be punished, could I then prosecute you for inciting violence against me?
:)
Enjoy your dinner.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 6:07:26 PM
Hey ROB, MY partner isn't calling and I'm going for take out 2nite (hehehe) so I'll just mention this...Bare in mind that this letter is five years old., so maybe it doesn't have the same impact it did at the time( since gay marriage was still in talks).
I'm not certain you finally agree that his letter contains rather harmful passages but in case you still insist he's harmless, I'll paste some.
--" My banner has now been raised and war has been declared so as to defend the precious sanctity of our innocent children and youth"
He's obviously trying to convince the christian youth that he leads, into thinking that someone is out to corrupt the "precious sanctity of our innocent youth".
--[...Inexcusable justifications such as, "I'm just not sure where the truth lies," or "If they don't affect me then I don't care what they do,"]
Here, he's clearly inciting them to "act" and not just sit and observe. They may be a non violent group of young men and women but the fact that he's trying to convince them of doing something about it is very telling, no?
--"...It's time to stand together and take whatever steps are necessary to reverse the wickedness that our lethargy has authorized to spawn...The homosexual agenda is not gaining ground because it is morally backed. It is gaining ground simply because you, Mr. and Mrs. Heterosexual, do nothing to stop it."
Just to quote a few. The rest is on the website I posted earlier.
I dunno, this to me is VERY dangerous. Not only because those gullible and young minds are directly affected but also those who happen to be gay and who grow up in such a hostile environment are a disaster in the making. And I'm sure you understand this.
Posted by: Shabaka | Jun 10, 2008 6:52:19 PM
I didn't say he's harmless (so please don't claim that I ever insisted he was, or that my argument rests on a belief that he is). I just don't believe we have the right to shut him up because he repellent.
Posted by: Rob | Jun 10, 2008 7:11:03 PM
Um, Prince William is not the Prince of Wales; that would be his father, Prince Charles.
Posted by: Mike | Jun 10, 2008 7:38:35 PM
why is this kyle hausman story getting so much attention? passing out in a bar bathroom?, how is that interesting or even something to be proud about?
Posted by: ryan | Jun 11, 2008 12:40:14 PM