Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings refuses to budge on endorsing marriage equality.
More "ex-gay" looniness from pillow-beater Richard Cohen and PFOX's Greg Quinlan.
Gay Nova Scotia couple awarded largest defamation damage award in Nova Scotia history ($425K) from Mississippi blogger who targeted them in a campaign of homophobic harassment.
Rosanne Barr announces run for President.
Edmund White recommends five novels where beautiful writing and gay themes come together.
Mariah Carey X-Factor rumors swirl.
Ellen and Daniel Radcliffe make $5,000 Super Bowl bet to benefit the Trevor Project. Radcliffe: “I am a Giants fan. I was christened a Giants fan when I arrived in NY. I did Equus there. The first time. But it was this year I really got into it."
Utah lawmakers consider LGBT anti-discrimination bill, for fourth consecutive year: "The bill sponsored by Sen. Ben McAdams, D-Salt Lake City, would protect gay, lesbian and transgendered people from losing a job or housing. Senate Bill 51 would also allow people to freely participate in political activities outside of their work without fear of retribution. A committee hearing on the bill, introduced Wednesday in the Senate, will likely happen early next week. McAdams said even if the bill fails to get out of committee, it is still a success after discussion of the bill was stymied by Republicans last year."
Brad Pitt's favorite word is "Daddy" and his favorite curse word is, um....
David Furnish won't be watching Madonna's Super Bowl show.
California marriage equality activists Robin Tyler and Diane Olson to divorce. "'It’s a divorce, not a gay divorce,' said Tyler, 69, the CEO of Robin Tyler International Tours and Cruises for Women.'We had a very successful, happy relationship for a long time.' Tyler said she filed for divorce on Jan. 25, 3½ years after the couple wed on June 16, 2008. A family law hearing is scheduled for Feb. 27 in Los Angeles."
American Independent: How NOM is shilding its donors from Minnesota voters.
Warren Buffett will joke about a lot but he draws the line at proposing to a man.
Prisoner adds hidden pig to Vermont police car license plates: "State officials Thursday pointed to the failure of the quality assurance office within the Vermont Correctional Industries Print Shop in St. Albans to detect a prisoner-artist’s addition made four years ago to the traditional state police logo. A spot on the shoulder of the cow in the state emblem was modified into a pig."
Gay UK church attendant horrified by sexual assault charge from female parishioner: "I would have no reason to touch her breasts, no wish to touch her breasts."
VIDEO: Ab Fab's Pats and Eddy do some real-life modeling.
Massive crustaceans pulled from ocean depths near New Zealand.
Susan G. Komen foundation teams up with handgun manufacturer to offer pink gun.
McGill University has Canada's first gay frat and it's causing controversy: "While some might have thought that would sufficiently encompass transgendered individuals who consider themselves male, McGill’s main LGBT group, Queer McGill, wasn’t happy when it saw the frat’s literature. Queer McGill thought the language separating 'males' and 'those who identify as male' implied that transgendered individuals were somehow not real men. They were 'just pretending to be men,' explained Queer McGill administrator Elyse Lewis, 20."
Gay candidate faces tough battle Sunday in Finland run-off presidential election,
Police investigating possible anti-gay hate crime on Boston train: "The incident took place at 10:30 p.m. on Monday night as the 48 year-old male victim was a passenger on a Mattapan-bound high-speed trolley in the vicinity of Butler Street station. According to MBTA Police, the two men 'assaulted the victim while berating him with racial and homophobic slurs.' The two suspects— who have not yet been identified or caught— allegedly tried to pull the victim off the trolley to continue the assault."
Posted Feb. 3,2012 at 3:25 PM EST by
THANK YOU EDMUND WHITE!
Have loved your novels. Loved loved loved 'em.
And I highly encourage all Towleies to check out the works of Ethan Mordden. His epic novel "How Long Has This Been Going On?" is like the gay ROOTS. Intimate and epic, touching, hilarious, poignant, inspiring, humbling and a terrific way for newbies to get a real sense of gay history in the American landscape of the 20th Century.
the book saved my life when i was 18.
Shout outs as well to Armistead Maupin and E. Lynn Harris.
Posted by: Little Kiwi | Feb 3, 2012 3:32:04 PM
Heh. I first read that second item as "pillow biter" and was quite surprised.
Posted by: Paul R | Feb 3, 2012 4:11:11 PM
I agree with Edmund on the other four, but I disagree with Dancer from the Dance. Holleran is a great writer and has done great work, but I never saw much in that one. But we all have our opinions.
Posted by: Paul R | Feb 3, 2012 4:19:52 PM
What a silly controversy at McGill. The language transgendered refers to those who have had sex-reassignment surgery. Those who "identify as male" but who have not had such surgery are not properly called "transgendered". So the language is an attempt to be inclusive rather than limiting membership to biological males whether born that way or that way post-surgery.
Posted by: Bingo | Feb 3, 2012 4:30:45 PM
Is there no end to the Komen Foundation's ignorance?
Posted by: Jack M | Feb 3, 2012 4:30:57 PM
@Paul: GASP! You shut your trap. Dancer From the Dance is my favorite book of all time. The prose is lyrical and majestic, and the story timeless.
Posted by: endo | Feb 3, 2012 4:47:20 PM
@Endo: Sorry, maybe I was in a bad place when I read it. I will shut my trap going forward.
Oh wait, no I won't. But I'm glad you love it.
Posted by: Paul R | Feb 3, 2012 5:13:19 PM
The McGill story adds to the evidence that there is a group within the LGBT community which is certifiably insane! As someone who was greatly disappointed at the non-passage of the bill introduced by (out gay) MP Bill Siksay to extend rights to them, I'm afraid to even attempt to describe them for fear that I might step on a land-mine. I use the word "insane" because they seem to have a "shoot first, ask questions later" approach, particularly in dealing with groups which historically have been supportive allies. A quiet word with these gay McGillers would have overcome whatever reservations that other nameless group may have had. Please read what happens when you cry "wolf!" too often.
Posted by: Hue-Man | Feb 3, 2012 5:17:49 PM
Read it again! Read it again!
I know you appreciate music, Paul. I thought Holleran's passages about gay men's love affair with music and dancing were quite powerful.
Posted by: endo | Feb 3, 2012 5:25:13 PM
I had to immediately check and see if Little Kiwi would be posting about Ethan Morden and there he is, plain as day, good egg that he is.
Then I read further and had to clutch the pearls!
Dancer From The Dance should be read by high school students while Andy Warhol movies are screened in the background and the early pre-disco songs like Law of the Land play on endless loops.
I read this book after first moving to NYC in 1987 and it still, to this day, informs my view of the city. A lot of that city is gone (for good, in so many ways) but it was still around in the late 80s before Giuliani showed up and swept it all away.
And the first time I went to Sayville to take the ferry out to Fire Island, I could see exactly what the narrator saw that chilly autumn day when he went out to the house to clear out Malone's things.
If you have not read this book, get it and do so now! I can't recommend it enough.
Also, I have spent years writing letters, then emails, to my best friend in the style of the notes that form the epilogue of the story. Thus, I must say to you all:
Love,
Duchess Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Posted by: Frank Butterfield | Feb 3, 2012 6:03:25 PM
Yours in Christ,
Madeleine de Rothschild
Posted by: endo | Feb 3, 2012 6:16:35 PM
That story about the Mississippi blogger and his campaign of online intimidation of the Nova Scotia gay couple? If you go to the link he's identified by name and he's an accountant and tax preparer. I looked him up and left a strictly factual account of his campaign against those men and his conviction for defamation on a local (to him) service that rates people. I didn't call him names, not even "homophobe," which he clearly is.
Maybe it's time the HE learns the power of the internet cuts both ways.
Posted by: Caliban | Feb 3, 2012 6:38:00 PM
Oh Canada, the land of Mounties and political correctness. So a good old boy from the U.S. South uses homophobic slurs directed at ex-pat Yanks (and infliction of mental distress as any good tort lawyer would allege) who get a defamation judgment. Oh the issues of law this raises.
How did they get jurisdiction in a Canadian court over an American who never went to Canada? How is calling two gay men gay, albeit using slurs, defamation? It may be harassment or infliction of mental distress to use such slurs, but defamation? The defendant is a blogger like some of the regulars here. Do you really want people successfully suing when you say horrible things,oh, such as go "off yourself" because I don't like your comment here or your father hated you and you hate yourself, and this nonsense is repeated regularly. Double standards in this gayborhood.
Posted by: Dowager Countess | Feb 3, 2012 6:53:31 PM
@Endo: OK, I will. I gave my ex Holleran's *really* long novel that I'm too lazy to remember or look up, and it's his favorite book. Thank the heavens that it replaced Atlas Shrugged.
Posted by: Paul R | Feb 3, 2012 8:35:32 PM
Countess, if you read the article, you'll see the defamation is not about the homophobic slurs -- the blogger accused the two men of being involved in criminal activities related to a corruption case in Louisiana. The court wasn't imposing liability for the homophobia.
Posted by: Jon | Feb 4, 2012 7:38:08 AM
So a campus organization called "Queer McGill" gets its pantyhose in a twist over allegedly demeaning descriptions of Transwomen? "Those who identify as male" qualifies as a slur, and the Q-word doesn't? This is to die laughing! More proof that Gay groups caught up in RadicalSpeak are several bricks short of a load.
Posted by: Stuffed Animal | Feb 4, 2012 11:57:28 AM
So all of a sudden, Ellen is so generous. Where was she during the Prop 8 campaign?
Posted by: Fahd | Feb 4, 2012 2:02:01 PM
@ FAHD She donated $100,000 to oppose prop 8.
http://projects.latimes.com/prop8/donation/28581/
Posted by: DavyJones | Feb 4, 2012 7:32:36 PM
That blogger who harrassed the Canadian gay couple has a business number listed for his accountant company
1 601.928.5380
Posted by: JamalNYC | Feb 5, 2012 7:52:47 PM