News: Georgia, Rauschenberg, Jamaica, John Mayer, Sonoma

First batch of NewNowNext Award winners revealed!

John Mayer gives up on Kristy McNichol haircut, charges fan $10 for photo-op.

Send a personal message of support to Senator Ted Kennedy.

Con man Sonoma County, California attempts to stake claim as same-sex marriage destination.

Who won Dancing with the Stars?

Prayers for Bobby: Sigourney Weaver to play conservative religious mother in Lifetime telepic about gay son's suicide. "In her first telepic role, Weaver will star as Mary Griffith, a devout Christian who winds up becoming an advocate for gay and lesbian youths after her son is driven into a deep depression by his family's disapproval and attempts to 'cure' him of his sexual orientation."

Jamaican prime minister stands behind nation's homophobia: "Jamaica is not going allow values to be imposed on it from outside. We're going to have to determine that ourselves and we're going to have to determine to what extent those values will adapt over time to change, change in perception, change in understanding as to how people live."

Tyler Green on the hetero-normalizing of the late Robert Rauschenberg: "Critics at America's largest publications, including Michael Kimmelman, Alan Artner, Blake Gopnik, Richard Lacayo, and Peter Plagens, mostly avoid the topic. Kimmelman's queasy reference to Jasper Johns, Rauschenberg, and "the intimacy of their relationship" was the closest the Times came to acknowledging that Rauschenberg was gay. The Boston Globe's Mark Feeney, Obit magazine's Phyllis Tuchman and Newsweek's Plagens and others also took the Johns route. The two major papers in Rauschenberg's home state were even more timid."

Court in Malta rules that calling someone "gay" is not defamatory: "Magistrate Michael Mallia ruled that a person’s sexual orientation in the current society was not of social interest bar that of assuring that no discrimination is made. The fact that homosexuality was a criminal offence until 1973, said the magistrate, does not reflect the situation in the 21st century."

Jason Statham has been flogged.

Eric Dane took a few inches off the top.

EU debates sexual preference anti-discrimination guidelines.

Georgia congressman announces plan to introduce federal amendment banning same-sex marriage: "Georgia Congressman Paul Broun announced Tuesday that he will be introducing a constitutional amendment to prevent same-sex marriage in response to a recent decision by the California Supreme Court that recognizes same-sex marriages...'Marriage as an institution exists solely between one man and one woman. Americans have traditionally recognized this definition as being the most beneficial arrangement for the creation of stable family structures and for the upbringing of children. In fact, Americans have repeatedly shown their preference for the traditional definition of one-man, one-woman marriage by passing state and federal laws or by amending state constitutions to preserve the traditional definition,' Broun said."

Hillary Clinton ready for her close-up?

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EU Called on to Look at Moldova Following Gay Pride Terror

UK Gay News reports that MEP Raul Romeva has called on the European Union to "reconsider its relations" with Moldova following last weekend's terrifying assault on a bus filled with participants observing Gay Pride festivities there. I posted about the incident on Monday.

According to UK Gay News, "Fifty participants of the parade were blocked in a bus surrounded by several hundred aggressive protestors shouting 'Beat them to death' and 'Don’t let them escape'. After being forced by the neo-fascists to destroy their pride materials – colourful balloons, posters with anti-discrimination slogans and flags of the EU – Pride participant’s bus was eventually allowed to go. Police forces merely observed the violence and attacks and did not bother to intervene."

Said Romeva: "It is unacceptable that Moldova exposes its own citizens, along with foreign visitors, to such violent attacks. Perhaps the European Union should reconsider its relations with a state so gravely breaching International Human Rights Obligations."

(image source)

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Poland's PM Says More Gays are Bad for Society

The European Parliament, responding to a mid-March statement by a deputy education minister in Poland that the nation was drafting a law to fire teachers who "promote homosexuality", adopted a resolution condemning Poland's leaders for their ongoing hateful policies against gays, and asked EU anti-racism experts to investigate "the emerging climate of racist, xenophobic and homophobic intolerance in Poland".

According to the BBC, parliament held a debate over the issue on Wednesday, on which several Polish MEPs walked out: "British gay MEP Michael Cashman said a country that had lived under repression should know the value of fundamental human rights. 'You should be teaching us about fundamental values and that is why we will not hesitate to defend human rights and human rights' defenders wherever they are,' he said. But Polish MEP Witold Tomczak said homosexuality was against the law of nature, and called on "so-called defenders of human rights" to tackle 'discrimination against normal families...Every person has a right to life and deserves respect and help, including one who - lost and scarred - has given into homosexual tendencies. The solution is to help those who suffer and to provide them with the cure that they expect us to deliver.'"

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski was quick to respond to the resolution. Said Kaczynski: "Nobody is limiting gay rights in Poland. However, if we're talking about not having homosexual propaganda in Polish schools, I fully agree with those who feel this way. Such propaganda should not be in schools; it definitely doesn't serve youth well. It's not in the interest of any society to increase the number of homosexuals — that's obvious."

Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the "terrible twins" as they are known to many, have a long anti-gay history despite the fact that Jaroslaw may apparently be gay. Lech Kaczynski was condemned by rights groups in February for his statement that gays would destroy the human race.

Poland urged to halt 'homophobia' [bbc]
Kaczynski rejecte EU criticism of his homophobic comments [iht]

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Polish Prime Minister: We're Not Anti-Gay

Poland wants more clout in the European Union, so the country's prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski traveled to Brussels to appeal to the EU commission and explain to them that homophobia and anti-Semitism in his country are on the wane:

"I ask you not to believe in the myth of Poland as an anti-semitic, homophobic and xenophobic country...People with such [homosexual] preferences have full rights in Poland, there is no tradition in Poland of persecuting such people."

The commission should have asked him about the Equality Parade that his twin brother Lech, now the country's president, cancelled when he was mayor of Warsaw.

Or how about the 65 protestors who were detained and interrogated in Poznan, Poland last November for rallying against discrimination based on "sexual orientation, gender, race, and disability."

And what were the punishments given to the violent protestors who hurled objects at Equality March participants in Warsaw and Krakow earlier this year?

According to the EU Observer, "[Kaczynski] admitted that an anti-semitic 'fringe' exists in Polish politics but said it is in a process of change, while showcasing the fact Poland has many gay nightclubs and magazines, as well as 'people of such a persuasion holding high public positions, on the right and not just on the left.'"

Why is it then, that even in Berlin they're knocking down doors to speak out against Poland's policies?

Gay-friendly Poland wants more EU clout, prime minister says [eu observer]

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