Galveston Gay Bar Becomes Place of Comfort After Hurricane Ike

Robert's Lafitte, a gay bar in Galveston, Texas, which was hit with a direct blow by Hurricane Ike, has adopted a caretaker role after the storm, according to Reuters:

"The first of two bars to reopen after Ike's onslaught on Saturday, Robert's Lafitte is a haven in the storm -- for gays, straights, anyone who needs a place to drink and find comfort. 'You can see there's not too much worry and stress on people's faces,' said Dixie Monroe, a transgender barmaid who wore a tiger-print cowboy hat and a low-cut top. Outside, Black Hawk helicopters clattered overhead and emergency teams searched for people stranded in the flooded city of 60,000 people. Up the street lay a huge field of splintered wood."

Additionally: "The bar is setting out food donated by locals for people in need. Some 20,000 people are thought to be still on the island and food and water are scarce. 'It's more than a life saver. This is like the Coast Guard,' said Brian DeLeon, a straight restaurant worker who had not visited the bar before. 'These are the people who take you up out of the water and make life livable. Once I get back to work, I'm coming back here.'"

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A Prayer for Texas

Above, Hurricane Ike bears down on the Texas coast:

"Waters rose rapidly along the Texas coast as Ike moved within hours of striking low-lying areas near Houston with a possible 20-foot (6-meter) storm surge in what may be the worst storm to hit Texas in nearly 50 years. The National Weather Service warned that people in coastal areas could face "certain death" from the storm's massive storm surge. Ike was a Category 2 storm with 105 mph (165 kph) winds as it moved on a course that pass directly over Houston -- the nation's fourth-largest city. Ike was expected to come ashore late on Friday or early on Saturday as a dangerous Category 3 storm on the five-step intensity scale with winds of more than 111 mph (178 kph), the National Hurricane Center said."

Our thoughts go out to all of you down in Texas.

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Pastor John Hagee Retracts Claim That Gay Sin Caused Katrina

Early last week, Pastor John Hagee told right wing radio show host Dennis Prager that he still believed that Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans because gays were planning to hold a sinful gathering there.

The reiteration inspired a flurry of renewed protest, forcing John McCain, who has "gladly" accepted Hagee's endorsement, to respond. By the end of the week, a short-tempered McCain was snapping at reporters that the whole controversy was "nonsense."

At about the same time, apparently, Hagee's office was issuing this statement:

"As a believing Christian, I see the hand of God in everything that happens here on earth, both the blessings and the curses. But ultimately neither I nor any other person can know the mind of God concerning Hurricane Katrina. I should not have suggested otherwise. No matter what the cause of the storm, my heart goes out to all who suffered in this terrible tragedy. There but for the grace of God go any one of us."

Quite a turnaround, eh?

AFTER THE JUMP, a round-up of Hagee's controversial views.

(via pageoneq)

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News: Hurricane Dean, Keith Olbermann, Survivor, Faye Dunaway

Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota named most gay-friendly school.

Hurricane Dean makes landfall on Mexican coast as Category 5 monster storm: "The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it was the first Category 5 storm to make landfall in the Atlantic Basin since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Dean was still packing sustained winds of 165 miles per hour (268 kph), with gust of up to 200 mph when it came ashore, but was expected to weaken as it passed over the Yucatan Peninsula."

Cast of Survivor: China includes 22-year-old gay Mormon Todd Herzog who says he is prepared to "gather wood and sh*t."

Faye Dunaway orders poultry by the pound at Koo Koo Roo: "She ordered chicken and broccoli to go, and then she sat at a table with her food container. She pulled a tiny scale out of her purse and . . . proceeded to pull the chicken meat off the bones and weigh it. She piled the bones and skin on a napkin. She carefully weighed the chicken meat and broccoli, and the broccoli was a little short, so she went to the counter and asked for more."

Despite "huge" LGBT population, teens in the Bronx live on the down low or face harassment: "LGBT youth say that Bronx schools are particularly tough environments. 'I'm considered, like, a dyke in my school,' said 15-year old Angel S., who has knife scars on her right knee from a fight. A boy 'pushed me down a flight of stairs because I liked his girlfriend.'"

Officials knew Minneapolis bridge was in danger of collapse: "Internal MnDOT documents reviewed by the Star Tribune reveal that last year bridge officials talked openly about the possibility of the bridge collapsing -- and worried that it might have to be condemned. The documents provide the first look inside MnDOT's decision-making process as engineers weighed benefits and risks, wrestling with options to prevent what they believed was a remote but real possibility of the eight-lane freeway bridge failing."

Arjan interviews Danish dance duo Junior Senior.

Testing the water: Countdown with Keith Olbermann to get tryout on NBC prior to this Sunday's Eagles/Steelers game.

It's Corny Collins time!

Gary Steinsmith, gay activist in South Florida, dies at 50.

Amy Winehouse leaves rehab again.

Chilean gay activists cry foul over sodomy conviction: "On Aug. 10, a panel of judges in Antofagasta, Region II, found a 47-year-old laborer guilty of sodomizing a 17-year-old male. Because the accused had no previous criminal record, the court sentenced him to 41 days in jail – far less than the 541-day jail term prosecutors had recommended. The case began when police discovered the two having sex in a pickup truck. Although the young man in question – just 12 days shy of his 18th birthday at the time of the incident – testified that the sex was consensual, prosecutors nevertheless pursued the case, arguing that the accused 'corrupted the child’s sexual morality.' The ruling – the first sodomy conviction to be issued in Region II since the country’s criminal law procedures were overhauled in 2001 – was not well received by the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Freedom (MOVILH), Chile’s leading gay rights organization...Chile’s Criminal Code is biased against homosexuals, MOVILH claims. One problem is a major discrepancy regarding the legal age of sexual consent: 14, for heterosexuals, 18 for homosexuals. MOVILH describes the difference as 'arbitrary, unjust and hypocritical.'"

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Hurricane Dean Cuts Swath Through Caribbean

Hurrican Dean scraped the southern coast of Jamaica overnight before moving into open water and strengthening as it rapidly approached Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Landfall is expected there Monday night.

Above: Vast, beautiful, and deadly Dean seen from the International Space Station.

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