News: James Franco, DNA, Mason Wyler, Deforestation, Britney

Judy Shepard's message on the 10th anniversary of Matthew's death: no progress.

Computer proclaims James Franco essentially perfect.

Truth or Cheetos: Preview of new documentary on Britney Spears. "I sit there and I'll look back and I'm like: I'm a smart person. What the hell was I thinking?"

Lebanese-Croatian TV producer and writer, based in Beirut: Anti-gay attacks abound in Croatia.

Jennifer Lopez to sue The Daily Beast over Kevin Sessums' article about her nervous breakdown?

Socialist ex-Spanish trade minister under fire for homophobic comments: "Javier Gómez-Navarro said mothers of gay children wanted to see them out of the house...Gómez-Navarro, who is currently President of the High Council of Chambers of Commerce, has said that the mothers of homosexuals want their children to be diplomats so as not to have them at home. He said mothers of other children in Spain wanted to see them become lawyers."

American Family Association ends McDonald's boycott following executive's resignation: "The conservative Christian group had been calling for Richard Ellis, formerly McDonald's vice president of U.S. communications, to step down from the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Ellis recently left his U.S. post and returned to an executive position in McDonald's Canadian operation, McDonald's officials said. Because Ellis is based in Canada and the gay and lesbian chamber is a U.S. association, Ellis resigned from its board, said Bill Whitman, a McDonald's spokesman...The American Family Association also said McDonald's notified it that the restaurant giant has no plans to renew its membership in the chamber when it expires at the end of the year."

Plan for gay high school in Chicago unveiled: "The Pride Campus of Social Justice High School would be open to all students citywide but would provide a safe, 'gay-friendly' atmosphere to combat the high bullying, dropout and depression rate many LGBTQ students experience nationwide, advocates say."

Gay adult film actor Mason Wyler says he was gang-raped by a Captain in the U.S. Army (site NSFW).

Paul Broussard: 17 years after gay man's murder in Houston, only one of 10 defendants remains in prison.

STUDY: Global economy losing more money from disappearance of forests than the banking crisis. "It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion. The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide. Speaking to BBC News on the fringes of the congress, study leader Pavan Sukhdev emphasised that the cost of natural decline dwarfs losses on the financial markets. 'It's not only greater but it's also continuous, it's been happening every year, year after year,' he told BBC News."

Ryan Gosling takes the pooch for a walk.

Danny Cipriani is just as hot with clothes.

Russian officials ban gay rights demonstrations in the city of Tambov: "Local officials said they had received numerous letters and phone calls from townspeople, urging them to forbid the demonstrations as an offense to the city's traditions, Interfax news agency reported."

Mysterious DNA strands have resisted evolution over eons.

Nuts: Stem cells from testicles seen as possible alternative to embryos: "The new type of stem cells could be useful for growing personalized replacement tissues, according to a study in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. But because of their source, their highest promise would apply to only half the world's population: men. Embryonic stem cells can give rise to virtually any tissue in the body and scientists believe they may offer treatments for diseases like Parkinson's and diabetes and for spinal cord injuries. The testicular cells avoid the ethical dilemma of embryonic stem cells, which are harvested in a process that destroys the embryos."

Same-sex couple wins right to adopt in Brazil.

Sarah Palin refuses to issue Alaskan proclamation for National Coming Out Day.

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10 Years Ago Today, Matthew Shepard was Beaten and Left to Die

It was ten years ago tonight, on the night of October 6, 1998, that Matthew Shepard was beaten by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson and left to die tied to a fence near Laramie, Wyoming. He died five days later, on October 12.

This morning, Judy Shepard appeared on The Early Show to discuss the progress that has (and hasn't) been made since Matthew's murder. Wyoming still does not have a hate crime law that covers sexual orientation.

Said Shepard: "I'd like to say yes it surprises me, but no it doesn't."

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Leno, Knight, Shepard Attend Mass Commitment Ceremony in WeHo

A symbolic mass commitment ceremony (planned before California's same-sex marriage court decision) was held last night at the Abbey in West Hollywood. Above, WeHo Mayor Jeffrey Prang speaks to the assembled crowd.

I've also clipped a segment from local news station FOX 11, AFTER THE JUMP...

Jay Leno, Judy Shepard, and T.R. Knight were on hand to show their support. Despite Leno's history of cracking distasteful jokes about gays I think he needs to be given credit for showing up. It may be the gayest event he's ever been to, and, as we know, familiarity and exposure is the number one killer of ignorance and bigotry. So, we'll see.

Said Leno to the AP: "I have friends in the gay community. Who doesn't know gay people in Hollywood?"

Below, Jay's gayest look?

Leno even signed a symbolic marriage license:

T.R. Knight and Mark Cornelsen were looking dapper. Those ring pendants around their neck were likely supplied by Love and Pride, the jewelry company sponsoring the event.

Said Knight, who had late last month been rumored to be marrying Cornelsen: "There's a lot of hate around and until that hate disappears, you're going to have people trying to push down another group of people for whatever reason."

The AP reports: "This was a third year in a row that The Abbey, a popular lounge, kicked off Gay Pride month in Los Angeles with such a ceremony. Faded pink rose petals sprinkled the white carpet as a guitarist performed Pachelbel's 'Canon in D.' The crowd of family and friends gathered in support as their loved ones stood in front of the mayor of West Hollywood to take a vow. 'Your joined hands are outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual bond,' Mayor Jeffrey Prang said, 'signifying to all your commitment to each other and your commitment in vowing to vote and protect your right to love.' Then, before a cadre of television celebrities and the family of a modern gay rights martyr, the couples sealed the pledge with kisses."

A few of the couples marking their love to one another and a local News report from FOX 11, AFTER THE JUMP...

Here's a local news report I've clipped from FOX 11 News:

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Judy Shepard: 'We Need to Change Hearts and Minds'

Yesterday I posted about Judy Shepard's appearance at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. While in Houston, she also spoke at the Human Rights Campaign's gala dinner. Her powerful and, at times, funny speech, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Nearly 10 Years After Matthew's Death, Judy Shepard Soldiers On

The Houston Chronicle spoke with Judy Shepard as she appeared at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts as part of the "Campaign to Erase Hate".

Says Shepard: "I'm just somebody's mom who got really angry at the system and felt I had the opportunity to make a change. In my own mind, speaking like I did today, that is my grief process. I get to keep Matthew with me. I've always been a person who believed things happen for a reason," she said. "When I figure out what this reason is, I hope I'm open to it. And I hope that losing my son was part of it."

She doesn't plan on forgiving the two young men who put her on this path: "It's not a part of my process. I don't blame them 100 percent. I sort of blame society for creating the environment to make them think they could get away with it."

Shepard also says her new life has changed many of her relationships with friends at home: "There are a lot of them who don't know how to talk to me. They don't know what to ask me. They don't really know who I am anymore. They wonder how the Judy they knew could be doing what this Judy is doing."

Rewards, if you can call them that, come in the form of a great need: "...from the reception she got at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts last week, she's also a surrogate mother of sorts to a generation of young gays. After her speech at HSPVA, attended by hundreds, many of those students line up backstage to meet her. Most throw their arms around her and tell her in a gush about coming out to their parents or describe their horror at homophobia. Several just want to tell her how much her work means to them. There's a sense of urgency to share with her because she somehow will agree and, most of all, understand."

'A journey of personal change' [houston chronicle]

Recently
Judy Shepard Has a Message for Anti-Gay OK State Rep Sally Kern [tr]

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Judy Shepard Has a Message for Anti-Gay OK State Rep Sally Kern

Of course you remember Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern's anti-gay rant. Kern has been standing her hateful ground since her remarks broke wide across the internet.

Last week, 300 people rallied outside the Oklahoma state capitol to protest Kern's remarks, and the lawmaker, who says she has received death threats over her statements, agreed to meet this week with "two or three" representatives of the LGBT community once she had her lawyers in place.

Today Judy Shepard released a message for the bigot:

"My son died nearly ten years ago at the hands of people whose hatred changed many lives that day. It hardened hearts and brought others to their knees. It shook a nation and enraged millions. At that time, I knew there was a window of opportunity that I could use Matthew’s story and my voice in replacing hate with understanding, compassion and acceptance. Through the Matthew Shepard Foundation, we are reaching young people who are at risk of being poisoned by the dark ideas of people like Sally Kern. I don’t know why Sally Kern is proud of comparing gay people to cancer or terrorism, but count me as someone who’s listening now to people like her. She may be free to say people like my son are a threat to America, but when she does she puts other mothers’ sons in danger. I pray she doesn’t say it anymore."

Read Shepard's entire message at The Victory Fund.

Judy Shepard: Sally Kern’s free speech [victory fund]

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News: Annie Lennox, Penguins, Judy Shepard, Spitzer's Promise

Maxim Thorne, a member of Obama's LGBT leadership council, resigns after angry posts to listserv reviving Clinton sex scandals.

Dave Navarro's piercings take no prisoners.

Annie Lennox launches "Sing" campaign to fight HIV/AIDS.

Teacher survey: homophobic abuse "endemic" in UK schools: "Homophobic abuse is endemic in schools, with 'gay' now the most common put-down by pupils in the classroom, teachers say. A 'conspiracy of silence' in schools and colleges means homophobia is now seen as so normal that some teachers believe they risk disrupting classes - and making themselves a target of abuse - if they challenge students' behaviour. More than 70% of teachers have heard put-downs in their school or college that refer to sexuality, according to a survey of 268 teachers by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. In particular, teachers report that pupils routinely use the term 'gay' in a pejorative manner."

Concerned Women for America's Matt Barber calls Angels in America "racist gay porn."

John Turner, gay physician who treated early AIDS patients, dies at 63. Jane Shull, executive director of Philadelphia FIGHT: "In the 1980s, when AIDS was new and there were no drugs, or drugs that were virtually useless, when people were dying every single day, and there seemed to be no end in sight - every patient who came to see John left his office less afraid than when he went in."

USA Today profiles Judy Shepard and her mission to end hate crimes: "Shepard also points out what has and what hasn't changed in the 10 years since her son was murdered. What hasn't is that hate crimes continue. She mentions the recent murder of Lawrence King, a gay 15-year-old junior high student in Oxnard, Calif., who was shot to death by a fellow student. 'This terrible incident underscores the fact that we cannot let hate go unchecked in our schools and communities,' Shepard says. 'Our young people need our direction and guidance to prevent this type of crime from happening.' What has changed, she says, is that when she was growing up in Wyoming, 'no one talked about it' — 'it' being homosexuality. At 55, Shepard says the past 10 years have been exhausting. Only recently has she begun to dream about Matt, which she looks upon as a good sign."

Bring some passion back to Albany: Spitzer fulfills promise.

How Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell, will help complete Heath Ledger's last film, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus: "Since the format of the story allows for the preservation of his entire performance, at no point will Heath’s work be modified or altered through the use of digital technology. “Each of the parts played by Johnny, Colin and Jude is representative of the many aspects of the character that Heath was playing."

Penguin fan? Here's a whole lotta them.

More juice on Britney's guest star turn on How I Met Your Mother.

British government sends Iranian gays to their executions: "An Iranian lesbian who fled to Britain after her girlfriend was arrested and sentenced to death faces being forcibly returned after losing the latest round in her battle to be granted asylum. The case of Pegah Emambakhsh, 40, comes a day after The Independent reported on the growing public outcry over the plight of a gay Iranian teenager who fears he will be executed if he is deported to Iran….In turning down Ms Emambakhsh and Mr Kazemi’s asylum applications, the Home Office has said that, provided Iranians are discreet about their homosexuality, they will not be persecuted."

Police confront hundreds of angry, naked cyclists in Eugene, Oregon. Cyclists win.

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NJ Principal Deems Laramie Project Too Provocative

Even though it has been produced over 5,000 times in high schools across the nation, in areas far more conservative than New Jersey, a high school principal in Ocean Township has shut down the district's planned staging of The Laramie Project, which deals with events surrounding the homophobic murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in 1998, on grounds that it is too provocative.

In a letter to responding to drama coach Bob Angelini's plans to do Laramie, principal Julia Davidow wrote: "Wow! I believe everyone involved understands the highly provocative nature of this play. I do not recall discussing it with anyone or approving it, yet I have been requested to sign the a (sic) copyright cost. Let's talk."

The Asbury Park Press reports: "In addition to Garden State Equality, both playwright Moises Kaufman and Shepard's mother, Judy Shepard, have now gotten personally involved in the debate. Judy Shepard has written to the Ocean Township Board of Education in support of the play, and Kaufman has given Angelini permission to remove the profanities from his work, which Angelini said was one of Davidow's original objections to the play."

Superintendent Thomas M. Pagano is standing by his principal's decision: "If I err, I err on the side of caution. The first rule of education is, do no harm. I have to respect the decision made by our high school principal; it's not an easy job to be a high school principal. I regret that this is going to be a distraction to the community. In my 36 years here, it has been a wonderful community."

UPDATE: School superintendent reverses decision, reinstates play.

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President Bush Threatens Veto of Hate Crimes Bill

In about an hour, (1pm EST) the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Hate Crimes bill introduced in mid-April.

The religious right has gone into overdrive, spreading misinformation to defeat the bill. Judy Shepard published an op-ed piece on The Politico today to combat their "bald-face lies".

An excerpt:

"One group spreading misinformation to its membership -- the so-called Traditional Values Coalition -- has even gone so far as to put a picture of Jesus on a 'wanted' poster, implying that religious people who speak out against homosexuality could become the targets of criminal investigations. Obviously, that's just not true. The people spreading this type of propaganda are blatantly lying to their members out of fear that the federal government might finally legislatively recognize that gay Americans exist, and need the same rights and protections the rest of us take for granted. Even worse, the Traditional Values Coalition is misleading and manipulating its members to make these phone calls to Congress, even when they know in their hearts that they are spreading lies. This type of behavior has nothing to do with real traditional values."

The President today threatened to veto the bill should it reach the oval office:

"The White House, in a statement, said state and local criminal laws already provide penalties for the crimes defined by the bill and 'there has been no persuasive demonstration of any need to federalize such a potentially large range of violent crime enforcement.' It also questioned the constitutionality of federalizing the acts of violence barred by the bill and said that if it reaches the president's desk 'his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill.'"

UPDATE: Hate Crimes Bill passes House by a vote of 232 to 180.

Below, a video from HRC outlining some of the misinformation being spread by the right wing:

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Hate Crimes Bill Introduced, Named for Matthew Shepard

Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore, introduced the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act in the Senate yesterday, renaming the Senate version of the legislation in honor of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard, brutally slain in Wyoming in 1998.

According to the Associated Press, "The measure would add protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity to existing laws that target violence because of race and religion."

By attaching a name to the legislation, Smith noted, they hope to put a face on victims of hate that will finally get the bill passed. Said Smith: "By putting Shepard's name on the bill, I believe we'll be more successful."

Shepard's mother Judy, an outspoken advocate for gay rights and against hate crimes since her son's death, appeared at yesterday's news conference. Said Shepard: "Dennis and I are deeply honored that Senators Smith and Kennedy have renamed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act the ‘Matthew Shepard Act.’ This is a beautiful tribute to our son and his memory...I can't think of a better way to honor Matthew's memory. He was a 21-year-old college student just living his life."

Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese spoke of the grave importance of passing the bill: "After eight and a half years since Matthew’s death, his memory continues to be a ringing reminder, even at the highest levels of our government, about the need for this legislation. It is our hope that Congress will finally pass the Matthew Shepard Act and Judy Shepard will have stood at her last press conference on Capitol Hill pleading with our elected leaders to pass this critical piece of legislation."

Supporters are hopeful the bill will pass Congress. For ten years, similar pieces of legislation have gone through the House or Senate but have never gone so far as to reach the President's desk.

Lawmakers name hate crimes bill after Matthew Shepard [ap - boston globe]
Senators Kennedy and Smith introduce hate crimes bill, rename it 'Matthew Shepard Act' [hrc] (photo: hrc)

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