Pimp My Wry

Prop 8: Using Religion To Legalize Discrimination

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker lifted the stay on Proposition 8, but postponed official same-sex marriages until next Wednesday, Aug. 18. By delaying gay marriages, Walker is simply allowing the legal process to play out. And I think it's a good call.

Given that the religious proponents of Prop 8 (and their supporters) want to crucify Walker for his rulings so far, it's best that he err on the side of caution.

But that is not to suggest that I believe Prop 8 proponents have a legitimate defense. In my view, anyone who supports Prop 8 has only one goal in mind — to legalize discrimination.

I've written many times before about the ways in which religion is used to justify homophobia, how gays and lesbians are demonized in religious arguments that are based on faith and not facts, and how American history is steeped with the "family values" of bigots and hypocrites, and I'll continue to do so until gays and lesbians achieve full equality.

Below is my latest essay on the efforts to block equal rights and legalize discrimination via religion. It was published in my local paper, the Sonoma Index-Tribune, this week in two parts — part one is here; part two is here. But because it's easier to read in one chunk, I've pasted it in its entirety below:

"The Kids Are All Right" ... And So Are The Lesbians

What? Annette Bening and Julianne Moore star as lesbians in a Lisa Cholodenko film? In another apparently excellent Lisa Cholodenko film? And it's not even my birthday?

Whoa!

Just in case you're not already dying to see the much anticipated "The Kids Are All Right," I offer up Mick LaSalle's review from today's San Francisco Chronicle. (Spoiler: He, like most critics, liked it. A lot.)

One of the best scenes of any film this year takes place in "The Kids Are All Right." The setting is a small dinner party at which Annette Bening, as a lesbian with a longtime partner (Julianne Moore), seems on the verge of some kind of breakdown. She is talking nonstop. She is being excessively ingratiating. Every word out of her mouth suddenly sounds strangely inauthentic, and you wonder what's happening to her. She's wondering, too.


The scene resonates so well because it presents, with accuracy and subtlety, something that we've all experienced, but that is rarely depicted onscreen, and even then, almost never this well. It's the phenomenon of knowing something without knowing it - without even knowing what it is that you know. Though not consciously registering what's bothering her, this woman is picking up on a dynamic in the room, and with all her mental force and might - with every capacity she has for evasion and distraction - she is trying to keep that realization buried... The scene is an example of the rich and psychologically truthful work that [Cholodenko] does without being flashy and calling attention to it.

That's the good news. The bad news, according to Brett Hartinger at AfterElton (and others), is that "there's a very hoary lesbian stereotype at the dead center of this movie."

Perez Hilton, Miley Cyrus And Me

Perez Hilton is to journalism what BP is to environmentalism: A disgrace, to say the very least. I'm no Hilton supporter, and I've made no secret of that. In fact, of all the sentences I've written in my career, there are three that are quoted more often than any others, and they are about him.

Here's just one example taken from a 2006 essay that was published on AfterEllen.com, as quoted in the Perez Hilton Wikipedia entry:

I have to question the character of a man who attacks others on such deeply personal levels, without provocation and for self-benefit, monetary or otherwise....If he's emotionally incapable of exhibiting even the tiniest bit of compassion for closeted people, if he can't be sensitive to the fact that coming out is a very personal decision and that the process can be difficult for some — especially celebrities — I feel sorry for him. If his juvenile behavior is his shtick, I think it makes him a much more pathetic figure, and one the gay and lesbian community should not support...If we support behavior like Hilton's, we applaud shallowness, arrogance, rage and invasion of privacy, and risk becoming what we despise.

I mention this because two of those sentences were quoted in this Huffington Post story published yesterday regarding Hilton's lack of character pertaining to his decision to Tweet allegedly fake pictures of 17-year-old Miley Cyrus' private parts. He's taken the photos down because he doesn't "want to go to jail." But what's done is done. There's no unringing that slimy bell.

There's also no need for me to go in to detail how I feel about his attack on Miley and celebrities in general. The man is scum and my feelings about him will survive us both, no doubt. And that's perfectly fine with me.

Do You Like Porn, Take Cold Showers? The Catholic Church Wants To Know

The New York Times reported today on the "sexuality hurdles" prospective priests face:

“When was the last time you had sex?” all candidates for the seminary are asked. (The preferred answer: not for three years or more.)

“What kind of sexual experiences have you had?” is another common question. “Do you like pornography?”

Depending on the replies, and the results of standardized psychological tests, the interview may proceed into deeper waters: “Do you like children?” and “Do you like children more than you like people your own age?” ...

Most candidates are likely to be asked not only about past sexual activities but also about masturbation fantasies, consumption of alcohol, relationships with parents and the causes of romantic breakups. ...

In seminaries that seek to hew closely to the Vatican rules, a candidate may be measured by the extent to which he defines himself as gay..."

Measured. Heh, heh.

Read the full story here.

Meet The Journalists Who Exposed George Rekers

South Florida Gay News introduces the world to Brandon K. Thorp and Penn Bullock, the men who exposed George Rekers.  Bravo, boys!

Wilton Manors residents Brandon K. Thorp, 27, and Penn Bullock, 21, met on My Space three years ago but only in the last week has their relationship reached the cosmos.

Last week, Thorp, who usually writes the theater column for Miami New Times, joined with his partner, Bullock, to break the story that a young male hooker from Miami had gone on a ten day European vacation with Dr. George Rekers, a founder of the rabidly anti-gay Family Research Council, and a board member of NARTH, the notorious National Association for the Research and Treatment of Homosexuality.

Dr. Rekers is not just anyone. He is a nationally reputed leader of the ex-gay movement who has authored books and campaigned vigorously that homosexuality can be cured. Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum actually paid him almost $120,000.00 of taxpayer money to be a star witness for the State of Florida in the legal case seeking to defend state statutes banning gay adoption.

Your One-Stop-Shop For Betty White on SNL

Thanks to the power of her fans, Facebook and Twitter, Betty White hosted Saturday Night Live last weekend. And thanks to Mashable, below are all of the skits in which she appeared, plus her monologue.

I've loved Betty White since she played Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and I hate that I'll probably die before ever getting a chance to meet her.

Watch...

 

The Lesbian Grass Is Always Greener, Especially When It's (Kate) Moss

Courtney Love was on the Howard Stern Show this morning and admitted to his crew, including Robin Quivers, that she once had a lesbian one-night stand with a supermodel.

Which one? Well, the woman she described sounds a lot like Kate Moss.

 

Love: "My only one on one was — I was out of my mind — was the supermodel. And she's notoriously, pretty much gay. And that's because every girlfriend I have in London has had sex with her. So, some time in the 90s, sometime late 90s, um, I was in an Italian city with her and she pretty much chased me around the room. Literally, like she was the aggressor. And I thought: ' You know what? If you're gonna do it, do it with that one. Do it with that one.' It wasn't Naomi Campbell for god's sakes ... It's just like a hot supermodel."

Stern: "You're talking someone as hot as like a Gisele [Bundchen]?"

Love: "Older than Gisele, but perennial."

Stern: "Like an Elle McPherson beautiful?"

Love: "Prettier " [imitating the unnamed supermodel's British accent]: "Remember when we were in Milan?"

Will Gheen To Sen. Graham: Let's Make A Deal — You Be Gay And I'll Be A Racist Dick

On April 17, William Gheen (pictured, right), a racist clown and the president of an organization called Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), spoke at a Greenville, South Carolina, Tea Party rally about illegal immigration, border control and how South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham's sexuality figures into the immigration 'problem.'  

You see, in the interest of political integrity and national security, Gheen addressed Graham's homosexuality in his speech, demanding that Graham, the lone Republican in the Senate trying to lobby other Republicans to sponsor the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Amnesty bill, come out publicly.

In the clip below, which according to RightWingWatch.org  "is out of proper context ... has already gone viral on YouTube and been reported by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC without proper permissions or attributions," Gheen says the following (at around 7:10 in):