Corvino: A story of comfort and joy
Allow me to share a favorite holiday story.
It was late-November 1989, a year after I first came out. I had been dating a guy named Michael for over a month, which made him (in my mind, at least) my first “real” boyfriend. I was twenty and …
Daniel Radcliffe slams ‘stupid’ homophobes
Daniel Radcliffe hates homophobia.
The ‘Harry Potter’ actor – who is dating actress Laura O’Toole – was raised to treat everyone equally and he thinks singling someone out because of their sexuality is wrong.
He said: “I just loathe homophobia. It’s just disgusting and animal and stupid and it’s just thick people who can’t get their heads around it and are just scared.
“I grew up around gay people entirely. I was the only child in my class who had any experience of homosexuality or anything like that.
“I hate any type of prejudice.”
The 20-year-old British star also spoke of his political beliefs and called on people to follow his decision to vote Liberal Democrat in the next election.
He added to Britain’s Attitude magazine: “At the next election I will almost certainly vote Liberal Democrat. See Daniel Radcliffe slams ‘stupid’ homophobes
NZ City -
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
 |
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/daniel-radcli…
Ancient India didn’t think homosexuality was against nature
NEW DELHI: Was Indian society tolerant of homosexuality before the colonial administration proscribed it in 1860? The government has taken conflicting positions on this within the country and outside.
On a petition pending before the Delhi high court seeking to decriminalize homosexuality, the government said in its counter affidavit that that there were “no convincing reports to indicate that homosexuality or other offences against the order of nature mentioned in Section 377 IPC were acceptable in the Indian society prior to colonial rule.�
But when it was being reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council last year for the first time ever, India distanced itself from that provision when Sweden, arguably the most gay-friendly country in the world, questioned its record in ensuring equality irrespective of a person’s sexual orientation.
This is how Goolam Vahanvati, who was then solicitor-general and is now attorney-general, tried to save India’s face before the council as part of its official delegation. “Around the early 19th Century, you probably know that in England they frowned on homosexuality, and therefore there are historical reports that various people came to India to take advantage of its more liberal atmosphere with regard to different kinds of sexual conduct.
“As a result, in 1860 when we got the Indian Penal Code, which was drafted by Lord Macaulay, they inserted Section 377 which brought in the concept of ‘sexual offences against the order of nature’.
Now in India we didn’t have this concept of something being ‘against the order of nature’. It was essentially a Western concept, which has remained over the years. Now homosexuality as such is not defined in the IPC, and it will be a matter of great argument whether it is ‘against the order of nature.”
Vahanvati’s admission on the international forum that the ban on homosexuality was a western import and its relevance was debatable flies in the face of the government’s unabashed efforts before the Delhi high court to retain Section 377, complete with its colonial baggage and archaic notion of unnatural offences.
Whatever the politics behind this glaring contradiction, there is ample evidence placed before the high court by petitioner Naz Foundation substantiating in effect Vahanvati’s view that in the centuries prior to the enactment of section 377, India was rather accommodating of homosexuals. See Ancient India didn’t think homosexuality was against nature
Times of India
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/ancient-india…
Gay Activist Can’t File Married Joint Tax Return
CN) – The U.S. Tax Court has rejected gay activist and millionaire Charles Merrill’s claim that he doesn’t have to pay his taxes unless he can file a married joint return with his partner of 18 years.
Merrill, an artist and cousin of Merrill Lynch founder Charles E. Merrill, said he refused to file his 2004 and 2005 tax returns as an act of civil disobedience promoting same-sex marriage equality. He demanded that the IRS grant him “married filing jointly” status, rather than single status, based on his committed same-sex relationship.
Before his relationship with Kevin Boyle, Merrill was married to Johnson & Johnson heiress Evangeline Johnson Merrill for 23 years. He and Boyle began dating shortly after Evangeline’s death, according to the ruling. See Gay Activist Can’t File Married Joint Tax Return
Courthouse News Service
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/gay-activist-…
LA Times Editorial: A court battle California doesn’t need
The Supreme Court’s ruling last week in the case of a grandiosely unethical West Virginia justice opened a new field of constitutional review — the high court may now consider when an elected state court jurist has been so tainted by politics that due process requires him to recuse himself from a case.
In West Virginia, a coal executive spent more than $3 million to unseat a sitting state Supreme Court justice; it was money well spent, as the justice was defeated by voters and replaced by Brent Benjamin. Benjamin then did what was expected of him and cast a deciding vote in overturning a $50-million jury award against the executive’s coal company.
Indeed, California has wrestled with this problem before — and quite possibly could again.
California’s system for selecting Supreme Court justices is much better than West Virginia’s. Candidates for the court here are nominated by the governor, confirmed by a state commission and then placed on the bench. They must periodically stand for retention, but they are not, as they are in West Virginia, subject to direct challenge by rival candidates. A retention election can cost a justice his or her seat, but it does not let voters kick out one justice and install their own replacement.
California’s rules have helped balance the judiciary’s independence with the public’s fair insistence on accountability, but even this state’s reasonable retention process has been subject to tilt. Most notable was the 1986 retention election that removed Chief Justice Rose Bird and two associate justices, Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin. Much reflection has gone into that race in the decades since, and opinions differ on its merits. Two truths, however, stand the test of deep inquiry: The forces arrayed against Bird were not motivated solely by her opposition to the death penalty — that was cover for a second complaint, which was her defense of consumer rights against corporate power — and Reynoso and Grodin were victims of a special-interest crusade against a vulnerable chief.
Would that we could relegate that episode to California’s history. In fact, the state rumbles with discontent over its high court and chief, and those stirrings contain alarming echoes of the battle of 1986.
At issue are the court’s rulings on same-sex marriage and Proposition 8, and its chief justice, Ronald M. George. In May 2008, the court overturned the state’s ban on gay marriage, striking a victory for civil rights in the grandest tradition of constitutional protection of minorities. A few months later, after voters approved Proposition 8 and amended the state Constitution to ban the same institution that the court had upheld, George and his colleagues upheld the amendment. Both times, George wrote for the majority. He thus angered opponents of gay marriage in 2008 and supporters of it in 2009.
By California’s rules, George faces a retention election in 2010, and some predict that he could face challenges from either side — or even both — in this polarizing debate.
That would be a shame for the state’s judiciary, an unfortunate attack on judicial independence and an unfair castigation of one of this state’s most principled and admirable public officials. In the gay-marriage cases, George’s votes demonstrated conscience, professionalismand restraint. He voted to uphold same-sex unions out of the strong conviction — which this page shares — that the Constitution does not allow society to deny the protection of marriage to gay couples any more than it once denied it to those united across race. The ruling was right on the law, and will certainly be validated over the long march of history.
Months later, voters tacked in the other direction, narrowly rejecting gay marriage and amending the Constitution to allow California to recognize only the unions of heterosexual couples. That was challenged, naturally, and the lawsuit offered the court the opportunity to extend its earlier ruling, though on shaky constitutional grounds — advocates for same-sex marriage argued that Proposition 8 was such an affront to the rights of Californians that it revised the Constitution rather than merely amending it. Scholars split on the merits of that argument, and although the strong consensus of legal opinion rejectedit, an opportunistic justice might have seized the chance to solidify his legacy.
Instead, George subordinated his politics — as evidenced by his writing — to the weight of constitutional opinion. He voted to uphold the proposition, even though it undid his own work. Permitted latitude within the strictures of the Constitution in the first case, George was able to vote his conscience; bound by the Constitution in the second case, he yielded.
Such is the lot of a principled judicial officer, but those concerned only with results already have signaled their unhappiness with George. The moneyed interests that supported Proposition 8 last fall are considering whether to finance a campaign against George next year. Supporters of gay marriage, who championed his heroism in 2008, were bitterly disappointed when the court upheld the hateful initiative.
This is not West Virginia. Corporate interests are not knocking off justices who disagree with them and seating more accommodating replacements. But intimidation has no place in our judicial life any more than it does in Appalachia. The 1986 campaign against Bird and her colleagues now stands for many as a reminder that well-intentioned systems of accountability may be hijacked by special interests, a lesson learned too often and at great cost in California. It was misguided in its first iteration; it would be regrettable in its second.
See A court battle California doesn’t need
Los Angeles Times -
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/la-times-edit…
Gay marriage heat on NH Gov. Lynch
PORTSMOUTH — Proponents and opponents of New Hampshire’s gay marriage bill have been out in force, taking to the airways, telephone lines and streets with the goal of persuading Gov. John Lynch to act on their point of view.
The House is expected this week to vote on a reconciliation of its version and the Senate version of the gay marriage bill, which was passed last week. But both sides said they expect no surprises in the House, leaving Lynch — who has said he opposes gay marriage — at the center of their efforts.
New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition sent volunteers out this past weekend to most of the major cities in the state, including Portsmouth, to gather signatures on a pro-marriage petition. Meanwhile, the National Organization for Marriage funded a $50,000 radio and television campaign aimed at persuading Lynch to remain strong to his commitments.
Mo Baxley, executive director of New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition, said volunteers with petitions fanned out Saturday and Sunday to Concord, Portsmouth, Keene, Plymouth and Manchester. In Portsmouth, volunteers were in Market Square and will remain there during the lunch hour this week. On Sunday, they were in front of South Church, the Unitarian church, gathering signatures from congregants.
The petition urges “the state of New Hampshire to allow same-sex couples to share fully in the rights, responsibilities and commitment of civil marriage.”
Baxley said the group gathered about 1,500 signatures over the weekend, which will be sent to Lynch after the House vote Wednesday, and Lynch will receive additional petitions “in waves” as they come in. Moreover, she said, supporters are also inundating the governor’s phone lines, making upward of 300 calls a day since the legislation passed the Senate.
See Gay marriage heat on Lynch
Seacoastonline.com – Portsmouth,NH,USA
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/gay-marriage-…
Why women are leaving men for other women
Lately, a new kind of sisterly love seems to be in the air. In the past few years, Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon left a boyfriend after a decade and a half and started dating a woman (and talked openly about it).
Actress Lindsay Lohan and DJ Samantha Ronson flaunted their relationship from New York to Dubai. Katy Perry’s song “I Kissed a Girl” topped the charts. “The L Word,” “Work Out,” and “Top Chef” are featuring gay women on TV, and there’s even talk of a lesbian reality show in the works.
Certainly nothing is new about women having sex with women, but we’ve arrived at a moment in the popular culture when it all suddenly seems almost fashionable — or at least, acceptable.
Statistics on how many women have traded boyfriends and husbands for girlfriends are hard to come by. Although the U.S. Census Bureau keeps track of married, divorced, single, and even same-sex partners living together, it doesn’t look for the stories behind those numbers.
But experts like Binnie Klein, a Connecticut-based psychotherapist and lecturer in Yale’s department of psychiatry, agree that alternative relationships are on the rise.
“It’s clear that a change in sexual orientation is imaginable to more people than ever before, and there’s more opportunity — and acceptance — to cross over the line,” says Klein, noting that a half-dozen of her married female patients in the past few years have fallen in love with women. “Most are afraid that if they don’t go for it, they’ll end up with regrets.” http://CNN.com
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-women-are…
Logan Crane | If You Seek Amy Tufts Daily
As a heterosexual, I often take for granted the accessibility of hookups and matchmaking. I have a high regard for constituents of the queer community who live as minorities in our college hookup atmosphere. The Tufts social scene is a montage of frat parties and bars that encompass heterosexual norms. As I commonly joke with a gay friend that we should “man hunt” on Saturday nights, I have come to realize just how complicated that process can be. A queer in search of a relationship or sexual advice is often left with minimal resources.
The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Center is a great way to meet other queers. Their support groups make for a comfortable environment while providing a network outlet. The on-campus social scene lacks variety, as the options are Rainbow House or a queer-friendly house party. Those fortunate to own an ID are able to escape to a larger queer community within the Boston area. For gay men, Club Café is an extremely popular video bar. Paradise is for those interested in no more than a g-string and Velcro-seamed pants. For the lesbian ladies, Modern and Tribe are highly recommended to meet sexy singles. Midway Café is an excellent place for the transgender community. A themed night such as Queeraoke is bound to bring out your inner Sasha Fierce. An excellent suggestion from a fabulous queer friend is Guerrilla Queer Bar, which provides an alternative nightlife for the LGBT community. Finding a mate at Tufts comes with limited opportunities, but using social resources both at Tufts and in Boston can make the experience a little easier.
The resources available for sex and dating are more often than not geared to a heterosexual audience. It is rare to come across free dental dams, but there is always an abundant supply of cheap and uncomfortable condoms available. Finding resources about the intricacies of queer sex can be difficult. Although queer-themed TV has plenty of content flaws, shows like The L Word and Queer as Folk demonstrate ways to approach a sexual encounter. For someone new at queer sex, these shows might be helpful for getting started.
For those lesbians looking to explore sexual fantasies, Crashpadseries.com and Cyber-dyke.net are distributors of strictly lesbian porn, none of that bi-curious teasing that is labeled “lesbian” porn on other sites. All actresses involved are strictly interested in one thing — vagina.
Some feel uncomfortable diving into graphic cinema, so I suggest watching Annie Sprinkle’s Herstory of Porn. This documentary features the best and worst moments of queer porn. Because porn is not a sufficient instructor of sexual acts, the book Lesbian Kama Sutra is helpful and strictly for queer women. It provides more than your average scissor, so I encourage you to purchase this book for an increase in tongue teasers.
Gay porn is much easier to come by. Insertion of the words “gay sex” or “anal” will result in millions of Google pages on gay porn. But if you are looking for the specifics on sexually pleasing your partner, Gay-sex-positions.com provides written and visual description pertaining to the intricacies of anal and oral positions. Also, the LBGT Center on campus provides an excellent library of sex books and queer literature.
As the queer community on campus is incredibly small, these are some useful outlets to further your queer constituents and culture. As for sexual pleasure, one must never rely on the poor educational advice from health professionals and sex education teachers. Queer blogs, porn and Web sites are all useful means for sex tips. It’s important to recognize the avenues accessible to escape a social and sexual environment dominated by heterosexuals. The expansion of a social network and sexual lexis can be of great benefit.
–
Logan Crane is a junior majoring in political science. She can be reached at Logan.Crane@tufts.edu.
See Logan Crane | If You Seek Amy
Tufts Daily
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/logan-crane-i…
Gay, married and outlawed
The questions and answers volleyed back and forth last week during the California Supreme Court’s televised proceedings on Prop 8, the state’s recently enacted ban against gay marriage.
And in a dark classroom at Chapman University, watching it all with a focused intensity, was law student Tiffany Chang.
In Chang’s view, the discussion was riveting. Did Prop. 8 simply “take away the label of marriage,” as one justice put it? Chang has heard all of the arguments, including those that say that same sex couples enjoy domestic partnership rights in California, so why insist on the designation of “marriage.”
You could say there was twice as much at stake for Chang, who tracks the legal debate for reasons both scholarly and personal.
Two years ago, in front of friends and family in Long Beach, Chang and her partner Lindsey Etheridge exchanged marriage vows in an unofficial, non-legally binding ceremony. Then, exactly a year later, on July 14, 2008, during the short window when same-sex marriages were legal here in California, Chang and Etheridge filed for “official marriage paperwork.” Then they married in a legal ceremony.
Chang says the event was life changing.
“We were in the clerk’s office and there were people there we don’t know, but they represented the government, validating our relationship,” says Chang, 28. “After it was all done, that sense of security, it was tenfold at least.
“I never could have known what that felt like, to truly be equal in our society,” she adds. “I don’t think you know what that feels like until you’ve got it.”
Chang was part of a “friend of the court” brief filed with the state’s Supreme Court in support of those who have legally challenged Prop. 8. And, in her declaration, she elaborated that on the day “I walked out with my head held higher than I thought was even possible.”
The brief was drafted by attorneys Katherine Baird Darmer and Ronald Steiner, who are also law professors at Chapman, and includes declarations from other people connected to Chapman, as well as from members of the Orange County Equality Coalition, a community group that says it educates and advocates for marriage equality in California.
For Chang, Prop. 8 isn’t just a matter of nomenclature; it’s a matter of denying a minority group the rights afforded to all others. Since the law passed in November, Chang has been speaking out in public. She says she’s come to realize that until a person is treated like a second-class citizen it’s difficult for them to understand what it’s like to be on the other side.
See
Gay, married and outlawed
OCRegister
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/gay-married-a…
Conn. bill would update law for same-sex marriages
HARTFORD, Conn. — As Connecticut lawmakers consider updating state law to conform with a court ruling that allows same-sex marriages, opponents of gay marriage fear their effort will go too far to promote homosexuality.
The legislators’ work is being spurred by last year’s state Supreme Court decision that concluded same-sex couples have the right to wed in Connecticut. The state’s 2005 civil union law doesn’t give same-sex couples equal status of married heterosexual couples, the court said.
The General Assembly’s judiciary committee is considering a bill that would remove gender references in current state laws and transform same-sex civil unions into legally recognized marriages as of October 2010. The bill was the subject of a committee hearing Friday.
The measure also would strip language from a 1991 state anti-discrimination law that says Connecticut does not condone gay marriage, will not set quotas for hiring gay workers or encourage teaching in school about same-sex lifestyles. Some lawmakers consider the language outdated and unnecessary.
The proposal to delete that language has upset opponents, who think the court ruling could be used to affect social policy in other matters such as school curricula. See Conn. bill would update law for same-sex marriages * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/conn-bill-wou…
