Ex-Miss California admits to making sex tape
(New York) Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean calls a sex tape she made for an ex-boyfriend several years ago “the biggest mistake of my life.”
Prejean told Fox News on Monday and NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday that she shot the X-rated video of herself alone when she was 17 …
Tags: Biggest Mistake, California Usa, Carrie, Fox News, Miss California, Mistake Of My Life, Nbc, Prejean, Sex New, Sex Tape, Today Show‘Survivor’ Hatch says imprisoned because he’s gay
(Newport) “Survivor” winner Richard Hatch said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that he believes he was sent to prison because he’s gay, a claim the prosecutors in the case call baseless and delusional.
Hatch, speaking publicly for the first time since being released from prison to home confinement, told NBC’s “Today” …
Tags: Broadcast, gay, Home Confinement, Nbc, Nbc Today, Newport, Prosecutors, Richard Hatch, Survivor Hatch, Survivor WinnerHBO RANKS HIGHEST IN THIRD ANNUAL “GLAAD NETWORK RESPONSIBILITY INDEX”
ABC Leads Broadcast Networks for Third Year in a Row; NBC and CBS Receive “Failing” Grades for Lack of Inclusion of the LGBT Community
Los Angeles, CA, July 27, 2009 – The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) today released its third annual Network Responsibility Index, a report that maps the quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people on television. Primetime programming on the five broadcast networks was evaluated as well as original primetime programming on 10 of the highest-rated cable networks.
HBO scored the highest rating of the 15 networks evaluated with LGBT characters on shows including True Blood, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and Entourage that reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of the LGBT community. Of HBO’s 14 original series, 10 included LGBT content and 42 percent of the network’s total programming hours included LGBT representation.
“This year programming was not only inclusive of LGBT people, but networks like HBO are beginning to reflect the broad diversity within our community,” said Rashad Robinson, Senior Director of Media Programs at GLAAD. “With upcoming fall programming and new storylines there is a tremendous opportunity for networks to share the stories of all members of our community including lesbian, bisexual and transgender people as well as LGBT people of color, all groups which continue to be underrepresented across all networks.”
GLAAD reviewed a total of 4,901 hours of primetime programming for inclusion of LGBT characters or issues on the five major networks (ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox and NBC) from June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009. GLAAD also examined 1,212.5 hours of original primetime programming on 10 highly-rated cable networks. Each hour was reviewed for on-screen LGBT representations. Based on the quantity, overall quality and diversity of these representations, a rating was assigned by GLAAD’s Entertainment Media Program to each network: Excellent, Good, Adequate, or Failing.
Additional findings from the GLAAD Network Responsibility Index:
Good
- HBO and Showtime received grades of Good, with HBO leading with 42 percent of programming hours featuring LGBT representations.
- ABC, with shows including Brothers & Sisters, Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty, again received the highest ranking of the five broadcast networks, earning a Good grade with 24 percent of their primetime programming hours including LGBT representations.
- The CW also received a grade of Good, with 20 percent of their primetime programming hours including LGBT representations.
Adequate
- While Fox received an Adequate, rising from last place and a Failing grade in 2008; 11 percent of its programming hours were LGBT-inclusive, yet some of those hours included problematic content.
- Among cable networks evaluated, TNT showed the largest growth, jumping from one percent of LGBT inclusive primetime programming hours last year to 19 percent. FX posted the sharpest decline, dropping 32 percent over the previous season. Both were graded
Failing
- NBC and CBS received Failing grades, for their 8 and 5 percent, respectively, of programming hours with LGBT images. CBS moved down from third place in last year’s GLAAD Network Responsibility Index to last among the five major broadcast networks.
- A&E, Sci Fi and TBS received grades of Failing.
“Television shows that weave our stories into the fabric of the series present richer, more accurate representations and are the kinds of images that help Americans understand and embrace their LGBT family members, friends and neighbors in a more meaningful way,” said Robinson.
The third annual GLAAD Network Responsibility Index was delivered to programming executives at the 15 graded networks, and GLAAD’s Entertainment Media Program will continue discussions with them to advocate for improvements in the quality, quantity and diversity of their LGBT representations.
The Executive Summary of the report can be viewed online at GLAAD.org. A PDF of the full report can also be downloaded at GLAAD.org.
The 14th Annual GLAAD Where We Are On TV report on diversity will be issued in September 2009. This analysis will examine LGBT inclusion as well as the gender and race/ethnicity of all scripted characters scheduled to appear during the 2009-2010 season.
About GLAAD
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org.
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Nunn: Probably time to review gays in military policy
Sam Nunn, a former Democratic senator from Georgia, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that it’s “probably time” to review the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy concerning gay people in the military.
Nunn, a conservative Democract who was one of his party’s experts in military matters, was a key advisor to President Barack Obama during the transition.
See what Nunn had to say:
Nunn: Probably time to review gays in military policy
Seattle Post Intelligencer
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Cracks in the System: Iran There and Gay Rights Here
Originally published on June 18, 2009 by Yo Mama For Obama
This post will be a continuation of my last one, dealing with the people’s insurgency in Iran and the fight for equal rights here in America.
- yomamaforobama’s diary :: ::
No surprise: it is being reported that Ayatollah Khamenei’s rival Mullah, Rafsanjani, will be supporting the massive protest in Iran today. Quite frankly, this election dispute is a contest, a personal power struggle, between the two Ayatollahs. Whether we have Ahmadinejad or Mousavi as figurehead Presidents is almost immaterial. Their ideology and politics are essentially the same, although Ahmadinejad’s incendiary fervor is definitely off the deep end. Their underlying beliefs, both national and international, are identical. It is the Mullahs who rule Iran. The people’s protests must move from election fraud to throwing out the corrupt clerics who rule Iran.
Dan Rather was on MSNBC yesterday, and he was not very optimistic about the outcome of this Iran uprising. He said that similar to this uprising, the Czech revolt of 1956, the Chinese attempt at protest in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the attempted battle for freedom in Burma in 2007 were all crushed by their respective governments. Included in these assaults on the protesters were serious, and successful, attempts to quash any media reports of the protests plus the government’s retaliatory responses. True: in 1956, we did not have the internet, cell phones or Twitter. Basically the same holds true for 1989. Nonetheless, the media were thrown out of those countries and thus any reports of the events were not forthcoming. So is Iran trying to play that same game today. Not only have reporters been warned off covering the disputed elections, but Iran has cut off most access to the internet and cell phones. But long live Twitter: they can not shut off that service. Not yet. Our very own State Department has requested, and been granted, that Twitter defer their shutdown for maintenance scheduled for this week so that the world can have some access to the events in Iran. As Hillary Clinton said recently, and I paraphrase, “I don’t know a Twitter from a Tweeter, but Twitter has been a window to the world as to what is going on in Iran.” In the New York Times today, Op-Ed contributor, Nicholas Kristof equates “tweets” as the bullets of modern warfare.
See Cracks in the System: Iran There and Gay Rights Here
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Former Miss California blames firing on gay comment
(Los Angeles) Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean says she lost her crown because of a comment she made about gay marriage and not because she had been skipping appearances.
Prejean told Matt Lauer on NBC’S “Today” show Friday that she “absolutely” had been dethroned because of the comment, when she …
Tags: California Usa, Carrie, gay marriage, marriage, Matt Lauer, Miss California, Nbc, Nbc Today, Prejean, Today ShowBarney Frank Pulls Plug On CNBC: “This Interview Is Over!”
Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and a vocal critic of Wall Street pay, appeared on CNBC this morning to talk about what should be done to limit executive compensation. Let’s just say it didn’t go well. Frank stormed off the set after exchanging heated words with CNBC’s host.
“It seems to be that you’re dealing with a model that no longer works,” CNBC’s host said of Frank’s proposed executive pay rules, which would give shareholders much greater control over compensation.
Then things escalated. After Frank said, “May I respond sir?” several times, the interview devolved into a mini-shouting match, and not much was settled. See Barney Frank Pulls Plug On CNBC: “This Interview Is Over!”
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White Supremacist Opens Fire @ At Holocaust Museum In D.C.
A gunman NBC News describes as a White Supremacist exchanged fire with security guards inside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday. U.S. Park Police Sgt. David Schlosser said the gunman walked into the museum with what he described as a “long gun.” The gunman and a security guard were shot. Both were taken to the hospital, but the extent of their injuries wasn’t immediately known. But of course the govenrment was wrong to warn us about right wing terrorists.
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MSNBC Anchors Erupt Over Miss California Press Conference: “Can I Vomit Right Now?”
MSNBC anchors David Shuster, Contessa Brewer, and Tamron Hall erupted in what the network characterized as a “feisty” discussion over Miss California Carrie Prejean Tuesday morning.
Shortly after pageant owner Donald Trump announced that Prejean would keep her crown despite the recent topless photos of her that have circulated around the internet, Shuster went off on the beauty queen.
“Can I vomit right now?” he asked. “Doesn’t this represent everything that is wrong with the superficial nature of these pageants?”
See MSNBC Anchors Erupt Over Miss California Press Conference: “Can I Vomit Right Now?” (VIDEO)* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Time To Repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
During his campaign for the White House, President Obama pledged that he would push to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) — the military’s policy that bars gay men and women from serving openly. Since taking office, however, Obama and other officials serving in his administration have pushed the issue to the back burner. When asked about addressing DADT in March, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, “I feel like we’ve got a lot on our plates right now and let’s push that one down the road a little bit.” Ret. Gen. Jim Jones, Obama’s national security adviser, told the President recently “not to add another controversy to his already-full plate.” On ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopolous asked Jones if the policy would be overturned. “I don’t know,” he replied. In fact, the White House website recently watered down language on repealing the policy, replacing the administration’s commitment to “repealing” DADT with a commitment to simply “changing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in a sensible way.” (The more definitive “repeal” language has since been reinserted.) At the same time, Obama has indicated that he remains committed to repealing the policy. Sandy Tsao, an Army officer who told her superiors last January that she is gay, wrote to Obama urging him to act on repealing DADT. Last week, Obama personally responded to Tsao, writing, “I committed to changing our current policy. Although it will take some time to complete. … I intend to fulfill my commitment!”
DADT STILL CLAIMING CASUALTIES: DADT continues to weaken our nation’s military. Last week, the Army sent National Guard Lt. Daniel Choi — a West Point graduate who served in Iraq and is fluent in Arabic — a letter informing him that he is no longer welcome in the U.S. military because he is gay. The Army said it was dismissing Choi for “moral or professional dereliction,” specifically for admitting “publicly that you are a homosexual, which constitutes homosexual conduct. Your actions negatively affected the good order and discipline of the New York Army National Guard.” Choi is one of more than 13,000 U.S. military personnel to be discharged because of DADT. This number includes those with special skills deemed “mission critical,” such as pilots, combat engineers, and linguists like Choi. The Government Accountability Office found in 2005 that the cost of discharging and replacing servicemembers fired because of their sexual orientation during the policy’s first 10 years totaled at least $190.5 million — roughly $20,000 per discharged service member. While DADT cannot be repealed without congressional action, University of California associate professor Aaron Belkin notes that as president, Obama has the authority to suspend enforcement of the policy. Though it is unclear whether Obama will take this route (especially based on Jones’s advice), Choi said on MSNBC last week that he plans to “fully fight” his dismissal “tooth and nail.” “I believe that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is wrong, and what we really need to be encouraging soldiers to do is to don’t lie, don’t hide, don’t discriminate, and don’t weaken the military. That’s what we need to be promoting,” he said.
REPEAL DADT: Supporters of the discriminatory DADT often argue that repealing it would weaken the military (despite the fact that Arabic-linguists who are in short supply have been discharged because of it) and fragment unit cohesion. However, a bipartisan study commissioned by the Palm Center at the University of California last year found that “the presence of gays in the military is unlikely to undermine the ability to fight and win.” Choi said that “the biggest thing” he is “angry about” is that the Army claims that his unit suffered “good order and discipline” because he is gay. “That’s a big insult to my unit,” he said. After he came out as gay and before he was discharged, Choi said that “so many people came up to me, my peers, my subordinates, people that outranked me, folks that have been in the Army — and this is an infantry unit, infantry men that — coming up to me and saying, ‘Hey, sir, hey, Lieutenant Choi, we know, and we don’t care. What we care about is that you can contribute to the team.’” Indeed, a December 2006 survey of servicemembers who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan found that 73 percent of those polled were “comfortable with lesbians and gays.” Moreover, the American public doesn’t care either. According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, nearly two-thirds disagreed with the argument that “allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the military would be divisive for the troops and hurt their ability to fight effectively.” Ret. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Hugh Aitken, who participated in the Palm Center’s study, has criticized Obama’s plans to allow the Pentagon to review the policy before deciding to act on any repeal. “There’s been enough studying throughout the years,” he said. “Creating a new study will not change the facts.”
RIGHT WING STILL OPPOSES A REPEAL: The ultra-conservative Center for Military Readiness (CMR), a group that opposes women and gays serving in combat, is leading an effort against repealing DADT and even trying to block gays from serving in the military altogether. The group’s president, Elaine Donnelly, told Congress last year that having gays serve in the military “sexualizes the atmosphere” because they “engage in passive aggressive behavior.” CMR also tries to muddy the waters with “gay horror stories” from the military, despite having acknowledged that such stories are “very difficult to find.” Prominent members of Congress continue to obstruct as well. When asked about DADT last Sunday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) offered his support for it. “Right now the military is functioning extremely well in very difficult conditions,” he said, adding that “the policy has been working and I think it’s been working well.” Other members of Congress, such as Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) and Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), disagree. Sestak, himself a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, said of DADT recently on MSNBC, “We have to correct this. It’s just not right.” “I can remember being out there in command, and someone would come up to you and start to tell you — and you just want to say, no, I don’t want to lose you, you’re too good,” Sestak said.
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