Friday Watercooler: RuPaul Rolemodel and South African Lesbian Rape

• Rupaul is MY role model. Three teachers in a Los Angeles have been suspended and are under investigation in a controversy surrounding the schools Black History Month celebration. At the end of the celebratory month, students paraded around their elementary school with posters of influential African American’s selected by …

WY school pulls anti-hate campaign

A school board pulled down anti-hate posters sponsored by gay groups in an elementary school.

WY school pulls anti-hate campaign

A school board pulled down anti-hate posters sponsored by gay groups in an elementary school.

Pride posters defaced at Labor

Labor Sec. Hilda Solis denounced unidentified employees who defanced and removed Pride posters.

Labor Chief Deplores Defacing of Gay Pride Posters

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis issued a warning letter to departmental employees late last week, after posters celebrating Gay Pride Month hanging in 35 department elevators since June 22 have been either defaced or removed altogether.

In an e-mail message sent to the entire department, Ms. Solis, who helped found the House of Representative’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Caucus when she was in Congress, said she was outraged by the behavior.

See Labor Chief Deplores Defacing of Gay Pride Posters

New York Times

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PRINCETON: Students picket same-sex marriage opponents

PRINCETON — Waving umbrellas and posters, around 30 Princeton students danced and cheered in front of the National Organization for Marriage’s (NOM) Nassau Street offices Wednesday to voice disapproval of the group’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

NOM, which was founded in 2007 by Princeton politics professor Robert George and Maggie Gallagher of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, is a nonprofit organization that serves as a resource for organized opposition to same-sex marriage around the country, according to its Web site. The group is based in Princeton, across the street from the university.

”The fact that NOM exists so close to campus and that it was founded by a Princeton professor, yet that there hasn’t been much discussion about the issue, gives the impression that Princeton is ambivalent,” said Emily Sung, a sophomore who helped organize the protest. “That’s what we’re combating. We want to end the silence.”

Many protestors showed up in rain gear, referencing NOM’s “Gathering Storm” commercial, which features actors standing in front of a foreboding background of storm clouds. The commercial, part of NOM’s $1.5 million “Religious Liberty Ad Campaign,” warns of a coming “storm” in the fight over same-sex marriage.
See PRINCETON: Students picket same-sex marriage opponents
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‘They kill people like us,’ says gay Iraqi

BAGHDAD – Widespread violence is down across Baghdad, but not for one minority group.

Iraq’s gay population is being targeted by militia groups in a wave of killings that has claimed the lives of up to 25 young men and boys in the past month.

“They know I am gay. I don’t know if I am going to be killed, this is up to God,” said Moyad, a 38-year-old Baghdad resident who would not give his last name out of fear for his safety.

Visibly frightened, he said that he has many friends who have been sadistically tortured, some even murdered. “They are sticking glue up their anuses; some hospitals refuse to treat them. Is it a war waged against homosexuals?” he asked.

International outrage
Most of the attacks have happened in Baghdad’s Shia neighborhoods, and many believe that religious leaders have used Friday sermons in Sadr City as a platform to incite hatred and violence toward homosexuals. The bodies of three gay men were reported to have been found in Sadr City in April with pieces of paper bearing the word for “pervert” attached to them.

Posters and leaflets have been distributed in the Baghdad neighborhoods of al-Shola, al-Hurya and Sadr City with orders to, “Cleanse Iraq from the crime of homosexuality.”

Baghdad police didn’t respond to inquiries from NBC News about the attacks, but the surge in violence has gained attention by the international media.

‘They kill people like us,’ says gay Iraqi

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Iraqi gay men face ‘lives of hell’

Grainy footage taken on a mobile phone and widely distributed around Baghdad shows a terrified young Iraqi boy cowering and whimpering as men with a stick force him to strip, revealing women’s underwear beneath his dishdasha (Arab robe).

“Why are you dressed as a girl?” roars one of the men, brandishing his stick as the youth removes his brassiere.

The sobbing boy, who appears to be about 12, tries to explain that his family made him do it to earn money, as they have no other source of income.

The scene, apparently filmed in a police post, reinforced reports of a campaign against gay men in Iraq which activists say has claimed the lives of more than 60 since December.

In the latest manifestation of the campaign, posters have appeared on walls in the poor Shia suburb of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, listing alleged homosexuals by name and threatening to kill them.

Those named have gone underground, while gay men throughout the city and in some other parts of the country also live in fear.

See Iraqi gay men face ‘lives of hell’

BBC

Video: C-SPAN Vignette: US Army Patrol in Diyala Province, Iraq C-SPAN Video: C-SPAN Vignette: US Army Patrol in Diyala Province, Iraq C-SPAN

Fresh Anti-Gay Death Threats In Iraq On Top Magazine

Iraqi Gay Murders Surge; World Finally Takes Note Gay City News

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Political Notebook: BART relocates ads featuring gay supervisor

Ads promoting a study for an HIV prevention pill that feature District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty have been tagged with graffiti at such a rate that BART officials recently relocated the posters at four Muni stations to better protect them.

The paid advertisements plug the Department of Public Health’s research into whether Truvada, an HIV medication, can keep HIV-negative men from contracting the virus. Dufty, who is openly gay and single, appears in one version of the ads dressed in a shirt and tie, sans jacket, but is not identified by name.

That hasn’t stopped his critics, or mere pranksters, from defacing the posters by writing in black marker “I’m easy” or “I killed Halloween,” referring to Dufty’s helping to scuttle the annual street party in the Castro on Halloween night in order to end the violence that has marred the event in past years.

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Bay Area Reporter, CA -

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Map of anti-gay-marriage donors adding fuel to Proposition 8 fire

Now there is a interactive Google map showing where donors to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign live or work — and that is generating more controversy. Some supporters of same-sex marriage love it, saying it’s all about public accountability. From the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan:

And that is surely one useful element of the map. It helps one see whom to engage. And I don’t get the fear. If Prop. 8 supporters truly feel that barring equality for gay couples is vital for saving civilization, shouldn’t they be proud of their financial support? Why don’t they actually have posters advertizing their support for discriminating against gay people — as a matter of pride?

But others see it as potentially dangerous. From Rod Dreher on Beliefnet:

“I believe strongly that people’s homes should be a sanctuary. I say this as someone who was bullied in high school, and who had my house vandalized during the night by the bullies. When people have the right to feel safe in their homes taken away from them, it’s a terrible thing.”

See Map of anti-gay-marriage donors adding fuel to Proposition 8 fire
Los Angeles Times, CA