Hundreds protest anti-gay, anti-Jewish group’s arrival In RHode Island
Hundreds of Rhode Islanders turned out on street corners Friday in spontaneous opposition to the anti-gay, anti-Jew message of a tiny group of demonstrators from Kansas. More than 300 students from East Providence High School crammed one corner of the city’s busiest intersection at Taunton and Pawtucket avenues as school let out. Some gripped neon signs supporting gay people. During the school day, students also wore yarmulkes to support their Jewish classmates. At another corner, 100 or so people, including high school alumni, gathered, holding signs such as “Teach Love, Not Hate” and “Our Giant Signs are Better than Yours.” One even had a pink bunny suit on with “I Love Boys” written on his belly. On a third corner, five members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., carried epithet-laden picket signs, denouncing homosexuality and declaring, “America is doomed” for tolerating gays and Jews. Various counter-protestors chanted — “Go Home” or “Gay is the Way” — and for a short time the shouts unified in obscenities. “I know a lot of gay people in my family,” freshman Jayden DeCosta said. “It’s anybody’s right to do what they want.”
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/hundreds-prot…
New Prop. 8 court challenge brings former legal rivals together
The California Supreme Court failed to protect gay couples’ fundamental right to marry when it upheld Proposition 8, forcing same-sex couples to appeal to the federal courts to remedy the injustice, two prominent lawyers said today in announcing a lawsuit on behalf of two gay couples.
Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, a renowned conservative, and David Boies, who opposed Olson in Bush v. Gore in the 2000 fight over the presidential election, cast their collaborative effort to restore the right of gays to marry in California as a moral imperative to correct an injustice. Their suit seeks an immediate injunction on Prop. 8′s ban, thereby allowing same-sex marriages to resume while the case makes its way through the federal court system.
But Olson’s role in the gay rights mission prompted much speculation about his motives. The former Bush administration official, who lost his wife in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, conceded that the federal courts might not be ready to recognize sexual orientation as a class in need of protection from discrimination, but he said he hoped “that people don’t suspect my motives,” vowing to demonstrate his commitment to equal rights by winning the challenge.
Boies vouched for Olson as “committed in heart and soul to equality and committed in heart and soul to the Constitution.” See New Prop. 8 court challenge brings former legal rivals together Los Angeles Times * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-prop-8-co…
Sorry, right-wingers, but King David was gay
by Rabbi Ben Kamin, Spiritual Life Examiner
It was years ago that I heard a particularly poignant segment of the Hebrew Scripture chanted in the synagogue—the story, in the Book of Samuel—of the powerful boyhood friendship between Jonathan and David. Jonathan was the emotional son of King Saul; David, the future king, was his companion and fast friend. Their bond, described without restraint in the Bible, was robust: Jonathan declares to David: “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty.”
It’s hard to let pass the unfolding passionate relationship between these two young scriptural heroes. The romantic tension they shared was reinforced by the fierce and jealous hostility felt by King Saul against David; the paranoid monarch once even threw a spear at the lad. Jonathan so adored David that he eschewed his role as prince and gave his heart freely to his friend. His father’s disapproval did not repress his loyalty and devotion to his amour.
Granted, there are edicts in the earlier Book of Leviticus forbidding homosexual love; this is what makes the Jonathan-David affair so remarkable. Here is an intense saga of love, rivalry, and Oedipal complexes all being driven by the force of homosexual tenderness. There are deep implications of Jonathan feeling “empty” when David’s chair was vacant.
The Bible does not exactly mince words about the whole thing. In First Samuel, Chapter 20, it describes an outdoor rendezvous between the two boys: “David arose out of the place…and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed three times; and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.”
Until David “exceeded?” This is interpreted by some biblical critics as an explanation of David’s expressive weeping—that is, he ran out of tears. However, the literal translation of the Hebrew is, unequivocally, “until David enlarged.” One can have no illusions what the Bible is describing in this particular instance. See Sorry, right-wingers, but King David was gay
Examiner.com -
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/sorry-right-w…
Philly Jumps Three Spots To The 13th Most Visited Gay-Friendly Destination in the U.S.
Study Shows Dramatic Increase in Total Visitation By Gays And Lesbians, Who Now Say Philly Is Top-of-Mind As A Gay-Friendly Destination
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Philadelphia is the 13th most visited U.S. destination for gay and lesbian travelers, according to the 13th annual LGBT Tourism Study of 4,500 gay and lesbian travelers conducted by San Francisco-based Community Marketing, Inc. This year’s report shows a remarkable increase in total visitation by gay and lesbian travelers to the Greater Philadelphia region and marks a three-year rise in the destination’s visitation ranking. Philadelphia first broke into the prized “Top 20 U.S. Destinations” list in 2006 when it ranked #16; it maintained that position in 2007. Gay and lesbian travelers spend $70 billion a year on travel in the United States.
When survey respondents were asked about which city, resort town or country has done the best job of marketing to gay and lesbian travelers, Philadelphia ranked #3 as a top-of-mind destination, behind only Las Vegas and San Francisco. This finding indicates potential for future growth in visitation and is a significant boost for Philadelphia’s gay-friendly reputation.
“Just a few years ago, Philadelphia wasn’t even on the gay map, but today the city is among the most-recognized lesbian and gay tourism brands out there,” said Thomas Roth, president of Community Marketing, Inc. “To see this kind of consumer recognition is a tribute to taking a well-considered and steady approach to LGBT travel marketing, and it is a huge achievement.”
“Philadelphia, our partners and especially the members of the Philadelphia Gay Tourism Caucus are immensely proud to know that gay and lesbian travelers are increasingly discovering Philadelphia and The Countryside(R),” said Meryl Levitz, president and CEO, Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC). “We believe that our region’s rich history, incredible dining, exclusive events, vibrant nightlife and great hotels–all of which are affordable–offer gay and lesbian travelers an unrivaled experience.”
In November 2003, GPTMC launched the award-winning Philadelphia – Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay(R) campaign. Before this campaign, the city’s total visitation by gay and lesbian travelers placed it outside the top 20 list among destinations, which includes cities such as Las Vegas, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, San Francisco and Provincetown.
The groundbreaking, $2 million tourism campaign has won top awards from the U.S. Travel Association (formerly the Travel Industry Association), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI), the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and PRWeek for its approach and effectiveness.
To see the complete list of the “Top 20 U.S. Destinations,” visit Community Marketing, Inc.’s Web site at communitymarketinginc.com.
For more information about traveling to Philadelphia, visit gophila.com/gay. To book airline reservations, visit southwest.com/gaytravel.
Community Marketing, Inc. (CMI) the San Francisco-based LGBT market research and communications firm has released its 13th annual LGBT Tourism Study. CMI has been studying and reporting on LGBT tourism demographics and trends since 1994. This year, the study’s industry, media and educational partners include IGLTA, USTOA, ASTA, DMAI, CLIA, NTA, Travel Weekly, and the University of Nevada. Over 4,000 geographically representative LGBT American consumers were surveyed about their travel patterns.
The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) makes Philadelphia and The Countryside(R) a premier destination through marketing and image building that increases business and promotes the region’s vitality.
For more information about travel to Philadelphia, visit gophila.com or uwishunu.com, where you can build itineraries; search event calendars; see photos and videos; view interactive maps; sign up for newsletters; listen to HearPhilly, an online radio station about what to see and do in the region; book hotel reservations and more. Or, call the Independence Visitor Center, located in Historic Philadelphia, at (800) 537-7676.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/01/philly-jumps-…
Queers Finally Do It on Daytime TV
“Back in August 1988 when I was managing editor of the Philadelphia Gay News, an historic thing happened on a daytime soap called As The World Turns: a character (an interior designer, no less) came out as gay.
“These days, that would be cause for a big yawn, but back then it was monumental. Hank Elliot was the first gay male character on a daytime drama. He was played by the handsome Brian Starcher. There had been a lesbian played by Donna Pescow on another soap (All My Children), but she was gone by that point, vanished like many a controversial character in soapland. … As The World Turns is once again making gay history, although he’d probably ask why it took the show so long to do it. In the new gay male storyline, Luke, the son of Lily and Holden (who were teens when Marland was writing the show) is having an affair with town heartthrob Noah, a new arrival to the cast.
While poor Hank Elliot couldn’t even kiss his lover, who was dying off camera of AIDS after being rejected by his family, Luke and Noah are pressing lips over the place, and now they’ve actually taken a roll in the hay. That’s right, Luke and Noah are soapdom’s first gay couple to actually do what birds and bees and straights have been doing all these years. They’ve even been seen the next morning frolicking around shirtless. Their adventures are displayed all over the Internet.“
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/01/queers-finall…
Franken rival heads to court
(Minneapolis, Minnesota) No longer a U.S. senator, Republican Norm Coleman was headed to court Tuesday, seeking to overturn a state board’s certification that Democrat Al Franken won the U.S. Senate recount.
Coleman’s lawyers had promised a legal challenge a day earlier, arguing that some ballots were mishandled and others were wrongly …
UN split over gay rights declaration
Rival statement dusts off ‘pedophilia’ jab, gets comparable number of endorsements.
