Withers: Navratilova diagnosed with breast cancer

[1]

Sorry for taking so long to get this. Tennis great Martina Navratilova [2] announced this week she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“I cried. It knocked me on my ass, really. I feel so in control of my life and my body, and then this comes, and it’s completely out of my hands.”

In February, the 53 year old had a routine mammogram and it was discovered she had ductal carcinoma in situ—also called DCIS. The cancer is non-invasive and confined to her milk ducts—it had not spread to any breast tissue. In February Navratilova had a lumpectomy and next month begins six weeks of radiation therapy. From all accounts, as with most women who find out they have DCIS, Navratilova’s future looks bright.

“The prognosis of someone with DCIS is excellent,” Dr. Shelley Hwang told People magazine [3]. “There’s only a one-percent chance of anyone with this diagnosis would die of breast cancer.”

Navratilova admitted it had been four years since her last mammogram. Reminds me of many women in my family. Well that’s not fair. At least Navratilova sees a doctor. My women folk? They are convinced all you need to fight illness is Tylenol, plus an enema. That theory is popular with the women relatives with health insurance.

If it has been awhile since your last mammogram, maybe it’s time to get one.

[1] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/Martina-Navratilova-top.jpg
[2] http://www.afterellen.com/blog/trishbendix/morning-brew-wednesday-april-7-2010
[3] http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20358261,00.html

Mormon Church admits it spent 100 times more for Prop 8 than reported

(San Francisco, California) Six weeks into an investigation by California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, the Church of Latter-Day Saints has admitted that it spent nearly $188,000 more on the campaign to approve Proposition 8 that it had initially stated.

The Mormon Church previously insisted that it spent only $2,078 …

Kalamazoo passes – then repeals – gay rights ordinance

(Kalamazoo, Michigan) Six weeks after passing an ordinance banning discrimination in housing and employment based on sexuality or sexual identity, city commissioners have voted to repeal the measure.

The unanimous move was not a change in position, but an attempt to halt a move by a socially conservative group to force …

For This Songwriter, the Political Is Musical

Most of the jokes in the Internet video “Prop 8 — the Musical,” a comedic song-and-dance diatribe about the California ballot initiative defining marriage as existing only between a man and a woman, are in its lyrics.

Playing a black-suited religious conservative, John C. Reilly intones, “People, listen to our plea/They’ll teach our kids about sodomy.” Neil Patrick Harris, playing a flamboyant figure trying to reconcile the proposition’s supporters and opponents, sings, “Every time a gay or lesbian finds love at the parade/There’s money to be made.”

But there is one visual gag that is particularly bittersweet to Marc Shaiman, the creator and composer of the video: a credit that says Mr. Shaiman conceived and wrote this three-minute musical skit “six weeks later than he shoulda.”

As popular as “Prop 8 — the Musical” has been — it has been viewed more than 1.9 million times since it was posted on Wednesday on funnyordie.com — it is also a reminder to Mr. Shaiman and like-minded colleagues of how events might have turned out if they had been vocal and organized before Proposition 8 was approved by California voters last month.

“We stupidly allowed ourselves to be lulled into a sense of ‘everything’s fantastic now,’ ” Mr. Shaiman said in a recent telephone interview. “ ‘Everything’s changing, and this couldn’t possibly be voted into law.’ ”

The proposition passed on Election Day with 52 percent of the vote, including strong support from religious conservatives. On Nov. 20 the California Supreme Court said it would consider whether a voter-approved ban on same-sex unions was constitutional.

Mr. Shaiman, 49, an openly gay, Tony Award-winning songwriter whose résumé includes the stage and film musicals “Hairspray” and some of the bawdier songs in “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,” came to create “Prop 8 — the Musical” somewhat inadvertently.

After the passage of the ballot initiative, he learned that Scott Eckern, the musical director of the California Musical Theate

See For This Songwriter, the Political Is Musical
New York Times, United States