I expect simple behaviours here. Friendship, and love. Any advice should be from the perspective of the person asking, not the person giving! We have had to make new membership moderated to combat the huge number of spammers who register
Location: Canada
Registered: March 2010
Messages: 188
I've never heard many positive mentions with regards to LGBT's on the local media but I was pleased to find this posted on Facebook from my favorite radio station along with on-air mentions:
102.3 Now! Radio Are you wearing purple today? It is "Spirit Day", recognition of the discrimination against the gay and lesbian community! Even if it's your undies that's cool...apparently the colour defines your personality: Black: powerful but sultry Red: passionate, energetic and driven White: innocent, but open to suggestion. What are you wearing today? mars
4 hours ago · 6165 · Comment · Like
Location: U.S.
Registered: November 2009
Messages: 630
In all the mainstream opinions of the media these days about the issue of bullying this one rang true. We have been looking for some sign that the dialogue about bullying against LGBT children is taking hold in the minds of those who can make a difference, this gives me more hope.
It is good to see a large city news organization recognize that Tony Perkins and his ilk are dead wrong and only contribute to the harassment of our children. And then there is the subject of the comment left by the reader, Jcuenca, there at the end of the article.
Most people in society can understand a gay or lesbian person much easier than they can a transgendered one and I understand that. I have known several persons who wished to have the sex change from male to female, and one who did.
The road to such a change is long and difficult, which only proves that the medical establishment takes it seriously. But I would imagine that the average person might sqirm at the knowledge of what it takes. Unfortunately society is not ready to embrace the desires of transgendered people...and that includes gay and lesbian society.
I am a gay male, I have no desire to become a woman even though the ignorant folks out there seem not to understand this. But I am willing to agree that each person's body is their own, and if a man is ready and willing to make the change to a woman so be it. I don't understand it, I cannot relate to those feelings, I never will.
But even as the gay and lesbian segment of society is making progress towards integration I'm afraid the transgendered ones may never achieve that goal. They are included under the LGBT banner because they face discrimination over their sexual orientation. If anything they may only find acceptance within the gay/lesbian community, and yet they are not us.
I leave aside the bi-sexual people because I find them difficult to understand. To some they are in denial of their true feelings, to others they are just adventure seekers. My own moment of time with the female of the species only shed light on my gay self. I am man, hear me roar. (I think some Aussie woman said that LOL)
;-D
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
All the fuss about the little US lad who is a cheerleader. And here we have a documentary about a tough part of South Leeds in the UK and a team of boys who are cheerleaders.
Formed on a South Leeds estate in 2009, DAZL Diamonds are a boys cheerleading troupe made up of lads between the ages of 8 and 13. This is as much a story of role models and aspiration as a document of gender contradiction though. A touch of backstory reveals that many of these lads are from single parent families and although a couple of the mums lament their own misspent youth, they encourage their kids to grab this opportunity with both pom-pom laden hands.
Location: U.S.
Registered: November 2009
Messages: 630
Bette Midler, The Divine Ms. M to so many in the gay world, speaks out from a parent's point of view on the suicide of so many gay children who have been the target of bullies.
Her statement is brief, but to the point. That brevity alone from a woman who is known for talking your head off speaks to the seriousness of her thoughts. Thank you Ms. M...we love you too.
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
Location: U.S.
Registered: November 2009
Messages: 630
Whatever can they be thinking? Jesus doesn't like this, Jesus doesn't like that...the guy has been dead for 2000 years, how can anyone know what he thinks? The Southern Baptists have a funny view on life, but the comments from the readers at the end of the article are hilarious.
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
Location: Israel
Registered: October 2004
Messages: 1367
Already many years ago the erstwhile Ten Commandments became the Ten Suggestions. Well, here are ten suggestions how you might personally contribute to improving the lives of members of the LGBTQ community. I didn't come up with these suggestions: I found them in my inbox under the heading "Ten Things You Can Do". Since they were originally intended for Jewish recipients I have taken the liberty of editing them to make them more appropriate for a general readership. They won't all be appropriate to your situation, but many of them will be.
1. Ask your pastor, priest, elder, rabbi, imam to give a sermon (or write your own) about the tragic events of the past month and our responsibility as human beings to speak out and work to end homophobia. Here's an example from a rabbi in UK. You could use it as a base: I'm sure he would be delighted: http://keshetonline.org/files/D%27var_Torah_Parashat_Noah_2010.pdf
2. Speak out. The next time you hear someone say "That's so gay," tell that person why those words are hurtful and can have disastrous consequences.
3. Make your support visible. Post a GLBT Safe Zone sticker in your church, mosque, synagogue, classroom, camp bunk, office, or website.
4. Take action for equal rights. Contact your legislator (if you live in USA) to support ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that prevents people from being fired or discriminated against at work for being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.
5. Keep youth safe and supported. If you are an educator or administrator at an educational institution, provide training and resources for your staff on how to create safe, inclusive spaces for GLBT and questioning youth. Help start a Gay-Straight Alliance.
6. Come out as an ally. October 11 is National Coming Out Day. If you are a straight community leader, let people know that you are an ally to GLBT people and keep the messages of support coming.
7. Come out. If you identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, and/or queer, come out and keep coming out. This simple act will help others.
8. Talk to your children. Middle and high school students witness homophobic and transphobic bullying and teasing every day. Tell your children you support them and that all kids deserve to be treated with respect and kindness.
9. Tell your story. Whether you are queer or a straight ally, upload a video to the It Gets Better Project and share your story with young people who need to hear your message. Visit the Make it Better Project to see powerful stories about what young queers and allies are doing right now to improve their schools and communities.
10. Seek support/give support. If you or someone you know is struggling with issues around sexual orientation and/or gender identity, know that you are not alone. Crisis support is available (in USA) 24/7 through The Trevor Project, 1.866-4.U.TREVOR.
J F R
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
Location: US/Canada
Registered: September 2009
Messages: 733
By Joe Jervis (New York, New York) OCT 5 | "The religious right is seeing the fruit of their efforts: DEAD CHILDREN." Watch every second of this. Dan says to gay kids: "Don't believe the lies of the bigoted children of bigoted adults."
Location: US/Canada
Registered: September 2009
Messages: 733
By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) OCT 1 | Twelve years ago this month, a 21 year old university student was tied to a fence on a cold starlit night, in a pasture outside of Laramie, Wyoming, and pistol whipped so severely that his distraught parents couldn't even recognise him later as he laid dying in an intensive care unit in hospital. He was beaten solely because he was Gay. That student's name? Matthew Shepard.
After the tragedies of this past month, where four bright loving and promising young lives were snuffed out by suicide, as a direct result of anti-Gay bullying, it becomes readily apparent that Americans as a society and culture have not gained a solitary lesson from the death of young Matthew in the intervening years.
The common thread to all of these deaths is religious intolerance that has been sanctioned as a political and societal acceptable mainstream reality. The anti-gay religious brigade is nothing more than a faux love masquerading their hatred. The hypocrisy of the religious must not be allowed to sanction the deaths of teenagers, or justify the actions of the bullies. Religious intolerance must be eradicated, not tolerated, and if the religions want to survive, then they have to be told to stop bullying the people in their own bedrooms.
I happened across the following comment posted by a 'bear54f' on a ABCNews follow-up story to the most recent death, that of 18 year old Tyler Clementi, from Rutgers University in New Jersey:
This is a terrible tragedy and in my view more than a simple invasion of privacy. It is a symptom, I think, of a larger problem in our society. The actions of the two students resulted in the death of a gifted and by all reports brilliant and good person. It is interesting to see, on this website and others reporting this story, the diversity of opinion about whether the roommate and his friend should be punished and how.
I am an older gay man and was not bullied in this way only because I hide my sexual orientation and never discussed it with my parents or friends in high school because it was a time when that was just not done. So I was not bullied about being gay, however I can understand what the young man must have felt being exposed in this particularly cruel and cavalier way.
While in many ways younger people feel more free to express themselves about their sexual orientation, society in general has not caught up to most of our young people in their attitudes about homosexuality. It is obvious that Mr. Clementi was not comfortable enough with his sexuality and his tragic reaction to the actions of his roommate is very sad and troubling. Perhaps he felt he had no other choice and that makes this situation much more troubling.
It occurred to me that this may rise to the level of involuntary manslaughter as the actions of Mr. Clementi's tormentors led to his death. I am not a lawyer and so I am not sure of the legalities but I do think that the roommate and his accomplice should be held accountable for their actions, which resulted in this tragic death.
The world has been deprived of someone who by all reports was a talented, sensitive and good person and we as a society cannot let his passing to go unpunished. Is it not time for us as citizens stand up do something to protect the many young people who are being bullied simply because they are different for whatever reason?
It is troubling to see comments, on this website and others carrying this story, by those who believe that those persons who perpetrated this horror should not bear the consequences of their actions and believe that the victim, Mr. Clementi, is solely responsible for his suicide. We as a society really should examine ourselves and decide if we are going to continue to marginalize and demonize those who are different from us and while we regret the ending of a life do nothing to prevent this kind of thing in the future.
At what point does the public connect the dots? When does it become patently obvious that America's religious leadership needs to be held accountable for the domino effect that the message of Homosexuality is a sin and an abomination is directly attributable to the marginalisation of the LGBT citizens which in turn makes it acceptable in some minds to beat, harass, and in the case of some, kill?
A week before Tyler Clementi took that fatal plunge from New York's George Washington bridge, comedian and author Jim David wrote the following op-ed, "How Many Teens Have To Die Before Focus On the Family Gives A Damn?" Which succinctly states the case:
Another teenager killed himself because of bullying and anti-gay harassment. This one was in Minnesota, and his name was Justin Aaberg. The local news report is here. School officials, wary of conservative protests, did nothing.
This comes on the heels of the suicide of another teenager in Indiana, one
who never actually said whether he was gay but who was mercilessly harassed nonetheless. His name was Billy Lucas. The local news report is here. Again, school officials did nothing.
Eleven-year-old Jaheem Herrera of Atlanta hanged himself with a belt. His mother had complained to the school authorities about the bullying he endured, but they did nothing. Seventeen-year-old Eric Mohat of Mentor, Ohio killed himself after being called "gay," "fag," "queer" and "homo," and after a student said, "Why don't you go home and shoot yourself? No one will miss you." Eleven-year-old Carl Hoover of Springfield, Mass., hanged himself with an extension cord. School officials did nothing.
These are just the ones who lately made the news.
Focus on the Family, a right-wing lobbying group that fronts as a religious organization, pays lip service to the bullying issue, but wants no mention of homosexuality in schools because it might encourage kids to be gay -- this in spite of the fact that the vast majority of bullying is directed at teens who either appear to be gay or are actually out, not those who are fat or wear glasses.
If Focus on the Family thinks that the mere mention of the topic will prompt impressionable children to suddenly turn gay, they need to immediately see a neurosurgeon. They do anyway, but that's a another story.
Same for the Family Research Council, a right-wing lobbying group that fronts as a religious organization that purports to be helping families, but does nothing to help families with gay members in them. In fact, they're part of the problem; in the guise of fighting a "gay agenda" in the schools, they help to make the actual problem worse.
School officials, running scared from screaming religious fanatics and conservative parents who have bought into the lies of Focus and FRC, are afraid to actually address the issue. Sometimes school officials are religious fanatics themselves. It's the same with teen pregnancy. By merely saying "abstinence only," they do nothing to help teens, who are going to be sexually active whether school officials like it or not, make sane choices.
There's a reason why teen pregnancies are highest in the most conservative, religious states. But don't take my word for it; look it up.
Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, and similar groups don't actually give a damn about these kids or their families. They couldn't care less how many of them are beaten within an inch of their lives or actually take their own lives. What matters to them is power, influence, and promoting an extreme religious agenda to help them hang on to said power and influence. They are deathly afraid that some of the kids might not grow up to be as bigoted as they are.
The facts are that when schools actually mention sexuality, bullying goes down. It's been proven time and time again. When schools say some generic thing like, "Uh, leave other kids alone for any reason, please," it makes no difference whatsoever. Kids need to be told these things explicitly. They're kids.
The documentary For the Bible Tells Me So includes first-person testimony by a mother who raised her gay daughter ccording to the teachings of Dr. James Dobson, former head of Focus on the Family. The daughter killed herself. Dobson, of course, said nothing.
Lost in the hysteria of Quran-burning and mosque-building is the clear and present danger to our youth, and society in general, by these American "religious" organizations, their teachings, their agenda and their political influence with equally insane right-wing politicians, who callously turn away when the clear evidence of the atmosphere they help create manifests itself. In the name of Almighty God, they are evil. How about some good old Tea-Party-type energy directed againstthese people?
What's the difference between the Taliban and the Focus on the Family? About 7000 miles.
Location: Canada
Registered: December 2003
Messages: 869
... this past April in support of "National Friendship Week". Unfortunately, I have no knowledge of who actually authored this delightful little piece; but, I feel, given the somber tone of late around here, that we all need occasionally to be reminded of just what it is that facilities like A Place Of Safety often do, and should, stand for.
A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell.
He painted a sign advertising the 4 pups and
set about nailing it to a post on the edge of
his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the
post, he felt a tug on his overalls. He looked
down into the eyes of little boy.
"Mister," he said, "I want to buy one of your
puppies."
"Well," said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat
off the back of his neck, "These puppies come
from fine parents and cost a good deal of money."
The boy dropped his head for a moment. Then
reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a
handful of change and held it up to the farmer.
"I've got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take
a look?"
"Sure," said the farmer.. And with that he let out
a whistle. "Here, Dolly!" he called.
Out from the doghouse and down the ramp ran
Dolly followed by four little balls of fur.
The little boy pressed his face against the chain
link fence. His eyes danced with delight. As the
dogs made their way to the fence, the little boy
noticed something else stirring inside the doghouse.
Slowly another little ball appeared, this one noticeably
smaller. Down the ramp it slid. Then in a somewhat
awkward manner, the little pup began hobbling toward
the others, doing its best to catch up...
"I want that one," the little boy said, pointing to the
runt. The farmer knelt down at the boy's side and said,
"Son, you don't want that puppy. He will never be able
to run and play with you like these other dogs would."
With that the little boy stepped back from the fence,
reached down, and began rolling up one leg of his
trousers.
In doing so he revealed a steel brace running down
both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made
shoe.
Looking back up at the farmer, he said, "You see sir,
I don't run too well myself, and he will need someone
who understands."
With tears in his eyes, the farmer reached down and
picked up the little pup.
Holding it carefully he handed it to the little boy..
"How much?" asked the little boy. "No charge,"
answered the farmer, "There's no charge for love."
I ask everyone here to remember that The World is full of people who need someone who truly understands. Never hesitate to show your family, your friends and your neighbours just how much you do care.
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Registered: September 2010
Messages: 127
I have known a number of homosexual saints who came to my rescue in an hour of need.
Only one let me down. No sooner than he had had his epiphany, than he jumped from the bed, falling to his knees, hands clasped and with eyes flung towards the plain ceiling, he asked for forgiveness from his lord. He then dressed and ran from the room, leaving me holding my sacred relic, untarnished.
I became much more interested in secular liaisons thereafter.
DesDownunder
Call me naive if you want, but life without trust in the goodness of others would be intolerable.
Religious indoctrination: It gets better, without it.
Location: England
Registered: November 2003
Messages: 1756
The article is dated back in the dark days of August 2009, and we have kicked that government out now. August is always the 'silly season' for UK press hacks.
Hugs
Nigel
[Updated on: Thu, 23 September 2010 17:33]
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
As far as I can tell there is nothing in this story. I know pretty much everyone in local government who would have to handle the privacy issues of such a scheme and have asked them for comment. So far none has remarked either way about it.
Frankly the targets of such an operation are deeply unattractive people in all senses of the word. You only have to look at Bog Brother.
Location: U.S.
Registered: November 2009
Messages: 630
when so many seem to live in the past. The gay agenda is never far from the minds of those in the Republican party...no wait, this was 12 years ago and they're still stuck on it.
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
Location: U.S.
Registered: November 2009
Messages: 630
Politics in America is evolving, although not fast enough to please most of us in the LGBT community. But after years of being targeted by the Christian Right it seems the winds of change are blowing in Florida.
For those who don't understand this comment, Florida has always been a bastion of conservative thought, hallowed ground for the Republicans. Most of this is because the largest aging population lives here, they abhor change. These folks still yearn for the Ronald Reagan years, the golden boy of conservative thought. (Although recent analysis has shown this to be false). The elderly don't want a change in their taxes, their Social Security, their Medicare...I understand that. But what about human rights?
It is rare to see a politician change sides in the contest between Republican and Democrat, but sometimes they do. I have been keeping my eye on Charlie Crist, the former Republican. The more I see the better I like him. And then today this came to light:
He's running for Congress now and faces a great deal of resistance from his old political party. They're worried, he's become quite popular. It proves that even politicians can wake up and realize they must solve the issues of their people.
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
Hermes wrote:
>
> that son-of-a-bitch deserved it.
QFT (Quoted for Truth)
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
I know that a lot of support groups use the term homeless more broadly than I would. I was sleeping on a couch at my aunt's place for 5 months when I started Uni and my counsellor used the word homeless to refer to that. I guess it was in a technical sense, but I wasn't on the streets, or anything.
I assume your homelessness was more "traditional".
In the story I linked you the main characters stay in a rented garage that one of the other street kids had secured. Did you have anything like that or was homelessness for you literally park benches?
Additionally did you ever score a warm night's sleep out of your work? I assume that'd be a big perk for doing that kind of work if you did.
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
Hermes wrote:
> I finished school, got my degree, and went into practice trying to make certain I could help as many others who had been placed in similar situations to myself.
How does one aim one's practice in that direction? There's nothing like a good bit of career's advice to help give someone a goal to aim for!
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
Hermes wrote:
> Unfortunately, when I was about half way through Grad School to get my PsyD, he was killed. I wound up on the street again because his family basically put me out since he'd failed to update his will.
Was this a return to working the streets, or simply a coincidental phrasing? How did you finance this part of your life?
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
Never, not ever, give up.
In an article shared by Yonatan Gher on facebook today , I read that the organisation he spearheads has received, at last, funding that has been denied it so often by the municipality.
That organisation, Jerusalem Open House, provides exactly what it says on the label - an open house - and much more to the teeming city's LGBT population.
Did I mention Jew, Palestinian, Arab, Israeli, Christian, Muslim? No I did not. I mentioned LGBT.
No, except to read it, maybe to add your voice to positive talkbacks, for I am sure there will be the usual nutbar ones soon, perhaps to publicise it wider if you have a blog, or to place it oin other LGBT forums where you see fit.
Location: Worcester, England
Registered: January 2005
Messages: 1560
Thank you for sharing that with us.
It has come as timely reminder to me that I must make an appointment to sort out my will, and make some kind of provision for the former street-kid who is now my "honoray foster-son / life partner" - alas, his problems are such that I doubt he'll ever hold down a permanent full-time job.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
I'm not sure what era this was. HIV will have been at best on the periphery and at worst in circulation, but there are plenty of other sexually transmitted diseases that are wholly evil. Hepatitis C scares me as much as HIV.
How did you solve the STD problem? clients tend not to wear rubber-wear except for fetish parties.
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
I don't really know how to comment on that at all. So many things go through my head about it. Many are trite. So please take the trite ones as read. I have, instead, a question.
After working the streets, where I assume you had little education, when you went back into the school system at around 16 years old, you will have been very different from the others there, not only because you lacked the education, but because I suspect your street life altered your perceptions of others and made you construct some sort of armour around yourself.
I was thinking that elaborating on that area might be a useful thing for folk to start to understand.
I was wondering how they reacted to and related to you, how you coped with male and female authority figures, and as much else as you haven't filed in the locked cupboard you may have used at the time.
Location: US/Canada
Registered: September 2009
Messages: 733
... After a lengthy conversation with Warren, and based on previous conversations with Tim, I offer this apology for my temper tantrums stretching back over the past week or so here on Tim's forum/website.
Location: US/Canada
Registered: September 2009
Messages: 733
By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) SEPT 8 | The New York City Police Official who led the raid on the Stonewall Inn, which touched off the the LGBT Equality Rights movement, died last Thursday according to his obituary published today by The New York Times.
NYPD Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine, was commander of the department's Vice Squad for Lower Manhattan, when at 1:20 in the morning on Saturday, June 28, 1969, the Inspector, Detective Charles Smythe and four plainclothes policemen accompanied by two patrol officers in uniform from the 6th Precinct, walked into the Stonewall Inn and announced "Police! We're taking the place!" Two undercover policewomen and two undercover policemen had entered the bar previously that evening to gather visual evidence, as the NYPD's Vice Squad waited outside for the signal to conduct the raid.
Howard Smith, a freelance writer for The Village Voice newspaper, in his published eyewitness account, described what happened next:
"The music was turned off and the main lights were turned on. Approximately 200 people were in the bar that night. Patrons who had never experienced a police raid were confused, but a few who realized what was happening began to run for doors and windows in the bathrooms. Police barred the doors, and confusion spread.
The raid did not go as planned. Standard procedure was to line up the patrons, check their identification, and have female police officers take customers dressed as women to the bathroom to verify their sex, upon which any men dressed as women would be arrested. Those dressed as women that night refused to go with the officers. Men in line began to refuse to produce their identification. The police decided to take everyone present to the police station, and separated the transvestites in a room in the back of the bar.
The police were to transport the bar's alcohol in patrol wagons, but the patrol wagons had not yet arrived, so patrons were required to wait handcuffed in line for about 15 minutes. Those who were not arrested were released from the front door, but they did not leave quickly as usual. Instead, they stopped outside and a crowd began to grow and watch. Within minutes, between 100 and 150 people had congregated outside, some after they were released from inside the Stonewall, and some after noticing the police cars and the crowd. Although the police forcefully pushed or kicked some patrons out of the bar, some customers released by the police performed for the crowd by posing and saluting the police in an exaggerated fashion. The crowd's applause encouraged them further."
Inspector Pine later recalled that the crowd—most of whom were homosexual—had grown to at least ten times the number of people who were arrested. The mood shifted and got ugly with crowd growing shouting taunts at the officers and then the actual riot commenced when a Lesbian resisted being shoved forcibly into a patrol vehicle and the crowd rushed at the officers who retreated, some back into the Inn. Some of the crowd ripped a parking meter off its base to use as a battering ram on the Inn's entrance while yet others attempted to set fire to the building.
The incident set off several days of rioting eventually quelled by the NYPD but as the author of 'Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked The Gay Revolution,' [published in 2004] David Carter, noted in a 2004 interview:
“The Stonewall uprising is the signal event in American gay and lesbian civil rights history because it transformed a small movement that existed prior to that night into a mass movement. It is to the gay movement what the fall of the Bastille is to the unleashing of the French Revolution."
NY Times Staff Writer Dennis Hevesi writes:
In 2004, Inspector Pine spoke during a discussion of the Stonewall uprising at the New-York Historical Society. At the time of the raid, he said, the police “certainly were prejudiced” against gays, “but had no idea about what gay people were about.”
The department regularly raided gay clubs for two reasons, he said. First, he insisted, many clubs were controlled by organized crime; second, arresting gay people was a way for officers to improve their arrest numbers.
“They were easy arrests,” he said. “They never gave you any trouble” — at least until that night.
When someone in the audience said Inspector Pine should apologize for the raid, he did.
NYPD Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine Photo By News Corp
Location: US/Canada
Registered: September 2009
Messages: 733
The following story was written by Ynet Senior News correspondent Vered Luvitch. It was sent to me by an Israeli LGBT activist who stated in his e-mail, that similar scenarios are becoming more commonplace unfortunately across Israel.
TEL AVIV-- SEPT 2 | They kidnapped and threatened their family member over his sexual preferences. Angel's family, who kidnapped him from Tel Aviv in an outrage over his gay and cross-dressing lifestyle, was indicted Thursday in Tel Aviv District Court for a series of serious charges, including kidnapping and false imprisonment.
The indictment states that the family viewed Angel's sexual orientation and his work as a drag queen in Tel Aviv's clubs as a violation of the family's honor, which, in their eyes, justifies killing him. Eight of his family members, including one minor, are charged with kidnapping him on a number of occasions, imprisoning him, and beating him.
Particular irksome to the family were the pictures Angel published on Facebook of himself dressed in women's clothing. The indictment notes that his mother called him three weeks ago and threatened him.
"Either erase the pictures from Facebook or your family will come and get you and this will be your end," she said.
The family is suspected of conspiring to commit a crime, kidnapping for the sake of false imprisonment, kidnapping under threat, false imprisonment, threats, and aggravated assault in four different incidents.
The indictment issued by the Tel Aviv District Prosecution asserts that during the most recent incident, which occurred last week, the accused family members allegedly arrived at Angel's residence in Tel Aviv and attacked him and sprayed his eyes with tear gas when he left his apartment. They then forcibly put him in their car to take him north. They then allegedly proceeded to tie his hands with belts, cover his eyes with tape, and threatened to stab him if he didn't keep quiet.
Once they reached Tamra, according to the indictment, they chained him to the window and locked him in a room for a number of hours.
'Because mom is sick'
Last week was not the first time Angel was kidnapped by his family. According to the indictment, in the first incident, family members arrived at Angel's place of work and told him his mother was unwell. When he refused to return with them to Tamra, they forcibly held his hands together, forced him into the car, and drove him to his parents' house in Tamra.
Some of the family members are suspected of kicking and slapping Angel all over his body. They tied his legs together and locked him in a room.
On another occasion, his father and uncle chased him into a forest during a relative's wedding in a bid to bring physical harm to him so that he will cease the actions found to be unfavorable by the family. Angel hid in the forest until the police rescued him.
Attorney Raed Anouz from the Tel Aviv District Prosecutor's Office filed a request in court to arrest seven of the eight defendants in the case until the end of legal proceedings against them.
Location: Canada
Registered: December 2003
Messages: 869
... and simply because I've introduced the subject of media downloaders in another thread here, I give you (although purely in context I might add) the following:
Shortly thereafter the World Première of his first feature-length film at the thèâtre in the aging historic Gladstone Hotel (recently refurbished as a Hostel/Community and Outreach Centre in Toronto's West-end, director Bruce Stephen Locke placed the film in the "Public Domain" under a Creative Commons License respecting his rights to copyright, title and ownership and our fair use.
STRUGGLE is the story of Darren, a young gay man, who arrives in Toronto seeking a new life. Running out of money, and with nowhere to live, he quickly falls in with a group of gay rent boys. Complicating matters for himself, he falls in love with Steve, one of the group. Steve already has a boyfriend. While desperately trying to avoid becoming a prostitute himself, Darren's loneliness and infatuation with Steve eventually sets him on a downward spiral with tragic circumstances.
The "Three times charm" bit: Canada and it's film-makers have tried twice before to sufficiently document the hidden truths behind escalating youth homelessness, and the related issues of street prostitution, hustling and rent-boys now endemic in Canadian Urban Centres; the first produced by CanWest Global Communications and Media LLC and Poignant Productions Inc., in 2001, entitled "Inside Boystown" documented Vancouver's plight, and received much ballyhooed buzz when it aired nationally, but little came from the initiative in raising awareness and obtaining much needed funding to address the problems therein associated. The second was the 2009 PSA (produced by a Toronto firm, name not recalled, original thread found here: http://forum.iomfats.org/w-agora/index.php?site=forumiomfatsorg&bn=forumiomfatsorg_placeofsafety&key=1255295427&action=view, which Brody kindly featured in one of his articles here earlier this year. Locke's film represents the third major attempt to document this crisis (consequently the "Charm"), and he does it admirably. The film is worthy of your time to download and view, if you're not capable of streaming it directly to your screen.
The good folks at archive.org are making the film available for global distribution, and it may be found here:
If for whatever reason you are not able to screen or download the film, I have created a 800 Mb AVI-format distribution taken from the 1.5 Gb master featured at the site above which should be more than suitable for most viewers. An e-Mail directed to me will bring the links to my host file-server in reply.
This film is not pornography. It is a serious take on a very serious problem; one told with great compassion and veracity. That it features attractive youth, and a heart-wrenching story are simply a bonus.
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
Location: US/Canada
Registered: September 2009
Messages: 733
A.) I do NOT apologise.
B.) I post news that I collect, gather, and even report on as a journalist. I do NOT believe in links that do nothing to educate the readership by merely directing them elsewhere. Oh and in most cases, if it has MY byline on it, then you can damn well bet that I worked on it and made the effort to gather all requisite facts.
C.) In the flame war that commenced yesterday, In MY Op-ED, I offered my opinion based on what I saw and experienced at the Glenn Beck Rally and then followed up with by researching further and making appropriate inquiries. [Phone calls etc.] I took my time documenting a cause & effect relationship between the Uber-Christian right and the death of that young man as well as the ongoing effects on the community he was from. I was attacked without regard for the message I conveyed strictly because those who took offence, don't like reporters and previously have made that plainly clear.
D.) Whilst it may take on the appearance that I am bashing all religious types, I'm not, so much as I am focusing on those elements who would seek to do the LGBT community harm by use of their theology. You're free to disagree but beware of attacking my integrity as a journalist or I shall respond.
E.) Civilised behaviour is a laudable goal, but I do NOT feel that I personally need to bridge the cultural gap between British sensibility and American cultural realities that I live and work in. Nit picking by the way is a personal pet peeve of mine.
Oh and language? I said EXACTLY what I felt regarding the fascist GOP former RNC head. Beings how I was virtually present reporting on the Bush White House all 8 years, I pretty much can tell you that he in fact was personally culpable for quite a few egregious acts that inflicted harm on the LGBT community, and made it possible for the so-called Christian right to export their Anti-Gay message to other countries with devastating effects.
F.) My "acerbic" tongue slash style is mine and if it offends thee, then don't bother responding, okay? Pretty simple. I have for the most part NOT been arsed at things said here that offended me until it got to the point that I felt it was shoot the messenger and I had had enough.
G.) Information is power. There are those who would rather play ostrich than discuss/debate the merits of the effects of hatred and bias inhabiting here as evidenced by the constant refrain news and issues need to be linked elsewhere. So I am to gather that it's better to be a mushroom? Be fed feces and kept in the dark? Young people and others who visit this site can GAIN from my insight & reporting as I am a journalist who also is GAY and OPENLY so. There are those who by necessity or choice must remain closeted, but at least I provide them a service and a unique perspective.
H.) Mystery Moderator? That's Tim's call, he is after all the owner of the site.
Bottom line is that there are ALL types of people... and unless you cannot deal with realities of that fact, you should understand that imposing a false set of sensibilities and conditions doesn't allow for growth and maturation in a community. However, should you choose otherwise, stagnation will occur if you stifle things and debate that makes you uncomfortable.
Location: U.S.
Registered: November 2009
Messages: 630
I have to admit, I am not familiar with the television show this man was on but that is not necessary to appreciate the struggle he must have had being gay around such disgusting people.
Hollywood, televison land, and California in general is the adultery capital of the country. With such a lose sense of morality you'd think a gay man might get a break. Not so for David Yost, the link follows:
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
Location: Canada
Registered: December 2003
Messages: 869
... it simply being a feature about someone being who they are, and their having learned to become that person.
A truly remarkable "bit of fluff" not intended to take anything away from other more serious topics currently being discussed; but, one I found to be so thought provoking, and dare I say it, profound, that I have this need to share it with you.
Featured today at, and yes Brody it's again from that scion of corporate newspace, netscape.aol.com; but, none-the-less for it, worthy of even your perusal:
Oprah Winfrey's Favorite Guest Talks About Life Without the 'Oprah Effect'
Location: US/Canada
Registered: September 2009
Messages: 733
From FACEBOOK:
"For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten ...years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.
"In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of ...Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen." - Famed novelist Anne Rice & mother of noted Gay author Christopher Rice.
Location: the burning former USofA
Registered: July 2010
Messages: 399
But heck, worth it in case you've not seen it before...
A successful rancher died and left everything to his devoted wife.
She was a very good-looking woman and determined to keep the ranch, but knew very little about ranching, so she decided to place an ad in the newspaper for a ranch hand.
Two cowboys applied for the job; one was gay and the other a drunk.
She thought long and hard about it, and when no one else applied she decided to hire the gay guy, figuring it would be safer to have him around the house than the drunk.
He proved to be a hard worker who put in long hours every day and knew a lot about ranching.
For weeks, the two of them worked, and the ranch was doing very well.
Then one day, the rancher's widow said to the hired hand, "You have done a really good job, and the ranch looks great. You should go into town and kick up your heels." The hired hand readily agreed and went into town one
Saturday night.
One o'clock came, and he didn't return.
Two o'clock and no hired hand.
Finally he returned around two-thirty, and upon entering his room, he found the rancher's widow sitting by the fireplace with a bottle of whiskey, waiting for him.
She beckoned him to her...
"Unbutton my blouse and take it off," she said.
Trembling, he did as she directed.
"Now take off my boots."
He did as she asked, ever so slowly.
"Now take off my stockings."
He removed each gently and placed them neatly by her boots.
"Now take off my skirt."
He slowly unbuttoned it, constantly watching her eyes in the fire light.
"Now take off my bra."
Again, with trembling hands, he did as he was told and dropped it to the floor.
Then she looked at him and said, "If you ever wear my clothes into town again, you're fired."
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Ft. Worth City Councilman Joel Burns With Ellen Degeneres 
mars
A question of focus on bullying... 
Warning! The Following Video Is Rated NSFW, But Funny! 
Another incredibly stupid Christian moment.... 
A Symptom Of A Larger Problem In Our Society 
It's hard to go foreward... 
Second question 
) eh?
We seem to be becoming equal 
