FOX News Suggests Glee is Homosexual Propaganda Unfit for Children
Of course. It’s FOX News what else would we expect, REAL news? Puhlease.
Activists campaign for stamp honoring Harvey Milk
LGBT activists are campaigning for the U.S. Postal Service to create a stamp honoring legendary gay rights activist Harvey Milk, the Advocate reports.
“He would get that twisted smile of his and say, ‘Hell, imagine all those straights having to lick my backside to send a piece of mail,’” writes David Mixner on his blog, DavidMixner.com.
Please, please, please let this happen. Check out David Mixner’s full blog post here, or write to HarveyMilkStampDir@cox.net for more information.
Before “Born This Way”
The Advocate counts down 13 other great LGBT empowerment anthems that preceded Lady Gaga’s latest.
The unprecedented pre-release anticipation for Lady Gaga’s latest single “Born This Way” owed as much to its being touted as “the next great gay anthem” as it did to Gaga-mania. When the song, which the superstar claims to have composed in 10 minutes, finally arrived last Friday, some fans rejoiced while others were underwhelmed. But whether you love it or don’t quite hate it, let’s give the lady her due. “Born This Way” is one of the few mainstream anthems that unapologetically embraces queerness. Just try to name another chart topper with “transgender” in its lyrics.
For decades we’ve appropriated countless songs as our own, reading gay subtext into vague lyrics, empathizing with the longing in Judy’s “Over the Rainbow,” the exuberant joy of The Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men” or relating to the painful isolation in Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own,” but few actually wave a flag to flaunt our individualism. Here are a few favorites that do.
Couples to Admire
From the nearly 40 year union of Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner to new parents Cynthia Nixon and Christine Marinoni, celebrate Valentine’s Day with 12 couples who seem to have the whole love thing figured out.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we rounded up 12 same-sex couples that seem to have the whole love thing down. From Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner’s nearly 40 year union to newlyweds Jane Lynch and Lara Embry, read about the happy couples here. Then let us know in your comments below which couples you think we overlooked.
Click through to the following pages to find out which couples made The Advocate’s “Couples to Admire” list.
Cisgender White Guy = Sorry?
Advocate contributor and TheNewGay.net editor Zack Rosen is a white, cisgender gay man — and he wants to know if that means he should also be sorry.
Culhane: Taking On Jonathan Rauch’s Advocate Piece
Jonathan Rauch makes the clearest, most consistent conservative case for equality – especially marriage equality – that I’ve yet read. Even his opponents, on both the left and the right, accord him respect. (Andrew Sullivan recently referred to him as “Mr. Nice Gay.”) He deserves his reputation.
At times, though, Rauch’s conservatism causes him to call for compromises that are seriously flawed. Earlier this year, he took Judge Walker to task for his opinion stating that Prop 8’s denial of marriage equality was unconstitutional; for Rauch, the civil unions (domestic partnerships, actually) available in California should have been enough. He overlooked the fact that no reason was adduced at trial for conferring all of the benefits of marriage without the label – in other words, to engage in discrimination simpliciter.
Worse is his piece in this month’s Advocate. In an effort to achieve an elusive compromise between anti-discrimination laws and accommodating religious belief, he clatters far off the track. Please read the entire piece. It’s beguiling in its apparently reasonable call for LGBT advocates to tolerate some (unspecified) level of discrimination, but his seemingly commonsensical call for civility falls apart under a closer reading.
Click the link above to read the full article.
CHECK OUT THIS LIST OF EQUALITY ALLIES
Applauding Companies that are Committed to Corporate Diversity
The Advocate proudly announces “Equality Allies 2010,” a special section designed to celebrate and promote companies that value and support LGBT equality in the workplace. This once-a-year showcase commends industry leaders who take pride in corporate diversity and foster a safe and equitable work environment. The Advocate congratulates their great efforts in the evolving and essential undertanding of the LGBT experience.
A "Cure" for Homosexuality?
By Advocate.com Editors
A hormonal treatment given to pregnant mothers who are at risk of giving birth to babies with ambiguous genitalia is raising concern among some researchers and gay activists because the treatment also decreases the likelihood that the baby will grow up a lesbian, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The treatment, which is called prenatal dexamethasone therapy and is only given to a few dozen women every year, is a step toward “engineering in the womb for sexual orientation,” says Alice Dreger, an opponent of the treatment and a professor at Northwestern University.
“Most clinicians speak about this treatment as ambiguous-genitalia prevention,” Dreger says. “Others suggest that you should prevent homosexuality if you can. But being gay or lesbian is not a disease and should not be treated as such.”
In the face of criticism from Dreger and others, such as the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a consortium of medical groups will release updated guidelines for the treatment in September. The updates are expected to describe the treatment as experimental and reiterate that the standard approach for cases of ambiguous genitalia is to perform corrective surgery.But even that guideline change is likely to face opposition from intersex activists who oppose corrective genital surgery on newborns. As the Intersex Society of America explains on its website, “That is a crucial reason why medically unnecessary surgeries should not be done without the patient’s consent; the child with an intersex condition may later want genitals (either the ones they were born with or surgically constructed anatomy) different than what the doctors would have chosen. Surgically constructed genitals are extremely difficult if not impossible to “undo,” and children altered at birth or in infancy are largely stuck with what doctors give them.”
DADT Trial Begins Tuesday
A long-pending lawsuit challenging the constitutionality “don’t ask, don’t tell” will finally be heard in a Southern California federal courtroom Tuesday.
Opening statements in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States of America will begin at 9 a.m. Pacific time (Visit Advocate.com and The Advocate’s Twitter page for updates on the proceedings). Log Cabin Republicans will argue in the nonjury trial before U.S. district judge Victoria A. Phillips that the 1993 law barring gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military violates constitutional protections of due process and free speech.
Though President Barack Obama has publicly stated both his opposition to the law and his support for its repeal, the Justice Department is defending the policy in court after previous failed attempts to dismiss the suit.
“Though times may have blinded the Congress that enacted DADT to this truth, all available evidence, both at the time of enactment and since, shows that DADT is a law that serves only to oppress,” attorney Dan Woods, who represents the national gay Republican organization, wrote in a pretrial memorandum.
Log Cabin also contends that its standing to sue the government, one now at the center of a heated legislative repeal effort on Capitol Hill, rests on its members who are current, retired, or former members of the armed services. Attorneys identify two specific service members adversely affected by the policy: Lt. Colonel “John Doe,” who recently completed a tour of duty in Iraq, remains in the military and thus has been granted anonymity in legal proceedings; and J. Alexander Nicholson, the executive director of Servicemembers United, who was discharged from the Army in 2002.
