Showing posts with label LGBT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LGBT. Show all posts

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Was UCSB shooter Elliot Rodger gay, or are post-death attacks just homophobic attempts at shaming ?

Commenters on various blogs and discussion boards about the spree shooting near University of California at Santa Barbara campus allude to the alleged shooter, Elliot Rodger, being a closeted gay.

Across the reports by many Web sites about the spree killing by alleged suspect Elliot Rodger, many commenters are trying to understand how an otherwise handsome young 22 year old man could still be a virgin, unless the real reason that women "rejected" Mr. Rodger was because of the fact that he was gay, according to these comments.

On one Web site, post-attack criticism of Mr. Rodger not only attempted to shame him about his sexuality, but questions were also raised about his economic status. One commenter wrote, "Most women probably assumed he's gay," on a post that noted that Mr. Rodger's guilt was assured because of "affluenza," a term coined to define the reckless behavior of children of the affluent class. Mr. Rodger was the child of Hollywood assistant movie director Elliot Rodger, who worked on the popular movie, "The Hunger Games."

Some of the "gay" comments appear to be bullying in nature, like one comment, originally posted on PUAhate but reprinted on the Business Insider Web site, which may allude to the kind of online scrutiny Mr. Rodger must have faced while alive. According to the comment, every level of Mr. Rodger's face was deconstructed for sex appeal, and one commenter found that the center part of Mr. Rodger's face was deemed "gay," despite this conclusion being solely based on biased and subjective stereotypes.

One one posting of the shooting on Hollywood Life, which had some early inaccuracies due to the fast-breaking news aspect of the spree shooting story, one commenter wrote that Mr. Rodger "was openly gay," adding that, "I don’t think people would have had any idea of his sexual frustration with women when he claimed to be gay."

Many aspects of Mr. Rodger's life are undergoing intense scrutiny, especially after he wrote what many people are describing as a troubling manifesto, adding to people's impression that the young Mr. Rodger was .

On The Conservative Treehouse blog, one commenter wrote that Mr. Rodger was "gay and really didn’t want to have sex with a girl," a conclusion reached after the commenter had visited Mr. Rodger's Facebook page and viewed Mr. Rodger's spooky, fuck off YouTube video.

Even worse, on a lunatic, conspiracy Web site, Mr. Rodger was deemed a "closeted," self-loathing misogynist, which elicited the fair retort that the homophobic answer to everything is always that a criminal is "gay."

On Facebook comments last night, as word of Mr. Rodger's video and manifesto spread, LGBT activists were troubled by Mr. Rodger's tone, arguments, and motivations. One gay member of Facebook went so far as to compare Mr. Rodger with Luka Magnotta, a Canadian star of gay porn movies, who has been accused of murdering and dismembering a Chinese international student, Lin Jun.

It's too soon to know if Mr. Rodger was actually gay, or whether all of these online comments represent the kind of intense peer pressure and bullying Mr. Rodger must have faced or perceived during his brief, sexually-frustrated adult life.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Mayor Bill de Blasio blocks homeless shelter in Upper West Side

Is Mayor de Blasio backpedaling on homelessness in New York City ?

Mayor Bill de Blasio has opposed the conversion of a building into a homeless shelter after NIMBY opposition to the homeless shelter came from Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, The New York Post reported.

With growing numbers of people turning to the city's shelter system for housing, progressives have escalated pressure on the de Blasio administration to address the underlying determinants that are exacerbating the homeless population in New York City.

"Last year was the first time the number of homeless people sleeping each night in shelters exceeded 50,000," The New York Times reported.

On the eve of Mayor de Blasio's inauguration, the Legal Aid Society filed a class action lawsuit against the city on behalf of homeless youths, demanding from the city the full resources to provide shelter to homeless youths, as required by law. But many liberal groups, including the administrators of homeless LGBT shelters, have tried to de-escalate the pressure on the administration into making piecemeal or token gestures to address homelessness.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Mother Russia : Anti-LGBT Crackdown Parody Musical Video

Dimitri and Mikhail, two Russians, narrate a hilarious musical parody of the violent anti-LGBT crackdown in Russia. The video is going viral, and it lampoons the Sochi Olympics, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and even Russia's macho national sport : ballet.

Ever since President Putin launched a violent anti-LGBT crackdown in Russia, LGBT activists have been staging protests world-wide in the time leading up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Friday, January 24, 2014

New Activist Video Mocks Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" Over anti-LGBT Russian Sochi Olympics

LGBT activism group Queer Nation NY release protest video attacking Coca-Cola's sponsorship of the anti-LGBT Russian Sochi Olympics

The pop culture touchstone that was once Coca-Cola's advertising jingle, ''I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)'' has been juxtaposed over snippets of video showing the violent anti-LGBT crackdown taking place right now in Vladamir Putin's Russia.

The irony of the disturbing images in this protest video is that this theme song originated from one of Coca-Cola's most effective advertising campaigns ever -- an advertising jingle, ''I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke (And Keep It Company),'' a little ditty of "hope and love sung by a multicultural collection of teenagers on the top of a hill" -- has been transformed to reveal how morally bankrupt Coca-Cola's brand really is.

If Coca-Cola cared about diversity and the respect and dignity that every person deserves, irrespective of how people may be "different," then Coca-Cola should fully address the violence now taking place in Russia since President Putin enacted legislation that bans the dissemination of so-called "gay propaganda."

Perhaps the LGBT community should begin protests outside of businesses that serve Coca-Cola and sing a new interpretation of "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke (And Keep It Company)," one whose lyrics more accurately reflect the disturbing images of violence and brutality in Queer Nation NY's new protest video.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Homeless Youths File Federal Lawsuit Against New York City

"Homeless youths sue city for not providing enough shelter" : NYPost

The Legal Aid Society has filed a federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York, in Brooklyn, against the City of New York on behalf of several homeless youths. The plaintiffs fault New York City for failing to provide sufficient shelter.

"The Brooklyn federal court lawsuit claims that while the city is legally obligated to provide beds for all homeless people ages 16 to 20, it turns away hundreds of applicants every night," The New York Post reported earlier this week, adding, "With 3,800 kids currently homeless in the city and only 253 shelter beds available, the waiting lists are growing, the suit states."

A coalition of LGBT organizations, including the Ali Forney Center headed by Carl Siciliano, created the Campaign for Youth Shelter, which would press the city to provide additional funding in a lockstep rate of "$3 million in annual funding to create 100 new shelter beds every year," according to a report in The Advocate.

Perhaps the Legal Aid Society's lawsuit was inspired by the activism surrounding the Campaign for Youth Shelter, as one insider said, but the lawsuit has a larger ambition : seeking the resources to provide shelter for every homeless youth today. If successful, the Legal Aid Society's lawsuit would appear to be the answer to this social issue. If so, now would be the time for the Campaign for Youth Shelter to update its plans for how a larger shelter system could be created once all the resources become available.

In the past, Mayor Bloomberg would seek budgetary cuts to homeless LGBT youth programs, but these cuts would get restored during the budget negotiations.

2013-12-30 Legal Aid Society USDC EDNY NYC Complaint Re Homeless Youth by Connaissable

Some noted the irony that the lawsuit would not be defended by the Bloomberg-Quinn administration, which was largely responsible for growing inequities between a new guilded generation of the very wealthy and the famous 99%, a term coined by Occupy Wall Street to describe everybody else. But the flip side to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg always playing the boogyman was the fact that the City Council, headed by former Speaker Christine Quinn, was always comprised of a supermajority of Democrats, yet the City Council never confronted the mayor to demand the resources to fully address any social ill. By the same token, the Public Advocate's office was never visible in the fight for full budgetary resources, either.

This lawsuit seeks to address the deprivation of homeless youths, who have nothing. One activist noted that Mayor Bloomberg's successor, Bill de Blasio, will now have to put his newly-confessed economic sensibilities about "A Tale Of Two Cities" to the test : it will be incumbent upon Mayor de Blasio to fully fund the resources that homeless youth community groups need to provide adequate shelter to homeless youths.

That litigation is being brought now is a sign that the Legal Aid Society means to force the city's hand, and that homeless shelters would no longer be willing to engage in the annual, farcical "budget dance" -- the cut-and-restore budget negotiation process that leaves important community groups unable to adequately plan long-term operating budgets. Based on how the former Public Advocate failed to champion the cause of homeless shelters, the Legal Aid Society seems to not want to take chances now that the former Public Advocate has become mayor.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

India Section 377 Protest NYC #NoGoingBack #377DayOfRage

Protest in Union Square NYC Against Section 377 Indian Supreme Court Ruling

On December 11, 2013, the Supreme Court of India reinstated the British Raj era law known as Section 377, which criminalises homosexuality. This Judgment has inspired anger across different sections of society around the world. While the legal battle continues, it is important that we make our voices heard.

Activists organized protests in approximately 40 cities around the world on Sunday, December 15, 2013. This video depicts some of the activists, who gathered in Union Square in New York City, to denounce the Indian Supreme Court ruling as unfair, unjust, and discriminatory.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Section 377 of Indian Penal Code Supreme Court Ruling Exposing Ignorance, Racism

India's Supreme Court Ruling Continues British Raj Era's LGBT Discrimination ; American Reaction Turns Ugly

Following today's controversial Indian Supreme Court's ruling to recriminalise homosexuality, the reaction on some American-based Web sites has revealed cultural and historical incompetencies by the West of the East.

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises homosexuality, was enacted in 1860 by the British Raj, the former colonial rulers of India. "Enacted" is a relative term, because the law was basically imposed on India the way British colonists imposed everything else on Indians. Because British rule lasted from 1858 to 1947, and the culture and values of modern India are still informed by the shadow of injustice and discrimination that marked British colonial rule, including lingering laws on India's books. Also note that the inception of the epoch of British Raj overlapped with British Victorian Era, a period of extremely conservative moral values.

When news broke about the Indian Supreme Court's ruling on Section 377, people with no knowledge of India's history instantly reached for charicatured generalisations of Indian culture based on stereotypes of IT tech support and call centers.

"India's Supreme Court rules Gay Sex illegal ... it's time to pull out of that shithole .. bring Tech Support back on-shore," wrote one prominent LGBT activist on Facebook.

On the popular LGBT blog named Joe My God, one commenter wrote, "we need to get a list of all companies using call centers based in india. and boycott indian restaurants. they use a lot of products coming straight from their homeland." (India Court Recriminalizes Homosexuality * Joe My God)

A Facebook follower of Joe Jervis, the author of the Joe My God blog, commented on Facebook that, "The tech companies and the Queen of England should weigh in on this." Never mind that there are companies in India other than "tech," and India endured a violent partition once it was liberated from British rule. Even though the Queen of England has no more power or authority over India's governance, this one comment had attracted four Facebook "likes."

Another commenter on the Joe My God blog wrote, "I wonder how many of the corporate sponsors of the Sochi Olympics have call centers in India?" While presumably the author of this comment was trying to find an intersectional-political pressure point between the violent crackdown against LGBT Russians and the Indian Supreme Court's disappointing ruling, it's notable that the commenter's focus was, again, a call center.

On another popular LGBT blog, Towleroad, the very first commenter posted this reaction to the Indian Supreme Court's ruling : "If you use a call center that is based in India then contact the company that subcontracts their call center to India and ask to use a non-Indian call-center." Another commenter on Towleroad posted, "Does anyone have a list of US companies who subcontract their helpdesks and call centers to India." (In Shocking Ruling, India's Supreme Court Restores Criminalisation of Gay Sex * Towleroad)

These harmful, divisive stereotypes contrast with an article posted by Cathy Kristofferson on OBlogDeeOBlogDa, where she wrote : "India is one of the many countries in the world still suffering with a left over British colonial penal code criminalizing homosexuality."

And the hurtful generalisations about India also ignore the very visible and organized opposition and protests taking place in India against the Supreme Court's "retrograde" ruling.

Another indication of uninformed reaction to the Indian Supreme Court's decision was that in the long string of organising, litigation, and politicking for LGBT civil rights right here at home, American LGBT's were dealt a major setback in 1986 with the SCOTUS decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, which upheld the constitutionality of anti-sodomy laws in the state of Georgia. It took 17 years before the SCOTUS overturned Bowers with the Lawrence v. Texas decision. During that time, were Indians calling for a boycott of McDonalds ?

Many prominent Indians are even denouncing their own Supreme Court's adversarial decision, including famous Bollywood actor Aamir Khan, but Americans, who are uninformed of Indian culture, would not know the full spectrum of debate taking place in India right now, sometimes highly conflicted. How can one have a meaningful debate to change the hearts and minds of people, to ask them to make room for equal rights for everybody, when one first resorts to unfairly categorizing Indians as a way to assign blame for a Supreme Court ruling that frustrates the march to equality ?

Monday, December 2, 2013

The Anti-LGBT Attacks By Scott Levenson, Alec Baldwin

LGBT groups refused to accept anti-gay attacks from Alec Baldwin. How about from Scott Levenson ?

Scott-Levenson-Alec-Baldwin-Sean-Fieler-Bishop-Joseph-Mattera photo Scott-Levenson-Alec-Baldwin-Sean-Fieler-Bishop-Joseph-Mattera_zps571bdce8.jpg

LGBT groups must come together to address the anti-LGBT campaign work of Scott Levenson. Levenson is a political campaign consultant and lobbyist, who was paid by the conservative City Action Coalition PAC to defeat several LGBT City Council candidates solely because of their identity. One of Levenson's attack ads, against gay Bronx Councilmember-elect Ritchie Torres, was featured in a post on The Village Voice.

The attack ad sent by Levenson criticized Torres for, among other things, living in affordable housing normally reserved for "homeless and mentally ill people," casting negative implications on Torres's character. This raises serious questions as to whether Levenson supports prejudice and discrimination.

As we continue our work for equal civil rights laws and new cultural norms of equality and dignity, the discriminatory actions of Baldwin and Levenson will occur less and less. But only if we continue to speak up and demand that these forms of prejudices must end.

Will notable LGBT advocacy groups, like HRC, GLAAD, and the Empire State Pride Agenda, as well as notable LGBT bloggers, denounce Levenson for the prejudice in his anti-LGBT campaign work ? Balwin was the anchor of a weekly cable news program, but Levenson is a political operative, shaping the outcome of elections in New York. Will LGBT advocates note Levenson's possibly larger detriment to LGBT equality ?

Sunday, November 10, 2013

If Mylène Farmer was a real gay icon, she would denounce the Russian government's violent crackdown against LGBT community

Mylène Farmer is one of the most successful French singers in recording history. She's a widely followed "gay icon" amongst the LGBT community around the world. Yet, she took her most recent tour to Russia, and, whilst there, she never denounced the Russian government's crackdown on LGBT civil rights.

One of her Russian fan clubs has expressed ambivalence about whether Mylène has any responsibility to her Russian LGBT fans, describing the plea by activists to hold the Russian government accountable for the violence and discrimination as "squabbles" of Mylène's LGBT fans.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Memorial & Vigil For Mark Carson At St. Vincent's Hospital

Memorial & Vigil For Mark Carson

Mark Carson was shot and killed in a hate crime over the weekend in New York City. He was pronounced dead at Beth Israel Medical Center, where he was taken by ambulance.

Since the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital in 2010, all of Lower Manhattan has been without a Level I Trauma Center.

Join us on Monday evening at 5:30 p.m. for a silent vigil for Mr. Carson, and for all the other patients in medical emergencies, who have nowhere nearby to go after the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital.

Date : Monday, May 20, 2013
Time : 5:30 - 6 pm
Place : In front of the old St. Vincent's Hospital, 7th Avenue South, between West 11th and West 12th Streets.

Please bring candles. RSVP on Facebook : Memorial & Vigil For Mark Carson At St. Vincent's

We Mourn the Senseless Death of Mark Carson by Connaissable

Related : Adam Feldman organized a midnight vigil for Mark Carson : Reflections by Dan Fishback

"Long-time activist and Stonewall vet Jim Fouratt pointed out something that SHOULD be obvious, but which hadn’t occurred to me — that there used to be a hospital TWO BLOCKS from that corner, but in the wake of St. Vincent’s closing, Mark had to be rushed to Beth Israel all the way across town. Perhaps, in the distance between these hospitals, Mark’s life could have been saved. In that sense, the politicians that allowed St. Vincents to be converted to a luxury condo high rise — politicians like lesbian mayoral candidate Christine Quinn — may have gay blood on their hands. Jim helped us understand how depriving a gay neighborhood of a hospital is inherently homophobic and violent."

"And while I’m sure individual NYPD officers were polite in the lead-up to this vigil, we cannot forget that the NYPD ritually harasses trans people and people of color in this city ! Trans women are arrested simply for walking down the street! So when we talk about how queer people need to be 'safe,' we have to ask ourselves what 'safety' really means — because the NYPD does not makes us safe ! It harasses and imprisons us ! We must reckon with these connections — that Mark Carson’s death is an extension of the violence that oppresses so many others, from the institutional violence of governments to the random violence of a crazy guy with a gun. …"

Dan Fishback, the author of this post, added : "I wish I had specifically named the Stop & Frisk policy that makes queers and people of color vulnerable to police harassment. I wish I had called out Christine Quinn for supporting this policy."

Link : Adam Feldman organized a midnight vigil for Mark Carson : Reflections by Dan Fishback

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Could the life of Mark Carson been saved if St. Vincent's was still open ?

Focus On Health : Anti-Gay Bias Killing : No St. Vincent's Hospital For Victim

The bias murder of Mark Carson is tragic and must rightly be condemned. But residents in all areas in New York City, including the Lower West Side of Manhattan, which were once served by the ten hospitals that have closed since 2006 -- when Christine Quinn became Speaker of the City Council -- deserve answers, too.

Could Mr. Carson's life had been saved, if, two blocks away from the scene of his violent attack, St. Vincent's Hospital was still open ?

How many lives have been lost, because of the collapse of so many full-service hospitals in New York City ?

How much worse has the Average Ambulance ER Turnaround Time become as a result of the closing of ten full-service hospitals in New York City ?

Why don't more politicians support a single-payer healthcare system, so that all hospitals could be funded to fully meet the healthcare needs of their patients ?

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Christine Quinn Looks Other Way As NYPD Menace LGBT New Yorkers Based On Fashion

Christine Quinn 3.9 Million stop and frisks under Christine Quinn photo 2013-03-28Title-III-CRA-Stop-And-Frisk-Flyer_zpsc107fd2f.jpg

"The elasticity that officers in New York and elsewhere have been given to police quality-of-life violations has had the unfortunate effect of leaving transgender women, especially, susceptible to the charge that they must be engaged in sex work."

The NYPD are arresting gays, lesbians, transgenders, and other gender non-conforming New Yorkers as part of their stop-and-frisk dragnet, and increasingly they are charging people, who do not conform to gender roles, with criminality. The charges are often suspicion of prostitution, and the police use and/or plant condoms as evidence of sex work, The New York Times has reported. See : Arrests By The Fashion Police

NYPD Condom Arrest - Protest Banner - Queers Against Christine Quinn : Protest against NYPD outside Democratic Mayoral Candidate Forum on LGBT Issues

Christine Quinn is not quoted in this article. How odd is it for the city's highest ranking LGBT official to not be visible, to be outraged by this crisis ? Or is her absence intentional ?

What a disgrace for the NYPD to menace the LGBT community like this. In an article of such gravity, it is notable that no LGBT leader in this city is quoted here to denounce the institutional discrimination by the NYPD of LGBT New Yorkers. Most notable is the absence or silence by Christine Quinn, the highest elected LGBT official in New York City politics. She is somebody, who has a sensibility of what it means to be treated different because of her identity as a woman and as a lesbian. And yet she says nothing about how the NYPD treats others in the LGBT community solely based on their identity. And in all the articles about how stop-and-frisk is used by the NYPD against communities of color and other minority groups, there remains a radio silence about how can a municipality discriminate against people in public spaces based on sex, race, and other factors that are expressly prohibited by the Civil Rights Act. When were municipalities given the option of opting out of enforcing the Civil Rights Act ? And how can the NYPD deliberately violate Griswold v. Connecticut, the landmark case that legalised the use of contraceptives in the United States ? When did carrying contraception or prophylactics become a criminal behaviour ? How can this be ?

Christine Quinn, who is speaker of the New York City Council, each year approves the NYPD budget without defunding the unconstitutional stop-and-frisk policy, but Speaker Quinn has become silent about how the NYPD menace the LGBT community. Some observe that her actions enable the NYPD to continue to use stop-and-frisk against the LGBT community, because Speaker Quinn is seeking the endorsement of the police union in her campaign for mayor.

Related : Christine Quinn betrays the LGBT community

2013-04-01 Roots of Betrayal © 2013 by Louis Flores - Uncorrected Proof Not For Sale Chapter I Excerpt by Connaissable

Sunday, March 31, 2013

What's the difference between Christine Quinn and Ken Mehlman ?

Here's a devastating comparison between Christine Quinn and Ken Mehlman being made by Dan Fishback, via Queerty :

Queerty : One of the most interesting themes of the play is “proximity to power,” particularly how homosexuals in those positions – closeted or not – forsake the LGBT community, e.g. Ken Mehlman. Can you speak to that a bit?

Fishback : One of the worst culprits of this kind of betrayal is Christine Quinn. People support her because she’s a lesbian, but her actual policies are terrible for most queer people. She supported turning St. Vincent’s Hospital in the still-gay West Village into a luxury condo high rise, as if gay people need wealthy neighbors more than they need a hospital. She won’t pass paid sick leave, she’s supported our demonic Police Commissioner, the list goes on and on. But the thing is: queer people are everywhere. So when politicians like Quinn attack the poor, they attack the LGBT community. When they attack immigrants, they attack the LGBT community. When they attack people of color, they attack the LGBT community.

It happens over and over again – not just here, but in Western European countries too. When white homosexuals gain access to political power, they consolidate it by joining the white heterosexual elite in oppressing some “other” group – like immigrants, the poor, or people of color. This is being called “homonationalism,” which I think is a really helpful term, because it’s so widespread – the desperateness with which so many white homosexuals shit on whoever is beneath them in order to feel more secure in the power structure that, only a few years ago, would have eaten them alive.

After years of throwing the LGBTQ community under the bus, Ken Mehlman came out of the closet as having been a self-loathing gay man. What does Mr. Mehlman's episode of hate for his own community have to do with Christine Quinn ? For starters, watch how City Council Speaker Christine Quinn does nothing to help LGBTQ New Yorkers stand up to the Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who in practise profiles, uses stop-and-frisk against, harasses, and falsely arrests LGBTQ New Yorkers :

Related : Christine Quinn betrays the LGBT community

Full Queerty story here : http://www.queerty.com/dan-fishback-waiting-for-barbara-20130330/

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Christine Quinn Mayoral Forum Protested Condoms Democracy Hospital Closings Term Limits

"Christine Quinn is a sell-out !" was a common complaint by activists, who were locked out of the LGBT mayoral forum at Baruch College.

This video features a clandestine Christine Quinn campaign worker, who was pretending to be part of the private security. The woman, who did not want to identify herself, was ordering some of the activists around. Thankfully, the blogger and activist Suzannah B. Troy captured the woman in this video. Watch beginning at 1:15.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Closeted Mayor Will Eulogise Another

At tomorrow's funeral service, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to deliver the eulogy for former Mayor Ed Koch, who passed away on Friday at the age of 88.

Mayor Koch has been the subject of harsh criticism on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media Web sites since his death, for what critics see as his damning role in the spread of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980's, while he was mayor.

It's more than just a bit ironic that Mayor Bloomberg, who some say is gay, will eulogise Mayor Koch.

To distract from his sexual orientation, Mayor Koch made a game of appearing to have had a pretense of a relationship with former Miss America Bess Myerson, whilst Mayor Bloomberg uses Diana Taylor for similar purposes.

No word, yet, as to the subject of Mayor Bloomberg's farewell remarks.

Ed Koch and the AIDS Crisis - A Historical Fact Checking Duel Between NYT and YouTube Videos

In response to the biased "praises" and instant beatification of Ed Koch, I made a YouTube video set to music by Dalida, to help visualise former Mayor Ed Koch's complete failure on the AIDS crisis.

My video was made in response to the video promoted by The New York Times, which whitewashes any responsibility or culpability of the AIDS crisis away from former Mayor Ed Koch :

I'd love to hear what folks think ?

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Ed Koch, the Closet, Neoliberalism, and AIDS

From The Nation

The instant beatification of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch has a lot of folks itching to do some grave dancing. Leftists will denounce Koch because he was one of the original neoliberal mayors, ushering in a regime of gentrification and finance-driven inequality that defines the city to this day. Minorities regard him with suspicion because he marginalized the city’s black and Hispanic leadership and inflamed racial fault lines to corner the white vote, presaging the Sister Souljah moments that would come to afflict the national Democratic Party. And yet even there, among the new Democrats, Koch was never a stalwart, breaking with the party to endorse George W. Bush for president in 2004 and flirting with the neocons over Israel late in his life.

All that said, there is a special place reserved for Koch in gay hell—because he was mayor during the onset of the AIDS epidemic, which he is widely seen as failing to do enough about, and because it’s commonly assumed that Koch was a closeted gay man. “I hope he’s burning next to Roy Cohn”—or sentiments quite like it—have appeared frequently on my Facebook feed, especially from vets of ACT UP. ...

Read more : Ed Koch and the Cost of the Closet (The Nation)

Friday, January 11, 2013

NYT's Free Pass to Richard Socarides on DOMA and DADT

From Michael Petrelis :

''What we're never going to see from the Times is an in-depth examination of the public and private records of exactly what Richard Socarides did in his duties to Clinton when DOMA, HIV travel and immigration bans, and DADT were enacted and codified into federal law harming thousands of LGBT persons and people with AIDS.''

Read More : http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2013/01/nyts-free-pass-to-socarides-on-doma.html

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Noah St. John's ''The Last Mile'' Performance on NPR Going Viral

Teen Awarded NPR's Top Storytelling Performance Prize for Powerful Tale About His Two Gay Moms: ''The Last Mile''

Snap Judgment, NPR's spoken word and storytelling show, recognised 15-year-old Noah St. John with its Performance of the Year for his explosively moving story about his two moms and the moment he thought he might lose the family he had always known.

From Cleve Jones, on Facebook :

Thank you Andy Towle, for posting this on Towleroad. I've never met Noah St. John but I was so amazed and delighted by this video that I posted it on FB twice. Now, overnight, we've taken Noah's YouTube hits to over 48,000. Please. Share. This.

I'd love to see Noah on the Ellen DeGeneris show, AC 360 or anywhere else his beautiful storytelling could reach people's hearts.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Aaron Schock Denies He Is Gay Again

Republican Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois has been running away from rumors that he is gay ever since he took office in 2009, and last week he denounced new questions into his sexual orientation as “inappropriate and ridiculous” and not “worthy of further response,” the writer Michelangelo Signorile wrote in The Huffington Post.

Read more : GOP Rep. Aaron Schock Responds To Gay Rumors, Anti-Gay Voting Record

Aaron Shock wearing shirt, jeans, and belt that Queerty describes as gay, Representative Aaron Shock, right, wearing clothes that Queerty describes as "gay" at a June 2010 White House picnic.