GLAA Forum

Karen Handel resigns from #Komen for the Cure

Karen Handel, the right-wing former gubernatorial candidate behind the disastrous decision by Susan G. Komen for the Cure to end funding for Planned Parenthood, has announced her resignation from the organization. She'll speak to reporters this afternoon in Atlanta, and it looks like she'll go down fighting.

This does not settle the matter — more heads need to roll, as our colleague Craig Howell says, and more answers are needed regarding Komen's grantmaking process — but it is a good first step and gives hope that Komen will get back on track and avoid going under as a result of Handel's contribution to the recent epidemic of right-wing overreach. Women's health is more important than political gamesmanship. Unfortunately, women's health generally, and the right of women to control their own reproductive status in particular, has been made political by those whose religion inspires them not to reform themselves but to try to control others. It is part of the battle for America. This week, the pro-freedom side is winning.

(Hat tip: Joe Jervis)

Rep. Giffords makes her farewell to Congress

Speaker Boehner for once has a good reason to cry. Get better quick, Gabby.

Matthew Hagee: AIDS is a Choice

Right Wing Watch reports, "Matthew Hagee says the problem with society is that the church 'surrendered' itself to secularism and socialism."

The top comment on that YouTube page is by someone named jackofclubz: "Funny he is preaching an antigay speech with the GAYEST SHIRT IN THE WORLD!!!!"

Okay, jackofclubz, let's butch it up and drop the extra exclamation points. (Pardon me, folks, it's Sunday morning and I just put the coffee on.)

Fischer: 'Poppers' and Promiscuity, Not HIV, Cause AIDS

Right Wing Watch shares this latest lunacy from Bryan Fischer of AFA.

Warning: It is not safe to take this man seriously.

Bryan Fischer is not your doctor

Right Wing Watch reports: "Bryan Fischer says God will heal AIDS patients if they just stop having sex with men." This reminds me of the story of the man with a well who refused a drink to a man dying of thirst, admonishing him with the observation that water was dangerous and the man could drown.

D.C. Council limits medical marijuana cultivation center sites

DCist reports:

The D.C. Council voted today to limit the number of medical marijuana cultivation centers in Ward 5 to six, possibly throwing another wrench in the works of a program that has already been slow to get off the ground.

The vote came at the behest of Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large), who initially proposed that no more than five cultivation centers be allowed in Ward 5. During the debate, though, he agreed to an amendment put forth by Councilmember David Catania (I-At Large) increasing the limit to six per any ward and limiting the number of dispensaries to one for any ward that has five or more cultivation centers.

Orange pushed the new limits after hearing a number of complaints at a community hearing in Ward 5 last week; before he resigned, Harry Thomas, Jr. had said that he was planning on some sort of new limits on cultivation centers and dispensaries in his ward. Since initial applications for cultivation centers were found to have clustered largely in Ward 5, residents have complained loudly that they are again being used as a dumping ground for things that no one else in the city wants.

In a letter to the council, Mayor Vince Gray expressed his opposition to any new limits on cultivation centers and dispensaries, saying that it would "further delay implementation of this important program which is necessary to assist individuals who suffer with chronic debilitating pain." During the council debate, Councilmember Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) similarly expressed concerns that any further restrictions would make the broader medical marijuana program unworkable.

Moving forward, it is unclear how the council's move will affect the status of applications for licenses to run both cultivation centers and dispensaries.

I am not happy. As Mayor Gray and Phil Mendelson mentioned, there are already heavy restrictions in D.C.'s law. This is the basest sort of pandering. I expect that David Catania struck the best compromise that he could. He and the other council members who were defending the law deserve due credit for doing their best to fend off the irrationality surrounding this. But the fact that it might have been worse is cold comfort to the patients who need medical marijuana.

GLAA's position on this from "Agenda: 2012" is here.

The war against women

Think Progress reports:

On Thursday, Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall (R) spoke at a press conference against state funding for Planned Parenthood. He blasted the organization for supporting a women’s right to choose, saying that God punishes women who have had abortions by giving them disabled children....

Scary stuff. Which prompts an observation and a question: The other side votes. Do you?

(Hat tip: Brandon Fitzgerald. Photo of Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall)

'The Birds' mystery solved?

Sarah Anne Hughes at WaPo reports on a scientific study that may explain a real-life incident that partly inspired Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 thriller The Birds:

Alfred Hitchcock's “The Birds” has been terrifying audiences for almost 50 years, thanks in part to a real-life event in 1961, when dying seabirds slammed into coastal California homes. (I’m pretty sure no one was actually pecked to near-death by hundreds of deranged gulls, like poor Tippi Hedren.)

The reason for the birds’ erratic behavior has remained a mystery — until now.

Sibel Bargu, one of the authors of a new study published in Nature Geoscience, told USA Today her team believes the birds were poisoned by toxin-producing algae. The researchers looked at the stomach contents of turtles and seabirds gathered in the affected area in 1961 and found toxins that cause nerve damage present in 79 percent of the plankton the creatures had eaten.

The short video below is a droll tribute to Hitchcock by a fan.

Surprise: President Obama's position on Morning After Pill doesn't prevent another Bachmann lie

Christina Wilkie at HuffPo reports:

"The president can put abortion pills for girls 8 years of age, 11 years of age, on the bubblegum aisle," Bachmann continued, apparently in reference to a recommendation by the FDA that the morning after pill be available over the counter, which both the administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently rejected.

This is what the President gets for his pandering. Just thought I'd mention.

TWO: Top 10 Ex-Gay Stories of 2011

Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out runs down the sorry list of "ex-gay" frauds from 2011. Thanks to Wayne for his work on this issue.

In an ironic move, Rep. Sensenbrenner criticizes big asses

HuffPo reports.

I only posted this because I thought of that headline.

2011 DC Center Year End Movie

Our friend (and GLAA Distinguished Service Award Honoree) David Mariner includes the following note with this slide-show retrospective on the DC Center's busy year in 2011:

Dear Friend of the DC Center,

On behalf of everyone at the DC Center I would like to wish you happy holidays. This has been an exciting year at the DC Center, and a year of many firsts:

The first year of free Second-Saturday HIV Testing for the HIV Working Group

The first year of the Friendly Visitor Program for SAGE Metro DC

The first Annual LGBT Book Festival for OutWrite

Our first Foster Parent Information night for Center Families

The first National Great American Smokeout event for the Tobacco Working Group

The establishment of our first ever arts-advisory committee for Center Arts

Programs and services like GLOV, Center Women and Center Careers continued to do great work this year, and we added new programs such as the Youth Working Group. We also established stronger online presence for the local Bisexual Community and Transgender Community.

As we look to the future, there is of course, some uncertainty. We expect that we will need to relocate to a new physical space before the end of 2012.

I can't tell you where or when we will move in 2012, but what I do know for sure is that with your continued support the DC Center will continue to grow and thrive. Your support makes this work possible.

During this holiday season, I hope you will consider financially supporting the DC Center:

Sincerely,

David Mariner
Executive Director
The DC Center

Save that foreskin!

This just in from Germany:

A research organization is growing human skin in the hope of using it to trial cosmetics and medicines, reducing the need for animal testing. The synthetic skin is made using cells from infant foreskins.

The idea of a "skin factory" may sound sinister, but that is exactly what scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart have created. Their so-called Hautfabrik grows tiny swatches of skin - not for skin grafts, but for testing consumer products.

The renowned institute is presenting their ground-breaking invention as an affordable and sustainable alternative to animal testing, which many consider unnecessarily cruel.

(Hat tip: Joe Jervis)

Lesbian Partner Denied Hospital Visitation

Bil Browning reports on a test of the President's order on hospital visitation rights.

Hitchens dead at 62

Christopher Hitchens, a ferocious, witty and iconoclastic writer who took on figures from Henry Kissinger to Mother Teresa, died Thursday at age 62. He had esophageal cancer. He did not go gentle into that good night. His comments about deathbed conversions in the above video are a classic example of what made him irresistible. Here's to his memory; he leaves a wealth of bracing writing behind.

Update: The Center for Inquiry is organizing a vigil for Hitchens outside his D.C. home at 5 pm Friday and noon on Saturday:

Dear CFI–DC supporters,

We are deeply saddened to report that our friend and champion Christopher Hitchens has died.

Since Christopher was our neighbor in Washington, we will come together to express our loss by gathering on the sidewalk in front of his DC home.

All are welcome to join us: Friday, December 16, beginning at 5:00 pm and Saturday, December 17, beginning at noon.

Address:
The Wyoming apartment building
2022 Columbia Road NW
Washington, DC 20009
(4 blocks north of Dupont Circle Metro, just north of the Washington Hilton Hotel)

Warmest regards,

Melody Hensley
Executive Director

Hitch was not religious, to say the least, but I think he would not mind people joining to celebrate his life.

HIV Is Not a Crime

Sean Strub made this disturbing film about the destructive consequences of criminalizing HIV. Thanks to him and to those who cooperated with him in making it.

Got $10,000?

Mitt Romney, correctly charged with having once embraced the individual health insurance mandate, challenges Rick Perry to a ten thousand dollar bet. Nice way of demonstrating his common-man credentials. Hey Rick, teach Mitt how to say, "Oops."

Besen responds to PFOX president's claim that Truth Wins Out tried to have him murdered

Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out reports:

Truth Wins Out sent a letter to Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays today sternly warning PFOX that it would face legal consequences if it did not publicly apologize within five days for defaming TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. The letter from Virginia attorney Michael Hamar outlined four concrete demands that PFOX would have to satisfy to avoid having the matter settled in a court of law.

On October 7, 2011 Quinlan ... was interviewed on News-Plus with Mark Segraves (WDCW-TV). At the 10:38 mark of the show, Quinlan fabricates an alleged hit on his life. According to Quinlan:

"Truth Wins Out if you look further, including Wayne Besen. He's asked for people, you know, somebody needs to run Greg over. He needs to be hit with a bus. Somebody should inject him with AIDS. Those are the things that Wayne Besen and Truth Wins Out says about me. That's pretty hateful rhetoric."

"Greg Quinlan deliberately and maliciously fabricated a story with the sole purpose of smearing Truth Wins Out and damaging my reputation," said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. "These defamatory actions are unconscionable, unacceptable, and I refuse to let these vicious lies go unanswered."

Wow, just when you thought they couldn't come up with anything worse. Thanks to Wayne for fighting these people.

8-year-old leaves Bachmann speechless

An 8-year-old named Elijah tells Michele Bachmann, "My mommy's gay but she doesn't need any fixing." Forgive me, but the Mama Rose in me wants to yell, "Sing out, Elijah!"

Dec 13th - Confronting the Ex-gay movement

On December 13th the Southern Poverty Law Center and Truth Wins Out along with GetEQUAL DC will be sponsoring an event where ex-gay survivors can share their stories and the community can learn more about the ex-gay movement's dangerous practices.

Where: Busboys and Poets (2021 14th Street NW)
When: December 13th, 2011 6 - 8pm

Meanwhile, the documentary This Is What Love In Action Looks Like will be coming to video in March, 2012.  Everyone pretty much knows by now that conversion therapy is a failure, don't they?

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In The Life on Thirty years of AIDS

In The Life Media has been covering HIV since the their inception.  The have produced a video on the story of AIDS 30 years on.  Since I was at some of lthe events chronicled I can wave back at my past self.  At the 2:58 mark a group of people march by holding a Gay Activists Alliance banner  (in 1986 the words 'and Lesbian' were added to the group name).  I definitely was not there and I did not recognize any of the people.  This could be the New York GAA though I thought they folded prior to the AIDS era.

World AIDS Day 2011

Above is President Obama's message for World AIDS Day.

Whitman-Walker Health states:

World AIDS Day is a time to reflect on lost loved ones, remember those still living with HIV/AIDS, and hope for a future free of the epidemic.

Join Whitman-Walker for our annual candlelight vigil on Thursday, Dec. 1, at 6:00 pm at Dupont Circle. Free HIV testing will be available in our mobile testing unit.

Free, confidential walk-in HIV testing will be available at both of our sites on World AIDS Day.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA-9th) discusses World AIDS Day at HRC Back Story.

Bryan Fischer blames Barney Frank for AIDS

AFA spokesnut Bryan Fischer explains how Rep. Barney Frank is to blame for AIDS. I am not going to maintain a comprehensive list of the right-wing potshots at our friend Barney in response to his announcement that he'll retire from Congress after sixteen terms. Suffice it to say that if you can judge a man by his enemies, the gentleman from Massachusetts is looking fine.

Bryan Fischer: public displays of homosexuality are to blame for gay kids' deaths

Right Wing Watch reports:

In discussing the murder of openly gay student Lawrence King, Bryan Fischer says the solution is to "curb public expressions of homosexual behavior."

This Thanksgiving I am thankful to RWW for keeping an eye on hateful nutjobs like Fischer.

Marcus Bachmann demands payment for canceled reparative therapy sessions

Seriously, Marcus Bachmann wants more attention for his fraudulent "pray away the gay" practice? Here's the audio clip of Bachmann demanding payment for reparative therapy sessions that the patient had canceled:

Voicemail from Marcus Bachmann by user6446359

Truth Wins Out reports:

“I cancelled my remaining appointments in compliance with Bachmann & Associates’ stated procedure,” said John Becker, TWO’s Director of Communications and Development, “yet Marcus Bachmann himself called me and threatened to send the fraudulent $150 ‘bill’ to a collection agency by Friday. I find it odd that Bachmann handled this matter personally rather than through his billing department. This is certainly an unorthodox way of doing business, much like the unethical ‘ex-gay’ therapy offered at his clinic.”

What is it with these anti-gay crackpots who set off our gaydar? A few more doughnuts and Marcus could pass for Baron Harkonnen, the villain in Frank Herbert's homophobia-laced science fiction novel Dune.

Marcus Bachmann wants to stay in the news

Truth Wins Out is dedicated fighting the ex-gay movement.  Earlier in the year they sent in an undercover operative to the clinic run by Michele and Marcus Bachmann where they practice Christian therapy. 

But news outlets have pounced on an undercover investigation by the gay rights group Truth Wins Out that suggests otherwise. The group’s John Becker in June used a hidden camera to record five visits to the Bachmann clinic. Becker told a counselor there he was a conflicted Christian who sought to rid himself of his homosexuality.

The story would now be considered old news except now Bachmann & Associates is demanding payment for two of the three 'therapy' sessopms that Becker had scheduled.  It's a 'he said, he said' situation where John Becker says he called in and cancelled the three appointments, but the clinic only cancelled one of them and now is seeking payment for the other two.  Truth Wins Out sums up the situation as:

Either Marcus Bachmann has a lot more time to personally attend to his underlings’ business matters now that his wife’s presidential campaign has tanked, or Truth Wins Out’s undercover investigation remains a very personal issue for him nearly five months later. I’ll be calling Dr. Bachmann back later today. Stay tuned!

The 99 percent fight back

The news is very good in Tuesday's off-year elections. Ohio voters have overwhelmingly rejected Governor John Kasich's anti-union law. Mississippi voters defeated the so-called personhood amendment, which would have defined a fertilized egg as a person. And Maine voters restored the state's voter registration law that Republicans had overturned. Kentucky's Democratic governor has also been re-elected. All this on top of a conservative judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals writing the ruling upholding the constitutionality of President Obama's signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act.

The results in Ohio, Mississippi, and Maine show the miscalculation the Republicans have made in their radical overreach against workers, women, and the voting franchise. It turns out that voters do not want to repeal the Twentieth Century. Note to timorous Democratic politicians: please pay attention and grow a pair already.

Helping LGBT seniors (& Metro Weekly stories on Frank Kameny)

The current issue of Metro Weekly includes an excellent piece by Will O'Bryan that uses the problems Frank Kameny encountered in his final years — and the help various people and organizations provided him — as an illustration of the challenges faced by all our seniors, and the efforts local groups are making to serve them. Thanks to Will for writing about such an important subject.

Also in this week's Metro Weekly, Randy Shulman has a remembrance of Frank, including his stint as the "World's Oldest Living White House Intern" from a very funny April Fool's issue some years back. Also, John Riley reports on Frank's local legacy. And Chris Geidner looks at Frank's Good Trouble.

Moran: "All the bullies I've known were insensitive jerks"

Rep. Jim Moran's (D-VA) "It Gets Better" contribution. Thanks, Congressman.

(Hat tip: Joe Jervis)

Obama knocks Perry, GOP debate audiences

President Obama had some choice words at a Silicon Valley fundraiser yesterday for Texas Gov. Rick Perry and the recent Republican debate audiences:

I mean has anybody been watching the debates lately? You've got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change. It's true. You've got audiences cheering at the prospect of somebody dying because they don't have healthcare. And booing a service member in Iraq because they're gay. That's not reflective of who we are.

Gov. Perry, in response, is deeply offended that the President is playing, gasp, politics.

(Hat tip: Joe Jervis)

Buffalo teen commits suicide after years of bullying

14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer of Buffalo, New York, who made the above "It Gets Better" video in May, died in an apparent suicide after years of anti-gay bullying, including cyber-bullying. Buffalo News reports. Words fail me as I look at this sweet kid who couldn't overcome the hate. There happens to be a conference call today among activists working on the pending D.C. anti-bullying bill; this senseless death is a reminder we didn't need that our work, across the country and the world, is so far from done.

(Hat tip: Joe Jervis)

Flash mob targets Bachmann

HuffPo reports:

Gay rights activists protested Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann's appearance at the California Republican Party convention Friday by staging a flash mob-style dance routine.

The soundtrack, Madonna's "Like a Prayer," was meant to call attention to the Minnesota congresswoman's anti-gay rhetoric and the controversial therapy methods reportedly practiced at the Christian counseling clinic she and her husband own, according to the Courage Campaign.

"Politicians like Rep. Bachmann need to understand that you can't simply "pray the gay away," the group stated in a release.

To be honest, I'm over flash mobs.

"I Will"

Director John Gress and singer Marshall Titus have created this video that tells the story of a young black man who is diagnosed with HIV, and how he and his friends deal with it. It's about not running from one another. Watch it and share it.

(Hat tip: Rod 2.0)

American Academy of Pediatrics denounces Bachmann claim that HPV vaccine causes mental retardation

O Marion Burton, MD, FAAP, president, American Academy of Pediatrics issued the following statement denouncing Rep. Michele Bachmann's claim that the HPV vaccine, Gardisil, causes mental retardation:

The American Academy of Pediatrics would like to correct false statements made in the Republican presidential campaign that HPV vaccine is dangerous and can cause mental retardation. There is absolutely no scientific validity to this statement. Since the vaccine has been introduced, more than 35 million doses have been administered, and it has an excellent safety record.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians all recommend that girls receive HPV vaccine around age 11 or 12. That’s because this is the age at which the vaccine produces the best immune response in the body, and because it’s important to protect girls well before the onset of sexual activity. In the U.S., about 6 million people, including teens, become infected with HPV each year, and 4,000 women die from cervical cancer. This is a life-saving vaccine that can protect girls from cervical cancer.

Bachmann also lied when she kept saying that Gov. Perry's executive order gave parents no choice regarding their daughters receiving the vaccine, when he had just said that he included a parental opt-out provision. It is important to keep in mind that Bachmann and the other right-wing crazies do not just disagree, they lie — over and over again, aggressively and shamelessly.

(Hat tip: Joe Jervis)

Let 'em die!

Rep. Ron Paul spells out the logical result of radical individualism. In short, you're on your own. Or as a man says in the Point/Counterpoint parody in the movie Airplane, "I say, let 'em crash!" Of course, Rep. Paul is also worried that the border fence would be used to keep us from leaving. Granted, after a few years of a President Paul, people might indeed want to flee to Mexico. But it is likelier that the President Pro Tempore of the Senate will succeed to the Presidency. (That's Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, by the way. He's third in line behind Joe Biden and John Boehner. He is a World War II veteran and a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross and Medal of Honor. Happy birthday to him — he turned 87 on September 7. Incidentally, don't be an ignoramus and insist that Biden is second in line. The current occupant of the office is not in the line of succession, because he already has the job. As you can perhaps detect, this mistake is one of my pet peeves. But I digress.)

Mississippi ballot measure would define every fertilized egg as a person

Laura Bassett reports at HuffPo:

Mississippi voters will be allowed to decide on a ballot measure that defines "personhood" from the moment of fertilization, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled last week. The measure could potentially outlaw abortions, birth control, in vitro fertilization and stem cell research across the state.

Measure 26, which will bypass the legislature and go straight to a popular ballot vote, redefines the term "person" as it appears throughout Mississippi's Bill of Rights to include "all human beings from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof." The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit against the proposal earlier this year, not based on its content or constitutionality, but because Mississippi state law says a ballot initiative cannot be used to change the Bill of Rights.

The Mississippi Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit in a 7-2 ruling, saying that it had no power to review any ballot initiative before the actual vote takes place.

"We didn't lose on the merits of the case, but what's disappointing is that it means the measure does go on the ballot that could later be held unconstitutional," said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, an ACLU attorney on the case.

Well, at least this measure doesn't say that every sperm is sacred. But defining legal personhood as beginning at fertilization is quite a radical proposal with almost absurdly far-reaching implications. The relentless religious extremism in this country has become embarrassing. Of course, Mississippi is ranked at or near dead last among the states in most measures. They're basically still fighting the Lost Cause.

Strip-club developer plays the race card and the anti-gay card to deflect charges that he misused city AIDS funds

Loose Lips reports:

Not What a Lawyer Would Advise: Cornell Jones, a former drug kingpin who is being sued by the city for allegedly using city AIDS funding to renovate a strip club, took to the airways to say he's being targeted because he is black and because openly gay Councilmembers Jim Graham and David Catania are "a couple of gay guys who sometimes get to acting like little faggots," TWT reports. Nothing like playing the race card along with the aggressive homophobia card at the same time. Cheers, Mr. Jones, stay classy. Also, how did the city ever get into business with this guy?!

LL's last question is an excellent one. Whatever the answer turns out to be, Mr. Jones is radioactive now. Political patronage is one thing; embarrassing your patrons is another. I mean, diverting AIDS funds for a strip club? And he tops that by calling two city council members "little faggots?" Gee, who do you think will get the last laugh on this one? (Personally, if someone called me a little faggot, I'd say, who are you calling little?)

I note that Jones directs a nonprofit called Miracle Hands. Could that be a reference to his skill in slipping cash out of the public till? (Come to think of it, I once dated a guy with miracle hands, but that's another topic altogether.)

GMHC "I Love My Boo" campaign wins GLAAD award; Bob Witeck, Wes Combs also honored

New York's Gay Men's Health Crisis will receive a 2011 GLAAD Amplifier Award on October 4 for Outstanding Social Marketing Campaign, in recognition of its "I Love My Boo" campaign, examples of which are shown here.

Congrats to GMHC and the other winners, including our friends Bob Witeck & Wesley Combs, who will receive GLAAD's Public Visibility Award "in recognition of their careers advocating for LGBT inclusion in all forms of media and marketing. For two decades Bob Witeck and Wesley Combs have challenged the minds of all Americans with inclusive and compelling LGBT strategies."

Bigotry in Charlotte

Right Wing Watch shares an amazingly vicious piece on Charlotte Pride from an anti-gay activist named Michael Brown (no relation to the LGBT-friendly D.C. Council member), published by the American Family Association. I don't care to quote from it, but follow the link if you want to see how many bigoted bells Brown manages to ring. He even manages to treat an HIV testing truck as disreputable. Brown himself (and I know this will come as a shock) looks gay.

Engle: Pray for 'ex-gay' conversions

Right Wing Watch shares this video of Lou Engle testifying to his efforts to save our souls. This reminds me of the psychiatrist played by Peter Sellers in What's New, Pussycat?, who is crazier than his patients.