Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Flash Mobs At Russian Embassies To Protest Anti-LGBT Law In St. Petersburg
Well it’s a step up from glitter-bombing: The LGBT-rights group AllOut.org is scheduling a series of flash mobs tomorrow outside Russian embassies worldwide, in protest of an upcoming bill in the historic city of St. Petersburg that would make “promotion of homosexuality” a crime.
The “gay propaganda” statute, which has passed two readings but must be voted on by the St. Petersburg City Council on Wednesday and then signed by the governor, would impose fines of up to $16,700 for “reading, writing, speaking or reporting on anything related to gay, lesbian bi or trans people,” reads a statement from AllOut. “Pride parades, literature, theater, or NGOs that openly serve LGBT people will be criminalized, or pushed underground.”
At Tuesday’s events, demonstrators will be wearing gags to represent how the law would muzzle free speech. Their hope is to both draw international attention to the situation and discourage tourists from visiting the city. (A giant postcard bearing the slogan “Saint Petersburg: Don’t Go There” will be delivered to each embassy.)
“This bill, which would violate Russia’s own constitution as well as any number of international treaties, is an outrageous attack on the freedom of expression for all Russians, straight and gay,” says AllOut.org’s executive director, Andre Banks. “It must not be allowed to stand.”
The New York City flash mob will take place 12:30pm–1:30pm outside the Russian Mission to the United Nations, 136 East 67th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. Others are scheduled for Berlin, Buenos Aires, Milan and Paris.
Tricky situation: There’s reportedly a gay adult film actor in the cast of TUF 15
Cochrane, part of the 32-fighter cast for "The Ultimate Fighter," is a talented mixed martial artist, but he also has another gig on his resume.
According to sites like Middle Easy, Bloody Elbow and MMAMania, Cochrane has performed in 16 gay pornographic films under the name "Danny." Cochrane is quoted in another story about having a girlfriend, but that won't matter to most ardent anti-gay fans and followers of MMA.
The reaction to Cochrane's inclusion on the show will be interesting to follow. White was asked in the past about the issue of promoting a gay fighter.
"Any guy involved in grappling is the furthest thing from homophobic in the world. I honestly think it would have no impact at all whatsoever. Not only with our fighters or our fanbase. It wouldn't be a big deal to me and most of the guys I know in this sport, it wouldn't be a big deal for them either," White said during a conversation with Edge Magazine in 2009. "The guys in the UFC, everybody is so cool. There's great sportsmanship and everybody has respect for each other."
Will Cochrane get booted from the show? That's anyone's guess. If he was supposed to disclose any and all pornographic work in the past and didn't, that could be grounds for dismissal. If he is dismissed, one wonders if there will be any backlash from gay rights groups.
The 25-year-old Cochrane is 10-2 in MMA and posted a win over former WEC lightweight champ Jamie Varner in September.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Spartacus Vengence Hot Gay Kiss
I've loved this show from the very first episode and tho they haven't shied away from gay content, this one tender first kiss is one of the sweetest gay moments in TV history.
Rick Santorum: I Never Attempted To Impose My Views On Gay Rights
During a segment on NBC's Meet The Press, host David Gregory asked Santorum if as president he would act on his beliefs on issues such as abortion and gay marriage.
Santorum blamed the media for creating the false notion that he is focused on social issues.
“Senator, you know, wait a minute,” Gregory interrupted. “You talk about this stuff every week. And by the way, it's not just in this campaign. Sir in this campaign, you talk about it, and I've gone back years when you've been in public life and you have made this a centerpiece of your public life. So the notion that these are not deeply held views worthy of question and scrutiny – it's not just about the press.”
“Yeah, they are deeply held views, but they're not what I dominantly talk about, David. You're taking things that over a course of a 20-year career, and pulling out quotes from different speeches on issues that are fairly tangential, not what people care about mostly in America, and saying, 'Oh, he wants to impose those values.' Look at my record. I never wanted to impose any of the things that you just talked about.”
“There is no evidence at all that I want to impose those values on anybody else,” he added.
Last month, Santorum told CNN host Piers Morgan that he would as president outlaw gay marriage.
“I would change the law to make a uniform definition of marriage in this country,” he said.
And while in the Senate, Santorum voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and twice in favor of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would define marriage as a heterosexual union.
Photo of gay Marine kissing boyfriend receives flood of support
The photo, which shows Sgt. Brandon Morgan locking lips with partner Dalan Wells during a recent homecoming in Hawaii, was posted to a Gay Marines Facebook page on Saturday.
Since then, the shot has received tens of thousands of "likes," shares and comments, prompting the young soldier to send a grateful message to all of his supporters.
"To everyone who has responded in a positive way. My partner and I want to say thank you," the blog Joe. My. God. quoted Morgan as saying.
"We didn't do this to get famous, or something like that we did this cause after 3 deployments and four years knowing each other, we finally told each other how we felt."
"As for the whole PDA and kissing slash hugging in uniform...it was a homecoming…the Sergeants Major, Captains, Majors, and Colonels around us didn't care..." he wrote, before singing off with a "Semper Fi," the Marine Corps motto.
"As a gay veteran that pic drew tears to my eyes," one commenter wrote on Facebook. "Never in my wildest dreams would I ever think I would see this lifetime."
Not all of the comments were supportive. Some posters said they felt the picture was inappropriate or disapproved of the end of "Don't ask, Don't tell."
The photo recalled a shot from December that showed two female Navy petty officers sharing a traditional "first kiss" on a Virginia pier after one of them returned from 80 days at sea.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Queer IQ: The Gay Couple's Advantage
Most lesbians don't fear rapacious women and gay men need not always soft-peddle their sexual predilections. On balance, gays and lesbians understand their partners' bodies and biases with a certainty that many a clueless "breeder" yearns for. "Homosexuality could be viewed in some respects as the triumph of the individual's mating intelligence over the gonads' evolutionary interests," argues Geoffrey Miller.
The result is that gay relationships are less mired in deception and perhaps even less prone to friction, according to multiple studies.
"If two guys in a relationship are on the same wavelength, it's going to be very hard for them to deceive one another about their motives, their lusts, their philandering. Whereas between the sexes, each sex presents a socially acceptable form of masculinity or femininity that is reassuring to the other person but not particularly accurate," says Miller.
Romantic lies are, after all, a sort of Rosetta stone on which gender differences are coyly inscribed. Straight men lie about their commitment to the relationship and about their resources, finds psychologist Maureen O'Sullivan. They are also more likely to lie to keep their partner from getting angry at them, a small but telling testament to the wrath of women. Women, in contrast, lie to flatter a man's sense of self and to downplay their interest in other men.
Gay and lesbian couples are not only more honest with one another, they are also more likely to exhibit affection and humor in negotiating relationship stressors, according to John Gottman, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Washington. Gottman compared conflict discussions in gay and straight couples and found that "gays and lesbians talked explicitly about sex and monogamy. Those topics don't come up in 31 years of studying heterosexual couples, who are uptight in discussing sex. In their conversations, you really don't know what they're talking about."
Whether a same-sex edge to mating intelligence makes for longer unions is unclear. Among the couples Gottman studied, the projected break-up rate for homosexuals, over a four-decade span, is a grim 64 percent (gay men are far more likely to split than are lesbians). The 40-year divorce rate for straight couples in first marriages is 67 percent. To amend George Burns: If you wait long enough, every couple wants different things.
Santorum: Separation Of Church And State 'Makes Me Want To Throw Up'
"I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state are absolute," he told 'This Week' host George Stephanopoulos. "The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country...to say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up."
The GOP candidate was responding to comments he made last October. He had said that he "almost threw up" after reading JFK's 1960 speech in which he declared his commitment to the separation of church and state.
Santorum also on Sunday told Meet The Press host David Gregory that separation of church and state was "not the founders' vision."
The GOP candidate has been doubling down on religious rhetoric in an effort to court evangelical voters ahead of Super Tuesday. Last week, he questioned Obama's spiritual beliefs.
"[Obama believes in] some phony ideal, some phony theology ... not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology," he said.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
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