QBits

Yay! Now lets see what happens to the bill in Missouri…

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The so-called “Don’t Say Gay bill,” which perhaps brought more national attention for the Tennessee Legislature than any other piece of legislation, will not be put to a final vote needed for passage, the measure’s House sponsor said Sunday.

The decision by Rep. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, means that SB49 will die with the adjournment of the 107th General Assembly. Legislative leaders hope that will be today.

Hensley said the officials of the Department of Education and the state Board of Education have pledged to send a letter to all Tennessee schools “telling them they cannot teach this subject in grades kindergarten through eight.”

“With that assurance and the opposition of some people who didn’t want to vote on it, I’ve decided simply not to bring it up,” said Hensley.

The bill passed the Senate last year and recently won approval in modified form from the House Education Committee on an 8-7 vote. It needed only the approval of the Calendar Committee, usually a routine matter, to be set for a floor vote.

Hensley said nickname the bill received “really wasn’t what the bill was all about” and contributed to unease of some legislators in voting on the measure. He said the bill could be re-filed next year if there is any indication of “alternate lifestyles” being prompted in Tennessee schools despite the pending letter.

The operative language of the amended version says that in grades K-8 any such classroom instruction, course materials or other informational resources that are inconsistent with natural human reproduction shall be classified as inappropriate for the intended student audience and, therefore, shall be prohibited.”

Chants of ‘being indifferent is not indecent’ disrupted business at the 102-year old establishment

30 April 2012| By Jean Paul Zapata

Chelles restaurant in Costa Rica was told to ‘kiss customers goodbye’ yesterday (29 April) for discriminating against gays.

Over 100 protestors assembled to take issue with the bar in San José for throwing out a lesbian couple.

Anti-discrimination group Beso Diverso (Diverse Kiss) organized the protest to demand that Chelles bar publicly apologize for discriminating against the couple.

Chelles bar refused to served the lesbian couple and their friends last month after the lovers were seen kissing.

According to Yensy Torres , one of the women kicked out for kissing her partner, their waitress came to the table exclaiming that those types of kisses were not allowed in the venue.

Marjorie Blanco, of Chelles, later told media that the couple was sinning.

Paulina Torres, coordinator of Beso Diverso, explained that the objective of the protest was to promote respect toward people regardless of their sexuality.

Beso Diverso called for the restaurant to implement an official non-discrimination policy, but neither a policy nor an apology was given.

Former Board Member writes: ‘Ms. Tyrrell’s removal goes against my fundamental beliefs of how we should treat our fellow human being and is, in my opinion, wholly disriminatory’

Over a quarter million Americans sign Change.org petition calling on BSA to end ban on gay scouts and scout leaders

New York, NY, April 30, 2012 – GLAAD, the nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy and anti-defamation organization, today drew attention to the resignation of a member of the Board of Directors of the Ohio River Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) following the BSA’s decision to oust Jennifer Tyrrell, a mom from Bridgeport, Ohio, as her son’s scout leader because she is gay. The BSA currently bans LGBT scouts and scout leaders.

David J. Sims resigned from the Board on Friday, April 27 in a letter that cites his long history and support of scouting. He wrote:“Ms. Tyrrell’s removal goes against my fundamental beliefs of how we should treat our fellow human beings and is, in my opinion, wholly discriminatory. I understand that the Boys Scouts of America is free to run its organization as it sees fit, however, I cannot formally be a part of it based upon this policy.”


Over 250,000 Americans have joined Tyrrell’s Change.org petition calling on the BSA to end its history of discrimination.

Supporters can join Tyrrell’s call here: http://change.org/scouts. A video of Jen sharing her story at the GLAAD Media Awards is available here: http://youtube.com/glaad. Celebrities including Josh Hutcherson, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, as well as Glee stars Max Adler and Grant Gustin also showed support for Tyrrell and her family at the GLAAD Media Awards.

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Posted on April 30, 2012 

Tomorrow, Boston’s favorite same sex couple returns to the Boston Public Garden. Romeo & Juliet, the two graceful swans that make the pond in the Public Garden their home will be back on Tuesday, May 1st. Back in 2005 (just a year after same sex marriage was legalized in MA) it was learned that Romeo is in fact a female, which caused many conservatives who like to scream about how unnatural homosexuality is to cry foul (or was it fowl?)!

According to the zoo keepers who watch over the couple in the winter months, the two swans have been nesting together for approximately 10 years so if you should find yourself in Boston, head over to the Boston Public Gardens and congratulate the city’s favorite lesbians on their longevity together. I’m not sure what the divorce rate among swans is like but they’ve certainly outlasted many of their human counterparts.

Author, ‘Our Fathers, Ourselves. Daughters, Fathers, and the Changing American Family’

Posted: 04/30/2012 11:06 am

More than just about anything, Fiona’s boys hated having their nails trimmed. They were rough-and-tumble types, with a penchant for superheroes and playing with sticks. So Fiona came up with a diversionary tactic: nail polish. “At one point, both boys had toenails in every color I own—purple, gold, fire engine red, green,” she recalls. “It started out as a bribe, but it turned into a big treat… our little in-joke.”

A few years later, now in kindergarten, TJ, her older son, came home and told Fiona that the other boys in his class thought his painted fingernails were “weird.” Fiona told TJ that he could do whatever he liked, but that painting his nails was his own choice. Though TJ’s interests varied widely—he loved glittery objects, and carried around a tiny, sparkly dragon he bought from a street vendor in Chinatown—he was never a boy people would describe as “feminine.” He was a kid who wanted to tape sharpened sticks to his fingers so he’d have claws like the X-Men’s Wolverine. He was also a kid who wanted his nails painted green and purple from time to time.

Most days, TJ decided to limit the painting to his toenails only. That way, he told his mom, he could still enjoy the ritual but “the other boys won’t know.” One day, though, TJ came home and asked Fiona to paint his fingernails blue. He took some teasing for it at school, but this time around, he didn’t care. Later that week, they were shopping at the local market when the checkout guy remarked, “nice nails.” The guy had a black leather jacket, black nail polish and, recalls Fiona, “oozed cool.” TJ was visibly proud of himself for being so hip. “It really made his day,” she says. “He walked taller, spoke in a deeper voice, and acted cool for the rest of the afternoon.” All on his own, TJ had figured out something about identity, belonging, and what it means to be a man—and it had nothing to do with conforming on the playground.

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naturallybent:

-you can’t buy products with soy (including soy lecithin) or corn (including high fructose corn syrup in its many deliberately disguised names) without eating genetically mutilated organisms.  unless it is certified organic.  and the health problems associated with GMOs are clear and proven and ugly.  GMO producers are criminals against humanity and against nature and should be treated as such.  —naturallybent

——

Carolyn Lochhead

Monday, April 30, 2012

Washington — Biotechnology’s promise to feed the world did not anticipate “Trojan corn,” “super weeds” and the disappearance of monarch butterflies.

But in the Midwest and South - blanketed by more than 170 million acres of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton - an experiment begun in 1996 with approval of the first commercial genetically modified organisms is producing questionable results.

Those results include vast increases in herbicide use that have created impervious weeds now infesting millions of acres of cropland, while decimating other plants, such as milkweeds that sustain the monarch butterflies. Food manufacturers are worried that a new corn made for ethanol could damage an array of packaged food on supermarket shelves.

Some farm groups have joined environmentalists in an attempt to slow down approvals of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, as a newly engineered corn, resistant to another potent herbicide, stands on the brink of approval.

Vote on labels

In November, Californians are likely to vote on a ballot initiative to require labeling of genetically engineered foods, which backers of the measure say would give consumers a voice over the technology that they lack now.

The initiative is part of a nationwide drive to thwart the Obama administration’s expected clearance of a new genetically modified corn that could flood the nation’s cornfields with 2,4-D, a 1940s-era herbicide used mainly on lawns and golf courses to kill broadleaf weeds.

More than a million people have signed a petition to the Food and Drug Administration to require labeling of genetically engineered food. That is “more than twice the number who have ever commented on any food petition in the history of the FDA,” said Gary Hirshberg, chairman of organic yogurt maker Stonyfield and a leader of the “Just Label It” campaign.

The stakes on labeling such foods are huge. The crops are so widespread that an estimated 70 percent of U.S. processed foods contain engineered genes. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved more than 80 genetically engineered crops while denying none.

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Organisers of Tokyo Rainbow Pride say an April march will now be a firm fixture in the LGBT calendar

30 April 2012| By Anna Leach

Sunday’s Tokyo Rainbow Pride parade attracted 2,500 participants and 2,000 spectators.

After a difficult few years, and no Pride march at all in 2011, LGBT pride in Tokyo is back and the organisers promise that following this weekend’s success, Tokyo Rainbow Pride will be a annual event.

Spokesperson Lauren Anderson told Gay Star News: ‘Seeing same sex couples hold hands and hug in public was quite moving because you don’t ever really see that in Japan. The parade went completely smoothly and we were well looked after by the police.’

Speaker Taiga Ishikawa, one of the two first openly gay politicians to be elected in Japan, said that he is trying to bring LGBT rights to his district in north west Tokyo. The US Consul General of Osaka, Patrick Lineham talked about Hilary Clinton’s mission to show the world that LGBT rights are human rights.

According to AFP, Tokyo Rainbow Pride plan to expand to 50,000 participants in the parade in the next few years. Wataru Ishizaka, the other openly gay local politician to be elected, said that many Japanese LGBT people were still shy about openly revealing their identities. ‘Japanese sexual minorities are still concerned about their exposure to the public,’ he said.

See more photographs from the celebration here.

Dan Savage responds to the recent brouhaha over his comments on the bible and, rightfully I think, apologizes for name calling.

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I would like to apologize for describing that walk out as a pansy-assed move. I wasn’t calling the handful of students who left pansies (2800+ students, most of them Christian, stayed and listened), just the walk-out itself. But that’s a distinction without a difference—kinda like when religious conservatives tells their gay friends that they “love the sinner, hate the sin.” They’re often shocked when their gay friends get upset because, hey, they were making a distinction between the person (lovable!) and the person’s actions (not so much!). But gay people feel insulted by “love the sinner, hate the sin” because it is insulting. Likewise, my use of “pansy-assed” was insulting, it was name-calling, and it was wrong. And I apologize for saying it.

As for what I said about the Bible…

A smart Christian friend involved politics writes: “In America today you just can’t refer, even tangentially, to someone’s religion as ‘bullshit.’ You should apologize for using that word.”

I didn’t call anyone’s religion bullshit. I did say that there is bullshit—”untrue words or ideas“—in the Bible. That is being spun as an attack on Christianity. Which is bullshhh… which is untrue. I was not attacking the faith in which I was raised. I was attacking the argument that gay people must be discriminated against—and anti-bullying programs that address anti-gay bullying should be blocked (or exceptions should be made for bullying “motivated by faith”)—because it says right there in the Bible that being gay is wrong. Yet the same people who make that claim choose to ignore what the Bible has to say about a great deal else. I did not attack Christianity. I attacked hypocrisy. My remarks can only be read as an attack on all Christians if you believe that all Christians are hypocrites. Which I don’t believe.

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Always nice to see results of these studies in print.

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WHY are political and religious figures who campaign against gay rights so often implicated in sexual encounters with same-sex partners?

In recent years, Ted Haggard, an evangelical leader who preached that homosexuality was a sin, resigned after a scandal involving a former male prostitute; Larry Craig, a United States senator who opposed including sexual orientation in hate-crime legislation, was arrested on suspicion of lewd conduct in a men’s bathroom; and Glenn Murphy Jr., a leader of the Young Republican National Convention and an opponent of same-sex marriage, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge after being accused of sexually assaulting another man.

One theory is that homosexual urges, when repressed out of shame or fear, can be expressed as homophobia. Freud famously called this process a “reaction formation” — the angry battle against the outward symbol of feelings that are inwardly being stifled. Even Mr. Haggard seemed to endorse this idea when, apologizing after his scandal for his anti-gay rhetoric, he said, “I think I was partially so vehement because of my own war.”

It’s a compelling theory — and now there is scientific reason to believe it. In this month’s issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, we and our fellow researchers provide empirical evidence that homophobia can result, at least in part, from the suppression of same-sex desire.

Our paper describes six studies conducted in the United States and Germany involving 784 university students. Participants rated their sexual orientation on a 10-point scale, ranging from gay to straight. Then they took a computer-administered test designed to measure their implicit sexual orientation. In the test, the participants were shown images and words indicative of hetero- and homosexuality (pictures of same-sex and straight couples, words like “homosexual” and “gay”) and were asked to sort them into the appropriate category, gay or straight, as quickly as possible. The computer measured their reaction times.

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Unfounded rumours of a bad tsunami on Saturday 28 scared away supporters of Pride march on Thai island of Phuket

30 April 2012| By Anna Leach

A tsunami warning that threatened to engulf the whole of Phuket island in Thailand drastically diminished crowds at this weekend’s Pride march.

One of the organisers, Rob Vermeer, told Gay Star News: ‘The rumour was that there’d be a tsunami that would swallow up not just the coastline but the whole of Phuket. Thais are very superstitious and easily believe things like that. Some Thais came, but quite a few staff and boys were ordered back home by their mothers. In Thai culture if mother says you jump, you jump. So a lot of boys just simply left because of that.’

Despite the rumours, there wasn’t a drop of water out of place at the Pride march on Saturday, but even though it was a beautifully sunny day the beaches were empty. 

‘We hoped we’d get 20,000 watching the parade, but it was more like 7,000-10,000 because of the stupid rumour. It was disappointing,’ said Vermeer, who owns Backstage bar in Patong town.

The Mayor of Patong gave a speech on Friday night, welcoming Phuket Pride into the public domain, after being held in the gay bars area of town in previous years. And Mr Gay World 2011, Francois Nel, MCed Friday’s concert.

Although the numbers he expected didn’t turn out for the parade, Vermeer said that the festival will be deemed a great success if it encourages his Thai counterparts to get more involved in the festival next year. ‘If we can get the Thais onboard, actively involved and going for it then we would count that as a very big success, and the first signs are positive,’ he said.

Phuket Pride will be back in 2013, from Monday 22 to Saturday 27 April.

As someone whose given name is my second name, I was always called by my first name when the class list was read out at the start of a school year but my teachers were always good to note the name I went by and use it thereafter. What I  found more frustrating was trying to deal with the bureaucracy to have documents reflect my ‘real’ name rather than what the institution presumed my name to be. To me, it seems a simple solution is to let students choose the name they want to appear on class lists, ID cards, etc. If the institution’s software cannot deal with multiple names, then they need new software, it is not the student’s problem.  This also holds true for many international students whose names do not conform to Western nomenclature of first name, middle initial, surname. None of this, however, compares to insult to trans* students whose entire identity is being erased. At least some of these Canadian schools are attempting to address their bureaucratic shortcomings.

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Jacques Gallant / National / Friday, April 27, 2012

Ben Boudreau would simply like to have his professors call him by his name, but this is proving to be far more difficult than he envisioned.

Boudreau is a transgender student at Montreal’s Concordia University. He’s been fighting with the registrar’s office and ombudsperson there to have his preferred name used on official university documents.

For now, the legal name he is trying hard to distance himself from still appears on his transcript and on attendance sheets distributed to his professors.

The second-year sciences student was recently offered a compromise by the university. He was told his legal name would have to remain on official documents, but the registrar would contact Boudreau’s professors to explain his situation, so they would not call out his legal name in class. They also told him they would print the letter “B” next to his legal name on his student ID card.

Ben Boudreau has been trying to get Concordia University to use his chosen name on all official documents.

(Sophia Loffreda)

“The thing with the card was useless, because my legal name is still on it, and as for the registrar, I’m not sure if they ever followed up with all of my professors, because there are still slip-ups in class,” Boudreau says, noting that it takes time for a legal name change to be processed. This is why he is trying to get Concordia to modify its policy on preferred names.

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