>The Gay News

>We’ve got a bit of a mixed bag for you today. Some of the news is good, some great, some annoying, and some downright disgusting–that would be you, Governor–and some wonderful insights into what marriage is and isn’t, was and was not, and will be.

Cynthia Stewart is a high school junior in Russellville, Alabama, and like any other high school girl, she is excited for prom. She joined the prom committee, and came up with the theme for the dance; she even raised money to fund the prom. But she probably won’t be going.
Cynthia Stewart is a Lesbian, and she asked the principal of her school if she could bring her girlfriend to the prom. He said, No; and the he asked that she remove a button she was wearing that said, “I am a lesbian,” telling her, “You don’t have that much freedom of speech at school.”
When Cynthia, her aunt, and her guardian asked again if she might bring her girlfriend to the prom the principal said that the prom would be cancelled. See, in Alabama, you can’t have Lesbians at proms, even if they’re on the committee, created the theme and raised money for it.
No Lesbians.
The ACLU is now getting involved.
The story is HERE.

Whatever you do, if you’re gay and partnered, don’t die in Rhode Island.
Rhode Island Governor Carcieri, who obviously is against marriage equality, has vetoed a bill that would have added “domestic partners” to the list of people authorized by law to make funeral arrangements for each other.
In other words, gay couples in Rhode island now have no legal right to carry out their loved ones wishes. In his veto message, Asshat Republican Carcieri said: “This bill represents a disturbing trend over the past few years of the incremental erosion of the principles surrounding traditional marriage, which is not the preferred way to approach this issue.
Carcieri, speaking quite clearly for a man who has placed his head deep into the recesses of his ass, also believes that allowing the decisions of a “partner”–gotta love the quotes on that one–would take precedence over “traditional family members.” See, in the mind of this particular fucktard, gay men and women in committed relationships have no rights whatsoever.
So, remember, if you live in Rhode Island and are gay, make arrangements to die somewhere else.
The story is HERE.

And now, for some good news:

Sweden’s Lutheran church announced it had ordained its first openly gay bishop, just two weeks after it gave priests the right to wed same-sex couples.
Eva Brunne, who lives in a “registered partnership” with another woman, was ordained as bishop of Stockholm’s diocese in a ceremony this past Sunday. Eva and her partner also have a child together.
Brunne, elected as bishop last May, though not officially ordained until Sunday, said she hadn’t encountered much resistance within the church because of her sexual orientation. The Church of Sweden has become more open toward sexual minorities in recent years, even voting in favor of allowing priests to wed same-sex couples in church ceremonies.
The story is HERE.

Asheville, North Carolina, is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. it’s urban, it’s rural, it’s trendy, yet funky; it gets snow, it has warm summers. And it’s absolutely breathtaking, from the Biltmore Estate to the Grove Park Inn and everywhere in between.
Now, it may become even more gorgeous. With the election of three new City Council members, Asheville will consider extending benefits to same-sex partners of city employees. Councilman-elect Gordon Smith says he will make that issue one of his first priorities.
And he isn’t the only one. A majority of incoming, and sitting, council members also believe that one of their primary focuses this year will be providing benefits like health insurance and bereavement leave to partners of gay employees in committed relationships.
Asheville hopes to follow the lead set by Durham, North Carolina, where committed partners of homosexual and heterosexual city employees get benefits, including, health, dental, vision, bereavement and auto, home and life insurance coverage.
Like I said, it’s beautiful there.
The story is HERE.

Now, this is the part of the ISBL Gay News Report where I climb on my soapbox and prattle on endlessly about something or other. But then I heard Dan Savage’s take on the Institution of Marriage. He sums it up brilliantly.

Take it away, Dan….

>Ending The Silence

> I think one of the greatest causalities of being gay are those men and women, so afraid of accepting who they are, so fearful of what their friends and families might say, so ashamed at being gay because of the religious upbringing, that they shove themselves to a deep dark corner of the closet and stay there. And then they get married to prove to themselves and the world that they are “normal.”

But what of the unsuspecting spouses who marry these deeply closeted gay men and women. What must they go through in dealing with a spouse whose secret is revealed? How must they feel about love, what it is and what it means, if the one person you chose to love “until death us do part” tells you that he or she is gay?

If anyone could have talked himself out of being gay, Kimberly Brooks said, it was her husband.
He wanted to be straight; she wanted him to be straight. She once followed his gaze across the beach to another man but quickly dismissed the thought. No, he couldn’t be. Then he started spending more time with one particular friend, and an unease pushed Brooks to ask the question that ultimately confirmed her fears: Was that friend gay?
“He said, ‘I don’t know.’ And in that moment, I knew,” said Brooks, who is a therapist in Falls Church. “That day, the marriage was over.”

Many of these former spouses are speaking out now, in favor of marriage equality, after living lives married to closeted men and women. They understand, first-hand, loving someone who isn’t true to themselves, and, as men and women who endured these “marriages of convenience” they are now showing their support because, as they will tell you, marriage equality will not only help the LGBT community, but also heterosexuals. If homosexuality was more accepted, they say, they might have been spared doomed marriages followed by years of self-doubt.

Carolyn Sega Lowengart calls it “retroactive humiliation.” It’s that embarrassment that washes over her when she looks back at photographs or is struck by a memory and wonders what, if anything, from that time was real. Did he ever love her?
“I’m 61 years old,” said Lowengart, who lives in Chevy Chase. “Will I ever know what it’s like to be loved passionately? Probably not.”
She gave her husband 31 years, just a little less than she gave the State Department. Because of her job, she bought a home computer, and on that computer she got the first hints that her husband was gay. Once, she said, she glimpsed gay pornography on the screen; another time, she found a printout of an e-mail about a rendezvous.
In 2002, she said, she asked her husband for the truth. He told her. They separated that year.
“I said, ‘When did you know?’ ” Lowengart recalled. “He said, ‘When I was a teenager.’ I said, ‘Why did you marry me?’ He said, ‘Because I didn’t want to be.’ ”

Such shame many gay men and women feel for being who they are, and how can we expect them to feel any different? Sure, a lot of us are open and out there, because we struggled with that decision and made the conscious choice of coming out. But what about those who feel such fear and shame at simply being themselves that they can never tell anyone; that they marry and live a life of lies and deceit because they cannot love the person they believe they should?

He was her first love and promised to be her last, Joy Parker said. They had met in high school but had lost touch for decades, until she received a message from him through Classmates.com. It came a day after she’d been looking nostalgically at prom photos of the two of them.
“It was like we were meant to be together,” Parker said. In 2004, at 43, she traveled across the country, from California to Virginia, to move in with him. By the end of that year, they were married. “He seemed like the perfect husband, buying flowers, gifts.”
Then, as she tells it, came the night she decided to check her husband’s voice mail. “There were two messages from a guy calling him ‘Baby’ and telling him how good he looked,” Parker said. She says she woke him up to confront him. “His eyes got huge, and he said, ‘You’re going to try to destroy me.’ I said: “Destroy you? What about me?’ ”

Now, these men and women are sharing their stories, and making us all aware of how and why things need to change. imagine growing up in a world as a young gay man or woman and knowing you could marry the person of your choice; knowing you could live anywhere,m work anywhere, be anything, without fear of recrimination. Imagine knowing that if your spouse was hospitalized you wouldn’t need a briefcase of documents just to visit him or her in the hospital, that you would be updated on the condition of your loved one, that you could simply visit them in their room. Imagine a world where you don’t need lawyers and living wills just to make sure your wishes are carried out upon your death. Imagine a world where the government benefits, the rights and privileges guaranteed every American are given to every American; that no one feels left behind, or less than.

Imagine that.

Now, imagine growing up knowing that none of that is true everywhere in the United Sates. Imagine growing up knowing that you will be taunted and picked on and, perhaps, battered, for being who you are. Imagine a church leader telling you that you will go to Hell for being yourself. Imagine getting fired because someone talked; imagine getting evicted because of neighborhood gossip over who came to your house late last night. That’s how, and why, many gay men and women, lie to themselves, and find themselves married to the wrong gender. They cannot imagine any other life.

Now imagine you are the unsuspecting spouse of that closeted man or woman. You meet, and fall in love, and choose to spend your life together. But then there are signals and signs that maybe your husband or wife isn’t exactly what you thought. And there is a confrontation and an accusation and an admission. What would you do? Hold on to that anger? Feel betrayed or tricked? Or would you feel compassion for the spouse that saw no other option than to live a lie? and then, would you speak out for marriage equality? Would you realize that, had society been more open and understanding of what it is to be gay, what it means to be gay, that perhaps this might never have happened to you?

They are the silent victims of homophobia and discrimination and self-loathing, but many of them are speaking up, and many of them are on our side ion the fight for equality.

Imagine that.

The story is HERE

>Paris Hilton Is Suing Mad

>

And, No, she isn’t suing me, although I think she’d like to get a chance to bitch-slap me. Paris Hilton is suing a billboard company because they are using her face to advertise billboard space.

It looks like this:

Now, is this the only way Paris can make money? I mean, the movie career was so bad it didn’t even do the Direct To DVD route and instead went the Direct To Recycling Bin path. And the music career? Yeah, don’t make me laugh.

So, she has to sue to get money these days. But therein lies the rub. As the plaintiff in a lawsuit she and she alone has the burden of proof. So……….prove the sign wrong Paris. I’ll wait.

:::check watch:::

::::tap tap tap:::

:::cough cough:::

:::la la la::::

Didn’t think so.

>Thank You……..

>

Happy Veterans Day to all those men and women who gave their all, and sometimes even their lives, for their country and for us.