When I first heard about the raid on the Rainbow Lounge I knew something was fishy. However, these comments from the Ft. Worth chief of police are unreal.

You’re touched and advanced in certain ways by people inside the bar, that’s offensive. I’m happy with the restraint used when they were contacted like that.”

OK. For starters, you call putting a man in a hospital with a brain injury “restraint?” Are you kidding me?

I’m not buying this “he groped me” bullshit. No one in his right mind is going to grope a cop checking IDs at a bar. So, either the cops are lying through their teeth or the guy was so completely inebriated he wasn’t in his right mind. Let’s assume just for a moment the latter was the case. How does that give anyone—much less cops who should be held to a higher standard as professionals—the right to assault the perpetrator?

This kind of behavior is indefensible. Period. The fact that some folk are still peddling the supposition that the unwelcome advances of a gay man are somehow worse than the unwelcome advances of a straight man and thus justify any retaliatory response not only shows where we have come from, but also how far we still have to go.

HT: Joe.My.God.

Whatever else he was, Michael Jackson will always be a tragic figure to me. Phenomenally talented and by all counts a sensitive soul, let us hope that whatever demons he wrestled have died with him.

Rest in peace, Michael.

Joe.My.God (re)posts his annual response to the hand-wringing that invariably follows Pride season. Folk with assimilationist tendencies fret about the “freak show” that can only hurt our chances to be accepted by society at large. Joe does an excellent job of responding to such impulses and I couldn’t agree more. I would only add that I say to them the same thing I say to Christian whack jobs who get their panties all in a knot about homosexuality: If you don’t think it’s “right” then don’t do it, but don’t you dare presume to tell anyone else they shouldn’t/can’t.

Oh, you could test run a “defective” free parade. You could form urban anti-tranny squads and go around to all the gayborhoods on the morning of the parade and give all the drag queens 50% off coupons for Loehmann’s, offer good during the parade only. And they’d GO, of course, cuz hey, those girls love a bargain. But the resultant bland, humorless, “normal” gay parade wouldn’t change the course of the gay movement one bit. The part of straight America that is repulsed by drag queens is quite possibly even more terrified by the so-called “normal” gays, because “those clever calculating creatures look JUST LIKE US, and can infiltrate and get access to our precious children. And that’s been their disgusting plan all along, of course.”

…I’m not worried what the outside world thinks about the drag queens, the topless bulldaggers, or the nearly naked leatherfolk. It’s OUR party, bitches. If you think that straight America would finally pull its homokinder to its star-spangled bosom once we put down that glitter gun, then you are seriously deluding yourself. Next year, if one of the Christian camera crews that show up to film our “debauched” celebrations happen to train their cameras on you, stop dancing. And start PRANCING.

Read the whole thing.

It was the most polite event I’ve been to since I can remember. But then I wasn’t a street preacher.

On the northwest corner, a couple of preachers were telling passersby they were going to hell, and in turn being told to “[deleted] off.”

The one with the “Homo Sex is Sin” sign was besieged by a dozen furious lesbians, a fact I deduced partly because of how they looked but mostly because they kept saying so at the top of their lungs.

The other preacher periodically held up two female ends of electrical cord and jammed them together to show, I guess, that the fit didn’t work.

Neither did the object lesson. For me, it begged all sorts of gospel imponderables about biblically approved amps, volts, etc. Is Heaven 220 or 110? Are power strips brothels or plural marriage?

Only Aussie Bum…

Wolfman

I saw Swan Lake at the Vienna Opera House when I was on my mission. I left somewhat underwhelmed and haven’t been really big on ballet ever since. Maybe it was because we were in the stehplaetze (standing places) and even with rails to lean on, three hours is a damn long time to be standing—they’re super cheap and in the old emperor’s box so the view of the stage is superb—or maybe it was because there were too many girls….

I think I could have stood and watched that for three hours. Perhaps I begin to understand why so many people gush about Swan Lake now.

I had a similar experience a while back with a movie called Another Gay Movie. I’ve tried watching similar adolescent hijinks movies and always found them boring and unfunny. I turned American Pie off after about 15 minutes. Another Gay Movie? As my little brother would say, “I was cramping.” Yes, it was adolescent. Yes, it was predictable, but I laughed out loud several times and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

A gay man (or woman) spends most of his (or her) life swimming against the hetero-current of society. When one occasionally finds a gay eddy in which to rest, it’s a wonderful respite.

HT: Alone and Unobserved

It’s funny. I was actually thinking about this very thing the other day. “Traditional” family values…well which tradition? As Betty points out, there are so many to choose from!

HT: Joe. My. God.

So I’ve seen Star Trek twice now. Loved it as much the second time as I did the first. I expect I’ll see it at least once more in the theaters, maybe twice depending on how long a run it has. The last time I had any desire to see a movie in the theater more than once was Star Wars, over 30 years ago. I don’t remember how many times I went back to the theater for that one. Around ten, I think.

Lord of the Rings came close, but while I certainly had no objections to seeing it more than once, I wasn’t making plans as such. I do have the extended versions of all three LOTR movies and I’ve watched them multiple times since. Once Star Trek has finished its run I will anxiously await its release on Blu-ray so I can do the same with it. Don’t expect me to be camping out in front of Best Buy so I can get one of the first copies, though. I’m not that bad.

I’m not sure I can even express why I loved it so much. No spoilers here, so don’t panic. (Though I can’t imagine any real Star Trek fan who hasn’t seen it yet.) Maybe it was the perfect balance of old and new: just enough melodrama and swagger to nod to the original series, but not so much that it was obnoxious or hokey; generous amounts of references to past episodes/movies, some which only die hard fans will catch, but some which even my girls recognized; and enough back story to make us make us feel like we’re finally getting to know the characters.

I’m not even really sure why I’ve been a Star Trek fan my whole life. Have you ever gone back to watch the original series? Ouch. Still, something about the story captured the imagination of a young kid and hasn’t let go. I’m sure it appealed to my latent sense of adventure, but I couldn’t tell you why Star Trek—of all the adventure stories out there—is the only one that has stood the test of time.

You have to give the folks at Paramount credit. It takes a lot of foresight and commitment to keep a series like this going. Just look at Star Wars. George killed it. I saw Episode III more out of obligation than anything else. I didn’t even bother with the last animation monstrosity. So hats off to you Paramount. Here’s hoping you can keep it up.

Apparently Republicans think if they thump the Bible long enough Jesus will appear and grant them three wishes. Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) has introduced a bill to name 2010 The Year of the Bible. Oh, but it gets even better.

‘This doesn’t have anything to do with Christianity,’ he said in an interview with POLITICO. Rather, he says, it seeks to recognize that the Bible played an integral role in the building of the United States, including providing the basis for our freedom of religion that allows Muslims, Hindus and even atheists to vocalize their own beliefs’ (Yahoo News).

<blink>

I’m not sure which is more mind boggling: that this yahoo thinks this is the kind of thing Congress should be spending time on, or that he actually believes that crap.

Once again, folks, the Founding Fathers were NOT Christian. Some were actually quite hostile toward Christianity. You want to know why? Because Christianity has a history of “my way or the highway.” Highway to Heaven that is. The sword usually figured in there somehow.

The Bible was used to justify colonialism. The Bible was used to frame poverty as an issue of moral fiber (or the lack thereof.) The Bible was used to justify slavery. The Bible was used to justify the persecution and slaughter of First Peoples. The Bible was used to justify the persecution and slaughter of early Mormons. The Bible is used to justify the continued marginalization of GLBT citizens and their relationships.

Oh, the Bible has played a large role in the history of our nation. That is true. Not sure that’s something to be proud of, though.

Mr. Gates, when did you realize you were creating a monopoly?”

“Monopoly is just a game, Senator. I’m trying to control the f***ing world. Don’t you see Windows Millenium, me, it’s all leading to information technology. Soon it will be Total Information Technology, TIT. And when you’re sucking on the TIT, I have you by the motherboard.”

A bit dated, but still relevant.