in Other news…

Welcome to a weekly roundup of news related to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and otherwise “other” community.

• The Obama/McClurkin flak has dominated LGBT news recently, and the emnity that it’s created has made me wary of diving in further.  However, it’s worth reading this first-hand account at Adam McEwen’s blog, a powerful statement about the ruinous effects of religious-based homophobia:
  

  For every so-called religious statement coming from her mouth, I could hear closet door after closet door slamming shut.

  I could see even more black gay men (many of them married) trolling down the streets in the darkness of the night looking for a physical fix because they have been bamboozled to think that a quick thrust in the dark is all they deserve as gay men.

  I could see more black women assembling themselves in “down low spotter groups” and doing inane things like checking their men’s underwear for blood.

  And I see the HIV/AIDS rate in the African-American community going sky high.

  However, before anyone makes a narrow comment about homophobia in the black community, it’s worth noting that yet another (white) Republican has been caught in yet another gay sex scandal: this time in Washington State.  I don’t fully buy the old saw that the most vocally homophobic are also suppressing homosexual desires, but they’re making it hard not to expect that state legislators who voted consistently against rights and protections in the gay community might turn out to be cross-dressing fetishists with families at home and young men in the hotel room.  Sadly Rep. Curtis has had no problem making life miserable for other cross-dressing fetishists while enjoying the same extracurricular activities he believes are discrimination-worthy.  For other people, of course.  Dan Savage has more.

  Of course this issue isn’t limited to the black or white communities.  Welcome recent addition to the list, Andrew Quah, a conservative Australian politician (now ex-politician) whose nude photographs on gay sites must have gotten there through the most obvious channel: “my political enemies might have drugged me.”  Mr. Quah might consider a new career in stand-up: that is comedy gold.

More news below…

• Since the Ex-Gay phenomenon has been in the news quite a bit this week, it’s worth checking out Daniel Gonzales’ series on Love Won Out, an evangelical ministry to help those poor homosexuals.  Unlike what scientists, sociologists, and people with common sense are saying, the head of Love Won Out knows exactly where deviant sexuality begins:
  

  We advise fathers: if you don’t hug your sons, some other man will.

  Corollary: if you don’t perform fellatio on your sons, some other man will.  That’s how the logic works, right?

• Given the sophistication of bigoted rhetoric we’ve come to expect in a post-political correctness world, seeing something like this is almost nostalgia-inducing.  Kudos to New Jersey Republican Bobby Bryant, whose campaign fund went towards a quaint newspaper ad that could have been written in the 1950s.
• The butchered ENDA does not seem to be on the Congressional calendar anytime soon, but in meantime you should check out Jared Polis’ essay on transgender inclusion that appeared earlier this week on Daily Kos.  Polis is an openly gay politician running for the Colorado State Legislature (website).
  

  Why are we even having this discussion? When Colorado passed a statewide ENDA last session, it included gender identity without a murmur. Specifically, our Colorado Senate Bill 25 defined sexual orientation as “a person’s actual or perceived orientation toward heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgender status.” Some legislators supported it and some opposed it, but none cited the gender identity issue as the reason for their opposition

That’s all for today, folks.  Sorry about my relative non-participation lately, but for those of us on the academic job market, this month is brutally busy.  All our applications for jobs next fall are due now, and they’re time-consuming, punishing, and more often than not a waste of time.  Hoorah! 

At any rate I should be done soon and participating back at my usual rate.