A Young Gay Man's Guide to Living

alexorue: Openly Gay Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes Buys New...

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:36:49 -0400

Openly Gay Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes Buys New Republic

Because I’ve seen this all over the news, I thought I’d already posted it on my blog, but never really did. So here it is, just because it’s worth mentioning (Via Queerty):

Chris Hughes made his name in social media, but the 28-year-old gay co-founder of Facebook just jumped into the print game by purchasing a majority stake in the New Republic, according to the Washington Post.

Hughes introduced himself to readers of the venerable, left-leaning magazine in column published online today:

It seems that today too many media institutions chase superficial metrics of online virality at the expense of investing in rigorous reporting and analysis of the most important stories of our time. When few people are investing in media institutions with such bold aims as “enlightenment to the problems of the nation,” I believe we must.Many of us get our news from social networks, blogs, and daily aggregators. The web has introduced a competitive, and some might argue hostile, landscape for long, in-depth, resource-intensive journalism. But as we’ve seen with the rise of tablets and mobile reading devices, it is an ever-shifting landscape—one that I believe now offers opportunities to reinvigorate the forms of journalism that examine the challenges of our time in all their complexity. Although the method of delivery of important ideas has undergone drastic change over the past 15 years, the hunger for them has not dissipated.In the next era of The New Republic, we will aggressively adapt to the newest information technologies without sacrificing our commitment to serious journalism. We will look to tell the most important stories in politics and the arts and provide the type of rigorous analysis that The New Republic has been known for. We will ask pressing questions of our leaders, share groundbreaking new ideas, and shed new light on the state of politics and culture.

Hughes will serve as publisher and editor-in-chief of the 98-year-old magazine, which has been steadily losing readers and ad revenue. He told the New York Times, “Profit per se is not my motive… The reason I’m getting involved here is that I believe in the type of vigorous contextual journalism that we, as a society, need.”Sounds good, but we guess it’s pretty easy to poo-poo profit as a motive when you’re worth a cool $700 million.

Link to NOM's Talking Points

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 12:32:41 -0400

Link to NOM's Talking Points:

Ugh, just read through NOM’s talking points. Not one fact listed as to why LGBT shouldn’t marry. They say that same sex marriage would redefine marriage for everyone. Duh, redefine it to make it more inclusive! It seems that a group that has such reverence for marriage would want to spread the love around! What a hateful waste of these people lives!

Their main point is that marriage is for reproduction and that a gay couple can’t provide the dual gender role models that kids need. Of course, there is absolutely no evidence of this and all studies point to the OPPOSITE! LGBT parents are no worse or better than their hetero counterparts.

Maybe if we talk to these people more and show them the facts and who we are they might stop all this hateful crap?

alexorue: Obama Administration Says Defense Of Marriage Act...

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 12:30:06 -0400

alexorue:

Obama Administration Says Defense Of Marriage Act Is Unconstitutional

The Huffington Post reports:

In a strongly worded legal brief, the Obama administration has said the federal act that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman was motivated by hostility toward gays and lesbians and is unconstitutional.
The brief was filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco in support of a lesbian federal employee’s lawsuit claiming the government wrongly denied health coverage to her same-sex spouse.
The Justice Department says Karen Golinski’s suit should not be dismissed because the law under which her spouse was denied benefits – the Defense of Marriage Act – violates the constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.
“The official legislative record makes plain that DOMA Section 3 was motivated in large part by animus toward gay and lesbian individuals and their intimate relationships, and Congress identified no other interest that is materially advanced by Section 3,” the brief reads, referring to the section in the act that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.
Though the administration has previously said it will not defend the marriage act, the brief is the first court filing in which it urges the court to find the law unconstitutional, said Tobias Barrington Wolff, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
“This brief represents the concrete manifestation of a complete paradigm shift in the federal government’s position on anti-gay discrimination and the constitutional rights of married same-sex couples,” Wolff said in a phone interview Saturday.
The brief argues that gays and lesbians have been subject to a history of discrimination by federal, state and local governments and private parties. It also lays out the administration’s position that sexual orientation is an “immutable characteristic,” that gays and lesbians are minorities with limited political power and that sexual orientation has no bearing on someone’s ability to contribute to society and advances no legitimate policy interest.
“It’s quite powerful to have the administration saying in a court filing that this kind of discrimination should be viewed suspiciously,” said Tara Borelli, an attorney for Golinski.
Attorneys for a U.S. House of Representatives group that has stepped in to defend the marriage act’s constitutionality in the Golinski case did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In court filings, they have said that multiple courts have relied on Congress’s justifications for enacting the law to uphold its constitutionality.
Golinski is a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lawyer. She sued the U.S. Office of Personnel Management last year for not authorizing family health coverage for her same-sex spouse.
Her attorneys are now seeking summary judgment in her favor.

alexorue: MASSACHUSETTS: Nine Charged With Hate Crimes In...

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:33:49 -0400

alexorue:

MASSACHUSETTS: Nine Charged With Hate Crimes In Bashing Of Gay Man

Joe.My.God. reports:

Nine Springfield, Massachusetts youths have been charged with hate crimes in the beating of an openly gay man.

Sgt. John Delaney said the beating occurred shortly after 3 a.m. Tuesday as the 30-year-old victim walked down a Springfield street. Delaney said the victim told police he was then attacked by the suspects who knocked him to the ground, kicked him in the head and abdomen and punched him in the face with closed fists. He said the females in the group encouraged the males to beat up the victim and others yelled disparaging remarks about the victim’s sexual orientation during the attack.
MassLive.com has more.
The victim and the people accused of attacking him all live in the same neighborhood. While none of the suspects knew the victim by name, they were familiar with him from the neighborhood, police said. The victim told police that a group of youths inside Barrows Park yelled and asked him to come inside the park, said Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet. The victim kept walking and told police he was then attacked, knocked him to the ground, kicked him in the head and abdomen and punched him in the face with closed fists, Delaney said. “During the beating, the females encouraged the males to beat up the victim,” Delaney said. He said all yelled remarks disparaging about what they believed to be the victim’s sexual orientation.

The victim was released from the hospital after being treated for head trauma and facial lacerations.

Shay Andre Edwards

So much to Talk about!

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:22:16 -0400

Hello queens! So a lot has been going on for us in the past week and I’m afraid I’ve been preoccupied with work and haven’t been writing much. But here’s a recap

Gay marriage in NYC! Who knew? The marriage issue is a big one. Not only are the rights important for visiting sick partners, wills, and health insurance but I think it also helps gay people in NY feel safer. Now the real questions is, are we safer?

I bring up the safety issue as it’s a big one for me. I would like to get other people’s thoughts on this too. For me, the biggest problem I face as a gay man is the fear that if I hold my man’s hand, I will get gay bashed. One the one hand, I’ve been afraid of this my whole gay life so it’s kind of the norm for me. On the other hand, I’m adult man who is in love and shares my life with another man. We sleep together every night. We fold laundry, go out to eat, fight, have sex, watch movies, basically lots and lots of regular stuff. Therefore the thought that I could get beaten and maybe killed because I hold his hand on the way to dinner seems insane.

alexorue: Did Michele Bachmann’s Husband Turn You...

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:17:41 -0400

alexorue:

Did Michele Bachmann’s Husband Turn You Straight?

Dan Savage reports:

Truth Wins Out:

A national magazine reporter is looking for people who have been treated by Marcus Bachmann, the husband of Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn). Marcus has allegedly performed reparative therapy to “cure homosexuals in Minnesota. If you have suffered at the hands of this quack or feel he has “helped” you, please contact me ASAP at wbesen@truthwinsout.org.

Says two TWO commenters:
Wait….HER HUSBAND is an “ex Gay” “therapist”? REALLY? If he came across as any MORE of an old queen, HIS pic would be on British and Canadian money. My god, the irony.

Her husband is an “ex-gay” therapist, is he? Michele better watch her back; that type is the sort who sooner or later will be caught on his knees with his pants down around his ankles giving head to some rough trade in a men’s room somewhere. It is usually just a matter of time…

Matt Taibbi recounts the Michele and Marcus’s stranger-than-slash-fiction courtship in his must-read piece on Bachmann in this month’s Rolling Stone:
Young Michele found Jesus at age 16, not long before she went away to Winona State University and met a doltish, like-minded believer named Marcus Bachmann. After finishing college, the two committed young Christians moved to Oklahoma, where Michele entered one of the most ridiculous learning institutions in the Western Hemisphere, a sort of highway rest area with legal accreditation called the O.W. Coburn School of Law; Michele was a member of its inaugural class in 1979. Originally a division of Oral Roberts University, this august academy, dedicated to the teaching of “the law from a biblical worldview,” has gone through no fewer than three names — including the Christian Broadcasting Network School of Law….

When Bachmann finished her studies in Oklahoma, Marcus instructed her to do her postgraduate work in tax law—a command Michele took as divinely ordained. She would later profess to complete surprise at God’s choice for her field of study. “Tax law? I hate taxes,” she said. “Why should I go and do something like that?” Still, she sucked it up and did as she was told. “The Lord says: Be submissive, wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.”

Odd how Michele conflates God’s will with her husband’s will. So who’ll be running the country if Bachmann gets elected? The queen of the Tea Party? Or the old queen she married?

Gosh, this is juicy.

alexorue: Feds Drop Deportation Case For Gay Man Joe.My.God....

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:16:33 -0400

alexorue:

Feds Drop Deportation Case For Gay Man

Joe.My.God. reports:

In what the New York Times says may be a precedent-setting decision, the federal government has dropped its deportation case against a gay Venezuelan legally married to an American man.

The announcement comes as immigration officials put into effect new, more flexible guidelines governing the deferral and cancellation of deportations, particularly for immigrants with no serious criminal records. Immigration lawyers and gay rights advocates said the decision represented a significant shift in policy and could open the door to the cancellation of deportations for other immigrants in same-sex marriages. “This action shows that the government has not only the power but the inclination to do the right thing when it comes to protecting certain vulnerable populations from deportation,” said the couple’s lawyer, Lavi Soloway. The case has been closely watched across the country by lawyers and advocates who viewed it as a test of the federal government’s position on the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

Gay & Lesbians May Gain Right To Marry in NYC

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:48:40 -0400

I’ve been following today’s coverage on the Marriage Equality bill in the NY Senate. Last I checked we needed on more Republican to wake up and realize, like Ms Uma sayz, that Marriage is a conservative value. One of the main reasons that straight people still don’t seem to be able to think coherently about us gays is that we are still so invisible to them. They either see the random gay couple holding hands in public if they’re in NYC or SF. or maybe the chance upon us on TV, the movies, or if they accidentally watch some gay porn. That is why it is essential to be as open and honest with everyone you meet about your sexual orientation. It helps you too as it strips away the shame and negativity that has been brainwashed into us by straight society. Be Fearless!

alexorue: Uma Thurman for Marriage Equality in New York

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:40:44 -0400

alexorue:

Uma Thurman for Marriage Equality in New York

Somewhere in Saravejo

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 10:04:17 -0400

Somewhere in Saravejo

Walt Whitman "Song Of Myself

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 09:45:45 -0400

Walt Whitman "Song Of Myself:

A very long poem and probably not the best way to start off this blog but Walt Whitman is a super important Gay and we should know at least some of his work. I like the stanzas that talk about his lover in his lap touching his beard. Walt had a huge beard! Crazy!

My Gay Agenda

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:26:09 -0400

I’ve created this blog in order to reach out to my new gay brethren. To begin: you are not alone. You belong to a rich tradition of writers, presidents, warriors, drag queens, designers, athletes, dentists, tattoo artists, consultants, holy men, and so on ad infinitum. I am writing this to continue the battle against homophobia. Homophobia is a spiritual disease that allows straight people to feel superior to gay, trans, and bi people. It is disease that destroys not only the victim but also the host. I want to piece together everything I can on what it means to be gay. Please, if you have any suggestions for thing I should post, let me know!

A Young Gay Man's Guide to Living

alexorue: Openly Gay Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes Buys New...

Openly Gay Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes Buys New Republic

Link to NOM's Talking Points

alexorue: Obama Administration Says Defense Of Marriage Act...

Obama Administration Says Defense Of Marriage Act Is Unconstitutional

alexorue: MASSACHUSETTS: Nine Charged With Hate Crimes In...

MASSACHUSETTS: Nine Charged With Hate Crimes In Bashing Of Gay Man

So much to Talk about!

alexorue: Did Michele Bachmann’s Husband Turn You...

Did Michele Bachmann’s Husband Turn You Straight?

alexorue: Feds Drop Deportation Case For Gay Man Joe.My.God....

Feds Drop Deportation Case For Gay Man

Gay & Lesbians May Gain Right To Marry in NYC

alexorue: Uma Thurman for Marriage Equality in New York

Uma Thurman for Marriage Equality in New York

Somewhere in Saravejo

Walt Whitman "Song Of Myself

My Gay Agenda