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AfterElton Briefs: A gay book wins the Stoker, Dolly remembers Michael and what does tennis smell like?
One smells like emergency room... Following this assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.
Two Chris's with big foreheads and perfect eyebrows. But which is which?
Submitted by on Tue, 2009-06-30 19:07. |
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President Obama yada yada yada......
Time for him to stop talking and put into action. Symbolism aint worth a dime coming from his presidency. Campaining is over. If he can't do it in his first four years, don't even think about next four years!!
Obama
OK, so maybe it's not my place to say this, but I think Obama should be applauded, not criticised. I actually started clapping when I saw the news brief on DADT.
I understand that people want action, but things don't happen that fast, and he is doing WAY more than any other president just by stating so clearly his support of the LGBT community. His commemoration of Stonewall, and all the things that he is pledging to do would NEVER have happened under Bush. Yes, it sucks that he is upholding DOMA, but I can respect that he is just doing that until he can change the law.
I wish my Prime Minister could learn from Obama. First thing Harper did for the LGBT community? Tried to reverse our legalization of gay marriage.
So let's give praise where it is due, and save criticisms for farther into Obama's term.
You too can be saved by the blog! www.savedbytheblog14.blogspot.com
I may be straight, but I'm not narrow.
This is not about comparing the head of states.
Yeah, I was in the parade
Yeah, I was in the parade myself, and I am certainly proud of my country, don't get me wrong. But so far Obama has been more vocal about his support than Harper ever has been. I'll criticize Obama if by the end of his term he has failed to do anything.
You too can be saved by the blog! www.savedbytheblog14.blogspot.com
I may be straight, but I'm not narrow.
Maybe he's smarter than us
Y'know, it might not be a pack of crap that Obama is trying to get DADT repealed through Congress (instead of by executive order) so it will have more lasting effect. And if you stop to think about it, he has a shitstorm on his hands trying to finesse finance reform, healthcare, and energy right now, and if he has to choose between addressing our issues now (which would likely alienate half the conservative senators he needs to get the heavy lifting passed) or addressing our issues AFTER the heavy lifting (when he can tell the non-human-rights-minded to go shove it)...well, I'd like to be a homo-with-equal-rights in a country with decent healthcare and a hope for the future of the economy and the planet, rather than get those rights right now in lieu of the other stuff.
Obviously, I don't know conclusively that that's what Obama is strategizing. But read some of Tony Kushner's thoughts on the man. He, like me, has no doubt that Obama is fully supportive of our full rights. It's our fault we didn't meet the challenge of defeating Prop. 8, not Obama's. Maybe he has a more successful approach to conquering the knuckle-scrapers that still hold so much sway in this beloved country.
Leave Obama Alone!
Why are you expecting him to just drop every other problem facing this country just so he can kowtow to the demands by certain members of the LGBTQ community to solve our issues?
Yes,he made promises to end DADT,enforce ENDA,etc. but there are other issues he has to deal with. He's one man with two arms,two legs and big problems on his hands(Thank you,Dubya!) He can only do so much. We should give him space and let the guy do his job and quit bitching about why he hasn't done this or why he's done this instead of this We,the gay community,are not in charge. He is.
He'll get to us,just step back and enjoy just being alive instead of stressing about things we can't control.
Ok,flame on.
He's not Britney Spears dear
"are you expecting him to just drop every other problem facing this country just so he can kowtow to the demands by certain members of the LGBTQ community to solve our issues?"
Yes.
Mon point de vue
Well, correct me if I'm wrong, (I'm in Europe), but it seems to me that Obama is decided to do a lot : closing Guantanamo in the first days of his presidency was highly symbolical, if not rushed. Also, pertaining to some remarks he made while in Europe (regarding Turkey's entrance in the EU), he's not above pissing people off.
So then someone has to explain to me why he isn't doing more for gays. Why his actions go against his words. Repelling Don't Ask don't tell is more complicated than closing Guantanamo? I understand that the LGBT community in the US is pissed off. You have elected the president of hope and you are still waiting for the miracle to happen.
I agree that he has a lot on his plate right now, but...
I'm still not sure what his real stance is on GLBT-issues. He just seems to dodge the issues for the moment, trying to placate everyone but not doing anything, 'pappen en nathouden' as we would say in Dutch. And in a way I can understand that (the cold realities of politics), but it also feels cowardly to me, because we're talking about civil rights and Obama has been talking about the USA and all it's fundamental principles that the country should hold as its benchmark.
I'm trying out this blogthing: http://vladivos.wordpress.com/
"The President of Hope"?
Dude, are you serious?
Obama is a politician, no better than any other. Sure he reads a teleprompter better than Bush did, but overall he's not that different. For all his talk of "change" his administration is loaded down with former Clinton people. He's also leaned heavily on people out of Illinois politics and his alma mater Harvard. His chief of staff used to be one of the meanest sharks in Congress.
The idealism is mostly for show. The reality is pragmatic politics all-around.
From a LGBT perspective the anger towards Obama is understandable for many reasons:
1) He's been more aggressive in reaching out to religious conservatives than he has to the LGBT community, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the fact that they largely opposed his election whereas we supported it.
2) Despite his bold talk of being a "fierce advocate" of LGBT equality he has in fact backpeddled. For example, during his time in the Illinois state legislature he claimed to support the idea of same-sex marriage, an opinion he has since publicly changed to saying that he opposes same-sex marriage but supports civil unions (separate-but-kind-of-equal).
3) His Department of Justice is not only actively fighting court challenges to laws like DOMA, which he claims are discriminatory, but they are doing so vigorously and using legal language that contends that DOMA is not only valid because Congress passed it, but because it is morally valid as well! Obama has opted to not apologize for this and in fact sent his PR minion out to say he fully supports it.
4) On the issue of gays in the military and DADT, Obama is again being disingenuous. He could put a stop to the discharges, at least temporarily, via an executive order under the argument that we are in a time of war, which he says we are. But he will not do this. He also refuses to acknowledge the existence of a bill sitting stalled in Congress that would repeal DADT. The fact that the bill exists and he's not pushing Pelosi and Reid to get it to his desk sends a message that he doesn't really want to sign it. Furthermore, as with DOMA, his DoJ is under clear orders to defend it against any legal challenges.
5) Obama has been very aggressive in courting other minority groups. A great many of his Cabinet appointments were blatantly targeted as appeasements for various groups (including even Republicans!). But not one single gay or lesbian was nominated to his Cabinet. In a clear message of how he perceives our community he opted not to appease us as he did others, and made a few lower-level appointments instead.
These are only the major grievances. There's plenty more where these came from. So I think it's understandable as to why we're feeling unhappy with him.
Keep in mind, we've been here before. Bill Clinton got us all excited with his grand campaign promises. But two of the laws that we are fighting against right now, DADT and DOMA, bear his signature. We've had a "President of Hope" in the past and it didn't turn out so well.
So what we really want is action. Obama could explicitly push for the bill to repeal DADT to get moving again in Congress, but he always stops short of doing so, arguing that there are "issues" with some people in the military (who should, in theory, have to bow to the will of the President and Congress). He acknowledges that DOMA is wrong, but again stops short of pushing a bill into Congress. Mind you he's pushing bills into Congress on every other topic under the sun.
Mostly what he's saying is "wait". He's setting no timelines. He's making no tangible commitments. He's actually able to look a soon-to-be-discharged military officer in the face and claim he can do nothing.
I think we have just cause to be annoyed. Especially when the Latino community was pissed that he offered "only" three Cabinet posts to Latino nominees. In contrast to many other interest groups we've had the patience of saints!
Words
I am tired of his excuse of legislation is in the hands of the Congress and not his. If that is the truth, than he should be exercising "change" by symbolically doing things to show his support for "change" (gasp!). Attend a gay wedding. Invite every DADT person discharged to the White House for a thank you or better yet defy the statute and force an issue. Why not call for a town hall or meeting with gay adoptive parents? The President is the President and he can do many things at the same time. It's why we hired him.
After personally hearing OPM Director John Barry speak yesterday I feel like we do have someone in the government with Obama's ear, its just that others who have Obama's other ear are saying to wait sadly. Kudos to Hillary though for taking on the State Dept issues.
I agree. He's passing the
Thanks, Michael
Thanks for telling your readers about the Unsepeakable Horror anthology! I really appreciate it!
Cheers,
Chad
chadhelder.com
Enough with the "Other Minority Groups" Crap
OFFENSE TAKEN!
The juxtaposition of "Other Minority Groups" versus "Gays" only works if you think all gays are white and male and gentile (particularly if you are talking about protected classes of people).
It is a narrow-minded, archaic, and magical thinking view of the world and I don't know why people are allowed to get away with it in 2009.
Anything that affects "The Gay Community" affects "Other Minority Groups". Always and forever, inextricably.
Gay people who identify as "white" or "not an ethnic minority" may not think the numbers of non-white gay people are significant enough to be considered when discussing or envisioning "The Gay Community" and that is to the detriment of any political efforts on the part of gay rights.
The fact that Gays also happen to be part of "Other Minority Groups" is what SHOULD make "The Gay Community" more powerful and far reaching politically and yet people still talk about "The Gay Community" as if it was not muliticultural.
I find it offensive to continually talk about what Obama is supposedly doing for "The Latinos" and " The Asians" as if there are no gay and lesbian Lations and Asians.
Yes, you have to say it. You have to be overt in acknowleding that you know that gay people are not only white. It is that important.
Ask "THE LATINOS" how happy they are with Obama and I bet they'll have a "what's wrong with Obama" list as long if not longer than "The Gay Community"
My "US" vis a vis The Gay Community is very, very much Latino, Black, Asian, et al.
Even if everybody in the room is white, we cannot afford to talk about "The Gay Community" as if it was some separate homogenous bastian of whiteness free from the complication of including "Other Minority Groups"
The real "Other" group we need to worry about being a danger to "The Gay Community" is not "The Latinos" or "The Asians" or "The Blacks".
It's "The Christian Right's" inter-denominational, all-generational, cross-cultural, multi-lingual hold on the minds of American People.
I don't mean every person is is Christian. Being Christian does not make you homophobic or sexist. You have to chose to put your "Christianity" to the purpose and many fundamentalist have done so.
"The Christian Right" and it's fundamentalist offshoots is the only identifiable group that has ever targeted "The Gay Community" as a whole just because we exist and just because it can.
The financial power base and public face of "The Christian Right" is not that of "Other Minority Groups" (though it's masses may be)
Obama had created the will by putting the intention out there, we have to be the ones to make the way.
We won't do it by being Veruka Salt about it.
"That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment." (Bayard Rustin) ** "Heterosexuality is not normal, it's just common" (Dorothy Parker)
You're pretty much alone in thinking that way
And when I say that I include in the thinking the "other groups" in question.
It's naive to pretend that identity politics doesn't play a massive role in America today. So if you want to LGBT community to rise above that we would basically be doing so alone.
Latino activist groups in particular were extremely strident in insisting that Obama make numerous appointments to members of their community and quite frankly were pretty clear that they considered "only" three Cabinet nominations (one of which, Bill Richardson, had to pass on) as "adequate" at best. The nomination of Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has helpled mollify them somewhat.
The African-American community, which still sees itself as an activist bloc even today, was likewise both happy to have a black president but also clear that they wanted to see him take interest in the affairs impacting their community.
Other groups such as Evangelical Christians, to Jews, to Muslims, to Catholics, etc, many of which have nothing to do with racial identity nonetheless form political blocs, often by their own initiative, or at least under the initiative of their community leaders (such as clergy).
So while the LGBT community may span races and religions we nonetheless form a "group" by virtue of being subject to laws specifically aimed at restricting our rights. A Christian Latino Lesbian is denied same-sex marriage the same as a White, Agnostic Gay Man. So incidental membership in another group does not change the discrimination that we face.
Nor does it change some of the other problems that we face politically. For example, the chronic lack of LGBT people in political office has a definite impact on our political efforts. You can trot out the argument that "what effects one minority groups effects all of them" in principle but in practice most groups look out primarily for their own interests. So needless to say that also plays into, for example, our inability to move legislation through Congress.
This is not to say that I'm happy about this state of affairs. I'd love to believe the "we're all one" sort of ideal. But statistics show otherwise. For example, resistance to marriage equality is markedly higher in certain minority groups like blacks and latinos, typically due to religious conservativism being strong within those communities. In many cases they do not see the denial of our rights as a denial of their own.
So it's kind of pointless to pretend that identity politics don't matter. They matter to everyone.
My grandma always said, "Worry more about what YOU'RE doing..."
My response is based on my cumulative observation of your perspective. You don't seem to miss an opportunity to communicate your fears about "The Latinos" and "Other Minority Group" and what you think “they” might get from Obama at what you seem to think is the expense of “The Gay Community”.
The language you use is not "realistic" it is archaic and defensive and divisive. It is no different than Gene Simmons saying "The reality is that the world is homophobic so Adam Lambert (and by extention all gay celebrities) shouldn't talk about being gay" It is fear mongering. It reeks of contempt for "Other Minority Groups".
It is not only offensive, it is politically counterproductive.
I don't know if folks were as worried about what "The Latinos" and "The African Americans" were going to get when the president wasn't a person of color but that fear definitely has raised it's ugly head since he was elected and Prop 8 Passed.
I live in a diverse, urban world but I have traveled all over this country and I have friends, family and ex-lovers far and wide of every stripe.
I've been an out gay political activist my entire adult life so that's a good 26 plus years of working for social change. I actually know for a fact that I'm not the only person who knows what I know or thinks the way I do about politics.
Maybe I am in the minority on this site but it doesn't mean I'm going to hush up.
All politics is identity based it's just that some identies ping people's radar more than others. Being a Republican is an identity with which some are as strongly identified as with being Muslim or from Arkansas.
To Quote You "A Christian Latino Lesbian is denied same-sex marriage the same as a White, Agnostic Gay Man. So incidental membership in another group does not change the discrimination that we face." Unquote
It is not incidental to the Latina lesbian that she is Latina (particularly in the United States where she is often discriminated based upon being both things).
We who are gay and also members of "Other Minority Groups" don't have the choice of deciding which of the ways in which we are discriminated against is most important.
We do, however have the power to bridge each of those battles which should be treated as an asset by The Gay Community, not a distraction.
Who says those "Other Minority Groups" are going to get what they want just because they ask for it. Is there some secret "Promise to Latinos" to go along with "The Jewish Conspiracy" and "The Gay Agenda"?
And since it's a competition, if a Jewish, Latina Lesbian gets appointed to the Supreme Court, whose secret or not-so-secret agenda wins the day?
For many gay people, our experience of being gay or lesbian is inextricably linked to the fact that we are also Jewish, Latino, Black or Christian even if we don't talk about it all the time.
At the end of the day, we have to look in our own backyards for the reasons why we The Gay Community aren't getting what we want from this administration or our on local government entities.
The question isn't "What are THE LATINOS doing to bend Obama or any other president's ear to "their" cause" ? (as if their is some monolithic LATINO cause)
The question for The Gay Commuinty should always be, "What are we doing to bend Obama (or whomever THE PRESIDENT is) to our cause?" This has nothing to do with competing with or hating on or creating conflict with "The Latinos" or "The Jews" (who also happen to be gay) because we cannot control what "they" do.
It is lazy and self-indulgent politics to spend any of our time worried about whether or not some "other" group is getting more attention than "the gay community" unless they are actively working against the cause of gay rights.
The only "group" that I see that is actively working AS A GROUP against the cause of gay rights are Fundamentalist Christians, The Christian Right (and they come in all stripes including and predominately White). Their agenda is clear and not secret and has an actual and visceral effect on the lives of all gay people.
The only thing preventing gay folks from asking for what we want as loudly and powerfully and with as much impact as any other identifiable group is apathy, lack of political engagement/cohesion and The Closet.
This is not a theoretical discussion about "identity politics" because Prop 8 and its like are not theoretical.
Most of the gay folks who are worried about "The Latinos" and "The Jews" are not out in the streets doing community organizing on behalf of gay rights because those who are realize how self-defeating, unrealistic and segregationist that kind of thinking is.
Whether or not we get what we "The Gay Community" ask for is just as much up for grabs as it is for the "The Latinos" and "The Jews" folks seem to have so much concern about.
We need to stop blaming other protected classes of people for our inability to get our shite together and make our voices heard, respected and listened to. We of all people should know how important language is when it comes to activism and politics and we should chose how we talk about ourselves and "the others" carefully.
"That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment." (Bayard Rustin) ** "Heterosexuality is not normal, it's just common" (Dorothy Parker)
New male beauty
True, those actors are pretty much identical. But most actresses are pretty much identical too: long, carefully-tousled hair, big lips, big breasts on an otherwise slight frame, blow-up doll expression, etc. It makes sense that all these generic, interchangeable movies require generic, interchangeable actors.
"Go, or go ahead and surprise me." -- Rufus Wainwright