In this week's Gay Agenda video blog, Jennifer Vanasco and Jon Mallow discuss recent reports that the incidence of reported hate crimes is rising. What could be the cause of this increase ... is it just that crimes of this nature are being reported more than they used to, or is the country actually becoming a more dangerous place for gays and lesbians?

Check it all out after the break!

Move over, Ralph Macchio and Hilary Swank: in the new movie The Sensei, there's a new put-upon teen about to put the beat down on some bullies. According to the press materials:

"THE SENSEI takes place in a small, conservative town during the rise of HIV and the AIDS panic it stirred in communities in the 1980's and early 90's. Set in 1985, in an area not too far from Laramie, Wyoming, young McClain is a gay teen that is constantly harassed and ostracized in his provincial town."

Michael O'Laskey, who's best known for playing one of the brothers in the 3 Ninjas series of kids films, stars as McClain, who is harassed and bullied because of his sexuality (one of the bullies is played by Mark Mcgraw, brother of country singer Tim Mcgraw). After he's nearly killed in a bashing, his mother enlists the help of her own Mr. Miyogi, a character named Karen, played by the film's director, Diana Lee Inosanto (who's also a world-renowned stuntwoman).

The movie makes its world premiere at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on May 4th. You can learn more about it at the film's website, and you can see the trailer over here. It looks great ... the only thing missing is a Peter Cetera ballad.

Ellen is opening today's show with a monologue about changing this country's attitudes in the wake of the tragic murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King. Ellen begins by explaining that Lawrence's killer shot him because days earlier his gay classmate had given him a valentine, which led the young man to murder him.

Ellen's discussing the topic on a personal level is incredibly moving and very powerful. As she puts it:

 "Larry was not a second-class citizen. I am not a second-class citizen. It is okay if you're gay."

Ellen goes further to say that we need to put an end to gay punchlines in monologues and in movies, and that mean-spirited jokes lead to hateful behavior and violence. Seeing someone speak with this degree of passion and intelligence and empathy about this issue on national television and receive such overwhelming support from her audience is incredibly inspiring. Ellen continues to be one of the strongest and most uncompromised voices out there for lesbians and gays, and moments like this are why.

Check out the video here, or tune into her show today. 

Yesterday's Oprah Winfrey Show was quite amazing to watch, as it featured the kind of coming out experiences we don't hear about very often. The show started with Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil of India, who came out after a nervous breakdown prompted by a miserable, closeted marriage. The Prince's coming out was a huge scandal in India, with his mother buying an ad in the paper announcing that she had disowned her son and wouldn't allow for anyone to refer to him as her child.

His mother was the first thing that Oprah asked him about and the Prince answered that he wasn't surprised by her reaction: "I don't blame her, I blame her ignorance." It wasn't so difficult to accept her reaction, he explained, since they were always distant (he was raised by governesses). When they did speak to each other, he explained, they never referred to each other by familiar names. Instead he referred to her as "Her highness" while she called him "The Prince".

The Prince also explained how he struggled with his sexuality, eventually getting married in the hopes that his homosexuality was a phase he'd get past. Unlike many other gay men in India, he wasn't coerced into getting married, but went into his wedding willingly. Oprah questioned him quite a bit about his wife and how she felt in the marriage, getting him to admit that he made her miserable by ignoring her and showing no interest in her physically.

Next she talked with Staceyann Chin, a New York-based poet, playwright and performer originally from Jamaica. Stacyann fled Jamaica after she was sexually assaulted by a gang of boys in a public restroom for being a lesbian. She explained:

"The culture is so actively homophobic ... I grew up listening to these songs -- songs like 'Boom bye-bye in the back of the head' ... the sound of shooting a gay man in the back of the head."

Hearing Stacyann talk about her attack was one of the episode's most chilling moments. Stacyann talked about being frozen by fear: "I thought I was going to fight but I was petrified." She said she still blames herself for the attack, wondering if she did something to bring it upon herself and feeling frustrated that she didn't fight her attackers harder. She had always thought of herself as someone with a big voice, someone who'd fight to defend herself until she found herself unable to act when facing hostility.

Before introducing Stacyann, Oprah told the audience that there were over 100 violent incidents against LGBT people in Jamaica in a period of just six months, and hearing Stacyann talk about being the subject of one such attack brought the reality crashing down.

Here's a clip from the interview:

Hey, remember when Jodie Foster did those ads for pinball machines after winning the Oscar for The Accused? No? Oh, right. That's because that's an unimaginably sick concept.

Almost.

Now that his Sopranos character has been whacked and the series ended (ruling out flashback or haunting opps), Joseph R. Gannascoli has got to find something to do. The actor, who played "Gay Vito" in the show's most prominent and mostly sympathetic gay storyline, ended his long run on the show on a high note, in terms of his character's visibility (having gone from background goon to juicy featured character).

So Gannascoli's recent acts and the low note they represent in terms of gay visibility are all the more disgusting. It seems that the actor, eager to capitalize on his 15 minutes of gay-induced fame, has lent his name (and Vito's signature) to a line of pool cues. Which would be a non-event, were it not for the fact that his character was beaten and raped with a pool cue after it was discovered that he was gay.

Just to be clear: this guy is cashing a check by shilling for a product that was used to murder and sodomize his character for being gay. It's gay-bashing merchandise, plain and simple: what, is Fred Phelps in marketing now? What's more, the pool cue comes with the tagline, "A Cue to Die For," suggesting that it would somehow be worth being murdered and raped with.

Shameless opportunism is tacky enough as it is, but this is just sick. And even if you remove the gay element from the equation, the subject matter is still highly inappropriate. It's not like this was a horror movie where the deaths are meant to be entertaining and laughed about around a billiards table.

GLAAD is calling for the company behind the cue to pull the marketing, but I think any goodwill Gannascoli may have earned from gay fans for his sensitive portrayal of his tragic character has been pulled already.

A group of LGBT activists (including Scott Hall, Frank Kameny, US Representative Barney Frank and Amazing Race winner Chip Arndt) are working towards the creation of a memorial to victims of anti-gay hate crimes. The effort, Gay American Heroes, aims to "honor and remember LGBT victims of hate crimes" while also seeking to increase awareness about violent crimes against LGBT people. The exhibit will show pictures of hate crime victims, along with their names and stories, on a 100 foot long display of rainbow colored panels. Included will be the recently murdered Michael Sandy pictured here.

The exhibit is meant to travel and be displayed in college campuses, gay pride events and other communities. It will include interactive elements including an "Adopt-A-Hero" program that will send a card to friends and family of the Hero, letting them know that their loved one has not been forgotten. Visitors will also be able to submit the name of a friend, family member or lover who was lost to a hate crime or print out information about one of the exhibit's Heroes to take home.

More information about the project can be found at the Foundation's website. The exhibit hopes to be completed in December.

The power of an exhibit like this is that it makes people see hate crime victims as people, rather than statistics. By hearing stories of the Heroes, strained claims that adding LGBT people to hate crime protections will stifle the free speech of anti-gay activists lose their power. I'm reminded of Lavender Liberal's video tribute to Hate Crime victims, which made it hard not to see the tragedy of all these lives interrupted by intolerance, a powerful message.

Meanwhile, a similar effort is being spearheaded by Pam's House Blend contributor TerranceDC. He is writing Wikipedia entries on hate crime victims, to make sure those stories are easily found and can be referenced in debating hate crime legislation. As always, humanizing the issue and showing that it has happened to people they could imagine knowing and loving is a very potent argument.

Thanks to Towleroad.com for the head's up.