GLBT rights – Page 6

“Yes, I’m Free!”

Published on March 8, 2007

RIP John Inman, who died last night aged 71: Inman played Mr. Humphries in Are You Being Served and is one of the gay actors who, like Frankie Howerd and Kenneth Williams, brought camp comedy into the UK entertainment mainstream.

However you feel about the use of stereotypical ‘nancy boy’ behaviour as entertainment, entertain it does and thee’s no denying that the public presence of camp comics like Inman made it much more acceptable to be an out gay man.

Here’s some video of Inman in full flight:

When I was a kid I used to laugh just at the pure silliness of Mr Humphries, but it’s only as an adult watching him that you get the sly subversiveness behind the slapstick.

The K Word

Published on February 25, 2007

Cheers!

Independent:

Strewth! Australia rocked by ‘lesbian’ koala revelation
By Roger Dobson
Published: 25 February 2007

Female koalas indulge in lesbian “sex sessions”, rejecting male suitors and attempting to mate with each other, sometimes up to five at a time, according to researchers.

The furry, eucalyptus-eating creatures appear to develop this tendency for same-sex liaisons when they are in captivity. In the wild, they remain heterosexual.

Scientists monitoring the marsupials with digital cameras counted three homosexual interactions for every heterosexual one.

“Some females rejected the advances of males that were in their enclosures, only to become willing participants in homosexual encounters immediately after,” say the researchers.

“On several occasions more than one pair of females shared the same pole, and multiple females mounted each other simultaneously. At least one multiple encounter involved five female koalas.”

The Rapier is Mightier Than The Spiked Club

Published on February 23, 2007

Speaking of deadly courtesy……the US blogosphere has it’s own seasoned practitioner in General JC Christian, who with deceptively gentle acidity points out the evidence for wingnut Michael Medved’s (see Martin’s post) undoubted, red-blooded heterosexuality:

Friday, February 23, 2007

Remember, Michael Medved is 110% heterosexual

I’ve learned a couple of things about Mr. Medved since yesterday when I asked you to remind yourselves that he’s as heterosexual as Lindsey Graham. I think it’s important that I address them quickly before people get the wrong idea.

First, Seattle Dan tells us he saw Mr. Medved on a mandate with former WA gubernatorial candidate John Carlson at a Seattle movie theater. According to Dan, the manly couple seemed to enjoy the film, Shrek, very much. He also reports that he did not see them holding hands, but he can’t rule it out either.

I don’t see anything wrong with a man bonding with another man by attending a children’s movie about a love affair between an ogre and a princess. It sounds like good, clean, manly, heterosexual fun to me, like watching NASCAR or punching each other in the shoulder. And inasmuch as Dan doesn’t mention any tongue action, I think we have to conclude, notwithstanding any popcorn tricks, that it wasn’t anything more than a harmless little mandate between two very special friends.

Second, on his Thursday show, Sam Seder told a story about an interview he had with Medved when Sam was promoting his book, F.U.B.A.R.. During a break, Medved asked him if his coauthor, Stephen Sherrill, was his “partner.” Seder replied that while he and Sherrill sometimes collaborated, “partner” might not be the right term. Medved responded that he meant “partner” in the sense of being lovers. Seder said, “No, I’m married,” and Medved replied with something like “but, so am I.”

Hmmmm…

Please notice that at no time did Mr. Medved invite Seder’s little soldier to go spelunking in his cave of ecstasy. I think that’s all the evidence we need. Obviously, Mr. Medved is 110% heterosexual.

Labels: Our Man Flanders

It’s tempting to go in with boots and fists flailing and I’m hardly the one to be needlessly civil when dealing with fuckwits. But sometimes the rapier is more effective, and funnier, than the club with nails in it.

CotD: a certain kind of homophobe

Published on February 22, 20072 Comments

Commenter Glen Tomkins, over at Lawyers, Guns and Money, discusses what’s behind Michael Medved’s homophobia:

It’s inaccurate and misplaced to speak about these homophobes from the point of view of sexuality being about attraction. Straight men who feel uncomfortable at the very idea that men they work with might look on them as potential sex objects are telling us that their experience of being sexually active men is that sexuality for them is essentially a way to express domination and aggression, rather than affection. They aren’t worried that gay co-workers will find them attractive. That would be flattering. They’re worried that gay men are really the same as they are, that sexual attention from a gay man indicates his desire to dominate. Of course they don’t want to be dominated, even if they are just fine with dominating the unfortunate women in their lives themselves. That’s what women are for, in their worldview. It’s in the Bible, or something.

Bloody God-Botherers Again

Published on January 24, 2007

Of all the things that you think might’ve finally split the British Cabinet – Iraq, Bush poodlism, Trident, cronyism, cash for honours, general corruption, gross incompetence – in the end it may come down to religion, if Inspector Knacker doesn’t swoop on No. 10 first, that is.

Why? Because paedophile-enabler and Roman Catholic Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor‘s outrageous and blatant political pressure on individual ministers to exempt the church from anti-gay discrimination legislation means that those promiinent Opus Dei members, marital Catholics and sporadic mass-attenders that overpopulate Blair’s cabinet and his hangers-on ( the recently-arrested Blair aide Ruth Turner, for example, is the daughter of a prominent Catholic theologian) are going to have to choose between their beliefs and what few political principles they have left.

Rome and O’Connor are determined to oppose UK gay rights legislation and the church has already bullied themselves an exemption from ensuring gay equality in employment and now they’re trying it on on the issue of gay adoption rights, saying that they should be special, exempt from the law on the spurious grounds of ‘conscience’. (Spelled B_I_G_O_T_R_Y.)

Shit, I’d like to be excused from any number of laws on the grounds of conscience. For instance, what about the Rastafari? Cannabis is a sacrament in their religion: can they ignore the drug laws?

Cherie Blair ‘split Cabinet in Catholic adoption row’
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
Published: 24 January 2007

Senior cabinet ministers have told MPs privately that Cherie Blair is the cause of the cabinet split over demands to exempt Roman Catholic adoption agencies from equality laws on gay adoption.

The row intensified yesterday when the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, was accused by gay rights campaigners and some Labour MPs of trying to blackmail the Government.

The accusations flew after Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor wrote to cabinet ministers warning them that Catholic adoption agencies would have to close if they were not exempted from the new laws.

The leaders of the Church of England backed Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, warning the Government that religious people may feel that their conscience forbids them from undertaking public work under the new laws. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Rowan Williams and John Sentamu, wrote to Tony Blair saying: “In legislating to protect and promote the rights of particular groups, the Government is faced with the delicate but important challenge of not thereby creating the conditions within which others feel their rights to have been ignored or sacrificed.”

The Equality Act, due to come into effect in England, Wales and Scotland in April, outlaws discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the basis of sexual orientation.

Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, a committed Catholic, was accused of seeking to gain an opt-out for the Church. But Ms Kelly and the Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, have privately told MPs the pressure for an exemption has come from the Prime Minister.

“They said Tony is the one who has been asking for this exemption, not Ruth, who is pretty annoyed at the way she has been presented in the media,” said a senior Labour MP. “Another cabinet minister told me it’s all coming from Cherie.”

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