enough rainbows!

I have to say, even though it’s probably politically incorrect, that I’m really sick of rainbow crap. I certainly don’t want to hide the fact that I’m gay. But I don’t think I need tacky tchotckes and knick-nacks anymore to let everyone know that I am. I still have my first March on Washington t-shirt from 1987 and it has rainbows on it. So I’ve been wearing the stupid things for 15 years now. And I’m saying enough!

Weezy is upset

Rarity vewy sad

(2014 Spoiler alert: I got over it. But in my defense, there were rainbows on EVERYTHING in 2000-2005. It was a little much. Thankfully everyone’s pulled back a bit.)

Continue Readingenough rainbows!

Rosie Comes Out

“They’re saying I’m not gay enough. They say I lied because I said I love Tom Cruise. I do love Tom Cruise. What do I have to do, have sex with Angelina Jolie on TV?” — Rosie O’Donnell, lashing out at people who quibble with her coming-out technique at a benefit for ovarian cancer in New York on Monday night.
Yes, Rosie, yes you do. Please. Go ahead; I’ll watch.

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Gay People Blamed for Enron

And if it’s not enough that the right-wing nutjobs are trying to kill us and attempting to steal our children away, now they are blaming gay people for the fall of Enron Corporation.
Enron was YOU GUYS. Republicans. With all your deregulation, and your corporate welfare, and tax breaks for the rich, and thwarting campaign finance reform… the conservative republicans are responsible for Enron. Not us homos! When all else fails and it looks like you might get caught or the pidgeons will come home to roost, blame it on the gay people.

Continue ReadingGay People Blamed for Enron

parental rights of gay people

Okay, time for another rant, on the subject of gay people getting their children taken away from them:
I have reproductive organs, I’m going to use them, and I don’t give a flying god damn what anyone thinks about it. I’m a lesbian, I’m going to have kids, I’m going to raise them well, and if you want to try to take them away, you’ll be attempting it at the end of a shotgun. I’m sick to death of hearing all these religious people saying shit… your religion is just that: your religion. It’s not mine, so keep it to yourself, or shove it in my face at your own peril.

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executing gay people

I’ve pointed out to my family members, at various times, that there are people who want to kill me, and that these people have connections to the Republicans they keep putting into office, but I don’t think they’ve ever taken me very seriously.

“Let us give thanks,” Army of God “chaplain” Rev. Michael Bray proclaimed on the Army of God Web site, after sword-wielding officials in Saudi Arabia beheaded three gay men New Year’s Day. The official Saudi Press Agency reported that the men had “committed acts of sodomy, married each other, seduced young men and attacked those who rebuked them.”

Best known for its terror campaign against abortion providers, the militant Army of God has lately displayed a virulent antigay animus in recent postings on its Web site. The sudden trend has set off alarms among human rights groups.

“This is really chilling,” Surina Khan, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, told Salon. “It really disturbs me, in terms of the rhetoric and what effect it has.”

Ironically, the Army of God is expressing new solidarity with Muslim extremists just as the right-wing extremists have come under new scrutiny by the U.S. government for their own links to terror, post-Sept. 11. The violence-prone Army of God drew intensified federal attention thanks to its praise (“great idea!”) for the anthrax scare at 550 clinics and abortion rights organizations last fall, perpetrated by self-described antiabortion “terrorist” Clayton Waagner. Waagner signed his threats “Army of God.”

On the Homefront: This weekend, I moved most of my breakable stuff, all my framed artwork, most of my electronics, and some small pieces of furniture. Also one of the bunk beds, so if I want to stay over at the new place, I can. Still to pack: clothes, office supplies, rest of kitchen stuff. I’ll try to get as much of that done tonight as I can. I procrastinated on the packing, which I hate to do, by moving stuff that didn’t necessarily need to be moved. And I think I’m afraid to move in, which is another reason I’ve avoided the packing. I’m really kind of freaked out.

I need to be careful when moving paperwork — got to keep track of stuff I need to do, like send in my first mortgage payment. That would suck if I forgot that. 🙂

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Local Political Organizing

I got an e-mail yesterday from a woman I know who’s on the board of directors of an organization I used to do volunteer work for. She was objecting to something I wrote here in my journal. The e-mail was titled “I’m disappointed” and in it, she chastised me for expressing some opinions about some local political activists in the gay community, then she ordered me to stop expressing such opinions, because “we already have too much of that sort of thing.” THEN, she proceeded to ask me to volunteer some time helping her learn website editing so she could do my former volunteer position.

I actually responded with a relatively polite e-mail explaining (again) that I don’t have the time to volunteer for her organization, as I have other organizations I already work for. Can you believe how mature I was? ME NEITHER. But, hey, I’m safely back on my own website, so here’s what I really think:

If you don’t like something you read here, FUCK OFF. FUCK OFF, FUCK OFF, FUCK OFF, FUCK OFF, FUCK OFF. Also, BITE ME. Plus, how fucking clueless are you to try to order me around on my own website, then to ask me to give my time(=money) to help you out?

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Andrew Sullivan and “private behavior”

Joan Walsh says in regards to Andrew Sullivan: “It seems as if there’s a brand-new, very simple standard for when the private behavior of a public figure is news: when he or she writes something that makes enemies.”

No, that’s not a fair characterization of what Signorile or others said.

Your private behavior becomes newsworthy when that private behavior is at odds with your publicly expressed views, especially when those views, like Sullivan’s, critique and condemn in others the very sort of behavior that you are secretly practicing.

Practice what you preach, preach what you practice, and above all to thine ownself be true, and you’ll never end up in hot water with Michaelangelo Signorile.

Continue ReadingAndrew Sullivan and “private behavior”

Gay for Good: Can straight guys become happy homosexuals?

By Jefferson Morley

“Most mental-health organizations have passed resolutions discouraging the use of so-called reparative therapies intended to change homosexuals into heterosexuals, saying no scientific evidence exists to show they are effective.” —- New York Times, May 9, 2001

To people who say that psychotherapy cannot change a person’s sexual orientation, Dr. Rafe Da Vinci of Miami Beach says, “Numbers aren’t straight or queer, they’re clear. And the numbers show that therapy can change orientation, especially among men.”

Da Vinci, a veteran psychiatrist with a booming practice in a Collins Avenue high-rise, is attracting growing attention in the debate about so-called “reparative therapies” that seek to change a person’s sexual orientation. Doctors, gay rights activists, and others who say that sexual orientation is determined early in life have questioned claims that people with homosexual tendencies can overcome them via psychotherapy. Da Vinci’s practice focuses on an oft-neglected group at the heart of this debate: straight men who wish to become gay.

“Survey data from submarines, discos, and prisons show that anywhere from 9 to 23 percent of males say they have a desire to become gay,” Da Vinci said in a recent interview. “I think we have shown that these same men, if they commit themselves to an intensive course of therapy, can become happy homosexuals.”

Heterosexual rights activists have questioned Da Vinci’s data and criticized his politics, saying that his practice stigmatizes perfectly normal straight people and exploits their feelings of shame and guilt. Critics also allege that Da Vinci supported a resolution at the 1978 American Congress of Psychotherapists defining heterosexuality as a “uniquely vexing condition.” The motion was narrowly defeated. Da Vinci denies any intention of fomenting intolerance of the straight lifestyle, saying that he was married to his third wife at the time.

Bearded, avuncular, and outspoken, Da Vinci has attracted hundreds of clients from all over south Florida with a controversial counseling regimen that includes group discussions about how best to cope with the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. There are also frequent trips to Dean & DeLuca and a reading list that includes Remembrance of Things Past, Dennis Rodman’s memoirs, and The Seven Habits of Highly Homosexual People.

“In Freudian terms, we seek to reverse the Oedipal cycle, transferring the object identification with the unrealizable female Other into a more cognitive attachment to a responsible male, preferably one with a BMW,” Da Vinci explained.

Originally a skeptic about reparative therapies, Da Vinci now says he is a believer.

“The non-straight heterosexual can reconcile his value system and his orientation,” he says. “I’ve seen it happen in my office.”

Da Vinci’s latest book, Going Gay (Gomorrah Press), is now ranked 14,342 on the Amazon.com best-seller list and is climbing rapidly. His claims of success, while hotly disputed by heterosexual rights activists, are beginning to receive respectful coverage in professional journals. Last year Da Vinci published a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Gendered Genetics that is stirring debate on the Internet and on talk radio shows in some parts of Western Australia.

Out of 111 men who had undergone his “Gay for Good” course of therapy for at least a year, Da Vinci reported that 29 said that they no longer had sexual fantasies involving Rachel from Friends. An additional 21 men reported that while they still hoped to date Anna Kournikova someday, they were “somewhat happier” with their homosexual lifestyle. Da Vinci acknowledges that a slight majority of the men, 55 in total, reverted back to a straight lifestyle. Six of the reversion group, he noted, had committed suicide.

“Clearly, this therapy isn’t for everybody,” Da Vinci said.

The most common motivating factors cited by men who want to become gay, according to Da Vinci’s survey, were “morality” (58 percent), “better clothes” (39 percent), and “more quality time at the gym” (28 percent).

“A lot of these guys say they deeply believe that it’s just not right to get into a reproductive relationship in an era of dwindling natural resources,” Da Vinci said. “Others want to uphold the moral values exemplified by Western thinkers from Socrates to Allan Bloom.”

Da Vinci expressed surprise that among the motivations of those seeking to stay gay for good, “more sexual partners” only barely edged out “less watching of football” (22 percent to 21 percent). He said older patients in his study group most often cited “live like Cary Grant” (11 percent) and “a lot more sexual partners” (9 percent) as reasons for leaving the straight lifestyle. Younger clients spoke of “increased opportunities for meeting Ricky Martin in person” (5 percent).

Garth LeBouche, executive director of the Straight Support Network, a heterosexual activist group based in Arlington, Texas, decried Da Vinci’s claims as “agenda-driven.”

He criticized Da Vinci’s reports about heterosexual suicide. According to published interviews, two of the men cited in Da Vinci’s study had not committed suicide but had perished from heat exhaustion at a PTA meeting. A third fatality, LeBouche said, had strangled on a Happy Meal toy while playing with his 4-year-old son.

“Do those sound like men who died unhappy about their heterosexuality?” LeBouche said in a telephone interview. “Only an intolerant extremist would say such a thing.”

LeBouche praised the recent decision of the Bush administration to reverse an executive order issued by President Clinton on his last day in office that would have included “Gay for Good” on a list of reparative therapies paid for by the U.S. Navy’s health plan.

“This crazy notion that we can talk people into loving someone else should not be financed by the U.S. taxpayer,” LeBouche said.

Da Vinci, a registered Republican who voted for McCain, says he regrets the administration’s decision but will not contest it.

“Ending coverage will most likely hurt unit morale. On those submarines where the presence of straight people may be perceived by homosexuals as incompatible with tradition, the Gay for Good program helped some sailors fit in. Now, unhappy heterosexuals, who I suspect voted overwhelmingly for Bush, will have nowhere to turn. It’s sad.”

The tanned and buff doctor scoffs at published reports in the gay press that he is a closet heterosexual. He says that he and his longtime spiritual companion of three weeks, physical trainer Ferdinand Mateo of Brazil, are now seeking to develop conversion therapy for women.

“Our research,” Da Vinci says, “suggests that up to 72 percent of all adult females say that heterosexual men are either emotionally unavailable, financially untrustworthy, sexually selfish, hygienically challenged, prone to illusions of grandeur, or all of the above. If we can help millions of women to become lesbians, we think that would probably be a net plus for human happiness.”

Continue ReadingGay for Good: Can straight guys become happy homosexuals?