Category Archives: Current Affairs

Bo Young, Community, Current Affairs, Gay Wisdom, Health, Men, Radical Faerie

Follow Up Fridays…WNYC-FM – The Brian Lehrer Show

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OK…I almost forgot about this, and it was so cool, it’s something that needs to be shared. Earlier this week, Dan and I posted our thinking about the Larry Craig debacle [see below]. Or at least some of the thinking, there’s a lot to this story (not all of it negative: entrapment, the perils of the closet, the importance of not thinking in simplistic binary terms, "public" sex, MSM, "down low" — and why is that usually only applied to African American men…isn’t Larry Craig "down low"? — and bisexuality among the more interesting ideas).

Anyway, as I sit working at the computer every day, I am, invariably, listening to New York Public Radio Station, WNYC-FM, and one of my favorite shows is the Brian Lehrer Show. Next to Terry Gross, on Fresh Air, I think Lehrer is one of the best interviewers in the business.

So I was perturbed, when Brian was discussing the Craig story, that both he and his guest commentators, continued to refer to Craig as "Gay" and talking about "other Gay men" in the same breath as though just because at some point in time some men share a physical attraction to, and seek out sexual contact with other men, that all men who do so are ipso facto "Gay." So I wrote a letter. This is what it said:

Dear Mr. Lehrer, I am a huge fan of your show, listen daily and support WNYC on a monthly basis. I beg you, please please please stop referring to Larry Craig as "Gay" as though this was the problem. 

He is sexually confused.  At best, Larry Craig is bisexual or homosexual. But the problem with Craig is, plain and simple, his hypocrisy and the effect that has on innocent people’s lives. It is the issue with his constituency; it is the issue with his colleagues and it is the issue with the LGBT community. The LGBT community, and Gay men specifically, have worked long and hard to establish the term "Gay" as opposed to the medically derived "homosexual." This was to distinguish it as a sexual orientation as opposed to a medical diagnosis. "Gay" specifically has connotations of pride, self-worth, self-respect and integration of one’s sexuality with one’s life. It is a difficult thing to achieve…coming out to one’s self, as well as to one’s family and loved ones. It is harrowing. And those of us who identify as "Gay" deserve to make a distinction between us, and closeted, dishonest, confused, homosexuals who have real psychological issues.

Gay_freedom It is extremely disheartening to be lumped into the same category as this man. And it confuses the issue. Homosexual hypocrisy is the issue here. Self-loathing is the issue. I hope you can finally come to understand…and share with your listeners, that there is a world of difference.

And as for the behavior in the bathroom, it is classic closet behavior. Bathrooms aren’t being plagued with prowling, predatory "Gay" men. But they are probably frequently filled with closeted men looking to connect with other closeted men. It’s what almost every closeted homosexual man I ever knew did before he discovered he was not the only one, not sick, and could live a healthy, happy and fulfilling life…as a Gay man.

Sincerely,

Bo Young

Publisher

White Crane Journal

The Journal of Gay Wisdom, Spirit and Culture.

www.gaywisdom.org

Well…imagine my surprise on Friday, when the show does a segment they call "Follow Up Fridays" on stories of the week that continue to call for comment, Brian Lehrer starts talking about the difference between "Gay" and "homosexual" and asking listeners to call in! I just about fell out of my chair when he gets to the segment, and without identifying me personally (or more importantly, alas, White Crane), proceeds to read my letter…verbatim. I was kvelling.

Mostly people responded positively. A woman called in and said she hadn’t been able to put her finger on why the story had been bothering her until she heard this. One gentleman called in and accused me of trying to "hijack the language for political purposes"…well duh!  A "professor" (of …I don’t know what) called in and quibbled with my description of "homosexual" as a "medical term" averring, correctly, that homosexuality is no longer a diagnosis in the DSM. Again…well duh! But it was, at one time. It was only taken out of the DSM as a diagnosis in 1973, thanks to the tireless efforts of Barbara Gittings, Judd Marmor, Franklin Kameny and "Dr. H Anonymous" who later turned out to be Psychiatrist John E. Fryer, and the origins of the term are, in fact, from the medical community, and the origins of same-sex sexuality being pathologized. Knowing  history is important. Claiming it is imperative.

Bo Young, Current Affairs, Dan Vera

Larry Craig is So Not Gay

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20070828_sonofcohnlarrycraig"I am not Gay."
"I never have been Gay," Sen. Larry Craig

Today’s statement from Senator Larry Craig that he is "not Gay" is yet another reminder of how our current use of language isn’t helpful.

Craig claimed he is not Gay after pleading guilt and paying over $1500 in fines in connection with a charge of lewd conduct in an airport restroom in Minneapolis. The story [See the AP video below if you’ve been out of the loop] has been all over the media the last few days with perhaps the best prize for freudian slip going to Craig’s spokesperson who claimed that the whole incident was just a case of "he said/he said." Comedy writers couldn’t make this stuff up. And why, O why, is Jon Stewart off this week of all weeks?!

Now, Larry Craig, is a right-winger. He’s signed on to every bit of malicious anti-Gay legislation he could get his hands on. With the exception of his, apparently open views on immigration (for which he’s received a pummeling from the nativist fringe-nuts in the Republican right wing) he’s a total wing-nut. You mention the "gays" to him and he starts hollerin’ about the evilness etcetera, etcetera. Rumors about his sexuality have been swirling around DC for a while (thanks to the good folks at Blog Active).

Sons of Cohn
20070828_roycohn_2But hearing Craig claim he was "not Gay" puts us to mind of the late Roy Cohn, lackey of Senator Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist witchhunts and general destroyer of lives.  Cohn was an evil piece of work on par with J. Edgar Hoover, who terrorized the country and destroyed many lives. 

What’s this got to do with Craig? Well, Roy Cohn’s homosexuality was a well known secret in Washington but he was always adamant that he wasn’t "one of those." [If you saw Tony Kushner’s excellent "Angels In America" you’ll remember Al Pacino’s scenery chewing tour-de-force depiction of the closet case.] People like Cohn, and many of the other Republican closet cases that have been caught of late, could claim that they weren’t gay because their existence was so far from the experience of gay people. 

We can only imagine that the disparity between the self-loathing Cohn and his same-sex-loving peers was even more pronounced in the 1970s as the Gay community rose up post-Stonewall. On the one hand you had people like Harvey Milk who were out and balanced and trying to contribute to the community at large and then you had the basket/closet-cases like Roy Cohn and his ilk. We can only imagine Cohn looked at the rise of gay-consciousness and its call for "Gay is Beautiful" and thought he had nothing to do with that.  It was anathema to the life he’d carved out for himself. 

And he would’ve been right. Craig seems to be of that ilk too. So when Craig says "I’m not Gay," we believe him.

We take "Gay" to mean (at the very least):

  • "with it" in terms of sexuality or trying to come to terms with one’s sexuality
  • honest in the face of one’s truth
  • honest to one’s self and one’s family
  • loving of oneself
  • self-respecting

Granted, these definitions may be somewhat arbitrary. But they make more sense than the popular media and blogosphere’s misapplication of the term "Gay" when using the term "homosexual" would be much more useful in differentiating between people who are honest and work to be whole and productive in the face of a cultural climate of Gay hatred (personified by people like Craig and right-wing fundamentalists) and people who are so far away from getting a clue to what really makes them tick and what would make them happy and whole.

Think about it: what has Larry Craig ever done to DESERVE the term Gay? He seems like the saddest of individuals. He seems like a sorry mass of self-loathing and delusion. In that state, we can feel pity for him and his pathetic lack of courage. We can feel pity because we were there once and we know how hard it is to try to be true to ones self in the face of the culture’s hatred of Gay people. [We can pity him, but we don’t have to excuse his self-hating actions that make the lives of his Gay constituents miserable. His self-loathing doesn’t excuse his anti-Gay actions.]

But when it comes to terms we think Craig is right. We think Larry Craig is, at best, a homosexual or a bisexual. But Gay? Nope. No way. Maybe some day — if he musters the courage to be honest with himself and the world.

Till then he’s nothing but a closeted homosexual who’s not ready for the prime time of a life worth truly worth living.

Bo Young, Community, Current Affairs

They Came…They Saw…They Pandered…

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Melissa_etheridge OK. I like Melissa Etheridge as well as the next rocker.

But c’mon…is she really the person you want interviewing the next President? What? Were none of the Queer Eye guys available? Once again, ala The Advocate, the Gay community leadership, in their slavish currying of favor with the hetero-market, confuse "fame" with "important." Are they really prepared to say that young Gay America can’t be interested unless there’s PeepHole Magazine — sorry, I mean People Magazine content? Why was Keith Boykin just sitting in the audience? Oh…right…they already had their African American. I find it very hard to believe…and understand…that they couldn’t find a Lesbian journalist or activist.

Melissa comported herself just fine. Forgive me for thinking we might have been able to come up with someone a tad more, I don’t know…appropriate?

I was torn as I watched the Presidential "debate" last night. Granted, as we are being constantly being reminded, this forum would never have happened a few years ago. Again, we are being told to be grateful for the crumbs we get from the Democratic Party table. And if you wanted to feel good…because "feel good" is what it’s all about anymore, right?…then Dennis Kucinish had to make you feel warm and puppyish all over. Kudos to HRC, who I have little if any respect for, for accomplishing…I don’t know…what? Citizen participation in the electoral process? Logo, too. Thought the audience reminded me of the early photos of second generation Mattachines who made all the women wear dresses and all the men wear suits so we didn’t scare the straight people. Stonewall_pioneers_2

Tiara_2 Bill Richardson, on the other hand, is obviously a clueless homophobe trying to convince everyone how well-meaning he is. The "squirm moment of the evening" tiara goes to him, hands down. It was gratifying that someone bothered to confront his "maricon moment" for which he gave a most unbelievable and insincere apology.

And yet, after all was said and done, and everyone made their "ick-factor" excuses for not providing equal rights as provided under the Constitution, nobody…that would be not one of the candidates, not one of the questioners and not even the moderator…bothered to make the distinction between civil marriage and ecclesiastic matrimony.

One is a civil right; the other is a religious ritual.

In theory, there’s supposed to be some sort of separation there.

Obviously, no one gets it.

Current Affairs, Dan Vera

Bill Richardson’s and the Use of Maricon

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Some of you may or may not have heard the flap about New Mexico governor Bill Richardson’s using the word "maricon" a few months ago on Don Imus’ show.

The clip is here:

Imus asks Governor Richardson if he agrees that "Bernard," that’s Imus’ sidekick, is a "maricon."  Now Imus knows exactly what he’s doing.  They’re both from the same part of the country and they think they’re having a cool little exchange.  He knows that Richardson knows that maricon means "faggot" in the Spanish they both grew up around.  Imus also knows that most listeners to his show have no idea what the phrase is.  You notice neither of them defines the term for their listening public.  Imus launches the idea and Richardson, you’ll notice he actually jumps at it.  Actually, Richardson goes FURTHER.  Imus just asks Richardson to answer yes or no.  Richardson sort of enjoys saying it, calling Bernardo un maricon.  There is NO hesitation in Richardson’s reply.  I mean he’s not even thinking this is problematic.  Imus and Richardson are playing on a keen perception that most listeners won’t know what the word is.

This would seem to be Richardson’s macaca moment.  He, like Senator Allen, knew they were hurling an epithet.  But frankly, in my opinion Richardson’s is probably worse.  Because Allen was using a very obscure phrase while Richardson was using a term that anyone who grew up speaking Spanish recognizes it for what it is.  I am pretty sure that people have died for using that term of disparagement.  That people have had their masculinity challenged with that term or killed people for being "un maricon."

Richardson’s non-apology just exacerbates the situation. He claimed that when he was growing up the term "maricon" was a neutral term, not good or bad, it just meant "gay."  This is such bullshit it staggers the senses.

Now I’ve been assured that Richardson has a great track record on LGBT rights.  All I’ve heard in detail is that he added gay and lesbian and transgender to the Hate Crimes bill in New Mexico.  All well and good.  [Although may I add that if *that’s* your great accomplishment for LGBT rights, — the ability to have our murders by haters labeled for what they are — than the bar is set really, really, really low in this country].

There are some gay Latino bloggers writing about this and hopefully this will get the coverage it deserves.  Because so far, it seems the humanity of gay people seems pretty low on the totem pole in this whole sad exchange.  It hasn’t received much press at all.

Can I also express how personally wounding it is that the first Latino politician of some stature, a credible (if not financially viable) candidate for the presidency has to reveal himself to be so grossly out of touch to find this acceptable.  I haven’t felt this distressed and disgusted since Alberto Gonzalez was trotted out as the "First Latino/Hispanic Attorney General."  Double Sigh.

Current Affairs, Dan Vera, Religion

The Capitol Hill Crunch…

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…Of Rightwing Nutbars

In the off chance you’ve been lulled into forgetting about the atomic level nutbars out there, please check out this video of a press conference held on Capitol Hill yesterday. Hats off to People For The American Way’s Right Wing Watch for recording this and disseminating this.

These guys are more fixated on gay sex then most gay guys I know.  And the one minister who cites a laundry list of intra-species sex partners seems to be revealing alot about his own sick twisted subconscious.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the grass they were all standing on was withered and dead after they were finished.

Bo Young, Current Affairs, Religion

The French Get It Right…Bénédictions sur leur mariage.

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Chateau02mini I was trawling through the muck of the internet today, and of course, THE most important thing happening, other than Live Earth is…Eva Longoria’s wedding at Chateau Vaux le Vicomte.

First of all, talk about real estate!

Anyway, someone said something about a beautiful dress, and while I could care less about Desperate Housewives, I like Eva well enough, and I’m as queer as the next fellow about a pretty frock, so I went looking for it. Abc_cityhall_070706_ssh_2

And found this:

"He praised Longoria’s choice of dresses and designer – the 32-year-old wore a pink Chanel mini dress on her way into the town hall, but changed into a white dress in the district mayor’s office. French law requires a civil ceremony even when couples marry in a church."

Eva_070706_ssv_2 Wow! What a concept…religious folks get their God’s church blessing on the whole matter if they want, but somehow, it seems, the French have acknowledged that the state has a stake in this that is separate from and different than the church’s.

Imagine that…some kind of separation of the church’s interest and the state’s. What must it be like to live in a society like that?

Bénédictions sur leur mariage.
Arts, Bo Young, Culture, Current Affairs, Entertainment

Michael Moore does more than just healthcare…

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I’m excited about Michael Moore’s new SICKO movie, and in the spirit of Gay Pride, I think it’s important to acknowledge our allies. Mr. Moore seems to me to be the balance to the homophobic Garrison Keillor. Check out how he deals with Kansas christo-fascist maniac, Fred Phelps. It is a little surprising to me how many attacks there are on Moore for "making a buck" on this. Just as with the Clinton sex scandal (as far as I’m concerned any President that doesn’t take us to war and eliminates the national debt while creating a surplus at the very least deserves a blow job every day!…I mean, hell, put Edwards in there and I’ll do it myself) I think people making the right arguments ought to be rewarded. And since when was it a crime to make a buck? If Michael Moore’s films aren’t "right livelihood" I don’t know what is.