By Andrew Ramer
….. ..More
Information
….. ..Order
Now!
A
have probably been doing it for millions of years,”animals regularly have partners of both sexes, and some even live in
communal
groups where sexual activity is common among all members, male and
female. Many creatures are ‘transgendered,’ crossing or combining
characteristics of
both males and females in their appearance or behavior.”
different kinds of animals worldwide, and is found in every major
geographic
region and every major animal group.” But we don’t need Bagemihl for
anecdotal evidence. Hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear stories
about
same-sex oriented otters or rabbits. You don’t have to go to the Zurich
Zoo to learn about “the indiscriminate and almost insatiable sexuality
of bonobo
apes” or “how gay male dolphins use their lovers’ blowholes for sexual
gratification.” Just last year a review paper by Nathan Bailey and
Marlene
Zuk of the Department of Biology at the University of California in
Riverside
concluded that “same-sex behavior is a nearly universal phenomenon in
the animal
kingdom, common across species, from worms to frogs to birds.”
greylag geese and turkeys.” According to the authors of Out in All
Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America, same-sex behavior
has been
documented in all kinds of animal species, including antelope, bugs,
butterflies, cats, cattle, cockroaches, crickets, dogs, donkeys,
elephants, flies, geckos, guinea pigs, hamsters, horses, hyenas, lions,
martens,
mice, moths, octopuses, orcas, porcupines, raccoons, rats and wasps. “In
1994,” according to the Almanac, “two male flamingos in the Rotterdam
Zoo in the
Netherlands got the nesting urge and set up a same-sex co-habitation. After the two repeatedly sought to steal eggs from female flamingos to
hatch
them as their own, the zookeepers decided to provide them with a
fertilized
egg. he proud parents successfully hatched their own little chick, and
remained faithfully by the side of the baby flamingo for a while.” The
whole world knows about Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at the
Central
Park Zoo in New York who lovingly hatched and raised an adopted chick,
Tango. (The story of Tango and her two daddies appears in 2005's
often-censored children’s book, And Tango Makes Three, by Justin
Richardson and
Peter Parnell.)
People who sign petitions calling for public votes on controversialThe high court
ruled against Protect Marriage Washington, which organized a petition
drive for a public vote to repeal the state's "everything-but-marriage"
gay rights law.
Petition signers wanted to hide their names because
of worries of intimidation. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
San Francisco refused to keep their names secret. The Supreme Court
stepped in and temporarily blocked release of the names until the high court could
make a decision.
The court now says disclosing names on a petition for
a public referendum does not chill the signer's freedom of speech
enough to warrant overturning the state's disclosure law.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the 8-1 judgment
for the court, said it is vitally important that states be able to
ensure that signatures on referendum petitions are authentic. Only one member of the Court, Justice Alito, affirmatively
indicated his belief that petitioners’ have a strong argument for an
exemption from Washington’s disclosure law because of the potential for
“threats, harassment and reprisals.” ven Justice Scalia, one of the
Court’s core conservative members, concluded in his concurrence that,
“[r]equiring people to stand up in public for their political acts
fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed.”
Sam Seder nails the government and the present administration for the idiocy of the FDA’s unscientific position on blood donations by Gay men. It’s total bullshit.
Victor Marsh's new book, Mr Isherwood Changes
Trains: Christopher Isherwood and the search
for the ‘home-self" has
been published by Clouds of Magellan in Australia and is now available at Amazon.com.
In the fascinating book, Marsh interrogates the
assumptions and prejudices that have combined to disparage the sincerity of
Isherwood’s spiritual life. He delves into those features of Vedanta philosophy
that enabled Isherwood to integrate the various aspects of his dharma:
his vocation as a writer, and a spirituality not based on a repudiation of his
sexuality as a gay man.
Marsh interviewed Isherwood’s life partner, Don
Bachardy (who produced the portrait of Isherwood used on the cover at the right) in the
Winter 2006-2007 issue of White Crane.
Some editor in the Sunday edition of the Times Entertainment section ought to be slapped for allowing Allesandra Stanley's comments about Ellen Degeneres to get printed. I quote:
"Ellen Degeneres leaves no opportunity untapped, not even a few seconds of chat on "American Idol."
And then Ms. Allesandra goes immediately to a clever comment Ellen happened to make to Casey James about how, "for most women, their hearts are going to start racing just looking at you, right, but then for people like me…" She paused, holding the beat while judges and audience members tittered over the implied allusion to her being a lesbian. As the laughter swelled, Ms. Degeneres held up a finger, prolonging the joke with a knowing grin…delivered the punchline: "…blondes…"
Yeah…Allesandra?…that's called being clever. Not "taking every opportunity to make sure everyone knows she's a lesbian."
Frankly, the joke seems to be on Ms. Allesandra, who goes on to talk about how, whenever possible, Ellen makes comments about the performers outfits. And this is yet another way for her to make the point that she is a lesbian!
Really!? I mean really?…if only! Ellen is perhaps the most un-in-your-face gay person anyone would ever hope to see (or not hope to see, frankly). Honestly, I wish she was a lot more out about it all.
I'm sorry, but if that isn't outright, garden-variety homophobic (and some kind of me-thinks-she-doth-protest-too-much latency on Ms. Allesandra's part, one can only suspect) it's just plain stupid. And it is so typically hetero-stupid… Kara what's-her-name (had anyone ever heard of her before she was on this show?) is drooling all over blond boy-toy Casey James and no one seems to think that's making some kind of issue about her sexual preferences. She sits there and paws Simon Cowell and rubs up against him every few seconds or so. To say nothing of Simon making all kinds of homo innuendos to that Ken-doll cypher-host (I can never remember his name.) and no one's writing Sunday features about all the displays of heterosexual heat on American Idol.
But should Ellen make a comment about an outfit one of the performers is wearing (you know…like Randy Jackson manages to do every now and then with his 15 word vocabulary of "dog" "dude" "pitchy" "cool" and "you know what I'm sayin'?" and then he blurts out something about "the outfit you're working") and suddenly this is, in Ms. Allessandra's world "a quick way to remind the audience that [Ellen] is a lesbian."
Because, you know, only gay people are fashion conscious, right?My friend Jerry in Salt Lake City said he thought it was the kind of article he'd only see in the Salt Lake City papers, not the New York Times (which, for the record, didn't see fit to even use the term "gay" until 1987.)
Whatever. Someone needs to throw some cold water on Allessandra Stanley…I think she's getting the hots for Ellen.
What an utterly sophomoric piece of writing.
People may or may not be aware of the magician and professional skeptic, The Amazing Randi, but he has recently decided to come out and we think it's a fascinating conversation…listen here. He comes out as a gay man and has a rather nice conversation about it with the interviewer. He has always been a personal favorite of mine, a debunker of scams shams and magical thinking, including the $1,000,000 Paranormal Challenge...which has yet to be awarded.
I can't help but wonder if the caricature portrait of Arthur C. Clarke (another gay man and long-time White Crane subscriber) in the background on the right might be an old boyfriend?
The conversation in the interview takes some interesting turns when they posit that rationalism (i.e. non-deism) might be as powerful a tool in the gay rights struggle as assimilationist gay religiosity and gay "spirituality"; Both have an interest in debunking pseudo-science (i.e. Right Wing creationism). Here's the quote:
They use fake
science to argue that being gay is not natural; that homosexuality
is an aberration when in fact you find it widely among many different
species. So, in a real way I think gay issues are skeptic's issues."
D.J. Grothe, President of the James Randi Educational Foundation, the
international educational non-profit founded by celebrated social critic
and activist James Randi.
local levels owe their success to the votes, money and volunteer labor
of the
Dolphin members. Gay activist-politicians like Dean Trantalis, Ken
Keechl
and Justin Flippen have used the Dolphins as a launching pad for their
political
careers; and our community has been the better for it. I have been a
member of the Dolphin Democrats since the early days and have nothing
but
affection and respect for the women and men who lead that organization.
Unquestionably, the Dolphin Democrats are a big success. In fact,
too successful; so successful in fact that it’s almost aair out of Broward’s queer political life. There was a time when our
community was led by independent, non-partisan political advocacy
groups like the Broward County Coalition for Human Rights, the Tuesday Night
Group,
GUARD (Gays United to Attack Repression and Discrimination) and the
“PAC-PAC.” Today the only alternative we have to the Dolphins are the
equally partisan (but less successful) Log Cabin Republicans and
Sunshine
Republicans.
are still dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, and cap and trade is still a
long way
off. Obama and the Democratic Party have disillusioned their friends,
energized their enemies, and alienated independents. he question
right now is not if the Dems will lose seats in Congress come November
but
whether or not the Republicans will gain enough seats to retake the
House and/or
the Senate. The Republicans are evil but the Democrats are incompetent;
and frankly I’d rather deal with evil than with incompetence.
Like too many other progressives, LGBT activists are sick and tiredJesse Monteagudo is a regular contributor to White Crane and the GayWisdom blog.
Sex & The City. Indeed.
Rock for Equality is a national event to demand equal Social Security benefits for LGBT Americans. This year there will be a rally on April 11th in Los Angeles to demand equal benefits for LGBT seniors.
Please join us in raising awareness about one of the most under recognized and harshly consequential issues in the LGBT movement! Join us at www.rockforequality.org