Some photos, thoughts and Flickr pics I'm reflecting upon today. I shouldn't get this personal, but in a way, Gay Pride Day is like a religious holy day and must be celebrated in a personal as well as communal way.
On the left are three pictures taken of a wedding (mine) in Oct, 1998. It was a BIG gay wedding. So much so, in fact, that it was used as a video backdrop during an election! That's Patricia Nell Warren (center, top) reading from her book, The Front Runner. The cake was cut in a reception for 160+ people at the Green Room of the War Memorial Building.That was light years ago. The man I married is now my "ex" and I'm now his caregiver (cancer). He has a wonderful, helping partner.
Gay Pride Week in San Francisco. For one week, the city of San Francisco swells by more than a million people. They frolic, they attend the International Gay Film Festival at the Castro Theater, first-timers take millions of pictures. And if aren't gay? So what? The people and the parade will always be fun. Why is San Francisco so special to so many people? Why does it seem, in a way, like making a pilgrimage?
Why not New York? After all, that's where the Stonewall riots were that sparked the gay freedom movement. To me, the reason lies in one word: compassion. And true compassion means total, unequivocal acceptance.
When I first came to SF in the Stone Age (the '70s) I quickly realized why so many gay people were coming here: not for the cable cars, the beautiful views, the weather. They came here not because San Francisco was so good, but because most other places were so bad for them. SF was attractive, to be sure, but the real magnet to the city was the fact that people could come here and be accepted. Not questioned. Not pre-judged. Not merely "tolerated." Accepted.
Then the AIDS crisis hit and San Francisco's compassion went into much-needed over-drive. Within a year of the first diagnosis, San Francisco had developed several forerunners to today's AIDS agencies. By 1990, PWAs were coming to San Francisco from around the country. It was the same reason they came in the '70s: compassion. They came to be treated here. They came learn more about AIDS here.They came to die here with dignity.
So San Francisco is the place to celebrate Pride. It's also the place where we can stand back and look at the rest of the country. Most of the time, however, the picture we see is not very encouraging. Oh, we can see how far gay civil rights has come in the past 40 years, but take a closer look: see how many enemies have sprouted in 40 years, how many lies and how many speeches filled with hate we've had to endure. For every right we fight for, there's an organization eager to fight us. Mostly it's religious. Some just plain hatred of people who are "different". Gays are the convenient scapegoat for just about every ill that surfaces. They are the "alien," the "heathen," the "outcast."
A video just surfaced that encompasses all those words. In it, a gay teen is being "exorcised" of a "gay demon." According to reports, the teen writhed on the floor for a full twenty minutes, vomited and (possibly) had a seizure. Two videos about the exorcism. One could be embedded, but one couldn't. To see the one from CNN, click HERE. It's more telling. The interview with the church's "pastor" was a prime indication of how backward much of America truly is. It looks like the event is happening in the rural South. Surprise! It's in Connecticut! The pastor of a storefront church (congregation: 25) seems barely literate. I know that someone somewhere will cite me for racism here, but don't bother. I lived in the ghetto too long to go that route. This is purely a congregation led by a pastor who went to a Bible-Thumper college (if at all). A pastor who believes that a "spirit" lives in everything and that since homosexuality is a sin, the "Gay Spirit" is evil and will lead us to hell. It is a demon to be cast out.
This is what we are surrounded with. This is why we need protection. Scary, but true.
I'm not fear-mongering. In these days of the Family Research Council, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Rod Parsley, Paul Crouch, Fred Phelps, Concerned Women of America, and Pope Benedict XVI, we need to do more than just watch our backs. We need to be more vigilant than ever.
Next, Rush had "one more thing" to say about the Sanford affair. He explained that people were telling him that the Republican Party needs to get rid of social issues because it is seen as hypocrisy in situations like this. But Rush rejected this idea. Instead, Rush argued that "society needs hypocrisy." This actually went on for a few minutes, with Rush essentially making the case that hypocrisy helps preserve morality more effectively that "moral equivalency" does, which is what liberals try to impose on society.
So, let's get this (ahem) straight: we NEEDED Strom Thurmod to have a black mistress all the time he was voting against civil rights bills.We NEEDED Jimmy Swaggart. We NEEDED Ted Haggard. And we NEED Mark Stanford. In fact, we NEEDpedophile preachers!
from the Southern Baptist Rules and Bylaws just passed two days ago:
Religious Liberty
Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. …A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal.
So I guess that we NEED a Southern Baptist minister/politician like Mike Huckabee.
But this, of course, shows that the SBC has some scruples left:
Among churches not in friendly cooperation with the Convention are churches which knowingly act to affirm, approve, endorse, promote, support or bless homosexual behavior. The Board of Directors shall apply this provision. Any decision by the Board of Directors shall be final; provided that a church has a right to request the Convention in annual session to reconsider the Board of Directors’ decision that such church is not in friendly cooperation with the Convention.
Limbaugh wants everyone to replace the phrase "The Devil made me do it" with "Obama made me do it." If he can blame Marks Sanford's infidelity on Obama, then it's an open field out there (or so he thinks).
I was late for an appointment today. San Francisco's municipal transit has been crap for thirty-five years
For Some It's Their Luminous Lives, But For Some... It's Their DEATH
Laura Baron, Chicago News:
Celebrity death is big business. We live in a tabloid generation that's consumed by it –- death of celebritys' relationships, sobriety, financial security, etc. Millions of people subscribe to and support publications dishing that brand of celebrity smut.Farrah Fawcett-Majors and Michael Jackson were two very famous people with two vastly different personalities, yet they will be joined together by a national addiction: exploitation. The proof of this may come in a matter of days. Hell, it may even come in a matter of minutes: it will be interesting to see who puts out the t-shirts first, whose book sales skyrocket, which publisher can cobble together a book faster, which celebrity can first sponsor a "tribute," and even which company can start manufacturing the Halloween costumes first. It is now 2:03 AM (PT). Cafe Press, the online store for outrageous t-shits that you can "make yourself" already has a "I will always love Farrah" t-shirt along with a "My Kool Jack Son 1958-2009" . How many hours have past? What superior brains thought up these money-making schemes?
Tabloid headlines will be planned out for the next six months.Even the people who denegrated them will be acting fast to cash in on the first wave of mourners and detrators. The Christian Right will be spouting it's generic sermons of:"Farah only realized in her last hours that beauty was only skin deep. We hope she came to the realization that only God matters.""Michael Jackson was a sad, talented, confused person who never prayed. We should hope that he made his peace with God before then."
We just got our hands on a letterRyan O'Neal's lawyer fired off to the guy who ran a Farrah Fawcett website, demanding that he stop pretending it's her official site and then asking for money.
Greg Lott -- who claims to have been Farrah's high school sweetheart -- has been writing brutal posts about Ryan, claiming he's been running around with other women while Farrah was sick and making all sorts of drug allegations.
And the articles, quips. digs, and even lionization will continue for Jackson.
Too bad the exploitation business will got on and on while its victims are being portrayed in whatever light it chooses.
Manipulation and exploitation by the media are like cockroaches as they, and they alone, will survive Amargeddon.
When all is said and done, it is an act of coercion and destruction, as well as an attempt to foist values upon a community that does not necessarily share them.
(Author's Note: This post went from reporting about a three-ring circus to a trilogy about book censorship. Why? #1: Having been in publishing and the media for over 25 years, I have a strong respect for free speech and books; #2: I abhor censorship, especially book-burning; #3: I like exposing homophobia, hypocrisy and bigotry - It's fun!)
Chapter 1
Only Christofascists would be stupid enough to sue a library to burn a book.
A book that's been out of print for the last ten years. A book that is not sexually explicit. A book that is destined to make West Bend, WI. famous - for all the wrong reasons.
The book is a slim young adult novel titled Baby Be-Bop, by Francesca Lia Block, about a teenager who's beaten up by his classmates because he's gay. A copy of the book sat languishing on the West Bend Community Memorial Library's shelves until a group of individuals and a suspect organization called the Christian Civil Liberties Union (CCLU - not very original) picked it because they had an axe of bigotry to grind.
Not one of the articles I've read so far has stated that any of the plaintiffs have actually read the book.
Dumb.
from American Libraries (magazine of the ALA):
For the immediate future, West Bend officials will be dealing with the CCLU’s legal claim. Describing the YA novel by celebrated author Francesca Lia Block as “explicitly vulgar, racial, and anti-Christian,” the complaint by Braun, Joseph Kogelmann, Rev. Cleveland Eden, and Robert Brough explains that “the plaintiffs, all of whom are elderly, claim their mental and emotional well-being was damaged by this book at the library,” specifically because Baby Be-Bop contains the “n” word and derogatory sexual and political epithets that can incite violence and “put one’s life in possible jeopardy, adults and children alike.”
As one article brought to light: "...Why didn't someone simply check the book out and not return it?" Why not? Probably because someone wanted to make a statement along with a little money on the side ($120,000 for "compensatory damages").
"Mental and emotional well-being?" WTF? Millions of elderly are probably wondering what their comrades in West Bend do for fun - watch grass grow? I've got friends twenty years older than I am who couldn't fathom why someone, anyone, would sit around being distraught over a book they've never read, a book that's gathering dust on the shelves of the local library.
Chapter 2
The real stupidity of the situation lies in the fact that the CCLU garnered enough publicity for the book to promote sales:
from unifreethought.com:
As always Francesca Lia Block will see a swell in book sales of her Dangerous Angels series that Baby Be Bop is a part of. It also looks like MTV is going to be bringing the main character, Weetzie Bat, to the big screen after Block finishes her work on writing the screen play for the series.
I haven't been able to document it yet, but my suspicion is that Rev. Cleveland Eden is a minister of the Southern Baptist variety. The CCLU is also suspect: no website, no article in wikipedia.com, no information. Nothing. Was it trumped up solely for this case? Is a pastor cruising the local hospital and nursing home to get some notoriety?
And just to show that bigotry hasn't changed much in 51 years:
Francis J. Lally, Monsignor - interviewed by Mike Wallace, 1958:
The Church doesn't believe in book-burning, but it believes in restricting the use of dangerous books among those whose minds are unprepared for them... The Church has through the centuries, understood that ideas are really more dangerous than other weapons. Their use should be restricted.
And here's a wonderful video of West Bend's righteous arrogance:
"Tis a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing."
- The Scottish Play - Wm Shakespeare.
Chapter 3
Does the Christian Civil Liberties Union actually exist?
I've spent the better part of three days through search engines, news bureaus, websites, and blogs. I searched: Baby Be-bop, West Bends, Wisc., Francesca lia Block, Christian Civil Liberties Union, American Christian Liberties Union, Reverend Cleveland Eden. I looked abroad at Britain's The Freethinker (one of the best headlines so far: Fundie fools seek damages for being exposed to ‘vulgar, anti-Christian’ novel) Result: The "Milwaukee branch" of the Christian Civil Liberties Union doesn't seem to exist. Probably because the Christian Civil Liberties Union doesn't seem to exist. The closest I could come:
From Manta (listing of small businesses)Business Information:This company profile is for the private company American Christian Civil Liberties Union , located in Olathe, KS. American Christian Civil Liberties Union's line of business is individual/family services. Company Name: American Christian Civil Liberties Union Address: 915 S Parker St, Olathe, KS 66061-4262 Location Type: Single Location Est. Annual Sales: $51,000 Est. # of Employees: 2 Est. Empl. at Loc.: 2 Year Started: 2005 Contact's Name: West Yourk Contact's Title: Director NAICS: Other Individual and Family Services
A West Bend reader writes: "First, the CCLU, may be 'local' from a national perspective, but actually is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and consists of four right-wing, fundamentalist Christians who claim they were personally harmed because a copy of 'Baby Be-Bop' is in the West Bend library, 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee.
"Second, the petitions mentioned in the article involved an entirely separate issue being debated in West Bend that the CCLU used to piggyback their likely frivolous lawsuit to draw attention to themselves.
In an interview yesterday, West Bend Library Director Michael Tyree said that of the four men who have filed the lawsuit, only one of them lives in West Bend - and that man doesn't have a library card on file.
Chapter 4
Right-wing radio leaps into the fray.
The culprits in this hilarious farce are Ginny and Jim Maziarka, two local residents with an axe to grind. Besides being homophobes, they also seem to be bibliophobes. Ginny Maziarka has a blog called WISSUP (Wisconsin Speaks Up). It's full of fun things to do in Milwaukee, but it stops short of listing gay bashing as one of them. If you click on one of the items on her sidebar, you'll note that the Maziarkas have enlisted the aid of Miwaukee's radio premier conservative newstalk jock.
When you listen to the podcast of Mark Belling on his WISN newstalk radio show, Standing Up for Milwaukee, you realize that he's bucking for a Glenn Beck/Rush Limbaugh audience - and while he doesn't name Baby Be-bop specifically, he states that the young adult books of West Bend's library are "very lurid" books and that he couldn't read "this filth" on the show.
Mark is one of the best known local talk show hosts in America. He has been a guest host on America’s most listened to radio program, The Rush Limbaugh Show.
The plaintiffs want a grand jury to determine whether the book should be declared obscene and whether making it available is a hate crime.
WTF!??!People who would vote against hate crimes legislation want libraries that make available books criticizing Christians to be prosecuted for hate crimes!
A group calling themselves West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries, associated with a national fundamentalist Christian, anti-gay movement called Safe Libraries, wants books containing sexual references moved from the young adult section to the adult section and labels sexually explicit material. They also want more restrictions on the library's access to the Internet, and a link to a list of gay-themed books removed from the Library's Website.
So there you have the whole mind-boggling mess (with particularly stupid points in red):
Two concerned right-wing parents attempt to ban or relocate gay young-adult novels at their local library.
The library refuses to ban or relocate any books.
The parents pick out one novel which has been out of print for over ten years.
The commotion catches the attention of a nebulous right-wing group called Christian Civil Liberties Union. The CCLU starts a lawsuit against the library. Coincidentally, the CCLU seems to be made up of the plaintiffs in the suit. The suit demands $120,000 for "compensatory damages" focusing on "emotional" and "mental" distress brought about by the mere presence of the book in the library. Only one of the plaintiffs lives in West Bend, WI. And he does NOT have a library card.
Local support for the parents and the CCLU is garnered through a right-wing radio talk show host.
Further commotion ensues when the CCLU announces that the suit will also specify that the presence of the book constitutes a hate crime.
The backlash spawns: a parent's free speech group; support for the library, especially from the American Library Association; notoriety on internet blogs and some mainstream media; the book's award-winning being slated to write the book's screenplay for MTV.
So, the underlying question brought out by all of this:
Library censorship has been alive ever since Christian zealots burned the Great Library of Alexandria in 391 CE.* So its not surprising that a movie was made about library censorship and has some subtle parallels to today's West Bend circus act. The movie was Storm Center. Its star was Bette Davis. The meme at the time (1956) was Communism since it was made at the tail end of the McCarthy era. Davis was remarkable in the role of a librarian who refused to take a book about Communism off the shelves. In the scene below, she gives her favorite youth a bitch-slapping like you wouldn't believe, but one that even James Dobson might approve of ...if he were to be publicly rebuked by an eight-year-old.
*Regarded as one of the greatest disasters to befall knowledge, some 400,000 scrolls were lost - works collected from all of western civilization - because they were housed in a building (the Serapeum) that had been a temple.
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.
Mark Twain
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