If I had to sum up this week in song, I'd choose "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley, in particular the chorus, "Does that make me crazy? Probably." This was the week that the crazies came to my blog.
I suppose it's my fault for encouraging them by either (a) attempting a dialogue or (b) posting about them. I finally had to walk away from a discussion after it got the point where I found myself actually splitting hairs over whether NARTH's recommending that bullying "not be stopped" was the same as advocating bullying. Then the people from He Intends Victory belatedly stumbled across my post about them, and confusion reigned. Just when I thought things couldn't get any crazier, or make me any crazier, I found out Karl Roves' dad was gay. Could the week get any crazier? Well...
- Go read that diary by Maria19Rodriguez -- Will the push to legalize gay-marriage by Liberal, slowly kill the democratic party? -- and then come talk to me about crazy.
- Fresh on the heels of recommending that schools let students ridicule their gender variant peers, NARTH turns around and whines about "gay intimidation tactics." You'd have to be crazy not to register the cognitive dissonance on that one.
- Fortunately, Good As You sets the record straight, so to speak. Once you get to the other side of the looking glass, you'll see that tolerance of those who are intolerant of you is the new intolerance. Crazy-making? No?
- NARTH engaged in a bit of revisionist history, by the way, but Ex-Gay Watch caught them in the act, caught a screen-grab of the original post, and pointed to the cached version (which is now apparently gone).
- Of course, nobody makes any noise about "christian intimidation tactics" when a group of god-fearing folks attacks a gay & lesbian gathering (by mail, mind you). That would be crazy. Besides, it was a gathering of gay & lesbian humanists.
- Where's Michael Moore when you need him?
- Then there was the charity in the UK that was attacked for urging teachers to urging the government to do more to fight homophobic bullying after noticing that homophobic bullying was the most common single problem cited by kids calling the organization's help-line, but is ignored by their teachers. They've managed to get get some government action, but I guess they really should have just ridiculed the kids and hung up. Right? Crazy? No?
- Doing the right thing can make you crazy too. Like supporting a high school student's right to hand out religious literature about homosexuality, if other students can hand out literature supporting the Day of Silence. Well, if supporting the other secures the former...
- Talk about crazy. How about PETA attacking a scientist who's exploring the biology sexual behavior, including homosexuality? PETA on the same side as Focus on the Family?
- If PETA needs something to do, maybe they can check out what's in the Potomac River that's causing male bass fish to lay eggs.
- PETA might want to be careful about the ideological company it keeps, lest it end up reaching the same degree of relevance -- like the splintering Christian Coalition.
- In other religious news, it looks like Conservative Judaism may be headed for a schism, as debate rages over whether to end a ban on gay ordination and same-sex marriages. Stephen Miller at Independent Gay Forum doesn't think it's such a bad thing. Oh well, at least the Episcopalians won't be the only ones going the schism route.
- And at least one Baptist church may fall into the same category. The Woodside Baptist Church in Flint, Michigan is finding itself virtually excommunicated by other baptist churches in the region, five years after deciding to open its doors to everyone regardless of orientation.
- Crazy? "Ex-gays" now have their own television show. Out gays have whole networks now, so I guess "ex-gays" can have one show.
- Gay celebrity news got a little crazy too, with reports (and pictures) of John Travolta kissing another guy. I first saw this one in a grocery store tabloid (yes, I read them while I'm in line). Maybe the rumors about him are true. Or maybe it's part of his preparation for the film version of the Broadway musical version of John Waters' Hairspray. After all, it takes some work to fill Divine's pumps.
- In the realm of out gay celebrities, Lance Bass's boyfriend Reichen Leymkuh has written a book attacking the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. Meanwhile, women bear the brunt of discharges under DADT, and Argentina is preparing to repeal its ban on gays in the military. Unfortunately Rep. Meehan's attempt to repeal the ban is going nowhere fast.
- Gale Harold isn't gay, but Queerty points out that the Fox network would rather you didn't know that he used to play gay on television. Harold's role on Showtime's Queer as Folk was missing from his bio for Fox's Vanished earlier this week, but it's back now.
- We lost a celebrity this week. Willi Ninja, of Paris is Burning fame, died due to AIDS-related heart failure this week. Willi raised vogueing to an art form. And, no, Madonna didn't invent it. She just sold it, which is something different.
- As long as we're in New York, you probably heard the brouhaha about ABC's 9/11 "Mockumentary." Well it turns out the gay 9/11 movie isn't must-see-TV either. If you want a good 9/11 flick with a gay sensibility, I recommend Saint of 9/11, the documentary about Fr. Mychal Judge, the gay priest who was killed by falling debris on 9/11 while ministering to first responders in his capacity as Chaplain of the NYC Fire Department. Just the excerpt I saw this week had me bawling.
- Speaking of movies, Ellen (no surname required, right?) is hosting the Oscars.
- Speaking of lesbian talk-show hosts, Rosie is back on the tube and dispensing potty training advice. Look for a future match of wits between Rosie and the conservative co-host on The View. My money's on Rosie.
- We got another one married off too. The "only gay in the village" is now off the market.
- You didn't think we were done with marriage. Did you? This AlterNet column by a straight woman supporting same-sex marriage is an uplifting read, and a reminder that domestic partnerships and civil unions still leave much to be desired.
- If that last bit was encouraging, check this conservative judge who inveighs against Virginia's anti-gay marriage amendment in the Washington Post. And, yeah, I took some pleasure in hearing this judge make some of the same arguments I've made against amendments like that one. Maybe it means I'm not completely crazy.
- Not to rain on the parade, but QueerNotes asks some worthwhile questions on the gay marriage dilemma for progressives. Like "By voting for anti-gay conservative Democrats, aren't we helping to push the Democratic Party further to the right? How will our continued support (vote) for these conservative Democrats make the Democratic Party more progressive???" If anybody's got an answer for that one -- that I'll understand, that is -- I'd like to hear it too. Or maybe the reality is that the party is going to become more conservative no matter one, either because it has to or because it thinks it has to.
- Hey, even Republicans can run too far to the right. The far right candidate for governor of Florida -- ran heavily on a platform of denying gays & lesbians any legal recognition of their relationships -- lost his primary.
- Plus, opposition to Virginia's amendment is on the rise. Not necessarily enough to defeat it, but an encouraging sign nonetheless.
- I'd sum up the rest of the marriage-related news from the states, but Towleroad has already done that with a round-up including Colorado, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Virginia.
- In other family-related state news, Good As You notes that Arkansas' Child Welfare Agency Review Board has decided not to challenge the state Supreme Court ruling that declared the state's ban on gay foster parents unconstitutional.
- Maryland may be one step closer to electing it's first black gay legislators next week. They're not in my district, but I will be casting my primary votes for our next gay state senator and our first transgender legislator, for sure.
- Speaking of black and gay, check out this guest post on Keith's blog: Which is it: Black Gay or Gay Black? My answer is paraphrased from a quote out of Marlon Riggs's Tongues Untied: that's like asking me which I value more, my left nut or my right.
- Of course, being gay can lose you your job, no matter if it comes before or after black. At least that seems to be the case for a lesbian who used to work as Morehouse.
- Seattle may get a gay state representative, now that a Democrat running for the state senate has endorsed a gay candidate to take his seat.
- Democrats in Illinois selected a gay candidate to replace the state's first gay legislator, who will retire after finishing this term.
- A gay Republican state senator in Minnesota -- who joined last year joined Democrats to oppose an effort to force a vote on an anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution, and subsequently came out -- is fighting to keep his seat in the face of a primary challenger who's subtly making orientation an issue.
- Arnold Schwarzeneggar signed one gay rights bill and vetoed another.
- Across the pond, gays in Ghana and Iraq are under attack.
- Cambodia passed a bill mandating up to one year in jail for adulterers, which prompted a walkout by opposing legislators. Gay Orbit muses that a similar bill would get the same reception here. Probably.
- South Africa's gay marriage bill has hit a snag, but it looks like legislators will move ahead with hearings. More than we can say for the U.S. And if the reality that the former land of apartheid may take a giant leap ahead of the U.S. in the realm of equality isn't enough to make you crazy? Well, perhaps nothing is.
Oh, and Karl loved his gay dad so much that he fought to keep that part out of the book. I guess the thought of loosing some conservative "street cred" for loving his gay dad made him, well, crazy.
That's all I got folks. After this week, I may repeat my decision last weekend to keep blog reading at a minimum until Monday. There's only so much craziness one can take in before some of it starts to stick. Besides, now that we're officially waiting to be selected as adoptive parents for our second baby, I might as well start getting used to spending a little less time online. Right?
If there's anything I missed or that you think simply must be in next week's round-up, or if you just want to be added to the email list to get an alert when the next round-up is posted, drop me an email.
Peace!
Crossposted from The Republic of T.