Tony-award winning playwright, Jeff Whitty (he wrote the book to Avenue Q), took Jay Leno to task a few years back for Leno's ongoing fag jokes. Well, Leno is back to the fag-bashing. And Jeff is back to hold him accountable. Read what Jeff has to say - he's right.
The murder of Michael Sandy in Brooklyn last year was heinous. A group of thugs arranged on the Internet to meet him for sex, then attacked Sandy, who fled into traffic on the Belt Parkway and was hit by a car. Four were involved, with the youngest assailant, who was only 17; he has since flipped on the rest of his friends.
Now one of the defendants, Michael Fortunato, is on trial for the murder and is claiming that he's gay, and that the rendezvous with Sandy was a ploy designed by Fortunato to out himself to his friends. This is sick BS. (NYT):
All along, homosexuality has defined the case. Prosecutors have used it as a sword, seeking heavier sentences for a hate crime.
As the trial began in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday, Mr. Fortunato’s lawyer, Gerald J. Di Chiara, sought to use sexual orientation as a shield. Without much explanation of how he planned to introduce this fact or turn it to his advantage, Mr. Di Chiara offered it to the jury in his opening argument. Not only was Mr. Fortunato gay, Mr. Di Chiara said, but so was the main prosecution witness, Gary Timmins, 17, who has pleaded guilty to attempted robbery in exchange for his testimony.
In fact, Mr. Di Chiara continued, Mr. Fortunato had planned to tell his friends of his sexual orientation on the night in question. Luring a gay man out to a secluded lot in Sheepshead Bay was part of that plan, Mr. Di Chiara said.
...Mr. Fortunato, he said, might have planned to smoke marijuana with Mr. Sandy as a means of testing his friends’ sentiments about homosexuality. Or, he said, perhaps Mr. Fortunato had wanted to swindle a gay man, to see how his friends reacted to a gay person. Or, he said, perhaps Mr. Fortunato had simply wanted to rob somebody.
According to the New York Daily News, investigators recovered a cache of homoerotic images and messages from Fortunato's computer.
If anyone had any doubt that the closet can kill, here we see the answer that blows doubt away. This young man thought that he could prove his machismo to his friends by fag-bashing and robbery. Nothing could be worse than being gay.
The prosecutor, Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, said the plot was hatched by Fortunato, who told his friends, "You could always get a gay guy to meet you," and trolled a chat room called "Brooklyn Man 4 Man" for a victim. Fortunato boasted he had ripped off a gay man he had lured to a motel in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, she said.
Only when faced with additional jail time because of the status Sandy’s murder as a hate crime was Fortunato ready to come out of the closet. I seriously doubt that he would have told his friends that he was gay if they had been successful in simply robbing or beating up Sandy that night. The self-loathing obviously ran deep. In the end, this defense cannot possibly succeed in deflecting the fact that it’s a hate crime. As a reader aptly pointed out, the basis for the assignment of a charge of a hate crime is the intent of the accused, not the identity/orientation of the accused.
The latest bleating is from Ja Rule, who must be in need of some publicity. It's too bad that whatever meaningful message he was trying to get across about racism is polluted by his ignorance, and a ridiculous, sad, crotch-grabbing assertion of his manhood by blaming gays for the downfall of the country. The irony of that is quite stunning. (Complex.com):
C: Did you see that report about Congress preparing to hold hearings?? Ja: (interrupts) Yeah, they got my man Doug Morris under fire and shit, they got him going down to go speak to Congress about hip-hop lyrics, are you fucking serious? There's a fucking black kid right now about to get 25 years for having a fight with some white kids over hanging the nooses over the white tree, lets get to that. Let's get into shit like that, because that's what's tearing up America, not me calling a woman a bitch or a hoe on my rap songs. And if it is, then we need to go step to Paramount, and fucking MGM, and all of these other motherfuckers that's making all of these movies and we need to go step to MTV and Viacom, and lets talk about all these fucking shows that they have on MTV that is promoting homosexuality, that my kids can't watch this shit. Dating shows that's showing two guys or two girls in mid afternoon. Let's talk about shit like that! If that's not fucking up America, I don't know what is. There's a lot of issues we can address besides hip-hop, but they want to put everything on us like we're the problem. But see, and this is going to be a shameless fucking plug, but I said, "when everyone wants to point the finger, and ask why there's so much corruption, they only need to look in the mirror." It starts with themselves.
Factoid -- Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, hails from Hollis, Queens, NYC, a neighborhood I lived in for several years as a kid -- the days of old-school rap (Run-D.M.C., also from Hollis).
Anti-gay Mayor Jim "$250K robo-potty" Naugle has so polarized matters in Fort Lauderdale that press conferences and demonstrations are getting tense, according to Jeff Black of UNITE Fort Lauderdale, which sponsored a Faith Press Conference the other day, featured speakers from many denominations and religions to discuss unity, inclusiveness, and acceptance.
Inclusiveness was not on the agenda on Tuesday as members of homophobic black churches, stood with Mayor Naugle at City Hall preaching they are going to take back the city, removing the sin and sinners. Religious men -- in paramilitary gear -- were also standing aside the mayor bleating that "the depth of sexual sin in Broward County necessitates an old-fashioned spiritual revival." From Jeff's email to me:
They escorted me from the front door to the elevator when I entered the building today for this press conference, and stood 'post' at the elevator lobby. The video is frightening, worse was I was standing in the room with these people and worried what was going to happened next.
Elder Mathes Guice of the Koinonia Worship Center in Pembroke Park said the county tourist council's targeted marketing to gay visitors "led the spiritual community on a collision course with Satan.'' He said "we have no other choice but to step up and do the right thing'' by holding the revival.
"We love the homosexual people,'' said the Rev. O'Neal Dozier of Pompano Beach. "We find them to be precious people. We want them saved.''
One clergyman was not impressed.
"I'm going to be ill if we don't get out of here soon,'' said Archbishop Bruce Simpson, who traveled from Pennsylvania to talk about the mayor at a news conference scheduled Wednesday evening at City Hall. Simpson is the author of "The Gay Face of God.''
UNITE Fort Lauderdale hasn't heard of Naugle's new friends from Koinonia Worship Center before, so Jeff Black tried to find out more about it. From the rest of his letter:
As an organizer of the Unity Press Conference and Prayer Vigil, representing inclusive faiths, I spoke with Major Carter of the FLDP last night and after Mayor Naugle paraded this new group out in front of the Mayor's offices and lobby. Major Carter was concerned and is now increasing the police presence at the gathering of clergy at 5:15 this evening.
I've never heard to this group before, the ones in military dress. They concern me a great deal. When I entered City Hall yesterday evening to observe the press conference the Mayor had called with them. Two of them escorted me from the front doors on the north side of the building to the elevators and then stood and took up 'posts' in the elevator lobby.
I tried to find out information on the group but was only able to find a MySpace profile which included an audio track. The audio track is of a military leader talking to a subordinate and explaining how they are in the battle to take back what they have lost for the black man while in the background you hear gun fire and battle sounds.
What I'm hearing on this page is scary. "Special OPS (operations) Units" of the church. References to "Exercising Spiritual Authority"?
The audio on the page sounds like a lot of bloviating hot air to me, but why on earth is Naugle associating with fringe churches like this? What a PR nightmare for Fort Lauderdale. The local Tourism Board, which booted Naugle from its board for his unyielding, loony vitriol toward the gay community, has to be roiling as the situation continues to unravel before the media.
Sigh. Poor Michael Medved of Town Hall. He bloviates in his column that lifting Don't Ask, Don't Tell will result in an explosion of toe-tapping cruising in the latrines.
Imagine the impact on morale and unit cohesion if two guys from the same barracks engaged in toe-tapping hanky-panky (and perhaps much more) while occupying adjacent bathroom stalls in the military facilities?
Of course, advocates for gays in the military will insist that any such indulgence would involve a violation of the rules, with offenders facing stiff, severe consequences. But the impact of gay GI’s on bathroom atmospherics doesn’t just stem from the real chance of actual sex acts in the latrine, it involves whole sexualization of one of the most frequented and important conveniences on any base.
Does he not realize that Larry Craig has said he's not gay, and that the Atlanta police department found that the majority of men busted in his stings are married with kids? How, exactly then, will DADT prevent bathroom hookups if self-proclaimed heterosexuals are engaging in public, anonymous homosex? If you read on, it's clear the level of Medved's projection that he will be the target of amorous toe-tapping is, well, extreme.
The problem isn’t just the chance of molestation, it’s the radical change of mood and sensibility if you know you may be checked out as a sex object at a very private moment (of urination or defecation) when most normal people prefer to avoid any and all thoughts of physical intimacy.
...The national shudder of discomfort and queasiness associated with any introduction of homosexual eroticism into public men’s rooms should make us more determined than ever to resist the injection of those lurid attitudes into the even more explosive situation of the U.S. military.
Oh, please. How does the desire to serve one's country without being in the closet now turn into an orgy of bathroom sex? It's about the inappropriate nature and location of a sex act, not the orientation, Medved.
If Craig thinks he's straight and has to cruise public restrooms for same-sex encounters, it says more about homophobia and the pathology of the closet driving men like him to engage in this kind of public, anonymous, illicit behavior, particularly because of the deceit and the pain it causes their families.
You've got to be kidding me. On Meet the Press, GOP "sage" Mike Murphy, who has been on the payrolls of John McCain and Mitt Romney, decided to blow off some steam about all the fallout from the sexual hypocrisy of anti-gay pols in his party by blaming the messenger -- bloggers who dare to talk about or reveal the dual lives of legislators and elected officials that work hard to deny civil equality to LGBT citizens, while trolling for same-sex encounters or who are on their second, third (and counting) "sacred" marriages. (NBC):
MR. SHRUM: ...people are going to laugh if these wonderful family values candidates like Giuliani and Thompson get up there and start talking about these issues.
MR. MURPHY: Yeah, but there’s an ugliness in all this, too. I, I think Craig is an unsympathetic figure. But there has been this case of bloggers on the far left trying to expose closeted politicians if they don’t fall completely into lockstep with a certain liberal gay agenda. And I think that’s unfair. It’s a form of McCarthyism, really.
MR. SHRUM: Don’t you think the ugliness was voting against the hate crimes bill, as Craig did...
MR. MURPHY: No, no, no, but what Dems do is...
MR. SHRUM: ...and then going into a men’s bathroom...
MR. MURPHY: This is -- no, it’s...
MR. SHRUM: ...and soliciting a police officer?
MR. MURPHY: Of course, that was ugly, but, but the point is, there is a tendency to apply an identity politics test now, which, which has a real chilling effect on politics, that somebody’s private life has--or their, their race or their gender or their orientation--has to dictate where they stand politically. If you’re a woman, you have to be a pro-choice Democrat. I mean, that calculation cheapens politics, and it’s unfair to people in public life who do have private lives.
Talk about hypocrites. Where do you begin? No one is saying Larry Craig needed to support gay rights. As a far-right conservative elected on a "family values" agenda, it's pretty clear that he wasn't going to be on our side of the issues. What isn't acceptable is for the man to be out trolling for sex with men in a restroom, then heading off to the Senate floor to vote against taxpaying LGBT citizens. If a pol cannot reconcile his sexual desires, is full of self-loathing and takes it out on others who are able to separate sex acts from sexual orientation, IMHO that pol isn't psychologically stable enough be given such legislative power to vote on such matters. The public does have an interest in the sexual hypocrisy of legislators as long as their efforts continue to legislate against the privacy rights of individuals and deny civil rights to a group of citizens.
They need to stop peeping and leering into our bedrooms and get to the business of solving this country's real problems.
James Carville was also on MTP; he brings up the GOP's eager drop-kick of the loyal conservative Larry Craig:
Ah, schadenfreude.
MR. RUSSERT: James Carville, in 1999 Larry Craig was on this program talking about William Jefferson Clinton, the president of the United States, and his behavior. This is the way Senator Craig talked about the president.
(Videotape, January 24, 1999)
SEN. CRAIG: And I will tell you that the Senate certainly can bring about a censure resolution, and it's a slap on the wrist. It's a "Bad boy, Bill Clinton, you're a naughty boy." The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, a naughty boy. I'm going to speak out for the citizens of my state who, in the majority, think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.
(End videotape)
MR. JAMES CARVILLE: You know, I've said many times that those who are not willing to give pardon and mercy are those that don't need pardon and mercy. Clearly, Senator Craig is not one of these people, nor, I suspect, is anybody on this television set or are very few people like that. And I couldn't -- I remember that, as you remember a lot of things. And I remember that people know the way that he, he used gays in, in terms of gay marriage or gays in the military. He was very, very far out there. And I think the American public has really sort of turned against this kind of thing, and I think he was exposed for being the kind of hypocrite that he was. By the same token, you could not look at that event yesterday and be a human being and not feel sorry for that man, to some extent, and feel sorry for his family. But, you know, the, the message here is just shut your mouth and lead the life. And I think that's what the American people want, want, want people to do.
What I found extraordinary about this is nobody came out and defended this guy. I mean, nobody said, "He's a good man, done a bad thing." "Here's a decent guy who's obviously been struggling with a problem." "Here's somebody who"-- I mean, nobody. No Republican, no, no, no, no operative, no journalist. Nobody said, "Well, Larry Craig's got nothing." And I mean, they didn't throw him under the bus, they hit him with the bus. I mean, he's like, boom! Flattened him.
Yes. All of Larry's friends, those fellow back-slapping pols, rushed for the exits as fast as they could.
[UPDATE: See below. Carlson responded to Media Matters, but his story has changed. Now he says he and his friend merely "held" the man who came on to him as opposed to his macho claim on the air that he "grabbed him, and ... hit him against the stall with his head."]
The MSNBC host has serious masculinity issues. He said that Obama "seems like kind of a wuss" and "It makes you wonder what he won't compromise of himself. Are we going to have mani/pedi parties next?" because the presidential candidate belongs to a book club. More recently he went batsh*t on the air over a discussion about transgender issues when he fixated on gender reassignment surgery and the thought of his "boys" being removed.
Now he pitches a fit while discussing Larry Craig, relating to an incident he experienced in a public restroom. (Media Matters, which has video):
"Having sex in a public men's room is outrageous. It's also really common. I've been bothered in men's rooms." Carlson continued, "I've been bothered in Georgetown Park," in Washington, D.C., "when I was in high school." When Abrams asked how Carlson responded to being "bothered," Carlson asserted, "I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the -- you know, and grabbed him, and ... hit him against the stall with his head, actually."
Here's the video, with Joe Scarborough and Dan Abrams yukking it up with Tucker (the talk of the bashing is about 3 min in):
As I've noted before, Tucker has to deal with Freepers continually questioning his masculinity and sexual orientation; I guess it leaves him so wound up about his manhood that he can't simply tell the bathroom perv he's not interested. Think about it -- he came back with a friend to bash the guy. Nice.
Let me be clear about an incident I referred to on MSNBC last night: In the mid-1980s, while I was a high school student, a man physically grabbed me in a men's room in Washington, DC. I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men's room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I seized the man and held him until a security guard arrived.
Several bloggers have characterized this is a sort of gay bashing. That's absurd, and an insult to anybody who has fought back against an unsolicited sexual attack. I wasn't angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me.
You'd think the unnaturally homo-obsessed Mayor of Fort Lauderdale would have taken a breather from his 24/7 campaign to destroy tourism there, but sadly, Jim Naugle hasn't gotten the message. he's continuing to assert that there is an epidemic of gay male sex going on in the public beach restrooms.
After failing to convince the city to spend $250K on robo-toilets to prevent all the imaginary man-on-man action (the police can account for only two arrests in three years), he has gone on a public crusade that only further gives Fort Lauderdale a black eye.
For instance, the mayor recently held another press conference, this time flanked by fundies to promote "healthy public places" (video here and here). At his side:
* the Rev. O'Neal Dozier of Pompano Beach's Worldwide Christian Center ("Everyone, regardless of his place on the political spectrum, should agree that public sex-whether it be in parks, restrooms, department stores, or bathhouses - endangers lives and fuels the public health crisis we face in Broward."); * Dr. John Diggs of the Massachusetts Physicians Resource Council * infamous radio fundie Janet Folger of Faith2Action ("The mayor is doing what most families want. We don't want to be known as the AIDS capital in the country."); * Gary Cass, president of the Christian Anti-Defamation League * Pastor Willie McBride of Lauderdale Christian Center in Plantation.
Also in this HealthyPublicPlaces.com coalition supporting the mayor, some familiar names -- Americans for Truth, Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, Christian Interactive Network, Concerned Women for America, Coral Ridge Ministries, Faith2Action, Stephen Bennett Ministries, and the Worldwide Christian Center.
Diggs handed out copies of his discredited paper, "The Health Risks Of Gay Sex," which goes into details that they love to obsess over, with headings for "gay sex" such as Anal-genital, Oral-anal, Human Waste, Fisting, Sadism. Never mind that heterosexuals practice such things; that would ruin Diggs' party. Debunking of this paper can be found here.
Activist Anthony Niedwiecki was interviewed for the Sun-Sentinel article on the press conference wrote this about Diggs:
He basically attributed every sexually transmitted disease to men on men sex, including anal cancer (not a STD, but he repeatedly referred to this) and HPV. When asked by a reporter why they are not addressing the increase in HIV cases among African-American and Haitan-American heterosexual women, the population that has seen the highest increase in Broward over the past few years, he blamed it on gay men on the "down low". He essentially blamed gay men for every new disease out there and on every new incident of HIV transmission. As I told one reporter, I felt like it was August 21, 1985.
As Anthony noted, in Broward County women make up a third of HIV cases diagnosed in the past 10 years. It begs the question why this crowd is fixated on imaginary gay men having sex in a beach restroom, rather than communities where they need to focus their attention.
Fort Lauderdale ranks # 6 among gay vacationers last year -- and the demo represents 11% of the $8.5 billion that rolls into Broward County's coffers annually. Naugle is flushing it all away. The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau has been alarmed at the fallout from the homophobic mayor's tirades, and has sent out letters to try to stave off a boycott of the area.
According to Waymon Hudson of Fight Out Loud, on Thursday the tourism board shared with Naugle the blowback that is already occurring:
Board members said that each time the mayor speaks they receive hundreds of E-mails from potential visitors to Ft Lauderdale, saying they plan to take their money elsewhere. One board member said a 200-person group was scheduled to stay at a prominent hotel in Ft Lauderdale. In light of Naugle's comments, they have placed the reservation, along with $250,000 in revenue, on hold. These concerns have come from not only gay and lesbian travelers, but from other tourists as well. They have said they no longer see the Greater Fort Lauderdale area as a welcoming or safe place to travel.
What did Naugle say in response?
"I am the Mayor that's not going to back down. One of the things that my dad taught me is that it isn't always about the money, it's about doing what's right."
And he's going to take all of you folks in Fort Lauderdale down with him.
Many of you may have not heard of the National Black Justice Coalition. It's an organization that's working hard to counter the bigotry being fomented by the misguided, and oftentimes delusional rants of ministers and community leaders in the black community. It's a challenge to say the least when you have nonsense like this being promoted:
In addition to the damage that gay marriage does to the black family structure that is already under stress, legalization of gay marriage has the potential of endangering the next generation. -- Bishop Harry Jackson, in a March 12 Town Hall column, " Black Gays Aggressively Enlist in the Culture War"
You got blood vessels and membranes in your behind. And if you put something unnatural in there, it breaks them all up. No wonder your behind is bleeding. It's destroying us. Can't make no connection with a screw and another screw. The Bible says God made them male and female. The Hebrew word Negade, which means complimentary nature - there is something unique to man and unique to woman and it takes those two things to compliment each other. You can't make a connection with two screws. It takes a screw and a nut! (shouting)..." -- pastor of Union Temple Baptist Church in D.C. (and former mayoral candidate) Rev. Willie Wilson during a recorded sermon (there was applause from the pews).
An even more important goal of the NBJC is to empower the black LGBT community and work with allies to address myriad issues, such as health care, including HIV/AIDS policy and education.
The National Black Justice Coalition envisions a world where all people are fully empowered to participate safely, openly, and honestly in family, faith and community, regardless of race, gender-identity or sexual orientation.
Read more here, or watch the NBJC-TV video below.The NBJC's 2nd Leadership Conference & 3rd Annual Black Church Summit will be held April 24-26, 2008, with a plan to advance the cause of LGBT rights as the 2008 election nears, and there will be yet another push to co-opt community leaders by the bigoted evangelical right.
The NBJC also teamed with the Human Rights Campaign and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to produce this ad (click to enlarge), which appeared in Roll Call and USA Today in response to conservative black clergy.
The murder of Michael Sandy in Brooklyn last year was heinous. A group of thugs arranged on the Internet to meet him for sex, then attacked Sandy, who fled into traffic on the Belt Parkway and was hit by a car. Four were involved, with the youngest assailant, who was only 17; he has since flipped on the rest of his friends. 
Anti-gay Mayor Jim "$250K robo-potty" Naugle has so polarized matters in Fort Lauderdale that press conferences and demonstrations are getting tense, according to Jeff Black of 
Elder Mathes Guice of the Koinonia Worship Center in Pembroke Park said the county tourist council's targeted marketing to gay visitors "led the spiritual community on a collision course with Satan.'' He said "we have no other choice but to step up and do the right thing'' by holding the revival.
