Lakers and The NBA will work with GLAAD

 by Cyd Zeigler jr..

Just like Tim Hardaway’s “I hate gay people” years ago opened the door to opportunities, so has Kobe Bryant’s “fucking faggot” slur.GLAAD today has a joint statement with the Los Angeles Lakers and is announcing a cooperation with the NBA to undermine homophobia. Lakers spokesman John Black said:

What happened in Tuesday night’s game is not representative of what the Lakers stand for. We want to reaffirm our commitment to all our fans and our appreciation for the support we receive from all segments of society.  We also understand the importance of positive messages in helping us convey this.  We appreciate the input we’ve received from GLAAD the past two days and will look forward to working with them on ways to help educate ourselves and our fans, and to help keep language like this out of our game.

This is a strong step in the right direction. And that’s all we can keep pushing for now – Out of lemons you have to make lemonade. You also have to applaud GLAAD. While HRC simply took a phone call and pawned their president off on CNN, GLAAD has been busy doing the work. Good for them.

http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog

A Gay Mob by John Snow's pub that kicked out gay couple for kissing

A large protest of hundreds of people gathered outside the John Snow pub in Soho, central London earlier this evening in reaction to a gay couple being ejecting from the venue for kissing.

The protest-come-party, originally planned as a ‘gay kiss-in’ from within the venue, was re-located to outside the pub after the establishment’s management decided to close it for the day at 3pm.

One protester pinned a rainbow flag to the door frame of the pub, while others posted flyers of men in varying states of undress to the windows. Another man held a placard saying “I want to blow you all” in large letters with “(a small kiss)” written much smaller below.

Couples kissed, while others simply enjoyed the opportunity to party in the pleasant spring weather.

Human rights activist Peter Tatchell said :”Although much of London is gay-friendly, the apparent discrimination against Jonathan and James shows that pockets of prejudice remain, even in gay Soho.”

More than 800 people pledged to attend the demonstration in support of the gay couple, who were kicked out on Wednesday evening.

Jonathan Williams, 26, and Jamie Bull, 23, were on a first date in the pub when a woman claiming to be the landlady allegedly ordered them to leave.

The couple say they were kicked out for quietly kissing in a corner and a witness backed up their claims. Jamie Morton said the kissing was “innocent”.

Mr Williams continued: “When we were kissing – not in any confrontational way, but simply on the mouth – a uniformed member of staff approached us. She said she was the publican, but refused to give us her name, or give her name to the people sitting next to us when they asked. She told us we had to leave, to which we replied that we had no intention to. At that point the man who’d first approached us moved the table so he could get to me and grabbed me by the collar of my suit jacket. ”

But the drinker who first complained about the couple claimed they were “over the top”.
Gary from Richmond, who did not give his surname, told BBC 5 Live: “I have gay friends and lesbian friends. They were asked by the barman to moderate their behaviour, which they didn’t do. It was more than a short kiss. It was a full on snog.”

Westminster Council record the managers of the John Snow to be Carla Cookson and Graham Jackson. The licencee is listed as Thomas and the landlord to be Thomas Jeffrey Paget.

by James Park 

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/

Ricky Martin Criticized by Puerto Rican Church

Singer Ricky Martin has been criticised for promoting his homosexuality by two dominant Puerto Rican church figures.

The 39-year-old, who had a number one hit in 1999 with Livin’ la Vida Loca, came out in March last year.

Since then Martin has been very open about his sexuality – a move that has garnered criticism from religious leaders.

Cardinal Luis Aponte Martinez of San Juan told Primera Hora last week: “Personally, I admire Ricky for the great artistic gifts the Lord has endowed him, but please, for the love of his children, for whom I imagine he wants the best, try to set an example to our youth of the great values we all share, besides sex.”

The remark follows comments made by Pastor Wanda Rolon, leader of the First Christian Church of La Senada Antigua, who rote on her Facebook page that “[Ricky martin] wants to take people to hell.

In August 2008 Martin became the father of twin boys who were birthed by a surrogate mother.

Joe Brothwell

http://news.pinkpaper.com/NewsStory

In Egypt Mubarak’s Party is Dissolved

by L. S. Carbonell

Cairo, Egypt

On Saturday, the Egyptian High Administrative Court ordered the National Democratic Party of former President Mubarak disbanded and its assets seized to be returned to the national treasury. The Court statement said “It’s illogical for any instruments of the regime to remain, not that the regime itself has fallen.” With regards to the party’s assets, the statement said “this money is actually the money of the people.”

The party was founded in 1978 by the late President Anwar Sadat. It was, for all intents and purposes, the only legal political party in Egypt. Political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah of the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies said that “All the cental powers in Egypt of the Mubarak regime, all of them, were under the umbrella of the NDP. I think its infrastructure was very powerful. The NDP also had huge money in banks, not just from membership fees, but I think also from businessmen who financed the NDP. The money came from many sources.” The dissolution of the party is an important step in creating the new government based on a multi-party system. It will also help to ease the pressure on the transitional army-run government which has been subjected to on going protests ever since the Mubarak regime fell on February 11. Many of the senior ministers in the Mubarak government, including Mubarak and his sons Gamal and Asaa are in military custody awaiting questioning, arraignment and eventual trial.

http://lezgetreal.com/

Is Broadway's 'Book Of Mormon' Offensive? It's The Same Old Thing

 

by JANICE C. SIMPSON

Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone (center) take a bow during the curtain call on the opening night of their musicalThe Book of Mormon on Broadway on March 24. Parker and Stone are most well-known for their animated show South Park.

Janice C. Simpson teaches at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism and writes the blog Broadway & Me.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the guys who created South Park, like to boast that they are equal-opportunity offenders. Which is true. Over the past 10 years that their potty-mouthed, thumb-in-your-eye animated series has been on the Comedy Channel, they've mocked gay people, black people, Canadian people, Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology, the Pope and, most infamously and dangerously, the Prophet Muhammad.

Now Parker and Stone have brought their act to Broadway. The Book of Mormon, the new musical that they've written in collaboration with Robert Lopez, the co-creator of the equally irreverent Muppets-style musical Avenue Q, sends up the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, celebrity do-gooders and the people of Uganda.

The musical tells the story of two young Mormon missionaries who are sent to a small village in Uganda to convert the people there. They are the usual odd couple you find on TV and in movies and musical comedies. In this case, one is a golden-haired Mormon poster boy who would rather be in Orlando, Fla., and the other is an overweight outcast who just wants people to like him.

The show is unlikely to be a fan favorite in the Mormon community. But if you're black and your skin is even a little thin, there's plenty in this show to rub you the wrong way, too. The Ugandans whom the missionaries encounter are plagued by poverty, AIDS and an evil warlord who forcibly subjects women to circumcision.

Despite these woes, the villagers are portrayed as good-hearted, if simple-minded, people. One keeps referring to an old battered typewriter as her "texting machine." Another stomps around talking about raping babies because he believes that doing so will rid him of HIV. A dream sequence is set in hell, where the devil's main disciples are Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, the serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, and Johnnie Cochran, who, a song explains, is there for his part in helping to free O.J.

It's all played for can't-you-take-a-joke laughs. But how funny can it be that AIDS has ravaged Africa, that warlords oppress their fellow citizens or that women and children are subjected to forced clitoridectomies? Parker and Stone, who call themselves libertarians, have gotten away with this kind of cavalier attitude toward serious subjects for years because of their ability to sugarcoat it with faux irony. Which explains why even diehard liberals routinely turn a blind eye to their anti-gay jokes.

With The Book of Mormon, Parker and Stone are indulging in cultural colonialism of the most insidious kind. When one villager complains about having "maggots in my scrotum," the missionaries advise him to see a doctor. "I am the doctor," he replies. It gets a big laugh, so much so that the line is repeated over and over during the show. Peeking out from behind the joke, at least in part, is the belief that African doctors really are that dumb.

Sure, the head villager is seen as a wise man, and his daughter is the doe-eyed idealist who brings the sides together. But the show doesn't work unless the villagers are seen mainly as noble savages who need white people to show them the way to enlightenment. And in the end, their salvation comes from believing in the white missionaries who have been dropped into their midst. Even the warlord — make what you will of the fact that the show's creators have named him General Butt-F - - - ing Naked — is brought around.

Let me make it clear that I'm not trying to bad-mouth the actors who play these roles. They're very talented people. They give terrific performances. And as black actors have had to do for generations, they are adept at playing the text while signifying that they know what's really going on.

The problem is whether the people yukking it up in the audience know what's going on. Parker and Stone may be high priests of postmodern comedy, but what they're practicing still looks a lot like the same old same old.

http://www.npr.org/

Green Party: “When we talk about fams includes fams of same-sex parents"

The Green Party of Canada released its platform online in a live-streaming event from Toronto. While the platform document itself is fairly light and focuses on the budgetary implications of the Green plans to shift taxes onto carbon and other pollution generators, it builds on the 130-page Vision Green policy document.

 

While the platform makes no mention of rights issues, it does place emphasis on “Help for married couples and families” as the first plank of its Strong Communities section, and the major proposal for such help is to implement income splitting in the tax system, along with a greater emphasis on workplace childcare spaces.

 

“It’s bigger than just families and married couples – it’s about communities,” says Kieran Green, the Green Party’s director of communications. “When we talk about families, that includes families with same-sex parents, and any form of GLBT family is included in that.

 

“It’s about having a life, not just a livelihood,” Green says. “Decreasing the economic burden of the household.”

 

Vision Green explains that while income splitting doesn’t benefit low-income families or those with similar incomes, Greens would prefer to use targeted programs to assist those families while using income splitting to create more choice in options, and not only for childcare.

 

“It will allow one spouse to take a lower-paying job in charitable or NGO work,” Vision Green reads. “It will allow one spouse to work from home in growing a garden, in developing artistic talents, in writing for perilously low income.”

Most significantly, Vision Green has a comprehensive section on queer issues that advocates the inclusion of gender identity and gender expression as a protected grounds of discrimination and their inclusion in the Criminal Code under hate crimes provisions. These propositions were the basis of Bill C-389, which died in the Senate when the election was called.

 

Vision Green also calls for a repeal of Section 159 of the Criminal Code – the prohibitions against sodomy – as well as support for public education to end prejudice and discrimination on sexual identity and gender identity, calls for the end of targeting of queer materials and businesses by the Canadian Border Services Agency, and for Canada to advocate internationally for an end to state-sanctioned discrimination and violence against queers.

 

The section on queer issues was co-authored by Laurie Aaron, former chair of Egale Canada’s Equal Marriage Committee.
 

Vision Green has a section on healthcare dealing with addressing drug addiction that begins with legalizing marijuana and focusing other efforts on harm reduction, treatment and prevention.

 

Such legalization would come with a regulatory framework for safe marijuana production by small, independent growers, with a taxation rate similar to tobacco, and to be sold through licensed distribution outlets. It also promises to launch public consultation on the decriminalization of other illicit drugs, considering the high costs of enforcement, focusing more on treatment and prevention.

 

Vision Green has a section that addresses reducing the stigma associated with HIV, a promise for greater resources for treatment and delivery of antiretroviral therapies to HIV-positive drug users, and an emphasis on harm reduction and prevention. It also advocates the elimination of HIV travel bans and support for providing low-cost AIDS drugs to the developing world.

 

Vision Green also includes mention of revising laws related to charitable NGOs so that they can participate in advocacy while still being able to retain their charitable status and ability to accept tax deductible donations.

 

According to Green, this is because the party feels that some NGOs have knowledge and experience that they should be advocating the government follow, such as policies on poverty or international development.

 

But what about churches or other religious organizations that would use their charitable status to bankroll lobbying efforts for issues like criminalizing abortion or repealing same-sex marriage?

 

“This policy is to ensure groups working on legitimate charitable purposes – such as ending poverty, protecting the environment, et cetera – are allowed to examine the root causes of the issues we face,” says party leader Elizabeth May. “It is not a mechanism to advocate for non-charitable goals.”

Dale Smith / National

Who Kill The Soaps? Was it James Franco??

  by JOAL RYAN

Seth Browarnik/startraksphoto.com; Valerie Macon/Getty Images; Chirs Pizello/AP Photo

And then there were four.

By early next year, The Young and the Restless, General Hospital, Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful will be the only daytime soap operas left on broadcast TV.

Who killed All My Children, One Life to Live and the rest? Let's assemble the suspects and host a tense cross-examination, Pine Valley-style: 

RELATED: Biggest All My Children, One Life to Live shockers!

Suspect No. 1: James Franco Did It! The multitasker bombed with Your Highness. He flatlined at the Oscars. So, can there be any doubt  that it was he—himself!—who did in soaps by doing them?

Well, for one thing, the genre was dying off long before Franco came along in 2009. For another thing, his sometime-show, General Hospital, is alive and kicking.

We hereby acquit Mr. Franco on all charges—except for the ones relating to his awards-show "performance."

Suspect No. 2: O.J. Simpson Did It! In 1995, as the former football hero's murder trial wound down, soap execs debated whether their audience, which had dwindled by 10 percent amid nonstop courtroom coverage, would return.

And now we know the answer: It didn't.

So, yeah, O.J. did it.

[Dramatic pause.]

But did he act alone?  

Suspect No. 3: Oprah Winfrey Did It! Here's a theory for you: With the talk queen's show retiring in the spring, ABC had a chance to remake its daytime self. (Oprah, while not an ABC show, largely airs on the network's stations and affiliates.) And, so, goodbye, AMC; hello, The Chew!

Here's another theory for you: Winfrey herself talked ABC into pulling the plug on AMC and OLTL, so she could bring the shows over to her network, OWN.

The former theory's an educated guess; the latter's a crazy idea inspired by fans who really, truly are lobbying Winfrey to save their shows. 

Suspect No. 4: The Real Housewives Did It! And if Camille Grammer, Countess LuAnn and the rest didn't, then The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and just about any other reality show you can name certainly did.

Wesley Hyatt, who wrote the Encyclopedia of Daytime Television, suggested The Real World as a culprit.

The groundbreaking series debuted on MTV in 1992…just about the same time young viewers were tuning out soaps en masse.

The fact is, The Real World had the opportunity, the motive—and a bunch of good-looking twentysomethings who weren't obligated to go into the boring family cosmetic and/or oil business!

"That was a lot more compelling to people than the standard whodunit and other goings on," Hyatt told us.

Suspect No. 5: Kourtney Kardashian Did It! May we call to the stand, her sister, Kim Kardashian?

"Kourtney was recently on [OLTL]," Kim told PopEater. "So, I think she killed the entire 30-year brand."

(It's worse than that, actually: OLTL has been on the air nearly 43 years.)

But still, did one appearance, on March 28, doom the show? The judge rules no. OLTL was rumored to be an endangered species in 2009, if not before.

Closing Argument: "If I was on any of the other [surviving] soap operas right now," Hyatt said, "I'd be really worried."

See, even if the likes of O.J. were jailed for crimes against the genre, the genre would still be fighting a losing battle against competition from the Internet, not to mention production costs. (And, yes, we know, O.J. already is in jail.)

In other words, just about everything and everyone is killing the soaps.

Hyatt foresees an endgame in which the remaining shows get picked off, one by one, as if offed by the Salem Serial Killer.

"Only this time there's no cliffhanger on Friday," Hyatt said. "It really is going to end this time—they can't come back from the dead on this one."

http://www.eonline.com 

Lakers, NBA to work with GLAAD To Avoid Anti gay Behavior in Sports

In light of Kobe Bryant's anti-gay slur uttered during Tuesday's game against San Antonio, which led to a league-imposed $100,000 fine, the Lakers and the NBA are working with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the advocacy organization said Friday.

"In light of this slur, there is a real opportunity to build support for our community and educate fans of Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the NBA about the use of such words," GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios said in the statement. "The Los Angeles Lakers have taken a positive step and we look forward to working with them to create messages from players and coaches that combat bullying. We also suggested and will continue to advocate for zero tolerance policies for anti-gay slurs at home games, similar to what the New York Yankees adopted last year."

Barrios is referring to the organization's partnership with the Yankees after video emerged showing Yankees fans shouting an obscene version of Village People's "YMCA" at fans of opposing teams. GLAAD also worked with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) after a Feb. 21 broadcast this year featured wrestler John Cena trash talking to The Rock with homophobic lyrics in a rap song. A week later, Cena joked about "The Miz" and his wrestling partner being a secret couple.

Bryant directed the slur toward referee Bennie Adams in response to Adams' issuing Bryant his 15th technical foul of the season. The slur was caught by the television camera, and later the Lakers star appeared on 710 ESPN's "Mason & Ireland" show and said he planned on meeting with gay rights groups.

“I will be saying something,” said Bryant, who later apologized to the Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. The group then praised Bryant for his apology. “I plan on talking to them. Out of this, I believe it's our responsibility as athletes and those in the spotlight to bring awareness of these issues. It's coming from a negative light, but it's our responsibility to make it into a positive and raise awareness as much as we can and say it's not OK to insult or discriminate. It's not the right thing to do. I will say something to them and talk about doing things to help prohibit hate crimes and violence. It's important to do that."

"What happened in Tuesday night's game is not representative of what the Lakers stand for," said Lakers spokesman John Black in the statement GLAAD released. "We want to reaffirm our commitment to all our fans and our appreciation for the support we receive from all segments of society. We also understand the importance of positive messages in helping us convey this. We appreciate the input we've received from GLAAD the past two days and will look forward to working with them on ways to help educate ourselves and our fans, and to help keep language like this out of our game."

--Mark Medina

mgmedin@gmail.com

http://lakersblog.latimes.com

The cost of saying “faggot” in sports has gotten higher, Thanks kobe

 thanks to Kobe Bryant

 

by Jim Buzinski.

$100,000. That’s the new baseline for yelling “faggot” in the NBA, based on the fine issued to Kobe Bryant. (Does this mean that “fag” gets you 50K?) As far as I can gather, that’s the largest fine in American major pro sports for someone uttering a gay slur.

True, it should have been more and was less than one third of the $365,000 Kobe earns per game, but 100K will get peoples’ attention, even rich jocks. It’s 10 times what the NFL fined then-Steelers linebacker Joey Porter in 2006 for calling another player a fag. And I could find no evidence that then-Lions general manager Matt Millen was fined anything in 2003 after calling an opposing player a faggot.

Ozzie Guillen, manager of the Chicago White Sox, was fined $20,oooin 2006 by Major League Baseball for calling a columnist a fag. More recently, Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chiefs was suspended a game in 2009, costing him $315,000, after using three anti-gay slurs. But the fine was as much for Johnson being an all-around dick to the organization as it was about him being  a homophobe; the NFLapparently wanted Johnson fined only $10,000.

There’s been some grumbling about Kobe appealing his fine, but that is standard procedure in the NBA regarding such things, so it doesn’t mean much. Kobe should and will pay up. It would be terrific if the NBA donated that money to an organization like The Trevor Project, with Kobe kicking in another 100K as a match (it would be a lot less than the $4 million he shelled out on a diamond for Mrs. Kobe around the time he faced that rape charge).

There has not been a lot of focus on Kobe’s post-game comments Wednesday, where he was asked once again about calling referee Bennie Adams a “fucking faggot.” His first response was lame and not very apologetic, but hours later he sounded a lot more contrite (thanks to Billy Witz of Fox Sports.com for these):

For me, it’s about the bigger message. I made a mistake in terms of what  I said, but it’s always the responsibility that carries with it. What I mean by that, is for kids that think it’s OK or it’s cool to call kids that, or to tease them because of that. I don’t stand for that. I never have. I’ve been in so many altercations in high school and middle school  protecting kids from that and I certainly won’t be part of enhancing the feeling of that’s OK. I just won’t. We’ll do some things to focus on that. And make sure that’s a top priority and make sure kids understand that.

… You get [on the court] and you don’t really know what you’re doing. You get caught up in the moment and you’re reacting and you’re going. Hopefully, other players will look at the situation I’ve been through and people are watching and kids are watching and you don’t want to have those messages out there.

Those quotes, whether they came after pressure from handlers or from sincere reflection, give Kobe the chance to make good. There are numerous ways he can make a difference in the LGBT community, and I hope he knows that some nice words won’t cut it — actions will.

My theory in dealing with gays in sports is that it’s 2 steps forward and 1 1/2-steps back and this was the case here. On the one hand, we were reminded again how prevalent homophobic slurs are in sports, so much so that “faggot” flew out of Kobe’s mouth rather than a dozen other less-targeted slurs. It shows that he has been marinated in a culture where “faggot” and all its derivatives remain the slur of choice to put someone down.

On the positive side, the NBA reacted very swiftly and decisively, with David Stern pulling no punches in condemning what Kobe said. Kobe was also roundly criticized in the media and I did not see anyone prominent rushing to his defense. Charles Barkley, for one, said thisto the L.A. Times:

“I’m a big pro-gay-marriage person; I have a bunch of gay friends who I hope can get married some day, so I’m a little bit sensitive,” Barkley said. “But I’m not going to go overboard. You have to just be careful what you say with stuff like that.”

One of the greatest and most prominent athletes on the planet was forced to spend a day on the defensive after insulting gay people, and neither his money nor his fame were enough to give him a pass (save for the usual moron fans who defend anything “their” team does).  That’s progress, no matter how painful.

http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog