adamfoxie*blog International: September 2011

October 10, 2011

A Path That’s Just Beginning } Coming Out

By Michael Castro

Ashley Lemire/The Quad News

Editor's Note: In honor of National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11, members of GLASS (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Supporters) have offered their tales of struggle and courage to The Quad News as inspiration for others. We hope that you will respect these individuals and their stories.

I've known I was gay for my entire life. It is something that is just a part of you, like your hair or eye color. However, it is not something that many people accept or are comfortable with.

I hid who I was all the way up until my junior year of college. It ate at me and chewed me up inside, I even contemplated suicide. It came to a point where I just needed to share who I was with my friends and family.

The first person I told was also a gay male and with no surprise he was fine with who I was, but it was not him who I was worried about; it was the straight people that I was afraid of. I then told a few other people, including my mother, who didn't take it well. She didn't disown me or throw me out of the house, but you could tell it put awkwardness into our relationship. It was then that I needed the most support, and for this support I turned to the men in my fraternity.

I had practiced what I would say in front of the mirror for nearly a week. I walked into our weekly chapter meeting, and my stomach was in my chest. I was shaking, for what seemed like hours, trying to build up the courage to say what was on my mind. I just wanted to run away.

Towards the end of our meeting I stood up and told the near 90 men in the fraternity that I had something to say. My voice trembled as I expressed to them that I was gay.

I tried to explain that I am still the same person and I didn't want anything to change in our relationships. My biggest fear was that people would treat me differently. After I finished explaining myself and finally settled down, every single man in that room gave me a standing ovation. I was in utter shock and awe that all these men, who I will forever call my brothers, could accept me for being a gay male.

And to top it off, when everyone had calmed down two more of my brothers had come out. This was only the beginning of my coming out and I am still working on telling the rest of my family, but I can honestly say that it has been a great experience thus far.

When most people describe their coming out stories it is terrifying and usually ends in heartbreak. However, it is not always like that. At least for me, it may have been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Yes, there were a few bumps and bruises along the way, but those are the things that make you that much stronger for being who you are.

For all the people that are currently struggling or are afraid of what people may think of you, I'll leave you with this: "Be who you are, and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind," said Dr. Seuss.

Everything will get better and life can be brilliant, you just need to keep your head up and keep looking towards that light at the end of the tunnel.

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Motive of Why A Gay Cop Was Killed

IMOGEN NEALE

The jury in a murder trial has been asked to think like a 16-year-old boy when considering what led a south Auckland teenager to fatally stab a gay off-duty police officer in the neck. Willie John Ahsee, 17, is on trial in the High Court in Auckland for the murder of 59-year-old Denis Norman Phillips in July last year.

Grubb (right) and partner on patrol circa, 1954.

The Crown contends that Phillips was stabbed four times in his Papakura home with a serrated knife. The fatal blow was a stab to the neck that severed his arteries.

Phillips was a temporary sworn officer who had worked for police for 12 years as a jailer in the Manukau police cells.

He was also known in the Auckland gay community, was sexually attracted to young males and "from time to time" made physical advances towards them that included touching.

Ahsee had meet Phillips about a month before the alleged murder and described him to police as his "boxing trainer".

Today Ahsee's lawyer, David Jones QC, told the jury his client accepted he was the person who stabbed Phillips in the neck but the "fundamental" thing it had to consider were the circumstances that confronted Ahsee when he inflicted the wound.

Jones said the jury had to "look from his perspective - his intent" and think about issues concerning a 16-year-old boy.

He said it was what was going through his mind that was fundamental.

The questions of murderous intent and self defence were also key issues Jones said.

Yesterday the jury heard that within minutes of allegedly stabbing Phillips, Ahsee was heard yelling and screaming as he walked towards his family home.

In her opening address Crown prosecutor June Jelas said one of the things Ahsee was heard to yell was "I have killed someone".

She said a neighbour was so concerned by what they heard, they called police.

When police arrived they found an intoxicated Ahsee had smashed two bedroom windows.

When asked if he'd killed someone, he'd shrugged his shoulders and said "nah".

The next day, after telling his mother he couldn't remember what had happened, Ahsee took police to Phillips' Green St unit where his body lay face down on heavily bloodstained carpet.

She told the jury it wasn't a case of "whodunnit" but a question of what the accused had in his mind when he stabbed Phillips.

A jury of six men and six women will hear from more than 70 witnesses over three weeks.

- Auckland Now

Betty White and Her Gay Appeal

BY: JASE PEEPLES gay.net

Betty White may be remembered by most gay fans as the naïve Rosy Nyland from The Golden Girls, but when it comes to this TV icon’s LGBT appeal she’s no dummy.

"Throughout my career, I’ve always portrayed characters that were humorous, but also weren’t afraid to speak their minds, especially when it came to racy or controversial topics," White said in a recent interview with Joshua Miller while promoting her latest project—a music video for singer Luciano’s single “I’m Still Hot.” "I think this struck a chord with the LGBT community. We both also share a very strong love for animals. When you combine the two, it’s a very strong match." The video will benefit one of White's favorite charities, the Los Angeles zoo, and is sponsored by the Lifeline Program--an organization that began aiding patients with HIV by assisting them in selling their life insurance policies to pay medical bills in order to live out their lives with dignity. The organization now assists seniors and White is thier spokeswoman.

“Life is fun and is meant to be lived, and working with Lifeline is just that,” White said. “ They believe in helping seniors have more money for retirement, but I have them all fooled because I will never retire.”

Steve Jobs Cause Of Death

(AP) – A copy of Steve Jobs' death certificate indicates the Apple co-founder died of respiratory arrest that resulted from pancreatic cancer that had spread to other organs. Jobs died last Wednesday at age 56. Apple didn't disclose the cause of death, but Jobs had battled pancreatic cancer and had a liver transplant in 2009. The death certificate, released today by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, says Jobs died at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. No autopsy was performed.

A photograph of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs sits near a candle, an apple and flowers to form a portion of a tribute in front of an Apple store in Boston, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011.

newser.com

Wall St Demonstrators Chase Geraldo Rivera Out "‘Fox News lies!"

By Andrew Jones geraldo_occupywallstreetsg

Unless it’s a tea party rally, Fox News and American protests don’t seem to mix well.

Host Geraldo Rivera decided to go down to the Occupy Wall Street protests Sunday afternoon and ended up having an unpleasant experience.

Protesters immediately surrounded Rivera and his network’s cameras and began shouting “Fox News Lies!” After a few minutes, Rivera decided to leave. His departure was cheered by protesters, who sang “Hey, hey, hey, goodbye!”

This isn’t the first time in 2011 that the network has been greeted by the public with chants of “Fox News lies!” During the Wisconsin union protests in February, reporter Jeff Flockwas barraged by one man yelling the now famous chant.

In addition, this latest episode of Occupy Wall Street giving embarrassment to Fox News comes more than a week after protester Jesse LaGreca called out producer Griff Jenkins in a viral Youtube clip that the network chose not to air.

WATCH: Video from Youtube, which appeared on October 9, 2011.

Andrew Jones

Andrew Jones is a staff writer/reporter for Raw Story. Besides covering politics, he is also a freelance sports journalist, as well as a slam poetry and music artist. However, Andrew mostly specializes in the art of using parenthesis and ellipses. You can follow him on Twitter @sluggahjells.

Facebook launches mobile app platform today

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- After months of anticipation and leaks, Facebook on Monday launched a mobile app platform and an iPad app.

Facebook users previously had to use their computers for most of their Facebook gaming and app needs, but now they should be able to play and participate from almost any device with a web browser -- and they may get a better experience if it happens to be an Apple iOS device.

Though this launch had been described as an affront to Apple, the new Facebook mobile versions will defer to Apple's native platform and even its payments system whenever possible.

The Facebook application as shown on an iPad screen.

Now, when a friend sends you an invitation to play Words With Friends, and you view it on the Facebook app on your iPhone, you can click to play and be taken to the Words With Friends app. If you do not have the app, you will be directed to Apple's App Store.

If you are using an Android phone, you will be taken to an HTML5 version in your mobile web browser. Facebook CTO Bret Taylor told AllThingsD Monday that Facebook is also working on an update to its native Android application.

While many people will appreciate having a more consistent Facebook app experience, this launch also should make it much easier for users to find new mobile apps through their friends. Mobile app discovery has been a huge challenge for developers, and social could help unlock that problem by showing people what apps their friends are using.

"We really hope that we can fill a gap in app discovery here," Taylor said.

On the downside, there is one place Facebook was not able to negotiate a consistent experience for users: payments, which was a major sticking point in ongoing discussions with Apple.

Facebook Credits cannot be used to pay for virtual goods in native iOS apps or mobile web apps running within a Facebook app on iOS. Instead, users will have to buy separate in-app currency through Apple's own in-app payment system. The move comes after Facebook just required all of its game developers to switch to exclusive use of Credits earlier this year.

"We realize there's some inconsistency," Taylor admitted. He would not say if Facebook gets a share of revenue for in-app purchases it refers to Apple.

As for the Facebook iPad app, it has been close to being released for over a year, according to people who have seen it and worked on it -- though the app has changed in scope throughout.

Along with the ability to use Facebook platform apps, the iPad version will feature "an immersive and full-screen photos experience," plus new and speedy chat and messages interfaces, Taylor said.

nypost.com

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Drag queen by night, single dad by day

Chicago man breaks gay and straight stereotypes

Marcus Parker lives in California with three children. He grew up in Chicago. (Bob Chamberlin, Tribune Newspapers /September 1, 2011)

By the time Marcus Parker left his hometown of Chicago in 2005 for California, he was well known around the city's drag-queen show circuit as Flame Monroe, the 5-foot-8, stacked diva with the crimson wig and extra-blue comedy act.

What most people wouldn't guess about the flamboyant Parker, who returns to Chicago this weekend for several shows, is that he's a devoted single father who is careful to tone down the color around his young children.

When he takes his son, 8, and two daughters, ages 8 and 4, to school every morning, he wears an Ace bandage around his size 36CC breast implants along with army fatigue clothing to further camouflage his curves.

"I also hunch my back to draw in my breasts," Parker said. "My kids know their daddy is super special. But other kids can be cruel. So out of respect for my children, my son in particular, I don't dress in drag during the day."

Long before Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" became an anthem for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, Parker had no doubt that he was born a boy who also felt very much like a girl.

He knows that his mere presence upsets some people. Over the years, he said he's faced prejudice from inside and outside of the gay community.

This, in part, has shaped some of his views. He hopes his children aren't gay.

"I will accept them, absolutely, but being gay is too hard," he said.

And he doesn't support gay marriage.

"Gay people don't know what to think of me when I say that," said Parker, who is bisexual. "I just don't think it's right. In my heart and with the scriptures I read in the Bible, I don't believe that an ordained minister should marry a gay couple. I do believe completely in civil unions.

"I don't think it's right when a (gay) couple has lived a life together and family members step in at the last minute to take (possessions) or make decisions. But gay marriage? No. The only reason gay people want to get married is because they can't. Let them, and the divorce rate would be higher than (that of) heteros."

I told him it sounded like he wasn't completely comfortable with his own sexuality.

"Well, the Bible says that if I lay down with a man, I'm a sinner — so I have been a sinner," he said. "We all are sinners, and one sin is no greater than the other. No, I love who I am and I know who I am. I just don't think marriage between gays is right."

Parker grew up on the South Side in the now-razed Ida B. Wells housing project. He attended the same elementary school as I did — we only reconnected recently — and I recall vividly that most of us children knew he was different long before we knew words like "effeminate," "gay" and "transgender."

Parker rarely played sports, but he jumped double Dutch rope better than most of the girls. He was petite and cute and walked like a girl, which in our neighborhood also meant he had to fight and that, too, was like a girl. And yet he was outgoing and self-assured with a tough exterior.

What most of his classmates didn't know was that in the projects, he was viciously teased by young toughs and called a "sissy." He said his home life was troubled, and he was often left home alone to care for his brother, who was 12 years younger.

He said he loved television awards shows such as the Oscars and the American Music Awards because even though he couldn't sing or dance, he always knew he wanted to be a performer.

"I remember the first time Diana Ross was hosting the American Music Awards and every time they went to a commercial and came back, she'd have on a new outfit," he said. "My mother had big wigs and beautiful high-heeled shoes and dresses. I would dress up and put on makeup when she left. When I was about 14 and my brother was 2, I put on my first show, pantomiming a song for him. He was my audience."

Parker got his first set of breast implants when he was 23 and still thinking he might want to live his life as a woman, he said. He went to Tijuana, Mexico, and paid $1,600. He began taking female hormones to further feminize his body.

"I wanted a beautiful body," he said. "My star was rising quickly, and the Flame Monroe name was resonating around the circuit. I wanted to be able to fit into the bustiers and hit the stage and not have to worry about padding."

Parker often includes his life story in his comedy act, he said. In one, which would make most people blush, he talks about how sex with a married couple convinced him to keep his male parts.

He jokes about his coming of age in the housing project, and speaks lovingly about his brother's acceptance. He also talks about having had four breast surgeries and having lost one breast for eight weeks after an infection.

Although he includes stories about his children in his act, his most poignant reflections about them come off stage. He said they saved his life when his girlfriend — the mother of two of the children and the love of his life — left them.

"I thought being an entertainer was my greatest job until I had my children," said Parker, who is their biological father. "My kids saved me from certain death and destruction. When their mother left, I was so depressed. But I had to change a Pamper or fix a bottle or get up because my baby was crying. I had no other choice."

When he doubted whether he could be a single parent, he said he thought about the children he encountered when he was young who were homeless, or whose parents had abandoned them.

"I just didn't want anybody else raising my kids," he said. "According to society, some people think I've compromised my manhood. But the true measure of a man is not how he looks.

"This is me. I cut their umbilical cords, and I signed their birth certificates. They don't know any other father."

dtrice@tribune.com

Chris Brown Gay Sex: His Tweets

Chris Brown is currently all tangled up in a rumor involving gay sex with a performing artist named Martyn, as reported earlier last week. Now, the photo evidence of the tweets between the two are available for your reading pleasure.

This source shares an archive of the tweets exchanged between Chris Brown and his alleged bisexual fling, Martyn. The conversation took place on Twitter, starting out ambiguous and then becoming quite graphic and aggressive at times. On the surface, if what these tweets portray is true, Chris Brown is struggling with his sexuality. Perhaps he is confused?

Some of Chris Brown's rabid fans will undoubtedly claim they're photoshopped, as he shrugged off Martyn's confirmation of their relationship as photoshopped and faked, but it didn't seem like a wholehearted rebuttal. These are the same idiotic fans who repeat over and over, "Why don't you talk about Charlie Sheen," repeating the words Chris Brown once said when the media reminded the public of how he brutally assaulted his ex, Rihanna, leaving her face a bruised and bloodied mess.

It takes a weak mentality and a lack of moral fiber to defend someone based on the actions of some unrelated person and unrelated event. There is absolutely no logic to that train of thought. That's why Chris Brown is always in trouble, and that's why nobody wants him around. The UK didn't even want him and the people organizing the Michael Jackson tribute certainly didn't want him. He's a talentless, fading individual who may end up needing a day job in the next couple of decades, considering he's wildly unpopular. Perhaps, being banned from performing for his idol's memorial event gave him a hint at how people feel about him.

If Chris Brown is truly a closeted homosexual, that's a shame; and maybe if he came out of the closet and embraced his alleged homosexuality, he may find himself having an easier life and healthier relationships. Living a lie when you're not straight doesn't necessarily contribute to healthy and balanced unions.

He could change his name to "GayBreezy"

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©2011 Chelsea Hoffman is the Author of "Chloe and Louis," and the "Fear Chronicles," series of books. She also covers a myriad of true crime stories online. Click here to visit Chelsea Hoffman's official blog and contact website.

Serbia has Bowed to Homophobia

- Diamond Walid
- guardian.co.uk

Protesters oppose the cancellation of a gay pride march at the Serbian embassy in Budapest, Hungary. Photograph: Szilard Koszticsak/EPA

By cancelling a gay pride parade scheduled for last Sunday, Serbian authorities have surrendered to the threats of hooligans and neo-fascist groups.

Just two days before the event, interior minister Ivica Dacic suddenly announced that it had been banned, along with a number of counter-demonstrations. "Because of these rallies – above all the anti-parade protests – we could expect enormous damage to public order and peace," he explained.

This was a rather strange and startling step, as only last year the government praised itself for standing up to far-right extremists by allowing a pride parade in the Serbian capital and providing appropriate police protection.

In previous years, there had been several other attempts at a gay march. The first one, in 2001, left marchers exposed to homophobic thugs after the police refused to offer protection.

Following this year's cancellation, the website of one of extremist group, Obraz ("Honour"), correctly described the ban as a victory. Meanwhile, the Serbian president tried to make out that cancelling it was in the interests of the LGBT community: "That way, the citizens, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population are protected."

Indeed, how can one not be protected when one stays invisible? Homophobia is deeply rooted in Serbia, as in many other eastern European and ex-Yugoslav countries. To stay safe, gay and lesbian Serbs often have to hide, and live in the shadows of the closet. This is the situation that the Serbian government seems to want to perpetuate.

Not only do gay and lesbian Serbs have to go into hiding for fear of being physically attacked, but they also have to endure a shower of insults and condemnations, mainly uttered by the Orthodox clergy.Patriarch Irinej, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, labelled the planned gay march a "pestilence" and a "parade of shame".

Incitement of attacks often goes unpunished, despite an anti-hate speech law and a high proportion of gay Orthodox priests. In the face of hateful words coming from high places, the voice of the gay and lesbian population often remains dim and unheard.

Gay pride marches are sometimes seen as a cure for homophobia or an indicator of how far a country has advanced in terms of gay rights. But shouting "Love! Love! Love!" through a loudspeaker – as Croatian gay marchers did – has never made anyone more loving or accepting.

To use a medical metaphor: if homophobia were an illness, then gay pride parades would be the antibiotic. The problem with antibiotics is that they tend to breed more resistant strains of germs. In some cases, doctors recommend alternative, "softer" approaches which deal with the root of the problem. Similarly, homophobia can only be truly banished through multiple channels – education, art, literature, etc.

But in Serbia's case, where the illness has taken over the whole social body, there is no time left for soft approaches. In a situation of emergency, a gay pride march is the only opportunity left for gay and lesbian Serbs to express themselves.

Dacic is right to want to avoid bloodshed, but unless they tackle the problem of homophobia, Serbian authorities are only paving the way for more violence.

If they think a gay march is inappropriate, then they would need to compensate for this by effectively enforcing anti-hate speech and anti-discrimination laws and by suggesting more creative approaches. For instance, why not organise a cultural festival, or have Brokeback Mountain shown on primetime TV, as Fidel Castro's niece did in Cuba?