Gay Activist Arthur Evans Dies At 68

Arthur Evans, one of the nation's earliest and best-known gay activists, has died of a heart attack at the age of 68. During the Stonewall era, Evans was a member of the Gay Liberation Front, a group he later left to co-found the Gay Activists Alliance.

Based in New York, the alliance became a model for gay rights organizations nationwide, pushing in New York for legislation to ban discrimination against gay men and lesbians in employment, housing and other areas. Mr. Evans wrote its statement of purpose and much of its constitution, which began, “We as liberated homosexual activists demand the freedom for expression of our dignity and value as human beings.” To attract attention the alliance staged what its members called “zaps,” confrontations with people or institutions that they believed discriminated against gay people. Among other incidents, they confronted Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York, went to television studios to protest shows perceived as anti-gay, demanded gay marriage rights at the city’s marriage license bureau, and demonstrated at the taxi commission against a regulation, since abolished, requiring gay people to get a psychiatrist’s approval before they could be allowed to drive a taxi.

Cyndi Lauper to open NYC Permanet LGBT Homeless Housing

HARLEM — Cyndi Lauper is helping establish Manhattan's first permanent housing for homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in Harlem.

Many homeless LGBT youth face violence in mainstream shelters, forcing them to rely on a small network of gay-friendly facilities, advocates say. The True Colors Residence, set to open in winter 2011, will provide young people between 18 and 24 with a place to live while helping them get back on their feet.
“Kids are coming out in greater numbers as they see themselves accepted and represented on TV and in movies, but they’re still being kicked out of their homes or running away and living on the streets," Lauper said in a statement.

“We need to make sure we’re taking care of them. This is the next generation of the LGBT community.”

 The residence, which will be built on W. 154th Street near Frederick Douglas Boulevard, was the brainchild of Lauper, her publicist Lisa Barbaris, and Colleen Jackson, executive director of the West End Intergenerational Residence, an Upper West Side facility geared toward young families and older low-income adults.

The 80s pop singer, known for her hits "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "True Colors," will donate money for the facility through her True Colors Fund, is an honorary board member and is championing and promoting it, Jackson said.

"There are no permanent residences [in Manhattan], and LGBT youth make up 40 percent of the runaway and homeless population, maybe even more," said Jackson. "It's outrageous."

There are between 15,000 and 20,000 homeless youth in New York City, according to estimates from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Roughly 3,000 to 8,000 of them are LGBT, or comprising 20 to 40 percent homeless youth in the city, the Task Force said.

Currently, there are four emergency shelters and two transitional living shelters that house youths for up to two years. The True Colors Residence will provide young people with a permanent residence.
The six-story building will contain 30 studio apartments, a communal space, a library and computer room. It's expected to cost roughly $11 million. Residents will sign a year-long Section 8 lease, and pay rent according to their income.

Most of the funding came from the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, with additional funds from several city, state and corporate sources.

“New York is an expensive city for most people, much less young people with no support,” said Theresa Nolan, director of Green Chimneys, which runs programs for LGBT youth, including a West Harlem facility that provides temporary housing. She said most youth programs only accept people up to age 21, "so a lot of people fall out of youth housing when they’re just getting the hang of living independently and they’re most vulnerable.

"[True Colors] is affordable, and they get a little bit of support," she said. "That’s priceless for young people.”


Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20100406/central-harlem/cyndi-lauper-open-shelter-for-homeless-lgbt-youth-harlem##ixzz1WEWMFwzP

Pride?

Today was Cleveland Gay Pride and well it was another year I couldn't go.  My nephew's birthday party was today and while it has been forty-two years since the Stonewall Riots I find it a little hard to feel "proud" if you will, give me time to explain.  I do realize that New York did pass on Friday the right for same sex marriage and that in itself is a huge step but is it enough?  My brother's girlfriend introduced Jim and I today to her mother, and let me tell you things were not the same after that!  She introduced Jim as my boyfriend, which is no problem for me but apparently it changed how she saw us.  It was tense after that, it was like an eight hundred pound neon pink elephant in the room in a neon pink glitter tutu, hand on his screaming while lisping--"Girlfriend here I am, deal with it" that no one wanted to admit to.

Now I don't really think that I am a big screaming queen, but honey I can be if I want to be, and well here lately I have not even been in the mood to deal with tension like there was today.  Well kids I will admit I did something I never hardly ever do and that was to simply----stay quiet, I had hardly anything to say at all.  Kids, that is NOT me in any way shape or form!  It has made me uncomfortable since then.  Why did I do that?  It is her problem and not mine, right?  Maybe I am making this into something it wasn't  This shouldn't matter right?

Well for me Pride weekend has always been a marking that I am close to surviving another year with AIDS and the last few it has not even been that. It seems like I am just surviving and nothing more.  Sad, huh sorta pathetic too now that I think about it?  Somehow I feel like I have lost the guy I thought I was upbeat, fun, witty, charming, campy, bitchy at times, your best girlfriend a real raconteur if you will.  Now I am the guy that clams up, the quiet little wall flower how did this happen?

Maybe I didn't have anything to say?  Maybe I was unnerved?  Maybe I realized I made her uncomfortable?  Maybe I was the first gay she ever met?  Who the hell really knows?  Maybe my sense of not feeling real proud is I don't really feel like I have done all that much to be proud about here lately.  Like I said it seems just like existing.  I know there are things to feel proud about but it all seems so long ago. How do I change that? Do I write more about it?  Am I not the only one going through this?  I am sure this is why I checked into some short term therapy this week.

Is this emotional bareness going to get worse as I get closer to July 16th and my 20th anniversary of living with AIDS?  Is it because the toll of AIDS is catching up emotionally?  I am I making to much out of this 20th anniversary?  Have I lost to much because of AIDS?  How can I live a life so much more full to make up for all of the loss?  Can I even do that?  Do I expect to much?  Are my goals to high? Why can't I seem to settle for what I have instead of trying to reachsomething that always seems out of reach?  Pride weekend has never been like this and I for one just really need to feel proud again.

Controversial Gay Friendly Jesus photogrpahs

I got to thinking this morning about the horrible rift between organized christianity and gays and I got to wondering what would a supportive and or even gay christianity look like.  I of course did a Bing search and found my answer in Elisabeth Ohlson exhibit a few years ago so here are her photographs that incensed christianity and really ticked off the Pope.  One particular photograph maybe considered NSFW which contains full frontal nudity and will posted here last.  I hope that these photos get you to thinking as they did me.....

Matthew 28:9-10


Suddenly Jesus was there in their path. He gave them his greeting, and they came up and clasped his feet, fal- ling prostrate before him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and take words to my brothers that they are to leave for Galilee. They will see me there."

Matthew 18:10

"Never despise one of these little ones; I tell you, they have their guardian angels in heaven, who look continually on the face of my heavenly Father."



Matthew 27:45-46


From midday a darkness fell over the whole land, which lasted until three in the afternoon; and about three Jesus cried aloud, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachtani?" which means, "My God, my God, why thou forsaken me?"
 

Mark 15:17-20


They dressed him in purple, and plaiting a crown of Thorns, placed it on his head. Then they began to salute him whit, "Hail, King of the Jews!" They beat him about the head with a cane and spat upon him, and then knelt and paid mock homage to him. When they had finished their mockery, they stripped him of the purple and dressed him in his own clothes.
 



Matthew 26:45-48


"The hour has come! The Son of Man is betrayed to sinful men. Up, lets us go forward; the traitor is upon us." While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared; with him was a great crowd armed with swords and cudgels, sent by the chief priests and the elders of the nation. The traitor gave them this sing: "The one I kiss is your man; seize him."

Matthew 26:26-28

During supper Jesus took bread, and having said the blessing he broke it and gave it to the disciples with the words: "Take this and eat; this is my body." Then he took a cup, and having offered thanks to God he gave it to them whit the words: "Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant, shed for many for the forgiveness of sins."

Luke 19:37-40

And now, as he approached the descent from the Mount of Olives, the whole company of his disciples in their joy began to sing aloud the praises of God for all the great things they had seen: "Blessing on him who comes as king in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, glory in highest heaven!" Some Pharisees who were in the crowd said to him, "Master, reprimand your disciples." He answered, "I tell you, if my disciples keep silence the stones will shout aloud."

Matthew 23:13

"Alas, alas for you, lawyers and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You shut the door of the kingdom of Heaven in men's faces; you do not enter yourselves, and when others are entering, you stop them."

Luke 2:7

and she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in his swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, ...

Luke 1:30-31

Then the angel said to her; "Do not be afraid, Mary, for God has been gracious to you; you shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall give him the name Jesus."

John 19:26   "Woman, behold thy son!"

NSFW--the last photograph and other than the one above "Woman, behold they son!" this is the most powerful

Luke 3:21-22

During a general baptism of the people, when Jesus too had been baptized and was praying, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove; and there came a voice from heaven. "Thou art my Son, my Beloved, on thee my favour rests."



Secretly

Happy Passover

This is supposedly is a film but I felt it showcased my feelings exactly for this scared time of the year as Passover.  So for all of my Jewish readers, I hope this Passover is filled with love, hope, peace and happiness---Next year in Jerusalem.

Anti-gay bullying leads to another tragic teen suicide

RITTMAN, Ohio — Another young life lost to anti-gay bullying.


     Nicholas Kelo Jr. knew what it was like to be relentlessly bullied, his family said, and it may have been what persuaded him to pry open a safe inside his home on Feb. 23, and remove the gun that killed him, reports the Akron Beacon Journal.  He was 13 years old. It is unknown as to whether or not Nick was gay, but that did not stop his bullies or their attacks.

”It had been going on for years,” Jacqueline Kelo [Nick's mother] said. ”We would talk and he would say [of the bullies] that they were not worth his time.”  Nick played football in middle school but gave up the sport this year to participate in high school band.

The switch, Jacqueline Kelo reasoned, resulted in swelling rumors. Some, she said, wrongly assumed that a kid who would prefer to play the tenor sax rather than tossing a pigskin must be gay.  “After that, it [the bullying] spiraled out of control,” she said.

One such incident allegedly happened on a school bus following a football game, explained the mother of another Rittman teenager who said her son is also a victim of bullying. During the incident, Nick allegedly became the victim of an older student who was “glicking” — forcibly spitting on him. Jacqueline Kelo knew something was bothering her son when he came home, but the eighth-grader refused to share the details — telling her that he would handle it himself. The parents became aware of it only after their son’s death.  Jacqueline Kelo said it didn’t surprise her that her son kept his pain to himself. Nick viewed himself as his mother’s protector.

“He was the man of the house,” the single mother said.   Nick’s death is being investigated as a likely suicide, according to Rittman police.  Nick recently scored 152 on an IQ test, which is classified as superior intelligence. He had a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and was an avid inventor, creating both a waffle fork to remove hot food from a toaster and an incinerator trash can. Nine of Nick’s organs were collected and donated.
News of Nick’s death comes just days after the White House held a high-visibility conference on bullying prevention, with the President and First Lady calling on parents, teachers, students, and communities to address the problem together.

For those who read this blog this story , which i just read about, Rittman is about 20 miles from my home.  I was beside myself, scik to my stomach with the last of the anti'gay teen bullying but with it in my backyard, if you will,makesme madder than hell.  My heart goes out to this singlemother, and it is just breaking for her.  We as the gya and gay supportive community need to do something for this woman immediately as well as for our gay, questioning or just plain bullied for being gay even if they are not.

Newest Poetry

This came last night while trying to finish reading "The Lonely Well" by Radclyffe Hall


From our faraway childhood homes
Raised in love and glory
From the womb we came
Born this way
No choosing of our own, but divine plan

What knew we of difference
Of the branding in our hearts
The searing of our minds
That mad us different in our love
When were we really aware of it
Can we remember when we found the words

I am sure we can easily remember
When others saw the branding of our hearts
The voices of hatred began
During recess, on the ride home on the bus
Your a faggot, sissy queer boy
Does you mother know your a queen

The scars are numerous
The burden a heavy weight to bear
It did get only worse
Others moved away cutting all ties
The past forgotten

Moving to big cities
New York City, Cleveland, San Fransisco
Palm Springs, Washington D.C.
Our trip through the rainbow
To become friends of Dorothy
Filling our lives with Pride

Some took action, became involved
Stonewall, ACT UP, Queer Nation
Others ran for office and held seats
G-d bless you Harvey Milk
Drag queens who threw bricks
Our brothers fighting for research

Some of us destroyed ourselves
To many trips to drown our sorrows
The bars, the booze, the pills
Others who had endless parades
Of men in our beds needing no names
No questions asked no answers needed

Amidst all the rampant sex
Of fearless faceless frenzy fucking
A demon entered our lives
The senseless butcher
My brothers, my brothers all dead
Our passions fire died

Regan said nothing for years
One complex drug was all we had
The brave, the strong, the beautiful
Became the withering, the dead, the lost
Our Ozian cities hit the hardest
No mere Emerald City dream anymore

Nearly thirty years have passed
Our history at times forgotten
Brothers stories take to the grave
Locked in wooden caskets
Buried under the Western castle
Was it our wickedness this we caused

Have we forgot the price
We have painfully paid to be
Who we simply are
Bisexual Boys
Lesbian Ladies
Transsexual Folk

Gay is more than happy
This mush is true
Our history full and rich
Of great joy and success
Tremendous loss and unspeakable pain
The lessons we have learned

The story we MUST share
I urge you with all my might
Be vocal, be diligent, be heard
Hide no more in our closets
It will get better
The fight has only just begun

So much to do
To be accepted
To fully and freely love
To make the difference
For those that follow
It's all we can leave behind

There's no place like home
Home is where the heart is
There's no place like home
Such a place does exist
There's no place like home
Come on Toto, let's go HOME

Tom Ford and Partner Richard Buckley on Cover of "Out"

OUT editor Aaron Hicklin writes to tell me that the magazine decided to do away with its annual swimsuit issue this year in favor of one focusing on couples and relationships.
On its cover is this portrait, shot by Tom Ford, of Ford and his partner Richard Buckley.
Writes Ford, as one of 23 "love stories":
"One of the things that always amuses me -- amuses isn’t even the right word, because it doesn’t amuse me -- but often, I’m at dinner parties with very close friends, straight, and they realize that Richard and I have been together 24 years, and the response is often, "Wow, you guys have been together 24 years! That’s so amazing. I don’t think of gay men being together that long." And I’m, like, "Why? What are you talking about?" Some of the longest relationships I know of are same-sex couples. A lot of my straight friends have married and divorced and married and divorced in the time Richard and I have been together. I think that preconception, from even very educated liberal friends, that being gay is possibly more sex-based than emotionally based, is surprising and shocking in today’s world."

Gay teen says 'Stop Bullying me or I'll SUE!!!!"

Gay teen activist Caleb Laieski has notified officials at every school in Arizona that they must put a stop to bullying, or else he plans to file a lawsuit. The Arizona Republic reports that the Phoenix-area teen e-mailed a letter to more than 5,000 school administrators and elected officials in early December.


“The letters warn school officials that they must institute policies specifically prohibiting gay harassment by students, teachers and administrators,” reports the Republic. “Schools that fail to stop bullying will encounter ‘legal ramifications.’”
Laieski, 15, founded Gays and Lesbians United Against Discrimination two years ago. Prior to making his demand of every school in Arizona, he successfully prompted the Dysart Unified School District, where he had endured antigay bullying, to revise its handbook to include language that prohibits bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Now pursuing his high school equivalency diploma, Laieski runs his organization with a friend, Casey Cameron of Chicago.
Thus far, the Republic reports that the letter campaign has generated responses from only a handful of officials, most of whom have not expressed plans to take further steps. The Arizona School Boards Association, whose handbook recommends policies and language to many districts, plans to release new policy advisories this month, but a spokeswoman would not say whether antigay bullying was included among the revisions.


On a personal note, i have to say its about g-d  damn time somebody did something like this!!!!  They either comply or pay, good for you Caleb1

NYC Restores Funds for Homeless Youths

The New York City council announced Thursday morning that it had reached an agreement with the office of Mayor Michael Bloomberg that would restore $35 million in proposed budget cuts, including devastating reductions for runaway and homeless LGBTQ youth services.
According to a council news release, “The Council proposed alternative cuts and sources of savings in order to pay for its proposed restorations. Together, the alternative cuts and identified savings achieve the Council’s goal of reducing spending while preventing cuts to programs that serve New York City’s most vulnerable groups.”
The release cited a period of “extensive negotiations” between city council speaker Christine Quinn, finance committee chairman Domenic Recchia Jr., and the Bloomberg administration.
The restorations prevent mid-year cuts to runaway and homeless youth programs in the Department of Youth and Community Development that would have halved the funding for street outreach and drop-in centers for LGBTQ youths. The agency had proposed reducing expenditures for runaway and homeless youth services by $969,407 in the current 2011 fiscal year and by an additional $700,000 in fiscal year 2012.
Advocates learned of the proposed cuts in an e-mail the day after Thanksgiving, sparking protest over the suddenness and severity of the proposals. As many as 40% of the estimated 3,800 runaway and homeless youths in the city are believed to be LGBTQ, a statistic that prompted Mayor Bloomberg to appoint a commission to study the issue last year. The commission found needs for expanded drop-in center hours and street outreach, or exactly what the city had proposed to cut.
Earlier this week, Carl Siciliano, the executive director of the Ali Forney Center, which serves homeless LGBTQ youths, issued a statement criticizing Mayor Bloomberg for an “It Gets Better” video in which he welcomed LGBTQ youths to New York City while his administration proposed the severe cuts.
Siciliano released a statement Thursday morning in which he thanked the city council, advocates, and homeless youths for the collective effort to restore the funding.
"Today is a great day for the homeless LGBT youth of our city, and for the LGBT community," he said. "The cuts to street outreach and drop-in centers would have been catastrophic. But the fight is not truly over until there are safe beds for the 3,800 youth who are without shelter every night in our city."

What if Santa were gay?

From the New York Times--santa's helpers are gay guys with big hearts!

FCKH8 Video

Ok kids this is a brand new video from Youtube and it is in response to Prop 8 and the whole gay marriage issue.  I found this vid on a brand new blog I read and thought it VERY appropriate for mine.  With that said be VERY forwarned that you may find this OFFENSIVE because the f-bomb is dropped quite a bit and is not everyone's cup of tea.  If it is take the advice of the vidoea nd Facebook and Twitter this to you hearts content

My Coming out story

I saw this picture today, a teaser for the upcoming season of Glee and apparently our boy Kurt ends up in a gay leather bar.  Not for the faint of heart let me tell you.  Anyway, it got me to thinking about my coming out now over 20 years ago.

I knew very early on that I was, well different, I didn't realize until almost the fifth grade that, that difference  had a word to it more than one actually.  The teasing started almost immediately, the words damaging: Sissy, Queer, Fag, Faggot, Homo, Fruit the list seemed endless and what precious ego I had left with it.  By seventh grade it was sheer living hell.  I begged my parents to send me to our church's christian school, I knew the teasing would end for ever.  It did the minute I went but it lead to so many other problems, which sooner or later I will discuss I swear.

Of course like every young guy dealing with his being gay I tried not being gay.  I even dated a few girls but we never went beyond the first kiss. The minute that kiss happened it was over.  By 16 I knew girls were not for me and I ended the charade and stopped dating them.  At 17 I lost my virginity to a guy that became my first boyfriend, he would die of GRID (now AIDS) two years later and I never looked back.  He though did introduced me to the man who became my lover and that I lived with for almost 3 years who also died of AIDS before my twenty-first birthday.

Needless to say my parents were clueless and by October/early November of 1988 I was back in Ohio and back in high school, because my Christan school education was worthless.  That December I was raped by a childhood friend.  He was somewhat older but not to much.  His parents were on vacation somewhere and he stayed behind to work at his job.  He invited me to supper which surprisingly we ate before the next thing I honestly can remember 21 one years later, was my being on the floor a gun to my head and him literally ripping the clothes off me. Years in therapy helped me to try to put together what little I do remember.

"I'm f**ckin going to give you exactly what you deserve you f**king faggot, a good breaking in".  I can still hear those words 21 years later.  Needless to say I think he just guessed I was gay, he certainly had no proof of it.  Also needless to say I wasn't his only victim male or female. I left bloodied, in rags of what were my clothes and never went to the hospital, never filed a police report and didn't speak about any of it.

That spring my brother was on a fishing trip with him and I fainted dead away when my mom told me where my brother was.  That kids is when I came out.  G-d almighty it was horrific.  The whole truth, nothing but the truth came flooding out of my mouth.  The sexual assault, my being gay, my having lost a lover ( I didn't say from what then) and of course my stay at Betty Ford before I came home.  I told my mom first we waited almost 3 months before I told my father.  It made our relationship even WORSE than what it was before. By fall of that year I had again tried committing suicide, which I think I have written about before.

The family as a whole found out I was gay when they saw me on CNN at the March on Washington during the Colorado Proposition (I can't remember the exact bill) but I was officially out.  National and local Newspapers came later as well as local things put me on television with what I was doing with ACT UP (The AIDS Coalition TO Unleash Power) and Gay Pride.

Of course I came out later as well  as a Person living with AIDS which was much harder to do and was more of a strain on my family, considering they are all southern conservative baptists ---OY VEY!  I have never regretted any of it.  I do regret exposing my parents to the people I knew when I was first diagnosed because for the most part all those people died, and died suddenly.  My parents still expect me to drop over dead any minute.

I wish I had the courage to have been as brave as Kurt on Glee, to have had some of those hard conversations I have never had with my father and to have my father say I Love You.  Kurt in many ways is making realize who I am again and not to be ashamed of any of it.  Sometimes you need to be obvious, sometimes not.  If it is a problem a friend used to say "in all reality it is not my problem, its their problem".    I mean where would be without our gay clothing designers, hair dressers, florists, interior decorators, police me, firemen and yes even gay clergy.  I am what I am no matter what and between you and me I am thankful I have all of you in my life sharing it with me.  Until next time, embrace who you are.