Gay Night With The Padres

July will be a busy month at Petco Park, with the Padres hosting special days for Episcopalians, children in summer camps, knitters and people of Jewish heritage. But it is Pride Night, a July 8 event for gays and lesbians, that is causing a stir.
An El Cajon-based Christian ministry is protesting the confluence of Pride Night with a floppy cap giveaway for children 14 and younger, saying the Padres are welcoming thousands of youngsters on the same day they're celebrating a lifestyle that the religious group calls sinful.
Set Free Ministries will make its point by walking out on the 42 concession jobs its participants fill. The recovery program run by Southern Baptist missionaries also plans to pass out fliers about Pride Night to families entering Petco Park that day.
“We're concerned about Christian parents and other parents who do not want to have to answer at a ballgame why 'Adam and Steve' are doing what they are doing,” said Pastor J.D. Loveland, development director.
San Diego Pride is promoting the night as “Out in Petco Park” and the Gay Men's Chorus of San Diego will perform the national anthem before the game, which will be shown on ESPN.
San Diego Pride's response to the hubbub: It's people enjoying a game together, not a drag show.
“We're going to be wearing ball caps and jerseys. That's the extent of the lifestyle they will be seeing,” Pride Executive Director Ron deHarte said.
The Padres will play the Braves that night, and Atlanta last year was the first major league club to host a “Faith Night,” which drew criticism from those who thought religion shouldn't be injected into a secular event.
Other teams have followed, inviting Christian bands to rock the outfield after games and players to testify about their faith. (The Padres have never had a Faith Night, which some say might explain why they're the worst-hitting club in the National League.)
A Padres spokesman said the team welcomes all fans – gay, religious, butcher, baker or candlestick maker – in the name of boosting attendance. The team hosts more than 5,000 groups for special events each season. Others in recent memory: Harley-Davidson Night and Bowling League Night.
“It's simply a group sale. A lot of people are taking and running with it under the misconception that we're taking a political stand and endorsing a lifestyle or a set of values,” said George Stieren, Padres director of business public relations.
“We're in the business of selling tickets,” he said. “We're an inclusive organization because we have to be. We have 81 home games.”
Set Free Ministries says it will pay a price for its protest.
The nonprofit group's work at Petco Park is a fundraiser. Set Free Ministries supplies the volunteers, and the team gives it a cut of the concessions money.
By walking out, the ministry will forgo $1,680 – less than 5 percent of its monthly budget, Loveland said. And the Padres could fine them up to $4,200 for the no-show, he said. (The Padres say a fine is unlikely.)
“This was a very difficult decision when it comes to (finances),” Loveland said. “We do not get government funding. We finance our ministry ourselves.”
Set Free Ministries runs religious-based addiction-recovery centers and transitional housing for the homeless. After clients have completed a few months of recovery, they volunteer at Petco Park concessions.
Loveland said Set Free Ministries wouldn't have a problem with Pride Night if it didn't coincide with the floppy cap promotion.
“We have absolutely no hard feelings with the gays and lesbians, the Padres or anybody,” Loveland said. “It's just that it happened and it shouldn't have happened.”
Union Bank of California is a sponsor of the promotion. A bank spokeswoman said her company did not know about Pride Night when it agreed to the sponsorship, but she wouldn't say whether the bank objects to the coincidence.
Meanwhile, deHarte said San Diego Pride has received “hate letters” from anti-gay groups about the group's presence at Petco Park.
Even though the Padres have hosted other gay organizations, deHarte attributes the attention to San Diego Pride's visibility. Two weeks after Pride Night, the group will host the annual Pride Parade, which typically draws about 150,000 people.
“More of the anti-gay protesters will cling to it because it's the Pride organization. It gets them more exposure,” he said.
from The San Diego Union-Tribune

How To Give A Good Butt Massage

Home Penis Enlargement Ends In Painful Death

Phnom Penh - Cambodian officials on Tuesday warned the public against home penis enlargement plans after a coroner found a man who had repeatedly self-injected his member with hair tonic had taken his own life to end the painful side effects.
Coroner Vieng Vannarith concluded that a 35-year-old construction worker had hanged himself last week after the hair tonic remedy which advertised it gave thicker and more lustrous locks failed to have the same effect when injected into his penis.
Authorities said the man had been self-injecting for some time, and the treatment had caused massive ulceration, leaving him in such permanent agony that he decided to end his ordeal by his own hand.
Although the case was a suicide, details were released to the newspapers, with authorities saying they were concerned that such dangerous self-treatment with home remedies was not an isolated case and this should serve as a warning to other Cambodians not to try this at home.
"He wanted a bigger one very badly, and the results were tragic," Vannarith said.
from Independent Online

'Ask A Gay Man' Comes To Bravo

As part of Bravo's ongoing effort to deliver original content from the buzziest personalities on the web, the network announced OUTzoneTV.com's June 21st launch date of the popular "Ask A Gay Man" webisode series hosted by Internet sensation and Gap manager William Sledd, a 23-year-old Paducah, Kentucky native. Timed to coincide with Gay Pride, the first webisode entitled "Ask a Gay Man: The Wedding/Commitment Cake Edition" features Sledd and his BFF Stephanie, "the best wedding planner in western Kentucky," demonstrating how to make a pink-on-pink-on-pink cake, perfect for gay/straight/bi betrothal ceremonies. The announcement was made today by Jason Klarman, the network's Executive Vice President, Marketing and Digital.
Bravo also announced that Sledd will be OUTzoneTV.com's voice at a variety of gay pride-related events providing commentary and posting man-on-the-street video installments during the course of the week.
Armed with a video camera and a mission, Sledd's weekly vlogs (which are several minutes in length) tackle thorny fashion and pop culture topics and offer witty and irreverant advice about the fashion/style issues of the moment.
From locations as diverse as his hometown of Paducah, to the streets of Manhattan, Sledd muses on all the wisdom and tips users need to survive the long hot summer. Webisode themes will include thought-provoking topics from the wedding/commitment ceremony cakes to dressing to beat the heat.
The baby-faced Sledd, who leans toward preppy in his own choice of style, admits that "it just really bothers me when people look like crap." He first made headlines last November when his eighth YouTube installment, exploring the world of denim, was watched more than two million times and quickly thrust him into the national limelight.
Currently, Sledd, whose "Ask A Gay Man: Fashion Edition" was recently nominated for best series in the first YouTube awards, has almost 40 videos posted to YouTube and boasts almost 60,000 subscribers.
from Press Relaese

Just One Look...#94

District Sorry for Censoring Gay Kiss?

NEWARK - The school district said Monday it regretted ordering a picture of a male student kissing his boyfriend blacked out from all copies of a high school yearbook and said it apologized to the student.
Andre Jackson, the student, said he was disappointed that the superintendent had not delivered the apology face-to-face and in public. Because of that, he said he didn't accept it as sincere.
"I would accept an apology - a public apology," said Jackson, 18.
Jackson said he learned of the apology through the media.
The district issued a statement Monday saying it regretted the decision and that it would issue an unredacted version of the yearbook to any student of East Side High School who wants one.
"The decision was based, in part, on misinformation that Mr. Jackson was not one of our students and our review simply focused on the suggestive nature of the photograph," the district said.
"Superintendent Marion A. Bolden personally apologizes to Mr. Jackson and regrets any embarrassment and unwanted attention the matter has brought to him."
District spokeswoman Valerie Merritt said Bolden would meet with Jackson on Tuesday.
But Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, said Jackson had not heard from the district by 10 p.m. Monday.
"They don't have a meeting set up, it's not true," Goldstein said. "The school district hasn't contacted him. Whether they reach out to him on Tuesday remains to be seen."
Jackson said his teachers, classmates and his parents all knew he was gay and that his sexual orientation was never a problem at school.
"I've never had to deal with this before," he said. "It's shocking. It's crazy."
Previously, Bolden had described the picture, which showed Jackson kissing boyfriend David Escobales, as "illicit."
"If it was either heterosexual or gay, it should have been blacked out. It's how they posed for the picture," Bolden told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Saturday's editions.
In the 4 1/2-by-5-inch photo, Jackson is seen turning his head back over his right shoulder and kissing Escobales, 19, of Allentown, Pa. It was blacked out after Russell Garris, the district's assistant superintendent who oversees the city's high schools, told Bolden he was concerned that the photo could upset parents.
The photo was among several that appeared on a special personal tribute page in the yearbook.
Jackson, who paid $150 for the page, noted that the yearbook is filled with pictures of heterosexual couples kissing.
Newark public schools have about 42,000 students, making it the largest district in New Jersey.
from The Associated Press

Fired Worker Sues CBS Alleging Gay Bias

NEW YORK - A CBS News producer whose skull was fractured while he was vacationing last year sued the network Monday, charging he was discriminated against for being gay and was fired for publicly discussing the attack.
Richard N. Jefferson, 52, claims in papers filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court that CBS officials harassed him based upon his sexual orientation, then fired him because he complained about it.
CBS spokeswoman Sandra Genelius issued a statement calling the suit "unequivocally baseless." Jefferson's contract was not renewed "due to legitimate issues with his performance that had been previously discussed with him," she said.
Jefferson, who started as a producer for CBS in January 1989 and worked several jobs until he was fired Nov. 20, 2006, said Monday his problems stemmed from the vicious assault he suffered April 6, 2006, on St. Maarten in the Caribbean.
Jefferson said strangers nearly hit him and a friend with a car as they left a casino. The men in the car then smashed his head with a tire iron and attacked his colleague.
Jefferson said he called CBS and the network sent an air ambulance to lift him and his severely injured friend out of Philipsburg, the island's largest city, a consideration that he says probably saved his friend's life.
But back at work, Jefferson said, senior vice president Linda Mason tried to control his public comments about the incident, telling him, "If you get involved in advocacy issues, we might ask you to take a leave of absence."
"She told me this was a gay rights issue and I said it had nothing to do with gay rights; I was the victim of a crime," Jefferson said.
Jefferson's lawsuit names CBS and Mason as defendants, along with CBS News executive producer Patricia Shevlin.
Jefferson claims CBS "improperly pried into his private life, dictated his after hours activities, restricted his First Amendment rights, created false complaints about his performance," and then "terminated him on the basis of his sexual orientation."
He is seeking $5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.
Genelius said in her news release that Jefferson's lawsuit reveals "a stunningly selective recall of the facts."
CBS News supported Jefferson's "right to discuss the attack publicly and to seek justice, which he clearly did," Genelius said.
Last November, four people were convicted of public violence and causing grievous bodily harm in the attack and sentenced to terms ranging from six months to six years in prison.
from The Associated Press

Wal-Mart Shuns Gay Groups

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has decided to curb its support of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) organizations after conservative Christian groups threatened a boycott, and after some of its own employees expressed disapproval.
The move comes a year after Wal-Mart had put on a gay-friendly smile. The company joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. It sponsored the annual convention of Out & Equal, a group that promotes gay rights in the workplace, and sold gay-themed jewelry in stores.
"We are not currently planning corporate-level contributions to GLBT groups," said Mona Williams, the company's senior vice president of corporate communications. Individual stores can still donate to gay groups.
By way of explanation, Ms. Williams cited a policy adopted last fall saying that Wal-Mart would not make corporate contributions "to support or oppose highly controversial issues" unless they directly relate to the company's ability to serve its customers.
How significant is the pullback? Williams says it does not signal any less support for its GLBT employees or for Wal-Mart Pride, a network of gay employees at the company. She's an executive sponsor of the group, which was sanctioned in 2005. "We certainly don't feel that it's a retrenchment," she said.
Others can't help but see it that way. After Wal-Mart explained its decision to a meeting of about 50 Pride members, one contacted FORTUNE to express disappointment.
"I thought the company was moving in the right direction," this employee wrote in an email. "But last week changed everything. Pulling funding from GLBT organizations is a slap in the face to gay employees and it sends a very clear message. Diversity within Wal-Mart is only partially inclusive." "They're catering to their conservative base," the employee added, in a phone conversation.
Interestingly, gay-rights groups were more understanding. Selisse Berry, the executive director of Out & Equal, said: "Wal-Mart continues to engage on the issue of worker equality, and we will support them in that...This is a marathon, not a sprint, and so long as Wal-Mart keeps its doors open, we hope to give them encouragement." Wal-Mart had donated $60,000 to Out & Equal.
The Human Rights Campaign, America's largest gay-rights group, also says it will continue to work closely with Wal-Mart. "With a company as large as Wal-Mart, it's not going to happen as fast as many of us would like," says Daryl Herrschaft, who oversees the HRC's workplace project.
Wal-Mart supported the gay chamber, an organization of more than 24,000 gay- and lesbian-owned businesses, for the first time last year. (Other corporate backers include IBM, Wells Fargo, Motorola and American Express.) The chamber's president, Justin Nelson, did not return a call seeking comment.
Several sources told FORTUNE that Wal-Mart now intends to work harder to educate its own employees about GLBT issues - something it had been advised to do before aligning itself publicly with gay-rights groups.
Last year, when anti-gay groups picketed stores, store managers weren't prepared to explain the company's position. Leaders of Wal-Mart Pride say most of its members work in and around the company's Bentonville headquarters, so they have been unable to muster allies in the field.
On June 9, Wal-Mart Pride members made a presentation to more than 500 employees at one of the company's Saturday morning meetings, which are used to rally the company around business goals. "The presentation was warmly received," Williams said.
Still, some members of the group had hoped that Wal-Mart would by now have taken a major step towards workplace equality by offering health care benefits to the domestic partners of its GLBT employees. More than half of FORTUNE 500 companies do so.
The lesson here may be that it's hard to find a middle ground when it comes to gay rights in the workplace. A company either believes in workplace equality for all, and is willing to stand up and say so, or it doesn't.
It's pretty clear where Wal-Mart stands.
from CNN Money

Actors to Get HIV Tests For New Campaign

Regina King, Howard Hesseman and Jimmy Jean-Louis of NBC's "Heroes" are among a group of performers getting HIV tests next week to raise awareness of the spread of the virus in black communities.
They will be screened Monday in front of cameras at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) headquarters in Los Angeles as part of a new campaign called "1 in a Million." The goal is to motivate 1 million black Americans to get tested for HIV/AIDS by Dec. 1, 2008.
"Actors are blessed with the gift of voice, and people listen to what they have to say," SAG president Alan Rosenberg said Friday in a statement. Rosenberg hopes others will take the "message to heart" and follow their lead.
Other celebrity participants include Hill Harper ("CSI: NY"), musical stage star Sheryl Lee Ralph, Gloria Reuben of the HBO movie "Life Support" and former "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" star Tatyana Ali.
According to the statement announcing the campaign, AIDS is the leading cause of death for black women between the ages of 25 and 34, and up to 46 percent of black gay men are estimated to be HIV-positive.
"AIDS in America today is a black disease," said Phil Wilson, founder of the Black AIDS Institute. "Nobody wants to talk about that, and nobody wants to own that. That silence is killing us."
Besides SAG, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Artists for a New South Africa and the Black AIDS Institute are involved in the "1 in a Million" drive.
from The Associated Press

Elizabeth Edwards Says She Backs Gay Marriage

SAN FRANCISCO - Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, kicked off San Francisco's annual gay pride parade Sunday by splitting with her husband over support for legalized same-sex marriage.
"I don't know why someone else's marriage has anything to do with me," Edwards said at a news conference before the parade. "I'm completely comfortable with gay marriage."
Edwards made the remark almost offhandedly in answering a question from reporters. The topic arose after she delivered a standard campaign stump speech during a breakfast hosted by the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club, an influential San Francisco political organization.
The Edwardses' daughter Cate, a 25-year-old law student, also supports same-sex marriage.
Elizabeth Edwards conceded that her support puts her at odds with her husband, a former senator from North Carolina. She said he supports civil unions for same-sex couples, but not marriages.
"John has been pretty clear . . . that he is very conflicted," she said. "He has a deeply held belief against any form of discrimination, but that's up against his being raised in the 1950s in a rural Southern town."
None of the leading presidential candidates has publicly supported same-sex marriage.
San Francisco's gay pride parade is a campy civil rights celebration, sprinkled with drag queens, leather chaps and nudity. Very rarely do mainstream, national politicians ride or march in the parade.
from The Washington Post

Just One Look...#93

Send your submissions for
Just One Look...
garibaldigay@gmail.com

Gay Kiss Blacked Out In Yearbook

A gay-rights group is demanding an apology from Newark School Superintendent Marion Bolden for ordering her staff to black out a picture of a gay couple kissing be fore distributing copies of the yearbook to students at East Side High School.
Calling the directive homophobic and unlawful, Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, said yesterday the school also should redistribute a new batch of uncensored yearbooks at the district's expense.
"This action by the school district will have an unspeakably vile chilling effect on other gay and lesbian students coming out," Goldstein said. "Her (Bolden) trying to erase a student and his boyfriend is a metaphor for her trying to erase the gay and lesbian community out of Newark and its school system. It's wrong and it's ridiculous."
The photograph shows East Side High graduating senior Andre Jackson, 18, kissing David Esco bales, 19, of Allentown, Pa., on the lips. It was among several photos printed on a special page paid for by Jackson to commemorate his high school experience, at a cost of $150.
Yesterday, Bolden said the photo was not targeted because it was two men kissing, but because it was "suggestive" in nature and that she should have also censored other suggestive photos in the yearbook.
She said she promotes an atmosphere of tolerance for gay stu dents at Newark schools and in tends to apologize to Jackson if he believes the district did something to hurt him because of his orientation.
"I will call the student to let him know nothing was intended to hurt him or slight him," she said.
Until this happened, Bolden said, she was unaware high school yearbook pages were for sale to students and they could submit their own photos. She said in tended to discuss with her staff guidelines for future yearbook photo publications.
School staff covered over the photo in every copy of the yearbook, using black marker, before the $85 books were distributed at Thursday's banquet for graduating seniors. Officials had considered tearing out the entire page but decided blacking out the photo would minimize damage to the yearbook, the superintendent said Friday.
Prior to publication, officials at the school, in the city's Iron bound section, set parameters for yearbook pictures, banning gang signs, rude gestures and graphic photos. However, several photos of heterosexual students kissing were included in the final product. In fact, Jackson said that on the very next page of the yearbook is a picture of a female stu dent kissing her boyfriend.
"That picture was not even thought of or brought up," Jackson said.
When asked to explain the discrepancy, Bolden said Friday she didn't look at the entire yearbook and was presented only with Jackson's page for review. She said yesterday that an assistant superintendent brought the yearbook to her at a luncheon the day the books were to be distributed and she had to make a quick decision.
"If there were other suggestive photos, I should have blacked those out too. This is a first for me," she said.
Goldstein said he has received more than 300 phone calls from outraged members of the state's gay community since the story first appeared on nj.com Friday night.
"The second it hit the Web I started getting calls," he said. "This is not only homophobic, not only an egregious lack of judgment, but this is a violation of the law and we're looking at one of biggest firestorms of year if the superintendent doesn't change her mind."
Jackson said yesterday he appreciated Garden State Equality's efforts and agreed with their position.
"That's all I want, for them to redistribute the yearbook," he said. "It's messed up. What she said about the yearbook being provocative is just wrong."
from The Star Ledger

Isaiah Says They Fired The Wrong Guy

"They fired the wrong guy," Isaiah Washington said today.
The former Dr. Preston Burke on ABC's hit series Grey's Anatomy told the Houston Chronicle that T.R. Knight should have been fired from the show.
Washington was let go on June 7, just a month before filming for the new season was to begin. He has been slammed with negative publicity since October. That's when he allegedly used an anti-gay slur during an on-set disagreement with co-star Patrick Dempsey.
The Houston native's interviews with the media since then have been limited.
"I have to clear my name," a determined Washington told the Houston Chronicle in a telephone interview from the set of his new movie, The Least of These. "I'll start from the beginning. I'm telling everything. So here's the truth."
Washington said Knight, who plays Dr. George O'Malley, stirred up the notion that the slur was targeted at him and created a negative work environment. Washington also alleged that Knight likely wanted a salary increase and a more substantive role for his character.
Knight, who acknowledged that he was gay after the incident, told Ellen DeGeneres in January that Washington used the slur against him and that "everyone (on the set) heard it."
"That's a lie," Washington said. "I used the word during a disagreement with Patrick. I apologized for that. We shook hands and went back to work."
He said he is considering a lawsuit. "My livelihood, my honor and dignity and my name have been so challenged."
Washington said his firing was a big disappointment.
"I was not fired for making homophobic slurs," he said. "I did everything I said I would do. I offered to go to counseling, to do a public service announcement. I wanted everyone to know I was remorseful."
Washington said he asked to be released from his contract last fall after the first incident, then again in January when he repeated the slur at the Golden Globes. His use of the word at the awards ceremony was taken out of context, he said. He was responding to a reporter's question about whether he had used the slur.
He said he regrets that his actions overshadowed Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes' win for best TV series drama.
Washington learned ABC would not renew his contract in a tearful call from Rhimes.
"That was a shock," he said. "I did everything they told me to do, including not saying anything, and then they didn't renew my contract. That's not fair."
ABC executives declined to comment Wednesday.
The 43-year-old Washington said this was the first negative incident in his 20 years in Hollywood.
He said he made three errors in judgment: "believing the cast of Grey's Anatomy were like family; believing I had the freedom to express myself with family and that we could resolve our issues; and trusting ABC was going to take care of me.
"I'm not angry. I'm disappointed."
from The Houston Chronicle

Rosie O'Donnell's View Replacement: A Man?

Could the next View co-host be a man?
Insiders are buzzing that Rosie O'Donnell's replacement could be male. Specifically, they're mentioning two names: Mario Cantone and Ross Mathews.
Cantone, a frequent guest on the ABC chat-fest, played Charlotte's friend Anthony on Sex and the City; Mathews is better known as "Ross the Intern" from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Both of the men are slated to fill in as guest co-hosts next month: Cantone will appear on The View on the July 12; Mathews will take a turn in O'Donnell's old seat on July 17.
"Barbara's really fond of Mario," says one View insider. "So who knows?"
O'Donnell herself is a big fan of Mathews. The two have co-hosted video segments on each other's blogs, and she even gave her blessing to his appearing on The View during one video blog session.
While a View spokesperson confirms that Cantone and Mathews will be guest co-hosting, he would not comment on who might fill the vacant seat permanently. "No offer has been made to anyone at this point," he said.
View executive producer Bill Geddie tells PEOPLE: "We are open to trying a variety of guest co-hosts who bring a unique voice to the show. As I have said before, some are friends of the show, some are people we thought could mix it up, some are stunts and some are potential candidates."
Former View co-host Debbie Matenopoulos has championed the idea of hiring a man ever since O'Donnell announced she was leaving. "It is high time they put a gay man on that panel," Matenopoulos tells PEOPLE. "They've said 'We can't put a man here.' I disagree. Why does it have to be guys against girls? I have a better time and solve more problems sitting with my gay guy friends than my girlfriends!"
Barbara Walters would not speculate about new co-hosts – male or female – when she was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week. She said she and Geddie are still looking at candidates, and may take until late July to make a decision.
Other names that have been tossed around as serious contenders to join The View include Kathy Griffin, Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd – all of whom have filled in as guest co-hosts in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, O'Donnell wrote on her blog Wednesday night that she would be meeting with the Price Is Right team Thursday, furthering the buzz that she'll take over for the recently retired Bob Barker.
Last week Barker told reporters at the Daytime Emmy Awards that he had "no doubt" O'Donnell would be a good host for the game show. But he told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he was neither endorsing nor choosing a replacement.
"I have not been asked for my opinion, nor have I expressed one," Barker said. "I think there are several candidates who could do the show, and Rosie is certainly one of them."
And O'Donnell herself sounded pessimistic about her chances in a recent video post on her blog: "I don't know if it's gonna work out," she told fans. "I watched that show the entire 35 years that Bob Barker was on it, and I just think it's a part of American nostalgia, and it's what America needs right now. It would be good for me, but I don't know if it's right for them."
from People

Sorry Exodus, Homosexuals Can Completely Change

Stephen Bennett, President of Stephen Bennett Ministries, a pro-family organization advocating for the traditional family, the protection of children and proclaiming the truth about homosexuality, condemned the irresponsible and disturbing remarks attributed to and made by Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, an organization claiming to be "The largest information and referral ministry in the world on homosexual issues."
Bennett, along with many others pro-family leaders, were shaken Monday by Chamber's remarks and are eagerly awaiting Exodus International's official response to their President's misguided statements.
In Monday's Los Angeles Times article, the writer alludes to a posed question to Chambers, possibly, "Are there really such people as ex-gays?"
The writer, then based upon a response from Chambers writes, "Truth is, he's not sure he's ever met one."
What's odd is that Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, is a supposedly a former homosexual himself.
In the same article, one of the most troubling quotes by Chambers states, "By no means would we ever say change can be sudden or complete."
What? Then what exactly does Exodus International offer as "hope" to individuals struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction and to families of homosexual-identified individuals?
On CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer", the interviewer positioned Chambers as concurring there may be a "biological" basis for homosexuality.
There is ZERO biological, scientific "evidence" for homosexuality to this date. The biblical evidence for homosexuality is very clear: it's sin.
For Bible believing Christians, homosexuality is, was and always will be a sinful lifestyle - condemned by God throughout the Old and New Testament - a sin that anyone involved in, must repent from.
Stephen Bennett, an ex-gay himself now for 15 years, happily married for 14 years to his wife Irene and the father of their two children, stated, "Frankly, I am shocked that the President of the largest information and referral ministry in the world on homosexual issues, would ever make such irresponsible and false public statements. If Mr. Chambers, a married man and father who once engaged in homosexuality himself, says he's never met 'a former ex-gay' or one who has 'changed completely', he's personally invited to our home in Connecticut to meet one. I'd also be happy to introduce him to numerous other individuals - all former homosexual men and women."
Bennett once engaged in the homosexual lifestyle for 11 years with over 100 men - losing partners and friends to HIV/AIDS, until everything changed in 1990 - when he was confronted with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He dealt with his root issues and in 1992 completely changed. Stephen no longer struggles whatsoever with homosexual temptation.
"Homosexuality is an outward expression of an inward conflict. When I completely dealt with my inward conflict, my alcoholism, cocaine addiction, bulimia AND homosexual struggle were completely gone," said Bennett.
Stephen continued, "What we see here is the public divide of the pro-family movement. One camp believes 'dialoguing' with homosexual advocates and activists will bring about a happy middle ground and compromise for all. That, I'm afraid, will NEVER happen. You see, 'compromise' is not in God's dictionary -- and of course homosexual activists are loathe to compromise on their core beliefs. The other pro-family camp biblically believes homosexuality is, was and always be a sinful lifestyle that individuals were not born with, yet a lifestyle they CAN experience COMPLETE freedom from. I am in that camp. I don't believe in encouraging a dysfunctional, dangerous and potentially deadly lifestyle, but COMPLETE liberation from it."
Bennett ended, "Let the chips fall where they may. It's time the world knows where those in the pro-family movement stand. It was Jesus Christ alone who set me free from the sin of homosexuality - not an ex-gay group, not reparative therapy and not any psychologist. I was made whole by the Word of God and the blood of Jesus Christ shed for me on Calvary, and I will proclaim and offer that same hope, freedom, grace, truth and reality to all who seek it until the day that I die. I pray my brother Alan Chambers will grasp that same message.
"For I am NOT ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ [Romans 1:16], for it was Jesus Christ alone who saved me, delivered me and set me COMPLETELY free from my sinful homosexual past."
from The Christian News Wire

Birthday

Sorry guys but today is my birthday
and I'm taking the day off.
I will however leave you with this
picture for today.
No that's not me!

CBS And Fox Reject s Condom Pig Ad

In a commercial for Trojan condoms that has its premiere tonight, women in a bar are surrounded by anthropomorphized, cellphone-toting pigs. One shuffles to the men’s room, where, after procuring a condom from a vending machine, he is transformed into a head-turner in his 20s. When he returns to the bar, a fetching blond who had been indifferent now smiles at him invitingly.
Directed by Phil Joanou (“State of Grace”), with special effects by the Stan Winston Studio (“Jurassic Park”), the commercial is entertaining. But it also has a message, spelled out at the end: “Evolve. Use a condom every time.”
“We have to change the perception that carrying a condom for women or men is a sign they’re on the prowl and just want to have sex,” said Linda Kaplan Thaler, chief executive of the Kaplan Thaler Group, the New York advertising agency that created the “Evolve” campaign. “It’s a sign of somebody being prepared — if the opportunity arises — to think about their own health and the health and safety of their partner.”
But the pigs did not fly at two of the four networks where Trojan tried to place the ad.
Fox and CBS both rejected the commercial. Both had accepted Trojan’s previous campaign, which urged condom use because of the possibility that a partner might be H.I.V.-positive, perhaps unknowingly. A 2001 report about condom advertising by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that, “Some networks draw a strong line between messages about disease prevention — which may be allowed — and those about pregnancy prevention, which may be considered controversial for religious and moral reasons.”
Representatives for both Fox and CBS confirmed that they had refused the ads, but declined to comment further.
In a written response to Trojan, though, Fox said that it had rejected the spot because, “Contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy.”
In its rejection, CBS wrote, “while we understand and appreciate the humor of this creative, we do not find it appropriate for our network even with late-night-only restrictions.”
“It’s so hypocritical for any network in this culture to go all puritanical on the subject of condom use when their programming is so salacious,” said Mark Crispin Miller, a media critic who teaches at New York University. “I mean, let’s get real here. Fox and CBS and all of them are in the business of nonstop soft porn, but God forbid we should use a condom in the pursuit of sexual pleasure.”
from The New York Times

New JerseyTransgender Law To Go Into Effect

NEW JERSEY - Starting Sunday, New Jersey joins eight other states in making it illegal for employers and landlords to discriminate against transgendered people.
The law, which sailed through the Legislature in December, has received little attention in a state that's gaining a reputation for being welcoming to lesbian, gay and transgendered people. Earlier this year, New Jersey began allowing same-sex couples to unite in civil unions.
Advocates hope the new law will lead to more acceptance and awareness of people who are born one gender but live as the opposite gender. Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center of Transgender Equality in Washington, said she expects more states to follow, including a handful in 2007 and 2008.
"It's really simply a reaction to there being more (transgender) people who are out," Keisling said. "As more people transition, it becomes safer to transition."
The law makes it illegal for a landlord to evict a tenant because of his or her gender status, and companies cannot refuse to hire people because they are transsexual, cross-dressers, asexual, of ambiguous gender or simply not traditionally feminine or masculine. The law also bans discrimination in credit, business contracts and public accommodations such as stores or restaurants.
Labor law posters at work places notifying workers of their rights will include the transgender protection. Violators could be subject to up to 90 days in jail or fines up to $500.
The first such state law was adopted in Minnesota in 1993. Rhode Island, New Mexico, California, Illinois, Maine, Hawaii, Washington and the District of Columbia have adopted similar measures.
By January, laws also will be in effect in Iowa, Vermont, Colorado and Oregon.
In New Jersey, legal protections have been in place since a 2001 state appeals court ruling that held it was unlawful to discriminate against a transsexual doctor.
Advocates say many employers and landlords and even transgendered people themselves did not know about that decision, known as Enriquez v. West Jersey Health Systems, or the protections it offers.
Despite the legal protections, transgendered people say discrimination happens too frequently.
Coy Gordon, who was born a man but has lived as a woman since high school nearly 30 years ago, said she believes she's been rejected for work because she is transgendered.
"To them (employers), I'm still a freak," said Gordon, 43, an unemployed counselor who lives in Jersey City.
Unable to get jobs, she said, transgendered women often have little choice but to turn to prostitution.
Jillian Todd Weiss, an assistant professor of law and society at Ramapo College in Mahwah, who is also a transsexual, said the law might make people treat transgendered people better, but it won't necessarily change attitudes or beliefs.
"It's very difficult to legislate away prejudice," she said.
New Jersey gay and transgendered rights leaders said passage of the transgender bill was as much a priority for them as the state's civil unions law, which took effect in February.
"I have never had an easier time lobbying than for this bill," said Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, an advocacy group that pushed for the law.
from The Associated Press

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American Idol's Alaina Alexander With "Life Interrupted"

Ex-Gay Or Just Exploited?

IRVINE- The commercial airing on Christian talk radio promises "sudden, radical, complete change. Through Christ, freedom is possible for those who struggle with same-gender attraction."
The radio spot is advertising the Exodus International conference this month in Irvine, where evangelical Christian ministers pledge to help reform gays and lesbians into living the straight life.
The controversial topic has attracted picketing by gay rights groups during Exodus' annual conferences in the past. This year, activists are doing something different: They are holding a competing conference the same weekend, a mile away at UC Irvine.
"This time, we decided instead of having a protest, why not just have an alternative conference?" said Michael Bussee, a co-founder of the Exodus movement who later recanted and now lives as a gay man.
The annual Exodus "Freedom Conference" expects to attract about 1,000 men, women, children, parents and spouses affected by homosexuality at Concordia University June 26 to July 1.
A bike ride away, at UC Irvine, co-sponsored by the university, is scheduled "The Survivor's Conference: Beyond Ex-gay."
"I think there will be cross-pollination going on, because many of us know each other," said Peterson Toscano, who said he had three exorcisms, and estimated he spent 17 years and $30,000 trying unsuccessfully to go straight. "Private meetings have already been set up for lunch and dinner."
The organizers of both conferences tell the same growing-up stories about being teased mercilessly. About being called ugly names. About the shame they felt about their attraction toward people of the same sex.
About the misery of evangelical Christians who struggle with the contradictions between what they consider a biblical injunction against homosexuality and the reality of their own lives.
Organizers of both conferences got counseling designed to help them "go straight," also known as "pray the gay away."
But they came to very different conclusions about the success of such programs and how much harm or help they can be.
"I chose to live differently, and my feelings changed, too," said Alan Chambers, president of the Orlando, Fla.-based Exodus International, who is married. "Today, I am a far different person. Not that I don't struggle, but my life has changed. I certainly don't have the desire to be involved in homosexuality. It has no power over me."
One of the original founders of the Exodus movement has a different view. Michael Bussee, who co-founded Exodus at Anaheim's Melodyland Christian Center in 1976, said he quit counseling people to go straight when he realized he couldn't even "cure" himself.
Bussee, who now lives in Riverside and is a licensed marriage and family therapist, said he knew he was gay since he was a boy. At age 12, he went to the public library looking for a book "about homosexuality so I could cure it, but the books said it was the result of mental illness."
Bussee became a born-again Christian, got married, studied anthropology and psychology at Cal State Fullerton, and hoped while involved with Melodyland that he could live as a straight man.
"I loved my wife and we both thought over time God would create heterosexual feelings in me," Bussee said. "Instead, I fell in love with my wife's best friend's husband."
By 1979, Bussee began to believe he was hurting the people he was trying to counsel in his ex-gay group.
"There were suicide attempts," Bussee said. "I had a guy in my group who took a razor blade to his genitals because he felt so guilty."
Bussee said he left Melodyland, was divorced and had several long-term committed gay relationships. He is still a practicing Christian. In recent years, he has picketed outside the Exodus conferences that he helped found. This year, he intends to attend the conference at UC Irvine instead.
Is homosexuality a disease to be cured? Not according to the American Psychiatric Association, which in 1973 changed its classification of homosexuality from a mental disorder to an orientation. The American Psychological Association followed suit in 1975.
"Reparative therapy" is "based on an understanding of homosexuality that has been rejected by all the major health and mental health professions," according to the American Psychological Association.
The American Academy of Pediatrics reported in 2004 that "current literature and most scholars in the field state that one's sexual orientation is not a choice; that is, individuals do not choose to be homosexual or heterosexual."
"Therapy directed specifically at changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation," a position paper of the American Academy of Pediatrics states.
The American Psychiatric Association reported that the "potential risks of 'reparative therapy' are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior, since therapist alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient."
President Bush's choice for U.S. surgeon general, Dr. James Holsinger, has come under fire by gay rights groups for a position paper he wrote on homosexuality and his co-founding of a church that offers an ex-gay ministry.
While Exodus serves Protestant Christians, Evergreen International offers ex-gay programs to Mormons and Courage International for Catholics.
J. Larry Rivera, a Mission Viejo hospital nurse and Christian musician, was one of the people who sought help at Melodyland. He now believes such counseling is harmful.
"When you get fed the message that 'God loves you but he hates your sexuality,' that is a very nasty mixed message," said Rivera, a practicing Christian who now accepts himself as a gay man.
Toscano, a high school teacher from Connecticut, said he was so desperate to go straight that he moved into a Memphis-based residential program called Love in Action, where he paid $900 a month to learn how to overcome his homosexuality.
"Since I was 15, I had begged God to stop me from being a pervert," Toscano said in his book on the subject.
Program participants, Toscano said, were not allowed to wear after-shave, Calvin Klein clothing or anything too fashionable, because it was considered "homosexual." Classical music and classic movies were also banned, though biblical movies were allowed until it became obvious that scenes of half-naked Bible heroes were too arousing.
Rambo, though, was allowed as an example of a good he-man role model. Although most of the participants were white, middle-class men, a few women also were involved, he said. Lesbians got Mary Kay makeovers, he said.
Male participants were taught to play "manly" sports like football.
Today, Toscano travels the world with his one-man show about his experiences, "Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House," which he plans to stage at UCI.
Exodus president Chambers agreed that people can't necessarily change their sexual orientation, but he said they can "live in accord with their beliefs and faith" by renouncing homosexuality and not engaging in same-sex relationships.
The ex-gay program "wasn't emotionally harmful to me and there are thousands and thousands of people who would agree," Chambers said.
While no statistics are kept, Chambers estimated about one-third of the people who seek help from Exodus "find and live out goals for their lives, including living heterosexually, restoring their marriage or living a celibate life."
Despite the controversy, thousands of people, including parents and spouses, contact Exodus each year seeking help with what they believe is a sinful lifestyle.
Although Toscano now mocks them, Chambers said football lessons for gay men are a "healing tool."
"Sports was something that was very difficult for me as a kid. I was made fun of a lot," Chambers said. "Going out there and playing with a bunch of people who were all made fun of for throwing like a girl, it's tremendously healing. Now, as a dad today, I'm not afraid to go out with my kid and throw a football."
from The Orange County Register

Commercial Closet Awards

The third annual Commercial Closet Association 'Images In Advertising' awards recognizing excellence in GLBT advertising have been announced.
The Commercial Closet awards, announced this week at the Time Warner Center in New York, are the acknowledged standard of recognition of excellence for advertising targeting GLBT markets using targeted gay advertising approaches, as well as the reflections of GLBT people presented in general market ads.
This year's winner in the "Outstanding Interactive" category is leading global GLBT marketing and advertising agency specialists, Out Now Consulting.
The winning gay online advertising was created by the agency for its client Lufthansa German Airlines, and targeted gay and lesbian consumers in the Netherlands market. Out Now's 'Lufthansa OutShots' campaign utilized a combination of advertising, PR and database marketing to more effectively position the Lufthansa brand in the GLBT market.
On receiving the award the Founder and CEO of the leading global LGBT agency Out Now, Ian Johnson, said the agency was delighted for its lesbian and gay advertising work to be acknowledged in this way.
"We are currently celebrating our fifteenth year of using detailed gay market research to create more effective gay advertising that works," said Johnson. "The advertising Out Now creates helps people better understand that gay and lesbian people are equal to all others in our society."
"Our advertising puts lesbian and gay people into the advertising picture just where they belong by using realistic life portrayals that are based on respect and equality," said Johnson. "That is the most important aspect to what we do. To receive an award for doing it is both a great honor and a joy."
"Lufthansa has been a strong supporter of the GLBT market for some years so it is especially fitting that one of Out Now's campaigns for this client was the winner," said Johnson.
The winning interactive campaign was developed by longtime Out Now designer Ben Zane with online programming delivered by the leading Dutch digital engineers: Arlanet.
“We applaud all of this year’s nominees and winners,” said Michael Wilke, Executive Director of Commercial Closet Association. “The winning commercials depicted GLBT relationships as endearing and playful. Inclusiveness in media is a key to fostering a more accepting society for the GLBT community.”
from Press Release

Gay Comedian Ant And Joe Rogan Argue

Is fear of the gays a factor with comedian Joe Rogan? One pissed off VH1 star seems to think so.
Ant, the openly gay host of "Celebrity Fit Club" and star of "Last Comic Standing," fired off a seething message on his Myspace page, in response to Rogan's accusations on a radio show that Ant has been stealing jokes from other comics -- the most horrific insult in the world of stand-up comedy. In the post, Ant claims that the only reason the former "Fear Factor" star has made the accusation is because, "Joe just can't come right out and call me a FAGGOT," adding that the accusation of joke theft is "another way to gaybash." He also slams Rogan as a "homophobe."
On the page, Ant says he's ready for Rogan's retaliation, saying "I can't wait to hear him proclaim, 'ANT's using the homophobic card? How come a straight guy can't talk about a gay guy and blah blah blah.' A spade is a spade and I call 'em like I see 'em."
A rep for Rogan had no immediate response.
from TMZ

D.C. Chief Breaking Up Latino, Gay Police Units

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier is breaking up highly acclaimed special units that reach out to the Latino and gay and lesbian communities, a move that is generating criticism from many activists.
Lanier said she is trying to expand services across the city rather than keep the units clustered in their current quarters in Northwest. Officers in the two units instead will work out of stations across the city. But activists are angry, especially in the gay and lesbian community, saying that the new chief is minimizing the impact of the squads.
"That will effectively erase the Unit as an identifiable and cohesive force," said an e-mail sent by gay community activist Peter D. Rosenstein to D.C. Council members.
The Latino unit is now in Adams Morgan, which has a high concentration of Hispanics, and the gay and lesbian unit is in Dupont Circle, the center of the District's openly gay population. But gay people live in all areas of the city, and the Latino population is rapidly expanding east of the Anacostia River, Lanier said yesterday.
Lanier said she plans to increase the size of the squads and spread them out in response to community demands. She also is considering making changes to the Asian liaison unit, located near Chinatown, and the deaf and hard of hearing unit, based near Gallaudet University, she said.
"Our community is diverse in every area of the city now," Lanier said. "East of the river, they want to know why they don't have access to those units. I can't afford to cluster specialized units."
The gay and lesbian unit, which has won national police awards, will expand from five to seven officers. Each officer will be assigned to a different police district. Lanier said she intends to keep the unit's headquarters in Dupont Circle.
Despite Lanier's talk of an expansion, the Latino unit is actually being cut back. The unit, which has 11 officers, will be reduced to nine stationed across the city. Lanier said she plans to add officers to that unit and maintain its office on 18th Street but is working out the details.
Eugenio Arene, president of the Latino Federation of Greater Washington, said he has been pushing for years for more Latino officers. The city is about 10 percent Hispanic, but less than 5 percent of the police force can speak Spanish, he said.
"Let's be proportional," Arene said. "What is the deployment strategy?"
In the gay and lesbian community, several activists sent e-mails yesterday voicing concerns about decentralizing their unit.
"There is still time for Chief Lanier to realize she has made a mistake and to cancel this order," Rosenstein wrote. "I believe the communities can accept that she didn't realize what these units mean to them and would be happy to give her credit for a change of heart."
Both of the units were created by Lanier's predecessor, Charles H. Ramsey, and were heavily promoted by the department.
The D.C. police gay and lesbian liaison unit, created in 2000, last year won a $100,000 Innovations in American Government Award, which was sponsored by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. The Latino unit was established two years later.
Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), head of the public safety and judiciary committee, said he is in favor of Lanier expanding the specialized units, adding, "if she does this, she needs to get input from the communities."
Lanier said last night that she is arranging a meeting with the gay, lesbian and transgender communities.
from The Washington Post

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If You've Got HIV, America Doesn't Want You

"I have HIV," Biagio, a bartender at Escape in Soho tells me, so "I can't ever visit America." He's right, unless he puts his anti-retroviral drugs in unlabeled bottles and hopes immigration control doesn't stop him.
A 1993 law bans all HIV-positive would-be visitors from coming to the U.S. except under special circumstances. The law was put on the books at a time when HIV wasn't well understood and paranoia ran high. It's lingered for over a decade now, leaving people like Biagio and his friends feeling like toxins. Biagio tried to visit Los Angeles a year ago; it would be his first visit to the U.S. But his travel agency warned him not to risk it.
As a UK citizen, he doesn't need a visa to come to America for 90 days or less, but, if caught at customs with HIV-related medication, he could be forced to turn around and head home. "It's ridiculous," Biagio says.
He hasn't encountered this restriction anywhere on his travels throughout Europe so far. And it feeds into a broader view he has of the U.S. as a homophobic state that bans gay unions and ostracizes gays and lesbians in many parts of the country. "It's 18th century" behavior, he tells me. The law was implemented when greater stigma was attached to the disease -- especially regarding gay men -- and he interprets this current law as a perpetuation of that by some.
Biagio has been bartending for fourteen years. He began in Naples, Italy when he was fifteen before coming to London to learn English. Five years ago he was diagnosed, and his life changed, oddly, "very much for the better; I started taking care of myself, stopped taking drugs...Of course it'd be better if this had not happened, but..." he's still living his life to the fullest.
Over the past few months there's been serious reconsideration of America's HIV visitor policy. In December Bush talked about re-working it, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies put out a report in March calling for substantial changes to the law. Biagio isn't holding his breath. There are other places and things to see, and he loves it just where he is in Soho "serving drinks with passion" and "putting a smile on people's faces."
from The Washington Post

Gay Oral Sex Leads To Beating &, Robbery

An "active user" of a homosexual phone-hookup line made a bad connection when he invited a caller to his Wallingford condominium and was beaten while performing oral sex on a new acquaintance, according to Nether Providence Township Police.
After the beating, the suspect forced the victim to drive to several ATMs until he was able to withdraw $200.
The victim, who is described by police as a 50-year-old white male, left 15 messages over a two-week period on various mailboxes at a Philadelphia-based phone-dating service.
In the messages, he detailed his desire for a homosexual encounter, police said.
Because of the sheer number of calls made by the victim, Detective Sgt. Michael Irey said, it was difficult to tell which person returned the victim's call on June 2, identifying himself as "Mike" from West Philadelphia.
"Mike," described as a medium-complected African-American male in his 20s, about 5 feet 11 and 175 to 185 pounds, met the victim at the Swarthmore train station later that evening.
From there, the two went to the victim's condo in Wallingford.
"The suspect sits down and the victim provides him with oral sex, but it wasn't completed before everything stopped when the suspect hit him," Irey said. "The victim goes down to the ground and looks up and this guy has a hammer."
Afterward, the victim was forced to drive to two ATMs and the assailant was able to remove $200 from the victim's account at a PNC Bank branch in Swarthmore, Irey said.
The assailant fled on foot, toward the same train station where the victim had picked him up earlier that night.
As a result of his injuries, the victim's jaw was wired shut and will be fitted with a titanium plate today, Irey said.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Nether Providence Township Police at 610-892-2875.
from The Philadelphia Inquirer

Can 'Hairspray' ?

Some want to can new ‘Hairspray’
Some gay fans of the original “Hairspray” movie want to leave the remake in the can.
John Travolta is starring in an update of the 1988 camp classic which is due to come out next month, and some gay leaders are calling for a boycott of the film because Travolta’s religion has a tough stand on homosexuality.
“Travolta, a prominent Scientologist, has no business reprising an iconic gay role, given his [religion’s] stance on gay issues,” notes Kevin Naff, managing editor of the gay-oriented Washington Blade. “It’s well known that Scientology rejects gays and lesbians as members and even operates reparative therapy clinics to ‘cure’ homosexuality.”
Travolta plays mom Edna Turnblad in the flick — a role originally played by drag queen Divine. Laments Naff: “Divine is spinning in her grave.”
from MSNBC

Kroger Pulls Gay Paper From Stores

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - A regional gay and lesbian newspaper has been pulled from racks at Nashville-area Kroger grocery stores, an action the newspaper publisher calls discriminatory.
"This is last thing that I thought would happen," said Jerry Jones, publisher of Out and About, a monthly newspaper for gay and lesbian readers in Tennessee. "It's a concern because it could happen to any publication."
A Kroger Co. spokeswoman said the Cincinnati-based company has a policy against displaying publications that promote "political, religious or other specific agendas" and cited the need to remain neutral.
But newspaper supporters say Kroger enforces the policy inconsistently, noting that Kroger allows the display of gay newspapers at its stores in other markets, such as Atlanta, and alternative weekly newspapers with political columns and ads for strip clubs in the Nashville area.
Kroger spokeswoman Melissa Eads said the policy speaks for itself and declined to answer further questions Tuesday.
"Kroger strives to be a store for the entire community, and that necessitates remaining neutral on many issues," the company said in a statement. "We think this is a fair approach to everyone."
But Kroger allows The Southern Voice, an Atlanta-based gay and lesbian newspaper, to be distributed on its stands in Atlanta-area stores. The grocery chain also advertises in the paper.
"It would be interesting to know why there is a different policy from one store to another," said John Wade, president of the Nashville Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Chamber of Commerce.
The Nashville Scene, an alternative weekly, is offered for free at Kroger stores in Nashville, and it regularly publishes political columns, along with advertisements for strip clubs and dating phone lines.
For the three weeks the May issue of Out and About was available at Kroger, about 3,500 issues were picked up, Jones said, a significant number for a newspaper that usually distributes about 14,000 copies.
Jones said the newspaper has no sexually explicit content and does not accept ads for dating or chat phone lines.
"The local Kroger managers that I've talked to received no complaints," he said.
"If Kroger were to review the paper, they would find it is a very clean and well-produced newspaper," Wade said. "The public perception of anything within the gay community is that it's sexual in nature. I think they are reacting to perception, which is not necessarily the reality."
from The Long Beach Press Telegram

Just One Look...#90

Still In Prison For Oral Sex As A Teen

ATLANTA – Genarlow Wilson's joy was short-lived.
The Georgia man, who has become a symbol for extreme cases of getting tough on sex offenders, was ordered released from prison by a judge who called his 10-year sentence for having consensual oral sex as a teen “a grave miscarriage of justice.”
The verdict brought cheers from his legal team. His mother, Juannessa Bennett, wiped away tears as she called it “a miracle.”
But the mood dampened some 90 minutes later when the state's attorney general announced he would appeal, which will keep the former honors student and football star behind bars for now.
Wilson's case has gained national attention, with critics saying his sentence was far too harsh. Supporters like former President Jimmy Carter have said it raises questions about race and the criminal justice system.
“As far as I'm concerned, this case is a throwback to Southern justice,” said state Sen. Vincent Fort, an Atlanta Democrat.
Wilson, 21, and five other male partygoers charged in the cases were black, as were the two teenage girls involved.
Wilson is serving a 10-year mandatory sentence for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl in 2003, when he was 17. If his conviction is upheld, he will also be placed on Georgia's sex offender registry.
At the time of his crime, Wilson would have faced just one year in prison if he had sexual intercourse with the girl. The “Romeo and Juliet” exception in Georgia law also would have allowed him to avoid the sex offender registry.
Lawmakers last year voted to close that loophole. But the state's top court said the new law could not be applied retroactively to Wilson's case.
Opponents of Wilson's release said it could lead to similar legal challenges. Georgia prisons currently hold 189 inmates who were sentenced for aggravated child molestation when they were 21 or younger.
In his notice of appeal, Attorney General Thurbert Baker argued that Georgia law does not give a judge authority to reduce or modify the sentence imposed by the trial court.
He said he would seek an expedited ruling from the Georgia Supreme Court. And he noted that a plea deal is on the table that would spring Wilson in a maximum of five years and also remove him from the sex offender registry.
Not good enough, said Wilson's lawyer, B.J. Bernstein.
“It is really ridiculous when you consider that we had a judge that just said it is a misdemeanor that carries no sex offender registration,” she said. “It is extremely, extremely disturbing that the attorney general would take this action now.”
Bernstein said her office was seeking bond for Wilson that would allow him to leave prison while his appeal was pending. He has been behind bars for more than 28 months.
The judge's ruling Monday threw out Wilson's 10-year sentence and amended it to misdemeanor aggravated child molestation with a 12-month term, plus credit for time served. He would not be required to register as a sex offender.
“The fact that Genarlow Wilson has spent two years in prison for what is now classified as a misdemeanor, and without assistance from this Court, will spend eight more years in prison, is a grave miscarriage of justice,” wrote Judge Thomas H. Wilson, no relation to Genarlow Wilson.
“If this court or any court cannot recognize the injustice of what has occurred here, then our court system has lost sight of the goal our judicial system has always strived to accomplish ... justice being served in a fair and equal manner,” the judge wrote.
Wilson's mother was jubilant at the prospect of her son's freedom and looked stricken when she learned of the appeal.
“It's heartbreaking,” Bennett said.
A jury in 2005 found Wilson guilty of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl during a 2003 New Year's Eve party involving alcohol and marijuana. Although the sex act was consensual, it was illegal under Georgia law.
Wilson was also charged with rape for being one of several male partygoers at the Douglas County hotel to have sex with another 17-year-old girl, but was acquitted. The party was captured on a videotape that was played for the jury.
The five other male partygoers took plea deals in the case. One has been released from prison and is now in college.
from The San Diego Union-Tribune

LesbiansTargeted At Comedy Club

An amateur comedy night at a Commercial Dr restaurant turned ugly May 22 when the host comedian aimed homophobic remarks at a lesbian couple, got water thrown in his face, and broke a pair of sunglasses belonging to one of the women whom he claimed were trying to draw attention to the fact they were lesbians because they were "making out" during his show.
Comedian Guy Earle says the women were outside on the restaurant's patio when he arrived for the regular open mic night, and they only came inside towards the end of the show. "I'm about to bring up the second-to-last act and this couple comes in from outside and they plop themselves directly in front of the stage, and they start sucking face like no tomorrow," Earle alleges.
Xtra West first learned of the incident from Stephanie Frigon, who identified herself as a friend of the couple. Frigon says her friends came inside because Zesty's staff asked them to, since the patio was closing.
The couple refused to comment for this article, on advice from legal counsel. "I can't even give you my name [to be] printed," said one of the women, who would only confirm her first name as Lorna.
Frigon, who was not at Zesty's during the incident, posted a second-hand account of it on myspace.com a few days later. In it, she alleges that Earle uttered anti-gay slurs against her friends and quotes him as telling the women: "You're fat and ugly, no wonder you're lesbians, you can't get a man that's why you're dykes. You must be on the rag, you stupid dykes."
Earle admits he "literally said some offensive things to them." He says he was "pissed off" and "lost his cool," but contends he should not be "in this position of having to defend myself."
Earle says he challenged the women about being "rude" from the stage, but was heckled. "They were doing the standard drunken heckling stuff like 'you're an asshole, you're not funny. Get off the stage,'" Earle alleges. "I was like, 'Who the hell are you guys coming in at the end of the show?' I snapped, and I shouldn't have... and yeah, I unloaded offensively like I do to any heckler.
"People booed me, people were upset with me," he continues. "That's the price I have to pay. That's what happens when you do a comedy show like this."
Following what he calls his on-stage "tirade," Earle says he walked past the table where the women were seated and was doused with a glass of water. After the show, he says he went back to the women's table to make peace with them, but more water was thrown at him.
Frigon's account confirms that the women threw water in Earle's face. It also alleges that the comedian later returned to their table, took one of the women's glasses and broke them.
Earle does not deny it. "I took the sunglasses off her head and broke them in half," he admits.
He says he regrets breaking the glasses, and offered "publicly" to replace them. But he argues that he was "assaulted" twice before reacting.
He says the women's sexual orientation is not an issue. He alleges that they were drunk and obnoxious. "It was disrespectful any way that you cut it. The sexuality has nothing to do with it."
Zesty's manager Sal (who refused to give his last name) says he remembers seeing the women on the patio "drinking from 5 until 12 almost." He says he was out walking on the Drive at the time of the incident, but was told about it when he returned to the restaurant later in the evening.
Sal says no one complained to him on the night, but the following day he received a call from one of the women who told him Earle broke her sunglasses.
"I say, 'Don't worry about how much [the glasses cost], I'll pay for it," Sal recalls.
But when the woman came to see him, Sal says she began "pointing at me."
"I told her, 'Don't point at me. The way you speak to me is not nice.' I said, 'The way you talk to me, maybe it is your fault.'"
Sal says he retracted his offer to replace the sunglasses.
"I told her I am not paying for the sunglasses or whatever, because she threw water in the guy's face, you know. Two times. He got mad."
Accounts of the incident have been making the rounds on the internet, with some calling for a boycott of Zesty's, while others say any action should target the comedian, not the venue which has played long-time host to queer artists like the comedy troupe Laff Riot Girls.
"We're collateral damage," says Lee Ann Keple of the lesbian-run comedy troupe that has held its shows at Zesty's for the past seven years. Keple says she has always had a good relationship with Zesty's management, and does not support the call for a boycott.
Still, she says, Laff Riot Girls is now looking for a new venue.
from Xtra

Scientists Reassure Men Worried About Penis Size

Only 55 percent of men are satisfied with the penis nature gave them. Now British scientists are trying to persuade men suffering from penis anxiety not to worry, saying most men afflicted by "small penis syndrome" actually have average-sized members.
Almost half of all men are unhappy with the size of their own genitals. According to a new study, a man's anxiety over the appraising glances of other men, though largely unfounded, can lead to the most bizarre attempts to augment his penis size.
It's a topic that is often the subject of jokes but rarely of serious discussion. And yet, as British urologists Kevan Wylie and Ian Eardley report, there is plenty of need to discuss the issue. For many men, the size of their own genitals represents a serious and even agonizing problem -- despite the fact that, from a matter-of-fact point of view, such fears ought to be completely unfounded. "Such concerns might be unfounded in reality and might be a presentation of social anxiety or some other clinical problem, such as erectile dysfunction," Wylie and Eardley write in the June 2007 issue of the British Journal of Urology.
In an effort to better understand "small penis syndrome" -- a man's fear that his genitalia could be too small -- the two researchers have surveyed a large number of international studies on the issue from the last few decades. According to Wylie and Eardley, "Concern over the size of the penis, when such concern becomes excessive, might present itself as the 'small penis syndrome,' an obsessive rumination with compulsive checking rituals, body dysmorphic disorder, or as part of a psychosis." The two scientists draw loose parallels between the syndrome and the distorted body images of people with eating disorders.
Wylie and Eardley reviewed more than 50 articles in professional journals for their study, and in doing so uncovered a few definitive conclusions that could certainly allay the fears of many a man with a phobia of having too small a penis. For example, studies involving a total of more than 11,000 subjects (and only those were included in which penis size was actually measured and not based on the subjects' responses) showed that the average penis, in its erect state, is between 14 and 16 centimeters (5.5 and 6.3 inches) long and has a circumference of 12 to 13 centimeters (4.7 to 5.1 inches). Researchers only refer to a penis as a "micropenis" if the fully extended flaccid member is no longer than 7 centimeters (2.75 inches).
According to Wylie and Eardley, most men who suffer from small penis syndrome (SPS) don't even have what scientists define as a micropenis. And in most cases their fear of their partners' disparaging glances is also unfounded. According to one of the studies cited, 85 percent of women surveyed said they were satisfied with their husband's genitals, whereas only 55 percent of men were happy with what nature had given them.
In other words, almost half of the men surveyed (more than 50,000 people of both genders took part in the study) would like to have a larger penis. Perhaps unsurprisingly, only 0.2 percent wanted the opposite, a smaller penis. Twelve percent of the men surveyed considered their own penis "small," 66 percent said it was "average" and only 22 percent described it as "large."
The fear of not being adequately equipped usually begins in childhood or adolescence, which explains the nickname doctors sometimes use for SPS: "Locker room syndrome." Comparisons with others, whether older children or one's own father, often lead young men to believe that their own penises are too small. In a 2005 study, 37 percent of respondents said that their problems began in adolescence after they had seen erotic images for the first time. Because of the growing availability of pornography on the Internet, this could become even more of a problem in the future.
Measuring Up
The large number and wide variety of methods used to enlarge a penis perceived to be too small reveal just how serious this concern is for many men. Wandering holy men in India, or Sadhus, attach weights to their penises to elongate them, while men in Borneo's Dayak tribe puncture their testicles to attach what they believe to be arousal-inducing objects. Until the 16th century, men in the Topinama tribe in Brazil would provoke poisonous snakes to bite their penises. This caused pain that would last for about six months, but was also believed to significantly increase the size of the penis.
Today's enlargement procedures are usually less drastic -- and rarely work. The penis enlargement pills being hawked by the million in spam emails every day are simply ineffective. A similar lack of efficacy applies to vacuum pumps. According to the Wylie and Eardley study, evidence on the effectiveness of vacuum devices was found to be limited -- although the authors note that some patients may experience psychological benefits from using them.
Various companies even market so-called penis extenders, which are designed to stretch the penis for several hours a day. According to a few studies, these devices can have a certain elongating effect if they are worn for several hours a day over a period of months. But so far none of these studies has been published in a reputable scientific journal, and should therefore be taken with a very large grain of salt. Doctors also warn that such procedures have the potential to cause tissue damage.
In general, the authors tend to favor "conservative approaches to therapy, based on education and self-awareness, as well as short-term structured psychotherapies." Surgery, they write, is advisable only in very rare cases. Surgical penis enlargement procedures are often risky, and there are currently no long-term studies on the lasting satisfaction of men who have had the surgery.
Most dissatisfied men would probably be interested in an article that got the US's renowned Mayo Clinic an enviable ranking near the top of the list of Google hits for the search term "penis enlargement." According to the article, "If you are like the vast majority of men who wonder if their penis size is normal, the answer is -- yes."
from Spiegel Online