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San Francisco's Department of Human Services wants to fire a child welfare supervisor accused of downloading and passing around gay S&M porn pix -- hot shots that starred a psychiatrist from the city's foster care program.
Higher-ups in the welfare division are also facing possible discipline for moving too slowly to stop the photo pass-around, and for failing to report the supervisor's actions to the proper authorities.
The department's director, Trent Rhorer, declined to discuss details of the case, saying it was a personnel matter. He did, however, confirm that an internal investigation was under way "into all aspects of how the matter was handled, from the transgressions of particular employees to managers who may not have handled it appropriately.''
As far as the department is concerned, however, the doctor didn't do anything that violated the city's work rules by appearing on an S&M Web site. He's not facing any disciplinary action.
Sources inside the department say the case started several months back when an employee in the child welfare division showed pictures to her supervisor of the psychiatrist from the XXX adult Web site Leathermen.com.
It wasn't long before downloaded photos of the doctor were making the rounds of the department, and then up the chain of command, our sources say.
Eventually, the matter came to the attention of Rhorer. He ordered the department investigation -- not over how the doctor wound up on the site, but over the failure of department bosses to keep the photos from being circulated and for not reporting the matter to the agency's civil rights unit immediately, as required.
Now, the supervisor accused of spreading the photos is facing dismissal for having created a hostile work environment. The probe has also reached the door of a senior deputy.
Rhorer said the investigation and hearings will continue for several weeks.
from SF Gate
Rock manager Sharon Osbourne has blasted "intolerant" Americans, claiming their religious beliefs exacerbate homophobia and racism.
Despite having a home in her native England, Sharon and husband Ozzy Osbourne live in Beverly Hills, California, because she loves the "bulls**t" of the Los Angeles party scene.
Sharon tells British gay magazine Attitude, "In America, I love the bulls**t. You can go to a party and it's like: 'Bulls**t, bulls**t, bulls**t,' and you can play along, then come home laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.
"What don't I like? The intolerance of people, toward gay people or black people, or whatever.
"Some of these crazy religions seem to have the upper hand now and it makes me sick."
from Ireland On-line
You know they're out there. The gay male pro athletes, grunting and sweating and spitting and running and crashing and hurling, right now, acting all manly and tough and rugged and heroic on the field or on the court.
And they're signing autographs and getting themselves all beloved by largely homophobic 'Murkin men and swooning 'Murkin boys and even handfuls of women as they jam the secret of their sexuality way, way down and go on raking in their millions, leading their lives of quiet, albeit loaded, desperation.
Do the math, baby: There are 25 players on a Major League Baseball team roster, and there are 30 teams. That's a total of 750 spittin', groin-scratchin' men. For the NBA, it's 12 players and 30 teams, totaling 360 really tall dudes who can no longer wear excess bling. For the NFL, the numbers shoot way up: about 45 players each, across 32 teams, totaling nearly 1,440 hulking hunks of pummeled meat.
So then, for the big three 'Murkin sports alone, not including hockey or soccer or water sports and not including minor league baseball or college hoops or college football (all of which are also, of course, enormous hotbeds of homoerotic heat, which would add another few thousand to the total, but let's stay national here), we're looking at a grand total of well over 2,500 male pro athletes, all sharing locker rooms and showers and sweat and intimate moments and you really want to sit there and tell me at least a dozen of these guys aren't right now closeted homosexuals? Bisexual? Something? Please. Get over it.
It is, of course, the last cultural frontier. The modern psychosexual threshold demarcating where we as a homophobic sports-lovin' culture simply refuse to allow ourselves to go, given how pro sports is a multigazillion-dollar industry and how no way in hell would a male sports fan (or team owner or sponsor) stand for a gay sports hero. No. Freaking. Way. If it happened, there would be fear, hate and mistrust. Other players would shun, recoil and cry. Sponsors would flee. Alabama would implode. The red states would spontaneously combust. Just the way it is.
Sure, WNBA MVP and three-time Olympian Sheryl Swoopes can come out and admit she's a lesbian and no one really gasps all that loudly because, well, it's the WNBA, and she's a woman, and it wasn't much of a secret anyway, and -- perhaps the biggest reason of all that her coming-out story is a nonstarter -- it's not about manhood.
Think about it. No male fan in his sticky armchair is right now saying, "Gul-dangit, my image of the WNBA is totally shattered, shattered I tell you, my manhood's threatened and my Budweiser supply is endangered and what the hell is happening with the sports that define my beer-bellied soul?" It just ain't happening.
But it does bring up the bigger, stickier and more fascinating issue of gay male pro athletes, and why it's still such a viciously loaded topic, and when it will finally be tackled (It's inevitable, of course. Not if, but when. And, of course, who. And how soon thereafter he will be shot.).
Why the absolute terror of a gay male sports star? And why so different from the lesbian version? Simple: because accomplishment in male sport lies in direct proportion to virility. Touchdown equals manliness. Slam dunk equals large penis. Home run equals steroid -- er, prowess. There is a very straight (ahem) line between male athletic ability and the theoretical ability to satisfy 20 women in five minutes. Take that macho illusion away, and men will simply crumble. The veil will be lifted. There will be no "pure" male culture, nowhere for boys to turn. Except maybe bowling. Or bass fishing.
Pro sport is the last frontier. After all, there are openly gay rock stars. There are openly gay writers and gay filmmakers and a handful of gay actors (though, of course, none who get straight roles) and gay airline pilots and even a few gay politicians, along with plenty of gay soldiers in the U.S. military who don't ask and don't tell and who die just as ruthlessly and brutally in Bush's repulsive pet wars.
There is only one way it can happen. Only one way America and its sports-drunken, gay-fearin' men would ever reluctantly, grudgingly accept a gay sports star, and that's if said star was already a king of his sport, a true superstar, a Michael Jordan or Barry Bonds or Peyton Manning, Tim Duncan or Michael Vick or Roger Clemens.
You know, big. Manly. Amazing talent. Stats so impressive and feats so astounding and records so undeniable that they cannot be dismissed and the grunting fans will have to say, "Well yeah, he may be gay, but man that guy can play, and I shall accept him because he's a great competitor."
And then that odd mutation will occur in the culture where it becomes suddenly, weirdly cool for normally homophobic sports fans to like and even defend the gay athlete, because, hey (the fan will realize), accomplishment trumps sexual orientation, and sexuality has no bearing on talent (or for that matter, on anything else), and it doesn't seem to threaten his manhood, so maybe, just maybe, it doesn't have to threaten mine.
I know, it seems impossible. But someday soon, a major, celebrated athlete who is currently active and at the top of his sport (this is vital) will have the nerve to come out, to take the risk and live his life truthfully. And he will be celebrated and championed and shatter all prejudices. Either that, or he will be savaged and destroyed. He will be killed, then eviscerated, then set on fire, then beheaded. And then it will get ugly.
Either way, he will break new ground. He will finally explode the stereotype. He will allow in a shaft of open-minded light into an otherwise viciously defended, all-male homophobic stronghold and maybe, just maybe, progress can be made and barriers can be broken and awareness can rise and our uptight gender issues can evolve, just a little, as the sports in question, meanwhile, will be exactly no worse for it, and might just even improve. Hey, it could happen.
It might be, I realize, too much to ask in our lifetime. It might be too much to ask of our rigid, God-drunken, neocon-hammered culture. As such, I also realize that the ultimate dream for progress and how we think of gender as it relates to American sports is probably way too much to ask, too. But, hey, it sure is fun to imagine the effects of an openly gay NASCAR driver, isn't it?
from San Francisco Chronicle
A hunky Italian singer has been censured over a saucy poster featuring him stark naked.
Although advertising watchdogs ruled that the poster of London-based pin-up Lorenz was "unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence" they upheld complaints made by three people living in the London area because his management company did not respond to their inquiries.
The controversial poster advert, sponsored by fitness company PerfectUK.com, showed the singer lying on his side facing the camera. He was completely naked with the words 'PERFECTuk.com' covering his genital area.
A spokesman for the Advertising Standards Authority said: "The complainants objected that the ad was offensive and inappropriate for public display, particularly because it could be seen by children.
"Lorenz International did not respond in writing to our inquiries.
"We were concerned by Lorenz International's lack of response, which we considered a breach of the Code; we reminded them of their responsibility to respond to our inquiries and told them to do so promptly in future.
"However, we noted, although the model was evidently naked, his genitals were obscured by text and the image was not explicit. We concluded that the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence or to harm children."
from Life Style Extra
A new analysis of census figures reports that more than half of America's Latino lesbian live-in couples are raising a child.
By comparison, 32 percent of white lesbian couples are raising a child, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute. The Institute used 2000 Census figures that tracked same-sex households in which respondents identified another person in the home as their "unmarried partner."
The findings are no surprise to Alicia Vega, a board member of Amigas Latinas, a Chicago-based organization for Hispanic lesbians. The numbers, she believes, reflect traditional Latino culture in a couple of ways.
Vega said newcomers to Amigas Latinas meetings are often women who have been married to men or have tried to live as heterosexuals. The women, said Vega, have attempted to fulfill a traditional Latino role of women as wives and mothers, she said.
Either arriving in this country as immigrants or breaking away from cultural expectations, the women who come to Amigas Latinas meetings are often distraught.
"They'll say, 'I think I'm a lesbian and I don't know what to do,'" Vega said. Some already have children.
Even after Latinas declare their orientation, they do not lose the culture's value in family, added Vega, 35, who, with her partner, Maria Cuevas, 38, is aiming to have children through artificial insemination.
Fifty-four percent of female Hispanic same-sex households are raising at least one child under 18. In Chicago, 59 percent of Hispanic lesbian couples are raising a child. Half of the lesbian Hispanic couples in Chicago are raising a biological child of one of the partners.
Report also looks at men
The report, which also looks at same-sex households of men, was produced to support same-sex marriages by illustrating a cross section of the country's gay and lesbian population, researcher Jason Cianciotto said.
The report stated that 41 percent of male Hispanic same-sex couples were raising at least one child under 18, compared to 19 percent of white male homosexual couples.
Hispanic same-sex couples are so designated if either partner is Hispanic.
Cianciotto writes that Hispanics generally hold more conservative social views on homosexuality than other Americans. A national survey of Latinos by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2002 found that 72 percent believe that homosexual sex between adults is "unacceptable," compared to 59 percent of whites.
Rick Garcia, the policy director of Equality Illinois who has been with his male partner for over 20 years, said while Hispanic families may be more likely to disapprove, the value of family tends to trump outright rejection by relatives.
Vega, a Mexican-American social worker, said her "traditional" parents disapproved when she told them she was a lesbian. "It was a devastating experience, particularly for my mother."
Vega legally married her partner in Canada in June of 2004 but had a ceremony in Oak Brook a couple of months later.
Vega wasn't sure her parents would attend. At the last minute, they did -- and walked her down the aisle.
from Chicago Sun-Times
Woody Allen claims he's glad ex-wife Mia Farrow found his nude photos of her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi.
The legendary director - who caused a scandal when he married Soon-Yi, who is 35 years his junior - says he is pleased Farrow exposed his affair in 1992 because it changed his life for the better.
He explained: "It was one of the great pieces of luck in my life. It was a turning point in my life for the better."
However, 69-year-old Woody admits he is still like a father figure to his young bride.
Speaking of their relationship, he confessed in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine: "It's got a more paternal feeling to it.
"All the women I went out with were basically my age. Now, here, it just works like magic. The very inequality of me being older and much more accomplished, much more experienced, takes away any real meaningful conflict."
Woody no longer sees his three children with Farrow, and admits he "feels terrible about it."
He said: "I spent millions of dollars and fought in court for years to do it, but could not swing it."
Woody also claims he hates getting older, saying: ""Aging is a terrible thing. It's just all bad news. You deteriorate physically and die.
"I've gained no wisdom, no insight, no mellowing. I would make all the same mistakes again, today."
from Life Style Extra
Sounds to me more like a club where guys can get together for a circle jerk.
G.G.
COLORADO - Not if a girl begged him. Not if she was super hot. Not even on a desert island.
Jonathan Butler's friends have challenged his resolve with endless what-ifs. But the 19-year-old says there's no fathomable reason he'd have sex before marriage. He's proud to be a virgin.
So proud, in fact, that last week he started an abstinence club on the University of Colorado campus.
Alongside that, he started a relationship-education program, the Colorado Coalition for Relationship Education. He hopes the name will lend his efforts acceptance in a liberal community known for its "condom zaps;" groups burst into bars, scatter condoms and spread the gospel of safe sex.
Instead, Butler wants to spread the belief that it's not only OK to be a virgin, but it's also cool. He wants to bring in big-name guest speakers to teach students about healthy relationships and self-esteem.
Butler expects to attract several hundred members, and not just virgins, CU students or Christians. He welcomes anyone.
"We'll talk about relationships, not about how to be abstinent," he said. "It's not virgin versus non-virgin."
Butler's club joins a national surge in abstinence-friendly organizations for youth.
Most efforts, such as Longmont-based Friends First, aim at middle- and high-schoolers. Butler was a member of Friends First when he attended Silver Creek High School in Longmont.
Then he started college. There, he said, it was even harder to be an open virgin. Students teased him that he just couldn't "get any" or asked him if he was gay.
"No, the risks are just too high," he said. "And personally, I don't want the No. 1 thing I'm worrying about right now (to be) who I am going to have sex with this weekend."
He said he watched many of his abstinent friends change their minds at CU.
A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found about a third of teens ages 15 to 17 said they'd had sex. That number more than doubled - 71 percent of women and 65 percent of men - for 18- and 19 year-olds.
Butler said he thinks many college students get swept into the "sex sells" culture, especially at a school like CU, a campus plagued by allegations that sex was used to recruit football players.
Butler said he felt it was crucial to start a club on campus to further the support he had in high school - to show other virgins they're not alone..
Butler wants a supportive circle of friends and access to experts to strengthen his relationship skills and reinforce his own definition of abstinence.
He said he's OK with hand-holding and kissing, but that's where he draws the line. Desert island or not.
from Boulder Dirt News
