Mark McNease

There was a lot of news recently about lgbt activists in Russia, including Lt. Dan Choi, being arrested and mistreated by Moscow police during demonstrations there. One of those activists, Andy Thayer from Chicago – a founding member of the Gay Liberation Network – returns to tell the tale. From CBS Chicago: CHICAGO (CBS) — A Chicago gay-rights activist who was arrested in Russia by Moscow police during a pride demonstration last month is back home and talking about the experience. American Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network, was one of more than a dozen demonstrators who planned to march in the Russian capital. They never got the chance. Russian nationalists attacked them first, and then the demonstrators were dragged off by police. Thayer watched a video of the incident with CBS 2’s Mike Parker and called the actions by the mob and police “infuriating.” “A transgender activist was kicked four to five times on the pavement and another activist, a lesbian activist, was hospitalized for about four or five days,” Thayer said. Thayer said he was grabbed by a man with close-cropped hair and a camouflage outfit. He believes the man was one of the “neo-fascists” he said were attacking demonstrators. The arrests near Red Square came on May 28, shortly after the European Court of Human Rights criticized the Russian government for refusing to allow gay-pride demonstrations.]]>

By David Webb – The Rare Reporter Sometimes the comments posted by readers of LGBT newspapers provide a fascinating glimpse into the mindsets of our community’s greatest adversaries because they are often part of the audience. One that caught my eye recently was posted by a reader who objected to criticism directed against Texas Gov. Rick Perry for agreeing to headline the annual dinner on Oct. 28 of the anti-gay group Cornerstone Action in New Hampshire. The announcement was seen as further evidence that Perry is leaning toward running for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2012 because New Hampshire is the first presidential primary state. That put Perry on the LGBT community’s radar again because Cornerstone Action advocates the repeal of the state’s same-sex marriage law, and it promotes the work of ex-gay therapy groups such as Exodus International, Love Won Out, and the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. The conversion therapy practiced by these groups has been denounced by the American Psychological Association, which refutes the notion that homosexuality is a mental illness. The offended reader who was obviously a proponent of ex-gay therapy and a fan of Perry’s wrote, “Many, many people tormented with same-sex attraction have benefited from therapy. The homosexual pressure groups have no moral right to speak for these individuals.” Only one reason comes to mind why someone would feel tormented by same-sex attraction, and that would be a result of being taught that homosexuality is evil and an aberration. Those same teachings would make someone who is heterosexual fear and despise someone who is openly gay. And if someone is gay and doesn’t want to be, it’s pretty easy to see how they would express homophobic opinions to help keep their shameful secret.
Groups such as Exodus International claim in public relations releases that they are not attempting to influence “people who are perfectly happy living their gay life,” but the readers’ remarks make it clear they are monitoring everything we do by reading our publications. They also attend our public events surreptitiously when they are not staging protests, which prompts the question, “Why all the interest if suppression is not their goal?” Perry’s camp announced the New Hampshire engagement after his appearance the previous weekend at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans where the participants, who were enamored of his conservative social and fiscal policies, reportedly shouted “Run, Rick, run.” The announcement of the New Hampshire appearance was viewed as humorous by some because it followed on the heels of the re-emergence of widespread rumors that Perry is secretly gay and that his wife, Anita, almost divorced him in 2007 over it. The rumors that the governor’s wife caught him involved in a sexual act with another high-level male government official became so widespread four years ago that Perry denied them in an Austin newspaper story, calling them a “political smear campaign.” A spokesman for the governor has acknowledged his staff is prepared to address the rumors again should he run for the presidential nomination. Although almost no one actually believes Perry is secretly gay, his alignment at this point with a group so involved with the promotion of anti-gay therapy seems a little peculiar. After all, many of the proponents of ex-gay therapy claim they are recovered homosexuals, and several have been exposed by gay activists as frauds who still engage in same-sex activity. With all of the rumors that previously circulated about Perry being gay and others claiming he cheated on his wife with other women, it would seem like the governor and his staff might be concerned that the next wild tale could be that he went to ex-gay therapy. If not, maybe the governor thinks this is a way of appearing to be compassionate toward a group of people his actions seem to indicate he despises. Having talked with several of Perry’s and his wife’s high school and college acquaintances – some of whom are gay and lesbian — over the years, I doubt that Perry was always so intolerant and self-righteous. In fact, I understand the governor sowed quite a few wild oats in his younger years, to put it in the vernacular of his West Texas roots. But somewhere along the line during his 26-year career in Texas politics, Perry, who is a Methodist, apparently realized that conservative religious zealots would propel him to fame, fortune and power if he pandered to them. That unfortunately puts the LGBT community in the crosshairs of Perry’s aim so it is a real possibility that the rest of the nation is going to experience what it is like to live in a state where an over-the-top, anti-gay elected official sets the political tone. David Webb is a veteran journalist who has covered LGBT issues for the mainstream and alternative media for three decades. E-mail him at davidwaynewebb@yahoo.com.]]>

lgbtSr will be attending this year’s National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association convention in Philadelphia (August 25-28). They’ve just announced the 2011 recipients of their Excellence in Journalism Awards. You can read the entire list here.]]>

Finally . . . new fiction now available as an eBook! Next up: the Kyle Callahan mystery series (it’s time to have some sleuthing fun). First up – ‘Murder at Rainbow Lodge.’ Look for it in early 2012 (or sooner if I can help it).]]>

Wow, approximately half of lesbians and gay men are coupled. I don’t know why I find that surprising . . . In other news, San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX, has the highest percentage of couples with kids. They’re not just accessories anymore! From The Atlantic: With the passage of the New York Marriage Equality Act, the number of gay couples in the U.S. who are eligible to marry has now doubled, as my post yesterday noted. Approximately 9 million Americans are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) — slightly less than four percent of the population, according a recent study by Gary Gates of UCLA’s Williams Institute. Approximately half of lesbians and gay men are members of same-sex couples, including an estimated 160,000 who are married, according to Gates’ research. Nearly one in five same-sex couple households are raising children, compared to about 45 percent of heterosexual couple households, according to figures from the American Community Survey (ACS).]]>

I’m not sure why lgbt people are so invested in what Barack Obama says or does in support of us. Reading all the items out there about his reiteration that he thinks marriage equality is up to the states, I just keep wondering why he gets this kind of press about it when he’s clearly a political animal who is not going to change his position. And his idea that marriage is a state issue just makes me want to say three words to the man, “Loving v Virginia.” (If ‘v’ is considered a word.) From Think Progress: President Obama was asked if he believes that civil marriage is a constitutional right during his press conference this morning. Rather than answering that question, Obama reiterated his record on LGBT issues and argued that marriage is best left to the states. What happened in New York “was a good thing,” Obama said. “I think that’s exactly how things should work. I think it’s important for us to work through these issues because each state is going to be different and each community is going to be different”: OBAMA: What we’ve also done is we’ve said that DOMA — the Defense of Marriage Act — is unconstitutional and so we’ve said that we cannot defend the federal government poking its nose into what states are doing and putting our thumb on the scale against same-sex couples. What I’ve seen happen over the last several years and what happened in New York last week, I think was a good thing. Because what you saw was the people of New York having a debate, talking through these issues. It was contentious, it was emotional, but ultimately they made a decision to recognize civil marriages and I think that’s exactly how things should work. I think it’s important for us to work through these issues because each state is going to be different and each community is going to be different.
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Marriage is a very serious business. Frank and I both know we’ll be together until one of us dies, and if we’re lucky that will be at the same time (though I know those odds are slim). We have a registered domestic partnership for New York City, framed in a glass cabinet in the living room. I’d suggested several times we drive to Greenwich, CT, and just get married. No, he said, he wanted to wait until we could get married where we live, here in New York. And now it’s happened. It’s interesting, funny, and challenging to have to suddenly think about the realities of being married. It’s something that would never have even entered the minds of me and my partner Jim, who died in 1991. Same-sex marriage (or, for the sake of search engines, gay marriage), was a preposterous idea to just about everyone. Not because we didn’t want it, but because we never thought it would happen in our lifetimes. Rather than deal with that depressing reality, I told myself that marriage was for people with too little imagination. That it was passé, bourgeois. But there remained in me that 10 year old gay boy who used to sit on my parents’ bed watching soap operas and fantasizing that one day it would be me greeting my husband at the end of a work day. Now that boy is back. Frank seems a little nervous, wondering how marriage might change our relationship. I told him the domestic partnership certificate on the shelf didn’t change our relationship. It made it just a little more legally solid, but we knew we were in this for the long haul. And marriage won’t change it either, at least not for the worse. People worry that they’ll stop being friends if they get married, or they’ll fall out of love, or the life they’ve decided to spend together will now be based on obligation – that it will somehow stop being a choice. That’s a nice way to think if you could get married in the first place. It’s great for straight couples for whom the option was always there to reject. We, on the other hand, are gazing into history . This is something most of us never seriously considered because it was a pipe dream, a fool’s errand. Not anymore. It’s okay to be nervous. It’s okay to ask yourself if it’s the right thing to do . . . because you know it is. I’ll let you see the photos from City Hall, hopefully soon.]]>