Stunned is the lesbian to realize this slipped under blogging radars ..
From RawStory comes the startling fact that Karl Rove's father (stepfather to be technical but KR called him "Dad") was an openly gay man until his death. This comes from a new book Karl Rove: The Architect and the Master Plan for Absolute Power. Rove has spoken movingly of his father.
So your DAD is gay, you still love and value him and yet you make his community public enemy #1 in your relentless pursuit of power? What the hell is that about?
In other news .... Ellen DeGeneres, openly lesbian comedian, will host the 2007 Oscars. I liked John Stewart, but kudos to Ellen. I just wish anyone who hosts it could be actually funny instead of pandering to network censors and middle America and all that crap. And I must admit that if I see Ellen fawn over yet another misogynistic hip-hop performer and sell our her sisters in her quest to be the most beloved entertainment host of the decade, I'll vomit. Still ... we'll see what happens ...
Maintaining a low blogging profile these past days. You know when you just don't feel the inspiration .... its hard to blog. It scares me when I lose my impulse to be snarky ... it even got to the point where I turned off the 6 PM news for a Frasier rerun and the gossip section of Rolling Stone! I hate that section.
Ledcat and I have a full day of anti-snark funk breakdown activities planned so stay tuned for your usual blogging fun ....
A documentary about the Rev. Mychal F. Judge, a gay chaplain with the New York Fire Department who died on 9/11, will be screened in Pittsburgh on Sept. 11.
Ian McKellen narrates "Saint of 9/11," which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. All five festival screenings were sold out.
An obituary published at the time said the chaplain died amid a rain of debris as he went to the Twin Towers to minister to victims. He was 68 and lived in a Franciscan friary across from a firehouse.
His head was struck by debris, according to friars at the Holy Name Province of the Franciscan Friars. Firefighters carried his body to St. Peter's Church on Barclay Street, then to the firehouse, in a scene captured in a memorable Reuters photo.
When TWA Flight 800 exploded off Long Island in 1996, Judge helped console families of victims. Not long before his death, he went to Northern Ireland on a peace mission with a New York police officer who had been shot and left paralyzed.
The Pittsburgh showing of the documentary, sponsored by the Pittsburgh Lesbian and Gay Film Society and Pittsburgh Filmmakers, will be at the Melwood Screening Room, 477 Melwood Ave., North Oakland. The 90-minute movie will start at 7:30 p.m. on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Admission, $5, will benefit the Shepherd Wellness Center. Firefighters and members of the clergy will be admitted for free, with proof of identification.
Be sure to set your dials for AM 1360 tomorrow morning when our favorite PG columnist Tony Norman brings along David and Maria of 2 Political Junkies for his three hour stint substituting for talk show host maven Lynn Cullen.
I've been kvetching that all the planned substitute hosts are men, albeit progressive liberal-minded men. Nothing wrong with some mantime on the air, but its very difficult to believe that the station cannot rustle up some engaging progressive women to fill some of these slots.
Boys -- you have to share the resources or you lose your token feminist cards!
But give Tony, David and Maria a listen as I'm sure it will be informative, entertaining and amusing ....
Emilia Lombardi, Pittsburgh trans-activist and good friend of the Correspondents, made history this year as one of the first trans women to openly participate in the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. As we've reported in the past, the Michigan festival has historically excluded those who are not woman born, inspiring trans women and their allies to establish Camp Trans outside the festival to promote awareness of trans inclusion issues in women only spaces.
Organizers of Camp Trans, the annual protest across the road from the festival, say that every year at least one trans woman at Camp Trans walks to the festival gate with a group of supporters, explains that she is trans, and tries to buy a ticket. In past years, the festival box office has produced a printed copy of the policy and refused.
"This time, the response was, 'cash or credit?'" said Jessica Snodgrass, a Camp Trans organizer and festival attendee who spent the week reaching out to supporters inside the fest. "They said the festival has no policy barring any woman from attending."
The woman purchased her ticket on Wednesday and joined supporters inside the festival. Another trans woman, Camp Trans organizer Emilia Lombardi, joined on Friday to facilitate a scheduled workshop discussion on the recently-retired policy.
"This kind of discussion has happened before inside the fest," said Lombardi. "But for the first time in years, trans women were part of the conversation. Over 50 women shared their thoughts about what the inclusion of trans women means for the Festival and how we can move forward."
"We didn't expect to change anyone's minds in the workshop - but in the end we didn't need to. The support we found was overwhelming."
Both trans women say they were moved by how friendly and supportive other festival attendees were.
Camp Trans will continue with the goal of continuing to promote awareness and provide supports for trans women attending the festival as well as working with camp participants to educate future attendees on transphobia.
I must say I am delighted! The Correspondents have differed over this issue with regard to attending the festival. And I think this is part of a larger shift in dynamics in the queer women's community. This past weekend, the New York Times featured an in depth look at the receptivity (or lack thereof) of the "lesbian" community to transgender women. Women have intensely personal reactions, especially to women born women transitioning to men. The complexity of gender and sexual orientation is a struggle, tapping into old insecurities about the reality of being a woman in our society.
I suspect, however, that its also a generational issue. Just as younger generations are more comfortable with the mere existance of multiple sexual orientations, I believe the younger queer generation is more comfortable with the fluidity of gender and less threatened by the paradigm shift.
But, as one Camp Trans organizer puts its, this isn't about winning a battle.
"This is not about winning," said Snodgrass. "It's about making our communities whole again. The policy divided people against each other who could be fighting on the same side. We want to be part of the healing process."
That's where the dialogue needs to go, most especially here in Pittsburgh where there is a huge generational divide in the queer women's community. As recent events in City Hall demonstrate, women cannot afford this divide. Obviously, Jim Ferlo and Bob O'Connor find much in common with a 31 year old so surely we can find ways to connect our 40 and 50 something lesbians with the 20 somethings queer women. More on this later.
Back to Emilia. She rocks and does a lot of good stuff here in Pittsburgh for the queer community as a whole. We are very lucky that the University of Pittsburgh snatched her up and brought her to us. And how very cool that she used her access to Michigan to get down to work on education and awareness.
The Renaissance City Choir Women are starting our 12th season with a NEW director and we are very excited. If you have ever sung in a choir before or if you have always wanted to but didn't get the chance, now would be a great time to join!
We have three goals
- to join together in a community to impact the broader community to effect positive social change.
- to grow in our musical skills and broaden our and our audience's musical horizons
- to have fun together with like-minded LBT & S women
Auditions are Tuesday, August 29th, but please don't be scared off by the word audition. It literally means to be heard, and we have singers of all backgrounds and levels of experience.
For more information or to schedule a time, contact Marcia Smith at
If only the characters would have done something more acceptable such as blowing someone's head off with an AK-47 instead of being ... you know ..." one of those sick types."
rather than rely solely on newspaper reviews to warn them of scenes in movies that the reader's family might find offensive, they should use a resource such as www.kids-in-mind.com. There they will find in great detail a listing of every kiss, touch, comment, obscenity, name-called, punch, car crash, cigarette, and drink occurring in the movie.
Perhaps David A. Smith should keep his man-kissing worries focused on the ones that really matter (President Bush and Joe Lieberman) instead of those that don't (Will Ferrell and the "French guy"). Smith frets that the Post-Gazette failed to adequately warn him about gay content of "Talladega Nights" ("Family Film Guide fails us," Feedback, Aug. 10).
Apparently, he didn't have similar qualms about taking his family to see a movie you did identify as containing crude and sexual humor, language, drug references and comic violence. Rather than a sincere attempt to protect their children from inappropriate content, the Smith family values are primarily about intolerance, bigotry and hatred.
This one is very amusing. The Atlanta Braves combine baseball with the gospel in their second "Faith Day" event this year. The event features a post-game speaker and performance by a Christian group, with sponsoring organizations setting up tables and all the usual special event stuff. FotF participated in the July event along with Tocca Bible College and the Gospel Music Channel.
But, at the Braves request, they ain't coming back for the August event. No official word on why the Braves uninvited Jimmy and gang. But speculation is that the Braves are troubled by the organization's comparison of homosexuality to alcoholism or drug addiction:
But the Braves may have been troubled that Focus on the Family was promoting its Web site http://www.troubledwith.com, in which the group gives its suggestions for dealing with myriad problems.
Under the heading "Love & Sex," homosexuality is listed along with items such as dating, miscarriage and post-abortion syndrome. The group debunks the belief that homosexuality is caused by genetics, saying that males are often influenced by incest, molestation, exposure to pornography and negative body image.
"No solid scientific evidence exists today that people are born homosexual," the Web site says. "Interestingly enough, genetic predeterminants have also been theorized for alcoholism or depression. Neither alcoholism nor depression is embraced as healthy. Rather, we try to help people who suffer from these tendencies to find relief and recovery."
In other FotF news, founder and chief-bigot James Dobson has stepped up to defend the architect of the Holy Grail of wingnut movies, Mel Gibson.
Dobson said in a statement that "we certainly do not condone that racially insensitive outburst," but added "Mel has apologized profusely for the incident and there the matter should rest."
"Mel has also indicated his willingness to seek help to overcome his alcoholism, and has asked the Jewish community for forgiveness," Dobson said. "What more can he do?"
Well, he can admit he is an anti-Semit rather than just a drunken lout. AND he can admit he's a sexist asshole for using the phrase "Sugar Tits." But, apparently, that little offensive slur gets all lost b/c no one cares about offending some uptight frigid feminist bitches, right? Would Gibson call the Blessed Mother "Sugar Tits" or would he reserve that for Mary Magdalene?
Dobson is just posturing to defend his Christian porn flick from any nay-sayers.
You know, I find it interesting that so many people who rant on and on in support of Gibson have no problem with his movies being made in foreign languages (Mayan?), but resent a guy who orders a cheesesteak in Spanglish.
Shame on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette! You have dropped the ball by failing to once again keep your readers informed of the slightest allusion to homosexuality in contemporary movies. What the hell kind of bastion of morality are you folks running over there?
David A. Smith of McMurray read a Post-Gazette movie review and dutifully loaded up the spawn for a night out at the movies. He was horrified - appalled even -- to see man-kissing!
Absolutely nothing was mentioned about the gay relationship of the French driver or the full extended lip-to-lip kiss between Will and the French guy. We had to get up and leave. Don't you think family film reviews should share this info with the parents?
Having yet to see the movie (love John C. Reilly myself), I can only speculate as to the nature of the "lip-to-lip" kiss BUT I'm guessing Will Ferrel's character ain't gay and the scene is played for one of those "uh oh" moment laughs. Just my hunch. There is probably a world of difference between this man kiss and, say, the tent scene in Brokeback Mountain. I could be wrong.
Regardless, David A. Smith of McMurray is a full out hate-wielding, homo-loathing, child-perverting bigot. Oh, I'm sure he comes across as a nice enough guy who just wishes the homos would crawl under some rocks rather than actually signing us up for the reeducation camps. He probably doesn't keep a picture of a fetus on his desktop, but he may be attending the upcoming Focus on the Family rally.
But his self-righteous indignation is a load of crap for two reasons.
First of all, the Post-Gazette is not responsible for full-disclosure on potential homoerotic content in movies. In spite of what Ruth Ann Dailey might think. If you want someone to filter out the movies with gay content, surf on over to one of the wingnut websites where you can get your fill of rants on the downfall of contemporary culture. Even the Pittsburgh Catholic has movie reviews.
Second, you are a stupid hypocrit for moaning about a quasi-gay kiss when the paper DID clearly indicate that there is sexualized content in the movie
Crude and sexual humor. Language, Drug References. So that's all okay viewing for the fruit of your loins, but one kiss is not. Guess what dude? Let's put your high-horse right back in the stable where it belongs because you have no legs to stand on. You are the one choosing to expose your family to adult content so you need to take responsibility for your parenting choices instead of blaming the local newspaper.
I wasn't going to blog about it, I really wasn't. Because I've told you how much we like Gab's comedy and the performances of her co-conspirers in defaming the US government (Jason Kirsch, Bill Eberle, Autumn Ayres, etc). And last night, they were good --- we saw Gab and Jason perform, along with a sketch comedy troupe that had an appealing dark humor I'd like to see in a more receptive venue and a guest appearance by departing Pittsburgh comedian/radio personality Alan Cox. It was entertaining, bawdy and outright funny at most points.
Here's where I have to honest and say what I really think. We left early along with the 80 year olds. Maybe because we are just too old to hang out with 20something hipsters enjoying a night on the town. Our tolerance for annoying behavior is low. I should clarify that its my tolerance b/c Ledcat was willing to stay while I insisted we leave.
Here's what annoyed me:
Smoke - Its a cramped second floor space filled with people. So light up your cigarette and share your stupid addiction with us please. Because nothing says entertainment like another level of tar and nicotine on my pink lungs. Really, I didn't mine sucking on my inhaler for an hour afterwards. Or defunkifying my clothing with Febreeze when I got home.
Annoying laugh - I think she may be a friend of the performers, but she sat right behind and literally screeched into my ear. Screeched. My head was ringing and I prayed for the jokes to fall flat so she wouldn't crucify me. Apparently, her humor appreciate is low b/c she laughed BEFORE the punchlines. And I was trapped because the nicotines addicts were at the back of the room. I was choosing between my cancer free existance and my sanity. If you cannot control your demonic howls, go into a corner and have some consideration for the rest of us. Don't rock forward in your seat so you get real close to my ear and let loose. Ledcat and I argue all the time about the ability to control sneezes, yawns and laughter. Since Screechy seemed to laugh at a normal level on occasion, either she was doing it intentionally or she was part of the performance. Honey, its only funny to your friends. Because they love you. You may be a lovable person, but you annoy the fucking shit out of strangers like me so give us a break. Because if I see you at another show, I'll probably stand in the back with the addicts and duck out early again. How is that helping your friends' performances? ITS NOT.
Annoying woman by the bar -- Get your damn drinks and move on to your uncomfortable folding chair. Undrape yourself from the bar, say good-bye to your chums and get the fuck out of my way. Don't visit. Its not a park. Its a bar. I need my ginger ale. Then when you end up sitting next to us, don't roll your eyes and huff indignantly when I complain about your obnoxious self. Take responsibility for your behavior. Pledge to be more considerate of your elders.
Talkers - "Hey, lets go see Gab's show!" But let's talk all the way through it and how about we raise our voices right after she asks us to stop talking to listen to a performance w/o microphones. Because we want to support her effort in putting this whole production together and reaching all these people who came to see the show. I bet they would love to hear our ongoing commentary throughout the performance, especially when we talk about things that have nothing to do with comedy, music, politics, or Lenny Bruce. People will love it!
So there you have it ... I missed Bill, Autumn and Gab's jokes about Fred Phelps because of the obnoxious behavior of oblivious twits who have no consciousness of anything beyond their own immediate gratification and pleasure. I am definitely not comedy club material. Thankfully my medication is working well b/c three weeks ago, I would have bitch slapped the bar whore and said mean things to Screechy until she cried and left me in peace. Although I hate to think what her "I'm not crying" shudders and heaves would sound like ...
Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language, drug references and comic violence.
