Oh those wacky Polish children's rights watchers .... always a day behind and a dollar short.  Remeber back in 1999 when Jerry Falwell deemed Teletubbie Tinky Winky a homo because he carried a purse (TW is the purple one)?  Now Ewa Sowinski is on the same bandwagon.  Well, she way until apparently someone reminder her of 1999 so she's off again.

"I noticed that he has a purse, but I didn't realize he's a boy. At first I thought that must be a bother for him," Sowinska told the magazine in an interview her office approved before publication. "Later I learned that there could be some hidden homosexual undertones."

Sowinska is a member of the League of Polish Families party, which is militantly anti-gay rights and anti-abortion. The party is a junior member in the coalition government led by Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Spokespeople from Sowinska's office have confirmed that they will not ask psychologists to examine the character.

Kacszynski has famously said, ""It's not in the interests of any society to increase the number of homosexuals, that's obvious."

I have a recurring dream that my father and I are on a long highway and we see a bridge that says "This way to Poland" and another exit that says "This way to France."  For some reason, I always want to go to Poland.  My father goes to France anyway.  For the record, as a lesbian and a woman, I'd much rather go to France.  Thank goodness for my Dad.

The Post-Gazette reports that local gay business owner and community advocate, Jay Bernard, has passed away.  Jay and his business partner Bill Stanhope owned Jay Design in Lawrenceville.  Jay was the founder of the Boys of Lawrenceville "a benevolent organization of gay men" and the author of a monthly column about pet adoption.  I've heard of Jay, but did not have the opportunity to meet him.  Jay's company donated some items to an event I am hosting tonight for my day-job.  I will be thinking of him when we raffle off those items.  God speed. 

The Presbyterian debate over gay marriage continues.  From the PG:

A regional Presbyterian court's decision yesterday upheld Pittsburgh Presbytery's ban on gay marriage ceremonies, and reiterated the national church's stance that ordination requires chastity in singleness or fidelity in heterosexual marriage.

But the language was such that both sides of the local debate regarding the ban on actively gay clergy in the Presbyterian Church (USA) found aspects of the ruling acceptable.

Several Middle Eastern governments have filters in place to prevent their citizens from accessing gay and lesbian sites. 

Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen had the strictest social-filtering practices, blocking pornography, gambling and gay and lesbian sites.

That's interesting.  I usually have at least one IP address a day based in those very countries that visits my site, usually with a keyword search for "hot lesbians" or "lesbian photos" or "naked lesbians."  Once it was "nudie lesbians."  I chalk that up to a translation issue.  Someone is getting through that filter.  

The Post-Gazette on Jerry Falwell's legacy:

Intolerance today comes clothed in piety.

Meanwhile, today's Trib runs this nice little affirmation of Falwell from the self-described "mean girl" Ann Coulter:

Let me be the first to say: I ALWAYS agreed with the Rev. Falwell.

Coulter sets the record "straight" on Tinky Winky's sexual orientation and explains why he didn't go far enough identifying who was responsible for 9/11 (hint:  he's a Kennedy). 

Meanwhile, South African churches get the go ahead to perform same-sex marriages.

Reports say that 5,000 people turned out for the Warsaw gay rights parade in spite of government sponsored crackdowns.  Anti-gay crusaders want to ban gay propaganda in the schools.  Does that sound familiar?

And, closer to home, Kent State has installed a "gender neutral" bathroom to accomodate transgender male and female students.  Nearby Oberlin has a residence hall specifically for transgender students.  The times they are a changin'.

h/t to Page One Q and Pam's House Blend

h/t Pam's House Blend

Today is International Day Against Homophobia.

LGBT groups in more than 50 countries will participate in the initiative, which was launched in 2005 to mark the day in 1990 when the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of disorders.

I work for a mental health provider that just extended health insurance coverage to employees in domestic partnerships.  So an important day to commemorate say the lesbians.

In conjunction, Human Rights Watch has identified the worst offenders in the homophobic Hall of Shame:

"This `hall of shame' does not claim to include the worst offenders, but it highlights leaders who have lent their authority to denying basic human rights," said Scott Long... "Bush and Pope Benedict both speak of human dignity, but their homophobic words and actions undermine families and endanger health."

Top on the list?  Pope Benedict XVI for undermining families.  Then comes President George Bush for jeopardizing public health with his abstinence only programs.  Next is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for violating the right to privacy on a widespread scale.  Poland and the Philippines are represented as well.

Interesting day to be a gay Catholic American (from Poland?). 

Just some random Saturday morning LGBTQ stuff ...

Pam's House Blend contributor Ken from Mississippi has a nice little piece on the activism of coming out.

As I've said many times here at the little coffeehouse, the most radical, powerful bit of activism that we can do as LGBT citizens is to come out of the closet, live openly. The power to effect change and acceptance is to let your friends, family, work colleagues and people see that our lives are as normal and mundane as theirs, and that there is nothing to fear by expanding their world view to include a more diverse view of people.

Also from Pam, John McCain calls gay members of the military an "intolerable risk."  Sigh.

This weekend is the first regional meeting of the International  Lesbian and Gay Association in Africa. According to Pink News out of the UK, 38 African nations - all members of the United Nation -criminalize consensual same sex activity. 

There's a report on PageOneQ that an Iraqi gay man was beaten and tortured by Iraqi police - for being gay - while Americans were present. For being gay. 

The EU's Court of Human Rights has condemned the ruling that banned the Warsaw Gay Pride festival, saying it violated the EU Human Rights Charter.  Warsaw hasn't been kind to Gay Pride as we've reported before.

And you've probably heard that Rosie O'Donnell made Time's list of the 100 Most Influential People.  W did not make the list.  Sadly, Archbishop Peter Akinola of the Anglican "Hate the Homo" theological tradition made the list.  That's really scary.