This was nice to read.  Actor Neil Patrick Harris, currently starring in How I Met Your Mother on CBS confirmed to People magazine that he is gay. 

"I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."

No furtive drugs deals.  No neglected spouse.  No loss of power or prestige.  No lies about hanging with Evangelical leaders.  Just a simple affirmation of who he is and who he has quietly been all along. 

Nice.

Bishop Duncan and his faithful bigots are taking their toys and going home.  To heck with the national province of the Episcopal Church and its female president and her homorespective ways.  To heck with them. 

The vote which was anticipated confirms the rift between the conservative Pittsburgh diocese (minus a few forward thinking souls) and the American Episcopal Church. Duncan claims he wants to be in greater communion with the worldwide Anglican Church.  Folks like Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria, who supports legislation making homosexuals illegal (not the activity, the person). 

Duncan did not act hastily.  First, he jerrymandered his own new province of which he is the big cahuna.  Nice, huh?  Rick Santorum has a nice career ahead of him in church politics if he plays his cards right. 

Yesterday's vote, which followed this summer's approval of the resolution by the diocese's standing committee, does, as Bishop Duncan said yesterday, give the Pittsburgh diocese a new temporary home: the Anglican Communion Network.

In fact, a line item in the budget approved yesterday will send the estimated $2,000 in dues formerly earmarked for Province III to the network, an organization of about 200,000 Episcopalians unhappy with what they consider "innovations" in the denomination, particularly the ordination of openly gay clergy and same-sex blessings.

Bishop Duncan is moderator of the network.

Innovations!  Say it isn't so.  This is really sad.  Duncan has no intentions of compromising on anything.  He doesn't want to report to a woman and he ain't gonna support the Episcoqueerians.  Now its going to become a custody battle. 

Here's a rundown on previous PghLesbian coverage of this issue. 

Woo Hoo, Pennsylvania!  We may not have any known homosexual Republican Members of Congress BUT we do have two key staffers deeply embedded in the right wing effort to eradicate our community (or "cure us").  And its celebrated in a lovely You Tube video. 

That would be Robert Traynham, Rick Santorum's Spokesfag and new best friend of John McIntire.  And Lee Cohen, Spokesfag for Melissa Hart.  I suspect Mr. Cohen might have a bit of an inferiority complex as Rob T. gets all the attention while Lee is in the background also doing his very best to keep an anti-gay Republican in power. But he doesn't get to make unannounced visits to the John McIntire show.  Nosiree bob, instead he's got to spin situations with donuts and old people  - how is that gonna get him any man on dog action? What's a spokesfag gotta do to get some credit for betraying his own community?

I just love this image ...

Traynhan and Cohen are building their careers at the expense of you and I, at the expense of our civil rights, our full and equal participation in society, our safety and the welfare of our families. 

Five days left to make sure Traynham and Cohen seek work in the private sector where they can do less damage to our families.  Traynham and Cohen both deserve to spend years toiling at low wage jobs with no domestic partner benefits and little gay tolerance, but that ain't gonna happen.  They are self-loathing asses who put their personal advancement well ahead of any sense of loyalty to those of us in the community with less power, connection or access. 

Your taxdollars are paying for research to degay sheep.  Researchers at Oregon State University and Oregon Health & Science University are conducting hormone altering experiments designed to turn gay sheep heterosexual. 

OHSU experimenter Charles Roselli is drugging pregnant sheep to prevent the actions of hormones in their fetuses? brains and cutting open the brains of rams he calls ?male-oriented? (homosexual) in an attempt to find the hormonal mechanisms behind homosexual tendencies so that they can subsequently be changed. Roselli?s cohort, Frederick Stormshak of OSU, has surgically installed an estrogen device in rams? bodies in an effort to alter ?gay sheep?s? sexual preferences and make them heterosexual. According to the grant applications, the experimenters plan to extrapolate the test results to humans?with the insidious implication that homosexuality in people can be ?cured.?

Go to www.stopanimaltests.com for more information. Ain't that nice?  We'll be cured from having healthy mature relationships.  Unlike this good family Christian man:

Facing shocking allegations that he paid a gay prostitute for sex, prominent Colorado Springs pastor Ted Haggard placed himself on administrative leave Thursday from his church position and resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, a platform that made him a rising star in conservative politics.

He used meth, cheated on his wife and engaged in "gay" sex, but he'll end up in rehab with the sheeplets praying for his cure.  Too bad he won't end up acknowledging his mistakes and apologize to the people he hurt (aside from his family of course) --- HOMOS.  Pam has a link to Haggard preaching on the evils of homosexuality. 

Some gays have put together a cute little spoof of the Tennessee RNC "Call Me" commercial targeting Ken Mehlman

Merle Jantz of Pleasant Hills had me going for two sentences.

It is with an overwhelming sense of alarm that I read that the Upper St. Clair school body is to perform "The Importance of Being Earnest." ["Wilde's 'Earnest' Brings Smiles," South, Oct. 26.]

Do they not know that this play was written by a convicted homosexual?

Oh no, I groaned.  Another homophobe takes the self-righteous high road.

But I was wrong. 

Are they not in the least concerned that, by allowing this play to be performed in front of impressionable young minds, they run the risk of turning the entire high school into Sodomites? Which will, in turn, as Sen. [Rick] Santorum has taught us, force men to have sex with dogs.

I am uncertain how far this ripple effect extends, but I live in Pleasant Hills and do not want to take any chances.

Dr. [Daniel] Iracki, Ms. [Carol] Coliani, all the rest of the Thought Police deputies, please, do your duty and stop this play from happening before I do something inappropriate to my neighbor's beagle.

His fate is squarely in your hands.

Merle hits all the high notes --- doggie sex, thought police, references to Sodom, and even the word "duty."  But what can you expect from USC -- land that killed the International Baccalaureate Program and then let the state bail it out while other school districts lack proper books and student/teach ratios.  Those are some good family values, huh? 

Merle, homosexuals throughout the land salute you. 

African-American civil rights activists and would be Presidential candidate Al Sharpton called out the Christian right for obsessing on gay rights and abortion to the peril of social justice issues including poverty, education and civil rights.

Tony Perkins, official spokeswhore for the wingnuts, disagrees.  He believes that poverty and education issues are symptoms of a the breakdown of the family unit. 

So if we criminalize abortion and homosexuality, we'll end poverty.  Huh.

I'm with Al. 

Now I full anticipate that next Wednesday will be a day filled with heady delight, incoherent joy and perhaps a little big of regret over the ones that got away.  I'm putting the cart before the horse by mentioning celebrations, but its never too early to get your gloating plans organized. 

By Thursday you might be ready to come back down to earth, but continue celebrating.  Here's the event for you.

Our friend singer-songwriter Eve Goodman has brought an upcoming performance to our attention. 

Thursday November 9, Nashville based performer Amelia White rolls into town for a one-night performance at the Shadow Lounge.  Opening acts include longtime PghLesbian favorites Bill Eberle and Autumn Ayers.  The show is $10.00.

When I listened to Amelia's music, I thought "Aimee Mann meets Jewel" without Aimee Mann's endless self-absorbed rambling  with the fact that she lost the Oscar to the Tarzan theme song. 

Amelia is highly recommended by Eve.  Click on her name to go to her MySpace page.  And check her out live next week.  We need to support independent artists and voices in the entertainment industry as well as the political realm.  Plus the Shadow Lounge rocks.  Its a smoke-free venue which you know pleases me. 

With all the Bush (Republican) bashing going on, here are the top 10 reasons to never vote Democrat:

10 -- Complete amnesty for illegals

9 -- Full Social Security for illegals

I hate the term "illegals"  The Republicans have done an excellent job with that one -- it makes my skin crawl to hear fellow human beings dehumanized so succintly.  I did,  however, hear that the Democrats were going to give everyone who came to this country illegally a new car, a home in an affluent white suburb and admission for their kids to the preppy school of their choice.  Howard Hanna is going to start printing signs in two languages!

8 -- Undo Bush's tax cuts

7 -- Tax increases

Well, gotta pay for all those new immigration perks somehow ....

6 -- Abortion on demand

There's talk of opening satellite Planned Parenthood clinics in all the public schools.  To save time.

5 -- Equal rights for all, including murderers, rapists and pornographers

And poor people, people of color, women, homosexuals, persons with disabilities, formerly incarcerated persons, homeless persons, etc, etc, etc ...

4-- Remove all mention of God in public buildings

This rankis higher than illegals and rapists?  Huh. Anyway, Democrats wil probably make Christianity illegal to keep it from interfering from the baby killing. 

3 -- Promote gay/lesbian marriage

We're number 3!  We're number 3!  Gay marriage is higher up on the Democrat agenda than immigration, choice, God, even taxes!

2 -- Kinder treatment of terrorists

Care packages and extra socks?

1 -- Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House.

Oh, scariest of all .... women in power.  Liberal women!  Ohhhhhhhh ......

Art Olszewski
Mt. Lebanon

Mr. Olszewski, only the fact that it is my mother's 64th birthday today keeps me from giving you a lesbian tongue lashing and not the good kind you fantasize about late at night when your stodgy Republican moralist facade comes off and you become the actual vulnerable human being.  Or maybe you don't.  Your little thrust and parry won't do a damn thing to convince a reasonable person to vote for Ricky, Missy or any of their ilk.  

Nice try.