UPMC?s Celebrate Life, Celebrate Art 2006 ?
an auction to benefit Persad Center

The Patron Party*
Friday, April 7, 2006

Society for Contemporary Craft
2100 Smallman Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15222 (Strip District)
7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

The Catholic Church strikes another blow for homobigots everywhere.  365gay.com reports that Catholic Charities of Boston will no longer provide adoption services because they choose not to comply with the states human rights law requring them to not discriminate against GLBT parents.  The Catholic Church wants a special exemption from the law. 

They want to be free to discriminate AND accept state funding.  Only in W's America!

Today in Pennsylvania, there are over 21,000 children in the foster care system (I know this from my day job).  That is in a state that ALLOWS gays to foster and adopt children. 

It is pathetic -- absolutely pathetic -- that the right wing is trying to use CHILDREN as leverage against gays.  Vulnerable children are fodder for their latest attempts to paint queers into a corner or back into the closet.  They are going to keep these kids in foster care for years longer by turning away gay foster and adoptive parents.  That's some family values for ya.

I'm looking forward to Bishop Wuerl's response ....

Sue

      During the Thursday evening broadcast, KDKA news stepped over the line covering a local fire.  A Trafford fire left 10 people homeless; everyone made it out alive and unharmed. 

But to get the sensational angle, David Highfield  stuck a camera in the face of one victim who was clearly distraught over the deaths of her pet cats not to mention the destruction of her entire home.  Her despair was so sad to watch and not something anyone of us viewers needed to witness directly in order to understand the magnitude of her losses.  I felt like a voyeur and it pisses me off that KDKA violated her anguish. 

Last night at 6 PM, Patrice King-Brown took a few moments to express compassion for the gentleman whose home was vandalized days after a school bus crashed into it.  That's what I like about Patrice -- she's seem cool, collected AND compassionate. 

So why couldn't David Highfield show some of the same restraint and given us some real reporting instead of a voyeuristic show?   Ick.

Last night, we went to see Crash at The Manor in Squirrel Hill.  This is one of your lesbian correspondents stating that Crash deserved the Oscar for Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain.  I loved Brokeback and believe it to be one of the best movies in my 35 years of movie watching.   But Crash resonates through America and was one of the best movies in my 35 years of movie watching.

People are creating a false racism vs homophobia dichotomy.  Both rip apart the heart of this nation of equality and justice for all.  Rather than pitting them against one another, we should take a closer look at their crossover messages. 

I walked out of Crash deeply shaken and contemplating how I identified with the white characters in the movie.  And how I as a lesbian identified with the minority characters.  And I don't have any answers this morning. 

Crash deserved the Oscar.