Planet Homo

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The Politics of a Kiss

Adam Lambert was on CBS this morning and while showing a clip of his Sunday American Music Awards performance, they blurred the moment when Lambert throttled the keyboardist with a deep-tongue kiss, a moment that has raised a lot of controversy. Perhaps Lambert was trying to prove how gay he is to Out magazine editor Aaron Hicklin, who recently wrote an editorial about the lack of gay-friendliness on the part of Lambert's PR machine. Perhaps Lambert, who recently broke up with is boyfriend, was giving his ex a message. Perhaps Lambert thought his first AMA performance should be memorable and wild. Or perhaps Lambert just thought keyboardist Tommy Ratliff was hot.

It doesn't matter. It's hard to believe but in 1968, a young and histrionic actor by the name of William Shatner planted a kiss on the lips of Nichelle Nichols on what would be the first African-American interracial kiss on a network television drama. Shocking, indeed. So listen up America, get ready. For most gay people we have spent a lifetime watching you wiggle your tongues into one another. Lambert, who is certainly not the first, but it may well be because there felt like there was some sexuality behind it, that this kiss has caused some such a stir. We have all seen the exchange of kisses between Kevin and Scotty on Brothers & Sisters, but these are kisses without a penis. 

If it makes America uncomfortable, if it makes American squirm, if it makes a network blur the image because the audience is not ready, get ready. Because in time, with time, we will be in your households, on your TV screens, in your movies, on your streets, making out.

thou shall have no false Idol...

Oh dear. America's perpetual obsession with religion has come to even something as seemingly not about religion as American Idol. Bill O'Reilly has guest, Ramin Setoodeh (Newsweek), discuss the possible influence of Christians voting for the Christian contestant versus the gay (allegedly) contestant on American Idol. Video here. And we thought it was just a battle of the pretty boys. So while Christians may be marshalling a vote based upon the perceived "christian value" of each singer, isn't that exactly what gay people are doing? But with a difference: gay people don't want to see Lambert lose because he's gay. Lambert is allegedly gay, though he reminds of us a young David Bowie who duped us into thinking he was gay or at best bisexual; it was an act. Lambert, indeed seems to enjoy the thrust of a young man's tongue into his mouth as witnessed in these pictures. And all this proves is that everyone should consider carefully every image you upload to the Internet. Yes, it should be about performance, voice, image, potential and bankability, but we have nasty habit of injecting religion into something as common as the weather. In the end, we can only hope that people vote with their heart, not their habits.

Weathering the Storm

In the name of God

An interesting story at miketidmus.com/blog, about Dustin Lance Black's speech at the Oscars debating his references to God. While interesting, there is some confusion about the notion that mentioning God suggests religion, which it really doesn't.

Pass This Along

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.
Ken Starr, who led the campaign to impeach President Bill Clinton, filed a legal brief last month -- on behalf of the "Yes on 8" campaign -- that would forcibly divorce 18,000 same-sex couples that were married in California last year before the passage of Prop 8. Watch "Fidelity" and sign our letter to the state Supreme Court before they hear oral arguments in the case on March 5. Tell the Supreme Court to invalidate Prop 8, reject Ken Starr's case, and let loving, committed couples marry. DEADLINE EXTENDED: March 2. 303,893 people have signed this letter (as of Wednesday, February 18). Our new Courage Campaign community goal is 350,000 signers. Will you add your name now by clicking on the following link: couragecampaign.org/Divorce. With over 900,000 total views currently on Vimeo and YouTube, we're also shooting for 1 million views combined. To help this video reach 1 million people, please tell your friends to watch "Fidelity" and tell their friends!
"Fidelity" used with permission from Regina Spektor and EMI Records.

Happy Valentine's

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Taking Heat: Sad or Satire?

The new cover of the New Yorker magazine is taking heat for its depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama as terrorists giving the "fist bump" while an American Flag burns in the fireplace.
"Satire is part of what we do," New Yorker editor David Remnick said in a statement. "And it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover."
The cover was illustrated by Barry Blitt, who "satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign," according to a New Yorker press release.
The Obama campaign quickly condemned the rendering. Spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."
While no doubt the intellectuals at the New Yorker thought they were creating satire, it plays completely into the fears of most Americans—confirming some nagging suspicion that persists like a mosquito on a summer night. In fair play, perhaps they should have a cover of John McCain...let's not go there.

The New Yorker is worried. An automated reply form the New Yorker comments section elicits this response: About this week’s issue: Our cover, “The Politics of Fear,” combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are. The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall— all of them echo one attack or another. Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover.

Madeleine Albright on Religion

"In order to effectively conduct foreign policy today, you have to understand the role of God and religion. ... My sense is that we don't fully understand, because one, it's pretty complicated, and two, everyone in the U.S. believes in a separation of church and state, so you think, "Well, if we don't believe in the convergence of church and state, then perhaps we shouldn't worry about the role of religion." I think we do that now at our own peril. Religion is instrumental in shaping ideas and policies. It's an essential part of everyday life in a whole host of countries. And obviously it plays a role in how these countries behave, so we need to know what the religious influence is."

Gay Activist Goes Straight

Gay activist Michael Glatze, the politically charged co-founder of Young Gay America magazine and a popular spokesman for homosexual activism, says he has "come out" of homosexuality.

In 2005, Glatze appeared on a panel at Harvard. His rhetoric then was harsh and inflammatory, as he spoke about a protest event.

"What the Equality Ride is going to do is essentially go to all these homophobic, really homophobic Christian schools," he said on the panel. "These are the schools where if you're gay you either get kicked out, or you've got to go to shock treatment."

Looking back on that day, Glatze said that's when he began to seriously doubt what he was doing.

"It was at that point that it was just shattering," he told Family News in Focus. "It was mind blowing. I started to read the Bible. I was terrified. I can't even express to you how terrified I was to be opening up the Bible because I was the ultimate left-wing gay activist."

That led to a lengthy process of reading, learning – and change. In June, Glatze emailed David Kupelian, author of The Marketing of Evil, saying the book had helped with his healing.

"He wanted to actually get some advice on what was the best way to go public with this," Kupelian said.

Kupelian advised him to write about it, and his testimony was posted on the Web.

Gay activists responded to the news with criticism and vitriol. Caleb H. Price, a social research analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said he wasn't surprised.

"A striking feature of the gay activism is their unwillingness to consider the fact that they might be wrong," he said.

While Glatze said he's is uncertain what his future holds, he said coming out is the most "liberating, beautiful and astonishing thing" he's ever experienced.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Gore Vidal saw this coming: Republicans introduced a bill yesterday as part of their "law and order agenda" that would require Internet service providers to keep records of the activities of their customers activities. Employees of any Internet provider who fail to store that information face fines and prison terms of up to one year, the bill says. The U.S. Justice Department could order the companies to store those records forever.
The legislative fusillade marks the renewal of a political tussle that began in earnest last April, when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales called on Congress to target Internet providers with new regulations, which have been generally opposed by telecommunications companies and civil liberties organizations. CNET News.com was the first to report that the Bush administration has been pushing for such a rule privately since mid-2005.
At issue is how broad the rules would be. The Attorney General would have power over the determination of what applies, but could force Internet providers to keep logs of Web browsing, instant message exchanges, or e-mail conversations indefinitely. (The bill does not, however, explicitly cover search engines or Web hosting companies, which officials have talked about before as targets of regulation.)