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queerVOICE
Death to Homosexuals
James Duggan
copyright 2010
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"Death to Homosexuals!" That's the mantra of
Theocrats, also known as Theofascists; those individuals or groups who believe
that the United States
government should adhere to the strict will of God as proclaimed in the
Bible. I should disclaim the following: "as proclaimed in their
interpretation of the Bible".
As appalling as this is, there are many who embrace
this mantra like Pastor Steven L. Anderson of Faithful
Word Baptist
Church in Tempe, Arizona,
who states: "You want to know who the biggest hypocrite in the world is? The
biggest hypocrite in the world is the person who believes in the death penalty
for murderers and not for homosexuals. Hypocrite. The same God who instituted the
death penalty for murderers is the same God who instituted the death penalty
for rapists and for homosexuals--sodomites, queers!"
This is a similar message from Pastor Fred Phelps
of the Westboro Baptist
Church in Topeka, Kansas
who is infamous for his "God Hates Fags" protest.
Closer to home, we have the far right street
preacher and director of Repent America, Michael Marcavage, who proclaims:
"Homosexuals are to be put to death. The wages of sin is death. But I want to
make it clear that I'm not advocating the independent killing of homosexuals .
. . I'm saying that the Government's duty is to uphold God's law."
Marcavage has become a "cause celeb" in the far
right movement and has associated himself with the Constitution Party whose
goal is to "restore American jurisprudence to its (Christian)
Biblical foundations." Some claim that this restoration is to return to
the original constitution as written by the Founding Fathers with no
amendments. Think of the implications of our constitution with no
amendments?
Let's be very clear here, Michael Marcavage, and
people of his ilk, advocate for a future fundamentalist U.S. government
that will legally and methodically put homosexuals to death.
Yet as appalling, ridiculous, outrageous and
unacceptable as this position is; it is protected as free speech in the United States.
Marcavage is free to spew his hatred, albeit masked in the preaching of the
gospel according to him and his kind.
The question comes down to two things; how do the
police position these protesters at our events and how do we respond?
Here in Philadelphia Police Department, and the
city, have taken a laissez-faire attitude allowing Marcavage and his followers
to set up their protest, with bullhorns and banners, in either in the middle of
our queer festivals or within feet of the of the entrance of them, at times
causing such a disruption that people can not pass or vendors are blocked.
Again, I do not dispute anyone's right to free
speech; I dispute the proximity in which the Philadelphia Police Department,
along with the city government, places these protesters.
Their free speech will still be free if they were
held back a respectable distance. Their message still heard and their
signs still readable. This is done in other municipalities in Pennsylvania and across the nation--why not here in Philadelphia.
Imagine if this were the KKK at an African-American
event! Would the police department and the city government allow them free,
unfettered access to the event? I believe not! But when it comes to
us gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender peoples we are pushed aside.
Why?
African-American grandmothers and mothers would not
stand silent and allow the Klan to come and preach their hatred among
them. Men and boys alike would rise up and say "hell no"--the Klan can
not stand among us. And surely they would not allow the police to march them
through their event pushing aside attendees like they do at our events.
We must demand respect from our police department
and not just rhetoric! We must be willing to peacefully push back and say
hell no more!
The Philadelphia Police Department has branded me a
troublemaker for my position and for my willingness to counter-protest against
the anti-queer protesters and protest the police that so willing facilitate
them in the middle of our events. But this will not deter me.
We owe it to our youth and the future of our civil
rights movement to take a stand against such hatred and against the
laissez-faire attitude of the Philadelphia Police Department. We owe it
to ourselves to take a clear stand against those who would see us killed simply
for being who we were born to be.
On June 13th, while we celebrate Philadelphia Pride
at Penn's Landing, I will again take a stand in counter protest against the
anti-queer protesters and if necessary against the Philadelphia Police
Department.
What better way to celebrate our Pride then by
standing up for ourselves. Who will join me?
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 | WWCC Names New Director
Christopher D. Bartlett Named Executive Director
|
 On Wednesday the Board of Directors for the William Way LGBT Community Center, announced that Christopher D. Bartlett has accepted the position of
Executive Director. Bartlett brings a wealth of experience to the
Center, including being Interim Co-Director of the Delaware Valley Legacy Fund,
Director of the LGBT Leadership Initiative, Director of the LGBT Community
Assessment, Co-Founder/Trainer/Facilitator at the Gay Men's Health Leadership Academy,
Program Development and Evaluation Consultant to the AIDS Activities
Coordinating Office at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, and as
Executive Director of the SafeGuards Gay Men's Health Project throughout the
1990's.
Bartlett is well-known to the LGBT
community in Philadelphia
and looks forward to working with the community to continue to build on the
progress of the past several years in fundraising and programming
development. He has a BA from Brown
University, Providence, RI, in Classics and a BA in Ancient History and
Ancient Philosophy from the New College at Oxford
University in Oxford, England. QUEERtimes congratulates Chris
and wishes him much success. |
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What It Looks Like From Here
Thom Cardwell
copyright 2010 |
Do
you ever worry about your brain? Do ever
wonder about it? It's truly a
fascinating mechanism and we evidently don't appreciate it often, don't value
it enough, and, according to most experts, we certainly don't exercise enough.
 Our
brain power is highly prized but, ironically enough, is something that the
majority of us are really lazy about using. In other words, our potential for
brain power is shamefully wasted.
I'm
worried about my brain. Sometimes, I get really neurotic about it. That's why
I've been reading a lot lately about the brain and many aspects of it.
There
are a number of new books about the brain. Louann
Brizendine of the best seller, "The
Female Brain", has now written a book about "The Male Brain" as her hypothesis is that there definitely exists a
"gulf between the sexes" when we're talking about the brain.
 The
neuropsychiatrist argues that the brain isn't just in control of our thinking but
also how we actually act, "based upon hormones, making men and women act
entirely differently. According to
Brizendine, "men's behavior is caused by his male brain patterns, egged on by
hormones like testosterone and vasopressin."
She
contends that "we now know the emotional processing in the male and female
brain is different."
When
we're focusing on brain power, we're usually thinking about intellectual
prowess, brilliance, giftedness, creativity, or the more popular "smarts." David
Shenk who has authored books on information overload, memory loss and chess
has now written "The Genius in All of
Us: Why Everything You've Been Told
About Genetics, Talent and IQ is Wrong,"
 He
argues that "we have before us not a 'talent scarcity' but 'a latent talent
abundance. ' Our problem "isn't our inadequate genetic assets,' but 'our
inability, so far, to tap into what we already have.' The truth is 'that few of
us know our true limits that the vast majority of us have not even come close
to tapping what scientists call our 'unactualized
potential.'
Shenk
wants us to 'think of talent not as something we have, but as something we do.
He writes: "Whatever you wish to do well, you must do over and over again, in a
manner involving, as Erik Ericsson put it "repeated attempts to reach
beyond one's current level which results in 'frequent failures.'
 Known
as "deliberate practice," Shenk explains that it can actually, over time,
"produce changes in the brain, making new heights of achievement possible."
So,
now I'm pumped up, flexing my brain muscle, and want to know, think and do
more. That means there's more "heady" stuff to come. Because scientists are the
first to admit that there is still many and various mysteries about the brain
to be discovered and understood.
The brain. What a really wondrous thing to
behold!
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| Thom's World
A QUEERtimes Exclusive
Thom Cardwell
copyright 2010
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 Let's take over the dance floor with same sex
dancing! What a concept! "Vintage Tango: An LGBTQ Evening of Wine Tasting, Dancing
and Networking" will take place, 6-8 pm, June 17, at Society Hill Dance Academy (SHDA), 409
South 2nd Street, Philadelphia, that will benefit the newly-formed Philadelphia
Dance Foundation, a non-profit association that brings
Ballroom and Latin dancing to underserved children in inner city schools. What
a worthy cause-how can you not support it? Guests will enjoy complimentary
Sangria and food tasting from local neighborhood restaurants, dance
demonstration and door prizes. Tickets are just $20 in advance online; $25 at the door. Sponsored by
SHDA, Pinot, QUEERtimes, BUCKmonkey Events, SmartWater and VitaminZero. So let's go Latin, Argentine, and tango the
night away!
 Let's hear it for summer art festival! It's
Festivale: Our Voices, Our Stories, Our
Community, is the theme of this year's 2010 Philadelphia GLBT Arts Festival, June
6-13, produced by Traverse Arts Project.
It's a celebration of queer performing arts, music, theater and dance, with a
full calendar of events during the 8-day festival. This year most of the
performances will take place at the Arts
Bank, 601 South Street,
at the University of the Arts, with
the exception of the opening night performance by the Philadelphia Gay Men's
Chorus and Infinity
Land. Tickets range in
price from $15 to $30 and maybe be purchased online in advance or by phone at
800.595.4849. Festivale! is being funded in part by The Samuel S. Fels Fund. Let's support our GLBT artists this month!
Reichen Lehmkuhl
 | Let's hear it for the boys! My
Big Gay Italian Wedding, a "feel-good hysterical comedy"
(The Wall Street Journal) in currently being performed in Manhattan's St. Luke's Theatre, 308 West 46th
Street, and starring queer winner of "The Amazing Race," model, author, DADT
activist and hunkamania Reichen Lehmkuhl.
Let's give it up for Reichen! What a
perfect evening out during the last weekend of June to celebrate Heritage of
Pride in New York City.
Tickets can be purchased online.
Let's
celebrate Pride Month in as many places as possible this year. In the state capital city of Sacramento,
California's Capital Pride
will take place, June 19, with an ever-growing parade and outdoor festival in
this year's new location: Capitol Mall,
right in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's front yard. Headlining performers
will include: Bebe Zahara Benet, Kaylah Marin and That's What She Said, the acclaimed comedy duo. comments@QUEERtimes.net
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What They Said and Did!
copyrighted 2010
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The
Pope of Trash aka queer film director John Waters has a lot to say these days as his
latest book, "Role Models," a collection of essays about his personal heroes,
alarmingly and surprisingly, with only good taste (this from the man who made
bad taste into an  industry with films like "Pink Flamingoes" and "Polyester,"
to name just a few) featuring Johnny Mathis, Cy Twombly and Leslie Van Houten,
one of the Charles Manson girls, a personal friend of Waters. Recently, he
spoke to The New York Times (May 30, 2010): "Any kind of criminal tendencies I might have acted out I instead was
able to put in my movies. If I had committed all the crimes that appear in my
films and books, I would have gotten the death penalty 20,000 times . . . I
find it repellent when people do yoga exercises at the gate at airports. I want
to kill them . . . [Tiger Woods is still a role model] . . . Who cares who he
slept with? He's not running for pope and even then-do you notice Catholics
haven't been using the word 'infallible' with the pope lately?"
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Vampires
have never been out of fashion ever since Bram Stoker popularized them with his
classic novel, Count Dracula, but,
somehow, even in our modern age of iPods and computers, vampires have never
been more fashionable that they are right now. Novelist  Charlaine Harris, who has penned
10 vampire novels, "Dead in the Family," her latest hit store bookshelves last
month, of her Sookie Stackhouse series, also inspired the HBO series, "True
Blood," recently talked to The New York Times (April 18, 2010) about the
vampire phenomenon: "People are really interested in the concept of eternal youth in this
plastic-surgery culture. Vampires never die . . . My vampires are trying
desperately to be contemporary so they can blend in. They have an alternative
food source, which has emboldened them to try to join mainstream society.
Synthetic blood, created by a Japanese company, satisfies their nutritional
needs . . . mine are more sympathetic than Dracula . . . Mine are at least
trying to look like everyone else . . . Most of my vampires have experimented
with other sexualities. Eric,
Sookie's lover, was turned into a vampire by a male vampire who had a sexual
relationship with him for many years. Pam is bisexual. Lafeyette is gay."
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Syndicated
queer sex columnist, Dan Savage, famous forever, it seems, for his weekly
advice column, "Savage Love," is now on the boards in New York City's Off Broadway. Well, not as an actor or even author, but as
"subject" of the play, "The Kid," a musical,  based upon his memoir of the same
name about his and his partner, Terry Miller, successful adoption of DJ aka
Daryl Jude, their 12-year-old son, the first gay male couple to succeed in the
adoption system in the state of Oregon. "The Kid" is garnering critical acclaim
as well as a supportive audience following even though the story line at times
parts with reality. As Savage is quick to tell media types in New York (May 24, 2010), some things "did
not happen" in their three lives. (It's called poetic license and Savage is all
too familiar with it but obviously isn't the happiest camper when it's all about
him and his queer family.) "No," he
intonates, "a dildo did not fall out of
the couch during their first interview with the adoption counselor!" The
quick-witted Savage also wanted to clarify: "I have no desire to be one of the Housewives of Moron County,
and neither does Terry."
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