Another "Brokie" passes away

Today the Courier-Post reported that Robert Baxter, a critic and reporter who covered the arts scene in south New Jersey for the Courier-Post from 1979 until his retirement in 2008. Mr. Baxter was 69 and died of pancreatic cancer.


To many online friends in the "Dave Cullen Ultimate Brokeback Forum,", Mr. Baxter was known by the name "Tacitus." Like many people who saw Brokeback, many gays and some straights, Mr. Baxter was inspired by the film to re-think his life and many of the fears and conflicts over his sexuality that had cast shadows over his life. He had already survived a violent gay-bashing and had seen friends take their own lives due to the rejection of those closest to them. In remembrance of Mr. Baxter's many contributions, the Courier-Post ran a 2006 column in which Mr. Baxter told readers about his struggles and gradual self-acceptance as a gay man. In 2007, the Ultimate Brokeback Forum published an anthology of posts, "Beyond Brokeback: The Impact of a Film." Much of the Courier-Post's memorial reprint was taken from on of "Tacitus'" entry in the book.

His earlier experiences did include a same-sex couple in Wyoming, the setting of Brokeback Mountain:

You can imagine, I'm sure, the thrill I felt when I met Bud and Manuel. I was 5, maybe 6, holding onto my grandmother's hand when she introduced her cowboy pals to me at the county fair. When Bud leaned down and shook my little hand, I caught the pungent smell of fresh sweat and stale tobacco.


From their scuffed leather boots to their weathered Stetsons, they looked like real men. Lean, muscular, with big, calloused hands and strong faces, tanned by the sun. The kind of cowboys Marlboro later glorified.
Bud owned a cattle ranch. Manuel was his foreman. They built barbed-wire fences and rode the range together on horseback. They also shared a bed.

Bud and Manuel were gay cowboys even though neither man would have known what that term meant 60 years ago. In those days, gay folk were called queers and homos.

Nobody who knew Bud and Manuel would have dared to ask if they were gay, but everyone sensed Bud belonged to Manuel. They formed an inseparable pair, just like my grandmother's married friends. Somehow, the names of the two men fit together as comfortably as Charlie and Mary or Harry and Alice.

I've thought a lot about Bud and Manuel since I saw Brokeback Mountain. They are long gone, but I wish they were here to share their story with me. How did they forge a relationship in rural California when society -- from our families and churches to our government -- shrieked "No!" or shouted "Don't you dare!"

Baxter noted that despite the often mortal dangers faced by gays in that setting and era, the intrepid couple managed to have "the ranch -- and they shared the love -- Jack and Ennis could never find."


The Courier-Post reported that "Mr. Baxter, 69, was a critic and reporter whose work reflected a high degree of talent and expertise. But many people on Thursday remembered his passion, describing a quiet and reserved man with a lifelong love for the fine arts, particularly opera.

" 'He was such a wonderful gentleman, and so dedicated to the arts in South Jersey,' said Cynthia Lambert, executive director of the South Jersey Cultural Alliance.

" 'I'm not sure there are words to express what Robert was to the South Jersey arts community,' said Bruce Curless, artistic producing director of the Ritz Theatre Co. in Haddon Township. 'As a patron of the arts, they come no better.' "


for more information about "Beyond Brokeback", see the Dave Cullen Ultimate Brokeback Forum.

Next Up: The Jews Caused the Oil Spill

Of all the conservative reactions we might see to former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman coming out as gay, you're not likely to see anything half as vindictive, though predictable in its way, as that of Tony Perkins of the "Family Research Council".  Tony has just discovered the reason for GOP losses in 2008 and in the previous 2004 midterm elections.

It was the gays. Those sneaky gays. They engineered it all. Tony explains:

"First, I am saddened by this announcement. I'm saddened because I know Ken and care about him as a person. Homosexuality not only has negative implications for society, it also has profound, well-documented negative physical and mental health consequences for those who engage in homosexual conduct as well.

"This unfortunate confirmation helps explain the scandalous failure of many in the Republican establishment to vigorously uphold the values and policy positions expressed in the party's platform in 2004 and 2008, particularly the need to protect the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman nationwide. While grassroots activists succeeded in passing marriage amendments in dozens of states across the country, they received little support and even outright resistance from Party officials at the national level, which contributed to the GOP's electoral failures in 2006 and 2008. Now we know one of the major reasons why."

Tony added as a postscript that "When the news about Mehlman hit the wires this morning, FRC's two Kens--Blackwell and Klukowski--tackled the tough road ahead for the Republican Party in a brand new column. "If Republicans flinch on marriage," they write," America could have eight years of President Obama."

You can check it out their first anti-marriage equality op-ed on FOX.  Fair and Balanced.

American Bar Association endorses marriage equality

On the heels of Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling on the Proposition 8 lawsuit came not only celebratoins but the usual suspects' predictions of the end of the world/USA/universe as we know it, complete with the usual comparisons of same-sex relationships, even long-term ones, to bestiality. (These are NOT people you would want petsitting for you).  Talk radio and the blogosphere has seen a fresh regurgitation of demands for judicial impeachment and the passing of a first-ever Constitutional amendment drafted specifically to deny civil rights to a designated group.

And then, there's the American Bar Association's statement, released just two days ago:

"Gays and lesbians should have the right to marry in civil ceremonies, the ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates declared on Tuesday. The measure passed on a voice vote.


"A lineup of ABA leaders, both past and present, spoke in favor of the resolution. Incoming ABA President Stephen Zack asked 'Why would anyone in this country not want two people who love each other to enjoy the blessings of marriage and the protections of law?'

"Former ABA President Tommy Wells told the House that “our citizens of the same sex who are being denied the right to a civil marriage are only seeking to participate in an equal basis in a foundational institution of our civil life. They simply want to share in the legal blessings that we give to married couples. It can only strengthen marriage.”

"Only Leslie W. Jacobs, past president of the Ohio State Bar Association and a partner in the Cleveland office of Thompson Hine, spoke against the measure. He sought to table the motion, which was ruled out of order. “I have reluctantly concluded that silence on an issue of political correctness is cowardice,” he told the House.

“ 'What we do [in the House] seriously affects our perception in lawmaking forums. If we are perceived to be off-base on something that lawmakers readily understand, I don’t think they can be expected to defer to us on something on which they don’t understand,' he said.

Resolution 111 (PDF) had been gaining momentum in the House since a US District Court judge ruled last week in Perry v. Schwarzenegger that California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage violated the U.S. Constitution. On Saturday, Laurence Tribe, the U.S. Justice Department’s senior counselor for access to justice, speculated during a program at the annual meeting that there is a good chance the U.S. Supreme Court would uphold the district court ruling, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy likely providing the swing vote.

In an interview after he participated in a Sunday morning program, David Boies, one of the lead plaintiffs attorneys in Perry, said it would be “significant” if the ABA comes out in support of marriage equality. “The ABA obviously is the most respected legal organization in the United States, and probably the world, and its opinion will be listened to by legislators and courts,” he said.

The House has long supported the legal rights of gays and lesbians. Among its actions:

• In 1989, it urged passage of statutes that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

• In 1995, it opposed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in matters of child custody.

• In 2004, it adopted policy opposing efforts to enact a federal constitutional amendment that would prohibit states from recognizing same-sex marriage.

• Last August, it urged repeal of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act; that section denies federal marital benefits and protections to lawfully married same-sex spouses.

Vagabond Scholar: The Five Circles of Conservative Hell

Vagabond Scholar: The Five Circles of Conservative Hell

Dante updated: conservative circles of Hell

Check out the Vagabond Scholar blog for details --  detailed examples, background, likely inhabitants and overall danger level of each circle.

Billed as a 'ruder companion' (and somewhat more tongue-in-cheek one) to The Social Contract.

NBC recognizes gay-headed families in contest

Broadcast network NBC had formerly excluded same-sex couples from its "Modern Wedding Contest", whose winners get a televised wedding.  On Thursday, after meeting with LGBT civil rights groups and receiving a number of voicemails and email messages, the network announced that they were changing their policy and allowing same-sex couples to apply.

The reason given for excluding them previously had been that same-sex marriages are not legally recognized in New York.  However, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) had pointed out to network officials that a winning couple could get a marriage from a marriage-equality state or the District of Columbia and have a wedding in New York.  GLAAD had contacted supporters about protesting the exclusion, and NBC said it was responding to the voicemail and email messages it had received. A network spokesman stated that "moving forward, we ensure that our future wedding contests will be inclusive to all couples."

Predictably, the decision was met with threats of boycotts and negative feedback, with the usual comparisons of same-sex couples to a human being marrying an animal.

Read the full story at the Associated Press.

Tall Ships® Set Sail For the Midwest

If you want to enjoy the beauty of a graceful and eco-friendly form of sea travel, head for the Great Lakes, not the coasts, to see the Tall Ships® this summer. 

The Great Lakes United Tall Ships Challenge® 2010 race series is a partnership of Great Lakes United  and the  American Sail Training Association (ASTA).  Their mission is to engage and educate the public about water conservation and the importance of the Great Lakes -- the world's largest source of fresh surface water.

This year's international fleet will sail through all five

of the Great Lakes, stopping in both U.S. and Canadian ports.

ASTA focuses on training young sailors in this special form of water transportation. Great Lakes United, has "been a unifying voice for ensuring a healthy and vibrant future for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River ecosystem. A diverse coalition of organizations and individuals, Great Lakes United is comprised of citizens, environmentalists, conservationists, labour unions, First Nations, tribes, hunters, anglers, academics, and progressive businesses working together to clean up toxic pollution, stop invasive species, and protect the waters of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River from damage and irresponsible use. Thousands of voices are calling for a healthier Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes United continues to be the coalition through which these voices are heard."

So far, up to 25 sailing ships will be participating, with many of the vessels offering public day sails.

The Brokeback Bank

from the  Dave Cullen Ultimate Brokeback Forum:


A winner of the movie-themed "Pride Bank" describes his prize:
“Dimensions: 5 1/2" high, 6" width, 6 3/4" length. 


“Materials: Various matboard and paper products, plastic, wood and reflective and holographic films. Theater "entrance" has glow-in-the-dark material. Painted, airbrushed and protected with numerous coats of acrylic varnish. Suede base so it is non skid and doesn't scratch surfaces. Interior is felt lined and bottom has "pillow" to silence coins dropping into bank.

“Description: Bank in the form of miniature building housing the Gay National Bank, Hot Eats Diner, and Pix Theater. Pix Theater is showing a double feature of "Brokeback Mountain" and "Latter Days". Coins can be dropped into bank through chimney on the roof. Section of roof with black handle lifts off to retrieve coins or put larger items into bank. Accented by shiny gold reflective film on bank along with glittering film to simulate electric signs. Two tiny rainbow flags dot the piece. Durable and very solidly built. Can survive falls with little or no damage.

“Signed by artist on the base.”


The contest was sponsored by the online studio of Rick Chris.  Visit the site's galleries for a collection of Pride photos, gay erotica and other gay-themed art, and "retro media, described as a "satirical and tongue-in-cheek 'what if' paintings of an alternative universe where gay topics are much more accepted in the media".


Brokeback fans will be sure to notice the excellent painting on the home page.

"Over the Cliff": How the Right went crazy

Anyone who's wondering why conservatives in the US seem to have gone insane in the past few years might want to check out a book recently published by the hosts of Crooks and Liars.

from the introduction:

"The Tea Partiers and their allies are tapping into the fear and anger that are washing over a country with over 10 percent unemployment on ongoing economic insecurity. And they are using the tried-and-true bogeymen and shibboleths of the paranoid strain in American politics to explain to their audiences who are and what is the cause of their angst: liberals, minorities and big government (not incidentally led by the first African-American president). "

Over the Cliff also focus on the schoizoid nature of the alleged hostility to government power:

"Just 8 years ago, drunk on vengeful bloodlust and convinced they had just ushered in a thousand-year reign, the right wing in America was united with their government as never before. Its members culturally enforced their peculiar form of chauvinistic patriotism and insisted that Americans unquestionably submit themselves to the president, a man their deified as a warrior god, and condemned anyone who questioned his decisions as a traitor."

And we all know what a sea change that went through.


From PoliPoint Press:

Over the Cliff examines the right wing’s eagerness, especially in the aftermath of President Obama’s election, to invent and propagate stories that are provably false. Noting that such stories are disseminated in large part by mainstream-media figures like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Lou Dobbs, the authors link that kookery to a wave of lethal violence and threatening behavior. They also explore the main drivers of this descent into nonsense, including a resurgence of extremist groups and the longtime Republican strategy of exploiting racial and cultural resentment. Finally, Over the Cliff details ways ordinary Americans can resist the madness.

Over the Cliff is already attracting attention.  The kudos include this remark from Rep. Alan Grayson:

At their hugely popular website ‘Crooks and Liars,’ John Amato and David Neiwert have helped to expose the fact that there is no conservative party in America any more. They show that the right wingers are not conservatives, they are anarchists.

The only law the right wing believes in is the Law of the Jungle. No schools, no hospitals, no job programs, no nothing. Their idea of nirvana is Mogadishu.

Available at Amazon and at PoliPoint Press.

Bad news for “Hillary”phobes

"Every time I hear this song from "Wicked", says Susie Madrack in Crooks and Liars, "I picture Maureen Dowd lecturing Hillary Clinton about what she should do to be popular."

Dowd could save herself the trouble. Secretary of State Hillary ("Hillary") Clinton may not always be given the courtesy of a last name, but PollingReport.com reports that almost all the most recent opinion polls, conducted between October 2009 and March 2010, have given Secretary Clinton a "favorable" rating of 60% or better. These included CNN, P-GfK (conducted by TfK Roper Affairs & Media), CBS News, FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll and Gallup, with CBS reporting the highest favorable rating of 70%.

"The right wing will go after her, and the country can't take another eight years of that."

This makes Secretary Clinton the most popular living politician in the US who has held elected office.

In Open Left, Chris Bowers noted that "Hillary Clinton will turn 69 in the final week of the 2016 campaign, which [would make] her slightly younger than Ronald Reagan when he first was elected in 1980. Also, as Secretary of State, a maujor Presidential candidate, a US Senator and First Lady, she is also probably more credentialed than any other potential Presidential candidate, too. There is even talk [that] she may become the next Secretary of Defense, further adding to her credentials."

Quite the sea change from the "Hillary"-bashing fad of 2008. Madrack cites a number of objections to her White House aspirations raised by progressives during the primary season -- objections that now sound naive at best:

"She's a corporatist from the DLC wing of the party. (Hmmm, I'd call that one a wash, considering we elected the man who hired Larry Summers and Tim Geithner.)

"The right wing will go after her, and the country can't take another eight years of that." (This is the one that really makes me laugh. When will Democrats learn that it simply doesn't matter who we nominate? Anyone we support will get the same treatment.)

"We can't have Bill Clinton hanging around, getting into trouble."  (You mean, like when Rahm asked him to talk to Joe Sestak?)

Add to that, "she has not experience", obviously outdated now.

Read more at Crooks and Liars. And check out that "Wicked" video.

Postcards from the Drill Baby Drill Spill

National Geographic is following the unfolding catastrophe of the Drill Baby Drill Spill on the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil-Coated Cane -- Photograph by Gerald Herbert, AP

Oil sticks to cane, a type of plant found in Gulf of Mexico marshes, on the Mississippi River on Tuesday.

In addition to killing seabirds, the oil spill is likely harming other animals less visible to the public, John "Wes" Tunnell, associate director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, said by email in early May. Infauna, or small organisms such as clams and tubeworms that live in ocean sediments, are vital food sources for shorebirds and other coastal animals.

After the 1979 Ixtoc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the area's infauna were reduced by up to 90 percent, Tunnell said—a potential reason many bird species left the area in the wake of the nine-month-long spill.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Written in the Sand - Photograph by John Moore, Getty Images


Written by a Greenpeace activist, the letters BP—referring to the company that leased the damaged Deepwater Horizon oil rig—stand out against a pool of oil on a beach at the mouth of the Mississippi River on Monday.

Last week response workers placed an insertion tube inside the destroyed pipe connected to the 5,000-foot-deep (about 1,500-meter-deep) wellhead. About a thousand barrels a day of gas and oil from the leaking wellhead are now being brought to the surface via the tube and burned, according to the joint federal-industry task force charged with managing the spill.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dripping Oil - Photograph by Hans Deryk, Reuters


Oil drips from the rubber gloves of Greenpeace marine biologist Paul Horsman, who surveyed oil-coated shorelines near the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana this week. When oil gets trapped underground in coastal sediments, it can stay there for decades, according to Gregory Stone, director of Louisiana State University's Coastal Studies Unit. (See: "Gulf Oil Spill a 'Dead Zone in the Making'?")

For instance, on the Mississippi coast—where smaller oil spills have washed ashore in the past—researchers have found oil lingering as deep as 20 feet (about 6 meters), Stone said in early May.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Oil-clogged Marshes - Photograph by Hans Deryk, Reuters


Marine biologist Paul Horsman of Greenpeace tramps through oil-clogged marshes on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Louisiana on Monday. After weeks of staying mostly at sea, the Gulf oil spill is now washing up on the state's coasts—likely a devastating development, scientists say. (See pictures of ten animals at risk due to the Gulf oil spill.)

As the nurseries for much of the sea life in the Gulf of Mexico, coastal marshes are vital to the ecosystem and the U.S. seafood industry, according to Texas Tech University ecotoxicologist Ron Kendall. It's much harder to remove the oil from coastal marshes, since some management techniques—such as controlled burns—are more challenging in those environments, Kendall said on May 12. "Once it gets in there," he said, "we're not getting it out."

Global warming debunker/homophobe booted from BP cleanup team

from Business Week:

"Jonathan I. Katz, a physics professor at Washington University in St. Louis., said he was fired from the team of scientists chosen by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu to help BP Plc control the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“ 'Some of Professor Katz’s controversial writings have become a distraction from the critical work of addressing the oil spill,' Stephanie Mueller, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department, said in an e-mail today. 'Professor Katz will no longer be involved in the department’s efforts.' ”

Some of Katz' writing inspired a petition effort to get him replaced on the team. In an essay titled "In Defense of Homophobia", Katz described homophobia as "a moral judgement upon acts engaged in by choice." Ironically, he follows this up with a statement of solidarity with those who are homophobic on the basis of religion -- also a 'choice': "if you are religious, you probably agree with the homophobic position, because most major religions make this moral judgement." Katz follows this up with a 'history' of AIDS:

the modern AIDS epidemic began suddenly about 1980. Its first victims were promiscuous homosexual males; it was initially called ``Gay-Related Immune Deficiency''.

In America attitudes towards homosexuality changed in the 1970's. It went from a private, furtively practiced, vice to an open and accepted subculture. In many circles, ``sodomite'' ceased to be an insult. This acceptance led to the toleration, and wide practice, of gross homosexual promiscuity. HIV, falling onto that fertile soil, made the AIDS epidemic. Even before AIDS was recognized, practicing homosexuals were notorious for a high rate of venereal diseases.

Katz does distinguish between "innocent" AIDS casualties and the "not so innocent" ones:

There are many completely innocent victims, too: hemophiliacs (a substantial fraction died as a result of contaminated clotting factor), recipients of contaminated transfusions, and their spouses and children, for AIDS can be transmitted heterosexually (in America, only infrequently) and congenitally. . . . Guilt for their deaths is on the hands of the homosexuals and intravenous drug abusers who poisoned the blood supply. These people died so the sodomites could feel good about themselves.

Jonathan "global warming is good for humanity" Katz

Ironically, the "expert" that Obama was planning to engage in addressing an environmental disaster thinks that the impact of human activities on climate change is no big deal:

Some of the more apocalyptic fears about global warming resemble a secular doomsday cult. Rather than God dooming mankind for its traditional sins (robbery, lust, murder, disbelief, etc.), Nature is said to doom mankind for the secular sin of carbon emission. Some (Greenpeace, and even more radical groups) think any human effect on nature to be sinful, and regard "Mother Earth" as a deity that is violated by any use of its resources for the sustenance, comfort or betterment of Mankind. Needless to say, this is opposite to the Biblical grant of the natural world to Man for his benefit.
 
Predictions of climate doom are no more rational than traditional religious predictions of a Day of Judgement or Armageddon. Divine revelation is not open to rational argument, and its truth can only be judged by further revelation.

Global warming is real and much of it is probably anthropogenic. Nothing serious will be done about it, no matter how frantic or hysterical certain people become. Fortunately, global warming is probably good for humanity. Sit back, relax, and watch it happen.

Not surprisingly, the conservative chatterers have already gone ballistic over this, tossing about references to "censorship", "free speech" and the First Amendment. It isn't certain how any of them would have reacted had the gays' "fierce advocate" in the White House hired a "proud white supremacist" or "proud anti-Semite". And, for that matter, whether an 'expert' who thinks that global warming, whether human-caused or otherwise, would be "good for humanity" would belong on this crew in particular.

Gary & Tony's Excellent Parenting Adventure

It's a month away but already there's considerable harrumphing on the Right about an upcoming CNN special, "Gary & Tony have a baby", with Newbusters complaining that "CNN only covers the 'LGBT' activists sympathetically and on their own terms."

CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien told Michael Jensen of AfterElton.com that "I was noticing at my daughter's school and in the places around the city, the number of male couples having children. I was interested and noticed a trend. Then I ran into a couple my producer knew well who were thinking of having a baby. I thought it would be very interesting to follow the process financially of finding a donor, and the emotional processes and psychological journey. In some ways, the most radical thing to do [for a gay couple] is to circle around and have a bigger family unit."

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Gary Spino and Tony Brown
 
Jensen: What more can you tell me about Gary and Tony?

O'Brien: They've been together for twenty years. They are two guys who have described themselves by saying they grew up when they found each other and they transitioned from young men to grownups together. Their marriage was in Canada in 2005 and while they were happy with that, they eventually decided that they really wanted to have a baby. They loved each other so much that they decided the next natural step was to become a bigger family.

Jensen: What's the structure of the special?

O'Brien: We tell the story of how they come to this place. We go with them every step of the way as the implantation happens, as they are navigating all the drama that comes along with having a surrogate. There is a lot of legal maneuvering. By the time we meet them they have the egg donor and surrogate.


CNN reports reports that the show will air June 24 at 8 p.m. ET


Read more of the interview at AfterElton.com .

The Reformation continues with the Episcopal Church's second gay bishop

In September of 1979, at the Episcopal Church's General Convention in Denver, Colorado, the church's Bishop of Rochester gave the Standing Commission on Human Affairs and Health a resolution stating that "there should be no barrier to the ordination of those homosexual persons who are able and willing to conform their behavior tothat which the Church affirms as wholecome. . . . The General Convention should enact no legislation which singles out a particular human condition and makes it an absolute barrier to ordination." 

Mary Glasspool, then a student, was among the attendees asked to give a short witness statement.  "Shaking in my pulpit pumps", as she recalls, she told the audience of 1,500 people that "I trust that God's Love at this convention will transcend the issues and address the people -- all of us -- in our wholeness. I trust and I pray that that same love will prevent any of us from condemning others -- particularly in this case, homosexuals, in our human, and full, and loving wholeness."

Afterwards her bishop, Paul Moore, Jr., "came over to me, gave me a great big hug, and said: 'Now that you've come out to 1,500 people, don't you think it's almost time to tell your parents?"

Rev. Canon mary Glasspool (bottom left), Rev. Canon Diane M. Jardine Bruce (right) and Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori (top left)

Thirty years later, the now Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool was ordained as the Episcopal Church's second openly gay bishop.  Needless to say, this didn't happen without considerable protest, both from within and without the United States.

The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on

During the heyday of the Reformation, swords would clash and heretics would burn; and the tradition continues as best it can. Last month Archbishop Ian Earnest of the Anglican Province of the Indian Ocean , disturbed by what he dubbed "theological innovations", announced that his conscience dictated that he "suspend all communication both verbal and sacramental" with the US-based Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, "until such time as they reverse" these innovations. Archbishop Earnest made exceptions for "those bishops and clergy who have distanced themselves" from the churches' direction. Only a few days before Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda, whose country's consideration of sexual orientation cleansing has made the news in past months, wrote to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams characterizing the North American churches as "gross violators of biblical truth" who were "promoting revisionist theology." 

In March, a Church of England group describing themselves as "open evangelicals" issued a statement condemning Glasspool's ordination.

The 3,000 people present at Rev. Glasspool's ordination included two male protesters,  who were led out by security guards.

The 3-legged stool

As has been the case since the Reformation, however, questions about Protestant churches' "directions' have cycled regularly, as have the subsequent semi-clonings generally referred to as 'schisms.'  However, in a profile provided by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, Rev. Glasspool reaffirmed a commitment to the church's most characteristic approach to ministry. "We hold that the three-legged stool of Scripture, Tradition and Reason (which includes experience) is an appropriate way in which to descern God's Will. But we can be hampered by the disadvantages of the colonialism that is part of our history, institutional structures that change too slowly and a lack of the freedom that faith brings in response to fear."

Glasspool's involvement with the Episcopal Church has been lifelong. Her father, Rector of St. James Chapel in Goshen, New York, had opposed ordaining women as priests although "I became something of an exeption to the rule" for him. 

She met her life partner of two decades, Becki Sander, "as she was studying for a dual degree in theology and social work.  We have been together since 1988, and Becki has just earned her Ph.D. in Social Work, having written an excellent thesis on Restorative Justice.

"God has blessed us richly and continues to do so."

The West's Hidden Histories

The "Out West" series at the Autry Center of the American West showcases the histories of gay men and lesbian women. It's sponsored by Tom Gregory, HBO, the Gill Foundation and the Small Change Foundation in association with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the Courage Campaign.

Last year, the Autry displayed the two entwined shirts from Brokeback Mountain.

The first Out West event was titled "Whatever Happened to Ennis del Mar?"

On May 13th "Hidden Histories", the second event in the series, will focus on "the untold stories of the Western GLBT community. Scholars and Autry curators tell the hidden histories behind the objects on display. Complimentary refreshments to be served with dinner available for purchase."

Speakers will include Gregory Hinton, creator and curator of "Out West"; Blake Allmendinger, professor of Western literature at UCLA; Stephen Aron, professor of history (UCLA) and director of the Institute for the Study of the American West at the Autry National Center; Carolyn Brucken, Associate Curator of Western Women's History at the Autry National Center; Jeffery Richardson, Assistant Curator of Film and Popular Culture at the Autry National Center; Patricia Nell Warren, historian and author and Jim Wilke, scholar and historian.

Call 323.667.2000, extension 389 for tickets and reservations.  Visit the Autry Center website for more details.

The 10,000-lake State: National Geographic's portrait exhibit

In Focus: National Geographic Greatest Portraits, published in 2004, showcases personal glimpses of people all over the world from the early 1900s to the 1990s. A collaboration of National Geographic and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, the book’s images range from glimpses of tribal leaders and rural farms in a world long gone to Steve McCurry’s now-famous 1985 portrait of an Afghan girl.

"In 2002, National Geographic relocated Sharbat Gulu, now in her 30s with three children, in the remote Pushtun region of Afghanistan." Photo by Steve McCurry, 1985

A touring exhibit of 51 images from the book started in late 2005 and was originally scheduled to end early in 2009. The tour has been extended through 2010, and Midwesterners will get a chance to see it this spring and summer at the Duluth Art Institute in Duluth, Minnesota.

"Young women of the steppes in central Asia" by Maynard Owen Williams, 1932

The exhibition’s Duluth run will begin on March 20th and end on July 18th, with subsequent stops in Canadian, Texas and Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Duluth Art Institute will host a special opening night event, urging attendees to “Come with friends and come with your camera, we’ll have stations set up for you to play with portrait photography. Post the evening’s results on our Facebook page and see if you took the best shot!”

The exhibition will be at the DAI’s “Depot” branch at 506 W Michigan Street. Admission is free to members of the Duluth Art Institute and affiliated organization.  Non-members: $12 for adults, $6 for children 3-13, and children under 3 free. Ask about AAA and senior discounts.



Contact the DAI at 218.733.7560.

Anti-Gay group apologizes for not being homophobic enough

In May of last year Greg Sargent, host of the Washington Post's "Plum Line" blog, reported that a spokesman for the anti-gay Focus on the Family told him the group would not necessarily oppose a gay Supreme Court nominee. Focus' judicial analyst Bruce Hausknecht had stated that “The issue is not [a gay judge's] sexual orientation. It’s whether they are a good judge or not.." Sexual orientation, Hausknecht added “should never come up. It’s not even pertinent to the equation.” In the same month, Focus' federal policy analyst Ashley Horne told  One News Now that sexual orientation should not be a litmus test and that "decisions based on precedent under the law [and] practice judicial restraint" were the most important considerations.

The statements attracted some opposition, with Gary Glenn of the American Family Association (AFA) in  Michigan accusing Focus of a "moral retreat." However, Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council expressed qualified agreement, although he referred only to a hypothetical judge "who has experienced same-sex attractions."

Sound too tolerant to be true? Well, of course it was. Last Thursday Peter ("Porno Pete") LaBarbera  commended Focus on the Family for "wisely correct[ing] their statements."  Tom Minnery, Vice President of Public Policy at Focus on the Family, characterized Hausknecht's remarks in "The Plum Line" as "one of those conversations we’d like to 'do over.’ We can assure you that we recognize that homosexual behavior is a sin and does not reflect God’s created intent and desire for humanity."
Not to be outdone, LaBarbera added that " Judicial nominees who practice [homosexuality] -- or worse, practice it proudly -- have a mark against their character that absolutely should be considered as a potential source of bias, and even anti-religious animus, in their future rulings."

Gainesville, Florida elects first out gay mayor

Election officials eventually gave Lowe 7 additional votes

Poll workers at the Supervisor of Elections training facility in Gainesville, Florida spent most of Friday afternoon doing a recount after Mayoral candidate Craig Lowe's narrow 35-vote victory on Tuesday. Lowe ended up with a 7-vote bump, and was declared the official mayor-elect a little after 3:00 p.m. Anti-gay activists had distributed phoney campaign fliers and the "Dove World Outreach Center" briefly displayed a sign reading "No Homo Mayor", later shortened to "No Homo" after the ACLU and various media outlets brought up the slight matter of tax exemptions.

Brokeback Mountain - The "Other Jack Twist"

Novelist Dean Koontz keeps a low profile, rarely granting interviews and doing book signings even more rarely. However, Koontz’ bestselling paranoid suspense thrillers have made him the world’s sixth most highly paid writers. When I started re-reading the book Strangers last year, I noticed that one of the major characters was named “Jack Twist,” one of the two main characters in Brokeback Mountain. For a Brokie who’d first read the book years before, it amounted to seeing a good friend show up in a very unexpected setting.

Cover art of Strangers

Strangers is reminiscent of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with the addition of a deranged villain and with a somewhat different, though still benign, role for the interstellar visitors. Jack Twist is similar to many of Koontz’ characters: an essentially decent person whose life has gone seriously awry and whose view of the world has been thrown into chaos as a result.

Jack Twist’s life begins to unravel when he leads a special operation in a fictional Central American country with a group of fellow US Army Rangers. Jack and three other men are captured and imprisoned for about a year in a concentration camp "that had no official existence. . . . in true Orwellian tradition, because the four-story complex of cells and torture chambers had no name, it did not exist." For a long time they cling to hope that "they would be freed by commandos or through diplomatic channels before realizing that if they are to escape, they'll have to do it themselves."

The escape is successful but on returning to the US, Jack discovers that the spin on the failed special operation was that it had actually been “a terrorist act, a mass kidnapping, a provocation meant to spark a war.” He then learns that the Congressional committee appointed to 'investigate' “wasn’t interested in his viewpoint and that the televised hearing was merely an opportunity for politicians to do some grandstanding in the infamous tradition of Joe McCarthy."

Worse, in his absence his wife, Jenny, has been sexually assaulted and savagely beaten and the attack has left her permanently brain-damaged. The back story reflects a common theme in Koontz' books: that at any time, anyone's life can be blasted away by forces as impersonal as a tornado or an earthquake. In order to get the best medical care for his wife, and to survive in a country that has made him an outlaw, Jack uses his experience and training with martial arts, weapons, explosives and survival techniques to become a master thief.

Koontz’ Jack Twist is not much better-looking than Annie Proulx's:

Not one feature or aspect of his face could be called handsome. His forehead was too broad, ears too big. Although he had 20-20 vision, his left eye had a leftward cast, and most people could not talk to him without nervously shifting their attention from one eye to the other, wondering which was looking at them when in fact both were. When he smiled he looked clownish and when he frowned he looked sufficiently threatening to send Jack the Ripper scurrying for home and hearth.

But Jenny had seen something in him. She had wanted, needed and loved him. In spite of her own good looks, she had not cared about appearances.

Strangers was published in 1986, 11 years before Brokeback Mountain.

On the Horizon

The dust hasn’t yet settled on the Right’s reaction to health care reform. Proclamations are still going out about the end of America as we know it; talk radio hosts are still proclaiming the coming apocalypse of "Obamacare" and spinning tales of the left-wing “plants”, allegedly the real conveyors of epithets and expectoration, in between plugs for the “Take America Back Tour.” But the practitioners of politicotainment know how to fill the GOP's big tent and as Barnum knew, you have to keep the acts coming, always having something going on in the side ring while the center ring is between attractions. For that reason, if you haven’t heard of Goodwin Liu yet, you might be hearing a lot about him in the next month. In February, President Obama nominated him to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The son of immigrants from Taiwan, Liu graduated from Yale Law School and was the first in his family to earn a law degree. He worked as an appellate litigator in Washington for O’Melveney & Myers, clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and for Judge David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Currently Liu is Associate Dean and Professor of Law at University of California-Berkeley, specializing in constitutional law, education policy, civil rights and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is co-director of the Berkeley law school's Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity, which focuses on civil rights law and policy.

Liu served on President Obama’s transition team in the areas of education policy and agency review, teams of the Presidential transition of Barack Obama, and has served on boards of directors for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California; the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy in Washington, D.C.; and Chinese for Affirmative Action to name a few. In March, the American Bar Association gave Liu its highest "WQ" (well qualified) rating, by a unanimous vote of its committee.

In short, some of Liu’s affiliations alone could set tinfoil hats a-tingle, and he’s already attracting opponents on the Right: National Review contributor and former Scalia law clerk Ed Whelan, Tony Perkins of the American Family Association, the Heritage Foundation and Senate Judiciary Committee’s Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama. But it isn’t Liu’s connections, his opposition to “strict constructionism” interpretations of the Constitution or his history of support for marriage equality for gays that's drawn the most ire so far. It’s his previous opposition to the appointments of Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts.

Well, that and the embarrassing fact that Liu was right.

Liu wrote that while Roberts had "a brilliant legal mind", a Supreme Court nominee "must be evaluated on more than legal intellect," and gave examples of how Roberts' "legal career is studded with activities unfriendly to civil rights, abortion rights, and the environment."

Testifying in Justice Alito's confirmation hearing in 2006, Liu considered Alito’s record to be "at the margin of the judicial spectrum, not the mainstream"; and commented on "Judge Alito's lack of skepticism toward government power that infringes on individual rights and liberties. Throughout his career, with few exceptions, Judge Alito has sided with the police, prosecutors, immigration officials, and other government agents, while taking a minimalist approach to recognizing official error and abuse." Liu also noted a "disturbing pattern of deference toward the use of government power against individuals."

While President Obama hasn’t hinted at considering Liu for the Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens’ recent confirmation of rumors that he intends to retire has fueled speculation that Liu’s current nomination could be a prelude to a nomination as Stevens’ replacement.

A hearing was scheduled for Liu's confirmation on March 24th; however, it was postponed due to Republican objections on procedural grounds; and has been rescheduled for Friday, April 16, 2010. This could get interesting.

Welcome

Welcome to "Talking With Coyotes"!

'The Coyote’ grew up in south Florida and Atlanta, Georgia and currently lives with her husband, four dogs, two cats, two goats and a flock of chickens including a pet housechicken, in rural west-central Missouri not far from Kansas City.

This is a blog devoted to current events, particularly gay civil rights, from a left-leaning perspective; spirituality and occasional junkets into the New Age; animals particularly dogs and the Midwest including my own state of Missouri and my spiritual second home, Lake Superior and Minnesota’s North Shore.

I’m a fan of Brokeback Mountain (a “Brokie”), and will regularly post about related videos, screenings, books and my own fanfiction project.

There will be occasional posts about cooking, quilting, rural life in general and favorite online stores and websites. I do not solicit nor accept free merchandise or any other payment for recommendations.