The Gaytheist Agenda

The Pear of Anguish was a popular punishment for certain individuals who violated “Biblical Law” during Medieval times. I have no doubt there are some who’d gladly put it into use today if they could.

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It was made of four ‘leaves’ which joined together by a hinge at the top. A screw inserted between the leaves could be turned to slowly separate the four lobes of the ‘pear’, expanding the orifice into which it had been inserted. The torturer could choose whether to simply distend the cavity, or expand the pear to it’s absolute maximum and mutilate the prisoner.

Of course, the orifice which was on the receiving end of the pear was symbolic of the offense - heretics received the oral pear, passive male homosexuals received the anal pear, and women who had intercourse with Satan were in receipt of the vaginal pear.
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I wonder how they determined a woman had been doing the nasty with Satan? It’s not like anybody could seriously claim they’d witnessed the act. Then again, these weren’t rational people so….

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. “
Blaise Pascal

 

Members of the earth’s earliest known civilization, the Sumerians, looked on in shock and confusion some 6,000 years ago as God, the Lord Almighty, created Heaven and Earth.

According to recently excavated clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform script, thousands of Sumerians—the first humans to establish systems of writing, agriculture, and government—were working on their sophisticated irrigation systems when the Father of All Creation reached down from the ether and blew the divine spirit of life into their thriving civilization.

“I do not understand,” reads an ancient line of pictographs depicting the sun, the moon, water, and a Sumerian who appears to be scratching his head. “A booming voice is saying, ‘Let there be light,’ but there is already light. It is saying, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass,’ but I am already standing on grass.”

“Everything is here already,” the pictograph continues. “We do not need more stars.”
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According to the cuneiform tablets, Sumerians found God’s most puzzling act to be the creation from dust of the first two human beings.

“These two people made in his image do not know how to communicate, lack skills in both mathematics and farming, and have the intellectual capacity of an infant,” one Sumerian philosopher wrote. “They must be the creation of a complete idiot.

Yes, it’s satire. It just goes to show how much reality some people will ignore to persist in their beliefs.

 

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, commonly considered the genesis of the official Gay Rights Movement. The riots were a series of demonstrations by patrons of Manhattan’s Stonewall Inn, who had finally had enough of police harassment and government- sponsored oppression. I went by the Stonewall Inn when I visited New York earlier this year. It’s a very unimposing place and doesn’t seem like the stuff of legends, but it is nonetheless.

It was on the one year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that the first Pride Parade and celebrations were held in L.A. and New York, and such celebrations have been held each subsequent year. Each June LGBT people across the nation come together to throw off the shackles of bigotry and oppression, commemorate Stonewall and other historic events, and engage in myriad festivities.

Here’s to the brave souls who fought at Stonewall, in every battle since, and every battle yet to come. One way or another the bigots will lose this, even if it takes another forty years, or more.

 

 
For more on the Stonewall Riots:
The Stonewall Riots - 1969 — A Turning Point in the Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Liberation

Gay Rights Movement: 40 Years Since Stonewall Riots

 

No, I’m afraid I’m not doing it. I got far to little sleep last night. I even had a nightmare with a nasty man screaming in my face “You’re not really married!”. I imagine it was due to the overwhelming anxiety I’ve been experiencing over today’s hearing. But my wife, thankfully, is live blogging the proceedings. Head on over to the Newswire for a frequently updated account. Refresh the page every few minutes for the latest information.

 

California State Judge Herbert M. Donaldson, an early LGBT rights activist, died in his home this past Friday.

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Donaldson was a pioneer LGBT rights activist working side-by-side in the Mattachine Society with Daughters of Bilitis founders Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin.

Those early gay and lesbian organizations already were in place in San Francisco but organized cries for equality to replace co-existence was confined to gay women and men themselves.

That changed in 1965 San Francisco.

Local religious leaders of repute began suggesting equality was due everyone even on an earthly homophobic world.

With eye-popping audacity they formed the Council on Religion and The Homosexual and on a sparkling Saturday evening held a public fundraiser at what is now the California Culinary Academy on Polk Street.

Police reacted with what was then a common intimidation.

They set up spotlights across from the event to expose gathering homosexuals.

A good half of those invited still entered.
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Police made their fourth attempt to suppress the gathering, returning to enter again.

It was then Herb Donaldson said no more.

After Donaldson was released from jail he learned the police had sent a copy of his arrest report to the California Bar Association and the youth thought his career was shattered.
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Herb Donaldson was not ruined.

His career advanced and in 1983 Governor Jerry Brown created Donaldson a judge.

Along the way he founded Capricorn Coffees becoming a successful businessman, a free flowing philanthropist to progressive causes and countless LGBT youth who wanted to become politically active.

Only recently retired, Donaldson presided over the California Mental Health Court which he created.
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) first kicked back at homophobia in 1936 by challenging a Boston ban on the lesbian themed ‘The Children’s Hour.’

The City of Boston prevailed, the stage play was banned, but ACLU commitment grew.
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“A funny thing happened on the way to jail - the next day Herb Donaldson was an ACLU client because Herb Donaldson was the lawyer who planted his feet and stood in that door and said to the San Francisco Police enough is enough,” smiled Cole.

“They jury went out and deliberated and came back not long afterward and announced that they had found the defendant not guilty. And that they would have done it even if the judge hadn’t told them to do it.

“The thing is that was a critical moment in San Francisco history.

“Some important things started to change when a judge and a jury said that you couldn’t be convicted as a criminal for standing up to that kind of police harassment.
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“What this man did was to take his career and his life that he had at that point in his hands and put it all at risk.

“To stand up and say enough is enough.

“That was the beginning of the end that gay people had to cower in the shadows in San Francisco.”
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Here’s to one of our local heroes. May he rest in peace.

 

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day that has been set aside for remembering the victims of the Holocaust and for reminding Americans of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred and indifference reign. The United States Holocaust Memorial Council, created by act of Congress in 1980, was mandated to lead the nation in civic commemorations and to encourage appropriate Remembrance observances throughout the country. Observances and Remembrance activities can occur during the week of Remembrance that runs from the Sunday before through the Sunday after the actual date.

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The Holocaust is not merely a story of destruction and loss; it is a story of an apathetic world and a few rare individuals of extraordinary courage. It is a remarkable story of the human spirit and the life that flourished before the Holocaust, struggled during its darkest hours, and ultimately prevailed as survivors rebuilt their lives.

Ultimately the death toll reached about:
Six million Jews
2-3 million Soviet POWs
1.8-2 million Poles
220,000–500,000 Roma
200,000–250,000 Disabled
80,000–200,000 Freemasons
5,000–15,000 Gay men
2,500–5,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses

A monument honoring the gay and lesbian victims of the Holocaust is to be built in Meir Garden in Tel Aviv.

A quarter of a million homosexuals were persecuted during the Holocaust, and tens of thousands were murdered because the Nazi Party believed their sexual preference to be deviant. In the concentration camps in which they were imprisoned, gay men were forced to wear a pink triangle while lesbian women wore a black patch.
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The monument is to be the first in Israel to commemorate these victims, though four of its kind exist worldwide, in Sydney, Copenhagen, Berlin, and Amsterdam. It has been designed as an iron triangle, on which the victims’ names are to be inscribed.

I am simply overwhelmed whenever I read or hear about the Holocaust. It is indeed one of the deepest, darkest stains on the history of humankind.

 

I just spent the past two hours (re) watching The History Channel’s amazing and thought-provoking program, Life After People.

Explore the tantalizing question of whether all the remnants of mankind will eventually disappear from our planet. What would happen to the earth if humans ceased to exist? Would ocean life flourish, the buffalo return to the Great Plains and our skyscrapers yield to the wear and tear of time. Visit the ghostly villages surrounding Chernobyl, which were abandoned by humans after the nuclear disaster in 1986 and then travel to the remote islands off the coast of Maine to search for traces of abandoned towns that have vanished from view in only a few decades. Learn from experts in the fields of engineering, botany, ecology, biology, geology, climatology and archeology as they provide answers for many thought provoking questions.

I simply love these “what if” sorts of questions and scenarios. Perhaps that’s why I have such a fondness for utopian and dystopian fiction, time-travel tales and parallel universe stories. Here’s more about the show:

 
Now I’m looking forward to some of their other offerings like The Dark Ages , Silent Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Murder (I’ve long had a fascination with the bystander intervention phenomenon) , Pueblo Cliffdwellers and countless others.

 

Yesterday was the third and final day that my SO and I worked as unpaid extras on the set of the movie Milk. It was a fine ending to our acting experience as we recreated the 1978 Gay Pride Day and were able to be excited instead of angry or somber.

The scene where recently elected City Supervisor Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn, speaks to the elated crowd from the steps of City Hall involved many takes. I lost count of how many times we heard the same speech, but the words were so uplifting and true I didn’t mind and was glad to cheer and applaud them until Van Sant was satisfied.

“Come out to your families, your friends, your neighbors…!” he implored. “We will fight the lies, the myths, the distortions! …In the Declaration of Independence it declares that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights… “

Come mid-afternoon we switched gears and filmed the parade scenes. Extras formed rows on either side of the street to watch as “Harvey” passed by in his Volvo followed by the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band and extras as parade participants.

As before, those scenes took a number of takes (with a good deal of standing around in between, of course). After many hours in the unseasonably warm early March day we were getting tired and achy, and several people had sunburns. Although I’d thought to put on sunblock before heading out I still had a touch of red here and there, especially the one place I’d not thought to put the sunblock–my ears. Nonetheless neither I nor my SO would have missed the experience for anything.

I’m anxiously awaiting the release of the film, slated for September or October of this year. The movie is going to be very special to me and my SO since we helped create it.

But acting in the movie and the research I’ve done as a result has had an even more profound effect on me. I came to a much deeper understanding of just how little progress we’ve made in the fight for LGBT equality over the past three decades, and how history has a way of repeating itself. My desire to expose and defeat the Anti-gay Agenda and see equal Human and Civil Rights for LGBT citizens is stronger than ever. And I want to live to see Harvey Milk’s prophetic dream to become a reality.

“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”

Late Friday night we gathered, several thousand paid and volunteer extras. We were there to recreate the impromptu candlelight vigil/march that took place just over 30 years ago this year following the murders of City Councilman Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Cameras rolled for the movie Milk as we marched in silence with our candles raised. It was a moving experience with many among us having participated in the original vigil.

It took about five takes but it was well worth it and I’d gladly do it again as would my SO though we did it as unpaid volunteers. After the candlelight vigil scenes we did two more takes of a riot march scene similar to the ones we did Monday night but slightly edgier. “Whose Street? OUR STREET! Whose City? OUR CITY!” was the shouted refrain this time as we took the street by storm, pushing past the police officers who couldn’t possibly control the surging crowd.

Whether or not either of us appears in a single scene it has been a fulfilling experience and I’m glad we were able to help recreate this important piece of LGBT history for the silver screen. I’m anxiously awaiting the release of the film, which is expected to be in September or October.

There is still the work left unfinished in the wake of Milk’s death. As I’d mentioned previously it seems despite the passage of 30 years so little has been accomplished. Back then some Gay Rights legislation had been passed only to be met with a backlash by RRRW activists who enacted their own laws. History has been repeating itself with George W. Bush and his “Family Values” crowd. Every attempt we make to get LGBT rights legislation passed is met with equal opposition from them, and they work across the nation to put in place laws that will restrict our human rights in every way possible.

We must fight harder than ever before to ensure that Harvey Milk’s death was not in vain. To ensure that his vision for LGBT equality comes to pass. If it means taking to the streets over and over again we must do it. Bigotry and narrow-mindedness cannot–must not–be allowed to prevail.

California could make history by becoming the first state in the USA to have an official holiday for a gay person.

Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) has announced he will introduce a bill that would formally recognize the efforts of civil rights pioneer, Harvey Milk.

The legislation, if passed, would establish a non-fiscal state holiday in his name on the anniversary of Milk’s birth, May 22.

In 1977, when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Milk became the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the United States, and only the third openly gay elected official in the nation.

Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in San Francisco on November 27, 1978.

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Leno’s bill would proclaim May 22nd ‘Harvey Milk Day’ and add it to the list of state holidays, although it will be crafted in a way so as not to generate additional state costs or increase the number of paid state holidays.

‘Harvey Milk Day’ will provide a forum to raise public awareness of Milk’s work to extend basic human rights to all people and demonstrate that each one of us possesses the ability to create extraordinary change in our communities, our country and the world,” Leno said.

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“Harvey Milk knowingly put his safety at risk and ultimately gave his life because he believed that living as an openly gay man would help achieve true equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans,” said EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors.

This is amazing. Harvey Milk is a true hero to GLBT Americans, and having a holiday in his name would be quite inspiring. I hope the bill passes so that Milk can be honored as he should be.