Repeal Of DADT On Agenda For November!

The wheels of the Gods grind exceedingly slow...but it looks like the Senate Armed Services Committee will take up the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell in November". A spokeswoman for committee chairman Carl Levin confirmed this to CNN on Friday. Maybe this will be the beginnings of real change?

New Site Tells Story Of Atlanta Eagle Raid

"On September 10, 2009, a SWAT-team of Atlanta police officers detained and searched over 60 people without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion of any criminal activity, just because they were patrons at a gay bar called the Atlanta Eagle."

Thus begins the web site put online to educate the LGBT public about the raid on the Atlanta Eagle. Check it out and get angry...with the authorities and the police!

Microsoft Launches Retail Store - Apple Store Knock-off?

Remember when Microsoft mimicked the Macintosh Graphical User Interface and called it Windows? Well now they have knocked-off the Apple Store and called it the Microsoft Store. Window dressing!

The new store opened in Arizona to much brouhaha from Microsoft and immediately underwhelmed patrons. The new store was even had a former Apple Store designer on the team.

As Windows 7 makes it emergence, allegedly a product that will "fix" all the problems of Windows Vista, a product that was supposed to "enhance" the features of XP, the new store marks Microsoft's first move into the retail world. Let's hope the next version of the store is something original and not just a parody of the real deal at Apple.

I wonder if they will shut down at random times and completely rearrange the store eliminating popular products and changing the names of others?

Hate Crimes Bill Finally Passes And Includes LGBT Protections!

Attached to a defense appropriation bill, the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act is finally law or at least will be when President Obama signs it today.

This long awaited step toward full rights and protections for all people has languished in Congress for far too long. The bill includes race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity! It was finally attached to a must-pass defense spending bill as a tactic to push it through. Though it has nothing to do with defense, this tactic is a common one to get bills passed.

Of course the far-right is pissed. They are claiming it will stifle freedom of religion? really? The law only covers actions not speech, so unless your religion is one that actively participates in hate crimes you've got nothing to worry about. That might make some folks nervous who are militant white supremacists or neo-nazis but for everyone else it's not going to affect us.

What it will do is make hate crimes easie to prosecute at a federal level and that is a good thing.

GOP Tries Lying Again, This Time On Twitter!

So the GOP is not content to be a marginalized party of racists and hate mongers, now they are trying to defraud the American public by creating fake accounts on Twitter and masquerading as pissed off Democrats. Twitter caught wind of the scam and shut them down.

33 fake accounts created by Connecticut Republicans meant to impersonate Democratic state representatives have been pulled from the micro-blogging site. Now I guess the GOP will have to try to impersonate real public servants or maybe just get more in step with America as a whole and stop acting like spoiled kids on the playground.

I doubt it!

Sen. Dan Inouye Favors Rape!

Yes, now a Democrat has moved toward the Pro Rape camp and seems to be wanting to remove the Franken amendment from the Defense Appropriation Bill. That is the amendment that would alloy victims of "gang Rape" to sue their employers when they were raped on the job. Specifically it's about Halliburton, no surprise there.

Seems Senator Inouye has been getting pounded by defense lobbyists who are trying to convince him that allowing employees who were raped on the job to sue would hurt their contracts. Good, they should provide adiquate security to insure that doesn't happen. Every other company in America would be liable for that kind of thing, but because Halliburton is a defense contractor they get a pass to put a "don't sue us" clause in their contract for employees.

So, I encourage you to write the Senator from Hawaii about this or call his office and encourage him to defend American's right to a safe workplace and vote for the Franken Amendment.

Pat Robertson Thinks Gays Want To Destroy Marriage...And Other Fantasies

Sometimes Pat Robertson can be downright funny, but most of the time he is annoying and occasionally infuriating. After watching this clip, I am not sure whether to be mad or laugh. Pat on his hour of propaganda, the 700 Club has determined that gays are not out to gain equal rights such as marriage, but to destroy marriage completely.

News Alert for Pat: Heterosexuals have done a pretty good job of that already! Want to save marriage, outlaw divorce! Yeah right.

Watch this clip and let me know whether you laughed or threw a brick at your computer.

South Pacific On Broadway - What A Show!

Last week my partner and I spent a few days in New York City after the National Equality March. We were lucky to get tickets for the revival of South Pacific, the Rogers and Hammerstein classic about love, war and racial prejudice set on a military base.

The venue of the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center is an amazing place to see this big a production. The theater is a thrust stage with seating on three sides, more suited to intimate plays than big musicals, yet this production uses hat intimacy to its advantage.

Actors who might normally play their roles more broadly on a big theater stage can lend more subtle touches in the Beaumont and it works well in this show. The orchestra, a big ensemble for such a small venue was lush and forceful without overwhelming the action on the stage.

For me Paulo Szot in the role of Emile de Becque was a revelation. I had always associated the role with Rossano Brazzi in the 1950s movie of the show, but Szot gives de Becque character real depth. His singing brought me to tears along with much of the audience. What a telant!

Kelli O'Hara as Nelly Forbush is spot on with her accent, so much that my partner thought she was actually from Arkansas. An this girl can sing!

Finally, Danny Burstein was a real audience favorite as Luther Billis. The Billis character has several great songs, and a real chance to show the actors comic talents in the "Honey Bun" drag number.

This South Pacific is timeless, and if you get a chance to see it, don't pass it up.

Pope Recruits Homophobic Anglicans

In a direct response to the inclusion of LGBT people in the Anglican church, the Pope has made it easier for Anglicans to convert to Catholicism. According to a New York Times article:

Pope Benedict XVI approved a new church provision that will allow Anglicans to join the Catholic Church while maintaining many of their distinctive spiritual and liturgical traditions, including having married priests.

His invite is designed to gather the homophobic members of the Anglican church who have broken away from the Episcopal Church in America after the ordination of openly gay priests and Bishop Gene Robinson.

So much for God's grace, love and inclusion in the Catholic Church!

Frail & Emaciated - The Latest Fashion?

By the look of the runway models at the recent Fashion Week in New York you would have thought the country was suffering from Cholera. The frail and sickly looking twigs that pass for models border on the disgusting. Ralph Lauren even recently retouched a photo to make his model look even thinner!

At a time when Americans are larger than ever, designers are making clothes for people suffering from starvation. Come on guys, I know you really hate the women you design for but please don't try to kill them!

Is FOX Real News? Is Pro-Wrestling Real?

Finally the administration is telling the truth and it's high time the media listened. Here is the deal:

FOX News is simply a propaganda arm of the Republican Party.

There are no "ifs", "ands" or "buts" about this and anyone who hase even half paid attention knows this. Now, it's time the real media stopped taking their lead from FOX and started doing their job. Reporting the news.

Listen to NPR some day or the BBC and you will hear real news. They have no agenda, they try to be objective and they spend time investigation stories instead of just reading press releases or having alleged news shows which feature talking heads spouting party lines.

I am so friggin' tired of a reporter simply saying "he said - she said" instead of finding the facts behind the talking oints I want to scream. Some pundit saying "blah-blah" is not news, it is one man's opinion and nothing more. Try actually finding the facts and when anyone, including politicians of eaither party lie, call them on it! For God's sake that is one reason why we have freedom of the press, so start exercising it!

Oh yea, and Pro Wrestling? Well it's a wonderful athletic display of strength and tumbling abilities but a real contest? Please. Years ago during the heydays of World Class Championship Wrestling at the Sportatorium in Dallas, I used to run a ringside camera for the television feed. The director always knew when to call for us to get a shot of an "unexpected" move. Nuff said.

Balloon Boy - Or Not!

I go out of town for a few days and don't watch TV and what do I miss? BALLOON BOY!

I caught a glimpse of it in J&R Music World in New York. For the uninitiated, J&R is a temple to anything electronic. A block long complex of stores that have everything imaginable that needs batteries or plugs into the wall.

Well, while waiting for a clerk at J&R I saw an image on the wall-sized Plasma TV that looked a lot like a stunt my partner and I tried several years ago. We constructed a bunch of balloons with glow sticks attached to release in the dark hoping to spark a little talk-radio buzz about UFOs. We got nada! Not a peep by anyone even though the ascending glows looked pretty cool.

Well here was a monster sized version, except some guy actually made a Mylar flying saucer balloon and the press was all over it. Not as a UFO but because somebody somewhere said a kid was in it. For hours the 24 hour news junkies followed pictures of the obviously unmanned or un-kidded balloon drifted aimlessly over Colorado.

Meanwhile lots of "real" news was happening but oh noooo, we had to watch endless pictures of a flimsy Mylar balloon and hear announcers ramble ad nauseam about how they really didn't know anything about it.

Turns out there was no kid on board and now the Sheriff is trying to drum up charges because he is so embarrassed he was wasting time following a damned balloon.

Ain't TV grand!

Another Reason Our Health Care System SUCKS

Pilgrimage To The Smithsonian

OK, I admit it, I am sooooo gay! We spent our last day in Washington at the Museum of American History, home of the original Ruby Slippers worn by Judy G in the Wizard of Oz. OK it's just a pair of shoes, but still I had to see them again. They look a bit dingy, but still have a sparkle left in them.

We also visited Julia Childs' Kitchen, preserved in its entirety in the Smithsonian. They even had a tape of Julia trussing up a chicken running from her TV show. Damn, that woman used a lot of butter!

After a late lunch we made our way to the Holicost Museum. Any elation I had from seeing the Ruby Slippers vanished there. It's a wonderful museum, but it is well designed to have an overwhelming effect on visitors.

The heavy iron truss work that surrounds you and the slow descent through the madness of Nazi Germany to the final rooms with an actual box car used to transport Jews, Gays and Gypsies to the camps was very effective.

The room that got to me was one filled with shoes. Shoes confiscated from prisoner prior to their gassing and cremation. These are the actual shoes gathered from one of the camps and seeing all of them piled knee-high as you walk a path through them was intense. Each pair spoke of the owner and their absence.

If you miss this museum on a visit to Washington, you are short changing yourself.

Tomorrow, riding the Acella Train to New York City!

And Now The Money Shot From The Oozenator!

This is a real kids toy that looks like a behind-the-scenes tool for porn producers. Go figure!

A Few More Photos of The Equality March in DC

Thousands of LGBT People March On Washington - Where Is Barney Frank?

He's off to the west coast to raise funds to Democrats. His opinion of the march, "Barack Obama does not need pressure." Commenting on Michelangelo Signoreli's radio program Frank says we should model ourselves as lobbyists on "the National Rifle Association." He says people should not come to Washington and should stay home and lobby their members of Congress.

Well Senator Frank, they should do both! If you and other members of Congress won't change the unequal system we have now, someone else will. I would not be surprised if Barney Frank loses his seat in the next election if full equality is not given to all citizens of America. I guess he has his, so screw the rest of us.

Sorry for the editorial comment, but lets get real. Incremental appeasement is only creating an apartheid in America. Imagine if the Civil Rights bill had been as "measured" an approach as our GLBT politicians are advocating?

And for Frank, who says most of Washington didn't even know about the march. Here is a photo of just a few Americans who are denied their rights, or did you forget who we were?

(Photos copyright Hardy Haberman 2009)

Equality March Draws Thousands

It was a big turnout for the National Equality March. I would estimate close to 200,000 or more.
Wonderful weather for the march and lots of news media, and that is what we hoped for!


I was tired but really happy when Patrick snapped this shot. I was glad the march had reached its destination.

Obama Says He Will End DADT

President Obama did what no sitting president has done before last night. He spoke to the Human Rights Campaign at their annual dinner. Though there were protesters gather outside, the scene inside was much more cordial.

He opened with a joke, saying, "It's a privilege to open tonight for Lady Gaga" the iconic singer who performed later in the evening. Then he got down to his speech.

Obama made a bold promise, "I will end 'don't ask-don't tell." The same words he spoke during his campaign. Then he acknowledged the he understood the impatience felt by the LGBT community but he assured the crowd of about 3000, "do not doubt the direction we are heading and the destination we will reach."

Now my only question is, when? Thirty years ago I came to this same city and marched for gay rights. and here I am still marching 30 years later. I am not going to live my entire life without seeing equal rights!

So Mr. President, had I had a micerophone to ask questions during your speech I would have thanked you for your show of support and then encouraged you to take action and use the bully pulpit to move Congress forward to real equality for LGBT people.

Washington, DC - City Of No

When I was a child, my family took me to Washington, DC to see where the sausage was made. They didn't call it that, they used terms like "how our government works", but you get the idea.

Back then it seemed every street had a "No Left Turn" sign at the corner and my father began calling DC the "city of no". Well, here it is fifty years later and it's still true. I had to laugh at every corner because of thre number of "no" signs.

Some things never change.