Monthly archive of July 2006
My Fitness Journal Returns
It's been more than a month since I've written in my fitness journal, and there's a reason for that. I haven't been following my fitness plan. I fell off track in late May when I got busy with work and travel, and I haven't caught up since. As you know, I have been tracking my progress on this fitness journal as a countdown to my planned participation as a wrestler in the Gay Games in Chicago this month. I almost backed out of the competition when I learned I had missed the registration deadline a few weeks ago. Then I got an email that the deadline had been extended, and I signed up the same day.
To be honest, I haven't done a lot to stay fit the past few weeks. I've been to the gym once or twice a week and I've been to wrestling practice every now and again, but I haven't been doing anything consistently. So today I'm turning over a new leaf, again. Today I'm re-committing myself to my workout plan.
Posted in sports on July 1 2006, 11:33AM | Read More | Comments (4)
The Devil Wears Prada
With the success of The Devil Wears Prada at the box office this weekend, the producers have one person to thank: Meryl Streep. Whatever else this movie is, it is a film that showcases the enormous talent of Streep, the most Oscar-nominated actress in the business. From the moment she first appears on the screen until her last not so tearful goodbye in her Mercedes Benz, Streep captivates the audience with her steely demeanor and her bitchy perfectionism. This movie is all about Meryl Streep.
Streep plays Miranda Priestly, a facsimile of legendary Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Think "Sex And the City" meets Dolores Claiborne. Sometimes being a bitch is the only thing a woman has to hold onto. But if Priestly were a man, would we think differently of her? The film raises that issue, fortunately without actually answering the question.
Posted in movies on July 3 2006, 12:05AM | Read More | Comments (7)
Is There A Black Seat on 'The View'?
R&B recording artist Brandy is scheduled to take the hot seat on The View starting this Wednesday. Brandy will replace Star Jones-Reynolds for the day. That makes her the third consecutive black woman to appear on the show. Up until now, "One Life To Live" actress Renee Elise Goldsberry has subbed for Jones-Reynolds. And last Friday's show, pre-recorded before Star's departure, featured Jones-Reynolds herself as a co-host.
With the recent talk of replacing Jones-Reynolds with Sheryl Lee Ralph or Gayle King, it's hard not to notice a definite pattern here. All the potential replacements are black. That raises an interesting question. Is there a black seat on "The View"? And perhaps just as importantly, should there be? For a country that is still in denial about the lingering effects of racism and white supremacy, all the lip service about "color blindness" and "race neutrality" seems contrived when you look at the record.
Posted in pop culture on July 3 2006, 12:39PM | Read More | Comments (18)
Now Do You Believe The Dixie Chicks?
Success may be the best revenge. Three years after the Dixie Chicks sparked national outrage for criticizing the President, the singing group is riding high in popularity while George Bush's popularity hovers at an all-time low. The Dixie Chicks' new album "Taking The Long Way" debuted at #1 on the Billboard chart and quickly turned platinum. Despite three years of criticism and controversy, they became the first female group in chart history to debut three albums at #1.
Most striking is that the album positions the recording artists right where they left off, as critics of the war and the Bush Administration, and there's one particular single that has generated its own controversy. It's called "Not Ready To Make Nice," and the Chicks use the tune to lambaste the conservative culture pervading the country. This Fourth of July, as America enters its fourth year in a seemingly endless and unjustifiable war in Iraq, I can think of no better song to recommend than this one.
Posted in music on July 4 2006, 12:05AM | Read More | Comments (9)
Dreamgirls: A Sneak Preview
If you were watching the BET Awards last week and didn't fast forward past the commercials with your Tivo, you might have seen a new movie trailer for the upcoming film Dreamgirls. Two months ago at the Cannes Film Festival in France, a select audience got to see a 20-minute preview of the film. And now some of the first still images from the film are starting to appear on the Internet.
The film, adapted from the original Broadway musical, features Jamie Foxx as Curtis Taylor Jr., Beyonce Knowles as Deena Jones, Danny Glover as Marty and Eddy Murphy as James "Thunder" Early. But it will be Jennifer Hudson who will have the biggest shoes to fill as she resurrects the legendary role of Effie, played by Jennifer Holliday in the original Broadway production. Hudson may surprise the critics who disagreed with the decision to cast her, but no matter how well she performs, she will never be able to live up to the Jennifer Holliday legend.
Posted in movies on July 5 2006, 12:05AM | Read More | Comments (10)
Look, Up In The Sky!
Look, up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's...North Korean missiles? There was a lot of stuff flying up in the sky on the fourth of July. As you can see in today's Washington Post, NASA launched its first Independence Day space shuttle mission. Fireworks were bursting in the air over cities all across America. And in the Sea of Japan, six missiles were fired by the North Korean military, including its long-range Taepodong-2.
While Americans were enjoying the 7-day holiday rollout of Superman Returns and President Bush was hamming it up with troops at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, the government of North Korea reminded us that we still have a very volatile situation in that region of the world. I'm convinced that the North Koreans scheduled this launch to coincide with the Fourth of July and the U.S. space shuttle launch. The missiles began launching at 2:33 p.m. EDT, exactly five minutes before the scheduled liftoff of the space shuttle Discovery.
Posted in politics on July 5 2006, 7:00AM | Read More | Comments (5)
Six Degrees of Separation
So I'm walking down the street yesterday, on my way to a meeting at the Logo office at 50th and Broadway, when I hear a voice in the distance.
"Keith!" I turn quickly as I climb the stairs but I don't see anyone. "Keith," the voice repeats. I turn the other direction and I'm startled when I see him. I quickly descend the stairs and move in for a warm embrace. "Lynn! What a pleasant surprise! What are you doing here?" E. Lynn tells me he's on his way to see a Broadway matinée. I tell him I'm on my way to a meeting at Logo. I am delighted to see him. I didn't even realize he was in town.
After our brief encounter, I head into the Logo office for my 2 o'clock appointment and I walk to the bathroom, where a friend from MTV notices me and calls me into a conference room to chat. After a quick conversation, I return to the lobby just as "The Ski Trip" is starting to air on Logo. "The Ski Trip" is a film written and directed by my friend Maurice Jamal and produced by my partner, Nathan Hale Williams, who is also an actor in the film. I didn't even realize it was still on regular rotation at Logo.
Posted in books on July 6 2006, 12:36AM | Read More | Comments (30)
People Who Pass On AIDS Can Now Be Sued
As I have said many times before on this site, I am totally opposed to laws that criminalize people for transmitting HIV. But what if they aren't sent to prison but sued in court instead? Strangely enough, that's a harder case. But this week the California Supreme Court ruled that people who pass on AIDS can now be sued. I don't completely agree. I do think people should be subject to civil litigation if they knowingly pass a virus onto another, but I also think more people should accept personal responsibility for their own actions, especially if they choose to have unprotected sex.
The California case is particularly complicated because the sexual partners were husband and wife and the husband alleged that he did not know he was HIV positive. I'm not convinced it makes sense to punish people who don't know their HIV status, but the court seemed to assume that the husband should have known he might have been HIV positive because of his past sexual encounters with men. That seems to me a homophobic assumption but I understand the point behind it.
Posted in sexuality on July 6 2006, 9:30AM | Read More | Comments (12)
NY, GA Courts Reject Same Sex Marriage
In a disappointing decision, the New York State Court of Appeals today ruled 4-2 that the state ban on allowing same sex couples to marry does not violate the state constitution. The decision, which was widely expected to be announced this week, was a setback to those who hoped that the state's highest court would make New York the second state in the nation to permit gay and lesbian couples full marriage rights. Massachusetts struck down marriage discrimination laws in its state in November 2003.
In an unrelated decision a few hours later, the Georgia state Supreme Court reinstated Georgia's constitutional ban on same sex marriage, rejecting arguments that the voter-approved initiative violated the state's single-subject rule for ballot measures.
Posted in sexuality on July 6 2006, 10:42AM | Read More | Comments (11)
Hundreds Protest NY Marriage Decision
Hundreds of people showed up early Thursday evening for a protest rally in response to the New York State Court of Appeals decision that refused to ban marriage discrimination. The rally took place at Sheridan Square, in the same location where the Stonewall Rebellion took place in June 1969. I took a few quick pictures of the event, which I have posted below.
Posted in sexuality on July 7 2006, 9:11AM | Read More
Stop The Killer B's
British concert promoters abruptly pulled the plug this week on performances by two well-known Jamaican dancehall recording artists, Buju Banton and Beenie Man. The two men were essentially banned in parts of Britain this week when their scheduled concerts in Brighton and Bournemouth were canceled after complaints from gay rights groups. The two performers have recorded songs widely believed to be homophobic, but last year they seemed to agree to organizers' demands that they stop using and justifying their gay bashing songs.
But they never stopped. That's why British gay rights groups said they planned to put a halt to performances by three Jamaican musicians -- Banton, Bounty Killer and Beenie Man -- after discovering that they were still singing songs with anti-gay lyrics. The move followed an international boycott against homophobic singers that resulted in the cancellation of several concerts in 2004.
It's good to see the British are active, but why aren't we speaking up with the same outrage here in the United States? The black gay community in the U.S. is much larger than the community in Britain. So why aren't black gays and lesbians leading the charge against homophobic music in black America?
Posted in music on July 7 2006, 10:00AM | Read More | Comments (23)
My Fitness Journal: One Week To Go
The New York Times ran a story this week about ex-athletes who are no longer in the best of shape. "The dirty secret among former high school and college jocks is that many don't remain active as adults. In their glory days they were the fittest among their peers. But as adults many are overtaken by nonjocks who embrace fitness as a commitment to health, forget the varsity letter."
The Times explains that former elite athletes often don't do as well in their later years because of burnout from years of training or because the idea of exercise doesn't thrill them without the reward of athletic success. "Running on a treadmill in a sea of anonymous gym-goers doesn't compare to the thrill of being an m.v.p. on campus," the story says. I agree. I think that explains why I have rarely been excited about working out since I graduated from college.
Posted in sports on July 8 2006, 1:07AM | Read More | Comments (4)
New York Building Explodes, Collapses
NEW YORK -- A building exploded and collapsed at 62nd and Madison this morning. No word yet on the cause of the explosion. Fire crews are on site and the news is being televised on local and national stations. Fire officials speculate that a gas leak may have caused the explosion. Federal officials indicate no evidence of terrorism.
Several people called, texted and emailed this morning, so I thought I would let everyone know that I'm okay. I just drove up Madison Avenue last night, but I don't live or work in the area. All I know is what I've seen on the news. To find out more, watch the live video here.
Posted on July 10 2006, 10:25AM | Permalink
The Billboard Top 3
A few months ago I complained about a pro-gay billboard in Harlem that didn't include any African Americans in the image. Now it seems like things are finally turning around. Black gays and lesbians are becoming more and more visible on the billboard scene, as evidenced by the three billboards above. It all started when Los Angeles's annual Black Pride weekend, At The Beach, posted a billboard at the corner of Crenshaw and Hyde Park in Los Angeles.
A black men's group called In The Meantime is now following suit with its own billboard campaign aimed at reducing HIV infection among black men who have sex with men. Meanwhile, in New York, a new ad campaign by the Ali Forney Center is designed to prevent homelessness among LGBT youth by targeting black parents not to abandon their LGBT children. In all these ad campaigns, black gays and lesbians will finally get something we've been lacking for a long time: visibility.
Posted in sexuality on July 10 2006, 12:12PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Stop LIFEbeat's Anti-Gay Concert
LIFEbeat is an organization that calls itself "the music industry's charitable organization dedicated to reaching America’s youth with the message of HIV/AIDS prevention." But this same organization is sponsoring a benefit concert on July 18 in New York featuring not one, but two homophobic artists, Beenie Man and TOK. These performances must be stopped.
When I first heard about the concert, I decided to give LIFEbeat the benefit of the doubt. I figured they just didn't realize what a mistake they made. So I sent a letter (shown below) and placed a phone call to LIFEbeat's executive director John Canelli. Mr. Canelli returned my call today and the response was shocking, insulting and extremely disappointing.
Posted in music on July 10 2006, 12:55PM | Read More | Comments (39)
Black Gay Bloggers Unite Against Homophobic Artists
A coalition of black gay and lesbian bloggers has launched a worldwide online campaign against a music industry group’s decision to ignore requests to cancel performances by homophobic reggae artists Beenie Man and TOK at an upcoming concert.
The concert, scheduled to take place July 18 in New York, is billed as a benefit to target young people for HIV/AIDS prevention. The coalition of activists is calling on LIFEbeat, the music industry’s non-profit AIDS organization, to either rescind the invitation to Beenie Man and TOK or use its influence to get the two artists to make public statements prior to the concert disavowing their homophobic music and remarks. Just last week, Beenie Man's concerts were canceled in Britain after gay activists objected to his recent homophobic statements.
Posted in sexuality on July 11 2006, 1:27AM | Read More | Comments (26)
LIFEbeat Issues Statement, Refuses To Back Down
Today I spoke to Emil Wilbekin (shown here on the right), who is an openly gay board member of LIFEbeat. He said he was aware of the decision to invite Beenie Man and TOK. He said that LIFEbeat felt it was important to choose artists that would best reach the target audience of young people who might not otherwise be exposed to HIV prevention messages. Wilbekin, a former editor of VIBE magazine, also said that almost everyone in that segment of the industry is homophobic, so it would be difficult to find someone who isn't.
I told him that I understood and supported the purpose of the concert but I felt it was completely inappropriate to invite these two artists. I acknowledged that many of the recording artists in the business are homophobic, but I distinguished Beenie Man and TOK from those other artists. Beenie Man and TOK are not just homophobic, they're calling for the murder of gays and lesbians. I also told him that several gay activists had already been murdered in Jamaica, in part because of the culture created by this music.
Posted in sexuality on July 11 2006, 3:08PM | Read More | Comments (41)
Make LIFEbeat Back Down; Call Today
As the protest against LIFEbeat continues to pick up steam, today I am publishing the contact information for all the board members of LIFEbeat. The contact information includes their phone numbers, email addresses and mailing addresses, where available. I encourage readers on this site to call, write or email as many of the board members as you possibly can. I particularly urge you to contact Emil Wilbekin, Donna Futterman and Tim Rosta, three openly gay board members of LIFEbeat.
Meanwhile, a group of black LGBT leaders in New York has called a Thursday news conference at the headquarters of LIFEbeat to protest the group's refusal to remove homophobic recording artists Beenie Man and TOK from a scheduled July 18 concert. And in the past three days, hundreds of letters and emails have been sent to LIFEbeat from all across the world.
Posted in sexuality on July 12 2006, 2:22AM | Read More | Comments (11)
Black Gay Man Attacked At Concert
This is what happens when a culture of anti-gay hatred is allowed to fester. Josh Shuck, an openly gay man, was attacked by a group of strangers at the Salt Lake City JazzFest on Sunday. Shuck said he had a brief conversation with a group of men and then tried to leave the conversation. When he did, one of the men shoved him and yelled an anti-gay slur, according to witnesses. Shuck's head was slammed to the pavement, forcing him to the hospital, where he was fitted with a neck brace he will have to wear for the next six weeks.
Police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. Shuck has two crushed vertebrae as a result of the attack. Josh's mom is angered by the intolerance. She told the local news that she doesn't understand it.
Posted in sexuality on July 12 2006, 11:56AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Black Gays Win; LIFEbeat Backs Down
LIFEbeat today backed down from its decision to invite anti-gay recording artists to perform at an AIDS benefit concert next week. But the statement the group issued still missed the point. Instead of addressing the need for dialogue, LIFEbeat tried to turn the incident into an attack on the black gay bloggers and activists who raised the concern. The statement suggested the possibility of "violence" at the concert next week, despite the fact that no one from the protesters ever expressed any intent to engage in violent or disruptive behavior.
LIFEbeat also blamed "a select group of activists" for its decision. Actually, it was a worldwide coalition of bloggers, activists, people with AIDS and concerned citizens who wrote, emailed and called LIFEbeat to get them to reconsider their decision. The sad part is that LIFEbeat still doesn't get it. Their statement fails to address the issue of homophobia and its connection to the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Posted in sexuality on July 12 2006, 3:35PM | Read More | Comments (70)
Black Gays Hold Press Conference; LIFEbeat Issues New Statement
A coalition of black gay and lesbian bloggers and activists converged today on the headquarters of LIFEbeat, the music industry's AIDS organization, to respond to the organization's recent decision to invite two homophobic recording artists to an AIDS benefit concert. LIFEbeat initially defended the concert as a tool to reach young people, but under pressure from organizers, bloggers and others, the group backed down on Wednesday and canceled the entire concert.
Late today, LIFEbeat issued a new statement that strikes a more conciliatory tone than the one issued just the day before. Prior to receiving the new statement, protest organizers had declared a victory in the battle but pledged to stay vigilant in the ongoing war against homophobia and anti-gay violence.
Posted in sexuality on July 13 2006, 1:07PM | Read More | Comments (50)
The New World Order?
Remember back in 2002 when President Bush promised to take on the "axis of evil" in Iran, Iraq and North Korea? He and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the necocons in the Administration boldly predicted that they would reshape the Middle East into peaceful democracies and take on America's enemies anywhere in the world.
Well four years later, we can see that plan was a horrible failure. Things have gotten much worse on the planet since Bush launched his war on terror and the war in Iraq. Afghanistan, the country that harbored the terrorists that attacked the U.S., is facing new violence by the Taliban. Iraq has blown up into a new civil war with daily bombings that kill dozens. Iran is moving forward with plans to develop controversial nuclear weapons. North Korea is threatening its neighbors and test firing new missiles in the Sea of Japan. And Israel and its neighbors have essentially declared war on one another in the past week. What was President Bush smoking?
Posted in politics on July 14 2006, 9:23AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
"An Exhortation To A Weary Army"
It has been 25 years since the war began, and 25 million people have perished. Last year, more than 3 million people died of AIDS. That’s three million coffins, three million eulogies, three million families.
But the war is far from over. Every 10 seconds, someone on the planet dies of AIDS. More than 8,000 people will die today from this disease. Eighteen of them will die before I leave this field.
Many of us here tonight know all too well the toll that AIDS has taken. We have been fighting this war, battle by battle, deep in the trenches, out on the front lines for decades. And we are tired. When we look at the quilt, we are understandably heartbroken, for we see more than names and patches sewn into a fabric; we see the faces of our friends, lovers, brothers, sisters, parents and children.
We have fought the good fight, but we are a weary army in desperate need of comfort and assurance. So as we gather today, we have come to a turning point in this conflict.
The poet Essex Hemphill tells us that he was able to conquer sorrow after the loss of a friend by taking up the cause of that friend. “When my brother fell, I picked up his weapons,” he said.
Like Hemphill, we must pick up the weapons of our sisters and brothers in the struggle. To those who have gone before us, we honor them not by erecting new statues on pedestals, but by finishing the work that they began.
Our ceremony is not only a memorial, but a rededication. Tonight we commit ourselves not just to the legacy of the dead, but also to the hopes of the living. We pledge to be vigilant in this fight until victory is won.
As long as 40 million people on this planet are living with AIDS, we cannot give up. As long as 5 million people are infected with HIV every year, we cannot give up. As long as there is one person living with this virus, we cannot give up. Until there is a cure, there must be a fight.
Make no mistake about it, the cavalry will not come to save us. But this is not the time to wave the white flag of surrender. This is the time to fight back. You see, we are the cavalry. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. This is our moment in history. We have come too far to turn back now, and we are closer to victory than you may realize. So let us march on.
Battle fatigued and war weary, let us march on.
Sometimes beaten but never defeated, let us march on.
Down but not out, let us march on.
In memory of yesterday, let us march on.
With courage for today, let us march on.
With hope for tomorrow, let us march on.
(See the video from the speech.)
Posted in sexuality on July 16 2006, 2:23AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
I Won The Gold!
Chicago, IL -- I competed in the Gay Games wrestling competition on Sunday and Monday and emerged with a gold medal. Nobody was more surprised than I was about the win. Thanks to the heatwave, it was 105 degres outside and it was even hotter in the un-air conditioned arena with more than 100 athletes running around and grappling. I lost my first match by one point at the very beginning of the day, so I assumed I was out of the competition for good and I was ready to go home and get some air. Then I discovered I had to compete again.
It took all my energy to compete in the second match, but I won. Then I found out I had to compete in round 3. This was actually the easiest match of the day for me, but I was still thoroughly exhausted and had no energy to compete. I won that match as well. At that point, I assumed the day was over and I didn't expect I would have much of a chance to win a medal.
Posted in sports on July 18 2006, 10:46AM | Read More | Comments (53)
A Year Ago Today
On the anniversary of the execution of two gay teenagers in Iran, Doug Ireland and Michael Petrelis report that today is the International Day of Action Against Homophobic Persecution in Iran.
A year ago today, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, were hanged in public for homosexuality. Today there will be vigils and demonstrations in 25 cities around the world. Protesters have five demands.
1. "End all executions in Iran, especially the execution of minors.
2. Stop the arrest, torture and imprisonment of Iranian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and repeal the Iranian penal code’s criminalization of same-sex relationships.
3. Halt the deportation to Iran of LGBT asylum seekers and other victims of Tehran’s persecution.
4. Support Iranians struggling for democracy, social justice and human rights.
5. Oppose foreign military intervention in Iran; regime change must come from within – by and for the Iranian people themselves.”
Posted in politics on July 19 2006, 3:30AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Photos From The Gay Games
I have finally uploaded some of my photos from the Gay Games. I have a lot more pictures still on my camera, but these are the first ones to be posted onto my web site. All the photos are now located in the new photo gallery on the website.
All the pictures were taken at the Gay Games wrestling competition on Sunday, July 16 or Monday, July 17 at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The photo shown above was taken after the end of the wrestling competition. I'm posing with Perry Joshua, a gold medalist at the Gay Games in Sydney, Australia four years ago. He won the silver medal this time in Chicago. He competed in the 90 kilos open class. I competed in the 82 kilos masters class.
Posted in sports on July 19 2006, 12:25PM | Read More | Comments (5)
Out On The Town With Lee Daniels
Lee Daniels is sitting on the front steps of his Harlem office holding a laptop computer and holding court. As I approach him, it seems he's engaged in a business transaction with a man on the street. The man is carrying a cache of bootleg DVDs. Lee gives him instructions and sends him on his way. "What was that all about?" I ask. "I told him I would give him some money if he sees any copies of Shadowboxer (Lee's new film) on the streets," Lee explains with a grin. That scene says a lot about Lee Daniels.
If it seems shocking to find a big-time movie producer negotiating a deal with a small-time bootleg distributor, it's not. At least not for Lee Daniels. He can be gangsta, guerrilla, intellectual, artistic, political, romantic, sexual and creative all at once. The New York Times appropriately describes him as an "iconoclast" in today's paper. With his reputation for candor, widely recognizable hairstyle and larger-than-life personality, Lee Daniels is a charismatic and persuasive film maker. This is the guy who convinced me, a small-time slot machine devotee, to plop down $100 as the entry price for a blackjack game in a Bahamas casino last winter.
Posted in movies on July 20 2006, 6:45AM | Read More | Comments (4)
Now Does George Bush Care About Black People?
Does George Bush care about black people? That's the question that some may be asking today following the president's much touted speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), his first speech to the group since taking office. Last September, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the devastation that fell on the mostly black people of New Orleans, hip hop artist Kanye West voiced a frustration that spoke for many other African Americans. "George Bush doesn't care about black people," said West.
The feelings may be mutual. Nine out of ten blacks voted against Bush in the last two elections. And the NAACP's chairman, Julian Bond, has been understandably critical of the Bush Administration and its policies on civil rights.
Posted in politics on July 20 2006, 11:30AM | Read More | Comments (13)
Stonewall Targets Six Black Democrats
Stonewall Democrats, the nation's largest LGBT Democratic organization, has launched a new campaign to target Democrats who supported the anti-gay Marriage Protection Amendment in Congress. Although Stonewall praised the 159 House Democrats who voted against the Republican constitutional amendment, it also criticized the 34 Democrats who supported the amendment. Stonewall said the Democrats helped the GOP with a scheme "designed to scare up campaign cash into Republican coffers."
Among the Democratic officeholders targeted are six African American members of Congress, all from the South. Most notable on the list is Harold Ford, Jr., the young and charismatic new Democrat who has been talked about as a possibility to be the "first black president." Also on the list is William Jefferson, who has spent much of the year defending himself against a very public federal corruption investigation.
Posted in politics on July 21 2006, 10:13AM | Read More | Comments (18)
I Know That Guy...
One of the strange things about competing in a public gay sporting event is that you never know who is taking your picture or filming you, and you never know where it's going to show up. Take, for example, this photo of a wrestler stretching at the Gay Games. Turns out the photo is a picture of me. I found it on a web site called Amat victoria curam!.
One of the other odd things about the competition is figuring out the languages of all the people who come to an international sporting event. In this case, I don't speak the language so I could not understand what the blogger wrote on his site. The photo caption reads in Dutch:
"De Gay Games 2006 zijn begonnen. Hier zie je Keith Boykin aan het stretchen voordat hij begint met zijn worstelpartij. De spelen zijn dit jaar in Chicago, maar over een week zijn er ook Gay Games (Out Games) in Montreal. Er was weer eens ruzie over de organisatie en dus hebben we dit jaar twee Games... :-)"
Posted in sports on July 21 2006, 11:19AM | Read More | Comments (10)
Staceyann Chin Speaks At Gay Games
From the moment I saw the speech in rehearsal, I knew it would be a hit. A week ago today, Staceyann Chin lit up (and lit into) the audience for the Gay Games at Soldier Field in Chicago. A fellow co-host of the BET TV show "My Two Cents," Staceyann was also pivotal in the whole LIFEbeat controversy with Beenie Man and TOK two weeks ago. So I knew she would turn it out, and she did.
The response to the speech, according to Staceyann, "has been one of the most gratifying experiences of my activist career. Here I was thinking that I was more or less alone with these concerns. Except for one or two whispered conversations, no one was asking the obvious but difficult questions dancing unanswered in my head. But there you were at the end of my delivery, on your feet and numbered (incredibly numbered!), all of us joyful in the discovery that we are only one in a sea of faces that stand up, literally, for social justice."
Posted in sexuality on July 22 2006, 1:16PM | Read More | Comments (8)
"Worst President Ever"
You know things are bad when your friends turn against you. The most recent example for President Bush is Doug McIntyre, the host of the "McIntyre in the Morning" radio show. Five years after voting for Bush, MacIntyre admits, "I was wrong to have voted for George W. Bush. In historic terms, I believe George W. Bush is the worst two-term President in the history of the country. Worse than Grant. I also believe a case can be made that he’s the worst President, period."
It's no wonder people are jumping ship from the Bush team. The Bush Administration foreign policy in Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Afghanistan, Israel and the Middle East has been a complete disaster. And Hurricane Katrina showed us that when disasters happen in the U.S., we can't rely on our own government to help us out, or even care.
Posted in politics on July 23 2006, 1:16PM | Read More | Comments (8)
"Dirty Laundry" Sweeps Awards At American Black Film Festival
In a stunning turn of events five months before its scheduled theatrical release, the new movie Dirty Laundry won two major awards at one of the most important film festivals in the country today. The film -- starring Loretta Devine, Rockmond Dunbar and Jenifer Lewis -- won both of the big awards it was nominated for at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF).
Director Maurice Jamal accepted the Blockbuster Audience Award for Best U.S. Feature, while the film's star, Loretta Devine, won the Best Actor Award. "I'm overwhelmed," said Jamal. "It feels like the last kid picked to be on the kickball team and then all the sudden you're the class president," he said.
Jamal's partners shared the enthusiasm. "This is astounding," said executive producer Nathan Hale Williams, "but I just have a feeling that this is the first of many more to come. Maurice has crafted dialogue and a story that is real to everyone, not just to a select group of people."
Posted in movies on July 23 2006, 4:51PM | Read More | Comments (7)
Jody Watley Barred From Talking About Gay Games During Chicago Radio Interview
A Chicago radio station that invited R&B and pop singer Jody Watley into the studio for a live interview would not allow the singer to talk about her upcoming performance at the Gay Games. Watley arrived at Chicago's V103 radio station to do an interview not long before she was scheduled to perform at the July 15 Gay Games Opening Ceremony in Soldier Field. But before she went on the air, she was told by the interviewer that she could not discuss anything about the Gay Games. She could only talk about her "in-store" appearance at a local Virgin Record Store, they told her.
In a conversation backstage at Soldier Field and again in an interview last Friday, Watley reflected on the incident. “I was surprised but I wasn’t really surprised," she told me. The disc jockey who gave her the instructions is a friend of Watley's family, she said, and he told her that the station manager ordered him to impose the restriction. Watley said she complied with the gag order and only talked about the music store appearance instead of her performance at the much larger venue of Soldier Field. But the experience may have left a sour taste in her mouth.
Posted in music on July 24 2006, 12:05AM | Read More | Comments (17)
We've Reached 100,000 Page Views!
It's official. BlogAds reports that the number of page views on the site hit 100,000 today. That's the largest number of visitors we've had any day since BlogAds started tracking the site. Maybe that explains all the bandwith outages the past few days. In any event, that means that more and more people are coming to the site everyday.
It takes a lot of time and work to keep this site going, but it couldn't happen without you. So thank you all for coming here and coming back day after day. Your support makes it all possible. If you want to keep this site alive and growing, here are a few simple things you can do. 1. Support our advertisers. 2. Make a contribution. 3. Come back often.
Posted on July 24 2006, 8:12PM | Permalink
Blackwell Says Gays Like Arsonists
We've been putting this off too long. Ken Blackwell, the black Republican candidate for governor of Ohio, has been on our radar screen for a long time. It's bad enough that he's supported anti-gay legislation in the past, but now he's really done it. In a weekend newspaper interview, Blackwell compares gays and lesbians to arsonists and kleptomaniacs who can be "changed."
Actually, Blackwell may be the one who needs to be changed. "I think homosexuality is a lifestyle, it's a choice, and that lifestyle can be changed," Blackwell said in response to the question "Is homosexuality a sin, and can gays be cured?" the Advocate reported. "I think it is a transgression against God's law, God's will," Blackwell added.
Posted in politics on July 25 2006, 9:52AM | Read More | Comments (15)
Black Leaders Sign On To Marriage Campaign
Several prominent African American leaders have signed onto a new media campaign aimed at fighting marriage discrimination against gays and lesbians. NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, author and professor Michael Eric Dyson, religious scholar Dr. Randall Bailey, Rev. Dr. James Forbes and Rev. William Sinkford have all lent their names to a major advertisement campaign published in a number of newspapers today.
Two-thirds of the signatories are non-gay allies, including nine prominent labor leaders, heads of six leading civil rights organizations, 11 religious leaders and several mayors, in addition to 14 national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations, according to a news release.
Posted in sexuality on July 25 2006, 3:11PM | Read More | Comments (7)
Black Gays To Protest DMX In Chicago
Maybe it's a trend. Just two weeks after black gays and lesbians put the brakes on a concert in New York featuring two anti-gay reggae artists, Chicago's black gays and lesbians are staging their own protest. This time the target is rap recording artist DMX (aka Earl Simmons). A group called Black LGBT & Allies for Equality will lead a protest tonight at the House of Blues in Chicago to protest the homophobic and anti-gay lyrics by DMX.
The protest is being aided by Sankofa Way Spiritual Services, and comes on the heels of other planned or scheduled community protests in the black LGBT community. Earlier this month, a black gay organizer in Atlanta began working on a plan to protest in front of the churches of homophobic black ministers. Before that, black gays led a protest in New York against a raw sex party where the organizers refused to allow participants to use condoms even if they wanted to do so.
Posted in sexuality on July 26 2006, 9:55AM | Read More | Comments (6)
Washington State Upholds Law Banning Gay Couples From Marriage
The Washington state Supreme Court today let stand a discriminatory law that prohibits gays and lesbians from marriage. The 5-4 decision upholds the constitutionality of the state's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act. If just one justice had switched a vote, however, Washington could have become the second state in the nation to allow gays and lesbians to marry.
The 38 plaintiffs in the case, 19 gay and lesbian couples, challenged the constitutionality of the 1998 law, and judges in two counties overturned the law in 2004, quoting the state constitution's "privileges and immunities" section. The state appealed, and the cases were combined. "The two cases before us require us to decide whether the legislature has the power to limit marriage in Washington State to opposite-sex couples. The state constitution and controlling case law compel us to answer 'yes,' and we therefore reverse the trial courts," the court said in its opinion today.
Posted in sexuality on July 26 2006, 11:34AM | Read More | Comments (7)
Black Brits Fighting Anti-Gay Churches
Leaders of Britain's black churches have begun lobbying the British Parliament against new "equality regulations," which would make it illegal to refuse a person goods or services based on their sexual orientation. The church leaders claim that the regulations, set to be approved by Parliament in October, amount to "reverse discrimination against Christians." Gay rights leaders denied the accusations. "All gay people are asking and expecting from government is the same protections in law that black people have taken for granted for years," said one gay leader.
I asked Topher Campbell and Ajamu, two of the leading artist/activists in London, to tell me what they thought of the church action. They sent me a quick reply. With all that's going on with black people in Britain, they asked, why are these church leaders lobbying Parliament to discriminate against gays? Their full response is posted below.
Posted in sexuality on July 27 2006, 12:01AM | Read More | Comments (7)
Insert Lance Bass Joke Here
I'm getting pretty tired of all the Lance Bass jokes the past couple of days. Within minutes of the news that the former N' Sync band member was coming out of the closet, blogs and web sites raced to post jokes about Bass. He was the last to know, said one. Finally, said another. Girl, please, said a third. I don't know about you, but I find these jokes tasteless, offensive and insulting to the gay community. It's as if we think every time a boy band member has a little sugar in his tank he has to be gay.
What is the world coming to? This is the worst type of homophobia, and the sad part is that it's practiced by gays against other gays. Maybe they're jealous because Lance is dating Reichen. Whatever the case, It's time to stop the bad Lance Bass jokes.
Just kidding! ... I found the stuff funny as hell. I only wish I had thought of some of the lines myself. Is that bad of me? Why do "the gays" joke when someone who is obviously gay comes out of his glass closet? And what would we say if Clay Aiken came out? Kathy Griffin would probably do a special show to mark the occasion. If there's a fine line between humor and homophobia, it doesn't seem to have been crossed with the Lance Bass jokes. Funny or not, I wish the best for Lance. Coming out is a hard thing to do, but it's worthwhile.
Posted in pop culture on July 27 2006, 9:31AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Should Oprah's Kids Pay Taxes?
Last week, President Bush spoke to the NAACP and made the case for permanent repeal of the estate tax. "One of my friends is Bob Johnson, founder of BET," the president said. "He’s an interesting man. He believes strongly in ownership. He has been a successful owner. He believes strongly, for example, that the death tax [what Bush calls the 'estate tax'] will prevent future African-American entrepreneurs from being able to pass their assets from one generation to the next."
Not so fast, Mr. President. When liberals talk about racism, everyone says they're playing the race card. But now that one rich black person has tried to make the case that the estate tax is somehow "racist," the GOP is all over it. Actually, it's not racist. Law professor Paul Butler points to a study by economist John Irons that shows that only 59 African Americans will pay estate taxes this year. That's 59 out of 38 million blacks in the US. As Professor Butler says, "the estate tax is not a racial issue."
Posted in politics on July 27 2006, 11:18AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Chicago Activists Protest DMX
A small group of demonstrators protested outside a concert for rap recording artist DMX in Chicago last night. About 10 people showed up for the protest, according to organizers, who described the demonstration at Chicago's House of Blues as a "successful" event. "We achieved our goals: be visible, be non-violent, and be informative," said Rev. Deborah E. Lake, executive director of a group called Sankofa Way Spiritual Services, which led the protest along with Black LGBT & Allies For Equality.
Lake said that the presence of the group alone was educational for concert goers and passersby, but she did expres some concern about the lack of participation by people in the African American community. "I do feel we got our point across," she said. However, she added, "I was not pleased with the turn out of black lesbians and gays."
Posted in sexuality on July 27 2006, 5:58PM | Read More | Comments (11)
About Ramon Johnson
If you've ever wondered about gay life, there's a simple place to go for answers. About.com, a division of the New York Times Company, already serves as an Internet reference guide for just about anything. Now that includes anything about gay life as well. That's because Ramon Johnson has been busy posting articles, explaining things like the "down low," "Black Pride" and "metrosexuals" as the offical gay life guide for About.com.
Ramon doesn't exactly look like the media's all too familiar stereotypical image of a gay man. He's not white, and he doesn't live in Chelsea or West Hollywood or the Castro. He's a black gay man, and he lives in Detroit, far away from the major gay capitals of the country. But Ramon Johnson, the brother from Motown, is one of the most influential people in America in shaping the public's understanding of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. So he is a perfect person to feature in our ongoing "Favorite Things" series.
Posted in sexuality on July 28 2006, 10:52AM | Read More | Comments (11)
The Photo Op Presidency
Imagine this scenario. You're president of the United States. You "won" the presidency even though you lost the popular vote. You spent your first summer on such a long vacation that you ignored the CIA warning that Osama bin Laden was "determined to strike" in the U.S. When Bin Laden did attack on 9-11, you hopped on a plane and ran around the country hiding out in military bases while the rest of us waited for you to appear. Then when it was safe, you finally flew up to New York and staged a photo op with a bullhorn to show your presidential "leadership."
So far, so good. After the biggest man-made disaster in history, you had to deal with the biggest natural disaster in history. This time, you're out on vacation again. When you finally realize that people are dying, drowning, starving and homeless, you fly over the flooded areas in your taxpayer-financed 747 and pose for another photo op from the window of your jet. A few days later, you finally get a chance to check out the hurricane damage and you praise the one guy who screwed up the rescue operation by thanking him for doing a "heck of a job."
Posted in politics on July 28 2006, 6:55PM | Read More | Comments (8)
Rickey Williams, R.I.P.
You could not miss him. A tall, handsome black man walking down Castro Street in San Francisco. He was easily recognizable. His name was Rickey Williams. Rickey helped to host me during a book tour stop last year in San Francisco, and he helped to organize an event in the Castro at a place called Magnet.
Rickey was an African American community intervention coordinator for Stop AIDS, a San Francisco-based service organization. He was obviously very familiar with the services available to people in the community because he helped to connect people to those same services. But sadly, tragically, ironically -- however you want to say it -- Rickey was not able to help himself. Last Monday, Rickey committed suicide. He jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge and plunged 220 feet to his death. He was 28 years old.
Posted in sexuality on July 29 2006, 11:00PM | Read More | Comments (32)
Bill Cosby Is Wrong About Black Men
Bill Cosby has done it again. I defended Cosby a few years ago when he started preaching his message of personal responsibility. But now Coz has clearly gone too far. Now he's attacking the media for being too kind to black men. Yes, you heard that right. In response to an ongoing Washington Post newspaper series about "Being A Black Man," Cosby lashed out at the paper for not portraying black men more negatively. "I'm not interested in hearing that things aren't as bad as they seem" said Cosby. "They're horrible,"
Cosby's remarks were delivered at a forum on young black men called "Paths To Success," sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Washington Post and Harvard University. The dispute has to do with a survey conducted by the three groups that found most black men are not doing badly. Eighty percent of black men felt that they were satisfied with their lives and 6 in 10 felt it was a "good time" to be a black man. But Cosby disagreed. "I don't like people who see and can't tell the truth," he said. "A man tells me, 'It's not as bad as it seems.' I don't want to hear that shit."
Posted in politics on July 31 2006, 10:40AM | Read More | Comments (62)
How Many More Will Die?
In the past few years, I've had to report on the loss of several black lesbians. A few years ago, I reported on the murder of 15-year-old Sakia Gunn and spent quite a bit of time in Newark interviewing her mother, family and friends. In the same year, we also lost Shani Baraka and Rayshon Holmes. Last year I had to write about the death of my own friend, Wanda Alston, who was murdered in her own home in Washington. A few weeks ago, right around the time of the whole LIFEbeat incident, bloggers and the media reported on the death of Candice Williams and Phoebe Myrie, two young lesbians in Jamaica. And just last week, the Washington Blade reported the death of Laquanda ‘Swoop’ Johnson, a black lesbian veteran who was killed in DC.
Surely, these aren't the only black lesbians who have been killed. But they are the ones we have heard about it. Some like Sakia Gunn were killed for being gay. Others like Wanda Alston were killed just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whether or not they were killed because of their sexual orientation, the truth is we live in a world with far too much violence.
Posted in sexuality on July 31 2006, 1:25PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
