Dictionary powers a-go-go!

This is one of those things that really comes at you out of nowhere. The island of Lesbos (no, sadly, that's not as fabulous as it sounds) is suing a gay rights group over the use of the word "lesbian" in its name.

The three plaintiffs are trying to bar the Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece from using the word "lesbian" in its name.

Of course, we're all familiar with the term lesbian. But how many of us knew that it is not only a term for women who prefer the company of other women, but also a term for a native of the island of Lesbos (again, not as fabulous as it sounds)? Not many, I'll bet.

That seems to be the issue in the case at hand.

"'My sister can't say she is a Lesbian,' said Dimitris Lambrou. 'Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatosever with Lesbos,' he said."

He goes on to say that the word lesbian has only been linked with gay women "in the past few decades," but the 1870 Oxford English dictionary would seem to contradict him on this point. The word as it appears in that book is used to refer to sexual orientation. So, let's see... it's 2008, and that dictionary was published in 1870, so that makes... 138 years? I suppose thirteen decades qualifies as "a few."

He goes on to say that Sappho wasn't gay. Right. Of course. Because those poems that talk about praying to Aphrodite to sway the affections of a (definitely female) beauty and such are totally the work of a heterosexual woman.
Just look below, how could this have been written by anyone other than a straight poet?

Shimmering-throned immortal Aphrodite,
Daughter of Zeus, Enchantress, I implore thee,
Spare me, O queen, this agony and anguish,
Crush not my spirit.

Whenever before thou has hearkened to me—
To my voice calling to thee in the distance,
And heeding, thou hast come, leaving thy father's
Golden dominions,

With chariot yoked to thy fleet-winged coursers,
Fluttering swift pinions over earth's darkness,
And bringing thee through the infinite, gliding
Downwards from heaven,

Then, soon they arrived and thou, blessed goddess,
With divine contenance smiling, didst ask me
What new woe had befallen me now and why,
Thus I had called thee.

What in my mad heart was my greatest desire,
Who was it now that must feel my allurements,
Who was the fair one that must be persuaded,
Who wronged thee Sappho?

For if now she flees, quickly she shall follow
And if she spurns gifts, soon shall she offer them
Yea, if she knows not love, soon shall she feel it
Even reluctant.

Come then, I pray, grant me surcease from sorrow,
Drive away care, I beseech thee, O goddess
Fulfil for me what I yearn to accomplish,
Be thou my ally.

(Just a hint. Those "she"s aren't referring to Sappho or Aphrodite.)

"No, YOU shut up! Nyeh!"

There must be a dangerously low amount of oxygen west of the Mississippi River. It's the only explanation for this bullshit.

"My advice to the gay community is SHUT UP, just don't talk about it. If you walk around talking about what you do in the bedroom, you should be on the pervert channel."

Not only does the use of the phrase "pervert channel" make Senator Gary George sound like a squealing brat just learning to use insults, but the whole idea of it is just bad. I think that if George's experience with gay people extended beyond watching gay porn alone in his room at night while sobbing quietly, he would realize that you seldom see gay people "walk[ing] around" talking about their various sexcapades.

Besides that, do straight people get this same criticism? When a straight person talks about the date he or she had over the weekend, does anyone complain? When a straight person talks about his or her upcoming wedding, does anyone offer him or her anything but congratulations? When a straight person shows you a picture of his or her kids, do you promptly scream "SHUT UP! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU DO IN THE BEDROOM!"? I didn't think so.

As if George implying that gay people belong out of the public eye and that they're all perverts wasn't bad enough, he also made some thinly-veiled threats of violence against homosexuals:

"Just Out: What is your reaction to the recent murders of out gay youth in Florida and California?
George: Obviously murder is murder, there's no excuse for that. Here's what I'm saying, I think we're seeing a backlash, in other words if you push me too hard don't be surprised if I react. Gays will tend to react violently if people are oppressive toward them. If gays are oppressive toward straights, then you'll see a violent backlash. You're going to have a point where these groups develop and say I'm tired of these special privileges.
Just Out: Are you suggesting that gays, by virtue of being out and open, are inciting these types of violent reactions?
George: You have to recognize for every action there's a reaction..."

That's right, folks, GAYS are OPPRESSIVE towards STRAIGHTS! Oh no! Forces forbid that GAYS demand EQUAL RIGHTS SPECIAL PRIVILEGES for themselves! Whatever shall the straight people do?

Love the subtle victim blame you've got going on there, Gary. Really.

Honestly, I just can't understand why this dear, sweet man is being named Hypocrite of the Week and stupid by SOME.

That was sarcasm, by the way.

Gary George, Sally Kern, Joseph Devine... who's for bumping them out of their positions of power, hm?

Where's the Christian charity I always hear so much about?

Wow, that teapot looks demonic.

Anyway; I try to keep the news I put on this blog related to the United States, as we've got people like Montreal Simon and Mark over at Slap to report on the news in other countries (specifically, Canada). However, I feel that this news item has relevance.

You may remember that I mentioned that crazy bitch from Oklahoma Sally Kern in my post from last week, and, for those of you living under a rock, the good Republican woman is already infamous for her anti-gay tirade.

"The homosexual agenda is destroying this nation; it's just a fact."

Yes, that Sally Kern.

Well, it seems a male, Scottish, Catholic version of Miss Sally has taken a leaf out of her book. Reverend Joseph Devine is outraged at the use of the Holocaust by the gay "lobby" as a political tool to further our huge, well-orchestrated conspiracy to kill children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and other such nonsense.

"It is ever present at the service each year for the Holocaust memorial - as if to create for themselves the image of a group of people under persecution."

Indeed, Reverend Devine, how dare we homosexuals remember the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters when fine, upstanding people such as yourself have obviously forgotten all about it already? Should we not follow suit in your excellent example of Christian compassion and mercy? In addition to throwing us Oscar Wilde-types in jail, perhaps you would like us all to wear pink and black triangles as well. Oh, wait, that's right, I forgot; there'd be no point in doing so, because gays were never persecuted in the Holocaust.

Why is it that only Jewish victims of the Holocaust are remembered? Not to be anti-Semitic, but why have the Jews made the Holocaust theirs? Why does "never forget" apply only to Jews, and not to the communists, the Roma, the Slavs, the blacks, the mentally retarded, the Catholics (oh, the ironing), and, of course, the gays? Why do the Jews get their own country in the wake of the Holocaust? Where is our glorious nation of Gaybonia?

It's only until we can force even these bigoted idiots to give us the recognition, respect, and remembrance we deserve as victims of a historical atrocity (sadly, one out of several targeting us) that comments like these are going to be fought against so aggressively. They are hurtful. They are inappropriate. They are completely out of line.

And yet the bishop says he has nothing to apologize for. Isn't that rich?


And now for the obligatory personal note that creeps into all blogs eventually:
Before anyone says anything, no, I'm not copying Slap. I actually found this news item last Thursday and meant to write a post on it. But, of course, I, being a student, ended up being busy with schoolwork and not being able to get around to it. Then, of course, I had Beth over on Friday, so updating my lil' ol' blog was the furthest thing from my mind. But now, finally, I have gotten around to writing a post about Reverend Chuckles the Assclown. I mean, Reverend Devine. Love the name, by the way, don't you?

GENDA is looking mighty fabulous today

Finally, we see some progress in one of the most neglected areas of the LGBT rights movement: transgendered rights.

New York is slated to become the fourteenth state to enact laws protecting the transgendered from discrimination in employment, housing, public accomodations, and credit. A renewed call for the New York legislation to act has come in the wake of a public opinion survey showing that only 13% of those polled would not support the legislation.

While the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act may face a slight challenge in being passed now that Governor Spitzer, who had previously promised to sign the bill into law if it reached his desk, has resigned in the wake of a public scandal about his alleged ties to a prostitution ring, I'm optimistic that our transgendered brethen in New York will finally get the reprieve they deserve:

"'Transgender New Yorkers routinely face discrimination in ways that impact our lives, big and small, and we deserve the opportunity to have a job and a home and provide for ourselves and our families just like anybody else,' said Debra Oppenheimer, a transgender woman and a Board Member of the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley in Rochester."

...so long as we don't get another Sally Kern growing a big mouth in New York before the bill makes it through the legislature.

Could I get paid to do really obvious studies too?

Unlike my post from a few days ago, I'm being facetious when I say that this is a news item no one saw coming. This should have actually been quite an obvious connection to most people with a halfway-functioning brain stem.

A newly-released study has brought us the shocking revelation that there is a link between childhood spanking and adult interest in hot, kinky sex.

"Straus, co-director of UNH's Family Research Laboratory, conducted a study in the mid-1990s in which he asked 207 students at three colleges whether they'd ever been aroused by masochistic sex. He also asked them if they'd been spanked as children. He found that students who were spanked were nearly twice as likely to like masochistic sex."

Maybe this is just me, but, to get a bit Oedipal, it makes sense that childhood experiences will become imprinted on the adult psyche--in this case, in terms of sexual behavior. Getting spanked as a child with a paddle by Daddy Dearest would logically lead to being spanked with a slightly different paddle as an adult.

Of course, part of what I don't like about the study aside from the fact that its conclusion was already glaringly obvious is the fact that it lumps BDSM in with other risky sexual behavior. As someone who owns a lot of leather, a collar, a leash, ropes, and chains, it really makes me angry to be treated like my sexual interests are the result of "damage" done from corporal punishment in childhood. There are plenty of precautions that can be taken to ensure that BDSM between two rational, consenting partners is perfectly safe.

For the record, I was spanked as a kid, and I do have a good interest in BDSM. However, I really don't enjoy being smacked on the ass with anything. I much prefer being tied up, or being the one to tie someone else up, so that either makes me the exception to the rule or proves that spanking isn't really as damaging as Straus would have people (U.S. lawmakers especially) believe.

The argument for gay marriage we all should have seen coming

Well, well, well. It looks like all of those naysayers who said legalizing gay marriage would destroy society as we know it and encourage chaos and bestiality and the collapse of the economy are eating crow for dinner. Especially on that economy thing.

As those of us stateside (and, most likely, everywhere else) know, Massachusetts is the only state in the United States which regularly grants gay marriage (though at least New York recognizes Canadian same-sex marriages). Massachusetts has (almost) always been kind of progressive like that.

For some reason, even I didn't see this coming, though.

"Massachusetts is reaping huge financial gains as a result of same-sex marriage."

You mean gay marriage actually has positive effects aside from giving human beings equality and happiness? Who knew?!

Apparently, the New England state has been seeing gradual loss of population for decades. Since 2004, though, after the first same-sex couples began to wed, the state has (unsurprisingly) seen an influx of gay and lesbian couples coming into the state to marry. Apparently, they're staying there. Most of these couples are in fact skilled professionals--lawyers, and such.

"Attorney Jeffrey Webb and his partner Mark Schuster moved from Los Angeles to Massachusetts in December in order to marry.

'That was something that was really important to us,' Webb told the Journal.

He is now a partner and practices trial law with a well known Boston-area firm. Schuster is now the chief of general pediatrics and vice chair for health policy research at Children's Hospital Boston."

Now, if America were run by halfway rational people, this would mean that other states would soon be tapping the appeal of gay marriage to stimulate their economies. Hint, hint, Michigan. Wink, wink.

Obama's trick of making gay marriage disappear

Well isn't that just typical, ladies and gents? With it being an election year, and with a few primaries still left to go, the politicians will do just about anything to court votes and curry favor with the general public. Here's something they haven't often attempted, though: trying to win over the LGBT vote!

Illinois Senator and Presidental hopeful Barack Obama is currently courting the gay vote in his run for nomination. As you can imagine, this includes promises such as the enactment of the Matthew Shepard Act, a fully inclusive Employment Non-Descrimination Act, the complete repeal of the Defence of Marriage Act, and legalized gay marriage...whoops, my bad!

According to Barack Obama, marriage is too good a method of granting gays equality.

"I personally believe that civil unions represent the best way to secure that equal treatment."

You heard it, folks. Barack Obama, who is attempting to win gays who, by and large, want to have the option of getting married someday, says that they can't get married! Instead, we should all choose the less-controversial civil unions route and make it equal. A black man of all people should know that separate but equal just doesn't work.

Civil unions are a step on the road to equality, not the final destination. Still, you've got to give Obama some credit. At least he's taking that step and promising provisions to ensure that the journey continues even after he leaves office if he becomes President, right?

I mean, that is what happens in a political campaign. They smile at your face and stab you in the back.

It could be worse. Mike Huckabee could be the frontrunner on the Republican side. I shudder to think of it.

Show me a holy text condoning genocide, and I'll show you a screwed up religion.

At the risk of sounding like a too-young cynic hardened to the horror of news, allow me to say this: after only two weeks, this has become old news.

I refer, of course, to the tragic news item from two days before Valentine's Day which rocked the gay communities that watch the news here in the States (and our brothers and sisters across our northern border in Canada). To the three uninformed gay people out there, and any straight people who, for some reason, are reading a gay-themed blog, that news item would be the murder of Lawrence King.

Lawrence King, a fifteen-year-old boy in the eighth grade, was shot in the head for being gay. Horrible and sickening as anti-gay bullying in schools is without making the situation more miserable, though, it does get worse. It turns out, as Barbara Coloroso tells us in Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide, that there is a link between bullying and genocide itself.

"Coloroso draws parallels between behaviour exhibited in child bullying [...] and that exhibited in a genocide. She suggests that both share common characteristics: the dehumanization of the victims, an unquestioning obedience to authority, and a routinization of cruelty. “The premise I take on bullying is that it’s not about conflict or anger – it’s about contempt for another human being,” she says."

Terrifying, right? To think that the same kids who are shooting classmates in the head in the middle of English could grow up to be the Hitlers, Envers, and Hutus of tomorrow. When they're not being served charges of attempted murder, anyway.

In a way, I'm almost angry that they've put Lawrence King's killer away in custody pending a trial, and the media has just washed its hands of the matter. While I want to see a murderer punished, anti-gay bullying is not something that's going to go away by putting one fourteen-year-old behind bars. The Oxnard shooting may have been an extreme case, but anti-gay bullying is not an isolated phenomenon, and neither is the murder of gays.

It's not just crazy, misunderstood people who were never hugged as kids who are the problem. The problem runs much deeper, down in the societal attitudes about gays that continue to run rampant through society. Only when people can stop subtly programming their children to believe that gays are abominations before God, only when people like Mike Huckabee can be recognized as the crazed bigots they are when they spout their anti-gay drivel, can we truly see a decline in these kinds of tragedies.

"Our true strength doesn't come from our military or our gross national product, it comes from our families. What's the point of keeping the terrorists at bay in the Middle East if we can't keep decline and decadence at bay here at home?"

Seriously, Mike Huckabee?

I'm not just talking about within the United States, either. I'm talking worldwide.Why isn't more being done yet? Are we really THAT concerned with blowing each other's faces off with nuclear weapons that we can't recognize a global civil rights train wreck and attempt to fix it? Americans especially should be ashamed of ourselves. A first-world nation with a statue dedicated to "huddled masses" that won't even protect those huddled masses it has at home makes me sick.