In this video, US Congressman Barney Frank responds to a woman with a photo of President Obama defaced with a Hitler-style moustache.
Rush Limbaugh responded with a juvenile homophobic joke, “But the killer for me was, here’s Barney Frank [asking] ‘what planet do you live on’ to this woman. Isn’t it an established fact that Barney Frank himself lives around Uranus?”
Openly gay newsman Charles Perez, 46, was pursuing a successful career until recently, working at some of the biggest TV news outlets in the US, including WABC in New York and KCAL in Los Angeles. Some people remember Perez from MTV’s 1992 The Real World, where he was seen as one of painter Norman Korpi’s boyfriends. From 1994-1996 he hosted the nationally syndicated Charles Perez Show. More recently he worked for WPLG, the ABC affiliate in Miami, rising to the position of weekday anchor. Things started to go wrong for him as attention was focused on his personal life.
Perez acknowledges that station management hired him knowing he was gay, but says they expected him to keep a low profile. His coplaint refers to a prior female anchor, Ann Bishop, who was “believed to be gay, though that was never confirmed.” Perez claims he was invited to station events without his partner, as management was concerned they might be seen dancing together. He says they discouraged him from thinking about getting married and having children due to the publicity it would attract.
In July, station management removed Perez from the weekday anchor slot, leaving co-anchor Laurie Jennings on her own at the desk. Perez filed a complaint alleging discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Although Florida state law provides no such protection, Miami-Dade county has an ordinance forbidding it. Four days later WPLG fired him.
Earlier this year, Perez had filed for a restraining order against paralegal Dennis Ricardo Peña, claiming Peña “stalked, harassed and threatened” him, and vowed to wreck his TV career. Perez also accused Peña of mass e-mailing a personal message from Perez to a family therapist, the contents of which, according to Perez, referred to “gender identity issues” that could cause ‘’substantial harm” to his “professional and personal reputation.” Peña and Perez had been lovers since 2006. After they broke up, Perez started dating accountant Keith Rinehard.
Meanwhile, things were getting rocky for Perez at WPLG. He claims he was called in to a meeting with News Director Bill Pohovey (also gay) and told he was “too anchor-like,” “too strong” and needed to lighten up, smile more, and interact with his co-anchor. When the “sexual identity” email dropped, Perez was called in again. On March 16, according to Perez, Pohovey told him he was “too soft,” “not anchor-like” and that he and Jennings were coming across like “two girlfriends” instead of professional co-anchors. Perez was demoted to weekend anchor, and filed his discrimination complaint. Four days later, WPLG took him off the air.
In a blog at The Daily Beast, Perez tells his side of the story. WPLG has issued the standard rebuttals.
Norma McCorvey, better known as the “Roe’ in “Roe v. Wade”, was arrested today following an outburst at the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayer. In the early 1970s, McCorvey was pregnant and sought an abortion, illegal in her home state of Texas at that time. Her lawsuit made its way to the Supreme Court and resulted in the landmark ruling that guaranteed women’s rights to abortion in every state.
The decision came too late for McCorvey—more than three years after she filed. Rather than break the law, McCorvey had the child, and gave the baby up for adoption.
In her 1994 autobiography, I Am Roe, McCorvey wrote of her bisexuality. For many years she lived quietly in Dallas with her longtime partner Connie Gonzales. “We’re not like other lesbians, going to bars,” she said in a New York Times interview. “We’re lesbians by ourselves. We’re homers.”
In 1995 McCorvey underwent a religious conversion and became a pro-life (anti-abortion) advocate. In that capacity she found her way into the hearing room today, and started shouting. Judiciary Chariman Leahy ordered, “Officers, please remove whoever is causing the disturbance.” McCorvey was charged with unlawful conduct for disrupting Congress.
In addition to converting to Catholicism and renouncing her pro-choice views, McCorvey has claimed she’s not a lesbian any more.
As you attend or watch coverage of Michael Jackson’s memorial, keep an eye open for those mutli-colored “God Hates Fags!” signs. Fred Phelps’s Westboro Baptist Church has announced that they will be picketing at the Staples Center Tuesday.
Westboro is an independent Baptist church that consists primarily of the homophobic Phelps’s extended family — few closeted gay men have been so prolific. They first drew attention (and funds) for protesting at “gay” events such as Broadway musicals, and became notorious for picketing funerals of gay people, including Laramie murder victim Matthew Shepard.
As time went by and media attention dwindled, Phelps hit upon a grand new idea: since the rest of America hasn’t joined him in despising homosexuals, God must hate America. Therefore God must hate US soldiers who die protecting America. Westboro started picketing the funerals of US soldiers killed in conflict. This led to even more press coverage. The fact that it’s negative coverage apparently does not greatly diminish the potential profitability of the endeavor.
God’s hatred has since extended to the entire world.
And here I am, giving them more publicity. It’s important to “know thine enemy” (ignore the biblical pun) but I will keep it to a minimum. Here’s their statement re Michael Jackson and a link to their blog.
Michael Wacko Jacko Jackson is in hell! 1111 S. Figueroa St WBC will be there to remind you to stop worshiping the dead. We will be there to tell you to Thank God for the death of this filthy, adulterous, idolatrous, gender-confused, nationality-confused, unthankful brute beast. We will be there to remind you that God Killed Wacko Jacko. There is a God, and a Day of Judgment. For you to wallow and murmur against God for his righteous Judgments is sin and will cause YOU to join Michael in hell. Stop that! Be thankful that God has not already killed you . . .
It only took 52 years, but on Monday John Berry of the US Office of Personnel Management issued an official letter of apology to Frank Kameny. In 1957 Kameny was working as an astronomer in the Army Map service in Washington, DC, when he was fired for being gay. He received notice from the Civil Service Commission that the Government “does not hire homosexuals and will not permit their employment.” It was further noted that “the homosexual is automatically a security risk” and“frequently becomes a disruptive personnel factor within any organization.”
Kameny vigorously fought his termination, petitioning the Supreme Court with the first claim for civil rights on the basis of sexual orientation. The Court denied his petition. Shut out by the system, Kameny went on to become one of the leading activists for gay rights in the US, co-founding (with Jack Nichols) the Mattachine Society of Washington in 1957. In 1965 they launched the first public protests for gay rights, marching in front of the White House. Their picket signs are now preserved by the Smithsonian Institution. Kameny’s home in D.C., where much of the organizing occurred, is now an Historic Landmark.
Along with the Office of Personnel Management’s apology, on Monday Berry presented Kameny with its highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award.
Here’s the full text of the letter.
Dear Dr. Kameny:
In what we know today was a shameful action, the United States Civil Service Commission in 1957 upheld your dismissal from your job solely on the basis of your sexual orientation. In one letter to you, an agency official wrote that the Government “does not hire homosexuals and will not permit their employment…” He went on to say that “the homosexual is automatically a security risk” and that he “frequently becomes a disruptive personnel factor within any organization.”
With the fervent passion of a true patriot, you did not resign yourself to your fate or quietly endure this wrong. With courage and strength, you fought back. And so today, I am writing to advise you that this policy, which was at odds with the bedrock principles underlying the merit-based civil service, has been repudiated by the United States Government, due in large part to your determination and life’s work, and to the thousands of Americans whose advocacy your words have inspired.
Thus, the civil service laws, rules and regulations now provide that it is illegal to discriminate against federal employees or applicants based on matters not related to their ability to perform their jobs, including their sexual orientation. Furthermore, I am happy to inform you that the Memorandum signed by President Obama on June 17, 2009 directs the Office of Personnel Management—the successor to the CSC–to issue guidance to all executive departments and agencies regarding their obligations to comply with these laws, rules, and regulations.
And by virtue of the authority vested in me as Director of the Office Of Personnel Management, it is my duty and great pleasure to inform you that I am adding my support, along with that of many other past Directors, for the repudiation of the reasoning of the 1957 finding by the United States Civil Service Commission to dismiss you from your job solely on the basis of your sexual orientation. Please accept our apology for the consequences of the previous policy of the United States government, and please accept the gratitude and appreciation of the United States Office of Personnel Management for the work you have done to fight discrimination and protect the merit-based civil service system.
Sincerely yours,
John Berry, Director
Frank Kameny and Protest Signs
Queer of the Month | December 2009
Total Voters: 10
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