Boing Boing » lgbt

Porno copyright troll to Georgia judge: "Ignore California judge! They have gay marriage!"

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:00:27 +0000

When US Federal Judge Otis Wright ruled against Prenda Law (a gang that used sloppy accusations of illegal downloads of pornographic movies to extort millions from people who didn't want the embarrassment of being publicly sued), he ordered Prenda's lawyers to give copies of his ruling to judges in all the other places where they were suing their victims. Judge Wright's ruling called Prenda a "fraud" and said its lawyers engaged in "moral turpitude."

One of Prenda's most colorful lawyers is Jacques Nazaire. He's asked a judge in Georgia to ignore the Judge Wright's order, because Judge Wright is a California judge, and California has gay marriage.

It doesn't stop there. It notes that California courts have different immigration rules and (randomly) that NY has different gun rights. Basically, it throws out every hot button issue that stereotypical conservatives might disagree with stereotypical liberals on.
Of course, all of that is meaningless. While it's true that Judge Wright's ruling is in no way a precedential ruling for the Georgia court, it's still a ruling about federal law, not any specific state law. And the ruling itself is about flat out misconduct (including potential racketeering and tax evasion claims) by the plaintiff in this case, because of actions in a nearly identical case. That's not about California having a "mandate" over Georgia. It's about very relevant additional information that the court should know about.
Nazaire then goes on to list out a ridiculous parade of horribles that he claims would happen if the Georgia court "followed the aforesaid California Order" including that law firms wouldn't be able to use boilerplate text any more. This makes absolutely no sense at all. First of all, the inclusion of Judge Wright's order is not about having the Georgia court "follow" the order, but adding additional important information about the parties in this particular case. Separately, the idea that adding a California ruling into the docket suddenly means lawyers wouldn't be able to cut and paste any more... just doesn't make any sense at all.

Prenda Lawyer Says Judge Wright's Order Is Inapplicable In Georgia Because California Recognizes Gay Marriage [Mike Masnick/TechDirt]

Gay filmmakers help teach Scouts about making movies

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:07:19 +0000

Todd Bieber made a great short video on his experience as an Eagle Scout and a volunteer with the Scouts who is upset about the decision of the BSA to exclude gay and lesbian people: "I'm a filmmaker and an Eagle Scout. Recently, while serving as merit badge counselor of Cinematography Merit Badge, I invited several gay filmmakers to help teach some Boy Scouts about making movies."

Gay Filmmakers and Boy Scouts (Thanks, Eric!)

DC introduces its first openly transgender character

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:53:50 +0000

Alysia Yeoh, Batgirl's roommate. [HRC]

Heather Gold's "I Look like An Egg, but I Identify as a Cookie" interactive baking comedy comes to the East Bay (free tix!)

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:47:58 +0000

Years and years ago, I saw Heather Gold's innovative, interactive baking comedy "I Look like An Egg, but I Identify As A Cookie" in San Francisco. It was fabulous. Now it's about to have its debut in the East Bay:

While baking chocolate chip cookies with the audience and special guests (Bakesale Betty), Gold combines heterosexuality (DRY), lesbianism (WET), and the Left (MIX). "Cookie" is a story of first kisses, rugby drama, Mrs C's secret honeycake recipe and slow dancing to Air Supply. Gold transforms the coming out story, making mincemeat of the identities that keep us from our whole selves and each other. "Cookie" is a show of sweet and simple truths.

Heather's making two pairs of tickets available, all you need to do is tweet you favorite secret ingredient with #eggcookie and she'll get in touch. Oh, and here's a great post Heather made explaining why she uses CC licenses in her performances.

I LOOK LIKE AN EGG, BUT I IDENTIFY AS A COOKIE

Comedy troupe loses YouTube account after viral success of "PS Gay Car," can't get anyone at YT to listen to them

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:39:49 +0000

Wil Wheaton sez,

On November 17th, 2012, New York-based comedy music group Fortress of Attitude uploaded a music video they created for their song "PS Gay Car" (using the exact words of a mean note they found on their car one day) to YouTube. The pro-gay rights video was immensely popular, garnering coverage from, Huffington Post, Out Magazine, College Humor and Queerty. The video gained 39,800 views in its first month, and then a month later YouTube took down the video, claiming they'd used bots to drive up views.
The story that unfolds is Kafkaesque: Fortress of Attitude hires New Media Rights to help them get their video reinstated, and Google/YouTube's response is to send form letters back that just restate the alleged initial TOU violation. Ultimately, Google/YouTube refuses to consider any evidence or explanation from Fortress of Attitude, and deletes the video permanently.

Google deletes "PS Gay Car"— We need your help! (Thanks, Wil!)

Welcome to the Ballroom, where Voguing is always in style

Niall Connolly — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:00:11 +0000

Mention the word "voguing" to people, and generally their first reaction will be "strike a pose, there's nothing to it". A dance fad made popular by Madonna in the early Nineties but invented in the New York City gay underground years before, voguing faded into obscurity as quickly as it popped into the mainstream. It's good for nostalgic giggles, though: we've all seen that clip of "Vogue Boy" voguing in a shopping mall. But what if I were to tell you—like a big, gay Morpheus—that vogue was not a short-lived fad? Voguing is now part of a complex, diverse, fully-formed and constantly evolving underground culture called ballroom.

To be clear, "ballroom" takes it name from the venues in which the "ball" events take place, and is not to be confused with the "strictly" kind of ballroom. Like hip hop, ballroom encompasses many different elements of artistic expression, from music and language to clothes and design, and, of course, dance. It deals directly with some of society's most controversial issues, namely sexuality, race, class, gender roles and expression, beauty modes, self-definition and competition. It doesn't do this in the polemical style we may be used to from punk and political hip-hop, however, where topics are theorised and discussed. In ballroom these issues are lived and experienced, as a vast number of those taking part in this underground scene are transgender, working class, people of colour.

Ballroom includes society's most marginalised: minorities within minorities within minorities, for whom voguing and ballroom culture is an important resource. In a world where they have been rejected, ballroom not only accepts these people for who they are, it celebrates them, in a variety of unique and different categories. The competitive, prize-winning aspect of ballroom gives some participants a sense of worth lacking in the "real" world (not to mention money), and the familial structure of the "houses"—mother, father, sister, brother—often acts as a real surrogate, as many in this world have been disowned by their biological families.

Here, voguing is not just a dance, and ballroom is not just a genre. It's a way of life that brings pride, peer recognition and self-respect. The genre of music is one thing, but the culture which surrounds it is another; and both are intricately tied into one another.

"Ballroom is a competition where you have houses (teams) that compete against each other, much like a sports team, except the competition in fashion, dance, runway, modelling, creativity and other categories. It is still usually an underground thing attended by people in the scene, though some outside the scene get glimpses of it. It is hard to follow unless you actively participate in it, or attend these functions." — DJ Vjuan Allure (Elite Beats)

"Ballroom a long running culture of pure underground talent. A place where people can come and express who they are or who they want to be and not be judged by the outside world, it is a thriving community of greatness and an open outlet for many talents." — DJ MikeQ (Qween Beat)

To quote the late, great Willi Ninja, who is perhaps the greatest voguer the world has yet seen, voguing is like a challenge dance: instead of fighting you take it out on the dancefloor. Depending on who you ask, this uniquely stylised dance form arose either amongst the inmates of Ryker's Island, or at gay Harlem dance parties in the sixties (it's most probably a mixture of both). Voguing got its name from Vogue magazine, as the competing dancers would flip to pictures of models posing, and imitate them, trying to outdo each other in the process. As it developed the dancers became quicker and more agile, and incorporated other forms of dance such as waacking (high speed arm movements and hand gestures) and body popping (though some say that voguing actually pre-dates popping, and was itself an influence on the original b-boys). Fast forward to 2013 and voguing has come a long way, progressing through the styles of old way, new way, femme and dramatics, to today's almost hyperactive, turbocharged version of the dance. Although key elements of old way voguing remain (posing, "face"), a much more frantic and stylised choreography takes precedence, with signature moves such as the dip (when a dancer falls flat on their back), the duck walk and hair control (using long hair as stylistic element of the dance, in essence whipping it back and forth).

Then there is "runway" which is both the term for the space on which vogue battles usually take place at a ball (though they can also happen in a designated space on a busy club dancefloor) and a category in and of itself, based on traditional fashion runway modelling. To compete at a vogue ball is most often called "walking" and walking runways is not all about dancing. The "face" category means exactly that: who has the best looking face. Male and female modes are described as "butch" and "femme", though pretty much everyone is a "queen", and the ability to pass convincingly as something you are not (a straight thug, a biological woman) is called "realness". So "Femme Queen Face" is a category for those with the prettiest feminine features, while "Pretty Boy Realness: Andre 3000" requires competitors to look and act as much like Andre 3000 as possible. While traditional beauty modes are aspired to by many in ballroom, it is not exclusive. There are categories for the plus size, with some of the most popular voguers being "big girls". The categories at balls are labyrinthine, I can't possibly cover them all here. There's just not enough room, and honestly, I don't truly understand all of them myself yet. The general ethos of ballroom, however, is essentially "be yourself" and "work with what you've got".

As these terms and categories suggest, voguing (and ballroom culture in general) is highly feminised. Males are regularly referred to as "she" and many "butch queens" perform "in drags", while some butch queens go further with their gender expression, and through the process of gender re-assignment, become "femme queens". In fact, "Vogue Femme" is generally how the current, athletic style of voguing is classified. This is in stark contrast to the hypermasculine, heteronormative and often misogynistic modes of mainstream hip-hop and the dance cultures that surround it. But make no mistake, just because it is feminine, does not mean it is in any way weak or passive. No, quite the contrary, vogue femme is decidedly aggressive, in your face and challenging.

Ballroom culture and voguing has become an integral part of the black gay urban experience, even though it is not quite recognised as such by the mass media (where, ironically, voguing's influence is very strongly felt in styling and dance). Perhaps the celebration of the feminine and the queer goes against mainstream modes of how "hip-hop" (and by extension "black culture") is sold to a white audience, but ballroom serves as an important rights of passage none the less. While preparing this article I emailed the house music vocalist Shaun J Wright (a Chicago native who has worked with Hercules & Love Affair, Kiki and Stereogamous) to ask about his own personal experience of the ballroom scene. His answers are brilliant and articulate (I hope to publish this full interview with Shaun some time soon) and go very far in explaining to outsiders how this scene works and what it can mean to the participants:

"My entry into the ballroom scene was quite lengthy. I was familiar with some of the elements of ballroom culture because I would sneak into black, gay clubs in Chicago when I was 15. There would be vogueing and runway battles occurring in the club but I didn't attribute those things specifically to ballroom. Around the same time I viewed "Paris Is Burning" and it helped me to make connections between what I was seeing in the clubs and the balls, which were still a great mystery to me. When I ventured to Atlanta to attend college I began to learn how to vogue by watching voguers in the club. I would test out my new moves and a few houses took notice.

I attended my first ball in the summer of 2001 in Chicago. It was a really crowded ball with participants from around the country and I was extremely impressed and also a bit confused. I still remember that night in a hazy manner. Though I had been clubbing for about four years by then, balls were something different altogether. The energy just swept through the room and I was never quite sure if my eyes were seeing the events as accurately as they were occurring. It would take attending a few more balls before I was able to process their intensely complex dynamics.

What left the greatest impression that night was watching Legendary Mother Leonard "Lisa" Escada Mugler (R.I.P.) destroy Butch Queen Face. I recall him walking to the judges panel and sending every other competitor on their way without a single vote. All I could hear from the commentator was, "1 Escada, 2 Escada, 3 Escada...". I decided at that moment that I wouldn't even consider joining another house. I wanted to be apart of a crew that had that type of mother. I decided to join the House of Escada as most of my friends were already members and it felt like a natural fit."

Ah, Paris Is Burning. For all intents and purposes, this 1991 documentary feature by director Jennie Livingston is Vogue Culture 101, featuring as it does some of the original legends of the scene like Pepper La'Beija, Angie Xtravaganza, Octavia St Laurent and Willi Ninja, as well as some brilliant footage from various Harlem balls in the 80s. Paris Is Burning's influence has grown much stronger and since its initial release, and the film has amassed a cult following like practically no other documentary I can think of (it recently topped a PBS poll of the best documentaries of all time, and by a very wide margin). The film has introduced a wide audience to the language, style, music and culture of vogue, though as Shaun Wright is keen to point out, it shouldn't be taken as the be-all-and-end-all of ballroom culture. The 2005 documentary How Do I Look acts as a kind of riposte to Paris Is Burning, going further into ballroom culture and featuring some Paris Is Burning cast members who felt they weren't portrayed fairly. The main source for modern ballroom footage is unquestionably the YouTube channel Ballroom Throwbacks, which has been grabbing and uploading candid footage of modern balls for a few years now. Also worth watching is The Luna Show, in which Butch Queen Face legend Luna Khan hosts some great short interviews with many stars of the ballroom scene, both upcoming and legendary. Luna's not shy about asking many of the dancers to explain their gender transitioning process, and by seeking advice for any kids watching who may have similar feelings, The Luna Show acts as a valuable--if under-acknowldged--resource for the transgender community.

So to the music, which as I mentioned is intricately linked to the dancing, and shares the same in-your-face spirit. One of the most exciting things about the ballroom genre for me, as a producer and a dj, is that it is house music that has a real connection to a living, breathing dance floor. That's something that has been lacking in the genre for pretty much a decade now, with its emphasis on a cerebral appreciation of "texture" and "space" (think cosmic and minimal, which seem to appeal more to stoners and k heads than to actual dancers). By contrast, ballroom is brash, complex and busy. It can get minimal at times, but with the emphasis still very much on the beat and the percussion, giving the dancers and battlers more than enough to work with. Importantly, it still has very close ties to its roots in New York-based soul/disco and 80s/90s drag queen/diva house. In other words, the original cultures that inspired it.

So how does ballroom music differ from traditional house? Well, while there is a steady kick drum similar to that of house and disco, there is a different feel to the rhythm, and it's one that can be appreciated most fully on the dancefloor. Traditionally, house music is built up as layers of loops and rhythms created on drum machines and synths. Ballroom, like much American dance music which has emerged since the turn of the century, takes its cues not from steady loops but from rhythms punched out on the pads of an MPC sampler. This gives the music a more staccato feel, similar to the difference between a loop-based hip-hop track from the 90s, and a jerky, Timbaland/Neptunes-style production from ten years later.

Whereas house has a stepping rhythm, a "one-and-two-and-one-and-two" (which comes from disco and feels akin to walking), ballroom rhythms place less emphasis on the "two" and sound more like "one-and-ONE-and-one-one-ONE" (a rhythm more suited to punching or jumping, and which is perfect for a dance that requires landing in different poses in rapid succession). It's a similar 5-kicks-to-a-bar rhythm to that found in Jersey Club music, which is a close relation to ballroom, and also Baltimore Club, though B-More places more emphasis on sampled breakbeats. That's not to say that there is no snare. The emphasis on the "one" is often backed up by snare and clap patterns that accentuate every kick in a bar, the type also found in ghetto tech and trap, often using similar 808-based drum sounds. Snare patterns are an important part of the ballroom sound, and the dancers' reaction to the music, as are large cymbal crash sounds, used by the dancers for posing and "dipping".

Unfortunately, I am limited by space to giving a short rundown of the top producers in ballroom (many of whom I have interviewed for this piece, and whose interviews I hope to publish in full at another time).. So here's my brief, condensed guide to ballroom acts: DJ Vjuan Allure of Elite Beatz is the grandaddy of this whole scene, having started producing vogue beats in the late 1990s. A clubber since the age of 12, he was initially inspired by Junior Vasquez, but sites DJ Sedrick from Washington DC, with his more brutal, hyped and energetic style, as his main production influence. The foremost spinner of ballroom right now is DJ MikeQ, resident DJ at the weekly Vogue Knights party in New York (probably the number one destination for voguers outside of the bigger, less regular, ball events in the city). Last year MikeQ put out the Let It All Out EP on the highly respected Fade To Mind label, and is also head of the Qween Beat stable, home of many up and coming legends in the scene.

Another aspect of ballroom music is the commentator, who is basically an MC, though the style of MCing used in ballroom differs from pretty much any other genre. It often includes specific shouted chants featuring the names of popular dancers, as well as commands for them to do specific moves on the runway/dancefloor to be judged on, or specific categories for participants to walk in. To get a taste of what the aggressively camp ballroom commentating style is like, start with the YouTube channel of the legendary Kevin JZ Prodigy, who has hundreds of clips demonstrating his style, or check out the Soundcloud page of Divoli S'Vere. to see how producers are getting imaginative in the programming of chants.

Moving away form the already established legends, there s also a whole slew of upcoming talent bubbling away. Worth checking out are the Jersey-influenced productions of Beek, who has just released a new, self-titled four-track EP through Vibedeck, commentator/producer Sugur Shane (his new mixtape My Night With Peter And Junior can be heard here), and the genderfluid B Ames, who produces tracks at a frightening rate, and whose sound pushes vogue music in a different, more R&B influenced direction. Outside of the actual ballroom battling scene, the sound is becoming more and more influential, and can be heard in electronica acts like Ynfynyt Scroll (of the Track Meet parties and #FEELINGS label from Austin), the highly respected British DJ Bok Bok of Night Slugs (check out his remix of Grand High Priest ft Dajae) and CVNT TR4XXX from the UK (more on that particular act in a bit).

Like many other contemporary dance genres, ballroom has cultivated a very strong Soundcloud network of fans and producers, with remixes and new tracks appearing on the site at a very fast rate. And like many American urban/electronic/dance genres, ballroom has its own big signature tracks. The two most recognisable types of ballroom/vogue track are the "Ha", and the "Cunt". I'll get to the cunt (or kunt or even ckunt, as it is spelled) in a little bit, but let's start with the Ha.

"The "Ha" is a sample used by Masters At Work, taken from the movie Trading Places. The word "Ha" is in the record itself, accentuated with an effect called a "krash" (a hard hitting effect). So many tracks have used the effect the songs themselves become known as "Ha"-s. " —Vjuan Allure

"A “ha” is another form of vogue beat. There are a couple definitions for it, but one of the most common forms of it is when you transform a mainstream song, a YouTube clip, maybe a commercial or a TV show, and add it (sample it) or turn it into a vogue beat/track. " — B Ames

Masters At Work's "The Ha Dance" is the basically the musical bedrock of the entire ballroom genre, and has been sampled and recycled countless times. Pick any clip of vogue battling to watch on YouTube, and the chances are that "The Ha Dance", or a Ha-sampling tune, will be the soundtrack. One reason for this is that the Ha/krash sound itself gives voguers a cue to do the signature vogue "dip" move of landing flat on their back, which, when done in conjunction with the music, can be very impressive indeed.

The "cunt" on the other hand, is a track which samples the word "cunt" by a commentator or MC, or samples the classic house track "The Feeling (Cunty)" by Rageous Featuring Kevin Aviance, in which NY clubland legend Aviance uses the phrase "county" to very dramatic effect. In contrast to the "Ha", "cunt" samples tend to be chopped up and spat out rapidly, relating more to hand or hair movement than dips or showcase moves such as balletic spins. As for the word itself, which is obviously very loaded with pejorative meaning, in the world of ballroom (and world of drag at large) it is used instead as praise.

"Cunt is not the derogatory word it appears to be. It is actually one of the highest compliments that someone can give you - meaning fantastic!" — Vjuan Allure

"Cunt is used when you are just feeling your best. Or if something looks or sounds great/amazing." — B.Ames.

There has been some controversy of late in the ballroom world, in regards to who or what actually constitutes "ballroom", now that the genre is gaining popularity and more producers seem to be jumping on the vogue bandwagon. That's why I want to take a moment here to explain my own status. You see, dear readers, that "upcoming" UK act I mentioned above called CVNT TR4XXX (aka Cunt Traxxx)? That's me. Want proof? Here's a little cunty mix I put together for the #FEELINGS label.

I mention this not as a ploy for publicity, but to explain how the influence of voguing and ballroom culture has extended far beyond Harlem, and even the United States, at a time when there's a lot of talk of outsiders infiltrating the scene and betraying one of its core foundations: realness. Being based in the UK, and not New York/New Jersey/Atlanta/America, technically I AM an outsider. However, house music has always been popular in the UK, and by dint of that, so has vogueing and the NY black/latino/gay/trans/drag underground. Cutting edge house was like pop music when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s ("Deep In Vogue" was one of the first singles I ever bought, and to this day it remains my favourite ever music video) so house music culture doesn't feel alien to me, it IS my realness. "House" is how I describe what I produce and what I DJ, and seeing ballroom bring so much energy and excitement to this sometimes stagnant genre is a beautiful thing.

Yet while I have connected to ballroom culture most strongly because of the music, that's not the element that has given me the most inspiration. You see, even though I have been producing music for the last 15 years, it's only since I reconnected with voguing and ballroom that I feel my music has come into its own. Like those children walking runways, ballroom has taught me. Watching the dancers, seeing them work and thinking about their movements has given me real focus and purpose for creating my music. As I stated previously, ballroom is music for dancing to, and ballroom has reminded me of my primary focus as a dance music producer. It has taught me how to bring it, and how to reach my full potential. The personal importance of this for me is hard to explain on paper, especially if the reader has no experience of the challenges of writing or producing music, and even then in a much maligned, seemingly "throwaway" genre like house. Believe me when I tell you, though, that it is a spiritual thing.

Aside from making music, I've dj'ed at balls in London (Horse Meat Disco's Vauxhall Is Gurning), Glasgow (The Fierce Ruling Divas Ball) and Manchester (Vogue Brawl). While us basic bitches might not match up to the status of the US children, what we are doing is being true to ourselves, and keeping it real. We're showing a lot of love for the original pioneers and participants in New York and all across America, and even though our thing might look different, as long as it's done with respect, honesty and love, that should be what really matters. At the end of the day, I'm not sure if we're going to see another "Madonna moment" with vogue and ballroom culture crossing over into the mainstream again, mainly because I just don't see who could take it to the charts but retain the credibility (Beyonce is the only one who springs to mind.) If that does happen, though, surely it should be the dancers/producers/designers/commentators/artists themselves who control how they are depicted and how the scene is represented? I will leave the final words, on the expansion and development of ballroom culture to the scene's original pioneers:

"I'll just say this: as in in anything, you have to learn what it is you claim to be doing. Go to a ball, see what the culture is like, see what makes it tick, where it comes from. Find out what the "feeling"/"energy" is that only comes from a ballroom. Invest time so that you are knowledgeable in what you're speaking/showing. There is always somebody ready to call out a poser. Don't be a poser!" — DJ Vjuan Allure

"If you're going to refer to ballroom or try to be relevant to it, at least know your history. Know what you are saying, who, what, why, when, where and how. And feel free to attend a ball." — DJ MIkeQ

Photo: B. Ames

Growing Up Gay in 2013: Joe Schwartz, the teen in "Oddly Normal"

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:53:25 +0000

My friend John Schwartz at the New York Times wrote "Oddly Normal," a wonderful book about how he and his wife Jeanne worked through challenges to learn how best to support their son Joe, who is gay.

In the Atlantic today, Alice Dreger interviews Joe, who is now 17 years old, "to expand on some of the themes explored in the book and answer some questions raised by people who have commented on it."

Joe is a really interesting person, and the interview is terrific. Go have a read.

(Photo: John and Joe, shot by Ethan Hill for the NYT)

How the NY Daily News covered Stonewall

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 01:36:43 +0000

The Stonewall Riots kicked off on June 28, 1969, and marked a turning-point in the gay rights movement. Today, they're remembered as a kind of shot heard round the world, but at the time, the coverage was a lot less sympathetic. Here's a mirror of "Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad," a story by Jerry Lisker that ran in the New York Daily News on July 6, 1969.

She sat there with her legs crossed, the lashes of her mascara-coated eyes beating like the wings of a hummingbird. She was angry. She was so upset she hadn't bothered to shave. A day old stubble was beginning to push through the pancake makeup. She was a he. A queen of Christopher Street.
Last weekend the queens had turned commandos and stood bra strap to bra strap against an invasion of the helmeted Tactical Patrol Force. The elite police squad had shut down one of their private gay clubs, the Stonewall Inn at 57 Christopher St., in the heart of a three-block homosexual community in Greenwich Village. Queen Power reared its bleached blonde head in revolt. New York City experienced its first homosexual riot. "We may have lost the battle, sweets, but the war is far from over," lisped an unofficial lady-in-waiting from the court of the Queens.
"We've had all we can take from the Gestapo," the spokesman, or spokeswoman, continued. "We're putting our foot down once and for all." The foot wore a spiked heel. According to reports, the Stonewall Inn, a two-story structure with a sand painted brick and opaque glass facade, was a mecca for the homosexual element in the village who wanted nothing but a private little place where they could congregate, drink, dance and do whatever little girls do when they get together.

Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad (via Making Light)

(Image: New York Public Library/Wikimedia Commons)

Samuel Delany reads from Through The Valley of the Nest of Spiders

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:30:36 +0000

Here's a video of Samuel Delany reading from his latest, 2012's Through The Valley of the Nest of Spiders, which sounds like an amazing novel:

In 2007, days before his seventeenth birthday, Eric Jeffers’ stepfather brings him to live with his mother, who works as a waitress in the foundering tourist town of Diamond Harbor on the Georgia coast. In the local truck stop restroom, on his first day, Eric meets nineteen-year-old Morgan Haskell, as well as half a dozen other gay men who live and work in the area. The boys become a couple, and for the next twenty years labor as garbage men along the coast, sharing their lives and their lovers, learning to negotiate a committed open relationship. For a decade they manage a rural movie theater that shows pornographic films and encourages gay activity among the audience. Finally, they become handymen for a burgeoning lesbian art colony on nearby Gillead Island, as America moves twenty years, forty years, sixty years into a future fascinating, glorious, and—sometimes—terrifying.

Samuel R. Delany reads from Through The Valley of the Nest of Spiders April 2012 (Thanks, Muels A.!)

Last wish of married lesbian soldier dying of breast cancer: "Let DOMA die before I do"

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:42:35 +0000

Charlie Morgan, a 47-year-old career soldier in the late stages of metastatic breast cancer, says she hopes to live long enough to see the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) overturned, so that her wife will receive the benefits that a widow in a hetero couple would receive. “I’m praying that they take it up soon,” Morgan told the Washington Post in a phone interview from her home in New Durham, NH “It’s my motivation for staying alive. I really need to be alive when they actually do overturn DOMA, otherwise Karen is not guaranteed anything.” Read the rest here.

#SESAME-GATE: A flowchart for the Kevin Clash Elmo sex scandal

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:18:45 +0000

The Kevin Clash/Elmo scandal, and its many furry tentacles, all broken down in one handy flowchart by Hilary Sargent.

Click here for the full chart: JPEG, PDF.

UPS to Scouts: no more money until you drop anti-gay policy

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 22:00:53 +0000

United Parcel Service has joined Intel in telling the Boy Scouts of America that it will no longer be eligible for corporate donations unless it ends its anti-gay policies. UPS gives $150,000 a year to the Scouts. Jacques Couret writes more in the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, founder of Scouts for Equality, began a campaign on Change.org to pressure Boy Scout corporate donors just after Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) halted its support for BSA.
“UPS showed true bravery today in standing with the 80,000 Americans, including thousands of Scouts and Scout leaders, who oppose the Boy Scouts’ hurtful anti-gay policy,” Wahls said in a statement. “That bravery is what Scouting is all about,. Corporate America gets it better than most: policies that discriminate aren’t simply wrong, they’re bad for business and they’re hurting the Scouting community.”
GLAAD said UPS told it that under revised guidelines, organizations that are unable to attest to having a policy or practices that align with The UPS Foundation’s non-discrimination policy will no longer be considered eligible for funding.

UPS cuts future funding to Boy Scouts over org’s gay policies (via Making Light)

HOWTO make a rainbow-flag Eagle Scout Medal

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 00:08:16 +0000

Rachel sez, "Instructions on how to replace the red-white-blue ribbon on the eagle award with a rainbow hued ribbon in support of LGBT rights. There is also a surprisingly passionate discussion on both sides of the issue in the comments section."

How to Hack Your Eagle Award

Gentleman is possessed by gay demons

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 18:21:39 +0000

Come out in the name of Jesus, indeed! Televangelist and tele-exorcist Bob Larson (web, Wikipedia, Amazon) spiritually cleanses a man who is possessed by "a filthy stinking sex demon" of homosexuality and pornography. FYI, UFOs have an agenda, and it is to impregnate us with gay demon alien seed. io9 has written about Larson before.

(thanks, Joe Sabia, via Reddit)

BBC radio documentary on same-sex couple coping with cancer and mortality

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:24:14 +0000

BB reader Jane Lowers sends along this beautiful BBC Radio documentary about two men in California who have been together for decades, now facing one's terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis. "I know both of them; Eric was a columnist at a radiology magazine I used to work for," says Jane. "Their house is every inch as insane as described. But the story -- trying to decide how to deal with a diagnosis, how to use the time you have, and how it can affect relationships -- was very well-described, I thought."

The Decent People: LGBT pride in the former Yugoslavia

Jasmina Tesanovic — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 22:12:36 +0000

Years ago during the reign of Milosevic in Serbia I wrote an essay called "Decent people". It was about that 80 percent of Serbian people, the classic silent majority, who lived in denial of the genocide in Srebrenica, the snipers in Sarajevo, the shelling in Dubrovnik.

These so called decent people who could not grasp cruel political and military reality. Eventually the damage to daily life became impossible; the decent people could not go through with their charade of normality as postmen, engineers and dentists. On October 5th 2000 a million people took to the streets in Belgrade and physically deposed the tyrant.

However, time stopped then in Serbia. An October 6th never dawned for a bewildered Serbia, not even 12 years later, on the anniversary. Milosevic died behind the bars in the Hague, my Yugoslav-era parents are deceased, my postman is on pension but the inhabitants of the Serbian parliament today are the next generation of those decent people. No painful truths were admitted and confronted; there was a rebellion of the decent, but not a thorough change in the society.

Typically, a few days ago the new elected premiere of Serbia forbade the Gay Pride annual parade. He claimed that 80 percent of the Serbian population is against gay manifestations, and warned against the risky and inevitable gay-bashing that would follow in the streets. This new premiere is an old member from the deposed Milosevic' s party. Crushing the aspirations of Serbian gays has become routine, and he has already handled the trouble successfully before.

There's only been one actual, public, blatant Gay Pride Parade, in 2010, held with heavy police escort and, yes, violent incidents from right-wing hooligans. These populists are well-rehearsed agitators, whose extremism is easy to predict, but the decent people are in many ways worse. In 2001 we held a street event for gays, and everyday citizens yelled obscenities, spat on us and pushed us around. I vividly remember a middle aged man, his face was distorted by hate and righteous anger, trailing our pro-gay banners and yelling insults. I thought he was a deranged stalker, but next day I met him in the local green market, along with his wife and a small kid. He was polite, neighborly, saying hello. He was a respectable patriarch of a small family, shopping in public as all decent people do on Sundays, except when society fails so utterly that there's no money left and nothing in the shops. As for spitting on me: he was proud of it and considered it a civic duty.

The Serbian gay pride parade was held indoors this year, more a protest than a parade. There was still a lot of fuss made by the police, who treated the press center as if it were a besieged fortress, ghastly emptying Belgrade downtown and isolating the gays. The activists inside four walls were promising one another a better future, but many avoided the farcical non-parade.

It's become an opportunity for foreign friends and supporters to write mails of support. The western countries are perfectly aware that the Serbian right has made gay existence a wedge-issue, so for their part the West makes it a litmus test for their own attitudes toward the new reign in Serbia. The big picture is grimmer. In Russia and Ukraine there are serious attempts for re-criminalizing gays and the Serbian is quite encouraged by these Slavic examples of a weird new KGB-Orthodox-fundamentalist autocratic alliance.

My friends in Italy recently successfully performed gay parades, plus a gay marriage in public with all the witty joy of commedia dell'arte, in the land of Pope! However, in Italy too the decent people shy away en masse from the specter of gay marriages and legalized gay couples. The Italians were trying to console me with the universality of homophobia.

But Italian society, raddled with the sexual decadence of priestly abuse and Berlusconi's harems, can't possibly be so densely solid in denialist ignorance as the Serbian decent people. The Serbs have been defending their heretical, unorthodox Orthodoxy for centuries, from attacks from east, west, north, south and center. The rigor and the pressure had a fossilizing effect.

In Italy you will be casually ripped off as a tourist -- everyday Italian decent people will cheerfully defraud foreigners, disgracefully cheating and chiselling for a couple of euros. In Serbia the hospitable decent people would feed a guest with their last crumbs of bread and salt, but then put the guest's severed head on a pike if he offended their code of honor. The very strong Orthodox church which dictates aggressively the new-old codes of Christian fundamentalist expansion, is in open alliance with the new/old political regime, the government which was heavily involved in wars and war profiteering.

However, there are fits of disturbance as well. During the gay pride week in Belgrade, a show appeard by a Swedish artist Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin , titled "Ecce Homo." It deliberately and rather hilariously depicted Christ and his disciples as gay leather-boys. This rampantly blasphemous show was protected by two thousand policemen while a rally of so called family people seized the opportunity to push the right wing agenda around the corner. Belgrade, which is after all the home-town of Marina Abramovic ( even though it never acknowledged the work of the world famous artist), attracted some activists and art fans to enjoy and appreciate the show.

Homophobia, nationalism, racism, clericalism, fundamentalism all have the same root: the fear of Other, and the same aim, the homogenization of all differences. If you're gay you at least have the joy of knowing that your struggle is shared world-wide, but the planet's decent people, wrapped in political deceit and faith-based superstition, seem to be shutting themselves into a planetary series of ever-narrower, ever more stifling closets.

150 years of photos of American lesbians

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:41:23 +0000

Autostraddle's Riese has collected an astounding gallery of photos of American lesbians, spanning 150 years, from 1850 to 2000.

I really threw myself into Herstory Month, in June, eating every accessible herstory archive on the internet and spending hours in the library, accumulating massive stacks of borrowed books which I stored at the foot of my bed. My girlfriend was not a big fan of the stacks of books at the foot of the bed.
I was looking for words but eventually, also, for pictures. Honestly before tumblr it was difficult to find very much lesbian imagery at all online — it was always the same ten or twelve stock photos — let alone pictures of lesbians taken prior to 2000. I wanted to see an evolution of our community, how we'd grown and changed over the years — and not just in a montage of famous out actresses and models, but pictures of actual people, pictures of women who were active in the community — regular human beings, writers and social activists.

Epic Gallery: 150 Years Of Lesbians And Other Lady-Loving-Ladies (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

(Images: Top, "1880s"; right, "Evelyn “Jackie” Bross (left) and Catherine Barscz (right) at the Racine Avenue Police Station, Chicago, June 5, 1943. They had been arrested for violating the cross-dressing ordinance.")

Homophobic theory of dinosauric extinction

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 18:51:26 +0000

Origin unknown: a brochure attributing the extinction of dinosaurs to their rampant homosexuality. Quite possibly a parody.

(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Malaysia offers "spot the gay kid" seminars for teachers and parents

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 02:42:13 +0000

In Malaysia, being gay can get you a caning and 20 years in prison. Now the Malaysian government is holding seminars to help teachers and parents figure out which kids are gay (boys with "tight, light-coloured clothes and large handbags" are under suspicion; girls who "have no affection for men and like to hang out and sleep in the company of women" are also suspect). The seminars are reportedly hugely attended, with 1,500 people turning up to last week's event, which was organized by the Teachers Foundation of Malaysia. The official reasoning for this is that being gay is contagious, so straight kids who are around gay kids might catch it. More a Reuters report:

The latest seminar for the teachers and parents was run by deputy education minister Puad Zarkashi, his office confirmed.
Zarkashi wasn't immediately available for comment but national news agency Bernama quoted him as saying that being able to identify the signs will help contain the spread of the unhealthy lifestyle among the young, especially students.
"Youths are easily influenced by websites and blogs relating to LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] groups," he was quoted as saying.
"This can also spread among their friends. We are worried that this happens during schooling time."

Malaysia holds seminars to help teachers spot 'gay children'

Let's help a new roller derby documentary about lesbian, bisexual, and transgender skaters body slam its goal!

Jamie Frevele — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:33:26 +0000

In a related followup to my interview with the filmmakers of the men's roller derby documentary, This Is How I Roll, another derby film is currently trying to raise money for production costs. The Vagine Regime: A Documentary Where Vaginas Collide puts the focus on lesbian, bisexual, and transgender skaters (a subject Kat Vecchio touched on in our interview) and how they've experienced both acceptance and opposition in the very inclusive world of women's roller derby. As of this writing, they are seven days and just under $10,000 away from their $35,000 goal at Kickstarter. They're so close to kicking ass on the big screen -- let's help them out! [Kickstarter]

100 years of gay shame

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 22:41:40 +0000

The highest court in Moscow has upheld a 100 year ban on gay pride parades.

33 Quips for Queers (video)

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:50:58 +0000

[Video Link] Joe Sabia, our Boing Boing video on Virgin America collaborator, directed this absolutely fabulous video for Montreal's "Queer of the Year" contest.

Crazy stuff they'll teach in Louisiana's publicly funded charter schools

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 14:12:01 +0000

Louisiana governor (and retired exorcist) Bobby Jindal has signed an aggressive charter school bill that will transfer millions in tax dollars to religious academies run by evolution-denying, homophobic, climate-change-denying Christian extremists. Mother Jones's Deanna Pan went for a dig through these schools' official texts and discovered that Louisiana's publicly funded education system will soon tell some of its luckiest students that the KKK "achieved a certain respectability" by fighting bootleggers; "the majority of slave holders treated their slaves well;" dragons might be real; "dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the earth at the same time," and many other fun facts.

3. "God used the Trail of Tears to bring many Indians to Christ."—America: Land That I Love, Teacher ed., A Beka Book, 1994...
7. The Great Depression wasn't as bad as the liberals made it sound: "Perhaps the best known work of propaganda to come from the Depression was John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath…Other forms of propaganda included rumors of mortgage foreclosures, mass evictions, and hunger riots and exaggerated statistics representing the number of unemployed and homeless people in America."—United States History: Heritage of Freedom, 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1996...
10. Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson were a couple of hacks: "[Mark] Twain's outlook was both self-centered and ultimately hopeless…Twain's skepticism was clearly not the honest questioning of a seeker of truth but the deliberate defiance of a confessed rebel."—Elements of Literature for Christian Schools, Bob Jones University, 2001
"Several of [Emily Dickinson's] poems show a presumptuous attitude concerning her eternal destiny and a veiled disrespect for authority in general. Throughout her life she viewed salvation as a gamble, not a certainty. Although she did view the Bible as a source of poetic inspiration, she never accepted it as an inerrant guide to life."—Elements of Literature for Christian Schools, Bob Jones University, 2001...
12. Gay people "have no more claims to special rights than child molesters or rapists."—Teacher's Resource Guide to Current Events for Christian Schools, 1998-1999, Bob Jones University Press, 1998

One text also decries mathematical set theory as ungodly.

14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in Louisiana's Voucher Schools

Astronaut Sally Ride's partner won't receive government death benefits. Thanks, homophobes.

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 23:47:46 +0000

Sally Kohn at TIME, writing about the female domestic partner of Sally Ride, physicist and first American woman in space: "Under federal law, Ride’s domestic partner of 27 years will not receive death benefits or Social Security payments. Is that any way to treat a hero?" It's an injustice, but it's not NASA's fault. Nor, of course, is the injustice limited to the case of Sally Ride and the woman who loved her. This is all DOMA. (via Steve Silberman)

Best Marriage Equality ad ever (video)

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:09:59 +0000

[Video Link] A PSA by "Why Marriage Matters (Maine)", featuring Harlan Gardner of Machias, ME along with four generations of his family, talking about what marriage means to him and why it matters to the gay and lesbian people in his life.

"It takes a great deal of bravery to be a lesbian. I am so proud of Katie and Alex," Mr. Gardner says. "Marriage is too precious a thing not to share. This isn't about politics. It's about family, and how we as people treat one another."

Man. Don't know about you, but I sure cried.

(via Steve Silberman)

Amid PR crisis, top Chick-fil-A publicist dies

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 19:33:33 +0000

The Midland, GA-based fast food chain Chick-fil-A has been in the middle of a public relations firestorm over homophobic comments by its CEO. Today, the company's chief spokesman Don Perry died unexpectedly. Various news outlets are reporting the cause of death as a heart attack, citing Ross Cathy, owner of the fast food chain and family member of company CEO, Dan Cathy, as a source. The company's CEO has long made his conservative, non-gay-friendly political positions known, but recent remarks against gay marriage sparked widespread protest. The company is now being sued by a former employee (PDF) over allegations of gender discrimination.

Homophobic Chick-Fil-A in a chickeny shitstorm

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:49:07 +0000

Homophobic chicken-slingers Chick-Fil-A are reeling in a tempest of bad publicity. First the Jim Henson company yanked its toys from its stores, then the mayor of Boston told it that it should set up business elsewhere, and now a mysterious stranger has begun to astroturf on its behalf on Facebook. Chick-Fil-A says that it has no idea who the person pretending to be a teenage girl who really passionately supports the cause of discrimination against homosexuals is (though I'm sure they appreciate "her" support) -- and for the record, they say that Henson's toys were withdrawn for "safety" reasons.

Sally Ride's sister, on the quiet acknowledgement of her orientation: "I hope it makes it easier for kids growing up gay."

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:49:22 +0000

Astronaut, physicist, and American science hero Sally Ride died yesterday of pancreatic cancer, at 61. Dr. Ride was the first American female in space, and left a vast legacy of scientific accomplishments. When her astronaut days ended, she worked to promote space and science literacy to young people around the world through Sally Ride Science.

As friends and professional associates knew, and as was quietly noted in the obituary released on her website, Ms. Ride had been in a committed relationship with a woman for some 27 years. She met her partner Tam O'Shaughnessy nearly 50 years ago. Neither her cancer diagnosis nor her orientation were publicly shared, prior to her death.

Sally Ride's sister, Bear Ride, addressed this very personal aspect of Sally's very private life in comments to Buzzfeed today. "We consider Tam a member of the family," she told Chris Geidner.

"The pancreatic cancer community is going to be absolutely thrilled that there's now this advocate that they didn't know about. And, I hope the GLBT community feels the same," Bear, who identifies as gay, told Buzzfeed. "I hope it makes it easier for kids growing up gay that they know that another one of their heroes was like them."

Asked about those who would have opposed legal recognition of her sister's relationship, Bear Ride bluntly replied, "Who cares about them, really? There are those who are stubbornly ignorant, and if they want to continue in that, God bless them, but probably best not to talk to my family."

The rest of the interview is well worth a read. More about Dr. Ride in our post from the day she died.

Sally Ride, first American woman in space, has died

Sally Ride, first American woman in space, has died

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 21:35:21 +0000

Dr. Sally Ride, an American physicist and former NASA astronaut, has died of pancreatic cancer. She joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman to travel into space. From a statement on her website:

Sally Ride died peacefully on July 23rd, 2012 after a courageous 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Sally lived her life to the fullest, with boundless energy, curiosity, intelligence, passion, joy, and love. Her integrity was absolute; her spirit was immeasurable; her approach to life was fearless.
Sally was a physicist, the first American woman to fly in space, a science writer, and the president and CEO of Sally Ride Science. She had the rare ability to understand the essence of things and to inspire those around her to join her pursuits.
Sally’s historic flight into space captured the nation’s imagination and made her a household name. She became a symbol of the ability of women to break barriers and a hero to generations of adventurous young girls. After retiring from NASA, Sally used her high profile to champion a cause she believed in passionately—inspiring young people, especially girls, to stick with their interest in science, to become scientifically literate, and to consider pursuing careers in science and engineering.
In addition to Tam O’Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years, Sally is survived by her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; her niece, Caitlin, and nephew, Whitney; her staff of 40 at Sally Ride Science; and many friends and colleagues around the country.

L-R: Shannon W. Lucid, Margaret Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Judith A. Resnik, Anna L. Fisher, and Sally K. Ride. NASA selected all six women as their first female astronaut candidates in January 1978, allowing them to enroll in a training program that they completed in August 1979.

From a post about Dr. Ride's legacy by Valerie Neal, space history curator of the National Air and Space Museum, published back in 2010:

Sally Ride made history as the first U.S. woman in space, but the feat is more nuanced. She and the other five women who were first selected to be shuttle astronauts each made history, through grit and determination and some dreaming, to be ready for the opportunity of spaceflight. They entered science and engineering in the 1960s as these fields began to open up to women. They came of age as the civil rights, equal rights, and women’s movements stimulated changes in American society and opened new career possibilities. They were poised to step through the door opened by NASA’s affirmative action policy and its aggressive recruitment of women and minorities for the astronaut corps.
Accomplished American women have flown in space since 1983, so it no longer seems newsworthy; it’s just natural. That is the history that flowed from Sally Ride’s shuttle mission.

Ride floats alongside Challenger's middeck airlock hatch. (Courtesy NASA)

From a post commemorating her life at NASA.gov:

In a space agency filled with trailblazers, Sally K. Ride was a pioneer of a different sort. The soft-spoken California physicist broke the gender barrier 29 years ago when she rode to orbit aboard space shuttle Challenger to become America’s first woman in space.
"Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism – and literally changed the face of America’s space program," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "The nation has lost one of its finest leaders, teachers and explorers. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sally's family and the many she inspired. She will be missed, but her star will always shine brightly."
“Sally was a personal and professional role model to me and thousands of women around the world,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. “Her spirit and determination will continue to be an inspiration for women everywhere.”

From Dr. Ride's website:

In lieu of flowers, you may wish to make a gift in memory of Sally to the Sally Ride Pancreatic Cancer Initiative (Fund 4191) at UCSD.

Queers through the Years (video)

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:33:56 +0000

[Video Link] Joe Sabia directed the 3rd annual Queer of the Year in Montreal. Basically a two week competition in Montreal to promote Montreal as the most tolerant, accepting place on earth. (which it just might be). "Queer of the Year" in Montreal. "Basically a two week competition to promote Montreal as the most tolerant, accepting place on earth," says Joe, "Which it just might be."