100,000

ngblog has hit a milestone: 100,000 page views.

Cue celebration:



End of celebration.

Not bad for a blog gay activists and bloggers refuse to associate with.

the week that was.

This week, the Boy Scouts Of America voted to allow openly gay youth under the age to enroll in their organization.  But their ban on gay scout leaders still stands.

The latter has some bloggers and activists upset, with good reason, especially with regards to the latter.

Personally, I don't understand why any parent, gay or straight, would even want to have their LGBT orientated children became part of an religious organization which trains their kids to hate gay people.  Or a gay youth for that matter; But that's neither here nor there.

As someone else noted, the Boy Scouts did make a big step forward, and I applaud those who pushed for the change.

Puerto Rico became a lot less homophobic this week with legislators passing a non discrimination bill which adds sexual orientation and gender identity and expression to the island’s domestic violence laws. 

I'm pretty sure Pedro Julio Serrano is celebrating; he's had a rough five months, and he deserves it despite it all.

Unfortunately, while LGBT's on the island celebrate, here in New York City, the LGBT community is on edge after a series of violent bias crimes. Just as I thought, with the vigils, rallies, and letter writing campaigns having come and gone,  here we are one week from Marc Carson being assassinated in the middle of Greenwich Village, and already it's Marc who?

And I end the week with 100,000 page views.

Congratulations to me.

UPDATE

Whoops!

Forgot to mention how LGBT's weren't included in an amendment to add LGBT couples to the Senate immigration reform bill and the lame promises made by Senate Democrats. Much like with the BSA decision, this too has some bloggers and activists upset.

I supposed I would be too if I had a foreign born boyfriend or was binational. I don't. I'm not.

Enjoy your holiday weekend, everyone. Be safe.

in puerto rico, equality interrupted (updated)

On Thursday/May 23, The Puerto Rico House Of Representatives was to vote on two bills aimed at protecting the rights of LGBTs on the island, but those votes were delayed due to religious fundamentalists objections.

Legislation to extend legal protections to gays remained in limbo in Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives after a marathon session that saw Gov. Alejandro García Padilla step in to assure passage by his Popular Democratic Party-controlled Legislature. 

The lower chamber had been expected to pass a Senate measure that would shield gays from discrimination in employment and another House measure to extend the Law 54 domestic violence statute to all couples regardless of marital status or sexual orientation. 

Packaged in with those two bills was pledged legislative reform legislation.
After a wild, 10-hour session that stretched into early Friday morning, all three bills remained unpassed. 

García Padilla met at the Capitol with House Speaker Jaime Perelló after midnight and emerged with word that the legislative reform and workplace protection bills would be approved in a session set to start Friday at 11 a.m. 

The Law 54 amendment will apparently not be brought for a vote today.
Lawmakers have been facing intense lobbying efforts by religious groups against the gay rights bills.

source: http://www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/news/gay-rights-bills-still-snagged-in-house-84885.html

So far, no official reaction from the activists, bloggers, and LGBT Groups in the island on what happened (which is understandable, given how many of them waited all night for a vote to occur.)

Update: The Puerto Rico House of Representatives returned to session shortly after noon time, and following a three hour debate, approved, by voice vote, in favor of the two bills that would extend rights to LGBT Puerto Ricans.

my response to the kaitlyn hunt controversy

Kaitlyn “Kate” Hunt, an eighteen year old senior in a Florida high school, is being prosecuted as a sex offender for having a relationship with a fourteen year old girl.
Outraged?  You should be. But not at the prosecutor. You should be mad at yourselves instead for being cowards on the issue of sex offender registries.

I've been warning about this very problem for a long time - how they're unconstitutional,  nothing more than a placebo law for the masses, a backdoor to usurping the bill of rights, etc., - at those who would (or who have been pretending to) listen.

What's been the response?

That's because everyone expressing outrage about a gay teenager having to register as a sex offender believes there is an exception for the rule regarding sex offender registries.

At this point, all I can hope for Kaitlyn is the email and Facebook campaigns that have been created on her behalf will lead to something more than just trying to convince an overzealous prosecutor to stop his witchhunt against a gay teenager.

Personally, I just don't see it happening.

UPDATE FRIDAY, May 24, 2013

According to WPEC, Kaitlyn Hunt refused the plea deal offered by the state attorney's office.

More info at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/24/kaitlyn-hunt-refuses-plea-deal-gay-teen-charged_n_3331434.html?1369413068&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

NOM, FRC "condemn" anti-gay murder; gay bloggers fall for it.

"We condemn in the strongest possible way the murder of a gay man in New York by a killer who apparently hurled anti-gay insults at him moments before the killing. This senseless act cannot be condoned in America or anywhere, and we urge that the perpetrator be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Our heart goes out to the family of the victim, and we hold them in our prayers. While this killing appears to have no connection to the current debate about redefining marriage, there is no room for violence toward any American — whether they support traditional marriage or not. No person should be subjected to violence because they are gay or lesbian or because they believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. There is no place for violence, period."

Statement from Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage,which came hours after Scott Wooledge, a Daily Kos blogger, put himself on a pedestal to remind them - via this image - and other opponents of LGBT rights about a joint statement gay rights groups put out immediately in response to the shooting that occurred at the Family Research Council's headquarters in Washington, DC.

LGBT rights orgs have been very clear violence will not be tolerated. Opponents of LGBT rights however have never made it clear to their followers that anti-gay violence is not a tactic to "fight the gay agenda." After a big spike in anti-gay hate crimes in 2012, can they not issue a joint statement such as gay rights groups did here:http://bit.ly/1a14SqI
And remind people, we can disagree without hurting each other?

Following Brown's statement, Wooledge gave this statement to David Badash:

“While we disagree on many things, Americans can all agree everyone has a right to live their lives free of fear of violence,” Wooledge told The New Civil Rights Movement in an email conversation. “The spree of shocking hate crimes in New York City are reminders that the threat of violence is lamentably omnipresent for too many gay, lesbian and transgender Americans, even in the country’s most progressive areas. I appreciate the National Organization for Marriage acknowledging that sad reality and hope it signals a newfound sensitivity to the effect inflammatory and hyperbolic rhetoric can have on American citizens’ daily lives.”

I'm sick to my stomach.

First off, who told Scott he can speak for me?

Second, the statement those gay rights groups released in response to the FRC shooting is a disgrace.

Third, Anyone who believes that Brian Brown is genuine and sincere is either a fool or someone begging to be lied to.

Brian Brown just made the easiest lie he can say or write to gain empathy for his hate group.

A gay man was assassinated in New York City, in Greenwich Village, just feet away from the Stonewall Inn, the site of the Stonewall Rebellion.  After everything that has gone down the past 72 hours, from the meaningless vigils, rallies, and letter writing campaign from the HRC, the last thing I would have expected is having a gay activist helping a hate group wipe the blood of their hands.

UPDATE

Tony Perkins, President of The Family Research Council (FRC) released the following statement regarding the Mark Carson murder case in New York City:

"We denounce any and all acts of unprovoked violence. No American should be the target of violence - period. We hope and trust that justice will be served in that the perpetrator of this senseless act of violence will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Perkins said.

On this one, Jeremy Hooper, the kept boy who's love/hate addiction for Chick-fil-A led to that shooting at the FRC, responded by thanking Perkins (and Brown) "for their concern."

another pride controversy

There’s another Pride controversy; This time it’s with Utah Pride who apparently had elected, then unelected Joe Jervis as its Grand Marshall.

http://queernewyorkblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/under-mormon-pressure-utah-pride.html

Shame on Tony Adams for extorting the Executive Director of Utah Pride Center.

Jervis has no business being grand marshal. He’s not a fair representative of the entire LGBT community, only with those who support his narrow minded lifestyle or views.

more reports of anti-lgbt attacks in new york city.

Since my last post, NBC is reporting a gay couple was attacked in Soho, while the Anti-Violence Project is looking into an assault of a transgender woman on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens.

The latter incident is unconfirmed.

Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD held a news conference this afternoon to discuss the recent spate of hate crimes taking place in New York City.