Friday
December 09, 2005
SGN.org
Volume 33
Issue 49
|
Tuesday, Jan 06, 2009
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Rex Wockner |
|
 |
|
| Wockner Wire - sorry, no column in this week's edition | |
| Quote/Unquote | |
 |
|
| "I'm not very romantic about it, to be honest. I think Kenny probably would be if I let him, but it's just not me. ... We want to do it just in case. You never know, I could get hit by a bus and the poor man could have nothing."
-Singer George Michael announcing Nov. 29 that he and longtime partner Kenny Goss will get hitched under the United Kingdom's new Civil Partnership Act, which grants all rights and obligations of matrimony. "We came up with a new idea that we said that we would get married the day that Gays and Lesbians can get married - when that right is given to them. We've decided that we're gonna use that in a positive way, so the day that law gets passed, then we'll get married." -Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron to the TV show Extra, Nov. 23. Theron is dating actor Stuart Townsend. "I make this decision not out of despair or discouragement or even uncertainty about my political prospects for election. I have both the energy and the enthusiasm for the job I do, and I am confident that I would win re-election if I chose to run." -Gay U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., announcing Nov. 23 he will not seek re-election. Kolbe is the only openly Gay Republican in Congress. "I saw a very attractive man, we started to talk, and we knew immediately that that was that. Our internal worlds were identical. We read the same books. We saw the same films. We spoke in a similar way. I was 37. I had had earlier relationships, so I could compare, but he was only 25, and in any case he had something adult [about him], and he saw he was like me. We went to bed on the first night, which I didn't always do, and I don't recommend that everyone have sex on the first night, but in our case it was the correct thing to do. Since then, essentially, we haven't been apart." -Denmark's openly Gay ambassador to Israel, Carsten Damsgaard, talking to the Tel Aviv daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on Nov. 30 about the night 12 years ago when he met his partner, Esben Karmark. "You know, it's flattering when there's a rumor that says I'm Bisexual. It means I can play more kinds of roles. I'm open to whatever people want to call me. I've never really been attracted to men sexually, but I don't think I would be afraid of it if it happened." -Brokeback Mountain star Jake Gyllenhaal to Premiere magazine, December issue. "From my perspective, I only wanted to do a good movie. I didn't care if their careers were doomed after that." -Ang Lee, director of the "Gay cowboy movie" Brokeback Mountain, in reference to actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, to the San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 30. "I've done sex scenes with women I haven't been attracted to at all and some with women I probably shouldn't be as attracted to as I was. I'd say Heath fits somewhere in between." -Brokeback Mountain star Jake Gyllenhaal to the San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 30. Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger play cowboy lovers in the film. "Most homos I know ... have picked up a bunch of nasty habits on their quest for true love. True love refuses to come, so we look for a temporary fix from a strange bedfellow whose crotch provides us with a brief form of validation, self-worth, recognition, affection and all the good shit that we associate with someone true. It tastes good at first, but the bitter aftertaste lingers. There's no significance, so we put the heart in check and focus on feeding the flesh instead. Unfortunately the flesh is never satisfied, so we have more meaningless sex until sex loses its meaning, and we lose our means to connect with anyone potentially true." -Columnist Paulo Murillo in the Los Angeles Gay newspaper FAB!, Dec. 2. "While I can conclusively say I've never encountered a Gay couple that's been together any significant amount of time and been totally monogamous, I have encountered many that screw around and act like they're monogamous. Let's stop all the lying." -Columnist Chris Dupuis in the Toronto Gay newspaper Xtra!, Nov. 10. "There's nothing that ticks me off more than our party's attempt to amend the Constitution [to ban same-sex marriage]. But I am also ticked off that our party is spending like crazy, that it's not focusing on federal deficit spending, that it is not engaged in the most competent and strong foreign policy. ... I think we're actually going to see a mini-civil war within the Republican Party during the tail end of the second Bush administration. It's going to be a battle between theocrats, and moderates and traditional conservatives. Log Cabin is going to stand ... against theocrats, who, in my estimation, actually believe in a big government imposing their moral values on the American people. I don't recognize that Republican Party." -Log Cabin Republicans President Patrick Guerriero in a Nov. 27 interview with this column. "I'm at this reflective moment in my own life. ... [H]istorians are going to look back at this moment and ask, What did the leadership of LGBT organizations do? What did individuals do? And shame on Log Cabin if it doesn't speak out against bigotry and intolerance within our own party, and shame on us if we don't call on our fellow Gay and Lesbian conservatives to find the courage to come out, particularly if they are in positions of power in Washington. ... If every Gay and Lesbian conservative came out tomorrow morning, the road to full equality would be a very short one. It would be over in two to five years." -Log Cabin Republicans President Patrick Guerriero in a Nov. 27 interview with this column. "We urge Gay priests and seminarians to come out and denounce this affront to their faith, vocation and dignity. We call upon all other priests and bishops of good conscience to stand up for their brothers. And, most importantly, we call upon Catholics to vociferously reject this shameful instruction." -National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman after the Roman Catholic Church announced a ban on seminarians "who practice homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support so-called Gay culture," Nov. 29. "It will encourage dishonesty, fuel homophobia and lead to Vatican sex spies snooping on trainee priests. If these rules had existed in the past, many existing archbishops and cardinals would have never been allowed to enter the priesthood. Given the high proportion of Gay clergy in senior positions in the Vatican, this new policy is rank hypocrisy." -Peter Tatchell, leader of the London Gay group OutRage!, after the Roman Catholic Church announced a ban on seminarians "who practice homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support so-called Gay culture," Nov. 29. "The exclusion of same-sex couples from the benefits and responsibilities of marriage was not a small and tangential inconvenience resulting from a few surviving relics of societal prejudice destined to evaporate like the morning dew. It represented a harsh if oblique statement by the law that same-sex couples are outsiders, and that their need for affirmation and protection of their intimate relations as human beings is somehow less than that of heterosexual couples. It signifies that their capacity for love, commitment and accepting responsibility is by definition less worthy of regard than that of heterosexual couples. The intangible damage to same-sex couples is as severe as the material deprivation. They are not entitled to celebrate their commitment to each other in a joyous public event recognised by the law. They are obliged to live in a state of legal blankness in which their unions remain unmarked by the showering of presents and the commemoration of anniversaries so celebrated in our culture." -From the South African Constitutional Court's "media summary" of its Dec. 1 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. The court gave Parliament one year to make the necessary changes in law. "When my partner, Alison Maddex (a true blue Madonna fan), bought [Madonna's new] CD a few days after its release on Nov. 15, I was shocked at how the reviews had failed to note its tinny shrillness, sonic clichés, and intermittently clumsy or muddy layering - a startling lapse in Madonna's usually impeccable quality control. Even worse, the stitching together of one track into the next - a basic disco convention that some reviews carelessly allowed readers to think was Madonna's innovation - is in every case but one embarrassingly weak, wavering and amateurish." -Writer Camille Paglia reviewing Madonna's new "Confessions on a Dance Floor" CD at Salon.com, Dec. 2. |
|
| International News | |
|
|
|
| ELTON JOHN IS
GETTING MARRIED
Elton John and his longtime partner, David Furnish, are getting married Dec. 21 when the United Kingdom's comprehensive same-sex Civil Partnership Act comes into force. "It'll be a very small family affair and then in the evening there'll be a soirée somewhere, which we have yet to work out," John told the gay magazine Attitude on Nov. 24. "The ceremony itself will be David's parents and my parents and the two of us," he said. "They'll be our witnesses. That's the way we want to do it. They've been so fantastic to us and so supportive. Out of respect for their support, we want to just keep it small. Not to make a ballyhoo of the ceremony." Furnish told Attitude: "I've always considered myself committed to Elton and he's the person that I want to spend the rest of my life with. So in that sense I don't feel like the dynamic of our relationship is going to change. But from a social standpoint, I think it's hugely significant. It is a major, major change. It is one of the defining issues of our times." The Partnership Act takes effect Dec. 5 but the first registrations will not take place until Dec. 21 because of a required 15-day waiting period after a couple file notice of their intentions. Registered partners will receive all the rights and obligations of marriage. Couples who have formalized a same-sex union overseas will not need to re-register in the U.K. to be recognized. There will be a formal, court-based process for dissolution of a civil partnership. AUSSIE GAYS GAIN ACCESS TO PENSION BENEFITS Australian gay couples will gain the right to claim each other's superannuation (pension) benefits, the federal government has announced. The policy change also extends to elderly siblings who live together and to adult children caring for elderly parents. In determining if two people had an "interdependent relationship," officials will consider the length of the relationship, whether it involved sex, the degree of emotional support, and ownership and use of property, the Australian Associated Press said. Superannuation is a system in which employers make compulsory contributions on behalf of employees (currently 9 percent of the salary package) into funds that are administered by financial institutions and employee/employer groups that invest the money in such things as property development and blue-ribbon stocks. Employees are taxed at a lower rate on the contributions than on other income. At retirement, individuals can opt for a lump-sum payout or a monthly pension. For low-income earners, the government makes matching co-contributions to add to the savings balance. MUSLIM GAY GROUP REGISTERED IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA The International Initiative for Visibility of Queer Muslims has achieved official registration as a nongovernmental organization in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The group's members said it is "the first ever officially recognized queer Muslim society in a predominantly Muslim country - or a country where Muslims are not considered a minority - as well as the only queer faith-based organization in the Balkans." The year-old group hopes to establish a faith-based dialogue between sexual, gender and cultural minorities and the rest of society, according to a press release. It plans to gather "queer Muslim scholars and activists who will speak out for the oppressed queer Muslim community, contribute to the creation and development of the LGBTIQ movement especially in so called 'Muslim countries,' and represent its interests in the international religious and human rights arena." For more information, e-mail ivqm.bih@gmail.com. SIBERIAN CITY BANS GAY SINGER The Siberian city of Tyumen banned a Nov. 19 concert by Russian singer Boris Moiseev because he's gay, Radio Free Europe reported. Local officials were persuaded to block the concert by the organization In Defense of Russian Orthodox Morals, which said Moiseev's appearance would have a "damaging influence on youth." Moiseev commented: "In our country, no one takes into consideration the interests of consumers. The authorities think for some reason not about the rights of the people who bought tickets and paid their money but about the anarchists who think they have the right to decide what is good and what is bad." POLES PROTEST ANTI-GAY CRACKDOWN Activists rallied in several Polish cities Nov. 26-27 in protest against the violent police breakup of the gay pride parade in the city of Poznan on Nov. 19. A coalition of organizations calling themselves the Solidarity with Poznan National Committee reportedly staged events in Elblag, Gdansk, Krakow, Lodz, Poznan, Rzeszow, Torun and Warsaw, where more than 1,000 protesters turned out. "The Poznan events - first the cancellation of the March of Equality by Poznan authorities and then the brutal pacification of the peaceful demonstration by the police - have shown that Poland is definitely not a place where law is fully respected," the committee said. "[N]ot only are citizens deprived of the possibility to express their beliefs and ideas, but the authorities let the fascist groups and the police get away with attacking innocent people. Polish democracy requires resuscitation." Poznan Mayor Ryszard Grobelny banned the gay parade based on concerns about "protection of private property." Several dozen gays marched anyhow, and police aggressively arrested some 65 marchers when they responded to orders to halt by sitting down in the street. Meanwhile, Poland's new antigay prime minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, sneaked in a side door of London's Chatham House on Nov. 24 to avoid protesters from the gay-rights group OutRage! and the European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association. Marcinkiewicz was in London to give a lecture. He recently angered gays by telling Newsweek: "The family is natural and the state must stand guard over the family. I don't care if someone is a homosexual or not, and even if I found out something like that, I wouldn't judge a person differently than on their actions alone. But if that person tries to infect others with their homosexuality, then the state must intervene in this violation of freedom." THOUSANDS MARCH IN BUENOS AIRES Thousands of people marched from the Plaza de Mayo to Argentina's Congress in Buenos Aires' 14th gay-pride parade Nov. 20. A lead banner declared, "We want the same rights." Activists are pushing for a national civil-unions law to match the one in effect in the capital city. Six people were arrested when a small group of antigay Catholics tried to prevent the marchers from getting too close to the Metropolitan Cathedral, which sits on one corner of the Plaza de Mayo, where the famous Casa Rosada also is located. Marcher Mariano Lago joked: "At one point, it started raining and we figured God was castigating us for being sodomites and that the end of the world was upon us. But the rain stopped quickly and a rainbow appeared!" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
International Readers |
 
It's new!A blog created by the SGN staff so you can be heard |
"Putting on the Ritz |
The Beauty of Freedom artist's reception |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2005