Tina On Tracy

As commentor Damien Oz said over at Wonderman's blog, "Tina brings the professional, classy, but clear smackdown on Tracy's ass!" Read her comments about Tracy's homophobic tirade below.

"I'm glad to hear that Tracy apologized for his comments. Stand-up comics may have the right to 'work out' their material in its ugliest and rawest form in front of an audience, but the violent imagery of Tracy's rant was disturbing to me at a time when homophobic hate crimes continue to be a life-threatening issue for the GLBT Community."


"It also doesn't line up with the Tracy Morgan I know, who is not a hateful man and is generally much too sleepy and self-centered to ever hurt another person. I hope for his sake that Tracy's apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian coworkers at '30 Rock', without whom Tracy would not have lines to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act with, or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his pocket. The other producers and I pride ourselves on '30 Rock' being a diverse, safe, and fair workplace.

NBA Stars Grant Hill And Jared Dudley Film Anti-Homophobia PSA

Kobe and the Lakers' PSA was good, but this one is better (and filmed under less strenuous circumstances). Basketball stars Grant Hill and Jared Dudley collaborated with GLSEN, the Ad Council and the NBA as part of the "Think B4 You Speak" campaign to confront anti-gay language among teens. According to Rod 2.0, the video was shot the same day that Bryant was caught using an anti-gay slur.

While the Lakers' video places sexual orientation as part of laundry list of groups that should be respected, speaking against homophobia takes center stage in Hill and Dudley's spot. "Using gay to mean dumb or stupid? Not cool. Not in my house, not anywhere. It’s not creative, it’s offensive to gay people and you’re better than that," says Hill in the clip.

Dudley talked about the importance of athletes setting an example. "It's critical to set values. ... It starts with the NBA, because a lot of people look up to the stars [as] role models, the kids want to be you. And if they see how you’re acting toward this, it will definitely sway a lot of people." Watch the clip below ( after dealing with the tsunami of crap that is Donald Trump for last few days, we need a little good news:).

Lil B Receives Death Threats For "I'm Gay" Album Title

I'll be honest. I'm not exactly up on Lil' B's music. I've heard a song here and there--"Pretty Bitch" for example--but that's about the extent of it. But I have to admit he does have heart (and nuts) after announcing at the Coachella festival that his next album would be called I'm Gay. Since then the news has exploded over hip hop blogs and website, with rappers from Killer Mike to Talib Kweli giving their thoughts. Now the rapper says that he's been receiving death threats for his bold album title.

"People been hitting me up like, 'I'm gonna bash your head in,' 'you f----t,' 'I'm gonna kill you,' " Lil B told MTV News. Despite the Twitter-fueled backlash, Lil B, who insists he's straight, remains undaunted and claims he is supportive of the LGBT community. "I'm not gonna stop and I'm not scared of anybody on earth, he said. "I'm very gay, but I love women. I'm not attracted to men in any way. I've never been attracted to a man in my life. But yes I am gay, I'm so happy. "I'm a gay, heterosexual male. I got major love for the gay and lesbian community, and I just want to push less separation and that's why I'm doing it."

So do you think Lil'B is an ally or an opportunist? Listen to the clip of him defending I'm Gay and discuss.

MTV Shows

R.I.P Elizabeth Taylor

The legendary Elizabeth Taylor died this morning of congestive heart failure. She was 79.

Truth be told, I've never been into Elizabeth Taylor.  Let's be honest, most people in my generation know her best for those White Diamonds commercials that still air occasionally, and less for roles like Cleopatra and Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf. But I recognize a true Hollywood icon when I see one.

Moreover, she was one of the first major celebrities (even before my Grand Diva Madonna) to speak out forcefully about the AIDS crisis. She founded the American Foundation For Aids Research (Amfar) after the death of close friend Rock Hudson in 1985, and received a special Academy award for her tireless efforts in 1993.

 As of 2000, she'd raised $120 million for both Amfar and The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.'I am on a crusade against Aids and I'll battle forever even after a cure is found,' she once said.

Rest in peace Liz.

Ravens Linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo Supports Marriage Equality

Via Rod 2.0

So often we hear (or think/assume) of athletes as being homophobic or ignorant when it comes to sexuality. Thankfully Ravens linebacker Brend Ayanbadejo (along with the supersexy Will Demps and Charles Barkley) is not one of those athletes.

Ayanbadejo has been a supporter of marriage equality for years. In 2009 he wrote an piece for the Huffington Post that pointed out the transparent hypocrisy of anti-gay opponents: "If Britney Spears can party it up in Vegas with one of her boys and get married on a whim and annul her marriage the next day, why can’t a loving same sex couple tie the knot?"

Now he's lent his voice to the marriage debate in Maryland, taping a spot as part of Equality Maryland's campaign in an effort to urge others to support equality.
 
"Having the freedom to marry means committed couples and their children will have the same crucial protections under the law as other families. Churches can always have their beliefs, but government is supposed to treat everybody the same, and that’s equal. America is supposed to be the land of the free but in order for this to be true for all of us, then we must have the ability to marry whom we love regardless of their gender."


Fine, articulate and gay-friendly? Glad he's on our side. Watch the video below:

Black Ministers Apologize To LGBT Community

There's a headline you don't see everyday. According SGLUniverse, several Washington D.C. ministers met with LGBT folks to apologize for the treatment they faced at the hands of the church.

Hosted by Pastor Anthony E. Moore and Carolina Missionary Baptist Church on Feb. 19th, the community, local churches and members of the LGBT community were asked to come together for "an opportunity for people to express their thoughts and feelings" on the topic of homosexuality and the church. The dialogue was not to include a dialogue on the theological position on homosexuality. Instead the focus was on the church, the place that is supposed to be a house of love, "was often the most uncaring and unsafe place for these individuals when they were at their most vulnerable."



Pastor Keith Battle, attended on behalf of Zion Church, and pastors from other sponsoring churches included Pilgrim Baptist Church in D.C. and New Vision Church in Bowie, Md.


Pastor Moore offered his apology "pledging to continue the dialogue and to make concerted efforts to make his ministry more inclusive of members of the LGBT community."

A sign of a larger movement or change taking place in the black religious community? Let's hope so. Read the full piece at The Root.

Marsha Ambrosius "Far Away" Video

I know I'm a little late on this (internet connection issues), but I had to comment on this clip. I love how Marsha deals with such heavy subject matter--homophobia, gay-bashing and suicide--in a way that is empathetic and realistic. It's also great to see the two men in the video are out and not two closet DL queens. In an Associated Press article, Ambrosius explained that the video is tribute to those without a voice.

"I lost a friend and I've had friends that have attempted suicide. There are people that don't have a voice to speak out and show what is happening and what can happen, so I just wanted people to see the honesty in it and be aware," she said in an interview from Philadelphia on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old singer, first introduced as one-half of the Grammy-nominated, British soul duo Floetry, says she has a strong gay following — and needs to support it.

"I go to my shows and my audience is predominantly gay ... I've been approached by many who've said my music has influenced them and we'll speak about experiences that they've had. It's just only right that I give that voice back," she said.

Ambrousius's album Late Nights & Early Mornings comes out on February 22nd. Watch the video below:

"Mama Wu" Stands Up For China's Gays

Wu Youjian's son came out to her in 1999. Rather than react with shame like many parents in her country, the 63-year-old retired magazine editor accepted him and has since earned the nickname "Mama Wu" for her tireless activism on behalf of China's LGBT community. According to CNN.com:

Zheng Yuantao, 30, knows how lucky he is to have such a mother.

"Many of my gay friends are afraid of going home during holidays, because their parents would ask about girlfriends and press them to get married," he said.

"I grew up in a very open-minded family," he added. "I didn't have too much of a struggle about my sexuality."

Wu now devotes her time and energy to speaking up for gay acceptance by family and society. Her small frame belies her big role in China's gay community, where she is affectionately called "Mama Wu."
She taught herself to use a computer three years ago and now writes a blog that has clocked more than 2.2 million hits. She also tweets frequently, has launched a hotline and founded the country's first PFLAG - Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays - group in her hometown.

 

"I just followed my instinct and my love for my son," Wu said.

Homosexulity is not illegal in China, but gay activists often face resistance from state authorities including police raids and shutdowns of gay establishments. Wu herself has faced online criticism, but remains undaunted.

"It doesn't matter if our children are gay or straight - just like it doesn't matter if they are left-handed or right-handed," she said. "They are always our children."

Read the whole story here.

President Obama: "It Gets Better"

President Obama contributes his voice to Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" campaign, and I must say it's well needed. With the disturbing trend of LGBT youth suicides, having the president take such an elegant but still forceful stance against bullying is a beautiful thing to see. The adminstration has also created a page for LGBT youth on its website. Watch the clip below:

I Pledge Allegiance To The Gays....

I wonder what Donnie thinks of this. A 10-year old named Will Phillips says he won't say the pledge of allegiance until gays and lesbians get equal rights. Hmmm, when I was 10 I was obsessed with video games. Needless to say I think this is great, and takes a lot of courage, not to mention insight. How many 10-year old activists do you know? Watch the clip below:

And He Was So Cute Too...

Via Out Sports.com

Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson has used three anti-gay slurs in the past 24 hours after he was confronted about using his Twitter account to rip his head coach Todd Haley.

When reporters entered the Chiefs locker room on Monday, Johnson said he was not answering any questions until Thursday. He then uttered this under his breath, according to radio station KCSP and Kent Babb of the Kansas City Star:

“Get your faggot asses out of here.”

Last night, when Johnson got into a Twitter spat with a fan, he called the fan a “fag,” according to Yahoo Sports, which monitored the exchange:

“think bout a clever diss then that wit ur fag pic. Christopher street boy. Is what us east coast cats call u.”

“Christopher street boy” is an obvious reference to gays for the Christopher Street gay pride parade in New York. The fan made mention of Johnson pleading guilty after allegedly spitting in the face of a female bar patron.

Johnson went off on Twitter (his account, once public, is now private) after the Chiefs (1-6) lost to San Diego, 37-7. He wrote that his father had more experience than first-year Chiefs head coach Todd Haley:

“My father played for the coach from “rememeber the titans”. Our coach played golf. My father played for redskins briefley. Our coach. Nuthn”

Johnson has had numerous run-ins with the law:

Johnson has had four arrests for various degrees of battery since being drafted by the Chiefs in 2003. One charge was pled down, with Johnson serving time in a domestic violence diversion program. A second charge was dropped, while two other charges - including the aforementioned spitting incident - were reduced to disturbing the peace. Johnson received probation for a guilty plea in the latter two charges.

“Fag,” “Faggot” and “Christopher street boy.” The NFL (if not the Chiefs) must fine and suspend Larry Johnson or else it condones the use of such language by its players.

Update: NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told Pro Football Talk that the league is investigating what Johnson said. “We are in the process of getting the facts,” he said.


Oh well. There are plenty of other athletes who are hella sexy and don't have a problem with the gays.

Michael Eric Dyson On 'Gay Is The New Black'

This is classic Michael Eric Dyson. Intellectual, passionate and hilarious all at once. Watch the clip below:

Mechad Brooks: "I Won't Marry Until Gays Can"

In an interview with honeymag.com, True Blood's Mechad Brooks(or "His Royal Hotness" as I refer to him lol:), spoke out strongly for gay marriage. When asked about his own plans to get marriage, Brooks said:

I haven’t even gotten that far. But yeah, I want a wife, I want kids. The whole thing. But I’m also not even concerned with marrying somebody until it’s legal for everybody to get married. And what I mean by that is the whole Prop 8 thing.

I find it really offensive. I just find it really problematic when you start throwing people’s rights away. Until we get our gay brothers and sisters back into a realm of consciousness that everyone else is in, it’s just not right. A woman who’s getting married — it’s probably going to be a gay man who made her dress, and a gay man who’s doing her hair and makeup, but he can’t get married. How messed up is that?

Sexy and intelligent. How about that? Mr. Brooks also talks about his aversion to clothing in the interview. Read the rest here.

Jamie Foxx Shouts Out B. Scott, Gay Fans

Well this is a pleasant surprise. On his satellite radio show Jamie Foxx shouts out B. Scott and his gay fans. But what really surprised me was how Jamie shot down one of his co-hosts when they tried to bring up the whole "A gay dude might try to get your booty" stereotype. The link to the clip is below:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/61609268ef858af5/

A Message From Morehouse

In recent years the name Morehouse has become synonymous with homophobia due to incidents such as one in 2002 where a student Gregory Loyd was beaten with a baseball bat by Aaron Price because he mistakenly looked at him shower, thinking it was his roommate.

However, a recent speech by Morehouse president Robert M. Franklin challenged the men of Morehouse to achieve excellence and embrace diversity. While the whole speech, detailed in an op-ed by Washington Post columnist Colbert I. King, is great, this point really stood out:

"Straight men," Franklin said, "should learn more about the outlooks and contributions of gay men. Read a book by a gay author. Have an intelligent conversation with a gay neighbor." Franklin reminded the Morehouse students: "At a time when it was truly scandalous to have homosexual friends or associates, Dr. King looked to Bayard Rustin, a black gay man, as a trusted adviser. And, Malcolm X regarded James Baldwin, a black gay man, as a brilliant chronicler of the black experience."

You can read the rest of the speech here.

h/t Son of Baldwin

Exhibit A: Real Straight Men

Straight black men often have the reputation of harboring hatred and digust towards gay/bi guys. While I've certainly had those kind of encounters with straight men, I've also met those who have been empathetic, accepting and unthreatened by my sexuality. And these brothers don't always get enough shine. Via Living Out With Darian, here's a video of the Hodge twins, two straight guys giving advice to those who are afraid to come out to friends and family. The video is funny and encouraging. Not to mention the boys are easy on the eyes:).

John Lewis Defends Gay Marriage

Looks like Rev. Al Sharpton isn't the only leader supportive of marriage equality. Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, smacks down anti-gay pastors and those who think gay rights are not civil rights:

Terry Gross: (At the 22:00 mark) I want to quote something that you wrote in an op-ed piece in October of 003, and this was about gay rights and the right for gay people to marry. You wrote, “I have fought too hard and for too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation. I’ve heard the reasons for opposing civil marriage for same-sex couples. Cut through the distractions, and they stink of the same fear, hatred and intolerance I have known in racism and in bigotry.” …I’ve heard some African-American leaders say that it’s wrong to make a connection between the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement because discrimination against African-Americans and discrimination against gays are completely different things. And being gay and being black are completely different things. What’s your take on that?

Rep. Lewis: Well, I do not buy that argument. I do not buy that argument. And today I think more than ever before, we have to speak up and speak out to end discrimination based on sexual orientation. Dr. King used to say when people talked about blacks and whites falling in love and getting married — you know one time in the state of Virginia, in my native state of Alabama, in Georgia and other parts of the South, blacks and whites could not fall in love and get married. And Dr. King took a simple argument and said races don’t fall in love and get married. Individuals fall in love and get married. It’s not the business of the federal government, it’s not the business of the state government to tell two individuals that they cannot fall in love and get married. And so I go back to what I said and wrote those lines a few years ago, that I fought too long and too hard against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up and fight and speak out against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

And you hear people “defending marriage.” Gay marriage is not a threat to heterosexual marriage. It is time for us to put that argument behind us.
You cannot separate the issue of civil rights. It is one of those absolute, immutable principles. You’ve got to have not just civil rights for some, but civil rights for all of us.

Terry Gross: And when you say not civil rights for some, you even mean civil rights for African-Americans and for gay people too?

Rep. Lewis: Not just civil rights for African-Americans or other minorities, but civil rights also for gay people.

Lewis was heavily involved in the movement, serving as head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which lead many sit-ins, and were also the victims of the violent attacks displayed on national television. Lewis himself was beaten at the march on Selma by Alabama State Troopers. Clearly he, Coretta Scott King and fellow ally Julian Bond, know what they're talking about when speaking about LGBT rights.

Wow. Pro-gay comments from two powerful, straight black male leaders in less than two weeks. Change must really be comin':). Listen to the NPR podcast here.

Rod 2.0: John Lewis: "Gay Marriage Not a Threat to Heterosexuals"

Get 'Em Al!

I won't lie. I have some issues with Rev. Al Sharpton. Sometimes I think he (and Jesse for that matter) blow incidents out of proportion and run to the media only to increase their own profiles. But when you're right you right.

The reverend read black megachurches like a bedtime story for focusing less on poverty and police brutality and more on dictating gay folks' lives:

"There is something immoral and sick about using all of that power to not end brutality and poverty, but to break into people's bedrooms and claim that God sent you," Sharpton told a full house on Sunday.

"It amazes me," he said, "when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being [relegated] into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners."

"I am tired," he went on, "of seeing ministers who will preach homophobia by day, and then after they're preaching, when the lights are off they go cruising for trade...[emphasis mine]We know you're not preaching the Bible, because if you were preaching the Bible we would have heard from you. We would have heard from you when people were starving in California--when they deregulated the economy and crashed Wall Street you had nothing to say. When [accused Ponzi scammer] Madoff made off with the money, you had nothing to say. When Bush took us to war chasing weapons of mass destruction that weren't there you had nothing to say.

"But all of a sudden, when Proposition 8 came out, you had so much to say, but since you stepped in the rain, we're going to step in the rain with you."

Sharpton has supported full marriage equality for years, and hasn't been shy about criticizing anti-gay black churches.

"It's not a question of bringing the issue of the gay and lesbian community to the church," he said in 2006. "It's about having an open discussion because they're already there," he said. "All of us know that this is nothing new. The only thing new is to have an open discussion on how we deal with it."

"Adultery broke up more marriages than gays did," he added, revealing that a member of his family was gay and dismissing the notion that gays were a "threat" to marriage.

Ministers cruising for trade when the lights go off? Sounds like somethin' I'd say;).