The 34th Annual Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival: topless womyn, Melissa Ferrick ASL fisting fun, priestess toe workshops and life-changing spiritual auras! DIY Crafting Expert Laneia gives you the fully hilarious scoop on how to make your own cute magnets!.
Photoblogger Robin and her girlfriend Carlytron visited Provincetown’s Annual Carnival and brought back some beautiful photos just for you!
ALSO GUESS WHAT IT’S INTERN X’S BIRTHDAY Y’ALL!
NOMNOMNOM: Profile of Brian Brown, Executive Director of the National Organization for Marriage– “Opposing Gay Unions with Sanity and a Smile”: The Washington Post has a significant feature article on National Organization for Marriage Executive Director Brian Brown, who “tries to help people see that opposing gay marriage does not make them bigots, that the argument should have nothing to do with hate or fear, and everything to do with history and tradition.” Brown, with a Master’s Degree from Oxford & UCLA doctorate work under his belt, started off his Career in Sexual Judgment working to fight against condom distribution in schools. He avoids religion when he makes his case, and insists that the fact that young people approve gay marriage and older ones don’t is because “people mature.” In your biased opinion, do you think the writer of this piece was biased enough? (We don’t). What is your favorite part (Is it the stuff the wife says? She says some amazingly ridiculous stuff)? Does he scare you, too? Are you mad at The Washington Post for publishing this malarky?
Well, never fear –Media Matters calls bullshit on the WaPo for their Brian Brown profile, wondering why information obtained about NOM via a 20-minute google search was so liberally ignored. E.g., NOM’s statement that: “The dark secret of homosexual society — the one that dares not speak its name — is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse, and how many of them yearn to get out of the homosexual community and live normally.”
OH AND BTW MAGGIE GALLAGHER LOVES THE ARTICLE.
LADY GAGA: In livelier news, Lady Gaga has done her 400th photo shoot of the year (right) for Neo, a Spanish magazine. She sure is busy. I wonder what the next big thing will be
TRANSSEXUAL TRENDING TOPIC: In other news, “research gathered from more than a dozen major sources – including Alexa, Google and Internet World Stats – reveals that nearly 190 million heterosexual men are attracted to transsexual women and actively seek romantic contact with or sexually explicit images of them annually.” I like how people can write articles like this as if it’s possible to contextualize and blithely faux-appreciate bajillions of trannsexual persons as a “trend.” It’s so humanizing!!! Here: Pam breaks it down for you. (@the examiner)
VOTE: The Victory Fund, a group that works to elect LGBT people to public office, has identified eight more aspiring politicians they hope to see sworn in shortly. (@theadvocate)
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: Vermont’s gay marriage law is set to go into effect on Tuesday, September 1st. Everyone’s getting ready for a lot of tears of happiness, cake, etc. and meanwhile in Iowa people are actually TRAVELING! to! Iowa! to get married!
EMMYS: The Daytime Emmys happened on Sunday August 30th. Ellen DeGeneres & Portia De Rossi went. Big Bird went. We all went. It was anarchy! Actually it was, ’cause Rachel Ray beat Ellen again (Ellen won for four straight years, the past two she has now lost to Rachel’s 10 AM meatballs) I guess they figure now that she’s married to Portia, she really doesn’t need to win any awards. Like she can just go home with Portia, you know? That’s golden.
JAYCEE LEE DUGARD: Who are the people in your neighborhood? Sometimes, I suppose, we’d all rather live near strangers than know the truth about what’s really going on next door. (@jezebel)
WOMYN: These ladies have very cute voices, very smart feelings, and very good taste in feminist websties (thumbs up to Autostraddle & Jezebel, ixnay on the doublexxnay) (sidenote: I think Double XX thinks feminism is trendy and therefore a Good Idea for Slate, but feminism isn’t trendy and never will be, c’mon feminism isn’t a slap bracelet). Check out what ladder.
PROP 8 CASE: Gay pride and prejudice – editorial introduces the questions we’ll be facing in January — “Is sexual orientation inborn or a choice? Can it be changed? If so, should it be changed? Do gay and lesbian partners make good parents? As good as straight parents? Do homosexuals contribute as much to society as heterosexuals? Would their marriages harm the unions of heterosexual couples and the institution of marriage?” (@latimes)
AUSTRALIA GAYS: This is Oz: Speak up for an Inclusive Australia.
THE SADS: More on how Kennedy, now dead, was a fierce advocate of the Gays: Kennedy/Obama: Does the Dream Live On? It was no surprise that Senator Kennedy highlighted the issue of “straight against gay,” because he was … the “strongest voice in the United States Senate for the LGBT community.” (@huffpo)
GLEE: Sneak peeks from Glee – Episode 1.02 – Showmance.
Auto-Straddler of the Day
Intern Daphne:
What can I say, I’m bored a lot.
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Riese:
“Much of the discussion that’s going to dominate this [New York Times MAGAZINE] article in the media, is that it maybe costs $400,000 to produce a piece of brilliant, lengthy investigative journalism … What’s going to happen to investigative journalism because of blogs? … Who’s going to pay for the next Watergate? Or the next Torture Memo? And what kind of models are going to emerge from it?” Something to think about, baby birds… Something to think about.
from Alex:
Smashing magazine asks: what would the internet look like if famous graphic artists from history were web designers?
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It’s all about the way things have always been done.
Really, Brian? If things were to be done as they have always been done there would be no major upheaval or change in any society ever. Women would be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen and no where near a voting booth, dinosaurs would roam the earth and cell phones would still weigh 13 pounds.
Knowledge of history is important so that we may learn from past mistakes not to continue to make them.
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As for the wife… The kids don’t need Brian “walking in the door because he’s another person. They need him because he’s a man.”…Why?
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, INTERN X!!!
OTG OTG OTG (oh their god) Brian and Sue: terrified by change. Do they use cell phones? Because that’s also a novelty of the past 10 years or so. Never seen in history before, you know.
i tried to get through the brown piece, i really did. i made it to page 3, but then he used the word “irrational” for the 100th time to describe people accusing him of prejudice and i just decided to close the window and start drinking.
GAAAHHH you know what’s IRRATIONAL, brian? not giving two shits about children having an emotionally stable and loving household, just so long as there’s a PEEN and a VADGE there! makes it automatically healthy! what else is IRRATIONAL? PREVENTING SEX EDUCATION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE! stop those condoms! we want PREGNANT TEENS who have no access to RESOURCES! this is the way to a brighter america, people, why can’t brian catch a break? stop calling him a bigot, it’s so unfair! this is his LIFE’S WORK! it’s all about TRADITION! you know what else is IRRATIONAL, brian? championing “tradition” while your country systematically tries to dismantle the “oppressive” traditions of other cultures and replace them with their own! because WE decide what’s oppressive! and marriage isn’t oppressive to anyone! never mind that it used to be just so that privileged white men could pass on private property, never mind that there have been feminist critiques for decades of how oppressive marriage is for STRAIGHT women! hey brian – if your whole argument is based on the fact that this is how it’s always been, then i expect you to write that argument on a STONE TABLET while wearing a LOINCLOTH and dying of TB.
..then i expect you to write that argument on a STONE TABLET while wearing a LOINCLOTH and dying of TB.
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LOL! FTW!
Thank you for that dose of amazingess.
I am reminded of Tina Fey-as-Sarah-Palin opposing same-sex marriage because”marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers,” as a reference to the marriage Palin approved between her pregnant daughter and her boyfriend which obvs never happened, although Palin opposed same sex marriage.
REALLY JUST I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF THE “A FAMILY NEEDS A MAN AND A WOMAN” ARGUMENT. That’s a valid argument if you were arguing against, say, marraige between people who don’t want to have children, or arguing against divorce. Not that either of those arguments are good arguments, but at least the ‘point’ that “a family needs a man and a woman” would be a logically sound counterpoint for those debates.
ALSO clearly his wife is whipped by the Power of the Pene, she didn’t think one way or the other about gay marriage til he came into her life and now her mind has been Altered by his Manliness. Probs it takes a lot of rationalizing to justify that kind of influence, therefore she has no choice but to believe the patriarchy is necessary.
I actually feel like I just made no sense at all. I guess I do have something in common with Brian Brown after all.
No I agree. If Medically Assisted Procreation were not a reality they might have had a point. Ok half a point. (A third). BUT TODAY saying vagina-penis rubbing is the BEST WAY of creating children is just trash.
I am really sad that I am called a woman just like this penis-stupefied vegetable.
It was once irrational to think the Earth is round. We’ve always believed the Earth is flat. The majority of people think the earth is flat, everybody but that idiot Galileo, so it must be true. I mean the majority is NEVER wrong.
“Two Million for Marriage, the organization’s push to rally online activists around the country, was similarly unfortunate: Apparently no one at NOM had realized that 2M4M, the hip-sounding tag they’d chosen for the initiative, is also the abbreviation favored by gay couples looking for a threesome. ”
^Fail or win? I can’t quite decide.
“And then he’s out the door, going off to quietly crusade for the hearts and minds of people who, like Brown, pride themselves on being rational, mainstream and sane.”
^I feel like describing yourself as “rational, mainstream and sane” kind of takes away all of your credibility on the matter.
i love that they named their campaign “2M4M.” love it. idiots.
2M4M wants you! come BARE your signs and BLOW your whistles with people JUST LIKE YOU. the turnout will be a SHOCKER! we must not let the gays TAINT marriage! join us afterwards for delicious TOSSED SALAD and SAUSAGES!
guys, I think bcw’s mad. I haven’t read the article so I’m not mad yet but when I do I’m going to come back and shout too.
Shout, shout, Emily, shout!
Okay I read the article and I’m not going to shout because I don’t even think it’s worth it. Like most arguments against gay marriage, it’s pretty laughable.
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“Jackson says Brown and NOM “have a sense of dignity about human beings. They simply believe that marriage between a man and a woman is the best for society. But they’re not gay bashers.” ”
No, of course not.
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I’m amazed this guy has a PhD and then tried to prevent distrubution of condoms in schools.
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Also, OBVIOUSLY he has gay friends and family. Didn’t we already hear about this from someone else who also has a PhD in stupidity? (hint: sarah palin)
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He’s trying to brainwash his wife WHY WOULD SHE EVER MARRY HIM if only more people would adopt the same attitude she had then there wouldn’t even be a question of gay marriage.
“(Ellen won for four straight years, the past two she has now lost to Rachel’s 10 AM meatballs) I guess they figure now that she’s married to Portia, she really doesn’t need to win any awards. Like she can just go home with Portia, you know? That’s golden.”
I <3 you autostraddle.
Great, a sympathetic bigot.
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There’s always room for more bias. And if you can’t get enough of Monica Hesse, here’s a slightly better attempt with her take on the outcome of Prop. 8: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/07/AR2008110703665.html
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Best part? This is sadly the closest you get to sane and rational. “But I didn’t think about them wanting to get married.” And once she did: “Initially, I probably thought, well, what’s the big deal if they do? What does it have to do with me?”
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The Brown dude isn’t scary. He’s trying not to be scary. That’s the whole point: veiling bigotry behind smiles and “sanity” (which I take to mean as he’s not foaming at the mouth with anger like some of his counterparts?).
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I can’t say I’m mad at The Washington Post publishing this. I guess they want to seem less liberal and more in the middle? I’m more mad at the depiction of Brown as an ordinary and mainstream American. From the little browsing I did on Hesse (bio, other articles), I’m not convinced that she herself is really as anti-gay as she seems in this article. I’d more readily accuse her of being a crappy journalist, sadly trying to speak to what she perceives as “real” Americans.
I’m only on page 9 on the ny times article about the hospital but its already v sobering. Also very clear how good the journalism involved is. Definately makes me think about what will happen if print media does ‘die’, you’re totally right; its the investigative journalism that will suffer without the platform or support. It’ll be terrible if we just have internet splashes that last 1 news cycle and don’t affect justice at all from now on. I used to daydream about being a badass investigative reporter when i was younger(obvs it will never happen), as it seemed to be alot about social justice. Argh. I am now freaking out- probs will go and buy a paper tomorrow out of guilt!