True Colors Tour Benefiting HRC (Human Rights Campaign)

I got this letter from HRC. If you are able to show support by watching the video and perhaps sending a letter to your congressional representative, then please do.

Dear Keith,

When you've been fighting discrimination for as long as I have, you develop a fairly thick skin. But I'll admit, the first time I saw this video, I got chills. It was produced for Cyndi Lauper's True Colors tour benefiting HRC, and it's now showing at concerts across the country.

Please watch the video, and share it with everyone you know.



This stirring video has the power to motivate THOUSANDS MORE people to take action for the Matthew Shepard Act.

And that's exactly what we need to do. As I write this, angry radical right-wing leaders are using scare tactics to fire up their base against the Matthew Shepard Act. They're saying it could "send pastors to prison for simply reading a part of the Bible." It's absurd.

Even worse: despite our House victory, we're hearing from Senate staffers that opponents of the Matthew Shepard Act are still beating us five to one in emails, calls, and letters.

Five to one. With the vote approaching and many senators still undecided, we simply cannot allow this to continue. So I'm asking you to turn that ratio around.

Watch the video - and share it with at least FIVE friends.

The vast majority of Americans support the Matthew Shepard Act. There are, quite simply, more of us. But our senators are hearing from more of them.

If every one of us tells five friends to watch the video and take action, we'll make sure they get the message: hate will not win.

Warmly,
Joe Solmonese
President

Poland: Ban of Warsaw Gay Pride in 2005 Violated Euro Human Rights – Court Rules (Gay Wired)

Score! From GayWired.com, the EU smacks down Poland's homophobic president:

The then Mayor of Warsaw, Lech Kaczynski , who is now President of Poland, violated three Articles of the European Convention of Human Rights when he banned Warsaw Gay Pride in 2005, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday morning.

New Mexico Holocaust & Intolerance Museum Nazi Homosexual Persecution Exhibit Will Open

I assume this is a press release. We will be attending this, and you should too regardless whether you are gay or not.

Albuquerque, NM. - On April 29, the New Mexico Holocaust & Intolerance Museum opens the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's traveling exhibition, Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945. During World War II, thousands of homosexuals, primarily gay men, perished at the hands of the Nazis in concentration camps, along with six million Jews and five million other victims who included Roma (Gypsies), Poles, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the handicapped.

The exhibition will run through June 16 at the New Mexico Holocaust & Intolerance Museum's Albuquerque headquarters, 415 Central Avenue Northwest, next to the KiMo Theatre.

The exhibition contains 28 panels depicting the Nazi ideology of persecution of homosexuals, drawing on materials from more than 40 archives in eight countries. "The exhibition explores why homosexual behavior was identified as a danger to Nazi society and how the Nazi regime attempted to eliminate it," says curator Edward Phillips. "The Nazis believed it was possible to 'cure' homosexual behavior through labor and 're-education.' As their efforts to eradicate homosexuality grew more draconian, gay men were subjected to castration, institutionalization and deportation to concentration camps."

Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested for violating Germany's law against homosexuality and about 50,000 received sentences. Most spent time in regular prisons. An estimated 5, 000 to 15,000 were sent to concentration camps where an unknown number of them perished.

Jerry Small, chair of the local organizing committee, says that the exhibition features a painting by Howard Cooper titled, IN HONOR OF THE ANCESTORS - IN PRAISE OF THE TRIBE, an artistic homage to the outstanding contribution homosexual, bisexual and transgender people have made to humanity throughout history, up to and including the present day. The painting, which will be shown to the public for the first time, measures 70" x 70", and the medium is spray enamel on canvas. "In honoring and praising these men and women and their contribution, we participate positively in the continuing quest for equal rights for all homosexual, bisexual, and transgender people," Small adds.

The exhibit's sponsors are Albuquerque Pride, KUNM-FM, albuquerqueARTS, New Mexico Voice, The Alibi, PFLAG New Mexico and Equality New Mexico.

Details:

The exhibition will run through June 16 at 415 Central NW, next to the KiMo Theatre. The Museum will be open from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.The New Mexico Holocaust and Intolerance Museum is a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico. The Museum will pay for bus transportation from public schools in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. A teacher's guide will be provided to anyone bringing a school group. Middle or high school teachers can call 247-0606 to schedule a visit.

Gay Rights Activists Get Arrested in Mississippi

5 Equality Riders were arrested in Clinton, Mississippi yesterday and face several days in prison. Help spread the word and contact the Clinton Police Department and Mississippi's Attorney General's office to free these young people.

read more | digg story

Senator McCain: I'll take the religious right's 5% to the gay population's 10% for $2,000, Alex

I'm really starting to like Dan Savage. He comments on Presidential Candidate John McCain's royal stupidity about AIDS:

Q: "So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?"

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "You’ve stumped me."

Q: "I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?"

Mr. McCain: (Laughs) "Are we on the Straight Talk express? I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception – I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it."

Russian Lawmakers Move To Recriminalize Homosexuality

Just like the US Congress, not every one of the lawmakers in the Russian parliament are idiots. But some Russian lawmakers move to recriminalize homosexuality. After the earlier news that some idiots in Nigeria want to do the same thing, I have to wonder if this is a trend or a coincidence.

The bill, introduced into Russia's lower house by Deputy Nikolay Kuryanovich, is nearly identical to the 1933 criminal code under Stalin, which made homosexuality punishable by five years of hard labor.

If passed, the legislation would also essentially ban gay Pride parades or meetings.

Gay sex was decriminalized in 1993 as a result of Communism's fall. Up until the 1980s, gays and lesbians were routinely committed to hospitals for reparative therapy, which involved taking psychotropic drugs.

Is this all because some people didn't want a gay Pride parage in Russia? People, change the channel if you don't like what's on.

read more

Nigeria Moves To Outlaw Gay Sex

And I thought it was just the US whose politicians pandered to peoples fears of those who are "different". The bill, which could become law before April's elections, proposes a five-year sentence for anyone convicted of being openly gay or practicing gay sex.

What idiots run that country?

read more | digg story

A Hidden Life: Being Gay in Rural China

Xiao Wang fondles the Pisces charm draped around his neck as he drags on his cigarette. "I gave the same one to my boyfriend," he says as he smiles and leans back in his chair in his dorm room.

Wang, a 21-year-old college student in a large sprawling city in south central China, chats comfortably and confidently about his life, his sexuality and his doubts and hopes for the future. But back in his small rural hometown, he lives with the burden of a secret that he must, at least for now, keep from his family.

"I cannot tell them," he explains. "My life, my money, my school -- it is all from my family. I have no job. My father gives me everything. When I get a job and can live on my own, then, I think I must tell them. I want to tell them."