Mississippi Damned, The Man Who Loved Yngve, and Off and Running Grab Top Outfest Prizes

Outfest, the 27th Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, wrapped up this weekend, and the jury award for best American dramatic feature went to Tina Mabry's Mississippi Damned, an autobiographical saga of a Mississippi family's cycle of abuse, addiction, and violence.



The international feature award went to Norwegian filmmaker Stian Kristiansen's The Man Who Loved Yngve (Mannen som elsket Yngve), a tale of a conflicted young man, Jarle, in love with a male classmate named Yngve.



The documentary feature prize went to Nicole Opper’s Off And Running, a film about Avery, an African-American teenager with white Jewish lesbians for parents and two adopted brothers (one mixed-race, one of Korean heritage) who sets on a journey to explore her own questions of race, culture, identity, and family.



Congratulations to all for offering us these amazing perspectives on our very diverse community.

Appalling Homophobia and Racism on CBS's Big Brother 11

Check out the shocking homophobic language on CBS's Big Brother 11 used by Jeff Schroeder in reference to fellow contestants Russell Kairouz and Jessie Godderz.



"Go upstairs and fucking jerk off Jessie you fucking homo...you fucking jealous fags..."

And the bigotry doesn't end there. Here's a clip where cast member Braden Bacha calls Kevin Campbell a "beaner" (an inappropriate and derogatory term that refers to people of Mexican descent) and tells him to "go back to Mexico."



Ahh, the ignorance. Kevin, by the way, is of African-American and Japanese, not Mexican, heritage.

As Lyle Masaki at AfterElton points out, house guests on the UK version of Big Brother have been quickly evicted for using similar slurs. This evidently is not the case with the US version of the show. I wonder why.

Braden, however, did end up being voted out of the Big Brother house on Thursday.

American Episcopal Church Authorizes Drafting of Official Liturgy for Same-sex Couples

With the American Episcopal Church on Wednesday moving further to embrace gays in its membership by authorizing the drafting of a blessing explicitly for same-sex couples, much controversy has been stirred up from both liberal and conservative members. From Newsy.com comes this report that nicely summarizes some of the major issues.



"The church is ideally supposed to be faithful to timeless teachings that have been presented to the church through its scripture and through its traditions." Mark Tooley

I don't think so, Mr. Tooley.

Openly gay actors Neil Patrick Harris, Cherry Jones, and Sir Ian McKellen get Emmy nods

Hats off to openly gay actors Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother), Cherry Jones (24), and Sir Ian McKellen (King Lear) for their nominations, announced Thursday, for the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

Neil Patrick Harris will also host the 20 September ceremony.

Nice.

Pakistan to Recognize Transgender Individuals

In response to a petition filed by Dr. Mohammad Aslam Khaki, the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday directed its government to officially survey, register, and provide financial support to its transgender population of roughly 400,000.

From Dawn.com:

"The bench remarked that being Muslims as well as human beings, parents of such gender-confused children should look after them without discrimination but, it lamented, they throw them on roads to suffer throughout their lives."

After years of discrimination and exploitation during which transgender persons in Pakistan have often been refused entry to schools and hospitals, turned down properties for rent or purchase, and have even been denied formal burial rites after death, this recognition of the community as a protected minority is an historic step.

Hurrah!

Read more about the ruling here.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell in Professional and Personal Relationships

For what's it's worth, I support the American Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in its effort to end "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" (DADT), the federal law that bans qualified men and women from serving openly in the military because of their sexual orientation, and I still can't get around the idea that more than 12,000 American service members have been dismissed since 1994 because it became known they were gay. Meanwhile, in at least 25 nations, including Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, and Israel, gays can serve openly in the armed forces.

DADT seems almost like an insult to the collective of American soldiers, as U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said in a USA Today article, "I take it as a personal affront to our warriors. To say that other countries' soldiers are professional enough to handle this and American soldiers aren't is really a slap in the face."

On a personal level, I know gay people in open relationships who also have a "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy concerning their extra-relationship activities. Basically, it involves the implicit sentiment of "Deceive me" required from both parties. From my experience, and from those of the people I know, this kind of agreement has lead to conflict, misunderstanding, and suspicion, to say the least.

Doesn't it generally make good sense that in any relationship, professional or personal, having nothing to hide means having one less group of problems with which to deal?

I'm just saying.

Myths about Bisexuality

My friend Ramon Johnson over at About.com has come up with a short list of the top myths about bisexual men propagated by both heterosexual and homosexual communities. As Ramon points out, "The thought of a person that is attracted to both men and women can be confusing and frequently leads to misconceptions and stereotypes." And, as we all know, stereotypes interfere with the idea that we are multidimensional human beings who cannot be easily strung together with a single label that has but one definition.

Myth 1: Bisexuality Is Only A Phase
Myth 2: Bi Men Have To Choose To Be Either Gay or Straight
Myth 3: Bisexual Men Are Sexually Confused
Myth 4: Bisexual Men Will Never Marry
Myth 5: Bi Men Are Sexually Promiscuous

Thank you, Ramon, for reminding us that myths, those re-utterances from the collective and imagined commentary of society, can act as great obstacles on the road to self-acceptance.

Beware the myth, and love yourself!

For myth details, click here.

'Pervert' Travels in the Muslim World - Michael Luongo's Book is translated into Arabic

Michael Luongo's 2007 anthology, Gay Travels in the Muslim World has just been translated into Arabic by the Beirut-based publisher Arab Diffusion and is being distributed in the Middle East. However, much to the shock of the author, the word used to translate "gay" is an old word in Arabic that means "pervert."

As Luongo told the The Advocate:

"It literally means 'different.' But it can also mean 'pervert.' It depends on whom you talk to...All of the gay rights organizations in the Middle East that I was planning to do events with, once they saw the word, were horrified."

Yikes! Well, at least the book has been translated into Arabic, the first of its kind from English, and let's remember that in the United States, during Stonewall times only 40 years ago, the word "pervert" was in fact widely used to describe gay men. Global timelines of progress don't always correspond.

Ahh, if only we all spoke the same language...

Read more about the mishap at The Advocate.

Duncan James comes out as bisexual

Duncan James, English singer, actor, and television presenter, of the popular British boy band Blue (2001-2005) has come out as bisexual in an interview with UK tabloid News of the World.

Bravo for strength and courage! It can't be easy to reveal this kind of information to millions of fans, but as Blue are in the midst of preparations for a 2009 reunion tour, for Duncan, the News of the World interview was a propitious opportunity:

"I don't feel I should launch a big comeback with Blue hiding this - I don't want to go back to the time in the band when I felt I had to keep certain things quiet. I want to be OUT and say I've had relationships with men as well as women. So doing this interview gives me the ability to go forward."

Hear ye and hear him!

Raised a strict catholic, Duncan first fell in love with a man eight years ago, and since then he has been with men and women, and fathered a daughter with his ex-girlfriend Claire Granger. One of the gems of the interview is when Duncan explains how he came out to his mother during a trip to Los Angeles:

"I was looking down and avoiding her eyes. I said, 'I need to talk to you'. She said, 'Oh my God, what's wrong, are you all right?' I responded, 'I need to tell you something. I've been in a relationship with a guy and I'm really confused about it. I haven't been able to talk to anyone for a couple of years.' She hugged me and couldn't believe it. She said, 'I thought you were going to tell me you were dying or something. Hundreds of people have had things with guys as well as girls. I love you, that doesn't matter to me.' We were flooded with tears. It had come out. I'd told my mum and she still loved me. I went up to my room after and sat on my bed crying. I realised, 'I can do this.' It gave me the strength to start opening up to my close friends."

Beautiful!

Male bisexuals in particular have few public role models, so this is a big step on the road of progress. Thanks for sharing your story, Duncan James.

Check out the full interview here.

Homosexuality can be cured by Yoga!

It was bound to happen. After the recent judgement by the Delhi High Court that homosexuality should be decriminalized, opposition has arrived. Swami Baba Ramdev, an influential new age guru, filed a challenge Thursday saying that homosexuality was a "disease" that could be "cured" by yoga.

From the AFP:

"[Homosexuality] can be treated like any other congenital defect. Such tendencies can be treated by yoga, pranayama (breathing exercises) and other meditation techniques."

How does he know?

Hmmmm.

Of course, Swami Baba Ramdev is among many religious groups and conservatives who say same-sex relationships threaten the fabric of traditional Indian society (we all know the spiel), but what these people don't understand is that same-sex relationships, while perhaps hidden, have always been there. We gay people have been intricate, constant, and necessary threads in the fabric of society for a long, long time.

Read more.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley sues the U.S. Government

Massachusetts, the first American state to legalize gay marriage, sued the U.S. government Wednesday over a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Hurrah!

According to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act, aka DOMA, violates the US Constitution by interfering with the right of Massachusetts to define and regulate marriage as it sees fit. The lawsuit focuses on the section of DOMA that creates a federal definition of marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife. Prior to DOMA, the U.S. federal government recognized that defining marital status was the exclusive prerogative of the states. Ms. Coakley contends that Congress intruded into a matter that should have been left to the states.

DOMA bars married same-sex couples from getting more than 1000 marriage-related benefits that their heterosexual counterparts enjoy, including health insurance for spouses of federal employees and tax deductions for couples who jointly file federal income tax returns.

One more time.

DOMA bars married same-sex couples from getting more than 1000 marriage-related benefits that their heterosexual counterparts enjoy, including health insurance for spouses of federal employees and tax deductions for couples who jointly file federal income tax returns.

Read more.

Phillip Comes Out Alive and Gay on The Young and the Restless; Thom Bierdz returns with life experience

I came across this clip from the episode of the Tuesday 7 July episode of the American soap opera The Young and the Restless in which Phillip Chancellor III (played by openly gay actor, painter, and author Thom Bierdz) explains to former wife Nina Webster (Tricia Cast) why he faked his death and abandoned his family.



I think the dialogue here might strike a chord with many gay men who may not have faked their own deaths (ha!), but who have indeed run far away from their families and loved ones in order to come to terms with being gay.

Phillip: I felt ashamed
Nina: And you thought that I wouldn't understand shame.
Phillip: Not mine.
Nina: Because of the drinking?
Phillip: No. No. The drinking. That was just a symptom. That wasn't the cause of it.
Nina: Well then what? You said that you felt like you were letting us down, but you weren't.
Phillip: Oh, I knew what was expected of me. I did what was expected. I was acting a part.
Nina: And you felt trapped?
Phillip: Yeah.
Nina: The marriage?
Phillip: In my own skin. That's what you guys have to understand. Before anything else, this is not about you. It's not about mom. It's not about Katherine. This is about me. It's about the truth I have been hiding all this time.
Nina: What truth?
Phillip: I'm gay. I've always been gay.

Thom Bierdz first played Phillip Chancellor III on The Young and the Restless from 1986-1989. At that time, he was told by his management to hide his sexuality and that coming out would ruin his career and any chances of fulfilling his dreams. After he left the show to pursue a movie career, he lived a shocking personal drama, which he documented in his book Forgiving Troy. Today, his return to The Young and the Restless is in many ways a victory over adversity and a sign of changing times.

Read more about Thom Bierdz's out of the ordinary life on his website.

Les incroyables aventures de Fusion Man - a Gay Superhero!

One of five short films that won the French contest Jeune et homo sous le regard des autres, "Les incroyables aventures de Fusion Man," written by 21-year-old film student David Halphen, is about a white French gay superhero involved in making the world a better for you and for me and the entire human race, including his French boyfriend, who happens to be of Asian descent.

Check it out:



Who doesn't love a gay superhero?

Directed by Xavier Gens and Marius Vale, the film stars Raphaël Personnaz, Frédéric Chau, Mélanie Bernier, Félix Moati, and Patrick Ligardes, and is also on view at the Canal+ website.

Israeli artist Raphael Perez

Have a look at these fantastic images of paintings from the oeuvre of the exceptional Israeli artist Raphael Perez, who was born in 1965, raised in Jerusalem, and currently resides and works in Tel Aviv. He is a graduate of the Jerusalem School of Visual Arts where he studied from 1988 through 1992 and where many of his acrylic, oil, laminated wood pieces, and drawings can be found.





Perez's creations predominantly address relationships of all kinds, including those of single-sex families, and thus represents well the diversity of our community within the larger context of everyday life.



Wonderfully intimate stuff!

You can check out more works at Raphael Perez's website.

Thanks Rafi!

Virtual Screening of NY Filmmaker David Barclay Moore's "Realness," Chronicling the Life of a Black Female to Male Transgender

Mark the date and time Thursday 9 July at 20:00 EST in your agendas for an online screening of the short film "Realness," from David Barclay Moore, about a chapter in the life of Tika, a black female in the process of becoming a male in Brooklyn, New York. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with David Barclay Moore.

The documentary is part of the Masculinity Project, an American multimedia initiative launched by the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) and the San Francisco-Based Independent Television Service (ITVS) to explore issues facing black men in the 21st century. The weekly virtual screenings of shorts showcased in the Masculinity Project will continue through 30 July. "Dr. Al's Rebels," a second film by Moore featuring a black male gay couple raising children and running a household, is also included as part of the project.

Screenings are held Thursdays at 20:00 EST and can be viewed at the NBPC’s Virtual Lounge and Screening Room.

"Realness" is a fascinating short film that offers all kinds of insights into transgender sexuality and identity in a segment of African-American culture. I love it, and I think you might too.