Take Care Of Each Other

I'd Rather Be Different Than Be The Same

At the risk of revealing my true age, I must say that I am a longtime fan of "Mama" Cass Elliott (she late of the 60s musical pop family, The Mamas and the Papas) . I am also a longtime fan of the old Saturday morning live-action fantasy show H.R. Pufnstuf from the wonderfully-warped-and-obviously-pharmaceutically-altered minds of the deliciously-but-mostly-benignly-demented duo of brothers, Sid & Marty Krofft. I loved all their live-action Saturday morning stuff: The Bugaloos, Lidsville, Sigmund & The Sea Monsters, and Land of The Lost (BTW, even all these years later, the Sleestak still freak me out, but I kept watching every Saturday...actually, I think it was because I had a crush on the character Will played my Wesley Eure, who--as it turned out--is also gay! Obviously, that cutie Will trumped the scary Sleestak for me! :-)...but I digress....

I was perusing YouTube, as I apt to do from time to time, looking up songs by Mama Cass, and I found a video clip of a song I had never heard before. A new Mama Cass song for me to experience was wonderful enough by itself, but to know that she did it dressed as a witch for a Krofft Brothers show just made it too, too delicious to pass up. And, as if those two facts weren't enough, the song our Ms. Elliott sang (whose character name was not as inventive as I might have hoped: Witch Hazel) was called "Different". I have included the YouTube clip below, as well as the lyrics to the song.

It seemed to me quite appropriate for a song whose lyrics include the stanza below to be posted in a group like this, for people like us, who know that, as difficult as it is to be "different" in this world, it's worth every single sling & arrow just to be--to borrow Witch Hazel's words--"true to yourself", and to come to realize that there are (again to quote Witch Hazel) others like me:

Wonder no longer, together we're stronger.
It's not so bad to be different,
be true to yourself -
that's what you must be!

Amen, my Sister!

Sing it to us:



Lyrics

When I was smaller, and people were taller,
I realized that I was different,
I had a power that set me apart.

I learned to take it, to use it, to make it,
it's not so bad to be different -
to do your own thing
and do it with heart.

Different is hard,
different is lonely,
different is trouble, for you only.
Different is heartache,
different is pain,
but I'd rather be different than be the same!

At first I'd wonder, what hex I was under.
What did I do to be so different?
Then I discovered some others like me.

Wonder no longer, together we're stronger.
It's not so bad to be different,
be true to yourself -
that's what you must be!

Different is hard,
different is lonely,
different is trouble, for you only.
Different is heartache,
different is pain,
but I'd rather be different than be the same!
splode

Queer zines

Hey, first post here!
I'm planning on making my first zine, and I want it to be about queer/LGBT youth culture.
If you were to pick up a queer zine, what would you like to see represented in it?

I also plan on doing profiles of queer youth throughout the zine. Kind of name/gender/occupation and then some more thought-provoking questions. I want a little musing on what it means to be queer for people in different places/social groups. Show unique perspective from queer youth living in different places. But I'm having some trouble about how to make good open ended questions for a survey for that purpose. Any suggestions?

I know these are broad questions, I'm just in the beginning stages. Any help or comments welcome! :] I'll probably be back with the survey in a couple weeks.

x-posted to queerdammit

David Letterman Show Promotes Trans Disgust

The David Letterman show on the CBS network has insulted Amanda Simpson, a trans woman who was recently appointed to the U.S. Commerce Department by the Obama administration. In the clip below David Letterman announces the news, followed by a guest on his show who breaks out in shock that "Amanda used to be a dude" the man is disgusted and outraged and runs off stage, the segment insinuates the man had some sort of relationship with Simpson and reinforces the sentiment that being transgender is somehow disgusting, misleading, and abnormal.

The video clip, other remarks by Letterman on LGBT issues and ways to contact the show are available below:
http://queersunited.blogspot.com/2…
HRC, EQUALITY
  • misterc

Harvey Milk Day

Harvey Milk was the very first openly-gay person to be elected to office in the state of California, when he was elected as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. A year later, Harvey & the mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone, were both assassinated by former city supervisor, Dan White, who served five years of a seven year sentence & was then paroled (yes, White was sentenced to seven years for killing 2 high-ranking city officials). About a year and a half after being released from prison, White subsequently committed suicide.

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Take Care Of Each Other
  • misterc

You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...

If you've been seeing & hearing those things that I have these past few days from the many friends who obviously loved Ted Kennedy, you have to have noticed that not all of them were his political allies & they didn't necessarily share his political point of view. People like Pat Buchanan, Orrin Hatch, John McCain, George Bush (the younger and the elder) all spoke of a man with whom they had many political differences, but whom they cared for personally.

So many times since his death, I've heard about how--even in the last months of his life--he wanted to be there & wanted to help take care of his friends, even as his own health failed and as he needed assistance himself. Til the end, it seems, Senator Kennedy still believed that it wasn't all about him...it was about those people who needed him & who loved him & who gave his life purpose.

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LGBTStillSpeakingUCC
  • misterc

D.C.'s Most Gay-Friendly Orthodox Rabbi

From Advocate.com:

An Orthodox rabbi in Washington, D.C., is making waves by welcoming not only non-kosher Jews but gay followers as well.

Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld leads Ohev Sholom: The National Synagogue, the oldest continuously operating Orthodox synagogue in the capital, and has taken steps to welcome more followers who may not subscribe to all of the traditions. This includes stopping harsh language against LGBT members.

"Homosexuality is an 'abomination'?" he asks rhetorically in a profile by Advocate contributor James Kirchick. "We don't use that language for eating pork, yet it’s described in the same way as homosexuality."
Rainbow Eye
  • misterc

Heterosexism is sooooooooo last century!

Soulforce is a social justice organization whose purpose, as explained in their Vision Statement, "...is freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance."

I've been on their email list for a while & today I got another email from them. In the email, the executive director of Soulforce, Jeff Lutes, references a new report from the American Psychological Association that suggests to psychologists not to advise their patients that, with professional assistance, same-sex attracted people can change their inborn sexual orientation.

Mr. Lutes also talks about society's built-in heterosexism which promotes the idea anyone not strictly heterosexual is inherently less and/or in need of fixing. I think his email is pretty interesting & brings up a lot of good points.

I hope you get a chance to check behind the cut & read the email he sent out today. Maybe it'll get you thinking about heterosexism & the potential (and even actual & continuing) damage that can (and is) being foisted upon those of us who are not exclusively opposite-sex attracted, just as unchecked racism & sexism in society work against everyone who is not a straight, white male.

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Prop 8
  • misterc

Brad For Mayor!

I've had an on-going crush on Brad Pitt ever since I saw him shirtless in the movie, Thelma & Louise. I know his character was sort of a low-brow, thieving cowboy gigolo who had no problem using his nearly-perfect body as a means to get whatever he wanted & demonstrated no compunction whatsoever in taking advantage of a woman who was in desperate straits, but, with that sweet Southern twang in his voice, that spectacular smile & the aforementioned shirtlessness, I couldn't help but forget all the bad stuff whilst admiring his Adonis-y abs! :-)

Now, I've gone & completely forgotten what I was posting about in the first place...

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LegaltoLove

"...Something Sick...About Break[ing] Into People's Bedrooms & Claim That God Sent You."

I had referenced Rev. Al Sharpton on one of my recent posts, and I included a link to his stance & work in overturning California's Proposition 8, which included a portion of a speech he had given at an Atlanta church. Below I have included a link to the entire article from the website for the newspaper, Southern Voice, which describes itself as the South's "most respected and most read gay and lesbian newspaper."

Below the link you'll find parts of Rev. Sharpton's speech earlier this year at Atlanta's Tabernacle Baptist Church. I know that he is a pretty controversial figure for a lot of people & I know that he probably has as many detractors as fans, but I really do love the way Sharpton can turn a phrase & how he can fire up the faithful!

Most of all, though, I love how fearless he is in speaking up for GLBTQI people & how willing he is to take this particular good fight to the fearmongers who--to paraphrase the line from the movie Saved!--delight in using the Bible as a weapon against our community.

Sharpton decries churches pushing Prop. 8

It amazes me 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 the they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being delegated into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners. 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.

I am tired 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.

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 [alleged Ponzi schemer Bernie] 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 gonna step in the rain with you.
Bleeding Heart Liberal

Discrimination Just Doesn't Pay Like It Used To, I Guess!


According to the Human Rights Campaign:

Exxon Mobil is the only U.S. employer that has ever rescinded both a non-discrimination policy covering sexual orientation and domestic partner benefits, and is the only Fortune 10 company that does not have a non-discrimination policy covering sexual orientation.

I, for one, would rather run out of gas completely than spend one red cent at Exxon Mobil!