Yes we were; nice Jewish lesbian feminist girls and we made a book. The first one of its kind – decades ago and it is still being used in Women’s Studies classes, to this day!  And now, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis is proclaiming acceptance of gay and lesbian Jews.

Ok, so it’s the “love the sinner hate the sin” line perhaps, but for Orthodoxy to come out with a proclamation such as this one, we have something to celebrate. Something IS changing.

Gloria Greenfield was the driving force behind and in front of “Nice Jewish Girls” and with pen and her press (Persephone Press), she made sure we were a force to be seen and heard. Amazing, beautiful and unstoppable, she got us onstage to read our contributions.

We filled an auditorium somewhere in Boston, eight of us, facing a room full of beaming ‘Nice Jewish Girls’ and their non-Jewish lovers and friends. Outside the hall a group of self –proclaimed Preservers of Judaism were yelling at the women going in, and claiming our “Excommunication!”

Growing up a rare Jew in Japan; sent to Catholic missionary school, for lack of choice, I fully understand the idea of excommunication.  We also knew Jews cannot be excommunicated!

So the taunts were laughable and we laughed!

The men in the black robes soon left with little impact on the magnificence of the evening and everything we believed it stood for. Our ‘Nice Jewish girl’ faces glowed, as we read our stories aloud – all about being Nice Jewish lesbians- to our non Jewish girlfriends and their friends.

We were so validated by what we had accomplished; the book, the stories, our lives, regardless of black gowned frowns. Unstoppable, our courage and energy took up all the space. There was no place left for the men to go but back to where they came from.  Change happens. They may be singing a different tune today. Who knows?

And now the Orthodox Rabbinate have  made an important – sensational- statement; Jews must accept all Jews, as a requirement of Torah, rather than rejection as professed by the men in black those decades ago – how nice for us ‘Nice Jewish Girls’   these 2.5 decades later.

Picture:- Left to right:  front row: Evelyn Torton Beck,Adrienne Rich, Gloria Greenfield, Melanie Kaye Kantrowitz, Standing, left t o right:  Savina Teubal, Josylyn Segal, Rachel Wahba, Irena Klepfisz.

The Book can be purchased at Amazon, in a new edition -( which excludes the original pictures.)

By Rachel Wahba

Other Articles by Rachel

• Lez Talk with Rachel – Brit Milah Penis Rage (lezgetreal.com)
• Outing My Father (lezgetreal.com)
• Generation to Generation – “you’re with girls now aren’t you?” (lezgetreal.com)
• Lesbian Separatist Alix Dobkin Changes Tune – BUT Outlandish Caveat (lezgetreal.com)

• U.S. Orthodox Rabbis Urge Community to Accept Gays, Lesbians BT (lezgetreal.com)

09/1/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Singer/Songwriter Jewel has a new album to shill, so she went on Chelsea Lately to try and let someone who cares know. No, I don’t care about her music and chances are you haven’t cared since “Foolish Games” came out. “Why are you being so hard on, Jewel?” You are probably asking yourself. I know, I know, I never thought I would be lambasting Jewel either. I mean Jewel? Who cares!

Well, so she was blabbering about her album and about how she and her husband are backpacking around the country when she decided to tell the world that while she travels with her husband, she wears “lesbian shoes.” You know, like “ugly comfortable lesbian shoes.” Because lesbians wear ugly shoes.  Girl, don’t insult my shoes. You don’t know me. I’m assuming that Jewel isn’t referring to lesbian shoes such as these pink, peeptoe, hidden platform Christian Louboutins that I have been wearing all summer. Because those would be a bitch to travel in.

 Now THOSE are some hot lesbian shoes. Watch the clip below:

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Posted by Melanie Nathan; 08-31-10-

- A Personal Memory

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, 93, has reportedly been rushed to a hospital after being found unresponsive by her husband.

Gabor’s husband, Prince Frederic Von Anhalt, called 911 Tuesday morning, and the actress was taken from her Bel Air home to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The television and film star had just finished one of several hospital stays in recent weeks after falling at her home and breaking her hip. She said she wanted to spend her final days at home after she returned from the hospital August 17, having received her last rites from a priest.

Gabor was born in Budapest in 1917 and followed her sister Eva to Los Angeles. After her debut in the 1952 film Lovely to Look At, she appeared in We’re Not Married! with Ginger Rogers, Moulin Rouge, and Death of a Scoundrel.

She was as well known for her off-screen persona as her film and television appearances. Gabor’s husband is her ninth, and she has been married to such notables as hotel magnate Conrad Hilton. Also of note was her three days spent behind bars when she slapped a Beverly Hills police officer in 1989 and was found to be driving with an expired license. Gabor was fined $13,000 in court costs.

I personally recall an encounter with GABOR when I was seconding my Cousin as a stylist back in the 80’s in Los Angeles.  Zsa Zsa Gabor may be best remembered by most for her refusal to admit her age.  That received a lot of press – as I recall her driver’s license may not have been correct.

Well she did the same when it came to the size of her clothing – we were trying to style her for a Vogue Magazine cover. However when she could not fit into the dress that my Cousin had provided, based on the information Zsa Zsa provided herself, – she threw her bra at my cousin and fired us from the job; yelling ,  “AND my name is not ZSA ZSA – it is MS. GABOR to yooooo DAHLING!”

I wish her well and a speedy recovery.

Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Marriage Equality can only mean full equality under the law! It is a legal contract between two people that ought to be available to all and any who choose it, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and race. Civil Marriage is NOT equal in the USA.

What do you think of the Wikepedia definition?

Wikepedia – Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found. Such a union, often formalized via a wedding ceremony, may also be called matrimony.

People marry for many reasons, including one or more of the following: legal, social, emotional, economical, spiritual, and religious. These might include arranged marriages, family obligations, the legal establishment of a nuclear family unit, the legal protection of children and public declaration of commitment.^[1][2]

Marriage practices are very diverse across cultures, yet almost every known society has had some form of marriage between a man and a woman. In some societies an individual is limited to being in one such couple at a time (monogamy), while other cultures allow a male to have more than one wife (polygyny) or, less commonly, a female to have more than one husband (polyandry). Some societies also allow marriage between two males or two females. Societies frequently have other restrictions on marriage based on the ages of the participants, pre-existing kinship, and membership in religious or other social groups.

The act of marriage usually creates normative or legal obligations between the individuals involved. In some societies these obligations also extend to certain family members of the married persons. Almost all cultures that recognize marriage also recognize adultery as a violation of the terms of marriage,^[3] and forbid incestuous marriages.^[4] In cultures that allow the dissolution of a marriage this is known as divorce.

Marriage is usually recognized by the state, a religious authority, or both. It is often viewed as a contract. Civil marriage is the legal concept of marriage as a governmental institution irrespective of religious affiliation, in accordance with marriage laws of the jurisdiction. If recognized by the state, by the religion(s) to which the parties belong or by society in general, the act of marriage changes the personal and social status of the individuals who enter into it.

Marriage Does Matter!
melanie nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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On Tuesday of last week, we were the first to report that we had uncovered suspect information and then proceeded to report the facts regarding the Lawsuit brought by the Gay Couple in Wyoming.

The lawsuit, filed Aug. 13 by David Shupe-Roderick, 25, and Ryan W. Dupree, 21, is the first legal challenge in recent memory to Wyoming’s law defining marriage as being a contract solely “between a male and a female person.” The couple, who are representing themselves, filed the lawsuit after the Laramie County Clerk’s Office refused three times to issue them a marriage license. That’s unequal treatment, they said, and they’re asking U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson to stop the state from enforcing any laws that block gays and lesbians from access to civil marriage. “We determined that a lawsuit was the only possible way for them to get to recognize us as people,” Shupe-Roderick said. “I think it’s time that Wyoming lives up to its title. You know they call themselves the Equality State? Well, they’re not so equal.”

Lezgetreal investigated further and found that all was not as it seemed. We reported that the Plaintiff Shupe had in fact been involved in prior law suits that were suspect and revealed some startling details. Now more has come to light.

Shupe-Roderick, 25, served 4 years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary after he, his brother, and their two girlfriends left Cheyenne in a rental car in January 2004. When they didn’t return the rental car on time, the rental company contacted police. Two days later, Shupe-Roderick – then known as Gerald Shupe — was arrested in Arkansas after being pulled over for an illegal lane change.

After being sentenced, Shupe-Roderick unsuccessfully requested a reduction in his prison sentence on the grounds that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and wasn’t taking his prescribed medication when he took the rental car.

Lezgetreal has been contacted by parties close to source as well as information from local authorities and now received further verification through the investigation of other media outlets.

Gerald David Shupe-Roderick, aka Gerald Shupe, now asking to be called David- is currently being prosecuted for falsifying state documents. Last October, he applied to become a notary public, and he allegedly certified on his application form that he wasn’t a convicted felon.

The lawsuit also alleges Shupe-Roderick used a fake same-sex union certificate from Massachusetts to obtain a Wyoming driver’s license.

Shupe-Roderick has also been a plaintiff in court as frequently as he has been a defendant. Besides the gay marriage case,  says the Billings Gazette. “He’s filed five other lawsuits in the past three years. In one, he accused prison guards of sexual misconduct, and in another, he accused a would-be business client of assault and breach of contract. He has also sought $16,398 in loans and debts from his former employers/roommates and asserted that Bank of America unlawfully refused to release $5,107 from his bank account. All of those cases were eventually dropped or dismissed.”

There is yet a  fifth case is pending in federal court in which Shupe-Roderick is suing “Wyoming Child Support Services” — an apparent reference to the Wyoming Department of Family Services — for allegedly intercepting a $643 federal tax refund. Shupe-Roderick had previously paid child support to his ex-wife to support their 5-year-old son, but in 2009 he agreed to give up his parental rights in exchange for dropping all child support obligations.

It has also been alleged that Shupe has two other children with yet a second woman.  Likely the Gay behavior of a man who is so upset he cannot marry a same-sex partner who he told LezGetReal he has known for a mere year! It would seem also that Dupree has a neurological problem and one can only wonder if Mr. Shupe, adept at lawsuits, is using the younger man, to further his personal agenda.

Shupe-Roderick and Dupree, 19, are now not answering our calls and e-mails – at first so willing to respond. Shupe told us he did not expect the attention this has received and that was only last Tuesday.   I can only imagine how much more they have received since.

After granting several interviews to reporters, Lezgetreal being the first, on Monday, after news of the suit came out, the couple has stopped talking to reporters and gay-right activists.

On Tuesday, Shupe-Roderick said he and Dupree were prepared to handle the spotlight. But he said they were surprised that their lawsuit was receiving so much publicity.  “I kind of assumed that it would just be a quiet lawsuit,” he said.

Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Lynch, , gay actors, actresses, writers, producers and directors have a multitude of nominations.  In the Supporting Actor in a Comedy category, half of the nominees are gay, and a fourth is nominated for playing gay.  The Advocate has done our homework in its countdown to the Emmys. ! A collective thanks in the coming out climate – mayby a few closet doors will open to reveal more..

Gay, Gay friendly, an industry comes to life- or should we say would never have been but for our brothers and sisters; as I fondly remember my own Hollywood days, with an ex- a film Editor who chose to stay quiet for fear of no jobs. The irony- the closet was shut tight not only to the hetero colleagues but queer to queer too! Ah those were the 80’s and this be the 2010’s-

Best Comedy Series

Glee and Modern Family seem to be running neck and neck for the win, according to most predictions, with Glee eking out a win. Other nominees are Nurse Jackie, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock, and The Office.

Best Drama Series

Mad Men and True Blood are both gay favorites and both nominated, and while both are deserving, Mad Men is the critical favorite. Still, some are predicting Lost will take the prize over the other nominees, including The Good Wife, Dexter, and Breaking Bad.

Best Comedy Actor

Glee’s Matthew Morrison scored a surprise nomination, but most predictions are giving this prize to The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons. Other nominees are Steve Carell for The Office, Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock, Tony Shalhoub for Monk, and Larry David for Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Best Comedy Actress

United States of Tara’s Toni Collette has won this prize before, but this year seems to be Edie Falco’s turn for the also gay-inclusive Nurse Jackie. Lea Michele of Glee will have to settle for a nod, as will Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the now-canceled New Adventures of Old Christine, Amy Poehler for Parks and Recreation, and Tina Fey for 30 Rock.

Best Supporting Actor Comedy

Packed with actors who are gay and actors who are playing gay, most predictions are handing this award to one of two nominees for Modern Family — Eric Stonestreet as deliciously over-the-top Cameron and Ty Burrell as his straitlaced brother-in-law. Glee’s Chris Colfer may be a dark horse. Other nominees are Jesse Tyler Ferguson for Modern Family, Neil Patrick Harris for How I Met Your Mother, and Jon Cryer for Two and a Half Men.

Best Supporting Comedy Actress

The best chance at a gay win goes to Jane Lynch as evil (if misunderstood) coach Sue Sylvester on Glee. Modern Family’s Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara will give her a run for her money, but Lynch has a solid lead. Other nominees are Holland Taylor for Two and a Half Men, Jane Krakowski for 30 Rock, and Kristen Wiig for SNL.

Best Supporting Drama Actress

As bisexual private investigator Kalinda on The Good Wife, Archie Panjabi was undoubtedly the breakout star of this TV season. But she has some stiff competition from the Mad Men girls, Christina Hendricks and Elisabeth Moss. Other nominees are Christine Baranski for The Good Wife, Rose Byrne for Damages, and the dark horse, Queer as Folk’s Sharon Gless for Burn Notice.

by Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Melanie Nathan – August 28  2010;

JERUSALEM — Israelis demonstrated in Jerusalem in the thousands in support of Gilad Shalit, marking the soldier’s 24th birthday and his fifth as a captive of Palestinian Islamists in the Gaza Strip.

He was a child when captured – surely there is a fiber of compassion – something that would show the world that these Palestinians could end this torture of a human life and find peace for a family who have done little more than love a son.

Shalit’s mother Aviva called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do everything he could to secure freedom for her son, who was seized by Gaza-based militants in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006.

“You have the chance of freeing Gilad,” she told a gathering from a makeshift podium outside the premier’s residence. On August 3, the soldier’s father Noam appealed in an open letter to Palestinians in Gaza to pressure their Hamas rulers to agree to release his son in a prisoner exchange.

And where is America? Where is the outcry? There is no reason to hold a boy turned man; a child captured for what – to make little men look powerful? It is nothing more than an act of cowardice sustained by the continued oppression and a human right infraction that renders the Palestinian’s own case unworthy.

It is terrorists who capture and kidnap and threaten and abuse.

Hamas and other militant groups have demanded a swap involving hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including several top militants. Yes thousand for one. Gilad you rock! Happy Birthday you will come home.

Israel made its most recent offer late last year through a German mediator, but Hamas has yet to formally respond to the deal. Each side has blamed the other for the failure to reach an agreement.

On Saturday, Aviva Shalit said she would continue a sit-in in a tent outside the Netanyahu residence, begun two months ago, and would not return home until her son was free.

Both France and Britain marked the birthday of Shalit -- who also has French citizenship — by calling for his release. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a message read out by a French diplomat, said Paris was working hard for his freedom.

“Gilad is not a prisoner of war, for POWs have rights such as visits from humanitarian organisations or exchanges of mail with their loved ones. Gilad does not have these rights because he is a hostage,” Sarkozy’s message said. He denounced “this revolting way of treating a human being which provokes our collective indignation, in Israel, France and across the globe.”

Britain also used the occasion of Shalit’s birthday to condemn his “unjustifiable” detention. But where is President Obama? Can you please speak up Mr. President? Leader of the free world.

“The thoughts of many in Britain are with Gilad Shalit and his family as he spends his 24th birthday in captivity,” a Foreign Office spokesman said in London.

“His detention is unjustifiable and unacceptable. The British government demands his immediate and unconditional release.”

President Obama we await your response!

Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Melanie Nathan ; August 27, 2010

Media ABUSE of Freedom of Speech

There was only one city  in all of California where the City Council actually voted a resolution *in favor* of Prop 8;  Porterville, Tulare County.

So when a letter appears today in the County Newspaper, we may well assume that by its very publication the Recorder and its  editor are complicit in spreading hate and bigotery, albeit couched in the tacit notion of the First Amendment.

I know many an Editor who would refuse to give voice to such blatant distortions and yet this Publication now serves as the rah-rah for hate and anti-gay agenda.

This letter, entitled Society Should be Protected from Homosexuality”  was published yesterday in the Recorder OnLine – “Your South County News source” -

“Editor,
The tragic and destructive spread of homosexuality across the country is a major evil of our time. The John Birch society reported that thousands of boys per year are stolen from their parents to feed homosexual pornography.

I recommend that American citizens study anti-homosexual books available at Christian book stores. And to read anti-homosexual books which are out of print.

W. Cleon Skousen in 1958, wrote a warning about the communist conspiracy. The book was called, “The Naked Communist.” The book warned that the communists would set out to turn America into a moral cesspool, including corrupting America with rampart homosexuality, flooding America with pornography and sexual anarchy, and thereby seeking to destroy the family institution.

Not every homosexual is a communist, but every communist supports the militant homosexual war against mankind. Why? Because it attacks the family. Homosexuality, as well as every kind of heterosexual immorality, is a destroyer of freedom.

Many homosexuals are basically decent men and women who took a wrong turn. The gospel of Jesus Christ says satan is the prompter of all sexual immorality, including homosexual perversion therefore homosexuality is wickedness. Society should be protected from it.

Sam Usher
Porterville”

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

Suddenly Laura Bush loves Gay marriage, Elizabeth Haselhof has tea with Melissa  and now supports same-sex marriage – then Rekers gets caught with rentboy  and the right wing is exposed for its ex-gay fraud- and now we have the RNC remnant from the Bush Era, the actual architect of the anti-gay Republican hate campaign, co- creator of the  wedge issue that targeted a minority community, used gays and lesbians as battle bullets,  coming out as a homosexual?

My G-d what is the world coming to? I ask!

Ken Mehlman, who headed the Republican National Committee between 2005 and 2007, has come out in an interview with the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder: Mehlman arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently, he said in an interview stating that he had grappled with this side of himself for over 43 years.

He agreed to answer a reporter’s questions, he said, because, now in private life, he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage and anticipated that questions would be asked about his participation in a late-September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group that supported the legal challenge to California’s ballot initiative against gay marriage, Proposition 8.

What a mindless mongrel if I may. You mean to tell me that this man was not having sex or fantasies of sex with men for the best part of those 43 years?  Who was he fantasizing about not being able to marry? George W. Bush?  Was there ever a rentboy between 2005 and 2007?  Come out Come out wherever you are? Was there a suspicious mama?  A phony fiance?

Is this guy short of money? Does he want to sell a book; I for one am not buying! Sorry Mehlman but you hurt my feelings, not to mention the harm to the LGBT community; and it will take a lot more than you “being happier” for me to get over it.

More and more years of Bush and his taking down of this country – and you did it in the name of us Queers?

Known as the Great Conciliator and a reputation for being most forgiving, I cannot wrap myself around your dishonorable conduct.  Now that I find out he is Jewish too – I ask the big question. Oy Vey Why?

You knew exactly what you were doing and how it impacted millions of lives.  You took an entire minority on the ride of its life, sacrificing your brethren like lambs to the slaughter.

“Here take this one’s rights while I continue to indulge in my CON-fusion!”

What makes it all so much worse for me is that like me, Ken Mehlman is Jewish.  While I can understand the pressures of a nice Jewish existence – including the expectations of his Momma Judith and Pappa Arthur, Ken Mehlman has not lived my ideal of what it means to be a good Jew- close to the Torah and its expectations of social justice – and WHAT ABOUT the mitzvoth!

He has not only betrayed the LGBT community but fueling the all white gay hating Christian existence certainly could not have served his Bar-mitvah covenant.

Go here to see Ken Mehlman on Charlie Rose – do not forget to throw up as in vomit. http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/155

MelanieNathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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By Melanie Nathan; August 21, 2010.

Dr. Laura came out after her appearance on Larry King. Yes,  she went to dinner with a black friend and a gay friend. Guess what it is news.

Has she come out to say she has a “black friend” and “a gay friend?”   NAH!  Has she come out to say “they agree with her?”  That they think Laura is a victim! A victim of  censorship over use of the “N” word?

Quote Schlessinger , “I went out to dinner with three friends after Larry King. One of my friends who is gay is sitting there with another friend who is black, and he looks up and says, ‘I wonder what the media would do with this? You’re with a black guy and a gay guy.’ We laughed, because we all understand what this is really about — censoring a point of view.”

Advocate I love you sometimes – this is news indeed- look at me I am writing about it too.  Come on Bloggers come out to play -?

So to the subject at hand censorship:-

If you were censored Laura – (note: no more of this doctor title shit from me! ) why did you see fit to apologize?   Were you then apologizing for being a bigot that was censored? You are officially outed as a censored bigot! Woe betide!

I rest my case!     

By Melanie Nathan -
nathan@privatecourts.com
@oblogdeeoblogda
face me on Face Book too….

History:

Use of racial epithets by LAURA

On August 10, 2010, on a call with an African American woman who was seeking advice concerning her own interracial marriage, Schlessinger used the word “n word” 11 times, saying that mention of the term did not constitute racism. She told the caller that she had the right to say the word because black comedians and actors on HBO say it and cited a previous race-related comment made by her that was “funny” (and was made to her male African American bodyguard). She also claimed that African Americans voted for Barack Obama for President on the basis of skin color, as an example of blacks as well as whites making  judgments based solely on skin color.^[32] A day later she apologized for doing the “wrong thing.”^[33]

The caller in question, Nita Hanson, who used the name “Jade”, responded by saying she has no interest in talking to Schlessinger further, and said she believed Schlessinger only apologized because she got caught. She also said, “It’s never okay to use that word.”

USE OF NUDE PHOTOS BY LAURA

In 1998, admittedly upset that he was snubbed by Schlessinger at an event, former radio mentor Bill Ballance sold nude photos of Schlessinger^[20] to media outlet Internet Entertainment Group (IEG).^[21] Schlessinger had posed for the photos while involved in a sexual relationship with Ballance in the 1970s. IEG, known for distributing a sex tape of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, purchased the photos and subsequently posted them on its website which were later leaked to the general public. Schlessinger initially denied that the photos were of her, but then claimed a copyright interest in them in court. Attempts to have the photos removed from various websites failed after a court ruling stated that IEG had legally acquired the rights to the material.

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08/16/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

By now you have all heard the tale of the homophobic offensive guard for the Philedelphia Eagles, Todd Herremans, who tweeted some anti-gay statements regarding the popular HBO show, True Blood. Specifically, he said: “Not a fan of how they get u hooked with the 1st 2 seasons then bring on a barrage of homosexuality.” Those damn vampires and their gayness! It’s so much worse than the whole “living on blood” thing. Am I right or am I right? … Or am I right?

Anyway, so the online queer community called Herremans out on his BS and he apologized. But Jason Zinoman, a writer over at www.Slate.com wrote an article today entitled, “True Blood’s “Barrage of Homosexuality” with the subtitle, “Was the Philadelphia Eagles’ Todd Herremans on to something?” Say what, dude? No way was Herreman onto something. Zinoman goes on to lavish us with his insights, which include that True Blood is trying to insight a gay panic riot in their straight male viewership. Because straight men are scared of the gays! Beware of the gays bro. Gays are cool as long as they don’t hit on me, right, dude? Zinoman writes:

The writers clearly enjoy making their audience feel uncomfortable. The excess of gore and the violent sex are designed to shock. They haven’t recently introduced homosexuality, as Herremans would have it, although you could make the case that there has been something of a barrage lately. And this season, the show’s fluid sexuality has a pointed dramatic purpose that invites and even encourages this kind of gay panic.

Maybe the show wants to make people uncomfortable, but it also wants to turn them on. There is a lot of sex in True Blood, hot sex, gay sex, lesbian sex, non-consensual sex, rough sex, etc. People like sex. People like sex and violence. I’m pretty sure HBO isn’t trying to gross out the bros, bro. Zinoman has a theory about how True Blood creates this homosexual panic. First, they get their straight male audience to get cool with a male character. There are tits involved, the straight male is like, dude maybe this vamp is coolio. Then BAM that cool vampire becomes a GAY vampire. But it’s too late because the dude bro has made a connection with the character and seeing this character have ‘the man sex’ freaks him out.

Last week, what bothered Herremans was surely the sex between Talbot and Eric. Straight male audiences surely identified with the confident alpha dog Eric, perpetually surrounded by adoring topless strippers. It was a shock to hear him explain that, when he said it’s been a long time since he’s “done this,” he was referring to vampires, not men.

DON”T YOU SEE HOW HBO IS MANIPULATING YOU, DUDE BROS! Zinoman writes:

True Blood performs a similar trick by getting straight male audiences invested in scenes of gay sexuality. Herremans’s tweet shows that it worked.

Wow. Sooo, True Blood showing the gay sex to freak out dude bro’s everywhere, instead of creating and telling a unique, compelling story that gets millions of viewers to tune in every week. Who knew?

Am I being too hard on dude bro Zinoman’s entry? Maybe. Recently, Slate has become kind of a weird place with feminist bloggers (and my personal favs) such as Hanna Rosin defending a Cornell scientist who used vibrators on young female children as well as a Cornell report that said partial female circumcision was okay, defending the doctor who gave out “anti-lesbian” pills to women pregnant with female children and attacking Jezebel.com. I used to love Slate, but what the hell is in their water coolers lately?

You can read the original Slate article here: http://www.slate.com/id/2264098/ 

Ps. You can also read, “How Black People Use Twitter,” Maybe their headline writer quit?

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Anti-Gay Laura Schlessinger, now apparently a racist too?  Someone should strip that mean spirited ego centric piece of dangling doo-doo apology for a human of her doc-tatorship – or whatever the hell it is she has placed before her name “DR.”   She is Dr. NO or NO Dr.!

Who would have dreamed it?  “DON’T NAACP ME” asserted ‘the better than thou’ Schlesinger, in a tirade exposing her for exactly who she is – an angry bigot – no more no less… or maybe  more – time will tell.   “I thought once we had a Black President the attempts to demonize whites hating blacks would stop.  But it has not I don’t get it.  Its hasn’t and It’s all about power: She ranted on after the shocked caller, a self described “black woman married to a white man” called for advice about being treated with disrespect through racist remarks perpetrated by family and friends.

The conversation went haywire when Schlesinger challenged the caller ‘s gripe and proceeded to throw out three consecutive “N’” words – what is this woman thinking.  No surprise to me.  I have listened to her show and am astounded by her popularity. She berates most of her callers anyway with her condescending pernicious soliloquies  - all in an attempt to elevate her sorry nothingness to an attempted something-ness.

Goodness, who sponsors this trash?

Read/ hear audio  - you be the Judge.   I think she should be banned off the air- if they did it to The guy with the cowboy hat – why not do it to the woman with the wig?

After a break, the caller said she was appalled by Schlessinger’s use of the word. “Oh, then I guess you don’t watch HBO or listen to any black comedians,” she said. “My dear, the point I am trying to make…we’ve got a black man as president and we’ve got more complaining about racism than ever. I think that’s hilarious.”   Schlesinger and the caller then got into an exchange about the use of the word:

CALLER: Is it OK to say that word? Is it ever OK to say that word?
DR. LAURA: It depends how it’s said. Black guys talking to each other seem to think it’s ok.
CALLER: But you’re not black, they’re not black, my husband is white.
DR. LAURA: Oh, I see, so a word is restricted to race. Got it. Can’t do much about that.
CALLER: I can’t believe someone like you is on the radio spewing out the n***** word, and I hope everybody heard it.
DR. LAURA: I didn’t spew out the n***** word!
CALLER: You said “n*****, n*****, n*****” and I hope everybody heard it.
DR. LAURA: Yes they did, and I’ll say it again: n*****, n*****, n***** is what you hear on HBO.
[Crosstalk]

DR. LAURA: Why don’t you let me finish a sentence? Don’t take things out of context. Don’t NAACP me, leave them in context. “If you’re that hypersensitive about color and don’t have a sense of humor, don’t marry outside of your race,” Schlesinger said after hanging up with the caller.

She apologized the next day, opening her show with an apology.

“Yesterday, I did the wrong thing,” she said. “I didn’t intend to hurt people, but I did. And that makes it the wrong thing to have done. I was attempting to make a philosophical point, and I articulated the “n” word all the way out – more than one time. And that was wrong. I’ll say it again – that was wrong.”

Schlessinger said she “was so upset [she] could not finish the show.”

“I pulled myself off the air at the end of the hour,” she said. “I had to finish the hour, because 20 minutes of dead air doesn’t work. I am very sorry. And it just won’t happen again.” Boo Hoo Laura Remember your an-gay days – when you said the following and now you want us to believe YOU ARE NOT a Bigot.

And so it should not get her outa here!  She is NOT qualified to Counsel a fly!

According to various sources, Dr. Laura Schlessinger has said or written the following anti-gay slurs, which promoted the website - http://www.stopdrlaura.com/laura/

“A huge portion of the male homosexual populace is predatory on young boys.”

“If you’re gay or lesbian it’s a biological error.”

“I call homosexual practices deviant.”

“The First Amendment is not the 11th Commandment. Its protection does not extend to ALL speech.”

“When we have the word ‘homosexual,’ we are clarifying the dysfunction, the deviancy, the reality.”

“….[reparative] therapies which have been successful in helping a reasonable number of people become heterosexual.” 7

“…I believe that homosexual behavior is deviant; that when homosexuals adopt children, these children are intentionally robbed of a necessary mom and dad…”

“I’m sorry, hear it one more time perfectly clearly: If you’re gay or a lesbian, it’s a biological error that inhibits you from relating normally to the opposite sex.  The fact that you are intelligent, creative and valuable is all true. The error is in your inability to relate sexually intimately, in a loving way to a member of the opposite sex – it is a biological error.” Quoted from Dr. Laura’s Website, 1998-DEC-8

ON MATTHEW SHEPARD

“You know what was largely responsible for that guy’s [Matthew Shepard's] death? Those two guys who killed him did not go out looking for a homosexual to kill that night. They were shooting pool. He went to the bar. He left with two guys he thought he was gonna have sex with. He got murdered. How many women has that happened to? How many women have left bars thinking they were gonna get some action with some guy who raped and murdered and tortured and murdered them?

Far more women than homosexual men have ended up dead that way, I would guess. Is that a hate crime against women? I think so but they specifically picked the woman who was willing to leave for sex. If Matthew hadn’t been willing to leave for sex, he might still be alive. That certainly doesn’t make him responsible for his own death but when you put yourself into a situation of going off to have anonymous sex with people you meet at a bar, what kind of person is gonna leave with you? Usually scum…. This was a terrible tragedy but it’s also one that might have been avoided if he had simply gone home with his friends instead of thinking he was gonna get a little.” – Dr. Laura radio show, April 16, 1999 (quoted by CBSC).

By the way – her apology weights low against the extent  of the Tirade. “I should not of said that” in no way excuses the lengthy and non stop verbosity of the rant.  Its not as if she said mere words – here insensitivity and her lack of basic sense outweighs her nebulus apology.  Fire her- its about time!

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Protesters stood together to say that equal rights and same sex marriage does matter.

NOM has issued a statement regarding Prop 8 and Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling -

National Organization for Marriage Releases Statement Responding to Lift of Stay on Same Sex Marriages in California

(Washington, D.C.) – In light of the decision by Judge Vaughn Walker to lift the stay on same sex marriages in California following his ruling to overturn Proposition 8, Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage offered the following response:

“When a lower judge makes an unprecedented ruling, that totally overturns existing Supreme Court precedent, the normal thing for that judge to do is to stay his decision, and let the higher this issue. He doesn’t even want hcourts decide in an orderly fashion that respects the rule of law, if he’s right, or if he’s way off-base. Judge Walker’s ruling is more evidence he is not a neutral referee, he’s an activist on is ruling ignoring Supreme Court precedent and imposing gay marriage against the expressed wishes of the electorate appealed to the Ninth Circuit. Walker feels that that only the state politicians who were against Prop 8 have standing to appeal and the over 7 million California voters who supported Prop 8 shouldn’t be able to even present their position to a higher court. It’s outrageous. The People are supposed to be sovereign, not the politicians. This stay order will be appealed to the Ninth Circuit and if necessary to Justice Anthony Kennedy, and I think it is a tactical mistake on Judge Walker’s part to display his injudicious zeal–once again–before Kennedy’s eyes.”

If readers would like to interview Brian Brown – be polite… hehehe!  But Please Pass along this  message while you are at it. “The people of California are planning Proposition 8B- the one where we are sure more than 52% of Californians will Vote to have the right to bear arms struck down, OUT-  because we think automatic weapons in the streets are very dangerous.”

To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, President of NOM, please contact Mary Beth Hutchins, mhutchins@crcpublicrelations.com, (x105), or Elizabeth Ray, eray@crcpublicrelations.com, (x130) at 703-683-5004.

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
@oblogdeeoblogda

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08/12/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Anne and Liz got married in California in the brief interval when same sex marriage was legal and before Prop 8 was passed. After Prop 8 passed and their union remained valid while their friends were denied that right, really struck a chord with them. They are two women who weren’t content to be happy as long as they got theirs, they wanted everyone to be able to experience the joy of marriage.

Today, it was announced that same-sex couples in California will be allowed to marry from August 19th onward. This couple’s story is powerful in that it reminds us of what we have suffered and how far we still have to go. Although Prop 8 is gone, we still have a long road ahead of us. Watch the moving video by OURscene tv below:

For more LGBT themed videos, check out www.ourscenetv.com

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A JetBlue flight attendant found a unique solution for AAWPS (Attendant angry with passenger syndrome) – he became a “jumper.”

A passenger allegedly cheesed off (polite for pissed off) the flight attendant, Steven Slater, 38, after knocking him with his luggage which he was retrieving from the over head compartment. Apparently, requesting an apology, the passenger refused, prompting the angry attendant to grab the PA system, as a means to conveying obscenities to the entire plane load of passengers aboard, and then without further ado, the well trained in safety procedure attendant activated the plane’s emergency chute, jumped and slid his way down to the tarmac, poised for healing from a bad case of AAWPS.

The exercise, in freedom from passenger antic, occurred aboard JetBlue Flight 1052 from Pittsburgh to John F. Kennedy airport Monday, at Terminal 5, Gate C an airport official told news media.

Slater made his way to his car and drove to his residence in Belle Harbor, Queens, the official said. JetBlue officials waited until about 25 minutes after the chute was deployed before they notified Port Authority Police. The wait enabled Slater to make the getaway, the airport’s police force. Steve Stampley, a jetBlue spokesman, declined to comment on the alleged reporting delay.

BUT  unfortunately the freedom was short lived and Slater went from GO to Jail, without collecting 200. Instead he collected an immediate 600 plus firneds ion the new FaceBook site created called “Free Steven Slater Club.

Authorities picked the flight attendant up at his home on Beach 128^th Street Monday afternoon and brought him to the Port Authority Police station at JFK airport for questioning. The official said that Slater was calm when arrested and remained calm throughout his interrogation and the booking process.

He was charged with reckless endangerment and criminal mischief. He was awaiting arraignment Monday night. Attempts to reach Slater’s relatives were not successful. (No word on whether the flight attendant was one of the many former NYPD officers in jetBlue’s employ.)

Stampley said that jetBlue’s corporate policy prohibits the company from divulging information about crew members.

“At this time, we are working with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to investigate this incident. At no time was the security or safety of our customers or crew members at risk,” Stampley said.

08/06/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Yes, you read that right. Braintrust and swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker wants to be horribly oppressed! The 23 year old model who hit the big time when she landed this year’s cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition told Women’s Health magazine:

“I want to live a normal life – drive my kids to school, have tons of animals running around, be barefoot and pregnant…I want all that … just not anytime soon.”

Can’t a woman be “normal” and pregnant without being barefoot? Last time I checked women can still work while they are pregnant or be stay-at-home moms without being ‘barefoot.’

Ms. Decker then goes on to say what every beautiful model known for their beauty says to try to get us “normal” women to like them. She talks about how down to earth and low maintenance she is! Only she’s not, but she thinks we are stupid enough to believe her and like her for it! She says of appearing on the set of the movie she is starring in with Jennifer Anniston and Adam Sandler, Just Go With It:

“When people hear ‘bikini model,’ they have one thing on their mind. Then they see you’re someone who shows up to the set in pajamas and no makeup, watches sports and belches.”

Right, Brooklyn. I’m looking forward to the interview when you say you “eat all the time!” and “love food!”

[Source]

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08/05/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

It’s that time again, the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) are set to air September 12th and the blog-o-sphere is atwitter with the news of Lady Gaga’s 13 nominations. Between artists like Miley “I pretended to kiss that girl but I didn’t” Cyrus, Katy”I keep telling people that I want to kiss girls but I don’t” Perry and Christina “I pretend to be bisexual but I’ m not” Aguilera, there are plenty of opportunities for women to exploit lesbianism and bisexuality on the mainstream scene to increase their own popularity and up the ante on their sex symbol status. I really can’t stand it.

The most famous faux lesbian kiss on MTV was the fake Britney Spears and Maddona kiss, neigh all those years ago. But recently, Sandra Bullock and the married Scarlett Johansen shared a liplock at the MTV Movie Awards this June. While I didn’t see the kiss, because the MTV Movie Awards are three hours of complete suck, I wasn’t pleased when the media flipped out about how hot it was the next day. I don’t want to attack the women individually, because Sandy had a huge shock with the Jesse James white supremacist cheating thing, so she gets a free pass. Johansen gets a free pass too, because, boobs. But they did inspire me to write an open letter to straight women about this out of control epidemic. Here’s to hoping the letter gets out and we are able to stop the faux lesbian kisses at the VMAs!

Dear Straight Women,

I get it – you are hot; your friend is hot; you’re so sexually open! It’s so great when guys pay attention to you for doing it! Oooo you are so liberal and yet so not wearing Birkenstocks and would never actually go ‘down there,” but still so liberal and hot!

I wish that all lesbians were as hot as you and not plaid-wearing motorcycle mamas who hate men and use Natty Light as lube. IF ONLY REAL LESBIANS WERE AS HOT AS YOU! I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU AND, YES, WHEN YOU ARE DRUNK AND SAD BECAUSE NO GUYS LIKE YOU I WILL BE THERE TO TELL YOU THAT YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY. Xtina Aguilera style.

However, maybe you don’t have to kiss each other to prove some crazy point about how hot you are. Maybe you can just try being yourself to get attention and not try to get boys to look at you by exploiting and trivializing my sexual orientation.

Xoxo,
Natasia

Reblogged from http://gay-e-magazine.blogspot.com/

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Today at 1.00pm Lezgetreal was all set to post, to wit, Melanie Nathan and Bridgette LaVatoire at the helm and all we had to do was push “publish.” My article was prepared. I predicted the outcome and the exact result. How could it be any other way?  So whilst at a Diabetes Convention in San Antonio, I rushed up to the Press room, ready for the news.

Bang – Overturned.  My Helpers all around the Country were clicking and sending and face-booking – but before they had a chance www.Lezgetreal.com had posted two Articles.

In less than 10 seconds – we CRASHED!  All our prep and hard work went bye bye and from being almost to the top of google news we were nowhere to be found.  We were flabbergasted and flustered we began to investigate. Paula – She would know what to do – but alas was in the subway on her way home.

Well lo and behold we had become the victim of our  own popularity – our own rising star – a site that has in mere two years gained enormous visibility on many levels.  But over- marketing for a big event brought its own unique visitor – Mr. Perez Hilton.  Perez tweeted one of our posts to his 2 million plus fans and guess what – we crashed.

We LOVE Perez Hilton nonetheless – a Gay Ladies Man! We hope he visits often!

So that is our special story for Prop 8 a day of celebration. Recognition by a Federal Court and by Perez Hilton.  Go Gay Gals of Lez Get Real.

by Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
@oblogdeeoblogda
Join Lez Get real on Face Book

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07/30/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Is the Nicki Minaj and Trey Songz hit, ‘Bottoms Up’ filled with gay subtext? Does it mean that Trey Songz is gay? Mediatakeout.com seems to think so. The urban media outlet has long been reporting that they have heard rumors that the popular R&B singer is keeping it on the down low. The theory is that the title of the song, ‘Bottoms Up’ is refering to the more sexually passive partner or the one that is penetrated in gay lovemaking. Bottom used to just refer to man-on-man love, but it has now entered queer venacular and is widely used among men and women. In the context of the song, ’Bottoms Up’ is clearly a double entendre, refering to both drinking bottles of alcohol at clubs as a status symbol as well as to sex.

Bottoms up bottoms up
ever see your cup
got a couple bottles but a couple aint enough
Bottoms up bottoms up
 

Bimbo, the gay specialist at Mediatakeout.com says that they could have named the song anything, but bottoms up is too apparent. He’s kind of right, there are ways to say the same thing without using queer venacular, in ‘How Low’ Ludacris raps, “face down, ass up” to get his point across. He says that the song might be Trey Songz saying he’s a top. I don’t know Trey Songz, so I don’t know if he’s gay straight or bi. But the song does seem like a bisexual anthem, even featuring out and proud bisexual Nicki Minaj.

The rest of Trey’s chorus says:

Bottoms up bottoms up
pocket full of cream

Which again refers to money, but can also refer to uh, other things of a more sexual nature. Again, all of the sexual references used by Trey are unisex. While he does say, ‘girl’ a lot in the song, this doesn’t cancel out the ambigous bisexual references.

calling all the girls do you hear me
all around the World city to city
cheers to the girls no to the guys

Nikki Minaj lends her light touch to the song by screaming about rims, as in margaritas of course.

Can I get salt all around that rim-rim-rim-rim?

Then, she says she’s going to f*ck a bitch. Ahem, like fighting though, not the sexin. Right?

If A Bitch Try To Get Cute, I’ma Stuff Her.
Throw A Lot Money At Her, Then Yell “f-ck Her!”
fuck Her. f-ck Her. Then Yell “f-ck Her!”

She closes her rap with a shout out to bisexual media personality, Anna Nicole Smith. Which cinches together the LGBQ focus of the song.  

Do You Like My Body? Anna Nicki.
Rest In Peace To Anna Nicole Smith.

Of course, it’s all speculation buuuuttttt, like Bimbo says, as crazy as Bimbo is, they could have said anything else…and they didn’t. So what do YOU think? Is this a bisexual anthem for the club or is it just a hot joint?  

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07/29/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Katy Perry is pretending to be bisexual to get attention again. Yay! She said:

“I used to want to kiss Megan Fox, but now she’s married and I’m not so sure about that anymore. Probably Natalie Portman now -she’s hot and smart.” [Source]

Oh Katy, no one wants to see you kiss a girl! Perry slammed LGBT activist Lady Gaga for using biblical imagery in her video for Alejandro as exploiting the bible. But Perry has no qualms about exploiting same sex love. Another example of her insensitivity to the gay community? One of her first songs was called “Ur so Gay” and basically called an ex-boyfriend gay because he broke up with a girl. The audacity! Of course any man who dumps a woman must be a bad gay man in disguise.

Perry’s likeability, which has never been high among queer women, has taken a hit recently. Perry appeared on the 9th season of American Idol and acted like a mean girl. She picked on contestants looks, told one he made her feel dirty and told an orphaned contestant that had lived through being put through an abusive and violent foster care system that “this isn’t a Lifetime movie.” Perry’s annoyance factor also went up when she became engaged to British comedian Russell Brand. Perry and Brand have been criticized for leaking new rumors about their wedding on a regular basis.

Despite all this, Perry’s song “California Gurls” is a summer anthem. Let’s hope that by next summer Ms. Perry’s popularity will be a distant memory.

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Without missing a beat, Granny took one look at me with my new lover and said “you’re with girls now aren’t you?”

The question was rhetorical, and when I gave her a wildly happy “yes!” she reflexively said “don’t tell your mother she’ll blame me!”  I didn’t think to ask her why—it seemed obvious, Granny was never what one would call heterosexual. “I like men, Richard Gere is so handsome, but I only like them from their head to their neck”!

I did ask her many years later, if she had the choice would she have chosen to be with a woman?

“Yes of course” she said.

Granny is turning 103 next month —on august 21. Born in Singapore to Iraqi Jewish parents Granny married at 16 to a much older man and was sent to Baghdad to live with her new husband and his family. Life in Baghdad was a nightmare for her. Jews were second class citizens living in fear and Baghdad did not compare to British Singapore. She wanted to run back home and never got over her trauma of living through the Farhud, the anti-Jewish pogrom of 1941.

“They were so backward, not like us in (British) Singapore. I missed speaking English, and the family hated me for being modern. I danced, wore lipstick, and cut my hair short. And I wasn’t afraid to speak up to the Muslims who taunted us on the streets.  They were confused because I spoke English and wasn’t like the other Jews where we lived. They never saw a Jew like me.”

Once I get Granny talking about her life in Baghdad she goes back there with faraway eyes.

“ So I became friends with the Muslim and the Christian Arabs. I was supposed to only socialize with the family, people only stayed with their families. But I refused. One friend, a Muslim, she was married to a Syrian Doctor,  she loved me so much. I didn’t understand at first, when she asked me if I knew ‘finger exercises’—I thought she was asking if I played the piano!” Granny laughs, yes, she played the piano, but her friend was talking about a whole other kind of exercise! Granny laughs “I was so naïve!”

She didn’t ask the usual questions like how and what on earth could and would two women w/o a man do! For her once she didn’t have to have any more children (3 was her limit) she quit sex with her husband. And then he died young and she vowed “no sex for me ever again”.

“Now, I would have been with a women, I think yes, I was probably a lesbian”.

And now, at 103, this woman, my Granny, is still as feisty as ever albeit in a wheel chair because her legs didn’t retain the muscle the way her brain has. She is as bright and articulate as she was 30 years ago. And now, wonders why when “women are so beautiful” the lesbian feminist lover I was with then has transitioned into a man today. “Does she have a penis?”

“no”

“oh, that’s good then. No bad smell, he is still a she in a way”

“yup”

And Granny who hasn’t seen her/him in 30 years will be at the party we will have in a few weeks to celebrate Granny’s 103 birthday! It’s a wild ride this life.

Picture:  of Rachel & Granny – Copyright 2010  Rachel Wahba©, used with permission.

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The Boycott is official – American Family Association send a  letter  inciting hate through use of divisive language.

A good reason to show LGBT dollars and appreciation at Home Depot. The AFA is calling for Boycotts of Home Depot or so this e-mail suggests!! Any thoughts?

AFA makes it official: Don’t shop at The Home Depot

July 21, 2010

Dear …………….,

For several years, The Home Depot has given its financial and corporate support to open displays of homosexual activism on main streets in America’s towns. And, it says it will continue to do so!

“At the end of the day here, we’re not going to…forbid our associates to be involved in these pride festivals in any way.” – Stephen Holmes, company spokesman. (Note: The associates participating in these parades were clearly doing so as representatives of the company.)

Rejecting several requests by AFA to remain neutral in the culture war, The Home Depot has chosen to sponsor and participate in numerous gay pride parades and festivals. Most grievous is The Home Depot’s deliberately exposing small children to lascivious displays of sexual conduct by homosexuals and cross-dressers, which are a common occurrence at these events.

The goal of every homosexual organization supported by The Home Depot is to get homosexual marriage legalized. BoycottTheHomeDepot provides just a glimpse of how broad its support for the homosexual movement is. The Home Depot says it is committed to furthering the homosexual agenda.

“The bottom line is, it (remaining neutral) just runs counter to our inclusive culture…and that’s where we stand.” - Stephen Holmes, company spokesman.

See it for yourself. Photos at Boycott The Home Depot.com, taken during recent homosexual events sponsored by The Home Depot, show:

• Children being encouraged to visit gay sex websites.
• Employees using company property to push gay marriage.
• The Home Depot employees riding and marching in homosexual parades.

TAKE ACTION

1. Sign the Boycott Pledge at BoycottTheHomeDepot.com.
2. Call your local store manager. Let him know that you will not be shopping in his store until the company stops supporting the homosexual agenda. You can find his number here. (click “Store Finder”).
3. Print the paper petition and distribute it at Sunday School and church.
4. Extremely important! Post this alert to your facebook page (link above) and encourage others to join the boycott!

It is very important that you forward this alert to your friends and family members.

Sincerely, Tim Wildmon, President American Family Association

Help us Financially Donate Online to AFA One-Time Monthly Text the letters “AFA” to 20222 to give $10 Standard messaging rates may apply. 2011 Holy Land Tour with Tim Wildmon Join Tim and walk where Jesus walked. Tour dates are March 11-19. Direct from Atlanta. twholyland.com

By Melanie Nathan

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Start a Petition »

Posted by Melanie Nathan 7-21-10

Stoney Mae Productions. Cheryl and Javonne Release of Equality and Song of love “Always talk about getting married….and now I am hoping and praying you will marry me.”

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With thanks to Miss New York Claire Buffie!

Guess what – you can be a beauty Queen and you can be Pro-LGBT rights. Yes You Can!  Move over anti-  Carrie Prejean is OUT , and the newest Miss New York, Claire Buffie is IN,  (well lezzies you may prefer it the other way around or ? Oh whatever! )

This is the first Miss America contestant, ever, to use LGBT rights as her contestant platform.

Her platform is “Straight for Equality: Let’s Talk”

Ms. Buffie tells The Advocate “that it’s really important to promote equality for all people, ‘all’ being the main word. As a straight ally, I think it’s so necessary to have that straight allies’ support for the LGBT community.”

Bringing equality to such a high profile platform is a courageous indictment of the hostility many straight people feel toward gay people, reminiscent of the Earlier Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s.  Twenty -50 years from now, if you are not carrying a banner “Straights for LGBT Right” you and your children will be ashamed.   If my Parents would not have carried their Pro Black Civil Rights Banner – today I would be ashamed.

So – That Said Thank you from Lez Get Real  and the pits of discriminatory hell to Claire Buffie – AND if you need any education as to what our movement in fact needs- have your peeps call us (Nathan@privatecourts.com) and we will tell you all about the new  GAY CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT  – The American Equality Bill and Uniting Amrican Families Act.  It is not about gay marriage it is about Absolute and unequivocal  Equality.

Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Melanie Nathan 7-16-10

UAFA Supportive Resolution On  Wilton Manors Council Agenda for Agenda for July 27 – 2010

The City of Wilton Manors is approximately two square miles in area and is located in Broward County, Florida, just north of downtown Fort Lauderdale.  Wilton Manors is often referred to as the “Island City” because its boundaries primarily follow the North and South Forks of the Middle River. Ideally located within minutes of the beach and downtown Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors is quickly becoming the “place to be” in South Florida.

The City is nearly 100% built-out and embraces the vision of a “sustainable urban village.”   But what use would such be without recognizing that every American has an equal right to live in happiness with the person of their choice, whether of the same gender or not!

A UAFA Activist and Florida resident approached the Mayor of the small town, Mayor Gary Resnick, and told him that he had been prevented from living in this this gorgeous town with the love of his life because the federal government would not allow him to sponsor his beloved for a green card, they were of the same-sex.

Unfortunately the resident, Ken, lost his relationship because the couple was unable to sustain the distance for, inter alia, financial and medical reasons.

But this did not stop the American bi-national from becoming his own force in the fight for all the other binational same-sex couples.  He approached the Mayor and today I received this message:

Hi Mel,

I have been after Wilton Manors  to pass this UAFA resolution. I am so happy. This is what I got from the Mayor today. This makes my weekend !

Thank you for all you do!

“Hi Ken

Thank you for your message. Our resolution supporting this Bill will be on our July 27, agenda. If you like, you could come to the Commission Meeting, 7 pm, and in the hearing from the public portion, voice your support for this Bill and I’ll be happy to recognize you. Thanks again.

Gary Resnick
Mayor”

The website for the town asserts  “Diversity is the strength of Wilton Manors.  Children from many different ethnic backgrounds attend Wilton Manors Elementary School; the City’s Police Department employs African-American, Haitian, and Hispanic officers; and the City Commission includes openly gay elected officials.  Wilton Manors is ideally located, poised for redevelopment, and encourages diversity.  Come and join us in the “Island City” and be a part of a diverse “sustainable urban village”.

So thank you Mr. Mayor Gary Resnick – we trust that your Council will support the resolution for the passage by the Federal Government of The Uniting American Families Act and / or its inclusion in Comprehensive Immigration reform, that which impacts one of the most pervasive forms of inequality in the United States of America and hence your beautiful town – which one day I hope to visit.

A native of New Jersey, Mayor Gary Resnick was first elected to the City Commission in March 1998. In March 2000, the City Commission unanimously selected him as Vice Mayor. Gary was re-elected to the Commission in March 2002 and in March 2006, prior to being elected Mayor in November 2008.  Mayor Resnick graduated from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Economics and received his Juris Doctor with honors from Rutgers University School of Law .

By Melanie Nathan
otherwise known as Mel
nathan@privatecourts.com

follow Mel on twitter @oblogdeeoblogda

Note:  If you are interested in approaching our Town for a Supportive resolution contact Amos Lim at www.Out4Immigration.org

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Today Argentina celebrates a Human Rights and Dignity Victory.  To my way of thinking this beats first place at the World Cup Soccer.

Paula Brooks, of Lez Get Real posted the good news:

“After a 14-hour debate that lasted well into the early morning hours, the senate of Argentina has voted 33-27 to pass a bill that gives same-sex couples equal marriage rights and will make Argentina the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage.

The bill, that has already passed the lower chamber of Congress despite a concerted campaign by the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical groups, will also grant same-sex couples the right to adopt children.

Debate on the bill began in early afternoon on Wednesday and spilled into the early hours of Thursday as several hundred same-sex marriage supporters also stood vigil awaiting the vote.”

Now we get to to witness History made!

Oh No! Oh No - Argentina is a Go!

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07/15/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

The arguments around “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” have gotten more heated than ever, with questions from a Military survey being leaked to the public. In the survey, the Military basically acknowledges they are considering a “separate but equal” approach to LGBT servicemembers and is considering placing them in separate barracks and troops.

This wedding dress giveaway is so hetero-oriented that it drives home the point that the Military doesn’t want LGBT servicemembers and doesn’t recognize unions of LGBT couples as valid or worth celebrating. Which basically holds in line with Military policy on gays. If you are a straight bride and need a dress, head to http://bridesacrossamerica.com/ to see where you can find a participating store near you. Good luck with your wedding and please think about marriage equality while you are picking up your dress.

Watch the clip below:

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07/15/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

In a clip that is making it’s way around “the internets” Bill O’Reilly and his busty blonde FOX News cohorts are sputtering with rage! Nothing new, I know. This time the targets of their rage are rogue pockets of liberals tucked away in Montana are daring to suggest that schools should give young children proper sex-education classes. Specifically, telling kindergartners that gay people exist and that tolerance and acceptance of those who are different from you is the right way to go.

Naturally, the people good ol’ Billy meant to offend were the gays. The people I think should be offended? Everyone in the State of Montana. Lets take a look at some of the quotes from the clip, shall we?

“Any clear thinking people would say that children should not be interruped in their childhood with the idea that people have sex differently. I think 99% of my audience agrees with that.” – Bill O’Reilly

Oh Bill, Billy, Billy, bahbill, bill bill…of course everyone agree with THAT. However, telling a child that a woman can choose to have a wife or a husband isn’t going to enlighten the child on any type of sexual behavior. Do you think the teachers in Montana are going to show clips from queer porn to get their point across? Of course he does! Because he has a very low opinion of anyone from Montana.

 ”Montana? I don’t get it…Montana?” … “Traditional, rural, people.” – Bill O’Rielly

Did he just call them hillbillies? Like banjo playing inbred people from Deliverance? Or like people who aren’t gay, don’t enjoy sex and will never enjoy sex and are completely uneducated and unaware of the world around them? He sure did! Basically if you live in a rural area, you don’t know what gay is. Not buying my argument? Fine, it gets worse:

“Education attracts liberal minded people, this stuff comes from the school board the reason is they don’t want bullying they want tolerance across the board.” - Bill O’Rielly

How dare those crazy, deranged liberal Montana educators want TOLERANCE? HOW DARE THEY! THAT GOES AGAINST THEIR RURAL VALUES. Sorry Bill, but I was never aware that being from Montana or the mid-west precluded someone from being a good person and tolerating others. Those whiny Montana liberals and their desire for peace and loving ones neighbor!

“Then all of a sudden it’s Heather has two mommies or Gary has 18 daddies…” – Bill O’Rielly

Okay, now the gays can go back to being insulted.

Watch the clip below for all the hatemongering you can stand!

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Hi, I’m Natasia and I’m gay.

How gay are you?

I’m so gay that I just bought my dog* a bridesmaid dress** to wear at my wedding!

* Please note, the dog pictured is not mine, I have a yorkie and she could kick that dog’s butt in a cuteness concert anyday, anytime.

** Please note again, that there is also a matching hat with a bow, for the dress. This, my dykey darlings, is essential.

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Barbara Boxer for Senate Vs. Carly Fiorina for LGBT  Hell; Senator  Barbara Boxer and Fiorina Tie

Now while many of you feel “over the democrats” the Boxer v Fiorina race will be the most important in November’s general election.  Barbara Boxer incumbent Democratic Senator for California and one of the very few reliable and progressive allies for LGBT legislation in the Senate is facing her first ever terrifying (for us)  challenge, by Fiorina, ex CEO of Hewlett Packard, who, in my opinion is either Homophobic or a panderer  of the worst kind.

The latest Field Poll shows Barbara Boxer in a statistical tie with Carly Fiorina. “Now, we have further confirmation of just what a serious challenge we are facing. Although this is within the margin of error, there’s no question that we are in the toughest Boxer campaign ever. ” says Rose Kapolczynski
Campaign Manager for the Boxer Campaign.

Yesterday, Survey USA released their latest California Senate poll — and it is more confirmation that the race is now too close to call. Fiorina is actually ahead of Barbara by two points, 47% – 45%.

The campaign blasted out an email and is asking for support. I encourage all my readers here at LGR to send at least $5.00  – PLEASE let us support a true friend and at the same time ask for more profound and overt leadership on our issues in the Senate.  The gay community has always supported the Senator and we  MUST continue to do so, regardless of our disappointment with the Democrats and President Obama.

Without Boxer in the Senate forget about equality!

Send the Senator Boxer’s campaign your $5.00, no matter where you are – if we wait on the sideline in essence the gay community will be defeated again by the millions of dollars that corporate anti-gay right wing motivators will pour into this campaign, not to mention the millions that

Fiorina will use of her own money in her power hungry quest – which WILL harm us all directly.

http://www.barbaraboxer.com

Photo Shirley Tan © Senator Barbara Boxer with Tan Mercado Family

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
@oblogdeeoblogda
FaceBook be my Friend.

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San Francisco;

The Kids Are All Right

We are a two mom family. We have daughters.  Tonight, together with a friend (who took her grand daughter) I took my thirteen year old daughter to see  the Annette Bening and Julianne Moore film, “The Kids Are All Right“  I was unsure if this would be a good idea, especially as it was restricted citing sexually explicit scenes. I was worried; but weighed up the importance of the film, the maturity of my child, and the fact that – at last – a feature movie provided a story line more profound in its normalcy that the concept of the lesbian family, itself.

That said, seeing the film in limited release amongst a San Francisco mixed audience was most telling.  The movie is a comedy coated with emotion and turmoil, as a family is disrupted by the children’s desire to locate their sperm donor.  Lesbians and gay patrons outnumbered the straights , and even in the dark, one could tell who was gay and who was straight by the reactions and laughter to different scenes and character comments.

My daughter loved the movie; as did her friend. The context of the sex scenes required their bold oddness,  to say the least, we walked out of there calling them acrobatics.   However the lesbian couple of long duration provided the audience with a sex scene between Benning and Moore, that only those experienced in the art of bed-death lesbian would understand as romance turned endurance – a very realistic depiction.

Sitting in the fourth row of a very full theater was a challenge, especially as it meant my daughter and I would be sitting that much closer to explicit sex.   I was not sure how to handle it.  Then came the first scene. I glanced over at my teenager – and lo and behold, she had covered her eyes.  She simply did not want to see.

The next such scene, I glanced over at my friends grand daughter and found that this time, the two kids had turned their respective young heads toward each other  sharing “ew yukee”  expressions,  clearly doing everything in the power to avoid looking.

I asked if they were embarrassed and they both said no that it was simply Odd.  Both made t clear that they were referring to scenes that involved men.  They were completely unaffected by the lesbian scenes.

The story is good – my recommendation, on second thoughts, don’t take your younger than 16 kid.  Too much explaining to do….

It was an endearing movie and loved by the audience evidenced by the loud applause at the end.  How refreshing a lesbian long term relationship, loving family, with all the normal accouterments of lifestyle and success – it was real and a great entertainment. Recommended for sure!  Note purposely not giving too much away.

Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Soccer World Cup 2010, South Africa; The Road from Pretoria to Durban will never see such a sight again and neither will the group of Dutch Fans, traveling between cities to play to play Japan – and it was worth the schlep because Netherlands beat Japan by 1-0.

Led by an Orange double-decker the Dutch Supporters en route from their camp site in Pretoria to their next game against Japan in Durban.  Their convoy traveled the 636  (400 miles) km route comprising of 175 campers, trucks, buses and jeeps – their convoy was 6 kms (3 miles) long.

Now off to Sunday final between Spain and Netherlands -  and as described by LA Times:

“For one of the few times in its 80-year history, the World Cup has produced a final worthy of the sport itself.

The Dutch and the Spanish play soccer the way it was intended to be played — a passing game, a possession game, a game of the intellect and not simply a contest of physical skill, strength, speed and endurance.

It might be slower-paced than some would like, but it should be far more interesting to watch as it unfolds. Chess, not checkers, that’s the difference.”

Guess Which is the English Convoy?

7-8-10 Melanie Nathan

United Kingdom: In a landmark case, the United Kingdom Supreme Court (the highest court in the country) ruled unanimously that the Court of Appeal misapplied the Convention relating on the Status of Refugees as applied by 1967 Protocol by denying the asylum applications of two gay men, in favor of reconsideration of the asylum applications of the two men and overturned the Court of Appeal’s decision rejecting their respective applications.

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom – Parliament Square London SW1P 3BD T: 020 7960 1886/1887 F: 020 7960 1901

www.supremecourt.gov.uk HJ (Iran) and HT (Cameroon) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] UKSC 31 On Appeal from: [2009] EWCA Civ 172; JUSTICES: Lord Hope (Deputy President), Lord Rodger, Lord Walker, Lord Collins, Sir John Dyson SCJ.

The facts of  were as follows:

HJ and HT are gay men – from Iran and Cameroon, respectively – who seek asylum in the United Kingdom on the basis that they would face the risk of persecution on grounds of sexual orientation if returned to their home countries. In both Iran and Cameroon it is a criminal offence punishable by, inter alia, imprisonment, and in the case of Iran by the death penalty, for consenting adults to engage in homosexual acts.

The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, as applied by the 1967 Protocol (“the Convention”), provides that members of a particular social group, which can include groups defined by common sexual orientation, are entitled to asylum in States that are parties to the Convention if they can establish that they would face a well-founded fear of persecution if returned to their home country.

The Court of Appeal had ruled erroneously that, if returned to their respective home countries, the two men could conceal their sexual orientation so as to avoid being persecuted and thus neither man had a ‘well-founded fear of persecution’ that entitled him to protection under the Convention.

The Court of Appeal found that, if returned to their respective home countries, HJ and HT would conceal their sexual orientation in order to avoid the risk of being persecuted. As HJ and HT would hide their sexuality they would not come to the attention of the State authorities and so would not be at risk of persecution. Accordingly, neither party had a ‘well-founded fear of persecution’ that entitled him to protection under the Convention: it was permissible for a State party to the Convention to refuse asylum to a homosexual person who, if returned to their home country, would deny their identity and conceal their sexuality in order to avoid being persecuted, provided that the homosexual person’s situation could be regarded as ‘reasonably tolerable’. Only if the hardship which would be suffered was deemed to exceed this threshold would the applicant be entitled to protection under the Convention.

The Appellant appealed to the Supreme Court, contending that the ‘reasonable tolerability’ test espoused by the Court of Appeal was incompatible with the Convention.

The UK Supreme Court ruled that it was not permissible for a State party to the Convention such as the United Kingdom to refuse asylum to a homosexual person who, if returned to their home country, would deny their identity and conceal their sexuality in order to avoid being persecuted, provided that the homosexual person’s situation could be regarded as ‘reasonably tolerable’.  Prior to today’s ruling only if the hardship which would be suffered was deemed to exceed this threshold would the applicant be entitled to protection under the Convention.

The Supreme Court unanimously allowed the appeal, holding that the ‘reasonable tolerability’ test applied by the Court of Appeal is contrary to the Convention and should not be followed in the future. HJ and HT’s cases are remitted for reconsideration in light of the detailed guidance provided by the Supreme Court.

Here is Lord Rodger SCJ quoted at [2010] UKSC 31, paragraph 78, that makes for the best reading:

In short, what is protected is the applicant’s right to live freely and openly as a gay man.

That involves a wide spectrum of conduct, going well beyond conduct designed to attract sexual partners and maintain relationships with them. To illustrate the point with trivial stereotypical examples from British society: just as male heterosexuals are free to enjoy themselves playing rugby, drinking beer and talking about girls with their mates, so male homosexuals are to be free to enjoy themselves going to Kylie concerts, drinking exotically colored cocktails and talking about boys with their straight female mates.

Mutatis mutandis – and in many cases the adaptations would obviously be great – the same must apply to other societies. In other words, gay men are to be as free as their straight equivalents in the society concerned to live their lives in the way that is natural to them as gay men, without the fear of persecution.

THE JUDGMENT

The Supreme Court unanimously allows the appeal, holding that the ‘reasonable tolerability’ test applied by the Court of Appeal is contrary to the Convention and should not be followed in the future. HJ and HT’s cases are remitted for reconsideration in light of the detailed guidance provided by the Supreme Court.

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
www.privatecourts.com
San Francisco.

by Melanie Nathan

California Media Hypes Up Possible Riots,  while some claim it is historic that a white officer was in fact convicted of killing an African American man, and others assert – conviction meager.The officer left the LA Superior Court in cuffs and will spend the time between conviction and sentence in a California State prison.

In the meantime the Us Justice department has just announced it will launch an immediate investigation into the prosecution of the crime – and is considering bringing Federal charges against the officer who today was convicted with involuntary manslaughter, in a case that waxs original thought of as first degree murder.

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By  Melanie Nathan  7-8-10

Today, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro ruled that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional with respect to claims brought by seven married same-sex couples and three widowers from Massachusetts. Under the ruling, the plaintiffs are entitled to the same federal spousal benefits and protections as every other married couple.

Finally  a huge victory for marriage equality when a federal judge in Boston ruled today in two separate cases that a critical portion of the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.

U.S. district judge Joseph Tauro , US District Court Massachusetts ruled that Congress violated the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when it passed DOMA and took from the states decisions concerning which couples can be considered married.

The second case,  Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, the ruling was DOMA violates the equal protection principles embodied in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The case was brought by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), the group that won the landmark gay marriage decision in 2003 before the Massachusetts Supreme Court. GLAD represents eight married couples and three widowers in the suit, says The Advocate today.

Proposition 8 is currently pending a San Francisco  decision, which could come down at any time, relates to State  laws barring marriage rights for same-sex couples.  However in this instance in  GLAD’s lawsuit was a precise attack on DOMA, targeting just one section of the law — Section 3 — that limits the definition of marriage, for all federal purposes, to one man and one woman.

A Highlight The Argument:

GLAD attorney Mary Bonauto told Tauro that DOMA constitutes a “classic equal protection” violation, by taking one class of married people in Massachusetts and dividing it into two. One class gets federal benefits, the other does not.  Just as the federal government cannot take the word “person” and say it means only Caucasians or only women, said Bonauto, it should not be able to take the word “marriage” and say it means only heterosexual couples.

Bonauto said the government has no reason to withhold the more than 1,000 federal benefits of marriage from same-sex couples, and noted that a House Judiciary Committee report “explicitly stated the purpose of DOMA was to express moral disapproval of homosexuality.”

The ruling stems from the lawsuit Gill et al v. Office of Personnel Management et al, filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) in March 2009.

“Today the Court simply affirmed that our country won’t tolerate second-class marriages,” said Mary Bonauto, GLAD’s Civil Rights Project Director, who argued the case. “I’m pleased that Judge Tauro recognized that married same-sex couples and surviving spouses have been seriously harmed by DOMA and that the plaintiffs deserve the same opportunities to care and provide for each other and for their children that other families enjoy. This ruling will make a real difference for countless families in Massachusetts.”

“I am thrilled that my family will now be treated in the same way as those of my married co-workers at the post office,” said Nancy Gill, who is a plaintiff with her spouse, Marcelle Letourneau. “Marcelle and I married out of love and commitment to each other first and foremost, but federal recognition of our marriage means that we’ll have equal access to important protections for our two children and for ourselves.”

Gill is a 22-year employee of the U.S. Postal Service who cannot cover Letourneau on her family health and vision insurance plans, forcing the couple to pay extra to insure Letourneau. Marcelle is also ineligible to receive the federal health benefit given to surviving spouses or to access Nancy’s pension should Nancy predecease her.

The next step in the case is for the federal government to decide whether it will appeal Judge Tauro’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. That decision should come within the next 60 days.

Congress passed DOMA in 1996. Section 3 of the law states that only a marriage between one man and one woman will be recognized for federal purposes. The Obama Administration called the law discriminatory, even while defending it in court.

GLAD filed the Gill case on the grounds that DOMA Section 3 violates the federal constitutional guarantee of equal protection as applied to federal income tax, Social Security, federal employees and retirees and the issuance of passports. The passport issue was resolved in 2009 when the State Department changed its policy.

Co-counsel in the Gill case included attorneys from the firms Foley Hoag LLP, Sullivan & Worcester LLP, Jenner & Block LLP, and Kator, Parks & Weiser, PLLC. Details about the case, the plaintiffs, and the attorneys representing them can be found at http://www.glad.org/doma.

Excerpt from the Judgment

“Equal Protection of the Laws “[T]he Constitution ‘neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.’”(   Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620, 623 (1996) (quoting Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537,)  559 (1896) (Harlan, J. dissenting)).     It is with this fundamental principle in mind that equal protection jurisprudence takes on “governmental classifications that ‘affect some groups of citizens differently than others.’”84 And it is because of this “commitment to the law’s neutrality where the rights of persons are at stake”85 that legislative provisions which arbitrarily or irrationally create discrete classes cannot withstand constitutional……  Read Judge Tauro’s ruling: http://www.glad.org/uploads/docs/cases/2010-07-08-gill-district-court-decision.pdf.

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders is New England’s leading legal organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status, and gender identity and expression.

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Melanie Nathan- "Finally a Benchmark"

This is a critical approach to win Equality. Equality cannot come to fruition without the Benchmark – something specific that carries forth a universal message.  Now that we have the wording and the Goal- we need the BILL.

Who ever says this is “Pie in the Sky or Bold” (Bilerco) – is marginalizing our entitlement and our rights.  To my way of thinking anyone who suggest we keep the backdoor approach as our only approach does not have our absolute interests at heart.  Selfless advocacy means going for the only benchmark that will bring full equality, and if we are going to have a movement then we need to have the movement regardless of how many votes we may or may not get in Congress.  They need to know that we are not fighting for legislation; we are fighting for our lives and to live our lives, happily,  like other Americans, and that means equally.    I for one, have a right to enter through the front door -  and that is why I have touted this plan for all this time.

Bold? No way – that is an insult! Its what our factual existence demands!

“At the same time, the piecemeal approach seems to have been a disaster. For example, ENDA was first proposed in 1996, and it is still languishing fourteen years later. Representative Jackie Speier last week said it would take another five years.” (Bilerco)  But that was the back door now we want the front door!

When I spoke to the Congresswoman back in 2009 about the Civil Rights Amendment approach, she agreed that would be the best approach to our Federal rights.

I spoke up in many an articles, speeches, meetings, phone conferences – but everyone seemed to have their head in the next fundraiser or the next “call to action.”  I have to say you are all still doing the same thing until you subscribe to this benchmark legislative amendment.

Thank goodness people are frustrated and angry enough to realize that this is an imperative stance that may turn out to be our only chance. Whether it becomes law or opens our eyes to what ought to become law – we have to do this.

Some may suggest that the African American Community may be concerned about ownership of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and such amendment may be offensive to the struggle – but this is a completely unfounded concern given the NAACP leadership and testimony provided by Julian Bond in the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 03, 2009, at the UAFA hearing where he specifically stated that Gay(LGBT) rights is a civil rights issue.

Quite simply, the AEB amends ALL Existing Civil Rights Laws, starting with the 1964 Civil Rights Act, to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity”.

This ends discrimination in vast areas of life: employment, housing, credit, public places and facilities, and all programs operating with federal funding. It covers school discrimination and bullying, adoption, and all federal health programs.

The AEB would INCLUDE US EQUALLY in the Federal Non-Discrimination “GROUP POLICY” that now covers “race, color, sex, religion, and national origin”.

In whole, the passage of the AEB will make Non-Discrimination against us The OFFICIAL US Governmental Policy.

Working to file and pass the AEB will stimulate real conversation about our suffering under discrimination. This process will prepare us all for the Prop. 8 and DOMA cases already on their way to the Supreme Court.

LONG OVER DUE

Of course, Sexual Orientation – should have been included in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act first passed.

A gay black hero, Bayard Rustin (http://bit.ly/AEBrustin) was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington at which MLK gave his Dream Speech, which helped secure the ‘64 Act.

Then, we were shoved aside because of societal homophobia.

Now OUR TIME HAS COME. We have already won the de FACTO fight – the factual existence – we have won visibility – the fact that we are out and open, the fact that we have created controversy, the fact that we have children – the fact that we are shaking up DADT, the fact that Annette Benning is playing a lesbian – and many more such victories – now it has come time for De Jure – The Legal Victory!  It can Only be be done one WAY  and that is  this  CIVIL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

Now we need your support Grassroots Join us. More to come…

Civil Rights Act LBJ

FIVE Action Steps needed:

1. Sign Petition

2.  Join Face Book Page

3. Take Pledge  – http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/gaycivilrights/

4. Write your representatives in House and Senate – via hand written  faxed letters, as well as the usual e-mails.

5. GO VIRAL anyway you know how!!!

DO IT NOW!

by Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Start a Petition »

St. John Fernando & Greg at SF Pride 2010

Fans ecstatic as Radio Personalities attend SF Pride;

Little did famed radio personalities, St. John, and team Greg and Fernando know that  being outlawed from the 2010 Pride festivities, by complicit Clear Channel and Pride San Francisco (2010) would in fact turn out a ‘blessing in disguise.”

St John has been  a San Francisco Pride feature  celebrity  DJ each Pride for the past fourteen years,  Greg and Fernando have been bashing on doors trying to get a spot, year after year and to no  avail.   It seemed their unwelcome fate was sealed when they quit the airwaves of Pride sponsor  Clear Channel.

Joining CBS, the two sets of scorching talent  brought their magnetic pull to CBS, their new home, willing to shake fist in the face of  what may well have been the homophobic culture generated by Clear Channel home to the likes of mega –right wing stars Limbaugh and Beck.

St John, as host and creator of San Francisco’s longest running global dance radio show HouseNation  and  on air personality  for CBS Radio’s MOViN99.7… nominated at WMC for mix show of the year, has performed at SF Pride for the past fourteen years.  From the airwaves to the dance floors of the hottest clubs and undergrounds, St. John’s energetic style has made him a staple internationally from Brazil to Canada, and nation-wide from New York’s Limelight to San Francisco’s Ruby Skye. With multiple CD releases on major labels such as Thrive and UBL Recordings, St. John has sold over a quarter-million albums and in 2010 , contributed to HIV/AIDS funding and cast Pride on a community of teens confused by coming out.

In complimentary contrast, and with standing fan base as profound, is beloved duo, team “ Greg and Fernando” who shake the morning commuters with humor and rancor, so unique in its gay-straight blend that their own ‘bridge’ belies that of the reach of the very Golden Gate most commuters cross each of those blaring CBS mornings. Be assured that despite the hefty $6.00 toll (or is it $7 yet?) these fans are adding laughter and fun to the beauty of that extraordinary Bay Area commute.

In the week leading to 2010 San Francisco Pride, Lez Get Real published an article, exposing, exclusively, the impending ban excluding the iconic hosts from performing at the SF Gay Pride Festival.

Despite the article’s virility and the hullabaloo it caused, Pride did not change its stance and nor did it answer our specific e-mail questions calling for an explanation.

After the Pride Festivities, we spoke to St. John as well as Fernando, on behalf of illustrious duo Greg and Fernando.  Clearly the sentiment was unified – annual San Francisco LGBT festival and parade crossed the implicit boundary from Pride to corporate control, delivered through exclusionary terms and conditions in sponsorship contracts, that not only excluded these superb talents but the very saints of “gay is okay!”, and hence served to tacitly disparage them in the eyes of fans and populace alike.

When Lezgetreal.com broke the story in its exclusive article, St. John’s fans were shocked.  The internet and St. John’s Facebook site, spiraled into the world of viral and the comments came pouring in, via email, bloggers, and the usual fan channels.

Feeling the pulse and camaraderie, nothing could keep the famed verbally flamboyant duo, Greg and Fernando, nor the LGR featured and talented magic-mix-machine St. John, away from Pride San Francisco and so of course they showed up; after all they are family.  They  were about to find out, however, that they were there not for themselves but for Pride after all, because the FANS did not let them forget that! They were there- for the fans, who recognized and all but swarmed both sets of talent.

Sparked by the previous article, they were incensed and happy to see the guys!

St. John told us that together with Greg and Fernando, and keen CBS interns, the band of  buddies attended San Francisco Pride, as any ordinary members of the population would have the right to do. “We made our rainbow signs and went to Pride,” quipped St. John.

“Truthfully,” says St. John, “I had the best time in memory of any of the San Francisco Pride events that I have attended, always as performer.  In all my fourteen years attending I have been on a stage performing, but this time I was amongst my fans and able to connect on a personal basis.  It was an extraordinary experience. “

St. John told me that he spoke to a young fan coming out at this Pride for the first time. The youngster was so grateful for the help when St. spent time talking to the young person.  “If that was all I accomplished with just that one person, this year at Pride” said St. John, “it was humbling and made the ban worthwhile.”

But that was clearly not all that they accomplished.  “I really felt like I was there for the people this time.  It was a very personal Pride experience for me.  Fan after fan came up to me and ironically while I was having a great time, they were reminding me and commiserating about the ban on my performing at Pride; many were sad and angry with San Francisco Pride Organizers and Clear Channel.”  According to St. John.

When I spoke to Fernando, he echoed the same sentiment, both he and Greg had a fantastic time; invited to the mike as they passed almost every performer and stage.  It seems it will be hard to keep them off future gigs  especially as their fame is growing exponentially.

St John said that the Lezgetreal Article had generated huge publicity for him and CBS and that awareness and recognition had increased “a hundred times. The number of people who came up to me at Pride was incredible and I had no idea how much buzz the article had generated.”  But it is much more than that – all tree hosts are much beloved and have given so much to the gay community that their presence would undoubtedly have NOT gone unn

St. John Spinning Despite BAN

oticed, regardless of the controversy.

Then came the unexpected, a coup of sorts, as they passed the Clear Channel Group, who had been pivotal in the Ban, the buddies sensed a  tasteless discomfort as their fellow DJ’s who, while perfectly entitled to replace the ex- clear channel and now CBS icons, must surely have been uneasy about the out and out ban.

Passing the Toyota Stage, fans rallied around and the next thing St. knew he was behind the controls and spinning the reputable mix to the delight of fans and all around.  Unplanned, and impromptu he found himself, not only caught in a united throng of festivities but showcasing his formidable talent nonetheless. No he had the best of both worlds.

While, St. John, has been the mix spin of Pride gig for fourteen years, the refusal to comment by Pride organizers, has prompted an omission begging for its own spin, any spin;   “Hey SF Pride- pray tell – who is pushing the buttons – what is going on here?” This is the resounding common denominator- a roar from comments generated by my earlier Article. “Has Pride been bought to the extent that the People of San Francisco are compelled to celebrate without their heroes? Is Pride the San Francisco Pride or is it now the Corporate Who has More Money Pride.

I do not know about you fellow queers, but as for me I have marched and paraded and celebrated in the name of San Francisco pride for many years and when I see those who model excellence for our community I feel good about myself and proud that my maker made me the perfect lesbian.

With this all said, I will be featuring an article in the next few days that will bring more of the Fernando Interview (Greg and Fernando) interview. Please visit our FB Page and make sure you subscribe.

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

Article  by Melanie Nathan and Lezgetreal © -  Can be re-blogged with the following accredation:
Article  at www.lezgetreal.com, by Melanie Nathan. (Include direct Link)

©Photos. Copyright  N. Collins /Melanie Nathan.

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7-4-10  Melanie Nathan.

Anyone remember Carrie Prejean; the fired Miss America winner-after sexually suggestive tapes appeared, defying her holier than thou anti-gay marriage stance, the latter happily announced  in response to the Judge’s question on the competition itself?

Scooped up by NOM, as well as other groups, hell bent on claiming marriage their  heterosexual birthright and domain, had no choice but to drop little Ms Hypocrite like a boiling hot cinder when her exploits were revealed.

But think about this  ….so what…she gets to get married; and guess what …in the Hotel of the Guy that paid $125,000 to deny us our  LGBT marriage rights in California.  Mr. Hotel Del Mar Prop 8 Money Man!

Well now Prejean married Oakland Raiders’ quarterback Kyle Boller. The two were married in a reception at The Grand Del Mar hotel, which is owned by a Prop. 8 supporter, Doug Manchester, who donated $125,000 to passing California’s gay marriage ban.

Do you anticipate a connection – at all now in the future….. Perhaps the idea would be to have a married Carrie spokesperson for Grande Del Mar:  “Hey look where I got married.”

However given my journalistic / advocacy experience in the world of hypocrisy – brace your very dear good selves; here is another one of those karmic moments in the making and may I wrote the script:-

When things become a little too coincidental and timing beckons on winged flight 666-and  the jet steers a faster formidable course,  the Blog Brigade blows its horn and prepares its smoke and blanket because we are on Planet Reker right now. Toot Toot!

We have all you hippos covered – hide your lies harder and faster; turn your secret daemons back from butterflies to the worms they once were; but do not morph clockwise – do it anti-clockwise.

Oh what the heck..my camera is behind you and I am about to take the shot. Click!  Gotcha!

So now what does this have to do with Prejean or  the man of her dreams…. besides the fact that she has 1,138 more legal rights than I do?  Well she still gets to have affairs, as does he, they are allowed to divorce, hell, they can even cheat on their taxes if they so choose; those sexy tapes may serve up very fine aperitif during some bored moment and hey they are marries after all… it does not matter what the F*&^% happens even if there is a child or 3!

By Melanie Nathan  – nathan@privatecourts.com
Hell Bent On winning  Marriage Back
And Civil Rights For all.

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7-2-2010   By Melanie Nathan

Exclusive: Lez Get Real Release accused Name despite South African Law requiring confidentiality.

Andile Ncoza the man accused of brutally raping Millicent Gaika back in April, was given bail but no one came to bail him out.  Even his family opposed bail at the hearing.  Today he was formally  charged in the crime of rape and attempted murder and his case is remanded to July 13th for a trial date to be set.

Ncoza, had his bail set at R500.00 ($68.00) which caused an International outcry.

Although rapists are convicted in South Africa  and often, given the statistic of 500,000 rapes per year, there are more walking the streets than  those arrested and convicted.

This is no wonder given the corruption of the  powerful in command, and control such as the ex-police  Sebeli who has just been convicted on corruption charges.  Lest we forget the South African President himself, Jacob Zuma, who has a rape trial tucked neatly under his belt.

Lezgetreal reported extensively about the brutal Rape and attempted murder of  Soccer Player Millicent Gaika, a lesbian who was raped for the third time, for being a lesbian, in what has come to be known an act of “corrective rape.”

Millicent Gaika of Gugulethu Township alleged her attacker “acted like an animal who wanted to kill” and said “I thought he was going to kill me; he was like an animal. And he kept saying: ‘I know you are a lesbian. You are not a man, you think you are, but I am going to show you, you are a woman. I am going to make you pregnant. I am going to kill you.” This is the third time Millicent has suffered such brutality.

At the time we commented that the South African Justice Department had done very little to combat hate crimes and rape in general.

The glitz of World Soccer has masked the truth and done little more than continue to serve the “ostrich neck in the ground mentality” that has plagued South Africa since the day Jan Van Riebeck found its soil, in 1652.

The soccer player, Gaika, a  victim of ‘corrective’ lesbian rape as it is paradoxically termed, was rescued while being strangled with barbed wire by a group of neighbors who heard the screams.  They were able to wrestle the accused to the ground. There is no question of identity and the witnesses are numerous.  The South African Government has no special project to curb such hate crimes and no assistance to help victims such as Millicent.

The South African government is absolutely complicit in injustice and business will go on as usual and you, the world too – are now complicit in  hailing the World Cup Soccer in a Country where 500,000 women are raped every year. Ironically Millicent is a soccer player herself as are many other of the victims of this reprehensible crime. But no one seems to think this should shed any light on the plight of South Africa’s continued crimes against women.

Rape to change a gay person’s sexuality, is commonly known in the townships as “correctional rape”.

The trend of  raping lesbian women to make them heterosexual is increasing rapidly in South Africa.  Ncoza who appeared in the Wynberg Regional Court  will receive a fair trial while the victim remains penniless and although determined, remains  in desperate fear of testifying. 

Lezgetreal learned the name of the accused through  confidential sources,  and while in South African Law he cannot be named until such  time as he has a trial date, we have decided to release his name.

Why should we give him anonymity based on laws that firstly do not apply to us in the international media, and secondly based on the fact that this Accused seems to be getting better treatment at this point than the victim and the next 500,000 women who will be the victims of rape in the next 12 months!

The case against him was postponed (continued) until July 13, when a trial date would be set.

Millicent and a group of 15 such victims are sharing a two room cabin with little money for food or other necessities of life. They live in fear of more attacks.

Melanie Nathan Photo By SF Weekly

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Lez Get Real wrote a piece publishing a letter by a Canadian Gay man Noah Gurza.  The comments were diverse and interesting. The Article can be found here at http://lezgetreal.com/2010/06/toronto-pride-torrontonians-emotional-plea/

I have chosen to publish this one comment that appeared on Lezgetreal, together with its call for action as by  Bernie Farber, one of Canada’s leading experts on antisemitism and human rights.  Bernie M. Farber is the National Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) . Thanks for for drawing attention to the strengthening support for Pride by the Jewish community and other supporters of Israel.  This is a time to show up for what you believe and to show PRIDE for what is good, non-divisive and Positive.

Bernie M. Farber

Mr. Farber has spent more than 20 years with CJC, battling hatred and racism and strengthening relationships with police services, government and other ethnic and faith communities across the country.

The recipient of countless awards, Mr. Farber is an associate member of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, and was recently selected by the Ontario government to serve as a member of the Hate Crimes Community Working Group. He also serves with the city of Vaughan Mayor’s Task Force on Community Safety and Security and the York Regional Police Community Crime Prevention Advisory Council.

Mr. Farber is a published author and has contributed numerous articles on the Jewish political scene, human rights issues, the Holocaust, hate crime and white supremacy to newspapers and periodicals including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Toronto Star, and many others.

Here is Mr. Farber’s comment on the earlier Piece:

“Noah: Thank you for your inspired thinking and articulate manner in which you have addressed this issue. There is however one important area where we respectfully differ. CJC will be joing Kulanu (the Jewish LGBTQ group) and other Jewish organizations including UJA, Canada Israel Committee, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal and many synagogues at the Pride parade . In my view,the vast majority of Pride goers have nothing to do with “Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA)”. Literally hundreds of thousands of people (some say up to 1 million) people watch the Pride parade, we have the support of fourToronto mayoralty candidates some of whom will join us under the Kulanu flag and many many more. Do you really want QuAIA to be the only voice on Israel in a parade that receives national attention? Imagine if you will a sea of Canadian and Israeli flags as we all march as proud Jews together “Kulanu” extolling the virtue of the only country in the Middle East that defends and protects its LGBTQ citizens.  I urge you and any others reading this message to join us onSunday. You can get all the details on our site http://www.cjc.ca Show no fear; Stand up and be counted.”

Toronto – Sunday, July 4th, please join Kulanu, Canadian Jewish Congress, UJA Federation, Canada Israel Committee and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal  to march in support of tolerance and Israel at the Toronto Pride Parade!  Show those who seek to harm our community that we will not be intimidated into silence!

1. 10:00am -12:00pm: Visit the Kulanu Toronto booth

(located just north of  Wellesley on the west side of Church Street) to purchase Pride T-shirts and water bottles.

2. 12:15pm: Line up for the march at the corner of Bloor and Jarvis, Section F9.

Look for the Israeli flags and Kulanu Toronto banner.

3. 2:00pm: The march begins

4. 4:00pm: The march ends

Bring hats, water bottles, sunscreen, and your Jewish pride and enthusiasm!
Come sing and dance to Hebrew music as we parade down Church Street!

By Melanie Nathan
Nathan@privatecourts.com

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Closing arguments have been made, and the buzz is that a verdict is coming soon in the Federal Trial of California’s Proposition 8. For what it’s worth, trial watchers predict a win for the plaintiffs, i.e. the striking down of Prop 8 and its ban on same-sex marriage in California.

“Victory or defeat, supporters of marriage equality will gather the day the verdict is announced in San Francisco, all around the country. Including  Dallas and cities across Texas.  Help get the word out.

Let us build a buzz for the Day of Decision. Access your Face Book and see who is doing what around the Country to prepare for this momentous day.

One example can be found at – http://eaaTexas.org/ for more info about Day of Decision actions in Austin, San Antonio, DFW and Houston. And Twitter-ers can post updates at #EAATexas.

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6-29-10   Melanie Nathan

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan told a Senate panel today, that the Pentagon’s recruiters had access to Harvard Law School students “every single day I was dean,” adding that she believes military service is the most important way anyone can serve the country.

The Obama Administration pick to US Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, held her ground this morning during her confirmation hearings, as Alabama Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III grilled her on her role in limiting the contact of the Department of Defense recruiters with Harvard Law School students.

Kagan told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she acted because the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which bars openly gay men and women from serving, is a violation of the university’s anti-discrimination rules and noted that she had encouraged a campus veterans group to facilitate the Pentagon’s recruitment of students. “Military recruiting went up that year, not down,” said Kagan.

In the opening moments of her testimony, Kagan also said that the only time she has cried since being nominated by President Obama to the high court was when she read an op-ed article praising her for her treatment of the military, in a commentary written by a Marine captain and 2008 graduate of Harvard Law.

Senator Sessions, appearing on CNN, had difficulty defending his position, when challenged by John King, on his implications that Kagan lacked integrity.

When Sessions was the point person for the Republicans at the hearings for Justice Sotomayor he made a similar play, fashioning lies out of situations ripe for an easy twist, to fuel those stupid enough to take one with such a racist past  seriously.  So it is not surprising to note the distortions and accusations crafted by Sessions, delivered with body language spelling “short little effeminate ’straight’ man bully,” when the exchanged occurred at the hearings.

Clearly distorting  the  military recruitment  controversy  at Harvard, is being used in an attempt to discredit Kagan, and is evidenced clearly by the fact that Newt Gingrich was out pimping and Sessions repeating the very same ‘talking points.’

Gingrich falsely claimed that an “anti-military” Kagan “singled out the military” at Harvard.

Kagan was very open in her explanation and about the fact that she was against DADT for reasons of discrimination.

It seems that one simple precept ignored (purposely avoided) through the questioning of Kagan by Sessions is at the time of the recruitment controversy Kagan was doing her job  in her capacity as Dean of Harvard Law School.

Dean Kagan was doing her job as DEAN of a Law School; as it was then. If anything she ought to receive credit for doing the job that served the Campus- upholding her stance was an obligation to her students, the Campus and a concomitant of her employment.     Many Americans believe she was doing her job, rendering this line of questioning nothing more than a red-herring.

Now if she is confirmed as a Justice to SCOTUS, she will indeed perform according to a  new Job description, and hopefully in as responsible a fashion as she did at Harvard.

What seems unique about this hearing is the fact that whereas we were unable to garnish specific personal opinions from Justice Sotomayor on specific issues that could land before the Court, here we know for sure that the person Elena Kagan dislikes DADT.

However given her history- and her comments, she will hear and listen to the arguments before her and perform according to her job description. This is not a woman about to wreck an illustrious career. She will do it right!  Or should I say – hopefully very left – we need the latter balance!

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

Visit me on Facebook

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6-28-2010  Melanie Nathan

Sadly all that is left of  icon Marilyn Monroe’s body parts (well sort of) is a set of three X-rays of her chest taken during a 1954 hospital. The X-rays, sold at a movie memorabilia auction at Planet Hollywood, had a $3,000 (£2,000) pre-sale estimate. They fetched a buxom $45,000 today in Las Vegas.

What would a lesbian do with such a purchase; frame it? If you had ownership of this desirable item how would you honor its existence? Any ideas?

A higher higher auctioned item was a dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in musical Funny Face fetched $56,250 (£37,360).

A crystal-studded glove which belonged to Michael Jackson fetched $190,000 (£126,000) at an earlier music sale at Julien’s Auctions at Planet Hollywood.

By Melanie Nathan
Nathan@privatecourts.com

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6-28-10 Melanie Nathan

WASHINGTON —  At the opening of this last session of SCOTUS, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. read a statement about the death, on Sunday of Martin D. Ginsburg, the husband of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Martin D. Ginsburg, 78,  an accomplished tax lawyer and law professor from  Georgetown University, known for his sharp wit and gourmet cooking, passed away Sunday June 27 from complications  related to metastatic cancer at his home in Washington.

In addition to his wife, the Professor is survived by his daughter Jane Carol Ginsburg, a law professor at Columbia University, and James Steven Ginsburg, founder and president of the Chicago Classical Recording Foundation; and four grandchildren.

The Ginsburgs celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary last week. They met on a blind date as undergraduates at Cornell University.

A private burial will be held at Arlington National Cemetery.

With the greatest respect for the Justice, Lez Get Real extends its deepest sympathy to Justice Bader Ginsburg and her family for their sad loss.
Melanie Nathan, nathan@privatecourts.com.

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Australia’s Julia Gillard has become the country’s first female prime minister after former PM Kevin Rudd stood aside from a party ballot. While I don’t have a clue how OZ works its magic, the change in the leadership of the ruling Labor Party comes just months ahead of a general election.

Perhaps Rudd did not stand in the vote, fearing an embarrassing defeat as the Labor Party has suffered a sharp drop in support in recent opinion polls.

Ms Gillard’s swearing in as prime minister will be a formality.

“I feel very honoured, I will be making a full statement very shortly,” she told reporters after emerging from the party vote at Parliament House in Canberra.

A party spokesman said Ms Gillard – who was born in Barry Island in Wales – had stood unopposed at a vote of the Labor Party’s 112 members of parliament at a meeting on Thursday morning.

BBC Reports.

That is about all I have to say on the subject save for one thing -  It is refreshing to see a woman in the OZ Show.

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Portland Auditions for America’s Got Talent endured the hand whistling of 75 year old Sally; America the beautiful whistled in perfect pitch by the black pant suit clad somewhat “physically bent”  lady who upon entering the stage with her walker began her performance with a 3 inch wooden block placed under her right foot, to level her skewered body and hence ability to reach the mike.

Sharon Osborne was the first to beep her big red “X” but the old lady saw the tune through cupped hands to the very end.  Things looked like they were not going her way – when she pulled out a book from behind her walker citing “I wrote a book about hand whistling, You know.”  Howie Mandel keenly asked the price of the book, and pulled out the $12 and was handed the book.  There was Sally on the back of the cover, Whistling her hand cupped pose.

As it was time to vote her off – as that is what seemed her destiny- she announced “Oh by the way the Book is not ONLY about whistling. At which point everyone started yelling, presuming some naughty hand work perhaps, the thought driven by what may have been some phallic innuendos at the beginning of her entry on stage.

But low and behold Proud and loud she said “actually the book is also about my coming out story.” The crowd went crazy with their support. Chanting “Vegas Vegas Vegas”. It was as if the entire embrace was around her being so bold about being a lesbian and outing herself in a manner way beyond what the $12 book could accomplish.

So here at LGR we say Congratulations Sally – on your Vote to Vegas.  Whether it was your courage, your book, your whistling or your sense of humor we support you all the way.

Sally Cohn is the Wonderful Whistler…

MEET SALLY COHN, A HANDWHISTLER

I’ve been handwhistling with my cupped hands for nearly sixty years, starting when I was twelve. I discovered my unique whistling gift while attending a basketball game. This inspired me to try whistling tunes while playing Bing Crosby 78 rpm phonograph recordings on a Magnavox turntable (before LP’s, stereos, cassettes, CD’s or DVD’s). My first public performance was in 1950 at a huge athletic coliseum on a large college campus during a 4-H Club-sponsored talent show. That show was broadcast live by a local radio station, now an affiliate of NPR.

I didn’t really do much with my handwhistling gift until I was able to experiment and create three-part harmony layers on cassette tapes in the Sixties. That helped me to improve my whistling technique to the point where I felt it was suitable for public performance.

Over the last thirty years I’ve whistled in several Celtic bands, where I also play recorder, tin whistle, and washtub bass. I’ve also whistled in an all-women’s jug band, with Mitch Hider’s “Holiday For Lips” whistling festivals in Oregon, with several church choirs, and in more talent shows than I can remember. I competed in the Carson City, Nevada Whistleoffs and in the Eastbourne, U.K. whistling competition in 1992. My last competition whistling was done at the Edmonton, Alberta Millennium Whistling Championships. Since then, I have participated in three of Robert Stemmons’ Puckerama Festivals. At two of them, I conducted handwhistling workshops. I’ve also done those workshops for middle-school kids at a church camp.

I’m a retired state agency clerical specialist, but I did teach school in the Sixties and early Seventies and caught/discovered a number of middle-school-aged boys with ADHD tendencies who loved to use their whistling gift to disrupt class. I have never caught girls doing this, but I did turn several girls on to making music with their hands in my church camp workshops. I’m always very careful to caution these kids about where it’s okay to whistle and where it’s not okay, like in a classroom.

6-23-10 Melanie Nathan

According to John Fisher, co-director of ARC International, an NGO which advocates the protection of gay rights said Tuesday that South Africa reached a new low at the UN Human Rights Council meeting held in Geneva this week.

The UN Human Rights council was discussing a special report on racism. Githu Muigai, of Kenya, which said that “the identity of each individual is made up of a multitude of components, such as gender, age, nationality, profession, sexual orientation, political opinion, religious affiliation and social origin.”

Jerry Matjila, South Africa’s representative at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, said that to protect gays, “demeans the legitimate plight of the victims of racism” and thus blatantly refused to support the United Nations efforts to protect the gay community against discrimination.

Matjila said the World Conference against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in Durban in 2001 had shown that the only victims for inclusion ought only be those  listed in the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA,)  which after much negotiation at the 2001 summit, had been clearly identified and victims of discrimination on the basis of  sexual orientation were not included. He said: “South Africa disagrees with the inclusion of victims implicitly or explicitly, other than those listed in the DDPA.”

LGR has written many a report this year reflecting the hypocrisy of the Country that boasts a constitution that is all inclusive in its equality and human rights protection, to include sexual orientation.

Despite its constitution LGBT community in South Africa is amongst the worse in the world in terms of lack of tolerance, non acceptance and blatant snubs in the justice system.

South African president Zuma has made ambassadorial appointments and Cabinet selections of outspoken homophobes.  Now as for this disgusting statement to add to the hypocritical list no one has spoken to whether or not there is an  actual obligation to follow the DDPA definition of “victims.”

South Africa Shame on you – you are doing very little Justice to the relinquishment of apartheid, a vow Taken by Madibe Mandela after his release and election in 1990.

Information about the Conference taken from reports in THE STAR and The CAPE NEWS.

Excerpt From South African Bill of Rights:
7.

1. This Bill of Rights is a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom.
2. The state must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights in the Bill of Rights.
3. The rights in the Bill of Rights are subject to the limitations contained or referred to in section 36, or elsewhere in the Bill.

8. Application

1. The Bill of Rights applies to all law, and binds the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and all organs of state.
2. A provision of the Bill of Rights binds a natural or a juristic person if, and to the extent that, it is applicable, taking into account the nature of the right and the nature of any duty imposed by the right.
3. When applying a provision of the Bill of Rights to a natural or juristic person in terms of subsection (2), a court ­
   1. in order to give effect to a right in the Bill, must apply, or if necessary develop, the common law to the extent that legislation does not give effect to that right; and
   2. may develop rules of the common law to limit the right, provided that the limitation is in accordance with section 36(1).
4. A juristic person is entitled to the rights in the Bill of Rights to the extent required by the nature of the rights and the nature of that juristic person.

9. Equality

1. Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law.
2. Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms. To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures designed to protect or advance persons, or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination may be taken.
3. The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.
4. ^*1 No person may unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds in terms of subsection (3). National legislation must be enacted to prevent or prohibit unfair discrimination.
5. Discrimination on one or more of the grounds listed in subsection (3) is unfair unless it is established that the discrimination is fair.

10. Human dignity

Everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.

Melanie Nathan
Nathan@privatecourts.com

• State Department And Secretary Hilary Clinton Celebrate A Year’s Worth Of Helping The LGBT Community Throughout The World (lezgetreal.com)

6-23-2010- Written by Rachel Wahba

Lez Talk with Rachel-

Okay now I have seen it all: The infamous Lesbian Separatist Alix Dobkin loves boys! As long as they are her grandsons that is.  Singer songwriter Dobkin (‘Lavender Jane Loves Women,’) is quoted in the June issue of Curve magazine saying:

“I have two grandsons who I love more than anything in the world, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love women and put women first—I do.”

With her odd juxtaposition and outlandish caveat, I was transported back to one highly charged issue of the Dobkin driven magazine, known as “Dyke Quarterly,” published in the mid-seventies.

An entire issue was devoted to skewering Olivia Records for hiring (unknowingly I might add, because I was there) a pre-op male to female trans lesbian feminist —- imagine, that this inflexible perception, an ill conceived ideal in the first place, was devoted to ‘delegitimizing’ and attempting to destroy a groundbreaking lesbian feminist record company with it sole purpose of making lesbians visible in a fiercely male dominated industry.

This was especially hurtful and destructive coming from one of the founding mothers of womens’ music, famous for her “devotion” to women.  Yes that meant having to deny the sons of women; the banning of all Penis bearing infants, toddlers and children from festivals and the like was strictly enforced.

Instead of supporting one of her own, the hatred fueled by what I can only refer to as envy disguised as righteous indignation, was one of the many episodes in the history of Olivia Records and the times.

Now to see Alix ever so proudly loving her penis-endowed grandchildren is a cause to celebrate. Everything changes! Perhaps little boys will no longer be banished (if that is still the case) from the Michigan Womyns Music Festival.

I remember those days and my relief that because my baby girl was penis free we were not lesbian persona no grata, unless we risked shunning overalls for skirts and dresses.  Unfortunately I am not exaggerating. Boys were taboo. I admit there was a moment in history where separatism served its purpose for many of us for a moment in time— until we regained our sense of self as strong/liberated lesbians.

The actions waged by Dobkin and her cohorts traumatized anyone whom they pushed out of the way of their unlikely ideals.

Olivia Records, for example, with feminism as its guiding principle was suddenly made into the enemy. Under the guise of preserving Lesbian Feminism a barrage of rhetoric from Dobkin polarized the lesbian community and it took its toll.

It was demoralizing, invalidating, time consuming, and hurt the small collective of wholesome lesbians, nurtured by the of world validity and consciousness that Olivia Records opened,  while earning close to nothing simply for the love of women and commitment to providing women with unfettered voice; literally, and on vinyl.

So here we are today, Olivia has morphed into Olivia Travel, taking tens of  thousands of lesbians on vacations with week long lesbian entertainment of music and comedy. Lesbians are wined, dined, danced and entertained charming each other, all while enchanted by all that goes into the unique luxurious experience.

So Lavender Jane loves now loves HER boys. How sweet it is to see love transcend dogma. Too bad it took 36 years to get here.

By Rachel Wahba
Columnist for Lezgetreal

Additional Information: Refernces:

Read more about Alix Dobkins – There is a great deal more to her than her feeble attempts at invalidating OLIVIA…

In the 1970s Liza Cowan was the host of Electra Rewired, a late night talk show on WBAI-FM in New York City. She interviewed Maya Angelou, Yoko Ono, Germaine Greer, as well as local feminist and Lesbian activists. She also produced the live music series, The WBAI Free Music Store. While she was working as a radio producer she met and fell in love with Alix Dobkin, a folksinger who went on to produce the first all Lesbian record album, Lavender Jane Loves Women. Cowan and Dobkin were partners for six years.

While she and Dobkin were together, Cowan published and edited DYKE, A Quarterly, a cultural theory magazine. Her business and editorial partner was Penny House. DYKE lasted for three years, publishing two long issues per year. Considered both beautiful and contriversial, DYKE Magazine published articles on Lesbian Separatism, Lesbian Fashion, Dykes Behind Bars, as well as producing theme issues, like the Ethnic Dykes issue and the proposed but never realized issue on Lesbian Cartoons.

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• Alix Dobkin (lesbianlife.about.com)

ALIX NEEDED  to ADD a Page for Rumor Control to her website Quote:

Rumor Control

“Alix is a man-hater”

Nonsense! Some of my best friends are men. I certainly have strong opinions about men’s violence, men’s dominance, men’s politics, male institutions, male hierarchies and penis-centered culture (don’t you?), but man-hating is irrelevant in my life.

“Alix is against transexuals”

No way! I look to transexuals to break new ground and not to reinforce conventional gender stereotypes.

“Alix hurts little boys by excluding them from women-only space”

On the contrary, I treasure all children and hate to see any child spoiled by mistreatment and neglect, or misguided by ignorance and disrespect. Teaching little boys universal entitlement and teaching little girls that they have no right to privacy is ignorant and disrespectful.

“Alix believes that women-only space is sacred space”

True.

“Alix performs only for women”

False. I often appear before mixed audiences.

“Alix loves all Lesbians but doesn’t like some Lesbians”

True.

“Alix wants her work to have meaning for everyone”

True.

“Alix is ‘Politically Correct’”

I certainly hope so, and so should you hope to be politically enlightened and untrendy!

San Francisco: Breaking – For the past 15 years openly gay, renowned DJ, radio host, and creator of San Francisco’s longest running global dance radio show “House Nation, who goes by the name St John, has been a feature, honing his iconic talent and superstar ACT at the annual San Francisco LGBT Pride.

But this year something smells a little off.  Sources inform us, that the event which would usually pride itself on tradition has succumbed to the demands of one of its  corporate sponsors, CLEAR CHANNEL.   Clear Chanel (yes the very clear channel, air-wave home to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck,) and a major SF Pride 2010 sponsor has demanded the banning of ST. John and two other well known GAY Morning DJ’s; all three axed, shunned and rejected despite their years of entrenched relationship with the event.

St. John, described as  Superstar in the growing world of  mix was extremely popular at Clear Channel’s Wild 94.9 for 14 years, and then moved to CBS’s. Movin’ 99.7, KMVQ-FM.

St. John’s energetic style has made him a staple internationally from Brazil to Canada, and nation-wide from New York’s Limelight to San Francisco’s Ruby Skye. With multiple CD releases on major labels such as Thrive and UBL Recordings, St. John has sold over a quarter-million albums and in 2010 continues to work on exciting new projects.

The exclusion may be attributed to corporate wrangling and competitive venom between CBS and Clear Channel. Yet on wonders just how San Francisco pride fits into this mix of loyalty gone awry?

Since it was not only St John who made the move, but also other DJ’s and Michael Martin, once Program Director for Clear Channel and now Vice President of Programming for CBS RADIO San Francisco. The retribution could also be attributed to Martin who did not hide his excitement when St John left  Clear Channel to join CBS: “I am beyond excited to have him join MOViN!  His skill, passion, precision and drive to win are an inspiration to all who work with him and the detriment to those who try to compete against him,” said Martin.

Should we as a marginalized and discriminated against community stand behind our heroes? Or should we accept demanding sponsors who are giving SF Pride the profits off the  millions made and paid to the likes of homophobic and anti American  Limbaugh and Beck.

For St. John the feelings were mutual when he joined CBS; – “I’m thrilled to be reunited with programming legend Michael Martin. Together we’ve dominated ratings in both the Bay Area and Los Angeles and when St John moved asserted: “I can’t wait to work with him to do it again at my new home CBS RADIO San Francisco.”

Each year, Pride works with the event media partners, such as Clear Channel home to the likes of right wing lunatics – Limbaugh and Beck, to bring a televised and  radio broadcasts of the SF Pride Parade. SF Pride producers assert that they have been able to expand the coverage of the Parade to include a full-length, unedited online broadcast in addition to televised coverage the evening following the Parade’s conclusion.

Since St. John left clear channel, it is became apparent that punitive motives would follow the star, and that attempts would  be made to relegate his well earned reverence in the world of cool music and especially his vested platform at PRIDE.

St. John, clearly hurt by San Francisco Pride’s rejection of his talent, and his years of service was loathe to make any derogatory remarks at all either toward SF Pride or Clear Channel.

From my interview it was clear that not only is St John a good man, he is modest and is not willing to speak of  the enormous contributions he has made to fighting HIV/AIDS and helping those in need.

In furthering his career he is now being punished by his own community.  Not only is he a talent but he is an open voice to tens and thousands of a younger generation who hold him in the highest esteem, reaching across the gay- straight lines amongst the youngsters, where it really counts.

When asked for his comments  he told me: “Its been a long  journey with San Francisco Pride; I am proud  to have  been  apart of a great service to the community and hope that maybe I can find a way to continue to be so.”

I will say one thing and that is if Clear Channel tried to impose a ban on any gay performer of any kind with a history and credentials such as ST, John, I for one would rather risk their sponsorship!

The Organizers of San Francisco Pride were contacted for comment but no response was received.

Clear Channel Communications,  Inc.. (OTCBB:CCMO) is a global media and entertainment company specializing in mobile and on-demand entertainment and information services for local communities and premiere opportunities for advertisers. Based in San Antonio, Texas, the company’s businesses include radio and outdoor displays. More information is available at www.clearchannel.com.

By Melanie Nathan
Nathan@privatecourts.com
@oblogdeeoblogda
Get me on – FACE BOOK .

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• Does Clear Channel Have a Problem With Same-Sex Couples? (gayrights.change.org)
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• Clear Channel Outdoor Rejects Two Billboards By St. Pete Pride (lezgetreal.com)
• Why is San Francisco Pride Dissing Its Favorite Gay DJ (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Why is San Francisco Pride Dissing Its Favorite Gay DJ (queerty.com)
• Clear Channel Forces Firing of Pride Staple, DJ St. John, Others (sfist.com)
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6-15-10  Melanie Nathan

This past weekend at the Los Angeles Pride festival straight gay allies, Sharon and Kelly Osborne were quick to express their disgust when a small contingency of anti-gay protesters had the audacity to rear their bigoted heads!  “You should be ashamed of yourselves!” Sharon Osbourne yelled when she and her daughter Kelly, grand marshals at the Los Angeles Pride parade on Sunday, came face to face with anti-gay protesters, RadarOnline.com reports.

After Mrs. Osbourne had her say, Kelly Osbourne took the microphone and yelled, “My God loves gays.”

Tomorrow the LGBT community in California and all around the USA, are excited by the finality of the opportunity for justice.  Shock and upset still resonate as the ‘Yes on 8′ comes up tomorrow for final argument in the Perry Vs. Schwarzenegger case, as the US District Court tries its validity.

Judge Vaughn Walker recently issued a series of questions to both sides which speaks volumes about the balancing ACT facing the Judge, but yet has no telling on the arguments and how they will be received.

The unlikely legal team of conservative attorneys, David Boies and Ted Olson, representing the LGBT  Equality driven side if the argument, flanked throughout by amici attorneys from the City of San Francesco and National Center for Lesbian Rights.

According to John Culhane,  Professor of Law, Widener University, at  365 GAY,  the gap between February’s  trial and the June 16 summation   “is quite unusual, but this whole case has been unusual. It was brought not by any of the LGBT legal advocacy groups that have been tactically pressing for marriage equality in courts and legislatures, but by David Bois and Ted Olson, litigation megastars.  It’s the first case to challenge the denial of equality under the federal, as opposed to a state, constitution – increasing the likelihood that the matter won’t be resolved until the Supreme Court weighs in.”

However as a lesbian woman whose family has been irreversibly impacted by the YES vote that denied marriage for gay ‘people by the people,’ of California hand in hand with the money from the Mormon and Catholic Lobby, this day of argument is another momentous event – and the thought of defeat is simply unimaginable.

The YES Vote hurt my children. The story can be found at http://lezgetreal.com/2010/01/prop-8-plaintiff-testimony-how-prop-8-hurts-children-a-real-life-example/.  We have enormous trust though, in our system of law, that the Court will rule in our favor until the very end of the road.

A comment that appeared on 365GAY site to the story about the Parade says it all:

“If you have ever suffered shame at the hands of a heterosexual, you know you’ve grown when their words don’t hurt you. You know you have further grown when you have the courage to stand up to them. You know you’ve grown more when you defend other gays. But you know the world has grown when heterosexuals defend homosexuals. I thank my God for people like Sharon and Kelly who will stand up to those who shout out lies and shout out the truth. I don’t know or care what their motivation might be, however whenever someone excitedly shouts out an exclamation in public without time to consider how others might react to their statement, their statements are admitted into evidence as the truth to them. I chose to believe that they genuinely believe God loves gays and therefore love genuinely love Gays themselves.”

So to any of you who may feel the slightest of conscience about a Yes on 8 Vote, and I believe some of you may, it is too late to reverse your vote, but it is never too late to make amends.  Even though you cannot influence the Judge – Let your voices be heard.  Call your Reps and urge Equality Federal Legislation. Urge Congress to Amend the Civil Rights Act to include non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity – you will soon see an enormous amount of LGBT activism around Civil Rights legislation.

By Melanie Nathan, nathan@privatecourts.com

http://lezgetreal.com/?s=prop+8+hurt+my+child

Pride Photo: Permission for republication with accreditation:
By Melanie Nathan© 2009 -Lezgetreal.