A cop in Chicago who was heading home after performing as a clown for a kids’ event was accosted by an armed teenager. The clown won. From the HuffPost: CHICAGO — An off-duty Chicago police officer dressed as a clown for a fundraiser shot and killed a teen who authorities say was trying to rob him. Police say the officer was headed home from a children’s event Friday night when the suspect approached him, asking for money. When the officer said he didn’t have any, police say the teen pulled a gun. After a struggle, the officer grabbed the gun and fired, killing the teen.]]>

Ever polific, Steve Hayes has his newest review out, this time for 1947’s ‘Dark Passage.’]]>

It’s Saturday morning and the clock is ticking down. I absolutely will not believe we have marriage equality in New York until the governor’s signature is on the bill. I want to be proven wrong. I want my cynicism, skepticism and contempt for the likes of Archbishop Dolan to be shed in a moment of shock and awe. Until then I’ll assume the forces of darkness have the upper hand. Frank and I have, however, begun discussions of a guest list for the ceremony . . . just in case.

From the New York Times:

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Friday that he expected same-sex marriage legislation to be approved before the end of the legislative session next week, and indicated that to win passage of the measure he is prepared to yield to Republican concerns for greater protections of religious groups. I am a proponent of marriage equality, and I’m working very hard to make that a reality in New York,” Mr. Cuomo told reporters on Friday as lawmakers prepared to go home for the weekend. “I am also a proponent of religious freedom, and separation of church and state, so these are both very important principles. I don’t see one in competition with the other.” With signs pointing to a vote on the marriage issue in the State Senate next week, there are widespread expectations that it will pass. A number of Republicans are said to prefer that the matter not be allowed to come up for a vote, but 31 of the Senate’s 62 members have expressed support for the measure, including two Republicans. Other Republican lawmakers appear to be seriously considering lending their support if Mr. Cuomo agrees to amend the proposal to give greater protection to religious organizations. ]]>

I imagine one day I won’t pay any attention to father’s day, or mother’s day, although my mother’s been gone for twelve years and it still brings things up for me annually, especially while I have a birth mother still living. I was thinking recently about who taught me to be a man, and it was not my father. He also was one of two – the man who actually fathered me, my birth father, is buried in a small Mississippi cemetery and I never met him. I did visit the grave on my first trip there to reunite with my birth family. I was thirty-five years old. I’d known about them since the age of seventeen but wasn’t emotionally prepared to meet them until much later. I wanted mostly to assure myself, with the bitterness I had at the time, that he was indeed dead. Aside from fathering me, the man had given me nothing nor cared about my well being in any way. I can testify that he’s there, buried beneath a very modest headstone, along a rural road near a tiny chapel. The man who adopted me – Dad – passed away in November 2009. It was with him I had a lifelong love/hate relationship, the love being mostly obligatory both ways. I often had the feeling I was not the son he wanted, and he didn’t do much to counter that. When I think of who my role models were, they were the men I met in my early 20s, the gay men I came to know in Los Angeles, who really taught me how to be an adult. My father had given us alcohol when we were early teenagers. In my case, when I was twelve. It’s all well beyond judgment now, but it was not something a father does who is trying to instruct his son in the ways of either manhood or adulthood. He was hyper-critical, often cruel, and clearly aware of my differences: I think he sensed very early that I was gay, or at least not his idea of masculine, and he would taunt me and ridicule me in sometimes very subtle ways. I cannot honestly say he had any influence on me becoming the man I am today, other than to compel me to achieve and to pursue my own ideas of what constituted a life I wanted. To that end, he did make me more determined to be the things he so disdained: a writer, an open and happy gay man, a dreamer, a wayward child. So on this upcoming Father’s Day, I remember Mac, as he was called. I miss him for whatever reasons I miss him. He was not a bad man, just, like all of us, a limited human being. His limitations had consequences for him and for his family. I also remember on this Father’s Day the men, many of them long dead, who truly taught me to be a man.]]>

While those of us in New York wait sort-of breathlessly for marriage equality (I’m expecting it not to happen, that way I can be shocked if it does), one couple has simply gone to every state where they can marry or be civilly united and done it, as well as to Canada. I didn’t know you could have multiple marriage licenses. I suspect that’s not something any straight couple has ever thought of doing, given the one-size-fits-all reality of opposite-sex marriage. From Out: Paul David Wadler and Rick Brown have been married or received a civil union in Canada and every U.S. state where the ceremony is legal — and have pledged to continue their nuptials wherever else it becomes possible. With New York set to make history as the biggest state to legalize gay marriage, a trip to the East Coast might be in the couple’s future. Continue reading
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Backstory: Once upon a time I had a BlackBerry. I didn’t know any better, so I thought it was the best thing ever. I used it for email, which I rarely got at the time, and the occasional on-the-run blog posting. I kept seeing ads for the iPhone, which, as a natural contrarian, I refused to buy. There was just something herdish about it, so I demurred. Then I saw ads for a new BlackBerry, but it was an exclusive with AT&T. I have Verizon and am not one to jump ship. Plus Verizon’s the only carrier that works really well for me in the New Jersey countryside where we have a house and go on the weekends. I stopped in to the Verizon store just to see when they might be coming out with a version. The answer was “next year” if at all. I’m not a patient man, so I started looking at other devices, and discovered the Droid 2. It was love at first tweet. Considering that I seldom use my cell phone as a phone, the Droid’s internet and applications ability swept me off my fingers. I’ve been devoted ever since. Now . . . I set my Droid to make a little spaceship noise whenever I got a new item, whether a text message or an email. I have a lot of Google alerts coming in so I can stay on top of the news and what’s out there to blog about. I discovered that the incessant chirping was getting on my nerves, and that a lot of it is junk email. Which brings me to all those annoying subscriptions. Every time we provide our email to Office Depot or Staples or Lighting Direct or Amazon, which is essentially every time we order anything online, we end up in their data mine. And data mines are made for data miners. Suddenly I was getting emails about all kinds of things, and it was not only cluttering my various inboxes, but pissing me off. So the last few days I have been unsubscribing. It never seems to end, but it feels wonderful, like washing grime off me in a luxurious shower. Little bugs, that’s how all these subscriptions feel, like tiny little bugs on my legs and now that I’m taking time to pick them off I’m feeling cleaner and freer. I will no longer provide my email unless I absolutely have to, and the first time I get an email from them offering me deals on things I’ll never purchase, I’ll be sure to scroll immediately to the bottom and get rid of them as fast as I got them.]]>

Day dreamin’ and I’m thinkin’ of you . . . Determined not to let history roll over them without a peep, 23 House Republicans have continued their futile shenanigans to halt the repeal of DADT, led by hottie-in-a-bad-way Duncan Hunter. The man’s not right in the head, as my mother would say. From the Washington Blade: A group of 23 Republican members of the U.S. House wrote President Obama on Thursday asking him to hold off on certification of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal until Congress can review the Defense Department’s policy changes that would lead to open service. “Given the necessity for congressional review, which has been limited to this point, we respectfully request that you refrain from transmitting certification until Congress has had sufficient time to review pending legislative matters of policy and law,” the letter states. Leading the group of U.S. House members who signed the letter is Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who amended pending defense budget legislation to expand the certification requirement needed for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and potentially disrupt the implementation of open service. Others among the 23 signers of the letter are Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), chair of the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee, as well as Reps. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), W. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) and Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.). Under the repeal law signed in December, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” won’t be off the books until the president, the defense secretary and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify the U.S. military is ready for open service. Training has been underway in the armed forces since February to prepare the military for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal. Pentagon officials have testified that certification for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal could happen in mid-summer. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he’s open to issuing certification this month before his retirement if the service chiefs thinks moving forward is appropriate.
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I wasn’t sure I’d see the day, given the prevalence and acceptance of anti-LGBT violence in so many other countries. From the AP: GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s main human rights forum has condemned for the first time discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The 47-member Human Rights Council voted 23 in favor and 19 against Friday, with 3 abstentions, for the resolution put forward by South Africa. It establishes a panel to review discrimination of gays and lesbians around the world.]]>