Sports Deficiency Syndrome

via HuffPost Gay Voices, by Domenick Scudera

Doctor, can you help me? The Super Bowl is this Sunday, and I do not care. I feel nothing. That is not normal, right? I cannot even tell you the names of the teams that are playing.

Am I missing the sports gene?

I always thought my aversion to athletics stemmed from the fact that I was gay.

Professional sports are not exactly gay-friendly, what with all the sports stars spewing "faggot" at each other when they get angry.

And I hated gym when I was a kid. Maybe that's when it started? I was always picked last for a team. I was told I threw "like a girl."

I knew some girls who threw really well, so that didn't make a whole lot of sense. Oh, and I loathed dodgeball. In junior high school all the boys were put in a big, padded room, and the bullies were encouraged to let loose their aggressions by whipping the balls extremely hard at the "less athletic."

In other words, dodgeball was organized gay bashing. But my gay friends today are not damaged like me.

They are totally sports-crazed, glued to their billboard-sized televisions on game days just like everybody else. What is wrong with me?

I have tried to get into sports. I really have. Concerned friends have invited me to Super Bowl parties in the past. They try to explain football to me while we watch, but then they hoot and holler like crazy when someone does something that is seemingly inconsequential, like walking over a line or dropping a ball.

It is all so confusing. Yards, downs, flags being thrown all around. I cannot follow it. I watch all the wrong things -- the players' tight pants, the graphics that overlay the live action.

Commercials and the half-time show are way more interesting than the actual game.

There are commentators on these shows who are supposed to help you. Big, burly, beefy guys in striped suits and striped shirts.

They sit in a semicircle and analyze everything. But to me, it is as if they are speaking a foreign language. These men have encyclopedic knowledge of things that make absolutely no sense.

They know how many yards some player ran four years ago, or they know the exact number of times a right-handed player threw the ball to a left-handed player in the rain on a Tuesday.

How do they remember this stuff? Each one is like a sports Rain Man.

I long to feel the same hyperinflated emotion, the pure joy, that a rabid fan feels when his or her team wins the Super Bowl. Have I ever experienced that scale of elation any time in my life?

Maybe I would feel it if I won the lottery, or if same-sex marriage were made legal. But those are once-in-a-lifetime moments. A sports fan can feel that grand excitement any day of the week just by turning on ESPN. Why can't I be like everybody else?

Is there a pill I could take? A sports reparative therapy? Maybe I could join a support group, an Athletically Challenged Anonymous meeting?

The symptoms get worse around the time of the big games, series, cups, and bowls. I feel so lonely, like the sole human after a zombie apocalypse.

The game will be playing everywhere! Everyone will be wearing their team colors, talking statistics, placing bets. There is nowhere to hide. Please, help!


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Mr. International Rubber 2012

Check out these hot pics from Mr. International Rubber 2012!

See more of Part 1 Here

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Ins and Outs of Gay News Sites

via HuffPost Gay Voices, by David Badash

As gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans -- and their news -- become mainstream, will the gay news sites that have long supported the LGBT community be able to survive?

I spoke with nine different well-known LGBT publishers, writers, and industry insiders about the current state of gay media -- and if it has a future.

Towleroad partner and creator of Out magazine, Michael Goff, Pam's House Blend's Pam Spaulding, John Aravosis of AMERICAblog, the Vice President of the Human Rights Campaign, and many others share their unique perspective.

Is there a future for the gay news and politics sites and blogs that focus on and advocate for the LGBT community, or will we continue to see them consolidate -- or just disappear?

Why are so many gay news sites finding it so challenging to stay afloat? Are advertisers leery of being associated with distinctly gay sites? Is this niche just too "niche?"

"Whether corporate-run or a one person shop, the outlook for gay news blogs is that most of them are not turning a satisfying profit," writes Nikki Usher, at Harvard's own niche journalism site, Neiman Journalism Lab, in a recent article, "How niche is too niche? The case of gay news blogs."

Publishers of gay news sites talk about the issues Usher's piece raises: inconsistent advertising and few advertising network options, and lack of support from LGBT organizations.

While visits at many LGBT sites are growing, most journalists and bloggers work very hard to attract and keep each and every reader.


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At the Crossroads of being Gay and Muslim

via Advocate, by Amanda D. Quiraishi

During the past decade North America has seen an emergence of politically motivated Chicken Littles running around frantically warning of an imminent takeover by Muslims and their Sharia law.

Insurgent Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, for example, famously said he wouldn’t allow any Muslim to serve in his Cabinet for fear of the foreign-sounding code of laws.

Religious and political scholars as well as the Muslim mainstream have effectively repudiated such nonsense.

The real story, however, lies with progressive Muslims who are using the protection of secular Western laws to actively reform centuries-old interpretations of their faith.

In May 2009 in Toronto, El-Farouk Khaki, his partner, Troy Jackson, and their mutual friend Laury Silvers founded el-Tawhid Juma Circle, the first mosque created for all gender identities and sexual orientations. And this year two sister circles formed — in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

Khaki is a longtime activist in the Muslim world, but he knew a place for LGBT people was needed after September 11, 2001.

Khaki found himself called to defend Muslims living in the West against discrimination and prejudice because of terrorism done in the name of Islam.

Yet, despite his dedication in representing Muslims, he soon ran into opposition.

“I found that there isn’t a lot of understanding for someone who is both openly Muslim and openly gay,” Khaki says.

“Many queer or socially progressive Muslims give up their religion because they feel there is no space for them, and often they lose their spirituality in the process. I got tired of people saying ‘we need more inclusive spaces’; ‘we need more female imams.’ Who is stopping you from having these things? If there is no space for you, make the space!”


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The Word ‘Fag’ Makes an Impression

 via Curve, By Lyndsey D'Arcangelo

The phrase “not even human” sounds a bit extreme, but I do believe the words are meant to degrade. Which sums up a truth in American society: African Americans and gays are not considered whole American citizens.

People privileged enough to have all their rights often say, “OK, we know you’re gay, just shut up about it, we don’t need to hear it.”

But silence just makes it easier to pretend that LGBT people and injustice don’t exist.

It’s interesting that those same people are typically the ones who take it for granted that they can prattle on about their lives, families, and what they have planned for the weekend, but they expect a gay person to “just shut up about it?”

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Was Jesus gay?

via iafrica, By Bryony Whitehead

Recent debate over the legalisation of same-sex marriage in New York has led to speculation over whether or not Jesus Christ had a homosexual relationship.

GC Bryan, a psychologist and Catholic author, was recently interviewed in a magazine called Out Smart - which describes itself as a gay, bi-sexual and trans magazine – and argued that Jesus may have had a sexual relationship with one of his disciples.

His reasoning suggests that John the Baptist was a potential love interest of Jesus, and is motivated by one heavily debated line in the Gospel of John 13:23 that reads: "Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved."

Bryan lays out a case for same-sex relationships in the Bible in a book entitled The Purple Triangle. Bryan explains to Out Smart that he sees Jesus as human and that it's important for the public to have a broader interpretation of him. "That leads to the next step that we’re all sons and daughters of God, without exception," he explains.

Bryan is not alone in his thinking. Scholars as far back as the 16th Century have suggested that Jesus and John's relationship was more than brotherly love. King James I of England, from which the Authorised King James version of the Bible comes, justified his own relationship with the Duke of Buckingham when he said, "I wish to speak in my own behalf and not to have it thought to be a defect, for Jesus Christ did the same, and therefore I cannot be blamed. Christ had his son John, and I have my George."

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Jon Huntsman, A Gay Rights Ally, To Join Race For White House

via On Top Magazine By Carlos Santoscoy

Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. will formally declare for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination on Tuesday.

“I intend to announce that I will be a candidate for the presidency a week from today,”Huntsman said at an event yesterday.Huntsman will make his announcement near the Statue of Liberty, Reuters reported.

The 51-year-old Huntsman resigned during his second term as Governor of Utah to accept President Barack Obama's appointment as Ambassador to China, a post he left on April 30.

As governor, Huntsman backed a failed effort to extend some rights to gay men and lesbians in Utah. In 2009, the gay rights group Equality Utah introduced five bills backed by two openly gay lawmakers. Three bills would have brought greater equality in the areas of hospitalization, medical care, housing, employment and probate rights. And a pair of bills would have created a domestic partner registry for gay couples by repealing a part of Utah's constitutional marriage amendment.

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California Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Questioned Because Proposition 8 Judge Was Gay

via Huffpost Politics by Lisa Leff

San Francisco-A federal judge is deciding whether a gay judge's ruling to strike down California's same-sex marriage ban should be overturned because he failed to divulge his own marital intentions before throwing out the voter-approved measure.

Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware said he would issue a decision within 24 hours after a hearing Monday in which lawyers trying to salvage the ban posed an unprecedented legal argument questioning Judge Vaughn Walker's impartiality when he issued last year's landmark ruling that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.

The lawyers insisted that Walker, who was chief judge of the Northern District of California at the time, should have recused himself or disclosed his relationship because he and his partner stood to personally benefit from the verdict.

"It now appears that Judge Walker, at the time the complaint was filed and throughout this litigation, occupied precisely those same shoes as the plaintiffs," attorney Charles Cooper said.

Ware, who inherited the Proposition 8 case from the now-retired Walker, asked why Cooper assumed Walker had any intention of getting married, just because he was in a decade-old relationship.

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Adoptions by Gay Couples Rise, Despite Barriers

via The New York Times by Sabrina Tavernise

Growing numbers of gay couples across the country are adopting, according to census data, despite an uneven legal landscape that can leave their children without the rights and protections extended to children of heterosexual parents.

Same-sex couples are explicitly prohibited from adopting in only two states — Utah and Mississippi — but they face significant legal hurdles in about half of all other states, particularly because they cannot legally marry in those states.

Despite this legal patchwork, the percentage of same-sex parents with adopted children has risen sharply. About 19 percent of same-sex couples raising children reported having an adopted child in the house in 2009, up from just 8 percent in 2000, according to Gary Gates, a demographer at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“The trend line is absolutely straight up,” said Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a nonprofit organization working to change adoption policy and practice. “It’s now a reality on the ground.”

That reality has been shaped by what advocates for gay families say are two distinct trends: the need for homes for children currently waiting for adoption — now about 115,000 in the United States — and the increased acceptance of gays and lesbians in American society.

The American family does not look the same as it did 30 years ago, they argue, and the law has just been slow to catch up.

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Fidelity Amongst Black Gay Men

via Black Gay Men's Blog

A recent personal experience leads Black Gay Men’s Blog Contributor and Author, Rafael Solece, to explore fidelity amongst black gay men. Are black gay men capable of being faithful or are men innately sexual creatures who don’t know how to control our desires? Is there a timeline on fidelity in a relationship? Can two men be happy sharing each other with the outside world? All these questions and hardly any answers. Share your thoughts…

My momma use to always say; don’t go looking for anything that you aren’t ready to find! I wish I had listened to that bit of advice. I found a rouge condom in the trashcan at The Barber’s house. The Barber (affectionately named for his career) and I have been dating for approximately four months. We had our first date on Super Bowl Sunday. I am not a big football fan, but he was cute, and it was a cute date. We’ve sort of been casually dating ever since and he’s the first guy that I’ve dated seriously in about four years.

We’re together most every weekend from Saturday until Monday or Tuesday, and I have been known on occasions to spend the entire week dancing around his house in my socks and underwear playing house husband. We have a no pressure type of relationship which leaves us lots of room to have fun together (And oh the fun we have together). 

Up until last weekend I assumed I had him pretty whipped. But when I was at his house I found that condom wrapper, minus the condom, peeking up at me from the trash can.

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Are Black Gay Circuit Parties A Hotbed for HIV?

via Living Out Loud with Darian

As the winter months disappear and summer approaches, the change in weather provides the perfect opportunity to strip off all the layers and wear as little as possible as you revel in the compliments of both male and female admirers as they fawn over your chiseled physique.

There’s a list of beach parties, cookouts, and annual events on your calendar and none of it will start until you arrive. Your biggest dilemma is making sure your chosen wardrobe for the weekend will turn heads the minute you step out of your hotel room-pardon me-your suite.

You’re black, gay, single, sexy, and free and you have a plethora of choices, from the breathtaking beaches of Miami and the sexy men of Sizzle, to the sinful allure of Tempted 2 Touch in Las Vegas, to the exotic island of the Dominican Republic, home of Inferno DR. Everything you could possibly want in a vacation experience and more is at your fingertips; men, sex, drugs, alcohol and HIV, an undesirable party favor but available nonetheless.

Black gay circuit parties have long held a reputation for offering more than is appropriate to be placed on advertisements. The organized and costly events taking place during the day may be a draw for some, but the prospect of experiencing multiple sexual encounters over the course of the weekend is at the top of the “to do list” for many attendees.

It should be understood that with any large gathering of people the opportunity to engage in sexual intercourse is always present, besides we are sexual beings with a desire to connect on an intimate level. But with every unprotected sexual encounter there’s a risk of being infected with a sexually transmitted disease, and in the case of black gay men who are heavily impacted by HIV, circuit parties catering to this population can easily become a hotbed for transmission. Well, at least that’s one theory.

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Who's That Queer [Pim Fortuyn]

Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn was a Dutch politician, civil servant, sociologist, author and professor who formed his own party, Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF). He was a controversial figure who came to a dramatic end when he was assassinated during his election campaign.

Fortuyn was the centre of several controversies for his views about immigrants and Islam. He called Islam "a backward culture", and said that if it were legally possible he would close the borders for Muslim immigrants. He was labeled a far-right populist by his opponents and in the media, but he fiercely rejected this label and explicitly distanced himself from "far-right" politicians such as the Belgian Filip Dewinter, the Austrian Jorg Haider, or Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Pen whenever compared to them. While Fortuyn compared his own politics to centre-right politicians such as Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, he also admired former Dutch Prime Minister Joop den Uyl, a socialist. Fortuyn however repeatedly described himself and LPF’s ideology as pragmatism and not populism. Fortuyn was openly homosexual.

Fortuyn was assassinated during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign by Volkert van der Graaf, who claimed in court he had murdered Fortuyn to stop him from exploiting Muslims as "scapegoats" and targeting "the weak members of society" in seeking political power.

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Who's That Queer? [Neil Patrick Harris]

Neil Patrick Harris is probably best known for his philandering womanizing character, Barney Stinson, on CBS television's 'How I Met Your Mother.'

Neil’s acting career started when he was 16, he landed the lead role in Steven Bocho's television series about a teen prodigy doctor at a local hospital, "Doogie Howser, M.D." which launched Harris into teen-heartthrob status. When "Doogie Howser, M.D." stopped production in 1993, Harris took up stage acting, which he had always wanted to do. After a string of made-for-television movies, Harris acted in his first big screen roles in nine years, Starship Troopers with Casper Van Dien and thenThe Proposition. In July 1997, Harris accepted the role of Mark Cohen for the Los Angeles production of the beloved musical, Rent.

In 1999, Harris returned to television in the short-lived sitcom "Stark Raving Mad," with Tony Shalhoub. He was also in the big-screen projects The Next Big Thing and Undercover Brother, and he can be heard as the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the newest animated "Spider-Man" series. Harris has continued his stage work, making his Broadway debut in 2001 in "Proof." He has also appeared on stage in "Romeo and Juliet," "Cabaret," "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Concert" and, most recently, "Assassins." In 2005, Harris returned to the small screen in a guest-starring role on"Number3rs" and a starring role in the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother.”

Neil is openly gay and is a recipient of the 2009 The Trevor Life Award, which annually honors an "individual who, through his or her example, support, volunteerism and/or occupation, is an inspiration to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Questioning youth." The award is presented by The Trevor Project, a national crisis and suicide prevention organization helping LGBTQ young people who are facing familial rejection or considering suicide. The next year, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Trevor Project.

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Who's That Queer? [Stephen Fry]

Stephen Fry is an actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director. He is probably best known for his portrayal of Oscar Wilde in the movie adaptation of his life 'Wilde,' a role he was very well born to play.

Although his comic persona was often smug, occasionally overbearing and sometimes even mannered, the multi-talented Stephen Fry exuded an easy charm and rapier wit while successfully mining numerous mediums - film, television, theatre, novels and even Twitter. Fry first made a name for himself alongside fellow Cambridge chum Hugh Laurie on popular British comedies like "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" (BBC2/BBC1, 1989-1995), while also co-starring opposite Rowan Atkinson in the "Blackadder" series. Following another hit with Laurie, "Jeeves & Wooster" (BBC, 1990-93), Fry became a frequent presence on films in both his native England and in America, including an acclaimed portrayal of Irish playwright Oscar Wilde in "Wilde" (1997).

Fry became a powerful wielder of social media with his well-followed Twitter account, where he generated a huge amount of traffic with his pithy observations. By the end of 2010, Fry began rivaling Ashton Kutcher with over two million followers. Fry was next cast as the incredibly gifted, but unambitious Mycroft Holmes in the sequel "Sherlock Holmes 2" (2011), starring Robert Downey, Jr. as the famed detective and Jude Law as Dr. Watson.

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