Florida AAA Refuses Gay Couples Discounts

The Florida AAA refuses to extend the discounts they offer heterosexual couples to same-sex couples:

A policy for a married man allows him to have his wife on the membership at half-price.

In Florida, a gay man and his partner must both pay full price.

"They do not offer a policy for homosexuals. If I were married I'd be able to do it, but since I'm gay I can't," the man says.

The Florida policy has been in place for some time and AAA says a domestic partner is not a spouse.

"What is a spouse as defined by your policy?" asks Holmes.

"We use the Florida law spouse which describes a husband and wife, and it's a man and a woman," says Florida AAA Vice President John Imming.

The Florida policy is also contrary to the benefits offered by many other states.

From liberal California to the wilds of Texas, from the remote Dakotas to Hawaii, most states allow gays to have their domestic partner on their membership at a reduced rate.

"Other clubs are free to make their decisions based on the needs of their area," says Imming.

Note to News Channel 5 WPTV: your use of "homosexual" in the above quoted article is creepy.

Posting At Another Site

I've just written my first contribution to DoorQ, the premier LGBT fantasy/scifi/horror website. It's a great site with a nice layout and loads of content that varies from original fiction to comic book reviews. Give it a browse if you get a chance. I've also added it to my reading list on the sidebar to the right left.

Blocking Gay News

The world's largest mobile telecom, UK-based Vodafone, blocks, by default, both Gay City News and UK Gay News. Vodaphone, which has a joint venture here in America with Verizon Wireless, deems both sites as having adult content. From the story:

A spokesperson at the Vodaphone press office in Newbury explained this afternoon that with a lot of children now using mobile telephone technology to access the internet, web sites had “to meet a content standard”. Customers, she explained, could “opt-in” to access adult websites.

The Vodaphone website says that to opt-in, a subscriber has to be able to prove his or her age – and must be 18 or over.

UK Gay News uses a Vodaphone mobile phone and a test last night confirmed access was barred. Though this was the very first time that we had attempted to go online from a mobile phone, we phoned the company and the block was lifted immediately.

No one could argue with this philosophy, given that there are many pornographic sites on the web.

However, in the case of both UK Gay News and Gay City News, one fails to see how either can be deemed to be “adult content” sites.

In the case of UK Gay News, the vast majority of the content is links to articles of interest to lesbian, gay or transgender people in some of the world’s most respected newspapers, ranging from The Guardian and The Independent in the UK to the Globe & Mail in Canada and the Washington Post in USA.

The front page of Gay City News this morning include stories about a movie being adapted from an Upton Sinclair novel, congress cutting HIV prevention moneys, and the witch hunt for gays in Morocco.

To put it simply, without any attempt to be clever, this is institutionalized homophobia in the form of direct media censorship. I'll be letting Vodafone and Verizon Wireless know what I think of Vodafone's policy.

Year End Round Up

Lots of top N lists are going around this week. I don't really feel like putting one of those together. It takes me forever to write anything. I doubt I'd be done before the end of 2007. Also, I was hit by a car today, so I get a bit of a break. What I've done is put together a random list of 2007 lists I've read. In no relevant order, here is a list of 2007 lists:

• Ever awesome Pam, who's recovering from surgery, has a post up asking visitors what they think the top stories of 2007 were for her site.
• As I previously wrote, Jon Swift has an amazing best blog posts of 2007 list. He worked hard on it. Go read it.
  
• Bilerico has a well-rounded LGBT top 10 list.
  
• On a local front, Express Gay News Online takes a stab at Florida's top 10 2007 LGBT stories (Florida had plenty of scandals this year!).
• 365gay has a top 10 LGBT 2007 news list worth reading.
• Project Censored has an anti-list that names the 25 most over looked stories of the year.
• Wired lists the top 10 new organisms of 2007. It's pop-science that's more pop than science.
• Science magazine lists diversity of the human genome as the discovery of 2007, while Nature names research that derived pluripotent stems cells derived from epithelial cells as the 2007's most significant work.
  
• and finally, DSFanboy has a list of 2007's top Nintendo DS games. I think. The list also has something to do with the internet cat phenomenon. It's confusing, but there are lots of pictures.
  

There, I've done my list for the year. Go away now.

Not A Story Unless You're A Traffic Whore

I was reading the news this morning and came across an odd story about Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus. Pictures are floating around that show her having fun with a friend at a sleepover. Gossip sites are promoting the photos as racy. Cyrus gave the best response to the non-story:

“It’s two girls at a sleepover, and if all of a sudden that’s bad, then what is the world coming to?”

I'm trying to find people upset by these photos. I'm wondering if this is something the American Taliban will care about? I'm guessing not. So far, I haven't see any homophobic ramblings from the American Family Association or the uptight men at Concerned Women for America.

One person playing this story as a scandal is Perez Hilton (Nope, I'm not linking it.), whose front page today also features the evils of Rosie O'Donnell, Nicole Austin's "camel toe," and Alanis Morissettes' "lady lumps."

I don't care if Hilton is gay like me; I don't care if he helped break the story about Larry Craig. Trolling for traffic by playing to peoples' sexism and homophobia is crap. In a country where many actual LGBT youth face unbelievable hardships (e.g., one-third of NYC's homeless youth are LGBT), posting pictures of Hannah Mon-effing-tana at a sleepover and promoting them as risqué and gay is BS. Seriously, eff that opportunistic shite.

Things Fundamentalist Christians Do

I saw this piece over at Pam's. Reading it made me sick to my stomach. It describes how a Christian gay-conversion organization used and abused a mentally ill man to falsely advertise success at praying away 'teh gay.'

My guess is that the baby Jesus frowns on such things.

There's Something About Mary

I knew I liked Mary J. Blige! Very cool.

Good For Jodie

It's never too late to come to the party:

December 14, 2007 LOS ANGELES: After guarding her private life fiercely for 15 years, Hollywood actress Jodie Foster has publicly acknowledged her lesbian partner.

The two-time Oscar winner thanked "my beautiful Cydney" after winning an award at the Women in Entertainment Power 100 breakfast in Los Angeles.

Naked Therapy For My Gay?

Wayne Besen has a short and interesting piece up at 365gay. He writes about the lengths to which the ex-gay movement is willing to go as they quest to stop 'teh gay.' Some ex-gay organizations have promoted a truly bizarre wilderness course put on by The Mankind Project (BTW MKP, the photo strip format on your site that features faceshots of your men is oddly similar to ads I've seen for many gay personals websites.). Wayne writes that the course, conducted by men likely lacking licenses to practice therapy, includes some pretty gay stuff:

This cult-like national program is a $650 weekend boot camp where participants – mostly straight - are greeted by large, intimidating men dressed in dark clothing and faces painted black. During their stay, the men are forced to take cold showers, survive on about four hours sleep, and subsist on very little food. In follow-up meetings, the activities include shaving another man’s face, kidnapping a member of another camp group and changing clothes with other men. The idea is to help them get in-touch with their feelings and uncover and heal deep wounds that are barriers to successful lives.

The alternative publication, The Houston Press, uncovered a letter Michael Scinto wrote to the Madison County Texas sheriff’s office, just prior to committing suicide allegedly as a result of the boot camp. The Scinto family has filed a lawsuit against The ManKind Project, while the deceased man’s letter to the sheriff claims the New Warrior program practiced bizarre rituals that include:

1. Blindfolded walking tours in the nude

2. People blowing sage smoke in his face while 50 or so naked men danced around candles

3. Men sitting in a circle discussing their sexual histories while passing a wooden dildo called “The Cock”

4. Naked men beating cooked chickens with a hammer

I can truly tell you that this gay man has never danced with 50 naked men around candles. Now, that's gay! Alas, this would be funnier if LGBT people didn't feel the need to commit suicide based on confused self-loathing promoted by these ex-gay nuts.

Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are

Today is National Coming Out Day. It's a day to think about your own coming out process and a day to be supportive of others going through their own doors. It's a day for solidarity.

Pam has a great post up that includes a video about her own process. She reminds straight allies that you can come out too. Let people know you support your LGBT friends and family.

It's also LGBT history month and today's featured historical figure is Lilly Tomlin.

Abby Likes Teh Gays

Dear Abby has come out in support of LGBT people and marriage equality. Good for her. I've never really read her column (but will now), but she sounds like a really nice person:

"I believe if two people want to commit to each other, God bless 'em," the syndicated advice columnist told The Associated Press. "That is the highest form of commitment, for heaven's sake." ...

"I'm trying to tell kids if they are gay, it's OK to be gay. I've tried to tell families if they have a gay family member to accept them and love them as they always have," she said Friday.

The professional ex-gay and founder of The Parents Group was quick to condemn Abby in a press release featuring an interview, apparently, with himself:

Bennett, a former homosexual himself, now married almost 15 years to his wife and the father of his two children, said, "Sorry 'Dear Abby' - You are WRONG on this one!" ...

Bennett ended, "'Dear Abby,' stick to what little you know -- and forget about that which you don't. Encouraging young 'gay' men to accept themselves as such can lead to an early death. I wonder how you would respond to several of our Parents Group members, whose sons have died excruciating and painful deaths due to HIV/AIDS. Try comforting these inconsolable parents. What, I wonder, would you say to these distraught parents, 'Dear Abby'? Maybe, 'That's just life! You can do it! Get up now and move on!'

By the tone of his press release, I can imagine Bennett saying something like that last line in bold, but certainly not Abby. Thanks Abby!

Guilty: Manslaughter Conviction for John Fox

John Fox, one of the men responsible for Michael Sandy's death, has been found guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime, but not murder. He faces a sentence of 5-15 years.

Fox, Anthony Fortunato, Ilya Shurov, and Gary Timmins lured Sandy to a remote beach via a website and attacked him, chasing him to his death in traffic.

Fortunato is now claiming that he himself is gay, but closeted at the time of the crime, and wouldn't have targeted another gay man. Yeah right, closeted gay men never commit homophobic crimes against other gay people. Please.

A defense attorney for Fox, John D. Patton, equated the death of Michael Sandy to paying too much for a beer at a Yankee's game:

By the account of prosecutors, Mr. Fox played a role in every aspect of the crime. He supplied the computer screen name used to exchange messages with Mr. Sandy.

He met Mr. Sandy alone, prosecutors said, guiding him to the place where the others lay in hiding. And he was one of the two men identified by witnesses as chasing Mr. Sandy onto the highway.

During the trial, which began on Sept. 17, a lawyer for Mr. Fox, John D. Patten, attacked the credibility of the police and Mr. Timmins. But he built much of his defense on the legal definition of robbery. ...

He told jurors that Mr. Timmins had described a plan merely to steal from Mr. Sandy, drawing a contrast to the use of force.

“Ripping someone off doesn’t mean much,” Mr. Patten argued. “I get ripped off when I go to Yankee Stadium and pay $10 for a beer.”

Related: A gay person can commit a hate crime, Targeting LGBT for crimes = hate

Those Whacky Conservative Judges

An anti-LGBT judge has lost his appeal after getting into trouble for using a penis pump while presiding over court proceedings! This story could be right out of The Onion! From 365gay:

(Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the conviction of a former judge who was caught using a penis pump in court as he was presiding over a trial.

Former District Judge Donald Thompson was sentenced in August 2006 to four years in prison on four counts of indecent exposure. ...

Thompson, who had sat on the bench for 23 years, was charged in 2005 with three felony counts of indecent exposure after a court reporter complained to authorities that he was using the pump in her full view. (story)

At the time, Thompson was presiding over a murder trial.

Thompson had a reputation for handing out stiff sentences. He once tried to send a man to prison for life for spitting on a police officer.

Prior to becoming the Republican judge he served six years in the state House of Representatives starting in 1975 where he frequently spoke out against gays.

Thompson was removed from the bench while the allegations against him were investigated. ...

Thompson was caught in the act on numerous occasions by the court clerk and trial witnesses the complaint said.

Thompson allegedly shaved his pubic area, applied lube, and slipped on the pump, using it until he climaxed.

Penis pumps are reputed to enhance the size of the organ and are often used in masturbation.

The complaint also said that Thompson, 57, masturbated on a number of occasions in full view of Lisa K. Foster, Thompson's court reporter for 15 years.

Foster said she first started hearing a noise that “sounded like a blood pressure cuff being pumped up.” Foster told investigators she witnessed the judge’s sexual behavior “fifteen to twenty times.”

Thompson fired her after hearing she had cooperated with the investigation into his misconduct.

At trial, Judge C. Allen McCall rejected motions to suppress the pump, prevent the jury from hearing testimony that a second "penis pump" was seen under Thompson's bench, and block the jury from hearing about 180 hours of courtroom tapes that contained the whooshing sound of the penis pump in use.

The Matthew Shepard Act Passes The Senate

The Matthew Shepard Act passed today, barely. Sixty votes were needed for cloture and that's what it got. It's the first time that protection for transgender people has passed both houses.

The HRC has video on the victory and the fight ahead (h/t JMG):

Iranian President Ahmadinejad On Gay People

The penalty for two men having sex in Iran is death (warning: some violent pictures). LGBT face death or imprisonment in many places. Some of these include Bush allies such as Saudi Arabia and economic hot spots like the UAE (Dubai).

Still, none of this is suitable pre-text for invading Iran. We're worlds away from from even minimal international sanctions on places that torture, imprison, or kill LGBT people and other minorities. If "human rights" is included in the list of reasons for a Bush-led attack on Iran... Sadly, there is no "then" to that "if." It will simply be another grand lie in a march to another war for profit.

The sequel (Or is it part three or four, I can't count anymore?) to "Git yer war on" is being advertised on the teevee (also here, and here). I'm sure there's a sizable portion portion of our country ready for blood (see Bush's twenty-percenters) and another sizable portion of moderate males (see undecided voters, independents, libertarians, daddy-clingers, etc.) who will reluctantly embrace action against what their media tells them is a great threat (it's not).

Good For Us

Bigoted businesses lose money. It's good because it's one of the few things homophobic business types understand.

New Gay SciFi Site

The Boston Edge has a nice writeup on a soon to be website for gay geeks. DoorQ.com will open its web-doors this Halloween. The site is promising a gay take, or gay information, or something, on all things horror, scifi, anime, comic, and I hope gaming, related. There's also mention of profiles and forums. I will definitely be posting about gay characters in mainstream comics, if their system supports such activity.

Oh, and DoorQ folks, if you ever need a science consultant, this gay geek is happily available. :)

A Gay Person Can Commit A Hate Crime

An admission that you're secretly gay doesn't mean you can't target someone for a crime because they are gay. Michael Sandy is dead and was lured to his death scene because he was gay. The prosecutor sums up what happened:

“He was preyed upon by four young men who decided to rob him,” Assistant District Attorney Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi said in her opening statement. By her account, Mr. Fortunato found and contacted Mr. Sandy through a gay Web site.

“In his words,” Ms. Nicolazzi said, “ ‘The gay guys would always come, and it would be easy.’ ”

The lawyer of the defendant in question sums up... well I'm not sure exactly what this is supposed to mean, but it sure is ugly:

Mr. Fortunato’s lawyer made much the same argument, adding a twist by declaring his client’s homosexuality. Outside the courtroom, he sought to explain his theory, to a certain extent.

Mr. Fortunato, he said, might have planned to smoke marijuana with Mr. Sandy as a means of testing his friends’ sentiments about homosexuality. Or, he said, perhaps Mr. Fortunato had wanted to swindle a gay man, to see how his friends reacted to a gay person. Or, he said, perhaps Mr. Fortunato had simply wanted to rob somebody.

Beyond that, Mr. Di Chiara kept the defense strategy to himself. Asked how all this would help his case, he said, “You got to read the whole book.”

More on Michael's murder here.

Bashing The Victims

(note: The ads at Towelroad aren't always work-friendly. You might want to save the links below for home clicking.)

A few months ago, Towelroad posted about victims of a gay bashing, in Rochester, NY, who were taken into custody as police let the perpetrators go free. Imagine suffering an assault and having the police take you in as they set your attackers free. That's what LGBT people face.

Now Towelroad reports that a citizen panel has found the victims' charges against the police legitimate and that the police chief has admitted to mistakes concerning in the incident.

It's hard to feel good about justice that's been delayed due to homophobia.

More New York City Area Gay Bashing

(An update's a few paragraphs down.) The details are slim at this point, but openly gay celebrity chef Josie Smith-Malave was attacked by a gang of thugs in Long Island:

September 13, 2007 -- A former "Top Chef" contestant yesterday recounted the ordeal of being surrounded outside a Long Island bar by thugs who savagely beat her and two female companions while others watched, laughed and took photographs.

"It was a very large group of young adults. I mean, they were so angry," said Josie Smith-Malave, 32, an openly gay woman who appeared on Season Two of the show.

"I've never experienced something like that before, when you come face to face with people who are so angry."

Smith-Malave said the trouble began when she, her heterosexual sister, Julie Smith, 30, and her gay friend, Emily Durwood, 23, were asked to leave Partners, a Sea Cliff bar, on Sept. 1.

The three women were followed outside by "a mob of nine to 12 young adults," said a statement released by attorney Yetta Kurland's office.

The group "encircled" the trio, started shouting out hateful slurs. such as "f - - - ing dykes," threw "sticks, cups and other objects" at the women, and even spit on them before the violence occurred, the statement added.

More from the Voice. The police are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime:

Detectives are probing an attack of a former Top Chef contestant as a hate crime because her assailants used anti-gay epithets, said a spokesman for the Nassau County Police Department.

Josie Smith-Malave, a former contestant on Bravo's TV reality show and a player on the New York Sharks woman's football team, and three friends were attacked by an angry mob who yelled slurs at the women after being tossed out of Partners bar in Sea Cliff, said NCPD spokesman Lt. Kevin Smith.

"We are looking in to the incident as a possible bias and hate crime because of the nature of the verbal altercation," said Smith who would not repeat the language the attackers used but said the epithets were about gender and sexual orientation.

Lt. Smith said the dispute started inside the bar when a group of patrons, who have not yet been identified, accused someone in Smith-Malave's party of videotaping them.

"They made a stink to the bartender...(and management) ended up ejecting both groups," said Lt. Smith. "Outside the bar, this mixed group of men and woman started to curse and make biased and inappropriate remarks."

Outside, after words were exchanged, pushing and shoving started led to a full-out brawl, police said. During the fracas someone forcibly took a camera from Smith-Malave's purse, Smith said.

Police have recovered Smith-Malave's camera but did apprehended any suspects, Smith said. The suspect could face charges ranging from robbery to aggravated harassment to assault. They were also face stiffer penalties and longer jail sentences if they are convicted of those charges as hate crimes.

PostBlog: 365gay has an update. An arrest has been made:

(New York City) Nassau County police arrested an Oregon man Thursday in the beating of 'Top Chef' contestant Josie Smith-Malave.

Matthew W. Walli, 20, is charged with second-degree robbery as a bias crime, a police spokesperson said.

Eleven others are still being sought in the September 1 attack on Smith-Malave two other women outside a bar in Sea Cliff on Long Island.

Smith-Malave appeared on Season 2 of the Bravo show.

She and a group of other women had gone to the bar to celebrate the birthday of one of them.

Walli's arrest came a day after Smith-Malave's attorney accused police of dragging their feet in the investigation. (story)

Smith-Malave and the other women had been asked to leave the bar on Sept 1 after a patron objected that Smith-Malave and another of the women were "slow-dancing" together.

About 10 or 12 patrons followed the three women out of the club where the assault occurred. The crowd allegedly began yelling anti-gay epithets, then spat on the women and threw debris on them.

At that point several in the crowd began beating the women. The three suffered bruises, one woman had a head injury. A video recorder that one of the woman had was stolen from her.

[Right here this story loses "the other side" that belongs to the patrons. Anything they have to say is nearly irrelevant. Nothing excuses or is an excuse for inspiring this type of behavior. Nothing.]

Walli allegedly returned to the area with the video recorder earlier in the week, but was not arrested at the time.

A Miami native, Smith-Malave is a former sous-chef for a Brooklyn restaurant. Prior to that she played for the New York Sharks of the Independent Women's Football League.