Category: Bear and Gay News

Gay and Bear News

Gene Shalit Apologizes For The Term “Sexual Predator”

In describing the behavior of “Jack” I used words (“sexual predator”) that I now discover have angered, agitated, and hurt many people. I did not intend to use a word that many in the gay community consider incendiary. . . . I certainly had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or on the community itself. I regret any emotional hurt that may have resulted from my review of ‘Brokeback Mountain.”

Today, The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation(GLAAD) said it received a statement from Gene Shalit, saying, “In describing the behavior of “Jack” I used words (“sexual predator”) that I now discover have angered, agitated, and hurt many people. I did not intend to use a word that many in the gay community consider incendiary. . . . I certainly had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or on the community itself. I regret any emotional hurt that may have resulted from my review of ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ ” Bravo to Mr. Shalit… we retract our accusation that he is a loser!

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Kudos: GLAAD

First Loser Of 2006… Gene Shalit

geneshalit In his review of Brokeback Mountain, Gene Shalit claims,”Jack, who strikes me as a sexual predator, tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts.” What? Did he see this movie? It’s a tragic love story, stupid.

I am so sick of people trying to demonize homosexual love. Gay People are called child molester’s, sexual deviants, and sexual predators, all the time. When will the straight community get it through their heads… homosexuality is much more than a sex act! It is not a “behavior”, it is a whole personality trait! Unless you have the attention span of a grape nut, anyone who sees Brokeback Mountain will understand that it is the love that Jack and Ennis have for one another that keeps them getting together… and not just sex. Was Romeo and Julliet a story about sexual predators?

If Gene Shalit wants to reduce Brokeback Mountain to a story only about a sexual predator… again, I ask, did he see this movie? To be blunt, it is the Ennis character that “tops” the Jack character. If Ennis wasn’t into Jack (pun intended), I seriously doubt that he would be “up” to the challenge! Which leads me to another issue I would like to set straight for the “straight” community. Mom… don’t read this. Homosexuality is not about anal sex! Gay people can use a wide variety of ways to pleasure their partners…just as straight people. There are many gay people, lesbians included, that never get near the “back door”. Reducing one’s sexual orientation or relationship to a list of behaviors is irresposible and shows a total lack of respect for one’s fellow man and woman. When two people fall in love, sex is just the icing on the cake.

Kudos: NBC

Brokeback Mountain or To Thine Own Self Be True

Tonight we saw one of the most talked about films of 2005, Brokeback Mountain. It opened in a limited amount of theaters several weeks ago, but now has reached our local AMC megaplex. The film is very rich in image and story. The acting is top notch all the way. My only complaint is that Heath Ledger mumbles an awful lot of his dialogue. Ledger’s character is a man of few words, so when he speaks you assume it must be important. Unfortunately, some of it is unintelligible. I can’t wait till the DVD version so I can turn on closed captioning! brokeback

I really felt for the women in the picture. It must be a terrible feeling when you find out that your husband prefers to be with a man over you! I kept thinking about gay marriage. If society were more accepting of homosexuals, so many men would not have been forced to “live a lie”, in a loveless marriage. Society and some religious doctrine have done so much damage when they insist that homosexuality is not an intrinsic part of a person’s personality. They dismiss it as sin and thus create a terrible conflict within the child or adult who faces his/her sexuality. If it is sin, then I can choose to be straight. I really wish that heterosexuals could walk in a gay person’s shoes for a moment. What would happen if they were confronted with the idea that heterosexual love is wrong and they should choose not pursue it? What if the majority of people they meet were homosexual? How many healthy, happy, heterosexuals would there be? Not many, I’ll bet. In contradiction to the best available scientific evidence, I am gonna go way out on a limb here and say that maybe there are some people who actually sit down and make a decision to be gay or straight. I can tell you for certain that I have never met one, and I bet that most people who tell me it is a choice haven’t either. The religious right want us to change our behavior, but they can’t change who we are inside. Just as in Brokeback Mountain, we can marry, have kids and avoid having sexual relations with who we really want to, but that doesn’t change who we are… just our outward appearance. How does supressing the truth we know about ourselves glorify God or help the people we choose to lie too?

The biggest problem I have with the concept of “homosexuality as sin” is that it creates an atmosphere of hatred. If society believes that we are choosing to do things that are “wrong”, we are looked upon as immoral or “just plain bad”. We are taught from an early age that if we do bad things we will be punished. In some parts of our country, and in some parts of the world, people who do bad things are even executed! Ask yourself. Do you feel upset when a criminal goes to jail? Or a murderer is shot? If these people deserve it, then why shouldn’t a Mathew Sheppard or a Teena Brandon? Unfortunately, the concept of “homosexuality as sin” has created many people who think that their deaths were justified. I mean, after all, they were bad people anyway. If we teach that homosexuality is wrong, we are teaching that homosexuals are bad and should be punished, and that it is ok to deny them the their right to happiness. It is sad that situations depicted in Brokeback Mountain actually have happend and continue to happen. Two people should never be denied to express the love they have for one another.

Brokeback Mountain may be a fictional story, but one of its lessons is true whether you are straight or gay… to thine own self be true.

Gay Marriage Petition Fraud

I am so outraged! Recently I went to the website, knowthyneighbor.org ,to see which of my “friends” and neighbors had signed a petition to ban marriage and civil unions in Massachusetts. I was shocked to see that my best friend and staunch gay rights supporter had signed the petition! I called her immediately to get the full story. It turns out that the petition taker told her that the petition was in support of marriage for gays and lesbians and was presented alongside a petition to allow the sale of liquor in grocery stores. She is, of course, outraged, and is filling out a form to have her name removed. It has been reported that many signatures where obtained under false pretenses. I am in disbelief as to the magnitude of this situation. If people who are as well meaning as my friend have been duped, how many other people have been manipulated the same way? Why are there no checks and balances to prevent this from happening? I urge anyone reading this in Massachusetts to visit knowthyneighbor.org and find out if people they know have signed the list. Unfortunately, I am sure that many people have signed legitimately, but a phone call or letter to your neighbor might prove otherwise.

Kudos: knowthyneighbor.org

The Un-American Family Association Wins Boycott Against Ford

God, yes I said God, I hate this group. They are the biggest bunch of hypocrites on the planet. I have come to the conclusion that any group with the name family in their title is really the Anti-Christ! The American Family Association goes out of their way to destroy gay and lesbian families. They, and many other groups like them, keep stating that homosexuality is somehow against families. Gay people love families! We have them, we come from them, and we are them. The AFA is now hot on the tail of companies that advertise in gay publications. They are now not only against a certain segment of the population, but against companies trying to make a buck. Can you say unamerican? These groups have done so much damage to people looking for a kind and just God. Hypocrites… all of them.

Another company in the crosshairs of an anti-gay group is Ford, which was threatened with a boycott from the American Family Association last spring due to its pro-gay policies. The American Family Association suspended the boycott when Ford engaged the group in discussions in June, and last week lifted the boycott completely — just after Ford decided not to renew advertising campaigns for its Jaguar and Land Rover brands in gay publications, including the Advocate and Out magazines. Full Story

And another thing! Shame on Ford for cow-towing to the demands of this group. I am glad that I dumped their recall ridden Escape, and bought my Toyota Prius.

Kudos: PlanetOut