Living: July 2013

Why Do Gay Men Date Closet Cases?
Filed by Guest Blogger | July 31, 2013 | 11:30 AM |When is a little less lonesome no longer enough? Where along the way did compromising a serious, full-on committed relationship and accepting fragments of some sort of fictitious affection become appealing to us?Read More

Bradley Manning Verdict [Open Thread]
Filed by John M. Becker | July 30, 2013 | 2:30 PM |Do you agree with today's verdict in the Bradley Manning trial? How much time do you think Manning should serve in prison, if any? And do you view Manning as a hero or a traitor?Read More

What Does Love Look Like After 27 Years?
Filed by Bil Browning | July 29, 2013 | 2:30 PM |Danny and Annie were married for 27 years when they recorded the story of their first date and the subsequent years between.Read More

Suicide: A Love Story
Filed by Mark S. King | July 29, 2013 | 1:00 PM |Suicide was common for gay men in the 1980's. But rather than being a result of bullying or despair, it was very often empowering for AIDS patients to die on their own terms, sometimes with a loved one's assistance.Read More

Louisiana Police Arresting Gay Men for Consensual Sex
Filed by John M. Becker | July 28, 2013 | 4:30 PM |Sheriff's deputies in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana are targeting and arresting gay men in undercover sex stings, citing the state's unconstitutional sodomy law.Read More

What You Need To Know (7/21-7/27)
Filed by E. Winter Tashlin | July 27, 2013 | 3:00 PM |Radical Feminists academics declare war on trans* identity, Dr. Turing will be pardoned, an anti-LGBT protest in Haiti leaves two dead, Desmond Tutu would choose hell over a homophobic heaven, and more. Read More

Russian Skinheads Entrapping, Torturing LGBT Teens
Filed by John M. Becker | July 25, 2013 | 4:45 PM |Russian homophobes are creating bogus online personal ads to trick gay men into showing up for a date, then torturing them. Publicly. And the police are letting it happen.Read More

'Sex By Deception' and the Shades of Yes
Filed by Mercedes Allen | July 25, 2013 | 10:15 AM |Is a person's gender identity a deception? And does failure to disclose one's gender identity invalidate or alter sexual consent?Read More

Getting Silly With Vodka Without Drinking
Filed by Guest Blogger | July 24, 2013 | 3:30 PM |I don't drink and I don't care what anybody else drinks. Just don't drink the Kool Aid. Read More

Read: Virginia's Marriage Amendment Challenge
Filed by Michael Hamar | July 24, 2013 | 12:30 PM |Last week a challenge to Virginia's constitutional marriage ban was filed in the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. We have a copy of the complaint.Read More

Tweet With the Pope, Get Out of Purgatory Faster
Filed by John M. Becker | July 23, 2013 | 6:00 PM |Pope Francis will grant the plenary indulgence to all who participate in World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, even if they do so on Twitter. Less time in purgatory, whee!Read More

Was Lucy Lobdell Truly Transgender?
Filed by Guest Blogger | July 23, 2013 | 4:30 PM |One day in 1855, Lucy Ann Lobdell cut her hair, changed clothes and went off to live the rest of her life as a man, making gender history at every turn. Read More

'Straight Magazine' Isn't So Straight Anymore
Filed by Bil Browning | July 22, 2013 | 4:00 PM |Anyone have any more information about this magazine from the 1950s? While a title like that was a-okay at the time, it definitely doesn't mean the same thing now. Especially not with covers like these!Read More
The Sound of German vs Other Languages
Filed by Bil Browning | July 22, 2013 | 1:00 PM |Any word that's sweet sounding in a Romance language can be turned into a curse or harsh rebuke in German (or Russian).Read More

Dustin Cranor: The Oceans' Advocate
Filed by Jesse Monteagudo | July 21, 2013 | 4:00 PM |One of Cranor's most popular projects is managing Oceana's partnership with the Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week.Read More

What You Need To Know (7/14-7/20)
Filed by E. Winter Tashlin | July 20, 2013 | 4:00 PM |The Queen signs a same-sex marriage law, violent attacks in Kenya, the history of homosexual panic in Miami, the Illinois Family Institute pushes "ex-gay" therapy, and more. Read More

Lawsuit Filed Challenging Virginia Marriage Ban
Filed by Michael Hamar | July 20, 2013 | 2:00 PM |While LGBT Virginians await the filing of a promised lawsuit by the ACLU challenging the Marshall-Newman Amendment, one Norfolk couple has moved forward on their own and filed a lawsuit yesterday in Norfolk.Read More

ALEC & the NRA Have Blood on Their Hands
Filed by Terrance Heath | July 19, 2013 | 1:00 PM |Attorney General Holder didn't mention the American Legislative Exchange Council or the National Rifle Association by name, but his words are a reminder of the amount of blood on the hands of both groups.Read More

'Born This Way' Chronicles Plight of LGBTs in Cameroon
Filed by John M. Becker | July 19, 2013 | 10:00 AM |Slowly but surely and against all odds, brave LGBT Cameroonians are courageously stepping out of the shadows and into the light.Read More

Getting Religion Out of the Marriage Business, Part II
Filed by Michael Knaapen | July 18, 2013 | 11:30 AM |The government getting out of marriage and leaving it to religion would imperil the institution itself. We would have no useful, universal way of understanding marriage across religious and nonreligious lines.Read More

Bigotry Knows No Boundaries: Matthew Shepard & Trayvon Martin
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | July 18, 2013 | 10:00 AM |A young man has become the symbol of the horrific result of racial stereotyping, and is fast becoming the symbol for a movement. Just as Matthew Shepard's death galvanized a nation, Trayvon Martin's death is doing the same.Read More

Newlywed With Terminal Cancer Hopes to Go to Disneyland
Filed by Karen Ocamb | July 17, 2013 | 4:00 PM |This month, Pam Holt -- terminally ill with cancer, with less than a year to live -- was finally able to marry the love of her life, Helen Anderson. The couple hopes to go on a honeymoon before it's too late.Read More

A Totally Gay Tour of Congressional Cemetery
Filed by Mark S. King | July 17, 2013 | 2:30 PM |You haven't lived until you've hosted a game show in a cemetery. There I was, engaged in complete silliness while standing directly over the remains of more than 25,000 of the dearly departed. And I was doing it with the authorities.Read More

Getting Religion Out of the Marriage Business, Part I
Filed by Michael Knaapen | July 17, 2013 | 11:30 AM |Marriage has molted countless arcane practices and beliefs in each new season of enlightenment, but it still has one prominent vestige to shed: religion. Read More

Pride in the Hamptons
Filed by John M. Becker | July 17, 2013 | 9:30 AM |Earlier this month, Michael and I had the privilege of attending Pride in the Hamptons in beautiful East Hampton, NY. Over $100,000 was raised for Live Out Loud, an LGBT youth organization.Read More

Thomas Roberts to MSNBC: We Can Do Better
Filed by John M. Becker | July 16, 2013 | 9:30 AM |In an on-air conversation yesterday about the Zimmerman acquittal, MSNBC's Thomas Roberts said that his network should do more to highlight the experiences of groups who are "othered" in American society such as racial minorities, women, and LGBT people.Read More

Trayvon Martin & Black Man 101: The New Curriculum
Filed by Terrance Heath | July 15, 2013 | 5:30 PM |The murder of 15-year-old Trayvon Martin, and the acquittal of his killer, may make it necessary to revise the curriculum for Black Man 101.Read More

Goodbye Corey Monteith: You're the Jazz
Filed by Bil Browning | July 15, 2013 | 3:30 PM |Back in 2009, Glee actor Corey Monteith gave Bilerico Project our first "celebrity endorsement."Read More

What You Need To Know (7/7-7/13)
Filed by E. Winter Tashlin | July 13, 2013 | 3:00 PM |Orrin Hatch votes for ENDA, the Pennsylvania AG won't defend the state's DOMA, a supercomputer makes progress on HIV, Google raises money for an anti-quality climate denier, and more. Read More

LGBT Healthcare Takes Giant Leap Forward in 2013
Filed by John M. Becker | July 12, 2013 | 6:00 PM |For the first time, there isn't a single state in the nation without at least one hospital willing to publicly commit to LGBT equality.Read More

Looking Back: Barbara Walters & Harvey Fierstein
Filed by E. Winter Tashlin | July 12, 2013 | 10:00 AM |Some of the questions and a lot of the phrasing and word choices are cringe-worthy by today's standards, but it's clearly a groundbreaking moment.Read More

Because Wet French Twinks Hate Gay Marriage?
Filed by Bil Browning | July 11, 2013 | 6:10 PM |Homophobes are stupid. Now we're forced to watch young, skinny, white, hairless anonymous boys run around flexing their muscles in wet swimsuits. Nothing gay about that.Read More

An Anti-Voting Rights, Pro-Marriage Equality World
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | July 11, 2013 | 11:00 AM |The Supreme Court rulings on DOMA, Prop. 8, and the Voting Rights Act force LGBTQ people of color like myself to reside a bifurcated reality in terms of full civil rights protections.Read More

The Sound of Stigma
Filed by Mark S. King | July 10, 2013 | 5:30 PM |Attitudes about HIV and gay men range from self-righteousness to outright contempt. From whatever our vantage point, we've shamed and stigmatized everyone else into a corner; the result is a community revolting against itself. We are a snake eating its tail.Read More

LGB Transphobia Rearing Its Ugly Head?
Filed by Guest Blogger | July 10, 2013 | 3:30 PM |Was this another case of "transgender exceptionalism"? Read More

Equality, Freedom, & Public Displays of Affection
Filed by Jeff Lutes | July 10, 2013 | 1:30 PM |Do those of you who live in one of the 13 states with marriage equality find it any easier to publicly display affection for the one you love?Read More

Coming Out as a Person of Faith
Filed by Guest Blogger | July 09, 2013 | 11:00 AM |The Coming Out as a Person of Faith exhibit is important because it highlights a group of people often forgotten in the search for LGBTQ rights.Read More

Civil Unions, Domestic Partnerships Officially Unequal
Filed by John M. Becker | July 09, 2013 | 10:00 AM |The U.S. government just made it crystal clear that "separate but equal" relationship recognition structures are not equal at all.Read More

Back to Christopher Street
Filed by Mark Segal | July 08, 2013 | 2:00 PM |Very few know LGBT history, but GLF NY 1969-71 literally was the foundation that what we have today was built on. Read More

Gay Country Singer: Gay Men Are Sad, Predatory Drunks?
Filed by Mark S. King | July 08, 2013 | 10:00 AM |If "All-American Boy" singer Steve Grand really wants to challenge stereotypes, why the hell is he portraying gay men as sad, predatory drunks?Read More

Oregon Takes a Step Towards Debt-Free Degrees
Filed by Terrance Heath | July 07, 2013 | 2:00 PM |I got a check from the U.S. Treasury in the mail this week. It was both a surprise and a mystery.Read More

Foreskin Restoration: Becoming Whole Again
Filed by E. Winter Tashlin | July 07, 2013 | 12:00 PM |For a long time, I had a complicated and often unhappy relationship with my penis. But the process of foreskin restoring has made an incredible difference in how I relate to my body and to my sexuality. Read More

Who Wins When Boxers Smooch?
Filed by Mark S. King | July 07, 2013 | 10:00 AM |Maybe homosexual panic is good for your upper cut?Read More

What You Need To Know (6/30-7/6)
Filed by E. Winter Tashlin | July 06, 2013 | 4:00 PM |Costa Rica "accidentally" passes marriage equality, a post-Pride bashing in NYC is caught on tape, DC makes changing a birth certificate easier, and more stories you need to know. Read More

Reflecting Community Through Pride
Filed by E. Winter Tashlin | July 05, 2013 | 4:30 PM |Pride shouldn't be a universal experience, it needs to take its cues from the character of the community hosting it.Read More
All-American Boy
Filed by Bil Browning | July 04, 2013 | 9:30 AM |To celebrate, here's Steve Grand's new video "All-American Boy" just in time for the Fourth of July. Interesting side note: Grand's love interest in the video is a porn site model.Read More

HIV Cures Come With a Price
Filed by D Gregory Smith | July 03, 2013 | 4:30 PM |We've had some excellent news about the curing of HIV-infected people in the past year. But it comes at a price.Read More

Rattled with PTSD: Post Traumatic Snake Disorder
Filed by Rev Irene Monroe | July 03, 2013 | 12:30 PM |This 4th of July there will be no grilling on my back porch. And here's why. Last weekend a red-tailed boa constrictor showed up uninvited at my door.Read More