Punk Smurf pens a bilingual blog

Photo: Joann Toy

Yesterday President Obama signed The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a bill that updates the original 1968 federal hate crimes statute to make violence against gay, lesbian, transgender, and disabled people a federal crime. The bill, a version of which was first introduced in 1996, two years before the hate-motivated murders of Shepard and Byrd in 1998, allows for federal investigators, forensic tools, and funds to be allotted to help state and local officials tackle hate crimes.

“As a straight ally and as a person with many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender family members, friends and fans, I want to thank the Human Rights Campaign, Judy and Dennis Shepard and Senator Edward Kennedy for their leadership in the 11 year struggle to get the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd, Jr. Hates Crimes Prevention Bill enacted,” longtime gay rights advocate Cyndi Lauper said in a statement today. “FINALLY, with President Obama’s signature, violent hate crimes against the LGBT community will be recognized and prosecuted by the Federal government. This is only the beginning, I believe that the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act, as well as the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, will soon be here. Today, that light at the end of the tunnel for the LGBT civil rights movement is much brighter.”

I read about the movie sometime last week, and I was pretty excited just checking out the trailer!

Hannah Free is a low budget movie, starring Sharon Glass - of Cagney and Lacey fame. The trailer looks interesting, and heartwarming, too. I can’t wait to check it out myself.

A while ago I posted about Lilith Fair coming back. Today, the first round of cities were named for the tour (and I’m excited!):

• Atlanta, GA
• Boston, MA
• Calgary, AB
• Chicago, IL
• Dallas, TX
• Denver, CO
• Los Angeles, CA
• Minneapolis, MN
• Montreal, QC
• New York, NY
• Philadelphia, PA
• Portland, OR
• Seattle, WA
• San Francisco, CA
• Toronto, ON
• Vancouver, BC
• Washington, DC
• London, UK

So, last Friday my copy (#378) of Terry Moore’s “Strangers in Paradise” Omnibus FINALLY arrived. Robyn, Terry’s wife sent it off on October 1st, Dutch customs started processing it on October 7th.

Flemish friends of mine received theirs shortly after. Unfortunately it was damaged (they later found customs tape, so the packaging’s been tampered with). I didn’t have mine a week later. Nor two weeks later. I stopped joking about customs officers reading my copy; by then I was worried and frustrated what was taking them so frickin long?!

Well, finally on Friday the 23rd it arrived. In good condition:

And earlier today John Barrowman’s “I am what I am” also arrived in good condition

Currently listening to A Girl Called Eddy (album: A Girl Called Eddy)

You might - or might not - have read about the outrage caused by a British “journalist” called Jan Moir. The first time I heard about it was when a British friends of mine started posting about it, clearly showing their disapproval and disgust for Moir’s total ignorance. One even went as far as calling her the C-word (and he is one of the smartest, nicest straight man I know - so for him to use that word…). Anyway, read about it here and the update here (hello, 21,000 complaints and then some). Sounds to me as if Moir has a problem with certain possible “assets” of the homosexual lifestyle. And she’s conveniently forgetting the fact that similar “assets” can be found in heterosexual lifestyles as well. She’s issued some sort of apology in the meantime, but she clearly doesn’t get it. Jan Moir may think she’s not a homophobe, she can at least pride herself in being a bigot.

Fortunately, there are still good things happening in the UK; like this Scottish LGBT-friendly soccer team who are deservedly nominated for a Stonewall Award.

AfterEllen.com reviews an interesting comic book called Dolltopia, which is really a book for all ages, and discusses diversity. I’m not a big fan of the graphics, but it serves its purpose, and it does look interesting to me. Looks like creator Abby Denson’s been promoting Dolltopia across North America.

Globe and Mail ran an interesting article about the wiring of boys’ and girls’ brains. It turns out there’s no significant difference, but it’s magnified by parents… And - surprisingly - same sex schools.

According to this article the Taliban has published a rulebook, and reading it I didn’t know whether to wince or snicker at the stupidity of it all. I mean, any educated person instinctively knows that a band of bearded men telling others to treat women badly (I’m not even sure they are considered second class citizens), what to think, how to act and how to dress cannot be for the greater good. To the advantage of the Taliban; yes. For the greater good; no.

This veteran spoke out in favor of same sex marriage. I can only say that if he’s honored with any medals I am sure he has earned each and every one of them! I’d just want to give a hug and say thank you.

In the meantime President Obama is tackling DADT, the Canadians again show they may not shout as loud as the Americans do, but they are just as great. Halifax’s Chronicle Herald published an article on Canadian forces and their inclusion of gays. A friend of mine can attest to that; she didn’t join till she was 33. And she is still serving 19 years later. Just sayin’, President Obama.

Are you on Facebook, and confused about “live feed” and “news feed”? Check out this page on how to adjust the settings to make it less confusing, and more desirable for you to read (some people seem to post every fifteen minutes - if you know what I mean)…

Charlize Theron. I like her. Vocal human rights advocate. Don’t get me wrong, but she is such a hussy! She kissed a lady for charity. Some lucky lady (she coughed up $140,000 but got a 20-second smooch)…

More Serena Ryder news. (I should get paid for this. I’d settle for a smooch with Serena. Just kidding! Or am I?) She’s currently touring the US with labelmates NeedToBreathe (Serena’s playing Chicago on Halloween!) and “Is it o.k.” will be released in the US on November 3rd - almost a year after its release in homeland Canada. Read more on it here. In the meantime Serena’s also featured in one of City Sonic’s episodes on how she started out. Watch it here.

When I found out Vertical Horizon had a new album out (”Burning the days“) I was thrilled; I wasn’t aware of the fact the band had reformed. Their album “Everything you want” was one of my favorite albums in the late ’90s. Now and then, I still play a couple songs with the singer of my band. Let’s hope they start touring again

Click this link for more info.

… why I don’t like Stephen Harper. At. All.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper hires homophobe speechwriter: “Referring to former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s 1969 decision to decriminalize homosexuality, Hannaford wrote in 2005, ‘Fine, said lots of people. Leave gays alone? Fair enough. But, let ‘em be Boy Scout leaders? Have each other’s benefits? Adopt kids? Marry each other? Ridiculous. Anybody seeking political office who suggested it would have been laughed off the hustings. Yet, the Liberals are ready to legalize gay marriage. How did we get to this point?’”

Altijd al willen weten hoe het er in de Amerikaanse rechtszaal in het écht aan toe gaat? Grijp dan nu je kans: zaterdag 21 november 2009 vindt in Den Haag de vijfde editie van het International Moot Court (IMC) plaats. Teams van rechters, advocaten uit de Verenigde Staten, Engeland, Roemenie, Turkije, Belgie en Nederland spelen een rechtszaak na volgens de regels van hun eigen rechtsysteem. De voertaal is engels en elke presentatie duurt ongeveer een uur. Na afloop is er kort de gelegenheid om vragen te stellen aan de rechters en advocaten. De toegang in het Paleis van Justitie is gratis. Het thema dit jaar is: Waar ligt de grens?

Informatie: www.internationalmootcourt.com

Boy, oh boy, Michelle Pfeiffer seems to be chanelling Rhett Butler there, eh?

And Amanda Palmer is looking pretty bad ass in a suit as well:

I’m pretty sure my friends Alice and Nuke will love it…

(Thank you, Dorothy Snarker.)

According to this article the BBC announced the cast of a new 6-part show called “Lip service”. I’m not British (obviously), but of all the names I know Laura Fraser. I’m sure most queer ladies know her from “Nina’s Heavenly Delights“, but she’s also played gay (as Helen Baxendale’s girlfriend) in “The Investigator” - which is based on a true story.

Read more about it in this AfterEllen article here… Uh-huh, on the Scottish accent