Firstly, I’m going to post about this truly horrible event. When I first saw the footage I could not believe wat I was seeing. So a warning beforehand; it’s not for the faint hearted, and possibly NSFW. What I’m talking about? A vicious attack that happened earlier where a guide dog was attacked by a pitbull type dog. The owner of the attacking dog fled the scene after he managed to get his dog off the guide dog, leaving the visually impaired owner in great distress. Anyone in the London area: keep an eye out!

Staying in the UK for more news: rock band Skunk Anansie is the latest in a line of many public faces to join the “Some people are gay - get over it” campaign.

Hopefully, Danish filmmakers Iben Haahr Andersen and Minna Grooss are taking their documentary “Hello my name is Lesbian” to film festivals around the world. It’s released on DVD. Judging from the trailer (it has English subs!) it looks like an interesting documentary. Watch it here.

In response to “Humpday”, in which two heterosexual guys (played by Joshua Leonard and Mark Duplass) take their relationship to an entirely different level when they decide to participate in an art film project that involves the two of them having sex, Lynn Shelton made a “sequel” called “Beyond gay“. I watched the short and found it disturbing (in a good way) and very amusing. Warning: even though it isn’t graphic, it’s definitely NSFW.

Earlier this week another episode of Cherry Bomb was posted, and I was delighted to see actor/comedian Jason Stuart amidst the ladies. Showcasing a good sense of humor, Stuart also made several very sensible remarks. This week’s episode was about “The gay and lesbian divide” - a discussion I’ve had with several of my gay friends. I found it interesting to hear what they had to say about it.

Photographer Spencer Tunick has started preparing for another one his famous shoots. In March next year he’ll be one the headliners for the 2010 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival. Read more about it here.

Then check this out!

Let me start off this post with two recent interviews with Terry Moore in which he talks about Strangers in Paradise and Echo. This one’s interesting for Francophones as it is in French, and in this interview Terry also discusses translating his works to the big screen.

Late last night I found this article on scholars (!) studying Bruce Springsteen - who celebrated his 60th birthday earlier this week - at a weekend event. As a fan I would have attended it if I could, but the idea of actual scholars studying the man… Wow.

Another article that caught my attention was one on US spoof shows. I’m all for that as it shows people’s obsession with celebrities on one hand, and it also shows how ridiculous celebrities’ lives are; just because Britney and Paris are famous doesn’t mean they’re flawless and their lives are automatically more interesting than our own. (Think about it: whenever they screw up, it’s in front of the entire world - and I don’t envy them for that!) I can’t wait to see an episode of “Popzilla”. The article reminded me of a long running BBC show called Spitting Image (I think it was aired in the 80s and 90s) where -British- politics got spoofed. I was a little too young to get all the jokes, but I can imagine it certainly gave the Brits food for thought. I just occurred to me: remember the Genesis video to “Land of confusion“? Those were all Spitting Image puppets!

Staying on British soil: actor Colin Firth has won an award for his portrayal of a gay professor in “A single man”, directed by fashion designer Tom Ford. (Colin got the cute guy in “Mamma Mia!”) I like Colin. He seems like a down to earth kinda guy to me.

In the meantime Iran - amidst all the controversy of another nuclear plant (I do NOT like their President, let’s get that straight) - may allow trans marriages, according to this. Let’s just wait and see, eh.

Also late last night, as I was surfing the web, I noticed just then my Flemish friend Michael Vincent gave me credits on his site. (Check it out; it certainly is worth it.) Wow; I only helped him translate some pages into English. Nothing major. Thanks, dude

An article about a girl’s perfect (school) attendance grabbed my attention. Seriously; wow! And in the meantime a high school elects a gay student for prom queen.

And more on gender bending: HBO aired a documentary called “Kick like a girl“.

AfterEllen.com also ran an article on a comic book called “No girls allowed“, which is a kid’s book about women throughout history who dressed up as men to achieve their goals and dreams (and succeeded). I ordered my copy a few days ago. Do check out the trailer on the site.

TransLondon’s announced it’s boycotting London Pride, after trans women were denied access to female toilets at last year’s Pride and one was allegedly sexually assaulted. I’m not transgendered, but no stranger to what I’d call gender politics either. I suppose unisex toilets are out of the question?

Hillary Clinton seems to beat Obama to the punch when she notified the state department of forthcoming changes for gays and lesbians. It’s about time if you ask me.

Doesn’t that look awesome? Read *here* why it didn’t make the Guinness Book of Records. Seriously, people… How lame is that?

Gay Moroccan author Abdellah Taia tells all: “Taia has defied Moroccan society’s don’t-ask, don’t-tell attitude toward homosexuality — and prison sentences that are still on the books in the North African kingdom — to write five autobiographical novels about growing up poor and gay in the northern coastal city of Sale. The novels, peppered with sexually explicit passages, have catapulted him to fame in his native country and made him the de-facto poster child of its budding gay rights movement.”

In the meantime in the UK:

EastEnders is to screen a storyline involving a Muslim character who has a gay affair.

New character Syed Masood, a Muslim property developer who has a girlfriend, is to fall for openly gay Christian Clarke.

The couple will be shown kissing and 24-year-old Masood, played by Marc Elliott, finds his “religion and sexual feelings in conflict”. But the Muslim Public Affairs Committee say that the BBC should have a “normal friendly Muslim character.”

Last year, the BBC received more than 150 complaints over a gay kiss between Christian and Lee Thompson which was shown before the 9pm watershed.

Diederick Santer, the EastEnders executive producer, said BBC1 soap’s production team had researched the plot while working with academics, gay Muslim support groups and the Muslim Council of Great Britain. He said: “We’ve always tried to make EastEnders reflect modern life in multicultural Britain and we’ve always told social issue stories relevant to our diverse audience.

“This isn’t a moral tale of right or wrong; it’s very much a human interest story where a young man struggles with the conflict between his faith and his feelings. To all intents and purposes, Syed’s a ‘good’ Muslim man: he doesn’t drink, smoke or engage in sex before marriage. But he struggles with his sexuality when he finds himself drawn to Christian and he believes this goes against his faith. This is not a story about Syed and Christian’s physical relationship – we don’t see anything beyond one kiss. It’s more about the inner turmoil and conflict Syed endures trying to remain true to his faith while questioning his sexuality. Syed has already been ostracised from his family and community once and if he’s true to his heart he risks losing his family again.”

But Asghar Bokhari of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee said: “The Muslim community deserves a character that represents them to the wider public because Islamophobia is so great right now.

“There’s a lack of understanding of Muslims already and I think EastEnders really lost an opportunity to present a normal friendly Muslim character to the British public.”

A survey published last month showed that UK Muslims have significantly less tolerance for homosexuality than their French and German counterparts.

The poll, part of the the Gallup Coexist Index 2009, found that not one of the 1,001 British Muslims interviewed believed homosexual acts were morally acceptable.

Before:

After:

Here’s an 80’s flashback for you. Gay frontman Limahl and the band Kajagoogoo are reuniting for their first tour. Maybe they can open for Lady GaGa — a Googoo-GaGa tour?

The Daily Mail: “the group split up just eight months after their biggest hit following a bitter feud. However, the members have set aside their differences to get back on the road this September. What they haven’t set aside is their sense of style. Bassist Nick Beggs has even incredibly managed to retain two blond pigtails. Limahl, 50, said he was confident the reunion was the start of something big. ‘Back then, we didn’t have time to enjoy things,’ he confessed. ‘But now we’re older and a bit wiser.’”

Limahl’s big solo hit was “The Never Ending Story” for the beloved children’s film.

The Telegraph reports that Taliban gunmen killed Sitara Achakzai, a women’s rights activist, outside of her home in the city of Kandahar in broad daylight. Police chief Matiullah Khan Qateh said four men drove up on two motorcycles and shot Sitara Achakzai as she was getting out of her car. As Women on the Web reports, the Taliban have been after Achakzai ever since she returned from Germany after the war to work for women’s rights in Afghanistan:

“This isn’t the first time Achakzai found herself in extremists’ cross-hairs. She was injured in a suicide attack at a Kandahar government building two weeks ago. She had just returned from the hospital when the assassination occurred. Her friends urged her to leave the country, but Ms. Achakzai insisted on staying in Afghanistan.”

Achakzai helped organize a nationwide sit-in during which women thousands of Afghan women prayed for peace to mark International Women’s Day.

The Taliban quickly took credit for the assassination. Achakzai’s assassination occurs only a few days after the Afgahnistan government was forced into reconsidering its infamous family law that legalized rape of wives by their husbands. Wenny Kusmuma, the Director of the United Nations Development fund for Women in Afghanistan said:

“This cold-blooded assassination puts in question the direction that Afghanistan is heading. There is no respect for the rule of law.”

Thanks to my friend Michael who pointed out the article to me. And the following case is a clear example of how bullying has gotten out of hand. Very unfortunate:

The Advocate talks to Sirdeaner Walker, the mother of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, the 11-year-old student who killed himself last week following relentless bullying at school:

“On April 6, Sirdeaner Walker came home, walked up the stairs to the second floor of her home, and saw her son suspended from a support beam in the stairwell, swaying slightly in the air, an extension cord wrapped around his neck, according to police. He apologized in a suicide note, told his mother that he loved her, and left his video games to his brother.

Walker said her son had been the victim of bullying since the beginning of the school year, and that she had been calling the school since September, complaining that her son was mercilessly teased. He played football, baseball, and was a boy scout, but a group of classmates called him gay and teased him about the way he dressed. They ridiculed him for going to church with his mother and for volunteering locally.

“It’s not just a gay issue,” Walker said. “It’s bigger. He was 11 years old, and he wasn’t aware of his sexuality. These homophobic people attach derogatory terms to a child who’s 11 years old, who goes to church, school, and the library, and he becomes confused. He thinks, Maybe I’m like this. Maybe I’m not. What do I do?“

Walker is demanding action from the school. At this point it’s what she has left.

School Yard Bully [the advocate]

An employment tribunal has heard that an airline refused to hire male stewards because it would be assumed they were gay.

Alexandria Proud, a cabin crew manager is claiming unfair constructive dismissal against charter aircraft company Gama Aviation, based in Farnborough in Hampshire.

She claims she was forced to discriminate when hiring cabin crew staff due to employment regulations which dictated all employees must be young, female, physically attractive, aged 18 to 30, single and no larger than a size 12.

Ms Proud also said she was banned from hiring male air stewards because of the stereotype of them being gay.

“I was also specifically informed that if there was a male flight attendant it would be thought that he was gay and the owner would not tolerate such an individual on the aircraft.”

She told the tribunal that one owner, Alireza Ittehedeh, insisted on physically inspecting the candidates himself. She also claims that she was verbally abused by the owners of the airline and was not supported by her employers.

Ms Proud was signed off work with a stress-related illness last August. The tribunal continues.

And to finish this post with something upbeat: a gay friendly MTA quote

A nice message from the not-always progressively minded New York City Mass Transit Authority. It’s a quote from influential Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant.

Earlier this week I blogged about the “controversial” lesbian kiss in Australian soap Home & Away. Watching actress Esther Anderson (Charlie Buckton in Home & Away) I could help but wonder where I had seen her face before…

Then suddenly, last night, I found the answer: The Tragedy (for men). Heh.

Two men said to be gay were killed on Thursday in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City in Iraq on Thursday, Reuters reports:

“‘They were sexual deviants. Their tribes killed them to restore their family honor,’ a Sadr City official who declined to be named said. The police source who declined to be named said the bodies of four gay men were unearthed in Sadr City on March 25, each bearing a sign reading ‘pervert’ in Arabic on their chests. Sermons condemning homosexuality were read at the last two Friday prayer gatherings in Sadr City, a sprawling Baghdad slum of some 2 million people. The slum is a bastion of support for fiery Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia…Many young men who might have cut their hair short and grown beards when religious gangs controlled much of Iraq now dress in a more Western style as government forces take back control. Some are now accused of being gay, and residents of Sadr City say at least one coffee shop has become a gay hangout. A member of the slum’s Sadrist office said the Mehdi Army was not involved in the killings, but said homosexuality was now more widespread since the Mehdi Army lost control of the slum.”

Well… WTF?!

My friend Alice is one of the creative forces behind an online comic called “Footloose Comic“. They’ve entered a webcomic contest and just crawled into the top 100. Vote for them if you like what you see!

Serena Ryder played a sold out Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto, ON, on April 4th. Check out a short clip here.

Finally (and this made me laugh out really loud) the innernet is currently buzzing… with news of Dixie Chick singer Natalie Maines’s new buzz cut:

I like it.

I was talking about hair to an American friend the other day, how I have the impression that in the US sexual preference and femininity is linked to hair length. To me that is just ridiculous; I can only imagine how time consuming it is to be a mom of a couple of little kids. They don’t want to spend an hour getting their ‘do right every morning. (There’s simply no time for that.) Besides, some women have great bone structure and carry a pixie cut - or whatever it’s called - very well. Adds some spunk, too, I think

First off - hot off the press: Serena Ryder (nominated for two awards) won a JUNO for “ADULT ALTERNATIVE ALBUM OF THE YEAR”. Woo-hoo!

Congratulations, Serena
(Is that a tattoo of a little heart I see there?) Watch the red carpet interview here.

Watch her performance here (too bad her song was the readers digest version and right after two abridged versions of very corny ballads).

I’ve blogged about Pedro Zamora’s biopic. It looks like it’s finally released.

Family in attendance at capacity premiere of MTV biopic about late former Real World housemate and AIDS activist Pedro Zamora.

… And finally a huge WTF?! as Australian broadcasting network Seven have allegedly censored a lesbian kiss due to be shown during its soap opera Home and Away.

The drama, which is broadcast in the UK on Five has received complaints from Christian groups and see Australian ratings drop as a result of its lesbian storyline.

Policewoman Charlie Buckton, played by actress Esther Anderson is depicted falling in love with Joey Collins, played by Kate Bell, who works on a trawler.

The Australian reports that Seven have cut some of the more intimate, close-up shots of a kiss between the two actresses. But sources close to the program told the newspaper that the entire scene, including the censored shots were no more intimate than a scene featuring a heterosexual kiss.

The show is broadcast in Australia at 7pm and is officially rated PG and attracts a young audience of around one million viewers. Australian media reports that ratings have slipped by one hundred thousand since the controversy around the storyline began.

Australian media commentator David Knox said that the PG ratings did not discriminate between gay and straight content. “It’s sad that in 2009 a kiss is considered more threatening to advertisers and family values than stalkers, serial killers and kidnappers, all of which sustain Summer Bay story-lines on a regular basis.”

Unlike British soap operas that have regular gay and lesbian characters and story lines, Australian television is rather conservative.

Anderson, who said she had talked with gay friends in the lead-up to filming, believes young viewers will accept the scene. She explained: “You learn pretty much everything at school. I don’t think it’s like I’m lifting the lid on something they don’t already know about. To me there’s no difference - love’s love. The fact that your partner’s the same sex is no different. You just want to be loved. She (Charlie) happens to find love with a girl.”

Curious? Watch the Charlie / Joey storyline evolve here. Personally, I think the writers handled it well, and watching Charlie slowly fall in love with Joey is done in a quite convincing way.

Hoping to make some strides against homophobia in British football, a team has named itself after former Nottingham Forest and Norwich player Justin Fashanu (above, right), an openly gay player who took his own life at the age of 37.

The BBC reports: “The Justin Fashanu All-stars were launched at a special event in Brighton, supported by the FA. The team has been created by the Justin Campaign which promotes the inclusion of openly gay players in football.

The pink and black team kit which is sponsored by DJ Norman Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim, was unveiled at the event on Saturday. The side, which is open to gay or straight footballers, is to play its first fixtures at the Gay Football Supporters Network five-a-side tournament in Yorkshire. Jason Hall, from the Justin Campaign, said: ‘We decided that the best thing to do was to have a campaigning football team so the football does the talking. Hopefully [we'll] change people’s opinions of gay people on the pitch.’”

Fashanu remains, to this day, the sport’s only openly gay player. At the time of his death, following an injury that hampered his career, there were apparently allegations of sexual assault of a teen in the U.S. which he denied in his suicide note and claimed he would be treated with bias because of his sexuality: “The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide, saying Mr Fashanu had appeared to triumph over prejudice about his colour and his homosexuality but the pressures, coupled with the alleged incident, had overwhelmed him.”