When You Think It's Getting Better ...

Things seemed to being going along pretty good.

Same-Sex Marriage passing here and there.

An NBA player coming out, more and more in support and acceptance of LGBTs and then the curtain is pulled back to show that homophobia is still with us and becoming more brutal and deadly.

Trans being killed in Brazil, two incidents of gay bashing in New York City and the brutal murder of a gay man in Russia.

Just when we were kidding ourselves into a comfort zone of acceptability the stark reality of what still is smacks us aside the head and we realize there is still danger in being who and what we are.

Should we retreat back into the closet, of course not we have come to far for that.

But we need to be made more aware and that is where the LGBT press needs to stand up and take accountability. We need more coverage of hate crimes, not less. Bloggers and the LGBT press instead of covering over and over ad nauseum what politicos and the likes of NOM are saying needs to be replaced with bringing to the forefront the crimes against us. The Gay Mafia needs to go after and press authorities to bring justice for those who have been affected rather than silly campaigns against media for the improper use of descriptions or a tongue-in-cheek slight.

It's fine to have these "feel good" stories on websites but it's more important to report, or at the very least, cut/paste articles of violence against LGBTs both here and around the world.

To not do so lulls us into a venerable comfort zone instead of reporting the shocking truth no matter how scarce in this day and age. But then it may not be as scarce as the LGBT press would have us believe with their tinsel choice of articles.

You want to be labeled as "press" then do your job. Report the ugly truth not just the tantalizing body shots to get reader counts and ad clicks up.

You have accepted the job of being journalists, then do it, and not just by cut/paste. Make phone calls, get out on the streets and get answers to questions. Anyone can sit anywhere as this blogger does and highlight a news event. But I'm not paid to do so as I'm a casual writer of opinion.

If you are not up to the task then fold your tents and shutdown your websites.

Spinning The News For de Gayness

Well they did it again this time outdoing themselves to find a way, any way to put a gay spin on current news events.

After the horrific and senseless bombings in Boston during last Monday's Patriot's Day Boston Marathon the gay press found a way to put a gay spin on the news.

They promoted and salivated in delight over a cover photo taken in the aftermath of the bombing of three police officers giving aid to a fallen Marathon participant.

One of the police officers in the photo according to the gay press is an out and open gay man.

This appears to be the only reason the gay press even mentioned the bombing on their assorted blogs and websites because that officer who appeared in the photo is gay.

Had he not been gay the photo would have been a blip on their radar screen of ever needing to find de gay in everything whether newsworthy or not.

The last and least important thing about the police officer is the fact he is openly gay.

The most important thing is that he and many others including regular folks assisted others at a time of mayhem and chaos not knowing if there would be more explosions or assaults of one kind or another against  those in attendance at the Marathon.

To highlight and profile the police officer only because he is gay is not only an insult to him but to all those who happen not to be gay but were all heroes on that fateful spring day in 2013 but not worth getting a keystroke.

The gay press just doesn't get it and unfortunately never will as they need to spin the news with a Rainbow flavor or if they can't, they find the news not worth reporting and appearing in the content of their media.

Anderson Cooper Has Tied The Knot

Unknown to many Anderson Cooper and I have been friends for several years.

I received a call last evening from AC that he had traveled to upstate New York near Lake George on Saturday with the love of his life and the two got hitched in a very private ceremony before a justice of the peace.

Just a handful of family and friends were present as not to create a blitzkrieg of media and paparazzi as the pair said their "I Do's".

AC will be on "vacation" this week.

I won't mention where they will be spending their honeymoon.

Congrats to the newlyweds as they spend their first April Fool's Day together.

KD Lang Splits Up With Jamie Price

While it's a happy day for Thomas Roberts and his longtime companion Patrick Abner as they wed today, not so the news for out and proud Country-Western singer KD Lang as word has come that her and longtime companion Jamie Price's domestic partnership has come to a final close after they separated back in 2011.

The two met back in 2003 several years after Lang officially came out back in 1992 in an article in The Advocate .

In an interview with a Canadian LGBT news website Lang said,"Coming out as a lesbian was important," she said. "When you’re holding in things or not being honest, all these things affect your voice. My voice is definitely designated to who I am as a person.

If nothing else these two events show that LGBTs are just like everyone else, happiness, trials, tribulations and sometimes separation. And again the collective we ask those opposed to same-sex marriage and LGBTs in general, how does what we do affect you ?

Short answer ... it doesn't.

Pink Paper Ends Its 25 Year Run

It's always a disappointment when yet again another form of media decides to fold its tent whether print or digital.

So it is that the website and former print paper, Pink Paper (not to be confused with the website Pink News) announced on Tuesday it was ending its 25 year run of providing LGBT news.

Media director Kim Watson of Pink Paper publishers MPL commented: “With a hardening economy, diminished job advertising and increasing global online news services covering similar stories, it has become harder to justify continuance of this award-winning website as part of our publishing portfolio.

“We have chosen instead to focus our energies on our main print and digital brands GT (Gay Times) and DIVA. We thank the community, staff, advertisers  and especially our readers for their support over the years and hope they will find the same valuable support and information from GT and DIVA in future.”

The paper was started in 1987 as a weekly newspaper, then in 2009 switched to an on-line only format to continue delivering the news to the LGBT community in the UK and around the globe.

PBS' In The Life Comes To An End

About an hour ago the website for PBS' award winning program In The Life tweeted a link to a "farewell my lovelies" letter explaining the program will come to an end this December 20 years after it began its run.

Started back in 1992 with its often hard to find programming as many PBS stations in local markets didn't carry it because of its "content", that being about all things gay, its following grew as for many years, long before LOGO, it was the only way for de gay to get a look at itself. LOGO as you probably know through the infinite wisdom (?) of the powers that be at Viacom has decided to make the once only for de gay channel to go "mainstream".

This writer will certainly miss In The Life, which I myself for a very long time could only view on WNET-TV from NYC as our PBS broadcast channels here in Connecticut didn't (or was it wouldn't ?) carry it.

You can read the full letter at the link above.

From this writer and on behalf of a grateful LGBT community, a big hug and kiss to the producers of the show and also PBS who had the courage to air such a series when PBS was continually attacked from the Religious and Conservative Right for doing so.

In The Life Media was founded in 1992 on the belief that real stories about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are our greatest asset in the fight for equality. By bringing those stories into living rooms across the country for the past 20 years, ITLM has shattered stereotypes and helped pave the way for today’s LGBT movement. In the process, we have evolved into the most honored and respected producer of LGBT journalism on television and online.

Much has changed since our programming first premiered. LGBT people now figure prominently in television news and media. Lesbian and gay soldiers serve openly and proudly in the military. A majority of Americans, including our President, support marriage equality. Studies show that visibility is the driving force behind this rapid shift in cultural attitudes toward the LGBT community. As the media organization that pioneered LGBT visibility on television, we believe ITLM played a significant role in this historic progress.

Today, we pause to celebrate ITLM’s remarkable legacy and announce a conclusion and a new direction.

Shep Smith Outed Again

In what starts off as an article about Shep Smith of FOX News and his "hidden agenda" comment about the Chick-Fil-A "appreciation day", "It’s National Badminton Day," he said on his show. "Let’s forget National Day of Intolerance. Let’s just stay with badminton"once again becomes another excuse to try to out the newscaster.

Regular readers know where I stand on this issue so I needn't go into it yet again but here you have EDGE doing an article about Smith and Chick-Fil-A and taking another opportunity to try to get Smith to come out just as these and other queer fascists did to Anderson Cooper and others until they kick open the door presuming there is a door to kick open.

Previously Smith has said this about same-sex marriage, After President Obama announced his support for gay marriage, Smith said on his show that the president is on the "right side of the 21st century." He then asked his colleague Bret Baier if the Republican Party would campaign against marriage equality "while sitting very firmly, without much question, on the wrong side of history on it".

Smith's comment at the time apparently ruffled Rush Limbaugh's feathers as he reacted, "Shep, where has the issue won?" Limbaugh said. "Where has the issue been victorious, Shep, outside your house? Where has the issue won an election? What state? Tell me where it’s happened."

The faggot press and LGBT Elite faggot bloggers are a contemptible lot, they lead off with one story item and use it as an excuse for another agenda.

Perhaps one day some of the folks who get this kind of "press" will have the balls to sue the pants off the bastards. But they won't as they "ignore" the coverage, stay silent as if there is nothing to acknowledge which of course just let's this kind of bullshit journalism to continue.

Obviously the editors at EDGE have their heads up their ass and never bother to ask the question prior to running a piece, "is this relevant ?"

Anderson Cooper's Wedding

Well it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that once our beloved Anderson Cooper came out he would be foder for all kinds of speculation on his this and that. May have been a good reason to "quietly stay in the closet".

So it is that today rumors are flying that Coop is getting married to his BF possibly as early as Labor Day weekend.

This according to (as well as others) The Daily Mail in the UK.

Cooper, 45, is now planning to marry his boyfriend Ben Maisani, whom he has been dating since at least 2009, in New York City later this year, the National Enquirer reported.

'He'd been considering breaking the news [about being gay] since same-sex marriage became legal in the state of New York last summer,' a source told the Enquirer.

Oh the National Enquirer ... well then it must be true ... NUTZ !

Now for all you miscreants who have been yelling for years for Coop to come out can you blame him for not wanting to ?

No ya'll don't give a rat's boo-de-aye for Coop or any other media person or celeb just as long as you get your way in having another poster boy or gal.

Whether he will or won't is up to him to announce not rags like the Enquirer.

But then the fat ladies waiting to check out in grocery lines do need something to read while waiting to ring up their twinkies and other assorted fat producing foods purchasing them of course with food stamps.

Hopefully all this will just be another footnote in The Ridiculist.

BTW I have great sympathy for Coop and others who "lose it" and get the giggles while on the air. It happened to me more than a couple of times while in radio.

The worst was one day while I was doing the morning sports report our news director went into the next studio and "mooned" me.

Well that's all it took and the bastard in the control room wouldn't go to commercial as I kept indicating with my finger and of course he wouldn't kill the mic so for almost 5 minutes just like Coop I giggled like a 13 year old girl trying to read the sports .. NUTZ !!

This was all a setup because they knew it didn't take much to get me to laugh and in fact they had taken the "cough button" out of the booth which I didn't notice until I went to use it to kill the mic. The phone lines lite up like a Christmas tree.

Took me awhile to live that little episode of tomfoolery down. In fact if the truth be known all these many years later when I happen across someone here in Danbury who remembers me from my radio days do they bring up me winning an award from the Associated Press ?

No they talk about the day I giggled like a girl ... sigh.

The joy of being a "celeb" in local radio.

Photo Of Dominica Exposure

OH MY as George Takei sez.

There it is thanks to the LGBT website Queerty and an anonymous reader of said website who took the photo (yes you can click it on to see larger version) purportedly of John Hart and Dennis Mayer in de buff and at least posing frontal to anal for all those to see dockside.

Hart and Mayer wouldn't admit to doing the nasty but they can't deny their dumbass show of nudity in anti-gay Dominica if that's them.

I mean really how stupid can you be ? They give assholes a bad name.

In case you've been living under a rock or need a refresher course about de gays with no brains you can read the March 22 posting from this blog.

Now a word from our sponsor.

LOGO Is NO MORE for de HOMO

In the 6 years since Logo launched, there has been a seismic shift in culture and the network's new programming slate reflects that. From the push for marriage equality, to the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and even the mass appeal of broadcast TV shows like "Modern Family" all signal a significant movement in today's culture where "out" characters are celebrated for their success and values and the majority of gays and lesbians define themselves by multi-dimensional notions other than purely on their sexual orientation.

"Culturally, we're past the tipping point. For gays and lesbians, it's part of who they are, but they don't lead with it, because many are leading fully integrated, mainstream lives," said Lisa Sherman, Executive Vice President of Logo. "Our goal at Logo has always been to honestly reflect our viewers' lives. We're now reinforcing our commitment to them with programming that truly mirrors how many of them are living and want to be entertained today."

That's the opening salvo in a press release from Logo/Viacom which appeared on the website of AfterElton on February 22. In other words (my opinionated not theirs (?) ) de gay got us to where we are and after 6 years we need to make our channel more mainstream to get better ad revenue and cable/SAT pickup option revenue. So we say to de gay thanks for the butt fuck but we need to move on. Oh there will be a sprinkle of Rainbow color here and there but Logo will not be for just homos anymore.

To wit I say, goodbye and good riddance.

Logo has become an empty shell of its former self from when it originally signed on, albeit with repeat after repeat of movies and documentaries about or for de gay, vignettes of docs, music which appeals to de gay and a weekly half hour news program produced by CBS News with Jason Bellini. Watch the video below for a look back when Logo really meant something to de gay and when Logo was proud to "be gay".

But no more, even prior to the announcement of its upcoming programming change Logo had under gone a change sinking to the lowest common denominator of our community (sorry RuPaul) de poof and de hunks. Long gone was good original and dare I say ground breaking programming like Noah's Arc to be replaced by the less costly and frankly boring "reality TV" programs.

Logo in its original format even got commercial advertisers to make ads which cater to de gay the most famous and first was Subaru. Others followed suit realizing here was a channel devoted to de gay, for de gay and the perfect spot to get de gay to buy our product or service.

In a 2009 article at CBS News' Money Watch website Jim Motavalli wrote, This is a potent market with discretionary spending: 40 percent of respondents who bought their latest vehicle new reported household income over $100,000. And 42 percent of gay men and 39 percent of gay women report household income above that level.

So you may ask, if not I'll ask for you, which dimwit or collection of at Viacom and MTV which seems to have taken over Logo decided to make LOGO de NO HOMO channel. Most likely the same ones who fronted the money to produce the Dan Savage program "about" the "It Gets Better" campaign, a TV show which I had to painfully endure for an hour watching a pimply faced twink, a transgender man falsifying a marriage certificate and a black lesbian coming out to her mother, which I might add was the only saving grace for this writer with Mom's reaction to her daughter, "you're my child no matter what". And of course and with no surprise to me the B of LGBT was left out. Funny how that always seems to happen.

What I expected from that show and why I purposely didn't read any pre-show or post-show hype or reviews was the program would be a documentary of how Savage's YouTube phenomenon came into being and if not real folks then how celebs decided to get involved.

If that singular program is any example of what MTV can put out regarding LGBTs when other programs about LGBTs have been far superior and aired on other cable channels, and given it would seem MTV is taking over the reigns of Logo, then boys and girls I think Logo has reached the end of the Rainbow and found only a pot of fool's gold.

Pity, I liked those Subaru commercials for de gay.

Let The Gay Dead Rest In Peace

Since I started blogging about LGBTs in 2008 one of the many things which infuriates me about LGBT blogs and websites is when someone commits suicide and there will be post after post of followup even if there is nothing new to add to the sad story other than to promote the cause(s) of the event in which a person takes their life which comes back to gay bullying and often now to promote The Trevor Project and the It Gets Better campaign.

There is such a thing in the real world of journalism as followup but not as it is seen in the so-called world of Citizen Journalists.

Followup to a story is to add new information not used as a means to promote groups, organizations or ideas no matter how well intentioned those three are intended to be.

Many will cry out that we need to do this to keep in the forefront suicide because of bullying as the story isn't continued in the mainstream press.

That's because if there is nothing more beyond the initial story and followup if warranted, the story ends. To keep the story continuing when there is nothing more to add which LGBT blogs and websites do is only singing to the choir, which I'm sure there is more than one member of that choir which gets tired of the brow beating which this repetition is.

This writer is of the opinion that all the continued postings really do nothing other than to get readers to the respective blogs/websites to build readership and perhaps have someone click on an advertisement.

The continuation of one of the latest poor souls can be found at Gay Voices at Huff Post which is primarily a copy/paste of another LGBT news website in which a contributor after going to one of several memorial services offers up portions of a suicide note. That the contributor went to the memorial service as an individual is fine, to report on the service is acceptable but to go and offer up portions of a suicide note and in turn "sensationalize" this "followup story" as both Gay Voices and the originating website does goes well beyond basic respect for the deceased and in my opinion is reprehensible.

Is it really necessary to publish a suicide note either in part or whole which will only provide morbid curiosity for many and making the acquisition of the note newsworthy as being deemed "exclusively". This is bottom feeding yellow journalism of the worse kind and to what end, to be able to explain how and why an individual killed himself. That was apparent in the initial reporting of the sad event.

To me the contributor who wrote the original story which Gay Voices uses is akin to a vulture flying over a dead body to see how much more can be picked from the bones and to whom I have about as much respect for as ambulance chasing attorneys, paparazzi and those journalists and others engulfed in the "black eye" currently being given to the news media in the UK.

As one who had to live through the nightmare of a dead family member who committed suicide and was then "brutalized" by the media in New York City because of his "celebrity" I ask the contributor and others where is the compassion and decency for family and friends of the deceased ?

Bloggers and contributors who write or copy/paste to keep a sad event ongoing so that the well intended which are supposed to help others in their most desperate times can be promoted when in fact in many instances, particularly in this case, are an illusion of hope and are proved to be dismal failures.

With all the coverage which these blogs and websites offer, which some in a despondent frame of mind may look upon as a form of celebrity after the fact, it begs the question, does that contribute to more suicides ?


To report or not to when it comes to suicide is one of editorial dictate and journalistic conscience.

This journalist because of journalistic conscience can say there is no blood on my hands.

UK Gay News Founder Retires

It's going on 5 AM and I was doing one last go round of "favorites" news sources before heading to bed, yes I'm one of those night owls who like a vampire sleeps during the morning hours of day, and frankly had no expectation of writing a post for today.

That is until I clicked on one of the most important sources of posting ideas I have used for some three years now that being UK Gay News.

What I read was enough for me to make one last cup of coffee, turn off the local news on the TV, light up a cig and write this farewell to a valuable news source for many around the world.

I had wondered if something was up as the last link posting which had been on UK Gay News was at the beginning of January. And to be honest I was fearing the worst for the founder and operator of the website Andy Harley. I got to know Andy, as much as one can, through emails after, oh it must be four years now, he picked up a link to a story I had done on another blog I was publishing. At that time I found his email address and thanked him for the link and that started what can only be called an invaluable source of contacts and news ideas.

So it is as of today that Andy Harley has offically retired and will deal with his on going health issues and has put to bed his beloved website after a ten year run. That's Andy on the right side of the photo holding the UK Gay News banner at an event which this writer has been unable to identify.

For those who are unfamiliar with his website, it mostly linked to articles and news about LGBTs from around the world. He also had an excellent working relationship with UK LGBT activist Peter Tatchell and worked with the Russian LGBT activist Nikolai Alexeyev and his website GAYRUSSIA.

The three of these activist/journalists worked together to coordinate and present unparalled news coverage of the LGBT demonstrations which have taken place or attempted in Moscow over the past several years often putting themselves in harms way to do so.

Andy has noted in his very brief farewell on his website that UK Gay News has "merged" with Gay Star News which will pick up Andy's sword of news gathering for the world's LGBTs. Andy also thanked all those who have supported him and his website over the years.

But it is us who owe you Andy a debt of gratitude for your service of ten years bringing the world's LGBTs together one link at a time.

Be well, take care, enjoy your well deserved retirement and thanks for making my job a bit easier as publisher and writer of Focus On The Rainbow over these past three years. You and UK Gay News will be sorely missed my friend.