The Brothers Gibb Face Mortality

It's never easy to report or now write about illness or death. If I were still in sports broadcasting I would have been reporting on the death of Penn State's legendary coach Joe Paterno.

But now with doing this blog about all things (or most) LGBT to do this posting is just as hard.

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning I watched a two hour bio on the Biography Channel about the Bee Gees. Although aired in 2010 I'd not seen it before.

To say the Bee Gees have not been a part of my life would be to say I don't breathe air. The biggest part was in the 70's when the Bee Gees made a dramatic comeback with the music soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever and many of their songs on the album became the craze in disco clubs and gay bars.

Listening to those songs bring back many memories of that time for me, some sad but mostly it was a happy time. It was in fact a time when I was trying to decide "who I was" and how I fit into our Rainbow community.

Wednesday afternoon I decided to Google the Bee Gees and found the usual links to bios and videos then I switched the search to "news" and what I found was to say the least devastating as I had not heard and somehow missed the news which I now saw headlines for.

The Brothers Gibb have known their share of tragedy over the years what with losing younger brother Andy in 1988 at age 30 succumbing to his demons of addiction. Then in 2003 brother Maurice died unexpectedly after having a heart attack at age 53 while he awaited having emergency surgery for a strangulated intestine.

Now brother Robin is in the battle of his life against liver cancer which was first reported in November of 2011. He is currently undergoing intense and aggressive chemotherapy which caused him to miss a charity event on January 18, His old friend and spokesman Mick Garbutt told fans that he was in the best hands and said: 'He would have absolutely loved to be here in person, but unfortunately that simply hasn’t been possible with his health. That from an article in the newspaper The Daily Mail.

It is hoped Robin will attend the April 10 concert performance of a classical piece Robin collaborated with his son RJ to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic the BBC has reported.

Should you click on the links to articles be warned some of the photos of Robin today are very sad and difficult to look at as his cancer is taking a toll on his physical appearance. So damn sad this is. To think that the Bee Gees effectively ended with Maurice's death and now this which could very well leave Barry as the only surviving brother, he himself having his own health issues over the years. All too damn young to die from my perspective of age and touch with mortality back in August last year when I had a heart attack brought on by a blood clot.

It's said when it comes to film and recording artists we will always have them on film or their music, the sad fact is it isn't the same without them.

Robin Gibb "Feels Fantastic" Update Via Daily Mail 2/3/12

UPDATE - 4/14/2012 - Robin Gibb said to be gravely ill and in coma.

UPDATE - 4/21/12 - Robin Gibb comes out of coma.

5/20/12 - And Then There Was One - Robin Gibbs Passes

De SOTU Ain't Gay Enough WTF

First these elite fools found fault last week with Ryan James Yezak and his video about de gays.

Now one of the elites John Aravosis is complaining the word gay was used only once during the Prez's State Of The Union address. Don't worry by the time you read this others will follow suit and also complain because Obama didn't say lesbian, bi, transgenders, transsexual and ?ing.

Aravosis wrote in part, Wow. This is kind of a let down. I honestly thought there'd be more than this. The President mentions the word 'gay' once, in passing, that's it, nothing else.

The best part of the piece at AmericaBlogdeGay is this comment from reader Matt ... ah an enlightened reader who must read this blog also to wit Matt says, It is the state of the union, not an address to the HRC after all.Kinda makes me why somebody in the glbt movement doesn't do their own "GLBT State of the Union".

You know when the LGBT Elites write or say something as Aravosis has they don't realize how dumb, stupid and ridiculous they are outside of their coveted readers.

Think I should tell them .... nah then I wouldn't have as much to opine about.

Newspaper Says No To Gay Couple

All Cody Renegar and his partner Thomas wanted to do was place an engagement announcement to share with family and friends in the Northwest Arkansas Times but when Cody contacted the paper to get information on how to have the announcement placed he was told NO ! .

According to a report by KNWA-TV someone at the paper told Cody he could not place an announcement and in a statement from the publisher, it is their policy to only print announcements for marriages legally recognized by the state, and Arkansas does not acknowledge same-sex marriages.

However if one goes to a website version of how to place an engagement, wedding or anniversary announcement nowhere does it say same-sex marriages are disqualified.

Unfortunately this is nothing new as over the years even with same-sex marriage and civil unions approved and celebrated in several states this anti-gay bigotry by newspapers carries on.

If you would like to offer your support to Cody and Thomas you'll find contact names, phone numbers and email here for the newspaper including that of Publisher Rusty Turner and newspaper group President Jeff Jeffus.

Hat/Tip for this story to FB buddy Bruce Gillispie.

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.