Iraqi Gays Offered Asylum

Good news has been reported for long suffering LGBTs in Iraq as the Netherlands has announced they will offer asylum to those not only persecuted but in danger of being killed.

As GayStarNews reports, The Dutch government has announced it will open its doors to LGBT Iraqis, after declaring the country unsafe for homosexuals.

Dutch Immigration Minister Geert Leers had already announced a temporary halt to the deportation of LGBT asylum seekers back to Iraq in June, but has now gone the further step of declaring that it is impossible to be openly gay without risking your safety in any part of the country.

The website Care2 also reports, This of course is not an open door immigration policy. Asylum seekers will have to prove their claim is genuine–and this could be problematic. EU immigration authorities have found it difficult to establish what truly constitutes proof of being gay without relying on lazy stereotypes.

This is something Koen van Dijik also noted in greeting this news, saying, “People will have to prove something they’ve taught themselves to disguise out of fear for their entire life. It will be a very tricky situation and the immigration officials carrying out the interviews will need special training".

Surprisingly London based Ali Hili (featured in the video with LGBT activist Peter Tatchell) has neither commented on his blog/website for Iraqi LGBT nor his Facebook about this news nor added any links to articles about the Netherlands offering asylum.

This writer in the past (on earlier versions of FOTR) has been a champion of Hili and his org which "collects donations to house" LGBT Iraqis until people questioned and inquired about financial information for his group several years ago.

When those questions and inquiries were not answered, I backed off the support I offered in postings for him and his organization. I am in no way implying that he nor his group does anything wrong when it comes to garnering funds but I do find it extremely odd, in fact unsettling to some extent that as of this writing no reference nor comment of what has been announced by the Dutch government has come from Hili.

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.

No Bulging Short Shorts WTF

So what better way to get de gay to come to your country and vacation than to show white short shorts with a bugle as the photo to the left shows.

Well it seems de bulge got to be a bit embarrassing for the Aussie board of tourism for the Gold Coast as has been reported by GayStarNews.

As the article reads, A photo of a man's bulging pants has been pulled from the latest campaign of Australia's Gold Coast tourism board because it didn't want its bid to attract more gay travelers 'reduced to a crotch shot'.

Well heavens what's wrong with that ?

Gold Coast Tourism (GCT) were using the close-up of a man in tight white swim shorts, with the tagline ‘Check out our impressive packages’, to promote the area as a destination for the LGBT community.However, it was dropped after attracting unwanted negative news coverage.

GCT director of communications and marketing services, Ben Pole, told the Mumbrella website, that the image ‘did not represent the tone and style’ of their campaign.

It certainly works for Palm Springs, Ft. Lauderdale and lots of hotels for de gay around the US.

Well I guess that means no naked boo-de-aye shots will be used either.

Oh you Aussies, we know what your eyes are looking at.

Barney Frank Batalore No Mo

And so it is boys and girls Barney Frank has finally made an honest man of his longtime companion Jim Ready.

Question is what the heck took him so long ?

The ceremony was held in Newton, MA yesterday (July 7) with 300 guests attending to offer Mazel Tov to the newlyweds.

Mr. Frank 30 years the senior of Mr. Ready is retiring from Congress this year.

MA Governor Deval Patrick bestowed the vows to the couple.

No word if Mr. Frank will now be working in tandem with Mr. Ready in his business of doing custom awnings, carpentry, painting, welding and other general handyman services.

Nor where the new couple will be setting up house or where they celebrated their long over due evening of bliss for a honeymoon.

If you have 15 minutes to kill, about the same time it takes to save money with Gieco, here's Mr. Franks at his best blowing (oh perish the thought) away ass wipe anti-gay idiot Tony Perkins on the Chris Matthews show.

Much happiness to the latest to engage in same-sex marriage, Frank and Ready.

Has a certain ring to it don't it folks ?