Category Archives: Of Interest

Gay History – July 29: The Village People, Jerome Robbins, and the Murder of John O’Connell in San Francisco

Featured, Gay History, Of Interest, , , , , , ,

July 29, 

1905: Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations (1953-1961), is born in Jonkoping, Sweden.  Hammarskjold will die in a plane crash in what was then the Belgian Congo under mysterious circumstances in 1961.  Secretary General Hammarskjold is the first SG to die while holding office. President John F Kennedy referred to him as “The greatest statesman of our century,” and he was posthumously awarded the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize. While it is rumored that Hammarskjold was homosexual, it never seems to have been proven in any consequential way. Still, we honor his birthday here for the amazing leaps he made toward world peace as the Secretary-General.

1967: Ian Campbell Dunn writes to Antony Grey, secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society in London, about establishing a chapter in Scotland. Grey refuses because of problems with another branch.

1975: The Annual Conference of the Metropolitan Community Church is held in Dallas, Texas. Among the speakers was Elaine Noble, who was the first person to be elected to public office while running openly as a lesbian.   Noble was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives for two terms starting in January 1975. She was the first openly lesbian or gay candidate elected to a state legislature

1978: 44 years ago today The Village People’s first hit single “Macho Man” debuts in Billboard’s Top 40 Hits chart.  They were a “straight” disco group.

1981: Tennis player Martina Navratilova is outed by reporter Steve Goldstein of the New York Daily News. But comes out publicly through a column written by Skip Bayless. After all is said and done very few are surprised she’s a lesbian. And very few care.

1984: John O’Connell is brutally murdered by five men who drove to San Francisco looking for “some fags to beat up.”  The assailants were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to prison terms of 15 years to life.  

Via UPI:

A 9 p.m. in the Polk Street district, a favorite area of homosexuals, two men walking along the street were accosted by four of the Vallejo group, one of them shouting anti-homosexual epithets.

John O’Connell, 42, suffered two blows and fell to the pavement. The medical evidence was that it was the fall, not the blows, that produced the cerebral trauma that caused death. 

The defendants left the scene laughing

In 1989 a  California  Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 decision, reduced the convictions to involuntary manslaughter, ruling that the two bare-handed blows struck by the assailants in a 1984 sidewalk attack were not sufficiently life-threatening.

“The appeal court said correctly that a slap and a punch do not make a murder,” said Maureen R. Kallins, a San Francisco lawyer. “This was a classic example of a hysterical jury verdict . . . and a classic example of being tried by the press.”

Three of the men who were finally convicted were released only after serving 5 years in prison.

1986: Chicago’s city council defeats a gay rights bill by a vote of 30-18.

1987: U.S. President Ronald Reagan nominates homophobic judge Robert Bork to the US Supreme Court. He would be rejected by the Senate 58-42.

1987: The International Lesbian and Gay Association’s 9th annual conference begins in Cologne, West Germany.

1993: Seven years after legalizing gay sex, New Zealand’s parliament amends the Human Rights Commission Amendment Act, outlawing discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation (“heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or lesbian”) or HIV, passing Parliament after only 1 1/2 days of debate but intensive lobbying. It exempted the Government until December 31, 1999.

1998: Famed choreographer and director Jerome Robbins (pictured above), dies at age 79, four days after suffering a stroke. Among the numerous stage productions he worked on during his career were On the Town, Peter Pan, High Button Shoes, The King And I, The Pajama Game, Bells Are Ringing, West Side Story, Gypsy: A Musical Fable, and Fiddler on the Roof. Robbins was a five-time Tony Award winner and a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. Robbins also received two Academy Awards, including the 1961 Academy Award for Best Director with Robert Wise for West Side Story.

But not all were success and high points for Robbins. In the 1950s, Robbins found himself swept into the whirlwind of the McCarthy era and, as a former Communist, pressured by the FBI to name the names of party associates at hearings held by The House Committee on Un-American Activities. (HUAC). For three years he resisted. But threatened by exposure of his homosexuality, he at length agreed to testify before HUAC and named eight people. Robbins himself never spoke of his testimony publicly; in his journal, he wrote, “Maybe I will never find a satisfying release from the guilt of it all.”

1998: The U.S. House of Representatives votes 214-212 in favor of a bill to withhold federal housing money to San Francisco because of the city’s policy of welcoming private companies contracting with the city that offer domestic partner benefits equal to those offered to married employees.

2002: The federal government of Canada decides to appeal an Ontario Superior Court ruling which supported gay marriages. Less than a year later the government loses the appeal and introduces legislation legalizing gay marriage.

2003: Bishop Fred Henry of the Catholic Diocese of Calgary, Alberta, in Canada, warns Canada’s (straight) catholic Prime Minister that the PM risks jeopardizing his “eternal salvation” by introducing legislation legalizing gay marriage. Prime Minister Jean Chretien ignores the warning and introduces the legislation anyway.

2006: The first World Outgames opens in Montreal, Quebec, with about 18,600 participants from 111 countries as conference delegates, athletes, volunteers, or participants. About a half million spectators attended the Outgames, an athletic event set up after a quarrel with the long-established Gay Games.

Republican Serial Killer of Gay Men in the 80s and 90s Estate Search Turns Up New DNA Samples.

Republican Serial Killer of Gay Men in the 80s Estate Search Turns Up New DNA Samples.

Featured, Gay History, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Gay News From Around The Globe, Of Interest, , , , ,

We’ve always been hunted. And always will. PLEASE BE CAREFUL!

Wealthy Republican businessman Herbert Baumeister was married with three children, who lived in a big house on a horse farm in suburban Indianapolis.

He was also a prolific serial killer and was suspected of killing over 20 boys and young gay men he met at or around gay bars during the 1980s. Baumeister died by suicide in 1996 at a public park in Canada after police searched his 18-acre Fox Hollow Farm estate in Westfield outside of Indianapolis and issued a search warrant for his arrest.

When Baumeister’s wife and children left for summer vacations, police believe Baumeister picked up young men at gay bars, took them to his home, and strangled them to death. Investigators believe Baumeister burned the bodies, pulverized the bones, and disposed of most of the remains on parts of his 18-acre farm.

In 1994, Baumeister’s 13-year-old son Erich found a human skull and a collection of bones while playing on the family’s Fox Hollow Farms estate. Julie said she forgot about the incident until November of the following year when police asked for permission to search the property as part of their investigation into a string of killings targeting young gay men in the area. The Baumeisters refused the request, but Julie later consented while Herbert was out of town in June 1996. His body was found with a single gunshot wound to the head on July 3, 1996, at a public park in Ontario, Canada.

investigators believe the over 10,000 charred bones and fragments could be the remains of at least 25 people. During the original investigation in the 1990s, forensics extracted 11 human DNA samples, of which eight, all young men, were identified and matched. The two new DNA profiles will be compared against existing DNA samples provided by the family of young men who went

He left a three-page suicide note in which he apologized for spoiling the scenery of that Canadian park where he killed himself and apologized for his failing marriage and crumbling businesses, the Indianapolis Star reported on July 6, 1996. His suicide note said nothing about the missing men and the bones found on his farm nearly two weeks prior.

Hopefully the new DNA techniques available will help find some rest for the victims of this demented monster.

It's Okay To Be "LGBT" and Not "Queer"

It’s Okay To Be “Gay” and “Lesbian” and Not “Queer”.

Featured, Of Interest, , , ,

Yesterday someone said to me that if I wasn’t “queer” then I was “transphobic. That’s not the way it works.

There has been much bashing in our community from “Queer ” activists on social media who have gone into hyperdrive shaming people and labeling them transphobes and racists for not embracing the identity of “queer” and instead identifying as LGBT. “Queer” is a personal choice, and different individuals may have different reasons for using one term over the other. However, there are some potential problems with identifying as queer instead of LGBT, which include:

  1. Lack of clarity: While LGBT is an acronym that describes a specific group of people, the term “queer” can be ambiguous and mean different things to different people. This can lead to confusion and miscommunication when discussing issues related to sexuality and gender identity.
  2. Exclusion: Some people within the LGBT community may feel excluded or offended by the use of the term “queer,” which has historically been used as a slur against many older LGBT individuals who were severely scarred by it. While a very small minority (less than 1%) have reclaimed Queer, the term as a way of expressing their non-conformity to traditional gender and sexual norms, many others may feel uncomfortable with it.
  3. Generational divide: There is a generational divide in the LGBTQ+ community regarding the use of the term “queer.” Older generations may associate it with negative experiences of discrimination and violence, while younger generations may see it as a more inclusive and empowering term. This can create tension and division within the community.
  4. Lack of specificity: While the term “queer” can be a useful umbrella term to describe a wide range of non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities, it may not provide enough specificity for individuals who want to express a more specific aspect of their identity.
  5. EVERY different group under the “umbrella” have different issues.
  6. NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO TELL YOU WHAT TO IDENTIFY AS AND WHO TO BE.

Ultimately, in the end, the choice of whether to identify as queer or LGBT is a personal one, and individuals should use the term that feels most comfortable and authentic to them. However, it is important to be aware of the potential issues and limitations of both terms when discussing issues related to sexuality and gender identity and that not everyone identifies as |queer” and it should not be used as a general label. Something which the LGBT/Queer media has been pushing upon us.

Gay is Good.

So it’s okay to be Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgender without being “Queer”.

In the end its all about you.

“Gay Water” Canned Adult Cocktail Beverage Launches.

“Gay Water” Canned Adult Cocktail Beverage Launches.

Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Of Interest, , , , ,

 Gay Water’s social media and website, includes a provocative nod to the 12-ounce can’s 6.1-inch height.

Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hoddeson wants to de-stigmatize the word ‘gay’ and start to create representation in spaces that traditionally don’t have queer-owned products, let alone products with the word ‘gay’ in their title,” Hoddeson told The Post.

In a sea of canned cocktails, Gay Water wants to stand out. Launching Thursday is a brightly colored canned vodka and soda beverage that proudly displays who it’s for, instead of backing off from support for the LGBTQ+ community as other companies have done in recent months.

In other words, where Bud Light has buckled under pressure as bigotry grows against the LGBTQ+ community, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hoddeson wants his new boozy brand to be the antithesis of that.

The canned cocktail is named after a colloquialism given to the popular mixed drink (vodka and soda) ordered at bars by the gay community. It’s also one of the few openly queer-owned alcohol brands, which Hoddeson said sparked him to create because he wanted more representation in the category.

CNN Business

The cans — which, upon launch, are currently being sold primarily online — are available in six- and 12-packs for $18.25 and $36.50, respectively. The six-packs only come in a single flavor — lime — while the 12-packs feature a mix of watermelon, lime, peach, and grapefruit.

Gay History – July 15, 1962: New York’s WBAI Radio Broadcasts Talk Show Featuring Eight Gay Men

Featured, Gay History, Of Interest, , , ,

Early in 1962, WBAI New York’s listener-supported “progressive radio station” which still exists today aired an hour-long special, “The Homosexual In America.” It featured a panel of psychiatrists who described gay people as sick and in need of a cure — a cure that they could provide with just a few hours of therapy. Gay Activist and founder of the “Homosexual League of New York” Randy Wicker was livid, not only at the ignorance of these so-called “experts,” but also because, once again, there was a panel of straight people talking about gay people they didn’t even know.

Wicker went to the WBAI studios and confronted Dick Elman, the station’s public affairs director. “Why do you have these people on that don’t know a damn thing about homosexuality? They don’t live it and breathe it the way I do. … I spend my whole life in gay society.”  Wicker demanded equal time and Elman agreed, provided Wicker found other gay people willing to go on the air as part of a panel.  When plans for the program were announced, the New York Journal-American went ballistic. Jack O’Brian, the paper’s radio-TV columnist, wrote that the station should change its callsign to WSICK for agreeing to air an “arrogant card-carrying swish.”

The broadcast titled “Live and Let Live,” featured Wicker and seven other gay men talking for ninety minutes about what it was like to be gay.  They talked about their difficulties in maintaining careers, the problems of police harassment, and the social responsibility of gays and straights alike. The program’s host guided the programs with questions to the panel. “Is there harassment?” he asked. One panelist described some of the police harassment he had expeirenced, when one officer “roared up, jumped out of the car, grabbed me, and started giving me this big thing about ‘What are you doing here, you know there are a lot of queers around this neighborhood.’ He said, ‘You know, there’s only one thing worse than a queer, and that’s a nigger’.” (Remember this was 1962.)

The New York Times’s  called the program “the most extensive consideration of the subject to be heard on American radio” —  Newsweek called the program “96 minutes of intriguing, if intellectually inconclusive listening.” 

At least one group of listeners launched a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission to challenge the station’s broadcast license. After a lengthy investigation, the FCC unanimously agreed to renew the stations’ licenses. In doing so, the FCC issued a statement which said, in part:

We recognize that as shown by the complaints here, such provocative programming may offend some listeners. But this does not mean that those offended have the right, through the Commission’s licensing power, to rule such programs off the airways. Where this the case, only the wholly inoffensive, the bland, could gain access to the radio microphone or TV camera.

Commissioner Robert E. Lee addressed the specific complaints made about the WBAI broadcast. While he felt that a panel discussion featuring physicians and sociologists might be informative, “a panel discussion of eight homosexuals discussing their experiences and past history does not approach the treatment of a delicate subject one could expect from a responsible broadcaster.” While the FCC stressed that the ruling did not mean that the commission endorsed the broadcasts, it nevertheless was regarded as a landmark decision upholding the broadcaster’s right to determine the kinds of programs that it wishes to air.

Mike Pence Gets Nailed In The Head With A Water Balloon Little Girl. [VIDEO]

Mike Pence Gets Nailed In The Head With A Water Balloon By Little Girl. [VIDEO]

EXCLUSIVE, Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Of Interest, , , , , ,

BEST video on Twitter today.

I don’t know what parade this was but really who cares. This is delightful!

https://youtube.com/shorts/mI34NxyoqBo?feature=share

To be honest though. She might have been aiming for his good friend “Debate Fly”.

FLORIDA: Recruits Going AWOL From DeSantis' Private Army: “It’s A Militia”.

SURVEY: 92% Say Life For LGBT’s Will Be Worse Under DeSantis Presidency.

Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Of Interest, , , ,

8% of Americans are fucking idiots and/or want us dead.

In a survey of 1,500 adult citizens conducted between Sunday and Tuesday, just 8% of respondents say lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people would be better off under DeSantis. The poll reveals a gender gap. While 12% of men believe DeSantis would benefit LGBTQ+ people as President, only 4% of women feel the same way.

Meanwhile, 40% of respondents believe LGBTQ+ people would be worse off, with 24% saying things would be no different and 28% saying they aren’t sure.

Republicans, conservatives and people who voted for Donald Trump in 2020 were less convinced DeSantis would be bad for LGBTQ+ people. The poll found 13% of Republicans and 14% of conservatives and Trump voters said they would be better off, against 17% of Republicans, 16% of conservatives and 15% of Trump voters who said the opposite.

Florida politics
FLORIDA: Tourism Officials Report Canceled Conventions, Giant Meningitis-Laden Snails and a Malaria Warning.

FLORIDA: Tourism Officials Report Canceled Conventions, Giant Meningitis-Laden Snails and a Malaria Warning.

Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Gay News From Around The Globe, Of Interest, , , , , ,

Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon
You come and go, you come and go.. But please keep it coming.

The group Visit Lauderdale works with organizations across the country to bring conventions to Broward County. The group’s president and CEO, Stacy Ritter, said there is a clear pattern when it comes to recent cancellations.

Broward County has lost more than a half-dozen conventions as their organizers cite the divisive political climate as their reason to stay out of Florida. The list was compiled by Visit Lauderdale, formerly known as the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Broward’s tourism arm said the lost conventions could have brought hotel stays to Fort Lauderdale and its surrounding cities, which also meant money spent on restaurants and attractions.

“We lost this program due to political climate,” according to a Visit Lauderdale spreadsheet listing the decision of the Supreme Council of America Inc., Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite Masons to cancel their convention — and 855 rooms — in August 2024.

The South Florida Sun

According to @alltherooms, the Orlando DMA for Air BnB is down 35% from May 2022 to May 2023. Per @VisitOrlando: rentals in Orange County, occupancy year-to-date so far 60.9%, down 10% from 2022. The average daily rate through May 2023 is $175, a 7% increase from 2022.

In other Florida news: Health officials have confirmed two new cases of malaria have been contracted in Southwest Florida as a statewide health advisory for the mosquito-borne illness remains in effect. Health officials confirmed finding three mosquitoes carrying the parasite in Sarasota County in early June.

Per the CDC, these malaria cases are the first “locally acquired” cases reported in the US since 2003.

And finally the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and its Division of Plant Industry announced that a quarantine and treatment area has been established in specific areas of Broward County in response to previously detected giant African land snails. The snails also pose a serious health risk to humans by carrying parasite rat lungworm, known to cause meningitis in humans.

Please avoid Florida.

KEY WEST: Judge Rules Gay Men's Clothing Optional Can't Ban Women.

KEY WEST: Judge Rules Gay Men’s Clothing Optional Resort Can’t Ban Women.

Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Of Interest, , , , , ,

Done vindictively and out of spite because Amina Chaudhry  doesn’t believe gay men don’t deserve safe spaces.

A Florida judge has ruled that a gay men’s “clothing-optional” resort in Key West should not be allowed to restrict women from staying there or accessing all areas of the resort where guests typically disrobe.

Amina Chaudhry who states she is a member of the extended LGBT+ community filed a complaint with Florida’s Human Rights Commission when New Orleans House “engaged in unlawful discrimination” when it prohibited Amina Chaudhry from making a reservation in July 2022.  The Commission found “no reasonable cause” exists to believe the resort violated Florida’s civil rights law. Chaudhry subsequently appealed that ruling,

The New Orleans House’s policy requires guests to be “adult males 18 years of age or over only.”

Chaudhry who seems to like to create trouble for gay men has also filed a discrimination complaint with the commission against Island House Key West, another all-male, clothing-optional resort after she attended a Pride kickoff cocktail party that was opened up to the public, but was told she wouldn’t be able to stay inside the main complex overnight. 

Island House is the longest gay owned and operated all-male guest house in the world. Island House has been open since 1976. 

Chaudhry says she does not intend to stay at Island House or New Orleans House — having only challenged the resort’s guest policy out of principle — but feels “completely vindicated” by the judge’s findings.

While Judge Finkbeiner’s ruling is not binding, the Human Rights Commission must consider the findings before issuing a final decision on both cases.

No word on what Pearl’s and other lesbian owned and operated female only resorts think of the ruling.

UPDATE: 3:39 pm.

We reached out to Ms. Chaundry via Facebook about the lawsuits, the destruction of safe places in the community, her place within the community and why she proceeded.

Thank you! 😊 That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard today. I also love that you, a stranger, has decided that you know my own experience better than I do and that you feel like you can deny my experience of being queer, that’s so toxically masculine of you. Also claiming that I hate gay men when literally all of my best friends are gay men, adorable. Sweetie, you’re fighting on the same side as women-hating, gender-policing, trans-hating right wingers and you don’t even realize it. It must be blissful to be that ignorant

A) there are no women-only places of public accommodation in Key West or anywhere else in FL to my knowledge; if there were I would file civil rights complaints against them too. A place of public accommodation if you’re not aware is any hotel, restaurant, bar, movie theater, or other establishment that serves the public. These places are specifically named in civil rights legislation b/c they are the types of establishments that engaged in Jim Crow era segregation; the same type of segregation that you seem to be in support of in relation to gender. B) I don’t support “women-only” or “men-only” anything. In addition to being illegal b/c of federal and state civil rights laws, they enforce an outdated binary view of gender that excludes trans, non-binary, gender queer, and gender nonconforming ppl. I have several close friends who identify as non-binary; where do they go in this gender segregated world that you think should exist? Should they never be allowed to go to bars and parties with their cis-gendered friends? Should I never be allowed to hang out in public spaces with my cis-gendered male friends? C) as far as my own sexual orientation/sexual identity, I don’t owe you any type of explanation or label. You should know that forcing someone to come out to you if they don’t proactively choose to is a violation of a person’s boundaries. Quite frankly, it’s none of your business who I choose to sleep with or feel attraction towards. If you absolutely must know (which seems to be a thing for ppl of your generation) I typically identify as pan, bi, or just queer. Also, fyi, there are no “parts” of the community, it’s a spectrum not a pizza”

Amina Chaudhry

And that’s all she wrote.

Now she can go back to her job as the most hated woman in Key West.