First Openly Gay Presidential Candidate, A Republican, Fred Karger Announces 2012 Run
Lauren Seifert reports on CBS News:
Barely hours after filing his intent with the FEC to run for the 2012 Republican nomination for president, Fred Karger stopped by “Washington Unplugged” to formally announce his decision.
Speaking with CBS News congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes Karger said, “I’ve filed to run for President of the United States.” (watch above)
Explaining what brought him to this moment Karger said, “It was the culmination of a lifetime of political work. It was a very exciting moment.”
This is the first time Karger has run for political office, but he has been a behind-the-scenes player for 35 years — serving as an advisor to Presidents Ford, Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
Quakers Welcome Government Move On Civil Partnerships
Via Ekklesia:
Quakers in Britain have welcomed the government’s announcement, today, (17 February), that the celebration of civil partnerships will be allowed on some religious premises, if a faith group wishes. This was introduced as part of the Equality Act 2010, section 202.
Michael Hutchinson, Acting Recording Clerk for Quakers in Britain said: “We are delighted that the government has heard us and others. We ourselves see no distinction between heterosexual or homosexual in terms of commitment and wish to move further to allow legal marriage for same sex couples, but this is a welcome step along the way to full equality.
“We are also heartened by proposals to address calls for full equality of civil marriages and civil partnerships, as our religious experience leads us to seek a change in the law so that same sex marriages can be celebrated, witnessed and reported to the state in the same way as heterosexual…
UK To Bring ‘Gay Lessons’ To Classrooms To Promote LGBT History Month
Photo: Blackcatuk (CC)
The Telegraph reports:
Children are to be taught about homosexuality in maths, geography and science lessons as part of a Government-backed drive to “celebrate the gay community”.
Lesson plans have been drawn up for pupils as young as four, in a scheme funded with a £35,000 grant from an education quango, the Training and Development Agency for Schools.
The initiative will be officially launched next month at the start of “LGBT History Month” – an initiative to encourage teaching about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual issues.
The lesson plans, spread across the curriculum, will be offered to all schools, which can choose whether or not to make use of them.
But critics last night called the initiative a poor use of public money which could distract from the teaching of “core” subjects.
Among the suggestions are:
- Maths – teaching statistics through census findings about the number of homosexuals in the population, and using gay characters in…
Mona Lisa Is Painting Of Da Vinci’s Gay Lover, Italian Researcher Claims
Is the most beautiful and iconic woman in the history of art actually a man? When one compares the Mona Lisa to other works in question (see right), the facial similarities are striking. The Washington Post reports on the controversial theory:
A male apprentice, longtime companion and possible lover of Leonardo da Vinci was the main influence and a model for the “Mona Lisa” painting, an Italian researcher said.
But the researcher, Silvano Vinceti, said Wednesday the portrait also represents a synthesis of Leonardo’s scientific, artistic and philosophical beliefs. Because the artist worked on it at various intervals for many years, he was subjected to different influences and sources of inspiration, and the canvas is full of hidden symbolic meanings. “The ‘Mona Lisa’ must be read at various levels, not just as a portrait,” Vinceti said.
The apprentice Gian Giacomo Caprotti, known as Salai, worked with Leonardo for more than two decades starting in…
Facebook’s ‘Gaydar’ Outs Gays
When it was recently revealed that a Ugandan newspaper was outing gays in its pages many people were shocked, but perhaps put it down to that country having societal values different from our own. Now it appears that America’s social media giant Facebook may be doing much the same thing, in its own high-tech way. From Gawker’s Valleywag:
Facebook allows users to list which gender of partner they’re “interested in.” But do you want Facebook’s advertisers to know if you’re gay? A Microsoft researcher has found a loophole which could secretly reveal a gay user’s sexuality to advertisers.
It’s no secret that Facebook, like many other online services, targets ads to different groups of users based on demographic data. But using a sensitive category like sexuality to target advertising—which Facebook apparently does—can lead to troubling privacy issues.
For a recent paper, researchers from Microsoft and Germany’s Max Planck Institute wanted to see if Facebook…
Christopher Hitchens: ‘Everyone’s A Little Bit Gay’
Christopher Hitchens tells Deborah Solomon why, for her New York Times Magazine column:
Solomon: What did you mean to suggest by including the detail about your long-ago flings with two men who became part of Margaret Thatcher’s administration?
Hitchens: There are still people who want to criminalize homosexuality one way or another, and I thought it might be useful if more heterosexual men admitted that they are a little bit gay, as is everyone, and that homosexuality is a form of love and not just sex.
Solomon: Not everyone is “a little bit gay,” as you say. Do you think your basic sexual confusion underlies your political confusions?
Hitchens: No, I wouldn’t call it confusion. I’d call it a punctuated consistency. I argue in the book that my principles were the same throughout…
[continues in the New York Times Magazine]
Bill O’Reilly Compares Gays To Al-Qaeda
From The New Civil Rights Movement:
Fair and balanced? You be the judge.
Elton John: Jesus Was Gay
Flamboyant British pop icon Elton John is making headlines for a controversial interview in, of all places, Parade, the (usually) boring Sunday newspaper magazine. Some choice samples:
“I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don’t know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East — you’re as good as dead.”
“Just about every relationship I ever had was involved with drugs. It never works. But I always had to be with someone, good or bad, otherwise I didn’t feel fulfilled. I’d lost the plot.”
“For some people a gram of cocaine can last a month. Not me. I have to do the lot, and then I want more. At the end of the day, all it led to was heartache.”
“Princess Diana, Gianni…
