GAYS STEALING FEMALE BLACK CULTURE?

 

 CNN Debate: 'White Gays: Stop Stealing Black Female Culture'

WHATTA YOU THINK ???

You can see the entire CNN debate online with Don Lemon (it's short)...

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I can see both sides:

On one hand, no one owns a gesture or a behavior even if it started in a particular culture (that's what the USA is all about, adopting other cultures' food, dress, dance, behavior, etc.)...

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However, I do see the other side that assuming every African American woman should be addressed in a stereotypical, campy way can be perceived as a bit racist. 

We should try to treat people-regardless of gender or race- as individuals not with a blanket assumption.

Not every gay man wants to be addressed as "she"  or "guurl" for instance. 

Even the ubiquitous hello kiss among gay men is frowned upon by other gay men; preferring a firm handshake instead. 

Don't assume.

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To paraphrase both views:

Sierra Mannie an African American woman (not a journalist, just her personal experience) whose article got picked up by times.com states: "

"Maybe, for some of you, it’s a presumed mutual appreciation for Beyoncé and weaves that has you thinking that I’m going to be amused by you approaching me in your best “Shanequa from around the way” voice. I don’t know.

What I do know is that I don’t care how well you can quote Madea, who told you that your booty was getting bigger than hers, how cute you think it is to call yourself a strong black woman, who taught you to twerk, how funny you think it is to call yourself Quita or Keisha or for which black male you’ve been bottoming — you are not a black woman, and you do not get to claim either blackness or womanhood. It is not yours. It is not for you."

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The rebuttal on CNN comes from Huffington Post's writer & comedian H. Alan Scott:

" It’s all bullshit. You can be whomever you want to be, and you shouldn’t be belittled, black or white, gay or straight, for who you are, gesticulations and all.

Mannie goes on to talk about the very true hardships and disparities black Americans face in this country. She’s right, it is very hard to be a person of color in this country, and as a white man — a very gay white man — I have absolutely no true understanding of what that must be like. But what I do have is a very real understanding of generalizations, as all minorities do.

Mannie writes about white males appreciation of Beyoncé (because only black women can like her), or a use of a certain vernacular that apparently belongs exclusively to black women (what about black gay men, can they use it?). She writes that black people don’t have access to everything white people do, and she’s right. That they often must worry about their physical safety, and she’s right. That there aren’t enough venues for black voices to be heard, she’s still right..."

1. ADAM BRAUN......2."THE NORMAL HEART"

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The handsome & brilliant Adam Braun is inspiring.
 He was on "KATIE" last week and set forth a message of hope and selflessness from which we can all learn.
Instead of taking the easy path-which his pedigree could have allowed-he took the one less traveled.

(His brother is Scott Samuel "Scooter" Braun. He is an American talent manager and businessman. He owns two record labels: School Boy Records^[ and Raymond-Braun Media Group (RBMG).
 RBMG is a joint venture with R&B performer Usher. 
The most prominent artist Braun represents is Justin Bieber.
For School Boy Records, his represented acts include Psy, Carly Rae Jepsen .)

 I only mention this because Scooter has been able to help his brother by using his clients-especially Beiber and Sophia Bush-to help the "PENCILS OF PROMISE" movement.

To date he has been able to open 200 schools & they are growing almost daily.

ROCK ON !

Recently married, Braun has been very public promoting same sex equality as well.

He states:
"Seven weeks ago, on the greatest night of my entire life, I asked the woman I love with every ounce of my being to marry me.

The next morning the gravity of it all began to hit me, and I just couldn’t stop smiling. It seemed like everyone around us wanted to celebrate our love for one another. And as happy as I was, strangely, I found myself thinking about gay rights.

Over the past decade of my life many of those I’ve become closest to have been in love with members of the same sex. Some hid this for years, others came out. I never thought of their sexuality as their most identifying factor. I realized that those who are gay cannot experience what I’d experienced the night before in many parts of our nation. And suddenly, the gay marriage debate became personal..."

(read the complete article: http://adambraun.com/how-getting-engaged-changed-my-views-on-gay-marriage)

ROCK ON AGAIN & THANK YOU ADAM !
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 HBO movie "THE NORMAL HEART" (2014)

 Mark Ruffalo was brilliant !!!  He was fearless in his acting & took chances few would.  Yes, it made me relive unwanted memories and I even accepted a lot of its poetic license; the message was clear, the screenplay was average. At one point it seemed every gay Broadway actor made an appearance. Julia Roberts was great too. Overall, it was a stellar cast.
If Michael Douglas got all those accolades for the campy "Behind the Candelabra", Ruffalo better get as many, if not more.

Because I was around at the beginning of this pandemic disease it really hit home but I feel many people will find it to be another "disease of the week TV movie".
After years of this script/play being passed around Hollywood (even Barbra Streisand wanted to do it) I was hoping for something meatier & more substantial. 

"And the Band Played On" was directed by Roger Spottiswoode
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-in-hbos-the-normal-heart-ryan-murphy-gets-in-the-way-of-his-powerful-story#ui6YA2h4txhrC2JD.99

"And the Band Played On" was directed by Roger Spottiswoode
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-in-hbos-the-normal-heart-ryan-murphy-gets-in-the-way-of-his-powerful-story#ui6YA2h4txhrC2JD.99

In other words, a more universal appeal. Obviously the LGBTQ community will clearly latch on to all the events, especially if you were around in the 1980s gay scene.

Like "Philadelphia", (which I hated), I'm  glad this was made & shown on HBO where more people in the general public will get to see it, not only the LGBTQ community, but I wish someone else would have constructed it. Where "Philadelphia" mostly ignored the social support system Tom Hank's character has, in "The Normal Heart" they should have focused-and dramatized more- how the straight world of politicians/media, etc. wasn't doing enough. The frivolous white party in Fire Island lent little to what could have been an opportunity to showcase the numerous fund raisers other parties had; and continue to have. Also, why doesn't the film end with Kramer/Weeks/Ruffalo starting ACT-UP instead of him basically with his tail between his legs in a hospital room. Murphy could have gotten some tips from Roger Spottiswoode in " And the Band Played On" (1993).

"And the Band Played On" was directed by Roger Spottiswoode
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-in-hbos-the-normal-heart-ryan-murphy-gets-in-the-way-of-his-powerful-story#ui6YA2h4txhrC2JD.99

  Ron Howard who possesses a better way of telling a human interest story would have been a better candidate than Ryan Murphy as well.  Gus Van Sant who so beautifully directed "MILK" would have made "The Normal Heart" have more heart too.

SAME SEX MARRIAGES-NJ- STARTING NEXT MONDAY--OCT 21 st--YAY!!!

 

As of next Monday OCTOBER 21, 2013 at 12:01 AM same sex marriages will be legal in NJ (even as Christie is disputing it)--only if the NJ SUPREME COURT rejects it--which I don't think it will-YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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 Same-Sex Marriages to Start Oct. 21 in NJ [POLL/AUDIO]

 A judge on Thursday denied the Christie administration’s motion to delay the start of same-sex marriage in New Jersey. The administration has appealed, but if a stay isn’t granted, gay couples can apply for a marriage license starting Oct. 21, and in some cases get married.

Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images

Typically couples must wait three days to get married after getting the license, but in certain instances the marriage can take place immediately.

“The way the decision is actually written, at midnight on the 21st marriage licenses can start to be issued,” said Troy Stevenson, executive director of Garden State Equality. “However, special dispensation can be given in certain jurisdictions. There will be places where people will be getting married on the 21st. The city has got to make a special dispensation, a special case, and it only happens in very rare circumstances and this would be one of them.”

The Christie Administration is now asking the state appeals court to overturn yesterday’s ruling while it also continues to ask the state Supreme Court to take up the case immediately. Gov. Chris Christie made his position clear in the gubernatorial debate Tuesday night against his Democratic challenger Sen. Barbara Buono.

UPDATE OCTOBER21, 2013:  (GREAT NEWS !!!)

Gov. Chris Christie's administration is withdrawing its appeal of a judge's recent ruling in favor of gay marriage in New Jersey, according to Bloomberg.

According to Politicker NJ reporter Matthew Arco, Christie's administration said "the governor will do his constitutional duty and ensure his administration enforces the law as dictated by the N.J. Supreme Court."

GAY SLURS/BULLYING/IGNORANCE----AGAIN!

 




THIS IS EXACTLY WHY SAME SEX MARRIAGE CANNOT--I REPEAT CANNOT-BE PUT ON A BALLOT!

WE ARE NOT THE MAJORITY AND SADLY MANY PEOPLE IN AMERICA STILL FEEL LIKE THESE ASSHOLES FROM MISSISSIPPI AND THE BIGGER ASSHOLE, TOM CORBETT,  FROM PENNSYLVANIA.  WE HAVE OUR RIGHTS IN THE CONSTITUTION FOR "ALL" !--THOSE PEOPLE WHO WANT THIS ON A BALLOT DISGUST ME!

F U CHRISTIE--WE NEED THIS TO BE A FEDERAL LAW--WHAT ARE YOU SO AFRAID OF? WE'RE NOT TAKING "ANYTHING" FROM HETEROSEXUALS --WHY ALL THE HATE & FEAR?

luckily my straight/bi friends are not threatened by the idea of love of ANY kind...


AND SORRY JOHN SUTTER, I WILL NOT TURN THE OTHER CHEEK & CHEER FOR MY OPPRESSORS --WE'VE BEEN DOING THAT TOO LONG...

Writer John Sutter says gay Americans should root for Ole Miss this weekend, despite slurs football players reportedly yelled at actors.

(CNN) -- "When will homophobia in the United States start seeming so ridiculous it's laughable?

Not in 2013, it seems.

Certainly not this week.

On Thursday, the governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, grinned as he compared, in a television interview, same-sex marriage to a brother marrying his sister.

"I apologize to anybody who feels offended by that," he said later.

Feels offended? Please. That's offensive.

Worse, football players and other students from Ole Miss reportedly heckled a Tuesday night performance of "The Laramie Project," a play about a gay college student, Matthew Shepard, who was tortured and murdered in 1998. They yelled anti-gay slurs, including the three-letter f-bomb, the play's director told the university newspaper.

"This behavior by some students reflects poorly on all of us, and it reinforces our commitment to teaching inclusivity(sic) and civility to young people who still have much to learn," two university officials said in a prepared statement.

Homophobes and the football teams that harbor them understand they should apologize.

Maybe that should be seen as an improvement.

But it doesn't seem genuine to me.

These apologies are designed to placate the gay community, not embrace it.

The comments themselves are reduced to the realm of political gaffes instead of being seen for what they are, which is hate speech that contributes to gay kids committing suicide and to parents rejecting kids who come out to them as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender..."

(more on CNN online)

MANSCAPING & SEX SCENES IN "KILL YOUR DARLINGS"

Daniel Radcliffe Banned From Manscaping For “Kill Your Darlings” Gay Sex Scenes: WATCH
September 10, 2013 ● by Dan Avery

EVERYTHING I'VE HEARD ABOUT DANIEL RADCLIFFE IS POSITIVE. 

HIS GENEROSITY TOWARDS A REQUEST OF MINE WAS AMAZINGLY GRACIOUS.

I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THIS MOVIE; HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE BETTER THAN "PHILADELPHIA" OR "BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN".

THE FILM HAS BEEN GETTING GOOD WORD OF MOUTH.

RADCLIFFE & KROKIDAS, DON'T LET OUR LGBTQ COMMUNITY DOWN!

 

Director John Krokidas was all about verisimilitude in Kill Your Darlings, the Beat poet movie he’s currently promoting at the Toronto International Film Festival. The first-time feature filmmaker went so far as to ban stars like Daniel Radcliffe and Dean DeHaan from manscaping or overdoing it at the gym:  ”I told Dan nobody manscaped in the 1940s,” the openly gay director told Daily Xtra. “No groomers, no personal body trimmers—let it be. And with the body types I told them, ‘do not work out to much!”


Krokidas was also keen on having Radcliffe’s gay-sex scene appear natural in Kill Your Darlings, something he thinks has been  missing from other mainstream movies with same-sex eroticism:  ”The one thing wrong with Brokeback Mountain [was] that sex scene,” he opined. “I’ve never seen it happen like it happened in that scene.”
He’s got a point.

For his part, Radcliffe said doing the scene was no big whoop: “I don’t know why a gay sex scene should be any more shocking than a straight sex scene.

Or both of them are equally un-shocking.”

Let us be the judge of that, Daniel
 

VERBAL GAY BASHING AFTER PRIDE

 

 

Video: Two Men Harass Subway Riders After Gay Pride Parade (ON YOUTUBE)

(This kind of trash is  one of the reasons I stopped going to the festivities -I rather celebrate in a more intimate manner--but NO ONE should make us NOT celebrate--total misogynistic, homophobic assholes!) 

BTW, wake up NYPD !!!

An ugly homophobic subway altercation on Sunday night was caught on video by a woman who says police did not take her hate crime allegations seriously. The woman who uploaded the video tells us, "I was riding home on the Queens-bound F train following a day of LGBT Pride festivities.

 Two men were loudly making homophobic comments, such as 'Today was a scary day for me. There were fags everywhere.' When a group of queer youth got on the train, the men proceeded to harass them, stating that the teens made them want to puke and that they would be killed if they were in Iran."

So you know what you're in for, the video begins just as one of the men screams, "Fuck with this man [referring to himself], and you're gonna get more than fucked in the ass. You're gonna get fucked like you've never been fucked." Okay, then.


The woman who uploaded the video explains:

Seeing that he was being recorded, the first assailant lunged at me, violently grabbing my arms while trying to steal away my phone. One of the youth took the phone from me temporarily to protect it and told the assailant he shouldn't attack a woman. When the assailant threatened to punch me, I took the phone back and ran to the other side of the train to push the emergency button and alert the authorities. At this point the second assailant got up and came towards me, grabbing my body and hands to try and get the phone to destroy the evidence. I yelled and told him I was an attorney. An onlooker then got up and stood between the assailants and myself, and another person left to get the train conductor. A group of people had gathered to stand up to the gay bashers. During this, the second assailant put his hand around the neck of a young queer woman. When the doors opened up at the Roosevelt Ave stop, both assailants fled. I followed them to the station exit while calling 911. One witness had overheard them saying they were on route to Jamaica; they're likely commuters who regularly take this route.
I uploaded the video to YouTube to see if anyone can identify these men. I was left with bruises and scratches from both assailants which I also documented. I witnessed a hate crime.
At this point in time, I'm having trouble getting the police to recognize the incident as something more than just "harassment" -- the video depicts several attacks that happened (twice upon me, and once upon the queer woman). It's really upsetting that the attacks were downplayed to "harassment" in the police report -- I was so specific and detailed about what happened.

We asked the NYPD if they are investigating the incident and if it's been referred to the Department's Hate Crime Task Force. We also asked the woman who took the video to share documentation of her bruises and scratches, and we'll update if we hear back.

DOMA & PROP DOWN--TEARFUL CELEBRATION

THOUGH MY STATE, NEW JERSEY, IS NOT ONE OF THE 13 US AREAS (12 STATES & THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA) BENEFITING FROM TODAY'S MONUMENTAL DECISION, AT LEAST THIS IS A CHANCE FOR ALL LGBTQ AMERICANS TO MARRY ELSEWHERE WITH FULL STATE & FEDERAL BENEFITS-FREAKIN' AMAZING!!!

I AM ELATED I LIVED TO SEE THIS DAY. ( WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013)

I KNOW THOSE WHO PASSED ARE LOOKING DOWN AT AMERICA WITH PRIDE.

LET'S NEVER FORGET THOSE WHO RISKED THEIR LIVES BEFORE US SO WE CAN TO GET TO THIS AUSPICIOUS MOMENT.
 EDIE WINDSOR, FOR EXAMPLE FOUGHT AGAINST DOMA...

 AND

 KRISTIN PERRY /SANDRA STIER & PAUL KATAMI /JEFF ZARILLO AGAINST PROP 8

BRAVO TO THOSE BRAVE JUDGES IN THE SUPREME COURT WHO REALIZE THE NEW AMERICA IS HERE. THOSE CRUSTY, OLD ONES ARE  NOW LOOKED UPON AS BIGOTS, HATEFUL AND FEARFUL DINOSAURS. SHAME ON YOU!

THE NEW AMERICA WAS OBVIOUS WHEN SO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE CAMPED OUT TO HEAR THE DECISION & WERE SHOWN THROUGHOUT THE DAY IN FRONT OF THE SUPREME COURT IN D C .

GOD BLESS AMERICA & GOD BLESS THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY...