Kanye West...GLAD TO BE GAY!!!

Once more the graceness of Baron Kanye West, who informs Details magazine that he has generously decided to rehabilitate the word gay.
"I like to embody titles, y'know, or words that have negative connotations, and explain why that's good," declares Kanye. "Take the word gay - like, in hip-hop, that's a negative thing, right? But in the past two, three years, all the gay people I've encountered have been, like, really, really, extremely dope. Y'know, I haven't, like, gone to a gay bar, nor do I ever plan to. But where I would talk to a gay person - the conversation would be mostly around, like, art or design - it'd be really dope. From a design standpoint, kids'll say, 'Dude, those pants are gay.' But if it's, like, good, good, good fashion-level, design-level stuff - where it's on a higher level than the average commercial design stuff - it's gay people that do that. I think that should be said as a compliment. Like, 'Dude, that's so good it's almost ... GAY.'"
Thanking you, Kanye. Remarkably, this would appear to be only the first time that the hip-hop auteur has found common ground with Daily Telegraph bigwigs, who, of course have been trying to restore the word to its original meaning for years. Do you ever see the Telegraph? It's the 21st century newspaper where "gay" is banned by associate editor Simon Heffer's style guide (you have to write "homosexual"), but whose website cheerfully reprinted a Perez Hilton rumour that Michelle Obama was pregnant the other week. I do adore it. It takes a real man to admit that he is gay!!

Lesbian files a law suit after a hospital denies her visitation rights!!!

A gay woman not allowed to visit her dying partner at Jackson Memorial Hospital in 2007 hopes a federal judge will allow her claims of emotional distress and negligence to go to trial. As her partner of 17 years slipped into a coma, Janice Langbehn pleaded with doctors and anyone who would listen to let her into the woman's hospital room.
Eight anguishing hours passed before Langbehn would be allowed into Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center. By then, she could only say her final farewell as a priest performed the last rites on 39-year-old Lisa Marie Pond.
Jackson staffers advised Langbehn that she could not see Pond earlier because the hospital's visitation policy in cases of emergency was limited to immediate family and spouses -- not partners. In Florida, same-sex marriages or partnerships are not recognized. On Friday, two years after her partner's death, Langbehn and her attorneys were in federal court, claiming emotional distress and negligence in a suit they filed last June. Jackson attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case on grounds that the hospital has no obligation to allow patients' visitors.
Following a hearing lasting more than an hour Friday, U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan said he would try to decide soon whether the case could proceed to trial. He gave no specific date.

Interracial Relationships continue to cause a stir in america

Throughout history, race has been a crucial factor in America. Today, interracial dating, relationships and marriage still trigger much dispute. Love is an amazing feeling that many of us are fortunate to experience and feel, but interracial relationships have always been and will continue to be a taboo subject matter for some.

It really should not matter with whom you want to pursue a relationship, but some Americans still feel that interracial dating is immoral or unnatural. Being accepted as a couple, by your family and friends, whether you’re heterosexual or homosexual or dating someone in or out of your race, makes things less challenging and more relaxed. Due to people’s prejudice, however, being in an interracial relationship is often more difficult.
The United States, although a “free” country, can be very judgmental and critical. Rich Robinson, a founding member of rock group The Black Crowes, was born to a black father and a white mother. His parents married during the Civil Rights movement. During the time they were married, they believed that “the whole nation was moving toward greater and greater integration;” however, not only did their marriage fail, but they went back to their own lives of being on their “designated sides.”
Robinson once said, “I’m never going to marry a white girl. Marrying a white girl is a bad idea; they will never understand. Actually, I always assumed I would never marry a white girl (…) Being with a white girl does not work out. My parents’ relationship ended and race had something to do with it.”
Just because Robinson’s parents’ relationship didn’t work out because of racial issues, he has second thoughts of having a relationship with a white woman. Robinson’s true love could in fact be a white woman, but he is now hesitant because of his parents failed marriage, most likely due to outer societal pressures.
The idea of our country as a diverse and abundant “melting pot” is not looked fondly upon by the entire population. When individuals judge two people in love from different races, they are not seeing the beauty and love these folks have for one another. People like this are simply being ignorant. If being with a man or women outside of your race makes you happy, then you should ignore the ill-mannered comments of others. Being able to express how you want to live and who you want to date makes you truly American.

Anti-gay protesters banned from Britain

Two U.S. anti-gay preachers have been banned from entering England, officials said.
Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley phelps-Roper, who belong to the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, were planning to come to Britain to protest outside a performance of "The Laramie Project," the Times of London reported Friday.
The plan recounts the death of gay college student Matthew Shepard who was killed in Laramie, Wyo., in 1998. The play is to be performed Saturday at Queen Mary's College.
Phelps, 79, and his daughter, 51, are known for protesting at American soldiers' funerals, where they display banners with phrases such as "God Hates Fags." Members of the church say they believe U.S. troop deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are punishment for America's tolerance of gays.
Phelps and his daughter have been labeled as "extremists" by the British government.
"The Home Secretary has excluded both Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper from the U.K.," a Border Agency spokesman said. "Both these individuals have engaged in unacceptable behavior by inciting hatred against a number of communities."
Peter Tatchell, of the gay rights group OutRage! said he disagreed with the decision to ban the Phelpses.
"The Phelpses are odious, homophobic bigots. They give Christianity a bad name," Tatchell said. "Objectionable though they are, I don't agree with them being banned." And do we have to agree with Peter some do, but I refuse because is obsurd how two individuals would go such lenghts to show their opinion on homosexuality. Personally i think they were even lucky to get out alive!! but that's just me :-)

San Diego Firefighters Win Damages for Gay Harassment

This is just ridiculous even on a day that we get to have freedom to express how we feel and who we are this kind of stuff happens. (ht) to my friend Angel from Elle magazine for the news. Four firefighters in San Diego who said they were sexually harassed during a forced participation in the 2007 LGBT pride parade there were awarded a total of $34,300 in damages by a jury. The city said it will appeal the verdict.
The men "said they were subjected to sexually charged conduct and lewd comments while riding in a fire engine" during the event that they were ordered to participate in, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

A Florida High School sued for not allowing Gay-Straight Alliance

OK CAN WE STOP THE NONSENSE!!!!! In Jacksonville, Florida on tuesday, two high school students Hannah Page, a freshman, and Jacob Brock, a junior sued their high school for refusing a club that promotes the tolerance for gays. According to court documents the lawsuit claims "violations of the First Amendment and the Federal Equal Access Act. The act requires schools to grant access and recognition to a Gay-Straight Alliance and other groups if the school allows any extracurricular group to meet on campus"said ACLU attorney Robert F. Rosenwald. The purpose of the lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction to allow the club to meet at Yulee High while the case makes it way to trial.
Page said the group just wants to meet like others do.
“We just want the club so that straight and gay kids can get together to talk about harassment and discrimination against gay kids in an open environment. The school is discriminating against us and that’s exactly the kind of thing we want to prevent,” she said. John L. Ruis, the school district’s superintendent, said in a letter to Rosenwald that “a club highlighting sexual orientations will not be permitted as it would violate school board policy.” The Nassau County School Board was served with the lawsuit.
The ACLU recently won a similar case in Okeechobee. A judge there ruled schools must provide for the well-being of gay students and cannot discriminate against the Gay-Straight Alliance.
Rosenwald said the Okeechobee County School Board paid $326,000 in attorneys fees in the case.

Founder of Lesbian Fertility center named a top innovator

Gay men may have a hard time getting married but Lesbians can get pregnant!!! and this is thanks to Sherron Mills, the founder of Pacific Reproductive Services (PRS), a sperm bank and fertility center that has served lesbian couples and single women for 25 years. By launching this service in 1984, at a time when the vast majority of sperm donors were anonymous (as preferred by infertile opposite-sex couples), Mills “changed the face of sperm donation,” the editors of a San Francisco culture magazine said. Despite the increasing number of clinics and sperm banks willing to work with lesbians, Mills still feels "there is a need for ones that will give extra support to lesbians and their relationships through the sometimes lengthy process of trying to get pregnant".
Both PRS and The Sperm Bank of California serve a largely lesbian clientele, as do a handful of others, such as Rainbow Flag Health Services in San Francisco, which specializes in matching prospective mothers with donors who wish to be known when the child is still a minor.
“It was exciting to have our work in the lesbian community recognized in a mainstream magazine,” Mills said. “It was particularly gratifying to have the magazine note the major struggle lesbians faced in the early 80’s to find a sperm bank willing to serve them and physicians willing to provide them insemination services. . . . Sometimes it is easy to forget how far we have come.” This article shows how medical advances are able to help women in many ways who want to build a family despite of sexual preferrence. In general medical advances is always growing for the benefit of people all around us and the world, yet it sets in me a sense of happiness that at least in the gay community men and women alike are able to share family values.

Morman Church caught doing shady business on support of Prop H8

This article (ht) to my friend Maria for forwarding the news to me; had me at the edge of my seat first off, secondly we -in the gay community nation wide-are trying to get our rights of marriage passed and when things like this happens others will not take in account what we are fighting for. A Mormon Church in California tried to pull dirty business with their support of the Yes On 8 campaign, which successfully outlawed gay marriage in California, but according to a recent investigation their dirty business was exposed. "Revealing $190,000 that the church spent assisting the passage of Prop 8". The rest of this article is from Celebrity Gossip Columnist, Perez Hilton. " While members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints donated directly to the campaign, the church initially reported almost no campaign activity.
At the prodding of a campaign watchdog agency, however, the church's involvement was revealed to include airline tickets, hotel rooms, and car rentals for the campaign, as well as $96,849.31 worth of "compensated staff time."
Californians Against Hate's Fred Karger, who filed the initial complaint against the church with the Fair Political Practices Commission, said that the findings raise more questions than answers, and believes there is even more activity since the first item listed in September.
He said, "I think there is still a lot of missing parts of the report because we know they've been active since June."
The church could not be reached for comment". Again people would we be taken serious when things like this happens!!! (ht) to my friend Maria for forwarding the news to me

I read the New York Times everyday.

I found this image on flickr