Baylor University has removed this “inappropriate” cup from their campus.

A dining contractor has removed coffee cups with a gay author’s quote from a Starbucks at Baylor University, saying it was inappropriate for the Baptist school.

Aramark, which oversees the coffee outlet, pulled the cups earlier this month from the campus store after consulting with Starbucks’ district office and Baylor’s dining service, school officials said Monday.

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I previously posted about the State Board of Education of Georgia’s proposal that students be required to get written permission from parents before they can join glbtq school clubs (and all other school clubs) here.

This article in the New York Blade alerts us that the bill will resurface in the Georgia Legislature next year.

The Tennessee Department of Mental Health has ordered Love In Action International Incorporated to close their two Tenn. facilities by this Friday! I’m suddenly in a good mood - and let me tell you, my mood has *not* been good for the majority of the day.

“As a licensed medical professional myself, I was appalled to learn that Love in Action was holding itself out as a legitimate health care provider when in fact they are not,” said Dr. Arnold Drake, PFLAG former national president and current leader of PFLAG Memphis, Tenn. “It is about time they are being held accountable. Given what I know about their misguided mission to try to make gay people straight, I worry deeply about what harm they may have caused.”

Read more from PFLAG

In an effort to stop spam (I’m only interested in poker when it involves me stripping for a hot butch) from raining on my parade, all comments must now be approved before they appear.

sorry
this wasn’t the plan
blame the spam

You didn’t know I’m a poet, did you?

In this weeks Time Magazine you’ll find “Guess Who’s Coming…,” which highlights the story of a conservative straight couple who reached out to gay family in need.

When Forrest King was told by the American Red Cross and FEMA that they would not assist him in finding a Katrina family in need of a place to stay to share his home with, he took the matter into his own hands.

“The government failed,” says King. “The citizens have to stand up and say, ‘Get out of the way. We’ll take care of our own.’”

King, a “dyed-in-the-wool conservative,” and his wife have been sharing their home with the Meehan-Hoo family (a lesbian couple with three children) who they found on Open Your Home. They have offered their home indefinitely.

Yolanda and Jan Meehan-Hoo evacuated Slidell, La., with their children and Yolanda’s mother, who has Alzheimer’s and diabetes, one day before the hurricane hit. They drove away from the storm for more than 28 hours, averaging 10 m.p.h. most of the way. The brakes of their gray Suzuki Esteem hatchback eventually gave out, so they rode the emergency brake. “I said, ‘C’mon, baby, you gotta get us out of here,’” says Yolanda. “She names her cars. This one was Betsy,” explains Jan, laughing and holding Yolanda’s hand in the Attleboro kitchen.

Finally, they reached Yolanda’s father’s house in Port St. John, Fla., where they rested for a few days. But they were having trouble getting a wheelchair and other assistance for Yolanda’s mother. Jan convinced Yolanda that their best bet was to return to Boston, where they had met and married before moving to Louisiana only two months before Katrina’s landfall. “I’ve been a Bostonian all my life. They’ll help us there,” she said. Jan and Sonny, 5, went to Boston to look for options. Meanwhile, Yolanda signed up on openyourhome.com The next day, she got a call from King.

King comments:

“The adults are same sex, and I don’t care,” he says. “I don’t care if they’re purple and got horns coming out of their faces. They’re Americans first.”

And he’s learned they aren’t very different from anyone else:

“The other day I heard them arguing with each other in the stairway. It proves to me that same-sex couples are just as miserable as the rest of us,” says King, laughing, as his wife and the Meehan-Hoos shake their heads in exasperation, like family.

Call for Submissions

Queer: Four Decades After Stonewall
Editor: Maria Angeline (that would be me)
Deadline: November 1, 2005 (*has been extended)

Merge Press is currently seeking original and unpublished novellas and short stories of Queer Culture. This is a long form anthology; recommended length is 7,000 to 25,000 words.

Guidelines:

• Submit short stories, novellas, essays and other prose via the entry form found on the submissions page or email your submissions as RTF or DOC files.
• Unpublished authors will be considered.
• Previously published material will also be considered, provided you have retained your rights; please submit previous publication information (and the terms of your copyright agreement) in these cases.
• You may submit two (2) different pieces of writing.

Contributing writers will be paid $65 (per piece) at the time of publication and receive two free copies of the anthology.

About:

Where is queer culture as we approach four decades after Stonewall? What are the stories, ideas and theories, values and fantasies that presently shape your life? Queer: Four Decades After Stonewall seeks to represent the many facets of queer culture today and tie them together to present the world we live in now. Pieces on how those who identify as queer define the term are also welcome.

We are especially interested in pieces on the following topics (but will accept submissions outside of them):

• Religion and Spirituality
• Legal Marriage
• Sex, Gender and Identity
• Erotica

Please click here for some examples of the types of pieces we would love to see included in this anthology.

In my inbox this morning:

Blithe House Quarterly invites you to browse
its Fall 2005 edition (Volume 9, Number 4)

featuring new short stories by

Pat Alderete, Charlie Anders, Felicia Luna Lemus, Brian Leung, Bronwyn Mauldin, Danton Remoto, Claudia Rodriguez, Sandip Roy, Eduardo Santiago, Denise Uyehara, and John Morgan Wilson

guest-edited by Noel Alumit and Cheryl E. Klein
executive editor and publisher: Aldo Alvarez

From washingtonblade.com’s Bitch Session:

So is the top/bottom dynamic the gay male version of the lesbian butch/femme scene?

I know… there are no stupid questions.

Photographer Oliviero Toscani’s recent advertisements, which feature “two men kissing and groping on a sofa,” are creating quite the stir in Italy.

‘These posters are vulgar and a bad example for our children,’ said a spokesman for the parents association MOIGE, which wants the adverts banned. ‘It’s not a matter of sexual orientation. They would be crass even if they featured a man and a woman.’ Complaints have flooded in to the offices of Rome city council and an organisation called The Citizens Defence Movement has joined the chorus of criticism. ‘Obviously we respect homosexuality but it can be difficult to explain to young children,’ a spokesman said.

Toscani, who was behind the controversial Benetton clothing company adverts and whose career has been built on shock tactics, was typically unrepentant. The 63-year-old photographer admitted he had taken advantage of the current debate in Italy about the legal and civil rights of gay couples.

‘There’s a big discussion going on about homosexuality in Italy so I thought it was the right time to do something like this,” he told The Observer. “I don’t think it’s vulgar. It’s just two men having fun together. These parents who are complaining - their kids already know about this stuff. The Vatican is not too happy with me either but the church is an anachronism in the world today. I don’t think it has any influence on young people.’

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Yesterday’s Washington Times featured a piece, titled “‘Baghdad Blogger’ says lives of homosexuals worse now,” about Salam Pax’s (the Internet name of the “Baghdad Blogger”) concerns over the decision to adopt Islamic Shariah law in the draft Iraqi constitution.

WASHINGTON — The decision to adopt Islamic Shariah law in the draft Iraqi constitution has left the so-called “Baghdad Blogger” — a homosexual Web logger in Iraq — worried about his rights.

The blogger, who uses “Salam Pax” as his Internet name, says the position of homosexuals in Iraq has deteriorated since the establishment of the new government.

Salam Pax earned widespread online readership with his acerbic and blunt commentary about life in Iraq during the war. The 32-year-old architect has worked as an interpreter for an American journalist and lives in Baghdad and continues to write his blog, or Internet commentary.

continue reading

Most frightening part:

“In Iraq, the majority of religious scholars are of the Ja’fari School, and in their interpretation of the Shariah law, anyone married or unmarried found to have same-sex intercourse should be punished as an adulterer — that’s stoned to death,” Salman Pax said.

You think they would give us Salam Pax’s blog address. NO. But no worries… This is what Google is for.