The Advocate informs me this morning, that the parade that started it all has been canceled due to this year’s plague…

New York City Joins List of Canceled Prides

Pride organizers and the city government came to the decision together, according to a Heritage of Pride press release. Mayor Bill de Blasio has canceled all in-person gatherings in New York City through June due to the pandemic, which has hit his city particularly hard.

It is the first time since the Stonewall Riots that the parade has been cancelled. But this time there was no other way. I’m sure there will be online celebrations. This was always a parade about defiance against the darkness, survival, and love. And we will go on, defying hate, surviving, and loving and taking care of each other, as we did before, while they that say plagues are gods wrath come on us are packing their stadium churches and sharing their viral loads with each other more recklessly than what they accused us of during the AIDS crisis, and drinking bleach.

I can’t wait for them to finally release this short film. That kid…  He really takes me back…

Happy Pride, everyone!

The month of June is often considered LGBT+ Pride month to commemorate the Stonewall riots which occurred in June 1969. Because of this, many LGBT+ Pride events are held around the world during June to celebrate love, diversity, and acceptance.

Have fun, stay safe, and celebrate love this month!

–In A Heartbeat – Animated Short Film

My cartoon for Friday’s Baltimore Pride issue of Baltimore OUTLoud.   Oh you think she was a nice lady do you…?

…and you are beautiful.  Just sayin’.

Via SLOG…  A sign held up at the East Lansing Michigan protest…

H8 Is Easy…Love Takes Courage

I also like the ones I’m seeing that read "Separation Of Church And Hate"…

You know how it is that some Über heterosexuals just have this…overwhelming need…to project their cheapshit character flaws and emotional infirmities onto gays?  Yeah…it’s like that…

William Shatner goes on video rant over George Takei wedding snub

William Shatner is aiming his phaser at his former "Star Trek" colleague George Takei, calling him "sick" and "psychotic" in a YouTube rant.

Ticked off that Takei didn’t invite him to his recent California wedding, Shatner trashed the actor who played Mr. Sulu on the 1960s sci-fi series as if he were a villainous Klingon.

"The whole thing makes me feel badly, poor man," Shatner said in the video. "There is such a sickness there. It’s so patently obvious that there is a psychosis there. I don’t know what his original thing about me was."

…

"He has continued to speak badly about me for all these years," Shatner continued. "Obviously, hiding his homosexuality – talk about festering and not living the truth of your life and feeling badly about yourself – and being fearful somebody would find out about this terrible, terrible secret, so he thought."

Geeze Bill…Ego much?  I like the response of Takei’s spouse, Brad Altman…

Altman later told the News that the pair "definitely" sent an invitation to Shatner through his manager, Larry Thompson.

"Maybe he thought it was junk mail," Altman said. 

KaPow!  

And in other news…at least one happy gay man out there managed to land an Altman.  Not that I happen to know anyone by that name myself…precisely… 

Nice work George.  I’d be all smiles too…

Last Saturday, Jeremy and Andrew got engaged…

October 11, 2008: The catering is all in line, and the outfits perfectly pressed. The months of planning have trickled down to hours. Andrew and I are holding our Manhattan engagement party, step one in our bicoastal wedding celebration.

October 11, 1995: I watch every word that comes out of my mouth for fear that my less-than-masculine speech patterns will lay bear the truth that is and has always been within my head. It’s unfair to date members of the opposite-sex, both for me and my partners in faux courtship. But what choice do I have? There are no gay people in my high school. Heck, are there gay people in my town? In all of Tennessee? The entire Southeastern region?

October 11, 2008: Andrew, the planner of our duo, has the day mapped out. Shave, manicure, and haircut are all booked into specific slots. I, on the other hand, am taking a fairly laxidasical approach to getting my stuff done. But while our approaches are different, our excitement is the same. We are both excited and shocked that this long overdue journey is finally in motion.

October 11, 1995: I’ll probably marry someday. I don’t feel like I have a choice. You get through school then ya get hitched. And hey, at least when I marry, I will finally prove to everyone that I am straight. I’m sure that in time, I too will believe it. Right?

October 11, 2008: The Connecticut ruling makes three states where we gays can legally marry.

October 11, 1995: It’s not like I can legally marry a dude even if I wanted to.

October 11, 2008: It’s not even noon, and there have already been two phone calls from my mom-in-law-to-be. She just might be the most psyched of all of us! And why shouldn’t she be? Her baby is finally getting married!!

October 11, 1995: Did anyone see me looking at that issue of "Entertainment Weekly"? The one with the cover story on "The Gay 90’s"? And if so, did they suspect anything? ::sigh:: I better go watch the game and talk about "hot" girls.

October 11, 2008: 115 guests will be on hand to send well wishes to the two fiancés. Acceptance or "tolerance" is not even up for debate. We are loved. We are accepted. Non-"controversially."

October 11, 1995: Will I ever feel love? Real love? A genuine, rock you to the core love?

October 11, 2008: Today is National Coming Out Day. And while the booking was purely coincidental, the resonance of the date is not lost on me.

October 11, 1995: I just learned that today is apparently something called "National Coming Out Day." I gotta remember to put my guard up extra high, since people will probably be talking about it. Questions are dangerous. And the "right" answers are hard to find since they really don’t jibe with what I know to be true.

October 11, 2008: I’m happy. Really frickin’ happy. I want to wish a joyous National Coming Out Day to everyone:

October 11, 1995: I’m scared. Really frickin’ scared. Please tell me it gets better than this. Please tell me there is peace to be had. Please tell me I will come out of this darkness.

Some photos Here.  I’m so happy for both of them.  I wish them all the best.  This poor angry world needs so much more of this.  So very much more.

Do you believe in love?  Please help fight the good fight.  Please help happy, devoted couples to keep their ring fingers.  Donate Here, to No on 8.  Or Here, to Arizona Together.  Or Here, to Say No On Two. 

If you donate between now and election day online (for any amount), and send me your confirmation email, I will draw, if you wish, an editorial cartoon on the topic of your choice. Or…alternately…a Mark and Josh cartoon on the topic of your choice.  Or…if my cartoons don’t do it for you…you can have a signed 11 by 19 print of the image of your choice out of any of my photo galleries.

It’ll be lite posting for a while here because as of…er…Right Now…I’m heading out to the big highways to visit some friends, attend the Open Source Developer’s Conference in Portland, and do some exploring along the way.  I’ll be on the road most of the day today, but I’m heading for Memphis and I’ll stay there for a while to see some friends, and…stand with Soul Force in front of Love In Action.  Via Peterson Toscano…

Ex-Gay Survivor Initiative Heads to Memphis

What: Gay men visit Love in Action to tell of the psychological and spiritual harm that they experienced there and in other "ex-gay" ministries. Three survivors of the controversial residential program will present Love in Action with personal artwork depicting the damage caused by the message that gays and lesbians can and should change their sexual orientation.

When: Tuesday, July 17, at 10:30 a.m.

Where: Love in Action, 4780 Yale Road, Memphis, Tennessee

Who: David Christie is a former Love in Action client who spent 13 years in ex-gay therapy before accepting himself as a gay man at the age of 28.
Brandon Tidwell completed Love in Action’s adult residential program in 2002, but ultimately rejected the organization’s theology and reconciled his sexual orientation with his Christian faith.

Other participants: Jeffrey Harwood, Lance Carroll

Why: Love in Action (LIA) is a Christian residential program that claims to help clients "break out" of "homosexual attraction and behavior" at a cost of $7000 for 3 months. In 2005, the facility was under investigation by the state of Tennessee for operating a mental health facility without a license. LIA has since changed its operating procedures to avoid state regulation. Most recently, LIA closed its controversial Refuge program for teenagers and replaced it with "Family Freedom Intensives," a 4-day, $600 per person. The program is for parents of gay or questioning teenagers.

Love in Action is part of a larger "ex-gay" movement, which continues to thrive in spite of Americans’ growing conviction that sexual orientation is not subject to change and despite a growing willingness on the part of faith communities to accept gays and lesbians as whole and valuable members.

This event is part of the Survivor’s Initiative, a national campaign to share the stories of "Ex-gay Survivors"-men and women who feel that ex-gay messages and programs did them more harm than good.

If you are in or near Memphis, come and show your solidarity. Also, spread the word. It’s been two years since the summer protests sparked by Zach Stark’s blog entries. No matter how LIA words it, Refuge is no more. Even so, the voices of their former LIA clients need to be heard as a witness and a warning.

If you can be there to stand peacefully in witness and solidarity with the survivors, please come.  The ex-gay movement cynically pleads tolerance for religious diversity and freedom of choice but they have none to offer themselves for gay people.  They instill shame where there should be joy.  They teach fear where there should be love.  They build walls of shame and fear and mistrust between parents and their children.  All so that our hearts may bleed, so that they can feel righteous.  If there is such a thing as Sin in this world, Capital S, then to put a dagger of shame into a person’s heart and take away the possibility of finding that intimate other and building a life together, must surely be a big one.  For years the ex-gay ministries have claimed that thousands have changed.  Now another voice is making itself heard: that of the ones who tried, and who learned after great hardship and pain that to finally become whole persons, they first had to accept themselves, in the words of the old spiritual, "Just As I Am." 

Come, stand with us if you can, in witness and in solidarity.  Just as you are.  Just as we are.

A friend of mine passed on this link to a really cute AIDS prevention video.  It’s the kind of thing you’ll never see here in the Excitable States of America.  What makes this video so remarkable, and I think far more likely to drive its point home, is that it isn’t so much about having sex, as finding love in a world that seems horribly stacked against it.  You watch this thing and by the end you’re really on the edge of your seat wondering if this poor little lost cuteling will ever find love, and cheering when he finally does.  And as the lovers drive off into the sunset, the film makers drop the message on you…and it works brilliantly.

It’s done with computer animated characters and the hero of the piece is just adorable (see above!), it’s hilarious in spots (and a tad unsafe for work in others so be warned.  This was obviously made somewhere that human sexuality isn’t considered a wicked dirty thing) and the message is a positive one, not a negative one; not an appeal to fear, but to hope and dreams of love.  The religious right would collectively have kittens if anything like this was produced here in the U.S.  Let’s hear it for the Internet.

[Update…]  I had to update the link because the original location wasn’t playing this video anymore.  The good news is it’s all over YouTube now and it wasn’t when I first posted this.  I’ve linked to the one I thought had the best video quality.

Also…a reader was looking for the song played here and I think would have missed it if not for seeing a pingback from another post in the comments.  It’s Sugar Baby Love by the Rubettes.

Nature gave Pride month this year a lovely beginning, with a spectacular circumhorizon arc rainbow in the skys over the Idaho-Washington border…

Happy Pride Days, whenever they are, wherever you are.   Your dreams are out there, waiting for you.  Walk proudly into them.