tagged w/ Stonewall Riots
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Kobe Bryant looking like a f**king fa**ot in this photo by Ruven Afandor.
Kobe Bryant did the unthinkable. In a moment of heated passion and utter annoyance at a play on a basketball court, he spewed the two words that no homosexual likes to hear. This quickly became GLAAD’s call to arms, rainbow flag in hand, crying (with tears) foul. There was a time that simply the F-word was taboo extraordinaire on the courts with penalties mounting as the inner city kids were taking over the sport. This recent Kobe-Gate multiplies the drama times two because when he screamed F**cking Fa**ot, he was not just whistling Dixie. It was a double entendre and you had two no-no’s for the price of one.
As a homosexual Jew who would have slaughter in minutes by the Nazis and a few current Republicans, I would like to draw a line in the sand and say that it is OK to cross it. We all say words that we do not mean literally. As the world become beyond homogenized and political correctness traps up into a frozen state of not knowing what to say, I say let bygones be bygones and just don’t make a habit of it. A year ago I wrote a piece called The End of Political Correctness and to this day, I think it still holds true. Frankly, things never will change. There will be N-words and F-words till Judgment Day, so why judge people for a slip of the tongue? A slap on the wrist , rather, a slap on the ass is the appropriate penalty here.
Here is what I wrote on April 2, 2010:
Over the last few decades, we have become curiously, annoyingly and extremely politically correct and certain words have become absolutely taboo. That which was once acceptable is now considered offensive and there are times when you just don’t know what to say for fear of offending anyone or everyone around you. In the early 1970s, I was bussed to an all–black high school. “Black” was the acceptable term then, whereas now, “African-American” is the new black, replacing what was once the new “colored”. My ancestors are from Russia and Poland, do I walk around saying I am Russian-American, or worse, Polish-American? We are caught in the quagmire of what is the “right thing to say” and quite frankly, I see no light at the end of this tunnel – not even a glimmer.
The expression “politically correct” or “political correctness” can be traced back to 1920s Germany, when communist academia sought to impose their views on students. The term became more frequently used in the 1960s and 1970s by suburban bleeding-heart liberals, feminists and progressives who were intent on impacting the media, while leaving an emotional imprint on the Baby Boomer generation. As Boomers became adults, they clung on to the notion of being “politically correct”, however, adapting some of the initial ideas to surprisingly new and often meticulously planed-out hidden agendas.
What we now have is a wide-ranging group of hypocrites in charge of the media and most industries, where everyone is expected to play nice in the sandbox. The climate of corporate politics suggests that you “keep your head down” while those in higher positions, do as they please regarding dubious hiring practices, stealing, or worse, illegal activities as in the case of the banking culture and while I am at it, the Catholic Church. I refer to this group as the “nouveaux-hypocritical”. In light of the recent attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day in Detroit by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (a.k.a. “The Underwear Bomber”), there’s a renewed outcry for stricter airport screening regarding “certain types”, or, as it is more commonly referred to, racial profiling. Then again, at the risk of sounding like a total bigot, is that actually such a bad idea? The Muslim Public Affairs Council calls racial profiling unconstitutional. But from where I’m sitting, it is equally unconstitutional to sew explosives into your Calvins to bring a plane down on Christmas Day.
When Richard Reid (a.k.a. “The Shoe Bomber”) was captured, we automatically started checking everyone’s shoes… even old ladies’ with large, unsightly corns. Umar’s bomb was hidden in his underwear, so now what? Will security guards start pulling down our pants? Random wedgies? There’s some fancy detective work for you. Isn’t it easier to identify a certain type of individual that we can all look at cross-eyed? The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is claiming invasion of privacy and rejecting the controversial full body scans. Feel free to check out my ass in order to secure safe passage. How about that recent case in Saudi Arabia where the Al-Qaeda member had an explosive stashed in his anal cavity. What next, proctologists moonlighting for the sake of airport security? Immediately after 9-11, while working with a writer on her promotional book tour, we had to continue the planned nine-city schedule. This involved several plane rides, one of which was to Kentucky, where one of the reported terrorists had lived. Believe me, we were doing our own version of racial profiling aplenty. It was more anecdotal than a serious bid to rid evildoers, but I found much comfort in giving the evil eye to a host of “certain-types”. Was I being politically incorrect? Thank you.
To see the list of things you simply cannot say…
There are expressions that you can no longer say and on the same token things that you have to say…or else! Here is a list of the most important ones, to ensure you stay politically correct in these confusing times:
1. Worldwide no-no is the N-word.
2. People with intellectual disabilities no longer can be called Retarded. Whereas I find it most applicable in the case of Umar, that retarded member of the Lucky Sperm Club who tried blowing up Flight 253 on Christmas Day.
3. African-American, Asian-American, Latino-American, Corporate-American.
4. Child-Obesity is the politically correct term for Fat Kid these days. As an ex-fatty, call me fatso any day over “You obese baboon”.
5. Tranny hookers now must be referred to as Transgender Sex Workers. As a past resident of the Meatpacking District in New York City back in the 1990’s, I can assure you; “tranny hooker” is how they referred to themselves. It was the uber-political correct LGBT Community Center that put that glamorous title onto them and consequently killed their business.
6. Homosexuals became really Gay around the time of the Stonewall Riots in the 1969, birthing the Gay Rights movement. Whereas in England, Fags are the correct term for cigarettes.
7. The women’s equality movement escalated in the 1970’s demanding equal pay for equal work, which also birthed the Bitch in the Workplace.
8. Midgets must now be referred to as Little People, even in the Wonderful Land of Oz and Munchkin Land.
9. Secretaries needed an ego boost and the only option was a title as opposed to a raise, so they settled for Administrative Assistant, which sure beats Mistress.
10. Housewives once they heard that their husband’s secretaries were getting a verbal promotion, quickly jumped on the bandwagon and demanded to be called Domestic Engineers. Those who survive Fucked Up Upbringings, which is most of us, can now say we came from Dysfunctional Families.
11. Someone Crippled became Handicapped, which evolved into Disabled and now is officially Physically Challenged…until that will be simply unacceptable.
Now matter what you say or do, there is always a 50% chance that you will be utterly, terribly and embarrassingly wrong. So, either we just stop talking and communicating altogether or rather, say whatever we want and let the chips fall where they may.
Read more: http://imeanwhat.com/canyoubelieve/kobe-minced-meat-bryant#ixzz1JWKSDSDoKobe Bryant looking like a f**king fa**ot in this photo by Ruven Afandor.
Kobe... more
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June 27, 2010
A Stonewall Veteran, 89, Misses the Parade
By MANNY FERNANDEZ - The New York Times
At noon on Sunday, thousands of marchers filled Fifth Avenue for New York City’s annual gay pride parade. Nearly six miles away, on the sixth floor of a nursing home in Brooklyn, the frail, white-haired woman in beige pajamas and brown slippers in Room 609 sat motionless at the edge of her bed, staring out her window.
She touched the medallion on her necklace — an image of St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes — and fiddled with one of her rings.
“This one,” she said of the ring on a pinky finger, “I hit a guy so hard I knocked the stone out, and I hadn’t gotten around to put it back yet.”
She had forgotten that the gay pride march was Sunday. Her mind and her memory are not as sharp as her wit and her tongue. She said she had been living there, at the Oxford Nursing Home, for years (she arrived in April). She was not sure how old she was (she will be 90 in December).
The woman in Room 609, Storme DeLarverie, has dementia. She is but one anonymous elderly New Yorker in a city with thousands upon thousands of them. And many of those who marched down Fifth Avenue on Sunday would be hard pressed to realize that this little old lady — once the cross-dressing M.C. of a group of drag-queen performers, once a fiercely protective (and pistol-packing) bouncer in the city’s lesbian bars — was one of the reasons they were marching.
Ms. DeLarverie fought the police in 1969 at the historic riot at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village that kicked off the gay rights movement. The first gay pride parade in 1970 was not a parade at all but a protest marking the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.
Some writers believe Ms. DeLarverie may have been the cross-dressing lesbian whose clubbing by the police was the catalyst for the riots (the woman has never been identified). While others are adamant that Ms. DeLarverie was not that woman, no one disputes that she was there, and no one doubts that the woman who had been fighting back all her life fought back in the summer of 1969.
At one point on Sunday, she said she was not struck by the police. At another moment, she said a police officer had hit her from behind. “He wound up flat on his back on the ground,” said Ms. DeLarverie, a member of the Stonewall Veterans’ Association. “I don’t know what he hit me with. He hit me from behind, the coward.”
Ms. DeLarverie has struggled in recent years with a confluence of housing, mental health and legal issues. In 2009, a social services group, the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, was appointed her legal guardian by a judge. In March, she was hospitalized after she was found disoriented and dehydrated at the Chelsea Hotel, her home for decades. No one occupies her room on the seventh floor of the hotel, but it remains unclear if she will ever return.
A small group of friends, including some of her neighbors at the Chelsea Hotel, visit her regularly. A social worker with the nonprofit group SAGE, which provides services to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender older people, has been assisting Ms. DeLarverie since 1999, when she was at risk of eviction from the hotel.
Some of her friends said they had been frustrated by the way she was treated by the authorities and others, and they expressed disappointment that Ms. DeLarverie’s troubles have not been a widespread concern for many gay and lesbian activists.
“I feel like the gay community could have really rallied, but they didn’t,” said Lisa Cannistraci, a longtime friend of Ms. DeLarverie’s who is the owner of the lesbian bar Henrietta Hudson, where Ms. DeLarverie worked as a bouncer.
“The young gays and lesbians today have never heard of her,” Ms. Cannistraci said, “and most of our activists are young. They’re in their 20s and early 30s. The community that’s familiar with her is dwindling.”
Ms. DeLarverie’s friends said they were disturbed because she spent most of her days inside the nursing home and they had not been allowed to take her outside, even for walks.
Leah Ferster, chief services officer for the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, said she was not aware that that was a concern among her friends. “We have to make sure she’s medically capable and able, and if that was true, then we would be glad to speak with her friends and see if we can come up with a safe plan and have her go out for a few hours,” she said.
Ms. DeLarverie’s first name is pronounced STORM-ee, like the weather, but in Room 609 on Sunday, she was calm, chatty, graceful. Her life has been flamboyant, boundary-breaking, the stuff of pulp fiction.
Friends say she worked for the mob in Chicago. The drag-queen group she performed with decades ago, known as the Jewel Box Revue, regularly played the Apollo in Harlem (she dressed as a man and the men dressed as women). She was photographed by Diane Arbus. She carried a straight-edge razor in her sock, and while some merely walked to and from the gay and lesbian bars in the Village, friends said, she patrolled.
Sitting at the edge of her bed, her mind turned again to the parade, where, in the past, she had been a fixture. She said she had a message for those who took part in the celebration. “Just be themselves, like they’ve always been,” she said. “They don’t have to pretend anything. They’re who they are.”
Ms. DeLarverie asked what time it was, and what time the march started. At one point, she took off her slippers and seemed to look for her shoes. “I think they started already,” she said. “They’re probably wondering where I am.”
Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.June 27, 2010
A Stonewall Veteran, 89, Misses the Parade
By MANNY FERNANDEZ - The... more
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Monday, June 28, is the 41st anniversary of the famous Stonewall riot, an event that changed history. The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village. They are frequently cited as the first instance in American history when people in the gay community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities. The riots have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.
Christopher Street Liberation Day on June 28, 1970 marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots with an assembly on Christopher Street and the first Gay Pride March in U.S. History. The March traveled up 51 blocks to Central Park, beginning with a relatively small group that grew into a massive crowd of 15,000 people as it made its way up from Greenwich Village. Similar marches were organized in other cities. Today, Gay Pride events are held annually throughout the world toward the end of June to mark the Stonewall riots.
This commemorative piece is composed of a number of vintage photographs, as well as three documentary short films.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2010/06/26/be-proud-the-moment-the-closet-door-finally-opened/Monday, June 28, is the 41st anniversary of the famous Stonewall riot, an event that... more
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And so now we catch up on a couple of very good films that opened last week, but — because there’s only so much podcasting I can do before my ears start to bleed — had to wait a week to be covered. In the case of the film featured in this episode, STONEWALL UPRISING, the delay turns out not to be too bad: We’re still in the midst of Pride Week, after all, so this documentary remains relevant.
This is from Kate Davis and David Heilbroner, whom we met earlier this year with the release of their black metal documentary WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON. There are fewer church burnings in STONEWALL, but that doesn’t mean the event depicted — a 1969, NYC riot sparked when the police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn and the patrons decided they’d had their fill of harassment — didn’t stoke its own kind of fire, specifically the birth of the gay rights movement. Davis and Heilbroner rally some great, eyewitness interviews — including the vice cop who led the raid — and manage to put the story in context with considerable footage from news shows and “educational” films showing how, even in the mid- to late-sixties, attitudes towards homosexuality had barely advanced beyond the let’s-burn-’em-at-the-stake stage. If you paired this up with another great doc released last week — 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION, about the Mormon church’s concerted efforts to have their institutionalized homophobia turned into law — you’d get a good view of how far gay rights have come, and how far they still need to go.
Click on the link to hear the show:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-persons/liberations-forge-kate-da_b_621930.htmlAnd so now we catch up on a couple of very good films that opened last week, but... more
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Over the last few decades, we have become curiously, annoyingly and extremely politically correct and certain words have become absolutely taboo. That which was once acceptable is now considered offensive and there are times when you just don’t know what to say for fear of offending anyone or everyone around you. In the early 1970s, I was bussed to an all–black high school. “Black” was the acceptable term then, whereas now, “African-American” is the new black, replacing what was once the new “colored”. My ancestors are from Russia and Poland, do I walk around saying I am Russian-American, or worse, Polish-American? We are caught in the quagmire of what is the “right thing to say” and quite frankly, I see no light at the end of this tunnel – not even a glimmer.
What we now have is a wide-ranging group of hypocrites in charge of the media and most industries, where everyone is expected to play nice in the sandbox. The climate of corporate politics suggests that you “keep your head down” while those in higher positions, do as they please regarding dubious hiring practices, stealing, or worse, illegal activities as in the case of the banking culture and while I am at it, the Catholic Church. I refer to this group as the “nouveaux-hypocritical”. In light of the recent attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day in Detroit by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (a.k.a. “The Underwear Bomber”), there’s a renewed outcry for stricter airport screening regarding “certain types”, or, as it is more commonly referred to, racial profiling. Then again, at the risk of sounding like a total bigot, is that actually such a bad idea? The Muslim Public Affairs Council calls racial profiling unconstitutional. But from where I’m sitting, it is equally unconstitutional to sew explosives into your Calvins to bring a plane down on Christmas Day.
When Richard Reid (a.k.a. “The Shoe Bomber”) was captured, we automatically started checking everyone’s shoes… even old ladies’ with large, unsightly corns. Umar’s bomb was hidden in his underwear, so now what? Will security guards start pulling down our pants? Random wedgies? There’s some fancy detective work for you. Isn’t it easier to identify a certain type of individual that we can all look at cross-eyed? The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is claiming invasion of privacy and rejecting the controversial full body scans. Feel free to check out my ass in order to secure safe passage. How about that recent case in Saudi Arabia where the Al-Qaeda member had an explosive stashed in his anal cavity. What next, proctologists moonlighting for the sake of airport security? Immediately after 9-11, while working with a writer on her promotional book tour, we had to continue the planned nine-city schedule. This involved several plane rides, one of which was to Kentucky, where one of the reported terrorists had lived. Believe me, we were doing our own version of racial profiling aplenty. It was more anecdotal than a serious bid to rid evildoers, but I found much comfort in giving the evil eye to a host of “certain-types”. Was I being politically incorrect? Thank you.
To see the list of things you simply cannot say…
When Oscar de la Renta said, “You don’t go to Buckingham Palace in a sweater” after Michelle Obama wore exactly that while visiting the Queen of England, it was the day the fashion planet came to a standstill in shock and awe. Political incorrectness hit an all time high. During the presidential campaign, the fashion brigades declared Michelle Obama the next Jackie O. I never got that comparison from the get go. Did that make her more palatable somehow? Was she now the “politically correct” wife? Every designer, editor and publicist started tripping over themselves to schmooze their way into the good graces of the Obama camp and into Michelle’s closet. But here is where political correctness got in the way of why Michelle Obama was amazing way before Vogue’s André Leon Talley introduced her to “fashion society”. The fashion industry was thrust on Michelle for publicity but what makes her so dynamic has nothing to do with frocks. That was Jackie’s strength. Michelle is a bright career woman and super mom who, besides her arms and dresses, made great choices such as supporting military families and raising awareness to children’s health and obesity issues. And we all know how much the fashion industry loves that, in the hopes that they never have to see another fatty for generations to come.
As we have evolved (for lack of a better term) as a society, our language has become more prudish and the return to our puritan roots seems to have accelerated. No longer are we allowed to say what we really feel for fear of being excommunicated from the fashion flock, distanced from our peers or worse, being considered “out” by the “in” crowd. Our language has shifted exponentially. There are expressions that you can no longer say and on the same token things that you have to say…or else! Here is a list of the most important ones, to ensure you stay politically correct in these confusing times:
1. Worldwide no-no is the N-word, unless you are an N-word.
2. People with intellectual disabilities no longer can be called Retarded. Whereas I find it most applicable in the case of Umar, that retarded member of the Lucky Sperm Club who tried blowing up Flight 253 on Christmas Day.
3. African-American, Asian-American, Latino-American, Corporate-American.
4. Child-Obesity is the politically correct term for Fat Kid these days. As an ex-fatty, call me fatso any day over “You obese baboon”.
5. Tranny hookers now must be referred to as Transgender Sex Workers. As a past resident of the Meatpacking District in New York City back in the 1990’s, I can assure you; “tranny hooker” is how they referred to themselves. It was the uber-political correct LGBT Community Center that put that glamorous title onto them and consequently killed their business.
6. Homosexuals became really Gay around the time of the Stonewall Riots in the 1969, birthing the Gay Rights movement. Whereas in England, Fags are the correct term for cigarettes.
7. The women’s equality movement escalated in the 1970’s demanding equal pay for equal work, which also birthed the Bitch in the Workplace.
8. Midgets must now be referred to as Little People, even in the Wonderful Land of Oz and Munchkin Land.
9. Secretaries needed an ego boost and the only option was a title as opposed to a raise, so they settled for Administrative Assistant, which sure beats Mistress.
10. Housewives once they heard that their husband’s secretaries were getting a verbal promotion, quickly jumped on the bandwagon and demanded to be called Domestic Engineers. Those who survive Fucked Up Upbringings, which is most of us, can now say we came from Dysfunctional Families.
11. Someone Crippled became Handicapped, which evolved into Disabled and now is officially Physically Challenged…until that will be simply unacceptable.
Now matter what you say or do, there is always a 50% chance that you will be utterly, terribly and embarrassingly wrong. So, either we just stop talking and communicating altogether or rather, say whatever we want and let the chips fall where they may.
This article appears in the spring issue of the European lifestyle publication by Stefan Hottinger-Behmer, Gatsby Magazine.
http://imeanwhat.com/youcallthisfashion/the-end-of-political-correctnessOver the last few decades, we have become curiously, annoyingly and extremely... more
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Two recent police raids of gay bars in Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Worth, Texas have sparked mass protests in the two cities and have raised questions regarding the state of equality for persons of all sexual orientations.Two recent police raids of gay bars in Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Worth, Texas have... more
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