Commenting on another institution like the Boy Scouts of America, which had enormous amounts of good will directed toward it and then shot itself in the foot with homophobia, Steven Gorelick, in the Chicago Tribune ( 7/13 ) says "To ... insist that competent and compassionate homosexuals are somehow too far beyond the pale to provide essential services to people in desperate need is just ridiculous." He's writing about the Salvation Army, which had asked to be exempted from local anti-bias laws regarding gay people. He states he will not answer their donation pleas, and could he please have his sofa back because it had little use for "...anyone with intolerance in their hearts or hate in their veins." In fact, the Washington Post ( 7/10 ) stated the Army's request was so distasteful that even the Bush administration backed away from it.
An end run around the Canadian government was almost more interesting than the crime that was reported from 365Gay.com ...a woman interrupted the marriage service of two lesbigay couples in Toronto's Metropolitan Community Church. The service was unique in that "The Church had used the ancient Christian tradition of reading banns, or announcements of the weddings, to avoid the necessity of marriage licenses from the government." This has prompted a Constitutional challenge in the Canadian courts ( and the woman who attempted to assault the minister in the controversial ceremony was arrested ) .
A teacher, Grady Roper, was fired in Texas ( are we surprised? ) for coming to the defense of a student school mural, a part of which depicted a male/male kiss. PlanetOut.com says the faculty was shocked to find the mural had been painted out over a weekend at the behest of the administration, which said it found Satanic images in the artwork which made it unsuitable for a public high school. When Roper said he would go to the press over the incident he was immediately fired.
The New York Times ( 7/9 ) shows President Bush shaking hands with an old friend of the gay community in Chicago, Chilton Knudsen, now the Episcopal Bishop of Maine. Bishop Knudsen celebrated mass many times for Chicago Integrity ( the Episcopal Church's gay caucus ) . Since the cover story quotes Dubya as saying, apparently not tongue in cheek, that they share the same birthday, "The amazing thing is that we'll have our birthday on the same day again next year."
The NY Times ( 7/4 ) highlights the southern Brazilian city of Pelotas. Pelotas is infamous because for more than a century "Brazilians of every class in every part of the country have believed that all of the men here are homosexuals." The phenomenon probably developed in a wealthy, earlier era when newly rich Pelotans sent their sons to France for education and they returned with French fashions, manners and habits, seen as gay. While on some levels not too pleased with the situation, the men of the 300,000+ city have adapted by heavily investing in dressing as women during carnival festivities. FYI: Women from the northeastern state of Paraiba are assumed to be lesbians.
Abercrombie & Fitch may be gay-friendly and have homoerotic catalogs, but PlanetOut.com says right-wing and left-wing critics say its catalogs are soft porn. The Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Lt. Gov. Corrine Wood are urging a boycott. Mike Wilke, the creator of the Commercial Closet, said boycotts by groups which do not themselves use the product only bring attention to it.