"The first two years after Lance told me his secret were terrible. My hopes and dreams were shattered; my thoughts and emotions were all mixed up. At first, I hoped it was just a phase he was going through...you know how teenagers are. But it wasn't. I was also disappointed that I would have no daughter-in-law or grandchildren to visit. ... My family and friends would find out. They would think that I raised a Bakla or Binabae...a man who acts like a female. In the Philippines, homosexuals are looked upon as bad people. They don't belong anywhere. There isn't even a word for 'gay' in tagalog. The words are all derogatory. I cried a lot during those two years. But this was my son. ... I love my son. I knew that I did not want to lose this precious child. And so I had to get educated. I had to understand why some people are gay and what it means to be gay. ... Father's Day in 1995, my husband, daughter and I marched in the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade." ... Belinda Rayos Del Sol Dronkers-Laureta writing in Asian Week, Nov. 23.
"I misspoke. I apologize for my Sept. 13 comments because they were a complete misstatement of what I believe and what I've preached for nearly 50 years. Namely, I do not believe that any mortal knows when God is judging or not judging someone or a nation. In my listing of groups and persons who might have assisted in the secularization of America, I unforgivably left off the list a sleeping church, Jerry Falwell, etc." ... Jerry Falwell on his anti-gay ( and anti just about every liberal group ) comments after the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, speaking to the Nov. 18 Washington Post.
"I didn't know it then, but that day [ when my son came out to me ] began a journey, and a fabulous journey it has been. I met great people, made many new friends, but most of all I am closer to my children than ever before. Especially, I am close to Lance and I am so proud of him." ... Belinda Dronkers-Laureta, of API Family Pride, can be reached at the e-mail address APIfamilyPride@aol.com .
"It's a great way to spend the day giving something back to the community that's given so much to me.'' ... Openly gay U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., who last year was asked not to volunteer for Thanksgiving because he is gay. That same group, the Gospel Rescue Mission, asked him back this year.
"The BBC has apologized after more than 500 viewers complained about overtly sexual comments Rupert Everett made during Robbie Williams' concert special on Saturday night. Rupert Everett, who was host for the evening special, joked that he'd love to bed Williams and then said everyone in the audience regardless of their sexual persuasion would once they'd seen him perform. ... The incident followed months of published speculations about Williams' sexual orientation. In a recent interview, Williams said he had considered having sex with a man but couldn't go through with it." ... Gay.com U.K. Nov. 20.
"John and Jason weren't the prettiest sights to walk down Main Street in Coshocton, Ohio, and advocates for gays and the transgendered were outraged they were there. John Stockum, 21, and Jason Householder, 23 weren't too happy to be there, either. The pair had been convicted of criminal damage after throwing beer bottles at a woman in a car. Municipal Court Judge David Hostetler gave them a choice: 60 days in jail or an hour-long stroll down Main Street wearing dresses, wigs and makeup. ... Civil rights advocates say the sentence gives the wrong message and demeans the transgendered." ... 365Gay.com news story.
"Couples waited in line for almost an hour in front of the Gay & Lesbian Center on Saturday afternoon...some with strollers, others wearing matching clothes, many with their arms around each other...to fill out their 'Declaration of Domestic Partnership' and make it official. More than 350 couples signed up and had their forms notarized for free ... . Domestic partners share a common residence and agree to be jointly responsible for each other's living expenses. The new rights provided by Assembly Bill 25 will be accessible on Jan. 1." ... Los Angeles Independent, Nov. 21.
"Mayor Giuliani gets his day started the same way every morning...by giving a peck on the cheek to his two gay roommates. 'We always get a little kiss...it's cute,' Howard Koeppel told London's Sunday Times. 'We make him laugh. If I tell him to finish his juice or get home early tonight, he calls me 'mother.'' Giuliani has been living with the millionaire car dealer and his partner, Mark Hsiao, ever since he split from his wife, Donna Hanover, last year and moved out of Gracie Mansion." ... New York Post, Nov. 25.
"The City Council unanimously passed a bill yesterday that would rename a stretch of West 31st Street in Manhattan after the Rev. Mychal F. Judge, one of the first people identified as dying in the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Father Judge had been the fire department's chaplain since 1992 and died as he ministered to victims, many of them firefighters." ... New York Times, Nov. 21, on the gay Rev. Mychal Judge.
"Flash! This just in: All the while that Afghanistan's ruling Taliban has been protecting Osama bin Laden, Italy has been harboring another omnipotent religious zealot, one who equally condemns us Western sinners and incites violence with his incendiary rhetoric. Yes, right there on the European mainland! Meet John Paul II, Christian fundamentalist extraordinaire and a man who inspires thugs across the globe who commit hate crimes against homosexuals, a form of terrorism if ever there was one. 'Homosexual acts are against nature's laws,' John Paul said last summer to cheering crowds from his balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square. 'The church cannot silence the truth, because this would not help discern what is good from what is evil.'" ... Michelangelo Signorile in the New York Press, Nov. 20.
"So it's perhaps a bit ironic, perhaps a bit outlandish, that Pope John Paul ... accepted the helmet of deceased New York City Fire Dept. Chaplain Mychal Judge at a ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica in which the pontiff honored visiting New York City firefighters. Maybe the Pope doesn't read New York magazine, or LGNY or a variety of other publications that rushed out posthumous outing stories on the chaplain." ... Signorile.
