TMZ is reporting that disco queen Donna Summer has succumbed to cancer. Summer was a fixture in the songbook that defined many LGBT lives. TMZ reports:
We’re told Summer was in Florida at the time of her death. She was 63 years old.
Sources close to Summer tell us … the singer was trying to keep the extent of her illness under wraps. We spoke to someone who was with Summer a couple of weeks ago … who says she didn’t seem too bad.
In fact, we’re told she was focused on trying to finish up an album she had been working on.
Summer was a 5-time Grammy winner who shot to superstardom in the ’70s with iconic hits like “Last Dance,” “Hot Stuff” and “Bad Girls.”
Pacquiao’s directive for Obama calls societies to fear God and not to promote sin, inclusive of same-sex marriage and cohabitation, notwithstanding what Leviticus 20:13 has been pointing all along: “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”
Pacquiao, bearing a conservative stance on the Reproductive Bill which is still pending in the Philippine Congress for approval even after contemptuous debates, believes the sweeping campaign of Obama favoring the gays and lesbians to legally marry is nothing more than a direct attack on the moral society and against the creative power and will of God.
LGBT Icon Harvey Milk would have been 82 years old next Tuesday – had he not been assassinated in 1978. In 2009, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed openly gay Sen. Mark Leno’s SB 572 designating every May 22 as “Harvey Milk Day.” The Harvey Milk Foundation and others are holding numerous events before and on that official day, including several in Los Angeles and West Hollywood.
Today, Sacramento holds the third annual Harvey Milk Day with the Harvey Milk Foundation, the California Legislative LGBT Caucus and Equality California with a breakthrough conversation at the California Museum on the implementation and benefits of Senate Bill (SB) 48, the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act. The FAIR Act, which has been threatened with repeal by the Religious Right since it was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown last year, requires public schools to teach LGBT history and the contributions of LGBT people. Though the law officially went into effect on Jan. 1, 2012, is has not yet been fully implemented or integrated into California’s public school curriculum standards, though individual schools and teachers have implemented their own programs that address LGBT history and antigay bullying and discrimination.
On Sunday May 20,LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Stuart Milk, founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation and nephew of Harvey Milk, will host the 3rd Annual Harvey Milk Day of Service at Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools.
Rachel Maddow did an excellent job deconstructing the new cry of “victimization” from the Religious Right. This time it’s longtime antigay Frank VanderSloot, national finance co-chair of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. Lat April, The Advocate’s Andrew Harmon posted an important story about how Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, plaintiffs in the American Foundation for Equal Rights federal lawsuit challenging Prop 8, “were subjected to more than a dozen antigay voice mails during the 2010 trial from a man who was later convicted of making threatening telephone calls to Nancy Pelosi.” That’s real victimization! The trial also exposed how cries of victimization are a common technique used by Prop 8 proponents and Religious Right conservatives when logic doesn’t work. Here – spoiler alert – Rachel points out that VanderSloot is using his whining over being on the Obama campaign’s list of top Romney donors as a ploy to (surprise!) raise money. Human Rights Campaign has already called on Romney to fire VanderSloot.
County of Los Angeles Sheriff deputies responded to reports of a dog locked in a hot car in West Hollywood, on the 1200 block of Ogden Drive. When deputies arrived on scene, they found bundles of cash, several bags of drugs, and a German short-haired Pointer dog inside the vehicle (described as a red Nissan Pathfinder). County of Los Angeles Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC) officers responded to the call, and transported the dog, now named Hunter by staff and volunteers, to the Carson Animal Care Center.
Hunter is currently in DACC’s care and is doing well. Although a bit timid and nervous when initially rescued from the vehicle, he has calmed down after getting to know DACC staff and volunteers. Hunter is being kept safe and comfortable while in the Department’s care.
If anyone recognizes Hunter, please contact the DACC Communications Center at 310-523-9566 or the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Department at 310- 855-8850 with any information you may have about Hunter’s owner.
As we approach the summer months, DACC would like to remind the public about the dangers of leaving your pet inside your car. Although the outside temperature may be mild, the temperature inside can quickly turn dangerous for a pet locked inside a vehicle.
It was such a joyous day — looking out over these inspiring Barnard women, being presented the Medal of Distinction by a civil rights champion like Judge Judith Kaye who spoke generously of my work and how far we’ve come, sharing the Medal with President Obama the very week he embraced the freedom to marry, and then hearing the waves of cheers and applause first for the freedom to marry and then as the President followed by invoking the arc “from Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall” as a call to further action — and happily, my parents, my sister, my brothers, and my husband were all there to share the big day with me. Truly the honor of a lifetime.
Human Rights Campaign headquarters in Washington DC (File photo from HRC)
(UPDATED 1:05p) LAPD Detective Gus Villanueva from Media Relations just told me:
This morning LAPD received a call through the 911 system from a caller who stated that he was going to blow up the LGBT building in Washington DC. The call was received shortly after 8:00am this morning. LAPD immediately made notifications to law enforcement officials in Washington DC to advise them of the threat.
The LAPD immediately launched an investigation into the threat since it appeared to have been generated from a local pay phone. As of 12:30pm, there has been no additional evidence to validate the threat. The investigation is ongoing and we will continue to coordinate our effort with our counterparts in Washington DC. The LGBT authorities were notified by Washington Metro Police Department and they have taken measures to ensure the safety of their patrons and employees.
Det. Villanueva also said it is routine for the LAPD to notify any agency, individuals or entities where the threat is located to “ensure public safety.” He said they don’t know yet whether the call was credible or not, nor would he release any more information such as the location of the pay phone from which the call was made.
President Barack Obama sits with Barnard College President Debora Spar (l) and Chairwoman Jolyne Caruso-Fitzgerald at Barnard College in New York, May 14, 2012. (White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
President Obama delivered a stirring commencement address at the private, all-women’s Barnard College in New York, Monday. (Excerpts below; click here for the complete transcript.) He spoke lovingly about the powerful women who’ve influenced his life and dispensed three pieces of advice: fight for a seat at the head of the table; never underestimate the power of your example; and persevere. But when he told the story of former California State Sen. Hilda Solis, now Secretary of Labor, a flashing neon light went off in my brain: the same message applies to LGBT people. It’s time to appoint an LGBT Cabinet member! Think what that would mean to an LGBT kid? Here’s what President Obama said – do you see the same flashing message?
Which brings me to my second piece of advice: Never underestimate the power of your example. The very fact that you are graduating, let alone that more women now graduate from college than men, is only possible because earlier generations of women — your mothers, your grandmothers, your aunts — shattered the myth that you couldn’t or shouldn’t be where you are. (Applause.)
I think of a friend of mine who’s the daughter of immigrants. When she was in high school, her guidance counselor told her, you know what, you’re just not college material. You should think about becoming a secretary. Well, she was stubborn, so she went to college anyway. She got her master’s. She ran for local office, won. She ran for state office, she won. She ran for Congress, she won. And lo and behold, Hilda Solis did end up becoming a secretary — (laughter) — she is America’s Secretary of Labor. (Applause.)
So think about what that means to a young Latina girl when she sees a Cabinet secretary that looks like her. (Applause.) Think about what it means to a young girl in Iowa when she sees a presidential candidate who looks like her. Think about what it means to a young girl walking in Harlem right down the street when she sees a U.N. ambassador who looks like her. Do not underestimate the power of your example.
Newsweek/Daily Beast editor Tina Brown decided to adorn President Obama with a rainbow-colored “gaylo” and ordain him America’s “first gay president” as a kind of homage to poet Maya Angelou calling Bill Clinton the country’s first black president. “If President Clinton was the ‘first black president’ then Obama earns every stripe in that ‘gaylo’ with last week’s gay marriage proclamation,” Brown told Politico today, via email. “Newsweek’s cover pays tribute to his newly ordained place in history.” That cover story was written by openly gay Catholic Andrew Sullivan, who has been talking about marriage equality for decades.
One can only imagine the gasps from Religious Right. Meanwhile, Republican Mitt Romney, Obama’s re-election rival this November, drew a standing ovation from evangelicals at Christian Liberty University this weekend as he tried to win over young voters who think Mormonism is a cult. But he didn’t go too far with his antigay rhetoric since, as I wrote this weekend, many conservative Republicans are worried the party is headed over a cliff if it continues ideological purity.
Seth Walsh's brother Shawn and mother Wendy (Photo by Karen Ocamb)
I first met Wendy Walsh last June 16 when the Southern California chapter of the ACLU honored trans hero Chaz Bono and writer Dan Savage for creating the It Gets Better Project. During the event, ACLU/SoCal’ James Gilliam announced the Seth Walsh Project to intervene in school bullying when asked. Here’s what I wrote at the time:
The project was conceived after the suicide of 13-year-old Seth Walsh last September. Walsh was in the eighth grade at Tehachapi’s Jacobsen Middle School and had suffered intense anti-gay bullying and gender-based harassment since coming out as gay in the sixth grade.
“Wendy Walsh contacted us after her son committed suicide,” Gilliam said. “In the suicide note Seth left her, one of the things it said was, ‘Make sure you make the school feel like shit for bringing you this sorrow.’ And so she asked us what could be done with the school district.”
I was struck by how much grace-under-pressure Wendy exhibited before this huge crowd of strangers wishing her well. But she was there with her other loving son Shawn, who, of course, had his own reaction to Seth’s suicide. On this Mother’s Day, my heart goes out to Wendy and all other mothers who’ve lost children to suicide, hatred and violence, including most recently, the mother of Treyvon Martin. During the height of the AIDS crisis, I felt like a surrogate mother to so many young gay men whose families rejected them, who cried in my arms that they were dying and had never fallen in love. My own children have four legs – my dogs Charlie and Pepper – and as I wrote about my little Shitzu, I know deeply the heartbreak of loss. But I can’t imagine what Wendy and other mothers left behind must feel today. My heart and thanks goes out to them for sharing their children and their loss with us. Big HUG this Mother’s Day!
Eliza Byard, Executive Director of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), speaks with Renee Sotile & Mary Jo Godges of Traipsing Thru Films about the FAIR Education Act. GLSEN is preparing curriculum for California schools, which under the new law will now include historical contributions from LGBT people in social studies classes.
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