I want his T-shirt.

Salt Lake City has become the first Utah city to offer housing and employment protections for gays and lesbians—an action supported by the Mormon church. The City Council, in a unanimous vote Tuesday, passed a pair of nondiscrimination ordinances that would bar landlords and employers from discriminating based on sexuality—a protection not currently afforded under state or federal laws. In a rare public appearance before local lawmakers, a representative from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints read a supporting statement at a public hearing before the Salt Lake City Council....

It's a welcome development—we'll take it—but no one is fooled: this "rare" action is an attempt to blunt charges of anti-gay bigotry leveled against Magic Underpants, Inc., in the wake of Prop 8 and the assault on the rights of gay couples that was waged and funded by the Mormon Church. This action wouldn't have been taken if those charges—legit charges—hadn't been leveled. And they just had to get a dig in...

"The church supports this ordinance because it is fair and reasonable and does not do violence to the institution of marriage," said Michael Otterson, managing director of the LDS Church's public affairs office.

Take it from the Mormons—they know all about doing violence to people's marriages.

The study backs up the assertion that support for gay marriage splits by age, with people ages 18-29 more than 30 percent more likely to be supportive of same sex marriage than people over 65.

It also basically affirms what Oregon LGBT group Basic Rights Oregon has been saying: our state's not ready for a statewide vote on gay marriage. They're hoping that hard campaigning for the next three years will turn that 45 percent into a supportive majority (or at least maybe some of those over 65ers will have dropped off by then?).

Here's the graph, check it out:

H/T to Sociological Images.

As Jesse Ventura said last night, “You can’t put a civil rights issue on the ballot and let the people decide. You have to have elected officials to who have courage to make the right decision. If you left it up to the people, we’d have slavery, depending on how you worded it.”

But when our lives aren’t run by mob rule, we do pretty well: We’ve pretty much conquered Hollywood.
We’ve conquered academia. The press is ours. Book publishing? Ours! The governments of Western and Northern Europe? Ours! And considering how people until 40 feel in this country, the future is ours, too!

So, this is what I have to say to Frank Schubert, Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, the Catholic Church, LDS, to the born-again nut jobs who haven’t a clue what the Golden Rule means and to the people who think that telling children that gay people exist is something like terrorism: Fuck you. Really: Fuck you. Fuck your lies. Your hypocrisy. Your cruelty. Fuck your pick-and-choose-only-the-most-bigoted-parts religion. Fuck your ignorance. Fuck your fear. Fuck you. Please: Eat shit and die. Fuck you. Very much.

It is time we wake up and acknowledge that the GLBT fight for equality is the world’s first “Civil Likes” movement. Each year, a popularity contest is held somewhere on the map and if the locals find us likeable our families are protected. If the natives have a negative view of gay people, we remain second-class citizens.

Given this reality we have to make a major choice.

We can declare the current process a disgusting and humiliating insult to our humanity and opt out of all future referendums. The movement would make the case to the nation why such votes are anathema to American values and in the process educate people about our families and quest for equality. A powerful campaign of continued and sustainable civil disobedience would have to supplement this strategy.

Or, we can continue to participate in degrading referendums. But, if we do so, we have to stop pretending that the majority of the American people understand the U.S. Constitution, much less the notion of equality. Those who vote against GLBT rights simply do not like gay people and their antipathy, often masked by religious bigotry, overrides the idea of equal protection.

What does this mean for same-sex marriage organizers in Oregon? According to Basic Rights Oregon (BRO), support must be built for marriage equality long before a measure appears on the ballot.

“Our community cannot afford to rush to the ballot and fight this out in a screaming match,” says Jeana Frazzini, executive director of BRO. Frazzini adds that political campaigns rarely offer the opportunity for thoughtful conversations.

This wasn’t entirely unforeseen. At a speech Monday night rallying the advocacy foot soldiers, Freedom To Marry executive director Evan Wolfson warned BRO and other same-sex marriage supporters that the Maine vote could be a disappointment. Wolfson said BRO’s public education plan — which encourages supporters to have one-on-one conversations with friends and loved ones about why marriage is important for the LGBT community — is essential to building the support necessary for a vote down the road.

But in telling people to have conversations about same-sex marriage and not push for legal rights, BRO also may face resistance from couples who are tired of wading through mud of “civil unions” or “domestic partnerships.” As the Mercury reported last month, many want to be married. Now.

“I totally relate,” Frazzini says, adding that she and her partner of 12 years want to be married, too. “It’s painful stuff and it can be scary stuff at times.” But she also says putting measures on the ballot without taking the time to build community support will only lead to disheartening defeats.

“We will actually do more to change the fabric of our communities in having these calm, heartfelt conversations,” Frazzini says.

[When I saw a] delicious article by Tim Craig in today's Washington Post, called "Pastors unite to support same-sex marriage in D.C.", I just had to stop and take a look. A quote from the article encapsulates what we here at The Blend have known but some in the general public may just be catching on to: 'There is this myth out there that you can't be pro-God and pro-gay.' Move over Harry Jackson, because here's the real face of D.C. clergy. Meet The Reverends Christine Y. Wiley & Dennis W. Wiley of Covenant Baptist Church, and co-founders of Clergy United for Marriage Equality: "Rev. Christine Y. Wiley... noted that many District churches have a history of fighting for social and economic justice.... "It just really seemed like a natural thing that we would do," Wiley said. "We believe as African Americans who have been discriminated against [that] we don't have the right to discriminate against anyone else."

Here's hoping the Rev. Bernice King gets the message.

• freedomtomarry.org
• Evan Wolfson

Evan Wolfson, the executive director of the nationwide organization Freedom To Marry, will speak tonight at Portland State University about the evolving nation-wide attitudes about same-sex couples.

Time Magazine named Wolfson "one of the 100 most influential people in the world" in 2004. He is the author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry. His appearance is in conjunction with the start of Basic Rights Oregon's education campaign on marriage equality. BRO hopes to start a public conversation on marriage values to build support for a marriage equality ballot measure in time for the 2012 election.

Wolfson's speech will be at 6 p.m., Monday, Nov. 2, at the Smith Memorial Student Union, Vanport Room (#338), Portland State University. No cost! For a map of the campus, click here.

The reverse however—a large African American civil rights group appointing an anti-gay bigot—just happened. Noted anti-gay bigot Bernice King was appointed to head the Southern Christian Leadership Conference last week. Thankfully she's being called out on her bigotry by the Daily Voice, "Black America's Daily News Source":

Bernice King can make history in two ways. She made it first by becoming the first woman in the 52 year history of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to take the organization's reins. Now she can make history in another way. She should renounce the anti-gay bigotry of her recent past. That bigotry was on shameful and insulting display in December 2004 when she and thousands of marchers stood at the gravesite of her father, Martin Luther King, Jr., and denounced gay marriage. The implication was that King might well have stood with her and them in their protest against gay rights.

Nothing could be further from the truth. King's fight against bigotry and discrimination, all bigotry and discrimination, was relentless and uncompromising. If anything that day, King would have been across the street from his gravesite with the hundred or so other counter-demonstrators. They loudly shouted that what Bernice and the marchers were doing at her father's gravesite and in his name, was a travesty and a disgrace. King sullied her father's name to show her enmity to gay marriage. She also sullied her mother's too. A few years before Bernice's gravesite antic, Coretta Scott King issued a public statement forcefully denouncing anti-gay bigotry and made it perfectly clear that her husband would be a champion of gay rights if he were alive.

Hot damn! The 1978 Shaw Brothers flick Invincible Shaolin screens next week! Dan Halsted of the Grindhouse Film Festival sums it up:

The Venom Mob star as a group of fighters who are pitted against each other in a North Shaolin vs. South Shaolin kung fu showdown! Three South Shaolin students start intensive (and extremely strange) training to master various fighting styles and martial arts weapons. Funky style and huge sideburns reign supreme, colliding with director Chang Cheh's trademark violence and homo-eroticism. This movie also features some of the best training sequences in martial arts movie history.

Wanna go? Of course you do. Wanna go for free? Of course you do.

You know the drill: Email me no later than 4 pm today (Friday October 30), and make sure your email's subject line is "Venom." Shortly after 4 pm, I'll pick a winner at random* and email 'em back to let them know how to pick up their tickets. HAVE AT.

Invincible Shaolin screens Tuesday, November 3, at 7:45 pm at the Hollywood Theatre (4122 NE Sandy).

*Flattery helps.

When THE STAR visited the area, a small group of residents pointed out an old community centre which is said to be the main 'hang out' spot for the lesbians. According to the residents the lesbians gather there almost nightly and can be seen hugging, kissing and even "touching".

The residents say they are mostly worried about the lesbian group as they are most prevalent and influential. The number of persons in this group is said to be steadily increasing. In terms of the suspected gay men, the residents claim they are not as bold as the lesbians and are fewer but they too are expected to comply with the two-week notice.

No quotes from the authorities about protecting the gay men and lesbians in town where the "eradication" is under way. Because, of course, the authorities in Jamaica don't protect gays and lesbians from mob violence. Background on boycotting Jamaica is here. And if Barack Obama is going to send an openly gay ambassador anywhere, he should send one to Jamaica.

"I just hope the community can appreciate the meaning and magnitude for this legislation—first federal LGBT rights law as I understand it. And the start of more good things to come."—Steve Hildebrand, Obama's deputy national campaign manager and an advisor to the president on gay issues (in an email to Rex Wockner).

The ceremony is being live-streamed here.

It's actually kind of heartbreaking, isn't it?

A new group in town is leading a march downtown tomorrow to demand LGBT marriage equality now—they say BRO is moving too slowly and missing the opportunity to pressure Obama and mainstream Democrats to push for same sex marriage rights nationally.

"This is a civil rights issue. No one would look at a black person now and say, 'Hey, you should have waited,'" says Chani Geigle-Teller, a local social worker who helped organize fledgling march-leaders the Portland Equal Rights Coalition. The loose group has been meeting every week for the past three months, discussing how Portland LGBT allies could push for marriage equality in a different way than the big, mainstream groups like BRO and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). "BRO as the leader of gay rights here in Oregon should be calling for equal rights now. DOMA should have been overturned, like, yesterday," says Geigle-Teller.

Across town in Forest Grove, a group of Pacific University students are bringing gay activist Cleve Jones to town on Monday night (info here). Jones is fresh off organizing the giant marriage equality march in DC, where he urged the crowd, "Do not accept delays. And when we see leaders and those who represent us saying, ’You must wait again.’ We say, ‘No! No! No longer will we wait!’"

Student Co-Director of Pacific University's Center for Gender Equity Kayla Johnston was at the DC march and is part of the group that felt it was urgent to bring Jones to Portland. "A lot of us on our staff agreed that the HRC approach of, 'Let’s go slow, see what they give us' wasn't enough. We’re tired of waiting. We’re more attracted to Cleve Jones voice."

BRO spokesman Thomas Wheatley defends his organization's tactics, saying that winning gay marriage in Oregon now just isn't politically realistic. Legalizing same sex marriage in Oregon means passing a constitutional amendment in a statewide vote, after Measure 36 passed five years ago in a wave of anti-gay backlash. Winning a statewide vote takes time and money—BRO knocked on 17,000 Oregon doors this summer to talk about marriage equality.

"We’re putting our energy into the things people can do right now that will actually make a difference," says Wheatley, explaining that BRO is sending members to campaign in Washington and Maine, two states facing measures for LGBT civil rights restrictions this November. "I think a march is a great way to capitalize on folks’ energy, but we’re focusing on these campaigns that will be won or lost in 10 days," says Wheatley.

But Geigle-Teller thinks Oregon is prepared to pass a marriage equality constitutional amendment as early as 2010. "I want to believe in the public. People are ready, both gay and straight," she says.

Below the cut—a pro-equality video featuring an old man we can all agree is awesome.

• Victory!

The NYT put together a cool interactive map of the votes, allowing us to gaze in shame at Russ Feingold, the only Democrat who voted against the bill.

Basic Rights Oregon's Thomas Wheatley was ecstatic when he answered the phone. "We’re elated — this is a tremendous victory!" he said. In response to criticisms of the law creating "thought crimes" rather than combating the actual problems that lead to hate, Wheatley responded that the new legislation is necessary and important because it gives $5 million in federal grants annually to state and local governments to fund prosecution of hate crimes. It also gives federal money to fund local programs to combat juvenile hate crimes committed.

"You think about the hate crime that happened five years in Hillsboro that's still unsolved. In this case, the Sherriff's office might be able to access resources from the federal government that could help them solve the case," says Wheatley.

No one's really talking about a small section of the bill mentioned briefly by the AP: "The bill also creates a federal crime to penalize attacks against U.S. service members on account of their service." So maybe that's how legislators got so many red state politicians on board?

Of course, not everyone is celebrating. From the Catholic News Agency: "The advance of a bill that would create penalties to punish “hate crimes” comes at a time of increasing intolerance towards those who support the traditional definition of marriage and reject homosexual activism, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins noted on Wednesday, causing him to ask, 'Where's the protection for them?'"

A gay man tried to poison his lesbian neighbours by putting slug pellets into their curry after he was accused of kidnapping their three-legged cat.

It's actually true that smoking is gay...

This is kind of funny in a "science confirms what we always knew" kind of way, but it's also TERRIFYING, right? In the future, your internet friends unintentionally out you to scientists. Also: how long until this become an all-too-quickly-used iPhone app?

via Gawker.

Hat tips to I Am Bored.

I was very disappointed that you printed a naked picture in an apparently homosexual setting in the Sunday, Sept. 6 East Oregonian. I immediately ushered the paper to the trash to protect my children. In the future, such things will be cause for canceling our subscription.

I am also disappointed in the coverage of health care issues. It seems that a majority of political cartoons and commentary are for it - where is the balance? When opposition is covered it is done so as if persons opposing are deranged or uninformed. When intelligent, opposing argument is presented, it is couched in obscure positions. Where is your personal responsibility? (This is a critical issue in terms of your own health care and your own families.) Certainly an intelligent and fair addressing of the issue is wise; there is much at stake for all citizens. There are many ways to solve the problems and all options should be examined, not just toting one. This is especially true when closer examination of that option seems to reveal many serious concerns that should be completely worked out before it is considered for the nation.

Certainly you are intelligent enough to see the absolute merit of such an approach. We would like to see a more open, wise approach to the subject. There is no reason to take your paper if it is simply propaganda and not an intelligent discussion.

Mariann Adams
Pendleton

This is in response to the letter by Mariann Adams in the Sept. 9 East Oregonian. Ms. Adams was disappointed you printed a "naked picture in an apparently homosexual setting."

Ms. Adams stated that when an opposing view is given, the person giving it is covered as "deranged or uninformed." I don't describe her opposition as deranged, but I will go as far as saying it was uninformed. The photo she was referring to, as was clearly stated in the caption, was taken by Annie Leibovitz for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. No one can definitively argue what is art; beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What can be argued is the apparent homosexual setting. The photo is of a man (John Lennon) and a woman (his wife, Yoko Ono).

People often view things according to the their own values. Perhaps Ms. Adams' pre-existing bias regarding this picture was also present in her opinions in the rest of the letter.

Bob Noack
Hermiston

I remember as theater-geek kid in BF Nowhere Colorado, I convinced my parents to sign me up for just about every dance class I could find. Being a boy, in dance classes, in the farm country of the Western slope, led to no end of teasing and merciless bullying. I admit, I brought it on myself, but I found some solace in knowing that a guy like Patrick Swayze was also a dancer. He loved to move like I loved to move, and he was strong and handsome, and took no shit from no man. Plus, I liked that we shared a first name.

Graceful? Absolutely. But Swayze also proved he could be downright beautiful, playing a gorgeous matronly drag queen in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.

When this film came out, I was just beginning what would turn out to be a long term relationship with another man. I can’t remember how the film played in the gay community, but I know at that point in my life, I was tickled to see Swayze taking on a somewhat taboo role.

So yeah, Patrick Swayze could kick some ass, and make damn sure that no-one would ever put Baby in a corner. But he could also be beautiful, graceful, and soft without losing a trace of his masculinity. He’ll be missed.

The fest's official site doesn't have a full listing of this year's films yet, but Mercury HQ just got some details about the latest incarnation of the annual Portland Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (PLGFF).

Full press release-y goodness after the jump, including dates, ticket prices, and highlights. Expect a full rundown of all of PLGFF's films on September 7.