FROM THE STREETS

CALIFORNIA
The State of California in political circles has become one that is increasingly owned, operated and manipulated by Hispanics by and large. Now the Los Angeles Times reports as the California Assembly closes in on naming a new leader, the question is not whether the next speaker will be a Latino from Los Angeles, it is which one.No less than four state political power houses are vying for the position but in a bold and party shattering decision John Perez threw his cigar in the race recently igniting some fierce infighting, back stabbing and bickering.
Perez, who would be California's first openly gay legislative leader, had surprised the Capitol by entering the contest. For months, he had been insisting that he would leave the Assembly to run for a state Senate opening next year. A week earlier, Villaraigosa, a former speaker himself, had hosted a summit of sorts at his mayoral home to talk about the speakership race. The attendees were Perez, De Leon, Nuñez and the mayor. And then the big announcement was made and to throw fuel on the fire the current speaker held a press conference to all but declare Perez the winner months before the official vote takes place. I guess it is true we really do bring drama to all that we do!

UGANDA
If Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill becomes law, it will be little short of state-sponsored "genocide" against the gay community, a prominent member of the Ugandan Anglican church said this week.
Canon Gideon Byamugisha said the bill, which recommends the death penalty for anyone repeatedly convicted of having gay sex and prison sentences for those who fail to report homosexual activity to the police, would breed violence and intolerance through all levels of society.
"I believe that this bill [if passed into law] will be state-legislated genocide against a specific community of Ugandans, however few they may be," he said.
The bill, which will strengthen Uganda's existing laws against homosexuality under its Penal Code Act, has been widely condemned by world leaders and human rights groups, who fear it will trigger a witch hunt against the gay community. Activists have raised concerns that the bill will hinder the country's fight against HIV/Aids among the gay community and legal experts have said it will undermine freedom of expression and association.
Yesterday, Uganda's Daily Monitor news website reported that Sweden will cut aid to Uganda if the bill is passed. Canada has also condemned the bill and the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, took the matter up directly with the Ugandan president, who has given tacit support for the bill, at the Commonwealth summit last weekend. Britain is Uganda's fourth largest donor. But James Nsaba Buturo, the minister of state for ethics and integrity, told the Guardian last week, that the government was determined to pass the legislation, even if meant withdrawing from international treaties and conventions or losing donor funding.
Exploiting traditional views
Byamugisha said gay people were being used as "scapegoats" for Uganda's social problems, such as the breakdown of the family unit and rising HIV infection rates, and politicians were using the bill to tap into the prevailing anti-gay mood in the country in the run up to the 2011 elections.
"They [politicians] are exploiting the traditional and cultural abhorrence to same-sex relationships to their advantage. They know that if they criminalise homosexuals, homosexual tendencies and homosexual acts, they stand a better chance of winning votes from the majority of religious followers and leaders, because most of us may not be able to distinguish what may be considered 'unacceptable', from the point of view of religious and cultural belief and opinion, from what is 'criminal', from the point of state law that is meant to keep peace, order and justice," he said.
"What makes this proposed law truly distasteful is the amount and level of violence that is being proposed against suspected, rumoured and known individuals who are gay, and their families and community leaders in their places of worship, residence, education, work, business and entertainment."
He added: "When you say that parents of homosexual children, and that pastors and counsellors who extend spiritual guidance and psycho-social support to homosexuals, will be regarded as 'accomplices' in promoting and abetting homosexuality if they don't report them to police, then you take the law a bit too far."
Byamugisha's stance will put him at odds with many in Uganda. But the minister has a track record of speaking against a prevailing mood. In 1990, after the death of his first wife, he discovered he was HIV-positive. Two years later he became the first practising African priest to publicly declare his status, not an easy thing to do in a country that, for all its efforts to significantly lower infection rates, has not shaken the stigma associated with the disease.
Since revealing his status, Byamugisha, who is a Christian Aid goodwill ambassador on HIV/Aids, has campaigned for the rights of people living with the disease. In 2003 he established the Friends of Canon Gideon Foundation to end the stigma of diagnosis, encourage safe sexual practices, improve access to treatment and support orphans or vulnerable children who have lost parents. This year he was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize for his work.
Taking a gamble
But while Byamugisha took a risk over his HIV status, speaking out against the bill could prove a bigger gamble. The church in Uganda, as in other African states, takes a clear view that homosexuality is a sin and is something that can be cured. Some will no doubt see the bill as a way of curbing an "evil" practice. But the minister hopes the ferocity of the bill will deter religious leaders from throwing their weight behind it.
"I sincerely hope that my fellow religious leaders will comprehend my stand against the level of violence proposed in the bill," he said. "I hope that they will not translate my hesitation to support the bill as a moral surrender to behaviours and practices that we regard as 'unacceptable' and 'sinful' in our ethics and morality frameworks. I hope that they will translate my hesitation as shying away from endorsing a bill that will institutionalise violence and death to a minority group simply because the majority do not like them."
Regardless of opinion from faith leaders, though, Byamugisha believes he has an obligation to speak out. "I realise that if I am happy to speak out against discrimination and stigma in relation to HIV, then I should also be happy to speak out against paralysing homophobia, sexism, tribalism, Puritanism, fundamentalism and against anything else that reduces and diminishes our love, care and support for each other as we travel the road of faith and belief."
Liz Ford and Emma Pomfret guardian.co.uk,
Friday 4 December 2009 11.44 GMT

NEW JERSEY
In a last minute now or never fervor a bill to legalize gay marriage in New Jersey will be posted for a vote. Sen. Ray Lesniak, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says the bill is scheduled to go before that committee on December 7th and will be voted on by the full Senate next Thursday. Garden State lawmakers who support the idea have been reluctant to post the bill for a vote unless they were fairly certain it would pass. Both houses of the Legislature must pass it before it goes to the governor. The current governor "Corzine" has pledged his support and said he would sign the bill into law. The timing is crucial to reach his desk before he is replaced by the newly elected republican governor who is strongly opposed to marriage quality and has vowed to veto the legislation if presented.

OHIO
In a not so surprising move members of Cleveland’s transgender community will be protected against discrimination under legislation passed unanimously by the city council. The ordinance approved Monday night expands the city’s existing anti-bias laws to bar businesses from denying jobs or housing to people because of their gender identity or gender expression.
It’s the council’s latest step meant to show that Cleveland is a tolerant city. The city was recently rewarded for those efforts by being named the host city for the 2014 Gay Games, an international sports festival.
Council members said they may consider extending the protections further next year, possibly by allowing transgender persons to use either a men’s or women’s public restroom.

CHINA
Opening of the gay pub in southwest China’s Yunnan Province was delayed due to pressure, said its founder on Tuesday, the 22nd World AIDS Day.The pub in the tourism Dali city which has drawn wide public attention was set to open on Tuesday. “The pub will open sooner or later,” said its founder Zhang Jianbo, who was a doctor from the Dali No.2 People’s Hospital. One reason for the delay was too much pressure towards volunteers working in it. “They will be looked at through ‘colored glasses’,” he said. The staff are worried they will be subject to hatred and criticism for offering help and assistance to people seeking information on HIV/AIDS prevention and care. Not withstanding societal stigmas regarding homosexuality.

NEW YORK
As the holiday season roars into full speed so does the season of giving and some of the New York City's major gay promoters and marketing companies are teaming up for a few special charity events. If you are in the area please support the cause of your choice but do share something with someone this holiday season!

FROM THE STREETS

DALLAS TEXAS
The long anticipated relocation and grand opening of the new location "The Brick/Joe's " will open at 5:00 pm Friday night 11/13. Drop by this weekend for a sneak peak! They are also accepting applications for all positions. Inquire at the club.
Be sure to come back here and give us the details and inside scoop!

The Brick / Joe's Dallas
2525 Wycliff Ave., #120
Dallas, Texas 75219
214-521-3154
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BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
During the past few years an alarming trend has been quietly stripping the black gay community. Fast and furiously black gay owned, operated or patronized bars and clubs are becoming a thing of the past. The promoters and owners are finding a number of obstacles to remaining in business. Poor judgement and behavior by patrons in local neighborhoods, high rents and changing zoning issues are but a few of the nails in many of these coffins.

The most recent bar to face closing is the well known landmark "Starlight Lounge". A fixture in the Bed-Sty/ Mid-wood neighborhood for decades. According to published reports the building that housed the Starlite was secretly and abruptly sold and the oldest Gay bar in Brooklyn, was given the boot, three months to vacate. No doubt this will mean increased business for the newer Caribbean hot spot "Langstons/ Moore's Bar and Lounge" that is located a few blocks away @1073 Atlantic Avenue just off the corner of Franklin & Atlantic Avenues.
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SALT LAKE CITY UTAH
Make room for the Mormons on the supporters list. This week Utah unanimously passed an anti discrimination ordinance, the first in Utah to ban employment and housing discrimination against individuals on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, the New York Times reports. I'm not sure how many of our brothers and sisters live in Utah but this has to be good news for the gay community at large.
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PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND
For nearly a century, gay black men have contributed to the state’s political, academic and cultural life.
“People always ask me, ‘Have things gotten better for you, the blacks?’ ” said author James Baldwin at a 1985 reading at the First Baptist Church in Providence. “I survived it. That’s the best I can say.”

A new exhibit at the John Hay Library examines the lives and accomplishments of more than 30 gay black men with Rhode Island connections, including the late Baldwin.
Curator Robb Dimmick tells the stories of these men — many of them local artists, actors, public servants and scholars — through letters, photographs, playbills and even State House laws, items he has collected over a 30-year span.Some, like House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, are openly gay. But many others prefer to remain in the background. Just before the Nov. 5 opening of Dimmick’s exhibit, “Black Lavender 2,” one participant withdrew his name.
“It is such a rich community and it is not connected at this point. Our hope is this presentation will spark a new discussion among gay black men.” Dimmick became interested in gay black literature in the mid-1980s, after he took a job as a book scout for Ray Rickman, the founder of Cornerstone Books, a rare and used bookstore in Providence. A year later Dimmick joined the store as a business partner. At Cornerstone, the two men — Rickman, then a black state representative, and Dimmick, the white star of a one-man show about Abraham Lincoln — specialized in black literature at a time when many stores did not have an African American section. “If they did,” said Dimmick, “it was in the back, on the floor, in a dark, dank corner. But we were right on the cutting edge.”

James Baldwin visited the store. So did poet Maya Angelou and Pulitzer Prize-winning civil rights historian Taylor Branch. A frequent customer was Henry Louis Gates Jr., the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard and the author of the PBS series, “African American Lives.”
“I knew there were black gay writers, but where were their books? That became the start of my hunt,” said Dimmick, who started collecting newspaper clippings, obits, programs, fliers, posters and pamphlets — anything connected to black gay men — in the mid-1970s.
Often, such items are thrown away after an event, said Dimmick. Some of that material found its way into the first “Black Lavender” exhibit in 2005, which focused on black writers. But Dimmick wanted to do a second show that centered on Rhode Island.

At the Nov. 5 opening, Rhode Island College English Prof. Daniel M. Scott III talked about his oral history project. Gay black men in Rhode Island, he said, struggle to fit into two worlds: the small, church-centered African American community and the larger white world, a tight-knit Catholic community. For many, “it gets very complicated,” Scott said.The men in the “Black Lavender 2” exhibit are connected to the state in various ways. Some, like Baldwin, visited only once –– but sparked a round of soul searching. Others have studied at Brown University or the Rhode Island School of Design before embarking on careers elsewhere. Others in the exhibit include the painter Robert Dilworth, who chairs the University of Rhode Island’s Department of Art and Art History, Trinity Rep actor Joe Wilson Jr. and Michael Evora, executive director of the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights. “The big surprise is that black gay men exist in the state and have flourished,” said Dimmick.

The exhibit, funded by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, is open weekdays through Jan. 8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the John Hay Library in Providence.

By Paul Davis

Rhode Island Journal Staff Writer
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WASHINGTON STATE
The people of Washington State have spoken loud and clear as they approved a win for gay-rights in their state as voters in Maine rejected that state's same-sex marriage law, while in Michigan, voters in Kalamazoo overwhelmingly retained that city's anti-discrimination law protecting gays and lesbians.
Washington States Referendum 71 results were disappointing to religious conservatives, whose aggressive efforts to get the expanded partnership law thrown out had gained momentum in recent months. Passage of referendum 71 "For gay and lesbian Washingtonians and their families,is a major step forward in assuring that we're all treated equally under the law."
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DOMINICAN REPUBLICJean Luis Valdez Flores (Wey Jam), the confessed killer of the television producer Juan Miguel Breton Mieses (Miky), told the National Police that a disagreement in room 3 of the Princesa Motel, located on the 30 de Mayo Highway, was the reason for the fight that ended up in the killing. "These were immoral things, that we are asking the media to omit in order to preserve the moral of the Breton Mieses family", said Nelson Rosario, the spokesperson for the National Police, as he explained the circumstances of the killing.According to the accused, the discrepancies over not fulfilling some of Breton's requests, turned into the fight that left the victim badly wounded. While Miky was bleeding in the room, Jean Luis, fearful for what could happen if the producer survived, went to get the knife that he had in his backpack in the KIA Sportage SUV, license G-203287, and with which he stabbed Breton two times: In the stomach and in the neck. Valdez Flores, 20, took flight in Breton's vehicle. The prosecutor for the National District, Alejandro Moscoso Segarra, said that due to the nature of the crime, the accused would probably be sent to preventive prison for a year.

The simple version, Miky picked up trade- a well known dominican rapper - and they took the episode to a canbana (motel) where the accused rapper insists although he agreed to have concentual sex with Miky he later changed his mind when Mikey alledgedly wanted "to tap that booty." He than killed him and stole his jeep. The accused will most likely get no more than a year because it involved a hush hush crime that is not to be discussed or mentioned. This type of behavior and cover up is becoming increasingly frequent in DR.

FROM THE STREETS

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT! "

Increasingly during my travels I encounter "the sisters" who look so real that it blows my mind. I have found myself cruising more than one of our sisters who look better than the brothers. Much to do was made about this and featured in a local documentary that recieved over whelming praise and awards world wide recently. The Aggressives took an indepth and personal look intothe world and families of "The Aggressives!" Lets see how you do? Which ones of these gentlemen do you think are real gentlemen and which ones are just "gentle" men?

LIFESTYLE AND CULTURE

AFRICAN AMERICAN DAY 2009
Traditionally, African American Day has been a much celebrated event in NYC. However, as more ethnic groups assimilate into the African American Community an increasingly growing number of Black Americans are opting to abandon their own culture, heritage and traditions including holidays and cultural celebrations. The once very popular and well attended African American Day Parade is now victim to this growing trend. One of the contributing factors during the past five or six years the organizers have failed to keep the parade relevant and appealing to the community at large. Many blacks now choose to attend the more popular and better organized Peurto Rican and Dominican Day Parades in Manhattan. This year's parade was the worse it has ever been. Firstly, all major parades in the city are held on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The entire notion of hosting the parade in Harlem has long been a bust. Harlem residents "alone" see Harlem as the center of the black community in NYC. Long gone are the days when Harlem was recognized as "the Mecca" with the likes of the Apollo Theater and 125th Street headlining. Today's Black Culture and Community in NYC is far more diverse and evenly distributed across the 5 boroughs. The organizers should consider moving the parade to Fifth Avenue to incorporate all of the black communities into the celebration.Secondly, because of poor advertising and promotion. Community support and participation has dwindled year after year to a handful of people. All of the other cultural events and parades in the city are prominently advertised by local community calendars, posters in the transit hubs and on the radio stations as community service announcements. The African American Day Parade was not publicized in print or radio anywhere within the community. It was a very short string of groups that were separated by 20 minutes between each group. 12 bands and groups from "Baltimore, Maryland" and 7 groups from surrounding counties and cities within New York State provided the bulk of the parade. The biggest embarrassment was the fact that only 8 groups from the 5 boroughs and they were civil service employee groups - fire, police, sanitation and correction departments. The largest non civil service group that participated was The Fraternal Orders of Masons and Eastern Stars. The Islamic Brothers and Sisters of Harlem looked fabulous and very well groomed as always. The only radio station that participated was "WBLS" and the only community leaders and politicians that attended were those running for public office this year - John Liu (running for comptroller), Bill Thompson (running for mayor), Bill de Blasio (running for public advocate), The hot and enticing NYC GYM BOYS kept the girls (and fellas) screaming all day! Noticeably absent were any celebrities or personalities from the black community at large. 6 people from Al Sharpton's Action Network marched but Al Sharpton was no where to be found. A sad commentary given the wealth of talent and star power that call NYC home. It is better to not hold the event if organizers cannot realize they are loosing the trust and respect of the community sponsoring such as a fiascoFinally, the organizers must keep the parade and events relevant to the times. The majority of the observers who came out for the parade were either under the age of 12or older than 45. The parade should attract and be appealing to all members of the community. The police presence was so overwhelming that it appeared as if it was a police event. Police should be present but not so promenent that they create an atmosphere where everyone is anticipating an waiting for trouble. It is safe to say that unless dramatic changes are made this parade will be a thing of the past!

LIFESTYLE AND CULTURE

"A&E RECOVERY WALK and RALLY 2009"Well! Here we are again another end of Summer and the beginning of Fall 2009. The return to school, work and snuggle weather. The weekend after Labor Day is typically a stay at home weekend and this year is no exception. I decided to hang with friends who are celebrating "National Recovery Month". The main event of the NYC - NJ area was held Saturday at the Brooklyn Bridge. The event sponsored by The A&E network included a pre dawn social on the Manhattan side, the Recovery Walk across and the rally & concert featuring Smokey Robinson in Cadman Plaza on the Brooklyn Side. A few thousand recovering addicts, friends and service providers turned out in the wind & heavy rain that haunted the day. As a person not in the recovery community I was left with far more questions than answers but had a nice time and saw many familiar faces! There was a special salute to the thousands of LBGT persons on the road to recovery. Events are planned and scheduled during the month across the country!