Ricky Martin

Ricky Martin, the Grammy-award winning iconic pop singer who will star in the Broadway revival of “Evita” next year, and who just celebrated his first anniversary as an out gay man, has been told by a Catholic Cardinal to not promote homosexuality. ”To foster homosexuality or sexual promiscuity among our young people is certainly immoral, no matter where it comes from,” said Cardinal Luis Aponte Martinez of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Martin’s birthplace.
“I have personally admired Ricky for the great artistic gifts with which God has endowed him,” the Cardinal, according to a translation said, further imploring Martin to, “please, for the sake of their children, for whom I imagine [you] want the best, try to set an example to our young people of the great values we all share, besides sex.”
Ricky Martin has twin sons, Matteo and Valentino, who were born in 2008. Last month Martin received GLAAD’s highest honor, the 2011 Vito Russo Award, for increasing awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.
The 88-year old Cardinal Martinez, profiled in the Spanish-language newspaper Primera Hora, claimed the Catholic Church “does not reject the homosexual person, but rather the actions and conduct that go against morality.”
(Interesting that God, according to Martinez, gave Martin “great artistic gifts,” and God, the Cardinal must assume, also made Martin homosexual. How is it Martinez does not want Martin to embrace his homosexuality?)
The Cardinal is not the only religious figure to take Martin on. Just a few weeks ago, self-proclaimed apostol and Megachurch Pastor Wanda Rolón, who compared homosexuals to “a drug addict, an alcoholic,” claimed Martin’s new music tour, “Musica+Alma+Sexo,” would lead Puerto Ricans to hell.
“This weekend Puerto Rico receives a man saved and brought from hell to the light, Nicky Cruz, while another one pretends to drag us all to hell,” Rolón wrote in a message to her fans on Facebook, adding, ”RM [Ricky Martin] has been proclaimed its ambassador (hell’s, that is). Puerto Rico wake up, everyone praise the lord. This is the island of the Lamb. Alert God.”
The message was later deleted thanks to many angry Facebook fans.
Ricky Martin, who has been working with UNICEF since 1984, was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2003, and has received many awards for his humanitarian work. Martin created the Ricky Martin Foundation which “advocates for the well-being of children in critical areas such as social justice, education and health. His foundation’s principal project, People for Children, seeks to eliminate child trafficking through education,” according to UNICEF.
Last fall, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Martin said, “I’m in a relationship and it feels amazing!”
On March 29, 2010, the 39-year old former Menudo star who enjoys a continuing and quite successful career, and has sold over 65 million albums, told the world, “I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.”
from The New Civil Rights Movement
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Kobe Bryant

During Tuesday night’s game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant was hit with a technical foul. When he went to the bench, TNT’s cameras caught him clearly calling referee Bennie Adams a “fucking faggot.” Thanks to the skills of @Jose3030 and the power of twitter, the video quickly went viral.
Let’s be clear about something: Kobe Bryant has been a controversial figure, both on and off the court. This post is not about Kobe Bryant. I don’t know Kobe Bryant personally, but in all my professional dealings with him he has come across as intelligent, funny, and well-adjusted. I have nothing but the utmost respect for him as both a basketball player and a person. The issue here is not Kobe; the issue is the word he used.
I’m sure that if you asked Kobe, he would tell you that he wasn’t expressing any homophobic feelings when he called the referee what he called him. I don’t know whether he actually was or not, but in any case I’m more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. The gay slur Kobe used is often used as a general insult — Kobe lost his temper, and in a fit of rage he called Adams the worst thing he could think of. I don’t think Kobe’s unfortunate choice of words revealed that he has a deep-seeded hatred of gay people.  I do think they revealed that athletes are still comfortable tossing around a word that, like a few other very hurtful and powerful words, should not be tossed around.
The word Kobe used can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Intelligent, funny people like Louis C.K., Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Joe Rogan have all made cases that when they use the word, they’re not saying that they have a problem with homosexuality or homosexual behavior; they just use it to denote behavior they find unacceptable. The problem with that logic is that while we can control what we say, we can’t always control what people hear, and it’s unreasonable to expect everyone to separate our words from our intentions, especially hurtful words.  In my younger years, I had the foolish belief that proper contexts to use that word somehow existed. I no longer hold that belief in any way, shape or form. The fact is that for a lot of people, homosexual behavior and unacceptable behavior are synonymous. Until that changes, I believe that there is no appropriate context for that word.
In a Gallup poll conducted last May, only 52% of Americans said that they found homosexuality “morally acceptable.” Homosexuals still do not have the right to marriage in most of the country. Research conducted one week ago shows that gay and lesbian teens are twice as likely to experience symptoms of depression as their heterosexual counterparts, and three times more likely to report a history of suicidality. According to the It Gets Better Project, 9 out of 10 LGBT students have experienced harassment at school.
The belief that we are a post-homophobia society is foolish and arrogant. Some people will say that making a “big deal” out of incidents like this reveals that the real problem with our society is that it has become to “politically correct.” Tell that to the teens who have to endure physical and verbal abuse at school because of their sexual orientation, or the families of the teens who couldn’t take the abuse anymore. Maybe the day when it’s okay to use the word that Kobe used and have everybody know that you have no problem with homosexuals or homosexual behavior at all will come someday. I don’t think it will, and I know that that day is not today.
Does the word that Kobe used get used by professional athletes almost every day, in every locker room, without any cameras or tape recorders catching it? Absolutely. In fact, during a playoff game a few seasons ago, Kevin Garnett was actually caught screaming the exact same thing that Kobe screamed. Does that mean that we should say “well, boys will be boys” when someone gets caught on tape like Kobe did? I don’t think so. I’m not calling for Bryant’s head: I believe in freedom of speech, and don’t think he should receive an additional fine or suspension for his choice of words.
What I would like is for some good to come out of this being caught on tape. It’s easy to point the finger when somebody like Tim Hardaway says something blatantly homophobic and pin all the issues with homosexuality and professional sports on isolated cases like him. The truth is that the problems run much deeper, and many of them are more rooted in ignorance than hatred.
Simple math tells us that it would be a miracle if no active MLB, NBA, or NFL player is a homosexual, but no player current athlete has come out, and I would wager that most professional athletes don’t think they have any gay teammates. It’s in environments like that where casual homosexuality can seem harmless. Ask yourself this: if Joe Smith, who was sitting next to Kobe, or Bennie Adams, the referee, was gay and Kobe knew that, do you think he still have used that word? If the answer is no, why should we expect any homosexual who was within earshot or watching the game on TV to not have an issue with Kobe’s choice of words? Is it reasonable to ask sports fans to check their feelings about words like the ones Kobe used at the door, words that may have been directed at them, with hate, in their own lives?
This is a beautiful game, and people of all races, religions, and sexual orientations should feel comfortable playing it, watching it, and enjoying it. When the most respected player in the league by players, coaches, and media members alike gets caught uncorking a gay slur and nobody has a problem with it, it can give the impression that the NBA doesn’t care about creating a welcoming environment for all of its fans. Kobe has an opportunity to clear up his feelings about homosexuals and whether or not he believes the word he used is or is not acceptable language. I hope he takes advantage of it, and that the NBA becomes just a bit more welcoming than it would have been otherwise.
from NBC Sports / John Krolik

Burns On Quinn Matney

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA – A UNC-Chapel Hill freshman who told police he was attacked by a man who burned his hand and called him an anti-gay slur made a false report, the university says.
In a message just released to the campus community, Chancellor Holden Thorp says: “The Department of Public Safety has determined that the alleged aggravated assault reported to campus last night did not occur. That report, filed with campus police on April 5, was false. The University will not report it as a hate crime.”
“It is important to recognize that incidents of harassment do occur,” Thorp continued. “When they do, we take them seriously. We strive to foster a welcoming, inclusive and safe environment at Carolina.
Freshman Quinn Matney told police he was outside his South Campus dorm April 4 when he stopped to speak with an acquaintance. As he stood on a foot bridge near his Craige Residence Hall, he had said another college-age man nearby approached him, called him an anti-gay slur, and pressed a hot piece of metal to his left wrist.
The university planned to report the incident as a hate crime to the federal government. The assault was apparently motivated by Matney’s sexual orientation, Thorp said in a statement Monday. “As a university community, we condemn this act of violence,” Thorp wrote. “Our Department of Public Safety will bring the strongest possible charges against the attacker.”
But police had little to work with. Matney could not identify his attacker or the person he stopped to speak with just before the attack, said Jeff McCracken, UNC’s police chief.
Efforts to reach Matney today were unsuccessful.
from News & Observer
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Related Post:

Gay Student Attacked At UNC

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – A gay couple who wanted both their names to appear on the birth certificate of the Louisiana child they adopted in New York have lost their latest round in federal court.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that a Louisiana registrar’s insistence that only one father’s name can go on the certificate does not violate the child’s right to equal protection under the law; nor does it deny legal recognition of the New York adoption by both men.
An attorney for the gay rights group Lamda Legal said the complex 72-page decision would have to be analyzed before a decision would be made on whether to appeal.
“These are certainly the types of claims that might interest the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Ken Upton of Lamda Legal’s Dallas office.
In Louisiana, adopted children get new birth certificates with their new parents’ names on them. However, the state does not allow adoptions by unmarried couples. The state contends that putting both men’s names on the birth certificate would violate state law.
Adoptive parents Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith, former California residents now living in the Orlando, Fla., area, sued to get both their names on the certificate. A federal district court judge ruled in the men’s favor and a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit upheld the ruling last year. The state sought, and won, a rehearing by the full court – 16 judges heard arguments in January.
Chief Judge Edith Jones wrote for a nine-member majority, rejecting the men’s argument that Louisiana illegally treats adoptive children of unmarried parents differently from adoptive children with married parents.
“This theory is unavailing in the face of the state’s rational preference for stable adoptive families, and the state’s decision to have its birth certificate requirements flow from its domestic adoption law,” Jones wrote.
Also at issue was whether the constitutional requirement that states give “full faith and credit” to each other’s laws required the inclusion of both men’s names on the birth certificate of the child.
That, Jones said, does not mean that Louisiana must “confer particular benefits on unmarried adoptive parents contrary to its law.”
Two other judges concurred in part with the majority. Judge Jacques L. Wiener Jr., wrote the dissent, joined by four others.
Saying New York recognizes both men as parents, Wiener wrote, “I have searched the Constitution in vain for a ‘Half Faith and Credit Clause.’”
As for the equal protection argument, Wiener’s opinion noted that Louisiana puts the names of both unmarried parents on the birth certificates of children kept by their biological parents. He said the state has no legitimate interest in denying that same right to adoptive parents Adar and Smith.
from The Associated Press

He may play one tough-as-nails detective on Law & Order: SVU, but Christopher Meloni is one big softy when it comes to love.
That’s why he’s speaking out in a new PSA supporting the right of gay couples everywhere to marry…
“I believe in love, in family and in fairness,” Mariska Hargitay’s crime-fighting costar says in a 30 second spot for the HRC’s new political campaign. “That’s why I’m a New Yorker for marriage equality.”
Meloni join celebs like Julianne Moore, Lucy Liu, Whoopi Goldberg and Joan Rivers who have all lent their voices to the same cause, which fights for the legalization of same-sex marriage in the state.
“Already, five states and the District of Columbia have marriage equality,” Meloni says. “It’s time for New York to lead again. Join me in supporting New Yorkers for Marriage Equality.”
from EOnline
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