Attention Photo-Freaks and Video-Vandals!

Damn, I love me some alliteration.

Luna Park, Coney Island's new theme park, is running a photo/video contest starting this Friday and ending Saturday, June 16th (Coney Island in Brooklyn, not Coney Island in Detroit. Luna Park in Coney Island, not Luna Park in Australia). This may not be especially gay...but gay people have cameras - I'm sure of it!

Plus, I'm running the contest. So, self-promotion, ftw!

If you're interested in getting some free stuff and having some fun, you should think about giving the contest a try. It's free to enter!

And you were going to take those pictures and post them on Instagram anyway - instead of wasting Internet space, try and win some free stuff with your art.

You can find all the deets here.

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Neo-Nazis Brutally Beat Ukrainian Gay Rights Activist

Sheremet is jumped on by anti-gay thugs (Advocate)

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."



Neo-nazi youths brutally beat Svyatoslav Sheremet, the head of the Gay Forum of Ukraine.

Kiev Pride was called off after police were unable (read: unwilling) to protect participants. 30 minutes before the event, police told the 150 participants to cancel the event because "500 ultra-right football hooligans" were descending on the area. Amnesty International maintains that the Ukrainian police could have done more to ensure the safety of those attending Pride. According to Amnesty, "A senior Kiev police official had previously told pride organizers that he was not prepared to put his officers in harm’s way for the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community."

Daily Mail

Two queer activists were beaten and tear-gassed by a dozen youths.

The Ukrainian Parliament is currently debating a bill to restrict access to media about and for the queer community, including broadcast and print media...however, the Parliament will meet on Tuesday to condemn the attack.

No, that's not a joke.

Condemn the attack and then crack down on queer rights? Sounds like a solid plan to me.



Let's take a quick look at how the media reported on this:
The Daily Mail's first sentence for this article: "They are shocking pictures which gay people still face a daily struggle against prejudice in some parts of the world" [sic]. This should not be a shocker - queer people still face a daily struggle in Western countries like the UK and the US.

American queers and their straight allies need to be reminded that THINGS ARE NOT OKAY. Things have gotten better (but not perfect) in the United States for queers. But transfolk, queer youth and queer people of color have too few resources.

It is a crime for us to forget the violence against our marginalized neighbors.

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Stretching is Same as Anal Sex!

Paul Cameron (Advocate)

BREAKING: Touching your ankles is tantamount to getting it from behind, acclaimed shamed psychologist idiot Paul Cameron says.

[I might have taken some Fox-News liberties with the reporting that I just...reported.]

"Homosexuality is the one sin or the one habit that is 24/7. It is homosexuality all the time," says expert on gay stuff and Chairman of the Family Research Institute Paul Cameron.

The "sex researcher" went on the air to say that he thinks Obama might be gay because of his support for marriage equality and because one random guy said that he had a "homosexual" encounter with Obama. Cameron proceeded to talk about how the queers are trying to "give" every child the opportunity to try gay stuff even if it means forcing them to do it (i.e. rape - just like the corrective rape that queers deal with all the time...).

Cameron then proceeded to talk about his own homosexual feelings.

Wait.

What?!

That's right, kiddos! All that research about homophobes being latently gay has some more anecdotal evidence to back it up. Paul Cameron wanted to grab his own ankles!

Far be it from me to judge anyone who enjoys grabbing their ankles. Hell, I used to do it 5 days a week

...in gym class...

Back then, we called it stretching, but in this day and age I'm sure it's just like having anal sex.

Just. Like. It.

 

*FYI: Anti-gay teen-heart-throb Kirk Cameron is NOT the same person as anti-gay fake-psychologist Paul Cameron.
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I've eaten the interwebs...

Yum, yum!

...and they were tasty. Follow me at these other places so you'll always know where I am, what I'm doing, and other information important to robbing my house.

afruit4thought.tumblr.com
facebook.com/afruit4thought
twitter.com/afruit4thought
pinterest.com/afruit4thought
foursquare.com/afruit4thought
reddit.com/afruit4thought
twitter.com/TomBasgil
Instagram: TomBasgil

Those are my favorites...there are probably more. See ya!

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Gaying It Up in the Military

Morgan and Wells

With the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the military has gotten positively limp-wristed. Not only have camo fatigues been replaced with pink, pleather jumpsuits, but soldiers are dying in droves because they no longer fight the enemy - they put down their guns and start doing each other.

SURPRISE!

Right-wingers were wrong yet again! (Here is where I say I told you so!) Nothing has changed in the military besides allowing GLB's to be honest about who they are*.


The iconic kiss that went viral:
Marine Sgt. Brandon Morgan posted a picture of him jumping into the arms of his partner Dalan Wells to his Facebook. To his surprise, the picture spread across the web like wildfire. Morgan told NPR that "four years of pent-up emotion and secret love" led to "what felt like an eternity kiss." Morgan described the event: "My legs started going numb...and I didn't care who was around...I wanted to show him how much I cared for him."

Huston & Guerrero (LGBT Weekly)

1st Military Base Proposal:
Cory Huston was discharged under DADT (read about how it ruined his life here). However, this is a happy blog post. With DADT ended, Avarice Guerrero back from Afghanistan and after a separation of 10 months, Huston decided it was time - he proposed right there on the base! "It is believed to be the first proposal of marriage and engagement between two gay men – not to mention two war vets – on a US military base," says LGBT Weekly.

Gaeta & Snell (Brian J. Clark/AP)

First "1st kiss":
Of course, we cannot forget Petty Officer Second Class Marissa Gaeta and Petty Officer Third Class Citlalic Snell! They are the first women to share the "first kiss." Gaeta spent $50 buying 50 tickets to the traditional raffle that determines who gets the first kiss.



If you're not teary eyed yet, you'll have to watch the following video by the Coalition for Equal Marriage (a U.K. marriage equality group). The vid's tagline: "All men can be heroes."

 

*DON'T FORGET THAT TRANS PEOPLE ARE PROHIBITED FROM SERVING OPENLY!!!
3 exclamation points means it's serious!!!

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Ray-Ban Ad Features Gay Couple - Angels Rejoice

Okay, okay. Another company is pandering to the gays, trying to take all of our money. It's nice isn't it?

Ray-Ban is celebrating it's 75th anniversary with a continuation of their "Never Hide" campaign. The message is particularly potent with an image of two men bravely holding hands in what looks like the middle of the twentieth century.

It's hard to tell if the sunglasses company supports the queers - so many spammers offer knock-off Ray-Bans that searching Google is like diving in a mountain of trash looking for your lucky soda tab.

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Matt Damon would kiss George W. Bush (3 seconds, no tongue) for HIV/AIDS work

Matt Damon from Casino Celebrity Players

Matt Damon told The Atlantic, "I would kiss George W. Bush on the mouth for what he did on PEPFAR [the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief]."

So...if I do something better than PEPFAR, I could get a longer kiss with some tongue action? 

I'm on it.

Damon's quote came in the context of criticism over Obama's response to global poverty. Damon co-founded Water.org to help bring water and sanitation to the developing world through encouraging companies to bring affordable access to communities (which Water.org views as a more long-term solution than digging wells or other charity). The organization views access to clean water as a huge step towards alleviating poverty.

Check out their infographic:

 

According to PEPFAR's website,

"- In fiscal year 2010, PEPFAR directly supported life-saving antiretroviral treatment for more than 3.2 million men, women and children worldwide, up from less than 2.5 million in 2009.
- PEPFAR directly supported antiretroviral prophylaxis to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission for more than 600,000 HIV-positive pregnant women in fiscal year 2010, allowing more than 114,000 infants to be born HIV-free.
- Through its partnerships with more than 30 countries, PEPFAR directly supported 11 million people with care and support, including nearly 3.8 million orphans and vulnerable children, in fiscal year 2010 alone."

Another Damon from The Debutante Ball

Matt Damon, thanks for fighting poverty and advocating for more overseas funding for HIV/AIDS survivors. You're pretty smoking (in more ways than one).

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Josh Hutcherson Rules the World - Loves Gays

Josh hands out bracelet for SBNN at UCLA

(but not like that - he's a straighty)

You might be familiar with Peeta from The Hunger Games (you know, the one who is really, really good at cake decorating). Peeta is played by the incredible Josh Hutcherson.

Hutcherson is not only a cutie-pie and an excellent thespian (unrelated to "lesbian"), he's also a friend of the queers! Josh is part of Straight But Not Narrow (SBNN), an organization that encourages young, straight males to be supportive of LGBTQs. Right now, the group appears mainly focused on getting straight guys to feel okay being around gay men (cuz gay men are obvi a threat to their masculinity). I'm sure SBNN's next hurdle will be transgender acceptance.


In the ease of acceptance hierarchy, it goes:
1. lesbians
2. gay men
3. bisexuals
4. transfolks
5. anyone with a different label

Hutcherson's baby Blue Pitbull

Hutcherson's queer acceptance probably comes as much from his background as from being an actor. His mother was a huge LGBT activist, and he had two gay uncles who passed away from AIDS.

Of his activism, Joshie told E!, "This is what my family is most proud of and the same for me. Acting is one thing, but actually trying to change the world and the way people think to make people's lives better? That's the stuff I'm most proud of" (Towleroad).

Josh Hutcherson also starred in The Kids Are Alright, a touching film about a family headed by married lesbians (unrelated to "thespians"). The film portrayed a realistic lesbian couple struggling with real-people problems. Not only was it beautiful, it helped to make families headed by two people of the same gender more "real" and less scary.

Watch the PSA, Josh filmed for SBNN. I especially like when he reminds straight guys that more gay men = more available women.

"To have a manly guy come out and say, 'Yeah guys, being gay is totally cool...' I think this is getting the message out there that it makes you more of a man to be comfortable with who you are and what you believe in," said Hutcherson (StarPulse).

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Voter Fraud - Fact or Fiction?

Men in front of Nat'l Assoc Opposed to Woman Suffrage (Library of Congress)

Widespread voter fraud in the US appears to be a myth. The Brennan Center for Justice (of NYU's School of Law) points to 2011 as the time when the US changed from increasing voter participation to going out of its way to depress participation.

Claims of fraud are anecdotal at best. It's clear that anti-fraud laws disproportionately decrease the amount of actual voters that can cast their ballots over the amount of fraud that happens.

Care to take a guess why conservatives are suddenly afraid of voter fraud?

Now, most conservatives probably think that there are hordes of malicious people out there trying to mess with the votes. Their leadership, however, must understand the statistics. Why else would fraud laws disproportionately target racial/ethnic minorities, students, new immigrants and transgender people? ... The surge in voter participation that brought Obama into office depended on the votes of minorities.

Some of the desperate Republican attempts to keep college students from voting are almost comical in their transparent partisanship. No college ID card in Wisconsin meets the state’s new stringent requirements (as lawmakers knew full well), so the elections board proposed that colleges add stickers to the cards with expiration dates and signatures. Republican lawmakers protested that the stickers would lead to — yes, voter fraud (Rollingstone).

Up to 5 million people could be disenfranchised by the recent set of laws. Since they passed under the radar, or since many people believe fraud is happening contrary to the evidence, here's some infographics from the ACLU to get you fired up. View the full size versions here.

And some of that video of voter fraud from James O'Keefe? The vid itself is fraudulent.

[UPDATE: 04/20/12 11:06] Check out this Advocate article on disenfranchising transgender voters.

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Homosexual Iceberg Kills Titanic of America

To honor the memories of those who died on the Titanic 100 years ago this morning...

And to capitalize on the re-release of Titanic in 3D...

Truth in Action Ministries brings you...

"HOMOSEXUALS SINK AMERICA"

WikiCommons

Yes, you heard correctly! Because "America is blindly heading towards a titanic moral iceberg" (Truth in Action Ministries). And that iceberg is the HOMOSEXUALS.

`

Library of Congress

I feel truly inspired by that video. I mean, I now understand how the radical homosexual agenda is destroying the moral fiber of this great nation (the U.S. of A. if you missed my antecedent).

What better way to remember the tragedy of the Titanic?




Thanks, Advocate for covering this story from Right Wing Watch.
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