Friday Gay Blogging

The polls are swinging on Prop 8. From San Francisco's CBS 5 via Jeremy Hooper, a note about a disturbing finding:

The poll conducted for CBS 5 by SurveyUSA indicates that support for the measure to ban gay marriage has grown among voters in the state over an eleven day period — most especially among young voters.

According to the poll, likely California voters overall now favor passage of Proposition 8 by a five-point margin, 47 percent to 42 percent. Ironically, a CBS 5 poll eleven days prior found a five-point margin in favor of the measure's opponents.

The only demographic group to significantly change their views during this period were younger voters — considered the hardest to poll and the most unpredictable voters — who now support the measure after previously opposing it.

CBS 5 Poll: Young Voters Lead Prop 8 Support Shift [CBS 5]

However, as one of Hooper's commenters points out:

SurveyUSA is a bargain-basement outfit hired almost exclusively by TV stations to help them pick which news stories will generate the highest ratings. They use short, simplistic, pre-recorded messages to which the recipient of the call answers using the touchpad on their phone.

Nevertheless, I think it's a good idea to get our own base a little energized.

In Arizona, Prop 102 needs help. From Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin:

Arizona became the first in the nation to defeat one of these so-called “marriage amendments.” We can do it again, but only with your help. It’s important, because if we lose in Arizona, then they will have gotten the message that they can take other victories away from us simply by coming back again and again.

In Florida, there's a new ad out against Prop 2:



One thought here: We tend to be comfortable thinking about the increased acceptance of gay folk -- increased support for equal rights, increased support for family rights, increased support for marriage/unions -- but keep in mind that it's part of the way the human mind works that people will be perfectly happy to support our rights until it intrudes on their own lives. And even among the most liberal -- although this may be a generational thing -- there's still too often the feeling that we'll "grow out of it."

In that light, our one little wingnut watch bit for today, again via Hooper, this piece of crap from Concerned Women for America -- from an actual woman!

"...not only have the media and celebrities misunderstood bravery, they have also misunderstood identity. An identity involves attributes of a person's personality, like perfectionism or honesty. Being homosexual is not a mark of identity; it is a behavior."

This is some intern who got her chance, I guess. She doesn't think too clearly, that much is obvious: "being" gay is not a mark of identity. See the problem there? I guess we could say that "being" Christian is a behavior and should be changed.

It goes downhill from there.

Of course, the only way to counter this kind of blatant and willful ignorance is through education. So, from my home town, some education news. From the Chicago Sun-Times:

A "gay-friendly'' Chicago public high school that will weave gay and lesbian "heroes" -- from James Baldwin to Gertrude Stein -- into its curriculum was among 20 new school proposals unveiled Wednesday.

The Pride Campus of Social Justice High School would be open to all students citywide but would provide a safe, "gay-friendly'' atmosphere to combat the high bullying, dropout and depression rate many gay and lesbian students experience nationwide, advocates say.

In U.S. history and other classes, "gay and lesbian historical figures'' would be taught so gay youth "have heroes,'' said Bill Greaves, Chicago's liaison on issues affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

"We will teach the history of all people, but we are just going to make sure these people are not invisible in that history,'' said Greaves, part of the Pride Campus design team.

And more on schools, from North Carolina:

When the world beats them down, McQuirter and Hooper say they now have somewhere to turn, thanks to the formation of the GSSA (Gay-Straight Student Alliance) on the campus of Winston-Salem State University.

More than 80 students have signed on to be a part of the organization, which promotes mutual respect and understanding among people of diverse lifestyles and sexual orientations, when it debuted at the school’s organizational fair last spring.

“I think it’s very needed on campus,” GSSA Co-Advisor Thomas Clarke Jr. said of the organization. “(Homosexuality) is something we should discuss. I think students should feel comfortable talking about it with one another… That exchange can be a healthy factor.”

Today's dessert, thanks to Queerty:



He reminds me of Aoi from Yakuza in Love.