Past and Present

A couple of clips of longtime gay couples that your Head Trucker stumbled across this week:

1. I remember reading in Life magazine way back when I was a scared, closeted high-schooler about this brave couple, Jack Baker and Michael McConnell, who actually dared to apply for a marriage license up in Minnesota in 1971, and then had the balls to take their case all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear it "for want of a substantial federal question." And of course I've read about the case from time to time over the years since then - they are still living together happily and quietly up there in the North Star State - but never before have I seen a video of them. Here is an excerpt of their appearance on the David Susskind show in 1973:




Note for any of the children reading this post:  Mike, on the left, is sporting the totally cool, extremely fashionable shag haircut, which everybody who was hip at that moment in time had or wished they did - men and women, straight and gay.


2. The Economist this week republished a video about Gary Payne and Dick Dehn, who have been a committed couple for over 50 years, and as far as I can tell by googling around, are still going strong today in retirement in South Florida. The stories of couples who met in the 1950's and managed to survive all the homophobia and discrimination for decades are really touching:





And just to bring you boys up to date with our oh-so-modern world - or is it? - in today's news, Pope Francis has issued his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith), which was largely completed by Pope Benedict before he resigned earlier this year. In no uncertain terms, the Popes once again declare that marriage is strictly for procreation by one man and one woman.

So much for any hope of a new attitude by this Pope. In the eyes of the Catholic church, we are still sinners and evildoers, and quite unworthy of full human dignity, the equal respect and protection of the laws. Our loves, even if faithful, committed, for-better-for-worse, in-sickness-and-in-health, lasting for more than half a century, are merely unnatural, disordered passions oriented towards what is objectively evil, according to the official pronouncements of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  Chastity, friendship, and "holiness" are all that us homos can expect to have in life, and all we should want, they say.

It is encouraging to note, however, that three out of five of American Catholics disagree with the hierarchy - why they keep putting up with it is more than your Head Trucker can understand.

Or if you think you agree with the Church's teaching, here is a rapping priest to guide you in the way of truth and holy living - from Courage, the official Catholic (anti-) gay outfit that Justice Scalia's priest son, Paul Scalia, works with:




On the other hand, if you think it's all a crock, you will be deeply moved by this video of the Washington State parents who spoke at the recent - and last ever - Exodus International conference, and the story of how they prayed so hard not to have a gay son, and got what they prayed for. If you haven't got time to watch the whole video, the essence of the story is here.

Newsbites, 2/11/13

A scattering of good news from around the world today.

Rome:  Pope Benedict Resigns.



Washington:  Panetta Extends Military Benefits to Gay Spouses.

Denver:  Colorado Senate Passes Civil Unions Bill.

Texas:  The Pork Boys Do Mardi Gras.

This past weekend, with soupe a l'oignon, Porkchops Jambalaya, fried biscuits, King Cake, and quite a few other delectable delights. Now that M.P. has had his computer overhauled and added several terrabites of memory, I hope he'll be able to send me a pic or two of the beautifully set Mardi Gras table he laid, and I'll post those along with a complete menu later in the week.

For those of you unlucky enough, alas, to have no Cajun friends who know how to party: How to make perfect Shrove Tuesday pancakes.

WTF: Half-Naked Hunks in the Vatican?

What is the world coming to?  This has already made the rounds of the big blogs, but in case you missed it - according to NPR:

The "Fratelli Pellegrini," or "Pellegrini Brothers," performed for Pope Benedict XVI during his general audience on Wednesday. The acrobatic team formed a human tower for the pope, a feat that drew applause from the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The Pellegrinis were were invited as part of a convention on circuses organized by the Vatican's office for migrants.

Um, okay.  I guess it has something to do with brotherly love, huh?  I can go for that.

Barcelona: Gay Kiss-In to Protest Pope

En route to dedicate Barcelona's famous but unfinished Sagrada Familia church today, Pope Benedict had to pass a crowd of kissing gay couples - 100 to 500, depending on which news report you read - who organized the kiss-in to protest the Pope's denunciation of gay marriage as "intrinsically evil," a theme he alluded to in his homily at the church, while also denouncing Spain's abortion law and its secular, "anticlerical" trend.  Spain was the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, in 2005.

Barcelona, from all I've read, is something like the San Francisco of Spain, with a large gay population. Other protestors turned out as well, like this woman whose sign, one news story reported, translates to something like "Condoms save, the Pope damns."

Feminists and others also turned out to protest the Pope's visit. I get the sense of a few phrases on these signs, but can any of my truckbuddies translate?

The Christian Science Monitor reports:

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia greeted the pope, were present in the consecration mass, and bid him farewell at the airport, but Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was conspicuously absent and only met the Catholic patriarch for a private meeting in the airport minutes before he returned to Rome.

Mr. Zapatero decided to visit Spanish troops in Afghanistan throughout most of the pope’s visit and publicly only shook his hand, highlighting the tense relations with one of the Vatican’s closest traditional allies in Europe.

The fallout in relations between the current government and the Vatican, however, is not seen as a real challenge from the state. That would probably not be tolerated by a majority of Spaniards, analysts say.

Recent surveys show the number of practicing Catholics is dropping fast, to around 20 percent currently, mirroring a broader European trend, but the vast majority of Spaniards still declare themselves Catholics. And the Catholic Church has great perks here, starting with around $9 billion annually in different forms of direct and indirect government funds from tax revenue to financing of religious schools. The Spanish Church is the second biggest property owner in the country, trailing only the government. . . .

Spain is not officially secular, as most western states are. Rather, it is legally neutral in terms of religion, implying it is a faith-based state. In practice that has translated into huge benefits for the Catholic Church that leaders from other religions, namely Muslims, Protestants, and Jews, say are unconstitutional because they are discriminated against when getting access to government aid and public space.

In Santiago, Benedict XVI met the leader of the main opposition Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, who has promised to turn back secular laws passed by the Zapatero government if elected.

Britain's Sky News has a video report here.




Honk to Heretic Tom at The Gospel According to Hate for the story idea.

Sex, Lies, and Catholicism

Excerpt from a Sunday essay on the Pope's sexuality by the devoutly Catholic Andrew Sullivan, under the ironic title "The Pope Is Not Gay":

The choice between this kind of affirmation of spirituality and love and a politics of control and fear was what the church faced under John Paul II, as modernity pressed. . . . The pursuit of control is really a fear of scrutiny and transparency which, when added to the unspeakable crimes of the past, ineluctably led to the current meltdown in the West. The homosexual question is not in any way marginal to this; in fact, you could see it as a central challenge for a church caught between truth and power. . . .

It seems pretty obvious to me - as it does to Angelo Quattrochi, whose book is reviewed by Toibin - that the current Pope is a gay man (just as it was blindingly clear that John Paul II was straight). I am not claiming that Benedict is someone who has explored his sexuality, or has violated his own strictures on the matter. There is absolutely no evidence of that, or of hypocrisy of any sort. But that does not mean that he isn't gay. In fact, Ratzinger's command that gay priests should actively lie about their orientation makes any public statement about this on its face lacking in credibility. But when you look at the Pope's mental architecture (I've read a great deal of his writing over the last two decades) you do see that strong internal repression does make sense of his life and beliefs. At times, it seems to me, his gayness is almost wince-inducing. The prissy fastidiousness, the effeminate voice, the fixation on liturgy and ritual, and the over-the-top clothing accessories are one thing. But what resonates with me the most is a theology that seems crafted from solitary introspection into a perfect, abstract unity of belief. It is so perfect it reflects a life of withdrawal from the world of human relationship, rather than an interaction with it. Of course, this kind of work is not inherently homosexual; but I have known so many repressed gay men who can only live without severe pain in the world if they create a perfect abstraction of what it is, and what their role is in it. Toibin brilliantly explains this syndrome, why the church of old was so often such a siren call for gay men who could not handle their own nature. In Benedict, one sees a near-apotheosis of this type, what Quattrocchi describes as "simply the most repressed, imploded gay in the world." . . .

I would like to return to the world where this kind of speculation was disgraceful, unnecessary and blasphemous. But when this Pope has already enabled the rape of children, has covered up the crimes of many priests, when he has responded by blaming gay men for the moral failings of his own church, when he has publicly demanded that gay Catholics remain in the closet, i.e. lie about themselves as a sacred duty ... then such deference becomes much more difficult.

What I Say:  As a gay man, and an Episcopalian-on-hold, I understand the point Sullivan is making about being attracted to a spirituality supported by liturgy, ritual, and finery; in fact, as I've blogged in the past, I do think that the love of beauty - creating, revealing, sharing it in any of a myriad possible ways - is a defining element of the gay personality, which of course also comes in many shapes and sizes from silly twink to gruff leatherman.  But when you get past whatever the exterior may be, I think you find the same motive animating all of us at heart.

In contrast to our straight brothers, some of whom are very creative indeed and might take great delight in crafting pastries or growing roses - as did one very butch and very straight retired Marine captain I once knew.  Yet my hunch is that for them the beauty motive is a sideline, not the animating principle; seems to me that the heart of an unambiguously straight man is driven to build a metaphorical fort, not a house or a garden, as well as finding the means to knock down the other guy's fort.  In other words, aggression and domination, or to put it differently, the defender and the warrior, two sides of the same coin:  that's what makes them tick and sets their life agenda.

Continued after the jump . . .

Newsbites

Well now that the BFD of healthcare reform is finally almost sorta kinda over - the Senate had to do some last-minute tweaks on the bill and sent it back to the House today for final approval, which makes me wonder how the President could sign something on Tuesday that wasn't absolutely final, but - well, here are a few other stories that have caught my eye in the last few days that I haven't had time to comment on, thought I'd post them for your information.

--Pentagon Relaxes DADT - making it a little harder for the military to boot people out based on third-party outings.



--Pope Should Resign - so says Andrew Sullivan, a devout Catholic, in light of the deepening crisis over Benedict's role in covering up sexual abuse scandals in Germany and the United States, including a case where one priest allegedly molested 200 deaf boys at a Wisconsin school.



--National party identification, registered voters and likely voters only, at this point in time:



All adults:



State of the Country, all adults:



--Legal Pot?  Come November, California voters will get a chance to legalize marijuana in that state, and not just for medical purposes - no doubt while still looking down their noses at us lowly but perfectly legal tobacco smokers.  Marijuana, of course, is as harmless as sugar candy, and doesn't rot your teeth.  Right . . . .

--Ten Democrats Attacked - Capitol Hill police are dealing with reports of bricks and bullets through office windows, vandalism, and in one case, a cut propane gas line.  CS Monitor:

Complicating matters for Republicans is the rhetoric of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), a favorite of tea partyers. On a Twitter feed Tuesday, Ms. Palin called on conservatives not to retreat, but to “RELOAD!” On her Facebook page, she posted a US map with cross-hair targets on the states where she plans to campaign against Democrats who voted for healthcare reform.

In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday, Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona defended Palin, his running mate in the 2008 presidential campaign, saying that such “battleground” language is typical for political campaigns.

Palin, BTW, has just signed a deal for her new reality TV show on TLC, asking $1+ million per episode.  Ah, no wonder she gave up that crappy little lowlife job as, um, what was it?  Oh yeah, Governor of Alaska.  Sales of her book, Going Rogue, are already up to $7 million, and she signed a multi-million-dollar deal with Fox News a while back too.

And here I worked my ass off all these years, slaving away through college and dead-end jobs and poverty and all sorts of difficulties, and still have very damn little to show for all that honest work - and may still be a homeless man in retirement.  I don't care what you say, boys - brazen, busty, and dumb always wins the pot hands down, always has, always will.

--And finally:  Texas Christians outraged over "Gay Jesus" play - big-ass uproar in Stephenville at the Tarleton State campus over a student workshop production of Terrence McNally's 1998 passion play, Corpus Christi, depicting Jesus and the apostles as gay men living in modern-day Texas.  Local Bible-thumpers say it demeans Christianity to portray Jesus as a gay man.  Video report here.

I never heard of the play before, but I sure would like to see it now.  From the 1998 production:

Honks to Andrew Sullivan and Joe.My.God. for some of these stories/images.

Update:  9:08 p.m., Texas time:  the House just passed the reconciliation bill, 220-207, so now the healthcare reform fight is really over.  And with this week's victory, the President's balls are starting to clank a little - good for him:

WTF: Hiya Benny! How's Tricks?

I'm not making this up: