Canada Poking Fun

When the text came up I snorted with laughter.

Google has got into the act as well, although rather more subtly. Apparently the rainbow background is meant to support gay sports people and has nothing to do with Noah's ark.

I just hope that Russia rethinks its anti-gay stance in the light of all this media attention.

Sexy Lady

If you like this comic there are more at Scandinavia and the World

I've just heard about Anything That Loves, which is a comic book that's just come out about being bi. I was surprised to realise that it's not just straight people who can be anti-bi, apparently gay people (who I'd have thought would know what it's like to suffer from other people's prejudice) can be firmly anti-bi too. It seems that we like to divide the world neatly into pairs of categories and if you don't fit one then you must fit the other. But reality is more complicated than that.

I do wish people wouldn't try to put us all into boxes. The only thing that should be in a box is a cat and that's because they like to be there.

It's slow but we'll get there

It's hard to believe that an agent would turn down a book because the main character was gay but at least the story has a happy ending: Viking (a Penguin imprint) has taken on the book and it will be published in two years time. Without 'straightening' the main characters, as the agent is supposed to have requested.

The story is here.

And on a similar note, next Sunday is Bisexual Visibility Day, at least it will be in London! People are meeting at the Mad Hatter pub, where I often meet with Nano friends. If you live near Southwark, you might want to pop along.

Whether we're straight, gay, bi, or anything else at all, we can support each other's right to be treated fairly and with respect. This picture from Richard's Facebook page says it for me:

NSFW

Funny but telling

More funny gay marriage placards are here.

It's easier to make the point when you use humour. Some of the slogans aren't exactly Safe For Work.

Gay Pride Month

President Obama has declared Gay Pride Month in America. He said:

we recognize that LGBT rights are human rights

and

No one should be harmed because of who they are or who they love

Oh yes.

This looks interesting

Photo by See-Ming Lee

The BBC has opened its archives to chart the gay rights movement in the UK. It's a bit of a shock to be reminded of how far we've had to come.

Good News

I've just seen that California's ban on gay marriage has been overturned. Let's hope it stays that way.

Article here in Huffington Post.

Where to find interesting book recommendations

I was looking up a favourite website to point a friend toward it and realised I had never put it on my blog. How could I not direct you towards the website that that put me onto Tanya Huff? Well, here it is.

GLBT Fantasy Fiction Resources

This website reviews science fiction and fantasy books that have a gay-friendly perspective, from the well-known to the obscure. There are also a number of articles about related topics. Readers are invited to submit their own reviews but there is a level of editorial input ensuring that the quality of the reviews is maintained.

The books reviewed include The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Orlando: A Biography by Virgina Woolf, and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. I read this last book a very long time ago and it seems to me that it does what good science fiction should do: it makes a wonderful story of a distant world, while questioning the way this world is.

Really intelligent science fiction these days surely has to include an openness to the various forms that human sexuality takes. There is not just a clear male/female divide; intersex conditions are unusual but they exist. And people are not swans. Although some of us make a lasting relationship with one person of the opposite sex others do not and prefer our own sex or multiple relationships or both.

Even if you don't usually read fantasy or sci fi, I would head over and have a look. It's a great place to broaden your horizons.

Maria: a short story

Robin has got us recording ourselves again. This is a short story I wrote recently. It's very rough round the edges but I like the idea behind it.

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Image by Colum LaVelle Photography from A Day In Hand website.

A Day In Hand: Today!

Photo by Claire Nathan

Today is A Day In Hand Day. I said I'd remind you.

On the bandwagon

I don't know if you've been following the recent Amazon debacle. It seems that Amazon suddenly decided to label all GLBT literature as "adult" and to remove it from its search base. Twitter was flooded with irate tweets labelled #amazonfail and the Internet was filled with far-right conspiracy theories and indignant diatribes against Amazon's evildoing.

Amazon made matters worse for itself by making a statement that

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude 'adult' material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists.

This wasn't well received as adult toys and straight erotica were not taken off the list.

The waters were muddied further when a hacker named Weev claimed that he had been the one to cause all the fuss with a few lines of code. According to other hackers, his code wasn't capable of that so it looks like he latched on to the situation to get publicity for himself. This didn't stop the comments that Amazon's system shouldn't be capable of being hacked in that way.

Finally, Amazon emailed complainants saying

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

Apparently, an IT worker in France made a mistake that affected the whole system. As a Live Journaller called Suaine puts it:

The French programmer did it! This is going to be my new excuse for everything.

What gets me about all this is how we can all be stirred up so easily through the Internet. This isn't the first time someone has used the GLBTQ community for their own ends. There was a similar case that I heard of through Pharyngula, where a college had apparently failed a nursing student because she is lesbian, with the tutor writing in an email that she would not like to be treated by a lesbian nurse. After everyone had expressed their outrage, including sending hate mails to the tutor, questions were raised about the authenticity of the email. It's very easy to enrage us when it seems that a minority group is being done down.

I see two problems with this.

1. Innocent people are witch hunted.


2. Energy is wasted which could be better spent on the real issues: like governments refusing to acknowledge gay marriage.

It all comes down to one thing. When we read anything that fills us with righteous indignation, we need to check out the facts before we join in.

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• Amazon.com Says 'Embarrassing' Error, Not Hacker, Censored 57,310 Gay Books (gawker.com)

A Day In Hand: May 17th

As part of the International Day Against Homophobia, people are being encouraged to hold hand with a member of the same sex in public on May 17th. You can join the A Day In Hand group on Facebook, if you are interested. You don't have to be GLBT to join. Or visit the official A Day in Hand website.

I'm not sure how much prejudice there is against women holding hands in public but I'm guessing that it is much harder for men to feel accepted if they show affection like this. I suppose trying it out would be one way to find out.

That's so gay!

The word "gay" was intended to be a non-pejorative word for a homosexual person but in any school playground you can hear the phrase "That's so gay!" as a term of disparagement. Now, over at I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I read? someone has come up with a different definition of the word "gay".

if it's, like, good, good, good fashion-level, design-level stuff, where it's on a higher level than the average commercial design stuff, it's, like, gay people that do that. I think that should be said as a compliment. Like, 'Dude, that's so good it's almost . . . gay.'"

You really should read the original: it's very funny. Why not use one stereotype (gay fashion designers) to oust a more pernicious stereotype? Although I don't think it's so much stereotyping that makes kids use "gay" to mean "bad". I think there is a lot of nervousness about sexuality and a fear of being taken to be part of an oppressed minority.

Will it make a difference if we all start saying things like, "That's a great painting. It's really gay!"? I think it might. Words are hugely powerful and we can make a difference. So, if you think this post is any good, tell me it's gay!