...yet I couldn't be more creeped out by --

-- the story on Salon about the American "Christian mafia" known only as "The Family."

-- the Tories' talking points on their cancellation of funding for Montreal's Diver/Cité fest -- they make less sense than a Sarah Palin speech!

-- Jesus' General exposing the furry, manly underbelly of Mormon homoeroticism:

 

-- the wave of media stories about the death of the Taco Bell Chihuahua. Hey, I love dogs too but you'd think this one recorded albums with Quincy Jones.

-- the revelations about Jack Harkness' past in last night's episode of 'Torchwood' on Space that have upended his relationship with Ianto Jones -- fortunately, the three lead actors are still as chummy as ever, judging from the DVD signing in London this week:

Tonight's episode is the most disturbing yet as "The 456" reveal their gruesome secret. Check it out -- if only to distract yourself from the terror of "the Family":

 

A commentator yesterday quite rightly pointed out that I've been talking about Barack Obama far more than Canadian politics. It's a fair point. To use a John McCain analogy, it's like I've been talking about Britney Spears when I could've been discussing the McGarrigle Sisters.

Umm....

The McGarrigle Sisters are wonderful artists with fine voices and, umm....oh dammit, why can't Anna just shave her head and go nightclubbing without panties??!!

In my defense, I'll just refer my critics to the word "zeitgeist," which is German for "nothing else on TV."

Obviously, Obama's swearing-in (and the eagerly awaited end of the Bush Nightmare) was THE big story yesterday but I was surprised by all the controversy. No, not from Rick Warren (whose flat, rambling prayer did nothing to offend gays or interest anyone) or from Obama himself (his team promptly revamped the White House website with a surprising, pleasing laundry list of gay rights initiatives -- Merry Christmas!). No, the biggest controversy on Inauguration Day was Aretha Franklin's hat:

Do you love it?  Do you hate it?  Everyone's got an opinion!  Rumour has it, Obama loved it so much, he made it Secretary of Commerce while Michelle ordered the secret service to have Franklin killed.

What does that have to do with Canada?  NOTHING!  But as we wait for Stephen "Not Obama" Harper to reopen our country's non-Obama-led parliament next Monday, we news junkies must be satisfied with weird court cases like the Calgary soccer coach's mother-son love triangle or the bold tactics of Winston Blackmore, who's fighting his arrest on charges of polygamy with a legal combo of religious persecution complaints, gay rights precedents and the lawyer for serial killer Robert Pickton. Wow, good luck with that.

Blackmore says he's being persecuted for his Mormon faith and defiantly announced, in time-honoured musical theatre fashion, "I am what I am."  Why, I hear a song coming on:

Now, having butchered musical theatre, I'm off to listen to Barack Obama's iPod -- see you tomorrow!

 

We talk of gay rights as a singular movement but we're reminded this week that we're all connected and we can always use allies:

A Tennessee man is fighting an uphill battle against the company that fired him for being gay but now other employees are coming forward to speak out about the racial and gender discrimination they too have faced.  Bigots don't tend to stop at just one group.

Which is why it's good to outnumber them. We love to mock unions as unnecessary or even corrupt but, in the wake of the California gay marriage ban, some two-million-odd people have joined forces in support of striking down Prop 8 (an especially welcome move after learning about those filthy lying Mormons).  Workers of the world, alright!

But we can't expect everyone else to fight all our battles for us. AIDS activist Eric Levin produced this ad that reminds us of the work we need to do within our community:

Nuff said.  Now I'm not sure you'll ever find someone who enjoys condoms, but this saucy, squeaky Durex ad certainly does lighten the mood:

One thing that wasn't wrapped in plastic was the copy of BUTT magazine that an "intrigued" Vancouver mom picked up in an American Apparel store. She says the photos inside horrified her and made her cry. Really? What did she think would be inside a pink magazine called BUTT?  Shania Twain? Chicken salad recipes? The contents of last month's 'Chatelaine?'  Some people don't deserve the mall!

For them, there's German prankster 'Epoxy' pointing out -- though some clever stickering -- that real life doesn't look like Britney Spears, at least not without a lot of Photoshop!

But overall, it's great to see that younger people now are becoming less homophobic and, in the case of Logan and Brandon, even starting to have fun with it:

But if your TV "grinding" involves women and lots of them, the final season of "The L Word" begins Sunday with the murder of a major character.  Drama ensues, but nothing compared to that of "Battlestar Galactica," returning tonight. When we last saw our sexy mix of angry people and soulful androids, they finally arrived on Earth, only to find it an empty, radioactive wasteland.  Awwwwkward!


Whatever your eyes take in this weekend, have fun and we'll see you Monday!

Okay -- first, let's get all of the horrible news out of the way:

Pennsylvania resident Heath Campbell is very angry at a supermarket bakery for refusing to put his son's name on a birthday cake. Seems little Adolph Hitler Campbell will be so disappointed!

At least he won't be alone: a recently released FBI report (PDF) reveals the American military contains more neo-Nazis than ever.  Once (if?) the Iraq War ends, they'll be home and looking for things to do with all that free time!

At least the Iraq war was worth it, right? And if not, Bush says, "So what?"

Meanwhile, shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist Muntader al-Zaidi is facing 15 years in prison. Too bad they weren't stilettos!

From out of British Columbia comes the week's most confusing headline: "Gay teenagers at higher risk of pregnancy." That and the recent suicide study have me seriously wondering what's going on out west.

And, worst of all, comes word that, due to the faltering economy, CTV is retiring "Canadian Idol" for a year. This is horrible news!  Where else are we going to find the next Whatshisname?

But no matter how many strange or horrible things we face, Christmas is a time of hope, as drag legend RuPaul pulled double-duty to show us on her holiday card from the White House:

And another big gay hero celebrated the holiday in style as Melissa Etheridge joined the "View" ladies to sing a Christmas song and lay the smackdown on Elizabeth Hasselbeck:

And for all the Mormons vs. Gays talk on this site since last month's Prop 8 debacle, I'm proud of "Wicked" composer Stephen Schwartz's decision to turn the other cheek and allow Mormon singing groups to keep using his songs. Too bad they're not listening to the lyrics they're singing.

But a lovely example of what can happen when gays and Mormons work together is the new Christmas charity single "Joseph, Better You Than Me," from The Killers. Frontman Brandon Flowers (still the best name ever!) is a straight Mormon boy who loves his gay idols Elton John and Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant so much, he got them to duet on this odd-but-lovely song.

This collaboration is by no means the only Christmas song they've done. "Joseph" is actually the third one from the Killers this year:

The Pet Shop Boys performed a holiday number for Elton John's TV special:

And finally, of course, the Rocket Man sang this classic waaaay back in 1973:

 

I don't go to Sunday mass but I do go to Sunday brunch. For me, it's just as holy, especially since this weekend's egg-benny celebrated the birthday of a gay Christian friend of mine. At one point, he laughed about how we could be friends at all, since I spend each day "tearing down everything I believe in." This blog, he says, is out to "destroy established society."

"Of course not," I laughed, "Just the stupid bits. It's not my fault there's so many!" We moved on but the unspoken question remained: is religion itself one of the stupid bits? 

This weekend, the divide between Christianity and homosexuality grew ever wider, with protests outside the Vatican in Rome over the Catholic Church's refusal to support a UN resolution decriminalizing homosexuality in countries where gay people are beaten, jailed and/or put to death:

It's a standard protest these days but, nevertheless, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty (self-described as "a nonprofit, interfaith, public-interest law firm") took out a full-page ad in the New York Times condemning the protests against the Mormon church that erupted after its massive support of California's Prop 8 ban on gay marriage. Among these thousands of protests, there have been three regrettable but non-violent actions against Christian people (I bitched about them here). The Becket group now spins these into a narrative of gay "thugs" using "violence and intimidation" against people of faith. 

According to the ad, "religious people have the right and duty to participate in the electoral process without fear and intimidation from anti-religious bigotry." Of course they do, just as gay people have the right to object when churches use their tax-free status and, in the Mormons' case, the tithing of 10 percent of their followers' money to fund intolerance to the tune of $22 million. David, meet Goliath.

(And, of course, you've got to wonder what kind of "interfaith" group includes no Buddhists, Hindus or Muslims but does include Chuck Colson, who famously went to prison as one of Richard Nixon's Watergate goons? I'm just sayin'.) 

Sorry, Becket gang, but in modern North America, the very notion of widespread hatred against Christians is laughable: in this poker game of victimhood, I see your white power and styrofoam-cross-crushing and raise you Simmie Williams and Lawrence King.

Yet still, another Christian group has demanded an apology from actor Jack Black and the creators of the very funny "Prop 8: The Musical": "Appearing as a sarcastic, rotund Christ, Black distorts the Bible and condones shameful, homosexual acts. Associating Christ with perverse activity is an affront to all people of faith, especially Christians." Wow, I'm really amused at how someone can expect an apology from people while calling them fat perverts! Here's the unrepentent gang on Keith Olbermann's show:

So yeah, here's my rant: the word "bigot" is being thrown around a lot. The Oxford dictionary defines bigot as "a person who is prejudiced in their views and intolerant of the opinions of others." That's clearly the case for many people of faith -- their views on homosexuality solidly prejudiced by some (but not all, of course) of the ancient rules in the Koran or the Book of Leviticus -- but when gay people stand up to their lazy narrow-mindedness, hoping to protect ourselves by diminishing or maybe even changing these intolerant opinions, religious people then cry that they're the victims of bigotry and lash out. And so it goes, creating this demented Moebius strip we're all now trapped in.

But in the clip above, John C. Reilly is right in making a distinction between religious belief and civil rights. No one is protesting the Mormons' faith itself or even their belief that homosexuality is immoral but it's clear (as Dan Savage and other activists have noted) that providing massive funding to a bill to violate the Constitutional, civil, human rights of gay people is not a private religious belief but a public political action. There's a distinction.

It would be easy to assume, for instance, as my friend does, that this blog's railing against religious homophobia represents a stance against religion itself. It would be easy to assume that I'm a atheist who thinks that a belief in some invisible sky-daddy is pathetic, silly, and an outdated, unnecessary drag on human evolution and progress. Maybe I am.

Or maybe I was raised Catholic and still see great beauty and wisdom in an ancient faith now being tainted by political powermongers who use it as a stick to beat people into submission with. Maybe I'm trying to save the Christian faith from being forever corrupted and marginalized by hateful bigots who are Christians in name only. 

Or maybe I'm something else altogether. Point is, you don't know. My private religious beliefs are just that. They inform, but do not dominate, my political views which are based in logic, compassion and fairness -- three traits I lobby to see more of in every (or no) faith. This blog is definitely an extension of my political beliefs but not necessarily my religious ones. 

A friend in California this summer told me that, whether I like it or not, the fight against gay marriage was a "core belief" of his Christian faith. I refuse to believe that -- any religion built on such discrimination and hypocrisy doesn't seem worth much to me -- and LGBT people should continue to use every non-violent tool at our disposal to change society. We will never agree with any religion that demands we remain second-class citizens because we've seen (or suffered from) what that thinking leads to.

So sorry, Becket Fund, but I can't shed any tears over the hurt feelings of Mormons when there are still children being beaten to death for being gay. It's against my religion.