The Unprotected Americans

I am utterly baffled and disgusted to think that religion, which is purely a choice, is a protected class in these United States of America. Yet sexuality in all it's wide-spectrum, from homosexuality all the way to heterosexuality, which is a natural born trait of all humans is not a protected class.

How can this be? How can religion be protected and not the human trait of sexuality? This has to CHANGE and should be written into our Constitution.

Just as all peoples have the right to freely practice any religion, all peoples should be free from religion as well. I know there is the alleged separation of Church & State, but that seems to have disappeared. There should never be a referendum, law, amendment, etc that imposes religious beliefs on any group or class of people.

Campaign to revoke the tax-exempt status of hateful meddling churches

There is a campaign to revoke the tax-exempt status of the Church of Later Day Saint (aka the Mormon Church or LDS). They funded the campaign for California's Prop 8 passage and have thus violated the separation of church and state. They should be fined and should have their tax-exempt status revoked!

The original email follows and includes an attached PDF (or click link of this title blog entry to download) that merely needs your signature and to be mailed to the address provided.

Thanks for getting involved!


ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS:

If it upsets you that a church can meddle with another state's political statutes, here's something simple you can do:

To report the LDS Church to the IRS, simply take 5 minutes to print these articles out and any others you can find:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10839546

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10842051

Then print, sign and send the attached form (already completed) or download a blank and fill it out yourself at:

Info and pre-filled form in PDF at this link

http://alankleincommunications/noon8


Blank form if you wish to fill out yourself

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f3949a.pdf

List the taxpayer as:

Thomas S. Monson, et al
50 East North Temple
Salt Lake City, Utah 84150

List his occupation as: President and the business as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Check the boxes for: False Exemption and Public/Political Corruption.

Then in the Comments section demand that the LDS Church be fined and their tax-exempt status revoked for repeated and blatant violations of the IRS's separate of church and state rules, and for conspiring to interfere with a state's political process.

Check Yes under "Are books/records available?" and write in "campaign finance records."

You don't have to provide any of your own personal info. Mail the form and the printed articles to:

Internal Revenue Service
Fresno, CA 93888

Please pass this on to as many people as you can.

Jawbone, I think I love you

I actually can't stand those Bluetooth headsets. I've tried 'em and I find them annoying. Besides I'm not a big phone talker. But this Jawbone brand of Bluetooth headset has the best advertising...

Kentucky Fried Grandma

I gleamed this little blurb out of INSTINCT magazine from a volunteer at the Lexington, Kentucky GLSO/Pride Center. I found it so heartening, thought I'd share.

What's your favorite Pride Center experience?

"One of our Insight members shared a story with us. He's fifty-something now, but when he was eight, his grandmother told him, "You're not like other little boys, but there are other little boys like you. When you get older, you'll meet boys like you, and one of them will make you very happy." This story of family acceptance from so long ago encourages me to help other gay men learn to accept their uniqueness and to seek out friends who fee likewise.

NYC is a boring deadzone, now dominated by uppity straights

This is why I'm so over NYC, my home town where I was born and bred. NYC has gone to hell in a hand basket. Places like the West Village and Chelsea, traditional gayborhoods for decades, have been taken over by uptight scummy breeders and lousy straight-laced families. They are now trying to take away our freedoms and annual gathering festivities. I'm so sick of what these people are doing. If they don't like the open and outrageous, traditional festivities that on the West Village then get the fuck out and move back to your fucking boring suburbs.


Dear Friends,

This past Tuesday night, I attended a preliminary meeting scheduled by Community Board 2 (CB2), which serves the West Village, in order to prepare for the upcoming CB2 Street Permit Committee Meeting this coming Monday, March 17 at 6:30 PM. While many members of CB2 are in support of the The West Village Leather Street Fest, Assistant Secretary of CB2 and President of the Christopher Street Business Merchants Association Elaine Goldman is spearheading a campaign to stop The West Village Leather Street Fest scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 12, as part of New York Leather Weekend 2008.

Below is a list of Ms. Goldman's grievances:
• According to Ms. Goldman and the West Village residents she has united, a Leather street fair is unwelcome on Weehawken/Christopher Streets and the immediate area.
• Ms. Goldman claims that there are no longer bars that cater to the leather community in that area.
• That the area is no place for Leather people.
• That Weehawken & Christopher Streets are not indigenous to the Leather community.
• And finally, that we, as Leather People, belong indoors, and out of the sight of children, and not on the street.

Weehawken Street is historically the first NYC street to house Leather/fetish bars and clubs before popularizing Christopher Street. The street is itself indigenous to our people, which is why we would like to continue having the street fair there, paying homage to the West Village/Christopher Street area and the businesses that have long supported our community.

The West Village Leather Street Fest is geared to promote the community's visibility, education, disseminate information and raise money for organizations of interest to our community. Last year's beneficiaries were the LGBT Community Center and the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF). Much like Folsom Street East, held annually on W. 28th street each June as part of Leather Pride Weekend, the West Village Leather Fest celebrates an important part of our culture, enabling us to gather with peers in a safe & comfortable environment, leading people to educational resources about our community, while teaching them how to have safer, consensual sex. More than 20 of these kinds of events happen in other cities around the country annually. New York City deserves their recognition and share as well.

According to the NCSF, the latest Kinsey Institute Report notes 5-10% of the population engages, at least occasionally, in BDSM sexual expression and experimentation. Of the millions of people living in NYC, more notably the West Village, that represents a very significant part of our community and CB2's jurisdiction. These are CB2's constituents and the community board has a responsibility to embrace diversity while including all of their constituents, serving the needs of everyone within the community.

The West Village, and, most especially Christopher Street, is known as a place to buy leather gear. There are stores on both sides of the street that sell BDSM clothing, gear, adult sexual aids, risque T-shirts, and the like, all prominently displaying their wares in their windows. Local newsstands have long displayed adult magazines on their stands as well.The West Village and Christopher Street are home to the annual Pride Parade and other events done all year long.

Discrimination is discrimination whether due to race, gender, sexual preference or our chosen lifestyle.

Whether you are a resident of the West Village or not, we ask that you come out in support of our community, our rights, and the West Village Leather Street Fest on Monday, March 17th at 6:30 PM (see location below). We are also looking for any historical information or documentation about Weehawken Street to support this cause. Please bring them with you to Monday's meeting or feel free to contact me with any information you may have.

Community Board 2 Meeting
Monday, March 17, (St Patrick's Day), 6:30PM
Union 32 Building, 101 Sixth Ave (bet. Watts & Grand Streets), 22nd Floor

(A,C,E,1,2,3 to Canal Street Station)

Thank you,

Robert Valin, President
New York Leather Weekend
newyorkleatherweekend.com

This message was sent by: Leather Invasion, Old Chelsea Station, New York, NY 10011

Atlantis 2007

Not many words to explain it, because pictures speak volumes. Yes that's the look of real joy folks. Yet another awesome time was had on our third Atlantis cruise to Mexico. What more fun could be had than being on board a humongous cruise ship with 2000+ other gay men of all shapes, sizes, and walks of life. Whatever. It's called F-U-N. Everyone should have a little.



And I have to say we had just a little bit o' fun, but not too much.

Black Party 2008 theme

Robopapi just showed this to me on YouTube. I was thinking it would be a great theme for next years (2008) Black Party theme. This is totally hot (but not like Paris Hilton).

Roxy's Last Dance Sabotaged by Madonna

Since we hadn't originally planned to attend the last night of the Roxy, I wasn't really disappointed by the outcome of the night's events. We arrived early (by NYC standards) at 10:50pm. Heading south along the West Side Highway in a cab towards 18th Street. As we approached I saw the huge line that by this early hour had already wrapped around the corner of 11th Avenue up to 19th Street. In the half hour since we arrived the line had already grown to reach W20th Street. Of course wouldn't you know it, Mother Nature decided to rain on us. Luckily it wasn't 13 degrees out like a few nights earlier.

Waiting on line wasn't so bad. It actually would move about 10 feet every 10 minutes. I won't do the math because I have no idea how many hundreds of feet we were from the Roxy's entrance. There were thousands of people, oddly enough mostly twinks (ie; 20-something little gay guys). Amongst the clattering voices of untold numbers, I kept hearing Madonna. Madonna this...Madonna that. I heard the rumor that Madonna was supposed to make an appearance, but I never care or listen to those rumors. But now it all makes sense as to why the huge twink turnout.

By now we had been waiting in the rain for close to an hour or a little more. My sense of time completely vanished at this point. Only my trusty chronometer kept me informed. Our friend Robert had passed by and waited with us. And then this rather large man walked right up to us and wanted to know if we'd like to follow him and get about 17 feet from the entrance. I thought, wow 17 feet...what an odd number. I looked at him and rather curtly snapped, who are you? He had buldging pockets in his sweat-jacket and claimed to work for the Roxy. So I said, well what would you like? He said $20 a head to get ahead...without thinking for more than 3 seconds I said forget it. I wasn't in the mood to pay another $60 (on top of the regular entrance fee) just so I could follow this guy who I had no idea who he was or if he really could get us ahead. No matter, I was seriously loosing interest in the whole affair anyway.

And as I looked around I began to realize that even if we were to gain entry, I was thinking I'm not particularly impressed with this twink crowd and therefore I'm not even sure I want to be like a sardine inside the Roxy with all these twinks. So I put forth the question, do we want to wait any longer and stated my "twinky" case. My trio whole heartedly agreed and off we zoomed in a cab and headed for the dry warmth of the Eagle.

The Day After...

Of course I was dying to know how fabulous or amazingly horrible the Roxy's Last Dance turned out. I received emails from friends and read Peter Rauhofer's message boards. This is what I found out...

Our friend Robert who waited with us had a friend who was about 100 feet ahead of us in line. He didn't gain entry till around 2:30am, about 2 hours (DST factored) after we left. And yes it was still raining. Once he got in, the ticket line was another long line and yet after that the coat check line was even longer. I had no doubt in my mind that leaving was the best decision I've made in my life in recent history.

I then read that Madonna was in fact supposed to show up. Which explains all the twinks and the fact that I didn't recognize a single face in all those thousands of people waiting on line. BUT, she canceled her appearance at around 1:30am, apparently due to the police telling Madonna's people they didn't think it was safe for her to come and that it was basically madness at the Roxy. So the bitch Madonna was gonna come and then canceled. Had I known any of this, I would've showed up at the Roxy at 2 or 3am, probably walked right in and had a funtastic time. I hope for all those who did make it in, that you had a great time, cuz it would seem such a shame that the Last Dance would turn out to be a super sucky waste of time.

For an entirely different perspective on the night's event, click here for all the news thats fit to print. And for an entirely pissed-off point of view rant from a long time Roxy goer, read this message thread over at PeterRauhofer.com: Topic: Another reason why Roxy/JBlair must go

Keep in mind y'all, life and clubland will go on. Live long and prosper.