Florida Agenda

SNL Alum, Turned Right Wing Activist, Decries Positive Portrayal of Gays on “Glee”

DAVIE – Comedian Victoria Jackson, a former sketch comic on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” has condemned the FOX Network’s program “Glee” for its positive portrayal of gay characters and the potential negative impact it could have on children.

Jackson, 52, a Miami-Dade County native who performed on SNL from 1986-1992, has in recent years joined the Tea Party movement and become an outspoken critic of President Obama, progressive causes in general, and LGBT rights in particular.

“This election coming up will decide whether we’re going to be capitalist or communist, tyranny or liberty,” she told supporters this month at a meeting of the Davie-Cooper City Republican Club.

The Miami-based Jackson also condemned the portrayal of families on the hit musical show “Glee.” “There is no family unit.

There are no fathers. Now, goats can marry people,” she complained. “And children are being—okay get this—I said on the Internet that I was very upset that the show ‘Glee,’ which is a fantastically entertaining show of talented kids and writers had two story lines that are [related to] homosexuality. Eightyear- olds are watching this in their living rooms. It’s primetime TV.

They’re being taught that homosexuality is normal. And you know what, that’s child abuse.”

In March 2011, Jackson told “Showbiz Tonight” that she though the gay kiss portrayed on “Glee” was “sickening,” citing moral concerns. “It doesn’t matter what I think,” said Jackson.

“What matters is what the Bible says.” The Tea Party heroine said that she was “really concerned about our country because immorality is, well, let’s see:

Secular humanism rules the airwaves, and it’s stealing the innocence away from this whole generation of children. My daughter is a teenager and I can’t find any show that she can watch.”

Jackson, who says that President Barack Obama is a communist, in her song “There’s a Communist Living in the White House,” also sees a United Nations-backed conspiracy taking hold across the U.S., and believes that the country will soon be under the rule of Sharia—Islamic law as defined by the Quran.

Of accusations that she is homophobic, Jackson told “Showbiz Tonight,” “That’s a cute little buzzword of the liberal agenda.

Basically, the Bible says homosexuality is a sin.” Jackson decried the priorities of network programmers. “They should have a celibacy campaign and tell kids that 50 percent of teenagers now have this new STD from oral sex. That’s what they should be doing instead of trying to make kids gay.”

Locked in a verbal tailspin, she continued “I just want to know why the liberals are pro-Muslim and pro-gay. Muslims kill gays.

That’s what’s confusing to me. And the only thing I can come up with is that the Muslims hate God and the gays hate his word.”

Jack Black Says Gay Rights Are “No-Brainer”

LOS ANGELES, CA–In the dark comedy “Bernie,” actor/comedian Jack Black plays Bernie Tiede, a Texas man convicted of the 1996 murder of wealthy widow Marjorie Nugent, who had left him $10 million in her will.

Although most people who were personally acquainted with the real-life Tiede—who is currently serving a life sentence in prison—speculated about sexual identity, the convicted killer has never come out of the closet, so Black was able to make creative choices in the role that enabled him to convey the real Tiede’s flamboyance and persona without rendering a caricature.

In an exclusive interview with PrideSource.com, Black discussed his opposition to California’s Proposition 8, which outlawed marriage equality in the Golden State. “It’s a rights issue,” said Black. “I’ve got a lot of gay and lesbian friends and family, so it’s personal to me when people and the government start talking about them as ‘less than.’”

“It just seems like one of the no-brainers in our society,” added Black. “There are not a lot of no-brainers where you’re like, ‘This is right and that is wrong and I’m definitely on this side,’ where you want to go out and sing about it and do things. But it feels good to be on the right side of history.”

Black, 42, previously played the role of Jesus in the production of “Prop 8: The Musical,” which also starred George Clooney and was staged to raise money for California marriage equality.

Gay Adult Content Pre-empts Canadian Newscast

HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA – A local Ontario TV morning newscast was interrupted last Friday by roughly three minutes of hard-core gay adult content. The April 20 broadcast of “Morning Live” on Hamilton station CHCH was pre-empted by what station officials are calling “technical errors.”

Although the television station’s owner, Channel Zero, also offers adult broadcast content, management insists that the contraband content that interrupted the morning news didn’t originate at CHCH.

“The content did not originate at CHCH but was the result of a switching error at one of the cable companies that distributes our signal,” officials tweeted on the “Morning Live.”

One station viewer—presumably with tongue planted firmly in cheek—tweeted: “Thinking about filing a lawsuit with #CHCH for making me question my sexuality.”

EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA – The leader of Alberta’s Wildrose political alliance is expressing concern over anti-gay remarks made by one of her party’s regional candidates. Danielle Smith, who leads the conservative coalition, says that she favors marriage equality and that her fellow party members should focus on fiscal, rather than social, issues.

The Wildrose Alliance Party, a provincial party in Alberta, has been painted as “extremist” by opponents. Smith was firm in her resolve to stay focused. “When our members elected me, they knew they were electing a candidate that was pro-choice and pro-gay marriage,” said Smith last week during an all-candidates forum.

“The only way we’re going to be able to become a mainstream, big-tent conservative party capable of forming government is to focus on the issues that matter to Albertans. If I am elected premier, a Wildrose government will not be legislating in areas of morality,” she said.

The party leader was responding to a blog posting last year by Wildrose candidate Allan Hunsperger of Edmonton, who said that public schools are “godless” and predicted that gays will burn in hell. Alberta Premier, Alison Redford condemned Hunsperger’s blog comments and suggested they may represent the prevailing view of Wildrose members.

LGBT rights activists are calling for Smith to remove Hunsperger from the party. “We are waiting for Danielle Smith, as leader, to accept and account for the actions of her candidate, and immediately apologize,” said Kristopher Wells of the University of Alberta Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services. “Anything less than a full apology is unconscionable and a sign of a two-tiered approach to equality in this province,” he added.

By Phoebe Moses

Last week, members of parliament (MPs) crossed party lines in support of a sweeping national suicide prevention bill, passing legislation by a vote of 285 to 3 in the House of Commons on Feb. 15.

“At the heart of this bill is a clear call for national leadership, a coordination of the great efforts of many community groups across Canada, suicide prevention groups already doing all they can to bring hope,” Conservative Party MP Harold Albrecht, the bill’s sponsor, told the House of Commons.

The measure will “create a framework for suicide prevention,” Joe Comartin, an MP from the opposition National Democratic Party, said during debate on the bill. “It would recognize suicide as both a mental health and a public health issue.”

“Suicide deaths and attempts cost the Canadian economy over $14.7 billion annually,” Liberal Party MP Hedy Fry told members. “If we are not moved by the human problem here, we should know that the $14.7 billion could go to other parts of health care to help all kinds of problems, including via measures for prevention, promotion, and setting up of community clinics, et cetera.”

A physician, Fry detailed the startling statistics: “The national rate of suicide in Canada is 15 out of 100,000 people,” she noted. “Now, in 2012, it is 73% higher than it was in the 1950s. For every suicide, there are 100 failed attempts.”

“The rate of suicide is higher among men. We know that 23 out of every 100,000 men will attempt suicide as opposed to 6 out of 100,000 women, although women are three to four times more likely to attempt as opposed to actually complete suicide,” she said. “It is the second leading cause of death among Canadian youth aged 10 to 24. In fact, the suicide rate for Canadian youth is the third highest in the industrialized world.”

Fry also pointed out that certain population groups have a higher incidence of suicide. “Those in the armed forces have a three times higher rate of suicide than the general population; gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons have a seven times higher rate of suicide than heterosexual youth,” Fry reported.

“We all know someone whose sense of hope was overcome by emotional pain and despair and consequently ended his or her life by suicide,” offered the bill’s Conservative sponsor, Albrecht. “The big problem is that suicide does not end the pain. It simply transfers it to family and community.”

“We as a Parliament can and must do more to protect this sacred gift of human life,” he added.

VANCOUVER, CANADA – A controversial new study suggests that in neighborhoods where extreme conservatism prevails, the presence of one more same-sex couple for every 1,000 households is linked to a one per cent drop in housing prices. In liberal neighborhoods, by contrast, researchers find the associated effect of gays and lesbians on housing prices to be positive.

According to the Vancouver Sun, the study, which appears in the Journal of Urban Economics, draws data from more than 20,000 home sales and controls factors as access to amenities, racial homogeneity, education, income, housing characteristics and quality of nearby schools.

A 2009 study reported that 20% of gays and lesbians consider themselves to have been victims of either price or property discrimination at some point.

Importantly, however, research led by Richard Florida at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management has consistently shown that higher concentrations of gay people are linked with economic prosperity, innovation and creativity within a region.

QUEBEC, CANADA – Former Major League Soccer player, David Testo, told the CBC that he was gay and regrets not coming out sooner. Testo played for the Columbus Crew.

“I’m gay, I’m gay. I did not choose. It’s just part of who I am. And it has nothing to do w ith

the talent of a soccer player. You can be both an excellent soccer player and be gay…” Testo told the CBC, according to OutSports.

“I really regret not having said [this] publicly earlier. I fought with it all my life, my whole career. Living the life of a professional athlete and being gay is incredibly difficult. It is like wearing a secret… it saps all your energy to you, in addition to having to perform, having to play.”

TORONTO, CANADA – Keepers at the Toronto Zoo have decided to break up a couple of gay penguins and pair them with females. Zookeepers say they are trying to preserve the species.

“Pedro” and “Buddy” were brought to the Toronto Zoo earlier this year from Pittsburgh’s National Aviary to bond with a couple of eligible females. Instead, the pair bonded with each other. Zookeepers now report seeing the pair snuggling, calling to each other and displaying courtship behavior.

In the 1990s, an estimated 225,000 African penguins lived in the wild. Now, the number is closer to 60,000 and dropping. The cause, biologists suspect, is changing ocean currents that are driving food sources further and further away from penguin breeding grounds on the African coast.

In 2004, Roy and Silo, a pair of male chinstrap penguins at New York’s Central Park Zoo became famous for incubating and rearing an egg given to them by zookeepers. The pair’s story was later written up into the bestselling children’s book “And Tango Makes Three.”

Zoo officials say that Pedro and Buddy’s separation will only last as long as they can inseminate their respective female partners.

By Alex Vaughn

Jamie Hubley 1996 – 2011

Jamie Hubley, a 15-year-old from Ottawa, Canada committed suicide on Saturday after writing openly about depression, bullying and self-harm on his blog. He has spent the past weeks writing heart-wrenching messages and posting disturbing images, all the while stating his treatment for depression was failing.

His blog, titled “You Can’t Break When You’re Already Broken,” is a sad memoir of the 10th grade student’s desperate pleas.
In a heartbreaking message posted prior to his death, he wrote: “I’m a casualty of love… I hit rock f****** bottom, fell through a crack, now I’m stuck.”

He had previously written: “I just want to feel special to someone.”

Stephanie Wheeler, a close friend of Hubley told the Ottawa Citizen: “From the outside, he looked like the happiest kid. He was always smiling and giving everybody hugs in the halls. I just remember him wanting a boyfriend so bad, he’d always ask me to find a boy for him. I think he wanted someone to love him for who he was.”

Hubley also posted his suicide note on his blog. He wrote of his love for musicians including Lady Gaga, Adele, Katy Perry and Christina Aguilera. The note also spoke of the pain from both bullying and depression.

“I’m tired of life, really. It’s so hard, I’m sorry, I can’t take it anymore,” his note read. “I don’t want my parents to think this is their fault, either. I love my mom and dad. It’s just too hard. I don’t want to wait three more years, this hurts too much.” The Kanata teenager also described how he hated being the only openly gay boy in his school.

His father Allan Hubley, a counselor for the Kanata South district of the city, wrote on his Twitter page after his son’s death: “Thank you to all the people sending us messages. Their love for Jamie will keep us going in our time of need.”

Hubley also told CBC News that his son was constantly bullied throughout elementary school and into high school.

He said the bullying began when Jamie was in Grade 7 and teens tried to stuff batteries down his throat on the school bus because he was a figure skater.

“[Jamie] was the kind of boy that loved everybody,” said Hubley, “He couldn’t understand why everyone would be so cruel to him about something as simple as skating. He just wanted someone to love him. That’s all. And what’s wrong with that? Why do people have to be cruel to our children when all they want to do is be loved?” said Hubley, speaking on the phone with the CBC’s Ashley Burke.

In high school, the relentless bullying was targeted to the fact that Jamie was openly gay.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board released a statement on Tuesday sending its condolences to the Hubley family. The statement also addressed the subject of bullying. “I couldn’t agree more about the importance of dealing with these issues. These are complex issues that we have to deal with as a community”, said Jennifer Adams, the board’s director of education.

The case of Jamie Hubley has highlighted the growing awareness of teen depression in Ottawa. He is part of a rash of teen suicides in the Ottawa Valley in 2010 that has forced the communities to design better strategies to address the issue, including identifying signs of depression earlier and removing the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

Jamie Hubley struggled with depression for a long time, his father said, but no matter how much his parents tried to help, the teen could not escape his sadness.

“I lost a beautiful, beautiful child that was going to make the world a better place. I’ve been involved in a lot of things in my community … but I couldn’t fix my own boy and that’s tearing me apart,” Allan Hubley said.

A Facebook page has been set up in Jamie’s honor, and his fellow students are planning a memorial performance at his school A.Y. Jackson Secondary.

Jamie Hubley’s tragic death comes as “Heroes” star Zachary Quinto revealed on his blog this past weekend that he was gay. His revelation was inspired by the suicide of another schoolboy, Jamey Rodemeyer, 14, who ended his life in September after being severely bullied because he was homosexual.

The actor wrote: “In light of Jamey’s death, it became clear to me in an inst

ant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality. Gay kids need to stop killing themselves because they are made to feel worthless by cruel and relentless bullying.”

The Daily Mail reported, “Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Canadians between the ages of ten and 24 and disproportionately affects gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth.”

WINNIPEG, CANADA – LGBT residents of Winnipeg snapped up bottles of Queer Beer the moment the brew hit the shelves of the local stores.

Half Pints Brewing Co. produced the beer to celebrate the upcoming Pride Winnipeg festival, but the beer’s launch at two city liquor stores Thursday proved so popular that the festival’s entire bottled supply was gone within hours.

Speaking to the Winnipeg Sun, “We went through what we had earmarked for the entire festival in about two hours,” said Nicole Rudge, CEO of Half Pints. “We’re working like mad to get additional beer bottled and labeled.”

Half Pints put most of its supply into kegs that were set aside for festival events, and those remain.

However, it’s the accompanying bottled supply that the brewery is now scrambling to re-stock. Rudge said the response won’t prompt the brewery to change its mind about keeping Queer Beer a temporary, specialty product.

“We’re a small, local, craft brewery. We don’t do mass distribution,” she said. “We have plans on coming back to this next year, but we’re known for doing seasonal beers.”

MISSASSAUGA, ONTARIO – The St. Joseph Catholic School in Missassauga told the school’s unofficial Gay-Straight Alliance they couldn’t display any rainbows at their June 3rd anti-homophobia event.

The students had already brought the posters and signs with rainbows when they were told they could not put them up. They were told by school officials that rainbows are associated with gay pride.

Since rainbows couldn’t be displayed, the students baked rainbows into cupcakes by dying the batter in rainbow colors. The cupcakes sold for 50 cents each and raised almost $200 for charity.

WINNIPEG, CANADA – According to the Winnipeg Free Press, rampant homophobia stalks the hallways and classrooms of Canadian schools according to a national study released last week by the University of Winnipeg.

According to the report, homophobic comments are a common and accepted part of school life and even spoken by some of the teachers. The report further states that two out of three non-heterosexual students do not feel safe in their schools and indicates that girls are more likely than boys to suffer the verbal abuse and physical harassment due to their sexual orientation.

The survey included 3,700 Canadian high school students and took place between December 2007 and June 2009.