Florida Agenda

George Takei Sports Old (Boy Scouts) Uniform for NYC PRIDE

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK – “Star Trek” actor and LGBT rights activist George Takei—who played Lieutenant Sulu on the iconic 1960s television series— rode in the official Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) car this weekend during New York City’s 43rd Annual LGBT Pride March in New York City, a vehicle driven by Ohio mom and former Boy Scout leader Jennifer Tyrrell, who was ousted as a Scout leader because she is gay.

“I’m saddened and shocked by the policy the Boy Scouts have,” said Takei, 75, who is openly gay. Tyrrell and Takei, each be accompanied by their respective spouses, donned matching Boy Scout uniforms to protest Tyrrell’s removal as leader for her 7-year-old son’s Boy Scout troop in Bridgeport, Ohio.

In April, Scouting officials asked her to step down as Scout leader, because her sexual orientation “did not meet the high standards” of conduct of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

After being forced to resign, Tyrrell’s son, Cruz, was deactivated from his Scout troop. In true Scout fashion, the mother of four was prepared, and launched a Change.org petition that has netted over 300,000 signatures, as well as the support of A-Listers like actors Julianne Moore, Benecio Del Toro, Josh Hutcherson of “The Hunger Games,” Diana Agron of “Glee,” and singer Ricky Martin.

“She personifies all the best qualities of scouting,” said Takei of Tyrrell.

Gay Porn Star’s Death Sparks Vicious Online Attacks

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK – The death of gay porn star Erik Rhodes on June 14 has mobilized both fans and those critical of the late actor’s openly gay lifestyle to post their commendations—and condemnations—of the late star online. Rhodes—whose real name was James Elliot Naughtin—died of an apparent heart attack in his sleep, in an incident that may have been related to his well known use of steroids.

Rhodes, 30, was well-regarded in the gay community. Falcon Studios CEO Adam Q. Robinson tweeted last week that the actor was “a man of steel on the outside, but all teddy bear on the inside.” Producer and author Jack Shamama relayed his shock. “I still can’t believe @ Erik_Rhodes is no longer with us,” Shamama tweeted.

“He was a gentle giant. Anyone who says otherwise didn’t know him.” Rhodes’ heavy use of club drugs and steroids were well known, as were his battles with depression. While messages of support and condolences filled cyberspace last week, there were also postings from those who took the opportunity to assail Rhodes’ memory.

On Queerty.com, an article about Rhodes’ death prompted this comment from a user named Cynthia, who criticized Rhodes and the LGBT community.

“This story has brought me to tears and is a clear example that the wages of sin is death,” she wrote. “The fact that the gay community loves pornography and celebrates the pornographic industry is a tragedy.”

 Gay Couple Marries in Big Apple Comic Book Store

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK – Taking a cue from comic heroes Northstar and Kyle Jinadu—characters in the fictional Marvel Comics universe who tied the knot this month—two gay men from Ohio took their own leap “in a single bound,” and married in a ceremony at a New York City comic book shop.

Self-described “comic book geeks” Jason Walker and Scott Everhart were married at Midtown Comics, in a ceremony timed to coincide with the release date of the gay wedding issue of Astonishing X-men #51, the superhero group to which Northstar and Janadu are affiliated.

The couple—die-hard comic book fans—opted to form their dynamic duo in the Big Apple, because Ohio prohibits same sex marriage. Among those attending their ceremony was New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

By Rory Barbarosa

Dancer: Casper Smart Is Gay, Using Jennifer Lopez

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – A rival dancer has been trying to “out” the 25-year-old boyfriend of Jennifer Lopez, claiming in online posts that Casper Smart is gay, and only using Lopez to acquire fame and wealth. Joshua Lee Ayers, who worked in the 2010 dance film “Step Up 3D” with Smart, has been using his Twitter account to call into question the former J-Lo backup dancer’s sexual orientation.

Ayers, a dancer at Hollywood nightclub Boulevard3, began his online harassment in March, after Twitter fans asked Smart about his choreography techniques. Ayers responded that “He stealz them off of other choreographers…” He then began accusing Smart of denying his homosexuality, tweeting, “LOL @jessyterrero check out Ur Gay Homie @caspersmart. Know as a low key homo in hollywood!!! http://yfrog.com/ h477mcaj.” Lopez, 42, started dating Smart, who is 17 years her junior, in November 2011, after she announced her split from husband Marc Anthony.

Mitt Romney Offers Praise for Anti-Gay “Chick-Fil-A” Founder During Commencement Speech

LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA – During a May 12 commencement speech at Liberty University— the largest Evangelical Christian institution of higher learning in the world—Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney offered praise for the school’s late benefactor, Rev. Jerry Falwell, along with the founder of fast food chain Chick-Fil-A, a company that LGBT rights advocates say has donated millions of dollars to anti-gay organizations, and other reactionary groups.

“The calling Jerry answered was not an easy one,” Romney said of the late minister and founder of the Moral Majority, who died in 2007. “Today, we remember him as a courageous and big-hearted minister of the Gospel who never feared an argument, and never hated an adversary.

Jerry deserves the tribute he would have treasured most, as a cheerful, confident champion for Christ.” Along with founding Liberty University, Falwell was an outspoken opponent of gay rights. During the 1970s, Falwell joined former Miss America runner-up and singer Anita Bryant in her efforts to fight a Miami-Dade County ordinance that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Falwell went to Miami and told supporters that “so-called gay folks would just as soon kill you as look at you,” and referred to gays as “brute beasts,” and “part of a vile and satanic system.” Romney also took time to mention Truett Cathy, the founder of the Chick-Fil-A fast food chain, who was present to receive an honor during the Liberty University commencement. Since last year, gay rights groups have boycotted Chick-Fil-A for its financial support of groups that oppose marriage quality and LGBT rights.

The presumptive GOP nominee praised the restaurant chain. “The Romney campaign comes to a sudden stop when we spot a Chick- Fil-A,” Romney said to Cathy. “Your chicken sandwiches were our comfort food through the primary season, and there were days that we needed a lot of comforting.

So, Truett, thank you, and congratulations on your well-deserved honor today.” LGBT advocates report that in 2009 alone, the WinShape Foundation—the charitable arm of Chick-Fil-A—donated over $1.7 million to groups that oppose gay rights.

The beneficiary groups include Focus on the Family, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Eagle Forum, the Family Research Council, and Exodus International, one of the world’s largest promoters of “ex-gay,” conversion therapy.

Vatican Denounces Nun’s Book that Justifies Same Sex Relationships

VATICAN CITY, ITALY – The Vatican’s top doctrinal watchdog has denounced a book written by an American nun who taught Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School, in which she presents a theological justification for same sex relationships, as well as masturbation, and remarriage following divorce.

According to Vatican officials, “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” by Sister Margaret A. Farley, is “not consistent with authentic Catholic theology,” and should be avoided by faithful Roman Catholics. The book by Farley, who is a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, includes an endorsement of marriage equality, which she writes “can also be important in transforming the hatred, rejection, and stigmatization of gays and lesbians,” adding that “same-sex relationships and activities can be justified according to the same sexual ethic as heterosexual relationships and activities.”

“This opinion is not acceptable,” the Vatican said. According to Roman Catholic dogma, homosexual acts are “acts of grave depravity,” “intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law.” In addition to gay relationships, Farley’s book praises the practice of female masturbation, which she says “usually does not raise any moral questions at all.”

The nun, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of America, which operates Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, writes that “many women” find “great good in selfpleasuring— perhaps especially in the discovery of their own possibilities for pleasure— something many had not experienced or even known about in their ordinary sexual relations with husbands or lovers.”

The Vatican condemned Farley’s suggestion, saying that “the deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose.” Farley’s book was published in 2006, but the Vatican first notified the nun’s superiors of its concerns in 2010, saying that “Just Love” was “a cause of confusion among the faithful.” According to Cardinal William J. Levada, an American prelate who heads the Vatican office that deals with matters of doctrinal purity—and which has historical roots in the Church’s medieval Inquisition—Farley’s book “cannot be used as a valid expression of Catholic teaching, either in counseling and formation, or in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.”

Levada’s statement was approved by Pope Benedict XVI who, on Sunday, ended a threeday meeting in Milan, that had been organized to promote family values. Farley, an award-winning scholar, responded to the Vatican’s censure. “I can only clarify that the book was not intended to be an expression of current official Catholic teaching, nor was it aimed specifically against this teaching. It is of a different genre altogether,” said Farley.

She added that “Just Love” provides “contemporary interpretations” of its subject matter, and seeks to replace antiquated and “taboo morality” with ideas based upon “present-day scientific, philosophical, theological, and biblical resources.”

Village People Singer Wins “Termination Rights” Case over Song Rights

LOS ANGELES, CA – A federal judge last week ruled in favor of recording artist and songwriter Victor Willis, the former lead singer of 1970s disco band the Village People, dismissing a lawsuit brought by two music companies that sought to prevent him from exercising ownership rights over hit songs he wrote, including “YMCA, “In the Navy,” and “Go West.” Last year, Willis tried to invoke “termination rights,” a provision of copyright law that allows singers and songwriters to reacquire the ownership of their work themselves after 35 years.

The music publishers, Can’t Stop Productions and Scorpio Music, sought to prevent that, arguing that Willis had “no right, title or interest in the copyright” to 33 songs recorded by the Village People. On May 14, Los Angeles Federal District Court Chief Judge Barry Moskowitz ruled for Willis, rejecting the companies’ argument that he had created “works for hire” as a songwriter employed by the Village People’s management company. “The purpose of the act was to ‘safeguard authors against unremunerative transfers’ and address ‘the unequal bargaining position of authors, resulting in part from the impossibility of determining a work’s value until it has been exploited,’” wrote Moskowitz in his 10-page ruling. “Under [the music publishers’] interpretation, it would be more difficult to terminate an individual grant than it would be to make it in the first place.”

The “termination rights” clause was added during a revision of copyright law that took effect in 1978. It says that—beginning in 2013—recording artists and songwriters can regain ownership of work they had signed away early in their careers. In his decision, Judge Moskowitz wrote that there are circumstances in which the creators of musical works—both singers and songwriters—have the right to “recapture” their ownership of a musical composition after a lapse of 35 years, even if their original contract specifically prevents them from doing so.

More Twists in Alleged John Travolta Sexual Battery Cases

LOS ANGELES, CA – The sexual battery and harassment cases against actor John Travolta have moved with rapid speed from the sublime to the ridiculous, with one of the anonymous masseurs named in the suits being “fired” as a client by his attorney, and that lawyer in turn filing suit against another attorney he accuses of “stealing” another client who is involved in the cases.

Travolta, 58, is accused by at least six separate male masseurs of making inappropriate advances during massage sessions. One of them, a Texas man identified in court documents as “John Doe #1,” was dropped by Los Angeles attorney Okorie Okorocha after admitting that he had misidentified the date of his alleged Beverly Hills encounter with the “Saturday Night Fever” star (credit card records indicate that Travolta was in New York at the time).

John Doe #1 also claimed that Travolta admitted to having achieved early career successes as a result of “sexual favors” he had performed for Hollywood execs. A day later, a second accuser—identified as “John Doe #2”—came forward, stating that Travolta had made unwanted advances during a stay in Atlanta, in which the actor “had a full erection,” and tried “to force [John Doe #2] to touch his anus.”

On May 10, a former cruise ship employee, Fabian Zanzi, became the third accuser, alleging that in 2009, Travolta had offered him $12,000 for sex. Another man—a former masseur at the Eden Roc in Miami Beach—has also reported that the actor accosted him for sex during a 2000 massage in the actor’s hotel room. The man, who spoke with the New York Daily News and was identified only by his first name, “Jeff,” says that Travolta put “his hands where he wanted me to work and kind of [grinded] on the table,” adding that the actor “actually pulled my hand between his legs, up to his scrotum.” After “getting aggressive and [grabbing] my hand again,” Jeff alleges that Travolta left a mere $20 tip. The suits are seeking approximately $2 million in damages against the actor.

“Summer” of Love: Singer’s Passing Marks an Epoch’s Ending

NAPLES, FL – The passing of Donna Summer, 63, last week brought to a close a decades-long love affair between the singer and her gay fan base, one that began in 1975, when the 26-year-old singer (who was born LaDonna Adrian Gaines) broke onto the charts with “Love to Love You Baby,” a 17-minute song that would result in a profound transformation for both music and for LGBT Americans.

Summer’s relationship with her gay fans was a two-edged sword, one she would come to resent because of its “bad girl” implications. As she told Ebony magazine in 1977, “I’m not just sex, sex, sex. I would never want to be a one-dimensional person like that.” That perceived ambivalence was reciprocated in kind, after the performer allegedly blamed the AIDS epidemic on divine wrath aimed at the immoral lifestyle of her largest audience, allegations she denied in a 1989 interview with The Advocate. Summer was emphatic in her denial.

“I never said, ‘If you are gay, God hates you.’ Come on. Be real. I don’t understand that,” she told The Advocate. “Anybody who really knows me knows I wouldn’t say that.” Although there was a reconciliation of sorts, the damage had been done, and the singer enjoyed her final Top-10 hit, “This Time I Know It’s for Real,” that same year. Summer—who died on May 17 from cancer at her Naples home—was an accidental LGBT icon.

The performer never courted gay audiences, but her music reverberated in America’s libidinously adventurous, post-Sexual Revolution 1970s, and although it wasn’t created for the gay market, it was for that market segment that her sound hit closest to home, and for which she will be most missed.

GAP Unveils Same-Sex Ad Campaigns

LOS ANGELES, CA – Clothing retailer Gap has rolled out the latest element in its “Be Bright” campaign, a new billboard that features an attractive young gay couple beside the slogan “Be One.” “Be Bright speaks to what has always been the heart and soul of Gap —casual American style that’s relevant for today and rooted in optimism.

We’ve been infusing a new energy and confidence into our product and how we express who we are to our customer,” said Seth Farbman, Gap ‘s Global Chief Marketing Officer. Other retail chains have also recently featured same-sex couples in their national and regional advertising.

Last month, Urban Outfitters unveiled images of two girls kissing in its April catalog, which earned the retailer the condemnation of One Million Moms, a Web site for the American Family Association (AFA), a Mississippi-based conservative group that opposes LGBT rights.

Similarly the group has launched a boycott against JCPenney, after the retail giant released its May catalog which depicted a gay female couple. In condemning the images, One Million Moms cites on its Web site that, “On pages ten and eleven, under the title ‘Freedom of Expression,’ you’ll find ‘Wendi and her partner Maggie and daughters’ and again ‘Wendi, daughters Raven and Clover, and partner Maggie’ in text.

In the picture, both women are wearing wedding bands,” the web site stated. “We want to be a store for all Americans. In celebration of Mother’s Day, we’re proud that our May book honors women from diverse backgrounds who all share the heartwarming experience of motherhood,” company officials said in a statement.

A similar boycott of JCPenney stores was threatened in February after One Million Moms protested the national retail chain’s hiring of openly gay spokeswoman Ellen DeGeneres. The boycott failed to materialize.

Hetero Pop Trio “fun.” plans Launch of Marriage Equality Non-Profit

NEW YORK, NY – The indie pop trio “fun.” has announced plans to establish a not-for-profit organization with a mission to legalize gay marriage in all 50 states.

“We’re firm believers in the idea that if you’re not talking about it, you’re part of the problem,” guitarist Jack Antonoff told the Washington Post. “We realize we have an audience, and it would be a real shame to waste it.”

In March, Antonoff—who formed fun. in 2008 with singer Nate Ruess and keyboard player Andrew Dost—told Spinner that being straight has given the performers an appreciation for the rights that are not possessed by LGBT Americans. “Being part of a band of three straight men, we felt there was an inherent power in the fact that we aren’t gay, and yet we still care and we have a voice—there’s a responsibility there,” Antonoff said, adding that “anyone that is not standing up for the LGBT community is a huge part of what’s holding them back.”

“As allies, we have to prepare ourselves to step into the fire when necessary, even–and especially–when said fire is merely a still-lit cigarette tossed carelessly onto the street,” he wrote in February for the Huffington Post.

“Of course, the majority of us would speak up in the face of outrageous bigotry, but do we speak up in a social situation when someone casually refers to something as ‘gay’?’ If we don’t, we are standing with the homophobes whom we are quietly fighting.”

Author Orson Scott Card condemns NC Marriage Equality Supporters in Opinion Piece

GREENSBORO, NC –Orson Scott Card, the award-winning author of the novel “Ender’s Game” and other fiction, announced his support last week for North Carolina’s Amendment One, the state’s constitutional amendment which voters passed on Tuesday and which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

In a May 3 editorial for The Rhinoceros Times (Greensboro) titled “What Right Is Really at Stake?,” Card said that marriage equality will give “the left the power to force anti-religious values on our children.” Card, 61, wrote that “There’s no need to legalize gay marriage. I have plenty of gay friends who are committed couples; some of them call themselves married, some don’t, but their friends treat them as married.

Anybody who doesn’t like it just doesn’t hang out with them.” The author is an outspoken opponent of LGBT rights. In a 1990 essay, he said that laws which ban homosexual behavior should “remain on the books” in order to “send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society’s regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society.”

A 2004 essay, “Homosexual ‘Marriage’ and Civilization,” included Card’s description of “the dark secret of homosexual society—the one that dares not speak its name—is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse, and how many of them yearn to get out of the homosexual community and live normally.”

In 2009, Card was elected to the board of directors of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which opposes marriage equality legislation across the country. In his May 3 opinion piece, Card wrote “There are no laws left standing that discriminate against gay couples.

They can visit each other in the hospital. They can benefit from each other’s insurance.” He likewise condemned the “immutability” of homosexual attraction, writing “Same-sex attraction is not a strait jacket; people’s desires change over time; gay people still have choices; a reproductive dysfunction like same-sex attraction is not a death sentence for your DNA or for your desire to have a family in which children grow up with male and female parents to model appropriate gender roles.”

Justin Bieber Impersonator Arrested
for Online Child Pornography

MONTGOMERY, AL – An Alabama man has been arrested, charged with child pornography and sexual exploitation after falsely assuming the identity of performer Justin Bieber and enticing underage girls to perform sexual acts online. Christopher Patrick Gunn of Montgomery is accused of persuading the girls to perform sexual acts in exchange for free tickets and backstage passes to Bieber’s performances.

Afterwards, he threatened to post their images and videos to pornographic sites when they learned the truth of his impersonation. Beginning in 2009, Gunn, 32, faked his identity on Facebook. He was arrested on March 20 after FBI agents searched his house and seized a laptop and a cell phone that contained videos and images of child pornography. Court documents says that between 2009 and last summer, Gunn posed as a member of “New Kids on the Block,” and then, beginning in November 2011, he impersonated Bieber to lure underage girls, some as young as nine years old. The children resided in Florida, California, and Virginia, among other places.

Gunn is charged with committing multiple crimes, including two counts of child pornography, 10 counts of sexual exploitation, three counts of interstate extortion, and three counts of using interstate commerce in furtherance of unlawful activity. He is also currently on probation in Florida, related to convictions for theft, burglary, and other crimes.

Authorities in New Jersey have also arrested a man who intimidated underage girls into performing sex acts online while impersonating Bieber. Lee Moir, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, also used Facebook to engage young girls into performing lewd acts for him.

Moir, 34, threatened and sexually abused a 12-year-old New Jersey girl during a video chat session after posing as Bieber on the social networking site. Officials say the girl realized that Moir wasn’t the pop star during a video chat, but that he threatened to harm the girl’s family if she didn’t perform for him online.

The Essex County, New Jersey prosecutor’s office says that Moir has been in contact via the Internet with “many juvenile females” in the U.S., Canada, France, and elsewhere overseas. Moir was arrested April 18 after an undercover Canadian investigator posed as a 14-year-old girl online. Authorities say Moir engaged in sexual conversations with the officer and was arrested after he requested a meeting. He has been charged by Canadian authorities with luring, manufacturing child pornography, and extortion.

Nebraska Football Coach takes Public
Stand against LGBT Rights

OMAHA, NE – Ron Brown, an assistant football coach for University of Nebraska’s Cornhuskers, told the Omaha City Council last month that a proposed ordinance to ban discrimination based upon sexual orientation is a “sin,” and may address the Lincoln, Nebraska City Council’s May 7 meeting to take a similar stand against a proposed measure in that municipality.

Although University officials have taken issue with Brown listing his address as “Memorial Stadium,” implying that he is speaking for the school, and Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman said he was “personally offended” by the remarks, there has been no further move to censure the coach, who is in his fifth season with the Cornhuskers.

Brown himself remains unapologetic and defiant, telling reporters that “To be fired for my faith would be a greater honor than to be fired because we didn’t win enough games.” Although he was criticized by LGBT rights groups for the harmful impact his comments could have on gay students in particular and promoting a hostile environment for gay athletes in general, Brown scoffed, saying “I haven’t lost any sleep over it. I realize at some point, we live in a politically correct enough culture where [being fired] very well could happen.”

Barbara Baier, a member of the Lincoln Board of Education, has called for Brown to be terminated. “He says terrible things about members of my community—citizens of this country, people who have not committed any crimes,” said Baier in a letter to school officials. “He compares gays and lesbians to people who have committed crimes, people who are desiring to go and cause the destruction of the American family, and nothing could be further from the truth.”

If Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne’s comments are any indication, Brown does not have much to fear for his job. “I think it’s important that there be clarity with what you do in your capacity at the university and what you do as a private citizen,” Osborne said.

Wrestler’s Ex-Wife Retracts Allegations
of Gay Affair

NEW YORK, NY – The ex-wife of professional wrestling star Hulk Hogan has retracted claims that her former husband engaged in a homosexual affair with a fellow wrestler while they were married. Appearing on the syndicated program “The Wendy Williams Show” this week, Linda Hogan said that statements she made in her 2011 memoir “Wrestling the Hulk: My Life Against the Ropes” about an alleged affair between her ex and fellow wrestler Brutus Beefcake were taken out of context.

“When you’re mad and you’re going through a divorce, you say things you just don’t mean,” Hogan said, adding in a message meant for her former husband “Hulkster, I’m sorry. I love and I will always love you.” Late last year, Hulk filed a defamation suit against his ex.

Hulk—also known by his real name, Terrance Gene “Terry” Bollea—appeared on Williams’ show in February to defend himself against the gay rumors. “It’s tough because a lot of my friends in normal life, a lot of my friends in the entertainment business, and a lot of my friends in the wrestling business are gay,” he said at the time. “If it was true and I was gay, I’d embrace it, and I’d tell you guys about it and I’d celebrate it.”

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.”

Call to Action is urged to

Protest Gay Relationships in

Popular Role-playing Game

TAMPA – Software developer Electronic Arts (EA) is at the center of an email and letter-writing campaign directed by the Tampa-based Florida Family Association (FFA), prompted by the condemnation of religious organizations for depictions of same-sex romantic relationships in the designer’s hit online role-playing games, including Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

According to a report from Games Industry International, several thousands of letters have been received by EA executives protesting homosexual relationships in the games’ software. As previously reported in the Agenda, (Feb. 2, 2012 STYLE: “Religious Conservatives Declare War on Galactic Foe: Star Wars’ ‘Old Republic’”) religious conservatives have previously mobilized to complain about same-sex romances in the publisher’s games, and that of its developer, BioWare. The complaints were based upon promises from the developer to add the option for same-sex romance at the player’s prompting. At present, such options are not available.

The latest round of letters claim that EA execs have bowed to pressure from LGBT groups, and that the inclusion of same-sex relationships is a thinly-disguised effort to “recruit” children to a homosexual lifestyle. Some of the letters include hand-written admonishments for company officials to “remember Sodom.” EA officials call the campaign “political harassment.”