Speaking of gays [imagine that], gays can kiss longer than straight people, so nyah. Good thing, because two polls now show that marriage equality has majority support, so there’s a lot of kissyface in our future. The Religious Right are victims now, in Canada and Indianapolis, where they were asked to make gay cupcakes. I discussed the need for minorities to stand up for each other, specifically as regards moderate and liberal Muslims vis a vis the gay community. Oh, and I went off on Chris Barron of GOProud, which led to a Twitter Fight, which led to a nice discussion about BBQ. He’s a fun sparring partner, I’ll give him that.
Then a crazy guy in Saxby Chambliss’s office decided to leave threatening anti-gay comments on JoeMyGod, so that was embarrassing for big old homophobe Saxby. Speaking of homophobes, HomoCon is tomorrow! YAY! Okay, that’s all.
Music this week is from that old gay classic musical RENT. I happened to be listening to the Original Cast recording last night, and I really don’t have to set it up for you, because you’re all gay and stuff, so you can probably sing the entire show all the way through in your sleep, and some of you probably know the blocking. Anyway, one of my very favorite moments in all of musical theater is after the first “La Vie Boheme“, when Mimi and Roger sing “I Should Tell You” to each other. [Insert flutter, sigh and single tear here.] So we’ll start with that, hit shuffle on the old iTunes machine and, oh look, it’s like, my favorite Tori Amos song ever, and also some other stuff. More videos after le jump.
1. Jay Brannan – “Bowlegged and Starving”
2. Tokyo Police Club – “Tessellate” [Remix by Tom Campesinos!]
3. Banjo or Freakout – “Joy to the World”
4. 10,000 Maniacs – “Gold Rush Brides”
5. Tori Amos – “Lust”
6. Fever Ray – “If I Had A Heart”
7. Lightning Dust – “Never Seen”
8. U2 – “Numb”
9. David Mead – “Girl on the Roof”
10. Port O’Brien – “In the Meantime”
Peter LaBarbera must be behind on his gay magazine reading, because he’s currently freaking out about a Lady Gaga interview in the“homosexualist magazine” OUT* from September of 2009. Yes, Gaga said some things in that magazine LAST YEAR that scared Peter LaBarbera so much THIS YEAR that he had to quote them in multi-colored bold print! Let’s have a look at the Americans For Truth version of Lady Gaga’s quote in the “homosexualist” magazine, shall we?
Her devotion to gay culture is unparalleled by any other artist operating at her level of visibility or success. “When I started in the mainstream it was the gays that lifted me up,”she says. “I committed myself to them and they committed themselves to me, and because of the gay community I’m where I am today.” Earlier this year, in her acceptance speech for her MuchMusic award for best international video, Lady Gaga thanked “God and the gays.” Before agreeing to tour with Kanye West this fall, Gaga told the rapper, “I just want to be clear before we decide to do this together: I’m gay. My music is gay. My show is gay. And I love that it’s gay. And I love my gay fans and they’re all going to be coming to our show. And it’s going to remain gay.” That’s another clause in the Gagaland constitution: Gay culture shall gush undiluted into the rapids of society. It shall not be co-opted, fancified, dolled up, or Uncle Tommed. “I very much want to inject gay culture into the mainstream,” she says, “It’s not an underground tool for me. It’s my whole life. So I always sort of joke the real motivation is to just turn the world gay.”
Blue is the color of scary, gay, Gaga power.
Next year’s Americans for Truth “Troof Academy” will be entirely devoted to decoding the hidden meanings in Lady Gaga’s costumes, probably. And maybe they can have speakers gives their testimonials about how they’re “Ex-Little Monsters,” after which they will go back to their hotels and listen to “Alejandro” while being gay with each other.
*Yes, WordPress, I know it’s a word that Peter LaBarbera made up, stop giving me your condescending “u can’t spellz” squiggly line; give it to The Peter.
Jeremy Hooper made a funny a few minutes ago in his headline for this video, in which Lindsey Graham basically says he doesn’t care what the American people think in the debate over DADT, and he especially doesn’t care what Lady Gaga thinks.
For the record, John McCain may have made a personal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” pact with his best friend Lindsey Graham, re: his best friend’s probable gayness.
It was pretty awesome. Watch it if you missed it earlier.
I especially liked her idea for sending home troops who are too homophobic to uphold their own oaths, because we need stronger people than that in our military.
She’s serious about this. She’s in Maine holding a rally today to put pressure on the two moderate Republican Senators from that state, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, to break John McCain’s petulant little homophobic crybaby filibuster.
Lady Gaga announced via Twitter Sunday evening that she would be attending a last-minute rally in Portland, Maine, on Monday targeted at convincing GOP senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe to vote with Democrats to help break a filibuster that, if successful, could effectively kill the “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal effort for the year.
“Meet me in Portland, Maine 2moro, 9/20 to help repeal #DADT. I’m holding a Rally + speaking live in Deering Oaks Park http://bit.ly/cO4cY9,” said the tweet sent from Lady Gaga’s account, @ladygaga, which has over 6.3 million followers.
The rally, which is being billed as “For the 14,000” discharged under the policy (or “#4the14k” in twitter speak), will be held at 4 p.m. Eastern, Monday, September 20, at Deering Oaks Park and has been organized by the pro-repeal lobby group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. A spokesman for SLDN said it was a last-ditch effort to garner the 60 votes needed to move the National Defense Authorization Act to which the repeal measure is attached. The vote on the Senate floor is scheduled for Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.
“The votes to break Sen. John McCain’s filibuster are not there,” acknowledged Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of SLDN. “Senators Snowe and Collins of Maine are key to breaking the filibuster. With the vote Tuesday, we need everyone supporting repeal to call their senators.”
Eleveld’s piece points out that this required quite a bit of schedule shuffling, since Gaga is currently on tour in the South. For her to find a way to jet off to Maine for a minute to harness her millions of Twitter followers and Facebook fans and the rest of the Little Monster Diaspora to do something political and important shows that she’s actually committed to the repeal of the awful discriminatory DADT policy.
What can be said about this week that doesn’t involve either Christine O’Donnell or Lady Gaga? Very little, so let’s not try.
Lady Gaga went to the VMAs with soldiers discharged under DADT; then she carried it further by calling on her “Little Monsters” to call their Senators, so they did; then she taught everybody a civics lesson, explaining to an uninformed American public what a “filibuster” is; and then she talked directly to the Senate via a recorded video, and encouraged people to continue calling their Senators.
Music this week comes from Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, for two reasons: A. Sharon is awesome. If you like neo-soul/blues/whatever, and ladies with big voices, you will like Sharon. B. I’m going to see her live this weekend, and I’m giddy with anticipation. The songs we’ll start with are “How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?” and “Tell Me.” The first one has shown up in a Late Friday Random Ten before, and I try not to repeat things, but I don’t care, because I make the rules. So let’s listen to these two amazing songs, and then we’ll hit shuffle on the second one and see what the iTunes [which crashed this week, which caused me to have about three panic attacks as I rebuilt the library] does. More videos after the jump.
“We are not asking you to agree with or approve the moral implications of homosexuality; we’re asking you to do your job, to protect the Constitution.”
Nice and succinct.
Also? I LOVE that she uses her real name at the end!
It’s sad that this is necessary, but I’m pretty impressed that, as part of her campaign encouraging her millions of “Little Monsters” to call their Senators for DADT repeal, Lady Gaga gave them a little civics lesson on the definition of “filibuster,” and how it’s broken. Here, via Joe Sudbay, is a screen shot of three tweets in a row from Lady Gaga:
Again, sad that it’s necessary, but perhaps the Democratic Party could learn a lesson or two about speaking to the electorate, from, um, a pop star.
And since we mentioned Twitter, and it’s Friday, it’s time for your weekly reminder to follow us all on Twitter! Me: Here. Wayne: Here. Mike: Here. Truth Wins Out: Here. And the Facebook page: Here.
This is kind of impressive. People who have never called their Senators before, calling and encouraging them to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, immediately. Watch the whole thing. They have to look up who their Senators are, and yet, there they are, calling them.
