Posted in category "Lesbians & Gays"
Batman and Robin hide in plain sight much like another famous couple-Xena, Warrior Princess and her young companion, Gabrielle. The gay subtext is flagrant in some stories, barely hinted at in others. Sometimes, the characters have a fleeting involvement with members of the opposite sex - a date to keep up appearances.
Is Batman gay? I found this gem by Tyrion Lannister on The Bilerico Project.
“The accusation that Batman was a homo, strange as it might sound to our own ears, was taken quite seriously by government and public alike. It wasn’t leveled by a marginal nut or crank, but by a world-renowned psychiatrist, Dr. Frederic Wertham.”
“In 1954, Wertham published a scathing indictment of comic books, The Seduction of the Innocent, which argued that comic books were an invidious influence on American youth, responsible for warped gender attitudes and all manner of delinquency.”
“Batman and Robin, Wertham charged, inhabited ‘a wish dream of two homosexuals living together.’ They lived in ’sumptuous quarters,’ unencumbered by wives and girlfriends, with only an aged butler for company. They care for each other’s injuries, frequently shared quarters, and lounged together in dressing gowns. Worse still, both exhibited damning psychological characteristics: proclivities for costumes, dressing up, and fantasy play; secretive behavior and double-lives; little interest in women; and most damning of all, neurotic compulsions resulting in their violent vigilantism. Indeed, Wertham argued, depictions of Batman and Robin were frequently homoerotic, visually emphasizing Batman’s rippling physique and Robin’s splayed, bare thighs.” 
“‘Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and psychopathology of sex can fail to realize the subtle atmosphere of homoeroticism which pervades the adventures,’ wrote Wertham. ‘The Batman type of story may stimulate children to homosexual fantasies.’” 
On April 23, 2008 the Vatican approved the beatification of John Henry Newman, of one of the most significant Anglican converts to Catholicism. But, before he can be canonized, a few things need to occur: namely, a second miracle, and removing his body from a grave he shares with his beloved–a fellow priest, Ambrose St John.
In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano shortly before Newman’s beatification, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, said Cardinal Newman was “a man of thought, an emblematic figure of a conversion from Anglicanism to Catholicism.” The Cardinal added, “Personally, I hope that such a beatification may occur truly within a short time because it could be very important at this moment for the path of ecumenism.” 
If so, Newman’s beatification is certainly ironic.
The Anglican Communion is tearing itself up over homosexual clergy and solemnizing the relationships of its gay communicants. Several Anglican bishops from North America have already or are in the process of seeking reception into the Catholic Church.
It’s most famous convert–John Henry Newman–was most certainly a gay man. Converting in 1845 at the age of 44, he chose to live a celibate life as an Anglican priest. However, his strong and intimate emotional attachments were with men–Richard Hurrell Froude and then, Ambrose St John. When St John died, Newman clung to the body all night.
It was Cardinal Newman’s dying wish that he be buried with his closest friend in the grounds of the house they shared as priests. The cardinal repeated on three occasions his desire to be buried with his friend, including shortly before his death in 1890.
“I wish,with all my heart, to be buried in Fr Ambrose St John’s grave - and I give this as my last, my imperative will,” he wrote, later adding: “This I confirm and insist on.”
Newman wrote after the death of St John in 1875: “I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband’s or a wife’s, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or anyone’s sorrow greater, than mine.”
Ambrose had also become a Roman Catholic around the same time as John Newman, and the two men have a joint memorial stone, inscribed with the words Newman had chosen:
“Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem”, which translates as “Out of shadows and phantasms into the truth”.
But now, nearly 120 years after his death, Newman is to be reinterred in a sarcophagus in preparation for his becoming a saint, leaving the remains of his friend behind.
The decision to separate the remains of John Henry Newman and Ambrose St John has led some people to question whether the Church is embarrassed about their relationship and doesn’t want to raise attention to it at the time of Newman’s beatification. 
”j” posted this message on the Forum on Sunday, July 13th.
“God excepts us for who we are, our sins and all but to live in a lifestyle of disrespecting on how God made us being female or male and just giving in to our human sexual desires seems to defeats the purpose of following Christ and obeying His commands”
I didn’t post the message, because regular Forum members would find it upsetting and an intrusion on safe, sacred space. But, I can respond on this blog; so, “j”, whoever you are, I hope you come back and read my reply:
Dear j,
I detected a certain gentle tone in your admonishment. In fact, it was almost a question, as if you were unsure.
Please know I agree with you, that God accepts us for who we are, sins and all, and that God loves us deeply and unconditionally.
If you have chosen as a gay person to live chastely, then please know I respect your decision.
I chose to live my life with a loving partner. And I am a happier, and wholer person in every way because of it. Love gives me life and vitality, and sexual expression is part of that love.
Before you decide that we disrespect God by loving women, then I suggest you try this before you make up your mind:
Kiss a woman. Deeply, fiercely, tenderly. How does it make you feel? 
Please write back and tell me, if that kiss “defeats the purpose of following Christ.”
I wish you well,
Karen
I’m in marketing, and after hours of crafting line after line of text for web, blogs, catalog pages and email newsletters, I need a mental break.
Sometimes, I minimize the screen and click on to Craigslist -W4W. It is always a source of discovery and entertainment.
Up until this week, the best W4W ad I ever saw on Craigslist ended with these two words: “No nuts.” Did I laugh! How many of us have met a woman we thought was an interesting possibility, only to find she was dragging so much emotional baggage ten U-Hauls couldn’t have managed it.
A few days ago I read an ad by one of the thousands of searchers who shop Craigslist every day looking for a woman who will turn them on. The women who shop Craigslist want sex. A few want it with a little class and appreciate the intellectual and emotional components of mating; others can’t be bothered with even minimal flirtation or manage an interest in getting to know the person first before jumping on them. 
Here’s a Craigslist poster whose analysis of her fellow shoppers was so witty and withering, it earned a place of honor on this site:
“I’ve been searching these ads for a while, and I find the ads fall into one of several categories. On Craigslist W4W, you can find several types of wonderful women, including:
a)THE POET: this craigslister may or may not be looking for a relationship. That is not really the point. The point is that she is a poet and she likes writing long lines of verse that make sense to her and maybe her psychiatrist. You are her captive audience. Enjoy!
b)THE FIRST-TIMER: she’s never been with a woman, but has thought about it for years (talk about extended foreplay!) or maybe just has gotten so disgusted with men she’s considering the alternative. She craves “a woman’s touch” as long as that woman is touching her ta-tas. She’s like a character from a pulp novel written in the 50s, really. You’ll either be the one to bring her out or the one to be drop-kicked to the curb the second she finds a man. Probably the latter.
c)THE MARRIED OR IN A RELATIONSHIP: She’ll have an innocent looking subject line that says “Looking for Love” so you click on–only to find her idea of love is you going down on her while hubby watches. Romance has sure changed a lot in 2008.
d)THE OVERSHARER: Long ads that go on and on about her sad life, her unemployment, her one-eyed dog, the fact that she’s on welfare, and not about what she has to bring to the table or what she’s looking for. The Oversharer might also write out a long political or philosophical manifesto, like the kind the homeless recite to you when you are on the train.
e)THE FUSSY: You must be a faggy-boi top with three earrings in each ear who likes The Smiths. And live in Williamsburg, on Bedford, specifically.
f)THE GRAPHIC: Not much in the way of writing. But come on. She’s got such a beautiful va-jay, how can you resist?
g)THE SHOULD BE MORE CAREFUL: This ad asks: Wanna come to my apartment and hang out? I don’t know you from Adam but I’m sure you’ll be normal. Uh, let’s not forget this is New York City.
h)THE LOOKING FOR A TOUR GUIDE: I will be coming to New York soon. Show me where all the lesbian clubs are. I won’t pay you or make it worth your while in any way. The reward will be hanging out with me, a reward within itself.
i)THE NORMAL, or HALFWAY NORMAL: An ad that tells you a little about the poster, what she is looking for, some humor thrown in for good measure. This is the kind of ad I post and respond to.
And now, for my ad: I’m 31, Jewish, femme, brunette, average figure, enjoys movies, concerts, film. Looking for woman 26-40 who gets what I’m talking about. Normally, I write a longer ad than this, but I think I’ve written enough already.
Hate mail is also encouraged, if you disagree with my ad. Entertain me. It’s a slow weekend.”
This Thursday the Suffolk Times completed a four-issue series about gays and lesbians on the North Fork. When Lori and I got to the house last night, I saw that Anne MacKay of Orient was interviewed about the growth of the North Fork Community.
“It was a wonderful place, not as expensive as the South Fork, and lesbians began coming out and buying property in the 1960s,” MacKay said. As a fourth-generation summer person, “I’m not really a local,” she added wryly.
A retired theater professor, MacKay moved into her home in Brown’s Hills in 1959, and summered there until she retired “in about 1990″ when she moved to Orient full-time.
In the article MacKay described the beginning of the North Fork women’s community. Early on, the women would have gatherings in one another’s homes. “At first, we’d all just fit into a living room,” but over the years the group expanded. The North Fork Women for Women Fund now has a mailing list of about 500 names.
Lori and I met Anne MacKay at a NFWFWF event earlier this year. Engaging and energetic, she carried the perspective–but not the weight–of her 80 years. Her eyes are lively and intelligent. She is still a charmer.
Shortly after the event I made a point to go get copies of her books of poetry, Salt Water Days and Sailing the Edge. The Orient General Store carries them, in an old fashion wood and glass case. Women, nature, water, myth, and memory run and blend together in the poems, which is just perfect for me. 
Prominent special interest lobbyist and evangelical preacher, James C. Dobson, is back in the news. He sharply attacked presidential candidate Barak Obama, accusing him of having “a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution” and twisting the meaning of both the Old and New Testaments. 
“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology,” Mr. Dobson said in one of the recent radio broadcasts for the group he leads, Focus on the Family.
He’s some kind of Biblical authority?” Mr. Dobson also asked.
Mr. Dobson’s remarks focused on a June 28, 2006 speech in which Mr. Obama mentioned passages from the Bible that he suggested were in conflict with present-day practices. Mr. Dobson made his criticisms shortly after Joshua Dubois, the Obama campaign’s religious affairs director, offered to meet with Focus on the Family leaders.
“Young conservative evangelicals seem more open to Obama’s ‘Christian’ message of caring for the poor, fighting genocide, health care for all and climate change,” David Brody, senior national correspondent of the Christian Broadcasting Network noted.
But so far, the attack seems to have backfired. Obama issued a strong response, and one supporter quickly created a website - jamesdobsondoesntspeakforme.com - that quotes Old Testament prophets, giving Dobson a Biblical wallop of his own.
It seems as if the Democrats have finally figured out what to do, when the Dobsons of the world try to paint them as faithless or anti-religious.
In the words of Jim Wallis, a politically liberal Christian activist, you have to go toe-to-toe with fundamentalists, carrying a Bible in one hand, and the Constitution in the other.
Fr. Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) was the author of The Wounded Healer and dozens of other books. He is famous for his religious meditations and his guides to spiritual development. 
BBC producer Michael Ford met Nouwen while interviewing him for a TV program. He later took at leave of absence to write the book, The Wounded Prophet - A Portrait of Henri J.M. Nouwen.
Ford said it is impossible to “understand the complexity and anguish of the man” without considering his homosexual orientation, something he was aware of from the time he was a boy, but started to come to grips with only in the final years of his life.
He wrestled with his homosexual leanings, which he regarded as a disability, a cross to bear. While he taught at Harvard in the 1980s, he was hard on gay students, telling them homosexuality was an evil state of being.
In time, Nouwen became friends with some gay people, and was under pressure to go public. Other friends, however, counseled him to keep his secret, saying he would lose all credibility as a famous and widely admired Catholic if people knew he was gay.
Nouwen never publicly came out during his lifetime. He did acknowledge he was gay in private conversations and in his diaries.
Nouwen was deeply troubled by the possibility that people would reject him if they knew about his sexual orientation. “This took an enormous emotional, spiritual and physical toll on his life and may have contributed to his early death,” Ford said.
His homosexual feelings may also have contributed to a midlife nervous breakdown. When his close friend Nathan Ball pulled back from their platonic relationship, Nouwen went into a tailspin and had to seek treatment for an emotional breakdown.
Ford believes this brokenness within Nouwen was the key to his ability to reach out to those in need, those who are suffering and wounded. Ford writes, “He discovered that it was from the wounded places in himself that he could reach the wounded places in others.”
Henri saw the 1987 film, Maurice, based on E. M. Forster’s novel of classism and homophobia in England. After the movie, Henri collapsed. His companion’s description of what happened is recounted by Ford:
“…he had to stop on the highway because he was sobbing uncontrollably. He was so caught up with the story and the dilema the two main characters were living, because it was his. All I could do was hold him and let him cry. He was really in pieces.” 
“Today the small rejections of my life are too much for me,” Nouwen writes. “A sarcastic smile, a flippant remark, a brisk denial, a bitter silence, a failure to be noticed, a coldness from a colleague, an indifference from someone I love, a nagging tiredness, the lack of a soulmate, a loneliness I can’t explain. I feel empty, alone, afraid, restless, unsure of myself, and I look around for invitations, letters, phone calls, gifts, for someone to catch my eye in sympathy, for some warm gesture that can heal my emptiness..And right now I don’t particularly want God, faith, church or even a big and gracious heart. I want simply to be held, embraced, loved by someone special, made to feel unique, kissed by a soulmate. I’m empty, a half-person. I need someone to make me whole.”
The June 9th New York Post ran the opinion piece “Marriage Fight Wastes Gay Dollars” by a man named David Benkof, who was identified as a “columnist for several gay newspapers and a blogger at GaysDefendMarriage.com. 
Benkof, 38, wrote he was against spending gay community dollars on the upcoming California vote on marriage. He believes the gay community, and the Human Rights Commission in particular, should use the cash they have raised for California PR to “achieve rights for same-sex couples who live in states that are much more hostile to gays and lesbians than California.” He dismissed the marriage initiative battle by saying “HRC is pushing for gays in San Francisco to be able to use their favorite term for their relationship.”
He chided the gay community for not routinely raising funds like “Catholics and African-Americans” to help out the poorest members of their communities. “We in the gay and lesbian movement have done a lousy job of paying attention to people who share our identify but lack the resources to hobnob at fancy diners.” He insinuated that now that the faces of AIDS and HIV infections are not wealthy white men, but poor and black men, the movement has moved on to other “more relevant” issues.
Since Mr. Benkof did not say anything about himself or his experiences in the article, one would assume, as I did, that he is a regular gay guy, someone active in the movement as a columnist, but who chooses to sound ideologically out-of-step, peevish or both. Since his righteous attitude both annoyed and piqued my interest, I decided to dig. Here’s what I found:
-David Benkof (born David Bianco) is not a columnist for several gay newspapers. He’s a freelancer who submits articles and opinion pieces. He does not have a regular gig with anyone, including the Dallas Voice.
-In 2003 Benkof, who had been raised as a Conservative Jew, became Orthodox. He stopped saving sex with men, and professed that “the liberal…approach to homosexuality and Judaism was completely bankrupt.”
-He now identifies not as a gay man, but as bisexual. “I believe that within a couple of years I’m probably going to be married with a growing family.”
-Benkof views heterosexuality as an integral part of the teachings of Judaism. “I rejected all the unsuccessful attempts to reconcile traditional Judaism with gay sex and gay relationships. And I decided to take more seriously the demands that I believe G-d has made on the Jewish people in terms of how we live out our sexual feelings.”
“I happen to believe that G-d has been clear to the Jewish people that we should be pursuing opposite-sex relationships, and particularly not having intercourse between two males.”
Since his orthodox awakening Benkof has become a strong opponent of same-sex marriage: “It insults the millions of Americans whose traditional faiths call on us to defend marriage as a central institution in society defined as a union between a man and a woman.”
Why didn’t he raise any of this in the Post article?
If it’s not made-up, Benkof has at least one Christian that agrees with him. “Mark” writes:
“David-thank you for creating this website and putting into words exactly what my partner and I believe. I am so sick of “gay” people acting like gayness is our one defining attribute. I am also an American and a Christian, to name a few. Demanding that marriage, which is a religious institution, be afforded to gay people regardless of the wishes of a vast majority will only cement in the minds of many that gays care only about their own self interests regardless of the potential or perceived damage our behavior and pet issues might have on society. Such egocentricity, thus, could lead to a great backlash by the vast majority of people, who regardless of what we want and hope, still find homosexuality disgusting on a personal level–not to mention immoral on a religious level–I fear that someday, in the not too distant future, my partner and I will have to pay a great price for the indulgences and egotism of the annointed leaders of today’s gay movement.”
Note: I haven’t been able to google any articles by David, five years now as a self-identified bisexual, on how the love and physical intimacy with a woman has been a gift of God for him.
Read more on David Benkoff here and here and here.
Ellen DeGeneres, 50, and Portia de Rossi, 36, seem to think so.
As gay couples celebrate their newfound right to marry in California, opposition groups, including a few from our own dear Mother Church, will rally to fight the ruling. Many will struggle with this question: Is homosexuality natural?
Nature seems to think so. Same-sex sex, including one-night-stands, oral sex, mutual masturabation, parental relationships, bonded couples, serial monogamy, and multiple couplings have been observed in about 1,500 animal species, including bottlenose dolphins, bonobo chimpanzees, American bison, giraffes, gray whales, walrus, Kob antelopes, Japanese macaques, and–how could I leave them out–penguins and seagulls.
Here’s a description of a female-female Kob antelope encounter: “On average, females mount with other females a couple of times an hour during mating season. Homosexual mounting encompasses almost 9% of all sexual activities within these hoofed mammals in the wild. While courting, the pursuer slides up behind a pal and raises her foreleg, touching the other female between her legs. This leggy foreplay ultimately leads to mounting.”
Makes sense to me!
“Not every sexual act has a reproductive function,” said Janet Mann, a biologist at Georgetown University who studies dolphins (homosexual behavior is very common in these marine mammals.) “That’s true of humans and non-humans.”
Some scientists have proposed being gay may serve its own evolutionary purpose.
“It could be a way that you strengthen bonds–that’s one hypothesis,” Mann told Live Science. “Another is that it could be practice for heterosexual sex. Bottlenose dolphin calves mount each other a lot. That might benefit them later on.”
Marlene Zuk, a biologist at the University of California, Riverside, suggested that gay individuals contribute to the gene pool of their community by nurturing their relatives’ young without diverting resources by having their own offspring.
The one thing that does seem to be exclusive to humans is homophobia.
“It’s a very interesting question as to why anybody ever cares,” Mann said. “There are different theories about why people find it threatening. Some think it disrupts male bonds, like you’re not playing for the right team. The funny thing is people say homosexuality is unnatural, that nonhumans don’t engage in homosexual behavior, but that’s not true. Then they’ll say it’s base and animalistic.”
Humans resistance to the idea of homosexuality extends even to research in behavior in animals. Scientists who study the topic are often accused of trying to forward an agenda, and their work can come under greater scrutiny than that of their colleagues who study other topics, Mann said. “It’s kind of a shame because I think that probably is a reason why people don’t look at it more,” Mann said. “That’s probably why we haven’t gotten further. You would think that we’d know more than we do by now.”
Instead of “fish on Friday” we’ll enjoy “film on Friday” courtesy of You Tube. Clips might be funny, outrageous, silly, strange or provovative.
That We Would Be Heard includes the love story of two Catholic lesbians who went to a retreat looking for peace, and came away with one another. One of the women, Molly, speaks out about the church:
“I don’t understand how the church can continue to close their ears to the stories and the lives and the experience of people who are gay and lesbian and bisexual.”
See the video here.
