National Geographic

"This incident exposes the seamy relationship between homosexual activists, government, and big business. For example, activist groups have persuaded some liberal jurisdictions to adopt 'equal benefits ordinances,' forcing corporations to offer 'domestic partner benefits' to homosexuals or forfeit government contracts. They then tout those benefits policies to bring pressure on other companies--never mentioning the policies were only adopted because of such 'pay-to-play' demands. After using government to pressure business, the activist groups may have used business to put pressure on the law this spring when it was rumored that Coca-Cola pressured law firm King & Spalding to drop the Defense of Marriage case--an action widely criticized in the legal community. But GLAAD crossed the line--even with their supporters--in accepting a corporate payoff in exchange for their own effort to pressure government regulators. Corporations would be on safer ground if they would steer clear of groups like GLAAD and simply remain neutral in the culture wars." - Tony Perkins, president of the SPLC-certified hate group, the Family Research Council.

The controversy that prompted the resignation of GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios has widened to include the departures of six members of the group's board of directors. Politico reports:

Six board members of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation have resigned amid the fallout over the organization's letter in support of AT&T’s proposed bid for wireless rival T-Mobile, a person familiar with the matter told POLITICO. Some board members were said to have resigned because of concerns that GLAAD failed to adhere to its conflict of interest standards and to protest GLAAD's failure to protect its president, Jarrett Barrios, who submitted his letter of resignation to the group Saturday amid a growing backlash in the gay blogosphere over the group's AT&T stance. Barrios had signed the letter GLAAD sent to the FCC in support of the wireless mega-deal.

After enduring weeks of criticism over a letter sent to the FCC supporting the merger of AT&T and TMobile, GLAAD head Jarrett Barrios has resigned. Those critical of the letter pointed out that AT&T is one of GLAAD's biggest annual donors. Other recipients of AT&T donations such as the NAACP and the NEA have issued similar letters.

"If Tracy Morgan is truly sorry for what he has done, then he should make the effort to learn the damage that is caused by homophobic parents and help to educate others about the terrible harm caused by parental rejection. He heard the crowd cheering him on. What if one of them has an LGBT child? I would advocate that his employer, NBC, join in this effort. Their power to reach millions is obvious. There is no more valuable effort that can be done for LGBT youth than to work to help them be loved and protected in their own homes." - Ali Forney Center executive director Carl Siciliano, writing for the Huffington Post.

RELATED: Morgan has agreed to meet with Siciliano and GLAAD.

During a call with GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios and members of GLAAD’s staff today, Morgan committed to meet this week in New York City with LGBT youth from the Ali Forney Center who have been hurt or left homeless by parental rejection as well as family members who have lost children to anti-gay violence. Those he will meet include Elke Kennedy, the founder of Sean’s Last Wish. Elke’s son Sean was killed by anti-gay violence in 2007 at the age of 20 in South Carolina, when another man called him a f*ggot and punched him so hard it broke his facial bones and separated his brain from his brain stem. Since that day, Elke has traveled more than 140,000 miles to speak in states across the country about hate violence and bullying. Morgan also committed to participate in GLAAD’s upcoming ‘Amplify Your Voice’ PSA campaign to combat anti-LGBT bullying.

GLAAD tweeted back: "Language about stabbing kids for being gay isn't 'foul.' It's dangerous."

UPDATE: Morgan has apologized via this brief statement:

“I want to apologize to my fans and the gay & lesbian community for my choice of words at my recent stand-up act in Nashville. I’m not a hateful person and don’t condone any kind of violence against others. While I am an equal opportunity jokester, and my friends know what is in my heart, even in a comedy club this clearly went too far and was not funny in any context.”

GLAAD:

"Tracy Morgan's management needs to investigate these allegations and should they prove true, we call on him to remove these violently anti-gay remarks from his show and send a strong message that anti-gay violence is not something to joke about," said GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios. GLAAD is working to confirm the story with Morgan’s management and hopes to have more details today.

Human Rights Campaign:

“Hateful remarks that mock youth suicides and the very real emotional and sometimes physical bullying LGBT kids face on a daily basis have no place in a comedy routine,” said HRC Vice President of Communications, Fred Sainz. “I’m shocked that Tracy Morgan would find humor in so viciously attacking our youth. If these allegations are true, Tracy Morgan must immediately accept responsibility and apologize. His employer, NBC Universal, also must come forward and condemn these atrocious comments.”

GOProud has planted an anti-JMG story on the wingnut site Daily Caller, whose dumb bunny writer manages to spell my name two different ways in consecutive sentences. I'll totally cop to calling GOProud "kapos and Quislings," cuz ya know, they totally are. But Daily Caller also quotes Chris Barron as saying that I regularly post misogynistic comments. (No citation of that bullshit is offered in the article, of course.) This, from the guy who regularly tweets fat jokes about Meghan McCain and who only yesterday said that Rachel Maddow "looks like a dude."

"As many of you know, I played a gay man on a popular television show..."

GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios: "Following outrage from community members and allies, Blake Shelton took the right step in speaking out against anti-gay violence and sending an important message to his fans and viewers of The Voice." RELATED: Shelton's original tweet and GLAAD's demand for an apology are here.

Last week American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer appeared on a Houston Fox affiliate to declare that viewing Glee will turn kids gay and eventually give them AIDS. That prompted GLAAD to launch a campaign calling on the Fox station to apologize for hosting the hate group spokesman. But no dice.

Bryan Fischer is an extremist with no qualifications to offer the discussion apart from his bigotry. This a man whose disdain for diversity is evident in his track record of making statements such as calling Muslim student associations "parasites" and a "toxic cancer." FOX Houston gave Fischer a platform in the nation's fourth largest city, and one of its top ten media markets, to broadcast his anti-gay rhetoric. And rather than challenge him, the host, Damali Keith, contributed her own uninformed and anti-gay commentary. After receiving complaints about this FOX Houston program, GLAAD contacted the station to demand that they issue an apology. Broadcasting anti-gay speech is dangerously irresponsible, and the station must be accountable. In conversations with GLAAD, a representative of the station implied that an apology was in order and should be expected. However, no apology has been issued, and in an abrupt reversal, representatives of the station now maintain that they stand behind this content.

Yesterday Fischer responded to the furor.

GLAAD, which stands for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has taken umbrage with me for saying on Fox that homosexual behavior "is conduct that bears enormous psychological and physical risk to those that engage in it" and "is just as risky and just as dangerous as injection drug use." GLAAD put almost immediate pressure on the Fox affiliate to apologize for giving me any air time at all, being the fans they are of the First Amendment and all, and according to GLAAD, Fox at first said they would. But subsequently, the Fox station has had an apparent change of heart and has yet to issue the promised apology. Perhaps it’s because Fox did some research and found out I was telling the truth.

Fischer headlined his post, "GLAAD Hates The First Amendment."

"Given her long and well-documented history of extreme bias towards minorities, this apology means nothing. Republicans and Democrats alike agree that the kind of blatant bigotry from an elected official like Sally Kern has no place in our public sphere. Sally Kern should resign immediately." - Jarrett Barrios, president of GLAAD, joining the NAACP in demanding that Kern resign.

Citing his opposition to LGBT rights, GLAAD has issued a call to boycott all of Donald Trump's businesses. In addition to GLAAD's boycott, AOL News reports that the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association will decide next month whether to remove Trump's holdings from their list of recommended properties. According to AOL's story, gay travel agents are already steering their customers away from Trump's resorts. Below is GLAAD's boycott list.

"So GLADD, a self-described anti-defamation group, gives an award to one of the most vicious, vile and vulgar anti-Christian bigots on the planet and expects to be taken seriously? Hey, while we’re at it why not give Muammar Gaddafi the ‘Humanitarian of the Year’ award. Or how about a Nobel Peace Prize for Barack Oba… Oh, wait" - Liberty Counsel douchebag Matt Barber, as quoted by Porno Pete, who's apparently polling other hate groups about my GLAAD award.

TOTALLY FUCKING RELATED: Today the FBI revealed that the Liberty Counsel is being investigated for conspiracy to commit kidnapping in the case of Isabella Jenkins-Miller, an action I first began to call for on this blog more than 18 months ago.

As penance for last week's "fucking faggot" incident, the below PSA featuring Kobe Bryant and members of the Los Angeles Lakers will be played at the stadium during home games.

In an article being distributed today by Christian Newswire, SPLC-certified hate activist Porno Pete LaBarbera attacks GLAAD for my recent award. According to LaBarbera, GLAAD is hypocritical for going after Kobe Bryant while not minding my criticisms of the Christianist anti-gay hate industry.

"Apparently GLAAD's leaders despise critics of homosexuality so much that they fail to see the irony of an 'anti-defamation' group rewarding an abject hater like Joe Jervis who -- rather than engage in civil discourse about ideas -- uses gutter code words like 'Jeebus' to malign opponents." LaBarbera said. "GLAAD's hypocrisy is right up there with homosexual activists lobbying against the hiring of African American Crystal Dixon -- in the name of LGBT 'civil rights, diversity and nondiscrimination.' "Through its Media Award, GLAAD joins itself at the hip with Jervis' brand of malicious, demeaning, anti-religious bigotry," LaBarbera said. "This is the flip side of GLAAD's ongoing campaign to shut down the voices of pro-family Christians -- e.g., ex-"gay" Americans like Richard Cohen -- from being heard in the media. "Americans must learn the truth about GLAAD's absurdly two-faced 'anti-defamation' charade," he said. "This same media-coddled organization that tenaciously pursues anyone who 'defames' homosexuals -- or dares to challenge homosexual activist assumptions -- honors hate-filled extremists like Jervis who cruelly vilify pro-family conservatives, to the point of ridiculing Jesus Christ Himself and 're-naming' a Catholic ex-Senator as the vile by-product of homosexual sodomy."

Of course, it's fucking hilarious that Porno Pete, who routinely calls us "perverts" and "deviants" is acting all butthurt over words like "Frothy Mix" and "Jeebus." And contrary to his press release, the latter is not an "atheist term," but actually comes from The Simpsons.

Last Friday during the Lakers game against the Spurs, the Lakers who haven't been exactly ending their season on a good note, were playing another disappointing game. Kobe Bryant, the main player on the team was obviously frustrated and after being called for a technical, called the ref a "f(bleep)in fa(bleeeeppp)ot" This gay slur caught on tape and repeatedly replayed for everyone to see caused a huge controversy especially to the gay community.


After an apology and $100,000 later, Kobe Bryant is turning this hurdle as another obstacle to overcome. The Lakers have teamed up with NBA Executives and GLAAD to help fight homophobia in basketball. Lakers spokesman John Black spoke, "We appreciate the input we've received from GLAAD the past two days and will look forward to working with them on ways to help educate ourselves and our fans, and to help keep language like this out of our game."


Kobe is hoping to meet with gay groups to turn this negative outburst "into a positive and raise as much awareness as we can to say that it is not OK to...insult and disrespect." Speaking with President Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay lobbying group, affirmed that Kobe was very solemn in his discussion with him. "We had a very sincere conversation in which he expressed his heartfelt regret for the hurt that his words cause," Solmonese said in a statement. He told me that it's never OK to degrade or tease, and that he understands how his words could unfortunately give the wrong impression that this is appropriate conduct."


GLAAD most recently worked with the New York Yankees and World Wrestling Entertainment to also fight homophobia in sports, especially those which are male dominated.





You Just Do You, Imma Do Me

Camille

GLAAD and the NBA today announced a joint effort to quell homophobia in professional basketball. This new partnership arises out of an incident in which Los Angeles Laker star Kobe Bryant was captured by network television as he called a referee a "fucking faggot." Bryant is appealing the $100K fine imposed by the NBA for his outburst. Via press release:

“In light of this slur, there is a real opportunity to build support for our community and educate fans of Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the NBA about the use of such words,” said GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios. “The Los Angeles Lakers have taken a positive step and we look forward to working with them to create messages from players and coaches that combat bullying. We also suggested and will continue to advocate for zero tolerance policies for anti-gay slurs at home games, similar to what the New York Yankees adopted last year.” In addition to the LA Lakers, NBA executives have agreed to meet with GLAAD to discuss ways to send a message about the power of such words to the league’s audience, many of whom are young people, parents or educators.

Lakers spokesman John Black: "We appreciate the input we've received from GLAAD the past two days and will look forward to working with them on ways to help educate ourselves and our fans, and to help keep language like this out of our game."

You might be amused by the reaction of the press when Ricky Martin appeared on the red carpet at Saturday's GLAAD Awards. Most of the LGBT press was set up further down the row, but I jumped out of line to grab some video when I heard the shouting. This morning on Boy Culture, Matt Rettenmund has posted his red carpet interviews with the Fabulous Beekman Boys, Wilson Cruz, Jarrett Barrios, Andy Cohen, and honoree Nikki Peet, the Texas high schooler who won her battle to launch a Gay-Straight Alliance. Lots of great stuff at the above link.

Last night GLAAD honored Ricky Martin with their Vito Russo Award in recognition of how his coming out generated unprecedented positive coverage in Latin media. In his speech, Martin thanked "my boyfriend Carlos," which some in the room thought was the first time Martin had publicly named the handsome man often seen with him. The video below is by Boy Culture's Matthew Rettenmund - check his site later today for more from the evening.