Most voters supporting Prop 8, just as the misguided fools at DWH here in Delft, who came up with 'Market Strategy' as an argument to not promote homosexuality above age 30, or at least keep quite about it, in a self inflicted version of don't ask, don't tell, retain the canard premise that homosexuality is a choice. I'm sure that's good news for the legion of researchers who have demonstrated convincingly that homosexuality is not hereditary, not genetic, but generic; most likely funded in our basic psyche before birth. That it occurs regularly in nature and that trying to change a person's sexuality results in severe psychological damage, depression and, at times, suicide. Still, who's fault is it, I wonder? If we expect people to accept us, we must first accept our own sexuality! I don't think we can count on them to run home and look us up on Wikipedia. I know, they can't be bothered, but outreach is everything.
I agree with Harvey Milk when he said that hope can never be silenced, and I think that given what he faced, he is someone who's example we can look up to in these dark times. (Luckily, there's a movie!) We tend to forget our heroes and that's a shame, because their journeys have a lot to teach us. If you need an example of what ignoring history brings about, just look at the last 8 years in the white house or at DWH in Delft.

I'm afraid the "change we can believe in" is very thin layered, as Obama shoves people in charge of the economy who were also responsible for the mess it is in today. We should elect guys who are uncompromising in human rights, who will give us our position in the fundamental fabric of society right here, right NOW. And lift restrictions that the USA still enforces: army, marriage, HIV+visas, for starters! Here are two:

don't know anything about Adam's personal lifestyle, just that he once was republican, now is democrat and openly gay. So he may hang Tom of Finland drawings in the oval office, or just his boyfriend, if he's the happily married gay type.
Wouldn't mind Ellen Degeneris at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in 2016 either!
anybody knows any other candidates? I thought of Michael Thorn and Troy Lee Hudson, Editor and Publisher of Instigator Magazine, as they surely never will give up or compromise their current lifestyle, or as Harvey urged us to "NEVER BLEND IN"


In my own country I could choose from quite a few gay MP's from almost any denomination (exept Christen Unie Morons), My choice now would be Boris van der Ham
All time open queer pervert closest to being elected prime minister in the world, without a doubt was Pim Fortuyn. Sadly he was assasinated too a week prior to the elections (and being nr.1 in all polls), by a retarded extremist environmentalist, because he said he quite liked and had no objection to fur coats.
while above image shows the seat of the Dutch prime Minister, the 'hofvijver tower' as well as former PM Willem Kok, with his adversary, and crown prince, Melkert, shamefully defeatead bij Fortuyn in tv debates, and the also assasinated Theo van Gogh, below I have an Image of Pim on his knees in his fav Leatherbar, Shaft Rotterdam: here's his memory movie in 9 minits:

need more ? here's a column in the NYC observer
or a family portrait?
or gay appointments in Obama transition team
or watch out where you go see Milk
or rave review on Milk in NYTimes
or useful strategy to change black votes next time comment?

The ease in which journalists can nowadays travel the globe and on occasion of the presidential election or the economy crisis do their live shows from any godforsaken place made me hear more live Dutch radio from the USA then ever before. Funny thing these Dutch reporter observations. We here in Europe consider Austria our most conservative, twisted and right wing country (although: we had Pim, they had Jörg), but that must be thought of as 'back to the future, if not 'Sodom and Gomorrah' when you compare it to our guys reporting about the USA:

"the west and east coast of the USA may be quite similar to your average Euro nation, but in the middle, when it comes to religion these people stayed fixed in positions and have kept opinions ever since they emigrated there, so they are at least 2 centuries retarded. It took us in Europe some years to recognise the earth was not flat. Middle America still will not recognise the evolution theory. They obviously don't see that if we hadn't moved on, we still would lick the ass of a demented pope, America would never have been discovered and they wouldn't be there".
Do they not have internet?
My most middle America experience must be Lincoln Nebraska, where I once worked. But I also picked up gorgeous hunks in Greyhound busses at Phoenix AZ and Houston TX in the seventies, or fucked myself silly in the eighties around Minneapolis when I worked a week at the Hennepin Center for the Arts. comment?

doing more research on the starting era of one of my all time fav bands, the Small Faces, I once again stumbled on this legendary producer, who stood at the base of Tornados, and scores of other guys I only came to appreciate decades later.
Little did I know, until just a few minits ago when I found this clip that he was gay. In 1956 the UK had the The Wolfenden Committee's report that recommended decriminalisation of homosexuality between adult males. That didn't go ahead though, until Meek committed suicide, ten years later. So it was kept hidden within record companies until way beyond 1967.
On the other hand, a lot of gay men, and I'm sure Joe belonged in there, didn't want it legalised: the fear of being caught in gentlemen's conveniences was part of the adrenaline: When Oscar wilde had for the first time been invited to a male brothel, he afterwards wrote down in his diary: It was like feasting with panthers: the danger was more than half the exitement! In the clip on Joe Meek a guy said: "I could never understand why they would want to go to these dirty filthy places. They got an adrenaline rush, just from the smell of urine, believe it or not"
I don't think that's so unbelievable ;) , You don't read about it much on these pages, as I want to keep it somewhat accessible to non gay readers and female humans, I keep the erotica in the poz section, but I still get off on warm armpits, musky assholes and ripe underwear.

Sorry about this unsavory interlude, although I promissed I wouldn't, it once again is directed at the local club here. well, let the DWH fearies chew on it for a bit; they probably will never even understand Mel & Kim! but then, eh, why did this bunch of morons hypocrits, that are so afraid of sex, DARE to take on a name taken from a song by perv George Michael? (sadly the Ely Stone 'I want your sex' tv court appearance in the freedom episode is offline; that surely hits them fakes right where it hurts)

Together wih Gerrit Komrij in his Mosse lecture and in DWDD, I wonder if I still belong in a culture that invites politicians on their boats and does not allow me to show my dick. Not that I would, but I don't want to be told that I can't! There are always a few completely naked guys at the gay pride in Berlin or Köln and nobody finds it offensive. You can also sunbathe bare assed all around Tiergarten or Englische Garten München, here in NL we have locked ourselves in "gedoog" (blind eye) area's, so sad! We tend to adept to Anglo culture much easier then to German culture, probably because since WWII we have stopped looking east. It's time we start looking at the beauty of our German neighbours again, especially as they have far less scruples showing their assets and they are passing us by in tolerance!
comment?

To finish off the tragic and pathetic run of celebrations for the dwh 40 year anniversary, I have some pix from the days we still could run a party, or 2:




who said dwh was about plant conservation ?


safe sex guerilla, below wardrobe lady Renate and Sanjay and Marcel T, founder of the first dwh youth group (was it ondeugd or big?, certainly not Host, the first time they thought religion and 'normalcy' was their answer) having a cozy piss in the kitchen,


those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end, but they did!


At the party we were not supposed to have at DWH, we reminsisced a bit about the days when we did have events there that are still not erased from memories 20 years on.comment?

This is the situation in the UK:
"We have always been crystal clear that homophobia does not go away, it goes to sleep," said Ben Summerskill of gay equality organisation Stonewall. "It is essential that we are continually vigilant of those who would like to turn back the clock not just to 1988, when Section 28 was introduced, but to the 1950s as well." Homosexuality was partially decriminalised in 1967, with the age of consent set at 21. That was reduced to 18 in 1994. In 2001 the government finally succeeded in equalising the age for gay and straight sex at 16, despite opposition from the House of Lords.
Although some things have improved in the UK, for consenting adults into S&M, things are different !

The UK had a progressive governement since 'Blair' and are now much better off then us in the NL, with Christians, and socialists-based-on-a-muslim-electorate in charge. (HOORAY for our tolerance, that is even tolerant towards muslim/christian-intolerance) Our age of consent has gone up again from 12 in the seventies (if no pressure or money was involved) to 18 now! Further our gay Capital has a distinct anti gay feel to it these days and both tourists and Dutch weekenders now choose Berlin, London, Barcelona, Madrid, or Gran Canaria. The red light district is being deconstructed, musea are all closed. Anti gay violence is up and anti smoking laws further limit the options for cannabis tourism.

An analisis of the situation by Gert Hekma, given in his lecture at dwh on sunday 26th j.l. is fully online (in 9 parts dutch) here in HR and on youtube comment?

I regret to have to report that legendary queer cult venue Vagevuur in Eindhoven indefinitely closed its door wednesday after more then 30 years of pioneering queer culture. Most painful is the way that a new wave of agression and violence against building, was stirred up: The pathetic remains of a party that was set up by a legendary pioneer of gay rights, Pim Fortuyn, assasinated in 2002, who was a supporter and even visitor of VAgevuur, forged an allience with a radical fundamentalist Dutch broadcast company to spread hate and disinformation against Vagevuur. Hate spreading religious fundamentalists were the greatest enemy of Pim and his party! The actions of this LPF madman should be considered treason and grounds for extradiction (as if there is anybody left there to extradite). Even more sad, and a strategy lesson for us all, is that the Vag board started its own demise by kicking out the original fighter generation, so desperately needed now, as they thought: if we stay nice and sweet, nobody will bother us. The same mistake made by some jews before WWII. Sadly db/queerart is now the only place that conserves the 'purgatory' art heritage.

click here for an email concept that asks the LPF to distance itself from their madman in Eindhoven and to retract his membership

and to ad some encouragement for the continued fight for equal rights in California sign the petition here. comment?

Coincidence or fate? On this very day the English celebrate Guy Fawkes or 'Burn the Catholics' night, so important in their history and pivotal for their decisions to definitely sever all links between religion and governement.

Bonfire Night is celebrated across the UK on 5 November. The date marks the failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament by Guy Fawkes along with a group of co-conspirators in London in 1605.

The intention was to kill King James I and wipe out everyone in government. The group were Catholic extremists who wanted to return England to the Catholic faith. One of the conspirators had a friend in the Houses of Parliament and sent a letter to him, warning him to stay away from the House on the day the attack was supposed to take place. The letter was intercepted and handed to the king.

Meanwhile, Guy Fawkes and friends, having formulated their plan, known as the 'Gunpowder Plot', had rolled 36 barrels of gunpowder into the cellars of the Houses of Parliament, and were waiting for the king to arrive when guards broke in and arrested them. They were tortured and executed. Nowadays on Bonfire Night people organise their own parties or attend big organised fireworks displays. They stand around the bonfire, set off fireworks and eat lots of nice warming Bonfire Night foods, like sausages and jacket potatoes. They might also remark...

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot,
We see no reason,
Why gunpowder treason,
Should ever be forgot!

...Which sort of suggests that people rather admire the cheek of Guy Fawkes, trying to blow up Parliament, and that's why they celebrate Bonfire night, rather than celebrating the fact that his plot failed and he was caught!

Fireworks that are sent up on Bonfire night have really evocative names like, Roman Candles, Mount Vesuvius and Golden Shower. There are also Catherine Wheels that spin and Sparklers that children write their names in the air with.

Children make life-sized effigies of Guy Fawkes which are called Guys, to put onto the bonfires. The English have been burning effigies to mark Guy Fawkes' treason for almost 400 years. The tradition started in 1606, the year after the Gunpowder plot failed. In these first bonfires, called 'bone fires' at the time, it wasn't an effigy of Guy Fawkes that was burned, but one of the Pope. It was not until 1806, two centuries later, that the people started burning effigies of Guy Fawkes instead. comment?

It's always sad that minorities have such short horizons and don't see the broader strategy.
Fear, ignorance and disinformation is the easiest card to play, as we remember from that malicious, guitar playing, spin doctor, Lee Altwater, who campaigned for father and son Bush. and stabbed Michael Dukakis in the back repeatedly with outrageous lies. The strategist of evil will always find ways to play out the most frightened and prosecuted against each others.
The Obama team has learned from those vicious spintoctors, like with Clinton, who had campagne strategist James Carville (reviewing him, I just heard him say: campaigning is like intercourse: you havn't got that much control on when you peak) and head of communications George Stephanopoulos (hmmm!) they didn't give the republicans any more chances to score: we should learn from that not to let the enemies of equal rights for gays play on fear. To have the right answers ready and turn their strategies around to hit them in the back instead of us!
This time the clergy obviously had some funds left from their budget to fight child abuse cases. Religious bigots have been the enemy for centuries: They were pro life, but approved slave trade and suppressing blacks; giving schoolkids access to fire arms. So now they think they can unite against us, who supposedly endager their sanctity of marriage?
The biggest hypocrit of them all in Rome prosecuted the guy who said the earth was round. If Copernicus had not fought on, America would not have been discovered, and there would only still be native Americans, who had not been infected with STD's. Maybe that would have been better, at least the environment would still be cleaner.

In '68 Martin Luther King was murdered, 40 years on there is a black president: in '78 Harvey Milk was murdered, shouldn't we fight on until in another 10 years we'll have Tom of Finland drawings on the walls of the oval office, or 2 happy dykes living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue ?
Yes we can ! ! !
we only just started . . . comment?

It's good to see GW and greed is losing McCain/Palin the elections. At least for that the bank managers deserve a big THANK YOU ! As obviously, believing in god and everything will turn out fine; saying you protect the values of life while you don't, it all has failed miserably:
Being pro life when life is unborn and forgetting about it when it's 18 and can be sent out to kill others, or giving schoolkids access to firearms, can only be thought of by a treacherous mischievous party. That kind of insanity has got to be STOPPED !

Not only should they be stopped, they should be prosecuted for blindly supporting the oil industry, oil sheiks and terrorists and downplaying new energy research: solar energy in Germany will in 15 years be self sufficient. In Spain it will be even faster. You guys in the USA have plenty of deserts, and sand is the basic material for glass and photo voltaic cells and no transport is needed to get it to you! Silicon was also at the basis of the last industry the USA was great in and gave us Intel, Microsoft, Apple. Who stopped you getting on with that, but the great cheaters you elected? If they really are pro life, they should care about making it clean!
Well, at least it helps Californians to see that religious fanatics ads, that frighten the uninformed that gays will take over education, are downright repulsive and finaly vote against prop 8 and for equal rights to everyone.

Of course this also means a NO to amandment 2 in Florida!
And then some of you guys in the USA still think, what the fuck should we care what the rest of the world thinks of us, and for almost a century that train of thought had a lot of thruth in it, as Europe was ultimately devided, and there was no other economic power in the world, but G.W. even bummed up an economy that was completely USA based by getting you to think that tax cuts will be possible for ever and ever (you get my fiat to cut more taxes when there is no US army, nor any civil servant, nor banks control left and taxes are only paying airforce one and the white house) and right now, through buying oil he cannot produce himself from his enemies is bankrupting his own country and financing Iran, Pakistan and in a way is just asking for terrorists all around the world to deal a final blow. I think you might need the last friends you guys have in the world. And yes, I think we Europeans are your best friends! At least I feel I am: I sometimes think I have more friends in California, New Orleans and New York then here in Delft.
And before I go on too long, let me give a final word about prop 8 to one of those Cali friends who said it much better, and explains it to religious people with much more patience then I can. comment?