Lesbians Kissing: This Is History!

This photo made it to the front page of both The Independent and The Guardian.
And was given much prominence inside almost every other UK newspaper.*
"Lesbians, kiss, iconic, historic, repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, some women in the armed forces are lesbots? Who knew?!! etc etc"
The Times wrote a leader column on it; "The picture of that kiss already has the look of a photographic classic.** And perhaps its most interesting aspect is that the bystanders in the background do not seem to be taking any special notice. Some things change for the better."
That's nice, dear.
But why did the UK papers give it so much special notice, then?
Perhaps a clue was given by Evan Davis on Radio 4's Today programme?
After an excited-sounding John Humphrys read out his favourite lines from The Times, Evan added drily; "Some girl-on-girl action there..."

* I can't find it on the Daily Express's online version - or far more surprisingly The Daily Star's - will check print copies later.
** Probably because it looks like an homage to Alfred Eisenstaedt's VJ Day In Times Square, one of the most famous photographs of all time. Duh.

DADT: Dear John

"Hailed as a monumental step toward equality by gay rights activists, hundreds of Dear John letters reportedly began reaching newly outed troops overseas this week, notifying soldiers for the first time ever that their same-sex partners back home were leaving them and starting a new life with someone else.
"According to Pentagon observers, the torrent of brusque, callous letters—which followed Tuesday's repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy—has left romantically betrayed homosexuals in every branch of the service grappling with feelings of rejection and despair, a momentous milestone in U.S. military history.
"'For too long, gays and lesbians in the armed forces were barred from receiving such letters, leaving them woefully unaware that the person they once called their soul mate had been cheating on them throughout their deployment," said Clarence Navarro of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy group. "But now all troops, regardless of their sexual orientation, are free to have their entire lives ripped out from underneath them in a single short note."
"This is a great day for homosexuals," Navarro added. "Even those who now have nothing to return home to..."

The Onion.

DADT: Don't Ask, Not Arsed

On the same day "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was repealed, U.S. Marines wasted no time looking for new recruits.

They were invited to set up shop at the Gay and Lesbian Center in Tulsa, Okla., so they went.

They didn't sign any new recruits, but say they'll be back...

CBS News.

DADT: Goodbye And Thank You

Today you can be gay and a marine!
Must be a relief to all those marines I've seen buttfucking in gay porn films...

Bradley Manning: Brave Little Monster

This is NOT an April Fool's joke: There's an online campaign underway to get Lady Gaga to speak up for Bradley Manning due to the "special role" she played in helping him allegedly leak all those documents to WikiLeaks. If you've forgotten, he claimed, in the chat logs, that he used a thumb drive that supposedly held Lady Gaga songs as his "cover." See report on that here. Group at Brave Little Monster is getting people to send her tweets or Facebook message imploring her to act...

From The Nation blog of Gregg Mitchell, author of the newly published Bradley Manning: Truth And Consequences.
Lady Gaga won the SLDN's Randy Shilts Award last month for her work in support of lesbians and gay men in the US military - let's hope she stands by and speaks up for this particular great gay man, Private Bradley Manning.

• By happenchance April 9th-10th is Bradley Manning Support Weekend - "a call to socially conscious artists and organizers across the country and world to propel Bradley Manning to pop-culture status through artistic expression before he goes to trial".
Get creative and that!

DADT: Doones Ask, Doones Tell

I liked the way Garry Trudeau just slipped this in Doonesbury today...

Bradley Manning: The Facebook Leaks

Whilst checking an article about Bradley Manning, Fagburn was surprised to see that his Facebook profile is still online.
Not sure if it's active as you can't Friend him or message him.
It's also set to; "People who aren't friends with Bradley see only some of his profile information."
Which makes you wonder how the private photos and posts from there that have appeared in the media were first accessed (Fagburn thinks the Daily Telegraph was first to publish them).
Anyone can still read the list of Bradley's 65 Likes, which include;
No On Prop 8, Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, Glee, Michelle Obama, Barney Frank, Gavin Newsom, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans Of America, Stonewall Democrats, The Daily Show, Chelsea Handler, Dan Savage, and Anderson Cooper 360.
As ever, Bradley Manning is in our thoughts.

Wikileaks 3: The Real Cover Up

The Media Research Center (Motto - "Join The Fight Against Liberal Media Bias!") are really pissed at all the pussy coverage of Bradley Manning.
'Today Show Portrays Wiki Leaker as a 'Teased' and 'Harassed' Victim of the Military'
"Instead of leading with how Army Private First Class Bradley Manning may have jeopardized national security with his document dump to WikiLeaks, NBC's chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski, in his profile of Manning on Tuesday's Today show, told viewers he was the "most unlikely suspect, with a youthful smile" and portrayed him as an abused victim of the military. Miklaszewski used the New York Times' Ginger Thompson in his report to tell the tale of young man who apparently decided to avenge the abuse he had taken over the years, dating back to high school, by selling out his country."
And there's a wonderfully bonkers piece from Accuracy In Media on how the US media is covering up the fact that the Wikileaks traitor Bradley Manning is an openly gay pervert.
"As the Senate returns to Washington to debate such matters as the Pentagon’s homosexual exclusion policy, major media coverage of the disclosure of thousands of sensitive U.S. Government cables by WikiLeaks has curiously and conveniently ignored the homosexual orientation and anti-American motivation of the alleged leaker, Pfc. Bradley Manning, now in prison...
"What the [New York] Times left out of its coverage was that Manning was an open homosexual who flaunted the Pentagon’s homosexual exclusion policy without being punished for his behaviour and conduct."
Your liberal lamestream media at work!

Perhaps they have a point?
The Guardian today gives over a page to a profile of Manning, 'The Young Soldier Who Faces 52 Years In Prison Troubled soldier was arrested after apparently confessing to the leaks online'
It doesn't specify why he was "troubled".
Fagburn cannot find any mention of he's gay in The Guardian's extensive coverage this year. Why? He was out and it seems germane to his action.
There is a certain irony in The Guardian partnering WikiLeaks to publish classified information, but keeping this from its readers.
Excerpts from Manning's online chats with former hacker Adrian Lamo are here.

And finally... Amy Goodman interviews Noam Chomsky about WikiLeaks - transcript and video here.

No wait, there's more! A great piece by Glenn Greenwald on Salon.com; "As usual, for authoritarian minds, those who expose secrets are far more hated than those in power who commit heinous acts using secrecy as their principal weapon..."

President Obama: "Drop Dead"

The world can hardly contain its excitement that President Obama has jumped on the bandwagon and made an "It Gets Better" video.
Fagburn wonders how long before we see angry mobs beating a path to the home of anyone who hasn't made one?
It was so, so nice of Obama to make a three minute video and babble on about fighting discrimination and utter some nice-sounding platitudes.
It would have been better if he tried to actually make things better for gay kids by fighting discrimination himself; like pushing for gay marriage, anti-discrimination legislation and repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell.
You know, little things that would mean gay people aren't still second-class citizens in the USA.

President Obama: Shot By Both Sides

"It takes a special genius in politics to be assailed by both sides of an argument and receive no credit at all for standing in the middle. That is the position into which Barack Obama appears needlessly to have manoeuvred himself on gay rights. Social conservatives complain that he has done too little to “defend marriage” (by which they mean preventing gays from marrying), and that his plan to allow gays to serve openly in the military will spook America’s warriors. Gay activists complain that he has so far been too timid on both fronts. And, as luck would have it, Virginia Phillips, a federal judge in California, made a ruling this week that has tossed the question of gay rights back into the public eye at the most uncomfortable possible moment for the White House: three weeks before November’s mid-term elections..."

The Economist comes out against Obama's timidity on gay rights, An Own Goal On Gay Rights.
The picture shows an anti-Obama poster that has appeared over a freeway in Colorado for the US mid-term elections.
The one on the far right is meant to symbolise how he is overfond of The Gays - alongside terrorists, gangsters and Mexican immigrants.
One lousy poster, that's got endless free publicity - including as per usual on here.

NY Street Gangs More Gay-Friendly Than US Army

ABC News in New York interviews one of three young men tortured and sexually assaulted by members of the Latin King Goonies gang in what's being reported as an anti-gay hate crime.
The 17 year-old was told after the attack that it wasn't personal, and he could still be in the gang.
Which means that the Latin King Goonies are still more accepting of gay men in their ranks than the US Army.
God bless America!