Gay Comics Mashup the News

Gay Comics have been all over the news lately.
Northstar and Kyle are getting married in X-men.
DC is teasing us by leaking that one of its long-term characters will come out of the closet in June.
(Should be Nightwing, but all their "somebody not seen since the relaunch" means it is probably some Earth 2 character.)
Prism Comics makes nothing but Gay (LGBT) Comics.
Personally, I am looking forward to the day (in real life and comics) when being Gay (LGB or T) doesn't mean anything weird or special.  But that day isn't today, apparently.  Soon I hope, but not today.

Anyway, I took a break from all this Gay Comic News to look at my blog stats and discovered that my top post of the last month has been "Gay Comic Mashup News" from March. (A lovely little Comic Theater Mashup, if I do say so myself, and I do.)
Apparently, according to Google, people find this post of mine by searching for "gay comics".
I tried that and found that my blog post does not appear until page 23 of the search results.  (Your results may differ, because Google does different thing for different people on different days.)
But holy cow, Batman.  People are wading through 23 pages of links before clicking on mine?  What's up with that?

Then I thought, well heck, if the words Gay Comics gets me more visitors, then who am I to not give the people what they want.
So, here it is.

Comic Mashup Theater Proudly Presents, for the purpose of increasing readership only, Another Day, Another Gay Comic Mashupdate:

Don't forget to check out the Super Furry Gay Love over at Super Ordinary Living Comics.

News from New York

There is news worth reporting coming from New York this weekend.

Gay marriage has been legalised in New York State!
I'm sure there are some Americans that are nervous about this.  Heck, I know some of them.

But personally, I feel this is a moment worth celebrating.  Anytime civil rights are recognised and respected it is a great American moment.

There has been a phenomenal shift in public attitudes on this topic in the last ten years.

I believe it is a shift towards the good, and I hope to see it continue.

I think anytime groups of people can overcome their abstract stereotypes and actually introduce themselves to the American people, that the people of this country will see them as real people and will show them compassion and respect, and hopefully LOVE.  And that is what this issue is about, Love.  Because love is the only thing that can build a lasting and healthy family.  Love is the thing that makes our lives worth living.  And love is such a precious thing that no law should ever get in the way of love without very, very good reasons.

Thank you New York.  I know this hasn't been easy.  But thank you.

And if that political quagmire they call a state government in New York can pass good and decent legislation like this, maybe there is hope for Washington DC.  Too much to hope for?

Well, call me an optimist!

Onward and Upward America!

-- Jay Larsen

All the Interiors

Captain says:
I see what you’re up to
Don’t think that I don’t
Captain says:
You’re just too strange
To fit into my America
Captain says:
You can have all the Interiors
But the Exteriors are mine
Captain says:
Stand up tall
Walk straight
--------------------------
Poem and Collision of Images by Jay Larsen
The views expressed in this poem are those of the Captain and are not shared by the Poet or this Blog.

If you live in Washington, don’t forget to vote.
I suggest: Yes on 71 to protect Civil Unions
and No on 1033 because Tim Eyman is a horse’s ass!
Sorry Captain, Only comic book heros should have to have secret identities, not real people.

3 Cheers for Rational Deliberations

A judge on Tuesday overturned a strict Florida law that blocks gay people from adopting children, declaring there was no legal or scientific reason for sexual orientation alone to prohibit anyone from adopting.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman said the 31-year-old law violates equal protection rights for the children and their prospective gay parents, rejecting the state's arguments that there is "a supposed dark cloud hovering over homes of homosexuals and their children."
She noted that gay people are allowed to be foster parents in Florida. "There is no rational basis to prohibit gay parents from adopting," she wrote in a 53-page ruling.

Read the Article

Polsters say Don't Blame Obama Supporters for Prop-8

FiveThirtyEight.com have been crunching the CA Prop-8 numbers and report that blaming Obama supporters for the passage of Prop-8, the Anti Gay Marriage Initiative, is not supported by the polling.

New voters brought in by Obama voted convincingly against Prop-8.

Older Voters turned out to be the key demographic:

At the end of the day, Prop 8's passage was more a generational matter than a racial one. If nobody over the age of 65 had voted, Prop 8 would have failed by a point or two. It appears that the generational splits may be larger within minority communities than among whites, although the data on this is sketchy.

The good news for supporters of marriage equity is that -- and there's no polite way to put this -- the older voters aren't going to be around for all that much longer, and they'll gradually be cycled out and replaced by younger voters who grew up in a more tolerant era.

Link: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/prop-8-myths.html

Trends over the years are still moving towards greater acceptance of equal rights for all, but we are obviously not there yet. Personal experience seems to indicate that the biggest impacts are made by individuals talking frankly to their friends and family. Demonstrations are good for the moral of those already convinced, but social change happens one person at a time. Take the oportunity to talk with the people you know already.

Hate and Fear Play Out in Prop-8 Aftermath

Two steps forward and one step back.
That is how election night felt. We elected the first black president in America, and then California passed Prop-8 banning gay marriage.
I have been involved in discussions and back and forth with friends, coworkers, relatives (many of them in CA). And I kept thinking I should finally get my best thinking down and post it--One eloquent, convincing piece of prose that would sum up the situation and convince people to open their eyes and hearts to all people.

Well, fuck it. I can’t manage to be eloquent and I don’t know that people want to be convinced. So this is the best I can do for now. Though I still hope for eloquence and convincing argument from somebody if not from me.

This whole Prop-8 thing is really disturbing because of the involvement of the Mormon Church, the church in which I was raised and in which many of my relatives still remain active. I am not a Mormon now; thank god the constitution gives me that right. But I have a fondness for Mormons and my family. And I defend their rights to believe what they believe and to live the way they live. I also defend their rights to advocate their beliefs and to encourage others to believe as they do. So I understand when Mormons tell me that they do not want to be gay, and that they do not want other people to be gay. But there is a big difference between telling someone you don’t like what they do and telling them that what they want to do is illegal and will not be permitted, especially when the action under discussion is marriage.

Evolution and history have been moving in a fairly specific direction when it comes to human rights: more people get more rights all the time, even if we have to fight first. Agrarian societies had slavery. Industrial societies got rid of slavery. Now our society is trying to get rid of racism and sexism. There were people not too long ago who believed that letting people of different races get married was an affront to god and should be illegal. But people expanded their definitions of who was covered by the Bill of Rights and they struck down those laws eventually. History judges those people to be uninformed bigots while those who fought to educate and resist the conservative majority are now seen to have been ahead of their time. History will judge the people who voted yes on Prop-8 in the same way one day. I just hope that day is soon and not decades away.

I have heard a lot of anger from my gay friends and family. I understand. It pisses me off too. But I also believe that the anger needs to be used as fuel to drive resolution and action. That anger is not effective when poured out at the people who voted their beliefs, prejudices and fears. That anger does need to be used to calmly and clearly let people know that gays and lesbians and those who support their rights to choose their own life partners, husbands and wives, are not going away. We need to be clear that the days when gays and lesbians could be driven into the shadows are long over. Things will change. These civil rights will be defended.

The Black Panthers did not do as much for black civil rights as Martin Luther King, Jr. did. Anger and violence cause more fear and retreat into old prejudices. What we need is a combination of resolute firmness, and an invitation to all people to expand their concepts of human dignity, to open their eyes and their hearts, to change their hearts. People need to realize that these are not nameless, faceless fags they are voting against; these are their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, cousins and friends, coworkers and church members. These are people just like them, who want to live and love as best they can. Supporting the loving relationships of others does no harm to my relationships, nor will it do any harm to yours.

San Diego is not Iran

Iran has no homosexuals. Their president says so. And presidents never lie.
San Diego's Mayor not only admits that there are homosexuals in San Diego, he has changed his mind and decided to support everyone's right to get married.
Maybe old dogs can learn new tricks.
It is refreshing to see a politician with a genuine emotional attachement to an issue.
It is even more refreshing to see a political mind that is open to change and not clinging to useless relics of the past. I hope his conservitive constituates will see this for genuine growth and a commitment to compasion and equality. But I have a feeling that the GOP in San Diego will punish this brave man for publicly stating what so many of them must secretly be thinking.
How about it Dick Cheney? Are willing to support the Mayor of San Diego?