Video editor Tijana Mamula has watched all ten seasons of Friends in search of gay jokes in the show. And she not only gathered 90 minutes of homophobic moments in the sitcom, but also found a lot of other not-so-funny aspects to it: “I noticed all sorts of other problematic content, some of which I found even more upsetting, like the place of women and foreigners… You could do a whole series of videos, like Misogynistic Friends and Xenophobic Friends.” Mamula who works at an Assistant Professor of Communications at the John Cabot university in Rome and got her Ph.D in Film Studies at King’s College, London, in 2010. This is the 50-minutes version of her original 90-minutes video. More about the project on Queerty and Bitch Magazine. There’s also an Italian version of the film on Mamula’s Vimeo account.
The Condemnet (“Les condamnés”) is a book project by French journalist Philippe Castetbon who has contacted young gay men from countries where homosexuality is agains the law online and asked them for a self-portrait and a short personal text about their life situations. Here are some photos taken from the book and a promotional video, let me know what you think about this project. An exhibition of the pictures is currently shown at the Médiathèque Federico Fellini in Montpellier/France. By the way: “Les condamnés” in French means “The Convicted” or even just “Convicts” and not exactly “The Condemned”, as a translator points out here.
In a very detailed report published by the Gay City News on December 19th an American Journalist called Doug Ireland draws attention to the situation of ten young Iranian men, eight of them teenagers, that are currently awaiting execution for sodomy, and two others that are being re-tried on the same capital charge. A lot of Ireland’s information has been delivered by an organisation called CHRR (Comitee Of Human Rights Reporters), which has become one of the most important sources of information about human rights violations in Iran. It’s also the first Iranian human rights organization that has established it’s own Queer Committee to officially recognize the fight of sexual minorities for equal rights as part of a fight for human rights. In the article the existence of this commitee is confirmend by one of its members, a 21-year-old student who was courageous enough to give Ireland an interview under his real name although many members of the CHRR have recently been arrested. Read more here. Via rhizom, thanks Christian for posting this.
“Disco bashing became a major preoccupation in 1977. At the moment when Saturday Night Fever and Studio 54 achieved zeitgeist status, rock rediscovered a rage it had been lacking since the ’60s, but this time the enemy was a culture with “plastic” and “mindless” (read effeminate) musical tastes. Examined in light of the ensuing political backlash, it’s clear that the slogan of this movement, “Disco Sucks!”, was the first cry of the angry white male” (Peter Braunstein) / “The ‘Disco Sucks’ campaign was a white, macho reaction against gay liberation and black pride more than a musical reaction against drum machines. In England, in the same year as the ‘Disco Sucks’ demo in America, The Young Nationalist – a British National Party publication – told its readers: ‘Disco and its melting pot pseudo-philosophy must be fought or Britain’s streets will be full of black-worshipping soul boys.”
The “Demolition Night”
“July 12, 1979, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois. Two Chicago radio DJs (Steve Dahl and Garry Meier) came up with the idea of having people bring unwanted disco records to the stadium. The spurned records would be burned between doubleheader games with the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. Lead by the chant, “Disco Sucks!” most of the records weren’t burned, but sailed through the stands during the game – nearly inciting a riot. Some fans started their own fires and mini-riots. There was so much commotion that the ballplayers couldn’t even finish the last game of the doubleheader; the White Sox forfeited.”
Via Human Rights Watch: “This 67-page report documents a wide-reaching campaign of extrajudicial executions, kidnappings, and torture of gay men that began in early 2009. The killings began in the vast Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, a stronghold of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, and spread to many cities across Iraq. Mahdi Army spokesmen have promoted fears about the “third sex” and the “feminization” of Iraq men, and suggested that militia action was the remedy. Some people told Human Rights Watch that Iraqi security forces have colluded and joined in the killing.”
The following taping Cleo Manago, the founder of Black Men’s Xchange and AmASSI Health & Cultural Centers submitted to the gay news website Queerty.de from the Al Sharpton’s National Action Network 2009 Summer Conference in Atlanta last month. It’s kind of exciting, although I have some problems with the choreography of the discussion.
This video clip documents the scientifical attempt to prove that a lot of homophobic people are more attracted to gay stuff than they’d admit. It’s cut out of the HBO documentation “Middle Sexes”. I found it on queerty.com. You can watch the full documentation on youtube.
A friend of mine sent me this clip of an old Michael Moore show called “The Awful Truth” from 2000. I’m not really a fan of this guy but this video has actually its funny moments.
I don’t want to post too much right-wing/christian/homophobic/transphobic propaganda here but Shirley Phelps-Roper and her husband Fred Phelps are too crazy to be totally ignored. The couple leads the Westboro Baptist Church based in Kansas, a group that became quite popular in the US media because of demonstrations they did next to funerals of Iraq war soldiers. They believe that the defeat of the american army in Iraq as well as events like 9/11 are god’s punishment for the unholy american lifestyle. And they especially have issues with “the fags” which for them are one of the main reasons why not only the US but the whole world is doomed (Check out their website godhatesfags.com). It’s kind of entertaining how especially the charming Mrs. Pheps-Ropers leaves even conservative people speechless when she appears in media because her agenda is as evil and crazy as it can get (“Heather Ledger died for Brokeback Mountain”). But I wonder why a woman who is opposing the “western lifestyle” has got a double-barrelled surname.
This is an article a friend of mine posted on Facebook yesterday and I also found it on the webpage of a society that supports LBGT-activists in Iraq. It’s possible to make donations.
