"Maple Palm" Plays in L.A., Gay Gardens, In The News, Captured Cuties

WOW, time got away from me yesterday, and so blogger friends and readers, I am sorry I didnt do my follow up post last night. Hope your weekend's have all gotten off to a good start. Thanx for some of the emails about the website update, the rest will be finished by tomorrow night or Monday morning. I have had 2 nice offers to help write for the website, and I am looking forward to working with them.

I want to tell you about an invitation I got for a screening of a new movie that premiers this weekend in Los Angeles. Of course still in exile here in NE Ohio, I wont be able to attend, but I am hoping my connections can get a copy out here to me or I will catch it as it starts to work its way around the country. The film is titled "Maple Palm," and it dramatizes the obscure yet timely issue of same-sex immigration. "If an American falls in love with a foreigner of the same-sex, there's no legal basis for the couple to stay together." States Robert J. Feldman, one of the film's producers and co-stars. "The film also raises a notion completely unheard of by most Americans - that some U.S. born citizens have to flee their homeland to find true freedom elsewhere in the world; and not because they don't love this country, but because this country doesn't love them." Maple Palm stars Deborah Stewart, Taymour Ghazi and supporting players; all of whom deliver intense and powerful performances from an IFP/NY acclaimed screenplay. The result is an emotional and tragic love story that the filmmakers believe will leave audiences thinking long after the screening has ended. This film has got some great reviews in Frontiers Magazine, The L.A. Times, Lesbian News, and L.A. Weekly, and is playing at the Laemmle theatre in Los Angeles starting yesterday, November 10th, thru Thursday, Nov. 16th, call the theatre for show times. Check it out if you have the time. I definitely recommend this film to all of my Lesbian Friends, and will probably be featuring it on the website this weekend. CLICK HERE to watch the trailer.

Remember a few weeks past when I posted about the landscaping company that refused work because the clients were homosexual?? Well it seems the story is now getting national attention in some main stream media a few weeks after the fact. To recap, a gay couple living in Austin, Texas, requested a bid for some landscaping to be done on their home. After being quite polite on the phone, one of the owners sent an email to the couple explaining that their company chooses not to do work for homosexuals. The couple then sent emails about the email to 200 friends requesting that they dont do business with this company and retelling the story. The debate at the time the story broke, was that, was the boycott called for at the time relevant, since it was at such a local level. I still hold with my opinion at the time that this was pure discrimination. Not hostile, but blatant none the less. While the boycott was probably unaffective, it is always the right thing to do to shine the light on discrimination wherever it lies. Should a small business have the right to refuse service to someone? I say yes, as long as it is not on a protected group, which is why this discrimination needs to be exposed. We are NOT a protected group as of yet, and it is WRONG. If the same discrimination and refusal of work was done to any protected minority, there would have massive outrage and support for the couple. Discrimination is a fine line, I know that, and I DO NOT condone our GLBT community becoming worse than the gardening company. I am embarrassed by hateful phone calls and emails and comments to the family that owns the company, and included death threats and hoping that their children would be sodomized. That is not only disrespectful, wrong, and flat out nasty, it sheds a bad light on any of the good points that could be made about the debate. I hope we get to a point some day where it is illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation federally. We are getting there locally, one city at a time, but its slow work, and we need to have discussions about such blatant discrimination such as this, but in civil discourse, not by becoming as bad as those who discriminate against us.

More interesting stories In The News..........look for the Republicans to get cozy with the nutjobs at the far right again in coming elections, Evangelical Leader: GOP Got What It Deserved; and of course now half of our states lags behind get again as, Mexico City OKs Civil Unions; two tries down, third time is the charm, if they fail to vote a third time, it becomes unchallengable, Mass. Lawmakers Put Off Bid To End Gay Marriage; i miss the good ol' days when they used to just spank you with a wooden paddle, we kinda liked that, Police Investigate Alleged Homophobic Assaults At University Frat House; i cant wait for Rosie O'Donnell and Kelly to tackle this, Gay Cruises Draw Protests In Caribbean; this is so much progress from the onset in the early '80's but still so so sad, Lifespan With HIV Now Averages 24 Years; and finally, unfortunately, you cant hide behind both being gay and being stupid, the movie alone is just cause, School Board Fires Embattled Gay Super.

Well, back to work soon blogger friends, hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. I will be working hard tomorrow to try to finish the last 5 pages of the website update. Here's some bonus captured cuties from my blogger friend hangout over at BoyBox, enjoy and talk soon............GG