Tuesday, February 23, 2010

A classic Find from JMG: Puppet Cleavage Banned In Colorado

A billboard company in Colorado Springs (home to Focus On The Family, numerous megachurches, and a completely devastated city infrastructure) has banned a bus stop campaign for Avenue Q. Because it shows puppet cleavage.
The puppet's name is Lucy the Slut. She's a pink Sesame Street-like puppet in the touring Broadway show “Avenue Q.” "Avenue Q" is a Tony-winning musical about twenty-something New Yorkers, both human and puppets, searching for life and love. The show addresses issues like sex, drinking, and surfing the Web for porn. Lamar Advertising rejected the ad for bus shelters, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette newspaper. "We were in the process of putting it on the presses when one of the top execs saw it and said, ‘I don’t think it’s appropriate for the Colorado Springs market,’" according to Kristy Maple, marketing director for New Space Entertainment.
(Via Avenue Q author Jeff Whitty)

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More from JMG

From JMG: Friendly Voices - Hudson Taylor

Nationally ranked college wrestler Hudson Taylor is a passionate advocate for LGBT rights, to the point where he even competed with the HRC logo on his headgear. Via Outsports:
When Hudson Taylor proposed to Lia Alexandra Mandaglio, it was fitting that it was the same night they saw the movie "Milk." The story about a pioneering gay rights advocate meant a lot to the couple. Back at Mandaglio's condominium in Washington DC, Taylor, a University of Maryland wrestler, presented her with a signed edition of Martin Luther King's book "Why We Can't Wait." She didn't wait, and said yes. They will be married on Sept. 24, 2011. Taylor proposed to Lia Alexandra Mandaglio the same night they saw "Milk." "The proposal is a big event not to be taken lightly," Taylor said. "We're both very progressive and very outspoken in LGBT and feminist issues." The book "symbolized how we felt and how we would act," and was "very fitting for the engagement." Being outspoken and passionate is nothing new for Taylor, 36-2 this season and ranked No. 3 in the country in the 197-pound NCAA wrestling weight class. In addition to being a champion wrestler, he is an academic All American with his eye on law school and a possible future political career.
Read the entire interview, he's awesome.

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Reposted from JMG

PBS Newshour

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Recasts Debate on Gay Rights in America

US Marines with 1/3 Charlie company leave their combat outpost outside of Marjah; Getty Images

Eddie Izzard - Being Bilingual and more



NOM Under Investigation in Maine - Still Refuses to Comply with Law

(AUGUSTA, ME) Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown, who run the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and their $1000.00 per hour attorneys from Indiana, continue to run afoul of Maine's election laws. NOM still refuses to report the names of all its $100 and up contributors who gave nearly $2 million to ban gay marriage in the Pine Tree State. Now they are trying to halt the investigation and subpoena into their finances and fund-raising.
NOM has tried this before when it asked Federal Judge D. Brock Hornby to allow it to avoid all reporting laws. Judge Hornby again ordered Maggie and Brian to report their contributor's names to last fall's Yes on Question 1 campaign. State Attorney General Janet Mills did the same late last year, but the New Jersey based NOM will not obey Maine's election law and refuses to report where all its money came from.
Every other religious organization that supported Question 1 obeyed the Maine election law and filed as a PAC when they raised over $5,000 except NOM. NOM raised and gave over $1.9 million - 2/3 of all money raised and well above the $5,000 threshold! NOM even tried unsuccessfully to end the state of Maine investigation into its alleged money laundering, but the Ethics Commission turned that down, too 4 to 1.
"Who are they trying to protect?" asked Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, who filed the original complaint with the Maine Ethics Commission last August. "Every other donor to Yes on Question 1 complied with the law, but NOM refuses."
The California Fair Political Practices Commission also has an active investigation of NOM underway (Case #08-735), as well as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church). The investigation has been going on for the past 16 months. NOM has been widely reported to be a front group for the Mormon Church in its crusade to ban gay marriage throughout the U.S.
Here's the story from the Bangor Daily News by Kevin Miller:



Ethics panel to take up donor list controversy


By Kevin Miller
BDN Staff

AUGUSTA, Maine — More than three months after Mainers voted down same-sex marriage, the organization that provided much of the money to the traditional marriage camp is still fighting to block the state from forcing disclosure of their donor lists.

This past week, the National Organization for Marriage lost another skirmish in the larger legal battle over its campaign finances.

U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby in Portland overruled NOM’s objections to having to turn over donor lists and correspondence between NOM and Stand for Marriage Maine regarding the campaign to repeal Maine’s gay marriage law. The court has yet to rule on the larger case challenging Maine’s campaign reporting laws, however.

The documents being sought — and what they say about who donated to NOM and why — are key to a Maine Ethics Commission investigation into whether the group’s failure to disclose donors violated state campaign finance laws.

NOM, which is based in New Jersey, said it donated more than $1.9 million to Stand for Marriage Maine from its war chest for fighting gay marriage nationwide. But critics contend NOM was raising money specifically for the gay marriage fight in Maine, which, if true, would trigger the state’s donor disclosure rules.

This Thursday, the Ethics Commission will decide whether to push forward with subpoenas for the documents. Hornby’s decision appears to clear the way for the commission to reiterate its demands from NOM.

Jonathan Wayne, the commission staff’s executive director, offered this explanation for why the documents are important: “NOM donated almost $2 million in support of the referendum. The commission needs to understand how NOM solicited the funds in order to determine whether campaign finance reporting was required.”

Regardless, the list of donors would only be made public if the commission rules NOM was legally obligated to file the information with the state.