The Daughter's Ex-Boyfriend Dates Her Daddy, Making Him Her Step-Daddy?

I don’t wanna throw stones but this is all kinds of skeevy to me …

Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow are, or were, called Britain's 'first gay dads' after they became famous in 1999 when they welcomed twins Saffron and Aspen via a surrogate. The two men later won the legal right to both be be named as parents on a birth certificate, in a landmark ruling for LGBTQ parenting.

The two men also welcomed a son, Orlando, in 2003 and twins Jasper and Dallas in 2010.

Now, the Drewitt-Barlows, after 32 years together, are divorcing because one of the dads, Barrie, 50, has fallen "head over heels"  in love with his daughter Saffron's ex-boyfriend, 25-year-old Scott Hutchison.

Yes.

And, to make it all the more kinda icky, both men, and their five children, and Barrie’s new decades-younger lover, Scott, are all living together in the same home in Florida.

Scott, who is bisexual, had previously dated Barrie and Tony's daughter Saffron, but Barrie, now in his own relationship with Scott, says their relationship was never sexual and the two were more like "friends".

I wonder if Saffron felt that way.

Maybe so, because Barrie says that, after some initial hesitation, Saffron is now "so supportive" of his relationship with Scott, as is Barrie’s soon-to-be ex-husband.

Boyfriend becomes daddy?

Okurrrrrr…..?

Look, whatever works, right, but if I were the girl'sfather and I felt some kinda way about her ex-boyfriend, young enough to be my son, I'd still stay away from that mess, and perhaps look at other gay fish in the homo-ocean.

Attitude UK

Today In Stoopid: Tennessee Judge Can't Figure Out What Divorce Means

There’s a TV program on, I think, or maybe it’s gone now, called ‘Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?’ I never watched it, though I’m sure a lot of folks failed that test, but, still, it leads to me to this story and a new show that I’m proposing for television called, ‘Are You Smarter Than Tennessee Judge Jeffrey Atherton’

See, up there in Tennessee, Atherton is saying that the recent US Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage has muddled his ability to determine what constitutes divorce.

Yup, he did; and, in fact, last week Atherton denied the divorce petition of Thomas and Pamela Bumgardner while citing the Supreme Court's June ruling as one of the reasons he was denying the divorce.

"The conclusion reached by this Court is that Tennesseans have been deemed by the U.S. Supreme Court to be incompetent to define and address such keystone/central institutions such as marriage, and, thereby, at minimum, contested divorces."

Oh wait, I get it. Since Tennessee can’t stay bigoted and keep marriage between one man and woman, then Judge Atherton is all confused about what divorce now means.

Regina Lambert, one of the lawyers who represented the Tennessee plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, called Atherton's reasoning irrelevant.

"Overall, Tennessee has had a fantastic response to this Supreme Court decision. He is just making a statement. I just think change is hard for people."

Sure, for stupid people like Judge Atherton.

Times Free Press

My Two Cents: Glory Johnson and Brittney Griner's Marriage Is Over ... I Guess

Look, I try to stay out of other people’s marriages because, well, it’s none of my business, for one, and, for two, I realize that every marriage is different and who am I to judge yours?

Still, I kinda sometimes sorta wish The Gays would be better at marriage, if only to stem the tide of the ridiculous Rightwingnut War Cry that we somehow ruin marriage by asking for the legal right to it.

Case in point: the nastiest divorce since Bobby Flay and Stephanie March …. The breakup of the marriage of WNBA players Glory Johnson and Brittney Griner.

These two got married last month, and then — twenty-nine days later — Griner wants the marriage annulled.

Gosh, who didn’t see that coming, given that just a month before the wedding ceremony, on April 22nd, Brittney and Glory got into a brawl at their home, that resulted in both of them getting arrested for domestic violence, and with Griner pleading guilty to disorderly conduct and ordered to complete a 26 week domestic violence counseling program; Glory’s case is still pending.

Then came the wedding … and then came, on June 4th, Glory's announcment that she won’t be playing basketball next season because she’s pregnant, followed by Griner filing for an annulment of their 29-day marriage claiming “fraud and duress" and saying Glory “pressured” her into marriage with “threatening statements.” Griner also went all Sherri Shepherd in adding that she has no biological connection to the baby.

Lovely.

Look, it’s their marriage, I know that, and if they wanna brawl and fight and beat the sh*t out of each other, and then put on pretty white clothes and declare their love for one another before God and those witnesses, and then announce their expecting, and then call the whole thing off because, who knows, I guess that’s their right. I just wish they’d thought long and hard before tying the knot; and thought longer and harder before getting pregnant. We really don’t need the conservatives using this as an “I told you so” regarding marriage equality.

And, to be clear, and fair, I know Britney Spears had a two-and-a-half day marriage, and that JLo gets married every time there’s a full moon and an underage boy, but the rightwingnuts don’t care about them, they only care about how we marry, and how we divorce. And so I just wish we, well, by 'we' I mean Griner and Glory, had been better at it, or at least thought about it longer.

That’s all.

Survey Says: The Vatican Won't Like This

There’s an old saying that goes something like this: Never ask a question that you don’t know the answer to. And I’m thinking the Vatican must be wishing they had kept their questions to themselves right about now.

It all began when the Vatican scheduled a meeting of bishops this coming October to discuss church teachings and family issues, and then decided to poll Catholics on certain issues to get their feedback. The poll was sent to every national conference of bishops with a request to share it with Catholic churches, schools, institutions, parishes and individuals. And the answers that came back don’t necessarily show that Catholics agree with the Catholic Church.

Ouch.

The bishops in both Germany and Switzerland released the findings of their polls, and we now know that the vast majority of Catholics in those two countries blatantly reject the church teaching on sexual morality, contraception, same-sex marriage and divorce, calling them unrealistic and outdated; and those Catholics who responded also claim they are very active in their church and parish on a daily basis and considered their faith very important, so they are not Holiday Catholics — attending services only on major holidays — or lapsed Catholics.

Ouch.

And, even more shocking is that the bishops released their findings; the German bishops’ conference printed the results on their website in German, Italian and English, while the Swiss held a press conference.

The German bishops’ survey clearly revealed that the “church’s statements on premarital sexual relations, on homosexuality, on those divorced and remarried and on birth control ... are virtually never accepted, or are expressly rejected in the vast majority of cases” while the Swiss bishops went further, saying the church’s very mission was being threatened by its insistence on such outdated directives.

Ouch.

Wanna know what American Catholics think? How they responded to the survey? Not gonna happen because the U.S. dioceses haven’t reported the results of their surveys in any detail. In fact, while Baltimore Archbishop William Lori admitted that 4,000 people responded to his survey, he gave no information about what they felt; he would only say that “the majority of Catholics who responded said they strive to practice their faith, but acknowledged the struggles and confusion they face in doing so.”

The archdiocese of Philadelphia said it was following Vatican guidelines by not publishing the findings at all.

Still, it appears quite likely that American Catholics agree with the European Catholics, at least on the issue of contraception. A 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 75% of U.S. Catholics think the church should permit members to use birth control.

As for same-sex marriage, most German and Swiss Catholics realize that it is increasingly accepted; and understand that unmarried couples are increasingly the norm. They also call the ban on artificial contraception unrealistic but “blatantly immoral” especially when coupled with the issue of using condoms to fight HIV.

And they aren’t so keen on Church teachings regarding divorce; Catholics who don’t have their first marriage annulled, or declared null and void by a church tribunal, before remarrying cannot receive Communion because they are thought to be living in sin and committing adultery. With annulments often impossible to get, or taking years top process, generations of Catholics who have divorced feel shunned by the Church.

This is all good news, except …. don’t expect the Catholic Church to change any time soon, even under the guidance of Pope Francis. It’s been hundreds of years of the same old teachings and it’s nearly impossible to teach an old dog, or even an older Catholic, a new trick.

source

Random Musings

Mitt Romney has been endorsed by both Grampa John "Get offa my lawn" McCain and by our own South Carolina goose-stepping-asshatted governor, Nikki "I wouldn't know the truth if it slapped me in the face" Haley.
That says it all.

An Italian man, going by the name Antonio C in court documents, has filed for divorce from his wife, Rosa C,  after finding love letters from a man with whom Rosa was having an affair.
Apparently Antonio could not forgive Rosa's indiscretion; it happens, you know.
Oh, wait....there's more.
Antonio C is 99 years old, and he and Rosa have been married for seventy-seven years.
And Rosa's affair? It happened in the 1940s.
Now Antonio and Rosa will officially become the world's oldest divorcees. [source]

I saw this on Towleroad, and could not stop laughing. It's from a 2006 Chicago Tribune about Michele Bachmann's sense of style...which, I'm guessing, is the only sense she has. 
But I digress. In the article she talked about what she wears and why, but then right there, just at the end, she tells the reporter that she gets some help in the shopping department:

'Shopping help comes from another quarter, as well. Before Vice President Dick Cheney's visit this past summer, Bachmann's husband, Marcus, hit the stores -- "he's got a good sense of style"--and came home with "a sleek, simple hourglass dress with a yoke collar in winter white." He even bought a matching coat and shoes. "I just slipped it on."'

Looks like Missy Marcus has a second career in fashion styling. 


If elected....which is funny....Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum says he will pass a law annulling every single same-sex marriage in every single state where they've occurred and are legal.
That's his promise.

Over breakfast, the morning after the Iowa Caucuses, I was telling Carlos that Michele Bachmann [Last.Place.Finisher.And.Quitter] had run some new ads where she touted herself as "America's Iron Lady."
I said, "She's no Margaret Thatcher. Hell, she's no Meryl Streep."
Carlos said, "Iron Lady? More like PVC."
Every so often he gets off a good one!

I'm a bit of a Bravo slut, I'll admit it. Top Chef. Kathy Griffin. RHoBH. RHoNY. The Rachel Zoe Project. Work of Art. I could go on, but you get the idea.
Well, Bravo debuted a new show, It's A Brad, Brad World on Monday. Brad Goreski used to be Rachel Zoe's assistant until he decided to go it on his own.......show.
I took a look. It's The Rachel Zoe Project, except with a gay man as the "star", which is, well, The Rachel Zoe Project.
Oh Bravo, try harder.

That's Our Newt: Serial Adulterer, Serial Liar

Newt & Wife #1

When Newt Gingrich was just thinking about running for president, he did a slew of interviews where he talked about his messy divorce; well, his messy divorces. Folks said he did so because he thought that by bringing it up first, tackling it head on, so to speak, it would become a non-issue.

Um, wrong. See, not only do we all know that Newt was married and fucking around with a mistress, but then he divorced his wife to marry the mistress, on whom he began fucking around so he could divorce her and marry that mistress.

You know, the helmet-haired devout Catholic who fucked a married man and now stands like a Stepford wife at his side?

But what we are just learning is that, the story that Newt has been telling about Wife One isn't exactly true.

Newty says that it was his first wife, Jackie Battley, who initiated the divorce from him, and not the other way around. But now a confidant of Newt's has told CNN that Gingrich said he dumped Jackie Battley--his one-time high school geometry teacher--in 1980 because he felt she wasn’t “young enough or pretty enough” to be First Lady.

That's our Newt.

Newt & Wife #2

On his campaign website, Gingrich denies the often told story that he served Jackie divorce papers in the hospital where she had just had cancer surgery: saying, “It was [Jackie Battley] that requested the divorce, not Newt, and it was months before the hospital visit in question.”

Oops, not so fast. Newly revealed 30-year-old court papers show that Jackie Battley had asked the judge to reject her husband’s request for a divorce: “Defendant shows that she has adequate and ample grounds for divorce, but that she does not desire one at this time. Defendant does not admit that this marriage is irretrievably broken.”

Battley, who survived her cancer, has not criticized Newt publicly but, in one of her only public comments on the divorce, says “it came as a complete surprise.” She described being in the hospital after her third cancer surgery when he came to visit. “He wanted to discuss the terms of the divorce while I was recovering from the surgery. To say I gave up a lot for the marriage is the understatement of the year.”

That sure sounds like he asked for a divorce while she was undergoing cancer treatments, eh?

Newt & Wife #3

CNN also interviewed Newt Gingrich’s former friend, and congressional campaign treasurer Leonard Carter, who ended their friendship over Gingrich’s treatment of Jackie: 

"[Gingrich] said, ‘You know and I know that she’s not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of a President.’”

Carter also said Gingrich initially refused to pay alimony--a claim supported by the court papers--and a local church had to launch a food drive for Battley and her two daughters.

When Gingrich left Jackie Battley, he was schtupping a young congressional aide, Marianne Ginther, whom he married in 1981 on the heels of his divorce. He divorced her 19 years later after schtupping another young congressional aide, Callista Bisek, who is now his third wife, automaton and main campaign strategist.

Marry. Fuck an aide. Divorce. Marry the aide. Fuck an aide. Divorce. Marry the aide.

And then lie about it. That's our Newt.

source

Gay Marriage Is Good For Iowa

Lots of talk out in Iowa, as the Mid-Term elections approach, of electing candidates who will do away with those activist judges who circumvented the Constitution to make Iowa a true equality state. Lots of talk about how Iowans don't want same-sex marriage, and think same-sex marriage is detrimental to the very fabric of Iowan society.

Wrong.

As we have already seen, Iowans are not concerned with same-sex marriage as a campaign issue. They're concerned with things like the economy, unemployment, war. Same-sex marriage falls way down the list.

And now comes the news that, since same-sex marriage became legal in Iowa, marriages are up--both the hetero- and the homosexual kind--and divorces are down. Just like what happened in Massachusetts.

It now seems as though same-sex marriage doesn't actually destroy the sanctity of traditional marriage as much as strengthen it. And the way gay couples see marriage, and treat marriage is not so very different than the way straight people respond.

A new study from IowaWatch found that, "like people in traditional marriages, same-sex couples also talk about raising children and shielding them from the verbal slings of peers, the stability and unit-strength of a family and the value of loving relationships among parents and children, as well as legal necessities and financial security."

Marriage is marriage, gay or straight. We all want the same things.

And, as for divorce, well, the study also determined that Iowa is now more maritally blissful than it has been in years. More people are marrying, and fewer people are divorcing. In fact, divorce in Iowa is at its lowest level, per capita, since 1968.

Nineteen-Sixty-Eight.

Forty-two years of rising numbers of divorces and now that number is down in the very year that marriage equality was legalized. And, as we've seen in Massachusetts, this is not a fluke. And the increase in the number of marriages is not strictly gay marriage. Of the nearly 20,000 Iowa couples who bought marriage licenses in the last year, just one out of 10 were gay couples. So, hetero marriage is on the rise, creating stable family environments, and heterosexual divorce is on the decline, meaning more families are staying together, and the only major change in Iowa is the onset of marriage equality.

Just proves what we've been saying all along: Gay marriage is good.