The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same …

This week openly gay Congressman Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, posted a story to Twitter—I refuse to call it X—that emphasized just how different things were for LGBTQ+ people not even three decades ago … and how much the same things are today.

Pocan has a framed pair of rubber gloves in his office due to an incident that occurred in 1995, when he and 49 other out gay elected officials were invited to the White House:

“While serving alongside now-Senator Tammy Baldwin on the Dane County Board of Supervisors in 1995, we were invited to the Clinton White House for a celebration of openly gay elected officials.

We headed to Washington and after some sightseeing, finally got to take a tour of the White House. As we came through the metal detectors, we noticed the security personnel wearing rubber gloves.

This took place shortly after the Oklahoma City Bombing, so we assumed security was taking extra precautions to protect themselves from increased radiation.

Not thinking much of it, we continued through the afternoon of meetings where we ultimately discovered the real reason for the gloves.

The security officials were wearing gloves out of fear that they would contract AIDS from one of the openly gay elected officials visiting the White House.

In 1995, there was still a lot of ignorance surrounding the AIDS epidemic and LGBTQI+ individuals on a larger scale.

Later that evening, Vice President Gore made a point to come around and shake all of our hands, demonstrating that this was not the official position of the Clinton White House.

A few weeks later, I received a signed letter from the president apologizing for what we had encountered at the entrance.

It’s been more than 25 years since that historic meeting of out elected officials at the White House. I held onto the invitation and the apology letter — neither of which said the word “gay” — and still have them framed in my office with a pair of those rubber gloves.

This year as we celebrate LGBTQI+ History Month, I look at them and remember how much progress we’ve made and the work we still have to do.

Whether it’s a pair of gloves, or a slew of educational gag orders seeking to ban conversations on sexual orientation and gender identities, our work to protect LGBTQI+ individuals will not be done until equality is finally and fully realized.”

The Washington Post reported on the incident in 1995 and noted that Secret Service Director Eljay Bowron regretted the “unfortunate actions” of the Secret Service agents, saying it was “not the policy of the Secret Service to wear gloves merely based on known sexual preference,” and promised a “special training session directed specifically at these matters.”

Refusing to touch people in normal and socially accepted ways has long been one of the many microaggressions faced by LGBTQ+ people, whose bodies have often been labeled disgusting or toxic. More than half of the LGBTQ+ respondents to a 2009 Lambda Legal survey on medical discrimination said that they had experienced microaggressions in a medical setting that included, among others, “health care professionals refusing to touch them or using excessive precautions.”

Sidenote: back in the 1990s Carlos was trying to get life insurance and took a physical as part of the process. His doctor called him and told him he needed to come in for a talk. Carlos arrived at the office, the last appointment for the day, and the nurse talked to him from behind the glass partition—he thought it was because the office was closing. He sat and waited to see the doctor and when he was finally called in he sat across the desk from his doctor scarcely looked at him and said:

“I’m sorry, Mr. Harris, you have AIDS and there’s nothing I can do for you.”

And that was it; nothing can be done for you. Carlos got up and left the office while a nurse came in with gloves to clean the chair he sat in, the part of the desk he touched. In the waiting room a nurse was cleaning the doorknobs and the counter and where he sat while waiting to see the doctor.

On the upside, Carlos instantly found a doctor who deals with HIV and was prescribed medications; after we moved to South Carolina, he found a doctor here who is managing his HIV. He is, and has been, undetectable for thirty-plus years.

And these Don’t Say Gay laws and anti-trans laws and banning drag laws are still doing that today, making us feel like we don’t belong, like we are somehow dirty and dangerous and riddled with disease and not worthy of being touched.

The march goes on …

LGBTQ Nation

The Funny Papers

Walt Handelsman, Pxmolina, Mike Luckovich, Dave Whamond, Bill Day, Ted Littleford, Michael de Adder, Ed Wexler, JD Crowe, Jack Ohman, Steve Benson, Bill Bramhall, Ann Telnaes, Nick Anderson, Clay Bennett,

The Funny Papers

Marc Murphy, Mike Luckovich, David Horsey, Ann Telnaes, Drew Sheneman, Nick Anderson, JD Crowe, Jack Ohman, Ted Littleford, Bill Bramhall, Kevin Siers, Steve Breen, John Cuneo, Adam Zyglis, Clay Bennett, Michael de Adder,

The Funny Papers

Nick Anderson, Mike Luckovich, Drew Sheneman, JD Crowe, Ted Littleford, Jack Ohman, Clay Bennett, Michael de Adder, David Horsey, Deb Milbrath, Darrin Bell, Dave Whamond, Ed Wexler, Guy Parsons, Ann Telnaes,

Random Musings

I’m’a keep this short ... Confederate statues and symbols should never be destroyed.

They should, however, be removed from places of honor—schools and courthouses and government buildings—and housed in museums of American History.

As much as we don’t like it, this is our history and we need to save it for those who chose—in my mind, wrongly—to honor it, and for those who choose to study it and for those who choose to never forget.

Soapbox closed.

Zoe Lofgren, a Democratic Congresswoman from California, introduced a new resolution last week suggesting that “President” _____ undergo a physical and mental health exam to help determine whether he is fit for office.

Cuz you know he isn’t.

Lofgren’s resolution specifically calls on Vice President Pence and _____’s Cabinet members to “quickly secure the services of medical and psychiatric professionals” to “assist in their deliberations” invoking the 25th Amendment, which outlines presidential removal procedures. Lofgren, and many, many others, think that such an examination would “determine whether the president suffers from mental disorder or other injury that impairs his abilities and prevents him from discharging his Constitutional duties.”

And after his Crazy Time in Arizona this week, he clearly needs to be examined.

I have often said I don’t “get” gay Republicans, like the Log Cabin Republicans—let’s not even get to why gay Republicans are in a Log Cabin unless they’re filming some old Falcon porn video—but this week the LCR has a planned event at a _____ hotel because, as LCR President, Gregory Angelo, said:

“Our desired original venue was unable to accommodate us on any of our desired dates [and] “the _____ Hotel gave us a very competitive deal.”

I just wonder if they’ll ban transgender military personnel from attending since that seems to be _____’s wheelhouse.

The LCR ... they can go eff themselves.

On the other side of the coin, eight major non-profits have canceled scheduled events at  Mar-a-Lago, _____’s resort in Palm Beach, after the “President” expressed support for white supremacists and neo-Nazis in response to their violent actions in Charlottesville.

The Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, the Cleveland Clinic, the American Friends of Magen David Adom, the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure have all pulled out of holding events at the site, with the Red Cross saying it would cancel its annual fundraiser at the club because “it has increasingly become a source of controversy and pain for many of our volunteers, employees and supporters.”

One of the cancellations cut close to home for the ____’s when the Big Dog Ranch Rescue announced it would no longer hold an upcoming event at the club and would instead move another facility nearby; _____’s daughter-in-law, Lara _____, was scheduled to co-chair the event."

Maybe he’ll finally get it—though I doubt it because he’s unhinged—since he’s getting hit in the wallet that his endorsement of hate doesn’t pay; the loss of these eight events will likely cost him between $800,000 and $2.2 million.

Or, to put it in terms he might understand, it’ll cost him Melania’s Botox Budget for the month.

In China, police arrested a gay man who orally assaulted and robbed an unconscious drunken man in Liuzhou.

The victim, given the pseudonym A’Jun—John Doe?—to protect his identity, woke up one morning after a night out with his wallet and phone missing, and his belt loosened.

He immediately went to police who begun their investigation by checking nearby surveillance cameras where A’Jun is seen stumbling into view and then falling asleep on a park bench. Two hours into his drunken slumber, two women can be seen sitting on chair swings nearby while a man in a vest and shorts walks by and sits on another bench. When the women walk away, the man then goes over and fondles the sleeping A’Jun’s genitals through his jeans, and then he, um, orally assaults A’Jun.

Just a note: I swear I was in Wilmington last week, and was nowhere near China.

Now, if this guy was asleep on a park bench, I would not be responsible for my actions ... just saying.

ABC News has recently hired former BBC News reporter James Longman and he is delicious; he’s cute, he has a nice body, he has an accent, and, best of all, he’s openly gay. And you know that cute gay men with accents are right up my alley.

Longman is a Middle East specialist and spent five years reporting for the BBC; he’s fluent in French, Arabic, and English and, um, well, my only question is, is Longman his name, or a description?

Asking for a friend.

In another testament to _____]s inability to drain the swamp, and instead drain the taxpayers’ wallets, the Secret Service can no longer pay hundreds of the agents it needs to carry out an expanded protective mission because of the sheer size of “President” _____’s family and the efforts needed to secure their multiple residences up and down the East Coast.

Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles said more than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year.

Yeah, he’ll make America broke again.

Ron Gage and his partner, Henry McKinnon, were dining at DC restaurant The Prime Rib and were shocked when a waiter told them they couldn’t share a dessert from the same bowl because ... gay.

Gage and McKinnon had been joking around with their server all evening, in what Gage said had been a nice night until dessert:

“When it came time for dessert, we asked for one sundae with two spoons.”

The server he would bring it in two separate dishes because ‘It wouldn’t look right with two gentlemen eating out of the same sundae. It doesn’t go with the ambiance of the restaurant.’”

Now, to be fair, if I may, the restaurant placed some blame on the waiter’s Bulgarian nationality, saying English isn’t his first language, and that “there’s no way we would condone anything remotely like this.”

Still, Gage and McKinnon don’t intend to return.

Seriously; Carlos and I have been sharing desserts for seventeen years and have never been told it’s inappropriate ... well, except for that one night when we played Nekkid Key Lime Pie.

But that was a special occasion ... it was a Tuesday.

The other night ESPN removed an announcer from a Virginia football game because his name ... his name ... is ... wait for it ... Robert Lee.

You know, like that Confederate General ... well, except his name is Robert Lee and not Robert E. Lee and he is of Asian descent.

Sometimes political correctness is just too damned much.

Enough.

In How Stupid Is The GOP news ... the Arizona Republican party has used an ad from a 1994 sitcom about an Asian family—that's it up there—on their website to prove how inclusive the party is.

Yes, the Arizona GOP used a cast photograph of All-American Girl on their official website—until someone found out and then they removed it—with the caption “Asian Americans” on a page that says the GOP will never “demand special rights for certain races, push policies that favor members of one group over another, or single out certain ethnic or social groups with the promise of special favors or political privileges.”

Here's the photo for the TV show:

The star of All-American Girl is GOP-loathing comedian Margaret Cho, who said this about that:

“I find this similar to when I was a kid someone told me that Simon Lebon’s [real] name was “Mike Hunt” and so I went around school saying ‘I love Mike Hunt’ and even wrote it on my locker. I didn’t bother to research and paid the price of a dodgeball to the face. They got some bad information and ran with it. They deserve a dodgeball to the face.”

Oh, Margaret, they deserve more than that!