Panama: Anti-gay sodomy statute still in the books

[UPDATE to this post: The law was repealed on July 29, 2008 by Panamanian president Martino Torrijos Espino - Andres]

Back on November 14th, when I wrote about the disappearance of Nicaragua's notorious anti-gay sodomy statute from it's penal code, I called it a historic development and said it was "the last anti-gay sodomy statute in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries."

Not so fast.

Rex Wockner, who authors a syndicated international LGBT news column for several newspapers first noticed that I mentioned Belize among what I thought were the only two countries left in the American continent to penalize sodomy between consenting same-sex couples (the other one being Guyana) - a country that he had not listed as having a sodomy statute in one of his past columns (I had relied on WikiPedia, not always the most trustworthy of places).

Rex, who was planning to write about Nicaragua for the column that came out this week did some additional research and told me not only that the Belize statute checked-out but that he also found out that an anti-gay sodomy statute was still alive in Panama (you can check Rex's full column at Windy City Times)

It gets a little confusing: A country of origin research post on LGBT rights in Panama posted at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada website quotes the UK's Gay Times magazine as stating in 2002 that homosexuality is legal in the country (an interactive map at Amnesty International's website on "LGBT Status Around the World" also fails to raise flags about any Panamanian anti-gay statutes).

But the same Canadian country of origin report says that in the 2002 article Gay Times also reported "that homosexuals still face discriminatory laws; according to a 1949 decree, gay public sex is punishable by a $500 fine or one year in prison, while no equivalent exists for heterosexuals" which is not quite a sodomy statute but indicates that there are penalties for certain same-sex sexual interaction.

Gay Times based their statements on information given to them by New Men and Women Association of Panama (AHMNP), the country's leading LGBT-rights organization, which actually has the text of the 1949 law posted here (in Spanish). And, while most of the law concerns itself with issues related to prostitution and public sex, Article 12 actually reads as follows:

Clandestine prostitution, procurement (proxenetismo), sodomy and all vices of sexual degeneration not specified under this Decree will be sanctioned with penalties imposed by the Director of the Department of Public Health."

The penalty for sodomy under this law? From three months to a year in jail or a fine of 50 to 500 balboas (currently 1 balboa is equal to 1 dollar).

So apparently Panama is the last Spanish-speaking Latin American country with penalties for acts of sodomy.

In his column, Rex lists Panama along with Belize and Guyana as being the three nations in Central and South America that continue to have laws banning gay sex. He also names several Caribbean islands, including Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago as still having anti-gay sodomy laws noting that "ten of the countries are former British colonies."

A side-note: I am not surprised by it because both the United States and Canadian governments do this but it's still shocking how much a refugee / immigration board relies on a tiny article from a gay British magazine looking at Panama from a tourism-interest angle to base their conclusions regarding country of origin status for LGBT immigrants. The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada quote other sources but mostly rely on the Gay Times piece and there seems to have been no attempt to even contact AHMNP or other direct sources in Panama for the report.

Homodeniers, theosexuals and questioning demosexuals, oh my!

A couple of quickies:

Syndicated cartoonist Mark Fiore has his lastest OpEd strip posted at the San Francisco Chronicle and it's a doozie: "Out of the Closet with right-wing Ralphie!"

And, speaking of bi-civil libertarians, Rex Wockner has an OpEd piece in today's Chicago Tribune on toe-tapper Senator Larry Craig ("Craig was Talking the Talk") in which he asks "What will it take to make this guy go away?"

It's the first time that Rex has been invited to write an OpEd for the Tribune. Over on his blog he writes why this is special to him. Congrats Rex.

The kind of thing that makes a cynical, jaded heart turn a little happier

Politics can leave you cynical and jaded sometimes. Thanks to Rex, then, for passing the news along. Kudos to San Diego Republican Mayor Jerry Sanders! Raw video of the press conference here.

43 hours in San Diego

Hm, I did something crazy this weekend: I flew from New York to Dallas to San Diego on Saturday and flew back to New York last night via Los Angeles. Basically spent an evening, a full day, and a morning there (or 43 hours) and even now it seems as if was just a dream.

A Russian cab driver took me from the SD airport to an Ocean Beach address, all the while complaining about his fuckin' wife who fuckin' forced to fuckin' settle in fuckin' San Diego when he could have fuckin' made so much fuckin' money driving cabs in fuckin' New York instead. Perhaps I shouldn't have told him I'd just arrived from the Big Apple? But as he drove over the OB hills I could not fail to feel awed as the full panorama of the beaches below, the shoreline, the military ships and boats opened up before my eyes under a glorious evening sun.

I'd decided to make the trip to join others in celebrating reporter Rex Wockner's recent 50th birthday. Thing is, I never said I was coming (and managed to keep the surprise under wraps by coordinating the visit with Rex's hubby, Keith, who I had the great pleasure to finally meet).

Rex, to say the least, was a bit shocked I'd made it to the fab event. I am sorry, though, that for some reason I never got to eat cake, which, by all accounts was delicious.

Here I am with some of the groovy Californian people'z who also partook.

Now, I hadn't been in San Diego in a couple of years and I was struck by how much I remembered of the city's layout. So, while I was only able to see a limited number of things this weekend, it felt good to feel so familiar with it. It's just such an amazingly beautiful place.

At one point on Sunday Keith, Rex and I made it to the OB seaside piers to watch the sunset (Rex laughed at the fact I called a "shore") and there was some sort of celestial alignment, the sun in front of us over the ocean and a harvest moon rising directly behind us. You could have traced an invisible space line from sun to moon grazing the ocean's horizon and shooting straight through you if you were in one of those chakra-static California states of mind. I mean I wasn't Californian and that's how it felt! Keith took some photos so I'll post a couple if he sends them.

For some reason I also took almost no pictures this weekend (a rare thing for those who know me) which I now regret so I've chosen to use an old picture of Rex above as a lead image. Lucky thing, then, that groovy man Fergal did have a camera and caught some people'z in the act, at least at the birthday party (he has posted some of the photos over on his blog).

As a matter of fact the birthday party quickly became at the most blogged birthday event in recent San Diego history. You can check Rex's thoughts on the party his blog as well as check Keith's take on it.

Highlights of my visit also included seeing miracle dog Benji again, relating to psycho dog Piper and bonding with pug dog Nero who joined me in bed for a snore symphony the couple of nights I spent there. And, of course, to see the Bob and the Jess again (apologies to the Jess who I inadvertedly kept waiting for me at the airport while I took the cab to the party).

For now it's back to the daily grind in the Big fuckin' Apple (as the cab driver would have said).

BTW: If on a long trip, please do not pick up Scott Smith's 509 page paperback "The Ruins" to read during the trip. It's unbearably taut, increasingly horrific, and unrelentingly stressful and you won't be able to put it down 'til you finish - which might keep you from things you might want to do while traveling.

UPDATE: Yay, Keith just sent this great pic of the birthday boy and I on the OB piers this Sunday, just before the harvest moon made its appearance. Thanks K! Love it!
Update #2: More pics courtesy of Rex and Keith!
Us getting there (above)...
The Rexman and the Cajun hubby, taken by yours truly...

Other Blogs: Enrique Iglesias gays it up, Moscow Pride violence, Queens pride, Matt Sanchez and MORE!

Keith Boykin has some interesting thoughts on that YouTube video making the rounds of Enrique Iglesias more than performing at a gay bar in London (see above). Terrance is smitten. I personaly retch everytime I hear his voice, but - hey - that's me.

Rex covers the recent violence at Moscow Pride, so does Doug Ireland here, while Joe.My.God took pictures at yesterday's small protest outside the Russian consulate in New York. Michael Petrelis also has photos of a similar protest outside the Russian consulate in San Francisco. Good as You takes issue with one aspect of the protests in NY and SF.

Rex also posts an article he wrote in 1991 about the Soviet Union's first ever gay pride events.

Bernard's gone fishing and sometimes I get the feeling I might want to join him.

Bloggernista answers that all important question: Where in the world is Matt Sanchez? Explains why some YouTube videos I found of the former gay porn star and marine reservist show him in Iraq (Previously on Blabbeando...).

Bushwick Boy takes a look at Sunday's Queens Pride festivities. Manhattan Offender was also there and took video clips to prove it.

Chris Crain has announced the launch of a gay news aggregator webpage named, appropriately GayNewsWatch.com.

Jasmyne Cannick has a series of posts on her recent trip to Africa alongside "Grey's Anatomy" actor Isaiah Washington.

JockoHomo has a look at some HIV/AIDS awareness ads from Glasgow.

Miss Wild Thing picks her tribe over news that a former Democratic National Committee gay outreach advisor is suing the DNC.

Donald asks dancehall-reggae singer Buju Banton to explain himself in light of a recent performance he did in New York (and has a related poll for his blog readers).

From Venezuela, Jogreg admits that it wasn't easy to open up about his life as a gay man in Venezuela in as public a venue the BBC (he won a contest and was given access to write in blog-form on the BBC site for a couple of months) [NOTE: Both of those links lead to Spanish-language only entries, sorry].

Colombia: Gay rights grow (and a note on Latin American LGBT rights coverage)

A decade ago there was hardly any consistent coverage in the United States of gay rights advances in Latin America, aside, perhaps from Rex Wockner's International News syndicated column (that's the blabbeador and el Rex a couple of years back).

Not that there weren't any good news coming from the region, just that most of what got reported were human rights abuses against the LGBT community as related by organizations such as Amnesty International.

Still, local activists were hard at work laying the ground for some of the stunning gay rights advances that have turned some heads as of late.

Just this week alone there have been interesting developments in Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Chile that pertain to same-sex partnership rights that I wish I could have a bit more time to discuss here (that may come later this weekend).

Increasingly, though, I don't even have to do the work as more stories come out in English-language press.

Case in point, this morning's San Francisco Chronicle story on what's been going on in my home country of Colombia (as we have tried to keep abreast in the past):

• Gay Rights Grow in Colombia: Legislation Pending to Extend Benefits to Same-Sex Couples

Some Colombian LGBT rights advocates see this as a bitter-sweet but historic moment. Passage of the bill discussed in the article would not grant civil union protections to same-sex couples in the country, just "patrimony rights" - but there are upcoming battles ahead that might gain some traction and require the government to expand on those rights.

Others bemoan that it gives an opportunity to conservative president Alvaro Uribe to gloat that his administration has been great on LGBT rights when, in the past he has indicated he would block more comprehensive legislation. This, even as some leading left-wing LGBT rights advocates have been driven out of Colombia due to death threats and attempts on their lives as has been the case with Manuel Antonio Velandia who blogs for the national weekly Semana and was the first person to appear on the cover of another newsweekly, Cambio, as an openly gay person.

As a matter of fact, Alvaro Araujo, the conservative Senator that introduced the "patrimony" bill that was successfully adopted last year by the Colombian senate is among several senators being investigated for alleged ties to right-wing paramilitary forces. A scandal that has sometimes threatened to derail President Uribe's immense popularity as it gets closer to his office.

So a bittersweet moment it will be but a historic moment nevertheless.

ACT UP protest: Same old BS, twenty years later

NOTE: Images Copyright © 2007 Andrés Duque and Rex Wockner

About 400 t0 500 people showed up on a magnificently sunny day to act up once again on what was planned as the 20th year anniversary action of the organization ACT UP.

Larry Kramer, who was among the people who jump started the direct action group twenty years ago addressed reporters at the rally's start (YouTube video here). Clients from organizations such as Housing Works, African Services Committee, the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, the New York City AIDS Housing Network, People of Color in Crisis and GMHC joined the crowd. There was also a large contingent from ACT UP Philadelphia.

The well-behaved crowd shouted slogans such as "No more bullshit, health care for all," "Health care for people, not for profit" and "Same old bullshit, 20 years later."

Marchers made their way from the Federal Building down to City Hall with a stop at Trinity Church (just off the World Trade Center site) through the narrow building canyons in front of the New York Stock Exchange ending up at the big bull statue at Bowling Green, long a symbol of Wall Street.

Organizers threw plastic body bags in front of the statute, two ACT UP'ers also mounted the bull and flew a banner that read "ACT UP: Health care for all."

After addressing the crowd and reporters, a group of 20 to 25 activists crossed the police barriers surrounding the Bowling Green park and laid down on the street in a "die-in." They were arrested for disrupting traffic and are currently in custody.

When it was all said and done the bull was left standing alone with a pair of condoms adorning its horns.

Additional stuff:

• Lots of photos here
• Even more photos, from a Philadelphia ACT UP'er here (courtesy of Kaytee Riek)
  
• A video of marchers going past the New York Stock Exchange here
• Rex has his take on today's march here as well as commentary about ACT UP's past - including some archive photos - here
• Michael Petrelis: "Dozens 'Die-In' at san Francisco ACT UP/Gay Shame Action in the Castro"
• Castro Die-In Demands Housing for All (SF/Bay Area Independent Media Center)
• ACT UP marks 20 years with housing protest (San Francisco Chronicle)
  

Future meetings: According to a message left tonight on my voice mail by Andrew Velez, ACT UP will mark its anniversary with a $20 celebration/fundraiser on Saturday, March 31 at 8 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center, 208 West 13th Street.

There will also be a follow-up organizing meeting on Thursday, April 12th at 7:30PM - also at the LGBT Community Center - for the first ever meeting of the Queer Justice League (although the name of the group is subject to change). Questions should be directed at queerjusticeleague@gmail.com.

Coverage:

• ACT UP Roars Again at 20 (Andy Humm in Gay City News)
• ACT UP returns to Wall Street with a bang (POZ Magazine)
  
• El Diario La Prensa's Photo Gallery
  
• Still Acting Up Twenty Years Later (New York magazine's "The Intelligencer")
• Arrests Taking Place at ACT UP demo - Updated (Joe.My.God)
• ACT UP 20th Anniversary March (Queer on Paper)
  
• ACT-UP's 20th Anniversary March on Wall Street (Band of Thebes)

UPDATE: The official press release puts participation at "nearly a thousand" and arrests at 27. It also has a full list of co-sponsors.

Larry Kramer: Dear Straight People...

Larry Kramer on a roll: "Dear Straight People - Why Do You Hate Gay People So Much?" (from today's Los Angeles Times)

In the meantime, Rex Wockner also has an interview with Larry here.

So many protests, so little time: Garrison Keillor in NYC

So, somewhere among the e-mails received and sent this week, Rex passed along a tidbit from advice columnist Dan Savage saying that instead of protesting General Peter Pace, people should maybe be acting up against A Prairie's Home Companion's Garrison Keillor.

The reason? A column Keillor wrote for Salon.com this week available here in which he tackles, among other things, his supposedly humorous thoughts on gay parenting including the following:

And now gay marriage will produce a whole new string of hyphenated relatives. In addition to the ex-stepson and ex-in-laws and your wife's first husband's second wife, there now will be Bruce and Kevin's in-laws and Bruce's ex, Mark, and Mark's current partner, and I suppose we'll get used to it.

The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men -- sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves. If they want to be accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to be brought under control. Parents are supposed to stand in back and not wear chartreuse pants and black polka-dot shirts. That's for the kids. It's their show.

Savage failed to see the joke and shared his thoughts on why people should "Fuck Garrison Keillor" over on his blog (which then got noticed by Andrew Sullivan over on his blog).

And somewhere along the way, Savage's wish seemed to inspire real call for a protest at today's live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion here in New York at the Town Hall on 43rd Street off Sixth Avenue.

Problem is the call for a protest apparently never got to too many people cause it was just Gay USA anchor Andy Humm (pictured above outside the Town Hall earlier today) holding a sign that read "Garrison Keillor: Stop Slurring Gay Parents" on one side and "Boycott Prairie Home Anti-Gay Bigotry" on the other. He was also and handing a statement to the people in line for the show that read, in part:

Heterosexual people don't need any qualifications to become parents nor do they have to be married. And they don't need any qualifications to be married other than to be of different sexes.

But Garrison Keillor is so repelled by the idea of gay parents and same-sex marriage that he needs to employ trivializing stereotypes to put them down.

Bigotry like this is shameful and we hope the NPR audience will tell Keillor what they think of his prejudices.

A Keillor rep actually came out and handed Andy a printed copy of yet another post made on a blog, in this case, Keillor's own, in which he responds to the criticism this way.

I'm not sure that explains some of the cringe-worthy passages away even if it was an attempt at humor. He does have some defenders out there though.

So many blog posts, just one person protesting at the theatre. Some theatre goers at least were receptive to the statement that Andy was handing to them.

I guess some controversies are made for the blogosphere if not necessarily for outdoor demos.

Or perhaps they all were at that other queer protest today?

UPDATE: Rex on Keillor here.

ACT UP to General Pace: Your War is Immoral

It's been a while since I told a story in pictures. So here it goes:

Having followed the recent developments regarding the 20th anniversary of ACT UP but having yet to attend one of the planning meetings, this morning I headed over to the first of several demos being planned to mark the occasion. The reason behind it? General Peter Pace's recent comments to the Chicago Tribune in which he called homosexuality "immoral."

With home made-signs that read "Being gay is not immoral, being bigoted is," "Torture is Immoral, Love is Fabulous," "Pace = Hate," and "Don't Ask Don't Tell, General Pace Go to Hell," a lively and lovely crowd of about 200 to 250 people showed up to the protest following Larry Kramer's call to arms on Tuesday.

Kramer (top picture) was among the participants and at one point joined Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and National gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman in knocking on the door of the Times Square Armed Forces recruitment office (or "Career Center" as they call it), but they might have known that ACT UP would be showing up because the Center remained shut and no one was inside.

Rainbow flag creator Gilbert Baker brought along a 100 foot flag that participants used to frame the protest and surround the recruitment center.

This was the same flag that Matt Foreman and Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum used at the end of the protest to stop traffic in an act of civil disobedience as they extended it across 7th Avenue. Mr. Foreman and Rabbi Kleinbaum were first warned by police officers and then quickly arrested after they sat down and would not budge.

The flag was also taken into custody.

As he promised after the Larry Kramer speech on Tuesday, former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey also showed up (that's me next to him in the bottom pic). Actually, he was amongst the first to arrive and offered to pick up coffee for me at Starbucks, alas, by the time he got back from Starbucks the protest was in full swing. Gay City News and Gay USA reporter Andy Humm spent most of his time doing an extensive interview with the former Governor so expect a detailed report in the next issue of GCN.

ACT UP'ers seen: Andrew Velez (with a "Queer Tortilla" ACT UP shirt), Eric Rhein (who wore his gay uncle's army jacket), Ann Northrop and Eric Sawyer, among others.

As well as: Puerto Rico Para Tod@s Pedro Julio Serrano, Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto, political mavens Allen Roskoff and Alan Fleishman, cutie patootie retired detective (and former Gay Officers Action League president) Edgar Rodriguez, Sirius radio personality and author Michaelangelo Signorile, blogger Joe.My.God and some misplaced tourists who just loved all those rainbow flags and angry fags.

What other blogs are saying:

• Queer Justice League
• Rex Wockner (for whom I actually was "on assignment" today when I took the pics)
• Joe.My.God
• Towleroad
• Good As You
• Pam's House Blend
• The Mad Professor Lectures
• Miss Wild Thing
• Andrew Sullivan
• Gothamist
• It All Goes Here
• Radioactive Quill
• The Fifth Column
• The Stranger's SLOG
  

MANY, MANY MORE PICS AT MY FOTKI SITE. Please ask for permission before using.

COVERAGE:

• "American Gay Group ACT UP Resurrected as General Pace Targeted in New York" (UK Gay News)
• "Gay Rights Activists Protest Pace's Remarks" (NY1)
  

The Queer Justice League

The earth shook up a bit on Tuesday but I wonder if enough people noticed. Sure, in this blogging age you can certainly check what some thought about it.

Larry Kramer's latest speech at the standing-room only LGBT Center in commemoration of the 20th year anniversary of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) seems to be sending a few shock waves among those who were around during the seminal activist organization's glory days - and miss the good ol' direct action demonstrations that literally changed national and international policy on HIV/AIDS and saved or extended hundreds of lives. It might also be reverberating among a small group of nascent activists, including - hm - Jim McGreevey (!?).

The keepers of the flame, among them Eric Sawyer (pictured above), Ann Northrop and John Riley, had recently activated the ACT UP phone tree to gear up for the anniversary. An initial brainstorming meeting in January drew more than fifty people but the number had dwindled at recent meetings (the group had apparently had settled on "healthcare for all" as their main focus for their 20th anniversary action, which might be a laudable issue but not necessarily a sexy one).

The speech itself, christened "We are not crumbs, we must not accept crumbs" was pure Kramer if only a bit more hopeful than the last time he opened his mouth and chastised the gays (the less-well received "The Tragedy of Today's Gays" which he unveiled at Cooper Union on November 7, 2007).

You can read the text of both speeches at the above links but I'll point out that on Tuesday's speech Larry quoted Eric and said:

In the age of the internet we can do much of what we did in our meetings and on the streets, on the world wide web. The information technology available today could help end the need for those endless meetings. Creating a blog could, in fact, incorporate even more voices and varieties of opinions and ideas than any meeting ever could. Where ACT UP once had chapters in many cities, we could now involve thousands more via simple list-serves and blogs. We can draw in students and schools and colleges all over the world. It is the young we have to get to once again. Creating a blog would allow for expression and refinement of ideas and policies, like a Queer Justice League for denouncing our enemies. A well organized website could function as an electronic clearing house for sharing information, for posting problems, for demanding solutions, for developing and communicating action plans

My friend Rex actually has a link to the video of Larry Kramer's speech here as well as updates on upcoming ACT UP actions fed to him by Andy Humm here. But for up to the minute stuff you better keep your eye on the Queer Justice League. The Queer whats-a-magibit you say?

A new blog is born: Queer Justice League

Anyway, going back to McGreevey, does anyone else find it really funny that it took the former New Jersey Governor to try to get specifics from Larry? Left Behind, who was there, reflects on the moment and remembers "what it was like being a queer newbie, all excited about your first gay protest" as he more than welcomes McGreevy into the fold.

When the Levees Broke...

The 9th ward of New Orleans in late 2005.
Additional photos by reporter Rex Wockner here

Any recent event in the United States pales, and I mean any recent event - including 9/11 - pales, when you are confronted by the scale of tragedy, death and governmental ineptitude that were exposed when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans a year ago and nearly erased one of the major cities in the United States from the map.

I've never been a Spike Lee fan but his understated, devastating, mournful and angry "When the Levees Broke" (on HBO tonight and tomorrow) is as powerful a documentary as I have probably ever seen in my life (and that's only talking about part 1, part 2 airs tomorrow and that's when the New York Times says that the documentary "rises to greatness" - though I find it hard to believe that part 2 will be able to top the amazing part 1).

There is no way that you can watch this documentary, whether you are a Republican or Democrat, and not acknowledge that this government has been an utter and complete failure. Unfortunately, unlike the documentaries that were aired on national television just a year after the September 11, 2001 attacks (specifically "9/11" on ABC), you have to have a subscription to HBO in order to see this particular masterpiece. After August 30th it will also be available on 'HBO on demand' for those of you who have access to the cable systems. Hopefully it will also be released soon enough on DVD and provide even more people reason to throw this government out of office once election season comes around.

Immediate Reactions:

• Welcome, HBO Viewers! (The Irish Trojan's Blog)
  
• A Different Side of Me (Mr. Clark, Laurelton, NY)
• Acts one and two (Emanuel, Brooklyn, NY)
• Acts One and Two (Todd. B. Walton, Richmond, VA)
• Okay so I'm Done Crying Now (Ms Feisty, AintChoBidness, Md)
• "When the Levees Broke is Excellent" (Daily Kos)
  
• When the Levees Broke (Queer Texan)
• When the Levees Broke: A Spike Lee Film (Izzi Mo's Blog)
• When the Levees Broke (Kelli, Louisiana, NO
  
• Spike, man, what can I Say? (Andrea, Rhome, TX)
• Spike Lee's Hurricane Katrina HBO Documentary (Life After the Storm, Sidell, LA)
• Spike Lee and Hurricane Katrina (By the River)
  

When Andrew Sullivan's blog tags you

Who knew? Within the past hour pundit Andrew Sullivan added a link to my Fotki photo site, on his Time Magazine owned blog. On Fotki, I've uploaded photos of different LGBT-related events that I have attended and also acted as a host to images that accompany reporter Rex Wockner's weekly columns for several newspapers. Well, within that hour more than 1,400 people have visited with more than 7,300 hits. Kinda scary.

The direct link on Andrew's site is to a folder of photos in one of the Wockner folders taken by Nikolai Alekseev of GayRussia.ru at an anti-gay pride rally in Latvia last week (pictured: A religious woman with holy water and an icon flings herself upon a car carrying gay activists).

Bt the way, Rex Wockner's report on the Latvia gay pride disaster can be read here.

New Orleans Now: Still Devastated

My friend Rex Wockner has been in New Orleans for a couple of days. He has been sending some photos of the devastation as it looks now and that word is a pretty good description of how things still look - Devastated. Just take a look here.