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].

Cocodorm goes after black gay and lesbian bloggers

It's been a year almost to the day that I posted some comments regarding black and Latino gay porn in the wake of a scandal in Chicago involving porn producer Phillip Bleicher and his well-known (in certain circles) Cocodorm a/k/a FlavaWorks a/k/a Thugboy a/k/a PapiCock a/k/a Cocoboyz productions.

At issue: Did Cocodorm instruct performers not to wear condoms during live sex sessions broadcast online to paying subscribers? Did performers sign a contract that was reported to the Chicago Health Department as being akin to "illegal servitude?" And did Bleicher and some partners also bilk public funding through a purported nonprofit youth service agency he set up for expenditures including liposuction surgery and trips to Brazil?

Bernard Tarver over at Bejata has the published findings of the Chicago Health Department investigation and - no surprise - it's a damning report.

Thing is that since the scandal broke Bleicher left Chicago and settled in Florida. But - what do you know? - the past can sometimes catch up to you.

Now, a few bloggers have kept up with the story, including Bernard, Jasmyne Cannick, Darian Aaron and C. Baptiste-Williams. Incredibly, Cocodorm is now targeting them with cease and desist threats as Bernard chronicles over on his blog.

Not the right move at all. Let's hope that Bleicher gets what is coming to him. Support bloggers that are reporting on the issue and stop supporting sites that exploit young gay men.

Other responses:

• Flava Works has gone too far (Keith Boykin)
  
• Cocodorm gets caught in the porn act (Greasyguide)

Al Sharpton's Lesbian Sister

Back on August 18, when I blogged about Kanye West's thoughts about homophobia in hip-hop and rap music, you might have missed my comments on a meeting that I attended at which the Reverend Al Sharpton introduced an anti-homophobia initiative aimed at the African-American community. At the meeting, the Reverend spoke movingly about one of his mentors, Bayard Rustin, and how Rustin - a close advisor to the Reverend Martin Luther King - was shunned by some black leaders for being gay.

Today in the mail I received the October 11th, 2005 issue of "The Advocate" and - in a feature about the Reverend's initiative - he also credits someone closer to him for his interest in launching the initiative: His sister.

"My sister is gay. I understood the pain of having to lead a double life in the system [since] we grew up in a church. She is gay, and she fought that perception in church while she embraced it in her private life," says Sharpton in the article.

The article also says that the Reverend's desicion to march in a gay pride parade for the first time ever (see photo above taken at this year's Heritage of Pride march in NYC) was part of this initiative, though I don't remember seeing any anti-homophobia flyers being passed around and, at the time, it seemed more of a political move to deny other local political candidates his endorsement.

I also just blogged about Keith Boykin and Jasmyne Cannick's effort to confront the black church and its hypocrisy on gays. So it might seem a natural fit for the Reverend to join forces with these African-American leaders in challenging the black church. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be in the works:

"Soon after word of Sharpton's initiative spread," says The Advocate, "Harry Knox, director of the religion and faith program at the Washington, DC-based gay group Human Rights Campaign, flew to the Big Apple to strategize with Sharpton. 'We're going to be among the financial sponsors, but we're also working with him to get in touch with people doing similar things around the country,' Knox sais. And Sharpton's voice garners great attention. 'We're glad he's raising it on our behalf,' Knox says. HRC is contribuiting $5,000 in the initiative's projected $50,000 start up costs.'"

Now, I have met Harry and admire the work he has done, particularly while he was working at Freedom to Marry. But one of the fears I heard when word went out about the Reverend's interest in fighting homophobia in African-American communities was that his interest would be co-opted by the larger national LGBT advocay organizations (who have proved so ineffective in reaching out and working with minority LGBT activists and organizations).

Here's hoping that something can still come out of it.

Forcing homophobic black preachers out of the closet

Is T.D. Jakes gay? For that matter, is Eddie Long? If you are not African- American, President Bush or Karl Rove's religious right minions, chances are that you probably won't recognize these names. Both are among the most influential black preachers in the United States. Both also have ratcheded-up their homophobic rhethoric against gays and lesbians in their weekly services, using their pulpits to instill hate, as they increasingly bask in the embrace of the religious right of this country.

Lesbian and gay African-American leaders have taken notice and have attempted to draw links between the increased synergy between these ministers and the current government, their rise to power and the outright selling-out of their pulpits as a strategy to drive away minority votes from the Democrats (not that the Democrats are doing a great job sustaining them).

I have written about some of their counterparts in the Latino community (the Reverend Ruben Diaz, Sr. and Miguel Rivera of CONLAMIC), but now two of the most media-savy gay black leaders are saying enough is enough and taking it a step further.

In joint statements published in their respective blogs, Keith Boykin and Jasmyne Cannick, have announced that each will profile a separate black minister on their blogs for the next five days, leading to what they say will be "a special finale on Friday that you won't want to miss." They are also inviting readers to submit information that might confirm that specific homophobic black ministers might be gay and closeted. For more info go to:

• Jasmyne Cannick: Is Bishop Eddie Long Gay?
• Keith Boykin: Is T.D. Jakes Gay?

Watch right-wing webistes / blogs scream 'extremist gays' and 'invasion of privacy.' Watch us say, 'hypocrisy must be revealed when it hurts so many and when used for personal benefit' and 'It's about time!'