WorldPride Kicks Off In Toronto

Melissa Etheridge Marries

Melissa Etheridge - Uprising Of Love

Via press release:

The video delivers a powerful message to create awareness about the many countries around the world where LGBT people are facing harassment, arrest, violence, and in some cases, death. The new music video, produced and directed by creative agency Wondros, is a montage of peaceful Russian LGBT rallies and protests, and true affection of couples in love. Etheridge originally wrote the song in response to the systematic discrimination of the Russian LGBT community. In December, Etheridge co-founded a coalition of celebrities and entertainment executives also called Uprising of Love, in support of the safety and dignity of LGBT Russians. 100% of proceeds from the single will be donated to the Russia Freedom Fund, which is one of the only ways to make immediate and direct financial contributions to LGBT activists in Russia.

Anti-Gay Group Sues DOJ Over Cost Of "Government-Funded Gay Pride Events"

The anti-gay Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom Of Information lawsuit against the Department Of Justice, demanding to know how much the DOJ paid Melissa Etheridge to appear at a June gay pride-related event attended by hundreds of DOJ lawyers.  Here's their press release:

Judicial Watch has sued the United States Department of Justice for refusing to turn over information related to the Lavender Law society, a group of gay and transgender Justice Department lawyers. PJ Media reported on “Gay Day at DOJ” in June 2013 when the Justice Department brought singer and “human rights activist” Melissa Etheridge to hold a concert at the Great Hall at the Justice Department building in Washington. Such an event certainly cost the American taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, even though only a few hundred DOJ lawyers were in attendance.

HomoQuotable - Melissa Etheridge

"We (gays) are a sweet group of people who just really want to love and dance. We want to work and decorate our homes and fix up our houses. For us to have to fight for our equal rights for that is really strange."

"I could have probably been under that label (sex addict) but I was more of a drama addict. Lots of drama (in my 20s). I really, really enjoyed a woman's touch. I enjoyed being intimately connected to another woman. And I enjoyed it a lot and with a lot of different women. I just really liked it. I would think it was a beautiful, amazing thing that would make me feel good, and then in the morning, I didn't feel so good. There was a lot of dishonesty that came with it. If I had been really honest, I probably would have felt better about it. There was an emptiness that only I could fill, but I was looking for others to fill it." - Melissa Etheridge, speaking to LA's Lesbian News.

(Via - Rex Wockner)

Melissa Etheridge Defends Standing Up For Rick Warren

Yesterday Melissa Etheridge appeared on Michelangelo Signorile's SiriusXM radio show to speak about her defense of Rick Warren. Etheridge responded to her critics by saying, "I am sorry if they felt like in any way I undermined them. I truly believe everyone has their perspective and position on this. I’m glad for the activists who say this is not right to include someone who has spoke very poorly about a community that got this man elected...I also know I had this experience that I had to speak about...I think the best thing I can do for the gay community is speak my truth and say this is what happened to me."

Listen to the full interview here. Etheridge appears genuinely clueless to some of the things Rick Warren has said about gay people.

HomoQuotable - Melissa Etheridge

"I believe I understand Obama's choice here. I believe that Barack Obama wants to be the President of the entire United States. Pastor Rick Warren reached out to him, brought him into his church during the campaign, which outraged many members of his church. Yet he reaches across and I think this is Obama reaching back and going, 'I think we can disagree on things, yet we can still all move forward. We need to get past our differences.'

"And I just want to make sure that as the liberals and progressives and Democrats or whatever you want to call us are moving into this new time with this new president do not say that they, the evangelicals who say such horrible things about gays, they have to stay over here and we're not going to let them in. That makes us no better than the last administration."

"Just because he [compares gays to incest or polygamy] does not mean I have to not speak to him, or don't ever want to be in his company. We had a crazy experience at the Muslim Public Affairs Council conference...We met, we spoke. He's a fine person...He said he was trying to make the definition of marriage not change, not necessarily saying that gays are pedophiles or any of that stuff. One can draw whatever they want from that. This is what he told me." - Rocker/activist Melissa Etheridge, speaking to NPR on Saturday. Audio file here.

(Transcript via Towleroad)

UPDATE: Jeremy at Good As You has snipped the audio file for us.

Etheridge Takes On Hasselbeck

On The View yesterday, Melissa Etheridge called out Elizabeth Hasselbeck for misleading viewers about the ramifications of marriage equality, then asked Hasselbeck directly for her personal opinion on the issue. Surprisingly, Hasselbeck allowed that "the rights should be equal" but added that the Prop 8 vote should stand.

HomoQuotable - Melissa Etheridge

"Okay. So Prop 8 passed. Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to help me here because I am not sure what to call her now. Anyways, she and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.

"Okay, cool I don't mean to get too personal here but there is a lot I can do with the extra half a million dollars that I will be keeping instead of handing it over to the state of California. Oh, and I am sure Ellen will be a little excited to keep her bazillion bucks that she pays in taxes too. Wow, come to think of it, there are quite a few of us fortunate gay folks that will be having some extra cash this year. What recession? We're gay! I am sure there will be a little box on the tax forms now single, married, divorced, gay, check here if you are gay, yeah, that's not so bad. Of course all of the waiters and hairdressers and UPS workers and gym teachers and such, they won't have to pay their taxes either." - Melissa Etheridge, writing on The Daily Beast.

$4M Raised For No On 8 In Hollywood Event

Melissa Etheridge and Mary J. Blige entertained a Hollywood crowd at the home of supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle yesterday, raising $4M to fight Proposition 8. Andy Towle has the story.

On Melissa Etheridge And The Boy Scouts

JMG reader Andy in Fort Lauderdale writes:

Last night at the democratic national convention, Melissa Etheridge sang a medley which included Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". All royalties from performances of "God Bless America" are assigned to the Boys and Girls Scouts of America. The Boy Scouts are an avowedly anti-gay discriminatory organization. Etheridge could have easily chosen "America the Beautiful", "This Land is Your Land", or "Power and Glory" for a suitably patriotic song. I'm not really that pissed, but I think it shows a lack of knowledge and/or sensitivity on the part of Etheridge or whoever told her to sing that song. It's sort of like giving money to McCain.

Andy raises an interesting point. Perhaps Etheridge should have gone with America The Beautiful, which, as JMG reader Michael pointed out in an email, was written by presumed lesbian Katherine Lee Bates. A little Sapphic nod would have been nice, yes? I generally like Irving Berlin, but God Bless America should have been retired when Kate Smith died.