Signorile Interviews Texas Rep. Cecil Bell

Michelangelo Signorile interviewed notorious Texas state Rep. Cecil Bell this week, grilling him about his quixotic pursuit of legislation that Bell believes would allow his state to defy the US Supreme Court on same-sex marriage. Listen to the clips below in which Bell expounds on states rights and refuses to answer Signorile when asked if sodomy should still be illegal. Over at Huffington Post, Signorile make this observation:

Though it's not mentioned in any of his official biographical information, Bell's wife Jo Ann, described as his "high school sweetheart," is, according to public records, his second wife. Records show he divorced his first wife (to whom he was married in 1981) a little over a month before he married his second wife in October of 1991, who gave birth to their son, Cecil III, five and half months after they married. “Well, I think that would be an interesting conversation, but no one’s brought up that legislation,” he said about the issue of banning divorce, before quickly excusing himself to get back on the floor to vote.

May 11th In NYC: Savage & Signorile

From the event page:

The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association and the City University of New York present: A Conversation With Michelangelo Signorile and Dan Savage. Join us for a Q&A session with Michelangelo Signorile, SiriusXM journalist and author of "It’s Not Over: Getting Beyond Tolerance, Defeating Homophobia and Winning True Equality," and Dan Savage, best selling author and syndicated columnist. The event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited.

RSVP here. I'm attending.

Here Are The Winners Of Signorile's Book

Michelangelo Signorile's latest book It's Not Over goes on sale nationwide today. The publisher provided us with three copies to give away and the winners of last week's swag contest are JMG readers TimCA, Mike In Texas, and David Milley. The winners were selected using a random number generator and have been notified via Disqus.

Special Swag: Mike Signorile's New Book

Michelangelo Signorile's latest book, It's Not Over, goes on sale nationwide on Tuesday and we've got three copies to give away to JMG readers. From the Amazon description:

Marriage equality has surged across the country. Closet doors have burst open in business, entertainment, and even major league sports. But Michelangelo Signorile argues in his most provocative book yet, the excitement of such breathless change makes this moment more dangerous than ever. Puncturing the illusion that victory is now inevitable, Signorile marshals stinging evidence that an age-old hatred, homophobia, is still a basic fact of American life. He exposes the bigotry of the brewing religious conservative backlash against LGBT rights and challenges the complacency and hypocrisy of supposed allies in Washington, the media, and Hollywood.Not just a wake-up call, It's Not Over is also a battle plan for the fights to come in the march toward equality.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald raves:

For 25 years, Michelangelo Signorile has been one of America's most incisive critics and influential activists in the movement for gay equality, and It’s Not Over demonstrates he is better than ever. The new book is a penetrating look at one of the great social movements of our time and the challenges that lay before it. With detailed reporting and razor-sharp analysis, Signorile exposes the dangerous triumphalism that has taken hold. He reveals the bigotry and bias still deeply embedded in the media, the political establishment, and throughout American culture. And he provides an illuminating, stirring plan of action to vanquish it.

Enter to win It's Not Over by commenting on this post. You can either leave an email address that you check frequently or I can respond to your comment with the notice of your win. (You'll need to check your Disqus notifications.) Winners are chosen by using a random number generator. Entries close at midnight on Monday and I'll post the names of the winners on Tuesday when the book launches.

TODAY: SiriusXM At 3:30PM

Today at 3:30pm I'll be on Michelangelo Signorile's SiriusXM show to talk about some of the latest LGBT news items making headlines here on JMG. Mike's channel is SiriusXM Progress 127 and you can listen live online if you sign up for a freebie account. What's on your mind?

Cal Thomas: The End Times Schedule Calls For SCOTUS To Approve Marriage

"I think it’s going to go 5-4 or even 6-3 in favor of same-sex marriage. All of these things are not the cause of our decadence, they’re a reflection of it, If you read the Scriptures, as I do, in both testaments all of these things are forecast in prophesies, in the book of Daniel and what Jesus and Paul said, so I'm not worried about it. I say everything is right on schedule. I’m trying to shore up my own family first and, hopefully, that will be an example to other people. If you look at not only what Jesus said, but Paul the Apostle, about what things would be like in the end times, people will be lovers of lies rather than the truth. They will elevate things that are called abomination in scripture to normality. All of the prophesies up to the final ones have come true. And that’s why I say that everything is right on schedule." - Wingnut commentator and USA Today columnist Cal Thomas, speaking to Michelangelo Signorile at CPAC.

Signorile Interviews Schlafly At CPAC

Michelangelo Signorile interviewed Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly this weekend at CPAC.

“The gays have their argument about inevitability,” the 90-year-old author of 25 books told me in an interview for SiriusXM Progress at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, over the weekend, during a book-signing including her new book, Who Killed the American Family? "I don’t think that’s so,” Schlafly continued with a smile, rejecting the “inevitability” argument. “I’m extremely disappointed that the Republican Party, the conservative movement, even the Democratic Party and the churches, have been saying, ‘Well soon the court will decide, and that will be it.’ Well, a lot of people thought that about Roe v. Wade, and we’ve seen the whole abortion movement turned around in the last ten years.” Schlafly has sloughed off the fact that even her own son is gay. (John Schlafly was revealed to be gay in the gay press back in the early '90s and confirmed the reports, but defended his mother and continued working for her.) She’d explained that her son "supports me in everything I do," including fighting what she views as the dangers of "the gay agenda."

TODAY: SiriusXM At 3:30PM

Today at 3:30pm I'll be on Michelangelo Signorile's SiriusXM show to talk about some of the latest LGBT news items making headlines here on JMG. Mike's channel is SiriusXM Progress 127 and you can listen live online if you sign up for a freebie account. What's on your mind?

HomoQuotable - Michelangelo Signorile

"The Benham brothers have attributes and just a general vibe that, for years, have translated as 'gay.' But obviously there are a lot of straight men, even homophobes, who now exhibit these characteristics, seemingly free to act on their creative instincts, more comfortable about it -- precisely because of the queer movement's challenge to conventional ideas about masculinity. Some of these men might be bisexual, openly or not. But a few years ago straight men who were something like this were labeled with the (dreadful) term 'metrosexual,' except metrosexuals were straight guys who were secure in being fashionable in part because they completely accepted homosexuality and supported gay rights. The Benhams decidedly do not. So have gay men actually liberated many straight men to the point that they can appropriate 'gayness' even while still being virulently anti-gay? And is that a good thing or a bad thing?" - Michelangelo Signorile, who found the Benhams "a bit flirty" during a recent interview.

WaPo Profiles Signorile & Griffin

The Washington Post today published a lengthy profile of SiriusXM radio host Michelangelo Signorile and Human Rights Campaign head Chad Griffin. Here's a setup:

In 2004, 38 percent of respondents supported same-sex marriage, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll. Ten years later: 59 percent. And today, only a decade after Massachusetts ushered in same-sex marriage, Freedom to Marry says that nearly 44 percent of Americans live in jurisdictions that have legalized it — 19 states and the District of Columbia.

Even observers who welcome the gains often seem pleasantly puzzled: How did that happen so fast? But the changes are the result of decades of struggle, from early gay-marriage efforts in the 1970s along with AIDS and anti-discrimination activism in the 1980s and ’90s, to challenges at the Supreme Court in the new millennium. In Lawrence v. Texas, Lambda Legal, another major gay-rights group, won a huge victory in 2003, as the justices struck down state laws that criminalized sodomy.

Gay-rights activists — including the “Let’s get this done NOW!” camp and those who proceeded more methodically in order to build support — kept pushing. In a way, Mike Signorile and Chad Griffin framed a remarkable generation, each each representing a different historical moment, Signorile at the start and Griffin at the close. Here are their stories.

Hit that link, it's an interesting piece.

Bachmann Walks Back Marriage Comment

During the FRC's hate summit, soon-to-be former Rep. Michele Bachmann told Michelangelo Signorile that gay marriage is no longer an issue, adding, "In fact, it's boring." After being called out by fellow wingnuts like Bryan Fischer, Crazy Eyes is walking back that comment. Via World Net Daily:

“What I said is that this won’t be the issue that drives the 2014 election,” Bachmann said. “I told the reporter it’s getting boring having them only press this issue with Republicans while ignoring Democrats. “The media loves to divide us on this issue. They look for something all the time,” Bachmann told WND. “I said nothing different. I’m the woman who carried the traditional marriage amendment in Minnesota, and I stand firm in my belief that marriage should be between one man and one woman.” Bachmann’s aide told WND she wasn’t brushing off the radio host, she was merely making a quick, parting comment as she was leaving. Though the topic of marriage has been a hot-button issue in the last few elections, several states have begun issuing same-sex marriage licenses, and candidates for 2014 have had less to say on the matter.

"Several states." Heh.

Tweet Of The Day - Michelangelo Signorile

Michelle Bachmann just told me re: gay marriage, “it’s not an issue anymore,” runs off,adds, ‘In fact it’s boring.’ #ValuesVoterSummit
— Mike Signorile (@MSignorile) September 26, 2014

Bill Donohue Hopes Gay People Keep Their Pants On During St. Patrick's Parade

Catholic League blowhard Bill Donohue appeared on Michelangelo Signorile's show yesterday where he repeatedly claimed that gay people might try to go naked in next year's St. Patrick's Day Parade. 

"Here’s the hitch,” Donohue said, about allowing gays to march. “They do have dress requirements and other kinds of strictures. The question is, ‘Will the gays behave?’ Gays have been known to take their clothes off in the parade. They can’t keep their pants on sometimes when they march in the gay pride parade.”  When told that in fact the St. Patrick's Day Parade gets quite unruly, with reports of drunkenness, violence and police run-ins each year, with heterosexual people certainly not “behaving,” Donohue insisted that they still “keep our pants on,” though he acknowledged he's never been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans where many heterosexuals certainly engage in sexual expression, sometimes unclothed. “We keep our pants on,” he said. “You guys have masturbated on the street. I have pictures of what went on in the Stonewall 1994 gay pride parade that you couldn’t put on CNN or publish in The New York Times. Men and women went naked in the street in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral. I think it is a ‘wow’ when men can’t keep their pants on when they march.”

You'll recall that Donohue dared NYC Pride to allow the Catholic League to march this year.  When NYC Pride welcomed his participation, Donohue then weaseled out, claiming that the pre-parade safety seminar constituted "forced gay training." That safety briefing constitutes a short slideshow presentation required of all NYC parades and instructs a representative from each group on how to summon medical aid, how to obey NYPD traffic instructions, etc. Maybe the one gay group being allowed to march in the 2015 St. Patrick's Day Parade should object to the "forced Catholic training" required before participating.

TODAY: SiriusXM At 3:30PM

Today at 3:30pm I'll be on Michelangelo Signorile's SiriusXM show to talk about some of the latest LGBT news items making headlines here on JMG. Mike's channel is SiriusXM Progress 127 and you can listen live online if you sign up for a freebie account. What's on your mind?

JMG T-Shirt Model: Michelangelo Signorile

SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile is among a handful of folks who were sent advance JMG t-shirts by Pride Magazine. I'm told that the the first production run of shirts has been completed so pretty soon we'll have some sexy JMG reader selfies. Don't be shy!

Tweet Of The Day - Michelangelo Signorile

Has Rick Santorum's head exploded yet! He recommended the judge. #Pennsylvania #gaymarriage
— Mike Signorile (@MSignorile) May 20, 2014

Support Michael Sam: Signorile Launches "The Great Facebook Kiss-In"

"Gay people need to be kissing more in public. There simply needs to be more queer smooching to desensitize the world. So with that, I hereby launch the Great Facebook Kiss-In, urging everyone -- whether gay, straight or bi --to change their profile pics to two women kissing or two men kissing. Maybe it's you and your husband or wife, or your partner or sweetheart, or you and a friend. Maybe it's your dad and your dad, or your mom and your mom. Maybe it's two other people you just like a lot or you think are hot. Just change your profile pic to a kissing same-sex couple, and urge others to do the same. And for that matter let's do it on Twitter, too. One day in the future we will look back on all this ridiculousness and laugh. But that's only going to happen if we do exactly this kind of thing a lot. So change those profile photos now." - Michelangelo Signorile, writing for the Huffington Post.  Here's the Twitter hashtag link.

HomoQuotable - Michelangelo Signorile

"When given an opportunity to apologize for his Prop 8 donation after it got attention earlier this month, a week after he was named CEO, Eich refused, and even implied to The Guardian that he and people like him were an asset at the company since Mozilla is global and anti-gay regimes are prevalent around the world, using the example of Indonesia. He refused to comment to The Guardian on his support of Pat Buchanan, a man who's been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks as well and engaged in diminution of the Holocaust, in addition to attacks on other groups. When you can't take back having supported Pat Buchanan and other virulently anti-gay politicians, there's only word for you: bigot.

"Donald Sterling is a bigot too. He also has free speech. And that speech, as the owner of a professional sports team, has consequences that most of us agree are warranted. Brendan Eich has free speech as well. But when he faced the consequences of that speech -- brought on by the free market, not forced by any intervention -- many applied a double standard, defending him. And that reveals how, no matter how many books are written by ambitious heterosexual reporters about how we gays have supposedly won, homophobia is alive and well -- and openly tolerated -- in America." - Michelangelo Signorile, writing for the Huffington Post.

Signorile Vs Sullivan

Yesterday Andrew Sullivan denounced the campaign against now-former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, declaring that if the Eich controversy represents the gay rights movement today, he no longer wants any part of it. Michelangelo Signorile responded to Sullivan this morning in a post which contends that it wasn't Eich's donation to the Prop 8 campaign that did him in. An excerpt:

Eich only announced he was stepping down after it was revealed late Wednesday that he'd given money to Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign in 1992, and later to Ron Paul's campaign. Suddenly, in addition to defending a CEO who gave money to homophobic efforts, Mozilla would have to defend a CEO who supported Buchanan, a far right extremist and isolationist who's been accused of racist and anti-Semitic attacks, and who also was, rightly, driven off MSNBC -- though that took years longer to accomplish than the few weeks it took to purge Alec Baldwin.

It all just became too much for Mozilla to bear, and who knows what else may have been dug up on Eich? None of this is about government censorship. It's about a company based in Northern California which has many progressive employees, and which has a lot of progressives and young people among the user base of its Firefox browser, realizing its CEO's world view was completely out of touch with the company's --and America's -- values and vision for the future.

Hit the link and read Signorile's full response.

Signorile Busts Scott Lively In Big Lie

Brian Tashman writes at Right Wing Watch:

Lively told [SiriusXM host Michelangelo] Signorile that he never referred to Obama as the Antichrist or Putin as a champion of right-wing Christianity: “No I didn’t say that. Oh boy, that’s quite the leap you’re making. No, I’ve never said either of those things. In terms of the Antichrist thing, we need to have a conversation about prophecy and those things for it to make any sense at all, but I did not say that Obama is the Antichrist.” “Where are you getting this? What’s that from?,” he demanded. But he eventually conceded that he did in fact call Obama the Antichrist after Signorile played his words back to him. “No, that’s Obama,” Lively said, but then tried to spin it as merely a “hypothetical” discussion of the End Times.