Correction Of The Day

From the Village Voice:

Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified John Phillips as the former Executive Director of the Human League. Phillips was the Executive Director of the League of Human Voters.

They're only human. Rim-shot.

Long Island Cops Use Village Voice Site To Stage Massive Prostitution Sting

Using the Village Voice's Backpage.com site, cops in Nassau County lured in 104 men with prostitution offers from undercover male and female officers. The arrested men range in age from 17 to 79.

More than 100 johns — lawyers and doctors among them — were named and shamed in an aggressive Nassau County sting after soliciting sex from cops posing as prostitutes. The arrests were announced Monday after a month-long investigation dubbed “Operation Flush the Johns.” Not only did the 104 busts send shockwaves through marriages, law firms and medical offices, they also sent a strong message from law enforcement that people who pay for sex will be treated like common criminals in Nassau County. “This whole concept of looking at johns as victims — they’re not victims!” explained Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice. “They’re further exploiting and victimizing trafficked women and men.”

One of the ads for a male prostitute claimed that "Dylan" is a "down to earth guy who has a secret wild side."  A lawyer for one of the arrested men denounced the Nassau County prosecutor for creating the above poster with the faces and names of those charged: "To put out a poster to humiliate these men and their families is outrageous. It was nothing short of outrageous for the prosecutor to try to humiliate these men." 

And following that quote, the Daily News posted its own embedded scrollable list of the names, ages, and home towns of those arrested.  The majority of the commenters on the above-linked article are outraged.

RELATED: After losing major advertisers, last year Village Voice Media legally separated itself from Backpage.com, which has long been the target of state attorneys general and religious groups. According to Wikipedia, Backpage.com is now owned by two major Voice shareholders.

The Show Musto Go On

Famed New York City nightlife columnist Michael Musto has landed on his feet after being canned from the Village Voice after three decades.

Venerable Village Voice columnist Michael Musto — whose departure from the weekly this month caused outrage from devotees — tells us he’s starting a slew of new gigs. “I’ll be doing a weekly interview feature for Gawker, covering all manner of celebs and viral sensations,” he said. “I’m also doing a weekly column on Out.com called ‘Musto the Musical!’ It will span gossip, Broadway, movies, nightlife, everything. Also, I’ll do a column in Advocate magazine.” Nice. We hear the man who penned the Voice’s La Dolce Musto for nearly 30 years will also contribute to Scene and the New York Times. He also recently popped up on NBC’s “Smash” and Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live.”

I totally yoinked the headline from Page Six.

Big Layoffs At The Village Voice

Gawker reports that the Village Voice has laid off some its best known staffers, including the one person most closely identified with the title.

We hear that executives from the Voice's parent company flew in for today's massacre. Michael Musto, the Voice's nightlife columnist and most high profile remaining staffer, has been let go, as was rumored last week. (There had apparently been some talk of Musto's column hanging on in some form, but that does not seem to have worked out.) Also let go, sources tell us, was Robert Sietsema, the Voice's longtime food critic, and Michael Feingold, the paper's theater critic. Feingold was scheduled to host the Obie Awards for the Voice next week. That just makes the timing that much more shocking.

Musto tells Gawker: "So many people have come out to offer their love (and opportunities). I'll update you on all my new beginnings. My brand will be feistier than ever."

Out Hates Voice Cover On Quinn

"Take a look at that illustration. No, really take a look. What is that fleshy redhead doing holding that puny penis in between her index and thumb? Is she about to put it in her mouth? Take a deep, mouth-filling drag of that cigar-cum-phallus? Chew on the tobacco stick? Or is she about to flick it away, stomp on it, crush that symbol of power, decadence, and privilege? It all depends on how you look at it. But it was the decision of the once-respected free weekly alternative newspaper to portray the New York City Council Speaker and mayoral frontrunner in one of the most sexist illustrations that I have seen on the most (once-perceived) left-leaning periodicals in the country." - Jerry Portwood, writing for Out Magazine. Later in the piece, Portwood add that he doesn't see how the Voice isn't trying to make Quinn look like a "man-hating bull dyke."

Village Voice On Christine Quinn

JMG reader Steve Weinstein has written a lengthy look at the LGBT detractors of NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn's mayoral candidacy.  An excerpt: 

At her public appearances, on the web, in social media, and in the pages of newspapers from the Daily News to Gay City News, Christine Quinn is being subjected to a protracted ideological litmus test. But no one is questioning whether she's gay enough: She married Kim Catullo last May and frequently takes her to campaign stops—in Staten Island, no less. No, what's at issue on Facebook groups like "Queers Against Christine Quinn" and "Defeat Quinn" is whether Quinn is enough of a liberal to carry the Democratic torch.

There are a few quotes from me in the piece.

Michael Musto As Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie's bare leg was a hot internet meme for a second or two in 2012. Inside the year-end issue of Village Voice, you'll also find Musto as the Tan Mom. Read his 2012-in-review essay at the link.

Village Voice Launches 2012 Web Awards

The Village Voice is soliciting your nominations for their annual Web Awards.  There's the usual mix of funky categories like "Tumblr Rant Of The Year" and "Best Twitter Parody Account." (My vote for the latter category goes to El Bloombito.) The category likely to get the greatest response is Best Viral Video, where I'd expect lots of nods for Chatroulette Call Me Maybe and Gangnam Style. As for Meme Of 2012, we'll probably see of a lot of Romney-themed action. Binders! 47%!  Check out the categories and give us your own recap for 2012.

HomoQuotable - Michael Musto

"Just when you assumed gay self-loathing had been deposited in the dead-chicken bins, along comes a new wave of self-flagellation aimed to throw us under the hate truck. At a time when gays have made significant progress and other people are fully available to do all the hating, some gays crazily want to join in! I'm talking about the wave of gay Republicans who grovel before the enemy, making lavish excuses for politically repellent candidates—you know, the Romney/Ryan ticket—who would gladly turn us into a subordinate class without any semblance of full equality. There's no one more self-loathing than the oxymoronic 'grubs' (gay Repubs) who rally to the defense of power-crazed bigots, spinning them as champions of decency and fairness who happen to be grossly misunderstood." - Michael Musto, writing for the Village Voice.

On Alternative Media

Free Republic is doing backflips over a blog that wrongly claims that the Village Voice has ceased publication. In fact, the Voice is merely moving out of its longtime office building next spring due to the expansion of the high school next door. Putting that silly lie aside, here's how the blog author characterizes alternative media:

All that was left for the alternative media was to run yet another profile of a new bar where people drink the tears of Ecuadoran children purchased through fair trade while looking at themselves doing it in video monitors as an artistic commentary on capitalism. And these days that's what the internet is for. A culture eager to document itself doing everything, take photos of the food on its plate, review the movie on Twitter while watching it and run a blog about its street corner is in no need of an alternative paper to kludgily do these things for it at a snail's pace.

Alternative represented the hipster ethos of being different for difference's sake. It's why every indie quarter boasts signs like, "Keep Portland Weird" and "Keep Austin Weird", not to mention "Keep Berkeley Weird". But how do you stay weird when everyone is trying to be weird at the same time? What does weirdness even mean when everyone is weird and doing their best to get a condo in weirdsville, only to move out in protest because weirdsville isn't weird enough anymore?

I have to admit, I laughed. A lot.

Quote Of The Day - Michael Musto

"Free speech means you can generally say whatever you want without being carted off to prison or otherwise punished by law. But it doesn't guarantee that there won't be any repercussions! You can run through the street yelling 'Blacks shouldn't be allowed to get married,' but that doesn't protect you from people boycotting your store and using their free speech to announce their horrified lack of support for you. I suspect that the 'patriots' haven't thoroughly thought out their noble act to the point where it's completely devoid of other agendas.

"Their moving love of human rights--which they exercise by rallying in support of some old-school gay bashers--doesn't seem to be an equal-opportunity kind of situation at all. I mean, if someone found a religious book that said conservatives should be stripped of rights and treated as second class citizens, would the Santorums be lining up to buy that person's chicken while calling themselves fierce defenders of the Constitution? No way. But in defending the hate mongering Chick-Fil-A, these people can hide behind their flag-waving, pseudo libertarian crap while backing an organization's bigoted views that just happen to mirror their own. Do they have a right to say that? Sure. And I have a right to yell bloody murder." - Michael Musto, writing for the Village Voice.

Headline Of The Day

GOProud is super-pissed at Michael Musto.

On "Gay Inc" And Free Speech

In a piece titled Does 'Gay Inc' Believe In Free Speech? today Village Voice reporter Steven Thrasher looks at GLAAD, HRC, and the NYC LGBT Center. There's way too much in his lengthy article to properly frame it with an excerpt, so I'll just give a few keywords: Occupy, pinkwashing, JC Penney, Starbucks.

The Village Voice Asks Matt Heinz About Possible Three-Way With Sheriff Babeu

I mentioned it here on Saturday and Village Voice reporter Steven Thrasher took the question right to Heinz' Facebook page. One week prior to the "sleepover," Heinz had been one of only two Democrats to approve a $5M grant to Babeu's office. That amount was later reduced to $1.7M.

Michael Musto As Donald Trump

From Musto's year-end recap column:

New York became fun again in 2011! Thanks to a global economic meltdown! The lingering desperation in the air brought down our emotional walls, and New Yorkers became friendlier and more open than we've been in ages, most of us no longer propped up by elitism as we reached out to one another like we were having a massive midlife crisis together—in a good way.

Read the full article.

NEW YORK CITY: JMG Wins Village Voice 2011 Web Award For "Best Politics Blog"

Tonight my loyal companion Dr. Jeff accompanied me to some new hipster nightclub on the Lower East Side where this here website thingy was feted as the 2011 Village Voice Best Politics Blog! Squee! Just like last year! Re-squee! Like last time, I wasn't told who the other blogs in my category were. So I can't congratulate anybody just for being nominated. Which I would totally do. Yes.

The room was packed with the digerati of Manhattan, who were on hand for a slew of web awards such as Best Sports Blog (Deadspin), Best Music Blog (Stereogum), Best Food Blog (Chowhound), and Best Arts Blog (Art Fag Blog). Congrats to all and thanks to the Village Voice for the honor and all that free Chinese beer. I'll add a couple of photos to this post tomorrow and provide a link to the full list of winners when it goes up.

Tony Perkins Applauds Ashton Kutcher

When the head of the nation's most evil hate group likes your work, maybe it's time to reconsider your strategies. Among Kutcher's targets is the Village Voice for its weekly numerous pages of ads from sex workers. Psst, Ashton: Not all prostitution is "human trafficking."

The Bizarro Logic Of NY Sen. Ruben Diaz

From a just-published interview with Steven Thrasher at the Village Voice:

All right, let me ask you about this. You believe marriage is between one man and one woman, yes?

Yes [laughing] So? Why are you asking me this? You know that, you know what I believe. Why are you calling me? Marriage is between a man and a woman.

But you yourself have been married twice, and are divorced.

Yes. So?

So do you believe it is alright to be divorced?

No. Divorce is wrong. Gay marriage is wrong.

You think you are wrong, then?

When I got divorced, I was wrong, yes. Why are you asking me this?

But you believe that gay marriage is wrong and divorce is wrong, but that you should be allowed to get divorced and remarried, and gay people shouldn't be able to marry at all.

When I got divorced, it was wrong, but marriage is between a man and a woman.

So is being divorced OK with your religion?

No, it is not OK. Gay marriage is still wrong. This is what I believe.

You may recall that Sen. "Reverend" Diaz once grandiosely declared, "I am the the church AND the state."

Quote Of The Day - Sen. Ruben Diaz

"If the affront to my personal safety wasn't enough, it was embodied in an article that was so poorly researched. The two factual errors come to mind: first of all, if as you say my chief-of-staff is gay, no one has bothered to tell her. Also, if any of your readers are interested in attending a counter-demonstration, they shouldn't bother taking your directions to gather at 181st Street expecting the end of our rally there, I and the thousands of New Yorkers who believe in respect for human life and sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman will be found praying near the Bronx County Courthouse at 161st Street and the Grand Concourse. It's so sad to see people in journalism abuse their positions, but it's outrageous to see how the editors of the Village Voice use their editorial discretion to facilitate and encourage homicide." - New York state Sen. Ruben Diaz, responding to a Village Voice blog post in which a commenter made a death threat against him.

RELATED: On May 15th Diaz, who signed the above letter "Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz," will stage what may be the largest anti-gay rally in state history. A similar rally in 2009 brought over 20,000 Hispanic evangelicals to midtown Manhattan, most of whom arrived via out of state church buses. LGBT groups have noted that Diaz' rally is scheduled to conflict with NYC's annual AIDS Walk in order to diminish counter-protests.

ALSO RELATED: Please do not leave comments making even the most idle of threats of physical harm or property damage against any persons or places. Longtime readers may recall that in late 2009, anti-gay and Christianist websites launched a campaign against JMG, claiming that readers were making "terrorist threats" against supporters of Proposition 8. Please contact me via email if you see any threats or calls to violence and I will dispatch them at once. Our enemies are reading every word you write.

NYC LGBT Center Israel Flap Continues

Earlier this week the NYC LGBT Center canceled a planned Israel Apartheid Week meeting after gay porn kingpin Michael Lucas threatened to have the Center's wealthy donors pull their support. Immediately after the event's cancellation, a petition went online with a demand that the Center not let "wealthy bigots censor free speech." Among the petition's sponsors are well-known activists Cleve Jones, Judith Butler, and Sherry Wolf of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

Today the Village Voice's Steven Thrasher interviews Wolf, who says it's an insult for her group to characterized as a "hate group" by a pornographer. (Snap!)

"More than half of [Siege Busters] is Jewish, and the others are mostly Arabs, and they call us anti-Semitic? Isn't the center a place where different people are supposed to meet and discuss? Shouldn't Jews and Arabs, gay and lesbian and transgender, working together towards peace be something that is celebrated? We cannot allow a wealthy porn entrepreneur to dictate what kind of speech is allowed, at a center whose very mission is to represent the oppressed and the marginalized!"

Read Thrasher's full interview.