The good news is that the gay elders described in these stories have been captured by the existing support system and their problems are being addressed. The good news is that there are organizations and individuals working diligently and passionately to rescue gay elders from lives of pain and desperation. The bad news is that the resources, efforts and programs currently available to the gay elder community may be reaching less than one percent of a total population of somewhere between 2.8 and 3 million elderly gay Americans. Furthermore, at least two-thirds of gay and lesbian seniors live alone (twice as many as the senior heterosexual population.) And too many of the remaining 99 percent are mostly living lives of poverty, secrecy, humiliation and desperation. But who cares, right? This country is not kind to its elderly and gay elders in particular are, after all, just faggots and dykes.

Homophobia aside, our monolithic view of aging is an enormous part of the problem. We love our myths. Myth no. 1: Diversity, individuality and sexuality end at 65. Myth no. 2: Old queers are rich and are living out their retirements sipping cocktails by the pool. The reality is that the majority of gay elders, like a majority of elderly Americans are living on fixed incomes, depending on ridiculously inadequate Social Security benefits, wrestling their way through Medicare and Medicaid paperwork and oftentimes flirting with poverty and destitution as their medical and assisted living expenses devour their savings and investments. And on top of that they are dealing with homophobia, gay bashing, unique medical problems that have mostly been overlooked by the system and rampant ageism.

SAGE is the world's oldest & largest organization devoted specifically to meeting the needs of aging GLBT persons. Through direct services, SAGE is creating a better aging experience for GLBT seniors in New York City. And through education and advocacy, a better aging future for all gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people throughout the United States.

Unfortunately, the fraudulent use of counterfeit science is not illegal in the United States. If it were, Dr. Paul Cameron, the head of the Family Research Council would have been imprisoned many years ago.

When I was a wee one (as we approach Saint Paddy's Day my Irish comes out) my mother told me that if you put a postage stamp upside down on the envelope, the post office delivers it faster. Oddly, I remember her telling me that when I asked why she had applied some postage stamps upside down and others right side up. Rather than tell me it was for no reason, she lied and made up a story. I was about five or six.

It wasn't until my early twenties that I caught myself deliberately applying postage stamps to envelopes upside down so that they would receive favorable treatment as they made their way through the colossal labyrinth of the United States Postal System. As silly as it may seem to you, it was a revelatory moment in my life. It was the first time that I realized that I was making dozens if not hundreds of unconscious decisions every day of my life based on lies my mother--and all the other "adults"--had told me. I became obsessed with self-examination. I trusted nothing and questioned everything; how I brushed my teeth, what brands I was buying, what thoughts I was having about the stranger to my left in the subway.

As a result of this childhood curse, I tend to think through every act of public homophobia in terms of how it is effecting the wee ones. What terrible or wonderful belief is branded on their little brains that will unconsciously guide so many of their judgments and decision as they struggle though the colossal labyrinth of life.

In what is being touted as an Œaccidental' outting, it was revealed this week on Sydney radio that former Australian Idol runner up, Anthony Callea, is gay.

What has long been assumed in gay circles, but not the topic of conversation in the mainstream media, suddenly became the news of the week, following an on-air conversation on Sydney breakfast radio on Monday. Well-known 'Eye in the Sky' reporter Vic Lorusso outed the singer after mentioning meeting Callea while discussing an old school mate on The Edge's breakfast show which airs on Triple M.

"You wouldn't know him. He's a nice guy but his partner, which is Anthony Callea, didn't want to know anything about anybody," the traffic reporter told host Christo.

[...]

The station in addition to other media outlets reporting the story were inundated with callers supporting Callea, no matter what his sexual preference was.

Callea has been defending gay rumours since he orbited into the public stratosphere via his hugely popular stint on the TV show Australian Idol in 2004. He has also gone on-the-record stating: "I'm not gay. I don't know why people say I am. A lot of people just make up rubbish."

"If Callea's outing isn't successfully smothered by his publicists first, and if it's true that he's in a same-sex relationship, there's one sure way he can preserve his image and sales. Unveil his boyfriend and their shared love for the whole nation to see."

The chief problem with the discussion the gay community is having on the subject of 'outing' is that too many people have deluded themselves into thinking that gay people choose to stay in the closet. We are prone, as a people, to weaving elaborate fictions based upon spy novels around closeted people... that they are undercover secret agents, double agents, spies, or even just "sleeper cells." Given the rhetoric coming out of the right it seems our enemies view closeted gays this way as well. This is, of course, romantic nonsense. Should these closet-cases resurrect the gay underground of the 70s or start up an 'underground railroad' to liberate gay teenagers from especially unwholesome circumstances, you will see how quickly my views on "enemies of the people" will shift away from outing. This is not what is going on here though.

What is being claimed is that a person's orientation is an entirely private matter, is no one's business but his own, and that "choosing" to remain in the closet harms no one. What is being claimed is that, as time goes by and this person's orientation becomes more and more self-evident, the gay people have an obligation of discretion to assist them in their choice to remain secret-homosexuals.

None of these things are true.

If I had my way, everyone everywhere all over the planet would be "outed" at once. I don't often get my way though. The energy and resources necessary to do anything of the kind are far better employed on other matters.

Still gay children are born into this closet, a circumstance actively imposed upon them from without. You can see the machinery in action when these "concerned parents" don't want their children "exposed" to even the mention of homosexuality in school or anywhere else. They would have this veil of silence drawn over every aspect of life because "what you choose to do in the privacy of your own home is no body's business" (except for when they wish to outlaw even that). What they are doing is harmful, it's oppressive, it may even be evil (if you will accept the existence of such). Gay children are it's victims. Eventually they grow up, as all children do, and there comes a point where they stop being simple victims and start being active participants.

Gays have a moral obligation to come out. Failing to meet that obligation is an act against the interests of the gay people, and not a trivial offence either. They have an obligation to participate in their community. By this I do not mean they must tear off their shirts at the White Party and dance to House music with their hands above their head. The gay community is a native expression of the purest of democracies, it's character and composition is directly affected when gays "vote" with their participation.

I have had quite enough of "poor Lance Bass" and "poor Patrick Harris" -- they were traitors and thieves. In the grand scheme of things their treacheries were small. Their thefts were not so great that they cannot be made good. I would never say they were beyond rehabilitation or redemption -- it would not be so hard for them to re-pay what they owe to the gay people. Neither would I say that they were innocent victims of a malicious "outing campaign." They were participating in a campaign to make homosexuality invisible.

The public interest in persecuting the traitors is obvious - to prevent members of community from imposing harm to their fellow citizens on grounds of personal advantage. A traitor is a traitor - the proper punishment has always been negotiable, depending on the severity of the crime. The simlpe closeted guy is, of course, solely a coward - this is not a crime, as treason always includes active participation.



That's only because we do not have sovereignty upon those traitors. Seriously, any legislation offers the traitor the chance to escape due punishment by what is called "active repentance" - the criminal can re-think his mistake timely and actively help to minimize the damage. But even if we do not have the legitimation to keep the due process over these de-facto enemies of the gay people, we are not legally impeded from outing and disclosing them as what they are. Moral scruples are, at such circumstances, absolutely misguided.

In a word: yup.

It's amazing to me that even those of who are well out, even those of us who fully support outing bad guys, still behave as if the very worst fate that can befall someone is for lots of people to find out the truth about the life they've been leading.

Work against us, hurt us, betray us... and you get outed. Wow. Aren't we mean? In every other community on the planet, you at least get shunned. In lots of communities you get hanged, or set adrift on an iceberg... *something*.

Not us. We invite you to come down to the bar and begin life as a free man. What utter bastards we are, huh?

Who -- ME?

Well, straight people are lucky in that I hold that they are incapable of treason against the gay people by definition. There are, after all, no straight gay people.

Otherwise I extend it to everyone... I'm mean that way. Politician or beautician, movie star or porn star, it hardly makes a difference; if you are gay and acting against the interests of the gay people you are a traitor.

There are, of course, gradations of criminality. Was Roy Cohn worse than Lance Bass? Almost certainly. Is what Lance Bass did worse than what some closeted guy who lives down the street did? Almost certainly. Is there some point in this spectrum where such behavior is not criminal in character? Without question, no.

The closet is a bad place. Gays ought not be there. I can manage a great deal of sympathy for people who have purely tactical problems with coming out -- there are places in this world where coming out really is quite dangerous. You have a moral obligation to your people to get the hell out of those places and then get the hell out of the closet. Those who willfully warp their own minds into remaining in the closet invariably end up committing quite vile acts against their own people. This applies to that guy who works in the kitchen of the restaurant downtown just as surely as it applies to congressmen or television news anchors. Some people, however, have more power to do evil than others and these should be our primary concern. Gays who participate in the treason that these men do through their silence are just as guilty.

... would you extend this definition of "treason" to people other than politicians? As in movie stars? Singers? Authors? Media personalities?

THE GRAND OLD PARTY OF THE ANGRY CLOSET



I have a modest suggestion: Stop using that tired old excuse containing the word "hypocrisy." Mike Rodgers should not be outing politicians because they are hypocrites. Come on... name me a politician that ISN'T a hypocrite. He should be outing them because they are traitors. Hypocrisy is one thing -- best avoided. Treason is quite a different matter. And really, isn't treason what we're talking about here? And I don't mean some straw-man constitutionally defined treason, some common law treason derived from the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh. Treason is a fine English word that had a readily understood definition long before the lawyers found cause to dabble in semantics.

Forgive me for quibbing with Mr. Rothenstein

And when the abuse of homosexual children was recognized for what it was, modern nations changed....

If we allow religious beliefs to justify human degradation and oppression, we reduce our constitution to nothing but an old piece of paper.

The Kuwaiti Times reports that officials in Kuwait City's Farwaniya educational district are hunting down gay kids in schools and have thus far exposed 41 students. The Kuwaiti Queer Hunters uncovered "seven cases of homosexual boys, and 34 cases of girls "acting like men".

According to the report, the Farwaniya school district has taken the lead in Kuwait in adopting methods for "facing the truth in order to treat" homosexuality, "instead of sticking heads in the sand and claiming "everything is okay." Hunters found four homosexual cases in a secondary school among 4,284 students and three cases in an intermediate school out of 9,340 students.

In the girls' schools there were 26 cases of girls "acting like boys" out of 6,390 students in addition to discovering other cases such as "ultra-admiration between two girls and unethical body contact."