Mike Tidmus

Bonbons! Is there any greater delight for the thinking person’s thinking person on a fabulous Sunday morning? Before diving into that steaming mound of freedom toast with real Canadian maple syrup and butter, here are some unmissiable morsels from across the vast internets. Bonjour et bon appétit!

C. Flanagan and B. Schwarz : Showdown in the Big Tent

The attitude of white, liberal Hollywood toward African- American churches has long been one of almost participatory respect. Whether it’s Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard, or the Blind Boys of Alabama on the iPod, or a serious — reverential — mention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference over dinner, the understanding is clear: the black church is a foundational institution in the history of the civil rights struggle, and its music (although it makes reference to Jesus Christ as a personal savior) is smoking hot.

It was only recently that the A-list discovered that this love is unrequited. Last month, Proposition 8 passed, making gay marriage illegal in California, and the demographic that lent insult to injury was the state’s African-American voters.

(via UK Gay News)

Earl Ofari Hutchinson : My Gay Problem, Your Black Problem

LOS ANGELES – Gay activists and blacks showed their ugly side during two Prop 8-related events last week in Los Angeles.

Blacks were reportedly cursed and taunted with the “N” word on the fringe of one of several massive protest marches held recently in Los Angeles against the passage of Proposition 8. That’s the initiative that encodes in the California Constitution wording that defines marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.

A few days after that, several blacks took the microphone at a town hall on black and gay relations and lambasted gay activists for comparing the gay rights struggle to the black civil rights struggle. One of the speakers emphasized the point by spewing out the words “sissy,” the “F” and the “P” words to refer to gays. Some in the audience gasped, but other blacks didn’t flinch at the epithets.

Eli Sanders : Milk and the Idea of California

This idea of California — which, as the movie powerfully shows, gave comfort to gay Americans far beyond the state’s borders, including a number of desperate young gay teenagers who reached out to Milk from their homes in conservatives states as he grew more famous — had been temporarily disrupted in 1978 by the possibility that Prop. 6 might pass.

The idea survived. But this year, that idea of California was decisively punctured by the passage of Prop. 8. The resulting alarm, not just among gay Americans, but among all Americans who take comfort from the notion of California as a haven of cultural tolerance, is what led to the protests in hundreds of American cities against the measure. A home had been lost.

Doug Ireland : A Pioneer’s Life Richly Rendered

When Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) broke free of the stifling world of upper-class Victorian England into which he was born, his rejection of its cosseted, impossibly mannered life was total. In his time, he became the most famous apostle of a wide-ranging revolt against sexual hypocrisy and the straightjacket of class divisions in human interpersonal relations. And Carpenter’s courageous contributions over a long life made him one of the most important precursors of gay liberation, one whose influence spanned countries and continents.

The Guardian : Frames of mind

Philip Pullman on Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882)

Few paintings are so full of ambiguity. Ambiguity, or mystery, or uncertainty, though there is no uncertainty about the title, and the painting seems to show us precisely that: a bar at the theatre, or music hall (there isn’t an exact English equivalent), known as the Folies-Bergère.

And the Folies-Bergère is a place of pleasure, where everything necessary for a good time is to be had. Laid out for us to inspect on the marble counter are bottles of champagne, of beer, of various liqueurs; there is a dish of oranges with the light gleaming on their waxy skin; and there is a barmaid waiting patiently to serve us with whatever we desire – including, perhaps, herself.

(via Azra Raza at 3 Quarks Daily)

Peter Beaumont : Amsterdam’s brothels and cannabis cafés furious over mayor’s ‘clean-up’

Amsterdam has long been famed for its relaxed approach to prostitution and soft drugs, making the Dutch city one of the most popular destinations for tens of thousands of Britons on stag and hen parties.

But all that may be about to change. As part of a major ‘clean-up’ of the city centre, the local authorities yesterday unveiled plans to close half of the brothels and the little coffee shops where cannabis can be bought and smoked, prompting warnings that they will cost the city dear as visitors head elsewhere.