Mike Tidmus

This tale of courage and pride comes via my friends at HillQuest.com. World Cup inspires lesbian footballers to play with pride www.cnn.com Johannesburg, South Africa (CNN) — The training pitch is a dusty patch of ground used by the local police force as a car park, and the club house is located in a former [...]

Back in May, Washington DC’s crack-smoking, prostitute-frequenting, tax-evading, pillar of morality and former-Mayor, now Councilman Marion Barry threatened civil war if the District of Columbia merely recognized same-gender marriages performed outside the nation’s capitol. The Washington Post reported: “All hell is going to break lose,” Barry said while speaking to reporters. “We may have a [...]

Agence France-Presse, via The Raw Story, is reporting a “sharp increase in anti-gay hate crimes.” Around 17 percent of hate crime victims were attacked because of their sexual orientation, the overwhelming majority, 96 percent, because they were gay or lesbian. That’s nearly an 11% increase. The FBI report indicates that hate crimes against those poor [...]

Dan Savage asks the right question: Remember how anti-Mormon, anti-Christian hate crimes totally skyrocketed in California after Prop 8 because gays and lesbians are so angry and violent and hateful and intolerant? From The Los Angeles Times: Overall number of hate crimes drops in L.A. County but crimes against gays increase, new report says Los [...]

[ updated: see below ] Barry Duke, writing at Great Britain’s Freethinker, is astonished by the degree of hatred toward LGBT Americans espoused by elements of the radical religious right here in the Land of the Free. Here’s a taste from his piece Fry in hell, faggots!: JUST when I thought I had a handle [...]

Anderson Cooper and Panel Discuss Obama’s Gay Rights Record and Hate Crimes Act (video: CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360º via News1News at YouTube) In the video clip above CNN’s Anderson Cooper hosts writer, editor, activist Dan Savage and Towleroad’s roving reporter Corey Johnson for a discussion of the state of LGBT rights and the passage — at [...]

Outside the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach (all photos: Mike Tidmus, fair use encouraged, larger versions available) Eighteen or so San Diego activists descended on the Belly Up Tavern last Saturday evening for a peaceful demonstration. Hopes for a face to face meeting between representatives of the popular Solana Beach night club, Jamaican hate-singer [...]

(graphic: mine) UPDATE (17 October 5:00 pm): It’s now official. A full-scale boycott of the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach has been announced. The Belly Up’s owners might be interested in having a conversation with hotelier Doug Manchester right about now. Details coming up. In the meantime, there will be a demonstration tonight at [...]

Love meets hate on the streets of San Diego (all photos: Mike Tidmus, fair use encouraged, larger versions available) A tiny contingent from the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas paid the City of San Diego a visit today. Infamous for their long history of picketing the funerals of AIDS victims, gay and lesbian leaders, [...]

(graphic: from the Tidmus archives) OK. It’s not officially Phred Phelps Phriday. I made that up. It’s not like our local ayatollah-ette (and you know who I’m talking about) headed downtown and whined and sputtered and spewed and threw yet another prissy-hissy at a City Council meeting, demanding a fancy proclamation welcoming his Westboro Baptist Church [...]

(graphic: Cancel Buju Banton “Rasta Got Hate” website) The Jamaican hate-music singer Buju Banton is scheduled to perform in the San Diego area this coming Saturday night. The popular dance-hall musician has publicly declared from the stage: There is no end to the war between me and faggots! The singer’s history of virulent homophobia and [...]

(photos: MikeTidmus, fair use encouraged) Last night, in commemoration of Matthew Shepard’s life and death eleven years ago, San Diegans assembled for a poignant remembrance in Hillcrest. The observance was especially significant as this week will end with visits to our community by anti-gay hate mongers Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church and Jamaican hate-singer Buju [...]

Scooter, Hillcrest (photo: Mike Tidmus) The week kicks off with a bittersweet Monday. We were cheered, this morning, to learn that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had signed several pieces of GLBT-positive legislation — including the Harvey Milk Day bill — into California law, but tonight we’ll gather to remember the life and tragic loss of gay [...]

Part 1| Gay Activists Heated Debate about Obama’s Gay Rights Speech (video: News1News at YouTube) CNN anchor Don Lemon hosted an après-speech debate with guests Dan Choi, Hillary Rosen, Mike Signorile and Dan Savage that at times got a little testy. In case you missed the speech, which was broadcast live on C-SPAN and CNN yesterday, Steve [...]

It appears President Obama has decided to forego a weekend of golf in San Francisco and hang out in DC over the weekend of the grassroots-netroots-spawned National Equality March. Instead, he’ll clink cubes with the A-gays at a Human Rights Campaign banquet scheduled to take place during the Equality to End AIDS Rally and Vigil, [...]