IFC is having a little Gay Pride Celebration! Aren't we grateful? Here's an exceprt from their press release:

"In celebration of Gay Pride, IFC is airing back-to-back gay-themed films every Sunday night at 10 and premiering the new IFC Documentary, 'Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema' by acclaimed filmmakers, Lesli Klainberg and Lisa Ades, on Sunday July 16 at 10pm..."

Yippee! the flicks they'll be airing will include: Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss, Boys Don't Cry, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, High Art, and Love and Death on Long Island.

Wow - look at IFC being all indie and taking such great risks! We should all be so happy and thankful that they're going to air movies about our lives...well, lives kind of like ours. And they're doing it iin the middle of the night on Sundays in July at 10 p.m., after Gay Pride month has passed in a time slot far, far away from primetime when everyone will already be in bed resting before facing another manic Monday. And the movies they're showing! I love our most mainstream gay movies, don't you? The ones that attempt to fit into traditional narrative form and feature movie stars. I hate those crappy actual independents with their incomprehensible plots, vulgar humor, and weirdo camera work.

Oh, and IFC, if you've been too busy patting your own "progressive" back -- yes, I am being facetious, disingenuous, sarcastic, and just plain bitchy.

Gay Pride brings out the homos, but why does it also seem to bring out the homophobes? As you may have heard already, Kevin Aviance was attacked Saturday night by four teens after leaving a gay bar. Here are links to articles on the subject from the New York Times and Reuters, respectively.

Fourth Man Is Arrested After Attack on a Dance Recording Artist in the East Village

Four charged in hate crime attack on gay singer

For those of you who have forgotten what Pride is about, here's your reminder. It's not just a place for politicians to curry favor or an excuse to get wasted, it's a chance to show the world that not only do we not fear bigotry and hatred, but that we are also proud of who we are, what we do in the world, and who we fuck (and how we fuck them).

The Gay Marriage Ban failed to gain the 2/3 majority vote it required to pass on the floor of the U.S. Senate today (that's 66 Senators out of 100).

How did your Senators vote? Check out the roll call after the jump.

If your Senators voted Yea to the ban, I recommend that you write to them and let them know that you will not tolerate an elected official that would write bigotry and discrimination into the United States Constitution. I would especially do this if I was living in a Dirty Thirty state (which I'm not, but perhaps you are).

What's that? You've never written to your Senator and don't know how to do it? Trust me when I tell you that it is oh, so easy in the digital age. Just go to this page on the U.S. Senate website, select your state from the drop down menu, and click on the appropriate links to send your Senators a message. Hell, it's so easy, you might as well write a note of thanks if your Senator voted Nay (which I've just done).

2008 Presidential Campaign need a jump start? Throw some fags at it!

Senate seat in jeopardy? Throw some fags at it!

Poll numbers down? Throw some fags at it!

If you play politics under the sign of the elephant these days - whether a social liberal or social conservative - there seems to be only one solution toward ensuring your political future and that is turning your back on your gay, lesbian, and transgendered constituents and just throwing us and our rights back on the fire.

Republicans ranging from Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (who both "support" gay unions) to President George W. Bush and outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist have encouraged continuing discrimination against gay people in the increasingly desperate lead up to the 2006 midterm elections.