From the Miami New Times' Riptide blog:
In the event that you've had better things to do than watch MTV deteriorate into a steaming sewer of reality programming, you may have missed South Florida's double-time queer cast previewed on Real World Brooklyn. The show's 21st season premiers January 7 and will follow its first-ever transgender character - a Broward male-to-female named Katelynn - along with a gay Miami Beach dolphin trainer (the mammal, not the team) as they "stop being polite and start getting real" in front of a tilted-for-effect camera.Katelynn Cusanelli, 24, is a former Palm Beach Community College student and moved in with the cast three weeks after her gender reassignment surgery. Judging by her Facebook profile, she's now doing a decent job "passing" in Missoula, Montana -- post all of that "getting real." (That will no doubt change once the show airs.) The teaser previews one of the male character's thoughtful reflection: "Dude, she was born a man!" And it promises a hipster Mormon and a macho military guy.
TV and film seem to be sloooowly becoming more comfortable with the idea of trans and cross-dressing characters in non-comedy roles, at least when it comes to guys becoming ladies. (Transamerica, A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story even All My Children) For some reason, though, middle America still doesn't seem able to digest chick-to-dude tranny folk. But, hey, there's always season twenty-two.
From what I hear from GLAAD's Mik Kinkead, we're goint to see some bad behavior/bad language in the first episodes towards the trans housemate, and then we'll see significantly improving behavior as the show goes on.
Frankly, I'll be watching the show to see how corporate America and the housemates handle the trans learning curve process.
Then, I'll be looking to see how the conservative "Christian" press handles it.
The report from an Arizona courtroom on Tuesday about rapper DMX sounded oddly familiar to the raid on Michael Vick's home in 2007 for dog fighting and animal cruelty. The 38 year-old rapper, plead guilty to drug, theft and animal cruelty charges during his day in court. He will serve at least 90 days in jail for his offenses and has agreed not to own any animals in the future.
The report from an Arizona courtroom on Tuesday about rapper DMX sounded oddly familiar to the raid on Michael Vick's home in 2007 for dog fighting and animal cruelty. The 38 year-old rapper, plead guilty to drug, theft and animal cruelty charges during his day in court. He will serve at least 90 days in jail for his offenses and has agreed not to own any animals in the future.
The rapper, whose real name is Earl Simmons was, arrested in August 2008 when police raided his home in Maricopa County after someone reported possible animal abuse. They found the bodies of three dead dogs that had been buried in a shallow grave and another twelve malnourished Pit bull terriers at the house. The starving dogs had been left in the hot desert sun without food or water.
...DMX has featured the Pit bull dogs in his music videos, but there was also a question in the mind of the court whether some of the dogs had been used for dog fighting. In the past the rapper has supported the illegal and inhumane activity and some of the deceased dogs found at his home had bite marks on their bodies.
Speaking of animal cruelty the dogs confiscated from NFL player Michael Vick are discussed in the cover story in the December 29, 2008 issue of Sports Illustrated by Jim Gorant, "The Healing Touch: What happened to Michael Vick's dogs?" What happened was that they were rescued, rehabbed, and many rehomed, others had to go to sanctuaries, others are struggling to trust humans again after being so abused. 47 of the 51 Vick dogs were saved. (Two died while in the shelters; one was destroyed because it was too violent; and another was euthanized for medical reasons.) Twenty-two dogs went to Best Friends, where McMillan and his staff chart their emotional state daily; almost all show steady improvement in categories such as calmness, sociability and happiness. McMillan believes 17 of the dogs will eventually be adopted, and applicants are being screened for the first of those. The other 25 have been spread around the country; the biggest group, 10, went to California with BAD RAP. Fourteen of the 25 have been placed in permanent homes, and the rest are in foster care.One of the sad things about this story is that organizations that purportedly work for fair treatment of animals wanted the Vick dogs destroyed. More after the jump.
PETA wanted Jasmine dead. Not just Jasmine, and not just PETA. The Humane Society of the U.S., agreeing with PETA, took the position that Michael Vick's pit bulls, like all dogs saved from fight rings, were beyond rehabilitation and that trying to save them was a misappropriation of time and money. "The cruelty they've suffered is such that they can't lead what anyone who loves dogs would consider a normal life," says PETA spokesman Dan Shannon. "We feel it's better that they have their suffering ended once and for all." If you're a dog and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals suggests you be put down, you've got problems. Jasmine has problems.It'shorrible that a breed originally bred for the capacity to gamely fight other dogs-- never to be human-aggressive -- is being destroyed by the likes of Vick and DMX. They simply aren't man-eating dogs.
In truth these dogs are among the most people-friendly on the planet. It has to be. In an organized dogfight three or four people are in the ring, and the dogs are often pulled apart to rest before resuming combat. (The fight usually ends when one of the dogs refuses to reengage.) When separating two angry, adrenaline-filled animals, the handlers have to be sure the dogs won't turn on them, so over the years dogfighters have either killed or not bred dogs that showed signs of aggression toward humans. "Of all dogs," says Dr. Frank McMillan, the director of well-being studies at Best Friends Animal Society, a 33,000-acre sanctuary in southern Utah, "pit bulls possess the single greatest ability to bond with people."There's a wonderful photo gallery of people with the rehabbed Vick dogs on the SI.com site.Perhaps that's why for decades pit bulls were considered great family dogs and in England were known as "nanny dogs" for their care of children. Petey in The Little Rascals was a pit bull, as was Stubby, a World War I hero for his actions with the 102nd Infantry in Europe, such as locating wounded U.S. soldiers and a German spy. Most dog experts will attest that a pit bull properly trained and socialized from a young age is a great pet.
...The pit bull's p.r. mess can be likened to a lot of teens driving Porsches -- accidents waiting to happen. Too many dogs were irresponsibly bred, encouraged to be aggressive or put in situations in which they could not restrain themselves, and pit-bull maulings became the equivalent of land-based shark attacks, guaranteeing a flush of screaming headlines and urban mythology.
Some contend that this hysteria reached its apex with a 1987 Sports Illustrated cover that featured a snarling pit bull below the headline beware of this dog. Despite the more balanced article inside, which was occasioned by a series of attacks by pit bulls, the cover cemented the dogs' badass cred, and as rappers affected the gangster ethos, pit bulls became cool. Suddenly, any thug or wannabe thug knew what kind of dog to own. Many of these people didn't know how to train or socialize or control the dogs, and the cycle fed itself.
Related:
* Why Does The Michael Vick Case Hurt Hip-Hop?
I hope you are enjoying New Years Day as we ready ourselves for a new Administration in Washington. I'm writing to ask you to consider making a tax-free, year-end gift to Americans For Truth about Sinistrality (AFTAS) -- a leading group specializing in exposing and opposing the rich and powerful sinistral activist movement. All gifts to AFTAS are tax-deductible for 2009.
Americans For Truth is known and respected by leading dexterity advocates worldwide for our fearless truth-telling on the sinistral issue. Long before the sinistral activist threat to our manual liberties became a hot issue in pro-dexterity circles, AFTAS was warning Americans about the dangerous implications of reinventing "civil rights" based on destructive -- and changeable -- left-handed behavior. We have been blessed as our website (www.sillyasshit.com) received over 600,000 page hits in December alone and over 6 million page hits in 2008. We now have faithful, daily readers all over the world - such as Leo from Italy - who rely on us for information on the sinistral agenda that they cannot get from the liberal, pro-"leftie" media!
Because of our work, we are despised and hated by sinistral militants - although as Christians we do not hate them back! (Check out this ongoing, nasty attack on me by just one of thousands of sinistral websites dedicated to justifying unnatural behavior; this particular activist was infuriated that we had the audacity to link the tragic death of a 26-year-old sinistral man from an auto wreck to his embrace of the unhealthy sinistral lifestyle.)
Every day, AFTAS receives awful and often vulgar or blasphemous letters from sinistral zealots, very strange behavior for a movement espousing "tolerance." Nevertheless, despite all the liberal lies and hatred directed our way, Americans For Truth will never back down in defending right-handedness and your freedom to live by your Biblical or moral convictions. I would sooner go to jail than deny God by celebrating what the Bible clearly calls sin (Ecclesiastes 10:2, "A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left."). Hopefully it won't come to that.
With Barack Obama coming to power, we defenders of moral truth will face many challenges. Few Americans understand the depth of Obama's commitment to the sinistral agenda, for Obama himself counts himself as "left-handed". (Though we hadn't much choice; Sen. McCain also lives an unnatural "left-handed" lifestyle. This shows how difficult our mission is because both major parties seem ignore God's word in Genesis 24:49, "And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.")
He even called for more production of so-called "left-handed" items like notebooks, scissors, and hunting jackets and pledged to use the bully pulpit to promote sinistral adoptions. I pray that Obama will NOT keep his promises to the 'Leftie' Lobby but if he does, we will be ready to mobilize Americans in defense of nature and freedom of conscience.
We must answer the media's deceptions -- Newsweek even ran a cover-story making the absurd claim that the Bible supports sinistral "marriage"! -- as many brainwashed young people are buying into this agenda. May God bless you as together we stand boldly for truth, which is that God prefers the right hand as a symbol of goodness and purity.
Genesis 48:14-18, 14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.
18 And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.
Thank you to all who through your generosity make AFTAS's work possible. God bless.
Dexter Derecha
President, Americans for Truth about Sinistrality
P.S. Everywhere you turn, Christians like Pastor Dick Moron are being demonized for defending right-handedness and God's truth that sinistrality is wrong yet changeable behavior - as proven by the many ex-"lefties" and former sinistrals leading happy lives. We have received a new matching pledge to double $100 gifts as part of are attempt to match a generous $10,000 grant to AFTAS: could you help us with a year-end gift of $1,000, $500, $100, $50 or whatever you can give to support our vital work as a lonely voice for sanity on this issue?
I couldn't help myself. People like LaBarbera cannot imagine same-sex desire, they can only see "homosexual behavior". You can't possibly be "wired" that way, because God would only make everyone "wired" to make more tithers, er, I mean, babies, because it's only "natural", and besides, almost everybody likes opposite sex people, so it has to be "natural"! It's got to be the devil that puts those icky same-sex thoughts in your head, but if you pray real hard, you can learn to like being with the opposite sex! Just like how the teachers used to tie my grandfather's arm behind his back - he eventually was able to write right-handed, no matter how much he "desired" to use his "unnatural" hand. Of course, once he was out of school, it was back to the left hand for gramps - so much for that "ex-leftie" therapy. So as we confront the haters in 2009, take a moment and think about trying to write with your non-dominant hand. Feels weird, hard to imagine, right? Just remember that's how those haters feel about "teh gay", times ten. I'm not saying it's right or justified, but it exists and we must deal with it. How do we get the haters to see homosexuality as natural and irrelevant to personhood and rights as left-handedness?
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1 comments:
Thank you for you kind words and taking the time to comment.
All the best to you and yours.
-tom
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