Results tagged “gays”

A small but well-publicized group of homophobic, anti-Semitic Baptist zealots from Kansas brought their dumb message of hate to Manhattan this weekend, standing around with inflammatory signs like "The Jews Killed Jesus" outside a West Village synagogue that caters to gays and lesbians. But instead of straightening out the gays and bringing the Jews to Jesus, these hateful hayseeds actually succeeded in helping out one of their targets, the Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, which turned the demonstration into a fundraiser!

SNL is back! Not sure if the exclamation point is necessary, but their 33rd season kicked off this past weekend with some good stuff. LeBron James was host and Kanye West was the musical guest -- West actually showed up in a good sketch, though oddly enough not this musical one. The below is a ballad to the President of Iran called "Iran So Far" delivered by Andy Samberg and Maroon 5's Adam Levine. "You can't deny there's something between us. I know you say there's no gays in Iran, but you're in New York now, baby!"

The Russian bathhouse on East 10th Street gets a very bad rap from a former employee who claims all sorts of nonsense was going on there. Susan Shellogg, a massage therapist/aesthetician/reflexologist, filed a lawsuit against the Russian and Turkish Baths; the Sun reports Shellogg says she was fired "because of her gender and her refusal to consent to clients' sexual demands, and in retaliation for complaints about sexual harassment and a hostile work environment she made to the bathhouse's owners." Eep. And the Post has some of the crazy details:

Her court papers say that when she complained to the bosses "that male employees openly fondled male customers during treatments in open common areas," they told her it was "good for business" and "the gays were bringing in all the money." Only men were allowed on Sunday mornings, which was referred to as "Gay Day" or "Sausage Fest," the suit says, with male employees and clients being "urged and encouraged to engage in homosexual activity."

Continue reading "East Village Baths Embroiled in Steamy Lawsuit"

Gays for Giuliani: CNN's Jeanne Moos reports on the latest satirical endorsements.

Start sharpening your spurs, gays and gals, because Jake Gyllenhaal is coming to Broadway! If director Mike Nichols has his way, you’ll soon have your chance to stalk the sensitive heartthrob as he flees through the stage door of Farragut North, a new play about presidential campaign hardball penned by a former Howard Dean staffer. According to today’s Post, Gyllenhaal (who made his stage debut in a Maggie Gyllenhaal-directed production of Cats in their parents’ living room) is all-but-confirmed for the cast. But before that, Nichols will shepherd other boldface names to Broadway with a spring revival of Clifford Odets’s The Country Girl, about a washed up wino actor and his beleaguered wife. With Morgan Freeman and our personal favorite Frances McDormand rumored to play the couple, this has Compelling Theatrical Event written all over it.

The firing of Don Imus has caused many to take a look at language in not only media, but music. As previously mentioned, Al Sharpton is one looking to clean up what we hear, and yesterday he led a march against racist and sexist lyrics, targeting the major labels. Around 400 others joined him in a march around midtown, outside companies like Universal Music Group. The topic reportedly carried over to a private gathering at the Apollo later on, for what would have been James Brown's 74th birthday.

Millions of people marched in and watched the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade on Fifth Avenue yesterday.

At 11AM tomorrow, the Saint Patrick's Day Parade will start at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue and will travel up Fifth Avenue to 86th Street. And, keeping with the grand tradition of controversy regarding who does or doesn't march in the parade, parade organizer John Dunleavy has ruffled more than a few FDNY feathers by moving the FDNY from the front of the parade (behind the NYPD) to the middle of the pack; if you want to see what that means, check out this Line of March PDF - they are after a bunch of high school bands! Local politicians, such as City Councilman Miguel Martinez (who heads the council's fire and criminal justice committee) suggested parade-goers boo Dunleavy at the parade. Even City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is marching in a parade in Dublin because the city's St. Patrick's Day parade excludes gays, thinks Dunleavy is wrong.

The MTA released some St. Patrick's Day rules for the Long Island Railroad: "In an effort to maintain orderly travel for our customers attending the St. Patrick's Day Parade, alcoholic beverages will not be permitted." Newsday reports that alcohol will be banned all Saturday (March 17) and early Sunday and that any alcoholic beverages will be confiscated. Given that there doesn't seem to be a fine or penalty attached to having alcoholic beverages, we bet people will still try to sneak it in. We wonder if the MTA will be making sure more LIRR are on duty to enforce this.

Third Avenue, by Joe Holmes.

On Wednesday, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standard, which guides the Conservative Judaism movement, voted to allow gay rabbis and gay unions. While the move was hailed by some and denounced by others, the other mechanics of how this ruling will work. From the NY Times:

But in a reflection of the divisions in the movement, the 25 rabbis on the law committee passed three conflicting legal opinions — one in favor of gay rabbis and unions, and two against.

Continue reading "Gay Rabbis and Gay Unions May Be Okay"

Grocery, Flatlands, by gkjarvis.

With the NJ Supreme Court decision that gay couples should have the same rights as heterosexual couples just one day old, it's still unclear whether or not New York will accept a NJ same-sex civil union or marriage, though it has with other states. Mayor Bloomberg said, "New York City has a policy of accepting bona-fide marriages from other jurisdictions. I've always believed it's not the government's business whom you marry." And City Council Speaker Quinn who is openly gay said, "New York State's Legislature must also act to address this injustice in New York so that all citizens are treated equally on both sides of the Hudson River."

Andrew Friedman is co-director of Make the Road by Walking, a Brooklyn-based community-based organization founded in 1997 on the belief that the center of leadership must be within the community. Since then, the organization has grown dramatically and now includes over 600 members, a member-elected board composed of low-income community residents, and a staff of twelve. Over the past 5 years, MRBW has achieved many improvements to the lives of Bushwick residents. They pushed New York City to conform to federal law and provide translation services to non-English speakers in food stamp, welfare, and Medicaid offices, and got dozens of neighborhood employers to pay more than $100,000 in illegally withheld wages to garment workers.

After last year's mess of an awards show and this year's joke of nominations (where is love for Lauren Graham, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences?), we were going to swear off this year's Emmys. But then we realized Conan O'Brien was hosting, so we must watch and liveblog. And there's the hope of a good Steve Carrell bit, not to mention awkward reaction shots of Candy and Tori Spelling during the Aaron Spelling tribute.

The big real estate news of the day is that the empty lot on the southeastern corner of West 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue - right near the movie theater on the south side of 42nd Street - will finally get developed. The NY TImes' coverage of the deal starts off with:

A New Jersey developer plans to build a $1 billion office tower on the last parcel in the 13-acre Times Square redevelopment district, bringing an end to the 26-year effort to clean up an area that was known as the Deuce when it was a motley collection of movie houses, sex shops, T-shirt stores, pimps and drug dealers.

San Francisco is proud host of a new reality show called "How to Get the Guy" that's unfortunately not a descendant of Will and Grace, Queer Eye, The L Word, American Idol etc. Also a biodefence lab is coming to the East Bay and SFist teaches wine pairing.

Linda Simpson, Media Queen

Next Friday will be a big one for the new City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. It's St. Patrick's Day, and the Speaker usually marches in the parade, alongside the Mayor and other city officials. But Quinn is in the process of deciding whether she will attend, because of the parade does not allow gay groups to march. Quinn was arrested in 1999 for trying to march in the Bronx St. Patrick's Day parade, and has criticized the Mayor for marching in the "exclusive" Fifth Avenue parade. Gay activists are hoping that her presence as a lesbian public official will pave the way for Irish LBG groups to march, but as Newsday points out the parade organizers are fine with gays marching - as long as they are not part of an organized gay group - we doubt the parade will change that easily. But we will Quinn will march - but maybe with an upside-down clover in protest. At any rate, she'll keep us on our toes till the day itself - she'll decide then.

Dude-- we were in LA for five days and when we returned everything was different! The temperature dropped like 50 degrees, and according to this poster we saw outside the Prince Street N/R station, the Catholic church is now cool with BOTH gay sex and condoms. Way to go guys-- keep reaching for that rainbow!

There's an absolutely brilliant Observer article by Choire Sicha about the new world order of gay cruising and hook-ups in New York City. Places that were once good for trysts are now being overrun by everyone, which is just like the straight people to appropriate what the gay love! The article looks at the intersection of the city's public planning with the evolution of the city's gay male population - it's like Cruising meets The Power Broker, with a splash of Emily Post (an invite to a party said, "Don’t go into the basement w/o checking your wallet. It’s hard to avoid pickpockets when your pants are on the floor.”)! Among the observations and predictions are the suggestions that the World TradeCenter's Memorial Plaza could become "Pick Up Central," the High Line as another cruising magnet and that bohemian Manhattan (and perhaps Brooklyn as well) is dead. Well, this means only one thing: The gays must flock to the Bronx, Queens or Staten Island. Or Baltimore, where it's still seedy?

Or at least Connecticut will recognize civil unions of gay couples. Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell signed the bill into law yesterday, without court pressure. Even though some lawmakers are upset that a bill approving gay marriage wasn't passed (which is what Massachusetts has), still many gay rights advocates are pleased with the bill. And of course there's opposition who is planning protests and vowing that lawmakers that voted for the bill will face challenges when they are up for reelection. Gothamist wonders if this will mean NYC's gay couples will move to Connecticut to take advantages of what this means (various tax and insurance benefits, family leave), especially since the city's gay marriage question is in legal limbo. Will gays have their main residence in Connecticut, but keep a pied a terre in the city?

Possibly sounding even more of a death knell in Brooklyn than the invasion of hipsters or an Ikea, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz has invited Cracker Barrel representatives to look at the biggest borough as a possible venue for a new restaurant. Of course, the Southern chain's history of discriminating against, oh, blacks, women, gays and lesbians, has some city politicians up in arms: City Councilman Charles Barron tells the Daily News (who points out that Barron is a former Black Panther), "Is Marty out of his mind? That's ridiculous! I think it's insulting to our community that he would open his arms and take them on a tour without even consulting us. Does he know their reputation? Does he know their history?" Markowitz, slightly nonplussed, said, "I didn't know about their past; I've never been in a Cracker Barrel. I've already called and invited them. I can't now pick up the phone and say, 'Go, get out of here.'" This sounds like an awesome glimpse into what goes on in Borough President's offices: Cold calling companies to visit without researching them thoroughly.

This isn't the first time the Mayor has been accused of having schizophrenic ideas about gay marriage; Gothamist just thinks it's kind of weak to fall under the "we want to avoid the confusion learned from SF" excuse, because the mayor clearly believes in supporting gay rights - he's just worried about his supposed Republican base and Governor Pataki. Too bad this issue is turning up in an election year - Gothamist has a feeling that Mayor Bloomberg might have done something interesting if this came up next year.

And it's Fashion Week in New York, starting next Friday!

The Star-Ledger has an extensive section on McGreevey, including some investigative reporting on his governorship. And speaking of gays, the NY State Supreme Court ruled that Mayor Bloomberg must carry out a law that he vetoed and the City Council overrode - one that requires businesses the city works with to provide domestic partner benefits.

If anyone has photos from the Gay Pride parade, let Gothamist know in comments! And if it's Gay Pride Parade in 2004, it's means one of the Queer Eyes is present: Here are Wireimage photos of Carson Kresley at the parade, wearing what looks like ugly shorts.

The Medium's website was reportedly wiped out by a hacker Friday; now, there is a message saying its bandwidth has been exceeded. Rutgers' main daily is The Daily Targum.

Related: Listen to a .wav (scrolle to Ralph) of Ralph Wiggum saying, "The leprachaun told me to burn things!" and check out other Irish references on The Simpsons.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzerrefused to stop the gay marriages in New Paltz, saying, "I have no problem with gay marriage. I think the law has moved to a point where people are comfortable that [marriage] can be extended to people of the same sex." Spitzer had been asked by Governor Pataki to stop the marriages. So the real debate will be in Albany, leaving it to Governor Pataki to struggle with what to do; according to the Daily News, Pataki "defied calls from his Conservative Party allies to push for a state Defense of Marriage Act, which would shield New York from having to recognize other states' gay marriages." However, Governor Pataki, with other political aspirations in mind, may fold to appeal to a conservative base.