Pride Month 2023

 I promised my dear husband Tomais to post this great meme on this almost dead blog.

We are celebrating pride again, both in our first and second lives. We do it because we can, for those who cannot, and to aggravate the haters.

Happy Pride Month Everyone!

Orlando, Fl

The homophobe and mass murderer Omar Mateen, 29, committed the worst mass shooting in American history yesterday, June 12th 2016, when he attacked the Pulse nightclub, a LGBT club in the heart of Orlando, armed with an AR-15-type assault rifle and other weapons, killing 49 people and wounding 53.

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Our thoughts at this time must go to the loved ones of the killed and to the wounded and their families. 

Repeat Visits by Martin

Reverend Martin Ssempa, of the Uganda Makerere Community Church, visited with me twice during the past night.

On both occasions I found myself scampering out of my own bed, to get away from him. I woke up laying on the floor, having hit my head on the nightstand with my heart racing wildly from the scare.

Why the homophobic Pastor "Eat Da Poo-Poo" should suddenly wish to raid my dreams I cannot explain.

I am going back to bed again now, hoping my sleep will not be disturbed again.

"I'm Sorry..."

To the guy who punched me tonight for kissing my boyfriend pic.twitter.com/SMVmTpDCdL
— Cole Ledford (@ColeLedford11) November 7, 2014

This news reaches me via Wicked Gay Blog and Gay Star News:

"A US student, who was beaten up for being gay, tweeted a defiant message to his attacker and instantly became a viral sensation.

Ohio student Cole Ledford, who tweets at @ColeLedford11, was beaten up for kissing his boyfriend, and was left with a painful black eye.

Yesterday (November 7), he tweeted a picture of himself and his injuries alongside a text with the words: ‘To the guy who punched me tonight for kissing my boyfriend.’

‘I'm sorry that you called me fag,’ wrote Ledford.

‘I'm sorry you hit me for no reason. I'm sorry that whatever insecurities you have don't allow you to accept others for who they are. I'm sorry that I threaten you.’

‘I'm NOT sorry I'm gay. I'm proud to be this way. I'm proud to be confident enough to love who I love and to love me. I'm proud to have friends and family that love me regardless of me. Honestly, I'm not sorry.’

Since posting the image, Ledford has become somewhat of an overnight star. His tweet was retweeted more than 23,000 times.

He later posted a cute photo of him and his boyfriend with the caption: ‘Boyfriend wanted to say hi and thanks for the support! Off to Cleveland to see the fam! #loveislove #youallrock.’

He also tweeted: ‘overwhelmed by all the support. I have a nasty black eye but other than that, I'm fine. Thank you all so much! Love > Hate.’

He’s also been encouraging his new-found followers to support equality charities if they want to help.

‘If what happened to me makes you want to make a difference please consider donating to the @HRC and help their fight,’ he tweeted."

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Another everyday hero steps out of anonymity for a while to make us all proud. Proud to be humans, to be men and most of all to be gay men.

Is Facebook Homophobic?

Facebook, also lovingly known as F*c*book or FuckFace, is a social networking site located in the U.S.A. with 1.28 billion monthly active users worldwide (March 2014).

I have been using FuckFace on and off, both in my first and second lives, for the last four years or so. I have left Facebook voluntarily twice and I have had my account deactivated or disabled six-seven times (I lost count). Twice Facebook has given me a reason for deactivating/disabling my account ("reason to believe that I was not using real name"), but mostly it has been done without any justification given for their action.

During my time on FuckFace I have experienced several pogroms from the company directed against my LGBT friends, but no such actions have ever - to my knowledge - occurred against any of my straight friends. Neither have I ever heard or read of such concerted actions directed against straight SecondLife avatars on the site (with two individual exceptions, Barcelonamaria and Pieni).

If anyone of you reading this have such information, please do enlighten me as I realize that my knowledge is only empirical, limited and may be slanted ("With eyes sensitive to green", as a line in a Swedish song goes, ones perception of the color green is enhanced but other colors may be obscured.)

However, based on my experience, I am prepared to make the charge that FuckFace is homophobic - or at the very least - applying it's rules in a homophobic way. So my answer to the question I posed in the title of this post is: "Fuck yes, definitely!"

Moving on to another of my pet peeves concerning FuckFace, there is the issue of "real identities". The company seems to completely ignore that there many times are valid reasons for someone not to use the name on their drivers licences. These reasons can range from being a victim in an abusive relationship to actually being better known in different times or circles under a "nom de plume" (pen name), alias or artistic name.

During my online existence over the last twenty years I have, besides Bock McMillan, during periods been best known as Markus Bock, LundaMats, WWW, Lunds nästkåtaste karl or 70244 (among others).

I am Bock McMillan and Bock McMillan is I. We are one and inseparable, the only difference is that one is better known in one of my lives, while the other is better know in the other life. It should be my decision which of my names I use and when, not FuckFaces.

Kiss-In Against Putin in Argentina

Putin is visiting Argentina this week. LGBT rights orgs are staging a kiss-in tomorrow outside the Russian embassy… pic.twitter.com/jtWmjfS7AW
— Andrés Duque (@Blabbeando) July 10, 2014

(via J.M.G.)

"Little Father" is visiting Argentina and will be met by men kissing men and women kissing women outside the Russian embassy.

"Oh my!", as George Takei would say.

...And The Winners Will Be...

It's the annual high point in many gay European men's year tonight, the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. I'm staying away from those parties because I don't like the music one bit and everything gets a bit over-the-top and "gala" for me to feel happy and comfortable.

If there was any justice whatsoever in the world this song would be allowed to compete again this year and would win this time around (mostly because of the song but a little because of the cute guitarist and, to be quite honest, the singer/composer too).


...but as I am not expecting miracles in this unfair and unjust world, my second favorite for winning tonight is this one.

I want the Russians and the other homophobes and transphobes out there to get a wake-up call and have their bigotry rubbed in their faces, so I will vote for it ten times although I don't like the song that much.

In Your Face, Mr. President!

My hero of the day is Neal Gottlieb, ice-cream manufacturer and mountain climber who summited Uganda's highest mountain two days ago, placed a gay pride flag on it's peak and then wrote a message to the hateful homophobe and bigoted President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

April 22, 2014

Dear President Museveni of Uganda,

On April 16, 2014, after a 6-day climb, I summited your country’s tallest peak, Mount Stanley’s 16,753 foot tall Margherita Peak, and mounted a gay pride flag at its summit in protest of your country’s criminalization of homosexuality. Your country’s highest point is no longer its soil, its snow or a summit marker, but rather a gay pride flag waving brilliantly, shining down from above as a sign of protest and hope behalf of the many thousands of Ugandans that you seek to repress and the many more that understand the hideous nature of your repressive legislation.

The wiser of us understand that humans possess certain unalienable rights. These rights include freedom to express oneself, freedom to worship one’s god or none at all and freedom to live and love as one is born.

Despite this, you recently signed legislation into law that allows those born homosexual to be imprisoned for life. This is a disgusting, despicable act that threatens to ruin countless lives. If you had a son, daughter, niece or nephew that was homosexual, would you want her or him to be imprisoned for life? What if you have friends that are closeted homosexuals? Should they be locked up for the rest of their lives? If you were born gay, would you deserve to be imprisoned?

In a country that is dependent on the United States to fund the majority of its HIV/AIDS care, where less than 5% of those with cancer have access to treatment and where those with access to electricity is still a small minority of the populace, does it make any sense to devote precious and limited resources to imprison those who should be free? Does it make any sense that your administration never successfully prosecuted anybody from Amin’s reign of terror that resulted in over 100,000 murders, yet you wish to imprison for life those who have not committed atrocities but are simply born gay?

As the president of a nation you have the opportunity to be a great man and lead your country forward. Instead, you choose to hold your people back like the imperialists, the dictators and the warlords that have held Africa back generation after generation. The people that you wish to imprison are the same people who can help Uganda grow into a great nation.

When you choose to deny the people of Uganda their human rights, you are no better than Amin.

If you don’t like said flag on your highest peak, I urge you to climb up and take it down. However, you are an old man and surely the 6-day climb through the steep muddy bogs and up the mountain’s glaciers is well beyond your physical ability. Your days are more limited than most. Do you want your remaining days to be yet another blight on the history of your nation or will you find the strength to reverse your actions and allow all Ugandans to be free?

With all due respect,
Neal Gottlieb

P.S. This protest action is mine and mine alone. Neither my fellow climbers nor the Ugandan guides and porters had anything to do with it. The Ugandan guides present at the summit as the flag was mounted had absolutely no idea what the flag stands for, nor did they ask.

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And then I sent this tweet to the president who, as it happens, today joined Twitter!

In your face @KagutaMuseveni Man conquers Uganda’s highest mountain and claims it for the gays http://t.co/0DeFzdyuBo via @gaystarnews
— Bock McMillan (@BockMcMillan) April 25, 2014

Thank you @nealhgottlieb you are now officially my superhero! @MIA_UG
— Bock McMillan (@BockMcMillan) April 25, 2014

The Advocate's 2013 Phobie Awards

The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed bi-monthly and available by subscription. The magazine also has a website Advocate.com.

The magazine today announced The Advocate's annual Phobie Awards.

Vladimir Putin (also unlovingly known as "Little Father" on this blog), president of Russia, was - quite correctly in my mind - announced as The Phobie of the Year for 2013.

Robert Mugabe (former freedom fighter turned heinous dictator), president of Zimbabwe, was named second runner up for the title. 

You can read the motivations for the choices and the full list of contenders here: Phobie awards; The 13 Worst People of the Year. 

The Barilla Boycott (Updated)

Poor Guido Barilla, he has had a hell of a long weekend due to his big mouth and airing his thoughtless bigotry.

One would think that chairpersons of large International companies had staffers to coach them and guide them at every step, especially when meeting the media, but somehow it is refreshing to sometimes actually hear one of them speak his honest opinion, even if it is to the detriment of his family and their business.

The guardian.com.uk has this brilliant summary of how it all started going sour for poor Guido on Thursday:

Guido Barilla, who controls the fourth-generation Barilla Group family business with his two brothers, sparked outrage among activists, consumers and some politicians when he said he would not consider using a gay family to advertise Barilla pasta.

"For us the concept of the sacred family remains one of the basic values of the company," he told Italian radio on Wednesday evening. "I would not do it but not out of a lack of respect for homosexuals who have the right to do what they want without bothering others … [but] I don't see things like they do and I think the family that we speak to is a classic family."

Asked what effect he thought his attitude would have on gay consumers of pasta, Barilla said: "Well, if they like our pasta and our message they will eat it; if they don't like it and they don't like what we say they will … eat another."

In response, Aurelio Mancuso, chairman of Equality Italia, accused Barilla of being deliberately provocative. "Accepting the invitation of Barilla's owner to not eat his pasta, we are launching a boycott campaign against all his products," he added.

Although poor Guido, his family and the company have since worked tirelessly trying to rectify his faux pas with a written statement and a video of poor Guido being forced to read the statement (both posted prominently on the company website), these attempts however don't have the same honest ring to them as when he spoke from his heart. They therefore fail miserably in convincing anyone.

Bock in SecondLife recommends all its readers (gays and straight allies) to follow the recommendation of poor Guido Barilla himself and refrain from purchasing any products belonging to that particular group of bigoted misogynists and homophobes. I am joining the Barilla boycott and will certainly not be forcing my pink money on products from a company that doesn't accept me and my kind. The thing I will miss most due to this decision is actually not the pasta, but my preferred "knäckebröd" (the Swedish hard-rye crisp bread) from Wasa.

The brands in the Barilla Group are
Barilla,
Mulino Bianco,
Voiello,
Pavesi,
Academia Barilla,
Wasa,
Harry’s (France and Russia),
Misko (Greece), 

Filiz (Turkey),
Yemina and 

Vesta (Mexico)
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Update September 30, 2013
Josh Rimer, a Canadian YouTube Marketer, has made a parody of poor Guido's insincere apology. My thanks to Anonymous for informing me about it in the comments to this post.

Causing A Disturbance in Second Moscow

The Red Square and the Vasilij Cathedral in Second Moscow looked calm as usual from afar yesterday, but if you got closer you could see that there was something out of the ordinary going on.

A handful of women and three men had gathered outside the cathedral. One of the men was The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls and sovereign ruler of The Southern Enchantment Region with Outer territories. All of us wore the brightly colored knitted balaclavas that have become the trademark of the Russian feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot.

Pussy Riot is of course well known for staging unauthorized provocative guerrilla performances in unusual public locations. Their lyrical themes include feminism, LGBT rights, opposition to the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom they rightfully regard as a dictator.

The gathering had been - or so I believe - organized by Vanessa Blaylock, virtual world artist and blogger, today going under the name Yoko Ono. We were there for a Pussy Riot Solidarity manifestation and I was also there to protest the infamous and homophobic Russian "gay propaganda" laws.

We started crawling all over the place, some of us assembled on a statue while others somehow managed to get up onto the roof of the cathedral itself. A while later I jumped up on the roof of a police car parked nearby.

When my buddy, the sexy, sublime, brilliant, humble etc., etc., Butch Diavolo arrived I started using him as part of my protest by pointing at him and shouting: "Look at Butch Diavolo, he is the incarnation of GAY PROPAGANDA!"

I was at the manifestation for an hour and 49 minutes and had loads of fun. However, my bosom buddy Apmel Goosson, who was there in the guise of his alt Ms. Apmelina Slingshot, reports on his blog "My Avatar's Name Is Apmel" that the real fun didn't start until after I had left. Apparently all the protesters and the Moscowites that had joined them were thrown off the sim and banned.

It seems totally unfair to me that Apmel always gets to have all the fun. That man has been banned in more places than the infamous performance artist SaveMe Oh, whom I for some reason am starting to suspect is non other than Vanessa Blaylock, but it may be my post-election paranoia playing pranks with me.

Flowchart for Homophobes

(From Meme Center via J.M.G.) Click the image to enlarge it for easier reading.

Ukrainian Homophobic Cowards

Cowardly Ukrainian homophobes yesterday attacked Svyatoslav Sheremet, head of Gay Forum of Ukraine, as he met with members of the media to inform them that a scheduled gay-pride parade was cancelled.

Three against one isn't enough, you have to jump also. Effing bastards!

Photo from the Daily Beast, via J.M.G.

Bigoted Christianists Exposed

(via J.M.G.)

This is a video you must watch!

In the video "American Fascist" DarkAntics rips into the self-promoting, bigoted, homophobic, anti-abortionist message of Christianist pastor Dennis Terry as the hating liar he is!

Although the not-so-good pastor is American we are exposed to the same message all over the world.

Henk and Organized Religion

Henk Heithuis 

The picture above shows Henk Heithuis, a young Dutch man in his early twenties. Henk was born in 1936 and was as a child - for unknown reasons - left in the care of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands. While living in a boarding home run by the Church Henk was sexually abused by at least two priests. In 1956 Henk, then 20 years old, reported the molestation to the Dutch police and the priests were convicted for having abused him.

Unluckily for Henk though he would remain in the loving care of the Church until he reached the age of majority in the Netherlands, which at that time was 21. 

The Church sent him to a Catholic psychiatric hospital where he, as court documents confirm, later the same year was castrated “as a treatment for homosexuality and also as a punishment for those who accused clergy of sexual abuse,”

Henk Heithuis was later killed in a car accident in 1958 at the age of 22.

Joep Dohmen, the investigative journalist at the Dutch newspaper The NRC Handelsblad.who uncovered the case, also found evidence that at least nine more young men had been castrated. "These cases are anonymous and can no longer be traced," Dohmen said. "There will be many more. But the question is whether those boys, now old men, will want to tell their story."

Henk, second from left

When my buddy Apmel Goosson first directed my attention to this story (The Telegraph; Dutch Roman Catholic Church "castrated at least 10 boys") I was totally shocked and could not believe it was possible. I felt sick to my stomach by the brutality and the inhumane actions of something that should be - and asserts itself as being - a protection for the weak in a not always kind world. As I thought more about it I became more and more enraged about the profound stupidity, heteronormativity and systematic homophobia that these actions are a symptom of. 

However the Roman Catholic Church is not alone in the total misuse of the trust given to them, the same goes for almost any organized religion. The fault lies not with the original prophets (Jesus, Mohammed etc). but in the way their teachings have been abused by interpretation by their followers and the organizational builders.

In order to grow strong, powerful, influential and rich every religious organisation of any size has always teemed up with the civilian authority. They have become their willing mouthpieces and propaganda machines with a joint mission; To keep the people in line.

Organized religions have always lent themselves to be well organized hate groups working viciously with excluding, condemning, repressing, persecuting or keeping in check

• the heathens or non-believers (Jews, Christians/Muslims, or believers in any other faiths except "the one true faith") which could be slaughtered, slaved or used like cattle if they did not convert to "the one true faith"
• the savages or other cultures (Jews again of course, Romanies, Africans, Asians, Native people all over the world), see above
• the poor and disenfranchised, should know their place, shut up, work hard and breed many children - rewards for being good and faithful would be collected in the hereafter/heaven/paradise, "you will get pie in the sky when you die", "72 virgins in paradise"
• the women, "women are dirty when they menstruate and have given birth", "women are dumb and cannot think properly or be relied upon to take care of themselves, they must be taken care of by their fathers, husbands or brothers", "women cannot be clergy" etc. etc. see above 
• the sexual "deviants", i.e. non-heterosexual, "just don´t do it" or "you are better off dead"
• etc. etc.

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Ugh, rereading what I have written so far I feel like a poorer variation of Karl Marx with his "Religion is the opium of the people". I will leave it anyway.

Believe me, I am not a communist and have nothing against religion in itself, just the hierarchical superstructure it gets when it gets organized and misinterpreted by the followers of the original prophets.

Organized religion - of any creed, although I am mainly thinking of Christianity and Islam - are the longest lasting, most widespread, most powerful and most vicious hate groups in our world.

Most mainstream Lutheran Churches seem to have backed off a little, but the Roman Catholic Church and the growing Pentecostal movement with its subsidiaries (among other Word of Life) seem to be still going strong in excluding anyone they do not consider worthy or wholesome or complying to their heteronormative belief system.

Henk to me represents one of the untold, unseen and unknown victims of the power mongering, money-grabbing and repressive forces that are unleashed by these organisations.