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A large and lively collection of the best of La Parola, 1990 to
present. Here you'll find News, opinion, satire, commentary, reflections,
and one or two very special poems.
If you are predisposed to feel that gays and lesbians have "an
axe to grind" in drawing attention to inequalities especially
directed against them, our theme in La Parola shows that everyone
is materially affected by this injustice. But this material won't
help you pretend the problem has gone away. It is one thing to put
our differences aside, still another to disavow them.
You can find a complete Index
of these articles in the AutoList "Menu" panel of the
La Parola main main index page. (To go to the La Parola index page,
click the "La Parola" logo in the banner at the top of
this page or any other La Parola content page.)
The main index also offers summaries of La Parola subdepartments
and recent articles posted since roughly the year 2000.
The following abstracts summarize and link to postings to this
site between about 1993 and 1999.
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Coming
Out - 10 Years: For the most part, I have always avoided
references to my own personal experience in these pages in the
past, though that is the preferred method through which gays
shared issues and experiences in all the peer groups I've attended
and facilitated. I still think a newsletter is not necessarily
the proper forum for a journal of personal experiences and tribulations.
On this occasion, I'd like to share an exception.
It's never been my intent to keep my own personal experience
a secret. I have written frequently about national and world
issues, because I am a citizen, but I especially owe the gay
community a lot. I am a gay man, and part of that community,
and always will be.
I think that on the tenth anniversary of my own coming-out,
it is time to say something about who I am and what I've experienced
-- personally.
Alex Forbes Tuesday, December 7, 1999
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Notes
From Uncle Tubbs: Happy Fourth Of July, neighbor! We just
heard from our favorite uncle. He and "the little woman"
are celebrating the Fourth, and, as usual, he takes the time
to expound on his favorite patriotic subject. That would be,
of course, anybody else's politics. Read Uncle Tubbs in Quick
Takes as he slams those "psalm-singin' sleaze bags",
as he calls them. Sunday, July 4, 1999
But don't take Uncle Tubbs too seriously. He
just likes to go putting ideas in people's heads. Just in
time for the Fourth, too ... enjoy!
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Disney
Hissy Fits Here we go again. The Moral Monopoly crowd
is after Disney again for the same old sin - that is, extending
the same red carpet to Disney World for gays and lesbians
as for other Americans. We have excepts from a splendid article
in the San Jose Mercury News, in which writer Bob Lieder puts
a new angle on the perennial harassment of gays and lesbians
by the so-called Christian Right: "sin deserves punishment",
and the Christian Right is into punishment in a really big
way.
We also have edited excerpts from an analysis
of my own. Is the punishment modality of the Christian right
just the tip of the iceberg? I think so, but the full analysis
of this powerful movement could take years. Until then, at
least, better to let them take enough rope to hang themselves.
Sunday, June 20, 1999
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The
NRA At Harvard Law Here you go. The head of the world's
largest gun lobby takes on the minds and the hearts of America's
"best and brightest" -- on the subject of political
correctness and a new theory of "social subjugation".
Are you a man or a coward? Read the NRA's spin on "the
new McCarthyism". In COMMENTARY. Sunday, March 21, 1999 |
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Despising
Gays and Other Delights, Article and documentation: Outside
civil liberties and "gay activist" groups, why is
the "libertarian right" so silent on second-class
citizenship for gay and lesbian Americans? You might not know
this, but the Libertarian Party actually has a gay equal-rights
plank in their 1994 party Platform -- and it's the best-kept
secret since the WWII "atom bomb" project.
We wrote the head of a leading "think tank"
to ask why a fundraiser letter on behalf of life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness included material containing
profoundly negative typecasting of gay Americans. After over
40 days, we received no answer. Read for yourself our letter
to Dr. David Kelley, of the Institute for Objectivist studies,
and make up your own mind. Sunday, February 28, 1999
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The
Tinky Winky Conspiracy We examine the stunning new charges
of Jerry Falwell and company, as they question the sexual orientation
of the flagship cartoon character of Itsy Bitsy Entertainment.
Friday, February 12, 1999 |
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Judeo-Christian
Week: We analyze the Arizona brouhaha over National Bible
Week. Did governor-elect Jane Hull go too far, and what on earth
was she thinking? Talking Crow Productions© looks at the
issues, the court decision, and the scariest keyword of the
religious right: "Judeo-Christian principles". In
Commentary. Sunday,
November 22, 1998 |
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Stealth Candidate
: Republican Stealth candidate for U.S. Senate Matt Fong
turns out to be Lou Sheldon's main man. Did it take Matt's
$50,000 donation to Traditional Values Coalition to do it,
or did it help that he and "Rev. Lou" see eye to
eye on religious-right extreme politics, and have been friends
for a long, long time?
Quotes from - and links to - the San Francisco Examiner expose.
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Defense Of Marriage:
Editorial. Whether you're gay or "straight", this
essay has something for you. We show how the "Defense"
bill paves the way for a straightjacket on heterosexual partnerships
and marriage, while gays make an end-run around it as we always
have. This essay is really about protecting everyone's rights,
which is also why the essay is bound to ruffle some feathers.
If you're very pro-establishment, and you've thought about
that carefully, you're not going to like this essay one little
bit ...
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Impressions of Filoli
: Essay. The GIA toured The Filoli house (think "Dynasty"),
and its acres of gardens in the gentle hills of Woodside,
California. If you haven't been there, it's probably not what
you'd anticipate. We went with some reservations, but ended
up charmed and delighted. We'd do it again. Our fearless La
Parola editor was inspired to put down some thoughts about
large, expensive estates and a possible relationship to modern
living.
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Unabomber : Editorial
Opinion. If you were looking for a possible Robin Hood hero
behind Unabomber, it's unlikely you'll find one in his 35,000
word "manifesto". Assignment: In less than 400 words,
try to capture the focus and direction of this person, and
the meaning, if any, of the "manifesto" for America.
Based on his preferred method of conducting business, and
a reading of the full 35,000 word text, here's our call on
the man, his papers and his bombs, in the October 1995 issue
of La Parola.
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Newt's Living
Room: Editorial. Commentary on the televised July 1995
Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco. Many people, both
within and outside the lesbian/gay community, have strong
opinions about these irreverent and gala annual events. Here's
an "insider's perspective", for readers who sometimes
get that hinkey feeling that some other folks worry way too
much about what channels we watch on TV. Why don't they just
change the channel? Find out -- in the July 1995 issue of
La Parola.
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Stalking the Elusive Talking
Crow: Satire. Some time ago, a research facility in Seattle
released one of those much-vaunted "scientific surveys"
purporting to show that the American lesbian/gay community
was far smaller, by about a power of ten, than consistently
estimated by the community of "10 Percenters" itself,
and by established institutes like Kinsey. "Friends Of
Dorothy", particularly those of us who do volunteer work
in our community, know that the chances of a respondent "coming
out" to a pollster are far less than certain, and, at
some point in all our earlier lives, virtually impossible.
Written in May 1993, we enjoyed this one so much that we
made "Talking Crow Productions" our editorial trademark,
and have stuck with this ever since. Forthwith, our take on
the survey.
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Black Elk Speaks: Essay.
Partly book review, partly analogy and metaphor , this reflective
essay was written during a troubled and discouraging time
for the rainbow community, and a dark, somber mood projects
heavily in this essay. Nonetheless, it speaks to troubles
of a beleagered people, though not as eloquently as Black
Elk spoke to the more immediately life-threatening troubles
facing the remnants and spirit of his own people.
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For the book, look for: BLACK ELK SPEAKS, told through
John G. Neihardt (Flaming Rainbow), © 1932, 1959,
1972 by John G. Neihardt, University of Nebraska Press.
298 pp, ISBN 0-8032-8359-8.
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Haypress Creek: Poem.
A short retrospective love poem which looks to both past and
future at the same time.
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Accountable
Victims: Letter about AIDS."They bring it upon themselves".
We examine the meaning of "holding them accountable",
an ancient excuse for almost every major pogram in the last
two thousand years. Published in the San Mateo Times June 1,
1995. |
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MARTINA!:
Article. We wrote this article in 1993 for La Parola. Reviewing
it recently, we're surprised we didn't get this short piece
into the Online La Parola earlier. |
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Are Gays
Christian?: Letter. In which we respond to a letter-writer
who questioned whether gays could be Christian. The question,
of course, is whether bigots can be Christians, which is exactly
what we asked San Mateo Times readers. Published July 10, 1995. |
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CyberNet
Gay Bashing?: Alert. A controversy over a "gay bashing
letter", in which academics, the press and civil libertarians
become confused over the difference between Free Speech and
advocacy of random, life-threatening violence against any and
all gays. |
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Poisoning
The Well: Letter. Assemblyman Pete Knight (R, Pasadena)
introduced a bill to prohibit State of California recognition
of gay marriages, even when performed in other states. The following
letter to the San Mateo Times was published on January 24, 1996.
The bill passed handily in the California Assembly. It is expected
to win a somewhat more quiet Senate ratification, and to be
shot down in a higher court. (The Hawaii legislature has tabled
committee hearings on their own bill affirming same-sex marriage,
until next year.) |
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Defining Away Gay Rights:
Letter. Our local paper, which normally presents a balanced
and rational view on minority rights in the USA, published
a guest column by Charley Reese of the Orlando Sentinel. You
can read a scan of the source column, It
depends on how we define 'rights', and our response, here
in La Parola ONLINE. Published in the San Mateo County Times
on June 12, 1996.
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Private
Lives, Public Denial: Article. Can the gay community benefit
from the experience accumulated in other communities, such as
that of Black Americans? If so, what about the "straight"
community? Are we all too far into our self-imposed enclaves
to notice when something remarkable happens next door? Here's
our take on "White Like Me", a close-to-home story
appearing in the June 17th New Yorker. |
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Cheers For Disney
Inclusiveness: Letter. The Southern Baptists have asked
Disney Corp. to drop its support for gay/lesbian inclusiveness
in all Disney enterprises, and instead support the homophobic
pseudo-church agenda dictated to Disney by the pushy, fussy,
noisy, self-important Baptist front organizations. You can
smell infiltrators Ralph Reed and Lou Sheldon between the
lines, and it ain't pretty, kids. You can read their letter
to the offices of Disney's Eisner here: Alert: Disney
and the Southern Baptists.
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Equal Treatment
For All: Letter. The following letter was published, with
minor editing, on October 14th 1996 in the San Mateo County
Times. This was written in response to another letter, clearly
defamatory to gays and lesbians, which attacked both gays and
gay marriage under the guise of decency and religious belief.
(On October 15, The Times published another defamatory letter,
which claimed AIDS was caused by "immoral homosexual practices".)
It remains very disturbing that the Times would favor so many
examples of unadorned bigotry, which, if directed against any
other minority, would cause a public uproar.
If you agree it is a bad idea for newspapers to print obviously
defamatory letters in the name of "opinion", write
the San Mateo County Times and tell them so.
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Examine
the Issue of Rights: Letter.This
letter was published 2/14/97 in response to a writer who praised
Cal Thomas for condemning gay and liberal stridency. Thomas
is a syndicated columnist writing in Virginia, whose narrow-minded
messages of hate and intolerance regularly fill the editorial
page of the San Mateo County Times. The Times did a good job
of editing my letter. |
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