Variety reports that The Oprah Winfrey Show will officially end production, with the last episode to air Sept. 9, 2011. That’s still two years away, and will mark 25 years for the trend maker on national TV.
My concern: What will this do to Kathy Griffin’s act? To David Letterman’s monologue?
The H1N1 vaccine has become more available in Dallas County.
The Walgreens stores on McKinney Avenue and Cedar Springs Road both report availability. While available, the vaccine is offered to anyone who would like to receive it, not just those in high-risk groups. The McKinney Avenue store is by appointment only, but they have no appointments left before Thanksgiving. The Cedar Springs store is walk-in from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Kroger on Cedar Springs and the Walmart Neighborhood Market on Central Expressway near Hall Street have vaccine available and accept walk-ins.
Uptown Physicians Group has received an allotment of the vaccine, but they are reserving the doses for their patients only.
Dr. Steven Pounders has H1N1 vaccine available for existing patients. Appointments are necessary.
Dr. Nicolas Bellos’ office said to check next week.
Dr. Jaime Vasquez’s office has not received their allotment yet.
— David Taffet
— admin
When Bill Nelson and William Waybourn owned Crossroads Market, some of our friends were getting sick. They lost their jobs and they were going hungry. Bill put a box out front for food donations and later moved it to a shelf in the back of the store. He tacked a sign to a shelf that read, “Leave a can. Take a can.”
That’s how the food pantry was born. In 1985, the pantry moved from a shelf in Crossroads Market to the space behind TapeLenders.
In last week’s paper, John Wright reported on the increasing need and decreasing donations at the North Texas FoodBank and the AIDS Food Pantry.
In this week’s paper, Dallas Voice begins a six-part series on holiday giving. But rather than just report on what others are doing, we decided to do something ourselves. We began our own food drive for the food pantry this week.
Although we’re just a small office, we can make a difference. We invite others in our building to contribute. Our readers and advertisers are invited to participate as well. If our office is more conveniently located to you than the food pantry, please stop by. Drop off a few cans. Greg and Chance in classifieds sit up front. Terry’s at the front desk. We’re on the third floor of the gray building behind Zippers (4145 Travis St.)
Or start a canned food drive in your own store, office or among your friends! The need is greater than ever.
From the Resource Center’s web site:
— David Taffet
— admin
Just got this press release from the office of U.S. Rep Tammy Baldwin, the lesbian Democrat from Wisconsin:
“The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today (Wednesday, Nov. 18) passed the Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act (H.R. 2517), authored by Congresswoman Baldwin (D-WI). Under the legislation, same-sex domestic partners of federal employees living together in a committed relationship would be eligible for health benefits, long-term care, Family and Medical Leave, and federal retirement benefits, among others. The domestic partners of federal employees would also be subject to the same responsibilities that apply to the spouses of federal employees, such as anti-nepotism rules and financial disclosure requirements.”
There is a long way to go, but we are making progress. Wish I could vote for Tammy Baldwin.
Another day, another horrifying report of violence against a gay teenager.
Jayron Martin, a 16-year-old high school freshman from Houston, tells KHOU-TV that he was chased down after school and beaten with a metal pipe last week while eight classmates stood around and watched.
“All they kept saying was, ‘We going to get you. We going to fight you,’ and all that and so when they started coming after me they were like, ‘You’re not going to be gay anymore.’ They just kept hitting me,” Jayron said.
The beating finally ended when a neighbor pointed a shotgun at the attackers and cocked it. Martin is lucky; he escaped with only a concussion and cuts and bruises on his arms and hands. But the worst part of this story is that Martin had warned two principals and his bus driver that the attack was going to happen, and they apparently did nothing to stop it. One of Martin’s attackers, another 16-year-old, has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault. Martin’s bus driver has been placed on administrative leave, and the school district is investigating. Meanwhile, Martin’s mother said she wants to move out of the neighborhood and the school district. She’s also retained an attorney and is considering a civil lawsuit.
“When the child does what they’re supposed to do and the adult doesn’t, what are you supposed to say then? How do you make him feel comfortable? How do you give him back that sense of security,” Lakenya Martin said.
Local activists are organizing a candlelight vigil to begin at 6:15 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, at the intersection of Cedar Springs Road and Throckmorton Street. The vigil is being held in memory of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, a gay teen murdered last week in Puerto Rico, and Jason Mattison Jr., a gay teen murdered last week in Baltimore. The Dallas Chapter of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network is participating.
Everyone is asked to bring a candle and gather to not only honor the murdered children, but to speak out against the violence that claimed their lives.
Bob McCranie, one of the organizers, expressed outrage that the murders have not gained more national media attention.
“This should at least be in the top five news stories, and none of the mainstream media are paying any attention,” McCranie said of Mercado’s murder, before learning of Mattison’s death. “A teenager has been burnt and butchered in the streets, and all we can talk about is how many lies are in Sarah Palin’s book, and why Obama bowed to the Japanese prime minister. It is outrageous and unacceptable.”
As LGBT advocates here in Dallas and around the country are planning candlelight vigils in memory of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado — the 19-year-old boy who was raped, stabbed, burned and dismembered last week in Puerto Rico — word comes out of Baltimore about another murdered gay teen.
Jason Mattison Jr. was 15, an openly gay sophomore at the Vivian T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy in Baltimore. He was found dead last week at his aunt’s house. He had been raped, gagged with a pillowcase and stabbed repeatedly in the head and throat. Then his body was shoved into an upstairs closet at the house.
Police have arrested 35-year-old Dante Parrish and charged him with first degree murder. A cousin of Mattison’s has described the suspect, already convicted once of murdering someone else, as a longtime friend of the family, but she would not say whether Parrish lived at the house where Mattison died or if he was just visiting.
Read the full story here.
Although Eric and the Adams isn’t local, they stop by to play Sue Ellen’s often enough for us to give them some love like we did here. The Okie band debuted their first music video on JabberboxTV this week.
And who isn’t loving gay singer Eric Himan’s The Office look? But he’s not as innocent as you might think. But I’m totally digging the vid.
You gotta love Barbara Ann Radnofsky. Why? Well, first of all, she’s basically accusing Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott of being a complete idiot.
Radnofsky, who’s running for AG as a Democrat in 2010, claims Texas’ constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, approved by voters in 2005, actually invalidates all marriages in the state because of the way one of its clauses is worded, The Star-Telegram reports today. And Radnofsky blames Abbott, a Republican who’s been a strong supporter of the amendment, for not catching the error. The clause was designed to prevent same-sex domestic partnerships and civil unions, but Radnofsky says it actually opens the door to all sorts of marriage-related legal action. Here’s the clause she’s referring to, with key words bolded:
“This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”
Radnofsky, who worked for a powerful Houston law firm for decades before retiring a few years ago, calls the clause a “massive mistake” that “eliminates marriage in Texas.” She blames Abbott and says he should acknowledge the error and apologize. She also says another constitutional amendment might be required to fix it. She says she voted against the amendment anyway and didn’t realize the mistake until she started closely studying the Texas Constitution in preparation for her campaign.
“You do not have to have a fancy law degree to read this and understand what it plainly says,” Radnofsky tells The S-T. “Whoever vetted the language in [clause] B must have been asleep at the wheel.”
Radnofsky is scheduled to appear at 6:30 tonight at the Tarrant County Young Democrats Gubernatorial Forum at TCU. But I don’t even need to go. She’s already got my vote.
The Pope: out of step with the majority of American Catholics?
Anti-gay Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are Catholic. The Catholic Church poured money into anti-gay campaigns such as Prop 8 and Catholic Charities threatens to stop delivering social services in Washington, D.C. if new anti-discrimination laws including same sex marriage pass.
So you would think Catholics would be more likely to be anti-gay.
A new study finds that is not necessarily true. More Catholics seem to align with Catholic Supreme Court justices Anthony Kennedy and Sonia Sotomayor.
The states with the highest proportion of Catholics are the states that are more likely to support LGBT rights.
According to an article in Pink News, “Six of the eight states where 50 per cent or more of the public supports gay marriage are the states with the highest proportion of Catholics, ranging from Rhode Island at 46 per cent to New York and California at 37 per cent.”
The study was done by Mark Silk from Trinity College.
In a related story, a USA Today headline today says:
Report: Homosexuality no factor in abusive priests
Because most of the 14,000 reported molestations by priests were of boys, the assumption was that gay priests were committing the abuse. A $2 million study commissioned by American bishops indicates that sexual orientation was not a factor in these abuse cases.
Heterosexuals were as likely to have committed these crimes.
— David Taffet
— admin
Instant Tea is proudly powered by
WordPress
Entries (RSS)
and Comments (RSS).
Connect with us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter