IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS CAN YOU GET A TEAM OF 6 TOGETHER AND

NOTES: For a cleaner copy of the poster please right click and open in a new tab.

LINKS: Save Maumee: Web | MySpace | A Greener Indiana |

THANKS: Fair Play Beach Volleyball: Web | MySpace | Blog | Yahoo! |

BANDS: The Holiday | The Freezing Scene | Rosemary Gates @ 9 - 11 p.m. |

VENUE: River City Bar & Grill and Sports Complex

F6 RESOURCES:
Going Green? | Support 3 Rivers Athletics & Links |
Things To Do In Fort Wayne | Fort Wayne Links |

200th post! Let's Do The Topher Time Again!!

.... An Introduction?

Just as I promised in the post on the fifth of this month, (8th ip/4th pic) in preparation of this event - our 200th post, Christopher Bennett, a local author, former journalist, budding musician, artist, and social and political cartoonist has agreed to bring back his illustrated views on the world today. I asked him to write a small biography.

I could have very easily reminisced about some of the crazy things I have experienced along with him, Mark Stevens, his partner of nine years, and Mark's good friend from college, Dave, whom has shared residency with the couple and their two ornery cats for years. Mark also writes @ Welcome To My World occasionally, and has previously been spotlighted on F6 last Christmas/Yule.

Christopher obliged my request with the following:

Christopher "Topher" Bennett is a thirty-something self-taught talented artist that feels no need to impress self-important gobs who can't sell their own art and therefore have to become low-quality school teachers and/or frustrated art critics..."Topher" is a rebel, a free-spirit, a free-thinker, an individualist, an anarchist, liberal, pagan, bisexual... "Topher" is in touch with his inner-child and is not afraid to dress-up and play every once in a while... "Topher" grew up in an abusive dysfunctional family he was adopted into and once lived in small-minded small town USA (Gas City, IN - It really exists!)...."Topher's" life experiences have led him down the path he currently walks and have made him the person he is today.

AND NOW, WITHOUT FURTHER ACCOLADE,
F6, LET'S DO THE TOPHER TIME, AGAIN!!

"Mary and Mohammed are screaming through the clouds,
for you to lay your goddamned arms down, rip your bigot roots up from the Earth,
and salt the goddamned ground."
~ Jay Brannan, Goddamned
(c) 2007 Great Depression Publishing

Now for some other stuff going on in the Community

Sorry this post is running behind ... I was called out on a pastoral every time I tried to write it.

For those whom don't wish to attend Fort Wayne PRIDE Festival this Friday 7p-12m $3 and Saturday 12n-12m $5 at Head Waters Park there are tons and I do mean TONS of other things going on this weekend around our three rivers.

Tuesday marked the beginning of the Allen County Fair at the Carroll Road Complex (about 2 miles north of DuPont and Lima Road/State Road 3 and then left or west 2 miles on Carroll). The fair grounds are on the north or right hand side of the road. Sunday is a Fair free day and the rides are all a dollar, for those with big families; otherwise, admission is $5 dollars per person per day and certain events do cost extra but there is still plenty of fun and inquisitive things for people of all ages to learn and explore during the Fair.

If you can leave the kids with a babysitter this Saturday, the DownTown Improvement District along with Comcast is hosting Island Fest, from 4p-12m, admission is $5, on the Columbia Street Landing, between Harrison and Calhoun Streets, one block south of Superior Boulevard, with free parking in the City County Building Parking Garage. Come down with your friends for live music, sand volleyball, and island-inspired food and drinks from Columbia Street West, Club Soda and Hartley’s. If you miss this event the DID will be hosting a Mardi Gras celebration event the 9th of August from 6p-12m also with a $5 admission.

Also this Saturday, There is an Open House and Art Show from 7-9p at Home Grown Bead and Candle Shoppe @ 125 West Wayne which will feature original abstract and raw work by Abbie Griswold.

Shakespeare From The Heart, a local volunteer theatre troupe, does The Bard the way he intended: out in the Park and off the cuff. You should come check out this years performance selection, Taming of the Shrew. SFTH show times are this Friday 25th and Saturday 26th of July, and next Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd of August, 7p @ IPFW outside of Walb Student Union. For those of you in Kendalville, we'll have a performance on Sunday, 27th of July, 2p in Floral Hall. Please come and support your local talent, local charities, and all the hard work these people have put in to this year's play! Donations are gratefully accepted and go directly to benefit other local charities.

F6 CALENDAR: Highlighting Other and Ongoing Events:

THURSDAY

Late Nights @ The Fort Wayne Museum of Art
Thursdays from 5p-9p. Admission Is Free

FRIDAY

Free Music Fest, Every Friday 7-10p @ The Bean
1008 N. Wells, north over the Superior Street Bridge across from the Public Safety Officers Memorial and next to Cloud 9. Come on by for some organic fair trade food and coffee or a just to celebrate our Community's musicians. And yes, The Bean is located @ the former Hide~n~Seek's Gay Leather and Levi Bar and they have changed it into a beautiful baby blue and white cafe and gathering place. I want to applaud them for keeping some of the old bar archietecture and design, it is a phenomenal tribute to the continued "Community Building" that this location will hopefully always provide.

Critical Mass Bike Ride 6:30p @ Lawton Park, meet by the gazebo.
(north of 4th Street @ Clinton across from the Skate Park)
The News Sentinel did a cover story on CMFW last month.
Event happens the last Friday of the month, no matter what the weather

F6 LINKS PAGE: To find out more about Local Cycling and our Bike Trails System visit our Links Page


SATURDAY

BARR STREET MARKET

• presented by YLNI and The History Center and WMEE 97.3FM
  
• northeast corner of Wayne and Barr Streets (Old City Hall Complex)
  
• Saturdays from 12th June to end of September from 9a-1p

ARCH's South Side Farmers Market

• @ 3300 Warsaw Street
• Saturdays from 3rd May to 22nd November from 7a-1p

F6 LINKS PAGE:
There are 2 Community Festivals over next weekend:

Harlan Days

• @ Harlan Community Park
  
• 31st July-2nd August 5-10:30 Th&F; 6:15a-11p Sat;
• Admission varies for certain events only
  
• 6 minutes north of exit 25 of I-469 @ SR 37
  
• (aka Crescent/Stellhorn) hang a left between Spencerville Road and School Street to get to the park.

Huntertown's Heritage Days Festival
(right click into new tab
1st link, for town website;
2nd link, for festival schedule)

• 1st-2nd August 5-10p F; 7a-10p St
• Most events are free especially in the main tent;
• Continuous running events include a Verizon Fios Van, Food Court, Historical Display in School till 8:00 Sat. Silent Auction till 6:00 Sat. in school, Moonwalk
  
• There may be a small charge for some games/events/food, hosted by other groups;
  

Honoured To Serve Our Country; Forced To Not Live Freely

The most recent update, (Source: Washington Blade) has most people clamoring the isles of the United States Capitol with anticipation as it was announced, that, on the 23rd of this month the House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee will begin to hear testimony by Military members and other on the effects of the 1993 "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (DADT) Policy. According to other news reports this will be the first time in over fifteen years that the actual policy undergoes an evaluation process. Some of the more notable witnesses invited to testify are: former Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, who is gay and the first Service member wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and former Air Force Captain Cholene Espinoza, a lesbian. In the same week that the Congressional policy review and oversight was announced four retired Generals issued their findings on this historically discriminative policy with some outstanding results.

Ex-US generals want gays to serve openly
By Karin Zeitvogel

Four former US generals have joined a growing call to end a policy barring homosexuals from openly serving in the military, after a study showed it was out of step with the times and harming the armed forces. The retired officers from the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps found in a year-long study that the 15-year-old policy, which allows gays to serve in the military only if they do not reveal their homosexuality, "is not working."

"The military is losing critical talent and it's requiring some members to serve with a unique disadvantage in that they can't be honest with their peers," Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow at the Michael D. Palm research center in California, which commissioned the study, told AFP on Tuesday. The Pentagon policy -- called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- is mandated by a congressional statute passed under president Bill Clinton in 1993 and replaced a blanket ban on homosexuals serving in the military. The "Don't Ask" part of the policy means military recruits can no longer be questioned about their sexual orientation; "Don't Tell" means that, as long as they don't reveal their homosexuality, through words or actions, they may continue to serve.

[... edited 5 ip ....]

Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith insisted that sexual conduct, not sexual orientation, was the criterion on which gay service members could be excluded from the military. "The law establishes the basis for separation from the armed forces as conduct, not orientation. Our policy reflects the law, ie no military member is discharged due to his or her sexual orientation," Smith said in a statement emailed to AFP... the Pentagon will "follow congressional direction on homosexual conduct."

The study indicated otherwise.

"According to a report prepared by the Government Accountability Office, nearly 800 people with skills deemed 'mission-critical' by the Pentagon have been dismissed" under the policy, it said. The study also found that around 1,000 men and women were discharged from the military each year as a direct result of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", and that "3,000 would likely have stayed in the military if they could have served openly."

(source: AFP 9th July, 2008) via Yahoo! News

Another random poll (unfortunately with a really small sample of constituents) by the Washington Times and American Broadcasting Company News Service reported on two days ago finds that 75% of Americans feel that said gay people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the United States Armed Forces. The survey also revealed some other interesting numbers.

• Support from Republicans has doubled over the past 15 years, from 32 to 64 percent.
• 8 in 10 Democrats and more than 3/4 of independents now support the idea
• 57% of white evangelical Protestants now support allowing openly gay service members in the military
• 82% of white Catholics support so as well.
  
• 80 percent of those with no declared religious affiliation too.
• 8 in 10 women support allowing openly gay soldiers, and nearly two-thirds of men do too

When Army Sergeant Darren/Daniel Manzella, a medical liaison for his division, was is in Kuwait on his second deployment of the Iraq war. He spoke to 60 Minutes without permission told his story about how he came out in order to stop harassing messages and was subsequently told your not gay enough was finally discharged recently by the Pentagon under uncertain reasons 6 months after the original story aired.



Lastly after two recent Federal Appeals Court Decisions one in the Ninth District, which was reported previously on F6, and another more recent decision out of the First District in Boston, Massachusetts, which put a curb on the previous Courts ruling and finding of facts. Their decision in Cook v. Gates stated that, while they "agreed with the idea that the military should do more than prove homosexuality to warrant dismissal" must still consider that "in the end, that ensuring national security outweighs arguments from 12 former military members who say their rights were ignored when they were dismissed for being gay.", said Jim Lobsenz, an Attorney in the previous 9th District case for Margaret Witt v. Department of the Air Force. Both of these cases have the Military Chiefs and Administration officials scrambling for cover and attempting to keep a lid on everything. These two cases alone are enough to push DADT to a Constitutional Judicial and Congressional Review next year. In a heartfelt showdown of ideals versus practical realities, just three weeks ago Stars And Stripes issued a d facto warning to all Service members to "stay in the closet, or else!"

F6 RESOURCES:

+ Soldier Who Came Out on "60 Minutes" Booted by Andy Humm
Gay City News 03 July 2008
+ 60 Minutes: Is Military More Tolerant Of Gay Members In Wartime?
Hosted by Leslie Stahl
Produced by Karen M. Sughrue
16th December 2007
+ Zachary Denver has awesome commentary using the infamous You Tube Republican debates earlier this year along with the 60 Minutes story footage it is hilarious towards the last minute and a half and as a whole is worth the viewing.
+ Johann has a You Tube Channel and a MySpace Group
+ Andrew Sullivan offers review of the Sergeant Manzella story and some commentary in this December post @ The Daily Dish

F6 LINKS: Articles on Gays In The Military | Links re Gays In The Military |

Wednesdays post is late and I completely forgot about last Saturday's second post

Hey everyone,

Thank you to everyone for all the recent comments!!!

After cleaning up the archive, we are approximately three post away from our two hundredth post on F6.

Due the effects on my health by the current ozone issues locally my ability to write at length is limited due to the excessive humidity and heat. Please bear with me.

The last two posts: one from last Saturday as General Community supplement and a Bike Trails originally slated for Wednesday are running way behind. You can click on the picture to go to the development or back story post for the local bike trails. Saturday's post will be an update on Gays In The Military as promised.

Sorry about all of that.

Blessings Along The Journey!
MRev. Kenneth White, Jnr., Editor,

It's Three Rivers Festival Time...

Pardon me while I breakout into song with that old jingle "Come On Ever body" and "It's Three Rivers Festival Time" just for nostalgia sake. Of course some of these adamant evenings of clandestine debauchery began last night with the Midway @ The Memorial Coliseum and Verizon Karaoke Contest, but the 40th Annual Three Rivers Festival does not truly commence for the next two weeks until this morning @ 10 a.m., on West Wayne @ Rockhill when the National City TRF Parade begins in the historic West Centeral Neighborhood (map courtesy of Left In Aboite) and ends just south of Head Waters Park East on Superior at Clinton.

This year, fellow local blogger Mark Carboni @ Creative Mind Of Carbo, will be on the Grand Marshall float along with others whom have shown strong support for the Festival over many years previous.

There are so many other events going on that deal with arts, theatre, culture, history, sports and athletics, of course education, and fun for the whole family. Take some time this weekend and checkout, take part in, get involved with, these organizations which are providing opportunities for us to grow together as a community. The TRF Festival Guide can be found on their website with the events broken up by each day.

I do want to issue a challenge though to THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF ALLEN COUNTY.

The TRF is a non partisan event and does not allow politics to be brandished during TRF events. While the sidewalks may be fair game, I am still crying foul for certain candidates going ahead of the National City Parade on the same route and harassing the citizens and visitors with campaign materials. This is a clear violation of spirit behind the TRF Rules and Practices and the nature of The Festival itself. They came to see a parade not a politician. If the candidates do go through with this, I hope that Shannon White will consider pressing criminal trespass and civil rights violations against each of the candidates participating.

For other events read F6 articles on TTD In Ft Wayne
or visit F6's Links Page under Fort Wayne Indiana
This post will be updated a little bit more with an addendum post after I get some sleep.

Local Queer Community Calendar Update

*This post has been updated*
The next two weeks or so are going to be very busy for the local GLBTIQAS Community as we prepare for our annual family reunion, aka PRIDE FEST, at the end of this month. I want to take a moment and wish Bil Browning and Jerame Davis, along with all the other Indiana and Inter/National writers and editors, that have made The BILERICO Project the successful avenue of information and queer thought that it is, Happy One Year Anniversary!!

In just a few hours (10 p.m.) contestants will be gathering at After Dark Night Club on Harrison Street, five blocks south of the Grand Wayne Center, to begin finding out who will be the IDOL of Fort Wayne PRIDE Fest 2008. But that is not all.... There are still two other events for PRIDE this week and the Human Rights Campaign's Fort Wayne Chapter has two events going on in the next two weeks as well. Here is a breakdown of the local GLBT Calendar as far as we know or have information for the rest of the month.

• Wed. 9th PRIDE IDOL @ ADNC 10p.m.
  
• no door cover charge
  
• Thurs. 10th Obama for President PRIDE
• Question and Answer Session 7:00p.m.
• @ Allen Co. Public Library Pontiac Branch @ 2215 South Hanna St. (north of Creighton)
  
• Sat. 12th FLOW Poetry and Art Slam Benefit @ UTSCC 7p.m. sugg. donation $5
  
• Sat. 12th Mr. PRIDE Pageant @ ADNC 10p.m. door cover $4or 5 (manager not sure)
  
• Mon. 14th PRIDE IDOL for MINORS @ The PINT & SLICE @ 7p.m. sharp
• Mon. 14th PFLAG FW Chapter Monthly Meeting @ Plymouth (West Berry) 7p.m.
• Tues. 15th HRCFW Volunteer Mobilization Meeting (open post in a new tab)
• @ Allen Co Public Library Main Trunk Business & Technology Room 6:30p.m.
• Wed 16th FW PRIDE VOLUNTEER MEETING 6p.m.
  
• Allen County Public Library Main Branch Meeting Room C
  
• Sat. 19th FW Area Bears Breakfast @ Golden Corral on Maysville Road 9:30a.m.
• Fri. 25th PRIDE Fest @ Head Waters Park East 7p.m.-12mdnght admit $3
• Sat. 26th PRIDE Fest @ Head Waters Park East 12noon-12mdnght admit $5
• Sun. 27th Open Door Chapel PRIDE Picnic @ Rockhill Park Pavilion 12 noon
• Rockhill Park is located on Catalpa between West Jefferson and Taylor east of Freeman
  
• Hot Dogs provided please bring covered dish and beverages (no alcohol) to share
  

EDITOR'S NOTES: YOU CAN READ OTHER POSTS ON F6 ABOUT FW PRIDE 2008 HERE, HERE & HERE AND THE HRCFW VOLUNTEER MEETING. YOU MAY ALSO WISH TO PERUSE F6's LINKS PAGE FOR INFO ON GAY FORT WAYNE OR IN GENERAL GAY & LESBIAN RESOURCES ALSO.

Travesty of Justice: Counselors, Parents, And Health Educators Beware

EDITOR'S NOTE: AS I WAS CLEANING UP THE ARCHIVE AS WE APPROACH OUR TWO HUNDREDTH POST ON F6 I FOUND THIS STORY THAT NEVER GOT PUBLISHED BACK ON 9th NOVEMBER 2007. I AM PUBLISHING IT NOW WITHOUT ANY CURRENT EDITING OR ANALYSIS.

In a stroke of a gavel one of the biggest miscarriages of justice have taken place in Pardeeville, Wisconsin. Leo Morris starts to challenge it in a post on Opening Arguments but doesn't take it far enough, so I am.

This is something that should be protested by religious leaders and civil liberties advocates and GLBT leaders alike. The fact that this mother had the courage to be open with her children regarding a very sensitive subject matter should be something rewarded and copied by most parents not labeled as a felonious act .

This is a slap in the face of the historic privileges of separation of religion and state and right of free speech and the God, excuse me, Creator given rights of parents to have the primary responsibility towards the education of their own children. A Court or a School District that impedes those rights needs to be shut down by the People. For We The People are the beginning and the end of any judiciary or governmental powers.

Alleged explicit sex discussion gets mom probation

A Pardeeville mother accepted a plea agreement on charges she had a sexually explicit discussion with her two sons, even while she maintained she did nothing wrong and that she didn't understand why she was charged.

Amy J. Smalley, 36, said in court Thursday that she accepted the plea agreement in part because she thought it would be in the best interest of her sons, ages 12 and 16, in that it would spare them from testifying in court.

"I think this is what I'm going to have to do to make everyone happy," she said.

According to the charges filed against her, Smalley last year told her sons about several sexual experiences she had. She also allegedly described performing oral sex and also showed the two a sex toy.

"That is what I'm being charged with, but that is not what I did," Smalley said. "I believe I'm not guilty."

Smalley's attorneys unsuccessfully argued in court in July that the charges should be dismissed as the discussions should be protected as free speech between a parent and her children in the vein of sexual education.

Smalley said the charges were filed after she brought her sons to counseling in an attempt to help them from getting into trouble. One of her sons told authorities he did not think the discussion was appropriate.

"This whole thing's been like a nightmare for me and I can't understand it," she said.

In the agreement, Smalley pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of exposing a child to harmful material in exchange for the dismissal of a felony charge of exposing a child to harmful descriptions.

Columbia County Circuit Court Judge James Miller accepted the agreement and sentenced Smalley to a year of probation in addition to counseling — following the recommendation of Assistant District Attorney Crystal Long.

The felony charge could have levied a sentence of more than three years in prison and fines up to $10,000.

If the trial moved forward, Smalley's sons almost surely would have been required to testify.

"That would cause a great deal of additional pain and discomfort," Maura Melka, Smalley's attorney, said. "This is an internal family matter. ... Having the children testify would just be so hard."

After reviewing some versions of the stories it sounds like one of the kids used it as a way to get revenge on their mother but what is even more disturbing is that the counselor breached confidentiality. Can you only begin to imagine what would have happened if she had just put them over her knee to keep them out of trouble, or a teacher showed them on a banana how to use a prophylactics (condoms) geezers!

Leo Morris continued by making the retort: Instead of talking to her sons about sex, she should have volunteered to lecture at her sons’ school. The law wouldn’t have touched her.

As F6 approaches its 200th post in the next two weeks....We need to review and do some updates.

It is time to do some tidying up around here, clean up some loose ends, get the three blogs that technically make up F6 streamlined a little better. Some of that has been going on behind the scenes over the last couple of weeks and plans have been in the works since May. However as anybody who operates a venue that serves a broad segment of the population across the electronic two lane highway is aware, sometimes you just have to stop for a couple of days to a week and do a full sweep. In order to get both the full priorities of this forum in place and functioning which will assure that the next few hundred posts are less painful then the last two hundred, I will not be actively posting until next Saturday although I do have the post for Wednesday already written out, sort of.

So what is different so far?

Font and Text Colours: The Font unless GOOGLE screws something up will always be Georgia. While I have been playing with the colour scheme of the blog we are pretty much settled on a basic format. From the Sunday after Easter to the Eve of All All Saints/Samhain the blog background will be the beige that you see today. From All Saints to Easter it will be that dismal Grey that you originally saw last year.

The basic colours of the blog are Orange, Hunter Green, and Navy Blue. Orange is primarily for links, it stands out. Hunter Green is for My Direct Editorial or Commentary and Navy Blue is for articles and sub headers within the blog. Now occasionally Hunter Green and Navy Blue will interchange within a given field of text to make a particular point stand out, but that is the only time. I have tried to be consistent on that recently but even I get a little sidetracked on which colours go where, when dealing with older posts or something I am really passionate about, pardon me for that.

Comments are no longer on moderation: One of the primary reasons F6's Comments were on moderation is so that I could see them. Judging by my site meter almost all of my traffic comes well after the fact of me publishing a particular post, because I have a tendency to publish ahead of the popular culture curve. So in order to keep up with who posted what to where, it was easier to track by simply putting the comments on moderation. Under the sixth links section to the left entitled "What y'all bitch at me for? Keep doing it please!" You will find the five most recent comments on F6.

F6's Links Page and Feeds or Jump Page: Are so far cleaned up and have been streamlined... I still need to clean up the colours on the Feeds and Jump Page. The Links Page has been cleaned up with the links on the left side now having their own separate posts, though still with the pictures as links for now, until readers have time to get used to the change.

Some of the new Links include: Throwing A Party Across Three Rivers and Pedalling Your Paws Across Three Rivers and these can always be directly accessed either by going to the LINKS PAGE and clicking on the Category Fort Wayne, Indiana or by going down the left side of this main page to the tenth links section under the "Room For Dreams" banner and picking which particular set of links you want to view.

So what is going to be new?

Cleaning up of the old posts: First of all, I am going to have to go back and sift all of the last hundred and ninety eight posts. As the blog has transitioned I want to go back and make sure that there is uniformity while I still have a feasible chance to do so. Second there are at least three posts that could be deleted under the Administration of the Blog because they no longer apply to the application and operation of F6. I am still wrestling with that one though, I don't like the idea of destroying part of the blogs history and development but the post themselves will never again be applicable to the blog. However if I did remove those three posts and two others it would postpone by a week the two hundred mark that precipitated this review process initially.

What are your thoughts on that?
Please leave your comments below.

New Content; New Contributors: I have asked a local political cartoonist Christopher Bennett to step back into his once infamous role as the author of Topher Time. He has agreed to provide F6 with two (sometimes multiple panel) cartoons a month. Needless to say this will be interesting, as always I will not edit his work for space or content. Y'all are in for an adventure as he puts pencil to paper once again. I am currently in conversation with three other local authors who wish to contribute content occasionally and one international author whom is originally from the Fort Wayne area who wants to share his memories of Gay Fort Wayne with you all.

Over all I think that is pretty fucking cool that over the last eleven months that F6 version 2.0 has become an internationally reviewed source of local queer social and political perspective!

Anyway that is enough for now I have two major awesome updates:

A week ago I posted regarding FORT WAYNE PRIDE FEST; which will happen @ Head Waters Park East the last weekend of this month. Recently there was another post on the FWPC MySpace regarding the PRIDE IDOL karaoke contest for those under the legal drinking age. The under twenty one portion of the PRIDE IDOL contest will happen @ The Pint & Slice on Calhoun at the 14th of July 7p.m. sharp. The Committee is still in need of volunteers and you can fill out an application (pdf) online or contact Nikki via email nikki@fortwaynepride.org. As previously mentioned in the last post, the Mr. Pride Pageant is on the 12th of July and the adult PRIDE IDOL contest is on 9th of July. Both events start around 10 p.m. @ After Dark Night Club on South Harrison Street five blocks south of The Grand Wayne Center past Powers and under the viaduct.

I also have a three part post on Gays In The Military which I was going to break it up between Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but I decided that was just a little annoying, even for me. So I am going to take care of the one update part of that post series here and save the rest for the post two Saturdays from now, as originally scheduled.

Brazilian soldier released after arrest for coming out
22 June 2008 Gay News Watch

The Brazilian Army has released a soldier arrested on the set of a nationwide TV show just before going on-air with his military boyfriend. Sgt. Fernando de Alcantara Figueiredo spent eight days in an Army prison in Brasilia after appearing on the cover of the magazine Epoca, going public about being gay and his relationship with Laci Marino de Araujo. Army officials claimed Figueiredo was arrested for desertion after he traveled to Sao Paulo to appear on a program for Rede TV! hosted by an ex-girlfriend of Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger. They also said he violated Army regulations about appearing in public with an altered military uniform; the magazine cover pictured both men in uniform. Figueiredo claimed his trip was on his own time and was needed to receive medical treatment. His release followed high profile criticism of the arrest from human rights groups and gay activists inside and outside Latin America's largest country.

F6 EDITOR'S COURTESY: 3 days later this story was updated again via MADE IN BRAZIL:

Gay ex-sergeant sues Brazilian military over arrest

A Brazilian Army sergeant who came out last month on the cover of nationwide magazine filed a lawsuit yesterday against the military command in the southeast of the country. Former Sgt. Fernando Alcântara de Figueiredo wants to prove that his arrest and that of his partner by the Army were a result of homophobia, that they were physically and verbally abused, and that the Army denied proper medical health to his partner. According to Figueiredo, the lawsuit was filed in the state of São Paulo because that is where he and his partner were arrested. The Army will be tried based on law 10.948/2001, the first law against homophobia in the state which was used as a precedent back in 2003 when two gay men sued Frei Caneca Mall for discrimination after kissing in public. Figueiredo left the Army on June 27, after being arrested twice. His partner Laci Marinho de Araújo is still in jail.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The above articles are in conclusion towards two previous post covering the story about particular Gays In The Military which can be found here and here. F6 also has an extensive LINKS PAGE regarding this topic and many others for your perusal.

I will see you all next Saturday ..... Blessings Along The Journey!

The 4th of July, 1776 - The Declaration of Independence: We still havent been reading OUR LIBERTY its rights!

Obviously this is going to be a gratuitous male flesh, eer, cute bois in underwear post, since it is a holiday. And of course we need to pay homage to our Armed Service Members whom every day sacrifice their lives for our freedom. After all, when was the last time you pledged your life, fortunes and sacred honour, for an ideal as simple and as dificultly complex as liberty? With all jesting and drooling aside, let us seriously review these one thousand unanimous words that founded our freedom folks.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We Hold These Truths To Be Self Evident:

That all men are created equal....

That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights....

That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness....

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed....

That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness....

That is five separate truths that we as Americans have a tendency to forgo for security; or obliterate based on civil societies assumption of "what is morally right", or at least in the moment - plausible defensible. It is time for us as a Country to return to these founding principles of our nation and hold ourselves and our current leadership to this organic law of the land (ip 4), and these standards and vote them out of office, while we still have the ability to do so.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Our founding fathers listed twenty eight grievances in general terms against the British Crown and Parliament, and then stated, "A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people." How many of these acts are our current government affecting on to the average citizen today?

Refused Assent To Laws, Interfered with the State passing laws through use of Federal Statutes (eg Medical Marajuana), (not quite the same as judges) but he removed without cause ninety plus Federal District Attorneys for political gains and to stifle on going prosecutions of big business, He established or erected a multitude of New Offices (Homeland Security), and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people,

On a side note the rest of that last grievance reads: "and eat out their substance." to which my mental cartoon trips an image of Uncle Sam asking if, "Anybody", in effect, "wants a rim job?", yucky-lol. Anyway I digress, back to the list. Here are some really big ones that have hit the press junkets in the recent three months:

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power, He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation, For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States, For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent, For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury, For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses.

With the addition of the illegal (now immune) wire tapping scandal, that brings a total to twelve out of twenty eight grievances listed in the DOI that the current administration of our government has similarly assailed the Citizens and People of this Country with. It is time for a change and not just from Republican to Democrat, but to a multiple party plank, like it used to be in this Country. When President Abraham Lincoln ran for office there were four different candidates each from different parties. If we were able to do it almost a hundred and fifty years ago, we can do it again!

Now is the perfect time for the LIBERTARIAN PARTY, a party of principles, and a party that's values are liberty from large obtrusive government and is for individual freedom! We have a wonderful candidate for President and Vice President, whom I may not agree with on everything, but dammit these gentlemen are a better choice then the same old Washington stoned to the hilt former maverick has been and the newcomer that has no business being in the U.S. Senate let alone the White House. If you would just accept your responsibility, YOUR DUTY, to make a clear and conscious vote for the best person and still instead vote for the lesser of two evils, you will have only yourself to blame when the Country gets flushed down the toilet with the Constitution leading the flow right behind Uncle Sam's touche.

As a Gay American and a local Religious Leader, if former Congress member Bob Barr of Georgia is truthfully willing to meet my people half way, then I will do the same. That is the least I can ask from a candidate compared to the the other two saps on the political stump who aren't even willing to keep their answers, to my Community members' questions, straight.

Jay Brannan: Goddammed and Holding Trevor premiere this week

Two days ago Jay Brannan's new album GODDAMNED came out for worldwide distribution on iTunes and a hard copy will be available when he begins his tour around the 15th of this month. Here is what Jay wrote to fans on MySpace and everywhere else too:

Well this is it, Release day! The big moment that...I've....been waiting for. My first full album is available on iTunes NOW!!! Yes, that means worldwide. There are 6 tracks from the album on my myspace page for your listening pleasure, and here's a long video of me talking and playing an all-new song from the album. To watch Jay sing a Norwegian lullaby in Norwegian click here.

In other news about Jay, a couple years back, after SHORTBUS (which has been the source of a huge debate locally) ended production Jay Brannan (as Jake) and his best friend Brent Gorski (Trevor) got together and created with the help of Co-Producer Rosser Goodman and the beautiful Mellisa Searing (Andie), hottie Eli Kranski (Ephram), and farm boi Christopher Wyllie (as Darrell) round out the cast in this indie film HOLDING TREVOR which debuts in certain venues on Independence Day.

Everybody’s looking for something and Trevor Holden (Brent) is desperately looking for himself in all the wrong places (yet still seems to come up short) …or maybe he is just looking in all the wrong people. It’s pretty safe to say that he won’t find enlightenment in his strung-out boyfriend Darrell, as his oldest friend, Trevor feels a responsibility to help Darrell in his latest attempt at sobriety much to the dismay of his own best friends Jake and Andie.

Although after just witnessing his boyfriend Darrell overdose on heroin, Trevor is finally ready to call it quits. And just when he does, he meets the ever so charming and handsome Ephram. Despite the well-meaning advice offered by his sexually pervasive best friend and his self-righteous roommate Andie, simply being everything that Darrell is not wins Ephram a number of points up-front. As Trevor’s relationship with Ephram quickly progresses, it starts to put a strain on his friendships with Jake and Andie.

As the story progresses Jake (Jay), the self-proclaimed sex-addict, is starting to worry a little bit about his past catching up with him, namely in the form of HIV. And Andie, who drunkenly ends her sexual dry spell with a one-night stand, realizes that Jake might have less to worry about than she does. Meanwhile, Ephram accepts a job thousands of miles away in New York City, and he wants Trevor to go with him. Now, what started out as Trevor’s own personal existential journey, turns into a path that will lead everyone to what is most important: themselves and each other.



Holding Trevor is continually poignant, relentlessly self-deprecating, and just the type of cerebral dark comedy that can speak directly to the twenty-somethings of today while letting other generations in on the joke.

F6 LINKS & DIRECTORY: Other blogs on the bandwagon include:
GAYTRIX by Tom, with some awesome R Rated clips from the movie;
OBLIQUITY65 by ARG, with some more info on the actual production;
And just to provide the alternative perspective as is the F6 editorial policy
Kirby @ Movie Dearest copied Rev. Chris Carpenter's review of the film.

PHOTO SOURCE: last two photos are by ADAM BOUSKA

F6's Editor is a dork for Jay Brannan: To visit his links page click here;
To view the title track for GODDAMNED, Jay's new album, click here;
and for the song Lower My Gun, used on the first trailer (above), click here.