Carnival of Bent Attractions

It’s time for the January Carnival of Bent Attractions! This month’s posts ranged from personal to political, sobering to sarcastic. They introduce us to others in the community and ask us to look at ourselves. I’ve included a few posts that weren’t technically submitted to the Carnival, but which I (or Maria, the Carnival’s Über-mistress) thought were worth a read.

Sokari at Black Looks covers the sobering, little-discussed topic of being transgender in Africa. She highlights a recent speech by the courageous Juliet Victor Mukasa of Uganda, who describes the many abuses that transgender people face there.

At Desperate Kingdoms, Winter also looks at transgender issues, decrying a recent spate of transphobic comments from self-identified feminists. She asserts “I did not come to feminism for this . . . . Fear, dislike, and suspicion of transgender and transsexual people is a general problem justified on all sorts of grounds, but for me there’s something particularly distressing about encountering transphobia from other feminists who I really think should know better. . . . I see no reason why radical feminism should be inherently transphobic.” A lengthy post on an important community issue.

Nels at A Delicate Boy… wrote what I found the most touching post of the month, I Wake Up and You’re Not by My Side…. He reflects on visiting the city where his first partner died of AIDS, and his feelings of guilt over having moved on and found happiness with another man.

Several contributors wrote about religion this month. Dean at Aman Yala gives his “a piano should fall on his head” award to Reverend Vincent Fields, pastor of Greater Works Ministries in Absecon, New Jersey, who used his recent invocation before the start of New Jersey’s Senate session to pray “We curse the spirit that would come to bring about same-sex marriage.” Dean asks:

What spirit is that, exactly? The spirit of tolerance? The spirit of equality? The spirit of inclusion? The spirit of justice? It seems to me that these are the very principles for which (the Historical) Jesus stood.

Jon Swift writes with his usual sarcasm about certain conservatives’ silence regarding Mary Cheney’s pregnancy:

All of the rational arguments against gay marriage become distorted when you try to consider the impact on specific, real people. . . . It’s much easier to have a sensible discussion about how letting homosexuals marry will lead to people marrying their grandmothers or household pets if we talk about them only in the abstract. . . . I think the Vice President should get out his shotgun and (after making sure the safety is on) hunt down the father of this baby as soon as possible. Then he should make the father do the right thing by Mary and marry her right away. It doesn’t matter what kind of a man the father is, a baby needs both a mother and a father, which is why it is also so crucial that we save Britney’s marriage.

Simon of Ask Simon uses similar wit to deconstruct a conservative’s criticism of Sir Elton John’s comments against organized religion. To the comment, “The homosexual lobby continues its attack on religious people of all stripes,” Simon replies:

This is not technically true. The Homosexual Lobby was previously focused on corrupting youth, and did not discriminate with regard to whether the youth or family was religious. We are not continuing an attack on religious people of all stripes, we are commencing one.

And to be perfectly honest, it’s not religious people of all stripes but rather those that are explicitly against us.

Jim at Box Turtle Bulletin turns his attention to those very people with a look at Focus on the Family’s response to new data showing that 95% of Americans have had premarital sex. He dissects their approach to scientific inquiry and shows how they either manipulate data themselves (and cry foul when others catch them) or accuse others of doing the same.

If you’re interested in more on the interplay of religion and society, browse the Books of the Year review by Terrance at Republic of T. He has included a number of books on this topic (among many other interesting reads), including The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, by Sam Harris, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, by Michelle Goldberg, American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century, by Kevin Phillips, and Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians And Gays in Black Churches, by Horace Griffin.

Paula at Coaching4Lesbians also looks back at the past year, offering advice on how to Take Stock of 2006 and Create a Vision for 2007. “Successful people don’t let life happen to them by chance, they create a plan,” she says. “A combination of building on your past successes and forging some new paths is the best way to keep momentum going in 2007.”

On my own Mombian blog, in lieu of a 2006 recap, I wrote Language, Politics, and Writing the Future, in which I shared a few recent articles about language and LGBT families, and discussed the importance of language in creating a future of equality for all.

Dorothy Snarker at Dorothy Surrenders reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously with her exposé of When Good Hair Goes Lesbian. A cautionary tale indeed.

Nina at Queercents continues her excellent series of “Ten Money Questions” with interviews of Kara Swisher, Wall Street Journal technology columnist and lesbian mom, Susan Ryan-Vollmar, editor-in-chief of Bay Windows, New England’s largest LGBT publication, and Donna Meté, entrepreneur and publisher of the new Web portal A Lesbian’s Life.

The fine frugal folks at Queercents will also be hosting the next Carnival of Bent Attractions. You can submit posts here.

If you’re looking for a different spin on blog-carnival action, Bent Attractions’ organizer Maria is also hosting a new shoe and purse carnival.

Enjoy the excellent posts above. I’m already looking forward to seeing what next month’s Carnival brings.