The Chicago media treated the recent “Gay Games” as if it were a serious sporting and cultural event, but few spectators showed up to watch. Writing for Illinois Family Institute, I called the “Games” a flop. Now we learn that despite all the hype and corporate subsidies (and free publicity), the “Gay Games” was a financial flop, too. Click on the links in the story below for photos and local coverage of the event from June.–Peter LaBarbera

Excerpted from Gay Games Plans Final Event, by Joel Nosh, published Oct 12, 2006, in Chicago Tribune:

Paraphernalia sale intended to help eliminate shortfall

… With a $200,000 budget shortfall on an event organizers predicted would at least break even, everything must go.

By shedding these assets and soliciting donations, organizers who ran the Games on a $10 million cash budget say they will get back to zero or maybe even generate a slight surplus by the spring.

…[Kevin] Boyer said letters were sent to potential donors two weeks ago in an effort to raise $100,000. Another $100,000 has already been pledged in matching funds, he said. More money will come in from the sale of thousands of items large and small later this month.

For the last 12 years, the Gay Games, an international event staged every four years, has been financially troubled.

The 2002 Games in Sydney and 1998 Games in Amsterdam both finished more than $1 million in the red. The 1994 New York Games declared bankruptcy with a $350,000 shortfall, and the 1990 Vancouver Games ended $100,000 in the hole.

In each case, local governments, businesses or both absorbed the ultimate financial blow.

…Gay Games organizers have been chipping away at their debts, Boyer said, and getting creative when able. Equipment has been accepted in place of cash, and in some cases they have asked for bills to be lowered or forgiven.

Chicago Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said the Gay Games has given $17,000 of equipment, including softball equipment and fencing, to chip away at its balance. Gay Games, which still owes nearly $30,000, also has been sending in money on a payment plan, she said.

Continue reading in Chicago Tribune…

Excerpted from Sept 28, 2006, post on The James Hartline Report:

…San Diego City Councilman [Scott Peters] has refused to allow a group of Christian activists to present photographic documentation of children being exposed to sexual obscenities during a July, 2006 San Diego Gay Pride parade and festival.

…On July 25, 2006, it was Councilman Peters, along with lesbian Councilwoman Toni Atkins, who helped pass a city resolution declaring San Diego Gay Pride Week in the city. Peters and Atkins, along with Atkins’ lesbian sex partner Jennifer LeSar, rode together in that parade. During a Sept 12th Council meeting, Hartline and a team of thirty Christians attempted to show photographs of the parade that Peters participated in, but Peters proceeded to censor many of the photos and even attempted to block Hartline from speaking to the council on the issue altogether.

…You can watch the war of words that ensued between Councilman Peters and Christian activist James Hartline during the San Diego City Council meeting when Hartline attempted to present the Gay Pride Parade Photographs…

Click HERE
Select “Sept 12, 2006” and “View Video”
Set time to 1:11:35

The city council video clearly shows Councilman Scott Peters telling Hartline, “I can’t allow you to put those pictures on television.” The pictures in question were taken at the San Diego Gay Pride Parade in which Councilman Peters not only issued a proclamation to honor, but personally rode in the parade along with fellow Councilwoman Toni Atkins. Additionally, sixteen different law enforcement agencies, as well as the Mayor of San Diego, were in the parade where the pictures were taken.

Continue reading at James Hartline Report…

Nearly every junior high and high school student I know has a profile on MySpace.com. Parents, if you don’t understand what MySpace.com is really about, you need to learn (perhaps by attending i-safe training, as I did at my local police department) and then get your child’s profile OFF MySpace (and/or similar sites). If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe this advice from homosexual author Josh K. of the “Josh & Josh” blog. — Sonja Dalton

Five Reasons Why MySpace Is the New Gay.com

[Posted Sept 9, 2006 on “Josh & Josh”]

One) There are more pull-up-my-A&F-graphic-t-shirt-with-my-left-hand-and-use- -my-right-hand-to-capture-my-moderately-sculpted-and- hairless-torso-in-the-bathroom-mirror-while-I-throw-my-head- back-and-purse-my-lips pics on MySpace than any friday night on Manhunt [a raunchy website for homosexual male hook-ups]. And that’s really saying something.

Two) MySpace gives every man-about-town hopeful the option to list his “stats” and “body type.” …

Three) Most people who have a MySpace profile also have a Friendster profile. As a general rule, you can count on a user’s pictures on MySpace to be a lot trashier (e.g. shirtless, PBR in hand) than their pictures on Friendster. (Also: see #1.)

Four) MySpace is free…

Five) Okay, now here’s the deal: you know MySpace is the new Gay.com [another raunchy site for homosexual male hook-ups] when a guy you’ve been messaging admits he’s pretty much flirted, dated, or had sex with the same people you’ve flirted, dated, or had sex with. And that’s all I have to say about that.

–Josh K.

Excerpted from Why is the Conservative Government Wasting Taxpayer Dollars on “Queer” Film Festival? by John-Henry Westen and Gudrun Schultz, published Aug 31, 2006, by LifeSite News:

…[T]he Conservative Government [of Canada]…funded the 2006 Vancouver Queer Film Festival, which ran from August 17-27.

The festival’s sponsorship page lists the Department of Canadian Heritage as the offending federal government branch. (See the sponsorship page here.)

Dominique Collin, spokesperson for Canadian Heritage Minister Beverley Oda, told LifeSiteNews.com the Vancouver regional branch of the Heritage department conducted the funding allocation which consisted of $23,000 (Canadian).

Ginette Montreuil, regional manager with the Vancouver office, confirmed that the Conservative Government approved the Arts Presentation Canada funding for the 2006 Festival on March 27, 2006.

The festival line-up included films with titles such as Deconstructing Crack Ho, Dyke After Dyke, I cum I, Lesbians On Ecstasy, Post-Porn & New Technologies Of Pleasure, and Toilet Sex In Canadian Cinema.

Continue reading at LifeSite News…

Notes from AFT:

Actually, SIX Canadian government offices are listed on the sponsor page linked above.

Corporate sponsors include: Vancity, Showcase, Ramada Hotels, Quality Hotels, Opus Hotels, Visa, and many others.

Of particular note: the “youth-rated” queer films, about which the website suggests: “School is out, but you can queerify your summer.” Three companies are listed as sponsors specifically for this “Out in Schools” portion of the festival: Vancity, BC Hydro, and Vancouver Foundation.

Excerpted from Gay Community Protests Violent Porn Bill, by Marc Schoffman, published Sept 7, 2006, by the pro-homosexuality PinkNews.co.uk:

Under the government proposals, it would become an offence to possess pornographic images depicting scenes of extreme sexual violence and other obscene material punishable by up to three years in prison.

But groups involved in bondage, domination and sadomasochistic (BDSM) activities claim the law is too vague and could lead to innocent people being prosecuted despite consenting to activities.

Louise Morris, a member of the BDSM community, told PinkNews.co.uk:
“…The government do not recognise an image as being that of consensual “play,” all they see is a crime that could and will create serious harm or death. They want to dictate what my sexuality is and how I should be doing things…

“We are trying to show people that we are not freaks of nature, we are not a fanatical sex cult, we are not abnormal .. we are doing what we like and want it accepted that the things we do are perceived as safe, sane and consensual, we are not the hybrid sexual deviants that others seem to think we all are.”

She is a member of Backlash, a support group for the hobby, reportedly followed by around four million people, who are leading the petition along with other groups such as SMDykes, and Slaveboys.com, which cater for the lesbian and gay community…

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said: “The vast majority of people find these forms of violent and extreme pornography deeply abhorrent…

“Such material has no place in our society…

“By banning the possession of such material the Government is sending out a strong message – that it is totally unacceptable and those who access it will be held to account…”

Continue reading at PinkNews…

Excerpted from Southern Decadence Returns To New Orleans, published Aug 31, 2006, by the pro-homosexuality 365Gay.com:

A year after hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans forcing the cancellation of the biggest gay party in the South, Southern Decadence is back and organizers say it is living proof the city is well on its way to recovery.

Hotels and guest houses are reporting near capacity bookings for the weeklong event that gets underway Friday and culminates with the traditional flamboyant parade.

…While much of the city’s gay population is back, many have opted to stay in communities that gave them shelter in the aftermath of Katrina – like Baton Rouge and Houston. Organizers of Southern Decadence say that a lot of those people are coming back this weekend, if only for a visit.

After all, Southern Decadence is a tradition. Not only in the Big Easy but throughout the South. It is such a big deal one conservative religious leader blamed the event for Katrina.

…Pre-Katrina about 100,000 people a year attended Southern Decadence…

Continue reading at 365Gay…

The excerpt below is from an article about “barebacking” (condomless anal sex) that reviews two books that assess the health risks of homosexual sex. It was written by a homosexual physician and was published in a homosexual NY weekly newspaper (emphasis added).

WARNING: OFFENSIVE SUBJECT MATTER

Excerpted from “Crystal, Barebacking in Perspective: Two front-line warriors for public health offer balanced assessments of risks facing gay men,” published Jan. 5-11, 2006, in Gay City News:

By Lawrence D. Mass, MD

… At sex parties, which have grown steadily since the closing of back rooms in the bars, and at the bathhouses in Fort Lauderdale, one of them a beautiful, state-of-the-art spa, another trend was emerging. Barebacking is not new to South Florida or elsewhere, but it’s in Fort Lauderdale that I first became aware of what I myself might have called—before reading Michael Shernoff’s “Without Condoms”––barebacking with a vengeance. On any given night at the baths, you’re hard put to find anyone with bedside condoms. And if you bring your own, you are likely to be rebuffed. Even if you find a willing partner, you better have brought your own, because unlike the leading bathhouses in New York City, the Fort Lauderdale baths don’t provide them with your towel, or otherwise promote them. You have to ask for them. For what may be a minority but a sizable one, barebacking has become the norm and if you don’t like it, you can go shove it elsewhere.

… Different people are barebacking for different reasons in varying circumstances, not all of them diabolical. Not every barebacker is like [Bearyrnz2bpoz: need to be married to HIV, to be born-again into the brotherhood]. And even someone like [bearynrz2bpoz], as Shernoff demonstrates, is not necessarily psychotic, criminal, or evil. His choices might make a degree of sense for him not immediately apparent to the rest of us.

Excerpted from Women-Only Event Organizers Ban Transgender Women from Attending, by Troy Espera, published Aug 25, 2006, in the pro-homosexuality Edge Boston:

A women-only summer music festival in Michigan is under fire this week for asking transgender women interested in attending the event not to come.

After an openly transgender woman was allowed to purchase a ticket at this summer’s Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, Camp Trans organizers released a statement on August 21 celebrating the end of an 15-year old divisive policy that served to police women’s bodies and exclude transwomen from attending the Festival.

Continue reading at Edge Boston…