August Carnival of Bent Attractions

It’s that time of the month! No, not that time! It’s time for The Carnival of Bent Attractions!

Trusted Advisor starts us out by “Defining Trust by Defining Moments–Larry Craig’s

This is not a moral judgment, not in the sense that some want Craig ousted for alleged homosexual behavior that’s been rumored for many years. Nor is it an indictment of his tepid stance in the Iraq war or his unpopular support of President Bush’s proposed immigration reform.”

Why does trusted advisor think Senator Craig should get the boot?

“The senator did not own up to his misdemeanor crime. He did not apologize to his family, to the fabulous staff that has supported him for more than a quarter century in Congress, to his constituents here in Idaho.

If you had just dropped in from Mars and read only this one editorial, you’d get a good sense of what the human race means by trust. It means transparency; it means taking responsibility; it means telling the truth.”

Maybe it’s just me, but both Mars and Idaho seem like far away worlds that I couldn’t live in. But maybe if Jon Swift is right, it’s just being Republican! Recently Swift asked ” Why Do Conservatives Like Larry Craig Seem So Gay?”
It could all be a misunderstood vicious circle of happenstance…

“… the more one looks at the evidence that Craig seems to be gay, the more one can see that it is really just evidence of being conservative. There are many attributes of conservatism that seem really gay and unfortunately the more we deny that we are gay, the gayer we seem. This incident should put a chill in every conservative who has a “wide stance” or belongs to a barbershop quartet.”

Swift hints at a more deep rooted cause of this “misconception.”

“‘Once again, I’m not gay, and I don’t cruise, and I don’t hit on men,’ he said. ‘I have no idea how he drew that conclusion. A smile? Here is one thing I do out in public: I make eye contact, I smile at people, they recognize me, they say, “Oh, hi, Senator.” Or, “Do I know you?” I don’t go around anywhere hitting on men, and by God, if I did, I wouldn’t do it in Boise, Idaho! Jiminy!’

Conservatives are very friendly, open people, the kind of people who make eye contact for longer than some people might find comfortable, so it is easy to see how this could be misconstrued by a gay man looking for love from a kindly older man. Conservatives also often use words like “Jiminy!” which may sound gay to some people.

Craig’s speech patterns do seem awfully gay, but Jim McClure, the man Craig succeeded in the Senate, offered a helpful explanation for that, too. ‘Larry’s speech patterns are very precise,’ said McClure. ‘They’re not what you expect from a rancher from Midvale. His speech patterns say, “Hey, here’s a guy who’s a little different.” And he is, he’s a little different. But that doesn’t mean he’s homosexual for heaven’s sakes! You have to jump from prejudice to suspicion to I don’t know what to give the rumors any credibility.'”

But I think his last theory hits it right smack between the eyes:

“Other conservatives, who reacted to activist Mike Rogers’ outting of Craig before the November 2007 election with outrage, saying that it would be ‘irrelevant’ even if true, have now had a change of heart. Apparently, 11/06 changed everything.

The Goddess of Java isn’t worried about Senator Craig losing his job, but people that are open polyamorists. She answers the question if I’m poly and out “What Can They Do to Me?”

“You’re poly! You’re cutting edge with the open lifestyle of the future. You have pictures of your loves in your cubicle and you wave that poly flag every chance you get. Then you get a pink slip.

Was it your lifestyle? Not to put too fine a point on it, can they legally do that?”

She advises:

“The answer, as always, is “It depends”.1 If you’re employed “at will”, an employer does not have to show cause to fire you. This means, that yeppers, you can be fired for being openly poly, it’s just that they won’t say that’s why. Find out if you’re an at will employee (if you work in the US, chances are good you are). Proof of discrimination becomes problematic here.”

She says she’s not trying to cause paranoia, in fact quite the opposite.

“I’m not trying to scare anyone here, nor am I trying to be gloom and doom. I just want people to know their local laws before they decide whether or not to be “out”. I choose to be, and genuinely think it’s safer in the long run.”

Nina over at Queercents looks at multiple partnerships from a different perspective… marriage and money. In the post “Big Love, Alimony and Same-Sex Marriage

“When Big Love first aired, many parallels were drawn between the gay marriage movement and polygamists. At first I was really offended but then the longer I watched the show, the “Henricksons” seemed increasingly like other families. Normal. Maybe that’s how straight people feel about gays when they first get to know us.”

But soon she realized that reality is much different than on TV.

“Last week the Los Angeles Times recounted the story of an Orange County man that is appealing an order for him to pay spousal support to his ex-wife, who is in a domestic partnership. Maura Dolan writes, ‘Ron Garber knew his former wife was living with another woman — and had taken her last name — when he agreed to pay her $1,250 a month in alimony.’

What he didn’t know was that the two women had registered with the state as domestic partners under a law that was supposed to mirror marriage law, Garber said. State marriage laws say that alimony ends when the former spouse remarries, and Garber reasons he should be off the hook, given that domestic partnership is akin to marriage. But an Orange County judge has decided that registered partnership is cohabitation, not marriage, and that Garber must pay.”

Separate isn’t equal, especially in the case of marriage.

” The state attorney general’s office has argued that same-sex marriage is not needed because gays already enjoy the rights of marriage under the domestic partners law.

If domestic partnerships were equal to marriage then Garber wouldn’t have to pay. As it stands today, he’ll be forking over five years of alimony.”

And that concludes this Carnival of Bent Attractions. Next month’s carnival will be hosted at (en)Gender. If you would like to host the carnival, email me. If you want to submit posts for the next COBA, do that here .

Marti Abernathey is the founder of the Transadvocate and the previous managing editor. Abernathey has worn many different hats, including that of podcaster, activist, and radiologic technologist. She's been a part of various internet radio ventures such as TSR Live!, The T-Party, and The Radical Trannies, TransFM, and Sodium Pentathol Sunday. As an advocate she's previously been involved with the Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance, Rock Indiana Campaign for Equality, and the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition. She's taken vital roles as a grass roots community organizer in The Indianapolis Tax Day Protest (2003), The Indy Pride HRC Protest (2004), Transgender Day of Remembrance (2004), Indiana's Witch Hunt (2005), and the Rally At The Statehouse (the largest ever GLBT protest in Indiana - 3/2005). In 2008 she was a delegate from Indiana to the Democratic National Convention and a member of Barack Obama's LGBT Steering and Policy Committee. Abernathey currently hosts the Youtube Channel "The T-Party with Marti Abernathey."