Free Republic

TCM shines spotlight on movies with gay themes Series focuses on changing views in film history By MIKE McDANIEL Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Unless you're good at spotting innuendo or your gaydar is working overtime, images of gay and lesbians in films have been comparatively few over the years. But as author and historian Richard Barrios sees it, gay themes and characters can be traced to more films than you think. Throughout June, Barrios and Turner Classic Movies have been spotlighting movies with gay themes. As the Monday and Wednesday night series has pointed out, before the Production Code of...

Lucy pin-ups banned by RAF ROYAL Air Force chiefs have risked a bust-up with their pilots by forcing them to black out pictures of pin-ups painted on their planes - including Hampshire glamour girl Lucy Pinder. In the 1940s it was common to see the likes of Rita Hayworth and Jane Russell adorning the fronts of Lancaster bombers and flying fortresses setting off en route to their German targets. Countless more pictures of anonymous girls were splashed across aircraft, in poses almost as risque as their crews' missions were risky. Sixty years on, when British airmen fighting the Taliban in...

Gay Aussie Hotel Wins Right To Ban Heterosexuals, Lesbians May 28 05:00 AM US/Eastern An Australian hotel popular with gay men has won the right to refuse entry to heterosexuals and lesbians, officials and the owner said Monday. The Peel Hotel in Melbourne won an exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act to prevent insults and abuse directed toward gays in its bars and nightclubs, owner Tom McFeely told AFP. "The hotel predominantly markets itself towards homosexual males, towards gay men and we want to protect the integrity of the venue as well as continue to make the men feel comfortable,"...

May 28, 2007 1,000 men living legally with multiple wives despite fears over exploitation Dominic Kennedy Polygamous marriage is flourishing as the Government admits for the first time that nearly a thousand men are living legally with multiple wives in Britain. Although the families are entitled to claim social security for each wife, no one has counted how many of them are on benefits. Ministers appear to be ignoring the separate practice of unauthorised polygamy, which is said to have become commonplace in some Muslim communities. The Ministry of Justice admits that it has no estimates of numbers for these...

FBI ACADEMY BOOTS 'BOGUS' AFRICAN COP By DAN MANGAN May 28, 2007 -- The FBI's famed National Academy recently expelled a student from a troubled African nation after learning he was not a cop, as he had claimed, The Post has learned. The incident raises serious questions about the FBI's screening process for prospective National Academy students. The 72-year-old National Academy is part of the FBI Academy, which trains G-men. It is located at the U.S. Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Va. - considered a "secured facility" by the government. The National Academy has trained thousands of U.S., city and...

Muslim soldier ‘was fed pork sandwich’ By Elham Asaad Buaras Colchester’s Military Corrective Training Centre has been accused of trying to feed a Muslim with a pork sandwich. Saeed Akhtar is claiming that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) breached his rights under legislation covering discrimination because of religious beliefs while serving as a soldier. On April 30, employment tribunal Chairman at Bury St Edmunds permitted Akhtar to take his case to a full tribunal hearing. Akhtar is claiming the MoD had failed to provide him on a regular basis with suitable meat. He told tribunal Chairman, Brian Mitchell, that officials...

DON'T LAUGH TOO HARD By F.I.R.E. May 21, 2007 -- HOW would you feel if you got in trouble not for telling an off-color joke, but simply for laughing at one? Sounds inconceivable, right? Not at Drexel University in Philadelphia, where school policy prohibits not only "inconsiderate jokes" but also "inappropriately directed laughter." Not only won't they let you tell certain jokes, they promise to punish you for finding them funny. Drexel is not alone in its prohibition of what can only be described as typical college student interaction. Northeastern University in Boston, apparently the self-appointed arbiter of good taste,...

Superheroes With a Muslim Message - 99 Islamic Superheroes Find Success on Newsstands Alongside Batman, Superman By REBECCA LEE May 16, 2007 — Watch out, Captain America. Step aside, Superman. There's a new breed of crime fighting superheroes looking to capture the comic book scene, with 99 characters from around the world with one trait in common amid their superpower strengths -- they are rooted in Islam. "Islam is not mentioned directly in these comics, but the back story is very much based on Islamic tradition and culture," said Kuwaiti psychologist Naif al Mutawa, who teamed up with cartoon giant...

LAGS' NEW TOILETS ARE £12K HOLES IN GROUND 22 April 2007 By Julian Gavaghan BARMY jail chiefs tore out two loos and replaced them with £12,000 holes in the ground for Muslim lags. They installed the squatover toilets - with a buried ceramic bowl - because many of the foreign inmates did not know how to use a regular toilet. But last night the bosses at Canterbury Prison in Kent were blasted for the decision. An insider said: "We thought it was a joke. I could have dug them two holes in the floor for 50p." Blair Gibbs, of the...

Factual Statements=Unprotected Harassment!? A Terrifying Precedent at Tufts by Greg Lukianoff May 11, 2007 Today, FIRE announced the decision by a disciplinary panel at Tufts to find the conservative student newspaper, The Primary Source, guilty of “harassment” for, among other things, publishing a satirical ad that listed less-than-flattering facts about Islam during Tufts’ Islamic Awareness Week. You can see the ad here, and Eugene Volokh has also published it with excellent commentary over at his blog, but, just to make sure people see the ad for themselves, I have reprinted the full text: Islam Arabic Translation: Submission In the Spirit...

2 boys plead guilty in beating of women May 11, 2007 INGLEWOOD – Two 15-year-old black boys pleaded guilty yesterday to assault for taking part in a Halloween beating of three white women. In return, prosecutors dropped hate crime allegations and agreed that the boys will be sentenced to three months each in a juvenile camp rather than face potential three-year sentences. Authorities said a group of black youths taunted the three women – one of them 21 years old and the other two 19 – with racial slurs while pelting them with fruit, pumpkins and newspapers, then beat them...

PETA to AP: Don't Refer to Animals as 'It' By E&P Staff Published: April 26, 2007 4:00 PM ET NEW YORK The animal activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has written a letter to Norm Goldstein, the editor of the AP stylebook, asking that the book be changed so that pronouns referring to animals always be "he," "she," and "who." AP responded by noting that the stylebook only uses "it" and "which" if the animal's sex has not been established and the animal's name is unknown. PETA says that in a society that is recognizing animals rights...

Annual 'Day of Silence' observed at Great Oak High (Temecula, CA) Thursday, April 19, 2007 By: JENNIFER KABBANY - Staff Writer TEMECULA -- Every year, tens of thousands of students across the nation participate in the Day of Silence, a nationwide event organized by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network that aims to fight against what the group says are common anti-gay biases in schools. While students at several Southwest County high schools annually participate in the event, Wednesday marked the first time since Great Oak High opened in 2004 that its students joined in. About 300 students at...

Don't stare at the apes, zoo tells visitors By Martin Banks Last Updated: 1:15am BST 16/04/2007 Most people visit zoos to see the animals - but visitors to Antwerp Zoo in Belgium are being told not to look at the apes. Instead, visitors are now confronted with signs telling them that making prolonged eye contact with the apes leaves them sad and withdrawn. Zoo staff reckon staring can result in the creatures becoming less sociable. A spokesman said: "We are saying to visitors that, if our apes hold eye contact with them, then they should look away for a bit...

No burqini, Muslim woman in London takes sauna in full hijab From our Correspondent London, Mar 15: It's not known whether she wanted to make a statement by her action or was it just an expression of her religious sentiment, but a Muslim woman surprised everyone when she took Sauna bath wearing a full hijab and then jumping into a swimming pool in the same robe. Subsequently, she changed out of her wet hijab into a dry one and left the David Lloyd Leisure Centre in Oxford, alone. She was allowed to swelter in a sauna because the Centre's worried...

Freeze jail diet cash, says victim Hedley Thomas February 14, 2007 ONE of the victims of a Brisbane pedophile who was controversially awarded $2000 compensation for being refused fresh halal meat in prison has urged the Queensland Government to freeze the funds and launch an appeal. The woman, now in her late 20s, said she was still receiving counselling to help her cope with severe trauma arising from the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of Sharif Mahommed. "He could flush that money down the toilet and it would be better than going into his pocket," she told The...

Learn about Kwanzaa, it's worth celebrating By Akilah Monifa COMMENTARY I CELEBRATE Kwanzaa, a holiday that honors family, community and culture. My family and I have done so for years. But five years after Sept. 11, in this climate of religious and cultural intolerance in America, I can sympathize with Muslims here who feel like outsiders. Many white Americans are suspicious and fearful of Kwanzaa. Like other holidays that are celebrated predominantly by people of color -- such as Ramadan, Juneteenth, Holi, Hispanic Heritage Month -- Kwanzaa ought to be an opportunity for those who are unfamiliar with it to...

Kwanzaa is Right Around the Corner LOS ANGELES, CA (CNS) -- The seven-day festival of Kwanzaa begins tomorrow, marking its 40th anniversary amid growing official acceptance and criticism of its authenticity and value. Maulana Karenga, a professor in Cal State Long Beach's Department of Black Studies, created Kwanzaa in 1966 in an attempt to reaffirm and restore blacks' ties to African culture, reaffirm and reinforce bonds among blacks and to introduce and reinforce the ''Nguzo Saba,'' the Seven Principles, according to the Official Kwanzaa Web Site, www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org. The Seven Principles are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose,...

Chief reporter urges readers to hug a Muslim By Sarah Lagan Monday, 18 December 2006 A Jersey Evening Post journalist is making a late bid to reach the top of the charts this Christmas by dressing as a reindeer and urging the nation to "hug a Muslim". Anthony Lewis, assistant editor and chief reporter at the Evening Post, has written and performed a pop song titled Colour This Time (Hug a Muslim) and plans to challenge the likes of the XFactor contestants to the top spot and remind us not be greedy and materialistic at Christmas. In the video, Lewis,...

Kwanzaa: A Holiday From the FBI by Ann Coulter President Bush's 2005 Kwanzaa message began with the patently absurd statement: "African-Americans and people around the world reflect on African heritage during Kwanzaa." I believe more African-Americans spent this season reflecting on the birth of Christ than some phony non-Christian holiday invented a few decades ago by an FBI stooge. Kwanzaa is a holiday for white liberals, not blacks. It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI stooge, Ron Karenga, aka Dr. Maulana Karenga. Karenga was a founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist...