Michael Boatman Speaks OUT on Blog Talk Radio

What’s your agenda? Tune in every Wednesday night from 8-9 pm EST as yours truly, along with co-host Lyndon Evans of Focus On The Rainbow bring you an hour of great conversation on Blog Talk Radio discussing the latest in LGBT news and issues along with special guest.

This week’s VERY special guest was actor/author Michael Boatman!

Michael Patrick Boatman (born October 25, 1964) is an Image Award-nominated American actor and writer. He is best known for his roles as U.S. Army Specialist Samuel Beckett in the ABC drama series China Beach, as the OUT gay New York City mayoral aide Carter Heywood in the ABC sitcom Spin City, and as sports agent Stanley Babson in the HBO comedy series Arli$$.

Michael has also had many notable guest appearances, including five episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Less Than Perfect, Yes, Dear, Scrubs, CSI: Miami and Grey’s Anatomy. He’s currently been working on the hit CBS drama “The Good Wife“.

Michael is also a screenwriter and novelist. He sometimes writes in the splatterpunk horror genre, and his short stories are included in the multi-author anthologies, Until Someone Loses an Eye, Sages and Swords and Badass Horror, and magazines such as Weird Tales, Horror Garage and Red Scream. His first collection of short stories, God Laughs When You Die, was published by Dybbuk Press on October 23, 2007. His humorous horror novel, The Revenant Road, was published by Drollerie Press in 2009.

Missed the show?  No worries, you can listen on the player below, but join us next week (by clicking here) for yet another amazing hour!

Find out more about Michael at his blog by clicking here!

The Latest Unfair and Unbalanced Right Wing Criticism

Through all the screaming about providing health insurance to the less fortunate who don’t have any.  Through all the rhetoric about how he isn’t an American citizen.  Through all the other harsh criticisms the right wing nut house has so readily thrown in an effort to thwart any attempts at “change” that President Obama has undertaken, including the false accusations circulating that he’s a Muslim, the religious right has seemingly overlooked (until recently) one aspect of President Obama’s life that is a sure target, the lack of church attendance. Again, that’s until recently as our nation’s unfair and unbalanced entertainment channel, FOX happened to point out that President Obama has only attended public services three times since being in office.  Oh for shame for shame.  A President who doesn’t sit in the front of a good Christian church every Sunday. Well, as with the rest of FOX’s unfair and unbalanced reporting, the whole story really hasn’t been told.  Not like it matters to me, but I really do enjoy pointing out the short-comings of right wing criticism. According to ABC.com:

If church attendance is one measure of a man’s faith, then President Obama may appear to have lost some of his. The first family, once regular churchgoers, have publicly attended services in Washington just three times in the past year, by ABC News’ count, even bypassing the pews on Christmas Day. The Obamas will start looking for a church community in Washington, D.C. Obama quit Chicago’s embattled Trinity United Church of Christ months before taking office in 2008 and has not formally joined a new one in his new hometown. But sources familiar with the president’s personal life say Obama remains a faithful Christian while in the White House, practicing his beliefs regularly in private with family and the aid of his BlackBerry. “Barack Obama is a Christian. He’s always been clear and unapologetic about that, and he’s comfortable with his own faith,” Rev. Jim Wallis, an Obama friend and spiritual adviser, said. “But I think the president, particularly a president, needs the kind of pastoral care or spiritual counsel with people who don’t have a political agenda. And it’s hard for a president to get that.” Obama told ABC Nightline’s Terry Moran that his personal BlackBerry, which he famously fought with the Secret Service to keep, has actually become a tool of keeping the faith during his first year in office. “My Faith and Neighborhood Initiatives director, Joshua DuBois, he has a devotional that he sends to me on my BlackBerry every day,” Obama said. “That’s how I start my morning. You know, he’s got a passage, Scripture, in some cases quotes from other faiths to reflect on.” Keeping the faith in quiet moments of worship may be the best Obama can do given the realities of the presidency that make it nearly impossible to join a church without inflicting a heavy burden on taxpayers, fellow churchgoers and his own spiritual life, sources say.

So again, FOX has done a great job of blasting a Democrat, bringing the nation unfair and unbalanced reporting from a right wing, hypocritical point of view.

Prop 8 Played on Anti-Gay Stereotypes

From the NY Times:

A Yale professor testifying in a case challenging California’s same-sex marriage ban said Tuesday that the 2008 campaign to pass Proposition 8 played on stereotypes historically used to portray ”homosexuals as perverts who prey on young children, out to entice straight people into sick behavior.”

George Chauncey, a historian who specializes in the subject of 20th century gay life, was the second expert witness to appear for two couples unable to marry because of the state’s voter-approved gay marriage ban. Their lawsuit has led to the first federal trial to decide the constitutionality of laws limiting marriage to a man and a woman.

After viewing several television commercials produced by Proposition 8’s sponsors, Chauncey said images and language suggesting the ballot initiative was needed to ”protect children” were reminiscent of earlier efforts to ”demonize” gays, ranging from police raids on gay bars during the 1950s to campaigns to rid public schools of gay teachers in the 1970s.

Could this be why the defenders of Prop 8 objected to a motion to show the television ads used in the Prop 8 Campaign? (The objection was overruled and the commercials were admitted as evidence.)

Could this also be part of the reason why the defenders of Prop 8 filed an emergency appeal to block taping of the trial? (So their lies and distortions wouldn’t play on the mind of the general public.)

I think we all know the answers to the above questions. I’m pleased to see this being reported on the NY Times, but with any luck, these lies and distortions used will be picked up by mainstream media and the exposure will become greater.

Please write to ABC, NBC and CBS (by clicking the links) and ask them to cover the story more completely. Ask them to help expose the lies used in the Prop 8 campaign. Ask them to help educated America. It can NEVER hurt to ask!

One (Gay Sex) Life to Live on ABC

I suppose the Religious Right will be boycotting ABC TV…that is if they haven’t already.

Only weeks after ABC found themselves in the line of fire over canceling Adam Lambert’s performance after he grabbed his crotch and kissed a boy during the AMA’s, the network broke ground with a gay sex scene on the daytime soap “One Life to Live”. Progress?

Critics See ‘Mixed Message’ in Lambert, Brown Decisions

From Mercury News:

ABC and its “Good Morning America” show have sparked controversy with recent decisions to cancel a scheduled performance by “American Idol” winner Adam Lambert while going ahead with a planned appearance by R&B star Chris Brown.

Lambert’s scheduled “GMA” performance was canceled the morning after he delivered a, sexually charged performance on last week’s American Music Awards, which included the singer kissing his male keyboard player and simulating oral sex with a male dancer.

Brown, who was convicted in August of assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna, is scheduled to do a pretaped “tell-all” interview with co-anchor Robin Roberts, and then will perform live in the studio, though the details of the studio are still being worked out. The appearance will reportedly air as early as next week, though no date has been announced.

Gay rights groups are among those blasting ABC for suggesting that domestic violence is preferable to openly gay behavior. Even some ABC staffers are uncomfortable with the decisions.

“The network is giving a mixed message,” one employee told the New York Post. “It doesn’t trust someone who shocked with an unpredictable show and a gay kiss, but then it is happy to go ahead with Chris Brown, who was convicted of felony assault.”

More here!

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