That’s right, not one, not two, but FIVE men are still not found in connection to a hate crime that occurred in Brooklyn on the corner of Luquer Street and Hamilton Avenue Tuesday the 2nd of March. Apparently the group of disgusting atrocities for human beings ganged up on a 22 year old man and beat him in the street after screaming slurs at him when the man exited a party. The man since then, has been released from the hospital thank god.

The Hate Crimes Task Force is being involved and the crime is being treated as a ‘bias attack’. In the video below taken from an ABC news report, a passerby was quoted as saying, “…I’ll definitely be more careful walking around here”. I know what that feels like even in such a gay proactive city like Vancouver. Last Summer, a couple scary incidences occurred in our own community in and around Davie Village, Jordan Smith, as a brutal example. The fear it creates is incomparable and unnecessary. That a person can be physically beaten for their sexuality still baffles me. We can all still remember the horrifying stories of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado or Jack Price, just two of many that took place only last year.

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I’m so mad right now. And not because Senator Joe Lieberman has made the announcement that he is opening legislation to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell as soon as possible. That’s the good part! He announced that DADT (for the record as if we didn’t already know) is discriminatory and unnecessary. DADT was introduced in 1993, and 17 years later it’s still not making much sense. Time to get rid of it, and Lieberman is going for gold. Lieberman’s new act is called (get used to hearing this) the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2010 and has been applauded as:

“…a bold, patriotic move that will long be remembered as key to removing the stain of the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law from the U.S. code.”

Had to put that in a quotation box. It’s fantastic.

Okay so what has had my goat got gotten??

Find out after the jump…

An article yesterday on MSNBC talks about the fact that there is still one HUGE fault in the Pacific Northwest and it has been low key for about 300 years, but when this mother of a fault wakes up, we could be in real trouble. The quake in Chile was so powerful, scientists say that it actually shift the earth’s axis a bit, causing the earth to spin just a tiny bit faster, in effect shortening our day every so slightly.

Computer simulations of what a 9.0 magnitude earthquake would be like here (oh, that’s what Chile went through in case you didn’t know) could mean that the earthquake could last anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes. Man, that’s a long time! Poorly constructed buildings, bridges, etc. would be destroyed & seaside areas would be flooded by waves galore. Buildings in Yaletown of downtown Vancouver, and several schools and older buildings would be destroyed, and damage to the airport at sea level would be inevitable. Apparently the fault found here in the Pacific Northwest is a lot like the one that just woke up in Chile. That one was under was even more compromised because of when it woke up last time in 1960 with a magnitude 9.5 on the Richter scale quake - yeah, the largest one every recorded in history. It’s not a question of if it will happen, it’s just a question of when. It could be tomorrow - it could be 100 years from now.

I love Vancouver - the best city in the world. We just hosted the world for the Olympics. But of course, it’s at a cost - living in a MAJOR risk earthquake zone. I guess you just have to not live life in worry. Mother Nature - she’ll get ya sooner or later!

Chilling footage from the Chile Earthquake and 2004 Tsunami after the jump…

So for gay Catholics living in Sydney, St. Joseph’s in Newtown has helped LGBT people of that faith to have a place to worship and take communion. Every Friday night, with the help of the usually conservative Archbishop of Sydney, they’ve gathered to worship their God and their religion for years. They got quite a shock when they all showed up for Mass last Friday evening the 26th to find a protest outside the church where they clearly weren’t welcome anymore.

A facebook group had been set up, and rather quickly, identifying the LGBT worshippers as a “sacrilegious” problem, vowing to stop them from attending St. Joseph’s. Big surprise right? Except for the fact that local priest of the church Father Peter Maher said “there is nothing in the Catholic faith that says gays and lesbians don’t have rights to take communion”. I’m sorry are we talking about the same religion here? Aren’t you the priest? Isn’t it your job to know the rules on gay sex and homosexuality?

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If you had told me about ten minutes ago that I was going to write a blurb on Clay Aiken, I don’t think i would’ve believed you. The American Idol Almuni just doesn’t make a blip on my radar, from having a kid with a chick, to finally (oh dear lord finally) coming out of that excrutiatingly deep closet, he’s just not the kind of person I follow in the media. Until now.

Clay not only attended, but made a speech at the Human Right’s Campaign Dinner a few nights ago, and it was really frickin’ good. A new future in activism for Clay? I wouldn’t be opposed after hearing him. Clay said that his speech was his own, and not one of the HRC speech writer’s, which means that he’s charming and eloquent. Wait. What? Really though!

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While yesterday, Redd tried to get you to save your life (and social life) by telling you about the five superficial reasons to quit smoking, a controversial anti-smoking ad in France is causing quite the uproar, with the three ads that compare smoking to giving someone head. Roughly, the caption on the ads translates into English saying “Smoking means being a slave to tobacco,” as the teenagers portrayed in the ads are in a submissive “blowjob” position. Normally France, and Europe in general, is pretty liberal with their ads but I can understand why they aren’t reacting well to this one. I don’t even think it’s effective. Since when do teenagers consider sex a bad thing? Why wouldn’t they want to do something that is likened to blowjob? All the ad makes me think about is that it’s showing a teenager in sexually suggestive position with an adult - and that makes me think less “a bitch to cigarette companies” and more “sex with a minor.”

If you want to liken smoking to slavery, then show an image of slavery. Don’t show sex with a minor - that’s a whole other can of worms! Remi Parola, who is the head of the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association that is behind the campaign told ABC News: “We noticed that the traditional anti-smoking campaigns no longer got across amongst the youth. We thus had to use another way in order to raise awareness. We were surprised by the extent of the media buzz…But it’s above all a message of public health that got across.”

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You know I wasn’t originally going to write an article on the Pride House in the Vancouver Olympics. “You write for Homorazzi Nic, why wouldn’t you write about THAT?” Fair point, if indeed you did say that which, as you can see, I’m assuming you might’ve. But it just seemed kinda’ dull to write about. I’m so proud of our city for having the first Pride House ever, and I think that’s suitably progressive for Vancouver, not to mention amazing. But have you been there or seen it? It’s kinda’ dull.

Located where Qmunity (formerly The Centre) is, central Davie Village, The Pride House offers a safe haven for gay Olympians, participating members of the community, and pretty much anyone who wants to have a cup of coffee and gab a little. Honestly? I kinda’ expected to have a beer like at the other houses, but that’s cool.

So that was my perspective. And then a friend passed this article onto me from nj.com. My perspective shifted.

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McDonald’s, the Official Restaurant of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, is being shamed by the BC Federation of Labour for being able to shell out millions of dollars to be an Olympic sponsor, while paying some employees BELOW minimum wage.

Jim Sinclair, President of The Federation says McDick’s is paying new employees as little at $6.35 an hour under B.C.’s training wage. For training, British Columbia’s minimum wage is $8.00 an hour. That’s pretty shady. He thinks that McDonald’s should be paying their employees at the starting minimum wage of $10.00 an hour. Wow, more than 10 years ago I was a manager at McDonald’s (I know right - haha) and I made $10.00 as a crew chief! Times change for sure, with the minimum wage being way more than it used to. BC already has the lowest minimum wage in Canada, and Ronald is trying to make it even lower!

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PDG (Public Display of Gays). Even though we are fortunate to live in a country where same-sex marriage is legal and a city where gay people are integrated into the rest of society, gay bashing still happens. I can speak first hand when it comes to gay bashing as myself and friends were attacked by several Indo-Canadian males just outside of the Odyssey just a few years ago. I fortunately did not suffer any major injuries from the attack and was not permanently traumatized. Mind you I will always be cautious around drunk straight guys usually in from the suburbs. I believe the more we show affection publicly, the more it will be socially accepted even by close minded heterosexuals. Why is it that heteros can hug, kiss, makeout and grope each other in public and we can’t? If it really offends them to be around gay people then they probably should avoid downtown Vancouver altogether because we’re not leaving and nor will we fear our own safety in the place we call home.

Today, the Health Initiative for Men (HiM) released an anti-homophobia campaign called “Public Displays of Gays”. Here’s what they had to say. View the ads on the second part of the post.

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