Homophobic Palin family values

Willow Palin apparently has a homophobia problem of her own.

The teenager called a critic of her mother’s new reality show a “faggot” in a Facebook exchange TMZ posted late on Tuesday, Nov. 16. Bristol Palin, who is a finalist on “Dancing with the Stars,” also chimed in.

“No you just run your mouth just so you’ll get a reaction,” wrote the teen activist. “You’re a typical shit talker. Talking shit cause you have nothing else going for you. Just like you pretended you didn’t know what Dancing with the Stars was.”

What does Mama Grizzly Palin herself have to say about her two cubs' antics? Perhaps the world will find out once she has finished promoting her new reality show, declared herself a presidential candidate, left Christine O'Donnell's coven and even proclaimed she can see Mars from the Eastern Aleutians. Just a thought...

Homophobia in New York

The experience of the majority of gay and lesbian New Yorkers in the bubble that is the Big Apple is comparatively easy compared to their brothers and sisters in other parts of the United States and the world, but a piece of homophobic graffiti upon which I stumbled on an iPod advertisement on the side of a phone booth on East 16th Street near the Coffee Shop yesterday afternoon once again shattered that ideal.



As a journalist, I am routinely reminded of the homophobia and other forms of discrimination gays and lesbians continue to face. I would like to think New York is a city in which homophobia does not exist. I would also like to assume the young people I suspect scrawled the graffiti are aware of the diverse city in which they live. Their actions are a stark reminder that homophobia remains alive and well... even in New York.

Back on the Beach

Tomorrow marks the last deadline day for the Fire Island News this summer, and I'm honestly feeling a bit bittersweet at the prospect of returning to Bushwick in a little more than a week. The season out here is always far too short, but all good things I suppose must come to an end...

At any rate, I returned to Fire Island around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Roughly the same thing greeted me upon my return to Ocean Beach: hordes of sun hungry day trippers flocking to the beach, the neurotic woman who owns the house in which I live and delayed water taxis. Another day in paradise as the Phil Collins song goes! One unwelcome development, however, occurred very early Sunday morning as I walked home from the dock. A group of stoned "youths" noticed a woman running to catch the last ferry. They joked for her to stop and then proceeded to tell me to keep on walking. One added the additional caveat that "I had better keep on walking."

I immediately began to make remarks back at them. I was exhausted after less than three hours sleep the night before and I had less than zero-tolerance for this stupidity. I refuse to tolerate homophobia in my personal life--and Ocean Beach is certainly no exception. I walked up to a Suffolk Police truck and began to point out the group of kids, but the officer quickly responded they had another call with which they had to deal. A busy night in Ocean Beach I suspect, but perhaps homophobic stupidity is not something they find particularly important...

Homophobia Remains Alive in New York City

One can easily conclude New York City remains the most diverse city in the world. Diversity, as I have pointed out in previous blogs, remains a source of strength which binds the vast majority of New Yorkers together. Homophobic incidents to which I have witnessed in the more than three years I have lived in the city temporarily blemished this reality. My roommate's experience with a Brooklyn cabbie who directed anti-gay rhetoric towards him is an unfortunate addition to this list of incidents.

I have never experienced anti-gay sentiments in Bushwick despite the once maligned neighborhood's reputation. I did witness a man accost a man whom he thought touched him on a particularly crowded L-train morning commute a couple of years ago. I also routinely heard drunken 20-somethings call each other "fags" as they stumbled passed the Ocean Beach house in which I lived during the summer I reported on Fire Island. These two incidents are certainly juvenile but highlight homophobia's continued presence in even the most apparently progressive cities. Last October's murder of Brooklynite Michael Sandy, the anti-gay attack against performer Kevin Aviance and other high profile murders and assaults remain stark reminders of the manifestation of these attitudes. New York City remains a relatively safe -- and arguably fabulous -- place to be openly LGBT. Progress, on the other hand, needs to continue in even the most celebrated LGBT Meccas.