Guest Post: U.K. Conservatives Reaching Out to Gays?

By: Craig Rigby

(Hello everyone. Bryan here. today we have something special for you. A guest post from a long time...and very thoughtfull commentor to this blog Craig Rigby(orangegoblin82). This blog was never intended to be my voice alone so I am very excited to have new blood on GFV and hope this will continue to be a weekly installment. Craig will bring  will bring a U.K. perspective and his own unique voice. Please also check out his Youtube channel to watch our U.K. counterparts, Craig and his partner Jake. But without further ado todays post it brought to you....)

Hello world. I had a few ideas of what to write today, for my inaugural blog, but have settled on a UK topic. I decided it would make me seem more exotic, not something I can often pull off.

As you may or may not be aware just six weeks ago there was a general election in the UK. For the first time in thirteen years and for only the second time in my life, the government changed. We now have a Conservative Prime Minister.

Whatever else can be said about the outgoing Labour government they were good for gay people. They introduced equal employment law, anti discrimination law, strong civil partnership laws, legalised gay adoption, equalised the age of consent and a whole list of other things. I was very thankful for all of this so I rewarded them with my vote. I live in a safe seat anyway.

However, the new government is a strange new hybrid we don't often see here. It is a coalition between the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrat party. Traditionally the conservative party has been bad for gay people and the Liberal Democrats have been good... but out of power. I want to examine what this period of regime change could mean for we gays of these little old islands.

...IF...

You may be gay when you stumble upon a club song and it rocks your world..this track from the Freemasons  just rocked mine. It seems to fit the times so well.  So what the hell...its pride month...I needed an anthem and I think this ones it...enjoy..

Fundamentalists and the Human Disconnect

There is a certain segment of the "pro-family" fundamentalist camp that you simply ignore because its rantings are so extreme they simply marginalize themselves. Even groups like NOM go far out of their way to publicly distance themselves from these people....even though they secretly agree with one another. Bryan Fischer of the America Family Association is one such individual and his messages are usually over the top. His last forey into the news cycle was to claim that homosexuality was akin to heroin abuse and should be treated as such...yes that meant illegality and some kind of treatment program for being gay. This time around...via Good As you...Mr. Fischer wants all Fundamentalist families to start having children so they can outbreed the gays/liberals....wow...just wow....thats one extra crispy bucket o' crazy.

Last time around I ignored Mr. Fischer largely because it was universaly acknowleged that he was uber-rightwing fringe and giving him any attention at all was giving his perspective more weight than it deserved. So why give him blog space now? Well as I read his words...as crazy as they are...they betray a viewpoint held by a  large swath of Americans...specifically the disconnection of gays and lesbians from their basic humanity.

Gay In America?

What does it mean to be gay in America? How would it be possible to tell that tale and include a comprehensive window into all the different colors, creeds, and walks of life that make up the gay community? But CNN has attempted to take on the task in airing its documentary series "Gay In America". The problem?...For a first episode, CNN chose a couple that many feel was the most stereotypical and market friendly choice to base its first episode on. The comment sections on several gay blogs are alit with flame wars and I myself admit to getting my hackles up once or twice. So whats the big deal?

Thats Gay...Pride Edition

I laughed my ass off when I saw this and had to share it with all of you...Whats your Gay New Years resolution?

The White House Pride Reception...Taking A Hard Look At Our Progress

A White House reception for Pride month has just wrapped up. That heads of activist organizations have been invited to the White House is not especially unique under this administration. The HRC alone spends more time at the White House than they do within their own offices. What marks this reception as different was that the heads of the largest LGBT lobbying groups where NOT invited. Since HRC has taken so much criticism of late for their utter lack of effectiveness given the amount of time they spend attending fancy cocktail parties, it will be interesting to see the results of what happens when they are specifically left off the guest list. So.....What happens when you mix a room full of gay activists with the President of the Unites States, and free cocktails? A very long speach. watch the video after the jump...

Fatherhood: From My Father...To Becoming One

Fathers Day has come and gone. I was so busy I barely noticed. I didn't have the chance to take two breaths and look back on what being a father has meant to me or to muse on how my own father has impacted my ability to be a parent. But I guess this is part of being a parent...some days you just get through it to slide in at home plate and then collapse in a heap. Circumstances being what they are, this blog entrty will have to serve as my musings and my remembrance of fathers.

Venez Comme Vous Etes...Come As You Are

This is the message given at the end of a recent McDonalds commercial aired in France. Its a sweet commercial about a young man dealing with his feelings of love for another classmate...another boy, and having to hide it from his father. The message McDonalds seems to be sending, is that moments like these happen in their restaurants and that they value all their customers regardless of what walk of life they come from. The problem?.... Mcdonalds will not air the add in America and their reason given is because they didn't want to impose a belief system on those with other beliefs.....huh?

Is the video really that bad?....You be the judge.

Prop 8 and The Infinite Wait

Yesterday saw the closing arguments in the first of what may be several rounds of Federal Trials regarding the constitutionality of Proposition 8 here in California. As one who has been living it here since the first marriages were issues to the final vote...it feels like something that will never end. It struck our lives and changed them forever. First came the shock and joy that we could marry...then the utter heartbreak that, as it had been given...so was it taken away. Prop 8 launched my family into Youtube and by extension, into blogging. We protested, phonebanked, engaged our family members, and did all we could to help raise awareness about what initiatives like prop 8 represent...not only to the gay community but to everyone. After all, if they can do it to us, what stops them from doing it to others? In short, our lives have come to revolve around Prop 8 in one way or another. But we have done all we can physically do and again it is in someone elses hands. All we can do is wait and ponder the path we have walked to get to this point...and the minds of those who hold our fate in their hands.

Gays and Religion

We live in a multi-spectral world. Sometimes that fact can be a great source of wonder... as when you realize that it takes all kinds of people to make the world go around...or that life will always hold another mystery to be pondered no matter how much we know about the world. Yet sometimes, that same capacity for infinite diversity can also be a source of frustration and strife, as when you realize that with the endless possibilities that life manifests, a few of those possibilities fly in the face of your own reason and intelectuall comfort. How we use these circumstances can be a measure of who we are as human beings. Such is at the core of the debate over whether or not gays can...or should... believe in religion. Many on both sides of the aisle believe that you cannot be gay and spiritual with any integrity. Hogwash

todays discussion is brought to you via a recent Youtube video of our Yosemite camping trip in which Tom, aka Fruityteen09 appears onscreen wearing a cross around his neck. For which a commentor immediately picked that detail out...ignoring his shirtless dive into the icy stream behind our campground...and proceeded to berate him as ignorant for wearing it. My question is....Why? Video after the jump:

The End Of A Great Trip, A Toast To Absent Friends, And A Return To Blogging

Hello Dear Readers,

As you have gathered, there have not been any updates to this blog in a while. Some of you may know from our Youtube channel that the reason for this was that we met a handfull of our Youtube friends and took off for a vacation in the Yosemite Valley with a group of other Youtubers that we had only known through their Youtube work. "What would they be like in real life?" I wondered. Whenever you meet people you've only ever known from the internet there is always a 50/50 chance that the person you get along with quite well online won't turn out to be the same in person in real life.