Summer usually means no news. Not this year. Like the increasing number of hurricanes, there’s been an increasing number of big stories hitting the papers, even in these dog days of summer (dog days this year seems particularly appropriate because a team of South Koreans just announced they have successfully cloned dogs, slightly worrisome on a continent that also eats them).
Still, there’s been a number of gay news items hitting the wires that haven’t been getting a great deal of coverage. Some are bad, some are worse. And actually, surprisingly, some are pretty good. The most surprising--and the one that the media may well pick up on--comes from the Los Angeles Times, which reports that Bush Supreme Court Nominee John Roberts once worked behind the scenes helping gay rights advocates prepare their arguments against the 1992 Colorado initiative allowing employers and landlords to exclude gays from jobs and housing. Robert’s side won, a big victory for gays (only Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas voted to uphold gay bias).
Another positive: a new poll shows that support for gay marriage has rebounded to its highest point since the right wing went on its anti-gay relationship offensive. And for the first time ever, a majority of Americans--53 percent) favor granting gay and lesbian couples many of the same rights as married couples. (Despite what the right wing claims, most Americans don’t consider gay relationships a major issue--according to the poll, the issues they want the court to address issues are abortion, terror suspect rights, religious displays, lawsuit award limits, and affirmative action.)
But of course, there’s some bad news too. There’s the general insistence of Republicans across the country to stop the progress of gay rights bills, as taking place in Oregon this week, and the growing numbers of gay-bashing incidents across the world; in Uganda, gay rights advocates are being harassed and jailed; in Iran, two young boys were hung, although reports vary as to whether they were executed for raping another boy, or simply for being gay.
Most odd, however, is the life-imitates-art scenario in Tennessee. A few years ago the comedy But I’m a Cheerleader took place in a summer camp where imperious counselors attempted to turn gay teens into straight ones. (They failed). But near Memphis, a camp operated by a group called “Love in Action International” actually does try to convert (which is as likely to happen as the conversion of a tall person into a short person).
One camp-bound teenager wrote a blog about it, immediately became famous as a victim, then left the camp and recanted some of his story, leaving both sides confused about him--but not about the camp itself. It’s one thing to send your child to a fat camp, because as embarrassing as that can be, if the child actually wants to go, and wants to work on his or her weight issues, there’s a chance for success. But to send a child on a doomed mission is pretty frightening--both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association have said such therapy can be emotionally harmful, and lead to depression and self-destructive behavior. That’s no way to spend a summer, dog days or not.