INTERESTING NEWS STORIES

Bury them in fruit jars.’ A gay mass murder and the cover-up that followed

Fifty years after the deadly fire at New Orleans' Up Stairs Lounge, new perspectives consider the atrocities that occurred after the blaze.

1973: Flames shot through the crowded Up Stairs Lounge as bartender Buddy Rasmussen opened the front door to see who had been ringing the downstairs buzzer. Someone had lit the popular bar’s stairwell carpet on fire, and it burned its way up the wooden stairs into the bar, quickly igniting the lounge’s red wallpaper, curtains, and posters of Burt Reynolds naked on a bearskin rug and Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz wearing his seven gold medals, a star-spangled Speedo, and a smile.

Some patrons saw the blaze and ran for the nearest exits or down the stairwell, emerging with their clothes on fire as neighbors raced to pour pitchers of water onto them. Rasmussen began tapping patrons on the shoulder to follow him toward the fire exit at the back of the bar, but many were too shocked by the exploding blaze to move.

The June 24, 1973, conflagration, likely set by a sex worker ejected from the New Orleans bar earlier that night, killed 32 people and injured at least 15 others. ( Likely set, but not confirmed )

Yet the reaction to the catastrophe hardly matched the immense suffering the fire caused, and the tragedy was compounded by multiple denials: Public officials refused to issue statements about the fire, and Catholic churches refused to hold funeral services for the victims, whom they saw as unrepentant sinners. The media only reported on the fire briefly or not at all, and some families refused to claim their relatives’ bodies because they didn’t want to acknowledge that they were gay. Three of the victims ended up buried in unmarked graves — two remain unidentified. To this day, the arson remains unsolved.

READ THE REST OF THIS HARROWING STORY HERE

And straights who wonder why we have a PRIDE PARADE and they don't have a STRAIGHT PARADE - have absolutely no idea - no idea at all - what many on the LGBT scene have been through and continue to go through just to be who God intended them to be...LGBT.

-----------------------------

PPL / PRS is a music licencing company that charge - supposedly - ALL BUSINESS - to play music in their venues and then this money is paid to the performers themselves.

If you make a mistake, this company charges 50% penalties added to your bill.

Trouble is - EVERY SINGLE YEAR it is PPl/PRS who make constant silly mistakes that mean I have to phone or e mail and get it put right. So every year, I am expected to get their staff to offer a competent and professional service - and every year - there are always small things wrong - and considering this is a multi national multi million £ company - TRAIN YOUR STAFF AND OFFER A COMPETANT SERVICE TO ME - YOUR CUSTOMER.

So as they sent a bill with no run down as to how it was made up, I had to phone and get a correct billing - and knocked £25 of the total for having to do so.

They then added £52.40 onto the £25 outstanding - in their opinion - meaning I now owe £77.40 and I have instructed them through e mail, postal mail and several phone calls, that I WILL NOT BE PAYING THIS. PERIOD. Yet every week I get yet another threatening letter from them and the last couple threatened legal action.

I will not be bullied by them into paying - when it comes about BECAUSE OF THEIR STAFF MISHANDLING MY ACCOUNT.

I refuse to pay. Let them take me to court as this is a matter of principle.

When we get it wrong, I am charged a penalty.

When they get it wrong, I charge them and it is a fraction compared to their charges.

Big business bullies small business - like the TFL a few years ago illegally trying to con me out of £180 and when after an 8 month investigation where TFL did nothing at all to help - the courts went in my favour - TFL then vehemently REFUSED to apologise or offer compensation in the MOST arrogant and contemptuous manner that was just obnoxiously rude. ( It was a women - need you ask. )

It's horrendous doing business with some of these companies and I will not put up with their bad approach to small business - especially at a time when so many small business are suffering financial hardship and the likes of PPL/PRS try to bend you over and dry hump you with no please or thankyou and no appreciation at all. It's just abuse.

------------------------------------------

POLITICS

Mike Johnson worked with conversion therapy group to convince teens being gay is “dangerous” He said that anti-bullying efforts were an attempt to silence Christians.

By Alex Bollinger Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Speaker Mike Johnson

( John Bellamy Comments in Pink )

READ ORIGINAL STORY HERE

Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) history of anti-LGBTQ+ activism and rhetoric came to light after he was elected Speaker of the House last week, ( USA ) and now his years-long work with a major conversion therapy organization is coming under scrutiny. From 2006 to 2010, Johnson worked with Exodus International, a now-defunct Christian organization that had over 400 local ministries throughout the world. The group promoted the belief that being gay is a sin and its goal was to turn gay people straight. As a lawyer, Johnson provided legal advice to the group and helped them promote an anti-gay event for teens, according to CNN. Mike Johnson says it’s “impossible” to think he’s full of hate because he’s a Christian. ( So what exactly IS his excuse for being so full of fear based hate then ??? ) He complained about people bringing up his anti-LGBTQ+ past. At this time, Johnson was working as a lawyer for the SPLC-designated hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). He and ADF collaborated with Exodus to promote “Day of Truth,” an anti-LGBTQ+ response to the “Day of Silence.” The Day of Silence is a yearly protest of bullying suffered by LGBTQ+ students.

( Has anyone ever heard of this ??? )

“What these adult advocacy groups like the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network are promoting is a type of behavior,” Johnson said in a 2008 radio interview promoting Day of Truth. “Homosexual behavior is something you do, it’s not something that you are.”

He described Day of Truth as a counter to the “dangerous” homosexual lifestyle.

( And he would - of course - know all about the gay lifestyle huh ? )

Promotional materials for Day of Truth created by Exodus and ADF included testimonials from a “former-homosexual” and a “former lesbian” and T-shirts that said, “The Truth cannot be silenced.” Johnson appeared in at least one video promoting the event, and Exodus’s website quoted him saying, “An open, honest discussion allows truth to rise to the surface.”

( But NOT when you have muddied the waters with misinformation, lies and fear based rhetoric based in your own inner fear. )

Johnson also wrote an editorial to promote the event in 2007, where he claimed that “advocates of homosexual behavior” want to “gild and glamorize homosexual behavior while gagging anyone who opposes it.” He called queer teens “sexually-confused” and said that Christians were being silenced by anti-bullying advocates.

( Spare me - I am feeling sick from all the lies and bullshit this man advocates.)

“Day of Truth was really established to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda in public schools,” he said in a 2008 radio interview.

( What Homosexual Agenda ? How come these straights know all about this hidden homosexual agenda while an out and proud gay man - out for over 50 years and running various gay business for over 40 years - knows fuck all about this mysterious and suspiciously unknown agenda of corrupting children while the fearful straight men seem to know all about it - and considering the vast majority of child sexual abuse comes from straights, this double standards, this transference of responsibility and this denying the truth and damning others for your own misdeeds - is clear to see - shame the dumb ass Christians that follow dumb men like this cannot get a grip on reality and see the avoidance of truthful reality by those running from the truth. )

He also blamed the fall of Rome – which happened after the Roman Empire converted to Christianity – on LGBTQ+ people.

( Oh dear - Rome fell because the mighty German Empire cost too much in wars against and they used cooking utensils that slowly poisoned the people. Not gays. Not even the church - brought down the mighty Roman Empire, it largely came down to food poisoning. ) “Some credit to the fall of Rome to not only the deprivation of the society and the loss of morals, but also to the rampant homosexual behavior that was condoned by the society,” he said in another 2008 interview.

( Says who ??? More typical Republican mis-information - lies. ) )

“This directly harmed LGBTQ youth,” said Truth Wins Out executive director Wayne Besen. “This is someone whose core was promoting anti-gay and ex-gay viewpoints. He wouldn’t pander to anti-gay advocates, he was the anti-gay and ex-gay advocate.”

Exodus International fell apart in 2013. Founder Alan Chambers apologized “for the pain and hurt many of you have experienced. I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn’t change. I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatized parents.”

Randy Scobey, a former executive vice president for Exodus, told CNN that he regrets the Day of Truth. “It was bullying those who were trying to not be bullied,” he said. Scobey is now out as gay.

( Oh fucking surprise surprise.... The hypocrite. ) He said that he remembers working with Johnson, saying that Johnson was quiet but homophobic. Day of Truth wasn’t the only time the two organizations collaborated. “We worked with them behind the scenes a lot,” Scobey said, explaining that ADF gave legal advice about how to practice conversion therapy. “They were very important to us as far as helping us to feel more secure legally and politically.” - But not morally ...

( So there you have it. Those who scream the loudest often have the most to hide. Those who throw abuse at others are really throwing abuse at their inner self they so fear - and so abuse others who are out and proud while you stay hidden in the closet and throw their toys out of the pram at anyone who shows them the truth. They are therefore the worst kind of faggot - the worst kind of abuser and the worst and most dangerous kind of human being. They eat their own. )

---------------------------------------

HOME PAGE

BLOG HOME PAGE

DIARY OF EVENTS =================