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Report Finds LGBT Television Characters At Record High

By FRAZIER MOORE

NEW YORK — The number of gay and bisexual characters on scripted broadcast network TV is at its highest-ever level in the season ahead, according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The total on cable television is also going up.

The 17th annual "Where We Are on TV" report, released Friday, found that 4.4 percent of actors appearing regularly on prime-time network drama and comedy series during the 2012-13 season will portray lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender characters. That is up from 2.9 percent in 2011, which saw a dip in what had been a growing annual trend.

The study reviewed 97 scripted TV programs scheduled to air in the upcoming season on the broadcast networks, counting a total of 701 series regular characters. The study found that 31 of them are LGBT characters.

ABC has the highest amount, with 10 out of 194, or 5.2 percent, of their regular characters identified as LGBT.

After leading last year, Fox ranks second with six LGBT characters out of 118 total series regulars, or 5.1 percent.

CBS was saluted as much improved, with four out of 142 LGBT series regulars, or 2.8 percent, up from 0.7 percent last year. Among CBS's new fall series is "Partners," a comedy about two childhood friends and business partners, one of whom is gay and in a relationship. The network's lineup represents "an authentic and conscious effort by CBS to improve its diversity," the study said.

Regular gay and lesbian characters on what the study termed "mainstream" cable television has also risen this season to 35, up from 29 last season.

Among those networks, Showtime leads with 12 LGBT characters. The study also cited HBO, FX, Adult Swim, ABC Family, MTV, Syfy and TeenNick.

The HBO drama "True Blood" remains cable's most inclusive series, featuring six LGBT characters.

On broadcast TV, male characters (64 percent) continue to outweigh female characters (36 percent, including the transgender character Unique on "Glee").

Compared with last year, African-American representation has grown from 9.9 percent to 12 percent, while Hispanic representation has decreased from 5.6 percent to 4.1 percent.

"It is vital for networks to weave complex and diverse story lines of LGBT people in the different programs they air," said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. "More and more Americans have come to accept their LGBT family members, friends, co-workers and peers, and as audiences tune into their favorite programs, they expect to see the same diversity of people they encounter in their daily lives."

ABC is a unit of The Walt Disney Co.; CBS and Showtime are divisions of CBS Corp.; NBC and Syfy are part of Comcast Corp.; Fox and FX are units of News Corp.; HBO is a unit of Time Warner Inc.; MTV and TeenNick are part of Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks.

This piece was co-written with Joe Karpowicz and Zach McCallum.

Each week Carlos Delgado would unfold a little lace doily and place it on the baby grand piano, smoothing it with wrinkled, spotted hands. He would pause for a moment to survey his work, then he'd pull the small white statue of Mary from its velvet cover and gently stand it on the doily, meticulously aligning it according to specifications known only to him. Finally, he'd turn to me and say, "Where's my hug?" Busy as I was, preparing to do my part as music director for services at Peninsula MCC, I would happily pause and complete our little ritual.

It was an important ritual for us both. MCC churches were founded in the late 1960s to serve as communities of faith for LGBT people, many of whom were unwelcome in the churches of their youth. As an MCC we had no permanent statues of Mary, nor of anyone else. But MCC churches, because of their founding mission, often operate like camps for religious refugees, tending spiritual and emotional wounds, and providing a few comforts of home without the dangers that had made emigration from home churches necessary. For me those comforts were gospel music and the example of older men like Carlos. For Carlos those comforts were Mary and hugs, and those dangers were the harmful words of the Catholic Church leadership.

LGBT people who were raised Catholic have heard some particularly harsh things from people in positions to hurt them. In Carlos' lifetime the people who claimed to be in charge of his spiritual and moral development, including the men he was raised to consider infallible, have called an essential part of his identity imperfect, inferior, intrinsically evil, and objectively disordered. Most recently, in a statement against marriage equality, Pope Benedict XVI said, "The family is threatened by an idea of human nature that proves flawed," and that "marriage and family are institutions that must be promoted and safeguarded from every possible ambiguity regarding their true nature, because every injury that is inflicted upon them in fact constitutes a wound on human cohesion…." He has said that Catholic doctrines on marriage "permit the full development of the human person."

The pope issued that statement on Sept. 21. That evening, at 89 years old, Carlos Delgado died.

What a shameful coincidence. What a pitiful bit of kismet. But please understand: My pity isn't for Carlos, who had been sick for some time and likely never read Benedict's statement. Carlos died in the care of loving clergy, friends, and family, and at peace with himself and his God. No, my pity is for Benedict, who seems in mortal danger of living his whole life without the blessing of knowing a gay man like Carlos.

Zach knew that blessing. When he was still going by the name Andi, and somewhat worriedly approached 88-year-old Carlos to explain that he would be changing names and genders and living as a man, Carlos said, "I always knew there was something special about you."

Joe knew that blessing. Joe is a world traveler who's been in some of the most poverty-stricken nations on the planet, always with $100 in his pocket from Carlos and the instruction to "give it to someone who needs it." With the money Carlos gave him, Joe saw to it that a pregnant prostitute in Cartagena, Colombia, could stop turning tricks long enough to have her baby, that a tour guide in Cairo could keep his children in school, and that a generous woman in Peru who gave of her best to her guests could continue to feed her family.

William knew that blessing. William was Carlos' partner of 20 years, who came home one day with the news that he had contracted HIV through infidelity. When William asked if Carlos was going to kick him out, Carlos said, "No. You don't kick a man when he's down." Carlos and William stayed together. When William got sick, Carlos cared for him. When William died, Carlos mourned.

Carlos was well past the midpoint of his life before the Stonewall riots or anything approaching the gay-liberation movement began. He was already in retirement when he lost William to AIDS. He lived most of his life in a society where the words "coming out" were meaningless, where congregating with other gay men could get him arrested -- and did!

Carlos lost his youth to repression, his church to ignorance, his lover to AIDS. Unlike so many well-stationed, fortunate people in this world, Carlos actually had the right to be bitter, judgmental, and angry, yet he was not. In fact, his kindness was palpable, his love of life contagious, and his grace constant. He was a humble man of humble means, but his capacity for generosity was extraordinary.

Pope Benedict, a loftily placed global citizen, must know many amazing people -- heads of state, authors, musicians -- but if he took the time to know anyone like Carlos, his hurtful proclamations against LGBT people would turn to ashes in his mouth.

Unlike protestant or evangelical leaders, who use a particular view of scripture to issue harm to LGBT people, Catholic church leaders tend to wrap their assertions in claims about "natural law." This is more insipid in some ways, because scripture can at least be debated. Phrases like "an idea of human nature that proves flawed" aren't in the Bible, but they give the false appearance of academic or philosophical authority. Words like "full development of the human person" can sound caring and informed, if more than a little condescending, but they are vague and undefined. What, in Benedict's estimation, makes a fully developed human person? Family? Children? Marriage? Surely the pope doesn't mean to imply that the thousands upon thousands of priest, nuns, monks, and popes who have faithfully served the church by denying families for themselves were "incomplete."

The pope leaves us to guess what he might mean, and the scriptures simply don't use language like "human nature," but for those of us with Judeo-Christian leanings, what God requires of a human life is pretty plainly laid out in Micah 6:8:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
    To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

Did Carlos do justice? Yes. Did he love kindness. Oh, yes. Did he walk humbly? Indeed he did. Do you? Do I? Does Benedict?

When Carlos was arrested for attending a gay house party, his stepfather disowned him and insisted that the family follow suit. But when the stepfather had a heart attack, it was Carlos who secretly drove his mother to the hospital, where she would visit her husband while Carlos waited in the lobby. Eventually the stepfather asked his wife how she got to the hospital every day.

"My son brings me," she replied.

Hearing this, the stepfather got angry that none of the other family had offered to help. He told his wife to go down to the lobby and bring her son up to see him. He then told Carlos that although he did not approve of the behavior that got him arrested, he did recognize that Carlos was kind and generous to his mother. He wrote Carlos back into his will and welcomed him back into his home.

If only Benedict had seen Carlos' lifetime of kindness and generosity, perhaps he could have done as the stepfather did and welcomed Carlos back into the fold. His church certainly could have benefitted from Carlos' extraordinary wisdom and grace.

Instead, that blessing went to Peninsula MCC, and to me.
In memory of Carlos Delgado Born May 30, 1923 Died Sept. 21, 2012

Sadly, here in the USA this is not the only Church to base their beliefs on Old Testament teachings of living " Under God's Law" Completely ignoring the New Testament and living "Under God's Grace" Many of these churches also believe they are the one "True Church Established by Peter". They then add to this the part of Revelations concerning the "Rapture of the Church" and it is there that the number 144,000 is all the humans that will be in the "One True Church"

For me these people represent all that is evil in this world. I did not know that Nate had escaped his Father's influence and hatred. I posted this story to provide a ray of Hope for the LGBT Community that even the children of hate mongering bigots can turn out OK in the end.

'GMA' Weather Anchor Comes Out, Plans To Marry Rubem Robierb

Exciting news for "Good Morning America" personality Sam Champion – he's set to tie the knot with longtime boyfriend Rubem Robierb later this year.

The New York Times broke the news of the weather anchor's engagement Oct. 5 subtly, in a story about MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts' wedding to Patrick Abner, which took place Sept. 29 in New York. “We’re getting married New Year’s Eve in Miami,” Champion, 51, told the Times.

Added Robierb, a Brazilian-born photographer: “We’ll do it [in New York] officially, and then have a party in Miami.”

In what could be seen as the continuation in a trend of public figures subtly coming out, the Times also reports that it was Champion's first public acknowledgement of his sexuality.

Among those to congratulate Champion and Robierb was GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. "Sam has been a good friend and longtime supporter of GLAAD, and I wish him and Rubem the absolute best," Graddick said in a statement.

The ABC News blog quoted Champion as saying, “We are thrilled and so excited and thank everyone for their good wishes."

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For me the Best Part of Bears  >:D

I may be a leatherbear but I shave my balls and trim my pubes. I also prefer my Boyz to have shaved balls and trimmed pubes. There are many reasons for this:

1. I hate lose hairs getting in my mouth when sucking dick.

2. The sensations are just better with out the hair on balls.

3. If I decide to bind your balls I do not want hair pinching to deter from the binding.

4. Other reasons are also related to sexual play as well.

Everyone of these Boyz looks like they have been up to no good and therefore are in need of some :spank2:

:hehe: I would love to know what happens next. I envision more  :spank2: and then some :anal2:

The Most Wanted List just simply represents the torrents with the most downloads and activity associated with them. Certainly there many other torrent choices available to you by using our Search and Browse Functions. Just now it seems Bareback Category rules the most wanted list this is true. However, there are 1000's of other choices to made.

If only the rest of the Westboro Baptist Church could find their way to Nate's logic and perceptions of truth we would be 1 step closer to a better world for all humanity.