A lot of the Alabama LGBT community is up in arms over comments that Rick Burgess made on the air concerning homosexuality and its “level of sin”. Burgess said he disagreed with President Obama’s Proclamation citing June and LGBT Pride month. He also went off,on a rant about his “biblical worldview” and how he was just saying what he believes. Originally, I was upset about his comments. His comments are certainly the seed idea which is at the base of many anti-LGBT hate crimes. It’s the idea that because someone is believed to be less-than by a particular religion, causing them harm is somehow ok.

I posted about the incident on facebook, and joined the “Rick and Bubba must go” facebook group. I even sent tweets to a few sponsors in complaint about the comments.
But as I gathered my thoughts and began to examine the issue through the lens of reason, logic and evidence, I was left with one conclusion.
This isn’t my fight.
Rick made his comments out of his particular religious worldview. He has a right to hold those opinions. He spoke them on his nationally syndicated radio/television show, a platform he and his co-host certainly have control over and rightfully so. Burgess isn’t an elected official. He’s a private citizen using his platform to preach his beliefs.

Don’t get me wrong. Burgess is still an idiot. He’s a common bigot with radio show and those are a dime a dozen these days.
He wouldn’t know what theology is if it bit him in his gigantic ass and he makes wild theological assumptions based on faulty translations of a book of stories and religious rules that wildly contradict each other.
But this isn’t my fight because I don’t believe in his god (or yours for that matter) and I don’t follow his religion. And this debate has simply devolved into what people think their Bible says.
And frankly, I don’t give a rat’s ass what the Bible says about anything, including rat’s asses.
I think, too often the gay community in the South wastes so much time trying to prove to the homophobes and religious zealots that they too are as good of a god-follower as anyone else.
But there are those of us who don’t believe in a god.
And I’m one of them. And I’m staying out of it.

Granted, if Burgess spreads lies about the LGBT community, I’ll be there to call him out on his lies. As it stands now, He’s already calling for his “army” to rise up.

Burgess will portray himself as the victim. A poor soldier of God, persecuted for preaching the gospel. He’s already started and as more LGBT southerners call for boycotts and email sponsors, his power will grow as the mindless churchgoers will proclaim him their icon.
LGBT Christians should stand up to Burgess and tell him why his rhetoric is so dangerous. But I cannot argue with a man about whether God loves gays when I believe his first assumption (that there is a God) to be in error.

By Donell James Foreman
Donell@queervoice.net

Well hello there, reader! Let me take this second sentence to introduce myself – I’m Donell James Foreman. Yes, all three names. Or, you can call me The DJF – I answer to either. I’m twenty-one years old and am an actor for New York (who isn’t, right?). I am very excited to be writing for QueerVoice and I hope you all enjoy what I bring to the table.

A little about myself? Well, I am currently on the national tour of Mamma Mia! taking the US of A by storm. I’ve been on tour for approximately 23 months now – I did Hairspray right before I joined this tour. I’ve been living out of a suitcase this whole time, and I haven’t slept in my own bed in ages. Touring the country definitely has its ups and downs depending on the day, but the best part is that I get to see all the corners of the country; including lots of places I would never think to go. I even went to South Dakota, if that’s any indication. I call it, vacation during the day, and work at night.
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As one of our new features here at QueerVoice.net, we’ve decided to profile a porn performer every week. This week, our performer is Jeremy Bilding.

Bilding was kind enough to take a few minutes out of his day to answer a few questions for us, here’s his interview:

QueerVoice.net :First, I guess is the obvious question of “How did you get into porn?”

Jeremy Bilding: I had actually always wanted to get into porn. There had been an enticement since I had first discovered it. Over the years, of course, I had only thought of it as a fantasy. So, after making a few changes in my personal mantras a few years ago, I decided it was time to start doing what I wanted to be doing, and I started researching how to get into porn. I was living in Denver, and had replied to a Craigslist ad for male talent seeking work. The ad was for a scout that had put me in contact, or I should really say showed me a few websites/studios. I had started filling out the “I want to be a model” forms, and starting St Patrick’s Day week 2008, I started shooting my first scenes.
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Editor’s Note: This is Patrick’s first column at QueerVoice.net. He will be writing a new column each week dealing with gay sex and love. Welcome Patrick!

By Patrick Clines
Patrick@queervoice.net

So there I was, alone in my bedroom, laptop resting on my stomach, searching for Mr. Right. Nothing happened, like always. It seems like the more you search online for something real and meaningful the more the reality of the situation appears. As a post-modern gay man it’s frustrating that the only sanctuary in the name of intimacy is worshiped with the clicking of keys and trading of illicit photos, snapped in the bathrooms with your pants down.

I use the words ‘post-modern gay man’ to put a label on what is going on now with our culture. The more we look for intimacy on the tubes (the inter-tubes that run from my house to yours and carry all the information, Al Gore made them) the more we become more disconnected with what is really out there. I must confess that I have fought in the trenches of Manhunt, Gay.com, and a sundry of other sites that cater to more varied appetites. These are websites that deliver exactly what they promise, a few hours of wasted time. I have known friends to find wonderful boyfriends on so-called dating sites (they’re actually for tricking, we all know this).

I have even found a few downtrodden souls in search of nourishment and let them suckle at the teat that is my wonderful personality and demeanor. Kidding. But I have gotten a few really good dates, and even wonderful relationships, sexual or purely platonic.

I remember the days of AOL chat rooms, where all you needed to get dick was a dial up modem and a sundry of lubricants. The adventure of it, it truly appeals to men. We get the search, the delicate conversation that evolves from ‘stats’ to ‘on my way over’, the pornography fix that we save in secret folders kept way back next to dissertations and kitten pictures. At my peak I was pulling a good trick a week, I had a bet going with a dorm neighbor, he won. Not for my lack of trying, his penis was the size of an Aquanet can.

It was a simple ‘hi’, pic exchange, and then the evening was set in motion to bring mischief, danger, and hopefully lubricated intimacy with some guy that could only be later identified by his screen name when I recalled the story with friends.
It was hot.
It was also very dangerous.
And I’m not talking about the kind of danger that involved guns or Republicans.

Real danger, like STD’s and the endless cycle of searching for something you don’t even know you’re looking for. We search for that bond, that little glimmer that someone will hold us when it’s snowing, without a screen name.

But it gets so old. The further a gay man moves away from urban life the less selection of actual gentlemen come our way. We have to rely on friends to set us up with their friends. I once met a guy in a library, he had a huge penis, it lasted 8 months.

So why not just be single and stay off the tubes. Because it’s damn hard. Most of the time I’m not even looking for anything.

Just browsing.

Like everyone else.