Greg in the Afternoon: Army discharges gays; college wrestler banned for nude pics back on the mat!

The name of this feature might change. Basically, I’m launching a round-up of news and entertainment items from the past 24 hour – to be posted each weekday afternoon. It’ll be stuff that I find interesting and feel like commenting on. So everyday, sometime after lunch, expect a Greg In the Afternoon post.

Here’s today’s items of interest:

*** This just makes me nuts! Towleroad reports that in the month of January, the US Army discharged 11 people from the service because they are gay. This means more than 12,500 servicemembers have been fired from their jobs by the federal government because they are gay.  Discharging 59 Arabic and Farsi linguists and other critical specialists because of their sexual orientation simply cannot stand! Here is a video from former Army Sergeant Darren Manzella:

It’s just plain old discrimination and it is legal discrimination which our country should riud itself of completely at this point in history. Then there is the valuable service that gay men and women provide to the service during a time when resources are stretched so thin. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is holding a Freedom to Serve rally in Washington DC tomorrow. The SLDN writes: “People from all backgrounds – gay, straight, young, old, black, white, Latino, Asian – will come together to raise their voices for equality and call upon Congress and President Obama to take action. Our message will ring loud and clear: The time for repeal is now.”

*** The former director of the Los Angeles Film Festival last year when it was learned that he had contributed to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign. Since LGBT films are usually a part of the festival’s line-up and gay folks and their straight allies make up a good chunk of the festival’s audience, the continued employment of Richard Raddon became a major issue.

Today, Film Independent – which runs the festival as well as the Independent Spirit Awards – announced the hiring of a new festival director: Rebecca Yeldham. The new director said in a statement: “In these times, there is such a desire to come together and celebrate our unique city, community and industry, to bridge differences and champion great filmmaking and film-going experiences.  I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join this dynamic team and lead the charge in taking this Festival to the next level.”

*** One of my BFF’s is a political writer for the Columbus Dispatch but I’ve never had cause to link to him before. But today, James Nash posts an item on the paper’s political blog, The Daily Briefing. about state public-safety administrator who landed in some hot water after sending an e-mail message promoting the gay-themed Out@Wex Film Festival in Columbus. Although Tina O’Grady sent the message along as simply an “FYI,” its contents apparently didn’t sit well with some of her co-workers. James writes that “one forwarded it along to The Dispatch saying that “many were disgusted” with the advertisement for the festival. One of the films advertised at the festival is described as an “art-porn provocation (that) depicts an explosion of cannibalistic, sodomy-seeking zombies in Berlin.”

I just wonder how outraged they would have been had this been a festival of straight films? Probably not at all.

*** From Advocate.com: Paul Donahoe, one of the hotties who was booted from the University of Nebraska wrestling team after posing nude for a gay porn site, is back competing successfully for another school. Donahoe and  former teammate Kenny Jordan appeared naked on the gay porn site Freshman.tv and were found guilty of violating school rules that forbade appearing in pictures for commercial use without permission.

I ask you again, would they have been kicked off if they had appeared nude on a straight site? Would anyone have noticed or cared?  Anyway, hooray for Donahoe for winning the 125-pound division at the Eastern Wrestling League tournament competing for Pennsylvania’s Edinboro University.