• Is Donkey Kong art? French Culture Minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres seems to think so. [International Herald Tribune]

• Does former Wisconsin congressman Steve Gunderson think the proposed marriage amendment's anti-gay? Yes. [La Crosse Tribune]

• What does Madonna like? Pissing people off, of course. [Star Magazine]

• So, how much did Art Cologne make this year? Oh, about $95 million. [Bloomberg]

• What can be done about Judaism and homosexuality? Jesse Green has some ideas. [Nextbook]

• Should journalists call Larry Craig gay? Some say yes, some say no. [Poynter Online via The Cup of Joe]

From one religion to the next here at Queerty.

A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel held a rally yesterday protesting Jerusalem's Gay Pride Parade, the seemingly cursed international gay event. After a bitter fight for permits, the event had to be rescheduled after the war between Israel and Lebanon broke out: a war the homo-haters insist resulted from World Pride itself. Ynet News reports:

“The war in the north broke out as soon as the parade was announced,” a Mea Shearim resident [said]…“Rabbis are fearful of another war,” the haredi said, adding that a special request has been forwarded to Diaspora Jews “so they too would protest and act for the preservation of Jerusalem’s sanctity.”

Um, we're not military experts here, but we don't think the war started because of the homos. We attribute it more to kidnapped soldiers and the fact that Hezbollah thinks Israel's an imperialist colonizer. But, that's just us.

Anyway, to combat the homo-influx, detractors are organizing an even larger protest to coincide with the November 10th celebration.

The parade falls on the day after the 16th anniversary of the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane, and his followers, who are expected visit his grave on the Mount of Olives on the day the parade is scheduled to take place, said they would ‘take advantage of the memorial ceremony for Kahane to fight the gay parade.’

While only words were lobbed at yesterday's rally, many fear that if the ultra-Orthodox and the ultra-Gay come together, there'll be more than just a shouting match.

We're fairly anti-violent folk here at Queerty, but we can't help get a little excited over the prospect of a gay v. Jew fight. Can you imagine? The queers would try to strangle the Jews with boas, while the Jews would whip them with their tallits.

We've got our money on the fags. The Jews may be the chosen ones, but you know those homos can throw down like whoa.

So, what ever could be more important than Foley and the unbelievable mess left in his messaging wake? This: the founder of the Ukrainian Jewish Reform movement has stepped down after the officiation of a lesbian wedding. The Baltimore Jewish Times reports:

Boris Kapustin, 70, founder and chairman of the Reform congregation in the Crimean town of Kerch, quit his post in September.

While Ukrainian Reform leaders cite Kapustin's age and health concerns as reasons for his resignation, Kapustin told JTA his resignation stemmed from his opposition to the movement's acceptance of same-sex commitment ceremonies.

"I don't want to participate in a movement that has organized a chupah for lesbians, which happened in Moscow this year,” Kapustin said.

It seems that the fact Rabbi Nelly Shulman presided over the ceremony exhibited too much chutzpah for old Kapustin. We thought old Jewish men liked take-charge women.

Well, don't worry, after popular denunciation, gay marriage officiation has been banned.

Responding to the wave of criticism from their communities, the six Reform rabbis working in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have agreed to ban such ceremonies for the time being, saying that post-Soviet citizens, including Jews, are not yet prepared to accept the Reform movement's liberal approach to homosexuality. Homosexuality was only decriminalized after the fall of the Soviet Union 15 years ago.

According to a recent poll, 37 percent of Russians still believe gays and lesbians should be criminally prosecuted.

Hey, that's still a minority!

Shit, it seems everyone has something to say about Mark Foley and his scandalous ways, even the Reform Jews. Responding to Tony Perkins and his right-wing Family Research Council's insistence that the Foley cover-up stems from a gay agenda (because what doesn't?), the Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Mark Pelavin, said:

As Jews, we know well the dangers inherent in broad, fear-inspiring accusations that blame societal ills on a particular social group. Mr. Foley, and not homosexuals as a group, performed these misdeeds. No group, homosexual or otherwise, bears responsibility. It is shameful for the Family Research Council to use one individual’s wrongdoings to cast a negative light on an entire group of people.

Pelavin's talking about the holocaust, of course, so we're not sure the Perkins bunch will really understand - don't they think it's all a myth, or something? Anway, even if Perkins does understand Pelavin's letter, we suspect he doesn't give a holy shit.

Wouldn't it be incredible if this whole Foley thing not only brought down the House of Representatives and (possibly) the FBI, but also started a huge religious civil war? Okay, maybe incredible isn't the appropriate word…

Back to the present. Rabbi Jerome Epstein, a key Conservative Jewish leader, will be traveling to the States to discuss a potentially positive new direction for Conservative synagogues: a lift of prohibitions against gay rabbis. During a December vote, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards will likely allow individual congregations to choose whether or not they want to allow gay rabbis or continue discriminating based on archaic Jewish law. Don't get too excited. This doesn't mean Conservative Jews necessarily like gay people. The vote is seen by many as the Conservative sects effort to retain members as Orthodox and Reform sects see their numbers grow.

That's certainly good news for us. But, we wonder: would it be better to have an over-arching ruling declaring homosexuality sinless? While that wouldn't necessarily force anti-gay congregations to change their minds, it would certainly send a powerful message. Do you, reader, think that religious leaders have the responsibility to dictate how local synagogues - or any type of spiritual community - practice? Sure, it makes sense on the surface, but just imagine if GLAAD stepped in and forced us to write only nice things about gays. Now that's a scary thought.

Conservative Jews 'Likely' to Lift Ban on Gay Rabbis [365 Gay]

We're not sure what organizers were expecting when they decided to hold World Pride in the middle of the Holy Land, but there has been a rare moment of unity between the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faiths in Israel as they cry "foul" together over the event. Despite the fact that only one quarter of the city of Jerusalem wants World Pride held in their city and that all these conservative religious leaders are having aneurysms over it, plans are going forward for the celebration, which should draw hundreds of thousands of queers from all over the world to the embattled region for a few days of gay revelry.

In general we think that spreading gayness to the Middle East will have a positive effect on the general global understanding. For example, if 500,000 gays come and party in Jerusalem for a few days and the city doesn't get swallowed into the sea or smote by the Hand of God, maybe the hysteria will lessen ever so slightly. Or are we being foolish optimists? Our main concern is that things don't turn violent, and we hope the Jerusalem police are prepared for the possibility will protect the safety of their visitors.

Christian leaders slam gay parade [Jerusalem Post]