Neal Anthony and Michael Duncan are again living in fear down Tennessee way.

As we reported back in April, the McMinnville-based queer couple found themselves on the receiving end of some unimaginative homophobic crime when some punks spray painted anti-gay epithets on their historical home. How unimaginative? "All gays go to hell". Snoozefest. What the haters lack in imagination, they certainly make up in tenacity.

We've received word from the boys' friend, who writes:

Yet another hate crime took place over the weekend when four rocks crashed through his front windows as a Red (possibly Burgundy) Ford Explorer with people screaming "FAGS MUST DIE" drove by Neal's home. The local Sheriff's Dep't was once again called out but the investigating officer claimed they could do nothing as the car was headed into an adjoining county (where they have no jurisdiction) and so the matter could not be pursued.

The reader goes on to speculate whether or not the McMinnville police are, in fact, investigation the matter...

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Homophobia's ugly business. Especially when scrawled in spray paint on the side of a house, as some immature thugs have done to Neal Anthony's Tennessee home.

The Irving College native and his boyfriend are shocked and appalled that a group of unidentified men took it upon themselves to scrawl such delectable bits as "All fags go to hell" and "Fags deserve to die" on the side of their shared home. The graffiti comes only two weeks after a group threw a stone through their window and destroyed their mailbox.
Despite the repeated attacks, Anthony's sticking to his gay guns:

I guess whoever was doing this thinks they are going to run me offfrom this community because I’m gay. That is not going to happen… this house has been in my family since it was built in 1851. People our there are ignorant… times have changed. They need to accept open-mindedness.

That's right, girl. Not all Anthony's neighbors are so backward: they're lending a helping hand with the cleanup. That's Southern hospitality, right there.

Also, can we note that these homophobes need a lesson in creativity? "Fags deserve to die?" Boring.

Anti-Gay Messages Spray-Painted On Man's Home [WKRN]

Former Tennessee Senator Jeff Miller's either really dumb or really desperate. You may recognize Miller's name from his work pushing for a ban on same-sex marriage. Working tirelessly, Miller succeeded in getting the measure on the ballot, only to find his life crumble around him as his wife filed for divorce over "inappropriate marital conduct: and he lost his seat in a bribery scandal.

Now, it seems, Miller's charting a new direction, for he's offered his lobbying services to pro-LGBTer, the Tennessee Equality Project. Of course, the folks over at TEP aren't jumping for joys. President Chris Sanders remarked that Miller's request is "certainly not one that we're going to follow up on," and went on to question Miller's political judgement: "I suppose he thinks helping pass discriminatory bills would make him an effective advocate for the gay, lesbian and transgender community." Oh, snap!

Sure, hiring Miller may seem a bit contradictory, but think of it this way: he certainly knows the enemy. Plus he's got some wicked hair.

When we asked The New York Blade EIC Trenton Straube to pen an article for The Youth Issue, he practically bust a nut. It's particularly timely, you see, because Miss T said he's had youth on the brain as of late - but, sadly, no other body part - due to the fact that he just turned 178 38 years old. He then proceeded to give us way too much information:

I just read Tennessee Williams’ reissued Memoirs. What a slut, that Tenn! So inspiring - except for the sad slow death and public displays of addiction. Enabling my addiction to Tenn, my family, who knew I was reading that book, planned a trip to Tennessee Williams’ grave site, in St. Louis, when I was in Missouri for Christmas.

We thanked heaven for the reprieve and were about to make a quick getaway when Straube went on about his other inspiration, John Waters - who, not coincidentally wrote the introduction to the new Memoirs and has a new Valentine's CD coming out.

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News stories of men fucking around in public are nothing new. Shoot, George Michael could fill a book with his public indecency charges. So, hearing that Knoxville police have arrested and charged fifteen men with indecent exposure in Tyson Park really isn't the big of a deal. In fact, we probably would have mentioned it in QueerFeed or Happy Endings, offered a (hopefully) clever one-liner and called it day.

Reading over this story, however, we felt more sick than the thought of Madeline Crabb's vagina, even in mid-summer.

No, it wasn't for lack of food, we've grown accustomed to those pains by now - what's distressing about this story is the tone of the piece. Knoxville's My Network News (the most ghetto of the news establishments, if it can even be called as such) reports: "Knoxville police say the homosexual population has been gathering here, using the park as their meeting point." The homosexual population? We don't mean to channel GLAAD here, but that's just ridiculous. That phrase reeks of sexual panic. Consider Lt. Mark Presley's comments:

[The Park] for families, for children and everything and for folks to come and enjoy, but when you're having illicit sexual activity like these folks are doing, in a public park, it takes away the family... We put pressure on them in the other parks, such as Sharp's Ridge, Fort Dickerson places like that, they've moved down to an area that's harder for us to manage and for us to do surveillance on... They move to the place where they think we're not looking or patrolling as intently

Not only does he refer to gays as if they're some horrible virus, devouring everything in their path, but Parsley does double damage by implying gay people threaten families. Okay, so you really shouldn't be sucking dick in front of children (the men were allegedly reported by kiddies), but Parsley makes it seem as if faggotry will suck down the very marrow of a moral society like so much semen. Please...

As if that's not enough, the report goes on to list all the men arrested. We're sure more than a few covers were blown on that one. We can live with the objectification and even the perpetuation of anti-family myths, but calling out people involved seems bit severe. What is this? Fucking Uganda?

Tennessee's Human Rights Commission found insufficient evidence to prove that Knoxville's "Master Firefighter" Mike Brown illegally barred Fire Captain Jamie Faucon from working at an event because of her trans status.

Faucon alleged that Brown refused to let her work as a paramedic at the city's holiday themed Fantasy of Trees event because he wanted to keep her hidden from public view. This isn't the first time Faucon has accused Brown of discrimination. 365 Gay reports:

In June an internal investigation found that Brown and Assistant Fire Chief Mark Foulkes had discriminated against Faucon.

In a harshly worded report investigators said the pair violated Knoxville's nondiscrimination policy. It said that Foulks had "limited her opportunities to work special events because he feels she should not be in the public eye."

The investigators also found that Brown had made false statements to investigators. In August he was suspended for three days. Foulks was ordered to attend diversity counseling.

That's fair.

Faucon hasn't commented on yesterday's ruling, but has 30-days to appeal the decision. If she doesn't want to appeal, perhaps she can set the city on fire. We bet they'd ask for her help then. Or, of course, arrest her.

In celebration of the rerelease of Memoirs by Tennessee Williams, the deliciously depraved John Waters has penned a very special introduction. Using their powers of persuasion (and international clout, those bastards!), The New York Times adapted said introduction for their prized pages. In it, Waters meditates on his first encounters with Williams and how the famed writer of A Street Car Named Desire and The Night of the Iguana changed his life. Waters writes:

Yes, Tennessee Williams was my childhood friend. I yearned for a bad influence and boy, was Tennessee one in the best sense of the word: joyous, alarming, sexually confusing and dangerously funny. I didn’t quite “get” “Desire and the Black Masseur” when I read it in “One Arm,” but I hoped I would one day. The thing I did know after finishing this book was that I didn’t have to listen to the lies the teachers told us about society’s rules.

He goes on to discuss the more controversial bits of the book, including Williams' advice on avoiding penetration with hookers: “as they are most probably all infected with clap'". Seems a bit innocent these days, no?

Also, can we just say that while reading this piece, we couldn't stop imagining Waters and Williams in bed together: a disturbing, yet unexpectedly intriguing fantasy, to say the least.

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Boo! We can't stand when homophobes get their way. How much do we hate it? Well, let's just say we'd rather wear a polyester body suit two sizes too small. (Pretty serious, no?)

Tennesse has agreed to pay Love in Action's legal fees after a lawsuit that aimed at forcing the reparative therapy organization to register with the state's Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities.

The lawsuit arose after a fagling named Zach Stark (pictured) blogged about his parent's efforts to "cure" him of his homo-ways by sending him to Love in Action. While Stark didn't want to be there, the Department of Mental Health took an interest in the group's regulation of patients medication. By state law, if an organization keeps tabs on meds, they must be licensed with the department. Needless to say, Love in Action had no such officiation. The Southern Voice elaborates:

The state asked Love in Action to close its facilities and apply for a state license. The organization then sued the state, claiming that it did not restrict access to medication, but kept it in a central location to prevent theft and tampering. It claimed the state was discriminating against the ministry because of its controversial religious mission.

With the ruling, Love in Action can go back to managing the pills and the pain of sexual admonishment. Whoopee.

(As an aside, kudos to Stark. He may be our new hero.)

A judge in Tennesse has been arrested on charges of accepting kickbacks from driving school instructors, but his defense attorney claims that it is all the fault of his lesbian wife. Just the thought of his dear spouse performing cunnilingus on another woman forced him to steal thousands of dollars, and not only that:

"I've pulled every fucking thing in the book," he was recorded saying. "I've granted girls divorces in the morning and fucked them that afternoon."

What a strange power lesbians must have, to push a man to such extremes. We wish him the best of luck in clarifying his case.

Lesbian Wife Blamed For Judge's Corruption [365 Gay]

Two major stories are coming through from this nation's innards, and it's not good news. Following New York's lead, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Nebraska has put a noose around the possibility of gay marriage. The court overturned a previous judge's dismal of the ban, which was ruled to be too broad and in violation of the rights of gays and lesbians. But the Circuit Court judges felt otherwise: they ruled the ban – passed by voters in 2000 and going so far as to remove legal protections like shared health benefits for gay couples – "and other laws limiting the state-recognized institution of marriage to heterosexual couples are rationally related to legitimate state interests and therefore do not violate the Constitution of the United States."

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, a lawsuit filed American Civil Liberties Union – which "that the state failed to meet its own notification requirements for the ballot measure asking voters to ban gay marriage" – was unanimously dismissed by the state's high court. Tennesse already has a gay marriage ban but some lawmakers wanted a – get this – back up gay marriage ban. Based on the court's ruling, this effort will find its way to voters.

Two Victories for Supporters of Gay Marriage Ban [AP]

The Tennessee cross burning incident that we wrote about last week cannot be classified as a hate crime even if the perpetrators are caught, according to the FBI, because gays are not included in federal hate crime law. And really that makes sense, because who can tell if a gay person is the victim of a hate crime? How is a hate crime really different than any other crime? Maybe when answering these questions, lawmakers should start with burning crosses.

Legislation to include gays in federal hate crimes legislation was brought up again in May by Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and immediately dropped by the Republican-controlled Senate. Senator Kennedy has been trying to get the legislation passed since 1999.

No Hate Crime Charges In Cross Burning At Gay Home [365 Gay]
Hate Crimes Bill Dropped [365 Gay]

Police are currently "investigating" whether or not the placement of a burning cross on a gay man's lawn in Athens, TN along with a "derogatory message" constitutes a hate crime. When has a burning cross on a lawn been anything other than a hate crime? Shouldn't the investigation last about as long as it takes to read the message that we imagine was along the lines of "Die, Faggot, Die"?

The local sheriff says that this is the first cross-burning incident in the county's history, and explains, "Right now we are looking at all angles. It's a concern because it's a crime."

Cross burned at gay man's house [KnoxNews via PageOneQ]