Tag Archives: Orlando

ABOVE: At the 1985 Xmas party described below: Me, Michael, and Barney. I also wrote about Barney here. Originally posted May 2004. Reposted for World AIDS Day.Membership Michael didn’t look good. We were at his annual Christmas Luau party. Tons and tons of people in the house and the backyard. Standing in his kitchen, wearing a grass skirt and a …

Orange County, Florida commissioners have unanimously approved extending benefits to the partners of gay county employees. Via Watermark: In their pre-vote comments, many commissioners took the time to recognize Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan, who led the effort in 2008 to extend benefits to same sex domestic partners of city employees, and former Orange County Commissioner Linda Stewart, who crusaded …

This morning my mom tips me to the news that Orlando’s PBS station has been sold to a religious broadcaster. If the deal is approved by the FCC, Orlando will now have four local Christian television stations. Cable customers will continue to get the PBS station out of Daytona Beach. Television industry blog TVB reports: The Public Broadcasting Service has …

The U.S. Census has ranked the fastest growing cities whose metro populations exceed one million. My exploding hometown of Orlando ranks at sixth fastest-growing with 2.1M residents. When my family moved there in 1971, the population was around 60,000. The day after we arrived, Walt Disney World opened.

Whatever this bird thing is, it’s freekin’ 7AM so shut up shut up SHUT UP.

Last weekend’s freeze has left Orlando littered with dead tropicals like this banana tree in my mom’s back yard.

Like many Brutalist buildings, Orlando’s Main Public Library looks like a prison. Unfortunately my alma mater, UCF, also features a major example of ugly Brutalism.

The fountain in downtown Orlando’s Lake Eola is sort of the city’s symbol and its silhouette is found on many of the town’s non-Disney souvenirs. Obvs, I’m now in Orlando.

I’m in Florida for the next two weeks and tomorrow Father Tony and I will spin his tiny convertible down the Overseas Highway for a week of poolside blogging at Key West’s fabulous Island House. There will be a JMG reader meet-up in Fort Lauderdale upon our return (details to follow) and then I’m off to spend Xmas in Orlando …

By a 6-1 vote, yesterday the commissioners of Orange County, Florida banned sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations. Equality Florida reports that red-shirted supporters of the measures filled the commission’s chambers prior to the vote. Congratulations to my home county!

Original material this time!

The lip-syncing muscled hottie is back. He’s a student at UCF, my alma mater!

Orlando police are investigating the assault and beating of a man who was attacked by a gang of nine teenagers after they demanded to know if he is gay. A brutal beating involving nine teenagers on Monday will be considered a hate crime, authorities with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said. A-20-year-old man told deputies he was walking in the …

Orlando’s Parliament House, my first ever gay bar (back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth) is facing foreclosure and heading into receivership. Houston-based Southwest Guaranty Ltd. and Compass Bank of Alabama initiated foreclosure actions against the property on North Orange Blossom Trail in July over a $7.5 million mortgage that matured at the end of 2009. Attorneys for the creditors said …

In a blistering editorial attacking Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum over the Rekers scandal, the Orlando Sentinel has called on McCollum to drop his appeal of the decision to allow gay adoptions as “atonement” for hiring Rekers. The judge in the Florida case, Cindy Lederman, wound up declaring the state’s gay adoption ban unconstitutional. In her ruling, Ms. Lederman wrote …

From his vantage point near Disney World’s Cinderella’s Castle, photographer Kent Phillips captured the space shuttle Discovery on its way to the International Space Station this morning. Big better version here.

Somebody at my alma mater is having a good laugh. When Glenn Beck fans showed up to hear the blowhard speak at UCF in Orlando, 53 of them were directed to park in a lot owned by a fraternity, who immediately had them all towed. Nice $6000 payday for the tow driver, who probably kicked a chunk back to the …

Paula and Jay Gilbert are familiar sights in downtown Orlando’s nightclub district where they bellow about ho-mo-sexu-ality and the evils of punk rock (?) over their portable PA systems. The Gilberts and associates from their Sin Is A Choice Ministries have also picketed Orlando Pride. Here’s a clip just posted by Paula in which one of them there gay abominations …

Lost in all the Dan Choi hoopla on Thursday was the below action by a member of Queer Rising at Sen. Bill Nelson’s (D-FL) office in Orlando. Nelson opposes the repeal of DADT. Back in 1977 as a member of the Florida House, Nelson spoke at my high school graduation. I used to really like him. Watch this clip to …