FRANCE: Andres Serrano's Piss Christ Destroyed By Catholic Protesters

After weeks of demonstrations, yesterday Catholic protesters in France destroyed NYC artist Andres Serrano's classic and controversial Piss Christ. The UK Guardian reports:

The work has previously been shown without incident in France, but for the past two weeks Catholic groups have campaigned against it, culminating in hundreds of people marching through Avignon on Saturday in protest. Just after 11am on Sunday, four people in sunglasses entered the gallery where the exhibition was being held. One took a hammer from his sock and threatened security staff. A guard restrained one man but the remaining members of the group managed to smash an acrylic screen and slash the photograph with what police believe was a screwdriver or ice pick. They then destroyed another photograph, of nuns' hands in prayer.

Protests against the photograph had also gained the support of France's far-right National Front party. The gallery's owner says the destroyed artwork will remain on display "so people can see what barbarians can do."

Walmart Blocks "Gay" From Book Reviews

JMG reader Mark S. King reports that Walmart's website refused his review of the It Gets Better book until he removed the word "gay." King, who contributed to the book with his openly gay brother, writes us: "My submission was nixed because I used the word 'gay,' which the site explained was 'profanity.' I felt properly chastised and removed the offensive word from my review, which remains 'under review.' The most socially accepted term for my sexuality is profane! I guess uttering 'homosexual' or 'queer' would have produced a total meltdown." King say he's hasn't yet received a response from his complaint to Walmart's corporate office. Visit his personal website for his review as well as an amusing video with his brother.

Harding University President: Gay Student Website Is Offensive & Degrading

ARKANSAS: Christian College Kids Launch Gay Zine, School Blocks Its Website

Yesterday a group of students at Harding University in Arkansas launched an online zine meant to "give voice to the experiences of gay and lesbians" on campus, but the school immediately blocked the site from campus by listing it on its porn filter. Read the students' stirring manifesto, The State Of The Gay.

RELATED: Harding alum and JMG reader Brett blogs his reaction.

Glee...racy scenes with nudity cause uproar! Parental guidance?



An uproar erupted this past week when racy images - featuring naked nubile young flesh and binge-drinking - spewed out over the broadcast airwaves in a promo promoting an upcoming episode of the popular night-time hit GLEE.

Has the ground-breaking bill-of-fare gone too far in its bid to snare ratings during the family hour?

Tune in tonight - and take a gander at the smutty material that may be corrupting the youth of today - according to a posse of critics.

Parental guidance suggested!

http://www.thetattler.biz/



Nudity required!

Anderson Cooper On Harps Story

"This is a learning moment for everybody."

Press Release Of The Day

My click-tracker tells me that over 1700 of you hit the Harps contact page link I posted at the beginning of the day. It's a tiny victory to be sure, but it's also a message to all the nation's retailers. Nice work, everybody.

UPDATE: Appreciative positive reinforcement would be a nice thing for us to do.

Grocery Store Finds Gay Parenting Magazine Cover Too Offensive For Kids

Last night Twitter user JennHudd tweeted out this photo she took at Harps, a grocery store in Mountain Home, Arkansas. Apparently US Weekly's cover shot of Elton John, his partner, and baby is just too shocking for children. Harps has over 60 locations in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Call their home office at 877-772-8193 or use their contact form if you'd like to register a polite protest.

UPDATE: According to a company spokesperson, the store claims it was responding to customer complaints when it covered up the magazine. GLAAD investigates:

I spoke with Harps Corporate Executive Assistant Marty Yarborough, who told me that every Harps store is equipped with these shields and that they get put up whenever customers complain about the content of a magazine cover. She said the word from the store about this particular cover was that “several” customers had complained, so the shield went up. She also confirmed that these shields are utilized on a store-by-store basis, so the magazine would not have been covered up at any of the other Harps locations, unless customers complained there as well. She also told me that the usage of the shield on this particular cover is “in no way our opinion on this issue.” She quickly added, ”we do not have an opinion on this issue.”

UPDATE II: The Harps corporate office has issued an official press release on the matter.

MoMA Gets Censored Smithsonian Exhibit

New York City's Museum of Modern Art has acquired the video created by late gay artist David Wojnarowicz, which was pulled by the Smithsonian after an outcry from the GOP and the Catholic League's Bill Donohue.

The museum acquired both the original 13-minute version of the video, titled “A Fire in My Belly,” and a separate 7-minute excerpt made by the artist; the two are now being shown in a loop as part of a display of contemporary art from the museum’s collection that will remain up until May 9. Mr. Wojnarowicz, who died of AIDS in 1992, made the video in the late 1980s in response to the AIDS crisis. It was included in a show at the National Portrait Gallery, a Smithsonian museum, examining gay themes in American portraiture but was removed after it was attacked by Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League, and several Republican congressmen who objected to an image in the video of ants crawling on a crucifix.

Another artist is threatening to sue the Smithsonian in a protest demand to have his own work removed.

UPDATE: The Catholic League's Bill Donohue isn't too upset with the MoMA move, but he still manages to call the museum's (straight and married) director a "queen."

Unlike the Smithsonian, which is federally funded, MoMA is largely supported by fat cats like Glenn D. Lowry, the museum's director, thus alleviating some of our objections. Lowry makes over $2 million a year and lives for free in a $6 million condo atop the museum. Unlike the rest of us, he pays no income tax on his housing. Looks like the artistic community got fleeced twice: once by embracing the "pathological nonsense" of this masterpiece, and once by the corporate welfare queen who runs—and lives in—the joint.

KENYA: Evangelical Leaders Tell Museum To Hide Bones Proving Human Evolution

The leaders of Kenya's evangelical movement are pressuring the national museum to remove a world-famous collection of bones which conclusively depict the evolution of apes to humans.

The collection includes the most complete skeleton yet found of Homo erectus, the 1.7 million-year-old Turkana Boy unearthed by Dr Leakey's team in 1984 at Nariokotome, near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. The museum also holds bones from several specimens of Australopithecus anamensis, believed to be the first hominid to walk upright, four million years ago. Together the artefacts amount to the clearest record yet discovered of the origins of Homo sapiens.

Bishop Bonifes Adoyo, the head of Christ is the Answer Ministries: "The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact. Our doctrine is not that we evolved from apes, and we have grave concerns that the museum wants to enhance the prominence of something presented as fact which is just one theory."

(Tipped by JMG reader Keith)

The Hipster Huckleberry Finn

"Jim was monstrous proud about it, and he got so he wouldn't hardly notice the other hipsters. Hipsters would come miles to hear Jim tell about it, and he was more looked up to than any hipster in that country. Strange hipsters would stand with their mouths open and look him all over, same as if he was a wonder. Hipsters is always talking about witches in the dark by the kitchen fire; but whenever one was talking and letting on to know all about such things, Jim would happen in and say, 'Hm! What you know 'bout witches?' and that hipster was corked up and had to take a back seat." - An excerpt from The Hipster Huckleberry Finn, which substitutes "hipster" wherever the n-word appears in the original.

(Via - Gothamist)