David Testo’s Former Teammates Celebrate The Soccer Star’s Coming Out, United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops Intend To Strategize On Stopping Same Sex Marriage, Catholic Church Again Outraged Over David Wojnarowicz Video, Anti-Same Sex New York Senator Ruben Diaz To House Bronx Pride, John Waters Says Christmas Should Be A Time Of Rewarding Gift-Givers With Sexual Favors, Tommy Femia Is Judy Garland

An update on a previous post, Nevio Pizzolitto is happy his former Montreal Impact teammate David Testo publicly announced his homosexuality. “I’m sure it was something that weighed on his mind for a long time, which is why I think he finally came out with it,” Pizzolitto told The Gazette on Friday. “I’m glad he did, because he’s in a position where he can inspire a lot of people to do the same,” the Impact captain added. “Even though we’re professional athletes, we’re also human beings, and maybe something like this will change the minds of those in the same position. What David did was great.” Testo came out during an interview Thursday with CBC’s French language Radio-Canada.ca. “I’m a homosexual,” Testo, a 30-year-old midfielder who had been with the Impact since July 2007, told Radio-Canada.ca. “I’m gay. I didn’t choose this. This is just who I am. It’s has nothing to do if you’re good at soccer. You can still be an amazing soccer player and be gay. I really do regret not having come out earlier. It’s something that I’ve struggled with my whole life and career. It’s hard. Living the life of a professional athlete and being gay is incredibly hard. It’s like carrying around a secret. Carrying around luggage and never actually being allowed to just be yourself. It’s incredibly energy-draining on top of having to perform, on top of having to play. I don’t know how everyone else feels about it, I never did know. That’s what probably the hardest thing about this is.” Testo said he had to constantly – “on a daily basis” – be aware of things he said, to whom he said them, and with whom he was seen walking around. “I also think players around me had to do the same towards me, and I felt that,” he said. “That sucks as a human being.” The native of Winston-Salem, N.C., who could not be reached by The Gazette, spent a season and a half with the Vancouver Whitecaps, beginning in 2006, and said his teammates in Vancouver and Montreal knew of his sexual orientation and were supportive. Impact striker Eduardo Sebrango, who was also Testo’s teammate in Vancouver, said the two have long been close friends and that he learned a lot from Testo and his homosexuality. “I come from a country where there’s really, you know, a macho mentality,” said Sebrango, a Cuban-born Canadian citizen. “I think things are getting better, but for guys who are gay in professional sport, especially, things are a lot harder. “But being in Quebec and Montreal, especially, people here are much more accepting, and I think David felt like this was home for him, more than when we were in Vancouver. He liked Vancouver because he’s an outdoors person, but definitely here he found things to be open,” Sebrango added. “I think you get judged a lot less here in Quebec than anywhere else in North America. For sure, he feels a lot more comfortable here.” Pizzolitto believes most of the North American Soccer League knew Testo was gay, adding he thought “everybody” already knew. “It wasn’t like it seemed like a huge secret,” Pizzolitto said. “That’s why he kinda surprised me when he came out, because I thought everybody already knew. I don’t know, to be honest, how difficult it would be to be in a professional sport and be gay. But speaking about David, as a person he’s a strong individual. He’s a down-to-earth, open-hearted guy who works hard and is dedicated. Maybe for somebody else in David’s shoes, it would be different to do what he did.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meets Monday in Baltimore for its national meeting feeling under siege: from a broader culture moving toward accepting same sex marriage; a White House they often condemn as hostile to Catholic teaching; and state legislatures that church leaders say are chipping away at religious liberty. Many Catholic academics, activists and parishioners say the bishops are overreacting, reports The Associated Press. John Gehring of Faith in Public Life, an advocacy network for more liberal religious voters, has argued that in a pluralistic society, government officials can choose policies that differ from church teaching without prejudice being a factor. “Some perspective is needed here,” Gehring, a Catholic, wrote on his organization’s blog. Still, the bishops see themselves as more and more on the losing side of these disagreements, and they are taking steps they hope will protect the church. In September, the conference formed a new committee on religious liberty that will meet for the first time this week in Baltimore. Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the conference, will oversee that work, which will include hiring a lobbyist. Picarello had worked for seven years at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public-interest law firm based in Washington, and also served on an advisory committee for President Barack Obama’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Among the bishops’ top concerns are religious exemptions in states that legalize same sex marriage. In Illinois, government officials stopped working with Catholic Charities on adoptions and foster-care placements after 40 years because the agency refused to recognize a new civil union law. Illinois bishops are suing the state. In New York, the bishops, along with Orthodox Jewish leaders and others, have complained that the religious exception in this year’s law allowing same sex marriage is too weak to be effective.

The Brooklyn Museum of Art has once more riled Christian leaders over an exhibit they deem offensive. This time the controversy is over 10 seconds in a short avant-garde video that shows ants skittering over the crucified Jesus. The video (A Fire in My Belly) by the late David Wojnarowicz -- was removed from the National Portrait Gallery last year because the ant part angered some in Congress and the Catholic League. Nonetheless, reports The Los Angeles Times, the Brooklyn Museum, known for edgy exhibits, is forging ahead with next week's plans to open the exhibit Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture. The exhibit explores how gender and sexual identity have shaped American art; the video is one of 100 pieces in the show. The Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has sent a letter to the museum asking that the video be pulled from the exhibit, according to the New York Daily News. "Certainly we don't think this would be tolerated if this was the image of the Prophet Muhammed or any other religious symbol," Msg. Kieran Harrington, a diocese spokesman, told the paper. In 1999, the Brooklyn Museum ran up against Catholic leaders and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani when it exhibited a painting by Chris Ofili that featured the Virgin Mary with a clump of elephant dung and cut-out images of female genitalia. The then-mayor tried to cut public funding from the museum. Referring to that exhibit, Catholic League President Bill Donohue called the Brooklyn Museum notoriously anti-Catholic but said the group would not hold protests like it had in Washington. In the video, which includes Super 8 footage, a crucifix lies on the ground as ants run across Jesus' bare body. This brief bit comes amid scenes involving blood, sewn-up human lips and a child breathing fire. “What is the point?’’ asked Pastor A.R. Bernard, who leads Brooklyn’s Christian Cultural Center, in an interview with the Daily News. “I think this is the piece in the hide/seek collection they really need to hide.” Museum director Arnold Lehman defended the show's greater goals, telling The Associated Press, "My hope is that this will be an extraordinarily important way in which to bring the entire city together to celebrate American art during this last century. This is New York City. This is a city that has thrived on the incredible contributions from the gay and lesbian community. This is a state that's just passed a very progressive legalization of gay marriage."

The Bronx’s largest gay rights group is opening its new headquarters inside the building funded by and named after New York State’s most ardent same sex marriage opponent, Senator Ruben Diaz. The New York Post reports that Bronx Pride is preparing for Monday’s opening in the Reverend Ruben Diaz Gardens, a 111-unit building opened in 2009, funded by the city Housing and Development Corporation and supported by the Senator’s non-profit. Diaz is reportedly upset, “He’s furious,” a source saying. “It’s such a direct shot at him.” However, Bronx Pride Executive Director Dirk McCall contends it is merely a funny coincidence. “It [just] happens to be entertaining that the building’s named after someone who opposes marriage for us.”

Profiled in The Guardian, 65-year-old John Waters ahead of A John Waters Christmas in London December 5, shares gift-giving tips, saying, “I always say you should just reward people sexually. If they give you a book that you asked them for, you fuck 'em. If they give you a book by a favourite author without you asking, you blow 'em. And, if they give you a book by a favourite author that you never knew existed, you rim them." He smiles. "To me, that is proper etiquette."

"Via The New York Times, an entertaining profile of Femia family and the youngest brother Tommy, who, helped by the oldest brother Bobby, transforms in Judy Garland at Manhattan’s Don’t Tell Mama cabaret.