I haven’t been compelled to blog in a long time.

In an era where everybody is twittering and text-messaging their lives away, a well-thought out essay that extends past 140 characters is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

But when our universe lost its brightest star on June 25, 2009, I felt a deep, overwhelming sadness that I haven’t experienced in many years and I felt moved to say….something.

My hero, Michael Joseph Jackson, is dead.

Honestly I’m still trying to process it, almost like the loss of a much-loved family member. I mean, hell, to many of us Michael WAS family. Much like Nike, or Coca-Cola, or McDonalds, Michael Jackson wasn’t so much a person as he was a living, breathing, American institution; a ubiquitous force that has seemingly existed forever and one that we couldn’t imagine a world without. Seeing Michael onstage was less like watching a musician perform and more akin to witnessing a magician at work.

But contrary to his otherworldly stage presence and magical aura, the man we called The King of Pop proved to be a mere mortal. And now my hero, Michael Joseph Jackson, is dead.

What isn’t dead, unfortunately, is the cloud of false accusations, unsubstantiated rumors, myths, slander, and outright lies that surround his life and his legacy. The greatest myth regarding Michael Jackson is that he was a pedophile who preyed on young children.

It is my belief now, just as it was 16 years ago, that the charges brought against Michael during his 1993 sexual abuse case were false. The allegations made by Jordan Chandler (the accuser) and his father Evan Chandler always seemed suspect to me for a few reasons:

1. Ask the average parent whether they’d want justice or money for their abused child and more than likely they’d say justice, if for no other reason than to protect their child (and other children) from a future attack. The fact that Evan Chandler was willing to essentially let Michael off the hook for a few million (reportedly 2-3), made their case seem like a well-orchestrated extortion attempt. In regards to the case, Evan was later caught on tape saying, “If I go through with this, I win big time. There’s no way I lose. I will get everything I want and they will be destroyed forever…Michael’s career will be over.” Notice that homeboy ain’t mention jack shit about his son. So much for being a concerned father…

2. Generally when victims of abuse come out with allegations against someone, other victims come forward to corroborate their story (i.e. the Catholic Church scandal, where a few parties came forward and it later led to thousands).

Very rarely do child molesters stop at just one kid, or even two for that matter. An alleged pedophile with only two accusers is kinda like an alleged serial killer with only one body. Or an alleged sneaker addict with only two pairs of Jordans in his closet. It just doesn’t make any logical sense, nor does it coincide with the recurring psychological characteristics of most people who fall into those categories.

In the case of Michael Jackson vs. the Chandler family, not a single corroborating witness could be found to help prosecute the case and after raids were conducted on several of Jackson’s homes, no hard evidence of sexual abuse was gathered.

Michael later settled the Chandler case out of court, not as an admission of guilt, but at the behest of his lawyers and financial advisors who warned him that a criminal trial could cost him millions of dollars in legal fees, as well as the loss of hundreds of millions in touring and endorsement revenue. With the Chandler case finally over, Michael continued to tour and released his greatest hits package “HIStory” in 1995. Ten years later though, he would face another trial that, in my opinion, would be the one to literally and figuratively, kill him.

Martin Bashir’s heinous, Machiavellian documentary “Living With Michael Jackson” aired in 2003. It was in this documentary that Mike (albeit foolishly) talked about his fondness for sharing his bed with children, and was seen holding hands with a young boy. Shortly afterwards the young boy from the documentary, 13 year-old Gavin Arvizo (a cancer survivor who had all his medical bills paid for by Michael), accused him of sexual abuse.

When Mike’s case against Arvizo hit airwaves in 2005, I must admit that I had my doubts. Much like the Chris Rock joke, I too shook my head in disbelief and said “ANOTHER kid!?! Mike, what the fuck?!! How could you be THAT stupid?!?!” As the case unraveled though, the financial motivations of the accuser’s family became much more apparent.

Similar to the Chandler case from ‘93, the prosecution couldn’t produce any credible witnesses to corroborate Arvizo’s testimony against Michael. Many of the prosecution’s witnesses were either former employees of Michael who had financial disputes with him, or had criminal convictions themselves. Arvizo’s testimony contradicted previous statements he’d made to officials saying that nothing ever took place between him and Michael, and Arvizo’s mother Janet Arvizo, an eccentric woman with a prior conviction for welfare fraud, single-handedly killed the case with her flippant remarks on the witness stand and overall bizarre courtroom behavior.

Actor Macaulay Culkin came forward in Michael’s defense and testified that no inappropriate behavior ever took place during their many times together, as did many other associates who had spent time at Neverland. Ultimately, Michael emerged from the Arvizo case with a Not Guilty verdict on all counts, but it proved to be a pyrrhic victory. The damage was already done. In the court of popular opinion, The King of Pop was an unrepentant child molestor.

When defending Michael Jackson against his detractors, I am often asked if I would let one of my sons sleep over at his house. The answer is no. Shit, I wouldn’t let my sons sleep over at YOUR house. But that doesn’t make you a pedophile, it just makes me a concerned and protective dad who doesn’t leave his kids around people I personally don’t know well enough to trust.

When it came to children, the only thing Michael was guilty of in my opinion, was naivete. While cuddling in the bed with children isn’t technically illegal, it does violate several social norms; norms that a man who dresses funny, lives at an amusement park and refers to himself as “Peter Pan” would certainly pay a higher price for breaking. When I hear the tales of Michael laying in bed with those children, watching movies, tickling, and engaging in general horseplay, it sounds less like the work of a pedophile and more like the actions of a man trying to experience a childhood he never had.

During his investigation for the Arvizo trial, Michael was examined by Dr. Stan Katz, a clinical psychologist who concluded that Michael didn’t fit the profile of a pedophile but instead that of a regressed 10 year old, an analysis which I agree with wholeheartedly. I mean after all, only a person with the simple, unsuspecting mind of a child could truly believe they could sleep in the same bed as their pre-pubescent buddies and not pay a price for it.

Still, the most saddening myth surrounding Michael’s life is that he was ashamed to be Black. During the mid 80’s, in the midst of his ever-changing skin complexion and facial features, popular opinion in the Black community was that Mike was a sellout. This was an opinion that would unfortunately haunt him for the rest of his life, but a closer look reveals quite the opposite.

As echoed by my man Scorpeze of the house music duo Windimoto in his excellent blog, Michael Jackson never tried to disown or separate himself from his Blackness at any point in his career. In fact, he was probably the most openly pro-Black pop entertainer of his time. Michael Jackson ashamed to be Black? I mean, this was the same guy who:

-portrayed Black people as kings and queens in ancient Egypt (“Remember the Time” video)
-called Tommy Mottola (his then label boss) a devil and a racist
-sang “white man’s gotta make a change” live on the Grammies in ’88
-sang about a beautiful African woman in “Liberian Girl”
-featured an African chant at the end of “Wanna Be Startin Somethin”
-donated over $25 million to the United Negro College Fund
-sang “I ain’t scared of no sheets” in “Black or White” and upped the ante by morphing into a BLACK PANTHER at the video’s end
-wrote a song called “They Don’t Really Care About Us,” with a Spike Lee-directed video that featured prisoners raising the Black power fist
-uhhh “We Are The World” and USA for Africa, anyone?

What about this man wasn’t Black enough? Was it his battle with vitiligo and how it caused skin discoloration? Was it his excessive facial surgeries, due I’m sure in no small part to the teasing and ridicule he faced about his looks as a teenager?

Why did we turn our collective backs on a man who always reminded us that he never forgot who he was, or more importantly, whose he was?

This essay is my plea to all people who consider themselves a fan of Michael Jackson, but especially to Black people: Don’t let them talk about our Brother. Don’t let his naysayers convict him of crimes that were never proven. Don’t let people reduce the memory of one of our greatest heroes to that of a weird guy who wore a shiny glove and molested little boys.

When Elvis Presley died, did the media remember him as an overweight, drug-abusing racist who dated a 14 year-old, or was he eulogized as The King of Rock and Roll?

When Woody Allen dies, do you think the media will focus on the controversy behind him marrying his own stepdaughter, or on the films “Annie Hall” and “Manhattan” and how great they were? (Ditto for Jerry Lee Lewis, the rock and roll pioneer who married his 13-year old cousin.)

When people accuse Michael of being a pedophile or a child molester, ask them to provide hard evidence. Ask them to provide an opinion rooted in fact, rather than one based on gossip, hearsay, and conjecture. Chances are, they won’t be able to. The Black community has done a great disservice in not reciprocating the love that Michael Jackson showed us when he was alive. The least we can do in honoring his death is ensure that his legacy is remembered properly for future generations.

Was Michael Jackson a weirdo? Of course he was a weirdo.

But maybe if you had been in the public eye since you were 7, had grown ass women throwing themselves at you since you were 13, suffered physical abuse at the hands of your father, watched your father and older brothers engage in sex with groupies on tour as a child, were called “Big Nose” and “ugly” by both family members AND fans, developed a skin disease that took away the one thing you repeatedly expressed your pride for, and spent the last half of your life as the most famous person on Earth, you’d probably be a bit of a weirdo too.

I am not attempting to paint Michael Jackson as a saint, as no man ever lives up to such a lofty title. But to me, the phrase “no good deed goes unpunished” seems to sum up Michael Jackson’s life more than ever.

Why would people try to tear down a man who constantly used his power, money, and influence to help others?

Why would people express such disgust and contempt for a man who constantly sang of love and peace, and used his talent to entertain, uplift, and inspire millions?

Tell em that its human nature, I suppose…

Rest in Peace, Brother Michael. I love and miss you dearly.

The Advocate takes a look at just how far the gay and lesbian movement has come in the four decades since Stonewall with a collection of 40 of our favorite covers.

An Advocate.com exclusive posted June 26, 2009

It was a 1967 raid — on the Los Angeles gay bar the Black Cat Tavern — that inspired the first issue of The Advocate. So two years later, when the police hit New York City’s Stonewall Inn, the magazine’s staff had a little experience under its belt and was ready to report on the ensuing riots (even if the news did have to share cover billing with “18 Groovy Guys”). The Advocate covers in the 40 years since Stonewall are a remarkable reminder of just how far the gay and lesbian movement has come in the past four decades—and how many hits we’ve taken along the way. Here are 40 of our favorite.

 

More from The Advocate Here

Pentagon to Outline Shift in War Planning Strategy

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon will adopt a new strategy that for the first time orders the military to anticipate that future conflicts will include a complex mix of conventional, set-piece battles and campaigns against shadowy insurgents and terrorists, according to senior officials.

The shift is intended to assure that the military is prepared to deal with a spectrum of possible threats, including computer network attacks, attempts to blind satellite positioning systems, strikes by precision missiles and roadside bombs, and propaganda campaigns waged on television and the Internet. The new strategy has broad implications for training, troop deployment, weapons procurement and other aspects of military planning.

In officially embracing hybrid warfare, the Pentagon would be replacing a second pillar of long-term planning. Senior officials disclosed in March that the review was likely to reject a historic premise of American strategy – that the nation need only to prepare to fight two major wars at a time.

Driving both sets of developments are lessons learned from the past six years, when the United States has been fighting two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet is stretched to be ready for potentially significant operations elsewhere, Pentagon officials say, such as against Iran, North Korea or even…

CNN) – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday, amid speculation over his whereabouts for the last several days, that he has been engaged in an extramarital affair with an Argentinian woman.  “I’ve been unfaithful to my wife,” Sanford told a news conference in Columbia, the state capital. “I developed a relationship with what started as a dear, dear friend from Argentina.”

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said he “wanted to do something exotic” to unwind after losing a fight over federal stimulus money and was in Argentina during his unexplained absence, not hiking the Appalachian Trail as his staff told the public when questioned about his whereabouts, a newspaper reported.

The State newspaper reported that Sanford arrived Wednesday morning at Atlanta’s international airport on a flight from Buenos Aires, where he drove along the coast of what he called a “beautiful” city.

The Republican governor told the South Carolina newspaper he considering hiking, but at the last minute changed his mind.

“But I said ‘no’I wanted to do something exotic,” Sanford told the newspaper.

Sanford’s spokesman Joel Sawyer declined to immediately comment to The Associated Press, and the governor did not return cell phone messages.

Sanford planned a news conference at 2 p.m. Wednesday at his office in Columbia.

Critics slammed his administration for lying to the public.

“Lies. Lies. Lies. That’s all we get from his staff. That’s all we get from his people. That’s all we get from him,” said state Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia. “Why all the big cover-up?”

On Monday, Knotts raised questions about where the governor was after hearing reports from security officials that the governor could not be contacted and his whereabouts were unknown. The governor’s wife, Jenny Sanford, told The Associated Press she had not seen him since Thursday but was not concerned because he’d told her he wanted to get away and do some writing.

Later Monday, Sanford’s staff said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. A day later, they said he had called and planned to cut his trip short and return to work Wednesday because of all the attention his absence was getting.

Sanford said he has taken adventure trips for years to unwind. He has visited the coast of Turkey, the Greek Isles and South America, sometimes with friends and sometimes by himself. “I would get out of the bubble I am in,” he told the newspaper.

Sanford said the legislative session was a difficult one, particularly because he lost a fight over whether he should accept $700 million in stimulus money. Sanford said he wanted lawmakers to spend the money on debt instead of urgent budget needs, but lost a court lawsuit.

“It was a long session and I needed a break,” Sanford said.

Sanford said he tried to return through Atlanta to avoid the media attention his absence.

He declined to give any additional details about what he did other than to say he was alone.

Trying to drive along the coast could frustrate a weekend visitor to Argentina. In Buenos Aires, the Avenida Costanera is the only coastal road, and it’s less than two miles long. Reaching coastal resorts to the south requires a drive of nearly four hours on an inland highway with views of endless cattle ranches. To the north is a river delta of islands reached only by boat.

A spokesman for Argentina’s immigration agency wouldn’t comment Wednesday on whether Sanford entered the country, citing privacy laws.

When The State asked Sanford at the airport why his staff said he was on the Appalachian Trail, Sanford replied, “I don’t know.”

Sanford later said “in fairness to his staff,” he had told them he might go hiking on the Appalachian Trial.

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said he was concerned that the governor’s staff lied about Sanford’s whereabouts, adding that if they didn’t know where he was they should have said so.

“For his staff to lie to the people of South Carolina and say he was one place when in fact he wasn’t, that concerns me,” Bauer said.

Sanford has been a fan of Argentina for years. While in Congress and since he’s said that nation’s Social Security system has a model the U.S. should follow.

Sanford, a trim, 49-year-old former real estate investor and Air Force reservist, is typically drained at the end of a legislative session, former aides said.

“It’s not unusual to take off and kind of be by himself,” said state Sen. Tom Davis, a Beaufort Republican and Sanford’s former chief of staff. “It’s part of what makes him him.”

The governor has long been known as a loner — bucking GOP leadership during three U.S. House terms and casting the only dissenting vote on Medicaid coverage for some breast and cervical cancer treatment. He clashes often with the Republicans who control both chambers of his state Legislature, once famously carrying two piglets to the door of the House in opposition to what he said was pork-barrel spending.

But past vacations never left Sanford completely out of touch, said Chris Drummond, Sanford’s former spokesman. At worst, Sanford would call in daily or would respond to voice mails.

Who was in charge became the political and practical question.

Essentially, Sanford’s staffers said they’d decide who to call if an emergency popped up and the governor couldn’t be reached. The state’s constitution says a temporary absence would give the lieutenant governor full authority in the state. But the temporary absence has never been defined.

Photos by Brooke Nipar

Natasha Khan is a performer in the truest sense of the word. On her second album as Bat for Lashes, this year’s Two Suns, the UK singer and songwriter hitches her real-life tale of a dying trans-Atlantic relationship to one of the oldest tropes in the book– star-crossed lovers. Then, bolstering her astronomical metaphors with a tragic character inspired by the seamy underbelly of old New York, and trading debut album Fur and Gold‘s orchestral druid-rock trappings for booming percussion and 1980s electro synths, she makes the whole thing magnificently her own. Cult crooner Scott Walker e-mails in a rare guest performance. Exeunt omnes.

However, Khan’s performance goes beyond the records, as well. Bat for Lashes music videos would be memorable just for the visuals, which have included not only synchronized BMX bike jumps, but also a painting of The Karate Kid‘s Ralph “Daniel-san” Macchio across Khan’s back. In concert, elaborate staging and costumes– elaborate for a still relatively little-known artist’s budget, anyway– help bring her songs to life. Downstairs at Bowery Ballroom the day of Bat for Lashes’triumphant New York return gig, Khan talks conversationally and expressively about Two Suns, hippies, the state of the music industry, the time she punched Thom Yorke, Walker’s indie cred, James Taylor’s indie cred, and how she feels about constantly only being compared to other female artists. Inevitably, Khan’s performance goes beyond what can can be translated to text, so you’ll just have to imagine the way her voice warms when she talks about Yeasayer, or what it sounds like when she starts singing 1980s pop hit “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off”. One night after this interview, Bat for Lashes made their U.S. network TV debut on “The Late Show With David Letterman”. 

Pitchfork: “Moon and Moon” was kind of the beginning for Two Suns. Can you tell me a little bit about how that song came about and how it helped pave the way for the album?

Natasha Khan: I wrote it in the studio when I actually was finishing up Fur and Gold. One of the last days in this crazy mansion house in the countryside, I sat down and wrote this “Moon and Moon” song, and it’s actually named after the band and my relationship with the person in the band. So that kind of marked the beginning of our relationship. Two Suns takes you through this whole journey, all the way to the end of the relationship and the end of making the record. So it’s kind of like this strange, synonymous cycle that happened. And then obviously the album’s called Two Suns, so there’s this kind of like “two planets” situation. Just the whole theme of planets chasing each other, you know, night and day chasing each other eternally, and being in England and New York and being separated by an ocean, and lots of different types of landscapes, different types of personalities, and internal conflict. So, all that duality stuff really came as an inspiration from that as well.

Pitchfork: What was the writing process like for these songs? Did it all follow from that overarching theme, or did you just sit down with your piano and go song by song, or…

NK: I don’t really do it song by song, and even though I knew there was obviously an underlying concept occurring, it was very much just whenever I had time to write I’d just quickly steal a moment. I usually write at home, in my bed with my headphones, and I have a sequencer machine. So, I do, like, “Daniel”, you know, I start with a beat, and then the DO-DO, da-DO-DO, da-DOO-DO, da-DO-DO [singing], like the bassline, put the choir part in, then I’ll work out the vocal melody. And so I either write on piano or on my little machine where I’ll do all the elements of the song. So what you’re left with is a mixture between kind of piano-based songs and then like more electronic-based songs. And then we flesh those out and work on those and I’ll bring people in to play certain aspects of them, but I have a really strong kind of vision and idea just from the demo stage. By the end of it, when I looked at it, I was like, “Ah, OK, there’s like a story here,” which I kind of knew would be there, but I didn’t realize it was such a concept album.

Pitchfork: Was the sequencer part of what– you know, starting with [Fur and Gold's] “Prescilla”– kind of shifted you toward this kind of focus on being more rhythmic-oriented, the drums being in the forefront?

NK: Well, on the first album, that “Prescilla” beat was me and my friend stamping on bits of wood and clapping in my bedroom. A lot of the first album, we kept so much of what I had made myself. This one I kept quite a few elements but, rhythmically, I think I just got a little bit more confident in terms of my drum programming ability and what I wanted and I was experiencing living in Brooklyn and hearing like Gang Gang Dance, TV on the Radio, Moon & Moon, and the early incarnation of Amazing Baby– these weird, psychedelic kind of bands. Steven [Kurtz], who played for Moon & Moon, has that rolling kind of tom sound that I was just like, “Oh my god, I love that so much,” and I started writing beats that were being inspired by that kind of sound. I just felt like delving into it.

Rest Of Interview Here