NOM tells us something interesting about the Republican 2012 spread
I was reading this piece on the NOM blog about lack of DOMA defense, and I was planning to write a piece about how it proves that the Republicans are LGBTQIA-phobic bigots.
However despite not finding the smoking gun I was looking for, I found something rather hopeful.
If you look at the 8 candidates interviewed, who exclude the self-aggrandizing Herman Cain, the results are rather interesting. Of the 8 selected, only one actually said “I will continue to do everything in my power to fight back against Barack Obama’s attacks on Marriage” from everyone’s favorite lunatic Michelle Bachmann.
We’ve got a ” This is yet another example of our president’s effort to erode the very traditions that have made our country the greatest nation on earth.” from Rick ‘really doesn’t like his internet nickname’ Santorum. A light confused rebuke from Mike “god’s law before the constitution’” Huckabee “That’s hypocritical. It’s hypocritical and it’s dishonest, because when he ran for president, Chris, he said he supported traditional marriage. He’s on the record. Now, the question is was he dishonest then? Is he dishonest now? Or did he change his view, and if he did when and why?”. This triad of half hearted candidates is rounded off by Tim “i’m a real conservative, i have chest hair and everything” Pawlenty, in one full breath saying “I firmly believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, as President Obama told us he believed in 2008. But now President Obama and his Justice Department would have us believe that traditional marriage laws are unconstitutional. I oppose the Justice Department’s political decision to reverse its policy defending the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal statute passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton. The job of the Justice Department is to enforce and defend laws passed by Congress and signed by the President. I am disappointed that the President and his Justice Department have abdicated this responsibility, all for the sake of partisan political gain”.
Newt Gingrich came out with “The President is replacing the rule of law with the rule of Obama. The President swore an oath on the Bible to ensure that the laws be faithfully executed, not to decide which laws are and which are not constitutional.”. All Mitt Romney could say was the decision was “an unfortunate mistake, the President has an obligation as chief executive to enforce and defend the laws of the nation. He should not abdicate that responsibility based on his own interpretations and personal views.”.
The new kid on the block, Mitch Daniels admitted the issue was unimportant for him via a spokeswoman saying “hasn’t, commented and with other things we have going on here right now, he has no plans.”.
Finally the reality TV star who makes Snooki look presidential, Sarah Palin actually ignored the call and has yet to get back to NOM.
So we have one virulently anti-marriage equality candidate, who probably needs some anti-psychotics to make the black helicopters go away. Three people who say “traditional marriage is being attacked” but fail to take a strong anti-equality position. There’s two “president isn’t doing his duty in defending an indefensible law” candidates. On candidate who’s not given it any thought to the situation, and one candidate who can’t be bothered to return a phone call.
Now I’m not saying that this group of comedy misfits are not dangerous or LGBTQIA-phobic and given the chance would love to burn all of us at the stake or at least drive us back into the closet. What I am saying is that these guys aren’t exactly coming out guns-a-blazing for hatred… I guess they know gay-bashing isn’t going to win them 2012…
I’m not expecting the President to actually grow a backbone and fight for equality, because that sounds too much like being a progressive, but at least the country has changed enough that the gay bashers are worried that they can’t exactly win votes from independents by bashing LGBTQIA folk.
I think the Right Wing has a point about President Obama
Yup you did read that right, I agree with the right wing in some areas. President Obama is being a coward on the DOMA situation. He’s not actually standing up for marriage equality, he’s just saying that he’s not going to defend it any more.
President Obama is not a particularly progressive left wing president, he’s a centrist president, who frequently slams the left wing for daring to challenge him.
In this case I’m talking about a hypothetical Obama with a backbone who gets up on his podium with all the media and watching. This is what I hope he’d say.
“My fellow Americans, I want to speak to you about a situation that affects so many of our friends, family, coworkers, neighbors and ourselves. That is the problem of intolerance being used against them, in so many ways. It is than 30 years after the Stonewall Riots, 30 years since the assassination of Harvey Milk, 30 years since the AIDS crisis was ignored by Ronald Reagan. Despite this, there is still terrible intolerance against LGBTQIA americans.
In the past I have not stood up for true equality, and for that I apologize. I allowed brave men and women to be dismissed from the US military because I did not act sooner. I failed to act on ENDA passage and DOMA repeal.
However that time is over, I am now going to make the moto of my administration, ‘equality for all’ and will work night and day to make America the most equal and tolerant country on earth from this day forward.
I recognize there are people of faith who will object, and I would like to assure them that I will not be interfering in their lives and liberties. But I do need to take them to task for two key points, firstly that my marriage and your marriages are NOT threatened by gay marriage. Secondly there is no difference between loving straight and gay families when they raise children.
There was a time when someone would look down on someone like me, and that would have been entirely socially aceptable, even after the passage of the Civil Rights act, but now its come to a point where those who are white supremacist are no longer a part of our political fabric and are an insignificant minority, and I look forward to the day when LGBTQIA phobic people are in a similar situation
This is not an extreme or radical position, it is a centrist position of acceptance and american values. I want to have signed marriage equality and ENDA protections into law before November 2 2012. I know many of you out there are thinking that makes re-election harder, but I know the American people, they are fair, they are just, and they are righteous, and standing for equality is standing for them.
If you want to make intolerance a part of your plank, then in the words of former President Bush ‘Bring it On’”.
Sadly this is just a happy thought, no more, the chances of Obama actually saying anything close to this is laughably small. He like the rest of the democratic leadership will fail to actually act on their claim of support for LGBTQIA people.
If the President were to truly stand for equality and use the presidential bully pulpit to talk about the real issues of equality, then 2012 could be the year that the wedge issue of equality could be used against the republicans.
You cannot be against gay equality and not be against gay people…
Cenk of The Young Turks is transphobic
I saw this on the Young Turks a couple of days ago and i was far from amused.
This is not the first time that Cenk has annoyed me intensely. His coverage about the trans-woman in california who was severely harassed by a DMV employee, who abused his position to get access to her personal information. His attitude was literally “get over it” as if being sent death threats by a government employee in full religious zeal was something that just is a minor inconvenience.
Firstly Ana’s description was wrong a man does not become a woman, a transgendered woman has GRS. She was supportive just uneducated about the real nature of transition. Cenk’s position was “I’m Old Fashioned”, well given that gender identity disorder was recognized in the 1890s you are a little bit behind the times for a progressive liberal.
Most of the time I approve of Cenk’s positions and statements, he’s generally a passionate progressive guy, but when you slam and dump on one of the most mistreated segment of society, you loose severe points on the progressive side of things.
There are still lesbian and gay groups that reject trans people, not to mention those on the right. The anti-transgender amendment was slipped in without protest into the healthcare bill.
Its time Cenk to step up to the mark and learn more about who you insult and look down upon.
Brian Brown debates Sean Eldridge with help from Fox News
I was watching this debate live, and I commented with the #marriageequalityfoxdebate hash tag yesterday.
Its 9 minutes worth of the 15 minute debate. It shows some salient points, but it also showed the very weak performance of Sean Eldridge and the bias of the Fox News host.
Brian Brown made the case that children need biological parents as a priority, which ignores decades of research on adoption, donor eggs, donor sperm, IVF and LGBTQIA parenting.
He argued that California (and other states that oppose gay marriage) should not be forced to accept gay marriage. To me thats just the same as states that had anti-miscegenation states complaining they had the right to block those marriages.
The special case of DOMA is that it fundamentally is not a defensible law, and the Obama administration could not provide a good faith defense of the law, because there is none they could find.
Orientation, and Gender identity and expression protections were talked about by Harvey Milk, and at least at the campaign stage, the Bill Clinton was in favor of gay protections, in fact the DADT situation was a failure of his attempt to allow open service of LGB troops within the US military.
Brian brown kept saying that religious and personal distaste should be allowed as legitimate reasons to discriminate against LGBTQIA families and people, when similar behavior on the basis of race would be universally condemned.
The “moderator” introjected about the APA saying she doesn’t like them because they ignore studies that are anti-gay, and Sean Eldridge did not defend the clear principle that the APA ignores junk science. These are loaded studies designed to try to reverse generations of scientific research on LGBTQIA issues by using manipulated or blatantly false data.
Also when Sean was raising the immigration question,
Sean Eldridge’s performance was to be perfectly nice, pathetic, he was so weak on what needed to be said. He could have made a clear example of explaining that religions should not be allowed to practice bigotry with public money.
If you are a bigoted agency like the catholic church you are not an institution that should be allowed to be a public adoption agency.
He should have said that sexual orientation is not being placed at a special state, but is being put at a level with other protected class.
The APA was a position he should have stood strong on, which he failed to do.
I know I’m a polyamorous queer culture advocate, but Sean should have also stated 2 major points, firstly this is not about polygamy, secondly Utah was a territory not a state, so it did not have the same protections.
This was not a victory by Brian Brown, but it was a pitiful defense by Sean Eldridge, who let the moderator side with Brian Brown.
Video was posted on the NOM Blog
Marriage isn’t a Salad Bar!
Think you’ve seen Brian Brown before NOM?
Here’s one of my favorite Penn and Teller’s Bullshit! about the bullshit of traditional marriage. There are various bits of an interview with a pre-NOM Brian Brown spouting the same BS.
Part 1
Part 2
Congress and party leadership on Marriage Equality
John Boehner has questioned why the president is focussing on “divisive” issues rather than focussing on jobs. Its strange that he’s not asking the same question of John Boehner, leader of the tea party/republican party who has been waging an unholy culture war on women’s health this month rather than focussing on jobs…
I would love to see the Democrats actually came out fighting, they could make marriage equality a wedge issue splitting off the social conservatives from the rest of the conservative movement in 2012. However sadly that would involve more backbone than the democratic leadership possesses.
Two senators who represent real leadership in the democratic party would be Kirsten Gillibrand (Gillibrand 2016!) and Dianne Feinstein. Both have advocated actively for marriage equality, and Senator Feinstein has introduced a repeal bill.
Gay Liberation Network in the Catholic crosshairs
Here’s a “report” by the National Organization for Marriage about a protest by the Gay Liberation Network outside Chicago’s largest catholic church.
I found it interesting because it was suggesting that people did not have a right to protest against organizations that do them harm. Just because your bigotry is wrapped up in faith does not give you a free pass from protest.
The thing is if you stop fighting against our basic human rights (and also let your children make their own choices), we’ll have no reason to protest outside your church…
Thank you Marina for making me smile!
I can’t really say much beyond this video will make you smile,
I was not aware that the ADL also focused on LGBTQIA bullying issues but I think its awesome that they do and they recognize that tolerance is a universal value. The only thing to be intolerant of is intolerance.
Found via Lezgetreal
I’m sick of hearing the term “traditional marriage”
I’m sick of people claiming that traditional marriage should be protected, I’m sick of being told that I should put up with the status quo. I’m not an good queer, i’m a queer culture advocate and I look forward to the day when polyamory is recognized in law. I get that they are worried because their world is changing, but I’m not forcing Brian Brown to blow a guy, or insisting Maggie Gallagher go down on a girl, or even insisting they have to like equal love… I don’t care what they do provided it doesn’t attack my basic human rights and those of people like me.
NOM is apoplectic about movement on DOMA constitutional
Finally after 2 years, despite it being clearly immoral and unconstitutional, the hated Defense of Marriage Act is no longer going to be defended by the justice department.
This obviously doesn’t mean that the Whitehouse is actually pushing for marriage equality, that would show too much backbone, but it just means that they are officially no longer fighting actively against marriage equality.
Surprisingly my friend Maggie, who I’ve had a stilted e-mail conversation with over the past few days has been almost vibrating with rage at this.
Here’s Fox News interviewing her, and not questioning any of the issues about it.
(video found via PRIDEinUtah)
Fox clearly ignored the fact that its Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender protections needed, not just Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual. It should be pointed that two highly qualified legal scholars, President Obama and Eric Holder are lawyers, and so can render a legal opinion, not a “feeling”.
I am worried that it does lead the way in giving future republican presidents the ability to refuse to defend, say health insurance or hate crimes legislation.
DOMA is an example of irrational bigotry, as we all know. It violates the full faith and credit clause of the constitution preventing legal marriages crossing state lines.
NOM is screaming for their chamber of commerce bought congress to step up for bigotry.
This whole situation still feels like scraps thrown to us by a lipservice Democratic party, but at least they have got NOM completely flustered.
Via NOM’s continually helpful blog
Now if you go to the Doctor, they have to do their job(mostly)
One of the last “Fuck You’s that George Bush left the people of America was the so called conscience clause. What it essentially means that if you are in the medical field, from the hospital administrator to the pharmacist and you object to something on moral grounds you can say “I think this is wrong” and get to bring things screaming to a halt and you can’t be fired for doing it.
This could mean that essentially it was legal for a catholic doctor to not only refuse to give a rape victim the morning after pill, but also refuse to refer the patient to another doctor. It would also mean that if a Pharmacist was opposed to birth control, they could refuse to fill the prescription. If your primary care doctor, needs to write your referrals, and he doesn’t feel its moral to send you for a potentially life saving termination, he would not even allowed to be told off for such behavior.
Now there were claims that “you can always go elsewhere”, well firstly in hospitals rape victims are generally in need of one stop shop treatment. That means rape kit, morning after pill, antibiotics and retroviral meds. Now I don’t understand how as a doctor you can say No to a raped woman, period, I don’t care what your beliefs are, if you are dealing with a raped woman and she wants the morning after pill, you give it to her, and if you don’t I want you seeing the inside of a jail cell for causing trauma to a rape victim.
As far as the less immediate stressful situation of giving out contraception. Lets say you are a woman who lives in a small town with only one pharmacy, and your pharmacist doesn’t believe in supplying birth control to you because of her beliefs. While there may be ways round, it certainly penalizes you exercising your legal right to birth control because of the “morality” of your pharmacist.
The final example is the most scary, and yes generally you may be able to switch your primary care doctor, or go to the emergency room, but essentially the gatekeeper to your medical care is refusing to give you access to the care you need.
You may have beliefs about what is right and wrong that might be different to mine, however you as a doctor have a moral obligation to give me the care I need, and leave your beliefs outside the office. If you do not, you have no place being a doctor, plain and simple.
Thankfully President Obama has repealed most of the aspects of this obscene executive order but has left in exceptions where nurses and doctors cannot be compelled to participate in abortions or sterilizations. Now it seems to me that its possible for a doctor or a nurse to avoid being involved in either. I think provided its limited to specific circumstances in that a Doctor may not be pushed to do a termination, under the proviso that he refers the woman to a doctor who will do the referral at no financial penalty to her. The nurse may be more tricky, but if they are working at a hospital that provides abortion services and is expected to help out in surgery, they should change to a hospital or a position that does not expect her to assist in surgery. I’m not sure if thats the interpretation of the new rules but that is my understanding.
So its a big step forward, for people’s rights to medical care, and I am please that President Obama has finally reversed this toxic policy.
Thanks to One News Now for complaining about this.
There is a symbol that gives us hope.
It started out scribbled some time in the 1930s with almost an afterthought just a tacky label for a supposedly two dimensional character in a children’s comic book. An “S” for Superman, essentially a god fallen to earth, distant from us and unreachable. Over time that character got fleshed out, to this idea seen across every modern incarnation, one of hope and inspiration from Ka-el, last son of Krypton, and Earth’s finest champion, who leads not by strength, but by the idea of justice, truth and the real american way.
I know I’m a bit of a comic book and superhero geek, and I’ll freely admit that without needing to resort to torture. There is something so powerful about that symbol that inspires hope even when he’s a fictional character. I know that each and every one of you gets a tiny tingle of something warm when you see it. There’s all that mythos and idealism wrapped up in it.
I remember an Elseworlds story set in which the puritans never fell from power and reached across the world with their tyranny. A very different Bruce Wayne sets out to be Batman, to fight for justice, and he finds the corpse of Superman, who of course had never had the chance to fly in this world, but even his kryptonite poisoned remains still was a symbol of hope.
When I was looking for a rainbow flag picture to form the basis of our new site banner, I came across a beautiful shot of a rainbow flag. It wasn’t just any rainbow flag, it is the giant flag that flies proudly above the Castro, day in and day out. It seemed a good omen, and a good sign to put at the top of my blog.
There was a time when we didn’t have our symbol of pride, in fact our only real symbol was the pink armbands the nazis put on our wrists in the death camps. But in San Francisco that changed, we knew we were not something dark and evil, but something wonderful and glittering. The rainbow showed our diversity, our richness and our origin in the light. It is our symbol that helps inspire us and keep us strong. Maybe we don’t have superheros, and maybe our heros are just as flawed as us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try to make things better.
I wish there was a real superman, just as honorable and incorruptible as the comic book one. He never betrayed the idealism the way that Captain America or Iron Man did. He never looked down on those he flew above. I suppose its delusional to talk about him as if he’s a real person, but then again its not that different than religion. If I have to believe in something that’s impossible I’d rather believe in the child who fell from the stars and was a real savior, rather than someone who just claimed to be the only savior.
However we make our own gods, our own beliefs, and our own inspirations. that flag is our hope, our god, and our guiding light.
Michigan makes it more difficult for direct action protests
Allow me to introduce you to Senate Bill 19 which increases the already existing penalties for disrupting a religious ceremony in a religious building. This was done in reaction to the brave work of Bash Back! who stood up to the lgbtqiaphobic church at Mt. Hope Church in Delta Township of Michigan and made a visual but non-violent point that hurt no one.
It just highlighted that these churches come to our pride marches, they use vile propaganda against us, and recently marched into the Castro to gay bash. Yes this protest disrupted a worship service, but it was open to the public. If this was a regular thing, it should only be handled as a nuisance complaint not as a misdemeanor.
How many anti-choice or anti-equality protestors have turned up where they are not welcome or wanted to spread their message? I don’t see gay pride marches banning religious people from protesting… its a first amendment issue….
I object to the initial penal code that already can incarcerate for up to 90 days and charge a $500 dollar fine. This is a religious specific law, giving special protections to religious services and so I see it as the government giving undue favor to religious groups…
Currently the stronger bill has passed the state senate with 34 to 2 with 2 absentions, which is already horrifically bad, but its currently stuck in the state house judiciary committee. If you are in Michigan please call your state representative, as well as your federal senators and representatives to ask them to stand against this move to repress our right to protest injustice and intolerance.
If you are outside Michigan please call up your representatives and senators ask them to help stop this injustice going on in Michigan.
Do not let the legacy of Bash Back, be stronger laws blocking our right to direct non-violent action.
BTW, thanks to One News Now for crowing about this.
Would the real United States please catch up
The American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance. (Source: www.wilsoninfo.com)
This is an open letter to the ‘Land of the Free’, and indeed, all those living under the colourful tones (and yes, I mean colourful… I’m a Brit!) of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’. This is a letter both to and about America and her people. This is a letter about liberty, democracy, equality, opportunity, merit, forgiveness and compassion. This is a letter about basic human decency.
Dear United States,
What the hell is going on with you? I grew up being taught of the many wonderful ideals that America held dear, and it once gave me some belief that there was a country in this world with the sense of fairness and decency to act out those ideals. Some of those ideals are supposedly the founding principles of your nation, and some of them simply ideals that America holds dear… ideas and ideals worth defending. Much of your country, after all, was founded with a population that grew from those that escaped the tyranny, persecution, and oppression they found in Britain, and even in Ireland. Yet more people have joined you since then from around the world, some of whom were slaves -OK, not a bright point in history, but at least Americans saw fit to eventually put an end to it – indeed, that Mr. Luther King was able to stand up as he did as a figurehead of the civil rights movement is just one example of how a man can supposedly start from humble beginnings and rise to greatness in America. Actually, I had grown up to think of you not just as a world leader, but one that leads by example.
Sadly, I no longer believe in that magical land of freedom I was taught about. It doesn’t seem to exist any more, and it’s a great loss to the world that it doesn’t exist. It is of course no great loss to LGBTQIA Americans, who have grown up with first hand experience of the flaws of your once great nation which serve to ensure that it is not free. All men (and women) under the American flag are not equal! Your levels of gun crime are truly shocking, and entitlement to healthcare was a shambles until recently, and is threatened to be so again by a Republican led congress determined to engage in culture war rather than concentrate on jobs, with jobs being the policy they were elected on. Britain is not perfect in this department either, but that excuses neither country and Britain isn’t the so-called ‘land of the free’.
The GOP led house has just voted to remove funding for Title X provisions; provisions which any civilised society should provide to anybody that needs them. Unfortunately those that cannot afford to pay for it can no longer gain access to…
- pelvic exams and Pap tests, important for early detection of cervical cancer;
- breast exams and instruction on breast self-examination
- testing for high blood pressure, anemia, and diabetes;
- screening and appropriate treatment for sexually transmitted infections; and
- basic infertility screening.
… and how are those unable to access these things supposed to have a choice over their own health, let alone their own lifestyle? Is this is an ill informed attack on women in an attempt to keep them fidelitous and stop them having sex? Why? Is it because a bunch of so-called Christians in your country feel that only God’s way is the right way, and so do all they can to bend and shape your nation into their theocratic image? I mean, what’s the difference between a theocratic society and laws based on theocratic ideas anyway? How is such theocratic rule supposed to be any better than that of any other theocratic state… like, for example, Iran? Of what value is separation of Church and State if the secular laws of the land are created by those who wish to enshrine their religious beliefs into legislation intended to enforce the moral code of their favoured deity and holy book?
Why, in this enlightened age, are abortion doctors murdered by those who profess to be ‘pro-life’?.. and on what planet is the murder of an abortion doctor ‘justifiable homicide’, as recently proposed by Republican Representative Phil Jensen in South Dakota? Why are transgender people in the US denied treatment known to be successful for their condition, and why are they so often denied the right to ammend their documentation appropriately… even reported by names they were no longer known by after their deaths and mistreated at the hands of public servants.
What about marriage equality… why? Why is it that an LGBTQIA person can serve their country in any number of patriotic ways, and yet be denied the right to be married? Why is it that when Proposition 8 passed (dubiously) in California, it was hailed as a show of the democratic will of the people, but it doesn’t work that way around when opponents of marriage equality fail to impress with their bigotry. Instead, in a state like New Hampshire where most people support already existing marriage equality, Republicans try to pass bills to repeal it… and when that fails, people like Republican Representative David Bates suggest that a consitutional amendment could serve the same purpose if the bill is defeated… Where’s the democracy in that, in a state with 29% against marriage equality, 9% neutral, and 62% in favour of it? This isn’t representing the people! This is using the people as pawns to get into government in order to use their position in an effort to force through THEIR views, not the people’s!.. and it’s happened on both a state and federal scale!
Making it worse, what’s happening about an immigration policy that not only has no policy for gay people, but specifically refuses to recognise the marriages of those who ARE in a state where their marriages are recognised. Where is the American dream or the freedom, liberty, fairness and compassion in throwing someone out of the country or refusing to let them in, just because they happen to be gay, where a straight person in the same circumstances would be welcomed?
Oh America! How can you go to war on false pretences of WMD’s that don’t exist with a claim of “spreading democracy and freedom around the world”, when such monumental democratic failings, culture wars, and illiberty permeate your once great nation?
Much of the western world has woken up to the bigotry, hatred, discrimination, and illiberty of the past. Many countries now recognise transsexual men and women for who they really are, and even allow them to get married accordingly. Many countries in the western world allow same sex marriage, and many of those that don’t offer a non-marriage civil union which is not enough, but at least something. America doesn’t even reliably offer a civil union, and it’s benefits are limited where it IS available! America, are you really willing to be left behind and stand there as a pariah state of intolerance, hatred and bigotry in not affording these people recognition of their relationships on your soil, for immigration purposes or otherwise?
I used to look up to the United States as a country of freedom, fairness and opportunity. Now, the United States is simply a disappointment. Would the real United States please catch up?
What did you do on Valentines Day
These wonderful activists decided to try to get the basic human freedom of marrying the person they love. Sad to see that there were too many bigots at the licensing office in many states.
Two things stuck out to me, one was the woman in california who was so apologetic of the situation, and wrote an IOU a marriage license and said she would be honored to give them one when she could, it kinda made me cry. The other was a man saying “you aren’t helping your cause” what a little shit, and I say that with love and compassion… We will do what ever we can to raise the issue and fight for our basic human rights of equality. You wont stop us.
I wish i’d been out with these brave people, sadly obviously not in the US at the moment… more bigotry in action.
Denying LGBTQIA conservatives, the right to be conservative…
I’m a left of left ultra liberal, socialist, eggheaded, feminist, antitheist, bisexual, anti-war, anti-corporatist, pro-labour, lesbian identified transwoman…. I don’t like conservatism because it stands against on pretty much every issue. But I also realize that people have and are entitled to different perspectives. There are LGBTQIA people who believe in fiscal and defense conservative issues. I don’t like their viewpoint, and I consider them “good queers” but i think they have a right to believe what they do.
Star Parker and others disagree however, they consider that should someone who is LGBTQIA, then they should have no right to claim the conservative mantle. No matter their belief on defense and fiscal issues according to Star Parker, the fact that they ignore levitical law, and focus on reality rather than God, means that they do not fit with her definition of marriage. It seems clear that the walkout from CPAC by many of the anti-equality social conservatives that they want to deny the right of LGBTQIA conservatives a voice or even in a place within the political movement they are a part of. Its good to see that some within the Conservative movement such as Mitch Daniels have made it clear that such intolerance is not welcome, and they need to move past it, but the backlash against him suggests that GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans are certainly being kept out and thats outrageous given that 30% of LGBTQIA people voted for republican candidates this time (Allegedly).
Look I get it like Rush Limbaugh, that Star Parker wants to criminalize acceptance of LGBTQIA persons, and roll back any rights we have won. They cannot stand the idea that other conservatives are waking up to the realization that equality is right and just. The baptist god is not the absolute ruler of conservatism or the republican party, and denying the bile soaked religious dogma as the mantra of conservatism is the right way to go. Melanie Philips recently complained that David Cameron the conservative Prime Minister of the UK stood up for marriage equality, because while he is a fiscal conservative, and a defense conservative, he has not let the bigotry of social conservatives rule him. There will come the day when conservative republicans will recognizing that marriage equality is the right thing to do. I wish they would stand up for it today, but they are still cowards.
You damage your movement Star Parker, by trying to keep the new blood of the “Good Queers” out as well as their allies.
Ban same sex dating in schools?
I rarely get as angry as I did with this, but i’m pretty much shaking with rage after reading this article in a school paper.
To have someone quote desert age tribal excuses for genocide, with phrasing saying we should be grateful that we are not put to death for being gay. Since Gay marriage is banned and dating can lead to marriage, the writer suggests that dating should be banned since the dating is fruitless.
Apparently the reason why you don’t see too many open gay couples is because they feel intimidated because they are not “normal”. The straight couples feel awkward when they see gay couples simple acts of intimacy, and so yet more reasons why gay dating should be banned.
The paper should not have released this article, it gave it a respect it never deserved and so their lip-service editorial is not worth the electronic ink it was printed on.
Quote leviticus at me and mine for justifying your bigotry and I will not pull back the logical punches. The book is a descriptive coverup of genocidal acts committed by those who wrote the book, in order to justify each act of destruction. I don’t see the people who wrote the book of being worse than their contemporaries. The majority of desert dwelling tribes probably acted in similar ways. But if you look to leviticus for your moral law, you should remember that it was not written as a code of conduct, but instead a manual for excusing acts we now call war crimes.
Colin Johnson, you owe your fellow students an apology for poor judgement, despicable phrasing and atrocious journalism.
Found via Pride in Utah
ACLU reporting on School Censorship of LGBTQA websites
Its becoming clear that many school’s filtering is including sites about Gay Straight Alliances, and Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. However those schools doing the censoring often fail to censor the hate filled “god can fix the gay” groups who perpetrate potentially fatal lies about being able to cure being gay.
Here's an example of what is being seen.
The ACLU is fighting against this unconstitutional censorship, and asking for student’s help with a survey of website accessibility.
Found via Pride in Utah.
Anti-Bullying Bills, the conservative christians are running scared…
California has already stepped up the the problem of LGBTQA bullying with measures such as SB 48 which states that social studies should cover the positive contribution of LGBTQA people on the country and society. However they are moving forward with more measures such as AB 620 which creates an anti-bullying policy that should make schools and colleges take issues of lgbtqa-phobic bullying seriously.
Surprisingly the anti-equality forces in California are worried because it will mean that the bullying that happens against LGBTQA people on campus will be noticed, reported and dealt with. They miss the days when both the teachers and students would openly bully LGBTQA people for being “different”, and they know that its far more difficult to hate people who you know and understand.
The so called California Family Council are saying that its going to oppress christians, because lgbtqa-phobic behavior is natural and normal for children and they should not be punished. The SB 48 Bill raised this almost protocol of zion like response from Father Joh Malloy saying that the primary contribution of LGBTQA people is the destruction of society.
If you see it as a vital part of your faith to be allowed to browbeat your fellow students with religious dogma, targeting those who have the audacity to not only not listen to your bile, but dare to want to live proud and noble lives, then yes this policy is going to get in the way. Just the same as a white supremacist cannot abuse people of different skin colors in a school environment you cannot abuse LGBTQA people without consequences.
The religious right knows that if they loose this generation of their youth to openness and tolerance, that they will be the last generation that is so full of religious hate. Here’s the advert for True Tolerance a project of James Dobson’s group the focus on the family.
The agenda is clear with this this site, it is to trivialize the real problem of bullying of LGBTQA people, to suggest that there are minorities who are subjected to far worse bullying so you can ignore the woes of LGBTQA youth.
California is not listening to this rhetoric, they are continuing to push forward against the plague of bullying with the support of the teachers, parents, and students, hopefully leading the nation in moving forward.
Put the Hyde Amendment back on the negotiating block
This isn’t a usual LGBTQA rights issue, but I am 100% in favor of respect for a woman’s right to choose and I know thats the case for the rest of the real LGBTQA rights movement because its about the basic human rights of women to control their bodies.
In 1976, a rider was added in to every appropriations bill, known as the Hyde Amendment. The effective language is “No Federal Funds for Abortion”, which doesn’t just extend to Medicaid, but the associated laws and riders prevent Federal employees from getting abortion coverage on their health insurance, for the military, the peace corps and all but a few federal employees. I was opposed to the Hyde amendment when I found out about it during the healthcare debate, but that wasn’t good enough for the republicans to keep that in. Stupak tried to force insertion of an expansive poison pill measure that would prevent any of the healthcare packages in the exchange from covering abortions. Thankfully the President managed to roll over for the supposedly democratic Stupak and signed an executive order preventing the healthcare bill from covering abortions.
Planned Parenthood is one of the most important and noble organizations in the US, who provide the full gamut of women’s health services, safe sex education and lobby for reproductive health issues. I’m so proud that doing the Vagina monologues last year gave support to the local Planned Parenthood in Albany. Planned Parenthood is constantly under attack from the right wing, but now the social conservative puppet party known as the republican party has decided to push an anti-choice agenda. The latest one pushed by Mike Pence would say that if you offer abortion services you cannot receive federal funds.
I’ve had enough of this bullshit, its perfectly simple. Late term abortions are only used for vital medically necessary reasons so those should be left alone. If you don’t like surgical abortions, support abortifact drugs. If you don’t like abortifact drugs, don’t restrict access to the morning after pill. If you don’t like the morning after pill, then do effective real sex education. Abstinence education is delusional at best, criminally negligent at worst. I really don’t care about the opinions of the anti-choice crowd because there are ways of lowering the number of abortions by supporting sex education, access to the morning after pill, and safe doctor prescribed access to abortifact drugs, all of which they oppose.
If the republicans want to bring up the issue of women’s health funding, it is time for the Democrats to respond by focussing on removing the hyde amendment from the appropriations bill. Federal, military, public option, and medicaid health insurance should provide full coverage for women’s health the same that it provides full coverage for men’s health.
I know I”m being opportunist but if the anti-choice crowd had not focussed on repealing women’s health coverage in the new congress, then it would have been more difficult to bring into the fore. They opened the door, and I’m walking proudly through in the opposite direction.
A letter to those who oppose equality
To whom it may concern,
There are so many of your groups out there, with different flavors of your bigotry, all filled with hatred for real equality for all.
I know we frighten you, I know we challenge the social order you believe is ordained, I know you worry for the future of a country that you cannot scare into control. I don’t care, because I don’t threaten your right to believe what you think in your own poisoned mind. There will always be forces of intolerance in our society all we can do is to ignore them and move forward.
You talk about 2011 being the year of saving marriage, about the idea that more states will repeal their equality laws, and those that already are unequal, want to make their states even more apartheid. I know that you hope for a federal marriage amendment that will in your eyes forever enshrine your hatred in the US constitution.
I honestly think that your chances of passing a marriage amendement at the federal level is non-existant. However I admit that were there republican majorities in the house and senate, not to mention in the White House in 2012 things would look bad for marriage equality, in fact I would imagine things would get worse.
However here’s the thing you don’t seem to get. The battle will not be over until we win, and we will win eventually. Even if you managed to set back the cause of gay equality 20 years, you will never stop our desire for freedom and equality. You cannot keep us down for long, we’ll keep fighting until equality is given. You may have almighty god behind you, but we have the desire for freedom and I know which i’m betting on.
Throughout human history, there have been oppressors and bigots, but every one has fallen.
I know you’ll never listen to me, or my advice, but I’ll give it anyway. You will loose, and will be remembered as haters and bigots, so please stop causing unnecessary pain and suffering and let us have our equality now rather than make us wait.
Hoping for your enlightenment,
From
Gemma
NOM fires up its cries of hatred in Indiana
Sometimes I find it difficult to understand the vehemence of NOM and their crowd. They have to know their actions cause unimaginable suffering and pain. When I get realistic, I remember that they have a pathological separation with reality. Indiana is moving closer to intolerance with a rights denying amendment passing through the state house yesterday. NOM is already crowing over their success, with this video announcing their summer of hate starting in Indiana.
This is their video from their last year’s bus trip of gay-bashing across America when it visited Indiana.
All of you throughout Indiana need to let your lawmakers know, that they must stand with justice and equality rather than apartheid and injustice…
From Nom’s own video archives
Pat Robertson talks Social Engineering and Bullpucky
Pat Robertson loves bashing gays and in fact anyone opposed to the male headed marriage he believes is the only right way ordained by god. It should be not surprising, but if you think about it this is one more reason to look at his viewpoints, and remind people the way he thinks.
Its been said many times before, but the one group of people crying out and demanding their right to marry are the same people you love stamping on every day of the week.
A link from those lovely people at NOM.
Indiana looks to join the league of proud bigoted states
Not much to report, beyond an amendment to enforce bigotry passing the Indiana house. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the progress through the state senate, but hopefully sanity and justice will prevail.
I’ll add more on Indiana, its politics, nature and demographics tomorrow, just a quick report for now.
Another helpful story found via NOM