Monday, May 10, 2010

Via JMG: Can We Forgive Our Enemies? Should We?


Outing Aftermath: Can We Forgive Our Enemies? Should We?

JMG reader Stephen wonders if the LGBT community shouldn't extend an olive branch and a rainbow flag to homophobes like Dr. George Rekers after they've been outed. He writes:

In light of this most recent outing of an anti-gay conservative, I've had some thought that I'd like to share with you. Last summer, I saw that great documentary, Outrage, that actively outed several politicians and, then, I agreed with its justification. The bigoted, but closeted gay, politicians harmed us, so we'll ruin them so they can't do it anymore. However, now, I think there's a big flaw in this: when we get one and ruin them, trash talk them, and alienate them from both us and their conservative friends, it speaks volumes to all the others. Every time we shame and express our outrage at these people, we could be inspiring fear and be pushing others further into the closet. In fact, when we assassinate the character of these people, we are doing just what they would do to us. I well understand the pain that people like Dr. Rekers have brought to our community, but vengeance only engenders more pain. Would we fuel such hatred with our own?

Ironically, I think we should take a leaf out of Jesus' (real) message: forgiveness. If we, as a community, welcomed these people and forgave their political trespasses against us, I think it will demonstrate a much better side of our community and actually help others follow in the path of coming out and repenting their old homophobic ways. Moreover, I think it would help our community demonstrate the irony that, in some ways, the "Christians" follow less of Jesus' teachings than us. I'm not saying we should excuse Dr. Rekers right now. From what I understand, he isn't as of yet knocking on our door asking for an accepting shoulder to cry on or for a rainbow flag to wave, but at the same time, I think we ought to make it clear that when he's ready, we'll have it for him.

One could make the case that an outed notorious homophobe could be a powerful ally. And certainly many survivors of the "ex-gay" movement are today advocating fiercely for LGBT causes. But could we forgive Dr. George Rekers (or someone like him) if he came to us tomorrow as a repentant homophobe and openly gay man? Should we?

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Via JMG: The Evil Of Dr. George Rekers

Head over to Rob Tisinai's blog and read some excerpts from the 2008 gay adoption trial in Florida where "expert witness" Dr. George Rekers testified against a gay couple attempting to adopt two young brothers. We've had a lot of fun at Rekers' expense here over the last week, but let's not lose sight of the evil he has perpetrated against gay families.

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reposted from JMG

Bryan Safi vs Faux 'Mo

Via Belrico: Be The Math

Filed by: Kate Clinton

May 9, 2010 4:00 PM

My dear girlfriend cheerfully admits she is a numbers nerd.

She can read, remember and interpret a pie chart or a power point graph like nobody's business.pie chart.jpg

While she's parsing the percentages, I tend to muse about the color palette they've chosen. Why that yellow with fuchsia?

Not to imply that she sees things in black and white. She loves data and thanks to the recent work of the Williams Institute, the Movement Advancement Project and many academic LGBT studies, she has hard data aplenty to mull over.

And I've decided a teal palette is universally appealing.

But check out these stats.

Continue reading "Be The Math" »

via : Pres. Truman's grandson: End the gay ban

Pres. Truman's grandson: End the gay ban
May 9th, 2010

His grandfather desegregated the military - now he calls on Obama to do the right thing. Read more...