Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Via AmericaBlog Gay: How one ticked off gay guy took on America’s top companies, and won



A handful of advocates, armed with nothing more than their keyboards, have put many of the country’s largest retailers, including Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Wal-Mart, on the spot over their indirect and, until recently, unnoticed roles in funneling money to Christian groups that are vocal in opposing homosexuality. 

The advocates are demanding that the retailers end their association with an Internet marketer that gets a commission from the retailers for each online customer it gives them. It is a routine arrangement on hundreds of e-commerce sites, but with a twist here: a share of the commission that retailers pay is donated to a Christian charity of the buyer’s choice, from a list that includes prominent conservative evangelical groups like the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family.
The national battle was ignited in July by Stuart Wilber, a 73-year-old gay man in Seattle. He was astonished, he said, when he learned that people who bought Microsoft products through a Christian-oriented Internet marketer known as Charity Giveback Group, or CGBG, could channel a donation to evangelical organizations that call homosexual behavior a threat to the moral and social fabric.
Close to 100 companies have left the charity arrangement, though most refuse to discuss the matter. These have become the objects, in turn, of a countercampaign from the Christian groups — “Please Don’t Discriminate Against My Faith” is the heading of a sample letter — and of high-level entreaties from Mr. Huckabee and other Christian leaders.
A few companies that briefly left the network have been persuaded to rejoin, including Delta, PetSmart, Sam’s Club, Target and Wal-Mart.

Via AmericaBlog Gay: White House implies "boo"-gate shows GOP don’t have what it takes to be commander-in-chief



“I think the president was particularly struck by a question asked by a U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq about ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ when he was booed by audience members and not a single candidate for president, people who think they have what it takes to be commander-in-chief, said anything about that when he is there defending our country,” [White House spokesman Jay] Carney said.
The White House spokesman speaking out an issue like this is not insignificant, especially with such strong words. It comes on the heels of the President speaking out on it yesterday, and of ABC reporting that while Santorum, Hunstman and Johnson criticized the boos (after the fact), Romney, Perry, Bachmann, Gingrich and Cain are still refusing to denounce the audience members who booed a US soldier serving in combat.
And remember, as ABC reported earlier, several candidates on the stage heard the boos, and one of them is certain the other candidates heard them too.
But several other presidential candidates told ABC News that they did hear the boos ring through the Orange County Convention Center... [Former NM Governor Gary] Johnson added that he could hear the boos from the stage and believes that the other candidates – despite Santorum’s denial – could as well.
As White House spokesman Carney said above, some commander in chief any of these Republicans would be when they can't even defend their own troops.

Via AmericaBlog Gay: Southwest boots L-Word star off flight for kissing girlfriend after passengers complain


This is unbelievable. Leisha Hailey, former star of The L-Word tweeted earlier today that she was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight after kissing her girlfriend, claiming a flight attendant said Southwest was a “family airline.” Leisha is now calling for people to #boycottSouthwest.


Southwest’s official statement is that the crew had received several complaints from other passengers about the pair’s “excessive” behavior, and that “Our crew, responsible for the comfort of all Customers on board, approached the passengers based solely on behavior and not gender.
This statement is damningly self-contradictory. The crew can approach the kissing passengers based on other passengers’ complaints, or they can approach the kissing passengers based solely on behavior. But not both. As I’m sure Southwest is fully aware, passengers are much more likely to find kissing “excessive” if it takes place between a same-sex couple than they are if it’s a straight couple. If Southwest wants to pretend otherwise, they’re covering up their passengers’ homophobic attitudes.

Via AmericaBlog Gay: New DNC video about gay soldier being booed: Not one candidate




Monday, September 26, 2011

Via JMG: Gary Johnson Condemns Booing


Former New Mexico governor and 2012 presidential candidate Gary Johnson has joined former Sen. Rick Santorum in condemning the audience members who booed an openly gay soldier at this week's GOP debate.
"If I have one regret from last evening, it’s that I didn’t stand up and say, you know, you’re booing a U.S. serviceman who is denied being able to express his sexual preference," he said. "There’s something very, very wrong with that." Johnson said he was "chomping at the bit" to respond to the audience, but he was reticent to speak out due to his exclusion from the recent debates. "I’m feeling a little bit like I’m walking on egg shells," he said. He told Sharpton he believes the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, which went into effect on Sept. 20, should have been done "a long time ago."
Johnson is by far the most gay-friendly of the entire GOP presidential field. Therefore, of course, he is at the bottom of the pack.


reposted from Joe

JMG Quote Of The Day - John Shore


"If you’re a Christian who believes that being gay is a morally reprehensible offense against God, then you share a mindset, worldview, and moral structure with the kids who hounded Jamey Rodemeyer, literally, to death. It is your ethos, your convictions, and your theology that informed, supported, and encouraged their cruelty. We Christians who believe that God created gay people as much in His own image as he did straight people are begging you to reconsider your theology — to do nothing more than be open to an alternative, fully credible, scholastically sound interpretation of one or two lines from Paul. How can you be unwilling to do something so simple, when you see the horrible ultimate cost of that refusal?" - Christian author John Shore.


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: NFL Protects Sexual Orientation


With little apparent fanfare, the National Football League has added sexual orientation to the list of protected classes in its collective bargaining agreement. Via the gay sports blog Wide Rights, here's the new language.
Section 1. No Discrimination: There will be no discrimination in any form against any player by the Management Council, any Club or by the NFLPA because of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or activity or lack of activity on behalf of the NFLPA.
In the above-linked article, Wide Rights speculates as to the source of this change, which may have come from gay-friendly New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.


reposted from Joe

'BULLYING IS VIOLENCE' Public Service Announcement Campaign

Lady Gaga - "Hair" [Jamey Rodemeyer Tribute] Live at iHeartRadio Music Festival 2011

Via JMG: Hate Groups: We're Being Oppressed!


Yesterday the New York Times took note of the months-old battle to get major companies to stop aligning themselves with hate groups.
A handful of advocates, armed with nothing more than their keyboards, have put many of the country’s largest retailers, including Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Wal-Mart, on the spot over their indirect and, until recently, unnoticed roles in funneling money to Christian groups that are vocal in opposing homosexuality. The advocates are demanding that the retailers end their association with an Internet marketer that gets a commission from the retailers for each online customer it gives them. [snip]

“This is economic terrorism,” said Mike Huckabee, the former pastor, governor and presidential contender, who is a paid CGBG consultant. “To try to destroy a business because you don’t like some of the customers is, to me, unbelievably un-American,” he said in an interview. CGBG, a for-profit company formerly called the Christian Values Network, resembles hundreds of so-called affiliate marketers, which retailers use to bring customers to their own Web sites. The affiliate receives a commission on any sales, and CGBG allows buyers to send half that commission to any of the Christian charities on its list.
When Christians pressure companies, that's righteous! When gays do the exact same thing? Economic terrorism!

RELATED: The Christian Values Network was launched by nutjob actor Stephen Baldwin and convicted drug felon Michael Lohan (father of Lindsay).


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Religion Poll On Marriage Support


Baylor University's annual survey on religion reports the above levels of support for marriage equality. Unsurprisingly, the "unchurched" are far and away our best allies.


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: NEW YORK: Gov. Andrew Cuomo Signs Landmark Bill Aiding LGBT Seniors


New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill creating state services for LGBT senior citizens. The bill was sponsored by openly gay state Sen. Thomas Duane and openly bisexual state Assemblyman Micah Keller. The bill authorizes the replication of various state programs currently offered to traditionally underserved populations.

Via press release from Duane's office:
“Governor Cuomo has once again shown his commitment to ensuring that all New Yorkers have equal rights and protections under the law,” said Senator Duane. “This legislation is groundbreaking. For the first time, New York will recognize the unique needs of the ever growing segment of aging LGBT New Yorkers – and the services they may require in the years to come. Over the past decade, this State has gone from all but ignoring the LGBT community to enacting comprehensive LGBT hate crimes protections, providing a Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, protecting our students with strong anti-gay bullying protections in the Dignity For All Students Act, insuring our right to marry the ones we love with a Marriage Equality law, and now today taking major steps to assist elderly LGBT New Yorkers. I am proud at how far we have come in such a short amount of time.”
I believe this new bill is unique to New York state. Can anybody verify that?


reposted from Joe

Via AmericaBlog Gay: DSCC fundraising off of GOP booing gay soldier

And they should. That audience made a better argument than any of us could for why the Republicans shouldn't be in power. And only two of the 9 GOP presidential candidates on stage when the audience booed a gay soldier in Iraq have said anything about it. Where is Bachmann? Where is Perry Where is Romney and Gingrich? Nothing. Make sure you sign our open letter to the GOP candidates, demanding they apologize for this blatant disrespect of our troops. 

From: Guy Cecil info@dscc.org
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:01:47 -0400 (EDT)
To: xxxxxx
Subject: DOA
If you saw the news from last night, you know exactly why we can’t let up the fight, even for a moment:
-- The House shoved us toward a government shutdown by passing a despicable temporary funding measure that holds disaster relief hostage unless crucial job-creating programs are slashed to the bone. Luckily, it was dead on arrival in the Senate.
-- The Republican presidential debate crowd literally BOOED a gay soldier serving in Iraq who asked a question about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Can you imagine if a Democratic crowd booed a deployed soldier? Not one of the candidates had the guts or heart to denounce them.
If they take the Senate, they won’t even have to hold disaster relief hostage. They could just eviscerate it. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, reinstated. Health care reform, repealed. GOP priorities will no longer be DOA. They’ll be law. No guts. No heart.
We’re down to the wire. 8 days until our September fundraising deadline; $495,000 left to raise. It’s not just a number. If we fall short, we lose the Senate.
Can you give $5 right now? 90% of our donations come from grassroots supporters – I’m counting on you.
No way, no how can these people have complete control of government. Help stop them.
Guy Cecil

Via AmericaBlog Gay: Andrew Sullivan on the GOP booing an American soldier in combat

From Andrew:

But as I went to bed last night, the scattered boos for an American soldier in the field at any debate began to sink in. And Santorum's despicable lie in response - that repealing DADT somehow means license of gay sexual misconduct in the armed services - was intended to reduce that soldier, his life and work, to Santorum's obsession: the intrinsic evil of gay sex. Again, this is usual. Gays are used to being reduced to sexual acts rather than being seen as full human beings, like straight people, with sexuality sure, but a whole lot of other things as well.



But somehow the fact that these indignities were heaped on a man risking his life to serve this country, a man ballsy enough to make that video, a man in the uniform of the United States ... well, it tells me a couple of things. It tells me that these Republicans don't actually deep down care for the troops, if that means gay troops. Their constant posturing military patriotism has its limits.
The shocking silence on the stage - the fact that no one challenged this outrage - also tells me that this kind of slur is not regarded as a big deal. When it came to it, even Santorum couldn't sanction firing all those servicemembers who are now proudly out. But that's because he was forced to focus not on his own Thomist abstractions, but on an actual person. Throughout Republican debates, gays are discussed as if we are never in the audience, never actually part of the society, never fully part of families, never worthy of even a scintilla of respect. When you boo a servicemember solely because he's gay, you are saying he is beneath contempt, that nothing he does or has done can counterweigh the vileness of his sexual orientation. 

And then I think of all those gay servicemembers who have died for this country, or been wounded in battle, or been on tours year after year ... and the fury builds. 


Nearly 6000 people have signed.  Have you?

Via AmericaBlog Gay: Romney, Perry, Bachmann, Gingrich refuse to denounce boos of gay soldier. Johnson suggests Santorum lied.


So one GOP presidential candidate is calling Rick Santorum a liar for claiming on Fox that he couldn't hear the gay soldier being booed by the Republican audience during the presidential primary debate last week in Florida. Also, it's interesting to note that while Huntsman, Santorum and Johnson all denounced the boos, Romney, Perry, Bachmann and Gingrich are now refusing to denounce the boos.
So basically, Romney, Perry, Bachmann and Gingrich stand behind the audience's booing of a US soldier serving in combat.


[Former New Mexico Gov. Gary] Johnson added that he could hear the boos from the stage and believes that the other candidates – despite Santorum’s denial – could as well.

Businessman Herman Cain declined to go into detail about the incident saying only, “If you don’t have time to explain your whole position on that, you can very easily be taken out of context so I don’t even want to comment on that.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s spokeswoman Alice Stewart said in an email to ABC News, “There was booing and cheering throughout the debate – Michele didn’t comment on any of it.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich also declined to comment, and Ron Paul’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Spokespeople from Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign did not return requests for comment, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign had no comment either.

Make sure you sign, and send around (retweet, Facebook) our open letter from former military members calling on all the GOP candidates to apologize for not saying a word in defense of the gay American soldier who was literally booed by the GOP debate audience.   Nearly 7000 people have signed.  Have you?