Via Bilerico (facebook):

Bil Browning sent a message to the members of The Bilerico Project. Bil BrowningJune 11, 2010 at 7:41am Subject: We're happy to say our names out loud To illustrate the best reason why Bilerico Project should win Nuvo alternative newspaper's 2010 Best Of Indy contest as Indianapolis' Best Locally Owned Website, you need look no further than a commercial on our local NPR station that's airing this week. The ad is for Indy Pride, this weekend's gay pride celebration. http://www.facebook.com/l/52e0f;www.surveymonkey.com/s/KQBCKYZ At no point in the ad do they say the words, "gay," "lesbian," "bisexual," or "transgender." It's just full of vague references to showing "your pride" and "come out" to the park. In Indiana, being a part of the LGBT community is something you're supposed to keep hidden; be discreet. We are not discreet about LGBT issues and Indiana needs to see that we won't be pushed back into the closet. When local Democrats pull shady tricks like paying for anti-gay fliers or make AIDS jokes or vote against legislation critical to our community, they need to know someone will hold them accountable. We're already a thorn in their side, so why not help us out and make it official? http://www.facebook.com/l/52e0f;www.surveymonkey.com/s/KQBCKYZ Please spare a few moments to vote for Bilerico Project as Indy's best locally owned website. It only takes two minutes and, well, it's a big deal for Indianapolis to have a queer site in the running. Voting ends today. http://www.facebook.com/l/52e0f;www.surveymonkey.com/s/KQBCKYZ So by all means, come out and enjoy Pride month - but let's send a message that the LGBT community in Indy is here - and we're happy to say our names out loud.

Via JMG: Friendly Voices - Ben Cohen

"I have had numerous e-mails, mainly from young men who have been inspired by me in some way, and so have had the courage to come out to their friends and families and so live fulfilled lives. I have also been told that I have helped parents come around to the fact that their son is gay. I have no idea how I have managed to do that, I have to confess – but if my openness has done that then it seems that it is the right way to be." - British rugby star and calendar man Ben Cohen, speaking to Compete Magazine. Cohen praises fellow rugby star Gareth Thomas for having come out and says that it's time for gay players in other sports to do the same.reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Yuma AZ Mayor Says "Limp-Wristed" Homos Shouldn't Be In Military

And he says George Washington and Abraham Lincoln would feel the same way.

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Rep. Michele Bachmann Tied To Christian Band That Calls For Gays To Be Executed

A Minnesota-based Christian rock band whose lead singer calls for the execution of homosexuals will appear at this year's state GOP convention and has ties to the reelection campaign of Rep. Michele "Crazy Eyes" Bachmann. Via Change.org:

The Minnesota Independent notes that a Christian rock band in Minnesota, which has called for LGBT people to be killed and targeted for violence, has built an incestuous relationship with the state's GOP, including intimate ties with the campaigns of Rep. Michele Bachmann, and gubernatiorial candidate Tom Emmer. Moreover, the band -- known as You Can Run But You Cannot Hide -- also received a GOP-sponsored booth at this year's state Republican Convention. Just what does You Can Run But You Cannot Hide have to say about the subject of homosexuality? Well, according to their front man, Bradlee Dean, they believe that gay people should be murdered, much like they are in conservative Muslim countries. "Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America," Dean said. "This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination."

Bachmann has praised the band, saying, "It a tough job that you do, but someone has to do it. I thank God that he has given you the strength and the resolve to fight for our timeless values." Andy Birkman at the Minnesota Independent has been following the connection between the band and the state GOP since last October. Read his many stories here. Here's a couple of ugly of clips from the band's lead singer, Bradlee Dean, in which he praises countries that execute gays. Listen to Bachmann's hero. At the bottom is a clip advertising a November fundraiser featuring Bachmann and the band.

reposted from Joe

The Perils of Lesbianity

Via JMG: Rep. Ike Skelton On DADT: Families Shouldn't Have To Talk About Gay People

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Ike Skelton doesn't want DADT repealed because he's afraid that families might have to discuss homosexuality.

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reposted from Joe

Via jmg: PhoboQuotable - Michael Pakaluk

"It seemed a real danger that the boy being raised by the same-sex couple would bring to school something obscene or pornographic, or refer to such things in conversation, as they go along with the same-sex lifestyle, which--as not being related to procreation-- is inherently eroticized and pornographic. He might expose other children to such things, as he might easily have encountered them in his household." - The Archdiocese of Boston's Pilot newspaper columnist Michael Pakaluk, explaining why he objected to the six year-old son of a gay couple being in the same class with his boy.

Yesterday Pakuluk said he "regretted" that portion of his column after his editor issued an apology, but that he stands by his other objections. Last month the Archdiocese of Boston threatened to cut funding to any Catholic school that barred the children of gay parents. Pakuluk is an evangelical convert to Catholicism and a member of Opus Dei.

reposted from Joe

via JMG: FDA Hearings On Dropping Ban On Gay Blood Donors Begin Today

The FDA begins hearings today on whether to drop the decades-long ban on gay men donating blood. Numerous LGBT and progressive sites are participating in a blog-swarm, asking their readers to submit comments.

Dr. Jerry Holmberg is the Executive Secretary of the Advisory Committee, and is tasked with accepting formal public comments from both organizations and individuals. He has made his e-mail available for this purpose. Please take a minute to e-mail Dr. Holmberg via jerry.holmberg@hhs.gov and urge him and the committee to revise the ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men.

You can find scientific support for your comment at this link. Among those testifying today is Cliff Kincaid of the virulently anti-gay group, American's Survival. Christian Newswire reveals today what Kincaid plans to say.

"Do you or your loved ones want to die in order to advance the gay rights agenda? Once again, as we have seen in the gays in the military debate, the gays are constantly screaming about their rights, oblivious to the point of madness about the rights of others. In this case, it's our right to be free of infected blood when our loved ones get a blood transfusion. But unless the public quickly offers its comments and raises an outcry with the federal authorities coming under the influence and intimidation of the gay rights lobby, the 'right' to donate blood could soon be extended to a politically-connected special interest group that has a demonstrated propensity to acquire life-threatening and deadly diseases."

Watch the hearing live here.

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He said what?

American Family Association's Bryan Fischer: Gay Sex Is Domestic Terrorism

Yesterday Britain's tabloids claimed that the Taliban is planting HIV-laden needles in its bombs in order to infect British and American soldiers. Reportedly, bomb teams have been issued Kevlar gloves to deal with the threat. Cue American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer.

If we connect the dots here, the inescapable conclusion is that gay sex is a form of domestic terrorism. Every time an HIV-infected male has sex with another male, it's essentially the same as plunging an infected heroin needle into his arm. He's passing on a potential death sentence, just as the Taliban seeks to do on a foreign battlefield. It is because of the risk of HIV transmission that the FDA will not allow a male homosexual to donate blood if he has had sex with another male even one single solitary time since 1977. The second riskiest behavior for HIV infection is injection drug use. Now if gays are allowed into the military, they will be inevitably be put in battlefield situations where donated blood from soldiers may be necessary to save the lives of wounded comrades. An HIV-infected American soldier whose blood is used in those circumstances may very well condemn his fellow soldier to death rather than save his life. If open homosexuals are allowed into the United States military, the Taliban won't need to plant dirty needles to infect our soldiers with HIV. Our own soldiers will take care of that for them.

Last month Fischer claimed that repealing DADT would lead to another Holocaust, because gay men are the only people savagely brutal enough to murder millions.

reposted from Joe

Via Bilerico: Freedom to Cheat