Tis the Season, or it?

From: purposequest.blogspot.com

How many times have you walked in or out of your local grocery store and felt pressured to give a handful of change to the Salvation Army volunteer, ringing his little bell? I think we've all probably dug into our pockets, at one point or another, and pulled out a crumpled dollar bill, proudly exchanged merry, merries and then dropped the cash into the little red kettle. It is after all Christmas-time, and the Salvation Army is out in full force.

They do good things with the money, right? Well, I hate to be the Grinch, but the answer is yes and no. According to the official website of the Salvation Army, 83 cents of every dollar collected goes directly to client service. Sounds impressive. The Salvation Army delivers aid to 36 million people through a national network of soup kitchens, drug-treatment centers, hospitals, shelters for battered women, nursing care and day-care centers run by low-paid workers or volunteers. The Army even does great work for AIDS care. That's the good.

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Judge To Prop 8 Backers: Turn Over The Paperwork NOW

On Friday a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the backers of Proposition 8 must immediately turn over their internal documents.

The sponsors had sought to keep the documents while challenging the order to turn them over in an appeals court. But in a ruling late Friday, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco said backers of Proposition 8 had failed to show that disclosing internal memos and e-mails would violate their freedom of speech or subject them to harassment. He said they had refused to identify any documents that needed special protection and noted that he could order their opponents to keep any sensitive material confidential. "It simply does not appear likely that (Prop. 8's) proponents will prevail on the merits of their appeal," Walker said. He said he doubts that a federal appeals court even has jurisdiction to consider the dispute at this early stage of the case.

Those behind the push to overturn Prop 8 say the campaign was based on anti-gay bias, not the need to protect "traditional marriage." Prop 8 proponents say their motives are irrelevant.

Labels: California, feds, marriage equality, Proposition 8

posted by Joe

Gay Family Values: "King & King"

Thanks for the Heads up BoxTurtle!

Starbucks Says Approve Ref. 71

Jim Burroway

October 24th, 2009

This comes to us via SLOG:

In a statement, the company said that approving R-71 “ensures that basic benefits and important protections are not taken away from committed couples, so they are able to take care of each other, especially in times of crisis.” Starbucks wants voters to approve the measure “because it is aligned with our business practices, providing domestic partner benefits, and one of our core values of treating people with respect and dignity.” [emphasis in SLOG's post]

Starbucks hasn’t contributed to the campaign, but they did send this message out to their employees. Starbucks has 3,000 employees in its Seattle headquarters and maintains 667 stores in Washington state, and each of them got this statement. That’s quite a venti.

Starbucks’ endorsement follows similar appeals from Microsoft, Boeing, Nike, and many other companies that employ large numbers of people in the Pacific Northwest.

With all the attention being paid to Maine, Washington’s LGBT citizens are feeling ignored. Karen Ocamb says they’re sweating bullets because they may well lose their hard-won Domestic Partnerships. Please show them your love by donating to Approve Ref. 71 today.

Subject: Weekly Reader: LGBT politics, Rosie, & holding hands

The past week has been huge for forward progress in LGBT political news. Between the administration's clarified definition of "family," HHS's announcement of the creation of an LGBT senior resource center, HUD's new study on LGBT discrimination in housing, and the Senate's passage of hate crimes legislation, the fundies must be going apoplectic. We, however, kept delivering some of the best LGBT content on the web like these gems:

Bilerico Nation
Martinis With Fred Phelps
Filed by: Peter Monn and Alex Paredes (Bilerico-Indiana)
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;indiana.bilerico.com/2009/10/martinis_with_fred_phelps.php

Norfolk Country Club Bars Same-Sex Family Membership in Vote
Filed by: Michael Hamar (Bilerico-DC)
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;dc.bilerico.com/2009/10/norfolk_country_club_bars_same-sex_famil.php

Dan Gelber Garners LGBT Endorsement in hotly contested FL AG race
Filed by: Nadine Smith (Bilerico-Florida)
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;florida.bilerico.com/2009/10/dan_gelber_garners_lgbt_endorsement_in_h.php

Sunday
Equality Across America wants you
Filed by: Diane Silver
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/equality_across_america_wants_you.php

My Cleaning Trolley, just in case real cleaning wasn't fun enough
Filed by: Alex Blaze
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/miriam_at_feministing_highlighted_this.php

Monday
The APLA AIDS Walk, the Age of Aquarius, and people like me
Filed by: Karen Ocamb
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/the_apla_aids_walk_the_age_of_aquarius_and_people.php

Click Here To Email 36 U.S. Representatives Unconfirmed on ENDA
Filed by: Dr. Jillian T. Weiss
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/click_here_to_email_36_us_representatives_unconfir.php

Tuesday
High School Hand Holding as Punishment... with a Dash of Internalized Homophobia
Filed by: Waymon Hudson
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/high_school_hand_holding_as_punishment_and_our_int.php

Sexy and queer religious imagery
Filed by: Alex Blaze
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/sexy_and_queer_religious_imagery.php

Wednesday
Glee star Corey Monteith thinks you're the jazz
Filed by: Bil Browning
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/glee_star_corey_monteith_thinks_youre_the_jazz.php

Growing Calls for Immigration Reform That Leaves No Family Behind
Filed by: Steve Ralls
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/growing_calls_for_immigration_reform_that_leaves_n.php

Thursday
Rosie and Kelli Working on Their Issues; So Is the Media
Filed by: Dana Rudolph
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/rosie_and_kelli_working_on_their_issues_so_is_the.php

Inside baseball: The all-male college "gay problem"
Filed by: Austen Crowder
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/inside_baseball_the_all-male_college_gay_problem.php

Friday
Histórica aprobación de ley federal para prevenir crímenes de odio
Filed by: Pedro Julio Serrano
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/historica_aprobacion_de_ley_federal_para_prevenir.php

Top 10 Out Gay Male Pop Stars
Filed by: Phil Reese
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/top_10_out_gay_male_pop_stars.php

BONUS:
Obama administration moves forward on LGBT rights via HUD & HHS
Filed by: Bil Browning
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/obama_adminstration_moves_forward_on_lgbt_rights.php

Hate crimes passes Senate: Goes to President's desk
Filed by: Bil Browning
http://www.facebook.com/l/480c7;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/hate_crimes_passes_senate_goes_to_presidents_desk.php

Don't forget:

Subscribe to the Bilerico Project Report to get all of the previous day's posts sent to you every night at midnight.
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How American Evangelicals are Killing Gay People in Africa

Hate never made for a good export. But that hasn't stopped a prominent group of American evangelicals from trying to ship their anti-LGBT principles abroad. One glaring example of right-wing theology run amuck across the globe is fresh out of Uganda, where legislative efforts to attack Ugandan LGBT people reached fever pitch this week.

Uganda is an interesting example of how the radical religious right in the United States has sought to take their battle against all things related to homosexuality to a global level. Earlier this year, a prominent group of evangelicals -- among them representatives from Exodus International and Defend the Family International -- attended a conference in Uganda aimed at discussing ways to fight homosexuality. The goal of the conference was to brainstorm ways that the government, schools and churches in Uganda could "wipe out" homosexuality from the country.

From American religious leaders to participate in something like this shows some pretty gross disrespect for human rights. What's worse, their support has lent credence to a bill introduced in Uganda's parliament this week that will imprison people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, and will imprison straight people who support gay rights. Oh, and let's not forget that the bill also calls for HIV-positive gay people to be put to death.

All of that and a bag of chips, and it's all courtesy of American evangelicals.

Wayne Besen, a leading LGBT rights activist who monitors "ex-gay" religious groups, nails a description of the shady stuff going on in Uganda.

read the rest here

Quote of the Day

Customer “Waiter do you have any soup on that menu?”

Waiter, “Yes but I wiped it off”.

- Soupy Sales

for more see: http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/10/23/soupy-sales-youtube-remembers/

RC Weekly Update from Joe Solmonese Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign President [hrc@hrc.org]

Dear Daniel,

As we note the historic passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, we remember the lives of these and countless other victims of hate violence:

Angie Zapata, beaten to death because she was transgender. Her murderer referred to her as "it." She was twenty years old.

Balbir Singh Sodhi, age 52. A Sikh American, he was shot to death by a man who, thinking that he was of Arab descent, took private revenge for the attacks of 9/11.

Jose Sucuzhanay, murdered at age 31 by men who saw him walking arm in arm with his brother and assumed that he was gay. The assailants added anti-Hispanic and anti-gay slurs to the violence they inflicted on him.

Matthew Shepard, age 21, was taken to a remote area by two men and was severely beaten, then tied to a fence and left to die because he was gay.

James Byrd, Jr. was chained to the back of a pick-up truck and dragged for three miles. His killers left evidence inscribed with "KKK" to show their intent. Byrd was 49 years old.

We mourn their loss, celebrate their lives, and share their friends' and families' grief.

Passing this legislation honors the lives of these good people whom we lost too soon. But we must not mistake it for a monument to them, or a plaque commemorating distant history. The hate crimes law is necessary because the scourge of hate violence that took these lives has not ended.

Dr. King often quoted the Book of Amos, saying that we must not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

In passing this bill, Congress has unleashed the power of justice to combat hate. And it has done more.

Senator Edward Kennedy once said that this legislation sends "a message about freedom and equality that will resonate around the world." This marks the first time that we have as a nation expressed—explicitly, and with teeth—that LGBT people are to be protected. And this law sends a loud message that perpetrators of hate violence against anyone will be brought to justice.

This message, and this powerful tool in combating hate crimes, will erode the very foundations of the hatred that has taken so many lives already. From the justice that this Act provides—the righteousness, and the end of violence, will necessarily flow.

Sincerely,

Joe Solmonese
President, Human Rights Campaign

Visit www.loveconquershate.org to learn more about the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Anderson Cooper & Panel Discuss Obama's Gay Rights Record & Hate Crimes Act

Soupy Sales Dead At 83

Legendary 60's comic and children's show host Soupy Sales has died at the age of 83.

As the star of "The Soupy Sales Show," he performed live on television for 13 years in Detroit, Los Angeles and New York before the program went into syndication in the United States and abroad. Ostensibly for children, the show had broad appeal among adults who found Sales' puns, gags and pratfalls deliciously corny and camp. His cast consisted of goofy puppets with names like White Fang, Black Tooth and Pookie, and a host of off-camera characters, including the infamous naked girl. The high point of every show came when a sidekick launched a pie into Sales' face. Sales once estimated that he was hit by more than 25,000 pies in his lifetime. The gag became more than hilarious; it evolved into a hip badge of honor. Frank Sinatra was first in a long line of celebrities who clamored for the privilege to be cream-faced, including Tony Curtis, Mickey Rooney, Sammy Davis Jr., Dick Martin and Burt Lancaster.

Soupy's show was a big part of my childhood, partly because I could only watch it at my grandparent's house in Newark as we didn't get it in North Carolina. Watching Soupy was a big holiday tradition for us whenever we were in town. My dad thought he was the funniest man alive - until Flip Wilson came along.


thanks to JMG for this...

Yay!

The inclusive hate crimes bill has crossed its last hurdle in Congress! President Obama has vowed to sign it by the end of this month.

Today's victory marks a truly pivotal moment in our fight for LGBT equality. It happened because of the dedication of people like you and the families of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., for whom the bill is named.

More here

Phot of the March

Courtesy of Lotus Opening

Quote of the Day

What have you done today, to make ya feel PROUD?

~Heather Small

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO ENSURE INCLUSION OF THE LGBT COMMUNITY IN HUD PROGRAMS

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - Shaun Donovan, Secretary
Office of Public Affairs, Washington, DC 20410
HUD No. 09-206 FOR RELEASE
Brian Sullivan Wednesday
(202) 708-0685 October 21, 2009
http://www.hud.gov/news/index.cfm

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO ENSURE INCLUSION OF THE LGBT COMMUNITY IN HUD PROGRAMS
Commissions first-ever national study of discrimination against members of the
LGBT community in the renting and sale of housing

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced a series of proposals to ensure that HUD's core housing programs are open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

"The evidence is clear that some are denied the opportunity to make housing choices in our nation based on who they are and that must end," said Donovan. "President Obama and I are determined that a qualified individual and family will not be denied housing choice based on sexual orientation or gender identity."

The initiatives announced today will be a proposed rule that will provide the opportunity for public comment.

Charlene Strong: Approve Referendum 71

Christianists Call For California School Boycott Over Harvey Milk Day

Christianist outfit Save California has issued a call for parents to "boycott" California's public schools over last week's approval of Harvey Milk Day by Gov. Schwarzenegger. Via the American Family Association's "news site" OneNewsNow:

Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, tells OneNewsNow he is calling for a boycott over a law designed to force students to honor a deceased homosexual activist. "With Harvey Milk Gay Day now the law for California government schools, and a handful of sexual indoctrination laws already existing that are in effect throughout the entire school year, parents have to at least boycott Harvey Milk Day or days or week," Thomasson urges. The boycott, he says, needs to be established by parents to protect their children, but also to drive home a point that they do not want their children indoctrinated with a pro-homosexual philosophy. Thomasson feels that taking students out of the government school system is the only way to accomplish this protection. He adds that parents also need to be aware of the quality of education their children are receiving in California. Thomasson reports that "on the academic chart, California is among the lowest academically in the country. On the sexual indoctrination chart, California leads the pack with Massachusetts following."

Thomasson believes that Harvey Milk Day will strike so much terror into parents that they will begin home schooling or send their kids to private religious schools.

Courtesy of JMG

Heritage Foundation, Part of Right Wing Infrastructure, Defends 30 Republican Senators Who Enabled Rape

• BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

By Mark Karlin

For BuzzFlash, when it comes to enabling rape, the Republican think tank-media-political infrastructure sticks together: a bunch of white guys -- primarily from the South -- who believe corporate criminal personhood trumps the rule of law when it comes to gang rape.

I have written two pieces on the extraordinarily shocking and ethically sick vote of 3/4s of the GOP Senate delegation who voted not to cut off the contracts of defense contractors who prohibit employees from suing them for job-related rape.

Sure enough, the right wing Heritage Foundation -- who, along with the American Enterprise Institute, is a favorite of the "respected" RWNJs --wrote a convoluted defense of the 30 GOP Senators who claimed that not interfering with Halliburton/KBR and other leeches on the government was more important than holding them accountable for preventing rape in the workplace.

The Heritage Foundation managed to, in the same "defense of rape" article, argue that because the federal courts held that Halliburton/KBR could not prevent a rape victim from suing, there was no need to punish them for trying to prevent such a suit (still trying by the way). Heritage also managed to blame the whole idea of allowing a lawsuit for rape against the likes of Halliburton as a stealth tactic by attorneys to launch frivolous lawsuits that would result in the creation of fewer jobs.

Excuse us, we are talking about rape here.

So now we are discussing the vast right wing infrastructure created over three decades supporting rape. If you are a woman, how can you vote Republican? It's a question of backing a party that enables rape, period, whatever specious defense they cook up.

A satirical site posted the photos of all 30 GOP Senators who voted for corporate noblesse oblige privilege over rape prevention and accountablity. You can view the rape rogues gallery, with a pink frame for any Republican Senator from a state where both Senators voted for rape.

I guess if you're in the GOP, rape and racism are as American as apple pie and a noose.

Didn't they used to lynch black men for just looking at a white woman the wrong way?

These are some twisted, perverse minds in the GOP, and enablers of crime.

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

Technorati Tags: EditorBlog Rape GOP Heritage Foundation

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Philip

Quote of the Day

"I made the mistake of not having sex until I was 23! I loved being with another man and felt relieved that I finally knew who I was. I made the mistake of falling in love too soon because I was naive and romantic. My advice to you is to never chase love. It will find you when you least expect it. Have fun, have lots of safe sex and enjoy your sexuality. Be proud of who you are. I made a lot of mistakes. Stay away from drugs, they’re a waste of time. Stand up for every human being’s rights. Be loving, kind and strong. Set an example. You’re going to have one hell of a life!”

- Elton John, from a coming anthology titled Dear Me: A Letter To My 16 Year-Old Self.