Via André V: Seminário LGBT na Câmara

Texto de Rafael Menezes, extraído de vídeo do Cabo Free, emociona público no Seminário LGBT na Câmara

Na abertura do VII Seminário LGBT no Congresso Nacional, na manhã desta terça (18/05), Keila Simpson, vice-presidente da Associação Brasileira de Lésbicas, Gays, Bissexuais, Travestis e Transexuais (ABGLT), emocionou o público do auditório Nereu Ramos ao ler o texto "História de todas nós" de Rafael Menezes – Vice Presidente do Grupo Cabo Free.

O texto, de forma poética, embora incisiva, fala do cotidiano das travestis, que enfrentam o preconceito na família, na escola, nas ruas e nos serviços públicos, além da violência que torna o Brasil o país campeão mundial de assassinatos de LGBT, com uma morte registrada a cada dois dias.

A morte mais recente, inclusive, aconteceu exatamente na noite de segunda-feira (17), Dia Internacional de Combate á Homofobia, com o assassinato de uma travesti em Porto Alegre(RS).

Somente em Cabo Frio, 10 homossexuais fora assassinados nos últimos 5 anos e em nenhum dos casos a policia identificou ou prendeu os culpados.

Assista ao vídeo de Keila Simpson recitando o texto de Rafael Menezes no canal da Comissão de Direitos Humanos e Minorias no Youtube: www.youtube.com/cdhcamara - ou acesse diretamente o link do vídeo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln06AMMseCA


Mais informações sobre o seminário no site da Comissão de legislação Participativa da Câmara dos Deputados: www.camara.gov.br/clp

Via JMG: AFA's Byran Fischer: Kill The Sexually Immoral With Spears

Right Wing Watch on the latest evil from Byran Fischer:

The American Family Association's Bryan Fischer is one of those Religious Right activsts who takes the Bible so literally that he actually advocates that all of our nation's laws should be based on and uphold Biblical values ... so much so that he recently called for a whale at Sea World to be put to death for killing its trainer in accordance with Scripture. Which is why this clip from last Friday's radio program is rather concerning, considering that it consists of Fischer approvingly quoting Numbers 25 in which a man named Phinehas saves Israel by killing a man and a woman with a spear for engaging in "sexual immorality." Fischer compares the "rampant sexual immorality" in the passage to modern day America and says that "what God is obviously looking for is more Phinehases in our day," urging everyone to "be a Phinehas in our own world, and in our own generation."

Fischer didn't just want that whale killed, he wanted Sea World employees killed too for allowing the whale to kill a second time. And now he wants God's Gentle People™ to take up spears and kill the "sexually immoral."
reposted from Joe

Via JMG: That's Gay On Grindr

CurrentTV's Bryan Safi learns about Grindr. NSFW.

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: IRAQ: Army Orders Soldier To Remove Anti-Gay Facebook Video

A U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq is being investigated for posted a Facebook video in which he mocks two young Iraqi boys, asking if they are little "faggots" who are good at gay sex and whether they will grow up to be terrorists. Army officials have ordered the solider to remove the video from his page, but it has already been widely copied elsewhere.

The soldier, Spc. Robert A. Rodriguez, posted the video with the title “future gay terrorist” with the description, “i got bored in iraq…so i kept myself entertained!” The person on the video (it’s unclear it is Spc. Rodriguez, although the description certainly makes it sound like it is) asks whether the two young boys are gay, using a gay slur, and if they engage in a sex act. Next, he asks, “You gonna grow up to be a terrorist?” while the boys give a thumbs up, presumably not understanding the question. One soldier who WRAL played the video to called it “stupidity and boredom” and the army’s official response so far is that the video is “disgraceful” and the matter is “currently under investigation.”

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posted by Joe

Via Stonewall Democrats

Yesterday was a big day for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Everyone from our friends at Servicemembers United and the Human Rights Campaign to administration officials and Congressional leaders agreed to move forward on compromise legislation that will allow for a vote on a repeal bill as early as this week and will delay implementation until after the Pentagon completes its review process in December.

Of course, the most radical far-right lies rolled in right on schedule. The Family Research Council released a "report" on same-sex rape in the military that they hope will impact -- and end -- this debate.

This fight can't be won on lies, but we need your help to keep the momentum going.

There are a number of swing votes on the Senate Armed Services committee that need to hear from you today, including Robert Byrd (D-WV), Scott Brown (R-MA), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Jim Webb (D-VA).

To contact these key swing Senators, follow these easy steps:

1. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at . Ask to speak to your target.

2. Tell the staff member in the office you reach that you're calling to urge their boss to support the compromise legislation on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

"Hi, my name is ______. I'm calling to urge Senator _____ to support the compromise legislation on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which is likely to be voted on in the Senate Armed Services committee this week. This path forward allows for an immediate vote on repeal, while delaying implementation until after the successful completion of the Pentagon's study."

3. Ask if the Senator has made any decisions.

"Has Senator _____ decided how he's going to vote in committee?"

4. Report back! If you get a definitive answer one way or the other, let us know! Email me at mmitchell@stonewalldemocrats.org and let me know what you hear.

5. Rinse and repeat!

We won't let this fight be won by lies. But we need your help to win the battle.

Thanks for calling,

Michael Mitchell

Via JMG: TOMORROW: Feds To Hear Mass. AG Martha Coakley's DOMA Challenge

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley's lawsuit against DOMA will be heard tomorrow in a Boston federal district court. Via press release:

Judge Joseph L. Tauro will hear oral argument from Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office, in the Commonwealth’s constitutional challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). On July 8, 2009, the Attorney General filed suit on behalf of the Commonwealth in federal district court. Since that time, the Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss the suit, and the Commonwealth has filed a motion for summary judgment. The Commonwealth, which has submitted affidavits from experts and state agencies in support of its motion, is asking the federal court to decide DOMA’s constitutionality at this time without need for a trial on the issue. Both motions will be argued before Judge Joseph L. Tauro.

The Commonwealth contends that DOMA, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, violates the United States Constitution by interfering with the Commonwealth’s sovereign authority to define and regulate the marital status of its residents. Massachusetts also argues that DOMA exceeds Congress’s authority because it requires Massachusetts to violate the constitutional rights of its residents by treating married same-sex couples differently from all other married couples in order to receive federal funds for various programs.

Earlier this month the same judge heard arguments in GLAD's DOMA challenge, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management. reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Gay Groups React To DADT Deal

Earlier today White House officials met with LGBT groups to hammer out a compromise agreement on attaching a repeal of DADT as an amendment to a pending Defense authorization bill. Following the meeting, the White House for the first time endorsed the amendment attempt. While some see lots of holes in the compromise, most LGBT and progressive groups are responding favorably.

The Palm Center:

“The President’s statement today keeps his promise to lift the ban by establishing the terms on which ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ will be dismantled,” stated Aaron Belkin, Palm Center Director. “For the past seventeen years, every expert who has studied this policy has emphasized that dismantling it would require leadership. Leadership is what the President showed today.”

Servicemembers United:

"This announcement from the White House today is long awaited, much needed, and immensely helpful as we enter a critical phase of the battle to repeal the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' law," said Alexander Nicholson, Executive Director of Servicemembers United and a former U.S. Army interrogator who was discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." "We have been making the case to White House staff for more than a year now that delayed implementation is realistic, politically viable, and the only way to get the defense community on board with repeal, and we are glad to see the community and now the administration and defense leadership finally rally around this option."

Human Rights Campaign:

"We are on the brink of historic action to both strengthen our military and respect the service of lesbian and gay troops,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Today’s announcement paves the path to fulfill the President’s call to end ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ this year and puts us one step closer to removing this stain from the laws of our nation." “Without a repeal vote by Congress this year, the Pentagon’s hands are tied and the armed forces will be forced to continue adhering to the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law,” said Solmonese. “A solution has emerged: Congress needs to vote to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ now.”

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network:

"The White House announcement is a dramatic breakthrough in dismantling 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' The path forward crafted by the President, Department of Defense officials, and repeal leaders on Capitol Hill respects the ongoing work by the Pentagon on how to implement open service and allows for a vote this week. President Obama's support and Secretary Gates' buy-in should insure a winning vote, but we are not there yet. The votes still need to be worked and counted. If enacted this welcomed compromise will create a process for the President and the Pentagon to implement a new policy for lesbian and gay service members to serve our country openly, hopefully within a matter of a few months. This builds upon the support Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed for open service during the February hearing in the Senate, and further underscores that this Administration is committed to open service."

The full language of the DADT repeal legislation can be found at AmericaBlog Gay. reposted from Joe

Compromise reached on 'don't ask, don't tell'

--------------------

News Alert: Compromise reached on 'don't ask, don't tell'

07:44 PM EDT Monday, May 24, 2010

--------------------

President Obama has agreed to a compromise between lawmakers and the Defense Department that removes a key obstacle to the repeal of the military's 17-year-old ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the armed forces.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com:

http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/92KH5M/WPDTS/EYLUME/8QOL8Q/YZ8YR/W1/t

What Would I Do? Kick some A@@. ABC News

What Would I Do? Kick some A@@. ABC News has a segment called “What Would You Do.” Recently they took on gay and lesbian discrimination. Actors playing gay family’s were confronted by an actor playing a bigoted waiter in a Brooklyn diner. Eight hidden cameras were there to catch the reactions of the patrons. Some will surprise you and unfortunately– even in present day NYC — some will be depressingly familiar. When I am faced with our fiercely straight allies I always get choked up. And it’s not good for my image. Its a definite must see.

Via JMG: Happy Harvey Milk Day!

Today is the first annual Harvey Milk Day in California and observances are taking place from the Castro to West Hollywood and elsewhere in the state.

posted from Joe

Via JMG: BAY AREA: Christianists Force End To School District's Anti-Bullying Program

As you can see by the above headline from World Net Daily, Christianists are celebrating their successful campaign to force the Alameda Unified School District to drop their planned anti-bullying campaign. WND exults:

A lawsuit that demanded a right for parents to opt their young children out of a "gay" indoctrination program in a California school district was dropped after the district suddenly killed the worst of the curriculum, officials told WND today. Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, had been working on the case pending against the Alameda Unified School District. Dacus said the case was filed because parents wanted to uphold a state law allowing them not to have their children participate in health education programs if they choose. But he said the decision to drop the case was made when the district announced it was canceling "Lesson 9" of the Caring School Community curriculum, which was adopted by the school board last year. "We're very pleased," he said. "But we're calling upon parents all across the country to investigate and find out just what material is being pushed in their school district. "We're hoping that this school district learns tolerance is a two way street. One way tolerance is not tolerance at all. It's tyranny," he said.

You simply cannot teach children not to beat up gay kids. That is tyranny. And indoctrination!reposted from Joe

Via Buzz: Unequal Protection

“If you wonder why and when giant corporations got the power to reign supreme over us, here’s the story.” — Jim Hightower

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A Thom Hartmann Autographed Edition. Newly Revised and Updated "Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People" -- And You Can Fight Back." Expanded Edition to be Released on May 14th.

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BuzzFlash.com's Review (excerpt)

This is the hot off the presses updated and expanded version of Thom Hartmann's prescient book, which warned of the dangers of corporate personhood, and provides its historical shaky legal grounding dating back to the late 1800s.

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Includes discussion of the infamous January 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United case allowing "corporate personhood" to more easily buy elections.

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Unequal taxes, unequal accountability for crime, unequal influence, unequal control of the media, unequal access to natural resources—corporations have gained these privileges and more by exploiting their legal status as persons and by winning special protections that enable them to avoid the responsibilities that come with these rights. How did something so illogical and unjust become the law of the land? Is there a way for American citizens to recover democracy of, by, and for the people? Thom Hartmann takes on these difficult questions and tells a startling story that will forever change your understanding of American history.

Americans have been struggling with the role of corporations since before the birth of the republic. Hartmann uncovers evidence that the Boston Tea Party was actually a protest against actions of the East India Company—the world’s first modern corporation—making it the great-great-granddaddy of today’s World Trade Organization protests. But eventually the corporations won. Hartmann tells the astonishing story of how an offhand comment by a Supreme Court justice led to the Fourteenth Amendment—originally passed to grant basic rights to freed slaves—becoming the justification for changing the status of corporations from “artificial persons” with limited rights to persons entitled to the same rights granted to human beings.

Unequal Protection details the deeply destructive results. Corporations now enjoy extraordinary privileges that make them virtually independent kingdoms. This new feudalism is not what our founders intended. Hartmann proposes specific legal remedies that could truly save the world from political, economic, and ecological disaster. It’s time for “we, the people” to take back our lives.

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Via JMG: Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) Introduces Federal Anti-Bullying Bill

Today Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and 21 fellow Senators introduced a federal bill intended to protect LGBT students from harassment and bullying. Via the ACLU:

The Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA) would help to end entrenched biases towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students in our education system. A similar bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in January by Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) and currently has over 100 co-sponsors. The American Civil Liberties Union strongly supports these bills and urges swift action by both chambers. The ACLU is currently involved in a case that underscores the need for the SNDA. In April, the ACLU filed a complaint with the Itawamba County School District in Fulton, Mississippi urging the school district to reverse its decision to forbid a lesbian student from attending a prom with her girlfriend and from wearing a tuxedo to the prom. After school officials canceled the prom altogether rather than allow Constance McMillen to attend the dance in a tuxedo with her girlfriend, the ACLU then filed a federal lawsuit. In a preliminary ruling in April, the court found that Itawamba County School District officials violated McMillen's First Amendment right to freedom of expression, and the case is expected to go to trial.

Franken says that he and others are working on language to define what constitutes bullying. But he says that most people know it when they see it. As noted in the above-linked story, Rep. Jared Polis introduced similar legislation in the U.S. House earlier this year. Here's the list of Senate co-sponsors:

SNDA is co-sponsored by Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Robert Menedez (D-N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii).

a repost from Joe

Via JMG: Will Rekers Scandal Affect Prop 8?

Following up on the New York Times story about the legal implications of the Dr. George Rekers scandal, Amanda Terkel at Think Progress has found four instances of Rekers' ties to the Perry Vs. Schwarzenegger trial to overturn Proposition 8. I don't usually excerpt another blogger's work so extensively, but this is a must-read.

1. Blankenhorn was the defendants’ star witness and was eviscerated on the stand by attorney David Boies, who was arguing against Prop. 8 for the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Blakenhorn has claimed that he is “not familiar” with Rekers’ work and didn’t “cite anyone named ‘Dr. Rekers’” in his “expert testimony submitted to the court.” However, Blankenhorn did reference Rekers’ work the bibliography of his “expert report” for the trial:

This Rekers declaration that Blankenhorn references has statements such as “The inherent structure of households with one or more homosexually behaving members deprives children of vitally needed positive contributions to child adjustment and to the child’s preparation for successful adulthood adjustment that are present in heterosexual homes.” (View it here.)

2. One of the witnesses arguing against Prop. 8 was Ryan Kendall, a gay man who was forced to undergo “reparative therapy” as a teenager to make him straight. He “was first sent to see a Christian therapist and then the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH),” and the experiences left him contemplating suicide. Rekers was on the board of NARTH during the Prop. 8 trial and only recently stepped down after the “rent boy” scandal broke.

3. Rekers is a member of the American College of Pediatricians (ACP), which submitted an amicus brief to Chief Judge Walker in the Prop. 8 trial. ACP is a sham, right-wing group. When “the American Academy of Pediatrics passed its policy statement supporting second-parent adoptions by lesbian and gay parents in 2002, a fringe group of approximately 60 of the AAP’s more than 60,000 members” broke off and formed ACP.

4. The Prop. 8 defense had a witness named George Robinson who was going to testify about how being gay is a choice, although he was eventually withdrawn. He had also based some of his expert report on Rekers’ Prop. 22 declaration.

Excellent work by Amanda Terkels! Let's hope that Judge Vaughn Walker takes notice of this during the upcoming closing arguments.

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: U.S. State Department Condemns Conviction Of Malawi Gay Couple

The U.S. State Department has denounced the Malawi government's conviction of two gay men for "unnatural acts and gross indecency."

"The United States is deeply disappointed in today’s conviction of same-sex couple Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza in Malawi," said assistant secretary Phillip J. Crowley at a press briefing Wednesday. "We view the criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity as a step backward in the protection of human rights in Malawi. The Government of Malawi must respect the human rights of all of its citizens. The United States views the decriminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity as integral to the protection of human rights in Malawi and elsewhere in the world."

Thank you, Secretary Clinton. It may not help these poor men, but it's better than silence.reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Two Birds, One Gay Stone

Super damn funny.



(Via - Queerty)

posted by Joe