A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
"Victory in California! With your help, NOM played a central role in defeating pro-gay marriage GOP Senate candidate Tom Campbell yesterday. Back in March, NOM was the first on the air with TV ads highlighting Tom Campbell's liberal record on gay marriage and taxes. In May, we came back with a wildly successful automated phone campaign to 600,000 GOP primary voters, letting them know where Tom Campbell stands on gay marriage.
"Gay marriage advocates used to brag that no politician had ever lost a race because of his (or her) support for same-sex marriage. Certainly political races involve many factors, and it's often difficult to pinpoint one particular factor leading to a political defeat. But today they can no longer make that claim with a straight face. Less than three years after NOM's founding, we have now seen race after race where a candidate's support for gay marriage was significant in leading to that candidate's defeat. Just ask Dede Scozzafava in New York. Or Jon Corzine and Loretta Weinberg in New Jersey. And now Tom Campbell in California, just to name a few." - NOM president Brian Brown, taking credit for Carly Fiorina's win in the GOP Senate primary, which apparently had nothing to do with her $5M in self-funded last minute ads.
RELATED: I just had to point out Brown's usage of "straight face." Snork!
California is one of the most diverse states in the country, and our diversity is one of our strengths. Senator Barbara Boxer has been a champion of freedom, equality and justice for all Americans.
Equality under the Law: Senator Boxer supported the Hate Crimes Prevention Act to expand the federal hate crimes law to cover sexual orientation. She has supported – and voted for – legislation to have the U.S. Department of Justice assist local law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of crimes motivated by prejudice based on sexual orientation and to provide grants to local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute hate crimes.
Equality in the Workplace: Senator Boxer is a long-time cosponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which protects gays and lesbians from discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
Equality in Marriage: Senator Boxer supports marriage equality and was an early opponent of Proposition 8. She was one of only 14 Senators to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. She has been vocal in her opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would enshrine discrimination against gays and lesbians into the federal Constitution.
Equality in the Military: Senator Boxer believes that gay men and lesbians should be able to serve their country openly in the military. In 1993, she authored the amendment in the Senate that would have stopped "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" from being written into law, and she continues to support efforts to overturn this discriminatory policy.
Equality in Benefits: Senator Boxer believes the federal government should treat the partners and spouses of all employees equally. She supports legislation to make all benefits, such as health and pension benefits, currently offered to the spouses of heterosexual federal employees available to the spouses and partners of all employees. In addition, she has cosponsored bipartisan legislation to allow domestic partners who receive employer-provided health benefits to be treated the same as spouses under federal tax law. She voted to allow the District of Columbia to fund programs to allow city employees to treat their domestic partners the same as married spouses. In December 2001, Senator Boxer urged the Department of Justice to rule that benefits for survivors of the September 11 terrorist attacks should not be limited to those who were legally married.
Equality in Immigration Law: Senator Boxer supports allowing Americans and permanent legal residents to sponsor their foreign-born domestic partners for legal residency in the United States. This would treat domestic partners the same as married spouses under immigration law.
Equality in Access to Public Facilities: In 2001, Senator Boxer offered an amendment to grant youth groups access to public school meeting facilities regardless of the group's views on sexual orientation. The Human Rights Campaign called the Boxer Amendment "a bold move to offset a previous anti-gay amendment offered by Sen. Jesse Helms."
Equality in Healthcare: For nearly 30 years, the LGBT community has been hit particularly hard with the devastating effects of HIV and AIDS. From the early days of the crisis when she was a member of the House of Representatives, Senator Boxer has been committed to fighting for increased funding for prevention, education, research, and housing for people with HIV and AIDS.
Senator Boxer is a long-time supporter of the Ryan White CARE Act that provides the largest federal investment in community-based HIV/AIDS health care services.. She has repeatedly supported the program's reauthorization and continues to press for the highest level of funding possible.
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Boxer has been one the leaders in the Senate in the effort to fund international HIV/AIDS relief. She has introduced legislation to dramatically increase funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development's HIV/AIDS program, and she continues to push for greater funding.
When she was a member of the Senate Budget Committee in the 1990s, Senator Boxer supported efforts to double research funding at the National Institutes of Health, including funding for research into HIV/AIDS.
She supported legislation to allow states to extend Medicaid coverage to low-income HIV-infected individuals, even if they did not otherwise qualify for the Medicaid program.
A 14ª edição da Parada LGBT de São Paulo reuniu mais de 3 milhões de pessoas, segundo a organização.
O evento foi focado este ano na luta contra a homofobia e até a bandeira arco-íris foi trocada pelo preto e branco nos materiais de divulgação para reforçar esta luta.
A marcha começou ao meio-dia na Avenida Paulista e terminou com uma concentração na Praça da República. A animar a multidão estiveram 18 carros de som entre empresas, ONGs e entidades oficiais. Os carros tinham origens muito diferenciadas desde o Ministério do Turismo, o Sindicato dos Engenheiros do Estado de São Paulo, Revista Arco Íris, a Coordenadora de Assuntos da Diversidade Sexual da Prefeitura de São Paulo, um site de relacionamentos, um hotel e até uma Drag Queen, Salete Campari.
Para evitar problemas um efectivo de 1300 agentes foi utilizado pelas forças policiais reforçados com segurança privada, entre outros.
A câmara municipal (Prefeitura) de São Paulo investiu cerca de 1 milhão de reais no evento, cerca de 450 mil euros. É estimado um impressionante retorno de mais de 100 milhões de euros do evento na economia da cidade. make the jump here to read the full article
Does the religious right have a problem with the television show Glee portraying homophobic people as ... too mean? Sure seems like it. Gay Rights blogger Mike Jones writes that one religious right leader is out with a call for Glee to stop portraying people against homosexuality as thugs, and instead treat the subject of homosexuality with more of a "love the sinner, hate the sin" mentality. Too bad there's just no sin to hate here. Read more »
On May 25th, Prop 8 witness David Blankenhorn wrote to the New York Timescomplaining that columnist Frank Rich had wrongly associated him with Dr. George "Anal Longstroke" Rekers.
My expert report to the court — which was written entirely by me, includes a list of scholarly sources and is available for anyone to read — includes no mention of Mr. Rekers. And for good reason: I have never met Mr. Rekers or read any of his writings. I recently learned that a separate, lawyer-generated document submitted to the court apparently does list an article by Mr. Rekers in connection with my testimony, but that document, on this point, is in error.
Only, whoops! This week Blankenhorn wrote back to the Times with the truth.
In a letter published on May 25, I incorrectly stated that I have never read anything written by the conservative minister George Rekers. In fact, in preparing for my report and deposition in the California Proposition 8 trial, I read one report to the court on a previous California marriage case written by Mr. Rekers, as well as a report to the same court taking a position opposed to Mr. Rekers’s.
A Parada do Orgulho GLBT de São Paulo é o maior evento do gênero no mundo. Estima-se que mais de 3 milhões de pessoas passaram pela última e a tendência é que o número aumente este ano. Mais de 3 milhões de gays, lésbicas, bissexuais e transgêneros, incluindo uma parcela significativa de simpatizantes. É um evento que nasceu da busca pela cidadania, respeito e direitos iguais, mas hoje se assemelha a um carnaval fora de época, com sexo livre pelas ruas, consumo desenfreado de drogas e bebidas, assaltos e uma programação intensa de festas paralelas nos clubes da cidade. E daí?
Pesquisas apontam como 10% a parcela de gays entre a população. Infelizmente, ainda é esperar muito que 10% da população brasileira (ou paulistana), seja educadinha, politizada, limpinha e com a libido sob controle. Mais do que um retrato de uma classe, a parada é um retrato do povo brasileiro ? e é importante que seja assim. É desejável e seria louvável que a parada fosse mais organizada, politizada, limpa e segura ? mas não é esse ainda o país em que vivemos. E os gays não vivem num mundo à parte. Mais do que dar um bom exemplo, a parada está aí para dar exemplos. Ser homossexual não é prova de caráter.
Questiona-se por que a parada paulistana se tornou tão grande. Não é fácil entender? São Paulo é das maiores cidades do mundo. O brasileiro é "um povo carnavalesco", com poucas opções de divertimento. Pronto. A importância da parada hoje se dá principalmente pelo seu volume. E talvez o volume seja mais importante do que o foco. São esses milhões que podem parar a Av. Paulista e emporcalhar as ruas. Milhões ? não é um personagem coadjuvante a cada quatro novelas ou um rapazinho no fundo da classe. É importante que as pessoas vejam. E se os clubes resolvem fazer festas, as empresas resolvem distribuir publicidade, qual é o mal?
Estamos no mês dos namorados. Propagandas com casaizinhos apaixonados rodam na TV. Os gays não estão lá. O homossexual ainda está longe de ter sua representatividade na mídia, nas artes. Entre os artistas, só assumem os que não conseguem disfarçar. Galã não pode se assumir gay porque ? diz-se ? vai afastar o público feminino. O adolescente que começa a se perceber diferente não se reconhece ? não tem exemplos ? "eu não sou afeminado", "não gosto de homens musculosos". É difícil se assumir diferente quando exemplos são só estereótipos.
Diz-se que a parada reforça estereótipos. Bem, são 3 milhões de pessoas, a imensa maioria tão neutra fisicamente quanto qualquer imensa maioria. Natural que, entre cem manos de bermuda e boné, uma drag queen se destaque. Natural que a imprensa prefira fotografar alguns milhares de drags e transexuais do que alguns milhões de manos. Mas quem está na parada vê o que qualquer homossexual com alguma estrada pode ver diariamente ? que os gays são seus colegas, dentistas, açougueiros, professores, cobradores de ônibus e pais de família.
Pode-se alegar que hoje já não há tanto preconceito ? os gays não estão sempre no Big Brother? (Já chegaram até a ganhar!) Mas a homossexualidade ainda é vista como uma coisa distante ? "não na minha família!". O que é visto com simpatia na televisão ou na Av. Paulista tem outros olhos dentro de casa ? e olhares de ódio em outras cidades.
Frases de senso comum são proferidas em programas de TV por pretensas simpatizantes bem-intencionadas: "Adoro os gays, mas não gostaria que meu filho fosse porque sei que ele sofreria com o preconceito". Por que não ouvimos "adoro os gordos, mas não gostaria que meu filho fosse"? Provavelmente, no meio artístico, alguém acima do peso é fruto de tanto preconceito quanto um homossexual. Mas sempre se pode emagrecer.
Os exemplos servem para vencer o preconceito. Para quê? Para que não tenha tanta gente apanhando, para que não tenha tanto gay se matando; para que não tenha tanto marido fugindo de noite de casa para pegar garoto de programa na rua; enfim, para que as mães possam aceitar e educar seus filhos para serem mais limpinhos, educadinhos, saudáveis e politizados. A palavra de ordem é "diversidade" e a Parada GLBT ? com orgulho ou não ? está aí para mostrar isso.
Illinois: Pastor Christian J. Johnson and his wife arrested for car theft and meth possession. Maryland: Pentecostal Bishop Roan Samuel Faulkner arrested for sexually assaulting a female parishioner. Canada: Bishop Raymond Lahey set to begin trial for possession of child pornography. Lahey has also been accused of molesting an orphan boy in his care. New York: Pastor Phillip Joubert puts his church up for bail collateral after being charged with rape, incest, and sexual abuse of a child. Joubert does not own the church. Maryland: Father Michael L. Barnes pleads guilty to child molestation. Ireland: Father Oliver O'Grady will get $94K from his diocese in an annuity payment, even though he's been convicted of child molestation. Connecticut: Pastor Iura Godenciuc to pay $26K in fines after larceny arrest for lying about his address to change the school his kids attend. The school district says he owes $76K. Australia: Father Victor Farrugia charged with eight counts of indecent sexual assault. Florida: Youth Pastor Paul A. Lisowski stabs himself in the neck as deputies close in to arrest him for violating a protection order on an underage girl. Nigeria: Father Felix Afolayan charged with defrauding 110 people of millions by promising them Canadian visas. Colorado: Pastor Douglas Alan Scott loses appeal on $12M hedge fund scam conviction. Scott defrauded more than 400 parishioners. Italy: Bishop Gino Reali charged as an accessory for covering up multiple child molestations committed by a priest in his diocese.
This Week's Winner Denmark: In 2005 a Catholic priest in charge of teaching children was convicted of downloading 38 child pornography films, but it wasn't until last month that he was suspended. And Bishop Czeslaw Kozlon, head of the Catholic Church in Denmark, didn't even tell his parish why the suspension finally took place. (They learned the truth from reporters.) The Danish Catholic Church is also facing accusations that an elderly senile nun froze to death after she was locked out of church for making noise during the morning prayers.
Tim Coco (left) with Genesio Oliveira and their dog, Q-tip, at home in Haverhill yesterday. Oliveira can now try again for legal residency. (David Kamerman for The Boston Globe)
Tim Coco and Genesio Oliveira married in 2005, among the throngs who wed after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts. But for nearly three years, they lived apart — Coco in Haverhill and Oliveira in his native Brazil — because federal law does not recognize their union.
GLAAD has issued a call to action, demanding that Fox's Bill O'Reilly issue an apology for comparing gays to al Queda.
On the June 2 edition of Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” host Bill O’Reilly made highly offensive comments while discussing a gay themed McDonald’s advertisement currently airing in France. After playing the ad for his viewers O’Reilly asked Jane Skinner to weigh in on the content. Skinner pointed out that the ad campaign is “part of an overreaching campaign called ‘come as you are,’ which you saw at the end there. So they show people in different walks of life.” O’Reilly then asked, “Do they have an al Qaeda ad, you know, come as you are? You know?” Instead of evaluating the commercial in a fair manner, O’Reilly used the occasion to defame the LGBT community, suggesting that McDonald’s might begin marketing to terrorists simply because the company produced a gay friendly television commercial. His lighthearted tone in the segment was equally disturbing.Cable opinion programs like “The O’Reilly Factor” have a responsibility to cover issues with a level of respect and civility. Bill O’Reilly failed to live up to that standard in making these defamatory remarks. Fox News Channel is equally accountable for allowing O’Reilly a platform for this insulting and irresponsible commentary.
"Happy sexual deviance month--or, as this President likes to call it, Gay Pride Month. Under this administration, every month feels like one long same-sex parade. For the second year in a row, however, the White House decided to make it official, weighing in with its second proclamation for 'Gay Pride Month' detailing how homosexuals and cross-dressers have "enriched' American life. Unlike President Clinton, who spent a fair amount of his time indulging the Human Rights Campaign, President Obama took it a step further and added 'bisexuals' and 'transgenders' to the list. In fact, he called on 'every American' to spend the month celebrating their movement--a movement dedicated to destroying marriage, free speech, public health, religious liberty, and (after the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal) national security." - From yesterday's Washington Update by the Family Research Council, a message that was also emailed to their millions of members.
And yet every time an LGBT rights issue is in the news, Tony Perkins or Peter Sprigg are trotted out on national television as America's leading Christian voices as they tut-tut their hatred, smirk their oily smiles, and promise viewers that they love homosexuals, despite our "sins."
Stormfront loves blacks. Al Qaeda loves Jews. Hutus love Tutsis. And the Family Research Council loves you.
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission's request for accreditation as a consulting group to the United Nations has been blocked by Egypt.
The group, which had applied for "consultative status" at the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) three years ago, is an international NGO and advocacy group focusing on protecting the rights of homosexuals and lesbians worldwide. Diplomats from Western nations that support gay rights complained that Egypt and other developing states that have been criticized by rights groups for discriminating against gays and lesbians prevented the committee from voting on whether to accredit the group, thereby leaving it in limbo. "IGLHRC is disappointed by the vote of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations to block action on our application," Cary Alan Johnson, head of the New York-based group, said in a statement to Reuters.
The U.N. NGO committee has 19 members, among them the United States and Britain, as well as Egypt, Sudan, Qatar, Pakistan and China. Johnson said it was a "clear case of discrimination against an organization because it defends the human rights of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi- and transsexual) people around the world." The U.S. delegation defended the work of IGLHRC. "This NGO is committed to combating discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity," the U.S. statement said. "It has contributed to valuable research on HIV/AIDs and its work is well known to this committee."
According to the British delegation, Egypt blocked IGLHRC "on behalf of African countries."
The Washington Post's David Weigelhas picked up my post about the Family Research Council lobbying against Uganda's "kill gays" bill.
Gay City News and blogger Joe My God dug into the lobbying records of the Family Research Council and found that among the "Civil Rights/Civil Liberties" issues that the FRC's Tom McCluskey and David Christensen lobbied on was HR 1064, a resolution condemning Uganda's proposed anti-homosexuality bill. That's the bill that would assign a seven-year sentence for "homosexuality" and a possible death sentence for "aggravated homosexuality."
Should this come as a surprise? Well, it's the only issue under the "Civil Rights/Civil Liberties" heading that doesn't actually touch on a change to American laws. The resolution, proposed by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Ca.), spends most of its length arguing that Uganda's efforts to fight AIDS would be impeded by the law and proclaims that "all people possess an intrinsic human dignity, regardless of sexual orientation, and share fundamental human rights." In the FRC's report, this resolution is short-handed as "pro-homosexual promotion."
Weigel has posted the FRC's lobbying report in full, as well as the wording of the House resolution. He is waiting for the Family Research Council to respond.
I was walking through my midtown neighborhood of Lavendar Heights a little while ago, and since this section of Midtown is the "gay ghetto" of Sacramento, how come there aren't any rainbow flags or gay-related events posted on lightposts, stop lights, etc, you know kind of similar to what it's like down in the Castro. I think it would be a great idea to show our presence in this great neighborhood, other than just walking down or driving through the area streets. I was thinking how interesting it would be if the city did decide to put up those rectangular rainbow flags up and down the major thoroughfares, like 21st St, 19th St, P St, N St, K St, J St, etc, you know like you see in San Francisco. Since Sacramento has the sixth largest gay and lesbian population (percentage-wise) in the United States at around 33,000 or so, why not go for that idea?
"The law needs to change. Fundamentally, it’s an issue of our values. It’s very critical for us as an institution, and I’m hard-pressed not to support policy and a law that forces individuals to come in and lie everyday. I have every expectation that not only we will do this, but we will lead in a way [so] it gets done. That doesn’t mean we won’t have challenges. I want to understand what the possibilities are … what it’s going take to implement this and, in that regard, address the leadership challenges and implementation with expectations that at the small-unit level, not exclusively, it will be led and led well. I have a lot of faith in you that that’s doable." - Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen, speaking to soldiers yesterday at Fort Bragg.
Perhaps referencing the ridiculous claim by the Family Research Council that openly gay soldiers will lead to rampant male rape, one soldier asked Mullen if repealing DADT wouldn't lead to increases cases of sexual harassment. Mullen responded: "Certainly any change in the laws is not an excuse for anything like that to ever happen. We are a disciplined force. We have standards. Maintaining those standards, sustaining that discipline is our job, no matter what happens."
It's time for the Southern Poverty Law Center to reclassify the Family Research Council as an official hate group, not merely anti-gay as they are now listed. According to the FRC's official lobbying report for the first quarter of 2010, they paid two two of their henchmen $25,000 to lobby Congress against approving a resolution denouncing Uganda's plan to execute homosexuals. The resolution passed in the Senate on April 13th, but remains languished in the House almost four months after being referred to the Foreign Affairs Committee. Did the FRC's lobbying kill it? As we learned last week with Malawi, international pressure CAN sway even the most virulently anti-gay government.
Below are three screencaps of the 20-page Family Research Council lobbying report supplied to me by Duncan Osbourne at Gay City News. Among the other items they lobbied against are the overturn of DADT and DOMA, which is to be expected. But it's almost astounding, almost, that they would lobby the members of Congress against denouncing the death penalty for LGBT people. THIS needs to fucking THROWN in Tony Perkins' and Peter Sprigg's smirking faces the next time they appear on cable television to speak in soothing voices about the FRC's godly gentle love for homosexuals. The proof is right below on official United States government stationery. The Family Research Council wants you DEAD. Glory! Praise His Name! Also: Die, faggots, die!
"Victory in California! With your help, NOM played a central role in defeating pro-gay marriage GOP Senate candidate Tom Campbell yesterday. Back in March, NOM was the first on the air with TV ads highlighting Tom Campbell's liberal record on gay marriage and taxes. In May, we came back with a wildly successful automated phone campaign to 600,000 GOP primary voters, letting them know where Tom Campbell stands on gay marriage.
A 14ª edição da Parada LGBT de São Paulo reuniu mais de 3 milhões de pessoas, segundo a organização.
