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.
Scandinavian Airlines wants to be the first to host an in-flight gay wedding and has launched a contest to find that couple. One proviso - the nuptials must take place in Swedish airspace in order to be legal.
"It will be a very traditional wedding," SAS spokesman Anders Lindstroem told AFP. "There will be wedding cake and dancing in the aisles." SAS is accepting entries from gay couples who wanted to celebrate their nuptials mid-flight from Stockholm to New York on December 6, with the winning entry will be chosen by an online vote. The airline said it would pay for the winners' tickets, hotels and honeymoon in Los Angeles, and cater the on-board banquet, albeit with a special wedding menu instead of normal passenger fare. Linstroem said SAS was playing catch-up to US airlines, who have spent years courting gay, lesbian and bisexuals in the United States with targeted marketing and sponsorship campaigns.
The airline does note that the ceremony will be held in the closed-off business class section so as "not to offend any other customers who may not approve." Well, boo to THAT part. Will there at least be a mile-high consummation?
After the suicides of three gay teens in just one year, a Minnesota school district has rebuffed offers from LGBT groups to help with anti-bullying education, citing a 2009 edict that "sexual orientation is not to be taught in the district." This, despite charges that one of the teens killed himself last year after being harassed by two of his own teachers. As LGBT groups continue to push for anti-bullying programs, a group of Christian parents has naturally formed an opposition organization.
In July, a shadow group of parents formed in the district with the intention on staving off any advances for LGBT students. The Parents Action League launched its website in June along with a petition that reads, “Whereas homosexual behavior exposes participants to many life-threatening health risks; and whereas the classroom environment needs to be solely focused on academics; Therefore, we the undersigned citizens of Anoka-Hennepin School District No. 11 do whole heartedly support and desire that the School Board adhere to … the AH District 11 Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy.” When the Minnesota Independent asked who founded the group and if it had any connections to other “pro-family” groups in the state, an unsigned email came back: “We think our website explains very well what we’re about and who founded it – citizens in the Anoka Hennepin School District.” When questioned about ways to get more information about the group’s activities, the Independent was told via email, “We do not see your name on our on-line petition. Once you sign the petition, we may be contacting you” [emphasis theirs].
Currently the website for the Parents Action League bears only this message: "We have never been inundated with so much hate and disdain for a differing viewpoint than that of the pro-gay movement. Our group has NEVER written anything hateful on our site or to any member of the GET group with whom we strongly disagree. Apparently, tolerance, kindness and decency are only to be extended to the pro-gay viewpoint - talk about your bullying!"
"Look, I believe that every person in this world has the right to profess the beliefs they have and I am in agreement. We have to respect what each human being decides to do with their lives, no? Clearly, there are limitations, of course, also, as there also are with heterosexual couples, no? Better said, there are limitations for any of the two - if they are heterosexual or homosexual - but I believe we have to learn to be respectful because they are people who are the same as us. There is no difference.
"And I don't believe it's just to discriminate somebody based on the gender they prefer, no? Based on the partner they choose to select, if it's a man or a woman. The truth is that I am absolutely against discrimination and, well, what can I say. I have many friends who are homosexual and I adore them. And they are equal folk: There is no reason we should want to set them aside, there is no reason why we shouldn't let them enjoy what they want to enjoy with their partner." - Mexico's Jimena Navarette, Miss Universe 2010, coming out for marriage equality in an interview translated by Andres Duque at Blabbeando.
Calling it a "great injustice," today Fidel Castro told a Mexican newspaper that he accepts responsibility for Cuba's persecution of its gay citizens, thousands of whom were rounded up and placed in internment camps during his regime.
Castro said that the revolutionary government's actions represented "a great injustice – a great injustice! – whoever committed it. If we committed it, we committed it. I am trying to limit my responsibility in all that because, of course, personally I don't have that type of prejudice." The interviewer paraphrases him as saying that "everything came about as a spontaneous reaction in the revolutionary ranks that came from the nation's traditions. In the old Cuba, blacks were not the only ones discriminated against; there was discrimination against women and, of course, homosexuals." Was the Communist Party to blame, the interviewer asks. "No," Castro responds. "If anyone is responsible, I am. True, at that time I couldn't concern myself with the subject. I was deeply and mainly involved in the October Crisis, the war, the political issues. But in the end, if responsibility must be assumed, I assume mine. I'm not going to blame others," Castro says.
Many will likely credit Castro's niece Mariela for today's statement as she has led Cuba's burgeoning LGBT rights movement in recent years. Havana has staged gay pride parades for the last two years.
"This land is your land, this land is my land,
From California, to the New York Island,
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream Waters,
This land was made for you and me..."
It all started when participants on the Courage Campaign Institute's Prop 8 Trial Tracker web site noticed that NOM was playing Peter, Paul & Mary's version of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" at their anti-equality rallies.
Kathleen Perrin, a frequent commenter on the Prop 8 Trial Tracker, was stunned and deeply offended that NOM was using this beautiful folk song to drown out the chants of equality counter-protesters. Kathleen knew that Woody Guthrie and Peter, Paul & Mary unequivocally supported justice and equality for all. So she contacted Peter Yarrow, one of the performers in the group along with Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers (Travers passed away in 2009).
Peter Yarrow responded to Kathleen, saying use of the song by NOM was "heartbreaking" and then sent a cease-and-desist to NOM, telling them to stop playing their song.
But Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey didn't stop there. On behalf of "Peter, Paul & Mary," their letter went on to make an impassioned defense of the freedom to marry:
"We strongly support the rights of all gays and lesbians to enjoy the rights and rituals of marriage that are enjoyed by their straight counterparts, and consider the abridgement of this right contrary to the sense of equal protection and fairness inherent in, and applied by, the law of the Constitution of the United States."
In a guest post on Courage's Prop 8 Trial Tracker web site, Kathleen Perrin wrote:
"All along the NOM tour we saw, time and again, how NOM inverted the truth, portraying themselves as the oppressed instead of the oppressor. NOM's president Brian Brown even made the outrageous claim that he follows in the footsteps of Martin Luther King, Jr. as the leader of a new civil rights movement."
NOM's playing of "This Land Is Your Land" at their rallies is just as Orwellian -- a twisted version of the truth.
Thank you for standing in solidarity with Peter, Paul & Mary. Together, we'll stop NOM.
Eden James
Managing Director, Courage Campaign Institute
Courage Campaign Institute is a part of the Courage Campaign's multi-issue online organizing network that empowers more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots supporters to push for progressive change and full equality in California and across the country. To get involved in the Courage Campaign Institute, visit "Testimony: Equality on Trial" -- our year-long campaign to bring the Prop 8 trial into the lives of Americans.
To power our campaign to defend Judge Walker's Prop 8 decision, please chip in what you can today:
Tragically LGBT youth are taunted, harassed, bullied and even worse. One in four becomes homeless after coming out to their parents. Many try to commit suicide. Benji was one such youth. Growing up in a small town in California, his life was a living nightmare. He was mercilessly teased and bullied. He faced rejection by his family. He tried to kill himself many times.
Equality California has been working with Senator Mark Leno and key coalition partners to change the law and eliminate this restriction to ensure that other young people don’t suffer like Benji did. Yesterday the Assembly and Senate passed the Mental Health Services for At-Risk Youth bill which, if signed into law by the governor, will allow youth to obtain the mental health services they need and will help save countless lives.
This is just one of the seven Equality California-sponsored bills that has passed the legislature and is awaiting action by the Governor. These bills will help some of the most vulnerable members of the LGBT community and will advance equality.
The LGBT Prisoner Safety Act (Ammiano) will reduce violence against LGBT people in the state prison system.
The Separation Equity Act (Ma) will allow same-sex couples to dissolve their domestic partnerships and civil marriages at the same time.
The Hate Crimes Protection Act (Saldaña) will prohibit contracts from requiring a person to waive their right to sue if they are the victim of a hate crime.
The Unemployment Benefits Equality bill (De La Torre) will give individuals entering domestic partnerships the same rights as those getting married to obtain unemployment benefits.
Write the Governor and ask him to sign the bills into law. Fortunately, Benji was able to find support from a caring teacher and is now headed to college. He was strong and he was lucky, but many aren't as fortunate. We will achieve full equality when LGBT people are equal in the eyes of the law and are fully accepted in society. Until then, Equality California will continue to champion legislation to protect every LGBT Californian.
The bigots at Focus On The Family are worried that their "God-given, constitutionally protected" right to have their kids beat up queers is being thwarted by the rising number of anti-bullying programs around the nation. Therefore they have launched the misnamed hate site True Tolerance, where parents can get tips on how to stop any anti-bullying education that includes the message that it's wrong to attack gay kids. "The emphasis should be on the wrong actions of the bully — not on the bully’s perceived thoughts or motivations." They should ask Carl Walker-Hoover's mother what she thinks about that.
Mexico City has launched a new tourism office to lure gay honeymooners from around the world.
"We hope that many same-sex couples who get married around the world spend their honeymoons here," says Alejandro Rojas, the city's tourism secretary. In July, the city opened an office aimed at catering to gay tourists that officials describe as the first of its kind in Latin America. "We are a very tolerant, liberal, avant-garde city," Rojas says. Officials inaugurated the new office by cutting a rainbow-colored ribbon. Rojas said the office's goal is to make Mexico City the No. 1 gay-friendly destination in Latin America. "Mexico has a tradition of being a rather macho culture... This is a sign of a very important social change," says Argentinean architect Jose Luis David Navarro, who will be spending part of his honeymoon in Mexico City this week.
The first gay couple to wed in Argentina is honeymooning in Mexico City this week on an all-expenses paid trip courtesy of the new tourism office.
"An earthquake is beginning: If 'gay is like black,' then 'Christian is like racist.' The early warning signs are now taking place all over the globe. In New Zealand, Exodus Ministries was just stripped of its tax-exempt status, on the grounds that helping gay people lead Christian lives is not a charity." - NOM reacts to yesterday's news that New Zealand doesn't consider "ex-gay" ministries to have a public value. Despite NOM's lies about this, the government did not comment about racism or discrimination in its ruling.
In June two U.S. Marines were arrested in Savannah, Georgia after viciously beating a gay man they claimed had winked at them. The victim was hospitalized after suffering two seizures at the site of the attack. The case prompted national outrage and a local protest vigil after the men were only charged with misdemeanor assault. On Friday a joint investigation by the FBI and local police concluded that the case did not merit any hate crimes charges.
Johnson said after the FBI, the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department and the DA’s office reviewed Daly's medical records and conducted further investigation, they determined this case had “no merit” to be considered a hate crime. “I can’t speak on the specifics because this is pending litigation, but for a crime to be considered a felony [which a hate crime is considered to be] there has to be proof of a sustained injury,” Johnson said. “It’s my understanding Daly suffered only a punch. Based on his medical records we could not upgrade the charge from a misdemeanor to a felony.” If convicted of a misdemeanor, the Marines could face less than a year in jail and a fine of no more than $1,200, she added.
After Prop 8 passed, a small group of amazing students decided to help build the movement for marriage equality one textbook at a time. So they created "Textbooks4Change" to support the Courage Campaign's Equality Program, giving students the opportunity to directly donate 6% of every textbook purchase to marriage equality. At no extra cost.
As a student, I was part of the 64% of Californians under the age of 24 who voted against Proposition 8. But it wasn't enough.
To defend Judge Vaughn Walker's decision that Prop 8 is unconstitutional and bring marriage equality to America, we need students to get involved. Students like me have always been good volunteers, but, because of a lack of cash, we haven't been able to contribute much money to marriage equality.
3) Buy textbooks from Barnes & Noble, Textbooks.com or Half.com
4) 6% of each purchase is donated directly to the Courage Campaign's Equality Program!
That's it.
If you are a student, parent or professor -- or know someone who is a student, parent or professor -- please spread the word about Textbooks4Change.com today. By simply forwarding this message along, you will build the movement for marriage equality one textbook purchase at a time.
Thank you for supporting our effort to give students the power to make marriage equality a reality across California and the country.
Barak Wouk
Founder and Executive Director, Textbooks4Change
Junior at Columbia University
The Courage Campaign is a multi-issue online organizing network that empowers more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots supporters to push for progressive change and full equality in California and across the country.
To support our work, please chip in what you can today:
"Mr. Mehlman’s recent revelation that he is gay is actually good news for the party. He joins a growing chorus of elected Republican officials and well-known Republicans who support full civil rights, including former Vice President Cheney, former Solicitor General Ted Olson, former First Lady Laura Bush, as well as my former State Department colleagues Ambassador John Bolton and Ambassador Mark Wallace.
"Inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do – it is also smart politics. Today’s voters believe that people should be judged by the content of their character, not by their sexual orientation. This is entirely consistent with the traditional Republican respect for the individual. Promoting that value will help us win in at the ballot box. Also, openly gay Republicans running for office like L.C.R. member, Richard Tisei, candidate for Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor, and former L.C.R. Board Member, Steve May, candidate for the Arizona Legislature, help personify diversity in the party.
"Fortunately, the Republican National Committee and the campaign entities, the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee are making strong efforts to focus on common conservative themes. These entities have reached out to Log Cabin Republicans to help revitalize the party. Inclusion will help Republicans rebuild the party base and regain a majority in Congress that can benefit all Americans." - Log Cabin Republicans executive director R. Clark Cooper, writing for the New York Times.
Scandinavian Airlines wants to be the first to host an in-flight gay wedding and has launched a contest to find that couple. One proviso - the nuptials must take place in Swedish airspace in order to be legal. 
