Via JMG: WISCONSIN: Man Attacks 14 Year-Old Girl Carrying Gay Pride Flag

La Crosse, Wisconsin police are investigating an incident in which a man shoved a 14 year-old girl in an attempt to wrestle away a version of the gay pride flag the teen was going to carry in the city's Maple Leaf Parade.

The teen was rollerblading and carrying a flag pole with two rainbow flags — one a hybrid of the American flag and the gay pride flag — as members of 7 Rivers LGBT Resource Center’s float prepared for the parade about 9:45 a.m. Saturday on Rose Street, said Roseanne St. Sauver, the center’s executive director. Commodore Mark Schneider, who was on a float nearby, approached the girl and put his hands on the flagpole, St. Sauver said. St. Sauver walked over, placed her hands on the pole and told him, “Please stop, she’s a 14-year-old child." “He said, ‘I do not care. Look what you are teaching them,’” St. Sauver said. That’s when, St. Sauver said, Schneider shoved the girl with his body. St. Sauver said Schneider told the girl: “Go to a country where they will hang people like you.“ The incident left the teen crying, and others upset, St. Sauver said. This is the first year the center has participated in the parade. “I had tears in my eyes,” she said. “He specifically targeted us and made statements about our sexual orientation.”

Schneider says he was upset about the alteration of the American flag and not anybody's sexuality. Yeah, right. Yesterday he issued an apology to the girl and his family, presumably in return for assault charges being dropped. Here's the asshat in a news story about his being named "commodore" of Riverfest 2010.

NOH8 Campaign (a tribute from DC Douglas)

G.A.Y.S. (Guys Against You Serving) A new organization tells you exactly why they don't want gays serving in the military.

G.A.Y.S. (Guys Against You Serving) from Thomas Lennon

Via JMG: (Awsome) Rosie Perez FIGHTS BACK

Via JMG: "Jumping Off The GW Bridge. Sorry."

The New York Times reports more details about the suicide of 18 year-old Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate streamed live video of Clementi having sex with a man. Clementi's final Facebook update: "Jumping off the gw bridge. sorry."

It started with a Twitter message on Sept. 19: “Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.” That night, the authorities say, the Rutgers University student who sent the message used a camera in his dormitory room to stream the roommate’s intimate encounter live on the Internet. [snip] The Middlesex County prosecutor’s office said Mr. Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, 18, of Plainsboro, N.J., and another classmate, Molly Wei, 18, of Princeton Junction, N.J., had each been charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for using “the camera to view and transmit a live image” of Mr. Clementi.

The most serious charges carry a maximum sentence of five years. Mr. Ravi was charged with two additional counts of invasion of privacy for trying a similar live feed on the Internet on Sept. 21, the day before the suicide. A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, James O’Neill, said the investigation was continuing, but he declined to “speculate on additional charges.” Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, said Wednesday that he considered the death a hate crime. “We are sickened that anyone in our society, such as the students allegedly responsible for making the surreptitious video, might consider destroying others’ lives as a sport,” he said in a statement.

Ravi is claiming that the first broadcast of Clementi was an accident, but police say he attempted a second live-stream two days later. Last night police recovered the body of a red-headed young man from the banks of the Hudson River. The family will make the identification today.

Labels: anti-gay harassment, bullying, education, gay youth, New Jersey, suicide

reposted fromJoe

Via JMG: AC360 - MI AG Mike Cox Defends Andrew Shirvell's Right To Cyber Bully

It Gets Better - Michael

it gets better michael urie

Today's Can anyone possibly be more stupid than this post::

PhoboQuotable - Eugene Delgaudio

"Last night, I had a dream. It was 2011 and Republicans were celebrating a sweep of the House and near takeover of the Senate. But that dream became a nightmare. A wounded soldier sat in a veteran’s hospital after returning from Afghanistan. Noticeably shaken, his doctor walked in and choked out the worst news of this young soldier’s life: He’d been infected with HIV. You see, the doctor informed him that his wounds came in contact with those of a practicing homosexual, now allowed to serve in our military. 'How could this happen?' the soldier expressed shock and disappointment right before I awoke.

"Today I was reminded of several disturbing news stories. Left and right I see conservatives -- even some good conservatives -- who no longer seem to care. And that’s when it hit me. In my nightmare, conservative Americans had been too busy focusing on jobs and the economy before the November elections. Distracted, they failed to maintain a committed resistance to the Homosexual Agenda." - Public Advocate head Eugene Delguadio, from a fundraising plea titled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Stalled In Senate By Public Advocate.

Send him money! He single-handedly stopped the repeal of DADT!

Labels: crazy people, DADT, mental illness, PhoboQuotable, religion

reposted from Joe

Via Truthout: "Underground" Group of Cadets Say Air Force Academy Controlled by Evangelicals

Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "An anonymous cadet at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA) spoke out against alleged religious discrimination at the school last week, saying that some cadets must pretend to be evangelical Christians in order to maintain standing among their peers and superiors. In an email to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), the whistleblower stated that he is part of an 'underground group' of about 100 cadets who cannot rely on proper channels to confront evangelical pressure. The email, published by Veterans Today, applauds the MRFF from the 'underground' and indicates that the academy is 'literally overrun with Christian conservative fanatics.'"
Read Article

Time to Evolve

More "It gets better"

via belirico: This is what persecution looks like

There's been quite a bit of chatter over this video today. Many sites are proclaiming that the villain is a closet case and that's why he's so obsessed with a younger gay man. While he certainly sets off the ole gaydar, I sure as hell wouldn't want to claim him. He can agitate about the "radical homosexual agenda" all he wants, but the truly radical and definitely detrimental person here is looking him in the mirror.

For the record, while Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell claims that college student Chris Armstrong was elected student council president with the help of the Victory Fund, the group doesn't make endorsements or give contributions to student government campaigns. Armstrong interned at Victory Fund; that's it.

The Gay Test

Thanks JMG: Just feeling a little surreal (Possibly NSFW)

and

Via JMG: Quote Of The Day - Wayne Besen

"We blame the anti-gay industry for fighting measures to end bullying in schools, and school officials who turn a blind eye to brutality. We are fed up with what amounts to anti-gay schoolyard muggings that are foolishly dismissed as ‘boys being boys’. In reality, it is ‘boys beating boys’, and these bullies receive tacit approval for their violent, homophobic behavior by teachers and certain vocal segments of society.

"The goal of Exodus International and Focus on the Family is to purge LGBT people from society, although they disingenuously frame the issue as eliminating homosexuality, which is not possible. When you target homosexuality, the result is persecution and punishment of LGBT people, and in many cases it leads to gay bashing or suicides. The anti-gay industry should dismantle these despicable programs and work towards creating solutions instead of suicides." - Truth Wins Out executive director Wayne Besen, responding the rash of suicides among the nation's LGBT youth.

Labels: "ex-gay", bullying, education, Exodus International, Focus On The Family, gay youth, LGBT youth, Quote Of The Day, religion, suicide, Wayne Besen

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Christianists Discover "It Gets Better"

Calling it "inevitable," Dan Savage points out that the Christianists are beginning to find the It Gets Better Project on YouTube and posting their own vile responses. The below douchenozzle has gone as far as launching a website called The Lot Project. Here's a partial transcript from his clip, in which he says that recent teen suicide victim Billy Lucas is in hell for being gay.

"Billy Lucas, who hanged himself, obviously because he was gay, and unable to endure the guilt that the words of others prompted in him. This was indeed a tragedy, but not anywhere near the tragedy that Billy will discover in eternity when he faces the wrath of God upon rebellious and unrepentant sinners. Then, he will realize that his sin could not be atoned for by his own death, and he will realize that people like Dan Savage who encourage sin are deceivers. He will see them for what they are, the blind leading the blind. And he will realize that he has fallen into that ditch that the blind leading the blind inevitably fall into: that's eternal destruction and misery. Sadly, it's too late for Billy. For those who are viewing this video, however, their remains the opportunity of turning from sin to the obedience of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."

Can you feel the righteous love of God's Gentle People™? Do you feel Blessed In The Holy Spirit™? Take it away, Dan: "Fuck you and the bible verses you rode in on, you monstrously hateful pile of shit."

Labels: bigotry, Christianists, Dan Savage, Dr. Horrible, gay youth, religion, suicide

reposted from Joe

AC360 - Mich. Asst. Attorney General Andrew Shirvell Targets Gay Student Chris Armstrong

Via JMG: From SFGMC, It Gets Better