Via JMG: New York Times Asks: Why Aren't Gays Fired Up Against Meg Whitman?

The New York Times observes that there appears to be "little passion" among LGBT voters regarding the outcome of California's gubernatorial race. And that's curious because Meg Whitman has vowed to attempt to defend Proposition 8 in the Ninth Circuit Court, should she be elected.

Intervention would be an “unprecedented situation,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Irvine. “We don’t know what would happen if a new governor or attorney general tried to intervene,” he said. The December appeals hearing could face a lengthy delay, or an argument could be made for a new trial, with the state reversing its stance and supporting the marriage ban. Rory Little, professor of law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, said that a new trial would be unlikely, but that the judges would carefully consider the motion. “The court will take this very seriously,” Mr. Little said. With the election possibly affecting such a hard-fought legal victory, gay men and lesbians should be motivated to vote, but they might not be aware of the stakes, according to political analysts.

I think we at this here website thingy have been ringing the Fear Whitman bell fairly loudly, but the above-linked NYT piece places the overall blame for Whitman apathy on LGBT disappointment with the Obama administration.

Labels: 2010 elections, California, Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman, New York Times, Proposition 8

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Facebook Quote of the Day (via Joe Jervis):

Folks, not voting Dem because you're angry about LGBT rights is like burning down your house because you don't like the carpet. We can and will eventually change that shitty carpet, but we need the HOUSE it goes in.

Via JMG: HomoQuotable - David Mixner

"No one has been more gravely disappointed and, at times livid, with the practically non-existent record of President Obama on LGBT equal rights. Over and over again I have held this administration's feet to the fire in an effort to force them to move forward in our struggle for freedom. As we all know by now, those pleas often have fallen on deaf ears. Our disappointment, anger and frustration is totally justified. What is not justified is to allow those emotions to intrude on our ability to be intelligent voters this election day. We cannot and should not shoot ourselves in the collective foot because of the administration's actions.

"Why is it important to vote? Let's get right down to it: If the House and Senate fall into Republican Tea Party hands on November 2nd, the LGBT community will be facing the most hostile United States Congress in our history. The election of these bonafide Teabagging wing-nuts could cause chaos, fear and intimidation in our political process. Their ascendancy to power would validate some truly dark and despicable forces operating in American politics. If we think it is hard to achieve equal rights now just try and do it in a Tea Party dominated Congress." - David Mixner, writing on his personal blog. That's just the first two paragraphs, hit the link and read the rest.

Labels: 2010 elections, David Mixner, Democrats, Obama administration, teabaggers

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Via JMG: Anti-Gay Christian Hate Groups Issue Joint Statement Denouncing Bullying Education

A coalition of the nation's leading anti-gay Christian activists have issued a joint statement denouncing any attempt to teach Christian children that it's wrong to beat gay kids.

Authentic Christians will remember several key concepts from Scripture:

1. Homosexual behavior is always a sin, God's plan for sexuality is male/female marriage, and God has not changed His mind about this (Genesis 19; Leviticus 18:22; Matthew 19:4-6; Romans 1:24-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

2. Jesus described marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and that humans were created male and female "from the beginning." Gender change is a defiant and ungrateful sin against God's direction and design (Matthew 19:4-6)

3. Violence against children is wrong. Jesus was very clear in his protection of children and also had harsh words for those who would forbid children from knowing His truth and love ( Luke 17:2; Luke 18: 15-16). "Gay" activists want to keep children from knowing, loving and following the real Jesus Christ. At the very least, schools must not interfere in the desires of parents to raise their own children to follow Christ and live out biblical morality.

4. School boards aid child corruption and insult faithful families when they allow "gay-straight alliances," homosexual indoctrination programs, permission for use of opposite sex restrooms, and any of the other ridiculous demands of the "gay" lobby.

And who are the signers of the statement? All your old favorites.

Buddy Smith, Vice President, American Family Association
Phil Burress, President, Citizens for Community Values
Mathew D. Staver, Founder and Chairman, Liberty Counsel
Peter LaBarbera, President, Americans for Truth
Gary Glenn, President, AFA of Michigan
Diane Gramley, President, AFA of Pennsylvania
Micah Clark, American Family Association of Indiana
J. Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs, Liberty Counsel
Rena Lindevaldson, Liberty Center for Law & Policy
Matt C. Abbott, Catholic columnist,RenewAmerica.com

Mission America's Linda Harvey: "Communities must not allow themselves to be manipulated into supporting pro-homosexual bullying prevention plans, and believers in Jesus Christ need to stand up against this corruption of youth."

Labels: AFA, bigotry, bullying, Christianists, education, hate groups, LGBT youth, Linda Harvey, Matt Barber, Peter LaBarbera, religion

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Via JMG: Tweets Of The Day - NOM

If NOMbies are brain dead, how come they still produce tweets?

Labels: bigotry, dumbassery, NOM, religion, WTF

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Via JMG: Sharron Angle: The Wicked Ways Of Gay Marriage & Medicare Are Destroying Us

Speaking to a Nevada church, Sharron Angle got all caught up in Jeebus and denounced social programs, abortion, divorce, and gay marriage as the "wicked ways" that are destroying America.

"I confess that we are a nation who has killed our children. I confess that we are a nation who has walked away from the family and allowed divorce even among our ranks. We have walked away from the biblical definition of marriage; one man, one woman, the two become one flesh," Angle said. "We as a nation have been walking away from our constitutional freedom and relying on government instead to take care of the widow and the orphan...we're saying 'well, the government we have all these programs now, aid for families with dependent children and medicare and social security."

According to Angle, "the people" should help their needy, not the government.

Labels: 2010 elections, bigotry, Jeebus, Nevada, religion, Sharron Angle

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Via HimalayaCrafts:

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
--Mahatma Gandhi

Facebook Quote of the Day (via Tim Van Den Bos):

They can out spend your candidate. They can drag you down and stomp on your head because you are carrying a sign they don't like. They can even try to ruin your life because you can't be bought. What they can't do is take away your convictions, your soul, or your vote.

It Gets Better: Facebook Employees

Via JMG: It Gets Better: DNC Staff

I have totally lost all respect for Evangelicals...

Via JMG: Tony Perkins: Gay Kids Kill Themselves Because They Know They're Abnormal

Tony Perkins appeared on NPR today to declare that the rate of suicides among LGBT youths is so high because those kids know they are freaks. And not because they're taught every day of their hopeless lives that God hates them. Via Right Wing Watch:

Tony Perkins, president of the evangelical Family Research Council, says gay activists are exploiting the concern over bullying — and twisting the facts. "There's no correlation between inacceptance of homosexuality and depression and suicide," he says. Rather, Perkins says, there is another factor that leads kids to kill themselves. "These young people who identify as gay or lesbian, we know from the social science that they have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict." Homosexuality is "abnormal," he says, and kids know it, which leads them to despair.

Joe goes on to say: "Repulsive and typically full of Christianist love. But what the FUCK was NPR doing hosting Tony Perkins? Do they bring on the KKK to discuss affirmative action? Would they give airtime to Faisal Shahzad to provide an opposing view on the political value of car bombs? Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council are spending millions of dollars every fucking month to enable the murders and suicides of LGBT Americans. What about that is unclear to NPR?"

Labels: assholism, bigotry, hate speech, LGBT youth, NPR, religion, suicide, Tony Perkins

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ViaJMG: Obama Breaks Bill Clinton's Record For Number Of Openly Gay Appointees

He's only halfway through his term, but President Obama has broken Bill Clinton's record for the number of openly gay appointees to his administration.

Gay activists say the estimate of more than 150 appointments so far — from agency heads and commission members to policy officials and senior staffers — surpasses the previous high of about 140 reached during two full terms under President Bill Clinton. "From everything we hear from inside the administration, they wanted this to be part of their efforts at diversity," said Denis Dison, spokesman for the Presidential Appointments Project of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute. The pace of appointments has helped to ease broader disappointment among gay rights groups that Obama has not acted more quickly on other fronts, such as ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military. In a sign of how times have changed, few of the appointees — about two dozen required Senate confirmation — have stirred much controversy.

Obama's highest-ranking openly gay appointee so far is Office of Personnel Management director John Berry, who oversees almost two million federal employees.

Labels: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Obama administration

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Via JMG: Whoopi Fights Back

Via JMG: Elvira's Scissor Sisters Halloween Special

AFL-CIO President Trumka: It Gets Better

Message from GetEQUAL Youth to President Obama and Congress

Via JMG: ARKANSAS: School Board Member Celebrates Gay Suicides And AIDS

From Independence County, Arkansas: Midland School District board member Clint McCance took to Facebook to mock the suicides of LGBT youth and celebrate the deaths of gay people from AIDS. This is what the queer youth of Arkansas face in their schools. Repulsive. Another Facebook page calling for McCance's firing has already appeared. It looks like the Midland School District has wiped the names of its board members from its website, but Midland Superintendent Dean Stanley can be reached at dstanley@midlandschools.org. Be polite, yet forceful.

Labels: AIDS, Arkansas, assholism, bigotry, education, hate speech, LGBT youth, suicide

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I so gotta have this book

Quote of the Day

Armistead Maupin ‎"She preferred the kind of (Facebook) Friends who just talked about the weather, or showed off their vacation snaps of Fiji, or wondered aloud whether to eat that bar of 70% dark chocolate right now. There was a terse, sewing-circle flavor to this discourse, a genial brevity, that she found appealing." -- MARY ANN IN AUTUMN

Via JMG: Will Ireland Elect A Gay President?

Openly gay Sen. David Norris decided to run for president of Ireland after supporters launched a Facebook campaign urging him to enter the race. And now polls show him far ahead.

Although, like the British monarchy's, the Irish president's power is more symbolic than real, elections to the post have previously been used to protest against the Republic's political establishment. Norris is non-aligned, and is hoping to tap into the widespread discontent over the profligacy of the Celtic tiger years and the way the state's main party, Fianna Fáil, handled the economy. Norris denies his sexuality will be an issue even in more conservative rural parts of Ireland. "It's a non-issue," he says. "It's a non-issue with the people of Ireland. Some may have some concerns, and I hope I am able to address them. I have just had a major radio interview in Dublin and the interviewer asked me about it, and people came on the programme to say 'Will you get out of that? What does it matter! We want someone with vision ... someone who is independent.'

Norris says he has lived a "decent and respectable life" and that those seeking to embarrass him for his sexuality "will find no scandal."

Labels: Ireland, LGBT History

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