An openly gay man has been elected to head North Carolina's Council of Churches. Stan Kimer, 55, is a retired businessman and a lay leader of the Metropolitan Community Church. Only one other of the country's 33 similar church councils has elected an openly gay leader. Only one other of the country's 33 similar church councils has elected an openly gay leader. In California, a lesbian was elected president in the late 1990s. That makes Kimer's presidency of the N.C. Council - a coalition of 17 Christian denominations and eight individual churches that work on social issues - historic in the South. It also signals an acceptance among member denominations - Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics - that even if they have theological differences about homosexuality, they are OK with a gay man at the helm. Or at least, they don't see it as an issue worth fighting. "A lot of our member denominations have internal battles about this," said the Rev. George Reed, the council's executive director. "But the governing board felt the fact that he is a gay man was not a disqualifying factor."A sample reader comment on the above-linked Charlotte Observer story: "Having him over the board of church's is like building a mosck on ground zero. Its obsurd!!!! If he is a true Christian and in fact reads the word of god then he should know how the lord feels about homosexuals. Sir you are an abomination and when you burn your smoke and ashes will ascend up to his nostrils like insence. Read it for yourself!!!"
During an appearance on the Today Show, this morning Vice President Joe Biden said that he agreed with the president's "evolving" position on gay marriage and that a "national consensus" on the issue is inevitable. “I think the country’s evolving,” he said. “And I think you’re going to see, you know, the next effort is probably going to be to deal with so called DOMA [Defence of Marriage Act].” DOMA prohibits federal government from recognising gay marriage, meaning that even if states allow the practice, gay couples still cannot access federal benefits. Mr Biden added that attitudes had changed to openly gay soldiers and that consensus was beginning to turn in favour of gay marriage. He said that gay troops were now “widely accepted” and “the same thing is happening now in regard to the issue of marriage.”
Sen. Harry Reid has returned Lt. Dan Choi's West Point ring, fulfilling a promise he made to Choi at Netroots Nation in front of hundreds of progressive writers, including yours truly. Upon receipt of the ring, Choi tweeted: "The next time I get a ring from a man, I expect it will be for full, equal, American marriage.
Yesterday the president sat down with Advocate reporter Kerry Eleveld, who reminded him of his recent comment that his position on same-sex marriage has been evolving. OBAMA: I'm not going to make more news today. The sentiment I expressed then is still where I am—which is, like a lot of people, I'm wrestling with this. My attitudes are evolving on this. I have always firmly believed in having a robust civil union that provides the rights and benefits under the law that marriage does. I've wrestled with the fact that marriage traditionally has had a different connotation. But I also have a lot of very close friends who are married gay or lesbian couples.Eleveld then pressed the president as to a timeline for "getting there" on marriage. Obama: "I'm going to stick with my answer."
OBAMA: And squaring that circle is something that I have not done yet, but I'm continually asking myself this question and I do think that—I will make this observation, that I notice there is a big generational difference. When you talk to people who are in their 20s, they don't understand what the holdup is on this, regardless of their own sexual orientation. And obviously when you talk to older folks, then there’s greater resistance. And so this is an issue that I'm still wrestling with, others are still wrestling with. What I know is that at minimum, a baseline is that there has to be a strong, robust civil union available to all gay and lesbian couples.
Wonkette reports that outing kingpin Mike Rogers finally has the goods on Sen. Lindsey Graham. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina’s favorite lifelong bachelor and former military prosecutor, is always reliably against homosexuals having any basic human rights in America because Lindsey’s a Republican, y’all. Anyway, famous outer-of-self-hating-queers Mike Rogers says he’s got pictures of one of Lindsey’s boy toys leaving Lindsey’s house. This would be SHOCKING because come on, everybody knows Republicans cannot be gay because Jesus did not make gays.Mike Rogers has a 100% track record for correctly outing anti-gay closet cases. He's never been proven wrong.
It turns out that the anti-gay Catholic League, whose leader Bill Donohue was once famously insulted as "one guy with a fax machine," has assets of over $26M. And Donohue pays himself quite handsomely out of that hate jackpot.Controversial Catholic League president William Donohue – whose work has now gained the support of the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops – earned a salary of $342,500 in 2009, with an additional $56,656 in fringe benefits. According to annual IRS Form 990 filings, the organization spent more than $2.6 million in 2009, despite the fact that its program work constitutes little more than the issuing of inflammatory press releases.[snip] The organization shells out $335,914 for its midtown Manhattan office space, and compensates vice president Bernadette Brady to the tune of $203,727. An additional $57,826 is spent on office equipment. As organizations go, the Catholic League is a “non-profit” in name only. In 2009 it pocketed $943,516 in excess revenue, down from $1.35 million in 2008. As of the most recent filings, the Catholic League reported $26.2 million in net assets.While impoverished parishes close down and soup kitchens are shuttered, the Catholic League spends somehow spends millions and makes millions doing nothing but fighting against LGBT rights. And this they do completely tax-free. Holy crimes, indeed.
