Via AmericablogGay: Meet Gabe Aderhold, the 17 year old student who heckled Bachmann

Yesterday, Michele and Marcus Bachmann got heckled at the Iowa State Fair -- by 17 year old Gabe Aderhold. The Des Moines Register interviewed him:

Gabe Aderhold said before heckling Michele Bachmann at today’s Iowa State Fair that his mission was to help educate the representative about how harmful her rhetoric against gay and lesbians is to her constituents.

Aderhold, 17, is gay and said part of his reasons for speaking publicly is to bring awareness to gay issues after the death of a family friend – a 15-year-old gay boy who lived in Bachmann’s district and who committed suicide in 2009 after being bullied.

“It is her responsibility to address social issues in her area, and there have been six suicides in the last year from being bullied in her district,” Aderhold said to The Des Moines Register prior to heckling Michele Bachmann today at the Iowa State Fair.

Via AmericaBlogGay: A double loss for NOM in the First Circuit Court of Appeals

Any day that NOM loses is a good day for equality. But, when NOM loses twice, it's just so much better. From On Top Magazine: 

In Maine and Rhode Island, NOM has been fighting disclosure laws that require advocacy groups to report details about their work, including their donors.

But in separate rulings released yesterday by the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, the court upheld both states' disclosure laws.

In the Rhode Island case, the court ruled that the state's law imposed little burden on the group and served a valuable government interest, the Providence Journal reported.

In the Maine case, NOM argued that the state's reporting requirements are vague and over-broad, Maine Public Broadcasting Network reported.

Maggie and Brian have to realize that their little hate-based fiefdom is disintegrating around them. They're going to have to disclose their previously hidden donors, which will probably mean their revenue sources will dry up. Public opinion is turning against them big time. The courts are moving towards equality, too.

The demise of NOM is going to be so fun to watch.

Behind the Scenes of Michele Bachmann's Newsweek Cover

Take a look at the behind the scenes video of the cover shoot for Michele Bachmann's Newsweek cover. She was joined by her husband Marcus so she could get the right look down. 

http://FunnyOrDie.com/m/5yrs

Via Political Loudmouth: Mitt Romney's Big Gay Secret

 

Mitt Romney's Big Gay Secret

front.moveon.org

 

After pledging to co-sponsor the Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and "do more for the gay community than the late Ted Kennedy," this GOP presidential hopeful decided to sign the National Organization for Marriage's (NOM) anti-gay group pledge.

It Gets Better Singapore

Quote of the day (via Dalai Lama):

Genuine respect will come about if we have more contact with one another and come to understand each other’s values. This is how we will develop admiration and appreciation for each other.

- Dalai Lama

Via Huffingtonpost: Bachmann Asked If She Is A 'Submissive Wife' At Iowa GOP Debate

The crowd at the GOP primary debate in Ames, Iowa did not appreciate Byron York asking Michele Bachmann about this part of a recent Washington Post profile on Thursday night:

"He is her godly husband," said Peter Bachmann, Dr. Bachmann's oldest brother, who lives on the family dairy farm across the eastern border in Wisconsin. "The husband is to be the head of the wife, according to God." It is a philosophy that Michele Bachmann echoed to congregants of the Living Word Christian Center in 2006, when she stated that she pursued her degree in tax law only because her husband had told her to. "The Lord says: Be submissive, wives. You are to be submissive to your husbands," she said.

When York asked about whether she was submissive, the crowd booed and hissed, loudly.
Bachmann batted it aside. "I respect my husband, he's a wonderful godly man, and we respect each other."
As I said at the time of the Post profile, "Bachmann's really comfortable being her own woman. She gets by in the House's "boy's club" just fine. When she wanted to issue a response to the State Of The Union address that would steal away from her party's official response, she asked for neither permission nor forgiveness. If Bachmann's been spending her career doing her husband's bidding rather than her own, it's not remarkably apparent." I'm honestly surprised this even came up as a question.

make the jump here to read the full article

Via 365: Starbucks CEO cancels appearance at church linked to ‘ex-gay’ therapy

Starbucks founder and CEO Howard Schultz abruptly cancelled a speaking engagement at a church that once supported gay conversion therapy.

 

Schultz was scheduled to give a speech Friday titled “How Starbucks Fought for its Life Without Losing Its Soul” during the Willow Creek Association’s Global Leadership Summit in South Barrington, Illinois.

Starbucks denies the cancellation is connected to a Change.org petition launched last week asking Schultz to denounce the church’s connection to the “ex-gay” group Exodus International.  That petition drew more than 700 signatures.

Susan DeLay, a spokeswoman for the church told The Chicago Tribune that Willow Creek’s views on homosexuality had evolved.

“They were one of the few Christian organizations having conversations with people who struggle with being gay,” DeLay said.

Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church says he doesn’t believe homosexuality is a choice but that Scripture calls for gays and lesbians to be celibate.

Earlier this summer, Starbucks launched an investigation into claims that an openly gay barista was fired in New York for discussing his personal life.  The company says they have a “zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind.”

Via AmericBlogGay: Boehner’s DOMA lawyers want to cite Maggie Gallagher, but avoid cross-examination

I have to admit, I'm really enjoying watching Edie Windsor's case against DOMA unfold. This is the first case where we're seeing the John Boehner's legal team, led by Paul Clement, in action. And, so far, not impressed. Edie's legal team, led by Roberta Kaplan, is simply awesome. Edie's lawyers are truly fierce advocates. 

Last week, Boehner's lawyers opposed Edie's motion for summary judgment and filed a memo with their arguments. We posted it here. It was a memo filled with every anti-gay argument around. There were lots of citations from anti-gay literature and screeds. But, here's the thing. Edie's lawyers offered expert testimony from some of the most accomplished people in the country including Stanford Professor Gary Segura. Clement and his crew got to depose them. So, Edie's expert witnesses have testified under oath by Boehner's lawyers. But, Clement offered no experts. Instead, he tried to sneak in the testimony by citing a number of anti-gay documents in their memo on summary judgment. It's the kind of stuff that David Boies called "junk science." And, it's hearsay. 

Yesterday, Edie's lawyers filed a motion to strike those documents (posted below.) In legal proceedings, lawyers from both sides are supposed to have access to witnesses. Clement tried to work around that. He also tried to pass off anti-gay screeds as expert writings. But, he's been called out.

I think one of the best examples of how this works plays out on Page 17 of the motion to strike:

For example, BLAG relies on citations to books and articles for the truth of the matters asserted as evidence that a marriage between a male and a female provides a stable and nourishing framework for child-rearing (BLAG 56.1 ¶47.) The co-author of one of those books, Maggie Gallagher, has achieved some notoriety in the media as the President of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, one of the most prominent lobbying groups against equal rights for same-sex marriage. However, plaintiff was given no opportunity to cross examine Gallagher by using her own statements from her many public statements and appearances on this subject.

See, Clement tried to be very clever. He wanted to get Maggie's testimony into the record with having Maggie deposed. And, if we noticed one thing about Maggie Gallagher, she really doesn't want to go under oath. Let me tell you, I'd buy a ticket to watch Roberta Kaplan depose Maggie Gallagher.

John Boehner is using our tax dollars to defend DOMA. He's paying Paul Clement a lot of money -- our money. And, as I've said many times, Boehner and Clement don't know what they're up against. Edie, Robbie and the rest of the legal team at Paul, Weiss, the ACLU and the NYCLU are in this one to win it. And, they're not letting Clement get away with anything.

Edie Windsor's memo in support of motion to strike BLAG documents

Via AmericablogGay:

Santorum's latest: Marriage is like tea, not basketball 

I'm waiting for him to find an analogy that contains "santorum."

Rick Santorum just can’t help himself. He has compared same-sex marriage to water and a napkin, but not beer or a paper towel. Yesterday, during an appearance in Iowa, he explained that “calling same-sex marriage a marriage would be like calling a cup of tea a basketball.”

Toady's "You can't make this stuff up" is via AmericaBlogGay:

This is rich: NY’s Archdiocese doesn’t want public schools to teach sex education 

You can't make this stuff up.

New York City's public schools are going to start teaching sex ed again. In 2011, that shouldn't even be news. When I was in fifth grade, we had sex ed classes -- and that was forty years ago. But, it's news.

Anyway, guess which institution, infamous for aiding and abetting child rapiests, doesn't want this to happen? The Catholic Church:

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York called a new city requirement that sex education be taught at all public middle and high schools “troubling” on Wednesday, and some Catholic officials said they would advise Catholic parents not to let their children participate.

In the first serious challenge to the city’s mandate, which was announced on Tuesday, a spokesman for the archdiocese said the church’s position was that parents, not the schools, should educate children about sex.

“Parents have the right and the responsibility to be the first and primary educators of their children,” Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese, wrote in a statement. “This mandate by the city usurps that role, and allows the public school system to substitute its beliefs and values for those of the parents.”

Ah, yes. You have to love it when Catholic Church types get all sanctimonious about sex. But, seriously?

Here's the thing: An entity that aided and abetted child rapists shouldn't really be speaking against sex education for children.

And, yes, the NY Catholic Archdiocese is still embroiled in the child rape scandal. In fact, as Duncan Osborne reported, during the past legislative session, the Archbishop's lobbyists spent more money fighting bills tied to the child rape scandal than they did fighting marriage equality.

HomoQuotable - Ricky Martin via JMG

"My shoulders feel much lighter and straighter and I feel my life is a lot more simple now. I lived with the obsession to be accepted for such a long time. But it was when I held my children in my arms I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. I wanted to teach them to be themselves, to know there is nothing wrong with being gay – because there isn’t. I want them to have self-love, pride and dignity. And that means I had to be transparent." - Ricky Martin, who should teach a celebrity course on coming out.

Labels: coming out, HomoQuotable, pop music, Ricky Martin

reposted from Joe

It Gets Better - the story of a gay Muslim Turk coming out

It Gets Better: Yale Divinity School

It Gets Better: Seventh-day Adventists

It Gets Better: Christian and Lesbian

Jewish LGBTQ at GLOE, Washington DCJCC: Strength Through Community and It Gets Better

It Gets Better - Thomas, Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine

Faculty and students from the seminary for Reform Judaism, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion