Via AmericaBloggay: Imminent demise of DADT could have far-reaching implications for gay rights

Next Tuesday is the day. 

From Chris Johnson at the Washington Blade: 

“They really took the time to train and educate the force on the various assets of this policy and hypotheticals,” Nicholson said. “It was an hour of instruction on gays and lesbians, on gay families, on gay partners and it was a really a normalization routine. It was really exposed to millions of America’s most conservative youth to the normality of gays and lesbians.”

Among the situations that the training addressed, Nicholson said, were gay troops holding hands, going on dates or participating in military events with their partners. Nearly 2 million service members received the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” training before certification took place on July 22, according to the Pentagon.

Workplace discrimination against LGBT people could be an issue that gains new focus after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal. No federal law exists to protect LGBT workers against discrimination. Firing someone for being gay is legal in 29 states and firing someone for being transgender is legal in 35 states.

Krehely said open service could generate support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination against LGBT workers in most situations in the public and private workforce, or encourage other employers to add protections for LGBT workers.

“The military is probably one of the biggest and most visible workplaces in our country,” Krehely said. “I think Sept. 20 is a clear indication that this discrimination should not be there any longer, and that we need to move forward on ENDA, and educate people about the broader workplace issues that we’re up against.”

Via AmericaBlogGay: Are gay public figures supposed to remain celibate?

Shame on the Desert Sun newspaper and its reporter Kate McGinty. 

It seems reporters now think it fine to report on single public figures seeking love, or just a roll in the hay, online.  Good.  Then let's also report on all public figures, including reporters, who aren't married and who have sex.  Because that seems to the be standard for this story - oh, and the guy is gay too, so that just makes it all the more salacious, doesn't it?

Seriously, what is wrong with a local city councilman, who is single and openly gay, looking for sex in his off hours?  Do single straight people have sex?  I think they do.  Do they sometimes have it with people they've just met, at bars or parties?  Why, yes they do.  So is that the new standard - if you even vaguely intimate that you're interested in sleeping with someone else, it's news!  Because straight guys, when they go to bars, they never go looking to get laid.  Oh no.  It's only for a friendly platonic drink with friends.  No sex, please, we're straight.

There are a few things going on in this story. First, homophobia.  How salacious that a gay man was looking to get laid (oh my!).  Second, Internet-phobia.  How salacious that someone used the Internet to try to meet another human being.  Kate McGinty likely wouldn't have written a story about an unmarried heterosexual city councilman using eHarmony to meet women (and he indicated in his profile that he actually might just consider sleeping with those women!).

Oh, and let me guess.  Had this guy been "caught" going to a gay bar to meet guys, then the story would have been about him frequenting sleazy gay bars.

If there were any kind of hypocrisy here, I might understand the paper's rationale.  But what's going on here is that the hetero paper is simply not familiar with how people date in the modern era.  Especially gay people.  Straight people can reasonably assume that most "hot chicks" they meet are straight - I'm not saying they will be straight, I'm saying that in our society the assumption is that you're straight, so no one would look at you funny if you made a pass at someone of the opposite sex who ended up gay.

Try being gay.

Imagine what it's like being a gay man and wanting to make a pass at a cute guy at the office, at the bus stop, at church.  I'd be damn careful about doing any of those unless I knew, or strongly suspected, the other guy was gay.  Straight guys don't have that problem, worrying about getting the sh*t kicked out of them if they make a friendly pass at a woman who happens to be a lesbian.

There's a reason gay people were early adopters of online dating.  Other than a few bars (and the Whole Foods), there's nowhere else we can safely assume the other person is actually gay.  And I mean safely.

It's abominable that this newspaper thought it relevant to write about this.

Via AmericaBlogGay and TowleRoad: Brad Pitt on gay marriage and religion

Parade via TowleRoad:

He also had questions about same-sex marriage: 

 “What are you so afraid of? That’s my question. Gay people getting married? What is so scary about that? It’s complicated. You grow up in a religion like that and you try to pray the gay away. I feel sadness for people like that. This is where people start short-circuiting—instead of being brave and questioning their beliefs, they are afraid and feel that they have to defend them.

“I don’t mind a world with religion in it. There are some beautiful tenets within all religions. What I get hot about is when they start dictating how other people must live. People suffer because of it. They are spreading misery.

On the continuing battle for equality:

“Can you believe that we’re still fighting for equality in America? To be against marriage for everyone is utter discrimination. I feel strongly about that because if equality of marriage doesn’t happen now, the next generation will have to deal with it.

“It is an amazing thing that New York has finally gotten same-sex marriage. But the real problem is that the federal government hides behind states on this issue. It is blatant, ugly bigotry, and the federal government shouldn’t be doing that. You’re denying some Americans the right that all Americans have, to live their lives as they choose.

Via The New Civil Rights Movement: Anderson Cooper Profiles Michele Bachmann's History Of Lies (Video)

Michele Bachmann’s parroted lies about the HPV vaccine have reminded America that Michele Bachmann is a liar. Bachmann recounting some unnamed, unidentified woman’s false claim that the HPV vaccine made her daughter “mentally retarded,” on national television several times, as Cooper points out, is “incredibly irresponsible.” Cooper reminds us that there is absolutely no possible way the HPV vaccine could make someone “mentally retarded,” and says, “Bachmann is spreading an all-​out falsehood here.”

On last night’s AC 360, Anderson Cooper profiled Michele Bachmann’s long history of lies. Cooper shows clip after clip after clip of verified lies told by Bachmann. “There’s no political wiggle-​room here, no grey areas, no spin.”

In this clip, Ron Carey, Bachmann’s former Chief of Staff admits Bachmann “is very impulsive,” and says she reads a lot but sometimes leaves out the “ten or twenty percent that can change the outcome.”

make the jump here to read/listen to the full story here

Via AmericaBlogGay: Pat Robertson advises man to divorce wife with Alzheimer’s, because they’re "kind of dead" already

REALLY PAT?

Just when you think you've heard it all from this evil troll who claims to be some sort of Christian prophet, Pat Robertson, is now absolving his flock of opposite gender divorce if it gets too inconvenient due to sickness. Follow the promise made in the marriage vows of "in sickness and in health?" Nah, not if you are in a Fundamentalist Christian endorsed opposite sex marriage.

During the portion of the show where the one-time Republican presidential candidate takes questions from viewers, Robertson was asked what advice a man should give to a friend who began seeing another woman after his wife started suffering from the incurable neurological disorder.

"I know it sounds cruel, but if he's going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her," Robertson said.

The chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, which airs the "700 Club," said he wouldn't "put a guilt trip" on anyone who divorces a spouse who suffers from the illness, but added, "Get some ethicist besides me to give you the answer."

Can you just imagine the judgment that would be rained down upon our LGBT community if we claimed divorce was justified if our spouses became ill to the point it became inconvenient to stay with them? Robertson is right in one respect; it most certainly sounds cruel. In fact, I would go so far to say it is selfish, self centered and cruel to divorce one's spouse if the one who is ill has not made any kind of provision to release the other from that promised to be there in sickness and in health.

The only way I could begin to justify divorce due to sickness is if the two came to an understanding initiated by the sick spouse that the healthy partner was to move on with their lives when the sick person became incapacitated. Of course, we have to remember this exhortation to dodge the matrimonial promises comes from Pat Robertson who claims it is a sin to not follow the Bible's every word and commandment which leads us to some major hypocrisy.

Robertson speculates that having Alzheimer's is "a kind of death," which would seem at odds with the the hue and cry he raised over the Terri Schiavo case.

Pat Robertson echoed Dobson's statements. "The judiciary is out of control," he told the network, adding that he hopes Republicans use the so-called "nuclear option" to stop [liberal/progressive] fillibustering that has prevented the naming of several high-level judges who are not committed to liberalism and rewriting the constitution of the United States--judges who are not committed to making evil good and good evil.

Previously, Robertson had said the judicial rulings in the Terri Schiavo case amounted to "judicial execution."

Added the evangelist: "A convicted cop-killer wouldn't have gotten treatment like this. It's outrageous."

So, if you are brain dead then you aren't dead, but if you have Altheimer's you are dead?

Nice defender of marriage.

Via JMG: Friendly Voices - Clint Eastwood

"These people who are making a big deal about gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of. Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want." - Clint Eastwood, speaking to GQ Magazine.

Labels: Friendly Voices, Hollywood, marriage equality

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Hate Groups Agree: Lock Gays Up

In the below clip, Peter Sprigg and Bryan Fischer distort the example of a bisexual woman who wrote "I choose to be gay" in a blog post. Which is their victorious proof that millions and millions of people are collaborating in the lie that they are born gay. And even though Sprigg allows that people are "born with same-sex attraction," both he and Fischer have previously advocated for the criminalization of homosexuality. They are NOT hate groups! They just want you imprisoned, tortured, brainwashed, or dead.



RELATED: All the major GOP candidates will appear at the FRC's Values Voters Summit later this year. Apparently they have ZERO problem speaking before a group whose president has ties to the KKK and white supremacist groups.

Labels: AFA, bigotry, Bryan Fischer, Family Reseach Council, hate groups, Peter Sprigg, religion

reposted from Joe

Via AmericaBlogGay: Britain’s conservative PM endorses new gay rights group

Imagine that happening in the US - a Republican president endorsing the creation of a gay rights group. It's distressing to see ways in which our "we're number one!" nation is awfully backwards.BBC:

David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband have given their backing to a new organisation which aims to promote gay rights around the world. 

Kaleidoscope will campaign against homophobic prejudice and violence, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, where punishments for homosexuality can be severe.

The prime minister said such treatment was "simply appalling".

Via AmericaBlogGay: More on the anti-bullying lawsuit in Michele Bachman’s district

This is a good template for how to respond to other anti-gay school districts around the country. NYT:

After years of harsh conflict between advocates for gay students and Christian conservatives, the issue was already highly charged here. Then in July, six students brought a lawsuit contending that school officials have failed to stop relentless antigay bullying and that a district policy requiring teachers to remain “neutral” on issues of sexual orientation has fostered oppressive silence and a corrosive stigma. 

Also this summer, parents and students here learned that the federal Department of Justice was deep into a civil rights investigation into complaints about unchecked harassment of gay students in the district. The inquiry is still under way.

Through it all, conservative Christian groups have demanded that the schools avoid any descriptions of homosexuality or same-sex marriage as normal, warning against any surrender to what they say is the “homosexual agenda” of recruiting youngsters to an “unhealthy and abnormal lifestyle.”

Adding an extra incendiary element, the school district has suffered eight student suicides in the last two years, leading state officials to declare a “suicide contagion.” Whether antigay bullying contributed to any of these deaths is sharply disputed; some friends and teachers say four of the students were struggling with issues of sexual identity.

Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Jane Lynch

"If anything, I think people respect me for not hiding. But what it comes down to is we’re all just people. At the end of the day, I happen to go home to a woman. In Hollywood, all that matters is do you do your job and do it well. Everybody’s going to have their own story, and we have to leave it up to them to decide how and when they’re going to come out. I would never give anybody advice that way. It’s so personal." - Jane Lynch, speaking to The Advocate.

Labels: GLEE, HomoQuotable, Jane Lynch

reposted from Joe

Congressional Candidate's Partner Faces Deportation

Via JMG: What Will Historians Write?

A new message from the Courage Campaign calls for help in fighting the repeal of California's LGBT history bill.

Labels: Courage Campaign, education, LGBT History

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: BRAZIL: Anti-Gay Televangelist Charged With Embezzling $300M From Followers

A major religious scandal is exploding in Brazil after one of the nation's best known anti-gay televangelists, Edir Macedo, was charged with embezzling $300M from his impoverished followers.

Three leading members of one of Brazil's most powerful churches have been accused of laundering millions in church donations and using worshippers' money for personal gain. The charges, unveiled on Monday by São Paulo's public prosecutor, relate to 404m reals (£150m) allegedly obtained from mostly impoverished churchgoers by leaders at Brazil's Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. The money was subsequently channelled out of the country via a network of offshore bank accounts and money changers, federal prosecutors claimed. Among those charged is Bishop Edir Macedo, a controversial televangelist who founded the church in 1977, and his financial director, Alba Maria Silva da Costa.

Prosecutors says the actual amount funneled to offshore accounts could exceed $1 billion. Macedo is known for fiery condemnations of homosexuals and for his promise that donations to his ministry will be "returned ten-fold by Jesus." His church reportedly has eight million members worldwide.

Labels: Brazil, con men, religion, scam artists, scandal

reposted from Joe

JMG Quote Of The Day - Paul Krugman

"What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons. A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity? The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it." - Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, writing for the New York Times.

RELATED: Krugman's column has already caused furor in the rightwing blogosphere, with GOProud's Chris Barron tweeting that Krugman "may be the most despicable human being to ever wander the planet."

 

Labels: 9/11, Bernard Kerik, Dubya, Iraq war, religion, Rudy Giuliani, terrorism

reposted from Joe

Castro Lowers Rainbow Flag Ten Years After 9/11

Via Belirico: LGBT Media Shrinks Further: 365gay to Close

As the LGBT online world continues to refocus, consolidate, and reorganize, longtime queer news site 365gay.com has become the latest casualty. Editor-In-Chief Jennifer Vanasco brings us the details:

Some of you have been reading since 365gay was started as a Canadian publication in the 1990s. Some of you have been reading since Logo took over, in 2006. Some of you are newer - last year, last month, last week.
...
Now, it's coming to an end.
September 30 will be our last day of operations. Logo has shifted its online strategy and so the site is closing and I am moving on to other things.

365gay.com is one of the many corporate-owned sites that have also struggled financially as the economy continues to flounder. LGBT social media site connexion.org recently announced it will be closing up shop on Sept 14.

When I complain about the trouble large-scale popular independent bloggers are having lately, keep in mind that these corporate sites have more ability to attract advertisers and financial backing than we do. Pam's House Blend was forced to consolidate with FireDogLake to relieve pressure from owner Pam Spaulding; I'm the only full-time editor left here at Bilerico Project. Some other site owners are quietly discussing further changes that will shrink the LGBT online media even more.

Interestingly enough, the sites that seem to be having problems most are those who do original reporting and long-form opinion or analysis pieces while short-form bloggers who clip quotes from other sources and include a basic rewrite of some facts or a witty remark continue to grow readership and attract advertisers. I'd be interested to hear Projectors' thoughts on why the trend is happening and where it'll end.

make the jump here to read the full article

Todays WTF: "Gays are bigger threat to America than 9/11" Really?

GOP state legislator again says gays are bigger threat to America than 9/11

And of course, Oklahoma GOPer Sally Kerns met with a known hate group to discuss her wacko theories.

Reposted from AmericaBlogGay

Via JMG: Tribute 2011

Via JMG: GOProud On 9/11 Anniversary

GOProud wants to step up the fight against radicalized Islam abroad, but continues to lick the jackboots of American Christianists who would gleefully put us all in prison. Brown fundamentalists: bad. White fundamentalists? Fantastic. 

 

Labels: assholery, GOProud, kapos, Quislings

reposted from Joe