Saturday, October 8, 2011
Via AmericaBlogGay: Dear Miami Herald, please stop calling religious right activists "Christian groups"
A Christian group has chastised U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, as “an arrogant, anti-family, homosexualist extremist” for becoming the first Republican in Congress to co-sponsor legislation to repeal the federal ban on gay marriage.
“We’re putting her and all other Republicans on notice that if they’re going to represent themselves as Republicans, they’ve got to respect the party platform,” said Anthony Verdugo, executive director of the Christian Family Coalition in Miami-Dade County.
The Catholic church is a Christian group. The Christian Family Coalition is a religious right activist organization. Hardly the same thing. That's like calling the Klan a Christian group too (I mean, they do believe in Christ, right, and hey, they have crosses!) And how about quoting gay religious groups that support Ros-Lehtinen the same way - simply call them "Christian groups" - I doubt the Herald would do that.
When you call a religious right activist organization simply "a Christian group," you mislead your readers into thinking that this is a mainstream Christian organization like the Catholic church, and it's not. It's a fundamentalist Christian advocacy organization with a history of anti-gay activism Don't "in" the religious right in an attempt to be "fair," all the while giving your readers an unfair sense of what the story is really about.
This isn't about Christians being upset with Ros-Lehtinen, it's about the far-right of the Republican party being upset with her, and that's a different animal all together.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Via Gay Politics Report: British prime minister declares strong support for marriage equality
British Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking to his Conservative party's conference, has come out strongly in support of extending marriage rights to same-sex couples. "I don't support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I'm a Conservative," Cameron said, explaining that conservatives believe in individuals binding together to support one another. Religious leaders responded that they'll try to stop Cameron and his coalition government from legalizing marriage for gays and lesbians. PinkPaper.com (U.K.) (10/5), The Telegraph (London)
Via JMG: Eric Cantor: "Mobs" Occupy Wall Street
Speaking at this weekend's hate convention in DC, GOP Rep. Eric Cantor characterized the Wall Street protesters as a "mob" that wants to "divide America." Last year Cantor had nothing to say about Tea Party activists who were literally calling for civil war.
reposted from Joe
reposted from Joe
Via JMG: Quote Of The Day - NC Gov. Bev Perdue
"My top priority is creating jobs. Too many people are out of work and I’ve heard from several business leaders who’ve told me that the proposed constitutional amendment will harm our state’s business climate and make it harder to grow jobs here. I believe that marriage is between one man and one woman: That’s why I voted for the law in 1996 that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, and that’s why I continue to support that law today. But I’m going to vote against the amendment because I cannot in good conscience look an unemployed man or woman in the eye and tell them that this amendment is more important than finding them a job." - North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue, in a statement posted today on her official website.Via JMG: Full Page From SPLC In Today's WaPo
Via AmericaBlogGay: Matthew Shepard was attacked 13 years ago tonight
Thirteen years ago tonight Matthew Shepard was lured to a rural road, tied up, crucifixion style, pistol whipped then left for dead, simply because he was gay. He wasn't found for nearly a day, still barely alive in the 30 degree weather, the only part of his face not covered by blood was where the tears had streamed down. The attack on Matthew, and his subsequent death a few days later, was a galvanizing moment for the gay community. It was one of only a handful of moments I can think of, in the twenty years that I've been out, that something changed in all of us, nationwide, at a much larger, meta level.
Within a day of hearing of the story I set up a Web site (now that I think about it, it was a blog, long before we called them that) to help coordinate news about his attack. It was called Matthew Shepard Online Resources. The site, and its accompanying bulletin board, quickly became the main organizing point for our community and our allies, and for a good year it advocated for amending the US' already existing hate crimes law to include gender, disability and sexual orientation. The Republicans blocked legislation, and it wouldn't become law for another eleven years.
Noah Baron from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism has a very nice post up about Matthew's attack and his legacy:
It is necessary to speak out - as Jews, as Americans, as human beings - against the ugliness that reared its head that October day 13 years ago. No person deserves to die the way Matthew Shepard did. No person should have to live in fear simply because of who they are. To speak out - to decry this violence, to oppose bigotry, to take a step closer to a better world - is not merely an option; it is a fundamental obligation. As it is written, "Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds" (Leviticus 19:16).
It is not enough, then, to simply refrain from homophobia or refrain from violence. Rather, we must speak out, to stop the violence, to stanch the blood of our neighbors. Matthew Shepard was not simply a victim at the hands of his attackers; he was the victim at the hands a society that sent the message that who he was as a person was wrong. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once said, "Few are guilty, but all are responsible." We are all responsible; every additional week that we do not work for justice, every day that passes in which we do not imbue in our children an ethic of acceptance and uprightness, every moment of our silence is an act of violence against our LGBT brothers and sisters.
As the Mishna tells us, "It is not our responsibility to finish the task, but we may not refrain from starting it." It may be that we will never eradicate homophobia - or Islamophobia, or transphobia, or anti-Semitism - in our lifetimes; the task itself often feels overwhelming. But that is no excuse, for silence is not an option.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Via JMG: Maddow On Marriage
"I feel that gay people not being able to get married for generations, forever, meant that we came up with alternative ways of recognizing relationships. And I worry that if everybody has access to the same institutions that we lose the creativity of subcultures having to make it on their own. And I like gay culture." - Rachel Maddow, speaking to the Hollywood Reporter.Via JMG: POLL: Majority Supports Gays In Military
CBS News reports on their new poll: Just a few weeks after the implementation of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a majority of Americans say they support gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, according to a new CBS News poll. According to the poll, 68 percent of Americans said they support gay and lesbians' rights to serve openly. Fifty percent said they "strongly" favored the idea. Moreover, although many national Republicans leaders were against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," more Republicans surveyed favor the idea of allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the armed forces openly than oppose it.
Via AmericaBlogGay: Haters still trying to ban black, I mean gay, judges
There's no difference. If they say gay judges can't be fair on civil rights cases, then neither can black judges, or white judges for that matter, or Latino judges, or any other judge that has a race or a civil right, or a gender, national origin, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. I hear dogs make nice judges.
The dehumanization never ends. There's always a new minority for the bigots to try to debase and degrade.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Via JMG: HomoQuotable - R. Clark Cooper
"If Herman Cain truly wants to see the science proving that sexual orientation is not a choice, Log Cabin Republicans would be happy to show it to him. The claim that a person chooses to be gay or lesbian has been discredited by every major professional medical organization, starting with the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association. An individual’s orientation is no more a choice than the color of his skin or whether he is left-handed, and too many people have been hurt because of failed attempts to change the way they were born." - Log Cabin Republicans head R. Clark Cooper.Via JMG: Quote Of The Day - David Cameron
"I once stood before a Conservative conference and said it shouldn’t matter whether commitment was between a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, or a man and another man. You applauded me for that. Five years on, we’re consulting on legalising gay marriage. And to anyone who has reservations, I say: Yes, it’s about equality, but it’s also about something else: commitment. Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us; that society is stronger when we make vows to each other and support each other. So I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I’m a Conservative." - British Prime Minister David Cameron. (Via - Towleroad)Via JMG: House Dems criticize GOP for tripling money for DOMA lawyer
In a news release Tuesday, Democratic Reps. Robert Brady (Pa.), Charles Gonzalez (Texas) and Zoe Lofgren (Calif.) criticized their GOP colleagues for increasing the contract with the lawyer hired to defend DOMA from $500,000 to $1.5 million.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was quick to defend her fellow Democrats.
“It is absolutely unconscionable that Speaker Boehner is tripling the cost for his legal boondoggle to defend the indefensible Defense of Marriage Act,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said Tuesday in a news release.
“At a time when Americans are hurting and job creation should be the top priority, it just shows how out of touch House Republicans have become that they would spend up to $1.5 million dollars to defend discrimination in our country,” he added.
Boehner’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yeah I bet he didn't.
Via JMG: Boehner Triples DOMA Legal Budget
House Speaker John Boenher has tripled the allocation to defend DOMA to a possible $1.5M. A modified contract between the General Counsel to the House of Representatives and former Solicitor General Paul Clement of Bancroft PLLC sets a cap of $750,000 which can be raised up to $1.5 million. "It is absolutely unconscionable that Speaker Boehner is tripling the cost for his legal boondoggle to defend the indefensible Defense of Marriage Act," Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement. "At a time when Americans are hurting and job creation should be the top priority, it just shows how out of touch House Republicans have become that they would spend up to $1.5 million dollars to defend discrimination in our country," Hammill continued.Rep. Jerrold Nadler reacts via press release:
“In the current climate of Republican-sponsored deficit hysteria, draconian spending cuts, and an ongoing recession in which Americans are still awaiting congressional leadership on jobs and mortgage relief, it is shocking and supremely hypocritical for Republican Leadership to spend additional taxpayer dollars on the unwarranted, unconstitutional and unnecessary defense of DOMA. It seems that the only jobs program the House is creating is one for high-priced lawyers to defend an unconscionable law.Freedom To Marry's Evan Wolfson:
“At a time when Americans are struggling through one of the worst economies in our nation's history, it is shameful that House Republicans are now tripling the spending of tax dollars - including those of gay and lesbian Americans - to defend a discriminatory anti-gay law that makes it even harder for committed gay and lesbian couples to take care of and protect their loved ones. The so-called Defense of Marriage Act is indefensible, and wasting tax dollars on perpetuating discrimination is unconscionable.”
Monday, October 3, 2011
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