Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Vai AmericaBlog Gay: A rocking pro-lgbt legislative year in California
Governor Signs Ten of Twelve Pro-LGBT Equality Bills Sponsored by EQCA in 2011 Legislative Session
Sacramento – Ten of twelve bills sponsored by Equality California and passed by the California legislature this year are now the law of the land. Three of these bills had been signed into law earlier this year, the remaining seven received the Governor's signature over the past weekend. One of the two bills vetoed by the Governor, Senate Bill 747 (Kehoe), which would have required professionals to complete continuing education on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender cultural competency in health care was vetoed by the Governor, who said he believed “licensing boards are better suited that the Legislature or the Governor to decide these matters.”
"This has been a watershed year in the California legislature for advancing the rights and protections of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Californians," said Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego), speaking as Chair of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus. "Because of the leadership of so many lawmakers and the hard work of organizations like Equality California, we have closed inequality gaps, made schools safer for LGBT students, ensured that LGBT people are counted and better represented in government and government services and made our state safer and more inclusive for transgender individuals. These changes in the law positively impact the lives of millions of Californians and go a long way toward making California a more fair and equal state."
Monday, October 10, 2011
Via JMG: Britain To Cut Aid To Anti-Gay Nations
In a move many would like to see the United States make, the British government has announced that it will reduce financial aid to nations that persecute their LGBT citizens.
Poor African countries which persecute homosexuals will have their aid slashed by the Government in a bid by David Cameron to take his gay rights crusade to the Third World. International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has already cut aid to Malawi by £19 million after two gay men were sentenced to 14 years hard labour. And he has warned the country's leaders to scrap plans to introduce draconian new anti-lesbian laws. Mr Mitchell, one of Mr Cameron's closest allies, is also threatening to impose further aid 'fines' against Uganda and Ghana for hardline anti-gay and lesbian measures. The policy was disclosed after Mr Cameron defended his decision to legalise gay weddings when he addressed last week's Conservative Party conference.The Daily Mail accompanied their above-linked story with a graphic noting that countries who commit other (non-gay) human rights abuses will continue to receive British assistance.
Via JMG: Frothy: Gay Rights Are Not Civil Rights
RELATED: Frothy Mix unexpectedly finished a relatively strong third in yesterday's Values Voters Summit straw poll, a survey you won't hear much about because Tony Perkins is super-pissed that 600 Ron Paulians beamed down from their flying saucers to vote on Saturday morning and then immediately left the convention center.
reposted from Joe
Via AmericaBlogGay: Santorum: Studies show gays aren’t like blacks (uh, no they don’t)
Actually, there's no such thing as a study showing that gays aren't like blacks. Santorum, as usual, can't string together a coherent thought.
As for his assertion that banning gays in the military is somehow different than banning blacks, again, Santorum's argument succumbs to his weak intellect. The issue isn't whether being gay is genetic just like race is genetic (though the prevailing science is that genes play a role in sexual orientation), the issue is whether prejudice hurts morale and cohesion in the armed forces, and if it does, then why is Santorum in favor of racially integrating the military?
And Santorum's argument, namely that prejudice does hurt morale and cohesion, is justification for excluding minorities from the military as well. Was it no less a "social experiment" when Truman integrated the armed forces? Does anyone honestly believe that white racists experienced immediatelyl improved unit cohesion when a minority was included in their unit? Doubtful. They were probably pretty ticked off and didn't want to work with the new guy in their unit (the very definition of "harm to morale and cohesion"). But over time everyone learned to live and work together, and they realized their prejudices were wrong.
Finally, as for Rick Santorum's explanation as to why you can't compare racial prejudice and bigotry against gays, Coretta Scott King said you can and should compare the two. And I think she knew a little more about civil rights than a guy whose name means something not safe for work.
Via AmericaBlogGay:
Joe.My.God smelled trouble from the beginning, and it's looking like he was right. A gay Republican, who is a star of an upcoming Logo TV show, claimed that liberal gay activists threw a brick through his window in response to his having lunch with Ann Coulter. Now all of a sudden, he's deleted any reference to this claim. The new Huffington Post gay-oriented vertical sadly published this story, but to their credit they did publish an update informing people that the story now looks to be a fake. Unfortunately, their update is at the bottom of the story so everyone reading the story in the future will still think it's true unless they make their way all the way to the end.
I'm more concerned about Logo. It's not terribly clear how Logo avoids the appearance of treating hate crimes as a joke if they go ahead with this show. It's a rather serious situation making a false allegation of a crime. But it's especially serious when we're talking about hate crimes. The anti-gay bigots would like nothing better than to undermine the validity of real hate crimes by pointing to Logo's pretend hate crime.
And it gets worse. Joe Jervis also reports that an executive producer at Logo helped promote the possibly-now-faked hate crime charge, and even congratulated the guy who made the charge. So Logo owns this 100%.
Logo, however, is refusing to respond to Joe's questions about what the heck is going on over there.
Not smart.
If this guy lied, and Logo goes ahead with making him a star, then we may have our first boycott of a gay TV network by gays themselves. You don't freaking joke about hate crimes against gay people, and you don't reward people who do.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Via JMG: Oppression Spawns Gay Marriage?
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni points to an interesting theory on why same-sex marriage has become legal in some rather unexpected places.
It was only a little more than a decade ago that a country first legalized same-sex marriage, and that happened in precisely the kind of forward-thinking, bohemian place you’d expect: the Netherlands. About two years later, Belgium followed suit. Then things got really interesting. The eight countries that later joined the club were a mix of largely foreseeable and less predictable additions. In the first category I’d put Canada, Norway, Sweden and Iceland. In the second: South Africa, Spain, Portugal and Argentina.
Why those four countries? People who have studied the issue note that that they have something interesting and relevant in common: each spent a significant period of the late 20th century governed by a dictatorship or brutally discriminatory government, and each emerged from that determined to exhibit a modernity and concern for human rights that put the past to rest. “They’re countries where the commitment to democracy and equal protection under the law was denied, flouted and oppressed, and the societies have struggled to restore that,” said Evan Wolfson, the president of Freedom to Marry, a New York-based advocacy group, in a recent interview.
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma: Be kind, be just, be humane
Be kind, be just, be humane, be honest, if you desire to crown your future! Dishonesty, cruelty, inhumanity, will condemn you to a miserable fall! |
– Soyen Shaku, "Soyen Shaku: One Hundred Years Ago"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Via JMG: Mitt Romney Denounces Bryan Fischer
Calling his words "poisonous language," Mitt Romney responded to critics today by denouncing the racist vitriol of the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer. While Romney didn't mention Fischer by name, we applaud his action, which comes after a blistering article in the New York Times and a strong campaign by both the Southern Poverty Law Center and People For The American Way. We cannot, however, forgive Romney for his appearance this hate convention in the first place.
reposted from Joe
reposted from Joe
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
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