Via AmericaBlogGay: DNC’s new faith outreach director is pro-life and adamantly opposed to marriage equality

I wonder if the Democratic National Committee would have hired someone in favor of miscegenation laws.  Or are some core Democratic values less equal than others? 

Oh why ask it rhetorically, we all know the answer. We just don't matter nearly enough to Democrats.  They don't particularly respect us, and they certainly don't fear us nearly enough.

They would never have chosen some for the this job who didn't believe in full and equal rights for African-Americans, Latinos, or Jews.  It's not even debatable - they wouldn't have hired him in any of those cases.  But when the prejudice is anti-gay, it's ok.  We are not simply not equal in the eyes of the Democratic party.

Of course, what this is all about is the Democrats assuming gays will vote for them and give them our money regardless of how they treat us, so instead they're going to focus on wooing African-Americans and other faith-centric communities.  Embracing bigotry is a win-win.

If we truly mattered to the Democratic party, if they truly understood our issues and our plight, if they truly respected us and our issues, they would never do something like this.

From Religion Dispatches:

Q: So you’re not a supporter of same-sex marriage yourself?

A: No, no, no. But again, I’m not a bomb-thrower in terms of saying things that will get a rise out of a crowd because I just don’t think that’s, again, intellectually honest.

As BelieveOutLoud notes, apparently one "no" wasn't sufficient.

Via AmericaBlogGay:

Anti-gay bully suspended for only 3 days after brutally beating student in front of entire class

And the entire thing was caught on film.

Andy Towle has the horrific story:

A student at Union-Scioto High School in Chillicothe, Ohio was brutally beaten this week by another student for being gay. Class members watched as the bully waited for the student to arrive in the classroom, grabbed him, pushed him to the ground and punched him in the face several times.

Another student recorded the assault on his cell phone. The video was posted to Facebook.

The bully had harassed the gay student (who has not been identified) on Facebook a few days earlier, writing, as the comment on a photo of him: "You fag. Check out the definition of a fag."

According to an email received by Towleroad from Equality Ohio, "The victim has suffered a possible concussion and dental damage. The attacker was suspended from school for just three days. "

Andy goes on to note that the school district has an anti-harassment policy that excludes LGBT students. Below is the video of the beating from an ABC News story.

Via JMG: Linda Harvey: I Should Sue Wayne Besen

Linda Harvey is threatening to sue Wayne Besen for a post published yesterday on Truth Wins Out. In the post, Besen notes that Harvey has endorsed Uganda's still-pending "kill gays" bill. Her exact words:

“The fact they are re-criminalizing homosexuality is (a) their business, (b) it is patronizing for white Westerners to be telling these folks — they are seeing George Soros funded gay groups going into Uganda. They are all through the schools, lots of promotion to kids. Poor kids, poor kids are being offered money and favors and gifts to have sex. That’s exploitation. That’s sex trafficking. And it’s being done mostly homosexually. By Western homosexuals coming in and trying to get involved in Uganda.”

That sure sounds like "advocating killing" to ME.

Labels: hate groups, Linda Harvey, Mission America, Truth Wins Out, Uganda, Wayne Besen

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Rosie: Media To Blame For Bullying

Rosie O'Donnell appeared on Thomas Roberts' MSNBC show this afternoon to plug her new show and talk about bullying, which she says is fueled, in part, by cable news. "Some of the 24-hour news networks seemed to take pride in the fact that they bully people."



(Via - Think Progress)

Labels: bullying, LGBT youth, Rosie O'Donnell

posted by Joe

Via JMG: WALES: Pro Rugby Player Comes Out

Wales has another out pro athlete.

Old Redcliffians captain Jed Hooper has become the first Combination player to publicly announce that he is gay. The 22-year-old back row forward came out to family and friends earlier this year. And Hooper has now spoken exclusively to the Evening Post in the hope that his story can help other young rugby players come to terms with their sexuality. In recent seasons, former Welsh international Gareth Thomas and top referee Nigel Owens have both broken one of the great taboos in arguably the most macho sport of all. And Hooper, a fierce competitor who speaks as directly off the pitch as he does in his pre-match team talks, has now also chosen to come out of the closet after years of anxiety connected to grappling with his true identity. The decision, he said, was still far from easy. "I met someone earlier this year who said he could not be with someone who was in the closet. That, basically, was the catalyst that I needed."

Hit the link for the rest of a great story. (Tipped by JMG reader Leif)

Labels: coming out, rugby, UK, Wales

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Buchanan: Gays Are Unnatural & Immoral

"I believe that homosexuality is -- that it is unnatural activity. Unnatural and immoral. I realize individuals are maybe born -- nature or nurture, I don't know what it is -- I assume nobody actually gets to be 13 or 14 and suddenly chooses this. But I do think -- and people may not be able to control their orientation -- but I do believe as a Catholic that people can control their conduct. And that is where I think, I would say, that kind of conduct should be discouraged in a good society, in a healthy society. And it used to be discouraged. And I do think that the idea that men can marry men and women marry women in the USA is a sign of a civilization in its final throes. I mean, we saw things like this at the end of the Weimar Republic. Things like this at the end of the Roman Empire. And they are attendant to a declining nation and a declining civilization." - Pat Buchanan, speaking to NPR.

RELATED: The Human Rights Campaign and Media Matters have called for disciplinary action from MSNBC and its parent company NBC Universal. Via press release:

Every credible major medical and mental health organization in the United States has stated that homosexuality is normal, and attempts to alter or oppress a person’s sexual orientation can be dangerous and damaging. “While Pat Buchanan is free to hold and express his views, that fact that MSNBC has given him a public platform to spew this sort of dangerous rhetoric is unacceptable, “said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “MSNBC should sanction Mr. Buchanan, as his extremist ideas are incredibly harmful to millions of LGBT people around the world.” During his tenure as a political commentator for MSNBC, Buchanan has made a number of bigoted, racist, and anti-Semitic comments for which he has been reprimanded.

Labels: assholery, HRC, MSNBC, Pat Buchanan

reposted from Joe

CNN Calls Out Linda Harvey

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

 October 27, 2011

We must grow weary of craving

We’re stuck on feeling like a monkey stuck in a tar trap. A glob of tar is placed where a monkey will get its hand stuck and, in trying to pull free, the monkey gets its other hand, both feet, and eventually its mouth stuck, too. Consider this: Whatever we do, we end up stuck right here at feeling and craving. We can't separate them out. We can't wash them off. If we don't grow weary of craving, we're like the monkey stuck in the glob of tar, getting ourselves more and more trapped all the time.

– Upasika Kee Nanayon, "A Glob of Tar"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBloggay:"It Gets Better" is not enough. It’s time to arrest some bullies

I agree with Dan Savage on this one.  Kids are dying. It's time to get tough with bullies.  It's also, I might add, time for our elected leaders in Washington to take this issue seriously. Why is neither of the two proposed anti-bullying bills included in a massive education reform bill that just passed out of a key Senate committee?  That committee, and the entire Senate, is controlled by Democrats.  They chose to leave our legislation out of the bill.  Why?  Was including "the gay" too embarrassing for Senate Democrats?  And why didn't any of our groups have enough leverage to get the legislation included?

This is the reason we elect Democrats. Not just to do the high profile stuff like get DADT repealed, but to keep our interests in mind when they work on every piece of legislation.  And it seems, more often than not, that they shove our interests aside as quickly and quietly as possible.  This appears to be another shining example of, as Joe calls it, "political homophobia."  And I'm getting really tired of it.

Via AMERICAblogGay:NOM used Obama rally photo and pretended it was one of their rallies

I've been in San Francisco attending a Netroots Nation board meeting the past few days, so missed this incredible catch from Jeremy Hooper.  NOM, the lead anti-gay group on marriage took a photo of an Obama rally and pretended that it was a photo of one of its rallies.  Simply amazing.

RMR: Rick's Rant - Teen Suicide

Via JMG: Missouri Public School Teacher: We Need More Gay Kids To Kill Themselves

Yet another teacher is in trouble for posting viciously anti-gay comments to Facebook. The school board is investigating, but Family Research Council head Tony Perkins says this is just another witchhunt by intolerant radical homofascists. First Amendment! More dead gay kids! Praise! Glory!

Labels: bullying, education, Facebook, hate groups, LGBT youth, Missouri, suicide, Tony Perkins

reposted from Joe

ViaJMG: Ten Years Of Changing Attitudes

Think Progress has more charts from Pew Research.

Labels: LGBT rights, marriage equality, Pew Project

reposted from Joe

Pema Chodron "Tong lin Meditation"

Pema Chodron "Troublemakers"

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

 

October 26, 2011

Speaking all day long

Only the noble ones who enter the refined attainment of cessation, where feeling and perception stop, are able to stop speaking. Aside from them, everyone’s speaking all day and all night long. And especially those who vow not to speak: They talk more than anyone else, it’s simply that they don’t make a sound that others can hear.

– Phra Ajaan Dune Atulo, "If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBlog Gay: Far right GOP prez hopeful Michele Bachmann has a gay stepsister

Huff Post:

People also talked to Michele Bachmann's gay stepsister, Helen LaFave, who Bachmann said she loved. LaFave said, "Yes, we are family and love each other, but she seems to have a disconnect. Her statements and actions related to gay rights are very hurtful, whether she understands that or not." Their once-close relationship reportedly strained over Bachmann's anti-gay activism.

Good for her stepsister, but how does Bachmann think she really has a chance?  Maybe she's itching for VP, even though she's as nutty a pic as was Sarah Palin.

Via JMG: NOM Steals Obama Rally Photos To Lie About Their Own Failed Events

Good As You's Jeremy Hooper has once again gone Nancy Drew on NOM's lying ass and proven conclusively that they are stealing photos of massive Obama rally crowds and inserting them into their own materials. As we all know, NOM actually only draws rally crowds in the tens, NOT the tens of thousands as they want people to think. Here's another example of NOM's photo theft.

Labels: hate groups, Jeremy Hooper, liars, NOM

reposted from Joe

Gay kiss play