The Chaos Under the Hood
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A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
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In light of the extreme rhetoric of that rally, I felt it was important to you remind you of what’s happening in the world that most of us live in. That rhetoric does not represent us in the least. It’s also important that you recognize that the presidential candidates who attended this rally (Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee, and Ted Cruz) were there to identify with the cause of religious liberty, and they too would categorically reject some of the words spoken at the conference (as well as reject some of the positions advocated by at least one of the speakers outside of the conference).
I also feel confident that, had they known in advance what Kevin Swanson, the conference’s chief organizer, planned to say, they would not have attended the rally. Rachel, as a conservative moral leader, I’ve sat at behind the scenes meetings of groups like Focus on the Family or the Family Research Council, and I never heard one hostile word spoken about gays or lesbians, let alone a word calling for violence or execution. Perish the thought! That’s because those things violate the very spirit of our faith, and, as I stated earlier, it is that faith that informs us and guides us, a faith that clings tightly to the words and example of Jesus.
Where is The New York Times? The Washington Post covered the conference and the candidates’ comments, but didn’t mention the “kill the gays” speech. Not news to them apparently. Several online sources that did focus on the conference placed more attention on Cruz telling Swanson that an atheist shouldn’t be president, or on the unhinged Swanson’s advice to parents that they should drown their children rather than let them read Harry Potter, than on Swanson calling for the extermination of an entire group of people at an event at which presidential candidates spoke.
It’s 2015 and much of the media seem to accept, still, that LGBT people can be talked about this way at an event attended by presidential candidates and that it’s not news. They view it as par for the course, religious conservatives doing what they do. It’s as if they have blinders on. Indeed, if Ted Cruz — or Huckabee or Jindal — attended an event at which the host hinted at mass murder of Jews, African-Americans or any other group it would be a massive media story. He’d be forced to answer questions about it, at debates (and it didn’t come up at the last debate), in press conferences and in interviews non-stop. He’d be pressured to condemn both the comments and the pastor — as when John McCain had to dump Pastor John Hagee in 2008 because of his ugly comments about Catholics — or he’d face the consequences.Signorile goes on to note that the mainstream media is “running for cover” lately after the ridiculous “gotcha” questions whining made by GOP candidates after a recent debate. Hit the link and read his full piece.
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The White House endorsed legislation Tuesday that would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, plunging into the next front in the national battle over LGBT rights. Speaking to reporters, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the administration “has been reviewing for several weeks” the bill. “It is now clear that the administration strongly supports the equality act,” he said, adding it would advance the civil rights of “millions of Americans.”
Earnest added the White House would “work to ensure that the legislative process produces something that balances “the bedrock principles of civil rights with the religious liberty that we hold dear in this country.” Although there is little chance that this Congress will approve the legislation — which was introduced in July by Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) and Cory Booker (N.J.) — President Obama’s support elevates to greater prominence the question of whether lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans need greater legal safeguards.The Human Rights Campaign reacts:
The unfortunate reality is that, while LGBT Americans can legally get married, millions remain at risk of being fired or denied services for who they are or who they love because the majority of states still lack explicit, comprehensive non-discrimination protections,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “By endorsing the Equality Act, the White House sent a strong message that it’s time to put the politics of discrimination behind us once and for all. Now it’s time for Congress to act. Everyone should be able to live free from fear of discrimination and have a fair chance to earn a living and provide for their families, including people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.”Note that today’s move comes on the same day that President Obama’s Out Magazine “Ally Of The Year” cover story was issued.
The 44th President of the United States is our Ally of the Year—a president who came to office on a wave of euphoria, appeared to lose momentum halfway through, and has since rallied, helping us secure marriage equality, among other landmark initiatives that are transforming our place in America.
This is the first time a sitting president has been photographed for the cover of an LGBT title, a historic moment in itself, and a statement on how much his administration has done to advance a singularly volatile issue that tarnished the reputations of both President Clinton and President Bush. It might have tarnished this president, too, but for his late-hour conversion in 2012, which set the stage for the extraordinary succession of events that led to this year’s Supreme Court ruling, on June 26, making it unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the right to wed.
Many things led up to that decision—“decades of our brothers and sisters fighting for recognition and equality” as the president notes—but once his administration decided to join that fight it created what people like to call a “transformative” moment. It helped tip the balance, and it put our elected leader on the right side of justice.A slideshow of this year’s Out 100 honorees is here.
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