Friday, August 12, 2011

Via 365: Starbucks CEO cancels appearance at church linked to ‘ex-gay’ therapy

Starbucks founder and CEO Howard Schultz abruptly cancelled a speaking engagement at a church that once supported gay conversion therapy.
 
Schultz was scheduled to give a speech Friday titled “How Starbucks Fought for its Life Without Losing Its Soul” during the Willow Creek Association’s Global Leadership Summit in South Barrington, Illinois.

Starbucks denies the cancellation is connected to a Change.org petition launched last week asking Schultz to denounce the church’s connection to the “ex-gay” group Exodus International.  That petition drew more than 700 signatures.

Susan DeLay, a spokeswoman for the church told The Chicago Tribune that Willow Creek’s views on homosexuality had evolved.

“They were one of the few Christian organizations having conversations with people who struggle with being gay,” DeLay said.

Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church says he doesn’t believe homosexuality is a choice but that Scripture calls for gays and lesbians to be celibate.

Earlier this summer, Starbucks launched an investigation into claims that an openly gay barista was fired in New York for discussing his personal life.  The company says they have a “zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind.”

Via AmericBlogGay: Boehner’s DOMA lawyers want to cite Maggie Gallagher, but avoid cross-examination


I have to admit, I'm really enjoying watching Edie Windsor's case against DOMA unfold. This is the first case where we're seeing the John Boehner's legal team, led by Paul Clement, in action. And, so far, not impressed. Edie's legal team, led by Roberta Kaplan, is simply awesome. Edie's lawyers are truly fierce advocates. 

Last week, Boehner's lawyers opposed Edie's motion for summary judgment and filed a memo with their arguments. We posted it here. It was a memo filled with every anti-gay argument around. There were lots of citations from anti-gay literature and screeds. But, here's the thing. Edie's lawyers offered expert testimony from some of the most accomplished people in the country including Stanford Professor Gary Segura. Clement and his crew got to depose them. So, Edie's expert witnesses have testified under oath by Boehner's lawyers. But, Clement offered no experts. Instead, he tried to sneak in the testimony by citing a number of anti-gay documents in their memo on summary judgment. It's the kind of stuff that David Boies called "junk science." And, it's hearsay. 

Yesterday, Edie's lawyers filed a motion to strike those documents (posted below.) In legal proceedings, lawyers from both sides are supposed to have access to witnesses. Clement tried to work around that. He also tried to pass off anti-gay screeds as expert writings. But, he's been called out.
I think one of the best examples of how this works plays out on Page 17 of the motion to strike:
For example, BLAG relies on citations to books and articles for the truth of the matters asserted as evidence that a marriage between a male and a female provides a stable and nourishing framework for child-rearing (BLAG 56.1 ¶47.) The co-author of one of those books, Maggie Gallagher, has achieved some notoriety in the media as the President of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, one of the most prominent lobbying groups against equal rights for same-sex marriage. However, plaintiff was given no opportunity to cross examine Gallagher by using her own statements from her many public statements and appearances on this subject.

See, Clement tried to be very clever. He wanted to get Maggie's testimony into the record with having Maggie deposed. And, if we noticed one thing about Maggie Gallagher, she really doesn't want to go under oath. Let me tell you, I'd buy a ticket to watch Roberta Kaplan depose Maggie Gallagher.

John Boehner is using our tax dollars to defend DOMA. He's paying Paul Clement a lot of money -- our money. And, as I've said many times, Boehner and Clement don't know what they're up against. Edie, Robbie and the rest of the legal team at Paul, Weiss, the ACLU and the NYCLU are in this one to win it. And, they're not letting Clement get away with anything.

Via AmericablogGay:

Santorum's latest: Marriage is like tea, not basketball 

I'm waiting for him to find an analogy that contains "santorum."

Rick Santorum just can’t help himself. He has compared same-sex marriage to water and a napkin, but not beer or a paper towel. Yesterday, during an appearance in Iowa, he explained that “calling same-sex marriage a marriage would be like calling a cup of tea a basketball.”

Toady's "You can't make this stuff up" is via AmericaBlogGay:



You can't make this stuff up.

New York City's public schools are going to start teaching sex ed again. In 2011, that shouldn't even be news. When I was in fifth grade, we had sex ed classes -- and that was forty years ago. But, it's news.

Anyway, guess which institution, infamous for aiding and abetting child rapiests, doesn't want this to happen? The Catholic Church:

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York called a new city requirement that sex education be taught at all public middle and high schools “troubling” on Wednesday, and some Catholic officials said they would advise Catholic parents not to let their children participate.

In the first serious challenge to the city’s mandate, which was announced on Tuesday, a spokesman for the archdiocese said the church’s position was that parents, not the schools, should educate children about sex.

“Parents have the right and the responsibility to be the first and primary educators of their children,” Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese, wrote in a statement. “This mandate by the city usurps that role, and allows the public school system to substitute its beliefs and values for those of the parents.”

Ah, yes. You have to love it when Catholic Church types get all sanctimonious about sex. But, seriously?

Here's the thing: An entity that aided and abetted child rapists shouldn't really be speaking against sex education for children.

And, yes, the NY Catholic Archdiocese is still embroiled in the child rape scandal. In fact, as Duncan Osborne reported, during the past legislative session, the Archbishop's lobbyists spent more money fighting bills tied to the child rape scandal than they did fighting marriage equality.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

HomoQuotable - Ricky Martin via JMG


"My shoulders feel much lighter and straighter and I feel my life is a lot more simple now. I lived with the obsession to be accepted for such a long time. But it was when I held my children in my arms I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. I wanted to teach them to be themselves, to know there is nothing wrong with being gay – because there isn’t. I want them to have self-love, pride and dignity. And that means I had to be transparent." - Ricky Martin, who should teach a celebrity course on coming out.


reposted from Joe

It Gets Better - the story of a gay Muslim Turk coming out

It Gets Better: Yale Divinity School

It Gets Better: Seventh-day Adventists

It Gets Better: Christian and Lesbian

Jewish LGBTQ at GLOE, Washington DCJCC: Strength Through Community and It Gets Better

It Gets Better - Thomas, Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine

Faculty and students from the seminary for Reform Judaism, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

The Muppet Show: Ernie, Bert & Connie Stevens - "Some Enchanted Evening"

Via JMG: NOM Will Have Trouble Spinning This


According to a just-released poll, a majority of New York voters are either "more likely" to support pro-marriage legislators or simply don't care about the issue.


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Petition: Let Bert & Ernie Get Married


A petition drive launched on Change.org asks the producers of Sesame Street to allow long-rumored boyfriends Bert and Ernie to marry.
Chicago resident Lair Scott started an online petition at Change.org to pressure the Sesame Street Workshop to "Let Bert & Ernie get married on Sesame Street." The petition reads, "We are not asking Sesame Street to do anything crude or disrespectful…. It can be done in a tasteful way. Let us teach tolerance of those that are different." As of this writing, the petition had collected more than 1,600 signatures. But are Bert and Ernie even gay, never mind ready for the ultimate commitment? Scott clearly thinks so. In an interview with ABC News.com, Scott said, "A lot of people have wondered about Bert and Ernie.... Living in the same bedroom and the same home would make anyone question their sexuality." His aim, he added, is to get 20,000 petitioners to encourage the Sesame Workshop to either marry Bert and Ernie or introduce a gay or lesbian character.
Sesame Street has denied that Bert and Ernie are gay ever since the rumors started over 20 years ago. The usual response: "They are puppets. They don't exist below the waist."


reposted from Joe

Via PlayingForChangeFoundation: Incantation for Peace - Kathmandu, Nepal


Incantation for Peace from PlayingForChangeFoundation on Vimeo.

Home About Shows Give Contact Play a Song. Build a School. Change the World.


Playing For Change Day 2011: Join in! from PlayingForChangeFoundation on Vimeo.

The Bahá'í Faith and homosexuality: Bahá'í LGBTs on the Internet, agitating for full acceptance


Bahá'í LGBTs on the Internet, agitating for full acceptance

The conflicts between the Baha'i faith and LGBTs (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgendered persons and transsexuals) are unlikely to go away anytime soon.
The agenda being pursued by Baha'i LGBTs is simple: full equality for persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities, including same-sex marriage. Some are using the Internet to publicize their goals.
In reading some of their sites, one is struck by the level of anxiety and fear experienced by LGBTs in this faith. That is a real pity, because the Baha'i faith should liberate people from fear and make their lives whole, not trap them in a closet and make them pretend to be what they are not.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Via Faith in America:

Sorry Rick, your "natural law" code language will not fly

But thanks for keying us in on the religion-based bigotry behind it
Beginning last year, Faith in America's research began noticing a trend among anti-gay religious groups – particularly the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and the Family Research Council (FRC).
It appeared as an attempt to distant their anti-gay actions and rhetoric from religious motivation.
Actually, the first hint of this trend occurred in 2009 at a North Carolina conservative church where the Family Research Council and one of its spokespersons, Frank Turek, had gathered a group of area pastors to promote an anti-gay marriage amendment in North Carolina that year.
During a horrific barrage of anti-gay sentiment within the confirms of that church, Turek made the comment that opposition to marriage equality really didn't have anything to do with religion. It was all about natural law, he said.
Attending that session, we found it interesting he would make that comment  considering it was being made in a church before a group of conservative religious leaders – not exactly your nonreligious venue.
Last year we heard similar comments from several leading voices in the anti-gay religious industry. It seemed evident at that point that there was attempt afoot to conceal the religion-based bigotry behind these organizations' effort to promote prejudice, discrimination and hostility toward LGBT people.
Of course we know the reason why. As pointed out in Faith in America's report on Guidelines for Effectively Addressing the Religious Arguments , history shows us  that using religious values to promote bigotry and discrimination is a losing proposition. While that is exactly what the anti-gay religious industry has done for the last 30 years, we can now see how more and more people of faith are turning their back on religion-based bigotry toward LGBT people when it is exposed for what it really is. Faith in America's founding mission was and is to expose and therefore hasten an end to the immense harm caused by this unique form of bigotry.
The battle is being won as we know misguided religious belief that causes harm to innocent people must and can be effectively confronted. It's been happening for centuries.
That is what the anti-gay religious organizations know and that is why we are hearing more and more of this "natural law" argument. Of course it is completely illogically – sort of like persecuting, condemning and rejecting people under a banner of religious values.
Yet the anti-gay religious industry seems fully prepared to use "natural law" as yet another form of code language to conceal and disguise the religion-based bigotry that they cater to for support, votes and cash. And that includes Republican candidates for office who the anti-gay religious industry knows have served them well in promoting stigma and hostility toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Enter GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum. We all know where Santorum stands on LGBT equality and it is not the side of love and respect or human dignity and equality.
In this clip of Santorum speaking yesterday at a grocery store in Iowa, you will hear him attempt to incorporate the "natural law" code language in his argument against marriage equality as he attempts to define marriage for the small audience:
"The bringing together, according to the natural law, people of two genders, in nature, who come together to form a union, for the purpose of the benefit of each of them, as they are made in nature to fit together to live together, one on one, that we see in nature with many species."
OK Rick, we get it. You're attempting to say your opposition has nothing to do with your religious belief. It is all nature and natural law. 
But wait. Santorum had more to say on this topic and in doing so exposed the real basis for his argument against marriage equality and LGBT people in general.
Heterosexual marriage. he continued, is a gift from God. We're sure he just couldn't help himself –  the religious argument has been the anti-gay religious industry's bread-and-butter when it comes to using LGBT people as political fodder. And we suspect he may have realized that his use of a napkin to frame his natural law argument was not going well.
"It's because of nature and nature is God," he said. "Marriage is part of His creation. It is part of His gift."
And from there he went right to the anti-gay religious industry's most pathetic line of reasoning yet – people who use misguided religious teaching to promote prejudice and discrimination are victims because someone dares call out the harm they are causing.
But we have news for Santorum and others who continue to promote a social climate of hostility that wreaks havoc on the lives of gay youth and families – it's not just your bigotry, Rick, we're calling out but your religion-based bigotry and the harm it causes.
And you have every right to use your faith in such an ugly manner. That's the only choice issue in all this. But know this: You will no longer sell it to the American public as something that holds value.