Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Via AmericaBlogGay: More on the anti-bullying lawsuit in Michele Bachman’s district


This is a good template for how to respond to other anti-gay school districts around the country. NYT:

After years of harsh conflict between advocates for gay students and Christian conservatives, the issue was already highly charged here. Then in July, six students brought a lawsuit contending that school officials have failed to stop relentless antigay bullying and that a district policy requiring teachers to remain “neutral” on issues of sexual orientation has fostered oppressive silence and a corrosive stigma. 

Also this summer, parents and students here learned that the federal Department of Justice was deep into a civil rights investigation into complaints about unchecked harassment of gay students in the district. The inquiry is still under way.
Through it all, conservative Christian groups have demanded that the schools avoid any descriptions of homosexuality or same-sex marriage as normal, warning against any surrender to what they say is the “homosexual agenda” of recruiting youngsters to an “unhealthy and abnormal lifestyle.”

Adding an extra incendiary element, the school district has suffered eight student suicides in the last two years, leading state officials to declare a “suicide contagion.” Whether antigay bullying contributed to any of these deaths is sharply disputed; some friends and teachers say four of the students were struggling with issues of sexual identity.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Jane Lynch


"If anything, I think people respect me for not hiding. But what it comes down to is we’re all just people. At the end of the day, I happen to go home to a woman. In Hollywood, all that matters is do you do your job and do it well. Everybody’s going to have their own story, and we have to leave it up to them to decide how and when they’re going to come out. I would never give anybody advice that way. It’s so personal." - Jane Lynch, speaking to The Advocate.


reposted from Joe

Congressional Candidate's Partner Faces Deportation

Via JMG: What Will Historians Write?

A new message from the Courage Campaign calls for help in fighting the repeal of California's LGBT history bill.




reposted from Joe

Via JMG: BRAZIL: Anti-Gay Televangelist Charged With Embezzling $300M From Followers


A major religious scandal is exploding in Brazil after one of the nation's best known anti-gay televangelists, Edir Macedo, was charged with embezzling $300M from his impoverished followers.
Three leading members of one of Brazil's most powerful churches have been accused of laundering millions in church donations and using worshippers' money for personal gain. The charges, unveiled on Monday by São Paulo's public prosecutor, relate to 404m reals (£150m) allegedly obtained from mostly impoverished churchgoers by leaders at Brazil's Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. The money was subsequently channelled out of the country via a network of offshore bank accounts and money changers, federal prosecutors claimed. Among those charged is Bishop Edir Macedo, a controversial televangelist who founded the church in 1977, and his financial director, Alba Maria Silva da Costa.
Prosecutors says the actual amount funneled to offshore accounts could exceed $1 billion. Macedo is known for fiery condemnations of homosexuals and for his promise that donations to his ministry will be "returned ten-fold by Jesus." His church reportedly has eight million members worldwide.


reposted from Joe

Sunday, September 11, 2011

JMG Quote Of The Day - Paul Krugman


"What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons. A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity? The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it." - Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, writing for the New York Times.

RELATED: Krugman's column has already caused furor in the rightwing blogosphere, with GOProud's Chris Barron tweeting that Krugman "may be the most despicable human being to ever wander the planet."
 

reposted from Joe

Castro Lowers Rainbow Flag Ten Years After 9/11

Via Belirico: LGBT Media Shrinks Further: 365gay to Close

As the LGBT online world continues to refocus, consolidate, and reorganize, longtime queer news site 365gay.com has become the latest casualty. door-bolt.jpgEditor-In-Chief Jennifer Vanasco brings us the details:
Some of you have been reading since 365gay was started as a Canadian publication in the 1990s. Some of you have been reading since Logo took over, in 2006. Some of you are newer - last year, last month, last week.
...
Now, it's coming to an end.
September 30 will be our last day of operations. Logo has shifted its online strategy and so the site is closing and I am moving on to other things.
365gay.com is one of the many corporate-owned sites that have also struggled financially as the economy continues to flounder. LGBT social media site connexion.org recently announced it will be closing up shop on Sept 14.

When I complain about the trouble large-scale popular independent bloggers are having lately, keep in mind that these corporate sites have more ability to attract advertisers and financial backing than we do. Pam's House Blend was forced to consolidate with FireDogLake to relieve pressure from owner Pam Spaulding; I'm the only full-time editor left here at Bilerico Project. Some other site owners are quietly discussing further changes that will shrink the LGBT online media even more.

Interestingly enough, the sites that seem to be having problems most are those who do original reporting and long-form opinion or analysis pieces while short-form bloggers who clip quotes from other sources and include a basic rewrite of some facts or a witty remark continue to grow readership and attract advertisers. I'd be interested to hear Projectors' thoughts on why the trend is happening and where it'll end.

make the jump here to read the full article

Todays WTF: "Gays are bigger threat to America than 9/11" Really?

GOP state legislator again says gays are bigger threat to America than 9/11


And of course, Oklahoma GOPer Sally Kerns met with a known hate group to discuss her wacko theories.

Reposted from AmericaBlogGay

Friday, September 9, 2011

Via HimalayaCrafts:


Overcome anger by peacefulness: overcome evil by good. Overcome the mean by generosity; and the man who lies by truth. ~ Buddha 

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Via JMG: Tick Tock....


Recent timeline here. (Via - Dan Savage)


reposted from Joe

It Gets Better - Barney frank

Via JMG: Schweddy Balls Ice Cream


It exists.


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Christian Group: We May Hate Gays But At Least We Aren't Executing Them


"Liberal activists in America deride churches for upholding traditional marriage but seem mostly silent when Islamist regimes execute homosexuals and adulterers. Enshrining parts of Shari’a into Western legal codes, as the Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested, or accommodating it by social custom, opens a door to manifold dangers that churches and human rights organizations cannot ignore.

"Multiculturalism and political correctness sometimes argue for accommodating Sharia in the West. But Christians and others concerned about human rights must defend Western legal traditions of equality before the law. Liberal activists so quick to accuse traditional Christians of homophobia and Islamophobia might give a little more attention to how the Islamic Republic of Iran treats its people." - Faith McDonnell, spokesperson for the Institute of Religion & Democracy, responding to news of gays executed in Iran.

RELATED: In January the IRD slammed the U.S. State Department for working to prevent the abuse and executions of LGBT people in foreign countries. Everybody got that? If the United States tries to help foreign gays, that is anti-Christian meddling in the affairs of sovereign nations. But if the IRD can propagandize the very murders the State Department is working to stop? WAHOO. What filthy, transparent, hypocritical motherfuckers.

ALSO FUCKING RELATED: It should be noted that America, too, executes its homosexuals. Only we mostly do it at the hands (and baseball bats) of self-identified Christian civilians.

reposted from Joe