Second Good as You link for the day, and this is excruciatingly disgusting. A video of Sean Harris, the Senior Pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Here's the transcript:
So your little son starts to act a little
girlish when he is four years old and instead of squashing that like a
cockroach and saying, “Man up, son, get that dress off you and get
outside and dig a ditch, because that is what boys do,” you get out the
camera and you start taking pictures of Johnny acting like a female and
then you upload it to YouTube and everybody laughs about it and the next
thing you know, this dude, this kid is acting out childhood fantasies
that should have been squashed.
Can I make it any clearer? Dads, the second you see your son
dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man
up. Give him a good punch. Ok? You are not going to act like that. You
were made by God to be a male and you are going to be a male. And when
your daughter starts acting to Butch you reign her in. And you say, “Oh,
no, sweetheart. You can play sports. Play them to the glory of God. But
sometimes you are going to act like a girl and walk like a girl and
talk like a girl and smell like a girl and that means you are going to
be beautiful. You are going to be attractive. You are going to dress
yourself up.”
You say, “Can I take charge like that as a parent?”
Yeah, you can. You are authorized. I just gave you a special dispensation this morning to do that.
White House spokesman Shin Inouye tells Metro Weekly, "The President and his Administration have taken many steps to address the issue of bullying. He is proud to support the Student Non-Discrimination Act, introduced by Senator Franken and Congressman Polis, and the Safe Schools Improvement Act, introduced by Senator Casey and Congresswoman Linda Sanchez. These bills will help ensure that all students are safe and healthy and can learn in environments free from discrimination, bullying and harassment."
In September, 2010, Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge, after his roommate used a webcam to spy on his hook up with an older man. The tragedy became national news, and an example of cyber bullying to be made symbol of. Recently, the roommate Dharun Ravi was found guilty of most charges, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation (hate crime). His verdict is due in May, but in the mean time, opinions vary as to what part of this is justice, and what - making an example. That bullying is a horrifying problem in the US is undeniable, and that cyber bullying is largely ignored by the law is a sad fact as well. However, many details of this particular case were misrepresented by the media, trying to paint Ravi as a bloodthirsty gay-basher who posted Tyler's sex-tape online thus ousting him. In fact, there was no sex-tape, no sex even, it was never "posted" anywhere, and Tyler was already out. However, even if many facts were not entirely clear, one was undeniable - a gay teenager ended his life after a gross invasion of his privacy.
I was recently made aware of this wonderful article from the New Yorker:
It is very long, and detailed, but if you want to have as comprehensive an account of the events as possible, I think it is invaluable. It is a horrible tale of ignorance and stupid mistakes born of careless arrogance and insecurity. And as a member of JUB (which is mentioned here), I can't help but be reminded that there might be other Tylers, right now, posting topics asking for advice, reaching out for help. And I ask myself if I have in me the words to prevent another tragedy...
Good times with Republican gays. GOProud's 2012 Agenda is up, and again they seem to try and mimic everything the GOP stands for (which is eating babies, skinning kittens and drowning puppies of course), including this piece of beauty:
EDUCATION REFORM – The answer to the serious problem of bullying is not more federal intervention in education. Instead, we support empowering parents and families by supporting school choice initiatives and protecting the right of parents to homeschool their children.
After a horrific year of bullying-related suicides in which the anti-gay Christian hate machine mobilized in numerous jurisdictions, installing or bidding to install laws that force teachers to watch silently while LGBT kids are beaten, GOProud says "Let the local schools do as the local anti-gay groups command."
This is, yunno, in case anyone needed more reasons to be disgusted by GOProud...
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Meanwhile, Focus on the Family is pushing for a petition for Colorado voters to make it legal to deny housing, employment, and services to any person on the basis of religious objections. Translation - "Give us the right to kick gays any way we want to". LGBT rights group One Colorado is warning citizens against this:
The initiative’s language — which focuses on “religious liberty” — is incredibly deceptive. It doesn’t make clear the widespread implications of enacting this law. Implications that don’t just impact LGBT people — but all Coloradans.
Imagine a law that allows a pharmacist to refuse to fill a birth control prescription. A law that permits an employer to refuse to hire people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. A law that gives protection to teachers who refuse to teach sex education or evolution. All for the sake of so-called religious freedom.
They also need financial assistance to fight this absurdity. Chip in if you can.
While the US ultra religious hate groups and the pro-gay organizations trade their usual promises and verbal barbs, and the Catholic Church leaders keep bashing us, most news recently have been international.
Ex UK prime minister Tony Blair strongly supports the current PM David Cameron and a big part of his Cabinet's efforts to establish marriage equality in the United Kingdom. A consultation on gay marriage will be launched this month, even though it has been met with aggressive opposition from the Catholic Church and the Church of England. The exact words of Blair, a recent Catholic convert, are that he "strongly supports the Prime Minister's proposal". Cameron himself has this to say about his bid for gay marriage:
"Society is stronger when we make vows to each other and support each other. So I don't support gay marriage despite being a Conservative; I support gay marriage because I'm a Conservative."
Perhaps some Republican parties who shall remain unnamed should listen to this and take note?
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On a much lighter, and absolutely adorable note, the Ben & Jerry's box you see at the top of the post is not a photoshop invention, but an actual renaming of their "Oh! My! Apple! Pie!" flavor in the UK. The company has done this to show its support for the upcoming marriage equality on the island. They've also launched a campaign together with Stonewall for a new app allowing users to "marry" each other on Facebook, thus showing their support for marriage equality in the Kingdom as well. This is not the first time Ben & Jerry's have done this either; they changed their "Chubby Hubby" to "Hubby Hubby" to celebrate gay marriage in Vermont in 2009.
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A bit to the east, Denmark moves rapidly to legalizing gay marriage as early as June, 2012. Here is a quote from the Danish press:
Gay couples can look forward to a church wedding this summer.
At her weekly press conference, Tuesday, Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said the government is putting the finishing touches to a bill that will come into force on June 15th, allowing homosexuals and lesbians to walk down the aisle in the church of their choice – if they can find a priest who’s willing to conduct the ceremony.
You don't want to perform a ceremony? Fine, don't, your choice to be a douchebag. But don't demand that nobody else does either. It seems that marriage equality is not such a tough issue when the government is ruled by the desire to actually make people happy rather than indoctrinating them with Evangelical dogma... Who knew?
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And as rainbows rain all over Europe, US states continue to actively try and murder children just so long as the "gay agenda" doesn't win. Kentucky house panel just turned down an anti-bullying bill that would include sexual orientation. Apparently, despite pleas from parents whose children committed suicide because of bullying, the panel desided that "existing anti-bullying laws are sufficient". Instead of my own opinion here, I'll just post Joe's, as it says EXACTLY what I want to say:
Republicans in the Kentucky House Education Committee today squashed an anti-bullying bill because it would help prevent gay children from killing themselves. Not even sobbing pleas from the parents of dead children can move these monsters.
I have already posted about the issue of gay teen suicide, and I will repeat what I said then - allowing politics to define decisions about children's safety, allowing bigotry to make you turn a blind eye to kids committing suicides, is NOT lawmaking. It is not being a politician, a representative of a party, and ideology, or anything else. The only thing it makes you, is a murderer.
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The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking the public's opinion for a proposed plan to ease the ban on blood donations from gay men. If you want to add your voice for or against an amendment, you can do it in the comments section in the above link, which will be open for the next 90 days. Personally, I can't wait to see what pseudo-scientific "argument" hate groups will come up with to try and fight this. The outrage should be awesome.
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Here is the latest video from Marriage News Watch (link to American Foundation for Equal Rights in the side bar):
I hope those polls will continue to be in our favor. Even though anti-gay campaigns will start when the November ballot approaches, and numbers will surely drop, it is clear that without brainwashing, the majority of Americans are now FOR, instead of against us. What a difference in just a few short years...
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EDIT: This just in. The city of Omaha, Neb has passed a bill that protects LGBT people from work discrimination. A random fluke or a tendency? Let's hope the latter.
The news just keep piling. After the California District Court declared DOMA to be unconstitutional, and the Maryland Senate passed its Marriage Equality bill two days ago, today we learned that Gay Marriage advocates in Maine have collected more than enough signatures to put marriage equality on the November ballot. That is the first time that our side puts the issue on the ballot, and it is expected that the majority will support it.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has sworn to stop gay marriage in Maryland. Here's what Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, Archbishop of Baltimore, has to say about it:
Now, Maryland’s politicians unconscionably have chosen political expediency over the good of society–the fundamental charge of their office–by daring to redefine this sacred union between one man and one woman. Their action poses a grave threat to the future stability of the nuclear family and the society it anchors. The Archdiocese will continue to advocate for the preservation of both and will eagerly and zealously engage its 500,000 members in overturning this radical legislation, and will join with the hundreds of thousands of others in this Archdiocese and throughout Maryland in aggressively protecting the God-given institution of marriage.
In other news, today GOP House Speaker John Boehner ordered Wednesday's federal court ruling that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional to be appealed. It's not so much GOP's usual homophobia and spasmodic reactions to the tide of gay marriage victories we've been experiencing that fills me with disgust, but rather the fact that Boehner is supported by Log Cabin Republicans head R. Clark Cooper and former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman - both openly gay and supposedly proponents of LGBT rights. Labeled under "internalized homophobia" (Related - my thoughts on gay conservatives).
I randomly stumbled across this great article from HuffPost Canada's Gay Voices section. It is fascinating to me that a country that so many Americans view with such disdain can be so much ahead of the States in its moral and religious stand.
A few snippets that deserve quoting:
When you do [look up north], you'll discover something that might surprise many of you: We aren't all that concerned about gay people. Our Conservative government has said it has no intention of re-opening a debate on same-sex marriage, which is legal. Abroad, it has become a consistent and strong advocate for gay rights. Contrary to some beliefs, no radical gay agenda came and hijacked our society. The sky hasn't fallen.[snip]
But there's something different, something malicious about the debate in your country. The haters are too hateful and the vilification of the LGBT community has spread too far. In what other free and equal society would those seeking to be Commander-In-Chief stand silently as a crowd of citizens booed a soldier because he was gay? It is a true juxtaposition of cowardice and courage, and such a moral deficiency should automatically qualify one as unfit to lead a nation.[snip]
When teachers are afraid to stand up for their students, as were Justin's, and when leaders stand by and allow masses to trample over the vulnerable, what is there left to teach, and who is left to lead?[snip]
From time to time it's necessary that friends speak from the heart. And frankly, you need it now, because from your big neighbor to the north, not only literally, but also figuratively, you're looking kind of small.
Sincerely, Canada.
Make sure you read the whole article. The writer, Josh D. Scheinert, says he was inspired to finally write about this after he read that same Rolling Stone article "One Town's War on Gay Teens" that inspired me to start this blog. In case you haven't read that one, make sure you do. It's not a light read - made me both cry and see red - but it is very much worth your time.
I am constantly fascinated by the blind zeal with which bigots defend their bigotry. I am sure I will sooner or later post something on the whole "choice" issue, as well as the other code words like "protecting marriage" and "religious freedom", but now I want to just go to the very core of why sexual intolerance is wrong.
I recently read Rolling Stone's article One Town's War on Gay Teens. Through tears. And I was reminded of 2010 and another wave of teen suicides. And my mind just couldn't compute what goes on in the heads of the people who led those children to that edge, where the only possible way out they could see was to jump from it. At this point, when a 13-year old girl shoots herself with a shotgun in the bathtub, when a 19-year old boy jumps off a bridge after his personal life has being broadcast online for people's entertainment, IT SIMPLY DOESN'T MATTER WHO IS RIGHT AND WHO IS WRONG!
Even if you think it's a choice, even if your morals and what passes for conscience allow for calling an innocent child "an abomination" and "Satan", do you not realize that your actions are actively killing those children? You give yourselves names like "One Million Moms", and call what you're doing "protecting" this or that, yet you pass policies that forbid discussion of homosexuality in schools (as is the case in the Anoka High School from the article) and prevent teachers from stopping physical abuse?
Any half-wit could easily see this for what it is. Those kids did not kill themselves. They were murdered.
