Friday, December 31, 2010

Via JustaBahai: new blog posting on same sex marriage

 
http://justabahai.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/we-verily/   ...and the hot discussion in some Bahai circles is the conviction that gays and lesbians cannot do the same, cannot “verily” state their committment as equals...

Via JMG: Los Angeles Times: President Obama, Enough Agonizing Over Gay Marriage


From an editorial in today's Los Angeles Times:
We can't peer into President Obama's soul, but his statement last week that he is "struggling" with whether to endorse same-sex marriage is open to an unedifying interpretation. Given the president's support of gay rights in other contexts, his opposition to marriage equality raises the question of whether the struggle Obama referred to is between politics and principle. If so, we hope principle will prevail. [snip] When he ran for the presidency in 2008, it was the conventional wisdom that supporting gay marriage would be politically fatal. With shifts in public attitudes, that probably will not be the case in 2012. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 42% of adults now favor same-sex marriage, compared to 37% in 2009. The trend seems clear. We'd prefer to think that such considerations wouldn't be uppermost in Obama's mind. What should determine his position is logic and the fact that same-sex couples across America, not just those in his circle, yearn for recognition of their relationships. Enough agonizing, Mr. President. Support marriage equality.

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Dan Savage On Sex, Religion & Bullying

Via JMG: Ricky Gervais: Out of England 2 (Stand-up Special) - "The Book of Noah"

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Via JMG: The $50,000 Cock Shot


Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre has been fined $50,000 by the NFL for sending his cock shot to a female employee of the New York Jets, for whom Favre played at the time. Favre had faced a suspension by the league, a slight punishment considering he is expected to retire after this weekend. The fine is less than 1% of Favre's 2010 salary, but on a per-inch basis (NSFW), the fine, at least, is a whopper.


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Steve Weinstein


"[T]he majority of gay men and lesbians want nothing more than to raise families behind picket fences. There are other signs of increasing conformity in the gay world. Leather is seen by most younger men as more silly than hot. While they may exercise, younger men mostly don’t strive for Adonis physiques. It goes on. (Lesbians are way ahead of the curve on this. They’ve been mating and nesting for years.)

"Is this bad? Probably not. We’ve been fighting for acceptance. Now that we’re getting it, it’s up to us to do what we want with it. If younger gay men and lesbians want the same things as their straight counterparts, so be it. Have we lost something? Probably. Just as blacks lose their jive and soul when they become middle-class suburbanites, and Jews lose their Yiddishkeite, so we shed the camp, the bitchy humor, the diva worship, and the other facets that defined “gay” for so long. Most people, however, would consider it a fair tradeoff." - Steve Weinstein, writing for Edge On The Net in response to yesterday's JMG post about Jonah Goldberg's column on the "homosexual bourgeoisie."


reposted from Joe

Behind the Scenes: Signing Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal

National Organization for Marriage LATE Again With Federal Tax Returns

WASHINGTON, DC – The four year old National Organization for Marriage (NOM), and the National Organization for Marriage Foundation (NOMF) has once again failed to file its required Federal Income Tax Returns.  Their IRS 2009 returns for both of these non-profits, their 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 were due on May 15, 2010.  If they received an extension, then they were due October 15, 2010.  Now they are 2 ½ months LATE!

I recently visited their new National Office in Washington, DC twice during regular office hours to view the returns.  No one was there.  They must make them available to anyone during regular business hours.  We also have checked online repeatedly for their 2009 returns, and again, nothing.  What is NOM trying to hide?  Why do they not file their tax returns every year?


How do you say, “Front Group?” I went again to the NOM National Office
at 2029 K Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC  20006 to see their
2009 Tax Returns.  Notice the UPS delivery slip on the doorknob.
Neighbors said they never see anyone there, yet they are leading
the fight against gay marriage in 14 states.


Déjà Vu

I went through the identical exercise in 2009 when I attempted to view NOM’s 2007 and 2008 990’s, but they never filed those either.  We visited their then National Office in Princeton, NJ many times and no one was ever there either.

One set of 990’s was 5 months late.  The other set was 17 months late, when finally, the night before NOM President Brian Brown was to testify in front of the Maine Ethics Commission last year, all of their delinquent tax returns magically appeared on the NOM web site.

It was too late to stave off a State of Maine investigation of NOM, because in spite of threatening to sue the State of Maine (which NOM eventually did), the Maine Ethics Commission voted to investigate the National Organization for Marriage for election “Money Laundering.”


NOM President Brian Brown getting questioned by reporters right after
Maine Ethics Commission voted to investigate his organization for alleged
money laundering.

NOM is not above the law.  They need to file their Income Tax Returns like everyone else and every other organization.  We are entitled to see just how much money they raised and spent in 2009.  Whom are they trying to protect?

NOM has sued 14 states to invalidate those state’s campaign finance laws.   12 of those lawsuits were in 2010 alone.  NOM hopes to invalidate those state’s election laws, so when they spend their millions in those 14 states, it would not have to be reported.

NOM goes into these states and attacks anyone and everyone viciously that dares to support marriage equality in this country, and they do it without obeying election laws.  They even subpoenaed me last year as soon as I filed the complaint against them in Maine.  They are relentless.

Congressional Investigation of NOM -- Now a “Hate Group”

We have tried repeatedly to get the Congress to investigate the National Organization for Marriage.  There are numerous active complaints filed against NOM with the IRS.  We need to get to the bottom of this highly questionable organization, now officially designated a “Hate Group,” by the prestigious Southern Poverty Law Center. CLICK HERE

Where’s Doug Manchester?  He’s Not on Bust the Blacklist!
 
NOM now has a new web site up to defend its multi-millionaire and billionaire contributors.  Their most famous donor of all is missing, hotel owner Doug Manchester.  Manchester’s own people have admitted that they are losing $1 million per month from the boycott that Californians Against Hate (now Rights Equal Rights) launched on July 17, 2008, because of Doug Manchester’s $125,000 early donation to qualify and pass California’s Proposition 8.  Here’s NOM’s new site, Bust the Blacklist:  CLICK HERE

Manchester’s close friend, fellow San Diegan Terry Caster, who gave $693,000 to qualify and pass Proposition 8, is on NOM’s list.  Guess the last thing Doug Manchester wants is any more publicity.  He got a lousy return on his $125,000 contribution to take away marriage equality in California – at least $30 million in lost business to the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel alone!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Lula's legacy, leaving behind a transformed Brazil

Published: Monday, Dec. 27, 2010 - 9:04 am
Last Modified: Monday, Dec. 27, 2010 - 7:08 pm
Plopping her swollen ankles upon a purple couch, 72-year-old Dilma de Lima exults in the new government-built apartment she now calls home after a lifetime of misery in Brazil's slums.


Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/27/3283394/lulas-legacy-leaving-behind-a.html#ixzz19Si1D1fS

Via JMG: NORTH CAROLINA: Openly Gay Man Elected To Head Council Of Churches


An openly gay man has been elected to head North Carolina's Council of Churches. Stan Kimer, 55, is a retired businessman and a lay leader of the Metropolitan Community Church.
Only one other of the country's 33 similar church councils has elected an openly gay leader. Only one other of the country's 33 similar church councils has elected an openly gay leader. In California, a lesbian was elected president in the late 1990s. That makes Kimer's presidency of the N.C. Council - a coalition of 17 Christian denominations and eight individual churches that work on social issues - historic in the South. It also signals an acceptance among member denominations - Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics - that even if they have theological differences about homosexuality, they are OK with a gay man at the helm. Or at least, they don't see it as an issue worth fighting. "A lot of our member denominations have internal battles about this," said the Rev. George Reed, the council's executive director. "But the governing board felt the fact that he is a gay man was not a disqualifying factor."
A sample reader comment on the above-linked Charlotte Observer story: "Having him over the board of church's is like building a mosck on ground zero. Its obsurd!!!! If he is a true Christian and in fact reads the word of god then he should know how the lord feels about homosexuals. Sir you are an abomination and when you burn your smoke and ashes will ascend up to his nostrils like insence. Read it for yourself!!!"


reposted from Joe

Monday, December 27, 2010

Via oneinchatatime: Just for the record ...

Via Fred Karger: President Obama, Evolve Already!


President Obama, Evolve Already!


By Fred Karger
Founder, Rights Equal Rights
Posted: December 24, 2010 05:35 PM

For link to story, Click Here

WASHINGTON, DC - Like millions of Americans, I was so happy to see the president's bill signing ceremony. Don't Ask, Don' Tell created nearly 18 years of government sanctioned and enforced discrimination. Now that it is on its way out, the president seemed genuinely happy for the first time in months.

See how great it can be to do the right thing. All that excitement and emotion at the signing ceremony was seen and heard around the world.

Barack Obama was probably one of the first prominent Americans to support gay marriage way back in 1996 when he was first running for state office in Illinois.

"I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages," Obama wrote in the typed, signed, statement 14 years ago.

Then he switched his position, to opposing gay marriage, when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004.

The president is undoubtedly the only person to ever change his position on gay marriage the wrong way. Every day, gay marriage opponents are switching their positions and supporting full marriage equality, but no one has ever gone the other way.

Now President Obama says that he is "evolving" (again) on gay marriage.

I hope that the president will continue to evolve and help our community end all the hate and discrimination that is hurled at us. There are way too LGBT Americans who do not feel equal. I know. I felt that way for far too long.

The lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community is at least 21 million strong in this country, and we will no longer be second class citizens.

Gay marriage sends a very loud and clear message to LGBT youth that they are equal. When gay marriage is the law of the land, that will become our civil rights bill. What a strong message to younger people when that day comes.

Like the president said in his speech yesterday, "We area a nation that believes that all men and women are created equal."

President Obama, please come back to the right side of history and lead. Support full marriage equality for everyone in this country, and let's repeal the Defense of Marriage Act next year!



Fred's HuffPost column has been picked up all over and appeared in many blogs and posts.  Here are some of the links:

Regator  President Obama, Evolve Already

Democrati  President Obama, Evolve Already

The Freedomist   President Obama, Evolve Already


World News Mania   President Obama, Evolve Already

Onyx Book  President Obama, Evolve Already

RSS Hog Blog   President Obama, Evolve Already

The America News  President Obama, Evolve Already

Friday, December 24, 2010

inflight wedding rap

Via JMG: Joe Biden: Gay Marriage Is Inevitable


During an appearance on the Today Show, this morning Vice President Joe Biden said that he agreed with the president's "evolving" position on gay marriage and that a "national consensus" on the issue is inevitable.
“I think the country’s evolving,” he said. “And I think you’re going to see, you know, the next effort is probably going to be to deal with so called DOMA [Defence of Marriage Act].” DOMA prohibits federal government from recognising gay marriage, meaning that even if states allow the practice, gay couples still cannot access federal benefits. Mr Biden added that attitudes had changed to openly gay soldiers and that consensus was beginning to turn in favour of gay marriage. He said that gay troops were now “widely accepted” and “the same thing is happening now in regard to the issue of marriage.”

reposted from Joe

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Via JMG: LeAnn Rimes & GMCLA - The Rose

Via JMG: Obama On "Evolving" Marriage Position


Yesterday the president sat down with Advocate reporter Kerry Eleveld, who reminded him of his recent comment that his position on same-sex marriage has been evolving.
OBAMA: I'm not going to make more news today. The sentiment I expressed then is still where I am—which is, like a lot of people, I'm wrestling with this. My attitudes are evolving on this. I have always firmly believed in having a robust civil union that provides the rights and benefits under the law that marriage does. I've wrestled with the fact that marriage traditionally has had a different connotation. But I also have a lot of very close friends who are married gay or lesbian couples.

OBAMA: And squaring that circle is something that I have not done yet, but I'm continually asking myself this question and I do think that—I will make this observation, that I notice there is a big generational difference. When you talk to people who are in their 20s, they don't understand what the holdup is on this, regardless of their own sexual orientation. And obviously when you talk to older folks, then there’s greater resistance. And so this is an issue that I'm still wrestling with, others are still wrestling with. What I know is that at minimum, a baseline is that there has to be a strong, robust civil union available to all gay and lesbian couples.
Eleveld then pressed the president as to a timeline for "getting there" on marriage. Obama: "I'm going to stick with my answer."


reposted from Joe

'Yes We Did': President Obama Speaks Before Signing DADT Repeal

Quote of the Day: Dalai Lama



People often expect the other person to respond first in a positive way, instead of taking the initiative to create that possibility. I feel that's wrong; it can act as a barrier that just promotes a feeling of isolation from others. To overcome feelings of isolation and loneliness, your underlying attitude makes a tremendous difference - approaching others with the thought of compassion in your mind is the best way.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

via jmg: Sen. Lindsey Graham About To Be Outed?


Wonkette reports that outing kingpin Mike Rogers finally has the goods on Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Lindsey Graham, South Carolina’s favorite lifelong bachelor and former military prosecutor, is always reliably against homosexuals having any basic human rights in America because Lindsey’s a Republican, y’all. Anyway, famous outer-of-self-hating-queers Mike Rogers says he’s got pictures of one of Lindsey’s boy toys leaving Lindsey’s house. This would be SHOCKING because come on, everybody knows Republicans cannot be gay because Jesus did not make gays.
Mike Rogers has a 100% track record for correctly outing anti-gay closet cases. He's never been proven wrong.


reposted from Joe

Monday, December 20, 2010

Via JMG: Blowhard Bill Donohue: The $26M Man


It turns out that the anti-gay Catholic League, whose leader Bill Donohue was once famously insulted as "one guy with a fax machine," has assets of over $26M. And Donohue pays himself quite handsomely out of that hate jackpot.

Via Catholics United:
Controversial Catholic League president William Donohue – whose work has now gained the support of the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops – earned a salary of $342,500 in 2009, with an additional $56,656 in fringe benefits. According to annual IRS Form 990 filings, the organization spent more than $2.6 million in 2009, despite the fact that its program work constitutes little more than the issuing of inflammatory press releases.[snip] The organization shells out $335,914 for its midtown Manhattan office space, and compensates vice president Bernadette Brady to the tune of $203,727. An additional $57,826 is spent on office equipment. As organizations go, the Catholic League is a “non-profit” in name only. In 2009 it pocketed $943,516 in excess revenue, down from $1.35 million in 2008. As of the most recent filings, the Catholic League reported $26.2 million in net assets.
While impoverished parishes close down and soup kitchens are shuttered, the Catholic League spends somehow spends millions and makes millions doing nothing but fighting against LGBT rights. And this they do completely tax-free. Holy crimes, indeed.


reposted from Joe

Black Eyed Peas - The Time (Dirty Bit)

Via JMG: USMC Gen. James Amos Pledges To Lead Implementation Of DADT Repeal


Even though he thinks having openly gay soldiers will cost Marines their limbs, USMC Commandant James Amos says he will personally lead the implementation of the repeal of DADT. Here's his full statement as published by Stars & Stripes:
"Fidelity is the essence of the United States Marine Corps. Above all else, we are loyal to the Constitution, our Commander in Chief, Congress, our Chain of Command, and the American people. The House of Representatives and the Senate have voted to repeal Title 10, US Code 654 "Policy Concerning Homosexuality in the United States Armed Forces." As stated during my testimony before Congress in September and again during hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month, the Marine Corps will step out smartly to faithfully implement this new policy. I, and the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, will personally lead this effort, thus ensuring the respect and dignity due all Marines. On this matter, we look forward to further demonstrating to the American people the discipline and loyalty that have been the hallmark of the United States Marine Corps for over 235 years."

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Quote Of The Day - Barney Frank


“It’s one thing to have a gay person in the abstract. It’s another to see that person as part of a living, breathing couple. How would a gay presidential candidate have a celebratory kiss with his partner after winning the New Hampshire primary? The sight of two women kissing has not been as distressful to people as the sight of two men kissing. [And because of DOMA] it’s not clear that a gay president could use federal funds to buy his husband dinner. Would his partner have to pay rent in the White House? There would be no Secret Service protection for the paramour." - Rep. Barney Frank, responding to Jimmy Carter's contention that America is ready for a gay president.


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Michele "Crazy Eyes" Bachmann Named To U.S. House INTELLIGENCE Committee


She wanted to be on the powerful Ways & Means Committee, but instead incoming House Speaker John Boehner has appointed Crazy Eyes to the House Intelligence Committee. Yup.
The committee has oversight jurisdiction of the CIA, the National Security Agency, other intelligence agencies within the Department of Defense, and the Departments of State, Justice, and Treasury, and the FBI. This is the perfect reward for a member of Congress who thinks that Barack Obama spent $200 million a day on a trip to India, wants the president and Congress investigated for being anti-American, and who thinks the Charge of the Light Brigade was a military victory? Given that she's already enlisted Justice Antonin Scalia to teach frosh teabaggers about the Constitution, perhaps we can expect her to nominate George W. Bush to instruct them on foreign intelligence.
We are truly lost.


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: LAUNCHED: Equality Matters


Media Matters has launched Equality Matters, a new LGBT activism site meant to serve as a "communications war room for gay equality."
It will be run by Richard Socarides, a former domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton who has been deeply critical of President Obama’s record on gay rights. A well-known gay journalist, Kerry Eleveld, the Washington correspondent for The Advocate, will leave that magazine in January to edit the new group’s Web site, equalitymatters.org, which is to go online Monday morning. “Yesterday was a very important breakthrough,” Mr. Socarides said in an interview on Sunday, “and President Obama’s comments, especially following the vote, were very significant, where he for the first time connected race and gender to sexual orientation under the banner of civil rights. “But we will celebrate this important victory for five minutes, and then we have to move on, because we are the last group of Americans who are discriminated against in federal law and there is a lot of work to do.”
Among the major backers of Media Matters is billionaire philanthropist George Soros. The homocon teabaggers are already whining.

reposted from Joe

Via Juan Cole: Senate Repeal of DADT in Global Context

Conservative religious fanatics lost on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and anti-gay discrimination. The scary thing is, that since it is clear that fear-mongering on gays will no longer win elections in the next generation, the turn to hate-mongering against Muslims may accelerate.

So the Senate has repealed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ the compromise policy on gays serving in the military.

The real question is why treatment of gays is such a hot button issue in the United States in the first place. Since America is a big island, only a third of Americans even have a passport, and US media carefully protects Americans from points of view emanating from abroad, most Americans would probably be surprised to discover that their country is an outlier among industrialized democracies in its treatment of gays.

If we take full marriage rights as a proxy for gay rights in general, then Argentina, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland are all heads and shoulders above federal US policy.

Gays can serve openly in the military in Russia, Ukraine, Canada, South Africa, Salvador, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Israel, Nepal, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and virtually all of Europe including the Balkans with the exceptions of Greece and Turkey.

Is there anything that would make sense of this world pattern? I can make three suggestions. First, gay rights, including marriage rights, have been implemented by some countries that suffered a long period of fascist or other authoritarian governance, and which rebelled against it. Franco’s fascist Spain, in place from 1936-1975, gave way to a new Spanish parliamentary regime and in recent years to Spanish socialism. Fascist regimes affected a macho heterosexual patriarchy and typically ruthlessly persecuted gays. Fascist regimes also often, being nativist, had a special relationship to the Church (yes, Hitler was a believing Catholic) and took cues on public morality from the remnants of the Inquisition. (This is by no means to deny that many conscientious Catholics and priests vigorously opposed fascism). In Franco’s Spain mere admission of being gay could lead to imprisonment, rape and torture.

Calvinist, Protestant regimes such as Apartheid South Africa were likewise highly oppressive, patriarchal and heterosexual. The hierarchical rightwing society, which placed adult men of the most favored race, at the top of the society, was challenged by any group that did not easily fit on the social ladder or who challenged its legitimacy. The Apartheid regime in South Africa

“South Africa’s apartheid army forced white lesbian and gay soldiers to undergo ‘sex-change’ operations in the 1970′s and the 1980′s, and submitted many to chemical castration, electric shock, and other unethical medical experiments. Although the exact number is not known, former apartheid army surgeons estimate that as many as 900 forced ‘sexual reassignment’ operations may have been performed between 1971 and 1989 at military hospitals, as part of a top-secret program to root out homosexuality from the service. “

Gay rights came to form part of a human-rights backlash against rightwing policies in South Africa, Spain and Argentina, then. Although it does not yet extend to full marriage rights, a residue of reaction against central European fascism informs the general European commitment to non-discrimination against gays.

Second, gay rights are prominent in countries, as with Scandinavia, where there is a greater degree of gender equality and where women serve in large numbers in the legislatures. One suspects that just as anti-Apartheid activists saw an affinity between oppressed black Africans and discriminated-against gays, so Scandinavian feminists found a commonality with gays in confronting hetero male supremacism.

But third, and inescapably, religious fanaticism obviously plays a significant role in denying rights to gays. There is a direct relationship between rightwing Catholicism, rightwing evangelicalism, rightwing Hinduism, and rightwing Islam on the one hand, and discrimination against gays on the other.

Hindu India has been among the worst democratic countries for gay rights in modern history, and only in 2009 finally made it legal even to be gay (though it is still illegal to have a gay relationship!). Greece has a little-noted almost theocratic relationship at times with the Eastern Orthodox Church. Sri Lanka, obsessed by Theravada Buddhism, is like an island prison for gays, at least as far as the law goes. Despite widespread experimentation with gay sex in the Muslim world, which has an old history (half of the love poems in the Diwan of classic Abbasid poet Abu Nuwas are about young men), the public policies toward gays, shaped in part by the influence of the Muslim clergy, are among the worst in the world. And it is where the Church is strongest in the Catholic world that gays are treated worst.

Regional policy can also differ from national policy where one region of a country is more religious than another. And here we come to the United States. White, rightwing evangelicals have been among the most vocal opponents of gay rights in the United States (along with rightwing Catholics, African-American Protestants, and Mormons). Once the religious Right became politically active from the 1970s forward, and especially with the swing of white southern and western evangelicals to the Republican Party as a result of the Nixon Strategy in the aftermath of the enfranchisement of African-Americans, the Republican Party became a bastion of anti-gay policies and legislation, despite the significant gay constituency inside the party in the Northeast and the Bay Area of California.

Only six Republicans voted ‘yes’ in the procedural vote that allowed the DADT repeal to go forward in the Senate.

The Republican Party in the US is a coalition of groups, and ironically includes some relatively liberal factions (the Log Cabin Republicans, e.g., who sued over DADT). But religious ultra-conservatives are a key demographic for the party, and probably are growing in importance within it, according to Gallup. The ultra-conservatives are disproportionately white and committed Protestants (likely mostly evangelicals).

The mainstream Republican Party’s view on many social issues thus resembles that of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and the Muslim Brotherhood and related parties in the Muslim world far more than it does the ‘conservative’ parties of Scandinavia and continental Europe. Religion is a big part of the reason, but likely the other two factors play a role. Frankly, many American whites still have a hierarchical view of race and sexual identity in America, and many have relatively authoritarian views of governance–favoring the National Security State over individual rights, e.g.

As in Europe, where some far-right parties such as that of LePen in France that used to bait gays have recently posed as their defenders from Muslim immigrants, we can expect the American Right to play the same game. A plea here to progressive gays not to fall for it, and to American Muslims to stand for tolerance for other discriminated-against groups.

<http://www.gaybahai.net/discussion/post/1345211>

Michelangelo Signorile On DADT Repeal

Saturday, December 18, 2010

ViaTruthout:: Senate Repeals "Don't Ask Don't Tell"

Faiz Shakir, ThinkProgress: "Moments ago, by a 65-31 vote, the Senate acted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, the policy banning gays from openly serving in the military. The same six GOP senators who broke with their party during the cloture vote earlier today also voted for repeal: Sens. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Scott Brown, Lisa Murkowski, George Voinovich, and Mark Kirk. Two more Republicans - John Ensign and Richard Burr - joined with Democrats in final passage."

Read the Article

Via JMG: Final DADT Vote: 65-31


Two Republicans switched their "no" cloture votes to "yes" for repeal: Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Sen. John Ensign (R-NV).


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Lady Gaga Reacts To DADT Vote



reposted from Joe

Friday, December 17, 2010

Via JMG:

Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Dan Savage


"Let's make a deal: give us our full civil equality—repeal DOMA, let us marry legally in all fifty states, end DADT, pass ENDA, stop torturing gay kids to death—and we'll let you have your fucking rainbows back." - Dan Savage on yesterday demand by NOM that queers stop using the rainbow.
posted by Joe

Via JMG: Miami Church Wants Univision Fined For "Obscene Interview" With Ricky Martin


A Hispanic evangelical group plans to protest outside the Miami affiliate of Univision tomorrow because the FCC totally needs to fine the network for airing an "obscene interview" with recently-out Ricky Martin. Andres Duque provides the translation of their press release at Blabbeando:
On November 2nd, 2010, Univision broadcast a program called: Ricky Martin... Without Secrets, in which he spoke of having his first sexual encounter when he was 15 years of age and that, after having slept with women, he had relations with men. Afterward he felt confused until one day when he was being interviewed he felt attracted to the reporter who was interviewing him. To the point of falling in love with that man. Presenting himself as being ultra-successful, showing images of his 10 million dollar house, riding a sport motorcycle through the streets, walking through the beach and then, showing images of his concert, in front of thousands of young folk, he presents himself as the role model to follow for the children who watched the program at the child friendly hour of 7 to 8 pm. As people who valor the principles that gave birth to this nation, we have decided to say 'enough' with these shows that violate the innocence of our kids and promote confusion at a time in which our youth are developing. Univision's complicity in transmitting this message deserves, on our side, our complaints before the FCC - the entity that regulates media in the Unites States - which says that any pornographic, indecent or obscene content can be reported as a complaint.
Got that? Merely interviewing a gay person is obscene and pornographic.


reposted from Joe

Prêmio Direitos Humanos consagra Toni Reis pela defesa da população LGBT


13/12/2010 19:32 - Portal Brasil


O Prêmio Direitos Humanos, que chegou, neste ano, à 16ª edição, foi entregue nesta segunda-feira (13) a Antonio Martins dos Reis, o Toni Reis, reconhecido pela sua atuação na promoção e na defesa dos Direitos Humanos da população LGBT desde 1983.

Toni é presidente da Associação Brasileira de Gays, Lésbicas, Bissexuais, Travestis e Transexuais (ABGLT).
Participaram da cerimônia o presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, o ministro Paulo Vannuchi, da Secretaria de Direitos Humanos da Presidência da República (SDH/PR) e o ministro da Cultura, Juca Ferreira. 
O prêmio é considerado a mais alta condecoração do governo brasileiro a pessoas e entidades que se destacaram na defesa, na promoção e no enfrentamento e combate às violações dos Direitos Humanos em nosso País.

A estatueta entregue neste ano foi idealizada pelo artista gráfico Elifas Andreato. Fundida em bronze com acabamento em pátina, base de granito preto e plaqueta banhada a ouro, a escultura chama-se “Maternidade”, e foi desenhada a partir da figura de uma mãe carregando seu filho.


Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Via JMG: Bed Intruder Christmas Carol-Liberty University (LU) 2010 Christmas Coffeehouse

JMG Quote Of The Day II - Jimmy Carter



"Step-by-step, we have realized that this issue of homosexuality has the same adverse and progressive elements as when we dealt with the race issue 50 years ago, or 40 years ago. So I would say that the country is getting acclimated to a president who might be female, who might, obviously, now, be Black, and who might be as well a gay person." - Former President Jimmy Carter, in a video commentary on Big Think.


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: HomoQuotable - USMC Staff Sgt. Eric Alva


"He pretty much spit on me, my Purple Heart, and my 13 years of service. I would definitely ask Amos for a meeting to explain his comments, and I’d bring my Purple Heart with me. I wish Obama would invite [Amos] to the White House and fire his ass on the spot." - Former USMC Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, responding to USMC Commandant General Amos' comment that repealing DADT would cost Marines their limbs due to the "distraction" of all those homo soldiers. In 2003 Alva became the first Marine to be injured in Iraq when he lost his leg due to a landmine.
reposted from Joe

2 from JMG:

DADT Repeal Passes House 250-175



Sen. Olympia Snowe To Support Repeal


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reposted from Joe

Via JMG: GLAAD Action Alert: Tell Apple To Stay Strong On The Manhattan Declaration


Two weeks ago, I asked to you to use the Family Research Council's own link to thank Apple for keeping the Manhattan Declaration app off the iPhone. (And thousands of you did.) Responding to yesterday's video from NOM, today GLAAD echoes that request.
The 'Manhattan Declaration' calls gay and lesbian couples "immoral," it calls the recognition of their relationships "false and destructive," and claims that allowing them to be married will lead to "genuine social harms." The original application also contained a quiz in which the "right" answers were those that oppose equality for gay and lesbian people. This application fuels a climate in which gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are put in harm's way. Apple did the right thing in recognizing that this application violates the company's guidelines. Join GLAAD in thanking Apple for their action to remove the app and urging them to stay strong in the face of anti-gay activism.
Sign GLAAD's petition to Apple.


Today's Little bit of Crazy Via JMG: USMC Head James Amos: DADT Repeal Could Cause Marines To Lose Their Legs


General James Amos, Commandant of the USMC, says the "distraction" of openly gay soldiers will cause more casualties on the battlefield.
"When your life hangs on a line, on the intuitive behavior of the young man ... who sits to your right and your left, you don't want anything distracting you," Amos told reporters at the Pentagon. "I don't want to lose any Marines to distraction. I don't want to have any Marines that I'm visiting at Bethesda (hospital) with no legs," he said. He added that "mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines' lives. That's the currency of this fight." His comments were the toughest yet on the issue, after he testified at a congressional hearing that he opposed lifting the ban in a time of war. Amos said Marines in combat in Afghanistan sent a "very strong message" in the Pentagon's study released earlier this month, expressing opposition to repealing the ban in a survey."I have to listen to that," he said.
Metro Weekly's Chris Geidner reports that Amos' comments have sparked outrage among pro-repeal groups.
Aaron Belkin, the director of the Palm Center, told Metro Weekly, "Among those U.S. Marines who know a gay or lesbian peer in their unit, 88.1 percent say that the unit functions effectively. Gen. Amos is cherry-picking the data to support his 20th century views, and everyone knows it." Belkin added, "Gen. Amos admitted [in his testimony on Dec. 3] that he is the only Service Chief who did not take the time to ask his colleagues in foreign militaries whether allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly undermines combat effectiveness." [snip]

Servicemembers United executive director Alex Nicholson, meanwhile, said in a statement that Amos's "commentary is moving from the realm of reasonable disagreement in the provision of professional military advice to hysteria-inducing absurdity on this topic that reflects very poorly on DOD and on the administration." SLDN's Sarvis went on in his statement to say of Amos's comments, "He had his say before the Senate and House. General Amos needs to stop lobbying against his Commander-in-Chief, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. If he cannot do that, the President should ask for his resignation."

reposted from Joe

Via HimalayaCrafts:

Happiness comes when both your work and your words are of benefit to others.

☸ Namaste ☸ 


Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Via SacBee: New bill requires gay history in textbooks to fight bullying

Openly gay state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill today that would require public school materials to include the historical contributions of gay people as a way to fight bullying. 

Leno's Senate Bill 48 is similar to a proposal that was approved by the Legislature in 2006 but vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"Most textbooks don't include any historical information about the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) movement, which has great significance to both California and U.S. history," Leno said in a press release. Leno was recently named to prominent leadership as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee

Leno added: "Our collective silence on this issue perpetuates negative stereotypes of LGBT people and leads to increased bullying of young people."

The bill's aim is to work information about historical figures and events into materials that are up for regular review and revision by state public school authorities.

Leno said the inclusion of information about gays would mirror the steps the state has required to include information about women and ethnic minorities in school materials.

The gay rights organization Equality California is a sponsor of the Leno proposal.


"Given the number of young people who tragically took their own lives after being bullied for being LGBT - or perceived as being LGBT - it is imperative that we do more to ensure that all children feel fully welcomed, and this legislation is an important step toward that goal," said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California.
 

Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2010/12/sen-leno-hopes-gay-history-bil.html#ixzz183fDqKmT

Monday, December 13, 2010

Via JMG: PFLAG Co-Founder Dies At Age 90


Adele Starr, the co-founder and first president of PFLAG, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 90.
In 1976, Starr founded the Los Angeles chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, a gay rights and acceptance organization known then as Parent FLAG, now as PFLAG. In 1979, she spoke on the steps of the U.S. Capitol at a march for gay rights — a seminal event often credited with uniting a then-nascent movement. Two years later, she became PFLAG's first national president; she served in that capacity until 1986 and remained a forceful advocate for civil rights and, in later years, for the legalization of same-sex marriage. Starr served at the helm of PFLAG during the onset of the AIDS crisis, said her longtime friend and collaborator Terry DeCrescenzo, founder of another advocacy group formed to reach out to gay and lesbian youth. "In that time, a lot of us lost hope," said DeCrescenzo, 66, of Studio City. "Not Adele. And PFLAG became enormously important because it was rock solid.... She was a good woman. She'll be missed.
Adele Starr: "We cannot understand those arrogant people who have decided that a heterosexual lifestyle must be imposed on everyone and that they have a monopoly on morality. The American way is respect for diversity with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."


reposted from Joe