"If you're gay, lesbian, or bisexual, would you sacrifice for your trans neighbors and siblings? If you're trans, would you sacrifice for your gay, lesbian, or bisexual neighbors and siblings? It's something worth knowing about yourself and those around you." --Autumn Sandeen, 4/19/2010, the night before GetEQUAL's DADT repeal protest at the White House
Public Calendar
Press/media, organizations, and individuals send your time-based event info to: calendar@phblend.net
The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
We've all heard about Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mullen's testimony to Congress about DADT repeal being "The Right Thing to Do". Afterwards, on February 2nd, Admiral Mullen's twitter account had this tweet posted:
Stand by what I said: Allowing homosexuals to serve openly is the right thing to do. Comes down to integrity. 11:41 AM Feb 2nd via web
That's pretty clear and unambiguous, no?
But according to The Advocate, which obtained its information from Dan Woods, the lead attorney for the Log Cabin Republicans who are challenging DADT in court:
Government attorneys have repeatedly objected to much of the evidence submitted by the plaintiffs and have even questioned the veracity of a February 2 tweet by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, who wrote, "Stand by what I said: Allowing homosexuals to serve openly is the right thing to do. Comes down to integrity."
(TGIF, Blenders! It's an open thread! - promoted by Keori)
We haven't done a "jukebox thread" in awhile so...
Between all this gay news of keeping the gayTM closed, NOM's lies, the afterglow of the GLAD/Coakley DOMA victory and winning marriage equality in Argentina, one of my biggest personal issues has been that...
...I just can't get this song out of my head. For 4 days now....
The Department of Housing and Urban Development under Secretary Shawn Donovan appears to be taking a page from Secretary Clinton's State Department in paving the way for equality for LGBTI citizens in spite of the silence from President Obama. The Fair Housing Act does NOT contain specific protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or genderqueer persons at a federal level, leaving it, as usual, up to the states to decide. However, back in March HUD announced the beginning of the first ever LGBT Housing Discrimination Study. HUD is still looking for participants during its public comment period. I urge everyone to go to the website and call or enter comments, particularly if you are a realtor or professional in the area of real estate.
This morning's mail included an announcement from HUD about next week's Fair Housing Conference in New Orleans.
WASHINGTON - Demonstrating the urgency to end housing discrimination, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today announced that it will hold a national fair housing conference in New Orleans, starting Monday, July 19. The five-day conference will feature leading scholars, advocates, government officials, and community leaders focused on providing equal housing opportunities, increasing economic opportunities for low-income individuals, and meeting the needs of persons with disabilities. Other topics to be discussed will include lending discrimination, combating housing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, and creating affordable housing opportunities for residents of New Orleans still rebuilding their lives five years after Hurricane Katrina.
If any Blenders live in the area and can attend this conference, I strongly urge you to do so. LGBT people are still not protected from discrimination in housing in most states. Sadly, President Obama has not ended housing discrimination via Executive Order as President John F. Kennedy did in 1962. Fair Housing For All is urging President Obama to follow President Kennedy's lead and draft and sign an EO adding sexual orientation and gender identity to federal regulations, calling such an act "a down payment on basic fairness."
For millions of gay and lesbian Americans, the federal Fair Housing Act may provide protection against discrimination based on race or national origin, but no protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Even more remarkable, federal regulation still does not bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity even in federally assisted housing.
There are more than four million units of federally assisted housing in the United States, and the federal government must no longer be a silent partner in discrimination against the LGBT community.
There is a long tradition of taking the initial step of prohibiting discrimination on the federal level by means of an Executive Order. That is exactly what President Kennedy did when he signed Executive Order 11063 in November, 1962.
That Executive Order prohibited discrimination in federally assisted housing on the basis of race, color, creed, or national origin. As subsequently amended by Executive Orders 12259 and 12892, discrimination in federally assisted housing is now prohibited on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), sex, disability, familial status or national origin.
Such a thing would be so easy to draft and sign, like that stop-loss order affecting DADT, and yet we still haven't seen it. It wouldn't amend Title VIII, the Fair Housing Act, but it would go a long way towards ensuring equal opportunity in housing while HUD finishes its study.
The abrupt dismissal of charges against Lt Dan Choi and Capt James Pietrangelo in connection with two civil disobedience incidence left more than a few people scratching their heads, why? The prosecutor in the case, Christine Chang was quoted in several sources as saying, "I was ready," as were all witnesses and arrresting officers. Now, Chris Geidner of Metro Weekly, has released a statement from DC Mayor Fenty's office:
The Criminal Section of the D.C. Attorney General's Office considered the ''Failure to Obey'' charges. ''After carefully examining video and speaking with the officers involved, it was determined that the charge couldn't be maintained,'' she wrote.
Danger Will Robinson! Danger! The Family Research Council (FRC) is warning the sheeple that passage of the repeal of the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA) is imminent! Money needs to be raised to combat that evil!
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is in danger. Liberals in Congress are moving forward right now to repeal this essential federal law that:
• Defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and . . .
• Permits states to disregard the validity of homosexual "marriages" conducted in other states
In yet another failure of President Obama's moral leadership, one of his spokespeople said, "The administration believes the Defense of Marriage Act is discriminatory and should be repealed."
If DOMA falls, it will be catastrophic for America, for the values taught to our children, and for your freedom as a Christian because The homosexual Left will be able to bring the weight of the federal government down on anyone who refuses to go along with counterfeit marriage and the rest of the homosexual "rights" campaign.
Are you going to surrender to the homosexual agenda?
FRC has been at the forefront of this battle for 27 years. Our efforts were essential in developing DOMA and making--along with our allies--its passage possible in 1996. It was a strategic victory for pro-family conservatives.
Ever since, DOMA has been under attack by the powerful homosexual lobby, in lockstep with their liberal allies on Capitol Hill and in the mainstream media. Now they're running full speed ahead to reach their goal.
The pace began picking up last year when President Obama signed a federal "hate crimes" law. Then came his renewed assault on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and most recently his nomination of the pro-homosexual activist Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.
And just last week an activist federal judge in Massachusetts declared unconstitutional the federal definition of "marriage"--the union of one man and one woman. He added that "it is only irrational prejudice that motivates the [traditional definition of marriage]."
The Obama Justice Department has not done its duty to defend DOMA aggressively. In fact, it appears that while Solicitor General at Justice, Elena Kagan undermined DOMA in various cases and made deliberately weak legal defenses. Imagine what she'd do with a lifetime appointment to the highest court!
When you put all those pieces together, it's an amazing attack on America's moral foundations!
The definition of marriage belongs to God. And I will not give up the fight to advance what God has created and what sustains a healthy society.
Will you please stand with us? We can win but our team needs you at our side.
Wow! DOMA is going to passed and signed by the President really, really soon! Er...right?
Um, yeah. Legislation important to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community is going nowhere this congressional session -- and probably next session as well -- and it's extremely difficult for me to believe that the FRC doesn't know that.
So, this is religious right conservatives fleecing their own sheeple with one of those scary messages they are so good at putting out to their people.
Maybe our LGBT civil rights organizations could get together and release a statement to the effect of:
"Don't worry, religious right sheeple. Tony Perkins is selling you a line of unadulterated manure -- President Obama couldn't be less interested in repealing DOMA anytime soon than you know. Your fear-mongering, reactionary, religious right organizations -- such as the Family Research Council -- are attempting to fleece you of your hard-earned cash in this wobbly economy for legislation that our President and this Congress doesn't actually plan to act upon."
My post on the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) was published in the Huffington Post and apparently NOM is not happy about it.
The post dealt with an administrator on NOM's Facebook page making the claim that gays weren't hunted down and murdered like "Jews, Christians, and Blacks."
Yesterday, NOM answered back:
“The Huffington Post on Wednesday falsely attributed statements to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) about discrimination faced by gays and lesbians. The statements were apparently posted by an unnamed “administrator” of the “Protect Marriage: 1 Man 1 Woman” Facebook account. Huffington Post falsely claims that this is NOM’s Facebook page. The Facebook account on which these statements were reportedly made is not NOM’s Facebook page and neither NOM nor anyone representing NOM made these statements. The Facebook account in question is operated by a private party and NOM does not control what is allowed to be posted on the account, a fact that could have been easily known to Huffington Post had they reached out to NOM to verify the report.”
But NOM's explanation is seriously misleading.
As this link courtesy of Box Turtle Bulletin and Goodasyou proves, the page "Protect Marriage: 1 Man 1 Woman" is associated with NOM. From its Twitter page, NOM is pushing the page as its own.
And one more thing about Marinelli - he is not only participating in NOM's "Summer for Marriage" Tour, but he is also (wait for it) driving the RV that NOM is using in the tour. We know this because he is so generously giving everyone updates on how the "tour" is going.
So the question here is who are you going to believe? The National Organization for Marriage or your own eyes?
It's a motherlode of FAIL and sadsacks as Louise uploaded photos from the losers NOM's faithful at craptacular, sparsely attended NOM "Summer of Marriage 2010" Kickoff in Maine (Facebook album here).
Another priceless photo:
UPDATE: When I said sparsely attended, this is what I meant - protect keyboards...
I'm on the road for a while, with my first stop in NYC for a couple of days; as I mentioned a bit ago, my brother and I are going to our first baseball game at the new Yankee Stadium on Saturday.
Tonight Kate and I had dinner with LGBT activist, author, and all-around legend, David Mixner. We've corresponded for a long time but this was the first time we've met, and it was like getting together with an old friend.
We went to one of his favorite places, the Glass House Tavern in the Theatre District (highly recommended; I had a mimosa, of course), and he was kind enough to celebrate our anniversary with a wonderful evening of dinner and conversation. I'm glad to see him up and about and feisty as ever. (Oh the filthy, hilarious insider stories he shared that I absolutely cannot repeat on this family-friendly blog, lol). We were in stitches all night long. We will treasure the autographed copies of his books Strangers Among Friends and Brave Journeys: Profiles in Gay and Lesbian Courage that he surprised us with.
Next up some family visit time and we'll head home, and I'll be off to Netroots Nation, where I keep getting invitations to serve on panels for some reason...but here are the ones I'm on so far:
Speaking of NN, here's a kind of odd thing that turned up on Twitter (click the link below to see what Sum of Change means:
@Pam_Spaulding is so awesome @Netroots_Nation had to list her twice to give due respect... http://tweetphoto.com/32833791
***
While I am on the road, bear with me emailers. it may be a while before I get to all of it. One big consolation is that ace LGBT blogger at the Great Orange Satan, Scott Wooledge, aka Clarknt67, will be guest blogging on the front page while I'm intermittently posting.
***
And on Tuesday, if you surf over to The Rude Pundit, I've been invited to contribute a rude, nasty blog entry. This will be my third turn serving up rudeness for RP. It will be hard to top my last guest spot -- the 2007 entry: Big Black Buck Bl*wjob.
A beach club outside Wilmington, NC gives the boot to a 70-year-old member. She's a descendant of a family who was one of its founders over 100 years ago.
Bishop Gene Robinson released a statement about TransForm New Hampshire, included in this press release:
TransForm New Hampshire
July 23-25, 2010
Concord, NH
STATEMENT FROM BISHOP GENE ROBINSON
Equal rights for Transgender People is the next front in the equal-rights-for-all effort. But more of our citizens need to understand the experiences, challenges and needs of their trans neighbors. This conference is an extraordinary opportunity to hear national leaders as well as local activists, speaking to the experience and needs of our trans citizens. Even gay and lesbian people are often uneducated and unfamiliar with the complexities of our trans brothers and sisters who have been so supportive of our efforts for full equality. Run, don't walk, to sign up for this great conference!
Bishop Gene Robinson
Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
Encouraging the T (transgender) to join together with the LGB (lesbian, gay, and bisexual) in LGBT, and the LGB to join together with the T in LGBT -- Wow, what a swell concept!
Adam Flanders, a Blender in Belfast, Maine, sent this one in.
Today was an historical day in Maine - a fundie properly spelled "marriage." As you can see in the picture below, she didn't get it right the first time, but this fundie, by what some have said is a true miracle of Jesus himself, corrected the spelling. All it took was a little super glue and a new tab of paper in the top right corner and this fundie became a wizard...of spelling, that is. We'll let her get away with splitting up lifestyle (was that life..."sin" under that pasted on sheet?).
Every year Mayor Tom Menino's Office of Arts, Tourism, and Special Events puts on its annual Boston GospelFest at City Hall Plaza.
And because the Gospelfest is a public and taxpayer-funded community event, it's opened to all- even its African American lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities.
But with Pastor Donnie McClurkin, the poster boy for African American ex-gay ministries, who spews anti-gay religion-based vitriol, billed as the main event, many in the African American lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) communities will not be in attendance at this year's event. And neither will the mayor.
Menino ranks among the most pro-LGBTQ mayors across the country. He refused to participate in Boston's St. Patrick's Day parade when organizers barred an LGBTQ group from marching. And he was always an advocate for equal marriage. Menino has thrown his weight around and has used his power on behalf of LGBTQ civil rights, and have succeeded in doing so.
However, when it comes to moving Boston's black ministers on LGBTQ civil rights, Menino's struggle has been and is like that of other elected officials and queer activists - immovable. And, sadly many of Boston's black ministers are in lock step with black homophobic ministers across the country.
Menino's absence from this year's Gospelfest is another sad example of how Boston's black ministers, an influential and powerful political voting bloc of the mayor's, would rather compromise its decade-long friendship with City Hall than denounce McClurkin's appearance.
And while Boston's black ministers' support of McClurkin's appearance put the mayor between a rock and a hard place with its LGBTQ and African American communities, it also puts Menino in a difficult spot with his African American LGBTQ communities.
Should we shed a tear for NOM and Papa Ratzi? Nah...
After a marathon debate, 33 lawmakers voted in favor, 27 were against it and 3 abstained in Argentina's Senate in a vote that ended after 4 a.m. Since the lower house already approved it, and President Cristina Fernandez is a strong supporter, it now becomes law as soon as it is published in the official bulletin.
The law is sure to bring a wave of marriages by gays and lesbians who have increasingly found Buenos Aires to be more accepting than many other places in the region.
The approval came despite a concerted campaign by the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical groups, which drew 60,000 people to march on Congress and urged parents in churches and schools to work against passage.
That's up from 10 years on the statute of limitations. Victims of priest-rape are supposed to feel grateful for the benevolence, right?
But the kicker is that the announcement of this change was paird with the edict that The Vatican also plans to make it a major crime against the church to ordain a woman as a priest. Nice comparison, huh? A comment on this news by Damian Thompson, editor of Telegraph (IK) blogs:
If I'd been put in charge of the Vatican press office with a specific brief to provide ammunition for the Church's enemies, I don't think I could have come up with anything better than this. Increase the penalties against abusers in a way that might have generated positive headlines - but make sure you bundle them up with separate penalties involving invalid women's ordinations. That will allow the anti-Catholic media to proclaim: "Catholic Church condemns priestly paedophilia and women's ordination" - and imply "Catholic Church equates priestly paedophilia and women's ordination".
The Vatican has revised its procedures for handling priestly sex abuse cases, streamlining disciplinary measures, extending the statute of limitations and defining child pornography as an act of sexual abuse of a minor.
Vatican officials said the changes allow the church to deal with such abuse more rapidly and effectively, often through dismissal of the offending cleric from the priesthood.
As expected, the Vatican also updated its list of the "more grave crimes" against church law, called "delicta graviora," including for the first time the "attempted sacred ordination of a woman." In such an act, it said, the cleric and the woman involved are automatically excommunicated, and the cleric can also be dismissed from the priesthood.
Vatican officials emphasized that simply because women's ordination was treated in the same document as priestly sex abuse did not mean the two acts were somehow equivalent in the eyes of the church.
"There are two types of 'delicta graviora': those concerning the celebration of the sacraments, and those concerning morals. The two types are essentially different and their gravity is on different levels," one Vatican official said.
What's up with the National Organization for Marriage (NOM)?
Not too many people are noticing this, but that organization, started to supposedly "protect marriage" from us so-called evil lgbts, seems to be going off the deep end in terms of rhetoric.
When it began, NOM cleverly played up the "we are unfairly being called bigots because we simply want to protect marriage" meme. And that was because of the savvy of its founder, Maggie Gallagher.
But now with Gallagher handing the reins of the group to Brian Brown, the organization has abandoned all pretenses of martyrdom and is headed straight for crazy-talk territory.
This was evident when it joined forces in its "Summer for Marriage" tour with one Louis J. Marinelli III, a man who not only cites the discredited work of Paul Cameron, but is also very vocal in the belief that gays want to cause all sorts of mischief from molesting children to creating polygamous relationships.
And if that's not bad enough, from the administrator of NOM's facebook page comes this little "gem:"
(Gays and lesbians) are not being repressed, discriminated against. There is no and never has ever been a homosexual man hunt for them. Jews, Christians, and Blacks were hunted down and murdered. Homosexuals have nothing in common with the three.
Now I could go into a history of the persecution of the lgbt community in places like Nazi Germany or talk about Sakia Gunn, Michael Sandy, or even Matthew Shepard (whose murder was not soley about a robbery no matter what the right says), or the countless number of lgbts who have lost their lives due to hate but what's the point?
Sometimes people say things so wildly inaccurate that any comment you want to make is unnecessary.
The statement by NOM is beyond the pale and it further proves what many lgbts know about that group. NOM is not interested in defending marriage. It's only interested in bashing lgbts, but not by physical attacks.
NOM seeks to psychologically bash us.
First the organization tells us that we are not worthy of marriage; that we have no ability to love and raise children; that we are undeserving of anything except for what folks like them feel that they want to give us.
And now with that statement, NOM seeks to rewrite history in a way that eliminates our past struggles for equality in the same manner that the group is also trying to eliminate our potential future happiness.
I think a question by web site Box Turtle Bulletin about the statement on NOM's facebook page says it all:
I'm on the road for a while, with my first stop in NYC for a couple of days; as I mentioned a bit ago, my brother and I are going to our first baseball game at the new Yankee Stadium on Saturday.
Tonight Kate and I had dinner with LGBT activist, author, and all-around legend, 
Next up some family visit time and we'll head home, and I'll be off to 
Ex-gay Donnie McClurkin at Boston's Gospelfest
But with Pastor Donnie McClurkin, the poster boy for African American ex-gay ministries, who spews anti-gay religion-based vitriol, billed as the main event, many in the African American lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) communities will not be in attendance at this year's event. And neither will the mayor.
