"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.
My high-quality vid is still uploading, but I have this lower-res version for those excited to see the flopsweat on Brian Brown's brow ASAP. So the background first -- I did this on my lunch hour (kind of a long lunch since it takes about a 1/2 hour to get to Raleigh), and I drove a work colleague with me who hadn't been to one of these fundie rallies before. Robyn was quite excited as I described the decomposing influence of NOM as its tour has worn on.
It's hot here this week, so it was over 95 degrees and when we drove down Morgan Street, which was the dividing street between our anti-NOM rally and NOM's zombies, our side had signs saying "Honk for Equality" which was the rallying call to drown out NOM's speakers, which was quite effective in rattling Brown. We found a parking space a block away (!) and I quickly got up the block, turned the camera on, and got a pass of the protesters and then marched up to the NOM crowd and zeroed in on Brown, who was just getting warmed up...you may hear my editorial "OMG" comments in the background. And when Brian starts bleating about how he's going to help pass a marriage amendment here in NC, you can clearly hear me say "not gonna happen." :P
Brian Brown urged supporters this afternoon to stand and urge their legislators to support a constitutional amendment to protect marriage: "If you move forward with a marriage amendment in North Carolina, you will show the government where we stand." The way will not always be easy, however: "In Atlanta, some attempted to attack Dr. Alveda King and smear her - she greeted it with love."
And for even greater effect, there were two NOM supporters behind me at various points getting the spirit inside them and they would yell out "Yes! Praise Jesus" or some such nonsense in response to the speaker spouting outright homophobic blather. I was having a hard time not cracking up at the sad spectacle.
As I said in my earlier post ("NC: NOM's pathetic stop in Raleigh - another FAIL-O-RAMA"), the National Organization for Marriage continues its disastrous tour that has crashed and burned repeatedly here in the South, with today's embarrassment in Raleigh a festive smackdown of bigotry. There was no organized effort on our side -- all of it was grassroots activism via Facebook groups that turned out over 200 people. On NOM's side - maybe 50. It may have been even less, since some of the people I counted looked to be lunchtime curious onlookers, not the hardcore faithful. And there were a lot of cops, as in way too many for the given task, and there was a large media presence, so when you see the photos in the slideshow of the shaded area where NOM is, that thin crowd if you take tha latter away, would be pitiful.
There were several stand-up comic natural marriage advocates present, including was the head of the local bigot parade in this state, the North Carolina Family Policy Council, Bill Brooks and Mark Creech, Executive Director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina. Creech was particularly entertaining.
Ian Palmquist, the executive director of Equality North Carolina was at the rally and I grabbed him for an interview to ask him about the reaction to the grassroots demonstration and NOM's weak, bizarre stop in our state.
More amazing news today from Latin America by way of Andrรฉs Duque:
OMG. What IS going on in Latin America! Just a couple of hours ago, the Supreme Court in Costa Rica ruled that a referendum scheduled for December 1st which would have banned marriage rights for same-sex couples was unconstitutional.
The article does not give the vote total but says that the majority determined that the issue of marriage rights was a judicial issue and not an electoral issue and that the rights of minorities should never be subjected to a referendum process where they might be subjected to the wishes of a majority.
In many conversations and writings lately, I've heard myself emphasizing the need for the LGBT movement to be more proactive. We do a whole lot better when we're trying to get people to say "Yes!" (like in DC or Washington state) than when we are trying to get them not say "No" (like in Maine and California). At first, when I started making this point, I framed it as "more proactive and less reactive," but the more I've thought about it, I really just mean more proactive.
You see, I think there is incredible importance in reacting. We need to stand up for ourselves. We need to create visibility for ourselves. We need to counter our opponents and their lie-riddled fear-mongering rhetoric at every turn. It's a matter of integrity—a demonstration of our courage and our stamina. Alone, it's not a winning strategy; you don't win a game of chess if you only defend your own pieces. Still, it's a vital part of our movement and our social well-being.
That's why I am incredibly disappointed in Equality Pennsylvania's cowardice in deciding not to counterprotest the NOM tour stop this Friday in Harrisburg.
Last week the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that Mexico City's marriage equality law was constitutional. Today the Court ruled by a 9-2 vote that those marriages are valid nationally. This means that even if other Mexican states don't have marriage equality laws, they have to treat LGBT couples married in Mexico City the same as straight couples.
Mexico City's marriage equality law includes a clause granting couples the right to adopt. The court will take up that question this Thursday.
UPDATE: Adam Bink over at the NOM Tour Tracker, let me know that their interview with me is up. (I took a break from hopping between the NOMers and our peeps), surf over for its coverage.
I will have much more later, including some incredible blather from the mouth of Brian Brown, who was sweating like a pig out near the Capital Building, surrounded by, as JMG has said, TENS (as in about 45) supporters. We had about 200 on our side, as you'll see in the slide show. It looked like the journalists and cops together outnumbered the NOMers.
The table with neat stacks of one-man, one-woman T-Shirts was left unmonitored a good bit of the time because there were customers buying the crap. Guess it's back onto the bus to try hawking them in another city.
On the video he was into the whole victimhood thing, spouting how the people standing peacefully on the other side of the street were "shouting him down" and impinging on his free speech rights. You'll also see video later of a local yokel bigot hysterical over same-sex marriage destroying society.
And as we've seen at all of the other NOM rallies, there are eerily similar seniors showing up with lawn chairs, mesmerized by the "action."
I will have some real tales ones to share, including my work colleague Robyn's reaction to seeing Brown for the first time, and our encounter with a fundie from The Ruth Institute, who made the mistake of thinking both of us were straight marriage savers when she starting pitching her BS. It was hilarious.
The Anchorage Daily News is reporting that a small plane carrying at least eight people, possibly including former Sen. Ted Stevens, crashed last night near Dillingham, Alaska.
Severe weather has hampered the rescue operation for eight people believed to be on board a GCI-owned aircraft that crashed near Dillingham on Monday night with possible fatalities, according to state and federal officials.
The Alaska Air National Guard was called to the area about 20 miles north of Dillingham at about 7 p.m. after a passing aircraft saw the wreckage, spokesman Maj. Guy Hayes said. Eight people were reported to be on board the aircraft, though their status wasn't immediately known, he said. There were possible fatalities, he said.
This is not the first plane crash Stevens has been in; he survived a crash in 1978 that killed his wife Ann.
It is Primary season in Washington state, which means the retired homophobic televangelist "of questionable ethics" Gary Randall is again endorsing judicial candidates for his neighboring state of Washington. No surprise he's endorsed the two-fer pack of homophobes for the Supreme Court; he has a habit of identifying the dregs and foisting them on too-trusting Washingtonians.
Gary Randall's judicial recommendation: Convicted felon Michael Hecht
Take for example one Michael Hecht, Randall's 2008 judicial recommendation for Pierce County (WA) Superior Court. Of Judge Hecht the Washington State Commission on Judicial Conduct recently said he brought "great dishonor" to the state courts. Then they censured him and recommended to the Supreme Court that he be barred from ever serving as a judge in Washington again. It is a severe penalty, but after all Hecht was found guilty of felony harassment and patronizing a prostitute.
A Pierce County jury found him guilty of threatening to kill a man who claimed he sold sex to Hecht and of buying sex from another young man.
Just the kind of judge you're likely to end up with if you vote for candidates recommended by a preacher from another state.
In an uncanny happenstance of timing, the Washington State Supreme Court has just announced that they have permanently barred Hecht from the bench. It's almost as if the Lord were trying to send Randall a message. Can you hear the clarion call, Pastor Randall? "And why recommend thou the felonious scum to thy brother's court, but considerest not the same for thine own court?"
I can't wait to see who else Randall endorses this election. But I do hope we're in for a less disturbing disappointment this year. Maybe a stealth graffiti artist or doorknob thief. Please Pastor Randall, no more bilious homophobes or murderous felons. It makes us doubt your direct line to God.
Knights Out, a group of LGBT alumni of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and their allies announced that Cadet Katherine Miller outed herself to her superiors and has tendered her resignation.
Ranked # 9 in her class overall, she routinely "super-maxes" her physical fitness tests. One of her blogs was featured in the Sunday print edition of the Washington Post as part of "The Gray Zone: West Point on Leadership."
In her resignation letter, she cites the kinds of experiences she is unwilling to continue to endure:
I have created a heterosexual dating history to recite to fellow cadets when they inquire. I have endured unwanted approaches by male cadets for fear of being accused as a lesbian by rejecting or reporting these events. I have been coerced into ignoring derogatory comments towards homosexuals for fear of being alienated for my viewpoint. In short, I have lied to my classmates and compromised my integrity and my identity by adhering to existing military policy.
While at the academy, I have made a deliberate effort to develop myself academically, physically, and militarily, but in terms of holistic personal growth I have reached a plateau. I am unwilling to suppress an entire portion of my identity any longer because it has taken a significant personal, mental, and social toll on me and detrimentally affected my professional development. I have experienced a relentless cognitive dissonance by attempting to adhere to ยง654 [colloquially known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"] and retain my integrity, and I am retrospectively convinced that I am unable to live up to the Army Values as long as the policy remains in place.
Miller will be transferring to Yale University this fall on a Point Foundation Scholarship. She has indicated her desire to become an Army Officer should the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy be removed, and gay and lesbian people allowed to serve freely. "This is a loss to the Academy and to the Army," said Becky Kanis, West Point '91. Kanis is Chair of Knights Out, and a former Captain and company commander. "We keep losing talented people needlessly while we wait for the Pentagon's 'review.' " Miller has been blogging anonymously about lesbian culture at West Point at velvetparkmedia.com as "Private Second Class Citizen."
The full letter is below the fold, an exclusive to the Blend.
(Don't forget -- there will be a liveblog tomorrow night here at the Blend (8PM ET) with an active duty service member who has taken that Pentagon Working Group "survey." - promoted by Pam Spaulding)
Today brings the release of the first of several web and tv ads on DADT from Servicemembers United's new lobbying arm - the Servicemembers United Action Fund.
When planning this project at SU, we wanted to make sure we weren't creating ads just for the sake of creating ads. Instead, we wanted to create a series of hard-hitting and compelling ads that show why repealing DADT will improve military readiness. Below is the first product of our labors. Ladies and gentlemen, Staff Sergeant - and former Army Bomb Disposal Technician - Brian Muller:
One would think that after being embroiled in a scandal that rocked Florida, the religious right, and his gubernatorial aspirations, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum would change his negative opinion of gay adoption, the very reason for the scandal.
MCCOLLUM: I don’t believe in gay adoption. I don’t believe in involving the government in enforcing or encouraging the lifestyle of gays and homosexuals. I just don’t believe that. [...]
Q: Florida permits homosexuals to serve as foster parents. That has been used as an argument to undermine the ban on adoptions. Should homosexuals be permitted to serve as foster parents in Florida?
MCCOLLUM: Well, I personally don’t think so, but that is the law. Q: Should the law be changed?
MCCOLLUM: I think that it would be advisable. I really do not think that we should have homosexuals guiding our children. I think that it’s a lifestyle that I don’t agree with. I realize a lot of people do. It’s my personal faith, religious faith, that I don’t believe that the people who do this should be raising our children. It’s not a natural thing. You need a mother and a father. You need a man and a woman. That’s what God intended.
And here I thought God always commanded us to stand for truth. I guess I didn't get the memo McCollum received.
A link to this WaPo piece by David Weigel came bumping along my twitter trail today. "Five myths about the 'tea party'" challenges the notion that "The tea party is racist", saying
It's a phenomenon that some activists call "nutpicking" -- send a cameraman into a protest and he'll focus on the craziest sign. Yes, there are racists in the tea party, and they make themselves known. But tea party activists usually root them out. ...
Liberal critics of the tea party argue that conservative opposition to social spending is often racially motivated. That's not new, though, and it's not the basis for the tea party.
I was just mulling over the "logic" of how the purported economic basis for the tea party movement could somehow magically rule out an increased presence of racists when the following email arrived in my mailbox. It's from The Tea Party of Spokane (WA). I'll highlight the interesting part.
Subject: Tea Party ~ Obama coming to Seattle. Action Alert
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2010
Bothered by Patty Murrays Policies!
Date: August 17, 2010
Time: 10:00am - 2:00pm
Westin Hotel, 1900 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA
President Obama is coming to Seattle to fund raise for Patty Murray and "the People" will be there to protest Patty's re-election .Please remember this protest is against Patty and her economic policies so keep your signs related. Don't give the media any reason to racially profile us. Do not engage hecklers, please ignore them. Above all be safe! Take pictures and video of any trouble for evidence! ...
For the sake of Liberty,
The Tea Party of Spokane
and Volunteers
Now David Weigel might respond by saying "see, they're weeding out the racists among them!". But I'm not so sure it's that simple. I think that if you have to remind your whole membership not to carry signs that are racist, it's a tacit admission that there's plenty of racist propensity in the ranks. I'm not saying that all tea partiers are racist, but what I have seen of the local t.p. tells me that the economic complaints are partly genuine, partly a proxy reason to rail away at the black man who has usurped the Office of President. But that's just my take on the local manifestations of the party. Maybe it's all interracial brotherhood where you are. You know, those local tea party groups whose black, Latino and Asian membership equals or exceeds the population percentage? Yeah. Right.
On The Grio, Sophia A. Nelson takes a stab at establishing that there is a way to oppose marriage equality without being a bigot. Let's be charitable and say that if there is such a position, hers didn't hit the mark.
Let me start by admitting that I know very few openly gay or lesbian people and as such my exposure to this population of Americans has been limited at best. I did, however, get to know a colleague at my former law firm who was a white gay male, in a committed partner relationship, with two adopted black children. And getting to know him dramatically shifted my view on whether or not gays should be able to adopt children. Once I saw how well he loved, cared for and nurtured those kids (who were left as infants by a drug-addicted black mother), I had to concede that those two kids were better off in a loving home, than in the cold and hapless foster care system in America. The same is true for watching the genuine love and commitment between this man and his partner.
For the record, I am a Christian and hold fast to Christian Bible orthodoxy on this subject. More troubling for me than my religious beliefs has been the notion that the gay marriage struggle is akin to the Civil Rights struggle of blacks in this country, or that of Richard & Mildred Loving here in Virginia in 1967 to be allowed to inter marry as a white man and black woman in the South. To be honest I just am not sure I see it that way.
I know that subscribing to such beliefs may seem limited, dated, and perhaps even prejudiced, but my faith is what it is, and yet, like many other Americans I get that two people who love each other and want to share their lives together should not be denied the right to do so.
Although I believe as does President Obama that marriage is between a man and a woman, I support some form of legal recognition of a committed couple's love for each other. How can that be so you ask? Because supporting traditional marriage and adhering to timeless religious doctrine does not mean you have to be against gay people.
That first paragraph clearly shows her ability to grow through exposure to gay and lesbian people that she gets to know, yet in her heart she, like the infamous John Edwards, just can't "cross that bridge" to accept the two people she knows deserves to unite with the same rights and responsibilities using the word "marriage."
And then this:
I am a Christian and hold fast to Christian Bible orthodoxy on this subject.
Then why does she not subscribe to the belief that a man can have hundreds of wives? And then this ludicrous nonsense:
Because supporting traditional marriage and adhering to timeless religious doctrine does not mean you have to be against gay people.
Huh? If she means traditional religious marriage, no one is forcing her to accept same-sex marriage in her church or any other. That is her religious freedom at work. However, if she also believes that gay and lesbian couples should not have access to civil marriage, then she is indeed a bigot. The mental gymnastics at work here is her strong desire to absolve herself of any bias.
Again we see an otherwise intelligent person fail to understand the separation between church and state. The fact that she would tell the few gays and lesbians she knows that they cannot marry in the eyes of the law (not your God), renders it impossible to run away from the fact that she considers them unworthy of a civil right you are entitled to. It's that simple. It's bias. FAIL.
Yes, we're hoping to continue the stretch of #NOMturnoutFAIL for the National Organization For Marriage's "Summer for Marriage" Tour as it sputters into North Carolina on Tuesday. There are a few organizations/groups planning to show up tomorrow to face NOM in a polite non-confrontational manner. Since NOM is trying to play the victim these days, the key has been to make our point about equality and let their poor turnout numbers speak for themselves, particularly in the wake of the Prop 8 ruling. The GOP is doing its best to run away from the issue, given the piss-poor case Maggie's side put up.
Your blogmistress will be there to capture photos and video of the event for you. Matt Comer of QNotes has the scoop:
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which has played instrumental roles in several anti-gay initiatives, plans to hold a rally at the State Capitol at noon on Tuesday, Aug. 10. Pro-equality groups Freedom to Marry and the Courage Campaign have been tracking the anti-gay "Summer for Marriage" tour since it began in Augusta, Maine, on July 14. Most stops on NOM's tour have drawn little support and overwhelming pro-LGBT protesters.
Grassroots activists have planned several actions around the same time on Tuesday, according to four Facebook event postings. They include three protests and an Interfaith Prayer Day. One of the protests, organized by the Triangle Atheist, Agnostic, Freethinker, and Humanist Meetup and Triangle Freethought Society, promises to "greet [NOM] peacefully with a strong show of solidarity in support of marriage equality."
In addition, statewide LGBT advocacy group Equality North Carolina plans on having "truth squads" present to speak to media and counter the often false assertions of NOM organizers.
...Equality North Carolina executive director Ian Palmquist has previously noted any counter-events would be "North Carolina-led." He's said such locally-planned and -led events will work best for North Carolina's interests. For the past seven years, North Carolina's state legislature has declined to debate a state constitutional amendment on marriage.
And remember, if you want to stick it to NOM from afar, click here to vote for Pam and Kate for the "Couple's Best.. story of how you met" contest.
Titles have a lot of power. Deference is automatically given to those using titles like "Reverend" and "Doctor" because the titles imply that their owner possesses an academic degree and a proven ability to think and reason rigorously that has been validated by a revered institution.
Alveda King I started thinking about this when I saw the video that Courage Campaign's Prop 8 Trial Tracker posted of their interview with Alveda King during NOM's whistle stop in Georgia. (Prop 8 Trial Tracker is doing an amazing job chronicling NOM's failing anti-equality tour and the Prop 8 case. Definitely check them out.) Alveda, a niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. describes herself as "Dr. Alveda King". The thing is, her Honorary Doctor of Laws is, well, only honorary. Further, it was presented to her in 2001 by Saint Anselm College, an undergraduate institution. Any undergraduate college bestowing honorary graduate degrees can only be doing so to honor the recipient, not to imply that the recipient has attained a level of scholarship beyond the institution's ability to validate. King must know that people don't know that her "Dr." is only honorary, but she uses it anyway. She is using an unearned, honorary title that erroneously commands for her respect and an aura of scholarship. Her uncle Martin Luther King, Jr. earned his doctorate from Boston University.
My high-quality vid is still uploading, but I have this lower-res version for those excited to see the flopsweat on Brian Brown's brow ASAP. So the background first -- I did this on my lunch hour (kind of a long lunch since it takes about a 1/2 hour to get to Raleigh), and I drove a work colleague with me who hadn't been to one of these fundie rallies before. Robyn was quite excited as I described the decomposing influence of NOM as its tour has worn on.
Last week the Mexican Supreme Court 
It is Primary season in Washington state, which means the retired homophobic televangelist "
I have created a heterosexual dating history to recite to fellow cadets when they inquire. I have endured unwanted approaches by male cadets for fear of being accused as a lesbian by rejecting or reporting these events. I have been coerced into ignoring derogatory comments towards homosexuals for fear of being alienated for my viewpoint. In short, I have lied to my classmates and compromised my integrity and my identity by adhering to existing military policy.
Today brings the release of the first of several web and tv ads on DADT from Servicemembers United's new lobbying arm - the Servicemembers United Action Fund.
Alveda King
