St. Vincent's, an Anglican elementary school in Bedford, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, has denied admission to a girl because her parents are lesbians, NBCDFW reports:
"Jill and Tracy Harrison, lesbians married in 2006 in Canada, applied to enroll their daughter into St. Vincent's School, in June.
On the application, they crossed out the word father on the application and wrote mother and put Tracy's name on that line. Jill was written on the mother line.
They attended the school's parent night on Tuesday, and now, just a few days before school starts Monday, the school is denying their daughter Olivia enrollment into the school because her parents are lesbians, the women said...Though the school's handbook and website say that the school is non-discriminatory as to race, color, religion and national or ethnic origin, it doesn't stipulate that they won't discriminate based on the sexual orientation of a child's parents."
NBCDFW notes in its story:
"Our story originally referred to the school as St. Vincent's Episcopal School. Even though the sign at the church says Episopal, they said they have parted with that church and are now Anglican."
The major schism in the Anglican/Episcopal church over the past five years has regarded its positions on gays and gay clergy.
Said Jill Harrison: "I am horribly disappointed. In fact, we are in the 21st century and we are still dealing with this issue. We should just move on. Denying my daughter education based on who I end up sleeping with at the end of the day makes me furious."
The Utah Pride Center, an LGBT community center in Salt Lake City, had its onsite coffee shop, Lady Marmalade, vandalized with anti-gay graffiti, the Salt Lake Tribune's LGBT FYI blog reports. As you can see from the provided photo, the word "FAGS" was sprayed in paint across the shop's sign.
Said Valerie Larabee, executive director of the Utah Pride Center: "We realize that often times the purpose of these actions are to cause widespread fear among the members of our community. That is why today we are speaking out. This will not be swept under the rug. We will not be scared into silence by acts of intolerance."
The Salt Lake City police department is investigating.
Gay man among Obama recess appointments: "(Yesterday) the White House announced President Barack Obama has made recess appointments of four nominees whose confirmations were being held up in the Senate. Among them is Richard Sorian, an openly gay man who will be the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services."
Charlie Crist moves to the left: "Months later, it's becoming more and more difficult to label Crist's departure from the GOP as simply a superficial endeavor. Either out of electoral expedience or ideological disenchantment, the governor has spent the past few days either purging himself of his Republican roots or actively courting Democratic audiences."
Utah Governor Gary Herbert invites gay leadership organizations to Log Cabin Republican-sponsored private reception: "But Log Cabin Republicans aren’t the only community members who are invited to the reception. All leadership organizations in the community have been invited, said Nimer, including the Utah Pride Center, Equality Utah and the Utah Steering Committee of the Human Rights Campaign."
A chat with Doug Quint, who runs NYC's Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. On the new music for his truck: "...our music was written by [Go-Gos guitarist-singer] Jane Wiedlin...I don't play anything now and always wanted something original. People said, 'Play the Village People.' Hell, no! I always wanted it to be something of my own. The bells make people psychotic. I knew one driver who had to quit because the truck bells were driving him crazy. Either they don't hear it at all or it's slowly driving them to kill. Also, let the gaytimes roll!
Federation of Gay Games votes to "adopt new anti-doping policies which will not be based on random, across-the-board testing, but rather will be more reflective of the Gay Games mission with respect to inclusion and participation, both in development and implementation."
Senator Robert Casey Jr. (D-PA) introduces Safe Schools Improvement Act: "The bill would require that any public schools that receive federal funding develop anti-bullying policies that specifically prohibit bullying motivated by certain characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity. The measure would also mandate that schools and districts have effective prevention strategies in place to combat classroom harassment and would compel states to compile data on incidence of bullying and report the statistics to the U.S. Department of Education."
In the interview, Signorile noted that HRC, despite Target's refusal to "make it right" with the LGBT community regarding its donations to anti-gay PAC MN Forward, continued to recommend that LGBT consumers shop at Target in its buyer's guide.
That is now changing, according to HRC's Press Secretary Michael Cole:
The recent political contributions by Target and Best Buy are cause for reflection on the criteria used for future editions of the Corporate Equality Index (CEI). While considering all of this, it’s important to keep in mind that the CEI has made a tremendous impact in the real lives of LGBT people in large part because it has been a predictable and transparent roadmap for companies to institute fair workplace policies. Instead of making capricious decisions about scoring criteria, we believe that a responsible consideration of all of the facts is the smartest way to move forward.
Already complicated, the Citizens United decision has made campaign finance issues even more complex. HRC is thoughtfully studying the many ramifications of political giving by companies in this new reality.
The CEI, upon which the Buyer’s Guide is based, was completed in June 2009. Under that set of criteria, both Target and Best Buy scored 100 percent. The Buyer’s Guide available on our website was released in November 2009 and is representative of the information known to us at the time. Because we understand the impact of leaving Target and Best Buy on the various products associated with the Buyer’s Guide, both companies will soon be removed from it.
HRC will not encourage people to shop at either store and believes that consumers should make their own decisions after careful consideration of all of the information available to them.
“For the chairman of the Republican Party to say, ‘AIDS doesn’t discriminate,’ well of course it does. It discriminates against people who engage in stupid behavior...Lung disease doesn’t discriminate, but it’s probably a good idea to stop smoking...Cirrhosis of the liver doesn’t discriminate, but you should probably dry out and stop drinking like you’ve been doing. Heart disease and diabetes doesn’t discriminate, but you should probably take that weight off, lard butt. Of course lifestyle oriented diseases tend to reward those lifestyle afflictions disproportionately to the behavior of those doing them. This isn’t rocket science.”
Mickelson adds:
“So, does God punish homosexuality? Does he punish sodomy? Well, no, he doesn’t get off his throne and say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna get that guy.’ Well not directly. Most of God’s laws, which another way of saying God’s law would be natural law, that is, law that is consistent with the nature of the universe because it was built in such a way, most of God’s laws are self enforcing. God doesn’t have to do anything. So if you skydive without a parachute, does God punish people who do that? No, but one of his inventions does. Gravity. If you skydive without a parachute, you’re going to die. Should you blame God for that?”
Mickelson says promiscuity "defines the lifestyle" of homosexuality: "Homosexuality is intrinsically promiscuous, because it violates the design of our bodies. There is no safe way to do that.”
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