12/25/2010
Because "Merry Christmas" is for gay-loving liberal hippies
The top, breaking, must-get-out message the editors of the Christian conservative "news" site WorldNetDaily chose to send readers on this Christmas morn':
Such priorities.
But whatever, we'll go with it. "Merry troop indoctrination day," one and all! Teacher says every time a bell rings repeal is signed, a gay angel gets re-enlisted.
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12/23/2010
NY Senator's early Xmas gift: Glowing front page NYT profile
Today's New York Times features a great, front page feature on a great, front line ally:
[Senator Gillibrand (D-NY)], who had represented a conservative upstate district in Congress, was not well known to liberals or gay rights groups at the time. But in an interview, she said she had realized from an early age that discrimination against gays was wrong.
Her mother — a black belt in karate who the senator said “did things differently her whole life” — worked in the arts and surrounded herself with gay friends. During the height of the AIDS crisis, Ms. Gillibrand’s sister, a playwright and actress, volunteered to help children with AIDS.
And when Ms. Gillibrand was a young associate, working long nights at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, she recalled, “the straight men found time to date and get married and have kids and went home at six every night, and the only ones left were the women and gay men.”
So she wound up vacationing with gay colleagues on Fire Island and in the Hamptons, and forging lifelong friendships. “A lot of them are now having children,” she said. “And it never occurred to me that they should not have every benefit that I have.”
FULL PIECE: Gillibrand Gains Foothold With Victory on 9/11 Aid [NYT]
I've personally seen this senator hop on a barroom table and give a strong, off-cuff advocacy speech. I've also seen her stump in her own home's back yard, with an on-the-go burger in one hand and a toddler in the other. Not to mention, oh yea -- those bills she's championed when others might've been ready to give up.
In politics, it's sometimes hard to spot the real deal. But from what I've seen: Senator Gillibrand is either it, or she's the Meryl Streep of the Democratic party.
Video: 
Elephant's feat: To keep dancing on others' ring fingers, rights?
Three candidates for the chairpersonship of the Republican National Committee recently sat down with Susan B Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser and National Organization for Marriage Chair Maggie Gallagher to answer questions pertaining to choice and marriage. Here's what they had to say (with videos fast forwarded to Maggie's marriage part):
Saul Anuzis:
Gentry Collins:
Reince Priebus:
Because equal rights are for some, "culture wars" are for political gain, and big tents are for hippies.
Stay divisive, GOP!
FRC staffer likens U.S. to Sodom and Gomorrah; we wonder if Biblical city had universal healthcare
And now more Christmas cheer from Bob Maginnis, the Family Research Council's Senior Fellow for National Security:
"I've heard from commanders who are saying, 'Well, we may not be able to tolerate that sort of [assertion] about homosexuality.' What about the service member who is not a chaplain, but a Christian service member who has an understandable religious-based belief that what these people do is an abomination and that they should not embrace that lifestyle -- especially if they're told to live with someone like that?" the Pentagon advisor wonders. "Will they be listened to?"
But he laments that the military has refused to recommend segregating the homosexuals from heterosexual service members out of concern of antagonizing the homosexuals. So he decides America is now no better than Sodom and Gomorrah, the biblical cities mentioned in Genesis that are synonymous with impenitent sin that brought God's wrath upon them.
Maginnis: U.S. no better than Sodom and Gomorrah [One News Now]
Honestly, it's not even these folks repeated hostility towards gay people that's so shocking. We, the proud crowd that gets marked for exportation and/or criminalization, are more than used to that sort of thing. Why should the holidays put an end to it?
What is new and different in the DADT conversation is the way groups like FRC keep indicting heterosexual soldiers, making it sound as if our military is crawling with straight men and women whose violent tendencies towards other sexual orientations are hinging on a thin closet door. We of course all deserve better than what FRC offers up as discourse. But on this: It's really the millions of perfectly adjusted men and women who serve our country with a brave heart and a peaceful mind who should resent the way the "values" crowd keeps presenting our armed forces as the world's largest "Smear The Queer" team.
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*NOTE: The audio version of this OneNewsNow report takes the segregation suggestion one step further, with the above line instead reading: "the military has refused to recommend segregating the homosexuals from [normal] service members." Listen to that cheerful carol here.
12/22/2010
Video: Brock, Socarides, Matthews talk the politics of basic decency
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
But if we're deported and jailed on a remote island, we won't care if you call us 'vermin'
So quick question: If you were given the choice between (a) being called "vermin" because of who you are and who you love or (b) being exported or jailed for the same, which option would you choose?
We ask, because Family Research Council Senior Policy Fellow Peter Sprigg is currently working this canard on the FRC's blog:
Where is [J. Richard Cohen's] evidence that Family Research Council, or anyone who works for FRC, has ever said that “all gay men and lesbians are ‘vermin’?” You will search in vain for such a statement.
For the record, FRC believes that every human being, including those who experience same-sex attractions and those who engage in homosexual conduct, is created in the image of God and is loved by Him. How this qualifies as “hate” is a mystery.
SPLC Equates FRC to Neo-Nazis—So Who’s “Demonizing” Whom? [FRC blog]
Which very well may be true. We certainly don't remember ever hearing the word "vermin" come from FRC, and we monitor those kids pretty closely.
But going back to the choice stated at the beginning of the post: Would you rather (a) be called a "vermin" or (b) exported or jailed:
*SOURCE: Gays seek immigration reform [Medill Reports]
*SOURCE: MSNBC
We know which we would choose for our lives. And thanks to Peter Sprigg's loose lips, we have good (read: mind-numbingly frightening) insight into what he'd choose as well.
Video: NOM H8s viral vid so much, they'll use it to raise Christmas cash
From the first moment I saw the video in question, I envisioned this kind of response campaign taking shape:
So essentially NOM is accusing the people behind the "FCKH8" campaign of exploiting kids -- while themselves exploiting the concept of kids and parenting to raise funds. Typical. And disgusting.
But not gonna lie: Putting kids in this "FCKH8" initiative always struck me as an unsavvy move. When objectively weighing what the kids do for the video versus what they do for the forces who've turned every single anti-equality fight into a child war, who can honestly say that we come out the beneficiary?
Video: We were just thinking Minaj and Gates should collaborate on something
mtvU has chosen a man and woman of the year, with opposition to homophobia serving as connective tissue between the two honorees:
