More Thursday Male Beauty

Forbes' Top 100 Powerful Women

The far right and jackass members of Congress and the military have ridiculed Lady Gaga for her activism on gay rights issues and efforts to push for the repeal of DADT in particular. The last laugh is likely on her detractors. Forbes has announced it's list of the top 100 powerful women in the world and Stefanie Germanotta takes 7th place in the rankings. Meanwhile the doyennes of the lunatic far right such as Elaine Donnelly, Phyllis Schlafly, and the bitches at Concerned Women for America failed to make the list. Even the loon of the North, Sarah Palin comes in at 16th. Here's Forbes' comments on Lady Gaga:
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All hail the new queen of pop. Part singer and part performance artist, Lady Gaga (née Stefanie Germanotta) has single-handedly reinvigorated pop music and pop culture. Her songs are like brain candy (sticky and addictive), her performances and fashion style are a spectacle. Her first album, The Fame, debuted in 2008, scoring two No. 1 hits with Just Dance and Poker Face. Her latest, The Fame Monster, has now put her on par with Beyoncé, Rhianna, and Mariah Carey for the most No. 1 Billboard hits (six) by a female artist. Her Monster's Ball world tour is poised to gross $200 million by the time it ends in April 2011. But it's not all pop and glamour for Gaga. She is vocal supporter of gay rights and the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."
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Congratulations to Lady Gaga - she's shown what a real "fierce advocate" does versus the liar in the White House.

Christian Dominionist Wants Government Regulation of Gay Sex

A rash of gay teen suicides and what do the Christianists do? They go into overdrive with gay bashing and disseminating the tired lies that set the stage for the suicides in the first place. The latest gay bashing bigot to exhibit diarrhea of the mouth is Christian Dominionist David Barton of Wallbuilders. For the record, Christian Dominionist want to overthrow the U.S. Constitution and in its place institute a Bible based theocracy. That's right, they basically want to commit treason and overthrow the government. In putting forth his batshitery, Barton - in addition to a selective reading of the Bible - recites the same discredited and fraudulent anti-gay propaganda put out by Paul Cameron. The same Paul Cameron who was thrown out of every legitimate medical and mental health related association he belonged to over 25 years ago. Barton proves yet again that when a far right Christian's lips are moving , the odds are that he/she is lying. Right Wing Watch has details. Here are some highlights:
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Barton: We have a Department of Health and Human Services; we have health care bills; we have health insurance and we’re trying to stop all unhealthy things . . . to tell you how to live a healthy lifestyle. So if I got to the Centers for Disease Control and I’m concerned about health, I find some interesting stats there and this should tell me something about health.
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Homosexual/bi-sexual individuals are seven times more likely to contemplate or commit suicide. Oooh, that doesn’t sound very healthy.
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Homosexuals die decades earlier than heterosexuals. That doesn’t sound healthy.
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Nearly one-half of practicing homosexuals admit to five hundred or more sex partners and nearly one-third admit to a thousand or more sex partners in a lifetime.
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I mean, you go through all this stuff, sounds to me like that’s not very healthy. Why don’t we regulate homosexuality?
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there was a study done back in the 1920s and it looked at eighty-some odd nations and those rejected sexual regulation like with homosexuality, none of them lasted past the third generation from the time that they embraced it. So how ever many it looked at …
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As more and more studies are confirming, the higher gay suicide rate tracks to the vile lies and persecution that gays face due to people like Barton. This diatribe is yet another example of the persecutor blaming the victim. Barton and those like him are a clear and present danger to both civil law under the Constitution and the freedom of religion that the Constitution promises to others.

Conservative GOP Politico Busted - Asked Cop to "Touch It"

The hypocrisy of closeted members of th GOP continues to show no limits and once again demonstrates that the more homophobic they are in public pronouncements, the more likely they are looking to suck dick on the sly. The latest closeted bigot to get his just deserves is Andrew J. Miller, an Indiana anti-gay Republican (pictured at right) who was busted for soliciting gay sex from an undercover police officer. While I generally believe the police could better expend their time stopping robbers and serious criminals rather than running gay sting operations, whenever I see a closeted anti-gay Republican arrested, it makes the sting operations almost look worth while. Given Jim DeMint's recent comments about barring gays from teaching positions, one has to wonder what guys DeMint is doing on the sly. Here are highlights from WTHR-TV 13 on Miller's arrest:
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The commissioner of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles was arrested Wednesday afternoon on a public indecency charge. According to an arrest report from Indianapolis Metro Police, the arrest took place at 110 West Washington Street at around 1:30 pm.
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Andrew J. Miller, 40, of Carmel, is accused of soliciting an undercover officer for sex. Following complaints of lewd behavior, two plain clothes police officers were conducting an investigation at the men's public restroom at Claypool Court, a place with a notorious reputation for illegal sexual activity.
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IMPD Sgt. Paul Thompson said that when IMPD does receive this type of complaint, they issue plain clothes officers to the specific areas. "In today's incident, we did have probable cause and the man involved was taken to jail," he said. The police report describes Miller exposing himself and twice asking the officer if he wanted to "touch it."
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The report also states that Miller asked the officer if he was married. The officer said yes, and Miller, according to the report, also said he was married and that it would "be OK." . . . . The crime is a Class C misdemeanor. He faces up to 60 days and a $500 fine. Miller is married and has three children.
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I cannot help but wonder if Miller is the product of an ex-gay ministry or some other bogus program that encouraged him to marry and have children to make himself heterosexual.

Thursday Male Beauty

Exodus International Shuts Down Bogus "Day of Truth"

It's too early to know if it's the beginning of a trend, but Exodus International, a leading proponent of the "gays can change lie" - or Ex-gay myth as I call it - is canceling the utterly disingenuously named "Day of Truth." The "Day of Truth" - which would be more appropriately named the Day of Lies - was started in 2005 to counter the Day of Silence which originated at the University of Virginia (my alma mater) and has spread nationwide. Despite all of the statements of REAL medical and mental health experts condemning reparative therapy and the lack of any study that solidly supports the Christianist fueled ex-gay myth, Exodus International has continued to market the lie. I have long been involved in exposing ex-gay frauds and believe that defeating the choice and change myths is key to changing hearts and minds. The Christianists will fight tooth and nail to keep these myths alive because once it becomes a matter of common acceptance that gays are born gay, the ability to push anti-gay discrimination is seriously damaged. Here are highlights from Ex-Gay Watch:
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Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, has announced that they will no longer sponsor the annual Day of Truth (DOT) event which has been used for the past few years to counter the Day of Silence. The DOS was first proposed by Maria Pulzetti, and organized by other students at the University of Virginia in 1996. In 2000, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) proposed that it become an officially sponsored project.
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The first DOT was organized by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) in 2005, and has been held on the day after the DOS each year since. The ADF is a conservative activist legal organization which claims to have established the DOT “to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective.” There have been several legal actions associated with the DOT
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In 2009, the ADF turned over responsibility for the DOT to Exodus International. In what has turned out to be their only year doing so, Exodus sponsored that years event. It is not known if the ADF will attempt to keep the DOT active or offer it to another group.
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We applaud Exodus’ decision to shutter this event. While we realize this does not signify a major change in their own policy or beliefs, we do respect the reasons given. We also challenge the ADF to take this as a signal to let it die here and now.
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Here are more details and highlights from CNN’s Belief Blog:
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A national Christian organization will stop sponsoring an annual event that encourages school students to "counter the promotion of homosexual behavior" because the event has become too divisive and confrontational, the group's president told CNN on Wednesday.
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"All the recent attention to bullying helped us realize that we need to equip kids to live out biblical tolerance and grace while treating their neighbors as they'd like to be treated, whether they agree with them or not," said Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, the group that sponsored the event this year.
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"I thank Exodus for making this very important step," said GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard on Wednesday after hearing of Exodus' decision. "The Day of Truth was an effort to push a very specific set of opinions about homosexuality into schools in a way that was inappropriate and divisive."
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An expert in evangelical responses to homosexuality says Exodus' decision is likely to be criticized by some conservatives. "This is a very significant move, a very real break," said Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College. "Some will say that simply naming sexual orientation provides legitimacy for homosexuality." At least one major Christian group, Focus on the Family, stood by the Day of Truth on Wednesday.

Expert: Rash of Suicides Reflects Pervasive Negative Attitudes Toward Non-Heterosexuals

My one time hometown paper, the Syracuse Post Standard has an article that quotes statements by a Syracuse University expert, Elizabeth Payne (pictured at right) - and by expert, I mean a REAL expert as opposed to the charlatans of the Christian Right like Linda Harvey and Matt Barber- who lays the responsibility for gay teen suicides directly at the feet of the negative attitudes and bigotry towards gays kept alive by guess who, the Christian Right. While Payne says bullying of all kinds needs to end, she goes to the heart of the matter which is the societal bigotry that fuels homophobia and anti-gay bullying. The very bigotry that is the stock in trade of every "family values" and professional Christian organization on the right. These groups must be defeated and their talking heads turned into the well deserved pariahs that they are. Here are some highlights:
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A recent rash of suicides among gay teens nationwide is a symptom that negative attitudes about non-heterosexuals are still pervasive in families, schools and other segments of society, according to an LGBTQ youth expert.
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“A lot of people assume because ‘Will& Grace’ was a popular TV show, homophobia is a thing of the past,” said Elizabethe Payne, referring to the sitcom that featured gay characters. “That ain’t true.”
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LGBTQ youths have been committing and attempting suicide at higher rates than their heterosexual peers for a long time, Payne said.
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Putting a stop to bullying is an important, but small part of the solution, according to Payne. She said society needs to rethink the way it views sexual orientation. Parents and educators need to be made aware of their actions that marginalize LGBTQ youths, she said.

“Why is it such a bad thing for a boy to want to be a cheerleader or do ballet? Why do we pick on him for that?” Payne said. “We need to teach our children there are lots of ways to be a man and lots of ways to be a woman.”

Payne directs the Q Center at Aids Community Resources in Syracuse. The center, partially funded by the United Way, offers educational support, counseling services, social events, HIV education and testing for LGBTQ youth.

More Wednesday Male Beauty

Economist Predicts Sour Decade for Hampton Roads- Closed Mindedness Carries a Price

The economic outlook for the Hampton Roads area of Virginia is not looking good for the balance of the decade. Given the outlook, the question is whether or not the business leaders and elected leaders of the region will wake up and try new development approaches and techniques or merely continue doing the same failed approaches over and over again and somehow expecting a miracle to occur that will yield a different result. The self-anointed "leaders" of Hampton Roads are long on bigotry and closed mindedness and short on innovation, tolerance and progressive ideas which might actually attract new businesses to the area. On the south side of Hampton Roads(pictured at left), the mindset can be summed up by Norfolk International Airport which greets newcomers with a huge hideous display of Pat Robertson and Regent University - one cannot help but wonders if some arriving travels turn around and leave as a result. And I might add that the Region wide chamber of commerce scoff at the idea of a LGBT chamber.

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Only the City of Hampton has so far shown any open mindedness and willingness to think remotely outside the box and court the LGBT business community. While the staid city of Richmond has begun to court the LGBT travel dollar, no city in Hampton Roads has yet awakened to this passed up opportunity. Then, of course, to add to the problem we have the strong anti-progressive message emanating from Taliban Bob McDonnell and the certifiably insane Ken Cuccinelli that certainly must be scaring off many businesses contemplating relocating. Personally, I am not optimistic that things will change, but one can always hope. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot on the sour economic forecast:
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Hampton Roads faces a “mediocre” economic outlook over the next decade, weakened by a decline in defense spending and the after-effects of the recession, according to Old Dominion University’s annual state of the region report, released this morning.

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In addition to the loss of the Joint Forces Command, or JFCOM, and its 6,000 jobs, Koch said the probable shrinkage in defense spending could cost the area at least one aircraft carrier.
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“We’ve seen our best years in the first part of this decade,” said James Koch, an economist and former president of Old Dominion, who served as editor of the report. “It appears that those are circumstances we’re not going to repeat.”
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His dour forecast said rising water levels and a net loss of population also would inhibit growth. Companies such as Norfolk Southern Corp. and Northrop Grumman Newport News “have to be thinking whether locating themselves here is viable in the future,” Koch said during an interview.

Anti-Gay Christianists Seek to Blame "Gay Agenda" Rather Than Themselves for Gay Teen Suicides

Candidly, there are few things in my view more reprehensible that religious extremists who spew anti-gay hatred and falsely hold themselves up as "experts." This is especially true where these faux experts continue to peddle the tired "ex-gay" myth which has now been discredited and condemned by every legitimate medical and mental health association. One such bigot is Linda Harvey (pictured at right) who hasn't held a real job since 1995 when she founded founded Mission:America and began living as a parasite off of the ignorant and gullible. While Ms. Harvey holds herself out as an expert on all things, including the lie that gays can change their sexual orientation, in reality if one checks her website, her professional background is in advertising and the only degree that she holds is a B.A. in English. Like most Christian extremists, Ms. Harvey doesn't let her lack of any legitimate credentials lessen the diarrhea of the mouth that afflicts her when it comes to gay bashing. Ms. Harvey's latest disingenuous lie filled anti-gay screed can be found at Wing Nut Daily. Here are highlights of her effort to deflect partial responsibility for recent gay suicides from herself and Christianist organizations to the LGBT community:
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The homosexual lobby has gone into full demand mode, particularly GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) and the Human Rights Campaign. Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan hosted a national summit on bullying with homosexual activists present and featuring former GLSEN president and "safe schools" czar Kevin Jennings. There's a renewed press for passage of H.R. 4530, national legislation that goes beyond stronger anti-bullying measures to incorporate mandatory pro-"gay" propaganda.
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As the pressure groups scream for pro-homosexual policies, they simultaneously seek to prohibit all speech opposing homosexual behavior, which is viewed as harassment or contributing to it. Compulsory re-education is the only solution, because saying "no" to homosexuality always leads to such tragedy, or so they claim. In the fantasy world of these child-corruption advocates, there's an unbroken line connecting the actual bullies to any and all who stand up against sexual deviance.
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One wonders if any of these kids ever heard a clearly articulated warning against homosexuality. Or were they faced with a continuous onslaught of pro-homosexual diversity lessons, novels and events like the "Day of Silence"? Were they surrounded with liberal teachers as role models and the bad example of a homosexual school club? What part did any of this play in the sad belief that homosexuality was an inevitable destiny, instead of a wayward yet changeable sexual inclination? Under almost continuous pressure to accept a lie – confusion and then despair may be the predictable result.
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But there's a solution. First and foremost, kids should be told the truth that no one is born gay. Despite any budding feelings he or she may have, many people who felt similarly at that age went on to change both their feelings and behavior, and to be well-adjusted adult heterosexuals, some married with children. The gay lobbyists actively prevent kids from knowing this option. Why can't they be "pro-choice" regarding homosexuality?
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Let's consider the real goal of homosexual activism: that everyone becomes comfortable with homosexuality, that even personal revulsion is no longer acceptable. This re-imagined "gay" utopia depends upon a widely accepted lie.
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True to form, Harvey repeats the lie that many have "left homosexuality." The truth, of course, is that none of the ex-gay rackets can ever produce more than a few dozen such individuals at most and even then almost all of them are typically on an ex-gay ministry payroll. The so called ex-gays for pay, if you will. If Ms Harvey's bull shit isn't nauseating enough, Matt Barber - now affiliated with Jerry Falwell's Liberty University - has to chime in. Like Harvey, Barber has ZERO credentials in medicine or mental health issues. In fact, all of his education comes from Christianist colleges: Colorado Christian University, a glorified Bible college, and Pat Robertson's Regent University. Here are highlights from Barber's rant against gays who are tired of the bullshit and lies such as are his stock in trade:
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Unfortunately - though not surprisingly - extremist ‘gay' pressure groups, like the incongruously named ‘Human Rights Campaign,' Ellen DeGeneres and other liberal activists are shamelessly exploiting these tragedies as a means to achieve their own selfish political ends.
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"In a recent statement, Ms. DeGeneres said: ‘There are messages everywhere that validate this sort of bullying and taunting and we need to make it stop. We can't let intolerance and ignorance take another kids life.'
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"Indeed, actual bullying and taunting must not be tolerated. But what ‘messages' is Ms. DeGeneres referring to, and how do ‘we...make [them] stop?' I'll translate from liberalese to plain English. What Ellen meant was this: ‘Public defense of God's express, self-evident and unequivocal design for human sexuality must be stopped under force of law.
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It makes me physically ill to watch as the HRC and other ‘gay' militants lick their chops and rub their hands together over the tragic suicides of these troubled, sexually confused young men," continued Barber. "Before they were even laid to rest, the radical homosexual lobby pounced leveraging these suicides to demand that government codify each of their extremist, social engineering demands. This is political exploitation at its slimiest and it pours salt on the wounds of loved ones.
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But Christians are also praying that these wicked and callous political vultures who seek to exploit these suicides become confounded and fail fantastically. Their mission is not one of ‘tolerance' or ‘diversity.' Quite the opposite: Their goal is to fan flames of anti-Christian bigotry and discrimination, evangelizing on behalf of their own perverted god: moral relativism. We simply won't let them get away with it," concluded Barber.
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If anything is sickening, it is seeing shameless liars like Harvey and Barber making a living off of the misery of others and then through a slight of hand renounce the reality that THEY are indeed murdering LGBT teens and youths through their vile propaganda and screeds. Harvey and Barber make the nastiest of whores look virtuous.

Wednesday Male Beauty

It's Time to End the Special Privileges Afforded to Religious Belief

I am all for freedom of religion - something the U. S. Constitution and the individual state constitutions promise, but sadly do not deliver upon. Why? Because some religious beliefs are given special rights and privileges at the expense of other religions and the rights of other citizens. Unfortunately, the set of religious beliefs still given the most special rights and status is that of conservative Christians. A belief system that promotes hatred of others, the denigration of others, and an incessant push for a Christianist theocracy. It's the elephant in the room that no one wants to challenge notwithstanding the damage it does to so many other citizens. In a post that looks at the LGBT-Muslim dynamic and the two groups common enemy, fundamentalist Christians, Zack Ford has some good analysis on the need to take on religious believers head on and end the privilege and deference given to their undemocratic and often hate fueled views. Here are some highlights:
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The archnemesis of the queer community is not any particular faith, or any particular religious text, or any tenet of any particular religious institution. It’s belief itself. It’s the belief that gay = wrong. It’s the belief that gay = sin. It’s the belief that gay = chosen. It’s the belief that gay = unnatural. The list goes on and on, but the problem is belief.
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Facts are on our side. Decades of psychological research and the simple testimony of hundreds of millions of people from across our entire globe remind us that any belief against homosexuality is flawed and misinformed.
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But belief persists. That’s because belief maintains significant privilege in our society. We have to respect beliefs. We have to leave them unchallenged. We even have to cater to them. It is this shield of faith that helps our oppressors maintain their dominance in society.
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No matter what religious groups we work with, one thing goes unchanged: belief. As long as we’re defending, reinforcing, reconciling with, and making compromises with people guided by faith, we are only helping maintain the shield of faith. It is that religious privilege that holds us back, and yet the stigma of acknowledging it still seems too great for so many. We wouldn’t have this problem if we were all atheists, but faith is privileged, so people want it, and so the quest to have it both ways continues, as does the oppression such foolishness perpetuates.
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When people aren’t hedging the facts of my existence to support their misguided beliefs, I’ll support them. It doesn’t matter how they identify themselves. But as long as the focus is helping protect faith-based beliefs, we’re just sustaining our own oppression. So, should we defend Muslims? Absolutely. Should we defend Islam? Not at all. I’m sure, though, that my words will fall on the many deaf ears of those in the LGBTQ movement eager to defend Christianity.
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Those who love and let love we should love and let love in return. Those who bully and let bully? Why waste our time making nice with them?

GetEQUAL: Close The GayTM

For some time now, this blog and a number of others have been supporting the "Don't Ask, Don't Give" campaign to withhold all contributions to the Democratic Party and its various committees and affiliates until such time as the Democrats deliver on promises to the LGBT community, including DADT repeal, the passage of ENDA, and DOMA repeal. The point is, why reward those who are lying to you and playing you for a fool. Now, GET Equal has jumped on board with its "We'll Give When We Get EQUAL" campaign which piggy backs on the earlier effort. Better yet, Get Equal has a pledge that one can sign and send to the liar in chief in the White House demanding an executive order suspending discharges under DADT.

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I am way past listen to the Democrats' bogey man arguments that the GOP will pass all kinds of anti-gay measures, so keep giving tour money and votes to us. Truth be told IF the Democrats had the party discipline that the GOP has shown over the last 19 months, they could block GOP efforts even if in a minority position in the U.S. Senate. That, of course, takes leadership - something that has been sorely lack in the White House. Here are highlights from the release that GetEQUAL sent out yesterday (here's the link to send Obama a message):
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As I watch my inbox fill up with reports of LGBT young people taking their lives, I am sick with disgust when I see countless political fundraising emails asking me to give time and money to campaigns. While we sit under the crushing weight of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia endorsed by the federal government, I'm getting totebag offers from the Speaker of the House of Representatives. I have had enough!
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Today, GetEQUAL is announcing a campaign called "We'll Give When We GetEQUAL," asking LGBT Americans and straight allies to withhold time and money from political entities that are not fighting as hard for our equality as they are for our checkbooks and our volunteer hours.
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There are numerous promises that we need our elected officials to make good on, but for now we're asking for just one: an Executive Order signed by the President that will immediately stop military discharges under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
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There will be some who say we haven't given Democrats enough time, and that Republicans are finally turning a corner on LGBT rights. Neither of these claims are true. Both are excuses that we have heard for decades, and that have brought us no closer to full equality. Our tolerance and patience -- while we lose our jobs, are denied our right to marry, are forbidden to serve our country openly, and are forced to watch our youth kill themselves because they have no dignity or hope -- is GONE!
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We are asking President Obama, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, to sign an Executive Order to IMMEDIATELY halt all military discharges of lesbian, gay, and bisexual soldiers -- and we're inviting you to participate in that effort.

CNN Links Conservative "Pro-Family" Groups to Gay Suicides

In a move long, long overdue in the mainstream media, CNN has connected the dots and publicly said what many in the LGBT community have been saying for a long time: that these conservative "family values" organizations are fueling homophobia and working over time to make LGBT citizens outcasts, which fuels bullying and other forces that contribute to gay suicides. CNN needs to take it the next step and hang responsibility around the necks of politicians that do the bidding of these groups and/or, like our "fierce advocate" in the White House lack the backbone and moral strength to stand up to them and call them out. Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, NOM - all of these groups are accessories to suicides which demonstrates that their "pro-life" whining is utter bullshit. They claim to worry about the unborn, but then do all they can to make life a living Hell for those already born. These folks truly make the Pharisees of the Bible look reputable. Here are some highlights from CNN:
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In light of the recent suicides reportedly brought about by persistent bullying, CNN has taken upon itself to address not only a national bullying crisis, but any homophobia or anti-gay behavior seen as contributing to such bullying. The network apparently believes that socially conservative groups contribute to the problem of putting kids down who have homosexual tendencies.

CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin and author Rosalind Wiseman agreed that conservative groups who oppose protective measures for gay students simply treat them as outcasts. Wiseman, author of "Queen Bees and Wannabees," called their efforts "anti-child."
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"These groups don't think homosexuality is normal," Toobin remarked of conservative groups. "They think it's wrong. They think it is a menace to society. So they are the ones who are making it harder for kids, who feel isolated enough as it is, to come forward."
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"I mean, this is not some sort of value-neutral approach by these conservative groups. They are trying to make homosexuality an outcast condition, and that's part of the problem," Toobin insisted. Wiseman agreed, adding "And really, what that really comes down to is being anti-child and anti-against the dignity of every single child who walks in through the doors of that school."
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Anderson Cooper brought the gay-rights issue into the debate. "I've been reading a lot, particularly right now, a case in Minnesota where there are a lot of conservative groups, anti-gay groups who say, you know, this is an attempt to promote some sort of gay agenda in schools," Cooper remarked of efforts to encourage young students with gay tendencies to be themselves.
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Wiseman complained that sex-ed programs are difficult to introduce to schools' curricula, tacitly suggesting social conservatives were also to blame for that situation.
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See the full article for a partial transcript. I certainly hope that this coverage will spill over into other news outlets and lay responsibility for gay suicides at the feet of the anti-gay Christianist organizations.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

Requiem for a Small-Town Boy - A Consequence of Anti-gay Legislation

Time magazine has a thoughtful article on gay teen suicide victim Seth Walsh that I hope many ordinary citizens will take the time to read either in their homes, in medical office waiting rooms and other venues. The piece personalizes the victim - who sounds like he was a great and sensitive kid - and makes readers look at the anguish of his family and friends. Unfortunately, the piece fails to lay responsibility for Seth's death in part at the feet of anti-gay politicians and spineless politicians like Barack Obama who allow the foul anti-gay message of DADT and other anti-gay legislation to continue to send the message that gays deserve mistreatment and abuse. Via an executive order, Obama could suspend DADT and send a huge message to bigots and homophobes, but more importantly impressionable youths and teens, both gay and straight. Fortunately, Joe Mirabella has an op-ed that calls such politicians out in the Seattle Post Intelligencer. First, highlights from Time:
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People were not always nice to 13-year-old Seth Walsh. Neither his valiant younger brother Shawn nor the rest of his family could protect him from what they insist was chronic teasing. Even before Seth came out as gay, family and friends say, he was perpetually picked on for his mannerisms and his style of dressing. The bullying turned Seth Walsh to suicide, one of a spate of such deaths across the U.S. in the past two weeks.
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On Sept. 19, his single mother Wendy found him unconscious; he had tried to hang himself from a tree in his backyard after another apparent bullying incident. He lingered on life support for more than a week. His death has since shattered emotions in this rural community 120 miles (190 km) north of Los Angeles.
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The pastor told TIME that the focus of the service was "going to be on Seth and his life, not on the bullying, and not on the homosexuality." But both subjects were clearly in evidence at the service. As part of a photo montage displayed on the white walls behind the altar, Seth was shown happily wearing a plastic tiara on his head. The next frame featured the word bullying with a red slash through it.
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Seth's grandparents insist their grandson knew from an early age that he was gay. "Wendy did everything humanly possible to help him understand his world and to support him," Jim Walsh, a retired school principal, told TIME. "And so did his brothers and sister." But it was something young Seth had trouble accepting.
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The bullying took every form. "It was eye to eye, over the telephone, personal, over the Internet," says Judy. "He spent a lot of his life frightened." Seth's grandparents say the breaking point came after what they believe was a bullying incident in a local park on Sept. 19. After the incident, Seth appeared to be acting normally at home. He then showered and asked to borrow a pen from his mother to write. Then he said he was going to play with the dogs in the backyard. His horrified mother found him later at the tree and fought to save her child even though she suspected it was futile. "Wendy told me, when she put him on the ground, she knew his soul was gone," said Jim. The medical response teams did their best to revive him, heliporting Seth to the county's trauma center, where he remained on life support before dying Sept. 27.
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I hope the foregoing sickened you - it had that effect on me, especially since as a parent I can well image the devastation felt by Seth's mother. The real point is that we need to hold those responsible accountable - and that web of responsibility extends far beyond the bullies who made Seth's life Hell. It includes not only the Christianist gay haters, but also the politicians who do their bidding or who lack the resolve and moral integrity to end legalized forms of anti-gay bigotry. And, yes, the responsibility flows all the way up to the current occupant of the White House, not to mention the current Governor of Virginia. Here are highlights from Joe Mirabella's statement on this point:
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Elected officials are in positions of power. They have an ethical and moral responsibility to behave in ways that do not hurt children. By voting against the equal treatment of the LGBT community politicians like Reichert and Rossi are leading by example. They send a clear message that gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender citizens are "less than" or not as worthy as anyone else.
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Their messages of intolerance permeates throughout our culture. Adults teach children. Children bully other children. Children kill other children. Dino Rossi and Dave Reichert must own part of that responsibility if they are going to be anti-gay politicians.
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I am convinced that if our leadership at all levels of government refused to participate in legislative and political bullying, life would begin to change for gays and lesbians. Our young people will stop killing themselves. It is the job of our leaders to marginalize the intolerant, to protect minorities, and to lead with compassion for their fellow human beings. Until they do, politicians who participate in institutionalized homophobia have blood on their hands.
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I agree completely with Joe. Are you listening President Obama and Governor McDonnell? When are you going to wash the blood from you hands?

More Bigotry from Child Rapist Enablers in Catholic Hierarchy

Rather than clean its own house and turn those who enabled the rape of countless children and youths over to the authorities, the Catholic Church hierarchy continues to engage in anti-gay bigotry and the condemnation of in vitro fertilization. The latter actions demonstrating that the Church with its anti-birth control mantra prefers that individuals be forced to parent children they never wanted while those who want children never have them. It's more of what I view as the Church's increasingly ass backwards reasoning that derives in no small part from the power and control crazed senile [and bitter] old queens at the Vatican and throughout the Church hierarchy. The first dose of batshitery comes from the Vatican reaction to the award of the Nobel prize for medicine to British doctor Robert G. Edwards for his work on in vitro fertilization. The bitch queens say the award is inappropriate. What's inappropriate is that anyone in the right mind continues to listen to the Vatican on any issue. The second dose is in the form of Twin Cities Archbishop John C. Nienstedt's refusal to give communion to gay Catholics. Here are highlights from CNN on the Vatican's tantrum over the Nobel prize award to Dr. Edwards:
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An official with the Vatican criticized the decision to award the Nobel prize for medicine to British doctor Robert G. Edwards for his work on in vitro fertilization, Italy's official news agency ANSA reported Tuesday.
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Ignazio Carrasco de Paula, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said giving the award to Edwards was "completely inappropriate," according to the news agency. He said Edwards' work had created a market for human eggs and created problems of embryos being frozen, the news agency said.
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His work has led to the birth of about four million babies, the committee said in praising his work. The prize is worth 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.5 million). Born in Manchester, England, in 1925, Edwards is based at Cambridge University in England.
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As for the Twin Cities' archbishop's latest actions - which follow his endorsement of an anti-gay DVD distribution effort - here are highlights from the Star Tribune:
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Twin Cities Archbishop John C. Nienstedt, leading a student mass at St. John's Abbey recently, refused to give communion to members of a gay and lesbian college student group who were wearing rainbow buttons in a sign of solidarity.
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The conflict between the archbishop and students from the Roman Catholic St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict occurred during Sunday night
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The action came as Catholics throughout Minnesota have been sent hundreds of thousands of DVDs from the state's bishops in support of a ban on gay marriage.

KKK Comes to Defense of Anti-Gay Jenifer Keeton

I have previously written about Jennifer Keeton (pictured at left), a Kool-Aid drinking Christianist, who was expelled from her graduate program for her refusal to Augusta State University in Georgia based on her refusal to work with LGBT clients and to participate in practicums involving such patients. Likewise, I have often mentioned a number of times the latent racist message that permeates most "family values" and self-described Christian organizations - e.g., Family Research Council, The American Family Association, Focus on the Family, and her in Virginia, The Family Foundation - who attack gays openly but equally hate minorities when ones reads between the lines. Now, the fusion of these two examples of bigotry comes to the fore as the Klu Klux Klan announces that it will be staging a protest in support of Keeton. The message is that "family values" equals anti-gay, anti-black, anti-Hispanic and, of course, anti-non-Christian. The Augusta Chronicle has details. Here are highlights:
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The Ku Klux Klan will hold a rally in support of an Augusta State University counseling student who claims her First Amendment rights were violated when the school ordered her to learn more about the homosexual community.
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Bobby Spurlock, the imperial wizard knighthawk and grand dragon of South Carolina and North Carolina, said today the group has met with school officials and plans to protest the school’s treatment of 24-year-old Jennifer Keeton. The protest will be Oct. 23 from 1 to 4 p.m. They will be in full dress and located across from the school’s main Walton Way entrance in the median at Fleming Avenue.
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Keeton sued the university in July because she felt she was not allowed to retain her biblical viewpoints and remain a graduate student. The remediation plan required that Keeton attend counseling workshops, read counseling journals regarding gays and to increase her exposure to the gay community.
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A federal court upheld the university's expulsion of Keeton and rejected her whining that her religious freedom had been denied.

Tuesday Male Beauty

The Limits of "It Gets Better"

Fellow Bilerico contributor Jason Tseng has a post that is worth a read since it candidly looks at the reality of being gay in the bigoted USA. Like Tseng, I support the "It Gets Better" project launched by Dan Savage and hope that it touches some young lives and perhaps even saves some lives. The sad reality, however, is that being LGBT in the USA still carries a huge negative with it outside of perhaps some major metropolitan areas and a few enlightened states. Living in Virginia, this fact is rubbed in one's face virtually daily in many ways. Is my life better than during my self-loathing days in the closet or even compared to my early coming out days? Most definitely. But I'm still a third class citizen in my state and I and every other gay in Virginia can be fired at will any given day just for being gay (that's why I have my own firm - being openly gay makes me unemployable with ALL of the larger local law firms regardless of the winks and nods some give when they talk about "diversity"). Thus, the challenge is one of convincing LGBT teens that it's worth sticking around in spite of the burdens. It's not an easy task given a teenagers short "long view" when a year or tow may be viewed as an eternity. Here are highlights from Jason's piece:
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Savage and those joining the project attempt to address the uptick or at least an alarming concentration of teen suicides over their actual or perceived sexuality by reminding queer youth that high school ends and the bullying stops; you'll move to an urban gay enclave, meet the man of your dreams, and have a wonderful, sparkly, magical life. Maybe even get married, because, you know that's what all the other gays are doing.
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I fear that the way in which people are presenting the gay narrative to these impressionable teens is this sense that their lives will inevitably improve. That's just not true. They can get better, definitely. But we have to be real and transparent about the gay community and its problems.
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[E]ven if you're gay and have endured all kinds of unspeakable wrongs, the magical vending machine in the sky called karma doesn't actually keep a running balance of good things owed to you. You have to fight for it. Things don't always work out. They can, but you have to fight for it. You have to know what you want and be willing to fight tooth and nail for it.
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So what are the takeaways from all this? Yes, the It Gets Better Project is a great thing. We need to be reaching out to queer youth to instill in them a sense of hope and knowledge that "there is a place for us," to quote Dan Savage's West Side Story reference. But we also have to be aware and critical of the very real problems and deficiencies the current gay community has in its inability to make that gay promise accessible to everyone who falls under the rainbow banner.
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So does it get better? It can.
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Life is often hard work. When one is LGBT, it seems we have to work harder at making things get better for ourselves. The big thing is to hang in there and keep on working at it. In addition to the "It Gets Better" Project, we older members of the LGBT community need to redouble our efforts to make change happen so that the younger generations have a brighter and happier future.

America's Ultimate Hate Crime

This post is a re-post of one of the earliest posts I wrote when I first dabbled with this blog over four years ago (it was another six months before I began to write regularly). In the wake of the recent gay teen suicides it deserves a revisit since so much of what harms LGBT teens comes not from outside bullies, but from within their own homes. A piece in the Washington Post that examined among other things a young woman's experience and the mistreatment by her own parents made me think of this column. I came across this column on a blog named "Proceed at Your Own Risk" which, although I did not grow up in a true fundamentalist home, the column aptly describes what growing up gay (and in the closet) was/still is like in conservative areas. Every religious denomination that refuses to give gays full inclusion, in my view, continues this type of mental and psychologiacal abuse, to this very day. I find it very hard to believe Christ would condone such brutality. Here's the column:

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Every so once in a while I allow myself to consider the nightmare existence of a queer child growing up with religious fundamentalist parents. The thought of it is so painful that I need to keep it mostly compartmentalized and in the back of my mental and emotional closet. It's an aspect of the world of homophobia and fundamentalist religion that we very much ignore. For many reasons, it's the forgotten stepchild of gay activism, child care services and the mental health profession.
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But the obvious fact is that there are thousands of these kids living in a hell on earth as they fight their way through childhood.
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I can think of few other situations that have the potential to engender such a relentless and pervasive environment of psychological and possibly even physical child abuse. Generally speaking we do not do a good job of handling child abuse in this nation but when it come to gay kids the picture is even bleaker. The ratio of gay kids to straight kids among runaways, child prostitutes and suicides, well documented by the CDC, makes this painfully clear.
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Long before a child develops self-awareness of his or her own sexual orientation, he is trained to believe that homosexuality is an abomination and a perversion that is a threat to the American way of life.
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In a fundamentalist religious environment, he is told that homosexuality threatens the American family and the sacred institution of marriage. He is told that homosexual activists and their agenda are leading the charge in a war against Christianity. The homosexuals are the enemy.
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This young and impressionable child learns that the Bible, the absolute word of god and truth, clearly states that homosexuals are an abomination and that their sin is punishable by death. And then, worst of all, he learns that homosexuality is a choice made by sick and evil people and that to make this choice is a very bad and wicked thing. But then nature takes its course and at some point the gay child realizes that he's "chosen" homosexuality. He doesn't remember being asked. He doesn't remember checking off that particular choice on any application. And he searches through the mail for the recruitment brochure, but it isn't to be found.

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Somehow, somewhere along the way, he has made this monumental, life-changing and life-shattering choice, against his will and against the will of god. No problem, he thinks, he'll just chose otherwise until he one day realizes that he can't. Try as he might, the gay just won't go away, along with the color of his skin and the texture of his hair.

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His intellectual and emotional energies become singularly focused on changing that choice but to no avail. He turns up the engines and works hard to hide his nature. Self-hatred begins to rip open his guts. Childhood innocence and joy are not part of his experience. He lives in a state of constant dread and anxiety, fearing exposure or worse.

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It's an exhausting and soul-crushing childhood. While other children are looking to the future with hope, he lives in a world of despair, pain and fear. While other children are considering ballerina, doctor, astronaut or fire fighter, the gay child's energies are focused on hiding his or her true self. The boy dreads his first fake sexual encounter: will he be able to perform? The girl worries less, she will just turn away and cry and wait until it's over.

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Many ex-gays believe that the origins of homosexuality are to be found in an abusive childhood. Their logic is flawed but their childhoods were likely abusive. Many of them come out of strict Christian homes. Growing up gay in a strict fundamentalist Christian home most likely oftentimes means a battering patten of abuse, certainly verbal and sometimes physical. Many of these parents likely steam roll over the self-esteem and self-confidence of these children as they struggle to make "her" more feminine and "him" less of sissy.

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Protected by a very misguided notion of religious freedom, fundamentalists of all sorts are allowed by our society to engage in the ultimate hate crime, a pervasive and monstrous form of child abuse that will one day be seen by social historians and anthropologists as a very barbaric and grotesque aspect of the American civilization.
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Sexual orientation is not a choice, but our society's willingness to tolerate this terrible treatment of children is a choice and a choice that should make us all ashamed. We will be judged harshly by future generations as we are already judged by more evolved societies on the other side of the Atlantic.
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When slavery, the oppression of women and child labor were recognized for what they were, modern nations changed. When certain Biblical practices including the stoning to death of adulterers were recognized for what they were, modern nations changed. And when the abuse of homosexual children was recognized for what it was, modern nations changed--tragically we were not among them.

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Freedom of religion was designed to protect people from oppression and persecution. Instead, in 21st Century America, "freedom of religion" is used to do great harm to millions of Americans, including many of our children who are unable to defend themselves, their psyches and their hearts.
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"Freedom of religion" should not, in my opinion, be used to excuse behavior that violates sound practices and standards that are based on science, morality and ethics. Further, "freedom of religion" should not exempt people from laws governing discriminatory practices, mental health care, child care and child protection.
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If we allow religious beliefs to justify human degradation and oppression, we reduce our constitution to nothing but an old piece of paper. Homosexuality is common throughout hundreds of animal species and every scientific measure that has been used thus far has confirmed over and over again that this is about nature and not nurture. Of course, people who act exclusively on faith and belief rather than on fact and reason will never be convinced of this. The facts are that dinosaurs and unicorns did not miss the Ark and gay children did not chose to be who they were born to be.

But the question that seems to plague us at every turn these days is whether we are to be a nation of fact and reason or a nation of people packed and ready to jump on the Rapture bus? In the meantime, suffer the little children.

More Monday Male Beauty

An Earthlike Planet Found

In the past I have engaged in e-mail debates with some of the Christianist faculty at Pat Robertson's religious Regent University concerning the inerrant and the literal application of the Bible. The position of these religious zealots was that the Bible controlled on a literally applied basis across the universe and would be binding on any other life that might be found to exist on other planets. I'm sure readers are not surprised that I disagreed with this hubris. Any reading of the Bible will quickly demonstrate that it is an earth and human centric work whose authors - whoever they were - lacked any knowledge of modern astronomy, modern medical knowledge and zero knowledge of modern mental health knowledge. Indeed, the Catholic Church tried Galileo as a heretic for arguing that the earth revolved around the sun rather than vice versa. Now, as Time reports, an earth like planet has been discovered that seems to have the ingredients to support life. The nature of such life is unknown, but the odds of there being no other intelligent life somewhere in the universe seem nonexistent. When the existence of such life is ultimately confirmed, we can expect a huge crisis in the Christianist world. And it will be delicious fun to watch- especially if humans turn out to be the less evolved form of life. Here are highlights from the Time article:
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[O]n Wednesday, a team of astronomers announced that it had found two more planets circling the star, bringing the total to six. And one of them, assigned the name Gliese 581g, may be of truly historic significance.
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For one thing, the planet is only about three or four times as massive as our home world, meaning it probably has a solid surface just like Earth. Much more important, it sits smack in the middle of the so-called habitable zone, orbiting at just the right distance from the star to let water remain liquid rather than freezing solid or boiling away. As far as we know, that's a minimum requirement for the presence of life.
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None of this proves that there is water on Gliese 581g. "Those are things we just have to speculate about," says Vogt. But he goes on to point out that there's water pretty much everywhere else you look. "There's water on Earth," he says, "and on the moon, and Mars, and on Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, and in interstellar space. There's enough water produced in the Orion Nebula every 24 seconds to fill the Earth's oceans."
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It's not hard to imagine, in other words, that Gliese 581g might have plenty of water as well. "It could have quite a good ocean," Vogt says. Certainly, it could be a sterile, nonbiological ocean. But unlike any planet found until now, there's nothing to rule out the idea that it could be teeming with life.
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I continue to believe that those who preach that the Bible is inerrant and demand a literal application of the Bible will ultimately be the death of Christianity. And best of all, their critics will be the ones to have the last laugh.

Comprehensive Study on Sexual Behavior: 8% of Men are Gay and 7% of Women are Lesbian

The Christofascists like Albert Mohler will not be happy with the findings of a new comprehensive survey on sexual behavior conducted by the University of Indiana. The survey confirms that LGBT citizens are far more numerous that our enemies like to pretend. Equally staggering to the gay-haters is that 15% of all middle aged men say they have received oral sex from another man. Unfortunately, the survey doesn't state how many of the men in this latter group are Southern Baptists, Mormons and/or Catholic. My sense has always been that gays make up considerably more of the population than the 1-3% that the far right likes to claim. The full survey results can be found here. ABCNews has details. Here are some highlights:
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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The largest, most comprehensive study on sexual behaviors in the United States was published Friday in The Journal of Sexual Medicine. The study includes everything from condom usage by age and race to a description of the 40 most popular sexual acts Americans perform.
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Academics from the University of Indiana gathered their data by surveying 5,865 people between the ages of 14 and 94. The researchers claim to be the first group to include both adolescence and adults in a major study on sexual behaviors.
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Eight percent of men and 7 percent of women identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, but a much higher percentage report engaging in sexual activity with someone of the same sex at least once. The study found that 15 percent of men aged 50-59 have received oral sex from another man at some point.
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The researchers wrote nine articles using their data. All of the articles, as well as commentaries offering perspectives on the study, can be found in the the Oct. 1 edition of the Journal of Sexual Medicine [subscription only].
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Click the image below to enlarge.

Confronted by the Fruits of their Bigotry, the Christianists Lie and Attack the Victims

Image via Box Turtle Bulletin

The blogosphere and even portions of the mainstream media are inundated with coverage of the fruits of homophobia driven bullying fueled by the anti-gay jihad of the Christian Right. Faced with this deluge of news coverage, one would think the Christianists would at least have the discretion to tone down their anti-gay screeds and hatred, but such is not the case. In addition to the LSDS batshitery I commented on in a prior post, we have loons such as Senator Jim DeMint, Southern Baptist Convention big shot Albert Mohler, and the Minnesota Family Council all making statements that defy belief. Particularly in the wake of five gay teen suicides and new findings that confirm that anti-gay bigotry is the engine for LGBT mental health issues and depression. In a manner that makes the most tawdry whore look virtuous, the "godly Christian" set continues to point out LGBT depression issues as proof of the deleterious effects of the "gay lifestyle," yet it is the Christianists themselves who bear the ultimate responsibility for depression suffered by LGBT citizens.

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In this trifecta of bigotry, we have U.S. Senator Jim DeMint stating to a Christianist crowd that gays and fornicating single women should not be allowed to be teachers. Here are highlights from GoState.com on DeMint's insanity:
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The U.S. Constitution, he said, puts the people in charge, and crowds are becoming involved because they want spending stopped.
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DeMint said if someone is openly homosexual, they shouldn't be teaching in the classroom and he holds the same position on an unmarried woman who's sleeping with her boyfriend — she shouldn't be in the classroom.
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“(When I said those things,) no one came to my defense,” he said. “But everyone would come to me and whisper that I shouldn't back down. They don't want government purging their rights and their freedom to religion.”
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DeMint, however, has no monopoly on bigotry and an inability to separate his personal religious beliefs from CIVIL legislation. Next, we see the bigotry of SBC mover and shaker Albert Mohler who, while recognizing that the recent suicides are spotlighting the anti-gay hatred that is a hallmark of the SBC, turning the problem back on LGBT individuals. Frankly, I look forward to the day when the SBC, Mormon Church and Roman Catholic Church are lost relics of a nasty past. Here are highlights of Mohler's self-righteous and disingenuous statements on his website:

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The homosexual community will argue that these boys were oppressed by the fact that so many believe that homosexuality is sinful. They respond with calls for the acceptance and normalization of homosexuality. Their logic is easy to understand. If the stigma attached to homosexuality were to disappear, persons who are convinced that they are homosexual in sexual orientation, along with those who are confused, would be free from bullying, the threat of exposure, and injury to their parents and loved ones.
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Of course, Christians committed to biblical truth will recognize this as a demand to lie to sinners about their sin. The church cannot change its understanding of the sinfulness of homosexual acts unless it willfully disobeys the Scripture and rejects the authority of the Bible to reveal the truth about sin and sinfulness.
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In other words, the believing church cannot surrender to the demand that we disobey and reject biblical truth. That much is clear. We cannot lie to persons about the sinfulness of their sin, nor comfort them with falsehood about their moral accountability before God. The rush of the liberal churches and denominations to normalize homosexuality is now a hallmark of their disobedience to the Bible.
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The one lying, of course, is Mohler and those like him who continue to embrace 2000 year old ignorance and cling to texts authored by unknown and unknown authors without the benefit of modern medical and mental health knowledge who strove to distinguish Jewish believers from surrounding cultures, many of which tolerated same sex relationships. Increasingly, to be an SBC style Christian requires either a lobotomy or a barely trainable IQ level.

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Sadly, it gets even worse when one looks at the viciousness flowing from the Minnesota Family Council ("MFC"), a sister affliate of The Family Foundation here in Virginia and Daddy Dobson's vile Focus on the Family. As I said, tawdry whores are virtuous compared to these folks. Notwithstanding the rash of gay teen suicides, these self-congratulatory bastards continue to oppose ANY school policies that would address the problem of anti-gay bullying. Here are highlights from the Minnesota Independent on the hate spewing from MFC:
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The Minnesota Family Council (MFC) is pushing back against efforts to improve the climate for LGBT students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, where community members are mourning suicides by four LGBT students in the last year. The real issue is “homosexual indoctrination,” not anti-gay bullying, says MFC’s Tom Prichard, who says the students are dead because they adopted an “unhealthy lifestyle.”
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Prichard asserts that the suicide death of 15-year-old Justin Aaberg was not due to anti-LGBT bullying. Aaberg took his life in July, and his mother and friends say anti-LGBT bullying played a factor Prichard claims that “homosexual activists” are “manipulating” his death to get homosexual indoctrination programs into the school district.
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“I don’t think parents want their kids indoctrinated in homosexuality,” he said, adding that Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs), often the only safe space for LGBT students on campus, should be removed from schools. “It’s sad and harmful for kids to celebrate homosexuality when in fact it’s not a healthy lifestyle,” he said.
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[T]he national Focus on the Family has launched TrueTolerance.org, a website that teaches that LGBT bullying prevention efforts “become a gateway for homosexuality promotion in school.”
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Obviously, if anything is removed from the schools it needs to be groups like MFC and Focus on the Family which seek to subvert the religious freedom of all except their ignorant and bigoted adherents. To these folks, only they are entitled to religious freedom and all others must grovel under their storm trooper boots.

Monday Male Beauty