The Democrats Continue to Whine "But We're Better than Republicans"

It is pretty pathetic when a political party's main argument for re-electing its members is that they're not as bad as the other alternative, the GOP. Yet that ids the reality of today's Congressional Democrats. The Democratic base is pissed off and unenthusiastic and with good reason. Barack Obama and the Congressional Democrats made soaring campaign promises and have delivered on little after a year and a half in office - and that's despite holding the White House and controlling both houses of Congress. Lack of leadership by the president and lack of spine among members of Congress have been the principal hallmarks since Obama was sworn in in January, 2009. If the Congressional Democrats get decimated in the 2010 mid-terms, in my estimation, they will have no one to blame but themselves, and most specifically their utterly ineffectual "leader," Barack Obama. PBS has a piece that looks at the frustration of the Base versus the same old bullshit from Obama and his talking heads. Here are highlights:
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JUDY WOODRUFF: But it wasn't until this month that he delivered his first major address on immigration reform since becoming president. And it came amid a heated national debate, sparked by a controversial new Arizona law that proponents said was a response to the failure of the federal government to act on the issue.
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Democratic Representative Raul Grijalva of Arizona, co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus, says he expected the administration to deal with immigration sooner.
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REP. RAUL GRIJALVA, D-Ariz.: The effort put in to -- to energizing Latino voters, the effort put into getting the endorsements of significant organizations across this country, the commitments made in front of national organizations that deal with immigration reform, all those indicated to me that it was a priority, and that it was going to be a priority not just in the first term, but in the first year.
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REP. RAUL GRIJALVA: I think we have taken the progressive community for granted. I think we have been good soldiers for this administration and for our leadership, consistently taking the tough votes, even when we had to swallow. And -- and I think the progressive community has been appropriately supportive of this president and this -- this -- majorities in Congress. I -- I think they need to be worried, because it's their base. It's -- it keeps our party erect. And we need them in elections. If they don't show up, we're going to have bigger problems than people think.
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JUDY WOODRUFF: "The Advocate"'s Eleveld points out there could also be a financial impact for Democrats.
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KERRY ELEVELD: There is a fair amount of money that flows from the LGBT community to the Democratic National Committee, to the president, to Democrats in general. And I think what you're really wondering is, what's going to happen to that flow of money? Are people going to start saying, why are we giving to Democrats? Why are we giving to the Democratic National Committee? Why are we giving to the president? Maybe we should just be picking individual candidates.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Axelrod asserts, Democrats need to focus on the real choice facing them.
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DAVID AXELROD: The Republican Party hasn't been subtle at all. Congressman Sessions, the leader of the Democratic -- of the Republican Campaign Committee, said last weekend that we want to go back to doing exactly what we were doing before this president was elected.

More Saturday Male Beauty

AFA Loonies Launch Boycott of Home Depot

The Christofacists at the American Family Association ("AFA") have launched yet another boycott against another corporation which AFA claims is too gay friendly and, therefore, working to subvert society - indeed, destroy Western Civilization itself. Since AFA boycotts historically do nothing in terms of depriving the targeted corporations of any significant volume of business revenue, the real purpose of the boycotts is to (1) keep AFA in the news and appear to have some relevance, more importantly, (2) to provide a pretense for AFA to ask for money from the gullible. Since AFA's goal - besides raking in money so that the Wilmon family can live the good life like leeches - is to establish a theocracy in the USA, no credence is given to the reality that the LGBT community is a significant market segment for businesses out to make a profit for the owners/shareholders. Here is some of AFA's screed against Home Depot:
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For several years, The Home Depot has given its financial and corporate support to open displays of homosexual activism on main streets in America's towns. And, it says it will continue to do so!
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Rejecting several requests by AFA to remain neutral in the culture war, The Home Depot has chosen to sponsor and participate in numerous gay pride parades and festivals. Most grievous is The Home Depot's deliberately exposing small children to lascivious displays of sexual conduct by homosexuals and cross-dressers, which are a common occurrence at these events.
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The goal of every homosexual organization supported by The Home Depot is to get homosexual marriage legalized. BoycottTheHomeDepot provides just a glimpse of how broad its support for the homosexual movement is. The Home Depot says it is committed to furthering the homosexual agenda.
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TAKE ACTION
1. Sign the Boycott Pledge at BoycottTheHomeDepot.com.
2. Call your local store manager. Let him know that you will not be shopping in his store until the company stops supporting the homosexual agenda. You can find his number here. (click "Store Finder").
3. Print the paper petition and distribute it at Sunday School and church.
4. Extremely important! Post this alert to your facebook page (link above) and encourage others to join the boycott!
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It is important that the LGBT community let Home Depot know that its support of equality for all Americans is appreciated. Please contact Home Depot and say "Thank you" via the following means:
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You can find your local store via the Home Depot’s Store Locator function on their website:
www.homedepot.com

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You can also call the nationwide customer care department at 1-800-466-3337.

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Phone-phobic? You can also send the Home Depot an email through the Contact Us link on their main web page. It’s at the bottom right-hand side at www.homedepot.com

Senator Jim Webb - A Soon to be Convert to the GOP?

UPDATED: A commenter has cited impoverished areas of Virginia that are almost completely white as justification for Jim Webb's proposal to end all affirmative action programs. Unfortunately, neither the commenter nor the author of the link cited were willing to take into consideration the responsibility that impoverished areas of Virginia bear for their own current economic situation. Yes, historic manufacturing jobs have exited the region. However, it is the residents' own racism, homophobia and general unwelcoming attitude to anyone who isn't white, far right conservative Christian and just like themselves that are the largest biggest impediments to attracting new and progressive businesses to replace lost manufacturing jobs. Modern businesses do not want to locate to areas where one expects the Klan to show up at any moment and where gays are fired at will. Martinsville, Virginia (unemployment hovers at around 20%), is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Increasingly, bigotry carries a heavy economic price.

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Having already done his utmost to alienate LGBT voters by his refusal to support DADT repeal, now Virginia U.S. Senator Jim Webb is working hard to alienate the minority vote by stating that affirmative action programs for racial minorities need to end. Of course, Webb is very selective in who he wants to "help." He whines that whites from families that have been in the USA for two hundred years are allegedly being unfairly treated and subjected to reverse discrimination. Yet, in my personal case, notwithstanding an ancestry on my mother's side that stretches back two centuries in the USA, I can be fired at will in Virginia and I am subject to unconstitutional religious based discrimination that has zero to do with affirmative action programs. And where is Webb on such issues? He's either invisible or supporting those who support such discrimination. I'm sorry but the word hypocrite quickly springs to mind.

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What's next for Webb? Will a condemnation of unions and union members be his next next step? Frankly, at this rate I am waiting for the next shoe to drop and have Webb announce that he's switching to the GOP and that he wants to be Sarah Palin's running mate in 2012. He clearly doesn't give a damn about the traditional Democratic Party Base. Moreover, in the case of affirmative actions programs, rather than looking at program shortcomings, Webb wants to throw the baby out with the bath water. As bad as my former law school classmate George Allen was, at least you knew he was an enemy of LGBT and minority rights. With the benefit of hindsight, I regret ever voting for Mr. Webb. I will not make that mistake a second time. I'll take a clear enemy any day over a duplicitous back stabber like Webb. Here are highlights from Webb's op-ed in the less than liberal Wall Street Journal:
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The NAACP believes the tea party is racist. The tea party believes the NAACP is racist. And Pat Buchanan got into trouble recently by pointing out that if Elena Kagan is confirmed to the Supreme Court, there will not be a single Protestant Justice, although Protestants make up half the U.S. population and dominated the court for generations.
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Forty years ago, as the United States experienced the civil rights movement, the supposed monolith of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant dominance served as the whipping post for almost every debate about power and status in America. After a full generation of such debate, WASP elites have fallen by the wayside and a plethora of government-enforced diversity policies have marginalized many white workers. The time has come to cease the false arguments and allow every American the benefit of a fair chance at the future.
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The injustices endured by black Americans at the hands of their own government have no parallel in our history, not only during the period of slavery but also in the Jim Crow era that followed. But the extrapolation of this logic to all "people of color"—especially since 1965, when new immigration laws dramatically altered the demographic makeup of the U.S.—moved affirmative action away from remediation and toward discrimination, this time against whites.
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Those who came to this country in recent decades from Asia, Latin America and Africa did not suffer discrimination from our government, and in fact have frequently been the beneficiaries of special government programs. The same cannot be said of many hard-working white Americans, including those whose roots in America go back more than 200 years.
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Beyond our continuing obligation to assist those African-Americans still in need, government-directed diversity programs should end.
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Nondiscrimination laws should be applied equally among all citizens, including those who happen to be white. The need for inclusiveness in our society is undeniable and irreversible, both in our markets and in our communities. Our government should be in the business of enabling opportunity for all, not in picking winners. It can do so by ensuring that artificial distinctions such as race do not determine outcomes.
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Memo to my fellow politicians: Drop the Procrustean policies and allow harmony to invade the public mindset. Fairness will happen, and bitterness will fade away.

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Memo to Jim Webb: fool me once , shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I have no intention of being fooled twice and support those who have suggested that Webb be targeted as a turn coat Democrat who needs to be defeated in his next election cycle.

Saturday Male Beauty

The Continuing Process of "Coming Out"

I have said before that coming out is not a one time event or something that even takes a few months - especially when one lives in a region like southeastern Virginia. Sometimes perhaps, I/we even put far more pressure on ourselves than others do and we sometimes need to take a deep breath and relax. Sometimes it's necessary to allow others more credit for acceptance than one might expect. Tonight was likely one such occasion.

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Typically, I am pretty comfortable in a crowded room and can hold my own in conversations (much to the amazement of those who knew me as shy and quiet in high school). Nevertheless, I felt like I was coming out all over again tonight (three gin and tonics definitely helped). We were at a beautiful social event thrown at the home of one of the boyfriend's clients from a prominent local family here on the Virginia Peninsula. As seems to happen with regularity, the boyfriend and I were the only gay couple at the heavily attended event. The boyfriend had the advantage in that he had done the hair of a significant percentage of the women in the crowd - as well as some of the husbands - at some point in time or another. In contrast, yours truly knew very few people since until moving in with the boyfriend most of my social interaction was always on the southside of Hampton Roads which socially is a different universe.

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Everyone was very gracious and with out exception, the boyfriend introduced me as his partner. Indeed, no one seemed to bat an eye even though we were the only same sex couple - and wearing matching wedding bands. The lesson? Be yourself and give others an opportunity to accept you. If they don't, it's their loss. If they do, then chalk it up as another foray into the process of demonstrating that we in the LGBT community are really not so different than anyone else.

The GOP Base vs. The Constitution

The growing insanity of the GOP base and the demagogues who seeking to play upon the GOP Base's hatred and intolerance of everyone except those who are white, fundamentalist Christian or Opus Dei Catholics seems to be spinning increasingly out of control. What's remarkable is that while wrapping themselves in the flag and claiming to want to "restore constitutional government," these folks in fact seem Hell bent to dismantle the U.S. Constitution - at least insofar as it would provide rights and legal protections to anyone other than themselves. Similarly, Christian allies of this movement accuse others of seeking "special rights," yet it is they, not gays, blacks, Hispanics or others who want special rights. Specifically, they want to ride rough shod over the religious freedoms of others and deny newer generations of immigrants the very rights that allowed their own fore bearers to prosper and sustain their own ethnic communities. Adding insult to injury is the fact that they deliberately lie and twist the facts with abandon to further their own agendas.

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A case in point is Newt Gingrich. It's bad enough that he claims to champion family and conservative values even though in his third marriage after two divorces - he seemingly has forgotten the Gospel prohibitions against divorce. Now, he is seeking to fan the flames of religious hatred. His target? The Muslim community center or The proposed 'Cordoba House' that would be built some blocks from the World Trade Center site in Manhattan. Gingrich has deliberately lied and described the center as a mosque overlooking the World Trade Center site. The only problem is that (1) it doesn't over look the site and (2) as one reader of Andrew Sullivan's blog pointed out, the community center would allow non-Muslims from the surrounding neighborhood who could use the recreation and meeting facilities. Joining Gingrich in these lies is pathological liar - and in my opinion, mentally ill - Sarah Palin. Whenever people wonder how Hitler came to power, nowadays all they need do is watch the activities and lies of the Christianist, far right GOP base, and faux news outlets like Fox News and Brietbart. Andrew Sullivan sums it up well as to how these people would destroy the Constitution that they disingenuously claim to support:
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The Palin-led tone of the GOP is increasingly, well there's no other word for it, neo-fascist. As if it is now un-American to support freedom of religion - especially near a site destroyed by those who oppose it. Palin sees a mosque as a stab in the heart of America. I see it as a sign of America's endurance as a place where freedom of religion is sacrosanct, and where we make distinctions between genuine believers and those who distort and pervert faith for political and murderous ends.
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If Palin and Ginrich ever come to represent "true Americans," then I suspect that I will be ashamed to be an American because America will have become something abhorrent.

Gay Italian Priests Sex Scandal Caught on Video

Yet another bomb shell to rock the Roman Catholic Church as an Italian investigative report tracks three priests in Rome who were caught by hidden cameras in sex romps and visits to gay clubs. Frankly, I am not surprised in the least. The more relevant question is how many [thousands] more are there and who many are within the ranks of the high clerics in the hierarchy? Papa Ratzi will naturally say the Church's sexual misconduct issues are all the fault of the gays - conveniently ignoring the Church system that helped make the priesthood a safe hiding place for both gays and pedophiles. Do I feel sorry for the priests caught in the probe? Not really - if they had any self-respect they would leave the Church. The good news, of course, is that at least these priests were not busy raping children and minors. Both The Advocate and the Daily Mail have coverage. Here are highlights from the Daily Mail:
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A gay priest sex scandal has rocked the Catholic Church in Italy today after a weekly news magazine released details of a shock investigation it had carried out. Using hidden cameras, a journalist from Panorama magazine - owned by Italian Prime Minister and media baron Silvio Berlusconi - filmed three priests as they attended gay nightspots and had casual sex.
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Today there was no immediate comment from the Italian Bishops Conference and the Vatican - which has been rocked by a series of sex scandals involving paedophile priests since the start of the year.
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Panorama described its investigation as 'deeply disturbing' as it detailed how three priests - two Italians and a Frenchman - happily took part in gay events and had casual sex.

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In one part of the investigation Panorama said that one priest, named as Carlo, willingly put on his cassock to have sex with the reporter's gay accomplice, adding 'all of which was filmed by the hidden camera'. The magazine also described how they had attended a Mass which was celebrated by Carlo.

Friday Male Beauty

Once a Leader, U.S. Lags in College Degrees

In perhaps yet another sign that the USA is in decline other than perhaps militarily, the New York Times reports that growing gap between the rate at which college degrees are being completed in the United States compared to other countries threatens to undermine American economic competitiveness. I suspect the Bible thumpers and far right demagogues secretly welcome this trend inasmuch as it requires an ignorant populace to further religious fundamentalism and to provide a fertile atmosphere for loonies like Sarah Palin and other darlings of the GOP base. Sadly, far too few people seem to care. The USA is squandering billions and billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan even as the nation's infrastructure crumbles, millions of citizens go without preventive medical care and college becomes less affordable for more and more students. Yet the self-anointed super patriots continue to delude themselves in believing that the USA is better than every other nation. I'm sorry, but something is seriously f*cked up with this picture. Here are highlights from this disturbing story:
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The United States used to lead the world in the number of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees. Now it ranks 12th among 36 developed nations.
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“The growing education deficit is no less a threat to our nation’s long-term well-being than the current fiscal crisis,” Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board, warned at a meeting on Capitol Hill of education leaders and policy makers, where he released a report detailing the problem and recommending how to fix it. “To improve our college completion rates, we must think ‘P-16’ and improve education from preschool through higher education.” While access to college has been the major concern in recent decades, over the last year, college completion, too, has become a leading item on the national agenda.
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Canada now leads the world in educational attainment, with about 56 percent of its young adults having earned at least associate’s degrees in 2007, compared with only 40 percent of those in the United States. (The United States’ rate has since risen slightly.)
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While almost 70 percent of high school graduates in the United States enroll in college within two years of graduating, only about 57 percent of students who enroll in a bachelor’s degree program graduate within six years, and fewer than 25 percent of students who begin at a community college graduate with an associate’s degree within three years.
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The problem is even worse for low-income students and minorities: only 30 percent of African-Americans ages 25-34, and less than 20 percent of Latinos in that age group, have an associate’s degree or higher.
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The group’s first five recommendations all concern K-12 education, calling for more state-financed preschool programs, better high school and middle school college counseling, dropout prevention programs, an alignment with international curricular standards and improved teacher quality. College costs were also implicated, with recommendations for more need-based financial aid, and further efforts to keep college affordable.
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I suspect teaching creationism as science is not something found in international curricular standards. More and more, the rest of the world must be laughing at the USA. What's ironic is that the Christianists whine about too much emphasis on self-esteem in our schools, and yet the nation suffers from that same problem: too much self-esteem with no basis to support it.

Irish Civil Partnership Bill Signed into Law

I have focused on Argentina's stunning approval of gay marriage, but civil equality for LGBT individuals has also taken a major advance across the Atlantic in another former bastion of Catholicism - Ireland. Like the case in Argentina, legislators comprehend the difference between equality under the civil laws and religious based discrimination. Something our weak kneed and simpering politicians cannot grasp in the USA as they continue to pander to the worse elements of the Uber-Christians who, if given their way, would over throw the Constitutional protections of all other citizens. The passage of the civil partnerships law in Ireland is another much deserved blow to the Roman Catholic Church which has increasingly lost credibility outside the uneducated populace of third world nations. It is likewise further proof that the USA - self advertised land of freedom and liberty for all - is falling further and further behind the rest of the modern world. The Irish Times has coverage on this huge event in Ireland. Here are some highlights:
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The Civil Partnership Bill, which provides legal recognition for same-sex couples in Ireland for the first time, has today been signed into law. The Bill was signed into law by President Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin this morning
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It extends marriage-like benefits to gay and lesbian couples in the areas of property, social welfare, succession, maintenance, pensions and tax. The act also offers additional rights and protections for other cohabiting couples including a redress scheme for financially dependent long-term cohabitants on the end of a relationship.
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Announcing the signing of the Bill today, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern described it as "one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation to be enacted since independence." "This Act provides enhanced rights and protections for many thousands of Irish men and women. Ireland will be a better place for its enactment," he said.
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The Bill was approved by the Seanad by 48 votes to 4 at 6.30pm on Friday July 9th, having completed its passage though the Dáil the previous week.The legislation was widely supported in both the Dáil and Seanad. The Green Party this afternoon welcomed the singing into law of the Bill.
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"Today is a good day for all Irish citizines. This Act is a significant step forward and a stepping stone towards greater equality in our society, said the party's justice spokesman Trevor Sargent. "I look forward to the first ceremonies that will be held under this Act from next January. They mark an important venture for our society for which we have waited far too long,” he added.

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Obviously, this is wonderful news and provides gay couples another option of where they might choose to emigrate. It also means that anti-gay states like Virginia will be increasingly unattractive places for international businesses from outside the USA to locate since employees would lose important civil law benefits due to the "Marshall-Newman Amendment" which bars the recognition of marriages and civil partnerships that are legal elsewhere. Yet another "victory" for the Christo-fascists at The Family Foundation.

More Thursday Male Beauty

Dedicated to Anna in Seattle

Old Dominion University Post-Doctoral Postion in Gay Cultural Studies

UPDATED: Here's a photo of me chatting with Del. Adam Ebbin. Lisa Turner - a fellow advisory board member and one of the co-authors of the Dallas Principles - is in the background. Local blogger Vivian Page is in the right foreground. It was a truly great event

This even was the kick-off informational event for the endowment effort for the new Old Dominion University ("ODU") Post-Doctoral Position in Gay Cultural Studies. Friend Tim Bostic (who is on the Advisory Board with me) and his partner, Tony London, hosted the event which was well attended and extremely well received. Among those attending was Adam Ebbin, the sole out gay member of the Virginia General Assembly.

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Personally, I believe that the creation of this position here in the Hampton Roads area is huge. Five Virginia universities already have similar positions and it is about time that ODU has such a program - especially if it wants to be competitive in recruiting professors and staff. It should also be noted that since the position will be funded by a privately funded fundraising effort and endowment, the Christofascists like Attorney General Ken Cucinnielli - who is currently waging a personal war at taxpayer expense against the University of Virginia - cannot whine that university funds are being diverted from other programs. We have set up an initial website that can be found here. Here are some brief details on the position being created:
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The position will be administratively housed in the Humanities Institute, but rotated across departments in the College of Arts & Letters according to the scholar’s area of expertise.
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The position would be filled annually, with the possibility of renewal for a second year, and would be subject to a competitive national application process. The selected candidate would be responsible for teaching a 1/1-course load (one class in the Fall semester and one in the Spring semester). One of the courses would be a recurring graduate seminar in sexuality/gender studies while the other course would be an undergraduate offering in the scholar’s area of expertise.
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In addition, the scholar would be responsible for organizing an annual outreach event that shines a light on Hampton Roads LGBT community accomplishment and concerns and would act as a liaison between The College of Arts & Letters and the Hampton Roads LGBT community. The event theme would change annually depending on the scholar’s area of expertise.
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For those interested in more information, the next informational event will be on Thursday, August 26, 2010 at the The Baron & Ellin Gordon Art Gallery at 4509 Monarch Way on the ODU grounds. Information on the event - which will include a silent auction of art from artists at ODU, Norfolk State and the local community - can also be found here.

Family Foundation Crocodile Tears

Earlier this month I wrote a post about The Family Foundation ("TFF") - James Dobson's poisonous Virginia affiliate that has been the moving force behind every anti-gay legislative initiative in the state for decades. Apparently, my tough words about TFF and its insidious Christofascist agenda upset the sensibilities of the gay haters at TFF. On its propaganda platform, I mean blog, TFF was whining and crying about me calling the organization out and as is the norm today played the role of the poor victimized Christians who are abused and called names by the big bad liberals and gays (actually, they frequently call me a "homosexualist", whatever the Hell that is). Among TFF's self described "victories" are the following:

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Passed Constitutional Amendment Defining Marriage Passed a constitutional amendment that protects the definition of marriage and prohibits the Commonwealth or its political subdivisions from recognizing civil unions.

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Banned counterfeit forms of marriage such as “civil unions” This law voids any civil union, partnership, contract or other arrangement between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage. Such an arrangement entered into in another state or jurisdiction is void in Virginia and any contractual rights created thereby unenforceable.
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To achieve these "victories, TFF engaged in a massive disinformation campaign and disseminated the old lie that sexual orientation is a choice and, therefore, not entitled to legal recognition or protection. Also, quite disingenuously, TFF claims to support freedom of religion and among its "values" includes this-

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RELIGIOUS LIBERTY: the right of conscience, and the right to practice faith according to personal beliefs is sacred and should not be infringed or denied.

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This right of religious liberty, of course, is to be enjoyed in actuality, however, only if one subscribes to TFF's religious views. Those of different faiths or with different views on homosexuality, marriage - the list is indeed endless - are simply out of luck. It's either TFF's way or TFF wants you to have no rights. Again, it's TFF and its members who are seeking special rights."

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In addition to whining and carrying on about being persecuted, TFF tries to justify its bigotry towards gays - and reading between the lines, blacks, Hispanics, non-Christians, etc. - based on majority rule. Just because a majority supports something doesn't make it righ or moral. Given Virginia's history, citing majority approval of the denial of legal rights is a dangerous prospect. Apparently, TFF has forgotten about slavery, segregation, bans on interracial marriage among other things that the majority of the population once supported. Or does TFF, in fact, still support those anti-equality relics of the past? Personally, I suspect that it does.

Marriage Bill Signed in Buenos Aires

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has signed the bill making same sex marriage legal nationwide in Argentina. The photo shows her making remarks after signing the landmark legislation which puts Argentina far ahead of the United States in terms of the treatment of its LGBT citizens. Here in Virginia pet owners are afforded more recognition of their relationship with their pets than members of same sex couples are afforded vis-a-vis each other. It's pathetic state of affairs, but that's what one gets when the state is run by spineless legislators and religious extremists. Here are highlights from Yahoo News:

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Within the halls of the 19th-century Casa Rosada, or Pink House, Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on Wednesday signed into law South America's first same-sex marriage bill.

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Hundreds crowded the streets outside Buenos Aires's Casa Rosada to show their support for the bill, which the Argentinean legislature passed on July 15. . . . The room, and a spillover room, erupted into applause following the signature and it was announced that marriage equality was now the law of the land.

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Fernandez then spoke to the ebullient crowd. She stated that by signing this law the government is granting marriage equality to a group that deserves rights granted to them, not taken away. Change and progress are a good thing, Fernandez added, saying that once Argentina's senators debated allowing divorce. Finally, the president pointed out the symbolism of signing the bill within the Hall of Science, saying it demonstrates that enlightenment trumped suspicion and fear.

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This is how a fierce advocate acts - President Obama, are you listening?? As Andrew Sullivan correctly noted, it is sad when the rest of the world leads America in the area of the advancement of human freedom and equality. This video clip shows the elation after the signing of the bill.

Thursday Male Beauty

Debunking Christianity - A Former Pastor's View

Click to enlarge image

While we don't always agree, Bob Felton at Civil Commotion does a great job at focusing on the growing inability of fundamentalist Christianity and far right Catholicism to reconcile their fear and hate based religion with modernity and modern knowledge. Letting go of Bible inerrancy and an imperial papacy would do wonders to allow the faith to adjust to changes in modern scientific and medical knowledge and changes in society. The problem, of course, is that to do so would be an admission that what was formerly inflicted on those in the pews was erroneous and the house of cards begins to crumble. Perhaps even more frightening for adherents of fundamentalism and far right Catholicism would be the prospect of having to exercise independent thought and analysis - something long condemned by the fire and brimstone preachers and priests who use fear as a means of controlling the sheeple.

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Bishop John Shelby Spong and others have argued that Christianity must change or die - something that might not be a bad thing given the evil that the Christianity has done over the centuries in the name of God. The decline of Catholicism in Europe, the recent approval of gay marriage in Argentina and the growing disillusionment of many with organized religion are but evidence of the coming train wreck for many denominations (not to mention nations) that allow the claimed inerrancy of the Bible to cause positions and actions that are increasingly out of touch with objective reality. Bob Felton found an interesting post by Bruce Gerencser, a former Baptist pastor, on a blog called Debunking Christiaity that does a good job of showing what I believe is happening with many who try to call themselves Christian. Here are highlights:
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This post is My Testimony. I want to share, as briefly as I can, where I’ve been, what I’ve experienced, and what has brought me to where I am today. This is the testimony I would give if agnostics were allowed to give a testimony at the local Baptist Church.
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I spent the first 50 years of my life in a Christian church. I attended the Episcopal Church and the Lutheran Church as a child. When my family moved to California in the early 1960s we began to attend a Baptist church. . . . I would preach my last sermon at age 48. All told I was a preacher for 33 years. I pastored churches for 25 of those 33 years.
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I entered the ministry as a fundamentalist independent Baptist. I believed the King James Bible was the inerrant, inspired, infallible, perfect Word of God. I believed my calling in life was to win as many souls as possible and build a church up for the glory of God. I was premillennial and dispensational. I believed the rapture could come at any moment and that it was important to be busy serving Jesus when the rapture took place.
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I left the ministry as a tired, worn out,abused preacher. When I left the ministry I was still a believer. I thought that the problem was the churches I pastored or perhaps me personally. If I just found the right church to attend the ship could be righted and all would be well. . . . After visiting over 125 churches, attending some of them for months, especially those in the community I lived in at the time, I came to the conclusion that no matter what the name was on the door every church was the same.
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My crisis of faith did not begin as a theological struggle. It began as I looked at the Christian Church as a whole and came to the conclusion that, for the most part, the Christian church was a meaningless social club. While I certainly realized there were probably some exceptions out there somewhere I didn’t find any.
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19 months ago I attended my last church service. I finally came to the place where I could no longer embraced the meaninglessness and the indifference of the Christian Church. I did not want to waste one more moment of my time doing something that didn’t matter.
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During the time from my last pastorate in 2003 until today I have invested great time and effort in reinvestigating the Bible and the claims of the Christian Church. I’ve come to the conclusion that the Bible, as great of a book as it is, is not the inerrant, inspired word of God. At best, the Bible is a spiritual guide and a book of mythical stories written by men thousands of years ago. It is not a book that is overly relevant to the world that we live in today. The stories make for great reading but they offer little real practical wisdom for moderns in a 21st-century. I still enjoy reading the Sermon on the Mount, Ecclesiastes, and the Psalms. There is wisdom to be had from the Bible but it is certainly not a book that one can govern their life by.
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I came to see that the Christian church’s attempt to prop up the Bible was a house of illusions. Instead of confronting the fallibility of the text and the many errors within that text, the Christian church instead developed convoluted and humorous explanations for the perceived errors and contradictions in the Bible. Explanations like….. inerrant in the originals.
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Robert Price said that once a person stops believing that the Bible is the Word of God they are on a slippery slope where there is no natural stopping place. That’s where I find myself.
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My deconversion came at the moment where I finally admitted to myself that I no longer believed the Bible to be the word of God. As I have often said, It really is all about the Bible. I am thoroughly convinced that what Christians say about the Bible simply is not the truth. I bear them no ill will. I firmly believe that every person has a right to believe what they want. As long as that person does not try to force their religion upon me or attempt to control the government or society with their religion I subscribe to the live and let live theory. Unfortunately we live in a day where many Christians feel called by their God to turn America into a theocracy and to establish the Bible as the law. For this reason I continue to fight Christians who have such an agenda.
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I do not know if a god exists or not. I have room in my worldview for a God but I am quite certain that the Western, Christian, evangelical God, the God of the Bible is no God at all. Some people like to label me an atheist. I am not.
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I know a lot of you will find this disappointing. Some people think this is a phase I’m going through. Perhaps I have PTSD from all my years as a fundamentalist Baptist pastor. Others suggest I have mentally lost it. I have nothing to say to people who think like this. It seems they simply cannot accept that someone can walk away from Jesus. That someone can reject Christianity. That someone can weigh Christianity in the balances and find it wanting.
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As time goes by, I believe more and more of us will find ourselves in Bruce Gerencser's position. Faith based on fear and hatred towards others and which requires the embracing of ignorance and ridiculous mental gymnastics just doesn't cut it anymore. Will Christianity change or will the Christianists kill it? Only time will tell.

Missouri Synod Lutherans Adopt Resolutions to Make Sure People Know They're Bigots and Homophobes

The level of contempt and bigotry that is the hallmark of so many allegedly Christian denominations never seems to amaze me. The latest case in point is the Missouri Synod Lutherans ("LCMS") who - God forbid - feared that people might confuse them with the more liberal and surely more Christian acting Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ("ELCA"). Last year the ELCA voted at its Churchwide Assembly to allow partnered gay clergy and recognized the need to accept and affirm the committed relationships of same sex couples. Therefore, in order to reaffirm that they are bigots and homophobes, the LCMS adopted resolutions at its convention this week (see photo). While not voting to severe all ties with the ELCA, the LCMS roundly condemned gays and insisted on clinging to selective literal application of Bible passages. Like so many faux Christians and modern day Pharisees of the professional Christian set, the LCMS picks and chooses which parts of the Bible will be applied literally in order to condemn others while ignoring other passages that would condemn their own hypocrisy. Here are highlights from the Christian Post.
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Delegates of the Lutheran Church Missouri-Synod on Tuesday overwhelmingly adopted two resolutions in response to last year's pro-gay actions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. One resolution commends for "study and reference" two documents that state that the ELCA's actions – including allowing partnered homosexuals on the clergy roster – are contrary to Scripture.
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When the ELCA's highest legislative body voted last August to allow gays and lesbians in "publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships" to serve as clergy, the denomination received wide media attention, prompting concerns within the LCMS that many may think all Lutherans share the same beliefs. The ELCA had also adopted a social statement on human sexuality acknowledging that there is no consensus on homosexuality while at the same time recommending that the ELCA commit itself to find ways to recognize lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships.
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Meanwhile, the second document – "Theological Implications of the 2009 ELCA Decisions" prepared by an LCMS task force – notes that the LCMS and the ELCA have partnered together in works related to mercy and relief but that the controversial decision threatened the cooperative relationship.
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Slavery, treating women as chattel, and murdering non-Christian women and children have also been viewed as Biblically sanctioned in the past and I'm sure the LCMS's actions towards gays will someday be viewed as horrible and un-Christian. Until then, I suppose the self -congratulatory members of the LCMS will revel in its chosen bigotry, rejection of modern knowledge, and hatred towards those who are different than themselves. WWJD?

Wednesday Male Beauty

DOD Survey on DADT Repeal Has Major Security Flaws

In a bombshell post, John Aravosis of America Blog Gay reveals serious security flaws in the Department of Defenses multi-million dollar homophobic survey on DADT repeal. Without jeopardizing his sources, John indicates that he was able three times to log in and take the DOD survey without difficulty. Apparently, no software picked up the fact that he had take the survey multiple times using the same PIN and from the same computer - something even many minor league newspapers know to do when running online polls. It seems the folks at the Pentagon are not only homophobes, but cretins as well. How many times - and by whom - the survey has been breached isn't clear. One can readily see Elaine Donnelly circulating PINS numbers to her lunatic gay hating friends in an effort to further skew an already flawed survey. John's described experience truly suggests that the survey and its dubious results need to be thrown out based on flawed security. Here are highlights from America Blog Gay:
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So much for the Defense Department's super secret $4.5 million survey of the troops to ask them how they feel about repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." I, an avowed gay activist, just took the online chat part of the survey - three times in fact. Perhaps DOD should reconsider just how good and informative, and accurate, this survey is. (They also might want to get their money back.)
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In a nutshell, I was able to get three different PIN numbers to gain access to the online chat part of the survey three times, as three different people. Two of those times I was on the same computer, meaning there are no adequate safeguards to stop people from taking the survey multiple times - hell, I was logged in to the two surveys at the same time. And one of the three times, I was able to have a kid, who isn't military, participate in the survey, answering questions from a real human being (apparently) in a chat room of sorts. My intent - to find out whether or not the survey is secure, whether or not it can be hacked (well, this isn't even hacking). It's not, and it can.
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Another interesting point: I got my multiple PIN numbers from the same person, who was able to themselves get multiple PIN numbers. Meaning, military people can log in multiple times to get the PIN numbers they need to take the survey, so they, or their non-military friends - or even gay (or anti-gay) activists, can take the survey. I'm also told that DOD civilians can take the survey - with all due respect, who cares what they think? I thought this was about active duty military?
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The Pentagon is apparently now in full scale damage control and is trying to pretend that the survey itself wasn't breached. Do I buy that line? Not at all. I was warned by an inside source at Westat that the survey questions were homophobic as per Pentagon input and now we find out the whole system may have been swamped by far right homophobes. Remember, these are the same folks that claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before Chimperator Bush's ill fated invasion of that country. Do I trust them? Not at all. DOD and the Pentagon knew in advance the result they wanted on the survey and are apparently doing everything they can to kill DADT repeal with this abortion of a survey. Oh, Jim Webb, are you in on this scheme too?

America's Top 20 Gayest Cities

Richard Florida - the researcher that coined the phrase the "creative class" and who has correlated the presence of LGBT populations with cities and regions with rising economies has a new piece at the Daily Beast that not only looks at the "gayest cities" in America but also gives a good recap on the thesis that tolerance and diversity - including gays - are good for business. Not surprisingly, the Norfolk area (or most of Virginia except the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.) doesn't makes the cut in Florida's analysis - something that indeed correlates with the economic backwardness of the area which would be far worse but for the huge military presence that cushions the economy in relative terms. Here are a few highlights:
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The U.S. metropolitan region with the largest concentration of gay and lesbian people is San Francisco. That’s not exactly news, but there are more than a few surprises in the Gay/Lesbian Index’s metro-area rankings. Developed by Gary Gates, a demographer at UCLA’s Williams Institute, the Gay/Lesbian Index value tells you how the proportion of same-sex couples among all households of a given metro area compares to the average for the entire U.S. An index value of 2, for example, means that the proportion of same-sex couples in that metro area is twice that of the nation.
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A gallery of the nation's top 20 gay cities can be found here. The U.S. metropolitan region with the largest concentration of gay and lesbian people is San Francisco. That’s not exactly news, but there are more than a few surprises in the Gay/Lesbian Index’s metro-area rankings. Developed by Gary Gates, a demographer at UCLA’s Williams Institute, the Gay/Lesbian Index value tells you how the proportion of same-sex couples among all households of a given metro area compares to the average for the entire U.S. An index value of 2, for example, means that the proportion of same-sex couples in that metro area is twice that of the nation.
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New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington, D.C., Boston, San Diego, Denver, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon, all make the list of the 20 gayest metros. But so do Dallas, Columbus, Ohio, Santa Rosa and Sacramento, Springfield, Massachusetts, Portland, Maine, and college towns like Eugene, Oregon, Ann Arbor, Michigan and Ithaca, New York.
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The idea that most gay people live in urban enclaves like the Castro in San Francisco or Chelsea in New York City is something of a myth, Gates notes. "Gay people live everywhere," says Gates, "in cities, suburbs, and even in the country—one in seven same-sex couples live in rural areas." The 2000 Census found same-sex couples living in 99 percent of U.S. counties.
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Research I conducted with Charlotta Mellander revealed that metro areas with higher proportions of gay men and lesbians also have higher housing values—a finding that landed me on The Colbert Report. A study I conducted with Gates in 2001 discerned a close association between regions with higher proportions of same-sex couples and concentrations of high-tech businesses. And there’s more:

• Ronald Inglehart’s World Values Survey has found that tolerance in general, and tolerance toward gays and lesbians in particular, is associated with the shift to a more modern, more democratic, and more affluent “post-materialist” political culture.

• Soul of the Community, a study conducted by the Gallup Organization, found that more open and tolerant attitudes toward LGBT people (as well as to other groups) was one of two key factors, along with natural beauty and environmental quality, that corresponded with higher levels of satisfaction with and emotional attachment to a community.
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[P]laces that attract gay people and lesbians tend to have the same open-minded attitudes and business styles that foster innovation. A visible LGBT community is the proverbial “canary in the coal mine,” signaling openness to new ideas, new business models, and diverse and different thinking kinds of people—precisely the characteristics of a local ecosystem that can attract cutting-edge entrepreneurs and mobilize new companies.
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Christianist nut cases like Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell and Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli really need to crawl out of their Medieval caves, smell the coffee and start making Virginia gay friendly - for the economic good of all Virginians.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

Gay Marriage - Looking for Time Bombs and Tea Leaves

There are always some among the Supreme Court watcher set who look for any and all clues as to secret agendas of the Court or individual justices. They do just about everything short of sacrificing animals and then reading the entrails. As an attorney with a special concern for gay rights issues, I admit that I typically read significant U.S. Supreme Court opinions as well as significant state supreme Court opinions (e.g., the Iowa ruling striking down bans on gay marriage in that state). Now some are reading signs into the recent Hastings Law School opinion that upheld the law school's right to withhold full recognition - and more importantly student activity fund monies - from a Christian legal society that excluded gays. Frankly, I hope that the conjectures are accurate. It is long past time that the Court accept that sexual orientation is not a matter of "conduct" but rather an immutable attribute that cannot be altered. Here are highlights from the New York Times in respect to this effort to "read the tea leaves" based on a one sentence provision:
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The sentence was resolutely bland and nicely hidden in a long Supreme Court decision issued on the last day of the term.
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All it said was this: “Our decisions have declined to distinguish between status and conduct in this context.” But the context mattered. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the majority, was talking about laws affecting gay men and lesbians.
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Justice Ginsburg’s bland talk about status and conduct was significant because courts are more apt to protect groups whose characteristics are immutable. Calling sexual orientation a status may not require the conclusion that being gay is immutable rather than a choice, but it certainly suggests it.
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There was something broader going on, too, said Suzanne B. Goldberg, a law professor at Columbia. “The court is talking about gay people, not homosexuals, and about people who have a social identity rather than a class of people who engage in particular sex acts,” Professor Goldberg said.
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“The Supreme Court definitively held that sexual orientation is not merely behavioral, but rather, that gay and lesbian individuals are an identifiable class,” Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. wrote the next day to Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker of the Federal District Court in San Francisco.
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[I]f the plaintiffs’ reading is correct, Justice Ginsburg’s statement is both a time bomb and a tea leaf that will figure in litigations concerning same-sex marriage on two coasts. Judge Joseph L. Tauro of the Federal District Court in Boston issued two rulings on July 8 striking down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, and Judge Walker is expected to rule soon in the California case.
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The decision in which the statement appeared, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, considered whether a public law school could deny recognition to a student group that excluded gay men and lesbians. The majority decided the case on narrow grounds that barely acknowledged the clash between anti-discrimination principles and religious freedom.
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Barely, but not entirely. In her brisk aside, Justice Ginsburg put the muscle of a majority decision behind a proposition that had attracted only one vote when the court struck down a Texas law making gay sex a crime in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas.
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“Texas’s sodomy law is targeted at more than conduct,” Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in a concurrence. “It is instead directed toward gay persons as a class.”
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Obviously, it is impossible to know for certain what the Court may do in future cases, but taken piece by piece, Martinez, Lawrence and Romer v. Evans have built a series of stepping stones
that lead to an ultimate ruling supporting gay marriage and striking down ant-gay state constitutional amendments and DOMA as well.

New Study Shows Gay Dads are Very Good at "Mothering"

One of the favorite mantras of the Christianists is that gays cannot properly parent children. Indeed, we hear incessantly about how children must have "a mother and a father" and that depriving children of this borders on child abuse. Never mind that many heterosexual parents of countless children are incompetent, alcoholics, abusive and in general worthless. All that matters to the Christianists is that one of the parent have a penis and that the other a vagina. Literally, nothing else matters. Now, a reader in Canada sent me a link to a story carried in MacLeans, a Canadian periodical, that reports that a new study has found that gay parents are not only good parents, but the guys are good at "mothering." Once again we see fact versus the Christianist hate based storyline. Here are highlights from the MacLeans story:
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On the day that Ronan was born, Paul and Rob, who have been married for 11 years, were both in the delivery room. . . . Since that heady event 20 months ago, the family has settled into a comfortable way of life in Port Credit, Ont. “If you’re looking for the gay couple that lives in the suburbs in a five-bedroom house with a pool—kind of the gay version of the white picket fence,” says Paul, “that’d be us.”
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It’s a family unit that is becoming increasingly common as more homosexual men in committed, long-term relationships pursue fatherhood. “You used to hear about the lesbian baby boom,” says Rachel Epstein, coordinator of the LGBTQ parenting network at the Sherbourne Health Centre in Toronto. “Now they’re talking about the ‘gay-by boom.’
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“parenting is parenting,” says Epstein, and “worrying about money, school, sleeping, traditional labour and discipline” is universal. But evidence does not examine the specific experience of gay men as they transition into parenthood. A groundbreaking paper recently published in the Journal of GLBT Family Studies interviewed 40 gay men—mostly white and affluent with a median age of 40.8—to find out what changes had occurred in their career, lifestyle, relationships and self-worth since having a child via gestational surrogacy.
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The findings reveal a fascinating portrait of these new gay dads. After having a baby, they experienced higher self-esteem, and more closeness to their extended families. They began to identify more with heterosexual couples who are parents than single gay men or childless gay couples. But unlike straight two-parent homes in which housework and child care still falls more to the woman than the man—StatCan says that in 2005, moms put in 3.4 hours a day with kids under age five and another 2.4 hours on chores, compared to dads’ 1.6 hours and 1.4 hours, respectively)— both gay dads reported scaling back their careers to be more involved at home—and the division of child care and housework between them was equal.
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Paul and Rob have significantly adjusted their careers as consultants so that they no longer have to travel. While a nanny cares for Ronan during the day (typical of the gay dads studied, given their higher socio-economic standing), “we’re both home each night for supper and story time,” says Paul, and when it comes to child rearing and housework, “It’s very much 50-50.”
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And yet, the prevailing problem most gay dads say they encounter is the perception that they are second-rate parents. Epstein says that previous research has revealed a sense of “invisibility” among them. Most parenting books are written as if the reader is female, says Paul, and those intended for fathers provide “advice at the idiot level.”
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The other irony, of course is the fact that there are million's of gay fathers who misguidedly tried the path of heterosexual marriage before it all fell apart. Locally, I know several gay dads who with their partners have day to day custody of their children because they afford a more stable and nurturing home than the heterosexual mothers. As is the norm, the Christianists lie and rant against gay parenting, while objective fact shows their screeds to be untrue.

Tuesday Male Beauty

Republicans Against Laws that Save Lives and the Environment

From my perspective as a former Republican from a family that largely voted Republican, the descent of the Party into something fairly vile is disturbing to watch. Yes, there is still the mantra of smaller government and fiscal constraint - not that either actually occurred under Chimperator Bush - but more and more the true agenda seems to be about cutting away restraints that hold back the baser prejudices and callousness of businesses and individuals. Particularly restraints on racism and religious based discrimination. The New York Times has an interesting editorial that looks at the GOP agenda in the context of the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court and the GOP fixation on defeating federal controls that protect citizens from rapacious corporations and religious demagogues. One focus to the GOP is to defeat federal regulations under the Commerce Clause. Yes, health care reform is one target, but the Commerce Clause also provides a basis for passage of laws such as ENDA (if and when that ever happens). Here are some column highlights:
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Listen carefully as the votes on Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court are taken beginning this week. Most court nominations are about judicial philosophy or social issues, but Ms. Kagan’s has become a flashpoint for a much larger debate about the fundamental role of American government.
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[D]ozens of Senate Republicans are ready to vote against her, and many are citing her interpretation of the commerce clause of the Constitution, the one that says Congress has the power to regulate commerce among the states.
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The clause was the legal basis for any number of statutes of enormous benefit to society. It is why we have the Clean Air Act. The Clean Water Act. The Endangered Species Act. The Fair Labor Standards Act, setting a minimum wage and limiting child labor. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing segregation in the workplace and in public accommodations. In cases like these, the Supreme Court has said Congress can regulate activities that have a “substantial effect” on interstate commerce, even if they are not directly business-related.
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[T]he most urgent current test of government power is now slowly making its way through the legal system to the Supreme Court. Twenty states have joined lawsuits saying the national health care law is unconstitutional, particularly the provision requiring health insurance. Lawmakers, anticipating the challenge, explicitly inserted a line in the law that the insurance mandate “substantially affects interstate commerce.” They also say it is based on the government’s fundamental power to tax. It is hard to see how the current court will disagree.
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That is not stopping Senate Republicans from raising a huge ideological fuss, sending a message not only to Ms. Kagan but to the court as a whole. It is why Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma asked Ms. Kagan a seemingly silly hypothetical about the constitutionality of a law requiring Americans to eat three vegetables and fruits a day. Would that violate the commerce clause, he asked?
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Make no mistake that such a vote is simply about her, or about President Obama. A vote against the commerce clause is a vote against some of the best things that government has done for the better part of a century, and some of the best things that lie ahead.