Saturday Male Beauty

Out in The Park Is Tomorrow

Tomorrow from Noon to 6:00 PM, Out in the Park will take place in Norfolk's Town Point Park. This year's event will dwarf past pride events in the area and has a $70,000 budget. Those who have never attended an Out in the Park event should make a point to check out this year's event. Those who were less than overwhelmed by prior years' events need to understand that the 2011 event is a quantum leap from past efforts. Over 77 vendors will be present as well as a much more upscale slate of entertainment. I'll have a booth for the law firm, as will HRBOR and the Old Dominion University LGBT Cultural Arts endowment committee I'm working with. NOTE: The first LGBT boat parade will take place at 1:00 PM. Here's a schedule of events:
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12:00 to 12:20 Narissa Bond
12:20 to 12:50 Julie Clark Band
12:50 to 1:00 Welcome by HR Pride President/National Anthem by HR Men's Chorus
1:00 to 1:30 Boat Parade
1:30 to 1:45 HR Men's Chorus
1:45 to 2:15 Sydney Devereaux, Myke Riley & Diana Ross
2:15 to 3:00 Suzanne Westenhoefer
3:00 to 3:30 DC Cowboys
3:30 to 3:50 Awards/ACCESS/TACT
3:50 to 4:00 Naomi Black
4:00 to 4:10 Jennifer Warner
4:10 to 5:00 DJ Lady Miss Kier
5:00 to 5:45 Wicked Jezebel
5:45 to 6:30 Rah Element
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For more information, see: http://hamptonroadspride.shuttlepod.org/Default.aspx?pageId=962332

Norfolk Police Raid New Gay Bar on It's Opening Nigh

After receiving telephone calls from patrons who were there (some of whom I know quite well), I have communicated with both the Norfolk City Attorney's office and the management of Jack's Attic, a new gay friendly bar in Norfolk, Virginia, about the police department's apparent storm trooper like conduct in raiding Jack's Attic on it's opening night. The City claims - in typical form - that the club did not have required permits while the club's management is adamant that they were not in violation of any city requirements and that there was NOT any entertainment in the second floor. I will be meeting with management of the club on Monday and hope to be able to give a further update next week as to who is telling the truth.

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I can say this: Having experienced anti-gay harassment by Norfolk police officers personally first hand some years back - activist Wayne Besen was with me at the time - I unfortunately tend to find claims of thug like behavior by Norfolk police officers only too credible. In my own case, Norfolk Police Internal Affairs seem far more concerned with covering up misconduct of police department officers as opposed to protecting the rights of wrongfully harassed citizens. As for the Chief of Police, it was virtually impossible to even talk to the man. Here's what WVEC-TV reported which parrots the City's version of events:
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NORFOLK--Many people are upset after Norfolk police are called to the grand opening of Jack's Attic on Granby street in Norfolk. The new gay and lesbian bar opened Thursday night on the second floor of Jack Quinn's Irish Pub in the 200 block of Granby.
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The city's bar task force tells WVEC.com that the establishment did not have a special exception for entertainment on the second floor. Jack Quinn's was warned not to hold the event, but according to police they held it anyway in spite of the ordinance.
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The task force says it was forced to take action and police moved in citing the bar for the violation.
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I would also note that given Norfolk's many crime problems, it would seem to be far more useful to citizens to have police officers on the street stopping crimes and vandalism (they often won't even take reports of property damage from vandalism) rather than harassing a gay friendly business establishment.

Home Depot Tells AFA to Shove It

The registered hate group, American Family Association ("AFA") has launched another one of its boycotts - which are really aimed at getting the organization's name in the press and at shaking down the ignorant and uninformed - this time taking on Home Depot for it's gay friendly policies. In AFA's view any corporation that recognizes the LGBT community as a significant market segment and adopts policies of acceptance and diversity is open game for AFA's never ending message of hatred. Thankfully, as Right Wing Watch is reporting, Home Depot has apparently told AFA it can take its boycott and put it where the sun doesn't shine. Here are some highlights from Right Wing Watch (NOTE: The Christian Taliban state that "those who are caught in this trap of homosexuality are in the clasp of Satan"):
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[T]he American Family Association has been running a boycott against Home Depot because the company "has chosen to sponsor and participate in numerous gay pride parades and festivals."
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Today, the AFA's Executive Vice President, Buddy Smith, traveled to a Home Deport board meeting to present the company with a petition bearing nearly a half-million names of those who have vowed to stop shopping at Home Deport stores until the company decides to "remain neutral in the culture war."
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But according to this update Smith gave to Bryan Fischer today, it sounds like the Home Depot Chairman Frank Blake basically told the AFA to take a hike and reiterated their commitment to promoting diversity. Smith was especially troubled by this stance because, as everyone knows, "those who are caught in this trap of homosexuality are in the clasp of Satan"
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I'd say that if anyone is in the clasp of Satan, it's the folks at AFA who have turned Christianity into something foul and hated based.
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Del. Bob Marshall Again Proves He's a Hate Filled Bigot

Just as Victoria Cobb and her fellow haters at The Family Foundation never miss an opportunity to denigrate LGBT citizens and push for a Christian Taliban theocracy, neither does Del. Bob Marshall (pictured at left) - one of the authors of Virginia's heinous anti-gay Marshall-Newman Amendment. Marshall has admitted to wanting to drive gays from Virginia and continually displays a mindset that suggests he'd support so-called ethnic cleansing of gays and other populations he doesn't like if he thought he cold get away with it. Like Cobb, his message is consistently one of hate and intolerance and one can only pray he's delusional enough to try to run for the U.S. Senate and get a thorough ass kicking. The Virginian Pilot has details on Marshall's latest anti-gay screed which was triggered by the Richmond Federal Reserve's decision to fly a rainbow flag during Pride Month. Here are some highlights:

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A flap has developed over a flag flying outside the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in recognition of Gay Pride Month. The prominent perch for the rainbow pennant has drawn the ire of Del. Bob Marshall and the Family Foundation, who have opposed the expansion of gay rights in Virginia.
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Marshall, a Prince William County Republican, wants the flag removed, reasoning "the front of a federal building is not a commercial or political message board."

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In a letter to bank president Jeff Lacker, Marshall demanded that the flag be taken down, claiming that homosexual behavior is bad for the economy, "shortens lives, adds significantly to illness, increases health costs" and "promotes venereal diseases."
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Fortunately, others in the Virginia General Assembly recognize that LGBT Virginians are citizens too. Delegates Adam Ebbin and David Englin from Northern Virginia have responded to Marshall's bigoted demands. As the Lakeridge-Occoquan news reports, Del. Ebbin took on Marshall's bigotry:

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Ebbin said in a statement: “Sadly, it’s no shock to learn that Bob Marshall has once again attacked the dignity of Virginia’s LGBT population. That he would attack the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond for flying a flag that promotes equality, tolerance and acceptance tells us all we need to know about Delegate Marshall’s priorities. Across the Commonwealth, LGBT Virginians, their friends and their families are celebrating this week as the start of a month where we express pride in who we are and what we have accomplished as a community."

Friday Male Beauty

USA's Largest Corporations Made $170 Billion Yet Paid No Taxes

Let's face it - the USA's tax code is beyond screwed up. As Forbes is reporting, twelve of the nation's largest Fortune 500 companies, while making $170 billion in profits during the period of The Great Recession, paid NO taxes. That's right, zero! The GOP, of course, would have you believe that businesses are over taxed. While this may be true in some cases for the little guys, the big corporation with in some cases obscene profits are paying little or nothing even as more and more homeowners find themselves wiped out financially. It drives me to distraction to watch as idiots in the Tea Party movement remain blind to the fact that they are being sold down the river by Republicans. Add to the list of fools, the Christianists who are more concerned about stigmatizing gays than looking out for the future of the nation. Here are highlights from the Forbes story:
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Yesterday, I wrote about how the GOP is falsely pushing the argument that America’s corporations are overtaxed. I included some great data courtesy of conservative commentator Bruce Bartlett whose New York Times piece did an extraordinary job of putting the lie to the Republican assertions.
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Today, and not a moment too soon, the non-profit Citizens For Tax Justice (CTJ) has put out their findings revealing that twelve of the nations largest Fortune 500 companies, while making $170 billion in profits during the period of The Great Recession, paid an effective tax rate of negative 1.5%.

Yes, you read that correctly. Not only have these twelve companies paid zero in taxes for the years 2008-2010, they actually received tax subsidies that added $62.4 billion to their bottom lines.
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The companies were chosen by the CTJ . . . include – in alphabetical order – American Electric Power, Boeing, Dupont, Exxon Mobil, FedEx, General Electric, Honeywell International, IBM, United Technologies, Verizon Communications, Wells Fargo and Yahoo.
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According to the study, not a single one of these companies paid an amount even close to the 35% statutory tax rate. In fact, the tax rate paid by Exxon Mobile, when spread over the full three years, was only 14.2% – a full 60% below the 35% rate that corporations are supposed to be paying. And if we take a look at what Exxon paid over just the past two years, it totals a mere 0.4% on their pre-tax profits of $9.9 billion. And get this – Exxon Mobile paid the most in taxes of any of the twelve companies on the list.
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We, as voters, also have a duty to react when the GOP majority in the House of Representatives tries to tell us we need to reduce this phantom corporate rate from 35% to 25% so that these corporations can pay even less in taxes while they pocket even greater amounts of taxpayer money via corporate subsidies.
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Worse still, Boehner, Ryan and friends have the unmitigated gall to make their pitch while asking the rest of us to give up the social programs that are so essential to most Americans. Seriously, people, do we need an anvil to fall on our heads before we get it?
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This chart from Think Progress tells it all:
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John Boehner and GOP Fight Foreclosure Relief

For almost four years now, I have said over and over again that unless and until the residential housing market is stabilized, there will be no overall recovery of the U.S. economy. The collapse of the housing market has resulted in billions of lost equity on the part of consumers, countless families losing their homes, and countless lost jobs in housing related industries. One would think that fixing the foreclosure disaster would be priority number 1 with both houses of Congress. But such is not the case. Banks and lenders were bailed out to the tune of billions of dollars yet they have not passed any benefit on to home owners. Nor has Congress demanded any real accountability. In the case of the GOP, one would even think that the Congressional Republicans want the housing market to continue to spiral downward -probably hoping for political advantage. Never mind the families and lives being destroyed and damaged. Huffington Post has a piece that looks at John Boehner's efforts in particular to fight meaningful foreclosure relief measures. Like most in the GOP, Boehner wears his religiosity on his sleeve but acts in a most un-Christian manner. Here are some highlights:
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Regina Moore has lived in her Hamilton, Ohio, home, in the heart of House Speaker John Boehner's district, for 50 years. Her husband passed away in 2005, and in 2008 she took out a new $72,000 mortgage so she could afford to pay her medical bills. She had a steady job, having worked at the Champion Printing Company in Cincinnati for more than two decades. Her monthly payments on her $86,000 home amounted to about $450.
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It was a simple mortgage for a simple home -- no exploding payments or swimming pools. But last year, at the age of 70, Regina lost her job, and her $1100 a month Social Security payment wasn't enough to make ends meet.
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While Jeff, a local housing group and a lender ultimately helped Regina modify her mortgage so she could stay in her home, many of her fellow Ohioans haven't been so fortunate. Hamilton, about 45 minutes outside of Cincinnati, has one of the highest foreclosure rates in Butler County. And Butler County has been a foreclosure hotspot for years. Along with the Cleveland and Columbus areas, Cincinnati and its surroundings have seen the predatory subprime binge come and go and now watch as the crumbling job market pushes more and more homeowners into financial ruin.
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"In the beginning, we really saw more loans that we thought had predatory features," said Sister Barbara Busch, a Catholic social justice worker who serves as Executive Director of a Cincinnati-based homeowner advocacy group called Working In Neighborhoods . . . n 2010 we saw a large number of unemployed, where the loans themselves weren't so bad, but people had just lost their jobs."
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Others who work with struggling homeowners say the same thing: The initial wave of mortgage problems was due to people unable to manage exotic or high-risk mortgages, but the current problem simply involves people losing jobs in a weak economy who can't pay their bills.
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These are homeowners who have done everything right in the sense that they were careful about the kind of mortgage they got, they didn't buy a property they couldn't afford, but now they're facing long-term unemployment."
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Over the past three years, lawmakers across Ohio have pressed for foreclosure relief, often crossing party lines to do so. But Boehner has never joined the effort. When Rep. Steve Chabot, a fellow Republican whose district borders Boehner's and shares many of its economic hardships, backed a 2008 bill to grant relief to homeowners in bankruptcy courts, Boehner refused to sign on.
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the House Speaker made the case for his opposition to foreclosure aid in a recent appearance on CBS News' Face The Nation. "Over the last couple years, Congress has really set up four programs to help with those mortgage problems," Boehner told CBS' Harry Smith. "And unfortunately, none of those have worked. And all they've really done is dragged out the length of time for the market to clear the problems."
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"If people are trapped in houses where they can't pay their mortgage but can pay something, you can prevent areas from becoming desolated by foreclosed and abandoned homes, which drive down prices for everyone," said economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning research group.
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And Boehner consistently votes with Wall Street on major policy issues. He voted in favor of the bank bailout in 2008, and opposed financial reform legislation in 2009 and 2010, even as he socialized with such major financiers as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in an effort to raise campaign cash.
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[U]nlike other TARP programs, including Obama's HAMP initiative, the Ohio government actually requires banks to sign a legally binding contract with the state, creating clearly defined obligations: the bank gets money, but the mortgage must be modified. But the program has serious flaws. Jeff said he couldn't understand why it took seven months for his mother's paperwork to be approved. It wasn't terribly complicated, he said; either the numbers worked, or they didn't.
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Big banks, by contrast, are frequently combative throughout the entire foreclosure process. The Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio (LASSWO) is currently suing Bank of America on behalf of 12 families, including at least one in Boehner's district, for filching on loan modification agreements that it made during an October 2009 in-person "borrower outreach" program in Cincinnati. The Treasury Department sponsored the event as part of its HAMP program.
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Boehner rebuffed efforts to divert some of that federal funding to help borrowers in foreclosure litigation. As the vote approached, Boehner's spokesman, Michael Steel, launched a broadside against the entire effort.
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The article continues, but you get the drift. As for Bank of America, from what I have seen of the way it treats legitimately distressed homeowners, I would personally never do business with the ban again. I encourage others to likewise avoid it like the plague. Lies, incompetence and unreasonable conduct are the norm in my opinion.

More Thursday Male Beauty

Christianist Organization Has Fits Over Rainbow Flag at Federal Reserve

If Chuck Colson is a mean spirited charlatan who makes a living as a professional Christian, so too are the gay haters on the staff at The Family Foundation (a Focus on the Family affiliate) based in Richmond, Virginia. Rather than stay home and be a dutiful wife as some would argue the Bible requires, TFF's president, Victoria Cobb, works tirelessly to make life as unpleasant as possible for Virginia's LGBT citizens. Indeed, she works to disseminate as many untruths about us as possible and gets her panties in a wad incessantly. No simply joy or minor recognition of LGBT citizens is too small to set off whining on the part of Cobb and her fellow religious extremists. As wingnut news outlet OneNewsNow reports, a gay flag flying at the Richmond Federal Reserve building set Ms. Cobb to convulsing and spraying spittle. Here are some highlights:
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President Obama has declared June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month" -- and to the dismay of a pro-family group based in Richmond, Virginia, the Federal Reserve Bank is joining in the celebration.
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Though The Family Foundation's new office in Richmond has a beautiful view of the state capitol and the flags, the rainbow flag fluttering from the flagpole outside the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond is also in view.
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"Our expectation is it'll be flying all month," she predicts. "We think the Federal Reserve ought to be focused on the economy rather than focusing on special rights."
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The Federal Reserve is a private operation and is not government run, but Cobb points out that it is simply following the nation's leadership in promoting a lifestyle that involves less than two percent of the population.
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According to Cobb, more than just bank employees are offended. "We know of businesses that are actually housed within the Federal Reserve building that I [bet] are very unhappy today," she suggests. "So it's going to be interesting to get the feedback from them." But aside from the workers, she says the flag flies in the face of most Virginians. "In Virginia, this is not a stand that should be taken.
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In an interview with the website Richmond.com, Sally Green -- identified as the bank's chief operating officer -- says the institution "strongly support[s] a diverse and inclusive culture" and has "learned it is important to value and embrace differences -- both seen and unseen. We are flying the 'Pride' flag as an example of our commitment to values of acceptance and inclusion."
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As is the norm for Cobb, she alleges that LGBT citizens want "special rights" even though it is she and her fellow Christofascists who are seeking special rights. Indeed, if given her way, Cobb would throw the U.S. Constitution and institute a theocratic government. Under a strict definition of the term, some might call Cobb's goals treason.

Throckmorton Takes on Chuck Colson's Lies

While I don't know what has caused the "conversion" if you will of Warren Throckmorton - a former high priest of the Christianist myth/lie that homosexuality is a "choice" or the result of a dysfunctional family setting - it has been refreshing to see Throckmorton embracing modern medical and mental health knowledge on sexual orientation. Perhaps the American Psychological Association's condemnation of reparative therapy and citing its use by practitioners as "unethical" played a role. Or maybe Throckmorton has seen the hand writing on the wall and realizes that the anti-gay mantra of the Christian Taliban is repelling younger generations. Whatever the cause, in a post on his blog, Crosswalk, Throckmorton has slammed Chuck Colson's praise of the work of the faux experts at NARTH. Yes, that Chuck Colson, the Watergate felon who seems to have discovered the lucrative nature of being a professional Christian while in prison. Here are highlights from Throckmorton's post:
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Yesterday, Chuck Colson posted a column titled “Born Gay? A Parent’s Guide” which asserted that the way parents relate to their male children can create homosexuality. Colson quoted extensively from Joseph and Linda Nicolosi’s book, A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality as support for the view that weak or distant fathers and smothering mothers create gay males.
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Did you catch the assumption? If a boy is gay, his father was not “both strong and caring” and the bond with the mother was “unhealthy.” To an audience consisting of evangelicals, these are ominous words. In future broadcasts, Colson promises to bring more information “about what parents can do to lessen the chances their children will grow up homosexual.” Apparently, females are not of interest here since they are not mentioned by Colson.

This advice is unfortunate for academic and practical reasons. It is difficult to research family dynamics and sexual orientation because of the subjectivity of the variables. There are no direct tests of how attached a boy is to his father; recollections of children and parents are subject to bias and reconstruction. In practice, if you believe the reports of men who say they are gay because their fathers were distant, then you are bound to believe the reports of gay men who say they had close relationships with their fathers. In that case, the theory fails as a general explanation for homosexuality because, as I illustrate below, there are numerous gay men and their fathers who report histories of close bonding and mutual love.
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Another academic approach is to test a prediction based on the theory. In this case, one might expect the dynamics proposed by Nicolosi to be more frequent in fatherless homes. However, a 2010 New Zealand study led by Elisabeth Wells reported no effect of single parent homes on sexual orientation or behavior as compared to families with a biological mom and dad. Some of the results seem hard to explain by any theory.
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Practically, such advice has caused confusion and pain among evangelical families, where being gay is a challenge socially and religiously. I have worked with parents who were near divorce over who caused their son to be gay. They had read the books and gone to the conferences which blamed them for their son’s “condition.” Surely, no parent is perfect but something seems wrong about obviously loving and involved parents examining and re-examining every move they made to find out where they “failed.”
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I recall one young man I worked with in counseling who first disclosed his same-sex attractions to his father because his dad was his closest friend. When they read the theory Colson described, they were bewildered and angry. A very masculine linebacker for his high school football team, the young man scoffed at the idea that he was identified with his mother.
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It appears that the underlying purpose in Colson’s presentation of Nicolosi’s theory is to present an alternative to prenatal theories of sexual orientation.
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Fighting a political agenda is not a good reason to promote questionable theories. There is currently no scientific consensus about why sexual orientation takes the direction it does. Homosexuality is not strongly related to genetics but that does not mean that parenting is the only alternative non-genetic factor. Other prenatal factors, such hormonal variations during prenatal development, are being investigated and might be a part of the picture. The jury is out with much more research to be done, but what has been done on parenting does not inspire confidence in the claim that distant fathers and smothering mothers create gay men.

Thursday Male Beauty

Update on the HRBOR Scholarship

With the recent death of my mother's sister, not surprisingly, I have been finding myself thinking of my late parents. Almost five months after losing my mother (I lost my dad in 2006), I still cannot full realize emotionally that she's gone - it's like its all a bad dream. One thing I don't regret was endowing the HRBOR scholarship in my parent's memory. My sincere hope is to over time increase the endowment to the point that a four year scholarship can be awarded every year. To do this, more money will need to be added to the endowment. The Hampton Roads Community Foundation has not yet updated its website to include the HRBOR scholarship, but information for a flyer was generated. Here's what the Foundation has provided in terms of ways to donate:

George D. and Marion Phelps Hamar HRBOR Scholarship Fund

Michael B. Hamar started this scholarship as a memorial to his parents and as a tribute to HRBOR, the Hampton Roads Business Outreach, and its support for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community (LGBT). The purpose of the fund is to provide scholarships for self-identifying lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) students attending high schools in the cities of Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk or Virginia Beach, putting special emphasis on those who have demonstrated involvement in the LGBT community and who need financial aid for undergraduate study at a four-year college or university.

The Hampton Roads Community Foundation (the largest grant maker and scholarship provider in Southeastern Virginia) will administer the scholarship fund. It will award the first Hamar HRBOR scholarship in 2012 and applications will be available in December 2011. Please check www.hamptonroadscf.org for details and deadlines.

How to donate by check. To contribute to the Hamar HRBOR Scholarship, you can make your check payable to the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, and mail it to 101 W. Main Street, Suite 4500, Norfolk, VA 23510. Please indicate that your gift is for the Hamar HRBOR Scholarship.

How to donate online. If you prefer to make a gift online using a credit card, please go to www.hamptonroadscf.org and click on the Donate Now button at the top of the home page. Complete the online giving form and check the box under additional information that says, “Named Fund.” Check there and fill in Hamar HRBOR Scholarship under “Name of Fund.” The Foundation accepts online gifts using Visa or MasterCard.

How to transfer appreciated securities. You can contribute shares of publicly-traded stocks, bonds or mutual funds. Please contact the Foundation directly for instructions. The Foundation accepts these assets, and you would receive credit for the fair market value of the contributed assets.

Acknowledgment of contributions. The Hampton Roads Community Foundation will acknowledge your generous contribution. As a 501(c)(3) public charity, your gift is eligible for a charitable income tax deduction to the fullest extent allowed by law.

For more information. Please contact Nan Edgerton, vice president of development, at 757-622-7951 or nedgerton@hamptonroadscf.org.

George Will: Is Huntsman the One?

George Will is not always the most rational of conservatives, but these days anyone who is not certifiably insane stands out as the remnants of logic and reason in the GOP. In a Washington Post column, Will makes the case for Huntsman. He also acknowledges the difficulties ahead for Huntsman given the power of the Tea Party and Christianist extremists in the GOP nominating process. I have my reservations about Huntsman, but when compared to the other alternatives in the GOP clown car as Pam Spaulding calls it, Huntsman stacks up respectably. How far he is willing to go to prostitute himself to the extreme elements in the GOP is yet to be seen and depending on how much he makes himself a political whore to the far right could damage his chances in the general election. Here are highlights from Will's column:
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Donald Trump’s pathological political exhibitionism has ended, Newt Gingrich has incinerated himself with an incoherent retraction tour, Mitt Romney has reaffirmed his enthusiasm for his Massachusetts health-care law, rendering himself incapable of articulating the case against Obamacare and the entitlement state generally, Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee and Mitch Daniels, aware of the axiom that anyone who will do what must be done to become president should not be allowed to be president, are out.
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The Republican contest may soon acquire a photogenic family and a distinctive foreign policy voice. The independently wealthy Huntsmans have seven children, among them two adopted daughters from China and India, and a son at Annapolis aspiring to be a Navy SEAL. Huntsman’s economic policies are Republican orthodoxy. His national security policies may make him the neoconservatives’ nightmare but a welcome novelty for a larger constituency.
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He favors tax reform to stimulate capital formation, including a corporate tax rate of 24 percent or lower. He thinks lower but more inclusive income tax rates would be good economics — and good civics, reducing the share of households (47 percent in 2009) that pay no income taxes.
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He is among the sizable American majority disturbed that there is no discernible winning outcome in, or exit strategy from, Afghanistan, where, he says, there is now, and will be when we leave, a civil war that need not greatly concern us.
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How will the Republican nominating electorate, preoccupied with questions about domestic policy and the role of government, respond to a candidate stressing national security and those national security positions? Huntsman replies: “I don’t know, but we’re about to find out.”
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Huntsman will bypass Iowa. “I don’t like subsidies,” he says, so he opposes the Church of Ethanol, the established religion out “where the tall corn grows.” New Hampshire, however, he says, “likes margin-of-error candidates with a message.”
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Cool-hand Huntsman, with his polished persona and the complementary fluencies of a governor and a diplomat, might find those virtues are, if not defects, of secondary importance in the competition to enkindle Republicans eager to feast on rhetorical red meat.

So it is difficult to chart Huntsman’s path to the Republicans’ Tampa convention . . . he faces the worthy but daunting challenge of bringing Tea Party Republicans — disproportionately important in the nominating process — to a boil about foreign policy.

More Wednesday Male Beauty

Paul Ryan's Medicare Kool-Aid

As I note often, today's Republican Party seems to be out to commit a slow form of political suicide. It embraces polices and positions that are anathema to younger voters, Hispanics and immigrants as it panders to disgruntled older white voters in a manner that would make most whores blush. Or at least such was the case until the GOP members of the House of Representatives apparently imbibed large quantities of drug laced Kool-Aid and voted for Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal that would declare war on senior citizens - typically a GOP bastion - and many baby boomers as well. Just how toxic is the Ryan approach to Medicare with voters? A new CNN poll suggest that it is incredibly toxic and one has to wonder WTF John Boehner was thinking when he forced House Republicans to vote on the proposal. Here are highlights from CNN on the poll results:
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A new national poll indicates that a majority of Americans don't like what they've heard so far about congressional Republicans' plans to change Medicare.
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According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, a majority also don't think the GOP has cooperated enough with President Barack Obama and, for the first time since they won back control of the House last November, the number of Americans who say that Republican control of the chamber is good for the country has dropped below the 50 percent mark.
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The poll indicates that 58 percent of the public opposes the Republican plan on Medicare, with 35 percent saying they support the proposal.
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"Half of those we questioned say that the country would be worse off under the GOP Medicare proposals and 56 percent think that GOP plan would be bad for the elderly," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Opposition is highest among senior citizens, at 74 percent, suggesting that seniors are most worried about changes to Medicare even if those changes are presented as ones that would not affect existing Medicare recipients."
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"A majority of all demographic groups don't favor the GOP Medicare proposals," Holland adds. "That includes conservatives - 54 percent of them don't like the plan. As a result, rank-and-file Republicans are split right down the middle, with 48 percent favoring the GOP plan and 50 percent opposed."
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The poll is another sign that the House Republicans’ Medicare proposal could be politically damaging to the party.
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The poll also indicates that most Americans continue to believe that Obama is doing enough to cooperate with the Republicans in Congress. But fewer than three in ten say that congressional Republicans are doing enough to cooperate with the president.
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The GOP's main problem is that they fail to listen to those outside the most lunatic circles of the Tea Party and the Christian Right. At some point ideological "purity" needs to engage with practical reality. The fact is that the so-called GOP base is untethered from reality while in a general election moderates and independents will be swayed by pragmatic reality, not extremism. The GOP leadership refuses to get that message.

Does Religious Belief Atrophy Your Brain?

LOL! This story from Scientific American which theorizes that deep religious belief results in atrophy in the hippocampus portion of believers' brains is too funny in some ways. It certainly dovetails with my view that far right Christian conservatives are mentally challenged and abhor thinking - indeed, they want a sheep like existence where they are told what to do and what to think with absolutely no thought process involved. It also may help to explain the growing idiocy in the Republican Party as well. According to Wikipedia, the hippocampus plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory and spatial navigation. It is also one of the first regions of the brain to suffer damage; memory problems and disorientation appear among the first symptoms. The symptoms also would seem to describe the Tea Party crowd as well. Here are some story highlights:
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“Religious factors and hippocampal atrophy in late life,” by Amy Owen and colleagues at Duke University represents an important advance in our growing understanding of the relationship between the brain and religion.
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In this study, Owen et al. used MRI to measure the volume of the hippocampus, a central structure of the limbic system that is involved in emotion as well as in memory formation. . . . The study by Owen et al. is unique in that it focuses specifically on religious individuals compared to non-religious individuals. This study also broke down these individuals into those who are born again or who have had life-changing religious experiences.
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The results showed significantly greater hippocampal atrophy in individuals reporting a life-changing religious experience. In addition, they found significantly greater hippocampal atrophy among born-again Protestants, Catholics, and those with no religious affiliation, compared with Protestants not identifying as born-again.
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The authors offer the hypothesis that the greater hippocampal atrophy in selected religious groups might be related to stress. They argue that some individuals in the religious minority, or those who struggle with their beliefs, experience higher levels of stress. This causes a release of stress hormones that are known to depress the volume of the hippocampus over time.
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[A] person might perceive God to be punishing them and therefore have significant stress in the face of their religious struggle. Others experience religious struggle because of conflicting ideas with their religious tradition or their family. Even very positive, life-changing experiences might be difficult to incorporate into the individual’s prevailing religious belief system and this can also lead to stress and anxiety. Perceived religious transgressions can cause emotional and psychological anguish. . . . And all of these phenomena can have potentially negative effects on the brain.
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To me, Christianists clearly demonstrate an atrophied mindset when it comes to thinking. And just as they unthinkingly claim to follow the Bible, they latch onto other precepts that they clearly do not understand. A case in point? Bob Felton at Civil Commotion notes the Tea Party's bizarre admiration of Ayn Rand. In contrast to the Tea Party/Christianist/GOP resistance to thinking, Ayn Rand believed that “To think or not to think” is a moral question, and that the moral answer is “to think.” Obviously, this crowd may need to engage in more thinking and less blind obedience to mindless dogma. We were endowed with intelligence and an ability to reason. One of the biggest sins is to refuse to use this innate gift.

Wednesday Male Beauty

Ireland Launching Anti-Gay Bullying Guidelines

Ireland - which is far outstripping the USA in its recognition and treatment of same sex couples - is launching new guidelines to end anti-gay bullying in schools. Here in the USA, the main opponents of such policies are less than loving "Christians" who want a free rein to make life Hell for LGBT students and youths. Fortunately, in Ireland, the Roman Catholic Church has largely self-destructed and thus rendered the Church as less than credible opponent to fair treatment of LGBT youth. The guidelines are still developing but ought to be a wake up call for the USA and other nations to get on the bandwagon of fighting religious based hate and prejudice. Here are highlights from the Irish Times:
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NEW GUIDELINES for school principals on measures to counter homophobic bullying and to include lesbian, gay and bisexual students in school policies were launched yesterday.
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Research in Ireland has shown that young students who are or who are perceived to be lesbian or gay experience very significant levels of homophobic abuse in schools.
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In launching the new guidelines, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn said, “The 21st century school should be one that is safe and supportive of all students, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people”.
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Sandra Irwin-Gowran, director of education policy at the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen) said the launch marked the first occasion a Minister for Education has addressed the issue of supporting lesbian, gay and bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students in schools. “It sends out a strong signal of the need to make schools safe and supportive environments for young LGBT students.”

Clive Byrne, director of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), who jointly developed the guidelines with Glen and the Department of Education and Skills said: “Respect and tolerance must be at the heart of every school. NAPD believes strongly that the school leader sets the tone and must preside over a school climate which recognises and encourages tolerance and diversity and is both a happy and inclusive environment where students can thrive.”
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Senator Averil Power, Fianna Fáil Seanad spokesperson on education and skills, welcomed the new guidelines. “Every young person should feel safe and supported at school. However, the reality is that homophobic bullying is causing many lesbian, gay and bisexual students to feel threatened and undermining their ability to learn.”

Century-old Postcard Recalls Launch of "Titanic"

Yesterday was the centenary of the launch of the White Star Line's ill-fated and now almost mythical liner Titanic. The Irish Times has published a copy of a postcard that recalls the ships launch:
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“It glided beautifully into the water. The “Olympic” is going across to Liverpool today. The weather is beautiful here now. . .”
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The largest liner in the world when launched, the Titanic is dwarfed by current ships such as the Royal Caribbean vessels like the Liberty of the Seas which the boyfriend and I will travel on come fall.

More Pretty Words from Obama on Pride Month

When it comes to voicing "pretty words" about LGBT equality, Barack Obama doesn't hold back and likes to toot his own horn. The problem is, however, when action is required, Obama must be dragged along screaming to be forced to act. The repeal measure for DADT is a case in point. LGBT activism and refusal to shut up forced his hand, not his burning support for LGBT Americans. I suspect that behind the scenes something similar motivated the Justice Department decision to cease defending DOMA. When it comes to CIVIL LAW marriage, Obama continues to put his personal sensibilities ahead of full civil law equality. With today marking the beginning of Pride Month, Obama issued a statement which in my view should be taken with a grain of salt at best. I am more impressed by strong actions than by "pretty words." Here are snippets of Obama's statement via The Advocate:
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The story of America's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community is the story of our fathers and sons, our mothers and daughters, and our friends and neighbors who continue the task of making our country a more perfect Union," reads the statement. "It is a story about the struggle to realize the great American promise that all people can live with dignity and fairness under the law. Each June, we commemorate the courageous individuals who have fought to achieve this promise for LGBT Americans, and we rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
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"Since taking office, my Administration has made significant progress towards achieving equality for LGBT Americans. Last December, I was proud to sign the repeal of the discriminatory 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy.
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"My Administration has also taken steps to eliminate discrimination against LGBT Americans in Federal housing programs and to give LGBT Americans the right to visit their loved ones in the hospital. We have made clear through executive branch nondiscrimination policies that discrimination on the basis of gender identity in the Federal workplace will not be tolerated.
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No one should be harmed because of who they are or who they love, and my Administration has mobilized unprecedented public commitments from countries around the world to join in the fight against hate and homophobia."
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Is Obama better than the Chimperator? Most definitely. But he could do so much more and use his "bloody pulpit" far more to fight homophobia - especially that found in the black community.

Rep. Scott Rigell Puts "Personal Views" Above U. S. Constitution

Virginia Congressman Scott Rigell has long been a far right Christianist. He was deep in the Religious Right over a decade ago when I first heard of him and he has continued to demonstrate that he embraces a less than loving version of the Gospel message. As the Virginian Pilot is reporting, the $690 billion defense bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week takes aim at gay marriage. Naturally, Rigell voted for the measure and like Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell and Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli rarely passes up an opportunity to stigmatize LGBT citizens. The difference is that Rigell has directly taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution including its inconvenient provisions such as the equal protection clause and promise of religious freedom for all. This oath of office means nothing to Rigell - like most GOP extremists - who admits that his personal views and vicious form of Christianity trump the Constitution. Here are highlights from the Pilot article:
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The complex $690 billion defense bill passed by the U.S. House last week includes military pay raises, money for more aircraft and ships and $119 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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The legislation, without a lot of fanfare, also takes aim at gay marriage. It would effectively prohibit military installations from hosting same-sex weddings and would bar Defense Department chaplains or civilians from performing such ceremonies as part of their official duties. The military also would only recognize marriages between a man and a woman.
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U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Virginia Beach, who along with Hampton Roads’ other congressmen voted for the bill, said Tuesday that the provision is in keeping with his personal views.
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“When it comes to the institution of marriage, I hold the view that human history teaches us and what I’ve learned … is that marriage between one man and one woman is best,” Rigell said.
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Efforts to push for the gay-marriage ban surfaced last month not long after The Associated Press reported that Rear Adm. Mark Tidd, the Navy’s head chaplain, issued a memo saying that same-sex weddings could be performed at military installations if the Pentagon repeals the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and allows openly gay people to serve in the military
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As I have stated before, individuals like Rigell need to either fully support the U.S. Constitution or resign from office. As for military chaplains, I think the time has come to end government funded chaplains. Members of the military should seek religious guidance off base or through strictly denominational funded sources.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

The Catholic Bishops’ Incomplete Report

The Providence Journal (Rhode Island) has a timely editorial that looks at the failings of the report written by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that basically tried to blame the Church's world wide sex abuse scandal on the "permissiveness" 1960's and 1970's. Left out, of course were details of how the Vatican coordinated a world wide plan to obstruct justice to "protect the Church" even as the lives of thousands and thousands of children and youths were written off as expendable. Likewise, the report ignores the huge number of abuse cases that occurred BEFORE the 1960's and 1970's. As I noted before, the only true positive aspect of the report was that it showed that as the number of gay priests increased, the instances of abuse decreased and thereby cut anti-gay blowhards like William Donohue off at the knees. Here are some column highlights:
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The report written by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops about sexual abuse by priests has left many people mystified. The report attributed an apparent increase in abuse (or at least in reported abuse) of young people, primarily males, to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and ’70s.
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It basically skirted the complex roles of priestly celibacy and sexual identity. And the report didn’t delve into the transfer, to try to evade public scandal, that some bishops engineered for priests suspected and/or accused of serial sexual abuse.
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Indeed, the document writers seemed to go out of their way to protect bishops anxious to get this public-relations nightmare off their backs.
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[L]et’s face it, this was a serious management problem. Some bishops were just not supervising and disciplining their people properly and some were in effect abetting serious violations of criminal law.

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There are some interesting data in this report, but we’ll need to await a more impartial one than this to fully understand what led to the church’s disastrous sex scandals.

Special Pride Event: Vidal Sasson at the Naro Expanded Cinema

One of the Out in the Park events going on this weekend is a special presentation of the movie Vidal Sasson- How One Man Changed the World with a Pair of Scissors. The special presentation, which will benefit Out in the Park is at 9:15 pm at the Naro Theater in the Ghent section of Norfolk. Introducing the movie - special drum roll please - will be the boyfriend! As a successful salon owner for over 26 years and as one who has always tried to stay current with new techniques and approaches, some on the Pride committee thought he'd be perfect.
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It should be a good time and since the movie is playing at 9:15 pm, there's plenty of time for dinner at one of the many LGBT friendly restaurants. We will be at The Green Onion on Colley Avenue just up from the Naro. I hope local readers will try to attend.

Gay Friendly Military Chaplains Push Back

This blog has previously looked at the lies and whining of Christianist members of the Chaplain Corps who have alleged that the repeal of DADT and/or allowing military chaplains threatens their freedom of religion. As is typical of the far right elements of the right wing, the Christianist chaplains are in reality accusing others of what they themselves are doing as their seek to inflict their religious beliefs on all. Thankfully, some non-Neanderthal members of the Chaplain Corps are pushing back and speaking out - something non-Christofascists need to do more often. The Advocate has a lengthy article on the development and a copy of the response submitted in reaction to threatened lawsuit by the extremists at the Alliance Defense Fund. Here are some highlights:
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A progressive military chaplains organization has condemned recent assertions by antigay groups that repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" is quickly eroding religious liberty for service members from conservative faith traditions.
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Capt. John F. Gundlach, a retired Navy chaplain and member of the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy, wrote in a Monday commentary that ADF's pleas are the result of antigay bigotry, not concern for religious liberty.
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"Are ADF and the religious groups they represent as willing to defend the same rights and protections for others they claim for themselves?" Gundlach wrote. "Are they as willing to acknowledge the right of chaplains from gay-friendly denominations to perform gay weddings in military chapels? And are they as willing to speak up for those who suffer discrimination because they are gay? If not, their pleas for special protection from discrimination for themselves are self-serving and unworthy of consideration."
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What are ADF and these groups afraid of? They fear that their chaplains and other military members who are anti-gay because of their religious beliefs will be discriminated against. Lifting up this perceived threat serves as a rallying cry for religious conservatives and the politicians who support them, but it’s really an S.O.S. It’s the Same Old Stuff they have been saying since “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” appeared to be headed for the regulatory scrap heap.
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This S.O.S. may seem real enough to them, but what are the facts? Will religious conservatives in the military no longer be able to practice their religion? Will their chaplains have to refrain from preaching against homosexuality (their term, not mine)? Not at all.
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The one thing that every chaplain is required to do, regardless of their religious perspectives, is care for everyone. If these chaplains can’t minister to gay and lesbian service members themselves, they are obligated to refer them to another chaplain who can.
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So where is the threat to religious freedom? And where could their right to free speech be limited? It will no longer be acceptable to speak about fellow gay and lesbian service members in demeaning ways in the workplace and other public settings. The fact that this has ever been acceptable by anyone anywhere, but especially by chaplains, is regrettable.
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Clearly, ADF and their conservative clients have good reason to send out an S.O.S. — their cause is sinking. As a new generation of Americans join our Armed Forces, a generation that has grown up knowing that LGBT people are no threat to their persons, their marriages, or their religion, the protests of groups like ADF and their clients will seem archaic and totally out of touch. And many will wonder why these groups don’t have a more important religious message to share.