Will Multiple Gay NFL Players Come Out?

With many NFL fans holding views much like that of the GOP base there is swirling speculation that one or more gay NFL players may be about to come out.  Personally, I'd like to see it happen because it would be a further proof that gays do not fit the stereotypes disseminated by the Christofascists and likely self-loathing macho jocks.  Will it happen?  Who knows. But it would be entertaining to see the reaction of the Neanderthal crowd if one of their favorite players turned out to be gay.  An article at NBC Sports looks at the wild speculation.  Here are excerpts:

This week’s story that a gay NFL player is considering coming out was met with an interesting reaction from Domonique Foxworth, the former NFL cornerback who is now president of the NFL Players Association.

Foxworth said that not only does he think it’s inevitable that a gay player will come out, but he believes multiple gay players are going to come out. Foxworth said on WNST in Baltimore that there are already multiple gay players in the NFL, and that when one of them comes out, others will see that they have nothing to fear.

“It doesn’t have to be one player,” Foxworth said. “When one player comes out, multiple players will come out, because they are in our league right now.”  Foxworth said an openly gay NFL player would be a much bigger deal in the media than it would be to other players.

“When the public finds out about it, it’s going to be a media storm and it’s going to be a lot of press and a lot of attention, and probably not all of it’s gonna be positive,” Foxworth said. “But the NFLPA, as long as I’m president of it, is going to be behind that player and providing support.”

The first gay player to come out will be making a difficult, courageous decision. But if Foxworth is right, the second gay player to come out will already know he’ll be supported within the fraternity of NFL players.

The Medieval Views of Antonin Scalia

In a post yesterday this blog noted Justice Antonin Scalia's latest episode of verbal diarrhea in which he engaged in yet another diatribe against LGBT Americans.  Increasingly, Scalia seems better suited to have sat on the Spanish Inquisition of old rather than the U. S. Supreme Court.  While he claims no ill will towards gays, he words and past opinions reveal a far different story.  His statements and writings about gays fairly drip with animus.  It is a wonder that his knuckles are bloodied from dragging along the floor and sidewalk.  As noted in yesterday's post his blatant bias should disqualify him from hearing either of the recently accepted gay marriage cases.  An op-ed in the Washington Post looks at Scalia and his Medieval view of gays and the world.  Here are excerpts:

The Supreme Court’s announcement Friday that it will take up gay marriage is more than a chance for the justices to recognize the emerging national consensus in support of gay rights.  It is a chance for them to overrule the medieval views of Antonin Scalia.

 
As if in response to the court’s announcement, the acid-tongued justice visited Princeton University late Monday and reiterated his opinion, expressed in a 2003 dissent, that a law banning sodomy is on par with laws forbidding bestiality or murder.

The court’s decision to take up a pair of gay-marriage cases is almost certainly good news for gay rights and almost certainly bad news for Scalia’s defense of discrimination. Chief Justice John Roberts didn’t let his court stand in the way of immigration and Obamacare, and he surely doesn’t want to be responsible for a modern-day Plessy v. Ferguson that stands against the fast-emerging majority in support of gay rights. 

A Post-ABC News poll last month found that while a slim overall majority favors legalizing gay marriage, those younger than 30 support it by 66 percent to 33 percent. Nine states and the District have now legalized gay marriage.

If Scalia is to honor his own principle, he’ll vote to strike down DOMA and give his blessing to those states that wish to legalize gay marriage. But don’t count on it.  In writings and oral arguments of late, Scalia has sounded more like a conservative pundit than a jurist, railing against Obamacare and in support of immigration restrictions. He used his immigration dissent to criticize President Obama over a policy that didn’t figure in the case.

His 2003 dissent in the sodomy case was typical of his extra-legal logic. He accused his colleagues of signing on to “the so-called homosexual agenda” and taking “sides in the culture war” with a “massive disruption of the current social order.” .  .  .  .  A decade later, Scalia’s parade of horribles still hasn’t mustered, and support for gay marriage has spread by the very means — democratic change — that Scalia praised. If he weren’t so opposed to international experience, he’d know that gay marriage hasn’t been a major factor in places that legalized it earliest.

Scalia finds himself with a growing list of foes: public opinion, empirical evidence, his own writings and an increasing number of conservative legal thinkers. Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, a Republican appointee and a conservative, wrote in an opinion striking down DOMA that “the Constitution delegated no authority to the government of the United States on the subject of marriage.”

 Scalia is a Neanderthal and bigot who needs to be removed from the U. S. Supreme Court.

Arkansas GOP State Rep: Slavery ‘May Actually Have Been a Blessing in Disguise’ for Blacks

The prior post mentioned the racism that permeates so much of today's Republican Party.  Want an example?  Well, for starters there's Arkansas Republican State Representative Jon Hubbard (pictured above) who has taken GOP batshitery to new heights in his self published book Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative (self-published means that he paid to have it printed because he likely could find no one to publish it).  One of Hubbard's premises in the book is that slavery was good for blacks.  That's right, according to Hubbard being owned by others and treated as a piece of chattel the same as an animal or a piece of furniture was a "blessing in disguise" for blacks.  I swear that you could not make stuff up that would be any more insane that what passes as intelligence and leadership in today's Republican Party.   Gawker looks at Hubbard's shocking bigotry.  Here are excerpts:

We spend an awful lot of time condemning slavery, but have you ever stopped to think about the good it did?  No, because you're not a monster. Luckily, Republican State Representative Jon Hubbard of Arkansas has you covered. In his self-published book, Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative, he explains the bright side of slavery:

The institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.

Well, gosh, when you put it that way. Hubbard goes on to argue that a life of slavery would have been "likely much better" than a life back in Africa: "Knowing what we know today about life on the African continent, would an existence spent in slavery have been any crueler than a life spent in sub-Saharan Africa?"

As first discovered by Michael Cook of Talk Business, Hubbard's book is shockingly backwards for anyone — let alone a state representative. His worldview is grounded in centuries-old racism, including the stereotypes that blacks are lazy, unintelligent, and generally unproductive members of society.

Hubbard wonders if it will "ever become possible for black people in the United States of America to firmly establish themselves as inclusive and contributing members of society within this country."

Even school integration was a bad thing, as blacks simply can't "learn to appreciate the value of a good education."

What's really frightening is that a majority of today's Republicans probably agree with Hubbard - yes, including Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.   Yet some people - including some readers of this blog - wonder why I cannot be a Republican.   Oh, and I can just imagine what Hubbard thinks of LGBT Americans.

 

Homophobic Justice Antonin Scalia Says Gay Rights Are "Easy Cases"

Proving yet again that he's a horrible bigot and mental midget and, in my opinion, unfit to remain on the United States Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia (pictured above with fellow mental midget Justice  Thomas) engaged in a case of verbal diarrhea while speaking at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and at a book signing in Washington, D.C., and stated that abortion and gay rights cases were "easy cases."  In Scalia's view, virtually anything that was not within the contemplation of the drafters of the United States Constitution is exempt from constitutional protections.  This, of course means among other things, if his reasoning (or lack thereof) followed to its logical conclusion, that slavery is still perfectly legal and women should not have the right to vote The man is a Neanderthal and, again in my opinion, obviously suffering from early stages of senility or Alzheimer's.  Scalia is a living argument as to why perhaps lifetime appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court are not a good idea.  Here are highlights about Scalia's batshitery from Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Antonin Scalia says his method of interpreting the Constitution makes some of the most hotly disputed issues that come before the Supreme Court among the easiest to resolve.

Scalia calls himself a "textualist" and, as he related to a few hundred people who came to buy his new book and hear him speak in Washington the other day, that means he applies the words in the Constitution as they were understood by the people who wrote and adopted them.

"The death penalty? Give me a break. It's easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy. Nobody ever thought the Constitution prevented restrictions on abortion. Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years, it was criminal in every state," Scalia said at the American Enterprise Institute.

The issue of gay rights, or more specifically same-sex marriage, is expected to be a big one in the term that began this week. While the justices initially were scheduled to discuss the topic at their private conference in late September, it now appears likely that they will not make a decision about whether to take up a gay marriage case until after the presidential election, which would mean arguments would not take place until the spring.

Seriously, women and black Americans need to wake up to just how hostile this man is to modernity or anything that isn't in accord with his own reactionary, religious extremist and possibly racist views.  He is a menace to equal rights for ALL citizens.

The Real Cause of America's Decline

Click on chart to enlarge

The GOP and the far right lament what they describe as America's decline in terms of its place in the world and in terms of economic dominance.  What they fail to recognize is that it is their open embrace of ignorance and religious based idiocy that are perhaps one of the biggest threats to the nation.  While most of the rest of the world is embracing science and knowledge, the GOP and the Christianists want America guided by the writings of ignorant wandering herders from 2000+ years ago.  Here are highlights from a new Gallup survey that show the frightening level of ignorance that is far too widespread in this country:

Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question. About a third of Americans believe that humans evolved, but with God's guidance; 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process.

What's equally frightening is that Republicans in states around the nation want creationism taught in schools as if it were a form of science.  Sometimes I feel that we are engaged in a form of national suicide.   We might as well have government mandated lobotomies for all if creationism and its Neanderthal like advocates aren't pushed back to the religious nutcase fringe in our country.

North Carolina GOP Seeks to Ignore Climate Change

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse BEFORE it was moved 1800 feet to save it from erosion and rising sea levels

In yet another example of today's Republican Party is the party of ignorance and backward thinking, Republicans in the North Carolina legislature are pushing a bill that would have that state ignore the realities of climate change and rising sea levels even though the state's Outer Banks region and areas on Pamlico Sound is constantly beset with a battle against the rising ocean levels.  The GOP simply wants to pretend the problem doesn't exist.  Just like they want gays to cease to exist.  Fear of change - especially changing demographics - seems to trump any and every logical approach to a changing objective reality.  A piece in Talking Points Memo looks at this head in the sand approach.  Here are highlights:

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are circulating a bill which would limit their state agencies’ ability to calculate sea-rise levels, a proposal that one member of the state’s Coastal Resources Commission science panel has termed “bad science.”

The bill has not yet been introduced, but the language in the version being circulated would make the Division of Coastal Management the only state agency allowed to produce sea-level rise rates, and only at the request of the Coastal Resources Commission, and then only under the following conditions:

These rates shall only be determined using historical data, and these data shall be limited to the time period following the year 1900. Rates of sea-level rise may be extrapolated linearly to estimate future rates of rise but shall not include scenarios of accelerated rates of sea-level rise.

In other words, instead of taking into account global warming to predict higher seas, as expected by most scientists, the bill would have the state rely only on the historical record. 

Rob Young, a geology professor at Western Carolina University and a member of the CRC’s science panel, told the North Carolina Coastal Federation (NCCF), an environmental advocacy group, that the bill runs counter to the findings of the National Academy of Sciences and “every major science organization on the globe.”  .   .  .   .  Young pointed out that other states are planning on a sea-level rise of at least three feet. 

According to the NCCF, the CRC’s science panel drafted a report in 2010 that advised the state to prepare for a sea-level rise of up to 55 inches by 2100. The report said that a 39-inch rise was likely. Those findings were disputed by NC-20, an advocacy group that represents businesses and coastal counties. NCCF reports that, using the standard of the proposed bill, the state would be anticipating a 12-inch rise in sea level by 2100.

Just Say No: No Science, No Sex, No Gay People

The increasing lunacy taking place in Tennessee symbolizes what is happening the the Republican Party across the nation as the open embrace of ignorance and anti-gay bigotry - and I'd add racism - become the pillars of the Party's platform.  Given what seems to be a continued exodus of rational people from the GOP (not that there are that many left to begin with) one has to wonder where it will end.  One also has to wonder what companies and businesses will want to relocate to states that are so increasingly out of the mainstream.  A column in the New York Times looks at the phenomenon.  Here are highlights:

Wishing doesn’t make it so, but don’t tell that to the Tennessee Legislature. It seems determined to lead the nation in yearning for an era when Genesis was the last word on science, when there were no gay people and nobody engaged in non-marital sex, so there were no teenage pregnancies and no unwanted children.

There was no such time, of course. But that doesn’t seem to deter the Republican majority, which has brought us such modern wonders as a bill to protect teachers who preach the “scientific weaknesses” of “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming and human cloning,” and a bill that would prohibit elementary and middle school teachers from mentioning the existence of homosexuality.

And now they have sent a bill to Gov. Bill Haslam that would bar sex-ed teachers in public schools from promoting “gateway” sexual activity. . . . This bill is a disaster in the making: It relies on the definition of sexual activity in state law, which includes any contact with even the clothed inner thigh of another person. Critics say it’s so vaguely written that if a teacher doesn’t stop a student from sitting in another person’s lap, he could face punishment.

But don’t get the wrong idea. Tennessee’s Republican legislators know the government can only do so much to enforce morality. Last year, they revised an anti-bullying law so as to exempt anyone who voices a religiously motivated belief.

Sure, said Rep. Jeremy Faison, a few teenagers committed suicide after getting bullied about their sexuality, but “they committed suicide because they were not instilled the proper principles of where their self-esteem came from at home.”  We can’t continue to legislate everything,” he said.

Pat Robertson: Homosexuality is "Related to Demonic Possession"

Almost like clockwork local loon and professional Christian snake oil merchant extraordinaire, Pat Robertson, spouts some sort of crazy batshitery that makes the entire Hampton Roads region look like it's inhabited by knuckle dragging Neanderthals and Bible beaters who are wholly untethered from reality. Brother Pat's latest lunacy is his statement that Homosexuality is the result of demonic possession. Candidly, if anyone acts like he's possessed by demons, it's Robertson himself. Right Wing Watch has details of the lunacy. Needless to say, Robertson is promoting the "ex-gay" myth and "choice myth." Here are highlights:

Today the 700 Club featured a segment on a man who tried to “change” his sexuality by marrying a woman, but later ended up having extramarital affairs with men. The couple reconciled after his “repentance and deliverance from the homosexual lifestyle” and decided to stay together. “That type of conduct is wrong and it is time that in society we say certain things are wrong,” Robertson said. “He’s obsessed, he has a compulsion,” he added. “I think it is somehow related to demonic possession.”

Here's a video clip of Pat Robertson's latest verbal diarrhea:

GOP Neanderthals Scramble for Way to Block Romney

I'm not a fan of Mitt Romney for many reasons, not the least of which is his flip-flopping on issues, including LGBT rights, is enough to give one whiplash. Plus, he has shamelessly pandered to some of the nastiest elements of the Christianist/Tea Party base of today's foul Republican Party. Yet, to many he seems to be the most electable of the mediocre field of candidates fighting to be the GOP presidential nominee. Now, with Romney's better than expected win in New Hampshire, some of the knuckle dragging Kool-Aid drinkers of the GOP base are hysterical that Romney will get the nomination and then fail to back their Christianist version of Sharia law. The Washington Post looks at the scramble by the ultra-far right fear/hate mongering elements of the GOP (which the Post too politely calls "conservatives") to devise a strategy to derail Romney. Here are some highlights:

A near-panic has taken hold among some core conservative activists, who are now scrambling to devise a strategy to deny Mitt Romney the Republican presidential nomination.

Many of these activists see South Carolina’s primary on Jan. 21 as their last best hope of stopping Romney by consolidating in a united front against him. But many acknowledge that they have yet to figure out which of the remaining conservative rivals to rally behind and which should get out.

The tension is exacerbated by the deep divisions between two key GOP wings: tea party groups yearning for a pure small-government conservative, and evangelical Christians who want a loyal social conservative.

In one sign of their desperation, some activists are holding out for what they acknowledge is a spectacular long shot: a late-entering savior who could still qualify for enough state ballots and win enough delegates to force a brokered GOP convention this summer.

The Romney conundrum will be on the agenda Friday when about 150 evangelical leaders huddle at a Texas ranch to debate their next move. Likewise, the subject of consolidating conservative opposition to the former Massachusetts governor is expected to be a major point of discussion among about 500 attendees at a tea party convention set for this weekend in Myrtle Beach, S.C., where the list of speakers includes two Romney rivals seeking the conservative mantle, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.

One participant in Friday’s evangelical meeting, the Rev. Jim Garlow — pastor of a San Diego megachurch and a leading champion of California’s anti-gay-marriage initiative — said Romney is “untrustworthy” and not “ visceral on the issues that are cardinal to me.”

The fretting from conservatives reflects a persistent question about Romney’s candidacy: whether a wealthy private-equity executive with a history of centrist views in a liberal state can gain the trust of the most energized and active elements of the GOP’s conservative base.

Romney campaign aides and supporters concede that the candidate has not yet made the sale, but they say he will win over conservative voters. They point to the support of a tea party favorite, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R), who is campaigning nationally for Romney.

[N]ational and South Carolina-based activists said Romney has a difficult task in unifying the party base. Many social conservative leaders are still seething over the party’s experience in 2008, when evangelical Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses but the base didn’t unite, and John McCain locked up the nomination early. “We made a terrible mistake in 2008,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

Among the candidates who remain, Romney’s critics can’t agree on who should get the nod. Gingrich backers are pushing for Santorum and Perry to drop out, while Santorum supporters see an obvious solution if Gingrich and Perry clear the way.

With luck, the bloodbath within the GOP will continue and the far right elements will lose the battle. The sooner they are permanently driven from the political realm, the better it will be for America as a nation. Hate, division, the embrace of ignorance and religious extremism will not make America competitive in the world of the 21st century.

The Neanderthals' Effort to Marginalize Same Sex Relationships

Tamara Dietrich at the Daily Press did a follow up opinion column on the City of Hampton's meeting with representatives of Hampton Roads Business OutReach which, like the earlier Daily Press article, was positive and supportive of the City's endeavor and listed all the reasons that courting the gay community makes sound economic good sense. The comments on both articles are split and what's amazing/disturbing is that all of the critics of the City focused on one of two things: Bible beating religious beliefs and/or marginalizing gay relationships to a physical sex act. While my experience with educated residents of Hampton has been very positive, there obviously remain many knuckle draggers within the city's population base. In summarizing, Ms. Dietrich noted as follows:
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Facing backward attitudes like this, it takes intrepid entrepreneurs, indeed, to want to invest the money, time and talent it takes to terraform urban cultural wastelands. And no small amount of chutzpah for city officials to enlist the help of "deviants" upon whom — if times were flush — they likely wouldn't risk their political capital.
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Professor Florida says the three Ts of economic development are technology, talent and tolerance. And all three are necessary to attract creative people, generate innovation and stimulate economic growth. Others can provide the technology and the talent, but only if residents contribute the tolerance first.
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The level of bigotry of some of the comments was stunning. And I would ask why are same sex relationships limited to a focus on mere physical sex acts when heterosexual relationships get no similar treatment? I believe that the haters need to dehumanize us so that their treatment of us as less than thinking, feeling, fully rounded humans can be rationalized in their own disturbed minds. When I look at the boyfriend, I see one of the sweetest most wonderful individuals that I have ever known - something his clients (both male and female) recognize and why many seem to nearly worship him. Our relationship involves far more than just physical contact - as does any legitimate soul to soul relationship. Those who would marginalize it and denigrate it demonstrate their own perverse sickness, not ours. Indeed, together with my children, I deem the boyfriend among the most precious gifts that life has given to me.
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I cannot stop the haters from making their sick and disgusting remarks. I can, however, live with dignity and prove them wrong on a daily basis. Living out and proud is the best defense to such religious based and warped psychological hate and marginalization efforts.

Reactionary Lutheran School Allowed to Expell Suspected Lesbians

One of the things I did after coming out was to leave the corrupt, hypocrisy filled, and 13th century minded Roman Catholic Church. After first joining the Episcopal Church I ended up joining a parish in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ("ELCA") which, while not perfect is light years and centuries ahead of the Catholic Church now run by God's Rottweiler who is most definitely locked in a 13th century level of scientific knowledge. There are other variants of the Lutheran Church which have a Neanderthal mentality including the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod ("WELS") which operates California Lutheran High School which expelled two 16-year-old girls for having "a bond of intimacy" that was "characteristic of a lesbian relationship." The hypocrisy of California Lutheran is extreme in its treatment of these girls. The school describes part of its mission to be: "to deal with each student as a redeemed child of God, offering counseling, encouragement, and loving Christian discipline." Well unless the student is perceived to possibly be gay or lesbian in which case the treatment they receive will be akin to that of the Pharisees toward lepers. Here are some highlights from the Los Angeles Times about this travesty:

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An appeals panel finds California Lutheran High School in Riverside County is not a business and therefore doesn't have to comply with a state law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation.

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After a Lutheran school expelled two 16-year-old girls for having "a bond of intimacy" that was "characteristic of a lesbian relationship," the girls sued, contending the school had violated a state anti-discrimination law.In response to that suit, an appeals court decided this week that the private religious school was not a business and therefore did not have to comply with a state law that prohibits businesses from discriminating. A lawyer for the girls said Tuesday that he would ask the California Supreme Court to overturn the unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal.

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The girls were expelled in their junior year for "conducting themselves in a manner consistent with being lesbians," said [John] McKay [counsel for the school], who added that the girls never disclosed their sexual orientation during the litigation.

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The dispute started when a student at the school told a teacher in 2005 that one of the girls had said she loved the other. The student advised the teacher to look at the girls' MySpace pages. One of the girls was identified as bisexual on her MySpace page, the other's page said she was "not sure" of her sexual orientation.McKay said the website also contained a photograph of the girls hugging.

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The school also did not break the law when it disclosed the girls' "suspected sexual orientation" to their parents, the court said. The parents, "in light of their right to control their children's upbringing and education, had a right to know why" they were being expelled, the court said.Hanson said the entire episode was "very traumatic" and "humiliating" for the girls.

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The school is affiliated with synods that believe homosexuality is a sin, the court said. The school's "Christian conduct" code said students could be expelled for engaging in immoral or scandalous contact, on or off campus.