Dear Abby Supports Gay Marriage, Honored By PFLAG

This upbeat article is from from 365gay.com (http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/10/100907abby.htm) and concerns PFLAG's honoring of gay ally "Dear Abby" (Jeanne Phillips):

What Jeanne Phillips, aka Abigail Van Buren, finds offensive and misguided are homophobic jokes, phrases like "That's so gay," and parents who reject or try to reform their children when they come out of the closet. Her views are the reason she's being honored this week by Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, a national advocacy group that provides support for gay people and their families. The original Abby, Phillips' 89-year-old mother, Pauline, helped put PFLAG on the map in 1984 when she first referred a distraught parent to the organization.

Jeanne Phillips, who formally took over the column when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease five years ago, has continued plugging the group, as well as its affiliate for parents with children who identify as transgender, and a suicide hot line aimed at gay teenagers. "I'm trying to tell kids if they are gay, it's OK to be gay. I've tried to tell families if they have a gay family member to accept them and love them as they always have," she said Friday.

Alert "Dear Abby" readers may have noticed that the youthful attitude Phillips promised to bring to the column includes a decidedly gay-friendly take on most matters. In a March 2005 column that touched a nerve with some readers, for instance, Phillips came down unequivocally on the side of scientists who say sexual orientation is a matter of genetics, not personal choice. She advised a mother who had cautioned her 14-year-old daughter to keep her feelings for other girls secret to "come to terms with your own feelings about homosexuality."

Last year, addressing a groom whose gay brother refused to serve as best man or even attend the wedding because he did not have the right to marry, she made it clear her sympathies lay with the boycotting brother. "Accepting the status quo is not always the best thing to do," she wrote. "Women were once considered chattel, and slavery was regarded as sanctioned in the Bible. However, western society grew to recognize that neither was just. Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain have recognized gay marriage, and one day, perhaps, our country will, too."

"If gay Americans are not allowed to get married and have all the benefits that American citizens are entitled to by the Bill of Rights, they should get one hell of a tax break. That is my opinion," said Phillips, who speaks with the no-nonsense tone of someone who is used to settling debates.

Wednesday Male Beauty

Yesterday's Minister Post

Some have commented that they could have done without my last post of yesterday. Yes, it is graphic and disgusting. However, I posted it because I think it is important to constantly showcase the falsity and hypocrisy of those who make maligning and demonizing gays a near full time business. This is particularly necessary in a state like Virginia which has the likes of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell's successors, Patrick Henry College, and other lunatic far right organizations based in it. I cannot even receive a fair divorce hearing because of the poisonous influence of these "Christians." Only when the larger public truly understands that these are NOT nice, much less "godly" people will the power of the Christianists be broken.

Minister Found Dead in Montgomery Home - Now the Rest of The Story

I swear that I just cannot figure out these Christianists who whine about sex and gays as being nasty sinners, but then are discovered to have really been into kinky shit themselves. This new story on a former Jerry Falwell protege is just CRAZY. Is it just me, or are most of these guys Baptists? I cannot do a better job than Pam Spaulding has done on her blog and recommend that you get all the details at the Blend: http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3226

This will get you an idea of how wildly bizarre this case is:

I think it's safe to assume this guy was a Republican: An Alabama minister who died in June of ‘accidental mechanical asphyxia’ was found hogtied and wearing two complete wet suits, including a face mask, diving gloves and slippers, rubberized underwear, and a head mask, according to an autopsy report.” He also had a dildo up his ass, but it was wearing a condom.

How these people have the nerve to tell LGBT individuals how to live is mind boggling.

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More Reports of Blackwater USA Arrogance and Lack of Oversight

The October 15 issue of Newsweek Magazine (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21163806/site/newsweek/) has joined the list of publications doing stories on locally based mercenary provider, Blackwater USA. The picture that emerges is one of an organization that sees itself as answerable to no one and largely above the law, civilian or military. In this day and age, it is disturbing that mercenaries are being allowed to function in this unrestrained manner. Sadly, it appears to be all too typical of what the Bush/Cheney regime has allowed to occur, often deliberately. Here are some story highlights:

Oct. 15, 2007 issue - The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company. Asked to address this and other allegations in this story, Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrrell said, "This type of gossip has led to many soap operas in the press."

Whatever else Blackwater is or isn't guilty of—a topic of intense interest in Washington—it has a well-earned reputation in Iraq for arrogance and high-handedness. Iraqis naturally have the most serious complaints; dozens have been killed by Blackwater operatives since the beginning of the war. But many American civilian and military officials in Iraq also have little sympathy for the private security company and its highly paid employees. With an uproar growing in Congress over Blackwater's alleged excesses, the North Carolina-based company is finding few supporters.

Unlike nearly everyone else who enters the Green Zone, said an American soldier who guards a gate, Blackwater gunmen refuse to stop and clear their weapons of live ammunition once inside. One military contractor, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution in his industry, recounted the story of a Blackwater operative who answered a Marine officer's order to put his pistol on safety when entering a base post office by saying, "This is my safety," and wiggling his trigger finger in the air. "Their attitude was, 'We're f---ing security; we don't have to answer to anybody'."

Late last week the State Department announced that it would increase oversight of Blackwater in particular, installing cameras in its vehicles and having a Diplomatic Security Service officer ride along on every convoy. But another State Department official, also speaking anonymously, says that DSS agents in Baghdad have not been eager to rein in the contractors in the past: "These guys tend to close ranks. It's like the blue wall."

One almost wonders whether Blackwater sees itself as some future Praetorian Guard to Chimperator Bush and Emperor Palpatine Cheney (that might explain Erik Prince's smugness while testifying before Congress) who I for one, hope really leave office in January 2009.

ENDA - A Pragmatic View

A post on America Blog (http://www.americablog.com/2007/10/enda-laymans-perspective.html) today lays out a balanced and reasoned explanation as to why supporting a version of ENDA that is not trans-gendered inclusive may be the correct thing to do. I am not saying that the transgendered community should be thrown under the bus - simply that political reality has to play in at some point:

It's fascinating to watch this argument play out, because to a large extent the two sides are talking about totally different things. Broadly speaking: On one side, people support including T because it's the right/moral thing to do. On the other, those who would accept a non-T ENDA say it's a good pragmatic, political move (which is its own moral argument, I think, if not specifically presented as such). Here's the thing: I haven't read a single persuasive argument that putting up a T-inclusive ENDA to get voted down in Congress (which it assuredly would, whereas a GLB ENDA would just as assuredly pass) would help the cause of T (not to mention GLB) rights, either in short or long term. Opposing a non-T ENDA is about the symbolism and ideals, rather than tangible benefit or strategy.

I'll take this one step further: Some commenters have opposed a non-T ENDA by asking the question, if ENDA covered, say, just lesbians, should we still support it? The question is meant rhetorically, as if the idea is too ridiculous to be contemplated, but I think one could make a persuasive case that the answer should be . . . yes! If that would pass Congress, and no more progressive alternatives would, you do it. If the most progressive bill you can get through Congress is to create legal protection for all lesbians named Jane in towns whose names start with "W" then you pass that. I'm not saying pass less than you can, but don't torpedo something by including something you *know* is a poison pill. You get what you can, when you can get it. Then when people see that the world hasn't ended, and there are benefits, and we haven't all immediately gone to hell, there's more room for even more advancement.

In short, it is better to support passage of an imperfect bill rather than "stand on principle" and allow thousands of LGB individuals to be fired regularly.

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Senator James Webb: Blackwater contracts 'awarded for political reasons'

Virginia's Senator James Webb appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe today and said what we have all been thinking (http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Sen._Webb_Blackwater_contracts_awarded_for_1008.html). I do not know why any one would fein surprise:

The security contracts awarded to Blackwater USA in Iraq were done so for primarily political reasons, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia told Joe Scarborogh today on MSNBC's Morning Joe. In an extensive discussion about US foreign policy, Webb brought up the controversy over Blackwater's actions in Iraq and the attempt by congress to bring them under US law. "With respect to Blackwater, we've allowed mercenaries to actually conduct combat operations, and we've never done this before," Webb said. "And they're doing this with no legal structiure over them."

There are also no international agreements that govern the handling of mercanries, Webb said, and it now up to the Congress to decide how best to deal with them, Webb said. "But the other piece of it, let's be honest about it, a lot of the contracts, under this quasi military functions have been awarded for political reasons, and Blackwater is a really good example of that," Webb added. "That's something like half a billion out of their nearly billion dollar contracts were awarded without proper competition, according to the house committee report last year."

Tuesday Male Beauty