Thursday Male Beauty

You Cannot be a Christian and Vote for Obama

So says professional gay hater Janet Porter, f/k/a Janet Folger who has long worked to deny rights to LGBT citizens and to promote the bogus Christianist "ex-gay" Programs. While her must recent conniption involves trying to depict Barack Obama as a supporter of utterly unrestricted abortion, I suspect that Porter/Folger is terrified that an Obama presidency combined with an increase majority of Democrats in Congress could mean the end to some of the Christianists' favorite legislative goals: the continuation of Don't Ask Don't Tell , defeat of ENDA, defeat of hate crimes legislation and the continuation of the Defense of Marriage Act. With Obama as president and larger Democrat majorities in the House and Senate, the haters could see all of their favorite anti-gay positions fall away. I also suspect that there's some latent racism in Porter/Folger's hysteria since the Christianist organizations she has been affiliated with in the past have one thing in common besides being anti-gay: they are all lily white. Oh, and if anyone isn't a Christian, I'd say that it's Porter/Folger and her fellow hate merchants. Here are some examples of her rantings from World Net Daily (a/k/a World Nutcase Daily) :

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To all those who name the name of Christ who plan to willfully disobey Him by voting for Obama, take warning. Not only is our nation in grave danger, according to the Word of God, so are you.

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In one week, America will make a choice. And to those who call themselves "Christian" who are planning on voting for Barack Obama, put down the Obama talking points and read God's voter guide before you go to the polls: I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live (Deuteronomy 30:19).

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Obama-Biden are pro-death. McCain-Palin are pro-life. Now choose life that you and your children may live.

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On marriage, Mark 10:7 reveals what Jesus had to say about it: For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. Notice, the man doesn't leave his father and mother to be joined to his domestic partner.

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No, this election is not about race. It's not about the economy. It's about obeying God. . . . To those who call themselves by the name of Christ who ignore what God says about life and marriage, who and are clinging to a fantasy of economic gain, think again. Obama will use your tax dollars to kill innocent children, and then he'll take your paycheck and use it to "spread the wealth around."

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Be forewarned: If you willfully disobey God on life and marriage because of race or false hope for the economy, you will usher in the kind of change that brought the Soviet Union to collapse. But the warning goes far beyond that. To those who think that God's grace gives them license to willfully disobey Him without consequences – think again. . . . Then obey Him in the voting booth and out of it. If not, do us all a favor and quit calling yourself a Christian.

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If anyone should stop calling them self a Christian, it's Porter/Folger and her fellow hate merchants. Oh, and does anyone have a straight jacket they can lend to Ms. Porter/Folger? Or better yet, know of a good mental institution she might want to check into? The woman is seriously whacked out.

Ways to Maintain or Kill a Relationship

Maintaining a loving committed relationship takes effort. No matter how well you think you know someone and/or how well you think that you can read their thoughts and feelings, the reality is that no one can fully know another. As a result, if you presume to know their thoughts and motivations, you are placing your relationship in peril and may be risking losing that person that you claim to love beyond all others. I have seen this phenomenon both in my own past relationships and with friends. Never assume you fully know another's thoughts and feelings. We all come with our own unique experiences and baggage. What we may think is obvious may be totally wrong. Honest communication is needed and by communication I do not mean talking at someone until you have beaten them into submission. Sadly, not everyone approaches others this way.
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Why is this a problem? Because interpreting your lover/partner's thoughts and behavior through the prism of your own emotions and experiences can result in you reaching totally incorrect judgments. You cannot read someone else's mind. Jumping to conclusions and/or always assuming bad motivations on the part of your love/partner will only erode the trust and security of your relationship. The reality is that you want your relationship to provide each of you with a safe haven and not, instead, a never ending Hurricane Katrina. The bottom line is do not jump to conclusions and never presume to know the thoughts and reasoning behind your partner's actions, motivations or responses. Always check things out with your partner to make sure you're both correctly understanding the other. This will save you from much grief and possibly save you from looking back on love lost because of your own presumptions and possibly, even arrogance.

Final Wednesday Male Beauty

Defeating the Forces of Division and Intolerance

I watched Obama's 30 minute paid advertisement this evening and must confess that I was moved by it. True, it is a piece of propaganda so to speak, but I do truly believe that there is a level of sincerity in Obama that we have not seen in out nation's top leadership in a very long time. Obama has exemplified the American Dream with his life and based on his family upbringing, I believe he can empathize with people in a way that John McCain, the privileged son and grandson of famous Admirals can never ever achieve. Listening to the stories of some of the everyday Americans who were featured, the segment also highlighted in my minds eye the difference between the change Obama seeks to bring versus what John McCain and the Republican Party now represent. Perhaps I am naive, but it reminds me of Luke Skywalker and the rebel alliance versus the Evil Empire as embodied by the GOP and its Christianist allies (in point of fact, Mark Hamill who played Luke has endorsed Obama as has its creator, George Lucas).

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I am not the only one who has these thoughts it seems. Jane Smiley has a column at the Huffington Post that looks at what an Obama landslide and increased Democrat majority might mean for the country. Here are some highlights from her reflections:

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The world would be a better place if the American right wing had never existed. Thousands of Americans and Iraqis would still be alive, tens of thousands or Iraqis would still be living in their own homes. . . . . But the issue goes deeper even that these practical matters. We would, in fact, be happier people if the right wing had not terrorized us with their horror-filled systems of belief.

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As bad as this is, far worse has been the effect of religious fundamentalism on the individual spirit and the national mood. . . . The religious right has been determined to enforce the unhappiness of others, no doubt so that that unhappiness will match their own. After all, they want to make sure that gay people understand that no matter how much they pay in taxes, they are second class citizens. They also want to make sure that every woman in the world understands that her interests are secondary to those of any embryo, any man, even, indeed, any sperm cell. This would be the "James Dobson Position". . . . The best they offer is to forbid questioning, and to punish those who do. Because the right wing experiences the world as cruel and arbitrary, they have no inhibitions about enhancing that cruelty -- as in "Hurricane Katrina", as in "Iraq War", and in "Abu Ghraib".

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In a week, we have a chance to leave this world behind. If we look at our two candidates, the differences between them are stark. . . . When we choose between these two men, we are choosing between two worlds -- the world of ignorance, fear, manipulation, and cruelty, and the world of rational investigation, weighing of options, and planning. This world is a world where sexual preference is not such a big deal, salvation is not an eternal mystery, and life goes on. It's a world where bad things happen, but there is no malign Godly intention behind them. It is world that understands the temptations of human nature and attempts to deal with them rationally and systematically. Some of these attempts will fail, but on balance, not as many as have failed in the last twenty-five years.

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Most of my friends see the coming election as the most important we have known. The right wing has damaged our country, our livelihoods, our national honor, and our planet, but not yet fatally. If McCain gets elected, that could change.

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The ultimate irony of course is that the forces of evil as I see them claim to be compassionate and, worse yet, Christian even though in fact they are neither. They are selfish, self-absorbed, and only truly look out for those who look just like them and love members of the opposite sex. Blacks, immigrants, gays and lesbians, Hispanics, and non-Christians are viewed as annoyances to be controlled and put in their subservient place. These intolerant and hate-filled false Christians MUST be defeated at the polls next week.

Reflections on A Committed Relationship

As regular readers know, I have entered into a new committed relationship relatively recently and so far it has been wonderful. In truth, at times I find myself baffled as to how/why someone could love me as he does. True, we are still learning more about each other and our respective past lives, but I can clearly feel and sense his unique inner goodness. He is truly a very giving and loving person. I believe that we can side step some of the pitfalls that often plague relationships and that have in fact played a part in driving me away from former love interests. I am by nature someone who is inclined to assume the best of others until they prove themselves otherwise and he seems to approach people with a similar perspective. In addition, neither of us seems the type to assume to know the thoughts and motivations of others. I continue to be so thankful to have him in my life.

The Real Reason Christianists Oppose Gay Marriage

Ann Althouse has a post on her blog that looks at a point and counter point on gay marriage and Proposition 8 that appeared in the Los Angeles Times the other day. The piece bore the title "A Gay-Marriage Pandora's Box?" Althouse analyzes Broyles' argument and sums it up pretty much on the same basis that I see it. Namely, Proposition 8 is NOT about protecting marriage" but ALL about justifying bigotry. Here's her summation:

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Let me see if I can make Broyles's point. I think he means to say that if same-sex marriage remains a legal right, enshrined in state constitutional law, then homosexual relationships will come to be regarded normal and good, and, consequently, anyone who objects to them will start to look like a bigot who should not be permitted to have his way. Thus, in order to preserve the right to discriminate against gay people and to keep schools from teaching children that gay couples are perfectly nice and so forth -- all things Broyles wants -- it's important to outlaw gay marriage, because it will be a powerful force in changing perceptions about gay people and those who think gay people are doing something terribly wrong.

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She leaves out only one thing: If the professional Christians lose the anti-gay battle, they will see a huge decrease in the cash flowing into their pockets - I mean "ministries." Then, God forbid, they might need to get real jobs.

Passage of Proposition 8 Sets Stage to Take Away Rights of Other Minorities

Marriage for same sex couples will add dignity and increased financial and legal security to their lives and benefit them and their families. Whether Christiaists like to admit it or not, many gays DO have children and families and prohibitions against gay marriage harm these children. Does this matter to our opponents? Sadly, no. They do not seek to "protect marriage," but rather to forever keep same sex couples as less than full citizens under the civil laws. Worse yet, the efforts by those who seek passage of Proposition 8 represents an effort to use mob, majority rule to determine who will and will not have legal civil rights. If Proposition 8 passes, then applying the same reasoning of the "Yes on 8" crowd, Blacks, Asians, Mormons - now that their usefulness to Christianists will be over - and other minorities can be stripped of their civil legal rights if a majority of voters can be stirred up and incited against them. This is exactly what was done to the Jews under the Nazi regime.

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With Proposition 8, we see religious extremists seeking to impose their anti-gay religious views on the civil laws of the State of California (as well as in Florida and Arizona under the initiatives on the ballot in those states) and overturn a ruling of the California Supreme Court. This flies in the face of how government is supposed to work in this country and will set a precedent where an unrestrained majority can subjugate minority groups. The so-called "separation of powers" devised by the framers of the United States Constitution - and emulated in the state constitutions - was designed to do one primary thing: to prevent the majority from ruling with an iron fist and trampling on the rights of minorities. This reasoning was based on the framers' experience under the British monarchy where minorities, be they religious or otherwise, had suffered often at the hands of the majority. Thus the framers deliberately avoided giving any branch of the government too much power.

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Among the powers given to the the Federal Judiciary are: the power to try federal cases and interpret the laws of the nation in those cases; the power to declare any law or executive act unconstitutional. Under state law, the respective state supreme courts perform a similar function. In In Re Marriage Cases, the California Supreme Court recognized the inherent and unchangeable nature of sexual orientation which justifies treatment of LGBT citizens as a minority. The California Supreme Court then properly held that discrimination against same sex couples was unconstitutional.

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Proposition 8 is both wrong in terms of seeking to abrogate the proper functioning of the role of the judiciary and in terms of pretending that gays are not a minority who deserve constitutional protections and equal treatment under the civil laws. Worse yet, Proposition 8 is an attempt to impose religious beliefs on other citizens and represents behavior akin to the Taliban and other Islamic extremists.

More Wednesday Male Beauty

Vote NO on Proposition 8

Dana Delany, Loni Anderson, Kathryn Joosten, Eduardo Xol, Eric McCormack, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and Carmit Bachar speak out against Proposition 8.