05/20/2013
Report: IL has votes to free itself from marital discrimination's slipping grips
With just eleven days to get pass the marriage bill, this promising report out of Illinois:
Advocates: votes are there for marriage bill [Windy City Times]
As someone who happens to love both equal rights under the constitution and Chicago-style pizza, I couldn't be more hopeful. Invite me to your wedding, and I promise to not let my ritualistic eating of the latter make me late to the ceremony granting you the former.
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05/20/2013
David Barton: AIDS, meningitis are gay people's 'due penalties'
The conservative movement's favorite "historian", David Barton, wants you to believe that gays are inherently diseased and that no cure will ever be strong enough to fend off God's wrath:
*Source: WallBuilders Live, 5/20/13
"SHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! The adults are conducting research!" cries out the world community of credible and responsible virologists.
Are gay boys not boys? A look at the cruelty the equal Scouting opponents engender
Spotted at one of last Friday's "On My Honor" rallies against inclusive Boy Scouts. This was posted to the On My Honor coalition's official Facebook page:
[SOURCE: On My Honor]
So apparently it's not enough to deny gay boys and men of our worthwhile orientations. Some of these adults, who have every right and reason to know better, are trying to deny gay boys of their very boyhood. End result: More nasty messaging that tells some of the most vulnerable children in our population that they were born into some sort of "other" class that falls outside of the "acceptable" spectrum.
I like to think that if adults like the one in this picture knew how hurtful this kind of stuff is (and especially to the young psyche), they wouldn't be so quick to put marker to poster board and aggression to ignorance. I have to think that because the alternative is too hard to swallow.
Audio: The time VA Lt. Gov candidate E.W. Jackson directly connected gays to pedophiles
MSNBC's Daily Rundown just ran the following clip, featuring the Republican party's current nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and attributed it to me. I thank Chuck Todd's team for reminding me that it exists:
*Source: Faith 2 Action 4/6/10
It's hard to out-anti-gay Ken Cuccinelli. But he, the man who wants to be Cuccinelli's right hand man in the Governor's office, actually accomplishes the task.
In Virginia this year, the "Lt." in Lt. Governor might just signify "Liability."
He also told his pal Peter LaBarbera that liberalism has killed more Blacks than the KKK, lynchings, slavery, and Jim Crow:
[FULL: AFTAH]
MassResistance: NOM a 'no-show' in Illinois
I can't say I'd blame the National Organization For Marriage for laying low in Illinois, considering the team fighting against marriage equality in the state is one of the most hostile local coalitions I have ever witnessed. But this is still interesting:
NOM a no-show
It's upsetting to report that the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) appears to be completely skipping the Illinois fight. No one we talked to has seen any evidence of anything NOM has done there, nor have they even been contacted by NOM.
It's noteworthy that the homosexual group "Equality Illinois" is raising money by claiming that NOM has a huge war chest to defeat pro-"gay marriage" lawmakers at the ballot box. Whether this is true or not, we don't know.
[MassResistance]
Does NOM know that the proudly hostile (and proudly pro–"ex-gay") Illinois Family Institute has turned the state into a liability for the organization's messaging efforts, does NOM think we have the state in the bag and therefore see no need to waste resources, or are they do busy playing the victim of convoluted conspiracy to even care about marriage anymore? Could be one of those, a combination, or something else entirely.
But if the anti-gay MassResistance wants to publicly call out an ally, who I am to stop them?
*We should note that NOM's Jennifer Roback Morse did testify before an IL House Committee, so there has been some interaction.
FRC quite literally pitting God against little boys who happen to be gay, good at knot-tying
In the Family Research Council's latest round of "prayer targets," the viciously anti-LGBT organization first declares that inclusive Boy Scout programs "will have the exact opposite influence upon American morals than its founders intended," before then asking God to keep the gay boys out:
[FRC]
Remember, all this current policy change will do is allow boys to be in the Boy Scouts without fear that their sexual orientation might someday lead to their removal. While asking God to "move up on the members of the National Council of the BSA," FRC is actually moving against openly gay minors, often the most vulnerable members of our population.
FRC of course wears its militant anti-gay agenda like a badge of honor. But don't be fooled—there is no merit attached.
Anti–equal Scouting coalition: All signs point toward fairness, but trust us—discrimination is right
The paid organizers trying to keep the Boy Scouts' anti-gay policy posted this reassurance to the "On My Honor" Facebook page:
A way to recruit fake "victims," that'd for sure. But as for me? I'll stick with the polls.
05/17/2013
And now in news for the naive: As long as gay scouts are banned, boys won't discuss sex
I've already done a lengthy breakdown of the claims that John Stemberger and his crew are using to derail basic equality for gay Boy Scouts, so I won't rehash them. But I do want to highlight this one, particularly ridiculous claim that Stemberger makes in his latest document on the subject. Stemberger writes:
The proposed Resolution robs parents of the sole authority to raise issues of sex and sexuality with their kids. Parents should have the exclusive right to raise issues about sex and sexuality with their children in their own time and in their own way, in the privacy of their homes; not brought up by other older boys around a campfire. Allowing open homosexuality would inject a sensitive and highly-charged political issue into the heart of the BSA, against the wishes of the vast majority of parents.
FULL DOC: OnMyHonor.Net Response to Pro-Resolution BSA Officials’ “Points of Clarification” [On My Honor]
Ludicrous. Does anyone seriously think that when we ban gay Boy Scouts, it keeps prepubescent boys from discussing sex around the campfire? If you really do believe that, your parental naiveté is likely to affect far more than just your plans to keep your home LGBT-free.
Let's get real. As long as there are boys, there will be talk about sex. The cocky ones will act like they know more than they do, in reality getting things hilariously wrong. The shy ones will ask their questions "for a friend." The jokesters will sometimes turn the conversation toward the crude. In short: They will act like kids. Kids talk. They try to figure things out for themselves. And they do this not because they are straight kids or good kids or gay kids or bad kids—but because they are kids.
The real possibility (and the one that Mr. Stemberger fears most) is that inclusive scouting, like all inclusive institutions, will lead to more robust discussion about gay people. With more inclusion comes less stigma; with less stigma comes greater understanding. Mr. Stemberger doesn't want the world to accept LGBT people and our rights (e.g. he even opposes basic nondiscrimination ordinances) so he doesn't want campfires where gay kids might someday speak for themselves.
