Last month President Obama nominated openly gay DNC co-chair Wally Brewster to be ambassador to the Dominican Republic.
Here’s how the local the Catholic Church reacted this week:
Religious groups in the country have objected to Brewster solely because he’s gay. Perhaps the biggest offender has been Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, the Roman Catholic leader in the country. At a press conference, Rodriguez called Brewster a “maricón,” which is usually translated as “faggot.” Not content to leave it at that, the Cardinal’s sidekick, Monsignor Pablo Cedano decided to chime in.
“I hope he does not arrive in the country because I know if he comes he is going to suffer and will have to leave,” Cedano said. He called it “a lack of respect” that Obama “sent … a person of this kind as an ambassador,” adding, “[W]e don’t despise the person.”
Of course, why we would EVER think that?
The nominee, James “Wally” Brewster, must still be confirmed by the Senate and is the latest in a flurry of appointments of gay Americans for ambassadorships by the Obama administration. Five others were named just in the last month. Only three openly gay ambassadors have served before them.
On Sunday night, two men harassed and then assaulted a group of young New York City pride goers on the subway. If anyone knows them, please contact the authorities.
From the clip’s description:
On Sunday, June 30th at around 11:45 PM, I was riding home on the Queens-bound F train following a day of LGBT Pride festivities. Two men were loudly making homophobic comments, such as “Today was a scary day for me. There were fags everywhere.” When a group of queer youth got on the train, the men proceeded to harass them, stating that the teens made them want to puke and that they would be killed if they were in Iran. The first assailant then threatened to rape them, at which point I took out my phone to document the incident.
Seeing that he was being recorded, the first assailant lunged at me, violently grabbing my arms while trying to steal away my phone. One of the youth took the phone from me temporarily to protect it and told the assailant he shouldn’t attack a woman. When the assailant threatened to punch me, I took the phone back and ran to the other side of the train to push the emergency button and alert the authorities. At this point the second assailant got up and came towards me, grabbing my body and hands to try and get the phone to destroy the evidence. I yelled and told him I was an attorney. An onlooker then got up and stood between the assailants and myself, and another person left to get the train conductor.
A group of people had gathered to stand up to the gay bashers. During this, the second assailant put his hand around the neck of a young queer woman. When the doors opened up at the Roosevelt Ave stop, both assailants fled. I followed them to the station exit while calling 911. One witness had overheard them saying they were on route to Jamaica; they’re likely commuters who regularly take this route.
I uploaded the video to YouTube to see if anyone can identify these men. I was left with bruises and scratches from both assailants which I also documented. If anyone sees them or knows them personally, please contact the authorities. This was a hate crime.
Representative Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) and 28 other House Republicans have introduced a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage nationwide.
The proposed “Marriage Protection Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution would read, “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”
The amendment needs to be approved by a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and Senate before being ratified by three-fourths of states.
Representative Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) on Wednesday pledged to overturn the Supreme Court’s marriage rulings with a constitutional amendment.
“This radical usurpation of legislative and popular authority will not end the debate over marriage in this country,” Huelskamp said. “Congress clearly must respond to these bad decisions, and as a result, I plan to introduce the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) to amend the United States Constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”
The proposed constitutional amendment has NO CHANCE of passing.
Amendments to the US Constitution must be ratified by two-thirds of the House and Senate and then sent to the states for a vote. Then, three-fourths of the states must affirm the proposed Amendment.
Three-fourths of the country means 38 states would have to approve the amendment. We already have 13 states that have marriage equality. So – it’s not happening.
So it looked for a minute there that fast-food chain Chick-fil-A was trying to improve it’s image with the LGBT community by moving away from anti-gay beliefs and practices, but company president and CEO Dan Cathy disproved that myth Wednesday on Twitter.
Responding to the Supreme Court’s rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, Cathy tweeted:
Sad day for our nation; founding fathers would be ashamed of our gen. to abandon wisdom of the ages re: cornerstone of strong societies.
And then, lacking the courage of his convictions on LGBT issues, the tweet was quickly deleted.
Chick-fil-A spokeswoman Carrie Kurlander explained that Cathy “has his own views,” but “Chick-fil-A is focused on providing great tasting food and genuine hospitality.”
The distinction may not be very meaningful given that Chick-fil-A is privately owned and Cathy is its owner.
Hate group leader Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council
“By striking down the federal definition of marriage in DOMA, the Court is asserting that Congress does not have the power to define the meaning of words in statutes Congress itself has enacted. This is absurd. The Defense of Marriage Act imposes no uniform definition of marriage upon the individual states. However, the states should not be able to impose varying definitions of marriage upon the federal government. The ruling that the federal government must recognize same-sex ‘marriages’ in states that recognize them raises as many questions as it answers. For example, what is the status of such couples under federal law if they move to another state that does not recognize their ‘marriage?’ This decision throws open the doors for whole new rounds of litigation.
“We are disturbed that the court refused to acknowledge that the proponents of Proposition 8 have standing to defend Proposition 8. This distorts the balance of powers between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. The Court’s decision allows the executive branch to effectively veto any duly enacted law, simply by refusing to defend it against a constitutional challenge. Ironically, by refusing to defend the law, California’s executive branch has also denied the nation any definitive ruling on the constitutionality of defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. – Hate group leader Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council
Brian Brown of the ironically-named National Organization for Marriage
“In a miscarriage of justice the US Supreme Court has refused to consider the decision of a single federal court judge to overturn the perfectly legal action of over 7 million California voters who passed Proposition 8 defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The Supreme Court’s holding that proponents of an initiative had no legal right to appeal ignores California law and rewards corrupt politicians for abandoning their duty to defend traditional marriage laws.
“It’s imperative that Congress continue to preserve the right of states to protect true marriage and refuse to recognize faux marriages performed in other states or countries. There is a stench coming from this case that has now stained the Supreme Court. They’ve allowed corrupt politicians and judges to betray the voters, rewarding them for their betrayal. It’s an illegitimate decision. We and millions of other Americans will refuse to accept this rogue decision rewarding corruption.
“We also urge Congress to reject the inevitable attempts to dismantle remaining elements of DOMA, including the right of states to refuse to recognize so-called gay marriages performed elsewhere. The vast majority of American voters have expressed with their votes their desire to maintain marriage as the union of one man and one woman. That decision should be respected and left undisturbed.” – Hate group leader Brian Brown of the National Organization for (some) Marriage
I recently posted about the fabulous Jaden Sink who sold lemonade across the street from the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, raising money for Planting Peace.
Well, the Westboro Baptist Church has officially responded to the threat of a five-year-old girl’s lemonade stand. Their message?
“Fags and enablers all burn in hell. Lemonade won’t cool any tongues.”
Elliot Morales, the suspect in the murder of Mark Carson in New York City, bragged about the shooting to cops afterwards.
In court documents released today, Morales told cops who caught him minutes after the May 17 shooting in Greenwich Village, “Gay thought he was tough in front of his bitch, so I shot him. Diagnosis is dead, doctor.”
Morales was arraigned on charges of second degree murder as a hate crime, menacing a police officer and criminal possession of a weapon.
The murder of Carson was the end of a violent night in Greenwich Village that began with Morales threatened a restaurant worker with a gun while shouting anti-gay epithets. He then came across Carson and a friend, and shouted gay slurs at them, asking, “what are you, a gay wrestler?” Morales then allegedly followed Carson and shot him in the cheek, killing him.
Morales seemed anything but remorseful for killing Carson, according to the court documents. “He thought he was tough, and I shot him. It’s the last thing he’ll remember,” he told police.
But in June 2009 they had their experience with how their international relationship would be tested: Jamie, a native of Scotland, was detained at SeaTac Airport due to visa problems and was denied the right to call Tim. He was sent back to Scotland the next day after Tim waited for hours in the airport without a chance to see him.
They married in June 2012.
Currently, Jamie and Tim’s marriage in Canada is not recognized legally in the United States because of the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act. Because they cannot be together in the USA, they are considering moving to South America so they can live together as legal spouses.
This is why the Supreme Court decision on DOMA is so vitally important for families like Tim and Jamie.
Holding strong to the hope that DOMA is struck down in the next week.
