LGBTQ news and entertainment
The anti-gay National Organization for Marriage thinks so highly of the Human Rights Campaign’s work with Facebook and their logo that they’ve had a great idea – copy it!
Wow. Original. Marketing fail….
As Jeremy Hooper at NOM Exposed points out, negative/hateful energy may not get the same embrace at the fight for equal rights…
The National Marriage Organization doesn’t approve of picking and choosing from the Bible.
Unless it’s not polling very well.
Then, it gets tweaked.
Pick and choose; pick and choose…
(via UpWorthy)
The anti-gay marriage activists are not going away.
Their new target? The Tour de France.
And while the first stage of the race will get rolling on the island of Corsica, the remaining 20 stages will cover well near every corner of mainland France, offering protestors across the country the chance to snatch a bit of prime-time coverage.
Their Facebook page implored would-be demonstrators to send private messages with points on the route they would consider protesting at, giving the impression that the ‘Tour Pour Tous’ (Tour for all) will try to organize as wide a coverage of the famous event as possible.
The page also launched the hashtag #tourpourtous to prompt users on the social media site Twitter to rally to the protesters’ defence. By Wednesday, proponents and opponents alike had begun using the keyword to trade jibes.
Anti-gay activists have already targeted the French Open with a flaming protester.
(source)
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Youths kick a gay rights activist during a protest against a proposed new law
termed by the State Duma (Reuters) |
The lower house of Russia’s parliament passed a bill that stigmatises the gay community and bans the distribution of information about homosexuality to children.
The State Duma voted 434-0 with one abstention to approve the Kremlin-backed legislation, which imposes hefty fines for holding gay pride rallies or providing information about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to minors.
Before the vote, gay activists were arrested and attacked in Moscow on Tuesday outside the Russian State Duma as it prepared to take a final vote on a federal bill banning “gay propaganda”, the AP reports:
Police moved in after supporters of the bill started showering the protesters with eggs and water. Some of the protesters who were not detained were viciously attacked by masked men on a central street a mile away.
Reuters adds:
The gay protesters were far outnumbered by around 200 anti-gay activists who surrounded them, chanting “Russia is not Sodom”, singing Orthodox Christian prayers and crossing themselves. They threw rotten eggs at the gay protesters.
After scuffles in which one man was knocked to the ground and kicked by the anti-gay activists, police began detaining the gay protesters and bundling them into waiting buses.
Journalist and Putin critic Masha Gessen said she was among 24 people being taken to police stations. Moscow police said about 20 people were detained…
Via press release:
The New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) will hold a Press Conference on Tuesday, June 11th at 2 pm in response to a bias-motivated assault of Josh Williams, Ben Collins, and Antonio Maenza, three openly gay men in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn on Sunday, June 3rd by New York Police Department (NYPD) officers.
The survivors reported that they were walking past the 79th Precinct when an NYPD officer accused one of the men of public urination and attacked him, throwing him against a police car. The officer was joined by other officers who also attacked the man, throwing him to the ground and pepper spraying him while he was in handcuffs. The survivor was handcuffed tightly, causing lacerations.
The survivor’s injuries were treated at a hospital, where he was again restrained with wrist and ankle cuffs. The group of officers also arrested the other two survivors.
[snip]
Police Violence is a pervasive problem facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in New York City.
AVP found that in 2012, nearly 40% of survivors interacting with the police in New York City reported police misconduct.
Reports of police misconduct increased significantly from 8 in 2011 to 78 in 2012. The report also found that survivor reports of hostile attitudes from police doubled in 2012, with 43 reports, up from 21 in 2011.
Tomorrow’s Press Conference will highlight these findings and the issue of police violence affecting our LGBTQ communities.
The Village Voice has a lengthy recounting of the incident:
Williams’ ordeal began as the three men walked past the 79th Precinct stationhouse at 263 Tompkins Ave. Williams told his roommates he needed to take a piss, but they told him to wait as they were almost home. An officer standing in the precinct parking lot shouted at them, asking if he had just urinated on the building. Williams said, “no.”
“The officer shouted, ‘Did you really just piss on the precinct?'” Collins says. “Josh says no. The officer didn’t go over and check whether the building had actually been peed on.”
The officer called them over. Williams and Collins complied, and the officer asked for their ID cards. Collins asked whether they were being detained. “He rolled his eyes and sort of snapped, twisting an arm behind my back and slamming me against a car,” Williams says. “I was able to ask him what was going on, and he slammed me against the car and pepper sprayed me. I was blinded and disoriented.”
Collins: “He put his hand on Josh’s neck and pushed his face into the hood of the car twice and pepper sprayed him. Josh never tried to resist or run away.”
Williams says he remembers then being tossed against a fence and then a number of officers putting their hands on him. “I get slammed to the ground and cuffed and then pepper sprayed again. I remember yelling, ‘why are you so angry?’ From there I don’t remember much.”
(source)
Reports say about 2 dozen anti-gay activists gathered at the Human Rights Campaign offices to demonstrate more hate for the LGBT community on our “front door,” so to speak.
Here are some choice tidbits from the “press conference:”
Peter LaBarbera: “The escalation of homosexual power is bad for America….The deviant sexual revolution represented by the HRC headquarters behind us is built on a foundation of lies….You could fill a small book with the fake gay hate crimes that have been staged over the years….Most sins don’t get their own Pride parade.”
From Mission America’s Linda Harvey: “And children will be led into darkness, deception, and sin… HRC wants children to embrace the stress and anxiety of gender confusion. How wicked.”
From Diane Gromley, American Family Association: “What is their to be proud of when the sexual activity in which one chooses to engage leads to increased health risk and early death…Gay is definitely not okay as the human body responds to being misused during unnatural homosexual sex.”
Nice, right?
NOM Chair John Eastman went for the big “liar, liar, pants on fire” today when he testified of “harassment” of his donors for Prop 8, which NO ONE has EVER documented actually happened.
NO ONE.
Isn’t lying a sin?
What this is is a classic “bait and switch” from the issue at hand to self-serving accusations to divert from the fact that NOM is not a “social welfare” organization.
Congressman Blumenauer responded to Eastman’s comments on the Huffington Post:
“Let’s get real and stop the charade about what a ‘social welfare’ organization is. Last year, internal National Organization for Marriage (NOM) strategy documents were leaked, stating that the organization seeks ‘to drive a wedge between gays and blacks’ by promoting “African American spokespeople for marriage,’ thus provoking same-sex marriage supporters into ‘denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots,’ and ‘to interrupt the assimilation’ of Latinos into ‘dominant Anglo culture’ by making the stance against same-sex marriage ‘a key badge of Latino identity.’
“Does this sound like social welfare to you? Social welfare organizations should work in the public interest — not to divide, exploit, and conquer. When I brought this up at the hearing today, Dr. Eastman, Chairman of the Board of NOM, angrily groused, ‘To say that defending traditional marriage doesn’t qualify for defense of the public good is beyond preposterous.’
“To Dr. Eastman, I say that it is the denial of my constituents, and all Americans, the right to marry the person they love is preposterous. To exploit racial and religious differences so you can fundraise for and enforce your specific worldview is preposterous. But your right to be preposterous should not extend to taking political positions under the guise of a social welfare organization, raising money and campaigning.”
– Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) for the Huffington Post
This weekend Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert made news at a post-game press conference by using anti-gay slang “no homo.” The NBA has now announced it will fine Hibbert a sizeable chunk of coin for his choice of words:
Hibbert apologized in a statement yesterday, saying “I used a slang term that is not appropriate in any setting, private or public, and the language I used definitely has no place in a public forum, especially over live television. I apologize to those who I have offended, to our fans and to the Pacers’ organization. I sincerely have deep regret over my choice of words last night.”
David Barton, former vice-chair of the Republican Party of Texas and evangelical pastor, tells a Christian audience that they cannot drink Starbucks coffee because the company supports marriage equality.
The full quote, via RightWingWatch:
“Starbucks is pouring all this money into destroying traditional marriage. The question is, can a Christian give money to a group he knows will use it to attack what God supports. If you know that when you buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks that 5, 10, 15 cents is going to be used to defeat marriage, can you do that? The answer is no. Biblically, there’s no way a Christian can help support what is attacking God. I’m sorry, you’ve got to find some other coffee to drink. You can’t drink Starbucks and be biblically right on this thing. It’s just a real simple principle.”
Heading to SB now, can I get anyone a Venti anything?
Lawmakers in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, passed a bill Thursday banning gay marriage and outlawing anyone from forming organizations supporting gay rights. Violations could result in prison terms of up to 14 years for offenders.
According to the Huffington Post, Nigeria’s House of Representatives approved the bill in a voice vote, and it is possible that President Goodluck Jonathan will sign the legislation into law.
Nigeria’s Senate previously passed the bill in November 2011.
Under previous versions of the proposed law, couples who marry could face up to 14 years each in prison. Witnesses or anyone who helps couples marry could be sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
(image via Memeographs)