Tag: anti-gay

Posted on

Virginia: Attorney General Cuccinelli denied sodomy law review

On March 12th, a three-judge panel ruled that a section of Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature” a section of Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature” statute that outlaws sodomy between consenting adults, gay or straight, is unconstitutional based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2003 known as Lawrence v. Texas.

Virginia’s Attorney General, Kenneth Cuccinelli, filed a petition with the 4th Circuit US Appeals Court to reconsider the determination. The petition requests what is known as an “en banc” hearing before the full 15 judges to reconsider the earlier ruling by the three-judge panel.

Yesterday, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond issued an order on Monday denying the petition.

None of the court’s judges requested a poll among themselves to determine which, if any of them, favored Cuccinelli’s request for an en banc rehearing of the sodomy case by the court’s 15 active judges and one senior judge.

Under court rules, if no judge calls for a poll or vote on the issue, the petition for a rehearing is automatically denied in what, in effect, becomes a unanimous decision.

“It’s a pretty resounding rejection,” said Claire Gastanaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. “There really wasn’t any interest in doing this at all by anybody.”

Jon Stewart had fun with the story Tuesday night:

(source)

Posted on

Oklahoma: Democratic House members walk out rather than vote on DOMA resolution

The vote, in support of the Federal anti-gay DOMA, was registered as “unanimous” but only after more than half of the state Democratic House members walked out rather than honor the resolution with their vote.

The House approved the resolution Monday on an 84-0 vote. House Democratic Leader Scott Inman and openly gay Rep. Kay Floyd of Oklahoma City were among more than half of the chamber’s 29 Democrats who walked out of the chamber instead of voting.

The resolution now heads to the state Senate.

The resolution would not carry the weight of law. Its supporters say it’s meant as a message to the U.S. Supreme Court, which recently heard arguments in two cases concerning same-sex marriage rights.

Read more at KJRH.com

Posted on

Montana: House votes to decriminalize homosexuality

The Montana House decisively voted Tuesday to repeal Montana’s law making gay sex a crime, putting the bill one step away from the governor’s desk.

After a half-hour of emotional debate for and against the measure, the House voted 64-36 to endorse Senate Bill 107. Twenty-five Republicans joined all 39 House Democrats to support the bill.

The bill removes gay sex from the definition of the crime of “deviate sexual relations,” a felony that carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $50,000.

LGBT advocates in the state have worked for over 20 years to address the law that grouped gay sex in with “sexual intercourse with an animal” as criminal deviate sexual conduct.

The bill faces one more vote in the House before heading to the Governor’s desk.

(via http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/montana-house-endorses-measure-to-decriminalize-gay-sex/article_79b4d3e9-c54a-5cc5-86cd-695dcf6d5750.html#ixzz2Q4nTIBKi)

Posted on

Conservative owns his commitment to inequality of others

Big time anti-gay guy Matt Barber tweeted this pic out earlier today as a response to the pink HRC image that was adopted by millions during the SCOTUS Prop8/DOMA arguments.

As you’ll recall from elementary school math, that’s the “greater than” sign.

So while millions post an image of the “equal” sign saying all love is equal, Matt Barber is telling the world that his marriage is “greater than” mine.  And notice the use of the phrase “real marriage.”

Nice.

The marriage equality community doesn’t even have to break a sweat at this one as Barber makes transparent the feelings of hate/supremacy his kind has for the LGBT community. 

Matt – you make our truth easier to understand with crap like this.   Hope you post it everywhere you can.

(via GoodAsYou)

Posted on

Paris: Gay couple beaten in homophobic attack

A Paris gay couple were brutally beaten this weekend. French gay rights groups say the recent protests against same-sex marriage have led to a rise in anti-gay physical attacks.

From The Local:

According to [Wilfred] de Bruijn, he was attacked with his boyfriend in the 19th arrondissement of Paris on Saturday night simply because they were gay. France’s gay rights groups say the savage beating comes as homophobic incidents are on the rise.

They blame the increasingly radical and stubborn anti-gay marriage movement.

Hours after being subjected to the beating, De Bruijn put the photo on his Facebook page. It has since been shared thousands of times across social media.

“Sorry to show you this,” the victim wrote. “It’s the face of homophobia. Last night 19th arr Paris, Olivier and I were badly beaten up just for walking arm in arm. I woke up in an ambulance covered in blood, missing tooth and broken bones around the eye. I’m home now. Very sad. Olivier takes care of me. Forbidden to work for at least 10 days.”

Posted on

Texas A&M student body president to veto anti-LGBT center legislation

(pic via GLBT Aggies)

I reported yesterday that the Texas A&M student senate voted to allow “religiously objecting” students to withhold the portion of their student fees that funds the campus LGBT Resource Center.

Today, the student body president, John Claybrook, has vetoed that vote.

From The Eagle:

News this week that some student senators had targeted the center thrust the traditionally conservative university into the national spotlight, and [student body president John] Claybrook said it was time to “stop the bleeding.”

“The damage must stop today,” Claybrook wrote in a letter announcing his intention to veto. “Texas A&M students represent our core value of respect exceptionally and I’m very proud of the family at this university. Now, more than ever, is the time to show great resolve and come together, treating each other like the family that we are.”

A veto by Claybrook means that the legislation passed 35-28 on Wednesday will not represent the official opinion of the student body at Texas A&M.

Due to the close margin of the original vote, it may be difficult for the student senate to try to override the veto, should they even attempt the override.

Posted on

Texas A&M student senate votes to allow students to “opt out” of funding LGBT Center

The student senate at Texas A&M University voted Wednesday night, by a vote of 35-28, to allow students to “opt-out” of having their activities fees fund the campus LGBT center.

Originally, the measure was called the “GLBT Funding Opt Out Bill” but was renamed the “Religious Funding Exemption Bill” so that it would not sound as bigoted. Thomas McNutt, a co-author of the bill, tried to say the name change changed the point of the bill and that it did not discriminate against specifically against gays. “We came up with the new bill — the new bill that does not point out anyone,” McNutt said of the reworked proposal. “If you think this is pointing someone out, it is a fabrication in your head that you have created on your own.”

Student Andrew Lupo, who identified as openly gay, spoke against the bill.

“The Religious Funding Exemption bill is a facade to deprive GLBT students of resources to create a safe environment,” Lupo said to the senators. “I see so many of you, you’re young — 18 and 19 years old– and there is a great future for you. Is this how you want to begin your career — by attacking your own Aggies, your own community?”

Student Aaron Ackerman disagreed and somewhat overly dramatically compared forcing students to pay for the GLBT center to forcing doctors to perform partial-birth abortions.

The bill now moves to the desk of student body president John Claybrook, who told The Eagle that a “veto is always on the table” but that he was still mulling the decision.

The traditionally conservative university landed at the top of the list of “LGBT-unfriendly” schools in Texas by the 2012 installment of Princeton Review, and was ranked as the seventh least-friendly public university nationwide.

(source)

Posted on

Dr. Ben Carson attempts to explain inflammatory marriage equality comments

Dr. Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon who’s a rising star for political conservatives, said Friday that he wants to restore civility to American political discourse and acknowledged that he is prepared to step down as commencement speaker at Johns Hopkins University.

Students at Johns Hopkins have circulated a petition to replace Carson, who’s retiring this year, as the university’s commencement speaker after he made incendiary remarks regarding marriage equality this week. He told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that he’s willing to honor those students’ wishes.

Carson, the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, on Tuesday called hetero-sexual marriage “a well-established, fundamental pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality — it doesn’t matter what they are. They don’t get to change the definition.”

Today on MSNBC, however, he was a bit more moderated in his language:

“I think people have completely taken the wrong meaning out of what I was saying,” Carson said. “First of all, I certainly believe gay people should have all the rights that anybody else has. What I was basically saying is that as far as marriage is concerned that has traditionally been between a man and a woman and nobody should be able to change that.”

Nonetheless, he conceded that “perhaps the examples were not the best choice of words, and I certainly apologize if I offended anyone….the point that I was making was that no group of individuals, whoever they are, whatever their belief systems, gets to change traditional definitions. The reason I believe the way I do, I will readily confess, is because I am a Christian who believes in The Bible.”

(via MediaMatters)

Posted on

Kentucky: Legislature overrides veto of anti-gay “Religious Freedom Act”

The Kentucky legislature last night voted to override Gov. Steve Beshear’s veto of the Religious Freedom Act, which allows state residents to disobey civil rights laws on the basis of “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The state House’s 79-15 vote sent HB279 to the Senate, which voted 32-6 to override the measure.

Gov. Beshear released the following statement: “As I explained in my veto message, I have significant concerns that this bill will cause serious unintentional consequences that could threaten public safety, health care, and individuals’ civil rights.”

Activists are concerned that the law will be used to challenge LGBT rights ordinances in Louisville, Lexington, Covington. and Vicco.

The text of the bill:

Government shall not burden a person’s or religious organization’s freedom of religion. The right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief may not be burdened unless the government proves by clear and convincing evidence that it has a compelling governmental interest in infringing the specific act or refusal to act and has used the least restrictive means to further that interest. A “burden” shall include indirect burdens such as withholding benefits,assessing penalties, or an exclusion from programs or access to facilities.