The leaps in logic abound here.
“Only 2% of the population is gay.” So that means it’s ok to discriminate?
“Only 5% of homosexuals choose to marry.” So if you don’t use your rights you lose them?
SRSLY.
Jimmie Walker has a problem with marriage equality
1970s TV star Jimmie Walker, mostly remembered for the catchprase “Dy-no-mite!” on the sitcom Good Times, is promoting a memoir. In his CNN interview, he says he’s morally opposed to marriage equality.
“There’s just certain traditions that need to be upheld. I’ll give you the other side of it — no, it doesn’t affect me, no, it doesn’t change my life. There’s just traditions that need to be dealt with. I’m a believer that gay marriage should be passed because the battle is not worth the war. The gay lobby is very loud. I’m totally against it.
“In 100 years from now, people are going to go, ‘Who was against gay marriage?’ And I’ll be one of those idiots and say, ‘That’s me.’ I’m just against it on moral grounds, that’s it. I’m as much a heathen as anybody. I just don’t believe on moral grounds it should be done. I don’t like it, I don’t accept it.”
Chick-Fil-A chief admits to supporting anti-gay groups
“Well, guilty as charged. We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that. We intend to stay the course. We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.” – Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-Fil-A, when asked about the millions his company has donated to “family ministries.”
On bullies, high school and men of character
I have to share: my years in high school (which in many ways were awful except for some dear friends) were saved by my surprising and unforeseen friendship with two amazing men who somehow found me interesting and funny. To this day they are terrific friends of mine who I can call at any hour and time will have not budged. I value their friendship more than they know because I can count on them no matter what the distance between us.
I mention all this because, when I saw this pic, I thought of them. Both were football players, popular in high school, who didn’t need the “weight” of a rumored ‘gay guy’ to bring them down in the social strata of high school life. And yet, they became my friends and never moved away from that position. I know there were times when they took a stand in my defense. These are truly moments of high school when you see what stuff guys are made of. Sometimes this defines the word “character.”
I’ve never taken their friendship for granted, and I always know I was lucky that they knew their own character at such a young age. 30 years later, I’m still amazed I factored in somehow. They have sometimes flown hundreds of miles to see me perform on Broadway or on stages across the country.
With that said, I hope every guy out there who might not “know who they are” at a young age finds guys confident in themselves, as I did, to be their friends. Friends who really are friends.
Thanks John Bell and David Burke for being who you are. Your confidence inspired me to be who I am.
Texas GOP platform: gays “tear at the fabric of society”
The just-published 2012 Party Platform for the Republican Party of Texas, which weighs in on everything from deep-water drilling to NASA to immigration and Israel is truly a sight to read.
Among the more key points is a lot of talk about marriage and family values (including a definition of marriage that certainly doesn’t include same-sex couples) and the affirmation “that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society and contributes to the breakdown of the family unit.”
Homosexuality ― We affirm that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society and contributes to the breakdown of the family unit. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country’s founders, and shared by the majority of Texans. Homosexuality must not be presented as an acceptable “alternative” lifestyle, in public policy, nor should “family” be redefined to include homosexual “couples.” We believe there should be no granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin. Additionally, we oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction or belief in traditional values.
Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) ― We oppose this act through which the federal government would coerce religious business owners and employees to violate their own beliefs and principles by affirming what they consider to be sinful and sexually immoral behavior.
Minnesota for Marriage says gays should be “put to death”
The anti-gay Minnesota for Marriage, a conservative group trying to prohibit marriage equality, posted this on their Facebook account yesterday.
Such groups often claim to be coming from a place from love, but this message about gay men being put to death proves otherwise.
By the way – I await the Facebook post about Leviticus 11:10-12 which says eating shellfish is an abomination also. I wonder if Minnesota for Marriage wants the shellfish industry put to death….?
(Via Good.As.You)
TX: Teen lesbians shot, one dead
One of them has died. MSNBC reports:
Two teenage girls in a relationship were found with gunshot wounds to the head in a south Texas park, with one of them dying from her injuries, media reports say. Police were searching for their assailants. Mollie Judith Olgin, 19, and Mary Christine Chapa, 18, were found in knee-deep grass in a nature area in Portland by a couple Saturday, said Portland Police Chief Randy Wright, who confirmed to msnbc.com details first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller Times. Olgin, originally from Ingleside but recently living in Corpus Christi, died; Chapa, of Sinton, was rushed to a hospital where she had surgery and was in serious but stable condition on Sunday, local NBC affiliate kristv.com reported. Wright said Chapa was still in the hospital on Monday.
Friends say the girls began their relationship five months ago. Police are investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime.
(via JoeMyGod)
Salvation Army Major: LGBT People Should Be Put to Death
In an interview with Australian LGBT journalists Serena Ryan and Pete Dillon, a senior Salvation Army official said that non-celibate LGBT people should be put to death.
The official, Major Andrew Craibe, is the Salvation Army’s Territorial Media Relations Director for the Southern Territory in Victoria.
Australian pop star Darren Hayes, the openly gay former lead singer of Savage Garden, recently called for a boycott of the Salvation Army because of the church’s anti-gay beliefs (just as I did here in the States). Hayes’s comments caused quite the firestorm, so Major Craibe appeared on Ryan and Dillon’s podcast, Salt and Pepper, to discuss the Salvation Army’s official position on homosexuality and whether it’s evolved over time.
Above is the interview with Salvation Army Major Andrew Craibe in full.
Ryan told Craibe that she prepared for the interview by reading all 170 pages of Salvation Story: Salvationist Handbook of Doctrine, a manual published by the group’s international headquarters in London and available online.
Ryan expressed incredulity that the official Salvation Army handbook cites a scriptural passage which calls for the execution of LGBT people, and asked Craibe how he would respond to a hypothetical LGBT person receiving guidance from the Salvation Army who discovers the homophobic citation (around the 7:00 mark).
RYAN: . . . that says, according to the Salvation Army, that [they] deserve death. How do you respond to that, as part of your doctrine?
CRAIBE: Well, that’s a part of our belief system.
RYAN: So we should die.
CRAIBE: We have an alignment to the Scriptures, that’s our belief.
RYAN: Wow. So we should die.
There’s a lot more at Truth Wins Out.
Former Minnesota Governor denounces anti-gay marriage amendment
Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura says he’ll do anything he can to defeat the anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot there in November, the Post Bulletin reports:
Ventura said the issue is personal for him because when he was a professional wrestler he had a friend who was gay who had been with his partner for more than 20 years. When his friend’s partner got sick, he was unable to be by his bedside because hospital rules allowed only spouses or next of kin.
“And because they are not allowed to be married, he’s neither. That’s cruel,” he said.
Ventura said he believes the majority should not be able to make decisions about the civil rights of a minority.
“If you did that, we would still have slavery because the majority isn’t going to think about the minority,” he said. “You have to have politicians with courage, who will stand up and say this is a civil rights issue, and where do we get off that the government should decide who you should fall in love with and marry?”
(Via Towleroad)
14 year old NYC student blinded in anti-gay attack
The parents of a 14 year-old Brooklyn boy say they will sue the city after their son was blinded in one eye during a brutal anti-gay attack by two fellow students.
Kardin Ulysse, 14, has undergone two surgeries on his right eye since the June 5 beatdown at Roy H. Mann Junior High School in Bergen Beach. It is unclear whether the bullies’ multiple punches or the broken shards of lens from his eyeglasses caused the damage to his cornea. “The doctor says he needs a transplant,” Pierre Ulysse said. “For me to send him to school with two eyes and come back with one eye is really absurd. “I want the world to know about this,” he added. Kardin, an eighth-grader, was set upon by a pair of seventh-graders who were calling him a “fucking faggot” a “pussy,” a “transvestite” and “gay,” according to a Department of Education occurrence report. While one schoolmate pinned the victim’s arms, the other rained punches on Kardin’s face, head and neck. Kardin broke away and the fight continued in the cafeteria until school safety officers and school aides finally intervened.
The parents’ lawyer is calling on police to investigate the assault as a hate crime. Both suspects are charged with misdemeanors in Family Court.
I have to ask: what kind of parents do the attackers have?
At a time when you have anti-gay groups like the National Organization for Marriage and Family Research Council fighting gay couples rights, why are they not instead fighting parents like these attackers seem to have? These are kids hunting, beating and blinding 14 year old boys.
Tony Perkins – why don’t you work to prevent THIS?