My hubby Michael and I enjoying our local Pride Festival in 2022
The small suburb of Franklin, Tennessee (population 85,000) has held LGBTQ Pride festivals for the past two years in a public park complete with food trucks, live entertainment, vendors, and thousands of attendees.
I was recently reminded of this essay – A Day in the Life of Joe Repubican – attributed to John Gray of Cincinnati, Ohio, and originally published in July 2004.
The New York Times’ David Leonhardt took a look at demographics and found what we already knew – the gap in the COVID-19 death toll between red and blue America has grown wider and wider. Continue reading “COVID-19 Deaths Get Redder And Redder”
Today, Donald Trump announced the nomination of ultra-conservative Amy Coney Barrett to replace Justice Ginsburg, just days after Justice Ginsburg’s death and before her burial at Arlington National Cemetery next week.
While other justices have been approved in presidential election years, none has been voted on after July. Four years ago, Senate Republicans refused to even consider President Barack Obama’s nomination to replace Justice Scalia with Judge Merrick B. Garland, announced 237 days before Election Day, on the grounds that it should be left to whoever was chosen as the next president.
In picking Judge Barrett, a conservative and a hero to the anti-abortion movement, Mr. Trump could hardly have found a more polar opposite to Justice Ginsburg, a pioneering champion of women’s rights and leader of the liberal wing of the court.
And the Human Rights Campaign notes just some of Coney Barrett’s low-lights regarding LGBTQ rights:
Coney Barrett defended the Supreme Court’s dissenters on the landmark marriage equality case of Obergefell v. Hodges, questioning the role of the court in deciding the case:
[Chief Justice Roberts, in his dissent,] said, those who want same-sex marriage, you have every right to lobby in state legislatures to make that happen, but the dissent’s view was that it wasn’t for the court to decide…So I think Obergefell, and what we’re talking about for the future of the court, it’s really a who decides question.” – Coney Barrett
Coney Barrett says Title IX protections do not extend to transgender Americans, claiming it’s a “strain on the text” to reach that interpretation:
“When Title IX was enacted, it’s pretty clear that no one, including the Congress that enacted that statute, would have dreamed of that result, at that time. Maybe things have changed so that we should change Title IX, maybe those arguing in favor of this kind of transgender bathroom access are right. That’s a public policy debate to have. But it does seem to strain the text of the statute to say that Title IX demands it.” – Coney Barrett
Coney Barrett misgendered transgender people, referring to a transgender women as “physiological males,” while casting doubt on transgender rights:
“People will feel passionately on either side about whether physiological males who identify as females should be permitted in bathrooms, especially where there are young girls present.” – Coney Barrett
A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows 57 percent of Americans say the next justice of the U.S. Supreme Court should be left to the winner of the presidential election and a Senate vote next year. Only 38 percent feel the confirmation should happen in the next weeks.
The same poll shows:
• 54 percent of respondents oppose increasing the number of Supreme Court justices versus 32 percent who support the idea
• 50 percent said they trust Joe Biden more to handle the next SCOTUS nomination versus 42 percent who trust Donald Trump more to make the choice
The Republican Party has never been a great friend to the LGBTQ community.
Too many conservative, Evangelical votes to court made us less than a priority in their eyes.
But as Congress prepares to recess for the holiday, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, in his farewell address on the floor of the Senate, surprised many by telling his colleagues they should “protect LGBTQ individuals from invidious discrimination.”
Here’s just part of what the conservative Christian and Mormon said on Wednesday via the Washington Post:
“Nowhere is the pluralist approach more needed than in the fraught relationship between religious liberty and LGBTQ rights. . . . Religious liberty is a fundamental freedom. It deserve the very highest protection our country can provide. At the same time, it’s also important to account of other interests as well — especially those of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. Pluralism shows us a better way. It shows us that protecting religious liberty and preserving the rights of LGBTQ individuals are not mutually exclusive. I believe we can find substantial common ground on these issues that will enable us to both safeguard the ability of religious individuals to live their faith and protect LGBTQ individuals from invidious discrimination.”
Referencing the passage of the “Utah Compromise,” an anti-discrimination law that passed with bipartisan support in Utah in 2015, the 81-year-old shared how the legislation strengthened religious freedom and protected LGBT Americans from discrimination.
Hatch said that passing similar legislation on a federal level could be a unifying piece of legislation that honors the diversity of Americans.
While it’s nice that Sen. Hatch raises his voice in support for LGBTQ inclusion as he walks out the door, pardon me if I find it a bit of “too little, too late.”
And the Republican Party has been home to white evangelicals since the election of President Ronald Reagan.
And, it was white evangelicals, white Catholics and white Protestant Christians who flocked to Donald Trump in 2016. The same Donald Trump who hasn’t paused in his attacks on our community since taking office.
In a skit during last night’s Grammy Awards, several celebrities “auditioned” to the be the narrator’s voice for an upcoming audio book version of Michael Wolff’s explosive #1 best-seller, Fire and Fury: Inside The Trump White House.
Cher, John Legend and Snoop Dogg were among the hopefuls, but it was a cameo by Hillary Clinton that triggered a lot of snowflake conservatives.
“One reason why he liked to eat at McDonald’s,” Clinton reads from the book, “nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely premade.”
And the crowd goes wild…
On the hunt for a GRAMMY Award of his own, James Corden auditions celebrities for the spoken word version of Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury.” pic.twitter.com/SjTobAbv2N
— The Late Late Show with James Corden (@latelateshow) January 29, 2018
Getting to read a #fakenews book excerpt at the Grammys seems like a great consolation prize for losing the presidency. #GrammyAwards
I have always loved the Grammys but to have artists read the Fire and Fury book killed it. Don’t ruin great music with trash. Some of us love music without the politics thrown in it.
I have always loved the United States but to have a criminal read the Oath of Office killed it. Don’t ruin great countries with trash. Some of us love our country without the grifters thrown in it https://t.co/jeHV2riTwK
Gotta love it when American musicians exercise their First Amendment rights to express sincere concerns about the country they love. Mhmm. #Grammyshttps://t.co/0HaEIFFlqi
Please do not tell Nikki Haley that the Oscars are March 4th because I don’t want to ruin movies for her and her family just in case the awards show gets political.
Hillary Clinton reading a book at the Grammys really triggered Trump world!! Don Jr, Nikki Haley and Fox Friends were all so angry they lashed out. Awww, poor snowflakes!! Every time we piss off a Trump supporter an angel gets their wings!
Tully Borland, of the ultra-conservative The Federalist, has gone all and said in public what many conservatives really feel about Alabama GOP nominee Roy Moore: Even if Moore did have sex with a 14 year-old, it’s better to vote for him rather than a Democrat.
Here’s the main thrust of the piece:
Here is one thing we know and should admit from the start: in his early thirties, Moore had a penchant for dating teenagers. Apparently, this was not an uncommon occurrence during this time. In fact, this practice has a long history and is not without some merit if one wants to raise a large family.
To have a large family, the wife must start having kids when she is young. The husband needs to be well-established and able to support the family, in which case he will typically need to marry when older.
Times have changed. But, like it or not, four decades ago Moore dated teenagers (even his wife is 14 years younger than he).
But let’s suppose the accusations are mostly true. Then from a conservative moral perspective, Moore is guilty of lying, trying to have pre-marital sexual relations with girls half his age, and pressuring them to do so without first determining that they reciprocate. There is no sugar-coating what he did. Moore was a dirt bag and is currently lying about his actions rather than confessing the truth and asking for forgiveness.
If elected, Moore would join the ranks of other undignified politicians who have been liars and fornicators. I have a 14-year-old daughter. If I caught him doing what was alleged, for starters I would kick him where it counts. Hard. That being said, I don’t think it’s wrong to vote for Moore.
Borland goes on to say that voting for Democrat Doug Jones would be far worse than Moore because Jones supports abortion rights which kills more people.
See? Like that.
Even conservatives on Twitter weren’t buying this load of crap.
There it is. The Federalist says it’s okay to vote for a sexual predator & assaulter of children because abortion. pic.twitter.com/tvKJdUKHLP
“I have a 14-year old daughter. If I caught Roy Moore doing what was alleged, I would kick him where it counts. But if he did it to 9 girls who aren’t MY daughter, I’m ok with putting him in the US Senate.” – The Federalist, redux
Using phrases like “crazy false narrative” and “bogus issue,” some conservatives are openly suspicious of the true nature of these ‘bathroom bills,’ even as lawmakers continue to introduce more anti-LGBT hate laws.
The questions come from conservative pundits across the media landscape, even Fox News.
Conservatives are aghast that, after Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner invited Pope Francis to speak to a joint session of Congress, the lessons from Francis are:
• that we should be more giving to those less fortunate
• we should take care of the planet rather than ravage it
• we should have more grace in our hearts for immigrants
The right wing fringe of the political spectrum, of course, takes the next “logical” step.
