LGBTQ news and entertainment
|
| Click pic to view larger |
Excellent flow chart of questions and answers on the issue of “why gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry?”
I especially like the last answer and it’s response:
“Because it just disgusts me, dangit!”
“Props for being honest. However a whole population of people shouldn’t have their families discriminated against just because you think gay sex is icky. Grow up!”
Bravo!
As promised, Madonna made a clear statement about her position on respect for gays at her concert in St. Petesburg, Russia, last night despite threats that doing so might cause her to be arrested.
“Do we live in fear?” Madonna reportedly asked the audience, who of course responded in the negative.
She was not arrested.
JoeMyGod points out a cool new page on the Human Rights Campaign’s website let’s you type in your zip code and see how your Federal officials score on their support of legislation that impacts the LGBT community.
I’m 2 for 3. Fingers crossed that gets fixed in November.
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.
A bill was introduced Thursday that would provide military benefits to the same-sex spouses and children of gay and lesbian members of the armed services.
Now who could argue with that?
Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democratic member of the the House Armed Services Committee, introduced the bill, which would require the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments to recognize the legal marriages of gay service members.
The Military Spouses Equal Treatment Act of 2012 would change the definition of “spouse” in four sections of U.S. Code.
Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, praised the proposed legislation in a statement Thursday:
“Our nation’s senior military leaders and commanders on the ground are increasingly uncomfortable with administering two classes of recognition, support, and benefits for our nation’s service members — one of straight service members, and a different for their gay and lesbian peers,” Sarvis said. “There cannot be two classes of service members, and this legislation addresses that effectively.”
The step follows the official repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in 2011, which has caused the need for several policies to now be updated to be more inclusive of openly gay service members. Speaking at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Department of Defense general counsel Jeh Johnson said the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” has exposed several inequalities between gay and straight service members that must be rectified.
(via the Advocate)
Another federal judge has struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), finding that the law “should not be presumed to be constitutional, and should instead be subject to a heightened form of judicial scrutiny.”
The victory comes in the case of Edie Windsor, who was seeking a refund of the federal estate tax paid by the estate of her late wife. From the ruling:
The Court declares that section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional as applied to the Plaintiff. Plaintiff is awarded judgment in the amount of $353,053.00, plus interest and costs allowed by law.
It’s another loss for Paul Clement and House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives (“BLAG”), who had claimed that her homosexuality was a “choice.”
Windsor’s attorneys had argued that “DOMA violates the Equal Protection principles of the U.S. Constitution because it recognizes existing marriages of heterosexual couples, but not of same-sex couples, despite the fact that New York State treats all marriages the same.”
(source)
GLAAD reports that outspoken advocate and Eagle Scout Zach Wahls today delivered more than 275,000 signatures to the Boy Scouts of America at its National Annual Meeting in Florida, calling on the group to end its long history of anti-gay discrimination and reinstate Ohio mom Jennifer Tyrrell, who was forcibly removed as den leader of her son’s Boy Scouts troop because she’s gay.
After delivering the signatures, Wahls met briefly with Deron Smith, Public Relation Director with the Boy Scouts of America’s national office.
Zach recently sat down with Reason.tv’s Nick Gillespie to discuss why his childhood was a lot like yours, the mainstreaming of same-sex marriage, his new book “My Two Moms” and Obama’s “evolving” views on the subject.
Brooke Baldwin asked Tony Perkins, of the certified hate group Family Research Council, to clarify what about same-sex couples deserved to be “less valued” by society. Perkins noted that he did not discount that there were loving same-sex couples raising children, just as there were loving single mothers doing the same. “If it were just two caregivers, three would be better!” he noted, but instead it was about a “fundamental role” a man and a woman had in a family.
Baldwin asked him whether his experience had corroborated that belief: “Have you ever been to the home of a same-sex couple?” Perkins answered in the negative, and refused to argue what he would tell that hypothetical couple to convince them their lifestyle was hurting society. “We don’t make public policy based on what is good for me… not anecdotes or what one couple likes.” As a society, Perkins asserted, “we have incurred a great harm.”
“I know you don’t want to answer the question,” Baldwin asked, patience wearing visibly thin, “but I’m going to try again: why do homosexuals bother you so much?” “They don’t bother me!” Perkins replied, asserting again that he was “not going to be silent while they try to redefine marriage in this country.”
You’ll note how many times Perkins says the phrase “social science has shown us” that kids do better with two, opposite sex parents. The fact is quite the opposite: children raised by lesbian parents fare as well as they would in heterosexual households, new research suggests.
(source)
Note – mature language
From the YouTube post: Everyone deserves to be treated with respect – It’s time we ask New Zealand WTF?!
More than 30 of New Zealand’s leading celebrities come together in this Rainbow Youth and Outline campaign.
For more information and to make a donation visit http://www.wtf.org.nz
Glee star Jane Lynch narrates this documentary about LGBT rights in America. The video features a candid interview with President Obama, who speaks about the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, why he supports marriage equality, and what’s at stake for the LGBT community in this election.
Check out the new LGBT section – and list of LGBT accomplishments – of President Obama’s campaign website.