Views & Voices

This weekend, reader Jenni emailed me the below. What better day than National Coming Out Day to share it with you? [ Read more → ]

When we say that we want bullying to stop, what we're in large part saying is that we want bullying to stop happening in our children's schools. Which means we want teachers to put a stop to bullying. [ Read more → ]

Let “freedom to live, love and be happy” be more than just a slogan in the passing of our times. Let it not be our epitaph, but our non-violent resistance to freedom being denied to us all. [ Read more → ]

NC Governor Bev Perdue is an opportunist and a true politician, not only disregarding standing firm for equality, but embracing economic justifications for social policy. The slave-owners of the pre-war South would find much in common with her. [ Read more → ]

On October 7, 1998, Aaron Kreifels was riding his bike through a field in Wyoming. He wasn’t expecting that day to be different from any other beautiful sunny afternoon in the vast plains surrounding Laramie, but that day would change many lives. Aaron spotted what... [ Read more → ]

Mitt Romney is scheduled to speak at the far-right "Values Voter Summit" on Saturday morning, immediately before the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer, a man with a long and shocking record of bigotry toward gays and lesbians, American Muslims, Native Americans, African Americans, Mormons and other minorities. [ Read more → ]

Linda, the game of peek-a-boo is over. You are a grown Christian woman now. Not only is yours the attitude of a two-year old, it is wholly non-Christian to ignore and discount others. What Jesus would do if He encountered His gay neighbor? [ Read more → ]

"Our pastor is gay! Our pastor is gay! How can we possibly continue being Christians now?!" Okay, fine: I don't actually know what the two people said to their fellow parishioners at Bethany Presbyterian when, in the spring of 1990, they decided to out their... [ Read more → ]

There are times that the National Organization for Marriage is so anti-gay that it burns — such as the post on its blog regarding the birth of Congressman Jared Polis’s newborn son: [ Read more → ]

The announcement by the Pentagon Friday that permission was granted for the military chaplains to officiate at same-sex marriages or unions has touched off the expected firestorm of criticism from “corporate Christianity.” [ Read more → ]

Matt Barber of the right-wing Liberty Counsel is angry at President Obama and the Census Bureau for recognizing same-sex couples. [ Read more → ]

The National Organization for Marriage has posted a video of another supposed “victim” of the “intolerant gay agenda” in accordance to the new group it has helped to found – the Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance. [ Read more → ]

Clearly, the loving and inclusive rhetoric of some mainstream Christians is fruitful. The million-dollar question is how do we get such voices to multiply and amplify? The decline of the Religious Right depends on faith communities rooted in fairness who pray to a Jesus that stands for justice. [ Read more → ]

In the conversations centered around such tragedies as the recent Jamey Rodemeyer suicide, we very often find conservative Christians defending themselves against the accusation that the theology in which they believe -- and specifically their belief that homosexuality is a sin against God -- ultimately contributes to that which informs, motivates, and encourages the bullying of gay teens. [ Read more → ]

Last week, a controversy erupted over a student, Dakota Ary, at a Fort Worth High School who claimed that he was punished for merely stating in class that homosexuality is a sin. But when everything is at its peak, the other side of the story comes out... [ Read more → ]

According to Scott Lively, head of the SPLC-declared hate group Abiding Truth Ministries, “Many Christians are only now awakening to the seriousness of the threat to our society posed by the homosexual movement. But, unfortunately for us all, it is only the sounding of the victory trumpets by gay activists that has stirred Christians from their slumber." [ Read more → ]

There continues to be so much fall out from the recent Republican presidential debate in which the candidates stood by and said nothing while members of the audience booed a gay solder.... [ Read more → ]

No one should be bullied to death; that is a cruel, vicious waste of life. No one should ever die feeling unloved; that is a human and universal tragedy. Everyone should have the freedom to love, and be loved. That is the greatest thing we will ever learn. [ Read more → ]

It is critical that people realize that religious zealots have a radically different vision of this country than most Americans. If their power keeps increasing, they will be able to drastically reshape this country ... bigotry, intolerance and religious conformity would become the law of the land. [ Read more → ]

This piece is not a sell for Barack Obama, but a plea for the gay community to recognize who our true enemies are. It's time we stop expecting a hero and be our own heroes. It's time we start talking into account the cold fact that our struggle for equality is like a game of chess. [ Read more → ]