Views & Voices

The Roman Catholic Church hierarchy has long been an opponent to LGBT equality. Even before Pope Benedict came on the scene, the Vatican was employing the phrase “intrinsically disordered” to refer to LGBT people. In the 2012 election, Roman Catholic bishops led the opposition to marriage equality in Minnesota, Maryland, Washington, and Maine, pouring energy and money into campaigns that ultimately ended in defeat for the anti-gay coalitions. Is it likely that the cardinals will choose a pro-LGBT pope? Everything is possible, but this seems highly unlikely. The hierarchy tends to reward and promote those who have been particularly successful at opposing LGBT equality. [ Read more → ]

Forty years ago, in 1973, the American Psychiatric Association announced that homosexuality was not a mental illness. “Conversion or Reparative therapy” has been rejected by the World Health Organization, the American Psychological Association and almost every other professional therapeutic group in America to date. When a medication is harmful, we pull it off the market, yet we allow a so-called therapeutic practice that we know is harmful to be used on minors. There is something very wrong here... [ Read more → ]

Same-sex marriage is before the Supreme Court and the anti-gay community is out in force.  Propaganda-like amicus briefs from the anti-gay community seem to be papering the walls of the Supreme Court on a daily basis. Nan Hunter, on The Nation, observed that the briefs... [ Read more → ]

It is so disappointing that an organization that has meant so much to millions of boys and young men and that has espoused the values of honesty, integrity and character is so reluctant to end a policy antithetical to our nation’s principles of equality. This was apparent when the organization chose to delay until May a vote to end this ban. While the Boy Scouts of America has never engaged in the tactics of anti-gay hate groups by defaming or attacking the LGBT community directly, such well-publicized, discriminatory policies can have the effect of encouraging bigotry. [ Read more → ]

Had Harvey Milk lived he might have been the one to set the benchmark for full equality, something our LGBT movement has yet to do. Harvey did not survive and never had the opportunity, yet his legacy has provided inspiration to so many. What remains often untold and so profoundly significant is Harvey’s absolute insistence on the imperative of full inclusion within the gay movement itself... [ Read more → ]

Someone has to sit Tony Perkins down and school him on the truth. I am very certain that Perkins is already aware of this truth, but he needs to be told publicly so that everyone else can know. The Southern Poverty Law Center is not responsible for Floyd Corkins’ near massacre at FRC headquarters last year. If Perkins wants to blame someone, he should look to himself and his organization. For years, while under the guise of Biblical principles, the FRC has dehumanized the LGBT community.... [ Read more → ]

In addition to being deeply offensive, BSA’s policy has always struck me as profoundly stupid. Maybe it’s just my own experience, but who did they think was joining the Scouts? In my troop, at least, it wasn’t just the “normal” kids. It was those of us who were a little… off. A little too awkward. A little too hyper. A little too helpful. A little too queer. In short, it was the kind of kid who grows up to be interesting, committed, successful and, none too rarely, gay.... [ Read more → ]

The Lauderdale County Board of Education in Florence, Ala. has decreed that Queer students, racial minority students, overweight students, or any students that do not meet the standards of normalcy of the local community are worth precisely “2 weeks suspension without pay.” For the average teacher in Alabama this comes to roughly $2,655. [ Read more → ]

The crass words and clueless actions of San Francisco 49ers Chris Culliver, Ahmad Brooks and Isaac Sopoaga are as divisive as they are dumb ... that these men have foolishly elected to use their Super Bowl spotlight to demean and dehumanize a substantial portion of their fan base is a brazen act of arrogance that encourages the very bullying the ‘It Gets Better’ project addresses. [ Read more → ]

Hi, I'm a Christian. As a gay man, I understand all too well why those words conjure up fear, loathing, and dramatic eye rolls among my LGBT friends. But I'm proud of my faith. I love its emphasis on grace, mercy, and love. I love Jesus' teachings about forgiveness, service, putting others first, and giving people more than they deserve. I love that he was known for befriending the outcasts and "sinners" while condemning the religious leaders. We could use a little more of that attitude today! But as much as I love my faith, sometimes my fellow Christians make me want to scream. [ Read more → ]

The officials are calling the impending death of young Jadin a “suicide”. It was not a suicide; it was the destruction of something innocent, something beautiful, something of supreme contribution exposed to an environment that valued it not at all. The facts support their word perhaps. No argument. A 15 year old boy took a rope to a playground and without assistance from any visible being, hung himself. [ Read more → ]

We will never know the sort of life Whitney Houston might have had if her Mother had been just a bit more compassionate, loving and accepting toward her daughter. If she is harboring this much anger still – one can only imagine what Whitney had to listen to while she was alive. [ Read more → ]

Campus Pride executive director Shane Windmeyer revealed Monday that he and Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy are now friends, and explains that his organization has suspended its campaign against the anti-gay chicken company — which has franchises on many university campuses. But Windmeyer fails to actually explain any concrete changes taking place at the company -- Chick-fil-A is not ending the bulk of its anti-gay giving, Chick-fil-A is not implementing any LGBT-inclusive policies like nondiscrimination protections, and Dan Cathy is not apologizing for his vitriolic comments. [ Read more → ]

I always figured there were certain hateful statements my sons would make, especially ones that say I am inadequate. Such statements would come out in the future during some teen age angst scrapple where I was laying down the law and they were going for my vulnerable jugular. My sister told me once, “If your kids don’t shout out that they hate you at least a few times, then you aren’t doing it right.” Up until now, no such shout out has occurred... [ Read more → ]

I don’t want to rain on anyone’s LGBT Inaugural moment, however… Even though the President mentioned Stonewall along with Selma and Seneca Falls in the same sentence, he doesn’t really see gay marriage as a civil rights issue that needs to be helped along by the federal government. For the truth of the matter is, no matter what President Obama may say, and no matter where he is when he says it – he still believes that marriage equality belongs in the hands of the States. [ Read more → ]

David Kato advocated for the freedom of LGBTI Ugandans and for their right to their natural born sexual orientation in a heightened climate of hostility and homophobia ... Today on this second anniversary of the death of Kato, his friends, comrades, human rights defenders, and LGBTI people around the world are expressing their love, comforting each other and extolling the virtues of this great hero, with comments, memories and prayer for the peace of his dearly departed soul. [ Read more → ]

In his second inaugural address, the President called for the equality of gays and lesbians like no President has ever done. Even now, as I think about the transcript of his speech and reading those words “Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall” my throat tightens, my eyes water. With that line he presented a seminal moment in the history of gay rights – the Stonewall riots – as a transformative moment in American civil rights history. There is no question. The President of the United States, who is African-American, views the battle for gay rights as a battle for civil rights. As much as he can, he gets it. [ Read more → ]

Presidential inauguration days are often filled with pomp, circumstance, cheering crowds, and moments to remember, but rarely do they so perfectly illustrate a dramatic shift in our country’s understanding and acceptance of cultural changes. The second inauguration of President Barack Obama did just that. ... To be sure, having our President call for full equality for gay Americans in what is one of the biggest and most viewed speeches of his Presidency is monumental. [ Read more → ]

Society had it all worked out in advance for me. All the time growing up, the message though implicit was loud and clear. Any of my future romantic endeavors would concern the male kind, because I’m female. This presented difficulties when I came to realize... [ Read more → ]

George Bernard Shaw once described straight parenting a having “no test of fitness.” — yet, LGBTQ parents are beyond the “test.” ... In the present time, motivated gay people, thrilled for the opportunity we thought was denied us, are becoming parents. Higher percentages of us are adopting needy kids than our straight counterparts. A comparison between us will be unfair to a percentage of straight parents of today participating in the status quo who will come off badly. There are ten factors that make this so... [ Read more → ]