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Soldier of Change: From the closet to the forefront of the gay rights movement
I really hated my life. I hated living like I was in prison. It was hurting my relationship. And it was all so fucking stupid. Was this a “special privilege”? Was this about sex? I was not asking to have sex in the military. If given the chance of a rebuttal after Mr. Santorum answered my question with his “sex has no place in the military” and “gay people want special privileges” rhetoric, I would have told him that story.
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A letter to the ‘Christian’ grandmother advocating homophobic books for teens
Laurie Higgins is a Christian grandmother with a limited professional background (according to her bio). She has worked as “cultural analyst” for The Illinois “Family” Institute for six years, and before that was employed in the “writing center” for a high school. I am not exactly sure what the job qualifications are to be a “cultural analyst” but whatever they are, they have not won Ms. Higgins many friends…
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Religious oppression and abuse still pervasive in the LGBTQ South
Those of us living in the South are very aware of the multi-generational religious oppression and abuse that many LGBTQ people face coming from our Christian families, churches, and communities. For many LGBTQ people living here our hopes, dreams, and fears are the product of generations of religious traditions and expectations. We know that the religious oppression …
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A dad’s surprising response to his gay son’s heart wrenching ‘coming out’
My name is James Alexander. I’m 20 years old and reside in a conservative area of Texas where I was born and raised. Throughout my childhood I could tell that I was different. I was quiet, unsure of myself, socially anxious at most times. Before I even connected the word “gay” with two men liking each other, the other kids already had made it part of their vocabulary and readily let me know that I was.
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Why is a state historical society honoring a discredited book about Matthew Shepard?
The Wyoming State Historical Society honored a book that asserts college student Matthew Shepard wasn’t murdered because he was gay, but was instead killed in a drug-related incident – even though the book relies on wild extrapolation and questionable or anonymous sources and has been denounced as “fictional” by lawyers and investigators involved in the case.
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Judge Posner’s gay marriage opinion is a witty, deeply moral masterpiece
Mark Joseph Stern at Slate, on U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Posner’s scathing rebuke of same-sex marriage bans in Indiana and Wisconsin: “In his opinion, Posner does not sound like a man aiming to have his words etched in the history books or praised by future generations. Rather, he sounds like a man who has listened to all the arguments against gay marriage…
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Shreveport Times: Same-sex marriage ruling disappointing
The Shreveport Times opines last week’s ruling by a federal judge upholding Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage … U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman claimed that there are no fundamental rights at stake, even though the Supreme Court of the United States has determined that marriage is a fundamental right in more than a dozen cases.
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The NFL is still not ready for an openly gay player
If history is any guide, Michael Sam should be getting ready for his first NFL game. Instead, he’s stuck on the practice squad with the Dallas Cowboys. The league, it would seem, isn’t quite ready for its first openly gay player. We’re not talking about his teammates, either. There was never any indication that Sam was a distraction in the St. Louis locker room, as so many had predicted…
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Exposure to hate speech on Facebook undermines users’ mental health
A new study from Italy finds that social networking sites like Facebook have a negative impact on individuals’ mental well-being, as well as their levels of social trust, because of their exposure to hate speech and other offensive content. Researchers analyzed a wide representative sample of 50,000 Italian citizens, assessing how much they interacted with social media and how they…
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Contradictions on same-sex marriage ill-serve Hoosiers
As a representative serving in Congress, Mike Pence was a strong advocate for a constitutional same-sex marriage ban. Earlier this year, as governor of Indiana, Pence repeated his support for “traditional marriage” and urged legislators to act on a state ban on gay marriage. But in recent months, as gay marriage has become a rapidly developing issue in the Hoosier state…