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A gay dad, Republican fathers and four big questions for Rob Portman
I relate to the Portman family on many levels. Like Will Portman, I am also the son of a staunch Republican dad to whom I came out. My dad is older than Rob Portman. He adheres very much to the viewpoints of Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Rob Portman presumably knows all those people personally. Like the Portmans, we too had our political theory versus family integrity moment…
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A gay dad’s open letter to Pope Francis
As a gay dad, and a professional, I thought it would be fitting to do what one should, as a matter of courtesy, when someone gets a new job. You send a note of congratulations. So, on behalf of my family, including my two 10-year old sons, I am doing just that. Our note includes a suggested five point plan based on the principles that I have used with my sons, and that they have found effective…
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If you yell all the time – no one will listen
After years of struggling we are finally having our gay voices being heard and our civil rights are ever so slowly coming to pass. Why then must the voices who seem to speak for the gay community believe that it’s perfectly okay to start telling people where they can and cannot speak? If Tim Tebow wants to speak at Liberty University who are we to tell him otherwise?
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Family Research Council clearly lying about scientific evidence, gay parenting
Do me a favor, folks. Don’t shake your head, suck your teeth and go “there they go again” at yet another time you have seen the Family Research Council blatantly lie about the gay community. Demand that more time and knowledge be invested in uncovering how organizations like FRC distort science or push blatant lies against the lgbt community. Organizations like the Family Research Council don’t rely on truth. They rely on repetition. They repeat a point while deliberately ignoring the simple fact that the point has been refuted by those who know better.
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A gay dad’s bittersweet, belated Valentine to Meg Whitman
Last week was extraordinary. The issue of same sex marriage was discussed more intelligently than ever before. In depth thought and information, including an outstanding synopsis by the American Sociological Association, appeared as amici briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. One of these was from 278 employers and organizations arguing from a pro-business perspective. These industry leaders stated that for them to “attract the best employees and colleagues” they must “offer robust workplace benefits and a workplace ethos of transparent fairness.”
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Where’s the ‘B’ in national LGBTQ organizations?
Given the overwhelming evidence in the past few years showing that bisexual persons exist in greater numbers than the combined gay male, lesbian and transgender populations, we must ask whether some of the national queer organizations that send out donation requests demanding that we “demand equality for everyone” are themselves paying attention to the particular needs of bisexual folks, not merely as lip service, not just as an afterthought, but in any sort of tangible way. Noting that none of the following 10 national organizations includes the word “bisexual” or even the letter “B” in its name, I called and emailed media representatives of these groups about their bisexual policies and leadership for this report…
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Non- discrimination laws will improve the lives of transgender Marylanders — and everyone else
The largest study on transgender populations in the country found that one in five Maryland respondents report having lost their job due to being transgender; 12 percent have been, or are homeless and over half of the transgender population has been harassed and or denied service in a public space, just for being who they are. These statistics paint an unfortunate, but accurate, picture of how transgender Marylanders are being treated by their fellow Maryland residents, including their families, their co-workers, and their neighbors. Like any marginalized community, it is hard not to internalize this really hurtful mistreatment.
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5 reasons why a Supreme Court ruling for marriage equality could benefit the GOP
One thing that I have learned as a parent to two 10-year-old boys — sometimes while a child sometimes says he wants one thing, he secretly may be hoping that he doesn’t get it. Their voices quiver as they ask for it, while their eyes say “get me out of this mess, Daddy!” That is kind of what is happening these days with the GOP and the Supreme Court and their former favorite wedge issue, the denial of marriage equality to LGBTQ people…
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Va.’s generally embarrassing assembly and treatment of the LGBT community
As an ally I find it difficult to believe how minimum and ironic the current Virginia government’s treatment of the LGBT community really is. Whether it is Virginia Delegate C. Todd Gilbert’s refusal to acknowledge LGBT oppression; another country’s use of a Virginia landmark civil rights case; or the failure of the House to even hear an amendment which would have given hope to same-sex marriages in the state. Delegates in Virginia have a lot to learn about human rights.
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A gay dad’s open letter to Laura Bush on quitting the gay marriage ad
In these modern times, it is funny how we forge interesting and new kinds of relationships through media, social and otherwise. We gain unique attachments to people we have never met, some of whom we interact with on Twitter or Facebook, and some of whom we have never interacted with at all. I have such a pseudo-relationship with former first lady Laura Bush. This week our relationship, which had moved into a rather warm and appreciative state of late, took a turn for the worse.