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Love is just as biblical as hate
Never forget that the bible was used to justify the Crusades, the Inquisition, and burn heretics. It has been misused to persecute Jews, support Hitler, and fuel the Holocaust. In American history, the bible was used to promote the genocide of millions of native people, promote and justify racial slavery and more recently to fight integration, sustain Jim Crow, and deny millions their basic human rights.
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‘The Cross in the Closet’ reinforces transphobia while dealing with homophobia
Many people that read “The Cross in the Closet” will have had little or no experience with the “T” part of LGBT. I did not start entering intimate relationships with transgender people until years into my own advocacy work. Most people outside, and some people inside the LGBT community, do not have a grasp of the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity.
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Minnesota college student wants everyone to know she really hates gays
LGBT student groups and gay-straight alliances in high schools and colleges across the country often sell T-shirts for National Coming Out Day to raise funds and spread awareness about the LGBT community, but one student at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN., decided to use that day to spread a bigoted, hateful message…
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Elizabeth Emken: The making of an anti-gay politician
The vision stays with me, even after all these years. I’m in junior high, and I’ve just looked into the eyes of an overweight girl, having just delivered a devastatingly cruel blow. Her bright blue eyes, haunted and broken, serve as lingering reminders of how destructive words can be, and I’ve often wished I could take that moment back. Little did I know that girl, Elizabeth Emken, would years later run for public office, in an attempt to unseat California Senator Dianne Feinstein…
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A letter to my bully…
I have hated you almost every day since we first met. But for different reasons altogether than you might expect. I still remember the terror I felt, every time I approached the soccer field. It was junior high, a difficult time for almost everyone, but for me, especially so. You see, I’d always known I was gay…
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Let’s keep discrimination out of Minnesota’s constitution
I want them to remember us not as the last generation to attack our fellow citizens’ individual and religious freedoms, but rather as the first one to defend the right to marry — for everyone. And, as a Minnesotan, I want future generations to remember my state not as the latest to pass an anti-marriage amendment to its constitution, but rather as the first to defeat such a hurtful measure…
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Ann Coulter thinks family rejection of LGBT youth is a joke
Conservative political commentator Ann Coulter decided last night to make a joke about family rejection of LGBT youth. … There was a time in our culture’s history when, if thousands of LGBT kids were to come out on the same day, the next week genuinely would be exactly what Ann describes, all across the country…
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To censor or not: ‘Defending the indefensible’
Last week, the publication of which I serve as executive editor (the Florida Agenda) printed a paid political advertisement that had been provided by the Broward County, Florida chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans. The half page black and white ad depicted the late U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, as his body was carried out of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which he had died moments earlier…
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Gay bashing by churches is why America is losing its religion
When people see their own sons and daughters and friends and co-workers coming out, it creates a crisis of credibility for religious institutions. It leads to countless situations where mean-spirited men like Archbishop John Nienstedt demand blind, irrational obedience and say take it or leave it – and more people are now following their consciences and walking away.
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Same-sex marriage does not obstruct your religious liberty
What is up for vote in four states this November is civil marriage. A civil marriage is a legal contract within a state; it is not a religious marriage. Pastors will still be able to perform, or not, ceremonies at their will. No pastor will be forced to marry anyone. Period. It is true today and, no matter what the vote is on Nov. 6, it will be true then as well…