Page 260
-
After decades of pressure, ENDA continues to languish — What gives?
After decades of pressure, ENDA continues to languish. There was some real optimism back in 2010 that it would pass during the lame duck session after the November elections. Everyone knew that Republicans would be big winners in that election, and so many in the community held on to a slim hope that departing Democratic lawmakers would find the courage to support the bill … Now, with marriage issues on ballots from Maine to Washington, we’ll see more progress on marriage in 2012 than we ever have in any prior year. But when it comes to employment, it seems like we’ve stagnated…
-
Why the Boy Scouts’ expulsion of a lesbian den mother hits close to home
That the Boy Scouts of America continue to engage in blind discrimination, fixated on the identity of its adult leaders instead of the content of their characters, is both disappointing and discouraging. The Boy Scouts have otherwise codified bravery into its value system, maintain a policy of religious diversity and stress the importance of self-enrichment instead of passing judgment on others. It provided an experience that I found to be incredibly beneficial and an experience of which my mothers are thrilled to be a part…
-
Silence Is Not Golden
Taking down the bullies has to start with taking down those who empower the bullying. That’s not the onlookers, who are victims of their conditioning too, nor only the schools. Indeed, bullying is empowered by every institution that seeks to limit an individual’s ability to say, “No, I won’t be limited, I want the freedom to be me. I do not want to be what you want, but whoever it is that I can be, with all the good I might achieve. Now, teach me, provide me with the means to let me become all that I can be, or get out of my way.”
-
Anti-gay extremist planning day of ‘teaching and preaching’ in Oklahoma
Anti-gay extremist Scott Lively, has been invited to visit the Draper Park Christian Church in Oklahoma City for three days of “teaching and preaching,” from April 27-29, 2012. His visit happens to follow both the Holocaust Day of Remembrance and the Day of Silence, which is timely, since much of Lively’s career has been built around attempting to mis-educate and confuse people about the lives of LGBT people and making frankly absurd claims about gay people within the Nazi Party.
-
Invisible Children: Screaming monster while hanging out with Bigfoot
On April 20, Invisible Children will hold a worldwide rally to draw attention to murderous Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) founder Joseph Kony. The event is called “Cover the Night,” but when one looks a bit closer at the shady right wing extremists this group cavorts with, a more appropriate name might be “Invisible Agenda: Covering Up The Theocratic Nightmare.”
-
FRC itching to be humiliated again as ‘Day of Silence’ approaches
Because the “Day of Silence” — and the organization behind it, GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) — deals with the plight of LGBT students, they both have been in the cross hairs of religious right groups who claim that Day of Silence is simply another way to supposedly “indoctrinate” students into homosexuality…
-
Disqualified from high school contest, gay teen speaks out
Kierian Giertz is the gay 17-year-old from Fullerton, Calif. who made national news headlines last week following his disqualification from a school contest for his statement supporting marriage equality. … Having recently written my own letter to my high school bully, I was curious as to how today’s youth were coping with harassment on campus, as well as in their daily lives, and sat down with Giertz…
-
Remembering Mike Wallace, and … ‘The Homosexuals’
I am a fan of the late Mike Wallace and am very sad that he has passed away. I have always enjoyed his reports and consider him a first-rate journalist. However, there was one noticeable career snafu that caused an enormous amount of damage to the LGBT community. In 1967, the news magazine CBS Reports aired an hour-long segment, “The Homosexuals,” that gave America its first glimpse of gay and lesbian Americans. Thanks to the efforts of anti-gay psychiatrists, gays were vilified in front of 40 million people, solidifying despicable stereotypes that would last for more than a generation.
-
Easter love from a non-believer
Easter can be seen as the symbolic crucifixion of love, with the spirit of compassion awaiting the resurrection of love in every human. Wherever loving companions create it, love wants to be recognized, proclaimed and honored, regardless of race, or of the sexuality of the consenting couples.
-
‘Day of Dialogue’ from Focus on the Family is ‘sacred discrimination’
I have a hair-trigger sensitivity for the protection of LGBT youth. Even if an action is wrapped in heart-themed paper and tied with a Jesus-loves-you ribbon, when there is something rotten inside, I can smell it. There is something very rotten at the core of the Day of Dialogue event sponsored by the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family.