Page 261
-
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.
-
Ex-gay group seeks to infiltrate schools during ‘Day of Silence’
The organization Parents and Friends of Ex-Gay’s and Gays (PFOX) has decided that GLSEN’s annual Day of Silence is the perfect opportunity for their supporters to pass around flyers promoting “ex-gay” therapy … such is the tactic of organizations like PFOX. Instead of providing an environment where LGBT students can feel supported and free to be themselves, they are instead spreading the message that “for many youth, homosexual attraction develops due to traumatic experiences, such as sexual abuse.
-
Holy Wars are not about traditional human values of freedom and equality
You can hold all the traditional values you want, but nothing will make those values rational, sane or relevant to reality, if they have been born of superstition. Sadly, in the eyes of the religious conformists, it seems that rational values are non-traditional. The upsurge in violence and intimidation against LGBTQ people and other minorities is not just physical, it is soul destroying.
-
Marriage vs. full LGBT equality the focus of media summit
While it is easy to say that hundreds of thousands of people would benefit from marriage equality, it is also true that many of those people already live in places where most of the heavy lifting has been done and they have secured nondiscrimination laws, have working LGBT health clinics, a community center and a safe place for LGBT youth? But what about the vast majority of LGBT people in this nation who don’t have any protections from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations?