Archive for March 2009

Gay Group Asks Obama to Reject Boy Scout Honor

March 5, 2009 Barack Obama, Gays, Politics One comment

Since 1910, the Boy Scouts of America have made every U.S. president the organization’s honorary president. Howard Menzer, president of Scouting for All – an organization that advocates allowing homosexuals to serve as scoutmasters – is asking Obama to reject that honor:

“No way should he be involved with a discriminatory group. That would be the best thing that could happen if he said, ‘You discriminate too much for me. I can’t be your honorary president.’ I think that might begin to change a few things.”

Obama was meeting with a delegation of the Boy Scouts in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon, at which time he was to accept the group’s 2008 Report to the Nation.

A Boy Scouts spokesman said Obama has indicated he will accept the title of honorary president.

I did a little digging to see if Bill Clinton was ever asked to reject the same honor. I found this interesting:

All other Americans can become members of the Boy Scouts of America providing they subscribe to their beliefs. Former President Bill Clinton, in 1996, said, “To discriminate against an American is un-American.” Scouting For All asks, “Would we as a society tolerate the BSA discriminating against people of color?

What?

Bill Clinton said what?

Is this the same Bill Clinton who signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996? Isn’t DOMA considered blatant discrimination against gay people? It seems to me that it’s ok for Bill Clinton to discriminate against gay people, but it’s not ok for the Boy Scouts to do it.

I’m not the POTUS, so I can snub the Boy Scouts. I decided years ago that I would not support them. I don’t ever donate to their fundraisers and I refused to allow my boys to join the organization. But, I don’t agree with Obama turning his nose up at the Boy Scouts anymore than I agreed with George W. Bush snubbing the NAACP in 2004.

Some members of the LGBT community haven’t figured out that asking Obama to snub anti-gay groups will encourage like or similar behavior from other communities. Pretty soon, pro-choice organizations will be asking Obama to ignore anyone who isn’t pro-choice. Religious groups will be asking Obama to ignore anyone who isn’t a Christian American. Black organizations will be asking Obama to ignore anyone who doesn’t donate to the NAACP on a regular basis. This fuck-you-since-I-don’t-agree-with-you mentality will never end if the president of the United States establishes this as the standard for how we deal with people we don’t agree with.

Water Aerobics With Straight Old Women Can Be Very Interesting

March 5, 2009 LGBT, Politics, Weight Loss 2 comments

One week ago I started a water aerobics class at my local YMCA. Minus the annoying front desk clerk and the shadey Executive Director, I’m having a great time. I’m doing 2 – 3 classes per day!

My classes consist of mostly older women who need an exercise routine that doesn’t put a lot of strain on their joints. There are a few people my age who are looking for something to jumpstart a more strenuous spring workout routine. I think I might stay in the water aerobics class because I love listening to women-much-older-than-me discuss politics. They’re a lot like me: they’re cynical and they hate all politicians- regardless of party affiliation.

I overheard a conversation today that got my blood pressure boiling. A classmate was discussing her daughter who is divorced and recently engaged to a man who proposed the day his divorce from his first wife became final.

Pump your brakes. Back up.

On the day his divorce from his first wife became final, this man proposed to his divorced girlfriend?

I was so annoyed, I blurted out: “And this is the sanctity of marriage that straight Christians are fighting for? Really?” My classmate just stared at me. I’m sure she had no clue where that comment came from.

We always listen to music when we workout. One instructor plays nothing but oldies, while the other instructors play a lot of techno-ish workout music (that’s what I’m talkin’ about!). In this morning’s class, the instructor said, “Pretend you’re dancing in the water.” A few straight girls behind me said, “There’s not enough men to dance.” And of course I said, “Do you really need a man to dance?” I have to remember there are heterosexual man-crazy women in the world – and some of them are in my water aerobics class.

There are guys in our class, but they’re . . . old. Really old. I like talking to them a lot, too. I call them “Aged Don Juans.” They smile really big at me and say, “What’s your name, young lady?” I always smile back and give them my name. They never remember my name. I know this because everytime I see them, they smile really big and ask, “What’s your name, young lady?”

I’m beginning to finally enjoy the life I made for myself in this small midwest town called Beloit, WI. It only took about 14 years.