Oct

14

HRC: Send Me Your Money, Well, Just Because

Filed Under Bitch Slap, DADT, LGBT, WTF? | 1 Comment

Fellow blogger Jay Morris and I have been brewin’ for hours about the HRC’s latest post-NEM move. Even though we originally vowed to play nice and refrain from making nasty comments about the HRC in mixed company, their latest move encouraged us both to take off our gloves.

Piggybacking off the success of the National Equality March, this morning the HRC distributed an email to its mailing list. They patted themselves on the back for a job well done this weekend, even though the organization’s involvement with (and support of) the march was minimal – at best. Conveniently moving their annual fundraiser from its usual first Saturday of October to the second Saturday just to make it appear as if the HRC was somehow involved in the march was a shadey move that most people barely noticed. Now, the HRC is asking people to help them raise $200K so they could can supposedly continue the momentum established by the NEM’s organizers.

What.the.fuck?

The HRC just had a fancy celebrity fundraising event this weekend in DC. Where did that money go – and why do they need another $200K? And did you and every other average Joe get an invite to that event? I’m guessing you didn’t.

The HRC’s email implies that they were more involved in the NEM than they really were and it also implies that only the HRC knows how to take this momentum and run with it (all links removed – bold emphasis is mine):

After this weekend, we have a burst of momentum.

But without a major advocacy push now, it could be lost.

Watch this video and help us raise $200,000 to capitalize on this moment.

Click here to watch the video!

This weekend was big.

From President Obama’s speech at our National Dinner to final House passage of hate crimes to the National Equality March, the nation’s attention is on LGBT equality – we have a burst of momentum.

But this is no time to grow complacent. We need your help to capitalize on this moment.

The next month and a half will be tough – while we fight against anti-LGBT ballot initiatives in multiple states, we must also act NOW to push our federal agenda to its tipping point, or we could miss this window.

We need to raise $200,000 for a renewed effort to seize this opportunity and advance our federal agenda and fight for marriage equality in the states without delay. Will you be part of this fight? (see full email document here)

Oh, I will be more than happy to be a part of the gay rights fight, but I’m not playing on the HRC’s team. It’s been almost 30 years since the HRC’s formation and the LGBTQ community has not seen a single federal law passed that protects our community from workplace discrimination, nor have we seen a repeal of DOMA or DADT. Instead, we’ve watched the HRC encourage the LGBTQ community to continue supporting politicians like Bill and Hillary Clinton, the folks who gave us DOMA and DADT.

Now why, I ask you, would any queer with half a brain continue to send any of their hard-earned money to this organization?

It is my hope that the new generation of LGBTQ activists we saw come out in droves this weekend in DC are committed to supporting true progressive organizations that want our money for something other than: paying their president his $390K annual salary, hosting celebrity galas that the average gay American can’t afford to attend and smoozin’ with big shots in corporate America who talk the talk way more than they walk it. Please, I ask you to send your money to campaigns like No on 1 in Maine and other local organizations that are willing to get out, pound doors and speak to our supporters and opponents face-to-face.

I agree with those who say gay organizations should learn to work together and stop all the bickering amongst themselves. I wish I didn’t feel compelled to bitch slap the HRC and air my grievances with the oldest “gay rights” organization in the country via this blog post. But, keeping quiet means the HRC will continue to take valuable dollars from gay rights supporters who mistakenly assume the organization is working to secure full equality on both a federal and state level for the LGBTQ community. It’s time for those dollars to go elsewhere – maybe then we’ll see some real progress.

Related:
We The People and the HRC
Boycott the HRC

Sep

2

Right Wing Nutcases Encourage Kids to Skip School – And Make Signs Protesting the Gay Rights March

Filed Under Bitch Slap, Parenting, WTF? | 9 Comments

One of my Facebook friends posted a link to a right wing nutcase forum post promoting September 8, 2009 as National Skip Day because (on that day) President Obama will deliver a national address directly to students on the importance of education:

Apparently, Our Beloved Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, the most merciful, Lion of the Masses, Protector of the Common Man and Omnipotent Parental Figure, will give an address on September 8 to America’s school children. The audience will be all children, preK-12. In protest of the forced ObamaTV viewing in classrooms across the nation everyone is encouraged to participate in a National Skip Day and keep your kids home. Take the opportunity to teach your kids true life lessons and not subject them to Obama propaganda. Maybe even use the day to make protest posters for the 912 March on DC!!

These anti-Obama and anti-gay religious nutcases are also encouraging parents to keep their kids home and let them make anti-gay protest posters they will use at the DC gay rights march in October. They might as well go all out and encourage their kids to make KKK costumes as well – costumes they will wear while carrying their protest signs at the gay rights march. I’m guessing a lesson on how to light a gay-friendly church on fire will be a part of these people’s September 8 National Skip Day, too.

So, here’s what anti-Obama parents will teach their kids on National Skip Day:

1. Some white folks really hate the fact that our nation’s leader is NOT white
2. Education is only important when a white man says it is
3. Gays don’t deserve full equality
4. The president’s message is only important if said president is white

I don’t know about you, but that looks like some really shitty homeschoolin’ to me.

Aug

30

With Gay Rights ‘Leaders’ Like These, We Sure Don’t Need Any Enemies

Filed Under Bitch Slap, LGBT, WTF? | 1 Comment

Recently, a great op-ed discussing October’s gay rights march was published in the Washington Blade (bold emphasis is mine):

March supporters, meanwhile, like to portray themselves as modern, progressive, tech-savvy 21st century activists disdainful of the “old ways” of doing things. Indeed, the “old ways” haven’t yielded a single LGBT-related federal law in 40 years of trying. Then again, there’s something to be said for knowing your history.

Some supporters have wondered why the Human Rights Campaign and other national organizations haven’t taken a more aggressive role in planning the march. HRC did issue a press release announcing tepid support (what else could they do?) while others have taken the lead on planning.

But there’s a reason HRC and others in Washington are nervous about the prospect of another LGBT march — the fiasco of the Millennium March on Washington in 2000.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars went missing after that event, much of it cash stuffed into trash bags and hauled away. There were stiffed vendors, shady last-minute emergency loans and mismanagement galore. The theft triggered an FBI investigation, unflattering coverage in the mainstream media and proved an embarrassing debacle for the movement.

So it seems – according to the op-ed’s author – the HRC and its parrots are afraid of another embarrassment; but instead of saying that, learning from past mistakes and gettin’ back on the saddle, these anti-march folks have used a pseudo bullhorn to bad-mouth the march and encourage LGBT activists to skip it and head to Maine. W.T.F?

With “leaders” like that, we sure don’t need any enemies.

Aug

18

Arizona Man Brings Military Style Assault Weapon to Obama Protest

Filed Under Barack Obama, Bitch Slap, Politics, WTF? | 4 Comments

I support a person’s right to bear arms, but seriously, since when is it okay to bring a gun near the president? Oh wait . . . this president is Black so it’s perfectly acceptable, right?

About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday — the latest incident in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.

Gun-rights advocates say they’re exercising their constitutional right to bear arms and protest, while those who argue for more gun control say it could be a disaster waiting to happen.

Phoenix police said the gun-toters at Monday’s event, including the man carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle slung over his shoulder, didn’t need permits. No crimes were committed, and no one was arrested. [source]

Who wants to bet if someone brought a gun anywhere near a white Republican president, these anti-Obama Arizonians would call the gun-toter unpatriotic and demand he was arrested for threatening the president’s life.

Several Tweeters have suggested that if a Black man had shown up at a presidential protest with a gun, the media would be all over that shit – calling it a Black-on-Black hate crime. I’m willing to bet he’d probably be in jail, too.

Update: 4:15pm

I just found some great commentary on this issue:

Arlington, Va.: While I support gun ownership rights (within the legal framework), I see protesters “exercising their right” to carry a firearm at town hall protests as a form of intimidation. The reason for this is that I doubt (yes, I don’t have the facts) that they carry their firearms everywhere (home, work, supermarket, church, etc.). If they don’t, then they’re doing it to make a point, and that point seems to be the threat of violence.

I’d like to get feedback from you and others, in particular those with differing opinions, on this.

Rick Perlstein: Carrying a gun to a political meeting is an obscenity. Anyone who does it, even if they are within their legal rights, should be ashamed. Our founders fought a revolution (and, yes, took up arms) to build a society where political disputes are not settled through force or intimidation–and that’s the only purpose of bringing a weapon to a political discussion: to intimidate.

It is utterly unacceptable, and every politician should have the guts to say so. What worries me is that the people bringing weapons are hoping to have their weapons taken away, forcing a confrontation that will escalate; many of them, after all, quite frankly proclaim them “revolutionaries.”

I agree. The intent there was indeed intimidation. Unless he’s carrying his military style assault weapon with him to church, the grocery store and to pick up his kids from school, he was just being a bully when he carried that very weapon to an Obama protest.

Aug

14

Christian Publication World Magazine Lies About APA’s Statement on Gay Reparative Therapy

Filed Under Bitch Slap, Religion | 2 Comments

GayWallet.com member OneMoreLesbian sent me an email this morning asking if I’d seen the latest article in Christian publication World Magazine. Imagine my surprise when I read the following lie (in bold type):

The American Psychological Association just published a report on whether therapists can make this change happen. In examining change therapy, which claims that people with homosexual desires can switch to heterosexual desires, the report says there is insufficient evidence that the therapies work.

But it also found that while people are unlikely to change their desires, they can change their identity and behavior. People who underwent change therapy sometimes reported that they learned to tolerate same-sex attraction, even if they didn’t act on it. Some eventually identified as heterosexuals and had heterosexual relationships. The APA also said that therapists can help people choose to live in a way that affirms their religious beliefs.

Liar, liar, your fuckin’ pants are on fire!

Here’s the section of the APA’s report that World Magazine took out of context:

“At most, certain studies suggested that some individuals learned how to ignore or not act on their homosexual attractions. Yet, these studies did not indicate for whom this was possible, how long it lasted or its long-term mental health effects. Also, this result was much less likely to be true for people who started out only attracted to people of the same sex.”

Not once does that statement claim that homosexuals could change their orientation, nor does it state that homosexuals learned to “tolerate” opposite-sex attraction.

A closer review shows that World Magazine didn’t bother to link to the original APA report so their readers can fact-check their asses. And why is that?

A recent article on EdgeBoston.com reports that anti-gay organization Focus on the Family is selling off its “Love Won Out” conferences – conferences designed to push gay reparative therapy. Focus on the Family fell on hard financial times and the organization is selling off a program that isn’t making a lot of money – in fact, it’s costing them a lot of money. World Magazine is spewin’ their lies to help Focus on the Family find a buyer for a gay reparative therapy program they know damn well doesn’t work.

Aug

12

Anti-Gay Group Focus on the Family Needs Help, Begs For Spare Change

Filed Under Bitch Slap, LGBT, Religion, WTF? | 4 Comments

Anti-gay religious organization Focus on the Family is having financial problems. EdgeBoston.com reports:

A “serious budget shortfall” at Focus on the Family has prompted the anti-gay Christian group to issue a special fundraising plea, and contributed to a decision to cede control of its contentious “Love Won Out” conferences about homosexuality to another religious organization, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Focus on the Family, founded by child psychologist James Dobson, is on pace to fall $6 million short of a $138 million budget for the fiscal year that began last October, spokesman Gary Schneeberger said.

It seems Focus on the Family has been too busy fuckin’ with the gays that they’ve created a situation that makes it difficult to focus on their own damn family. Last fall, Focus on the Family had to eliminate 200 jobs – jobs that fed and clothed 200 heterosexual “christian” families.

In February, ColoradoIndependent.com reported:

Focus on the Family gave $727,250 in cash and services to the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 campaign in California, according to records released by the California secretary of state, including a $100,000 check in late October, just days before the evangelical media empire announced it planned to lay off nearly 20 percent of its employees.

And if that wasn’t enough wasted cash . . .

Altogether, donations supporting Proposition 8 from Focus on the Family, one of its major benefactors and an offshoot lobbying organization totaled more than $1.251 million — just shy of the $1.275 million contributed by ProtectMarriage.com’s largest donor, the Knights of Columbus, the Connecticut-based political arm of the Catholic Church. In addition to $727,250 reported by Focus on the Family, major backer and board member Elsa Prince, the billionaire heiress of Holland, Mich., donated $450,000 to ProtectMarriage.com in two cash chunks and the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council, a Christian-right lobbying organization spun off from Focus on the Family and founded in part by Prince’s foundation, chipped in $74,400.

If a mother spends almost $2million on campaigns designed to fuck with the gay family next door – $500,000 of which went to help ban gay marriage – then comes begging you for money to help feed her own family, how would feel about that mother?

Jul

29

Anti-Gay Group Says Home Depot Wants to Make Your Kids Gay

Filed Under Bitch Slap, LGBT, Religion, WTF? | 1 Comment

According to the anti-gay news site OneNewsNow (owned and operated by anti-gay organization AFA), Home Depot wants to turn your children into the homosexuals of the future:

Home Depot is helping to introduce children to the homosexual lifestyle.

The Nashville Gay Pride website notes that Home Depot contributed more than $5,000 to help finance the 2009 festival. The retailer also participated by conducting children’s craft workshops at a special booth set up for them. The company has sponsored similar children’s venues at pro-homosexual events in Atlanta, Kansas City, Durham, Portland, and San Diego.

Matt Barber [who looks like a closet-case himself] of Liberty Counsel tells OneNewsNow the home improvement store is facilitating the exposure of children to sinful behavior.

I’m guessing the folks over at AFA haven’t heard the age-old “Homo Depot” jokes yet. If they had, they would already know that Home Depot has been makin’ people (women in particular!) gay for a very long time. Ha!

The logic these anti-gay people use is laughable. Let’s try to follow it . . .

1. Home Depot sponsors a gay pride event and sets up children crafts booth
2. Children visit this booth and associate arts and crafts with homosexuality
3. Said children suddenly decide they want to be homosexuals

Hmmm . . . Ok.

If that scenario is true, then this scenario would be true as well:

1. Christians go door-to-door talking to known homosexuals
2. Said homosexuals associate Christianity with heterosexuality
3. Said homosexuals suddenly decide they want to be heterosexuals

We all know that association with a homosexual does not turn one into a homosexual, just as association with heterosexuals does not turn one into a heterosexual.

Jul

21

Is a Missing Gay Man Connected to Religious Extreme Ex-Gay Therapists?

Filed Under Bitch Slap, Gays, Lesbians, Religion, WTF? | 4 Comments

I just saw a link on Facebook pointing to a story about a missing gay man from Arkansas who vanished after his family supposedly manipulated him into going into ex-gay therapy:

Bryce Faulkner is a bright young pre-med student who, like many in college, was totally dependent upon his parents for survival. His car, his cell phone, his education, even his job was all connected to his parents purse strings. Bryce was making plans to come out to his parents, but before he had the opportunity to carry out these plans, his mother found his email password and discovered communications between he and his lover Travis Of Green Bay, Wisconsin. . . . In order to manipulate Bryce into accepting “treatment” for his homosexuality, they took away everything and left him the choice of becoming homeless and destitute or going into therapy. As anyone can imagine, this wasn’t much of a choice. Being in the closet in a small town left him no one to speak to or to seek help to get him through the transition from the closet and into the light of day. His family took away every resource he had and left him with no phone to call for help, a car to drive to any help that might be out there and no money to even take a bus to Wisconsin to be with his lover. The program he is going into is a 14 month program, one of the most severe and intense of these kinds of programs.

According to the Help Save Bryce Faulkner web site, Bryce has been missing 36 days.

This story isn’t new. In 2005, a Tennessee gay teen named Zach claimed he was being sent to a religious bootcamp against his will. Zach claimed he was being abused and he chronicled his experiences there on his MySpace page. Weeks later, an investigation cleared the religious camp of all wrongdoing stating the Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services found no evidence of child abuse at the religious bootcamp.

It’s not uncommon for extremely religious families to threaten to disown a gay family member – unless he or she seeks religious counseling they hope will cure their loved one of the supposed gay disease. I don’t understand that line of thinking. Even if I weren’t a lesbian, I can’t imagine disowning my child – for any reason. It’s a blessing to see groups and web sites like PFLAG, Gay Family Support and OutProud.org. But, there are too many anti-gay religious groups feeding on insecure and scared-of-going-to-Hell parents who believe it’s best to bully their children into heterosexual submission.

Jul

2

New Anti-Gay Group Will Use Colored Folks and Spicks to Pick on the Gays

Filed Under Bitch Slap, LGBT, Religion, WTF? | 1 Comment

Yesterday I posted information about a new anti-gay religious group forming a new coalition designed to fight abortion, same-sex marriage and the general decline of American morality. The group is called Freedom Federation:

A new federation of two dozen conservative Christian groups announced plans today to work together to strategize around moral values they feel are under attack across the country.

“We are not wed to a particular partisan candidate or party,” said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and an organizer of the Freedom Federation. “We are wed to core shared values.”

Those values include opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage and pornography and support for religious freedom, limited government and the right to own firearms.

Ok, I don’t get it. The name of the organization is Freedom Federation? Whose freedom are they fighting for? White, heterosexual, Christian males?

I find it almost comical that the Freedom Federation plans to use the colored folks and the spicks – well, those who are dumb enough to help them – to force white, heterosexual, Christian male values on taxpaying American citizens who don’t agree with their platform:

Representatives from the various groups, which include ethnic, women’s and youth organizations, said the federation will represent a more inclusive approach to addressing public policy.

. . .

“The stereotypical media-exacerbated image of the angry white evangelical will be replaced by an evangelical movement that will reconcile uncompromised values of compassion, truth with mercy, and righteousness with justice,” said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

That’s not a stereotype. Evangelicals are indeed angry white men – and the angry white women who love them.

Yesterday, I called to speak with someone at the newly formed Freedom Federation. Mathew Staver, founder of the anti-gay organization Liberty Counsel, left me a message today. He asked that I speak with Tessa Sturgill when I called back. Within minutes I had Tessa on the phone. She refused to answer any questions, claiming she didn’t want to give me false information. Honestly though, she seemed really confused and completely unprepared to deal with media inquiries. If this is any indication of the organization’s power (so far), I’d say the gays can kick the Freedom Federation’s ass up and down every block in Boystown Chicago.

Jun

17

Shame on Obama for Letting Hillary Clinton Show Him Up

Filed Under Barack Obama, Bitch Slap, Gays, Lesbians, LGBT, Politics, WTF? | 3 Comments

Update 5:35pm Here’s the final text of Obama’s memorandum.  Note the section highlighted in yellow.   I don’t get it.

After Obama’s Justice Department filed a legal brief against same sex marriage in which it compared gay unions to incestuous ones and that of an underage girl, his administration (compliments of Sec of State Hillary Clinton) turns around and releases a memorandum that outlines federal benefits for same-sex partners of federal employees in the civil service and the foreign service.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 2009

Fact Sheet: Presidential Memorandum on Federal Benefits and Non-Discrimination

In an Oval Office event later today, President Barack Obama will sign a Presidential Memorandum on Federal Benefits and Non-Discrimination. The Memorandum follows a review by the Director of the Office of Personnel Management ant the Secretary of State regarding what benefits may be extended to the same-sex partners of federal employees in the civil service and the foreign service within the confines of existing federal laws and statutes.

Over the past several months, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management and the Secretary of State have conducted internal reviews to determine whether the benefits they administer may be extended to the same-sex partners of federal employees within the confines of existing laws and statutes. Both identified a number of such benefits.

For civil service employees, domestic partners of federal employees can be added to the long-term care insurance program; supervisors can also be required to allow employees to use their sick leave to take care of domestic partners and non-biological, non-adopted children. For foreign service employees, a number of benefits were identified, including the use of medical facilities at posts abroad, medical evacuation from posts abroad, and inclusion in family size for housing allocations.

The Presidential Memorandum to be signed today will request that the Director of OPM and the Secretary of State act to extend to same-sex partners of federal employees the benefits they have identified. The Memorandum will also request the heads of all other executive branch departments and agencies to conduct internal reviews to determine whether other benefits they administer might be similarly extended, and to report the results of those reviews to the Director of OPM.

The Memorandum will also direct OPM to issue guidance within 90 days to all executive departments and agencies regarding compliance with, and implementation of, the civil service laws, which make it unlawful to discriminate against federal employees or applicants for federal employment on the basis of factors not related to job performance.

Is anyone else confused? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Hillary Clinton is trying to prop herself up as the gay community’s savior – even though she helped Barr write the very anti-gay DOMA. Her timing couldn’t have been any better. She waits until Obama’s DOJ files a very offensive brief defending her precious DOMA, then she steps in with great news for same-sex partners of federal employees? Coincidence? I think not.

If I were Obama, I’d fire that Bush-era holdover who recently filed the brief defending DOMA and I’d fire Hillary Clinton’s shadey ass. Between the two of them, he has way too many enemies on his team.

Michelle Obama’s new job ought to be keepin’ an eye on Hillary Clinton. I think Mrs. Obama can handle that wicked witch just fine.

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