Saw this on that facebook thing:
Pretty much.
by John Cole| 61 Comments
This post is in: Gay Rights are Human Rights
by Kay| 48 Comments
This post is in: Gay Rights are Human Rights, Both Sides Do It!
This could go on for a while:
The ongoing and sometimes contentious debate in churches regarding homosexuality is back in the public eye in oversized print, thanks to 10 Toledo-area billboards proclaiming competing messages.
After Toledo’s Central United Methodist Church posted a single roadside billboard in late April that said, “Being Gay Is a Gift from God,” the Rev. Tony Scott of the Church on Strayer felt compelled to offer an opposing point of view. The Maumee megachurch this week bought nine billboards that proclaim, “Being Gay is NOT a Gift from God — Forgiveness, Love, and Eternal Life Are.”
Lynn Braun, chair of Central UMC’s lead team, said she was not surprised that another church is advertising a different theological opinion. “I’m somewhat surprised it didn’t happen earlier,” she said. “We felt it important to express our faith this way. I think people have the right to express their faith the way they see fit, and I think it helps the community to know where churches stand.”
Mr. Scott, who has been pastor of the 2,500-member church since 1974, said marriage is defined in the biblical book of Genesis and its story of Adam and Eve. “God’s definition of marriage is that he plumbed him and he plumbed her so that the two of them could procreate. Anything relationally between the sexes that does not have that potential, and that opportunity, does not come from God,” he said.
That’s beautiful, that passage on plumbing, don’t you think? Does he use that at weddings?
Dan Rutt, a member of Central United Methodist, said he believes his church’s billboards have achieved the goal of promoting public discussion and dialogue. “We certainly are aware that people disagree. “We clearly believe that being gay is a gift from God and obviously other people believe that it is not. I’m pleased to continue the dialogue. But it would be nice to talk face to face instead of billboard to billboard.”
They’re beating us in the billboard debate, incidentally. Nine to one:
The Rev. Bill Barnard, Central’s pastor, said the most surprising thing to him about the Church on Strayer’s billboards was the financial commitment. “My first thought was, ‘Wow, nine billboards! That’s quite an investment,’ ” Mr. Barnard said. “We just have one, and that’s an investment for us. They must be really serious about this.”
by Sarah, Proud and Tall| 73 Comments
This post is in: Gay Rights are Human Rights, Military, OBAMA IS WORSE THAN BUSH HE SOLD US OUT!!
The sound is crappy and hard to understand at times, and I generally have reservations about people who want to throw themselves into the abyss that is YouTube stardom* – even when it’s a devastatingly cute serviceman from Alabama who still calls his dad “Sir” and says “Oh my lord”.
Nevertheless, this made me cry:
ETA: It’s the moment about 5.14 where he says “Yes, sir” and the look on his face, like a little boy who has finally told the truth and been told in turn that he is loved, that chokes me up every time.
Google “Don’t ask don’t tell” and you will find a huge number of articles which mention members of the armed forces coming out as a result of the repeal, some publicly**:
FOX News: It was the tears of Marine Captain Sarah Pezzat, whose nickname in the military is “Short Shot,” that put a human face on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and what it’s repeal means for the estimated 65,000 gay members of the military currently serving.
On Capitol Hill today she said before a bipartisan group of Senators: “I’m 31 years old. I’m a woman. I am a Marine,” and this is where she chokes back tears, “and I’m a lesbian.” She then says, “I’m sorry… Prior today if I said that I could be discharged.”
and others much more quietly:
“I still have quite a few friends in the military who are looking forward to this day. Some of them will come out some won’t,” Almy told Fox News on the eve of the repeal. “I have a good friend named Todd. He is currently serving on active duty. Tomorrow he will not make a big announcement, but he is going to go to work and he will put a picture of his partner on his desk.”
Consider this: over the next few weeks and months (or perhaps, in some cases, years, because fear and the closet are powerful things), hundreds, thousands of nice, ordinary American servicemen and women of various ages, creeds, colors and preferences for pink, squishy bits, from all over America, are going to come out to someone, are finally going to say “This is who I am” to their mother, or their best friend, or their commanding officer, or their entire platoon, or their little community in Alabama, or even just to themselves.
It’s the biggest mass coming out since the Castro 1969.
It won’t all be easy, and not every dad is going to say “I love you, I will always will, no matter what”, but there’s just a chance it might change America for the better.
* Blogging being, of course, a pursuit entirely unmotivated by vanity or greed.
** I wouldn’t normally link to Fox News, but it’s not a bad article aside from the one paragraph of “illegitimate blah blah gays will touch each other in the shower and did I mention that the President is blackity black black and probably a gay” vomit from some poor sad arsehole at the end.
EATA:
Fuck you, sir. Fuck you, as a friend of mine would say, with a rusty pitchfork.
by $8 blue check mistermix| 81 Comments
This post is in: Gay Rights are Human Rights
In some ways, it’s not surprising that the Marines were the only service to show up at a recruiting fair at a gay community center in Tulsa:
The Marines were the service most opposed to ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but they were the only one of five invited branches of the military to turn up with their recruiting table and chin-up bar at the center Tuesday morning. Although Marines pride themselves on being the most testosterone-fueled of the services, they also ferociously promote their view of themselves as the best. With the law now changed, the Marines appear determined to prove that they will be better than the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard in recruiting gay, lesbian and bisexual service members.
That whole article is worth a read, mainly because it was a ho-hum nothingburger event involving recruiters just doing their job.
In less pleasant news, Rick Santorum wants Google to remove the number one result for Santorum from their search engine, Google told him to contact the site owner, and Dan Savage is waiting for his call.
Finally, if you haven’t been watching GayHomophobe.com as closely as you should, the site that tracks the latest scandal involving gay-bashing hypocrites has added a new winner within the last week.
This post is in: Gay Rights are Human Rights
“The past isn’t dead — it isn’t even past.” And everything is interconnected:
It was 1968, and the war in Vietnam had escalated to a ferocious crest of destruction. As a Foreign Service officer embedded with the American military, I was part of a “nation-building” team that had been dispatched to survey the damage we had wrought and recommend ways to “win back the hearts and minds” of the farmers whose village we had just obliterated…
__
According to my performance reports and commendations, I had served with valor and diligence, “beyond the call of duty.” I had worked for nearly a year in a rubber plantation area sprayed with the toxic defoliant Agent Orange. As I headed down the polished corridor to the State Department’s personnel office, I assumed I would be congratulated on my outstanding service, promoted and offered another challenging assignment.
__
The interview lasted less than a minute, during which time I was sacked, not lauded. The woman behind the desk informed me that my service had been terminated. Shocked, I asked why I had been fired. Without establishing eye contact, she mumbled, “I don’t know the reason,” and motioned me to the door. The career I had worked so hard for was over in a flash. What had I done?…
Read the whole thing. It’s short, and deserves wider circulation.
This post is in: Gay Rights are Human Rights, Open Threads, The Failed Obama Administration (Only Took Two Weeks)
From the American Forces Press Service — the news service of the United States Department of Defense:
Obama: Americans No Longer Have To Lie To Serve
Just a reminder — or really two. First, to steal a phrase. It does get better.
It gets worse too, sometimes, and at times like these it can seem as if that’s the only direction possible. But not so.
And for those who think our President exists only to get rolled, let today’s new reality remind us that it ain’t necessarily so.
Full text of the DOD article comes beyond the jump.
President Barack Obama today issued a statement on the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that had barred gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military.
The repeal took effect at midnight.
Here is the president’s statement:
Today, the discriminatory law known as ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is finally and formally repealed. As of today, patriotic Americans in uniform will no longer have to lie about who they are in order to serve the country they love. As of today, our armed forces will no longer lose the extraordinary skills and combat experience of so many gay and lesbian service members. And today, as Commander in Chief, I want those who were discharged under this law to know that your country deeply values your service.
I was proud to sign the Repeal Act into law last December because I knew that it would enhance our national security, increase our military readiness, and bring us closer to the principles of equality and fairness that define us as Americans. Today’s achievement is a tribute to all the patriots who fought and marched for change; to Members of Congress, from both parties, who voted for repeal; to our civilian and military leaders who ensured a smooth transition; and to the professionalism of our men and women in uniform who showed that they were ready to move forward together, as one team, to meet the missions we ask of them.
For more than two centuries, we have worked to extend America’s promise to all our citizens. Our armed forces have been both a mirror and a catalyst of that progress, and our troops, including gays and lesbians, have given their lives to defend the freedoms and liberties that we cherish as Americans. Today, every American can be proud that we have taken another great step toward keeping our military the finest in the world and toward fulfilling our nation’s founding ideals.
Image: Nicolas Tournier, The Guardroom, before 1650.
by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 59 Comments
This post is in: Gay Rights are Human Rights
Remember how Obama didn’t repeal don’t ask don’t tell with a wave of his Magic Executive Order Black Jesus wand? And remember how much shit he got from the left for doing precisely what he said he would do, that is: working with Congress and the military in order to repeal the odious law in a way that wouldn’t make all the homophobic haters freak the fuck out?
Turns out, that was a pretty darn good idea:
Gen. Carter Ham said he expects civilians who strongly oppose the move – and some gay rights advocates – will voice their views when the repeal takes Tuesday. But inside the military the prevailing attitude likely will be business-as-usual, with no call for further debate about the merits of repeal, he said.
“My hope, my expectation, my belief is that it will be pretty inconsequential,” he told The Associated Press in a brief interview. His comments echoed the prevailing view among senior U.S. military and civilian officials at the Pentagon, who think repeal will largely be taken in stride.
Hear that? That’s the sound of incrementalism bringing about positive change:
From our own Allan:
There has been, and continues to be, a push-pull between progress and regress, with gay people often on opposing sides in every battle. But when you step back and look at the bigger picture, you cannot deny that progress happens, albeit incrementally and fitfully. It is maddening and frustrating to live your life on the front lines of a movement for social change, as I have. And yet I have seen things in my lifetime that I truly never expected to happen.
Taste the incremental rainbow, comrades.
[cross-posted at ABLC]Army General Confirms That DADT Repeal Isn’t Going to Make Baby Jesus CryPost + Comments (59)