Gay Rights

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If only we could just stone gays to death like the good old days…

Ah, yes, if only America had morals, then we could stone to death people who we disagree with.  What a wonderful world that would be!

So sayeth Pat Robertson, who speaks for millions who watch his show and believe this feeble old man (who thinks that “homosexuals cause earthquakes” because God is so unhappy).

“I think you’ve got to remember from the Bible, you look carefully at the Bible, what would have happened in Jesus’ time if two men decided they wanted to cohabitate together, they would have been stoned to death,” he said. “So, Jesus would not have baked them a wedding cake, nor would he he have made them a bed to sleep in because they wouldn’t have been there.”

“But we don’t have that in this country here,” he said with a wistful look in his eye. “So, that’s the way it is.”

You all remember those parts of the Bible where Jesus spoke about how he hated gays, right?  And how they should be stoned to death?  You don’t remember those parts?  Oh, that’s probably because they aren’t in there.

There actually are comments like that in the Old Testament, right next to the prohibitions against tattoos, ham sandwiches,  shrimp, planting crops together, wearing clothing made out of more than one cloth, divorce, and allowing women to speak in church.  But for some reason, there isn’t a huge Christian movement to ban bacon.

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Michigan joins the 21st Century

I love writing these posts!  Here’s another Federal court decision striking down a state’s law against gay marriage (or as we like to call it, “marriage”).  This time, it’s Michigan.

In the last year, we’ve had decisions in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.  Meanwhile, Hawaii, New Jersey and Rhode Island have removed the prohibition without a court decision.

This is a great map from Mother Jones that has yet to be updated to include this latest decision

This is a great map from Mother Jones that has yet to be updated to include this latest decision

Not one has gone the opposite way.  It will be quite difficult for the Supreme Court to rule that all of these cases were wrongly decided when they are unanimous.  This is especially true when all of these decisions rely upon and quote the Supreme Court’s decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act to justify their rulings.

The best parts of these decisions have been when the judges point out that the arguments of those who want to deny this basic right are ridiculous.  Judge Friedman, in this most recent case, called the witnesses “unbelievable” and called their so-called scientific studies “deeply flawed.”  (It should be noted that Judge Friedman is a Republican who was appointed by Ronald Reagan, just in case someone wants to try to argue that this is a political decision instead of a legal one.)  “In attempting to define this case as a challenge to ‘the will of the people,’ ” he wrote, “state defendants lost sight of what this case is truly about: people.”

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Fred Phelps is dead

Fred Phelps was a cruel man who believed in an evil hateful god.  He would protest the funerals of veterans and try to disrupt them with his “God Hates Fags” signs.  He probably did more to help the gay rights movement than anyone else.  fred_phelps

He was, however, not a criminal, and he helped bring about some important cases about Freedom of Speech.  It is terribly important to protect speech we hate.  After all, we don’t need to protect speech we all agree with.  It’s the controversial, angry and disruptive speech that needs protecting.

Some people have wished to protest his funeral as well.  I hope they do not.  Phelps had the right to his opinion no matter how vile. You fight back without stooping to his level.

His son Timothy Phelps apparently responded to one of my blog posts a while ago.  You can go here and read the comments and decide for yourself whether it really was him or just some troll.  Usually trolls give themselves away by being too over the top, so I wonder…

Anyway, while I certainly do not celebrate his death, I don’t mourn him, either.

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They’re not even trying to be truthful any more, are they?

Conservative wise guy Michael Medved claimed today that no state has ever banned gay marriage.  “That’s a liberal lie,” he says.

Seriously, he said that.  I am not making this up.medved

Thirty state Constitutions and dozens of state laws which are easily found contradict him, as well as about half a dozen Federal Court decisions striking down those very laws.

What he is doing, besides lying, is being deceptive. His claim, which is only accepted by the gullible and the idiotic, is that gays can always get married!  There’s no prohibition to gays getting married!  Just not to each other.

Got that?

I can’t believe he actually believes this is a legitimate argument.   It’s the same one used by bigots who fought against interracial marriage.

Anyway, I certainly hope the GOP keeps this up, as it is just another nail in their coffin.  Eventually, the current Republican party will die and perhaps a new GOP not run by the extremists will rise from the ashes, phoenix-like, and then maybe we can get back to the days when we had two parties debating issues instead of one party trying to get things done and the other one just saying “no” to everything.

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Fox anchor apologizes for insensitive remark

Damn, I wish I could type that headline more often.

But the fact remains that this is so rare that we should call attention to it.

Fox news host Clayton Morris had mocked Facebook’s new settings where people can choose options other than “male” or “female.”FoxNews

Now he says this:  “I made a pretty ignorant statement a few weeks ago, we were talking about the Facebook story where they added a bunch of different gender-identifying things. And I made sort of an offhanded comment and I regretted it later because now, ‘Wait a second. There are people who are actually dealing with this and I’m an idiot for saying something stupid like that.’ So before you open your mouth, just think about it a little bit.  There are millions of Americans and children who are born with the sexual organs who are not there or are not fully developed and therefore don’t define themselves by a particular gender.  It’s not as black and white as we would like to make it.”

That’s — that’s the right answer.  I’m stunned.  It’s so infrequent that a Fox commentator thinks to put him or herself into the shoes of the people they criticize.

So let’s encourage this.  Seriously.  Send him a thank you tweet or something.

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Texas joins the 21st century

Every time another court strikes down a state’s anti-gay marriage law, I post that the state has joined the 21st century.   I’m not sure I should though, because many of these states are fighting against such progress.
gay-texas
Still, progress it is.  There hasn’t been a single case where the judge upheld the state’s discriminatory law.

All of these will eventually get to the US Supreme Court where they can do one of three things:  (1) decide that the entire country must allow gay marriage (or as we like to call it: “marriage”);  (2) reverse these decisions (which would still allow the states to decide on their own to do it through their legislatures or state courts); or  (3) not take any of these cases which will make these decisions stand.

It’s inevitable.  And more and more, those who oppose equality are realizing that.

And look, we didn’t even have to commit treason against our government to get our way!

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Bigots pass bigotty Bigot Law in Bigot Arizona

Bigots in Arizona cheered as their state legislature passed the nation’s toughest law against tolerance, understanding, and equality.

“Finally, we can discriminate against gays and lesbians,” say the bigots, who had been doing that for years anyway.   raibow

The law allows businesses to discriminate for religious reasons.  So if you are a person who really believes in the Bible and thinks that it says you should treat gays as subhuman, you’re in.  This is your day.

“It’s great,” said Marcus J. Kellington, a Christian supporter, while eating shellfish and showing off his new tattoo.  “Now I can abide by my religious beliefs without government interfering by taking the side of actual, caring and feeling human beings.”

“The part about how evil gays are is right there,” he said, pointing to the Bible, after passing by the parts prohibiting the eating of shellfish and the wearing of tattoos.  “Wait a minute,  sorry.  That’s the part where Jesus says we should love one another no matter what.  It’s in here somewhere.  Give me a minute.”

Satanist Deathblade Bloodshatter (not his real name), a barista at an Albuquerque Starbucks, is also pleased.  “Dude, now I can refuse to give Christians their morning latte because I don’t like what they do.”  Some Muslim organizations said they would kick out any women not covered from head to toe, and a Scientologist who owns a bakery in Flagstaff will require all who enter his place of business to vow service to Xenu, Grand Dictator of the Galactic Federation, or be denied cupcakes.

“This is what America is all about,” said Governor Jan Brewer.  “The freedom to  deny basic human rights and to be assholes to anyone not like us.”

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Virginia joins the 21st Century

And the dominoes keep falling.

Virginia is the latest state where a Federal Court has ruled that prohibitions against gays and lesbians getting married violates the Constitution.  virginia-is-for-loversYes, once more, we radical liberals are forcing our views down the throats of unsuspecting bigots through the terrible practice of “using the exact words of the Constitution.”  (Hey, you ever notice that these homophobes always say we’re “shoving it down their throats”?  Is that subconscious wish fulfillment or what?)

The decision is stayed pending an appeal.  This means that either the Supreme Court will take all of these and make one final decision that will be applied to the entire country, or they will deny the appeals, thus confirming the lower court’s decision, permitting marriages in those states only.

A Federal Court yesterday also ruled that Kentucky could not refuse to accept marriages that occurred in states where the marriage would be legal.  The issue as to Kentucky’s anti-gay marriage law was not before the court, so that may still be coming in another case.

There are still plenty of other cases in the pipeline (including here in Pennsylvania, where our Attorney General has refused to support our states’ anti-marriage law).  So this trip is far from over.

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Nation’s bigots subject of hate-filled intolerance

Gays were married on the Grammies last night. Fox News’ Todd Starns was quite hurt, calling it a “hate-filled, bigoted, intolerant diatribe against Christians.” grammy-wedding-600x450

In a related story, David Duke, a prominent member of the KKK, complained about seeing an interracial couple during the show. “It hurts, you know?” he said. “These people have no concern for my feelings. It’s so hateful the way they treat my views.”

Yes, all over the United States, bigots are finding themselves the subject of intolerance, and being completely unaware of the concept of irony, have declared that anyone who fights against their bigotry is the real problem.

An attack on their view is an attack on every single foundation of their religion — and, by God, that is just intolerant. Just look at them! What could be more hateful and mean than expressing your love for someone by marrying them?

“We should never ever disagree with someone else’s views if they are based in religion,” Starns claims, “because otherwise, you are just a hateful, mean person. Oh, except for Muslims. Screw them and everything they stand for.”

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Oklahoma enters the 21st Century

Our devious plan is coming to fruition!  Soon every state will be forced to allow all humans to be treated as equals!  Muahahaha!   snidely

Our latest conquest is the very very red state of Oklahoma, where a federal judge has ruled unconstitutional their law prohibiting gays from getting married.

The liberal plan is shrewd, if I must say so.  We have convinced judges that it is wrong to discriminate against people for no good reason.  And how did we do this?  By using the actual literal words of the United States Constitution!   Muahahaha!

Now, admittedly, there are those who will stand in our way and demand that America is all about treating some of its citizens as inferior — that we should stand for the denial of basic human rights.  Fools!  We will show them all!  Oklahoma and Utah may have stopped gay marriages while this case is on appeal, but we will eventually prevail!

And none shall stop us!