Yeah, this guy.

In my faith tradition, Boston Irish Catholic in the days of Richard Cardinal Cushing, taught by nuns, entering a seminary because I thought I had a calling, singing in a church choir, and teaching CCD to high school kids (That would be “Sunday School” for non-Catholics), God was omnipresent, all knowing, always awake, and ready to redress any wrong perpetrated against Him, and usually with a vengeance.

He was not someone to screw around with.

So I found it interesting that a person, Bryan Fischer, claiming to be a true Christian would have actually declared,

“Worst example of cultural appropriation. LGBTs stole the rainbow from God. Gen. 9:11-17. Give it back.”

Did God miss it happening, or did He just let it be taken?

It’s not like we could pull a fast one on someone Fischer has to believe is omniscient and all-seeing.

Bryan Fischer is the former director of issues analysis of the Christian fundamentalist American Family Association who has been opposing Gay rights for years, going so far in 2010 as to claim that homosexuality was to blame for the Holocaust.

Because of this, and attacks on other marginalized groups, the American Family Association was labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, so, in order to lose that label the organization repudiated this and all comments Fischer made about Muslims, Native Americans, Hispanics, and African Americans.

In 2007 he hosted an event with the former American Family Association California leader Scott Lively, known to citizens of Massachusetts as a recurring seeker of the state Republican Party’s nomination to run for governor, to promote the claim that “homosexuality was at the heart of Nazism”.

He later claimed that Hitler was Gay, that “the Nazi Party began in a gay bar in Munich”, and that the Holocaust was caused by homosexuals in the Nazi German military, saying, “Nazi Germany became the horror that it was because it rejected both Christianity and its clear teaching about human sexuality.”

To arrive at this conclusion, Fischer had to ignore facts of history including that Gays and Lesbians were two groups targeted by the Nazis, beginning in 1933 when Gay organizations were banned along with scholarly books about homosexuality, and that Gays in the Nazi Party were murdered.

Between 1933 and 1945, of the estimated 100,000 men arrested for being Gay, 50,000 were officially sentenced to serve time in regular prisons, and with many then sent to concentration camps where up to 60% died.
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After the war, while other groups were set free, Gay inmates were used to clean up the camps and were then re-arrested and imprisoned based on evidence found among Nazi camp documents.

If Gays started and ran it all, they certainly did a poor job of it, or perhaps the claims that Hitler was a homosexual who recruited other homosexuals to be storm troopers because “homosexual soldiers basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict” and Hitler “couldn’t get straights to be vicious enough in being his enforcers” might be a little inaccurate, if not outright false and off the wall.

More recently he claimed that “Homofascists” will treat Christians like Jews in the Holocaust because, as we all know, Christians in America are being persecuted. Just ask all our Christian presidents, members of the House and Senate, and all those people whose discriminatory treatment of Gays is permitted by law..

Fischer has written in support of kidnapping of children from same-sex households and smuggling them to what he calls “normal” homes, that consensual sex between people of the same gender is pedophilia, incest, and bestiality, that homosexuality should be banned like trans fats for being “a hazard to human health”, and equating homosexuals to thieves, murderers and child molesters.

When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality, Fischer called the Supreme Court Justices “rainbow jihadists and they blasted the twin pillars”.

Even though the American Family Association has had to demote him from being an official spokesperson, he has been allowed to continue as a host on the AFA’s American Family Talk radio.

And, although the AFA has issued a press releases denouncing some of Fischer’s views, stating,

“AFA rejects the statement by Bryan Fischer that, ‘Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews’”,

and rejecting his idea that that homosexual conduct should be illegal, and “We need an underground railroad to protect innocent children from same-sex households”.

And, yet, Fischer continues to be a frequent contributor to the organization.

 

a favor for Jared’s friend

This s a quote from the White House Website:

“President Trump has been fighting on behalf of American workers and families since the first day of his Presidency. The President signed a ‘Buy American and Hire American’ Executive Order that targets the abusive use of waivers and exceptions to undermine ‘Buy American’ laws that promote the allocation of taxpayer funds to American companies. The order also takes steps to stop the abuse of the immigration system and protect American workers. The President is committed to preserving American jobs for American citizens.”

And Trump famously claimed,

“A Trump administration will stop the jobs from leaving America. The theft of American prosperity will end.”

He continues to claim companies have returned to the United States bringing jobs with them, and that those who have not done so yet, will return while he makes threatening statements as a warning to any companies that might be considering moving elsewhere.

America first!

Jobs to Americans!

So it seems rather odd that the Trump administration included in an arms deal with Saudi Arabia that they, a foreign country, will be building U.S. hi-tech bomb parts, giving Riyadh unprecedented access to a sensitive weapons technology.

Trump went ahead with an $8.1 billion arms package for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, but he did so without congressional approval after declaring an “emergency” based on a “threat” from Iran.

Not only did Trump bypass congress when he entered the deal, but, and this is very important to note, his deal allows Saudi Arabia to host the production of electronic guidance and control systems for precision-guided bombs.

A foreign country will have access to guarded U.S. technology, and could easily pass it on to any country it chooses to.

Trump might be upset that China steals our technology, but he has no problem giving it away.

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The ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez, has said,

“The concerns over this sale are only one more reason showing the importance of congressional review and why it is deeply disturbing that the Trump administration is trying to circumvent the law and Congress to give the Saudis not only American jobs but also American weapons technology.”

Last year congress expressed concern when the administration first tried to secure, but was denied, approval to sell 120,000 precision-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates because of Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations in its air war in Yemen.

The bombs involved in this deal can strike a target within 10 feet when fired from 40,000 feet.

Vermont’s Senator Patrick Leahy said about this latest deal,

“A secretive monarchy that commits atrocities in Yemen, that murders dissidents and journalists and lies to the world about it, and that treats women as property is not one to which we should be giving some of our most sensitive military technology.”

As far as this being the “emergency” that allows for congress to be bypassed and U.S. technology being made available to a foreign country that could sell it, the arms sale is part of Saudi Vision 2030, a long-term plan to improve that country’s economy and military preparedness, so it can hardly be considered an emergency.

But whatever benefits Jared and by extension himself, is okay with Trump.

 

 

 

 

disciplining the Toddler in Chief

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THE GOP OPPOSES THE TARIFFS ON MEXICO

Petulance

Whether you refer to the events that took place at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 as a riot, an uprising, a rebellion, it definitely was not a party.

Up until that night life in the closet was mandatory as being Gay could cost you your home, your job, your family, or all three plus the added chance of being beaten to death for political, religious, or amusement purposes.

The action at Stonewall that night in June was a communal reaction to yet another bar raid in which the patrons were treated as the tools in the battle between the owners of what were basically illegal bars at the time and the local police precinct which was paid to close an eye.

Missed payment or any violation of the agreement meant a raid.

After a raid, when the missed payment was made, the two parties, police and owner, would go back to their routine relationship, but the names, addresses, and places of work of those in the bar at the time of the raid would be printed in the newspaper, ruining their lives.

Enough.

The celebrating part of GLBT Pride came after people stood up for their rights and began to see that they could actually have them if they came out of the shadows, organized, and worked for them no matter how hard and, at times, disheartening the fight might appear, and that there is no shame in being who we are.

The celebration became a chance for affirmation and a communal expression of self acceptance.

Within a decade of the Stonewall Rebellion and the initial progress toward equal rights, AIDS reared its ugly head, and, because it was first discovered among Gay men, it was not only assumed to be a Gay related disease, a Gay cancer, but those who opposed Gay equality began spreading the falsehood that it was God’s punishment for Gays becoming more open. This delayed research into the disease and a cure, and the Gay Community was on its own to deal with it.

While friends were dying, those who were able to, set up support systems and hospices, and established an underground system of doctors, creating “Green Book” style list of friendly hospitals willing to help those who society had written off.

When it was discovered that the assumption that only Gays got AIDS had allowed the virus to spread unchecked throughout all of society, what attention should have been given to the virus finally was.

Pride then became a time to celebrate those lost, those who survived, and the community’s success dealing with what they had to do on their own.

A major obstacle was reduced, and the pursuit of equality could start up again.

Laws were passed prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in credit, employment, union practices, housing in certain states. In May 2004, Marriage Equality was accepted in Massachusetts ,and in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment requires all states to grant same-sex marriages and recognize same-sex marriages granted in other states.

In short, GLBT Pride events began as a form of protest and a political statement. Parades and festivals evolved over time and became, with growing success in gaining equal rights, a celebration. It became a time to celebrate hard won victories and self-acceptance in spite of the lies promoted by those who simply have a problem with others.

GLBT Pride is about celebrating the cessation of oppression where it has ceased, the increased protection from discrimination, and being able to enter a committed relationship with the one you love, receiving the over 300 civil benefits that come from that.

The mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh had issued a statement honoring Pride Week.

“This is a special week that represents Boston’s values of love and inclusion, which are unwavering.”

At the beginning of June, Gay Pride Month, it was announced that a “Straight Pride Parade” has been planned by some men to be held in Boston at the end of August.

Officials at City Hall said the organizers still have yet to receive a permit for a parade, and although the group had sought an application to raise a “straight pride” flag on City Hall’s flagpoles, it was turned down.

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“We’re not even asking for equality. We’re asking for one-seventh of what they got.”

First, White people do not have to ask for or fight for equality, and second, apparently they are of the impression that GLBT people have more rights.

The three organizers of the “straight pride parade”, are John Hugo, Mark Sahady, and Chris Bartley.

One of the organizers, Mark Sahady, had previously organized the “free speech” rally on Boston Common a couple of years ago to which less than 100 people came but to which 40,000 counter-protesters did.

Hugo ran unsuccessfully for the Massachusetts’ 5th Congressional District in 2018 and holds anti-Semitic, misogynist, and anti-GLBT views. His Facebook posts oppose civil rights for any marginalized group, including GLBT people.

Sahady has ties to groups like the Proud Boys, the New Hampshire American Guard, and the Massachusetts Patriot Front, and he claims he has “been working on and speaking about social justice issues in the Boston area for several years.”

He didn’t say how he has worked for or spoken about social justice issues, but in January he rushed at and grabbed a Trans woman at the Boston Women’s March.

Bartley, the straight pride parade’s “gay ambassador,” had promoted the “Pizzagate” conspiracy  during the 2016 elections , and  has embraced white supremacist figures publishing posts from the white supremacist code “1488”’s Jack Posobiec in support of the parade.

He also has retweeted,

“If the whole world was gay humanity would cease to exist.”

No one wants the world to be all Gay, we just want to be allowed our place in it without oppression, but with our rights “endowed by our creator”.

Clearly, unlike the purpose of the Pride Parade, this parade intends to gain legitimacy for a violently homophobic, Transphobic, and misogynistic agenda.

The concerns of the organizers appeared to extend beyond straight pride.

In short, GLBT Pride parades and festivals were not started to celebrate being Gay.

They began as a way to celebrate our right to live without being illegal as the three words “I am Gay” had been seen as a confession of a crime.

They began as a way to celebrate community and the obtaining of those rights Straight people take for granted, and whether tacitly or actively have no problem denying to us.

There is no need to celebrate “straight pride”, and Straight people should be grateful that they have no need to celebrate,

 

 

 

It’s clear

The U.S. bishops are condemning the Equality Act’s recent passage by the House of Representatives and, instead, are endorsing new federal anti-transgender guidelines, claiming  they are “gravely disappointed” because the Equality Act would protect GLBT from discrimination.

 “Rather than offering meaningful protections for individuals, the Equality Act would impose sweeping new norms that negatively impact the unborn, health care, charitable services, schools, personal privacy, athletics, free speech, religious liberties, and parental rights. The Act’s unsound definitions of ‘sex’ and ’gender identity’ would erase women’s distinct, hard-won recognition in federal laws. Its sex-based nondiscrimination terms would end women’s shelters and many single-sex schools. It would close faith-based foster care and adoption agencies that honor children’s rights to a mother and father. The bill would even act as an abortion mandate. We must pursue justice and equality for anyone denied it; but this is a regrettable approach.”

Perhaps someone can explain to me how my not being denied housing, employment, credit, or medical care invades someone else’s privacy, affects the unborn while mandating abortion, and removes women’s recognition in federal law, a strange claim from a church that treats women as less than their male church members.

These bishops applauded the Trump administration’s latest assault on transgender rights, expressing gratitude for the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) prohibiting “sex” from being interpreted as inclusive of “gender identity”, an action that will remove Transgender healthcare protections implemented by President Barack Obama.

Some of the leaders of the bishop conference also praised the HHS guidelines that would allow healthcare providers to deny care to GLBT people if such denial is based in the provider’s claimed religious beliefs.

Like what Jesus did when he asked those who sought healing a series of personal questions before deciding if He would help them.

And, as far as their claim that GLBT equality “would erase women’s distinct, hard-won recognition in federal laws” and would impact personal privacy without saying how, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops celebrated the passage of anti-choice laws in states like Alabama which do just that and spell out how.

Isn’t it great that a tax exempt religious entity wants control over the lives of U.S. citizens beyond those who belong to their church?

One of their biggest arguments should be offensive to their own training and established beliefs.

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It’s the belief that the first seven people who already have a slice of pie from an eight slice pie will somehow lose their slice when an eighth person enters the room.

See ladies, you are not the only victims of the closed old boys’ church.

I don’t think they are thinking this through.

If GLBT people can be fired from their jobs, that will reduce the number of people paying taxes. And, although the bishops rely on the taxes paid by workers to support those public infrastructure items and services that are supported by them, things like roads that are used by their congregations to get to their churches, and give money at the collections, and fire and police departments, public hospitals, community colleges etc. from which they are exempt from paying for as they pay no taxes, the stand to lose as the taxes from people who pay for their “free” services.

They are weakening their own sweet deal.

Forcing one religion’s beliefs on all citizens whether followers or not is very close to a certain religion’s practice in those countries in which it is the majority religion.

Wrong for them; wrong for us.

 

 

hypocrites at it again

Plain and simple, they think we are stupid, and, frankly, I find it insulting.

First Trump takes actions to reduce or remove the rights of GLBT people while working to give people the right to ignore laws so they can discriminate if they claim a deeply held , but not analyzed for validity, religious belief, and then tweets that we should recognize the positive contributions GLBT people make to the country

Now we have Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island tweeting,

“A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ ‘Pride Month’ events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children.”

There was a lot of backlash to this and the use of the appeal to the trope about pedophilia, so the bishop issued a second tweet that attempted to pretend the first tweet did not say what it said.

 “The Catholic Church has respect and love for members of the gay community, as do I. Individuals with same-sex attraction are beloved children of God and our brothers and sisters.”

Because nothing says respect and love like claiming a group of people, with few statistics to prove it, are dangerous to children, an ironic statement from a bishop of a church with hundreds of documented instances of its own officials having been found credibly accused and/or found guilty of child molestation while bishops covered up their offenses and moved them from parish to parish where they could continue their offenses.

To become a bishop a person has to be intelligent as he represents the church and its teachings. And, if the church is the determiner of what it takes to be saved and has the obligation to pass that information on to its people, bishops have to be articulate and specific in their choice of words and exact in his pronouncements.

Even Tobin has explained,

 “My obligation before God is to lead the faithful entrusted to my care and to teach the faith, clearly and compassionately, even on very difficult and sensitive issues. That is what I have always tried to do – on a variety of issues – and I will continue doing so as contemporary issues arise.”

So it is mere evasion and double speak if to explain away his insult he then claims regret that his tweet

“turned out to be so controversial in our community, and offensive to some, especially in the gay community”,

followed by the usual, It wasn’t what I said, it was what you heard me say evasion

“That certainly was not my intention, but I understand why a good number of individuals have taken offense.”

I called you a pedophile, I’m sorry you took offense to that.

Yeah, we took offense because you said offensive things about us especially when research, like that done by the University of California Davis has concluded,

“The empirical research does not show that gay or bisexual men are any more likely than heterosexual men to molest children.”

Perhaps he should really show his commitment to the safety of children by tweeting,

“A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend any church related events held throughout the year. They are especially harmful for children.”

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Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas defended Tobin on Twitter,

 “Thanks for speaking up Bishop Tobin….let us be mighty loving messengers of truth and light in Jesus Christ.”

But, let’s not forget an earlier tweet in which he stated,

“Today, I join with the other bishops of Texas in releasing the names of clergy (priests and deacons) in our dioceses who are subject to credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.”

A  hypocrite is someone who claims to know and follow certain beliefs but behaves in a way that counteracts those beliefs.

Although He said nothing about Gay people, Jesus, the guy these bishop claim they represent on earth, had things to say on hypocrisy.

Matthew 23:27-28: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Luke 20:46-47: Beware of the reachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplace and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour wiow’s house and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished more severely.

1 John 4:20: Whoever claims to love God yet hates his brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

Luke 6:46: Why do you call me “Lord, Lord”, and do not do what I say?

Mark 7:6: Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’”.

Matthew 6:1: Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Of you do, you will have no reward from your father in heaven.

Luke 6:37-42: Do not judge, an yo will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you.

Luke 6:42: How can you say, “Brother, let me take the speck out of you eye”, when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from you brother’s eye.

So I suggest, keep your children safe and let them enjoy themselves.

Keep them away from church and let them enjoy a Pride Parade and festival.

 

 

 

our friend again

I am not sure which is more insulting, Trump saying great things about GLBT people even as he defecates on us , or his assumption that we will only hear what he says while not seeing what he actually does that shows his words are false and self-serving.

For Pride Month, Trump tweeted,

 “As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation. My Administration has launched a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality and invite all nations to join us in this effort!”

Beyond his vacuous desire to stand in solidarity with the outstanding contributions by GLBT people, he, once again, clarifies that his standing in solidarity with GLBT people is only applicable to those in foreign countries, not his own, and, oddly, specifically those that are Muslim.

This is just another time that he is attempting to use GLBT people as tools in his obsessive war against Islam.

Not too long ago when asked about the report that said U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell had said that there was an initiative to launch “a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality and invite all nations to join us in this effort”, Trump denied any knowledge of it saying,

“I don’t know which report you’re talking about. We have many reports.”

How does Trump recognize “the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation”?

Just a few days before his tweet, the State Department announced plans to launch a new human rights panel stressing “natural law” when it comes to recognizing the civil rights of U.S. citizens. The appeal to “natural law” is the religious right’s go to excuse when working to deny the rights of GLBT people just as it had been used by them in their opposition to desegregation and interracial marriage.

A month ago he came out opposing the Equality Act that would grant federal non-discrimination protections to GLBT people.

Previous to these actions Trump and his administration have shown very little support of GLBT citizens

  1. The Department of Housing and Urban Development gut regulations prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in HUD-funded homeless shelters.
  2. The Department of Health and Human Services published a proposed rule that would remove all recognition that federal law prohibits transgender patients from discrimination in health care.
  3. President Trump announced opposition to the Equality Act (H.R. 5) that would confirm and strengthen civil rights protections for LGBTQ Americans and others.
  4. The Department of Health and Human Services published a final rule encouraging hospital officials, staff, and insurance companies to deny care to patients, including transgender patients, based on religious or moral beliefs.
  5. The Department of Defense put President Trump’s ban on transgender service members into effect.
  6. The Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights started allowing religiously-affiliated services to discriminate against current and aspiring GLBTQ caregivers.
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  8. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) removed guidelines that helped federal agency managers understand how to support transgender federal workers and respect their rights.
  9. The Department of Labor released a new directive granting broad religious exemptions to federal contractors with religious-based objections to complying with nondiscrimination laws.
  10. The Bureau of Prisons in the Department of Justice adopted a policy of housing transgender people in federal prison facilities that match their sex assigned at birth, rolling back existing protections.
  11. The Department of Education announced it will dismiss complaints from transgender students involving exclusion from school facilities and other claims based solely on gender identity discrimination.
  12. The Department of Health and Human Services proposed a rule encouraging medical providers to use religious grounds to deny treatment to transgender people.
  13. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights opened a “Conscience and Religious Freedom Division” to promote discrimination by health care providers who can cite religious or moral reasons for denying care.
  14. Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were instructed not to use the words “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based” in official documents.
  15. The Justice Department is allowing federal agencies, government contractors, government grantees, and even private businesses to engage in illegal discrimination, as long as they can cite religious reasons.
  16. The Justice Department instructed Department of Justice attorneys to take the legal position that federal law does not protect transgender workers from discrimination.
  17. The Justice Department argued for a constitutional right for businesses to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
  18. Trump directed Defense Department to move forward with developing a plan to discharge transgender military service members and to maintain a ban on recruitment after Tweeting that “the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.”
  19. The Justice Department filed a legal brief on behalf of the United States in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, arguing that the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
  20. The Department of Education withdrew its finding that an Ohio school district discriminated against a transgender girl.
  21. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a plan to roll back regulations interpreting the Affordable Care Act’s nondiscrimination provisions to protect transgender people.
  22. The Justice Department abandoned its lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s anti-transgender law.
  23. The Departments of Justice and Labor cancelled quarterly conference calls with GLBT organizations where government attorneys shared information on employment laws and cases.
  24. The Justice Department announced it would review numerous civil rights settlement agreements with police departments where police departments were determined to be engaging in discriminatory and abusive policing toward GLBT people.
  25. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) removed links to four key resource documents from its website, which had informed emergency shelters on best practices for serving transgender people facing homelessness and complying with HUD regulations.
  26. The Census Bureau retracted a proposal to collect demographic information on GLBT people in the 2020 Census.
  27. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that its national survey of older adults, and the services they need, would no longer collect information on LGBT participants.
  28. The Departments of Justice and Education withdrew landmark 2016 guidance explaining how schools must protect transgender students under the federal Title IX law.
  29. The Department of Justice declined to appeal a nationwide preliminary court order temporarily halting enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s nondiscrimination protections for transgender people which prevented HHS from taking any action to enforce transgender people’s rights from health care discrimination.
  30. The Department of Justice abandoned its request for a preliminary injunction against North Carolina’s anti-transgender House Bill 2.
  31. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) removed demographic questions about LGBT people that Centers for Independent Living which helps HHS evaluate programs that serve people with disabilities.
  32. The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it would withdraw two important agency-proposed policies designed to protect GLBT people experiencing homelessness, and withdraw from a survey to evaluate the impact of the LGBTQ Youth Homelessness Prevention Initiative that would show what worked best in the project to help homeless GLBTQ youth.
  33. The State Department announced the official U.S. delegation to the UN’s 61st annual Commission on the Status of Women conference would include two outspoken anti-LGBT organizations.

It comes down to the equivalent of one anti GLBT action a month since Trump took office.

 

my curmudgeon rant

I am not anti-family.

I love mine even if it sometimes seems through differences of opinion that I don’t. But, hey, I can’t help that not everyone is as enlightened and consistently correct as I am.  And in spite of my failed attempts at forming my own domestic bliss I have longed for and would still like a happily-ever-after final chapter to my life.

What I am annoyed by and to which I experience a slight body shudder when I hear it applied, is the phrase “Family Friendly”. To be clear, I know it has a good purpose when used in certain circumstances, but I see it as a form of judgment and self-loathing in certain usages.

GLBT Pride events began as a form of protest and a political statement. Parades and festivals evolved over time and became, with growing success in gaining equal rights, a celebration. It became a time to celebrate hard won victories.

Before the modern GLBT Rights Movement began at the Stonewall Inn in New York City in 1969, mistreatment of Gays and the need to seek the safety of the “closet” was universal, and even in the years since, depending on where you live, although not as common, it is still there.

The unknown can be a scary thing, and the need to be safe from those who acted on ignorance kept Gays in the shadows so their truth could not be learned.

And, so, assumptions were made.

Gay people cannot behave. We were unnatural, sinners, and perverts.  We were pedophiles, unable to control our urges,  dangerous around children, and best kept outside and away from society.

If you lived in the urban areas you could live in a “Gay Ghetto” where it was a little easier, but not truly safe. Social settings, like bars, were hidden and patrons at the mercy of owners who had loyalty to the dollars spend and not the people spending them; at the mercy of those who would physically attack anyone who was perceived as Gay or had done something to lift the veil; and at the mercy of those who wanted to prove their manhood by “beating up a queer” and then bragging about that to friends.

It still happens.

When Bars were raided, IDs were collected, and the names, addresses, and places of employment of those in the bar at the time would be published in newspapers, resulting in loss of housing, jobs, and families.

Those living in rural communities had no safety in numbers and had to hide, or, once found out, deal with the reaction of the other residents of those small towns where everyone knew everyone’s business, and everyone’s business was everyone’s.

In both settings Gay people were killed.

But over time to greater and lesser degrees things changed.

People had died.

People had survived.

There was reason for those latter to celebrate progress and freedom from oppression. Their lives had been changing.

In the urban areas there was greater openness, but in the rural, there is still little change.

Those from rural communities in certain states have one weekend a year to go to a place where no one knows them and no one can spread their business, and enjoy a GLBT festival and a GLBT parade. They have one weekend a year to let their hair down, be with people like themselves knowing that at the end of the one weekend per year they will return home to their community- wide closet and live suppressed and oppressed for another year.
The individual may talk unremittingly and buy professional viagra pointlessly, which now and again may get to be garbled, or the individual may talk less or not in the least. It is thought that most men will not be able to accomplish a spontaneous purchase generic viagra erection, and will probably require an erectile dysfunction medication that has to date helped over a million customers across worldwide. IT companies, especially pose a lot of stressful work on the cialis in usa employees and expect them to be capable of stopping hair loss permanently, after a certain duration of usage. Out of these, 35%, are seeking relief and moreover, they cialis no rx will also educate patients on what chiropractic care is and how it works.
The festival and parades are for those who had lived the pre-Stonewall days and equality attaining progress, and those in recent times who still have to deal with oppression

Granted, some may go a little overboard in their jubilation and celebrating, but it has to be seen in the context of what was, and is, their daily existence.

As the past becomes fog and history is slowly rewritten by those who did not live it, the importance of the parade and festival for those who did is being lost.

I first encountered the concept of “family friendly” as applied to Pride parades and festivals when I worked on a parade and festival board in the Buckle of the Bible Belt. The festival was held at a public park, rented by the GLBT Community for that purpose. There were the usual festival booths with information and vendors, and a stage for entertainment by various music performers and Drag Queens, and from which speeches were made and awards bestowed.

On one side of the park there was a children’s section as there was an increasing number of GLBT couples with kids, and way over on the other side, separated by the rows of booths and the stage, compliments of a major brewing company, a roped off area where, after you paid a $10 fee and showed your ID you got a wrist band that gave you entry to consume the free beer.

Among the information booths were those with information on health issues, specifically, at many, AIDS, with condoms available for those who wanted them. Among the vendors, along with the usual Rainbow motif goo-gahs, was a booth or two selling sex enhancement items, something that was in limited supply in the big cities as local norms limited stores where such things were sold,  and impossible to get out in the rural areas. This was the time before many places had internet capability.

The parade, unlike many in other cities, was tame by comparison with no nudity or any overt sexuality. It was representative of the local GLBT Community with churches, social and political group contingents, individuals, and commercial companies marching or riding floats, ending at the bars on the “Strip”, that area of the city where the bars and social gathering places were, a safe area in an unsafe city.

The bar owners usually were the largest sponsors of both events, and with the parade ending where it did, there was a huge block party that went into the wee hours.

One year some new members of the all volunteer board demanded that the event become more “family friendly”, which meant removing those things that were specific to adults so that the children would not have to see things that might make them uncomfortable and which their parents might feel the need to explain even if the child did not ask them to.

The “Beer garden” had to go, as did the sex enhancement booths, and the medical information booths needed to be discrete in what they had on their tables. The entertainment had to have more children oriented acts, and the Drag Queens had to tone down their repartee with the audience, watch their language, and only do songs with a G rating.

There was even an attempt to move the parade so it would not end at the “Strip” so that the children would not see people drinking, something that could be avoided had the responsible parents had their children watch the parade from anywhere along the 2 mile parade route and not the last block.

Instead of the festival and parade being a party for those who had survived the past, and who had earned the right to celebrate the changes that had improved their lives, the desire was to orient the weekend as a fun time for children, and to sanitize reality for them.

The implication was, to me anyway, that the beliefs about us held by those who oppressed us, that Gay people cannot behave, are unnatural, sinners, and perverts, and are pedophiles, unable to control urges,  dangerous around children, and best kept outside and away from society were influencing this change. It was implicit acceptance of these falsehoods and it perpetuated them.

It was a form of internalized self-loathing.

What gains had been made in equality were not easily won. The treatment for and information about AIDS came after many deaths through social and political apathy. These things did not just happen, and those who lived before, during, and after the changes should be allowed to celebrate their survival, not have to make it an event for children.

And parents should not fear having to explain things to their kids, but should be happy to tell them what it was like, what it took to make the changes, and why we should be vigilant in order to not lose those gains.

The right of the old guy to celebrate at the festival and the parade, but is alone there because the love of his life had been beaten to death in a parking lot takes precedence over a bouncy castle.

The older members of the GLBT community were told how to act. They could not be themselves unless it fit the requirements and expectations designed by and demanded by the majority community. And now that they have one weekend a year in many places to celebrate and act on victories won, they have to control themselves because of requirements and expectations placed on them by parents for the sake of their children.

It would be better that those parents not support the idea that Gay people cannot behave; we are unnatural, sinners, and perverts;  we are pedophiles, unable to control our urges,  dangerous around children, and best kept outside and away from society, and relate history to them so they will know how it was an why the older people are celebrating.

The patriotic elevator emission

It’s gas.

It is totally apolitical.

It is not a source of patriotism. It makes machinery run, heats homes and cooks food.

It is not something to which we pledge allegiance.

It’s gas.

Back when the United States, based on John Bolton’s cooked up evidence, went after Iraq because Saudi Arabian citizens attacked the World Trade Center, there was a need to fire up the country to accept that the upcoming eternal war was justified. If you didn’t play along, you might as well have piloted the planes into the towers.

France was not convinced it should get involved and sat the Iraq War out, and anything with the word “French” in its name was renamed for ‘Merca in the name of patriotism.

Therefore, it is important to keep your blood circulation cute-n-tiny.com generic cialis 20mg optimal. So when the little fella goes down he also takes along with him your confidence and self low priced cialis assurance. When the male ejaculates before the female reaches to the buy levitra vardenafil next level. Examination via Ultrasound A duplex ultrasound is known for identifying identifies blood flow through penile arteries and restoring their elasticity. cialis price French fries became “Freedom Fries” (freedom from whom?), as if that made them taste different and more patriotic, and, although French toast was an American invention by a guy named French, it was rechristened as “Freedom Toast”. To punish France we attacked an American.

In public, perhaps, people might play along with the  faux patriotism, but secretly, in the dark, in our homes, in whispered conversation, they remained French fries and French toast.

And now we are at it again, as the Brander in Chief’s administration has rebranded natural gas as “freedom gas”, and exporting U.S. natural gas is “spreading freedom gas throughout the world”, referring to it as “molecules of US freedom”.

At a meeting in Brussels, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry explained that doubling U.S. liquefied natural gas shipments to Europe by 2020 would decrease Europe’s using LNG from Russia.

“The United States is again delivering a form of freedom to the European continent. And rather than in the form of young American soldiers, it’s in the form of liquefied natural gas.”

So now “Freedom Gas” is a Department of Energy talking point, and the fossil fuel industry is the paragon of freedom.

I guess  the Green New Deal and anyone who promotes the use of renewable energy are unpatriotic and are turning their backs on the “Land of the free”?

 

Stonewall 50

June is GLBT Pride Month.

It began one night in June in 1969 in New York City’s Greenwich Village at a dive bar.

It wasn’t organized and it wasn’t very pretty, and no one who was there that night knew that when their frustration at police raids boiled over it would ignite a movement that had been coming to a boil.

The Stonewall Rebellion was a spontaneous community reaction to yet another demeaning raid on a Gay bar that was routine back then, a reaction that then spread out like ripples from a pebble thrown in a pond.

In the next 50 years progress toward GLBT equality was achieved unevenly throughout the country with the gains made having to be defended from those who claim giving GLBT people their civil rights would somehow reduce theirs, like giving a slice of pizza to the eighth person to arrive at the table would somehow mean you could not eat the slice you already had.

My entry into GLBT activism was simple and quiet.

It began with accepting myself for who I am, the complete and true me, and not what even I thought I was supposed to be from the limited and filtered information I had stumbled upon or had heard from those who really did not know as their information was similarly limited and filtered.

When living in Boston I had joined the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus and, as was the tradition at the time, joined in my first Gay Pride Parade at the tail end of the organized parade where people were allowed to join in, carrying a banner I had made for those friends with whom I marched and who lived on Queensberry Street in Boston’s Fenway Gayborhood.

After the parade GLBT couples freely walked the streets of downtown Boston holding hands and engaging in public displays of affection taken for granted by straight people every day and not limited to one day a year on a weekend when the city streets were practically empty but for us.

It was a taste of what should be.
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There was no shame in our normalcy.

When I got to Southern California, although further along in GLBT equality, there was still much progress to be made. I joined the Los Angeles and then the Long Beach Gay Men’s Choruses, began doing political cartoons for a local Gay newspaper, got involved in the Union’s GLBT subcommittee of which I was the chair when it became a full standing committee of the Union and marched for the first time in the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade representing the United Teachers of Los Angeles, and enjoyed what rights and equal treatment had been won before I arrived and increased while I was there and had helped work for.

Then I went to Oklahoma that was far behind Massachusetts and further behind Los Angeles. There I joined GLBT political and Civil Rights groups, attended multiple rallies, took on politicians and a school District to get policy protections for GLBT students, continued my cartoon work in a GLBT newspaper, and marched openly as a Gay Teacher in the Oklahoma City GLBT Pride parade carrying a sign declaring that.

Progress was made, and continues to be made, by some very fine and very hard working people there.

And then, to be closer to family, I returned to Massachusetts where, while I was away, in 1989 laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in credit, employment, union practices, housing, and public accommodations had been passed, and in May 2004 Marriage Equality had come to be.

And here we are 50 years after the Stonewall Rebellion that ignited the modern GLBT Rights Movement.

There is still progress to be made and gained rights to be defended, but we are not just getting started, and we have seen with hard work and perseverance that full equality is possible, and we will attain it.