The Gaytheist Agenda

Let this story put that misconception to rest. Be aware it is but one of many. From The Atheist Blogger:

 

For those who aren’t already aware, I’m a first year Computer Science student at Royal Holloway, University of London. I live in halls, in a flat with 7 other people. Most, if not all of them are from a Christian background and would call themselves Christians, however the fact that I am openly atheist has never discouraged them in any way. Of course the same could not be said for other inhabitants of the halls, as I would find out within the first few weeks of term.

I’d met a fellow atheist in the neighbouring flat, and we had both decided that the university needed an “Atheist Union” of sorts to oppose the active Christian Union. We drafted up some posters explaining our cause and purpose, and began sticking them up around campus, mainly in the vicinity of our halls. After a few days, 3 of them had been torn off the wall and ripped into pieces. Evidently, I thought, there were some people who really didn’t like atheists. So I reprinted them with a message that tried to get through to their sense of reason. I wasn’t imposing on their beliefs, so why should they impose on mine?

The posters stayed up a few more days…before being ripped down again. I gathered up the pieces, stuck them back together, and decided to display them on my door, as a kind of “shrine” dedicated to my futile efforts to reason with these people. One of the posters I found still intact, but with the words “Pricks” and “Nobs” (British slang for the word “penis”) written across it.

Nevertheless, I managed to build up a small gathering of atheist and agnostic students after we changed our name from “Atheist Union” to “Atheist & Agnostic Alliance” (for an awesome alliteration). Things were going well, until a few weeks ago, when the vandals struck again…only this time they attacked my door.
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Read the rest of the story here.

 

That’s the question so many people ask. It’s also the question discussed by this intriguing and amusing video.

For anybody who missed it the first time around, we’re offering the LGBT Blogroll. We’ve received a number of submissions but we’re seeking a few more before we launch it. Any interested parties click the “comment” link below and follow the instructions. Hope to hear from you soon!

The US Military continues to uphold DADT and discharge soldiers under the policy. So to replace them while we’re still involved in an increasingly unpopular war that fewer people want to become involved in they’re digging to the bottom of the barrel. While GLBT individuals with impeccable work and criminal histories are considered too immoral, it seems previously convicted felons are more than acceptable–so long as they’re straight.

Newly released data show that the Army and the Marine Corp, under pressure to increase their numbers, have sharply raised the number of recruits who have felony convictions.

The information, released Monday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, shows that the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007. And the number of Marines with felonies rose from 208 to 350.

The bulk of the crimes involved were burglaries, other thefts, and drug offenses, but nine involved sex crimes and six involved manslaughter or vehicular homicide convictions. Several dozen Army and Marine recruits had aggravated assault or robbery convictions, including incidents involving weapons.

The use of felons to the fill the ranks comes as 2 people every day are dropped from the military for being gay under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” the ban on gays serving openly in the armed services.

In the 10 years that DADT has been in force more than 10,000 personnel have been discharged as a result of thed policy, including 800 with skills deemed ‘mission critical,’ such as pilots, combat engineers, and linguists.

The number of gay men and lesbians turned way by military recruiters is unknown.
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Pathetic and deplorable.

 

The purveyors of lies, intolerance and inequality have done it. From Equality California:

They claim they did the unconscionable.

Extremist anti-LGBT organizations spent an unprecedented amount of money to pay people to collect signatures and are now saying that they succeeded in buying their way onto the November ballot.

The measure seeks to amend the California Constitution from being a document that protects all people to one that excludes us from equality.

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EQCA is a leading partner in the Equality for All Campaign that is made up of leadership from LGBT and allied organizations fighting this dangerous initiative.

We estimate that the opposition spent well over $1.5 million to gather signatures. This means they’re serious about spending millions more to pass the amendment. We need to prepare for what will likely be the most expensive LGBT rights ballot measure in our nation’s history. Here’s what you can do:

* Make a donation to Equality California Issues PAC. We have to match them dollar for dollar. EQCA Issues PAC is committed to fighting this and every attack on our families and our community and every dollar raised will be spent to defeat this measure.
* Tell your friends and family. Tell them why you are giving and ask them to make a donation as well.

In the coming months our community is going to be tested in ways it has not been tested before. So much hangs in the balance.

Granted, Governor Schwarzenegger stated that he is against a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. But we need to fight this hateful initiative tooth and nail nonetheless.

 

Kevin Alfred Strom will be a guest of the state for the next two years.

Kevin Alfred Strom plead guilty to one count of possession of child pornography in January and was sentenced to 23 months in prison yesterday morning. The judge rejected his claims that he “unwillingly” possessed the porn and his request that he be sentenced to time served.

Throughout Strom’s trial last year for enticement of a minor and witness intimidation— charges that were thrown out by Moon— the prolific writer, radio broadcaster, and founder of the white-rights National Alliance offshoot, the National Vanguard, has been silent in court, speaking only in January to denounce his portrayal in the media as a neo-Nazi and white supremacist.

“I’ve been in solitary confinement for 16 months,” says Strom. “I ask the court to grant me one minute for every month I’ve been in prison.”

During his statement, Strom said he’s been a good father to his three children, ages 15, 13 and 11, especially his severely autistic 13-year-old son, and that his predicament resulted from “false accusations” by his wife, Elisha Strom.

“I am not a pedophile,” says Strom. “I am the furthest thing from a sexual pervert.” He shared his disgust of pedophiles and child pornographers with the court, noting that he regarded sex as “holy,” and that in high school he was an “absolute straight arrow,” and was called a “prude.”
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He explained that the child porn photos found on his computer were fewer than 10 out of more than 100,000, and that they came from an online forum he’d visited that had been “flooded with spam,” including “sleazy, tragic” pictures of children that he deleted. “I possessed them unwillingly,” he told Moon, “but I did possess them.”

“Mr. Strom, this is an unusual case,” acknowledged Judge Moon. “But Mr. Strom, you pled guilty to charges that now you’re saying you’re innocent. I prefer people plead not guilty than put it on me.”
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Nonetheless, calling the child porn guilty plea “extremely serious,” Moon sentenced Strom to 23 months in prison and 15 years of supervised release. He did not prohibit Strom from associating with his minor children.

Afterward, Elisha Strom, who had contacted authorities and is the witness Kevin Strom was accused of intimidating, called the almost two-year sentence “a joke.”

During his October trial, she had testified against her husband, saying that she’d returned home to find him naked and aroused in front of the images of two young, white nationalist-movement singers whose heads had been superimposed onto two nude bodies. Moon ruled that was not illegal, and despite Elisha’s claims that Kevin had choked her to keep her quiet, he dismissed the witness intimidation charge.
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What a cockamamie excuse for having kiddie porn, but then aren’t they all? At least he’s off the street for 23 months, though that’s not long enough as far as I’m concerned.

Off the fence with regard to Brandon McInerney, who I’ve finally decided should be tried as an adult. I’ve discovered that his lawyer is trying to peddle a version of the gay panic defense to deflect blame from McInerney and place it on the victim and the school.

It’s a tragedy, McInerney’s defense attorney said in an interview, but one he believes might have been avoided if someone had stepped in to help beforehand. Senior Deputy Public Defender William Quest said E.O. Green’s administration knew about tension on the middle school campus and allowed the situation to fester — allegations the school district says are untrue.
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Issues between McInerney and King seemed to start after students and teachers returned from winter break.

They had both been at E.O. Green and even had a class together previously, but Quest said he’s not aware of any problems until they came back from vacation.

It was then that King began dressing differently, becoming a focus of conversations on campus, Quest said.

Students have said they witnessed confrontations between King and McInerney in the weeks or days before the shooting, including King’s teasing McInerney and telling him that he liked him.

McInerney perceived King’s treatment as harassment, Quest said. Quest, however, declined to discuss any specific confrontations or issues between the boys. He also declined to say if McInerney ever sought help from an adult to deal with the issue.

Quest said he believes school administrators supported one student expressing himself and his sexuality — King — and ignored how it affected other kids, despite complaints. Cross-dressing isn’t a normal thing in adult environments, he said, yet 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds were expected to just accept it and go on.
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Sorry, you don’t get to shoot somebody in the head twice–with premeditation–because you don’t like the way they dress or because they say they like you, or even if they tease you. It’s simply not acceptable, ever.

Imagine if, instead of dressing in high-heels, wearing makeup and expressing a romantic interest in another boy Lawrence King had been wearing a crucifix and asking Brandon McInerney to learn about the Gospel of Jesus. Would anybody even think of claiming that the way Lawrence dressed, or what he said and did led to Brandon McInerney’s reaction? No. We’d be hearing cries of “Christian Persecution” from every state in the nation and people would be screaming for McInerney’s head on a stake.

It is far past time that the Gay Panic Defense in all its forms be laid to rest forever.

Priest Off. This video is not recommended for the easily offended.

It’s time for another edition of the Gaytheist Agenda Mailbag. My first submission comes from stebbytubbysenior who wrote regarding my good friend Sally Kern

this particular woman is a wart on the anus of the satan she so fervently believes in and that we atheists actually don’t….. mock her, fire her, shame her. Maybe then she’ll have the time to get to read and understand the constitution…..

I wouldn’t describe her as colorfully as you have, but Sally Kern is indeed a nasty character. She believes that certain people and beliefs are superior to others, and of course she and her beliefs belong in that superior category. Then she thinks it’s fine to relegate people she deems inferior to second (or lower) class status and provide them fewer rights and privileges based on her arbitrary notions of what is right and wrong. She claims it’s God’s Word, but like most of her ilk she’s not applying the Bible equally but rather cherry-picking. I wonder how many shellfish and pork dinners she’s eaten lately, how many blended fabrics and how much gold/pearl jewelry she wears, and why she thinks she has the right to teach males. (And that’s only the beginning, mind you.) Indeed, she thinks the Constitution only applies to people she deigns to allow it to apply to. I seem to recall it saying We the people, not We the fundamentalist Christians.

 
The next entry comes from Ebon regarding Rights Groups Ask that Teen Be Tried in Juvenile Court.

I could go either way on this. On the one hand, I’m ethically opposed to the whole concept of seeking “trial as an adult”. It seems to be something used not according to the individual maturity of the offender in question but as a symbol of especially emphatic disapproval which eliminates the whole point. If we’re going to say that people committing X crime should be judged in the same way regardless of age, then let’s just say that, not go through this charade of seeking special permission.

On the other hand, would McInerney be being tried as an adult if he had shot a straight kid?

I’m still conflicted on the matter myself. Part of me still wants to have him tried as a juvenile because he’s 14, and because he’ll have a greater chance to have rehabilitation rather than mere warehousing and punishment. The other part of me feels that despite him only being 14 he took a gun to school, with premeditation, and shot a boy in the head twice–in front of the whole class–because the boy was gay, so he should take his chances being tried as an adult.

Would McInerney be tried as an adult if he’d shot a straight kid? I really think he would considering he used a firearm ( in a classroom full of students no less). That’s a very serious offense which, if he’s actually tried as an adult, can add up to 25 years to his sentence. The hate-crime penalty only adds 1-3 years by contrast.

 
Entry #3 comes from yousuck at your.a.jew@***.com. I have no idea what s/he was commenting on but here’s what my new best friend had to say:

****ing christian

No, I am not a Christian (nor am I Jewish as your probably phony e-mail address seems to suggest). Though I was Christian for about 20 years I reverted back to my former state of atheism in my late 20s when I lost my faith. Of course I should think that would be obvious given that the name of this blog is The Gaytheist Agenda, and many of the posts focus on atheism. By the way, I sense a great deal of hostility in you. Have you ever considered volunteer work or meditation? They can work wonders.

That wraps up this edition of the Mailbag. Stay tuned until next time.

 

While it’s still too early to tell, rumor has it things may be going our way according to this article on HuffPo.

The fight for gay marriage in California has been a tough one during the last decade. In 2000, Proposition 22 was passed by 62% of the state’s voters, limiting marriage to a man and a women. Its since been sent to the State’s Supreme Court. Gov. Schwarzenegger has twice vetoed Gay Marriage Bills sent to him by the California Legislature, the second as recently as last year. “He will uphold whatever the court decides,” Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson said after the bill’s original passing.

Fearing the court’s decision, the Family Research council has launched a ballot initiative for a Constitutional Amendment against Gay Marriage in California. “After oral arguments in the case, it appears very likely that the majority of judges on California’s highest court will rule against the current meaning of marriage, opening up God’s ordained institution to same-sex couples,” they said in a March fundraising email.

Sources wishing to remain anonymous in the California Court System indicate that the court, which has until June 2, 2008 to issue it’s marriage ruling, is considering issuing it on Friday, May 23, 2008, with the decision being written by Chief Justice Ronald George. The Court is readying itself for a backlash that may follow the rumored and bold decision. There is talk that the Court will not simply strike down Proposition 22, but will move the State of California toward full marriage, if not even granting full marriage rights for gays and lesbians outright.

Obviously aware of what’s coming, Gov. Schwarzenegger came out swinging against the FRC’s proposed amendment, “I will always be there to fight against that,” he said to huge applause this weekend at a Log Cabin Republican Convention in San Diego. He went so far as to call the initiative a “waste of time” and acknowledge that the people of California are, “much further along on that issue.” The latest Field Poll shows only 51% of Californians oppose full gay marriage, an 11 point drop since 2000.

There seems little doubt that California is moving toward full gay marriage equality.
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If Mr. Davis is right, this is certainly good news. Right now I’m engaged to my partner and we’ve got things on hold while we wait to see if we’ll be able to get a mere Domestic Partnership, or a full Marriage. We’re hoping it will be the latter. Equality is a wonderful thing.