The Gaytheist Agenda

This is yet another example of the outrageous indignities transgender people face in a world that doesn’t understand them and treats them as less than human. It also shows once more why we need a fully inclusive ENDA. Kate Lynn Blatt was working for Manpower, a temporary employment service. She was told that as a condition for continued employment she would need to provide documentation from her surgeon of her sex-reassignment surgery and photos of her genitalia. (She wasn’t asking for the surgery or anything related to be covered by company health insurance. She was only asking to be employed by Manpower.)

…..
Blatt, 28, said she found the request “repugnant” and “disgusting,” and declined to comply. She viewed the request as a form of sexual harassment, she added.

“I was shocked and disgusted,” Blatt said. “It felt like I was being reduced to a mere sex object. I was trying to work there in a dignified and private manner, but my dignity and privacy were constantly being violated.”

…..
Blatt filed bias complaints against Sapa and Manpower with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, alleging wrongful discharge based on sex and disability. She said her disability is gender dysphoria.
…..
Bethany Perkins, a spokesperson for Manpower Inc., said she couldn’t comment on the specifics of Blatt’s complaints. But she said Manpower is committed to ensuring a safe and non-exploitive work environment.

I don’t consider demanding photos of your employees genitals, particularly when you target only certain employees, to be safe or non-exploitative. I wish Blatt well on her suit. People shouldn’t be targeted and degraded as a condition of employment.

 
This leads me to wonder: Countless employees proclaim they are religious and, based on that, demand special accommodations from their employers. They ask for time off on “religious holidays”, refuse to serve certain people because it “conflicts with their religious beliefs” and even refuse to perform job functions because they “conflict with their religious beliefs”. Do employers ever demand employees prove they are of the faith they say they are? Do they demand to see photos of circumcised genitals, notes from the employee’s clergy person, copies of their First Communion, etc? Or do they just take the employee’s proclamation of religiosity at face value when faced with demands for special accommodations and privileges?

 

I know members of the RRRW don’t care. To them these individuals have it coming for “going against God’s design”. But to me it’s horrifying that at least 200 transgender people, an average of one every three days, have been killed worldwide in the past year and a half.

 

Sad, but probably not shocking. The European organization “Transgender Europe” has a new report out this week documenting worldwide violence against trans people, and the findings show an alarming increase in violence toward transgender people. Evidence presented by Transgender Europe tells the gruesome story: between January 2008 and June 2009, more than 200 trans people were murdered in the world.

…..

The cases have been reported from all six World regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The majority of cases have been reported from Latin America and North America. On these continents the majority of cases have been reported from Brazil (59) and the U.S.A. (16) for 2008 and from Brazil (23), Venezuela (20), and Guatemala (10) for the first six months of 2009. Moreover, the preliminary results show a total of 11 murdered trans people reported for Colombia followed by 5 for Honduras and 4 for Mexico and Venezuela for 2008, and 6 for Mexico and 3 for Argentina, and the Dominican Republic for the first six months of 2009.

In the United States, of course, we’re familiar with the face of violence toward trans folks. One has to look no further than Latiesha Green, or Angie Zapata, or Ebony Whitaker to see that for U.S. folks, this is happening in our own backyards.

Of course, what’s even more frightening about the Transgender Europe report is that the 200+ murders they’ve documented over the past year and a half are likely a lowball figure. It’s hard to collect accurate evidence on violence committed toward LGBT folks around the globe, since large amounts of violence go unreported.

The study itself is part of an ongoing campaign organized by Transgender Europe and the medical/health journal Liminalis, called The Trans Murder Monitoring Project. The goal of the project is to document trans violence throughout the globe, putting both names and faces to the epidemic.

 

How many innocent people have to die before something is done? Before we as a nation, and a world, say “enough”?

 

People already have federal hate-crimes protection based on their race, color, religion and national origin. In most states they have similar protections. The proposed hate-crimes bill would merely add, on a federal level, sexual orientation , gender identity, and disability. It doesn’t provide any “special protections” or rights. It merely affords protections already enjoyed by many to groups who don’t have them.

Please, call your Congressmembers and ask them to support the Hate Crimes Bill.

 

So many headlines and not enough time to write individual posts on them all…

 
When You Can’t See
A must-read by Matthew Good.

 
New Study Finds Gap in LGBT Health Services
The only surprise is that this is a surprise to anybody.

 
‘Gayby boom’: Children of gay couples speak out
No, they aren’t traumatized for life by having two mommies/daddies despite popular claims. But they are sick of know-nothings and bigots mucking things up with their intolerance.

 
July 4th Tea Party in Dallas.
Angry, illiterate white people go teabagging in silly outfits and carry misspelled signs. It’s to protest taxes (which are the same as, or lower than, they were under GWB), the war (started by GWB) and excessive government surveillance (Patriot Act, anybody?).

 
Accused of attacking man for speaking Spanish, man charged with hate crime
I wonder how many “white pride” groups Parker belongs to.

 
Case of autistic Marine brings recruiting problems to the forefront
People with autism (who are clearly not suited and highly susceptible to manipulation and abuse), Neo-Nazis, ex-felons… Apparently the only criteria for the military these days is “No Homos”.

 
The Psychology of Anti-Gay Aggression
Nice analysis of a 2008 study.

 
Boy Scouts: You’ve Been Cast Out

The Boy Scouts of America are notorious for acting like a public institution when it’s time to collect Federal money, and for enjoying the freedoms reserved for private institutions when they feel like being bigots.

 
Religion is Not about Tolerance
Yet another example of how “deeply held religious beliefs” can make people act like hateful lunatics.

 
Bigots or sociopaths?
jesurgislac asks whether the anti-gays are merely bigots, or are they really sociopaths?

 
Keepin’ the rich, white, Christian man down with political correctness
Jesus’ General nails it, as always.

 
Pharmacists can’t refuse Plan B pill, appeals court says
Pharmacists are told to do their jobs rather than engage in moral grandstanding. What a novel concept.

 
Mass. bill promotes transgender equity; Foes say it would open restrooms to sex predators
Kris Mineau, professional hater of LGBTs, says the bill is bad because “here’s no clear way to determine if an individual is transgender”. Funny, there’s no clear way to determine if an individual is religious yet religious people have superior federal and state constitutional protections.

 

The lying, whining shills of the RRRW are still gnashing their teeth over HR 1913/ S. 909, the proposed Hate Crimes Bill. The latest from WorldNutDaily:

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says a homosexual activist who is attacked following a Christian minister’s sermon about homosexuality would be protected by a proposed new federal law, but a minister attacked by a homosexual wouldn’t be.
…..
“This is the question,” Limbaugh said. “[Sen.] Jeff Sessions [R-Ala.] presents a hypothetical where a minister gives a sermon, quotes the Bible about homosexuality and is thereafter attacked … by a gay activist because of what the minister said about his religious beliefs and what Scripture says about homosexuality. Is the minister protected?”

No, said Holder.
…..
Continued Limbaugh, “In other words: ministers and whites are not covered by the hate crime statute because we’re talking about crimes that have a historic basis, groups who have been targeted for violence as a result of their skin color, sexual orientation. So hate crimes are reserved exclusively for blacks and homosexuals. Everybody else can get to the back of the bus on this one. ”
…..

The cries of White Christians won’t be protected by this proposed legislation OMG we’re so persecuted are running rampant in the RRRW blogosphere. Either they’re buying the bull or they’re perpetuating the lies.

White people and Christians don’t need to be protected by the proposed legislation because they are already protected under existing federal and state hate crimes legislation, and have been for many years. This is something that the bigots conveniently ignore, and even blatantly deny, in their ceaseless tirades against hate-crimes protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The portion of Section 245 of Title 18 which is primarily enforced by the Criminal Section makes it unlawful to willfully injure, intimidate or interfere with any person, or to attempt to do so, by force or threat of force, because of that other person’s race, color, religion or national origin and because of his/her activity as one of the following:
o A student at or applicant for admission to a public school or public college

o A participant in a benefit, service, privilege, program, facility or activity provided or administered by a state or local government

o An applicant for private or state employment; a private or state employee; a member or applicant for membership in a labor organization or hiring hall; or an applicant for employment through an employment agency, labor organization or hiring hall

…..

o A patron of a public accommodation or place of exhibition or entertainment, including hotels, motels, restaurants, lunchrooms, bars, gas stations, theaters, concert halls, sports arenas or stadiums.

This statute also prohibits wilful interference, by force or threat of force, with a person because he/she is or was participating in, or aiding or encouraging other persons to participate in any of the benefits or activities listed above without discrimination as to race, color, religion, or national origin.

The offense is punishable by a range of imprisonment up to a life term, or the death penalty, depending upon the circumstances of the crime, and the resulting injury, if any.
…..

Nearly every state provides separate hate-crimes statutes that protect on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity and/or a variety of other classifications. Some states go so far as to make interference with religious services a criminal act. Religion and religious individuals are very well protected in this nation.

So a Christian would be protected if he was, hypothetically, beaten by a gay man who was screaming “I hate Christians”. He would be protected because there are already hate-crimes laws on both the federal level and in most states that protect people on the basis of their religion. Likewise a Christian would be protected if his attacker were a transgendered man, a transgendered woman, a Satanist, a lesbian atheist vegetarian or even another Christian. Furthermore if a white person were attacked for being white they’d be protected under already existing legislation.

HR 1913/S. 909 does not give LGBT people special rights or elevate them above anybody. It adds sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability to the classes already protected by hate-crimes legislation. Furthermore sexual orientation doesn’t mean only gay/lesbian/bisexual individuals are protected by the law, nor does gender identity mean that only transgender individuals would be. Everybody would–including straight people and those who identify with the genitals they were born with.

Really the bigots should be screaming for this bill to be passed because it protects them as much as it protects the LGBT people they loathe so much. Those millions of straight people being persecuted by LGBTs would finally have the protection they’ve been lacking for so long.

 
Now repeat after me so it’s clear. If you’re dealing with a bigot this is a handy rebuttal. If you are a bigot stop pretending you’re a victim when you aren’t.

Christians and white people are already protected by federal hate-crimes legislation.

Christians and white people are already protected by federal hate-crimes legislation.

Christians and white people are already protected by federal hate-crimes legislation.

 
Related posts:
Traditional Values Coalition Enters Video Age to Spew Lies and Intolerance.

Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes Highest Since 1999.

 

Still more violent attacks against LGBT individuals across the US:

Gay-Bashed on Pride Weekend on the Upper East Side

Our colleague Michael Feingold told us some very bad news today: a former Voice sales rep, Joe Holladay, in town on business, was jumped and beaten Saturday morning by a group of men who called him a faggot.

Holladay tells us that he walked out of John Jerome’s apartment on East 85th Street between York and East End Avenues, where he’d been staying, at about 4 a.m. to smoke a cigarette on the sidewalk, and five or six young men swarmed him.

“It’s very blurry,” he says, “But yeah, they said ‘faggot.’ And the next thing I know I’m in the hospital.”

Jerome, an acting coach, heard the fracas and came downstairs to find his friend “in a pool of blood. I thought he was dead. He wasn’t moving.”
…..
Holladay says his doctor told him his injuries suggest he was hit with a blunt object. “The mark on my forehead looks like it was made by the base of a gun,” he says.
…..

 
Congressman says gay sailor’s death is a possible hate crime

Rep. Bob Filner (D-Chula Vista) said today that he has asked the Department of Defense and the Marine Corps to investigate whether the killing of a sailor, who was gay, at Camp Pendleton was a hate crime.

Filner, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he wanted a complete investigation of circumstances surrounding the death of Seaman August Provost, 29, of Houston. Provost’s body was found about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday in a guard shack on the western edge of the sprawling base.
…..
Filner said initial indications are that Provost was shot and his body burned. He said his committee also will investigate the case.

[Updated 7:20 p.m.: In a late afternoon news conference, Navy officials today promised a thorough investigation into the killing. They said, however, that there was no evidence it was a hate crime. A sailor who is considered to be a person of interest remains in the brig. Another sailor, who was initially considered a person of interest, has been released.]
…..

 
Transgender Woman Brutally Beaten in Queens Bias Attack - TLDEF Demands Full Investigation Into Hate Crime

We’re sad to bring you the news of another brutal attack on a transgender woman, this one coming during the height of LGBT Pride month. On June 19, 2009, at approximately 2:30 am, Leslie Mora was walking home from a nightclub on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens when she was accosted by two men who brutally beat her with a belt. They stopped only when a passing motorist threatened to call the police.

Throughout the attack, Leslie’s assailants called her a “faggot” in Spanish. The attack left Leslie with multiple injuries, including bruises all over her body, and stitches in her scalp. Police called to the scene found Leslie nearly naked and bleeding on the sidewalk. They also recovered a belt buckle from the assailants that was covered in blood.
…..
Her assailants, Trinidad Tapia, 19, and Gilberto Ortiz, 32, fled the scene but were arrested by police soon after the attack. Both were charged with assault with intent to cause physical injury with a weapon, a felony, and released on their own recognizance. The Queens County District Attorney has declined to investigate the attack as a hate crime.

Transgender people face tremendous violence in their daily lives. A transgender person is murdered every month in the United States, on average. New York State Senators must immediately return to work and pass the transgender hate crimes legislation pending in the Senate. The Gender Expression Non- Discrimination Act (S.2406), which has passed the State Assembly and is awaiting Senate action, would make it a hate crime for an individual to attack another because of the victim’s gender identity or expression. Current state law already protects New Yorkers from hate-motivated violence based upon race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation and other factors. It is unconscionable that transgender New Yorkers are being attacked on the streets where they live while our state’s Senators shirk their responsibility to take action to end the violence.
…..

 
But of course LGBT people don’t deserve the same hate crimes protections others enjoy. That might inhibit the “right” of others to bash us to a bloody pulp in the name of “religious freedom”.

 

Various headlines from everywhere.

 
Gay bar patrons not targeted by officers, chief says
All the usual tripe. “We went there because they were a bunch of drunks. They made gay passes at us. He just walked into my night stick, I swear.”

Obama urges lesbian, gay patience overturning ‘unjust laws’
Obama makes pretty words and tells us to keep on waiting, as usual.

Court throws out ban on exposing children to gays
Georgia Supreme Court is living in 21st century unlike lower court. Gay parents and friends won’t actually give children Teh Gay.

Neo-Nazis are in the Army now
Sharing the baracks, trenches or showers with a law-abiding, highly qualiified gay/lesbian soldier? EEEEW! Sharing them with Neo-Nazis and ex-felons? No problem.

Atheists as Unusually Moral?
Yeah, we’ve been saying this all along but let a Pagan tell you now.

Don’t leave clergy alone with children: report
Finally someone figured it out. All that screaming they do about gay people molesting children–it’s projection.

Could Proposition 8 happen in Canada?
These days I wouldn’t be surprised by anything. They have Alberta, after all, which is chock full of Mormons.

It’s Baaackkk: ENDA!
“Traditional Values” Coalition displays their Christian love by calling a transgender man a “she-male”.

Judge Upholds Start Date of D.C. Gay Marriage Law
D.C. to uphold law. Bigots apoplectic.

American Atheists to lower membership fees
In light of the struggling economy and in an effort to boost membership American Atheists has reduced membership fees. Individual memberships are now $20 (formerly $40) and family memberships are $35 (formerly $60).

 

News headlines from around the nation.

 
Exclusive: ‘Pregnant Man’ Gives Birth to Second Child

Thomas Beatie, the controversial “pregnant man,” gave birth to his second child, a healthy baby boy, early this morning, “20/20″ has learned.

Sources close to the couple say that it was a “natural childbirth” and that they have not yet decided on the boy’s name. Beatie’s wife, Nancy, will be breastfeeding their son, as she did with their daughter, Susan Juliette, who was born last June.
…..

More on Thomas Beatie.

 
Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South

In Tennessee, a young mother is arrested and jailed when she asks to be paid for her work in a cheese factory.

In Alabama, a migrant bean picker sees his life savings confiscated by police during a traffic stop.

In Georgia, a rapist goes unpunished because his 13-year-old victim is undocumented.

These are just a few examples of the injustices that confront Latino immigrants as they struggle to gain a foothold in the South.
……
Instead of acting to prohibit and eliminate systematic exploitation and discrimination against Latinos, state and local governments in much of the South have exacerbated the situation. A number of Southern communities, for example, have enacted ordinances designed to limit services to undocumented immigrants and make their lives as difficult as possible, with the ultimate goal of driving them away. In addition, many law enforcement agencies in the South, armed with so-called 287(g) agreements with the federal government, are enforcing immigration law in a way that has led to accusations of systematic racial profiling and has made Latino crime victims and witnesses more reluctant to cooperate with police. Such policies have the effect of creating a subclass of people who exist in a shadow economy, beyond the protection of the law.
…..

 

Targeting D.C. homeless may soon be hate crime

Legislation before the D.C. Council would make it a hate crime to attack one of the District’s estimated 6,228 homeless people because they live on the streets.
…..
The District’s protected classes are: “race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, family responsibility, physical disability, matriculation, or political affiliation.”

A person convicted of a hate crime faces up to 50 percent more time behind bars and a 50 percent higher fine.

Maryland is the only state to include homelessness in its hate crimes statute. Gov. Martin O’Malley signed the bill last month.

The National Coalition for the Homeless reported 774 documented acts of violence committed against homeless people between 1999 and 2007 — 217 of which resulted in death. The list only includes acts of violence by “housed people” against victims selected because they are living on the streets.
…..

 
Arizona lawmakers seek to strip domestic partners of health coverage

Arizona lawmakers are moving to take away health insurance coverage for the domestic partners of state and university employees. These rights were gained by domestic partners only one year ago.

About 750 workers would be affected says the Department of Administration. If put into affect, the state budget would define “dependents” of state employees who are entitled to coverage as a spouse or a child younger than 19, or younger than 23 if a full-time student.
…..
“This particular benefit is critical because it is doing exactly what society asks us to do, and that’s to take care and be responsible for our families,” McCullough-Jones said.

 
Christian group sues for right to burn gay teen novel (No, I’m not making this up.)

In a scene which appears to have been lifted straight out of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a group of Christians in Wisconsin has launched a legal claim demanding the right to publicly burn a copy of a book for teenagers which they deem to be “explicitly vulgar, racial [sic], and anti-Christian”.
…..
Their suit says that “the plaintiffs, all of whom are elderly, claim their mental and emotional well-being was damaged by this book at the library,” and that it contains derogatory language that could “put one’s life in possible jeopardy, adults and children alike.”
…..
“The word ‘faggot’ is very derogatory and slanderous to all males,” the suit continues. “Using the word ‘Nigger’ is dangerously offensive, disrespectful to all people. These words can permeate violence.” The suit also claims that the book “constitutes a hate crime, and that it degrades the community”.
…..

This, coming from the same sort of people who insist hate-crimes laws are bad because they’ll make the Bible illegal and put pastors in jail for preaching “God’s Word”. Hey, I never claimed they were sane.

 

Yet another transgender woman was shot in Memphis for the “crime” of being transgender.

…..
Police say they have arrested an 18-year-old man who shot a transgender woman because the victim misrepresented herself about her gender. Terron Taylor was taken into custody Friday after he shot Kelvin Denton in the neck and nose at the Peppertree Apartments near Graceland, My Fox Memphis reported Tuesday.

Denton was found near the Whitehaven Community Center and taken to The Med for medical attention where she remains in critical condition.

Last year, violence against three transgender women – Leeneshia Edwards, Ebony Whitaker and Duanna Johnson – made headlines after following the shooting death of Tiffany Berry in 2006.
…..

Meanwhile the bigots continue to scream that LGBT people don’t need or deserve to have the same hate-crimes protections they currently enjoy, and peddle anti-LGBT legislation to boot, all of which helps to ensure there will be more hate-crimes against people like Kelvin Denton .

 

I’ve not been feeling up to regular posts lately and I’m even less up to one today. So instead here are some interesting links I’ve had bookmarked for a while:

Pioneering gay, AIDS activist Rodger McFarlane mourned after taking his own life in New Mexico

New York, Monday, May 18, 2009 – It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of our friend, colleague, and hero, Rodger McFarlane. A pioneer and legend in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights and HIV/AIDS movements, Rodger took his own life in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico last Friday. In a letter found with his remains, Rodger explained that he was unwilling to allow compounding heart and back problems to become even worse and result in total debilitation. We know that Rodger was in a great deal of pain. Already disabled in his own mind, he could no longer work out or do all the outdoor activities he so loved. He was also now faced with the realization that he could literally not travel, making employment increasingly difficult. As his friends and family, we thought it was important that we communicate to the world that it has lost an amazingly wonderful individual who contributed so mightily to our humanity.
…..

 
Maine panel backs transgender woman in restroom case

The Maine Human Rights Commission decided Monday that a transgender woman was discriminated against at a Denny’s restaurant in Auburn when management would not let her use the ladies room until she had sex reassignment surgery.
…..
Heiden said that many people make the faulty assumption that being transgender is mostly about genitals.

“That’s a part of it, but the essence of who they are is not what their genitals look like,” he said.

The incident in question happened on Oct. 25, 2007, when Brianna Freeman of Lewiston — formerly known as Bruce — used a locked stall in the ladies room while “dressed clearly” as a woman, according to the investigator’s report. Efforts to reach Freeman were unsuccessful.
…..
“The customer was very upset, was irate, had threatened to call police,” he said. “A few days later, management decided that it would be in the best interest of Denny’s to ask the customer to use the men’s room until sex reassignment surgery.”
…..

So Ms. Noseypants peeks into Brianna Freeman’s locked bathroom stall, watches Brianna in a state of undress, and Brianna is the problem? I take it Ms. Noseypants is a RRRWer. They’re always sticking their noses where they don’t belong then whining about things that aren’t their business in the first place.

 
Vallejo schools to pay $25,000 to lesbian teen, modify policies

A lesbian student’s complaint that teachers harassed her over her sexual orientation has led to a Vallejo school district agreement to pay her $25,000 and revamp anti-discrimination policies, it was announced Monday.
…..
The student, Rochelle Hamilton, now 16, was a sophomore at Jesse Bethel High School in the fall of 2007, when teachers allegedly verbally harassed her and forced her to attend a counseling session for gay students. Gill said the counselor tried to discourage Hamilton and other students in the session from being gay.

The alleged harassment included a staff member telling Hamilton she was “ungodly” and “going to hell” as she embraced her then-girlfriend. The alleged comments transformed the “social butterfly” into a teenager on the verge of suicide, Hamilton’s mother Cheri said Monday.
…..
According to a letter dated Jan. 17, 2008 from the ACLU to Bull, staff members made comments to the girl such as, “Remember, you’re a girl, not a boy,” and, “You can get HIV/AIDS from being gay and messing with females.”
…..

Nice “Christian” folk they have at that school.

 
I’m Glad I’m a Boy! I’m Glad I’m a Girl!
You have to see this one to believe it. Emily posts screen caps of a classic childrens’ book on gender roles that’s just astoundingly horrible. Of course the RRRW would probably love it, which goes to show how bad it is.

 
Jesus in Chief

“When Barack Obama moved into the Oval Office in January, he inherited a military not just drained by a two-front war overseas but fighting a third battle on the home front, a subtle civil war over its own soul.” So writes Harper’s contributing editor, Jeff Sharlet, in a deeply-reported, equally troubling essay (not yet available online) chronicling the rise of the evangelical right in the U.S. Military since the Vietnam War.
…..
According to Sharlet, there is a “small but powerful movement of Christian soldiers concentrated in the officers corps” who see themselves not as subversives or radicals, but as “spiritual warriors” and “government paid missionaries.” Within this “fundamentalist front,” the best organized group is the Officers’ Christian Fellowship, which has 15,000 active members at 80 percent of military bases and an annual growth rate of 3 percent. The group equates military duty with Godly duty and routinely casts the world in stark terms of good and evil. The men and women in American uniform are the Lord’s to do with what he pleases. Everyone else is, literally, on the side of Satan.
…..
Yet, as the Harper’s story makes clear, preaching the word—which sometimes morphs into harassment and abuse of nonbelievers—is becoming both more common among the rank-and-file and too often ignored by commanders all the way up to Obama himself. It’s gotten so bad, in fact, that lifelong republican Mikey Weinstein, a former graduate of the Air Force Academy, a ten year veteran of JAG, and former assistant general counsel in the Reagan White House, is serving as president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a small, scrappy organization whose primary mission is to protect soldiers who don’t walk the evangelical line from harassment. He tells Sharlet that his enemy is “weaponized Christianity.” And he believes this “country is facing a pervasive and pernicious pattern and practice of unconstitutional rape of religious rights of our armed forces members.”
…..

 
Proposition 8: Open Season on Minorities?

…..
The purpose of the Equal Protection clause is to limit the ability of popular majorities to take away the basic rights of the less powerful or popular. Before the election, the right of gays and lesbians to marry was a fundamental right protected by the state’s Equal Protection guarantee.

So Proposition 8 did far more than “simply” redefine marriage. Through Proposition 8, a simple majority vote took away fundamental rights from a minority. If the underlying purpose of the Equal Protection clause can so easily be ignored, then the constitutional guarantee of Equal Protection has been de facto eliminated.
…..
The implications of the Right’s arguments are terrifying.

If the fundamental right to marry can be taken away from gay people by simple majority vote, what right can’t be taken away from gay people that way? Can voters prohibit gays from getting driver’s licenses? From opening restaurants? From owning property?

And why limit this to lesbians and gays? Under California law, voters would be able to “redefine” marriage to be the union of people of the same race. Or they could prohibit women from driving. And they could do it with nothing more than a simple majority vote. Surely the California Constitution prohibits these outrages.
…..

 
Sixth-Grader’s Milk Project Blocked

A Ramona, Calif., sixth-grader was forbidden to give a presentation on Harvey Milk to her class after administrators required her classmates to get signed parental permission to listen to it.
…..
Days later, Jones was told she could only give the presentation during recess, and students would be required to get parental permission before they could attend.

The school’s policy stresses that parents will be notified if their children are being exposed to lessons about “human reproductive organs and their functions, processes, or sexually transmitted diseases” as well as “family life, human sexuality, AIDS, or sexually transmitted diseases.”
…..

Why do some people insist that being gay is all about sex, and that the mere mention of a gay person means you’re discussing sex/sexuality? Really it is they who have the perverted, dirty minds–not others. Yet everyone else has to suffer.

 
Faithist Memes, Religious Privilege, Victimization, and Bad Arguments

…These are all “points” that are used to defend and protect religious beliefs. ..
“It’s true because I believe it.” – The “Truth” Meme.

This might sound like a simple everyday understanding, but it’s definitely a faithist meme. It’s a suspension of reality. It’s saying, “It doesn’t matter what else is true, this will always be true because I choose to call it truth.” Yeah, I said choose. Belief is a choice. You choose what you believe, and by the power of this meme, you get to choose your truth. You see it used as a defense over every social issue. Fundamentalists say they know what traditional marriage is (even though marriage has changed many times over its history), they know when life begins (even though there is no actual way of objectively determining such a thing), etc. But they don’t know, there is no truth or fact, they just believe.
…..
“These are my beliefs, so you need to respect them.” The “Respect” Meme.

No, I don’t. I respect your right to have them, but just because you say they’re your beliefs does not mean I am going to kowtow to them. This is, of course, what Dawkins referred to as “undeserved respect.” I call it religious privilege. The true nature of this meme is the immunity that beliefs have from debate. Beliefs don’t stand up to debate, because they aren’t substantiated. If you start to unpack this meme, you unpack the “Truth” meme simultaneously. Why are they your beliefs? Why do you choose to hold those beliefs? What are your REASONS to hold those beliefs?
…..
“If my beliefs are not being respected, I’m the victim.” – The “Victim” Meme.

This is just a blatant abuse of privilege. It’s crying foul and resisting any sort of intellectual debate. It’s pitiful and pathetic.

Our good friends over at the National Organization for Marriage are infamous for this. Maggie Gallagher is on some talk show every week spewing this garbage. Carrie Prejean, that joke of a “role model,” is the latest public face of this privileged position:

I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be. But these attacks on me and others who speak in defense of traditional marriage are intolerant and offensive. While we may not agree on every issue, we should show respect for others’ opinions and not try to silence them through vicious and mean-spirited attacks.

That’s right. According to the followers of this meme, by challenging their points, it’s offending their beliefs. Thus, they’re the victims. So, obviously, they should just have their way and that way no one will be offended! That’s convenient.
…..
“Well, since we can never know, it’s better to just believe, just in case.” – The “Just Because” Meme
Ah, Pascal’s Wager. I really could debate this, but the Wikipedia article explains it pretty well, with a Dawkins quote and all.

I’ll just call this meme what it is: desperation. When faced with the choice of cognitive dissonance and blissful ignorance, this is the meme that allows blissful ignorance to continue. It’s committing oneself to never see outside of the Matrix, and thus humoring the idea that there could be no such thing as the Matrix (if you’ll humor my metaphor).
…..

There’s much more in the post so treat yourself to the full read.

 
With The ‘Gay Tax,’ Love Doesn’t Come Cheap

…..

The media’s primary focus on the morality debate around same-sex marriage means that most of the public, gay or straight, knows little about the very real economic costs of inequality. It doesn’t matter that Joan and I married in Massachusetts five years ago this week, or that our home state recognizes our marriage. It makes no difference that she works for a progressive company with an active LGBT employees group. Companies pay for their employees’ health insurance with pretax money through a federal program, and same-sex marriage isn’t federally recognized.
…..
Consider the cost to Randy Lewis-Kendall, who lost his husband, Rob, to colon cancer in 2007, their 30th year together. He is about to be denied the $1,161 per month he would have collected in Social Security survivor benefits had his marriage been federally recognized. He could use it, too. The two men owned a small gift shop in Harwich on Cape Cod together, and Randy has been struggling to pay the bills since Rob’s death and the economic downturn.
…..
DOMA doesn’t just hurt our pride: It undermines our ability to take care of one another. Neither Joan nor I have the right to take family medical leave from our jobs in the event that one of us becomes seriously ill. In couples where one spouse is a U.S. citizen and the other is not, the citizen cannot obtain a visa for the noncitizen or sponsor him or her for citizenship. And forget about inheritance. If you’re in a same-sex marriage and your spouse leaves her estate to you — for example, the house you shared — you’ll be forced to pony up as much as 50 percent of her estate’s value in taxes. Price tag for federally recognized married couples? Zero.
…..