The Gaytheist Agenda

In the twelve years it took to get the Matthew Shepard Act passed, and even in the months since it was finally signed into law, members of the RRRW have whined about how their precious “religious freedoms” will be denied because they can no longer beat and kill homos with impunity. But the MSA didn’t only add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing hate-crimes laws. It also added gender and disability. Of course the RRRW would have gladly seen these individuals go without hate-crimes protections just to see LGBT people do so. Such is the intensity of their hatred for us; that no amount of collateral damage is too much in their quest to see us suffer. Jennifer Daughtery would be part of that collateral damage if they’d had their way.

A bloody metal crutch, a knife, a pair of white high-top shoes and a plastic bag full of hair were among the items detectives pulled from an apartment where a woman was held captive and tortured last week, according to a police report that offers new glimpses into her slaying.
…..
The items, listed in an inventory of seized property, fit disturbingly with what police said unfolded in the apartment over 36 hours — that the group beat Ms. Daugherty with household items including the towel rack, the crutch and a vacuum cleaner hose, bound her with Christmas decorations, painted her face with nail polish, cut her hair, and forced her to write a fake suicide note.

They fed her medication, oil and urine and stabbed her to death for reasons police said are still unknown. Ms. Daugherty’s body, found in a garbage can at Greensburg Salem Middle School on Thursday, was the first in a string of gruesome discoveries for detectives investigating the crime and the tangled relationships of those charged in it.

Jailed without bond on charges of homicide, kidnapping, aggravated assault and conspiracy are Ricky Smyrnes, 23, Robert Masters Jr., 36, Melvin Knight, 20, Peggy Miller, 27, Amber Meidinger, 20 and Angela Marinucci, 17.

…..
Still unknown was how Ms. Daugherty came to know her attackers. Her relatives have said she had the mental capacity of an adolescent, a disability that made her especially trusting and kind. She went to the apartment willingly, police said, boarding a bus from Mount Pleasant, where she lived with her mother and stepfather, on Feb. 8.
…..

Further charges under the recently signed Hate-Crimes Act are being considered though it’s too early to tell if such charges will be added.

I worked for 20 years with adults who had developmental disabilities. I find it despicable that anybody would prey on such vulnerable individuals. I’d like to see the accused, if found guilty, put away for the maximum allowable time–including any hate crimes enhancements.

In the meantime, my thoughts go out to Jennifer’s family. She was a beautiful woman and what happened to her was an abomination.

 

Pennsylvania is famous for its pretzels, and State Representative Daryl Metcalfe (R, Idiot) has a pretzel for a brain. What else could explain such convoluted thinking?

…..
So it took many people by surprise when a resolution designating October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month was derailed Wednesday by Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R., Butler), who claimed it “had a homosexual agenda.”

The Western Pennsylvania legislator said he detected that agenda in this phrase: “one in six women and one in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape.”
…..
Metcalfe, in an interview yesterday, said he opposed the resolution because it went beyond what he considered traditional domestic-violence programs that help battered women and children.

“It had language woven through it that brought men into the situation,” said Metcalfe, who voted for similar resolutions in the last two years. “I don’t support the resolution or funding for groups that go beyond helping women.”

So admitting the fact that men experience domestic abuse, including rape, is part of The Homosexual Agenda? Riiiiight.

Metcalfe said that although the resolution was symbolic and did not authorize any funding, it could be seen as promoting groups that serve homosexuals.

Only to the utterly unhinged, like Metcalfe.

 

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?

 

Out In Silence documents the events that ensued after a wedding announcement for two men appeared in the newspaper of a small Pennsylvania Town.

One resident saw the announcement as a call to arms:

“After seeing the direction that even our community might be going, I know how imperative it is for the Federal Marriage Amendment to be passed,” wrote Clarisa Zacherl, an Oil City resident. “All Christians need to stand up for what they know is right in God’s eyes, and stop this atrocity. The Bible was written as a set of rules for us to follow, not a set of general ideas for us to interpret however we want to fit our own lifestyles.”

Because if people won’t follow your chosen religious beliefs by choice you must make them do so by force of law.

Nice “Christian” folk in that town. They’re the types who know the Clobber Verses by heart but wouldn’t know the Golden Rule if it came up and bit them on the backside. They could recite Paul’s homophobic and sexist ranting in their sleep but couldn’t identify Jesus’ teachings on mercy, love and forgiveness if their lives depended on it. All the while people suffer horribly just for being gay, or for because they’re perceived as gay.

 

It sounds like something that would happen in the Deep South in the 1950s. Instead it’s 2009 and it happened in Philadelphia. While it’s a private organization, The Valley Swim Club advertises open membership and took $1900 from Creative Steps Day Camp so its campers could swim there. But the first day the campers tried to do so the privileged racists at the club got their bikinis in a twist.

…..
“I heard this lady, she was like, ‘Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?’ She’s like, ‘I’m scared they might do something to my child,’” said camper Dymire Baylor.
…..

Oh FFS. Such astounding bigotry and stupidity should really be painful to her, not just to others.

“When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool,” Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. “The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately.”

Really, WTF is wrong with those people?

“There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club,” John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.

Now I see where they’re coming from. I managed to come across one of their recent membership photos and he’s right. All those “minority” kids would change the complexion and atmosphere of the club.

These people are fighting for their Freedom of Religion. Why aren’t you inviting them to be your neighbor so they can live according to their deeply held religious beliefs? (Hat tip, The Freethinker )

A western Pennsylvania Amish farmer has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after refusing to bring a pair of outhouses into compliance with state sewage laws.

Andy Swartzentruber, of Ebensburg, cited his conservative religious beliefs in refusing to abide by a court order to make the privies used by schoolchildren compliant and pay a $500 fine.
…..
Swartzentruber said little when brought before the judge. About a dozen other Amish men and women sat in the gallery.

“I will take a stand for my religion,” he said in a low voice. “If I don’t, it could destroy the whole church group.”

A district judge last year convicted Swartzentruber and church elder Sam Yoder of one count each of failing to obtain a proper permit and discharging untreated sewage into the ground.

Waste from the outhouses had been collected in plastic buckets, then dumped onto fields. Citing state regulations, the county had demanded the Amish install a holding tank and contract with a certified sewage hauler for disposal.
…..

There must be some rule that Pennsylvania state legislators have to be sworn in on brand new personal Bibles . It simply wouldn’t do for everyone to swear on the same book, apparently, and save the taxpayers all that money.

…..
With the state sinking deeper into a fiscal hole, the Pennsylvania General Assembly bought 220 Bibles and other holy books for legislators as they took the oath of office last month.

And the public paid for them - roughly $13,700 in all.
…..
House members got to pick from more than a dozen choices, ranging in price from $30 to $90. Each was embossed with the lawmaker’s name at an additional cost of $15 per book, according to public records.
…..

Up to $105 each per Bible, if you include the embossing fees. I wonder what the PA taxpayers think about this. I certainly know what I think.

The Pittsburgh Democrat downplayed the overall cost of the books as minuscule, given that state spending this will top $28 billion. But he acknowledged that it might not send the right public message in these bad economic times.

“Everybody is looking to conserve resources,” he said. “At a time like this, maybe people should be asked to bring their own scripture with them.”
…..

Gee, ya think? Not that the taxpayers should be footing the bill for religious texts at any time, of course. But that Separation of Church and State thing has truly fallen by the wayside in recent years so things like this no longer surprise me.

 

Will it stay up for a while, be taken down because of outraged believers, or be vandalized? I myself hope it stays as the message is important. It went up today in celebration of the National Day of Reason.

Godless Billboard Greets Philly Area Motorists

May 1, 2008

For Immediate Release - Contact Fred Edwords at (202) 238-9088, fedwords@americanhumanist.org or American Humanist.org

(Washington, D.C.) “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.”

These words are being seen on Interstate 95 north of Philadelphia. Greeting outbound drivers near the Westmorland turnoff, they are part of a highway billboard that features an image of blue sky and clouds with the words superimposed over. The striking message raises a question . . . and maybe some eyebrows.

The billboard was placed by a coalition of local and national humanist and freethought organizations, including the American Humanist Association and it’s independent marketing adjunct FreeThoughtAction, Atheist Alliance International, the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia, and Temple University Secular Students.

This billboard was timed to coincide with the National Day of Reason, celebrated by humanists each year on the same date as the National Day of Prayer–which this year falls on May 1, the 75th anniversary of the first Humanist Manifesto.

Speaking at a press conference held this morning at the Ethical Humanist Society of Greater Philadelphia, Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, said: “Traditional religious billboards have abounded in the past. Something nontraditional like this is therefore needed to stimulate thinking.”

Joe Fox, president of the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia, added: “The point of the billboard is to make nontheistic people, such as atheists and agnostics, aware that they aren’t alone.”

At the same press conference, Margaret Downey of Pocopson, president of Atheist Alliance International, highlighted the positive results that occur when nontheists find each other and become involved with other like-minded individuals.

Sally J. Cramer, president of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, declared: “Atheist and agnostic Americans have been made to feel marginalized. It’s time to change that. We’re here and we have a place at the table.”

“We want people to know there’s a serious and meaningful alternative to the religious right that has been dominating American religious discussion,” Fox added. “After all, a lot of people are frustrated with the power that traditional faiths have wielded, and they don’t know where to turn to find others who share that frustration. Now they will.”

The billboard will be up for three months and is one of a series that will appear around the country, raising the public profile of humanists and freethinkers. The billboard is backed by an active Web site at www.PhillyCOR.org that sets forth the larger mission of the effort and offers ways that individuals can get involved. An image of the billboard appears on the site, but people can also phone 1-800-NEW-REASON. Either way they will be able to learn more about the national and Philadelphia organizations behind the effort.

“Once people have phoned or logged on, they can go further to learn more or just stop right there,” Cramer said. “No door-to-door evangelist will ever visit, and there are no pop-ups on the Web page. Our only aim is to reach those who really want to learn more.”

The billboard is large and clear–20 feet tall by 60 feet wide–and strikingly easy to see on the right side of the roadway.

“You can’t miss it,” Cramer concluded.

For most of us the horrors of The Holocaust are something we experience in history classes, movies and television shows. For one young Pennsylvania man it was much more than that. His grandfather, who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz, gave him a first-hand account of the events. Now anti-Semitic hatred has been visited on the young man himself, in the form of a violent attack.

“He told me stories about the Holocaust, but I thought I’d never have to live through a hate crime,” said the student, who suffered a broken nose and a fractured orbital bone in the attack. “I never thought I’d have to deal with a hate crime.”

…..

Four Temple students were suspended by the university last week and the attack was strongly condemned by school president Ann Weaver Hart, who wrote: “Hate crimes will not be tolerated by Temple University.”

The four suspects - Michael Walsh, 20, of Florham Park, N.J.; David Scott, 20, and Steven Scott, 19, two brothers from Willow Grove, Montgomery County; and Bryan Pediero, 19, of East Brunswick, N.J. - turned themselves into Philadelphia police on Wednesday and yesterday to face the music, police said.

The four were charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment of another person, ethnic intimidation and criminal conspiracy, police spokeswoman Officer Christine O’Brien said.

…..

Temple police have video of the incident in front of Alpha Epsilon Pi house on North Broad Street near Norris, cops said.

The 23-year-old victim and his 22-year-old friend had emerged from the Owl’s Nest Pizza shop around 1:30 a.m. and were swarmed by a group of young men, police said.

The victim remembers that seven males walked up to him and his friend, who is not a Temple student.

“You f—ing Jews! You f—ing [Jewish epithet]!” are the chants he remembers from that early Friday morning.

“Are you part of this f—ing Jewish fraternity?” at least one asked.

They punched him in the face, he remembers.

When his grandfather heard about the attack, “he cried,” the young man said.

Since the beating, the victim said he walks around in fear - scared that he’ll be a victim of a hate crime again. *

It is my fervent hope that the perpetrators get the maximum possible sentences for what they have done. The notion that dislike of another person allows one to cause harm to them is one that I find particularly abhorrent.

To the victim and his grandfather I offer my deepest condolences. This should never have happened, and if I had my way it never would have.