tagged w/ anti-gay
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Reports of hate crimes against gays and religious groups increased sharply in 2008, according to FBI data released Monday.
Overall, the number of reported hate crimes increased about 2 percent. These same figures show a nearly 11 percent increase in hate crimes based on sexual orientation, and a nearly 9 percent increase in hate crimes based on religion.
The largest category, racially motivated hate crimes, fell less than 1 percent.
Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay civil rights group, called the numbers unacceptable and said they showed the need for the expanded federal hate crimes law signed last month by President Barack Obama.
Among all categories of hate crimes, roughly a third are vandalism or property damage. About 30 percent involve intimidation of some kind, and another 30 percent were physical attacks.
The FBI does not compare year-to-year trends in hate crimes, saying the number of agencies reporting changes too much. In fact, the bureau cautioned that the increase reported Monday might well be due to more agencies tracking such incidents.
Overall, “the 2008 numbers are up slightly — 7,783 incidents and 9,691 victims” were reported last year. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation had the largest increase — nearly 11 percent. Hate crimes based on religion rose 9 percent and the “largest category, racially-motivated hate crimes, fell less than 1 percent.” A breakdown of the 1,706 victims of sexual-orientation hate crimes:
– 57.5 percent were victims of an offender’s anti-male homosexual bias.
– 27.3 percent were victims because of an anti-homosexual bias.
– 11.6 percent were victims because of an anti-female homosexual bias.
– 2.0 percent were victims because of an anti-heterosexual bias.
– 1.6 percent were victims because of an anti-bisexual bias.
The FBI notes that with the recent passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, it will now “begin the process of adding the collection of hate crimes motivated by gender and gender identity and incorporating them into our annual report.”Reports of hate crimes against gays and religious groups increased sharply in 2008,... more
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I posted the rather unbelievable story last week that got a lot of you talking about Pastor Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission losing his mind over the passage of the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Cass and his group of hate-mongers had decided to head to DC on November 16th to protest the Hate Crimes Act in front of the Department of Justice in hopes of getting arrested, saying:
"We're basically going to defy the law, and challenge it. We're going to declare the whole counsel of God, including those parts that some may consider 'inciting a hate crime'"
Of course, we all know that the Hate Crimes Law has nothing to do with speech or religious freedom, but don't try any of that pesky logic on Cass and his cohorts.
Well, it looks like the putrid party of hate is getting a little bigger now with support from all the usual suspects in the "hate on gays" army...
Much more after the jump...
http://www.bilerico.com/2009/11/the_fundie_hate_crime_inciters_are_getting_some_su.phpI posted the rather unbelievable story last week that got a lot of you talking about... more
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A billboard advertisement in Memphis featuring a former US marine and the tagline "I'm gay and I protected your freedom" has been torn down by vandals.
No freedom in the land of the free.A billboard advertisement in Memphis featuring a former US marine and the tagline... more
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This is a SPOOF Commercial we did based off a real commercial made by "Nation for Marriage" who spent 1.4 million on completing a commercial against gay marriage--waste of time-considering we did almost the same thing for no money at all. Thanks to everyone who helped out on this project-and please--LET ANYONE MARRY!
Check out the original commercial here--if you dare--
youtube.com/watch?v=Wp76ly2_NoIThis is a SPOOF Commercial we did based off a real commercial made by "Nation for... more
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Big news from Maine. On the plus side, the campaign to save Maine's marriage law has been launched -- and they've got a kick-ass campaign manager leading the effort. In Maine, new laws can be challenged via the referendum process. As I write this, the Catholic Church and its vehemently anti-gay allies are collecting signatures to get a measure on the ballot this November to repeal the new marriage equality law.Big news from Maine. On the plus side, the campaign to save Maine's marriage law... more
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West Hollywood, California (Monday, June 1, 2009) - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in response to the state’s $21 billion debt, sent state lawmakers a plan to reduce spending on HIV/AIDS services.
The cuts include $55.5 million slashed from California's AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and other state Office of AIDS programs.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), a world-girdling resource for people suffering from HIV/AIDS, responded with dire warnings.
The state’s and nation’s largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare provider, AHF warns that these potential cuts to California’s budget could cause a catastrophe for low-income patients living with HIV/AIDS.
This is an outrage!!! Are people who live with HIV/ AIDS and can't afford medications automatically lower on the scale of who gets to live?West Hollywood, California (Monday, June 1, 2009) - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in... more
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As more states take up the debate on same-sex marriage, some advocates of legalization are taking a very specific lesson from California, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dominated both fundraising and door-knocking to pass a ballot initiative that barred such unions.
With the battle moving east, some advocates are shouting that fact in the streets, calculating that on an issue that eventually comes down to comfort levels, more people harbor apprehensions about Mormons than about homosexuality.As more states take up the debate on same-sex marriage, some advocates of legalization... more
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“Gay=Sin” is a short film by the young documentary filmmaker Matthew Brown. The film is not meant to be a political polemic, but rather a commentary about hatred versus acceptance. It’s about love and attempting to make an effort to put out the wildfire of discrimination. The film conveys a beautiful message, which is expressed in a powerful way. It presents an audio montage of anti-gay hatred that is contrasted poignantly against the tapestry of joyful, loving images of the people and places in the film. It combines an artistry of sound and ideas, as well as of images. “Gay=Sin” is an example of the “essay” genre of documentary filmmaking, a genre that can be a very effective vehicle for making social and philosophical statements.
This piece includes a number of color photographs, as well as the emotionally moving short film, “Gay=Sin.”“Gay=Sin” is a short film by the young documentary filmmaker Matthew... more
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"Amazing story about homophobe fundamentalists and the brilliant and collective response of staff, students, and teachers at Walt Whitman High School to a protest against their identification with the great gay poet!" -JD"Amazing story about homophobe fundamentalists and the brilliant and collective... more
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ALBANY "Pray for more dead kids," Rebekah Phelps-Davis screamed, as her niece Sara Phelps stomped an American flag.
These were among the messages Friday morning outside Albany High School, where six adult members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, assembled to convey their disdain for homosexuality.
How much hate does one have to have in their heart to stand outside a high school and hold up "God Hates You" signs?ALBANY "Pray for more dead kids," Rebekah Phelps-Davis screamed, as her... more
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British Bishop Richard Williamson, who has been embraced by the Pope has made the following statements in public.
“None of you believe that 9-11 is what it was presented to be. It was, of course, the two towers came down, but it was absolutely for certain not two airplanes which brought down those two towers. They were professionally demolished by a series of demolition charges from top to bottom of the towers.”
and…
“Women should not wear trousers” and “almost no girl should go to any university” as it contributes to the “the unwomaning of woman.”
and this about gays…
“God did not wait for the founding of the Catholic Church to instill in men the horror of this sin, but he implanted in the human nature of all of us, unless or until we corrupt it, an instinct of violent repugnance for this particular sin, comparable to our instinctive repugnance for other misuses of our human frame, such as coprophagy.”
and just watch what he has to say about the holocaust…British Bishop Richard Williamson, who has been embraced by the Pope has made the... more
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It looks as though an openly lesbian politician is about to become the world’s first interim prime minister in Iceland.
The 66 year old Johanna Sigurdardottir, who is currently Iceland’s social affairs minister, started off as a flight attendant and worked her way up through Iceland’s political system. Now she has become the choice of the Social Democratic Alliance Party to head up an interim government.It looks as though an openly lesbian politician is about to become the world’s... more
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LOS ANGELES -- Hundreds of supporters of same-sex marriage rallied outside a Mormon temple in West Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon to protest what organizers called hefty financial contributions by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the campaign supporting a measure that bans same-sex unions in California.
Due to the Mormon Church's financial investment in the political proposition, an even stronger protest to revoke the church's 501 non-profit tax status is being waged online at: http://www.mormonsstoleourrights.com/LOS ANGELES -- Hundreds of supporters of same-sex marriage rallied outside a Mormon... more
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LOS ANGELES - After losing at the polls, gay-rights advocates filed a legal challenge Wednesday in California Supreme Court to Proposition 8, a long-shot effort that the measure's supporters called an attempt to subvert the will of voters.
Lawyers for same-sex couples said they will argue that the anti-gay-marriage measure was an illegal constitutional revision -- not a more limited amendment, as backers said.
The legal action contends that Proposition 8 actually revises the state constitution by altering such fundamental tenets as equal-protection guarantees. A measure to revise the state constitution can be placed before voters only by the Legislature.
Opponents of gay marriage expressed outrage at the move.LOS ANGELES - After losing at the polls, gay-rights advocates filed a legal challenge... more
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been a major player in organizing and funding a proposition to outlaw same-sex marriage in California. As of Oct. 28, Mormons accounted for 46 percent of the total support for Proposition 8, according to the Mormon-run Web site MormonsFor8.com.
But as the money has flowed into California, divisions have emerged within the Mormon community about the church's role. Mormons should be mere members, rather than the linchpin of the Protect Marriage coalition, some Mormons say, lest their primary goal of missionary evangelism be tainted.
This is a compelling article that articulates both the dissent and bigotry from the Mormon Church.The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been a major player in organizing... more
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Fresh from the shocking recent revelation that the brother of former England footballer Stuart Pearce is an active member of the British National Party, there is worrying news that the party can now boast another relative of a national treasure within its unseemly ranks.
To the noise of collective jaw-dropping among EastEnders fans everywhere, it transpires Angela Reid, the youngest daughter of the late but much-loved stand-up Mike Reid, was due to stand on behalf of the BNP as a candidate at next month's council by-election in Braintree, Essex. The election has come up after the Conservative councillor Bill Rose recently decided to stand down.
Reid was apparently all set to contest the seat until the weekend, when I'm told she decided to withdraw from the race for "personal reasons".
"She would have been an excellent candidate for us and it's a terrible shame that she won't be running this time but we've got plenty of candidates for the future elsewhere," says a BNP spokesman, hastily adding that her U-turn had nothing to do with any political misgivings she may be feeling.
"Not at all, she is 100 per cent behind the party," he insisted. "Her withdrawal is purely personal.
"In fact, she is one of our loyalist members and strongest supporters."
For all their words of support, party activists must secretly be seething.
Since Reid's withdrawal has occurred after the deadline for candidate applications, the party will now not be able to run a replacement.
Fresh from the shocking recent revelation that the brother of former England... more
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Sarah Palin's small-town-girl-takes-on-Washington act is a brilliant success, for today anyway. But anytime political parties bring their aw-shucks, folksy Gomer Pyles out in front of the klieg lights, it's time to suspend disbelief. And that's especially true when the Republicans, party of corporate America and Big Oil, are casting the show.
Yes, Governor Palin was born and raised in a town called Wasilla, hunts caribou, married "her guy" from high school who races, in her words, "snow machines" (when did they graduate from being snow-mobiles?) and apparently knows how to load and shoot a gun. She also really is a mother, a mother of a hockey player too, and a member of the PTA.
However, one need only check out Jim Yardley's enlightening reportage from Wasilla in yesterday's New York Times to smell the rat. Sarah Palin is no average Jane, much as she looks and sounds like one. On the contrary, Sarah Palin's entry into politics and subsequent rise has all the hallmarks of having been engineered, coached and groomed by bigger outside forces with a bigger plan.
Her first election to mayor in 1996 was based on "wedge Issues" - abortion, gun control, and proof of hard-core religiosity - issues that had never been discussed before in the town of 7,000, where politicians had run on where they stood on bingo revenue and fixing muddy roads.
Listen to the shell-shocked fellow she beat in that first election, the three term incumbent Mayor of Wasilla, John C. Stein. "Sarah comes in with all this ideological stuff, and I was like, 'Whoa. But that got her elected: abortion, gun rights, term limits and the religious born-again thing. I'm not a churchgoing guy, and that was another issue: 'We will have our first Christian mayor.'"
There was a time when America's small town governments were about local civics and its churches really were mainly about spirituality. That quaint era vanished, within living memory, with the rise of the "Christian right" which literally infected mainstream American Christianity with hateful brochures about gays, guns, and abortion.
For the rest of this story & more on Palin, please visit:
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2008/09/will-palins-anti-environment-stance-be.htmlSarah Palin's small-town-girl-takes-on-Washington act is a brilliant success, for... more
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"Three homes and five vehicles were sprayed with anti-gay slogans in the 2800 block of NW 7th Ave in Wilton Manors early Friday morning.
One resident was using soap and water to wash out the anti-gay messages sprayed on his property that said "fag".
He explained to CBS4 Reporter Ted Scouten that he's not gay, which is all the more worrying why he was a target.
Another resident, Ron Helfrich, said his home and car were defaced, "They wrote gay on the door, in the living room, and on the couch."
''There's no reason for this to happen,'' Aaron Challancin said. ``We didn't do anything to anyone. We're normal people trying to live normal lives.
The incidents are being investigated by the Wilton Manors police department.""Three homes and five vehicles were sprayed with anti-gay slogans in the 2800... more
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Members of the Westboro Baptist Church stopped by Schofield Barracks, an Army post in Hawaii, for crumpets and tea. Actually, they came to spread hate and hurt whomever they could with nasty words and ugly signs. It's astonishing that these are actually REAL people. Their message is sickening: God hates America, homosexuals, and the military. What is wrong with them?!Members of the Westboro Baptist Church stopped by Schofield Barracks, an Army post in... more
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With same-sex marriage now legal in California, people of faith are renewing a passionate debate over whether homosexuality is sanctioned by God.
Christians, Jews and Muslims on both sides of the issue cite the holy writings of their religions. Some note that the Bible depicts man-lying-with-man as an "abomination," while others say it speaks of God's love for all people created in his image.
Both sides defend their positions with the zeal of the biblical warriors who inhabit their scriptures.With same-sex marriage now legal in California, people of faith are renewing a... more
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