tagged w/ LGBT Issues
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lvp
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added this
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8 months ago
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Crikey!
‘Appalling’ law lets schools expel gay students | Sydney Morning Herald
A SENIOR Anglican bishop calls it “appalling” and a gay and lesbian rights group condemns it as “deeply offensive”, but the Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, backs a NSW law that allows private schools to expel gay students simply for being gay.Crikey!
‘Appalling’ law lets schools expel gay students | Sydney... more
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Great new ad, features Gene Simmons and Slash among other faces. Good delivery with even better message.Great new ad, features Gene Simmons and Slash among other faces. Good delivery with... more
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The Senate needs to fix the filibuster, which is an antiquated provision in Senate procedure that requires a 60-vote supermajority to pass legislation, confirm nominees or even perform some of the most mundane parliamentary tasks.
In the 50s and 60s, the filibuster was used to keep racist, Jim Crow laws on the books. It was used to prevent the Senate from passing anti-lynching laws.
And yesterday, due to the filibuster, the Senate was unable to even take a vote on the legislative repeal of the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy, which prevents gay, lesbian and bisexual soldiers from serving their country openly.
Tell the Senate: It's time to fix the filibuster. Click here to automatically add your name to the petition.
It wasn't just DADT that was denied a vote yesterday. The underlying bill, which was filibustered in part to prevent the repeal of DADT from getting a vote, was the National Defense Authorization Act that authorizes funding for our military.
This means that in the middle of two wars, the U.S. Senate was unable to even discuss a bill to fund the troops.
There is good reason to be skeptical about how much we spend on our military and to doubt the merits of our military actions. And we must not fall into the conventional stupidity of equating support for the men and women in our military with the amount of money one is willing to burn in the American war machine.
But there is no good reason to think that a minority of Senators intent on a partisan strategy of obstructionism should be able to prevent these issues from being decided (one way or another) by a majority vote of their peers when our military is engaged in two wars.
Yesterday was one of the clearest examples yet of the degree to which the Senate is broken, and how the filibuster is the cause of such dysfunction.
Click to automatically sign our petition to the Senate. It reads:
"I am writing today to demand that you support Senate rules reform and fix the filibuster at the beginning of the next Congress."
The good news is that, contrary to popular belief, the filibuster isn't some immutable part of the Senate. The filibuster isn't in the Constitution — in fact it's the product of a historical accident. Not only that, the rules governing the filibuster have been changed twice before.
For the first time in 30 years, there is growing momentum to change the filibuster rules in the Senate again. This can be done with a simple majority vote on the first day of the next Senate session.
With different rules in the Senate, we might be celebrating the end of DADT, not to mention dozens of progressive policies passed by the House and killed in the Senate.
So we cannot allow the opportunity to fix the Senate pass by without pushing for reform.
Tell the Senate: It's time to fix the filibuster. Click here to automatically add your name to our petition.
Thank you for working for a better world.
P.S. Some progressives oppose efforts to reform the filibuster because they anticipate times when the filibuster will be used by a progressive minority to stop the overreach of a conservative majority.
If you look at the totality of how the filibuster has been used, it has on rare occasion achieved tactical success for progressives. But on the whole it has proved a strategic disaster for those who fight for social change.
The filibuster systematically works against those who want the government to function, who want to see our legislators address problems and fix things, and who want the government to move us past old prejudices and hateful laws written in the bad blood of our forbears.
And given the craven, callous disregard of Senate Republicans for the multiple crises we face as a nation, given their utter willingness to place political ambition and partisan gain over the need to legislate, is there any doubt that they will have the slightest scruples in eliminating the filibuster when its to their advantage?
Rather than endure additional years of dysfunction in one of the most important institutions of our Republic, we should address the problem on our own terms.The Senate needs to fix the filibuster, which is an antiquated provision in Senate... more
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A Flash Protest was held at Christopher Newport University calling for the Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't TellA Flash Protest was held at Christopher Newport University calling for the Repeal of... more
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Marvel Comics has always been known for its human touch – for its focus on continuity before capes. Spider-Man wasn’t born of Krypton, but Queens: your average boy next door. The Fantastic Four were fantastic, yes, but a family first. Before getting his act together, Tony Stark, Iron Man, drank more than my dad on a Monday. They’re human.
It’s that touch that has drawn readers (and conglomerates) to their pages for 70 years. Man before Super, Woman before Wonder.
In 1963, the X-Men blasted, flew, bounced and ice-slid into the comics world as character first – but also social commentary.
Before this, superheroes were always different – “special” – but with few exceptions, praised for it. Any minority could enjoy them next to the majority, perhaps identifying with their differences: but what about their acceptance? Could they identify with that?
Spider-Man was often looked down upon by the city he protected, but his powers were the result of circumstance. Bruce Wayne was feared for his differences – but he had elected to become Batman. (Not to mention that, by day, he was a millionaire. Tough life.)
But the X-Men – that was it. That was the key. It wasn’t choice that made them who they’d become. It wasn’t circumstance that had made them different.
It was birth.
Read more at http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/dailyloaf/2009/09/22/marvels-x-men-square-off-against-allegorical-proposition-8/Marvel Comics has always been known for its human touch – for its focus on... more
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A friend of one of the suspects in last weekend’s brutal hate crime in Queens, N.Y., says that the assault was not a hate crime, and that the victim, an openly gay man, deserved the “beat down.” The friend proudly displays a tattoo of the Leviticus passage often used to condemn gay people.
Advocate.com
Seriously?! This guy has Leviticus tattoed on his freaking arm! What kind of freak does this? Religion DOES incite hate crimes such as in this case.A friend of one of the suspects in last weekend’s brutal hate crime in Queens,... more
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ryanqk
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added this
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2 years ago
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Homophobic Reggae Artist Buju Banton's latest statement
"This is a fight, and as I said in one of my songs 'there is no end to the war between me and faggot' and it's clear. The same night after I met with them (gay associates), they pepper-sprayed the concert. So what are you trying to tell me?" claimed Banton who phoned Mutabaruka's Cutting Edge talk-show on Wednesday in order to clarify his meeting in the US gay capital. "I owe dem nothing, they don't owe I nothing."
Buju Banton is scheduled to appear at the Knight Center in Miami. His lyrics encourage people to torture and murder gay men. His song "Boom Boom Bye" is about pouring acid on gay people, "burning them up bad like an old tire wheel", and shooting them in the head with an Uzi. He also sings ""Anytime Buju Banton come, f--gots get up and run ... they have to die".
The city-owned Knight Center is no place for this kind of hatred and should not provide a venue for incitement to murder.
Other cities in Florida and across the country have cancelled, urge the Knight Center to do the same.Homophobic Reggae Artist Buju Banton's latest statement
"This is a fight,... more
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ryanqk
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added this
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2 years ago
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Strident conservative attacks on two of President Barack Obama’s gay nominees could temper the impatience gay and lesbian activists show as he speaks to a major gay civil rights group Saturday night — but the widespread restlessness still will be palpable.
Obama’s speech to the Human Rights Campaign dinner comes just days after a gay Education Department official, Kevin Jennings, and a lesbian nominee to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Chai Feldblum, were targets of a flurry of criticism from conservative groups and some media outlets.
“It certainly can’t hurt if people on our side realize the vehemence of the opposition the president faces,” a top gay Democrat close to Obama told POLITICO. “The stuff the right wing is cranking out is horrible, terrible. There are a lot of understandably impatient LGBT Americans…but while all their criticism is well-intended, some of it is politically naïve.”
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) also said gay activists lobbing criticism after criticism at Obama are ignoring real progress being made on Capitol Hill.
“These concerns are wildly unfounded and silly,” Frank told POLITICO. “As Obama speaks, Congress is about to send him the first piece of gay civil rights legislation in American history,” the congressman said, referring to a hate-crimes bill passed Thursday by the House.
Ever since taking office, Obama has come under fire from leading gay and lesbian activists who say he’s foot-dragging on their top priorities – repealing a ban on gays in the military, expanding same-sex marriage and prohibiting workplace discrimination.
Obama has pleaded for patience – saying he’s believes in expanding gay rights but has so much on his plate with the recession and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that he and Congress just need more timeStrident conservative attacks on two of President Barack Obama’s gay nominees... more
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Pride is a Protest members in Manchester explain why Pride is Still a protest for them in 2009.Pride is a Protest members in Manchester explain why Pride is Still a protest for them... more
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Then-Senator Barack Obama pledged during the 2008 presidential campaign that he would work with military leaders and Congress to repeal the law that bans openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the military. Yet the law commonly known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," or DADT, remains in effect despite his campaign promise and subsequent pledges to fulfill it.Then-Senator Barack Obama pledged during the 2008 presidential campaign that he would... more
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Only ten days to the gay parade on June 13th in the Capital, which this year would have remembered forty years from the Stonewall riots, the first rebellion of lesbian, gay and trans violence against police in New York. But since 1969 nothing has changed. Le discriminazioni sono ancora all'ordine del giorno ea Roma il corteo del Gay Pride non ha ancora un percorso preciso. Discrimination is still on the agenda and the Gay Pride march does not have a clear path in Rome, yet.Only ten days to the gay parade on June 13th in the Capital, which this year would... more
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The Supreme Court of the state of California has decided for the constitutionality of the proposition 8, the referendum that made gay marriage illegal. Everything started after the initiative of the municipality of San Francisco in 2004, which had recognized marriages, almost immediatly invalidated by state courts. The California Supreme Court, however, ruled in May 2008 that the Constitution of California provided the right to marry, even for same-sex couples.The Supreme Court of the state of California has decided for the constitutionality of... more
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An appeals panel finds California Lutheran High School in Riverside County is not a business and therefore doesn't have to comply with a state law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation.
More in the linkAn appeals panel finds California Lutheran High School in Riverside County is not a... more
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From the page: "Just so happens that Huckabee was on. His special guest was Mat Staver from Liberty Counsel. The two of them were preoccupied with details of President Obama's new (quote) 'Very left, very radical gay and lesbian agenda'..." (more)From the page: "Just so happens that Huckabee was on. His special guest was Mat... more
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That title above comes from an editorial by Michelle Obama in the Advocate.
"We all know what that world looks like. [...]
May this new era truly bring about a “world as it should be” for all citizens, all families… regardless of [...]That title above comes from an editorial by Michelle Obama in the Advocate.
"We... more
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One of the hot button terms in the debate over gay rights is the so-called "Gay Agenda." But what exactly is meant by this? Is the gay agenda merely to petition for equal rights or is it about something far more sinister? In this installment of the "What's Wrong with...?" series, Joe Hanson asks "What's Wrong with the Gay Agenda?"One of the hot button terms in the debate over gay rights is the so-called "Gay... more
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A proposed United Nations declaration that would condemn “discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity” is being trashed by the Vatican. This is just disgusting. Its HUMAN rights we're talking about.A proposed United Nations declaration that would condemn “discrimination based... more
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In the light of recent events that have taken place in the state of California, many people have decided that it’s time to take matters into our own hands. We will not sit back and let the rest of the world decide what we can and cannot do in America the Free.
We have borrowed from the Chicano movement and modified their "Day without a Mexican" into "Day without a Gay."
This concept is simple, but makes a huge impact.
On December 10th, 2008 we ask that all people in the LGBT community and all of our supporters call in sick to work and do not attend school. We ask that you do not purchase anything that day. We want California to see how many of us there are, and that there may be a person in their life that they didn’t know was gay.
Please join us. I know, personally, how extremely difficult it can be to come out and be open about yourself. I have overcome my fear, and I hope that all of you are able to as well.
We need to stand strong in California, and around the country. We need those that oppose us to know that we are strong and that we will NEVER GIVE UP.
Join us, and gain your equality. **this is not restricted to California**
The Official Website: day without a gay * orgIn the light of recent events that have taken place in the state of California, many... more
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