tagged w/ Gays
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This should really be titled “Don’t Ask McCain Anything, Don’t Tell Him He’s Irrelevant.” John McCain’s stand on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell changes too frequently to document although both Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart have tried in the past. Many seem sick of hearing about Sarah Palin in the news lately, and McCain’s position of the week on this issue is just as tiresome. Palin and McCain are continually able to grab headlines though, no matter how trivial their statements are, precisely because a listless President Obama has left the media spotlight open for the taking.
Apparently McCain now thinks the current military system in place works, telling CNN’s Candy Crowley on State of the Union “I understand the point of view by the majority of the media, but the fact is [repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell] was a political promise made by an inexperienced president or candidate for president of the United States.” Well that charge came out of nowhere, but at least it is easier to comprehend than McCain’s past verbal gymnastics of debating with himself whether military leaders or the actual troops had more credibility to determine whether repeal should take place. McCain also continually stressed the “all-volunteer” nature of our forces, which hopefully was not a hint that if gays in the military do not like the current policy they should quit, and instead was a concern that repealing the policy might result in other members of the military quitting.
While the issue of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is certainly open to debate, especially since changing policy in the midst of two wars might not be an effective strategy, the time for that debate should by now have come and gone, since military leaders have now commented and studies are ready to be presented to Congress this week. Therefore, now the Commander-in-Chief should be speaking authoritatively and finally resolving the issue. Instead, McCain is able to single-handedly keep the issue alive and can now dismiss the entire notion of any change whatsoever. Similarly, when Obama is silent about what his current national priorities are, he enables the always exciting Palin to capture the public’s daily fascination.
When the most interesting news related to the President in the past week was him getting a fat lip, then it should be readily apparent that this President’s lack of passion and decisiveness on major issues is resulting in a public that is fast boring of him. Presumably, Obama is waiting until the State of the Union Address in January to unleash Obama 2.0. However, two months is a long time to wait to grab back the spotlight, and Palin and McCain will have tons more media appearances before then that are sure to deliver blows to Obama that stitches will not be able to fix.This should really be titled “Don’t Ask McCain Anything, Don’t Tell... more
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A survey released Monday finds strong support for allowing openly gay and lesbian soldiers to serve in the military, but key groups that traditionally support Republicans oppose the idea.
The survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, shows that 58% of adults favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly, whereas 27% said they opposed allowing it. A majority of both men and women, as well as both Democrats and independents also support allowing open service.
Currently, gays and lesbians are permitted to serve in the military under the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy only if they do not publicly reveal their sexuality.
According the poll, Republicans are divided on whether to allow open service by gays and lesbians -- 40% of Republicans favor it and 44% oppose. Perhaps as important, key groups likely to have an influence on Republican policies are even more opposed to allowing open service. The Pew report notes that among those who said they "agree with the Tea Party" only 38% favor and 48% oppose allowing open servece. Similarly, only 34% of white evangelical Protestants favor and 48% oppose allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly. Lack of Republican support could prevent the Obama administration from ending the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, especially if Congress doesn't vote on ending the policy before the end of this year's lame-duck session.
Ending the policy during a lame-duck session may not be popular even if a majority do support repeal, however -- a recent McClatchy Company poll by Marist College found that registered voters were divided on repealing the policy during the current Congress, with 47% saying the current Democratic Congress should repeal the policy and 48% saying they should not repeal it "so they continue to serve but not openly." Another recent poll by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal found that 50% of adults supported allowing open service but 48% either supported continuing the current policy or not permitting service at all when explicitly offered those options.
The Pew poll was conducted Nov. 4-7 among 1,255 adults, and had a 3.5% margin of error. Results among subgroups have a higher margin of error.A survey released Monday finds strong support for allowing openly gay and lesbian... more
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Mostly missed, in an hourlong interview with Sean Hannity that produced buzzworthy soundbites about Katie Couric and Dancing with the Stars, was former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s unprompted response to the uproar surrounding daughter Willow’s recent Facebook misadventure.
While Palin correctly points out that the national media should not have exploited the musings of a 16 year-old, the balance of her response reveals important things about Sarah Palin, not as a parent, but as a media critic and human being. Not only does she undermine her claims of media “lies” by making stuff up herself, she also displays a disturbing attitude about the use of the word “faggot.”
Palin is absolutely correct that the children of politicians ought to be off-limits to the media, or at least, that there ought to be a high bar set for newsworthiness. Similarly, Palin’s skill as a parent should not be considered fair game. Neither subject has any relevance to Palin’s career as a politician, or as a media figure, and decency dictates that they remain private.
What is relevant, though, is how Palin chose to respond to the incident. Here’s the clip of Palin’s interview with Sean Hannity, including the completely unrelated question that Hannity asked her: (from Fox News Channel)
Here’s a transcript of the relevant portion:
People probably think that my greatest frustration is the lies that are told in the tabloids and on hateful blogs full of anonymous sources about my family … and there are constant everyday lies that we have to read that are out there in the public. But my family and I…thick skin…we can take it, you know…we can take what the haters say despite the fact that there’s injustice in the situation.
I mean, look at the other day. Willow, finally, my 16 year old, she had had it up to here with somebody saying very, very hateful things about the family and saying mean things about her little brother Trig, and Willow finally responded and she used a bad word when she responded in defense of her family. And her response became national news, even hard news copy it turned into, so that’s ridiculous and I had to explain to her, “Willow, there is no justice here but you have to just zip your lip and let’s move forward.”
Perhaps most glaring is the fact that, in an interview in which she promises to restore journalism, Palin gets her facts wrong. The exchange to which she refers contains nary a mention of Trig Palin, and was touched off by a single negative comment about Palin’s reality show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska. Palin would have been perfectly justified had she chosen not to get into the details of the story, but since she did, she ought to have described them accurately.
More disturbing, though, is Palin’s complete dismissal of the use of the slur “faggot.” From her response, it’s not even clear that she identifies it as a “bad word,” since the conversation she references contains a barrage of obscenities. In any case, she clearly felt that the use of the word (or words) was justified, and that the only “injustice” was that anyone objected to it.
This is consistent with the Sarah Palin who defended Dr. Laura Schlessinger over her use of the “N-word,” but not so much with the Palin who demanded Rahm Emanuel’s firing over his private use of the word “retard.” Perhaps this would be a different story if Palin had a “faggot” child of her own, or even a “normal” child who couldn’t live with the stigma that society still attaches to the label.
That’s really the crux of the problem with Palin. Many liberals would probably use these seeming contradictions to charge Palin with hypocrisy, a clichéd, overused accusation that misses the real takeaway. Palin is not a hypocrite. She obviously believes that certain groups are worthy of sensitivity, and is entirely consistent in extending that worthiness only to those folks she can see from her own house.Mostly missed, in an hourlong interview with Sean Hannity that produced buzzworthy... more
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On Tuesday night, Dec. 14, Rosie O'Donnell and I will be conducting a public conversation in New Jersey about families and kids, the celebrity culture and the effects of fame, balancing work and career, and learning how to inspire our children.
It's a subject Rosie is eminently qualified to address. This is, after all, the woman who walked away from one of television's most successful programs and tens of millions dollars per year in order to raise her children. It will be followed by a fundraiser for Turn Friday Night Into Family Night, our national campaign to create weekly family dinners so that children are prioritized in the lives of their parents.
When I told a religious friend about being inspired by Rosie adopting four children, he said to me, "How sad that these kids are never going to have a father." Lost on him was the irony that without Rosie they would not have a mother either.
Now, Rosie has a media microphone and can fend for herself. But I think about all the other gay adoptive parents who are under assault as being ill-equipped to adopt. We've heard all the arguments. Gay parents who adopt will make their children gay (offensive and stupid). Every child deserves a mother and a father (I addressed this above). Gay is an abomination, to which I would respond that leaving a child to grow up in an orphanage where nobody wants them might be an even greater act of sacrilege.
But to my fellow straight people I offer the following challenge. You have every right to oppose gay marriage. It's a free country. We don't suppress opinions. But aren't you under a moral obligation to adopt the children in their stead? Surely leaving kids to drown without love is deeply immoral. But to stop others from rescuing them is an abomination.
I am the father of nine children, thank G-d. I have at times discussed with my wife the possibility of adopting a child. Every child is a child of G-d, not only our biological children. They should have a home, and we should offer it. But my conversations have never gone past just that, conversations. I stand in awe of all those who actually do it. In my religion, Judaism, there is no higher mitzvah, G-dly deed, than raising a child with no parents as your own. This is G-d's child, and really He should have made provisions for him. But the Creator chooses, for reasons unknown to us, to hide behind the veil of nature, and it is we humans who must fill in the seemingly empty spaces. Those who adopt are society's and religion's greatest heroes.
We all agree that every orphaned child is of infinite value. Some of us, however, pay mere lip service to the ideal. Others dress, feed, and hug these children every day of their lives. They wake up in the middle of the night and nurse crying babies back to sleep. They hug their troubled teenagers and counsel them through life's disappointments. They go to work every day to pay for college and weddings. Gay or straight, they make us all look small by comparison. And it would seem to me that it takes one heck of a lot of chutzpa to tell gay men or women not to adopt when we refuse to do so ourselves.
The same rule would apply to those who insist on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." No problem, oppose gays in the military. It's your right. You believe it compromises military morale and combat readiness. I get it. But surely you're going to sign up yourself, right? You're not just going to deny a gay man or woman the right to fight terrorists who want to blow up innocent children and then spend your nights as a couch potato watching football. Surely you're not going to prevent gays from protecting democracy and then run off to Best Buy to find a new 3D HD TV. Someone's got to sacrifice for this country. And if you want to prevent them from doing so, you have to grab a rifle and dodge the bullets yourself.
A few years ago on my radio show I interviewed two gay men who were in court fighting the government of Florida -- my home state, where gay adoption is prohibited -- to adopt a five-year-old African-American child who was mentally-handicapped. They had been picking the boy up from an orphanage every Sunday for about a year and now wanted to adopt him. One of the men said, "Nobody wants him. But we want him." I choked up. The show went to dead air. I could not speak or respond. "Nobody wants him. But we want him." Here was a child whose skin color for some was all wrong and whose intelligence did not always match up. But to these two men the boy was perfect.
I believe their love for him was also perfect, and I believe that G-d loves these men for their dedication to this child, irrespective of how we view the morality of their relationship.
I am an Orthodox Jew. Judaism and the Bible have been the center of my life for all my 44 years. But if religion has not taught me to respect all men and women who adopt an unloved orphan and be inspired by their example, then it has failed to bring out my humanity or change my heart.
That some would prefer that unwanted children remain in orphanages rather than in warm and welcoming homes is a sad commentary on the self-appointed morality police of our time.On Tuesday night, Dec. 14, Rosie O'Donnell and I will be conducting a public... more
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In a visit to Iowa to court evangelical voters, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee trumpeted the removal of three state supreme court justices who agreed with the marriage equality ruling last year.
According to the Associated Press, Hucakbee spoke to more than 1,000 evangelicals in Des Moines at a gathering to mark the merger of a number of groups into a single organization called the Family Leader, led by antigay activist Bob Vander Plaats. Vander Plaats led the campaign to remove the three justices in this month’s election.
"The significance and historic nature of the judicial elections here in Iowa were far bigger than the borders of Iowa," said Huckabee. "It was a very important statement that voters made, a statement that resonated across the country and one that I think will give legs to a larger movement over the next few years."
Huckabee, who currently works as a television commentator, is considering a run for president in 2012, when the former Baptist minister would benefit from the evangelicals’ support in the Iowa caucuses. He won the precinct caucuses in the last election cycle, but said he will not make a decision about another attempt for at least another six months.
Huckabee insisted he would not be swayed by what Sarah Palin, who is also mulling a presidential run, decides to do, according to the AP.In a visit to Iowa to court evangelical voters, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee... more
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;_ylt=AnuZa6nwuKKKIlFkErKwv92s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFmc3VtaTU1BHBvcwMxOTQEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl9vZGRfbmV3cwRzbGsDdW5kZXJ0YWtlcnNv
BERLIN (Reuters) – Two undertakers in the northwestern German city of Cologne are trying to tap into the gay market by selling coffins adorned with images of male nudes.
The prize piece in their display window is a coffin decorated with images of mostly naked, muscular young men in athletic poses inspired by Italian Renaissance paintings.
"We believe you should be able to have a coffin that lets you embark on your last journey in a way that reflects how you lived your life," undertaker Thomas Brandl told Reuters on Thursday.
The unconventional coffin, which costs 1,650 euros ($2,300), has aroused fascination among customers, said Brandl: "People are really interested because it's so unique. Reactions have been very positive so far.";_ylt=AnuZa6nwuKKKIlFkErKwv92s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFmc3VtaTU1BHBvcwMxOTQEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl9... more
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As momentum continued to build toward “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal this year, a desperate Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council played to homophobic fears and said that ending the policy could prompt troops, especially racial minorities, to leave, thereby necessitating the reinstatement of the draft.
Perkins presented his pernicious arguments in an op-ed for The Daily Caller, where he warned that repeal of the military ban would usher in a period of same-sex marriages at military chapels, among other things.
“At base social, sports, and religious activities, your military family will be confronted again and again with forced acceptance of a lifestyle you regard as immoral. Military chapels will be required to host same-sex ‘marriages,’ or, until liberals succeed in repealing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), they may have to settle for same-sex ‘commitment ceremonies,’” he wrote.
Perkins also claimed that lifting the ban would prompt black and Hispanic recruits from urban areas that have been most “resistant” to gay rights to leave the military.
“These are the very areas and groups who have been most resistant to the demands of the homosexual lobby,” he wrote. “These are the very regions and groups who have rallied to our side whenever we put a defense of marriage initiative on the ballot.
“If these regions and groups do not enlist in our all-volunteer force, President Obama will be driven to the place he does not want to go: the military draft,” said Perkins.As momentum continued to build toward “don’t ask, don’t tell”... more
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Willow Palin used homophobic slurs on Facebook, but some bloggers asked whether that makes her a cyberbully or just an immature 16-year-old.
The Huffington Post rounds up reactions from bloggers including Slate’s Emily Bazelon, Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic, and Salon’s Mary Elizabeth Williams. Sullivan, a gay conservative, took the harshest line against the posts, and wondered what they say about the Palin family.
“Using the word gay to mean lame as an adjective is a different thing than calling a young man a ‘faggot.’ Willow is 16 years' old,” wrote Sullivan. “Who taught her to use language like that? And the excuse from the Palins? Not disciplining or an apology - but a defense: A source connected to the Palin family tells TMZ that Willow doesn't usually use this kind of language, but she felt like she and her family were being attacked.”
Bristol, Willow's older sister, apologized for the posts Wednesday on Facebook.Willow Palin used homophobic slurs on Facebook, but some bloggers asked whether that... more
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Representatives for Democratic majority leader Harry Reid and top White House officials committed to bringing “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal to a vote as part of the National Defense Authorization Act before the end of the year at a meeting Wednesday evening with stakeholder groups.
“The officials told the groups that Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama are committed to moving forward on repeal by bringing the National Defense Authorization Act — the bill to which 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' repeal is attached — to the floor in the lame-duck session after the Thanksgiving recess,” read a joint statement from the Human Rights Campaign, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, and the Center for American Progress, which all had a presence at the meeting.
The White House aides present at the negotiations included deputy chief of staff Jim Messina and director of legislative affairs Phil Schiliro as well as Chris Kang, special assistant to the president for legislative affairs, and Brian Bond, deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Majority leader Reid was represented by his chief of staff, David Krone, and his senior counsel, Serena Hoy.
Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he had asked the majority leader to take up the bill after the Pentagon issues its report and following hearings he plans to hold on the matter, “which should take place during the first few days of December.”
"I will work hard to overcome the filibuster so that 'don’t ask, don’t tell' is repealed and the NDAA --- which is critical to our national security and the well-being of our troops --- is adopted," he said.
When Republicans mounted their successful filibuster against debating the NDAA in September, Sen. Reid planned to include a vote on attaching the DREAM Act, a measure that would provide undocumented students brought to the United States as minors with a path to citizenship through higher education or military service.
But this time around, Reid plans to offer the DREAM Act as a stand-alone bill rather than as an amendment to the defense bill.
“Last time we sought to bring up [the DREAM Act], all Republicans blocked our effort, even though many have been supporters of the DREAM Act in the past," Reid said in a statement. "I hope that our Republican colleagues will join me, Sen. Durbin and Democrats in passing this important piece of legislation, now that we have a stand-alone version and that the political season is over.”
Republicans had also objected to the amendment structure Reid set up for the September vote on the NDAA, complaining that they would not be given a fair shake at adding their own amendments once it reached the Senate floor for debate.
Some Democratic senators are now urging a more open amendment process for this vote.
“If the sticking point is that the Republicans want an opportunity to offer amendments and they feel like they weren’t given that opportunity before the election, I have no problem with a more open amendment process,” Colorado senator Mark Udall, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Advocate earlier this week.Representatives for Democratic majority leader Harry Reid and top White House... more
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John Stewart tackled Senator John McCain’s stand on “don’t ask, don’t tell”—and Cindy McCain’s apparent flip-flopping on the issue—on Monday night’s The Daily Show.
Stewart shows clips tracking Sen. McCain’s shifting requirements for DADT repeal and then discusses the PSA where McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, seems to call for an end to the policy. A day after the PSA was released, Cindy McCain tweeted that she supports her husband’s stand against repeal.
Watch The Daily Show clip here, including Stewart’s own “It Gets Worse” PSA, featuring actor Sean Hayes.
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/11/16/John_Stewart_Mocks_McCains_DADT_stand/John Stewart tackled Senator John McCain’s stand on “don’t ask,... more
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Following a voter recall of three Iowa supreme court justices who voted for marriage equality, state senate Republican leader Paul McKinley said the four remaining justices would be at risk of losing their jobs unless lawmakers give Iowans a chance to vote on a constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriages.
According to Radio Iowa, McKinley said if lawmakers do not succeed in putting a constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot, then the other justices would also be at risk because of their contribution to the unanimous decision that brought marriage equality to the state last year. He blamed the recent loss of the three justices on the Democrats' insistence on marriage equality.
McKinley said, “That is an issue that the people overwhelmingly said, ‘We want to have a say in this. It should not be overreaching government or judges. I believe the [justices] would still be in office had Mike Gronstal allowed that vote over the past two years. It would not even have been an issue.”
Gronstal, the Democratic leader in the state senate, has vowed to block any attempt to advance a constitutional amendment against marriage equality. His party holds a 26-24 edge over Republicans after last week’s election.
In the house, where Republicans hold a 60-40 majority, Republican leader Kraig Paulsen plans to have the chamber endorse the prospect of a constitutional amendment, according to Radio Iowa.
Moving a constitutional amendment against marriage equality would not be easy in Iowa, where both the senate and house must pass a resolution in two consecutive sessions before the amendment could be placed on the general election ballot.Following a voter recall of three Iowa supreme court justices who voted for marriage... more
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Three St. Charles North High School students who wore T-shirts with the words "Straight Pride" and a Bible quote that references putting gay people to death will not face disciplinary action, school district officials said Tuesday.
The students told school administrators that the T-shirts were not meant to indicate a desire to cause harm, but to convey pride in being straight, according to students.
The three male students wore the T-shirts on Monday. They reportedly included a quote from Leviticus 20:13 which states, "If a man lay with a male as those who lay with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination and shall surely be put to death."
This week is Ally Week at both St. Charles high schools, which is intended to "identify, support and celebrate allies against" bullying or harassment of homosexual or transgender people, according to the Ally Week website.
"This is the trick in an issue like this," district spokesman Jim Blaney said. "You have to balance one person's right to free speech to another person's right to not be offended."
Blaney said high school and district officials talked to the students twice about the T-shirts on Monday. While the students said they would not wear the T-shirts again, they were allowed to keep them on for the rest of the day.
Officials said the incident was used as "teachable moment" about sensitivity. While there is a policy in place regarding harassment, bullying, intimidation and threats, there is no requirement for punishment and it is up to the discretion of the school administrations in the particular situation, Schlomann said.
Students have in the past been expelled for actions that violated the policy.
"But when (administrators) talked with these students, they found something different," Schlomann said.Three St. Charles North High School students who wore T-shirts with the words... more
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Fourteen-year-old Brandon Bitner walked in front of a tractor-trailer in the early hours of Friday morning, and his friends say the Middleburg, Penn. child was driven to suicide after being bullied about his perceived sexual orientation.
“It was because of bullying,” friend Takara Jo Folk wrote in a letter to The Daily Item of Sunbury, Penn. “It was not about race, or gender, but they bullied him for his sexual preferences and the way he dressed. Which they wrongly accused him of.”
Bitner, a freshman at Midd-West high school, dressed in emo-style clothing and was bullied mercilessly for it, according to fellow students. “Anyone in our school who looks different is tortured,” sophomore Emily Beall-Ellersieck told The Daily Item.
Midd-West high school held an antibullying assembly just days prior to Bitner's suicide, but students said no one took it seriously.Fourteen-year-old Brandon Bitner walked in front of a tractor-trailer in the early... more
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Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell has been temporarily suspended, pending a hearing by the AG's office over his blog posts that targeted a University of Michigan student for being gay.
Shirvell was banned from the University of Michigan campus and took a leave of absence after repeatedly blogging about U of M class president Chris Armstrong's "radical homosexual agenda," and harassing him on campus.
Shirvell returned from the leave of absence last Friday, and faced a disciplinary hearing by the Attorney General. It will continue tomorrow.
The Detroit News reports that John Sellek, a spokesman for Attorney General Mike Cox, said: "Because we are extending the hearing, we placed him on administrative paid leave."
The University of Michigan also lifted its ban of Shirvell last week, though stipulated that he cannot have contact with Armstrong while on campus. Shirvell threatened to sue the school a few weeks ago if it did not lift the ban.Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell has been temporarily suspended,... more
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The grandson of antigay televangelist Oral Roberts has a message for “my people — homosexuals.” It gets better.
Randy Robert Potts (pictured), a former middle school English teacher now pursuing a career as a writer, says in a column and accompanying video for The Washington Post that his grandfather “and most of his generation” describe gay people “as an abomination.”
In the video, Potts talks about his uncle Ronald David Roberts. Ronald came out to his father in high school. According to Potts, Oral Roberts “did not want a gay son,” and when Ronald was in his 30s, six months after getting a divorce, he shot and killed himself.
Potts says that his mother, like her father, does not want a gay son. At his grandfather’s funeral just last year, Potts says his mother told him that “hell does exist, and I’m going there.”
In the years since coming out, Potts says he’s lived in fear of losing his children because he’s gay. He says he even considered suicide, but with help and time, it got better.The grandson of antigay televangelist Oral Roberts has a message for “my people... more
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Apparently dreams can come true. Claude and Kurt Blanchette-Ebert, a gay couple from Vancouver, won a $50 million jackpot last Friday — the largest lottery jackpot won in the history of British Columbia.
The Vancouver Sunreports that the win could not have come at a better time for the cash-strapped couple, who are in the midst of planning and celebrating their 30th anniversary.
"We still don't believe it," Claude, 52, told the Sun. "It's surreal."
But once it further sunk in, the couple quit their jobs with the intention of living off of their winnings.Apparently dreams can come true. Claude and Kurt Blanchette-Ebert, a gay couple from... more
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BRIDGEPORT, Conn., Oct. 30 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama was heckled by AIDS activists Saturday during an event to rally the Democratic base in Connecticut.
"Excuse me ... excuse me. You've been appearing at every rally we've been doing. And we're funding global AIDS (prevention). And the other side is not. So I don't know why you think this is a useful strategy to take," USA Today quoted an irritated Obama as saying.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/10/30/Obama-heckled-in-Connecticut/UPI- "I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean"- President George W. Bush.BRIDGEPORT, Conn., Oct. 30 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama was heckled by AIDS... more
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Dr. Phil appeared on Anderson Cooper’s 360 to say he isn’t satisfied with antigay Arkansas school board member Clint McCance’s apology for posting on Facebook that he thinks gay teens should kill themselves.
“This isn't really an apology,” Dr. Phil said. "My concern is that, because this is getting so much attention....the downside of it is that gay, lesbian transgender and questioning youth right now can say 'see that's how they really feel' and we drive them further back."Dr. Phil appeared on Anderson Cooper’s 360 to say he isn’t satisfied with... more
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An Alabama supreme court justice has compared the federal judge who ruled "don't ask, don't tell" unconstitutional to Al Qaeda, Think Progress reports.
"Liberal judges are at it again," Justice Tom Parker, a Tea Party candidate who was first elected to the court in 2004, said in a recent campaign ad.
"Recently, U.S. district judge Virginia Phillips ordered a worldwide injunction to overturn the 'don’t ask, don’t tell' policy on homosexuals serving in the military," he said. "With a stroke of a pen, this Clinton-appointed judge, who got her law degree at Berkeley, unilaterally made the biggest single change in military policy in American history. ... Most people believe that Al Qaeda is one of America’s biggest security threats. I think it’s time to add liberal activist judges like Judge Phillips to that list."An Alabama supreme court justice has compared the federal judge who ruled... more
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President Obama is obligated to defend Don't Ask Don't Tell. Failing to do so would devolve federal law into partisan anarchy. But military officers who say readiness would suffer with openly serving homosexuals are ignoring history, reality, may be lying, and are certainly hypocrites.President Obama is obligated to defend Don't Ask Don't Tell. Failing to do... more
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