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Los Angeles Times...
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J.C. Penney stands behind Ellen DeGeneres as spokeswoman
February 3, 2012 | 5:45 pm
PHOTO:
Portia and Ellen DeGeneres
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As an openly gay couple, Portia and Ellen DeGeneres have faced plenty of challenges, but one worry they can safely put to bed is Ellen getting dropped by J.C. Penney.
The company has signaled that it is standing by DeGeneres as its spokeswoman, despite the group One Million Moms -- part of the American Family Assn. -- having launched a campaign to force J.C. Penney to end its association with DeGeneres and "remain neutral in the culture war."
In a statement Friday, J.C. Penney responded with support for the comedian, saying it "stands behind its partnership with Ellen DeGeneres."
GLAAD was understandably overjoyed with the news. A site the group had launched to show support for DeGeneres changed focus to show support for J.C. Penney over its decision. As of Friday afternoon, #StandUpForEllen had received more than 26,000 signatures.
"This week Americans spoke out in overwhelming support of LGBT people and J.C. Penney’s decision not to fire Ellen simply for who she happens to love," GLAAD spokesman Herndon Graddick said in a statement. "But while Ellen has the nation on her side, in 29 states today, Americans can still be legally fired just for being gay. Our elected officials should use this incident as yet another example of the support for legal protections for all hard working employees."
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J.C. Penney stands behind Ellen DeGeneres as spokeswoman... 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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Another title to this story could have been: It's about freaking time.
This guy's idiocy blows my mind. What did he expect treating another person like this and then going on all those TV shows?Another title to this story could have been: It's about freaking time.
This... more
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Walmart Carrying Anti-Gay Book for Children
QSaltLake Staff | Oct 07, 2010
A children’s book written by the wife of anti-gay Standard of Liberty president Stephen Graham is being carried by over 100 Walmart stores. Chased by an Elephant, the Gospel Truth about Today’s Stampeding Sexuality by Janice Barrett Graham was written to “help shed the clear light of truth on today’s dark and tangled ideas about male and female, proper gender roles, the law of chastity, and the God-given sexual appetite,” according to Janice Graham in the book’s introduction.
“The number of our young people involved in sexual sins has greatly increased in recent years. Some of the most stalwart-seeming youth find themselves involved in pornography, fornication, promiscuity, homosexuality, and the like,” Janice continued.
According to the Standards of Liberty Web site, the book is available at 104 Walmart stores in the Intermountain West, the Brigham Young University bookstore, and through its sister sites.
“This charming, unique, and important book is a must-read for leaders and parents to use as they see fit that stunningly and resoundingly echos the truths and warnings presented in President Boyd K. Packer’s conference talk this past Sunday,” the announcement said. “For the sake of our children and youth, we can no longer afford to be silent on this topic. Given the licentious world around them, they need to be purposely taught the correct information and attitudes concerning human sexuality and God’s law of chastity.”
The Grahams claim that their son, Andrew, successfully changed his sexual orientation and is now a happily married man.
Andrew Graham wrote the book, Captain of My Soul, saying that he was “lured into same gender internet pornography during his high school years, and recruited into cursory homosexual experimentation with older men while at Brigham Young University.”
Andrew says he is shedding light on the “deceitful and predatory nature of the ‘gay’ lifestyle.”
The book’s introduction says Andrew’s “story ends happily with his subsequent deliverance and healing through family support, expert professional counseling, truth, and repentance through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Included is a lengthy introduction by expert on overcoming homosexuality.”Walmart Carrying Anti-Gay Book for Children
QSaltLake Staff | Oct 07, 2010
A... more
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School board member to resign over anti-gay post
Arkansas school board member to resign over anti-gay post
By the CNN Wire Staff
October 28, 2010 11:00 p.m. EDT
Clint McCance, vice president of the Midland School District in Arkansas, says he will resign.
(CNN) -- A school board district member in Arkansas who came under fire for an anti-gay post on a social networking site regrets the comments and will resign his seat, he told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday.
"I'm sorry I've hurt people with my comments," Clint McCance, vice-president of the Midland School District in Pleasant Plains, Arkansas said. "I'm sorry I made those ignorant comments and hurt people on a broad spectrum."
McCance wrote on his personal Facebook page that he wanted gay people to commit suicide, according to The Advocate, a newspaper focusing on gay news.
McCance used the terms "queer" and "fag" repeatedly, promised to disown his own children if they are gay and stated that he enjoys "the fact that [gay people] give each other AIDS and die."
"I would never support suicide for any kids," he said. "I don't support bullying of any kids."
"I'd like to extend apologies to those families that have lost children, for all those children who feel that suicide is the only way out, especially for the five families who have already lost children," he said, referring to a rash of recent suicides by gay teens. "I brought more hurt on them... they didn't deserve that and I do feel genuinely bad for them."
Though he disapproves of homosexuality, McCance said that "I give everyone a chance and try to love everyone."
McCance said that he has received an outpouring of criticism over his comments, including "thousands of phone calls, hate mails, people threatening to kill my family and me."
He said he has sent his wife and two kids out of the state because of fears for their safety and that he is installing a security system at his home.
"I'm reaping what I've sown," he told CNN. "I've had a lot of hate speech thrown at me and my family on every level."
He said he would resign from the school board to spare the district the bad press and distractions of dealing with the fallout from his comments. "If they decide after five or ten years to vote me back in, then I'll run again," he said.
McCance's comments had drawn criticism from education officials in his district and at the state level.
"I strongly condemn the statements that appeared on Mr. Clint McCance's Facebook page," Tom Kimbrell, Arkansas commissioner of education, said in a statement Wednesday. "... The statements attributed to Mr. McCance constitute a significant departure from statements we expect from our school leaders. The divisiveness and disruption of these comments cause me to seriously question the ability of Mr. McCance to remain as an effective member of the Midland School Board."
The Midland School District had also denounced the posting. "The district strives to foster an environment that discourages all forms of bullying," it said in a statement this week, "and an environment that encourages a safe and productive educational climate [for] all of our students. The district is very diligent in pursuing and addressing bullying of any variety on our campuses."
The state Department of Education had said it was "dismayed to see that a school board official would post something of this insensitive nature on a public forum like Facebook."
Because McCance's Facebook page is not accessible publicly, the Advocate said it learned about the posts after being provided with a screen shot.
The posts were made, according to The Advocate, in response to a bullying awareness campaign sponsored by GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The "Spirit Day" campaign aimed to foster recognition of bullying directed at gays and the effects it can have on young people through a series of events held on October 20.
One aspect of the campaign encouraged people to wear purple to honor those who had committed suicide after experiencing anti-gay bullying, and to show solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youth who face the same pressures.
According to the screen grab obtained by The Advocate, McCance wrote the following about the event: "Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers committed suicide. The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed therselves because of their sin." (sic)
The post spurred a Facebook page encouraging the Midland School District to fire McCance. More than 60,000 people had "liked" the page as of Thursday evening.
However, not everyone disagreed with McCance's comments, which he had defended on his page by citing his religious beliefs.
Gays and lesbians are "thinking they're all right, and [God is] going to let them think that and go to hell for believing what they're doing is right," pastor Harry Craig, of Pleasant Plains Full Gospel Church, told CNN Little Rock affiliate KARK.
On Tuesday, the federal government warned that bullying and harassment in schools often includes violations of federally protected civil rights. Officials warned that school administrators who fail to properly deal with harassment risk being cited for civil rights violations. In extreme cases, such violations could lead to cuts in federal funding.
A group of protesters had traveled Thursday to Pleasant Plains, where they held a demonstration to call for McCance's resignation.School board member to resign over anti-gay post
Arkansas school board member to... more
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