Lowlights & Highlights: June 23, 2012

When most of us found out that Dharun Ravi would only get 30 days in jail (and 300 hours community service) for the invasion of privacy that ultimately led to the suicide of Tyler Clementi, many of us were outraged. I know I sure as Hell was. I'm not saying that the book should have been thrown at him or that he should have gotten the maximum jail sentence (which I believe was 10 years). However, what he DID get was a mere slap on the wrist. I could not have imagined him getting less than a year in jail for video taping Clementi and a male companion like that against their will and live-streaming it on the internet, especially given Ravi's lack of apparent remorse.

Well as if that had not been bad enough, it gets even worse. He was released from jail after a mere 20 days. That's right, that slap on the wrist was apparently not a soft enough "punishment" (I'm using that word extremely loosely). I have no idea what the decision-maker was thinking, or if he/she was thinking at all. Not only this, but Ravi's defense team is appealing the conviction. These people just can not seem to get enough of tap-dancing on Clementi's grave, and that is what it seems like they are doing. Saying this is sad would be the understatement of the century. I can not begin to imagine what Clementi's family is going through, but it seems like all of this just adds insult to an already tragic scenario.

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In things that were completely predictable, Bristol Palin's "reality" show bombed. Seriously, her mother was the popular one and even SHE didn't last more than a season on her show. Nobody cared about her, and they do even less so now since she has cashed in much of her Tea Party credibility by endorsing "establishment" candidates (like Orrin Hatch) over Tea Party backed candidates. Why did Lifetime, the network that airs Bristol's show, think anyone would care about her? Not only that but were I a woman, I would have been pissed off that "Television For Women" aired a show featuring such an ignorant female. The show has not been cancelled. However, with the way networks sometimes work, a quick increase in ratings is necessary for this show to live on...which I have to hope does not happen (and I don't see it happening either).

I don't generally like to revel in someone's failure, but fame-whores leave a bad taste in my mouth. The fewer on television and elsewhere, the better. Now if I could just see the Kardashians off of the air...

The Wrap-Up: June 22, 2012

House Republicans have all but gone on record as being against job creation with their rejection of a transportation bill which passed the Senate by a HUGE margin.

Anti-gay groups in Minnesota are planning a "Dump General Mills" campaign after the business voiced its opposition to the state's proposed marriage equality ban. I guess these groups are unaware of the massive failure of the "Dump Starbucks" campaign.

The Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") has been pushed back to next week. These justices must really like the attention they're getting.

How will Mitt Romney be spending his weekend?

A key House Republican is saying that the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell is settled law and won't be revisited even if the GOP wins big in November. You'll forgive me if I don't take a politician (regardless of party) at their word.

Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) took a DEA administrator to task over her evasiveness on marijuana related questions. His questions were extremely straightforward. Her answers were anything but.

I think most of us knew that no one really cares about Bristol Palin. Now, there are numbers to prove it.

Carrie Underwood may have recently voiced her support for the LGBT community, but she is definitely not the first country star to have done so.

And lastly, Jimmy LaSalvia, co-founder of conservative gay group GOProud, gets grilled on his organization.

Lowlights & Highlights: May 19, 2012

Here in the States and much of the Western world, the fight for LGBT equality centers around marriage, adoption, employment non-discrimination, and so on. While those battles rage on, it is easy to forget sometimes that in other parts of the world, gay people do not even truly have the right to exist. Case in point: it was reported this week that four Iranian men were sentenced to execution by hanging for sodomy laws. Iran is a nation governed by Sharia Law (meaning it is an Islamic theocracy) and homosexuality there is punishable by incarceration and/or execution. Strangely, the Iranian president said that they don't have that "problem" in his country.

We have come a long way in the West. Several countries have hate crimes laws, marriage equality and other such LGBT equality measures. Some countries, however, have a very long way to go, and their fights will be long and, unfortunately, bloody.

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There were many people who responded to President Obama's announcement supporting marriage equality. Some agreed, some disagreed. One of those who disagreed was Bristol Palin. In her response to the president's announcement, she did not just give the standard right-wing diatribe against homosexuality (which would have been bad enough on its own), also managed to call into question the president's parenting skills. While some agreed with Bristol, there were some who were not so kind...to say the least. She reported death threats and bullying committed against her. While I certainly think that those kinds of responses go way too far, she should have expected at least some backlash.

One of the responses to Bristol Palin caught my attention. It was written by John M. Becker from Truth Wins Out, an organization that fights against misinformation from the "ex-gay" movement specifically and homophobia in general. Here is part of his response:

Hey, Bristol. I’m so sorry that you felt bullied by some of the abusive comments that were left on your original post. They are indeed awful and inexcusable.

That said, welcome to the world that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people live in every day. In fact, according to an exhaustive analysis of FBI hate crimes data by the Southern Poverty Law Center, LGBT people are at a greater risk of being targeted for a violent hate crime than literally any other minority group — more than twice as likely to be attacked as Jews, 2.6 times more likely than African-Americans, nearly 4.5 times as likely as Muslims, almost 14 times more likely than Latinos, and 41.5 times more likely than whites. In large swaths of our country, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth are regularly teased and beaten up for who they are (or who their peers *think* they are), all the while living in a culture that shames them into silence. Many of them have homophobic parents or guardians, so they can’t even turn to the people who are supposed to love them unconditionally. LGBT youth are four to five times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight counterparts because of the malicious bullying and crushing hatred that they’re surrounded by every day. I should know: I attempted suicide myself at age 16...

...In closing, I must submit an important correction. You wrote about the “younger generation” in the context of abortion, then continued in the same sentence about how “voters just keep defending [so-called] traditional marriage.” If you meant to imply here that the “younger generation” — *our* generation – supports the continued exclusion of loving same-sex couples from full civil marriage equality, you are wrong. Seriously, no, *incredibly* wrong. In fact, you couldn’t be more wrong: repeated polling consistently proves that our generation OVERWHELMINGLY believes that EVERY American deserves the freedom to marry the person they love, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. You’re free to hold any views you like, no matter how bigoted they are. But you are *not* free to misrepresent the truth. And the truth is that when it comes to marriage equality, the jury is in – and you’ve lost.

 You can read the whole article and response by Becker HERE. It is well worth the read.

The Wrap-Up: May 18, 2012

Chris Rock hits the nail on the head about marriage equality.

One of the killers of the Colorado civil unions bill has a gay son who is none-too-happy about what has father did.

An adamantly homophobic middle school teacher in Kansas has, thus far, gone unpunished for anti-gay statements on his Facebook page (the principle is looking into it).

Rep Mike Coffman (R-CO), who has tried to look like a moderate, stepped in it by saying President Obama is "not an American."

A Virginia legislator thinks that, contrary to what the Supreme Court said in Lawrence v. Texas, sodomy (which is technically ANY unreproductive sex act) is not a civil right. I don't always agree with SCOTUS (Citizens United for example), but I'll take their opinion on this over a homophobe..

Another side effect of President Obama publicly supporting marriage equality is that more prominent people in the black community are also voicing their support.

Bristol Palin is claiming to be the victim in the wake of negative response she got to her statement on Barack Obama supporting marriage equality. I say if she can't stand the heat, stay out of politics (and stop trying to give the President of the United States parenting advice).

Here is a look at the latest electoral map from the Washington Post.

And lastly, Vice President Joe Biden takes a shot at Mitt Romney on the auto-bailout.