A (Former) Republican Judge on His (Former) Party

A Great Thing Happened In A Pizza Line...

From Huffington Post:

This past weekend I was a part of something incredible that happened in my community of Columbus, Ohio. After a fun night out in the Short North, my friend Ethan and I ventured down the street to a popular pizza truck called Mikey's Late Night Slice. As a frequent late night visitor to the truck I knew the requisite wait in line is part of the process for securing an insanely good slice of pizza. It was really cold so Ethan and I were holding hands and standing close together to keep warm, we were laughing and joking about all the fun we'd had that night, when all of the sudden the guy in front of us turns around and tells us to cut our "gay shit" out. 

I was a bit startled by his words but I didn't expect what happened next. Almost every single person in that line made it known to him it was not OK for him to speak to us like that. By happenstance my friend John, who is also gay, was standing in front of him and as he continued his rant about being disgusted by us we both let him know that this was our city too and that we were not about to stand down to his bigoted ideas, especially not in one of the gayest neighborhoods in town. As he continued it was actually the straight people in line who spoke up that were so awesome. 

I didn't expect to see allies so willing to chime in and let this guy know that his hate speech wouldn't be tolerated. The best part though was as he grew more irate and vocal the guys who work the truck stopped what they were doing and leaned towards the window and told him they would not serve him because he was spewing hate. They said they support everyone in our community and that he should get out of line because they would not be serving him. He begrudgingly got out of line and walked away escorted by a friend who had been hanging back... 

This is a great article that should be read in its entirety.

Hate Crime in OKC

Unfortunately after last night's post  about one hate crime, there is yet another one to report out of Oklahoma City. From The New Civil Rights Movement:

Jon Ferguson, a 25-year old gay Oklahoma City man Saturday morning saw his car spray painted with the word “fag,’ then blown up feet away from him as he approached.  Ferguson was rushed to the hospital with 1st and 2nd degree burns as the flames from his Camaro rose ten feet into the air. Oklahoma City Fire Department and local officials are treating this only as a case of arson, and not as a hate crime, for now. No, seriously. Arson. Not a hate crime — yet. (The New Civil Rights Movement called the Oklahoma City Fire Department and we’re awaiting a call back — we’ll update you when we get a response.) And sadly, the vandals may have won. “It’s almost not worth being proud of who you are, and trying to show that you’re gay, because stuff like this really does happen,” Ferguson tells local Oklahoma City News 9 TV. ”I’ve always seen it on the news that kids are dying and stuff because they’re being bullied, and you’re 25 years old and something like this happens to you. It’s almost not worth it, and you understand why kids don’t come out of the closet.”

To quote one of my favourite films, "What can men do against such reckless hate?"

Anti-Gay Slurs Carved Into Lesbian's Skin

Film: A Lack of Gravity

Homophobic Attack At Lowes

From The Advocate:

Two men who report being verbally harassed and physically threatened at a Lowe’s home improvement store in Riverside, Calif. have been granted temporary restraining orders against the employees who allegedly attacked them. Jeremy Smythe, 29, and Daniel Soto, 35, have requested video evidence from Lowe’s of the incident and are considering a civil case against the store.

~

Lowe’s security cameras captured footage of the incident, but Lowe’s has not agreed to release the video to Smythe, Soto and Roberts-Ross. Should Lowe’s release the tape, a representative told Smythe, Soto and Roberts-Ross, they will do so with the stipulation that it cannot be released to media. Smythe suggests Lowe's knows its employees were in the wrong.

“If the video shows we were the aggressors, why wouldn’t Lowe’s say, ‘Show the tape’? It’s going to show what we’ve been saying all along,” Smythe says.

It's pretty obvious that if/when the evidence shows that these employees are the agrgressors here, they should be fired. I know to most that common sense, but we should also be aware that common sense ain't that common in this world. 

Don't forget that these two men had a child that was with them when this incident occurred. Yeah, these employees were attacking these men with their child in tow.

I can't help but think that if something like this happened at a Home Depot (which has a good track record with LGBT equality to the point that they have incurred a boycott be the so-called American Family Association), the employees would have been fired on the spot, no litigation required.  Just some food for thought there.

You can read the article in its entirety HERE.

The Battle of the "F" Word

Something of a firestorm erupted in the gay community this week. Just as the conservative gay group GOProud formally endorsed Mitt Romney for the presidency, gay columnist Dan Savage felt the impetus to respond in a...rather controversial manner: by calling GOProud "House faggots."

As a matter of full disclosure, I feel the need to say a few things at the top of this op/ed. First, generally speaking, I am a fan if Dan Savage. His second greatest hit of all time was initiating Rick Santorum's "Google problem" (which Santorum rightly deserved). More importantly though, he and his partner Terry are the creators of the "It Gets Better" campaign which was started to combat the wave of suicides that have resulted from anti-gay bullying in the nations schools. They deserve a lot of credit for that contribution.

GOProud co-founders Jimmy LaSalvia & Chris Barron

On the other hand, I have no particular love for GOProud. It is not that they vote Republican or that they are conservative. That is fine. My distaste for them stems from the tone of their political discourse, not just as an organization, but also in terms of their co-founders as well. If you follow them on Twitter as I do, they are not above the occasional juvenile name-calling. I also believe that they are sell-outs. The man that they have just endorsed wants a constitutional amendment saying that they are second class citizens. They are willing to throw the entire gay community under the bus to get him elected President. It is one thing to be fiscally conservative (though I don't really believe either party is truly that), but it's quite another to sacrifice equal protections under the law for a tax cut.

Having said all of that, I can not in good conscience condone what was said by Dan Savage. The context in which that word (or any word like it) can be said is extremely narrow, and Savage stepped well out of bounds.Using that word as such a pejorative puts him on par with many of the very people that the "It Gets Better" campaign seeks to fight. It lines him up with people who spray paint that that word on people's cars, homes, or the lockers of students at school. There is zero excure for this.

All things considered, NO ONE comes out of this conflict looking good, especially given a tweet from one of GOProud's co-founders that has been unearthed by some of my fellow bloggers:

I guess the real moral of this story is this: do NOT tweet angrily. What we say in the heat of a moment may (and usually will) come back to haunt us.

Tea Party Homophobes

The Religious Right: Standing for the Faithful

As someone who identifies as both Christian and gay, I am certainly heartened by this move. It happens far too often that people like Tony Perkins, Peter Sprigg, and many others, are called on by the media to speak for the faithful. They then proceed to spew the kinds of misinformation and discrimination that lands them with a "hate-group" brand. It is far past time that people of faith stand up and say that this is not what we are about, nor is it what our faith is about, nor is it what God is about. God is bout love, compassion, empathy, and understanding, and Tony Perkins speaks against all of this. As such, Tony Perkins DOES NOT speak for us.

MSNBC, you are officially on notice.

The Religious Wrong: The Real Nazis?

Maybe I wasn't paying attention, but I must have missed the part where Christians were being rounded up and sent to Concentration Camps. Thus, the analogy falls apart. German Jews weren't spewing hate the way that these types of Christians (though not all Christians) are, so there, the analogy falls apart. German Jews weren't trying to get laws passed to restrict the rights of other Germans, so there, the analogy falls apart. Come to think of it, it was Nazis who were doing all of those things, which I guess would make "Matt Barber" type Christians the real Nazis in this analogy. Go figure that.

Also, just because SPLC has called you out on your hateful bigotry doesn't make them hard left-wing radicals. I guess the truth really does hurt or else Liberty Counsel wouldn't lash out like this.

Michele Bachmann: Heartlessness From The Heartland

I really wish someone from her district that would mount a serious challenge against this woman for her congressional seat. She is far to dangerous to hold public office. With everything she has said and done (and not said and not done) as a public official, I feel as though her seat is ripe for the picking.

The Religious Wrong: 4 Minutes of Hate

See if you can get through the whole thing.

P.S. I got half way through before I threw in the towel on this one.

Know Your Allies: Hudson Taylor

Hudson Taylor

This guy is truly amazing. He has no direct personal stake in the fight for gay rights (he is straight). Despite that he took it upon himself after graduating from  the University of Maryland to start an advocacy group called Athlete Ally which aims to get his fellow athletes and coaches on board with supporting their gay teammates and creating a more positive atmosphere for gay athletes. He started on this road while being a college athlete, a time when speaking up for gay rights might get you some grief...to say the least. It seems that his efforts are paying off. In a recent visit to Bates College he got about 500 student athletes to sign his pledge. I think however, Hudson's story is best told by him:

Athlete Ally.org

2012: Rick Santorum's Google Problem...& More

And this guy is a "serious" presidential candidate...supposedly.

Hate Speech: Sports, African-Americans, & the F-Word

From CBS Sports (written by Mike Freeman):

My last conversation about the F-word was with a recently retired NFL player who might one day go into the Hall of Fame. By the end of our chat, we were screaming at one another. 

He had used the F-word -- you know which word I mean, the derogatory one used to describe gays -- several times during a talk we were having about the NFL's toughest players. The player, who is African-American, called one of my player suggestions a f-----. He used the word repeatedly. 

"A black man should never use that word," I said. "We should know better. It's the moral equivalent of the N-word." 

"It's not the same," he said. 

"The F-word and the N-word are exactly the same," I responded. 

"Not even close." 

"Tell me how it's different." 

He couldn't, and our conversation ended with him calling me a dumbass. He's right. I normally am a dumbass. Just not about this. 

That word, like in so many other sports, is used constantly in NFL locker rooms. Homophobia is a disease that has long gone viral in the NFL and across the sports world, the Andromeda Strain of slurs. The F-word is used so much in football and other leagues its true power and ugliness has been lost. 

But there's a more disturbing problem: the use of the F-word by African-American male athletes. 

Look at the two most recent high-profile cases involving slurs against gays. Kobe Bryant, who is African-American, and Joakim Noah, who is biracial (his father is a famous tennis player of African descent and his mother white) were both fined by the NBA for using the F-word. There was Kevin Garnett a few years ago and the remarks of Tim Hardaway. Kenyon Martin was caught on video screaming at Mark Cuban and calling Cuban a "fa---- mother------." 

During an NFL season, players have told me over the years, the word is used hundreds of times in individual locker rooms, many times by African-Americans. 

That word is the same as the N-word. Yes, it is. Don't look at me like that. Yes. It. Is. 

This won't be a popular stance among some of my African-American football acquaintances, but it's a truthful one and it's a conversation that needs to be had. 

When black men degrade gays, we are hypocrites. We cheapen our own history and struggles. It remains stunning to me why more African-American athletes (not all by any stretch but enough) don't understand this. 

When a slur is aimed at us, we feel the impact. So why wouldn't gays? 

There's no question the N-word has deeper historical context and is among the ugliest ever used (and I don't care what some rappers say). Because the F-word hasn't been utilized as a weapon as long as the N-word isn't justification for its use. 

"I find it sad and ironic that athletes from a group long oppressed by language and the power of certain slurs would easily toss them around about another group," said Jim Buzinski, who runs Outsports.com, a site dedicated to the coverage of gay athletes. "There will be people who will argue there are historical differences, and while true, does not somehow make one slur 'more acceptable' than another. Hateful words are hateful words, period." 

"Professional sports seems to be the last bastion of homophobia in this country; Kobe Bryant's antigay slur is just the tip of the iceberg," Robert Volk, professor at Boston University's School of Law with expertise in area of the law and sexual minorities, told the Christian Science Monitor. "A number of professional athletes that came out after they left their sport commented on the impossibility of coming out while a professional athlete, given the extremely homophobic atmosphere, and Bryant's fine is not enough to change the atmosphere." 

Athletes who use the F-word aren't alone in their bigotry. Recent polls have shown only half of Americans find being gay morally acceptable. Marriage between gays is illegal in most states ... the way interracial marriage once was. Many parts of this country, unfortunately and disgracefully, truly despise gays. 

Instead of helping to alleviate the experience of gays being the last acceptable group to bash, some athletes are aiding in the ostracizing, and too many of these athletes are African-American. 

And I love this justification from some athletes post-gay slur: it was made in the heat of the game. Sure. If a white NFL player yelled the N-word during a game and later said it was only because he was in the heat of battle, that would be OK? 

Gay slurs also aren't the same as saying a curse. Someone saying ass---- isn't the equivalent of the F-word. Ass----s aren't a group of people. Well, OK, in some cases they are, but you get me. 

Do you know when homophobia in sports will stop? It will end when athletes see gays as human beings like them, just as large swaths of discrimination against African-American athletes stopped (though certainly not all) when whites saw blacks the same way. 

They are the moral equivalent. They always will be.