'Anti-LGBTQ right trying to return to SCOTUS with another 'religious liberty' case & other Fri midday news briefs

BREAKING: Oregon Supreme Court denies review of Sweetcakes by Melissa case. @1stLiberty will appeal to the United States Supreme Court. https://t.co/ojaAdhVV6B #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/MdxZRONIfd

— First Liberty (@1stLiberty) June 21, 2018

Oh my heart bleeds for these two. Presently, there are several folks and organizations who care claiming that this case is similar to the Masterpiece case SCOTUS ruled on weeks ago in favor of the baker instead of the gay couple he discriminated against. Uh no. See below:

Court Upholds Damages in Same-Sex Wedding Cake Case - The fact-finding site Snopes broke the case down a while ago, including : 

The lengthy ruling described incidents wherein the Kleins’ promotion of their plight resulted in negative attention and threats to the Bowman-Cryers, including Klein’s publication of court documents to Facebook that included the couple’s home address. Contrary to many descriptions of the issue, no “gag order” was put in place that prohibited the Kleins from publicizing or talking about their case; however, the Kleins were ordered to cease proclaiming or offering any public suggestion that they intended to refuse service to same-sex couples in the future  . . . 

 In other news: 

We Can Already See The Damage From The Masterpiece Cakeshop Ruling - But that is not to say the Masterpiece case didn't cause the LGBTQ community some problems. 

Federal Courts Are Standing Up for the Sanctity of Transgender Lives - Yes they are. It's good to see wonderful things happen in spite of the bozo in the Oval Office and the stain he has put across America. 

Billy Elliot forced to scrap dates in Budapest following press hate campaign claiming it will turn kids gay - With all of the things out there supposedly turning people gay, it's depressing to think that I still don't have a man.

Anti-gay activist has furious meltdown over criticism of Trump's anti-immigration policy

Earlier this week, Rachel Maddow cried on the air due to how Trump's separation policy was negative affecting immigrant children, particularly infants.

In contrast, anti-LGBTQ activist Dave Daubenmire just melted down because people was criticizing Trump's policy. The man has a certain degree of talent. He managed to work in slams against abortion and the LGBTQ community in his rant.

And then:

Later in the webcast, one of the participants asserted that those who are crossing the border are not even real families but are “gang members” are are trying to sneak into the country, while pastor Dale Sochia of King Jesus Ministries on Louisiana misrepresented a statement from a border patrol agent to claim that undocumented parents are giving their underage daughters birth control and Plan B pills so that they can “use their children as sex to pay to get them into America.”

Hat tip to People for the American Way.

'Prominent magazine duped by anti-trans nonsense masquerading as an article' & other Thur midday news briefs

Atlantic cover story is a loud dog whistle for anti-transgender parents - I'm really ashamed that The Atlantic would get duped like this.

PFLAG Has Been A Lifesaving Resource For Families Of LGBTQ Kids For Decades - Yes it has!

‘As Much As I Can’ Examines The Health And Humanity Of HIV Positive Black Gay Men - Amen!

Nafessa Williams on playing Black Lightning’s unapologetic, badass lesbian superhero - Sweet!!

Queeroes 2018: Janet Mock - In this climate in which so many African-American transgender women are being taken from us, the more heroes the better.

Trump's incompetence on immigration putting LGBTQ asylym seekers at risk

Let's not forget how Trump's anti-immigration policies endangers those seeking asylum, such as Robel Hailu,

Hailu is an Ethiopian who cannot go back to his country simply because he is gay. If he goes back, he faces imprisonment and even worse. It simply goes to show that all this bullshit about  "open borders" and so-called lazy immigrants stealing jobs (Yeah, I know. That's a contradiction, but appeals to fear don't need to make sense) is fueled by people who want to blame people of color for their problems and inadequacies.

 Meanwhile, those who need help are pushed to the wayside and face terror simply for existing. Not all of those wanting to come over (even those who do it illegally and especially those seeking asylum) are wanting to cause harm. They merely want a better life. You cannot tell me that there isn't a solution to this which addresses kindness and discards hysteria. But not while a certain orange boob pollutes the Oval Office. He feeds off of fear and resentment. He probably doesn't even know how the spell the phrase "solution-oriented," much less know what it means.

 America can't have it both ways. We are either great because we believe in freedom and liberty or this country is a putrid concoction of lies, egos, and incompetent unfulfilled entitlement.  

Conservative evangelical Todd Starnes defends Trump's immigrant policy - the president is 'not gassing children'

Todd Starnes

If I were the evangelical right, I would show some degree of decency and call Trump out for his awful policy of snatching immigrant children from their parents. And for a number of reasons.

1. For all of their talk about morality and values, their muted/silence response are making them look like power-grubbing hypocrites willing to support anyone who can take them to the seat of power (in this case, Trump).

2. Others besides myself are beginning to notice, as this wonderful article in the Huffington Post proves.

3. Most importantly, other evangelical leaders and figures are speaking and they ain't exactly the voices which help. For example, take Todd Starnes.

Starnes has made quite a name for himself being one of the religious right's most viciously homophobic and best purveyor of anti-Christian moral panics (even at the point of playing fast and loose with the facts.)

Via People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch is a clip of Starnes defending Trump's separation of immigrant families. According to Starnes, it's not a bad policy because Trump's "not gassing children."  Starnes even took the time to label those of us against the policy as traitors. Love the evangelical Christian sentiment:

"President Trump is not gassing children": Todd Starnes defends the Trump administration's policy of separating families at the border by declaring that critics of the policy are treasonous traitors. pic.twitter.com/H7jnpZxmp6

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) June 19, 2018

'World Health Organization no longer classifies being transgender as a mental disorder' & other Tue midday news briefs

The World Health Organization announces it finally no longer classifies being transgender as a mental disorder - HUGE positive step in the right direction.

Conservative evangelical groups & leaders care more about their fantasies than immigrant children - Post from last night because it needs to be repeated. 

BuzzFeed Celebrates LGBTQ+ Teens With Its Second-Annual Queer Prom - Wonderful! Anything which helps our kids is a good thing. 

Michigan is trying to erase LGBTQ people & immigrants out of school history classes - They can try, but it doesn't mean they will succeed.

TEXAS: Megachurch Pastor Screams Oppression Over Removal Of His “America Is A Christian Nation” Billboard - Oh my heart "bleeds" for this self-righteous rascal.

Conservative evangelical groups & leaders care more about their fantasies than immigrant children

Evangelicals like Tony Perkins (top) & Franklin Graham (bottom) could do more to help the immigrant children the Trump Administration snatched from their parents. But they probably won't.

Religious groups and evangelical public figures have taken time out of their busy schedules of dehumanizing transgender people and spinning religious liberty panics in order to weigh in on who they feel is the real victim during this awful crisis of the Trump Administration's seizing of immigrant children from their parents

Donald Trump.

By either blaming the so-called liberal media, telling lies about "progressives" and "open borders," claiming that these children are in better circumstances, or even blaming the parents, groups like the Family Research Council and the American Family Association, and people like Franklin Graham are clearly showing where their loyalties and values lie.

And all of them give off the same inference - "it's terrible, it's a shame, but let's pray for a solution because that's all we can do." These are the same groups and people who orchestrated national panics on the so-called idea of "religious liberty" which made it to the Supreme Court. The same folks who initiated a huge boycott of Target over the lie that men were invading women's bathrooms and got over one million signatures for a petition about it in hardly any time at all.

Franklin Graham has been known to issue Facebook statements on current issues and within a day, he would have over 100,00 comments from mostly cloying followers either echoing his sentiments or praising him.

You cannot tell me that these groups and people can't do anything about this issue. It's simply that they don't care. Just like they didn't care about Trump's language, his less than Christian behavior, the fact that he has on more than one occasion cheated on his wife, his basic incompetence  etc etc. They don't care about what psychological damage  Trump's policy will do to those little brown boys and girls or their families. They don't care how many future terrorists Trump may be creating. Their weak tea statements and defiant lies were less about the children and more about keeping themselves in Trump's good graces, while simultaneously tricking the rest of us into believing  that they are actually concerned for those families and their children.They only care about access, being invited to White House meetings, being allowed to put their imprint on national policy, and thus being able to craft the country in the image of their version of Christianity, which we are now seeing has nothing to do with humility, or love, or basic decency.

'How Trump's attack on immigrant children is connected with homophobia, racism, and Islamophobia' & other Mon midday news briefs.

Anti-LGBT, anti-Islam, anti-immigrant rhetoric featured alongside racist dog-whistles and Trump cabinet officials at WCS 2018 - As the Southern Poverty Law Center clearly shows, do not think that the xenophobia which fueled Trump's snatching of immigrant children away from their parents, the homophobia which tries to deny the LGBTQ community equality, the Islamophobia which dehumanizes Muslims, and the racism which causes black men and women to lose their lives because of corrupt policemen aren't all connected. Earlier this month, the purveyors of all of this junk converged at the Western Conservative Summit. They were all there, including Jeff Sessions.

Pope Francis: Gay Couples Cannot Make a Family - We need to stop praise dancing every time the Pope or the Catholic Church gives us a little positive whatever. In truth, this is what they think of us and our families. And we need to be firmly against anyone or any institution that seeks to disrespect us and our families.

Kathy Griffin: Love Letter to the LGBTQ Community - Kathy Griffin points out a central fact about the LGBTQ community. If you show us love, we will support you through thick and thin. She is simply the latest to learn this. 

Thousands of Ukrainian riot police swarmed Kiev Pride & arrested dozens - BUT guess who got arrested. You will be pleasantly pleased with this article. 

A record number of LGBTQ candidates are running for office. Here's why. - THIS is a way the LGBTQ community can begin to change the world for the better.

The Top 10 Coming Out of the Closet scenes & a complaint

I'm beginning to like my "Sunday ease-ins," as I call my practice of posting frivolously funny or insightful things Sunday night.  The purpose is to get everyone ready for the weekly nonsense we have to deal with via the Trump Administration. Tonight is slightly serious because it comes with a small complaint:



Besides the fact that I would like to see coming out scenes involving the bisexual and transgender community, why does television portray young folks coming out as cute, whispy, or basically attractive. They tend to be "too pretty" for me.

 A lot of us who come out aren't exactly considered as "models of beauty." Hell, when I was young, I had bad skin and bad hair, to say nothing about a unusually skinny frame and eyeglasses so big that they could double as a helmet. And I haven't even begun to talk about my dark skin tone, which was looked at as a negative. I would love to see television shows rely on  normal, awkward folks coming out rather than folks who look so pretty, you have a hard time believing that they sit on toilets.

'Jeff Sessions creating havoc for immigrants, their children, & LGBTQ asylum seekers, but bends over backwards for 'religious liberty'' & other Friday midday news briefs

Jeff Sessions

Jeff Sessions just signed the death warrant for LGBTQ asylum seekers - It's not just the policy Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions is pushing separating immigrant children from their parents that's causing problems. This other policy about no longer giving asylum for victims of domestic or gang violence is also causing havoc. And to our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, it's practically a death sentence.

Jeff Sessions: Trump administration will fight with faith groups on their discrimination claims - I hate to push this juxtaposition but here it is because here it is. At the same time, Sessions is ready to fight for houses of worship seeking building permits. Take these two news briefs as you will.  What's more important to God? Expanding churches and discrimination under the guise of 'religious liberty' or the safety and well-being of men, women, and children? You tell me.

ADF defends Indiana teacher who rejected his district’s transgender-inclusive policy - Of course this hate group will. Sorry but your so-called religious liberty does not rank higher than the health and well-bring of our LGBTQ kids. 

6 Homeless LGBTQ Youths Share Their Stories - Stories which NEED to be amplified.

EXCLUSIVE: LGBTQ Federal Employees Confronted Betsy DeVos Last Year - She obviously didn't listen.