You mean I can't disrespect gay people? That is an insult to my religion! I'm suing!!

Some members of the anti-gay industry are all up in arms over a court decision.

The city of Oakland won a lawsuit today against employees who was angry because their flyer advertising their Christian group was pulled down when it was posted.

They claim that flyers advertising a gay group did not get the same treatment.

Now the employees are correct but do not be fooled because their case is not so simple. The anti-gay industry will probably spin it as "another" case of Christians being persecuted for their beliefs. But here is the true story:

After other workers founded a Gay and Lesbian Employees Association in 2002, Regerford and Christy formed the Good News Employee Association and displayed a flier promoting the group as a "forum for people of faith" to express their views "with respect for the natural family, marriage and family values."

A supervisor removed the flier six weeks later after an employee complained it contained homophobic statements and violated the city's anti-harassment policy.

The flyer was not pulled because they were Christians, but because of the intent behind the words of the flyer.

The employees orginally lost the lawsuit in 2005 because the court ruled that they had other avenues to state their views and the city of Oakland had a right to protect gay and lesbian employees from harrassment.

The 9th Circuit Court reinforced this ruling.

This the headline from a so-called "pro-family" press release:

Ninth Circuit Declares Right of Government to Censor the Terms 'Natural Family,' 'Marriage' and 'Family Values'

Of course the press release misses the point. Their group was formed in response to the gay and lesbian group and this is okay. But the flyer they sent out can be considered as a degree of harrassment. When the employees included the part about "natural family" and the like, they were attacking the gay and lesbian employees. They can claim that they weren't but why then include that part? Who were they talking about?

Words are dangerous if used in an attacking manner. The case reminds me of the following recent incident:

A Catholic school principal has organized sensitivity training for students who shouted "We love Jesus" during a basketball game against a school with Jewish students.

The word "Jew" also was painted on a gym wall behind the seats of Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School students attending the Feb. 2 game at Norfolk Academy, said Dennis W. Price, principal of the Virginia Beach school.

Price who also watched the game, said the rivals exchanged chants, "Then, at some point, our students were chanting, 'We love Jesus.'""It was obviously in reference to the Jewish population of Norfolk Academy; that's the only way you can take that," he added.

"We love Jesus" is not a dirty or harmful phrase. But the way it was used was a clear slap in the face to Jewish students.

Respecting each other's beliefs is a two way street. We lgbts respect the fact that not everyone is going to love us and some people think we are going to hell. But there is a difference between respecting that opinion and some people thinking that their religion gives them carte blanche to disrespect us and our families.

Pride parades

Some people are trying to keep a charter school out of a gay pride parade in San Diego.

And strangely, none of these people have children attending the charter school:

A San Diego, California, school district has rebuffed efforts by 12 Christian men and women to prevent minor children from being exposed to the city's 33rd annual homosexual pride parade. This group, dubbed the "San Diego Twelve," is calling on the district school board to bar a K-8 charter school from once again marching its students under the school's banner in this summer's "San Diego LGBT Pride" parade.

Despite these objections, however, the San Diego School Board has chosen to take the side of the San Diego Cooperative Charter School and not intervene in the matter. The city's annual homosexual pride parade is scheduled to take place July 21 and is being touted as San Diego's largest civic event, with more than 200 floats and with participants from a diverse contingency of the community, including local political leaders, businesses, and even churches.

The charter school has participated in past parades and the parents seem not to have any problems with it.

So if that is the case, then why are these folks pushing the issue? I thought that many on the so-called "pro-family" side considered parents to be the final and official word as to right and wrong for their children.

I guess this is a special case.

The ringleader of this group, James Hartline, is a case by himself. He claims to be an ex-gay who was afflicted with HIV while he was "in the lifestyle."

I will not make any crass comments about his condition, but I will say that Hartline reminds me of a Washington pastor, Ken Hutcherson, in that he has never met a self aggrandizement that he didn't like:

James Hartline is the least likely man to change a city, but that is exactly what he is doing. From fighting illegal porn stores to exposing the corruption within the radical homosexual agenda, James is being used to confront the powers of darkness in San Diego, California.

Leaders of the leftist homosexual agenda named James Hartline as its San Diego Menace of the Year in 2005 for exposing the pedophile network within the San Diego Gay Pride organization.

Many Christian and secular media sources have taken note of the stand James Hartline has made for righteousness in southern California and have reported on his exploits. James is regularly interviewed on XETV Fox Channel 6, the Paul McGuire Show on KBRT 740am Radio, KUSI Channel 9, the San Diego Reader, San Diego NewsNotes, American Family Radio, and Night Lights Christian Talk TV with James L. Lambert.

Hartline omitted the part where he got the sun to stand still. He didn't want to seem pretentious.

He also seems to have E.S.P. because this is what he says about an event that hasn't even happened yet:

. . . Hartline says children should not be exposed to the kind of homosexual pornography that typically characterizes events like the San Diego LGBT Pride parade. "Many of these people in the parade are women who try to flash their breasts without any top on [and] men doing all kinds of filthy things," he contends. "There are men who dress up as Catholic nuns and do mock sexual acts."

I need to move because the pride parades in Columbia, SC definitely aren't like that. But really, Hartline is plugging into a stereotype that we have helped create.

Gay pride parades do have a negative image of bare-chested, bare-butted gays and lesbians losing all leave of their senses.

And this is not how it is

Personally, I like gay pride parades and festivals, but we need to emphasize a new dynamic. Gay pride is not about hedonism. It should be a time for self-love, self-celebration, spiritual growth, and education.

Don't get me wrong, however, because I love my drag queens and feel that they should be included just as they are. They are arguably the most popular and unfairly maligned part of our community. No caste systems are allowed in my vision of the gay and lesbian community. If we all can't get fairness, then none of us should get it.

All I am saying is that let's not get caught up with the cliques and staring at the "hotties' that we don't use the time of gay pride to plan and organize and to assess our individual selves.

Our lgbts identities are what we make of them, not what society or the anti-gay industry tells us they are.

So let's be more assertive in defining them.