Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Sep 10, 2010

Friday, September 10, 2010

Know Your LGBT History - The Proud Family

The Proud Family is a popular Disney animated series about the adventures of an African-American family and most specifically the daughter in the family, Penny Proud.

It is also a show that actually dealt with the bullying of an lgbt youngster without actually mentioning the word "gay."

In the episode Who You Callin' A Sissy, one of Penny's friends, Michael gets called a "sissy" after he defeats another young man on the basketball court. While everyone is shocked, Michael laughs it off.

However, soon the other children either start to tease or avoid Michael. And yet he still laughs it off.

Then the episode gets weird. Apparently a mysterious unseen monster begins attacking and humiliating Michael's supposed friends, the ones who began turning their back on him.

The entire thing culiminates at the school dance where Penny has to confront the "monster," who turns out to be (spoiler alert) Michael's personified anger (pertinent part of the clip starts at 6:04):

Transgender officeseeker smeared by Sally Kern group and other Friday midday news briefs

GOP Senate Candidate Pat Toomey: No On Hate Crimes Legislation - Too late. We already got it.

Group backing Sally Kern calls her transgender opponent Brittany Novotny ‘a confused it’ - Ah yes. Sally Kern. Woman's answer to Peter LaBarbera.

GLAAD Urges Media to Expose Anti-Gay Candidates - I've got a better idea. How about we raise such a stink about these candidates (with GLAAD leading the way) that the media can't HELP BUT TO put attention on their nasty positions.

Why Not Just Invite Terry Jones To the Values Voter Summit? - EXCELLENT point by People for the American Way about the "let's burn the Koran pastor."

Lesbian couple fighting Florida's anti-gay adoption law

In this hoopla regarding Don't Ask, Don't Tell, let's not forget the other situations involving lgbt equality, most specifically gay adoption in Florida:

Vanessa Alenier's fight to raise an infant relative seized by state child welfare administrators ended up Wednesday exactly where she had hoped it wouldn't: in a Florida courtroom filled with lawyers and advocates on both sides of the state's politically charged gay-adoption law.

Alenier, who accepted custody of her relative after the state Department of Children & Families seized him from a mother they declared unfit, had hoped her adoption of the boy would occur quietly and without the political spectacle that had surrounded previous adoptions by gay Floridians. But on Wednesday morning, Alenier and her partner, Melanie Leon, sat quietly as a three-judge panel of the Third District Court of Appeal heard arguments by attorneys on both sides.

``This isn't what we wanted,'' Alenier said following the hearing. ``We just wanted a quiet adoption.''

Alenier took custody of the baby boy just days after he was born on Jan. 9 2009. She fostered the child before requesting an adoption -- which Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia approved last January.

Since 1977, Florida has allowed gay men and lesbians to foster abused and neglected children -- but specifically forbids them from adopting. The law now is facing its most serious challenge in decades, as three South Florida judges have declared it unconstitutional and approved adoptions by gay families.

More here