And how do African-Americans feel about this 'birther' mess?

Granted, the media will probably never ask the African-American community how we feel about this birther mess, but I can safely say that this young man, Baratunde Thurston, pretty much sums it up not only for me but a wide majority of black folks:

Wanna piss off a birther? Check out this post

Please forgive me for getting distracted from lgbt issues for a quick second, but in honor of President Obama issuing his long-form birth certificate and officially becoming the first president to ever be racially profiled (oh come on, how many other presidents were put through this and they were white. I think we should have at least checked Nixon's birth certificate and DNA to see if he was part snake), I simply must repost this piece I ran a little while ago:






Related post:

Birtherism's 10 Most Embarrassing Moments

Historically black college to hold lgbt summit and other Wednesday midday news briefs

In Interview With Fischer, Fox Anchor Worries That Gay Couple In Glee Is "Product Placement" - Yep. That's how it happened with me. Or was it a Joan Crawford movie?

Spelman to host LGBT summit for black colleges - A historically black college holding lgbt summit. Awesome!

Mass. high court pick faces confirmation hearing - If confirmed, Barbara Lenk would be the first openly gay justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Sponsor Seeks To Revive Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill - And he is trying sooo hard too.

Church calls attention to its support of gays - Yes being gay IS a gift from God. Period.

Obama Birth Certificate Released By White House - In case you haven't heard.

National Organization for Marriage needs to get off of its phony cross

Brian Brown, president of NOM

The National Organization for Marriage says that it's going to investigate why the law firm handpicked by Speaker of the House John Boehner to defend DOMA decided not to take the case:

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a conservative organization fighting against the legalization of same-sex marriage, said Monday it would launch an "investigation" into the decision of the law firm King & Spalding to drop its defense of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

"We will convene a panel of legal experts and ethicists to determine if any rules of professional conduct have been violated, or if the firm has acted illegally in reaching their decision," NOM President Brian Brown said in a statement posted on their website. "We already know they have violated the moral imperative of acting in good faith and fair dealing. If our review concludes that the firm has violated any statutes or rules of professional conduct, we will initiate the appropriate disciplinary complaints."

Maggie Gallagher, chairwoman of NOM

At the same time, NOM is claiming that the lgbt community "bullied" the law firm into deciding not to take the case:

Same-sex marriage advocates have launched yet another campaign of cultural intimidation—pressuring the nation's top law firms in an attempt to silence and marginalize those who would stand for marriage and the Defense of Marriage Act.

If NOM really wanted to know the truth, they should read this very thorough article in the Huffington Post by Jennifer Bendery which points out that it was a combination of outside pressure and pressure from employees inside the firm (who were totally caught by surprise by the decision to defend DOMA) which led to the backtrack.

But who am I really kidding, really? NOM is simply exploiting this situation to get a moment in the spotlight and maybe even wrench some money from its gullible supporters (as if it doesn't get enough from mysterious money source which it fights tooth and nail not to reveal).

But here is the thing which bothers me.

For all of NOM's talk about intimidation, isn't this the same group which was part of a coalition that sent out a letter to 30 organizations during the Proposition 8 vote in California demanding that they support the effort to ban gay marriage in the state or "be outed as an opponent of traditional marriage"?

And didn't NOM spend over $235,000 on a recent campaign to recall three Iowa judges, not for any judicial malfeasance, but simply because those judges ruled against the state's defense of marriage act?

In terms of intimidation, NOM has written the book. Perhaps the group is upset because organizations whom it doesn't agree with are reading and editing that book?

Anti-gay hate group mad at Obama over no 'Easter Proclamation'

The American Family Association - named an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center - has come out with a new video attacking President Obama over what they call a disrespect of Easter, and by proxy, Christians:



In a statement, the AFA said the following:

This is consistent with other egregious examples of disregard for our Christian heritage on the president's part, such as omitting "Creator" from the Declaration of Independence, which he has done on at least three occasions.

The president has shown far more interest in promoting Islam than his own self-proclaimed Christian faith, the faith of our Founding Fathers.

The president has been devoted to issuing statements marking all major Muslim holidays, which are of no historical significance to the United States whatsoever. He has released statements in honor of Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha, holidays which most Americans cannot pronounce and certainly do not celebrate.

So apparently when they are not bashing lgbts, the AFA is practicing a bit of Islamophobia, i.e. making sure to exploit the ignorance of some Americans who see Obama as a Muslim (which translates to them as a threatening outsider determined to destroy the United States from within).

It's a cheap piece of junk from what is supposed to be a Christian organization. Steve Benen of The Washington Monthly point out:

The first is that the Obama White House didn't exactly ignore Easter. The First Family, for example, attended services yesterday. There's not only a big Easter Egg Roll for families at the White House today, but President Obama also hosted an Easter prayer breakfast last week, during which he told attendees the following:

"I wanted to host this breakfast for a simple reason -- because as busy as we are, as many tasks as pile up, during this season, we are reminded that there's something about the resurrection -- something about the resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ, that puts everything else in perspective.

"We all live in the hustle and bustle of our work... But then comes Holy Week. The triumph of Palm Sunday. The humility of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. His slow march up that hill, and the pain and the scorn and the shame of the cross. And we're reminded that in that moment, he took on the sins of the world -- past, present and future -- and he extended to us that unfathomable gift of grace and salvation through his death and resurrection.

"In the words of the book Isaiah: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

Benen points out that Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha didn't get that type of treatment.