Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Insanity defined: Man is accosted for 'looking like a Muslim'

This anti-Muslim sentiment in this country is heading to a level of insanity and the above video proves it.

At the anti-Islamic Center rally held today in New York, a man walking through the crowd of protesters gets mistaken for a Muslim and madness ensues.

Luckily no one gets hurt but it's still sad.

It reminds me of the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar where a mob of citizens is looking for a certain group of men to murder. They come upon an innocent poet and butcher him because he has the same name as one of the men they are looking for.

If this country doesn't pull back from hysteria and those chosen by whatever "powers-that-be" to be leaders and spokespeople don't stop feeding into this hysteria (i.e. Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, etc.), then someone is really going to get hurt.

Enough already.

Hat tip to the Political Carnival and my online pal Evan Hurst.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Second 'I don't want to counsel gays' lawsuit struck down by the courts

How did I miss this one:

Augusta State University's requirement that a graduate student read material about counseling gays and increase her exposure to that community after she objected to counseling homosexual clients was "academically legitimate," a federal court judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Randal Hall's decision enables university officials to expel Jennifer Keeton if she does not follow the remediation plan, which professors designed to "address issues of multicultural competence and develop understanding and empathy."

Hall said the case is not about "pitting Christianity against homosexuality," but rather the constitutionality of the school's requirement.

This denunciation comes at the heels another case in which a student claimed that she was "forced" to choose between her religious beliefs and her vocation. Last month, the courts ruled against Julea Ward, a student at Eastern Michigan University who claimed that she was removed from the school's counseling program because of her strong religious views against homosexuality.

Ward has refused to counsel lgbt clients because of her beliefs. In the ruling, U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh said:

" . . .the university had a rational basis for requiring its students to counsel clients without imposing their personal values.

In the case of Ms. Ward, the university determined that she would never change her behavior and would consistently refuse to counsel clients on matters with which she was personally opposed due to her religious beliefs -- including homosexual relationships."

Keeton and Ward were both made as cause celebres by the religious right as victims of a so-called "gay agenda" which would punish Christians for expressing their beliefs.

However many others, myself included, disagree.

My feeling is that if you can't do the job completely and for everyone then we have a serious problem, especially if you are seeking to be a healthcare worker.

And those who seek to make Keeton and Ward into martyrs would be advised to remember that this sort of thing has a habit of coming back in a nasty way.

If people are allowed exemptions in the counseling of the lgbt community today, who's to say that tomorrow exemptions won't be given in the counseling of the African-American or Latino communities?

Or even the Christian community?

UDPATE: The article also going on to say something which should be remembered should Keeton's name come up in religious right talking points (and it will) - the university presented three professors as witnesses but Keeton presented no witnesses. And she didn't even testify.

Hat tip to Daily Kos.

Related post:

Court knocks down latest religious right cause celebre

Friday, August 20, 2010

Know Your LGBT History - Stewardess School

Stewardess School (1986)was one of those tired 1980s ensemble comedy movies where a group of outsiders band together to show the world that they can make something of themselves.

It's a formula that was repeated with Stripes, Hot Dog: The Movie, Hamburger: The Movie, Revenge of the Nerds (which may be an upcoming feature of this blog), etc. etc.

Stewardess School was one of the worst ones. In this particular case, we have a female wrestler (despondent because her meek boyfriend can't handle her occupation), a nearsighted cute guy and his annoying friend (played by Happy Days's Donny Most), a clumsy woman, a ditzy blonde, and overweight oddball (the late Wendy Joe Sperber seemed to specialize in this type of characterization), a sexy, SEXY prostitute trying to reform (how strange is it that va va voom actress Audrey Landers puts in the funniest performance in this movie), and for the purpose of this site, the gay guy:

Fight for lgbt equality has gone global and other Friday midday news briefs

Man this is a slow and dull Friday. But as a self-described "radical gay activist," I shall soldier on:

Shifting attitudes take gay rights fight across globe, experts say - You better believe it!

Fischer: Ann Coulter Is The "Ashley Dupre of the Conservative Movement" - Did he just call Ann Coulter a "ho?"

Obama Appoints Gay Man to HHS - Okay religious right, what's wrong with THIS appointee?

Video: Paper, personal objections, and fear = non-binding anti-equality - Because "standing against gay marriage" is more important than job creation, crime prevention, etc.

Dr. Laura Knows Black Person, Gay Person - Well I guess that makes her no longer a homophobe who freely uses the "n-word."

Lgbts and Muslims are in the same boat, whether we like it or not

Earlier this week, I wrote a piece comparing how the cultural center in New York is being used as a hot button issue by those on the right in the same manner they used gay marriage in 2004.

Some folks didn't agree with me by claiming that the lgbt community shouldn't care what happens to the Muslim community because of its "homophobia."

The lgbt community would be making a huge mistake in doing this. And no one demonstrates this better than right-wing phony news service, the American Family Association's One News Now:

A ministry leader says a high school in Michigan is conforming to President Obama's political correctness and Islamic sentiments by altering its schedule to accommodate its Muslim students.

Fordson High School in Dearborn is holding its football practices in the middle of the night in order to give special accommodation to Muslims on the predominantly Islamic squad. The team feels the nocturnal regimen is a way for players to eat and drink while observing the month of daytime fasting known as Ramadan. The August heat has also played a factor in Coach Fouad Zaban's proposal to reverse the clock for a week of two-a-day practices.

Cutting practice was not an option at football-crazy Fordson, which is coming off a one-loss season, but nobody wanted to lessen the significance of Ramadan in the Detroit suburb that is dominated by Muslims.

Now the only person quoted in the article, Jan Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries, claims to know why this is taking place:

She believes Muslims have clearly become a specially privileged group in the U.S. and beyond. "There are clearly favors that are done to certain special-interest groups, particularly homosexuals and Muslims," the Messianic Jewish leader observes. "Christians and Jews, we just don't have that kind of privilege."

She doubts a practice would be moved if a group of Christian players objected to training that would interfere with a Christian holiday.

Yeah, I'm sure the players will be practicing on "Christmas."

Seriously, other than a ridiculous linking to President Obama (shades of the "our president is an evil Muslim meme), this article proves the point that there are some entities who see the lgbt and Muslim community as "the other," i.e. communities who seek to change or basically overthrow the so-called "American Way" of life.

Whether the lgbt or the Muslim community likes it or not, we are now all in the same boat. Any sniping should be reserved to those who are trying to place us in the boat and not each other.

And by the way, more credible article about the practices in Fordson High School had this to say:

The response from players has been positive. And we’re told even the non-Muslim players are ok with the overnight sessions.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

David Blankenhorn didn't mess up Prop 8 defense because it was already messed up

It's so interesting to watch members of the religious right try to recreate the Prop 8 trial so as to make themselves look like the victims of the verdict.

The latest attempt is byJennifer Roback Morse of the Ruth Institute in regards to a witness called by the Prop 8 side, David Blankenhorn:

. . . After beginning to read Judge Walker’s opinion this morning, I am even less willing to second guess the Protect Marriage team. In particular, I have a renewed respect for David Blankenhorn, the one witness the Proponents of Prop 8 called to testify on the social purpose of marriage.

To answer one preliminary question that I have been asked many times: yes, the Prop 8 legal team did consider using me as an expert. I talked at some length with one of them, and several of the attorneys for the ADF are friends of mine. They certainly know about me, and respect me. The team decided not to use me when they realized that I had been a spokeswoman for the Prop 8 campaign. They concluded (correctly) that the court would not take my opinion seriously no matter what I had to say, or how credibly I said it. Events proved them to be correct.

Reading the judge’s opinion makes it clear that he defines “expertise” so narrowly that no one but the plaintiffs’ witnesses could meet the definition of expert. The Proponents of Prop 8 called in a political scientist, for instance, to argue that CA gays and lesbians are not politically powerless. Living in CA since 1996, I find it hard to believe that anyone doubts the power of the Gay Lobby. But, the plaintiffs attacked him because he had not studied gay politics in particular, just political parties and initiatives in general. The Judge completely bought the Plaintiffs’ assessment and found the “Miller’s opinions on gay and lesbian political power are entitle to little weight.” (pg 54 of the opinion)

But the Plaintiffs’ abuse of David Blankenhorn, and the Judge’s acquiescence in that abuse, was really something awful. David has mastered an expansive amount of data from a variety of disciplines on the impact of fatherlessness on children, on the significance of family structure, and on the importance of marriage to society. More than any single individual, David brought the issue of fatherless families to the attention of the public. Given academic specialization, no one person could have produced all that material, which is the standard that the Judge seems to require.

I can very easily read between the lines of Walker’s opinion, and see him trying to trap David into admitting things which sound damaging. For the most part, these “damaging” admissions are remarks taken out of context, often a context in which David was trying to be generous to his opponents, and trying not to overstate the applicability of the data before him. The Proponents’ attorneys extracted comparable admissions from the Plaintiffs’ witnesses, but somehow none of those admissions damaged their credibility in Judge Walker’s eyes. He finds that the “opinions of Blankenhorn to be unreliable and entitled to essentially no weight.”

So according to Morse, Walker had the "fix" in and was determined to smear any pro- Prop 8 witnesses and Blankenhorn turned out to be the "sacrifcial lamb."

Poppycock. Of course Morse doesn't go into details as just how Blankenhorn was "trapped" and it doesn't surprise me. Folks on her side of the argument never deal with the concrete, only the idealistic.

As we all know, the case put forth defending Prop 8 was weak. Darla Lithwick from The Slate said the following:

It's hard to read Judge Walker's opinion without sensing that what really won out today was science, methodology, and hard work. Had the proponents of Prop 8 made even a minimal effort to put on a case, to track down real experts, to do more than try to assert their way to legal victory, this would have been a closer case. But faced with one team that mounted a serious effort and another team that did little more than fire up their big, gay boogeyman screensaver for two straight weeks, it wasn't much of a fight. Judge Walker scolds them at the outset for promising in their trial brief to prove that same-sex marriage would "effect some twenty-three harmful consequences" and then putting on almost no case.

Walker notes that the plaintiffs presented eight lay witnesses and nine expert witnesses, including historians, economists, psychologists, and a political scientist. Walker lays out their testimony in detail. Then he turns to the proponents' tactical decision to withdraw several of their witnesses, claiming "extreme concern about their personal safety" and unwillingness to testify if there were to be "recording of any sort." Even when it was determined that there would be no recording, counsel declined to call them. They were left with two trial witnesses, one of whom, David Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values, the judge found "lacks the qualifications to offer opinion testimony and, in any event, failed to provide cogent testimony in support of proponent's factual assertions." Blankenhorn's credentials, methodology, lack of peer-reviewed studies, and general shiftiness on cross examination didn't impress Walker.

Sorry Morse. You can't recreate the truth with a tissue of lies. Blankenhorn was on a sinking ship from the very beginning and all he did was bore more holes into the hull.

Will Homocon feud show us 'the real Ann Coulter?' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Ann Coulter Smacks Back: WorldNetDaily Editor Joseph Farah Is “Swine” and “Publicity Whore” (UPDATED) - The feud with Ann Coulter and the speech at "Homocon" vs. World Net Daily has been fun to watch. And it reminds me of the following from The Boondocks. One wonders is it the "real Ann Coulter:"

And in other news:

NOM borrows two cents from Ohio waitress' tip - Okay it's stuff like this which caused the pro-Prop 8 side to lose.

UK: Adoption charity can't ban gay couples - If a good home can be provided for a child then why prevent it? It's not about an abstract idea of "family" but the reality that we must support all good families.

Anti-Gay Group Sues To Kill Wisconsin Domestic Partnership Registry - This is just meanspirited.

After GOP Rebuke, Jeremy Walters Apologizes For Anti-Gay Comments - Just more proof that there are too many self-appointed secretaries of God running around.