N @&!%r, show me you papers!

It's true I am a gay man. And I am also a black man and as such, I'm still pissed over what President Obama was forced to do yesterday. So I will hand it over to Goldie Taylor, contributing editor of The Grio. She breaks it down to a level of understanding which needs to be seen far and wide. The title of this post is extreme (which is not in Taylor's monologue), but it's the one thing that has been consistently flashing in my mind since yesterday. If it offends you, good. Now you have a little taste of how I feel right now.:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read Taylor's original piece here.

Homophobe don't like black people either and other Thursday midday news briefs

Oklahoma GOP Lawmaker Sally Kern: ‘Blacks’ Don’t Work As Hard As White People - If the lgbt equality movement and the African-American equality movement aren't linked, then how come we seen to draw the same enemies?

Focus On The Family Warns That Gay Rights Will Devastate The Judiciary - And here I thought that all we were concerned with was the "indoctrination of children."

Video: 'Lesbians are lesbians because they're too ugly to get a man'; 'should not be allowed to vote' - No comments necessary.

Feds To Hold Bullying Hearings - Now these are hearings that I can support.

Johnson & Johnson Turns Its Back on AIDS Patients - This is NOT good.

Planned Parenthood billboards called too gay-friendly

From The Advocate:

Planned Parenthood billboards that advertise services to LGBT clients in rural New York State have prompted objections from critics including a state senator who says the billboards use tax dollars to promote same-sex marriage.

In February, Planned Parenthood of the Southern Finger Lakes installed the billboards in locations throughout Chemung, Steuben, and Tompkins counties in western New York. The billboards say, “Someone you know is in love” and feature two men embracing, with a tagline that says Planned Parenthood is “proudly serving the LGBT community.”

While Planned Parenthood says the billboards aim to engage isolated rural LGBT people in managing their health, state senator Thomas O’Mara, a Republican who represents the area, interprets the billboards as a state-sponsored advertisement for marriage equality. WETM TV, which first reported on the controversy, included his comments about one of the billboards on Route 352 in Big Flats near Elmira.

“I object to this message that seems to be in support of same-sex marriage and using taxpayer dollars to support that political agenda,” he told the station.

Before the sodomy laws were struck down, they were used as a shield to keep lgbt positive information from being spread and lgbt positive groups from being formed. They were used as an excuse for some folks not to employ openly lgbt individuals.

Now, the "we don't want to promote gay marriage" argument is in its place. It doesn't have the same wide effect of the sodomy laws, but from this example in New York, we see how devastating that argument can be.

Studies show that a main obstruction to lgbts gaining good health information is a fear of being exposed to homophobia, as well as not having enough health entities solely focused on their needs. This billboard by Planned Parenthood is the right step to providing lgbts with good health information by easing their fears.

The failure to equip lgbts with good health information leads to a self-actualizing dichotomy that the religious right will no doubt exploit.

Or more to the point (and this is hypothetical):

• Studies show that homophobia leads to lack of good health information in the lgbt community.

• Planned Parenthood begins a campaign, including billboards to combat this problem

• The billboards face objection from folks claiming that they are "advocating" gay marriage (or "indoctrinating children into homosexuality")

• Religious right groups (i.e. Family Research Council's Tony Perkins or Peter Sprigg) condemn the billboards in emails and on Fox News.

• Because of the outcry, the billboards come down and the campaign is toned down for fear that Planned Parenthood could lose funding.

• Lgbts continue to have health problems because of homophobia.

• Religious right groups (i.e. the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins or Peter Sprigg) repeat the notion that homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle and cites the studies talking about lgbt health problems, making sure to omit the portion about how homophobia leads to these problems.

It's madness when looking at it from the outside. But imagine how it is when you are an lgbt caught in the middle of this maelstrom of madness.

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?