Prop 8 supporters too scared to testify, too bold to whine after the fact

Why didn't Maggie Gallagher testify at original Prop 8 trial?

In celebration of today Appeals Court ruling against Proposition 8, I was going to write something uplifting about the perseverance of the lgbtq community.

But I decided not to.

For one, I am sure that there are so many others who are going to be dwelling on that subject. For another, based upon the reactions coming from the religious right, I feel that another direction is in order, i.e. a missive directed to Maggie Gallagher, the National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, and all of those other folks whining about today's ruling.

This missive would have included Mitt Romney because of his negative words today. However, seeing that it is Mitt Romney, I figure a week from now will find him supporting the ruling.

Maggie Gallagher sent out the following twitter message:

Meanwhile, others such as the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, etc. have sent out the usual junk about "unelected judges," "activist judges," "redefinition of marriage," and all of the other hyperbolic mess we have come to expect from them.

But here is my question and it's relatively simple.

Just where were these folks when the original trial was taking place last year? Why didn't any of these folks testify as to why Prop 8 was needed? Remember, the pro-Prop 8 side could only find two witnesses and both did a poor job defending the law. One witness, David Blankenhorn, inadvertently made the case for the anti-Prop 8 side?

Where was Gallagher, Brian Brown, Peter Sprigg, Tony Perkins, or any of these other folks who put so much work in getting the law passed? Gallagher's tweet alleges that seven million people voted for the law. However amongst those seven million, only two witnesses could be found?

Who are they kidding?

All of this outrage after the fact is bogus. It's a diversion and a pitiful one at that. It's an attempt to obscure a basic fact.

And that basic fact is that Proposition 8 was built with deliberate lies that Maggie Gallagher, Tony Perkins, Peter Sprigg, and the rest of those pushing it were too fearful to defend in court.

None of these people - not one - had the guts to stand up in court, take an oath, and attest to the veracity of the claims they made regarding what allegedly would happen should marriage equality become legal in California because they knew that the lawyers attacking the law - David Boies and Ted Olson - would call them out and reveal their deception.

So Maggie dearest and the rest of you folks, please stop whining. You are not fooling anyone. You dug this hole yourself so you have no reason to cry out when the dirt comes in to bury you.

'Brutal attack caught on video underscores that anti-gay violence is NOT funny' and other Tuesday midday news briefs

The next time CNN correspondent Roland Martin feels the need to make fun of anti-gay violence, he should take a look at this video (I apologize for its graphic nature):




According to the GA Voice:

WorldStarHipHop.com posted a video to its website today of an apparent Atlanta street gang beating a man the gang called a “faggot.” The video was posted on the site with the headline, "Dead Wrong: Man Wearing Skinny Jeans Gets Sucker Attacked & G'z Throw a Tire On Him for Being Gay."

“Jack City, no faggots,” a man says at the start of the video. “Jack City” is an apparent reference to a street gang.

The operator of the camera was also heard shouting “No faggots in Jack City, man” at least four times during the beating. The apparent hate crime occurred outside a neighborhood grocery store on McDaniel Street, according to The Smoking Gun website.

There is no indication of when the video was filmed.

In other news:

TODAY: 12th Annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day - You can't tell me that there is no link between the violence seen above, Roland Martin's flippant remark about anti-gay violence and how gay black men feel about their own community. These feelings have a way of making them susceptible to negative behaviors which lead to HIV/AIDS.

Baltimore County Residents Decry, Belittle Transgender Nondiscrimination Protections - Same appeal to ridiculous fears. What a load of horsecrap.

White House Condemns Virginia’s Anti-Gay Adoption Bill - Good for the White House!

History hashtagged: The #Prop8 waiting game - The Ninth Circuit Court will make a decision about Proposition 8 today. And when it comes down, I will be at work. But go here to see it as it happens.

NOM's Brian Brown tried to steal Bayard Rustin's legacy during recent debate

Bayard Rustin

One thing said during the debate between NOM's Brian Brown and Freedom to Marry Evan Wolfson last week got my blood boiling.

And this morning, I am still pissed.

More to the point, I'm pissed off to the highest levels of "pissivity."

The reason for this is a claim Brown made during the debate. It happened at 6:20 when he was attempting to refute a point Wolfson made regarding on the unfairness of voting on people's rights. During his point, Wolfson brought up Congressman and civil rights legend John Lewis. This is what Brown said:

And while Evan brings up Congressman Lewis, Dr. Walter Fauntroy who organized Dr. King's March on Washington . . . actually supports the notion that people should vote on this."

Brown then goes on a tangent about how African-Americans supposedly oppose marriage equality at a high number. Of course Wolfson refutes this notion, but let's just analyze Brown's above statement.

 How dare he.

Walter Fauntroy is a former Congressman and a civil rights legend. He was one of the coordinators of the March on Washington. He was the D.C. Coordinator. But he did not organize the march.

That designation belongs to Bayard Rustin, an openly gay African-American who, until recently, never got his due.

It was Rustin who was the chief organizer. He was the planner. According to The Washington Post, Rustin was "the man widely viewed as the only civil rights activist capable of pulling off a protest of such unprecedented scale."

I know it is in the game plan of NOM to play the gay and black communities against one another, but to yank proper credit from Bayard Rustin for his role in the March on Washington and assign it to another black leader supporting NOM's position goes beyond the pale. It's insulting to me as a gay man and an African-American.

Regardless of whether this gaffe by Brian was intentional or not,  it says a lot about what he and NOM actually thinks about the black community.

And that's not much.

If the gaffe was intentional, it demonstrates how Brown and NOM are willing to exploit the African-American community, even at the point of altering our history to suit their agenda.

And if Brown's comments was not intentional, then the implications are worse. It demonstrates that NOM and Brown doesn't care enough about black people to get our history correct. All that matters to them is the success of manipulating the black community against the gay community.

I sincerely hope those black leaders who are kissing up to NOM are paying attention.

But who am I kidding? Even if they were, I doubt it would make a difference.

Who needs integrity when publicity (and most likely money) calls?

South Carolina license plates will celebrate gay equality

There are so many directions I can go today whether it be the Roland Martin controversy, the Prop 8 decision coming down tomorrow, or that awful anti-gay bill in Uganda.

But I decided that I don't focus on my own state of South Carolina enough. Something good is percolating down here and I think folks should know about it:



The point is that it's not always about New York, California, or any metropolitan city. South Carolina has an awesome, thriving lgbtq community that doesn't get its due. A lot of it has to do with regional cliqueness. The South is not an ignorant place to be nor are we all backwood yokels.

We are actually very progressive.

By the way, if you want to vote in the poll mentioned in the video, go here. We are winning but more favorable votes never hurts.

One more thing - I hope you enjoy the scenes from SC Pride. As seen, we KNOW how to party!

Go to scequality.org and click on the license plate to get instructions on how to purchase your very own.

'NOM's Brian Brown does badly in debate against Evan Wolfson' and other Monday midday news briefs

Freedom to Marry's Evan Wolfson debated the National Organization for Marriage's Brian Brown yesterday on NYC's WABC 7 and annihilated his arguments. It's like I have been saying before. Our side speaks truth from the heart while Brown's side speaks like robots programmed with talking points. This is better than sex and chocolate.


And in other news:


CNN's Roland S. Martin apologizes via Twitter for Super Bowl Tweets that angered LGBT community - Mr. Martin should look at this as a cultural lesson. I know many African-Americans who got incensed on a personal level at the photo of Arizona governor Jan Brewer putting her finger in President Obama's face. In the case of the lgbtq community, words advocating violence against the lgbtq community gets us incensed, no matter how lighthearted they were meant to be. But now that we are on the subject, how about more lgbtqs of color on your show, Roland . . . .

New York City Council Balks At Resolution Endorsing Churches In Public Schools - I can just hear the whines about "religious liberty" now.


No surprise: NC anti-gay Pastor Patrick Wooden pimps his ‘life-earned,’ non-academic doctorate - Well, well, well, the "diaper pastor" Patrick Wooden has false credentials. He should fit right in with the religious right on that score.

REPORT: 16 Million Employees Could Receive Nondiscrimination Protections From Executive Order - Go for it, Mr. President!

Washington state group pushing anti-gay junk science

Joseph Backholm - a "new" leader pushing same old junk science.

When the news came that the Washington state Senate had passed the bill allowing marriage equality, opponents began rallying to put the possibly soon-to-be law on a referendum before voters.

One group that will most likely be in the forefront of this effort is the Policy Family Institute of Washington. According to Equality Matters:

One of the most prominent anti-gay groups currently working to defeat proposed marriage equality legislation in the state of Washington is the Family Policy Institute of Washington (FPIW). Led byJoseph Backholm, FPIW has played a central role in organizing anti-gay efforts in the state over the past several years, including opposing efforts in 2009 to expand domestic partnerships to include same-sex couples.

Last week, Backholm testified before a Washington Senate sub-committee, urging senators to put the issue of marriage equality to a referendum and have voters to decide if “moms and dads do matter.”

Although FPIW presents itself as a typical “pro-family” organization, the group openly promotes anti-gay propaganda has ties to some of the country’s most notorious anti-gay hate groups.

According to a local Washington newspaper, The Herald Net, the 33-year-old Backholm has been called a new type of leader for the religious right:

What's made Backholm's voice stand out in the chorus of gay marriage opponents is its tone. There's less fire and brimstone and more stoic argumentation, a product of his training as a lawyer and toils as a policy wonk.

"He's not a flag waver, Bible waver or stomp around kind of guy," said Pastor Joe Fuiten of Cedar Park Assembly of God in Bothell, who served on the Family Policy Institute board of directors when Backholm came on board. "He's not a hired gun. He believes in what we're all about. It's always good for our side to be represented by someone like that."

This could present a problem because it would seem that the so-called new stoic voice will be repeating the same discredited information. Equality Matters also pointed out an article on the group' resource page:

Also included in the “Resources” page is an article by George Dent – Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University – titled “No Difference?: An Analysis Of Same-Sex Parenting.” The article contains a number of anti-gay smears, including the myth that homosexuals molest children at higher rates than heterosexuals:

The claim that living with a same-sex couple does not affect a child’s sexuality is implausible. “It would be surprising indeed if . . . children’s own sexual identities were unaffected by the sexual identities of their parents.” Even young children may sense, or be told by others, that their guardians are unusual--queer--thereby initiating their sexualization at an unusually early age.There is evidence that children raised by homosexuals are more likely to engage in homosexuality and to feel confused about their sexual identity. [...]

Further, “gay men tend to be even more preoccupied than most straight women with their bodies, physical attractiveness, attire, adornment and self-presentation.” They may choose to marry only when they no longer feel attractive enough for the promiscuity of the homosexual “meat market.” [...]

Does Dent's article sound familiar? It should. Dent's article is being used by the lawyer hired by the House of Representatives - Paul Clement - to defend DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act).

In writing about this last year, I pointed out a number of huge errors in “No Difference?: An Analysis Of Same-Sex Parenting.”

On page four, Dent cites both Paul Cameron and George Rekers, both discredited researchers. Cameron has been censured or rebuked by several organizations for his bad methodology in his studies and Rekers lost a lot of credibility two years ago when he was caught coming from a European vacation with a "rentboy."

Black gays and lesbians you should know about

I ran these videos a while back but in celebration of Black History Month, they deserve another look:









Theses lists are awesome but there are so many others out there who we need to know about. And let's especially not forget our transgender brothers and sisters. I searched for a suitable video  to represent them but could not find one. If someone knows of one out there, please send it to me and I will post it. No one should be left out of our community or the celebration of our community.