Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
It's been a good day. Two things especially caught my attention:
My buddies Sheila Morris and Teresa Williams got their license today in Richland County. I don't think anyone can blame Sheila for being a bit emotional.
Sheila Morris says she is overwhelmed to have completed the full marriage application & hopes for her license today. pic.twitter.com/GTINEswTUQ
— Amicia Ramsey WLTX (@AmiciaRamsey) November 19, 2014
Montana's ban on same-sex marriage was struck down Wednesday afternoon by a federal judge who called the ban unconstitutional. U.S.
District Judge Brian Morris did not stay his injunction, which means
state officials could begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex
couples immediately. In 2004, Montana voters passed an amendment to the state Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. In his ruling,
Morris said that amendment violated the Equal Protection Clause in the
14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and barred Montana from
enforcing it.
Tyler James Williams: Media Portrayals Of Black Men Feed Black Homophobia - This is true. Black gay men are portrayed as fey and "non-threatening." And I personally resent that. I try to be as threatening as possible. You should see my "black thug" face. I tried to droop my pants, but it ain't gonna happen, bub. Especially not with a caboose this big.
WHOA! Mark Regnerus made the #Humanum conference videos - First discredited research. Now bad videos. Apparently the Catholic Church has learned NOTHING since that Galileo situation. Something nasty is coming our way and I say bring it on. My hair is wrapped up, I got my tennis shoes on, my face is greased, and I got my windmill fighting technique on point.
Hold up on the praise dance. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is going to the outer limits to keep marriage equality away from the Palmetto State. According to lgbt journalist Chris Geidner:
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson on
Tuesday evening asked Chief Justice John Roberts to stop same-sex
couples from being able to marry in the state beginning Thursday. Wilson is seeking a stay during his appeal of a trial court ruling
from last week that the state’s ban on same-sex couples’ marriages is
unconstitutional.
The application, which Roberts can decide on his own or refer to the
full court for resolution, was filed just hours after the 4th Circuit
Court of Appeals denied a similar request.
The trial court judge put his Nov. 12 ruling
on hold until noon Thursday, Nov. 20, and the state had asked the 4th
Circuit and now the Supreme Court to keep that ruling on hold during its
appeal.
Since the justices turned down five states’ requests on Oct. 6 to
take a marriage case appeal — including a decision from the 4th Circuit
striking down Virginia’s marriage ban — the justices have, on three
occasions, turned down requests to issue stays of lower court rulings
during appeals. This includes one, in Kansas, since the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld four other states’ bans.
Now, however, with requests in
from the plaintiffs in those four states’ cases asking the Supreme
Court to take one or more of the appeals and resolve the question,
Wilson is hoping that he can get a stay issued from the court to stop
the trial court ruling from going into effect Thursday.
For Pete's sake. Wilson can continue to bang his head against a brick wall. However why does he continue to use taxpayer money to do it? He has lost the battle and would be better served to not act like Pickett during the Battle of Gettysburg.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals today denied the State of South
Carolina’s motion to stay last week’s U.S. District Court ruling
striking down the state’s discriminatory marriage ban, setting the stage
for marriages to begin for same-sex couples at noon on Thursday, Nov.
20.
South Carolina’s Attorney General filed a motion for an emergency
stay to delay marriages following a ruling by the U. S. District Court
for the District of South Carolina striking down the state’s
discriminatory marriage ban in accordance with the Fourth Circuit’s
earlier decision striking down a similar ban in Virginia.
"The end game is clear - marriage will soon be available for same-sex
couples in South Carolina. This is a great victory for same-sex couples
and their families because it removes one more hurdle to finally
walking down the aisle," said Beth Littrell, Senior Attorney in Lambda
Legal’s Southern Regional Office based in Atlanta.
“We urge the Attorney General to stop trying to delay the inevitable
- their actions are damaging to families they were elected to protect,”
said South Carolina Equality lawyer Malissa Burnette, partner at
Callison Tighe & Robinson.
“We are ecstatic as we get ready to go pick up our license at Noon on Thursday,” said Lambda Legal client Colleen Condon.
In honor of the inevitable and for those who fought hard for marriage equality in South Carolina, some praise shouting:
In this fight over marriage equality, the most disturbing thing to me is how folks affiliated with the National Organization for Marriage, the Heritage Foundation, and other so-called pro-family groups have no problem exploiting children as props for homophobia.
What I mean by that is typified by a talking point they all use:
All children have a right to a mother and a father.
It's a short, but powerful statement which they have used to define their side of the issue. It has also been a battle cry which they have used to rally their supporters.
But it is also fiendishly deceptive statement which typifies the lack of reality encompassing opponents of marriage equality.
First of all, by the statement, it is implied that every time gays adopt children or have children, we are depriving children of something, that we are taking their rights away, that we are harming children.
It is implied that we are so selfish that we are willing to put children in a state which will lead them constantly disadvantaged.
To me as a gay man, that is totally offensive. And it is a lie.
However, more importantly, the statement that "all children have a right to a mother and a father" deliberately ignores the reality that all children do have mothers and fathers.
You see, when NOM, the Heritage Foundation, etc. start talking about families, they mean only one concept of family. A man and a woman joined together and raising children. While there is nothing wrong with this concept, to heavily imply that this is the only concept that matters in terms of family is dangerous.
These organizations ignore the fact that sometimes the mother/father setting may not be the best place for the child, i.e. some mothers and fathers have no business raising children. These organizations also conveniently ignore single parent households, children being raised by relatives. And more importantly, orphans and especially children in the foster care system.
One can imagine how better the world would be if these so-called pro-family groups would used their skills, money, and influence to find permanent homes for orphans and children in foster care instead of attacking families for not fitting into their narrative.
Unfortunately though, one gets the impression that they don't care about these children or any families they can't exploit for their narrative.
The only reason why Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council has the reputation (undeserved) of a normal Christian leader is because the media is slack in calling him out for the myriad of times he and his organizations have defamed, demonized, and outright lied on the lgbt community.
And it seems to me that another reason is because the lgbt community isn't holding the media - especially OUR media - accountable for this.
Case in point is something he retweeted today.
As many of you already know, Perkins is in the Vatican as one of the invited guests of Pope Francis. He and others, including Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage is "discussing" their view of marriage, a view which of course omits the lgbt community.
There were others invited, including an Archbishop Nicholas Okoh from Nigeria. Perkins really liked him. He even retweeted a statement Okoh made:
Where the culture and the Gospel clash, the culture must bow to the Gospel. -- AB Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria #Humanum
— Tony Perkins (@tperkins) November 17, 2014
Of course the bigger question is what in the hell is someone like that doing being invited to have an audience with the Pope. But for the purposes of how Perkins likes to constantly harp on how Christians are being persecuted in Ammerica, further questions about his support of Okoh's statement needs to be asked of him.
Most likely these questions won't be asked. The lgbt community call him a bigot and make jokes about how he is secretly gay. Meanwhile, Perkins will go on Fox News where Megyn Kelly and company will treat him like a legitimate Christian leader. And they will be very sure to let him control the conversation and not even mention Okoh.
And to me, that's just so damn scandalous, it turns my stomach.
This is rich. A wedding chapel in Arizona which holds religious and non-religious weddings turns down a lesbian couple. The wedding chapel is well within its rights according to state law and the lesbian couple will not pursue legal action, but do bring up a good point of the chapel not posting anything about hold same-sex marriages.
So why is the owner of the chapel still furious? Because the lesbian couple chose to take the story to the media. Cue the "War on those who believe in Jesus" crap. It's bad enough that some businesses do not want to cater to the lgbt community. But when they get angry when that fact is known, the situation becomes highly surreal:
As you all may or may not have noticed (and I hope you have), the Know Your LGBT History portion of my blog has been under hiatus. The reason was simple. I was burnt out and running out of topics.
I wanted to bring it back with a bang so I hope that this post does the trick.
My Top Five LGBT Villains in Cinema
I love villains. Who cares about the heroes because it's the villains which make the movie. If it's a good villain, it will be a good movie. If the villain sucks, then the same will be said for the movie.
Lgbt villains are a difficult class to pinpoint. Our community have had to deal with movie characters who are villains for simply being lgbts. Unfortunately, these villains embody the very worst ofthin, one-dimensional stereotypes which do nothing but insult us. I'm glad to say that times are changing.
That's not to say that there were certain villains who transcended the stereotypes via nuanced performances or just downright campiness. With that in mind, I present my Top Five Villains who did just that. One note - this list will contain plot spoilers.
Honorable Mention: Mercy Croft - The Killing of Sister George (1968) - Late actress Coral Browne portrays Mercy Croft (I love that name), the innocuous television executive who is more than she seems in this controversial rendition of the hit Broadway play. Beryl Reid portrays June Buckridge, an actress who portrays a kind nurse, Sister George, on a popular soap opera. However, in reality, Buckridge is a loud, boisterous, drunken lesbian whose off-the-set exploits get her into trouble involving her job and threatens her relationship with her partner, Childe (Susannah York). Croft is the media executive who not only delivers the news of her firing to Buckridge, but also (in a scene still controversial by today's standards) seduces and steals Childe. Then she proceeds to verbally DEVASTATE Buckridge after being caught. Croft is honorable mention solely because many don't see her as a
villain. Her incredible tongue lashing of Buckridge does have some
truth to it because Buckridge is not a likable character. However, after
having the temerity to steal someone's girlfriend and then verbally
annihilate the person, Croft needs to have some type of recognition.
5. Raoul Silva - Skyfall (2012) - Silva (Javier Bardiem) is the villain in Skyfall, which is probably the best James Bond movie I have ever seen. His plot is simple. He wants revenge on Bond's boss, M (Judi Dench) for what he felt was a betrayal. But his methods are complex, including this scene where he teases Bond with a seduction. Some have said he was merely playing with Bond's head. I say that there was more to Silva than meets the eye and this scene proved it:
4. Mrs. Danvers - Rebecca (1940) - The oldest and easily the creepiest on our list. Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) is the head housekeeper of the estate Manderley whose actions in the motion picture are possibly because of her secret love of the late mistress of Manderley, Rebecca De Winters. As such, she despises the new wife (Joan Fontaine). She deviously manipulates Fontaine's nervousness and inadequacies until she has the poor child contemplating suicide. Then she tells to go ahead and do it. Not to worry though. Evil doesn't triumph in the end. Mrs. Danvers' secret love for Rebecca is hinted in a sly manner, such as in this scene of her and Fontaine in Rebecca's bedroom:
3. Dr. Frank N. Furter - The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) - Can a space alien doctor from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania be all that bad? I won't even bother with the plot of this movie or explaining Dr. Furter (Tim Curry) because you probably know it already. But I do have one question. What exactly was his mission before he decided to make a man for "dynamic tension?"
2. Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint - Diamonds are Forever (1971) - A pair of assassins from easily the campiest James Bond movie in the series. Kidd and Wint are lovers and cold blooded assassins hired to kill all of the chains of a diamond smuggling operation. They trade silly witticisms while doing just awful things such as blowing up helicopters, stuffing scorpions down the backs of their victims, throwing old women into canals, chaining folks to cement blocks at the bottom of swimming pools, etc. etc. The following scene, which cements who is in control of the relationship, is a classic:
1. The Nun - Come Back Charleston Blue (1972) - I know what you are thinking - who the hell is that. Bear with me. Come Back Charleston Blue was a blaxploitation movie sequel about a Harlem neighborhood besieged by the murders of drug dealers and the theft of their products. Residents claim that it is the work of Charleston Blue, a Prohibition era gangster who disappeared while on his way to kill legendary gangster Dutch Schultz. In reality, it is the work of a neighborhood photographer and community leader, Joe Painter (Peter De Anda). Painter is slowly but surely taking over the drug ring in Harlem by getting rid of the competition. Helping him is a character who I will call The Nun, although he is known as "the freak" in the movie and is credited as a "drag queen" by the credits. In a scene stealing performance (and unfortunately what looks like his only performance), actor Tony Brealond is Painter's second in command and a former soldier in Vietnam. Through subtle hints, it is implied that he is also Painter's lover even though Painter is also carrying on with Carol (Jonelle Allen), the niece of the neighborhood mob boss.
Some may ask why would I pick this character with no name from a movie which many of you don't remember or know. Basically because he is one of the only few lgbt of color characters in cinema not picked as comedy relief or to be pitied. He is the epitome of the "genderfuck" with an attitude. He commands respect and at times is downright fierce (particularly in the graveyard scene where he, clothed as a grieving widow, leads a massacre of mob figures) And then there is my favorite scene - when he starts a knock-down brawl with a bunch of pastors at a youth recreation center after being called a bad influence on young boys.
UPDATE: "I'm Not Gay No More" - So, the 'I'm not gay no more' video star has a lurid path of deceptions. Well color ME surprised.
Meet Cathi Herrod, Arizona’s Extreme Anti-LGBT “Legislative Terrorist” - If I said it once, I said it 1,000 times. The lgbt community CANNOT trust the mainstream media to tell the true story about anti-gay activists unless we either lead the truth-telling or do it ourselves with our own media. I could care less about Kim Kardashian's naked ass. But I do care when someone who wants to take away my equality is given a sweet, cuddling interview by the media.
Alabama Defends Marriage Ban With ‘Largely Unbelievable’ Expert - Works for me. In the past when the religious right would cite discredited work, they would be able to get over because very few folks knew about said work. The lgbt community has come a LONG way over the years in calling out discredited and cherry-picked science. We've made a disability into an asset.
THIS AFTERNOON - One stole the lead character's girlfriend then proceeded to give her a blizzard-inducing dressing down. One is a space alien who abandoned his original mission to build the perfect man. One is the second command in a neighborhood drug cartel and he will not be disrespected. But which one will be chosen as No. 1 in the 'Know Your LGBT History' Top Five LGBT Villains of Cinema. Find out this afternoon on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters. This will NOT be a negative list.
As to be expected, SC Attorney General Alan Wilson is digging real deep in order to keep marriage equality out of South Carolina. A recent article in The State hinted that he is prepared to take it to the Supreme Court. And it because of that reason, Wilson is claiming, that the court should put a hold on the recent ruling bringing marriage equality to South Carolina:
Attorney General Alan Wilson has asked a federal appeals court to put
on hold a judge's order allowing gay marriage in the state, warning
that not doing so will cause irreparable damage to South Carolina.
U.S.
District Judge Richard Gergel on Wednesday threw out the state's
constitutional ban on same sex marriage and blocked any state official
from enforcing it. But the judge wrote his order would not take effect
until noon Nov. 20 so Wilson could appeal.
Wilson asked the 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, on Thursday to stay
the judge's order until the entire appeals panel can consider the
issue.
In the alternative, if the appeals court doesn't issue a stay, Wilson asked for time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Here is where it gets interesting:
The 4th Circuit has already struck down Virginia's gay marriage ban, a
2-1 ruling that applied to other states in the circuit. The U.S.
Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of that case last month and
South Carolina remains the only state in the circuit refusing to allow
such marriages.
In asking for the stay, Wilson argued the dissenting opinion in the Virginia case was the correct one.
That
opinion supports South Carolina's position that "same-sex marriage
restrictions do not discriminate on the basis of sex and that South
Carolina's definition of marriage, dating from colonial times, a union
of a man and a woman is supported by rational grounds," Wilson wrote in
his request.
He warned that without a stay South Carolina will
suffer harm because same-sex marriages will go forward only to cause
legal confusion about the status of those married if the state prevails.
In other words, Wilson is prepared to take this as far as it can go. I wonder how much of the taxpayers money will he be using?
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/11/13/3809561_sc-appeals-ruling-that-tosses.html?sp=/99/205/&rh=1#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/11/13/3809561_sc-appeals-ruling-that-tosses.html?sp=/99/205/&rh=1#storylink=cpy
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!! - Tomorrow afternoon on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters will see the return of 'Know Your LGBT History' featuring 'The Top Five LGBT Villains of Cinema.' You can start guessing who they will be now, but you will never figure out my list! I will give you a hint. This will NOT be a negative list.
Even though the fight is far from over, South Carolina lgbts and their allies took time out to celebrate a federal judge's decision which brought marriage equality a little closer to the Palmetto State. I have to tell you, as one of was heavily involved in attempting to stop that awful 2006 ballot initiative which barred marriage equality in the state, I was as elated as the folks on this video:
By now you all have heard about the video of the young man at the Church of God in Christ’s 107th Holy Convocation in St. Louis and his proclamation about "not being gay no more." The video has caught fire and gone viral, with so many folks ridiculing it that the whoever filmed it - no doubt church officials - has placed it on private view.
However, that only makes the situation worse because there are so many copies on youtube:
And then there are the remixes seen below.
But first, let me address something. A twitter friend of mine made a good point about hypocrisy. He said that it's a shame that so many folks laughed at this video but would weep at hearing about gay men forced in reparative, or 'ex-gay' therapy.
Like I said before, it's a good point. However there is something different with this video. It's just so damn surreal. It's a basic farce. I don't care how loud folks in the video, including the young man, shouted and danced about his "deliverance." Nor do I care that the pastor handed him $100 as sort of a symbolic gesture of God's grace (seen in the original video).
Judge rules that gays have constitutional right to marry – first federal ruling on an S.C. same-sex marriage case - WHOOPEE! HURRAY!! Okay celebration is over. Two things we must remember. The ruling has been stayed until Nov. 20 and Governor Haley and Attorney General Wilson can appeal it, which they probably will. And here I thought tea party legislators were all about NOT wasting money. But even more important than that, as the next news brief shows, if marriage equality DOES become the unadulterated law in SC, we will be seeing the opposition twist the fight to that of 'religious freedom.' In the words of actress Pam Grier from Coffy, "you'd better believe it's coming."
Religious liberty = discrimination: A complex issue explained in simple terms - THIS is how we gear up for the post marriage-equality war. By explaining the "religious liberty" lies in simple terms. Discrimination is discrimination and if visuals help, USE THEM. This post was published by me this morning but it bears repeating.
Almost on a daily basis, anti-gay groups and their allies in the conservative media bombard the airwaves and internet with anecdotes and horror stories of Christians who own secular businesses, such as cake decorating or non-religious wedding chapels, supposedly having their livelihoods threatened because they refuse to serve gay customers like the law says they should.
Noted conservative author and media figure (and that's not said to give compliments but to note how low conservatives have sunk in terms of who is given status in their community) Erick Erickson has coined a phrase "you will be made to care" which illustrates how allegedly marriage equality is an issue which will drop us all into a dark abyss of intolerance and coercion.
And we hear the phrase "religious freedom" and "religious liberty" so many times that the press, as they often do, repeat the phrases without giving any shred of nuance, much like the dogs of Pavlov have been trained to salivate.
But let's break it down.
In Texas, legislators may push a bill which would allow businesses and government contractors - in the spirit of religious freedom of course - to refuse to serve gays and fire their employees who happen to be gay. And the lawmaker behind the bill, State Sen. Donna Campbell, wants to enshrine this so-called right in the state constitution.
“Our Judeo-Christian values are under assault and I’m not going to let
that stand. We have the right and religious freedom to express
ourselves. When the government moves outside the proper bounds of the
primary role, especially in order to legislate societal norms, they’re
on shaky ground. Really it’s a few, just a few advocates, of tolerance.
They are trying to criminalize faith and traditional values of the
majority of Texans. Tolerance is going too far in this instance.”
Campbell is spewing nonsense. What attack is she talking about? She seems to feel threatened by the American principle that customer should be treated the same in a place of business.
Apparently some evangelicals, like Campbell, want special rules which don't necessarily have a thing to do with how they worship or where they worship. You see, the 'religious liberty' argument doesn't have a thing to do with them. When you eliminate the spin, you discover that the "religious liberty" argument has everything to do with the gay community. It's just an ornate way of handing us a laminated card of inferiority, a way of searing a scarlet letter into our consciousness.
The 'religious liberty' argument is a farce designed to send a constant reminder to gays from folks like Campbell saying "We don't care what the law says or what the court says. You don't deserve to be on our level and in our minds you never will be. You don't deserve equal treatment under the law and we will never let you forget that."
It's not that complex to gauge or figure out because we have been through this sort of thing before in history. Allow me to put it another way:
If you have a problem with the following:
Then you SHOULD have a problem with this:
After all, how is the 'religious liberty' argument, which would allow discrimination against gays, any different than one which would allow discrimination against Jewish people, African-Americans, the Chinese, etc?
In the end, it doesn't matter how one sugarcoats it. Discrimination is discrimination.
Cake decorators and non-religious wedding chapels may seem like a minor facet in the argument about discrimination but they are a crucial facet. If we allowed them to discriminate against gays, at what point does said discrimination stop?
One day, we are discussing cake decorators and non-religious wedding chapels. How long will it be before we start talking about apartment complexes, restaurants, stores, and other places of business?
Is it even right for the 'religious liberty' argument to be used in those cases and what assurances do we have that in the future, it won't be?
You simply have to give up props to SC Attorney General Alan Wilson. He may not be on the right side of history regarding marriage equality, but he is brazen:
South Carolina's attorney general is asking a federal judge to toss out a challenge to the state's gay marriage ban.
Attorney
General Alan Wilson argues in court documents filed Monday that a
federal case brought by a same-sex couple in Charleston should be
dismissed. He cites last week's federal appeals court decision upholding
such bans in other states.
Wilson said the Sixth U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals decision that states have the right to set rules for
marriage supports South Carolina's constitutional ban on same-sex
marriage. Wilson noted the decision came in a case in which a court
found no fundamental right to same-sex marriage.
The Charleston couple has asked a federal judge to rule in their favor without a trial.
There is just one problem with that. South Carolina does not fall in the jurisdiction of the Sixth District Appeals Court. The state is in the jurisdiction of the Fourth District Appeals Court. And it was that court which, earlier this year, ruled in favor of marriage equality, affirming a lower court's decision.
Last month, the Supreme Court refused to listen to challenges to that particular decision, thereby upholding the Fourth District Appeals Court's marriage equality ruling for the state's in its jurisdiction, which includes South Carolina.
The only reason why gay couples aren't getting married in the Palmetto State is because Wilson has been hemming and hawing and jumping through every hoop in an effort to keep it from happening.
It's safe to say that Wilson's attempt today affirms just how desperate he is.
So the American Family Association is angry at Kellogg for sponsoring Atlanta's Gay Pride march and festival. One would think the organization would've have been angry about the strange relationship between those three elves promoting 'Rice Krispies.' What does "snap, crackle, pop" mean anyway?
Two Brides Tie The Knot In Russia, Prompting Outrage - Bravery does not come from pleading victimhood status when you know you are in an insulated environment. It comes from things like this - putting yourself on the line for basic freedom.
If you have seen this video, so what. See it again. In fact, view it every time you feel depressed, despondent, or overwhelmed by the anti-gay machine. Having the courage to stand up for yourself knows no race, no age, and definitely no sexual orientation or gender identity.
Alex hasn't even left elementary school but he already has a firm
grasp on his identity and what it means to be transgender. He wrote a
rap about coming out to his mother and shared it on stage at Camp Aranu’tiq, a camp for transgender and gender-variant youth.
According to its website,
Camp Aranu'tiq focuses on, "building confidence, resilience, and
community for transgender and gender-variant youth and their families
through camp experiences."
