'Prop 8 lawyers taking on VA anti-marriage equality law' and other Monday midday news briefs

Winning Prop 8 Attorney Team Olson And Boies Announce New Battle: Virginia Marriage Ban - The lawyers who defeated Prop 8 are targeting the anti-marriage equality law in Virginia. This is gonna be good! 

Scott Lively running for Governor of Massachusetts as spoiler candidate [Updated] - Apparently this homophobe is running as a "spoiler candidate." Mission accomplished. He's already spoiled my appetite for today. 

New guidance affords gay couples equal access to Medicaid - Excellent news!

 Heritage Foundation's Anderson: LGBT Protections Create "Climate Of Intolerance" - You HAVE to read this list of lies via Ryan T. Anderson of the Heritage Foundation. You will be hearing them continuously as time goes on.

NOM is FURIOUS over the idea that gays may be allowed to marry in New Jersey

Last week, a New Jersey state judge ruled that gays and lesbians have a right to marry in that state because "civil unions," which is permitted in the state, is illegally keeping these couples from receiving federal benefits.

Naturally, the National Organization for Marriage and its president, Brian Brown, issued a statement (tantrum) full of hyperbole and omitting the facts of the case:

“This is another outrageous example of judicial activism. An activist judge has overreached her authority and chosen to impose same-sex ‘marriage’ on the entire state of New Jersey,” stated Brian Brown, NOM’s president. “Judge Jacobson has trampled on the right of the people of New Jersey to define marriage, a right that the Supreme Court has upheld in the very case she misuses to redefine marriage.” The New Jersey state judge applied her own reading of the US Supreme Court’s decision in Windsor v United States to find that the state’s law defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman must be changed. However, the Windsor decision declined to impose same-sex marriage on the nation and instead upheld the right of states to define marriage for themselves. “This is a gross abuse of power that cannot be allowed to stand,” said Brown. “We urge Governor Chris Christie to appeal this lower court ruling immediately. It’s essential that a single lower court judge not be allowed to impose her own views of marriage on the entire state.”

On that last score, NOM and Brown will get their wish. Christie has promised to appeal the ruling.

'Second 'ex-gay' event may repeat disaster of the first' and other Friday midday news briefs

Ex-Gay Pride Hide And Seek - The 'ex-gays' are attempting their 'Pride Week' after the first disaster earlier this year. Based on reports, a sequel to the first awful attempts is inevitable. 

Daubenmire Defends Westboro Baptist Church Because 'What If God Really Told Fred Phelps To Do That?' - Oh mercy! If God is behind the Fred Phelps group, then that definitely shows He supports lgbt equality. 

U.S. joins other nations in declaring LGBT commitment at UN - Good for the United States!

  Daily Caller Is Amused By Transgender Students Getting Bullied - How #@! tacky!  

Why I Now Support Marriage Equality - I was there when this man, John Hawkins, spoke against marriage equality in South Carolina while he was a state senator. I say his change of mind is legit and welcomed.

Editor's note - Barring something absolutely juicy happening (and it probably will, knowing my luck), this will be my last post today. Tomorrow will be the South Carolina Pride Festival and as many of you probably already know (because I have been driving you crazy with the number of times I have mentioned it), I will be unveiling and handing out free copies of my lgbt cult classic and Scribd political favorite (hey, it's got over half a million readers)  'How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America.'

I will spend the rest of the day preparing physically, spiritually, and mentally. I will also be taking pictures and posting them to my blog next week. Wish me luck, success, and good thoughts.

Video shows the TRUE consequences of repealing DADT

In the face of the fake experts whining about how gays serving openly in the military will harm the country comes this awesome video via The Huffington Post:

The U.S. Department of Defense released a heartwarming video Sept. 25 depicting the lived impact of the recent extension of spousal and family benefits to same-sex military couples. Senior Chief Dwayne Beebe-Franqui and Jonathan Beebe-Franqui discuss both the symbolic and tangible importance of being able to apply for a military ID card as the same-sex spouse of an official, and the changing perception of same-sex relationships in the U.S. military since the 2011 repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

 

Anti-gay Lt Governor candidate had restraining order put on him in 2006

E.W. Jackson

Say what you will about the state of Virginia, its upcoming elections for Governor and Lt. Governor are getting as interesting as a soap opera. The latest piece of dirt involves E.W. Jackson, the Republican nominee for Lt. Governor. It seems that he had a restraining order put on him in 2006.

According to Politico:

E.W. Jackson, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia, was accused in 2006 of threatening the life of his daughter’s roommate, according to a Belmont, Mass., police report and a separate temporary restraining order filed in Middlesex County Court.

Those two documents, shared with POLITICO by a source opposed to Jackson’s election, detail the surprise GOP nominee’s involvement in an explosive personal feud involving his daughter and two other women. The roommate took out restraining orders against both E.W. Jackson and a third party, while Jackson’s daughter and the third party both requested restraining orders against the roommate.

 . . .  In an interview, Jackson firmly denied that he had menaced his daughter’s roommate, a denial he also gave to police in Belmont seven years ago. In his daughter’s affidavit requesting a restraining order against her then-roommate, Ms. Jackson claimed that the woman had schemed to separate her from her family and friends and “threatened to kill my father.”

This will only serve to make Jackson more controversial in the eyes of voters. He has already been catching fire for a number of vicious anti-gay statements. According to Right Wing Watch, Jackson has:

• Referred to gays and lesbians as “perverted,” “degenerate,” “spiritually darkened” and “frankly very sick people psychologically, mentally and emotionally.” 

• Said regarding homosexuality: “it poisons culture, it destroys families, it destroys societies; it brings the judgment of God unlike very few things that we can think of.” 

• Argued that gays seek to “sexualize [children] at the earliest possible age” and use “totalitarian” tactics. 

• Claimed gays are hurting black women: “I’ve heard a lot of young black ladies that a lot of young black men seem to be gay. I’ve heard them complain about it, they say ‘so many of these guys are homosexuals’ and they are frankly frustrated by it.” 

• Demanded the reinstitution of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell : “The military has been decimated by this lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender policy that has now been implemented. It’s an abomination and it’s only going to weaken us militarily and they need to undo it,” warning that the policy’s repeal is a “disaster of historic proportions.” 

• Contended that homosexuality is “killing black men by the thousands” and said of gay rights advocates: “what they’re promoting is killing people.” 

• Called GLSEN founder and anti-bullying activist Kevin Jennings a “radical homosexual activist” who should have been “imprisoned” in a letter demanding he resign as head of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. 

• Said there is a “direct connection” between gays and pedophilia.

'NOM blasted for its hypocrisy' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Op-ed: NOM's Brian Brown, the 'Bigocrite'- NOM whines about being victims of "bullying gay," but just how many times has the organization issued threats against people and groups for opposing its anti-gay platform? Grab a chair and take a load off. This documentation is going to take a while. 

PFOX: Books Smearing LGBT People Should Be Celebrated During Banned Books Week - And they should be put in the fairy tale section.

  Cuccinelli: References To My Anti-LGBT Record Are Unfounded ‘Personal Attacks’- Now THAT is chutzpah.

  Gene Fischer And Sam Centore Discuss 'Passing Ellenville,' Transgender Documentary - A fascinating documentary on the transgender community.

Sources: Anti-gay ministry bites the dust HARD

Bradlee Dean

If certain sources are to be believed, the lgbt community has one less anti-gay ministry to worry about. According to the Minneapolis City Pages:

According to a source close to the situation, Dean's "You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International" staffers have all walked out on him. Yes, that includes his notorious street teams and Dean's "Sons of Liberty" radio cohost Jake McMillan, who our source says put in his two weeks notice and moved back to the East Coast. (McMillian, for some reason, sometimes went by the name Jake MacAulay.)

Our source said the beginning of the end came when two former Dean staffers -- a husband-and-wife team including his former director of donor relations -- had a falling out with Bradlee. The couple stayed friends with some "You Can Run" employees and began trying to persuade their friends to leave the ministry. They had incremental success, culminating with the resignation of McMillan, and as a result Dean no longer has anybody working for him.

The source said that in the wake of our July report about disaffected former You Can Run staffer Jake Dagel -- Dagel characterized You Can Run as a "cultic sham ministry" -- a group of upwards of a dozen former staffers got together and compiled testimony about how Dean had mistreated and exploited them. They subsequently brought 28 pages worth of testimony to the Minnesota Attorney General's office and are currently working on a mediation proposal with Dean's camp. The group of former staffers seek reimbursement of funds they say Dean owes them and a guarantee that Bradlee will never hold another leadership position with a ministry. Our source isn't sure whether Dean could possibly face criminal charges as a result of the allegations, some of which constitute crimes.

Dean is an extremely vile religious right talking head best known for his ties to soon-to-be former Congresswoman Michele Bachman and also being forced to pay $24,625.23 in legals fees due to a lawsuit he filed against MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.