Clay Aiken is running for Congress

Former American Idol contestant and openly gay Clay Aiken has just announced that he is running for Congress in the above video. When rumors surfaced about Aiken's possible run, some folks scratched their heads or rolled their eyes.

I say give the young man a chance. He may surprise you.

Anti-gay publication pushes misleading headline on lgbt youth

We know that some anti-gay groups and spokespeople are so determined to demonize the lgbt community that they at times push cherry-picked studies or publish comments taken out of context.

But in the case of the American Family Association's One News Now, giving  one's own article a misleading headline has to be a first. The following is the body of the article:

The journal Pediatrics has released a study showing that homosexual and bisexual boys are using illegal steroids at a rate six times greater than heterosexual teens. The motivation is partly to improve their male physique and also to fend off bullying. 

 Dr. Andre Van Mol of the Christian Medical and Dental Association says physical dangers include liver damage, tumors, damaging the reproductive system and hormone-producing organs, and high blood pressure. Vol also cautions about 'roid rage, when people become aggressive after taking large doses, and taking several performance-enhancing drugs, known as "drug stacking." 

 "If these steroids are being purchased on the black market, which they quite often are," says Vol. "There's no guarantee of exactly what else might be in them or if they're actually steroids in the first place. So the toxicity risk becomes even greater at that point." The Food and Drug Administration recently issued a statement saying teens and steroids are a bad combination.

It reads like a standard story with no bias on behalf on One News Now, right? However, one wouldn't get the impression from reading the article's headline and subhead, which reads nothing like the context of the article itself:

Homosexual lifestyle has another danger: Steroids

Homosexual teenagers are destroying their future to appear appealing to other homosexuals.

 Other than the misleading headline, One News Now nearly posted an unbiased article on lgbts.  What is this world coming to?

'NOM speaker publishes violent, pornographic novel while speaking against marriage equality' and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Robert Oscar Lopez

“Lust, Intrigue, And Terrorism… Latino Style”: Robert Oscar Lopez Wrote Another Bizarre Gay Erotica Novel - A huge scandal just waiting to happen. Last week, anti-gay speaker and continuous attacker of same-sex families Robert Oscar Lopez spoke at a NOM rally against marriage equality in Utah. THIS WEEK, Equality Matters just learned that he recently published a violent pornographic novel, The Melville Affair, in which one of the characters has an "elastic anus." My eyes literally popped in my head when I read one of the scenes this novel entails:

Many of The Melville Affair’s sex scenes are non-consensual. Dodson is drugged and raped by strangers at sex parties and even by Austan’s close friend. After Carmela and Dodson’s attacks, a female character is gang raped and then killed by interrogators. Another character is forced to watch his wife be raped and impregnated by her own gay brother at gunpoint until he confesses his knowledge of the terrorist attacks. And in a scene that highlights Lopez’s twisted fascination with gay rape, three male friends – all heterosexual – are forced by their interrogators to rape each other until they confess to being terrorists. The lead interrogator calls off the experiment once he realizes that the men are actually enjoying raping each other.

I am not a psychiatrist but is someone trying to exercise personal demons?

One Million Moms Responds To Lesbian Couple On Disney Channel's 'Good Luck Charlie' - And what are other anti-gay groups saying about this? Why nothing because some of them are too busy raising hell with the Disney Channel for (gasp and swoon) having the nerve to show a normal lesbian couple.  

Tony Perkins Rails Against Disney For Including Same-Sex Couple On 'Good Luck Charlie' - Second verse. Same as the first.

  9 States With Anti-Gay Laws That Aren’t That Different From Russia’s - Yes this is spooky.  

Activists occupy Idaho Senate entrances to protest lack of LGBT protections - While this isn't my cup of tea, I certainly admire the group for taking action.

Fifty famous lgbts of color they don't tell you about

I ran this video some time ago, but this morning I say what the hell, run it again. I always like to brag about my people, especially during Black History Month.

Anti-gay ad or parody of anti-gay ad? How can you tell the difference?

If one would compare an actual anti-marriage equality ad to a parody of an anti-marriage equality ad, the main issue is not guessing which one is which, but noting how eerily similar they both are:

'Spooky claims about CA transgender student law proven to be wrong' and other Monday midday news briefs

One Month Later: How California's Transgender Student Law Is Affecting Public Schools - This is so shocking . . . that anti-lgbt lies have been proven wrong YET AGAIN. All of the nonsense they spun about men and boys "invading girls' bathrooms and locker rooms haven't come true and it simply won't. 

Daily Caller: "Transgender Dudes" Are Forcing Their Way Into Female Bathrooms - Not that it matters when there is a good lie to sell.  

Focus on the Family's resident 'ex-gay' equates marriage inequality with eliminating slavery - Dear predominantly white anti-gay group, your efforts to sow discrimination against same-sex couples (many of them being African-American) is NOT comparable to ending slavery, no matter how many times you claim that it is.  

Brookdale to offer same-sex spousal benefits in response to lawsuit - Excellent! Equality wins again!  

Agema: Stop 'Shoving This Idea Down Our Throat' Of The 'Homosexual Lifestyle' - The semantics of the language here is not accidental but carefully planned.

News Flash - Prop 8 WAS about hate . . . and fear . . . and exploitation

I was reading comments on various issues last night and ran into something which got me angry.

I forget where but the commentator was running that line about how the fight for Proposition 8 was not about hatred but to "protect marriage." And then the commentator segued into the same talking points about how "unfair" it is that those who don't support marriage equality are considered as "haters."

And it got me angry because I realized just how much lgbt brothers and sisters let pass when we are besieged by these arguments. We seem to be put on the defensive by this argument only because we don't get specific.

Whenever I hear someone whine about how the opposition to marriage equality is not about hatred, I make it a point to remind them that if it weren't, then why is there any need to push the false idea that somehow marriage equality will harm children:

 

How marriage equality opponents exploited the argument against marriage equality to appeal to people's fear about their children is a subject we haven't talked about enough. It's a very appropriate subject because this exploitation was used not only in the Prop 8 ballot initiative but others as well, including that in Maryland. And remember, according to Mark Mutty, organizer who worked against marriage equality in Maryland (unsuccessfully I might add), this is argument is untrue and is used to garner attention via fear:



Maybe it's just me, but from where I come from, it is rather bigoted imply that lgbt equality will somehow harm children. It's an implication which those who oppose marriage equality have used time and time again. And unfortunately, we don't do enough to remind them of this fact.