'One picture demonstrates the ugliness of homophobia' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Picture a future where the signs will include African-Americans or Jewish people. We have already gone through a past in which segregation wrecked a community's power to move forward. Do folks really want to go back to that?  Imagine what viewing this could do to an lgbt child or a child with lgbt parents.

Picture from and more details courtesy of  Kentucky Print Stop: We Still Hate Gays, But We've Taken Down That Sticker

In other news

MILESTONE: US Dept. of Education. Announces Title IX Protects Transgender Students - It's about time.

The One Religious Liberty Case Anti-Gay Conservatives Want To Ignore - They want to ignore this lawsuit because it's making them nervous. It takes the idea of "religious liberty" and puts it on the side of lgbt-inclusive churches.

Watch A Transgender Activist Ask A Television Host To Prove Her Womanhood - This interview - which could also be used with men - proves a good point.

A Gay Dad Recognizes His Real Life In Nabisco's Inclusive Honey Maid Ad - I apologize for not including more stories like this one. The stories of gay families need to be told often.

Blast from the past - NOM's 'wedge strategy' paves the way for the group's irrelevancy

Rumor control has it that former NOM head Maggie Gallagher continues to resurface now and again as a prophet of doom to her side of the marriage equality argument. Apparently she is constantly saying that those against marriage equality have lost the argument.

With that in mind, enjoy this video of what I consider a turning point of NOM's past dominance of the marriage equality fight. In 2012, it was discovered, via court documents, that the organization had planned to play the black and gay community against one another on the subject of marriage equality. The ultimate goal was to cause a problem for President Obama in his upcoming re-election.

When news of this came out, NOM was thrown for a serious loop and the organization didn't respond to the news for a couple of days. Here is Gallagher trying to play it off on MSNBC in one of her first interviews after the news of the wedge strategy came out:

NOM offering anti-gay swag for the tacky buyer

How's this for a gag gift in that it's guaranteed to make you gag:

Hat tip to Jeremy Hooper of Goodasyou for the heads up about the NOM swag. Jeremy said he would rather go naked than wear NOM.

I won't go so far as to say that. After all, no one should be punished by having their eyeballs melted out of their heads because of NOM.

'Shirley Dobson using National Day of Prayer to attack marriage equality' & other Tuesday midday new briefs

Shirley Dobson promotes National Day of Prayer by framing marriage equality as 'evil' - I am all for a National Day of Prayer. Talking to God is a main reason why I was able to accept myself as a gay man. However, someone needs to get Shirley Dobson's hooks off of this event. Is there one event people like her won't use to attack lgbts? And another thing, I am so damn tired of this "God is going to punish America if we don't turn back to Him" crap I am constantly hearing from these people. I'm serious. I've heard this stuff from these folks so much that I don't know what to do. To paraphrase the late Rod Serling, folks like Shirley Dobson has had America on death's door so long that the country has worn out the welcome mat. 

Kenya Might As Well Be Uganda For Many LGBT Refugees - Now see, this is what we need to be praying about. Somehow I think God cares more about how we treat each other instead of marriage equality.  

Texas School Removes Transgender Teacher From Classroom After Parents Complain - I guess we didn't win this one.  

Don't let the religious right whitewash their history of anti-gay oppression - From time to time, I will feature something I had already posted because I think it's important that people read it. This one of those times.  

National Organization for Marriage Now Struggling to Stay Relevant (VIDEO) -  I'm not celebrating until Brian Brown says "give."

BarbWire's New Columnist Wants Gays Jailed For Twelve Years - Cause if we aren't, God is going to destroy America.

Don't let the religious right whitewash their history of anti-gay oppression

The anti-gay group Concerned Women for America is furious at the National Women's History Museum Project. According to Right Wing Watch, the group is especially angry that there is no mention of religious right activists, particularly its founder, Beverly LaHaye.

On that score, I say that Concerned Women for America has a point. LaHaye should be mentioned. But not in the way the organization thinks she should. No doubt, CWA would like LaHaye to be mentioned as a champion of so-called "traditional values" and the family.

However, I have a much better item which perfectly captures LaHaye's contribution to American society:

 

Readers of this blog should be familiar with the above booklet.

'Plan to cut money from colleges over gay issues may hit roadblock in SC Senate' and other Monday midday news briefs

Proposed cuts to S.C. colleges over ‘gay books’ face opposition in Senate - Keep your fingers crossed. 

Baby dies after being taken away from lesbian couple days before adoption - There are simply no words for this.  

Church Files Suit For Right To Perform Same-Sex Marriages In North Carolina - I like this twist in the marriage equality argument. 

For transgender service members, honesty can end career - An important, poignant article.

 A Response to Rev. Franklin Graham - A well-deserved smack in the face to homophobia hiding itself behind religious beliefs.

Brendan Eich vs. Donald Sterling - Is there a difference?

Eich

I was going to write about this but John Aravosis on Americablog articulated this point so well that I will post a little of what he said instead:

It was only a few weeks ago that America was lecturing the gay community about its intolerance for intolerance, for objecting to a bigot (in fact, an anti-gay activist, Brendan Eich) running a major American corporation (in this case, the Mozilla Foundation).

Republicans, including gay conservatives, were particularly upset that anyone would judge a man’s job performance, especially the man running a company, by his personal animus towards minorities, many of whom would be his own employees.  So long as he didn’t discriminate against his own employees, he was free to be a bigot, they told us.

Now, they’re all eating crow.

.

Sterling

Today, even conservatives are saying (on CNN) that the NBA simply must investigate whether the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, Donald Sterling, made racist remarks to his girlfriend, who is black and Mexican.

 . . .  It was only a hypothetical less than a month ago – the question, “what if” the guy running the company were a racist, or an anti-Semite?  . . .  No one is running to Donald Sterling’s defense (though Cliven Bundy, another forgotten “free speech hero,” has yet to weigh in).  No one is defending America’s “proud tradition” of defending the employment prospects of avowed racists.  Nor should they.  And even if, as Sterling alleges, the audio is a fake, America’s reaction to the audio was authentic, and universally critical.

Aravosis raises some good points and they deserve a lot more thought and discussion.