'Gay parents still having to fight for families to be legally recognized' & other Fri midday news briefs

Gay couples are still fighting for legal family recognition.

Sexual Orientation Discrimination Is Barred By Existing Law, Federal Commission Rules - A wonderful victory for the lgbt community. 

Even After SCOTUS Gay Couples Having To Fight To Be Legally Recognized As Parents Of Their Children - This doesn't make any sense at all! And it's an ugly shame.

 I confess: I hate going to church - How the church pushes lgbts away from God is a subject which needs more discussion. 

 Jeb Bush Says LGBT Non-Discrimination Should Be A States’ Rights Issue - Didn't folks say the same thing about segregation?

 Local Newspaper Bans Gay Wedding Announcements, Tells Employees To Not Voice Any Opinion – Or Quit - Surely you didn't think all of today's news briefs would be "sunshine and lollipops," did you?

Republican presidential candidates aren't supporting lgbt equality

The upcoming 2016 presidential election is crucial when determining whether the lgbt community will continue our march to equality or will we be hit with an ugly backlash.

With that in mind, the Human Rights Campaign has created several short videos of the Republican candidates for president and where they stand on lgbt equality.

And it doesn't look good. Still, it is necessary that our community know these facts:

Public officials to Ohio judge - DO THE JOB YOU ARE BEING PAID TO DO!

McConnell

Kudos to Equality Toledo for this. It is called striking back at those who would deny the lgbt community our constitutional rights:

Nearly 30 public officials signed a petition, released today, calling on Toledo Municipal Court Judge. C. Allen McConnell to “fulfill the duty of his elected position” after he refused to marry a same-sex couple last week.

The signatures, collected by Equality Toledo, include several Toledo City Council members, all three Lucas County Commissioners, and former Mayor Mike Bell. Equality Toledo plans to post the petition on social media.

“We are disappointed that Judge Allen McConnell has refused to fulfill the duty of his elected position,” the statement reads in part. “If he does not agree with the laws of the United States of America, he is free to work to change them — either as a citizen or as a member of a legislative body. But as judge, he has absolutely no discretion — he must apply and follow the law, including the ones with which he does not agree.”

 . . .  Judge McConnell refused to marry a same-sex couple July 6 when the two came to his duties court. He released a statement the next day saying his “personal and Christian beliefs” prevented him from performing the marriage. The Toledo women were married by Toledo Municipal Court Judge William Connelly, Jr. later that afternoon. 

The irony of the entire situation is that the Family Research Council added in its two cents before the petition, exploiting the fact that the judge is an African-American as if to imply racism on behalf of those wanting McConnell to do his job:

 The African American judge, who says the civil rights struggle is what "inspired his career," explained, "On Monday, July 6, I declined to marry a non-traditional couple during my duties assignment. The declination was based upon my personal and Christian beliefs established over many years. I apologize to the couple for the delay they experienced and wish them the best." As Alliance Defending Freedom pointed out, "The ability of the couple to find someone to solemnize their ceremony in 45 minutes illustrates that there is no substantial government interest in forcing this judge to violate his sincerely held beliefs." Yet, liberal activists -- the same ones who insisted the country could find common ground between marriage and religious liberty -- will accept nothing less than complete capitulation on faith. If that means trampling a man's sincerely-held beliefs, so be it.

Whatever. Since when does the Family Research Council actually give a #@^!# about issues affecting the African-American community?  Just like Mike Huckabee, FRC only supposedly plays "defense" for black people when they want to pit them against the lgbt community.

'Anti-gay groups still planning, hubris knocks out the Duggar family' & other Thur. midday news briefs

Hubris smacks down the Duggar family.

Inside The Conservative Plan To Continue The Fight Against LGBT Equality - If you even THINK that the anti-gay right will give up simply because we won the right to marry, you are living on another planet. Kudos to Carlos Maza for this report and pay special attention to this part:

 In a presentation titled "Dealing With Media," conservative author and right-wing activist Jason Mattera suggested that the key to winning public opinion was to invert the dominant media narrative about LGBT equality by decrying LGBT activists as intolerant bullies while painting religious conservatives as the real victims in the culture war. Leftists are "the most intolerant, bigoted people on the planet. And that is, they want Christianity purged from the public square," Mattera declared. He urged his audience to portray the fight for LGBT equality as intolerant when talking to reporters or appearing on TV: "Why do they hate diversity? Why do they hate tolerance? I'm for a multiplicity of viewpoints. Isn't that what America is about? Why does that person want to compel me to do something I don't want? What is it about fascism that appeals to them?" That "flip the script" tactic -- essentially calling LGBT activists bullies -- has been widely successful in influencing conservative media coverage of the fight for LGBT equality in recent years. Stories about anti-gay bakers and florists who are fined for refusing service to gay customers have helped motivate the recent wave of "religious freedom" laws and gin up opposition to non-discrimination efforts that protect LGBT people. 

TLC officially cancels ’19 Kids and Counting’ after Josh Duggar admits to molesting girls as a teen - Everyone KNEW this would be the end result. The Greeks had a word this entire scandal - hubris.

The Past Repeats: Christian Right Turns to Nullification to Counter Marriage Equality - IF the anti-gay right attempts this, they are going to be marching straight down the road to self-destruction. But the question is how much havoc will they cause before the end comes.  

How Obamacare Is Helping Protect Trans People’s Right To Health Care - Wonderful news part 1.

 Judge rules Utah should put 2 moms on baby's birth certificate - Wonderful news part 2  

How Scott Walker's Gay-Bashing Blew Up in His Face - Take a big ole bite, Scotty.

Caitlyn Jenner steals the show at the ESPYs with eloquence and courage

If you missed Caitlyn Jenner receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs last night, you missed an awesome moment. It was wonderful how she used her moment to talk about the problems the transgender community faces, particularly the plight of transgender children.

We should never forget the damage caused by anti-gay propaganda

From Right Wing Watch:

James David Manning, the anti-gay Harlem pastor who has struck up an alliance with the anti-government group Oath Keepers, took to his “Manning Report” YouTube program yesterday to explain his theory of how people become gay. Just as various diseases are spread through sexual intercourse and saliva, Manning explained, so too is the “sodomite demon.” If you have had sex with or even kissed or been at the same restaurant as someone who has such “demons in their blood,” he warned, you may have been “introduced to these demons in your life, sodomy, when you had no defense.”

Some of you are no doubt laughing yourselves silly and you should. Idiocy like this is waaaay out of the mainstream.

But if your laughter leads you to forget, perhaps you need a lesson in history. There was a time when junk like this was endorsed by individuals seemingly in the mainstream. There are these images for example, which throw out pretty much the same vile connotation:

 

'Scott Walker implies that gays are pedophiles' & other Wed midday news briefs

Scott Walker

Scott Walker’s Offensive Claim About Gay Men And Children - I personally think that Walker will be the Republican nominee for president and if he wins, he will backdoor workers nationwide with as much zeal as he did those in Wisconsin. His implied comments about gays just underlines the fact that this man shouldn't be elected as dogcatcher.

Few School Districts Have Anti-Bullying Policies Protecting LGBT Students - THIS is a consummate disgrace.

 Heroic Texas Librarian Helps Save LGBT-Themed Books Targeted By Anti-Gay Residents – VIDEO - Wonderful lady!  

Tolerance wins in Texas! Watch Christians storm county meeting to censor LGBT books — and fail - More on the above insanity. Based on the stories I read as a child (Little Red Riding Hood getting eaten by the wolf, Rapunzel becoming pregnant by the visits of the prince to her tower (how the heck did you think the witch found out), Jack climbing the beanstalk and stealing the giant's treasures (that was before the sanitized version of the story which claimed that the giant had originally murdered Jack's father), a book showcasing lgbt lives seems rather tame.

 LGBT Elder Americans Act Introduced in Senate - Our community doesn't talk about the problems and issues of elder lgbts and it's high time that we do. 

 5,000 men and women to go naked to teach Obama a lesson about gays - You just KNOW this will not have the intended effect.