'KKK fails to upstage Alabama Pride event' & other Wed midday news briefs

The KKK unsuccessfully tried to upstage an Alabama Pride event.

KKK members protest LGBTQ pride march in Florence: Hate 'reared its ugly head'- Some members of Alabama's lgbtq community attend their first pride and who shows up? The Klan. If this were a Mel Brooks movie, hilarity would have ensued. In reality though, nothing happened and the pride was a huge success. In addition, the lgbtq community made a positive out of this negative with a donation site. 

Are You The Husband Or The Wife? - OMG! I used to get asked that question in college regarding sex. If there was a wife, I wouldn't be gay.  

Rep. Maloney introduces data collection bill on anti-LGBT violence - Wonderful!  

AMA approves resolution against anti-trans bathroom bills - Good job, AMA! 

Chadwick Moore: LGBTQ People ‘Don’t Know What The Second Amendment Is” - Lawd, hammercy! One of those 'Queer As Folk' rejects.

GuideStar will now point out hate groups in charity data, including anti-lgbtq hate groups

Allow  me to warn you now about the possible firestorm which will occur regarding religious right groups and the anti-lgbtq hate group label many of them deservedly earned from the Southern Poverty Law Center:

A website that touts itself as the world's largest source of information about charities has added a new feature: a warning label on tax-exempt nonprofits accused of spreading hate.

GuideStar, a self-described "neutral" repository for data on more than 2 million charities, recently flagged 46 nonprofits for being labeled as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. A banner atop each nonprofit's GuideStar profile includes the law center's logo and a link to its home page. GuideStar's president and CEO, Jacob Harold, said the new feature reflects a "broader shift in how we imagine our role in the (nonprofit) field." Adding new data sources is part of that shift, but Harold also framed the warning labels as a response to the recent rise in "hateful rhetoric" in the U.S.

 . . . Several leaders of flagged groups said they will contact GuideStar and demand the removal of the banners from their profiles. Some of the groups have accused the Alabama-based law center of using its hate group label to smear organizations that don't share its ideology by lumping them in with overtly hateful groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan.

I think you can guess where I'm going with this:

 The list also includes several organizations with multimillion-dollar budgets, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the Family Research Council and the American Family Association.

Harold said GuideStar relied on the law center's list and didn't conduct its own analysis of whether a nonprofit deserves to be labeled a hate group.

"But we are making a judgment to trust that third party," he said. "We feel that's quite defensible."

No doubt, two groups in particular, the Family Research Council and the American Family Association, will whine about how they are  being "persecuted" for their supposed Christian stances on homosexuality and will use their supporters and contacts (which includes members of Congress) to smear GuideStar.

'Conservative snowflake calls Equality March 'crybaby fest'' & other Tue midday news briefs

'Wannabe' Tomi Lahren gets 'twitter dragged.'

Twitter Schools Tomi Lahren After She Calls LGBTQ March ‘Crybaby Fest Of Bulls**t’ - Some folks will say we should ignore wannabe conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren. Do what you feel, but don't ignore what she represents - the deliberate ignorance of folks who will disrespect us, our families, and children while claiming that they don't know what we are angry or concerned about. As we vigorously debate with each other - quite legitimately so - regarding voices, visibility, and other issues in our community, we should do it with the knowledge of just who our real enemies are. In doing so, we should approach each other with a bit more civility, saving our negative intensity for those who would deny us our equality and others, such as Lahren, who see it happening but pretend that it's not.

LGBTQ Muslims have always existed, and we deserve to tell our own stories - AMEN!  

Jared Polis announces bid to become Colorado governor - First openly gay governor of Colorado? I'm all for it!  

Finding ‘Mr Gay Syria’: New Film Highlights Abuse of LGBTQ Syrians - Remember that our fight is worldwide. 

LGBT Trump Supporters Dismayed Over Pride Marches Becoming 'Resist' Events - Sorry LGBT Trump supporters. You aren't going to win me over and you aren't going to win with this one at all.

Hate group upset that the Pentagon is recognizing LGBTQ Pride Month

Anti-lgbtq hate group The Family Research Council  is pitching a fit because the Pentagon has the temerity to recognize LGBTQ Pride Month:

The problem at the U.S. Embassy in Romania wasn't that officials were saluting the flag. The problem was which flag they were saluting. In a tradition most Americans hoped was gone with President Obama, a handful of U.S. diplomats decided to fly the rainbow flag on par with the stars and stripes that millions have died defending. 

The jarring sight in Guatemala, Cuba, Macedonia, the Dominican Republican, and other countries was just more evidence of the politically correct mess left behind by the last administration. Although President Trump refused to declare June LGBT pride month, plenty of Obama holdovers are taking matters into their own hands. Out of respect for the voters who rejected that extreme agenda, it's time for administration officials to step in and put a stop to a display that puts a sexual fringe on the same pole as Old Glory. 

And unfortunately, the State Department isn't the only agency bucking the White House's values this June. Today, the Pentagon carried on a tradition President Obama began in 2012, holding a special "pride" event at the same time that other military leaders are ready to turn the page on eight years of social engineering. It was a disappointing development for conservatives, who thought they had an ally in new Defense Secretary James Mattis. FRC's Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin (U.S. Army-Ret.) was vocal about his displeasure. "I was hoping that the Trump administration would put less emphasis on everything that does not contribute directly to enhanced readiness and war fighting." 

Leaders of the Conservative Action Project echoed General Boykin's frustrations. In a letter signed by dozens of organizations, the group calls on the White House to intervene. "The Trump administration should discontinue funding and directing personnel resources for special-interest events, including LGBT-Pride Month events in June, which do not strengthen military readiness... We will support officials and initiatives taken to end politically-correct social agendas, and look forward to more changes that will strengthen the armed forces and restore America's military readiness." The Obama administration worked from Kenya to El Salvador – not to advance his country's priorities –but the 44th president's radical social agenda. It's time for Donald Trump to take a wrecking ball to the LGBT distractions of his predecessor and turn the page on policies that offend more people than they "honor."

Check yourself, Family Research Council.  LGBTQ soldiers are among those millions whose deaths you alluded to. Furthermore, they continue, along with other members of the Armed Forces, to fight for your freedom. The least you can do is show them the respect they deserve. If you can't do even that, then step to the side.

Generally speaking, however, situations like this sends a reminder to us all that groups like the Family Research Council have nothing to do with morality and values. They are all about homophobia and rendering the lgbtq community invisible and second class citizens, no matter what we do. Even if  that includes sacrificing life and limb to preserve their freedom.

'Equality March a coast-to-coast success' & other Mon midday news briefs

A gay social network is calling out the Family Research Council. See article below.

D.C. Equality March Makes Pride Political - The Equality March yesterday was a HUGE success. 

From Coast to Coast, LGBT Protesters Vow Resistance to Trump - And it wasn't just in Washington, either.  

Looking back to the Pulse shooting through the eyes of a queer black Muslim - Because we have so much to fight against and FOR.  

Gay Couples Fight To Be Included On Birth Certificates - "Lesbian couples in Indiana and Arkansas that have used artificial insemination say they should be treated like heterosexual couples on birth certificates, with both the biological mother and her spouse listed as parents."

Hornet Is Going After Anti-LGBTQ Hate Groups in New National Billboard Campaign - Wow! I LOVE this. This type of thing is what we should be doing on a community wide scale. My only complaint is that it shouldn't be gay social network doing this. We all need to be calling these groups out and DEMANDING a debate on their tactics, instead of having to explain our lives. For a change.

Pulse - One Year Later

A year ago, a person walked into the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL while it was celebrating Latin Night and, before the night was over, turned everyone's lives upside down. This person doesn't deserve to be named as we note this sad event and the lives stolen and altered because of it.

While I was not there, the tragedy had such a negative effect on me that for a brief time, I felt I could not pray. That was nothing compared to what it did to the families of those taken from us.

It's difficult to find any solace in this situation, but there is at least one bright spot.That awful individual took away so much, but he couldn't take away love. The love of those taken away from the people who miss them daily. The love of survivors who live their lives to the fullest after the tragedy  Most of all, the love in each of our hearts which doesn't allow us to give in to the pull of hatred like he did.

'Right-wing 'Christian' groups praised Trump while Comey proved him to be a liar' & other Fri midday news briefs

Right-wing 'Christian' groups have abandoned Jesus for Trump and power.

While Comey Calls Him A Liar, Trump Basks in Religious Right’s Adulation - It's bad enough that these supposed Christians and voices of morality praise Trump in spite of his specious behavior as president, but doing it WHILE testimony is happening calling him a liar and a hideous moral example of presidential behavior is beyond the pale. And I haven't even mentioned the news article earlier this week which said he put money raised to fight cancer in children into his own pocket. We CANNOT be blase about this no matter how difficult it is not to. 

The United Methodist Church has appointed a transgender deacon - Because not all people of faith are totally without morality.

 Conservative student wants court to change her grade from F to A after she refused to read gay poets - How long before she hooks up with the Liberty Counsel and declare herself a victim of the supposed "gay agenda?" 

 LGBTQ Wellness: It’s All About The Data - Because the numbers means knowledge and knowledge leads to us getting the services we need. 

Photo taken from Daily Kos.