'Transgender Day of Remembrance 2017, how Roy Moore is taking down the evangelical right' & other Mon midday news briefs

OutFront: 'We need to keep fighting,' Transgender Day of Remembrance founder pleads - Today is a sad day but let's use it as motivation to make our futures better. 

This powerful film about being a young trans person is a must-watch - Wonderful film. We need more things like this to tell our stories. 

Lucy Meadows was a transgender teacher who took her own life. Her story must be remembered - Speaking of which, this is a power and sad story. 

 On Transgender Day of Remembrance, These Are 25 Trans People Killed, So Far, in 2017 - We have to do better in order to protect our own.

Roy Moore And The Dangerous Rise Of Christian Nationalism - Yep. It's been like this for years.

Why evangelicals are again backing a Republican despite allegations of sexual misconduct - Take what you will with this quote from the article: 

"Allegations that Roy Moore sexually assaulted teenage girls decades ago have turned many Republicans against their party’s Senate candidate in Alabama, but one bloc of conservative leaders is standing by their man: evangelicals. It is the latest example of a shift in attitude among Christian conservatives, who polls show are increasingly willing to overlook sexual misbehavior if a political leader is firmly committed to opposing abortion, gay marriage, and transgender rights. In today’s hyperpartisan environment, ideology trumps personal transgressions for these religious leaders, who years ago called on President Clinton to resign over his liaisons with White House intern Monica Lewinsky." 

The danger of the #MeToo movement on the presumption of innocence

Something a little different for this morning.

The #MeToo movement is a wonderful tool to highlight the havoc which sexual harassment plays on people's  lives. However, I've had a fear that it could cause us to veer from one extreme to another i.e. from ignoring or belittling the victims of sexual harassment to presuming that everyone accused is automatically guilty.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one, as this wonderful piece by Brendan O'Neill proves:

The “Weinstein contagion,” as a Guardian columnist refers to it, has seen members of Parliament branded sexual predators for such small fare as a fleeting hand on a female journalist’s knee or flirtatious letters written 20 years ago. Earlier this month, a Welsh Labor MP, Carl Sargeant, committed suicide. He stood accused of sexual misconduct. His party refused to tell him what the allegations were, and yet he was suspended from his job as a Welsh minister on the basis of them. Sargeant’s lawyers said the mysterious accusations had plunged him into black turmoil. Although people refer to #MeToo as a progressive movement, it is starting to look like an exercise in public shaming, a rash extrajudicial application of stigma to supposedly wicked individuals. We need to recover the benefit of the doubt, just like Piven said. 

Some have argued that the presumption of innocence is a legal standard that does not apply in everyday life. The law must not prejudge someone, but we can. In fact, that’s how Mitt Romney framed his condemnation of Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate who stands accused of molesting teenage girls. 

“Innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections,” Romney wrote on Twitter. 

In a narrow sense, that’s perfectly true. But Romney’s line of argument can lead us astray. Legal standards aren’t cold, abstract ideas. They embody what communities over time have agreed is a more civilized way of doing things. People are brushing aside the presumption of innocence as mere legalism so they don’t have to feel bad when they tweet: “George Takei is a pervert.” They’re saying that while judges should exercise restraint, mere mortals don't have to. What spectacularly low self expectations.

Definitely something worth thinking about.

Franklin Graham's defense of Roy Moore exposes the lie of conservative Christianity

Franklin Graham is a cyst on Christianity.

Let me skip to brass tacks about a certain American so-called religious leader.

Franklin Graham is an ignorant, self-righteous fool who exploits his family name and the word of God to suit his own ego. He is a repulsive mockery of an Christian and a prime example of how conservative white evangelicals of the religious right are sad cases who, for all of their talk of God and morality, are willing to sacrifice what little integrity they have for positions of power. If Jesus came back, Graham wouldn't know it because he would be busy tweeting out lies regarding the LGBTQ community to his gullible followers or wearing an expensive suit while sitting in a row of fellow ecclesiastical fat cats awaiting his turn to scare throngs of wealthy, well-to-do sycophants with lurid tales about how they are treated worse than the Nazi treated people of the Jewish faith.

All without any shred of humility or shame.

What set me off? The following tweet he just sent about Roy Moore:

To people like Graham, nothing else matters more than conservative judges making decisions and conservative legislators making laws, both of which putting their version of Christianity above all other concepts and ideas.

 If there is any positive which comes out of Trump being in the White House, it will be the realization  by many that folks like Graham have reduced the grace, sincerity, and sweetness of Christianity into vile swill which they ingest, swallow, and spew  like rutting hogs wearing necklaces made of crosses, hoping to put on a facade of holiness, and thereby deceiving people to their true greedy natures.

'Trump trying to stack federal courts by choosing anti-LGBTQ activists as judges' & other Fri midday news briefs

Thanks in part to fools like this, Trump is in a position to pack the federal judiciary with anti-LGBTQ activists

Trump’s Judicial Picks Call Trans Children ‘Satan’s Plan,’ Says Gays Are ‘Brainwashing’ Kids, and More - Knowing that the LGBTQ equality is virtually undefeated in the courts, there seems to be a move to game the system by appointing people with homophobic biases to be federal judges. Disastrous and happening under our noses. Imagine someone who believes that transgender children are a part of "Satan's plan" or another person who says that gays are brainwashing children being federal judges and deciding cases about our rights, children, and community. This may not end well.

Conservative group with major role in picking Trump judicial nominees proposes court-packing scheme - And this is one of the groups doing it. 

Rick Wiles: There Is A ‘New Nazism’ Rising In America That Is Dedicated To Killing Christians - This is why we are where we are in this country. Rhetoric like this is preposterous and inexcusable. But it resonates with some folks.

LGBTQ Activists Amplify Their Plea For A Global End To Conversion Therapy - Yep, some countries do engage in "ex-gay" therapy such as injections and electric shock treatments. It doesn't work. 

Roy Moore: A History of Bigotry, Extremism and Contempt for the Rule of Law - An appropriate read about a disgusting man.

Roy Moore supporters blame 'gay terrorists,' 'lynch mob media,' etc for his troubles

Today, supporters of Roy Moore held a press conference offering support for the beleaguered senate candidate. Moore is facing allegations that he sexually harassed seven women, some under the age of consent.

It went as well as one would expect:.

From Right Wing Watch:

Anti-abortion activist Janet Porter drew a gaggle of Religious Right activists to Birmingham this afternoon for a press conference praising Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, a portion of the more than 200 people she said have signed a new letter standing up for Moore after a spate of allegations that he made sexual advances on teenage girls. 

The press conference, which Moore and his wife Kayla attended and Moore spoke at, featured effusive praise for Moore’s character and record and vehement denunciations of the “character assassination” Moore’s supporters say is being waged by his enemies. Speakers identified these enemies not only as the women accusing him of sexual misconduct (“lies” and “vile calumnies”), but also the “lynch mob media,” “gay terrorists,” “communist Democrats,” “anti-God Republicans,” and other enemies of life, liberty and the Ten Commandments. 

Speakers included anti-abortion extremists like Flip Benham and Operation Save America’s Rusty Thomas, long-time Religious Right fringe figures and like Alan Keyes and Gordon Klingenschmitt, right-wing internet personalities like Activist Mommy, local pastors, and even Janet Porter’s mom, who is still furious about the way Republicans treated her daughter when she ran unsuccessfully for the Ohio state senate last year. Also speaking was Steve Hotze, a Texas activist who has been a major funder of Moore’s campaign, who Porter said had helped to organize the event.

It got even more interesting as the video above shows:

 One standout—both for being a non-Christian and for the intense ugliness of his anti-gay rhetoric—was Rabbi Noson Leiter, who denounced the “abomination” of marriage equality and “homosexualist gay terrorism and blackmail” and praised Moore for taking on “immoral Bible-hating millionaires” including “anti-god Republicans like McCain and Romney.” He said Noah’s flood “was triggered by societal recognition of same-gender marriage—so-called marriage.” Letier said, “We need Judge Moore to stand up to the LGBT transgender mafia, which legislates sins that the Bible brands abomination into public policy, thereby advancing laws that result in state-sanctioned abuse of children and adults alike.”

Then, believe or not, it got crazier.

'Family values' Ohio state legislator resigns after 'same-sex tryst' in his office' & other Thur midday news briefs

Former  legislator Wes Goodman becomes a part of a story as old as the hills.

Christian GOP lawmaker who pushed ‘natural marriage’ resigns after same-sex tryst at Ohio office - He used to push "natural marriage." Apparently he got caught pushing something else. Or pulling . ..

Meet the powerful group behind Trump’s judicial nominations- The group is the Federalist Society, and they aren't pro-LGBTQ by any stretch of the imagination.

Okla. lesbian latest to claim victory against GOP in 2017 election - The victories from the Nov. 2016 elections get an exclamation point. 

Gay Australian Senator Chokes Up Introducing Marriage Equality Bill into Parliament - This is wonderful! 

From Liz Smith To Kevin Spacey: How The Hollywood Closet Endured And Caused Harm - Sad tale of the hazards of being in the closet in Hollywood.

'Star Trek' franchise features its first gay kiss

Out gay men kissing on Star Trek. ❤️ You #BoldlyGo @wcruz73 & @albinokid 🏳️‍🌈🖖pic.twitter.com/fEo1wWOWt1

— Q. Allan Brocka (@allanbrocka) November 15, 2017

I'm not a big fan of Star Trek but I am a very big fan of any positive visibility which tells our LGBTQ kids that they shouldn't feel excluded or omitted. This is merely a start in what I hope to be a plethora of more LGBTQ images being seen in our motion pictures and television shows. Showing people's lives is by no means forcing anything on anyone.

 From The Huffington Post:

 In a first for the beloved science-fiction franchise, Sunday’s episode of “Star Trek: Discovery” featured a kiss between Lt. Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz). The two men had been building their romantic relationship all season, but this was their first on-screen smooch ...