Wednesday, January 01, 2020

Don't forget Donald Trump's lie to the LGBTQ community

Whether or not Trump is re-elected in 2020, the one thing the LGBTQ community simply has to do is demand more attention to how his Administration is undermining our equality and safety. Remember this 2016 tweet of his when he was running for president:



We now see that the above tweet is one of his biggest lies. Since taking office, his administration has been systematically eliminating any mention of our community from executive guidelines on discrimination

From NBC News:

With just over a year left in President Donald Trump's first term, another late-breaking news item barely made waves: The Interior Department — which manages the majority of the federal government's public lands — deleted "sexual orientation" from its anti-discrimination guidelines, as HuffPost first reported last week. The removal was just the latest in a nearly three-year-long effort to strip mention of LGBTQ people from the executive branch bureaucracy. 
Reports of such changes began the day Trump assumed office, when LGBTQ content was deleted from the White House, State Department and Labor Department websites within "minutes" of his having been sworn into office, according to GLAAD, a national LGBTQ advocacy group. 
Since then, drip by drip, other parts of the federal government have had their online content trimmed to omit mention of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.  
 . . . Indeed, the government's own civil rights watchdog group, the Commission on Civil Rights, in November found a systematic approach to dismantling LGBTQ rights protections. Karen Narasaki, a member of the commission's board, called it "truly unprecedented."

While the removal of these guidelines has been given less attention than they should have been, they underscore a reality too bothersome to ignore.  This isn't simply a matter of Trump making a promise and then not taking any action.  It's a matter of him taking the opposite action of the promise he made.

The group GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has pointed to 133 negative activities committed against the LGBTQ community by the Trump Administration.

From banning transgender men and women from serving in the military to appointing anti-LGBTQ leaders (some who have falsely linked gay men to pedophilia) to supporting anti-LGBTQ discrimination by religious entities while giving them access to gay tax dollars, Trump has freely run roughshod without the media even asking once about what he's doing.

What Trump has been doing to the LGBTQ community is the equivalent of promising someone that you will help him cross the street  but then push him in the middle of busy rush hour traffic. His attacks on the LGBTQ community may not be as high-profile or obviously prejudiced as his attacks on immigrants and undocumented people, but they are equally egregious.

Saturday, December 28, 2019

Pastor who claimed that gay men have sex with cellphones blows gasket over Buttigieg being hosted by church

NC pastor Patrick Wooden (second photo), who once falsely claimed that gay men have to wear diapers and stick cellphones up their rectums, is angry that openly gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg (first photo) was hosted by another church in early December.


I was too busy celebrating the holidays so I missed a very interesting item which took place last week. Apparently openly gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is bringing all of the homophobes out to condemn him. First Franklin Graham, then Don Boys.

Now this guy via an article from The Christian Post:

Outspoken North Carolina Bishop Patrick Wooden Sr., founder of the conservative Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, slammed William J. Barber II, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, for hosting gay Democratic presidential candidate, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and for arguing that Jesus didn’t speak out against homosexuality. 
“I’m a registered non-affiliate, so I don’t want you to think I’m in any party. I’m for the Lord and what is right, but it is a disgrace that we live in a country where, if a person of color dons a ‘Make America Great’ hat, people now, on MSNBC and other news agencies, they call that hat a trigger ... But you can invite a man married to man to a Christian church and there is no outcry,” Wooden declared in a message to his church earlier this month. “Something is wrong with that. And the only way to get you to buy into that, they’ve got to try and get you to ignore the Scriptures and to take Jesus Christ out of the public eye.”

Wooden was upset about Barber hosting Buttigieg at his church on Dec 1.  The Christian Post points out that during the event Barber addressed the so-called divide between the LGBTQ and black community. He called it a "false narrative." He also said we must address issues of poverty and social justice instead of being exploited by false narratives:

 “Just to clear the house, because I know it’s out there, we here to talk about poverty. Somebody sent me this question: ‘What are you gonna say to the mayor about being gay?’ I said, ‘Nothing.’ That’s not a Bible question. You don’t see Jesus raising that. It’s not a constitutional question. There’s no constitutional provision. I just got on a plane and flew four hours from Arizona here. I ain’t ask the pilot was he gay, but I did ask him could he fly the plane,” Barber said to applause.  
 “My surgeon, I don’t ask him if he’s gay. I want to know, can he do the surgery? And right now, what we’re looking at is, are there candidates who can have the political courage, wisdom to address the issue of poverty and the interlocking injustices. That’s the question before us. … We need to kill some of these false narratives,” he asserted.

Thursday, December 19, 2019

'Federal court demands military turn over secret documents about trans military ban' & other Fri midday news briefs


Federal court demands the military turn over secret documents about the trans military ban - This could be the moment a lot of us have been waiting on i.e. exposing the religious right angle of Trump's ban.

Iowa man sentenced to 15 years after burning church's LGBTQ flag - BEFORE folks say that the sentence was excessive, they should know that there is more to the story.

Democrats, civil rights groups voice opposition to Trump anti-LGBTQ rule - Oh yeah. The attempt to give LGBTQ tax dollars to entities which discriminate against LGBTQ people.

Where Are All The Trans-Friendly Gynecologists? - THANK YOU!

Big Freedia song 'Rent' is a perfect anthem for Trump's impeachment

'Rent' by Big Freedia is the perfect anthem for Trump's impeachment.

On Wednesday night, Donald Trump got impeached. It's not a surprise. The man has no impulse control or maturity, so he was bound to do something which would finally get him into trouble. Now whether or not he will be removed is another story. The conventional wisdom is that the GOP led Senate will not convict him. Of course in 2016, the conventional wisdom was that Hillary Clinton would be our first female president (and she should have been), so I think it's safe to have a wait and see attitude.

At any rate,  I have a perspective on Trump's impeachment which I think needs to be shared. Instead of  writing a long diatribe on the matter (because I don't think I can add anything new to the outpouring of long diatribes by folks who get paid to do that sort of thing), I am going to make mine short, succinct, and with the help of fellow "family" member, "The Queen of Bounce" Big Freedia. I'm sure when she recorded the song 'Rent'  in 2018 Big Freedia didn't think someone would use it as an anthem of the Donald Trump Impeachment. But I think it perfectly fits the situation, because Trump is a big freeloader.


'White House denies that anti-LGBTQ leader is part of committee' & other Thur midday news briefs

Who is the big liar here? The Trump Administration or Tim Wildmon?

Anti-LGBTQ activist brags about being Trump appointee — but White House denies it - I don't know who to believe because both parties are craven liars.

Don’t wait on Hallmark. Here are a few LGBTQ holiday films you can already watch. - I've never been one for Christmas movies, but feel free.

LGBTQ Issues Complicate Kalamazoo Elementary Book Program - Come on folks! Shutting us out doesn't mean we don't exist. You can't push us into a closet because you fear us. And you DO fear us.

12 Black LGBTQ Artists Who Shaped the 2010s - Sweet!

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Get your Trump Prayer Coins here!

Don't be surprised. You just KNEW someone would be coming out with this.

Impeachment or no impeachment, removal or no removal, I sincerely hope that Trump's legacy will  include how he unleashed a "grifter class" on America. From conspiracy theory spewing slop artists to propaganda rags to Twitter bomb-throwing shysters, a segment of  hucksters felt emboldened by Trump ascension to the highest office to grab a moment for themselves in the spotlight hoping to gain attention and few bucks.

And no where is this more prominent than in right-wing evangelical circle. Trump has given them an unwritten, self-appointed mandate to hustle and sell their wares. Trump's personal pastor  Paula White,(or as I call her -  "Sister Hot Mess)  is just one of many.

Disgraced former PTL head Jim Bakker is another. He has hopped with both feet on the Trump train, as you can see via this tweet in which he and another religious leader are selling a coin which is then supposed to be used to pray for Trump possible re-election. It can be yours for $45.



Before Trump came along, Bakker was promoting "emergency food buckets," which he encouraged people to buy in case of an "apocalypse."

'Another homophobe joins Trump's 'Faith Advisory Council'' & other Wed midday news briefs

The religious right is melting down over Chick-fil-A & Hallmark Channel this month - They are SUCH drama queens. Oh well. Suffer!

Congress agrees to boost in funds for Trump’s HIV plan — and then some - Good. But I am not giving him credit for it. Read the article to find out why.

The Salvation Army says it doesn’t discriminate against LGBTQ people. Critics say that’s not true. - For those who need further credit on the situation.