Judge rules DADT unconstitutional!

Like I said on Facebook, based upon the year we are having, the lgbt community should start feeling like Bonnie Raitt after she started winning all of the Grammys after 20 years in the music industry:

A federal judge in Riverside declared the U.S. military’s ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional Thursday, saying the “don't ask, don't tell” policy violates the 1st Amendment rights of lesbians and gay men.

U.S. District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips said the policy banning gays did not preserve military readiness, contrary to what many supporters have argued, saying evidence shows that the policy in fact had a “direct and deleterious effect’’ on the military.

Phillips said she would issue an injunction barring the government from enforcing the policy. However, the U.S. Department of Justice, which defended “don’t ask, don’t tell” during a two-week trial in Riverside, will have an opportunity to appeal that decision.

The ruling comes just over a month after a federal judge in San Francisco tossed out California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, providing back-to-back victories for gay rights advocates seeking policy changes in the courts that have eluded them in Congress and at the ballot box. The case was filed by the Log Cabin Republicans, the largest political organization for gays in the GOP, in 2004.

There will be more details (Lord, there will be more details) as folks will have time to analyze this ruling.

One thing though - PRESIDENT OBAMA, DO NOT APPEAL IT!!

Family Research Council attacks same-sex marriage with 'counterfeit' facts

Perusing the Family Research Council's webpage is always a bonanza for me because there is always something there which can be pointed out as an example of how religious right groups distort studies and current events to push the false "radical homosexual activists are hurting America" narrative.

And today didn't disappoint. There is a piece, Ten Facts About Counterfeit Marriage, which supposedly gives a point-by-point reason as to why gay marriage is wrong.

Now many of the points are basic arguments with no facts backing them up as to why heterosexual marriage is "pure as the driven snow" and how gays and lesbians want to drive a bunch of tire tracks into this snow.

But when FRC starts spouting studies, the organization gets into trouble in terms of accuracy:

Many homosexuals and their sex partners may sincerely believe they can be good parents. But children are not guinea pigs for grand social experiments in redefining marriage, and should not be placed in settings that are unsuitable for raising children.

�� Transient relationships: While a high percentage of married couples remain married for up to 20 years or longer, with many remaining wedded for life, the vast majority of homosexual relationships are short-lived and transitory. This has nothing to do with alleged "societal oppression." A study in the Netherlands , a gay-tolerant nation that has legalized homosexual marriage, found the average duration of a homosexual relationship to be one and a half years.

�� Serial promiscuity: Studies indicate that while three-quarters or more of married couples remain faithful to each other, homosexual couples typically engage in a shocking degree of promiscuity. The same Dutch study found that "committed" homosexual couples have an average of eight sexual partners (outside of the relationship) per year. Children should not be placed in unstable households with revolving bedroom doors.

But the study FRC is referring to had nothing to do with same-sex marriage or same-sex households with children for a number of reasons.

The study was conducted by one Maria Xiridou of the Amsterdam Municipal Health Service. Her study did not look at gay marriage but was designed to "access the relative contribution of steady and casual partnerships to the incidence of HIV infection among homosexual men in Amsterdam and to determine the effect of increasing sexually risky behaviours among both types of partnerships in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy."
 
For this study, Dr. Xiridou received her information from the Amsterdam Cohort Study of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and AIDS Among Homosexual Men. To gain this information, researchers studied 1,800 gay men between the years of 1984- 2000.

Same sex marriage was legalized in the Netherlands in 2001, thus making the information irrelevant to points about gay marriage. Information for the Amsterdam Cohort Study is found here.

Furthermore, lesbians were not included in the study and, as far as it is known, there were no questions in the study regarding lgbt households with children.

Now far be it from me to start pointing fingers, but I noticed how cleverly FRC pushed that talking point without actually stating that the couples in the study were married.

Also where would the FRC piece be without a phony panic story about what could happen if same-sex marriage became legal across the country:

If homosexual marriage becomes the law of the land, then children in public schools will be taught that homosexuality is a normative lifestyle, and that gay households are just another "variant" style of family. Those who object may find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Unbelievable? This Orwellian situation has occurred in Massachusetts , which legalized homosexual marriage in 2004. In April 2005, David Parker, the parent of a six-year-old boy, protested to the Lexington elementary school after his son was taught about homosexual "families" in his kindergarten class.

At a scheduled meeting at the school, when Parker refused to back down from his request that the school honor the Massachusetts parental notification statute, he was arrested for "trespassing," handcuffed, and put in jail overnight. The next morning Parker was led handcuffed into court for his arraignment, and over the next several months endured two subsequent court appearances before the school district backed down and decided to drop all charges against him. In 2007, Parker's lawsuit against the Lexington school officials was dismissed by a federal judge who refused to uphold his civil rights and to enforce the Massachusetts parental notification statute.

FRC's version of the story isn't accurate.  I've written about the Parker case on several occasions, including this piece. Here are the bare bones:

Parker's son was not taught about "homosexual families" in his kindergarten class. He brought home a "diversity bookbag" in which one book featured a same-sex family. When Parker complained, the school assured him that his son was not being "taught" about homosexuality but that since children from same-sex households attended his son's school, they couldn't stop the children from talking about their families.

The parent notification statute alluded to by FRC had to do with sexual education, but did not have anything to do with differing families. This was told to Parker by school officials.

Parker and his wife requested that the school, in the future, ensure that teachers automatically remove their children from discussions of same-sex households, even if the issue rises spontaneously. It was explained to Parker and his wife that the policy allowing students to opt out of discussions of human sexuality was not relevant here and the Parkers’ request was “not practical” because children could discuss “such matters among themselves at school.” That was when Parker refused to leave the meeting and subsequently got arrested.

Seems to me that that the main thing counterfeit in FRC's piece on "counterfeit marriages" is the idea that gay marriage is somehow harmful to society.  And it also goes to show that the lgbt community and our allies must remain vigilant in pointing out the errors of so-called "family values" groups like FRC.

American Family Association attacking lgbt families and other Thursday midday news briefs

The AFA: Taking the "Family" Out of Family Values - Poor American Family Association. They can't help it if they don't want to recognize same-sex families.

Related post - Home Depot attacked for supporting THE GAYS

Brian Brown added me to wall, then put up a wall. But verbal firebombs still make it over - What the heck is "government enforced sodomy" anway?

Governor names new justice - Not bad. Colorado gets gay judge.

Another Wound For Muslims Who Lost Loved Ones On 9/11 - With Sarah Palin and company getting the most face time on this matter, we forget those who lost family members on 9-11. Unfortunately Muslims in this country are getting ugly doses of discrimination:

(Talat)Hamdani said because her son was a Muslim, authorities investigated whether he was connected to the 9/11 plot. FBI agents interrogated Talat Hamdani and her now deceased husband, while a New York Post headline asked if her son was, "Missing or Hiding?" Only when Salman's remains were found at Ground Zero six months later was he cleared of suspicion and recognized as a first responder and a victim.

"He was an NYPD cadet, he was an EMT, he was a first responder, and he wasn't given dignity," said Hamdani.

Ashrafi, who wears a hijab, said teenagers hurled coke cans and anti-Muslim epithets when she picked-up her daughter after school a few years ago, while at a local grocery store, a customer muttered something about "Muslims" before switching out of her check-out line. In another shopping experience, Ashrafi offered to get a product that a wheelchair-bound woman couldn't reach. The woman told Ashrafi she didn't "need help from a Muslim."

'Poo poo' pastor Martin Ssempa video gets small but crucial makeover

I don't like Martin Ssempa. I don't like talking about Martin Ssempa nor do I like thinking about Martin Ssempa. As one of the pushers of that awful Ugandan anti-gay bill, Ssempa has done more to hurt a lot of innocent people.

Especially with how he evokes awful stereotypes and images to inflame people against the lgbt community. This video of him "at work" has been around for a while. However, this particular rendition has a small change which I thinks speak perfectly to entire situation:



Related posts:

Martin Ssempa celebrates his homophobia via a blog

'Kill the gays' bill supporter reduced to showing gay porn in church

Martin Ssempa talks about 'poop' to demonize lgbts 

Martin Ssempa's obsession with gay sex . . . and poo? :

Religious right learns the hard way - You can't win in court through fear tactics

While under the radar of many, the recent loss suffered by the religious right over hate crimes legislation should resonate due to why they loss:

The lawsuit, in which two pastors and the head of the American Family Association of Michigan sued Attorney General Eric Holder, was dismissed on technical grounds. Because of this, however, Ludington did not reach the ultimate question of whether the law's penalty enhancements are constitutional.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, who serves as the federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Michigan, where the case was brought, said in a news release about the decision, ''We are very pleased with the judge's ruling upholding the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This law protects all of our citizens.''

The plaintiffs had argued that the law violates several of their constitutional rights, including their First Amendment speech and free exercise of religion rights, and the Equal Protection Clause, because, as Ludington characterized the argument, ''it creates an irrational distinction between different religious viewpoints on homosexuality.'' The plaintiffs also claimed that Congress lacked the ability to pass the law under the Commerce Clause.

The court, however, did not reach those issues because Ludington decided that the case could not be heard at this time, nor in a challenge brought by these plaintiffs.

The timing issue, called ripeness, relates to whether or not the harm claimed by the plaintiffs is timely enough to bring a court challenge. The issue of whether these are the appropriate plaintiffs was addressed by the judge in consideration of whether there is standing, which he found to be lacking.

Although the plaintiffs had not been charged with any violation of the act, which was signed into law by President Obama in October 2009, they sought a ''pre-enforcement declaration'' that the law was unconstitutional.

The court first addressed the standing question, noting, ''The Attorney General emphasizes that the Act prohibits only willful, violent conduct – 'willfully caus[ing] bodily injury to any person' or attempting to cause such injury 'through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device.'''

After detailing the potential threats of prosecution claimed by the plaintiffs, the court concluded, ''Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that 'there exists a credible threat of prosecution' under the Act.''

In other words, portents of doom or claiming that pro-gay legislation will harm children, force people to "accept homosexuality, etc. may unfortunately work in school board meetings, on the editorial pages, and on The 700 Club or Fox News, but playing that game in court without proof just ain't gonna cut it.

And that's something to remember because based on my countdown clock on the right, it's almost a year anniversary since President Obama signed lgbt-inclusive hate crimes legislation into law and a pastor has yet to be arrested for "proclaiming homosexuality to be a sin." Remember the following poster:

I wonder if Peter LaBarbera, Matt Barber, Gary Glenn or the rest would accept a nice piece of crow if sent to them wrapped in that poster.

Related posts:

Why can't Matt Barber stop lying about hate crimes legislation?

How to scare the bejesus out of Christians with a failed game plan

It's just good for FRC that crimes against truth aren't tracked
  
Family Research Council brags about ability to fool 80,000 people 

They came, they protested, they got ignored: Anti-hate crimes legislation rally a huge disaster
  
Let the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission wallow in the filth of its own ignorance

Christian Anti-Defamation Commission defends exorcists and hate groups from the 'scary gays'

 

Hate crimes lawsuit dismissed and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Judge Dismisses Religious Right Lawsuit Challenging Hate Crimes Legislation - Just in time for the one year anniversary of the signing of hate crimes legislation. And how many pastors have been arrested? None.

Holder, Axelrod Denounce Florida Church's Planned Quran Burning - Not necessarily an lgbt issue per se but still one that affects us all. To some it may seem like a small issue but remember small issues have an unfortunate tendency to start big wars.

Andrew Marin Has A New Boyfriend - Interesting post.

‘Ex-Gay is a Lie and Can Lead to Suicide’ - Unfortunately so true.

Study: Gay marriage isn't a threat in Iowa - A classic "well duh" moment.

Gay DC Councilman, Jim Graham, attacked by anonymous, anti-abortion robocalls - Nothing like classic homophobia to remind you where you are in the world.

Tea party secretary quits over dismissal of homophobic president

Yesterday, I prefaced this story by noting that the tea party finally did something write. Scratch that just a little:

Kristi Allen-Gailushas, secretary of the Big Sky Tea Party Association and Republican nominee for a Helena-area legislative seat, is quitting the group following its removal of president Tim Ravndal for anti-gay comments made on his Facebook page.

"They didn't even listen to Tim and what he had to say," she said. "They were just worried about the [Montana] Human Rights Network and the ACLU and what they were going to say."

The Montana Human Rights Network advocates for gay rights and had called for Ravndal's removal.

Ravndal was ejected from the group Sunday after a post on his Facebook page appeared to make light of the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard -- a killing that has remained a symbol of anti-gay violence.

Allen-Gailushas said Ravndal wasn't even referring to the Shepard case, and that his comments were taken out of context.

She said she would submit her resignation from the association at Tuesday night's meeting.

She may have also been heading for trouble with the group’s board, following the revelation of one of her own Facebook postings that takes aim at gay people.

The Independent Record obtained an image of her Facebook page with her posting, "The Gay community wants a war…they've got one!!

I guess these folks just can't help themselves.