Waffle House beat down underscores potential problem with lgbt community

 By now, you have probably seen this controversial video of a presumed heterosexual man verbally slurring a group of gay men and getting beaten down hard. It's generated a lot of discussion.

There are some lgbts who applaud what happened because they figured the man brought it upon himself.

And another camp worries about what effect would it have if the religious right would use it to attack gays.

Lastly, there are many who say that violence under any circumstances is wrong, i.e. it was wrong to attack this man no matter what he said.

I'm kinda in the third camp . . . with a caveat.

I don't condone this type of violence, period. There was no need for it. But the caveat I have was how many who condemned this action was so caught up in denouncing the violence that they missed the bigger picture.

When one looks at the group of gays in the video, one would probably brand them as violent thugs. I don't because I know folks like them. And I know why they were so quick to gang up on the man.

These are the lgbts you hardly ever know or see. Part of it has to do with the fact that they are African-American and urban. Let's be honest about some things in our community. There are times that if you don't look a certain way, dress a certain way, fit a certain social strata, or don't run in a clique, you might as well be invisible.

Unfortunately this problem bleeds into our equality organizations

And the problem with being invisible is that a lot of times, your issues get ignored. The progress that is seen in the gay community skips over you. Yes DOMA is being defeated in the courts, but how does it help a young lgbt of color who can't seem to find a group indigenous to his or her needs? We see folks like Ellen DeGeneres, Ricky Martin, and Neil Patrick Harris daily, but again let's be honest.  How many young lgbts of color know who these folks are as opposed to white lgbts. And how many lgbts of color regard these folks as role models?

Also, another problem being invisible is that you have to adapt. You have to survive on your own with very little support systems and unfortunately young lgbts of color are put in that situation. Who is there for young gay black men in schools when they get jumped in school for "acting too feminine?"

And say they make it out of high school and into college? They have two choices - either go to a predominantly white university where they most likely won't fit in with the gay crowd because they are considered "too ghetto" or go to a predominantly African-American university where homophobic attacks against them are at times ignored by faculty members who assume that these children bring it on themselves for "acting like a punk."

But the beauty of mankind is how we survive. When someone closes a door, we open a window or knock down a wall. Young lgbts of color form loose groups of friends and organizations that are underground. They love each other, support each other, and - as I suspect what I saw in the video - stand up for each other when the time call for it.

There are solutions to this problems. All of us need to recognize that the gay community is not a bland, homogenous concept of folks.  We are multicultural and multi-ethnic. We do not like the same things. We don't admire the same heroes and we don't celebrate our sexual orientation the same way.

We need to get out of our cliques and celebrate our differences. If you are white, don't assume that black pride events preach separation. If you are a gay man, educate yourself on the transgender community.

Don't look for things that force us to come together so much that you ignore the things that make us unique as gay people.

And above all, each of us must take a stand - whether it be verbal with our friends, volunteering, or even emailing our organizations - about those in the lgbt community we don't hear about - the lesbian community, the elderly gay community, the different cultures of the gay community.

When we recognize that our differences make us strong instead of attempting to force each other to blend in, we as a community become stronger.

'DOMA just lost in federal court AGAIN!' and other Thursday midday news briefs

BREAKING: Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down DOMA In Opinion By Republican-Appointed Judge - How much money is Boehner wasting to defend DOMA? He keeps losing.

 E.W. Jackson: Pro-Gay Rights Liberals 'Have Done More to Kill Black Folks' than the 'Ku Klux Klan' - My lgbt brothers and sisters have to learn that when it comes to the religious right, there is a certain degree of style which must be applied. For example, hearing about a young lgbt youth committing suicide is something we should get angry about. E.W. Jackson going on one of his tangents is not something we should be mad about, but rather use for our own benefits. You should never get angry at a nut, but if he is bound and determined to make a fool of himself, you give him room. With his words, Jackson is indicting famous African-American lgbts as Barbara Jordan, Bayard Rustin, Billy Strayhorn, Johnny Mathis, James Baldwin, Wanda Sykes, Keith Boykin, LZ Granderson, Don Lemon and so many others of killing their own people. He is personally attacking the sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers in the African-American community of killing more black folks than the Klan. Rather than shake with anger or shake our heads, we need to point out the basic inane hatred of his words to everyone, especially folks in the black community.  

Gay Pride Month: Black LGBT Icons (PHOTOS) - According to crazy E.W. Jackson, it is these folks who are helping to kill more African-Americans than the Klan. No it doesn't make sense. Let's hammer that point a bit.  

Liberty Counsel: Dan Savage is Encouraging Violence Against Christians Like the Nazis Did to the Jews - IRONY ALERT - Matt Barber, who is included in this interview, once said the first who attacks his opponents as Nazis is losing the argument. Well Matt, more proof that you are a loser works for me.

 The Catholic Hierarchy’s Devotion to Fighting Marriage Equality - Ultimately, this fight will severely hurt the Catholic Church. 

AFA's Bryan Fischer continues to gripe about CNN smack down

If you can stomach it, here is 12 minutes of the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer going on tangents on several things.

He briefly talks about the recently lovely smack down he received from CNN's Carol Costello when he attempted to spout his lies on her show. I would link to my post about it, but there is no need. Fischer reruns the entire embarrassing interview himself.

Also, his callers are a hoot - especially the one who is distressed that "evangelicals" are supporting Mitt Romney. However, towards the end, a caller challenges him on his lies about the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Editor's note - Those CDC studies and such Fischer talks about when he goes on about the supposed dangers of homosexuality have also said that homophobia (which leads to a lack of knowledge about good health care) plays a part in when some gays are beset with bad health and such.Of course Fischer would never tell you that.

Hate group claims it wants to reach out to gay youth

I wish this was funny, but according to Right Wing Watch, it's actual fact:

The American Family Association without fail hurls some of the most derogatory and incendiary rhetoric at the gay community,. For example, the group’s spokesman Bryan Fischer claims that gays are like drug addicts, domestic terrorists and Nazis and are responsible for the Holocaust, and the organization’s general manager blamed gays for Hurricane Isaac and linked the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to an increase in suicides in the military.

But now the anti-gay group hopes to teach people how to “reach out with biblical compassion” to gay youth, which they routinely call “Big Gay.”

The AFA’s Rightly Concerned blog reposted an article from Kerby Anderson Probe Ministries about the “gay agenda in schools,” fitting with the AFA’s new campaign to stop “Mix it Up at Lunch Day” out of the fear young people will eat the gay “poisoned candy.”

The blog post warns that homosexuality in and of itself leads to health and psychiatric problems and suggests anti-bullying efforts are simply attempts to “increase homosexual behavior among students.” Ironically, Anderson cites a study which concludes “educational efforts, prevention programs, and health services must be designed to address the unique needs of GLB youth” to argue that schools should not assist their gay, lesbian and bisexual students in anyway…unless it is with ex-gay therapy. “We should reach out to those caught in the sin of homosexuality and offer them hope and point them to Jesus Christ so that they will find freedom from the sexual sin that binds their lives,” Anderson writes, claiming that “many in the homosexual lifestyle are there because of some emotional brokenness in their families” and are “trying to meet their emotional needs in ungodly ways.”

I got only two ideas for the AFA. If you want to reach gay youth, then stop making them feel like they are freaks with your nasty rhetoric. Or better yet, why don't you just cease to exist.

At the very least, FIRE this guy. Quickly. As in last year:

'Anti-gay religious right plagiarist now exploiting Martin Luther King, Jr' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Land: Fighting Abortion & Gay Marriage is Like MLK Fighting for Racial Justice - Fascinating that the same folks who accuse gays of exploiting the civil rights movement are doing it themselves:



There is a HUGE irony with Richard Land exploiting the civil rights movement. Earlier this year, he faced an ugly controversy for accusing President Obama and other African-American leaders of using the Trayvon Martin case to "gin up votes" for Obama. And the controversy gets funnier. It turns out that Land plagiarized his comments from someone else's piece. Ultimately, he was reprimanded by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and lost his weekly radio show.

In other news:

Why The Gallaudet University Incident Reveals Nothing About Marriage Equality - In a sad attempt to get support for an anti-marriage equality initiative, the religious right is exploiting another cause celebre. 

 Illinois Hate Group Attacks School’s New Transgender-Inclusive Policies - They just can't help themselves. 

 DOMA Defense By House Republican Leaders Has Cost Nearly $1.5 Million - And they have thus far lost EVERY case. 

GoProud embraces its second-class citizen status with pride

The conservative gay group GoProud has been tweeting its support of Mitt Romney and bragging on twitter about appearing on Fox News and such.

But for me, it's all about presentation. To whit, check out what the lgbts who are supporting Obama have been doing:

To my knowledge, GoProud has yet to film a pro-Romney commercial and my guess is that the organization probably won't. After all, it would really piss off the religious right supporters of Romney such as the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research Council.

So I bet Romney really appreciates GoProud. Not only does the organization give him undeserved credibility on gay issues in the eyes of some pundits (i.e. Fox News), but it embraces its second-class citizen status like it was a hungry lover.

I guess it's always good for SOME PEOPLE to know their place.

Anti-gay Obama hating Dinesh D'Souza busted for stepping out on his wife

Did you know that Dinesh D'Souza, the author two vicious anti-Obama books and that ridiculous movie Obama 2016 is not in favor of marriage equality either?

In 2008, he published a piece entitled Gays Rights vs. Democracy, in which he maligned marriage equality with diatribes like such:

. . . states have a legitimate right to define marriage. State legislatures, drawing on tradition and appealing to the values of their constituents, have defined marriage in a very particular way. Marriage requires a) two people who are b) of legal age and c) not closely related to each other who are d) one male and one female. Note that this definition excludes people who want to marry children, or guys who want to marry their sisters, or Muslims who want to take four wives, or that strange guy who wants to marry his dog.

Now gay activists, with the acquiescence of the California high court, want to remove one of the criteria of marriage while keeping all the rest. Yet if it’s discriminatory to gays to require that marriage be between a man and a woman, why isn’t it discriminatory to Mormons and Muslims to require that it remain between two people? Isn’t incestuous marriage also between “consenting adults” who have a right to equal protection of the laws? And why doesn’t the Fourteenth Amendment protect the fellow who wants to walk down the aisle with his poodle on the grounds that “I love my dog and my dog loves me”?

The point is not that gay marriage is indistinguishable from child marriage or polygamy. The point is that any definition, and marriage is no exception, includes some people and excludes others. Consequently it’s unreasonable to say that gays have a constitutional right to over-ride the definition but other groups do not. The court’s real justification seems to have little to do with constitutional reasoning and everything to do with an assertion of political power.

Now why am I bringing this up? Simply because recently, D'Souza reportedly attended a Christian conference with a young woman who he introduced as his fiance.

Nothing wrong with that, except that it was news to everyone who knew that D'Souza has been married for 20 years to a woman named Dixie.

Sarah Posner gives the rest of the details:

According to WORLD’s Warren Smith, D’Souza, whose $10,000 per speech honoraria places him in the “top tier” of Christian speakers, was in South Carolina to speak at a Baptist church, which was hosting “high-profile Christians speak on defending the faith and applying a Christian worldview to their lives.” (Cue guffaws here.)

Smith describes one conference organizer, Alex McFarland, being “distressed” at the behavior of their celebrity speaker. According to Smith, D’Souza told McFarland that he had “recently” filed for divorce, although Smith found in court records that D'Souza filed for divorce about a week after the South Carolina conference took place.

D’Souza is also the president of The King’s College, and Smith reports that he's expected to be under scrutiny by the school’s board over this incident. (Smith’s boss, Marvin Olasky, resigned his post as TKC’s provost shortly after D’Souza was named president in 2010.) After TKC began looking into the matter, D’Souza texted Smith: “I have decided to suspend the engagement.”

Don't you just love it when anti-gay hypocrites fall on their faces. Dixie! Don't take him back! Take half of his money!