Self-immolation of progressive minister still a mystery after two years

Editor's note - the cable/internet war is over and I won. Now to continue in hopes that my readers are still interested in what I have to say:

Moore

You can take whatever you want out of this - a brave cry for social justice, a depressed man attempting to do something about the chaos around him, or whatever. One thing is for sure - it does create a certain clarity as to how one sees life:

From Unicorn Booty:

The evening of Monday, June 23, 2014, Charles Moore — a 79-year-old retired Methodist Reverend — drove to a Dollar General parking lot in his rural hometown of Grand Saline, Texas, doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire. For hours afterwards, neither Moore’s witnesses nor his family had any idea why.

Moore had grown up in Grand Saline — a sleepy, livestock and farming town of just 3,136 people — but he left in 1954 to attend university. Outside of a brief stay following his first divorce in ‘78, he hadn’t spent much time there. For the last seven years, he had been living with his third wife Barbara in Allen, a suburb just outside of Dallas, where he would play with his grandchildren at the local park, watch Cowboys games with his stepson-in-law, gripe about Tea Party politics and write alone in his study. 

But unbeknownst to them, he’d fallen into a depression after his retirement in 2000. After decades of preaching in churches across Texas, rebuilding impoverished communities around the world and doing activist work for death row inmates, poor people and LGBT outcasts, he wrote in his journal, “I am not proud of the timidity [those years of work] represent or their avoidance of physical danger.” He felt ashamed for being “completely inactive” since his retirement and for living in an “arch-conservative” Dallas suburb, adding that he’d “been nothing but a cringing coward” ever since.

“My life has been, and is, a great misery over these issues,” Moore lamented, “and I have done absolutely nothing about any of them for a long time.”

Read the full piece here

'Ben Carson confronted at town hall about his homophobic rhetoric' & other Tue. midday news briefs

Editor's note - The cable/internet battle of Senate St continues at my residence(see my last post) and will hopefully end by tomorrow afternoon. Until then, enjoy these news briefs :

Ben Carson gets called out for his homophobia

Ben Carson confronted at town hall event: ‘Do you think I chose to be gay?’ - Presidential candidate Ben Carson gets confronted by a voter because of his past anti-gay rhetoric and it is spectacular. The only thing missing seems to be the defiant cigarette jab to the skies used by Angela Bassett in "Waiting to Exhale" when she burned her cheating husband's belongings.

Ben Carson Says He Would Consider Banning Gays In Military, Decide On 'Evidence' (Video) - As seen by this, certain confrontations are needed.

 Gordon Klingenschmitt Says Gays Are Driven By A 'Demonic Spirit Of Lust' To Persecute Christians - Klingenschmitt gives us such an embarrassment of riches that it's simply too easy to take advantage.  

Legislators, leave your gay neighbors alone - This is a wonderful column by someone I am proud to say is a very good friend of mine.  

Georgia Lawmakers To Push Pair Of Anti-LGBT ‘Religious Liberty’ Bills - Goody! Goody! Let's dance!

'Meet the anti-gay billionaires who are backing Ted Cruz' & other Mon midday news briefs

Upate - Due to technical difficulties beyond my control - I.e. a cut cable wire, at least until Wednesday afternoon, news briefs will be the only thing I can post  because I have no home internet service. Don't desert me just yet, loyal readers.

Editor's note - It's 2016 so let's just slowly ease into this year with a few news briefs before we really begin so. me fun:

Forget the Koch Bros for a second. The Wilks Bros are more dangerous

Inside the Anti-Gay Church That Loves Kim Davis and Ted Cruz - It's scary when real life beings to resemble a James Bond movie and a comic book. The second most dangerous people in the world are those who think their religion should shape society. The first most dangerous people is the second most dangerous people who have an obscenely large amount of money. 

Reno juvenile hall stops preaching against homosexuality - A victory for our lgbt children.  

Celebrating Our Right to Marry While Acknowledging the Psychological Scars - A piece I wrote last week which I reshaped for The Huffington Post. There is nothing wrong with lgbts admitting that we aren't bullet-proof or that we can "sashay, shantay" away our psychological scars. Acknowledging that they exist is the first step to defeating them.

 Charlotte Council to Take Up LGBT Protections Despite Threats From Anti-Gay State Lawmakers - Charlotte City Council comes out swinging for lgbt protections. I like that!  

Scott Lively Begs For Money And Calls For Passage Of Russian-Style Anti-Gay Laws Around The World - Modesty and good taste precludes me from saying what I want to say about Scott Lively. I have to remember that as long as he talks, the better lgbts look to the world. 

 Scalia: Constitution Doesn't Ban Government From Supporting Religion - Naturally he probably means the religion HE believes. Scalia is a nasty fungus on SCOTUS. He should have never been appointed and there needs to be some type of "how we got over" party when he leaves. If his remarks here doesn't convince you on that, then nothing will.

'The top 15 anti-lgbt villains of 2015' & other Thur midday news briefs.

Editor's note - unless something incredibly juicy happens, this will be my last post for 2015. It's been wild and it's been fun. We won a lot in 2015. Hopefully in 2016, our minds will be not becoming stagnant or complacent. Hopefully we will be aggressively working on keeping what we have won and gaining more. Thank you to all of my readers and supporters. You mean the world to me. Have a safe and happy new year. And let's come back to gain more. 

Rep. Louie Gohmert gets 'dubious' honor

Here Are 15 Of The Worst Anti-LGBT Villains Of 2015 - You must always know your opposition, as well as keeping in mind that while they may have won some battles, the victory in the war has been ours. 

 Campaign Ad Shows The America Ted Cruz Values: Christian Crosses, Ten Commandments And Guns (Video) - In 2016, we will be electing a new president. And THIS guy is in the running. Ignore Ted Cruz at your own peril. 

 The most important part about winning marriage equality is for our lgbt children - Reposting the piece I put up this morning. In 2015, we won marriage equality and we must never forget that we won it not only for ourselves but our lgbt children. 

 Indiana Lawmaker Introduces ‘Pay To Pee’ Bill For Transgender People - Another nonsensical thing we will be fighting in 2016. In 2015, the transgender community became more visible. As they did, some nasty individuals began to reduce the dignity of their lives to horror stories about who will use what bathrooms and monsters preying on children. Expect more of the same in 2016, unfortunately. 

 Kim Davis: ‘I am just the first of what’s going to be very many.’ - No you won't be, honey. But in the event that you will be, you ALL should expect to lose. Raise them up and the lgbt community with the law on our side will knock every single one of them down. One. By. One.  

Anti-Gay Bakers Finally Pay Their Fine. Conservatives Throw Them A Pity Party. - While this article may be repeating information which a lot of you already know, it is important to take it in. The anti-gay bakers in Oregon are the epitome of anti-gay lies and deception plaguing our community and the country in general.

The most important part about winning marriage equality is for our lgbt children

In 2015, marriage equality was officially legalized and it was about damn time.

The legalization of marriage equality represents so much. After a long campaign in which we lost many painful battles, the often dreamed possibility became a reality and millions of same-sex couples and their children had the legitimacy they should have had in the beginning.

But it means so much more.

Granted, some of our own aren't exactly happy about having the right to marry. Some claim that things like marriage is forcing the lgbt community into "conforming" to heteronormative behavior and roles. Some claim that our uniqueness as a community is falling by the wayside because we are attempting to "become" like heterosexual couples.

I don't know a thing about all of that. But this is what I do know.

Before I realized that I was gay, I had the usual dream of wanting to be married and having a family. But after I realized that I was gay, that dream dissipated because at that time, very few thought of gays having families and children. All of the messages drummed into me by society was the quite the opposite.

So my dream was destroyed. It wasn't that I decided not to go that direction. Someone had already decided to deny me what I felt should be a crucial part of my life's desire. Needless to say,  it devastated me.  It was a nasty message sent to me that because I am gay, I am inferior. That I don't get to pick my life's paths. That I was not worthy of having a family, nurturing, or raising children, not because I didn't prove myself of being capable, but because someone else had already decided for me.

That message played a huge role in the depression which gripped me back then and it wasn't pretty. I wish I could say that now things have changed and that hurt of realizing just low I placed in the so-called pecking order of society disappeared when marriage equality became legal. But it hasn't.

Today, I'm 44-years-old and I am not pining for marriage. If it happens, great. If not, then I will be okay. But even now, there is a part of me who is still that young gay man with a void unfairly carved into his heart by the ignorance and religious self-righteousness of others. I am still that young gay man who watched his heterosexual friends love, lose, cry and go through the rituals of having a relationship while silently hating them all with such a hot jealousy that I am ashamed to admit it even now. 

And I'm confused. Am I okay with no longer having the dream of being married and having a family because  I gave up a part of my soul in order to survive?  Is there a small part inside of me so deeply hidden which hasn't rejected the message I was given as a young gay man, i.e. the message saying "you're a fag. And fags don't have families, children, or happy endings."

I don't know and I don't think that I ever will know. But at this juncture in my life, I take solace that younger lgbts are no longer being told by society what I was told. I want our kids to have choices. If they want marriage, family, and the stereotypical white picket fence life, then it's there for them. But if they don't want that, then that is also okay.

But it's their choice No one  has the right to deprive our lgbt kids of their desires or dreams of however direction they want to take their lives.  And most importantly, no one has the right to inflict upon our children psychological scars which can continue to haunt them even as adults.

'Anti-gay bakers play the victim while still raking in big bucks' & other Wed. midday news briefs

 

The tears, just like everything else the Kleins do, are sad lies.

Sweet Cakes Bakers Still Actively Fundraising, Cash Pouring In - So now things become more clear. Having been recently forced to pay the money they owe, anti-gay bakers Melissa and Aaron Klein, with a little help from the lying Fox News personality Todd Starnes, is using this new situation to raise even more money. They do this by implying that the state is seizing all the money they have (making sure to omit the obscenely large amount of money they have been given via donations by gullible folks.) Unless you are an actual Christian, one who dislikes all forms of deception; especially done in God's name, there is no need for anger. When people destroy the integrity of their own faith system, all you should do is observe and pity them.

Student Who Described Lesbians As “Perverse” In Essay Continues Legal Action Against University - Classic case of why I DESPISE concern trolling from fellow lgbts and allies when situations like this roll around. This originally sounded like a case in which an anti-gay student was done wrong. However, new details proved otherwise.  

Marriage Equality Almost Didn’t Happen: The Strange Tale Of How It All Started - In the future, we will all realize that there was not simply just ONE factor which made marriage equality a reality, but lots of incidents and small stories (a few which include me. Yeah, I said it.) This is merely one of them. We should take them all in.  

The Texas News Station That Helped Fuel The Year's Biggest Setback For LGBT Equality - This article proves that as 2016 rolls around, we need to take new and more aggressive forms in getting our stories out there AND annihilating the lies perpetrated against us. We can't count on the "conventional" media. We should already know to count on ourselves.

Todd Starnes's distortions defending anti-gay bakery sinks Christianity to new low

Fox News personality Todd Starnes

There are times, when I want to point out the basic dishonest of the anti-gay religious right in America, I don't have to go on a long expository. I just merely point out the actions of one of their spokespeople. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, "Crazy" Jane Folger, or the American Family Association are always good for it.

And today, it's Fox News personality Todd Starnes.

Seriously, someone needs to ask serious questions about how Starnes continues to have a job, even with Fox News, when he has a reputation of distortions and outright lying to further the "anti-Christian persecution" angle which is extremely popular amongst conservatives. (Editor's note - actually, The Atlantic  has asked those questions.)

Today, he put his poison pen on the case of the Oregon anti-gay bakery, Melissa's Sweet Cakes.

First, a little background via an Oregon publication:

The owners of a Portland-area bakery that denied service to a same-sex couple has paid more than $135,000 to cover a legally-binding order from the Bureau of Labor and Industries. Charlie Burr, the communications director for BOLI, told KOIN 6 News the agency received a payment of $136,927.07 from Aaron Klein on Monday. That payment followed a collection effort earlier this month that netted about $7000 earlier in December, Burr said. Klein and his wife, Melissa, own Sweet Cakes by Melissa. They refused to bake a wedding cake for Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer, which BOLI ruled was  unlawful discrimination. In July, BOLI said a state exemption for religious organizations and schools does not allow private business owners to deny service to potential customers because of sexual orientation.

It's pretty standard, although with some details omitted. However, check out how Starnes, via  the American Family Assocation's One News Now, and probably other places where his column ran, spins the story:
 

Melissa Klein was checking her bank accounts just a few weeks before Christmas when her face turned ashen. The money was gone – every single penny.

Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries had confiscated all the cash in Mrs. Klein’s checking account and savings account as well as a special account set aside for their church tithe.

Yes, friends – the state of Oregon stole money meant for our Lord.

Mrs. Klein and her husband, Aaron, are devout evangelical Christians who own a mom-and-pop bakery – Sweet Cakes By Melissa.

In July, they were ordered to pay more than $135,000 in damages to a lesbian couple after they refused to bake their wedding cake. The Kleins objected because of their religious beliefs.

The judgment was awarded to the lesbians for “emotional suffering.”

Just a few weeks before Christmas, Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian wiped out the Klein family’s bank accounts – taking nearly $7,000.

Starnes' sad sack goes on like this throughout the entire article. However, there are two things he glossed over: