Anti-gay right celebrating passage of useless Florida law

Florida Gov Rick Scott

The following takes the proverbial cake from the American Family Association's fake new site, One News Now:

Florida legislators passed a law protecting the rights of people of faith who won't violate their religious beliefs in order to accommodate homosexuals wanting to marry.

Florida Governor Rick Scott has signed the "Pastor Protection Act" into law, CBN News reported this week. 

Pastor Eddie DelValle of With Love Ministries says the movement in part relates to Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who was ordered to jail for refusing to issue same-gender marriage licenses.

"I think the agenda of the LGBT movement was to silence the church, silence Christians and make us powerless in the culture and society," he says. "But instead the states now have given us full protection where we cannot be taken to court or civilly sued if our conscience is violated religiously."

The law "protects" pastors from being forced to marry gay couples. But the law is useless and passing it was a waste of time. There are no laws, ordinances, provisos, etc which demand that pastors have to marry all couples who come before them. That sort of thing  would be illegal due to the First Amendment of the Constitution. 

Also, I find it ridiculous that DelValle and One News Now attempts to make the connection to Kentucky clerk Kim Davis. She is an elected official and not a pastor, therefore it was her job to provide marriage licenses to all couples whether they be gay or heterosexual.

Or, as FL State Rep Kevin Rader remarked recently to the Palm Beach Post:

“This is just unneeded regulation. It is just a crazy thing.”

He also compared the law to passing a bill against aliens from outer space landing in Florida.

It just goes to show how people can be manipulated by fear. Lgbts do not want to silence Christians. In fact, some of us ARE Christian. We just want our right to marry, just like everyone else. And now that we have won that right, we are going take full advantage of it.

We could care less which pastors don't want to marry us. We are too busy having weddings with the ones who do.

Anti-gay hate group despises ABC comedy about gay teen

Editor's note - I've got two announcements:

1. Because of a personal emergency, this will be the only post on my blog until late this afternoon.

2. Some folks have asked will I weigh in on the Democratic primary on this blog. Due to the extremely contentious nature of the primary - barring any unforseeable event which needs to be talked about - this blog is officially declared a NO "Hillary vs. Bernie"  Zone. This blog is about the lgbt community, fighting the religious right, and securing our equality and dignity. There will be no distractions. Any comments steering anything to a Hillary vs. Bernie situation will also not be posted.
 

Taking a break from calling us hateful if we boycott things, the anti-gay hate group American Family Association has declared war on the ABC sitcom The Real O'Neals:

If you didn't know who Dan Savage is, it's probably a good thing. But right now we need you to familiarize yourselves with one of the cruelest, most vile political activists in America.

Why? Because ABC and Disney is airing a sitcom Dan Savage developed loosely based on his life.
A perusal of Dan Savage's work reveals a career built on advocating violence — even murder — and spewing hatred against people of faith.

Savage has spared no one with whom he disagrees from his vitriolic hate speech. We have examples, but be warned, they are extremely graphic and offensive.

 . . . Despite his extremism, vulgarity, and unabashed encouragement of dangerous sexual practices, ABC's newest sitcom with Savage as its executive producer is now airing on Tuesday evenings at 8:30/7:30 p.m. CT.

"The Real O'Neals" mocks Christianity and insults Catholicism. AFA recognizes this show ridicules people of faith, and Christians across America are offended by it.

It is almost impossible to describe the depth of depravity found in the sitcom "The Real O'Neals." It is impossible to list them all, so here are a few scene descriptions from the show:

• Jesus appears where only the gay son can see and talk to Him, and He is annoyed by the mom's strict guidelines for her family.
• The daughter steals money she is supposedly raising for charity.
• The daughter "attempts to prove" that there is no God in a science fair project.
• A statue of Mary is kept above the O'Neal's toilet to remind the boys to put the seat down.
• The first jab at Jesus comes only 52 seconds into the first episode.
• The mother encourages her 16-year-old gay son to "try s-x" with a girl. (A dash '-' is used to bypass internet filters.)
• Vulgar language (ex. V-gina).
• The mom makes pancakes shaped like the face of Jesus to guilt trip her anorexic son into eating.

AFA goes on to talk about contacting one of the companies which pays for advertising on this show to let them know that they supposedly support "bigotry and animosity" against Christians.

Personally, I'm jealous. I thought I was one of the cruelest, most vile political activists in America. Anyway, I find The Real O'Neals to be very comical and refreshing. But look at this short clip judge for yourself:

Meet the ' 10 Coolest Queers in Science'

A good part of this blog spreading knowledge about lgbt history. With that in mind, I bet you don't know this guy:

His name is Bruce Voller and according to Unicorn Booty:

Not only was Bruce a pioneering biologist in the field of HIV/AIDS medicine — he gave AIDS its name — he was also a founding member of the National Gay Task Force. In the laboratory, he helped identify new ways to prevent the spread of viruses during sex; he also persuaded President Jimmy Carter to become the first sitting president to meet with an LGBT civil rights group.

Voller is just one of the 10 Coolest Queers in Science. Check out Unicorn Booty for the biographies of those you already knew and probably didn't know.

'Oklahoma's 27 anti-lgbt bills are DEAD' & other Tue midday news briefs

Larry Kramer

Oklahoma’s 27 Anti-LGBT Bills Are All Dead - 27 anti-gay bills and all of them died this session. Which means of course they may be back, but let's do a very small, quick yippee! 

This Iconic Gay Activist Says Gay Men Should Take Responsibility For Their Sexual Behaviour - Buzzfeed conducts a wonderful with legendary lgbt activist Larry Kramer. My opinion has changed thoroughly over the years.  

Missouri Governor Condemns Pro-Discrimination Constitutional Amendment - The push for anti-gay "religious liberty" laws and such faces another bit of resistance.  

Seton Hall Makes March Madness History With First Openly Gay Player - Awesome bit of history.  

White House Appoints First Transgender Person As Primary LGBT Liaison - Sweeeeet!  

WATCH: LGBT Students, Allies Clash With Anti-Gay Protesters Outside Tennessee School Board Meeting - But the fight for equality is always on.

Video - ACT UP and the AIDS Crisis

With Nancy Reagan's death and the controversy brought about via inaccurate comments about her "starting the conversation about AIDS" and the correction of those comments, a lot of bad memories were brought up about the AIDS crisis in the 80s.

Let's not forget how members of the community took on the crisis head on, even though a lot of folks misunderstood and attacked them for their methods. ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was a wonderful group whose loud and controversial protests brought attention to the crisis and the need to do something about it.

The following video is a 1990 episode of the Donahue talk show featuring ACT UP members Mark Harrington, Peter Staley, Ann Northrop, Robert Garcia and the legendary Larry Kramer. I am totally in awe of these folks:

'Anti-gay hate groups unite against Tenn. GSA' & other Mon. midday news briefs

National Anti-LGBT Hate Groups Join Fight Against Tennessee High Schoolers' Gay-Straight Alliance - Our usual character. However, they have already been caught lying and may face some resistance. 

Colorado fight to end ‘gay conversion therapy’ could carry national weight - The slow but steady eradication of the fraudulent "ex-gay" therapy would be wonderful.

  Even by Christopher Doyle standards this is spectacularly stupid - Meanwhile, possibly the last resistance against this welcomed development (the end of "ex-gay" therapy) makes an absolutely ridiculous move in filing a complaint with the FTC against the Human Rights Campaign? What's the charge? Put down anything you are drinking before reading this link.  

How Nancy Reagan Finally Started a Conversation About AIDS -- 35 Years Later - WITHOUT comment.  

Judge denies request to reconsider jail sentence for Kathryn Knott in assault conviction - So sorry honey. Go directly to jail.

Nine questions gays have for straight people

You may have already seen this video but I'm posting it anyway because I've always wanted to ask heterosexual folks a few of these questions: