Tuesday, January 31, 2017

'GLAAD Media Award nominees showcase the richness, diversity of our community' & other Tue. midday news briefs



GLAAD Media Award Nominees Revealed - While we are embroiled with an earth-shaking battle for equality and self-determination with the "Orange stain" in the White House, let's not forget the richness and diversity of our community. We should never stop loving ourselves and celebrating who we are. Besides, this is THIS BLOG'S THIRD NOMINATION FOR OUTSTANDING BLOG!!!!!!!!! "Booty dance! Booty dance!" I am currently looking for a copy of that red feathered outfit which the late Zsa Zsa Gabor wore when she made a cameo in "A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3." It will look good on me as I watch the show on twitter with my fingers crossed. For more details, see GLAAD's webpage.

Boy Scouts welcome transgender boys, prompting conservatives to flee - This is just silly. Why are they scared of transgender children? Why do they get scared of transgender men and women in the first place?

Trump to preserve Obama order barring anti-LGBT discrimination - I got my arms crossed with my best "mmmm hmmm" face. And I suggest that the rest of the lgbt community should also. We have to neither like nor trust Trump. Just let him know that if he steps the wrong way . . .

Don’t Fall For Donald Trump’s Latest Ploy. He Is No LGBTQ Hero. - Like I was saying . . .

Senate Must Stand Firm Against Anti-Equality Supreme Court Candidates - And let's not forget the really HUGE fight. I'm saving my good tennis shoes for this one.

Monday, January 30, 2017

Possible anti-lgbt executive order is a nasty piece of discrimination

This will NOT be our future!

UPDATE - According to The New York Times, it looks like Trump may not be pushing an anti-lgbt executive order. In fact, he will be keeping Obama's 2014 pro-lgbt executive order:

The White House said on Monday that President Trump would leave in place a 2014 Obama administration order that created new workplace protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. In a statement issued in response to growing questions about whether Mr. Trump would reverse the Obama order, the White House said the president was proud to embrace gay rights. “President Trump continues to be respectful and supportive of L.G.B.T.Q. rights, just as he was throughout the election,” the statement said. “The president is proud to have been the first ever G.O.P. nominee to mention the L.G.B.T.Q. community in his nomination acceptance speech, pledging then to protect the community from violence and oppression.”

I personally don't trust Trump. He has shown his capacity to lie at the drop of a hat. At the very least, he is still suffering from the negative publicity of his anti-Muslim immigrant executive order. At the state he is in now, getting the lgbt community all up in arms would be like all of the fires of hell collapsing on his head. DO NOT get slack and close your eyes with this administration.


We knew it was coming the night Trump won the election. And all during the day today, I've heard rumblings from various sources. Now the confirmations are slowly coming in.

There will be an anti-lgbt executive order from Trump. According to blogger Joe Jervis,  Washington Post reporter has claimed that there is a draft targeting adoption and other issues.

LGBTQ Nation adds more details:

Several sources spoke with LGBTQ Nation on the condition of anonymity who have told us that the order will allow for discrimination in a number of areas, including employment, social services, business, and adoption.

From what we’ve heard, the executive order could be far-reaching, and could include: making taxpayer funds available for discrimination against LGBTQ people in social services; allow federally funded adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ parents; eliminate non-discrimination protections in order to make it possible to fire federal employers and contractors based on their sexual orientation or gender identity; and allow federal employees to refuse to serve people based on the belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and that gender is an immutable characteristic set at birth, which would impact a broad range of federal benefits.

The order is expected to come in the packaging of so-called “religious freedom,” which argues that someone’s religious beliefs should be enough to prevent them from having to provide goods and services to members of the LGBTQ community if doing so would conflict with said beliefs.

Should this mess come to pass, I am making a guess and a "read."

The guess is that I am seriously doubting anyone employed by the Trump Administration is crafting this junk. The grubby fingerprints of The Heritage Foundation, the Family Research Council, or other anti-lgbt organizations and hate groups will be all over this mess.

Now the read, or for the sake of those who aren't familiar with that gay term, "the throwing of shade:"

The situation  that our opposition call "religious liberty" was never about bakers or florist supposedly forced to participate in same-sex weddings. That was a smokescreen. This is the same anti-lgbt mess from the same crowd of self-righteous, lying fake-ass "Christian" morality groups who've made it their life's work to stamp out lgbt equality.  It has nothing to do with protection. It's exploiting spite, i.e. the spite of individuals who don't want to admit that horror stories and fear tactics they used to scare people about lgbts failed them time and time again in the courts of America. They seem to think that special rules apply to them; that they can spin all sorts of lies about lgbts (such we are a health hazard  or we "recruit" children) without any reprisal  When the reprisal does come, be it their lies being exposed or them losing hard in the courts, they blame the so-called "forces of darkness" rather than the schadenfreude of their lies biting them in the ass. In the cases of adoption rights, private sexual behavior, and marriage, we've beaten them down. And with each loss, they deceive themselves into thinking that God is telling them to "try harder" the next time. I think He is telling them something, but they are too full of their own egos to get the correct message.

So now they come with this executive order junk, which sends so many ugly messages. Not only does it give homophobes the right to take lgbt tax dollars while discriminating against us, it also tells lgbts "You are inferior. Yes, we have a right to your money and don't have to respect you as taxpaying Americans And we don't have to respect your family, either. Why? Because of Jesus." 

No matter the excuse, discrimination is discrimination. No matter what happens, we are in this for the long haul. We are lgbts. We are American citizens, families, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, taxpayers, job creators, etc.

We will not stand for being disrespected and treated like second class citizens. Trump can sign whatever he wants and he can attempt to hold to it for how long he wants. But it will not stand. It will crumble. And then we will stampede all over it, just like we have done to everything else used to hold us down.

Come for us.


'Lgbt-affirming pastor calls out Franklin Graham for supporting Trump's immigration ban' & other Mon. midday news briefs

Mark Wingfield
Here’s How Franklin Graham Justifies Trump’s Expected Refugee Ban - Before Trump pushed that awful immigrant ban, Franklin Graham that the issue isn't "biblical." 

On immigration, Franklin Graham is dead wrong - But Pastor Mark Wingfield would like a word with Graham.  I should point out that Wingfield is an affirming associate pastor whose church, Wilshire Baptist Church (Dallas, TX), has gotten into trouble for performing same-sex marriages. 

 LGBT Refugees’ Lives Depend on the U.S. Resettlement Program - Let me again remind folks that we are involved in this issue. DEEP.

 All Democratic senators will oppose DeVos as education secretary - We are NOT buying the trash that DeVos is a friend to the lgbt community

 Due to “Administration-Related Changes,” the EEOC May Withdraw From a Trans Rights Case - This AIN'T good, folks.

Lgbt community registers fierce opposition to Trump's immigration ban


You have to be living under a rock to not have heard about Donald Trump's awful ban on immigrants from Muslim majority Middle Eastern countries and the rage and protests it has caused in so many circles.

Just in case you are wondering, one of the those circles is the lgbt community. The ban affects our community and we will not be quiet.

Shadi Ismail, a gay man from Syria, came to the U.S. in 2012. Since then, he’s resettled in Boise, and even found love with boyfriend Ian Guthrie
.
In all, 11,469 Syrian refugees were admitted into the U.S. between October 2015 and September 9, 2016. of them, 118 have relocated to Idaho. (The number in Boise is twice that of New York City.)

Back in September, Ismael told McClatchy, “it’s good, very good news—people coming in, being safe now. They will have a life.” But just four months later, his mood has changed drastically. He worries for his countrymen, and fears Trump’s policies are “signing them to die.”

LGBT organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders have gone on record condemning the ban. Meanwhile, members of the lgbt community are also joining protests.

According to The Washington Blade:

Kent Fogg, a gay 31-year-old D.C. resident, said he came to protest the executive order because he opposed it based on his experience working for human rights overseas in Kosovo, a Muslim-majority country.

“I just spent the last two years living as a guest in a majority Muslim country in Kosovo,” Fogg said. “Everyone was not only incredibly open and welcoming to me, but they look to America as a model of a place that’s welcoming. And as a country in the Balkans that recently had its own refugee crisis, you heard the personal stories of what people went through, why people become refugees, and it’s just inhumane and against everything we stand for for us not to have the compassion that’s required to respond to the situations that are going on, and to let people in regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds.”

 . . .  Joe Sudbay, a gay D.C.-based progressive activist and blogger, was among those at the demonstration and said it was important to “make your voice heard in front of the White House” against Trump. “Donald Trump needs to know, the American people, the people of D.C., do not stand for hate, do not stand for the Muslim ban, do not stand for his wall,” Sudbay said. “We’re vehemently opposed to his policies. He’s out of touch, and we need to tell him, and we need to tell him all the time.”

Friday, January 27, 2017

'Gay State Dept. employee resigns rather than work in Trump Administration' & other Fri. midday news briefs

Trump proves that the religious right is a 'religious fraud' - And speaking of our Orange Encrusted Overlord and the religious right, a repeat of this morning's post.

 Citing HB2, national group pulls out of meeting planned at Rowan-Salisbury Schools - Just a reminder that the boycott of North Carolina because of HB2 is still on.  

Browns’ Joe Thomas: Every NFL locker room would welcome gay teammate with open arms - I don't know . . .  

While Trump Grabs Headlines, Texas Republicans Launch New Wave of Assaults on LGBT Rights - We are paying attention.

Trump proves that the religious right is a 'religious fraud'

The religious right have their 'Jesus.'
In a short but sweet post, Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum  nails something I've mentioned on this blog and what we all need to be pointing out every chance we get.

Trump's election and the silence of religious right organizations with regards to his behavior since then only proves that their entire routine about upholding morality and Christian values is just talk.

Groups like the American Family Association and the Family Research Council cheerlead the possible elimination of Obamacare (even though it will leave millions of Americans without health care) or urge Trump to push against a law which restricts pastors and churches from endorsing political candidates. Meanwhile so-called religious leaders like Franklin Graham and the Catholic Church are silent when Trump threatens to sign executive orders against immigrants, which doesn't exactly hold up to the tenet Jesus spoke about when he told the parable of  The Good Samaritan.

In the case of Graham, the silence is truly sad, seeing that he doesn't ever seem to be at a loss for words when it comes to denigrating lgbts and especially smearing the transgender community.

As Drum points out, religious right groups and leaders aren't interested in acting as Trump's moral conscience. They are too busy providing him with an alibi.

The entire piece is wonderful reading. But I especially loved this part:

The Christian right has never been about actual faith. Like any other interest group, they just want what they want: abortion restrictions, money for private schools, opposition to gays, and so forth. As long as you're on board, they don't care what's in your heart. They never have, and that's why the suggestion that Democrats need to be more publicly devout has always been so misguided. Faith doesn't matter. Empathy for people of faith doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is supporting the Christian right's retrograde social views, and Democrats were never going to do that.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

'Trump's immigration executive order also affects lgbt community' & other Thur. midday news briefs


 America ‘turns back on’ LGBT refugees who fled ISIS persecution as Trump axes resettlement plan - Just in case you think the lgbt community isn't affected by Trump's anti-immigration madness. Sad irony alert - there were some folks saying that we should vote for Trump if we fear what ISIS would do to lgbts. We are now seeing that was verbal nonsense. If you won't protect my brothers and sisters from other countries, then I really don't expect you to protect me. And yes, major lgbt organizations have raised the alarm over this.  

The Queer Response To Trump’s Promise To Build Wall Along Mexican Border - And we don't like his jacked up idea about a wall, either.  

The insidious new line in South Dakota’s bill attacking transgender kids - People who are bound to create havoc can use anything for their own purposes, even one seemingly innocent word.

State treasury official resigns after declaring homophobic jokes ‘back on’ under President Trump - Fools are going to slowly but surely learn that Trump being president can't save their ass should they choose to BE asses.

Meet Anti-LGBTQ Extremism’s Insidious New Leader - "Look, Martha. We got another one."