'TX Supreme Court forced to rule married gay couples have no rights to spousal benefits' & other Fri midday news briefs

If you don't think threats from government officials like Lt. Gov. Patrick (left) and AG Paxton (right) didn't have a hand in today's ruling, you are naive.

 
Texas Supreme Court: No inherent right to gay marriage benefits - Your eyes aren't deceiving you. The Texas Supreme Court just ruled that same-sex couples having a legal right to marry doesn't mean that they have a legal right to government sponsored spousal benefits. And just in case you are wondering what the hell just happened. Check out this passage in the article: 

Two taxpayers, including Christian pastor Jack Pidgeon, next turned to the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court, which initially rejected their appeal in September, with only one member, Justice John Devine, dissenting. A campaign by social and religious conservatives produced a barrage of emails asking the eight other justices to reconsider or risk a backlash in the next GOP primary. Leading Republicans — including Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton — joined the call, and in January the court issued a rarely granted motion to rehear the case and set oral arguments for March 1. 

Yep. A fix was in via the fact that judges in TX are ELECTED. If you think for one instant that this isn't the first part of an attempt to roll back the SCOTUS ruling for marriage equality, you have been asleep. The religious right don't care about rules or fairness. When the rules don't go their way they try to change the rules. They think God gives them the play for their every move, no matter how dirty, unprincipled, or unscrupulous it may be.  

The Texas Supreme Court just gave a big, fat middle finger to same-sex couples - More details.

North Carolina Magistrates Can Go Right On Refusing To Perform Gay Marriages - Be careful of a false "the momentum is now against marriage equality" talking point this may bring. The court didn't rule on the merits of the case. They simply said the plaintiffs didn't have standing to challenge.  

Gloria Carter, Jay-Z’s Mom, Comes Out As Lesbian In New Duet On Rapper’s ‘4:44’ Album - WOW!

The Trump Administration Has Been a Disaster for LGBT Americans - Ya think? 


photo taken from Progress Texas.

The Best 'Heterosexual Pride Day' tweets

Apparently Thursday, June 29 is Heterosexual Pride Day.

I don't know if this is a huge snark coming from our community or the product of envious heterosexuals who are resenting all of the gay pride events which occurred this month. 

It really doesn't matter because if this wasn't the product of LGBTQ snark, it is now. On Twitter, we have totally taken over and using the day to educate, show awareness, or simply be downright bitchy.

Here are the names of all the victims of anti-straight hate:

.

.

.

Know their names, never forget. #HeterosexualPrideDay

— Alex Morash (@AlexMorash) June 29, 2017

#HeterosexualPrideDay when did heterosexuals need their own day? You guys didn't have to fight to get married or have basic rights. Grow up

— Bella (@Ladybug1837) June 29, 2017

Gay pride day vs Hetero pride day #HeterosexualPrideDay pic.twitter.com/jAcaO0472P

— American Putz (@american_putz) June 29, 2017

#HeterosexualPrideDay isn't that every day? pic.twitter.com/c25WDmDvdK

— ❤️🍑💛💚💙🍆 (@DanielCPAbrams) June 29, 2017

Seriously, I don't mind #HeterosexualPrideDay. Just don't throw it up on our faces. WON'T SOMEONE PLEEEEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!

— Holy Bullies (@holybullies) June 29, 2017

Me sitting unbothered at all the straight people I've pissed off after insulting #HeterosexualPrideDay as a straight person. pic.twitter.com/fBsBpXEDWY

— Micah F. (@sikeUthot18) June 29, 2017

Oh, I remember coming out to my parents as straight! So much lack of fear and judgememt.

Thank goodness for #HeterosexualPrideDay. [stares]

— Ceil (@askceil) June 29, 2017

#HeterosexualPrideDay pic.twitter.com/CkTaP87VcR

— Enigma #Persistence (@An_Enigma_2017) June 30, 2017

Anti-LGBTQ hate group suing Guidestar for calling it an anti-LGBTQ hate group

A recent controversy between the charity  database webpage Guidestar and several groups designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups continues to rage because one of those groups is now suing Guidestar.

Florida-based legal advocacy organization is suing over a "hate group" label that it and other nonprofits received on a website that maintains a database of information about U.S. charities. Liberty Counsel Inc. filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against GuideStar USA Inc. in Newport News, Virginia. GuideStar flagged 46 nonprofits, including Liberty Counsel, for being labeled as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Liberty Counsel's suit claims that label is slanderous and has damaged its reputation. GuideStar announced last Friday that it would remove the labels after threats directed at its staff. Liberty Counsel bills itself as a legal defense organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom and preserving family values from a "Christian and Biblical perspective." The law center has called it an "anti-LGBT hate group."

From its webpage, the Liberty Counsel said the following:

“GuideStar and its political ally, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), are intent on destroying pro-family organizations. The ‘hate group’ label is false and dangerous,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “GuideStar’s CEO, Jacob Harold, is using GuideStar as a weapon to defame, harm, and promote his liberal agenda by using the SPLC to falsely label good nonprofit organizations as ‘hate groups.’ The only purpose of providing the SPLC false and dangerous ‘hate group’ label is to inflict reputational and financial harm to Liberty Counsel. GuideStar has lost all credibility. GuideStar will now have to answer for its reckless, defamatory, and harmful political labeling,” said Staver.

Personally, I think the Liberty Counsel is walking into the mouth of a hungry tiger.  It's a possibility that Guidestar may not want to get into a lengthy battle and therefore will work to settle this lawsuit. I sincerely hope not. It's my hope that Guidestar refuses to back down because truth is on its side. Based on a paper trail a mile long, it shouldn't be impossible for the webpage to disprove the Liberty Counsel's charges.

For its part, SPLC said the following:

"We stand ready to support our designation of Liberty Counsel as a hate group. "Liberty Counsel is a group that has consistently called LGBT people 'immoral, unnatural and self-destructive.' It has a track record of attempting to criminalize homosexual conduct and to legalize discrimination against the LGBT community. "There is nothing 'pro-family' about dehumanizing LGBT people. This lawsuit and other recent attacks against GuideStar are simply attempts to distract the public from Liberty Counsel’s hateful agenda."

Should Guidestar not back down, distraction will be the name of the game via conservative, right-wing, and anti-LGBTQ propaganda groups and phony news services. The Liberty Counsel will probably have a lot of defenders, but none of them, whether Todd Starnes, The Daily Signal, World Net Daily, The Federalist, Breitbart, One News Now, Fox News, etc. will mention why the Liberty Counsel is considered a hate group. The narrative they push will most likely be how "the left" is "targeting" the Liberty Counsel simply because they disagree with its 'Christian values.'

Trump's anti-LGBTQ lawyer facing trouble for alleged steering of $60 million in donations

Jay Sekulow

One of Donald Trump's lawyers, Jay Sekulow, has been the media's eye repeatedly. A lot of folks aren't aware of exactly who he is. However, I am because I used to watch his appearances on The 700 Club in the late 80s and early 90s.

Sekulow has an extensive history of being one the religious right's hardcore weapons against the LGBTQ community.

According to The Advocate:

Jay Sekulow, who joined Trump’s team this month, is chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a far-right legal group founded by no less than Pat Robertson and based at Robertson’s Regent University in Virginia. Sekulow holds a Ph.D. from Regent and is a professor at its law school. His law degree is from another university that claims to promote “Judeo-Christian” values, Georgia’s Mercer University. He’s a frequent commentator on Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network and Fox News Channel. 

The ACLJ has represented many anti-LGBT and antichoice clients and causes. “ACLJ’s materials are often explicitly homophobic, and their fundraising emails signed by Sekulow have warned that the homosexual agenda is ‘bent on destroying our communities’ and ‘the family as we know it,’” the Human Rights Campaign reported in a 2014 press release. 

And it gets worse, according to Right Wing Watch:

Sekulow and the ACLJ have been active in the U.S. and overseas in opposing legal equality for LGBTQ people. Sekulow has said that the state has a “compelling interest to ban the act of homosexuality” and the ACLJ argued on behalf of state laws criminalizing gay sex that were overturned by the Supreme Court in 2003. Sekulow said the Supreme Court overturning the Defense of Marriage Act meant that “we’re now living in a monarchy.” The ACLJ and its international affiliates engage in anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice culture wars in the U.S., Africa, Europe and Russia. In Africa, it worked to shape constitutional language in Zimbabwe, where it has fought to maintain criminalization of homosexuality, and Kenya, where it lobbied to eliminate an exemption to an abortion ban to save a woman’s life. Both the European Center for Jaw and Justice and the Slavic Center for Law and Justice supported Russia’s notorious anti-gay “propaganda” law, which has been used against journalists and gay rights activists.

You know I'm leading to a delicious finish and here it is:

'Taboo Sex, Racism, and Gay Men: A conversation' & other Wed midday news briefs

Taboo Sex, Racism, and Gay Men: A Chat in Black and White - A small change of pace today. A good friend of mine, Mark S. King, has a conversation with Charles Stephens, founder of the Counter Narrative Project in Atlanta, about taboo sex, racism, and gay men. And it is good!!!! It is a conversation which needs to be had (especially from my perspective, seeing that I have been turned down from men who were expecting Mandingo and found that they ended up with the sepia Woody Allen.) 

Trump pretends to care in National HIV Testing Day statement, while cutting funding for treatment - Does this surprise anyone? Sad.

Here’s How Germany Could Approve Same-Sex Marriage Within Days - Well this is a wonderful development. 

 Democratic Senators Slam Betsy DeVos For Civil Rights Enforcement Cuts - Good! Take Ms. DeVos to school! 

 13 Same-Sex Weddings That Prove Happily-Ever-Afters Exist, And OMG I'm Crying - Admit it. You know you like seeing things like this.

LGBTQ advocates sound the alarm about 'Trumpcare' bill

It goes without saying that the GOP bill designed to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something awful has caused a lot of anger from many Americans. I was wondering when the LGBTQ leadership would start raising hell over it. Apparently, now is the time.

From The Washington Blade:

LGBT rights supporters held a conference call with reporters on Tuesday to raise awareness about the bill, which seeks to phase out the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare to pay for a tax cut mostly for the wealthiest Americans. Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said the legislation would have a “devastating impact” on LGBT people because they’re disproportionately affected by health disparities. “Both the House and Senate versions of the bill gut core provisions of the ACA, cut off tens of millions of Americans life-saving health care coverage while increasing out-of-pocket costs,” Griffin said.

. . .Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said during the conference she’s “deeply concerned” about the bill’s impact on transgender people “and their very lives.” “We are outraged that congressional leaders and the president would disrupt and endanger so many lives just apparently to say that they passed a bill and to give hundreds of billions of dollars to the people who need it the least,” Keisling said. Keisling also took Trumpcare to task for a proposal to bar Medicaid repayments for health services at Planned Parenthood, which she said is often the only option for transgender people seeking care.

Another reason why the LGBTQ community should be concerned about the bill deals with its potential to - as the South Florida Gay News puts it - "devastate people with HIV."

In a recent joint letter to senators, 133 HIV organizations stressed that the bill that passed the House without a single Democratic vote on May 4 “would return America to a time when health care coverage was out of reach for too many people with HIV.” The letter lavishes scorn on the bill (which the Senate will apparently jettison in favor of starting from scratch) for its billions of dollars of cuts to traditional Medicaid programs; phasing out of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA, or Obamacare) expanded Medicaid programs; erosion of key protections against health-plan-related discrimination that benefit people with HIV; and problematic changes to the formula for determining subsidies for the premiums of private health plans obtained on the open, or “nongroup,” market.

 . . .The May 24 release of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report estimating the AHCA’s impact sent a bruising message that, compared with projections based on the current health care law, 14 million fewer Americans would have health insurance in 2018, a figure that would swell to 19 million by 2020 and 23 million by 2026. (These projections do not factor in the president’s proposed budget cuts that affect health care.) In 2026, the estimated number of uninsured people younger than 65 (and therefore largely ineligible for Medicare) would be 51 million, compared with a projected 28 million if Obamacare were left intact. 

This loss of health insurance would disproportionately affect older people with lower incomes, in particular those between 50 and 64 years of age with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), or $24,120 for individuals. Given demographic trends, such a bias against late-middle-aged people with chronic health conditions would likely have a considerable impact on the aging U.S. HIV population, which tends to be lower income. While just one third of those living with the virus were 50 or older in 2010, that proportion is expected to rise to one half by 2020. Currently, only a sliver of U.S. residents with HIV are 65 or older and therefore have access to Medicare (neither the president’s budget nor the AHCA target that program). Even by 2030, only a fifth of the HIV population is expected to be in their senior years.

The bill was worked on in secret by the GOP leadership and didn't even have any hearings. It was to be voted on this week. However, after a huge groundswell of negative reactions from all sides, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McMconnell is having problems finding the votes to pass it. It will be voted on after the July 4 holiday.

I would suggest that those in our community who like to educate via public demonstrations and the like get on their J-O-B between now and then.

Photo taken from May 4, 2017 Unicornbooty article  3 Ways ‘Trumpcare’ Will Hurt HIV-Positive and LGBTQ Americans

'Anti-LGBTQ right gets partial victory from Guidestar' & other Tue midday news briefs

Charity website cites threats in removing hate group labels - After controversy, charity web page Guidestar will back away from its labeling some organizations as hate groups. While the right is spinning it as a complete capitulation, it's not exactly that. The web page will make the information available to those who request it, which is still a good thing. For the purpose of my blog, I don't necessarily call it a loss. It's just a forward step in creating an ACCURATE nationwide conversation on the decades-long smearing of LGBTQ people by pseudo-morality groups under the veneer of "personally held religious beliefs." We will have that nationwide conversation sooner or later.

Supreme Court actions show just how fragile LGBTQ equality still is - Yes it does. And it reason number one million and one why the LGBTQ community cannot ignore religious right groups and their supporters. Every victory we get is just the entryway to a new battle.

Neil Gorsuch Is The Anti-LGBTQ Nightmare His Gay Friends Hoped He Wasn’t - Meet reason number one for news brief two. I can only hope this changes, but Michelangelo Signorile is pretty good about these things.

 Visibility Is at the Heart of LGBTQ Politics. But Is It Always the Best Strategy? - That's a good question in light of the fact that some in our community think that visibility only entails showing one's proverbial ass and suddenly everything will move in our direction.

How The Christian Right Turned the Good News into Fake News - I love this post.