Once upon a time before the LGBTQ community dominated the Emmys, we were sitting ducks for abuse

While it was nice to see how the LGBTQ community dominated last night at the Emmy Awards, let's not get so celebratory that we forget where we came from. The year 1993 was a very different time. We weren't winning awards for being open, highly creative, and unashamed. We were sitting ducks for open abuse by folks who filmed moments from our marches, freely made up statistics about our sexual behavior, took statements out of context, exploited folks who were on the verge of death, and manipulated images and people's emotions to make us look like monsters.  The snippet below from the 1993 homophobic propaganda video 'Gay Rights, Special Rights' demonstrated just how easy it was to demonize us.

 As sad and vile as this video is, there is a lot of gratification we can pull from it. Twenty-five years later, while the religious right is still motivated by their lurid imaginations about gay sex (although they have tampered down with the "feces-ingesting" claims) and spinning the same tired stories of gays trying to destroy the family, etc., we are  still here, we are stronger, more powerful, and those nasty homophobes who weaponized lies against us are either gone or shut down by our successes. We won marriage, our families are more numerous. Most of all, none of their spooky predictions came true.

This is what winning the hard way looks like.

'LGBTQ performers, characters dominate Emmy winners circle' & other Tue midday news briefs

'The Assassination of Gianni Versace' and its star Darren Criss was one of the big winners at last night's Emmy Awards.

RuPaul’s Drag Race’ & Ryan Murphy won big at the Emmys - LGBTQ performers and characters almost swept last night's Emmy awards. About time.

Pastors Fail in Attempt to Remove LGBTQ Books from Banned Books Display - Score a big one for the good guys. 

5 things you need to know about one of the anti-LGBT movement's biggest events: the 'Values Voter Summit' - That's this week. And it probably explains my bad mood. I don't think Trump will show up this year but he will probably send them a video greeting.

A guidance counselor who was outed & fired by her school talks to Ellen - She was fired from a Catholic school, but does the school receive public funding of any type? 

FRC blogger advocates for Christian Privilege to advance anti-LGBT bigotry - Christian privilege my tookis. You don't get to discriminate me AND get my tax dollars.

'Thanks to the Lord and Donald Trump' - Trump's 'spiritual adviser' panders for GOP midterm votes in TX megachurch

Honestly speaking, if this video of Trump's "spiritual adviser," Paula White standing in televangelist Kenneth Copeland’s Eagle Mountain Church in Texas and imploring the congregation to vote for GOP candidates in the upcoming midterms doesn't spook the crap out of you or motivate you to do anything to ruin religious right desires for a warped evangelical vision of America, basically nothing will.

 And don't give me that crap about how churches who participate in politics should be taxed. They will not be taxed any time soon. They are too powerful in grabbing the narrative and making themselves look like persecuted victims. You want to defeat their goals? Vote against their interests:

What you should know about Paula White:

Trump Spiritual Advisor Wants You To Send Her Up To 1 Month’s Pay Or Face ‘Consequences’

Trump's Spiritual Adviser Has Some Garbage Thoughts On Detaining Children and Jesus

The Distorted Gospel of Paula White

How Paula White, Donald Trump’s Spiritual Adviser, Harms Christians of Color


Hat tip to Right Wing Watch

Judge refuses to dismiss lawsuit challenging anti-LGBTQ adoption rules in Michigan

While the walls slowly close in on the Trump Administration, the LBGTQ community must not forget that we also have other business to tend to. And a recent Michigan court ruling in our favor raises the stakes in terms of our ability to have families and be treated fairly as taxpayers.

From The Detroit News:

A federal judge declined Friday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Michigan challenging religious discrimination against same-sex couples in the state’s public child welfare system.

The suit asks U.S. District Judge Paul Borman to enter an order that bars Michigan from entering into contracts with or providing taxpayer funding to private child placing agencies that exclude same-sex couples from consideration as foster or adoptive parents. It also seeks an order directing the state to ensure that lesbian and gay individuals and couples are treated the same as heterosexual individuals and couples by state-contracted child placing agencies. 

The case involves two Michigan couples, Kristy and Dana Dumont and Erin and Rebecca Busk-Sutton, who each sought to adopt a child in foster care but faced rejection from state-contracted child placement agencies based on religious objections to same-sex parents. 

Attorneys for the defendants — St. Vincent Catholic Charities, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services director Nick Lyon and state Children’s Services Agency head Herman McCall — recently requested Borman toss out the case. They have argued a 2015 state law says child placement agencies shall not be required to provide services that conflict with their religious beliefs and the plaintiffs could adopt through another agency. In his order Friday, the judge said the couples had successfully argued the religious screening practices harmed them and denied “the same opportunities to work with a child placing agency that is available to every other family in Michigan seeking to adopt.” 

This comes two weeks after the United States Supreme Court refused to hear a case on the behalf of a Philadelphia Catholic agency who wanted the city to still allow them to place children - and get taxpayer funds for it - even though it discriminated against gays.

As I said in the past, the assorted religious right groups will be spinning the lie that not allowing these religious groups to discriminate - and steal LGBTQ tax dollars for the courtesy- is a selfish endeavor on our part and will rob children of good homes.

That is a lie. These agencies are already robbing children of good homes. There is nothing wrong with same-sex households and a multitude of studies bear that up.

But if these agencies want to go that route, let them do it with their own money.

To tell the LGBTQ community that we should, in the name of "tolerance," allow ourselves to be discriminated against and give up our hard earned money to those doing the discriminating is nothing more than gaslighting.  It's a parlor trick or a vile way to promote the idea that somehow we are inferior and should be glad for the second class treatment some want to bestow on us.

The LGBTQ community has fought too hard for what we have attained to allow some to ease it out of our hands with semantic garbage about "tolerance." It's not going to happen. Not without an ugly fight, at the very least.

'Feud between Fox News personality Laura Ingraham and her gay brother heats up' & other Thur midday news briefs

Laura Ingraham

Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s gay brother calls her a ‘monster’ - This is gonna get naaasty.

GOP congressional candidate believes LGBTQ kids need therapy to help them pick a different identity - What the hell . . .

This Stunning New York Fashion Week Show Featured 34 Trans, Non-Binary Models - I LOVE this!

LGBTQ community may be the deciding factor of the Blue Wave midterm success

As the midterms approach, the one thing becoming increasingly clear is the importance of the LGBTQ voter. We rejoiced over the progress made in the Obama years and watched in horror as Trump, with the anti-LGBTQ industry whispering in his ear like that Lord of the Rings character Wormtongue, proceeded to take away from us as much as he could. Now certain groups are hoping that we took mental notes about Trump's behavior and are motivated to wreak a rainbow tsunami at the ballot box which will help take control away from him, his anti-LGBTQ unofficial cabinet, and the GOP in general.

According to NBC News, our vote could count tremendously in key areas:

LGBTQ people make up an estimated 4.5 percent of the adult population in the U.S., according to Gallup, and lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals comprise approximately 5 percent of voters across the country. While LGBTQ voters are a relatively small portion of the electorate, a number of political experts and advocates say these approximately 10 million eligible voters could prove critical in several close races.

The LGBTQ vote could be particularly important in states with close races that have sizable LGBTQ populations, according to Patrick Egan, a political science professor at New York University. 

He cited Florida, which has an estimated 700,000 LGBTQ people, as an example. The state’s races for senate and governor are close, and the Republican and Democratic candidates have “dramatically different positions.” 

. . . Egan also mentioned Vermont, where Democrat Christine Hallquist could become the country’s first transgender governor. LGBTQ people comprise an estimated 5.3 percent of the state’s adult population. “That’s a place where we expect not just turnout, but also campaign volunteering and donations, to potentially be quite important,” Egan said of Vermont.

And the Democratic National Committee has not only noticed, but encouraged this:

 Democrats have invested millions of dollars in state parties across the country in order to elect Democrats up and down the ballot, including a record number of LGBTQ candidates, according to a Democratic National Committee official who spoke to NBC News on background.

These LGBTQ candidates, according to the official, include Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado, Christine Hallquist of Vermont and Josh Boschee of North Dakota. The DNC has also put out an LGBTQ Voting Rights Toolkit, which offers specific advice for LGBTQ voters — especially transgender individuals — who may encounter trouble at the polls because of voter identification laws.

The article in general underscores the fact that the progress made in the Obama years could have possibly created an LGBTQ constituency vote with potency for future elections. The key is unification. Unfortunately, some of us do tend to bend over backwards in order to demonstrate how we are supposedly not "one-issue" voters, when such a notion is absolutely self-defeating. Particularly when that "one issue" encompasses marriage, adoption rights, protection from discrimination, family rights, military rights, etc. etc.

That "one issue" is the survival of the LGBTQ community in general. Seems to be that would be a perfect time for us to vote selfishly and pragmatically. It will either be the GOP or the Democrats who have control. Our best bet is to vote for those who we can work. And for God's sake, do not sit this out. That behavior amongst some folks is how we got into the mess we are in now.

'GOP congressman caught on tape implying orphanages better than gay adoption' & other Wed midday news briefs

NJ Congressman Chris Smith.

GOP lawmaker caught on tape: Orphanages better than gay adoption - An article which reminds us just how unsafe LGBTQ families and their kids are. Just lurking in the shadows of Congress and other legislative bodies are religious right zombies and sycopahants itching to cause our families all sorts of havoc. 

Gay, middle-aged, and lonely as hell - All of us are in this fight for happiness, relevance, self-determination, and equality. Don't forget any of your brothers or sisters. 

Half of trans male teens have attempted suicide - Due to the transphobic mess they have to deal with, no doubt.

New Hampshire set to elect either first gay or first black congressman - And one of them (the black man) is a Trump supporter so that makes me depressed as shit.