Thursday, December 05, 2019

LGBTQ characters in 'Star Wars' & black women in James Bond movies has former Trump official in silly outrage

The possibility of LGBTQ characters in the upcoming 'Star Wars' movie has former Trump official Seb Gorka upset. 

I've never been a fan of Star Wars movies (shut up), but the upcoming chapter of the series, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, has people excited by a number of reasons including the following from the New York Daily News:

J.J. Abrams’ latest “Star Wars” offering may have finally adapted to modern times. During an interview promoting the upcoming film, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” on Tuesday, the filmmaker teased that there will be LGBT+ representation. While some fans have hoped for a gay romance between Finn and Poe (played by John Boyega and Oscar Isaac) , nothing has quite materialized as of yet. But Abrams, who said that he’s always tried to find a cast that “looked more the way the world looks than not,” isn’t ruling out the possibilities. “In the case of the LGBTQ community, it was important to me that people who go to see this movie feel that they’re being represented in the film,” he said.

Knowing how conservatives and the anti-LGBTQ industry are, I'm sure that they will be milking the fake outrage teat for all its worth. Remember how they flipped out over a gay character in Beauty and the Beast?

And apparently one has started early with this probably soon-to-be overblown drama.

'Judge refuses to perform gay marriages because she doesn't want to 'offend God'' & other Thur midday news briefs

Wednesday, December 04, 2019

Which Celebrity Caused Your 'Gay Awakening?'



 After a day like today - particularly with the impeachment hearing and the GOP fakery that came with it - I'm exhausted. So forgive this happy LGBTQ warrior and proud member of the Rainbow Mafia (it's a religious right slur, but damn it's still cool) for presenting something frivolous right now. I invite you all to tell me who was your first LGBTQ crush, i.e. the celebrity who awakened the gay in you.

To answer your question - I didn't come to grips with being gay until in college. Still, I had a childhood fascination (which turned out to be unofficial crushes) on the following:

 Jackie Earle Haley, Stephen Geoffreys, Lance Kerwin, Ike Eisenmann, River Phoenix (I had it for him REAL BAD), Meeno Pelucee (woof! woof!), Matthew Laborteaux, Billy Jacoby, and Chris Makepeace.

And those are the ones I can think of for now.

'Group flips out over Christmas drag show' & other Wed midday news briefs

Christian higher ed can't win the LGBTQ debate unless it transforms - Truer words were never spoken. 

Free PrEP program unveiled under Trump’s HIV initiative - Knowing Trump's affinity with the anti-LGBTQ industry, count the days before this is rescinded. 

Rep. Pramila Jayapal wants transgender people in Congress - I would love to see that, too.

Tuesday, December 03, 2019

Hate groups - 'Curse those dastardly homosexuals!'

To hear or read anti-LGBTQ hate groups like the Family Research Council or the American Family Association tell it, our community shouldn't be worried about Donald Trump. Apparently we are too busy raising hell.

First there is this "tasteful" image courtesy of FRC:




And when FRC says "the left," you just know that we are front and center. And locking up the Bible in chains it appears. I thought we saved the chains for each other via sexual play. At least that's what FRC and the others used to accuse us of doing.

 But when it comes to spinning itemized hysteria, FRC takes a back seat to the American Family Association.  AFA has a list of the havoc we have allegedly accomplished. And even though you should take AFA's rendition of these events with a grain of salt, it still makes me feel rather butch to be a part of a large group who can supposedly cause this much ruckus:

In the past three decades, LGBTQ activists have demanded the embrace of homosexuality by society and the church. This LGBTQ demand for “equality” has gone viral, and its stormtroopers take no prisoners.

They don’t allow Christians to take a “hate the sin, love the sinner” approach. No, they would say that by not affirming homosexuals, we are fostering what they call “hate.” And they desire to outlaw hate and punish those who preach it.

Many Christians don’t know how to stand firm when criticized on this issue. They understand what the Bible teaches on this topic, but the idea of being called a “hater” is mortifying to them, so they try to straddle the proverbial fence. It happens a lot. Here are some examples: 
The Boy Scouts of America: While not an explicitly Christian organization, the BSA upheld Christian values to millions of young boys for decades. In recent years, they have completely sold out to the homosexual cause. 
Tim Tebow: What a great example for boys across America this man has been. Yet, when the LGBTQ groups applied pressure on him, he canceled a speaking engagement at First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, because the church teaches that homosexuality is a sin and he wanted to avoid controversy. 
Louie Giglio: The founder of the Passion youth gatherings, Giglio was one of my favorite Bible teachers. He was asked to pray at President Obama’s second inauguration, but when a 20-year-old sermon surfaced in which Giglio warned against the rise of homosexual activism in America, he was severely criticized by the LGBTQ community. Giglio sheepishly withdrew from the event and then would not even reaffirm his own sermon.

'NBA's Dwayne Wade defends his son from anti-LGBTQ trolls' & other Tue midday news briefs

NBA player Dwayne Wade, his wife actress Gabrielle Union and their family.

NBA player Dwyane Wade forced to defend his preteen son from anti-LGBTQ trolls - Now THIS is a true black man to stand up for his son. Not one of those annoying ho-teps.

Legal reckoning: New abuse suits could cost church over $4B - It seems to me that children are safer being read a book by a drag queen than attending the Catholic Church. Just saying.

Why the LDS Church Joined LGBTQ Advocates in Supporting Utah's Conversion Therapy Ban - Let me sit down for this one.

I Was Harassed After Being Outed By My Students. Then Something Amazing Happened. - An awful story, but with a happy ending. Just another bit of proof of how our community turns adversity into an asset.

Monday, December 02, 2019

Trump put the right amount of 'money on the dresser' to gain white conservative evangelical support


One thing definitely proven by Trump being in the White House is in spite of all of their talk about morals, integrity, Christianity, etc., white conservative evangelicals are just as for sale as a lot of  other groups peddling their wares in DC.

And they have no problem whoring themselves out. According to a column in Rolling Stone (by way of Raw Story), it wasn't that difficult for Trump to get them on his side. It was just a matter of putting the right amount of 'money on the dresser.'

In a column for Rolling Stone published this Monday, Alex Morris tries to shed some light on this contradiction.
According to Morris, it all started with a September meeting in 2016, six weeks before the election, where an audion recording of the meeting revealed how evangelical leaders handed Trump a mandate that he promised to fulfill. 
“He would end the contraception mandate of Obamacare; … he would select only anti-choice judges; … he would do away with the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt entities from endorsing politicians; … he would support prayer in school; … he would oppose any bill that pulled funding from Christian schools that were charged with discrimination; … he would keep transgender people from using the ‘wrong’ bathrooms and locker rooms; … and he would protect Israel, following the biblical pronouncement that nations that do so would be blessed (‘[Obama’s] been the worst thing that’s happened to Israel …” 
Despite Trump’s newfound allies in the evangelical movement, he never bothered to put out the image that he was a true believer. But that didn’t matter — it was Trump’s perceived devotion to their cause that had evangelicals sold. As Morris points out, close to 81 percent of white evangelicals cast their ballots for him on election day. Fast forward to 2019, 82 percent of evangelicals would vote for Trump if the election were held today. “Two-thirds believe that he has not damaged the decency of the presidency, 55 percent agree with Sarah Huckabee Sanders that ‘God wanted him to be president,’ and 99 percent oppose impeachment,” Morris writes. 

Their eagerness to anoint Trump as some sort of messenger of God shouldn't be all that surprising. Remember how they anointed beauty queen Carrie Prejean as some sort of modern day Queen Esther due to her opposition of marriage equality? That is until the controversy regarding her semi-nude pictures.

One would think that after that and their general loss in the marriage equality fight, conservative evangelicals would be wary of counting on unsavory means or people to gain their goals. Then again, their unity with Trump only signifies how they have no trouble selling out the values they claim to uphold for a little political power.

Only time will tell whether or not this will blow up in their face just like their fight against marriage equality eventually did. 

Sunday, December 01, 2019

Is Franklin Graham now using his ministry to endorse political candidates?

Franklin Graham seems to be using his ministry to endorse political candidates.

Former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made the news recently by announcing that she may be eyeing the governorship of Arkansas.

And she has already got one high-profile person in her corner:





Trump supporting evangelical leader reportedly felt that AIDS was 'God's punishment'

When Gary Bauer worked in the Reagan Administration, he allegedly undermined the fight against HIV/AIDS because he felt that it was God's punishment.

Editor's Note - On World AIDS Day as we commemorate the lives lost because of HIV/AIDS and those who continue to live with the condition, we should also remember those with power back then who either stood by and did nothing or actually applauded how the disease attacked our community. Gary Bauer who, as far as I know, has never had to answer for his behavior in the Reagan Administration as HIV/AIDS spread in our community. He remains to this day looked upon as a pro-family evangelical leader as he prominently supports the actions of Donald Trump. Trump even appointed him on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The following is a repost from 2014:

The late President Reagan gets a lot of deserved flack for his negligence in the early days of the AIDS crisis. Today, we learned that there needs to be some flack dispensed around because Reagan isn't the only person in his Administration who needs to be called to the carpet.

According to Right Wing Watch:

Anyone who is familiar with Gary Bauer's anti-gay extremism will not be surprised to learn that his bigotry goes way back. Just in time for World AIDS Day, we now know that when Bauer was working in the Reagan White House, he fought hard to keep gay people off the nation’s first AIDS commission.

Right Wing Watch published part of a memo he sent to Reagan regarding this:

 3. Millions of Americans try to raise their children to believe that homosexuality is immoral. In many states homosexual practices are illegal, including sodomy. For you to appoint a known homosexual to a Presidential Commission will give homosexuality a stamp of acceptability. It will drive a wedge between us and many of our socially conservative supporters. 

4. While it is true that homosexuals have been major victims of AIDS, they are also responsible for its spread. Recent students show the average gay man with AIDS has had over 150 different sexual partners in the previous 12 months. 

Bauer proposed instead appointing a relative of someone with AIDS, or a caregiver, or as a last resort, a “reformed” homosexual: “that is, someone not currently living a gay life style. We have identified several individuals that meet that criteria.”

 In the end, Reagan ignored Bauer’s pleadings and appointed Frank Lilly, an openly gay geneticist, to the Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

'Homophobic pundit disappears from Trump campaign website after outcry' & other Wed midday news briefs

Trump doesn't seem to be eager to be seen with Clarence Mason Weaver at the present.

Misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ pundit disappears from Trump campaign website following criticism - Making noise instead of being blase tends to work. Of course that doesn't mean he's completely gone, but it does mean a reaction was caused.

Black LGBTQ activists split over Harris, Buttigieg spat - I'm quoted in this and I meant every damn word I said. 

Norterra Canyon Principal Quashed Student Project on LGBTQ Pride - Excuse me? Why?

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Anti-LGBTQ activist doesn't think the LGBTQ community should celebrate Thanksgiving

Linda Harvey
How coldhearted and homophobic do you have to be to not want the LGBTQ community to even enjoy Thanksgiving? Let's ask perennially obsessed anti-LGBTQ activist, the once labeled 'most homophobic woman in America,'  Linda Harvey. Apparently she thinks our community shouldn't celebrate Thanksgiving:

The internet is replete with homosexual/transgender hostility toward parents, those who lovingly provided a home, allowance, support, and often college tuition, not to mention the child’s genetic heritage — and receive derision and scorn in return from sexually sinful or gender-deviant children. The tears of these parents could fill a cathedral. God knows their pain. 
 Our current culture applauds the person who “comes out” of the closet, no matter what betrayals result from the pursuit of sinful desires. Recently, I was deeply grieved when a young minister we knew as he grew up declared his homosexual preference very publicly. But it was also stunning to watch those who claim identity as believers gush with applause for his “courage.” This is not courage, but rebellion, indulgence, and pride. Those who embrace homosexual sin or gender rebellion are declaring that God never created them — they create themselves.

Can you imagine how much of a drag it would be at Linda Harvey's house at Thanksgiving.

You would probably have a meal of unseasoned, dry-as-the-dust turkey with bland watery cranberry sauce and macaroni and cheese with raisins. For desert, you wouldn't have any because desert is so sweet that it has to be made by Satan.

Then after washing it down with a glass of lukewarm water, you would settle down for a  watching of some awful z-grade right-wing Christian propaganda movie starring Kirk Cameron and Kevin Sorbo  about some child who dreamed of going to Heaven after being coerced into a low-grade abortion by her evil gay friend plotting to convert her boyfriend into homosexuality while his father, the even more evil Democratic Congressman, plots with the forces of socialism to put the little old Christian lady in jail among drooling lesbians because she refuses to sell flowers for the wedding of the very very evil gay couple who is plotting to adopt two children so they can indoctrinate them to be transgender and set them loose in the area public school so they can "force" it to allow transgender students to use showers and bathrooms of their true gender expression so that the girls would be targeted by predators who will in turn sexually assault them, which will lead one girl's father to come out of retirement and embrace his former occupation as an assassin, where he will be brainwashed into attempting to take Trump out at his next campaign rally.

Or something like that.

Needless to say that some of the comments below Harvey's piece aren't exactly positive towards her point of view. I particularly like the following one so much, I think I will end this post with it:

Respect is a two way street, Linda. This homosexual will be bringing a cheesecake to Thanksgiving dinner celebrated together with my wonderfully accepting father, brothers, sister, sister-in-law, nieces and nephews. The fact that you simply can't imagine people having that in their life is a sad commentary on your own state of mind.

'At Least 22 Transgender People Were Killed In 2019. Here Are Their Stories.' & other Tue midday news briefs

Our fallen sisters

On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we honor the 22 transgender and gender non-conforming people killed so far this year. - So sad. I didn't see this until after Transgender Day of Remembrance. Still, it deserves a larger shout out.

Fox guest Chadwick Moore falsely suggests issues facing trans women of color are manufactured problems - Chadwick Moore is a bottom feeding gay man who is only interested in his sad career, even if he has to tear down his own community for it.

Golden Globes: What a rise in LGBTQ content may mean for awards acclaim - Positive visibility never hurts.

Federal Workers Are “Afraid” After Trump’s Anti-LGBTQ Crusade At The Supreme Court -And I'm pissed that the media hasn't pressed the issue harder.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Poor Roy Moore. Gay men are living rent free (and having sex) in his head

Roy Moore
Removed judge and failed Senate candidate Roy Moore wants to run for the Senate again but can't seem to shake his obsession with gay men. Or specifically how he thinks they are having sex.

From Right-Wing Watch:

Moore spoke recently to the Huntsville Republican Men’s Group, according to the Alabama Political Reporter: “We have got to go back to what we did back in the sixties and seventies back to a moral basis,” Moore said. “We did not have a national healthcare system. You know when Obama passed this thing rising all our costs and business started going down the tube everybody said it was going to be repealed. You never hear anybody in Congress talk about it now. Our indebtedness was $22 trillion. Back in the sixties and seventies it was much lower. It was a sixth of that. Abortion was not legal when I went to Vietnam. It was passed later. It was OK’d later. We had abortion laws in our country and our state. We did not have same sex marriage. We did not have transgender rights. Sodomy was illegal. These things were just not around when my classmates and I went to West Point and Vietnam.”

Moore is not only sadly deluded, but also naive. He claims that sodomy wasn't around when he attended West Point. West Point was all-male when Moore attended.  I am almost certain that sodomy had a nice little corner room at the back of the campus, where it had a number of visitors.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful. I'm simply being real.

But wait. Moore continued to reminisce:

“We have drag queens teaching kindergarten children in this state and this community….in Huntsville in Mobile they taught kids and they dress them up in drag,” Moore told the audience. “Where does this come from? Gender identity is being taught in California to young kids and parents have no choice but to let their kids be taught that.”

It's always entertaining when bigots and homophobes weep for bygone ages in which their mindsets of ignorance ruled the day. It's a wonderful reminder of the battles we have won.

'How Trump is trying to reverse LGBTQ progress in plain sight' & other Mon midday news briefs

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Things not to say to LGBTQ people.

Sometimes we have to admit that as a community, we don't know each other as much as we should. We don't listen each other and at times, we don't trust each other. And this is a problem in terms of  how we should relate to each other. The videos below aren't simply for the edification of heterosexuals. They are also for us LGBTQ folks. Even if you think the videos are too "politically correct," take a look anyway.






Thursday, November 21, 2019

Franklin Graham officially abandons Jesus to become Donald Trump's bitch


Once upon a time, there was a religious leader named Franklin Graham who said he stood for values and morality. In the late 1990s, there was a huge controversy in the United States with regards to its president, Bill Clinton, who got caught having an affair with a White House intern by the name of Monica Lewinsky.

Graham wrote a piece which condemned Clinton. It was called Clinton's Sins Are Not Private. In part, Graham said:

Last week Mr. Clinton told 70 million Americans that his adulterous actions with Ms. Lewinsky were a “private” matter “between me, the two people I love the most–my wife and our daughter–and our God.” 
But the God of the Bible says that what one does in private does matter. Mr. Clinton’s months-long extramarital sexual behavior in the Oval Office now concerns him and the rest of the world, not just his immediate family. If he will lie to or mislead his wife and daughter, those with whom he is most intimate, what will prevent him from doing the same to the American public? 
 . . . As a boy I remember my mother telling me of the consequences of sin. Like a boat, whose wake can capsize other boats, sin leaves a wake. Just look at how many have already been pulled under by the wake of the president’s sin: Mr. Clinton’s wife and daughter, Ms. Lewinsky, her parents, White House staff members, friends and supporters, public officials and an unwitting American public. 
 . . . Mr. Clinton’s sin can be forgiven, but he must start by admitting to it and refraining from legalistic doublespeak. According to the Scripture, the president did not have an “inappropriate relationship” with Monica Lewinsky–he committed adultery. He didn’t “mislead” his wife and us–he lied.

Fast forward over 20 years later to another president, Donald Trump. Trump has not only had an affair (with a porn star named Stormy Daniels) but has also done worse. For some reason, Graham has taken a, shall we say, less Biblical view of these matters. 

These are Graham's responses to some of Trump's "lowlights."

Donald Trump's affair with Stormy Daniels (after it was proven that Daniels was paid $130,000 for her silence):

“I can promise you he is not President Perfect,” Graham replied.  . . "President Trump I don’t think has admitted to having an affair with this person and so, this is just a news story, I don’t know if it’s accurate,” . . . “Now did he have an affair with this woman? I have no clue, but I believe that 70 years of age, the president is a much different person today than he was four years ago, five years ago, ten years ago or whatever and we just have to give the man the benefit of the doubt.”

Trump's ban on refugees and immigrants from countries he claims are high-risk - Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen:

“It’s not a biblical command for the country to let everyone in who wants to come, that’s not a Bible issue,” Graham told HuffPost. “We want to love people, we want to be kind to people, we want to be considerate, but we have a country and a country should have order and there are laws that relate to immigration and I think we should follow those laws. Because of the dangers we see today in this world, we need to be very careful.”

Editor's note - it is a Biblical issue per se. There are 22 Biblical verses about welcoming immigrants, including:

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. - Hebrews 13:1-3

Donald Trump's capacity for lying:

“I don’t think the president is sitting there behind the desk trying to make up lies. I don’t believe that for a second. Has he misspoken on something? Sure. All of us do that. You do it and I do it. And sometimes we get the facts wrong and we say something that later on we realize, we could’ve said it better or it was misrepresented.” (at the time of Graham's statement, Trump has been cited for lying over 8,000 times while in office)

And the pièce de résistance:

The present impeachment hearings of Donald Trump for attempting to get the Ukraine to announce investigations of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in exchange for aide - something admitted to by Mick Mulvaney, Trump's acting chief of staff, Trump himself, and several other witnesses:



So what has changed in over 20 years for Graham? Well he claims that he supports Donald Trump because Trump defends and stands up for the Christian faith.

"What I love about our president is that our president defends the Christian faith," he said. "Our past presidents scolded Christians. This president is defending Christians and he's very open about the Christian faith. "I love that about President Trump and, of course at the prayer breakfast just a few days ago he was tremendous that America is a nation of believers," he continued. "And we're strengthened by the power of prayer, he reminded everyone. He also reminded us that faith is central to American life. It is. It is central to our life as a nation. I'm very thankful that Donald Trump takes this stand."

What a pity.

If Graham had any true faith and trust in God, he wouldn't feel the need to make excuses for the behavior of a lying, lecherous joke of a president. Since I was a child, I was told to always have faith in God. I was also told that this faith included not making excuses for people and actions which are supposed to go against your morals, no matter who much you benefited from said people and actions.

So which is it, Graham? Why are you making excuses for Trump?

 Or was all of what you claimed to have stood for about morality and values simply talk?

'American Medical Association calls for nationwide ban on 'ex-gay therapy'' & other Thur midday news briefs

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Trump advisory board member thinks schools are training children to be gay

Clarence Mason Weaver (left) is a man Trump is counting on to garner him more black voters. Weaver has some pretty "interesting" views on the LGBTQ community and women.

On probably the single worst day of Trump's presidency, far be it from me to be a "basic bitch" and rub stuff in.

Oh who am I kidding. From Media Matters:

Clarence Mason Weaver, who was recently named to an advisory board position in President Donald Trump’s campaign, is a right-wing commentator who believes that homosexuality is “evil” and an “abomination.” Weaver has said that people have “got to worry about homosexual training” in schools and questioned, “What is wrong with being homophobic.” He’s also said he has a problem with gay co-workers and would “not appear on a program with a homosexual host and pretend like that’s normal.”

. . . In November 2018, he posted a video complaining about an advertisement featuring a woman in a same-sex marriage. He related that he told his granddaughter that “homosexuality is a abomination. Not just a sin. It’s abomination.” He later criticized people who try to find “common ground” on the issue, saying, “How can you find common ground with evil and sin?”

Weaver added that he “can work with homosexuals. I've worked with a lot of homosexuals. Worked with a lot of them. Political and social things. But I’m not going to stand there and pretend like that’s not a sin. Like you would not -- I would not pretend like I don’t sin. I would not pretend, I’m not going to try to fool God to make you feel comfortable.” He added: “I appear on programs all the time with homosexuals. I will not appear on a program with a homosexual host and pretend like that’s normal.

 And of course, the kicker:

 Weaver also said that he’s homeschooled his kids in part because he wanted to “get them out” of an environment where “we got to worry about homosexual training.”

Either way, his comment about "homosexual training" gets me angry.  On one hand, it's ludicrously homophobic. On the other, if there were some remote truth to that, I missed all of that training. And the thought of that would really gets me upset. I think I would have really excelled if there were "homosexual training" in gym class.

'Survey: depression, anxiety rates alarmingly high among LGBTQ Southerners' & other Wed midday news briefs