Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich refused to sign Iowa social conservative Bob Vander Plaats’s anti-gay-marriage pledge, saying through a spokesman that it had a long list of problems.
Mr. Vander Plaats already made one change, removing a sentence that suggested African American children fared better under slavery.
“We told him that we couldn’t sign it in its current form,” said Mr. Gingrich’s spokesman, R.C. Hammond. “We’re happy to work with him to get some more precise language.”
As my husband and I watched anxiously for news of the outcome of the New York state senate vote on marriage equality, my thoughts drifted back to one last worrisome aspect of the Supreme Court's Walmart ruling — what it means for minorities. It may not be obvious, but there's a connection. Let me explain.
Beyond the Courts?
On discrimination, the court effectively lowered the bar for employers (having a non-discrimination policy is apparently, in the court's view, proof enough that there's no discrimination going on) and raised it for employees (unless you actually have written proof that you've been personally discriminated against, get back to work). That's troubling enough in and of itself, but I expect little different from this court. What troubles me more is a theme I've heard in some progressives' responses to the court's ruling, and the implications for progressive change, especially where minorities are concerned.
I was not there to hear Tracy Morgan’s now infamous, hateful anti-gay rant in the middle of a comedy performance in Nashville, as Kevin Rogers was. Had I been in town, it’s unlikely I would have been anyway, as I’ve never found Morgan to be all that funny, going all the way back to his SNL days. But I almost wish I had been, I’m not sure I would have been able to steel myself to stay in my seat for the entire thing, but at least I’d have heard it first hand.
I grew up a skinny, effeminate, non-athletic, black gay boy in the south … during the Reagan era.
That’s what I sometimes tell people when they ask my about what growing up was like for me. Those who get it, and most do, give me a wide-eyed look, and ask “How did you survive?”
I ask myself that sometimes, because I know a lot boys like me didn’t. Boys like Kirk Murphy.
Remember back in 2004, when Dubya won re-election and liberals started threatening to move to Canada? Well, maybe I should have considered it. Because according to OECD’s Better Life Index, Canada is where I belong.
I’ve been so busy with work and family that I’ve fallen behind on my email. I didn’t know I was in the running, but apparently this blog has been voted one of Circle of Moms Top 25 LGBT Parent Blogs.
What are the best blogs written by or for LGBT parents? Is there a writer out there in the blogosphere who truly tells it like it is for LGBT families and makes you feel like someone out there gets it? Is there someone who is providing much appreciated connection and support through their blog? We want to hear about them!
Voting closed on May 13th. I didn’t check my email soon enough put up a post asking for votes, so I’m even more surprised. Back in March, I was included in their top 25 Daddy Blogs. That was another pleasant surprise.
Well, it’s always nice to be included. Thanks, Circle of Moms!
Remember when I said the tea party has the potential to be the GOP’s psycho ex-girlfriend? Well, Dana Milbank’s latest column — about tea party activists attacking John Boehner, Paul Ryan and the GOP for not killing the hostage tying an increase in the debt ceiling to undoing health care reform, and preserving "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" — seems to bear this out. Especially the part where they blame the economic crisis on immorality, in genera, and gay people, specifically. Again.
Of course, the irony is that the meltdown and the ensuing recession have less to do with immorality than amorality run amok in the in the marketplace, and the conservatism that allowed it.
“Honey, we’re on page two of the Washington Post.”
That’s what my husband said to me Saturday morning, when he and Dylan returned from their swimming class, as he left on the counter a page that had been ripped from the day’s newspaper, before turning around and taking Dylan outside to play with our neighbor’s two boys.
If you think conservatism’s war on America’s working- and middle-classes is only happening in Wisconsin and a few other states, you’re wrong. If you think that it’s only a war against public employees, you’re more wrong than you know. Dan Rather recently filed a story about a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart that will go Supreme Court later this month. The court’s ruling could seriously impact American workers and consumers — a decision in Wal-Mart’s favor could strip private-sector workers their last effective tool for seeking justice in the workplace.
I spent most of my two-day sojourn through CPAC covering economic issues at the conference, but I was aware (as were lots of people) about the gay-related controversy around the conference, due to the presence of the gay conservative group GOProud at this year’s conference. (Not to mention their status at sponsors.)
Vintage_Gay_Couples Gays and lesbians have been around since the dawn of time, but many of us only think of same-gender couples in a post-Stonewall world. It’s almost as if they couldn’t possibly exist in public before that era and stayed hidden in the shadows—the two women "friends" who (sadly) never married so they lived together, or the rich man and his attaché who kept to themselves in that big house down the block. However, some mystery person is changing that concept. Buzzfeed found a number of photos from a Tumblr post that no longer exists. Fortunately, the Buzzfeed page does, so we were able to take the 25 fantastic shots and compile them for you in this incredible slide show.
It’s cute, and somewhat diverse. Not all of the couples pictured are white gay men. But, I got curious and started searching for other images.
I found a kind of treasure trove of vintage photos of black gay male couples.
I expected a lot of things when I attended the Conservative Political Action Caucus (CPAC) last week. I was assigned to cover the conference for my day job. I’ll admit some trepidation. Let’s face it. I’m a lot of the things that I could reasonably expect most CPAC attendees to hate: a liberal, non-Christian, black, gay, legally married father of two.
I expected trouble, butI didn’t have any problems. I guess because I my badge said “Media” rather than all of the above.
"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards."
- Eric Holder, United States Attorney General
Ed. Note: The second half of this post was written before the reading of the constitution on the House floor, at the opening of this session of Congress, and has since been updated.
Like a lot of people, when the new GOP majority in the House announced that they would begin this session by reading the constitution on the floor of the house, I was both amused and bemused. On one hand, I thought sarcastically, it might be educational. Some of them seem to know less about what’s in it, than about all the things of which they’re fond of saying "That’s not in the Constitution," while waving around the copy of the constitution they keep in their front pockets. (I’d wave around the copy I have on my iPhone, but I don’ thing it would have the same dramatic effect.)
I was bemused, because I wondered how conservatives would handle some uncomfortable parts of our history reflected in the Constitution. When I found out, I was more angry than amused, and more bitter than bemused. Congressional conservatives proved themselves to be callow and cowardly regarding the Constitution — unwilling to understand it in anything except a literalist framework, and unable to face up to the contradictions between our history and idealized image of ourselves, when the Constitution lays them out in black and white.
When I began hearing a few months ago about the rash gay youth driven to suicide by bullying, I immediately wanted to write about it. But when I sat down and started taking in the stories, I found I couldn’t. So many of the details were so close to my own experience growing up that I initially found it too painful to write about. In fact, I was a bit surprised that those memories were still as painful as they were, decades after the fact.
I also considered including the stories in the LGBT Hate Crimes Project, because strongly believed that they should be called hate crimes. I was aware, however, that the question was still a subject of debate. Should these cases, involving suicide, be considered hate crimes?
The LGBT Hate Crimes Project is back. After a period of inactivity, plus some hosting problems, the site is back up. It disappeared after my initial hosting account expired. After a brief, and unfortunate, switch to what turned out to be a disreputable host, I’ve returned my original host. In the meantime, I’ve had to restore the site from my files. So there are corrections that were made before that have to be made to some entries again. And there are updates that were added before that have to be added to some entries again. Those tasks will be ongoing. In the meantime, there are new entries coming this week.
How on earth anyone with the very publichistory of Carl Paladino becomes a serious candidate for governor of any state — let alone New York — is a mystery to me beyond all understanding. But, these are strange political times, when former right-wing fringe becomes the mainstream of the Republican party.
For the most part, I tend to ignore what Paladino has to say about anything, except for when he starts saying what he’d do if elected; like reviving the workhouses of the Victorian Era. But when he goes off and says something so blatantly ignorant about gay people, I can’t help but respond.
The Republican candidate for governor, Carl P. Paladino, told a gathering in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Sunday that children should not be “brainwashed” into thinking that homosexuality was acceptable, and criticized his opponent, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, for marching in a gay pride parade earlier this year.
Addressing Orthodox Jewish leaders, Mr. Paladino described his opposition to same-sex marriage.
“I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option — it isn’t,” he said, reading from a prepared address, according to a video of the event.
This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Eddie Long
Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light
~ “Run On (For A Long Time)”
The last line in the quote above is one my mother repeated often when I was growing up. She meant that those things we tried to hide, out of shame or deceit, would be found out eventually. Thus, it behooved us to live honest lives, with nothing “done in the dark” that we feared would come into the light.
Spencer LaGrande, 22, filed suit against Long and his New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and, like the other three alleged victims, accused the powerhouse pastor of forcing him into a sexual relationship while treating him to trips around the world, travel in private planes and stays in luxury hotels.
…LaGrande’s lawsuit alleges he met Long in March 2003 during the very first service at a branch Long’s Georgia-based church that opened in a suburb of Charlotte, N.C.
LeGrande said Long agreed to be a father figure for him because his own father was an absentee father, according to court documents, and that Long began asking LaGrande to call him “dad.”
LaGrande was 17 when, according to the lawsuit, Long first made sexual contact with him during a trip to Nairobi, Kenya. The lawsuit alleges several more instances of sexual contact, both before and after LaGrande graduated from high school.
Long’s accusers have said they believe the bishop abused more young men that eventually will come forward. Many people at the church knew what was going on but covered for Long, victims claimed.
Maurice Robinson and Anthony Flagg were the first two accusers, followed a short time later by Jamal Parris.
Parris alleged in the documents, obtained by ABC News, that the bishop would request he be nude while in his presence and would request “sexual massages” and “oral sodomy” when they traveled.
Eddie Long would probably say that my life — a suburban life, with a husband and two children — is one lived in darkness. He would probably invite me to live in the “light.” That is, the “light” as he defines it.
Weird. I haven’t posted anything about Whitney Houston’s death. I have an unfinished post that may go up soon, but that’s it. Still, I just peeked at my stats and discovered this 2008 post about Whitney House and Amy Winehouse got over 2,000 visits this weekend.
OK. I plead guilty to this When I got my iPhone 4, I gave Parker my old iPhone 3G (with parental controls in place, phone service deactivated, everything restored to factory settings, history wiped clean, and internet access and the App Store on lockdown) to play games on, etc. But does that make me a “Scrooge”? Puh-leeze. An eight-year-old needs the latest iPhone?
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