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Two California high school students became one of the first lesbian couples crowned homecoming king and queen in the nation this weekend.
Rebeca Arellano, a senior at Patrick Henry High School, was made the school's first female homecoming king when her name was announced Friday at a pep rally.
"They were chanting my name and it was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had," said Arellano.
Arellano's girlfriend, Haileigh Adams, who also attends Patrick Henry High School, was made homecoming queen at Saturday night's dance.
"I was happier than when I won, my little Haileigh has just been announced Homecoming queen and I couldn't feel happier! Thanks to every single one of you! You guys made this happen and we are all part of something huge. I can't fully express how grateful I am. I am in completely shocked that this happen. My girl looks absolutely flawless," wrote Arellano on Facebook Saturday night.
Courtesy Rebeca Arellano
Rebeca Arellano and Haileigh Adams at the... View Full Size
Courtesy Rebeca Arellano
Rebeca Arellano and Haileigh Adams at the Patrick Henry High School homecoming dance. The girls became the first lesbian couple to win homecoming king and queen in America.
Lesbian H.S. Student Crowned Homecoming King Watch Video
The two girls told ABC News that they're thankful for the abundance of support they've received from family, friends, and students and staff at the school.
Arellano said one of her teachers told her, "Today school is a bit better because of you girls."
Arellano's Facebook wall is covered with congratulatory notes from her friends.
"Thank you all for allowing this change to happen," Arellano posted on Facebook.
Adams said they have received negative feedback as well.
"We have a lot of support, but there are also a lot of people who are angry about it," she said. "Anonymous Patrick Henry students are saying they're embarrassed and that it's wrong for a girl to take the spot of king. But there's no other way for us to run as a couple. It's not really fair for us not to have the right to run as a couple."
Arellano posted a statement to those who opposed her on her Facebook wall that read: "For all the girls who think tradition should be continued, go back to the kitchen, stop having sex before you're married, get out of school and job system, don't have an opinion, don't own any property, give up the right to marry who you love, don't vote, and allow your husband to do whatever he pleases to you. Think about the meaning of tradition when you use it in your argument against us."
Adams and Arellano both came out their freshman year of high school, and they began dating in February of their sophomore year. They say their parents were supportive both when they came out and when they started dating.
"Paula - A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stamp on it and really mess it up but do not rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirty is was. She then told them to tell it they’re sorry. Now even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it. That is what happens when a child bullies another child, they may say they’re sorry but the scars are there forever. The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home."
This is just too sweet! Thank you Jeremy Hooper at Good As You
October 28, 2011
Mr. John Eastman
Chairman
National Organization for Marriage
2029 K Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC20006
Re: Missing NOM Tax Returns
Dear Mr. Eastman:
I am writing to alert you that the 2010 federal tax returns (990’s) of the National Organization for Marriage are missing. They were due in May 2011, and an extension was granted until October 15, 2011. We stopped by your Washington, DC office this week and there were no 990’s available for viewing as required by law. They are not up on your web site nor are they on Guidestar.
No IRS returns available again this year at the tiny national NOM office in Washington DC.
As the newly hired Chairman of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a distinguished law professor and a former law school dean, I had hoped that you came aboard NOM to perhaps try and give it some much needed honesty.
I have been the most prominent watchdog of the National Organization for Marriage since June of 2008, soon after it was established. I watched NOM grow from nothing just over three years ago, to an operation working in over half the states on each and every anti-gay legal and political battle. NOM is also deeply involved in hundreds of state and federal candidate campaigns. Additionally, all your federal lobbying and other activities in Washington, DC rival that of the Family Research Council.
NOM Under Active Investigation in Maine
As I am sure you are aware, NOM and its former officers are under investigation by the state of Maine for money laundering on a referendum NOM put on the ballot in November 2009. The active investigation of the National Organization for Marriage by the State Ethics Commission and the State Attorney General is in its third year. I filed the original complaint and testified three times in Maine to make sure that the truth comes out. Only then will we finally learn where all the millions and millions of dollars NOM brings in each year to its two organizations actually comes from.
So, as NOM’s new Chairman, I am writing you in the hope that finally there may be a modicum of integrity at the National Organization for Marriage. We hope that someone with your distinguished record will act in accordance with the law; unlike your predecessors Robby George and Maggie Gallagher.
We assume that you will promptly obey federal law and file and release both sets of tax returns.
This has to be the most homophobic person on the planet. She must have just taken her head out of ......the sand.....thought I was going to say something else...LOL
Gay does not rub off and turn others gay. Watching gay on TV does not make you gay. Shaking hands, bumping into, or going to the bathroom after a gay person will not make you gay. Having a gay doctor or nurse will not make you gay.
A New York City taxi medallion is a tin plate that grants a person the right to operate a yellow cab. On Wednesday, two medallions were sold for $1 million each, the highest price ever. In 1937 when the first medallion was issued, it went for $10. New York City has sold 13,237 medallions over the years. The new ones, when issued, are sold at auction. What this means is that the largest fleets, which often control hundreds of medallions, can easily secure financing. Medallion sales are one of the city's big businesses. In fact, the biggest lender, Medallion Financial, is a publicly traded company and shares a Madison Avenue skyscraper with the Rockefeller Family Fund.
This folks is a shining example of what OWS is about. Capitalism is not a bad thing except when it goes unregulated and this happens.
Have any of you played the game Monopoly? The goal of the game is to become the richest and bankrupt the rest of the players. At some point in the game you know that while you are doing OK so far, there is no way to get ahead and you could be out in one roll of the dice. You keep playing knowing it is futile. That is what is happening now. Only the very wealthy can play with hope of winning. 1% The rest of us are the 99%. We are all at different stages of wealth and some may get a lucky roll but we ALL know we are only a roll away from joining the growing number of people who lost.
This is what happens when there are no rules to keep the high rollers in check. Deregulation and every loophole/tax breaks have given the 1% the upper hand.
Now they can vote and "contribute" as much as they want to political campaigns and candidates.
As a loser your options are limited. IF you can find a job, it will most likely be part time so the business will not have to offer you any benefits. Some may have 2 or 3 part time jobs at minimum wage. IF you find a full time job, it will most likely be hard shifts of 12 to 14 hours, 6 or 7 days a week. No over time pay, minimum wage, no union, no benefits/wait a year/can't afford coverage, and dog ass tired. Otherwise you are left to your own devices. Some choose bad ones. Desperate people will do anything.
The growing "class war" (their term not ours) is restless and global. The losers, most who WERE hard working players, need the rules to change so they can have a chance to work again.
Bring back the industry that made us strong. Pay us enough to spend and save. Healthy people work harder, provide affordable heath care for EVERYONE.
The losers are beginning to rebel and it will get ugly er.
The 1% needs to understand that this is not a game and and we the 99% can not allow them to bankrupt us , our country, or our globe any more than they have.
Today HRC sent letters to four Republican presidential candidates—Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum—urging each to reconsider and retract his or her pledge to investigate gay Americans. The letters were triggered by Monday’s federal court decision in Washington State.
AsNOM Watchers knows, each candidate signed a so-called “marriage pledge” sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage. The pledge included a little noticed provision calling for each candidate, if elected President, to set up a McCarthy-style presidential commission to “investigate” alleged claims of harassment and threats by LGBT Americans.
HRC President Joe Solmonese writes, “You were duped into taking a pledge that is substantively and morally empty, one which is based on claims that have been soundly rejected by even conservative federal judges. It’s doubtful that most Americans would look fondly upon a candidate whose plan is to walk into the White House with a plan to launch baseless investigations of their fellow citizens.”
The text of the letter sent to candidates reads as follows:
This summer, you signed a pledge to the National Organization for Marriage supporting the enshrinement of discrimination in the U.S. Constitution. A Federal Marriage Amendment would deny loving and committed same-sex couples the legal recognition they deserve. As if this were not bad enough, the same pledge included a promise on your part to establish a McCarthy-like presidential commission that would investigate alleged harassment claims against opponents of marriage equality. While I would urge you to be on the right side of history and support marriage equality, the underlying assumptions behind the fourth tenant of the pledge you took have again been demonstrated to be patently false. Anti-LGBT forces have consistently argued that they have been subjected to widespread harassment and intimidation for expressing their views. If this were true we would share equally in their concern, as the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is unfortunately all too familiar with the experience of harassment and intimidation. But when NOM and their friends have had to support these baseless allegations with concrete facts in court and under oath, they have time and again been unable to do so. This Monday, a federal judge in Washington State – appointed by George W. Bush – flatly rejected claims of harassment and intimidation made by NOM and its allies to support their efforts to keep petition signers for a 2009 referendum (on domestic partnerships) hidden from public view. The court dissected the groups’ claims one-by-one, rejecting them as speculative or even bogus. In court the “victims” either admitted that they had not been harassed or could not show that any perceived slights were related to their positions on LGBT civil rights. The court ruled that NOM and its allies had failed to show serious and widespread threats, harassment or reprisals. This decision followed from last year’s Supreme Court case, Doe v. Reed, in which even Justice Scalia strongly rejected the anti-LGBT groups’ claims. This is not the first time a federal court has scratched its head wondering where the evidence is to support marriage equality opponents’ claims of harassment and discrimination. In California, a federal court debunked NOM’s harassment allegations pointing out that “numerous of the acts about which [NOM] complain[s] are mechanisms relied upon, both historically and lawfully, to voice dissent… This court cannot condemn those who have legally exercised their own constitutional rights in order to display their dissatisfaction with [NOM’s] cause.” NOM has been painting the gays-are-bullies mural for a while, which of course is a tried and true practice of all anti-gay groups dating back decades. It is their loudest battle cry – and is the reason they give to fight tooth and nail through scores of lawsuits to keep their donors secret – despite popular disclosure laws that promote transparency. Vilifying the LGBT community is part of the group’s fake victimization crusade – which has found its way into your presidential campaign. As I hope you can appreciate now, you were duped into taking a pledge that is substantively and morally empty, one which is based on claims that have been soundly rejected by even conservative federal judges. We urge you to reconsider and retract your pledge. It’s doubtful that most Americans would look fondly upon a candidate whose plan is to walk into the White House with a plan to launch baseless investigations of their fellow citizens. Sincerely, Joe Solmonese President Human Rights Campaign
One of those legacies is the Defense Department's separation pay policy for discharged service members. If you serve six years in the military and are then discharged involuntarily, Congress says you're entitled to separation pay to help ease your transition to civilian life. But the DOD has an internal policy — not required by any statute — of cutting that separation pay in half if you're discharged, even honorably, for "homosexuality."
Let's be clear: Many of those who were discharged under DADT were distinguished soldiers, airmen or cadets and had an unblemished record. They were service members in good standing, and there was nothing dishonorable about their discharge. Yet they are denied the same separation pay as other honorably discharged service members merely because they're gay or lesbian.
That's what happened to our lead client in our class action lawsuit challenging this needless policy. Richard Collins was a decorated Air Force Staff Sergeant who served nine years before being kicked out under DADT. He was seen kissing his civilian boyfriend, in a car at a stoplight, when he was off duty, out of uniform, and 10 miles off base. After being discharged under DADT, Staff Sgt. Collins discovered that his separation pay was cut in half.
We filed this lawsuit on behalf of Collins and 142 other service members about a year ago. We expected at the time that, once Congress passed the statute authorizing repeal of DADT, the government would quickly settle the case and give these honorably discharged service members the separation pay they are entitled to. Instead, the government has inexplicably dragged its feet every step of the way.
In May, the government asked the court to dismiss the case, without even defending the constitutionality of the policy. Instead the government argued that the courts could not provide any relief to service members whose separation pay was cut in half while DADT was still in effect. It didn't make sense to us, and apparently, it didn't make any sense to the court. Today, Judge Christine O.C. Miller of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims denied the government's request and will allow these veterans to be heard.
The court's decision means that these 142 service members will finally have their day in court. The government will have to explain to them and to the rest of the public how cutting their pay in half served important governmental interests. The government will have to make that explanation, even though the Pentagon has already issued a detailed report making clear that discrimination against gay and lesbian service members is entirely unnecessary and doesn't serve the interests of the military. Good luck with that.
I have a friend in the National Guard. So far she has not been deployed, thank Goddess. She is out, has been before the end of DADT, and some of her unit has met her betrothed. I can only guess what would happen if they were told she was not welcome to be part of the "Family" program.
I doubt there's anything in the law that defines what kind of family can attend a National Guard event. This is absurd. And the kind of petty thing we should no longer be having to deal with. From SeaCoastOnline.com:
In a Tuesday letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., urged the Department of Defense "in the strongest terms to end a discriminatory policy that bans the same-sex spouses of returning National Guard members from participating in official National Guard family events."
Shaheen's letter followed a story in Monday's Herald about Rye resident Charlie Morgan, who is the only member of the N.H. National Guard who recently returned from a foreign deployment but is barred from bringing a spouse to a military-mandated "yellow ribbon reintegration" program this weekend. While the National Guard states returning soldiers' "family members are strongly encouraged to attend" the two-day event, Morgan is the exception because she's a lesbian.
Shaheen said she attempted to assist Morgan, but has been "hamstrung by federal regulations." On Tuesday, the senator wrote to Panetta, asking him "to get personally involved."
From Pams House Blend comes this piece of scary news.
Watch an off-the-rails sermon that is a call to overthrow governments and install their religious reign:
“During a Spiritual Warfare conference at Rick Joyner’s MorningStar Ministries, Pastor Ryan Wyatt of Abiding Glory Church preached on “Governmental Dominion.” Wyatt explained that Jesus is not going to come back until God sees that there is a “mature, overcoming bride” is “operating at the same level” as Jesus, at which point Christ will return and Christians “will work with Jesus to rule and reign.” Later, Wyatt said that “we are to rule, reign, govern, expand, advance and establish the government of God on the earth” since “this is about world domination.” He called on followers to “infiltrate” the seven mountains of influence, especially the government mountain, to attain “preparatory dominion.”
Occupy Wall Street TV Commercial Set to Hit the Airwaves
Conservative groups are currently running ads on cable news accusing Occupy Wall Street of anti-Semitism. Right-wing media, and even the Republican National Committee, are piling on those attacks.
Soon, however, Occupy Wall Street will begin running a television ad of its own. The ad features a diverse set of protesters speaking directly into the camera what they hope the movement will achieve. Here it is:
Last week, we wrote about Occupy Wall Street's commercial, which features a montage of protesters explaining what they would like to get out of the movement.
Since then, we've been contacted by the commercial 's director, David Sauvage. He told us that the commercial was on track to air nationally, thanks to the efforts of a San Francisco-based digital advertising start-up called LoudSauce. [...]
Occupy Wall Street started its LoudSauce campaign last week with little fanfare and a goal set for $5,000. Thanks to mostly word of mouth (through Twitter and Facebook), the goal was met by Friday. They'll be wrapping up the campaign at the end of this week, and the commercial should be on TV in the next few weeks (they said most likely on ESPN).
This may well be the first time a protest movement will air a positive branding ad.
I have spent the day reading some of the worst ideas and expressions of hate. Joe My God (JMG) has had some doosies today. Links in each piece lead to JMG library.
Check out what Rick Santorum thinks.
"One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be. [Sex] is supposed to be within marriage. It’s supposed to be for purposes that are yes, conjugal…but also procreative. That’s the perfect way that a sexual union should happen. This is special and it needs to be seen as special." - Rick Santorum, pledging to defund all federal contraception programs.
SHORTER RICK SANTORUM: More AIDS and unwanted babies for everybody! Praise! Glory!
My favorite has to be this guy. How desperate can you get.
Hate Group: CA Schools Are Going To Mentally Molest Your Children
Save California says that since the effort to repeal SB48 has failed, Christian parents must now remove their children from public schools. Or else they will be "mentally molested."
While some parents may initially find this solution uncomfortable or difficult, my question is this: How much worse does it have to get before you intervene? If a speeding car was on a collision course with your child, wouldn’t you do all you could to rush to rescue your child? And what if you found out someone was planning to sexually molest your child? Nothing could stop you from rescuing your boy or girl. Think about it. If we are so concerned about the physical safety of children, why wouldn’t we also protect their mental, emotional, and spiritual safety? Realize that the raft of school sexual indoctrination mandates imposed on all children in California government schools amounts to mental molestation.Labels: education, hate groups, LGBT History, Save California
Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), the ranking member on the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, is requesting a hearing on House Speaker’s John Boehner’s (R-OH) “irresponsible, backdoor use of taxpayer money to pay the private law firm Bancroft PLLC to represent the House in support of the constitutionally-questionable Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA),” he announced in a press release. The legal team that Boehner and the Republicans hired has come under harsh criticism for arguing that homosexuality is a choice, misrepresenting research, and relying on such experts as ex-gay advocate George Rekers and the National Organization for Marriage’s Maggie Gallagher. House Democrats are also calling on Boehner to hold a a briefing on his efforts, which are have cost taxpayers more than a million dollars.
John Smid was the head of one of the largest "Pray away the gay" orgs that are responsible for some of the misinformation and lies spread to demonize the LGBT population. Smid took advantage of gay people who were depressed and disparate from the social discrimination he helped to create!
He made a ton of money off the people he made sick!
Now he is Martyring himself by being married to a woman and saying that he never really changed anyone!?
It seems to me that this is an admission of guilt for bilking people out of their money not to mention the damage he caused to his clients or the LGBT population at large!
U! U! U! Exodus also took advantage of tax exemptions!
He should be in prison!
Maybe not.....He would be happy to be someones "Bitch".
It seems that our embarrassment to Ohio and his over paid outside legal team has come up with a way to defend DOMA in a rather circular manner. According to the AP,
"But attorneys representing the House's Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group counter that DOMA is subject to a lower level of court scrutiny because gays and lesbians don't meet the legal criteria for groups who receive heightened protection from discrimination. Under that lower standard, DOMA is constitutional, they argue."
Translation: Because we are winning a few battles against discrimination, we don't meet the legal criteria for groups who receive heightened protection from discrimination therefore it is his right to discriminate against us. With this line of thinking, they can fight any anti-discrimination laws against any minority and there is no way for the minority to win.
While DADT is history ( for now ), our brave LGB (no T) soldiers can fight and die the same, can post pictures of their families and loved ones, and be open about their lives if they want but because of DOMA can not have the same benefits for their families or legally married spouses. No health care, no housing or moving, etc...
DOMA hurts those of us who are legally married by denying our vows and the 1300 federal benefits afforded to str8 couples. I should not have to be listed as a dependant on my wife's taxes. It gets in the way of LGBT families trying to get help with a child's higher education costs. It separates legally married couples and breaks up families when one is deported for no other reason other than DOMA.
Again, it is not illegal to NOT defend a bad law. The President, DOJ, many judges, and a slim majority think it is a bad law. This bad law hurts Americans and their children.
Why on earth does Bonehead think it is OK to blow 1.5 million taxpayer dollars to defend a bad law!? Why can't anybody do something to stop him!?
After Bonehead loses and DOMA is history, what other minority will he defend discrimination for?
I may be the same age as this guy but I did not go to school until the mid 90's. I still owe more than I can pay back. I am one of the 99%.
Paul Campos
The reason baby boomers don't understand the protesters is because we grew up with all advantages now being denied the younger generation—and it's left us totally clueless.
I am a baby boomer. Like many people my age, I have a high-paying and generally pleasant job, which features excellent benefits and a flexible work schedule. I’m also one of those people who, not long ago, would have dismissed the Occupy Wall Street protesters as just another bunch of spoiled kids, indulging in political street theater, while lacking any serious and constructive agenda. (Those people seem to include almost all of the mainstream media, which until a few days ago limited their coverage of the protesters to mocking their clothes and music. Predictably, time has transformed many boomers into their own parents.)
I am, in other words, part of what could be called the Clueless Generation. The Clueless Generation is made up of middle-aged, professionally successful people, who grew up in a nation that featured a mostly thriving economy, low-cost higher education, and some minimal commitment to economic justice. As a consequence, we graduated from school with little or no debt, got good jobs that featured real possibilities for advancement, and have on the whole ended up doing very well for ourselves.
A lot of us have also become insufferably smug and complacent. Over the past year I was lucky enough to be jolted out of my own smugness and complacency by a series of painful encounters with recent law-school graduates. I began to investigate the question of how many law graduates were getting jobs as lawyers, and discovered that a shocking percentage—more than half—were not.
Since I went to law school in the 1980s, the cost of legal education has quadrupled in real terms, thereby ensuring most current law students will graduate with six figures of debt from law school alone. Meanwhile legal employers are downsizing and outsourcing, to the point where the ratio between new lawyers and new jobs for lawyers is approximately two to one. And most of the new jobs don’t pay enough to allow even those who are lucky enough to get them to pay their educational debts.
A lot of boomers have become insufferably smug and complacent.
A businessmen looks at demonstrators marching in the financial district on Sept. 26, 2011 in New York., Spencer Platt / Getty Images
My attempts to bring this economic and human crisis to the attention of the law-school world have been met mostly with denial and incomprehension. It seems the Clueless Generation is largely incapable of grasping that this is no ordinary downturn in the business cycle, but rather that America is no longer the same country in which we were so fortunate to come of age.
For the still largely unacknowledged crisis in legal education merely mirrors the vastly larger crisis in our society as a whole. Millions of young adults are graduating from college and professional schools with massive amounts of educational debt—debt that, thanks to sweetheart legislative deals that lined the pockets of bankers, cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. In just the past decade, total outstanding educational debt in America has risen more than five-fold, from $180 billion to nearly $1 trillion. Meanwhile, the international crisis of global capitalism has led employers large and small to do everything possible to cut labor costs. This has produced the current 15 percent official unemployment rate among Americans in their 20s. (The real unemployment rate is far higher, since the government counts people as unemployed only if they did zero hours of paid work in the past week and have been actively seeking employment at some point in the last four weeks.)
What the Clueless Generation finds difficult to comprehend is that literally millions of highly educated and hardworking young Americans—people who followed all the rules and did everything we told them to do—are either severely underemployed or have no jobs of any kind. Meanwhile, they struggle with the massive educational debts they incurred after the baby boomers decided that access to the bargain-priced higher education from which we benefited wasn’t so important after all.
Now, as the protests spread across the country, the core of the Occupy Wall Street movement—young, overeducated, and underemployed—is beginning to find common cause with many other people disillusioned with a social system that continues to grant its privileged elite ever-greater rewards. The compelling images from what the movement calls “the 99 percent” paint a portrait of our new Gilded Age that we ignore at our peril.
America’s first Gilded Age in the late 19th century led eventually to mass protests and nationwide strikes, which played a key role in the development of both progressive politics and the modern labor movement. The widespread labor insurgency of the mid-1930s pushed FDR to adopt the most important and long-lasting features of the New Deal. And the civil-rights and antiwar mass mobilizations of the 1960s helped overcome some of the great injustices of that era.
It seems that at this moment we in the Clueless Generation could use a reminder that the 1960s were about something more than sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
I have downloaded the 23 page report but have yet to read it. I can not stress enough how important it is that we expose this man and all like him. The hate and lies must stop!
The Propagandist is an in-depth investigative piece about Fischer's history in Idaho written for the Southern Poverty Law Center by Idaho journalists Jody May-Chang and Jill Kuraitis, both of whom have closely followed Fischer's activities for many years. The article is included in a 23-page report issued by the SPLC Oct. 10, 2011.
"when i found out that jamey rodemeyer killed himself - i felt deeply troubled. but when i found out that jamey rodemeyer had made an it gets better video only months before taking his own life - i felt indescribable despair. i also made an it gets better video last year - in the wake of the senseless and tragic gay teen suicides that were sweeping the nation at the time. but in light of jamey's death - it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it - is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality." - Actor Zachary Quinto, writing on his personal blog. Quinto came out this weekend.
Thank you Zachary. For those of you still in the closet......Come out! Come out! Where ever you are! We need you to show the world we are many. That we are your friends and family. We are neighbors, church members, parents at PTA, doctors and lawyers. We are the same and deserve the same.
Kansas City's anti-gay and "pro-life" Roman Catholic bishop has been indicted on a charge of "failing to protect children" after he and his diocese waited five months to report to police that "hundreds of images of child pornography" were discovered on a priest's computer, reports the AP.
Bishop Robert Finn becomes the first U.S. bishop criminally charged with sheltering an abusive clergyman and the "highest-rank clergyman charged" in the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandals, reports the Kansas City Star.
A Jackson County grand jury on Oct. 6 secretly indicted both Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph on misdemeanor charges of failure to report child abuse in a case involving a priest facing child pornography charges. As Finn and the diocese denied wrongdoing Friday after appearing in court, news of the charges roiled the nation and the Catholic world.
The charges were announced Friday at a news conference by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker. "This is a significant charge," Baker said. "To my knowledge, a charge like this has not been leveled before."
Finn as a member of the clergy and the diocese as the operator of schools are required under Missouri law to report reasonable suspicions of child abuse. But they did not do that for five months in the case of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, the indictment alleges. In a statement, the diocese said its lawyers entered a plea of not guilty for the diocese.
Ratigan faces multiple child pornography charges in state and federal court. A separate lawsuit filed in June accuses Finn and the diocese of violating federal and state child pornography and child abuse laws when they allegedly concealed evidence that the priest "was creating child pornography by photographing and being sexually inappropriate with young parish girls."
The Kansas City Star has published an editorial demanding the Bishop's resignation, saying that Finn "must go."
Bishop Finn is affiliated with the Opus Dei movement. Finn has called for "war" against gay rights and pro-choice activists. Kiddie porn producing priests? Not so much.
This is the kind of history our kids need to know. LGBT history is NOT about sex. It is about the hard working people who helped shape this great country and this man is at the top of that change.
All of the religious right's lies and all of the religious right's men won't be able to put gays in the closet again. From the San Diego Gay & Lesbian News:
Today was the deadline for signatures to qualify a new referendum for inclusion on the November 2012 ballot.
As EQCA announced yesterday, the anti-equality advocates were unable to get the specified number of signatures to get their discriminatory policies back in the hands of the voters.
They were seeking a referendum to overturn the recent FAIR Education Act (SB48), which ensures classrooms are including LGBT, minority and handicapped individuals in the teaching of history.
At many public locations where the group attempted to gather signatures, it was reported they were misleading the public about what the law was about, even linking it in some cases to pedophilia.
After a last minute rally in an attempt to uncover or gather more signatures, today the group sent out an email to all their supporters, entitled, "We Fought the Law and the Law Won."
In the email, they shared their disappointment with losing their attempt at overturning the "very bad law" and thanked their supporters.
They also offered guidance on what to expect of their referndum's "opponents," avowed to not give up the fight for the sake of the children and identified the state politicians that stood with them in the attempt to overturn the FAIR Education Act.
The communication also gives insight into to their discriminatory tactics, from the school board level, up.
Unfortunately we did not collect enough signatures to qualify the referendum to overturn SB48. That law will be in place in our schools at the first of next year.
We thank all of you that worked so hard to provide the hundreds of thousands of signatures received. In the end, 90 days was too short a time to accomplish such a large task.
In the coming days you will see the celebration of our opponents. We know this because it has already started in social media and other places. And some of the rhetoric will be harsh. Remember, despite what they say about us, we opposed SB 48 simply because we do not believe that children should be exposed to an intentionally one-sided argument about lifestyles and values we do not hold.
And you will have to face some of those who said from the beginning that our referendum effort was a waste of time. They said we did not have enough money, the commitment of enough groups, or enough days. Ultimately they were right. And in private perhaps they will ask if the effort they withheld would have made the critical difference.
In the end, everybody that dedicated time and effort to qualifying this referendum should hold their heads high. The children in California schools and their parents owe a debt of gratitude to each of you for attempting such a huge task.
We hope that you will be there for the next battle.
While we did not overturn this very bad law, we built a small army of dedicated volunteers that collected an incredible amount of signatures. There will be a next battle. Despite the overuse of the term "tolerance," there is little tolerance for those who do not endorse the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender lifestyles. And there will be more laws passed that advocate for these and attempt to silence any opposition.
I didn't post this yesterday in spite of the fact that several pro-gay blogs did simply because I wanted concrete confirmation. Having dealt with religious right tactics, I was very wary of a Trojan Horse tactic. But there is no need to be wary any more.
Let this be a lesson to us all. There are times when all of the money, influence, and connections in the world can't make lies true. And if those of us who are fighting these lies hold fast to our principles and never stop fighting, we win.
For true information about the Fair Education Act, go here.
This is so cool! My younger and favorite brother, Paul, was burned on his face, neck, and arm this last Auguest the day after we left Ohio for home. He is doing fine and his beautiful face is almost back to normal. His arm will be scared. It has taken weeks of painful recovery and we all learned about the treatment of bad burns. I hope this "skin gun" gets in the hands of every burn unit world wide.
Here’s a clip from National Geographic Explorer, showing Dr. Jörg Gerlach’s experimental “skin gun,” a tool used in regenerating burned skin using the patient’s own skin cells from other parts of the body. This technique, though experimental, can heal in a matter of days, rather than the weeks (and the associated scarring caused in that time) typically necessary for other techniques like skin grafts.
Gerlach: “We isolate cells from the healthy part of the skin — the patient’s own cells — which can be taken in a water solution, and that solution is prepared for cell spraying.”
The whole approach is part of Gerlach’s work on bioreactors; his approach involves not just the applicator gun, but also a system for growing cells and a special wound dressing that helps with healing. In the video below, we see one example of a man who had second-degree burns over much of his face, right arm, and right shoulder which was treated with the experimental technique — and to my eye there’s virtually no scarring. Let’s hope this works for others! Warning: there are a few images of second-degree skin burns in this video, though they are not shown with the intent to gross you out. If you’re not cool with seeing a bit of post-burn flesh, don’t watch. Just in case, I put the video (with its poster frame of a second-degree-burned hand) after the jump:
This week, my eight-year-old son asked me a couple of questions about the war in Afghanistan. They were simple questions. Yet, both times I struggled to answer.
The first question came out of the blue. “Dad,” he asked me, “Why did we go to war in Afghanistan?”
I had to think for a moment. Not because I didn’t know the answer, of course. Ten years ago today we went to war in Afghanistan, under “Operation Enduring Freedom, even as smoke still rose from the rubble at Ground Zero. Less than a month after the September 11th attacks,” which happened a little more than year before our oldest son was born. Ostensibly, we went to war with Afghanistan because the Al-Quaeda used the country as an operating base, and the Taliban government allowed it.
So, we went to war because …? Was it self-defense? Was it vengeance? Should I tell him that, in the aftermath of 9/11, a number of very vocal Americans wanted to “bomb Afghanistan into the Stone Age” and “make the rubble bounce”? Should I tell him that the country had already been bombed back to something like the Stone Age during the Soviet war in Afghanistan? Should I tell him how we armed, trained and financed the Mujahideen, to fight the Soviet Union, to the tune of $40 billion? Should I tell him that once the Soviets withdrew, we abandoned the Afghanistan?
Should I tell him that Osama bin Laden was one of the mujahideen, and likely among those we armed and trained? My son knows who bin Laden was — that he was the leader of the terrorist organization that launched the attacks on 9/11, and was instrumental in planning those attacks. He knows that bin Laden was killed in a targeted special forces mission. Should I tell him that we knew Bin Laden was in Afghanistan and — in terms he could well understand at the age of eight — let the “bad guy” get away? Should I try to explain to him why it took us nearly ten years to do what should have been done after 9/11, and could have been done without going to war in Afghanistan?
Should I tell him about the tremendous cost of it all?
I gave a brief answer to our son’s first question, but as he turned his attention back to his Legos, I still pondered all of the above.
Lost in thought, I was utterly unprepared when he looked up again and asked, “So, why are we still at war in Afghanistan?”
I thought of all we sacrificed and continue to sacrifice to pay for the war in Afghanistan, as cataloged yesterday by Jim Wallis.
If the moral and financial costs weren’t enough to end the war, public opinion has turned against it, and its strategic importance has long been in question.
Tomorrow, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be more than $1.259 trillion.
Tomorrow, almost 14 million Americans will still be unemployed.
Tomorrow, the homes of more than 2,500 new U.S. families will enter foreclosure.
Tomorrow, one in seven U.S. households still won’t know where their next meal is coming from.
Tomorrow, one in four American children under the age of six will still be living below the poverty line.
Tomorrow, three billion people around the globe will still be living on less than $2.50 a day.
Tomorrow, 400 million children will still lack access to clean water.
Tomorrow, 300 children under the age of five will die in the Horn of Africa because of famine.
People are feeling crushed from all sides.
Parents who aren’t sure where their kid’s next meal will come from, and the college students who have tens of thousands of dollars in loans and can’t find a job.
Families that have lost their homes in bank foreclosures, and the tens of millions of people who live below the poverty line even though they HAVE jobs.
I thought of how we’ve chosen and continue to choose war over all of these things. I shook my head and answered, “I don’t know, son. I just don’t know. But I hope that soon we won’t be fighting in Afghanistan anymore.”
Our son turned back to his Legos, either unfazed that I didn’t have an answer or understanding that I didn’t have a simple answer.
Why are we still in Afghanistan, when so much needs doing and can be done several times over with we have spent and are still spending on war? What are we waiting for?
That’s one question my son didn’t ask. If he had, I’d have had to give the same answer. I don’t know. I just don’t know.
Fromjoemygod.com comes this wonderful piece of news. Please click on the links below to access Joe's library for more information.
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! From a Stop SB 48 email blast:
"The News is Not Good ... it is doubtful we will get the number of signatures we need to qualify. Unfortunately the last several deliveries of mail have not been what was expected and a large number of petitions have been pulled out because of errors. From all appearances, we would need a miracle to qualify this referendum."
We chortle in our joy. We chortle the fuck outta this.
Here you go folks! I have been telling you about how bad Bryan Fischer is. This is him speaking to every GOP candidate and other Hate Groups on the topic of "homosexuality". He has similar feelings about other topics as well. Bad mouthing a minority and wanting to strip away rights is NOT my America!
Bryan Fischer, the so-called "Value Voters Summit" speaker who GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney called out in his own VVS speech, wants to make something perfectly clear. That is: Even though most mainstream media reports are pitting the current controversy as being between evangelicals and Romney's Mormon faith, for central figure Fischer (who spoke immediately after Romney at the summit), the war of words is much more about gays and their rights than it about Joseph Smith or Temple Garments.
Fischer writes:
But my main disagreement with Mitt is this, and this is what I told every member of the media who interviewed me: my problem with Mitt is not that he’s Mormon, it’s that he’s not Mormon enough. In fact, that is all I’ve ever said about Romney’s Mormon faith.
...
The Mormon church has always been strongly pro-marriage, yet Gov. Romney imposed same-sex marriage on Massachusetts and the United States by executive fiat in 2004.
The sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage are the two absolute non-negotiables. That Mitt suddenly discovered these values at the same time he decided he wanted to be the next Republican presidential candidates smacks of a political conversion that is more about convenience than conviction.
In fact, I think the main reason Mitt Romney tried to kneecap me on Saturday is that I have been unswerving in pointing out he imposed same-sex marriage on Massachusetts by executive fiat.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in the fall of 2003 that the state’s existing natural marriage law - which outlawed same-sex marriage - was unconstitutional. The court, in a nod to the separation of powers, urged the General Assembly to write a new law, since that’s not the role of the judiciary, and gave it 180 days.
The General Assembly did precisely nothing. In fact, same-sex marriage is still illegal in Massachusetts. It is against the law, because the law has never been changed. You could look it up.
But Gov. Romney, in his craven capitulation to homosexual activists, was not about to be deterred. He plunged ahead and “legalized” same-sex marriage in a burst of executive activism and tyranny.
He ordered town clerks in the spring of 2004 to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples or get fired. Massachusetts state law still to this day directs town clerks to only issue marriage licenses that are “authorized by the laws of the commonwealth.” So Romney was ordering them to break the state law or lose their jobs, a gross abuse of power.
There’s a rule in politics: you never punch down; you only punch up. You never attack someone who has less power than you. Yet Mitt Romney came after me, someone with a minor national profile and no political power whatsoever.
Why did he punch down by going after me? Because I’m saying something he does not want Republican voters to know: America has same-sex marriage because of Mitt Romney.
In saying this, Fischer actually helps our cause, highlighting a major problem with how LGBT matters are commonly treated. Here we have a man whose organization, the American Family Association, co-hosted this silly Values Voters Summit. A man who got to speak right after someone who could become our next President. A man who used that plum speaking gig to give one of the most insanely hostile speeches imaginable, complete with a call for the next President to declare homosexuality a public health hazard. A man whose extremism (along with that of Pastor Robert Jeffress) led said candidate to publicly renounce him. And yet still, most every single report I'm seeing is making this current war-within all about whether or not figures like Jeffress and Fischer consider Mormonism to be a "cult" and not about what Fischer himself is flat-out saying is the real issue. Adding insult to injury, I'm still seeing far to many people paint Fischer as nothing more than a mere conservative voice, which is just plain negligent at this point. All leading to the major question here, which is: Why do LGBT issues get so much focus in some ways yet so much of a pass in another?!
When people like Bryan Fischer say insane things about LGBT people: BELIEVE THEM! This person not only got to speak at this same conference as the leading GOP presidential contenders, but the organization that gives him a paycheck was invited to co-host the damn thing (along with the Family Research Council). Fischer highlights that last point himself:
Speaking of “decency and civility,” the American Family Association is one of the hosts of this event. How “decent and civil” is it to insult one of your hosts in front of the entire nation from the platform they have made available to you? Hmmm?Bryan Fischer: Mitt Romney publicly attacks me. Why? It's not about Mormonism [AFA]
So there is no debate here. Fischer says his Romney fight is all about same-sex marriage, he takes responsibility for getting Romney to the summit in the first place, and he thinks the candidate was wrong to "insult" him in the way that he did. There's the story, which is inextricably connected to the Family Research Council, the Romney campaign, the crowd that gave Fischer a standing ovation, and the marriage fight in this country. We must demand it get reported in this way!
The two girls told ABC News that they're thankful for the abundance of support they've received from family, friends, and students and staff at the school.
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Paul Campos
From joemygod.comA Jackson County grand jury on Oct. 6 secretly indicted both Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph on misdemeanor charges of failure to report child abuse in a case involving a priest facing child pornography charges. As Finn and the diocese denied wrongdoing Friday after appearing in court, news of the charges roiled the nation and the Catholic world.
The charges were announced Friday at a news conference by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker. "This is a significant charge," Baker said. "To my knowledge, a charge like this has not been leveled before."Finn as a member of the clergy and the diocese as the operator of schools are required under Missouri law to report reasonable suspicions of child abuse. But they did not do that for five months in the case of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, the indictment alleges. In a statement, the diocese said its lawyers entered a plea of not guilty for the diocese.
Association, co-hosted this silly Values Voters Summit. A man who got to speak right after someone who could become our next President. A man who used that plum speaking gig to give one of the most insanely hostile speeches imaginable, complete with a call for the next President to declare homosexuality a public health hazard. A man whose extremism (along with that of Pastor Robert Jeffress) led said candidate to publicly renounce him. And yet still, most every single report I'm seeing is making this current war-within all about whether or not figures like Jeffress and Fischer consider Mormonism to be a "cult" and not about what Fischer himself is flat-out saying is the real issue. Adding insult to injury, I'm still seeing far to many people paint Fischer as nothing more than a mere conservative voice, which is just plain negligent at this point. All leading to the major question here, which is: Why do LGBT issues get so much focus in some ways yet so much of a pass in another?!