Category Archives: Anti-LGBT

Jun 22 1 comments
Anti-LGBT, Health, LGBT, Sexuality

Domestic violence: ‘keep it quiet’

The mayor of Mulberry, Fla., was attacked by his partner in the early morning hours of Friday, June 19.

According to news station WTSP Channel 10, 29-year-old Eugene Ornelas came home at 5 a.m. in the morning with someone he met at a local bar. Ornelas is Mayor Julian Mullis’ partner. The couple has two children.

From the story:

The attack allegedly happened on a peaceful street in Mulberry early Friday morning inside the home of Mayor Julian Mullis. It’s a home he shares with his two kids and 29-year-old Eugene Ornelas.

Mullis told police that he and Ornelas are in a relationship and live together as a family unit.

Things got heated, though, when Ornelas brought a stranger home from a club at five in the morning. Steve Peacock is the Interim Chief of Police in Mulberry and says, “It was Mr. Ornelas, who I guess lost his cool somehow, and began throwing articles inside the residence and attempted to strike Mr. Mullis at one point but missed.”

Mullis told police that Ornelas swung at him and has Jeckel and Hyde type episodes.

Ornelas was arrested and charged with domestic violence. It’s not the first time he’s been in trouble with the law. He’s faced a DUI, possession of a controlled substance and battery charge in the past.

Some nitwit, probably slightly anti-gay, told the news station that Mullis should have “kept it quiet.”

Reaction from people who live in Mulberry is mixed. Nancy Ladner says, “I don’t have a problem with homosexuality. I don’t. Everybody has their thing they have to do. But, he is a public image in our town and he needs to keep it quiet.”

Yeah… domestic violence should be kept quiet. My god, where do these people come from?

At least some level of sanity was collected by reporters:

Heidi Strickland says, “They need to concentrate on the problems of Mulberry, not the problem of Mr. Mullis and his family, okay? They’re going to have to deal with that. Just like you have to deal with your family and I have to deal with my family. But, as long as he’s performing his job to the means that he’s supposed to be doing which, so far I haven’t seen any disagreements, then that should be the issue.”

It is quite saddening that their mayor becomes the victim of a domestic violence situation and all folks care to look at or talk about is their mayor’s sexual orientation. Sad, sad, indeed.

Double-whammy: WTSP Channel 10 wasted no time playing on the public’s anti-gay, anti-transgender emotions. Their headline for the story: “Mulberry mayor attacked by live-in cross-dresser.” Shouldn’t the headline have been, “Mulberry mayor victim of domestic violence,” or something?

Jun 11 4 comments
Anti-LGBT, Politics, Sexuality, United States

National Right to Life holds convention in Charlotte

The National Right to Life Committee, the nation’s largest anti-choice organization, will hold its annual convention in Charlotte June 18-20 (Charlotte Observer story here).

The group’s annual convention, being held at the Blake Hotel in Uptown Charlotte, will feature dozens of speakers, including anti-choice and anti-gay activists and leaders.

Get the whole story »

Jun 09 0 comments
Anti-LGBT, Politics, Religion

Bishop Harry Jackson favors banning divorce, requiring forced marriages

In a column for the conservative Townhall.com, anti-gay pastor Biship Harry Jackson, Jr., laments over the psychological and biological harms of children living outside of families headed up by one dad and one mom.

Among his facts:

Consider these statistics. Over half of Americans studied in a survey in 2001 by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government believe that the high number of single-parent families is a major cause of poverty. Studies also reveal that most Americans believe that welfare programs encourage single-parent families and teenage pregnancy.

Malcolm D. Williams in 1997, used a sample of 1,610 10-13 year-olds in a study. He found that children who learn to share significant ideas with their fathers had fewer behavior problems and developed stronger cognitive abilities than their peers.

Similar results were found in a 1995 study of 254 black adolescents living with both of their biological parents. Ninety-six percent of these boys said their fathers were their role models. In this study, only 44 percent of black adolescents who were not living with their fathers said their fathers were their role models.

The Journal of Family Psychology in 2000 reported a study of 116 African American students ages 10-13. The boys with married parents were found to have much higher levels of self esteem and a better sense of personal power and self-control compared to single-mother homes.

Repeatedly, scholarly studies focused on adolescence show that early onset of puberty in girls is a major problem. It is associated with negative psychological, social, and health problems. Depression, alcohol consumption, and higher teenage pregnancy rates are some of the results. An eight year study of girls and their families showed that a father’s presence in the home, with appropriate involvement in his children’s lives, contributed to later pubertal timing of the daughters in the seventh grade.

These studies and scores of others suggest what most Americans have always known: that both boys and girls, are deeply affected in both biological and psychological ways by the presence of their fathers. We have emphasized the father half of the biblical duo called “parents,” assuming the mother is intact within the family setting.

Sounds like some damn perfect arguments for divorce and requiring forced marriages, wouldn’t you say?

If he is so adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage because having two-parent, mom-dad homes are just so absolutely important and crucial, then I’m sure Jackson wouldn’t mind me signing him up to support two bills that would immediately fix his “nuclear family degradation” problem — two bills that would impact more children’s lives than all of the anti-gay marriage amendments put together:

1. The Sanctity of Marriage Act (SOMA) (a.k.a., the divorce ban). SOMA would ban divorce nationwide, thereby keeping healthy heterosexual, mom-dad parenting intact for all of our nation’s children
2. For the Future of our Children Act (FFCA). The FFCA would instantly change the plight of motherless and fatherless children across the country, by forcing young parents with unplanned pregnancies to immediately wed as soon as the female in the couple tested positive for a pregnancy. This bill would be historic, forever ridding our country of single parents everywhere!

Together with all of the “pro-family” advocates in the nation, Bishop Jackson could unveil the “Restoring America’s Marriages Relief and Aid Package,” including SOMA, FFCA and tax credits and stimulus checks for all parents who immediately disown their homo-sex-sinning children who fail to successfully complete the U.S. National Love Conquers Sexual Sin Trainings (disowned children will be deported to San Francisco, which will be involuntarily seceded from the Union and will become known as Degenerateland).

Yup, all that should do the trick. America would be on to a healthy, free and just existence for all!

Lemme hear a brother say, “Amen! Praise Jesus! Damn the queers!”

Jun 09 0 comments
Anti-LGBT, LGBT, Politics

A step in the right direction for Winston-Salem students

Good news from my childhood hometown and school system: The North Carolina Senate passed a “local bill” on Monday, changing current Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education elections from partisan to non-partisan. Already passed by the House and not in need of the governor’s approval, the bill is now law. The Winston-Salem Journal has the full report.

This welcome change from partisan to non-partisan elections is a longtime coming. Starting in 2010, non-partisan elections will benefit Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school children and open the door to electing more fair-minded and LGBT-friendly candidates like Sandra Mikush, who ran unsuccessfully on a non-partisan ballot in 2006.

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education has long been dominated by conservative, anti-gay Republicans. Among the most outspoken have been Buddy Collins, Donny Lambeth and Jeannie Metcalf.

In a Feb. 4, 2003 Journal article, Metcalf was quoted saying, “I think homosexuality is a sin. If they want to make fun of them, I don’t have a problem with it.”

By their very essence, non-partisan elections create an atmosphere in which more people untainted by the gotcha games of party politics have a better chance of being elected and serving their communities. If left to partisan politics, the Winston-Salem board would have surely remained as anti-gay and conservative as it has always been.

It remains to be seen whether the change to non-partisanship will bring about the much more needed change for the area’s LGBT students, who remain without fully-inclusive anti-bullying and non-discrimination protections. My guess is that non-partisan elections will bring those students closer to safety than ever before — if the General Assembly, by passing the School Violence Prevention Act, doesn’t do it for them first.

Jun 08 1 comments
Anti-LGBT, Politics, United States

Obama: Defender of Discrimination?

Throughout the campaign and through his first few months in office, we’ve heard Obama and his assistants say that the president is still committed to repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Except, Obama’s administration isn’t fighting to repeal the ban. Instead, they’re fighting to defend it. The Associated Press reports (emphasis added):

The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a challenge to the Pentagon policy forbidding gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, granting an Obama administration request to maintain the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” directive.

The court said it will not hear an appeal from former Army Capt. James Pietrangelo II, who was dismissed under the military’s policy.

[..snip..]

In court papers, the administration said the appeals court ruled correctly in this case when it found that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is “rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion.”

[..snip..]

During last year’s campaign, President Barack Obama indicated he supported the eventual repeal of the policy, but he has made no specific move to do so since taking office in January. Meanwhile, the White House has said it won’t stop gays and lesbians from being dismissed from the military.

Apr 03 0 comments
Anti-LGBT, LGBT, United States

Creating change through film

LGBT filmmaker Debra Chasnoff speaks with The Windy City Times:

We asked who they most admire, and a lot are saying they admire the transgender student at the end of the film. I was in North Carolina at a screening and I sat behind three male, teenage students. The film started and they were giggling making fun of it a little. The film went on and one of them started doing it again and the other turned to the him and said, “Shut up, I want to hear this.” They were absolutely quiet for the rest of the film, and they were applauding wildly at the end. I think we are in a era in this country where there is potential for people to look at things and each other differently. I hope this film can bust wide open the very entrenched expectations that we have for males and females in this culture by helping teenagers rethink the assumptions about how they have to be just because they are male or female.

Mar 25 2 comments
Anti-LGBT, Media, United States

Ted Haggard: Broke and crazy as hell

I don’t know how many times Ted Haggard has to do something so insane. He just keeps pushing the envelope to new extremes. He and his wife will be the subject of a two-art episode of “Divorce Court” the first two days of April (h/t PageOneQ):

Disgraced American pastor Ted Haggard says he wanted his wife to divorce him after a sex scandal involving another man, but she refused.

Haggard made the comments in a two-part episode of the syndicated television show Divorce Court, to be broadcast April 1-2. The show released a partial transcript on Tuesday.

The couple was paid “an undisclosed amount” of cash for the appearance.

I’m just wondering: When will it get bad enough for Haggard to have to whore himself out on the streets? I mean, he’s already proven he’s crazy enough to do anything for money, right?

Mar 22 2 comments
Anti-LGBT

AFA and OneNewsNow contradicting itself?

On March 15, the radically anti-gay American Family Association-backed OneNewsNow.com reports that abstinence-only education is working (past post):

“The teen pregnancy rate has dropped by a third since abstinence education was started,” he points out, “and the teen abortion rate has been cut in half.”

Seven days later, it isn’t working as thought and more of it needs to be taught:

“We have said to a whole generation, almost two generations now, of young people, ‘Just be careful and use a condom,’ and that’s the only advice we are giving them,” she adds, “and I think that’s so unfair and it’s so misleading for our young people because we’re downplaying the consequences of casual sex.”

Consistency is certainly not a principle that this “news” site  and writer Charlie Butts values.

Mar 16 2 comments
Anti-LGBT, Health, LGBT, Politics, Religion, Sexuality, United States

N.C. Christian Action league foaming at the mouth over proposed youth bills

The radically conservative Christian Action League continues to foam at the mouth, lying through their teeth in order to scare the jeepers out of their blind followers.

In a “news” piece on their website, the League claims that the North Carolina School Violence Prevention Act (a.k.a. “the anti-bullying bill”) will require schools to teach that homosexuality is normal:

The bill requires local school boards to amend their existing bullying policies to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression.” The measure would not only create a protected status in North Carolina’s public schools for homosexuality, bisexuality, cross dressing and other alternative sexual behaviors, but would also require schools to teach that these behaviors are normal and acceptable.

Although I’d certainly have no problem with such a bill, the cold, hard truth is none like that exists. The School Violence Prevention Act in no way mentions anything about teaching students about homosexuality or LGBT issues. Read the bill for yourself.

On the Healthy Youth Act, a bill that would implement comprehensive sex ed in schools, the Christian Action League claims, erroneously, that the bill would require students to learn about homosexuality. Why on earth are us queer folks always the punching bag for these blowhards?

It’s sad, really, that groups like the “Christian” Action League have to resort to lies in order to prove their case. I’m pretty sure that lying was one of those commandments from God Moses delivered to the people. Maybe the Christian Action League got an abridged version.

Mar 09 1 comments
Anti-LGBT, LGBT, Politics

Gay leader: NC rep’s don’t have anything better to do with their time?

Equality North Carolina Executive Director Ian Palmquist blasts N.C. state Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam for taking too much time to worry about marriage when there are so many other pressing issues on the table:

The 2009 legislative session has just begun and our state faces huge challenges: rising unemployment, a growing budget shortfall, crumbling infrastructure, and a broken mental health system, to name a few.

So what does NC House Republican Leader Paul Stam spend his time worrying about? Creating jobs? Repairing bridges? Helping those who’ve lost everything in the downturn?

Nope. He’s too busy making sure that my partner and I don’t have-and will never have-any rights or recognition in this state.

Yep, within the first hours of the session, Stam made clear that writing anti-gay discrimination into North Carolina’s constitution was a top priority for him this session.

He doesn’t have real ideas or solutions for dealing with the huge problems we’ve got, but he has a plan to “save” marriage. (He hasn’t managed to explain how letting more loving, committed couples participate in the institution of marriage will damage it in any way, but never mind that.)

What Stam and his cronies don’t like to talk about is that their proposal isn’t just about denying equal access to marriage for same-sex couples. It’s about denying absolutely any sort of recognition or protection for those couples.

No civil union. No domestic partnership. No joint health insurance.

Read the rest at NC Policy Watch.