This US stance isn’t overtly anti-gay. They aren’t saying, “Gays- we don’t want you.” but they are saying that the only “good gay” from a marketing perspective, is an invisible one. We are happy to take your money and use you to promote our image across the globe, but we are going to claim that Christian values are more important than you.
The right to fully recognized civil marriage stands as the single most significant symbol of the way gays and lesbians are treated as second class citizens. Every way that this is articulated helps move all LGBT issues forward by focusing the attention on that central question: does the majority of voters have a right to restrict any other group of people to second class and unequal status?
“You and the radical homosexual community want to harass supporters of REAL marriage,†Steve Scheffler wrote in an e-mail to Fred Karger, a longtime civil rights advocate in California who is gay and has announced he is running for president. “. . . I will work overtime to help ensure that your political aspirations are aborted right here in Iowa.†via Iowa GOP committeeman to gay candidate: I’ll sink you | Des Moines Register Staff[Read More…]
Note: This is one of many Western PA reps that voted against the DADT repeal. I will be updating this post to list all of them. This is from Get Equal PA, a group calling for non-violent civil disobedience direct action to promote LGBT activism. If you follow mu blog, you already know that face-to-face meetings or personal letters (not emails) sent to legislators is the typoe of action I most often support. I like[Read More…]
I try, sometimes more successfully than others, to raise a different perspective and ask questions others aren’t asking, and writing over the past few months has shown me over and over again, how that is both working, as well as how much more I can do to be clear with what I’m saying and through provocative posts prompt meaningful thinking and exchange.
I’m especially touched by the wording here, as it suggests a Buddhist mind set. Here, we are talking about the Pittsburgh Pride walk instead of a Pride march. A walking meditation is a part of many Buddhist’s daily practice, and in this way brings their practice to Pride as well as takes Pride back into a daily practice. Walking, accurately describes the practical activity too, and suggests taking a slower pace, and using that time to be very present in the action of being a part of the whole experience.
The repeal does not allow openly gay and lesbians to serve their country. The repeal simply returns the law to what it was before DADT.
But my position is that one person, or even a group of people within the LGBT community are not even remotely responsible for “reversing the positive effects.” There are far too many far-right anti-gay haters out there who are quite capable of doing that no matter who is deemed as spokesperson.
Is there a possibility that suppressing a person’s naturally occurring sexuality enables them to be more successful? Maybe so. Most interesting to me about this story: the anti-gay folks have always used Forster’s life and other examples to show why being gay is so horrible. When in reality, what his story says is somewhat the opposite. Prior to his acceptance of his sexuality there was an abundance of energy that grew from the tension of[Read More…]
I was at the training and sign up session for Pride volunteers last night, and was really blown away! While I have been at almost every Pride since I moved back to Pittsburgh in 1987, it was the first year I have volunteered. What an amazing mix of people of different ages, races, and genders! I met a women named Jill from Greensburg who has come to Pittsburgh specifically to help with Pride. That may[Read More…]