Saturday, May 31, 2014
Today In Gay History...
My favorite Whitman quote:
"Either define the moment or the moment will define you!"
Apt words considering our times.
Florida: Gay Marriage Would 'Impose Significant Public Harm'
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a
Republican, argues in court documents that recognizing the legal
marriages of gay and lesbian couples would “impose significant
public harm.”
The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) is representing eight couples in a consolidated federal
lawsuit challenging the state's ban on recognizing the out-of-state
marriages of gay couples.
Lawmakers approved a law limiting
marriage to heterosexual couples nearly two decades ago. Voters in
2008 approved a constitutional amendment reinforcing the ban.
In asking the court to throw out the
lawsuit, Bondi's
office also argues that the state's ban has “a close, direct,
and rational relationship to society's legitimate interest in
increasing the likelihood that children will be born to and raised by
the mothers and fathers who produced them in stable and enduring
family units.”
Equality Florida, the state's largest
LGBT rights advocate, called on Bondi to “reconsider this stand in
this defining moment.”
“A defense of the indefensible only
squanders our state's resources and delays justice for hundreds of
thousands of Florida families,” the
group said.
Six cases challenging Florida's
marriage ban have been filed in state and federal courts since
January. Two – Breener et al v. Scott et al and Grimsley
and Albu v. Scott – were consolidated.
Ms. Bondi would know a lot about the sanctity of marriage, she's done it 3 times.
Just another case of a faux Christian trying to take the focus off their own iniquities and using the gay community as a scapegoat for their inability to have long term committed relationships. (wonder how having three daddies is working out for her children?)
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Orrin Hatch: Gay Marriage Is Going To Be Law Of The Land
Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, who opposes
gay marriage, has predicted nationwide victory for supporters of
marriage equality.
Hatch, a Republican and a member of the
Mormon Church, created a firestorm of criticism in 2010 when he
called on Republicans to emulate the tactics of gay rights activists
in supporting Democratic candidates.
“Gays and lesbians don't pay tithing,
their religion is politics,” Hatch said.
Last year, the 80-year-old Hatch said
if the Supreme Court rules in favor of allowing gay couples to marry,
“it opens a plethora of problems that the court will be forever
trying to decide.”
Still, he has endorsed civil unions for
gay couples.
Civil unions “could solve this
problem without undermining the very basis of marital law in our
country.”
On Wednesday, Hatch said the writing
was on the wall.
“Let's face it, anybody who does not
believe that gay marriage is going to be the law of the land just
hasn't been observing what's going on,” Hatch
said during an appearance on KSL Radio's Doug Wright Show.
“There is a question whether [the courts] should be able to tell
the states what they can or cannot do with something as important as
marriage. But the trend right now in the courts is to permit gay
marriage and anybody who doesn't admit that just isn't living in the
real world.”
My impression is this, as 2016 approaches and if the Dem's can gain seats in both the House and Senate, look for the Republican party to, in some fashion or other, say they are willing to *discuss* the possibility of civil unions for gay couples nationally. (with religious exemption laws in place for the haters)
Of course, it will be a complete lie, just meant to make them seem more palatable with voters while they remain completely anti-gay to keep their religious base.
Anthony Kennedy Sets Monday Deadline In Request To Stay Oregon Gay Marriage Order
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy
on Wednesday set a Monday deadline for litigants to file responses in
an attempt to stay a federal court's order striking down Oregon's ban
on gay marriage.
On Monday, May 19, U.S. District Judge
Michael McShane declared Oregon's 2004 voter-approved constitutional
amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples invalid.
The state, which sided with plaintiffs
in the case, immediately implemented McShane's order, making Oregon
the 18th state to allow gay couples to marry.
After being turned down by district and
appellate courts, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the
nation's most vociferous opponent of marriage equality, asked Justice
Kennedy, who has jurisdiction over Oregon, to stay McShane's ruling
so it may pursue a motion before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
in San Francisco to intervene in the case.
NOM argued in its appeal to Kennedy
that without the ban many of its members in Oregon “will suffer
particular harm,” including “a county clerk and several members
of the wedding industry who will suffer material harm if the ruling
is implemented.”
Kennedy, who may act on his own or
refer the matter to the full court, asked for responses to be filed
by 1PM Monday.
This case is particularly noteworthy because it's the second Supreme Court Justice to make a decision on something having to do with gay marriage.
As you may recall, Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a stay on gay marriages in Utah until the case can be determined by the 10th circuit court.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Bishop Harry Jackson Says Pastors Need To Preach That God Did Not Make Anyone Gay
Bishop Harry Jackson has urged pastors
to fight the “radical homosexual agenda.”
Speaking at the Family Research
Council's (FRC) Watchmen on the Walls conference, Jackson, a minister
at the Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland, said pastors
need to “lead the people” in fighting the “radical homosexual
agenda that is trying to take over the nation.”
Wearing a camouflage shirt and pants,
Jackson told the crowd that church leaders need “to bring a New
Testament apologetic on why homosexuality is not the will of God, why
God didn't make anyone that way, and why it's all right to speak out
and keep on speaking.”
“We're not just fighting a political
battle, but we're dealing with principles and powers and this present
darkness in the land,” he
added.
Jackson was a leader in speaking out
against marriage equality in Maryland and Washington, D.C., where gay
and lesbian couples won the right to marry legislatively. Voters in
Maryland later upheld the law approved by lawmakers.
First of all, let's just add, NOM pays this anti-gay fascist 20K a year to preach his hate.
Secondly, he just said Jesus is a liar, not exactly the place a so called Christian should want to find themselves.
See, Jesus did say something about homosexuals, he did so by using the terminology of the day...and just to torment those Christians who seem to like following this blog, just so they can try and set me straight (pun intended) I'm not telling you what he said, instead I'm gonna let you stew awhile over it.
Let's see if your smart enough to figure it out!
Study of gay dads' brains show activity akin to both parents'
In
the 20 mothers in the study, all primary caregivers, watching their
babies triggered heightened activity in the brain's emotion-processing
regions, particularly in a structure called the amygdala, which was five
times more active than at baseline.
"These are regions that respond
unconsciously to signs of an infants' needs, and that derive deep
emotional reward from seeing the baby," Feldman said.
For the 21 heterosexual fathers - who
were very involved in raising their baby but whose wives took the
parenting lead - watching their infant increased activation of cognitive
circuits, particularly a structure that interprets a baby's cries and
non-verbal cues. It is the region that knows which squirm means "I'm
about to scream" and which means "change me."
But studying the brain activity of gay fathers revealed an interesting pattern:
The 48 gay fathers raising children with
their husbands seemed to be both mom and dad, brain-wise. Their
emotional circuits were as active as those of mothers and the
interpretive circuits showed the same extra activity as that of
heterosexual fathers'.
More data showed that the more time a man spent as a primary
caregiver, the stronger the connection between the emotional and
cognitive structures of the brain. This was heightened in the gay
parents.Monday, May 26, 2014
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