JMG reader Patrick writes: "I just happened across the old Protect Marriage Illinois website, (the one set up by the Illinois Family Institute a few years back when they unsuccessfully tried to get a marriage referendum on the ballot), and after years of inactivity, it's currently displaying a message stating that a 'Citizen Petitions to Protect Marriage in Illinois' is coming soon, with the Americans for Truth email as a contact."
A fun diversion while it lasted, yes? No reaction yet on the cobra's Twitter account.
Florida's 2012 GOP presidential primary is scheduled for Jan. 31. Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina are the only states under the RNC rules that are allowed to hold a presidential caucus or primary before March 1. The Republican National Committee is not budging. "The convention will be in Tampa," said RNC spokesman Sean Spicer. "At the same time, we will enforce the rules agreed to by all states with respect to the primary and caucus calendar." In a letter to RNC members today, South Carolina GOP Chairwoman Karen Floyd said Florida's Republican-led Legislature is "thumbing its nose at the RNC" by refusing to change a 2007 law that states Florida must hold their presidential primary on the last Tuesday in January.
On Sunday, 32 year old Valentina Hernandez (right) and her 23 year old girlfriend were enjoying a romantic walk down the streets of the historic Casco Antigüo colonial district of Panama City when she stopped to give her girlfriend a kiss. Hernandez, a psychologist by profession, reached out to Panamanian newspaper Prensa and shared details of what followed. Hernandez says that a member of Panama's presidential guard who had seen them kiss approached them and accused them of improper behavior. When Hernandez asked him to explain clearly which law they had violated, the guard grew exasperated and called for reinforcement. She says that ten other members of the Institutional Protective Service (S.P.I.) quickly showed up and took her ID and cell phone as they whisked the couple to the local police precinct. Hernandez says that, once they reached the precinct, she was given an intrusive body check by a policewoman. "I felt they touched me everywhere," she said, "They rubbed their hands on my genitals, it was disgusting, my girlfriend was asked to take her pants off." Hernandez says that they were both held behind bars for hours until the authorities asked her to sign a three-page document which they did not allow her to read completely but in which she was told she would free the authorities of any responsibility for their detention. "I signed," she said, "because I did not want to spend a night in a jail cell."
Colorado Catholics and others in a coalition opposed to a civil unions bill will gather on the state capitol’s eastern steps on March 31 for a noontime prayer vigil. Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley of Denver has invited others to join him at the event. "The domestic Church (founded on marriage between one man and one woman) is the very basis of society and an image of the Triune God," he said. He asked those who cannot make the vigil to "please join in prayer where ever you are for this most important issue." Catholic laity, seminarians and a contingent from the Colorado Springs-based evangelical Christian ministry Focus on the Family will be among the attendees.(Via -Dan Savage)
Yesterday Delaware's proposed civil unions bill advanced out of a state Senate committee after a boisterous debate featuring the usual anti-gay bigots. The Rev. Rick Hensley, pastor of Grace and Truth Community Church in Felton said he was raised by a single mother who lived a "homosexual lifestyle." But she left that lifestyle, he said, and so did her partner. That proves such orientations are a choice, not innate, he said. "They are wonderful people, and I don't have anything bad to say about them," Hensley said. "I love them. But the lie we are talking about is that this is something innate, unchangeable. ... Freedom to pursue sexual orientation does not necessitate fundamentally redefining marriage in our society." "If you do that, you run a perilous path. And this is a step toward same-sex marriage. We all in this room know that," Hensley said. The Rev. Dale Mast, pastor of Destiny Christian Church of Dover, said he had a dear friend who was gay, whom he counseled and stood beside, who got AIDS and "went on a sexual rampage out of his anger." Mast said he fears what would come next if Delaware adopted civil unions -- heterosexual unions with 14-year-old girls? He said pastors in Southeast Asia have told him of grandfathers taking their granddaughters to hotel rooms."I encourage you not to pass this," he said. "What else will come?"One former Delaware state Senator said he'd been personally sent to testify against the bill by Jesus Christ, who is apparently worried about having to send all of Delaware to hell.
Presumably PFOX head Quinlan's "testimony" won't include mention of his ex-wife, who dumped his totally gay ass four years ago after they'd paraded themselves on Christian networks as models of reformed homosexuals.
The Catholic League is pissed at Macy's for the above display window promoting Showtime's upcoming series, The Borgias, which was "written by an atheist who hates the Catholic Church." Bill Donohue: "Why Macy's would want to pick a fight with Catholics during the Lenten season is not known, but that it has is certain." Wikipedia's entry on the Borgia family, one of whom became Pope, notes: "They have been accused of many different crimes, including adultery, simony, theft, rape, bribery, incest, and murder." Which is the real reason Donohue hates seeing the series promoted.
A day after TPM posted the video we obtained of Duffy talking about his salary at a Polk County town hall meeting earlier this year, the Polk County GOP contacted the video provider we used to host the video, Blip.tv, and demanded the video be taken down. The tape caused a stir for Duffy, a first-term conservative best known for his past as a reality TV show star on MTV's The Real World. Democrats flagged the comments about his taxpayer-funded salary (which is nearly three times the median income in Wisconsin) and criticisms began to flow Duffy's way.Duffy, who has six kids, was endorsed for office by the Wisconsin hate group that pushed for a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Equality Florida tips us to a new campaign in which legally married gay couples will "refuse to lie" and will therefore file joint tax returns. Each year the federal government demands that thousands of married couples lie. The federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) not only denies legally married gay couples the benefits of heterosexual marriage, but we are also told to disavow our spouses and file our taxes as "single." The Federal Government must stop requiring legally married gay couples to deny the existence of our families and hide our marriages. It is dehumanizing and it is wrong. Across the country, legally married gay couples are taking a stand. We are refusing to lie about the fact that we are married.Refuse To Lie organizers warn: "Taking this principled stand is not without risk and each person doing so needs to carefully consider those risks before deciding if it is a stand you are willing to take." Facebook page here.
Surveillance video has been released of this weekend's gay bashing of Damian Furtch, 26, on a West Village street. GLAAD has been advising Furtch, who eloquently spoke out against the attack on local news channels last night. Furtch to GLAAD: "The attack against me is part of the larger issue of violence against gay and transgender people in New York City. While I am grateful for the opportunity to share my story, I hope to shed light on the larger issue of violence against my community. This has to stop. Under no circumstance should a person be attacked for their sexual orientation." Openly gay NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, in whose district the attack occurred, spent time yesterday handing out flyers near the crime scene. No suspects have yet been apprehended.
"A lot of the so called birthers, these are great people, these are really great American people. These are hard working, unbelievable, salt of the earth people. I'm proud to be, I mean I'm very proud of it. I don't like the term 'birther.' I think it is a demeaning term to the people that believe that he should have a birth certificate, that some people believe he was not born in this country. And when people ask me that question I just can't be sure because nobody knows. I have a birth certificate. People have birth certificates. He doesn't have a birth certificate. He may have one but there is something on that birth certificate — maybe religion, maybe it says he's a Muslim, I don't know. Maybe he doesn't want that. Or, he may not have one." - Donald Trump, on his new role as birther spokesman.
Today the Washington state Senate voted 28-19 to recognize all legal partnerships (marriages, civil unions, etc) from other jurisdictions. The state House approved the bill last month. “This bill is about making sure that people who love one another - and that love and friendship respected and honored in another state or another country - when they come here they have the same opportunity,†Sen. Kevin Ranker, D- San Juan Island, said on the Senate floor. Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, cautioned lawmakers against passing the bill because he argued it would subject the Legislature to laws that other state legislatures pass.The bill now goes to Gov. Chris Gregoire, who has promised to sign it.
Today Liberty Counsel spokesdouche Matt Barber claims to Porno Pete that he's received death threats since his Monday announcement that gay kids kill themselves because they intuitively know they are immoral. And that doesn't bother Barber, because he knows that gays are really just mad at God. You know, scripture says ‘woe to those who call evil good and good evil.’ When homosexual activists and other ‘progressives’ in the pro-sin movement are exposed to biblical truth, their reaction is invariably visceral and loud. There’s ‘nothing new under the sun.’ This ‘kill the messenger’ strategy is age-old and knee-jerk. These folks, as a matter of course, call evil good and good evil. Of course their gripe isn’t with me. I’m nothing. I’m nobody. Their problem is with their Creator, the natural order and the fallen state of mankind. They’re just lost. I merely repeated what God’s objective truth about sexual sin has always held: That heterosexual fornication, to include adultery, is sin and that homosexual behavior is always immoral and unnatural. Scripture is unequivocal on these points throughout both the Old and New Testaments. So, essentially I said nothing new. As you know I’ve never been one to mince words or sugarcoat things. That’s how God hardwired me. I also shared my opinion that many of those caught-up in the homosexual lifestyle intuitively know that such conduct is sin – that it’s both immoral and unnatural behavior. Scripture warns that ‘the wages of sin is death.’ Homosexual behavior is demonstrably destructive physically, emotionally and spiritually.UNRELATED: Both Barber and Porno Pete have complained about the above "trick photo" I regularly use on Barber-related posts, claiming that Barber's fey pose was created with "special camera tricks." Seriously.
The U.S. Census has ranked the fastest growing cities whose metro populations exceed one million. My exploding hometown of Orlando ranks at sixth fastest-growing with 2.1M residents. When my family moved there in 1971, the population was around 60,000. The day after we arrived, Walt Disney World opened.
"The site has accomplished much in its seven years. Congressmen and Senators who were first reported on here are no longer in office. Political operatives who worked against us are now on our team. The mainstream media has been educated and it’s no longer considered off-limits to report on the hypocrisy of closeted, anti-gay politicians. (Outlets like the Philadelphia Inquirer and Superstaion WGN now take BlogActive reporting as a primary source — times sure have changed.) What a wild ride it has been. Now it’s time to close a chapter on the site and to move in a new direction. I will no longer be blogging at BlogActive." - Outing kingpin Mike Rogers, announcing the end of the site that terrorized political closet cases since 2004.
This legislation, sponsored by Speaker John Boehner, would restore and expand the school voucher program for low-income children in the District of Columbia. “Congress has an opportunity to empower parents and dramatically improve educational opportunities for low-income children in DC by passing this important legislation,†said Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director of GOProud. “Speaker Boehner’s legislation builds on a successful education reform program that has yielded 91 percent student graduation rates for student participants,†continued LaSalvia. “Unfortunately, President Barack Obama is prioritizing loyalty to national teachers unions over the children and parents of DC by strongly opposing the District’s voucher program.â€What the proposed legislation would do, actually, aside from providing a huge financial boon to anti-gay Christian institutions, is further erode the available funding for public schools who would then see diminished enrollment. That's a typically GOProud "fuck the poor" strategy. GOProud president Jimmy LaSalvia: "Liberal opponents of school choice shouldn’t dishonestly use 'gay rights' as a weapon to destroy a program that improves education for low-income children in D.C." Note the Christianist scare quotes around "gay rights." Somebody's trying to quisle their way back into CPAC.
While Tea Party Republicans are claiming to take the high ground on government spending, they vote to throw millions of dollars at reviving a program that the Department of Education has shown is ineffective. After studying the program for four years, the Department found that use of a voucher had no statistically significant impact on overall student achievement in math or reading. The results were the same when the Department looked only at students who had applied from schools in need of improvement. As the Obama Administration stated in opposing the bill: "The Federal Government should focus its attention and available resources on improving the quality of public schools for all students. Private school vouchers are not an effective way to improve student achievement." So if the program doesn't educate kids effectively, what exactly does it do?
For one thing, it helps religious schools stay open. This voucher program has been in existence since 2003, and more than three fourths of the students in it have used these government funds for private religious schools. While Congress is slashing government spending on public education in communities across the country, the House decided to throw a few million dollars to keep religious schools afloat. This raises significant First Amendment concerns.
A new campaign from the Men's Sexual Health Project:With the kind support of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, M*SHP will be unveiling a program to provide emergency HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in a streamlined and community-appropriate way. PEP has been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for high risk sexual exposures since 2006, but very few men in NYC are aware of what PEP is or how to get it. PEP is using HIV medications after a potential exposure to prevent HIV infection. Study after study has demonstrated that PEP works, but if people are unaware of the intervention (or it is hard to get), PEP doesn’t really have a chance to make an impact. Time is of the essence. PEP has to be started within 36 hrs to have maximal effect and continued for 28 days after exposure. Lack of knowledge and medical barriers (like long, unpleasant ER visits, financial concerns, etc) makes PEP nearly inaccessible. M*SHP will introduce its new program dubbed “M*SHP minus 36:00†to provide instant, free access to PEP drugs and connection to follow up services and care.Learn more at the above link or on their Facebook page.
"It’s unbelievable (literally) the rhetoric coming from President Obama today. This is coming from he who is manipulating the U.S. energy supply. President Obama is once again giving lip service to a 'new energy proposal'; but let’s remember the last time he trotted out a 'new energy proposal' – nearly a year ago to the day. The main difference is today we have $4 a gallon gas in some places in the country. This is no accident. This administration is not a passive observer to the trends that have inflated oil prices to dangerous levels. His war on domestic oil and gas exploration and production has caused us pain at the pump, endangered our already sluggish economic recovery, and threatened our national security." - Sarah Palin, noting on her Facebook page that Obama has been in office for "nearly three years." If you count 26 months as three years, that is.
Women24 reports from South Africa:We’ve heard of blind dates – but the thought of marrying someone the first time you get hitched to them is a little crazy, isn’t it? As part of a reality wedding show, Lloyd Kandlin and Shane Everts came face to face for the first time on their wedding day. The couple got hitched on Saturday, 26 March, in a stylish ceremony worth R1.4 million. Lloyd Kandin was chosen as the first groom and had to decide between 5 bachelors who he has never met but only spoke to on radio. Under the pseudonym Lekker Larry, Lloyd proposed to proposed to Shane Everts (Hastige Hendrik) at the Grand Daddy Hotel – each of them were wearing masks.At least there wasn't a rose ceremony.
