Tag: Gay Politics

Christians Sue for the Right to Hate

Jon Ponder

If I were a Christian, I don’t know if I could stand the mud that Christ’s message is being dragged through:

There is a growing campaign among Christians to force public schools, state colleges and private workplaces to eliminate policies protecting gays and lesbians from harassment.

Ruth Malhotra went to court last month for the right to be intolerant.

Malhotra says her Christian faith compels her to speak out against homosexuality. But the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she’s a senior, bans speech that puts down others because of their sexual orientation.

Malhotra sees that as an unacceptable infringement on her right to religious expression. So she’s demanding that Georgia Tech revoke its tolerance policy.

With her lawsuit, the 22-year-old student joins a growing campaign to force public schools, state colleges and private workplaces to eliminate policies protecting gays and lesbians from harassment. The religious right aims to overturn a broad range of common tolerance programs: diversity training that promotes acceptance of gays and lesbians, speech codes that ban harsh words against homosexuality, anti-discrimination policies that require college clubs to open their membership to all.

The Rev. Rick Scarborough, a leading evangelical, frames the movement as the civil rights struggle of the 21st century. “Christians,” he said, “are going to have to take a stand for the right to be Christian.”

In that spirit, the Christian Legal Society, an association of judges and lawyers, has formed a national group to challenge tolerance policies in federal court. Several nonprofit law firms — backed by major ministries such as Focus on the Family and Campus Crusade for Christ — already take on such cases for free.

If you’re a Christian reading this, you’re probably thinking, “Well, these are extremist Christians. They’ve got nothing to do with me.

As an outsider looking in, I see them as part of your group that is besmirching you all. Fundamentalist Christians are making your religion synonymous with hatred, just as fundamentalist Muslims are making Islam synonymous with terror.

Moderate and liberal Muslims have been just as silent about the disgracing of Islam as moderate and liberal Christians have been silent on the degradation of Christ’s message of love, tolerance and avoiding judging the sins of others.

Christianity has a martyrdom ethos that is bred to bone from the birth — it was part of the training of 1st Century Christians to prepare for death in the Roman arenas. Today, 1900 years later, when an outside group tries to pressure a Christian group, it fulfills the Christian group’s need to be persecuted. The only way these modern-day Pharisees can be stopped is by saner voices from within their religion.

Something like 80 percent of Americans (250,000,000) claim to be Christians, but evangelicals only make up 10 percent of the country or 30,000,000. That’s about eight non-evangelicals to one.

Why the silence? If fundamentalists are so outnumbered by “real” Christians, why is it that we only hear from the taliban wing?

It boils down to this, as trite as it may sound: What would Jesus do?

Is Bush’s New Chief of Staff Gay?

Jon Ponder

Back when Bo Derek, the Republican actress, was single, she was seen on the arm of closeted gay House Republican David Dreier (above, left). Was she similarly a beard for the new White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten (above, right)?

“Live and let live,” you say? “Why does it matter who Bolten sleeps with?” It matters because, if it is true, he is a key player in the Republican smear machine that uses its power and vast fortune to trash the dignity and worthiness of people like himself — that incites fear and loathing among intolerant people in order to trick them into voting Republican even though they are voting against their own financial and security self-interests.

The idea of a gay person working inside the modern GOP is as heinous as the idea of a Jew collaborating with the Nazis, or of an African-American collaborating with the Klan — and it ought to be just as unthinkable and shameful.

That being said, I don’t know whether Josh Bolten is gay or not but as one wag put it:

“Being 45 and unmarried in itself is not evidence of being gay. Being Bo Derek’s date in itself is not evidence of being gay. Being into motorcycles bigtime in itself is not evidence of being gay. Being 45, unmarried, dating Bo Derek and being into motorcycles… bingo! We have a winner.”

Sorry, fellas, Bo is dating the actor John Corbett now, so you’ll have to find some other hot Republican Hollywood chick to squire around now.

If You’re Gay, BMW Wants Your Money. But Forget About Those Employee Benefits

Trish

It takes more than targeting ads to gays to make a company gay-friendly. Ad Age is reporting that gaywheels.com is calling BMW out for soliciting gay sales but failing to provide benefits for partners of gay employees.

In an article called, “What is the German Word for Hypocrisy?” Joe LaMuraglia says both BMW and publications like “Out” and “The Advocate” that accepted the ad money, are at fault.

Our goal is not to incite a boycott of BMW’s cars, but rather to arm you, our readers, with awareness of the company’s actions as well as of those of the media outlets that published the ad. Speaking of which, one would hope that the publishers of GLBT-owned magazines and web sites would have higher standards than to accept advertising from a major, multinational corporation whose policies discriminate against the very audience that those publications were created to serve.

According to Ad Age, BMW claimed that since it is headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, it is just following Garden State laws.

The site goes on to list companies which are — and which are not — gay-friendly.

Gay-friendly:
DaimlerChrysler’s Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz and Maybach
Ford MotorCo.’s Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Aston Martin and majority-controlled Mazda
Toyota Motor Sales USA’s Toyota, Lexus and Scion
General Motors Corp.’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer, Pontiac, Saab and Saturn
Volkswagen of America’s Audi, VW and Bentley
Subaru of America
Isuzu Motors America
Mitsubishi Motors North America

Non-gay-friendly:
American Honda Motor Co.’s Acura and Honda
BMW’s Mini and BMW
Hyundai Motor America and affiliate Kia Motor America
Nissan North America’s Nissan and Infiniti
American Suzuki Motor Corp.

Ohio Senate Candidate Backs Death Penalty for Gays

Jon Ponder

Pam writes:

Gee, what a sunny, subtle stumping campaign this will be in the Buckeye State! Self-described “Biblicist” Merrill Keiser, Jr. of Fremont, Ohio, will be running the Democratic primary against Rep. Sherrod Brown.

Keiser told a local television station that homosexuality should be a felony, punishable by death. “Just like we have laws against murder, we have laws against stealing, we have laws against taking drugs — we should have laws against immoral conduct,” Keiser said.

Panel: GAO Underestimated Cost of DoD’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy by Almost Half

Buck Banks

Queer accounting: A University of California commission whose members include a former Defense secretary has challenged the methodology used by the Government Accountability Office to calculate the cost of the Defense Department’s homosexual conduct policy, reports GovExec.com.

The UC-Santa Barbara commission accused GAO of underestimating the cost of replacing military service members discharged under the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. The widely criticized policy allows homosexuals to serve in the military so long as they do not disclose their sexual orientation and bars the military from asking.

The February 2005 GAO report found that the overall cost to recruit and train replacements for the 9,488 service members separated from fiscal 1994, the year the policy was implemented, through fiscal 2003, was $190.5 million. But the California commission reported that the actual cost was $363.8 million.

Aaron Belkin, chairman of the commission and an associate professor of political science at the University of California, called the figures used by GAO “loopy.” More specifically, they were too low and inconsistent with previous figures used, he said.

‘In assessing the cost of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, we shouldn’t shortchange the taxpayers or the brave service members who are directly affected by this failed policy.’

The 29-page report from the UC commission, which included former Defense Secretary William Perry, now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, six professors and five military experts, said that GAO relied on “unrealistically low estimates” provided by the service branches.

Using publicly available figures on the cost of basic training and initial skills training, the commission estimated the cost to train replacements at $252.4 million, $157.3 million more than the $95.1 million figure reported by GAO.

Not surprisingly, the GAO is standing by its numbers despite the fact that the commission’s cost estimate is nearly twice the GAO’s. What is even less surprising coming from a Bush administration official, is the tack taken by Derek Stewart, director of GAO’s Defense Capabilities and Management division. He downplays the cost of DADT as being a drop in the bucket of the overal defense budget.
[…]

Florida Republicans Up the Ante on Gay Marriage Ban

Trish

Having lost any claim to national defense (aka homeland security), fiscal responsibility, and limited government as core Republican values, Florida GOoPers are still hanging on to brand identity in one area: homophobia.

By many accounts the marriage amendment stands to mobilize religious conservatives who would likely vote Republican. Lee…said that has nothing to do with his supporting the party financing the effort

After sinking $150,000 of the $193,000 raised to put a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage before the voters this year, the Florida Republican Party is digging deeper. They’re throwing another $150,000 at the failed initiative.

Determined to get a gay marriage ban on the ballot for Florida voters, the state Republican Party has doubled its initial investment in the effort to $300,000.

State Senate President Tom Lee said the additional $150,000 came after Florida4marriage.org, the political committee working to amend the state Constitution, failed to get enough signatures in time to qualify for the 2006 ballot…

“I supported it because I know it’s an important issue to Republicans. I know it may not be more important than tax cuts, it may not be more important than property rights or whatever, but it is an element, just as the sanctity of life issues are an element of importance of our party,” Lee said.

Since gay marriage is already outlawed by the Florida legislature, Democrats think that what Lee really means is, “This is the only way we can get anyone who would vote for us to the polls.”

“It looks like they’re afraid they can’t win on the issues that actually matter to Floridians – issues like port security, offshore drilling, prescription drugs and class size reduction,” [State Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski] said.

By many accounts the marriage amendment stands to mobilize religious conservatives who would likely vote Republican. Lee is running for chief financial officer but said that has nothing to do with his supporting the party financing the effort.

No doubt he’s just concerned that his own marriage will fall apart if gays are allowed to marry. Let’s see, there’s a law against it, now they want an amendment barring it…what next? A proclamation from the governor? Or how about statutes in all 67 Florida counties? Yeah, that’ll turn out the base!

Bigotry Has a Cost: $364 Million

Jon Ponder

What a waste: According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the government’s policy of not allowing gay patriots to serve their country cost taxpayers $363.8 million between 1994 and 2003.

The report, titled “Financial Analysis of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” was released through the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military (CSSMM) at UC-Santa Barbara. It recalculates the cost of the law banning openly lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members by examining the oversights of a 2005 government study which put the cost of the ban at $190.5 million.

We’ll second this from Pam:

How much body armor could the Pentagon buy with this?

UAE Bans ‘Brokeback Mountain’

Jon Ponder

Government Censor: “The film will upset the people of this culture and tradition.”

But it’s not a cartoon:

The United Arab Emirates has banned Ang Lee’s acclaimed film Brokeback Mountain because of Islamic laws against homosexuality, reports the Khaleej Times.

“Brokeback Mountain is a film which has nothing positive about it. The portrayal of the sexual behavior of its main character is offensive to Eastern societies, particularly Muslims and the Arabs, since Islam forbids abnormal behaviors like homosexuality,” said Abdullah Al Amiri, chairman of the Committee of Financial, Economical, and Industrial Affairs of Sharjah Consultative Council. “The film will upset the people of this culture and tradition.”

Members of the Sharjah Consultative Council thanked the ministry of information for what the Times called “its efforts in protecting the society from unethical and immoral practices.” A member of the ministry told the Times that its censorship department was making a great effort to protect the country from movies that will destroy the values and morals of society.

Jeb Criticizes Those Who Do the Same Thing as Him Only Better

Trish

Gimme a H! Gimme a Y! Gimme a P! Gimme an O! Gimme a… Aw never mind — just yell, “Jeb!”

Tallahassee Democrat:

”Democracy is imperiled a little bit when big donors that can’t get their way through the traditional way of creating policy through the Florida Legislature, (and) secret donors who do not disclose who they are, come into our state from out of state to advance in many cases a left-wing political agenda,” Bush told the crowd, ”to put things on the ballot that sound good but create long-term challenges for us.”

The executive director of Common Cause Florida…noted Bush had no problem with raising Florida cash for another state’s redistricting drive last year when California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came calling.

The governor’s remarks were directed in part at Common Cause, a government watchdog group that has gathered enough signatures to put a redistricting ballot question before voters this year.

Common Cause raised $2.6 million from its national membership to cover the $2.8 million spent to gather the 611,000 signatures needed. Bush has been critical of the group over the last week for not volunteering the names of its donors.

Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause Florida, said it is a nonpartisan effort and noted Bush had no problem with raising Florida cash for another state’s redistricting drive last year when California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came calling.

Jeb also didn’t mind the Republican Party of Florida contributing $150,000 of the $193,000 raised to put an anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot, despite the fact that the aforementioned Florida Legislature already passed a law years ago outlawing such unions. He also didn’t have a problem with the fact that the amendment’s sponsors passed the move off as a grassroots effort until the St. Petersburg Times exposed the funding last month.

Lack of Support Not Stopping Florida’s Anti-Gay Marriage Proposal

Trish

Supporters are claiming that a constitutional amendment to bar gay marriage in Florida — which is already banned by state law — is yet another victim of last year’s hurricanes. The amendment fell 155,000 signatures shy of the 611,000 needed to get on the ballot in 2006, despite a last-minute mobilization that included aircraft and a fleet of vehicles delivering petitions to the state capital.

The real purpose of the initiative was to turn out mouth-breathing voters of the type depicted in that scene from Young Frankenstein

Two other amendments were apparently unaffected by the storms, and will be up for a vote in the fall. One, opposed by Gov. Jeb Bush and Republican lawmakers, would create an independent panel to draw legislative districts. The other would ensure that money awarded to the state in lawsuits against cigarette makers is used to fund anti-smoking campaigns. Florida Times-Union:

“It just didn’t have the kind of financial support that these other ones do,” Bush said. “I think if it was on the ballot, it would pass by two- or three-to-one.”

The Republican Party of Florida put up $150,000 of the $193,000 raised for the anti-gay marriage ban, claiming it was needed to protect against those activist judges we hear so much about, who might take it upon themselves to overturn the law Florida already has. The real purpose of the initiative was to turn out mouth-breathing voters of the type depicted in that scene from Young Frankenstein, when the mob lofts torches and goes after the monster. Jeb is correct that they would likely vote “Hell Yes” in droves.

But lack of popular support isn’t stopping the Florida Catholic Conference, Florida Baptist Convention, and Florida4Marriage.Org, headed by a wingnut personal injury lawyer named John Stemberger in Orlando, from forging ahead. The signatures stay on file for four years, and Stemberger wants to use them to qualify for the 2008 election. He also wants to waste the state Supreme Court’s time reviewing an amendment that won’t even be on the ballot this year. Tallahassee Democrat

…the group still wants the Florida Supreme Court to hold the oral arguments, scheduled for Wednesday, on the language of the proposed amendment…But the court isn’t required to review them until the year they would actually appear on the ballot.

”We’re hopeful they’re going to hear the case and not cancel the hearing,” Stemberger said Thursday. ”If we’re going to get an adverse hearing, we’d rather get that sooner than later.”

Well I guess you would, John, since if they find problems with this idiotic, pandering, hateful enterprise you’ll have to start all over. And there are one or two problems with it.

The ACLU of Florida, along with other gay- and lesbian-rights groups, plan to argue that the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment is deceptive because it could also deny same-sex partners other domestic benefits.