Category Archives: news

Weekend Update

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I didn’t post as often as usual during November because of NaNoWriMo, and then I was immediately struggling with this year’s Ghost Story (since I read an original Christmas Ghost Story every year at our annual Holiday Party), so I haven’t been posting much other than Friday Links since October. And I’m not going to change that much with this post, which is going to be a few more links related to stories I’ve linked to in recent Friday links.

I’ve posted before about the Salvation Army’s claims that they aren’t a homophobic organization. Well: Here’s The Internal Document The Salvation Army Doesn’t Want You To See.

Technically, this ought to have been among Friday’s links, since the final episode of the Colbert Report was Thursday night, but I didn’t watch the episode until Friday, and I don’t know if the video of the finale was available until Friday afternoon, anyway: See Stephen Colbert’s Epic, Star-Studded Farewell Sing-Along.

Several of us who have been watching the Supreme Court’s response to the marriage equality cases wondered what would happen if a case in a Circuit covered by either Justice Thomas or Scalia came up. Contrary to tradition, the last several times that the full court has refused to grant a stay on a ruling against a same-sex marriage ban, the order has mentioned that Scalia and Thomas wanted to grant the stay. So, when a case came directly to one of them, we didn’t know if that Justice would grant a stay, or if they would refer the request to the full court. Friday afternoon we found out: SUPREME COURT DENIES STAY REQUEST IN FLORIDA GAY MARRIAGE CASE, MARRIAGE EQUALITY SET TO BEGIN JANUARY 5.

People are losing interest in donating to anti-gay causes: Bigotry doesn’t pay: North Carolina anti-gay group $15,000 in debt.

I linked earlier to stories about the Michigan House passing a “License to Discriminate” bill, and many feared the Republican-controlled Senate and Republican Governor would move the law forward. But: Michigan Legislature Ends Year Without the Senate Passing the Right to Discriminate Bill.

The “19 and Counting” family, have lended their show, their fame, their money, and their voices to various rallies and events for the repeal of a gay-rights law, have been claiming to be the victims of discrimination simply because gay people and friends and family of gay people object to their political activities that actually harm gay people. One family member went on an anti-gay radio show and: Audio: Josh Duggar defends anti-gay discrimination, invalidates own point.

How could they? How could we?

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levarburton_2014-Nov-24

I was raised by a racist jerk.

My dad is such a stereotype that people didn’t always believe me when I described him. To this day he regularly throws around the n-word, refers to the latino men who work on his crews as “wetbacks” and “spicks,” refers to any eastern asian-looking person as a “gook” or a “chink,” and so on. He will go on and on about all of the bad qualities he believes each of those groups share, if you let him. It is simply toxic to talk to him. The fact that he also speaks with a pronounced Oklahoma drawl, and that his conversation is peppered with words and phrases people associate with the south is just icing on the redneck cake.

My dad is the kind of racist that is almost too easy to spot. Guys like him make it very easy for the rest of us to pat ourselves on the backs and congratulate ourselves on being more enlightened. Because compared to him we clearly are.

But that doesn’t mean we aren’t racist… Continue reading How could they? How could we? →

A few brights lights among the gloom

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Things may not look so bright for Equality after the midterms, but it isn't all awful.
Things may not look so bright for Equality after the midterms, but it isn’t all awful.
I knew it was going to be bad news. More because of low turn-out and the demographic skewing that happens in those elections. But it wasn’t all bad news at the elections.

  • All six openly non-heterosexual members of Congress who were up for re-election have won their races. Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA), Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), Rep Mark Pocan (D-WI), Rep David Cicilline (D-RI), and Rep. Kysten Sinema (D-AZ) all retained their seats this week.
  • The Citizens of Dallas, Texas, overwhelmingly voted to amend the city charter to include an anti-discrimination clause which included both sexual orientation and gender identity.
  • The Duck Dynasty cousin (Zach Dasher) whose slogan running for Congress was, “My platform begins with God,” lost. It is important to not that he was running against an incumbent conservative Republican whose previous campaign was all about defending the sanctity of marriage (and lots of other anti-gay statements), because said incumbent was too liberal. While Dasher has lost, we don’t yet know the winner. The Sanctity of Marriage guy has a run-off with a moderate Democrat in a few weeks.
  • Massachusetts has elected the first out lesbian state attorney general.
  • The anti-gay governor of Pennsylvania whose poor choice of words and even more suspect legal arguments I’ve written about before, Tom Corbett, was defeated by a candidate who has pledged to sign a comprehensive hate crime law if the legislature passes it.
  • Anti-gay crackpot (who is currently embroiled in a lawsuit about crimes against humanity for some of his anti-gay activities in Uganda), Scott Lively, failed to get even 1% of the vote in his bid for Massachusetts governor.

There were other bright spots here and there. Most of the local races I voted on went the way I wanted them to. There were other good candidates elected around the country. Despite the crowing of some of the anti-gay activists out there, there is little evidence of a change of heart of the electorate on equality issues. This election was more about who didn’t show up to vote rather than a change in the opinions of the majority.

And I’m not as bummed out as I was afraid I would be. Most of which I attribute to the fact that I started NaNoWriMo on midnight, Friday, and I written over 10,000 words already. So I’ve paid less attention to all the depressing news, rather than my usual level of obsessing over election stuff.

Why we can’t have nice things, part 2

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This ABC News chart sums it up.
This ABC News chart sums it up.
While all the vote-supressing Voter ID laws also take a big toll, the inability of progressives to get people to the polls in midterm elections is going to be a major problem for years to come. I’ve already seen some angry blog posts and tweets from young voters who feel that charts like this are blaming them–but pointedly admitting they didn’t vote, while claiming they didn’t because gerrymandering has rigged the game, therefore it isn’t really their fault.

Several of these angry responses were in direct reply to a post or comment about the Senate. I’m laughing and crying at these responses, because gerrymandering has nothing to do with the Senate. Senate races are statewide elections. No one gets to artificially carve out weirdly shaped voting districts for those races.

To be fair, there are still plenty of ways that the system is gamed. But not voting because some shady stuff continues to happen isn’t going to fix those problems. Just like the idiots who say to vote, but turn in a blank ballot as a protest aren’t going to fix the problem. The system doesn’t work that way. Blank votes simply aren’t counted.

The only way to fix the problem is to participate, not just in voting, but actually paying attention to what the candidates you can vote for (and against) are saying and doing. If you’re one of those people who claim it doesn’t matter because they’re all corrupt, that’s just proof that you’re an ignorant, lazy, irresponsible ass. And yes, I can and do blame you for that.

The last four years, with the Know-Nothing, Teabagistan-dominated House stopping just about any and all legislation has been pretty ugly. In some ways giving those same obstructionists slim control of the Senate isn’t going to change how little actually gets done. But it is going to increase the ugly and the stupid. Real people are going to continue dying needlessly because of cuts to the social safety net. Real people are going to continue to see their financial situations get worse and worse while the billionaires keep raking it in (talk about wealth re-distribution! The Republicans are all in favor of that, as long as it keeps flowing up).

It’s not going to be pretty.

Selection bias, confirmation bias, or…?

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Conservatives Converge Around Fox News as Main Source; No Single Source Dominates on the Left (Source: Pew Research Center)
Conservatives Converge Around Fox News as Main Source; No Single Source Dominates on the Left (Source: Pew Research Center)
The news seems to have been dominated by a couple of themes this week. I could easily write a whole series of blog posts extending my “Bullied Bullies” series into the double digits, what with The entire Idaho wedding chapel story is a lie, and NC officials refuse to marry gay couples, claim religious oppression, and Gamergate Goons Can Scream All They Want, But They Can’t Stop Progress, and No, The City of Houston Isn’t Bullying Anti-Gay Pastors – This Is Basic Lawyering. I could go on and on.

But I don’t want to only write about people being clueless and/or bigoted all the time. I have to remind myself that one reason I see so many stories clustered around particular topics is because I tend to read news sites that report on topics of interest to me, and as an out gay man who was raised Southern Baptist, studied math and science at university, and have always been a sci fi/fantasy nerd, I gravitate toward news sites that cover social justice, science, technology, and nerd culture. So I’m going to see a lot of stories like Gamer Gate, or the propaganda efforts of anti-gay folks, and so on.

It’s not just which news sites I choose to go to, of course. If some sites are covering a story, similar sites will pick it up, even if only to summarize and point to the original piece. Seeing these stories, and seeing people respond to them, make the news gatherers, reporters, and editors look for similar events in subsequent news cycles.

Sometimes, of course, there really are a lot of things happening all related to a particular topic. The recent Appeals Courts’ rulings about marriage equality, and the Supreme Court’s decision to let them stand, has put a lot of states that no one expected to be dealing with marriage equality so soon into the crosshairs. This makes people who oppose same sex couples having the right to marry feel even more threatened. And because each circuit court covers a bunch of states, these people who feel threatened are scattered over a wide geographical area. You have a lot of people in a lot of places all reacting to a perceived threat, you’re going to have a lot of incidents that will rise to some level of newsworthy. A whole lot.

And of course, I’m not the only person who is reading selective news. The folks who feel exactly the opposite as I do about some of these topics are reading their favorite sites. Or should I say their favorite site, singular (Conservatives Converge Around Fox News as Main Source; No Single Source Dominates on the Left)? Where they find the same stories being couched in a very different light, fanning those flames of fear.

I had about four half-written pieces that I could have finished to post yesterday, but they were all about the sorts of stories I link to up in the first paragraph. One of my goals for the year has been to reduce the outrage, and focusing so much attention on those stories does not help me with that goal. The problem is, the only other topic I had nearly ready to publish was about people who look down on other people because of the kinds of books they like to read. Which had a very same-y feel to it.

Which all led me to here, contemplating how everything I’m writing about (other than my novel) is processing exactly the feelings I don’t want to be spending so much time on. I suppose it could be argued by writing them down, I have gotten some of it out of my system, but I’m not sure that publishing them all would further the purpose.

So I’m going to try to concentrate my attention for the next few days on my fiction writing. I’m overdue for writing about the craft of writing, any way.

Bullied bullies, part 4

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cartoonThis is last week’s news, but still worth commenting on: Mark Driscoll resigns from Mars Hill Church. Mars Hill is a megachurch (consisting of 15 branch churches, several in the Seattle area, both others in other states) that preaches a slightly modernized/pseudo-hip version of the usual misogynist/homophobic fundamentalism. And the lead paster/senior pastor/whatever he called himself was a particularly douche-y man named Mark Driscoll. Continue reading Bullied bullies, part 4 →

Weekend update: Can’t keep up

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The people updating this maps can't keep up!
The people updating these marriage equality maps can’t keep up! (Click to embiggen)
The marriage equality court rulings, whether states are deciding not to appeal or whether the Supreme Court refuses the appeal, just keep rolling forward. The people trying to maintain graphics that show which states have equality, which don’t, where rulings are under appeal, and so forth have been having to update them at least once a day all week. Again. It’s more than a little breathtaking!

One that is particularly exciting for me is Arizona. I have some friends who live there, two of whom happen to be a lesbian couple who, after being together more than a decade, had gotten legally married over in California during the brief period it was legal before Proposition 8 was passed (which, of course, was later struck down and now California is a marriage equality state, once more). But Kathy and Barb are Arizona citizens, and it has been galling (not to mention sometimes costly {don’t ask about how hard it is for a couple whose relationship is not legally recognized to get a clear house deed in both their names once the mortgage is paid off}). Anyway, on Friday Arizona came into the 21st Century, recognizing the rights of same sex couples to marry, which means their California marriage license is recognized. And the icing on the cake? Friday was the sixth anniversary of their California wedding! Talk about an awesome anniversary present! Congratulations, Kats and Barb, and here’s wishing you many more happy years together!

It’s not all good news regarding equality, Media Matters explains How Conservative Media Make It Harder For Schools To Protect Transgender Youth.

And look at this, Report about racial profiling for traffic stops in Ferguson, MO, reveals that 25% of the city’s revenue come for court fees and fines. Am I supposed to be surprised?

In case you missed it, since earlier this week most of the media failed to report that the seemingly slightly more tolerant statements about homosexuality were reversed, Catholic Bishops Scrap Welcome To Gays.

But in moderately better news, Catholic Cardinal who said it is evil to introduce children to their gay relatives ousted.

It’s the footnotes that bring it home

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From the unanimous ruling of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declaring same-sex marriage bans in Nevada and Idaho unconstitutional.
From the unanimous ruling of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declaring same-sex marriage bans in Nevada and Idaho unconstitutional.
One day after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review five other appeals, the 9th Circuit released its unanimous ruling concerning the same-sex marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada. There are several wonderful passages, and more than one amusing footnote from the judges.

The best one is footnote 12, concerning the closing arguments from the Governor of Idaho:

He also states, in conclusory fashion, that allowing same-sex marriage will lead opposite-sex couples to abuse alcohol and drugs, engage in extramarital affairs, take on demanding work schedules, and participate in time-consuming hobbies. We seriously doubt that allowing committed same-sex couples to settle down in legally recognized marriages will drive opposite-sex couples to sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll.

You can read the entire ruling here.

Traditional marriage?

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BzSbHKKIAAAEyiyYesterday, the Supreme Court officially declined to review any of the Marriage Equality cases that had been appealed to them thus far. Declining to review means that the ruling by each appeals court is, essentially, upheld. The immediate effect was the stays against those rulings were lifted, and in five more states Marriage Equality now is the law of the land. The secondary effect is that any other states covered by one of the five Circuit Courts whose rulings were upheld will almost certainly become marriage equality states as soon as an appeal gets to the circuit. That means very soon the number of states that have marriage equality will be 30. In fact, officials in Colorado, knowing that the circuit court they are currently appealing to has already ruled against a nearly identical ban in a neighboring state, have decided to drop the appeal, and have told county clerks to start issuing marriage licenses.

Now, there are several other cases that have yet to be ruled on by any circuit court, so those last 20 states may take a while.

Governors of at least two of the states who lost Monday are not taking it gracefully. Most hilarious of these is Mary Fallin, governor of Oklahoma. Fallin’s righteous indignation is so funny because Fallin is a divorced adulterer. Continue reading Traditional marriage? →

Who’s the devil, actually?

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I had planned to post on several other topics completely unrelated to Pastor Manning and his fellow purveyors of hatred, but then this:

Woman beheaded in Oklahoma attack was grandmother who had just lost her home in tornado as it emerges Muslim attacker was let out of jail early.

Colleen Hufford was a wife, mother, and grandmother who is described by her neighbors and co-workers as quick to smile. Her husband (the man she has been straight-married to for 25 years) was parked outside her place of work waiting to take her home, as he did every day, when she was murdered by a co-worker who appeared intent on a massive killing spree.

Horrible news, right?

But not horrible enough. Pastor Manning has weighed in. In a video rant (posted on his Youtube channel) that is at the same time disgusting and yet somehow mesmerizing in its sheer stupidity, Manning claims that the killer murdered that Oklahoma grandmother because that Oklahoma grandmother was a Sodomite. The killer felt compelled to murder her because she was a lesbian, Pastor Manning explains, which is exactly what lesbians deserve.

Except, of course, that she was married to a man, was a member of Southgate Baptist Church in Moore, Oklahoma (a church that is very active in anti-abortion activities), et cetera, et cetera.

I have no idea why Manning has decided that this woman was lesbian. Other than, of course, because he’s totally obsessed with gay people and seems to have a pathological need to blame anything bad that happens in this country on us.