In which NOM's strategy fails

Via the Washington Post

Essentially, non-whites are more likely to support marriage equality. It dispels the myth that non-white community - particularly African Americans - are more homophobic and less likely to support LGBT equality. It's a really stupid myth if you think about it. Since the African American community is only about 14-16% of the population, there is no way they are responsible for the rash of anti-LGBT laws. The culprit should be more obvious - religious conservatives regardless of race. But I guess the bigger in your face is given to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), whose document reveal that they maliciously try to control African American and Latin American identity in order to turn them against LGBT people (and completely ignoring the existence of queer people of color).

He's thinking what many liberals are thinking

Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the world's most famous Obama poster, says he has given up on the president's ability to make progressive change. He's not the only one, as many liberals have harshly criticized president Obama's policy of bending to the design of the Republican. PZ Myers have noted that Obama is moving too slowly for us.

Obama position how has always been that of the Democratic party. In order to maintain voters, the Democratic party allows the GOP to do whatever they want, which ironically cause them to lose voters.

Two more dead by bullying

FoF, FRC, and NOM must be proud since they are the forces behind stopping anti-bullying laws aimed at protecting minors. They say that these laws promote the "gay agenda" to children. What they really want is for the right to torment and harass gay and social outcast children as much as they want. This way they can coerce children to follow their religious ideals of the "norm". It's working as bullying of gay teens has been on the rise. Now they have two more bodies to show for their efforts. Bigots must be proud.

Today

9-11 (okay not exactly but I already hit the submit button)

Hiroshi Sugimoto (b. 1948)

World Trade Center, 1997

Gelatin silver print; 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.)

Let us remember the fallen. Let us also remember the price of fanaticism. Finally, let us remember who we are: A nation built on the struggle to accept diversity.

DADT ruled unconstitutional

Oh look, those GOProud losers are actually good for something for once. A judge has ruled that Don't Ask Don't Tell violates the 1st Amendment.

EDIT: Okay not GOProud but Log Cabin. Still asinine in my eyes. Apparently GOProud doesn't agree with using the judicial process.

Ethnography

This editions of Ethnography, I'm going to focus on the negotiation of group identity.

First let's start off with a Korean dance called Buchaechum (부채춤). Buchaechum has become very synonymous with various Korean celebrations ranging from Buddha's birthday to simple Church days. Buchaechum is a kinda of iconic of Korean culture (esepecially in it's design, make-up, and hanbok), so it is use to represent Korea in a universal way.

Next is Jeruselam Pride. Pride has always been been representing the LGBT culture in the most fabulous fasion possible through the body of the participants, the colors, and the music. But for Jeruselam's Pride, there is an added emphasis on the role of the secular Jewish community in promoting LGBT people as part of their own identity.

Food is always a way to declare one's ethnic identity, and therefore ethnic enclaves will have their food stuff served and readily availiable. Here is a sample of some of the food one can find in Little Phnom Penh in Long Beach, California. Long Beach is one of the biggest Khmer-American community.

The Cahuilla, like many other Native American tribes, seek to find a lost identity by riviving old arts and costoms.

More People are Becoming Tolerant of Gay Marriages

As Towleroad reports:


















Every state, except Utah, has shown an increase in their toleration of gay marriage. Of course that doesn't mean that everyone is going to vote for it. As it was for the Prop 8 elections, many people feel no need to vote on equal marriage because they do not see how it directly effect them. We need to show to the general public that gay marriage isn't a threat to family, that it actually benefit more than just gay people, and that it's a civil rights cause.

Get Married and Be Happy!

The stay on prop 8 has been lifted. Don't worry haters, you can whine and lament about it. You can hate us still. Just you can't dictate our rights. Why? Well how would you feel if a majority took away your rights? See? I say let the wedding bells ring. Lets throw away the idea that marriage is for the sole benefit of a patriarchal society and bring out the idea of marriage being a social union between two consensual adults. (I know, I know, bigots don't give a rat's ass about consent.)

Prop 8 Overturned!

This is a great moment for California. Prop 8 has been ruled to have violated the 14th Amendment! The same Amendment that Republicans hate so much. The judge put the decision on stay though so no new marriage can be conducted just yet. They will take this to the Supreme Court because bigots can never be satisfied with equal rights. It's interesting of course because the entire opposition was not based on anything secular: It's based on religious ideals of what marriage should be. But sorry, in this day and age secularism need to rule, unless you want us to be Iran.

Quick News

Another endangered Irrawaddy dolphin dies in a fishing net in the Mekong. Four such dolphins have died, as the the global population of river dolphins continue to decline.

Woman dies due to unsafe abortion in Camobodia. The problem of course is the lack of access to safe abortion and general medical care for many Cambodians. This is worsen by the lack of health education. Cambodian laws state that only license medical officials can perform abortion.

Teabagger fails. In an attempt to show their diversity, a teabagger rally ends up being overwhelmingly white and straight. The very few gay teabaggers there are, of course, idiots.

Fires in Russia.

Like American university graduates, Japanese university graduates are expected to face a small job market.

UNESCO to add Bikini Atoll as a heritage site. Bikini was used as a nuclear bomb test site by the United States during the Cold War. The natives of the island were relocated to another island where they suffered from starvation due to poor conditions there.

Discrimination Against Transgendered People

Erin Vaught was refused treatment, ridiculed, and dehumanized at the Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, Indiana because she is transgender, the AP reports:

"Vaught said when she, her wife and son went to the ER on July 18, she was entered into the hospital computer system as male despite an ID that stated she was female. 'I pointed out that my ID says female,' Vaught said. 'There were two ladies there, and one of them snickered a little bit and covered her mouth. The other got a very annoyed look on her face.' When she went to the exa- room, 3he was met with stares and insults and was referred to as a 'he-she,' an 'it,' and a 'transvestite.' Vaught said she was kept waiting for two hours without any treatment before a doctor saw her and said she couldn't treat her because of her transgender condition. 'I was confused,' Vaught said. 'I told them I didn't know my condition, that's why I was there. She said 'No, the transvestite thing.' She said I couldn't see a doctor until I came back with test orders from my doctor in Indy.' Benge said such reactions are not uncommon. But Vaught and her supporters wrote about her experience on the hospital's Facebook page, attracting the attention of advocacy groups including the Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance and Indiana Equality."

The transgender community is still in dire need of support and acceptance from the public.

Racist wants the 14th Amendment repealed

GOP Sen. Jon Kyl wants Congress to start proceedings to repeal the 14th Amendment so that the children of undocumented immigrants are not born as U.S. citizens.

Kyl told CBS' "Face the Nation" that he supports a call by fellow Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to introduce a new amendment to repeal the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Support is growing for this stunning reversal from Graham, who in 2007 drew the ire of Republicans when he lobbied for granting legal status to 12 million undocumented workers, and along with President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., led the failed immigration reform effort that would have given illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. The 14th Amendment was enacted in 1868 to ensure that states would not deny citizenship to former slaves. It reads, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

There you have it. The GOP and their ilks are just a another racist group. They want the Latino community to have not rights or amnesty (yet these are the same fuckers who will let German have amnesty because they want to teach creationism to their kids.) They hate the hate the Latino community because they are different, they speak another language, and they have differing social ideals. Remember that these are the people would have supported The Immigration Act of 1924 based on our culture and our skin color. I've always found it amazing that even with the GOP's hate of the Latino community, they still have some Latino supporters.

Idiot of the Day

Phyllis Schlafly, speaking in Michigan:

"Do you know what the second-biggest demographic group that voted for Obama --
obviously the blacks were the biggest demographic group. But do you all know
what was the second-biggest?" she asked the crowd attending the fund-raiser in
Troy. "Unmarried women, 70% of unmarried women, voted for Obama, and this is
because when you kick your husband out, you've got to have big brother
government to be your provider."

Can't her god rapture her already? This is profoundly stupid on so many levels. There exist many family situations where women are the sole provider not the men. Women have been and will continue to be a powerful working forces, much to Schlafly's displeasure. Be not surprise by here, though. Schlafly can't compete against the patriarch of her beloved society. She bows down to the misogyny of the Church. Instead she works and get her ways by belittling women, and constantly attacking them. She steps all over women rights, because that way she'll have a place in her patriarchal fascist ideal.

Also don't you love how idiots like her goes all foaming mad about the imaginary things that Obama has done. To be sure, liberals are now complaining that Obama isn't doing enough. This has been true for any Democrat president. It's just hilarious that the religious right are going off about his no-existent actions (and complaining about how he was democratically elected into office. We all know the religious right wants fascism.)

Councilwoman Recieve Death Threats Over Equality

A Memphis Councilwoman has been threaten with death and a dead cat for supporting LGBT anti-discrimination laws:

"Police think the threats are serious enough have increased patrols around her home to keep her safe. Each phone call mentioned her support for banning discrimination against gays in city government. Distraught, Fullilove reached out to Jonathan Cole with the Tennessee Equality Project. 'She essentially said that they were threatening to kill her,' said Cole, who thinks the death threats are just another example of intolerance in Memphis. 'It's scary and our city needs to stand up to this kind of ugliness.' Police are keeping a close eye on Fullilove and her family. She's asked her telephone provider to track the calls. Meanwhile, Cole says the councilwoman's experience should highlight the need for the ordinance to protect gays and lesbians working for the city."

Fullilove says she will continue to push for passage of the anti-discrimination measure, which comes up for a vote on August 10.

The anti-gay side is always trying to say that we're the ones who are violent and evil and yet they do this. I guess the old axiom is true: You will know a Christian by there love. Looks like Christian love here involves killing a cat and throwing it on people's lawn.

They doth protest too much, don't they

The Patriarchal Pseudoscience Council. . . I mean the Family Research Council. . . Tried another hand at upholding DADT by saying we'd be putting soldiers at risk of STD and psychological problems if we let gays serve openly. Except there are server logical problems too this. And it's very revealing.

The argument they use is that homosexuals are at a greater risk of HIV and other STDs and they might spread it to other soldiers. Now think about this. When you're in the military, sex should be the least of your concern. If you're in for the sex, you're doing it wrong. The only way STD would grow rampant is if the military is one huge orgy already. It also implies that our service men and women don't have self control. Finally, why would straight soldiers be having gay sex anyways? On another level, it's a requirement to obtain physical and mental checkup in order to enter and be in the military, so that already reduce the risk of any psychological and physical problems. Finally, there are already gays in the military deal with. Research shows that being in the closet is detrimental to their health, so letting them serve openly will actually improve their mental health.

All this anti-gay rhetoric about DADT is actually rather insulting to all those who serve in the military when you think about it. Notice that FRC focus so much on sex. More than even normal gay people. It's like they're not getting enough. hmm

Idiot of the Day

Via Towleroad,

A student at Augusta State University, Jennifer Keeton, claims that the school is forcing her to abandon her religious belief by accepting homosexuality. The school, of course, feels that her writing are inappropriate for a her degree to become a councilor. She's demanding the school bend to to her religious belief. Wouldn't that be great? If schools bended to the beliefs of it's student. It means I can become a mathematician and claim π = 3. Hey the Bible claim that it is and forcing me not to believe it is oppression. But the idiot isn't done with her little whine-fest:

The letter also cites an email from Keeton in which she says: "my Christian
moral views are not just about me. I think the Bible's teaching is true for all
people and it shows the right way to live."

Well that's just dandy. She "thinks"it's the right way to live. So lets get this straight, she suing to defend her first amendment rights to revoke the first amendment rights of others? That's what it boils down to. Keeton and her ilks are the type who wants freedom of religion to herself and end the freedom of religion of others. If you don't think so, see how they react when government tries to include other religions in their program; these idiots goes foaming mad if a Buddhist or Hindu tries to express their religion. Sorry Keeton, if you truly think the Bible is the right way to live than go back to the kitchen as you have no business in a learning institute (1 Timothy 2:12). And I hope you don't wear pants, either (Deuteronomy 22:5). I mean if you're going to use Leviticus, you'll have to use those too. Here's hoping that ASU wins against Keeton's stupidity.

Republican are more likely to have sex scandals (with gay men)

Via Science Duck,

Methods: the number of sex scandals for politicians (both state/local and
national) for the past 10 years was tallied from the list of political scandals provided on Wikipedia. Each
scandal was scored as to if it involved a Republican or Democrat, if it involved
a gay or straight affair, and whether or not the victim/participant was
underage.
Results: Republicans were involved in 61% of sex scandals in the
past 10 years, whereas Democrats were involved in just 39%. Moreover, 34% of the
total number of scandals were gay scandals (i.e, involving an ostensibly
straight politician and a same-sex partner), with Republicans accounting for
78.5% of all gay scandals. Republicans were also involved in 66% of the underage
scandals.
Conclusion: If a sex scandal is going on in Washington, there is a
2 in 3 chance it will involve a Republican. And If it’s a gay scandal, it’s
almost a sure bet that it involves a Republican.

And of course, they (the GOP) are the ones preaching about "family values" and "anti-gay". "Family Value" almost certainly means that they want the patriarchy to do what ever it wants. As for them being anti-gay, the evidence points to them being self-haters, poisoned by their need to be "normal". The hypocrisy of the GOP is so overwhelming, it's a wonder that their bigoted ass hasn't fallen flat on the ground yet.

I'm joking about wondering of course. It's a fact that the Republican party is supported by an inane idea that you can do everything just as long as it helps the patriarchy.