GLBT issues

Catholic Church moves to ban gay priests

The Pope is considering banning gay men from becoming priests and removing priests who are gay from service. Interesting on so many levels, really. My thoughts:

  1. I wonder when they’re going to remove all the lesbian nuns.
  2. The pedophile scandals will continue, because the priests molesting kids aren’t gay, and the gay priests aren’t molesting kids.
  3. With the gay priests gone, they may as well fold up the church and go home, because no one else is joining the priesthood except the pedophiles.
  4. I feel terrible for the retired priest from my mom’s parish, Father James Bates, who is gay, openly celibate, and an active part of the gay community. He is a great guy who served devotedly his whole life, kept his vows, but still acknowledged who he is. I sat and talked to him one night at a gay bar downtown about the church and its treatment of gay people. What the church is doing is both shortsighted and disrespectful of wonderful people like Father Jim.

Sounds like the church has it all worked out. Good luck with that one, guys. I’m so glad I left.

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The Flying Spaghetti Monster and “Pastafarianism”

Flying Spaghetti Monster
I put a new emblem on my car last night. It’s the image of the “Flying Spaghetti Monster.”

Wikipedia explains it best:

Flying Spaghetti Monsterism is a parody religion created to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to allow intelligent design to be taught in science classes alongside evolution.

The “religion” has since become an Internet phenomenon garnering many followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (sometimes referring to themselves as “Pastafarians”, a pun on Rastafarians) who claim to have been touched by “His Noodly Appendage” and preach the word of their “noodly master” as the one true religion. Flying Spaghetti Monsterism is primarily the invention of Bobby Henderson, a graduate of Oregon State University with a degree in physics.

In June 2005, Bobby Henderson submitted an open letter to the Kansas Board of Education in response to their decision on giving intelligent design equal time with evolution by natural selection in biology classes. He demanded that Flying Spaghetti Monsterism also be given equal time in classrooms, along with the other, more traditional religious creation stories.

I’m not sure right now whether I actually am interested in becoming a Pastafarian. I started out Catholic, of course, until the church decided it hated me. I got a degree in philosophy in college for which I had to study world religions, and I really appreciated Taoism. And for the past couple years, Hanuman the Hindu monkey God has been my very favorite imaginary friend.

On the other hand, the designated outfit for worshipers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster IS full pirate regalia, so that’s a major plus in his column.

So I don’t know if I’m ready to convert again. Maybe Hanuman and the FSM can be best pals. I’ll see what Hanuman thinks.

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Difference between civil rights and civil liberties

Author: Sheila Suess Kennedy

Quick — what’s the difference between civil liberties and civil rights?

If you aren’t quite certain, you have a lot of company. The distinction is lost on most of my students, and — far more troubling — on a good number of city and state legislators.

Civil liberties are rights that individuals have against government. Citizens of the new United States refused to ratify the Constitution unless a Bill of Rights was added, specifically protecting them against official infringements of their “inalienable rights.” Among our civil liberties are the right to free expression, the right to worship (or not) as we choose, and the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

After the civil war, the 14th Amendment added the Equal Protection Clause, prohibiting government from treating equally situated citizens unequally. The 14th Amendment also applied the provisions of the Bill of Rights to all levels of government — not just the federal government, as was originally the case, but also to state and local government agencies.

Only the government can violate your civil liberties.

Civil rights took a lot longer and were a lot more controversial.

It was 1964 before Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. Civil rights laws protect people against private acts of discrimination — discrimination in employment, in housing or education. The original Civil Rights Act applied to businesses engaged in interstate commerce — businesses that held themselves out to be “public accommodations” but were, shall we say, “selective” about which segments of the public they were willing to accommodate.

State and local civil rights acts followed. Civil rights laws generally include a list of characteristics that cannot be used to favor some people over others: race, religion, gender and so forth.

There was a lot of resistance to civil rights laws, and there is still a widespread, if covert, attitude of “What business does government have telling me I can’t discriminate?” That resentment has redoubled as new groups have lobbied for protection.
The fiercest resistance has come from people opposed to extending civil rights to gays and lesbians. Those opponents have taken advantage of the widespread confusion of civil liberties with civil rights to argue that the 14th Amendment already protects gays, so amending Indiana’s civil rights law, or Marion County’s Human Relations Ordinance is unnecessary. (After all, that’s easier than taking a public position that “those people” don’t deserve equal civil rights.)

I remember the astonishment of one of my African-American students when she realized that, in Indiana, people can be fired just because they are gay.

“There is still a lot of discrimination against black people,” she said, “but at least there are laws on the books! They may not always work, but they’re something.”

A few months ago, the Indianapolis City-County Council failed to pass a measure that would have made discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation a violation of the city’s Human Relations Ordinance. Several of those voting against it said it was “unnecessary” because the 14th Amendment already protected gays.

They knew better.

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Homophobia in the News

Gay teenager forced by parents to go into a “sexual re-orientation” camp to “cure” him of his homosexuality. Nevermind that all licensed, legitimate psychological and psychiatric professionals say it isn’t possible to change sexual orientation because it isn’t a disease.
Read Salon’s four part expose on these “ex-gay” camps.
The New York Pizza Depot in Ann Arbor, Michigan is undergoing a boycott by a catholic group for displaying an rainbow flag sticker — a symbol of tolerance of diversity — in the window of their store. “I find the rainbow flag offensive because it is a symbol of the homosexual movement that, in my opinion, indicates a validation of the homosexual lifestyle, as opposed to a sign that indicates ‘openness’ to customers who are of the homosexual orientation” — said one of the boycotters.
In Washington, D.C., Rev. Willie Wilson, pastor of Union Temple Baptist Church, has been demonizing gay and lesbian people in his church sermons. “Sisters making more money than brothers and it’s creating problems in families… that’s one of the reasons many of our women are becoming lesbians” Wilson said.

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Isn’t that precious?

Apparently some fine folks in Arizona are traveling around the state in a nice “Please Hate Homos” semi-trailer truck called the “Marriage Mobile.” Beautiful. Why not just stick a nice burning cross on the top of that thing, and make it complete?
If you take a good look at the statistics about gay marriage in Massachusetts, where it has been legal for over a year now, we don’t seem to be contributing to the hetero divorce rate in that state, so I think the argument that we’re threatening marriage has been thoroughly debunked.

Continue ReadingIsn’t that precious?

I wanted to be a Darwinist, but I wasn’t selected

If you’re following the news at all, you’ve read that Kansas is having a second Scopes Monkey trial wherein they’re planning on teaching creationism in the classroom as a form of science. In 1999, Kansas decided to drop the teaching of evolution in the classroom (this decision has since been reversed). But today the Kansas Board of Education are having a trial to change state standards to allow the introduction of creationism under the guise of “intelligent design” the bonehead idea that the pattern behind natural laws is devised by a higher power.

So far the people arguing in favor of “intelligent design” have shown their intellectual level of thought: they admit they haven’t even read the state’s current standards for education, so they don’t even understand what they’re planning to amend. That’s some Republican smarts for ya, right there.

If plain common sense isn’t enough for you, read “15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense” from Scientific American magazine to learn how to answer their inane drivel.

I have some more thoughts on intelligent design, but if you’re at all squeamish, you might not want to read on. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Here’s the best argument IN FAVOR of intelligent design, but I have a feeling that the creationists won’t be keen on arguing this point: God designed the male body for gay male anal intercourse. You heard me. God intended men to take it up the ass. Why else would the prostate gland, a gland that sits INSIDE the body, be a sexually-sensitive organ that when stimulated, causes an intense orgasm? Why on earth would God give this organ the ability to do that, unless he intended men to put something up there to stimulate it? In addition to that, men have much larger anuses than women do, and they’re angled differently, to accomodate something going in.

Something I’ve never understood about heterosexual men is how they are terrified of anal intercourse when it comes to two men doing it, but they’re all keen on getting their girlfriends to participate. Why is that? What is the appeal of it with a woman? Especially when it’s much more dangerous for women to do than it is for men, because of the way women are built. The same straight guys who will say crap like “it’s an exit, not an entrance” (untrue for men!) are the ones trying to persuade their girlfriend to turn over (where it really IS an exit!).

Another “intelligent design” conundrum for you: why is the clitoris outside the vagina? Why, if God intended for us all to use the heterosexual missionary position, didn’t God put the clitoris inside the vagina to encourage women to participate in penis-in-vagina sex? Why put the clitoris outside where it’s easy for, say, me, to reach? Yes, because God intended women to be gay.

That really is some intelligent design.

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Michigan Preparing To Let Doctors Refuse To Treat Gays

This is truly frightening. Not letting us get married is one thing, but refusing to provide health care to gay people is chilling, nazi-esque “load up the trains” behavior.

Doctors or other health care providers could not be disciplined or sued if they refuse to treat gay patients under legislation passed Wednesday by the Michigan House.

The bill allows health care workers to refuse service to anyone on moral, ethical or religious grounds.

The Republican dominated House passed the measure as dozens of Catholics looked on from the gallery. The Michigan Catholic Conference, which pushed for the bills, hosted a legislative day for Catholics on Wednesday at the state Capitol.

The bills now go the Senate, which also is controlled by Republicans.

The Conscientious Objector Policy Act would allow health care providers to assert their objection within 24 hours of when they receive notice of a patient or procedure with which they don’t agree. However, it would prohibit emergency treatment to be refused.

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Cheney Tries To Scare America into Voting Against Kerry

Cheney tries to claim that voting for Kerry will cause another terrorist attack. The terrorist don’t want Kerry in office. They want Bush. He’s the best recruiting tool they’ve ever had, and he has no support from any important country in the world. They also do a lot of business with him through the Saudi Royal Family. Bush makes the terrorist’s job easy, and they’re dying to keep him.
Let me repeat it — you are NOT IN ANY DANGER FROM FOREIGN TERRORISTS. The only terrorists you should be afraid of are the Christian Terrorists the blew up the Oklahoma City building, that set off a bomb at the Atlanta Olympics, that sent Anthrax to Democrats and the So-Called Liberal Media. These are they terrorists that are getting away with it… because they’re Republicans. Of course no one’s looking for them.

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Bigotry and anti-gay hate at the Republican National Convention

Pastor Donnie McClurkin will be performing at the Republican National Convention. Among other things, McClurkin thinks homosexuality is a “curse,” that it’s caused by men raping small children, that being gay is a choice, that it can be cured, and most explosively, that gays are trying to “kill our children.”
He’s come to those conclusions through his personal experience. He was molested by an uncle as a child, and believes his homosexual feelings came as a result of that.
While I’m sorry about what happened to McClurkin as a child, he’s blaming the wrong people. Homosexuality is not caused by being molested as a child. I was not molested, and neither were the vast majority of gay people. And most molested children do not turn out to be gay. Most gay people are not in the least interested in children. Most child molesters molest children of the opposite sex. Almost all children who are molested, nearly 90% are girls molested by adult men.
The numbers just don’t support what he’s saying here.
And if we truly want to get serious about children being molested, we need to looking at adult heterosexual males.

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Pope speaks out against equal marriage rights for gay people

On Sunday, Pope John Paul spoke out against equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian people.

“In our times, a misunderstood sense of rights has sometimes disturbed the nature of the family institution and conjugal bond itself,” John Paul said.

Let me repeat: never setting foot in a Catholic church again.

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