Christian Coalition Leader Molests Underage Girls

I guess I must have missed this in Massresistance's latest update:

The longtime leader of the Oregon Christian Coalition and staunch opponent of gay rights admits in a newly released police report that he sexually touched three underage girls years ago, despite denials of such behavior to a newspaper.

Funny they didn't even talk about it on the radio show that bills itself as "stories you won't hear in the media".

Though, I'm a bit confused because Amy said this past weekend on the show that "Words didn't have any meaning" in Massachusetts yet it appears that the denials made by this Oregon Christian Leader had no meaning at all. I guess they would have only reported it if it was underage boys instead of underage girls.

In their lastest post they talk about the male staffer in Dorchester who was charged with the statutory rape of young girl. Interesting enough, the only parts of the story Massresistance highlighted are:

"he then offered her $40 to have anal sex"

"a lot of pain."

"He had been in charge of a Baker House program for preadolescent boys."

Go figure! They must have been too busy reading Bay Windows to notice the story about the Christian Coalition leader.

Love Really DOES Make a Family

Massresistance is back to bashing gay families. In the lastest post which reeks of jealousy, they rant, raves and basically foam at the mouth about a same sex couple which was named "Parents of the Year":

What better way to hasten their utopian society than place as many children as they can get their hands on with "families" headed by GLBT same-sex couples? Who
cares if heterosexual couples have played by the rules and waited years on end with no adoptive placement?

Uh, NO. Our idea of a utopian society is where children AND families are safe from abuse, physically, emotionally AND verbally no matter if those families are headed by same sex couples, opposite sex couples or single parents households. The post neglects to mention that same sex couples usually take children that are not wanted by heterosexual couples.

If you read the real story you find out that the child was taken from a drug addicted mother was born 3 months premature and weighed 2 1/2 pounds when he was born. (Do they ever tell you the full story?)

The story of these men bring to mind the story of my aunt and uncle (in full disclosure, they are my aunt and uncle by marriage) This amazing couple adopts children that are not wanted. They were foster parents for a child born from a crack addicted mother, yes, the child was a crack baby that needed a lot of care. After they had the child for awhile my aunt and uncle were contacted again because the drugged addicted mother had another child (read another crack baby) and they wanted to know if they could care for another needed child. They said yes. These children are now going up in a wonderful loving home.

So when I hear about these men, who took a child no one wanted and are raising him in a loving family I applaud them because I know its not easy. What is easy is to point the finger and say:

Well, there are lots of heterosexual couples in their 20s and 30s dying to adopt a little child. But they are routinely passed over.

but offer no facts or examples just rhetoric.

A Busy Week

Man oh man, there's so much stuff happening that this post could go on for days (inside joke for those readers who also listen to Massresistance on the radio)

• A "Star" professor at the University of Wisconsin is leaving for the gay friendlier University of Pennsylvania because of the anti-gay amendment going to the voters in Nov.
• Walmart becomes a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
• South Africa's cabinet gives nod to gay marriage
• Republican members of the California legislature attack bills allowing gay couples the ability to file joint taxes. One calls homosexuality "sexually deviant behavior."
• Peter LaBarbera is leaving his post as the Illinois Family Institute's executive director to become a full-time anti-gay activist. He focusing solely on issues of homosexuality.

Revue Your History with Varla Jean

This is the video which first appeared on the Gay cable channel Logo when it premiered last year. If you get a chance it is hilarious!

Varla Jean Merman is the superfabulous creation of Jeffery Roberson. Her newest show is Anatomically Incorrect and if you want to see it you have to hurry to Provincetown since its only playing two more weekends.

Update: After talking with Varla's manager, Mark, I learned that Varla is performing in Ptown until Sept 23rd so you still have 4 more week to see the reigning Queen of Provincetown!

Pension Protection Act of 2006 and Fairness for Same Sex Couples

President Bush signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006 this past week. It is being held as the most extensive revision of the nation's pension law in three decades. This Act is great news for gay and lesbian couples:

Two little-noticed features of the law was praised by gay rights groups. Under the law, a person's retirement benefits could transfer to domestic partners or other beneficiaries such as sibling or parent. And workers could draw on retirement funds for medical or financial emergencies involving domestic partners or other beneficiaries.

The Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, said it was the first time federal legislation has on a broad basis treated same-sex couples similarly to married couples. "Today marks an important day for fairness under the law in America," said its president, Joe Solmonese.

Therefore gay couples will no longer be hit with the tax penalty when a retirement account is automatically withdrawn when one's partner dies. He or she can now roll it over to their own retirement account.

More GOP Mis-Statements

Wow, it's only been hours since I posted about the Sen. Allen making a racist remark and now it appears that the Republican canidate for Governor, Bob Beauprez, in Colorado has chosen as his running mate a woman, Mesa County commissioner Janet Rowland, who referred to same sex marriage as beastiality. The Democratic canidate for Governor demanded the Republican drop Rowland from the ticket. But:

Beauprez campaign manager John Marshall said Rowland regretted the remark and has apologized.

"We all say things we don't mean sometimes,'' Marshall said. ''That's what happened.''

Ah, she said something she didn't mean, well do you think it's a step up from saying something you didn't know was a racial epithet? (oh, I guess I was wrong when I said that they weren't still targeting gay people)

What's going on here?

First it was GOP Governor Willard Romney making a tar baby remark and now we have GOP Senator George Allen making another racial remark?

Of course, like Romney, Sen. Allen claims he didn't know it was a racial term.

The Washington Post is reporting that Sen. Allen's past in which he loved the confederate flag and kept a noose in his office is coming back to haunt him. Oh, Sen. Allen, like Romney, is also considering a run for president in 2008.

Americablog is also picking up what the Washington Post didn't:

Nice of the Washington Post to, yet again, ignore the fact that Macaca isn't just a genus of monkey - in French it's also a slur for dark-skinned people of North Africa, and George Allen's French-speaking French mother just happened to come from North Africa. No, that's not relevant to the story, but the genus of Macaca in Latin is. Uh huh.

It appears that since all the anti-gay amendments have been approved they're now onto people of color. How many times are we going to hear them apologize that they didn't know what they said was wrong? Wow, what a slate of officers we have in contention for the presidency, I can't wait!

The APA Weighs in on "Ex-Gays"

The American Psychological Association issued the following statement:

For over three decades the consensus of the mental health community has been that homosexuality is not an illness and therefore not in need of a cure. The APA's concern about the positions espoused by NARTH and so-called conversation therapy is that they are not supported by the science. There is simply no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed. Our further concern is that the positions espoused by NARTH and Focus on the Family create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish.

This was in response to the "ex-gays" protesting the APA for rejecting conversion therapy. NARTH, the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality has no scientific evidence that people can alter sexual orientation yet they are demanding that the APA change its current position which says that such unsubstantiated efforts can often be destructive and damaging to patients.

According to Truth Wins Out some of the methods these "Conversion groups" use include exorcisms, repossessing a client's Calvin Klein underwear because it is deemed "too gay," taking Prozac and drinking Gatorade in an effort to make men more masculine. I saw some guy beating a pillow with a tennis racket on CNN then cuddling a man in his lap as a way to change his orientation, it was hilarious!

First Came the Tar Baby...

Now, anti-gay Gov. Willard Romney is joking about the Civil War:

``Governor Romney was clearly joking when he referred to the Civil War as the `war of Northern aggression' to an audience in Charleston," said Eric Fehrnstrom, his spokesman, who was at the event. ``Everyone laughed, because they understood he was using it in a humorous context."

Fehrnstrom described a joke that Romney recently made when speaking at The Citadel, the military school in Charleston.

Romney talked of baseball player Johnny Damon's leaving the Red Sox to join the Yankees. Romney told them that he and the audience have common ground: They both hate Yankees.

``It was just a passing reference," Fehrnstrom said. ``Everywhere the governor speaks, he tells a joke."

But not to be left out, he still talked (joked?) about gay marriage, stem cells and abortion too. I'm still waiting for his "jokes" about blind people, little people and disabled people since everything seems to be a joke with him.

UPDATE: There's a letter to the Editor in the GLOBE (8/9/06) about Romney "goofing"on the Civil War:

GOVERNOR ROMNEY claims that his reference to the Civil War as the ``war of Northern aggression" was a joke (``Aide insists Romney just being civil," Page B1, City&Region, Aug. 8). It was red meat for neo-Confederates, but an insult to the memory of the 18,000 Massachusetts men who died defending the Union. It's also false history: It was South Carolina state and Confederate troops that fired on the Stars and Stripes at Fort Sumter in April 1861, initiating the war.

Romney would rightly consider it an insult to his Mormon faith if someone asked ``How many wives do you have, governor?" and then tried to pass it off as ``a joke." Even in politics, some things are never a joke.

Legal Marriage Rulings Illogical

Ellen Goodman in today's Boston GLOBE hits the nail on the head on the recent marriage rulings in New York and Washington:

NOW I got it. After hours spent poring over Washington state's Supreme Court decision upholding the ban on same-sex marriage, I've finally figured it out. The court wasn't just ruling against same-sex marriage. It was ruling in favor of ``procreationist marriage."

(snip)

Well if that's true, isn't it time for the legislatures in Washington and in New York, which issued a similar ruling against same-sex marriage this summer, to follow their own logic? If marriage is for procreation, shouldn't they refuse to wed anyone past menopause? Shouldn't they withhold a license, let alone blessings and benefits, from anyone who is infertile? What about those who choose to be childless? Nothing borrowed or blue for them. Indeed the state could offer young couples licenses with sunset clauses. After five years they have to put up (kids) or split up.

While I usually leave the legal analysis of court rulings to my husband even I could figure this one out. If they're allowing opposite sex couples who have no desire, whether by choice or biology, to get married there is no rational reason to ban same sex couples the same rights especially when many same sex couples have children.

Top Colleges for LGBT Students & Allies

The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students was just released on August 1st. It lists the best 100 colleges and universities for LGBT students. I'm proud to say that I'm an alumni of one of the top 20!

This new guide profiles the 100 U.S. institutions with the top "Gay Point Average" on critical LGBT issues such as:

• Gay-affirmative policies
• Campus events
• Queer student perspectives
• Housing for LGBT students
• Local gay hangouts
• Gay-friendly support resources
• Queer studies

To see the whole list you have to buy the book but here's a Top 20 list of the Best of the Best:

American University
Duke University
Indiana University
Oberlin College
Ohio State University
New York University
Princeton University
Pennsylvania State University
Stanford University
Tufts University
University of California--Berkeley
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--Santa Cruz
University of Massachusetts--Amherst
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Puget Sound
University of Southern California

Two "Moral" Men

Two incidents this past weekend show what's really going on in American.

In the first incident, Mel Gibson, an "authentic" Catholic made the news in California. Gibson is the man who made "The Passion of the Christ". When questioned about the anti-Semitic nature of his film he said that "The Passion" was not anti-Semitic and "To be anti-Semitic is to be un-Christian, and I'm not." So what do you make of this when Mel was arrested for speeding and drunk driving this past weekend:

According to reports, Gibson said to his arresting officer, "F***ing Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." He then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?"

In addition to other remarks he made he now apologizes for making "despicable" comments to the arresting officer and blames it on his alcoholism problem.

In the other story, our anti-gay Governor Willard Romney also uses language unbecoming of an elected official. Once again leaving the Commonwealth of Massachusetts behind he headed for Iowa:

Gov. Mitt Romney has apologized for referring to the troubled Big Dig construction project as a "tar baby" during a fundraiser with Iowa Republicans, saying he didn't know anyone would be offended by the term some consider a racial epithet.

My question is "If he didn't know it was a racial epithet what, in Gov. Romney's world, IS a tar baby?" If he knows enough about the term to use it at a fundraiser for Iowa Republicans he must know how it came about.

"He was unaware that some people find the term objectionable and he's sorry if anyone's offended," Fehrnstrom said.

It reminds me of the time the first President Bush went to a grocery store and was amazed at the laser scanners used for checking out. Is the Governor so out of touch with people of color that he didn't know it was a derogatory term. Hard to believe. I also wonder how many people of color was in attendance at this Iowa fundraiser.

A Tale of Two Coasts

Over on the West Coast the Seattle Roman Catholic Archdiocese filed a friend of the court brief against gay marriage in Washington State. The court rejected the brief because it was late (17 months late to be exact). The archdiocese still wanted to make its case though:

The archdiocese filed its amicus brief Thursday, arguing that granting same-sex marriage would violate the church's ability to freely practice its religion. The Catholic Church believes marriage should be between a man and a woman and questioned whether allowing gay people to wed could, as one example, force priests to perform such ceremonies.

The archdiocese filed it late because happenings around the country. They actually blamed gay marriages in Massachusetts on the Catholic Charities decision to stop adoptions, I guess they didn't know that Massachusetts protects ALL its citizens through a non-discrimination policy that was in effect long before same sex marriage. In their brief they also used the same scare tactics the anti-gay forces used here that didn't work: "warning that the church could lose its right to decide who can be married in Catholic churches and possibly be exposed to discrimination lawsuits if it refused to marry same-sex couples."

Clearly the Archdiocese was trying to abuse the legal system submitting it way too late and making erroneous arguments.

Meanwhile on the East Coast news surfaced that another priest was accused of raping two teenaged boys over a 12 year period.

Genevive, 51, who lives in a Franciscan retreat in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., pleaded not guilty in Suffolk Superior Court to four counts of rape of a child and was released on his own recognizance by Clerk Magistrate Robin E. Vaughn.

Genevive appeared in court wearing civilian clothes without a clerical collar, Wark said. His next court date is Sept. 7 for a pretrial conference.

A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, which oversees St. Anthony's of Padua in Troy, where Genevive worked when the alleged assaults took place, said that as a member of the Franciscan order, Genevive was not supervised by the diocese.

``It's unfortunate if indeed that occurred, but I don't know what else we can say," said spokesman Kenneth Goldfarb.

UNFORTUNATE? It's a crime! It's horrific! But there's more to the story:

The Rev. Robert M. Campagna, spokesman for the Franciscan Province of the Immaculate Conception, which oversees Franciscans, said Genevive was removed from active ministry on June 2, 2002, and now lives in a setting ``where he has no access to minors." He did not say why Genevive was inactive.

Interesting...now why was the Franciscan priest removed from active ministry (and away from children) in 2002? Do you think they knew something and didn't tell authorities? Strange that it took for more than 4 years for this to come to light and it only appeared because the boy (now a man) is suing the church.

Another incident of the Church abusing the legal system. It was there responsibility to alert the authoritites if they knew abuse had been committed. I guess we will have to wait to see how this one turns out but it already isn't looking good for the Church. The question will be whether they will be forthcoming in information on this alleged rapist.

Funny, here in Massachusetts Franciscan Cardinal O'Malley wasted no time at all to ensure that gay couples wouldn't be able to adopt through Catholic Charities. He also promptly allowed anti-gay marriage petitioners to get signatures during Church masses. He also quickly appeared with Romney at a press conference asking the legislature to allow the people of Massachusetts to put discrimination in Constitution.

It appears that the Church still has its priorities in order. Loving gay couples, act quickly to stop them, abusive priests, drag your feet until you're found out. The Catholic Church has managed to abuse the system, not what you'd expect from a religious institution.

Sad Songs Say So Much

Queer Today beat me to the punch and posted the lasted rant from Massresistance. You can read it here. It is such a sad, pathetic email. My favorite part is:

There are two very clear schools of thought among pro-family groups on how this terrible battle should be waged. One is that we need to be polite and non-confrontational, and appear as moderate, loving, etc. The other is that we must demand our rights as citizens, and not taking no for an answer, even if it means being rude once in a while. I think you know which camp MassResistance is in. But far too many people are in the other camp.

From here, there are only two directions for a group like MassResistance. We can spend the next few months building up the organization to a great level, raise lots of money, and confront Legislature, state government, and the gay lobby head-on. Or we can fold. There really is no in-between. Among other things, the gay lobby is raising enormous money and plans to use it to get even more seats in the Legislature this November. Should someone be there to counter them?

Right now, I'm sorry to say this but I don't have a lot of confidence that enough of the people who read this are committed to fighting back. I'm not sure what to do. Is it worth continuing? This past week was not particularly enjoyable, to say the least. Should we just concede all this and more to the homosexual movement? How many of you are personally willing to do things? We need to make some decisions quickly. If you have any thoughts on this, feel free to email me.

And here I thought they were "building up the organization to a great level", at least that's what they claim. Maybe they finally realized that they failed at trying to remove the judges. Then again if you read that fabricated press release about David Parker's son you know they can tell some tall tales. Honestly, I think that is what has did them in. Even the few people who have supported them finally realized how irrational they all are to drag a child into the middle of their mess. They have no shame.

On a positive note, they did use a new word: "homosexualize":

Maybe a lot of people just don't want to believe that these things that were just passed will homosexualize the schools in a way that you cannot imagine, and it will effect states beyond Massachusetts.

Are they saying we're going to make over the schools yard a la "Ground Breakers? If so, count me in, cinderblocks and asphalt are so 70's and those big school windows need curtains. COLOR! People, we need COLOR!

"Look honey, Bob and Dan just homosexualized their yard and doesn't it look nifty!"

Is Breeder Bad?

Ms. Massresistance got her panties in a bunch because someone somewhere called someone else a "breeder".

Listen up, all you heterosexuals. Did you know you're just "BREEDERS"?

I guess the reason she's so upset is because the "someone" is gay, the "somewhere" is Provincetown and the "someone else" signed the anti-gay marriage petition. Oh, the "someone else" also makes a living off the gays and lesbians in Provincetown (she owns the trolley that does tours and is usually parked in front of the Town Hall).

I'm actually surprised she is so upset that she had to interrupt her vacation for that lame post. After all, this is the same person who wrote:

That's because a heterosexual's natural sexuality usually produced children at some point.

And her definition of family:

But how are families with children created except through sex?(Leaving aside that non-hetero parents now have unethical doctors willing to artificially inseminate, no matter what the parent profile is ...)

or:

Conservatives do have hearts. We feel for the letter-writer's family. We are struck by the woman's obvious normal desire to be a mother -- but also her self-delusion, her efforts to "normalize" the unnaturalness of her situation. And we are struck hard by the boy's situation. How sad to inflict this twisted reality on a child.

Oh, there's more, I just got tired of trudging through that trash for more examples.

Wouldn't you think someone who appears to be obsessed with sex (both homosexual and hetersexual) and who states that gay couples with children are unnatural and that a heterosexual's ability to have children is normal would be thrilled with a "breeder" label?

To answer the intial question in her post (...Did you know you're just "BREEDERS"?)

Yes, because you, Ms. Massresistance, have told us so time and time again.

Where's the Outrage?

Once again Massresistance is trying to dig up dirt on the Gay community by publishing photos of a Pride parade which was held in plain view on a rainy Saturday in Boston. Meanwhile, elsewhere, heterosexual men are behind their computers allegedly enticing young girls to meet them for sex:

In what was dubbed Operation Trenchcoat, local police, federal officials, and state investigators prowled cyberspace for predators during a two-month probe.

Where's Massresistance's post covering this trash? Where's the outrage from the religious right? One of the men arrested is married with four children, what kind of values is he teaching his kids yet his marriage is not being voted on?

Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident, there are numerous "news magazine" shows on TV that set up these sting operations. The people they pull in is always married heterosexual men yet no one is calling their marriages illegal. You don't see the American Family Association devoting a big part of their home page to this either? If heterosexuals make up such a big part of the population don't you think this would a much more pressing issue?

But no, they are more concerned with two adult men or women who love each other and want to take care of each other for life, that is disgusting to them. So disgusting that they have to spend millions to try and prevent it. We have to spend millions not only to defend ourselves but to protect ourselves, how disgusting.

Another Day, Another Anti-Gay Amendment

Well it's two days after the convention. It was a good day that started very early. You probably have read about it elsewhere but I wanted to give you a peek into what it was like as a participant. (I even started podcasting it for a future podcast, stay tuned)

We arrived at the State House at 7:30 AM and a line had already started outside. It was very easy to spot which side was which. The easiest way to tell them apart was their age. The pro marriage equality side were clearly the youngest of both groups. (Quite frankly we were afraid that some of the anti-gay side weren't going to make it once we got inside because of the standing times and the temperature, even this old man dizzy at point, luckily no ambulances were needed).

Once the doors opened we went up to the fourth floor to wait for tickets to get into the gallery. As you can see from the pictures to the right, the corridors were packed and warm. A woman from my Dad's church came up to me and shook my hand and wanted to know if I had heard anything about the day (I hadn't at this point). My husband didn't get to meet her so he went over and introduced himself to her and her group. He commended the work she does along side his father-in-law (my Dad) for the poor.

The anti-gay side did have a few youths there. One small group (3 or 4) were behind us when we were outside. The most interesting thing about them was that they were not even from Massachusetts. They were bussed in from New Jersey. The kids didn't even know what the building was that they were going into. In the picture to the right to can see them talking with an older man who brought them (in blue) who was also from New Jersey. I know this because he told the woman (with the crucifix) in the picture that. Ironically, this man was interviewed by New England Cable News titled: Lawmakers recess without vote on gay marriage (or cut and past [javascript:playVideoClip('plV868874')] without the brackets into your browser). His name is Bruce Burns, of course he doesn't say on camera that he lives out of state.

After we got our tickets to the gallery we went back outside to see how things were going there. Again, the pro-equality side outnumbered the anti-gay by at least 2 to 1. We even saw Mickey "I run for every elected office and never win" Roache there on the anti-gay side chatting up some petitioners at about 11ish.

For the remainder of the day we were in the Great Hall watching the anti-gay protestors dwindle by the minute. Even the Franciscan Sisters in full habit got into the act by breaking chairs in the hall ala "The Who", ok, they didn't actually do it on purpose, the chairs fell apart as they were moving them but it broke up the monotony of the day.

At around 4:30 we were back in the House Gallery for the closing minutes of the session. A couple of women next to me were upset because it was taking so long for each roll call vote and then I had to laugh to myself. They were upset because the House and Senate were following the rules of the convention. It seems they wanted the legislature to only follow the rules when it did what they wanted and on their timetable.

A rally followed in the Great Hall where many of the pro equality side were still there. It was good to see Mark from Queer Today and meet Chris from Take Mass Action. I think we were all proud of the work that had gone on that day. Mark mentioned to me that there was no hide nor hair of Massresistance/Article Hate. My guess: they're probably still waiting for the legislature to vote to oust the 4 judges. If so, they have a long wait.

WBZ's Paul Sullivan

Here's the Paul Sullivan commentary I posted early this morning. If you get a chance listen to it, it's worth it.

Three Separate And Unequal Classifications of Citizens

Mass Marrier has a great discussion of the MA SJC's ruling. While it is a disappointment, it was expected.

Mass "Family" Institute is practically messing their pants with joy over the ruling. Will they still call the Mass SJC "activist judges"? Of course they will as soon as it doesn't rule the way they want. However, the language in the ruling that they appear to ignore is the part where the justices talk about what would happen if the vote goes forward:

The only effect of a positive vote will be to make same-sex couples, and their families, unequal to everyone else; this is discrimination in its rawest form. Our citizens would, in the future, be divided into at least three separate and unequal classifications: heterosexual couples who enjoy the right to marry; same-sex couples who were married before the passage of the amendment (but who, if divorced, would not be permitted to remarry someone of the same sex); and same-sex couples who have never married and, barring the passage of another constitutional amendment on the subject, will be forever denied that right.

The Massachusetts legislature has two choices: put discrimination into the oldest state constitution or proclaim at "All people are created equal" They will make history one way or another.

Who Will Be the First?

Here's a wonderful editorial cartoon from the pages of the Boston Globe. The artist is Dan Wasserman:
There was also a great opinion piece on WBZ AM this past weekend by Paul Sullivan. I'm hoping to get a copy of it and post it here. He hits the nail right on the head.