First Ireland, through kick-ass popular vote.
Now the US, through a Supreme Court decision.
May the rest of humanity soon follow suit.
As someone who does not have a tv or cable service (by choice), I know very little about Ms Washington–but I know Karen is quite the fan. So it’s with great, great pleasure, that I post video of an absolutely amazing speech that she gave when she accepted the Vanguard Award as an ally at the #glaadawards:
I have no idea how on earth I hadn’t heard of this before–which is scary as hell in and of itself!
Are you fucking kidding me?
Please, for the love of sanity, tell me this is a prank.
What the hell is next? Where does it stop? At mandatory burkas and chastity belts?
(This made me smile so hard!)
So you know how Fred Phelps and his tribe of lawsuit-happy, homophobic crazies love to picket funerals and other functions with their hate-mongering signs and chants, which are often carried by young children?
Well, it does seem that they have a little bit of trouble being on the receiving end.
Behold, Equality House, a space and resource center for equality and anti-bullying initiatives, for volunteer members of Planting Peace (go here for more)
And if this alone weren’t enough to make you hit the donate button…
A 5-year old girl set up a lemonade stand in front of Equality House, to raise funds for–get this–
There you go, assholes, suck on that a bit.
The cherry on top: it touched a nerve; according to this, someone connected to Phelps/Westboro twitted this:
“*WHO* let nasty fucks get hands on this poor child? #danger.”
And according to this, they have come out to scream obscenities at the girl, her father, and those who stop by to get some lemonade.
Well done, Jayden–you scored in all fronts!
You know how, when a blog owner doesn’t allow certain things to be said in her comment threads, or when an online forum’s guidelines specify that no discussions of religion or politics are allowed there, there are people who start screeching immediately about their right to free speech and how both of those things are censorship?
(Never mind that a) the right to free speech as per the First Amendment of the US Constitution has no bearing on discussions that involve people from countries other than the US–such as gee, this one–or that b) censorship in a private space doesn’t violate said amendment.)
But here we have a real example of censorship: (more…)
The headline:
Athletic dudes girly little secret: the pedi.
The gist:
Taking care of your feet is sensible and shouldn’t be exclusive province of women, and men can remain manly men even if they indulge themselves a little.
Which is true, and makes sense, etc etc etc.
Should this be news? Meh
But obviously someone thought it worth mentioning, as well as using distinctly dismissive language.
These have made me cry, in the best possible way.
And this is the video she talks about: (more…)
Remember last week’s post about Fred batshitcrazy Phelps’ people’s planned protest in Boston? (yikes, look at the alliteration!)
Well, we have news! Chris Mason from DrivingEquality writes:
The Phelps-A-Thon was a huge success! We raised over $4,500 for Driving Equality! We collected $755 of that during the 45 minutes we were on the street counter-protesting the Phelps clan. Seventy-five people showed up to support the Phelps-A-Thon and to say no to hate. Everyone cheered as we updated the sign every five minutes, tallying the amount raised by the Phelps-A-Thon. People walking by handed us $5, $10, $20 bills. Someone wrote a check for $250 on the spot. It was incredible!
Congrats to Chris and Driving Equality, and a huge thank you! to everyone who has donated so far.
This is just one way to do something constructive and positive to counter the negative stuff happening every where around us.
Remember that it’s not over, though, and you can still donate–check this out:
It is not too late to make a contribution to the Phelps-A-Thon. I am sending Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps a card, telling him how much he raised for LGBT equality. Make a donation today and your amount will be included on that card.
Sweet!!!!
Go on, donate. You know you wanna! 😀
Many of you, I’m sure, remember Fred batshitfullofhatred Phelps of the so-called baptist church of Westboro (you can also see their impact on Karen here)
Well, it seems the asshat is sending a delegation of his family to protest at a performance of The Laramie Project in Boston on December 12th. Not that it’s a surprise, since this piece of vomit sends family members to protest everything from funerals to the rightful election of a mayor in Oregon.
Anyway, here’s the part that fills me with glee: Chris Mason, a gay rights activist from Boston, is turning tables on the hateful by using their presence to drive a fund raising for his Driving Equality project next summer. (more…)
I usually don’t care for Jack Black, but this is just great. Of course, Neill Patrick Harris is there too 😀
(Thanks to CrankyOtter for the tip)
On Friday, Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled that the ban on same sex marriage was unconstitutional. The majority opinion says, in part:
“Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice,” Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote in the majority opinion that overturned a lower court finding.
Congratulations to Connecticut! As someone else said, three down and only forty seven more to go. Yay!
But I’m mystified, I confess, by this:
Justice Peter T. Zarella wrote that he believes there is no fundamental right to same-sex marriage, and the court’s majority failed to discuss the purpose of marriage laws, which he said is to “privilege and regulate procreative conduct.”
Zarella added, “The ancient definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman has its basis in biology, not bigotry. If the state no longer has an interest in the regulation of procreation, then that is a decision for the legislature or the people of the state and not this court.”
Yeah well… the ancient definition of marriage probably didn’t take into account taxes, insurance, medical and funeral arrangements, property issues, wills, and all the other red rape that modern marriages face.
Plus, it’s not as if people started reproducing only after the concept of marriage was introduced, nor as if they stopped reproducing outside of it, after it was.
(Full msnbc.com article here)
Today is the day where we spread awareness of the fact that the people we love–and who love us–are the same no matter what their sexual orientation.
Our brother, daughter, best friend from childhood, next door neighbor, coworker… our feelings for them, and how we feel about them, shouldn’t hinge on who they love.
Let us celebrate our diversity and rejoice in our individuality.
Go check out the Human Rights Campaign, get informed, spread the word.
