Today In Christian Love: 'To End AIDS, Kill The Homos'

A man called Steven Anderson founded the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona as its "Pastor"; he holds no college degree — according to his own website — but he has actually memorized over 140 chapters of the Bible memorized “word-for-word, including approximately half of the New Testament" so you just know he’s a man of God … because he can read and retain Bible passages.

Hell, if that’s all it takes, I might just start me a church … but I digress.

Naturally, as a man who memorizes the Bible, he is quite familiar with Leviticus and because of that, in a recent sermon to his, I don’t want to call it a congregation, I think of it more as a cult, that he has discovered a cure for AIDS and it goes like this:

“Look, we can have an AIDS-free world by Christmas. Here's what the bible says, Leviticus 20:13. 'If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman,' it says, even both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.

“And that, my friend, is the cure for AIDS. It was right there in the Bible all along — and they’re out spending billions of dollars in research and testing. It’s curable — right there. Because if you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this AIDS running rampant.”

And as he said this, his cult laughed; at killing people, they laughed.

Of course, Steven Anderson failed to mention that AIDS doesn’t just affect the gay community, it also affects the straight community, black people, white people, rich, poor, but in his narrow mindset it’s a gay thing so, you know, Kill The Gays; Problem Solved.

But it creates a whole new problem: how is that Christian love? How will Steven Anderson kill The Gays without, you know, breaking that nagging commandment about Thou Shall Not Kill? How do you get around that?

Let me make this perfectly queer: this is not Christian teaching, this is Hate Speech. This is suggesting to any number of loons who might be following Steven Anderson in his descent into madness, that they have a right, ordained by God, to go out and kill a gay person because it will stop the spread of AIDS. And so, when that happens, I want Steven Anderson arrested as a co-conspirator.

I said in a post yesterday — see it HERE — that all of these so-called men, and women, of God, who use religion, faith, Jesus Christ, and God, to suggest that The Gays are less than, that we are second class citizens, an abomination, unworthy of life, should be found guilty in every single case of gay bashing in this country because of their Hate Speech masked as Faith.

Add Steven Anderson to that list, and give him a special place of honor, because he isn’t hiding very well; he simply, and plainly, says, Kill The Gays.

How f**king Christ-like.

via NCRM

Take A Moment and Sign Your Name For AJ Betts ... and Others

Yesterday I reposted about AJ Betts, the young man who endured torment and bullying at school until he finally took his own life — see that post HERE. 

I told his story again because the bullying didn’t end upon AJ’s death; he wanted to donate his organs to help others who might need them, and while his heart, liver and lungs helped save a few lives, the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] declared that, because AJ was gay and may have been sexually active, his eyes could not be donated — see that post HERE.

The policy of the FDA was established some 30 years ago during the early, panicked, “It’s a gay disease” days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and it’s well past time the policy was changed. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find a comment on that post from AJ’s mother, Sheryl Moore: 

"God bless you for blogging about my son's story. I appreciate it so much. If you and your readers oppose this outdated FDA regulation, I would urge you to PLEASE sign this petition [at Change.org]:

Change the policy of automatically excluding homosexualsfrom donation of organs and tissue, and blood donation.

Thank you, and keep-up the good work. Together, we can create change!"

So, why don’t y’all take the next second to click that link and sign that petition, in AJ’s memory?

It’s a good thing.

Even After Death AJ Betts Is Being Bullied For Being Gay

A little more than a year ago I first wrote about AJ Betts; he had become ‘Another One’ on this blog; another young LGBTQ youth who took his own life after constantly bullying and torment at school made him think going on for even one minute more would be unbearable. See that post HERE.

And just months before taking his life, AJ decided to become an organ donor, wanting his organs to be put to good use when he died. But, sadly, even after death, AJ’s being bullied again because, even although he kidney, liver, heart and lungs were given to people who needed them, his eyes will never be used.

AJ’s eyes were rejected because of a thirty-year-old Food and Drug Administration [FDA] regulation that came about at the height of the AIDS epidemic; it stated that would-be donors were ineligible to donate certain tissue if they’re believed to have a “risk factor” for communicable diseases.

Now, no one knows if AJ was a “risk factor” because no one knows if he’d been sexually active in the five years preceding his suicide. But, being a young gay man, he was automatically excluded from donating certain tissues; in fact, gay men are banned for life from donating blood because there is still the stigma of AIDS being a “gay” disease.

AJ’s mother, Sheryl Moore, finds it sad that people cannot get “the life-saving assistance they need because of regulations that are 30 years old” and she hopes that by telling AJ’s story will help to change those decade’s old regulations.

Ironically enough, the FDA does allow donations from heterosexuals who have slept with an HIV-positive person or commercial sex worker after one year, which makes absolutely no sense. Heterosexuals can get HIV/AIDS; they do contract the virus. But because AJ Betts was gay, even in death he’s being treated as less than.

Just like he was by the kids in his school. 

Source

Think It Can't Happen? Think Again

So, yeah, right after the Supremes ruled that Hobby Lobby, a corporation, could tell their employees what kind of contraceptives they could use—while Hobby Lobby invests in, and profits from, the very contraceptives they are ALLEGEDLY against — Carlos and I wondered about The Gays; specifically the Gays with HIV/AIDS.

What if some corporation decided that their faith said that being gay was a sin, and therefore against the beliefs of that person corporation, and that corporation decided that their healthcare plan wouldn’t pay for their gay employees HIV meds?

I thought, Well, that can’t happen here …

Then I thought again, because, immediately after the SCOTUS decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. a decision celebrated, celebrated, by a number of anti-LGBT activists, the thought has come up. The new Hobby Lobby decision could very well have an impact on Truvada, a controversial "miracle drug" that blocks HIV infection and may revolutionize the battle against HIV/AIDS.

When taken properly, Truvada — a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) treatment combining two different antivirals, for use by patients deemed at risk for HIV/AIDS — reduces the risk of HIV by more than 99% effective.

However, with our new SCOTUS ruling that corporations are people and their corporate religious beliefs can impact their healthcare choices and options, perhaps Truvada might not be allowed under certain corporations healthcare plans because, well, God and The Gays.

Back in April, USA Today ran a piece on the similarities between the controversy surrounding Truvada and conservative opposition to birth control. In that piece, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis noted that the Truvada debate is very similar to the way birth control was viewed by many in the 1960s, who saw it as an excuse for promiscuity; women could run around having all the sex they wanted and never get pregnant because they had The Pill. Now, some folks think that gay men will use Truvada in that same way.

So, again, I wonder, is it any great leap to think that an employer might use his or her faith, using similar arguments to the ones made in the Hobby Lobby case to justify denying health insurance coverage for Truvada.

Think it can’t happen here? Remember how many of us thought the Hobby Lobby case couldn’t happen … until it did.

via Media Matters

Random Musings

Okay, so last Sunday we made the trek to CostCo to stock up on essentials. We go about every five weeks to buy chicken and fish and, of course, toilet paper, household products, milk, bread, anything that we can use in the next five weeks. That way we only shop weekly for fresh produce or items we cannot find at CostCo.

And the shopping is always fun because I make the list; I take inventory on what’s in the house, and what may, or may not, last the next five weeks. And I do the driving up and back because, well, I’m a control freak and no one, no one, drives better than I do. And, at CostCo, I push the cart; I fill up the cart.

Carlos finds things we can’t live without — like, say, a five-pound block of Bleu Cheese; and he visits the snack ladies, though not, as Anne Marie wondered, because he likes the ladies, but because he likes free stuff.

While wandering down an aisle I noticed this display of hand-woven baskets and mats made by women in Rwanda, and stopped to look. They were beautiful, all colors and patterns, and as I read a brochure I learned that a portion of the money made from the sale goes back to the women of Rwanda for education and medical treatments and the like. To me, it was a win-win; something pretty and functional and a donation to charity.

I picked up one of the mats that could be used as a trivet to set hot dishes on and saw that it was $15; I asked Carlos if he liked it, and he did, but then he found another he liked and suggested we get both. He also saw a basket he wanted and, well, it was $37, and into the cart it went.

At the checkout line the cashier totaled up the bill and it came out much bigger than we normally spend and Carlos, in that high-pitched shriek that he has, said, “Why so much?”

I explained that the basket and mats were roughly seventy dollars and, nearly fainting, he said that was s too much. But, as I reminded him that he has no trouble spending $45 on a block of cheese that would be gone on three weeks and that these mats and basket would last forever, along with a cold compress on the neck, a few loving pats on the back, and some It’ll be okay murmurings, he seemed to settle and we were on our way.

Thankfully the good folks at CostCo didn’t have to call the paramedics to calm him down. Not again.

Remember when Pope Frankie said he didn’t judge gay people and gay people swooned and said maybe the Catholic Church was changing?

Well, I didn’t. I took a wait-and-see approach and maybe I’m glad I did because last week Frankie held a private mass with Ludovine de la Rochere, the president of France's viciously anti-gay Manif Pour Tous, a group which held many massive and at times violent, rallies during the battle for marriage equality in France. In a statement, de la Rochere said she was invited to participate in a private Mass with the Pope:

"I was placed in the middle of the meeting, but someone picked me before the start of the Mass, wondering if I was the president of the Manif Pour Tous, to put me at the forefront of the faithful along the aisle, just behind the priests." 

It should not go unnoticed that during this Mass just thirty people are allowed inside and it clearly means that Pope Frankie wanted to meet Rochere and honor Manif Pour Tous.

Just sayin’.

I am not a fan of Ricky Martin. I mean, he’s kinda handsome, but sometimes he’s just too much all at once, but that’s just me.

Still, I can’t help but point out that, moment while performing at the Mawazine World Rhythms Festival in Morocco last week, Martin altered the lyrics of a popular love song from "she" to "he," thereby taking a stand for LGBT rights in a country where you can be sent to prison for being gay.

Ricky sang:

“It’s the way he makes me feel; it’s the only thing that’s real,

It’s the way he understands, He’s my lover, he’s my friend

When I look into his eyes it’s the way I feel inside

Like the man I want to be, He’s all I ever need."

That’s powerful stuff to sing in a country where, under article 489, being gay is a crime punishable by imprisonment. Now, while a gay community in Morocco and arrests are few, just a month ago six men were jailed for being gay.

Nice job Ricky.

If you say you’ve never seen hottie Bobby Holland Hanton, you might have to think again.

He’s been in the movies just six years, first appearing in 2008’s Quantum of Solace, but he’s also been in the Batman series, the Thor series, the Green Lantern film, and the other Bond films. He’s even in the battle scenes in Maleficent.

Not as an actor, or the star, but as a stunt man and stunt double, though, as hot as he looks, both clothed and shirtless, maybe he should be closer to camera.

Just sayin’.

While a lot of corporations take their enormous profits and give the bigwigs giant raises and dividends, Starbucks is doing something different.

The coffee giant has announced that it will pay for thousands of its workers to take courses through Arizona State University to complete their bachelor's degree via the Starbucks College Achievement plan which will allow 135,000 full- and part-time workers to choose from 40 undergraduate degree programs at ASU and take courses online.

CEO Howard Schultz:

"There's no doubt the inequality within the country has created a situation where many Americans are being left behind. The question I think for all of us is, 'Should we accept that, or should we try to do something about it? … We can't wait for Washington."

Best of all? Workers do not have to commit to remaining with the company after graduation.

Nicely done, Starbucks.

So, the GOP is so afraid of Hillary Clinton running for president that they’ve pulled out the big guns to do battle.

A man in a squirrel suit. Yes, that’s what I said: a man in a squirrel suit. And he apparently goes around saying, and this is high-larious, "Another Clinton In The White House Is Nuts."

This from the Bush-Cheney party? Really? But that’s not the whole joke. The squirrel showed up at one of Hillary Clinton’s book signings for Hard Choices and Hillary confronted the squirrel to hand him a signed copy of her book.

And the squirrel thanked her on Twitter.

Oh you wacky folks at the GOP. Even your squirrel is a Clinton fan!

We finally watched The Normal Heart this week, after having a free HBO weekend from AT&T and I’m so glad we saw it. Such a powerful film of such a horrible time in this country when men were dying and our own government couldn’t be bothered to step up.

All the performances were amazing, though, naturally, Mark Ruffalo, playing the Larry Kramer-inspired character, and Matt Bomer were standouts.

But the part that got to me the most was the speech by Tommy Boatwright — played beautifully by openly gay actor Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory — at the funeral of a friend, when he wondered about all those men who died, and what they might have contributed to the world, the plays they might have written, the songs unsung, the art unshared.

Such a gorgeous film of such a horrendous time in our — both the LGBT community and the country— lives.

And just to be clear, as it was stated at the end of the film, AIDS is  far from over, as there are 6,000 new cases of HIV diagnosed every single day, and that 36 million people have died since the epidemic began.

Thirty-six million people in thirty-three years. That’s almost three thousand people each day.

Every day.