Today in Christian Love: God Hates Fags ... So Shoot Them

Another day, another Hate Crime.

This time it’s Wayne Steven Odegard, of Minnesota, who harassed patrons outside a gay club in Minneapolis and then, just for fun apparently, because they were gays after all, he decided to shoot a gay couple with a BB gun.

The attack occurred last September, when Wayne Steven Odegard stood outside the Saloon bar and began hurling anti-gay epithets at the people waiting to get into the club, Shortly after his little homophobic tirade, he pulled out the BB gun and began shooting into the crowd of patrons and then ran. Tyler Erickson, the club’s security guard, who witnessed the entire altercation and pursued Odegard as he fled the scene.

"I ran after him and then it ended up he shot a different gay couple in the leg, with that gun and it went through his jeans and drew blood. He told me multiple times that I’m going to go to hell and he’s going to bring me with him. He recited a biblical passage — I think it’s a Deuteronomy passage." — Tyler Erickson

Erickson caught Odegard and held him until police arrived, charged and arrested the man for making terroristic threats; last month Odegard plead guilty to the charges in October and was sentenced to six months in jail, and ordered to undergo chemical dependency and psychological evaluations and attend anger management classes. In addition, given that his crime was based on the sexual orientation of his victims, the court raised his probation period from three years to five years.

Okay. So what?

Here’s so what: I blame every single one of those so-called religious anti-gay bigots, like Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, Bryan Fischer, Peter LaBarbera, Mike Huckabee, Brian Brown and Linda Harvey; I blame NOM and the FRC and the AFA.

For every single time they take to the airwaves to rail against gay folks, and quote the Bible, and pretend that they speak for God, they incite people like Wayne Steven Odegard to physically attack gay people just for being gay.

And yet, these same wingnuts, in the same breath, will rant and rave about how The Gays are out to destroy religion and harm the Christians, and rid the word of God-fearing individuals. And still I wait for that Hate Crime, the one perpetrated by a Gay Man or Woman, waiting outside a church, shooting a BB gun at a Christian couple and shouting anti-Christian epithets.

But that hasn’t happened. I have yet to see one incident of a gay person bashing, shooting, hurling hate speech, at Christians. And yet we have these losers and morons and haters telling their minions that we are an abomination, a sin against nature, and that God hates us; and because they do that, because they couch it in Freedom of Religion, they encourage people like Wayne Steven Odegard to attack gay people in the streets while shouting Bible verses.

I blame Wayne Steven Odegard for what he did in Minneapolis, but I also blame Fischer, LaBarbera, Brown, Perkins, Harvey, Huckabee and the rest.

They all played a part in that attack.

via LGBTQNation

It Was A Hate Crime

I’m sure by now you’ve all seen, or at least heard about, that airport incident, where an apparently drunken white man attacked a black man, while calling him a n****r over and over again. The whole episode was caught on a cellphone camera—as is everything these days—and was posted to YouTube where it went viral.

The attacker was tackled by bystanders in the airport, and taken down while screaming about “f*****g n****r” and was subsequently arrested and charged with a Hate Crime.

Except it didn’t happen that way, though maybe if it did …

At the Dallas airport that day McCleish Christmas Benham was drunk, very drunk; when a gate agent asked him if he’d had any alcohol, Benham cursed at her, saying, “Yes, 100 drinks.” A man standing nearby heard the exchange and told Benham to calm down, that the police were on their way, and that’s when Benham turned his rage on that young man.

He was asked again to relax, and when another passenger asked why he was so angry, Benham pointed to the first young man and said, "This faggot right here."

Then Benham kicked the man in the groin, punched him in the eye, and hit him on the head before he was tackled by five onlookers and an airport police officer. While he was being taken to the ground, he continued to yell, "Queers! That's what I'm upset about."

Now, while this sickens me, and while I wonder why it took so long for airport security to respond, because the minute you take too long taking your shoes off at TSA you’re surrounded by security, I am stunned to learn that Benham will only face charges of simple assault and public intoxication; each carries a maximum fine of $500 and no jail time. 

But there doesn’t seem to be any move to charge him with a Hate Crime, though, to be fair, local police have not yet indicated whether they will file hate-crime charges against Benham; if they did, Benham could be charged with a Class-B misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum $2,000 fine and up to 180 days in jail.

In addition he might also face separate charges under the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, though it seems that hate crime charges can be difficult to prove when an assailant is under the influence of drugs or alcohol. 

Okay, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: if that drunk man had punched and kicked the other man because he was a belligerent drunk, that’s hateful; but when he punches, kicks, and hits, while calling the man a “queer” and a “faggot” that’s Hate.

I mean, if that first part of the story were true if he’d called a black passenger a “n****r” and attacked him, we’d know right away it’s a Hate Crime; there’d be no discussion. But since this was, perhaps, because we don’t even know, a gay victim, well, we can’t be sure it was Hate.

I’m here to say it was Hate; it is Hate; and it will be Hate. And when a lawyer, when asked about hate crimes laws says that would be difficult to prove because Benham was drunk, well, then you’ve just given people their out: get drunk, attack a queer, and it won’t be considered hate because you’re intoxicated.

Now that’s hateful.

The Star-Telegram

The Advocate

Random Musings

Carlos and I were watching TV the other night and that commercial for Dove Chocolate came on; the one which stars a dead Audrey Hepburn selling candy. Don’t get me started on that! But to my surprise Carlos was offended, mumbling something about there only being one Audrey Hepburn. I was stunned; I never knew he was a fan of Audrey’s so, innocently, I asked:

Since when are you a fan of Audrey Hepburn?

I love her.

Really? Name one movie she was in …

::::crickets:::

Seriously, give me the name of one movie.

There are so many—

I know that’s why I asked for one, just one, movie. I mean, I can think of five right off the top of my head!

Well, there was the one where her father was artist and there was a car ….

What was that one called? My Father’s An Artist and There’s A Car?

Ten minutes pass. Ten minutes.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Bless his heart.

Yaz’min Shancez, a transgender woman who lived in Fort Myers, Florida was murdered, her body burned and then tossed behind a dumpster. Police are investigating but they don’t think it was a Hate Crime.

Fort Myers Police Lt. Jay Rodriguez:

“If you really think about it, a hate crime is killing someone for a specific reason, being black, Hispanic, gay. We’re investigating as we would any other homicide.”

Not a Hate Crime? Transgender woman, burned to death and then thrown away? Let me set this queer, again.

If Yaz’min was beaten and murdered because someone wanted her new phone, or her car, or maybe her credit cards and money that would be a hateful crime. But when a transgendered woman is beaten and tortured and burned to death and then her body is tossed away like garbage, that is Hate.

Are we queer on that now?

Apparently the GOP in South Dakota has nothing to do. I guess everyone in the state is working, the jobs are all good, health care in place, environment protected; it’s all good.

I mean, it must be, right, because how else do we explain that the South Dakota state GOP passed a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Obama.

The resolution says Obama has "violated his oath of office in numerous ways." It specifically cites the release of five Taliban combatants in a trade for captive U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, Obama's statement that people could keep insurance companies, and recent EPA regulations on power plants.

Allen Unruh of Sioux Falls sponsored the resolution, saying he has a “thick book on impeachable offenses of the president" and asking that South Dakota "send a symbolic message that liberty shall be the law of the land."

I have a better plan; rather than sending symbolic messages why don’t you do your f**king jobs?

I was home during the day on Monday and happened to catch an episode of The View. I stopped even glancing at the show when Joy Behar left because the table including idiotic Sherri Shepherd, daft Babs Walters, and Behar’s replacement, moronic non-thinker Jenny McCarthy. I only ever wondered how Whoopi Goldberg could stand to stay on that show surrounded by fools and morons.

I heard them discuss a story about Arkansas training teachers to carry guns in schools, and when McCarthy said it was a great idea, I nearly pulled out my gun and shot through my TV set.

Luckily, I don’t own a gun, because I can’t afford a new TV this month. But, seriously, Jenny? The solution to crazed people with guns shooting up schools is to put guns in the hands of teachers?

You know damned well that, god forbid there was a school shooting at the school McCarthy’s son attends, and a teacher didn’t protect her son, or a teacher accidentally shot an innocent child, or a kid got hold of a teacher’s gun, McCarthy would be the first person on social media ranting about it.

That woman needs to take a seat, on another show, where her opinions don’t matter.

FoxNews.

So, there’s this on NBC called Taxi Brooklyn. It aired last night, and I, mistakenly, thought it would be a comedy; I was thinking Taxi and Brooklyn-9-9 but I was wrong. It’s your standard police procedural with a ridiculous twist, wherein a female detective is such a bad driver that she is not allowed to drive a police car so she teams up with a taxi driver to solve crimes.

Dumb. I know. But then there’s Jacky Ido, a gorgeous Black Frenchman playing Leo the taxi driver. Hot, with an accent. Did I mention hot? Accent?

Plus, in a rare twist, Raul Casso plays Ronnie, Leo’s roommate, a cross-dressing, sexually fluid war veteran and taxi driver. In one scene last night he blatantly flirts with a burly looking police officer and then offers up his card, saying, “Call me.” And the officer looks around, shrugs and then takes the card.

I kinda liked the surprise of that.

I’ll stick around and see if this show pans out, but mostly because there’s a Hot Black Frenchman.

Lotsa marriage news this week….

New York Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney married his partner of twenty-two years, Randy Gene Florke, over the weekend. Florke proposed in December after the youngest of their three children wrote to Santa wishing for her parents to be married—Maloney and Florke have three children ranging in age from 11 to 24.

Congratulations to the happy couple.

Out there to Indiana, the minute the same-sex marriage ban was declared unconstitutional, Craig Bowen and Jake Miller were wed in Indianapolis. They have been together for eight years.

The moment the decision came down, Jake texted Craig and asked him if he wanted to get married … now. Craig said yes, and they headed to the county clerk's office, where they were the first same-sex couple to arrive.

Congratulations to them, as well.

Also in Indiana, after the ruling striking down the same-sex  marriage ban, Marion County Clerk Beth White announced she was ready to marry some gay couples, and by the end of the day there had been 186 same-sex weddings.

And, White added that marriage licenses, and ceremonies, would resume again this morning at 8AM and that the civil ceremonies would be offered for a  voluntary donation of $50 to the Indiana Youth Group.

White has, so far, raised $4,000 for the IYG.

Get married and help a charity for LGBTQ youth? Win. Win.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued a 2 to 1 decision yesterday upholding a district court decision that Utah’s marriage ban for same-sex couples is unconstitutional.

The decision in Herbert v. Kitchen is the first from a federal appeals court on a state marriage ban since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Windsor and this ruling puts the Utah case closest to arriving at the Supreme Court. And we all know what happened the last time … a year ago today!

 Interesting side note … although the Tenth Circuit stayed its order finding a marriage ban for same-sex couples unconstitutional in Utah, Boulder County, Colorado  began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as well since the Tenth Circuit includes Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. 

Yesterday was a great day in the March For Marriage!

More good news? Can you stand it?

Broadway actors Andy Mientus and Michael Arden announced their engagement. Arden has appeared on Broadway in The Times They Are A-Changin’ and Big River and has been seen on TV in series including Anger Management, Nurse Jackie and The Good Wife. Mientus, who makes his Broadway debut in this season’s Les Misérables, has also appeared in Anger Management and in NBC’s Smash.

Announcing their engagement on Instagram, Mientus quoted Shakespeare’s As You Like It:

"Come, woo me, woo me, for now I am in a holiday humour and like enough to consent." 

Congratulations to this happy couple.

Update Central: Crsytal Moore, Frank Schaefer, Kristene Chapa

Earlier this week the people of Latta, South Carolina finally had their say about Mayor Earl Bullard’s firing of openly gay police chief, Crystal Moore, and they spoke loudly and clearly.

Moore was reinstated to her position and Earl Bullard, the mayor who fired her because she was gay — and because she questioned his ethics — was stripped of some of his powers. See my original post HERE.

The voters passed a referendum changing the governing structure of Latta from “mayor-strong” to “council-strong," which gives the town council the ability to rehire Moore, and while the ballots still must be certified by this Friday, the council plans to make the rehiring of Moore its first order of business.

Bullard, who has been mayor since December, started this whole mess back in April when he fired Moore after giving her seven reprimands. Moore maintained that she had done nothing wrong, and that the reprimands were the first she had received in 20 years. 

Shortly afterwards, though, a council member released a recorded phone call in which Bullard went on a homophobic tirade saying he preferred to leave his children with a raging alcoholic than with someone whose "lifestyle is questionable."

And the town, who long felt Moore was the best person, male or female, gay or straight, for the job, fought back, with hundreds of townspeople rallying for her reinstatement. Bullard denied that he fired Moore because of her sexual orientation, and there was no concrete proof — even though there was that damning phone call — that that was his motivation, but many people in Latta felt Moore's firing was personal.

Now she’s back, and the mayor is a little less powerful, all in a tiny town in, of all places, South Carolina.

UPDATE UPDATE ... via Bilerico ... 

In a desperate bid to thwart the will of the town council, Mayor Hubbard scrambled announced this morning that he's hired a new police chief before the council's vote could be certified. Stay tuned.

h/t to BloggerJoe.

via: HuffPost Gay Voices

Late last year, Frank Schaefer, a former Pennsylvania pastor was convicted of breaking church law when he officiated at the 2007 same-sex wedding ceremony of his son and his son’s partner. Schaefer’s son had asked him to perform the wedding — held not in a Methodist church but at a restaurant — and Schaefer did not publicize the wedding. The story came out in April 2013, when a member of the congregation learned of the ceremony and filed a complaint. See my original post HERE.

Now, however, a United Methodist Church appeals panel has overturned a decision to defrock Schaefer and the church has been ordered to restore his pastoral credentials. The panel called the jury’s punishment illegal under church law and said that “revoking his credentials cannot be squared with the well-established principle that our clergy can only be punished for what they have been convicted of doing in the past, not for what they may or may not do in the future.”

“I’ve devoted my life to this church, to serving this church, and to be restored and to be able to call myself a reverend again and to speak with this voice means so much to me.”—Frank Schaefer, who says he will continue to work for LGBT rights “with an even stronger voice from within the United Methodist Church.”

The ruling can be appealed to the Methodist church’s highest court, and the pastor who prosecuted Schaefer, the Reverend Christopher Fisher, said he has not made a decision about an appeal.

Hopefully Fisher has seen that the times are changing, and that the church, even the Methodist Church, needs to change as well. Otherwise, when the change does come, he’ll be seen as the pastor who stood on the wrong side of equality.

via: LGBTQ Nation

One night in 2012, girlfriends Mollie Olgin [right] and Kristene Chapa [left] went to Violet Andrews Park in Portland, Texas so Olgin could show Chapa were she’d been baptized. See my original post HERE.

They encountered someone who allegedly forced them down a steep incline, tied them up, and then shot each girl in the head. It wasn’t until morning that a couple out for a walk found the two girls; Mollie Olgin had died during the night but Kristene Chapa was alive.

The gunshot initially left Chapa unable to sit or stand, with the bullet piercing the part of her brain controlling movements on her left side. Thankfully, today, she has recovered those abilities though she is still undergoing physical rehabilitation.

Better news, though, is that a suspect in the case — David Malcolm Strickland [right] — was arrested last week by US Marshals and Texas Rangers in San Antonio; his wife, Laura Kimberly, was also arrested. Strickland faces charges of capital murder, aggravated assault, and aggravated sexual assault; his wife faces charges of tampering with evidence.

“I hope that it gives them some closure knowing that this person is taken off the street. It is one day before the two-year anniversary. We've been working very hard to make sure we get him as soon as possible. A series of fortunate events has led us to this point and I'm just very happy that we could help in — at least at this point — in bringing him to justice.”— Portland Police Chief Gary Giles

Nothing will bring back Ollie Olgin, and nothing will erase the memory of what happened that night to Kristene Chapa, but now, at least, the person responsible appears to have been arrested and will stand trial.

via: NBC News