Huckabee: Ignore SCOTUS — The Law — If It Lets Gays Marry

Poor Mike Huckabee; I mean, he quit his job at Fox Not News to wait by the phone in case God called and told him to run for President, but God’s been busy giving AIDS to babies in Africa, or something, so what’s Mike gonna do now?

Well, he’ll talk to anyone and everyone who will listen and say the most non-Presidential things ever, as he did this week when he talked with conservative radio host and law professor Hugh Hewitt to shill his new “book”, God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy — wait, is it a cookbook, a bible or a gun nut anthology?

He also talked about how to break the law in this country, you know, if you don’t agree with it. Huckabee told Hewitt he is "angry" about the way states and governors are just bowing down to the U.S. Supreme Court on the issue of same-sex marriage:

"If the federal Supreme Court rules that same sex marriage is protected under the 14th Amendment, you still have to have Congress and the President act to agree with it, because one branch of government does not overrule the other two. This idea that a judge makes a ruling on Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning same sex marriage licenses are being given out, that’s utter nonsense, because there’s not been any agreement with the other two branches of government."

Clearly, Huckleberry has no idea how ‘law’ works, which may explain why God hasn’t picked up the phone yet. But Hewitt, a law professor who studied law and not just god and Grist, or some crap, schooled Huckabee on a little something called the Supremacy Clause which establishes that the federal constitution and federal law generally take precedence over state laws, and even state constitutions.

Which is why, when the courts rule, the states follow the law. You’d think Huckabee would have remembered that when he was governor of Arkansas, but he might have been too busy playing with his guns or his guitar.

Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister who is, at this time, still waiting to hear from God, also told Hewitt that when it comes to same-sex marriage, "there does come a point at which I think we have to take a stand. I may be lonely, I may be the only one, but I’m going to stand absolutely faithful to the issue of marriage not because it’s a politically expedient thing to do, because it isn’t. I’m going to do it because I believe it is the right position, it’s the Biblical position, it’s the historical position."

And that’s the exact same argument that was used to support slavery and bans on interracial marriage and we know how that worked out.

Let me make this queer: Huckleberry thinks he can be President and yet he is basically saying that if you don’t like a Supreme Court ruling, a law, in fact, then you should just be able to ignore it.

That’s so Presidential, Mike, and just one more reason why God is  busy watching a Real Housewives marathon on Bravo and not dialing your number at the Crazy House.

via NCRM

For One Memphis Parent, The Devil's In The Tail Lights

Out there in Memphis, Tennessee, at least one parent — and maybe more — have too much time on her hands.

See, one day this woman — who will not give her name — was in traffic, behind a school bus, and she saw something on the back of the bus that made her skin crawl, and made her call the district, the media, and anyone who would listen to her rants.

On the back of that bus, in the taillights, she saw an upside down, five-pointed star outlined in the brake lights; a pentagram, you know, which, according to a quick Google search, is often used as a religious or magic symbol. But for this women, a Christian, dontcha know, it was too much:

"Anyone who fears a God, if not God and Jesus Christ, should be outraged."

She says Christians should be outraged that a symbol that looks like a pentagram would be allowed in the design of a vehicle used to transport children to public schools. And she took her crazy to social media, because that’s what people with too much time on their hands, like to so, and a debate was sparked; some say the brake lights are a subliminal pagan message, while others say it's just an unintentional design, but this one woman will not let it go.

"If you can't put a cross on there, you cannot put a pentagram on it."

Still, while most seem to think it’s just a design and not a symbol that the snit-Christ is behind the wheel of Memphis school buses, even those who are not completely sold on the brake light being a sign from the devil have questions.

"Why'd they put it up there? Why'd they put it upside down?"—Marsha Hudson; kudos to Marsha for at least giving her name

Um, maybe it’s just the way the lights lined up?

But that one parent  — and again, she doesn't want anyone to know her name  — says the lights send the wrong signal, and she wants them replaced with solid red brake lights. 

Or better yet, lights that look like crosses?

Neither Durham School Services nor the school district would answer any questions about the bus' brake lights because, well, it’s dumb and this crazy woman has way too much time on her hands.

via WMC Action News

Marjorie Silva Won't Bake A 'God Hates Fags' Cake

We’ve heard all the stories of florists who don’t want to sell flowers for two grooms getting married, and bakeries that won’t make cakes for same-sex-couples, but this is a new twist.

Marjorie Silva, owner of the Azucar Bakery in Denver will bake a cake for any occasion, for anyone, gay or straight or whatever. Until recently.

See, an older man came into her store one day and said he wanted a cake shaped to look like the Bible, and Silva said that was not a problem; she says she makes Christian-themed cakes "all the time” but this one was so different.

The man, when telling Silva what he wanted, took out a piece of paper with the words he wanted written on the cake, but he would not hand it over. One of the employees said he wanted them to write “God Hates fags” on the cake.

“He wouldn’t allow me to make a copy of the message, but it was really hateful. I remember the words detestable, disgrace, homosexuality, and sinners.”—Marjorie Silva

Still, Marjorie, to her credit, said she’d bake it, with a caveat ... she would not write those words on the cake but would “sell him a [decorating] bag with the right tip and the right icing so he could write those things himself.” She says she would have been devastated to release a cake with such a hateful message fashioned by her own hands.

And that’s when the man stood up, told her that she needed to talk to her attorney, and left.

Hmmm, I smell a set-up. And lo and behold, a few hours later, the man came back and asked if she’d conferred with her lawyer; she told him she was busy and didn’t have time, but once more offered to bake the Bible cake and sell him the tools to complete the task himself but that is clearly not what he wanted. She says, though no one raised their voice, the man was creating a scene and she asked him to leave, which he did.

Then he came back again — the third time in one day — and this time Marjorie asked her brother to excuse him, but before he left, he told Marjorie, and her staff, “You will hear from me!”

And she did, via a letter filed with Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Agencies [DORA] that explained that a discrimination complaint had been filed against the bakery and that she would need to respond with her account of what happened that afternoon:

“I can … tell you that the customer wanted us to draw two males holding hands … with a big ‘X’ on them. I told him that we do not like to discriminate in this bakery, we accept all humans and that the message and drawing is extremely rude.”

Marjorie admits to being confused as to why the man chose her bakery, but said it might have had something to do with a pro-marriage-equality statement she gave to a Spanish-speaking news outlet after the Masterpiece Cakeshop decision; that’s the case where the Colorado Civil Rights Commission upheld a judge’s ruling that a Lakewood bakery was guilty of discrimination when the owners refused to bake cakes for gay weddings.

Marjorie suspects the man might have been organizing the backlash and using her shop to stage his protest, but she adds, in her response to DORA:

“I would like to make it clear that we never refused service. We only refused to write and draw what we felt was discriminatory against gays. In the same manner we would not … make a discriminatory cake against Christians, we will not make one that discriminates against gays.”

DORA will make a decision 30 days from receipt of Marjorie’s final statement, but let me make this perfectly queer: asking someone to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple is nothing like asking someone to bake a Bible cake with “God Hates Fags” on it.

One cake celebrates love, the other celebrates hate.

And possibly tastes terrible, too.

via NCRM and OutFront

Today in Christian Love: There Is No Funeral Because The Deceased Is Gay

Vanessa Collier was just thirty-three years old when she died last month, leaving behind a wife and children, and a family who just wanted a simple funeral for her. So they contacted the New Hope Ministries in Denver, and arranged to have a service; they even gave the church a memorial video to be played during the ceremony.

But the church lost the video, and asked for a second copy, and then asked the family to edit the video, removing a clip showing Vanessa Collier kissing her wife, Christina Higley, because, you know, love and lesbians and God.

Pastor — and why these not very Christ-like people call themselves pastors is fodder for another blog post — Gary Rolando, told the family:

"We don't want overt, open homosexuality in our sanctuary."

Then he added that he knew the family, loved the family, knew the deceased — her name is Vanessa, by the way, “Pastor” — and that she led an, ahem, 'alternative' lifestyle. I guess by ‘alternative’ he meant that she treated everyone the same regardless of their sexual orientation.

When the family learned that the church wanted the kiss edited from the video, they naturally refused, so on the day of the funeral, moments before it was to begin, New Hope Ministries canceled it, citing ‘technical difficulties.’

Now, to his credit, and mind you, it’s very little credit, Pastor Rolando did conduct the funeral service at another church — since they don’t bury gays at New Hope — though there was no explanation about those alleged difficulties; “Pastor” Ray Chavez [left], the founder of New Hope Ministries, refused to explain why the service was canceled so suddenly, but Rolando blamed a visiting funeral director, saying "the funeral director on that day came from a different funeral home in the chain, and wasn't familiar with New Hope's policies."

Hmmmmm, church policies? What might those be? Love one another? That policy? Judge not lest ye be judged? That one? Or maybe it’s the policy that if two women share a kiss on a memorial video then you can refuse to bury one of them? That policy?

Rolando has since said:

"I'm sorry this happened the way it did. New Hope is very sorry... It's very sad that it happened the way that it did."

Well, “Pastor,” it wouldn’t have happened that way if the leaders of the church, the “pastors” of the church weren’t bigots and homophobes, eh? It wouldn’t have happened that way if the “pastors” of the church simply believed that God is love and that God loves everyone, and it’s only the “pastors” at New Hope that hate.

God is watching New Hope and She is not happy.

via NCRM

UPDATE: Judge Rules Against Florist Who Refused Service To Gay Couple

I’ve written about Barronelle Stutzman and her Richland Washington flower shop, Arlene’s Flowers, several times, the first time almost two years ago, so let’s replay the back-story first:

Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed live in Washington, and, having been together for a while, and since Washington made all of its citizens equal, they decided to get married in September 2013.

And, since during their nearly decade-long relationship they ordered special occasion flowers — birthdays, anniversaries, condolences and such — from Arlene's Flowers, they decided to use the same florist for their wedding flowers, But Arlene’s owner, and that would be Barronelle Stutzman, turned them down because, as she says:

"Rob came into the store and was talking about getting married. I told him because of my relationship with Jesus Christ that I couldn't do his wedding."

Robert Ingersoll talked with Stutzman a bit, respectfully, but he felt hurt by the rejection:

"It really hurt because it was somebody I knew. We laid awake all night Saturday. It was eating at our souls. There was never a question she'd be the one to do our flowers. She does amazing work."

Ingersoll wrote a Facebook post about their disappointment in Stutzman and Arlene's Flowers, and suddenly the story was everywhere, with people leaving comments, both positive and critical of the florist who won't do same-sex weddings.

Many pointed out that Stutzman's refusal to provide flowers for the Ingersoll-Freed wedding just might be against Washington law because, while state law exempts religious organizations from having to perform same-sex weddings, it doesn't allow the same exemptions for businesses.

All of which lead to a lawsuit when Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a consumer protection lawsuit today against Arlene's Flowers, Barronelle Stutzman, for refusing provide flowers for a same-sex wedding.

The lawsuit alleges that when Stutzman refused to provide goods or services on the basis of sexual orientation in a place of public accommodation, she was violating the state's anti-discrimination law and was, therefore, also violating laws designed to protect consumers. Since Stutzman operates a business that sells floral arrangements for opposite-sex weddings, Ferguson says she must provide that same service to same-sex couples.

This all went back and forth about The Gays and the baby Jeebus and flowers and cakes and weddings and religion and public businesses, and it is still going on because last week Benton County Superior Court Judge Alex Ekstrom decided that the state of Washington has the authority to bring a consumer protection lawsuit against Barronelle Stutzman for refusing to do a floral arrangement for The Gays; he also ruled that Stutzman can be held personally liable for violating the Consumer Protection Act.

The judge still has two more motions to rule on in the lawsuit, including whether the facts case show the florist violated the Consumer Protection Act and the Washington Law Against Discrimination.

Stutzman’s lawyers are saying she declined not because of the couple’s sexual orientation, but because of her religious views on marriage.

But it was her views on marriage of a gay couple, a couple with a different sexual orientation than, allegedly, her own, so that argument is kind of ridiculous; if she didn’t provide flowers because of her views on marriage wouldn’t that mean she wouldn’t provide flowers for straight couples, too?

Look, it boils down to this: the state attorney general is asking for a permanent injunction requiring Stutzman and her shop to comply with the consumer protection law. Simple. You sell flowers, sell flowers, and keep the Baby Jeebus out of it.

I mean, does she check the religious status of all her customers? Does she find out what all the arrangements are for before she makes them? She doesn’t think The Gays should be married because, in her tiny head the Baby Jeebus told her so, but she can’t let the Baby Jeebus tell her how to run her business.

This would have all been a non-story had she just made the flowers. Now it’ll drag on and on … and she’ll still lose.

via LGBTQ Nation

Back Story from ISBL:
Barronelle Stutzman, of Arlene's Flowers, and The Baby Jeebus, Don't Sell Flowers For Same-Sex Weddings
Barronelle Stutzman Gets Busted!

Today In Christian Love: You Can Be Fired For Supporting Equality

As usual, there’s Good News and Bad News.

The Good News is that marriage equality has come to Florida … finally … while the Bad News is that the Catholic Church is so incensed over the idea of equality that the Archdiocese of Miami has threatened to fire anyone who works for the Church if they voice support for equality.

So, let me get this queer: the Catholic Church is anti-0marriage equality and anti-Freedom of Speech? How Christ-like, no?

Archbishop Thomas Wenski has sent out a letter warning employees that they could be fired for any conduct that is “inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church"  and that "because of the Church’s particular function in society, certain conduct, inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church, could lead to disciplinary action, including termination, even if it occurs outside the normal working day and outside the strict confines of work performed by the employee for the Archdiocese.”

See, if you work for the Church and then go home and, say, get on the Facebook and support marriage equality, you’ll be fired; if you, say, Tweet to your cousin who just married his longtime partner because equality came to town, you can be fired. If you have a blog and show support for the rights of all Americans to be treated equally under the law, you’ll lose your job.

For having an opinion, and voicing an opinion, you can be fired.

And they like to say there’s a war on religion? It looks like religion is firing the first shots at anyone who supports marriage equality and voices their support.

Again, how f**king-Christ-like.

via NBC Miami

Starting Monday Off With A Laugh ... And By 'Laugh,' I Mean Fox News

The good folks … how’s that for high-larity … over there at Fox News thought it would be fun to ask the Twitter-sphere to celebrate the demise of 2014 by #hashtagging what they were “:over” for the New Year.

As usual, Twitter responded by taking down Fox News after that dim-bulb-blonde-who-couldn’t-keep-a-job-at-The-View Tweeted that she was “over attacks on Christianity.”

I’m still trying to figure out who’s attacking Christianity, unless it’s people simply asking Christians to leave their religion out of there publicly run businesses, but I digress.

Here’s what some of the Twitterers told Fox:

via NCRM

An Open Letter to Carla Alcorn

Dear Carla Alcorn,

First off, let me say how sorry I am that your child, Leelah, your daughter, died last week. It broke my heart to hear her story, as I know it broke the hearts of many.

Sadly, it doesn’t seem to have broken your heart because, even after her death, you refuse to see that your child was struggling; you refuse to see that all she wanted was to be loved, to be understood, to be validated. You cannot even be bothered to call her by her name.

And that’s because you and your husband put your “religion” ahead of your child. You said you don’t support that … being transgender … religiously; that is transgender; that was your child; the fact that you didn’t support that caused your child to step onto a highway into oncoming traffic.

I’m sorry for that.

I’m sorry Leelah didn’t have parents who loved her unconditionally; I’m sorry Leelah had parents who, when they were told their own child felt “differently,” and had found a word to explain that difference, that her parents told her she was sick, she was wrong, she needed therapy.

She needed to be loved. She needed to be loved.

Sadly, you seem to forget that he wasn’t a ‘boy,’ but she was a young woman struggling with gender identity and your refusal to see that, understand that, accept that, set your religion aside and just simply  love your child, lead to Leelah’s death.

All of us in that LGBTQ spectrum have had feelings of being different, of not fitting in, and we have all voiced those feelings at some time or another to our parents; luckily, a great many of us had parents who, while not fully understanding what it means to be gay or transgender, still told their children that they loved them.

You told your daughter she was wrong; sure, maybe you can say you didn’t use that word; maybe you can say that she wasn’t transgender because ‘God’ doesn’t make mistakes, but when you took her to therapy, she knew what you thought of her; and it wasn’t love.

And you talked to CNN about the medications your daughter was given by counselors and therapists, and you talked about how Leelah never spoke of being transgender again like she had maybe changed her mind. The fact is she stopped talking to you about being transgender because she knew you didn’t accept her; she kept quiet because, in silence, she knew she would never have to hear you tell her she was wrong any more.

You told CNN that there are all kinds of hateful messages on the internet calling you and your husband “horrible people.” Did you once, just once, think that telling your daughter she was “wrong” was a hateful message, or did you just forget about her and think only about your religion, your faith, what people might say about you knowing you had a transgender child?

Again, I am sorry for your loss. I’m sorry for your lack of acceptance. I’m sorry you don’t understand. I’m sorry you turned your back on your child and she walked away from your house that day and never came back.

She could have been amazing, and now we’ll never know because you told her she was wrong, but it was you, Carla, you and your husband who were wrong. It was the wrong choice of words, and the wrong choice, choosing religion over your own child; wrong choice not listening.

Leelah was right, and she would have been all right had she had parents who truly loved her unconditionally. She could have been amazing … she was on her way. Even in her suicide note, she showed more compassion than her parents, when she asked that you give all of her things and money to the transgender civil rights movement and to transgender support groups:

"The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren't treated the way I was, they're treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better. My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year...Fix society. Please."

And, Carla, you can start fixing things now by calling your daughter by her name:

Leelah Alcorn. Stop refusing to accept that she was Leelah, even in death. She was your daughter, she was your child.

Say her name, Leelah Alcorn. Give her that much.

via CNN

Leelah's story on ISBL

Different Parents, Same Issue, Different Outcome

Josh Alcorn was assigned the male gender at birth but that never felt right, and when he was fourteen he learned what ‘transgender’ meant; he learned that maybe he wasn’t Josh, that maybe she was Leelah. And suddenly everything seemed right; right up until Leelah told her parents.

In a post to her Tumblr blog, Leelah wrote:

“After 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was. I immediately told my mom, and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase, that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn’t make mistakes, that I am wrong.”

Can you imagine telling your parent your deepest, darkest secret, one that will finally allow you to live in the light, and having them tell you that you’re wrong?

Leelah’s parents took her to a therapist, a Christian therapist; she says all they did was tell her she was selfish and, again, wrong; they told her to look to God for help. But Leelah knew God couldn’t help, so she waited; she was sixteen, and would wait until she was 18 and then leave home and live her life; at 18 she could begin transitioning.

Still, she rebelled in the only way she knew how: she came out at school as gay, hoping this would shock her parents into understanding who she was; it didn’t. While Leelah’s friends understood, and accepted her as a gay man, her parents grew angrier:

“They felt like I was attacking their image, and that I was an embarrassment to them. They wanted me to be their perfect little straight christian boy, and that’s obviously not what I wanted. So they took me out of public school, took away my laptop and phone, and forbid me of getting on any sort of social media, completely isolating me from my friends. This was probably the part of my life when I was the most depressed … I was completely alone for 5 months. No friends, no support, no love. Just my parent’s disappointment and the cruelty of loneliness.”

Finally, her parents relented — not in accepting their child was transgender, or even gay mind you — and let her have her phone back, let her have her social media back, let her have her friends back. But nothing else changed.

“After a summer of having almost no friends plus the weight of having to think about college, save money for moving out, keep my grades up, go to church each week and feel like shit because everyone there is against everything I live for, I have decided I’ve had enough. I’m never going to transition successfully, even when I move out. I’m never going to be happy with the way I look or sound. I’m never going to have enough friends to satisfy me. I’m never going to have enough love to satisfy me. I’m never going to find a man who loves me. I’m never going to be happy. Either I live the rest of my life as a lonely man who wishes he were a woman or I live my life as a lonelier woman who hates herself. There’s no winning. There’s no way out. “

Leelah Alcorn stepped in front of a moving tractor trailer truck on southbound Interstate 71 in Union Township last Sunday morning.  Now her parents have no child, whether boy or girl; all they have are the memories of an unhappy child, desperate to be heard, to be understood, to be loved; to be herself.

The story could end there, with my heart breaking at the idea of what was done to Leelah Alcorn in the name of God, but there’s another story, this time of a girl assigned the female gender at birth and how her, his, parents dealt with it.

Shiloh has never felt female, has always more identified with male gender, and when she told her mother how she felt, well, her mother said:

“She wants to be a boy. So we had to cut her hair. She likes to wear boys’ everything. She thinks she’s one of the brothers.”

Shiloh even asked to be called John, and her parents, and her family, call him that. His parents don’t know if this is a phase, if they have a daughter who is a tomboy, or a son who desperately wants to be himself, but what they do know is that they love their child, and will do whatever is necessary to make their child happy. They have not looked at Shiloh’s desire to dress and act like a boy as “just a phase.” Instead, the couple has embraced their child, and given her the opportunity to explore who she really is.

And that meant going out with Dad and the brothers one night when Mom was sick; John asked to wear a suit just like his brothers, and so he was given a suit. And all the pictures of John in that suit show a happy child, a contented child, a loved child. And John’s, or Shiloh’s, parents must be happy knowing that their child feels loved and accepted as Shiloh or John, with short hair or long hair, in a suit, or a dress, because, really, that’s what parents should be doing for their children.

At least that’s what Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are doing for John. They are letting their child explore gender, find himself, or herself, where he or she fits in, without fear of being unloved, unwanted.

I’d ask who the better parents are, but it’s very clear the better parents are the ones whose child is still here, walking a red carpet in a suit, and not walking in from of a semi-truck on the highway because her parents told her she was wrong.

Brad and Angelina via Inquisitr

Leelah Alcorn via Patheos

Good News: Kathy Baldock Works To Bridge The Canyon

Last week I posted about an NYT poll I’d seen that said, sometimes, by just talking about LGBT issues to people who might at first glance seem anti-LGBT, we can change their minds; that by just being out and open and our true selves, we can show people their fear and ignorance and intolerance is unnecessary [see that post HERE]

Well, Kath Baldock seems to be a prime example of that and talks about that very idea in her new book, Walking the Bridgeless Canyon. In it, she shares the story of coming into her home one day with her husband as the phone was ringing. Her husband answered and, as she listened to his side of the conversation, she understood that one of his friends had just died of what was then called “The Gay Cancer;” AIDS. And she remembers feeling dispassionate and judgmental; she thought that the way you contracted that cancer was through having gay sex, so death was, as she saw it, “foreseeable” and could therefore be avoided if gay men just stopped having sex. For her it was very black and white: stop being gay and you won’t die.

Shortly thereafter, Kathy went though her own upheaval, a divorce and a new life, though she says her faith, and her beliefs, never changed. But she started to walk, both physically and spiritually, as a result of the changes in her life, and it was while walking that things really began to change for her.

Along the canyon trail that she hiked regularly, Kathy passed the same woman every day walking in the opposite direction; Kathy sensed that this woman was very different than herself; she thought this woman was a lesbian. Out of the blue, Kathy asked the other woman if they could walk together, and as they did, Kathy came to realize that she no longer needed to “save a soul,” that she could just ‘be’ and that some of those souls she thought needed to be saved, did not need it at all.

The walk became an everyday thing with Kathy and her new friend Netto. Through Netto, Kathy met more LGBT community members, and she began to see that those gay faces were just the same as her; and she began to listen … Netto told Kathy that she could never feel safe in the places Kathy frequented, with the people Kathy knew:

“Look Kathy, you don’t understand. In this society, I’m the lowest of the low. I am a Native American. I am a woman of color. I have a Hispanic last name. I am lesbian. Not even God loves me.”

Those last words hit Kathy the hardest. She had broken through the powerful truth that happens when regressive Christian dogma meets an actual living breathing LGBT person — the dogma falls apart.

And so, over the course of the next several years, Kathy wrote Walking the Bridgeless Canyon and began to bring together her LGBT friends and her Christian faith. Her book shares stories of Christians who were led to challenge their prejudices after they got to know The Gays; her book is a kind of history of the culture of the LGBT movement, the political and religious evolutions, the scientific facts of being gay, and of what the Bible really says about homosexuality, which, in reality, is really nothing at all.

One of Kathy’s key objectives is to fling open the closed gates of Christianity and make it accessible to those LGBT people who want it, and make it friendly again to those LGBT people who have endured its abuses.

And because of her own journey, because of that one day when she asked a fellow hiker if they could walk together, Kathy has created ways for Christians to respect their LGBT neighbors, one of which is recognizing that the LGBT person may already have a “journey with Jesus,” and does not need to be saved; she wants Christians to realize that LGBT people need to be respected and heard, and not simply dismissed with a wave of the hand and a, “You couldn’t have been ‘born gay’.”

Today Kathy Baldock is still working to make Christians understand that there is nothing to fear from The Gays, that we are all a lot more alike than we are different, and she has taken on some of the more vehemently anti-gay “preachers” and speakers, like Michael Brown, Robert Gagnon, Anne Paulk, and Scott Lively.

In fact, she recently smuggled a gay man into the church lead by “Pastor” Steven Anderson, who believes gay people should be executed; Anderson had recently declared that there would never be a gay person in his church and yet, courtesy of Kathy Baldock, that statement is just another of Anderson’s lies. Kathy believes that the hold pastors like Anderson have on American Christianity is not a good one:

“Unfortunately the list of Christians with literal, fear-inspired theology seems endless. Aside from the ugly street screamers, I’ve personally experienced interaction/meeting many who, in their zeal, are convinced they are flawless in their biblical interpretations and speak for God while doing significant damage to the emotional, physical and spiritual well-being of the LGBT community.”

Today, Kathy Baldock, who once believed that a gay cancer was your own fault, works to fight against gay reparative therapies. She realizes now that being gay is just another way of being, and she is proving the point, that when people who have some sort of anti-gay bias actually meet a gay person, many times — not all the time, I am no Pollyanna — their views change. But they will never change if we don’t come out; they’ll never change is we sit in silence; they’ll never change if we don’t talk.

Talking is the way Kathy Baldock hopes we can bridge that canyon.

via LGBTQ Nation

Random Musings

Up in Vermont, Bo Muller-Moore picked a fight with anti-gay fast-food chain Chick-fil-A over the use of the phrase "eat more kale" … similar to their trademarked "eat mor chikin" … and this week he won his legal battle after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted his application to trademark his phrase.

"I've called Chick-fil-A's bluff on their cease-and-desist demands. I am not ceasing and desisting. I am thriving, thanks to people like you and thanks to Vermont and people from beyond." — Bo Muller-Moore

Muller-Moore started using the phrase in 2001 after a farmer who grows kale — known for its nutritional value — asked him to make three T-shirts for his family; the phrase caught on and, with the approval of the farmer, Muller-Moore began marketing it.

In 2011, Muller-Moore sought to trademark the phrase and shortly thereafter Chick-fil-A sent him a cease-and-desist letter telling him to stop using the phrase because the company felt it could be confused with "eat mor chikin."

But Muller-Moore refused, and used social media — and even this blog HERE — to win the support of state officials, including the Governor and pro-bono lawyers who handled his case. Governor Shumlin called Muller-Moore a shining example of Vermont's independence and entrepreneurial spirit.

Now, Chick-fil-A is kinda eating Crow, while Muller-Moore is having a special drink …

"Chick-fil-A did me a bit of a favor: They handed me lemons, and I made lemonade.” — Bo Muller-Moore

Snap.

When Carlos comes home from work, he often stirs our little Pocket Dog, Ozzo, into a frenzy, with the dog tearing through the house like Lindsay Lohan looking to score.

But the other day, as Carlos was revving him up and up and up, I suddenly heard a thump and Carlos say, “Ozzo! Are you okay? Ozzo?”

The.Dog.Had.Run.Into.The.Wall.

Proud Papa I am.

I know there’s an ALLEGED threat of terrorism, but, well, this still makes me smile.

In light of the decision by the majority of movie houses to pull the new James Franco/Seth Rogan film, The Interview, from their theaters before it even opened, Sony Pictures have scrapped the release of the film … for now, and released a statement which says, in part:

“Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customers, and our business. Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails, and sensitive and proprietary material, and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale – all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like.”

Yeah, it’s ridiculous, but let me pose this question: how would we feel if some film company in North Korea — or anywhere for that matter — released a film about two North Koreans coming to the US to assassinate our president? Sure, maybe we wouldn’t hack anyone’s emails, but the movie is offensive and ridiculous and stupid.

Plus, Franco’s in it and the less I see or hear of him, the better.

Other things making me smile this week?

Glad you asked. Out there to Alexandria, Indiana, the First United Methodist Church will close its doors at the end of this year. So, why am I smiling?

Glad you asked. This is the same church that earlier this year fired their musical director, Adam Fray, because he’s a homosexual. Then Dr. David Steele was fired from his leadership position in the church for asking that Fray be rehired. Those two things caused a mass walkout by many in the congregation, which caused the church to lose members and money and have to shut it down.

That’s why I’m smiling. Another example of the so-called Good Christians lashing out against someone for being gay and The Gays get the last laugh.

Karl Rove and Dick Cheney, Two Hounds of Hell from the W Regime, have come out and said that, even in light of the recent CIA torture report, they still support the use of, ahem, “enhanced interrogation methods.”

Good, let’s arrest them both for War crimes and use those same methods on them.

I’ve still been perusing Bravo’s new “scripted” show, The Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce, though it isn’t for the girlfriend’s or the divorce. I do like Janeane Garofalo as a bitter divorcee, but it’s the man candy that peaks my, er, interest.

Like Charles Mesure, who plays on of the ex-husbands and has a body and Australian accent to die for.

Then there’ Paul Adelstein, not classically handsome but there’s something about him that also, well, you know.

Just sayin’.

Barbara Walters aired her "Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2014” last week and the most fascinating person of the year? Amal Alamuddin Clooney. Oh, she isn’t fascinating because she’s a high-powered attorney, not at all. Babs — who apparently thinks this was the Most Fascinating List for 1944, said it like this:

"This is Amal Alamuddin, George Clooney's beautiful bride. You could say hers was the wedding of the year. It was really one of the greatest achievements in human history."

The.Greatest.Achievement.In.Human.History? Way to set back the women’s movement a hundred years or more Babs, because no one but you thinks marrying a confirmed bachelor actor is the greatest human achievement in history.

Shouldn’t you be relaxing in a  crypt somewhere?

Camille Cosby has finally broken her silence over the twenty or so — of which we know — women who allege that they were sexually abused and drugged by her husband Bill Cosby, and she went all Tammy “Stand By Your Man” Wynette on the media. She says that the situation is similar to the Rolling Stone report of rapes at UVA that has since been called into question because the woman, the lone woman, at the center of that story may have lied.

Um, Camille, because one woman in Virginia may have lied to Rolling Stone about being raped, that doesn’t compare at all to the dozens and dozens of women who’ve come forward telling the same story about your husband.

You need to sit down and have a good think, and then … stay seated.

When Carlos cooks I inevitably walk into the kitchen and will say, “What stinks?”

And he’ll say,. “The crap I’m serving for dinner.”

Well, being the Christmas season, and being that Carlos loves cranberries and marmalade, he was in the kitchen the other day making some, you guessed it, Cranberry Marmalade. Only, we didn’t have any oranges to give it that citrus boost so he was going to add apples.

“Cranberries and Apples,” I said.”Sounds like Crapple.”

See what I did there? Cranberries? Apples? He cooks crap?

Yeah, he already made me stop.

Jeb Bush has kina come out to say he’s going to run for president so he can also ruin, and that isn’t a typo like I meant to say run, I meant, ruin this country like his dim-bulb, lying war criminal brother, and his one-term, read my lips  no new taxes daddy.

He said, on Facebook, because he’s a teenage girl:

"I am excited to announce I will actively explore the possibility of running for President of the United States."

He’s announcing that he’s really really really gonna think about it.

Siddown Jeb. Just Siddown.

More Carlos?

Okay … earlier this week my father sent us a little gift from a garden center: Bird Seed Pears. They looks like pears, but are made of birdseed and you hang them about your yard to feed your visiting feathered friends.

Well, Carlos was leaving for work one day and he asked if I minded if he gave one to Nina, the receptionist at work. I didn’t, but then I wondered something … Carlos and Nina chat all the time; they take lunches together; they share recipes and give one another gifts — she recently gave him us a bird feeder.

Now I realize what’s happening ... Nina is Carlos “Work Wife.”

And as soon as I told him that I knew, well let’s just say he looked like he wanted to run into a wall like Ozzo.

The Song-In-My-Head this week is, at last, a long time favorite: Shawn Colvin, "Killing The Blues."