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POPSNo Sex for Homos Here's my problem with the "gays should be celibate" approach. Why should I expect less and accept less from life because I happen to be gay? Most people, including lots of gay people, aren't cut out for celibacy. That's why they call it the "give of celibacy." Not everybody gets it. Why not advocate a model for gays & lesbians to find a healthy, life-affirming way to express their sexuality and integrate it into their lives? Why not encourage committed monogamous relationships among gays & lesbians?
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POPSJesus Freaks, Out on the Streets Elton John's remarks on religion may piss a lot of people off, but I ain't mad at him. Then again, I don't have much use for organized religion at this point in my life, any more than I would for a so-called friend who either consistently abused and/or insulted me. And when it comes to "escalating to World War Three," from the perspective of a non-believer, it's clearly religious conflict that's fueling it, and fanatical religious believers that are driving the bus over a cliff. Whether it's the Israel/Palestine conflict, Islamic fundamentalist, or "Rapture Ready" U.S. evangelicals who see was in the Middle East as the prelude to their meeting with Jesus, and who have some influence on foreign policy. Sure. Tell me about the good religion does. But then toss in the above, along with the Crusades, the Inquisition, and countless lives harmed by the use of faith as a weapon, and how much worse off could be we without religion?
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POPSWhy Should Being Gay Be a Crime? If Michael Savage is upset with the Catholic church, he ought to be downright livid if the United Nations adopts a resolution calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. And when he finds out the resolution was offered by a black gay Frenchman? Well he'll probably call for the bombing of the U.N. and for the U.S. to finally invade and occupy France. What will be interesting to see is where the Bush administration stands. After all, they flip-flopped on allowing gay human rights activists to have U.N. access. Post-election, where will the Bush administration come down on this? Where would their base want them to come down? Three guesses, and the first two don't count.
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POPSWhen in Doubt, Distort It's easier to distort, as A. McEwen notes in his post about the six distortion techniques of the anti-gay industry. (Just six?) Also, keep an eye out for this blogger's upcoming book which shares the same title as his blog: Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.
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POPSFear of Gay Penguin Parents Zero Boss has a post about parents in panic over a book about gay penguins . Maybe it's because we have bought the book for Parker, or maybe it's because now that we're out in the 'burbs, we spend more time with heterosexual parents than with other gay parents, but these things always strike me as kind of, well, dumb. Look. Your kid knows that families like ours exist. If he goes to school with my kid, then eventually he's going to figure out that my kid has a Daddy and a Papa; either the next time we take Parker to a birthday party, or show up to pick him up one evening. He'll play with my kid, maybe ride the bus with him later, and probably even hang out with him. He'll know we exist, and see what we're like for himself. And he'll make up his own mind about us. And, be honest, that scares you even more than we do. doesn't it?
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POPSStop Recognizing Marriage? Here's the problem with the idea of doing away with marriage in favor of civil unions for all. If you think people fought hard against opening up marriage to include same-sex couples, that's nothing compared to how hard they'll fight anything that's perceived as taking marriage away form them. Sure, you've got your reasoned arguments all lined up, and the all make sense on paper (or on screen), but when was the last time reason prevailed regarding issues like this one?
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POPSACLU to the Rescue Speaking LGBT youth facing harassment in schools, it may be time for me to re-up my ACLU membership again, upon hearing that they've taken up the cause of a gay/straight student alliance in Florida's Okeechobee County, where the school board not only wouldn't recognize them, but wouldn't let them meet on school property. The group, formed in response to what students say is a serious harassment problem has been meeting in a nearby restaurant. (Maybe the kids are alright. And in California, the ACLU is defending students in California , after their school tried to stop them from publishing a series on sexual orientation in the school newspaper. And, yes, I know that means they also defend guys like this and other religious folks. And that's fine by me.
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POPSTruth Can Win Out In writing about Haggard, and comparing Haggard's story to that of Neil "Doogie Houser" Patrick Harris coming out as "a very content gay man living my life to the fullest," one columnist says it better than I could. "That's the fallacy social conservatives miss. In a culture that allows gay people room to be gay people, there is no need of lies. In a culture that does not -- i.e., theirs -- lies are rampant. And that's unfortunate, not simply for the person in question, but for all the people in his or her life." But the preference seems to be for homosexuals like Haggard as opposed to Harris.
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POPSThe Kids Are Alright. Aren't They? On the one hand I'm glad there's a conference like this for gay youth to talk about their experiences with bullying and harassment in school. On the other I'm frustrated that there's still a need for a conference like this. Maybe that's because of what I went through growing up as a skinny, effeminate, nonathletic, black gay boy in the south, in the 80s, during the Reagan era. (Yeah.I might still have a few scars from that.) But what's truly disturbing are the people who says that an anti-bullying conference "affirms" the "gay lifestyle," and particularly the woman who said "There's something called therapy. A person can change if they want to, and they should be encouraged to change if they can." And if they can't or won't? Do they deserved to be harassed? Well, I remember NARTH suggested that it might do them some good.
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POPSProphetic Penguins? Ecclesioleft gets all biblical on the penguin story and makes an interesting point about what could be learned from their story: "This is a teaching moment for us: how can we care for one another? ... I think we all ought to be more concerned about what we and our children aren't learning when we skip out on stories about love and support." Of course, to get there you have to make room for the notions that love and support happen in same-sex couples, that it's a good thing, and that it's something that should be encouraged because it benefits the greater good when that caring is extended to extended family, as in Rich's story. You'd have to skip out on stories of love and support that threatend to undermine the way you think the world must operate.
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POPSGA Goes Gender Neutral This came as a shock, on the heels of news that the University of Arizona added gender neutral bathrooms. My alma mater where, while I was co-director of the the gay student group, we successfully fought to get a non-discrimination policy including sexual orientation , has followed Arizona's example and added gender neutral bathrooms too. And they have a LGBT Resource Center now. Lemme tell ya, that didn't happen by asking nicely. Not in Georgia.
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POPSNot Calling It Marriage If I hear this argument just one more time, I think my head will explode. Will someone please point out to me when and where anyone has ever,e ver talked about making the government force churches to serve as venues for gay nuptials? Just one. You can't because it's never happened, and probably never will. First, there are churches that welcome gays & lesbians, and are happy to host same-sex weddings. Second, what gay couple would want to have their wedding in a church that really doesn't want them there? Why mar what is supposed to be a happy occasion by having it in hostile territory? Sometimes I think people have completely abandoned reason in favor of superstition.
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POPSHanged for Sodomy Maybe Michael Savage would approve of how Iran's Islamic republic handles homosexuals: with hanging, as hundreds of cheering citizens look on.
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POPSMost Americans Are Anti-Anti-Gay Are they? If Gay Patriot West is right, then most Americans aren't anti-gay, but they'd just rather their politicians didn't talk about gay issues much. GWP claims that Santorum's defeat holds a lesson for Republicans, that expressing anti-gay sentiments will not help them get elected. But Democrats may have learned the lesson in GPW's second paragraph, that they can win elections if they back off on gay issues. If the best we can hope for on either side is that neither will be talking much about gay issues in the future, where exactly does that leave us.
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POPSIs the Gay Marriage b/w GOP and Evangelicals Over? Maybe. At the very least, some evangelicals think there are issues a lot more pressing than same-sex marriage, and some of them support equality rights and protections for same-sex couples even if they're opposed to calling it marriage. But the bottom line is that they'd just rather not talk about it at all. Considering what evangelicals usually have to say about gays and lesbians, that's a kind of progress, I guess.
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