I Didn't Say It ...

Annette Bening, speaking in defense of transgender youth outside the Supreme Court:

“I have four beautiful children—and I’m allowed to brag about my children because they’re mine—and my eldest is a remarkable trans man, an extraordinary human being. As a well-meaning parent, I didn’t always know how to support my teenager—my vulnerable teenager who was just trying to live his truth—but you know what? I learned. I learned that what these kids and families need is judicious counseling, sound medical advice, and an atmosphere of calm and love and acceptance. Trans folks are everywhere. They’re your doctors in your emergency rooms. They’re your firefighters. They’re your teachers, your librarians, the store clerks, the clerks in the bookstores. Everywhere in this world trans folks exist and it is our responsibility to support and love them. There’s nothing to be frightened of. Everyone just wants to live in freedom, safety and dignity."

Dignity; we’re heading toward banning dignity and safety because of ignorance and fear.

Ain’t that America.

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George Takei, on moronic Democrats:

“To the ‘High Road’ Democratic leaders who say Biden should pardon [The Convicted Felon], knock it off. What the hell kind of message do you think that would send? We need to fight autocracy, not flirt with it.”

The Democrats, at least these kinds of Democrats, are going to destroy democracy all by themselves.

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Cynthia Erivo, Elphaba, the Wicked Witch in Wicked, on why the song ‘Defying Gravity’ resonates with queer audiences:

“I didn’t know that was happening. That's really powerful … It’s really important for her in that moment to not allow the things that have hurt her, that have stripped her of her humanity to keep her down, that she does defy gravity, that the possibilities for her at that point, that she decides that they are endless, that it is within her power to change things, that she chooses flight as opposed to staying tethered to the ground. That’s something that we can all learn, that we don't have to be tethered, that we can actually fly, that we can change things, that we can allow the things that make us special to really make us elevate. It's hard to talk about Elphaba as an ‘other’ without having it intrinsically linked to being a woman who walks through the world as a queer Black woman. Immediately I understood what it meant for people to look at you and see you as not beautiful, not acceptable, not any of those things, because I walked through the world like this. And having to find a way to not necessarily be OK with it but be OK with yourself enough so that when other people put that on you, you can still move through it.”

We all have our crosses to bear and sometimes other people put those on us and sometimes we put them on ourselves. We all need to learn that no matter how different we all may seem we are more alike than we can imagine.

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Chris Appleton, out celebrity hairstylist, on how his coming-out journey started after being in a long-term relationship with a woman that included having two children:

"Everybody else also thought I had it figured out. So when you're all of a sudden then changing the record, people are like: 'Well, you must have always known,' and I didn't realize I did. I never was too focused on sexuality, but people at school always mentioned it, and, as a kid, you just don't ever want to be different—I already felt different because I was dyslexic. The difficult thing is, then you're hurting people around you that you've committed to, and you feel that. It sounds cheesy, but there's honestly so much power in living authentically and being authentically yourself. I think once I let go of all the guilt and shame of it all, my whole life changed. I moved to America; it was amazing how much grew and changed."

Every person’s coming out story is their own; they choose when and where and how and we all just need to say, Welcome.

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Sheryl Lee Ralph, Emmy winner and Broadway legend, receiving The Advocate of the Year award at the Out100 event and speaking of being inspired by the LGBTQ+ community:

“To be named Advocate of the Year is an honor I carry on behalf of every individual who has fought for love, for identity, for visibility, and for freedom. Advocacy is not a solo journey—it is a collective movement. It is the bravery of those who came before us, the courage of those who stand with us, and the hope of those who will follow. I have been inspired over the years by so many in this community—by those who refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice, by those who live their truth unapologetically, and by those who show us that joy is also an act of resistance. I am a believer in the power of unity. The world may try to divide us, but our strength has always been in our ability to stand together, to lift one another, and to remind each other that love—at its core—is unstoppable.”

Unstoppable; we’ve done it once before and we will continue to do it.

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I Didn't Say It

Annette Bening, on the GOP and the conservatives’ efforts to stoke anti-transgender bigotry for political gain:

“They are trying to stir up all this fear in people about trans kids and parents, and they are trying to legislate that. This should not be scary to anybody else. This is a private, legitimate, complex, deep, spiritual, physical, psychological experience that has to be respected and honored. At the bottom line, life is about love. For me, the real transition has happened as the right wing in the country has become more and more mobilized on misinforming people about the LGBTQ community. They have been vilifying our community and creating problems that do not exist and creating and sowing hate and fear as a way of rallying their base. That’s obviously not new, and it’s happened in the campaigns of the past, especially against gay people. But now it’s transphobia, and it’s just rampant. They’re doing it at a time when there are more and more trans people who are living openly and who are our teachers, our writers, and our doctors … what I would wish is for every person to have someone who is trans in their family because once somebody you love is trans, then you get it. I am incredibly proud of [my son], and he has carved his own way. He’s someone I do admire, and I’ve learned a lot from when he first came out. I was very ignorant about what that meant to be a trans kid. I, like every other parent, want to protect my kids and make sure they’re OK, and I had a lot of learning to do. I didn’t always know what to do, and I didn’t always make the right choices because of my own ignorance, but we got through it [and] we all have a responsibility to protect and defend the rights of trans folks in our world. They’re precious parts of our community.”

The attacks on trans people are personal for Bening, whose son, writer Stephen Ira, is trans. The four-time Academy Award nominee and recently appointed chair of the board of the Entertainment Community Fund admitted to a certain hesitation in talking about her son publicly.

She also vowed to continue to use here platform to advocate for trans people.

Knowledge is power; love is love; the conservative right is wrong.

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Hillary Clinton, after the latest Thing 45 indictment:

“I don’t feel any satisfaction. I feel great profound sadness that we have a former president that has been indicted for so many charges that went right to the heart of whether or not our democracy would survive. I don’t know that anybody should be satisfied. This is a terrible moment for our country, to have a former president accused of these terribly important crimes. The only satisfaction is that the system is working. That all of the efforts by [Thing 45] and his allies and enablers to try and silence the truth and undermine democracy have been brought into the light. And justice is being pursued.”

She tried to warn us in 2016 and a lot of us didn’t listen.

I’m still with her.

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Lara, speaking on Newsmax, whining about her Daddy-In-Law and playing another round of Whataboutism:

“What they accused our campaign and my father-in-law of doing in 2016, conspiring somehow with Russia to win an election. Hillary Clinton herself and the DNC actually did these things. And I think beyond that, this is what is frustrating to people, to see them throwing everything at the wall, to see anything that might stick for [Thing 45] because they don’t care in actuality how it is they prevent him from becoming president of the United States again. That is their angle. And they will try everything as evidenced now by this fourth ridiculous indictment. But to see Hillary Clinton out there talking about it, laughing about it, cackling about it, to know that the Biden family is basically getting away with selling out the United States of America, as far as all of us have seen with our own eyes, it is insane to see.”

He gets indicted and the GOP and the wingnut news people, and the family members on the payroll, or those looking to secure a spot in the will,  start squawking, Hillary!!! Hunter!!! Joe!!!

In the words of her criminal Daddy-in-Law, 'It's sad.'

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Brian Kemp, Georgia’s GOP Governor, on Thing 45’s claim that he will be “irrefutably exonerated” in a report to be released next week:

“The 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen. For nearly three years now, anyone with evidence of fraud has failed to come forward—under oath—and prove anything in a court of law. Our elections in Georgia are secure, accessible, and fair and will continue to be as long as I am governor. The future of our country is at stake in 2024 and that must be our focus.”

Good on Kemp for standing up against a traitor but, to be clear, Kemp is not all about fair elections.

Just ask people of color in his state.

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Eminem, on Thing 45 and his base … the MAGAts … the basket of deplorables:

“I just get flustered and frustrating watching him play to his base that thinks that he cares about them and it’s actually the people that he cares about the f**king least. If you’re talking about his core being, ya know, a majority white middle class, what I don’t understand is how in the f**k do you feel like you relate to a billionaire who has never known struggle his entire f**king life? I will say this, he talks a good one. And if you’re in his base, let’s say you’re going to the rallies or whatever, you watch him on TV, you hear him talking this s**t, there’s part of me that understands, like, Alright, he’s somehow still got them because he’s brainwashing them into thinking something great is going to happen. Nothing’s happening.”

For those MAGAts shrieking about Thing 45’s Freedom of Speech being used against him, that is exactly what you’re doing to Eminem because he dares speak out about the con artist who has his hands in your wallet.

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Trixie Mattel, drag queen, on the right’s fear of drag queens and children:

“We don’t think about your kids. We don’t hope they’re gay. We don’t hope they turn out trans. We don’t hope they become drag queens. What we hope is that, if they are trans or gay, they find a community faster than many of us did.”

We just want to show those kids who may be LGBTQ+ that there is a way to happiness and self-acceptance and if parents think that’s somehow wrong, perhaps they shouldn't be parents.

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I Didn't Say It ...

Annette Bening, actress, on her son Stephen’s gender identity after transitioning from Kathlyn Elizabeth in his teens:

“He’s managed something that’s very challenging with great style and great intelligence. He’s an articulate, thoughtful person, and I’m very, very proud of him. When I was younger, part of me thought I could save my children from having to suffer, which was, of course, ridiculous. They have to go through their struggles.”

That’s parental love; loving your children unconditionally, and being there with them as they make their way through life.

PS Is it just me or does Annette bear a striking resemblance to Elizabeth Warren?

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Barack Obama, my president, the greatest president, speaking at a leadership event in Singapore about women:

"Now women, I just want you to know; you are not perfect, but what I can say pretty indisputably is that you're better than us [men]. I'm absolutely confident that for two years, if every nation on Earth was run by women, you would see a significant improvement across the board on just about everything ... living standards and outcomes. If you look at the world and look at the problems, it's usually old people, usually old men, not getting out of the way. It is important for political leaders to try and remind themselves that you are there to do a job, but you are not there for life, you are not there in order to prop up your own sense of self-importance or your own power."

Look at that! Barack and I are likethis on the issue.

Men have been fucking up this country for two hundred years. Now’s the time to let women take over and fix this shiz.

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_____, speaking like a fool, again:

“I never understood wind. I know windmills very much, I have studied it better than anybody. I know it is very expensive. They are made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here, almost none, but they are manufactured, tremendous—if you are into this—tremendous fumes and gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint, fumes are spewing into the air, right spewing, whether it is China or Germany, is going into the air. A windmill will kill many bald eagles. After a certain number, they make you turn the windmill off, that is true. By the way, they make you turn it off. And yet, if you killed one, they put you in jail. That is OK. But why is it OK for windmills to destroy the bird population?”

You cannot make this shiz up: he said this.

Either impeachment is getting to him or he is the most illiterate person on the planet.

Or both.

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Mark Galli, Christianity Today editor, on _____:

“I am making a moral judgement that he is morally unfit, or even more precisely it’s his public morality that makes him unfit. None of us are perfect we’re not looking for saints, but a president has certain responsibilities as a public figure to display a certain level of public character and public morality. My argument is not to judge him as a person in the eyes of God, that’s not my job, but to judge his public moral character and to ask has he gone so far that he evangelical constituency that we represent can we in good conscience do the trade off anymore. It strikes me as strange that for people that take the teachings of Jesus Christ seriously, teachings of the Ten Commandments seriously, that we can’t at least say publicly and out loud and in front of God and everybody that this man’s character is deeply, deeply concerning to us and in my judgement has crossed a line and no longer think he’s fit to lead the United States of America.”

_____ attacked Galli and called him unfit—nice comeback, I know you are but what am I—and those _____-vangelicals still support the drug-addicted pervert.

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Elizabeth Warren, promising to read the names of transgender people killed every year when she is president:

“I will make sure that we read their names so that as a nation we are forced to address the particular vulnerability on homelessness. I would change the rules now that put people in prison based on their birth sex identification rather than their current identification.”

Nice idea, but howsabout fully investigating the murders of our trans brothers and sisters and fully punishing those people? Howsabout stopping these murders and murderers so we never have to read their names?

Howsabout that, Liz?

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Dwyane Wade, NBA player, on accepting his queer 12-year-old child Zion:

“You want to talk about strength and courage? My 12-year-old has way more than I have. You can learn something from your kids. I had to look myself in the mirror when my son at the time was 3 years old and me and my wife started having conversations about us noticing that he wasn’t on the boy vibe that Zaire [Wade’s other son] was on. And, I had to look myself in the mirror and say, ‘What if your son come home and tell you he’s gay? What are you going to do? How are you going to be? How are you going to act?’ It ain’t about him. He knows who he is. It’s about you. Who are you? All these people that’s out there saying those things, look at yourself. Understand that you’re the one who got the issues. It’s not the kids. I watched my son from day one become into who—she—now eventually has come into. And for me it’s all about, nothing changes with my love. Nothing changes with my responsibilities.”

That’s how a parent acts if they truly love their child.

Kudos to Wade and his whole family.

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I Didin't Say It..........

Iowa GOP Congress-asshat, Dwayne Alons, on why he agrees with The Family Leader, that homosexuality is a public health crisis akin to smoking:

"I think that whole lifestyle has brought a lot of problems to society…For the most part when you look at some of the issues that have been brought up by homosexuals’ lifestyle, there are a lot of negatives that have been brought into society and I think government is trying to deal with that and should be dealing with...look at all that has been spent, you know, with the AIDS and with the issues related to the dying at an early age. I think life, longevity, of a lot of these folks is below 50, when you know, the normal people that do not enter into that kind of relationship, their either late into their 70s or early 80s for longevity. A lot more actual productive years and contributing to society."

Once again, they give us to much credit.
We apparently control the weather, as we sent a hurricane to New Orleans.
We are more dangerous than al queda.
We have destroyed the economy.
And now, we're more dangerous than smoking?
I envision the days of restaurant dining and being given the option of Gay or No Gay.
Wingnut.

Georgia GOP Congress-asshat, Bobby Franklin, on the Biblical reasons for opposing gays in the military:

"The Bible says (homosexuality is) a capital offense. You want someone [in the military] with unrepentant criminal behavior? And it's not just that, neither should adulterers, neither should thieves, neither should a lot of things. The church is full of sinners, but we're told in 1st Corinthians it rattled off the homosexual, the adulterer, the thief, the liar, and such were some of you, but you've been washed, you've been justified and so forth. It's not what you were. You're not punishing a thought. But do you want an unrepentant drug dealer in the military? Same thing."

Oops, we're a public health crisis, a weather phenomenon, a depression maker, and now we're just like unrepentant criminals.
Hmmm, I may not want an unrepentant drug dealer in the military, but I know I don't want some selective Bible passage quoting wingnut in the state house.

Annette Bening, on the dignity of gay families:

"I think when something is a good movie, first of all, well made, entertaining to a degree, funny, maybe has some heart, that comes first. If you can open people's hearts first, then maybe people's minds get opened after that...I'm proud that the movie does stand up for the dignity of all families, especially for the kids in these families. Those children deserve the same self-respect and dignity about their own families as kids from straight parents...I hope that does open a few hearts and minds..."

To be fair, I am not much of a Bening fan, so pardon me for feeling cynical, but....
Had she made this speech before she began campaigning for the Oscar, I think i would have respecte3d her more.
As it is, it seems like she's looking for votes.
And, if I could vote for Oscar, well, i, like most people, would choose Natalie Portman.

Chuck Lorre, Two And A Half Men producer, and his end of show credit roll about star Charlie Sheen:

"I exercise regularly. I eat moderate amounts of healthy food. I make sure to get plenty of rest. I see my doctor once a year and my dentist twice a year. I floss every night. I've had chest x–rays, cardio stress tests, EKG's and colonoscopies. I see a psychologist and have a variety of hobbies to reduce stress. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't do drugs. I don't have crazy, reckless sex with strangers. If Charlie Sheen outlives me, I'm gonna be really pissed."

Oh, Chuck.
Are you gonna be pissed because Charlie Sheen outlived you by living a life of drunken, drugged, debauchery, or are you just hoping he outlives you so you can keep making money off of him?
See, if you truly cared about Charlie Sheen, you'd shut down your show until he gets the help he needs, but then, isn't it all about the money?

Washington state Senator Ed Murray, on marriage equality: 

“Gay and lesbian families in Washington now enjoy the same state spousal rights that their married straight friends enjoy – except for the name ‘marriage’. The recognition that their loving, lifelong commitment is no different from the loving, lifelong commitment of straight couples is the final step to achieving full equality. I believe the Legislature and the public are both ready to take that final step.”

Isn't it funny how simple it sounds.
Equality.
We all get the same treatment.
Simple, no?

Connie O'Brien, Tea Party-backed Kansas GOP Congresswoman, on her attempt to overturn the granting of in-state tuition rates to the children of undocumented immigrants:

"My son who’s a Kansas resident, born here, raised here, didn’t qualify for any financial aid. Yet this girl was going to get financial aid. My son was kinda upset about it because he works and pays for his own schooling and his books and everything and he didn’t think that was fair. We didn’t ask the girl what nationality she was, we didn’t think that was proper. But we could tell by looking at her that she was not originally from this country. She wasn’t black, she wasn’t Asian, and she had the olive complexion."

Wow, so those olive complected folks are not from here?
I'm so glad that Connie 'Wingnut' O'Brien cleared that up. because I didn't realize that the color of one's skin determined your nation of birth.
'We could tell by looking at her...."
Well, I can tell by listening to Connie, that she is batshit crazy and a bigot, but then, she is Tea Party, isn't she.

Serial groom--three trips to the altar and counting--Donald Trump, whose potential 2012 presidential run is being backed by GOProud, on marriage equality:

"No, I'm just not in favor of gay marriage. I live in New York. New York is a place with lots of gays, and I think it is great. But I'm not in favor of gay marriage."

Yeah, it's okay if he lives in a city full of 'them' and probably has hundreds, nay, thousands, of 'them' working for him, but 'they' don't deserve equality.
I mean, aren't 'they' allowed to walk the streets like regular people?
And if so, why should 'they' be equal?
That's just for rich white fuckers with bad hair?

Lady Gaga, on Madonna and the alleged similarity between 'Born This Way' and Madge's 'Express Yourself':

"There really is no one that is a more adoring and loving Madonna fan than me. I am the hugest fan personally and professionally...well, the good news is that I got an e-mail from her people and her, sending me their love and complete support on behalf of the single and if the queen says it shall be, then it shall be."

Let me rant: I am tired of Gaga saying it took her ten minutes to write that song.
Perhaps she should have spent more time on it and it might not have come off like some generic pop tune we've all heard before.
And I'm annoyed that she declared it a gay anthem, because I always thought gay anthems evolved from something else.
I Will Survive wasn't intended to be a gay anthem, but it became one.
Gaga needs to spend more time in the egg and less time in the ego.