I Didn't Say It ....

Evan Wolfson, of Freedom To Marry, to Tony Perkins on Face The Nation:

"Marriage is not defined by who is denied it. When gay people share in the freedom to marry, it doesn't change your marriage, it doesn't change Tony Perkins' marriage. My marriage is my marriage. And it means that I'm able to share in the same aspirations of commitment and love and support and dedication and connectedness, and that my parents are able to dance at our wedding. And our family and friends are able to support and celebrate and hold us accountable for the commitment we've made to one another. That takes nothing away from anyone else... The gay people are not going to use up all the marriage licenses when we enter marriage. And this is not just somebody saying it. We now have nine states including the District of Columbia, fourteen countries on four continents in which gay people share in the freedom to marry and the result is families are helped and no one is hurt."

Like Wolfson, I’m still waiting for some heterosexual couple to make their appearance, state, and prove, their case that same-sex marriage ruined their marriage.

Yeah, won’t happen.

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, AKA Joe The dumber, er, Plumber, having a sadz because he can’t call queers queer:

"30 years ago we use to play a game called “smear the queer;” a game where whoever had the football got gang tackled. It was a normal. If you had the ball, you were the queer, because no one else had the ball, and having the ball made you odd or “queer” in that respect. Of course, you could throw the ball to another player and the pack would quickly turn to smear that queer, without regard to his or her sexuality, I might add. Queer, gay, homo, fag meant nothing having to do with what you were attracted to and no one committed suicide, got beat up or even called names in that regard. That was my experience. Then, about ten years later, the media and the ever-tolerant Hollywood (not), began portraying homosexual (men) on television and film as the “Funny” one or the one you felt sorry for – just to get us used to the idea. C’mon – who didn’t laugh at Paul Lynde or Charles Nelson Reilly? And not until Ellen demanded her character come out of the closet (which she was summarily fired for) did gay characters litter the big and small screen alike, whether it was important or not. (Just to go a little further with this point, Hollywood will put “gay” characters in TV show/movies that are not relevant to the plot. They try to portray this as “Normal” America. I can tell you right now, when I’m tossing the football with my son in front of the house, I have never seen 2 men hand in hand prancing down the street. You?"

Out of the mouths of morons ...

Joe, you’re an idiot, Gay people, fags, homos and queers, have been name-called, beaten, and murdered for years, even as far back as your tiny mind can fathom … 30 years ago. Times change. The use of words change.

And I imagine two men wouldn’t be caught dead holding hands in front of your house because you might try to smear the queer.

Grow up, Joe, your fifteen minutes is up. You were irrelevant in 2008 and you’re irrelevant today. Get a job.

Matthew Lannon, a sixth-grader, testifying at Rhode island's marriage equality hearing:

"If there's one thing you don't mess with in life, it's love. My parents and all the other gay and lesbian people here want to be happy, just like you. All they want is to be treated fairly. But unlike most of you, they have to come again here year after year and explain over and over why their love is equal to yours. This year, you have the opportunity to change that. I say, choose love.”

Out of the mouths of babes …..

Salvatore Cordileone, San Francisco's 'drunk driving' Archbishop, on marriage equality:

"To legalize marriage between two people of the same sex would enshrine in the law the principle that mothers and fathers are interchangeable or irrelevant, and that marriage is essentially an institution about adults, not children; marriage would mean nothing more than giving adults recognition and benefits in their most significant relationship. How can we do this to our children? No matter what the Supreme Court rules, this debate is not over. Marriage is too important and the issues raised by treating same-gender unions as marriages are too fundamental to just go away. Just as Roe v. Wade did not end the conversation about abortion, so a ruling that tries to import same-sex marriage into our Constitution is not going to end the marriage debate, but intensify it. We will have a bitterly polarized country divided on the marriage issue for years if not generations to come." 

Howsabout, rather than thinking of a child having a mother and a father, Howsabout wishing children had a loving parents, or parents, of either gender. Howsabout, Archbishop, shutting your pie-hole about what’s best for children when you belong to a group that has been raping children for decades.

Ronnie Musgrave, former Mississippi governor, now regretting signing a law to ban adoptions for gay couples:

"After thinking about this for some time, I realized that if you're fortunate, age and knowledge breed compassion. The more I read the (U.S.) Constitution, the clearer it became that you just can't deny rights to a specific class of people just because some are uncomfortable with what they do not understand. Too many elected officials take positions without thinking about the real impact on people and families. I am glad Sen. Portman had the same evolution I did, but I wish all of us had the compassion for other people to think about the impact of political positions before making them policy."

Nicely put; people can change their minds, but many times, if they just thought first, they might have made the equal choice in the first place.

Mike Huckabee, on whether the GOP will pivot to support marriage equality:

“They might. And if they do, they’re going to lose a large part of their base because evangelicals will take a walk. And it’s not because there’s an anti-homosexual mood, and nobody’s homophobic that I know of, but many of us, and I consider myself included, base our standards not on the latest Washington Post poll, but on an objective standard, not a subjective standard. I have great sympathy and extraordinary admiration for Sen. Portman. I consider him a friend and I value his work in the Senate and think he’s a great person. The mistake is that we sometimes base our public policy decisions on how we feel, how we think, maybe even some personal experiences, and we don’t regard a lot of these issues from the standpoint of an objective standard."

I love how he says denying equality to one class of people, based on his own religious indoctrination does not make him a homophobe.

Yes, it does Mike. Equal is equal, plain and simple, and until the GOP gets that, they’ll forever be on the outside wondering how to get back in.

Scott Fujita, NFL linebacker Scott Fujita, in a piece he wrote for the NYT about marriage equality:

"I support marriage equality for so many reasons: my father’s experience in an internment camp and the racial intolerance his family experienced during and after the war, the gay friends I have who are really not all that different from me, and also because of a story I read a few years back about a woman who was denied the right to visit her partner of 15 years when she was stuck in a hospital bed ... My belief is rooted in a childhood nurtured by a Christian message of love, compassion and acceptance. It’s grounded in the fact that I was adopted and know there are thousands of children institutionalized in various foster programs, in desperate need of permanent, safe and loving homes, but living in states that refuse to allow unmarried couples, including gays and lesbians, to adopt because they consider them not fit to be parents ... In articulating all my feelings about marriage equality, I almost don’t know where to begin. And perhaps that’s part of the problem. Why do we have to explain ourselves when it comes to issues of fairness and equality? Why is common sense not enough?"

Word.

"Bishop" Harry Jackson, on how much better straight marriages are for everyone involved:
"When a man and a woman are in the house, poverty is lessened. When a man and a woman are in the house, kids don’t go to prison. When a man and a woman are in the house, there’s less domestic violence. When a man and a woman are in the house, sexual abuse does not happen."

No poor straight couples?
No kids from straight marriages in prisons?
No domestic violence among straight married couples?
No such thing as spousal rape?
Apparently Bishop Jackson doesn't read a newspaper, for if her did he could find out in one sitting how unbelievably stupid a man he truly is.

I Didn't Say It ....

Dan Savage, on Tony Perkins and the FRC and LGBT suicides:

"Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council—First of all, they tell, Tony Perkins tells parents whose kids come out to reject them. Tony Perkins tells the parents of queer kids to do what Tony Perkins damn well knows drives those kids to suicide—doubles their already quadruple rate of suicide. Why would someone who calls themselves a Christian do that? Because every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council. They argue that the gay lifestyle is sick and sinful and dangerous and they point to the suicide rate, and then they turn around and do everything in their power to make sure that suicide rate does not come down and to drive it up. Tony Perkins sits on a pile of dead gay kids every day when he goes to work—and he calls himself a Christian. I don’t understand how real Christians let that little fucker get away with that."

As usual, Dan doesn’t mince words, and as usual, he’s right.

I don’t care if you think being gay is wrong, or being gay is a sin, or being gay is a One Way Direct Flight to Hell, but when you keep saying that, all the while praising yourself as a good Christian, and you watch young LGBT youth kill themselves rather than live in a world of hate, you are not of God.

You are disgusting. You are to blame.

Harry Jackson, “Bishop,” who says he prayed a newspaper into bankruptcy:

"One night I walked past one of those newsstands. As I was walking past it, I looked at that newsstand and they had some article about same-sex marriage and all that blasphemous stuff. And I laid hands on that newsstand and I said, 'In the name of Jesus, I CURSE THIS PAPER!' Less than two months, that paper went bankrupt. It was part of a six-newspaper chain! It went bankrupt! It went out of business! IT WENT UNDER! It did!"

It appears that Harry was taking about the Washington Blade, which did file for bankruptcy, but then resurrected itself and remains in business three years after Jackson's failed "curse." 

But, this begs a bigger question, if Harry Jackson’s prayers are answered why are gay folks still here? Why are they still getting married in DC?

Why is Obama still president?

Ann Romney, putting another nail in Mittsy’s chances of being elected:

"You know, I think my biggest concern, obviously, would just be for his mental well-being....I have all the confidence in the world in his ability, in his decisiveness and his leadership skills, in his understanding of the economy, in his understanding of what's missing right now in the economy - you know, pieces that are missing to get this jumpstarted. So for me I think it would just be the emotional part of it."

Seriously? Is she saying he can do the job, that he has the skills necessary to do the job, that he’s the best man for the job, but he’s just not emotionally prepared to do it?

Wow. For once I agree with Ann; her husband is not now, nor ever will be, emotionally equipped to lead this country.

Maggie Gallagher, on marriage equality:

"If marriage really were dead, people would not respond so powerfully to the idea that marriage matters because children need their mom and dad. If you despair, I respect that, but why try to get others who have hope to despair? Do the things for which you have hope. But you may be wrong about the future. Do not discourage others who have hope from acting on it.  Our 'traditional' view of marriage was won by the Church over several hundred years of argument with pagan philosophers. What we did once, we can do again."

No, Maggie, you can’t do it again, because we no longer live in the Dark Ages where your kind of fear mongering pays off.

You’re on the wrong side, Maggie, so best for you just to sit down and be quiet.

Matt Barnes, Los Angeles Clipper forward, apologizing for using a gay slur [f**king faggot] against a police officer who arrested him last year:

"I would like to apologize for the unfortunate language I used.  I know that certain words are extremely hurtful. I meant absolutely no disrespect to anyone.  This comment, spoken in the heat of a difficult moment, does not accurately reflect my actual point of view."

Um, Matt, asshat? If you know certain words are hurtful, then why do you use them? And you did disrespect a group of people, and, well, if the words fall from your lips in the heat of the moment that means the words are always in your head.

You meant it; you’re just trying to save face for getting caught.

Try this apology, next time, and I’m sure there will be a next time: “I’m sorry to be such a dick. I am going to work to erase that word from my brain. I will never, ever, say that word again. I’m sorry, I’m a dick.”

Madeleine Albright, on Mitt Romney:

"He is so two-dimensional. I mean, up close and personal, there's just nothing going on.  It's the sense that I've had throughout the campaign that it's unclear what [Romney] really believes in. I think when you contrast him with President Obama, who also gave a speech later there, and President Clinton, who spoke several times there, there is not, kind of, a sense of depth."

He’s cardboard. He’s nothing. He says whatever needs to be said to whatever audience to whom he is speaking. He’ll do and say anything to get elected so, yeah, we have no idea who Mitt Romney really is.

Except for being a failed presidential candidate, again.

Janice Fountaine, co-founder of the New Independent Christian Party:

"The practice of homosexuality and self-pleasure, are age old systems, being recharged and reorganized for end-time warfare. It is being orchestrated from the diabolical realms of the supernatural and manifested on earth, with the overall intention, to silence the church forever. These actions, by Satan, is an all out declaration of victory, as the church finds itself caught off guard and intertwined in his evil end-time warfare, strategies and systems.”

First off, Janice, I don’t “practice” homosexuality, I was born this way so it just comes naturally.

And are you really saying that two men having sex, or two women, or me, say, um choking my chicken, is a weapon in the battle?

Yeah, sign me up for that army.

Rachel Maddow, on the 2007 Jeremiah Wright tape that was dragged out by right-wing as an attempt to paint Obama as some kind of race-baiter:

"See this is supposed to make you think that in this tape from before he was President Barack Obama he's revealing his secret plan to be way more Black than he seems to you now. This is how he snuck into the White House. People actually didn't know he was this Black and if they had known he was this Black they never would have elected him. That's the idea here, right? The efforts to make President Obama's race sound like new news and to make it seem shocking are now ramping up aggressively."

It’s the GOP rightwingnut, Teabaggin’ answer to Mittsy’s secret tapes where he tells all of us that he doesn’t care about half of us.

That dog won’t hunt.

Dan Cathy, of Chick-fil-A-hole, still hating The Gays:

"Families are very important to our country. And they're very important to those of us who are concerned about being able to hang on to our heritage. We support Biblical families, and they've always been a part of that."

Um, Dan, you dipshit? Gay families exist. Gay parents exist. Children of gay parents exist. And for you to somehow say that we don’t matter, that those of us who are gay and choose to be Christian, somehow don’t matter, is oh-so-very Christ-like.

Seriously, when Jesus comes back, his first stop will be at Burger King.

He doesn’t like Chicken Roasted in Hate.

Paul Ryan, on what a Romney presidency will do about marriage equality:

Ryan when asked his thoughts about marriage:

"First of all, Mitt Romney and I—I’ll just say it, it’s worth repeating—we believe marriage is between one man and one woman, that’s number one. Number two, you know where I come from we had one of those amendments in Wisconsin, I was a big supporter of it and we passed it like you say, where it’s put on the ballot it passes. The second point is, President Obama gave up defending the Defense of Marriage Act in the courts, I mean, not only is this decision to abandon this law the wrong decision, it passed in a bipartisan manner, it is very troubling because it undermines not only traditional marriage but it contradicts our system of government. It’s not the president’s job to pick and choose which laws he likes. A Romney administration will protect traditional marriage and the rule of law and we will provide the Defense of Marriage Act the proper defense in the courts that it deserves."

There you have it, straight from the horse's ass: if you are gay, have a gay relative, friend, or neighbor, and vote Romney/Ryan, you are voting for discrimination to be written into the US Constitution.
Discrimination is not an American value, no matter how many times Hound Dog Eyes tries to spin it.

I Didn't Say It....Monday Edition

Matthew Mitcham, out Australian diver, on being an outspoken LGBT advocate:

"I certainly don't see it as a burden. I never did, especially with how much attention the LGBT cause has been getting lately with marriage equality...and with how few openly gay sports stars there are around at the moment. I don't mind attention being put on it. Ideally I would like one day for sexuality to be as unimportant and uninteresting as hair colour, or eye colour or even just gender in general. One day it will get to that. But until it is easy for sports people to come out without fear of persecution or fear of lost sponsorship income and stuff like that, or fear of being comfortable in the team environment, I don't mind attention being brought to my sexuality in the hope that it might make other people feel more comfortable … in being comfortable enough about who they are in their sporting environment."

Obviously, we need more out athletes, willing to speak up for the LGBT community.

Mitcham has paved the way, as Greg Louganis did before him, and now other athletes, straight and especially gay, need to speak up.

Michael Bloomberg, NYC mayor, on the NRA and the Stand Your Ground laws:

"These laws are vigilantism masquerading as self-defense, and getting 25 states to pass them is one of the best con jobs the NRA’s leaders have ever pulled off. They don’t give a damn whether innocent people are shot and killed. And they don’t give a damn about the integrity of the American justice system. They want to create a nation where disputes are settled by guns instead of gavels, and where suspects are shot by civilians instead of arrested by police. These laws destabilize our justice system, they degrade our society, and they destroy innocent lives. We can’t be silent — and we can’t let them stand."

That whole 'Guns Don't Kill People, People Kill People' bull really irks me.

It should be 'People With Guns Kill People'. 

Or 'Peaople Who Shouldn't Have Guns, But Can Get Them Easier Than Buying A Bottle Of Gin, Kill People'.

Mark Morford, San Francisco Chronicle columnist, on the Homophobes Are Gay theory:

"Really, who doesn't already know? Who among us with the slightest acumen toward self-reflection doesn't fully understand that the more you wail against something, the more violently outspoken or hateful you are against this or that perceived indiscretion, sexual proclivity, perversion, deviance, expression, delight, taste sensation, the more certain it is that said deliciousness secretly attracts you, turns you on and makes you enormously, terrifically scared? Case after case, priest after priest, GOP senator after megachurch pastor after spittle-flecked Tea Party zealot -- all suddenly caught pants down in a bathroom stall, in a leather bar, gay chat room, in a Grindr hookup app, living out their real and honest selves even as they rail and oppose and thump their Bibles everywhere else. Hypocrisy, thy name is homophobe. Which is, essentially, exactly what the study found. One's level of homophobia lies, quite frequently, in direct proportion to one's own brutally closeted desire for homosexual sex. Result: self-denial, self hatred, wailing and thrashing and Prop 8-ing against an unfair world." -  writing about the just-released study on the cause of homophobia."

How many anti-gay, bathroom stall toe-tappers must we endure before we understand that the most vile homophobes are actually gay men and women who are so deeply closeted, and so self-loathing, that they, in effect, attack other gays to make themselves feel somehow 'safe'?

Harry Jackson, "Bishop", still whining about marriage equality:

"Same-sex marriage isn't about civil rights. It's about our civil responsibilities. As Americans and as people of faith, we have a duty to stand up, engage, and speak the truth about marriage. And when we all stand in unity, no one can stop us. Same-sex marriage supporters have it all backward. It is the Democratic Party elites and gay marriage leaders that are pushing an agenda of division."

Hmmm, the Democrats are pushing division.

And they do that by demanding equality for all.

How divisive, Harry, how divisive.

Ken Hutcherson, "pastor", on being born gay:

"There is no evidence at all that the homosexual was born that way. I guarantee you I was. I was born this way. I was born black, I’m living black, I’m going to die black. You know we find out there’re criminal genes, they say, in some people. But do you know how to get rid of criminal gene? Two parents with a belt gets rid of the criminal gene. Discipline, understanding, good parenting removes the homosexual gene."

Oh, Ken, me thinks you're one of those homophobes with a secret, you spend so much time and effort on The Gays.

Comparing us to criminals? Been done before and people don't buy it.

But, you suggest that parents maybe beat The Gay out of their children? So, you advocate child abuse? How effing Christ-like.

But, Kenny, what about the kids in school, who think like you, that The Gay needs to be beat out of people? Are they given your permission to beat other kids, bully other kids, kill other kids?

Don't call yourself a man of God when you're a mate of Hate.

Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham, on North Carolina, God, and marriage equality:

"Because we live in such perilous, unstable times economically, environmentally, politically, globally, racially and even religiously, we need the security that comes from God's protection and blessing. This is not the time to defy Him by flaunting an institution He has clearly ordained, thus provoking His displeasure. Please join me in praying that God's institution of marriage would be preserved and protected in North Carolina...for our own good."

Check your facts Anne.

Marriage has been in a state of flux since it began.

Marriages today bear little resemble to marriages of old.

And God has other things to worry about, other than Adam and Steve, or Madam and Eve, getting hitched.

Madonna, telling NBC's Harry Smith how she can scold her daughter, Lourdes, for smoking, and yet smoke herself in videos:

"That's just an accessory, Harry. There's a difference."

Um....it's not an accessory. That would be a purse or a pair of shoes.
And there is a difference between an accessory and a cigartette, Madge.

Your child sees you smoke, and acting like it's all hip and cool, and she begins to smoke.

Typical Madge, trying to spin something negative--like lackluster album sales--into something positive.
Cop to it, or I'll start sending hydrangeas your way.

Bill O'Reilly, on Glee making kids "experiment" with being gay or transgender:

"If you make the behavior of these people ... if children hear it, unsupervised children, okay who don’t have parents watching their -- they might go out and experiment with this stuff...When I was a teenager and I saw James Dean smoking, it made me want to smoke...a lot of these dopey kids are confused about who they are. They’re confused."

Haven't heard from O'Reilly too much of late.

Haven't missed his illiterate rants.

Seeing someone smoke is quite different than seeing two men kiss. If you're straight, you might wanna smoke, but you won't wanna kiss a boy.

Or think you're transgendered.

But, listening to your idiotic rants does make people lose brain cells, so, there's that......

Gretchen Carlson, FuxNews "commentator", agreeing with O'Reilly:

"I wholeheartedly believe, in today’s society, that kids are experimenting with homosexuality. We see it in celebrities who maybe just do it on the side, and it may be drug-fueled...I totally agree with Bill that this causes kids to experiment. And if we didn’t– why do we have any rules in society then if we don’t try and set some parameters for our children to live their lives? I just think that this is way over the top."

If people 'experiment' with homosexuality, they're doing so because they believe they are gay, or maybe bisexual.

I was born gay, Gretchen, and IO saw all kinds of men and women on TV and in the movies having sex, and I never once thought about having sex with a woman.

Oh, and you're an idiot.

Too Bad, So Sad

Bishop Harry Jackson got his collar in a twist because Washington DC allowed equal marriage. And he spit and sputtered and stomped his feet and brandished the same tired rhetoric his ilk always brandish when equality happens.
God's law! Bah!
Traditional marriage! No such thing.
Sanctity! Bite me.
And Jackson took his tired rants and tried to appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn marriage equality and let the people of DC vote on it.
But the Supremes said No.
Jackson's appeal was de-nied.
Good for SCOTUS.
Equality should never be put up for a vote. We didn't vote on whether women had the right to vote; we didn't vote on whether black people had the right to vote; we didn't vote on Civil Rights.
It's equality, and the fight for it, and the right for it shouldn't be left in the hands of the people, because you will always have someone, like a Bishop Harry Jackson, or a NOM or a Bryan Fischer, or any number of pandering-to-the-right Republicans, spinning what the story is about into some sort of End Of Days theory, when it's about equality.
i keep saying this, and I;ll keep saying this: if you think Carlos and I shouldn't be allowed to marry if that's what we wish, then that's okay. you can thin that. If you think Carlos and I are headed straight to Hell because we're gay, you can think that, too. If you think we're an abomination, run with it.
But you cannot use your fears and your religion and your so-0called belief in God to deny us equality.
Blibbety-blah-blay-blue Bite me.

A Defeat For Discrimination

from Poliglot:

The Washington DC Court of Appeals has issued its decision in Bishop Harry Jackson's appeal of the DC Board of Elections and Ethic's decision that his proposed marriage initiative--a ban on same-sex marriage--was an improper subject of an initiative. All 9 judges agreed that Jackson's proposed marriage initiative would violate the Human Rights Act and is, thus, not permitted.

And, in the absence of a successful appeal, marriage equality in Washington DC, which went into effect earlier this year, cannot be subject to an initiative.

Cannot.

Fab-U-Lous.

You can put down the Bible, Bishop Jackson, God and the law are not on your side.

God is love.

And the law, at least in DC, is equal.