Let 'Em Starve Because It's What God Wants Us To Do

Even if you're new here at ISBL [Show of hands, please?] you must know my position on religion. I am what Carlos refers to as a Free Thinker; I don't need a minister, rabbi, pastor, preacher, shaman, witchdoctor, psychic, to speak to god [little g] or whatever you may choose to call that force, that being, that thing, if you believe in such.

But, and as always here at ISBL, there is a but, if you believe in God [big G] then you must believe God is love. And if you preach the word of God and attend services to worship God, you must also believe that.

Which makes me wonder about a group of churches up in Kalamazoo, Michigan--the Agape Christian Church, Word for Life Church of God, and Centerpoint Church. See, these three bastions of goodness and light, of God and Heaven, are severing their ties with an ecumenical homeless ministry due to disagreements about, wait for it.....bet you didn't see this coming......hold on......big surprise ahead.... homosexuality.

Yes, like the Catholic Church in DC, which has threatened to end services to the needy once marriage equality becomes law, these "churches," part of a ministry called Martha's Table which united eight different faith congregations to feed the homeless and offer them places to worship if they so desire, will stop serving the homeless community because of gay folks.

Agape Christian Church, lay pastor, Kim Sandelin, said that her church would no longer work with with other churches to fight homelessness because they don't want to stand next to faith traditions that look kindly on LGBT people. "An immoral lifestyle has eternal ramifications in Scripture," said Sandelin.

You talk of immorality when you are punishing an innocent group of the most needy people in your city because another church that also feeds the homeless is gay-friendly?

Pot.Kettle.Lay.Pastor.Asshat.

How god-like, how Christian, how kind, to deny food to people, not because they themselves are gay, which would be horrendous in and of itself, but because the person next to you feeding the homeless happens to have an open mind, an open heart, and to realize that being gay is neither a sin, nor a crime.

This isn't about god and the Bible and Jesus and doing god's work and all that other bullshit they spew. This is about attempting to influence state law by letting people starve. This is about using your religion to run state government. This is about hate and stupidity all rolled into one.

Punish the hungry because you don't like gay folks.

Talk about going to Hell in a handbasket.

Some Good, Some....Well, Not So Much

I woke up this morning and was a little annoyed; or peeved as my mother was apt to say. But now, I am, quite simply, pissed off.

I am glad for the victory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where they voted to extend anti-discrimination protections to LGBT individuals, making Kalamazoo the 16th city in Michigan to adopt a gay-rights ordinance that grants protection to the LGBT community in areas like housing, public accommodation and employment.

It's a big day in Kalamazoo. Bravo!

And it's a nice day in Washington state, too, where it looks like Referendum 71, the so-called "everything but marriage" bill, is leading by a narrow margin this morning. Still, it looks positive that a form of equality, albeit not full equality, for LGBT people in Washington state will happen.

And then there's Maine, and the reason why I'm pissed off.

Up that'a'way, voters repealed the state’s same sex marriage. So, once, when we were thisclose to being allowed equality, we have now been told we don't count.

And, I think what pisses me off, is these holier-than-thou fucktards who sing and dance and talk about how ""traditional marriage has been preserved"when what they are really doing is trampling on the Constitution and denying equal rights to a segment of the population because they don't agree with who we love.

It sickens me.

And I'm going to tell all you idiots who don't get it, again:

There is no such thing as traditional marriage.

Marriage wasn't being changed, marriage has always changed.

Used to be a woman was given to a man in marriage by her own family.

Used to be marriages were arranged to strengthen familial power over others, uniting two families into one all-powerful family.

Used to be women were owned by their husbands.

Used to be you didn't marry outside your faith.

Used to be you didn't marry outside your race.

So, keep prattling on about traditional marriage when you don't really have a clue what you're talking about. And keep braying like the asses you are about religion and marriage and listen up while I explain that away also.

No one, no one, in this country is married by a church. Got that? Oh, you might have a pretty white dress and the guy in a tux and eight tiny reindeer.....wait, I'm mixing up my stories....eight bridesmaids and grooms men, and you might march down an aisle toward a minister, rabbi, pastor reverend, high priestess, dog catcher, who spouts a few words and pronounces you man and wife, but you aren't man and wife.

You aren't man and wife because the Catholic or Jewish faith said it, or the Methodist, Baptist, Episcopalians, Protestant, Wiccan or Mormon faith said it.

You aren't married until the government says it.

So, quit calling it a religious institution because it isn't; it's a legal one. And you have used your "faith" to affect the laws. You have used your "religion" to keep people as less than; you have used your "church" to trample on equal rights.

I hope you're happy, because one day, maybe, some other church or other faith or other belief will seek to trample on you and you'll have no one to blame but yourselves.

Shame on you, Maine, shame on you.

I'm So Tired Of It

Lot's of things going on these days, that have me thinking and rethinking, and maybe thinking too much. I keep hearing how we're on the verge of change....Yes We Can...and then I turn the page and see the same old stories.

What is going on in the world today? What is wrong with us? Why aren't people standing up and saying 'Enough!'? Because I've had enough. Or, as my Mom used to say, I've had it up to here....hand held high above her head.

I've had it up to there, too.

In Indiana, now, they trying to tell me that I am 'less than.'

In Kalamazoo, they are already calling me that. Just like California, Arizona, Florida, Nebraska, and a lot of other places.

So why aren't more people standing up and saying 'Enough!'?

And I don't mean the gay folks; lord knows we've been standing awhile now, most of us. But what about the others? Those straight people over there. When are they going to say it's enough? When are they going to stand with us and say treat us all equal. We're all equal.

All equal.

Because, you see, not many of them are standing with us, and I don't know why. I hear them say that we should all be treated equally, but I don't hear them shouting. I don't hear them saying, 'Enough!'

Are they afraid of what might happen if they take a stand? Are they afraid that their friends and neighbors might suddenly dislike them because they've spoken out about equality? Are they afraid of being ostracized?

Welcome to what it feels like to be me, straight people.

Every day. Every. Day. Someone says I'm 'less than;' someone votes, they actually vote, on how I can be discriminated against because of who I am. They cast ballots, fear-based ballots, telling me I have no right to marry the man I love; that I have no right to adopt a child if I choose. And worse yet, every day, they're trying to kill me.

They're beating me up in Wyoming and leaving me to die on a split-rail fence. Matthew Shepard.

They stalking me outside a club in South Carolina and beating me so badly that all I can do is die. Sean William Kennedy.

I am beaten to death in New York because someone thought my brother and I were a gay couple. Jose Sucuzhanay

In Ohio they're attacking my partner and me as we walk down the road, sending us to the hospital; and then when we get out, they set fire to our car. John and Larry Charlton.

In Maine they're beating me up and throwing me off a bridge to my death. Charles Howard.

In New York I am beaten and dismembered and left in a plastic tub. Steen Keith Fenrich.

In Tennessee they shot me because I was transgendered. Duana Johnson.

A gang of four is beating me outside a bar in Flagstaff on Pride in the Pines weekend. Michel Brown.

In San Francisco I am gang-raped because I'm a lesbian.

In Oxnard I'm fifteen years old when I'm shot in the head because I said I was gay. Lawrence King.

It's enough.

When are we all going to stand together to decide and declare that you cannot deny us our rights because we're gay. That you can't fire us for being gay. You can't deny us housing for being gay. You can't stop us from raising a child because we're gay. You can't stop us from loving one another because we're gay. You can't stop us from marrying because we're gay.

And you can't kill us either.

Seriously.

It's enough.

Remember the Maine

Hey Kalamazoo, listen up!

While your city council was deciding that it's okay to treat the LGBT community like crap, by denying us jobs, or firing us from our jobs, simply because we're gay...by denying us housing because we're gay...by denying us public accommodation simply because we're gay, the good folks up in Maine are open to discussion about gay marriage.

That's right Kalamazoo, and you too Indiana, gay marriage.

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From the Bangor Daily News (http://www.bangornews.com/detail/97060.html):

Gay rights groups unveil marriage bill

by Judy Harrison BDN StaffAUGUSTA, Maine — A state senator from Hancock County is sponsoring a bill to allow gay couples to marry in Maine.
Sen. Dennis S. Damon, D-Trenton, announced at a press conference this afternoon that he is submitting legislation that would redefine marriage.
He was supported by members of the Maine Freedom to Marry Coalition made up of the Equality Maine, the Maine Civil Liberties Union, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders and the Maine Women’s Lobby.
Damon also was flanked by same-sex couples that want to marry and obtain the same legal protections afforded men and women who tie the knot in Maine.
Additional Maine couples who want to get married are profiled in a video.
The senator said that his bill would:
- codify civil marriage as the legally recognized union of two people.
- eliminate discrimination to allow any two eligible people, regardless of sex, to be issued an application for a marriage license.
- affirm religious freedom so that religious institutions continue to have control over their own religious doctrine and teachings regarding who may marry within each faith as set forth in the Maine and U.S. Constitutions.
- recognize lawful marriages from other states, removing a barrier akin to those enacted to prohibit mixed-race marriages a generation ago.
The Maine Marriage Alliance, a group that supports traditional marriage said it will submit a bill that would call for an amendment to the Maine Constitution that would define marriage as between a man and woman and ban same-sex marriage.

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See there, Kalamazoo, Indiana, Florida, California, Ariz-----oh the whole lot of you.

They want to recognize marriage as a union between two people. That isn't so hard, is it?

They want to make sure churches that don't believe in gay marriage aren't forced to perform gay marriage. Works for me, considering no one, NO ONE ANYWHERE, i s married until a state issued marriage certificate is filed. So, you see, people, we don't need a church to marry; we need state law to marry; separation of church and state working.

Maine wants to recognize marriages performed in other states. Sounds lovely, really, quite simple.

Of course there is a group trying to protect "traditional" marriage which we all know does not exist and has not existed for 5,000 years. Marriage has been in a constant state of flux since time began and people don't like change.

Change is coming though; and Maine is moving to the head of the line.

PS Ya'll: That picture up there, at the top of this post, yeah, that one. That's Victoria Eleftheriou (left) and Carla Hopkins (right) with their son Eli, 3 1/2 listening to Maine Sen. Dennis Damon during a press conference at the State House after Damon introduced legislation to legalize same-sex marriage in the state.

They look scary don't they.

Ooooooh. How bad would it be if "they" got married.

Sigh. How great it would be. How great.

Really, Kalamazoo? Really?

A...B...C...D...E...F...G...H...I got a gal in Kalamazoo!

Everybody sing!
But not if you're a gal who has a gal, or a guy who has a guy. Not in Kalamazoo, people.

See, six weeks after passing a gay rights law, the Kalamazoo City Commission has voted to rescind it.

That's right folks.

For the last six weeks in Kalamazoo you, as a gay man or woman, bisexual man or woman, or transgendered, had rights to protection of employment and housing and public accommodation. But now, after the AFA---American Family Association, or as I call the Academy of Fucking Assholes....pardon my language Dad, but I'm more than a little peeved here--submitted petitions with about 1,600 signatures seeking the law's repeal. If officials found at least 1,273 signatures valid, the commission would have had to rescind the law or put it on the ballot. The commission voted 7-0 Monday night to rescind it.

Didn't put it on the ballot for the people to vote, no, not that.
Seven people rescinded the law.
Shame on you Kalamazoo.