Queer Musings

Sen. Coburn: Government is not the Answer

The neighborly Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma tells a crying woman not to rely on government to help her and her husband. The woman just breaks my heart. She tells the Senator that his insurance won't cover assistance with eating and drinking that seems to be related to a traumatic brain injury.

The Senator tells her to come see him and he will try to see what he can do to help her as an individual. He this goes on to say that neighbors should be helping her out, but not to rely in government help.

Here's my take on neighbors helping out. All of us in the great nation are "neighbors" and by having a publicly funded health care system it will allow "neighbors" to provide the help that is really needed. This woman says she needs help with feeding tubes for her husband. What, are her neighbors supposed to make a casserole to puree and feed to him through a tube?

Most neighbors aren't qualified to provide the type of help needed in a situation like that. With universal health coverage that doesn't deny any claim made, our tax dollars help provide the help that we can't. This is just another tragic story of a how our for profit insurance companies are killing Americans with their "death panels" that deny claims.

via: [Joe.My.God.]

Buy 'Music for Matthew' Support a Worthy Cause

While debating the "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009," H.R. 1913, better known by many as the Matthew Shepard Act, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R - North Carolina) called the events surrounding Matthew's death a hoax.

In the Congresswoman's own words:

"The hate crimes bill that’s called the Matthew Shepard Bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed. But we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn’t because he was gay. The bill was named for him, the hate crimes bill was named for him, but it’s, it’s really a hoax, that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills."

In response to the hurtful and shameful comments Foxx made on the House floor, my friend Lee wrote a song that he is using to raise money for the Matthew Shepard Foundation. All the money he makes from his song 'Virginia' will be donated with a note on the check that the donation is "in the name of Virginia Foxx." Lee is selling the track for the bargain basement price of 99¢ be sure to get yours now so he can make a nice donation to a worthy cause.

You can visit his blog to get the listen to 'Virginia' before purchasing it, or you can just visit 7 Digital directly and purchase it from there.

Facebook Changes Mind

The small independent lesbian film And Then Came Lola has achieved a small victory today. According to their blog, Facebook has now approved their ad.

Thanks for contacting us about this. Your ad has now been re-reviewed and approved. We apologize for any inconvenience.

That's a rather generic sounding response to the issue, but I'm glad to see that Facebook was willing to change their mind.

Thanks to everyone that picked up my original post and help spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, and mulitple other sites. I would like to especially thank Bil at The Bilerico Project for featuring my post.

Will Facebook be the Next Target of Twitter Users?

Earlier this month Amazon faced some harsh criticism from Twitter users upset over the apparent banning of sales rankings on LGBT books. They had to come up with a response the Monday after Easter due to the overwhelming outcry from Twitter users.

Will Facebook become the next target of Twitter users outrage? It could happen with the rejection of an ad for the lesbian film And Then Came Lola.

The movie was hoping to target the ad to women who listed themselves as interested in women and over the age of 18. So where's the problem? From my way of thinking, that is the demographic that would want to see And Then Came Lola.

Honestly I see nothing wrong with the picture they wanted to use for the ad. It's not any different than ones I see on Facebook daily advertising gay cruises. At least all three of the women are fully dressed. There doesn't seem to be anything inappropriate happening between the three of them.

Is this a form of homophobia on Facebook's part?

According to the Facebook FAQ for Advertising Guidelines:

"Facebook is committed to protecting our user experience by keeping the site clean, uncluttered, and free from intrusive advertising. We believe that we can help transform existing advertising on Facebook into tailored messages to our users, because they are based on how their friends interact and affiliate with the brands, music artists, and businesses they care about."

Well the ads I see every day look like the one pictured. Everyday I'm treated to the sight of two shirtless gay men advertising what has always been in my mind nothing more than a floating bathhouse.

The reason Facebook gives for rejecting the advert is as follows:

"The image of this ad is either irrelevant or inappropriate. Per sections 3 and 8 of Facebook's Advertising Guidelines, the image on your ad should be relevant and appropriate to the item being advertised. Make sure your image is directly relevant to what you are advertising. Images that are overly explicit, provocative, or that reveal too much skin are not allowed. Images that may either degrade or idealize any health condition or body type are also not allowed. If you choose to submit this ad again, please use an appropriate image that adheres to all of Facebook's Advertising Guidelines."

I get the overly explicit part. I don't go to Facebook to see advertisements for adult oriented sites. I already know how to find most of those, and those I don't know about I can always Google.

What I don't get is the rest of the response. There's much less skin showing in the movie's picture than the one for the cruise. I don't find it any more provocative than the ad showing a gay couple enjoying themselves on the deck of the cruise ship.

When it comes to the part of an idealized body type, they may have a point. All three women look to be the typical model/actress type of build. It's not any different with the cruise ad. Neither of those men look like me. They have a pretty idealized body type.

Everything they said in their rejection is something I see everyday. I'm hoping that Facebook made an honest mistake, but I don't think they did.

I just don't get the reasoning behind the rejection. Maybe someone can explain it to me.

White House Adds a Bittersweet Note to Iowa Ruling

With a first ever unanimous ruling in favor of gay marriage last Friday by the Iowa Supreme Court, history was made in the mid-western United States. Needless to say the GLBT community across the nation has been celebrating.

I don't know about everyone else, but when I saw the White House statement about the ruling, it became a very bittersweet moment for me.

The President respects the decision of the Iowa Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage. Although President Obama supports civil unions rather than same-sex marriage, he believes that committed gay and lesbian couples should receive equal rights under the law.

While it's not as bad as anything that would have come out of the Bush White House, it still promotes the unfair "separate but equal" policy that is anything but. Marriage, not civil unions, would be equal treatment under the law.

The struggle is far from over, and end the end we will have full marriage rights regardless of what the current administration supports. We shouldn't let the fact that Obama only supports civil unions.

Hatred of Gays Leads to Poor Treatment of Pastor

If a vote was called to exclude a prayer from Oklahoma State House of Representatives' journal made by a rabbi or imam there would be no end to the cries of discrimination. Since it happened to a pastor from a church with a large GLBT congregation not much has been made of it. The fact that the state's only gay legislator invited the pastor to give the prayer may of had something to do with the objection from some GOP members of the House.

What kind of Christian values is this? Did a memo go out to all queer hating Christians that it is okay to deny queer loving Christians the right to have their prayers placed in a daily legislative record?

Most importantly, if the vote to not include the prayer in the record had passed, would that have been a violation of the First Amendment? It seems to me that it could have been.

via: [Good As You]

Nondiscrimination Law Repealed in Kalamazoo

The religious right can now add another win in their continuing fight to spread hate across the country. The Kalamazoo City Commission under pressure from the American Family Association repealed a law to protect GLBT members of the city.

Six weeks ago the commission made it a civil offense to discriminate in housing, public accommodations or employment based on sexual orientation or being transgender. That evidently didn't set well with the AFA who submitted a petition with 1,600 signatures.

If a minimum of 1,273 signatures were valid the commission would either have to repeal the law or put it on the ballot.

I personally have a bit of an issue with the numbers involved. First off according to the news story the population of Kalamazoo is around 7,200. The minimum number of signatures needed is no where near a majority, so the only option should have been to put it on the ballot. Not to just force a repeal by the commission.

Patrons of Seattle Gay Bars Threatened

Eleven gay and lesbian bars in Seattle have received letters threatening that some patrons may be poisoned. They claim that the attacks will start this Saturday.

According the Advocate.com the letters included the following statement.

I have in my possession approximately 67 grams of ricin with which I will indiscriminately target at least five of your clients. ... I expect them to die painfully while in hospital.

The Elite, Neighbours, The Wildrose Bar, The Cuff, Purr, The Seattle Eagle, R Place, Re-bar, C.C.Attle's, Madison Pub and The Crescent were singled out for the attacks.

I really hope the authorities catch the person(s) responsible for writing the letters.

GLBT to Stand up and to H8 Across the Nation

This looks to be a busy weekend for the GLBT community. With the defeat of Prop. 8 in California, people across the state have been taking to the streets to protest. This weekend the protests will be on going across the state. Towleroad has a great list of all the events that are happening there as well as in Salt Lake City.

In addition a major contributor to the defeat of Prop. 8 will be in Chicago. I'm of course referring to James Dobson of Focus on the Family. There is a protest planned for Saturday afternoon there.

Last, but certainly not least, the First Baptist Church here in Dallas has decided to tell their congregation about  " Why Gay is Not O.K." A protest is being organized for the Sunday morning services to speak out against the hate.

I have to work Sunday, but I am trying to figure out how I can get the day off so I can attend the rally here. I hate the thought of loosing a full day of pay, and yet I feel I need to be out there helping our community. What's a days pay when compared to the hate that is being directed at the GLBT community?

I'm really excited to see how everyone is mobilizing finally against the hatred that is taking over the country. It feels like things are boiling over for the GLBT community and we're heading towards something revolutionary like another Stonewall.

When ACT UP faded into the wood works to be replaced by the more politely political Human Rights Campaign, I never thought that we would see another day where the GLBT community would stand up to the lies, hatred and misinformation being spread across the country.

It finally looks as if we are going to try and turn our anger into something that will make a real and lasting change in our country.

For too long we've all done our part by only donating money and sometimes time to different causes important to us. That, however, hasn't been working. We allowed ourselves to become complacent in the small victories that have been made, but not anymore it seems. Now it looks as if we are ready to take to the streets demanding that our voices be heard.

What really makes this exciting is we now have the internet to get the word out. With blogs, Twitter, Plurk, and a dozen other sites it's a lot easier to network and organize. Word can now spread in an instant from person to person so we can hit the streets with as many different voices as possible. It is now easier to network with others in our community as never before.

I stand by my statement that it's high time we start acting up. We've played by the rules in Washington and our individual states. Where has that got us? Nowhere! The time for us to demand change is upon us. We need to make the most of it while we can.

American Airlines Supports ENDA

I normally don't talk about work, but I just saw that my company sent a letter to Congress in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

Our endorsement of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is consistent with our longstanding Statement of Equal Opportunity … The principles fostered by ENDA are consistent with our corporate principles in treating all employees with fairness and respect. On behalf of our more than 80,000 employees, we appreciate your consideration and encourage Congress to enact this important legislation.

It's things like this that make me glad I work for such an inclusive company.