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Archive for 17. April 2011

Just a kiss, Kobe Bryant fag slur, Civil Unions in Delaware, Santorum again?, pink toe nails ad gay, transgendered, Jesses Jackson

17. April 2011 by admin.

Delaware Adopts Civil Union Bill; Governor Will Sign

UPDATED

The Delaware House has approved civil unions for same-sex couples by a vote of 26-15.

The Senate passed the bill last week by a vote of 13-6.

The vote followed three hours of debate. When the vote was announced, the balcony erupted into cheers, applause and cries of “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

With passage of the bill – S.B. 30 – Delaware becomes the eighth state to grant such legal status to same-sex couples.

The bill is written to parallel Delaware’s marriage code, but opponents say it will certainly be used to fight for same-sex marriage.

Said Governor Markell last week after the bill passed the Senate: "It’s time for this bill to pass. It’s time for the bill to be signed. It’s the right thing to do for the people of Delaware."

Former Staffer Files Anti-Gay Sexual Harassment Complaint Against Jesse Jackson and Rainbow PUSH Coalition

A former staffer for Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition has sued Rev. Jesse Jackson, claiming a broad array of anti-gay harassment charges, the Windy City Times reports:

In a document filled with stunning allegations, Tommy R. Bennett has filed a complaint with the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations against the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., and the minister’s Chicago-based organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, claiming, among other things, harassment and termination on the basis of Bennett’s sexual orientation.

Bennett claims that he had to escort women to Jackson’s room and "clean up his room after sexual intercourse with women. Mr. Bennett believes he was forced to do these tasks due to his sexual orientation".

Bennett also claims that "Rev. Jackson stated that he played football and there was a gay high school teacher who took Rev. Jackson under his wings and told him that he needed education to go along with football. Rev. Jackson said, ‘[F]rom that gay teacher, I got a good grade, I got to use his car, I got ten dollars and I got my dick sucked.’ Rev. Jackson said, ‘[T]hat’s not gay, that is surviving.’" Bennett alleges this meant Rev. Jackson wanted sex, but that Bennett then left the room.

Bennett’s demands?

In a demand letter accompanying the complaint, Bennett said he wanted, among other things, $98,300 for back pay, front pay and loss of benefits; $350,000 for emotional distress and punitive damages; and an amendment of Rainbow PUSH’s non-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

Rickhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FmEhL6qljLI

Santorum Defends 2003 ‘Man on Dog’ Remarks About Same-Sex Marriage

This evening on Hardball, Chris Matthews noted that presidential hopeful Rick "frothy mix" Santorum appeared on Glenn Beck’s radio show today and defended his 2003 statement comparing homosexuality to bestiality.

Said Santorum to Beck: "It’s not homophobic. It’s a legal argument, and it’s a correct legal argument. In fact, that’s exactly what’s happening. We went from Lawrence v. Texas to now a constitutional right to same-sex marriage and they’re going into a constitutional right to polyamorous ( pol am err us) relationships.

This is the slippery slope that we’re heading down, and I can’t buy it."

More FROTH:

Rick Santorum Takes Campaign Slogan from Poem by Gay Rights and Pro-Union Advocate Langston Hughes

Ian Millhiser at Think Progress notes:

Earlier today, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) announced that he will begin fundraising for a presidential run using the campaign slogan “Fighting to make America America again.”

This eloquent turn of phrase, however, was not invented by Santorum. It is borrowed from the title of a pro-union, pro-racial justice, and pro-immigrant poem written by Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes — “Let America Be America Again” …

While Hughes is best known for his poetic cries for racial and economic justice, he was also a staunch defender of gay rights. His poem “Cafe: 3 a.m.” criticizes a police raid on a gay establishment, attacking the injustice of arresting gay people because “God, Nature, or somebody made them that way.

” Santorum, by contrast, is best known for spouting a frothy mixture of anti-gay rhetoric comparing same-sex couples with people who have sex with dogs."

Former NBA Player John Amaechi on Kobe Bryant’s Anti-Gay Slur: ‘Saying You Didn’t Mean it is Not the Answer’.

Former NBA player John Amaechi, who came out in 2007 after he retired, talks to USA Today about Kobe Bryant’s recent slur, as well as his follow-up statement:

I suppose that’s the typical, "I apologize if you’re offended" type of comment. I doubt very much when he said that that he thought Bennie was a pile of sticks. There’s only one contemporary meaning for that.

The problem we have now is because of the way we don’t address homophobia, the ultimate insult to a man is to tell them either they’re like a woman or worse, that they’re gay.

We have to take it as unacceptable as a white person screaming the N-word at a black person. … I can tell you that I’ve been called a f——- fairly routinely, and yet people seem to hold off on calling me the N-word. We’ve got to mirror that progress.

Amaechi said that while he agrees with the fine imposed (which Kobe is appealing), what he’d really like to see Kobe do is make a difference:

“What I would want is to encourage Kobe to use the power he has to really make an apology that means something. Tell black men, men in general in America, that resorting to that sort of language is the lowest of the low and is unacceptable. And it doesn’t make you any more of a man. That’s really the answer. Saying you didn’t mean it is not the answer.”

Much more interview at USA Today…

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-13-2011/toemageddon-2011—this-little-piggy-went-to-hell

Jon Stewart Mocks J. Crew Pink Toenails ‘Controversy’

Genius segment from Jon Stewart last night on the wingnut outrage over the J Crew ad in which a mom is seen painting her son’s toenails pink.

"What I thought was just a pleasant sweet little mother-son bond-vertising, NBC, ABC, CNN, and FOX recognized as This Little Piggy Went to Hell…[They] make it sound like it’s a story about incest or cannibalism."

He also ripped those who said the pink toenails would turn a kid gay, or transgender: "If you take [kids] to a face-painting booth, it doesn’t make them cats."

Outrage in London as Gay Couple are Ejected from Pub for Kiss: Supporters Plan Massive Kiss

In Tonight

Controversy has erupted in London after a gay couple on a first date, Jonathan Williams and James Bull, were ejected from a pub in London’s Soho district for kissing, the Guardian reports:

Williams, a journalist for a financial magazine, and Bull, a charity volunteer, said they had been ejected from the John Snow in Broadwick Street, Soho, central London, on Wednesday by a woman – claiming to be the landlady – who accused them of being "obscene" while out on their first date.

The event has triggered a public debate on open displays of affection, how much is too much, and whether Williams and Bull were treated differently because they are gay.

The two men deny having behaved in any unseemly way. "We weren’t being over the top; there wasn’t anything that would be deemed unseemly," Williams said. "I’m not the kind of person to do that kind of thing in public."

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