Inquisitarian

Gay/Lesbian

A Bombshell for DOMA - Judge in California Challenges Executive...

I share your frustration here. There are several national organizations, but none that seem to be getting the job done against NOM and the like. Maine shows that we can outspend our opponents, so there has to be more to it than just the funding. Let's just be clear on one thing - I do support bold action, but not reckless rhetoric or violence. There seems to be too little of the former coming from the national groups, and too much of the latter coming from individuals frustrated by the failures and inaction of those organizations. That said, we still have to persuade person by person and enact change state by state.  (18 hrs ago | post #58)

Gay/Lesbian

A Bombshell for DOMA - Judge in California Challenges Executive...

Which brings us to another facet of the problem. We are now in an era where people use words as a smokescreen for their real agenda; one in which hard news has been supplanted by the soundbite and news-entertainment . As for the Internet, many if not most people use it to find opinions that reinforce their own bias, not to become better informed through an examination of multiple, opposing viewpoints. Stuff that we learn about through gay news sites online barely gets a mention in the mainstream news - if it's addressed at all. People that have no interest in what's happening to gay people aren't going to seek out those news or personal interest items online. More likely, they'll get their information about it through a very passive process that is unlikely to make them anything approaching well-informed on the matter.  (Yesterday | post #52)

Gay/Lesbian

Ugandan anti-gay legislation gets U.S. seal of approval

You clearly have nothing of value to add to the discussion and are only here to troll. I therefore won't be responding to you until you come up with something new.  (Sunday | post #79)

Gay/Lesbian

Maine Revisited: Is There a Backlash Against Same-Sex Marriage?

If you had watched the vote in the New York senate online, you would have seen that many of those speaking in favor of marriage bill and voting for it were black.  (Sunday | post #12)

Gay/Lesbian

Ugandan anti-gay legislation gets U.S. seal of approval

You mean the message that if some people had their way, those of same-sex orientation would be exterminated? You aren't telling us anything we don't already know. Here's a few facts for you to chew on: 1) Calling people names is a sure sign that one has run out of reasonable arguments. 2) Similarly, characterizing something as "wacko bullsh-t" is likewise an obvious attempt to get your audience to posit as true an assertion for which you've made no supporting argument, and probably can't. 3) Gay people pay taxes, too. 4) Only a minority of same-sex oriented people are infected with the HIV virus. 5) Uganda is in Africa, where the primary means of infection is heterosexual sex. 6) The USA is not Uganda. Here we value principles like liberty and equality. If you don't like that, then perhaps you should consider moving somewhere more in line with your extreme views.  (Sunday | post #64)

Gay/Lesbian

Maine Revisited: Is There a Backlash Against Same-Sex Marriage?

"Is There a Backlash Against Same-Sex Marriage?" Not so much a backlash, as just an ongoing war for & against equality.  (Sunday | post #5)

Gay/Lesbian

A Bombshell for DOMA - Judge in California Challenges Executive...

The point being, it doesn't matter how loud you yell if the people who control the dissemination of information won't let that voice be heard.  (Sunday | post #50)

Gay/Lesbian

Ugandan anti-gay legislation gets U.S. seal of approval

Hypothetical: Consider how different reactions to this law would be if instead of homosexuals, the law targeted Christians. Now, is it the group being targeted that matters here, or is it really Warren's "not wanting to get involved in Ugandan politics"? Warren's assertion that this is a political matter and thus not something for him to comment on has got to be just about the lamest copout ever.  (Sunday | post #62)

Gay/Lesbian

Rapper Eminem Resorts to Anti-Gay Lyrics

Since pretty much always in the USA.  (Friday Dec 4 | post #26)

Gay/Lesbian

Rapper Eminem Resorts to Anti-Gay Lyrics

That's just plain BS. Well, perhaps a small bit of truth in the context of refusing to take them personally on an individual basis. But a completely false statement where the public perception of homosexuality they help to create is concerned, and how that in turn affects our ability to exercise our full equality. Words matter. They're our primary means to communicate and spread ideas. The right words used in the right time and place by the right person can make a world of difference. Their effect may not be immediately perceptible or easily measured, but that hardly renders it non-existent.  (Friday Dec 4 | post #25)

Gay/Lesbian

Rapper Eminem Resorts to Anti-Gay Lyrics

If you're buying his records, you're at least indirectly helping to finance the spreading of the anti-gay message behind his lyrics.  (Friday Dec 4 | post #23)

Gay/Lesbian

Rapper Eminem Resorts to Anti-Gay Lyrics

Is it your sentiment that we shouldn't care what any publicly recognized figure says to a broader audience about us? What difference does it make if that person is a commercially successful musician or a Catholic cardinal, a senator or a lobbyist? If you really think the anti-gay message that comes from people of such influence doesn't matter, doesn't make a difference in our struggle for equality, then you're pretty naive, at bestThat right also covers people who speak up against an anti-gay message being spread by some rapper through his music. The right to speak doesn't include in it a right for one's speech to be shielded from negative criticismSeems like you're the one whining because someone said something negative about an artist you like. The fact that they have doesn't mean they aren't also actively doing things to help our community. If you want to refer to yourself with an anti-gay pejorative, that's your right. But I'll take the opportunity here to say that I refuse to own that label. I have more respect for myself than that.  (Friday Dec 4 | post #22)

Gay/Lesbian

Lady Gaga Comes Out as Intersex?

And we should trust your statement over hers why, exactly? If you don't like her music, or her personally, fine - you're entitled to your opinion. But unless you have some sort of inside knowledge on the matter, I think it's fair to say that your opinion on whether or not she's an intersex person isn't worth much.  (Friday Dec 4 | post #34)

Gay/Lesbian

A Bombshell for DOMA - Judge in California Challenges Executive...

Not so bizarre as one might think. 1) Some people are reasonably afraid of what the media attention could cost them. When others have spoken up, they've become the targets of even greater acts of intimidation. As in, had to move house in fear for their lives. 2) The media isn't very interested in telling the truth about gay people. What the media wants is sensationalism, because that's what pulls in the ratings - things that shock or titillate. While the things that have happened to some gay people may be shocking, it's a different kind of shocking versus the local drag queen on roller skates dressed in a mirror-ball outfit (and if we're going to be really honest, the media doesn't care about that person's struggles either - only the shock value of their difference). In the end, it's not really the political loudmouths that hold us back, but the middlemen who control the distribution of the message - people for whom it's only about making a buck.  (Friday Dec 4 | post #48)

Gay/Lesbian

A Bombshell for DOMA - Judge in California Challenges Executive...

What sort of "really loud, decisive action"? And what do you imagine it will accomplish? The legislatures, courts and voters aren't going to magically be persuaded to give us our equality just because we make noise about it or engage in various forms of protest, regardless of how innovative they might be. What's required is changing people's minds, and that's not likely to be something we can scare them into. Just look at the fallout from the vandalism of Mormon facilities by a few misguided individuals after the passage for Prop 8. That didn't net us any positive gains, it only served to set us back by playing right into the hands of the fearmongers blanketly (and falsely) claiming that gay people are trying to destroy religionThen I frankly don't think you really have a grasp of the realities we would have to deal with in the face of such a thingAnd I have a hunch that you should stop trying to tell an entire group of people with varying opinions on the matter how to handle their own movement for equality. Some of us have been doing this for decades, and we know much better just how difficult it can be, how little it takes to set us back, etc.  (Thursday Dec 3 | post #41)