Ask the Pittsburgh Pirates to make a video for the "It Gets Better Project"

Via Sue from Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents:

Are you familiar with the "It Gets Better Project"

Recently, a series of Major League Baseball teams have contributed videos to the project. The first team was the San Francisco Giants followed by the Cubs, Red Sox and the Mariners. According to the project, other teams are considering signing on.

So I contacted the Pirates Diversity Manager whom I've met and began a dialogue about the project. I recruited some other folks to advocate for our community and teamed up with Equality PA (they are also working with the Phillies).

The time has come for fans to weigh in so we set up a Change.org petition, much like folks did in the home cities of the teams listed above. Please take a moment to follow the link and sign on. Include a message in the comments section if you like. But please remember, we are in encouragement mode.

The Pirates hosted their first "Pride Night at PNC Park" in 2004 so there is precedent for them to work with our community. And I would hope they would appreciate that taking a stance against bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity is not exactly a controversial LGBTQ rights stance. It is tremendously important issue and the more allies the project gains, the more we can hope to improve the lives of youth in our community.

Here's the link. Please pass it around. http://www.change.org/petitions/ask-the-pittsburgh-pirates-to-make-a-video-for-the-it-gets-better-project

Same-Sex Marriage Passes In New York State

The New York State Senate passed a marriage equality bill 33-29 tonight. The New York Assembly passed the bill today by a vote of 82-47. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has already promised to sign the bill into law. It's worth noting that the Senate is Republican controlled. One of the best quotes during the weeks leading up to the vote came from Republican Senator Roy McDonald:

You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn’t black and white, good and bad, and you try to do the right thing. You might not like that. You might be very cynical about that. Well, fuck it, I don’t care what you think. I’m trying to do the right thing. I’m tired of Republican-Democrat politics. They can take the job and shove it. I come from a blue-collar background. I’m trying to do the right thing, and that’s where I’m going with this.

Thanks to everyone who did the right thing!
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In case you missed it

I've been out of town for a couple of days, so I'm playing catchup. In case you missed all the news stories on the flash mob that kicked of Pride Weekend, here it is:

Lil Ricky, Climate Change, And Teh Gays

I'm not sure if former(because he lost by 18 points)Senator Rick Santorum is trying to out crazie Representative Michelle Bachman and former(because she quit)Governor Sarah Palin, but he's certainly giving it the old college try.

First he's on Rush Limbaugh's radio show and calls climate change "absurd":

Former Congressman and current Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is turning up the heat on the issue of man-made global warming, calling it "patently absurd," a stance putting him at odds with perceived frontrunner Mitt Romney.

"I believe the Earth gets warmer and I also believe the Earth gets cooler, and I think history points out that it does that," Santorum said on Rush Limbaugh's radio show this afternoon.

"The idea that man – through the production of CO2 (carbon dioxide) which is a trace gas in the atmosphere, and the man-made part of that trace gas is itself a trace gas – is somehow responsible for climate change is, I think, patently absurd."

Oops. I stand corrected. I should have said "patently absurd."

And yes, I got that from World Net Daily. Who better to track teh crazie than teh crazie itself?

But let's take a look at Rick's "evidence" shall we?

Today, Santorum of Pennsylvania was adamant in his stance against man-made climate change, saying there were numerous factors that help regulate the temperature on the planet, specifically citing El Nino, La Nina, sunspots, and moisture in the air.

He said the political left uses the issue to its benefit no matter what the temperature is: "It's really a beautifully concocted scheme because they know the Earth is going to cool and warm. And so, if it's been on a warming trend for a while, [they say] 'Let's take advantage of that and say that we need the government to come in and regulate your life some more because it's getting warmer.'

"Just like they did in the '70s when it was getting cooler. They needed the government to come in and regulate your life because it's getting cooler. It's just an excuse for more government control of your life and I've never been for any scheme or even accepted the junk science between the whole narrative."

Ok, let's establish the baseline here. The earth is warming. Here's a graph from NASA:


In one sense Rick is right. The Earth does cool. Sometimes. But then it warms up more. Just saying that the earth warms and cools is a knowing distortion. Of course the earth cools. It was cooler last night than it was during the day. It was cooler last December than it will be this July. There are always cycles but none of those change the fact that over time Rick, the earth is getting warmer and warmer.

I guess he hasn't read that NOAA has declared global warming undeniable. But given the fact that a few years ago he wanted to limit the public's access to NOAA in favor of his campaign contributors at Accuweather.

Via ThinkProgress we learn of Rick's future plans:

During an appearance on CNN this evening, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum (R-PA) hinted that he would push for a federal constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage if he were elected president, arguing that gay or lesbian relationships could destabilize the culture, rob children “of the potential of having a mom and a dad,” and undermine religious liberties

And he was quoted as saying:

nce people realize the consequence to society of changing this definition, it’s not that we’re against anybody. People can live the life they want to live. They can do whatever they want to do in the privacy of their home with respect to that activity. Now you’re talking about changing the laws of the country. and it could have a profound impact on society, on faith, on education. Once people realize that, they say, you know what, we respect people’s life to live the life they want to lead but don’t change how with that definition.

Really? People can do whatever they want in the privacy of their own homes? That's not what he said in 2008:

"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything," Santorum said in the AP interview, which was published Monday.

Ok, I'll make the cheap shot.

Rick Santorum is patently absurd.

Protest at Target Tomorrow: Help take the bull's-eye off of our democracy and the gay community

The Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case last year opened the floodgates of corporate money into American politics. One of the first companies to take advantage of the change in law was Target which made a $150,000 contribution to support a strongly anti-gay, pro-chamber-of-commerce candidate. Target faced a backlash when their contribution became known, but according to http://www.protesttarget.com/why.html, "Target responded to the uproar by implementing superficial changes to its political giving policy. But today it STILL continues its political spending."

We need to:



It's time to remind Target and other corporations gearing up for the 2012 elections that our democracy is not for sale, and that when companies try to buy our elected officials to do their bidding, we the people will be watching.

Protest the Target shareholders meeting
June 8 at noon
Target store
6231 Penn Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15206

You can RSVP at anyone of the following sites:

MoveOn
ProtestTarget.com
Common Cause

I'll see you there!

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This action is being sponsored by the following groups:

With participation from the local MoveOn
and Democracy for Pittsburgh groups.
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God News From Minnesota

Perhaps missed in all the rapturous news of the end-that-wasn't, was this story of some more Heartland religious crazie:

A controversial anti-gay preacher questioned President Obama's Christianity Friday morning, when he delivered the morning prayer on the Minnesota House floor.

"I know this is a non-denominational prayer in this chamber and it's not about the Baptists and it's not about the Catholics alone or the Lutherans or the Wesleyans," Bradlee Dean said, sporting a track suit and long ponytail, "or the Presbyterians, the evangelicals or any other denomination, but rather the head of the denomination and his name is Jesus. As every President up until 2008 has acknowledged. And we pray it. In Jesus' name."

The Minnesota Independent reports:

Minnesota House Republicans invited anti-gay preacher Bradlee Dean of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide to give the morning prayer. The prayer was so offensive to many legislators that House leadership brought in the chaplain to redo the prayer.

Here's the prayer:


If you listen, the good Reverend wasn't questioning President Obama's Christianity as much as he was using the date of Obama's election to reassert the wingnut meme that the United States of America was founded as a Christian nation. An equally crazie idea, of course.

But what makes Dean so controversial? Let's take a look.

Dean runs an organization called You Can Run But You Can't Hide that describes itself as:

To reshape America by re-directing the current and future generations both morally and spiritually through education, media, and the Judeo-Christian values found in our U.S. Constitution.

And he spins the reaction to his prayer on his blog:

Apparently someone was angry about my prayer because I invoked the name of Jesus. Before I knew it, instead of the media reporting on it as me standing up for our future generations, all of the sudden I became an anti-gay divisive pastor, when all I did was simply say a prayer encouraging all of us to honor our veterans, uphold the Constitution, and not forget the principles of our forefathers, upon which this nation is established.

Go listen to the prayer, that's not exactly what he did. He made the odd point that EVERY President up to Obama has declared America to be a Christian Nation. Really? Even Bill Clinton?

An interesting point of his blog post, however, comes when he dutifully trots out the opening prayer to the First Continental Congress in 1774 dutifully pointing out how religious it was:

O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech Thee...

Blah-blah-blah, yadda-yadda-yadda and so on. I wonder if the good Reverend would be surprised to learn that the invoker of that first prayer, one Reverend Jacob Duché, a few years later advocated to General Washington that he surrender to the British. After that he abandoned America and fled to Britain. In Pennsylvania, he was tried and convicted of Treason and his property was confiscated. Yea, he left that part out.

But let's get back to Reverend Dean. This is from the Minnesota Independent:

“Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America,” Dean said on YCR’s May 15 radio show on AM 1280 the Patriot. “This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination.”

“If America won’t enforce the laws, God will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that,” Dean continued. “That is what you are seeing in America.”

“The bottom line is this… they [homosexuals] play the victim when they are, in fact, the predator,” Dean said, before going on to make a claim that has no basis in fact: “On average, they molest 117 people before they’re found out. How many kids have been destroyed, how many adults have been destroyed because of crimes against nature?”

Proves, yet again, that Hitchens was right when he said that you can get away with saying anything as long as you have the word "Reverend" shoved in front of your name.

How was the Rapture for you?

Santorum: Repealing DADT is really about "trying to move any people of faith and religion...out of America"

Thanks to News Hounds (via Crooks And Liars), we have Lil Ricky explaining to us how repealing DADT was not only unnecessary for gays who wanted to serve in the military but, more importantly, how it's just one more step in the process of the left moving people of faith out of America.

Damn! The jig's up -- he's on to us! (Just as the relocation camps were nearly completed.)


Text:

Steyn snidely asked if Obama’s “principled defense of marriage or whatever it was” was “likely to be tossed overboard with so much else?”

Santorum replied, “Look, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was not about men and women serving in the military. Men and women who are gays and lesbians can serve in the military right now. That’s not the issue. The issue is a bigger issue. The issue is – and it’s not even about gay marriage. This is about a larger issue of the secularization of our society. It’s a larger issue about the left just, you know, trying to, you know, put government in control of this country, and trying to move faith, trying to move any people of faith and religion out of the public square, out of America, trying to transform what America’s all about. And this is just one more step in the process and we have Republicans who may be well meaning… but what they’re doing is a larger harm and this is just one more step in that process.”

It's beginning to look a lot like Metcalfe

And the angel said unto them, Fear lots: for, behold, I bring you bad tidings of great gloom, which shall be to all people of Pennsylvania.

Via Chris Potter's Slag Heap, we learn that Daryl "I Don't Speak Mexican" Metcalfe (R-Birther, Tenther, Homophobe, Anti-Muslim, Climate Change Denier, Pro Domestic Violence, Voter Intimidar, All Around Hater) will be chairing the State Government Committee.

Potter:

As its name suggests, Metcalfe's committee handles legislation that pertains to state government and its powers. Constitutional amendments, campaign-finance and other election reforms ... all such mess as that.

[snip]

[N]ewly-appointed State Government Committee Majority Chairman Metcalfe looks forward to the opportunity of advancing the Pennsylvania Marriage Protection Amendment; election reform legislation requiring all Presidential candidates to officially submit proof of U.S. citizenship documentation; and his Arizona-modeled legislation to provide state and local law enforcement with full authority to apprehend Pennsylvania’s estimated 140,000 illegal alien invaders for deportation

Emphasis mine -- yeah, he's going there. So Pennsylvania looks well positioned to be the source of some really embarrassing headlines in 2012.

He's wasting no time too. Sue at Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents has the memo that he sent to all PA House members on the 22nd asking them to cosponsor his anti-gay "Definition of Marriage" act.

[sigh]


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Now on to DOMA

Now on to the repeal of DOMA

word

From President Barack Obama's remarks yesterday on signing into law the repeal of DADT:

There will never be a full accounting of the heroism demonstrated by gay Americans in service to this country; their service has been obscured in history. It’s been lost to prejudices that have waned in our own lifetimes. But at every turn, every crossroads in our past, we know gay Americans fought just as hard, gave just as much to protect this nation and the ideals for which it stands.

There can be little doubt there were gay soldiers who fought for American independence, who consecrated the ground at Gettysburg, who manned the trenches along the Western Front, who stormed the beaches of Iwo Jima. Their names are etched into the walls of our memorials. Their headstones dot the grounds at Arlington.

And so, as the first generation to serve openly in our Armed Forces, you will stand for all those who came before you, and you will serve as role models to all who come after. And I know that you will fulfill this responsibility with integrity and honor, just as you have every other mission with which you’ve been charged.