Sorry To Tell You This... But, It's Not All About YOU (Get. Over. It.)

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The end of ‘don’t ask’ Tolerance of open service by gays continues to rise in latest poll Marine Corps Times September 20, 2011

*** Proudly Served Without Giving Handjobs, Blowjobs Or Getting It Up The Butt

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Magnanimous To The Greedy, No Decency For The Sick

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AIDS-Afflicted U.S. Citizen Urges Obama Admin to Reverse Deportation of Australian Husband The Obama administration’s enforcement of the Defense of Marriage Act is threatening to tear apart the seven-year marriage of a binational gay couple in San Francisco. Bradford Wells, a U.S. citizen, and Anthony John Makk, an Australian national, have lived together for 19 years and were among the first same-sex couples to legally marry in Massachusetts. Anthony is also the primary caretaker for his husband, who has HIV/AIDS. Makk is facing deportation this month after the Obama administration denied them the same immigration benefits routinely given to opposite-sex couples. The decision is based on the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law known as DOMA, which denies federal benefits to same-sex couples. The Obama administration has said it would no longer defend DOMA in the courts, but the law still remains in effect.

And these fucking politicians have the nerve to ever bring "god" into anything they have to say. What they actually do is a different story. They couldn't be farther from grace. "God Bless"...? Fuck you. Stick that god bless clean up your ass, "mr. president".

I know, I know... He's a "politician". But, it doesn't mean we should sit still for the redundancy. Maybe we should start with altering our expectations... We should expect MORE. We should DEMAND MORE. Because we deserve more. And at the very least, we should expect decency...

Am I angry?

Absolutely.

If you'd like to sign a petition speaking out on behalf of Anthony Makk and Bradford Wells, you may do so here.

Silence is compliance.

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All For One And One For All

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Pioneering Comedian Roseanne Barr on Her Life on Screen as a “Working-Class Domestic Goddess” The writer Barbara Ehrenreich once praised Roseanne Barr for representing "the hopeless underclass of the female sex: polyester-clad, overweight occupants of the slow track; fast-food waitresses, factory workers, housewives, members of the invisible pink-collar army; the despised, the jilted, the underpaid."

Because I haven't really watched television very much in the last 25 years, and I probably only saw "Roseanne" a couple of times if that, I wasn't aware of any of this...

A little knowledge for a little perspective.

And Brava, Roseanne, brava!

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Don't Ask, TELL - Repeal This Bullshit Now

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I know that you guys are an aware and active population, so please forgive the redundancy of posting links to socially minded and environmental progressive organizations. But, just in the event that you miss a few, or are new to this site, I'm going to continue to do so.

SO, if you haven't already, please take a moment to sign this petition from The Human Rights Campaign: The Pentagon report is in. Repeal DADT now!

It's about equality for all, not for some. It's about dignity and respect. It's about freedom.

Ignorance and bigotry have ruled long enough.

Silence is compliance.

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Cindy McCain Is A Total Badass

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I've written before about the McCain women stepping up. And I DO feel badly about ever saying that Cindy McCain was really a Klingon Warrioress dressed poorly in Dolce & Gabbana.

I also feel badly that she's still married to that... What did I call him? Oh yeah, "a ginned-up hobbit". Yeah. That's it. I imagine THAT'S why I thought she was a "Klingon Warrioress".

We'll blame my poor judgment on John McCain. And really, why wouldn't we?

So, yeah. Cindy McCain has stepped up AGAIN.

"Our political and religious leaders tell LGBT youth that they have no future. They can't serve our country openly.

"Our government treats the LGBT community like second-class citizens. Why shouldn't bullies?" ~ Cindy McCain

Brava, Cindy, brava. I'm just sorry that you're still married to that ginned-up hobbit.

(See? Am I lying?) Although, I am fond of how you prod him. It's good for him. So, keep prodding. It keeps him on his hairy, stubby toes. Anyway, Cindy,... may I call you "Cindy"? Great. I like your style.

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Stop Riding

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Gay Kids Are Dying, Fuck Your Feelings. DAN SAVAGE pulling no punches. October 14, 2010

"Dear Dan: I was listening to the radio yesterday morning, and I heard an interview with you about your It Gets Better campaign. I was saddened and frustrated with your comments regarding people of faith and their perpetuation of bullying. As someone who loves the Lord and does not support gay marriage, I can honestly say I was heartbroken to hear about the young man who took his own life. If your message is that we should not judge people based on their sexual preference, how do you justify judging entire groups of people for any other reason (including their faith)? There is no part of me that took any pleasure in what happened to that young man, and I know for a fact that is true of many other people who disagree with your viewpoint.

"To that end, to imply that I would somehow encourage my children to mock, hurt, or intimidate another person for any reason is completely unfounded and offensive. Being a follower of Christ is, above all things, a recognition that we are all imperfect, fallible, and in desperate need of a savior. We cannot believe that we are better or more worthy than other people.

"Please consider your viewpoint, and please be more careful with your words in the future." — L.R.

Savage: "I'm sorry your feelings were hurt by my comments.

"No, wait. I'm not. Gay kids are dying. So let's try to keep things in perspective: Fuck your feelings.

"A question: Do you "support" atheist marriage? Interfaith marriage? Divorce and remarriage? All are legal, all go against Christian and/or traditional ideas about marriage, and yet there's no "Christian" movement to deny marriage rights to atheists or people marrying outside their respective faiths or people divorcing and remarrying.

"Why the hell not?

"Sorry, L.R., but so long as you support the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples, it's clear that you do believe that some people—straight people—are "better or more worthy" than others.

"And—sorry—but you are partly responsible for the bullying and physical violence being visited on vulnerable LGBT children. The kids of people who see gay people as sinful or damaged or disordered and unworthy of full civil equality—even if those people strive to express their bigotry in the politest possible way (at least when they happen to be addressing a gay person)—learn to see gay people as sinful, damaged, disordered, and unworthy. And while there may not be any gay adults or couples where you live, or at your church, or in your workplace, I promise you that there are gay and lesbian children in your schools. And while you can only attack gays and lesbians at the ballot box, nice and impersonally, your children have the option of attacking actual gays and lesbians, in person, in real time. Real gay and lesbian children. Not political abstractions, not "sinners." Gay and lesbian children.

"Try to keep up: The dehumanizing bigotries that fall from the lips of "faithful Christians," and the lies about us that vomit out from the pulpits of churches that "faithful Christians" drag their kids to on Sundays, give your children license to verbally abuse, humiliate, and condemn the gay children they encounter at school. And many of your children—having listened to Mom and Dad talk about how gay marriage is a threat to family and how gay sex makes their magic sky friend Jesus cry—feel justified in physically abusing the LGBT children they encounter in their schools. You don't have to explicitly "encourage [your] children to mock, hurt, or intimidate" queer kids. Your encouragement—along with your hatred and fear—is implicit. It's here, it's clear, and we're seeing the fruits of it: dead children. Oh, and those same dehumanizing bigotries that fill your straight children with hate? They fill your gay children with suicidal despair. And you have the nerve to ask me to be more careful with my words?

"Did that hurt to hear? Good. But it couldn't have hurt nearly as much as what was said and done to Asher Brown and Justin Aaberg and Billy Lucas and Cody Barker and Seth Walsh—day-in, day-out for years—at schools filled with bigoted little monsters created not in the image of a loving God, but in the image of the hateful and false "followers of Christ" they call Mom and Dad."

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People, children are DYING. And those who aren't, feel like their dead. That, I can assure you.

*** (Thank you for this, Holly. That letter just about covers it.)

*** (source of letter)

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Joel Burns is a Total Badass

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"One day when I was in the ninth grade I was cornered by some older kids who roughed me up. They said that I was a faggot, and that I should die and go to hell where I belonged. That erupted the fear that I had kept pushed down, that what I was beginning to feel on the inside must somehow be showing on the outside. ... There must be something very wrong with me, I thought. Something I could never let my family or anyone else know."

- Joel Burns, a city councilman in Fort Worth, Texas (source)

Bravo, Mr. Burns. BRAVO.

If people had ANY inkling of the amount and depth of the isolation, despair and self-loathing that comes with society's intolerant views of homosexuality and being different, it would be crystal clear that it's not a choice.

What IS a choice is living with dignity and grace and love. And that's the sweetest revenge.

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