QueerFeed
Tue, Apr 24

Hundreds of Sacramento-area students rallied to support four students suspended for wearing anti-gay shirts. One participant said: "It's only going to get worse against Christians. We're going to get persecuted more and more. But those who stand to the end: God is going to save them." Um, right...

Sony's banking on Spider Man 3. Literally. Some insiders claim the flick cost $300 million to produce. No doubt, however, it'll make it back. And then some.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission will honor Nepal's Blue Diamond Society for all their hard activist work. Unfortunately, they will not be honored with actual blue diamonds.

Thu, Apr 12

We've never quite understood Kate Moss and Pete Doherty's relationship. Now we do. And they're kind of cute. Still total nutters, but cute...

The fuzz may have been investigating theft at Atlanta's airport, but they found a bunch of horny gay men, instead. Now they're looking for more.

Regional lawyers have ruled that Latvia's City Council acted unjustly in barring last year's gay pride parade. Hoorah!

Wed, Apr 11

Maryland's House has passed a bill requiring health insurance companies to extend benefits to same-sex partners and children. The bill now needs to be signed by the governor to become a law. (We totally just had a School House Rock flashback.)

GLAAD's celebrating the tenth anniversary of Ellen Degeneres' coming out with a month full of flag-waving faggotry.

Sri Lanka may forbid homosexuality, but that's not stopping gay activists from planning a pride event. Trouble is, they don't have any money. Do you?

In an effort to make a more single friendly album, Madonna has joined forces with Justin Timberlake and uber-producer Timbaland. If they can't help her sales, no one can...

Tue, Apr 10

The House Judiciary Committee isn't fucking around with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. They've just issued a subpoena for more documents regarding the allegedly illegal firing of federal prosecutors. Nail him to the wall, kids!

New York has agreed to extend benefits to employee's same-sex partners. About fucking time, no?

Mario Vasquez still claims he's not gay. But, of course, the interview took place before that whole sexual harassment lawsuit, so who knows...

Don Imus may have called them "nappy-headed hos", but the Rutgers Women's basketball team has agreed to have a little sit-down. We hope they give it to him good.

Mon, Apr 9

Robbie Williams may have ditched Take That! to embrace his bad boy image, but some are saying the recently rehabbed singer's mulling a musical reunion. Um, is that supposed to be a career booster or a death rattle?

21-year old Akino George has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the beating of gay singer, Kevin Aviance. Like his violent cohorts, George copped a plea. Smart fucker...

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Robert Ehrlich
Tue, Jun 20, 2006

When Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich fired one of his Washington Metro transit authority board members for calling homosexuality "deviant" on TV, a brush fire of social controversy was quickly extinguished. Or was it?

On a public access program discussing gay marriage, board member Robert Smith said, "Homosexual behavior, in my view, is deviant. I'm a Roman Catholic." Governor Ehrlich called Smith's comments "highly inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable." All of which is true, perhaps, except that last term, as conservative Townhall.com columnist John Leo argues.

While Ehrlich was likely tossing out a string of adjectives that even we would have, Leo calls the governor on his "unacceptable" label.

Did he mean that all members of Washington-area boards are required to approve of homosexuality, or just that they must suppress any non-positive views during TV discussions of same-sex marriage? The governor, a Republican who is up for re-election and is trying to move from the right to the center, clearly hasn't thought the issue through. He certainly seems to be banishing Smith for a thought crime. Perhaps he did so because he knew his Democratic opponents would come after him for tolerating "hate speech" if he let Smith stay on. Smith argues that his social opinions have "absolutely nothing to do with running trains and buses" and that they haven't affected his actions or decisions on the board.

Maybe it's not a good idea for government transit specialists to be pronouncing on divisive social issues. But they clearly have a right to do so. The Supreme Court says the First Amendment protects the right of public employees and appointees to speak freely on matters of public concern. So if Smith wants to sue over his firing, he seems likely to win. At any rate, liberals routinely argue that people should not be fired for behavior or speech unrelated to their jobs, such as professors who make loony remarks out of class, or schoolteachers who have children out of wedlock.

Now don't think we've jumped over to the right wing; we haven't. But Leo does raise a good point: Should we force our public officials to stay mum on their personal feelings, under the threat of firing, if they go against the grain? If they're performing their job well, does it matter what belief system they subscribe to?

Yes, perhaps. Racist officials in charge of distributing funding to community groups could deny funding to black organizations. Anti-semetic officials in charge of assigning construction projects could skip over Weisberg Construction in favor of Botelli. But when it comes to homophobic officials, they've got one thing on their sides: sexual orientation is not yet a protected class.

GAYS HAVE EMERGED AS THE NEW PROTECTED CLASS IN AMERICA [Townhall]

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