Why would a sermon based on Bible teachings, in church (it’s not like you’re being dragged there by force, is it?), would be marked as a hate-speech and be a subject to a court? After all, it’s not their business what we do there, so why do they poke their noses into each and every area of society? Even KKK is allowed to do the talkin’, and the normal church, which doesn’t do any harm at all, all of a sudden is the main hater and an enemy of all humanity? What’s so rational about that?

And what’s rationality and reason in pro-gay arguments? So far, I’ve only heard something that is aimed at people’s emotions. Emotions are not rational. I could be emotionally happy killing people and beating up babies, but anybody sane wouldn’t think that the presence of emotions is a good enough reason for those actions. Love is also not a good reason for actions. A 60-year-old pedophile could sincerely love his 6-year-old concubine. Is that moral/sane/right? A father and a daughter? A brother and a sister? A farmer and a mare? If that’s a choice that’s so important here, then why would most of people on the planet think it’s wrong to screw your own daughter/sister/brother/mother/father/son/dog/goat/mule/etc? That’s a choice, after all.

Its like the magazine Ebony…that’s OK…but if I started a magazine “Cracker” or Ivory…I would be labeled a racist.

My problem is, if I love the person but disagree with the behavior, I am considered a Gay hater. Why is that?

Marriage is a religious ceremony…why would someone who doesn’t believe in Christianity, want to be married. I understand that a civil union does not cut it because the rights are not guaranteed from state to state…but what about a federal civil union that carried the same rights as a marriage?

I have treated gay men that were dieing of aids and I cannot say that their partners loved them any less than I love my wife…but I still cannot comprehend gay behavior…why do I have to accept your beliefs and you will not accept mine?

A christian that cannot understand gays is considered an evil hatemonger yet a gay person that cannot understand a christian is OK. The comments made above prove to me that some proclaimed Christains are far from it…Jesus tells me to love everyone…even those I don’t understand. Their hate and “repent” crap is NOT christian behavior at all. Judge not..least you be judged…heavy words for people that do hate.

Not agreeing with the Gay community does not make me a hate monger…but that is what I am called by most gays…the message is always that I must accept you..but never the other way around. Until strait people can say “I accept you, but not your lifestyle” without feeling like they will be strung up by the gay community…the divide between gay-strait people will remain forever.

I had a great example from a Gay man…I worked with him in the ER for two years and did not know he was gay until I saw him with his partner at a work party…he didn’t hide it…but it wasn’t his whole identity either…he was a friend and a good man…that just happen to be gay as well. I also had a horrible example…an employee that sucked at his job…so I fired him…he claimed that it was because he was gay..but it was because he sucked at his job. Now I am gun-shy to hire a gay man again…if I have to fire him for poor work…it might be a problem. I am all for Hate Crime laws..there is no place for crimes based on hate but getting “special” protection hurts those that are openly gay. It like hiring a pregnant woman…you cannot discriminate…but her credentials will not seam as good as someone who is not. So when it comes to hiring…if there is a lot of “special” classes of people…it is just easier to weed them out in the beginning rather than risk a lawsuit

I think I am now one of the most discriminated class of people in the country. White-Conservative-Strait-Christian.

I only found this site because I was wondering if the “gay-pride” month declaration was a joke…as I though June already was “pride” month and someone created the declaration to stir up the right.

Let me share a shocking fact those who say that Obama is doing all he can and we little gay folks are less important: Obama does not run the government alone. That is why we have congress, senators, cabinet positions, lobbyists, advocacy groups and many other entities. Do any of you hear of a final date for the new health care reform or the Employee Free Choice Act? No, you don’t. But you hear everyday about there being committees on it, discussions are taking place. LGBT issues? Not so much.

So following the Warren / Robinson fiascos, what exactly occurred?

- Obama mentions the word Muslim for the first time in an inaugural speech, in reference to Muslims abroad and saying we need to repair relations with the Muslim world. I agree with and applaud that completely. However, should not LGBT in THIS COUNTRY WHO ARE AMERICAN CITIZENS, MANY OF WHOM VOTED FOR HIM have been mentioned as well? He mentioned different races and religions, yet we did not even get one single mention in the inaugural address

- Obama gave lukewarm and 11th hour support to the Hate Crimes bill, something desperately needed as hate crimes against LGBT folks have escalated

- Regarding DADT, first they tried to scrub the Whitehouse website and take away the mention of “repeal”, got shamed into putting that back in part through shaming by Rachel Maddow. Then they claim talks about ending DADT are ongoing, yet the Pentagon holds press conferences adamantly denying that is the case. So that seems to be BS. There was a bill introduced by my parents’ rep, Ellen Tauscher, on ending DADT but she got a promotion by the Obama admin and, waaah, the bill was not popular, so no one is rushing to pick it up. There is no freaking reason the Obama admin cannot get the ball rolling on DADT, even if results come in a year or more, as they have done with healthcare, getting out of Iraq and many other things. So sick of this argument that we are insignificant in terms of other problems. Bullshit. They can suggest legislation on DADT and deal with GM at the same time, they really can. Oh, and then there is the disgrace with Dan Choi, Victor Feuerbach and others. How about this as an idea – these people are important members of our military, Choi is a freaking ARABIC language specialist. So how about Obama issues a moratorium on DADT dismissals until this can be dealt with? He can use strange arguments like, um, WE ARE AT WAR and we need key military personnel

- So Prop 8 is upheld. Does Obama issue a simple press release saying that while is does not currently support the nomenclature of marriage, he DOES support civil unions and will work to get federal protection? Nope. Would have taken 10 minutes to reach out to the LGBT community to ease its pain, but no, Obama remained silent.

- In Iraq, gay men are being savagely murdered. Obama and Hillary remain silent.

- Ok, Iraq is very volatile. How about saying something that they should not arrest gay people in Senegal and Burundi? I think these countries could be made to see the light quickly with some sanctions from the US, but no, not a word.

- What about Jamaica? The most homophobic place on earth. What about the sate department issuing a travel advisory that it is not safe for GLBT people to go there (but we know that if you are a rich, white faggot, Jamaica will be happy to have you, it’s just the gay Jamaicans they will brutalize) – but the only way they will get what they are doing is horrendous is hit them in the pocket book. Obama admin does nothing.

- Civil unions? No discussion of that on the horizon.

- Ability to fire someone because they are gay in 30+ states. Nope nothing on that

- Housing discrimination, nothing on that.

Only things we have gotten: a nice press release yesterday, Hillary extending benefits to same-sex partners of diplomats and support of the UN resolution that countries should not illegalize homosexuality. That is pretty much it.

So please spare me this bullshit that Obama can’t do it all at once. He’s got armies of people helping him. He’s dealing with the economy, health care, the environment, Iraq, Afghanistan, improving relations abroad, he can sure as shit get the ball rolling on legislation, start serious talks with the military, start putting some real bills into committee to be voted on – even if the results come in a year or two.

Because we are fucking worth it now. No less than GM, no less than Muslims abroad who think ill of us, no less than cleaner fuels. I’m sick of pretty words, I want the start of some action.

I don’t care if you support him or not, at least show the smallest bit of support to someone who now has the arduous task of returning this country to some semblance of greatness. I couldn’t support Bush because he was –to but it frankly– an idiot. I respect the man for having to run an entire country, but in his two terms shit hit the fan like you wouldn’t believe –I suppose we have to considering that we’re sitting in the shit-spray caused by said fan-hitting. Give Obama a break; at the very least he’s acknowledging the legacy of our community and taking as many steps forward as he can.

Go ahead, bash me if you will. I don’t care. I just think it’s time that we stop putting our unrealized and unrealistic expectations on him if we won’t put them on ourselves. It’s not even been a year yet and people are already after his head. He certainly hasn’t made things any worse.

MLK, Letter from a Birmingham Jail: “I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.”

Brian Jones reads John Lewis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8QhaX7xi6Q
“We must say that “patience” is a dirty and nasty word. We do not want to be free gradually. We want our freedom NOW!”

Queerty, perhaps you’d like the Southern Baptist take on this:

Noting the stark contrast between the previous administration and the current administration, Land said, “Elections have consequences.” Underscoring how far the “gay rights community” has come in less than two decades, Land recalled how he and other religious leaders met with former President George H.W. Bush and complained about Bush becoming the first president to invite representatives of homosexual organizations to the White House. “We’ve come a long way,” Land said, emphasizing it has not been for the better.

“Those of us who believe in the continuing truth of God’s revealed Word in Scripture,” Land said, “would not consider the distance traveled between the issue in our meeting with President George H.W. Bush and President Obama’s proclamation as progress, but a further sign of the moral and spiritual deterioration of our culture.”

http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/BPnews.asp?ID=30597

” Kinda like asking us to use a separate water fountain but pointing out that the water all comes from the same place. ”

Well put. Take that Obamabots.

I’m pleased Pres. Obama issued the proclamation. It’s sad, however, that Clinton’s first proclamation was a decade ago and we’re still in the same boat (on the federal/national level). We’ve made progress, no doubt, and I suppose we just have to hang on to that and keep looking forward and pushing.

However, again, this is a nice soothing gesture but nothing concrete. In all but around 8 states or so, someone can look you in the face and say your fired for being gay. The DADT dismissals are still disgraceful (don’t like Dan Choi, fine, there’s an average of one person a day you can pick to sympathize with). Violence against LGBT people is getting worse. GLBT people lack proper protection against discrimination. Housing discrimination is rampant. We need civil union legislation if Obama can’t be for full marriages (and I am aware of the fact that he could have lost the election in certain swing states had he openly come out for gay marriage). So to make a long story short, this is great if it is a first step. On the other hand, if you are being beaten up, can’t marry the person you love, are being fired or kicked out of your home for sexual orientation, somehow clutching Obama’s proclamation on gay pride won’t help much. Soothing speeches are only helpful if followed up by real action.

“We’re not going to say things like “this is just more lip service without action from the president” or “we don’t need someone who doesn’t believe in marriage equality to approve of our own pride celebration” or “you’re blatantly lying to us about efforts to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”

Shame on you. Either run the piece without comment, or run a comment, but don’t get all Fox News about it.

TAKE IT. Support this administration. They’re reaching out their hand. Take their hand and show them why we are a group that needs their support so they’ll support us EVEN MORE.

Remember, this admin has been asking for HRC to attend their briefings since they came into office.

Bush just ignored us. Support the Obama administration.

“I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Where is Obama himself in this call to action? Why isn’t he calling for these groups to work WITH HIM instead of work together?

When this press release came our yesterday it was great because it seems he broke his silence on LGBT issues. The problem is it is just a press release not a speech being replayed over and over by the mainstream media. Will the mainstream media add this to their rotation? So far it seems no. If only the gay community knows about this press release it does little to nothing to get congress moving. We need congress to move their ass for any meaningful change to happen. From yesterday’s article in the Blade regarding legislative time lines, it seems congress is taking their sweet time as usual. Equality delayed is equality denied.

First, he modified the White House web site to water down the administration’s LGBT equality agenda.

Next, as a way to acknowledge the victory for marriage equality in Iowa, he made that victory the butt of a joke at the Annual White House Correspondants dinner in Washington.

Then, to acknowledge our disappointment with Prop 8 in CA, he turned the protesters outside of his CA fundraiser into the butt of yet another joke.

So, you see, Obama has actually taken action on LGBT equality issues. It just hasn’t been POSITIVE action.

So apparently Obama is taking a course of action that we would all recognize based on what our mothers taught us as children. That being… If you can’t say anything nice about an issue or a group of people, the BELITTLE them.

When the president makes LGBT equality the butt of jokes, it gives license to others to not take our issues seriously. You will all recall that when Obama made an appearance on the Tonight Show with Leno and made a joke about the “Special Olympics”, he was forced to apologize almost immediately. So, where was the apology to the LGBT community after his recent jokes about our equality? Crickets chirping….

The LGBT community is always told we need to be able to take a joke, not be so serious, not take offense so easily. Why wasn’t that the line taken with the Special Olympics?

Is respect for the Special Olympics more important than respect for the civil rights ofthe LGBT community? I guess so. You may say in Obama’s defense that the Special Olympics is CHILDREN. IT does good work to build up the self esteem of the participants. And you would be right. Of course, that would mean you have completely forgotten to acknowledge that the LGBT community is filled with teens with a suicide rate that is much higher than that of other teens. So, it must be OK to belittle the entire community with jokes at a time when you are taking NO ACTION to improve the state of civil rights for LGBTs and those teens who are a part of it.

It was Obama himself who said he would be a FIERCE ADVOCATE for LGBT equality. IT was Obama himself who said he would use the BULLY PULPIT of the President to advocate for LGBT equality. These expectations were not put on him by the LGBT community. These words came from his own mouth. And, what have we gotten instead? He has used the bully pulpit to make us the butt of jokes and has offered no apology for it.

Are we the only ones who know about this press release?

Where is the media coverage?

Also: oh my gawd you guys Rome wasn’t built in a day. And marriage is the least important issue, the whole prop-8 thing not withstanding. Yes, you heard me, being able to get legally sanctioned marriages is a tiny, bland crumb. Yes it’s nice for people who want to get married or want spouse benefits, but it doesn’t really further any protections like, say, ENDA or DADT, or the HIV travel ban would. So be pissed off about /that/, if anything.
But really, to claim Obama is a total turn-coat because he’s done rather little for us in the first five months of his four-year presidency is hasty, to say the least. The economy, national security, and the wars are far more pressing issues for at least the first year.

In 1999 I was in my 30′s. I had met the man of my dreams. We moved in together and built a beautiful home. A starving puppy showed on our doorstep and we made him part of our new family. I did not think a lot about gay rights. I was fortunate financially & in my personal life. I carved out a great existence and felt like that was enough. I had expected a lot from life and in many ways gotten what I expected. But as far as equality goes, I never expected because I believed it was a pipe dream.

I was politically and socially active. I gave money to help those less fortunate than I. When George Bush was elected I was right there with the minority who saw that he was a disaster in the making. I stood up against the war based on lies. I spoke up against his violations of our civil rights as Americans as a whole, the spying, the abuses of power. I held firm in those convictions. But gay rights? No, I suffered from low gay esteem which says the part of me that is gay is private and unworthy of anything more than I have the immediate power to give it. But George started using me and my brothers and sisters as a wedge issue. Not content to just leave me be he forced me to listen to his anti-gay bullshit when I turned on the news. The more I heard him and his kind, the more something within me awakened. Eventually I grew sick and tired of hearing on the television what I could usually avoid hearing by staying away from church.
I realized I was none of these things that these evangelical, Republican, right wing idiots were saying and by the time Bush’s reign of terror was closing to an end I had changed completely. I know expected something more than just I could give myself, I expected my government to honor me and protect me the way others knew.
Now we have a new president. A president who was given a chance by Americans because enough had awaken from the slumber they had been under with the last one to want change. Now a lot has happened, he has inherited quite a mess thats for sure. But just because there is a mess does not mean I will accept stepping to the back of the line. My rights are a mess, my brothers and sisters rights are a mess. A mess that is equally as painful, unjust and life affecting as any of the other messes and this time I want to see as much effort being put forth to straighten out the mess that effects me the most as the messes that affect others. Many of those other messes were created by those that are suffering the consequences anyway. The only part of my mess that I am responsible for is that I was created gay. So for those of you who think that Obama should be given a go easy pass on gay rights so that he can put his time and attention on other things, forget it. I will not give him credit for something until he has earned it. I am not going to give him my confidence until he shows me concretely what he is doing for me. Trust is earned, only a fool trusts someone who has given no evidence that they are trust worthy. Now he is failing, the Rick Warren thing started him off with a bang in that regard. Before that is
belief that marriage does not include me and my same sex partner put him in the hole. His press secretary has not helped him earn my trust, his lack of knowledge, his bumbling when questions are asked tells me not jack shit is going on in regards to the fight for my rights. His refusal to comment on the many things that effect us these past few months speaks volumes about his attitude. So if his little proclamation is a sign that he is afraid and beginning to awaken to the reality that there are a lot of us who are teetering on the edge with him then good, because if we are a group that can help decide if he gets a second go around then he needs to be afraid, very afraid. And because he is “better” than the other side isn’t good enough. If I don’t come first then let the ship sink because I am tired of living on a patched up vessel anyway.

Thank Goddess we have you to save us from Queerty’s Nazi-like racist hatred of this valiant and flawless leader who is putting his career on the line every day for full marriage equality NOW!

Gives us permission? What more has ANY OTHER POTUS done to recognize Gay Pride month? Nothing…Were you bitches in a coma from 2000-2008? Remember, when we were trotted out as punching bags for rethuglican assholes at every opportunity? Where was the Bush hatred? Was it even a fraction of the crap you throw at Obama?

This site continues it slide into parody…where this is room for legitimate criticism of this administration, Queerty has NO IDEA what that means.

“Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans”. Ok, name one single thing you have done to bring equal rights to LGBT Americans. Thought so, you can’t name one thing. Pathetic.

“These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security”.

Again, let’s look at what he is taking credit for: enhancing hate crimes laws. Nope, has not done a damn thing there. Supporting civil unions….Nope, no support there. Complete silence with new domestic partner rights in Nevada and new SSM rights in Iowa, Vermont and in DC. Pathetic.

Discrimination in the workplace: Nope, no movement on ENDA…not a peep out of the pres.

Adoption rights: Nope, no statement when Arkansas and Florida again passed draconian anti gay laws that strip GLBTQs from their childeren….illegal to adopt. Pathetic.

Ending DADT: Nope not a word except to say that his administration would enforce the discriminatory law until it was overturned. Did he say a damn thing about how it is ruining the lives of many military men and women or stop their continued firings. NOPE. Not a damn thing out of Obama.

Want somemore? Ok here we go again….

“We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States”.

Interesting. The last time I checked over 60 HIV people were stopped at the Canadian border who were delegates and speakers to the annual HIV convention, this year in Washington DC. The president could have let them in but NOPE, not a damn thing.

For all of you Obama apologists out there feel free to praise him but those of us who are not brain dead see the King’s clothing for what they really are…..nothing but naked lies and inaction. Pathetic.

You’re absolutely right!

Our lives have been utterly changed by Obama’s BOLD proclamation!

And our civil rights are a big bonus item, a luxury like a car that Big Daddy Obama is gonna deliver someday. Maybe.

We fags should know our place. Our rights aren’t fundamental — they’re a goody to be distributed when our Big Daddy Democrat masters decide that they’re good and ready to provide them to us! We should be good homos, shut up, and humbly accept what little crumbs the Dems hand to us.