The End of the Road for Carrie Prejean
Published November 18, 2009 @ 10:06AM PT
Turns out that if you make at least eight sex tapes, then ask your boyfriend to lie about your age in them, then say that it's very Christian to get a boob job, and finally tell Larry King that he's being inappropriate for simply asking basic journalistic questions, you might find yourself on the defensive. And that's right where Carrie Prejean, the former Miss USA pageant contestant of "opposite marriage" fame, is finding herself these days.
Her latest setback? The National Organization for Marriage -- the conservative anti-gay organization that scooped Prejean up after her gay marriage comments at this year's Miss USA contest -- has disassociated themselves from the former beauty queen. After all, it's kind of hard to espouse traditional family values with a side order of lewd sex videos.
And the hits just keep on coming. According to Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate, Prejean has also had her invitation rescinded to speak at the GOP's Capitol Hill Club, a fancy pants conservative private club that caters to Republican lawmakers inside the Beltway. Even Meghan McCain got in on this story, saying that Prejean exudes hypocrisy.
"I find it even more disturbing that as long as you oppose gay marriage, filming yourself having sex is taken more lightly," McCain wrote for the Daily Beast. "Does anyone else see the hypocrisy in this kind of thinking? And hypocrisy is something the Republican Party can’t afford to have right now as the GOP struggles to find its identity."
Justice Scalia is Talking Sodomy Again
Published November 17, 2009 @ 06:54PM PT
He may arguably be the U.S. Supreme Court's most conservative justice, but for a man who likes to sell folks on traditional family values, Justice Antonin Scalia sure does like to talk about sodomy. His latest riff on the subject comes courtesy of an Ohio State University conference on the Constitution, where Scalia said that since the nation's founders didn't write sodomy or homosexuality into the U.S. Constitution, there's no good reason to think that people deserve the right to love whoever they choose.
Boy, if only the nation's founders had written that U.S. Supreme Court justices could be term-limited! Especially ones who go duck hunting with torture-loving ex-Vice Presidents.
Justice Scalia prodded folks who believe that the Constitution is a living document. "Did any provision of the Constitution guarantee a right to abortion? No one thought so for almost two centuries after the founding. Did any provision in the Constitution guarantee a right to homosexual sodomy? Same answer," Scalia said, according to the Associated Press. It's a line he's used before, so three cheers for soundbytes that last more than a year.
The Catholic Church's Program to Cure Gay People
Published November 17, 2009 @ 02:15PM PT
Psychologists around the globe have almost universally condemned ex-gay therapy programs -- rogue "treatment" sessions often sponsored by religious groups to try and change one's sexual orientation from LGBT to heterosexual. The American Psychological Association (APA) even adopted a resolution this past summer that said ex-gay therapy programs were inadequate and potentially dangerous, especially for the long-term mental health of those victimized by such programs.
It's just too bad that the Catholic Church isn't listening to the global health professional community. Case in point, take the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which through its Office of Marriage and Family Life is supporting a type of ex-gay therapy program that asserts homosexuality is both treatable and preventable.
The program is called Courage, and it "ministers" to people who have same-sex attractions, as well as their loved ones. Part of that ministry includes drilling into peoples' brains that homosexuality is a mental disorder, that people in same-sex relationships will never find peace, and that people attracted to members of the same sex suffer from "sickness."
And the really scary part is that not only is this program alive and well in places like St. Paul and Minneapolis, but there are chapters in roughly 116 cities around the country, and even more worldwide. Sure, it's long been no secret that the Church harshes on same-sex marriage. But their active investment in conversion therapy programs signals a whole new level of homophobia, and a whole other level of ignorance when it comes to psychology and human sexuality.
Female Country Music Stars Love Them Some Gay Marriage
Published November 17, 2009 @ 08:33AM PT
*crickets*
OK, so it doesn't make the best punchline. But it is true that several country music superstars are making bold steps to speak up for LGBT equality. The latest is Dolly Parton, who not only said she's cool with gay marriage last week, but also dropped a bit of a sucker punch in the direction of Pastor Joel Osteen, who himself went on national television a few weeks back and said that homosexuality "wasn't God's best." Parton said that if Pastor Osteen were genuinely religious, he wouldn't be judging LGBT folks.
Huh, turns out that God's best may be a bunch of country music divas.
The Kids are Alright: New Studies Prove Same-Sex Parents Rock
Published November 17, 2009 @ 08:13AM PT
Having finally accepted the fact that good Christian heterosexuals sometimes produce gay offspring (I'm talking to you, Cheney), the world must now face another social science truth: gay parents are perfectly capable of producing happy, well-adjusted, predominantly heterosexual kids. A new book by psychologist Abbie E. Goldberg, PhD., reveals that (spoiler alert!) same-sex parents don't totally mess up their kids.
In fact, studies show that girls raised by same-sex parents are more likely to want to be doctors and lawyers (30 percent more aspire to such jobs than their mom-and-dad-raised counterparts), while boys--well, boys still feel they can be anything they want. Lesbian mothers (the data on gay dads is currently limited) raise kids who play with both dolls and trucks and, in general, ignore all those years of social conditioning regarding gender roles.
Military Chaplains Agree: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Hurts U.S. Security
Published November 16, 2009 @ 06:30PM PT
A group of retired military chaplains are lending their voices toward a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," writing in a publicly released Q&A that the U.S. military's policy of not welcoming openly gay and lesbian soldiers is hurting national security. The chaplains also cut straight to the core of the anti-gay argument that openly gay and lesbian soldiers would harm unit cohesion, concluding that gay troops pose no threat to military morale.
The chaplains have history on their side. Though it's not well known, President George H.W. Bush actually put a stop to military discharges based on sexual orientation during the first Gulf War in the early 1990s. The result wasn't the doomsday scenario painted by organizations like the Center for Military Readiness, that views openly gay and lesbian soldiers as a pox upon the military. Instead, there was no documented negative effect on unit morale, cohesion, good order, or discipline.
And that was twenty years ago! If our soldiers could handle a military with openly gay and lesbian soldiers in 1990, what would stop them in 2009 or 2010?
It’s Okay, Some of My Best Friends Are Bigots
Published November 16, 2009 @ 02:47PM PT
“I don’t hate gay people, I just believe in traditional marriage.” This is the new brand of anti-gay messaging that is trending among high profile conservatives. It is smart, it works well with the movable middle, and it is unbelievably infuriating for advocates of equality. This "it’s nothing personal" mindset attempts to create a false halfway point, where it is deemed acceptable to tolerate the existence of gay and lesbian people, but it remains unacceptable to offer them equal rights.
Lynn Vincent, the co-writer of Sarah Palin’s new book, Going Rogue, and Carrie Prejean, the beauty queen who will not go away, are the latest to exemplify this dangerous rhetoric. In an interview love-fest between the two, Lynn and Carrie bond over how they buck their “fanatical homophobe” labels because they have gay and lesbian people in their lives. Lynn’s sister is a lesbian activist, and her best friend and her “longtime lesbian partner” were bridesmaids in Lynn’s wedding, while Carrie’s hairdresser and the guy who taught her how to pageant walk are both gay.
These women obviously do not understand how deeply condescending, disrespectful, and offensive their argument is. They are basically saying that gay people should be able to do your hair and teach you a fierce runway walk, but should not be able to get married. Though Carrie’s examples fall on the comical side, Lynn’s are more disheartening. How can she have the lesbians in her life be a part of her wedding, yet still have the audacity to believe that they should never enjoy the same opportunity? Why is Lynn’s love inherently more deserving than the love of others?
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