- by: Bil Browning February 28, 2011 www.bilerico.com

Are you ready to award the douchebag of the week prize so early on a Monday? I think we’ve got a clear winner already!

Corpus Cristi, Texas’s Flour Bluff Intermediate School District Superintendent, Julie Carbajal, has decreed that all extracurricular clubs on campus will be shut down to prevent the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance group. Student Bianca “Nikki” Peet was blocked from creating the club and after a national outcry, the school decided to handle the issue not by creating an atmosphere of tolerance and acceptance, but by discriminating against all students.

By canceling all extra curricular clubs on campus, Flour Bluff ISD hopes to avoid the Equal Access Act — a federal law, passed in 1984, that requires schools receiving federal funding to offer “fair opportunities for students to form student-led extracurricular groups, regardless of their religious, political and philosophical leanings.” The district still maintains that they do not have to follow the Equal Access Law.

Superintendent Carbajal claimed, “We need to be fair and equitable to all,” but that is not how supporters of “Nikki” Peet see it.

As LGBT teen suicides have skyrocketed lately, do you think Carbajal will feel the least bit of remorse if one of their students gets her clear message that they’re not worthy of respect and takes their own life? Somehow, I doubt it.

- www.getequal.org February 28, 2011

We talked with Carol Ann Stutte on Saturday morning, learning more about the case and getting a sense of how the GetEQUAL community couple help out — I can’t tell you how wonderful these women are…they’re amazing. Here’s the situation:

Carol Ann and Laura Stutte owned a beautiful home on a beautiful piece of land in rural Tennessee — outside of Knoxville. Together for 16 years with a grown daughter, these women had developed a community for themselves in the heart of a very, very red state.

Their next-door neighbor began threatening them, repeatedly making direct threats that she would burn their home, poison their dog, and kill the couple. Shortly after each of the threats, those things came to pass — their dog suddenly died of poisoning and their beautiful home had been reduced to ashes.

It gets worse. The house was burned down while Carol Ann and Laura were out of town, celebrating their anniversary. When they returned, their home was burned to the ground and the word “QUEERS” was spray-painted on their free-standing garage.

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- www.queerty.com February 28th, 2011

pop_playerLaunch.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=5604627&at1=Station 1&h1=Facebook post costs firefighter his job&flvUri=&partnerclipid=

Richard Doherty, who’s been saving people and property from fires for sixteen years, is out of a job for some mean things he posted on Facebook last year aimed at the local cops, his superiors, and the Masschusetts town of Bourne, which employed him. He used the f-word sometimes, and we all know how that comes back to haunt you! Now Doherty is challenging his ouster, and has his union behind him, but this shouldn’t be a lesson in the do’s and don’t's of appropriate social etiquette. It should be a lesson in how to lock down your Facebook profile, you dumbass.

In his termination, Town Administrator Thomas Guarino stated: “Firefighter Doherty has disqualified himself from the ability to serve as a firefighter because he elected to post on the Internet a message that causes the public to question whether he can serve all of its citizens.”

“The town of Bourne wouldn’t tolerate that kind of mindset from employees. We send out a message that we want them to be professional and we support the town administrator,” said John Ford, Bourne Board of Selectmen. No one answered at Doherty’s home address in Bourne Thursday night, though one of his rants mentioned that he had moved away from the town, which he used an expletive to describe. “I don’t take anything personally. This is a job – we take it serious. We want to protect the reputation of the fire department – we’ve got an excellent fire department, and we want to protect the reputation of the town of Bourne,” said Ford.

Does Doherty’s use of homophobic slurs impact his ability to fight fires? Not necessarily, but I sure wouldn’t want to be the fag who gets left behind in a burning house because Doherty saw my Ricky Martin posters.

Watch video here: http://www.necn.com/pages/video?PID=FoO7_h4qFp31WAllyAmJ4P9MenciNfsd

Read more: http://www.queerty.com/should-firefighter-be-fired-for-saying-nasty-anti-gay-things-on-facebook-about-his-bosses-20110228/#ixzz1FHxsCETo

- www.glaadblog.org February 25, 2011

Over the last several weeks, ABC’s “Primetime: What Would You Do?” has been exploring themes of discrimination that LGBT Americans face every day.
In this episode, two actors play gay soldiers who are also a couple, reuniting in a New Jersey diner after a long deployment. A third actor plays a diner patron upset with their public display of affection.

(…and just a quick note – although the actor playing one of the soldiers says “‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ has been repealed,” it hasn’t. The bill passed last year by Congress and signed into law by President Obama merely ALLOWS for the repeal to move forward. As of right now, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is still the law.)

In another recent episode, a young actor (who was himself raised by two moms) plays a son who won’t accept his father coming out to him.

The takeaway from these segments isn’t just the reaction of the men and women who are witnessing these acts, and it isn’t even in empowering onlookers to stand up for equality and acceptance. ABC is educating its audience about the very painful – and very real – discrimination that LGBT Americans face every day.

But while most viewers of this show probably won’t have any idea what it’s like to come out as gay to their own children, or to reunite with a loved one after a long tour of duty in the military, they will have faced similar enough circumstances. Everyone’s been separated from their spouse or partner, family or friends at some point, and knows what it feels like to see them again. Everyone’s had to admit something to someone that they knew might not be received warmly, but that was the truth.

The difficulties that LGBT people face can seem unique and unrelatable to some, but segments like these show the American people that they’re not. We would love to see “What Would You Do” continue to highlight the discrimination that gay and lesbian people face. We also hope the show will produce a segment that focuses on some of the discrimination that transgender Americans face, and similarly empowers their neighbors to stand up for tolerance and equality.

Watch the video clips here: http://glaadblog.org/2011/02/25/abcs-primetime-what-would-you-do-highlights-stories-about-gay-lives/

Filed by: Joe Mirabella
February 25, 2011 The Bilerico Project

I was at the Greater Seattle Business Association Business (the GSBA) and Humanitarian awards dinner on Thursday night. I am on the board, and this is one of our annual dinners where we recognize business and community leaders for their outstanding contributions to social justice. It was an incredibly moving experience to see so many community leaders coming together to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the country’s largest LGBT Chamber of Commerce.

Senator Patty Murray was the keynote speaker. Before she spoke I introduced myself. We talked about the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell signing ceremony. I told her how amazing it was to witness to signing. She said, “I go to a lot of these signings, but that one is something I will never forget. The energy there was different. It was amazing.”

Later in the evening the Senator took the stage to award Tutta Bella Pizzeria owner Joe Fugere with the Business of the Year award. After she presented the award, she gave an outstanding speech that I regret not recording in its entirety. She spoke about the significance of the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the passage of hate crimes legislation. And then she spoke about the President’s order to the Department of Justice to stop defending section 3 of DOMA. With the audience on their feet, I finally hit record on my phone and captured this video.

This is the first time the Senator has gone on the record to say she was going to fight for the repeal of DOMA, a bill she voted for. No doubt, she is looking forward to finally shaking that vote from her record by helping DOMA fall. She has been an amazing ally in recent history, and I believe her when she says she is going to fight for us.

Later in the evening Major Margaret Witt received the Voice of Social Justice award. It was presented by Col. Grethe Cammermeyer. The Colonel had the audience in tears as she recounted how vindicated she felt when DADT’s repeal was signed. It was incredibly moving to see both Major Witt and Grethe Cammermeyer on stage together.

It is impossible to deny, we are at a turning point in our history. We are going to have to fight harder than ever before to finish that turn, but I have no doubt that we will be celebrating the end of DOMA in the near future the way we can celebrate the end of DADT now

Posted by Joe Sudbay February 25, 2011
www.gay.americablog.com

In the post below, I wrote about the haters testifying in Maryland today. Well, those haters have allies in the House of Delegates.

Maryland Delegate Don Dwyer Jr. literally wants to be the face of hate for his state. Via Julie Bykowicz at the Baltimore Sun’s Maryland Politics blog:

Del. Don Dwyer Jr., an Anne Arundel County Republican who has called himself “the face of the opposition” began his testimony with a prayer. He implored legislators to look to their faith.

“Look deep into your soul for the answer,” he said.
Ok. Here’s the “face of the opposition” — the leading homophobe in the House, Delegate Dwyer, Jr:

I had heard from sources in Annapolis that Dwyer was distributing materials to other Delegates from, get this, Mass Resistance, a designated hate group. It’s true. I saw the email Dwyer sent to his colleagues and it actually includes a couple links to Mass Resistance. Here it is:

This is Maryland Delegate Don Dwyer, Jr.

I have been fighting for many years now to keep marriage between a man and a woman as the Creator God intended.
We are about to redefine the term “marriage” to include same sex marriages. Please open, print and read the attached files regarding Same Sex Marriage

PLEASE NOTE: THE EFFECTS OF SSM AND THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK ARE VERY DISTURBING BUT YOU MUST KNOW WHAT IS BEING TAUGHT TO CHILDREN IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS For more information on the educational agenda please click these links. http://www.massresistance.org
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/issues/kevin_jennings/index.html Montgomery County Maryland is currently teaching homosexuality in their schools.

I NEED YOUR HELP TO WARN PARENTS AND OTHER CHURCH LEADERS

In His Service,
Delegate Don Dwyer, Jr

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- by David Badash on February 23, 2011
www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) released a statement today from Brian Brown, their president, titled, “NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MARRIAGE CONDEMNS PRESIDENT OBAMA’S EXTRAORDINARY EFFORT TO SABOTAGE DOMA DEFENSE.”

(Brian thinks when he types in all-caps it’s cute, or it shows that he’s really, really, really mad. Or something.)

“We have not yet begun to fight for marriage,” Brian Brown, president of NOM, said.

(I wonder when Brian woke up thinking he was John Paul Jones?)

“The Democrats are responding to their election loss with a series of extraordinary, extra-constitutional end runs around democracy, whether it’s fleeing the state in Wisconsin and Indiana to prevent a vote, or unilaterally declaring homosexuals a protected class under our Constitution, as President Obama just did.”

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- By Joe Mirabella, www.huffingtonpost.com February 24th, 2011

I don’t believe President Obama still has to “evolve” on the freedom to marry for gays and lesbians. The president is the most supportive president in history on LGBT issues. This week’s historic announcement that the DOJ will no longer defend Section 3 of DOMA is more proof.

I don’t buy it, because we have the president on record when he was in the Illinois legislature “unequivocally” supporting marriage.

I don’t believe a man with a Harvard education in constitutional law “struggles” with same sex couples marrying. The concept is not a difficult one to grasp for people with even the slightest amount of intellectual curiosity.

I saw him hug members of our community when he signed the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” He was not afraid to embrace gay men in celebration. He is not a homophobic person. As his administration continues to move forward, he continues to prove that he can keep his promises to the LGBT community. Yes, there is more to do like pass a jobs and housing discrimination bill, but I will believe he will keep his promise on that when he sees the opportunity to win.

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- By Stephanie Coueignoux (Original Story)

PALM COAST –
A Palm Coast mother has decided to pursue a lawsuit against the Flagler County School District.

This, after her 15-year-old son said one of his teachers singled him out for being gay.

Luke Herbert told News 13, “It hurts. I may be different, but I’m still human and for them to treat me like that is ridiculous.”

As a freshman at Flagler Palm Coast High School, Herbert said high school has been tough, especially since he’s gay.

“People haven’t been nice, let’s put it that way,” Herbert said.

Herbert said classmates have bullied him before, but now it’s gotten worse. One of his teachers has singled him out.

“He stood in front of the class and said ‘you can’t put Mountain Dew or Pepsi in the same fridge or they’ll turn gay’. He [also] came over to me and I was like ‘hi.’ He said hi, like he was imitating me or mocking me,” Herbert said.

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- www.huffingtonpost.com February 23, 2011

WASHINGTON — In the wake of the Obama administration’s decision Wednesday to cease its legal defense of a federal ban on gay marriage, gay-rights advocates are looking to lift the notorious state-level ban in California that remains in place during a protracted appeals process even after being declared unconstitutional.

The American Foundation for Equal Rights, a group founded to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot initiative that prohibited gay marriage, filed a motion Wednesday asking the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to end its stay of the ban. A Ninth Circuit judge struck down Proposition 8 in August, but left it in effect pending appeal efforts. The Supreme Court of California agreed last week to consider the issue, but will not hear oral arguments until next fall.

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