Monday, March 23, 2015

Kerry Washington gives stirring speech at Saturday's GLAAD Media Awards

Many positive things have been said about Kerry Washington's speech at Saturday's GLAAD Media Award when she received the organization's Vanguard Award.

Here is her speech in its entirety:



' Now to play "devil's advocate," some folks did make some good points about her comments regarding African-Americans. A good friend of mine, Viktor Kerney, had this to say:

Here’s the tea, we (African-Americans) are not overly homophobic. In fact, if we were so homophobic, we would be leading these state and national charges to take rights away from us. Black folks are not leading the National Organization for Marriage, Focus on the Family, the American Family Association, the Concerned Women of America, or Million Moms, and we’re not so drenched in hate that we can’t see.
So, again, Kerry… I feel you, but please give Black folks more credit than that.

I, personally, would go far as to say that behind every African-American prominently manipulating the black community against lgbts or marriage equality is a white hand emanating from a conservative or anti-gay group and giving out cold hard cash.

I think the discussion needs to go to a deeper level than homophobia in whichever certain community.

Let's talk about the money.

'Look out, lgbt community! Ted Cruz is running for President' & other Monday midday news briefs

Ted Cruz 'Imagines' Government Defending 'Sacrament Of Marriage' In Presidential Speech - Sen. Ted Cruz's speech announcing his candidacy for president in 2016 is what just about everyone is talking about. Naturally Cruz isn't planning to be a friend of the lgbt community. 

GLAAD Awards: Kerry Washington, How to Get Away with Murder, Transparent Among Winners - Congratulations to all of the GLAAD Media Award winners (unfortunately I was not one of them, but kudos to Autostraddle for receiving 'Outstanding Blog')  

The new attack on same-sex families is nasty and rude . . . but will still fail - This morning's post is literally burning up reddit. We need to pay attention before the anti-gay right starts pulling more "folks who were raised in same-sex household" out of the woodwork to bash us.  

Idaho Lawmakers Call On Congress To Impeach Judges For Marriage Equality Rulings - Why? Aw heck, why not?

  Monday 3/23 Marks Five Months Since Andre Gray Disappeared in Pittsburgh - PLEASE provide any help that you can. 

 German Couple Talks About Life Together And Being Gay In Germany - I personally recommend this piece.

The new attack on same-sex families is nasty and rude . . . but will still fail

Same-sex families provide much love and support.

The groups backing up  Lopez, Stefanowicz, Warwick, etc. don't provide homes. They take away homes. They don't offer solutions. Instead they trot  out pretty boxes of perfect family lives to the American people. Unwrap those boxes and you will find an emptiness with an echo as loud as the one in their chests, where their hearts, souls and integrity should be.

Already in 2015, we have seen surreptitious, but nonetheless, vulgar attacks on same-sex families.

Earlier this year, anti-gay groups and spokespeople rallied behind four individuals who filed an amicus brief to the federal courts speaking against marriage equality. What was different about this brief was that these four individuals are adults who were allegedly raised in same-sex households.

According to Zack Ford from Think Progress:

All four are in the spotlight now for their amicus briefs urging federal courts to uphold state bans on same-sex marriage. In these briefs, they explain how having a gay parent scarred them for life. They missed out on a “vital dual-gender influence,” they argue, and allowing same-sex marriage will similarly harm other children because “the gay community” doesn’t put children first, instead using them as “props to be publicly displayed.” In turn, “children lose forever their rights to know and be raised by their married biological father and mother.”
In addition to their briefs — which they are expected to replicate for consideration by the Supreme Court — their own additional writing is attracting a lot of attention. One of the four, Katy Faust, published a piece at conservative outlet Public Discourse . . . asking the Supreme Court to consider her experience. It has been shared about 150,000 times and even crashed the site due to its traffic. Brittany Newmark Klein, writing under a pen-name, followed suit at The Federalist.

Ford also pointed out that the four (Robert Oscar Lopez, Dawn Stefanowicz, Brittany Newmark Klein, and Katy Faust) are known for either their anti-gay rhetoric or aligning themselves with anti-gay groups over the years (Editor's note - click on the above links to read past statements and posts about Lopez and Stefanowicz).

As if that isn't enough, a "child's right activist" by the name of Heather Barwick published a column this month presumptuously called  Dear Gay Community: Your Kids Are Hurting. In this piece, which was  published by The Federalist (the same publication which published Klein's piece), Barwick claimed that she was raised in a lesbian household, and thus was deprived the love of a father:

Same-sex marriage and parenting withholds either a mother or father from a child while telling him or her that it doesn’t matter. That it’s all the same. But it’s not. A lot of us, a lot of your kids, are hurting. My father’s absence created a huge hole in me, and I ached every day for a dad. I loved my mom’s partner, but another mom could never have replaced the father I lost.

Together these five, as if by coincidence, repeat anti-gay dogma that same-sex households raising children cause harm because they allegedly deprive children of the "traditional mother and father dynamic."

And they also omit or ignore the mitigating factors which led to their alleged "deprived upbringings," such as the Barwick's father abandoning her or Stefanowicz's father being an all-around negative individual which was independent of his sexual orientation.