Throughout my life time, I have had the pleasure and the experience to meet two intersex people. There are very few in society so they don’t get much notice. Intersex people also usually are identified as either a man or a woman, depending on their dominant sex.
My experience was limited but I did have a chance to talk to one of them and the other was someone who I grew up knowing as a child, who was an adult and so I never asked any questions about her intersex. The one I talked to actually surprised me because she seemed like such a very masculine male. But under some great embarrassment, I referred to her as a “him” and she corrected me politely.
Now we should not get a transgender person confused with an intersex person, there is nothing common about them. An intersex person is someone born physically and medically to some degree both male and female.
This question I propose to Christian conservatives: if someone is born with intersex, who would you suggest they be allowed to marry? Would you insist that intersex people only marry someone else who is also intersex? That would definitely make it where intersex people have very few choices to find love in their lives, being that there are so few people who are born intersex. That just wouldn’t sound very fair to me or I would imagine most people would agree. They are born this way so there surely shouldn’t be any objections to their equal rights when it comes to marriage or any other right. read more…
If you can’t win elections fairly, why not just steal them. This seems to be Republicans new strategy to try winning the White House and any other seat they can pick up for Congress and state houses across the nation. With Voter ID laws and even Republican controlled states trying to kick President Obama off of the ballot in November, Republicans are on the attack. They’re not just attacking women, gays, blacks, Hispanics, Muslims or any other minority that doesn’t fit into what they consider American, but they’re also attacking democracy.
Arizona is just the latest state to threaten to take Barack Obama off of the ballot. Republican Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett who says he’s not a “birther” but because of questions about Obama’s birth certificate, has threatened to remove him from the ballot. He says it’s because of a constituent’s request that he has asked Hawaii state officials to verify Obama’s birth certificate in lieu of a certified birth certificate. Does this mean that if some other constituent questions Mitt Romney’s legitimacy as a human being and wants Mr. Bennett to ask for certified proof of his human DNA, we can count on the state secretary to jump right on it?
I thought the birther issue had been settled when President Obama produced an original copy of his birth certificate after being hounded by conservative media, right-wing extremist and political hacks for the first two years of Obama’s term. I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter how much certification Obama or anyone else gives that this president is an American citizens, there will always be someone standing in the wings wanting more proof. read more…
Though many of my gay brothers and sisters might disagree, Tyler Clementi’s roommate Dharun Ravi didn’t deserve ten years in prison for what he did. The judge in the trial, Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman sentenced Ravi to thirty days in jail, a ten thousand dollar fine and three years’ probation. Judge Berman also didn’t recommend deportation for Ravi either.
The judge stated:
“This individual was not convicted of a hate crime. He was convicted of a bias crime and there’s a difference. I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi. He had no reason to. But I do believe that he acted out of colossal insensitivity,”
I believe the judge hit it on the nail with this statement. Obviously it was a cruel and insensitive thing for the Indian-born Ravi to do but did it rise to the weight of heavy prison time? Not in my opinion or obviously in Judge Berman’s opinion.
I don’t mean to throw politics into the mix here but if Ravi deserved ten years in prison, which was maximum sentence allowed, then we probably should arrest and imprison Mitt Romney for cutting a boy’s hair in high school because he thought it looked “wrong”. That was a form of bullying just as bad except for in Romney’s case, he actually assaulted the boy. read more…
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States and causes 1 in 5 deaths in America every year.
Tobacco use is an epidemic that must be stopped. Stepping outside, into a bar or restaurant, or a park is a dangerous.
That is why I push for the Stop Smoking Act which would make tobacco illegal and establish the Department of Health and Death (DOHD) whose goal is to protect the health of all smokers–and non smokers–and provide essential information on the dangers of smoking.
The Stop Smoking Act would help smokers protect themselves.
A 5% surtax would be enacted to fund the DOHD’s $447 billion budget for FY2013. Should the surtax fail to pass, as it may with the Republican House majority, the President must order a stimulus to cover the $500 billion. One section of the Stop Smoking Act enacts a 1.8% payroll tax, which would cover the expenses for any citizen, and non-citizen presently in the hospital for tobacco related reasons.
Also, with the help of the Additional Child Tax Credit, any one whose son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister or a descendant of any of these individuals, which includes your grandchild, niece or nephew, who is under the age 17, may be able to reduce your federal income tax by up to $1,000 to cover medical expenses of the said dependent. read more…
As I reflect back to those days before the election in 2008 and I recall the feeling of hope so many of us had at the time. We had just lived through eight years of watching America become a mountain of falling dreams and Corporate America becoming more powerful, as ordinary people bought homes they couldn’t afford, thanks to subprime mortgages at high interests rates and those ordinary people, both Republican and Democrat all began to work a lot harder to make a living.
At the end of those long and dreadful years of wars and narrow-minded politics ruling the day, after watching Reaganomic-style tax cuts that favored the wealthy, we of course ended up in the deepest hole we’d ever been. We suffered heavy job losses and people began to lose those homes they couldn’t afford as the housing bubble burst.
The Bush administration responded with a plea to Congress to put together a bailout package to give to the banks, without it they said, our country would suffer dearly for it.
In the meantime, candidate Barack Obama was energizing the country with a campaign of change, hope and vision of a better tomorrow. Then November rolled around and it was an easy win, thanks in no part to Obama’s charisma and the lack of it in his opponent McCain. Sen. McCain’s VP choice didn’t help the McCain team either. read more…
This article is a repost from a wonderful writer and a friend of mine, Roy-Gene who has a website called Roygeneable. Roy is a recent ORU graduate and writes a great deal concerning gay issues. You can follow his blog and this article by going to:
http://roygeneable.com/2012/05/18/hate-is-easy/
Twice in my life I’ve been connected to people in various ways whose funerals were picketed by the people from Westboro Baptist Church. The first was Oral Roberts, the founder of my alma mater, and the second was Garrett Coble, a former professor at ORU who died in the plane crash last weekend that took his life and the lives of two other men I knew as classmates.
What, exactly, does God hate? (Photo: Westboro Baptist Church)
I don’t pretend to understand the logic of these people, who claimed that the plane was brought down by God as punishment. For one reason or another, they apparently believe that what they’re doing is important work. While most people look on them as unimaginably hate-filled and bigoted, some sort of twisted perception of the truth has somehow led them to believe that they are about the Father’s business, and, in light of that, I have a challenging word for everyone. Don’t worry if it’s hard to accept; it is for me too.
It’s easy to hate people who picket funerals of loved ones with signs that read “God Hates Fags” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.” While their crimes are very different, it’s easy in much the same way that it’s easy to hate Joseph Kony or Ratko Mladic. They’re so unabashedly unrepentant in their wrongdoing that it makes sense, in fact, to hate them. It’s easy to hate Westboro in the same way that it’s easy to hate people who club baby seals, who set newborn puppies on fire for sport, or who let their children go hungry while squandering their money on drugs and booze. It’s easy because all strike us so viscerally in our souls and stomachs as wrong and because, really (really, really), they should know better. read more…
Who is the God of America? What governs over the spiritual state of most Americans? What decisions do we make as a country that shows the God or god; that we believe in?
I’ve heard the little tidbits of Reverend Wright’s sermons that some people find offensive – I don’t in the least. I was raised with a Pentecostal background so hearing a preacher like the Rev. Wright only reminds me of the many fiery sermons I’ve heard back when I was a child. I also know that what he said is the truth, no matter how much that might irritate some people.
We have a great deal of people in this country who believe that they have the handle on God. They also believe that God is always in their corner no matter what they do. If they perceive an enemy, such as a rogue nation, they will find it in their hearts to preempt a war with that nation, all the while believing that God is always on their side.
Reverend Wright spoke like Jesus would have spoken; with authority and spiritual insight of the very underbelly of America’s greed and arrogance and bigotry. Preachers should say things to us sometimes that we don’t want to accept or like but is the truth and touches to the very heart of everything that really matters. read more…
While the mainstream media (MSM) obsessed on the death of popstars, Mary Kennedy, and superpac ads, today the House passed another bill pushing the date of an Iran attack even closer. With bi-partisan support, the House passed HRes568 which essentially ties the President’s hand in dealing with Iran. S. Res.380 is the Senate’s version.
Jay Rosenberg, former AIPAC employee, made a blog post listing those (House and Senate) who voted for and against the measure where even so-called Progressives like Jackson-Lee, Grijalva, Baldwin, Cleaver, Chu, Clay, Doggett, Johnson, Bass, Beccerra and Rangel voted for the measure.
The part of the bill which raises eyebrows is that of section 6 which reads that the House of Representatives (or Senate) “(6) rejects any policy that would rely on efforts to contain a nuclear weapons-capable Iran.” Rejects any policy that would rely on containment? What alternative is their to containment?
Rosenberg, like most reasonable people, thinks this is a foolish idea because the containment policy has worked with North Korea, China and Pakistan.
Presidential candidate Ron Paul, who has recently decided to stop campaigning but continue collecting delegates, made the effort to come to the capital to cast a NO vote against the measure.
(While writing this post, I found a transcript of speech from 2006 where he predicts Iran is the next country on our target. Another interesting thing: one can look at the map of the Middle East where we encircle Iran with naval bases and occupy their neighbors, Iraq and Afghanistan) read more…
There’s always a great sense of shock to everyone when a mother not only takes her own life but chooses to take her children with her. It’s most disturbing because of what a mother’s relationship with her children is for most families. Most mothers would gladly give up their own lives to protect their children. Yet here we have another mother choosing to kill her own children before taking her own life.
The mother I’m referring to is 33-year-old Tonya Thomas who shot her four children to death and then took her own life Tuesday. The children were Joel Johnson, 12; Jazzlyn Johnson, 13; Jaxs Johnson, 15; and Pebbles Johnson, 17.
Ms. Thomas texted a friend around 3a.m., requesting that she would like to be cremated along with her children. An hour and a half later she takes a gun after her children. Three of them showed up at a neighbor’s door for help with one of them wounded and bleeding. Tonya Thomas the mother, then called for the children to return home, which they did, she killed all of them.
I’m not sure that all the mothers who have either killed their own children or at least attempted to, have done it all for the same reasoning. I would like to point out that with this specific case, about the fact the mother asked that she be cremated with her own children. This last request would leave me to wonder if she had wished for or expected or believed in maybe, that she would spend eternity with her kids in another world – in heaven possibly. Or maybe it was just some kind of sentiment – who knows. read more…
Reading an article from DeWayne Wickham in the Tuesday morning edition concerning a group called Log Cabin Republicans, which is a gay organization for Republican gay people, some things came to mind. For me as a gay Democrat of why gay people, no matter what their political affiliation is, would be angry because America’s first black president gave them his support to marry the one they love.
Of course, Republican gay people confuse me in the first place of why they’d want to support a party that doesn’t support them; sounds rather moronic to me.
I know the Log Cabin Republicans support gay marriage and even if they felt Obama’s timing was off – and to which I might even agree with them to some extent – the very idea of an American president speaking clearly and without reservations, stating that he supports gay marriage is something that went to my very core. I do know what I felt at the very moment as I heard Barack Obama say that people like me should be able to marry who we loved. I also heard in my heart from this man of high distinction and the most powerful man on this Earth at the moment, say that we gay people should have a reason to dream for love and happiness, and to have the same rights as everyone else; yes finally. read more…
