Is Homosexuality an Abomination? Wrestling with Leviticus 18:22

If 3,000-year-old religious strictures affect present-day laws, we may all have to live to Noah's age of 900 years before enlightened change sweeps away the Pharisaic element from present-day codes. "Apres nous, le deluge" is not acceptable.
About Marriage
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Introducing HuffPost Badges: Taking Our Community to the Next Level

I had no idea, when I replied to MF (having followed MissPreciousPerfect's replies), that the next item in my inbox would be a notice from HuffPost that I'd been anointed.



However, I will say, as I do to all such things, on viewing my new badge: "PURPLE!!!" (It's a FB thing).



Back to the grind, as noted.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Introducing HuffPost Badges: Taking Our Community to the Next Level

Oh, Miss Precious P., I do adore thee. I like to giggled myself outta my chair at "go all Red Queen." May I use it? I'll be tempted to do so often, but I'll always credit you.



Love,



Todd
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Facebook Group 'Praying' For President Obama's Death Passes 1 Million Members

Alternately,one can join the Facebook group petitioning to have the "Death Prayer" group banned.



I did, and I've recommended it all over the damn blogosphere.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

You Wanna Go to the Prom?

You are so utterly fanned! Would that McMillen, Derrick Martin (whose father teaches at Bleckley County High School in GA - but booted him from the house when news got out that he was taking a male date to the prom), and Jordan Nixon (whose mother Leesa fully supported his attending prom with a same-sex date - and has endured hate calls, threats, and finding out that a "secret" prom may be planned) were all living in towns with people like you.



You may be a "shadow," but you've the heart of a giant.
About Gay Rights
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Terry Goddard Leads Jan Brewer In Arizona Gov's Race: Hispanic Voters Flocking To Democratic Candidate

I have been abroad. That's irrelevant. What's important in Brewer's "slash-and-burn" approach is that, having eliminated dependent care for state employees with same-sex partners, adult disabled dependent children, unmarried straight couples, and adult students aged above 22, she has consistently balanced the budget on the backs of the poor and most oppressed. Her God placed her in the position for a reason, so she says.



Her governance, instead of following the dictates of "clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and comforting the afflicted," has been to strip, starve, spurn, and torment. She'll get her just reward from her God, but the voters, having had enough, will turn her out of office because many of the cuts she made directly contradicted the will of the people, expressed through democratic voting.



This short-sighted approach, calculated to ensure her party's dominance, will, let us pray, expose "compassionate conservatism" for the fraud it is. There are conservatives who ARE compassionate and just. She and the political machine she follows have been so long gone over to the dark side, that one despairs of them ever coming back.
About Arizona Politics
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Great Read: Writer Goes Undercover At An Ex-Gay Camp

Don't ask one with "5150" (code for "danger to self and others") for clarification.



I'm not sure whether the word salad is a brilliant pastiche of psycho-babble, with pretentious pseudo-academic festoons or not. But the last two sentences have a flavour of bitterness that suggests the satiric souffle has fallen flat . . . "with croutons."
About Gay Rights
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

2010 Elections: Republicans Poised To Win Seats, Take Back House In Midterms

Polonius was stabbed through the arras, "wretched, rash, intruding fool" that he was.



Must've been painful, The pain, it's plain, was mainly from the drain; i.e., he died of exsanguination, not usually terribly painful, except when it's a drafty stone castle, in which case, the stab and the slab put an agonizing end to all his blab.



Had it not been Hamlet, but someone measuring for curtains, it would have been:

the Draper, with a rapier, in the alcove, behind the arras.
About 2010 Elections
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Pizza Party with Mike Manning of MTV's "Real World: Washington DC"

Mike Manning is openly bisexual, and addresses some of the misconceptions about bisexuality directly, honestly, and with a clarity I envy.

Bill Maher Blasts Tea Baggers For Ignoring Defense Spending (VIDEO)

Beck: "Where ARE we? Who DID this to US? It was "those people" wasn't it? I KNOW it WAS!!!" (fear, confusion, paranoia, assertion of omniscience)



Maher: "Here's where we are." (clarity)



Beck: "NO!" (denial)



Maher: "Yep" (re-statement of fact)



Beck screams in rage and fear, soils himself, stamps his feet in frustration, waves a flag, and bursts into tears, sobbing, "Oh, I promised myself I wasn't going to cry." (grandstanding for ratings, with special effects and histrionics)



Maher: "This is not helping." (truth)



. . . with croutons.
About Bill Maher
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bill Maher Blasts Tea Baggers For Ignoring Defense Spending (VIDEO)

The term "evangelical" is rarely used in its correct form, as it's been co-opted by a particular flavour of non-mainstream TeleVangelicalism.



However, you've used it correctly here, and Rev. Douglas's actions speak louder than the words streaming from the TBN crowd.



You've also pointed out that evangelical Christianity has been taken over, at least in the public perception, by a "hard right strain" that debase, defame, and demean (i.e., "bear false witness against") many things on a regular basis. The louder voices have had more of an influence on politics in the past decades (30 years or so) than the quieter ones, who are kept busy doing God's work while the lunatic fringe scream invective cloaked in piety.
About Bill Maher
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Utah 'Firing Squad' Execution Planned For Ronnie Lee Gardner (PHOTO)

@ davyd56 - You honour your late friend by remembering and upholding his principles. We are the poorer for having lost him. Though I didn't know him, he sounds to have been an outstanding man, whose convictions speak for him after his death.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Lutheran Church Embraces the LGBTQ Community!

The ELCA (if it's them you're referring to as "a bunch of nuts fighting us in our fight for our rights ... blah blah blah ...) have a good record on LGBT human rights. They've gone on record against a lot of anti-gay initiatives and legislative measures, but they lack the Episcopalian flair for self-publicity.



But I suppose, since you're given to sweeping generalizations, facts like that don't get in the way of a good rant. Why take the time to investigate "friends vs. foes," when it's easier to just condemn an entire class of people: i.e., not all Christians are fundie bigots bent on mind-control, just as not all Huffington Post commentary is full of logical and rhetorical flaws.
About Religion
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Rendell: Democratic Party Is Soulless, 'Cowering Behind The Shower Curtains'

Janet Leigh would be apt, but let's hope Vera Miles will prevail - persisting, despite obstacles and fear, to reveal the true monster: a decayed, rotted corpse (paleo-cons from the McCarthy era) influencing the twisted psyche of the Tony Perkins (pathetic, pitiable, and homicidally dangerous) beneath the charming mask of sanity.



Oh, and I'd like to have Dick Cheney stand in as the Martin Balsam character; it's about time he took a long fall down a vertiginous staircase, flailing.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Lindsey Graham Gay? Conservative Group ALIPAC Demands Senator 'Admit Homosexuality'

There is NO SUCH THING as "Gaydar." It's a slang term for cruising behavior, initiated by presumed "gay actions."



Presuming gays have a "special way of knowing each other" or some "secret codes" is absolute nonsense. And ascribing a non-existent quality to millions of people (America alone may have 3 million, if '1 in 10" holds true) doesn't further education and understanding.



It just mires the stereotyped class further. It doesn't help. It's not "pro-human rights." It's more "prejudiced, but in favor of 'them.'"



Gaydar's a myth. Myths aren't truth, although they are lovely stories.



One cannot recognize something that does not exist in reality. One can only speculate about imaginary qualities. Doing so puts the human beings (LGBT, remember) into the class of "other," whether intentionally or not.
About Immigration
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Earthday - between Spring's Equinox and Beltane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxIIAtV_LSw

Earthday: Dramarama's "What are we Gonna Do?

It's April 21st and everybody knows today is Earth Day

Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday to whoever's being born

And now I'm trying hard to think of something

meaningful and worthy, kind of earthy

to make everybody ask themselves just

What are we doing here?

and what are we doing to her?

I don't know

What are we gonna do?

What are we gonna do?

What are we gonna do?

2041, the world is gonna end, I've got the message

from a tiny little man who only said that he'd been sent

I'm not a protest singer, I can't write a song to send a message

but it seems to me that this message needed to be sent

What are we doing here?

and what are we doing to her?

I don't know

What are we gonna do?

What are we gonna do?

What are we gonna do?

It's April 21st and everybody knows today is Earth Day

Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday to whoever's being ....

Elena Kagan Gay Rumor: White House Upset Over CBS News Blog

Fanned and favourited on both parts. "The Eleven Notes to Heterosexuals" is one of the best advisories I'd read thus far.
About CBS
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Elena Kagan Gay Rumor: White House Upset Over CBS News Blog

As part of the Day of Silence, I'm doing nothing on Facebook today. I will, however, flag this item, as I've favourited it. After midnight, it will be done and done.
About CBS
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Elena Kagan Gay Rumor: White House Upset Over CBS News Blog

@ dben - you are SO favourited and fanned on that comment.



You've put things as simply and clearly as I've ever seen them stated.



I'd add one thing: homosexuals don't need "tolerance" nor "acceptance." Those who don't/can't embrace and love "the gays," should strip off the polite mask and come out of their own closets. They should be more up-front about their bigotry in the "anti-gay community."
About CBS
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Mario Lopez Persuaded Girlfriend To Tone Up, Get Plastic Surgery?

No.



He's not gay. He's played gay characters, but he's not gay. He's good-looking, but he's not gay.



He's also Latino, and doesn't conform to many of the stereotypes about Latinos, either.



Are we clear about this now?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Did Dan Choi Jump the Shark, or Has the Gay Community Forgotten What Real Activism Is?

I'd say that we've had the gay Martin Luther King, Jr. already: his name was Harvey Milk. He organized his community, he broke ground for equality, he confronted institutional bigotry at the ballot box, he advocated for equal treatment, and he spoke out despite death threats.



And, like King, he was murdered by someone who hated him for who he was and what he stood for.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

In My Lifetime . . .

I was born in California two years after sex acts between consenting adults became legal there.

I've lived to see U.S. sodomy laws sent to the dustbin of history and now, I have hope that LGBT youth will be embraced and loved, rather than scorned and reviled, driven to suicide or murdered.

I have hope that LGBT Americans will be allowed to serve in our military, as we join 25 other countries that allow them to do so.

I have hope that same-sex couples will be granted the special privileges heterosexual unions are given.

I have hope that people of all faiths will speak out against hatred, that we will live to realize that all are created equal, and that none will be free until all are free.

I can honestly say, today, that I believe all these things might be achieved in my lifetime. I've lived through the turn of a century and the dawn of a millennium. The first decade of the 21st Century is here.

I know I won't see in another century, but I rejoice at what lies ahead in this new one.