Meet the woman who just told everyone she thinks of herself as a vagina.

Posted on May 2, 2013 by David

Her name is “Natassia,” at least that’s the name she uses at the Patch. I won’t bore you with the rest of her moronic comment describing “openly homosexual boys” here, but this is how she ended it:

“(And yes, a sexual attraction to the male anus is a disorder.)”

I trust that we can all see the problem.

Usually I try to cultivate compassion for the terminally stupid, but not today. Dehumanization kills people, and there’s been more than enough killing. I hope Natassia is mercilessly ridiculed. I hope the ridicule makes her cry. The only thing that will make a person who would say something this clueless finally pull her head out of her nether regions is for someone who cares about her to firmly grasp her shoulders, look directly into her eyes, and say “Stop. You are embarrassing yourself and everyone else.”

If there is someone out there who knows and cares for this confused woman: Please. For the love of God. Help her.

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Reactions to Jason Collins in the Patch

Posted on May 1, 2013 by David

Dusty Smith of the Ashburn Patch has a nice article up about reaction to the coming out of Wizards center Jason Collins. He interviewed the co-founders of Equality Loudoun for a local perspective.

Washington Wizards center Jason Collins has won much praise for his decision to publicly acknowledge that he’s gay, including from President Barack Obama and Equality Loudoun, a local LGBT advocacy group.

“I was very impressed with Jason Collins’ story in SI, really thoughtful and articulate,” said David Weintraub, a spokesman for Equality Loudoun. “I always think primarily about what these things mean for young people who feel they need to hide who they are, and who aren’t sure they can have a future as that person. This is an enormously significant message for those kids.” Weintraub said he particularly liked a line from the story, written by Collins with Franz Lidz, in which Collins wrote, “I kept telling myself the sky was red, but I always knew it was blue.”

“That’s exactly how it is, and that simply expressed truth will resonate powerfully,” Weintraub said. “It’s ultimately a waste of time to tell ourselves that the sky is red, and no one should have to waste that time.”

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Gay Men’s Chorus Benefit Concert at UUCS May 10

Posted on April 26, 2013 by David

Click to download this flyer (.pdf)

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Sterling has always been a great friend to Equality Loudoun and the LGBT community. We are pleased be co-sponsoring this event with them, along with the Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun, St. James United Church of Christ, and Loudoun Out Loud.

The concert will benefit the outreach work of People of Faith for Equality in Northern Virginia, a subset of the People of Faith for Equality in Virginia (POFEV). POFEV is an interfaith collaboration that seeks equal rights for all citizens through prayer, education, organization, and advocacy while challenging those who equate religious faith and intolerance.

It’s unfortunate that there are people who do equate those things (!), but it’s clear to most that it’s all over but the shouting. So let the bitter folk shout and whine while the rest of us sing. Hope to see you there!

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Today

Posted on March 26, 2013 by David

Today, realistic Republicans are secretly praying that the Supreme Court will respond to the arguments presented in the Prop 8 and DOMA cases before it with a broad ruling finding a constitutional right for all Americans to marry the person they love.

That is the only way of avoiding a foreseeable future in which Republicans will be forced to either repeatedly alienate the rapidly growing supermajority of Americans who support equality, or repeatedly betray their own aging base, that angry 36% demanding the “right” to forcibly shove society into still the coat which fitted him when a boy.

If the Court announces a sweeping ruling in June that makes marriage for all the law of the land, GOP strategists can breathe a sigh of relief – they will then be able to deflect the rage of their base toward those nine rogue “unelected judges.”

The alternative future will be a punishing series of state battles over the next four, eight, twelve years and beyond, in which they will not have the luxury of avoiding the issue, however much they might wish they could do so.

In either case, marriage equality is inevitable.

If you want your party to live, pray hard.

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Worst argument ever

Posted on January 28, 2013 by David

Marriage should be limited to unions of a man and a woman because they alone can “produce unplanned and unintended offspring,” opponents of gay marriage have told the Supreme Court.

By contrast, when same-sex couples decide to have children, “substantial advance planning is required,” said Paul D. Clement, a lawyer for House Republicans.

In their opening briefs, this was the reasoning offered by both Clement in defense of Section 3 of the “Defense of Marriage” Act and Charles Cooper in defense of Prop 8: Because opposite sex couples are burdened with the “unique social difficulty” of frequently producing children by accident, and same sex couples “don’t present a threat of irresponsible procreation,” same sex couples and their children should be excluded from the security and benefits of marriage. This is what anti-equality American taxpayers are getting for $3 million in public funds?

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Guest speaker Rosaria Butterfield draws contrast with Patrick Henry College’s fear of dialogue

Posted on January 18, 2013 by David

Author Rosaria Butterfield at Patrick Henry College

According to Patrick Henry College professor of government Stephen Baskerville, “PHC is an oasis of academic freedom in an inbred academic environment of stifling orthodoxy.” Given that over half of PHC’s faculty resigned within one year over precisely the issue of academic freedom, I would have to dispute the facticity of this statement. The academic orthodoxy at the school was at the time so stifling that one professor, ordained in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, was suspended for writing a paper suggesting there could be sources of truth other than the Bible. Others were told by administrators that “there are some questions we can’t ask in class or entertain.”

PHC would be more accurately described as an alternative to the usual academic environment in which biblical inerrancy is held to the same evidence-based standard as other ways of understanding the world, and found wanting according to that standard. PHC does provide an environment in which an alternative standard is applied.

Dr. Baskerville (writing to object to the Loudoun Times-Mirror coverage of PHC’s reaction to the student/alumni group Queer at Patrick Henry College) misrepresents the article, claiming that it approaches the presence of sexual minorities at PHC with “scandal-mongering.” The scandal in question is not the existence of these LGBTQ students, but PHC Chancellor Mike Farris’ embarrassing attempt to bully them, an attempt that garnered the group a much wider audience and support base. Queer at Patrick Henry College is a far from unusual signal of the transformation happening within evangelical Christianity, and has surprised virtually no one other than Patrick Henry College administrators.

It is with this in mind that I consider the interview I witnessed last Friday at PHC with author Rosaria Butterfield (prequel here). Dr. Butterfield appeared as a guest of the college to discuss her transition from Syracuse University Women’s Studies professor and lesbian activist to orthodox Christian and pastor’s wife.

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Anti-gay pastor withdraws from inauguration role

Posted on January 10, 2013 by David

After exposure of a 1990 sermon given by Louis Giglio, in which he advocated for harmful “ex-gay” therapy and for the prevention of LGBTQ people being “accepted as a norm in our society,” he has withdrawn his acceptance of the invitation to give the benediction at President Obama’s second inauguration. In his statement of withdrawal, Giglio does not retract or apologize for his anti-gay statements, but only claims that they are not his priority. He also gives as his reason for withdrawal the prediction that his words will become a distraction because of people “seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration.”

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