A place at the table isn’t good enough?

God never gets it wrong. The church often takes a long time to get it right. It is a human institution, but one capable of self-correction.

Once again, Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson nails it. These self-corrections have happened throughout the history of the church, and they will continue to happen as long as there is a church.

The occasion for this happy reminder is that Robinson will be opening the inaugural events with a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday. “It will be an enormous honor to offer prayers for the country and the new president, standing on the holy ground where the ‘I have a dream speech’ was delivered by Dr. King, surrounded by the inspiring and reconciling words of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,” he wrote to friends in an email. “It is also an indication of the new president’s commitment to being the President of ALL the people.”

I know that many people in our community are angry and insulted by the invitation to bigoted Saddleback pastor Rick Warren, and that the inaugural invocation is an honor that he, as an unrepentant exclusionary figure, does not deserve. Even Bishop Robinson has said that the announcement was like a slap in the face, and that such an honor amounts to more than “a place at the table.”

But you have to admit that this situation has a positive side. A place at the table is all that any community has the right to expect – and just look at the behavior of the Christianist right when they have been graciously offered even more than that.

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Bad Heterosexual

yes, Randy Thomas is still extremely gayBreaking news: not all heterosexuals are good people, and the small number of gays and lesbians who pretend to be heterosexual aren’t necessarily good people, either. Pretending not to be gay or lesbian does not make you a good person. Living the ex-gay liestyle doesn’t grant you special rights and it doesn’t give you a ticket to heaven. This shouldn’t be news, but it will be for Randy Thomas, president Executive Vice President (corrected 20090117) of Exodus International. Randy is upset with a Dan Savage article which posits that the the Ricin threat letter sent to 11 gay bars in Seattle was written by a gay man, “a blood brother to those guys who come out, spend ten methed-out years on their backs in bathhouses, and then decide that gay life is depressing and squalid and sinful before they ‘come out’ as ex-gays.” Randy is so upset by this theory that he posted this doozy on Savage’s blog:

For the most part, we are intelligent, balanced, stable, tolerant of what we may not personally accept and loving. We looked at what identifying as gay and all of the predetermined relational options of what that means and said, “no thanks.” Some of us have experienced orientation shift and others haven’t … and we are all living out our faith and life as we see fit. I and everyone I know, have no desire to force others into our line of thinking. [Emphasis added]

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Good for Virginia, good for Republicans

This is great news. Delegate Tom Rust (R-86) has introduced a bill (HB 1726) that would permit “coverage under a group life insurance policy to be extended to insure any class of persons as may mutually be agreed upon by the insurer and the group policyholder.” The passage of this bill would mean that Virginia employers would no longer be restricted to offering such coverage only to the legal spouses and dependent children of employees, and would remove a competitive disadvantage they are currently burdened with in recruiting and retaining the best employees.

Rust said he introduced the legislation because companies are “hurt in recruiting” by not being allowed to provide life insurance to partners of gay employees.

An owner of a multi-state engineering firm, Rust said the current law is a “detriment” to employees who work in Virginia “as opposed to ones who work in another state who would have this benefit.”

Rust told the Blade that the legislation would not make expanding life insurance benefits mandatory for Virginia companies and said a “business can decide to do it or not do it.”

The extension of benefits would be strictly voluntary, and could only benefit Virginia’s economy. This is a matter of individual liberty and market freedom. There is no downside. The only reason a person would oppose this bill is their ideological distaste for the possibility that it might make life a little more secure for some gay person.

It also means that there is hope for Virginia Republicans and a meaningful two-party system in which the debate is about good governance, not some extraneous doctrine.

Thank you, Delegate Rust.

This benefits Democrats, as well, by moving the bar a little. Think how much better it would be for both parties and for all of us if the partisan debate we are having is over how best to serve and represent everyone, rather than over whether everyone deserves representation in the first place.

Don’t forget the Equality Virginia Lobby Day and Legislative Reception, coming up January 27. You can talk with your legislators face-to-face, and explain why things like this matter to you. Register now.

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First they came for McDonalds, then they came for Pepsico…another AFA boycott

I sure hope that William A and his parents don’t like Pepsi products, because the openly anti-capitalist American “Family” Association is staging another boycott. I received their boycott kit in the mail today, which included: A cover letter, a “Boycott Pepsi – COMPANY BECOMES MAJOR BACKER OF THE HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA WITH $1,000,000 IN GIFTS TO GAY GROUPS” petition, a pledge card, and a post card addressed to Pepsico Chairman Indra K. Nooyi. I especially liked the post card, which I edited for appropriateness:

Although I’m not a big proponent of factory food, a buycott may be in order. Splurge. Go ahead and buy a Pepsi, a bag of Fritos and some Tropicana orange juice (in honor of the ghost of Anita Bryant, just revived in the film Milk). If you’ve got a strong stomach, stop by the AFA web site and ask for a complimentary six month subscription to the AFA Journal. Maybe they’ll send you your own boycott kit to doctor up.

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The Times of Harvey Milk

If you haven’t seen the original documentary, here it is. Thank you to hulu, and Happy New Year to all.

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Happy Holidays!

It’s hard not to see the frantic efforts of the anti-equality crowd in this instant classic: “Me, me, me, me, me, meee…” Rick Warren, is that you? Chuck Colson? Eugene?
Ode to Joy. Enjoy!

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Pants on Fire

As discussed below, the LDS Church has objected in the strongest terms to the charge that they intended to invalidate any existing marriages or otherwise harm GLBT people, and has continued to demand that someone “apologize” for the ad that depicts a home invasion and destruction of a California couple’s marriage license. Anti-gay activist Jennifer Roback Morse, acting as an official spokesperson for the Prop 8 campaign, actually started a facebook group to complain about the “Home Invasion” ad. Here, from that site, is a typical verbal assault:

The official position of the Yes on 8 campaign is that we will not challenge the existing marriages. As far as I know, no one else is planning to challenge them either. Every single thing about that ad was false. Members of the LDS church exercised their rights, along with everyone else in CA, to participate in the political process. The people who created that ad should be ashamed of themselves. I am not aware of a single person from the No on 8 side who has condemned those ads.

On November 5, Prop 8 campaign manager Frank Schubert told the San Francisco Chronicle that his organization had no plans to challenge any of the 18,000 marriages that took place after the court ruling in May. Difficult to believe, but that’s what they said.

Then, on December 20, we learn this from the Sacramento Bee:

The sponsors of Proposition 8 asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to nullify the marriages of the estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who exchanged vows before voters approved the ballot initiative that outlawed gay unions.

The Yes on 8 campaign filed a brief arguing that because the new law holds that only marriages between a man and a woman are recognized or valid in California, the state can no longer recognize the existing same-sex unions. The document reveals for the first time that opponents of same-sex marriage will fight in court to undo those unions that already exist.

“Proposition 8’s brevity is matched by its clarity. There are no conditional clauses, exceptions, exemptions or exclusions,” reads the brief co-written by Kenneth Starr.

It seems then, that every single thing about that ad is true. But wait, it gets better. Apparently, the Prop 8 folks are now arguing that they didn’t really lie, because they didn’t challenge any individual marriages in court. They aren’t trying to “nullify” the marriages, they say, only demanding that they “not be recognized” as marriages. Like Eugene Delgaudio’s criminally irresponsible accusation of arson and attempted murder by “homosexuals,” this was a meta-lie, worded to convey a glaring untruth while trying to avoid the consequences of lying. In both cases, the distinction being drawn is completely meaningless. What they are doing here is actually much worse than simple lying, and we thank Mr. Delgaudio’s little “helper” for pointing it out in comments.

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