Happy Ceasar Chevez Day

Happy Birthday to Ceasar Chavez

Today is Ceasar Chavez Day, marking the birthday of the late United Farm Workers organizer and activist.

Chavez was also the first civil rights leader to publicly support LGBT civil rights. I remember hearing him speak at the 1987 LGBT March on Washington, it was the largest crowd he ever spoke to. He also walked in the march.

“Sí Se Puede” – “Yes We Can!"

Family Research Council Anti-Gay Rally in Memphis

The Family Action Council is sponsoring STAND FOR THE FAMILY: A RALLY TO CELEBRATE AND PROMOTE THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY, Monday at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis.

Special guests include two anti-gay bigots: Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council and Bishop Harry Jackson, Pastor of Hope Christian Church in Washington D.C. Bishop Jackson led the efforts to stop same-sex marriage in Washington D.C., and Tony Perkins and the FRC have led the efforts of Focus On The Family to oppose civil rights for gays and lesbians.

It should be a lovely "family" event....

Meanwhile, the Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center and LGBT groups in Memphis are holding an alternative rally, STAND FOR ALL FAMILIES, at Nashoba Unitarian Church

The Family Action Council of Tennessee oppose equality for LGBT families in TN.

Tony Perkins has political connections with other religious and political extremists, including David Duke and the racist white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens. Here's a picture of Tony Perkins speaking to a meeting of the Council of Conservative Citizens in 2001!


Perkins claims he didn't know the politics of the CCC, but how could he not see that WHITE CONFEDERATE flag behind him??

Pam's Houseblend: Tony Perkins and White Supremacy

Why are African-American pastors Alton Williams and Bishop Harry Jackson sharing the stage with Tony Perkins? Do they fear gay people more than White Supremacists and Racists

UPDATE: Truth Wins Out--"Pro-Family" vs. Actual Pro-Family

Tommy Simmons, Is This The Best They Can Throw At Us?

American Evangelicals Encourage Homophobia in Uganda

International Uproar over Uganda: Study Finds American Evangelicals Encouraging Homophobia

GA Teen Kicked Out of Home Over Prom Date

Georgia Teen Derrick Martin Kicked Out Of House Over Gay Prom Date
Derrick Martin's Georgia high school had approved his request to bring a male date to the prom. But now his parents have kicked him out of the house. Derrick is staying with a friend for now.

Love them "Family Values"

Judge Rules Mississippi Violated Lesbian's Rights

Judge Won't Force Mississippi District to Hold Prom

But the Judged ruled that the school district violated the rights of lesbian student Constance McMillen

ACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi school district violated a lesbian student's rights by banning her from bringing her girlfriend to the prom, a federal judge ruled today, but he stopped short of forcing the district to hold the event.

U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson denied an American Civil Liberties Union request for a preliminary injunction that would have forced the Itawamba County school district to sponsor the April 2 prom and allow Constance McMillen to escort her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.

Healthcare for LGBT

What Healthcare Reform for LGBTs?

The Advocate looks at how the healthcare reform bill will affect LGBT people and what was left out.

Healthcare For All--The Struggle Continues

Hopefully the racist, social darwinian right-wing teabaggers will follow their leaders Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck to the libertarian paradise of Somalia, where healthcare is NOT a right.

Here in the civilized western world, however, we believe that healthcare is a RIGHT, everyone should have it regardless of wealth, income or ability to pay, and we should not be allowing greedy private insurance companies trying to deny that basic right to us!

But the bill that Democrats barely passed today is not the end. It is still forcing people to pay for private insurance, rather than having a public single-payer system like most countries, or open up medicare for all. That is what we must fight for now... the fight is just beginning!

Healthcare for All NOW!

Single-Payer Action Network

"Tea-Party" Bigots

The tea-baggers really showed their true colors today! There can be no doubt that the "tea-party" movement includes a lot of racist, homophobic bigots.

Members of Congress Callede N*gger, F*ggot, and Spit On

In their last attempt to stop healthcare reform in Congress, "tea-party" protesters spit on members of congress, calling Rep. Barney Frank a "faggot" and Rep. John Lewis (a civil rights hero) a "nigger."

Tuesday tea-party protesters Attack a counter-protester with Parkinsons

Latest pictures and updates from "tea party" protests

Joan Walsh, Too Much Tea Party Racism

Ret. U.S. General Blames Gay Soldiers in Dutch Army for Massacre

Al Jazeera: Dutch Fury at "Srebrenika" Link
Officials in the Netherlands have reacted angrily to claims by a retired US general that Dutch forces protecting Bosnian civilians in Srebrenica in 1995 were overrun in part because of the presence of gay soldiers in their ranks.

John Sheehan, a former Nato commander, made the link during a US congressional hearing on allowing gay soldiers to serve openly in the military.

Bosnian Serb forces pushed past lightly armed Dutch soldiers in the United Nations-designated enclave in July 1995 and subsequently massacred about 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

In Thursday's testimony, Sheehan blamed a post-Cold War effort by European nations to "socialise" their forces by, among other things, letting gay people serve.

The Dutch defence ministry issued a statement calling Sheehan's claims "absolute nonsense" and said that gay Dutch soldiers routinely co-operate with the US military in the Nato mission in Afghanistan.

Renee Jones-Bos, the Dutch ambassador to the US, said in a statement that he "couldn't disagree more" with Sheehan.

Jones-Bos said there was no evidence of the general's claims in the extensive record of research on Srebrenica.

ANP, a Dutch news agency, quoted Wim van den Burg, the head of the military union AFMP, as saying Sheehan's comments were "ridiculous" and "out of the realm of fiction".

Three, inlcuding Dan Choi, Arrested At White House Protest

Rachel Maddow Highlights from DADT Hearings

Top 10 Anti-Gay Politicians Caught "Being Gay"

I'm not sure I would what they did "being gay," but here's a list of 10 conservative anti-gay activists who turned out to be gay themselves. (I call them Uncle Tom Republicans)

Top 10 Anti-Gay Politicians Caught Being Gay

Coffee Party USA--Liberals Wake Up!

Finally liberals and progressives are waking up in the U.S.! A new movement kicks off today to challenge the right-wing "Tea Party" corporate-backed movement to stop healthcare reform or any progressive reforms by the Obama administration.

Join the Coffee Party USA
Meetings kick off today across the country.. find one near you.. and let's push not only for "insurance reform" but for real universal (single-payer) healthcare for all, and stop the corporate takeover of the U.S. political system!

Gays Not Wanted in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Celebrate Marriage in Mexico City

In Mississippi:
MS Prom Canceled to Stop Lesbian Date
A Mississippi county school board announced Wednesday it would cancel its upcoming prom after a gay student petitioned to bring a same-sex date to the event.

In Oklahoma:
OK Senate Rejects Federal Hate Crimes Law
One reason I will never return to the state where I was born! And James Inhoff

In Mexico:
Gay Couples Celebrate Right to Marry

Go USA!

Glenn Beck Attacks Me!

Gays Wed in D.C.

DC Weddings Begin for Gay Couples

Uncle Tom Republicans--Another One

Another one-- Roy Ashburn: "I'm Gay"
State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Calif.), the fierce opponent of gay rights who was arrested last week for drunk driving after leaving a gay nightclub, confirmed in a radio interview Monday that he is gay.

Ashburn, a 55-year-old divorced father of four, claimed his 15-year crusade against proposed gay-rights laws in the California statehouse stemmed from his desire to vote the way his constituents wanted.

Conservative Hall of Shame: 8 anti-gay Republican Demagogues Caught With their Pants Down

OK to Discriminate Against Gays in VA

The message from Virginia's governor and Attorney General this past week is that it is Ok to discriminate against gays and lesbians in Virginia.

VA Attorney General Orders Colleges to Stop Protecting Gays

In a letter sent to the state's public colleges and universities and obtained by the Washington Post, Cuccinelli declared that the schools don't have the authority to uphold bans on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation when the state itself has no such ban.

"It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including 'sexual orientation,' 'gender identity,' 'gender expression,' or like classification, as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy, absent specific authorization from the General Assembly," the letter stated.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell last month reversed an eight-year-old executive order that banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in Virginia. The governor argued that only the state's General Assembly had the power to institute such a policy in the first place.

A bill to ban discrimination against gays was introduced in Virginia's legislature this year, but a Republican-led state House committee killed the bill this week.

Former Memphis Mayor Herenton (Now) Opposes Gay Rights

Former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton was once a supporter of gay rights. I meet with him in 1997 as chair of the Memphis Lesbian & Gay Coalition for Justice and he expressed his strong support for gay and lesbian rights, and endorsed a city non-discrimination ordinance that would include sexual orientation. In 2000 he appeared with Judy Shepard at an event on Hate Crimes and proclaimed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Day. Throughout the rest of his tenure as mayor he expressed support of LGBT civil rights to the Tennessee Equality Project...

But now that he is running for Congress, challenging liberal Rep. Steve Cohen for the TN09 seat in the House of Representatives (formerly held by Harold Ford Jr.), Herenton is now proclaiming his opposition to gay marriage as one reason for African-American pastors and churches to support him!

In a letter addressed to pastors, former Memphis mayor Willie Herenton tipped his hand on several policy positions.

"As pastors, I hope you will join me in my opposition to same-sex marriage and the legalization of marijuana," Herenton wrote in a letter dated March 1.

"Also, please join me in the fight to keep jobs in America. Our citizens need jobs."

The two-page letter was presented Tuesday at the regular weekly meeting of the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association.

Commercial Appeal, Herenton Signals Opposition to Gay Marriage, Legalized Marijuana

Memphis Flyer, Herenton Opposes Gay Marriage (and Pot)

Court Won't Halt D.C. Same-Sex Marriages

SCOTUS Won't Halt D.C. Same-Sex Marriages

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stop the District of Columbia’s gay marriage law, freeing the city to issue its first marriage licenses to same-sex couples the following day.

Opponents of gay marriage in the nation’s capital had asked Chief Justice John Roberts to stop the city from issuing the licenses on Wednesday while they appealed. They argued that D.C. voters should have been allowed to vote on the issue. Local courts have rejected the opponents’ arguments.
“It has been the practice of the court to defer to the decisions of the courts of the District of Columbia on matters of exclusively local concern,” said Roberts, writing for the court.

He also pointed out that Congress could have voted to stop the city government from putting the law into effect and didn’t.

The city has said Wednesday probably will be the first day same-sex couples can apply for marriage licenses.

Mississippi School Denies Lesbian Student Right to Prom

ACLU Demands Mississippi School Allow Lesbian Student to Attend Prom with Girlfriend

FULTON, MS – The American Civil Liberties Union and the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition today demanded that Itawamba County School District officials reverse their decision to forbid a lesbian student from attending prom with her girlfriend and from wearing a tuxedo to the prom. Constance McMillen, a student at Itawamba Agricultural High School, said that school officials told her that she could not arrive at the prom with her girlfriend, also a student at IAHS, and that they might be thrown out if any other students complained about their presence.

Harold Ford Jr. NOT running for Senate

Good News for New York! HFjr is NOT running for senate.

The New York Post reports that the former Tennessee congressman and rumored contender for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's seat has decided not to run.

NY gay activists have rejected Harold Ford Jr because of his attempt to win the Senate seat in Tennessee by opposing marriage equality for gays and lesbians and voting TWICE for the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment!

This is what happens when politicians sacrifice the values they and their party supports just to win an election. And it didn't work!

But of course HFjr has a different perspective:
Why I'm Not Running