Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) offered the Senate hate crimes bill, the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act, as an amendment to the Department of Defense Reauthorization bill currently being debated on the Senate floor. The House of Representatives version of the bill passed with strong bipartisan support on May 3. The Senate bill, S. 1105, could be voted on as early as today.

The right wing is in high gear on Capitol Hill today to fight the bill’s passage and Senate leaders need to hear strong – and repeated – messages of support for the hate crimes bill from our side.

My question is: Is this about free speech or about denying those on basis of sexual orientation, gender identity/disability to be protected on the federal hate crimes level?

The Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act clearly says it uphold the first amendment to protect and strengthen free speech including religious speech.
So I’m hoping the U.S Senators vote with strong bi-partisan, and send the bill to be sign by Bush. I’ll have more updates on this as they become available.

Call your senators ASAP at 202/224-3121 and urge them to vote in favor of the Matthew Shepard Act, S. 1105.

The Pope and the Catholic Church is still with that crap. Don’t they ever learn? When you say things like that, you create unnecessary holy wars, and confrontations.

[AP]:

Pope Benedict XVI reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation.

The backlash and criticism:

Protestant leaders said: “It makes us question whether we are indeed praying together for Christian unity,” said the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, a fellowship of 75 million Protestants in more than 100 countries.
“It makes us question the seriousness with which the Roman Catholic Church takes its dialogues with the reformed family and other families of the church,” the group said in a letter charging that the document took ecumenical dialogue back to the era before the Second Vatican Council.

The 200 page documents’ quotes: The commentary repeated church teaching that says the Catholic Church “has the fullness of the means of salvation.”Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one church,” The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ’s original apostles — and therefore their priestly ordinations are not valid, it said.

Justice MH: After reading through some of those quotes from the 200 page document, i can see why there are wars between religions or different secs of religions. I have said this before everyone is entitle to believe how they choose, or if they don’t want to. For the Catholic Church to say they hold the truth and salvation is blasphemy. They have no respect for other Christian Churches and even other religions. Every religion has it’s truth. It’s very hypocritical for someone of another religion or a sec of that religion to say what you believe is wrong, and mine is right. Every human being has the right to a certain Christian denomination or another religion. Every religion may have different views and beliefs. For the sake of World peace, we can at least come down to a universal creed: love God, love one another!

Now, i really don’t see what’s so illicit or provocative about two people showing love and affection through a kiss.

Newark Superintendent of Schools Marion Bolden called the photograph “illicit” and ordered it blacked out of the $85 yearbook before it was distributed to students at a banquet for graduating seniors Thursday.
“It looked provocative,” she said. “If it was either heterosexual or gay, it should have been blacked out. It’s how they posed for the picture.”

Russell Garris, the assistant superintendent who oversees the city’s high schools, brought the photograph to Bolden’s attention Thursday afternoon. He was concerned the picture would be controversial and upsetting to parents, Bolden said.

There are gay parents too, this is about all students both gay and straight being fairly represented in their own high school year book.

There are several photos of heterosexual couples kissing in the yearbook, but the superintendent said she didn’t review the entire yearbook and was presented only with Jackson’s page.

I’m not really surprise, but she made sure to review Andre and his boyfriend’s kiss photo. In the state of New Jersey, it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, but the Newark, NJ school superintendent felt it necessary to protect parents on their “standards”.

“I don’t understand. There is no rule about no gay pictures, no guys kissing. Guys and girls kissing made it in.”
– East Side High School student Andre Jackson, whose photo of a kiss with his boyfriend David Escobales had a black marker taken to it in every copy of the yearbook.

Of course there is NO rule, they felt it was necessary, whatever that means. Andre is a inspiration to all young gay people. Andre Jackson says he came out when he was 16 and that he and David Escobales have been together since October. I wish them the best and many more. Also, it’s strange a state like New Jersey would do some something like this, it recently legalized Civil Unions, and I predict in the near future, marriage will be extended to gay couples, because the new law is having problems. More on that in another post!

It’s time to take closer look at this interview that Charlene Cothran, an self-proclaimed ex-lesbian, publisher of the African-American GLBT Venus Magazine.
Since Charlene made the announcement of her sudden change, the “pro-family” movement has been using her story as yet another example of how gays can change. As I take a closer in this interview, we’ll see if she provides any proof of change in sexual orientation.

First Part:

 Cothran says she longed for peace, but even in the midst of a long-term relationship, she felt intense loneliness. She’d grown up in a Christian home, and had come into the lesbian lifestyle at 19, after several bad relationships with boys.

“I didn’t want anything to do with men anymore,” she said. “I was away at college and that was a whole new world, and in that world there were many, many women who were attracted to me, and, of course, I was attracted to them. And these women were nurturing, wanted to get to know me intellectually — they were organizers whom I found a lot of comfort in. It felt good, it felt right.”

Okay, what’s a lesbian lifestyle? Lifestyle simply means a way a person lives. When hetersexual women are being interview, we don’t say hetersexual woman lifestyle. The ignorance is getting annoying. When referring to their first gay experiences, those who have “left” homosexuality [whatever that means] ALWAYS paint the picture of a world wherein they were somehow preyed upon or pressured. In some of these reclosted gays remebrances, they make it seem like they were never aggressors, or willing participants, but rather victims of some sort of confusing or predatory situation.
While Charlene doesn’t fully play the victim card, she does present the idea that if it were not for certain women who happened to have been in her midst and not for bad relationships with men, she never would have had the idea to have lesbian sex.

For those of us who know what it means to be gay, it is NOT ideas that are waiting to be trigger. If Charlene explored her sexual orientation in college, which is quote common, as it is the first chance that many are given to truly know and express themselves. No matter how lovely, nurturing, or intellectual the women, it wouldn’t have “felt good” or “felt right” unless she actually had these feelings!

Second Part: “When the Lord saved me, I knew everything would change,” she said. “All of the ads, the editorials, the mission of the magazine had changed. We’re going to be calling people out of homosexuality.”

Most of the response from the gay and lesbian community has been fierce and negative. But she says she knows that many of them are just as conflicted as she was.

Cothran said, “In order to fill up this empty space, they pretend to put on this wonderful face, ‘how gay and happy I am,’ when in fact — there’s a lot of loneliness in the gay community that’s not talked about, and it’s real.”

Well, what did you expect hugs, and kisses. I don’t think so! Putting gays on the defensive about their mental state and happiness: Another page right out of the “ex-gay”/”pro-family” playbook. They love doing that! You can’t put a group of people together and tell them about their mental state. Who isn’t depress? Who isn’t lonely? Who isn’t feeling down? It doesn’t matter if it’s gay or straight, there is no difference in mental state.The fact is that there is loneliness and depression in the world. The World isn’t heaven, but a hell. This world affects everyone’s mental state. For us gays, it’s no suprise that some of our mental states are down. After all, parental abandonment, societal shunning, having to fight for basic protections, and bias-motivated violence are concepts that can weigh heavily on the human psyche. Couple that with the sort of persecution that calls gays sinners and demands that they “change,” and it’s actually a little shocking that any of us can smile anymore. Our weakness has become our strength.

Third Part: CBN News asked Cothran, “I know people probably ask you, do you still have feelings for women, and are you dating a man?”

Cothran replied, “I’m living a celibate life. I’m so focused on the spirit right now, that I have no urges for anyone — man or woman.”

I said this before, what does celibacy has to do with change in sexual orientation? Nothing! You are simply celibate! In another interview with blogger Clay Cane, she said she was attracted to the spirit. Do we have a new sexual minority? She’s attracted to spirits and mind as well say ghosts too. This is the most amusing STORY! I love fiction! However, it’s duplicitous to bring the idea of “change” or “redemption” into the picture until you have some actual physiological reason to believe that you have changed your actual physiological truth.

Fourth Part:

“Our mission now,” she said, “is to educate and to turn people away from the homosexual lifestyle simply by presenting the truth. We simply want people to question what they’ve learned through the pages of Venus magazine over the past 13 years.”

Prior to Cothran’s conversion, Venus circulated about 35,000 copies per issue which ran four times a year. But after the issue featuring her testimony, the gay political machine pressured advertisers to drop the magazine. And gay pride events and college campuses no longer subscribe.

If you have a gay magazine that suddenly becomes as “ex-gay” magazine, you can’t really blame “the gay political machine” [whatever the hell that is]for pressuring anyone into dropping support. Several gay media outlets are suffering and having problems. Could this be the reason why charlene is using all this tv time? Who knows, but nothing surprise me! From a purely business standpoint, why in the world would anyone think that advertisers who had placements in a pro-gay magazine would, by and large,then she brings the “ex-gay” idea in the picture, which is rejected by the vast majority of black LGBT individuals.

Part Five:

She said, “There is a joy and a peace that you can’t find in a club, I don’t care how good the music is. You can’t find it in the middle of a gay pride parade, I don’t care if you have the biggest, prettiest float. I have a joy and a peace that I wouldn’t trade for anything.”

What does Charlene’s social behavior have to do with change in sexual orientation? It seems her social behavior needed a change, but that has NO affect on sexual orientation. Because honestly, talking about true sexual feelings in terms of pride floats and bars, is just a ridiculous line of thought. I’m laughing just typing about it! lol. Of course you can’t find peace with who you are inside a bar or club. Of course you can’t find peace with who you are on a pride float. You can only find peace with who you are by shutting off outside noise and listening to WHO YOU TRULY ARE!!!! Charlene hasn’t shown nowhere where are sexual orientation was change, or whatever. She talks about “save me” to GOD, she may be save with her personal beliefs, but what does that have to with sexual orientation? Religious conversion deos NOT change sexual orientation. This 700 club interview shows me of what i’ve been saying, “you can’t pray away the gay! If you are truly seeking human validation via a club or pride float (and not merely looking for fun, good times), then you are always going to come up short. Frokm all the five parts, this last one is in many ways the most telling.

Things like that does NOT bring the idea of what sexual orientation is truly all about, by introducing superficial community elements into the mix. It overlooks what we’re truly talking about, which is the nature of desire and biological attraction. Gay bars and pride floats are nothing more than modern inventions, ones in which some LGBT folks choose to participate while others abstain.If Charlene wants to prove that she’s changed her orientation , then she’s going to have to do more than simply denounce her past community involvement! Charlene hasn’t proven a thing, but those who think religious conversion can change sexual orientation really tells you alot about them. There are  many Christians that are gay. I’m NOT done with charlene’s story yet, and when I say story, that what i mean STORY! The rest of the weekend is a break from this so-called wonderful STORY!

Well look at this foolishness, and full of sh*t here!A group of conservative black “pimping” preachers have banded together to take on comprehensive hate crime laws. Is it a surprise? Hell No! It seems they have no sense of reality, or what the bill’s purpose. The NAACP, gay groups, civil rights groups, etc support the bill.

As the the U.S Senate goes up to debate The Matthew Shepard law, “uncle Tom” Reverend Ken Hutcherson and his peers have placed the above ad, which reads:

“Christian clergymen and people of faith are making a stand today for religious liberty. WE OPPOSE S.1105, “The Matthew Shepard Act.” We believe prosecutors and anti-Christian groups will use loop holes in this proposed legislation to muzzle the church. Unnecessary lawsuits will bring a chilling effect to the free speech and religious liberty of our churches and of our members”.

Now where does the bill say it restricts free speech such as religious speech? It’s one thing to oppose the bill, but lieing is whole different thing.

It continues:

“We understand more clearly than most that racially motivated violence can be a form of internal terrorism. The Black Community needs a free puplits. Indeed, ALL Americans need free pulpit. We urge Senate to to avoid misguided compassion take away America’s most basic freedoms – our freedom of speech, our freedom of conscience and our freedom to exercise religion.

Once again the bill clearly says: “Nothing in this act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses the First Amendment to the Constitution” the hate crime bill says.
It seems to me and others they have taken a page out of the Family Research Council. These black Conservative have lost their damn minds. This ad’s logic, however, can certainly be described as “surprising,” and ridiculous especially because, as BoxTurtlebullintin.com points out, African-American people are included in hate crimes laws, yet still find themselves on the receiving end of hate speech:

“Despite enjoying hate crime protections for a number of years, the African-American community continues to be the target of constitutionally protected hate speech whenever the Klan wins approval to hold rallies on courthouse squares and statehouse lawns. Nothing in the existing hate crime laws has succeeded in muzzling their First Amendment rights to free speech.
… There are at least thirty seven racist Christian Identity groups active across America. Some even operate radio broadcasts and “prison ministries.”

Indeed. Hate crime laws do not and will not hinder free speech, particularly with regard to religion. Those who say the laws will are either idiots, over-zealous, blinded by discrimination, hateful,bigots,closted gay person, hypocrite, or all of the above. Free Speech will remain untouch!

[More Updates to come-Justice MH]

Well that’s what Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson is saying, and of course it’s from a minister and straight man’s perspective. He says that it’s time to look at how women are driving men out of the home (and with it, separating them from their children).He gives a lame a** excuse that men bear some of the responsibility, but that it’s due to their inherent weakness for sex.

Most women themselves don’t understand why they provoke and agitate their spouse to lash out or run away. They don’t understand the subtle control they have over weak men.
– Jesse Lee Peterson, founder and president of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny

In other words, these all-powerful women must be controlled, and tamed!
He goes by showing his love, he declares that a man has to realize how he has to deal with women and assert his dominance, also with patience of course. This he says, is all about love and order:

He says:There’s an order to life: God in Christ, Christ in man, man over woman, and woman over children. When this order is broken or violated you have “hell” on earth.
In a relationship the man often has an unnatural need for his wife or girlfriend. He’s addicted to her approval and to her sex. The woman senses this wrong need the man has and she begins to test him. Often times, men find themselves giving in more and more in order to a receive her favor. Sometimes the demands of the woman become unbearable to the point that the man may lash out — I’m not saying this is right, but this is the reality. There’s been a deliberate plan to wipe out masculinity in society. When you wipe out the man you wipe out God, because the man represents God on earth. Then there?s no truth — no light — and no hope for the family.

In other words, these men who leave just can’t help themselves; their testorone can’t handle it, and they have fragile egos. It also seems that can’t stand up to the power of the pu**y! Please, maybe this man needs a vagina to understand a woman!
Who’s trying to wipe out masculinity? I wish there was a balance between masculinity, and feminism. He says when you wipe out man, you wipe out God? HUh? If man represents God, then who do women represent? I believe both do, but this reverand feels that an perfect God shares his sexism, but God simply doesn’t. His radical views about women is disturbing, ignorant, and arrogant! Typical straight man.

He screams anti-gay ignorance:”

“Homosexuality is not about love, it’s not about family, and it’s not about civil rights. It’s about sex ? and selfishness. It’s about pleasure at the price of morality and dignity, with reckless disregard for the raising of the young and for the traditional family unit. In many cases, it’s about imposing a perverse lifestyle on a society based on close adherence to traditional Judeo-Christian values.
…The claim that homosexual conduct is legitimate since it is the consequence of an attribute (orientation) beyond one’s control is also extremely dangerous. Underlying this claim is the notion that anything someone may have an orientation or a predilection towards, no matter how wicked (rape, torturing children) is by definition legitimate, simply by virtue of his having a predilection toward it.

He is so ignorant about gays it’s sad, and pathetic! It seems he thinks gays are souless, and non-feeling creatures. When you don’t understand a issue, all kinds of sh*t run out peoples’ mouth. Please reverand go to the bathroom, empty your mouth, and come back with intelligence, logic, and reason!
Aside from his stupidity about homosexuality[gays]. His take on women is typical straight men wanting the good ol‘ times with domniating and controlling women. But can you blame the reverand? No it’s what he was taught, and the bible was written by men, and is very anti-female. God isn’t anti-female, but the book is, and fallible. In the bible,if she is not a virgin on wedding night, take her to her fathers door and stone her to death. Something extreme like this is NOT from an all-loving God, but a fallible man/writer. All are responsible in a relationship, but no one should have control over anyone!

[More Updates before or no later than 12 Noon-JusticeMH!]

GQ, the men’s quarterly that’s really a monthly, has a feature in its new issue called “A GQ Guide to Being a 21st Century Dad.” In the guide readers can find Vernon Scott, Martin Lofsnes and five-year-old Demian Lofsnes-Scott, two New York dads and their son.

Justice MH’s Thoughts: I want to wish these dads a happy father’s day, and God bless them, for being there for their five-year old son. I hope they have fun today tomorrow! Now, I will have my post on Father’s day early tomorrow AM. It was last month during Mother’s Day, captian said will be interesting to see what I have say for father’s day. Well i won’t hold back on what i want to say on that day. So tomorrow Justice MH’s thoughts on father’s day. I should say my day, but my thoughts on that day tomorrow AM!

This must be the “family values”, and “moral values” they like to talk about. So much for being christ-like, or turning the “other cheek”. Christian outreach? Yeah, right! via:[365gaynews]:

“A woman who was part of a conservative Christian group rallying Thursday at the Massachusetts Statehouse for a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage is charged with assaulting a gay marriage supporter who was attending a rally across the street opposing the amendment.
Diane Steele, 52, was arraigned Friday on charges of assault and battery.

Steele, from Richmond in western Massachusetts, was one of about a hundred protestors calling on state lawmakers to approve the amendment and send it to voters in 2008.

Steele allegedly crossed the street and slapped the unidentified person. The victim was startled but not hurt.

Boston Police spokesperson James Kenneally said Steele apparently decided to “escalate” the debate into a physical confrontation”.

Well She probably feel like God gave her permission to put her hands on somebody. Don’t know what God that is? And this isn’t first time conservative christitan groups have been charge with assaulting marriage equality supporters. So i’m not surprise. The hate, intolerance, and bigotry. You gotta love their version of “Christian values”, right?

After a major victory for marriage equality in Massachusetts, more good news come out: A new awareness campaign targeting homophobia in Boston’s historic black community has been well-received, and will start a visibility.

We Are Part of You” is a series of three related ads, each using the phrase “I Am Gay”, that was originally developed for black communities in New York City.The goal of the campaign, which will run on billboards and in MBTA stations in Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan, is to drive home the point in Boston’s black communities that “gay men have always been and will always be a part of those communities,” says Douglas Brooks, the executive director of JRI Health.Brooks took the # 22 bus up Columbus Avenue to gauge the reaction to the above billboard in Egleston Square:

“I was on a bus full of black people, and wondering what the reactions would be…. I saw people looking at it. I saw people reading it. You can’t help it, it draws your attention because it’s so bold. And I think more than anything the fact that there were no comments made me feel good. I thought, ‘Okay, maybe people are just sort of taking it in,’ or at least they’re not making loud homophobic remarks on the bus. But I was very proud of it, too. I hope it makes a difference.”

Another ad is three black gay men showing they play basketball on the same courts as others. Yes, there are gay athletes, who are black! The ad breaks some stereotypes about gay men that people are know to have. This ad is refreshing, and show black gay men who are masculine.

The Last billboard, showing a black gay man with a pastor, was placed in Dorchester on Blue Hill Avenue.“I placed that one there in particular because it’s an area where there are several large black churches, and I thought the power of having that image of a gay black man and his minister standing there, reminding people that they’re part of their congregations as well, was an important [message],” said State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson (D-Boston). The location Just happens to be near the church of the Rev. Eugene Rivers, one of Boston’s loudest ant-gay black pastors. So the billboards can’t be miss, and will send a clear message of what is already known!

Bill Maher is a guy i admire, and have much respect. His show is real talk. Bill and his guests discuss U.S. Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who refused to apologize for saying that homosexual acts are “immoral,” explaining that he was expressing his “personal moral views.”

People and their moral codes is annoying, but he’s entitle to his personal views. But when it comes to shaping public policy, he’s obligated to reach a bit higher — to consider facts and evidence and the impact of his public expressions of intolerance on the men and women he commands.

The video is right on point, this “don’t ask don’t tell” policy beyond discrimnatory, and just plain silly. Check out the video!!!