MISSISSIPPI: Sheriff's Department Sued By ACLU Over Officer Fired For Being Gay

The ACLU is suing Mississippi’s Forrest County Sheriff’s Department for firing a corrections officer after learning he is gay.

On June 14, while at home and off-duty, Cooley called 911 after his boyfriend became physically violent. Among the officers who responded to the call was Chief of Corrections Charles Bolton, one of Cooley’s supervisors. After Cooley’s boyfriend told Bolton that he and Cooley were in a relationship, Bolton told Cooley not to return to work before speaking with his immediate supervisor. The next day, Staff Sergeant of Jail Operations Donnell Brannon informed Cooley that he was being permanently terminated. Cooley asked Brannon if he was being fired because he was gay, and Brannon responded, “Yes.” Cooley has never received a written explanation for his firing. He has never been charged or disciplined in connection with the domestic violence precipitated by his former boyfriend the day before he was fired. The official police report of the incident identifies Cooley as the victim. After firing Cooley, the sheriff’s department attempted to deny him unemployment benefits by alleging that Cooley had engaged in unspecified “inappropriate conduct and behavior while off duty, unacceptable for an officer.” But after a hearing, an administrative law judge concluded that the sheriff’s department failed to show that Cooley committed misconduct of any kind.

Another prime example of why we need ENDA.

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Cub Scouts: Gay Dad Can be 'Popcorn Fundraiser' But Not Leader

Another example of the Boy Scouts' discriminatory, anti-gay policies has reared its ugly head in the Dallas area.

The Dallas Morning News reports:

"A University Park father learned this week that he will not be able to serve as a leader in his 9-year-old's Cub Scout pack because he's gay. For the last two years Jon Langbert has organized a popcorn fundraiser for Pack 70 at University Park Elementary. Then at a September Scout meeting, someone complained about his homosexuality, Langbert said. He said he was told this week that he can't wear the Scout leader shirt he was given last year and that he cannot serve in a leadership position because of his sexual orientation. 'What message does that send to my son? It says I'm a second-class citizen,' Langbert said. Robert McTaggart, the Cubmaster for Pack 70, said Langbert will be allowed to continue as a popcorn fundraiser. That position is not considered a leadership role and can be held by a volunteer. The Boys Scouts of America has had a long-standing policy that rejects leaders who are gay or atheist. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the organization's rules in a 5-4 decision."

Langbert is taking action now over the school district, which allows the Boy Scouts to use its facilities:

"He said he is angry the Highland Park school district allows the Boy Scouts to use its facilities in spite of their discrimination. He said he has contacted attorneys. 'My tax dollars are paying for their discrimination. And the next gay dad who wants to come along can't. I'm not going to let them,' Langbert said. 'My position is that the school cannot allow the use of their facilities to an organization that discriminates.'"

(via truth wins out)

]]> http://hindgrindr.com/blog/2010/10/18/cub-scouts-gay-dad-can-be-popcorn-fundraiser-but-not-leader/feed/ 0 http://hindgrindr.com/blog/2010/10/18/iowa-christianists-launch-ad-comparing-gay-marriage-to-legalized-incest-2/ http://hindgrindr.com/blog/2010/10/18/iowa-christianists-launch-ad-comparing-gay-marriage-to-legalized-incest-2/#comments Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:02:50 +0000 Sniffer http://hindgrindr.com/blog/2010/10/18/iowa-christianists-launch-ad-comparing-gay-marriage-to-legalized-incest-2/

IOWA: Christianists Launch Ad Comparing Gay Marriage To Legalized Incest

The Iowa Independent reports:

Tim Hicks, who created and posted the video on YouTube, is a member of Cornerstone World Outreach in Sioux City. In fact, nearly half of the videos he’s posted on YouTube are of the church’s pastor, Cary Gordon. The church is facing a possible IRS investigation over its campaign to convince other pastors around the state to encourage their congregations to vote against retaining three state Supreme Court justices on the ballot this fall. Hick’s video, which is entitled “Vote no on judicial retention,” is a parody of commercials for the online dating website eHarmony. The narrator of the video says the Iowa Supreme Court is the authority on marriage, all while a married couple discusses how they’ve known each other their entire lives. By the end, it is revealed that the married couple are brother and sister, and they thank the Supreme Court for allowing their marriage to happen. In comments below the video, Hicks said he made it to reveal “the obvious next steps for liberal judges to take. What will they legalize next … polygamy, NAMBLA, a feller and his horse?”

Cornerstone Church is also attempting to take over the Sioux City government by getting its members appointed to city commissions.

(Via – Right Wing Watch)

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Dallas: Gay Dad Of Cub Scout Can’t Be Pack Leader

He can make popcorn for the kids though. Presumably you can’t taint popcorn with The Gayness:

A University Park father learned this week that he will not be able to serve as a leader in his 9-year-old’s Cub Scout pack because he’s gay.

For the last two years Jon Langbert has organized a popcorn fundraiser for Pack 70 at University Park Elementary. Then at a September Scout meeting, someone complained about his homosexuality, Langbert said.

He said he was told this week that he can’t wear the Scout leader shirt he was given last year and that he cannot serve in a leadership position because of his sexual orientation.

“What message does that send to my son? It says I’m a second-class citizen,” Langbert said.

Robert McTaggart, the Cubmaster for Pack 70, said Langbert will be allowed to continue as a popcorn fundraiser. That position is not considered a leadership role and can be held by a volunteer.

How big of them.

A couple of things about this: The Boy Scouts are, obviously, working within their rights as current law stands, thanks to a 2000 Supreme Court Decision which allowed them to keep discriminating. The father in the article does bring up the sticky fact that the Highland Park public schools grant use of their facilities for the Scouts to meet, and says that he’s contacted attorneys about it. He should. The Boy Scouts of America, as a private organization, can be as discriminatory as they want, but that doesn’t mean that we should share our public facilities with discriminatory organizations.

Max Simon at Queerty points out the positive ramifications of Langbert taking his son out of the Scouts:

On the plus side, if he pulls his son out of the Scouts now, there’s a great chance he won’t be molested in a few years.

Ouch.

Tags: Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Dallas, discrimination, Jon Langberg, Supreme Court

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IOWA: Christianists Launch Ad Comparing Gay Marriage To Legalized Incest

The Iowa Independent reports:

Tim Hicks, who created and posted the video on YouTube, is a member of Cornerstone World Outreach in Sioux City. In fact, nearly half of the videos he’s posted on YouTube are of the church’s pastor, Cary Gordon. The church is facing a possible IRS investigation over its campaign to convince other pastors around the state to encourage their congregations to vote against retaining three state Supreme Court justices on the ballot this fall. Hick’s video, which is entitled “Vote no on judicial retention,” is a parody of commercials for the online dating website eHarmony. The narrator of the video says the Iowa Supreme Court is the authority on marriage, all while a married couple discusses how they’ve known each other their entire lives. By the end, it is revealed that the married couple are brother and sister, and they thank the Supreme Court for allowing their marriage to happen. In comments below the video, Hicks said he made it to reveal “the obvious next steps for liberal judges to take. What will they legalize next … polygamy, NAMBLA, a feller and his horse?”

Cornerstone Church is also attempting to take over the Sioux City government by getting its members appointed to city commissions.

(Via – Right Wing Watch)

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Dallas: Gay Dad Of Cub Scout Can’t Be Pack Leader

He can make popcorn for the kids though. Presumably you can’t taint popcorn with The Gayness:

A University Park father learned this week that he will not be able to serve as a leader in his 9-year-old’s Cub Scout pack because he’s gay.

For the last two years Jon Langbert has organized a popcorn fundraiser for Pack 70 at University Park Elementary. Then at a September Scout meeting, someone complained about his homosexuality, Langbert said.

He said he was told this week that he can’t wear the Scout leader shirt he was given last year and that he cannot serve in a leadership position because of his sexual orientation.

“What message does that send to my son? It says I’m a second-class citizen,” Langbert said.

Robert McTaggart, the Cubmaster for Pack 70, said Langbert will be allowed to continue as a popcorn fundraiser. That position is not considered a leadership role and can be held by a volunteer.

How big of them.

A couple of things about this: The Boy Scouts are, obviously, working within their rights as current law stands, thanks to a 2000 Supreme Court Decision which allowed them to keep discriminating. The father in the article does bring up the sticky fact that the Highland Park public schools grant use of their facilities for the Scouts to meet, and says that he’s contacted attorneys about it. He should. The Boy Scouts of America, as a private organization, can be as discriminatory as they want, but that doesn’t mean that we should share our public facilities with discriminatory organizations.

Max Simon at Queerty points out the positive ramifications of Langbert taking his son out of the Scouts:

On the plus side, if he pulls his son out of the Scouts now, there’s a great chance he won’t be molested in a few years.

Ouch.

Tags: Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Dallas, discrimination, Jon Langberg, Supreme Court

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Watch: Rudolf Brazda, Last Known 'Pink Triangle' Survivor of Buchenwald Concentration Camps, Gives Interview

Rudolf Brazda, the last known survivor of the Pink Triangles, tells the sobering story of his experience for French website Yagg:

"The son of Tcheckoslovaquian immigrants in Germany, Rudolf Brazda was 20 when Hitler rose to power. He had lived his homosexuality freely and openly until the law penalizing homosexuality, the notorious “Paragraph 175″, was toughened by the Nazi regime. On August 8, 1942, after having gone to prison twice, he was sent to the concentration camp of Buchenwald, where he was given the number 7952, and a pink triangle. Even though Buchenwald wasn’t an extermination camp, an estimated 56.000 prisoners (out of the 238.000 who were incarcerated) died in the camp, either because they were executed or from exhaustion or illness."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…

]]> http://hindgrindr.com/blog/2010/10/18/watch-rudolf-brazda-last-known-pink-triangle-survivor-of-buchenwald-concentration-camps-gives-interview/feed/ 0 http://hindgrindr.com/blog/2010/10/18/the-tragic-suicide-of-alan-turing-2/ http://hindgrindr.com/blog/2010/10/18/the-tragic-suicide-of-alan-turing-2/#comments Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:01:01 +0000 Sniffer http://hindgrindr.com/blog/2010/10/18/the-tragic-suicide-of-alan-turing-2/

The Tragic Suicide of Alan Turing

Alan Turing was a brilliant English mathematician who helped the Allies win World War II.

Working as a cryptographer at the now famous Bletchley Park complex he used his incredible focus and intelligence to crack the seemingly impossible codes of the German Enigma Machine. By locking himself in his room for days at a time he managed to reverse engineer the Enigma Machine — a stroke of pure genius that allowed the British and their allies to anticipate attacks and other vital information, changing the course of the war.

He’s also known as the father of computer science. Time named him one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.

[E]veryone who taps at a keyboard, opening a spreadsheet or a word-processing program, is working on an incarnation of a Turing machine.

Alan Turing was gay. He killed himself on June 8, 1952, by eating a bite of an apple laced with cyanide. But why? We’ve seen a lot of theories from the right on why gay kids are killing themselves. Could any of them apply?

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association might say it’s because society was pushing too hard for people to be gay:

It must be pointed out that homosexual activists are not wholly innocent in these tragedies either. Homosexuals cannot reproduce so they must recruit. Part of the agenda of groups like GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) is to urge students at younger and younger ages to come out and declare a disordered sexual preference. Sexually confused youth are pressured into locking into a sexual identity far before they are mature enough to do so.

Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council might argue that society was too accepting of homosexuality:

Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., said the rash September suicides by gays might be linked to the students believing they were born gay. “That creates hopelessness,” he said. “It is more loving and compassionate to say you don’t have to be gay for the rest of your lives.”

His colleague Tony Perkins might back him up:

Some homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal–yet they have been told by the homosexual movement, and their allies in the media and the educational establishment, that they are “born gay” and can never change. This–and not society’s disapproval–may create a sense of despair that can lead to suicide.

Could Turing have killed himself because homosexuality was illegal in Britain?

Could he have done it because police discovered his sexual orientation while investigating a burglary of his home, and he was convicted of gross indecency?

Could it have been because in order to avoid a prison term he submitted to chemical castration by the government via female hormones?

No, of course not. As Tony Perkins makes clear, society’s disapproval does not cause suicide. Alan Turing must have killed himself because Britain was just too damn accepting.

USC staffer praying over LGBT tomes; and no, not because she thinks they should be in e-book form instead

Even if you disagree with the cause, it’s usually easy to see why social conservatives involve themselves in certain LGBT issues. Typically it’s because they think that marriage, the army, their own church, their talking point machines, fundraising efforts, smug heterosexism, etc., are under some sort of direct threat, and therefore they see a need to step in and run defense. It can be annoying, frustrating, *facepalm*-inducing, and oftentimes even deeply offensive. But at least the “why” is generally apparent, as far as that goes.

But other times, the involvement constitutes undeniable meddling in matters that are of absolutely no concern to the “pro-family” life. As is the case over at the the University of Southern California, where the school’s library is receiving a large shipment of archival books, films, and magazines all about LGBT history. Now, even for those who don’t have a need in their heart (or country) for LGBT lives and loves, the history of the people and the movement is obviously a concrete thing. And in fact, LGBT history also includes anti-LGBT history, something that has come to define the religious right over the past few decades. So it’s no surprise that an educational library, the place where a plethora of information is something that is kinda, sorta valued, would see it in their interest to collate and house these resources. No controversy warranted.

At least it shouldn’t be a surprise or a controversy:

Sarah Dean, a Christian who is on staff at USC, is encouraging students and parents to pray rather than react to the donation with hatred against homosexuals.

“I would hope parents would react in prayer and students would react in prayer, and just that they would be aware of it,” she notes.

As a member of Campus Crusade for Christ at USC, Dean shares that she has seen the issue of homosexuality become more prevalent on campus. She believes Christians should care for and understand the pain that many homosexuals have experienced in their lives.

“The way that we’re going to get at the heart of the matter is through love and discussing it…that way,” she contends.

Dean feels that Christians should offer hope through Jesus to homosexuals who are looking for freedom.

LGBT donation more reason to pray, love [One News Now]

Hey, here’s an idea: Why not react in intellectual respect, or at the very least, tolerance? Don’t care to read the materials? Then don’t visit the LGBT archives, the same way many evangelicals surely eschew the works of Christopher Hitchens or Sam Harris, ore that one-off edition of Curious George where the title monkey starts asking too many questions about evolution. Why must every little thing be seen as opportunity to pray for the socio-political adversary?! Especially on a college, where knowledge and the quest thereof deserves an even more heightened premium?

It’s situations like this that have alienated so many people from the evangelical church, as well as opened so many others’ eyes about the true goals of the organized “pro-family” movement. It’s a generalization to say that theirs is an anti-”live and let live” force. But generalizations are formed based on demonstrated efforts — and far too many “pro-family” efforts seek to save the soul of anyone who so much as laughs at Cam’s “Modern Family” antics without following it up with a “…sinner!” protestation.

]]> http://hindgrindr.com/blog/2010/10/18/usc-staffer-praying-over-lgbt-tomes-and-no-not-because-she-thinks-they-should-be-in-e-book-form-instead/feed/ 0 http://hindgrindr.com/blog/2010/10/18/f-bombs-for-equality/ http://hindgrindr.com/blog/2010/10/18/f-bombs-for-equality/#comments Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:00:26 +0000 Sniffer http://hindgrindr.com/blog/2010/10/18/f-bombs-for-equality/

F-Bombs for Equality

This video is full of a certain potty word, so don’t watch it at work unless you work somewhere cool.

That being said, it rules, and it’s pretty much everything that needs to be said on the subject.

[h/t Joe]

Pretty great campaign, if I do say so myself.

Tags: equality, FCKH8, gay rights, LOL

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