I Didn't Say It ....

Harvey Fierstein, on Orson Scott Card, writer of Ender's Game:

"The quotes that got me about him weren’t against gay marriage -- he wanted homosexuality criminalized in the United States. That's what he called for. You want me to be tolerant of you wanting to criminalize homosexuality? F--k you on your grave, you piece of s--t."

I loathe the so-called Christians who want me to tolerate their faith while they use their faith to have me declared a criminal for my sexual orientation.

The fact is that Orson Scott Card and his ilk chose their faith; I was born this way.

Johnny Weir, on the suggested boycott of the Winter Olympics in Russia because of their anti-LGBT stance:

"To have a boycott would not only negate the career of some athletes who have only one chance at competing at the Games, but also the over-time shifts an exhausted father takes to make ends meet, or the social acclimatization of a brother who can’t go on spring break because his brother needed another costume, or the mother who works part-time at a job far beneath her, just so she can afford to watch her first born perform for the world. The Olympics are not a political statement, they are a place to let the world shine in peace and let them marvel at their youthful talents. ... I respect the LGBT community full heartedly, but I implore the world not to boycott the Olympic Games because of Russia’s stance on LGBT rights or lack thereof. I beg the gay athletes not to forget their missions and fight for a chance to dazzle the world."

I’m on Team Johnny here.

I want our LGBT athletes, and LGBT ally athletes to go to the games and stand up for the LGBT community and against Putin’s homophobic, intolerant, and even deadly, policies.

Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop and social rights activist, on refusing entrance to Heaven if God is a homophobe: 

"I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place. I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this."

So many folks got their robes in a snit over this quote, but to me, what Tutu is saying is that God isn’t homophobia, and if she was, Tutu might choose a different after-life.

Blake Skjellerup, out speed skater, on the suggested boycott of the Winter Olympics in Russia because of their anti-LGBT stance: 

“For me it’s less about taking a stand and more about just being myself...I have no interest in going back into the closet in Sochi...This is not about defiance. This is me standing up for what I believe in.”

And, as I said, standing up against Putin’s Russia.

John Barrowman, on the vicious hostility he experienced after the announcement of his wedding:

"I don't get it. Some of the comments were outrageously vile. Quoting lines from the Bible. I won't tolerate it. People like that are banned on my Twitter account. I tell them to f**k off...People have a right to their beliefs but it doesn't mean they have to be nasty and deny other people their human rights. The world is not going to change and fall apart because a gay couple got married."

It’s love, people.

It’s a man who found the person with whom he chooses to be married and if you can’t be happy for people in love then you just can’t ever be happy.

Harvey Fierstein, on the suggested boycott of the Winter Olympics in Russia because of their anti-LGBT stance:

"You can’t get them through a U.N. sanction: 'Oh boy, the U.S. is mad at me. I’m shaking all the f--k over.' There’s only one way and that's in the pocketbook. You hurt them in the pocketbook, they shut the f--k up and back the f--k down. ... And Olympic athletes, I understand: You’ve worked your asses off for this for years, but there are still bigger things than you hanging something around your neck. There are bigger things in this world."

I usually agree with Harvey, but I think if we stay away, it’ll just be like the time we boycotted the Moscow Olympics because of something Russia did.

Remember that? Not many folks do; and about the only thing that came of that boycott was that Russia boycotted the LA Olympics in America after that.

Go. Stand tall. Stand proud. Stand out.

Sharon Osbourne, on Justin Bieber:

“I feel really bad for him. There’s this little kid with a huge dream, he’s cute, girls love him, and he wants to be a mean boy, and he’s about as mean as a fuckin’ kitten, and he’s trying to act out. It’s like pissing in a bucket. It’s like, “Oh, we’re the bad boys!” Fuck off! You don’t know what bad is. And I think that he’s lost, I really do. And, at the point he’s at in his career, it’s so dangerous because we’ve seen it all before a million times. Where do you go when you’re a child entertainer and then you want to transition to be a man? Very few make it.”

Sing it, Sharon.

Christian Vincent, out gay Danish actor, on why the struggle for LGBT rights in Russia and around the world matters: 
"I am privileged enough to be able to say [that I'm gay] openly, even publicly without any consequences. This is not something I need to do or something I have to do but I have the right to do it. The value of this right is not to be underestimated. The value of this right is not to be taken for granted. The absence of this right is lethal. If you are one of those who are, as myself, lucky enough to have this right, I merely ask of you to use it. Our brothers and sisters in Russia among many other places need our voice and our support now more than ever...Awareness has started and awareness is hope. And hope is never silent. So I ask of you once again, tell the world it's not okay."

Word.
I hope Russia gets the message.

Read More

I Didn't Say It ....

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, on the rumor that the GOP will become more tolerant:

"I don’t know if I’ve used the word ‘tolerance,’ I don’t really care for that word myself. I don’t have a problem with it, I just think it has another meaning politically that can go the other direction. I happen to believe that our principles are sound. I do believe, and I still will tell you that our party believes that marriage is between one man and one woman. Our party believes that life begins at conception. I think those are foundational issues that aren’t going anywhere but what I have said, which I don’t think should be controversial at all and I would think that Christians and pastors and everyone in between should agree that our principles have to be draped in the concepts of grace, love and respect and that’s not code language, that’s the New Testament. ... So ‘tolerance’ — maybe some people use that word, what I would tell you, when I think about it, I think about grace, I think about love, and I think about respect, and I think those are things that are very square with our beliefs as Christians."

Straights from the horse’s, er, mouth: the GOP wants you to think they are open and accepting of women and The Gays and immigrants, but the truth is they are not.

They are the same old GOP.

Stephen Rhodes, openly gay one-time NASCAR driver, on returning to the track after a ten-year absence and being gay:

"I don't think going into a sport — having to face the ones that either like me or don't like me — is anything any different than I live any day. I live in the South. I know that NASCAR has a conservative, Southern fan base, and I'm not going to try and change anyone's minds and their opinions. They're either going to like me or going to hate me. That's just life in general, really."

But, just the fact that he’s out there, and out, will get the discussion started.

And that’s the first step toward changing people’s minds.

Andrew Garfield, on the LGBT community and Spiderman:

"Spiderman stands for everybody — gay, straight, bisexual, transsexual. To me, love between two consenting adults is love. To me, that anyone would bat an eyelash at what I said to me is interesting.'"

He isn’t speaking as Spiderman, a fictional cartoon character; he’s speaking as a human being wondering why some of us question the love that any two people share.

Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia's Republican Attorney General, speaking about The Gays during a gubernatorial debate:

“My personal beliefs about the personal challenges of homosexuality haven’t changed ... The notion that because I believe marriage ought to be protected, because I believe life begins at conception — just like hundreds of thousands of independents and Democrats — this isn’t just me, it isn’t just Republicans. There are lots of Virginians, millions, perhaps, of Virginians, who share my sincerely held beliefs.”

Or maybe not.

Cuccinelli might have been so busy wondering about the ins-and-outs — see what I did there? —of oral and anal sex that he missed a new poll in his own state that shows 505 of Virginians support same-sex marriage. And most probably support keeping Ken Cuccinelli out of their bedrooms.

Harvey Fierstein, on Vladimir Putin's anti-LGBT policies in Russia, and the upcoming Winter Olympics:

"Mr. Putin’s campaign against lesbian, gay and bisexual people is one of distraction, a strategy of demonizing a minority for political gain taken straight from the Nazi playbook. Can we allow this war against human rights to go unanswered? Although Mr. Putin may think he can control his creation, history proves he cannot: his condemnations are permission to commit violence against gays and lesbians. Last week a young gay man was murdered in the city of Volgograd. He was beaten, his body violated with beer bottles, his clothing set on fire, his head crushed with a rock. This is most likely just the beginning. ... With Russia about to hold the Winter Games in Sochi, the country is open to pressure. American and world leaders must speak out against Mr. Putin’s attacks and the violence they foster. The Olympic Committee must demand the retraction of these laws under threat of boycott. In 1936 the world attended the Olympics in Germany. Few participants said a word about Hitler’s campaign against the Jews. Supporters of that decision point proudly to the triumph of Jesse Owens, while I point with dread to the Holocaust and world war. There is a price for tolerating intolerance."

I am generally on the side of keeping politics out of the Olympic games, but Fierstein, as usual, makes valid points about this type of stand your ground.

Standing up against discrimination, against violence, against intolerance.

But, should there be no boycott, let there be some stunning victories by openly gay athletes who can show Russia, and Putin, that he cannot continue his hate speech towards the LGBT community.

Amanda Hess, writing for Slate, on the newest Weiner scandal:
"What would the American public find if it combed through all of your Facebook messages, Twitter DMs, and Gchat history? If it had an exclusive peek into your webcam, or could scroll through your iPhone pics at will? This great nation is littered with hard drives full of poorly lit topless pics, broken promises to former lovers, and messages that sounded sexy at the time but look very stupid now. Anthony Weiner’s sexts don’t make him look like a sexual predator or even a freak. They make him look very, very ordinary."

Except, most ordinary folks aren't running for mayor of the biggest city in the country.

Ted Cruz, the Republican ::gag:;; Senator from Texas :::gag:::, speaking to the Christian Broadcasting Network about what might happen if The Gays become equal:
"If you look at other nations that have gone down the road towards gay marriage, that's the next step of where it gets enforced. It gets enforced against Christian pastors who decline to perform gay marriages, who speak out and preach biblical truths on marriage, that has been defined elsewhere as hate speech, as inconsistent with the enlightened view of government. I think there is no doubt that the advocates who are driving this effort in the United States want to see us end up in that same place."

Not.One.Pastor.Has.Been.Forced.To.Perform.A.Same-sex.Marriage.Ever!
Cruz needs to stop toeing the GOP line and spreading fear.

Alec Baldwin, complaining to Howard Stern about Anderson Cooper criticizing him for the "toxic little queen" TwitFit™:

"What I realize about [Cooper] is, everybody in media, they have a job to do. Anderson Cooper has a job to do. And that job is to try to reinforce his credibility in the gay community after the fact that you couldn't get him out of the closet for 10 years with a canister of tear gas. Now he's the sheriff. Now he's running around writing everybody a ticket!"

Sadly, no one used a canister of tear gas to shut Alec Baldwin up.

Anderson Cooper, as a gay man who came out when he felt ready, as is his right, has every reason to call Baldwin for being the tyrannical dick-tator he fancies himself.

The more and more that Baldwin talks the less and less he sounds like the LGBT ally he professes to be.

As I said to Paula Dean, Shut the f**k up.

Read More

I Didn't Say It ....

Dan Savage, on America’s changing position on marriage equality:

"I tell this story in the book of being at this park in Seattle many years ago, where a limo pulls up and a bride and a groom tumble out to get their portraits at this very famous park with a beautiful view of downtown Seattle. And as they're walking back to the limo everyone starts to applaud, and rightly so. Everyone takes delight when two people find each other and make that commitment. I was standing there clapping next to these two older gentlemen with two big dogs. It was clear that they were gay and I was gay. And as they get into their car, the one closest to me looks at me and says, `We are always happy for them. Would it kill them to be happy for us?' We've reached that tipping point, where they are happy for us. Now you see straight people looking at gay people and recognizing something about themselves in us."

It should be that simple.

We should be happy for anyone who finds love.

Marcel Neergard, an 11-year-old gay student from Tennessee is speaking out against his state's 'Don't Say Gay' bill, and one of its proponents, Representative John Ragan:

"You have parents who don't want to talk about gays and don’t want to teach their children about gays, then they don't know anything about it and they don't get the education about what being gay is. During my first year in middle school, I experienced severe bullying. I was called terrible names that were quite hurtful. At that time, I had just realized that I'm gay, and the bullies used the word "gay" as an insult. This made me feel like being gay was horrible, but my parents told me otherwise. Their support was tremendous. But as powerful as their love was, it couldn't fight off all the bullying. I don't want anyone else to feel the way I did. No one deserves that much pain, no matter who they are. This was my reason for writing the petition."

Silence = Death.

And do we really need more young gay kids dying because some wingnuts don’t wanna hear about The Gays?

Go HERE to sign Marcel’s petition.

Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts quarterback, on the idea of an NFL payer coming out as gay:

“I mean, it's the 21 century. I know I would have absolutely no problem with it. I hope no one would treat him any differently than any straight player, and no special treatment. He's another guy...It's none of our business, the sexual preference of people. I hope if someone's thinking about (coming out), that if they do come out as gay and are a professional football player, and it makes them happy and it makes their life easier, then I think they should do it....When it does, if it does come, I'd be disappointed if there was a negative reaction among players."

Just another step in the right direction, though I have one quibble with Luck’s statement: it is not a sexual ‘preference’ because preference implies there is a choice, like when offered Italian or Chinese food for dinner, I would prefer Chinese.

It’s an orientation, because if it’s a preference then being straight is a preference, er, choice, too.

Kristin Beck, a former Navy SEAL and Transgender woman, on transgenderism:

"I do not believe a soul has a gender, but my new path is making my soul complete and happy. I hope my journey sheds some light on the human experience and most importantly helps heal the 'socio-religious dogma' of a purely binary gender."

As my parents instilled in all their children from an early age, ‘All you really get in life is happiness, so strive for that.’

Glad that Kristin is happy now.

Macklemore, rap artist and singer, calling for the government to support gay families:

“All families deserve respect. All parents deserve support whether they're gay or straight. I want a government that doesn't discriminate, a government that doesn't try to use religion to define what makes us a family. And that's why I am one of the voices united for the separation of church and state.”

I think being a parent is one of the hardest jobs a person could have, and why should we treat same-sex parents any differently that opposite-sex parents, or single parents.

A parent is a parent is a parent. Equally.

Liz Barker, Baroness in England's House of Lords, coming out as lesbian while coming out in support of marriage equality:

"Many years ago, I had the great good fortune to meet someone. She and I have loved each other ever since ... What we are doing today does not undermine any existing or future marriage. It extends the status of marriage to gay men and lesbians who want to make a public commitment in the presence of their families and friends, and sometimes their co-religionists. It reflects the wishes of those people who today do not want just to tolerate lesbians and gay men; they want to celebrate and support them as people in their own right.”

As I have been saying, show me the ‘traditional’ marriage that has been destroyed because of marriage equality and maybe then we can have a discussion.

Kevin Beckner, openly gay Hillsborough County [Florida] Commissioner, holding up a copy of the Constitution , and speaking to those who had originally put in place a ban on recognizing Gay pride by the county—the commissioners voted this week to repeal the ban:

"What does it say to a community when its own government sanctions discrimination against a class of its citizens? Does it give authority to others to discriminate against their fellow human beings? What about our children? Our children who go to school every single day that are subject to bullying simply because who they are as human beings. Does it give children the authority to bully and to put down their fellow classmates because government has said it's ok to do so? Ladies and gentleman, that is the real cost that this policy has to this community." 

Like I said yesterday, discrimination of any kind has no place here.

Good for the Hillsborough County Commissioners to put a stop to legalized discrimination.

Harvey Fierstein, on anti-LGBT religious bigots:
"Can you imagine if I was on a school board and I came in and I said, 'you know, I don't want any Jews or Christians teaching my kids, because they believe in people living inside whales, and they believe in slavery, and stoning women who have had an affair, so I just don't want any of those Christians or Jews'. Can you imagine? But they feel just absolutely free to say that about gay people."

If discrimination is wrong, all discrimination is wrong.
Well said, Harvey,

Read More

I Didn't Say It ....

Riley Roberts, 18-years-old, speaking to the Nevada Assembly, asking for marriage equality for his two moms:

“My name is Riley Roberts and my life is amazing. Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you about the issue of gay marriage and how it affects my life. What issue? I see no issue. I was born in Reno, Nevada 18 years ago and guess who was there? My mom Pamela Roberts and Gretchen Miller, my loving parents. And who was there to watch me take my first steps? Pamela Roberts and Gretchen Miller. And who was there when I said my first words? My two loving parents. And who was there when I kicked my first soccer ball? My two loving parents. And who can I talk to when I need anything? My two loving parents. And who will be there to see me walk across the stage next month and receive my honors diploma? My two gay loving parents who have been together for 22 years."

How can anyone say that two women, or two men, cannot be good parents, when it’s quite obvious, again, that Pamela Roberts and Gretchen Miller raised an amazing son?

Madness, I tell you; that’s got to be the only reason.

Chelsea Clinton, on marriage equality:

"It just seems so fundamental to me. I'm able to marry the person I wanted to marry. That's the fundamental human imperative. Those of us who have been lucky enough should expand these rights to others."

Equality should be fundamental, eh?

I mean, wasn’t there something that went something like ‘all men are created equal’?

E.W. Jackson, GOP nominee for Virginia lieutenant governor, standing by his declaration that gay people are perverted and sick:

"I say the things that I say because I’m a Christian, not because I hate anybody, but because I have religious values that matter to me. Attacking me because I hold to those principles is attacking every church-going person, every family that’s living a traditional family life, everybody who believes that we all deserve the right to live. So I don’t have anything to rephrase or apologize for. I would just say people should not paint me as one-dimensional."

See what he does there?

He attacks gay people by calling them pedophiles and perverts and saying we’re sick, but when he gets attacked for his views, he pulls out a Bible to hide behind.

Judge not, asshat.

Brian Brown, NOM’s lapdog, on the recent half-assed Boy Scouts gay inclusion vote:

"Today is a sad day for the Boy Scouts of America. They have succumbed to political pressure and abandoned their historic roots in what will prove to be a failed attempt to appease gay activists and corporate donors. Unfortunately, what they have done is said to the world that their oath no longer means much. Their decision to admit openly gay scouts will end up sexualizing the organization. I am certain that having changed their policy on homosexuality, it's only a matter of time before courts order them to admit homosexual scout leaders. Meanwhile, countless thousands of churches will very likely pull their sponsorship rather than endorse homosexuality, and the entire organization will begin to collapse. All of this is happening not because of a true grassroots demand of gay youth to be part of the organization but by an orchestrated political effort by gay activists who want to punish any group or organization that does not embrace homosexuality. It's the beginning of the end for what once was one of America's noblest organizations."

I love how Brown says that by the Boy Scouts trying a little non-discrimination—at least until the scout becomes eighteen years of age—that they are advancing the homosexual agenda, or appeasing the homosexual community.

What they are doing, halfp-0assed though it may be, is treating all kids equally.

Then, of course, they’ll treat the gay adults as less than.

Bryan Fischer, AFA wingnut, on why the Mormon Church ended up supporting the, as he now calls them because name-calling works, the Boy Sodomizers of America’s decision to lift the ban on gay scouts:

"The LDS leadership, these people are smart, they're sharp, they're thinking all the time and I believe one of the reasons they may have gone soft on the homosexual agenda is that they believe that the homosexual agenda may be the secret to restoring polygamy to America and this would vindicate Mormon doctrine from the very beginning."

So, the Mormon Church sees the idea of letting young gay boys join an organization as a stepping stone toward legalizing polygamy.

Even for Fischer, who never met a lie he didn’t want to spread around like horseshit, that’s a stretch.

Harvey Fierstein, on the war against The Gays:

"The first prong is political. When a politician like Marco Rubio is willing to sacrifice his career defining immigration reform legislation solely to insure that gays and lesbians are denied equal protection under the law, we have to admit that we're under attack. This is not pragmatic politics at work. These are the policies of bias, exclusion and unfairness. 

The second wave is the steady barrage coming from those who would call themselves moral leaders. Shielded behind lecterns, they assign condemnation with impunity. Claiming to be brimming with the love of their creator, they spew forth the cowardice of the mob. Fundamentalism, whether raining down terror abroad or in homilies from our home parishes, is the enemy. It is the death knell of tolerance, progress and compromise. Fundamentalism is, in all practicality, nothing but an invitation to bigotry. 

And thirdly, when we excuse homophobia as a matter of opinion instead of treating it as a destructive social illness, we invite fear to explode into violence. How often are the perpetrators of hate-crimes discovered to be self-loathing? Valued individuals do not strike out against strangers."

Read those words.

As usual, Fierstein is perfection.

Frank Rich, on LGBT history:

"As we just learned, a man can still be murdered for being gay a few blocks away from the Stonewall Inn. But the rapidity of change has been stunning. The world only spins forward, as Tony Kushner wrote. And yet as we celebrate the forward velocity of gay rights, I think we must glance backward as well. History is being lost in this shuffle—that of those gay men and women who experienced little or none of today’s freedoms. Whatever the other distinctions between the struggles of black Americans and gay Americans for equality under the law—starting with the overarching horror of slavery—one difference is intrinsic. Black people couldn’t (for the most part) hide their identity in an America that treated them cruelly. Gay people could hide and, out of self-protection, often did. That’s why their stories were cloaked in silence and are at risk of being forgotten."

Just a reminder that, in order to move forward, we need to look back, and honor and remember and celebrate those who planted their feet in resistance to discrimination; those who chose not to hide, but to step into the light and demand equality.

James Blake, hot American tennis player, on becoming an Athlete Ally in the fight against homophobia:

“I am proud to be affiliated with Athlete Ally because they do exceptional work that can actually make a difference in the sports world and beyond. Inclusion doesn't have to be a political issue, but more a human issue. As a mixed background person, I have been told I could be hated by both sides. I have always tried to look at it the opposite way as a positive that I could be accepted and included. I am extremely lucky and feel that everyone should have the feeling of acceptance.”

It’s right in there: inclusion is a human issue. It defies religion and faith and politics.

Read More