Transcript index

Transcripts of my YouTube videos.

Other transcripts are available on request.

A video about Islam!

In case you haven’t been watching, I’ve made a number of videos about religion, and Christianity in particular. And one of the most intriguing responses I’ve received from Christians is when they say, “Why don’t you make a video about Islam?” Well, is it any surprise that I would address the most common and influential …

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Absence of evidence or evidence of absence?

When people have pointed out the complete lack of evidence for certain claims, such as the existence of gods, others have responded that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. But is that always the case? One of the reasons why it’s a rather weak objection is that there are countless claims for …

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Anti-sex idiocy from the Australian Christian Lobby

The Queensland Association for Healthy Communities is a non-profit organization that promotes sexual health among LGBT Australians. As part of their government-funded HIV prevention efforts, they’ve created a series of advertisements encouraging the use of condoms. One of these ads was recently subject to a protest by the Australian Christian Lobby, resulting in its removal …

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Are atheists “angry at God”?

People have sometimes tried to discredit atheists by claiming that they’re just “angry at God”. It’s meant to dismiss nonbelief as merely a personal issue of sorts, something that’s the result of a bad experience or a bad attitude. Apparently it just isn’t possible for someone to genuinely not believe in a god – as …

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Backwards fetishistic legal idiocy

Recently, TV host Salwa al Mutairi came up with an interesting suggestion for how Muslim men could be protected from the temptation to commit adultery. According to Mutairi, who once ran for parliament in Kuwait, they should be allowed to purchase women and keep them as sex slaves. Under her interpretation of Islamic law, this …

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But I like calling things gay!

So, it’s become pretty common nowadays for people to call something “gay” when they think it’s bad. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that not everyone is okay with that. But it seems like calling things “gay” is so important, an entire assortment of defenses has sprung up to explain why this isn’t a …

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Catholic bishops: Let federal housing programs evict gay people for God!

This January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a regulation to prohibit discrimination in HUD programs on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status. Under the new rule, FHA-insured mortgage lenders would not be allowed to take a borrower’s sexual orientation or gender identity into account when deciding their eligibility. …

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Christian conservatives and Islamic terrorists: Two of a kind?

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks, President Bush and other conservatives were often heard to claim that Islamic terrorists attack the United States “because they hate our freedom”. While their perspective was widely criticized for being overly simplistic and ignorant of the real motivations of terrorists, some conservative Christians took it even …

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Coming out… again!

Most coming out stories tend to follow a certain pattern. There comes a time, usually at a young age, when someone notices that they’re a little different: they have some feelings that most other people don’t have. Eventually, they put the pieces together and come to understand what this means. They realize that they’re gay, …

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End of civilization, blah blah blah

Coming off the recent gay marriage victory in New York, perennial doomsayer Pat Robertson had some choice words for America. Recounting the story of Sodom being destroyed by God for trying to rape angels, he claims that “There isn’t one single civilization that has survived that openly embraced homosexuality.” Meanwhile, marriage opponent Maggie Gallagher says …

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Footprints

There’s a well-known Christian allegory about a man walking along a beach with God. As they’re walking together, he looks up and watches as scenes from his life flash across the sky. In every scene, he sees footprints in the sand. Sometimes there are two sets of footprints, his and God’s, but sometimes there’s only …

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Fox News: Nail polish on boys = END OF THE WORLD

A recent J.Crew catalog featured creative director Jenna Lyons and her young son, whose toenails were painted neon pink. Naturally, this was the cue for all hell to break loose. A boy, wearing nail polish? This is a big deal! Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist writing for Fox News, suggests that her son may need …

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Fox reporter: Gay characters on TV are “product placement”

This Tuesday, Fox’s Houston affiliate ran a news segment about Glee, asking “Is TV Too Gay?” Now what exactly is that supposed to mean? Let’s find out! Fox anchor Damali Keith reported that so-called family values groups have taken issue with the show because it “delves too much into homosexual relationships.” First of all, these …

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General Mills caves to anti-gay group, pulls ads from Pretty Little Liars

The Florida Family Association is one of those groups whose purpose can be entirely divined from the words “family association”. They’re the kind of folks who literally hire airplanes to fly around Disney World and warn about gay people. (Yes, this actually happened.) So it comes as no surprise that they would take issue with …

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General Mills responds re: Pretty Little Liars

After the Florida Family Association claimed that General Mills pulled their ads from the ABC Family show Pretty Little Liars because it has lesbian characters, many people wrote in to demand an explanation. And, thanks to your efforts, they’ve now issued a clarification. In a statement on their blog, General Mills claims that the Florida …

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Hypocrisy has its benefits

In the course of explaining certain moral positions people take, such as the idea that abortion is wrong because it’s murder, or that gay people should be celibate because nobody should have sex before marriage, it’s often said that these people are just being consistent with their beliefs. And while that’s certainly an explanation, it’s …

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I am not a symptom

The first person I ever came out to asked me if I had been raped as a child. Like that was just the most natural question to ask. I quickly learned that when you’re not straight, you simply can’t let people find out if you’ve ever had any difficulties growing up. Because you know what …

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I can’t wait for this Rapture!

End times predictions have always been a lot of fun. For most of my childhood, I thought the world would be destroyed on May 5, 2000 because of a certain book that’s not selling very well nowadays. Of course, when May 5 came and the world didn’t tip over and spill Antarctic ice everywhere, I …

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I don’t care what you think of pride parades

You know what’s really getting old? People complaining about gay pride parades. Of course it’s understandable if it’s just not your kind of thing – it’s not for everyone. But some people go even further than that. Hardly a day goes by without someone offering their opinion that pride parades are so terrible, they must …

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Idiot rabbi blames gays for child murder

New York rabbi Yehuda Levin has made himself into a rather notorious figure on issues of gay rights. From claiming that “the practice of homosexuality is a spiritual cause of earthquakes”, to promising bloodshed at a pride parade in Jerusalem, to calling gay people “literally moral terrorists” who provoked the Biblical flood, he’s quite a …

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Justin Bieber on rape: “Everything happens for a reason”

In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, Justin Bieber was interviewed about his career, his relationships, and his personal beliefs. When asked about his views on abortion, specifically in the case of rape, he was quoted as saying, “Well, I think that’s really sad, but everything happens for a reason.” To his credit, he went …

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Minority burden

When you happen to be left out of a dominant majority group, if you’re a feminist, gay, transgender, disabled, a person of color, an atheist or another religious minority, you really can’t help but notice how many unreasonable things are expected of you. It comes with a countless array of indignities that hardly anyone in …

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National Organization for Ingesting Urine and Feces

The Minnesota House and Senate recently approved a referendum on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The question would go to the ballot 18 months from now in 2012. The state already prohibits gay marriage by statute, but proponents of the amendment claim this is necessary to prevent the law from ever being overturned …

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Nope, still not a symptom

So, it seems that I’ve profaned the most sacred relic of heterosupremacism: the belief that straight people must have a greater claim to normalcy, and the rest of us can’t have it. It’s clear that questioning this assumption is crossing a serious line for some people. As if we needed any further indication that this …

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Parade of Horribles

Every year during Pride Month, we all get to hear from the people who denounce it as an outrageous display of sexual licentiousness, drunken revelry and public immorality that shames us all. And no, I don’t mean Christian conservatives. I’m talking about the victim-blaming, self-recriminating concern trolls who can’t help but preach about the evils …

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Pseudo-tolerance, or “Fast food vs. equality”

The economist John Kenneth Galbraith once wrote, “Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.” I recently had the chance to witness this firsthand. On the social news site reddit.com, a story was posted about Chick-fil-A and their …

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Ryan Fattman’s law and disorder

Recently, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick refused to allow the state to participate in the federal Secure Communities deportation program. Under the program, state and local authorities are integrated with the Department of Homeland Security to check the immigration status of everyone who is arrested. While the program is intended to deport criminals, many of the …

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So how do you know they’re guilty?

Following the recent trial and acquittal of Casey Anthony on charges of murder, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell has taken the opportunity to argue against the use of civilian courts for trials of suspected terrorists. Speaking to Fox News, Senator McConnell said, “We just found with the Caylee Anthony case how difficult it is to get …

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Taking pride in Pride

People have sometimes asked why there are gay pride events, when there aren’t any sort of corresponding “straight pride” events. Some have even wondered why anyone would take pride in something that they weren’t responsible for. And that’s a good question. But the idea of pride isn’t meant to treat being gay, or straight, as …

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Teaching gay marriage in schools?

Nowadays, whenever a state is about to vote on gay marriage, anti-gay political groups will always use one very special tactic: They tell people that if gay marriage is legal, then their children will be taught about gay marriage in school. They do this because it works for them. It’s a homophobic dog whistle that …

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The “please stop” utility exploit

On the webcomic Hyperbole and a Half, there was once a story called “Please Stop”. As children, the author and her classmates made a game of gathering in a circle and beating someone with a stick. They found it to be great fun, provided you weren’t the one in the middle of it all. Soon, …

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The non-paradox of tolerance

People who advocate for tolerance on certain issues are often faced with the accusation that they themselves are intolerant towards those who oppose such tolerance. For instance, a group that’s fighting for their basic equal rights may be told that they’re failing to tolerate the people who are against their rights. In most cases, this …

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The pursuit of technological immortality

There have been a few times when I’ve suggested that an indefinite lifespan could be possible through technological development, and moreover, that this is something worth pursuing. To be clear, this is not at all reliant upon magic, any concept of an afterlife, or the existence of supernatural phenomena. It’s fully within the realm of …

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The shifting boundaries of prejudice

When arguing against gay marriage, opponents of equality must base their position on something more than simple prejudice. Both legally and morally, the exclusion of gay couples from marriage cannot be rooted solely in the desire to see them treated unequally. Recognizing this fact, they attempt to offer reasons why rejecting gay couples is merely …

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The Singularity: A problem to solve, to solve more problems

There are a lot of questions facing our world today, and many more that we’ll be faced with in the future. What are we going to do about famine, poverty, disease, overpopulation, and our growing energy needs? Will we be able to manage the changing climate of our planet? How does human consciousness work? What …

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The value of anonymity: a message to Randi Zuckerberg

At a recent panel hosted by the esteemed IT journal Marie Claire, Facebook marketing director Randi Zuckerberg said, “I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away. … People behave a lot better when they have their real names down. … I think people hide behind anonymity and they feel like they can say …

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Trans disclosure? We can get into that

In one of my recent videos, I proposed something that is perhaps the most controversial thing I have ever said. Briefly, I suggested that post-op trans women are not always obligated to disclose the fact that they’re trans to a prospective partner, including prior to sex. Judging from the responses to this idea, it’s clear …

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Trans ignorance (for SkidRowRadio)

Hi, SkidRowRadio. As you know, I’m not transgender, so I may not be qualified to talk about this. But I do have a platform, and there’s a lot that needs to be clarified here. You seem to think that people transition due to being uncomfortable with the social gender role they’ve been expected to perform, …

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Update: Minnesota Family Council scrubs vile lies from website

So it’s been a few days now, and there’s still no answer from the National Organization for Marriage about their stance on the ridiculous claims made by the Minnesota Family Council. However, the day after I emailed Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown to ask them about this, I found that these files had now been …

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Warning: Gay people everywhere!

For the past 20 years, an unofficial “Gay Day” has been organized at Disney World. The idea is quite simple: Tens of thousands of gay people put on red shirts and show up at Disney World on the same day. It’s a way for them to be visible and create a more comfortable environment for …

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Why not immortality?

After my last video about the potential use of technology to ensure human immortality, there were some people who offered their views on why this might not be such a good idea. A few of them pointed out that literal immortality may not actually be possible, and for reasons of cosmology, thermodynamics, and so on, …

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Zinnia advisory: Please update your invective

I don’t know if some people just aren’t paying attention, but in case you haven’t been listening, I’m a lesbian. Apparently not everyone got the memo, because I still get plenty of comments that are based on the assumption that I’m gay. And I am – just gay in the other direction. So when someone …

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:)