I didn’t call you a nasty name!

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This church sign in Buford, GA, received publicity several days ago, now it’s been vandalized. I don’t agree with vandalizing the sign, although I certainly understand the impulse, especially when this sort of reasoning rears its head:

Wright, who said he didn’t regret displaying the message, questioned what the vandal was mad about because he said gays and transgender people weren’t called a “nasty name.”

So, the intense nastiness and ugliness of the message doesn’t matter at all, because no nasty names. No cussing. Never heard that one before, oh no. :colossal eyeroll:  Wright also denied that the sign could be a tool of hatred, as it wasn’t based in hatred at all. Nope, no hatred, just the biblical facts, ma’am.

“If you are transgendered or gay, your lifestyle is sinful, that’s a moral thing,” he said. “It’s a perversion again nature. … That’s your lifestyle and you’re trying to force it. This part of society is not going to be forced on.”

Wright added that Christians need to stand up for what’s in the Bible instead of being politically correct. He said he’s spoken out against President Barack Obama’s views on marriage and the recent statement about gender identity in school restrooms.

So, it’s a moral thing, it’s a perversion, it’s just a lifestyle. An immoral, perverted one, of course. But no hate, no. As Georgia Voice pointed out, Wright added his little silverish lining:

Wright expressed he doesn’t expect everyone to agree with him, but that LGBT individuals are still welcomed to attend service at his church.

“The church is open for service. They’re invited in,” he said.

Which goes right back to what Zack Ford was saying in No, We Cannot Weep Together. These so-called invitations are an absolute crock which seek only to utterly erase our lives.

Via GwinnettDaily and Georgia Voice.

North Carolina LGBT law protesters reunite for Orlando.

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Participants attend a Moral Monday rally near the North Carolina Legislature in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, June 20, 2016. Victims of violence including the recent Orlando shooting and the Charleston shooting were honored during the rally. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Opponents of North Carolina’s new law limiting antidiscrimination protections for LGBT people have reunited to mourn the victims of the shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub that killed 49 people and condemn state policies they say are responsible for furthering bigotry nationwide.

The state NAACP held a vigil “against hate and discrimination” late Monday in Raleigh on the Bicentennial Mall between the offices of Gov. Pat McCrory and the General Assembly building.

“We are one humanity, and we will not be divided by hate and discrimination and violence — not in Florida, not in North Carolina, not in America, not in this world,” state NAACP president the Rev. William Barber said.

The state’s law preventing local governments from passing LGBT anti-discrimination protections and directing which bathrooms transgender people can use has transformed North Carolina into the epicenter for the national discussion on LGBT rights. Serena Sebring of LGBT advocacy group Southerners on New Ground said the Orlando shooting was an extension of the same fight.

“Homegrown terrorism in this county is not new, and it is fueled by bigoted leaders and institutions of the far right, including the architects and supporters of House Bill 2, who put a target on our people’s backs,” Sebring said. “We know that we are relentlessly under attack at the hands of these entities just for daring to live our lives.”

Serena Sebring is absolutely right. This is domestic terrorism, American terrorism, committed by Americans. People need to face that, whether or not they like it. All of us queer folk, we’re surrounded by people who have a serious problem with our existence, let alone us having the same rights as everyone else. The particular ideology behind queerphobia isn’t all that important, whether it’s being shored up by Abrahamaic based religions or bullshit secular reasons doesn’t matter – it all comes down to hate and fear, hate and fear which is being fomented and exploited by a multitude of individuals and groups. These people don’t care if there’s someone out there messed up enough to start killing – for too many, that’s actually seen as a good thing. Right now, Americans are faced with a distinctly American problem, and it’s time to focus on that fact.

Via Fredericksburg.com.

Alchemy: Into Flesh.

Japan-based, Chinese designer Leonard Wong creates his latest collection and accompanying fashion video, both named Alchemy. In stark monochrome, the Alchemy video features ferrofluid-like orbs that morph and transform into human figures, namely performance artist Sylvia Lajbig and dancer duo AyaBambi.

Alchemy: Into Flesh:

A mesmerizing video, to say the least. For those of you at work, have a care, this opens with a nude person, however, it’s not graphic. After being mesmerized, I visited Leonard Wong’s site, and oh…well, if I could afford designer clothes, I’d find myself buying most of the lot, both from the collection, and the experimental – particularly the overthrowing tradition pieces. Fabulous! You can read more about Leonard Wong and this current collection at The Creators Project. If you do watch the video, I recommend full screen.

No, We Cannot Weep Together.

CREDIT: AP Photo/Matt Rourke

CREDIT: AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Zack Ford at Think Progress has an excellent article about the religious response and reaction to Orlando. I’m just going to include the last bit here:

Seek First To Understand

The LGBT community will not heal quickly from the Orlando shooting, and will be scarred for quite some time thereafter. Moore concluded his piece saying, “We can remind ourselves and our neighbors that this is not the way it is supposed to be.” If people who share Moore’s beliefs reach out to their LGBT neighbors now or in the future, they should consider that what they want us to feel might not be the same as what we actually hear.

If you want us to feel love, then do not tell us our sexuality is wrong or that the only way to be right is to be celibate. What we hear is actually that we are unworthy of love.

If you want us to feel equal, then do not try to justify refusing us jobs, housing, or goods and services in the name of your religious beliefs. What we hear is that we deserve to be treated as second-class citizens.

If you want us to feel community, then do not tell us that you cannot condone our marriages. What we hear is that our families are not welcome to share a neighborhood with yours.

If you want us to feel dignity, then do not tell us that we cannot be transgender or try to tell us what bathrooms we can or cannot use. What we hear is that you aren’t actually interested or invested in understanding who we are or supporting our wellness.

If you want us to feel safe, then do not accuse us of politicizing this tragedy by broaching the issue of new gun violence prevention measures. What we hear is that we should just ignore the one thing that has ever been proven to reduce gun violence and permanently accept the fear that this shooting has instilled in us.

And if you want us to feel hope, do not encourage us to demonize Islam or pass the blame onto terrorism. What we hear is that the only way to heal as victims is to victimize others — that the only way to respond to intolerance is with more intolerance.

There may come a day when we can weep together. In the meantime, sympathy without affirmation rings hollow; it is unworthy of our gratitude.

That not only needed to be said, it should be put up, proclamation style, everywhere. Particularly on church doors. The full article is here.

Top 1% Accountability Act.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI)

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI)

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) has had enough of the growing movement to drug test poor people who need government assistance. So on Tuesday, she’s introducing a bill that she says will make things fairer.

Her “Top 1% Accountability Act” would require anyone claiming itemized tax deductions of over $150,000 in a given year to submit a clean drug test. If a filer doesn’t submit a clean test within three months of filing, he won’t be able to take advantage of tax deductions like the mortgage interest deduction or health insurance tax breaks. Instead he would have to make use of the standard deduction.

Her office has calculated that the people impacted will be those who make at least $500,000 a year. “By drug testing those with itemized deductions over $150,000, this bill will level the playing field for drug testing people who are the recipients of social programs,” a memo on her bill notes.

Moore has a personal stake in the fight. “I am a former welfare recipient,” she explained. “I’ve used food stamps, I’ve received Aid for Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid, Head Start for my kids, Title XX daycare [subsidies]. I’m truly grateful for the social safety net.”

Ten states require applicants to their cash welfare programs to undergo a drug test. States are currently barred from implementing drug testing for the food stamps program, but Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has sued the federal government to allow him to do so and has gotten some Congressional Republican support.

Moore has been frustrated to witness attempts to tie those who avail themselves of the safety net to drug use. “Republicans continue to criminalize poverty and to put forward the narrative, the false narrative in fact, that people who are poor and reliant upon the social safety net are drug users,” she said.

In fact, evidence from test results among states that test welfare recipients indicates that they are no more likely to use drugs than the general population — in fact, they may be less likely.

That didn’t stop House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) from using a drug rehab center as the backdrop while he unveiled his poverty plan last week. “I think this is what tipped me over the edge,” Moore said, “rolling out his poverty initiative in front of a drug treatment program to sort of drive that false narrative forward.”

[…]

Her bill will also help illuminate this very fact: that so much is spent on tax expenditures, not just on direct aid programs like welfare and food stamps. “We think it’s important to engage in some transparency and accountability around tax deductions,” she said.

[…]

She also wants to “engage the wealthy in this poverty debate,” she said. “I would love to see some hedge fund manager on Wall Street who might be sniffing a little cocaine here and there to stay awake realize that he can’t get his $150,000 worth of deductions unless he submits to a drug test.”

You go, Rep. Moore! I am all for this, even though this would be one tiny bit of accountability on the part of the filthy rich. Any accountability is better than none. As someone who gets the pleasure of the regular humiliation of drug tests, it would be nice to see the rich unable to dodge this little test the rest of us get hit with for the most basic things. There’s much more at Think Progress.