We want to magnify Christ, so no icky gay people.

The Larsens, youtube capture.

The Larsens, youtube capture.

Yet more smug, asshole Christians attempting “pre-emptive” litigation, in order to protect their hate and exclusionary choices. As the Larsens are the ones who want to break into the lucrative wedding market, perhaps they should reflect on the fact that they do have a choice – they can deny their greed and eschew wedding video services. But that’s never the case with Christians, is it? No, it’s always the standard whine of “we are being persecuted” whenever other people are given the same basic rights as all other human beings. Oh, yes, that’s just torture. FFS, whiny, nasty, greedy Xtians really are a stain on life in general.

KTSP reports on Carl and Angel Larsen of St. Cloud, Minnesota: married, devout Christians, who own Telescope Media Group, a film company that seeks to “magnify Christ like a telescope.” And despite the fact the law in the United States of America is that every man and woman has to right to marry whoever they choose, they object to laws protecting that right, claiming it discriminates against their religious beliefs.

Laws like Minnesota’s human rights act, which they have targeted in a lawsuit against the state attorney general and the commissioner of human rights. The Larsens tell KTSP, they want to expand their film company by breaking into the lucrative wedding services industry, but want to offer their videos to heterosexual couples only. They told the station no LGBT couple has ever tried to hire them, and claim their lawsuit is a pre-emptive action.

[…]

Kevin Lindsey, the human rights commissioner named in their lawsuit, called it “part of a pattern of nationwide litigation that is now aimed at eroding the rights of LGBTQ Minnesotans.”

The Star Tribune reported the Larsens are suing because the human rights act would force them into producing videos “promoting a conception of marriage that directly contradicts their religious beliefs.” They argue that their right to expression is being “chilled and silenced” by the state, preventing them from advertising their straights-only wedding at wedding expos and on websites.

Chilled and silenced my arse. You’re moaning about people having a basic right which you don’t like. It’s in the media, and you’re going to sue in order to cement your hate. You’re far from being silenced.

Of course, they aren’t doing this all on their own. They have the backing of a powerful right-wing conservative Christian group that fights for religious freedom around the world, the Alliance Defending Freedom. The Southern Poverty Law Center notes the ADF’s work is fanning the flames of antigay hatred globally in battles over transgender bathroom policies, marriage equality and contraception.

Of course they aren’t. The ADF is nothing but a hate group, bent on removing basic human rights from everyone they don’t like, and their dislike knows little boundaries.

Via LGBTQNation.

Ohio: ‘Heartbeat’ Abortion Ban Now Law.

USA-Pr0-Life and Pro-Choice advocates protest at the Supreme Court in Washington DC in anticipation of the Supreme Court ‘s ruling on free access to abortion. CREDIT: AP/Patsy Lynch.

USA-Pr0-Life and Pro-Choice advocates protest at the Supreme Court in Washington DC in anticipation of the Supreme Court ‘s ruling on free access to abortion. CREDIT: AP/Patsy Lynch.

Ohio lawmakers approved a bill that would ban abortions six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy on Tuesday, making it the most extreme abortion ban in the country. Six weeks is the point at which a fetal heartbeat can be detected. By calling this legislation a “heartbeat bill” anti-abortion lawmakers can take the focus away from the woman carrying the pregnancy and toward the fetus.

Legislators sneaked the anti-abortion language into a Senate bill addressing child abuse and neglect laws at the last minute on Monday. The House voted to approve the bill Tuesday night.

Anti-abortion group Ohio Right to Life previously said the bill would not stand up to a constitutional challenge. The U.S. Supreme Court blocked similar laws in North Dakota and Arkansas that criminalized abortion after six weeks and 12 weeks respectively, and the Ohio Senate previously didn’t act on the bill. But with a Donald Trump administration and a new Supreme Court justice in the near future, anti-abortion lawmakers like their chances, Cleveland.com reported.

“A new president, new Supreme Court appointees change the dynamic, and there was consensus in our caucus to move forward,” Republican Senate President Keith Faber said during the lame duck session, according to the Columbus Dispatch. “I think it has a better chance than it did before.”

I have never been happier to be well beyond any possibility of pregnancy, a state I’ve been in for well over a quarter century now. I truly fear for all those who do have to live with the possibility of pregnancy, and the obstacle course they are faced with if they decide on a termination. This is bad news, because if this doesn’t get overturned as the other cases have been, you can bet this legislation will be introduced once again, and not just in the states where it was previously tried.

Full story at Think Progress.

Stocking Stuffers.

og-sithrackfacts_2

Just a little reminder, if you’re looking for little goodies this Saturnalia, to delight your favourite atheist, happy hedonist, or religious relative, remember Oglaf!*** There are the fabulous tracts, or this nifty Sithrak pin, because you don’t want to go upsetting Sithrak, as he is an insane god for an unjust world:

og-sithrak-pin

as well as many other wonderful goodies. I hafta get that pin. Actually, Dear Santa, I would like the whole Oglaf store… The Oglaf store is here.

***If you are new to Oglaf, never heard of Oglaf, do not open link at work. Lots of naked people, lots and lots and lots of sexy fun times with fully visible genitalia, and a whole lot of irreverence, intelligence, and biting wit, so if you’re sensitive about that sort of thing, don’t click.

 

And A Very Merry to You, Ms. Bigot.

Lexi Magnusson of Seattle's Christmas lights display (Facebook.com)

Lexi Magnusson of Seattle’s Christmas lights display (Facebook.com)

Lexi Magnusson — who lives in a small town outside of Seattle — recently met her new neighbor, a woman who stated outright that she and her family had moved away from Oregon because schools there were “making it okay” for students to be openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

[…]

“She’s Mormon and heard that we were, too. My guess is that she thought we were still believers, even though my husband told her we no longer attend,” she told Huffington Post. “I imagine she thought we still held the same belief about LGBTQ issues as the Church does. We absolutely do not. It’s why I left the Mormon church.”

“I responded only with, ‘Your kids are going to be exposed to this no matter where you take them. Kids these days get it. They know not to be horrible to other kids based on how they were born,’” Magnusson recounted. “Then I walked inside [my house] and rage-ate a bowl of nachos.”

Magnusson then decided to decorate her lawn with a giant, glowing rainbow flag make of 10,000 Christmas lights.

“Our new neighbors are bigots,” she posted on Reddit. “Since regular aggression leads to assault charges, I went with passive aggression. 10,000 lights later.”

“I felt good the entire time I put them up,” she told HuffPost. “I sent a text to my cousin who loves Christmas lights like I do, and who is also gay. His approval was everything.”

You can read Ms. Magnusson’s FB post at the link. All I want to say here is thank you, Lexi Magnusson, you make this world a better, shining place.

NC: No Jobs for You!

Before choosing Richmond, Va., real estate research firm CoStar Group was looking to take space at the 615 South College office tower (center) currently under construction in uptown. Rick Rothacker rrothacker@charlotteobserver.com.

Before choosing Richmond, Va., real estate research firm CoStar Group was looking to take space at the 615 South College office tower (center) currently under construction in uptown. Rick Rothacker rrothacker@charlotteobserver.com.

While that hateful bigot McCrory still attempts to hang onto his lost office, and refuses to admit all the damage done to NC by HB 2, it has come to light that HB 2 was the reason for a loss of a 732 job expansion. Odd, how the repubs refuse to address these reasons for job losses. Hate, bad for business!

Newly obtained North Carolina Commerce Department documents show House Bill 2 was the primary reason Charlotte lost a 732-job business expansion to Richmond, Va.

A day after real estate research firm CoStar Group announced plans to expand in Virginia, a North Carolina economic development official closed out the project file and listed the controversial LGBT legislation approved March 23 as the deciding factor.

In an Oct. 25 email to state officials, Garrett Wyckoff, senior manager of business recruitment for the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, said he changed the status of the CoStar project to “Closed Lost.”

“It is my understanding that we lost the project. I have selected the following reason for this status change: Local issues,” Wyckoff wrote in an email obtained by the Observer through a public records request fulfilled Thursday. For further explanation, Wyckoff added: “Spring 2016 Legislation.”

The Charlotte Observer has the full story.

Sunday Facepalm.

stonewall-national-monument

Paul Hair, co-author of Hating Jesus: The American Left’s War on Christianity, is a wee bit upset over some confederate statues being dismantled and moved.

Reuters reported on Nov. 19 that Louisville, Ky. began dismantling a Confederate monument for removal to a different location. The dismantling of the monument is part of the progressive campaign to destroy all reminders of the Confederacy. This campaign, in turn, is part of the larger effort to demonize and destroy all of U.S. culture.

Oh my, all of American culture is gonna disappear, oh no! Just once, I’d dearly like a specific, clear definition of what constitutes U.S. Culture. Genocidal Bigotry, check. Religious fanaticism, check. Religious terrorism, check. Slavery worshiped as a beloved tradition, check. White supremacy, check. Fanatical fetishisizing weaponry, check.  Okay, what else?

None of those things are anything to be proud of, they should be national embarrassments, but noooo, those are the good things, the moral things, oh my yes! Ugh.

Demonizing and destroying American culture includes elevating evil. This is why the Obama regime honored sodomy by designating the Stonewall National Monument in June of this year.

I have never know anyone to obsess on genitalia and all the things one might do with said genitalia like hetro Christians. Isn’t it bad enough that you all have a massive porn consumption problem? Couldn’t you focus on the problems with your own genitals and leave everyone else’s alone? Or perhaps you could try actually having fun with your equipment, might loosen you up a bit, make you happy for five minutes or something. Queer people are not evil, sex is not evil, and saving Stonewall has absolutely nothing to do with sex, you dimwit. I expect you know that, too, it just burns like crazy though, doesn’t it, having a monument to a time of great social change, wherein the majority of people decided to elevate their minds and hearts, and become inclusive, better human beings. Christians just hate that sort of thing, I know. I shall squeeze a tear out for you, Paul. It won’t be genuine, mind, but I doubt you’d care.

There already is a movement urging the incoming Trump administration to undo the Obama regime’s massive land grab. That land grab included designating the Stonewall Inn and many other areas of land as parts of national monuments.

Oh, you’re one to talk about a land grab, you genocidal believer in Christian Dominionism. That wasn’t a “land grab” it was a desperate attempt to save some small portion of our mother, our source of life, y’know, the planet we’re on. We only get one, and it didn’t come from any god, and there sure as hell isn’t any god pointing a cosmic finger and healing all the damage idiots like you are doing, and intent on doing yet more. Some of us think that things like the richness of family, friends, community, and a healthy eco-system which sustains and gives life are more important than a select handful of white assholes who think there can never ever be enough money or power in their pocket.

As for a “regime”, no there hasn’t been one of those yet, but you’re fair dripping at the one looming on the horizon, aren’t you? Disgusting.

There’s no reason those objecting to America honoring sodomy couldn’t join the larger movement to undo all the national monuments Obama designated at large. And if that effort proves successful, it then would make it possible to destroy the Stonewall Inn and wipe out its stain on American history.

A stain on American history. I rather think that white Christian colonials were (and are) a stain on Turtle Island, and on Turtle Island history. Perhaps it’s time for a different movement, one to dismantle, bit by bit, every single fucking church on Turtle Island. All of them, gotta go. You stand for every evil, for every single one of your so-called sins. That’s a stain that needs scrubbing out.

Source.

No Gay at Grandma’s Funeral!

Connor Hakes (Facebook)

Connor Hakes (Facebook).

Connor Hakes, 23, asked to perform at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church after learning of his grandmother’s death on Nov. 21.

Hakes says he and his family have been longtime members of the parish, so he was saddened when Father Bob J. Lengerich denied his request in a lengthy letter that has since been made public. [Can be viewed at the linked article.]

In the letter, Lengerich said he was concerned that Hakes was living a same-sex lifestyle and openly advocating for LGBT rights.

“Anytime someone sins and then acts in the name of God, it causes scandal,” said Lengerich. “This is the main reason why you cannot (at this time) offer your gifts in service at St. Mary’s.”

The letter goes on to say that any person who serves in the church or as a representative of the church must uphold the church’s values.

The church suggested Hakes should perform his tribute outside of the church, saying “you are more than welcome to honor your Grandmother with a special tribute in song as long as it is outside of the Mass and outside of the Church, perhaps at the Funeral Home or Parish Hall during the viewing, at the cemetery after the committal and/or even at the luncheon.”

Hakes, who studied singing at Indiana University, says he’s performed at the church for several years, but he wasn’t surprised by Lengerich’s response.

“It was very clear that he had judged me and formed and opinion about me,” said Hakes. “There was no reason to believe I would be changing his mind.”

Hakes says the church’s decision was partly based on a photo that was posted on Facebook last year, which shows him attending a gay pride rally with friends.

Hakes says he believes his grandparents would be “disgusted” by the church’s decision.

“Their compassion and empathy was abundant, no matter who you were,” said Hakes. “They saw beyond race, religion, sexuality, and social class. They loved everyone. That is what it means to be a Christian. That is what it means to be Catholic.”

The church has responded with their usual mealy mouthed nothingness. It would be a bit more on point if they whacked their parish priest over the head with the need for actual morals. Oh wait…yeah, that won’t happen.

Full story here.

Joy in Comments.

James Charles.

James Charles.

It’s a good way to start a day when you can take joy in comments, where you get to see people standing up against bigotry, fear and hate. Cover Girl recently featured their first male model, James Charles.

When 17-year-old James Charles was named the first male ambassador for CoverGirl this month, the company’s message was simple: “All of our CoverGirls are role models and boundary-breakers, fearlessly expressing themselves, standing up for what they believe and redefining what it means to be beautiful,” the makeup brand said in a press release. “James Charles is no exception.”

Mr. Charles is gorgeous, and no doubt has quite the career in front of him. There always has to be someone though, who just has to have a near heart attack about it all. In this case, a mother of a six year old, who wrote a long, hand-wringing screed on the awful at Homeschool Base. Outside of a bible thumper or two, the comments were filled with people who made one excellent point after another, many of them pointing out that answering the question of “why doesn’t daddy wear make-up?” being the easiest ever: “because he doesn’t want to.” Generally speaking, most children don’t have trouble happily accepting such things, and then they won’t be concerned about who wears cosmetics, because some people like to, and some people don’t. Of course, that wasn’t the problem troubled mom was worried about. It’s danced all around, but of course, the main worry is “oh god, what if my 6 year old son wants to try make-up?” To which, my answer would be “let him.” On with the screed!

Mommy, why doesn’t daddy wear makeup?

This is the question my 6-year-old asked me on Friday afternoon. We were watching Countdown to Christmas on ABC, and a commercial came up in between watching Toy Story.

A commercial for mascara.

[Read more…]

McCrory, Please, Just Leave.

Credit: Youtube.

Credit: Youtube.

Pat McCrory has been hanging onto his office like grim death, refusing to believe that voters want his sorry arse out of office and gone. It’s voter fraud! It’s every conspiracy in the world! I won’t leave! I’m afraid his toddler act is beyond tiresome at this point, and it’s quite clear it’s tiresome to everyone else, too.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections Monday issued an order dismissing keys election protests from Gov. Pat McCrory’s campaign, dealing a harsh blow to the incumbent governor’s hope for reelection.

ABC 11 reports the decision affects 52 counties where Republicans filed protests alleging people were ineligible to vote. The board of elections instructed those counties to dismiss any protest that “merely disputes the eligibility of a voter.”

McCrory’s challenger Roy Cooper called the decision a “devastating blow” to the incumbent governor’s campaign. Cooper currently leads McCrory by over 9,000 votes.

So, McCrory, get the bloody message already, please. Exhibit a bit of maturity for a change. No one wants a governor, not even a former governor who does nothing but have one juvenile tantrum after another. Via Raw Story.

South Dakota: Ramping Up the Transgender Hate.

Trans man Terri Bruce helping deliver petitions against the anti-transgender bill back in February. CREDIT: AP Photo/James Nord.

Trans man Terri Bruce helping deliver petitions against the anti-transgender bill back in February. CREDIT: AP Photo/James Nord.

Earlier this year, Gov. Dennis Daugaard vetoed a hateful anti-trans bill after meeting with some transgender people. In that case, face time worked, and it worked well. Unfortunately, bigots are never content to give up on their irrational hatred and fear, and insist on a foundation of outright lies.

After North Carolina stole the spotlight last year with its passage of HB2, it’s easy to forget that 2016 started with a fierce debate about transgender rights in South Dakota. Though a bill to require discrimination ultimately lost to a veto, the state clearly isn’t done trying to ban trans students from the bathrooms that match their gender identity.

Jack Heyd, a Republican man living in Box Elder, South Dakota, has filed a ballot initiative that is almost an exact copy of the bill that failed to become law this past year. It dictates that all public schools would have to define sex as “the physical condition of being male or female as determined by a person’s chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth.” Trans students would not be allowed to use facilities that match their gender identity; the only accommodations that would be allowed would be to segregate them to single-occupancy restrooms, unisex restrooms, or facilities to which faculty members hold a key.

Heyd, who founded the Committee to Ensure Student Privacy to support his efforts, explained that he thinks allowing trans students to use facilities with other students is unsafe and “opens privacy up beyond any reasonable measure.” He worries about people going into restrooms for “nefarious” reasons.

Oh, those nefarious reasons! Christ, I am so tired of the obfuscation, bullshit, and outright lies, and that’s nothing compared to what transgender persons are feeling or going through at any given moment. I’m also tired of pointing this out, but once again: ever since public lavs were segregated, which was not that long ago, there’s been absolutely nothing stopping anyone from going into one, whether their gender appeared to match the sign on the door or not. I’ve been in both, more than once, it’s a bloody lav, who cares? (When you’re having a long thirsty night at your local gay bar, really, no one much cares where you go, as long as you make an effort to actually get to a toilet first.) I might add that no one has been particularly concerned about that, for decade upon decade upon decade, and no, transgender people aren’t a brand new thing. People I know who are transgender are just like other people, well, decent people anyway, and just want to be able to do all the things people do, including being able to go into a public lav to conduct private business without finding themselves in fear of their lives. All this hate legislation is, is a call to make transgender people live in fear every single day of their lives, just in order to make a bunch of assholes, usually so-called Christians, happy and smug in their “godly” hate.

There is zero truth to the idea that transgender people put anyone at risk in public lavs. Don’t want to read? Then listen:

A rapist will rape, and generally speaking, rapists take the path of least resistance. You aren’t going to find rapists leaping out of the proverbial bushes, spending a ton of money on wardrobe, cosmetic procedures, and figuring out how to do their make up just so, in order to waltz into a public lav and do harm. Why in the fuck would they? All they have to do is walk right in. I’ll also point out that public lavs are not popular places for rape or sexual assault. It’s always interesting that the hate brigade focuses on people who might have penises going into the womens’ lav. No one much seems to care about transgender men in mens’ lav. If you really really want to be safe, your best bet is to bar heterosexual men from all public lavs forever. Funny how that legislation never comes up.

As someone who is often in genderfluid dress, I’m not comfortable with some smug asshole deciding what gender I am, or what I may or may not be packing under my clothes. That’s my business, and when I’m in a public lav, I go into a stall, conduct my business, and leave. Why in the hell anyone else thinks they have a right to go poking about, I don’t know. People come in all shapes, sizes, looks, and we all dress in different ways. Seriously, there’s just no way to be sure – so how about everyone has to strip naked in front of all public lavs from now on? Or maybe everyone has to have a karyotype card, and you better hope you aren’t one of the ones with an interesting chromosomal arrangement, because those happen a lot, and you might find yourself a decidedly different gender than you thought you were, and no, of course it won’t matter if you insist you’re a specific gender. How on earth would you know that, after all, it’s down to your chromosomes, right? Oh, and you smug haters get to pay for all the karyotype analyses which will be required.

Or maybe all those smug, hateful assholes could just stop. Stop spreading filthy lies, stop hating, stop being in love with irrational fears. Maybe we could all get some serious good lavatory design going on, go completely inclusive – stalls for everyone! Along with basic societal politeness, which would dictate you don’t get overly nosy about people who are in a public lav for the same reasons you are.

All you sDakotans with good sense, gear up for the fight, it’s on again. Let’s not let the assholes win, okay?

Full story at Think Progress.

Sunday Facepalm: The Big Edition.

Ricky Berry -- WATE screenshot.

Ricky Berry — WATE screenshot.

You go away for a few days, and there’s a rising tide of stupid everywhere. We’ll start with sliced cheese, which as everyone knows, is scary stuff. Maybe not quite this scary, though…

What began as a spontaneous trip to the store ended up being one of the most bizarre experiences of Ricky Berry’s life.

He and his roommate went to purchase cheese and ended up having the police called on them.

Berry and his roommate said they walked into the CVS in Carytown and asked an employee if they sold sliced cheese. The worker kindly replied that they did not.

A few minutes later, the employee — all of the store employees, in fact — were nowhere to be found. Berry and his roommate, Philip Blackwell, said they were in the store with another customer for more than 30 minutes alone before an officer with the Richmond Police Department showed up.

[Read more…]

Meet An Electoral College Voter.

Montana elector Dennis Scranton, center, poses with Rep. Ryan Zinke, left, Harrison Fagg and Sen. Steve Daines.

Montana elector Dennis Scranton, center, poses with Rep. Ryan Zinke, left, Harrison Fagg and Sen. Steve Daines.

BILLINGS — A 92-year-old Miles City man, who will be casting one of Montana’s three electoral college votes, has come under fire for his Facebook comments against gay Montanans.

Dennis Scranton was outed Sunday by the online news site Last Best News for suggesting in a 2010 Facebook conversation that gay people should be hanged. The conversation about gay marriage was reported in The Billings Gazette seven years ago when it cost former Big Sky Tea Party Association leader Tim Ravndal his chairmanship.

Ravndal was commenting on a Billings Gazette article concerning an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit about same-sex couples. In the post, Ravendal wrote “marriage between a man and a woman period!”

Scranton responded to the Tea Party leader’s remark, saying, “I think fruits are decorative. Hang up where they can be seen and appreciated. Call Wyoming for display instructions.” The Wyoming mention was an apparent reference to Matthew Shepard, a gay university student who as beaten, bound to a fence post and left for dead outside Laramie in 1998.

[…]

But, Scranton didn’t back away from his opinion about gay Montanans.

“Don’t forget, I’m 93 years old. I come from a different era. I hadn’t heard of anyone being homosexual until I joined the Navy, and then I encountered them,” Scranton said. “We were raised with good morals.”

You can read the rest here. I’m going to go be sick.

Well, that didn’t help. Here are a couple more wonderful Trump fans:

[Read more…]

A Fiery Attack on Gender Norms: Cassils.

The Creators Project meets with personal trainer-turned-performance artist Cassils, who uses the body as a form of social sculpture, examining strength, violence, power, and vulnerability by testing the limits of endurance and empathy. With a focus on physicality and a continual process of “becoming” through this powerful imagery, Cassils challenges deep-seated notions of gender binaries and is physically changing the landscape of contemporary art as we know it. The artist considers the human body as a raw sculptural material that can be transformed by strict physical training regimes and captures the metamorphosis through photography and video. In Cassils’ latest live performance, Becoming An Image, the artist physically attacks a 2,000 pound clay block, delivering an emotive and forceful display of the human will.

For more info on upcoming Cassils performances, click here.

Via The Creators Project.