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Posts tagged LGBT Rights

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“They Won’t Magically Turn You Into A Lustful Cockmonster”: Chris Kluwe Explains Gay Marriage To The Politician Who Is Offended By An NFL Player Supporting It

cognitivedissonance:

This is the best thing I’ve seen all day. From Deadspin:

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo has spoken out in favor of a Maryland ballot initiative that would legalize gay marriage. Yahoo has published a letter that Maryland state delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr. wrote last week to Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, urging him to “inhibit such expressions from your employee.” This is Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe’s response to Burns.

An excerpt of his response:

This is more a personal quibble of mine, but why do you hate freedom? Why do you hate the fact that other people want a chance to live their lives and be happy, even though they may believe in something different than you, or act different than you? How does gay marriage, in any way shape or form, affect your life? If gay marriage becomes legal, are you worried that all of a sudden you’ll start thinking about penis? “Oh shit. Gay marriage just passed. Gotta get me some of that hot dong action!” Will all of your friends suddenly turn gay and refuse to come to your Sunday Ticket grill-outs? (Unlikely, since gay people enjoy watching football too.)

For Chris Kluwe:

Filed under LGBT Rights reblogged

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Well, that calling for the boycott is a real — has a chilling effect on our 1st Amendment rights. And the owner of the Chick-fil-A business had merely voiced his personal opinion about supporting traditional definition of marriage, one boy, one girl, falling in love, getting married. And having voiced support for kind of that cornerstone of all civilization and all religions since the beginning of time, he then basically [is] getting crucified.

I’m speaking up for him and his 1st Amendment rights and anybody else who would wish to express their not anti-gay people sentiment, but their support of traditional marriage, which President Obama and Joe Biden, they both supported the exact same thing until just a few months ago, when Obama had to flip-flop to shore up the homosexual voter base.

Sarah Palin, continuing her desperate last gasps of trying be relevant on Fox News.

Typically, I wouldn’t give her more attention. But I’ve heard this argument so many damn times over the few days, so let’s roll.

First, what Dan Cathy said IS anti-gay and he’s donated to anti-gay organizations — groups which have helped the efforts in Uganda to criminalize homosexuality and execute gay people, are listed as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and who have called for harmful “reparative therapy” to be standard treatment for gay people.

Plenty of folks have pointed out that this is not the way to spread a message of love thy neighbor. I would agree. As Suzette Standring wrote, “Jesus healed, socialized, walked, and ate with the marginalized and the flawed. Peter had anger management issues. Matthew was a hated tax collector. The Samaritan woman at the well was considered off limits to talk to for racial reasons. When an adulteress was about to be stoned, it was Jesus who challenged the sinless to cast the first stone. Her attackers left and when it was clear no one stayed to condemn her, Jesus said with great gentleness, ‘Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin’ (John 8:1-11)… If Jesus had harsh words for anyone, it was against those who saw themselves as the authorities of spiritual leadership. He criticized them publicly for hypocrisy, setting bad examples, and for perverting the word of God in order to maintain their own power.”

Second, I know this is difficult, but read this, plus this, this, this, and this. That’s why you’re 100% wrong about boycotts. Boycotts are free speech. Think about money as speech. Withholding money is also speech. It goes both ways. Please see Less Than One Million Moms and their boycotts against JC Penney, Ellen DeGeneres, and the NBC show The New Normal. 

Third, as Meghan McCain said, being anti-marriage equality IS being anti-gay. Is being anti-interracial marriage racist? You betcha.

Fourth, if a business owner gets political, even for religious reasons, expect a backlash. You don’t get to reel back and say, “Hey, no hard feelings, homos. Buy my chicken.” If your chicken gets political, we get political with your chicken. You dig?

In summary, go back to Alaska, snowbilly.

(via cognitivedissonance)

(via cognitivedissonance)

Filed under LGBT Rights reblogged

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Fun fact: The employee manning the drive-thru window at your local Chick-fil-A does not control its stance on gay marriage. This was apparently lost on Vante Chief Financial Officer Adam Smith, who has been forced to step down after he decided to film himself ordering a water from the controversial chicken joint and then berating the employee who gives it to him. “I don’t know how you live with yourself and work here,” he says, cheerily decrying the “hateful corporation” with “horrible values” (while noting that he’s “totally heterosexual” and there’s “not a gay in me”). Smith oh-so-wisely then posted the video to YouTube.

… I mean, I’m pissed at Chick-fil-A’s stance too, but why bully the girl in the drive-thru window?

Bad form, Adam. Especially since your own company happens to align themselves with the homophobic corporation:

The chairman of Vante, an Tucson-based medical manufacturer, tells the Arizona Daily Star that he was “shocked” by the video. “We thought what he did was inappropriate.” He said Vante had a “good relationship” with Chick-fil-A. 

It’s a just a fail on so many levels.

Filed under LGBT Rights wtf?

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Chick fil-A Boss: Yep, We're Anti-Gay Marriage

Chick-fil-a says: Yes, we’re bigots, and PROUD of it.

 If there was any doubt about the political stance of Chick fil-A’s owners, the company president and COO hopes to put the flap to rest. Yes, Chick fil-A is absolutely opposed to gay marriage, Dan Cathy has announced. Dan Cathy has announced. “We’re guilty as charged” when it comes to supporting “traditional family values,” said the smiling prez. The roasted chicken-pushing biz is “very much supportive of the family—the biblical definition of the family unit,” he explained to the Baptist Press. “We are a family-owned business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that,” Cathy stressed.

Filed under LGBT Rights

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Frank Ocean Is Wonderful and Important, But R&B Has Been Gayish for a While Now

This Gawker column damn near killed me.

I certainly can’t argue with their assertion that men like Little Richard, James Brown, Rick James, Michael Jackson, Prince and Luther Vandross all flirted with the line between traditional masculinity and more effeminate fare, but they even made me question more masculine R&B artists … for a moment:

For years now, men have been teaming up with men to duet about love and sex at the risk of sounding like they’re singing like they’re banging each other with nary a “no homo” in earshot. I’m not talking about guy rappers having guy singers on their hooks (a clear commercial venture more than anything) or play-acting fare that designates roles to assert masculinity (like Usher and R. Kelly fighting over the “Same Girl”) or groups that sing about sex (how are you going to be in a male R&B group and not). I’m talking about two separate singers uniting as one to sing about fucking…women?

Drake does this all the time. He appears on Justin Bieber’s new album, Believe, singing together with the 18-year-old, “I just wanna put it on you, if you want to…” in “Right Here.” That’s not even his most eyebrow-raising homoduet moment: in “Shut It Down,” off Drake’s own Thank Me Later, he alternates with The-Dream, singing at one point, “Put those fuckin’ heels on and work it, girl.” That is straight-up how people talk on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

It tends to be the same artists that are attracted to these setups. Chris Brown has sex-sung with Tank a few times (“Lonely” and “Foreplay”) but his Bieber duet from F.A.M.E., “Next to You,” is unmistakably tender:

Chris Brown: You’ve got that smile / That only heaven can make / I pray to God everyday / That you keep that smile.

Justin Bieber: Yeah, you are my dream / There’s not a thing I won’t do / I’d give my life up for you / ‘Cause you are my dream.

Later, they sing the word “lovely” in unison.

Seriously, though, I don’t agree with the argument that Frank Ocean’s coming out was less than a leap because it took place within the bounds of a musical genre that doesn’t always conform to the hyper-masculine expectations of other genres. The fact is (as the columnist says) that there is a huge difference between singing with a man and singing to one. 

R&B and Hip-Hop culture have never been accepting of homosexuality (unless it’s girl-on-girl) and even the feather boas, platform shoes and assless chaps never took any singer near enough to the line to test that taboo. There’s a reason Luther stayed in the closet.

It’s a leap, alright.

Filed under music celebrities LGBT Rights