The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
As someone who works in IT, it blows my mind that people still send dumb*ss offensive emails that surely will get them into trouble. And double down bonus dunce points for Morehouse College administrative assistant Sandra Bradley for thinking the email would remain within her circle of homophobic girlfriends. (Southern Voice):
Morehouse College President Robert Franklin is promising to take "prompt and appropriate action" after two members of his staff forwarded an email of a stylish gay wedding ceremony and one made anti-gay comments.
The email, sent to Southern Voice after making the rounds through Fulton County government, included the following lines from Sandra Bradley, an administrative assistant who works in Franklin's office. The email includes more than a dozen pictures that show a lavish wedding ceremony between two unidentified black gay men earlier this month.
"I can't believe this wedding. It's 2 men. They don't smile in a lot of pictures and they look like a few brothers I've seen in the streets looking STRAGHT. Black women can't get a break, either our men want another man, a white woman (or other nationality that's light with straight hair), they are locked up in jail or have a "use to be" fatal disease. I'm beginning to believe Eve was a black woman and we Black women are paying for all the world's sins through her actions (eating the apple)," Bradley wrote.
Bradley appears to have received the email from a coworker at Morehouse, both of whom used their work email addresses.
The two men in the photos, Michael Cole Smith and Jamil Smith Cole, posted the pictures on Facebook and the images were downloaded and added to the chain mail.
***
While this is obviously a story about homophobia, it's also an illustration of the level of desperation out there of a slice of black women who are weary of the lack of available "marriage-worthy" black men. It doesn't mitigate the above incident, but it does give an opening for discussion of the latter issue, which was covered by NPR earlier this week -- "Black Women: Successful And Still Unmarried." It notes that if you are a black woman with an advanced degree, statistically the odds are that you've never married.
New research from Yale University suggests that highly educated black women are twice as likely to have never been married by the age of 45 as white women with similar education.
Hannah Bruckner, who leads the Center for Research on Inequalities and the Life Course at Yale University, says the disparity can be partly explained by a difference in dating preferences between some black men and women.
"Black men are more likely to marry outside of their race, and black women are more likely to marry outside of their education," she says.
Bruckner says that is compounded by tough competition for a smaller pool of highly educated black men.
So many of these women, if they do marry, may marry a blue collar man, but for others, like Sandra Bradley, they hold onto their anger with a level of toxicity that is directed at all of the real and perceived obstacles for black women re:obtaining a wedding ring.
One may wonder why these successful women just don't expand her conceptual dating pool? There are reasons for that as well, according to the article.
Niambi Carter, 31, has a Ph.D. and is an assistant professor of political science at Purdue University, admits that she has been hard-pressed to find a black mate with a similar level of education.
But she says it may be just as hard to find an interested man who is not black.
"Black women are not seen as marriageable by those outside of their race," she says. "We are not seen as adding status."
Ah, there's the rub. Even with an advanced degree and polish, many black women do believe the deck is even stacked against them if the expand their color horizons.
The women interviewed also mention something that rings true for me as a woman of color -- that for many of us (regardless of sexual orientation), we have been raised with a sense of obligation to pursue excellence to overcome the racial and economic barriers faced by our predecessors. That all-consuming pursuit for some comes at the expense of cultivating relationships -- particularly if one has to work through school rather enjoy the freedom of undergraduate college life for those who have more time (and fewer personal obligations) to do so.
It's a quandry to say you can be happy single when all the social and media signals are blasting heterosexual images of marriage. It's probably as irritating as being gay and having to endure the endless imagery as well. But you see how this despondency turns pathological and hateful.
Ms. Bradley needs to take a look in the mirror and re-evaluate the negative, ignorant and hateful energy she typed into that email because it reflects such poor self-esteem; does she really think black women would be better off marrying some closeted SGL man who won't tell her about his same-sex encounters but will treat her with a nice big rock on her finger?
If it didn't involve our basic civil rights, I'd be greatly enjoying the unfolding drama in D.C. Not the drama of the DNC fundraiser, but the Marriage Recognition Passion Play, starring Bigot Bishop Harry Jackson and Betrayer (former) Mayor Marion Barry. It is quite an extraordinary performance. A program synopsis is after the fold. To entice you there, here's a bit of dialogue from the last act before intermission:
Referendum backers seek more time to collect signatures.
Is Larry Stickney mismanaging the haters' campaign in D.C. too?
I like this idea from Dan Savage over at The Starnger's SLOG.
I have suggestion for an ongoing, smaller-scale action that would have a larger impact than [Cleve Jones's] one-off "march" through an empty city. My idea would need fewer than a 1000 people to succeed-730 to be exact-and it wouldn't be over in a day. It would go on, day-in, day-out, every day, for a year. Hell, it could go on indefinitely. It involves civil disobedience and the 730 volunteers would have to be willing to get arrested. People who are unable to participate could make donations to help cover the expenses-legal expenses and travel expenses-of those who can.
Here's the idea: one gay or lesbian couple-a couple currently denied their rights under DOMA-shows up at the entrance to the White House grounds. A different couple every day. They ask to speak to the president about DOMA. They're refused. They sit down. They refuse to leave. They're arrested, carried away by the police.
UPDATE2 - Passed 198 to 176! It passed in the Senate this morning. The bill now goes to the governor for his promised signature.
UPDATE - It's being debated now!
The bill is up! (0.00 / 0)
Gallery is anticipative, State House plaza is quiet and somber.
Zandra Rice Hawkins (Granite State Progress)
by: Zandra Rice Hawkins @ Wed Jun 03, 2009 at 15:15:43 PM EDT
Over at Blue Hampshire, they're guessing that the vote on the marriage bill, HB 73, will happen around 3 PM EST. You can listen to the live stream here. Briefly, the Senate this morning adopted changes that the governor required to forestall his threatened veto. We're waiting for the House to vote. The calculation was that there weren't enough votes to override a veto.
Please chime in if you have better information or other video or audio sources.
UPDATE 3 FROM PAM: The press releases are flowing in as New Hampshire will join Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and Iowa in recognizing that separate is not equal...
New Hampshire Freedom to Marry:
"Today's vote is in line with the majority of Granite Staters who support the freedom to marry," said Mo Baxley, the executive director of the New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition. "The legislature has upheld the New Hampshire values of individual liberty, freedom and fairness. We applaud the legislature for continuing to strongly safeguard religious freedom while making sure that all loving, committed couples have the freedom to marry."
Empowering Spirits Foundation (CA):
The Empowering Spirits Foundation, a national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today applauded the New Hampshire Legislature for voting in favor of the same-sex marriage bill amendment, which provides language to protect religious institutions not wanting to participate in same-sex marriages. The state Senate voted 14-10 Wednesday morning to the compromise legislation, and the state House later voted 198-176 in favor of the amendment. New Hampshire Governor John Lynch has stated that he will sign the same-sex marriage bill into law if it included strengthened protections for religious institutions. Should the legislation go into effect January 1, 2010 as predicted, New Hampshire will become the 6th state to legalize same-sex marriage.
"The amended legislation is considerate to both sides and provides equal rights and protections to all in New Hampshire," says A. Latham Staples, Empowering Spirits Foundation Executive Director.
"America is at a turning point. Recent advances toward equality in Iowa, Vermont, Maine, the District of Columbia and now New Hampshire show that the tide is changing in our favor," added Staples. "The LGBT community isn't asking for special rights or to compromise the beliefs of those who are critical of us. We are merely seeking equal rights, as envisioned by our founding fathers and guaranteed by the Constitution. And I believe people are starting to realize that gays and lesbians are an important segment of society, and are entitled to all of the rights and benefits of marriage."
"We look forward to Gov. Lynch signing the legislation passed by the state Senate and House that would make New Hampshire the latest state to recognize that loving, committed couples, and their families, should receive equal rights and responsibilities," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "No religious institution will have to recognize any marriage under this law, as the language proposed by Gov. Lynch and agreed to by the legislature made abundantly clear."
For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.
~ Audre Lourde
The other reason I finally felt the need to speak about the collision between marriage equality and the homophobia of some African-Americans is more personal.
The gay men in Bishop Alfred Owens' congregation who felt they "had no choice" but to participate in the degradation and denial of their own humanity are not alone. It's a performance that takes place in some form or fashion every Sunday, in black churches (and beauty shops or barber shops, for that matter) across the country, which Michael Eric Dyson captured in his essay "The Black Church and Sexuality."
One of the most painful scenarios of black church life is repeated Sunday after Sunday with little notice or collective outrage. A black minister will preach a sermon railing against sexual ills, especially homosexuality. At the close of the sermon, a soloist, who everybody knows is gay, will rise to perform a moving number, as the preacher extends an invitation to visitors to join the church. The soloist is,in effect, being asked to sign his theological death sentence. His presence at the end of such a sermon symbolizes a silent endorsement of the preacher's message. Ironically, the presence of his gay christian body at the highest moment of worship also negates the preacher's attempt to censure his presence, to erase his body, to deny his legitimacy as a child of God.
... the black church, an institution that has been at the heart of black emancipation, refuses to unlock the oppressive closet for gays and lesbians. ...Black Christians, who have been despised and oppressed for much of our existence, should be wary of extending that oppression to our lesbian sisters and our gay brothers.
That performance is the price some of us pay to remain in or part of the communities we started out calling home.
UPDATE: Roll call here.The New York Assembly voted 89 - 52 Tuesday evening to pass a marriage equality bill (A07732). Governor Paterson has vowed to sign the bill if it makes it through the Senate.
Interesting that the NYT story didn't get into specifics of the roadblocks ahead in the senate, such as our friend Ruben "As long as you need me, there will be no gay marriage" Diaz. Rather, they made much of the smart political maneuvering by the Assembly to facilitate "yes" votes from squeamish senators.
Supporters of the bill aggressively sought new votes, particularly from Assembly members whose districts lie within Senate districts where a senator's vote is believed to be in play. As a matter of strategy, same-sex marriage advocates said that they hoped to use those votes as a way to leverage support from senators who are worried that supporting the measure could cost them politically.
Much of the strategy was apparently orchestrated by Danny O'Donnell. Excerpts from that story after the flip.
The media support for the DP bill is significant, and must be really demoralizing to the anti-equality sector if it's making me so happy. However, the press has yet to examine the frequent claim that domestic partnerships are "everything but marriage". Larry Stickney, who filed the referendum paperwork on behalf of Oregonian Gary Randall, frequently makes statements like this:
"It is everything but marriage without the word, but it elevates the homosexual relationship to the same level as marriage," he said. "There's no legal difference. All it is is the name."
UPDATE: Oregon Gary's Washington operative, Larry Stickney, posts his own straw poll that adds up to 86%, lol. See screen shot below the fold.Oregonian Gary Randall posted a survey on his blog yesterday. He did so because he refused to accept the unsurprising news Monday that few of Washington State's major religious right figures think it is wise to pursue the anti-domestic partnership referendum Gary is hawking in Washington. They can read and understand the polls, even if Gary can't.
Today Oregon Gary reports some very interesting results from his online survey:
Faith and Freedom is getting a little different picture. With several hundreds filling out our survey, it is running, as of this morning, 98.8% who favor the referendum and 6.7% who oppose it. The other 1.5% aren't sure.
Percentages apparently add up to 107 in Oregon Gary's universe, not 100. But we all know Gary's a wizard with the numbers.
Also, "several hundreds" responded? Big whoop. I can find 200 people to agree with just about anything. It's the other 120,377 you're not hearing from that I'd be concerned with, Gary. Remember, you need 120,577 valid signatures from Washington voters to qualify your referendum. And as an Oregon voter, you can't even sign your own referenDUMB petition.
By the way, Gary, man up. It wasn't Danny Westneat of the evil Seattle Times who surveyed the religious right majors of Washington, as you would have us think from your blog post. It was Bothell's own Pastor Joe Fuiten of the Cedar Park Assembly of God. Look your adversary in the eye.
The two chambers have to reconcile the versions of the marriage bill each passed.
Debate is happening NOW. Live video here. As usual, Pam et al. please fee free to update this diary.
The New Hampshire House and Senate have passed bills legalizing gay marriage, but the details differ. The House could accept the Senate version, reject it or ask a committee of lawmakers to reconcile the two bills....
New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch hasn't taken a position on the bill. He could sign it, veto it or let it become law without his signature.
An overwhelming majority on the D.C. Council voted today to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, sending the District deeper into the national debate and galvanizing supporters on both sides of the issue.
The measure, approved by a vote of 12 to 1, now goes to Mayor Arian M. Fenty (D), a supporter of gay marriage.
If Fenty signs it, the District will put the same-sex marriage issue directly before the Congress. Under Home Rule, the District's laws are subject to a 30-day congressional review period.
Is this a great day or what? Maine -- Washington State -- DC. Wow!
UPDATE FROM PAM: The single vote against the bill today was DC council member, the 4x married, ex-con former mayor Marion Barry. He says that if the council decides to pursue a marriage equality bill for the District there will be a "civil war."
"All hell is going to break lose," Barry said while speaking to reporters. "We may have a civil war. The black community is just adamant against this."
...Although he has been a longtime supporter of gay rights, Barry said he voted against the bill to satisfy his constituents in Southeast Washington.
"What you've got to understand is 98 percent of my constituents are black and we don't have but a handful of openly gay residents," Barry said. "Secondly, at least 70 percent of those who express themselves to me about this are opposed to anything dealing with this issue. The ministers think it is a sin, and I have to be sensitive to that."
How many ways is this pathetic?
1) First, Barry needs to put the crack pipe back down.
2) Blaming his vote on his homophobic constituents is ridiculous.
3) He can make that claim about a "handful of openly gay residents" because too many of the black LGBTs are firmly in a padlocked closet. I don't know what it will take to get them out of the closet -- many attend the very churches that demonize them, HIV/AIDS rates are skyrocketing in the community, and now, the man who represents some of them doesn't have to acknowledge them.
H. Alexander Robinson, Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition, will be blogging his visit to Iowa. I really look forward to hearing what he learns there and what he sees as the prospect for the future of black LGBT Iowans, and how black Iowans in general define and prioritize the ongoing civil rights struggles. A sample of his kick-off post is below the fold.
Forty-two percent of Americans now say same sex couples should be allowed to legally marry, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds. That's up nine points from last month, when 33 percent supported legalizing same sex marriage.
Support for same sex marriage is now at its highest point since CBS News starting asking about it in 2004.
This means that 67% of American voters think we should have civil unions or better. And the or better crowd is fast outstripping the civil unions crowd. (paying attention, Mr. President?).
The poll results Gary Randall released yesterday for Washington state, with 43% of Washington voters saying YES to marriage equality, seem to be right in line with national trends.
Gary Randall, the Oregonian who makes a living off of stirring up anti-gay animus in Washington state, has dolefully released his marriage poll.
Faith and Freedom Network paid The Elway Poll to ask one simple question: "In your opinion, should homosexuals be allowed to legally marry?"
A majority said no.
I have included the entire report. Demographically, the results were predictable, with Seattle strongly in favor of homosexual marriage, King County favorable, but less so, with the rest of Washington State opposed.
The age demographics should be of concern to all who support traditional marriage.
The actual result was
43% = YES
50% = NO
07% = DK/NA
This represents a HUGE increase in YES's from his similarly worded Elway poll from 2006. Then, only 34% of Washington voters favored marriage equality.
But the most serious and immediate problem this poll presents for Gary isn't in what it says about marriage, but what it implies about the likelihood of success in his pending referendum campaign to repeal the new Domestic Partnership Expansion Bill of 2009. If 43% of Washington voters support bona fide marriage for all, an overwhelming majority are likely to favor the retention of the new DP law. We already know from other polling that 66% of voters support what we're getting with the DP Expansion Bill, or better.
Gary's comment on the age demographic says it all. He sees the writing on the wall, and that writing states quite clearly, "Gary, & Co., time for you to gracefully bow out of your referendum plans!"
It's no longer a question of referendum, it is a question of referenDUMB.
I thought selected verses in the Bible were supposed to be the ultimate authority, but Gary Randall has just ceded the power to define marriage to that institution he loves to hate, the Seattle Times. Or rather, to his off-the-rails misreading of them.
If you live in Washington, please take a moment and sign Equal Rights Washington's Marriage Equality Petition. Ask your friends and family in Washington to do the same. If you like to text 'n tweet, here's a tinyURL (http://tiny.cc/6jnGr) to make it easier to pass the link along.
The Swedish parliament voted 261-22 (with a whopping 66 abstentions!) to make their marriage law gender-neutral. The new law goes into effect May 1st. Yahoo!
According to On Top magazine and the updated wiki page, a heartening 71% of Swedes support marriage equality.
Sweden was a trend-setter, offering DPs to same-sex couples since 1995. What was the hold up regarding bona fide marriage? The usual suspects. Get ready for the weapin and the wailin.
Gay marriage in Sweden has remained in a holding pattern for years because two of the country's four major political parties opposed it. But an October 2007 Moderate Party endorsement broke that stalemate, leaving only the Christian Democrats opposed to the legalization of gay marriage.
UPDATE Thursday, 4/2/09: The marriage bill (S. 115) is the second item on today's calendar.
UPDATE Wednesday, 4/1/09: OK, this is embarrassing. I didn't notice that the marriage bill was below the section header "Notice Calendar". This means they were notifying us today that the bill is slated for debate tomorrow, Thursday, April 2. The House reconvenes Thursday at 9:30 am.You can listen to the Vermont House session by clicking here to connect to a live audio stream, courtesy Vermont Public Radio. Live video will also be provided by Center for Media & Democracy when the marriage debate begins.
Links to the text of S. 115 and related documents can be found here. Text of the House Judiciary Committee's amendment is here (pdf).
I like this idea from 
By the way, Gary, man up. It wasn't Danny Westneat of the evil Seattle Times who surveyed the religious right majors of Washington, as you would have us think from your blog post. It was Bothell's own 
H. Alexander Robinson, Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition, will be 
A new 
If you live in Washington, please take a moment and sign 
The Swedish parliament 
