Camille is a twentysomething working in the LGBT nonprofit industry. She runs an LGBT news blog at gaywrites.org.
It’s not unusual anymore to see Christian groups at gay pride parades. Members of the Mormon Church have freely marched at Pride in Salt Lake City. Members of the Chicago-based Marin Foundation attend pride festivals every year with signs reading “I’m sorry” to apologize for Christians’ hateful actions against LGBT people. Gay-affirming churches attend by the dozens. That’s why it wasn’t shocking for passersby at Twin Cities Pride in Minnesota last month to see a Christian group called Trinity Works talking with people at the parade. Most thought it was a sanctioned Pride activity. Not so much. Trinity Works is an Evangelical group that claims it can heal HIV/AIDS through Jesus. And when it set up a “corn feed” at Pride to offer people corn, water and conversation, they were actually setting up a bait-and-switch operation to try to shame LGBT people into “surrendering” to Jesus. Read more
Marriage equality opponents across the world repeat one stale argument: “Think of the children!” But according to a paramount new study, “thinking of the children” is actually a very good reason to embrace and empower same-sex couples. The new study out of Australia shows that, contrary to the propaganda spouted by conservative Christian groups like Tony Perkins’s Family Research Council, the children of same-sex parents are actually happier and healthier than their peers of different-sex parents. Read more
Jennifer Fitz, the Patheos blogger behind “Sticking the Corners,” recently wrote a piece called “Transgender Children: What is a Christian Parent to Do?” She added a disclaimer asking that people like me let this one slide: Closing comments because this is an exquisitely sensitive subject, and I don’t want my readers (of any persuasion or opinion) to be attacked in the combox. If you find it helpful, super. If it’s not helpful, please keep looking around, and quietly decline to share this one. I respect Jennifer’s decision to close comments for this particular piece, and I hope my response does not come across as attacking her, but I’d like to point out a couple of things she’s missed. Read more
Sex education in Hawaii middle schools will only be available on an opt-in basis, thanks to a scathing campaign by one of the state’s most notoriously homophobic politicians. For months now, Rep. Bob McDermott (below) has railed against any and all pro-LGBT measures in his state. He filed a lawsuit to try to halt marriage equality in Hawaii — and failed — and whined about the Southern Poverty Law Center lending a “Teaching Tolerance” curriculum about diversity and acceptance to Hawaii schools. Now, for his latest feat, he’s targeted the federally-funded sex education program Pono Choices, which is geared toward middle-school students. The program was developed to help reduce teen pregnancies and prevent STDs, but McDermott takes serious issue with its definition of sex — or, more specifically, the fact that it offers a definition of sex at all. Read more
The United Church of Christ made history on Monday when it filed a federal lawsuit challenging Amendment One, the voter-approved measure that banned same-sex marriage in North Carolina. A component of Amendment One bars clergy from performing wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples because they don’t have a legal marriage license, a policy UCC clergy say violates their right to religious freedom. From the Equality North Carolina press release: Read more
