Camille is a twentysomething working in the LGBT nonprofit industry. She runs an LGBT news blog at gaywrites.org.
As Utah courts and legislators go back and forth on the subject of marriage equality, a new set of players has emerged: Christians who want a pat on the back for not taking to the streets in protest of marriage equality. Take Michael and Jenet Erickson. Last week, they wrote a column for Deseret News titled “Being For Traditional Marriage Does Not Mean Being Against Anyone.” Their thesis statement? Because Utahns didn’t start riots or pillage gay folks’ houses during the brief window when marriage equality was legal in their state, they are clearly not anti-gay. They’re just pro-“traditional” marriage. Here’s the totally twisted, borderline-offensive analogy the authors craft to make their point: Read more
Right-wingers are up in arms this week after Maybe He’s Not Gay, a horrific “guide” to homosexuality written by extreme homophobe Linda Harvey, was removed from the digital bookshelves of Amazon. It’s not entirely clear why the book’s no longer available on Amazon. Back2Stonewall initially reported that Amazon made the decision themselves after reviewing the book’s borderline abusive content, while Queerty says the publisher made the final call. The anti-gay Illinois Family Institute and the Christian Post say that Harvey herself asked for the book to be taken down after it received an influx of critical reviews from, you know, intelligent and reasonable people. “I saw the rotten reviews, a smear campaign by those who had not read the book, and the publisher attempted to get Amazon to pull the ad hominem reviews, but they were not immediately responsive,” said Harvey. “So, since the book is brand new and I didn’t want it to be harmed by this uninformed and vicious campaign stimulated by ‘gay’ bloggers, I decided to pull the page for now.” Harvey also told CP that Amazon left the option open to put it back online and that she and her publisher “will probably re-post it in the near future.” Jeremy Hooper reported that while the book costs around $10, the toll it will take on the LGBT kids who have to deal with bigoted, toxic parents who read Harvey’s vitriol is far greater. While this is an easy book to judge by its cover, I decided to buy it and dive into it so that 1) no one else has to and 2) we can all see just what we’re dealing with. Is the book really as vile as it sounds? Let’s find out. Read more
Last week, the Florida LGBT publication Watermark published an interview with former Florida Governor Charlie Crist, marking the governor’s first-ever interview with the LGBT press. While this could have been a prime opportunity for the Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democratic politician to atone for his past sins against LGBT folks in his state, he did little more than admit how wrong he was. Crist says he left the Republican Party not because he changed, but because “the Republican Party went nuts.” But Crist adhered to the party’s anti-gay policies — which haven’t changed — without protest a few years back. In 2008, Florida voters just barely approved of Amendment 2, which added a provision to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage. Crist had initially expressed apathy toward the measure, but then had an apparent change of heart and told Floridians to vote for it. Watermark interviewer (and publisher) Tom Dyer called him out on it — and didn’t accept his apology: Read more
The United Methodist Church proved once and for all this week that its values are completely out of line when they defrocked a pastor for performing his son’s wedding years ago. Rev. Frank Schaefer came under fire earlier this year for officiating his son’s Massachusetts wedding back in 2007 (when same-sex marriages were already legal there). A not-so-kindhearted church member filed a complaint with the church in Pennsylvania, and last month a church jury suspended him for 30 days. He was told to use the time to reflect on whether he could “uphold the church’s Book of Discipline,” which doesn’t condone homosexuality or same-sex marriage. If he wasn’t up to the task, he’d have to resign. The choice was clear for Schaefer; he said his belief in equal rights did not justify his resignation from his position. In exchange, he’s been defrocked, depriving him of any ecclesiastical status within the church. Read more
Yesterday on my daily binge-reading of Advocate.com, the daily website of the country’s oldest LGBT newsmagazine, The Advocate, a headline caught my eye: “The Advocate’s Person of the Year: Pope Francis.” My heart sank and my brain nearly imploded. The leader of the most homophobic institution in the world with a “NOH8” logo splashed on his cheek? Really? Pope Francis was named TIME magazine’s Person of the Year last week, and that makes a little more sense to me. TIME speaks to a greater audience than The Advocate, for one. Pope Francis has undoubtedly said and done more decent things thus far in his papacy — acknowledged the worthy humanness of female convicts and LGBT folk, conjured an image of the Catholic Church as a church of healing and acceptance, etc. — than popes who came before him, and the man certainly has a lot of influence over the estimated 1,200,000,000 Catholics in the world. For TIME, that’s something worth noting. (Maybe not grand-prize-winner-something, but fine. I’m letting it go.) But for The Advocate? Absolutely not. I’m deeply disappointed the staff felt otherwise. Read more
