October 31, 2018

#ShowUpForShabbat: Westboro Baptist Church is planning to do so.

In another thread, someone asked what the hatemongers of Westboro (WBC) were "up to" given the recent murder of 11 Jews. I thought the same and looked into it. I found they are taking the Twitter hashtag "#ShowUpForShabbat" to "heart" and are planning to protest the B'Nai Judah Synagogue in Overland Park, KS this Saturday. Here are excerpts from their flier (I will not link to the source, but if you need to see it all or verify I am telling the truth, please head over to "G-d Hates Fags" dot com (no - in the first word)):

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sent the shooter to the deceitfully-named Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday, October 27, 2018. As this world of idolaters inflames their passions about how they will fix the blame for this terrifying, though all too common, event, “wisdom (of God’s servants will cry) without; she [will utter] her voice in the streets” (Proverbs 1:20).

So, we will stand in your streets and give the Jews of America plain words about the promise God pronounced through His prophets that you have a desolate house, because of your sins. Further, that you will all be brought to Israel and (eventually) Jerusalem from all points of the globe – where God will slaughter all of the Jewish race, except for 144,000 who will be granted the gift of repentance. We, like Christ, weep at the contemplation of it; yet we must warn you, so that you will be bound by the knowledge and peradventure there may be some of God’s elect Jews dwelling among you. Thus, we will #ShowUpForShabbat with glorious words from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)
#ShowUpForShabbat – REPENT OR PERISH

October 29, 2018

They Died As They Prayed In The Place That Bound Them Together (Profiles of 6 victims)

One was a sprightly 97-year-old who was a regular sight walking around her Pittsburgh neighborhood.

Another was a big hearted retired accountant who did folks’ tax returns for free — and helped collect clothes for a black church after Hurricane Florence struck.

Two were grown brothers who were mentally challenged and had a special bond few siblings could boast of.

Another was a synagogue men’s club president who was praying in the same sanctuary where his grandson was circumcised just a few months ago.


Joyce Fienberg Became Regular Presence In Synagogue After Husband’s Death

97-Year-Old Rose Mallinger Never Missed Synagogue

Melvin Wax Was ‘Pure Soul’ Who Was First In Line To Help Others

Daniel Stein Murdered In The Same Room Where His Grandson Was Circumcised

Brothers, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Bound Together By Love

more...

October 24, 2018

(Jewish Group) Fact: Jews support Democrats and Dems support Israel

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

In just two weeks, Americans head to the polls in what is predicted to be one of the closest midterm elections in history. Many of the races that will determine which party controls Congress will be decided by an extremely small percentage of the vote. In light of this political reality, all eyes are on key constituencies in critical states such as Florida, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey where the Jewish community plays an outsized role. This is because Jewish voters show up to the polls and have historically identified with Democrats by more than 20 points than the American electorate as a whole.

As some question whether Jews will continue to support Democrats this election cycle, the answer is unequivocally and empirically “yes.” According to a recent non-partisan national poll of the Jewish electorate, Jews remain overwhelmingly supportive of Democrats and see themselves and the Democratic Party as pro-Israel. Political affiliation among the Jewish electorate continues to be driven by values, and Trump’s lack of a moral compass is driving Jewish voters straight to the polls in November, where they will vote for Democrats.

“The silence of Republicans has been deafening in the face of rising anti-Semitism, and they have done nothing to stop neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, and white supremacists from running for office as Republicans."

The organization with which we are affiliated, the Jewish Democratic Council of America, has publicly expressed concern about three Democratic candidates’ positions on Israel. At the same time, there are 467 Democratic candidates running for Congress this cycle, substantially all of whom share our support for a strong US-Israel relationship. The notion that a small number of obscure and outlying views on Israel may influence mainstream Democratic positions in Congress or Jewish votes in the midterms is simply false. Support for the US-Israel relationship remains incredibly strong among Democrats, and Israel remains a priority for Jewish voters. But don’t take our word for it.

National polling conducted earlier this month by the Mellman Group – sponsored by the Jewish Electorate Institute, a non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization – found that 74% of Jewish voters will vote for Democratic candidates in the midterms. This is higher than the total number of Jews who identified themselves as Democrats (68%), demonstrating that some support for Democratic candidates from Jewish voters will come from Independents or even Republicans. Moreover, party identification with Democrats is over 20 points higher in the Jewish community than among the American electorate generally. Jewish voters are Democrats, and that’s not changing.

more....

How's that for some fucking truth!

October 14, 2018

There's Been a George Soros for Every Era of Anti-Semitic Panic

It’s been largely forgotten, but when Russian military intelligence created online cutouts in 2016 to manipulate the American electorate, the Democratic Party wasn’t its only target.

The most prominent of those fake digital identities was Guccifer 2.0, which took credit for hacking the Democratic National Committee and then provided the pilfered information to WikiLeaks. The other was called DCLeaks. On Aug. 29, 2016, two months after the DNC hack became public, DCLeaks’ now-banned Twitter account told its followers to check out another of its projects: “Find Soros files on soros.dcleaks.com.”

Visitors to the now-shuttered site could find purported documents from the billionaire philanthropist’s Open Society Foundations, which promote liberal values and democratization. They had file names like “public health program access to medicine” and “youth exchange my city real world.” But before those curious about the leaks got there, the Russians wanted to put George Soros in a particular context.

The homepage displayed a photo illustration of a smug-looking Soros in the midst of four scenes of street chaos whose apparent perpetrators were conspicuously nonwhite. They were taken from the Ferguson, Missouri, protests in 2014, the birthplace—to the consternation of many white Americans whom the Kremlin sought to cultivate—of the contemporary civil rights movement. In both the image and the accompanying text, the Russians portrayed Soros as the puppet master.

“Soros is named as the architect and sponsor of almost every revolution and coup around the world for the last 25 years. Thanks to him and his puppets USA is thought to be a vampire, not a lighthouse of freedom and democracy,” the website proclaimed. The “oligarch” who sired the U.S. vampire, and whose “slaves spill blood of millions and millions people just to make him even more rich” [sic], had a particular background the Russians highlighted in the very first sentence: Soros is “of Hungarian-Jewish ancestry and holds dual citizenship.”

more...

October 12, 2018

LGBTQ History: Were Gay Concentration Camp Prisoners 'Put Back in Prison' After World War II?

----snip----

Both claims made in the post are accurate, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:


The men arrested for being gay were targeted under a revised version of a 19th century statute, Paragraph 175, which was expanded to categorize homosexuality as a crime of “indecency.” But even though the U.S. and their allies defeated the Nazi regime, the law remained in effect after World War II, as the Holocaust Memorial museum’s exhibit on the regime’s anti-gay persecution states:


Paragraph 175 was not repealed in full, however, until 1994. On 22 March 2017, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her cabinet approved a bill that overturned convictions for gay men which had carried out under Paragraph 175 between 1949 and 1969 and also provided compensation for surviving victims.

-----snip----

more...

October 12, 2018

Two decades after Matthew Shepard's death, LGBTQ community still battles hate violence

Twenty years ago, gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard died after being brutally beaten on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. His mother, Judy Shepard, has never stopped missing him.

“I miss talking to him, arguing with him — his big, bright smile, his great hugs,” Judy Shepard told NBC News.

Six days before his death, Matthew Shepard's assailants — Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson — picked him up at a bar, drove him to the edge of town, tied him to a fence and brutally beat him. Eighteen hours later, a passerby discovered Shepard barely alive. He was taken to a Colorado hospital where he later died on October 12. Russell and McKinney were sentenced to life in prison.

The homophobic attack of Matthew Shepard was a watershed moment for LGBTQ activism. Advocates staged protests and candle light vigils across the U.S. Activists were especially enraged that McKinney, who alleged Shepard made sexual advances toward him, claimed “gay panic” in his defense — a defense that is still legal in most states.



more...

Visit: The Matthew Shepard Foundation




Required to move it from LBN.

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Gay Man Dies From Attack, Fanning Outrage and Debate
By JAMES BROOKEOCT. 13, 1998

Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who was kidnapped, robbed and pistol-whipped, died here today, five days after he was rescued from a Wyoming ranch where he had been left tied to a fence for 18 hours in near-freezing temperatures.

His death, announced at the Poudre Valley Hospital here, fanned the outrage that followed word of the attack, spawning vigils, producing calls for Federal hate-crimes legislation from President Clinton and fueling debates over such laws in a host of Western states, including Wyoming, that have resisted them.

In places from Denver to the University of Maryland, people turned out to mourn the soft-spoken 21-year-old who became an overnight symbol of deadly violence against gay people after he was found dangling from the fence by a passerby.

Russell A. Henderson, 21, and Aaron J. McKinney, 22, were charged with attempted murder and are expected to face first-degree murder charges that could bring the death penalty. Their girlfriends, Chasity V. Pasley, 20, and Kristen L. Price, 18, were charged as accessories.

more from THE NY TIMES archive

October 8, 2018

LGBTQ History Month: Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad

Reprinted from "The New York Daily News," July 6, 1969

By JERRY LISKER

She sat there with her legs crossed, the lashes of her mascara-coated eyes beating like the wings of a hummingbird. She was angry. She was so upset she hadn't bothered to shave. A day old stubble was beginning to push through the pancake makeup. She was a he. A queen of Christopher Street.

Last weekend the queens had turned commandos and stood bra strap to bra strap against an invasion of the helmeted Tactical Patrol Force. The elite police squad had shut down one of their private gay clubs, the Stonewall Inn at 57 Christopher St., in the heart of a three-block homosexual community in Greenwich Village. Queen Power reared its bleached blonde head in revolt. New York City experienced its first homosexual riot."We may have lost the battle, sweets, but the war is far from over," lisped an unofficial lady-in-waiting from the court of the Queens.

"We've had all we can take from the Gestapo," the spokesman, or spokeswoman, continued. "We're putting our foot down once and for all. "The foot wore a spiked heel. According to reports, the Stonewall Inn, a two-story structure with a sand pained brick and opaque glass façade, was a mecca for the homosexual element in the village who wanted nothing but a private little place where they could congregate, drink, dance and do whatever little girls do when they get together.

The thick glass shut out the outside world of the street. Inside, the Stonewall bathed in wild, bright psychedelic lights, while the patrons writhed to the sounds of a juke box on a square dance floor surrounded by booths and table. The bar did a good business and the waiters, or waitresses, were always kept busy, as they snaked their way around the dancing customers to the booths and tables. For nearly two years, peace and tranquility reigned supreme for the Alice in Wonderland clientele.

more...

Sure, this isn't "new", but this is a part of LGBTQ history, a history, sadly, even many GLBTQ people are unaware. Though there had been riots before, the Compton's Cafeteria riot being the most notable, it was the one at Stonewall which finally set the modern movement for GLBT equality into motion.

GLBTQ people are important. Our lives and rights matter. So does our history matter!

October is GLBTQ History Month. Expect more of these!

October 7, 2018

20 years have passed: Matthew Shepard

20 years ago, Matthew Shepard was murdered: A letter from Laramie, 1998

The Crucifixion of Matthew Shepard

20 years later: How Matthew Shepard became America's window into hate

It took 18 hours.

After Matthew Shepard’s killers drove him to a quiet development on the eastern edge of Laramie, Wyoming, repeatedly struck him with a .357 Magnum pistol, robbed him and left him to die, it took 18 hours for someone to find him.

Details from that Oct. 7, 1998, discovery would sear themselves into memories across the globe.

How at first a mountain biker, Aaron Kreifels, thought Matthew’s limp, battered form was a scarecrow — until he noticed tufts of his hair.

How Matthew’s head and torso were so caked in dried blood that every inch was covered except for two strips under his eyes — tracks left by his tears.

...more at above link

October 3, 2018

Cross-posted: Tulsa Race Massacre VR Experience 'Greenwood Avenue' Crowdfunding Through Seed & Spark

With the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre approaching, one team wants to bring the history behind the horrific event to life again through Greenwood Avenue: A Virtual Reality Experience. The project is currently holding a Seed & Spark campaign through September; it's currently 31 percent funded, raising $4,696 of the $15,000 it hopes to gain for post-production.

The project will take viewers through the two days in which 300 black people were killed in Tulsa, OK by white rioters who were inspired by Birth of a Nation. As the logline states:

"Greenwood Avenue is a groundbreaking, emotional exploration into the lives of the African-Americans living in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921, during the era of Black Wall Street, the second rise of the KKK, and the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921, told through the eyes of an elderly Black female protagonist named Agnes Bess."

"We want to give folks a taste of what it was like living in the 1920's as a person of color," wrote the team in a statement in the press release. "Lynching was on the rise but folks felt safe living in Northern Tulsa. It was a place to grow a family and build a business. We want people to experience it firsthand."

more...

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One of my former students (and my friend), an OSU alum, is the producer. They are creating a different medium to educate people about the Black Wall Street Massacre on its 100th anniversary. There is a link in the article if you are so inclined to donate, but if you could get the word out about this project, I'd be most appreciative, as would they.