stevenleser
stevenleser's Journalxpost from LGBT group: Tennessee church bans family for supporting Lesbian daughter's fight for...
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/21/tennessee-church-bans-family-after-daughter-wins-same-sex-benefits-from-town/After 60 years of attending a Tennessee church, a family in Collegedale has been exiled because they supported their daughter while she fought for same sex benefits from the town where she worked as a police detective.
Earlier this month, Collegedale became the first city in Tennessee to offer same sex benefits after Detective Kat Cooper was initially denied health benefits for her wife, Krista. The couple was married in Maryland earlier this year.
But that victory turned out to be bittersweet because leaders at Ridgedale Church of Christ gave Kat Cooper’s mother, aunt and uncle an ultimatum during a private meeting after worship services on Sunday.
“They could repent for their sins and ask forgiveness in front of the congregation. Or leave the church,” The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported on Wednesday.
Tennessee church bans family for supporting Lesbian daughter's fight for same sex benefits
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/21/tennessee-church-bans-family-after-daughter-wins-same-sex-benefits-from-town/After 60 years of attending a Tennessee church, a family in Collegedale has been exiled because they supported their daughter while she fought for same sex benefits from the town where she worked as a police detective.
Earlier this month, Collegedale became the first city in Tennessee to offer same sex benefits after Detective Kat Cooper was initially denied health benefits for her wife, Krista. The couple was married in Maryland earlier this year.
But that victory turned out to be bittersweet because leaders at Ridgedale Church of Christ gave Kat Cooper’s mother, aunt and uncle an ultimatum during a private meeting after worship services on Sunday.
“They could repent for their sins and ask forgiveness in front of the congregation. Or leave the church,” The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported on Wednesday.
Searchable map of the Median net worth of households of any area in the USA
http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?useExisting=1&services=814b785f25e24c9d8fc1a61ea61c0462Me vs Dee Dee Benkie on Andrew Wilkow's Show on Blaze TV
http://www.video.theblaze.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=29667261&topic_id=38204812#This is me last week on Andrew Wilkow's show on Blaze TV. I managed to become the first Democrat ever on set on a Blaze TV show. Blaze TV is Glenn Beck's network.
The topic is the 2016 Presidential Race. Will Biden run, etc.
With regards to Manning, my hope is that on the last day of his term, Obama commutes to time served.
On edit: I have compassion for him and think that will be more than enough.
Steubenville: A year after rape case reported student athletes, coaches learning lessons
Are they learning? I'm not sure yet.
http://www.cleveland.com/steubenville-rape-case/index.ssf/2013/08/steubenville_a_year_after_rape.html
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio -- A year after the parents of a 16-year-old West Virginia teen showed up at the Steubenville police department with a jump drive full of Internet images to report their daughter was raped, the impact of the case is still being felt around the state.
After a highly publicized trial in Juvenile Court this spring, two high school football players were sentenced to serve time for raping the teenage girl. One of the boys was additionally found to have sent nude photos of the girl to his friends.
Currently, a grand jury is meeting to hear evidence and decide whether any adults – coaches or parents – have any culpability in the case.
And one of the teens, Ma'lik Richmond is set to be in court this week so a judge can determine whether or not he needs to register as a sex offender.
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My radio show is going live now!
Don't miss this weeks show which airs tonight at 7pm Eastern time on blogtalkradio.com at the link and tomorrow at 2pm Pacific time on KCAA 1050am in Inland Empire California!
Our top story this week is the growing crisis in Egypt and what the lessons are for Democracy in that crisis. We will also have a number of other breaking stories and updates on prior stories including Assange and Wikileaks, the RNC throwing CNN and NBC out of its debates and more.
Of course we will finish with our trademark Weekly Hall of Fame and Shame for those politicians and pundits who made great sense or shameful nonsense, respectively.
The winner of our Hall of Fame this week will Shock You!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lesersense/2013/08/18/making-sense-with-steve-leser--egyptian-chaos-and-more
My Radio show is going live now!
Don't miss this weeks show which airs tonight at 7pm Eastern time on blogtalkradio.com at the link and tomorrow at 2pm Pacific time on KCAA 1050am in Inland Empire California!
Our top story this week is the growing crisis in Egypt and what the lessons are for Democracy in that crisis. We will also have a number of other breaking stories and updates on prior stories including Assange and Wikileaks, the RNC throwing CNN and NBC out of its debates and more.
Of course we will finish with our trademark Weekly Hall of Fame and Shame for those politicians and pundits who made great sense or shameful nonsense, respectively.
The winner of our Hall of Fame this week will Shock You!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lesersense/2013/08/18/making-sense-with-steve-leser--egyptian-chaos-and-more
Transcript of the LGBT portion of my show this week
Audio for the show here (and also on KCAA starting a little later tonight) starting at the 16:40 point: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lesersense/2013/08/11/making-sense-with-steve-leser--benghazi-russian-gay-rights
Welcome back I have a word and a personal announcement regarding the anti-gay legislation that was recently passed in Russia.
As many of you know, I consider the fight for complete equality for the Lesbian, Gay, BiSexual and Transgendered community to be one of the most important civil rights issues of our time. I talk about it a lot on this show and I often feature those who seem to be against that equality in my hall of shame.
It’s also the case that over the past two years or so, I have been appearing semi-frequently on various state sponsored or state owned Russian media including the RT television channel, formerly known as Russia Today and also the Voice of Russia radio network.
I’ve enjoyed those appearances immensely, the topics raised were timely and good and the discussions excellent. I’ve made a lot of friends in Russian media, friends that I value greatly.
Knowing all of those things, you can imagine the cognitive dissonance caused by the recent passage of Article 6.21 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses. Which is claimed by various Russian officials to only involve punishment of individuals accused of the propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations amongst minors but is really much more wide reaching.
Here is what Article 6.21 actually says:
Propaganda is the act of distributing information among minors that 1) is aimed at the creating nontraditional sexual attitudes, 2) makes nontraditional sexual relations attractive, 3) equates the social value of traditional and nontraditional sexual relations, or 4) creates an interest in nontraditional sexual relations.
Distributing information among minors has been interpreted as any expression in favor of gay rights that minors might ever see. In other words, displaying a rainbow flag in Russia in public puts you in violation of this law. Any political activities in favor of gay rights might be seen by minors, so those are against the law too. And violations result in both stiff fines and jail terms of two weeks for foreigners or up to 90 days for Russian citizens.
About this law, Russian human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva called it "a step toward the Middle Ages" and international rights groups have said the current situation in Russia has become the worst human rights climate of the post-Soviet era
Now, Russia is not the only country that has issues with equality for various groups. We have equality problems in the United States not only for the LGBT community, but for people of color, Asians, women and more. Other countries have their various issues as well.
The difference is, we here in the US are generally moving in the right direction. The worst you can say is that in certain areas, we are standing still. We're not enacting new laws that greatly restricts equality for a vulnerable minority. A country that does that needs to experience vigorous opposition and condemnation by the international community. But there is more that makes it even worse in the situation with Russia.
Russia's new anti-gay law effectively prohibits gay couples from adopting children and virtually requires children currently in the custody of gay parents be taken away from them.
Now many of you longtime fans of the show will remember that I did a show back in April on Genocide that was widely acclaimed by well-known international genocide prevention and education groups like Genocide Watch. In preparation for that show I really dove into how genocides happen, what are the stages and what is classified as genocide. When the Russian anti-gay law was described as taking custody of children away from gay parents, the warning sirens in my mind became unbearably loud. You see, one of the definitions of genocide against a people or group is forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. You can see that definition right on Genocide Watch’s web page.
Of course, the idea that Russia is enacting new laws against a vulnerable minority should already be enough to warn us that Russia is heading in the wrong direction in terms of what we have seen in past genocides. A state stigmatizing a particular group through law is a very bad sign. And it’s a sign that has been heard loud and clear by the more extremist elements of Russian society. We’ve seen hate groups step up attacks on gays and lesbians in Russia since the passage of the law.
How can gays and lesbians fight back against those attacks? If they organize a protest and identify themselves as gay, they are breaking the law. If they try and organize into a political group and that group proposes legislation, they are breaking the law.
I spent some time over the past few weeks discussing the situation with my friends in the LGBT community here in the US to figure out what my response would be if any. The time for deliberate reflection came to an abrupt stop with my most recent appearance on RT’s CrossTalk show. Some of my friends in the LGBT community were clearly upset with me over that appearance but more importantly it’s something I simply could not justify to myself.
I know that if it was one of the various minority groups to which I belong that was being singled out that way, I would want a maximum response by anyone and everyone to try and get that situation reversed and I would particularly expect that of my friends. That is the only thing that has a hope of peacefully turning back state sponsored discrimination, a massive and complete rejection and boycott of that state and all of its apparatus by people of conscience.
With that in mind, my decision and actions are as follows:
1. In my first ever alteration to my personal rule that I will debate anyone, anytime, anywhere on any subject, I will not accept any future requests for appearances on state owned Russian television or radio until the anti-gay law is rescinded. I call on all journalists and media personalities who care about LGBT equality to follow that example.
2. I call on the nations of the world to agree to the suggestion and petition by George Takei of Star Trek fame to move the Winter Olympics to Vancouver unless the anti-gay law is rescinded.
3. If the anti-gay law is not rescinded and the Olympics are not moved, it is my position that the US should boycott the Sochi Olympics.
These are not decisions I have arrived at quickly or without a lot of personal reflection. It upsets me that I know that this will result in the loss of good relations with several of my friends in Russian media and may result in my permanent blacklisting among Russian media organizations.
Nevertheless, I am 100% certain that those decisions are the right ones for me and I again call on any journalists and media personalities who care about LGBT equality to similarly refuse to work with Russian state media until this anti-gay law is repealed.
We’ll be right back.
Profile Information
Name: RuggedRealistGender: Male
Hometown: New York, NY
Home country: USA
Current location: NYC
Member since: Tue Jan 4, 2005, 05:36 PM
Number of posts: 32,886
