Well, Fred Phelps, homophobic knuckle-dragger (wait, that's not really fair to knuckledraggers is it?) has made a nice video in celebration of LGBT Pride month. His enunciation is perfect.
enjoy!
Actually, it's from the good folks at Good As You.
All posts by Editors
Save Radical Religious Terrorists…Win Valuable Prizes
Cathy Renna has alerted us that New York is about to be slimed.
Apparently Congregation Beth Simchat Torah will be subjected to the blandishments of Kansas bigot, Fred ("God Hates You") Phelps and the inbred members of his Westboro congregation family, this Sunday.
Led by Phelps, the Westboro Baptist Church is a hatemongering organization known most widely for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, for their protests at the funerals of servicemen killed in Iraq, and most recently, for protesting at the funeral of Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, the security officer killed at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington.
Inspired by a gift from fine furniture magnate, Mitchell Gold, CBST will be participating, as many other LGBT organizations have, in a fundraising effort to counteract the attacks by this group.
Gold has pledged $10 per minute that the Westboro Baptist Church representatives are picketing. Their presence will benefit us! We can tell them each minute how much they are raising for the GLBT community!!
Congregation Beth Simchat Torah requests that if you have a tallit (a prayer shawl, usually worn at Shabbat morning services and whenever the Torah is recited) please bring it.
The also request that if you would like to make colorful signs, please consider using:
"We are all created in God's image"
"God loves all of us"
"God made me gay"
…and similar messages
8:45 AM on Sunday, June 21st at our Bethune location.
I'd like to suggest some other colorful signage:
"Your God seems awfully testy." or "Your God is not my God…get over it." or "Maybe Your God Needs Some Anger Management Counseling."
So…$10 a minute…times 60 minutes per hour is $600…I say let's see how long we can keep them there…
Poltical Re-Gifting
Apparently the President of Change (perhaps he means "spare change"?) is counting on the idea that no one is going to check too closely when he issues these pandering crumbs tot he GLBT community. The Office of Personal Management policy paragraph (below) regarding "new" benefits available to
domestic partners? — these benefits have been available for YEARS !!!!
For civil service employees, domestic partners of federal employees can be added to the long-term care insurance program; supervisors can also be required to allow employees to use their sick leave to take care of domestic partners and non-biological, non-adopted children.
Nothing new here.
1) See the OPM website which permits long term care to be extended "Qualified Relatives" that includes:
QUALIFIED RELATIVE- The term ‘qualified relative’ means each of the following:
The spouse of an individual described in paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (4).
A parent, stepparent, or parent-in-law of an individual described in paragraph (1) or (3).
A child (including an adopted child, a stepchild, or, to the extent the Office of Personnel Management by regulation provides, a foster child) of an individual described in paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (4), if such child is at least 18 years of age.
An individual having such other relationship to an individual described in paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (4) as the Office may by regulation prescribe.
2) During the Clinton administration — guidance was requested about whether sick leave could be used to take care of same-sex partners and/children. The answer came back that a federal employee could use their sick leave to take care of, attend doctor appointments, or even attend funerals for anyone who had the "close approximation of family". This was a guidance memo — not policy — but it has been available since the mid 1990's.
According to one Lisa Polyak of Baltimore, Maryland, the reason we know this is that she has worked for a Department of Defense Agency for 23 years and even DOD allowed her to take sick leave to care for her partner and her non-biological child.
In a word: what a bunch of NOTHING.
Harold Norse
We received word that Harold Norse passed away on Monday. He was 92.
The Beat Museum will be hosting a Memorial for Harold Norse on Sunday, July 12th, time TBA.
From the Beat Museum: "In 1951, Norse's talent was recognized by William Carlos Williams, who invited him to read at the Museum of Modern Art in early 1952. Williams remarked on Norse's ability to "use the direct image on its own," and became an important mentor to Harold. Williams would later call Norse "the best poet of his generation," a profound accolade considering Williams was mentor to such figures as Charles Olson, Denise Levertov, and Allen Ginsberg. Following the 1953 publication of his first book of poetry, The Undersea Mountain, which was reviewed in The New York Times and Poetry magazine, Norse left America for Italy.
"In 1957, Norse was nearly deported from Italy when the Italian government deemed his poem "Victor Emmanuel Monument (Rome)," political fodder for the Communists.
"Norse moved to Paris in 1960, on a tip from Williams and, at the Beat Hotel, met Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and others, drawn by their interest in Buddhist meditation, which Norse had recently taken up. Using the cut-up technique devised by Gysin and Burroughs, Norse wrote his experimental novel, Beat Hotel. Originally titled Sniffing Keyholes, the first chapter—which he describes as "a sex/dope scene between a muscular black youth called Melo and a blond Russian princess called Z.Z."— made even the often stoic Burroughs laugh. During his time at the Beat Hotel, Norse began creating his 'random paintings' or Cosmographs (using the hotel's bidet).
"Norse returned to America in 1969 and, with Carnivorous Saint: Gay Poems 1941-1976, became a leading gay liberation poet. For the last 35 years he lived in San Francisco’s Mission District."
Friends have created a memorial website http://haroldnorse.com/ But apparently the bandwidth has been exceeded and you may have difficulty reaching the site.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MALCOLM!
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Bible Primer to Marriage
Pull out your Bibles if ya' got'em
With friends like this…
Who needs enemies?
Rise Up and Shout!
Got some good news in the morning email (almost called it "the post" which has a whole new meaning now) from psychotherapist and filmmaker, Brian Gleason, who works so hard in Los Angeles.
Some of you may be familiar with the Rise Up & Shout! project with which White Crane has been associated. It started in Los Angeles, with people like Brian, Malcolm Boyd, Don Kilhefner, Mark Thompson (I'm leaving out many, may other names of people…this kind of thing takes dozens of people…just don't have them in front of me as I write. I'll find them and include them later, promise) working with young GLBT people in L.A. to produce a talent show showcasing their various and sundry talents.
More importantly, it offered young GLBT people a chance to come in contact with elder GLBT people and let the intergenerational transfer of wisdom and experience mingle with the exuberance and freshness of youth. The first Rise Up & Shout, was a live stage production at the Barnsdall Park theater, directed by award-winning Broadway director, Jim Pentacost, and benefited White Crane, among others. And it was filmed by Brian Gleason.
That film will now receive the wider audience it deserves when it is aired on the Sundance Channel, later this month. The schedule is:
Mon 06/22/09 9:00PM Sat 06/27/09 3:35PM Sun 06/28/09 06:40AM
This is MUST SEE TELEVISION folks! Stirring, inspiring, touching. Worth getting cable for, even.
Check your local listings, as they say, for airtimes in your area.
BUT DON'T MISS THIS WONDERFUL FILM.
The Churches and Marriage Equality
It’s none of your business!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=cI0955I5wXI
…and furthermore…if the churches continue to actively lobby against these particular legislations and participate in the electoral process by taking sides, we need to demand that their nonprofit status be TAKEN AWAY! They have a right to their opinion…but they don't have a right to my tax dollars to promote it.