In what has thankfully become national headlines, Largo, Florida should be thoroughly ashamed of itself for firing long time City Manager Steve Stanton.

Steve Stanton has worked for as a public servant for over 14 years. He has served his community so well that just recently he was given huge praise for his work and a sizable raise for his outstanding work. So why was he fired?

Steve Stanton was fired by the Largo City Council because he was forced to announce that he was transgender and planning on transitioning to a female, the gender of which he was not physically born into, but that he was mentally born into. Not familiar with transgender issues? Go read up on the subject on Wikipedia. (Transgender, Gender Dysphoria)

Stanton served. Served with a great passion for his community. Served so well, that as we stated below was recently just given a very respectable raise in salary. He was and still is view by many as an exemplary employee of the city. But late last night after hours of testimony, Stanton's appeal to his termination was upheld, 5-2.

The Commission's decision to terminate is a stunning demonstration of bias and intolerance. By choosing discrimination over inclusiveness, the City Commissioners failed Stanton and failed their city.

Largo directly violated THEIR OWN non-discrimination policy as well as state and federal laws.

Steve Stanton, we stand behind you. We applaud your bold and courageous stand against blatant discrimination.

Shame on you Largo, Florida, shame on you.

Labels: anti gay, discrimination, florida, steve stanton, transgender

Today in an overwhelming show of support against discrimination, the Oregon Senate voted 21-7 on Senate Bill 2, a bill that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in Oregon.

Obviously, with a vote of 21, there were plenty of Republicans who stood shoulder-to-shoulder against discrimination.

Unlike last session with SB 1000, the floor speeches for SB 2 were much shorter and just as expected. The extreme right-wing argued about the "lack of religious exemptions" even though there is a VERY broad exemption for churches (see last post). They claimed that if there was a larger religious exemption, that they would have voted for it. BULLSHIT.

Why is that? Because not only is there an amazingly broad religious exemption in Senate Bill 2, there is also the Oregon State and Federal Constitution that clearly lays that out in not only the 1st, but also the 14th.

Now it's on to the Oregon House! Here is a list of the 21 amazing Oregon Senators that voted to stamp out discrimination:

Sen. Brad Avakian
Sen. Alan Bates
Sen. Majority Leader Kate Brown
Sen. Ginny Burdick
Sen. President Peter Courtney
Sen. Ryan Deckert
Sen. Richard Devlin
Sen. Avel Gordly
Sen. Betsy Johnson
Sen. Rick Metsger
Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson
Sen. Rod Monroe
Sen. Bill Morrisette
Sen. Frank Morse
Sen. David Nelson
Sen. Floyd Prozanski
Sen. Kurt Schrader
Sen. Joanne Verger
Sen. Vicki Walker
Sen. Ben Westlund
Sen. Jackie Winters

Then there were also two Senators that were excused from the vote today. Sen. Carter and Sen. Atkinson.

-GS

Labels: basic rights oregon, discrimination, gay rights, legislature, SB 2

Yet again The Oregon Family Council is spreading false statements about Senate Bill 2. Senate Bill two, which will be voted on tomorrow (Wednesday) in the Oregon Senate, is a comprehensive, statewide anti-discrimination bill that would outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation (yes our straight friends too!) and gender identity. It is expeccted to pass tomorrow as well.

So what is the Oregon Family Council saying? Well since you asked!

OFC claims:

SB 2, will grant special minority status protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals.

What I have to say about that...
If getting NOT getting fired from your job SIMPLY based on being gay or lesbian is a special right... then you are right, OFC. If being kicked out of a restaurant SIMPLY because you are gay is a "special right" then I sincerely apologize to the OFC. If being denied an apartment SIMPLY because you are a lesbian should be legal, then I apologize to the OFC.

Give me a break. If you for a second think that these three above things are "special rights" then you are severely mislead and frankly your arguments do not stand the rational basis test.

Second, the OFC claims:

They claim "The bill contains an inadequate religious exemption, and organizations such as churches, rescue missions or private schools could be legally forced to hire people based on their sexual orientation. What’s worse, the bill ultimately leaves it up to a judge to decide the “primary purpose” of a church, mosque, synagogue or other religious organization. Shouldn’t any group be free to decide their own purpose?"

What I have to say about that...
Give me a break. Read the bill bigots. The bill clearly states the opposite of what you claim and it is one of the broadest religious exemptions in the U.S.

Senate Bill 2 STILL protects bona fide churches and sectarian institutions in their employment practices; SB 2 would NOT force churches to hire an employee if that employee's sexual orientation is in conflict with church tenets-as long as the employment is related to the primary purposes of the church or religious institution.

AND.

Senate Bill 2, DOES NOT as The Oregon Family Council claims, creates new language in statute "leaving it up to a court to decide what is or is not 'closely connected with the primary purposes of the church.'" This exact language already exists in Oregon's current anti-discrimination statute (ORS 659A.006, Section 2, Sub C).

So stop whining, Christian extremists, about not being allowed to deny GLBT people basic human rights. Don't worry, you still have the full constitutional right to discriminate on any grounds that "do not meet your religious tenants".

Labels: discrimination, gay rights, legislature, oregon

Male escort, Mike Jones, who was responsible for bringing down Ted Haggard, recently put up the massage table he "used with Ted Haggard"--up on eBay. No seriously... Mike Jones described the purple massage table as, "where it all happened".

A day before bidding was to end, eBay took down the auction claiming the sale violated eBay's fundraising policy. All money was going to be donated to Project Angel Heart, an organization that delivers meals to people living with HIV/AIDS.

Personally, I think it is a bunch of bullshit for eBay to take the auction down. Supposedly an "ex-gay" organization had it's "members" write a bunch of emails and complain to eBay.

The price for the table prior to them taking it down was $1275.00--it started at $400.

-GS

Labels: evangelical

Tomorrow, the Oregon Senate is expected to vote and pass Senate Bill 2, The Oregon Equality Act. The Oregon Equality Act is a bill designed to ban discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender folks in areas of housing, employment and public accommodation.

Session starts tomorrow between 10am-11am. Once passed in the Senate, it'll move over to the Oregon House and it is expected to pass there as well. Governor Kulongoski has pledged to sign the bill. The passage of of Senate Bill 2 will make Oregon the 18th state in the U.S. to have some sort of anti-discrimination legislation protecting the GLBT community. Washington State was the 17th.

More to come tomorrow.

Labels: basic rights oregon, discrimination, gay rights, oregon, SB 2

Since introduced in Oregon on February 26th, Senate Bill 2, The Oregon Equality Act--a bill that would outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation is moving quickly. It had its Senate hearing just 15 days later on March 13th, passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee after 6 hours of public testimony, and now is looking to find its place on the Oregon Senate floor any day now.

In the other chamber, House Bill 2007 (Civil unions) are moving at a different pace. After talking to a few staffers in Salem this week it sounds as if HB 2007, the Oregon Family Fairness Act (civil unions) will get its first hearing in early April, the house will vote out SB 2 and then send Hb 2007 on to the Oregon House for a vote, then it's on the Governor Kulongoski for two big fat signatures.

Loves it.

-G.S.

Labels: civil union, discrimination, legislature, oregon, SB 2

Well at least that is what the Under Secretary of Defense is claiming, or not claiming--then claiming.

From Slate.com

For years, the Pentagon has defended its ban on gays and lesbians by repeating the mantra that "homosexuality is incompatible with military service." But as evidence has mounted that gays serve openly in dozens of countries including the United States without harming unit cohesion, the military has grown increasingly incoherent in defending the "don't ask, don't tell" gay exclusion.

For some years, the military has been trying to pass the buck back to Congress, suggesting the gay ban isn't the fault of the Pentagon, which merely "implements a federal law" from 1993, as obligated. But in recent weeks, the military has unveiled several new defenses of the gay ban. Each of them is bizarre, and as a group they make no sense at all.

Yesterday, Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Chicago Tribune (registration required) that open gays should not serve in the military because homosexuality is "immoral." Pace said, "I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts." He said he did not think the military was "well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way" and compared homosexual conduct to adultery. Today, Pace retreated from his comments, saying, "I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views."

That would have been a good idea.

Even so, Pace's frank acknowledgement that his opposition to gay service is moral signals a departure from the carefully constructed "effectiveness" argument that the military used for more than a decade. In 1993, when military leaders developed a strategy to prevent President Clinton from lifting the gay ban, some members met with leaders of the religious right, who urged them to oppose gay service on moral grounds. But Colin Powell and other senior officials decided it would be more effective to resist the change on the grounds of military effectiveness. The "unit cohesion" argument was born of this conversation, which argues that straight soldiers dislike gays so much that unit cohesion would suffer if known gays were allowed to serve.

Pace was also contradicting the Pentagon's own brand new justification for leaving the ban in place. According to the military, even talking about gays in the military will undermine the war on terror. In a February letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, Undersecretary of Defense David Chu said that a "national debate" on lifting the gay ban, "with the accompanying divisiveness and turbulence across our country, will compound the burden of the war." As a result of this conclusion, he "question[s] the wisdom of advocating a change."

This is an astonishing claim for Chu to make—that not only must gays conceal their homosexuality to protect unit cohesion, but the entire country must avoid discussing homosexuality or else it will undermine the war effort. By this reasoning, we should ban discussion of whether to increase troops in Iraq and prohibit an inquiry into conditions at Walter Reed.

Read the rest over at Slate.com.

Labels: anti gay, bush, DADT, discrimination, military

Tonight, the Oregon senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 2, the bill that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. The bill passed on a 3-1 vote, with Sen. Beyer absent from the vote. Senate Bill 2 would ban legalized discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Oregon--a bill that is over 3 decades in the making... or is it three decades overdue?

In any case, it is on its way to the Senate floor. Fmr. Oregon Senator Starr opened the day by letting the committee know that "Gays have an average lifespan of 40 years" and that "Gays on average will have 4 STD's". Good to know right? This in comparison was better to last sessions comment on the "amount of fecal matter one consumes in their lifetime". No yeah, this guy believes what he is saying.

From BRO:

Today, after 6 hours of public and invited testimony--the Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 2, The Oregon Equality Act, by a 3-1 vote. The Oregon Equality Act is a bill that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Oregon and ensure basic fairness to all of Oregon's citizens.

"Today's vote is a significant step toward ensuring that in Oregon the inherent values of fairness and equality reign over prejudice and fear,” said Basic Rights Oregon Interim Executive Director Aisling Coghlan. "In passing Senate Bill 2 the Senate Judiciary Committee has sent a clear message that discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their families is wrong and has absolutely no place in the State of Oregon."

Basic Rights Oregon applauds the commitment, courage and determination of Committee Chair, Senator Ginny Burdick, Senator Vicki Walker, and Senator Floyd Prozanski who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee and voted in favor of basic fairness for all Oregonians.

Senate Bill 2 will now move to the Senate Floor for a full vote.

So here we go again. Most of us will remember Senate Bill 1000 last session here in Oregon. SB 1000 would have not only banned discrimination based on sexual orientation, as well as created civil unions for same-sex couples.

Labels: basic rights oregon, discrimination, legislature, oregon, SB 2

Oregon's Senate Bill 2, the "Oregon Equality Act", a bill that would ban discrimination against GLBT folks in employment, housing and public accommodation, looks to be on a fast track.

On Thursday it was announced that a hearing had been scheduled by the Senate Judiciary Committee for this Monday at 5:30pm. If this is anything like last session, it could go very late into the night, as in into the wee morning hours. Hopefully that won't be the case.

From Basic Rights Oregon:

With the Day of Action being such a huge success, the Oregon Senate scheduled a hearing this Monday! On Thursday, the Senate confirmed that a public hearing on Senate Bill 2 – the Oregon Equality Act – is scheduled for THIS MONDAY the 12th at 5:30pm at the Capitol.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing open to the public on SB 2, a comprehensive bill that would outlaw discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation based on sexual orientation. Basic Rights Oregon is strongly encouraging our community and allies to attend this hearing if at all possible.

It is unsure if the committee would do a work session following the testimony. If they did, and subsequently voted it out of committee, SB 2 would be well on its way to the Senate Floor and then onto the House for a vote.

Labels: basic rights oregon, discrimination, gay rights, kulongoski, oregon, SB 2

Ann Coulter begins to see the backlash of her anti-gay slurs that she made last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Three large companies have pulled ads from her website... more expected. Republicans and Democrats alike have released statements condemning Coulter for calling John Edwards a "faggot".

At least three major companies want their ads pulled from Ann Coulter's Web site, following customer complaints about the right-wing commentator referring to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards as a "faggot."

Verizon, Sallie Mae and Georgia-based NetBank each said they didn't know their ads were on AnnCoulter.com until they received the complaints.

A diarist at the liberal blog DailyKos.com posted contact information for dozens of companies with ads on Coulter's site after the commentator made her remarks about Edwards at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Friday.

"One of the best ways to communicate one's distaste for Coulter's repeated incidents of hate speech is to respectfully but firmly let her advertisers know you are deeply troubled by their indirect support of bigotry through their advertising on Coulter's Web site," the blogger VolvoDrivingLiberal wrote on DailyKos.com on Sunday.

Verizon, Sallie Mae and NetBank said the ads were put on a variety of sites by a third party company. In many cases, advertisers do not know which sites feature their ads.

"Per our policy, the networked Web site ad purchases are supposed to be stripped of certain kinds of Web sites," said a Verizon spokesperson. "This one could be considered an extreme political Web site, should be off the list, and now it is off the list."

A Sallie Mae spokesperson said the company was only testing an online advertising agency, and that their ads were not meant to show up on Coulter's site. The company said they planned to pull ads from other political and religious Web sites as well.

A spokesperson for NetBank said Coulter's page "is not the kind of site we want to be on."

via CNN

Labels: ann coulter, anti gay, evangelical, republican

In a follow up to yesterday's story, here is the video...



So disgusting.

Labels: anti gay, evangelical, mitt romney, republican

Disgusting. Ann Coulter is absolutely vile.

Today, at the Conservative Political Action Conference sponsored by the American Conservative Union, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter spoke saying, "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I--so kind of an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards."

Audience members said "ohhh" and then cheered.

The Conservative Political Action Conference was attended by 2008 Republican Presidential candidates: Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and former Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA). Vice President Dick Cheney also attended the event.

See a video here.

The Human Rights Campaign made the following statements:

"To interject this word into American political discourse is a vile and disgusting way to sink the debate to a new, all-time low," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "Make no doubt about it, these remarks go directly against what our Founding Fathers intended and have no place on the schoolyard, much less our country's political arena."

"It is clear that some in the Republican Party plan to run in 2008 the same way they did in 2004, by using discrimination to divide the country and rally their base," said Solmonese. "But, 2008 is not 2004, and this time the politics of fear and smear will not work. The American people are tired of those who would rather divide than unite."

"We demand that every single Presidential candidate in attendance at this conference, along with Vice President Cheney stand up and publicly condemn this type of gutter-style politics," continued Solmonese. "If not, then their silence will be deafening to the vast majority of Americans who believe this type of language belongs no where near the discussions about the future of our country."

Labels: anti gay, mary cheney, mitt romney, republican

The Washington State Senate has passed a measure that would create domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.

It passed on a 28-19 vote over the objections of opponents who say the measure is essentially the same as gay marriage. Although if you look at the extreme lack of protections and rights this bill grants--any person with a brain can figure out that this bill comes VERY short of marriage.

The bill now goes to the House. Governor Gregoire is expected to sign it if it reaches her desk and speculation from sources tells us that it should pass the Washington House.

The bill would create a domestic partnership registry with the state. It would enhance rights for same-sex couples, including hospital visitation, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations, and inheritance rights when there is no will. To be registered, couples would have to share a home and not be married.

On a side note, this bill also cover straight couples where one partner is 62 or older.

Labels: domestic partnership, gay rights, legislature, washington