Arkansas Senate Passes Religion Bill Called Anti-Gay

Arkansas Senate Passes Religion Bill Called Anti-Gay

(Adds comment from Wal-Mart Stores)
By Jon Herskovitz
March 27 (Reuters) – The Arkansas Senate overwhelmingly approved on Friday a Republican-backed bill whose authors say is intended to protect religious freedoms but critics contend could allow businesses to refuse service to gay people.
The Republican governor of Indiana signed into law a similar “religious freedom” bill on Thursday, prompting protests from human rights groups and criticism from some business leaders.
The bill advancing in the Republican-led Arkansas legislature says “governments should not substantially burden the free exercise of religion without compelling justification.”
Supporters say a business should not be forced to, for example, cater a same-sex wedding if doing so would violate the religious beliefs of the owner.
Two of the most powerful companies in the United States, retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which has its home office in Arkansas, and technology giant Apple Inc came out against the measure.
“We feel this legislation is counter to this core basic belief and sends the wrong message about Arkansas, as well as the diverse environment which exists in the state,” a Walmart spokesman said in a statement.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, referring to the measures in the two states, said in a tweet: “Apple is open for everyone. We are deeply disappointed in Indiana’s new law and calling on Arkansas Gov. to veto the similar HB1228.”
The measure passed the Arkansas House in February by a comfortable margin and now goes back to it for consideration of amendments in the Senate version. Governor Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, has said he would sign the measure into law.
A U.S. judge last year struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage but the decision has been put on hold pending appeals. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Steve Barnes; Editing by Sandra Maler)

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/27/arkansas-senate-passes-religion-gays_n_6959104.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Dallas Mayoral Candidate, Anti-LGBT Activist Arrested For Spray-Painting '666' On Gay Landmarks: VIDEO

Dallas Mayoral Candidate, Anti-LGBT Activist Arrested For Spray-Painting '666' On Gay Landmarks: VIDEO

Sheridan

A mayoral candidate and longtime anti-LGBT activist has been arrested and charged with spray-painting “666” on two gay landmarks in Dallas

Richard Sheridan (below), 66, who is running for mayor in May, is charged with vandalizing the Legacy of Love Monument (above) and the Cathedral of Hope (below) last June. 

The monument, in the heart of Dallas’ gayborhood, and the church — known as the world’s largest LGBT congregation — were among 12 sites in the city vandalized with “the number of the beast” in red paint. 

However, Sheridan thus far is charged in only two of the incidents. A grand jury indicted Sheridan for a state jail felony, punishable by up to two years behind bars. If prosecutors treat the case as an anti-gay hate crime, the charges could be enhanced to a third-degree felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. 

The Dallas Morning News reports: 

SheridanIn August, police told The Dallas Morning News that Sheridan was the only person who’d been questioned in the case. Sheridan maintained he didn’t do it: “I’m not guilty, I’m not guilty, I’m not guilty,” he told our Tristan Hallman on August 14 in the lobby of Dallas police headquarters. But Sheridan said he knew who did — and that he agreed with the tags. He also said that despite what police were saying, the tags were “not a hate crime [but] an act of love — and a warning.”

Sheridan, who frequently distributes anti-gay leaflets around Dallas City Hall and has been escorted out of council chambers more than once, took to his Facebook page last summer to admit to having been interviewed twice. He insisted he was merely “representing the person who did it.” In an open letter to Dallas police on August 2, Sheridan claimed that the person who actually tagged the locations “recognizes that there are some in the Gay community, the rabid faction, that wants vengence [sic], wants a ‘scalp’, wants to hang him out to dry, wants to send a message across Dallas and the Nation that (if they get their way) this is what will happen to anyone who dares to call out the immorality of the Gay lifestyle, to reference the Bible in saying that the Gay community is violating Gods laws.”

More from NBCDFW.com

“At no time did he admit to being the person that committed these offenses, but he also did not deny that to be the case either,” said assistant chief Randy Blankenberger. … 

“We also believe that it is likely that Mr. Sheridan selected these locations due to their connection or significant to the LGBT community,” Blankenberger said. …

“These types of crime, that appear to be targeting people based on their sexual orientation or because of their race or religion, those types of crimes are important to the police department to solve,” Blankenberger said. “So we can send a message that everyone is inclusive in the police community.”

Watch NBCDFW.com‘s report, AFTER THE JUMP


John Wright

www.towleroad.com/2015/03/dallas-mayoral-candidate-anti-lgbt-activist-arrested-for-spray-painting-666-on-gay-landmarks.html

Country Radio Fulfills Own Stereotypes By Banning Straight Love Song For Being Too Gay

Country Radio Fulfills Own Stereotypes By Banning Straight Love Song For Being Too Gay

Screen Shot 2015-03-27 at 10.41.26 AMIt would be one thing for us to be annoyed with country radio stations for banning an LGBT-themed song based on a bogus holier-than-thou attitude — we’ve seen that movie before, and the ending is so predictable.

But it’s another thing entirely for those stations to ban a straight country music song because they don’t quite understand the concept and think it’s gay.

Either way, it’s pretty ugly.

The song in question is “Girl Crush” sung by Little Big Town member Karen Fairchild, and the gist of it is a female longing to be a different girl so that she’d be the object of a man’s affection.

Apparently that’s too complex of a thought for some country music fans.

Here’s the chorus:

I want to taste her lips
Yeah, ’cause they taste like you
I want to drown myself
In a bottle of her perfume
I want her long blonde hair
I want her magic touch
Yeah, ’cause maybe then
You’d want me just as much

“You are just promoting the gay agenda on your station and I am changing the channel and never listening to you ever again!!” one idiot from Texas wrote in to say.

In a recent interview, the band was asked, “Is it frustrating to you that here is your song – that is one of the Top 10 sellers for weeks and weeks and weeks – and people on the radio are still afraid to play it because they think it’s a lesbian song?”

Fairchild responded, “Just the fact that we’re still discussing that, number one, there’s so many problems with that whole issue.”

Here’s the jam, which if were drunk and doing whippets all night, maybe we could mistake for a lesbian love song:

h/t: GayStarNews

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/dYSS7WU6oks/country-radio-fulfills-own-stereotypes-by-banning-straight-love-song-for-being-too-gay-20150327

Michigan Civil Rights Commission Endorses Model Local LGBT Non-Discrimination Ordinance

Michigan Civil Rights Commission Endorses Model Local LGBT Non-Discrimination Ordinance

Screen Shot 2015-03-25 at 1.29.36 PMThe Michigan Civil Rights Commission endorsed a model local non-discrimination ordinance that covers sexual orientation and gender identity at a meeting held at the Holocaust Memorial Center on Monday reports the Daily Reporter. The ordinance states that no one should be denied “civil rights or be discriminated against,” on the basis of gender expression, identity and sexual orientation. The model also bars bias based on education, age, disability, race, sex, religion, weight, national origin, marriage or family status. Commission Chairman Arthur Horwitz stated that the ordinance is designed to provide a more cohesive anti-discrimination view for over 30 Michigan municipalities.

Said Horwitz:

“The concept of developing a model non-discrimination ordinance grew from the fact that more than 30 Michigan municipalities have non-discrimination ordinances that vary significantly in their structure, wording and scope… developed model language that municipalities could access if, in their own discretion, they decided they wanted a starting point for their own discussions and deliberations.”

In a January appearance before the commission, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder expressed hope that the GOP-controlled Michigan legislature would continue discussing a bill to add protections for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people to the state civil rights law. However, House Speaker Kevin Cotter, a Midland Republican and American Family Association of Michigan leader, believes the measure is unnecessary saying that gay and gender identity laws are a “solution in search of a nonexistent problem,” and that they “have a history of themselves being discriminatory” in forcing people to choose between their morals or religious beliefs.


Anthony Costello

www.towleroad.com/2015/03/michigan-civil-rights-commission-endorses-model-local-lgbt-non-discrimination-ordinance.html