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It’s Time to Know the Truth About Mat Staver and the Liberty Counsel
Over the past few weeks, the Liberty Counsel, a legal organization aimed at “advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family,” has made headlines as Kentucky’s Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis’s attorney.
HRC.org
Oregon Judge One-Ups Kim Davis: I’ll See Your ‘No Gays Allowed’ And Raise You A Hitler!
If Kim Davis ever decides the media coverage is too much to handle and wants to pack it up and head for greener pastures, she might give Marion County, Oregon, a try (apologies to the good people of Marion County).
Once there, she should immediately give Judge Vance D. Day a call to arrange a coffee date. They’d have lots to gab about, chiefly their shared mission to stand in the way of same-sex couples lawfully exercising their rights.
Judge D. Day is the subject of a months-long investigation into his refusal to marry same-sex couples.
Day’s spokesman contends that Day doesn’t have a problem with gay people, per say — he just didn’t want to be a part of their icky weddings.
He instructed his staff that if any same-sex couple sought him as their wedding officiant, they should refuse and tell the couple to look elsewhere.
Judges are sworn to uphold “integrity, impartiality and independence.” Day seems to be focused a bit too much on that third point at the expense of the first two.
And oddly enough, this is miraculously the less offensive of the two allegations against Day.
That’s because he’s also facing scrutiny for hanging a picture of Hitler in the Salem courthouse, because nobody epitomizes integrity and impartiality like Adolf himself.
Yikes.
Dan Tracer
Oregon Judge Who Refused to Perform Same-Sex Marriages Hangs Hitler Picture In Courthouse
An Oregon judge who refused to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies is under investigation by the Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability for accusations that he posted a portrait of Adolf Hitler in a Salem courtroom reports Yahoo! News.
Marion County Circuit Court Judge Vance Day is currently facing an ethics review after accusations surfaced that he selectively screened gay applicants and refused to perform their marriage ceremonies in addition to complaints directed at the judge for posting a picture of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in one of the courtrooms along with other ethics complaints.
However, a court spokesman for Day, Patrick Korten, says the picture was not posted to admire Hitler but to serve as a honor display for veterans’ service in World War II:
“We went to war against Hitler. His picture was there. It was not admiringly. It was him as the epitome of the enemy that we went to fight against.”
The picture in question is a collage submitted by the family of a World War II doctor, filled with memorabilia from the duration of the doctor’s service however, a large picture of Adolf Hitler unfortunately fills most of the frame. Day posted the collage without seeking permission and claims he didn’t know he needed pre-approval to post the collage.
Day is also under investigation for allowing a veteran with a felony to wield a firearm in his presence and unethical use of his judicial powers. A judicial commission for Day is set for Nov. 9, with a formal complaint against Day possibly heading to the Oregon Supreme Court if they find Day guilty of violating judicial codes of conduct and the state’s constitution.
Watch Oregon news station KOIN 6’s interview with Day’s spokesman, Patrick Korten, on Day’s same-sex marriage refusals below:
The post Oregon Judge Who Refused to Perform Same-Sex Marriages Hangs Hitler Picture In Courthouse appeared first on Towleroad.
Anthony Costello
Oregon Judge Who Refused to Perform Same-Sex Marriages Hangs Hitler Picture In Courthouse
The Next LGBT Battle: Sex Ed
Recognizing the dearth of sexual health information for LGBT students, two prominent organizations are pushing for schools to evolve with the times.
Planned Parenthood Federation of American and the Human Rights Campaign are lobbying schools to include more sex ed for young LGBT or questioning students, reports The Boston Globe. Most curriculums have scant sex education to begin with, and even less for those students who fall outside of heterosexual or cisgender descriptions.
Not surprisingly, liberal Massachusetts has the best record when it comes to LGBT-inclusive sex ed, with 44 percent of secondary schools offering pertinent information on safe sex, sexually transmitted infections, and pregnancy. Massachusetts contrasts greatly with numerous Southern and Western states, where any discussion of homosexuality is banned in schools; Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah all fall into that category.
The need for information for LGBT students is great. HIV rates are rising among gay and bi male youth, while lesbian and bisexual girls have unintended pregnancy rates twice that of their straight peers (that can partially be explained by lesbian and bi youth being pressured to conform to societal norms by having straight sex). Transgender students also need accommodation; forcing a child who identifies as one sex to hear lessons intended for the other can be psychologically damaging.
Religious organizations are gearing up to fight the HRC and Planned Parenthood’s initiative, though. The conservative Massachusetts Family Institute does not want to “normalize homosexuality” and instead advocates the teaching of abstinence-only education. Institute president Andrew Beckwith says any discussion other than that is too explicit.
“If you’re teaching about the birds and the bees, there’s no need to talk about anal and oral sex,” Beckwith told the Globe. “It has nothing to do with reproduction.”
Neal Broverman
Kim Davis' Lawyer Says Forcing Clerk To Do Job Is Like Making Her 'Grant A License To Sodomize Children'
The lawyer for Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who briefly went to jail last week after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, said Tuesday that requiring her to issue those documents would be like making her “grant a license to sodomize children.”
Mathew Staver, the Liberty Counsel lawyer representing Davis, made the comments during an interview on the conservative talk radio program “WallBuilders Live.” Right Wing Watch posted audio of the segment.
“A clerk provides licenses to do something,” Staver said. “In this case, they’re licensing… something that is directly contrary to the core of their religious convictions, to engage in sinful activity among same-sex relations, and sanction something that is contrary to the Scriptures, and that is marriage of two people of the same sex.”
Rick Green, who co-hosts the program, prompted Staver to give an example of another “activity… that would be un-biblical and violate [Davis’] beliefs” if people asked for a license to do it.
Staver replied that it would it would be similar to requiring a clerk “to grant a license to engage in pornography, to grant a license to sodomize children or something of that nature… that would be harmful to the people involved in the activity.”
He also said that requiring Davis to issue same-sex marriage licenses would be like forcing a Jewish deli owner to serve pork, or forcing someone to endorse a Ku Klux Klan rally.
Staver said that same-sex couples who want to get a marriage license can easily get one elsewhere.
“It’s not that these people can’t get a license. There’s 130 offices in Kentucky,” he said. “They could go to a different county if they wanted to. Or, alternatively, they could go to a judge within the same county.”
Davis was released from jail Tuesday and appeared briefly at a rally flanked by Staver and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), who is also an opponent of same-sex marriage. Huckabee is one of more than a dozen Republicans seeking their party’s presidential nomination.
“She loves God, she loves people, she loves her work and she will not betray any of those three,” Staver told reporters outside Carter County Detention Center in Grayson, Kentucky, on Tuesday.
When Davis was jailed Thursday for refusing to issue marriage licenses, Staver compared her to the persecuted Jews in Nazi Germany.
“They were evicted from public employment, then boycotted in their private employment, then stigmatized, and that led to the gas chambers,” Staver told Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, during a radio show.
U.S. District Judge David Bunning released Davis from jail after five of her six deputies began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Although Bunning warned that Davis may not interfere with the duties of her deputy clerks, Staver told reporters that his client “cannot and will not violate her conscience.”
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Caitlyn Jenner remembers ‘very little’ about fatal accident in Malibu
Caitlyn Jenner says it’s a ‘worst case scenario’ that she have to serve jail time for her role in a car crash earlier this year in Malibu that left one woman dead.
‘The media wants that picture, don’t they?’ Jenner said on NBC’s The Today Show in an interview that aired Wednesday (9 September). ‘That is the worst case scenario. I don’t know. We’ll see. The men’s county jail. It is an enormous problem that they would put trans-women in a men’s county jail.’
Jenner also opened up about a fatal car accident earlier this year in which her Cadillac SUV rear-ended another vehicle, causing a chain-reaction that resulted in the death of a 69-year-old woman.
If investigators for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department have their way, Jenner will face manslaughter charges in the multi-car crash on Pacific Coast Highway that left Kim Howe dead.
Sheriff’s investigators found that Jenner was driving ‘unsafe for the prevailing road conditions’ because her SUV rear-ended the Lexus being driven by Howe and pushed it into oncoming traffic.
Jenner said she remembers “very little” about the collision but told interviewer Matt Lauer that she was driving under the speed limit.
‘I remember it happening. That’s about it,’ she said. ‘A tragedy like this, you’ll never get over it. You just learn to live with it the best you possibly can.’
It is the Los Angeles district attorney who will what charges, if any, Jenner will face.
The post Caitlyn Jenner remembers ‘very little’ about fatal accident in Malibu appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
www.gaystarnews.com/article/caitlyn-jenner-remembers-very-little-about-fatal-accident-in-malibu/
HRC Hosts United States Conference on AIDS 2015 Pre-Conference
Today, many gathered at HRC’s offices in Washington, D.C., for a pre-conference ahead of the United States Conference (USCA) on AIDS 2015.
HRC.org
It’s Raining Hot Trans Men On Sherry Vine And Peppermint
God bless Mother Nature because we never tire of new covers of the Weather Girls’ classic “It’s Raining Men.” This time it’s drag superstars Sherry Vine and Peppermint sharing vocal duties on the sexual freedom anthem and their video offers a nod to the sexually uninhibited era from the late 1970s – early ’80s when hyper-masculine music clips such as “Let’s Get Physical,” “So Many Men” and “Macho Man” ruled the airwaves and television screens.
“We wanted to do something that was fun and a little bit different from the parodies that Sherry has been doing,” producer Josh Rosenzweig says. “So we thought, what better way to celebrate all the amazing strides we have made this year than by taking an iconic gay anthem and cover it but with a new fun and very modern twist.”
You can watch without your raincoats below.
Jeremy Kinser
ASAPScience Reveals the 9 Best Study Tips For Students: VIDEO
The reputable guys behind ASAPScience are heading back to school in their new video with the 9 best study tips to help students dive into their studies this fall.
College staples such as the all-nighter and listening to music while studying actually prove detrimental to retaining memory, whereas ASAPScience’s 30-minute study suggestions are surprisingly effective, for both the studious and lackadaisical college student.
Check out the 9 most essential study tips, below:
The post ASAPScience Reveals the 9 Best Study Tips For Students: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.
Anthony Costello
ASAPScience Reveals the 9 Best Study Tips For Students: VIDEO
Antigay Judge Revealed to Have Hitler Portrait in His Courthouse
Vance Day, a circuit court judge in Oregon, is already facing multiple ethics complaints for refusing to perform marriages for same-sex couples. And now he’s having to defend a picture of Adolph Hitler he had hung in the courthouse.
Day, the former chairman of the Oregon Republican Party, instructed his staff to refer same-sex couples seeking a marriage to other judges who were willing to perform those ceremonies. Spokesman Patrick Korten said Day’s decision was based on his “deeply-held religious beliefs.”
“It’s an exercise of his religious freedom rights under the First Amendment,” Korten said to Portland NBC affiliate KGW News.
Korten dismissed the complaints about the picture of Hitler as baseless. He says the photo was displayed as part of an exhibit to honor World War II veterans.
“We went to war against Hitler,” Korten told Reuters. “His picture was there. It was not admiringly. It was him as the epitome of the enemy that we went to fight against.” In addition to orchestrating the murder of six million Jews, Hitler led the mass slaughter of thousands of gay men in Nazi Germany.
Day hasn’t performed any marriages for same-sex couples and stopped performing all marriage ceremonies earlier this year. Judges in Marion County are not required to perform marriage ceremonies, but Day’s original decision to only exclude gay and lesbian couples led to the ethics complaint.
Bil Browning
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