WATCH: Ted Cruz, Glenn Beck Think Marriage Equality Has Destroyed the Constitution
The right-wing politician and the pundit traded doomsday fantasies now that the freedom to marry has gone nationwide.
Sunnivie Brydum
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Refusal to Grant Marriage Licenses Because of Alleged Religious Conviction Is Based More on Politics and Bigotry Than Scripture
Refusal to Grant Marriage Licenses Because of Alleged Religious Conviction Is Based More on Politics and Bigotry Than Scripture
Clerks have granted marriage licenses to convicted murderers while still in prison despite the Commandment that thou shall not commit murder, but some clerks have decided to draw the line at same-sex marriage licenses–apparently, in their view, a much more serious offense to their religious principles. Have these same clerks refused to grant a marriage license because one or both of the applicants has violated one of the Ten Commandments? Do clerks inquire as to whether the applicants have taken the name of the Lord in vain or failed to keep the Sabbath holy? Have they denied licenses to those who have been convicted of theft or committed adultery? Do or have Catholic clerks refused to give licenses to persons who have been divorced? Can Jewish clerks deny licenses to applicants who eat pork? Critics of the Supreme Court’s decision protecting same-sex marriages, such as Ted Cruz, have suggested that not only is the decision a “violation of the justices’ oath” and a threat to democracy, but it represents an intrusion into religious liberty as well. Nonsense.
As to the first claim, “thwarting the will of the majority” is the duty of the Supreme Court when the majority seeks to impede or interfere with the equal rights of some of its citizens. Neither the states nor Congress have the option of enacting laws that discriminate and violate the Constitution. Matters of constitutional law are decided by the courts—not by the public or its representatives. But the further charge that the decision impinges upon religious liberty is even more absurd. The claim is made that government employees may be required to grant marriage licenses in violation of their religious beliefs. As set forth above, they have had no trouble doing so for much more serious violations of universal religious teachings.
I have no doubt that there are many persons opposed to same-sex marriage for sincere religious beliefs, but I sense that the sudden refusal to grant marriage licenses supposedly based on religious conviction is based more on politics and bigotry than scripture.
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Jimmy Carter believes Jesus would have approved of gay marriage
Jimmy Carter believes Jesus would have approved of gay marriage
Jimmy Carter, president of the US from 1977-81, is a well-known Christian who has spoken out in support of same-sex marriage in the past.
He said this week that he believes his point of view is in line with that of Jesus despite much of the marriage equality opposition being due to people’s religious beliefs.
‘I believe Jesus would approve gay marriage, but that’s just my own personal belief,’ Carter tells HuffPost Live. ‘I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else.’
Carter describes himself as a born again Christian and he still teaches Sunday school classes when he’s at home in Plains, Georgia.
Even though same-sex marriage was not legal in any of the 50 states when Carter was president, he says he has ‘no problem’ with it.
‘I think everyone should have the right to get married regardless of their sex,’ he says.
But, he adds, he is not in favor ‘of the government being able to force a local church congregation to perform gay marriages if they didn’t want to.
‘But these partners should be able to go to the local courthouse or another church and get married.’
Carter is promoting his latest memoir A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety.
The post Jimmy Carter believes Jesus would have approved of gay marriage appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
www.gaystarnews.com/article/jimmy-carter-believes-jesus-would-have-approved-of-gay-marriage/
Tweet: It’s Time for LGBT Equality Around the Clock
Tweet: It’s Time for LGBT Equality Around the Clock
Former President Jimmy Carter Believes Jesus Would Be In Favor Of Gay Marriage
Former President Jimmy Carter Believes Jesus Would Be In Favor Of Gay Marriage
I believe Jesus would approve gay marriage, but that’s just my own personal belief. I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else.”
— Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in an interview with HuffPo
Jeremy Kinser
Transgender Warhol Icon Holly Woodlawn Fights for Life; GoFundMe Campaign Launched to Ease Battle
Transgender Warhol Icon Holly Woodlawn Fights for Life; GoFundMe Campaign Launched to Ease Battle
Transgender Warhol icon Holly Woodlawn is fighting for her life at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, too weak to undergo a biopsy to determine the cause of liver and brain lesions, reports Seth Abramovitch at The Hollywood Reporter.
Woodlawn is now the subject of a GoFundMe campaign launched by her friend and fellow Warhol star Penny Arcade which has reached more than $43,000 as of this posting.
Donations would cover nursing care, and, should it come to that, funeral and burial expenses. Informed of the outpouring of support, Woodlawn was “gobsmacked” by the news, Arcade tells The Hollywood Reporter.
“We just want to create an amount of money that can take care of Holly,” says Arcade, confident the campaign will hit its $50,000 goal. “She gave of herself to the world, she inspired many, many people, she saved many lives and she entertained us. For all of that she deserves to be taken care of at her weakest.”
Writes Arcade on the GoFundMe page:
Holly’s has made it clear that she wants to return home, surrounded by friends and if she must die, she doesn’t want to die in a nursing home. We who love Holly, hope to raise enough funds to continue her care and hopefully bring Holly home with 24 hour nursing care , after she recuperates in a nursing home. Currently, we have no means to achieve these goals, which also include provisions for her funeral and to secure her last resting place. Holly gave visability long before it was comfortable to do so and also gave thousands of people both hope and pleasure.
Woodlawn starred in Warhol’s films Trash (1970, opposite Joe Dallesandro) and Women in Revolt (1972) as well as many theatre productions and later bit parts in films such as Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss. Director George Cukor mounted an unsuccessful Oscar campaign for her work in Trash.
Abramovitch also notes that she was the subject of one of Lou Reed’s most famous hits:
“Holly came from Miami, F.L.A.,” the late rocker sings in the 1972 classic. “Hitchhiked her way across the U.S.A. Plucked her eyebrows on the way. Shaved her legs and then he was a she. She says, ‘Hey, babe, take a walk on the wild side.’ “
You can find the GoFundMe campaign here.
The post Transgender Warhol Icon Holly Woodlawn Fights for Life; GoFundMe Campaign Launched to Ease Battle appeared first on Towleroad.
Andy Towle
Transgender Warhol Icon Holly Woodlawn Fights for Life; GoFundMe Campaign Launched to Ease Battle
STUDY: Bisexuals Have Worse Health Than Gay, Lesbian, or Straight People
STUDY: Bisexuals Have Worse Health Than Gay, Lesbian, or Straight People
A new study confirms bisexuals are facing a health crisis.
Eliel Cruz
(Gender) Transitioning From No to Yes
(Gender) Transitioning From No to Yes
The shift from No to Yes began for me with a talk at Chicago Ideas Week, when I mentioned my sex change surgery on stage before a thousand people. I decided to say No to the muzzle that political correctness imposed and speak out.
How can anyone understand being transgender without feeling free to ask whatever questions they desire? Outrage without justification serves No one. So let’s talk about sex (change)! Where there’s nothing to hide, any shame must fade.
After all, life is (sex) change. At least it was in my case. No more euphemisms or indignation for me, thank you, not when it comes to a medically necessary procedure. What purpose do terms mean if they fail to communicate the ideas behind them?
As a transgender woman, my idea is that men rock – not all, of course, but at least the ones who see past gender. Take, for instance: my dad who called me every day in Thailand after my operation, my surgeon there, more than a dozen Y-chromosome bearing attorneys back home who mentored me as a young lawyer and encourage me to this day, a bunch of male friends and peers in my profession, and a handful of guys I’ve dated seriously since transitioning. There is No question about their manhood; our interactions transcend transgender altogether.
Which begs the question: am I transgender anymore? I feel proud when I read about other transgender women – and men – who live, love and strive to make a go of it just like anyone else. No one is more, or less, than a human being, against all odds, simply human. Aren’t we all too human?
So to hell with keeping secrets out of fear. No to skin and bones in the closet. I want my blood “light,” as the Egyptians refer to people who uplift others. Out, out, damn clot – out, out of the way.
My grandma believed that the purpose of life is to serve other people. For me, work saves the ego from too much introspection by saying No to the self and Yes to the needs of someone else. Every case I handle as a lawyer is of consequence to that particular client’s life – and each story is a personal one thrust into the legal vacuum that feeds on lies of truth and justice.
The aim is always to keep learning through growth. The human experience is a teacher whose lesson remains the same: saying Yes is about living without regret, to the extent that such an ideal is possible, and especially when it comes to moments that make up memory. My mind, for instance, harbors a first kiss that took 21 years to fluoresce.
Yes, I say. Yes.
Yes to the ferocity that surfaces over lost time. Disappointment persuaded me to believe hell hath no fury like a transwoman scorned – but rage catalyzes expression, which in turns bridges one heart to another. I want young transgender people to feel less alone than I did; the genderevolution today is their renaissance.
But lest my enthusiasm be misunderstood, my Yes includes acknowledging sadness in a river of (LGB)Tears. So I confess: Yes, I do long for embrace – a completeness that the Austrian author Hermann Broch described in writing of a young woman losing her virginity in The Guiltless thusly: “And there follows (after a little awkwardness and a little pain, but with the gravity of the self-evident) the primordial surprise, the eternal surprise which – even when it does not, as now, occur for the first time, but has become usual and customary – is always irradiated with the shine of the first time and must always, invariably, come as a surprise: the sinking, the fitting, of two human bodies into one another.”
Yes, I say. Yes I will acceptransgender to the point where I can believe it when a man loves a transgender woman.
Yes from these transgender lips of mine. Yes to sharing in an effort to chip away at stigma until nothing but a statute of Lady Justice is left: in one hand she holds a pair of scales to weigh reality; and in the other, there is a sword for cutting away preconception to reveal Yes at the quick.
Yes, as Edward Gibbon observed in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: “…the energy of the sword is communicated to the pen, and it will be found by experience that the tone of history will rise or fall with the spirit of the age.”
Yes.
This blog entry concludes Part II of the Being Transgender – Naked project. A collection is available here.
If you have enjoyed this project, please check out my book There Is Room For You – Tales From A Transgender Defender’s Heart.
— 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.
Thomas Burgess And His Hot Teammates Become Unlikely Allies Of Australian Marriage Equality
Thomas Burgess And His Hot Teammates Become Unlikely Allies Of Australian Marriage Equality
Here’s one excellent tactic in the fight for Australian marriage equality — enlighten the national pastime with a history of homophobia on the issue, then stand back and let them be the perfect ally.
The most convincing arguments come from the places you’d least expect, so when the National Rugby League decided to join 400 organizations to formally support a campaign encouraging Federal Parliament to pass same-sex marriage, people listen.
Related: This Might Be The Most Rousing Marriage Equality Speech You’ll Hear
Even better, players themselves are entering the conversation. Imagine what it must feel like as a gay youth in Australia to see the culture’s sports idols advocating on behalf of marriage equality. Excuse us, we’ve got — ahem — something in our eye.
Rabbitohs star Thomas Burgess, 23, spoke recently to the Sydney Morning Herald, applauding the NRL’s decision.
“It’s ignorant and old-fashioned [to think] if you’re male you can only love a female,” he said, adding, “Nowadays, anyone can love anyone. And people just need to get over it.”
Speaking about his own gay friends, Burgess reasoned, “I wouldn’t want them to be unhappy in life.”
“One of the NRL’s core values is inclusiveness and we have put in place practices and policies to support and recognise the rights of our LGBTI community. Accordingly, the NRL supports marriage equality,” NRL chief operating officer Suzanne Young said.
Related: PHOTOS: Nude-Selfie-Taking Rugby Hunk Could Find Himself “Working In A Gay Bar”
Burgess also addressed homophobic slurs on the field, saying that players “don’t actually think about what they’re saying. It’s more just a bit of stupidity, really.”
He hopes awareness will help them to “understand that it’s not right.”
“They need to be more educated about it.”
Dan Tracer
Brody Jenner: ‘Caitlyn Is Just A Much Freer Person’ Than Bruce – WATCH
Brody Jenner: ‘Caitlyn Is Just A Much Freer Person’ Than Bruce – WATCH
On The Today Show, Brody Jenner opened up about what his relationship with Caitlyn Jenner has been like since her transition.
Jenner, who also has a new show titled “Sex With Brody” that aims to be a more PG13 version of Howard Stern’s talkshow, revealed that his relationship with Caitlyn far surpasses his relationship with Bruce:
“Well, growing up, I didn’t really have the greatest relationship with Bruce,” Brody explained to TODAY’s Hoda Kotb. “I didn’t see him that often. And Caitlyn is just a much freer person. It’s incredible to see the difference between Caitlyn and Bruce.”
“Bruce and I kind of didn’t really get along. And Caitlyn? It’s literally like trying to get to know somebody — like your dad — over again. But in a better way.”
Jenner adds that part of the reason why there was so much distance in his relationship with Bruce was because, “Bruce had so many secrets, and so many things building up.”
Watch the interview below:
The post Brody Jenner: ‘Caitlyn Is Just A Much Freer Person’ Than Bruce – WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
Sean Mandell
Brody Jenner: ‘Caitlyn Is Just A Much Freer Person’ Than Bruce – WATCH
