Is A Church Being Forced to Perform a Gay Wedding?
I suspect there is a lot of misinformation about the so-called Hitching Post Wedding Chapel case. Here is how fundamentalist anti-gay crusaders at “Alliance Defending (sic) Freedom” present things: “Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order Friday to stop officials in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, from forcing two ordained Christian ministers to perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples.” “The government should not force ordained ministers to act contrary to their faith under threat of jail time and criminal fines,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco.”

Of course, ADF is notoriously unreliable when it comes to stating the facts, and will twist facts until they barely resemble their old selves.

The couple who own the Wedding Chapel are ordained, but running a business, not a church. Nor are they pastors, since they don’t have a church, as ADF claimed. A church can discriminate–and they do so all the time, even when it comes to weddings. The Knapps, however, present the Hitching Post as a business, open to the public, and not as a ministry or religious establishment.

ADF legal filings, however, play up the “ministry” claims. Instead of admitting this is business with no significant religious requirements, ADF refers to this business as a “religious mission.” In addition, the falsely claim that the Knapps “have ensured that mission is respected by barring anyone but themselves and their employees from performing wedding ceremonies at, or on behalf of, the Hitching Post.”

Until this legal case arose Hitching Post stated openly that civil ceremonies were available. They also offered ceremonies in other states and venues where they would help couples plan the wedding and find an officiant. These officiants were NOT employees of the business.

ADF says they opened the chapel “in 1989 as a ministry.” That is a lie and the Hitching Post web page tells the truth. First, Hitching Post existed as a business for decades and was “used for wedding ceremonies for over 50 years.” It was not a ministry, it was a business which “the current owners purchased” in 1989 and which had been privately owned since it was founded in 1919. In one part of the ADF filing they admit this is the Knapp’s “closely-held business,” not a ministry at all.

Nowhere does the Hitching Post refer to themselves as a ministry but they do call themselves a business. I quote their own site where they say they are in “the business of helping couples start their new lives together.” On another site, they advertise saying: “We also carry silk flower arrangements and other wedding items in our business, plus there are several photographers that work with us and local florists as well. Fees vary for distance weddings. Our fee in the chapel is by the wedding, not the hour. ” Please note they are selling “other wedding items in our business.”

Missing are any references to “ministry beliefs.” There is no doctrinal statement, no requirement to be a member of any faith, let alone a specific one. From what I see one does not even have to believe in a god to get married in this chapel–but that is because it has been run as a business, not as a church, for almost 100 years.

ADF wants to present this as ministers being forced to conduct a ceremony. In fact, the Hitching Post doesn’t exclusively perform ceremonies either. They plan weddings for other people as well.

In the past their web page openly admitted they would “marry you using a traditional or civil ceremony” and would also “perform wedding ceremonies of other faiths as well as civil weddings.” Now the ADF claims the business will “only perform ceremonies consistent with their religious beliefs

At no point did the doctrines the Knapps believe restrict their business activity prior to same-sex marriage becoming legal. These admissions were scrubbed from their page after they filed their lawsuit.

Other faiths are happy to perform same-sex weddings. ADF says: “The doctrines of their Church, the International Church of the Foursquare gospel, also make clear that “[m]arriage is a biblical covenant relationship between a man and a woman established initially by God.”

That would be relevant if the Hitching Post were a Church and part of this ultra-fundamentalist sect, but it isn’t. It’s a business and Foursquare doctrine has never played a role in how the business was previously conducted. ADF is rebranding Hitching Post to fit their lawsuit.

What is at issue is that the Hitching Post has been a business, open to the public, with no religious requirements for almost a century, and for most of the time ceremonies were conducted by justices of the peace, until the state abolished that office. The Knapps purchased the business in 1989 and continued to run it as a business, never as a religious institution. They performed non-religious ceremonies and happily allowed ministers of other faiths to perform services whether they were employees or not.

Whether or not it should be the case, anti-discrimination laws–which the ADF loves when it protects fundamentalists–cover private businesses, including this one. That the Knapps got ordained does not change the nature of the business. Being a minister doesn’t make your business a ministry.

If this were a car wash that refused to serve Jews, people would see the case differently, and I doubt the anti-gay bigots at ADF would be involved at all. Even if the car wash were owned by ministers it would not be a ministry. Who owns the business doesn’t change the legal standing of the business from that of a public accommodation, as the Hitching Post is, into a ministry, as the ADF wants to pretend it is.

At the very least people should get their facts straight first. There is no ministry being forced to perform gay marriages. There is a business that is discriminating, not a ministry. Under the law, businesses don’t have the special privileges given to religious groups.

The Knapps never before claimed to run a ministry. They openly presented themselves as running a business. This Hitching Post is not a church, but more similar to a hotel, open to the public and subject to business laws. At the very least people should be clear what is being debated, and it has nothing to do with a church being forced to perform a gay wedding.

www.huffingtonpost.com/james-peron/is-a-church-being-forced_b_6019354.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

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Ebola vs. AIDS, Obama vs. Reagan

Compare and contrast: Ebola vs. AIDS, Obama vs. Reagan. Anyone who continues to defend President Reagan’s response to AIDS is ignoring a history of gross negligence compared with the response to other disease outbreaks in the U.S.

Here’s the first time President Obama’s press secretary was asked about Ebola, on July 30, 2014. Ebola had yet to reach U.S. shores, but two Christian aid workers from America had become infected in Liberia.

Q: Is the President being briefed on the Ebola outbreak in Africa? And will it be addressed at the Africa summit and/or alter the Africa summit in any way?

MR. SCHULTZ: Yes, we continue — well, no, it will not alter the summit, but we do continue to monitor the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Guinea, in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria closely. The President is indeed receiving regular updates, including speaking with his Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor Lisa Monaco as early as yesterday before departing Washington.

The U.S. government, including the Departments of State, Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, USAID and the Department of Defense, continue to provide a range of support and assistance to those countries and multinational organizations responding to the outbreak.

This includes the provision of personal protective equipment and other essential supplies, public health messaging and technical expertise. We’ve actually been engaged in this outbreak since March.

The press waited until Oct. 15 , 1982 — 17 months after the first reported AIDS cases — to ask President Reagan’s press secretary about the “gay plague.” By that time, there had been 593 reported cases in the U.S., and 243 deaths.

Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement — the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?

MR. SPEAKES: What’s AIDS?

Q: Over a third of them have died. It’s known as “gay plague.” (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it’s a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?

MR. SPEAKES: I don’t have it. Do you? (Laughter.)

Q: No, I don’t.

MR. SPEAKES: You didn’t answer my question.

Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President —

MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)

Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?

MR. SPEAKES: No, I don’t know anything about it, Lester.

Q: Does the President, does anybody in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?

MR. SPEAKES: I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s been any —

Q: Nobody knows?

MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.

Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping —

MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he’s had no — (laughter) — no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.

Q: The President doesn’t have gay plague, is that what you’re saying or what?

MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn’t say that.

Q: Didn’t say that?

MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn’t you stay there? (Laughter.)

Q: Because I love you, Larry, that’s why. (Laughter.)

MR. SPEAKES: Oh, I see. Just don’t put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)

Q: Oh, I retract that.

MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.

Q: It’s too late.

(Crying.)

www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-staley/ebola-vs-aids-obama-vs-reagan_b_6008652.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

15-Year-Old Kentucky Boy Gang Raped By Five Men In Videotaped Assault

Sam-Miller, Dayton-Ross-Jones and Tyler-Riess-Perry

Five suspects have been arrested in the brutal gang rape of a 15-year-old boy in Hopkinsville, Kentucky that left the victim with a punctured colon and injured bladder.

The attack happened at a house party on October 12 and was captured on video then shared via Snapchat. Authorities are not yet sure if the footage was also shared online.

Sam Miller, 18, Dayton Ross Jones, 20, and Tyler Riess Perry, 19, along with two other young men, both aged 17, have all been arrested and charged in connection with the rape that left the unnamed victim in critical condition and rocked the small town of Hopkinsville.

Miller is the most recent person to be arrested. He’s been charged him with sodomy, first degree; promoting a minor in a sex performance; use of a minor in a sex performance; distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor. His bond is set at $1 million.

Police have not released many details about the incident, or a possible motive, but they did say the victim knew his attackers.

“We haven’t uncovered any kind of premeditated plans,” Christian County sheriff’s Capt. Chris Miller told media.

The 15-year-old spent several days in intensive care at Gateway Medical Center in Clarksville, TN before returning home on Sunday. He is expected to make a full recovery.

Authorities say they are still interviewing people and that more arrests are possible.

Related stories:

Youth Pastor Tries To Rape Gay Teen Straight, Threatens Him With “Warlock Powers” To Stay Quiet

Teacher Allegedly Raped Gay Mississippi Teen To “Make Him Hate Men”

Gay Porn Star Mike Dozer Charged With Statutory Rape Of 14-Year-Old He Met Online

Graham Gremore

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/3pC2eJbwVWw/15-year-old-kentucky-boy-gang-raped-by-five-men-in-videotaped-assault-20141020

The Word Isn't Normal. The Word Is Mainstream.

I came across this article on the lovely Jillian Michaels. In this article she admits that it would be “a dream” to be straight. Because I have no social life, I read the comments about her statement, and the majority purported that she was homophobic. The overwhelming theme was “don’t tell me I’m not normal.”

My first problem is the choice of the word “normal.” I think the appropriate word is “mainstream.” Gay people are normal human beings, and what makes them different is just like what makes straight people different: personalities, triggers, childhood issues, addiction or mental health issues. Gay people are as “normal” as heteros.

But they are not mainstream. Let’s be honest, it is way harder to be gay parent than a straight one. It is harder to be a gay person than a straight one, and let’s not even talk about gender differences because even gay people are not as accepting as they should be about transgender individuals. Let’s be honest here, we’re all a little gender queer, if we really understand the spectrum. People were not made to fit into static molds. But the gay world is not always much more accepting than the straight one. But, as I said, that it a different issue than the one I’m addressing here.

It’s not cool to say it sucks sometimes being gay. You are a traitor for those words, even though we all know it’s true. We know we will be discriminated in jobs. We know we risk our safety. We know our children will be harassed on the playground. There is no reason to not acknowledge that life doesn’t suck more for gay people than straight people.

It’s not homophobia for a gay person to admit that life would be easier if they were mainstream. It’s the same as saying that life is easier for white skinny, attractive people who come from stable homes. Just because it’s wrong doesn’t mean it’s not true.

The vocal comment thread majority should not be attacking people. We should be attacking society. Backlash towards a gay person who says “this is harder than being straight” should be directed at the straight world. The word is NOT normal. The word is mainstream. And any part of you that is not mainstream will cause you suffering, unless we work to change society.

Yeah, it sucks sometimes to be gay. it’s OK to say it. The problem isn’t in admitting it, the problem is that the world needs changing. direct our anger where it belongs.

If a black person says it is easier to be white, they are right, and society needs to change.

If a gay person says it is easier to be straight, they are right, and society needs to change.

If a transgender person says it is easier to be cis gender, they are right and society needs to change.

If an overweight person says it is easier to be skinny, they are right, and society needs to change.

We have every right to be portaged, but the outrage needs to be against society, not against people who admit that is IS easier to be mainstream. Let’s be hoest we all know it is easier to be white bread middle of the line America. But easier doesn’t mean better. We should all be outraged.

www.huffingtonpost.com/lara-lillibridge/the-word-isnt-normal-the-_b_6006854.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices