What this Aaron Schock Sandal says about Us

You have all the posts about Aaron Schock and his 'outing'. It has been very interesting and very telling about our community in so many ways.

I mean, seriously, the way this rumor attracted drama was crazy. We haven't seen a lick of proof about Aaron being gay and all of a sudden, we are asking for his head on a silver platter? Really, folks? Let me list some of the issues I have with this entire thing.

• First of all, the way Itay brought this story up was tacky. It was some Beauty Shop type of gossip and then gave us no proof of his claims. What self-respectful journalist does that? Oh, I know, messy ones.
• That post about Aaron's 7 gayest Instagram pics was childish and tacky. Yes, we all have laughed at Aaron's fashion choices, Hera knows I have. But to stereotype him like that is ridic. The way AmericaBlog did that was no different than straight guys picking of the effeminate kid.
• Reading some of the comments on other posts were very disturbing. We have some truly angry and misguided folks in our community. Child, if you want to see what sadness looks like, check out some of those comments. It will make you think about who is reading our blogs.
• We seem thirsty for drama. Every little thing Aaron was doing, like locking up his social media accounts meant he was hiding his sexuality. Whatever, we all have blocked someone, locked our FB or Twitter accounts to protect out pics and posts. Plus, there was a post about his Instagram pics, why wouldn't he lock those up after all of that?
• What does outing him really accomplish? Who wins? What's gained? The truth is, no one wins. No one. Yeah, we are pulling him out, but what does that really do for our movement? We can keep telling ourselves that outing him because of his anti-gay record is good, but what it really does and set up more misunderstanding about our community.
• All of this energy put on Aaron, could be place on something else. 
• If he is a self-hating gay, then he will suffer. That's his personal Hell, not ours. If he is gay, let him deal with his self-hating ways. The pain of that will eventually eat away at him.

Our thirst for his suffering is a bit much. If he's gay, then he's gay. We continue to live and breathe. We will hold him accountable for his actions, but let's this sleeping jackal lie. No need to pick up the fleas from this mess.

Gay Donors will Support President Obama Re-election efforts

Well I'm glad to know that gay donors are and will be supporting President Obama re-election. After a few years of disillusionment from some gay bloggers and activists, many donors will still stick with Obama.

Politico has more:

Gay donors, though, have only intensified their support and are expected to participate in unprecedented numbers in a “LGBT Gala” DNC fundraiser scheduled for June 23 in New York.


“He’s coming back up in the estimation of the gay community pretty rapidly, and I think justifiably,” said Ethan Geto, a New York lobbyist and key figure in Dean’s gay fundraising, who said many gay supporters had hoped “don’t ask” would be repealed during the president’s first year in office. “When things didn’t happen in [that] time frame and on the track that Obama had held out hope for, people got very disillusioned,” said Geto. “This was the time to strike.”

Others said that Republican candidates’ shots at gay rights in their attempt to appeal to socially conservative Iowa voters had reminded gay donors of the stakes. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum this week said gays and lesbians shouldn’t have the “privilege” of adopting children, while former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty suggested he would block the repeal of the ban on gays in the military, and Donald Trump compared same-sex marriage to faddish golf gear.

“Our community has tasted change, and it’s hard to conceive of going backward,” said Fred Sainz, the vice president for communications for the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay rights group. “It’s hard to conceive of that coming to a screeching halt or reversing — and so it’s a subject of great energy for members of my community and especially those with great resources.”

“Any reservations that a significant number of donors might sit this out have been answered by Donald Trump and the fools in the Republican Party,” said Mixner. “They have become so vehemently anti-gay.”

We know what's at stake. The GOP has come out in full force to stop our goals. Regardless of feelings towards, he has come through from us. So I hope he gets the support he needs.

source

SHOCKER! President Obama had a Strong Standing with LGBT Community before the DADT Repeal

In 2010, many LGBT bloggers try to serve President Obama's head on a platter. They pretty much failed at that attempt; and this piece of info continues the good news.

Polling data conducted by a prominent Democratic firm shows that President Barack Obama's standing in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities was far better than his standing with the public at large, even before he signed into law the repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy banning openly gay servicemembers.


In an October survey conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, 64 percent of self-described LGBT community members said they approved or strongly approved of the way Obama was handling his job. While only 30 percent of all likely voters said the country was headed in the right direction (62 percent said the opposite), 46 percent of LGBT respondents answered "right direction" (49 percent said "wrong direction").

The poll numbers, which had not been previously released, were sent to The Huffington Post on the condition that the full survey not be published. The high-ranking LBGT operative who passed the numbers along cited them as evidence that the gay community was not disaffected with the president prior to November's midterm elections and that they would not lose patience with Obama even if he fails to persuade Congress to move major agenda items in the years ahead. 

So this is interesting and very telling. I wonder if David Mixner or John Aravosis seen this. They should, because if they were already full from Crow, here's comes the Crow meatloaf, tacos and Crow pudding.

source

MSNBC's Cenk Uyguy wants the confused GOP voting Gays to know something...

UPDATE: That GOP/Gay/DOUBLED stuff... maybe not so much

Here is some interesting info that might put some fears to rest. The sample size of this Exit Poll claiming that 1/3 of gays vote GOP, was small.

See here:

It's not clear how widespread the trend is. Hunter College Professor Ken Sherrill, who studies the gay electorate, tells The Upshot that the sample size was small, so the magnitude of gays' shift toward the GOP may be less pronounced than it appears. (About 110 respondents of the 3,800 included in the cable exit polls identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual, representing about 3 percent of all voters.)

He also thinks the shift is more related to the economic downturn than to dissatisfaction with the pace of gay-rights legislation, since there was no reason for voters to believe GOP candidates would be more amenable than Democrats to LGBT issues such as gay marriage or ending the military ban on openly gay service.


"There's no good reason to suggest that the shift was greater than the shift in the electorate as a whole," Sherrill said. "Given there is every reason to believe that LGB voters were as affected or more affected by the economic downturn, it's not surprising to see a shift."

(UPDATE: After reviewing the full data, Sherrill says there was a disproportionate drop in Democratic support among LGB voters compared to Hispanic, black, and young voters. Though the sample size is still very small and thus there's a large margin of error, Sherrill now says the drop may be attributed to "dissatisfaction with the pace of change on LGB rights over the past two years.")

Even with the shift, gay voters remain among the top five demographic groups that vote Democratic.

So, this is kind of better.

source

Gay support for the GOP DOUBLED?

A Sad reality, y'all

Republicans made significant inroads among gay and lesbian voters in the midterm elections, with national exit polls for the House races showing that the GOP captured 31 percent of the vote of this group this year, compared to 19 percent in 2008.


The change from the last midterm elections in 2006 was not quite as large but an increase nevertheless. In 2006, 24 percent supported Republicans. Democrats' share of the gay vote rose from 75 percent in 2006 to 80 percent in 2008 and then dropped to 68 percent in 2010. Each year, approximately 3 percent of voters identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual.

"I have been very concerned over these last two years that the connection between the gay rights community and the Democratic Party is in danger of being broken, because I think expectations were set so high as a result of the 2008 election, and people are extremely disappointed," said Richard Socarides, a former assistant to President Clinton and senior White House adviser on gay rights. 

This is not cute. We should be better than this. If this is what happens when the going get tough, I don't know what's in store.

source

In Orlando: Forums on Gays and the Black Church begins Tonight

The Eddie Long scandal has knocked the top off of the gays and Black church issue. Now (and finally) some churches respond; the Church of Healing and Prosperity in Orlando, will begin their first of three open forums on the issue of gays in black churches tonight.

Bishop RT Davis of the Church of Healing and Prosperity said the sessions, which will include members of the gay community and straight black ministers, were prompted by the scandal involving Bishop Eddie Long in Atlanta. Long, who frequently denounced homosexuality from his megachurch pulpit, is accused of coercing several boys into having sex with him.

“We’ve had our heads in the sand for years about this. We have gay, lesbian and down-low brothers and sisters in our churches, but we have required them to remain in the closet,” Davis said. “With this Bishop Eddie Long situation that has come to the forefront,  this is a hypocrisy that the church can no longer stand on.”

It's a good start, I hope other churches follow their example.

Thanks to Derrick for the tip.


source

Meet the Gay Candidates running for Congress

While we are being hit with stories about DADT, Tea Party, Terry Jones and Lady Gaga, I wanted to take this time to highlight 2 gay candidates running for Congress.

David Cicilline and Steve Pougnet.

Here's some info about them from Edge on the Net:

In Rhode Island, Cicilline is the best known and best-funded candidate in Tuesday’s four-way Democratic primary, having raised more than $1.3 million, about three times the amount of his nearest Democratic rival and of the leading Republican.

He had about $450,000 in his account as of August, according to federal filings, after going on a TV ad spending spree with commercials on seniors and jobs - an important issue in Rhode Island, which had the fourth-worst unemployment rate in the country in July at 11.9 percent. The expected Republican candidate, state Rep. John Loughlin, had just $67,000 in his campaign account. There have been no reliable polls in the race.

Kennedy has for eight terms represented the 1st District, which stretches from blue-collar communities around Providence in the north to the blue-blooded seaside mansions of Newport in the south. Cicilline’s sexual orientation has not been an issue in the race so far, and voters don’t seem to care. Cicilline, who is single, has been attacked by his opponents, but for his record as mayor, not his personal life.

"People are really focused on the issues that are important in their own lives, and what they think the individuals running for Congress can do to respond to the urgent challenges that their families are facing," Cicilline said in an interview. "I think the sexual orientation of candidates in this race, including mine, have been irrelevant to voters, and I think that’s progress."

Pougnet married his longtime partner in 2008, after same-sex marriage was legalized in California but before it was banned by the ballot initiative Proposition 8.

Since 2007, he’s been mayor of Palm Springs, which has a large gay population, and he’s mounting the most serious challenge yet to Bono Mack, who has for 12 years represented the 45th District in California’s Inland Empire, a huge district that stretches from the Arizona border nearly to Los Angeles.

Pougnet had raised more than $1.2 million as of the end of June to Bono Mack’s $1.7 million. That makes Pougnet her best-funded challenger ever. He launched his first TV ad last week in which he says Bono Mack "isn’t getting the job done" on bread-and-butter issues such as jobs and foreclosures.

I wish these guys luck.

The Daily Show tackles Scott Lively's Gay Nazi Fantasy

Gay Reichs

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

New Documentary: Out in the Silence

Please watch
Watch more free documentaries

Following the story of a small American town confronting a firestorm of controversy ignited by a same-sex wedding announcement in the local newspaper, this gripping documentary illustrates the challenges of being an outsider in a conservative rural community and the change that is possible when courageous people break the silence and search for common ground.

For more info, go here