Democrat and Republican Homolitical Issues

Both major American political parties love to spend their free time pointing fingers at each other as if their pissing match would result in some kind of Olympic medal. Throughout the history of politics in America, especially in the last few decades, I think both parties are at fault for some rather shady stuff. Both jackass and elephant presidents are rife with scandals in American history. Just to name a few in recent history:  JFK’s (D) numerous known affairs, Richard Nixon’s (R) Watergate Scandal, Ronald Reagan’s (R) Iran-Contra scandal, and Bill Clinton’s (D) Monica Lewinsky Affair, which allowed him to join Andrew Johnson as only the second president to be impeached (what an accolade). 

Whether you watch Fox News or a more liberally biased network like CNN or NBC, there is no shortage of politicians attempting to cockblock the contemporary civil rights movement of our time: homosexual rights. 

The problem I have with these opponents is that while many stand on their soap box with the Bible in one hand, they have their other hand deep inside the closet grabbing at all sorts of proverbial genitalia. For once, this is not a one party issue. It is a bipartisan issue where both parties can humbly admit to having these indiscretions.

Democrat ex New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey is one of my favorite examples of hypocrisy in politics. Only when faced with an embarrassing lawsuit from his ex boytoy did McGreevey announce in the summer of 2004 that he is a gay American. As McGreevey was lobbying against gay folks in the public arena, privately he was having an adulterous affair with a gay man. According to This CNN Article, about six months prior to his public admission he “created same-sex domestic partnerships in New Jersey, but urged New Jersey officials to abide by current laws when the city of Asbury Park issued a marriage license to a same-sex couple in May [2004].” I take no pity on a man who was in a powerful position to push for legislation supporting gay rights, and chose not to, even though he claims he’s known he was gay since childhood. His famous coming out/resignation speech included this tear jerker realization, "At a point in every person's life, one has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world, not as we may want to see it or hope to see it, but as it is…And so, my truth is that I am a gay American." Good for you. I am glad that the inner fabulous in you can now break free. I hope one day you can marry your now current male partner…but it won’t be in New Jersey. No thanks to you.

Former (Republican) California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a same-sex marriage bill in 2005 and 2007. He ultimately terminated (you see what I did there?) any chance homosexual Californian citizens had in obtaining equal rights. His reasoning was due to the fact of him wanting to preserve “traditional family values.” While talking with a Swedish newspaper this winter he said, “I have four wonderful children...well, actually I have five.” During his twenty-five year marriage to Maria Shriver he fathered four children with her, as well as a secret love child with his maid, Mildred Baena (YOLO). I didn’t realize that traditional family values included adultery, cover ups, dishonesty, pay offs and fathering a bastard son. Perhaps those are traditional values in Austria, but those certainly are not All-American values. (Or are they?) During his stint in the governor's office he said, “I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman." This body builder should stick to his brawn, and not rely on his brains, because arguably both his little brain and big brain have gotten him into some hot water these days. Next time he wants to impose his family values on others I think his illegitimate son should be a stark reminder of his own broken moral compass.  

In case you need the lewd imagery

Ex Republican Spokane (Washington State) Mayor Jim West worked tirelessly to eradicate any and all gay rights in his community. He supported a ludicrous bill to ban gays and lesbians from working in daycare centers, schools, and some state agencies. He also supported a bill that obstructs the state from circulating brochures informing citizens how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. He attempted to propose that, "any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person amongst teens [become] a criminal act.” It was later discovered by a local newspaper that for 25 years West was having sexcapades with boys and young men from his community. He was also a frequent patron of gay.com. It was alleged that he offered young men, whom he found online, jobs within the city in exchange for sexual favors. It is a shame that this charlatan was not alive in 2012 to see the state of Washington pass a same sex marriage bill; West passed away of colon cancer in 2006 (karma?).

Our most obvious front runner as the first successful female presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, has been quite the flip flopper on the issue of gay rights. In a 2007 ABC News interview, Hillary Clinton spoke about the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that her widely well-known unfaithful husband, former President Bill Clinton, implemented. During the interview Hillary Clinton finally admitted that “the policy was no longer applicable, and that openly homosexual service members should be allowed to serve in the military.” She went on to say, “We are being deprived of thousands of patriotic men and women who want to serve their country who are bringing skills into the armed services that we desperately need.” I am not sure why this change in heart occurred, but bravo for coming around. I hope if she makes it as the first lady president, then she will find a strapping young male intern to frolic with – tit for tat, Billy-boy. 

Clearly both democrats and republicans have "dropped the ball"

As I just mentioned, former (Democrat) President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law in 1996 during his re-election campaign (I can only assume to appease the conservative democrat voters).  Clinton recently wrote a Washington Post op-ed piece urging its repeal or overturning it by the U.S. Supreme Court. How convenient. Now that he is no longer in any political position to actively persuade congress he is willing to be more liberal. Once he’s out of the highest and most powerful position arguably on the planet he is willing to make a useful and honest decision. Stereotypical politician. He and Hillary have come to the realization that like them, other couples should have the opportunity to express their love through extramarital affairs. How progressive. 

Ex Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a lesbian daughter, was asked by ABC News' Jonathan Karl in July 2012 if he wished he had actively lobbied more for same-sex marriage. Cheney’s response… "Why?" Now here is a man who any daughter would be proud to call their father (sense the sarcasm). 

Ohio Republican senator, Rob Portman is among the more recent flip flops in congress. After revealing that his college aged son is gay he wrote in the Columbia Dispatch, "I have come to believe that if two people are prepared to make a lifetime commitment to love and care for each other in good times and in bad, the government shouldn't deny them the opportunity to get married." So laws can arbitrarily be passed to prevent people from expressing their love through marriage, unless those laws negatively impact the law maker’s family members. Democracy at its best. 

The litany of insular politicians who have been caught with their hands either on their own privates or on others while in office is probably endless. Just like Obama, everyone has the right to “evolve” in their opinions in regards to those living a more flamboyant lifestyle than their own. My problem with those evolving people is the fact that unless their infidelities, closeted behavior or homo family members are exposed then they will continue to reign their prejudicial tyranny in congress. 

When will a US president finally step up and lead the country into the 21^st century? When will law makers consistently do what is right for the advancement of human rights? Right now many countries seem much more advanced than the US when it comes to basic human rights. We would like to believe that our government will pass laws, which allow its people to thrive. They can do this by getting their hands out of their pants and start shaking hands to promote a better future—but please wash your hands and zip up your pants first.

*For a humorous read of the Top 15 Anti-gay Activists caught being gay click here*

In the name of the Father, Son and Homo spirit

This Article appeared both on my facebook newsfeed, as well as amongst the featured stories on CNN's website this weekend. The title actually made me chuckle: “When Christians become a ‘hated minority’.” Christians make up roughly 31% of the world’s nearly 7 billion occupants, which means over 2 billion people in the world proclaim to be Christian. That is hardly a minority. The US, which is not a “Christian nation” (due to the supposed separation of church and state), is estimated to have 79% of Americans identify as Christian. A fella by the name of Peter Sprigg, who is a former evangelical pastor, was quoted saying, “The media will hail someone who comes out of the closet as gay, but someone who simply expresses their personal religious views about homosexual conduct is attacked.” Clearly Mr. Sprigg cannot differentiate between “simply expressing” his “personal religious views” versus expressing them through intense lobbying in Washington, DC against gay rights, and slamming the lifestyle choices of others as an abomination against his own personal beliefs. 

I was a little peeved by the garbage Mr. Sprigg was quoted as saying in the article, so I researched him online. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Drew University, a liberal arts school, and appears to have attempted an acting career. Somehow in life he became a spokesperson for The Family Research Council, a powerful, conservative Christian lobbying group, where he’s discovered a platform to argue that gay marriage is not an issue of civil rights. He has also allegedly linked homosexuality to pedophilia, and has argued homosexuals are trying to brainwash children into accepting homosexuality through public schools. 

I could argue that the Catholic Church has an alleged link to pedophilia – just last month a Catholic priest from St. Louis named William Vatterott was indicted for “underage drinking and inappropriate behavior” as well as possessing images of a boy under the age of 18. (This Article can provide more information about the indictment) According to a 2002 Los Angeles Times poll, of the 1,854 Roman Catholic priests across the United States questioned, 44% of the priests admitted to a “gay subculture” within the priesthood. Where are all of the Catholics and their picket signs for that? If a little less than half of the Catholic priests in America openly admit to a gay subculture existing, then why isn’t Mr. Sprigg lobbying against that in DC? Catholic parents don’t seem to have an issue locking their children in a confessional booth with a raging homo, but god forbid an NBA player comes out of his own figurative closet –all hell breaks loose. 

Simply expressing one’s opinion on another’s lifestyle is by far not the same as accusing them of being a sinner, or trying to make laws blocking those different from you from having the same basic rights that many take for granted. Last week, an ESPN commentator named Chris Broussard said Jason Collins, the first openly gay professional basketball player in the NBA, is living in an “open rebellion to God.” After his controversial remarks, Broussard called in to the New York-based Power 105.1 "Breakfast Club" radio show and said, "I'm fine with homosexuals," insisting that he has at least one gay friend. "I disagree [with being gay], but disagree respectfully ... I don't have any problem with homosexuals." I sense some back pedaling here. He has no problem with homosexuals and apparently has at least one gay friend, but he also believes gay people are living in open rebellion to god? “Open rebellion to God”... “I don’t have any problem with homosexuals”…I don’t see how these two statements go hand in hand. Mr. Broussard is an African American man. I wonder how he would feel if I said "I don’t have any problems with African Americans, because I have at least one African American friend…but...” and then finished with a hypocritical statement. 

 

Back in America’s dark days of slavery, slave owners defended their actions with Bible quotes such as "Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling; and do it with a sincere heart, as though you were serving Christ. Do your work as slaves cheerfully, as though you served the Lord and not merely human beings." (Ephesians 6:5&7) Watch any episode of Roots and you’ll see an actor simulating the southern bible thumping behavior that existed back then. Even as a Caucasian person Roots makes me question what is wrong with those crackers. 

Some Christians preach that people shouldn’t change their view of biblical truth just because times have changed. If that is their only defense to believing homosexuality is “against god’s will,” then they should continue to deny a woman’s ability to preach in church, which is justified by scriptures; and antisemitism should continue to be justified by the claims that Jews killed Jesus. FYI: Sexism and antisemitism are now deemed primarily uncool in our society.

Bryan Litfin, a theology professor at Moody Bible Institute in Illinois, acknowledged that the Bible once sanctioned slavery, but said that the practice was a “cultural expression” that changed over time. I cannot imagine a single African American person with slave ancestry accepting the defense of slavery being a “cultural expression” of the time. Perhaps Litfin, Sprigg, and Broussard could gather up their cronies with picket signs outside of Red Lobster quoting Leviticus 11:10 damning the lobster and shrimp eaters to condemnation: "Put down that lobster tail! Repent!"

For the record, the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama is a non-profit civil rights group that battles and monitors hate groups. Three years ago, it designated the Family Research Council (the powerful lobbying group in DC that Peter Sprigg is a spokesperson for) as a hate group - a characterization the group stridently rejects. A Christian group, who claims to be simply expressing their religious views, is an official “Hate Group”…how ironic. (Sense the sarcasm) Christian terrorism (and other religious terrorism) exists all over the world, where people preach hate and judgment in the name of their god. Perhaps people should put down their pitch forks and torches, and begin to listen to one another. Through dialogue and acceptance, an understanding of cultural differences can flourish between all walks of life.

              Food for thought...Enjoy the shellfish!

No “Ifs, ands, or buts about it” – Separate but Equal...is not equal when there’s a butt in the way

For those of you who don’t know Brown vs. Board of Education was an American Supreme Court decision establishing that separate public schools for black and white students was unconstitutional. This decision occurred in 1954. Almost 60 years ago. Apparently not everybody in America is aware that separate but equal...it not equal. 

While perusing the news yesterday, I came across THIS ARTICLE. It describes a rural county in Georgia which apparently hasn’t leaped into the 21^st century. Wilcox County High School has not had a school sponsored prom for the last four decades; instead, they allow the community and students to have their own private proms, which are segregated by black and white students. Whether or not the proms are separated by skin color voluntarily is irrelevant.  

“Some say some preachers and some parents implicitly encourage segregation...” This answers the question of how voluntary these segregated proms really are. 

"If we're all together and we love each other the way we say we do, then there are no issue[s],” says Mareshia Rucker, a brave student who spearheaded the first integrated prom this year. For the bible thumpers out there, I believe a guy named Mark is quoted as saying “'Love your neighbor as yourself” – but who really follows the bible these days?...Apparently no one who also willingly discriminates against their neighbor for looking or living differently than themselves. 

While attending college at East Carolina University (in North Carolina), at times I thought I had walked into America forty years ago. I exited my car, closed the door to my Hyundai Elantra, aka DeLorean, and was as surprised as Marty McFly. There was a Black student union and a “regular” student union, there were racial tensions at the clubs and professors clearly had it out for the students of color. I had a professor claim that our small, intimate communication class of 14 students was his most intelligent and favorite class in his X amount of years of teaching because there were no “n word” students. I was so angry from his remarks. I had another professor tell me that her young “son had jungle fever,” and refused to let him attend a birthday party of an African American classmate.  I had a roommate (albeit brief) ask me if I had AIDS when she found out I had been to Ghana. The Civil Rights Movement, which peaked in the 60s, did not end racial discrimination. Americans need to do so much more to resolve racial inequality in this country.

While teaching at an urban charter school last year, I asked my students what was worse: the holocaust or slavery. The Nuremberg Laws, which legalized segregation of Jewish people in Germany, lasted for about one decade; whereas, the Jim Crow Laws, which legalized segregation in America, lasted for almost 9 decades. While the Holocaust was a terrible time in our World history, I find it very hypocritical for the American government to think that they’re any better by freeing people across the world from segregation when in fact they had parallel laws on their own soil at the same time.  

“These young girls, I applaud them in one sense because they were willing to do something, but then I look at them and think to myself, there is such a better way of doing this than going to the media," says a Wilcox County local resident named Melissa Davis. If communities are not willing to change, including coveted preachers, parents and teachers, then how else should young people be expected to transform this country into a more modern day, and tolerant society?  Thomas Jefferson cowrote our Declaration of Independence saying, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal… that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” 

I wonder when America will finally realize that all men are truly equal, and no person is less than another for any reason. Surely, the USA should be a forerunner of modernity and an accepting culture backed by laws, which promote equality, rather than stagnating in antiquity and allowing people to promote segregation.

Perhaps Thomas Jefferson is too outdated and we need to listen to someone more contemporary, like Michael Jackson:

For gangs, clubs, and nations
Causing grief in human relations
It's a turf war on a global scale
I'd rather hear both sides of the tale
See, it's not about races
Just places
Faces
Where your blood comes from
Is were your space is
I've seen the bright get duller
I'm not going to spend my life being a color

Don't tell me you agree with me
When I saw you kicking dirt in my eye

But, if you're thinkin' about my baby
It don't matter if you're black or white

I said if you're thinkin' of being my baby
It don't matter if you're black or white

I said if you're thinkin' of being my brother
It don't matter if you're black or white 

Take a bite out of discrimination...and eat both the black and the white- the icing may be different, but the cookie tastes the same.