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I’m curious to know if the Anit-Equality petitioners are on target to get the signatures they need or not. Can you give us an update?
I cannot believe this statement from David Crowe, of Concerned Oregonians:
“What are we, bad folks? I don’t think so. I think we’re good people who are exercising our rights to express our view. I think a lot of Oregonians would say why are they doing that? Are they doing that to intimidate us or make us fearful? To me, that’s just not what America is about.”
David…”Bad folks?”
You’re trying to make the relationships of other loving couples less stable…more vulnerable…YOU ARE HURTING STRANGERS.
“What are we, bad folks?” is a response to feelings of being perceived as a bad person. Imagine how you and those like you make gay people feel each and every day.
It’s really funny to me that those who are calling gay people bad people (because that’s what they’re really saying by trying to dismantle these two laws, particularly the one re: domestic partnerships), are feeling what it’s like to be publicly perceived as being “bad folks,” because that’s what the opposition to GLBT equally does everyday: contributes to the societal hostility against people they deem to be bad…gay people.
KTN, “making people more fearful?”
As if trying to put other loving couples’ relationships in a vulnerable position isn’t creating a “fearful” situation for those couples. I mean, seriously, what nerve you have!
In Massachusetts, the opposition called us everything from pedophiles to evil, and when we attacked back with righteous anger, they called us “irrational haters.”
It boggles the mind.
I think David Crowe is perhaps a good person doing a very bad thing…he’s not simply using his right to be heard on an issue - he’s advocating for the removal of rights for his fellow citizens, and THAT is deplorable.
So, Dave. Wake up.
I don’t know enough about you to call you “bad folk,” but I’m willing to propose that you keep yourself gleefully ignorant to the lives and the hardships of gay people so that you won’t feel like “a bad person” when you aggressively perpetuate this battle against their civil rights and full equality, which, sir…
IS what this country is supposed to be about.
You’ve remained willfully blind and to the detriment of countless loving couples who simply want to live their lives with the same rights as you, without you having a say in their “lifestyle.”
Groups like yours, sir, should be proponents of gay rights, regardless of how you feel about gay people, because THAT is what this country is SUPPOSED TO BE about…
I propose that the folks at Concerned Oregonians, and their supporters, focus their attention less on stripping rights from their fellow citizens, and more on how our government has prostituted themes like family values, freedom, liberty, justice, and moral righteousness to manipulate the people of our country into supporting and perpetuating an immoral and unjust war.
Of course, interestingly enough, the same people who are fervently anti-gay are also the first people to condemn you if you dare question the war and challenge the integrity of those in power.
Again, backwards priorities.
I’ll call David Crowe a bad person. With the marriage issue settled, to go to these lengths to deny people such watered-down basics as power of attorney, hospital visitation and inheritance rights is so lacking in empathy as to rise to the level of sociopathic.
Mad John, I agree completely. I am always amazed at these people’s astonishing lack of conscience.
I was trying to be fair and charitable…but you’re right.
I’ve researched Concerned Oregonians and perused its website. These people need to go to a bigots’ social with the folks from MassResistance.
These are just infuriating:
“circumvents our nation’s traditional or moral standards”
[NOTE: There is no hidden language with these people…gay person = bad person, that’s it, that’s ALL)
“homosexuality is not normal”
[NOTE: These are the folks who are indeed going to be left behind by social progress and justice…enlightened, spiritually rich people know homosexuality is just a fact of life…certainly not some arbitrary choice]
“diversity hypocrisy”
[NOTE:
*** There is NO diversity hypocrisy. You don’t see gay people starting websites and petitions TO TAKE OTHER PEOPLE’S RIGHTS AWAY. ***
*** Our actions do not unwittingly promote anti-heterosexual violence and aggression ***
Gays are tolerant of our enemies (i.e. usually religious folk, usually traditionalists/Christians) in that we SIMPLY WISH TO HAVE THE RIGHTS THEY HAVE, WHILE CO-EXISTING AS EQUAL CONTRIBUTORS TO SOCIETY (of course, they see us as “filth,” absolutely undeserving of common respect, as their website will attest).
However, the second you spew vile lies and misconceptions about us, in a public forum, which contribute to acts of hate and hostility towards the GLBT community, well, that’s when we’re downright INTOLERANCE.
I am SICK of hearing about “diversity hypocrisy” when the loudest and most active bigots have their “call to justice” answered.
When bigotry is fueled by a sense of moral superiority, of course those committing the bigoted acts are going to cry victim when they are attacked in turn for their hostility; they don’t understand that their voice is one of exclusion and condemnation…our voice, in return, has been one of intolerance for injustices being perpetrated against us.
Still, it will always boggle my mind how these people lack so much insight, intellect, and compassion…AND ARE FINE WITH THAT.
Pardon me, a correction:
However, the second you spew vile lies and misconceptions about us, in a public forum, which contribute to acts of hate and hostility towards the GLBT community, well, that’s when we’re downright INTOLERANT.
Intolerant?
YES
Hypocritical?
NO
So what happened??? Wasn’t Sept. 23rd the deadline to turn in the petitions? Does anyone know how many signatures they claimed to have turned in? I haven’t seen anything, unless I’m wrong about the deadline date. Who can update us?
Mikey
Ahhh yes the egregious bigots in Oregon rear their ugly, religious heads YET AGAIN! I dealt with these “righteous” fuckwads back in ‘92! They are completely RELENTLESS and APATHETIC crudfucks! Plain and simple! Ain’t no other way to describe these halfwits! Get ready for another WW3 Oregon! This time around there’ll be a bit more accountability thanks to KTN. =))
Fabricated fears about hate crime legislation
By Cornel West and Sylvia Rhue | September 25, 2007
AMERICANS who understand basic principles of justice have no problems with the hate crime bill known as the Matthew Shepard Act. This legislation, now awaiting a vote in the Senate, would finally protect the many citizens who are targeted for violence simply because of their sexual orientation and gender identity, and it would provide law enforcement the necessary resources to investigate bias-fueled brutality.
Unfortunately, some clergy across the nation have joined together to oppose this bill in an aggressive and divisive manner. For instance, conservative African-American leaders - most notably Bishop Harry Jackson of Maryland’s Hope Christian Church - have been inundating the media and faith communities with the message that this legislation will allow police to storm into worship services and arrest clergy if they speak against being gay. They make the incendiary allegation that the bill will create “thought crimes” by punishing people for thinking ill of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
The truth is that the Matthew Shepard Act protects all First Amendment rights. And, although that is a given, this bill goes out of its way to protect the free speech of ministers. Those pastors who wish to continue condemning and dehumanizing the gay community will be free to do so.
The hate crimes bill provides resources for the investigation of violent actions - not beliefs, thoughts, or words. The proposed federal statute does not punish nor prohibit free expression of one’s religious beliefs. As University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey R. Stone recently concluded, “The argument of the pastors that the proposed legislation in any way threatens their right to preach their version of the Gospel is, to be frank, ridiculous.”
Despite the ridiculousness of their claims, the powerful and cash-rich antigay lobby continues to mold opinion against this legislation with fear and falsehoods. Leaders like Jackson have used provocative “thought crime” arguments to obscure the truth that, according to the FBI, 1,017 people were the targets of violent crimes in 2005 because of their sexual orientation.
Their rhetoric steals attention away from the stories of gay couples being viciously beaten for holding each other’s hand in public or a flight attendant sought out to be heinously murdered simply because he was gay.
These preachers don’t care to hear the thousands of stories of lives and communities scarred by antigay violence. And, conveniently, those who bring up the reality that the Matthew Shepard Act is a constitutional and important means to prevent antigay violence are labeled by these clergy as “anti-Christian.” The good intentions of this legislation have been greeted by malice by these manipulators of fact.
The efforts of antigay preachers and their supporters is not the way to create the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a “Beloved Community” - where we all strive to treat each other with respect and compassion.
The way to start building such a community is to listen to the words of Gordon Smith, the Republican senator from Oregon who is cosponsoring the Matthew Shepard Act. Before his fellow senators, Smith declared, “I believe that the moral imperative that underpins hate crimes legislation is simply this, and it comes from sacred writ: that when people are being stoned in the public square, we ought to come to their rescue.”
In supporting the noble imperatives of the Matthew Shepard Act, we all have the chance to work toward a community that protects and respects the lives and dignity of all citizens instead of bows to falsehoods and bigotry.
Cornel West is a professor at Princeton University. Dr. Sylvia Rhue is director of Religious Affairs at the National Black Justice Coalition in Washington.
I don’t understand, why wouldn’t anyone want this “matthew shepard act?” Maybe I’m missing something but who would want anyone injured because of how they were born?
The Concerned Oregonian folks say we shouldn’t receive protection for our “perverse lifestyle,” Ryan, don’t you know?
ignorant, ignorant people
So if it became unpunishable fodder for a group of ingnorants to grab baseball bats and drive around Christian Fundamentalist meetings waiting for one to “leave the flock” in order to beat them to death and yell things like “Go meet your God, you disgusting Christian!” “Die you Jesus loving muthafucker!” And after this has happened for years and years to hundreds and hundres of people. Just because their Christian.
They wouldn’t want someone looking out for them?
It’s not ok to leave us unprotected. NOT OK.
And, of course, current hate crime legislation already protects “religion” as a protected class.
And that’s funny, John, because religion is ultimately one’s CHOICE, isn’t it?
Protection for choice?
To justify its bigotry, the opposition tells us our orientation is a choice, and then it uses the choice card against us again when opposing hate crimes legislation…
Well, if that isn’t yet another double standard.
can I get an AMEN!
Would you settle for A {FEW GOOD} MEN, Ryan?
For many of them, hatred of GLBT people IS their religion - it’s what they practice, religiously. Part of their long term theocratic agenda is to criminalize our relationships and have us imprisoned and/or put to death.
Leviticus 20:13:
“If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”
To claim the Bible as the basis of their anti-gay “morality” is to endorse genocide. So of course, ANY law protecting GLBT people will be seen as an attack on their religious “freedom” to pursue the imprisonment and death of gay Americans - in the name of Jesus.
At worst they’re murderers at heart, at best they’re promoting murder, and ignorance of either is NOT an excuse.
As much as I do call myself a Christian, it is NOT in any sense of the word that is hammered down upon me and my LGBT community, nor the one that JC (Jesus Christ) promoted and endorsed. It’s a shame that those who call themselves his followers are about as far removed from the spirit of Christianity as they could possibly be. Frankly, I don’t think that JC would have anything to do with them. They just plain don’t get it. And that’s what you get for being ignorant. BTW, JC was a liberal..in the most positive, inclusive, welcoming sense of the word. Slavic churches in the Salem area are the backbone of the 63,000 signatures turned in yesterday. Nice, isn’t it?
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article ys Until Anti-Family Signatures Are Turned in at Know Thy Neighbor Oregon, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.