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truth-has-a-liberal-bias:

Watch the Video: Shocking Footage of Classroom Beating

~~~~~~~~~~~~

For Zachary, it started in the 3rd grade. First they said he looked and talked like a girl. Then they called him a “fag.”

Finally, when he reached 8th grade, the bullying turned cruelly violent — and school administrators did nothing. Stories like Zach’s are far from rare.

It’s time for this to stop. Tell Congress to protect our students from harassment and discrimination today.

https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=4011&s_subsrc=120202_SNDA&cr=1

Filed under LGBTQ LGBT video bullying Congress Students Schools

56 notes

truth-has-a-liberal-bias: #StandUpforEllen and Thank J.C. Penney for Making The Right Choice ~~~~~~~~~~ Last week, retail giant J.C. Penney announced a new partnership with America’s favorite talk-show host, Ellen DeGeneres. “We share the same fundamental values as Ellen,” noted the company’s President, Michael Francis. “At jcpenney, we couldn’t think of a better partner to help us put the fun back into the retail experience.” Now, however, the anti-gay group “One Million Moms” – a project of the designated hate group, American Family Association– has launched a campaign demanding that the retailer fire Ellen simply because she’s gay. ….. From the Daily Mail: ‘Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families,’ reads a statement on the site, which claims more sales will be lost than gained by the move. ‘Degeneres is not a true representation of the type of families that shop at their store. The majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended and choose to no longer shop there.’ But GLAAD has come out fighting to support DeGeneres against the bigots   ….. TAKE ACTION: The American Family Association – an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as a “hate group” — is spreading anti-gay attitudes and bias by asking its supporters to contact J.C. Penney and tell the company to fire Ellen simply because of who she is. First, add your name to the list of supporters for J.C. Penney’s decision: Add your name now! Second, call J.C. Penney now to remind America’s favorite retailer that hate should not be for sale in America’s stores. J.C. Penney, Customer Service – (972) 431-8200 J.C. Penney, Corporate Headquarters – (972) 431-1000 Third, share this action on Twitter:RT @glaad: Will you #StandUpForEllen? Support @TheEllenShow & thank @jcpenney for making the right choice http://glaad.org/ellen #LGBT

truth-has-a-liberal-bias:

#StandUpforEllen and Thank J.C. Penney for Making The Right Choice

~~~~~~~~~~

Last week, retail giant J.C. Penney announced a new partnership with America’s favorite talk-show host, Ellen DeGeneres.

“We share the same fundamental values as Ellen,” noted the company’s President, Michael Francis. “At jcpenney, we couldn’t think of a better partner to help us put the fun back into the retail experience.”

Now, however, the anti-gay group “One Million Moms” – a project of the designated hate group, American Family Association– has launched a campaign demanding that the retailer fire Ellen simply because she’s gay.

…..

From the Daily Mail:

‘Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families,’ reads a statement on the site, which claims more sales will be lost than gained by the move.

‘Degeneres is not a true representation of the type of families that shop at their store. The majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended and choose to no longer shop there.’

But GLAAD has come out fighting to support DeGeneres against the bigots


 

…..

TAKE ACTION:

The American Family Association – an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as a “hate group” — is spreading anti-gay attitudes and bias by asking its supporters to contact J.C. Penney and tell the company to fire Ellen simply because of who she is.

First, add your name to the list of supporters for J.C. Penney’s decision: Add your name now!

Second, call J.C. Penney now to remind America’s favorite retailer that hate should not be for sale in America’s stores.

J.C. Penney, Customer Service – (972) 431-8200

J.C. Penney, Corporate Headquarters – (972) 431-1000

Third, share this action on Twitter:
RT @glaad: Will you #StandUpForEllen? Support @TheEllenShow & thank @jcpenney for making the right choice http://glaad.org/ellen #LGBT

Filed under Ellen DeGeneres J.C. Penney GLAAD LGBT

245 notes

Canadian border guard tells lesbian couple to fill out separate forms

cassket:

East Vancouver residents Karen-Marie Perry and Andrina Perry have been together since early 2005 and have been married since 2008. They share a surname and live together. So when they travel to the United States, Andrina generally completes one customs form for the two of them, as most families do.

But during a recent visit, the couple had to fill out two separate customs forms because they are not considered a family in the United States.

The form says: “Each arriving traveler or responsible family member must provide the following information (only one written declaration per family is required).”

As the couple was approaching US customs at Vancouver international Airport on July 28, a Canadian official approached them, asking if they lived together and how they were related. The couple indicated they were married. The Canadian official then said the couple was required to fill out two forms and couldn’t go through US customs together.

“I was very angry,” Karen-Marie says. She was so shaken that she couldn’t even fill out the customs form; Andrina completed it. Karen-Marie even considered abandoning the trip.

When the couple reached the US customs officials, they didn’t attempt to confirm the policy.

“The majority of customs officers are quite intimidating,” Andrina says. “I figured we might never get there.”

Rachel Torres, spokeswoman for US Customs and Border Protection, says US law prohibits same-sex couples from filling out a form as a family. Under the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, any federal laws that refer to marriage recognize only unions between one man and one woman, she says. 

Immigration Equality, which fights for equal treatment under US immigration law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive individuals, has been pushing the Obama administration to allow same-sex couples to fill out one form, says executive director Rachel Tiven. 

“Every Canadian I know is offended by the United States’ refusal to recognize couples who are Canadian-married couples,” Tiven says.

She says the Defense of Marriage Act shouldn’t apply to a form that refers to a “family.” And, she says, it’s inefficient for officials to split up families when processing customs papers.

Tiven says she’s heard cases of same-sex couples filling out one form and other cases in which they had to fill out separate forms. But she says it’s unclear if the policy itself has changed over the years.

The organization has received several complaints about the policy, but the Perrys’ case is the first she’s heard of in which a Canadian official told a couple to fill out separate US customs forms.

“It certainly isn’t the Canadian officials’ job to do the dirty work for the Americans,” she says.

Unlike the US customs form, the Canadian form doesn’t require cohabitating people to be related or married to fill it out together. Instead, it says, “You may list up to four people living at the same address on one card.”

A Canadian same-sex couple who won the right to marry in Ontario in 2002 also faced a surprise the following year at the US border when they had to fill out separate customs forms. Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell refused to do so and were denied entry, according to their blog. 

“This is a case of the United States in essence telling the Canadian government which Canadians qualify as families and which Canadians do not,” they wrote. The couple did not return phone calls or emails.

The Canadian official who approached the Perrys was quite sympathetic and said the US policy has changed so often that it’s hard for Canadian officials to keep track of the procedures, Andrina notes.

Before this trip, the couple had travelled to the United States twice and filled out one US customs form.

“They’re constantly flip-flopping back and forth,” Karen-Marie says. “Is there some sort of alert system for queer communities so we can prepare ourselves for when we’re considered a family and when we’re not?”

Andrina says the experience has made her less likely to travel to the United States.

“It’s one more thing on top of all of the additional security measures and screenings and things that just make you question if it’s even worth it anymore,” she says. “And we want to be somewhere where we feel safe and can be a family.”

(via djkjfjglgk-deactivated20120430)

Filed under news america canada lgbt gay marriage

246 notes

f2cklife: Here’s the list, “Top Five Homophobic Statements From Boehner’s DOMA Briefs,” thanks to Zack Ford of Think Progress, who put together the five-​point list below, and Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog, whose work it’s based on– head over to both sites to see more, including direct quotes from the briefs. 1. GAYS HAVE NOT HISTORICALLY FACED DISCRIMINATION: Ignoring the fact that there have been laws against homosexuality for about as long as people have been publicly out, Clement argues that anti-​gay discrimination is a “unique and relatively short-​lived product of the twentieth century.” Worse yet, Clement argues that because things are getting better, any arguable history of discrimination is irrelevant. 2. SEXUAL ORIENTATION IS A CHOICE: Clement’s argument against the immutability of sexual orientation is shallow and duplicitous. He points out that people “choose” to identify as gay, confusing selecting one’s orientation with identifying with it. He suggests that if sexual orientation were immutable, it could be determined at birth. And most deceptively, he implies that because scientists have not agreed upon a clear cause for sexual orientation,they do not have consensus that it is not a conscious choice — they do. He even attempts to tell Ms. Windsor that she is wrong about her own sexual orientation. 3. GAYS HAVE PLENTY OF POLITICAL POWER: Despite the fact that gays and lesbians constitute only a small percentage of the population and have been discriminated against by majority votes for decades, Clement tries to make the case that gays are not “politically powerless,” one of the qualifications for heightened scrutiny. By selectively highlighting successes and positive polling around LGBT equality, he paints a false picture of how rosy life is for gays and lesbians, snidely using the Department of Justice’s stance against DOMA to make his point. 4. SAME-​SEX COUPLES MAKE BAD PARENTS: One of Congress’s rationales for passing DOMA was the idea of “responsible procreation,” the idea that opposite-​sex couples were better suited to raising children and thus marriage was a privilege reserved for them. In order to defend this idea, Clement must challenge scientific consensus on the existing research that shows same-​sex parents to be equally as effective, and so he does. 5. THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE MUST BE PROTECTED: Implicit in all arguments against marriage equality is the fear-​mongering claim that somehow allowing same-​sex couples to marry will destroy the “institution” of marriage. Indeed, Clement has made it clear he will argue that marriage must be “defended” from “redefinition.” He also implies that the benefits that same-​sex marriages would be afforded would be an undue financial burden for the government.

f2cklife:

Here’s the list, “Top Five Homophobic Statements From Boehner’s DOMA Briefs,” thanks to Zack Ford of Think Progress, who put together the five-​point list below, and Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog, whose work it’s based on– head over to both sites to see more, including direct quotes from the briefs.

1. GAYS HAVE NOT HISTORICALLY FACED DISCRIMINATION: Ignoring the fact that there have been laws against homosexuality for about as long as people have been publicly out, Clement argues that anti-​gay discrimination is a “unique and relatively short-​lived product of the twentieth century.” Worse yet, Clement argues that because things are getting better, any arguable history of discrimination is irrelevant.

2. SEXUAL ORIENTATION IS A CHOICE: Clement’s argument against the immutability of sexual orientation is shallow and duplicitous. He points out that people “choose” to identify as gay, confusing selecting one’s orientation with identifying with it. He suggests that if sexual orientation were immutable, it could be determined at birth. And most deceptively, he implies that because scientists have not agreed upon a clear cause for sexual orientation,they do not have consensus that it is not a conscious choice — they do. He even attempts to tell Ms. Windsor that she is wrong about her own sexual orientation.

3. GAYS HAVE PLENTY OF POLITICAL POWER: Despite the fact that gays and lesbians constitute only a small percentage of the population and have been discriminated against by majority votes for decades, Clement tries to make the case that gays are not “politically powerless,” one of the qualifications for heightened scrutiny. By selectively highlighting successes and positive polling around LGBT equality, he paints a false picture of how rosy life is for gays and lesbians, snidely using the Department of Justice’s stance against DOMA to make his point.

4. SAME-​SEX COUPLES MAKE BAD PARENTS: One of Congress’s rationales for passing DOMA was the idea of “responsible procreation,” the idea that opposite-​sex couples were better suited to raising children and thus marriage was a privilege reserved for them. In order to defend this idea, Clement must challenge scientific consensus on the existing research that shows same-​sex parents to be equally as effective, and so he does.

5. THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE MUST BE PROTECTED: Implicit in all arguments against marriage equality is the fear-​mongering claim that somehow allowing same-​sex couples to marry will destroy the “institution” of marriage. Indeed, Clement has made it clear he will argue that marriage must be “defended” from “redefinition.” He also implies that the benefits that same-​sex marriages would be afforded would be an undue financial burden for the government.

Filed under DOMA Discrimination John Boehner News Political LGBT