Monday, February 25, 2013

Best Oscar Opening EVER....!

Hollywood hated it,  the critics  have panned it...    But it was (to quote Peter Griffin..) Just Freakin' Sweet!



And a brilliant Closing Number to boot!


Seth MacFarlane Kristin Chenoweth Loosers song... by dm_512af5eb6ea50

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Haters Gonna Hate...

One of  my closest friends called the other day,  both he and his wife  have been dealing  with people they  know who habitually parrot back nonsensical  "the gays are attacking us because they won't let us attack them!"  talking points.   They live in one of the more conservative parts of the United States, and  tell me of how they struggle when they hear  these things,  as it  stands in total  contradiction to reality of the  Gay and Lesbian  people they personally know.

Halfway through the conversation my friend  asked the questions that the LGBT community as been asking since before Stonewall...   "Why do the haters , because that's what I call then... believe that nonsense?  Don't they know any Gay people?".    I had to explain how the ultra-far right in the United States  is facing a demographic and cultural shift  that is moving solidly away from them and towards equality,   As a result,    those who have a vested interest in keeping LGBT people as the one group it is still "safe to hate" are looking at  the end of their multi-million dollar gravy train of bigotry.

On that note... it's been an interesting year so far...

2013  has certainly started with a bit of a bang.   Marriage equality  for same sex couples  was put to a vote and  passed in a whole bunch of interesting places.   Here in  the United Kingdom we had a vote in the House of Commons  on a bill to legalize  Same Sex Marriage proposed by the Tory (conservative) government led by Prime Minister David Cameron, where it passed by a vote of 400 to 175.



 The measure now goes on to the House of Lords for what is more or less a symbolic reading before gaining final approval.

Then hardly a week later,  across the Channel, France’s lower house of parliament  approved a sweeping bill to legalize gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children, handing a major legislative victory to President Francois Hollande’s Socialists on a divisive social issue.

The measure, was  approved in the National Assembly by a 329-to-229 vote.  The overall bill now goes to the French Senate, which is also controlled by the Socialists and their allies, which makes Marriage Equality in France pretty much a done deal, and  puts France on track to join about a dozen mostly European nations that allow gay marriage.

Meanwhile, back across the Atlantic,  the Illinois Senate approved a bill on Valentines day  that would legalize same-sex marriage, inching the home state of President Obama closer to becoming the 10th in the nation, plus the District of Columbia, to allow gay couples the right to wed.

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At the same time all this  was going on,  the seemingly settled decision by the  Boy Scouts of America  to maintain the current membership policies  barring  Gays and Lesbians turned out to be not so settled after all.  Media reports were saying  the BSA about on the verge of allowing  local sponsoring organizations to  make their own  determinations  on membership criteria.  The resulting  media  circus / firestorm  prompted a backtracking on making  any decision.  Kicking  the  can down the road to May and having the larger National Council vote on the proposed  changes.




If all that  wasn't  interesting enough, let's  throw President Obama into the mix.  The President threw the American Taliban into fits of hysteria  when in his 2nd Inaugural  Address the President of the United States  said this...



Add to that, the reintroduction of the Uniting American Families Act .  House members reintroduced the bill earlier this month,  for the first time, with bipartisan support .  The bill would allow same-sex couples to be treated in the same way as heterosexual ones under immigration law, permitting them to petition for green cards for partners and spouses. Under the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriages that are legal on the state-level. That leads to many couples being separated by immigration law or American citizens (like oh...  ME),  being forced to leave the country  if they want to be with their partner.

The issue of  same sex bi-national couples has  even become a theme in advertising  campaigns.  Like this one from home decor company  John Saint Denis. In this short film benefiting The Human Rights Campaign:  an American and his young French partner are living in an idyllic apartment in Paris, but his company is transferring him to back to the States. He has an American Passport, but his partner does not, so he is forced to face the reality he will have to go without him.

At the end of the video people can  donate directly to the Human Rights Campaign  to support the fight for equality.


I have blogged at  length  about  my views on  marriage equality and about  my feelings about the Boy Scouts of America.  So I  won't   rehash the debate here.    Predictably  the  classic cast of characters  have reacted to  recent developments  their usual over the top- completely devoid of logic shrieks of  hysterical homophobia.   Claiming any sort of rights for  LGBT Americans  is an "attack" on religious freedom.   Even going so  far as to cry that not letting  anti-gay bigots  actively attack the rights and lives of  Gays and Lesbians is discrimination against them.   

Right wing nutcase, and  Gay sex obsessed hate monger  Bryan Fischer rides the Waaaambulance in the express lane to crazytown.


As I  told my friend on the phone the other day,  logic reason, and facts are not part of the world the Fischers, Dobsons  and their ilk inhabit.   Or  to put it in a more simple way.

Haters gonna hate...