Combined Gay News Headlines (T5T-1)

Will Iran Cancel the Death Sentences of 3 'Homosexual Conduct' Criminals?

Iran's Mehdi P., from Tabriz; Moshen G., from Shiraz; and Nemat Safavi, from Ardebil, are all awaiting execution for allegedly having gay sex — when they were under 18. Guilty of "lavat" (i.e. sexual conduct between two men, regardless of penetration), the three boys do not yet have dates set for their state-sponsored murders, but [...]

Ellen's Dream Comes True: Oprah Let the Lez Lady on the Cover of Her Magazine

It took months of pleading and Halloween costume dress-up, but Ellen DeGeneres has finally scored her dream: co-starring on the cover of O magazine with Oprah. CONTINUED » Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us Tagged: Ellen DeGeneres, Magazines, Media, Oprah, Portia De Rossi

Were These Dads Harassed + Detained By Wal-Mart Because They're Gay?

As if shopping at Wal-Mart didn't already require the suspension of a certain set of morals, here's a whole new reason to loathe the retail giant: After falsely accusing two gay dads of stealing, and detaining their two children in the store, and allegedly harassing them, and manufacturing a situation that had the dads handcuffed [...]

In case you’re bored…

The perennial complaint about Fresno is that there’s nothing to do. Yet in my experience that’s only true if you don’t know about the Fresno Beehive, The Fresnan or Fresno Famous and of course Queer Fresno.  Between the lot of us I think we have every night here in the valley covered three times over. [...]

Gay-sha!

Bringing people together

It was one year ago, today actually, now that I think of it, that 20 or so of us gathered at Aqua Shi to have some cocktails, chill with our friends, and dance.  Back then, this fledgling idea called INTEGRATION, was held on Thursday nights in north Fresno.  Bringing people together.  That’s what we wanted [...]

Republicans Using Props While Debating HR- 3962 and Other Highlights

First off, we have AZ's Representative John Shadegg with Baby Maddie.

"This is Maddie. Maddie likes America because we have freedom here and Maddie believes in patient choice health care. She has come here to say she doesn't want government to take over health care. She wants to keep her plan," Rep. Shadegg said.

"Maddie knows if this bill passes, she knows her mom's health care will go away and won't be around for five years. If the bill passes then no more health care for her mom because it has to change. Maddie wants patient choice," Rep. Shadegg said.

"She doesn't want her mom's premiums to go up. She doesn't want her mom's taxes to go up by $730 billion, do you, Mattie?"

"She wants America's health insurance companies to have to compete with each other. She believes in choices, but most of all, she says, don't tax me to pay for health care that you guys want. If you want health care, pay for it yourself, because it's not fair to pass your health care bills on to me and my grandchildren," Rep. Shadegg said.

Michelle Bachman was just on a minute ago, wearing- I kid you not!- an Hawaiian lei.

Aloha- oy!!

More clips of note below the fold... including Charlie Rangel scolding John Boehner.
SC's Rep. Joe "You LIE! Wilson makes few clear points:

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, who brags about bout sentencing single mothers.

Watch as Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer starts screaming on the floor in his speech. He later interrupts CA's Henry Waxman:

Last, there is this clip, where NY's Charlie Rangel says, "Shame on you!" to Minority Leader from Ohio, John Boehner

I've heard the vote may not occur until 10 pm...

An Example Of The Inanity Of Those Dripping With Marriage Privilege

Got this email sent to my "real life" box. "Lil Smilies" stolen from Autumn and added by me:

Wedding Dates

We are sending this to all of our friends who have managed to stay married to date. Since fewer and fewer couples remain married for a long time, we think we should congratulate ourselves.

365 Anniversaries

This is kind of cool! Out of all the billions of married couples in the world, there has to be a couple married on each date of the year. We're going to try to accomplish the task of seeing if we can fill the calendar with an anniversary, of one of our dear friends, on every day of the year.

Add you and your spouse's 1st names only (NO LAST NAMES, PLEASE), The year you were married, and where you were married on the list below. Then send it to 20 of your married friends, plus the person who sent it to you!

DON'T BE A SPOILED SPORT!

ADD YOUR NAME TO THE LIST.  

All you have to do is hit forward, add the information, and then send it to all your friends and family that are also married or will be soon....

If someone has already put names in the date of your anniversary, please just add your names below theirs and DO NOT DELETE THOSE COUPLES' NAMES!

"Celebrating Marriage" as an effing email chain letter game...

I am off to go punch something now.  

OPEN THREAD on HR-3962... Do You Know Where Your Congress Critter Stands?

I do, and I could not be more pleased.

Here is a clip from earlier today of Maine's Chellie Pingree speaking on the floor of the House:

More coverage including live stream video here via C-SPAN.

Link here to  H.R.3962 - Affordable Health Care for America Act.

Maine’s super-volunteers and passionate student allies

In the days leading up to my departure for Maine, I wasn't sure what to expect from the people I'd meet here. I'm no stranger to ballot cI'd meet here. I'm no stranger to ballot campaigns; we've had our share of those in Oregon. I rode on Tuesday to a suburb outside of Portland, Maine with another volunteer staff to meet with nine high school students about their interest to get involved with the No On 1 campaign. Our goal was to start a “Friends and Family” Volunteer Recruitment Phone Bank with them on the spot, and to organize a few times when they and their friends could volunteer together, canvassing door-to-door the weekend before Election Day. We rolled up to their neighborhood Starbucks at about 3 o'clock and met the students inside. They'd come straight after school, and had heard about the campaign at an all-ages concert, where they'd been watching their favorite local band. Three of the youth were band members! A few of them had worn their No On 1 buttons to school that day, and mentioned that they'd started conversations with other students about the issue, and what it meant to them. After introducing ourselves and briefly describing the state of the campaign, we read through a script and role-played it, making sure to arm the students with the facts needed to express to their friends and family members how much this means to them and why we need their help in the last two weeks of the campaign. When we asked the students to get out their mobile phones and start calling to sign their friends up for volunteer shifts with the campaign, they excelled at the task! After about a half hour, the students made a plan to gather together with their newly signed up volunteers for a morning canvass on Halloween, knocking on doors to get out the vote. None of the nine students were affiliated with the Gay Straight Alliance at their school, (and none mentioned that they identified as LGBT,) but all shared a sense that whoever you are and whomever you love, couples deserve to be recognized equally under the law.

From Maine with Love

We are 11 days away from the November Election. The Portlpress.com/2009/09/noon1-maine.jpg" width="300" />

We are 11 days away from the November Election. The Portland, Maine office is humming with volunteer activity. Every day, volunteers drop off food provisions for all the other volunteers. The first day we had homemade chili, yesterday egg salad sandwiches, and this morning someone brought in some carrots from their own yard. Mainers are chipping in any way they can. My time has been spent in the office working in the communications department while Travis Prinslow and Meleanie Altaras have been adopted into the Data and Campus Outreach departments. We work 9 to 9, when we're lucky and have been working on a variety of projects. From confirming volunteers, to getting people to vote early and in person volunteer recruitment. The amount of work that goes into a campaign is astounding. You walk into any office and you hear typing, people on the phone, stapling, paper shuffling and people being directed. It's a small preview of what Oregon will be dealing with soon enough. However, Oregon's fight will be much larger-- Maine's population is a third the size of Oregon's. I'm grateful that Basic Rights Oregon is starting early and getting all our ducks in a row before we enter our own fight. Maine's latest YouTube celebrity goes by the name of Phillip Spooner. Mr. Spooner is 85 years old, a WWII vet, and a lifelong republicanâ€"he is also in favor of marriage equality. Click here to watch his testimony in April during the Marriage hearings. His video has officially gone viral, with close to 500,000 views. Mainers are excited to have someone like Mr. Spooner speaking up for equality, so much so that he has unofficially become the face of the campaign. Click here to watch a segment of Mr. Spooner being interviewed about his views on Marriage Equality. The opposition is using children to scare voters into voting against equality. They are running ads claiming that "gay sex education" will be taught in schools. Fortunately, the Maine campaign has been very diligent about countering their ads and has caused a stir by featuring a French catholic woman who supports her son's right to get married. Yolande Dumont is also a Maine celebrity and has inspired Catholics and other religious denominations to come out and support the No on 1 campaign. Of course the Catholic DIoces is bankrolling the opposition's campaign along with National Organization marriage and Shubert Flint of prop 8 fame. When Yolande first came on the airwaves the Catholic Diocese was up in arms and started to spend resources countering Yolande's message. This is exciting because the opposition is now on the defensive. Not only do they have to counter multiple legislators, and educators on the whole "Teaching gay in Schools" issue, now they have to make sure that other fair minded Catholics reject Yolande's message. If the No on 1 Campaign wins on Election Day it will be a model on how to defeat the oppositions' vitriol and lies. Although, Maine is literally the farthest place from Oregon in the country, their efforts will have a huge impact on our work. They need all the help they can get. If you have not donated to the NO on 1 campaign you can do so by clicking here. If you cannot afford a donation but have some extra time on your hands you can phone bank from Oregon with their Call for Equality Program sign up here. I'm going to get back to work now but feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions about getting involved in the Maine campaign. In solidarity, Alejandro Juarez Communications Coordinator Basic Rights Oregon (503) 222-6151 x 105 alejandro@basicrights.org

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