All right, let’s see what we have today. First up, Billy Porter delivers the Queer State of the Union:
A great piece over at Pittsburgh Lesbian Corespondents about the fractions of the local community and how seemingly good causes can actually be a detriment. Also, a reminder that Jackie Evancho sang at the last inauguration: she and her family can be safe, but ignore the plights of other minority communities, and that’s not okay.
(Note: I’m still processing the mass shooting in Pittsburgh from this weekend. But we all also need and deserve spaces to put the world behind us and have a bit of normalcy. I’m taking that space.)
In case you (for whatever reason) thought otherwise, the SCOTUS nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, is opposed to same-sex marriage and would certainly rule against it (if there is a conservative majority on the court, it will be back and I’ll lose my rights).
While the Catholic Church was protecting and covering up the sex-crimes of some of its members, let’s all remember that it was also lecturing everyone else on the evils of:
Birth control
Abortion
Masturbation
Sex outside of marriage
Not being straight (i.e. being either “L” or “G” or “B” or “T” and so on)
Any number of other issues regarding “sexual morality”
The word you’re looking for is hypocrisy. Huge blatant hypocrisy.
No amount of contemporary apologies will change that.
Okay, onto some better and more beautiful news, there is a fake final image sent by the Cassini probe, which is beautiful (but fake because it wasn’t the last photo sent). The last photo is also breathtaking:
I’ll be talking about the Supreme Court decision in Masterpiece Cake in a later post, but this executive order from May is also really, really dangerous. We’re quickly moving into a world where the few rights I have are being superseded by the ability for people to use their bigoted “religious views” to discriminate against me. And yes, even if you’re using religion, it’s still bigoted.
Alright, that’s it for now, sorry for all the depressing things, but sometimes, that’s just what the world deals you. I’ll be back with more soon!
Thank you, to Garfunkle and Oates for hitting it out of the park with this song:
This makes me laugh, but it’s what we deal with all the time. A person makes some bigoted remark about how he thinks gay people are going to hell and then gets all upset when the pushback happens. The hypocrisy is staggering.
Let’s talk about gun control. Thankfully, America’s Best Christian, Betty Bowers is here to have the conversation:
In case you forgot, PA state Rep (from north of Pittsburgh, so not my elected official) Daryl Metcalfe is a bigoted, misogynistic,, racist waste of oxygen. He’s also been single handedly holding up the bills that would give me some equal rights in the Commonwealth.
NBC straight-washed the opening ceremony, and it’s a problem. Gus Kenworthy was with Adam Rippon and Shawn White almost the entire time, and never once was the fact that Gus or Adam are gay came up, although both were some of the highest profile athletes of the games.
Also, on a stupid note, Republicans in South Carolina want non-straight marriages to be called ‘parody marriage.’ Because apparently not only are they evil, bigoted, heartless bastards, they’re also children.
But, it’s not all doom and gloom, I promise. As always, children will save us:
And Jeff Sessions rescinded other protections for all members of the queer community. These are things that affect people you love. Be fucking pissed.
Okay, quick pallet cleanser. The new trailer for Super Mario Odyssey takes the form of a Big Band musical number:
After the horrific shooting in Vegas, just a reminder that your thoughts and prayers do jack shit. We need comprehensive gun control in this country, including a rescinding of the second amendment.
It boggles my mind that it takes something personally happening to someone for them to take action. It is not that hard to actually think about other people and try to imagine a better world for them, as well as yourself. But, predictably, when gun violence is close to a gun fanatic, suddenly, he realizes his mistake. It infuriates me that it takes a tragedy like this for him to realize how wrong he is, but hey, at least he came around I guess. I just won’t be patting him on the back for his sudden realization.
A Dutch news program takes on (with dark humor) the insanity that we live with here in the US:
Stranger Things 2 (or the second season, not sure what to call it) looks amazing:
The president rolls back the mandate for birth control under health care, because he wants to drive up abortion rates, the cost of healhtcare and get rid of preventative medicine. Just kidding, he’s a racist and since it is both something Obama put into place and a GOP wet-dream, it’s gone.
And I’ll just drop this here, the 10 things you need to know about Patriotism:
The Satanic Temple is amazing. They have announced that if the current prevails and bakers can deny gay couples wedding cakes, they’ll demand cakes for Satan. Because religious freedom.
You guys, the floor is lava. No really, THE FLOOR IS LAVA:
Alright, big update today, let’s see what we have.
So in outrageously offending news, the defense in the PA marriage equality trial are seeking the complete sexual history of those challenging the ban. So no matter how bad your day has been, at least the state isn’t asking for all the details of your sex life to continue denying you your rights. Sigh.
Want to see what it’s like to go ski jumping? Of course you do:
The divorce rate of evangelicals is higher than the general population. But even if you’re not and evangelical, if you live in a heavily-populated area, you have a bigger risk of getting divorced.
The rumor was that AHS was going to be subtitled “Circus” next season, but maybe not?
Remember the 14th Amendment? The one that says we all should have equal rights? Well, the OK attorney general says that it doesn’t apply to gay people.
If you haven’t seen the new Duracell commercial, you should:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2HD57z4F8E
As a reminder, when you operate a business, you can’t discriminate against a population. If you set out a sign saying you would not serve African Americans, it’s the same as saying you won’t serve gays. Not a hard concept (except when legal loopholes get involved). Or you can Arizona which is trying to make it legal to discriminate against the LGBT community because of religion.
I love the Muppets, even if they did get snubbed at the Golden Globes:
A great clip from Louisiana where a trans woman dared a bigoted city council member to put his money where his mouth was and stone her to death. He recalled his bill moments later.
