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Written by Marc Paige
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When Religion Hurts
Frustrated by their unsuccessful attempts to get Kevin Jennings fired from his job in the Obama administration, the “religious” right and their friends at Fox News are going after another gay man, Harry Knox, accused of being an “anti-Catholic bigot.” The New Testament speaks of not worrying about the speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own. This describes well the breathtaking hypocrisy of those working to oust Knox.
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Written by Marc Paige
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Gay Conservatives Face Chilly Reception
In 2005 the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) officially recognized, for the first time, the gay group Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) as a co-sponsor of their annual gathering in Washington DC. At the time then political director of LCR Christopher Barron told ABC News that the American Conservative Union, coordinator of CPAC, “were very accommodating and were eager to put the group's willingness to participate to use.” Five years later, CPAC organizers appear less “accommodating” to GOProud, the new gay conservative Republican group Barron helped launch in early 2009, over concerns that LCR had become too “liberal.”
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Written by Marc Paige
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Imagine the Grammy Awards nominating a musician who, as a teenager, recorded a song calling for the violent murder of all black people and who remains defiant and unrepentant today. Imagine if this performer, just three months before the Grammy broadcast, used the “n” word to refer to the people he sang about burning and shooting. And finally, imagine the Recording Academy, which puts on the Grammys, defending the artist's views as his “cultural perspective.”
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Written by Marc Paige
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Trashing Our Friends, Overlooking Our Enemies - Less than two weeks after President Obama signed the first major federal LGBT-supportive legislation in our nation's history, a campaign was launched calling on gays to temporarily withhold donations and support to the Democratic National Committee and the Obama administration. Many of us are frustrated by the less than fierce advocacy of the Democratic Party in pushing our nation to live up to its ideals for its LGBT citizens. But as we begin to see movement in our agenda for equality, it is not the time to demonize the Dems.
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Written by Marc Paige
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Although the United Nations (UN) was founded to promote mutual understanding among member nations, with regard to gay rights there remains a wide gulf between those nations that promote this concept and those appalled by it. Western nations push freedoms that include LGBT people; the Muslim and African nations don't understand what they are talking about. Some UN member nations sanction gay marriages while others perpetrate gay murders. On gay issues, UN members have yet to find common language.
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Written by Marc Paige
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Gay Gain Expose McCain’s Shame
The push to allow out-of-the-closet gays in the military undoubtedly hurt the Democrats in 1993. Today, if the Democrats play it smart, they will not only be on the right side of history, but will watch as Republicans stumble from their stubbornly unmoving platform and party ideology. It is ironic that the gays-in-the-military debate, an albatross for the Democrats seventeen years ago, could actually prove to be a boon to them in 2010.
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Written by Marc Paige
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Fear and Loathing in Uganda
To be gay in Uganda in January 2010 is to be a Jew in Germany in the early 1930s on the eve of the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish problem.” Next month, in their quest to become a “homosexuality free nation,” Uganda's Parliament will decide what to do about their “gay problem” - whether to execute gay people or “merely” imprison them for 20 years. Frank Mugisha of “Sexual Minorities Uganda,” an organization that will be banned under the new law, was blunt: “If this passes, we will have to leave the country.”
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Written by Marc Paige
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It's the holidays and for many of us that will mean flying, family and food. Besides the opportunity to reconnect with seldom seen loved ones, it's also a great time to be gay ambassadors to straight relatives. As our community still fights against the indignities that come from being denied equality as individuals and couples, our families need to be reminded that their love for us means they have a real stake in our struggle.
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Written by Marc Paige
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Thank You, Congressman Studs -This being October and LGBT History Month, I thought it appropriate to write about a gay man who proudly fought institutional homophobia and made history despite his modest and reserved demeanor. The man I write of was the first openly gay member of Congress, and no, it is not Barney Frank. Though extraordinarily gifted, intelligent and witty, Barney actually became the second openly gay member of Congress after he came out in 1987. The first openly gay member of Congress, and a great hero to our movement, was a man that I am proud to have known and remember with great fondness and respect, Gerry Studds.
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Written by Marc Paige
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In 1993, after President Clinton nominated Roberta Achtenberg to be Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing, the late Senator Jesse Helms said he would oppose the nomination “because she's a damn lesbian.” Later he clarified this statement: “It's not just that she's a lesbian, she's a militant activist lesbian whose entire career has been devoted to advancing their political agenda.” Since May, when President Obama's administration appointed Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) founder Kevin Jennings as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education for Safe and Drug-Free Schools, the right wing is determined to continue Helms' hateful legacy.
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