It seems that the blogosphere has been abuzz all week with the news of gay NBA player Jason Collins’ coming out story in Sport Illustrated this Monday. The news has largely been met with positive statements from public figures, from the NBA Commissioner, fellow NBA players, and even former and current Presidents. Those on the right have largely kept quiet, or at least, feigned modesty over the whole ordeal.… [Read more]
Dear Supreme Court Justices of the United States of America,
I consider myself to be a pretty average American mother of a typical American family. My husband and I are married and live in a small town in the Midwest. We have two small boys ages three and one. Both my husband and I have college degrees and we work outside the home.… [Read more]
The proponents of illiberality and oppression often peddle their own warped definitions of equality. For them, segregation was an egalitarian institution – prohibiting women’s voting rights was just an extension of treating the inherently unequal sexes appropriately, according to their own potential abilities.
But as we all realize today, segregation in any form and/or the denying of individual rights is never truly an equal enterprise, no matter how much social conservatives may pontificate on their outdated and morally backward views.… [Read more]
The other day, I listened to a priest talk about the Parable of the Prodigal Son. As he spoke, I started to think about what it really means to be a Christian and a human being in America today.
By no means am I a religious person, but the philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth has always been one of my guiding lights.… [Read more]
Our culture and our time blind us all to some extent—some more than others, yet no one is exempt. Often we assume that the ways things are now and in this particular culture is how humans have always behaved throughout the globe. Many speak as if humans always organized within and understood the concept of centralized nation-states, that capitalism was always the dominant economic societal structure, that marriage was always a romantic relationship between a consenting adult male and a consenting adult woman.… [Read more]
Newt Gingrich recently announced that he has had a change of heart. No, no, not any new extramarital affair that I’m aware of. In an interview with Fox News recently, Gingrich came out with this remarkable statement:
“I think this is a very complicated human problem and Republicans need to take a deep breath and understand we need to deal with the human side of this equation…”
If what all those unscrupulous “new age” authors and their acid-casualty devotees say is true, we are only a week away from the end of the world as we know it. As much as I want to believe that this nightmare known as civilization is about to get put out if its misery, I can’t quite convince myself of it.… [Read more]
It was the day of the election and we were talking about gay marriage.
“I think what really needs to happen is that people need to educate each other on tolerance and acceptance, because even if the federal government passes a law legalizing gay marriage, it won’t change people’s minds,” she said.
Then, after gay marriage won victories in Maine and Maryland, I was talking to another friend about the same thing.… [Read more]
The Vietnamese Justice Department may be sparking a continental revolution. Coming under consideration this month, with a final decision due next May, Vietnam is officially considering the legality of same-sex marriage. If the bill passes, they will be the first in the continent to legally acknowledge such unions, joining eleven other nations worldwide.
While they may not be the first country to come to mind when you think about a champion of gay rights in Asia, they are less hostile to the idea, at least.… [Read more]
On the issues of censorship and free speech, the erudite liberal thinker John Stuart Mill wrote “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” For, he argued in his treatise On Liberty, that “if the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.”
This thinking pretty much sums up my views on the free speech aspect of the recent Chick-Fil-A controversy.… [Read more]
Detached amusement is a handy emotional default position for us Canadians who enjoy our southerly view of America, the land of perpetual social folly. When Sarah Palin was au current, we had the welcome addition of reality television show hilarity from the northwestern Alaska frontier, but in 2012 the really good stuff is all below the 49th.… [Read more]
It’s a classic story of boy meets boy.
Boy goes to party he doesn’t want to attend, sees French Boy there. French Boy also doesn’t want to be at party.
Boy…wait.
This is going to be confusing. Let me start again.
Mark and Fred met over 20 years ago at the party of a mutual friend.… [Read more]
We all grew-up tossing coins into the ubiquitous Salvation Army kettles around Christmas time and shoving our old clothes into their boxes. They rang their bells and cheered us with their brass ensembles, but what does The Salvation Army do with the money we give them and the profits they make from their various enterprises, such as their surplus used clothing business?… [Read more]
Welcome to the light of fairness and equality, David Blankenhorn! As the founder and president of the Institute for American Values, and the author of ”Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem“ and “The Future of Marriage,” Mr. Blankenhorn has long been an active opponent of marriage equality…and he’s had a change of mind; he’s taking a leap into the future.… [Read more]
Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines marriage as:
And
Historically, marriage wasn’t about the love factor either.… [Read more]
North Carolina’s bigots were most likely quite proud of themselves as they engaged in their own form of gay bashing this week. Amendment 1 passed; those who are fearful that the sanctity of marriage would have been destroyed may rest easy now that the ban on gay marriage has passed.
So, North Carolina, is it true that the last time you amended your constitution was to ban interracial marriage? … [Read more]
President Obama, I applaud you, sir, for the big ballsy, brave step you took by “coming out” in support of marriage equality for gay couples. Your Republican opponent Mitt Romney has, of course, come out in opposition to it. Romney has stated that he believes marriage should be between “one man and one woman.” Romney, who is of the Mormon faith, of all people should know that church beliefs can, and should, evolve over time.… [Read more]
The Twitter feeds have been very active; so much has happened. Two things have dominated the news this week: the religious wrongs right’s imposition of their values on the rest of us (so much for religious freedom, huh?), and extensive coverage of Whitney Houston‘s life and legacy. For the latter, a wonderful tribute celebrating her life and impact she on the world of music made so many of us reflect on her talent.… [Read more]
Wow…just wow. More of the same; no surprise there. What a banner week: Governor Chris Christie vetoed a Marriage Equality bill. The GOP decided to keep ovaries in their crosshairs — after all, women aren’t ‘equal’ enough to know what to do with their own bodies, right?
Keep in mind…we vote – and we believe in the power of equality.… [Read more]
Turn on the television, read the Twitter stream, and listen to the firestorm erupting from political debates. Republican candidates are focused on topics such as birth control and the definition of marriage. Mud is being slung and fingers are figuratively being jabbed at each other’s chests. Each is claiming he will be the savior for this great nation.… [Read more]
