Their argument:

“Gay marriage is not a civil right, opponents counter, insisting that minority status comes from who you are rather than what you do.”

Being gay IS who you are and not what you do. A gay man, alone on a deserted island, is gay. A gay man, sailing along on the open ocean, is gay. A gay man, all by himself in outer space, is gay.

But logic be damned. Winning the argument, however fraudulently, is all that matters to the bigots of the world.

Is gay the new black? Marriage ban spurs debate

NEW YORK (AP) — Gay is the new black, say the protest signs and magazine covers, casting the gay marriage battle as the last frontier of equal rights for all. [...]

The gay rights movement entered a new era when Barack Obama was elected the first black president the same day that voters in California and Florida passed referendums to prevent gays and lesbians from marrying, while Arizonans turned down civil unions and Arkansans said no to adoptions by same-sex couples.

Racism was defanged by Obama’s triumph, leaving gays as perhaps the last group of Americans claiming that their basic rights are being systematically denied.

“Black people are equal now, and gay people aren’t,” said Emil Wilbekin, a black gay man and the editor of Giant magazine. “I always have this discussion with my friends: What’s worse, being a black man or a black gay man?”

WaPo’s Dan Wentzel asks, “Could California’s passage of Proposition 8 be this generation’s Stonewall?”

It very well could be!

Bigotry on the Bus

A week after the election, I was riding the bus home in Santa Monica when we went past one of the many protests around the city against the narrow passage of Proposition 8, which amended the California constitution to eliminate marriage rights for an entire class of people.

The bus driver surveyed the situation and exclaimed, loud enough for the passengers to hear, “sodomites!” I’ve been so hurt and angry since my theoretically liberal and gay-friendly state passed Proposition 8 that I instantly replied, just as loudly, “Hey, I’m one of those sodomites, too!” Maybe I should have had a snappier comeback, but the driver was stunned. I’m guessing that nobody had ever stood up to him for saying something homophobic. The driver has a right to free speech and is entitled to his beliefs and opinions — and his bigotry — just like everyone else. However, he was a public employee in uniform, on the clock. [...]

So I finally stood up for myself and reported the driver to the transit authority. If someone were to say something racist, sexist or antisemitic, I would say something, even though I am white, male and non-Jewish. But I wonder, when a homophobic remark is made in a conversation among straight people, whether anyone is willing to say, “That’s not appropriate and I find that offensive.” I don’t know, but I hope so.

(HT: Bat)

So McCain campaign… How and why are any of us supposed to respect any of you at all at this point?

I don’t think there’s been a single significant claim made by McCain, Palin or anyone associated with the campaign in the past three weeks that hasn’t been highly deceptive if not an outright lie.

And seriously, it’s hard to keep up with all those lies. Even the full-time bloggers can’t. (Your habit of repeating the same debunked and ineffective smears over and over does make it a bit easier, though.)

Let’s take one example. Anyone who accuses Obama of being a “socialist” is either an ignoramus or a liar. Or a combination of both.
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Gone are the days of beatings, (oftentimes fatal), of those amongst us that don’t quite fit in with the straight, white crowd? I don’t think so…

Town struggles with fallout from immigrant’s fatal beating

SHENANDOAH, Pennsylvania (CNN) — By the time help arrived, Luis Ramirez lay convulsing in the middle of the street, foam running from his mouth.

Blows had struck the 25-year-old illegal Mexican immigrant with such force that they left a clotted, bruised impression of Jesus Christ on the skin of his chest from the religious medal he wore.

His attackers were white teenagers, including star students and football players, witnesses told police.

After a night of drinking, the teens taunted the undocumented worker with racial epithets, pummeled him to the ground and then kicked him in the head, court documents charge. He died in a hospital two days later.

Hate isn’t inborn. It’s taught. Imprisoning those who act out on their hate is only part of the solution. Find the teachers of hate these boys have been subjected to and throw their butts in jail too.

Their defense: “Defense attorneys for two of the teens say Ramirez responded to the name-calling with his own insults, which escalated the confrontation into to a fight that got out of hand.”

So he should have stood there and took these bastard’s abuses like a good little Mexican boy? I’m sure these boy’s privileged, white families will fight this tooth and nail - and most likely will win.

Just once I’d like to see a story where some idiot bigot decided to run his racist mouth and take on three or four muscular Mexicans. Chicken shit racists run in packs, like the dogs they are. But there’s a very special place in hell for the racist, bigoted crowd. And knowing that makes me smile.

Could Harold Ford be any more fucked up in the head?

Per an AMERICAblog.com post, “Harold Ford thinks homophobia is politically expedient.” John Aravosis does a great job of handing Mr. Ford his ass on a platter:

Former Democratic congressman Harold Ford spoke today at the Netroots Nation conference. Ford explained to the audience that sometimes you just have to embrace positions that a lot of Democrats don’t like, in order to win conservative districts. For example, Ford decided to go anti-gay in the last week of his losing Senate race in 2006.

So, here’s my question for Harold Ford. How’s he feel about a Democrat using racism in order to win a race in a conservative district? I’m guessing Ford is against race-baiting in order to win conservative southern voters. But he has no problem with homophobia. Isn’t that interesting. How about bashing Asians (you know, Harold, those folks that John McCain calls “gooks”)? How about bashing women? Or people with disabilities? Would you tell a “polock joke” if you knew it would win you votes, Harold?

We don’t need hate, bigotry or racism in our government, republican or democrat. Vote to keep these POS’s out of Washington and elsewhere.

That’s intentionally misleading, but let’s turn this tale over to Steve Benen:

Auto-correct can be a very helpful feature of any word-processing program. But when conservatives use it, they run the risk of embarrassing themselves.

Some far-right sites that subscribe to the Associated Press feed, for example, will use auto-correct to change “Democratic Party” to “Democrat Party.” This, of course, is because they have the temperament of children.

But the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow website takes the phenomenon one step further with its AP articles. The far-right fundamentalist group replaces the word “gay” in the articles with the word “homosexual.” I’m not entirely sure why, but it seems to make the AFA happy. The group is, after all, pretty far out there.
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