Hallmark Channel Steps In It, Then Chases The Money

You might have heard the kerfuffle earlier this month about the icky sweet Hallmark Channel getting into a not-so-sweet mess over its short-lived ban over an LGBTQ-friendly advertisement, and the howls of controversy that followed.  

The controversy has since settled down. Still, it was a textbook case about how corporations ought to be in tune with public opinion, and basic fairness when they make some decisions.

The Hallmark Channel is in its prime season right now, with movies with the same, frankly tired theme.

A woman or a man is cynical about Christmas. The couple meet, don't get along at first, fall in love, and everything becomes so romantic and sentimental with the intention of driving the audience into happy holiday cheers.

That's not my style, but then again, a lot of people love it. More power to them! I endorse anything that brings people joy.

But here's the joyless part.

An outfit called One Million Moms, basically a wholly owned subidiary of the American Family Association, was hugely upset when they saw an ad on the Hallmark Channel of a same-gender couple, two women, in a wedding ad by Zola.

"One Million Moms is asking once again or Hallmark to stay true to its family friendly roots that so many families have grown to love, and to keep sex and sexual conduct - incluing the promotion of homosexualithy - out of its programming."

Though, apparently, One Million Moms seemed perfectly fine with straight couples kissing, but whatever.

Even worse, One Million Moms cited the Bible, Romans1:18-32, which suggests we should just kill all the gays:

"Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die."

OK, we should note that One Million Moms probably does not consist of one million real moms. Whatever this organization is, they basically boycott everything that doesn't adhere to Christian fundamentalists' White Jesus perspective.

One wag on Twitter suggested that One Millon Moms is just 20 Karens.

At least according to GLAAD, an LGBTQ support organization,  One Million Moms is basically just one annoying woman. Jeremy Hooper writes:

"It is basically One Meddling Mom with an agenda, and no company should be giving her the credence she so desperately craves.

Her name is Monica Cole. I the decade that I have been aware of One Millio Moms, she is quite literally the only staff member I have ever heard anyone name. She is the one and only person who appears on their petitions, as well as the one and only person who speaks for them to the media. She is the mom. Her. Solo. One Person, supposedly representing one."

Hallmark officials, thinking that "one million moms" were pissed off about the lesbian wedding ad, pulled the plug on it.

Of course the problem with that was, more than a million people for sure, including me, were pissed off at Hallmark for being bigoted, or least appearing to be.   News of this broke on a December midmonth Saturday.

By that Sunday night, facing a furious backlash, Hallmark just as furiously backpeddled. As Buzzfeed News and many other media outlets reported, Mike Perry, president and CEO of Hallmark Cards said the company was "truly sorry" for the brief ad shutdown.

"The Crown Media team has been agonizing over this decision as we've seen the hurt it has unintentionally caused. Said simply, they believe this was the wrong decision. We are truly sorry for the hurt and disappointment this has caused."

Hallmark also said it would work with GLAAD to better represent ethe LGBTQ community.

The abrupt reversal, I'm sorry to say, was probably not some newfound sense of fairness, but one of money. Hallmark quickly realized that the people who objected to Zola lesbian wedding ads airing on the network was far smaller than the number of people pissed off by the decision.

Which has better revenue potential? A few religious zealots or a huge bunch of basically fair minded consumers?

I'm not saying this is really wrong. It is the free market. People can choose to patronize or not patronize any business for any reason (unless it goes to the extreme of violating hate laws).

Corporations must always sort of thread the needle to figure out how not to annoy its customers, because they want to keep them.  Hallmark did not thread the needle, and a public relations fiasco resulted.

In the end, Hallmark managed to mostly recover.  Zola said they would resume advertising with Hallmark, other advertisers stuck with them, and the outrage over the Hallmark Channel's initial has waned.

All the more reason to research outfits that are attacking you to see if there is any bite behind the bark.  In the case of One Million Moms, the bark had nothing behind it. Oh well. Let other conpanies beware!

This Is The Right Way To Retaliate Against A Homophobic Neighbor

Lexi Magnusson's rainbow holiday lights  

There's a couple of neighbors in Washington State that aren't getting along with each other all that well this Christmas season.  

On the bright side- literally - the neighborhood had a lot more colorful holiday lights than it otherwise would have had there not been this disagreement between the homeowners in Kitsap County, Washington

This all started when a new family moved into Lexi Magnusson's neighborhood.

That new neighbor told Magnusson that she moved there from Oregon to "escape the gays and the transgender."

Magnusson was annoyed, but kept her mouth shut because she's sick and tired of all the yelling about politics and social issues this year. She was also confused about how anybody could "escape" gay and transgendered people since the pretty much live everywhere.

However, Magnusson felt the need to retaliate against her neighbor's bigotry. So she put up 10,000 lights on her bushes in rainbow colors to signify her opposition to her neighbor's stance on gay people.

The two neighbors aren't talking, though Magnusson said she still waves a friendly hellow to her anti-gay neigbhor.

Three White Terrorists Planned Car Bombing At Kansas Mosque, Apartment Complex, Say Authorities

These three guys were arrested in Kansas for plotting
 a terrorist attack on an apartment complex where
many Somali immigrants live.

I get why people are worried about ISIS - inspired terrorist attacks in the United States.

They do happen, as we saw last year in San Bernardino and this year in Orlando, Florida.

Now, if we haven't done so already, apparently we need to start worrying about white terrorists attacking Muslims in this nation.

Yeah, it keeps getting worse.

The New York Daily News reports that the FBI has arrested three white guys for conspiring to blow up an apartment complex where many Somali immigrants live. The guys involved in the plot apparently call themselves "The Crusaders."

The apartment complex the three targeted has a mosque where many of the Somalis frequently gather for prayers.

According to the Daily News:

"Curtis Allen, 49, Gavin Wright, 49, and Patrick Stein, 47, were charged Friday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, according to the Department of Justice's national security division. The Crusaders call Muslims "cockroaches" and they had discussed brutal attacks on Muslims for months, federal prosecutors said.

FBI agents working on tips from an undercover informant said the three men planned to blow up four car bombs at the Garden City apartments. Allen, Wright and Stein hoped the attack on the 120-resident complex would 'wake people up,' the feds said."

I guess ironically,  "The Crusaders" MO was much the same as ISIS. Do a splashy terrorist attack to demoralize their enemies and more importantly, inspire like-minded idiots to do more of the same.

I obviously can't hold Donald Trump directly responsible for what these idiots planned, but I do blame him for doing a large part in creating a hostile culture that might have helped inspire these three idiots. 

Frighteningly, the "Crusaders" came pretty close to being able to carry out their plan. A paid informant helped squash the plot, though.

More from The New York Daily News:

"Allen, Wright, Stein and the informant met multiple times at Wright's business, the G&G Mobile Home Center in Liberal (Kansas). At one meeting in July, he used Google Maps to drop pins labeled 'cockroaches' on locations of potential victims, according to the complaint.

They talked about attacking targets such as city or county meetings, landlords who rent to Muslim refugees, organizations that assist Muslim refugees, a mall frequented by Muslims and Garden City's African Community Center, investigators said. They decided on the W. Mary St. apartment complex in August, according to the complaint."

Police also found a metric ton (!!) of explosives and detonators with these guys.

Glad that they got these guys. but here's the fear:

The climate is so toxic now, that if Trump loses the Presidential election, which seems quite likely now, his most ignorant, racist, hostile, misogynistic fans will erupt in extreme anger.

They already are, fueled by some pretty violent rhetoric, especially around the meme that the election is supposedly "rigged" if Hillary Clinton wins.

Even people in supposedly authority are using this rhetoric. Sheriff David Clarke, a Trump surrogate, tweeted it's "pitchforks and torches time" if Hillary is elected because she would "rig" the election.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, who should know better, is also accusing people of "rigging" the election.

Trump's true believers in the crowd are even worse.

Dan Bowman, a 50-year-old contractor told the Boston Globe at a Trump rally this week: "If she's (Clinton) in office, I hope we can start a coup. She should be in prison or shot. That's how I feel about it.....We're going to have a revolution and take them out of office if that's what it takes. There's going to be a lot of bloodshed. But that's what it's going to take... I would do whatever I can for my country."

That is, if "doing whatever he can for his country" is committing treason, I guess.

There's quite a few people like Bowman, who, fired up by Trump's incredibly irresponsible and wrong speech, won't accept an election, won't accept democracy.

Some people will act violently, I fear.

Ah yes, just what we need, domestic terrorists by people who are in a snit because the majority of us rejected a spoiled rich kid jerk/moron for president.

Don't you love people like Donald Trump who insist on making things worse for all of us?

Gays And Lesbians Should Not Have Birthdays, Ohio Baker Decrees

Wedding cakes have become the odd cliche and the meme in the ongoing battle between members of the LGBT community and so called religious bakers who don't want to make wedding cakes for said couples, lest that be conscrued as endorsing gay marriage.

The law generally comes down on the side of "bake the damn cake,"  because bakeries are public businesses and accommodations.

Generally speaking, you can't refuse to bake a cake because the couple is black, so by extension, you can't deny the gay couple.

Of course, if I were to re-do my wedding day, I wouldn't want someone who hates me and my marriage to bake the cake. (Luckily, my 2012 wedding ceremony to Jeff was perfect, and so there's no need for a do-over.)

Still, the law isn't completely settled and the War Of The Gay Wedding Cakes drags on.

An Ohio baker has managed to take this one step further and decided not to bake a birthday cake for a lesbian because of her sexual orientation. Her "religious" objections to baking the cake were downright creepy.

We're talking a simple birthday cake here, not a wedding cake.

Candace Lowe of the Toledo, Ohio area is a newlywed whose new wife had a birthday just two weeks after their lovely wedding.  She decided to surprise her wife with a nice treat from Take The Cake bakery in Toledo, says television station WTVG in Toledo.

Lowe ordered the cake from the bakery without mentioning her sexual orientation. Why would she?  Pretty much nobody announces such personal information when they stop by a store to purchase something.

Most shopkeepers figure a customer has come into the shop and wants to give him money, so what the hell, treat the guy or gal nicely.

The owner of Take The Cake bakery then did something strange once Lowe left the store. She looked up Lowe on Facebook.

Now, that's weird. Why would a store owner  take the time to stalk somebody on Facebook? You'd think she would just get busy baking the cake or helping other customers.

So we've come to this. Some people object to background checks on people wanting to buy guns. Here we have a background check on somebody wanting to buy a birthday cake.

Weird.

Anyway, lo and behold on Facebook, there was Lowe, smiling in photographs of her recent wedding to her wife.

Uh-Oh.

The bakery owner send Lowe a text, in a very cutesy childlike font that said: "I'm sorry. I just realized your (sic) in a same-sex relationship and we do not do cakes for same-sex weddings or parties.... I'm so sorry I just wasn't aware of this exactly until I saw your page. Take care:)"

Yes, the baker put a smiley face emoticon at the end of her bizarre, hateful text message.  That'll make everything OK, right?

Uh, no.

Lowe, undestandably upset, posted the message from the bakery on her Facebook page. It went viral, naturally. WTVG picked up the story and people around the world saw the weird story of the baker who wouldn't make a birthday cake for a lesbian.

Dan Savage, the writer, sex advisor and gay activist, had this good nugget to say about so called Christians who would agree with our Toledo baker:

"But it's not just our weddings they object to - it's our existence. Refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding says, 'I don't think you people should be able to celebrate or solemnize your relationship because same-sex marriage is a sin.'

Refusing to bake a birthcake for a lesbian says 'I don't think your birth is something to celebrate because the world would be better off if you didn't exist.'"

This whole mess in Toledo will play out just like all the other disputes over gay wedding cakes and gay marriage licenses vs. evangelicals play out.

The owner of Take the Cake will get death threats. I never understand why people do that. Like sending a death threat will actually help the situation. Others will boycott the bakery, which is certainly a more understandable reaction.

Religious conservatives will howl in protest, saying we're taking away Christians' right to be Christian. (I guess refusing to bake a cake is a very Christian thing to do, and never mind nobody is taking away anybody's right to think gay people are awful.)

The religious right will probably launch a GoFundMe campaign to keep the bakery afloat, since so many people aren't shopping there anymore

The bakery's Facebook page is already chock full of people objecting to the owner's bigotry.

Then the whole thing will fade away and this little kerfuffle will be forgotten.

It probably should be forgotten eventually. But it's still a nice illustration of the bizarre lengths some people in society will go to practice their bigoted lifestyles and mindsets.

Amazing Broadway Support For Orlando: "What The World Needs Now Is Love"

An awesome collection of Broadway luminaries has
just released a benefit song for Orlando shooting victims
and LGBT advocacy in Orlando.

My husband Jeff told me last night I should find out about "Broadway For Orlando," and effort to help the LGBT community after the Orlando shooting.

Great suggestion, Chief! (I call my husband Chief.)

Broadway for Orlando is something absolutely wonderful.

About 60 Broadway luminaries gathered in a recording studio on June 15 - just three days after the Orlando shooting - to record the Burt Bacharach and Hal David classic "What The World Needs Now Is Love."

Watch the stirring video of it at the bottom of this post. If their performance of this song doesn't move you at least a little, nothing will

Among the broadway luminaries taking part were Lin-Manuel Miranda (from "Hamilton); Kristen Bell, Gloria Estefa, Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, Idina Mezel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rosie Perez, Sara Bareilles, Wayne Brody, Rosie O'Donnell, Bernadette Peters, Carole King, Chita Rivera, Tommy Tune and Matthew Broderick.

Broadway for Orlando could not have chosen a better song for this effort, with the lyrics:

"What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
It's the only thing that there's just too little of.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No, not just for some but for everyone."

As a gay man, I'm thrilled to live in a changed world in which most people accept us for who we are, that I was able to marry the love of my life, even though he's the same gender as me. Things are much better than they were even a decade ago, never mind 30, 40, 50 years ago.

My favorite aunt was Aunt Irene. She was smart and funny and cool, always tooling around in her Ford Mustangs.

Aunt Irene also drank herself to death. I know now she was a lesbian, and back in the day -1950s, 1960, 1970s -  there was no way she could be who she was.

I have no proof of this, but I'm convinced the fact she couldn't openly live her life killed her.  Hate, intolerance and ignorance is a terribly efficient killer.

Years later, people bravely started coming out as gay, and when most reasonable people discovered they knew gay people and those people were just fine, the anti-gay balloon began deflating

This paved the way for people like me. I don't have to be alone and hidden like Aunt Irene. I'm proud of my husband, and who I am. Jeff and I have built a sweet life together. You know, love, sweet love, as the song goes.

But the love, as Broadway for Orlando tells us, it is not just for some, but for everyone. Or should be anyway.

Broadway stars record "What The World Needs Now
Is Love" to benefit the Orlando LGBT community. 

I know there's a lot of people like Aunt Irene. I mean still, to this day.

Anti-gay bigotry killed those 49 people in Orlando's Pulse nightclub. It also kills people quietly.

It's the so called Christian parents or churches or relatives who find out a kid is gay and rejects him or her.

The Trevor Project, an advocacy group for gay youth, tells us suicide is the second leading cause of death among people ages 10 to 24, and LGBT are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers.

Gay kids who come from highly rejecting families are 8.4 times as likely to attempt suicide as their gay peers who report no or low levels of family rejection, says the Trevor Project. 

Then we have the small but odious band of people in the U.S. who call themselves Christian and regularly try to beat the gay community down.

There's so-called Pastor Steven Anderson, who celebrated the deaths of the 49 people in Orlando shorting after the massacre.

There's also alleged Pastor Roger Jimenez, who wished the 53 people injured in the shooting at that gay nightclub would just die already because most of them were gay. (The owner of the building that leases space to Jimenez's "church" is so upset with the comments that they're kicking him and his church out.)

These are extreme examples, of course. But this kind of rhetoric is dangerous. Most people wouldn't act on these bigoted speeches, but a few wackos could.

I feel relatively safe being who I am, but not completely safe. I know there are hateful bigots that want me dead. Or to at least go away.

The hatred that still lingers. Statistics are iffy, but between 20 and 30 people are murdered in anti-LGBT violence annually. Most victims are people of color.

So yes, Broadway for Orlando is exactly right. What the world needs now is love, sweet love for everyone.

I'm also grateful Broadway for Orlando is continuing to publicize and push this so hard to raise money for The Center in Orlando. I noticed the Broadway luminaries got together again to perform "What the World Needs Now Is Love" on the Maya and Marty show on NBC last night. 

Sirius XM Rado host Seth Rudetsky and his husband, producer James Wesley decided on Monday, June 13 to organize the benefit single, People magazine reports. By Wednesday, the recording was done.

"We started making calls, and suddenly we had tons of theater actors along with an orchestra and the services of a fully-staffed recording studio, all willing to donate their time and talent......
Our community of artists has banded together as we always to to show we can end this cycle of violence and intolerance. Love will prevail," Rudetsky said.

You can go to BroadwayRecords.com or iTunes to download Broadway for Orlando's "What the World Needs Now Is Love," for $1.99.

Even more importantly, when you see hate or hear hate speeech against the LGBT community or anyway, counteract it. Do something loving. Tell the haters why they're wrong. You might not change their minds, but you'll  put them on notice.

Here's the spectacular video of Broadway for Orlando's "What the World Needs Now Is Love"

Was Orlando Shooter A Self-Loathing Gay Man?

Was Omar Mateen, responsible for the Orlando
nightclub massacre, secretlu a self-loathing gay man?  

I know the following seems trivial, in the midst of the enormous tragedy of the Orlando nightclub shooting that claimed 49 lives, but it's not.

Turns out it's possible that Omar Mateen, that mass murderer, who targeted members of the LGBT community at Orlando's Pulse nightclub, could have been a self-loathing gay man.

This is all speculation, of course. In the days after these all-too common mass shootings, rumors and false impressions swirl like ugly soot from a wildfire.

But if Mateeen was secretly gay, the Orlando shooting is an extreme manifestation of what happens when society, or religion, or your parents tell you that being gay is evil, and yet you are gay.

I confess my gaydar went off when I first saw photos of the evil Mateen. The way he posed with his head tilted just so in some of his selfies, the way his features set in his face, made me somehow suspect it.

We first heard Sunday that Mateen's father his son't terrible violence was triggered when he saw two men kissing a couple months back, which totally angered Mateen.

Now we learn, according to some published reports anyway, that Mateen had been seen in Pulse occasionally for the past three years. 

He'd get very drunk and often was kicked out because of it.

Reports said he also communicated with at least one man through a gay dating app.

The Daily Beast reported that Mateen was once friends with a drag queen and several gay people.

None of this proves Mateen was gay, of course, but this does represent some circumstantial evidence.

There were apparently a lot of motivations behind Mateen's actions. Loyalty to radical Islamic terrorists. Mental instability. A propensity toward violence.

However, if Mateen was a closeted gay man, the shooting was the worst representation yet of how a closeted queer has done real harm to the LGBT community.

I'm sure past violence against the LGBT community was sometimes perpetrated by self-loathing closeted gay people.

Then there are the politicians. Check out The Advocate's rogue's list of anti-gay politicians who turned out to be gay themselves. They harmed the gay community with their bigoted policies as a cover to keep their political ambitions alive, apparently.

I have my suspicions about some other rabidly anti-gay Americans who are causing harm, too.

There's "Christian" pastor Steven Anderson, who yesterday said the Orlando massacre was "good news" because "homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts." Yeah, and I think you're one of them, Steven!

Then there's Theodore Shoebat, who's kill-the-gays videos are a hit on YouTube. I wonder about him, too.

Extreme right wingers and very conservative religious types love to spout off on how "evil" homosexuality is.

They've shamed countless gay people into the closet, into hating themselves.  Some of this bigotry over the years, decades and centuries has contributed to the kind of violence that we saw in Orlando Sunday.

Every once in awhile, a shamed, closeted gay person will lash out. Tragically.

Words matter, and to an extent anti-gay bigots have blood on their hands.

Some people have blonde hair. Some people have brown eyes. Some people are gay. It's that simple.

If you ever hear of or know someone who is LGBT and is being told he or she disgusting, wrong and is not worth anything, tell them the truth.  That they are valuable human beings.

I said words matter. Anti-gay bigotry matters.

Even more so, kindness, respect, truth and support matters. A lot.

If you love and respect and embrace members of the LGBT community, you might literally be saving lives.

Restaurant Patrons Who Think They Are Christians Insult Waiter In Un-Christian Way

Click to make it bigger
and see how some
so called "religious"
people insulted a
waitress at a North
Carolina restaurant. 

Alexandra Judd is a waitress in a Charlotte, North Carolina restaurant and a recent experience she had proves that there definitely are bigots in that state.

North Carolina is in the news spotlight over the so-called "bathroom bill" that in some cases would force transgendered people to use public restrooms that don't correspond with their gender. It also effectively endorses the "right" of some people to discriminate against the LGBT community.

Judd, who is a lesbian, said a group of patrons left without leaving a tip.

Yeah, that happens sometimes. People don't leave tips and that screws over the waitstaff.

But that wasn't what bothered Judd.

The group left a hateful message on the bill, and pointed Judd to that ever popular Bible verse, Leviticus 20:13 that bigots use to shroud their homophobia in "religion," says television station WBTV in Charlotte. 

"If a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both them have committed an abomination....They shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them," reads the Old Testament Bible verse.

So there you have it. This group of so-called Christians thought the Christian, holy thing to do is insult somebody.

If these "Christians" don't like gay people, fine. Going out of their way to insult people?

If that's what their religion says to do, I'm staying away from it as far as possible.

This post isn't a swipe at all Christians. It's a swipe at the small minority of them who are actually confused over who is holier than thou.

Certainly not the idiots that visited the restaurant where Judd works.

The people who left this "tip" for Judd also wrote "praying for you."

Yeah, right. Praying that the only see and hear from people exactly like them, is more like it.

Anyway, Judd was of course infuriated and hurt by this, but she's not going to let it get her down. Why should she? Why should she waste her time thinking about morons who are nothings anyway?

She wrote this message to the morons on Facebook: "Don't pray for me, darling. I have everything I could possibly want and need in my life."

Which is certainly more than the people who left the "tip" have. It must be awful to have so empty a life that they have to go around insulting random people in the name of "religion."

Pathetic.

Right Wing Groups: Help Us Boycott PayPal By Donating To Us Via PayPal!

The Family Research Council hates PayPal for hating
North Carolina's anti-LGBT law, but at least for now
you can donate to the FRC via PayPal. Hmmm.  

A fun little side issue in the Great North Carolina PayPal move controversy is the people who want us to boycott PayPal want us to use PayPal to donate to their organizations.

As noted previously, PayPal announced earlier this week they wouldn't be locating a processing center in North Carolina after all.

PayPal executives were understandably annoyed with North Carolina's legislature and governor adopting a weird law that would, among other things, make transgendered people use bathrooms that correspond to their birth certificate, and not to their current gender.

There's also some other anti-LGBG goodies in that law.

Anyway, the law goes against PayPal's corporate philosphy about inclusiveness, so they'll look elsewhere to locate their new office.

(Note: Already, other states, including here in Vermont are yelling for PayPal: Over here! Over here! Come here! We'll see how that goes.)

Predictably, various and sundry evangelical and right wing activist groups are annoyed with PayPal for being annoyed with North Carolina's law.

These groups want us to boycott PayPal, and donate to their organizations to fight the heathen PayPal.

According to JoeMyGod, at least two of these groups, the Family Research Council, and Franklin Graham's outfit, tell us the best way to donate to fight PayPal is through, um, PayPal.

Ooookay then!

Tony Perkins of Family Research Council says they will remove the PayPal option soon. Let's see if they do.

Franklin Graham complains that PayPal operates in countries that are very abusive and hostile to gays and that's true. But they don't have their corporate offices in these countries.

Nevertheless, Graham says PayPal is hypocritical for backing out of North Carolina when it does business in oppressive countries

But Grahams's web site invites you to donate to him via PayPal. 

No that's not hypocritical, uh-uh.

Mississippi Latest State To Screw Itself Over Because Jesus

The Mississippi billboard says it all...A 

It seems to be a required ritual of Republican state legislatures across the United States.

Prove to their voters they are Christians by passing odious and usually unconstitutional laws "legalizing" discrimination against gays, and transgender people and anybody else they deem as not going to be Saved.

The latest is Mississippi, and as is that state's style, basically every business, every service provider, every government agency and every church can now refuse service to gay people, and anybody else they deem immoral, like people who have sex outside of marriage, whether straight or gay, divorcees, you name it.

The only protected people in Mississippi are monogamous, straight married couples. Presumably only ones that are Christian.

I don't know how you determine whether somebody who walks into your store is following these rules without interrogating them, but I'll let Mississippi figure that out.

That state sure does have a lot to figure out, especially this: Why does the Mississippi legislature and governor do something like this, knowing that there will be an outcry that will hurt its already meager and sad economy, budget and everything else?

I don't have a good answer, and they probably don't, either.

I know these weird "religious liberty" bills are coming fast and furious nationwide from wackos who want us to turn into a theocracy.

It's everywhere, it seems, not just Mississippi. Tennessee. Idaho.

The governor of Idaho just had to veto a bill that would have said schools can use the Bible in public school instruction. The gov, and his attorney general, wisely said this would have been unconstitutional.

Tennessee State Senate, not to be outdone, approved a bill designating the Bible as the official state book. The state's attorney general, along with every other legal eagle, says the measure violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

One Tennessee senator, according to Slate, said "the very founding of our nation, the very form of government we have to today" is based on the Holy Scripture.

Um, no. They created a secular government in which the freedom of religion was bestowed on the citzenry. Quite a different thing.

 The Tennessee legislature, in its "wisdom" also passed a bill that would allow mental health couselors to not help someone if doing so would conflict with their "sincerely held religious beliefs."

As the website thenewcivilrightsmovement.com put it:

"The ACLU of Tennessee warns the bill, should it become law, would allow counselors to 'refuse to see clients for almost unlimited reasons. For instance, a counselor could refuse to see a lesbian simply because of her sexual orientation, or see a couple involved in an interfaith relationship A counselor who is an atheist could refuse to see a Catholic client - and the list goes on.'"

That last sentence is important, and could really screw the right wing evangelists who are trying to create this evangelical Christian theocracy.

All this anti-gay, right wing evangelical Christian faux lawmaking is being done in large part to distract from the real problems facing their constituents that the legislatures are too stupid, or too in the pocket of wealthy campaign donors to tackle.

Let's not deal with an iffy economy, creating jobs, paying for schools and infrastructure, all that stuff is too hard!

So the resort to the tried and true "the gays did it" or "the atheists did it" or whatever to redirect voters' ire. That way, when the economy, the state, the schools, the roads and everything else is a mess, they can just blame it all on the gays and the ungodly, and pretend it's not their fault.

OK, then, Christianity is saved from the heathens! Our laws work!

Or not.

What happens if some smart aleck gay person, atheists, activist or prankster tries to take advantage of these new rules and laws to turn them on their heads?

The unconstitional lawmaking is designed to "protect Christians" from the "attack" their under from society as a whole, not to mention the big bad heathen U.S. Supreme Court.

You saw the example above of the atheist counselor not treating a Catholic client. You know somebody is going to refuse to serve somebody in Mississippi or North Carolina because that would-be client is an evangelical Christian.

"It's against my closely held religous belief to serve a Christian, so I'm not going to do it."

Will these upstanding Christians cling to their weird theocratic laws then? It will be fun to watch.

Meanwhile, the economies in the states with the bigoted legislatures are going to suffer because of their actions. (But as noted, it's the gays fault! And the atheists!)

We know North Carolina is losing lots of investment and business from people repelled by their bad anti-LGBT law. North Carolina has potentially a lot to lose: Its business sector is pretty vibrant.

You'd think the Mississippi legislature and its governor would work on fixing the state's really big problems. And they're YUUGGEE! as Donald Trump might say.

As ThinkProgress notes, Mississippi's economy is ranked worst of all the 50 states. It has the highest unemployment rate, the lowest gross domestic product per capita, the lowest averge money spent on personal consumption and the lowest average annual wages.

Mississippi also ranks lowest on its innovation and technology efforts, its educational attainment and health.

The state sounds like a helluva fun place, huh?

Their legislature and governor are only making things worse in Mississippi.

What happens when Mississippi gets too poor to even maintain its Christian churches?

North Carolina Hates Me, No, I Won't Go Back There

Because of North Carolina' lawmakers' and
governor's stupidity, this dude would legally
have to use womens bathrooms and
locker rooms. Makes sense, right?

4/5/15 UPDATE:

The Associated Press this morning is reporting that PayPal has canceled plans to build an operations center in Charlotte, North Carolina because of the state's new pro-bigotry law.

The PayPal center would have created 400 jobs in the Charlotte area.

This is the first major company to make good on its threat to bail out of North Carolina because of their anti-LGBT law, that the governor signed last month.

Meanwhile, says the AP, Braeburn Pharmaceuticals is re-evaluating an earlier decision to build a $20 million center in the state.

That project would create about 50 jobs, each with a salary of over $75,000 a  year.

Lionsgate has opted to abandon the idea of filming a pilot for a new comedy in North Carolina and will do so in Canada instead. Several companies have also pulled out of a major interior design show in North Carolina.

The anti-LGBT lawmakers in North Carolina are surely saying they're putting "morality" ahead of money, but what's the morality in harming a segment of the population, while simultaneously denying economic opportunity and jobs to both straight and gay North Carolinians?

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

I've been to North Carolina, and it's a beautiful state. From the Atlantic shores of the Outer Banks to the Great Smokey Mountains, it has a lot to offer.

Too bad its legislature and governor are so intellectually and morally ugly.

Earlier this year, the city of Charlotte, North Carolina passed an anti-discrimination ordinance that protected gay and transgender people.

The North Carolina legislator and its odioius governor, Pat McCrory, panicked over this and called together an emergency (and expensive) special legislative session to put a stop to Charlotte, tad burn it!

Basically, the new law bars any municipality from enacting ordinances that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The legislation basically allows businesses the right to refuse to serve customers based on the owner's religious beliefs. 

As is always the case when these types of laws come up, the legislation centered on panic over bathrooms.

Charlotte's nullified ordinance, along with existing local ordinances and state laws across the nation,  allow transgender people to use public bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

The bigots that came up with laws like North Carolina's say that would allow men to go into womens' bathrooms by pretending they are women so they could sexually assault innocent women and children.

Or something.

First of all, there are no reported instances of these transgender rights ordinances and laws encouraging sexual assaults. Furthermore, last time I checked, sexual assault is illegal everywhere, including in North Carolina.

And if some guy is intent on ignoring the law and committing a rape, do you think he would be stopped by North Carolina's stupidity?

Also, check out the photo of the dude at the top of this post. It's a photo that went viral. He's transgender, definitely a guy now. Would McCrory want this guy sharing a public bathroom with his wife? Would the idiots in the North Carolina legislature want him barging in on their daughters locker room at the gym?

Under their law, he'd have to.

The dude in question, James Sheffield, Tweeted his photo when the law was signed and it went viral. It's jokey but Sheffield isn't really laughing that hard.

"It's super funny to think about some bearded hillbilly in a stall next to the governor's wife while she clutches her pearls," he said.

However, Sheffield said this would happen:

"The more likely scenario would be that I take a road trip through North Carolina - which I do often - stop at a gas station and try use the rest room..... I can follow the law and go into the women's room in a state that's a Stand Your Ground state with a very liberal open carry law, and if I do that, are women gonna stop me and ask me if I'm trans? 

Or are they just going to shoot me because they think I really am a predator because all they see is some bearded buy walking into the women's room?"

Sheffield just nailed it. The law is all about making life dangerous, or at least more difficult for LGBT people because McCrory and the legislature just don't like dem perverts!

McCrory is trying to tell us the law is about "etiquette," that men shouldn't use women's bathrooms and women shouldn't use men's bathrooms. "All of a sudden through poltical correctness we're throwing away basic etiquette," he told NBC.

So, basic etiquette is telling men they must use the ladies room because their birth certificate says they were born female? I wonder what the Emily Post Institute has to say about that.

McCrory says the uproar over the law is the child of "left wind activists groups" who are threatening local businesses and pressuring them into saying they don't like the law. "There is politicallly correct blackmail being directed toward somw of our businessess... They are caught in a very coordinated political theater."

Oh, right. I'm sure the politically correct left wing pressured North Carolina's largest newspaper, to blast McCrory.

The Charlotte Observer pulled no punches in its editorial. It read, in part:

"It was, in the end, about a 21st century governor who joined a short, tragic list of 20th century governors. You know at least some of these names, probably: Wallace, Faubus, Barnett. They were men who fed our worst impulses, men who rallied citizens against citizens, instead o leading their states forward.

This is what Pat McCrory did Wednesday, in just 12 hours. I wasn't the stand in the schoolhosue door. It was a spring past the bathroom door and straight into the South's dark, bigoted past."

Was it the political left that prompted the conservative governors of South Dakota and more recently Georgia to veto similar legislation, despite the pressure from religious onservatives not to do so?

Republican Presidential Ted Cruz had a hissy fit over the Georgia governor's veto, which tells us what kind of awful president he would be, as if we didn't know already

And what about the North Carolina Attorney General, who's running for governor of North Carolina and wants to replace McCrory? He said today he's not going to defend the state against a lawsuit that says, most likely very accurately, that the new law in North Carolina is unconstitutional.

By the way, if you're so proud of this law, McCrory, why did you and your cronies in the legislature ram this law through with little or no advance warning, with not time for public debate, no time for the public to weigh in?

I guess you don't like democracy. Who appointed you king, anyway?

The law focuses on transgendered people more than anything else. But it's a swipe at all LGBT people.

North Carolina says "we don't want your kind here." North Carolina is apparently for straight people only.

Fine. I won't go there. And neither should anyone who opposes bigotry. Because bigots may only go to North Carolina now, Gov. McCrory has regally decided.

Do I Laugh Or Cry Over Right Wing Despair Over Gay Marriage?

Lots of people were happy over last week's U.S.
Supreme Court ruling regarding gay marriage.... 

I admit I've been pretty snarky the past few days about the over the top reactions among some conservatives regarding the U.S. Supreme Court gay marriage decision.

It started moments after news broke. 

The ever-reliable Bryan Fischer of American Family Association immediately released a seriers of melodramatic Tweets soon after the Supreme Court announced its decision:

First he compared it to the 9-11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York:

"June 26, 2015. The day the twin towers of truth and righteousness were blown up by moral jihadists."

Then, oddly, he started channeling Don McClean, famous for the song "American Pie"

"I saw Satan dancing with delight the day the musti died in the United States of America."

I know I'm being too literal here, but I heard lots of music once the gay marriage decision came out. Happy partiers, especially gay ones, bring on the music in happy times. But what do I know?

Republican presidential candidates' were quick to follow Fischer and his ilk:

Bobby Jindal had one of the better ones:

"This decision will pave the way for an all out assault against the religious freedom rights of Christians who disagree with this decision.....I will never stop fighting for religious liberty and I hope our leaders in D.C. join me."

That's picking your battles, Bobby! Fight a nonexistent battle against an "assault on religious freedom." As if anyone cares what goes on in the church you go to.

....but Bryan Fischer was one of the right
wingers who was VERY displeased.

Predictably, the activists started blaming bad weather on The Gays. Any time there is bad weather anywhere, be it a storm, flood, drought, heat wave, cold wave or hail, it's because of The Gays.

If we gay people have so much control over the weather, why can't I make it stop raining so I can get some work done out in my garden?

Anyway, the day after the same sex marriage ruling, there was a pretty good thunderstorm in Washington DC. Imagine! A thunderstorm in humid DC in the middle of summer!

The storms caused some local flash floods, and Todd Starnes of Fox News or shall I say Fox "News" had this to say:

"Record breaking floods (editor's note: Not really) have inundated Washington DC just days after the Supreme Court decided they knew better than God. I seem to remember another time in history when there was a record breaking flood."

Uh, yeah, there have been other record breaking floods. I suppose the Biblical Noah's Ark one, if it happened, was probably record breaking.  And........?

The wackadoodles on the right are now expecting a cascade of new awful things now that gay marriage is legal. Tom DeLay probably topped them all, explaining there's a secret Department of Justice memo that will now legalize bestiality and pedophilia.

He hasn't offered any proof, but hey, trust him! Why not?

This all leads me to a Washington Monthly article by David Atkins on why the religious right is so, SO upset over gay marriage.

From their worldview there are a lot of things to be upset about. Why gay marriage especially.

Evangelicals are also upset over abortion. As the Washington Monthly points out, if you go with the evangelicals' line of thinking, this makes sense. They think that life starts at the moment of conception, so if you kill off a small collection of cells that could potentiallly become a human being, yeah, I can see their anger.

However, if two guys or two gals marry each other, nobody gets hurt or killed. So we're good, right?

Wrong, apparently.

Atkins writes:

"An array of obviously specious slippery slope arguments notwithstanding, even under the Christianist worldview marriage equality hurts no one but the supposed sinners in question, who will either repent and be saved or not - but their souls are subject to their own God-given free will. 

It's not as if LGBT people haven't heard the 'good news' from evangelicals before; what they do with the 'information is their business and their potential salvation is entirely in their own hands."

So why can't evangelicals just keep giving their, ugh, 'good news' to us and if we don't take the bait, fughettaboutit.

Well, Atkins explains this in is Washington Monthly article, too:

"Some of the more unhinged on the religious right believe that God is actively protecting the United States because of America's religiosity, and God's grace will be removed by cultural coarsening. But again, so what? The United States is not Jerusalem. It's existence is obviously not part of any scripture or prophecy. 

In the supposed end times, the entire world is supposed to come under the spell of the Anti-Christ, which means that the U.S. will either exist or fall under Satan's dominion. In either case, the removal of divine protection isn't much to be feared, as it seemingly must happen sooner or later."

Atkins points out the radical right is not railing under other sins, like divorce, selfishness and hypocracy. Maybe because these yellers and screamers are hypocrites themselves?

I can only come to exactly the same conclusion Atkins did in his article. The right wingers are are using religion as, as Atkins puts it the "most socially acceptable veneer for exercising that bigotry. Which is really what it's all about."

Indiana's Little Pizza Shop Of Horrors

Memories Pizza in Indiana played the culture
wars well, and were rewarded with nearly $500,000
in GoFundMe loot.  

I hope the owners of Memories Pizza in Indiana are pleased as punch that they signed on to the nation's long running culture wars.

The people who run the place decided to get on TV and talk about their bigotry (they say Christianity), making themselves a target for all the yahoos out there, and then playing the martyr card when the yahoos inevitably attacked.

They've got the playbook down pat, don't they?

Here's the backstory: As you probably heard, Indiana is in an uproar because the governor, Mike Pense, signed legislation called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Though the backers of the law denied it, the new legislation went beyond somewhat similar, existing laws in other  jurisdiction and pretty much opened the door for businesses to turn gay people away because some business owners' religious beliefs say that gay people are scummy.

Or something like that.

Amid cries of boycotts, and the business establishment canceling expansions, hiring and events over the uproar, the law was just "modified" a bit to make it a tiny bit less discriminatory.

The owners of the pizza place, Crystal O'Connor and her father Kevin O'Connor,  came forward the other day and said their restaurant is a "Christian establishment" and thusly favored the law as it was originally signed by Pense, because they wouldn't want to be forced to cater a gay wedding because they don't believe in the "homosexual lifestyle," whatever that is.

I'm not sure there's any gay couples out there who think their dream wedding is one catered with pizza from Memories Pizza, but what do I know?

They would, grudgingly, serve a gay couple if they came into the restaurant and just wanted a pizza. But for all I know they'd spit in their pizza.

By announcing to the world that they favored discrimination against gay people, the owners of Memories Pizza had to have known they would put themselves in the middle of a huge shitstorm.

And boy did they ever.

The backlash against Memories Pizza was, well, memorable, but also predictable. All kinds of off-color, crude, and very negative Yelp reviews went up, the restaurant's web site was hacked, and the restaurant owners got the inevitable death threats.

Because trolls of all stripes, be they liberal, conservative or neither, have their go-to button. Anytime they remotely dislike something or someone, they let the death threats fly.

As if that would accomplish anything.

Of course, the pizza place shut down in the face of the threats, and stupid pranks like ordering pizza they have no intention of actually buying.

The idiots that issued the threats enabled the pizza restaurant owners to play that martyr card, that all gay people were fascists who wanted to take over the world.

The pizza joint established a GoFundMe page to garner donations from like minded people (some say mouth breathing knuckle draggers, you decide) to stay afloat. At last check they'd collected something like $485,000, probably more than that by now.

I bet the owners of Memories Pizza are already packing their bags for a nice vacation to Cabu with that loot.

I have no idea how financially stable Memories Pizza was before all this started. It might have been making money like gangbusters, or it could have been about to fall off a monetary cliff. Who knows?

But you've got to hand it to the people who run this pizza joint. They certainly took full advantage of a Big Public Controversy.

They got their own bully pulpit, so they could attempt to bully people they don't like, as prescribed by their so-called "Christian" beliefs. And they get a ton of free money to boot.

I don't know if Memories Pizza people thought this through ahead of time as a money making scheme, but it sure worked out that way.

Yes, they were probably genuinely frightened by the idiots issuing their threats and probably didn't think their public comments would blow up to be a national story.

The anti-gay bigots win big, too. They can point to Memories Pizza and say anytime they come down on the side of what they call righteousness, "Big Gay" will threaten them into silence, and take away their free speech rights.

Of course, anytime you say something, the First Amendment doesn't give you any protection from people criticizing it.

Plus, there's always a few idiots among the mostly peaceful, normal people who don't like anti-gay bigotry.  The idiots who issue threats are the ones that get all the attention, because they're not about anti-gay bigotry, they're all about getting attention. Morons.

Death threats are always, always wrong. I've always wondered why they're not prosecuted more vigorously.

The anti-gay activists can also claim, falsely, that the bundles of money Memories got via GoFundMe proves that everybody in America hates the gays, just like them.

Though the corporations that rebelled against the "religious rights" law know a majority of people don't like this type of discrimination. It's bad for business.

But, Memories Pizza sure captured a niche here. There are a fair number of people out there who Hate The Gays.

In terms of making bundles of money and becomin a poster child "martyr" for the radical Christian right, well played, Memories Pizza!

Cop Won't Work At Pride Parade Because He's Afraid Of Gay Cooties

My nomination for the wimpiest cop on the planet is the one in Salt Lake City who refused to work traffic and crowd control at a gay pride parade.   

A Salt Lake City cop is apparently terrified of these
absolutely "scary" bunch of people.  

About 30 cops were assigned to the parade. It sounds like a pretty routine assignment. Every parade in every city has police making sure everything runs smoothly.

I don't know that much about policing, but traffic control at a parade doesn't seem all that dangerous, at least compared to dealing with murderers and robbers and such.

The officer has not been identified, but he has been placed on leave pending a review.

It appears the cop's supervisors are not amused:

"We don't tolerate bias and bigotry in the department and assignments are assignments... To allow personal opinion to enter whether an officer will take a post is not something that can be tolerated in a police department," said Salt Lake City Police Department spokeswoman Lara Jones.

In other words, do your job, pal.

Oh, the small number of virulent anti gay ranters and bigots and wacked out extreme right wingers will hold up this guy as a martyr. They'll say how we can no longer live our lives in the Christian way we want. Or something like that.

That forgets the little detail that the cop was never asked to endorse the march, or gays in general. He's only supposed to do crowd control. In other words, be on the same street as a bunch of gay people and their supporters.

I'm sure he's been in the same room with murderers and thieves and such. Does that mean he endorses murder and thievery?

No, he's just afraid of gay cooties. Or something.

Can you imagine the chaos if all of us refused to work around people we don't like? Just ignore laws and rules to keep our sensitive little ignorant brains happy?

If the cop is this afraid of a bunch of gay people enjoying a parade, he must be absolutely terrified of more dangerous people, like rapists, muggers or even jay walkers. Is this the type of cop who should be trying to keep us safe?  

The other 29 cops who were assigned the gay parade in Salt Lake City don't seem to be complaining. I'm sure some of them aren't super enthusiastic about gay people. But they're doing what they're paid to do.

Salt Lake City Police are gay friendly enough anyway. The organizers of the Pride parade say they have a good working relationship with the city's police department.

It's just that our wimpy cop is an outlier. Happens to the best of organizations. Not every employee turns out to be competent.

Maybe the cop can find another line of work. Let's just hope he doesn't apply for a job as a bouncer at the wrong night club. Can you imagine what would happen if his first night turned out to be the Mr. Leather competition at some gay bar?

ALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Salt Lake City police officer has been placed on leave after refusing an assignment to work at a gay pride parade.

The officer was among about 30 officers assigned to provide traffic control and security for the annual Utah Pride Parade on Sunday in Salt Lake City, said department spokeswoman Lara Jones.

"We don't tolerate bias and bigotry in the department, and assignments are assignments ... To allow personal opinion to enter into whether an officer will take a post is not something that can be tolerated in a police department," Jones told KSL.

She declined comment on the officer's reason for refusing the assignment.

The officer, whose name was not released, is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.

Utah Pride Center spokeswoman Deann Armes said her group is pleased with the department's stance and thinks officers should undergo sensitivity training before joining the force.

"Our goal is to make sure that police training and certification includes policies and oaths to ensure that all officers are committed to providing equal service and treatment of all citizens. Clearly, bigotry is alive and well," Armes said in a statement.

Police Chief Chris Burbank has marched in the parade in the past, and three deputy chiefs will march Sunday while he is out of town.

The department also will have a community outreach and recruitment booth at the pride festival, Jones said, and participates in a standing committee to address public safety issues relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.

"We have gay men and women that serve in the police department," Jones told The Salt Lake Tribune. "One officer's situation does not reflect the vast majority of officers that work in the Salt Lake City Police Department and certainly not Chief B