Warning: Gay Marriage is Hazardous To Your Health

Or so the religious right would want you to think!

“The Iowa Legislature outlawed smoking in an effort to improve health and reduce the medical costs that are often passed on to the state,” said Chuck Hurley, president of the group. “The secondhand impacts of certain homosexual acts are arguably more destructive, and potentially more costly to society than smoking.”

He continued: “Homosexual activity is certainly more dangerous for the individuals who engage in it than is smoking.”

Wow, so…homosexual activity contributes to lung cancer, birth defects, cardio-pulmonary disease, gum disease, emphysema and a whole variety of other life threatening illnesses like love, kindness, understanding, empathy, equality and minding your own business about what happens in bedrooms not belonging to you.  Just when you think you’ve heard it all.

So, for all us gay non-smokers…go ahead, light up…it’s the sex that will kill you,  not the cigarette after.

California Gay Marriages May Hinge on One Man

The federal trial on the constitutionality of California’s gay marriage prohibition, which voters passed in 2008, has been more a sociological and philosophical debate than a traditional evidentiary hearing.

The testimony and the opposing lawyers’ arguments so far boil down to this: Some folks believe that same-sex couples should have the constitutional right to marry, and other folks deny there is such a right.

The debate is more philosophical than legal because this is virgin territory for the federal courts, no pun intended. Ultimately, it boils down to the personal views of the judges who will pass judgment as the case makes it way through the federal courts, even if they couch their decisions in dense legalese – and perhaps just one judge’s views.

More at: The Sacramento Bee!

Countering the ‘Far Loony Religious Right’

Guest Blogged by Frank Schaeffer at The Brad Blog:

It is my great honor to be part of a Tuesday, Feb 2 press conference to announce the formation of The American Prayer Hour. (Press released posted below.) Why am I doing this? Because the secretive group “The Family” and/or “C-Street” organizations of the far loony Right is the sponsor of the current annual Prayer Breakfast.

“The Family” are closely associated with the American and Ugandan evangelical “Christians” who have been trying to impose the death penalty on gay men and women.

This is my chance as a straight, fifty-seven year old practicing Christian, father of three and grandfather of three to step up and show my solidarity with my gay brothers and sisters. It’s also a chance to try and begin to restore the reputation of Christianity that has for far too long been violated by the Religious Right.

And since in years past (in the 1970s and 80s) my family and I played such a leading role in the formation of the Religious Right this is the least I can do to try and correct the horrible hate and polarization we (my late father Francis Schaeffer and I) personally helped set in motion…

Please read our press release below and do all you can to help us pry a national prayer event from the grip of the half-crazed C-Street gang. It is a scandal that so many “respectable” religious groups from the Right to the Left of the religion spectrum have allowed their good names to be linked to the Family and their nefarious “Reconstructionist” ambitions for America and the world that seeks to impose “biblical law” on our pluralistic society…

More here!

Mainstream Media and The Return of The “Homosexual”

I’ve noticed something interesting in the news recently: an apparent return of the “homosexual.” Perhaps I hadn’t been paying enough attention before now, but over the past few weeks the H-Word has been popping up in the oddest of places, like the New York Times and the Associated Press, both of which have style rules prohibiting loose use. Now it looks like the H-Word’s making a bit of a comeback, and I wonder whether there’s a larger story unfolding, and, just as importantly, whether that’s necessarily a bad thing. But, in the end, it depends on how you look at language, and our many, many nicknames.

For over a century, homosexual was the go-to term for the sexually defective. Or, rather, deviant. It first entered the lexicon in 1869, when Austrian writer Karl-Maria Kertbeny used it in a paper opposing an anti-sodomy law, but it wasn’t until 1886 that it found new, clinical life in medical circles, only to be joined four years later by its “normal” counterpart, “heterosexual.”

Most print media, aside from tabloids, which covered the seamy underworld of closeted gays, stayed far away from the topic. It was in the wake of World War II, when papers began covering – and endorsing — the military’s campaign against gays, that homosexual found itself inserted into the daily news, writes Professor Edward Alwood in his book, Straight News: Gays, Lesbians, and the News Media.

More at: AKA William!

Malawi Court Denies Gay Couple Bail…Again

Yesterday, Malawi’s High Court refused a request to release Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga on bail from a maximum security prison where they are being held in interest of their own safety.

Police arrested the gay couple in December after they became married in a “traditional” ceremony, and were charged with unnatural practices between males and gross public indecency as homosexuality is a criminal offense in the African nation.

Justice Rowland Mbvundula stated:

“The State fears for applicants’ safety based on the kind of reaction members of the public have demonstrated each time they are brought to court.”

This is the second time the couple has been denied bail, both times, on the grounds of the couple’s own safety.

Earlier this week, more leaders from other countries spoke out against the arrest as 34 members of the British parliament joined Amnesty International in calling for their unconditional release.

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