Author: vogelein (Page 19 of 19)

Some of you have no doubt seen this already, but I think it bears sending around nonetheless.

Still Speaking

This is a Television commercial created by the United Church of Christ called “Still Speaking”. Please take a moment to watch it, I find it rather good.

NOw, realize that you’ll probably never see this ad on television. Know why? Because both CBS and NBC have refused to air this ad: “the networks deemed the UCC’s all-inclusive message as “too controversial.” Know why? Because — gasp — a woman *put her arm around another woman* at the end of the commercial.

Yes,the idea of lesbianism being accepted by a church — though we have several television shows currently airing on both CBS and NBC with openly gay and lesbian characters — is “too controversial”.

The UCC is my home church, the church I was raised in, and I am phenomenally proud to see it fighting the good fight for civil rights.

Highschoolers in one of the most conservative parts of the country fight back against stupid homophobes.

Elsewhere, Neil Gaiman talks about homophobia in Alabama:

I was astoundingly unimpressed to find that in Alabama a lawmaker is proposing to prevent libraries from having books on their shelves — books that contain gay characters. (This reminded me of a comics story I wrote in 1987 called FROM HOMOGENOUS TO HONEY, for Alan Moore’s AARGH, which Bryan Talbot drew, about removing homosexuality from culture and history.)

If the bill became law, public school textbooks could not present homosexuality as a genetic trait and public libraries couldn’t offer books with gay or bisexual characters.

When asked about Tennessee Williams’ southern classic “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof,” Allen said the play probably couldn’t be performed by university theater groups.

Allen said no state funds should be used to pay for materials that foster homosexuality. He said that would include nonfiction books that suggest homosexuality is acceptable and fiction novels with gay characters. While that would ban books like “Heather has Two Mommies,” it could also include classic and popular novels with gay characters such as “The Color Purple,” “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “Brideshead Revisted.”

The bill also would ban materials that recognize or promote a lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws of Alabama. Allen said that meant books with heterosexual couples committing those acts likely would be banned, too.

The Sexual Misconduct laws of Alabama, by the way, apparently defines sexual misconduct as “a misdemeanor banning acts of oral or anal sex between adults not married to each other”. So you know.

(I wonder, in a multi-series book, would a librarian have to yank early books in which you didn’t know a character who later turned out to be gay appeared without any reference to his or her sexuality.)

The home inspector just came through, and declared my kitchen-turned-studio to be a Den, since it’s not a bedroom, and has a sink in it. “You could turn that into a bar or something,” he said.

So now it’s official. I have my own Den of Iniquity.

Take this:

The autumn olive,

Last fruit of the year

After the apple, the wild grapes have flown

It swells red and speckled among silver leaves.

Roll its rough skin around your tongue,

Savor the mouthdrying tartness

But taste only a few

For it is so full of summer, this late fruit

that too many are poison.

Finally,

Sucked clean of its long months

send this tiny, hard seed

to begin another season

Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger. — Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

Source: Gilbert, G.M. Nuremberg Diary; New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1947

“Hey Lois, look! The two symbols of the Republican party. An elephant and a big fat white guy who’s threatened by change.” – Peter Griffin, Family Guy