I hate that we’re seeing so much of her, but Media Matters has a frightening clip showing just how uninformed Palin voters are. And their ability to simply disregard reality when presented with straight forward facts. And yes, I think this is representative of many of her supporters. Doesn’t inspire a lot of faith in democracy.
One of the provisions of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is that the federal government can step in and help investigate hate crimes that local jurisdictions are not properly investigating. Sadly, news that came out last Friday shows exactly why this is needed.
Jorge Steven López’s body was found decapitated, dismembered and partially burned in a wooded area near Cayey on Friday, Nov. 13. His friends became concerned after he failed to meet them at a popular gay club in the San Juan’s Santurce neighborhood…
…Investigator Angel Rodriguez’s assertion López, 19, somehow caused his own death sparked widespread outrage and anger among Puerto Rican activists.
“When these type of people get into this and go out into the streets like this, they know this can happen to them,” Rodriguez said a statement local media outlets broadcast and reported.
Here we have a case of a bigoted local official who will clearly not investigate this horrific murder with the same vigor and thoroughness that a non-bigoted official would. AMERICAblog has an action center up where you can email the Department of Justice and FBI asking them to invoke their new authority to investigate this for what it is–a hate crime. Take less than one minute and go here to act to encourage Attorney General Holder and FBI Director Mueller to investigate and find out if this was a hate crime.
What do the French in Augusta and transgendered youth have in common? The Maine Family Policy Council (MFPC) protests learning about both.
The MFPC, formerly known as the Maine Christian Civic League, is celebrating their victory in Maine not with a trip to Disney World, but by going after high schoolers. That’s right, they are targeting a fundraiser put on by high school students who believe that it’s beneficial to learn about diversity. Because understanding diversity “normalizes” it (they use this word to mean corrupts).
What could a high school civil rights team do that is so terrible? They included a transgendered person in an event on diversity. The Kennebec Journal covered the day long event which also featured presentations on growing up French in Augusta, Pakistani dance, a presentation on sign language, holistic living, Latin dance, living with autism, sexual harassment, the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Among his reasons for opposing state funds for civil rights teams, Mike Heath writes that
I reject Mr. Harnett’s [the Assistant Attorney General who oversees the states civil rights teams] views regarding the value of celebrating “multi-culturalism” in the name of civil rights. Maine has a culture that is being undermined and devalued by people intent on redefining that traditional culture. Mr. Harnett seems to be among that group.
Apparently learning about other cultures is undermining Maine’s culture (I guess the French in Augusta should assimilate better?)
Louise at Pam’s House Blend has more on the back story, but their “news story” below speaks for itself. I also enjoy how they put a bullseye on the restaurant hoping their radical members will complain and intimidate the restaurant.
Again, this is all in the bizarre attempt to scare parents into thinking that their children are so impressionable that hearing about their gay or transgendered peers will make them choose to be gay or transgendered. We need to keep calling them on this implied threat so people recognize their bizarre logic.
The League has learned that an announcement by Cony High School in Augusta says that a local family-friendly restaurant, the 99 Restaurant, will host a fundraiser Sunday morning for a so-called “Civil Rights Team,” which among other things, works to normalize homosexuality in the minds of impressionable young school children.
Many people are offended by the fact that the the fundraiser will be held at the 99 Restaurant in Augusta, a restaurant which markets itself as ”family-friendly.” The past activities of the Civil Rights Teams’ Diversity Day at Cony High School have been nothing less than outrageous, and have not only portrayed homosexual activity by minors in a positive light, but youth transgenderism as well.
According to the November 12th announcement on the Cony High School website, the Civil Rights Team will hold the event at the 99 Restaurant (281 Civic Center Drive, Augusta, ME 04330-8033, (207) 623-0999) on Sunday morning, at a time usually devoted to Sunday worship (from 7:30am until 9:00am). The event will be hosted by the faculty adviser for the Cony High Civil Rights Team, April Fenton-Hulett. Fenton-Hulett is also the School Board Chair for the Town of Mount Vernon, Maine and a member of the Maranacook Area Schools Committee.
The 99 Restaurants corporate officers are Brad Schiff (Executive Vice President), Jim Kiley (Regional Director), and Michelle Dean (Operations Manager). Locally, the Augusta 99 Restaurant is run by General Manager Ken Stinchfield, (207) 848-3045. The corporate officers and local General Manager were both contacted several days before the fundraiser with objections from the League about the event, but the restaurant both coporately and locally refused to re-consider their hosting of the homosexual youth fundraiser.
It is regrettable that a business which wishes to be known as family-friendly is allowing an event which has the potential to cause moral harm to many of our precious young people. A real injury is done when young people, who lack knowledge and experience of the real world, give their whole-hearted trust to people in positions of authority – their teachers – who in turn give them a false opinion regarding homosexuality and practices which cause devastating spiritual and physical harm.
Jesse Connolly, who ran one of the best campaigns for marriage equality we’ve seen, posted reflections on Huffington Post. The ability to look past such a tough (emotionally, not by margin) loss so soon when he invested so much shows exactly why he was such a good manager. Definitely worth a read of the full piece.
Here’s what I do believe after some sleep and a break from the caffeine: we moved the equality ball further up the hill, not just in Maine, but everywhere else. Voters do need these conversations which we had by the tens of thousands; they do need to see real gay and lesbian couples and their children up close and personal; and they do need to be reminded that these are neighbors and soccer coaches we’re talking about, not “homosexual activists” which is the well worn handle our opponents trot out.
I’m not skirting anything here when I suggest that we need to remember that it was not long ago when we were losing in double digits, when they threw an anti-marriage equality question on a ballot in a presidential year to drive conservatives to the polls.
It may turn out to be simply this: that by moving this basic premise of equality from the sink hole of catastrophic defeat state after state, year after year, to within striking distance of a win, that we are almost to the finish line. This tide is turning and you can tell by the histrionics from our opponents, from their “gathering storm.”
It’s not fast enough for most of us, certainly not for the families who deserve the same basic protections my wife, son and I enjoy, but we’re getting close. We will learn more from Maine, we will keep making progress and we will win.
Let no one doubt — least of all our opponents — that we’re in this for the long haul, until all Maine families are treated equally. This has always been much more than another campaign. It’s about love and family and that will always be something worth fighting for.
Read the full piece here.
A remarkably powerful answer from New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn when asked about her feelings on New York’s State Legislature voting on marriage equality today. Governor Paterson has done a lot to push this issue forward. More to come on New York’s efforts soon.
