Bent News, 5/24/11: Joplin tornado, Tennessee followup, DADT, and more
The Joplin tornado, follow-up on the latest antigay law in Tennessee, news on anti-LGBT violence, employment and marriage equality, media, and more in today’s Bent News.
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LGBT-Affirming Church Destroyed in Joplin, Missouri (Towleroad, 5/24/11). The equality group PROMO in Missouri is collecting donations and supplies for the LGBT community in Joplin, MO, hit by a devastating tornado Sunday night. Damage included the destruction of Joplin’s Spirit of Christ MCC Church, which PROMO says will distribute funds to other LGBT Joplin residents in need of assistance.
Tennessee follow-up
Yesterday, we wrote about the newly signed state law in Tennessee that invalidated Nashville’s nondiscrimination law, and made it impossible for any other Tennessee community to enact equality under the law for LGBTQ citizens. Today’s follow-up:
[caption id="attachment_3206" align="alignright" width="271" caption="Click through to America Blog's list of FB pages & Twitter feeds to swarm with your displeasure on Tennessee's new anti-equality measure."]
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After Blowback, Tennessee Chamber Of Commerce Reverses Support For Anti-Gay Law (Think Progress, 5/24/11). Think Progress summarizes how Tennesessee’s “Special Access to Discriminate” (SAD) Act came to be signed into law yesterday, and briefly previews some of the other antigay bills looming in the Volunteer States.
HRC’s Joe Solmonese: The 13 Corporations Backing TN’s Anti-Gay Bill Are Pro-Gay For Now Opposing It (Queerty, 5/24/11). The chair of the Human Rights Campaign now says that the corporations on the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce are “on the leading edge of positive change.” Right. Queerty comments, “Supporting an anti-LGBT bill, stammering from the negative press after it passes, and then offering lukewarm statements opposing the very bill you helped pass is…[rather]…a strong signal that your opinions and policies change depending on who’s paying attention, which is the very definition of spinelessness.” Queerty suggests that everyone ignore HRC and “[j]oin AMERICAblog’s campaign to swarm the corporations’ Facebook pages and Twitter accounts with messages of disapproval until they get off their butts and try to repeal the law they just helped pass.”
Which companies helped us and which screwed us re: the TN hate law (AmericaBlog, 5/23/11). A useful checklist of which major members of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce only kinda suck, as opposed to those that really suck. Virtually all are suitable targets of the aforementioned “swarm their FB & Twitter” campaign.
WikiLeaks suspect Pfc Bradley Manning: Gay soldier frustrated with DADT & Prop 8 — a Bent Alaska post by Mel Green — came out of today’s news that the PBS’s program Frontline — which will broadcast its documentary WikiSecrets tonight about the leak last spring of over a half-million classified documents on WikiLeaks — had posted an exhaustive archive of the Facebook postings of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the gay soldier allegedly behind the leaks. See Mel’s story for more info and links.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: A Gay Officer Witnesses Its End (Time, 5/23/11). Time magazine’s new anonymous blogger, Officer X, will be writing about the end of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Follow him on Twitter: @TIMEOfficerX.
Adult Bullying: Chaplains Insist Upon Ability To Keep Military A Hostile Environment for Gays and Lesbians (Wonk Room, 5/24/11). Another example of the “you’re victimizing us by not allowing us to victimize you” mentality.
Anti-LGBT violence
Woman is beaten outside city convenience store (fredericksburg.com, 5/24/11). A month after the Baltimore McDonald’s beating of Chrissy Lee Polis, another transwoman has been beaten, this time by group of four people last Saturday outside a 7-11 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. (Note: the reporter doesn’t know the difference between “sexual orientation” & “gender identity.”) Virginia’s hate crime laws do not address hate crimes motivated by gender identity or sexual orientation. Two additional articles at the Fredericksburg Patch [first article | second article] provide additional information
Three Men Arrested for Anti-Gay Assault in Minnesota (Towleroad, 5/24/11). Three men were arrested in St. Cloud, Minnesota for beating up a 22-year-old gay man.
Employment equality
For Gay Employees, an Equalizer (New York Times, 5/24/11). The New York Times details the new corporate phenomenon of “grossing up” (the only kind of gross we like) where employers are beginning to pay LGBT couples more to cover the unfair cost of taxation on same-sex couples.
Marriage equality
NOM’s Minnesota partner: Gays engage in bestiality, pedophilia, and other nasty stuff (Pam’s House Blend, 5/23/11). “[W]hen looking at the Minnesota Family Council’s webpage, one gets the impression that that organization’s stance against gay marriage is less to do with ‘preserving marriage,’ but rather adhering to the monstrous stereotypes which lgbts have had to endure for years.” Sez Bent News team member Chris, “I think Pam does a good job of mitigating the harm from drinking from the toilet of the religulous right.” Yes: & we need that mitigation!
Not Going to the Chapel (New York Times, 5/24/11). Op-ed writer Rich Benjamin urges you to boycott straight weddings this summer. But what if it hurts your straight family’s or friends’ feelings that you’re “putting politics” ahead of them? Benjamin answers: “Even well-meaning heterosexuals often describe their own nuptials in deeply personal terms, above and beyond politics, but tend to dismiss same-sex marriage as a political cause, and gay people’s desire to marry as political maneuvering.”
Dibble: Senate IT department to delete 100,000 pro-gay marriage emails (Minnesota Independent, 5/23/11). The Minnesota Senate was swamped by so many pro-marriage equality emails that it was forced to take swift action: it ordered its IT department to delete them, ostensibly in order to prevent a system crash.
Media
The MSNBC Anti-LGBT Hate Connection (Bilerico Project, 5/24/11). Why do transgender-identified guests or even news stories like the beating last month of Chrissy Lee Polis seldom if ever see the light of day on supposedly liberal and progressive MSNBC? Why does MSNBC cover the struggles of military and other public sector LGBT Americans — but seldom those of the vastly larger group of LGBT Americans who work in the private sector? One word: Comcast.
First Out: Frank Bruni named first out gay op-ed columnist in New York Times‘ history (MetroWeekly, 5/24/11). Bruni, 46, will be the first openly gay op-ed columnist in The Times’s 160-year history. He’s been with NYT since 1995.
Music
8 Openly Queer Rappers to Listen To (Colorlines, 5/24/2011). Hip hop isn’t always homophobic.
Weird science
Outing Through Vowels (Advocate, 5/23/11). A new tool to tweak your gaydar: “A study conducted by Ohio State University psychologists found people can often determine the sexual orientation of men by the way they pronounce a, e, i, o, and u.”
Tags: Bradley Manning, Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT), employment equality, marriage equality, news digest, Tennessee
