Conservative GOP congressman flirting with boys online

The top stories all day today have brought back memories of the Jim West scandal. The difference is that while West's behavior was abhorrent, his actions were not technically illegal because his victims were all adults (over the age of 18). This so called conservative Christian, Values Voter, Family Values lovin, staunch Republican is going after kids! Thats right, kids 16 year old Office Pages! Hence his instant resignation as soon as this little IM between him and a young boy was published today:

Maf54 is Congressman Foley's handle, the below are from three different IM conversations:

Maf54: You in your boxers, too?
Teen: Nope, just got home. I had a college interview that went late.
Maf54: Well, strip down and get relaxed.

Maf54: What ya wearing?
Teen: tshirt and shorts
Maf54: Love to slip them off of you

Maf54: Do I make you a little horny ?
Teen: A little.
Maf54: Cool.

One more corrupt Republican to add to the list of GOP'ers that have resigned from various scandals. This year has seen the demise of 5 GOP congressmen, governors, and mayors. On the other side of the aisle, only 1 Democratic congressman is in hot water over a corruption charge and none have been forced to resign. Interesting...

John Arivossis at AmericaBlog is all over this story! Head on over and check out the details!

Breaking: R. I. Judge rules same sex marriage valid

Breaking news!

A judge in Rhode Island has ruled that gay couples have the right to marry in Massachusettes.

Courtesy 247gay.com:

Judge Rules R.I. Gays Can Marry In Mass.

A Superior Court judge ruled Friday that a gay couple from Rhode Island has the right to marry in Massachusetts, saying that Rhode Island laws do not expressly prohibit same-sex marriage.

Wendy Becker and Mary Norton of Providence, R.I., argued that a 1913 law that forbids out-of-state residents from marrying in Massachusetts if their marriage would not be permitted in their home state did not apply to them because Rhode Island does not specifically ban gay marriage.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly agreed.

This is great news for any gay couples who live in states that do not have DOMA laws or the hatefull "marriage" constitiutional amendments.

Stay tuned to the Stonewall Blog as this story continues to develop!

Gay Divorce - The realities of the right to marry

We may not have the right to marry in Washington State yet but we ARE required to go to divorce court if our relationships dissolve. How backwards is that? We have legal divorce before we have legal marriage? In a sick and twisted sort of way the more divorces we have the more legitimacy it gives to our relationships.

The problem with state sanctioned marriage or civil unions, such as those legalized in Massachusetts, California, and Connecticut, is that there is no Federal recognition of these unions. Without federal recognition of our unions (whether it’s a civil union, civil marriage or whatever you want to call it) we still have no protections for our Social Security benefits, pensions, and income tax benefits.

Gay unions are creating new legal problems in that arena of legal divorce. In California, civil unions are recognized by the state but held to a much lower standard than legal marriage. Nonetheless, gay divorce is handled at the same standard as legal marriage. This creates problems when alimony is paid – from the San Francisco Chronicle

THE BATTLE OVER SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Divorcing gay couples create new legal issues
Alimony, property questions have even lawyers confused

In California, since January 2000, nearly 39,000 couples have registered with the secretary of state as domestic partnerships, a designation open to gay and lesbian couples and some seniors. For the first few years, domestic partners who wanted to break up filed a simple notice of termination with the secretary of state.

But that changed in January 2005 when AB205, the Registered Domestic Partners Rights and Responsibilities Act, took effect. Most partnerships now have to go through divorce proceedings, just like married couples, with a few exceptions.

Many of the problems arise when ex-partners calculate their federal income taxes. For example, a California judge might order one to regularly pay the other a certain amount of money, like alimony. But, because the federal government does not recognize same-sex couples, the Internal Revenue Code treats that income as a gift and taxes it at a higher level than alimony. And, although alimony payments are deductible for straight ex-spouses, someone who has left a same-sex union can't take that deduction.

More disturbing is this:

California courts have recognized a Canadian marriage and a Vermont union in order to dissolve them.

The issue is that they recognize a union in order to dissolve it but not as a full and legal marriage.

These legal issues are costing hundreds of thousands of dollars for courts to interpret these new laws and are certainly precedent setting. This is the new battleground for gay marriage as the courts continue to address gay divorce in the same fashion they address straight divorce the ultimate conclusion is to address gay unions in the same fashion as straight unions.

Of course the opposition weighs in on gay divorce in an attempt to say – “see we told you the gays aren’t good enough for marriage”.

Same-sex marriage foes say divorces prove their point

"The separation of Julie and Hillary Goodridge is tragic not only for their daughter," the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition said in a statement released the day after the couple confirmed the separation. "But ... they have clearly shown just how little they value the institution of marriage and provide a chilling look into what our nation faces if homosexual marriage is legalized elsewhere."

Good ol’ Lou – Picks 2 couples out of the 56,000 in MA and CA that have married or civil unioned and ended up in divorce. If the gays valued marriage as much as the straights the number he could throw out would be 28,000 gay divorces, but alas, he can only come up with two. The "chilling look" that Lou is referring to are happily married gay couples who remain married for the rest of their lives while straight marriages still end up in divoce half of the time.

Who values marriage more?


***Crossposted with care at Blogging Spokane

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

10 years ago today

Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). DOMA essentially set two things into law:

1. No state (or other political subdivision within the United States) need recognize a marriage between persons of the same sex, even if the marriage was concluded or recognized in another state.
2. The Federal Government may not recognize same-sex or polygamous marriages for any purpose, even if concluded or recognized by one of the states.

I think this act by Clinton was meant to appease the religious extremists out there by throwing the gays under the bus. The anger that came about in the LGBTQA community energized us to organize and fight back for this very basic right. The state of Massachusetts legalized gay marriage, Washington state missed by 1 vote, and now we wait for New Jersey, California and New York to see if they will throw the gays under the bus or do what is right.

Question of the day:

Would we have come this far in the fight for marriage equality if Clinton had not signed DOMA?

Funny

Once again the Daily Show delivers on the irony of gay rights in America!

Hilarious...

From PageOneQ

The Daily Show profiles Bleu Copas, discharged from the military under 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ran a segment last evening profiling Bleu Copas, a translator specializing in Arabic who was discharged from the United States Army. Bleu was discharged under the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, which allows gays and lesbians to serve in the armed forces, but only if they remain deeply closeted.

Follow the link to see the video! It is a must see! They even eviscerate homo-bigot Paul Cameron who says in the video "homosexual men love to drink each others urine".

Corporate America gets it!

Corporate America is coming into the light! My household subscribes to "Out", "Out Traveler" and the "Advocate" magazines and it is VERY interesting to see the increase in ad space in these magazines over the years. 10 years ago you had to hunt for any kind of ad outside of the gay community (and of course the personals). Today these magazines are filled with everything from drug companies to clothing, cars, and those smelly perfume samples just like you would find in any other mainstream magazine. I guess those billions of gay dollars speak pretty loudly!

"The Wall Street Journal calls the gay and lesbian community a "Dream Market". The 2005 Simmons Market Research Study estimates annual national buying power of the gay community at over 600 billion dollars."

Of course the opposition out there try over and over to boycott any company that is supportive of gay rights issues. We can see how well that is going for them. The "American Family Association" (AFA) headed by Don Wildmon has generated a lot of hype about companies such as Ford Motor Company paying for ads in gay magazines and support of Gay Pride events around the nation. The AFA claims responsibility for Ford's declining sales this year. (emphasis mine)

Ford Sales Drop 11.6%. Homosexual Groups More Important Than Support For Employees, Dealers.

Homosexuals give Ford no public support despite falling sales due to AFA boycott

The boycott of Ford Motor Company continues to be effective. Sales in August dropped 11.6%. This follows drops of 5% in March, 7% in April, 2% in May, 6.8% in June and 4.1% in July.

Of course what they fail to mention is that car sales as a whole have dropped by 8% this year and sales of SUV, pickups, and other gas guzzling vehicles have dropped by 22%. Fords largest product line is exactly these types of gas guzzlers. Meanwhile Toyota, maker of the gas-electric hybrid Prius, sales are up 17%. So in the reality based community Ford is succumbing to market demands across the board for vehicles that have higher fuel efficiency - just like the other American car companies.

Which brings us to this piece from CNN Money:

Corporate America backs gay rights
A trickle of corporate support for gay and lesbian workers that began about 15 years ago has turned into a flood.

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Most of America's best-known companies are reaching out to gay and lesbian workers, as well as gay consumers, despite the criticism they get from conservative Christian groups.

Consider: No Fortune 500 company offered health benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian workers until Levi Strauss did so in 1992. Today, more than half of the Fortune 500 offer those benefits.


Beyond that, blue-chip companies recruit gay MBAs. They seek out suppliers owned by gay and lesbian business people. And they advertise in gay media such as Logo, the cable TV network launched last year by Viacom.

There are so many companies now that support the GLBT community that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a non-supportive company. The Human Rights Campaign recently published the "Corporate Equity Index" which shows the rankings of corporations on how they treat their GLBT employees as well as the GLBT community at large. You can use this list to help make purchasing decisions by supporting those organizations that support our community. (Coincidentally Ford, GM and Daimler Chrysler are all ranked at 100% so why isn't the AFA boycotting all of them? I guess the fundies have to drive something and God forbid it should be made by foreigners...)

Here in Spokane there is a great resource for GLBT owned and GLBT friendly businesses in the Inland Northwest Business Alliance (INBA) Community Resource Directory. This is the place where everyone should go to first when making any kind of purchasing decision. Support those in our community that support us! When you go to a business that you found in the INBA Directory mention where you got the name so that these organizations know that their advertising dollars are being spent wisely. It takes a community to build these businesses and in turn those businesses support the community.

What does it all mean? What is the conclusion? On the national level there are two possibilities, these companies see a need to support all of their employees and maintain a diverse, supportive environment not only in the work place but in the community as well. OR Corporations are enticed by the 600 billion dollar spending of the GLBT community and will do whatever is necessary to get a piece of that pie. I tend to believe the former but all things being equal, what difference does it make?

Phelps Clan creating unintended Gay allies?

The Fred Phelps clan of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) are creating gay allies by their continued protesting of soldiers funerals. The cult of the WBC are steadily, and unwittingly, aligning our fight for equality with the conflict in Iraq by claiming that soldiers are killed because God hates fags. Personally the logical connection between the two escapes me but I have to say "Way to go Fred"! By being out there, exploiting the tragedy of Iraq casualties people are getting really pissed off at him and his message of hatred.

(photos courtesy of the vile "godhatesfags" website)




From USA Today:

Funeral protesters say laws can't silence them

Laws passed by Congress and 29 states to prevent Fred Phelps and his congregation from disrupting military funerals have not ended their protests or silenced their anti-gay message.

[snip]His voice rises, though, when he explains why he feels no empathy for mourners at military funerals. "What I'm sorry about," he says, "is that they raised their children for the devil in hell. ... I'm saying to those people, 'If your boy, your dead soldier son, could come back to earth and talk to you, what he would tell you is, listen to Phelps.' "

Honestly, is there a rational person out there who actually believes this guy? Not the parents of soldiers killed or wounded in Iraq! (emphasis mine)

Linda Morrison had been warned that Phelps' followers would protest at the memorial service in December for her son, a medic killed in Iraq. She was outraged when the small group showed up with signs reading "America is Doomed" and chanting "God hates fags."

"I was furious at the things they were saying," says Morrison, whose son, Army Staff Sgt. Gary Harper of Virden, Ill., died when Iraqi insurgents ambushed his unit. "I had more pity for them than anything, that they could actually believe anything like that."

Gay or straight our soldiers and veterans deserve the utmost respect in life and in death - whether you believe the war in Iraq is illegal and based on lies or not. It is inexcusable for these hate-mongers to exploit the deaths of soldiers to spew their message.

This brings us to the important point. When someone is screeching "God hates fags" at the top of their lungs with spittle spraying from their paper thin lips the rational response from a grieving mother is "I had more pity for them than anything, that they could actually believe anything like that."

Enough said.

Welcome to the Stonewall Blogger :)