-Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons vetoes a domestic partnership bill.
-In Washington State, the wording of Referendum 71, which would repeal the Domestic Partnership Expansion Bill of 2009, is challenged by its own author.
-David Link clarifies what the religious right actually won in the California Supreme Court’s ruling on Proposition 8.
-The Family Research Council selectively quotes the wording of the Loving vs. Virginia decision to argue against same-sex marriage.
-Archbishop Desmond Tutu reaffirms his support for full inclusion of GLBT individuals in the church.
-Andrew Sullivan argues that the Prop 8 ruling represents a net gain for marriage equality in the long run.
-Poet Maya Angelou encourages a New York state senator to reconsider her stance against same-sex marriage.
-Actor David Hyde Pierce goes public with his marriage to Brian Hargrove.
Constitutional powerhouses Ted Olson and David Boies take on Proposition 8. This is a clear, authoritative discussion of the real issues involved. Impressive.
-Moscow police forcibly break up a Slavic Pride demonstration.
-Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, a 20-year veteran and decorated fighter pilot, is discharged under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
-The New Hampshire House rejects Gov. Lynch’s proposed changes to its same-sex marriage bill.
-The Illinois legislature is scheduled to vote on a civil unions bill next week.
-Colorado extends benefits to partners of gay and lesbian state employees.
-Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons signs a bill barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
-The California Supreme Court will issue its ruling on Proposition 8 this Tuesday, May 26.
-Timothy Kincaid takes a look at Maggie Gallagher’s latest marriage survey.
In case you are one of the people who didn’t email me for an explanation, XGW went off-line last Friday morning, May 15. While stories of “being hacked” would be more intriguing and perhaps increase polarization, that didn’t happen. The truth is actually boring — a total disruption of services at the data center we use for our server. We outgrew an individual hosting account long ago and instead lease a server from a place that manages many of them. After a notice of about 9 hours, they attempted a massive move from one location to another which they thought could be accomplished in 7 hours overnight. It turns out, that isn’t possible.
During the down time we moved to a better location and restored from various backups which we keep for just such a scenario. This is the real message you should take from this. While this is true of everyone who uses a computer, we want to send this message specifically to those who are doing important work on the web. Many of our readers have their own sites and, even if they don’t realize it, they add important, sometimes irreplaceable information to various efforts. Work to illustrate the truth of ex-gay issues and organizations, factual analysis of junk science used against equality, hypocrisy by those who wish to make the lives of others harder to live, and personal experience and views from people who live through many of these issues, this and more is held in web sites which are more fragile than one might think.
Take this seriously! You need to have all your information backed up in a format that can be restored from scratch. That doesn’t mean just using the data backup in WordPress or similar. That is important and will back up your words and comments, but none of the images and documents you have uploaded to accompany your posts. Most standard hosting accounts have a control panel, most of them use one called “cPanel” and it has a great backup wizard. You can backup your entire site by using the “Home Directory” backup. This will place all your files from your entire account in a compressed archive and allow you do download it to your own computer. Do it often and keep it safe.
This type of backup will give you everything except the data from your database, the stuff that the WordPress backup saves for example. If you have cPanel, you can also save that information separately by using the same backup process but selecting your database from the MySQL section. Both should be downloaded so you have possession of them yourself.
This is not meant to give you detailed instructions — many systems are different. We simply want to illustrate the issue by saying that, if we had not done this ahead of time and on a regular basis, XGW would be gone. The same could happen for any other site. Do not assume that your host can restore your information. And do not wait another day. Get a backup plan in action and be ready for what will inevitably happen.
Recently, the addition of “actual or percieved” sexual orientation and gender identity to the federal law concerning hate crimes has come much closer to reality. Attempting to stir fear, many anti-gay groups claim that the term “sexual orientation” will be defined to include pedophiles and necrophiliacs, because the American Psychiatric Association defines such conditions – 30 in total – as sexual orientations. Exodus International’s website, in fact, attaches (historical screen capture) a pop-up to the word “orientation” any time it appears in one of their articles and tells us exactly that.
But there’s one catch: the APA doesn‘t recognize 30 sexual orientations. “Sexual Orientation” as defined by the APA refers only to homosexuals, heterosexuals, bisexuals, and asexuals – people who are attracted to either nobody or another person of appropriate age. The other “orientations,” such as necrophilia and pedophilia, are actually defined by the APA as “paraphilias.” Whereas the former is “an enduring emotional, romantic, sexual, or affectional attraction toward others,” the latter involves “recurrent, intense sexual urges, fantasies, or behaviors that involve unusual objects, activities, or situations and cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.”
For an organization that takes the word of the APA so seriously, curiously absent from Exodus’s website is the fact that the APA “opposes any psychiatric treatment, such as ‘reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon a prior assumption that the patient should change his/her homosexual orientation.” And, of course, since Exodus claims they are a Christian group, the ninth commandment immediately comes to mind.
UPDATE 5/13/09: Exodus has silently changed the definition of “orientation” on their website [screen capture]. They have not acknowledged that their previous definition was an outright lie, nor apologized for their error.
-The situation for gays and lesbians in Uganda continues to worsen.
-Emmy-nominated actor David Ogden Stiers comes out of the closet.
-The Miss Universe Organization sends a “cease and desist” letter to the National Organization for Marriage for NOM’s use of pageant footage in its latest anti-gay ad.
-Marie Osmond voices what appears to be support for same-sex marriage
-Queers United highlights the significant numbers of homeless LGBTQ individuals.
-NOM launches a campaign to repeal marriage equality in Maine via a “people’s veto.”
-Heavily Catholic Rhode Island is considered unlikely to join its neighbors in extending marriage rights to gay couples in the near future.
Source: CNN
“I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage,” said Baldacci, a Democrat.
With this statement, Gov. John Baldacci signed the marriage bill into law less than an hour after the state legislature passed it. It was previously unknown whether he would sign even if it went through. This makes at total of four states where same-sex marriage is currently the law, with Vermont’s version going into effect this September.
California’s marriage law is still being considered by that state’s Supreme Court, while New York’s governor Patterson has introduced same-sex marriage legislation there (New York currently recognizes such marriages legally performed in other states).
It is safe to say that no one could predict such change in the few short months since Proposition 8.
Extra: Timothy Kincaid of BTB explains some of the trouble that may be ahead for this law.
During his recent visit to London for a conference held by the Anglican Church, Joseph Nicolosi was interviewed on the BBC News Hour along with Professor Michael King from the University College of London Medical School. Their debate was short but, as King put it at one point, robust.
Nicolosi normally comes out of the gate strong in these settings, boldly stating things which he later has trouble supporting. Early on when he is questioned by King about randomized trials, Nicolosi begs off saying he is a clinical psychologist. Later when asked directly again by King, Nicolosi claims that other treatments exist and are used without such trials — a different response entirely. King is adamant about there not having been any such trials.
King also asks Nicolosi if it isn’t true that there is a statement on the American Psychological Association web site which warns about Nicolosi’s organization, NARTH, and the kinds of therapies they use. Nicolosi replied in the strongest terms saying that was “absolutely not true. I tell you that is absolutely not true.” He challenged King to provide it. At the end of the debate, the host reads the following from the APA site:
For over three decades the consensus of the mental health community has been that homosexuality is not an illness and therefore not in need of a cure. The APA’s concern about the position’s espoused by NARTH and so-called conversion therapy is that they are not supported by the science. There is simply no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed. Our further concern is that the positions espoused by NARTH and Focus on the Family create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish.
In reply, Nicolosi said simply, “you got me on that one.” It’s a quick listen at only nine minutes.
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Centuries ago, the Baptist church was founded on the principle of freedom of conscience. According to Baptist belief, individual Christians are fully competent to study the Bible for themselves and to seek guidance from God (the “priesthood of the believer“); consequently, Baptists of all stripes strongly opposed the adoption of any formal creeds, save perhaps “Ain’t nobody but Jesus going to tell me what to believe.” To this day, many Baptist churches maintain this commitment to the autonomy of the local church and the individual believer.
Since 2000, however, the Southern Baptist Church has departed sharply from its roots. Although the SBC’s updated Baptist Faith & Message (BF&M) statement is not formally labeled a creed, all references to individual conscience have either been eliminated or redefined to effectively outlaw dissent on any matter outlined in the BF&M. Southern Baptist congregations must now strictly interpret the Bible according to the positions detailed in the BF&M, and the Bible itself has been elevated to a position once reserved for Christ alone. Churches that even appear to be deviating from the party line may be subject to disciplinary hearings.
In light of this major shift, it comes as little surprise when Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the driving forces behind the changes made to the BF&M, claims to speak infallibly on behalf of all true Christians, as he does in his most recent essay on the issue of homosexuality. Read more…
Carrie Prejean, who is Miss California, created a stir when she expressed support for marriage only being between a man and a woman at the Miss USA pageant. The National Organization for Marriage quickly adopted her as a spokesperson in their new ad, called “No Offense.” While they chose to focus on Carrie’s opinions about marriage, I chose to focus on her other exploits in this parody of the original that I created.
Note: I ask for donations at the website specified in the ad, but with tongue in cheek. In reality, any donations made would go towards support of the artist who produced all of this (me) and not to any actual organization or charity.
The video might be considered a bit racy for some, but it’s all in jest. If NOM should happen to take issue with it, well, let me just state for the record – “no offense.”
Update: I found a copy of NOM’s original ad on YouTube.
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