Thursday, January 30, 2014

'LGBT community wins two victories in the courts' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Editor's note - Due to the snow storm and me catching up with work at my regular job, I was only able to publish two posts today. Plus, as you will read on about, something WONDERFUL has happened to me recently:

Court: Transgender Student's Rights Were Violated - Good for the courts for show common sense. Anti-gay fear tactics about bathrooms are just vulgar

California 'Gay Therapy' Ban Won't Be Revisited By Court - And another victory for our lgbt children. It's been a GOOD day! 

  Video: To clear name of anti-gay extremism, Dave Agema goes on America's most extreme anti-gay show - Bryan Fischer and Dave Agema have a "love-fest" on the subject of who hates gays more. No spontaneous combustion took place. Darn. 

 NRO: We'll Lose Our Freedom If Businesses Have To Treat Gay People Like Everyone Else - When comes to things like this, let these folks dig their own graves by their own words. 

 AND FINALLY (drum roll, please . . .) 

  GLAAD announces nominees for 25th Annual GLAAD Media Awards - Congratulations to all of the nominees, including THIS BLOG which walked away with a nomination for Outstanding Blog of the Year. It's such an honor for me to receive this nomination and I am simply floored by it. Actually that's not true because I've been walking on air all day. I want to thank everyone who supported this blog over the years and gave me words of encouragement, especially last week. The entire list of nominees for Outstanding Blog of the Year is impressive and I am equally honored to be included in such incredible company. The entire list:

The voices of children in same-sex households should not be ignored



I will agree with the anti-gay right about one thing (don't pass out) regarding the argument over marriage equality. Part of it is about the children. What bothers me to the highest level is how they seem to always frame the actuality of same-sex families as an untested hypothetical. The fact of the matter is that with or without the right to marry, same-sex couples raising children exist. They have existed before all of our attention was turned towards marriage equality and will continue to exist should the lgbt community lose this battle. But we will not lose.

 The one thing I want to emphasize in this post are in fact the children. Children who are in same-sex families. Not some religious right talking head spinning tales of woe, but actual boys and girls talking about their families. Their voices need to be heard.

The video above is of Riley Hackford-Peer at a recent rally for marriage equality in Utah. Listen to him. Does this sound like a damaged child to you?