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Gay Rights: 2 Urgently Important Petitions That Will Impact The Elections

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The 2012 national and local elections in the United States present stark choices on the human rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans. There is no room for complacency about the momentous LGBT human rights progress achieved under the Obama administration. And of equal importance, it would be impossible to underestimate the malice, sociopathy and sadistic ambition of anti-gay political bullies and thugs for 2012. Many of today’s ringleaders of anti-gay politics jeered “Fag!” at gay classmates when in school. Not coincidentally, adult political gay-bashers are against sexual orientation-specific anti-bullying protections in the schools today. We are in a society where some of these psychopaths actually say that anti-gay bullying is a “healthy” form of peer pressure.

Princeton University Professor Robert George, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the so-called National Organization for Marriage (NOM), believes that homosexual intimacy should be a prosecutable crime. George has drafted a federal constitutional amendment prohibiting marriage equality.  Nationwide, and beyond, George zealously promotes 1) ignorance fueled anti-gay bigotry and 2) sexual orientation apartheid having force of law. His scandalous anti-gay smear op-eds — containing shameless junk scholarship — get published in journals that prominently mention his association with Princeton University.

A group Robert George founded, the so-called National Organization for Marriage, is very aggressively inserting itself into elections nationwide — its sole aim in doing so being to double down on sexual orientation apartheid in the United States. The NOM pledge signed by many Republican presidential candidates would have state level marriage recognition ripped away from all currently married gay American couples, with no regard for how the children those couples are raising would be negatively impacted. NOM also is highly-active in the militant ignorance inherent to opposing sexual orientation-specific anti-bullying policies in the schools.

One of the petitions I’m urging you to sign asks Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to ban NOM and its affiliates from Facebook for 1) NOM’s violations of Facebook’s terms of use and 2) because NOM is an anti-gay hate group. NOM though in violation of Facebook’s terms of use exploits the platform to beg for donations from anti-gay bigots. As of this writing, the petition has garnered 1,193 signatures.  Many signers have added their reasons for signing. One said, “I’ve been beaten, jailed and abused for being gay. It’s time for this to stop. We need your help.”  Another said, “’Misleading, malicious, and discriminatory’ describes NOM’s rhetoric exactly. Facebook needs to enforce its own Terms of Service and stop giving NOM a bully pulpit.” Yet another, citing a study by Columbia University’s Dr. Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, said they were signing because “” [d]epression and drug use among LGBT people have both been shown to increase significantly after new laws that discriminate against gay people are passed”, and that’s exactly what the NOM is after.”

The second petition I am urging you to sign asks the Princeton University Board of Trustees finally to repudiate Professor George’s anti-gay bigotry. George only gets away with publishing his anti-gay junk scholarship because ignorance-fueled anti-gay bigotry is still prevalent in the society. Were George to attempt to publish papers containing equally faked and fraudulent scholarship in a field not dealing with perceived “moral” judgments – physics, for example – he would be an academic laughing stock, not a celebrated Princeton professor. And, George at Princeton is grooming the next generation of academic gay bashers; his savagely anti-gay article “What is Marriage?” is co-authored by a Princeton Ph.D. candidate. The signers of this petition too have left compelling explanations of why they signed. One said, “It’s time for law professors to stop making outrageous, offensive, pernicious statements, as if this were just another argument about something. Words do hurt people. And no legal argument justifies the severe damage these hateful words inflict.” Another signer said “I am a survivor of an abusive academic environment which purposely inhibited learning and growth among LGBT students.” Yet another remarked, “It is frightening that the anti-gay bigot Professor George has it in his power to evaluate young students.” And another said “People in a position to mold the minds of young people should have a higher ethical standpoint and should not be the bully that we are trying to protect our children from in the first place.”

Circulate, repost and promote as widely as possible 1) the petition asking Mark Zuckerberg to ban NOM and its affiliates from Facebook, as well as 2) the petition asking the Princeton University Board of Trustees to repudiate Professor Robert George’s anti-gay bigotry.  And, tell your Democratic elected officials that the Republicans are very aggressively attacking LGBT Americans’ human rights for the 2012 elections — the Democratic defense of those rights must be at least equally vigorous.

 
New York City-​based novelist and freelance writerScott Rose’s LGBT-​interest by-​line has appeared on Advocate​.com, PoliticusUSA​.com, The New York Blade, Queerty​.com, Girlfriends and in numerous additional venues. Among his other interests are the arts, boating and yachting, wine and food, travel, poker and dogs. His “Mr. David Cooper’s Happy Suicide” is about a New York City advertising executive assigned to a condom account.

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‘Wild Negative Coattails for Trump’: Omaha Elects Its First Black Democratic Mayor

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Voters in Omaha, Nebraska just elected their first Black mayor, Democrat John Ewing Jr., in a historic shift, ousting a three-term Republican who has held that office since 2013. Some political observers say it’s the shape of things to come, as President Donald Trump’s favorability continues to drop and prices continue to rise, with more instability — economic and political — expected ahead.

Ewing, a former deputy police chief, beat Jean Stothert, who tried to embrace the MAGA agenda without fully embracing President Trump.

“Omaha’s Republican mayor Jean Stothert was a 12-year incumbent, once seen as untouchable,” observed Democratic pollster and strategist Matt McDermott. “Then she endorsed Trump, ran on anti-trans bathroom bans — and lost decisively. A clear rejection of MAGA at the ballot box.”

READ MORE: ‘Less Blame Game, More Solutions’: Duffy Urged to ‘Do Your Job and Stop Whining’

Calling it “a fresh test of voter attitudes in a politically competitive slice of the country,” The Washington Post described Stothert as “a formidable opponent,” whom “Democrats sought to tie…to President Donald Trump’s unpopular agenda — another warning sign for Republicans in a critical battleground area.”

The New York Times, describing Omaha as “a politically divided city that has outsize importance in presidential elections,” reported that “the race provided an opportunity for strategists from both parties to gauge voters’ moods — even if much of the campaign focused on municipal nuts-and-bolts issues like street paving, crime and a planned streetcar.”

“Another example of a red to blue flip,” U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) said. “Voters are angry at Republicans who are enabling the harmful policies of Trump.”

Kamala Harris won Omaha’s single electoral vote by about five points. Ewing, with results not yet official, appears to be winning by about ten points.

“Democrats just beat the longest-serving incumbent mayor in the country in Omaha, Nebraska, where I grew up,” declared Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, a former Harris advisor. “Jean Stothert was considered unbeatable, and they did it. That’s how much of a drag Trump is right now.”

“Wild negative coattails for Trump,” Nellis noted, and called it “a political shockwave,” where “Republicans are panicking.”

Watch Ewing’s victory speech below or at this link.

READ MORE: GOP Plan Redefines Dependent Child as ‘Under 7’—But Adds Loophole for Married Couples

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‘Less Blame Game, More Solutions’: Duffy Urged to ‘Do Your Job and Stop Whining’

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U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is under fire for deflecting blame over the escalating crisis at Newark Liberty International Airport—issues his department has yet to resolve. Critics point to his references to “cracks in the system” nationwide and a so-called “Brand New Air Traffic Control System Plan” that, so far, lacks meaningful public detail.

Politico described the Secretary’s lack of specifics by saying that the “Trump administration has closely held the exact contents of Duffy’s plan, but it’s likely to contain some combination of investments in new technologies, facilities upgrades and consolidation along with money for air traffic controller retention and hiring and overhauling the FAA’s infrastructure that allows facilities to communicate together.”

There is already “a multibillion-dollar FAA program called NextGen, which aims to transition the country away from passive radars to a satellite-based system for tracking planes, has been ongoing since 2003,” including during the Biden administration. And, as Politico also reported, the “agency is also in the early stages of a $2.4 billion, 15-year contract with Verizon, issued during the Biden administration, to replace the copper wires that have plagued Newark with modern fiber-optic cables across the country.”

READ MORE: GOP Plan Redefines Dependent Child as ‘Under 7’—But Adds Loophole for Married Couples

But according to Secretary Duffy, “Biden and Buttigieg ignored the warning signs at Newark. It was shameful.”

National security and civil liberties journalist Marcy Wheeler commented, “if this guy would just stop blaming the President whose efforts to fix FAA Republicans refused to fund and did something he might actually fix the problem. Stop whining, Crash @SecDuffy. Please do your job and stop whining.”

Duffy has repeatedly attacked his predecessor and the prior administration, attempting to blame the current crisis on them.

“So the blame belongs to the last administration?” asked former Marine F/A-18 pilot and Democratic former political candidate Amy McGrath. “You’ve got to be kidding me. The last administration passed major legislation for funding the fix [to transportation] infrastructure problems DESPITE Republicans (like Duffy) voting against it for years.”

“More lies from another failed reality show contestant,” charged U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY). “Also, pointing fingers instead of addressing our current air traffic issues? Passengers are delayed, airlines are struggling & ATC is understaffed. We need action, not excuses. Less blame game, more solutions.”

READ MORE: GOP ‘Voucher Scheme for the Wealthy’ Would Hand $5 Billion to Religious, Private Schools

CNN’s David Axelrod mocked Duffy, writing: “Nothing like taking responsibility.”

And Professor of Public Policy Robert Reich, the former Clinton Labor Secretary, added, “when Sean Duffy was a congressman, he and other Republicans voted against upgrading air traffic control systems. Now, he’s trying to blame those systems for Newark airport’s outages – while claiming DOGE’s cuts of critical support staff at the FAA had nothing to do with it. Hello?”

Secretary Duffy on Tuesday warned, “We’re starting to see cracks in the system.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Bystander’ Trump Keeps Saying ‘I Don’t Know’ — Critics Ask ‘Who’s in Charge?’

Image via Reuters

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GOP Plan Redefines Dependent Child as ‘Under 7’—But Adds Loophole for Married Couples

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House Republicans, intent on increasing work requirements for assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and promoting marriage, have devised a new definition for “dependent child.” Currently, an adult has a dependent child if that child is under 18 years of age. Under the new proposed House definition for SNAP, once that child turns seven—usually someone in second grade—they could no longer be considered a dependent, with one exception.

The new House proposal also adds ten years to the time when the adult needs to continue working in order to receive SNAP benefits, from 54 to 64 years of age. However, it removes the work requirement if the adult with the dependent child is married and lives with someone who already complies with the new regulations. Unmarried couples with a child would not qualify for the exemption.

The new proposal would be part of Republicans’ legislation that would provide $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, largely benefiting the wealthy.

READ MORE: GOP ‘Voucher Scheme for the Wealthy’ Would Hand $5 Billion to Religious, Private Schools

The new bill refers to work requirements for “Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents,” or ABAWD. It reads:

“Specifically, this section would increase the age with which ABAWDs must continue working to qualify for SNAP to 64 (up from 54 currently); it changes the generic, functional definition of ‘dependent child’ for ABAWD purposes from under 18 years of age to under 7; and it carves out an exception to the work requirements for a person responsible for a child 7 years of age or older who is married and resides with an individual who complies with the SNAP work requirements.”

An April 30 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reveals that the GOP’s proposal “could take food away from millions of people in low-income households who are struggling to find steady work or who face substantial barriers to employment, including families with children.”

That report also notes that “the people who would be newly at risk of losing food assistance under the Johnson proposal include…1.4 million older adults aged 55 through 64 without children in their homes,” “More than 3 million adults who live with school-aged children,” “Veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and young people who have aged out of foster care,” and, “About 1.6 million people living in areas without enough jobs.”

The move also comes as states lower or remove protections for child workers.

Last year, the Center for American Progress published a report titled, “Project 2025 Would Exploit Child Labor by Allowing Minors To Work in Dangerous Conditions With Fewer Protections.”

READ MORE: ‘Bystander’ Trump Keeps Saying ‘I Don’t Know’ — Critics Ask ‘Who’s in Charge?’

 

Image via Reuters

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