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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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Acting Speaker McHenry Did Not Have Authority to Evict Pelosi Says Top Rules Committee Democrat

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October 4, 2023

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U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Kevin McCarthy’s hand-picked temporary successor and acting Speaker, operated outside of carefully crafted House rules when he evicted Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the former Democratic Majority Leader, from their Capitol Hill offices just hours after Republicans ousted McCarthy as Speaker.

That’s according to the top Democrat on the powerful House Rules Committee, Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-MA), who previously served as the Chair of the Rules Committee. He says the “Speaker pro tempore” has one job only: help elect a new Speaker of the House.

“I want to clear up some confusion,” McGovern wrote late Wednesday afternoon.

“As an unelected acting Speaker pro tempore, @PatrickMcHenry’s job is to guide the House toward the election of a new Speaker. That’s it.”

“His power is constrained by the plain text of Rule 1, Clause 8 of the Rules of the House,” said McGovern.

READ MORE: ‘My Job Is Not to Put Pool Noodles Around Hard Corners for Republicans’: AOC Blasts Critics Over McCarthy Vote

Rep. McGovern said he is “alarmed” by McHenry’s order evicting Pelosi and Hoyer.

“Given the plain text of the rule, I don’t think he has that power,” McGovern added.

McGovern further explained, “The rule says he can only exercise as much authority as is ‘necessary and appropriate’ towards the end of electing a Speaker. The Rules Committee narrowly described this rule in 2004: an acting Speaker pro tempore serves ‘for the sole purpose of electing a new Speaker.'”

“These rules were put into place after 9/11 to ensure continuity of government & quick election of a new Speaker in an emergency. Not to provide for a short-term Speaker due to Republican dysfunction,” concluded McGovern, who has served in Congress since 1997.

READ MORE: Pelosi Delivers Brutal Response After McCarthy’s Acting Replacement Orders Her to Vacate Her Office Immediately

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‘My Job Is Not to Put Pool Noodles Around Hard Corners for Republicans’: AOC Blasts Critics Over McCarthy Vote

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October 4, 2023

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U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blasted critics across the political spectrum who are angered House Democrats did not vote to keep Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, after Republicans ousted him on Tuesday.

“Contrary to how McCarthy’s defenders are behaving, men failing up is not a Constitutionally protected right,” Ocasio-Cortez said on social media. “The man made risky decisions and faced the natural consequences of them. I am not his mom, and my job is not to put pool noodles around hard corners for Republicans.”

AOC also blasted 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who is now a former Democrat, after he criticized Democrats on CNN.

READ MORE: Karine Jean-Pierre Schools Peter Doocy for Asking if White House Is ‘Loving’ GOP House Chaos

“Why did Dems vote along party lines to oust Kevin McCarthy? Not because they thought it was good for the country but because that’s what they were told to do,” Yang said on social media when posting his remarks.

“Yes,” Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez responded, “because strengthening someone who voted to overturn the election, held the entire US economy hostage, launched a baseless impeachment inquiry without a vote, and refuses to honor his word is what is in the best interest of this country.”

“Do some of you hear yourselves?” she asked rhetorically.

READ MORE: Pelosi Strikes Back After New House GOP Leadership, in Act of ‘Revenge’ Immediately Targets Top Democrats

Tuesday night she also defended Democrats for not, as some have put it, “saving” McCarthy.

“Does anyone believe for one minute that McCarthy would help elect a Dem speaker ‘for the institution’?” she asked. “McCarthy’s hubris is a theme. He loudly stated he wouldn’t negotiate w/Dems, called virtually none, trashed those who helped w/CR, and then expected Dem votes for free?”

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Karine Jean-Pierre Schools Peter Doocy for Asking if White House Is ‘Loving’ GOP House Chaos

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October 4, 2023

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In the middle of an interview with U.S Senator John Kennedy, Fox News interrupted the Louisiana Republican for some “breaking news,” as the right wing cable network’s Peter Doocy began to ask White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the chaos far-right wing Republicans caused by ousting Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday.

“All right. Senator, thank you for joining us. We got a little bit of breaking news here. We got to jump back to the briefing. Our Peter Doocy is questioning the Press Secretary,” John Roberts told viewers as the camera cut to the White House Press Briefing Room.

“Is any part of the West Wing here, just loving the fact that Republicans don’t appear to be able to govern the one part of the government that they actually control?” Doocy asked.

“Nobody’s ‘loving’ anything when it’s when we’re not when we’re not able to deliver for the American people. Nobody’s loving that,” Jean-Pierre replied, as she explained to Doocy what the White House believes is actually important.

READ MORE: Jim Jordan, a ‘Significant Player’ in Trump’s Efforts to Overturn Election Results, Running for Speaker of the House

“It is important for Congress to work, not for us, but on behalf of the American people. It is important to make sure that we meet the challenges of the American people. That’s what’s important. What we saw, you heard from the President, what we saw on Saturday should have never have happened, but we’re glad that a deal was made. We’re glad that we’re not in a shutdown. But House Republicans should have never gotten us that far.”

Jean-Pierre went on to tell Doocy that since Republicans “are the majority in the House, they can fix this.”

“They’re creating the chaos. That is not helpful to the American people.”

“That’s why you saw the President today talk about student debt relief, and talk about what else he’s doing to make sure that we’re giving a little bit of breathing room to the American people. That’s why you heard from the President yesterday talking about or our announcement, talking about how we’re continuing to beat Big Pharma so we can lower prescription drug costs for the American people. That’s what the President cares about. That’s what he wants to see – what can we continue to do to help Americans as they face really tough challenges? So this is not, we’re not loving it. It is not helpful to any any American across the country.”

READ MORE: Pelosi Strikes Back After New House GOP Leadership, in Act of ‘Revenge’ Immediately Targets Top Democrats

Doocy, went on to ask if “anybody in the West Wing has heard anybody talking about the possibility of ‘Speaker Trump.'”

Watch below or at this link.

 

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