DEBATE: Touting Conservative Cred on Economy, Not Social Issues

LGBT issues didn’t come up in today’s early-evening debate between the four lowest-polling Republican candidates, which was expected because the focus was the economy, but the candidates sought to burnish their conservative credentials in other ways.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former New York Gov. George Pataki, and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania argued over who would cut taxes and government spending most, saying those moves are the key to creating jobs. The debate, held at the University of Colorado in Boulder, was televised on business-oriented cable channel CNBC.

“Do you grow the government economy or do you grow the American economy?” asked Jindal, who touted his record of cutting spending in Louisiana, which included slashing government employment and closing or privatizing charity hospitals.

All decried the state of the U.S. economy and derided Democrats as backers of regulations that they say will harm business. Pataki, one of the more moderate GOPers, allowed that President Obama inherited an economic mess when he took office in 2009 but said it got worse because of his policies, especially the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, designed to increase the number of Americans with health insurance coverage (which it has done).

On that topic, Jindal denounced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying they “forced Obamacare and socialism down our throats.” Santorum said Obamacare has made it “virtually impossible” for small insurance companies to survive.

Graham focused largely on foreign policy, saying the U.S. military needs to be larger and better-funded, while getting a dig in at Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed socialist. Sanders “went to the Soviet Union on his honeymoon, and I don’t think he ever came back,” Graham said.

Pataki promoted himself as someone who can work with Democrats, as he did in New York, but that didn’t keep him from lambasting Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server when she was secretary of State, something that he said compromised national security. That alone should disqualify her from the presidency, he said.

Graham defended his positions on climate change, saying he believes it’s real and that Republicans don’t do themselves any favors by denying science, and immigration reform, pointing out that it’s impossible to deport all undocumented immigrants.

There were a few moments of levity, such as Graham and Santorum both saying how much they like beer, and Graham claiming he has a smartphone only because he gave his old phone number to Donald Trump.

There was the barest touching on social issues, with Jindal contending Democrats want to take away “religious liberty rights” (he has previously argued that these include the right to discriminate against LGBT people) and Santorum saying strong families are part of a strong economy (his vision of the family is notoriously not LGBT-inclusive). Pataki, for his part, said he’s a small-government conservative on social issues as well as economic ones. He didn’t go into detail, but he has a record of supporting LGBT rights.

 

Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/election/2015/10/28/debate-touting-conservative-cred-economy-not-social-issues

Lesbian Couple Files Lawsuit After Hawaii Cop Arrested Them For Kissing

HONOLULU (AP) – The Honolulu Police Department opened an internal investigation Wednesday into allegations that an officer wrongfully arrested a vacationing lesbian couple after seeing them kissing in a grocery store.

Courtney Wilson and Taylor Guerrero, who were visiting Hawaii from Los Angeles, said in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that they were harassed and arrested because the officer didn’t like their public displays of affection in a Foodland store on Oahu’s North Shore.

They were walking through the aisles holding hands and at one point hugged and kissed, the lawsuit said. Officer Bobby Harrison, who was shopping in uniform, “observed their consensual romantic contact and, in a loud voice, ordered plaintiffs to stop and ‘take it somewhere else.'” 

The women complied and continued shopping, the lawsuit said. When Harrison again saw them being affectionate with each other, he threatened to have them thrown out of the store.

While the women were in the check-out line, Harrison grabbed Wilson by the wrist, said the couple’s attorney, Eric Seitz. Wilson started to call 911, and Guerrero tried to get in between her girlfriend and the officer, he said.

In the ensuing altercation, Seitz says that Harrison pushed Guerrero. “She then kicked the police officer, which apparently enraged him even more,” Setiz said, adding that Harrison punched Wilson after she hit him in the face.

The women were arrested and charged with felony assault on an officer. They each posted $12,000 bail and had to remain in Honolulu as a condition of their release, Seitz said.

 All the charges were eventually withdrawn and dismissed with prejudice, meaning that the case cannot be filed again.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, states that Harrison was motivated by his hostility toward gays. The City and County of Honolulu is also listed as a defendant.

Honolulu Police Department Spokeswoman Michelle Yu said Harrison has been an officer for 26 years and is currently assigned to District 2 in Wahiawa. Yu said the department would not comment on pending litigation.

The civil rights lawsuit is the second to come from the law offices of Eric Seitz in the past week. Seitz filed another lawsuit Oct. 20 against the Honolulu Police Department for the killing of Sheldon Haleck, a 38-year-old man who officers believed to be acting erratically.

Honolulu Civil Beat contributed to this report.

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Open Question: Poll: For those who are LGBT, are you out of the closet or are you still closeted?

answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20151028184922AAWuHKj

Gay Priest Who Lost Vatican Job Assails the Church in Letter to Pope Francis
Krzysztof Charamsa made public a letter that he had sent to the pope, dated Oct. 3, in which he denounced the church, saying that it had made the lives of gay and transgender people “a hell.”

Ben Carson: Opposing Same-Sex Marriage Doesn’t Make Me a Homophobe – VIDEO

On Wednesday’s CNBC GOP debate, Ben Carson spoke out of both sides of his mouth on LGBT rights. Asked about why he would serve on the board of a gay friendly company such as Costco given his views on homosexuality, Carson responded,

“You don’t understand my views on homosexuality. I believe our Constitution protects everybody regardless of their sexual orientation…I also believe marriage is between one man and one woman…There is no reason you can’t be perfectly fair to the gay community.”

He then went on to say “the left” had propagated a “myth” that opposition to same-sex marriage is tantamount to being a homophobe.

In case you need a refresher, here’s 8 reasons why Dr. Ben Carson is a dangerous anti-gay extremist.

Watch video of Carson’s answer below:

The post Ben Carson: Opposing Same-Sex Marriage Doesn’t Make Me a Homophobe – VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Sean Mandell

Ben Carson: Opposing Same-Sex Marriage Doesn’t Make Me a Homophobe – VIDEO

Germaine Greer's Feminine Mistake

There’s this feminist named Germaine Greer, who was invited to speak at Cardiff University in Wales. Greer is one of those TERFs, or trans-exclusionary radical feminists, who are strident “feminists” who hate trans women. Well, Greer has said some pretty crazy things in her time, though what brought her into the news recently is that the students at Cardiff tried to have her invitation revoked (she has said she will bow out).  I have my opinions on limiting free speech, and that’s an op-ed I’ve already written, but I just couldn’t let the issue of some of the things she said go. If I didn’t know better this was a case of Poe’s Law in effect.

In an interview with the BBC, Greer actually said that trans women do not “look like, sound like or behave like women.” Congratulations, Miss Greer, you just reinvented sexism in your own image. What the hell does a woman look like? Beause I have met some really interesting butch-lipstick couples that really screw with stereotypes. What even does a feminist look like? On one hand, you have Andrea Dworkin, and on the other, Jane Fonda. One looked like the stereotype of a feminist and the other looks like Jane Fonda. Seriously, people often talk to me about Carmen Carrera, Laverne Cox, and Bailey Jay and how beautiful and glamorous they are — then they ask what the hell happened with me because I look like I transitioned into their eighth-grade art teacher. This one trans woman I know transitioned from leather-wearing, Harley-riding biker into a leather-wearing, Harley-riding biker (she’s also gay, which makes her a trans dyke on a bike!). You can’t say it’s about body size or muscle tone; I know I’m not the only person who remembers the wrester Chyna. That woman both frightened and aroused me, which isn’t a bad thing.  

There’s a right way for women to behave? Well, I think that undoes about 200 years of Western feminist thought. When people ask how I can be a woman and still have The Godfather as my favorite movie, play war-themed video games, and work on my own car, I remind them that I transitioned into a woman — not a Barbie. The director Kathryn Bigelow has made some of the best war movies of the past 30 years. Ever seen a 5-foot 2-inch woman make a former college linebacker cry? I have. Drill Sergeant Garcia kept a jar of what she called “man tears” on her desk. I think she picked her teeth with the bones of “nice guys” she lured into dark alleys.

Greer also once said, “No so-called sex change has ever begged for a uterus-and-ovaries transplant.” Clearly this woman has never met a baby-crazy trans woman walking around the house with a pillow under her shirt, much less know how Lily Elbe died. Besides, the first successful womb transplant occurred this decade. And if uterus transplants were possible like that, I’m pretty sure there would be weekly exchanges between MTFs and FTMs at the local community center. The irony about Greer’s sex change statement is that she’s also said, “Human beings have an inalienable right to invent themselves.”

Another bit of hilarity from this woman was what she said about Caitlyn Jenner: “She wanted the limelight that the other, female, members of the family were enjoying.” Oh sure, because people totally transition to be on reality … wait. I’m gonna stop there. There probably is someone crazy enough to do that just to become famous. Still, Caitlyn was on the Wheaties box back in the 1970s and has been on TV regularly since the ’80s; she was famous before her kids first learned to Instagram. Please, Jenner was taking hormones in the ’90s before she even met Kardashian martriarch Kris Jenner. 

Look, maybe back in the 1970s, Germaine Greer was interesting, but in this day and age, she’s no longer relevant. Her attitudes match closer to those of fundamentalist Christians in that they think trans people need psychiatric repair. I don’t support having her thrown off campus because of her views, though. Instead, I think we need to let people hear Greer out so we can all collectively look at her and say, “Well, that was a bunch of crazy BS. Oh, isn’t I Am Cait on?”

AMANDA KERRI is an Oklahoma City–based comedian and a board member for OKC Pride. Follow her at Twitter.com/EternalKerri.
Amanda Kerri

www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/10/28/germaine-greers-feminine-mistake

7 Ways To Embrace Being On Your Own After Divorce

After splitting from a spouse, it can feel as if you’ve been stripped of your identity. So to help you adjust to being on your own again, we asked divorce coaches and divorcés to share their best advice for embracing the single life. 

1. Define who you are outside of marriage. 

For as long as you can remember, you’ve associated yourself with being part of a couple. “We can’t go to the party” or “We’re headed to a wedding this weekend.” One of the most powerful things you can do to embrace your identity outside marriage is to practice making “I” statements, said Laura Miolla, a professional divorce coach who finalized her divorce two years ago. 

“Shifting your perspective from ‘we to I’ after divorce is a challenging but necessary process for healing, growth and empowerment,” she explained. “Take this time to reconnect with the person you used to be before you were married. Who was that person? And who are you now? What’s different? What’s the same? What do you love about yourself? What gives you joy? Use that information to choose who you are now and what you want moving forward.” 

2. Get healthy. (And note that “healthy” doesn’t mean losing a ton of weight.) 

Now more than ever you need to prioritize your mental and physical well-being — but recognize that getting healthy doesn’t simply mean dropping a few dress sizes, said A.S. Chung, a writer who divorced in 2013.

“Don’t over do it. While I enjoyed being able to get into super skinny jeans and had enough confidence to finally get into that Herve Leger dress that had been staring at me from my wardrobe for quite some time, I looked unhealthy and gaunt,” said Chung, who was married for seven years. “It was due to my loss of appetite and sleep deprivation. Eventually, I decided that if there was anything I could control about myself it was my health. I began to box, I squeezed every ounce of unhappiness out onto unforgiving boot camps and calmed my busy mind at yoga.” 

3. Make a post-divorce bucket list. 

Maybe you’ve always wanted to zip line but your ex was afraid of heights. Maybe you’ve long harbored dreams of starting a YouTube cooking channel but never had the time or the confidence. Use your divorce as a catalyst to get it done, said Debbie Martinez, a mindful life coach who specializes in divorce.

“Start making plans for things you’ve always wanted to do and start checking some of those off,” she said. “Set completion dates, do research and get excited. And make sure the items on your list are all you-focused. Sure, you might have on there some fabulous trip you want to take with the kids but most of it should be about the new you.”   

4. Make like Stella and get your groove back. 

You don’t necessarily have to sign up for that pole dancing class at the gym or download Tinder with a quickness, but reconnecting with your sensual side can be a very good thing after divorce, said Martinez. 

“For all your married years, you’ve known yourself as a wife, mother, daughter, coworker, and friend but over time, you may have lost the sense of what it actually feels like to be a woman or a man,” said Martinez. “Reconnect with that part of yourself that’s been on hiatus: Change your wardrobe, do things that make you feel sexy (I personally signed up for a burlesque workshop), tap into the little child in you by doing fun things (adult kickball or horseback riding, for instance) because that gives you a freeing feeling and that feeling is sexy.” 

5. Take comfort in friends and family who really care about you. 

Divorce has a way of showing you who your true friends are — embrace those people and try not to worry about those who don’t show up, advised Miolla. 

“Divorce is a little like a death: The people around you will react in different ways,” Miolla said. “Your closest relationships will become closer as your best friends and family try to protect and help you — while others will distance themselves. You know who your champions are now. So focus your time and energy on them. Don’t invest in people that won’t invest in you. Be with the people who love and cherish you.” 

6. Take that old hobby you used to love off the back-burner. 

Remember all those old hobbies and interests you used to enjoy when you were single? Revisit them, said divorce coach Emma Heptonstall. 

“I’m not talking a night out with friends (although you might have given those up too!), I’m talking about a passion, a hobby that was all yours,” she said. “Look back at what you enjoyed and consider revisiting that passion. It will help you reconnect with the ‘you’ you were before your relationship.” 

7. Take a solo trip. 

Most of us don’t have the money (especially after divorce) to travel the world a la Eat, Pray, Love. But traveling and experiencing new things really doesn’t have to break the bank, Chung said. 

“Travel doesn’t necessarily have to involve long haul flights and expensive ventures,” she said. “It’s about exploring destinations you have never been before and opening up your senses to history, culture, people and languages — and it will take you away from an environment that is stale or is a constant a reminder of what it once was! Travel taught me to stop, observe, inhale the surroundings and slow down and those newfound ebbs and flows have transcended into my daily life.”

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Open Question: Straight vs Bisexual (LGBT)?
Do you think that being straight is better than being bisexual?

I am very interested in film and all the greatest actors are straight.

I mean Marlon Brando as an actor is way better than Angelina Jolie

answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20151028165035AAiiUy3

Spotted: Ben Carson’s PAC Joins Anti-LGBT World Congress of Families Conference

At a conference where speakers have compared LGBT rights to terrorism, called LGBT people pedophiles and warned that LGBT rights would lead to cyborgs taking over humanity, Ben Caron’s name has been spotted.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/spotted-ben-carsons-pac-joins-anti-lgbt-world-congress-of-families-conferen?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed