Housing Secretary Julián Castro to Make Major Announcement at LGBTQ Conference

HUD secretary Castro is expected to introduce additional policies to protect LGBTQ people from housing discrimination.

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Michelle Garcia

www.advocate.com/politics/politicians/2015/01/26/housing-secretary-juli-n-castro-make-major-announcement-lgbtq-confer

The Gay Guy's Guide To Coming Out
Check out this episode of The Gay Guy’s Guide To Life for a few tips for coming out like a pro!

Rob Smith is an author, journalist, and openly gay Iraq war veteran. Closets, Combat and Coming Out is available now on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com and wherever LGBT and progressive books are sold. For more on Rob, visit him on his YouTube channel and on Twitter @robsmithonline.

www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-smith/the-gay-guys-guide-to-com_b_6532250.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Major Alabama News Site Comes Out in Support of Marriage Equality

A major news site in Alabama published an op-ed in support of marriage equality yesterday.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/major-alabama-news-site-comes-out-in-support-of-marriage-equality?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Gay Dads Respond With Love After School Sends Homophobic Rejection Letter

For parents of young children, finding the best early education options can be a nightmare. But this is something else entirely.

Married couple Brian Copeland and Greg Bullard have been searching for the right school for their son. Greg is a senior pastor at a local church, and a faith-based education is on their priority list (we’ll reserve judgment on that one, suffice it to say they sound like lovely people).

A friend of theirs recommended Davidson Academy, a Christian school that has no direct affiliation to any religious institution or church. The friend even when to so far as to inquire with someone he knew who worked at the school, who told him that Brian and Greg’s family would be welcome there.

The couple made a phone call to set up an appointment, and a few days later received this letter in the mail:

It reads:

Although Davidson Academy is not sponsored by or affiliated with any specific church or denomination, the school was founded by Christians and operates in the Christian tradition based upon clear tenets of faith and practice. In the Handbook for Students and Parents, which is accessible on our public website and to which every family must subscribe in the Enrollment Agreement, our Statement of Faith appears on page 6. The first point of the Statement is as follows:

We believe God has revealed Himself, His purposes, and His ways in the Bible, which is therefore absolute in its truth and authority over daily living.

The practical application of this principle extends to the lifestyle conduct of those who are a part of the school. In the section on Admission Policy in the Handbook, on page 15, is found this statement:

Davidson Academy requires all its students, parents or guardians, teachers, administrators, staff and trustees to manifest lifestyle conduct and actions which project an image consistent with the expressed purposes, mission, and beliefs of the school. Any lifestyle conduct which is in opposition to the mission of Davidson Academy or which impedes the school’s credibility with its constituency or the general public is unacceptable.

One example of such lifestyle is homosexuality. Davidson Academy has the right and responsibility to do everything possible to ensure that its expressed purposes, mission, and beliefs continue in their highest traditions and are not harmed, compromised, or hindered by unacceptable lifestyle conduct on the part of its students, parents or guardians, teachers, administrators, staff or trustees.

Brian posted the letter to Facebook, blurring out the name of the school, adding the following message. HuffPost notes that it traced the letter back to Davidson easily.

I share this to let my friends know that discrimination affects people you know and love and still hurts no matter how many times you go through it. We chose this school because of its rigorous faith-based K-12 academics and extra curricular activities; and, a friend with a son there asked them if a family like ours would be allowed and was told yes. After a phone conversation, fully disclosing we are a two-dad family, an appointment was set for us. I receive this letter canceling our appointment without even getting a chance.

Sadly enough, an acquaintance called the school this morning and told them she had been through a divorce because she cheated and that she now lives with her three kids and her boyfriend. The administrator welcomed them with open arms and offered an appointment.

I chose to not share the name because the kids who go there deserve respect and to learn in peace. It’s not about me getting my way. My children will not go there under this person’s administration. It’s about telling the story that there are real faces and feelings that open letters like this. We want the best for our kids, and THEY deserve to be given a chance. I love you all. The love you show my family every day here makes life even richer.

If we’re going to go off Christian values, it’s also worth noting that Brian and Greg have won awards for their community service, and that they run the only LGBT food pantry in Tennessee, serving over 200 families monthly.

Brian told HuffPost, “I’ve learned through this experience we need to choose a place that will not only admit our children, but celebrate them.”

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/au6VA5-oXdY/gay-dads-respond-with-love-after-school-sends-homophobic-rejection-letter-20150126

An Inside Look at Hillary Clinton's 2016 Campaign and Her Potential Vice Presidential Shortlist

Charles Pulliam-Moore

www.towleroad.com/2015/01/hillary-clinton-is-narrowing-down-her-choices-for-presidential-campaign.html

Ben Carson Claims Anti-Gay Bakery Owners 'Might Put Poison' In Same-Sex Couple's Cakes
GOP presidential hopeful Ben Carson reportedly slammed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates at a Jan. 24 press conference following his speech at Congressman Steve King’s Iowa Freedom Summit.

Carson, a Fox News commentator and former Johns Hopkins University pediatric neurosurgeon, seemed to hint at a series of disputes that have erupted between same-sex couples hoping to tie the knot and bakeries and other wedding-related venues operated by opponents of same-sex marriage.

“What I have a problem with is when people try to force people to act against their beliefs because they say, ‘They’re discriminating against me,’” he told reporters, according to The Hill. “So they can go right down the street and buy a cake, but no, let’s bring a suit against this person because I want them to make my cake even though they don’t believe in it.”

He then added, “[That] is really not all that smart because they might put poison in that cake.”

Carson has been outspoken in regard to his opposition to same-sex marriage rights.

“Marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn’t matter what they are,” he told Sean Hannity in 2012, as cited by Slate. “They don’t get to change the definition.”

He shared similar sentiments in his 2012 book, America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great, noting that attempts to “redefine marriage” would bring about a “disastrous ending” for the U.S. that would mirror “the dramatic fall of the Roman Empire,” according to Media Matters.

Interestingly, Carson may have been in the minority when it came to discussing same-sex marriage at the Iowa Freedom Summit this year. As The Huffington Post’s Igor Bobic reported, the subject “remained conspicuously absent from the lips of many speakers who took the stage, demonstrating how dramatically politics around the issue has shifted in just a few years.”

H/T Back2Stonewall

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/26/ben-carson-gay-cakes-poison-_n_6547226.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Same-Sex Couples in Alabama Eagerly Await Opportunity to Marry

Following her ruling in support of marriage equality in Alabama on Friday, U.S. District Judge Callie V. S. Granade issued a 14-day stay on Sunday night, delaying the start marriage equality in the state.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/same-sex-couples-in-alabama-eagerly-await-opportunity-to-marry?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Homophobes Think they Can Save Marriage By Destroying it

Just how horrible are the homophobes in Oklahoma’s legislature? About as bad as the segregationists who blocked school integration in the 1950s.

By now, you may have heard that Representatives Todd Russ and Sally Kern have come up with some truly insane antigay laws in response to our recent marriage victories. Russ wants to completely ban marriage altogether — as in, nobody, gay or straight, can get married. If you’re caught issuing a marriage license, you would go to to jail for up to a year. That sounds impossibly nuts, but it’s actually really honestly what he’s proposed.

In a way, it’s not too different from how the Governor of Arkansas responded to Brown v. Board of Education. Rather than allow black students to attend classes with white kids, Governor Orville Faubus (what a name) closed all of the high schools in Little Rock for a year. If the white families couldn’t have their segregated schools, then by God nobody will have any schools!

Apparently Russ is such a close student of racist politicians that he’s taken a page straight out of Faubus’ playbook with his marriage proposal. And just like Faubus, Russ knows that of course he’s going to lose; there’s no way he can actually ban marriage. But that’s not the point. His only goal here is intimidation, making LGBTs feel unwelcome, and scaring whipping up anti-gay sentiment among his ignorant followers. Then when there’s an act of homophobic violence, he can disavow it and say something like “well of course I’d never condone violence” when in fact is hateful rhetoric is exactly what created the environment where violence flourishes.

Kern, on the other hand, is just a kook. She proposed various bills that would prevent the state from paying any employee who allowed gays to marry, and also to force gay kids into abusive “ex-gay” torture camps. (Her son Jesse Kern, it’s worth noting, is DEFINITELY NOT GAY, no sir, absolutely one hundred percent straight, absolutely.) Once again, she knows this won’t pass. And yet she’s pushing it anyway — not because she actually believes she’s being a leader, but because she wants to make life miserable for the gays.

At this point, they’re not even trying to hide their admiration for segregationists.

matt baume

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/tEM-rJdte80/homophobes-think-they-can-save-marriage-by-destroying-it-20150126