A few things from round and about:
- Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly dishes with guest Marc Rudov about how R Family cruises are “mainstreaming” the “homosexual lifestyle.” Rudov makes a charming comparison between being gay and brain tumors:
You know, just this week a report came out that said using cell phones is more dangerous than smoking, but the effects are very long term. If there’s going to be a brain tumor, it might not be discovered for 10 years.
And I kind of look at this in the same way, because children do form their sexual identities from their same-sex parents. And what’s going on here is basically teaching children that there’s no difference between a heterosexual marriage and a homosexual marriage.
Bleagh. I won’t even bother to write a retort here. You all know the counterarguments as well as I.
- White supremacist Hal Turner, an Internet radio show host, has called for violence against Paul Ash, Superintendent of Schools in Lexington, Massachusetts. Lexington is where two couples have been trying (without success) to sue the school district for allowing LGBT-inclusive books in elementary school classrooms. David Parker, one of the plaintiffs in the case, denies knowing Turner, but refuses to condemn him, saying “[Ash] has to expect that people are going to be extremely angry over what he’s doing.”
- Moving on to useful news, Jennifer at Queercents offers tips for How to Find a Fantabulous Nanny.
- On a non-LGBT note, the New Jersey Senate approved a bill that would offer employees up to six weeks’ paid leave to care for a newborn or a sick relative. The Assembly approved it last month, and Governor Jon Corzine said he would sign it, making New Jersey the third state (after California and Washington) to enact such a law.
- And on the lighter side: The founder of mannotincluded.com, a British sperm bank targeting lesbians and single women, has been jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty to fraud. From what I can tell, no potential mothers were gypped, but he lied to officials, forged documents, and falsified his debts.
The funny part? He lives in a town named Studley Green. (Hey, I had to find something funny after the first two items above.)
This does not shock me from Bill O who said “gays should be turned into salt” 2 weeks ago.
http://www.queersunited.blogspot.com
Thanks for the shout-out, Dana.
Do you know of any organized response to Fox’s/Bill O’s campaign of disinformation? I’d be interested in joining and publicizing…
PFLAG’s sent around a message of support for R Family (which you can read on their blog, but it seems positioned as a reason to support their ongoing work against folks like O’Reilly and Sally Kern, not a separate organized response to Fox and Bill O. per se. I’m sure GLAAD is keeping an eye on this, too, although I don’t know of a specific response to Fox.
um, it’s kinda wrong to use the term ‘gypped’. i have to say i was a bit shocked to see it there.
Gyp: cheat or swindle. Of unknown origin.
Courtesy of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary.
On the NJ paid family leave bill – not exactly a “non-lgbt family” issue. The bill has incredible language to insure that all lgbt families are included going so far as allowing paid time off to care for your partner’s child (like a step-child) even if legally not your child. I am not sure if any other state with paid family leave (all 2 of them) has gone to such lengths for its lgbt families.
I probably should have said “non-LGBT-specific,” Heather–but I also wasn’t aware of the additional language for non-legal children, which certainly is critical for (if not exclusive to) LGBT families. Thanks for mentioning this; it’s a really good point.