This is a really difficult post to write on a good day. I think what I'm writing about needs to be talked about and picked apart by as many people as possible, so when you're finished reading this, please - by all means - farm the link to it out, email it, share it with as many people as possible please.

• It is estimated that 160,000 children miss school every day due to fear of attack or intimidation by other students. (Source: National Education Association)
  
• A survey conducted by the American Association of University Women reported that 85% of girls and 76% of boys have been sexually harassed in some form and only 18% of those incidents were perpetrated by an adults. Young bullies carry a one-in-four chance of having a criminal record by age 30. (Study by Leonard Eron and Rowell Huesman)
  
• American schools harbor approximately 2.1 million bullies and 2.7 million of their victims. (Dan Olweus, National School Safety Center)
  
• One in seven students is either a bully or victim.
  
• 56% of students have personally witnessed some type of bullying at school.
  
• 15% of all school absenteeism is directly related to fears of being bullied at school.
  
• 71% of students report incidents of bullying as a problem at their school.
  
• One out of 20 students has seen a student with a gun at school.
  
• Mean behavior among kids is a universal problem. In a poll of 232 kids in kindergarten through 8th grade at a Connecticut elementary school, every child claimed to have been the victim of at least one schoolmate’s or sibling’s meanness in the previous month.

"Honour killings cleanse illicit relationships. For women, that is a broad term. Men are allowed more sexual freedom, but homosexuality is still seen by some as beyond the pale."

Can't Cry Hard Enough

I was planning on writing a rather lengthy post today, but I have no energy to start one, let alone complete it. Today has hit me hard. It's been difficult trying to keep my emotions in check with everything that is going on, and on the top of it it is officially 10 years ago that Matthew Shepard died in that hospital room. The truth is he died on that fence ten years and one week ago. I still cannot get my mind around these things.

I look at Calpernia's blog and think about our emails back and forth to one another and how far she's come in such a short time, and I'm in awe of her resilience, despite such tragedy. I emailed Gabi Clayton about her remarkable son Bill, I hope she is doing well.

Matthew, Barry Winchell, Brandon Teena, Gwen Araujo, Bill Clayton, Danny Overstreet, Billy Jack Gaither, JR Warren, Tyra Hunter, the list goes on and on and on.

Each one of these people is gone for senseless reasons.
Each one of these people could have been one of my friends, children, or siblings.
As far as I'm concerned, each one of them was.

Tags: calpernia, grief, hatecrime, matthew shepard

God Hates Stupid Homophobes!
Another rant from your neighborhood jesus_h_biscuit
click here to read the post and get the link code

• The Times Of Harvey Milk (.avi file | 679.33 MB)
  
• Extras Part 1 (.avi files | 338.87 MB)
  
• Extras Part 2 (.avi files | 536.66 MB)

"If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country."

- Harvey Milk

Producer/Director - Malcolm Burt. Stories of 8 people who have beaten homelessness. The stereotypes are wrong - you merely need to lose your job or break up with your partner or family and you're homeless. In that way, we are all just two steps from homelessness.

mmmblog

"This marks the fourth year of the Day of Truth, which was established to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective."

"I'm speaking the Truth to break the silence.
True tolerance means that people with differing -- even opposing -- viewpoints can freely exchange ideas and respectfully listen to each other.
It's time for an honest conversation about homosexuality.
There's freedom to change if you want to.
Let’s talk."

"That's right -- they are telling kids that despite the lack of scientific backing, there is "freedom to change" from homosexuality if one wants. And they don't see how maybe, just maybe, this might be seen as "disruptive" to the gay students, children of gay parents, science teachers, or any straight allies who have chosen to put reason over faith-based rhetoric? And not only disruptive to the school day, but instead disruptive to the very cores of people's beings!!!

We always say that one of the most annoying aspects of our opposition is their sheer non-desire to own their bullshit. And this is just more of the same. They are not seeking "honest conversation" and dialogue. They are trying to reshape a conversation because they don't like the way fact, progress, and tolerance are steering the narrative for the nation's young people. "

Letter From HS Senior To Sally Kern

Today my nephew attempted to deliver a letter to Sally Kern but was stopped by a highway patrol man. With his permission I am distributing the letter to all news stations and thought I would include it here.

Maybe we can all stand to learn a listen from this smart, loving, young man. He more than most has reason to hate. He lost his mother, my sister, in the Murrah Building bombing.

Elizabeth

Rep Kern:

On April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City a terrorist detonated a bomb that killed my mother and 167 others. 19 children died that day. Had I not had the chicken pox that day, the body count would've likely have included one more. Over 800 other Oklahomans were injured that day and many of those still suffer through their permanent wounds.

That terrorist was neither a homosexual or was he involved in Islam. He was an extremist Christian forcing his views through a body count. He held his beliefs and made those who didn't live up to them pay with their lives.

As you were not a resident of Oklahoma on that day, it could be explained why you so carelessly chose words saying that the homosexual agenda is worst than terrorism. I can most certainly tell you through my own experience that is not true. I am sure there are many people in your voting district that laid a loved one to death after the terrorist attack on Oklahoma City. I kind of doubt you'll find one of them that will agree with you.

I was five years old when my mother died. I remember what a beautiful, wise, and remarkable woman she was. I miss her. Your harsh words and misguided beliefs brought me to tears, because you told me that my mother's killer was a better person than a group of people that are seeking safety and tolerance for themselves.

As someone left motherless and victimized by terrorists, I say to you very clearly you are absolutely wrong.

You represent a district in Oklahoma City and you very coldly express a lack of love, sympathy or understanding for what they've been through. Can I ask if you might have chosen wiser words were you a real Oklahoman that was here to share the suffering with Oklahoma City? Might your heart be a bit less cold had you been around to see the small bodies of children being pulled out of rubble and carried away by weeping firemen?

I've spent 12 years in Oklahoma public schools and never once have I had anyone try to force a gay agenda on me. I have seen, however, many gay students beat up and there's never a day in school that has went by when I haven't heard the word **** slung at someone. I've been called gay slurs many times and they hurt and I am not even gay so I can just imagine how a real gay person feels. You were a school teacher and you have seen those things too. How could you care so little about the suffering of some of your students?

Let me tell you the result of your words in my school. Every openly gay and suspected gay in the school were having to walk together Monday for protection. They looked scared. They've already experienced enough hate and now your words gave other students even more motivation to sneer at them and call them names. Afterall, you are a teacher and a lawmaker, many young people have taken your words to heart. That happens when you assume a role of responsibility in your community. I seriously think before this week ends that some kids here will be going home bruised and bloody because of what you said.

I wish you could've met my mom. Maybe she could've guided you in how a real Christian should be acting and speaking.

I have not had a mother for nearly 13 years now and wonder if there were fewer people like you around, people with more love and tolerance in their hearts instead of strife, if my mom would be here to watch me graduate from high school this spring. Now she won't be there. So I'll be packing my things and leaving Oklahoma to go to college elsewhere and one day be a writer and I have no intentions to ever return here. I have no doubt that people like you will incite crazy people to build more bombs and kill more people again. I don't want to be here for that. I just can't go through that again.

You may just see me as a kid, but let me try to teach you something. The old saying is sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Well, your words hurt me. Your words disrespected the memory of my mom. Your words can cause others to pick up sticks and stones and hurt others.

Sincerely

Tucker

Salvation Army Lobbies for Religious Discrimination

It’s almost time for those red kettles to go up in front of grocery stores across America, and all across America, people get all rosy cheeked just thinking about doing good… forgetting about all the organizations that do as much good without making such a big show about it… without thinking about where the money that goes into the red kettle really goes to.

Among other things, the money people give to the Salvation Army goes to pay the salaries of lobbyists in Washington D.C. What, oh what, do those Salvation Army lobbyists lobby for? The Salvation Army lobbies in favor of the political agenda of the Religious Right.

There’s the time, for example, when the Salvation Army leaders met behind closed doors with the Bush White House to come up with a strategy for passing a law that would allow government-funded groups to fire people for refusing to join the religions of their bosses. Convert and praise Jesus or lose your job, the Salvation Army law said. That was a practice that the Salvation Army was already engaging in, giving religious tests to employees and telling them to take a hike if the responses were not theologically correct, taking government money all the while. The Salvation Army spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of red kettle money on that political project alone.

What else does your red kettle donation pay for? Political organizing against same-sex marriage, for one thing. The Salvation Army uses its organization to promote opposition to equal marriage rights for same sex-sex couples. The web site of the Salvation Army states, “The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage.” Catch that other part too - the only good homosexual is a homosexual who decides not to have sex for the rest of his or her life.

There’s also the Salvation Army’s history of rescinding benefits to same-sex domestic partners. Said the Human Rights Campaign, “We’re talking about health care, about providing health benefits, and what the Salvation Army has decided to do is prevent certain families from getting health care, and that’s just mean.” Salvation Army supporters responded to Portland’s request that it adhere to the city’s ordinance requiring organizations receiving money from the city government to provide benefits to same-sex domestic partners by sending hate mail with messages such as “You are a sick person who doesn’t deserve to be mayor.” Compassion?

Still want to put that money in the red kettle?

Consider the Salvation Army’s decision to put its religion ahead of the needs of homeless people in Wisconsin. When the Janesville City Council asked the Salvation Army to stop trying to convert people to evangelical Christianity with government money provided through the city government, the Salvation Army said no. The Salvation Army decided that it was more important to keep trying to convert people to Christianity than to help people in need, so it decided to stop work on a homeless shelter until the local government relented and allowed proselytization with government funds. A spokesman said that stopping its religious activities as part of government-funded programs that it administrates would stop the Salvation Army from fulfilling its mission “to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ”. The Salvation Army would let the homeless freeze outside in the Wisconsin winter weather rather than just stop telling people to worship Jesus.

Yes, government funds. The Salvation Army gets a huge amount of praise for helping people in need, but the truth is that a huge amount of the money that the Salvation Army spends comes directly from federal, state, and local government. We, the taxpayers of America, make the sacrifice, but the Salvation Army gets the credit with none of the oversight and accountability that ordinarily goes along with government programs. In 2005, for example, 95 percent of the Salvation Army’s budget for children services came from the federal government, and was used, among other things, to conduct an anti-gay witch hunt in which employees were told to look for signs of homosexual activity in their colleagues, and to expose those colleagues so that they could be fired.

The plain fact is that the Salvation Army would only conduct a tiny fraction of its charitable works if it did not receive billions of dollars of government money. Much of the red kettle money goes toward building and maintaining Salvation Army churches, like the ones Wrangell, Alaska; Griffin, Georgia; Thomasville, North Carolina; Gilroy, California; Kalispell, Montana; Fort Lauderdale, Florida and countless other places across the USA. When you throw your money into the red kettle, are you thinking about helping people in need or about maintaining the temple in Rochester, New York?

I’m not denying that the Salvation Army does some good things with its own resources, but most of the good work it does is with government resources that could just as easily go to other programs that don’t discriminate, don’t lobby the government, and don’t mix religion with social services. Let the Salvation Army support itself, and rely purely on private donations. If the Salvation Army wants to keep preaching a right wing agenda, then it’s long past time that it get off the government dole.

""We must keep reaching across the table and, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, feed each other."

Yolanda Denise King

November 17, 1955 – May 15, 2007

"In the 1950s and 60s, African-American men and women made some choices--often dangerous ones--and they were joined by men and women of goodwill, gay and straight, from all races and backgrounds, and together, tremedous progress was made toward the betterment of our nation.

The civil rights movement served as the inspiration and paved the way for all the movements for human rights which followed it--the women's movement, the peace movement, and, of course, the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans.

We have come a long way. And while the scars and stains of racism remain, the fact is, racial discrimination is no longer legal. However, discrimination under the rule of law still exists. If you are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, you do not have the same rights as other Americans. You cannot marry. And while there has been some progress, thanks to the work this organization [Out & Equal Workplace Advocates] in the workplace, you still face discrimination in the workplace, and in our armed forces. For a nation that prides itself on liberty, justice and equality for all, this it totally unacceptable."

1. You are not supporting the troops by parading around with a magnetic yellow ribbon on your car.
   
2. You are not supporting the troops by wearing a particular color one day a week.
   
3. You are not supporting the troops by clapping for them in airports.
   
4. You are not supporting the troops by hollow gestures that can and will be as forgotten as the names and faces of the 3,351 you didn't know and will never be able to know.

lifeasicit

• Write a service member
  
• Donate Frequent Flyer Miles
  
• Military Family Support
  
• Scholarships (my friend Keni Thomas' website)
  
• Adopt A Platoon
  
• Help their children
  
• Cellphones For Soldiers
  
• Operation AC
  
• Foster A Soldier
  
• Soldier's Angels
  
• Donate money for care package services
  
• Pre-paid phone cards
  
• Send books
  
• Fisher House - This organization provides housing for military family members near where their loved ones are hospitalized and/or while they are doing long-term physical therapy.
  
• Caring Bridge - Not specific to the military, but this organization provides free web sites where family members can post about the recovery process of an injured soldier and keep a large group of family and friends informed.

• Write Your Representative
  
• Write Your Senator
  
• Organize meetings with U.S. Representatives and Senators
  
• Attend public events where members of Congress and other politicians will appear

This is easy, requires little time or effort, and will really make a difference. You can even go in on items with a friend, get together a group of people and go shopping for items, make a night of it. Tell people what you're doing and explain how they can do it as well.

( Instructions on how to send a care package, items to send and not send )

Yellow ribbons DO NOT Support the troops,
they support 3 inches of bumper space on your car.



If you really want to support the troops, click here and read jesus_h_biscuit's post on how to REALLY support our troops.

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The conflict in Darfur has displaced more than 2.4 million people

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said time was running out for Sudan to allow the international peace keeping force in. Recent talks with Sudan's president were not encouraging, he said. US President George W Bush has already outlined possible sanctions if Sudan's president does not keep his promise. Mr Negroponte has accused Sudan's President Bashir of continuing to place obstacles in the way. He also said that the Sudanese government had failed to disarm the Arab militia it has been supporting for more than four years.

Sanctions
The US has in effect now issued an ultimatum to Sudan to take steps to end the violence or face further unilateral and international sanctions. However, speaking to reporters in Washington following his visit to Sudan, Mr Negroponte appeared sceptical as to whether President Bashir would comply. "My sense is always that these agreements tend to be grudging and they tend to leave a lot of questions open as to whether they will follow through with implementation," he said. The Bush administration has agreed to give the UN Secretary General a short period of time to persuade Sudan to co-operate before pressing ahead with further sanctions. There is no specific deadline but US officials say they will only hold off for a matter of weeks.

There's a very young child, not even really out of infancy yet, that's in Children's Hospital up here in Boston with a rare condition that's really screwing him up. He apparently needs a bone marrow transplant to even begin to get this stuff under control. Due to the fact that he's of Greek/Italian descent, this has been a bit of a nightmare to get accomplished, since it's so hard to find a match for a background like that. As of now, they have 21 potentials out of the national registry, and are of course looking for as many as they can potentially drum up.

http://fortpride.org/editorials.php?opinion_id=53