Where's the Christian charity I always hear so much about?

Wow, that teapot looks demonic.

Anyway; I try to keep the news I put on this blog related to the United States, as we've got people like Montreal Simon and Mark over at Slap to report on the news in other countries (specifically, Canada). However, I feel that this news item has relevance.

You may remember that I mentioned that crazy bitch from Oklahoma Sally Kern in my post from last week, and, for those of you living under a rock, the good Republican woman is already infamous for her anti-gay tirade.

"The homosexual agenda is destroying this nation; it's just a fact."

Yes, that Sally Kern.

Well, it seems a male, Scottish, Catholic version of Miss Sally has taken a leaf out of her book. Reverend Joseph Devine is outraged at the use of the Holocaust by the gay "lobby" as a political tool to further our huge, well-orchestrated conspiracy to kill children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and other such nonsense.

"It is ever present at the service each year for the Holocaust memorial - as if to create for themselves the image of a group of people under persecution."

Indeed, Reverend Devine, how dare we homosexuals remember the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters when fine, upstanding people such as yourself have obviously forgotten all about it already? Should we not follow suit in your excellent example of Christian compassion and mercy? In addition to throwing us Oscar Wilde-types in jail, perhaps you would like us all to wear pink and black triangles as well. Oh, wait, that's right, I forgot; there'd be no point in doing so, because gays were never persecuted in the Holocaust.

Why is it that only Jewish victims of the Holocaust are remembered? Not to be anti-Semitic, but why have the Jews made the Holocaust theirs? Why does "never forget" apply only to Jews, and not to the communists, the Roma, the Slavs, the blacks, the mentally retarded, the Catholics (oh, the ironing), and, of course, the gays? Why do the Jews get their own country in the wake of the Holocaust? Where is our glorious nation of Gaybonia?

It's only until we can force even these bigoted idiots to give us the recognition, respect, and remembrance we deserve as victims of a historical atrocity (sadly, one out of several targeting us) that comments like these are going to be fought against so aggressively. They are hurtful. They are inappropriate. They are completely out of line.

And yet the bishop says he has nothing to apologize for. Isn't that rich?


And now for the obligatory personal note that creeps into all blogs eventually:
Before anyone says anything, no, I'm not copying Slap. I actually found this news item last Thursday and meant to write a post on it. But, of course, I, being a student, ended up being busy with schoolwork and not being able to get around to it. Then, of course, I had Beth over on Friday, so updating my lil' ol' blog was the furthest thing from my mind. But now, finally, I have gotten around to writing a post about Reverend Chuckles the Assclown. I mean, Reverend Devine. Love the name, by the way, don't you?

GENDA is looking mighty fabulous today

Finally, we see some progress in one of the most neglected areas of the LGBT rights movement: transgendered rights.

New York is slated to become the fourteenth state to enact laws protecting the transgendered from discrimination in employment, housing, public accomodations, and credit. A renewed call for the New York legislation to act has come in the wake of a public opinion survey showing that only 13% of those polled would not support the legislation.

While the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act may face a slight challenge in being passed now that Governor Spitzer, who had previously promised to sign the bill into law if it reached his desk, has resigned in the wake of a public scandal about his alleged ties to a prostitution ring, I'm optimistic that our transgendered brethen in New York will finally get the reprieve they deserve:

"'Transgender New Yorkers routinely face discrimination in ways that impact our lives, big and small, and we deserve the opportunity to have a job and a home and provide for ourselves and our families just like anybody else,' said Debra Oppenheimer, a transgender woman and a Board Member of the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley in Rochester."

...so long as we don't get another Sally Kern growing a big mouth in New York before the bill makes it through the legislature.

Could I get paid to do really obvious studies too?

Unlike my post from a few days ago, I'm being facetious when I say that this is a news item no one saw coming. This should have actually been quite an obvious connection to most people with a halfway-functioning brain stem.

A newly-released study has brought us the shocking revelation that there is a link between childhood spanking and adult interest in hot, kinky sex.

"Straus, co-director of UNH's Family Research Laboratory, conducted a study in the mid-1990s in which he asked 207 students at three colleges whether they'd ever been aroused by masochistic sex. He also asked them if they'd been spanked as children. He found that students who were spanked were nearly twice as likely to like masochistic sex."

Maybe this is just me, but, to get a bit Oedipal, it makes sense that childhood experiences will become imprinted on the adult psyche--in this case, in terms of sexual behavior. Getting spanked as a child with a paddle by Daddy Dearest would logically lead to being spanked with a slightly different paddle as an adult.

Of course, part of what I don't like about the study aside from the fact that its conclusion was already glaringly obvious is the fact that it lumps BDSM in with other risky sexual behavior. As someone who owns a lot of leather, a collar, a leash, ropes, and chains, it really makes me angry to be treated like my sexual interests are the result of "damage" done from corporal punishment in childhood. There are plenty of precautions that can be taken to ensure that BDSM between two rational, consenting partners is perfectly safe.

For the record, I was spanked as a kid, and I do have a good interest in BDSM. However, I really don't enjoy being smacked on the ass with anything. I much prefer being tied up, or being the one to tie someone else up, so that either makes me the exception to the rule or proves that spanking isn't really as damaging as Straus would have people (U.S. lawmakers especially) believe.

The argument for gay marriage we all should have seen coming

Well, well, well. It looks like all of those naysayers who said legalizing gay marriage would destroy society as we know it and encourage chaos and bestiality and the collapse of the economy are eating crow for dinner. Especially on that economy thing.

As those of us stateside (and, most likely, everywhere else) know, Massachusetts is the only state in the United States which regularly grants gay marriage (though at least New York recognizes Canadian same-sex marriages). Massachusetts has (almost) always been kind of progressive like that.

For some reason, even I didn't see this coming, though.

"Massachusetts is reaping huge financial gains as a result of same-sex marriage."

You mean gay marriage actually has positive effects aside from giving human beings equality and happiness? Who knew?!

Apparently, the New England state has been seeing gradual loss of population for decades. Since 2004, though, after the first same-sex couples began to wed, the state has (unsurprisingly) seen an influx of gay and lesbian couples coming into the state to marry. Apparently, they're staying there. Most of these couples are in fact skilled professionals--lawyers, and such.

"Attorney Jeffrey Webb and his partner Mark Schuster moved from Los Angeles to Massachusetts in December in order to marry.

'That was something that was really important to us,' Webb told the Journal.

He is now a partner and practices trial law with a well known Boston-area firm. Schuster is now the chief of general pediatrics and vice chair for health policy research at Children's Hospital Boston."

Now, if America were run by halfway rational people, this would mean that other states would soon be tapping the appeal of gay marriage to stimulate their economies. Hint, hint, Michigan. Wink, wink.