Pam Spaulding's Blog, page 57

Donald Trump's campaign slogan: "We Shall Overcomb"

Reactions? Think that's workable?

Another link to consider:

* Donald Trump for President - Would You Vote for Him? (NewsMax.com)

So Who's Going To Maine? Who's Going To Texas? Who's Going To New York Or Connecticut?

Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new "niggers" are gays. No person who hopes to get politically elected, even in the deep South, not even Governor Wallace, would dare to stand in the schoolhouse door to keep blacks out. Nobody would dare openly and publicly to argue that blacks should not have the right to use public accommodations. Nobody would dare to say any number of things about blacks that they are perfectly prepared to say about gay people. It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change.

Indeed, if you want to know whether today people believe in democracy, if you want to know whether they are true democrats, if you want to know whether they are human rights activists, the question to ask is "What about gay people?" Because that is now the litmus paper by which this democracy is to be judged. The barometer for social change is measured by selecting the group that is most mistreated. To determine where society is with respect to change, one does not ask "What do you think about the education of children?" Nor does one ask, "do you believe the aged should have Social Security?" The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind" gay people.

Therefore, I would like to be very hard with the gay community, not for the sake of being hard, but to make clear that, because we stand in the center of progress toward democracy, we have a terrifying responsibility to the whole of society.

~Bayard Rustin, from The New "Niggers" Are Gays (1986)

In 2011, I'd argue that by Bayard Rustin's standard the newest n-word minority population are trans people. And as such, trans people have "a terrifying responsibility to the whole of society."

From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.

~Cesar Chavez

I'd heard a lot these days from trans people what trans people ourselves can or should go for trans people's civil rights, and what the rest of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community can or should be doing for trans people's civil rights.

...there has to be someone who is willing to do it, who is willing to take whatever risks are required. I don't think it can be done with money alone. The person has to be dedicated to the task. There has to be some other motivation.

~Cesar Chavez

I see others in trans community having taken a lot of interest in Maryland's gender identity bill of 2011 -- HB 235.

Now the second thing that you can do to help us down in Alabama and Mississippi and all over the South is to work with determination to get rid of any segregation and discrimination in Detroit, realizing that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And we've got to come to see that the problem of racial injustice is a national problem. No community in this country can boast of clean hands in the area of brotherhood. Now in the North it's different in that it doesn't have the legal sanction that it has in the South. But it has its subtle and hidden forms and it exists in three areas: in the area of employment discrimination, in the area of housing discrimination, and in the area of de facto segregation in the public schools...

~Martin Luther King Jr.

There's been talk about whether a bill in Maryland was enough of a civil rights bill if it included antidiscrimination protections for employment and housing based on gender identity, but not for public accommodation.

[More below the fold.]

I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.

~Alice Paul

I've heard of those in trans community who want to disassociate themselves from drag queens, crossdressers, and genderqueer people.

Back then we were beat up by the police, by everybody. I didn't really come out as a drag queen until the late 60s.

When drag queens were arrested, what degradation there was. I remember the first time I got arrested, I wasn't even in full drag. I was walking down the street and the cops just snatched me.

We always felt that the police were the real enemy. We expected nothing better than to be treated like we were animals -- and we were.

We were stuck in a bullpen like a bunch of freaks. We were disrespected. A lot of us were beaten up and raped.

When I ended up going to jail, to do 90 days, they tried to rape me. I very nicely bit the shit out of a man.

I've been through it all.

~Sylvia Rivera

We see in Maine a push to remove public accommodation protections based on gender identity with an emphasis on the "bathroom bill" meme. We see in Texas a move to codify Littleton V. Prange's assertions that one's identification on one's birth certificate is one's legal sex for life.

I've heard the call for trans sepratism, where trans people are calling for separating trans community from the LGBT community.

You are never strong enough that you don't need help.

~Cesar Chavez

I've read all kind of commentary that lays much of the failure of trans civil rights across the nation are due to lesbians and gays -- are due to "Gay Inc."

I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible "devil."

I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the "do nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies--a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.

~Martin Luther King Jr.

There are stalled antidiscrimination bills regarding gender identity in Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut, as well as two separate bills for antidiscrimination protections based on gender identity moving through the legislative process in Nevada.

Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here.

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

~Martin Luther King Jr.

It's easy to be against things. It's easy too to be a keyboard activist within blogs or social media. But what are we for, and what will we fight for?

Which transgender people are going to go, in the brick-and-mortar world, to where the civil rights battles are and fight for the justice our community members so desperately want and need? Who's going to donate money to organizations fighting for the freedom, equality and justice of trans people?

It is possible to become discouraged about the injustice we see everywhere. But God did not promise us that the world would be humane and just. He gives us the gift of life and allows us to choose the way we will use our limited time on earth. It is an awesome opportunity.

~Cesar Chavez

Trans people's need for freedom, equality, and justice are both a terrifying responsibility and an awesome opportunity. We trans people -- and our intra- and extra-LGBT community allies -- have decisions to make on how we will use our limited time on earth.

So who from trans community going to Maine or Texas? Who's going to Nevada, Massachusetts, New York, or Connecticut? Who is going to donate to any or all of the organizations that are working against the bills in Maine or Texas, or for the bills in Nevada, Massachusetts, New York, or Connecticut -- even if they can't afford to send the money without significant sacrifice?

Do we work for the next generations of trans people -- especially the nest generations of trans youth?

All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.

~Harvey Milk

If trans people are the new n-word group...well, it remains to be seen if we trans people live up to our terrifying responsibility and awesome opportunity for ourselves, and for the benefit of the rest of society. It becomes a question, in large part, if whether or not trans people learn from civil rights movements that came before our own or just sit on the sidelines complaining about inequality.

I'll end with this thought: Do we pay attention to how trans civil rights activist Sylvia Rivera approached the Stonewall Uprising:

I'm not missing a minute of this, it's the revolution.

~Sylvia Rivera

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Queerty bites the dust.

I'm in Charlottesville, VA at UVA to give a speech during its "Proud to be Out" week, but wanted to see your comments on this news...covered by LezGetReal, Bilerico, and David Badash.

I don't have time to do a full writeup, but I wanted to post because the news is kind of timely, given how I've considered what to do with the Blend (you'll learn more soon about that issue since the news about the dealings with the bottom-feeding goons at Righthaven, LLC has trickled out on FB and Twitter). Righthaven, which works in partnership (and profit) with the Denver Post, has found itself in a lot of trouble lately that could affect the hundreds of blood money settlements that have been extracted from bloggers well-known and unknown. But we're still here -- broke -- but still serving up Blend.

It's odd that the corporate-money funded Queerty should shutter before independent, unfunded PHB. But it's not clear what took Queerty down.

Apparently "Wacky" Transgender Equals Non-Passing Transgender Bathroom Predator In Maine

"If a trans person has had surgery, and appears to be female in every sense, how would you be able to know they were in violation of the law?"

"Well, if I have no way of telling, the person wouldn't be in violation. I mean, if you can't tell, what's the difference?"

~Public conversation between two unnamed senators in the Maine State Senate's Judiciary Committee

I'm not saying that all transgenders are wacky because they're not, there's lots of very nice transgenders. But there are a few, and what happens if one of those has used this law to be able to go into a female bathroom for the purpose of perpetration?

~Cindy Redmond, a citizen of Litchfield and a supporter of a bill that would strip public accommodation protections from transgender people in Maine (as reported in From There To Here's JFB testimony to the Maine Judiciary Committee: "The 'Wacky' Professor"

The "bathroom bill" meme holds that trans women in public restrooms are more likely to engage in predatory behavior, which includes ever thing from peeping at other women as they pee to sexually assaulting and raping other women and children there.

From author Jenny Boylan, in her article From There To Here, entitled JFB testimony to the Maine Judiciary Committee: "The 'Wacky' Professor":

Holding aside the insulting assumption that trans people are somehow more likely to "perpetrate" than straight people, Redmond's comment here really gets to the heart of the matter. "Wacky" here appears to be a synonym for "not-passable." Among other things.

I have seen this prejudice against "not-passable" people both within and without the trans community. The fact, of course, is that "passability," like all forms of "beauty," is more or less a genetic roll of the dice-it has nothing to do with what is in a person's heart.

The anti-transgender bill in Maine would six-year old public accommodation protections from transgender citizens of Maine. The bill would be apparently is specifically aimed public restroom use of non-passing trans women.

It doesn't seem to matter that there is no provided documentation from the six-years that the transgender civil rights law is in place that predation in public restrooms by crossdressed or transsexual people is more common now that it was prior to the civil rights law being passed. There are a significant number of Maine legislators who want to strip civil rights protections for transgender people in Maine strictly based on the "bathroom" bill meme.

Below the fold is the text of the public testimony of author Jenny Boylan to the Maine Senate.

Testimony of Jennifer Finney Boylan, Belgrade, Kennebec County

Speaking in Opposition to LD 1046, "An Act to Amend the Application of the Maine Human Rights Act Regarding Public Accommodations" before the Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary.

April 12, 2011

Senator Hastings, Representative Nass, and distinguished members of the judiciary committee:

My name is Jennifer Finney Boylan. I live in the town of Belgrade Lakes, in Kennebec County. I have been married since 1988, and am the mother of two teenage sons, both of them on the honor roll at Kents Hill School. I am the author of twelve books and have been Professor of English at Colby College for twenty-three years.

I'm also transgender. In the year 2000, in consultation with a therapist, a social worker, an endocrinologist, and my minister, I carefully went through the complex process of going from male to female. It was a terribly difficult journey, but in the end, I was able to complete that transition and at last live my life with honesty and authenticity.

I know that the lives of transgender people can be hard to understand. A report issued last week by the University of California suggests that less than .3 percent of the population of the United States is transgender. With numbers that small, it's understandable that the issues that trans people struggle with are not easily grasped. But it's worth noting that transgender Mainers are citizens too. We pay taxes, we do our jobs, and yes, like other people, we occasionally need to use the restroom.

Gender, as it turns out, is complicated. I honestly wish that this were not the case, and that the world were simpler, but it is the case, as scientists and neurologists have made abundantly clear. And the consequence of this fact is that some of us- who already lead difficult and complex lives -- need to rely on the rest of you-good-hearted, intelligent Maine citizens-to look out for us, to protect our dignity and our safety.

Fortunately, you can do just that by rejecting this cruel and vague bill, which would make businesses responsible for checking the sex of people using their facilities. By saying no to a law that would marginalize people already at risk for discrimination and prejudice.

In short: Transgender Mainers should not be exempted from the protections of the Maine Human Rights Law, for the very simple reason that we too are human.

Thank you.

What to do, what to do. One thing to do to fight this bill would be to contact Equality Maine (EQME), the lead lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organization fighting this transgender civil rights stripping bill, and ask what help that they need -- whether that is to donation money or volunteer your time.

Transgender rights are civil rights. Transgender rights are human rights. We transgender community members shouldn't face a stripping of public accommodation related civil rights because of the "bathroom bill" meme, but in Maine we are facing exactly that.

The time is now for transgender people and their intra- and extra-LGBT community allies to be more than keyboard activists. It's time to take a stand for transgender civil rights...ordinary equality for transgender people.

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Is the Family Research Council finally a 'damaged' brand?

crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Friday's Congressional charade of a hearing on "Protecting Marriage" was intriguing to me.

Not because who was there as witnesses, but because who wasn't there.

Where was the Family Research Council? I find it bizarre that an organization which has spoken in front of Congressional committees in the past and has a webpage devoted to "Defending DOMA" was conspicuously M.I.A. during this hearing.

Not only that, but I couldn't find a word about the hearing on its webpage.

Now there could be a multitude of reasons the Family Research Council was missing during Friday's hearing, but since we don't know any of them, I am going to take advantage of the situation to speculate.

Where was FRC's chief witness, Peter Sprigg? Sprigg has crossed the country speaking in front of state legislators on the subject of marriage equality (opposing it of course), so one would think at this hearing involving a national policy regarding stopping marriage equality, he would make an appearance.

Perhaps there are two reasons why Sprigg was absent.

Reason 1: His belief that the United States should "export" lgbts:

Reason 2: His belief that "gay sex" should be outlawed

I can just imagine the fun Congressman Jerome Nadler (D-NY) could have challenging Sprigg on those statements alone.

Another good thing to speculate about is this -  since FRC has taken a leading position - the lead position in fact - in challenging (rather poorly I might add) charges from the Southern Poverty Law Center that it and other so-called morality groups like it stoop to lies to demonize the lgbt community, I imagine that Sprigg would be questioned regarding that.

That's almost certain, especially when one takes a look at the material on FRC's Defend DOMA webpage. One of the items on the webpage, Q&A What's Wrong With Letting Same-Sex Couples Marry?, unashamedly makes the inaccurate connection between homosexuality and pedophilia - just one of the main reasons why SPLC has charged FRC with being an anti-gay hate group.

Is it conceivable that Sprigg and the FRC didn't testify in front of Friday's Congressional hearing because both are "damaged goods" whose appearance would do more to undermine the case against DOMA?

That is such a lovely thought to ponder.

Thoughts About Catherine Zeta Jones & Bipolar Disorder

This past week, Catherine Zeta-Jones announced she was bipolar type II. From CNN's  Catherine Zeta-Jones bipolar disorder: Her private struggle:

Walking the red carpet at New York City's Museum of Modern Art this week, Michael Douglas was feeling grateful for all the well wishes he'd received from friends and fans as he battled cancer.

...Absent from the event was his biggest supporter: wife Catherine Zeta-Jones. Hours later, it was revealed that she has quietly sought healing of her own. Her rep says the actress recently checked into a facility for a few days to treat her bipolar II disorder.

The revelation was surprising to many, not least because the Oscar-winning actress and mom-of-two stayed steadfastly positive in public while sticking by Douglas's side through a grueling six-month battle with cancer.

But behind the scenes, those close to the actress say she felt the strain. Her rep acknowledged the timing of Zeta-Jones, 41, seeking treatment was in part connected to "the stress of the past year."

As someone who also has the same diagnosis -- although my attending psychiatrist, Dr. Hagop S. Akiskal diagnosed me with bipolar type II-and-a-half (cyclothymic disorder) -- I can attest that bipolar type II condition can sometimes be a quite debilitating condition.

Most days I'm functional, but on other days I'm not. And, stress that isn't easily resolved is a trigger for both depression and hypomania for me.

I'm pretty sure that the long unresolved stresses that Catherine Zeta-Jones experienced regarding her husband Michal Douglas's cancer were triggers for her condition as well.  

Catherine Zeta-Jones has a mental health condition. She recently needed treatment for her condition, and received inpatient help for it. Then she came "out of the closet" about her mental health condition and her that she was receiving treatment for it.

The destigmatizing of people with mental health conditions will likely require the same "out of the closet" approach that has helped address the stigmatizing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in broader society.

I'd like to thank her Catherine Zeta-Jones for coming out as bipolar -- her coming out will help more people than she probably knows.

Photo courtesy of Graphics Hunt, which states on their Catherine Zeta Jones photo webpage "Feel free to use our Catherine Zeta Jones Headshot photos on any website, forum, myspace, friendster or blog."

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Related:

* Living With Mental Illness

* This Past Week: Dealing With Bipolar Depression

* A Week Of The Debilitating Side Of Bipolar II ?

* Thinking On Bipolar Depression, Anxiety, And Hypomania... And Christine And Me

CA: Orange County GOP official sends around email of Obama with ape parents

How many times have we been told that the Tea Party isn't racist? Perhaps they don't understand what racism is; here's a good example...

The OC Weekly has obtained an email sent out by teabagger and Orange County Republican Party official Marilyn Davenport to some of her party "friends."

As you can see in the screen grab at right from CBS Channel 2 (via OCRegister), the President of the United States is shown as having ape parents. The original email included the camption "Now you know why no birth certificate."

Davenport was confronted by OC Weekly and what she said just takes your breath away because it reflects terminal stupidity -- she clearly didn't think of a better response than this retread bullsh*t that we hear over and over.

Reached by telephone and asked if she thought the email was appropriate, Davenport said, "Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people--mostly people I didn't think would be upset by it."

And even when the chair of the Orange County Republicans was appalled, she was still clueless:

Scott Baugh, chairman of the OC Republican Party, told Davenport that the email was tasteless, Davenport--a Fullerton-based political activist--admitted to me during the telephone interview.

"You're not going to make a big deal about this are you?" she asked me. "It's just an Internet joke."

..."When I saw that email today I thought it was despicable," Baugh said. "It is dripping with racism and it does not promote the type of message Orange County Republicans want to deliver to the public. I think she should consider stepping down as an elected official.

Will she still have a job next week? Will any defenders from the Tea Party step up to defend her? How about Donald Trump or Pat Buchanan?

Also - where are all of these "black friends"? Do they have any left after this garbage. I'd love for Davenport, the Donald and the rest of these bigots to produce a black friend willing to back them up. Of course, sadly, it's always possible they could find some self-loathing person to step up.

The Promise Of Pie

Maggie Gallagher, front woman for the front group of religious institutions that make up the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) came to Capitol Hill on Friday to testify in Support of the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars the Federal Government from recognizing same-sex marriage.

For her tireless work, spreading bigotry from the shores of California to the coast of Maine, Get Equal presented Ms. Gallagher with the First Annual "Anita Bryant Unparalleled Bigotry" Award.

Along with the title, came a promise of pie.

News on Maggie's work defending bigotry and exclusion after the fold.

The House held hearings on DOMA on Friday. Think Progress compiled some clips above, in their post, 'Defending Marriage' Hearing Attacks Obama While Reinforcing Stigma And Parenting Falsehoods. Republicans spent a lot of time accusing the Obama administration of throwing LGBT cases on DOMA and DADT, by "pretending" to defend these cases when they are actually "working to undermine them."

Mrs. Srivastav Ms. Gallagher's old friend and defected NOM strategist Louis Marinelli, asked this tireless defender of the "sanctity of marriage" a very good question on Twitter:

Mrs. Srivastav Ms. Gallagher for her part continued to insist the only reason for marriage was raising children. (Which should beg the question of why the children of LGBT Americans should be denied the opportunity to be raised in martial home?) She squared off with a fierce advocate of LGBT rights, Representative Jerry Nadler of New York. Nadler just introduced again the Uniting American Families Act into the US Senate. Ms. Gallagher would like to see the US Government continue its policy of deporting the legally wed spouses of LGBT citizens.

A heated exchange occurs between Maggie Gallagher and Rep. Jerry Nadler at 3:00, when Ms. Gallagher tries to argue that a policy of exclusion does not send a message of exclusion:

MG: I don't think you need to have a message of stigmatization and exclusion to protect an ideal which is important to the whole society.

JN: That's the whole point of DOMA to stigmatize and to exclude.

MG: Well, that is your opinion, with all due respect, it is not my opinion, nor what was express---

[They talk over each other. Nadler is clearly irate. Nadler interrupts.]

JN: How does excluding these people from marriage help protect marriage?

MG: The way that I think the majority of Americans who disagree with you understand it is these are not marriages--

JN: I didn't ask that question, I asked you how does excluding these people from marriage help protect heterosexual marriage?

MG: Because including same union as marriages denies at a public level that marriage is about in an important way, bringing together mothers and fathers for children. [Emphasis reflects Gallagher's verbal emphasis.]

Also on Capitol Hill were representatives of GetEqual, who confronted Mrs. Srivastav Ms. Gallagher on her way into the hearings.

They presented Maggie with the First Annual "Anita Bryant Unparalleled Bigotry" Award.

From Get Equal's Press Release:

Competition for the prize was fierce, with Ms. Gallagher out-bigoting such notable figures as Senator John McCain, Michelle Bachmann, Pastor Rick Warren, and Sarah Palin.

"In presenting this award to Ms. Gallagher, we are recognizing the bigotry that she has pioneered over the past few years - malice that has put her ahead of the pack in the world of professional bigots who draw a paycheck each day from the hatred they stir up among the 'radical right' wing of the American public," said Robin McGehee, director of GetEQUAL. "At a time when Americans overwhelmingly support marriage equality it takes a very special person like Ms. Gallagher to stand up and fight for discriminations and bigotry. It's gratifying to be able to draw attention to the unrelenting hatred that Ms. Gallagher and others at the National Organization for Marriage have been contributing to American life."

Along with the award came the promise of pie.

The group will, at a later date, present Ms. Gallagher with a cream pie. They say:

GetEQUAL will deliver the pie prize during a future public appearance by Ms. Gallagher, to ensure that she is able to celebrate the award publicly, in front of an audience. The exact moment of delivery is unknown at this time.

This not only harkens back to the 1977 Anita Bryant incident but--and I was unaware of this--apparently there's a long, proud history of pieing as an act of political defiance. From environmental activists Earth First comes this lesson in Pieing 101:

The first recorded pieing happened in the 17th Century, when the Spanish politician, Gaspar de Guzman Conde de Olivares, took one in the face from a Portugese nationalist screaming, "Give Portugal back to the people!"

Other notable pieings have included Michigan Senator Carl Levin, Fred Phelps, Bill Gates. the Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chr?tien. In 2005, Newsweek columnist Gersh Kuntzman wrote that pieing "deserves to be one of the most celebrated traditions in our so-called culture."

What do you think?

Updated to clarify: GetEqual did not specify the delivery method they will be employing to present Ms. Gallagher with her pie. It may well arrive by messenger in a neat little box, with a pretty pink bow.

Tornado warning - back into the closet

4:36 PM ET: Kate, Casey, Chloe and I almost had to go into the closet a few minutes ago because NC is under attack by a weather front that has spawned tornadoes in unprecedented severity and numbers than I've seen in years.

A report from WRAL:

We're safe as of now, but still under tornado watch until 9PM.

Raleigh, to our east, however, did not fare as well. A seafood store had its roof torn off in the downtown area of Saunders Street. A Lowe's hardware has been destroyed in Sanford:

[image error]

Photo: @jillstacy in Chatham County

These tornadoes are moving fast on the ground, 50MPH or greater.

As I speak a very dark red area of thunderstorms is passing through Durham, so we may lose power.

SC gay man attacked by mob

crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

This is insane. An attack of a young gay man, Joshua Esskew, on video. Luckily the young man wasn't seriously hurt but if anyone knows anything, please call the police. The following footage is ugly but it could have been worse. 

Right now there are no arrests and we don't know why the situation went down. But Esskew is sure that he was attacked because of his sexual orientation:

Joshua Esskew said he stopped at the Gas Spot on South Cherry Road last Saturday. The 19-year-old said one second he heard a gay slur and the next second he was almost unconscious.

"I responded with, 'What was that you said?' But nothing offensive toward them," Esskew said, describing the encounter.

Surveillance video from the store shows a man hitting Esskew over the head with a beer bottle.

"Three came up from the gas pumps. Two came up toward the Laundromat. There were three or four already standing there. They all just came," Esskew said.

Investigators say a mob rushed to join in the attack just because they could.

I want to send a shout out of support to Esskew. Don't be afraid of who you are and don't ever shrink from defending yourself. At the same time, pepper spray or mace isn't a bad idea.

It's not a joke. I've had to carry some myself and I would not be ashamed if I had to use it to defend myself.

There are times when you should act like King or Gandhi and there are times when you should "get to slicing." And there is no shame in knowing AND acting on the difference.

Lastly even if this situation did not turn out to be an attack on Esskew because of his sexual orientation, what the @!*& does it say about a group of people who would pile on one person simply because they can?

Disgusting.