Jeremy Hooper's Blog, page 45
January 11, 2015
Frank Bruni nails the 'religious freedom' rebuttal
In full. Read it, learn it, and recite Frank Bruni's column in full:
We’re at an interesting crossroads, brought about by the rapid advance of same-sex marriage. It’s now legal in 36 states, including, as of last week, Florida. Equality is increasingly being enshrined into law, and one response from those opposed to it is that the law shouldn’t apply to them.
Why? Because it contradicts their religious beliefs, which they use as a fig leaf for intolerance.
FULL: Your God and My Dignity [NY Times...
January 9, 2015
Don't be fooled: GOP's 2016 contenders *love* the way marriage equality is playing out
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) grabbed a couple of headlines this week when he expressed a bit of outrage over the Florida judges who rightly joined countless other judges in nothing that civil rights are not a popularity contest. Rubio said in part:
“If they wanted to change that law, they should have gone to the legislature or back to the Constitution and try to change it,” Rubio said. “I don’t agree we should be trying to make those changes through the courts.”
FULL: Sen. Marco Rubio laments cou...
Reporters bring positive news from #5thCircuit marriage hearing
Only the Louisiana portion has been argued (TX and MS left to go), but reporters from today's marriage hearing at the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit are predicting good things. Buzzfeed, MSNBC, and the Washington Blade:
These three states would (will?) be fun ones to add. From these reporters' lips to the right side of history's ears!
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*More from Buzzfeed's Geidner:
**SEE ALSO: Freedom to Marry's exhaustive report (with audio): 5th Circuit hears oral arguments in marriage cases for...
January 8, 2015
Don't you think it might be time for some new lines, Tony Perkins?
Courts, from lowest all the way up to the US Supreme Court, of course have every right to consider ballot initiatives and other laws (like DOMA) that serve to strip away the deserved rights of a minority population. But even with court after court (including SCOTUS) making this perfectly clear and thirty-six states coming to adopt civil marriage equality, one of the top voices on the other side for some reason thinks sticking to the provenly-broken playbook is still the way to go:
Is the debat...
VIdeo: 'Times-Picayune' profiles pro-equality, pro-inequality parents
One adoptive family just wants to protect their child and get on with their lives together. One adoptive family wants to impose their religion onto those who they believe "struggle with homosexuality":
The pro-discrimination couple is right that they're not basing it entirely in religion. They're using flawed studies as well.
Throwback Thursday: The Democrat who banned marriage equality in Florida
In interviews, he said his bill was meant to tell gay Floridians, "we are tired of you and wish you would go back in the closet." As we celebrate the historic adoption of marriage equality in the Sunshine State, let's flashback and meet the late Curtis Peterson, the Democrat who surely deserves as much notoriety as a certain infamous orange juice pitch woman:
January 7, 2015
Shocking audio: Conservative radio host Erick Erickson equates gay activists w/ Paris terrorists
At the start of tonight's show, proudly anti-gay radio host Erick Erickson (who is also a Fox News contributor) began his show by making it sound like he was leading with the tragic incident in Paris, as any political radio host understandably would on this day. But the conservative talker's referenced "terrorism" was not, in fact, the killings at Charlie Hebdo. Instead, it was the Atlanta mayor's decision to terminate his fire chief for not only publishing a book that denounced homosexuality...
NOM now crowdsourcing its one and only job
The National Organization For Marriage is in business for one reason and one reason only: to make the case for limiting civil marriage rights to only man and woman. But they've got nothing. Clearly
So NOM's answer? Let supporters do the work for them
[NOM]
The wells over there really are that dry, eh, NOM?
Oh, and the answer to your question: discriminatory animus. Which is why its losing. It always does.
Why you won't see me covering some of the usual suspects going forward
Regular readers know that I have always covered just about anyone who fights against LGBT rights. When I started this site ten years (and far fewer grey hairs) ago, there was good reason for this. Back then there was very little daylight between "fringe" opposition and the mainstream movement fighting against us. Even the most visible leaders on the other side would say heinous things about us and get away with it. In fact, they seemed to get bigger profiles the more they'd denounce us, our f...
Straight Baby Boomers are destroying the sanctity of marriage
Careful, heterosexual baby boomers. You know that when policy conservatives like Tony Perkins start believing that you are destroying marriage, they tend to get antsy and then start dreaming up wacky ideas like changing the US Constitution so that it limits your freedoms:
[FRC]
