http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/meet_the_us_politicians_who_want_to_see_gay_people_dead_in_uganda

This sorta makes me think a bit

How some homophobes really only put on that mask of being nice and loving because if they didn't, everyone else would recognize how monstrous they are. So they need to make the cause look more moral by pouring some sugar over it.

But then they do shit like this, in which no amount of sugarcoating will make it look decent.

You know what they say you can polish a turd but it's still a turd.

Those people they talk about in the article, I wonder...what happened to their belief of "love the sinner hate the sin," what happened to their idea that there's "hope" for gays and they can change? Why the sudden switch to saying it should be an offense punishable by death?

honestly the only thing that surprises me about this is that they didn't hide it better.

I HAS IT.

I got the ultimate version tehe. and it's 64 bit so now I'm using all my RAM hoorah

my dad got it for free because he works with computers for a living and gets free shit all the time

in the process of reinstalling everything and setting everything back up since I had to wipe everything.

but its shiny.

Check this little excerpt out from this oh-so-moral Christian website, on how to handle the hypothetical situation of when Nazis come to your door asking if you're hiding Jews, whether you should lie and save their lives (lying being a sin) or tell the truth and let them be taken away: http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2009/11/13/feedback-righteous-lie

"If we love God, we should obey Him (John 14:15). To love God first means to obey Him first--before looking at our neighbor. So, is the greater good trusting God when He says not to lie or trusting in our fallible, sinful minds about the uncertain future?
Consider this carefully. In the situation of a Nazi beating on the door, we have assumed a lie would save a life, but really we don't know. So, one would be opting to lie and disobey God without the certainty of saving a life--keeping in mind that all are ultimately condemned to die physically. Besides, whether one lied or not may not have stopped the Nazi solders from searching the house anyway.

As Christians, we need to keep in mind that Jesus Christ reigns. All authority has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18), and He sits on the throne of God at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33; Hebrews 8:1). Nothing can happen without His say. Even Satan could not touch Peter without Christ's approval (Luke 22:31). Regardless, if one were to lie or not, Jesus Christ is in control of timing every person's life and able to discern our motives. It is not for us to worry over what might become, but rather to place our faith and obedience in Christ and to let Him do the reigning. For we do not know the future, whereas God has been telling the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10)."

ARE YOU REALLY..

I...

WHAT.

WHAT.

Seriously. Fucking WHAT.

Yeah, we "don't know." What a lame ass cop out. Sure, we can't be 100% certain that they'll be killed and/or tortured, but it's pretty fucking likely that they will be. If you have any ounce of reasoning capability, or base your morality based on compassion or reason, you wouldn't even think to put them in harm's way by telling the truth.

How many of those people who were killed do you think prayed to God to help them, and he didn't? I'd bet a damn lot of them. So somehow I doubt jesus is going to save them just because you didn't lie.

Besides that, this is just another horrifying example of favoring the ego and penis length of a mythological being you're told to worship over the basic welfare of your fellow man. Fundamentalist Christians, THIS IS WHY PEOPLE ARE REALLY STARTING TO HATE YOUR RELIGION. TAKE THE HINT.

I think a comment in the LJ com this was posted in said it best: "Morality based on authority is no morality at all. If we learned anything from the Nazis, we learned that."

EDIT: Though one thing I just noticed that I found pretty funny is, how in this article, they basically admit that Jesus allows evil to happen: "Even Satan could not touch Peter without Christ's approval"

For awhile now, people have been fed a huge lie; that a family is always a mother, a father, and their kids. That's it. It's a cookie-cutter model you see on shows like Leave it to Beaver, where everything is the way you would think it's “supposed” to be, or what is supposedly “normal.”

But after awhile, people started to accept the idea that not everyone lives the life of people in picture frames. Not every kid still has contact with both their biological parents, and some adults are incapable of conceiving their own biological kids, but still want to raise or help kids, or simply end up with kids through circumstance. As a result families are often born from people in these situations as well.

Because of this, I think, eventually, people in general grew a big realization that families were not dependent on things like arbitrary gender roles, religious rules, or even blood relations. People began to accept the idea that a family is more strongly defined as a group of people who love and support each other and stick together through everything until the end. A family is, more realistically, unconditional love.

In early history, people didn't live in nuclear “leave it to beaver”-type families. They lived in large extended families with all of their relatives, all of them helping to raise the kids. Humans, as a social species, have a tendency to form groups and group bonds with others, and express it in different ways with different individuals. Human bonding and human sexuality has always been very complex and heavily ingrained into our social structure.

However, as LGBT people began to make themselves noticed and heard, I saw people regress to promoting the strict cookie-cutter model. I never understood how this could even happen. In a world with tons of nontraditional families, where you have grandparents raising kids, single parents raising kids, foster parents raising kids, and sometimes even older siblings raising their younger siblings, why does society decide to pick on the LGBT-headed families? Why so they suddenly tell everyone that a family can only be the standard cookie-cutter model when an LGBT-family is the topic of discussion?

Humans don't limit sexuality to only members of the opposite sex, because we use sexuality an adult bonding ritual, and we're capable of bonding with members of either sex, as group bonds further human survival. Humans are also complex and intelligent enough to know whether or not their personal internal identities don't match the bodies they were born with.

I understand that people have an aversion to things that seem a bit out of the ordinary, as that too is part of our instinct that kept primitive man alive. However we're now intelligent enough to be able to judge whether or not something is a danger to us on a rational basis, rather than a knee-jerk-fearful-reaction basis. And I, personally, cannot even begin to comprehend how two adults of the same sex or gender being involved romantically with each other or raising kids together is dangerous to anyone in any conceivable way, or how someone's personal gender identity is, either.

I completely fail to understand, for example, how this woman wanting to see her loved one before she died was a danger to anyone.

I also fail to see how giving LGBT people equality under the law as well as basic human dignity is a threat to anyone's rights or welfare. In fact the opposite is true.

Tonight, the night I write this, is the night Maine had something on the ballot that should have simply been guaranteed on the basis of equal treatment under the law in the first place. Like prop 8 before it, question 1 passed by a slim margin and banned gay marriage in the state.

After reading the above story about a lesbian forced to die alone and unable to even say goodbye to her kids, as well as watching as several LGBT people went to bed feeling like subhumans after tonight's election results, I was motivated to write all of this.

I'm an outraged genderqueer bisexual and I'm not afraid to let everyone know it anymore. Neither should anyone else be.

I will NOT ever stop being passionate about this. I will NEVER stop pushing this and fighting this. We as a supposedly free and rational society should know better than this. No one group, or one set of beliefs, should have a monopoly on the right to have a family. We should know by now that families are not subject to arbitrary gender roles, religious rules, or even by blood. We should ALL know by now that families are a group of people who love and support each other and stick together through everything, whether you are a single parent raising kids, a grandparent raising your kid's kids, or a foster parent raising adopted kids. I used to think that most people DID know this. But why does it seem to suddenly change when gay people are involved? Why do arbitrary gender roles and blood suddenly matter more than love and dedication when you learn that someone is gay or transgendered?

Marriage is not owned by the religious right. Marriage means different things for different people and it's a deep and personal thing that has never had any single set of objective rules throughout history. Legally, marriage is a government contract, which LGBT people put their taxes into, that says two consenting adults are now part of one family. Why should only opposite-sex couples be allowed to obtain this contract, but not same-sex couples? What is really the big deal to you? What is it to you if two men or two women form their own family?

LGBT people are not demanding any sacrifices from you. They aren't demanding that you be forced to approve of their sexuality or gender identity. They're not even asking anti-gay churches to preform gay wedding ceremonies. All they are asking is for basic human dignity, equal legal rights, and equal opportunities. We only want the right to be treated equally under the law as guaranteed by our constitution, the right to be respected enough to be allowed to lead our own personal lives as we see fit, and for you to acknowledge that we exist and are human beings with the same dreams and aspirations that you have.

As long as LGBT people put taxes into marriage, then we will DEMAND equal access to it and equal coverage under it. End of story.

To all other LGBT people out there: I beg you to not lose hope for the future, or be afraid. There is living proof that LGBT people can lead fulfilling lives and have families without compromising who they are.

Case in point, I'd like to direct your attention to the Leffew Family:
Their website
Their blog
Their YouTube
LGBT Declaration of Independence
Please check them out. They're good people, they have kids, they're gay...and they are just one family out of many others just like them. They ALL fight every day to protect their families. The Leffews make videos to show people that they aren't so different from anyone else. I ask that if you have time, to watch their videos and listen to the stories of their lives. It may even surprise some of you.

Be sure to take a look at this blog too, and/or bookmark it: http://www.goodasyou.org/ Not related to the Leffews, but still a good blog with a lot of good reading and issue coverage.

Support for equality is growing, even if it doesn't feel like it right now. Don't back down now. Don't be afraid to fight or speak up loudly and proudly for yourself or for your family. Don't let anyone make you feel bad for demanding the dignity you deserve as a human being. You are not alone, and there are other people like you out there, and people who will support you. No civil rights battle has ever been won by sitting on the sidelines.

Fun fact: My old layout was just a temporary placeholder. Looks a lot better now doesn't it? I'm gonna apply the same one to the Shifted Spirits blog as soon as I get done with a drawing I'm working on to make a banner from.

There are a lot of interesting things in Second Life since most of everything is user-created. You can pretty much do anything from RPGs, first person shooters, clubbing, to awkwardly animated fucking. Of course in such an open environment, religious people will probably take advantage of the sandbox as well.

I've seen a lot of churches in my SL days, but I ran into one that seemed particularly interesting. I'll post some screenshots so you can share the experience with me, and study the elusive species called "Christian." Oh joy.



Right off the bat, I see this crate with a candy cane giver outside. Well, that was nice! But unfortunately it has a script error so it doesn't work. I guess Christians don't know how to script. How unfortunate, I wanted a candy cane...



They have quite a bit of stuff laying outside. My thought looking at all of this was just...hooo boy.



I walk in the door and I'm immediately bombarded with more signs and displays. I particularly like the "Warning: You are entering a radical area" sign. Thanks for the warning.



Within the chapel itself, I was greeted by a scripted dog and two objects that looked like avatars, but weren't. Apparently they keep dogs and mannequins in the chapel. Alrighty then. I really don't know why those two fake people are there, they don't do anything except stare at you...funny how the dog greeted me but the people didn't!



Church of the living magazine ads!



I wonder if they expect people to read all that. I had to zoom in pretty close just to see the text clearly.



I learned today that God listens to prayers written down on notecards in Second Life. Amazing.



This was probably the best part of the whole adventure. The church actually had its own swear jar. I was curious if it was scripted, and nobody was around other than the dog and two mannequins, so I did this:



Sure enough it detected my curse and demanded that I pay it right away. So I wondered what would happen if I did not comply. 30 seconds later:



Ah, so it just insults you. Can suck still be considered a swear these days? If so, the jar needs to pay itself. That wasn't a very christianly phrase, anyway. But I guess I wouldn't know.

Well that's all for my little SL church adventure...hope you had fun.

I was talking somebody today and came up with something

Currently, LGBT people have to pay taxes into civil marriage but don't have access to it

What if there was a civil disobedience campaign where LGBT people refused to pay marriage-related taxes until they got access to marriage?

I just think it'd be the most effective way to reach conservatives since they're always so concerned about taxes and shit.

Anyway I wrote a pretty long reaction to the whole Maine situation, I'm drawing something to sorta go along with it so I'll post it when I finish that.