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Proposed legislation in Ohio::
(1) The individual is a homosexual, bisexual, or transgender individual.
(2) The individual is a step-parent of the child to be adopted and is a homosexual, bisexual, or transgender individual.
(3) The individual resides with an individual who the court determines is a homosexual, bisexual, or transgender individual.
(C) As used in this section:
(1) “Bisexual” means an individual who engages in sexual activity with members of both sexes.
(2) “Homosexual” means an individual who engages in sexual activity with another individual of the same sex.
(3) “Transgender” means an individual who may be classified according to an accepted nosology, such as the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, as having a gender identity disorder, or characterized by either of the following:
(a) A strong and persistent cross-gender identification;
(b) Persistent discomfort with that individual’s sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex.
I read this in the Cleveland Plain Dealer this morning and got so disgusted I just quit out of the site. Can you believe they’re going to be putting shit like this on ballots all over the country to bring out the wingnut vote?
What I can’t believe is that gays are still so utterly unimportant to such a majority of liberals that there’s no collective outrage about this. Not the kind that leads to action, anyway. If this proposed bill applied to any other identity group, the walls of Ohio would be coming down right now. But when it’s about gays? Yawn.
Sure, substitute ‘black’ for homosexual and see how that sounds. This one goes alot further than others I have read about i.e. no one who lives with a GLBT person (maybe an older child?) can adopt either. And to disguise the blatant bigotry by saying studies show that children “do better” in a home with a mother and a father is so much bullshit and it ignores the fact that single people adopt children every day. There are 20,000 children in the foster care system in the state of Ohio. You think maybe these people would realize that by cutting out a whole segment of possible adoptive parents they may be blowing any chance of these kids ever finding a home. Fuck them.
From my pov, one of the bigger troubles with the “studies” thing is that of course there’s a cottage industry of bigots churning out official-looking papers and such that they then pass off as the real thing. Most people lack the academically-based training necessary to distill the facts from the frauds, the critical studies from the cranks. Add that to the very successful way in which Republicans have slimed “academic liberal elites” and then we see why, from a certain segment of the public, we get a general disdain for studies that might sound too smart. They wind up believing this shit, or believing that these “studies” are just as valid as the real ones that draw opposite conclusions, and they throw their hands up and walk away.
Democrats could win this fight, if they actually fought it. Rather than fleeing the area because they’re afraid of being portrayed as queer-lovers — which, I hate to say, is going to happen no matter what they do — they should claim the title of civil rights defenders. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it is actually the smart thing to do.
The primary smear mechanism the Rs use against the Ds in this territory isn’t really the gay smear, although a lot of folks come up with that conclusion from not doing a complete analysis. The smear that’s effective here is the “Democrats are weak/don’t stand up for what they believe in” smear. The public already perceives the Democrats as being “for gays” (but the Republicans have left the exact meaning of that blurry on purpose, which is a necessary sacrifice for them, and thus ripe to be used against them), and every time the Ds back away from a fight about equality for gays, all it does is cement the image in the public mind that Democrats are weak, unprincipled, wishy-washy, and/or so disloyal as to not even fight for “their own”. And that’s losing way more votes than the queer thing.
The Democratic victory in the Ashcroft/Blunt portion of Missouri sure has rattled the Republicans. Now Jim Talent is “pirouetting” around changing his stance on the stem cell issue.
Well THIS should grab the attention of the so-called pro-lifers. And, what do you know. It does.
A very confused man, they say.
And how will this affect his race against Claire McCaskill?
In other words, why vote for Talent if he’s looks ust like a Democrat? Good question.
So why is Talent doing this? Because its the RIGHT thing to do? Not for political reasons?
Oh Jim. That ain’t gonna fly. Talent is clearly doing this to try to gain traction in the business community which supports the stem cell research ballot issue — it brings more jobs into the very large Missouri state health research industry.
But they aren’t happy with him either. Because he still wants to limit the TYPE of stem cell research to what is called “altered nuclear transfer” Well ..
Claire has already been on top of this. “Strong leaders need to have clarity,” McCaskill said. “He appears to be in a fog.”
Confused. In a fog. Not the type of man you’d want for a leader?
But let’s let a political analyst have the last word:
Could cost him the race. We can only hope.
Good question indeed…replace “Talent” with the DINO of your choice; and “Democrat” with REPUGLICAN and you’ve got the D Centrists argument…heh?
“Vote for a(ny) D…it’s our only hope…SOB” …same shoe different foot.
Peace
Nice to see the shoe is on the other foot this time. Because I honestly think that if people aren’t automatically told who it is “appropriate” to vote for, and that it made no difference on their “big issues”, they’d vote with the Democrats. We are where their self interest lies.
Great news. Thanks for letting us know. 🙂
Full Article at the Progressive
GWB: Bringing back the “Alien and Sedition Act” by imperial decree.
Full Article
YAY! Thanks for the good news link, Andi.
That bill really was evil in so many ways. It wasn’t just a slam at gay parents; it also meant that giving a gay homeless teen a couch to crash on would’ve necessitated kicking out every other foster kid in one’s care, and thus it would’ve also served to keep gay kids on the street. It was just gay-bashing, pure and simple.
Really interesting that the article quotes the R House leader’s CoS speaking strongly against, and credits GOP leaders in both houses with blocking it. I wonder how true that is. Considering Republican representation in Ohio, I’d guess it has to be at least partially true. Very interesting.
What made pleased me so much (apparently to the point I lost the ability to spell) was the quote from a Republican saying that it was better to place kids in a loving home than to keep then in an abusive het one. For a Republican in Ohio to say that is pretty astounding and gives me some hope that people are beginning to be scared of extremism.
As you know, minorities of all kinds are the canaries in the world’s sociopolitical coalmines. My Ohio-born-and-raised roommate wasn’t particularly surprised to see that rhetoric coming from a Republican out of Kettering (though she is equally relieved at the death of the bill). She is from that area, still has close family there, and knows it fairly well. But my read of it was more like yours. Maybe it’s just hopeful thinking, but I think that Republicans in Ohio are saying anything that could be construed as remotely positive about gay people right now is potentially a signal that the political wind may be starting to shift again.
Evil is the word for it, plain and simple..I’m surprised the bill also didn’t state that simply being friends with a gay person automatically disqualified you..after all if your friends with gay people then that must mean you ‘condone’ their lifestyle..and that means you must be a sick also..stupid sick fuckers the lot of them.
That IS good news. And, again, I think it shows the Repubs are getting nervous about taking stands so far out of the mainstream thought.
That was my thought also. Their internal polling must have them really worried about the races this fall in Ohio.
Thank god..a small piece of good news today. Thanks Andi.
BushCo™ proposing to sell 307,000 Ac. of Public Forest to developers to fund rural schools and roads.
Yeah, Religious schools and Logging roads most likely.
Linkage
These people are fucking crazy.
Peace
Good News…Boulder’s Chautauqua Park is being added to the list of National Historic Landmarks…announced Friday by the National Park Service.
Kudos to a lot of people locally who have been working on this for some time. Several close friends have and are serving on the Board, and… it’s 2 blocks from my house…cool…huh.
More here with pix.
Peace
What about photos you’ve taken?
Good question. I’ve taken a lot of photos from the park, few, if any, of any of the structures. I’ll have to rectify that.
This one is of the Flatirons from the park.
Peace
Nice picture but I’ll be looking forward to seeing pictures of the park.
Your last poll item reminded me of a Bush joke:
Bush and Cheyney are having a working breakfast at the White House. They’re having cereal and milk for breakfast because the White House physician wants them to watch their weight.
Bush says, “Look, Dick, my Alpha Bits are spelling out a secret message. It says ‘Ooooooo.’ I wonder what that means?”
Cheyney, scowling, looks over and says “Those are Cheerios, idiot.”
I don’t know if this was the origin of that joke or just another channel for it, but I’ve heard it on the animated television show Family Guy, and that was where I got the idea for the Alpha-Bits option. Funny. 🙂
It was a joke? But …. oh. Nevermind.
.
ROME (Reuters) Feb. 11 — Greece and Italy said on Saturday they had found swans with the H5N1 bird flu virus, the first known cases in the European Union of wild birds with the deadly strain of the disease.
“The bird flu virus has arrived in Italy,” said Francesco Storace, the Italian health minister, at a news conference, announcing that 17 swans had been found dead in three southern regions, Calabria, Sicily, and Puglia.
As the slow creep of the virus around the globe continued, Romania said more infections were suspected in birds in the Danube delta and Bulgaria said the lethal strain had been confirmed among swans in wetlands close to the Romanian border. The region is a haven and transit point for migrating birds.
«« click on pic for swan migration map
Swan (Cygnus olor)
MIGRATION FROM RUSSIA
A regional health official in Sicily said the swans were believed to have migrated from Russia.
(The swan migration route stretches from Sicily-Italy to the Caspian Sea region – Oui)
● Swan Migration Route
● H5N1 @BooMan
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY