Monthly Archives: November 2005

According to the IndyStar:

Leaders from a dozen African-American churches held a prayer vigil today in the City-Council building in advance of an upcoming vote on a proposal to protect gays from discrimination — a proposal the church leaders firmly oppose.
Taking turns praying by name for each of the 29 members of the City-County Council, the church leaders asked God to help the elected leaders see the danger in the proposal, which they said threatens the very concept of a family unit.
Calling homosexuality a perverse “lifestyle choice” and an “abomination to God” that demands repentence, the church leaders also voiced anger that gay rights activists have likened their struggle to the civil rights movement.
“It is an offense to black people to be used – that the blood of our fathers and our own blood that was spilled on the pathways to civil rights should be used as a lever to get legal license to make their own choices law,” the Rev. Melvin Jackson, pastor at Christian Love Missionary Baptist Church and a participant in the civil rights marches of the 1960s, said after the vigil.
“I lived in it and it’s a lie. We are the sons and daughters of slaves who were held in chains physically and by the laws so that we could not exercise our will. These are people who can exercise their will, but they must not do it under the guise of civil rights.”
The proposal that would ban discrimination against gays in the workplace and the housing market is scheduled for a vote in mid-December.

Wow. I’m so stunned by the blatant homophobia and bigotry that I can’t even collect my thoughts. Unbelieveable that something so filled with hatred could come from the black community.
Let me repeat it so everyone can hear: YOUR RELIGION IS A CHOICE. It’s protected by the HRO, and it’s a choice — if you choose to be Buddhist, or Hindu, or Muslim, or Christian, or Jewish, it’s protected under the law, but it’s something you choose. I personally worship a giant monkey. And I can, because my choice is protected by the HRO.
My homosexuality on the other hand, is NOT A CHOICE. I didn’t pick it. I wouldn’t change it if I could, any more than any black person would deliberately go out and change the color of their skin. It’s a part of me. But I certainly didn’t choose it, any more than the color of my hair, my height, or any other part of me.
I’ve written this a billion times, and I’m writing it again. What makes me gay isn’t my behavior, it’s my feelings. Homosexuality isn’t about behavior, it’s about who you fall in love with and are attracted to. Choice has nothing to do with it.
Of course I could choose to marry a man and have a monogamous relationship with him for the rest of my life. But that wouldn’t make me heterosexual. That would make me a gay woman in a relationship with a man. A miserable relationship that I hated, he hated, and any children we had hated. It would be a destructive mess to everyone concerned. Want proof of that? If you’re heterosexual, picture yourself in a relationship with someone of your own sex. Think you could make it work? Think you would be happy? I thought not. Thousands of gay people have entered into relationships with someone of the opposite sex and can attest to the destruction and misery it causes.
I’m not even going to go into the “Abomination before God” bullshit, because, as I mentioned, I worship a giant monkey, and I don’t care what they hell these ministers are on about. They certainly shouldn’t be allowed to put their religious bullshit into law. I wonder why they got to have access to the city-county building. Can we get access to hold a prayer vigil in favor of Prop. 622? I want to pray to Hanuman about it.

If you have a few minutes to write to your city-county councilors asking them to amend the city’s Human Rights Ordinance to include sexual orientation and gender identity protections (aka Proposition 622), please take some time to do so.
If you’ve been discriminated against, or if you know someone who has (here’s a hint I have) tell them about it and why it’s important to you.
The council needs to hear from you, because the votes to support the proposition aren’t solid, and some councilors are still making up their minds. The right-wing is enlisting support from outside of Indianapolis and Indiana for an email bombing campaign against the change.
Also, take a bit of time to read a couple of responses from councilors. Last year, city countil member Ginny Cain, sent one of her constituents this very telling remark: recounted in full on Advance Indiana: “I will never support something that is meant for destruction of human beings and our civilization.”
And just this morning, Councilor Earl Salisbury, in response to a story from a constituent about discrimination, gave this flippant reply: “So if the laws change does the abuse stop? No more suicides? Promise?”
Yes, including GLBT rights in the HRO will help prevent suicides. It will improve the quality of life for GLBT people, who will be less depressed as a result. The high suicide rate among gay and lesbian and transgendered people is because they suffer from discrimination, not because they are gay or transgendered. The way to reduce the suicide rate is to end the discrimination, and passing Prop. 622 is the first step in doing so.
Another good reason to pass to pass Prop 622 — preventing the massive brain drain that is currently going on in the state of Indiana, by making the state more attractive to people like me — technical people that the city is spending money hand over fist to attract to the city.
Tell the council about your professional field, and how passing the ordinance would make you feel about remaining in the state.

According to the Indiana Daily Student:

About 25 members of the Old Paths Baptist Church protested Monday afternoon outside The Inner Chef, chanting anti-gay slogans, burning a gay pride flag and brandishing signs with messages like “Fags Die, God Laughs.”
Bobb Easterbrook, a clerk at the store, was the only person working there at the time.
Bloomington police officers responded to the scene but only to prevent it from getting out of hand, said Bloomington Police Department Sgt. Mick Williams. He said police did intervene, stopping protestors when they began burning the New Glory, a gay-pride variation of the American flag that features rainbow colors as the stripes.
John Lewis, pastor of the Old Paths church, said his group burned the flag there because it believes gay people will burn in hell.
“The elite city of Bloomington harbors an elitist, faggot business called The Inner Chef which openly and unabashedly claim they are against God Almighty,” Lewis said. “… We were there to cry against it. We burned the flag, and we will do it again.”
Lewis said he plans to research the legality of burning the flag and intends to burn the flag legally the next time his group protests.
This protest came less than a month after two minors stole and burned a version of the New Glory that had been hanging outside The Inner Chef’s storefront. The minors admitted to stealing the flag Oct. 8 because they thought it was “unpatriotic.”

Burning a gay flag is the equivalent of burning a cross on someone’s lawn. It’s intended to intimidate and harrass.