(In)Famous "Filthy Art" By Openly Gay Artist Robert Mapplethorpe Sold For $478,000

Interesting news from the New York Times today. Robert Mapplethorpe's (in)famous black and white photograph (innocuously titled "Man in Polyester Suit") which once was called "filthy art" by Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina during an ongoing cultural war about publicly funded art and the Southern Republican senator's crusade against homosexuality and pornography, has been sold for almost a half-million dollars at auction.

The picture, which features what is clearly a dark-skinned man wearing a 3-piece polyester suit with his penis hanging out out of the fly of the pants, has been analyzed as many things, but is clearly a signature piece of homoerotic art and a blunt representation of (black) masculinity.

This is how the Times describes it:

“Man in Polyester Suit,” a black-and-white image from 1980 depicting a black man wearing a three-piece suit, with his penis exposed, was estimated at $250,000 to $350,000. 

The image helped touch off a cultural conflagration in 1989 when Senator Jesse Helms cited it among examples of “filthy art” which had received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

“Man in Polyester Suit” was also part of a show of Mapplethorpe works that led to criminal obscenity charges against the director of Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center. (He was acquitted in 1990.) The decidedly not-safe-for-work image, which cannot be reproduced here, can be easily found through a search engine. 

In subsequent years the image has come to be seen as a key Mapplethorpe work, touching on issues of race, class and sexual stereotypes. 

Even though my personal blog is flagged as pornography by some search engines, I am not comfortable with posting the uncensored image, which you can find easily in any search engine, or at this link. It's quite an image!

Hat/tip to Arts Beat

QUEER QUOTE: Openly Gay Hotelier Who hosted Event For Ted Cruz Apologizes In Wake Of Backlash

The interwebs have been buzzing for the last week with the news that Texas U.S. Senator (and Republican presidential candidate) Ted Cruz attended an event hosted by two prominent openly gay hoteliers in New York City last week and in that setting seemed to tone down his virulently anti-gay rhetoric.

The New York Times broke the story of the event hosted by millionaires Mati Weiderpass and Ian Reisner and negative reaction from LGBT activists was swift.

A Facebook page calling for a boycott of The Out NYC Hotel and other properties owned by Weiderpass and Reisner had almost 7,000 likes Saturday afternoon, and at least two events have already been canceled at their properties. A protest rally is scheduled for Monday evening outside the Out NYC. 

On Saturday morning, the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus abruptly canceled its annual spring fundraiser, scheduled for later in the day at Out NYC. While the chorus did not explicitly cite the controversy or the Cruz meeting, it said it “made the decision because we want to be 100% clear in our support for the LGBTQ community.”

Initially the two released statements clarifying that the event was NOT a fundraiser for Cruz and that they thought that the meeting was important for dialogue. However, today's Queer Quote is from the apology posted by Reisner to Facebook in the last twenty-four hours:

"I am shaken to my bones by the e-mails, texts, postings and phone calls of the past few days. I made a terrible mistake. I was ignorant, naive and much too quick in accepting a request to co-host a dinner with Cruz at my home without taking the time to completely understand all of his positions on gay rights. I've spent the past 24 hours reviewing videos of Cruz' statements on gay marriage and I am shocked and angry. I sincerely apologize for hurting the gay community and so many of our friends, family, allies, customers and employees. I will try my best to make up for my poor judgement. Again, I am deeply sorry."

They really thought that having a private meeting with a Republican presidential candidate who does not believe in fundamental rights for LGBT people would not be a problem? Or maybe they thought that no one would find out about it? Either way it will be very interesting to see how the GOP candidates for president negotiate their way through the minefield of LGBT equality in the next few days, especially, and all the way up to the 2016 election.

Hat/tip to Wonkette

Legislators Who Voted To Kill North Dakota LGBT Equality Bill Shamed

The same week that Indiana and Arkansas enacted new "religious freedom" bills with explicit provisions that they could not be used as defenses or sources of discrimination based upon sexual orientation or gender identity, despite the fact that neither state has statewide civil rights laws that include LGBT citizens, the North Dakota State Senate overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would have done just that.

What happened next was great. The largest newspaper in the largest city in the state printed the pictures of every single person who had voted to deny civil rights protections to LGBT people in the state, which lead the Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple to say:

"I’m concerned that we have missed an opportunity to affirm what North Dakotans already believe, which is that discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation is not acceptable.”

Gee, ya think?

POLL: Even Republican Primary Voters Support Mariage Equality

Joe Jervis today blogged about a Washington Post poll that shows that even among Republican primary voters, who are more conservative than the country as a whole, more of them think opposition to marriage equality is an unacceptable position for their presidential nominee than think it is an acceptable position.

There is some question as to whether Republican voters were too dumb to even realize that the question was asking about support for marriage equality, since the way the question is asked it in the form of a double negative.

It should also be noted that for Democratic voters in those same states the number of respondents who found a presidential candidate who opposed marriage equality acceptable were: 26% (Iowa), 18% (New Hampshire) and 32% (South Carolina).

Hat/tip to Joe Jervis

114th Congress Begins: 80% White, 80% Male, 92% Christian (Representative of America? NO!)

Via Talking Points Memo comes this excellent infographic visualizing the (lack of) diversity in the 535 Members of the United States Congress who are supposed to represent the 320 million people who live in this country. Most of the diversity that does exist in Congress comes from the Democrats, not the Republicans.

Specifically:

There are a total of 81 minorities that are Democrats in both houses combined and 16 that are Republicans, according to data from CQ. The 114th Congress also has 79 Democratic women and 29 Republican women, also according to CQ. 

Of the 188 Democrats in the newly sworn-in House of Representatives, 78 are minorities, according to CQ. Despite the rise of new stars like Rep. Mia Love (UT, pictured above) just 12 of the 246 Republicans in the House majority are minorities. In the Senate, percentages are slightly better for Republicans. There are four Republican senators who are racial minorities and 3 Democrats who are racial minorities. 

By gender, there are 65 House Democrats who are women and 23 women are on the other side of the aisle, according to CQ. That leaves 123 Democratic men and 223 Republican men. In the Senate, there are 14 Democratic women and a record six Republican women leaving 30 Democratic men plus another two Independents who caucus with Democrats and 48 Republican men.

However, the Washington Post points out that it is in the area of religious representation that the Congress does the worst. There is only 0.2% representation (i.e. 1 member) who declares themselves to have no religious affiliation while 20% of Americans declare that they are affiliated with no specific religion.

Queer Quote: Speaker Boehner Lies About ENDA (Again)

Speaker John Boehner has been under increasing pressure to allow a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) since the measure passed the United States Senate recently. Boehner's response to LGBT advocates calling for leguslative action to outlaw anti-LGBT workplace discrimination has generally been to lie about what the law does.

He was asked about ENDA on Thursday and repeated his false statements on the bill, which is today's Queer Quote:

I am opposed to discrimination of any kind — in the workplace and any place else. But I think this legislation — that I have dealt with as chairman of the Education Workforce Committee long before I was back in the leadership — is unnecessary and would provide a basis for frivolous lawsuits. People are already protected in the workplace. I am opposed to continuing this.

Listen, I understand people have different opinions on this issue, and I respect those opinions. But as someone who has worked in the employment law area for all of my years in the statehouse and all of my years here, I see no basis or no need for this.

It must be repeated that this statement is simply not true, and that if Speaker Boehner really believes this is a true statement, then he must be an idiot. The fact is that 29 states do not have laws that protect LGBT people from being fired based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Since it is probably not the case that Boehner has risen to be second in line to become President of the United States while being an idiot, one can only conclude that Speaker Boehner is deliberately repeating a lie in order to deflect attention from the call to allow a vote on ENDA.

Godless Wednesday: Religious Affiliations of U.S. House On A Map

Buzzfeed has mapped out the religious affiliation of all 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and displayed their religion in a map of their districts.

There are 31 religions represented in the House, including 26 different sects of Christianity. Catholics make up the largest group with 136 members, followed by Baptists with 66 members, Methodists with 45 members, Anglicans/Episcopalians with 35 members, Presbyterians with 28 members, and Jews with 22 members. There is only one atheist.

The majority of Catholics and Jews are Democrats, and the majority of Anglicans/Episcopalians, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Mormons. and Presbyterians are Republican. Among religions with more than more than five seats, Jews are the most partisan; 21 of the 22 Jews are Democrats. Mormons are the second most partisan; seven of the eight Mormons are Republicans.

Other than states with a single seat, Idaho and Utah are the only states to be represented exclusively by a single religion.

Do you really think there is only one member of the U.S. House of Representatives? Yet, it is religious people, not irreligious people who complain vociferously about being discriminated against and marginalized in the public sphere.

I think this map is a good counter argument to such spurious claims.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God.

Queer Quote: San Antonio Councilperson's Private Homophobia Revealed

San Antonio Councilwoman Elisa Chan has been getting a lot of public attention recently after the release of comments she made in private with her staff that reveal a stunningly ignorant level of homophobia and transphobia.

The text of her comments are today's Queer Quote:

I don’t think homosexual people should do adoption. They should be banned by adoption. You’re going to confuse those kids. They should be banned. If you wanted to choose that lifestyle, we don’t want to discriminate you, but you shouldn’t affect the young people… You see two men go into a bedroom. You see two women kissing. Is that not confusing? It’s confusing.  

[...] 

We do not want to attack any group. I’m respectful of their choices, right? Even though I don’t believe that, but they’re free people, they can do whatever they want to do. But … don’t just come back and say you’re being discriminated.

What is confusing to kids about seeing same-sex couples? Apparently Coucilwoman Chan believes (like many Russian people) that somehow if children know that gay people exist it will impact their adult sexual orientation. This belief has no basis in reality and is laughable on its face, since the converse is obviously not true (i.e. the fact that almost all LGBT people have been raised in heterosexual households and yet have non-heterosexual sexual orientations). The problem with this belief is that it can impact how people feel about public policy. In fact the political context of Chan's comments is that the San Antonio City Council is currently considering an ordinance that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The comments came to light because one of Chan's staffer taped the comments and released it to the local San Antonio media, where it has been getting a  lot of negative and critical attention.

Putin Signs Virulently Anti-Gay "Propaganda" Bill Into Law

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a virulently anti-gay bill that would purportedly "protect minors" by banning "gay propaganda." The bill had previously passed the Russian legislature with almost no opposition, including near unanimity in the Duma, the lower House of Parliament, (436 to 0 with one abstention).

The Associated Press reports:

The lower house of Russia’s parliament unanimously passed the Kremlin-backed bill on June 11 and the upper house approved it last week.

The ban on ‘‘propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations’’ is part of an effort to promote traditional Russian values over Western liberalism, which the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church see as corrupting Russian youth and contributing to the protests against Putin’s rule. 

Hefty fines can now be imposed on those who provide information about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to minors or hold gay pride rallies. 

The Kremlin announced Sunday that Putin has signed the legislation into law.

The Washington Blade reports on opposition to the legislation and places its passage into the context of homophobia in Russia:

Putin signed the bill into law against the backdrop of growing concern over anti-LGBT discrimination and violence in Russia.

Two men in Volgograd and on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East in recent weeks have been killed during what local authorities have described as anti-gay attacks.

[...]

The State Department, the European Union and retired tennis champion Martina Navratilova are among those who have criticized Russian lawmakers and Putin over their opposition to LGBT rights in the country.

[Nikolai] Alekseev [of Gay Russia, an LGBT advocacy group] ]and a growing number of other LGBT rights advocates have also called for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2018 World Cup that will also take place in Russia.

“[They are] a very good opportunity to raise particular concerns,” Alekseev told the Blade earlier this month. “One of the ways for many countries would be to boycott these international sporting events because they take place in a country which doesn’t respect basic human rights.”

Gee, how many years behind the rest of the world is Russian on gay rights? 25 years? 30 years? Still thinking that telling kids about homosexuality or restricting access to information about gay rights will have any influence whatsoever on a child's sexual orientation isn't something I haven't thought about since the odious Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) and his "no promo homo" amendments in the mid 1990's or Margaret Thatcher's Tories supporting the infamous Clause 28 from the 1980's in Great Britain.

It will be very interesting to contrast the Winter Games in 2014 and World Cup in 2018 in an officially homophobic country like Russia with the World Cup in 2014 and Summer Games in 2016 in Brazil, which will have almost certainly enacted full marriage equality by then.

ENDA Now Supported By Majority of U.S. Senate!

With the addition of Tom Carper of Delaware, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) now sports the public support of 51 Senators, a clear majority of the United States Senate. However, in order to become law, the measure will almost certainly need to clear a Republican filibuster, so the real level of support necessary for passage of this key legislative priority is 60 votes.

Astonishingly, ENDA has bipartisan support with moderate Republicans (Yes, Virginia, they do exist!) Mark Kirk of Illinois and Susan Collins of Maine supporting S. 815. However, there are still 5 members of the Democratic caucus who have not signed on:

The 5 Democrats who have not publicly said whether they oppose anti-LGBT discrimination are Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Bill Nelson of Florida, Tim Johnson of South Daoka, Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. It must be noted that Machin and Pryor are two of the three remaining Democrats who do not support marriage equality (the third is Mary Landrieu of Louisiana). Oddly, Johnson and Nelson and Rockefeller all do support the right of gay people to marry the person they love but not the right of gay people to hold a job without getting fired! (Cognitive dissonance, much?)

There's no question the clamor around full civil rights for LGBT Americans is going to get louder as the month of June continues and the Supreme Court weights in on the issue in the Hollingsworth and Windsor cases by the end of the month.

George Zimmerman Trial Begins TODAY

George Zimmerman admits to shooting and killing Trayvon Martin,
an unarmed Black teenager

Finally! More than a year after the news about the fatal shooting of another unarmed Black male became a huge sensation, the trial of Trayvon Martin's killer is beginning in a Florida courtroom today. George Zimmerman, 29, claims he shot and killed the 17-year-old in self-defense. The story became an international story when police authorities in Sanford, FL questioned but released Zimmerman after hearing his story, raising questions about how police in a Southern state consider and (de)value the life of Black person. After weeks of marches and protests in multiple American cities, Zimmerman was finally arrested an charged with a crime (second-degree murder).

According to CNN:

Monday marks the start of jury selection in Seminole County, Florida, where Martin was fatally shot on February 26, 2012. The shooting put a national spotlight on Zimmerman's hometown of Sanford and sparked fresh debates about race relations and gun laws in America.  

Zimmerman is Hispanic; Martin was African-American. 

An initial decision not to pursue charges against Zimmerman led to the dismissal of the town's police chief and the appointment of a special prosecutor, who accused the neighborhood watch volunteer of unjustly profiling and killing Martin. 

Zimmerman now faces a second-degree murder charge in Martin's death. He has pleaded not guilty and is currently free on $1 million bond.

The Zimmerman-Martin case became another Rorshach test on race in America. We (at MadProfessah.com) shall be watching to see if the criminal justice system (in Florida, no less) can pass the test of "equal treatment under the law."

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: "Apatheists" -- Good Or Bad? Who Cares?

Heh! I usually describe myself as an atheist, but I discovered a new term listening to the radio last week: "apatheist." According to Wikipedia, apatheism is a "portmanteau" (blended word) of "apathy" and "atheism." It is also known as pragmatic atheism or practical atheism. It can be defined:

Apatheism describes the manner of acting towards a belief or lack of a belief in a deity, so it applies to both theism and atheism. An apatheist is also someone who is not interested in accepting or denying any claims that gods exist or do not exist. In other words, an apatheist is someone who considers the question of the existence of gods as neither meaningful nor relevant to his or her life.

[...]

Apatheists hold that if it were possible to prove that God exists, their behavior would not change. Similarly, there would be no change if someone proved that God does not exist.

I think apatheist might be a more accurate to describe my "belief" about God. I believe the existence of God is as relevant to my life as the existence of Santa Claus or Satan or Sasquatch. However, I prefer labeling myself as an atheist to advance the political project of expanding the space for people to embrace "Godlessness" or lack of faith to counterbalance the people who trumpet their faith and the influence it has on politics and public policy in this country.

The Friendly Atheist has this to say about apatheists:

It’s weird for me to support ignorance (or active avoidance) of the issue, and I’m sure there are plenty of people who would rather see people care about religion (regardless of their beliefs) than to avoid the topic completely, but the Apatheists aren’t the ones who give us trouble. 

It’s the vocal believers — the ones who proselytize, who try to change the laws to favor Christian ideals, who tell you you’re going to hell if you don’t agree with them — who are the problem. They’re the ones we need to go after. If people don’t want to join our side, then step outside the ring and let those of us with good arguments and strong convictions take control of the debate.

I think Hemant has the wrong idea here. Just because someone is an apatheist does not mean that they will not be part of the fight to limit the prominence of religion in the public sphere. In fact, it seems to me that apatheists are clearly allies in this cause precisely because we don't think the question of the existence of god is important, that we would support efforts to reduce the influence of religion on public policy, so I see apatheists as useful members of the godless coalition.

Half of U.S. Senate Now Supports Marriage Equality

Mark Kirk became the 2nd Republican and 50th U.S. Senator
to endorse marriage equality for same-sex couples

Well, that didn't take long! Just a few days after I blogged that there were 9 remaining Democratic U.S. Senators who did not support marriage equality and wondered aloud how long it would take before a majority of Senators supported marriage equality, the answer comes that 50 U.S. Senators, a "functional majority" of that body (including Vice President Joe Biden) have explicitly articulated support for marriage equality.

The 50th Senator to do so is Mark Kirk of Illinois. Sen. Kirk is a significant addition to the list for two reason: he is only the second Republican U.S. Senator to (*cough*) come out in favor of marriage equality, and because he has been outed as a closeted gay man previously.

Sen. Kirk posted a statement to his official blog, saying:

When I climbed the Capitol steps in January, I promised myself that I would return to the Senate with an open mind and greater respect for others.  

Same-sex couples should have the right to civil marriage. Our time on this Earth is limited, I know that better than most.  Life comes down to who you love and who loves you back-- government has no place in the middle.

Amazingly, Kirk was not the only Senator to announce their support for marriage today. Finally, Senator Tom Carper of Delaware announced his support as well, in a somewhat bizarrely religion-infused statement:

As our society has changed and evolved, so too has the public’s opinion on gay marriage — and so has mine. I pray every day for God to grant me the wisdom to do what is right. Through my prayers and conversations with my family and countless friends and Delawareans, I’ve been reminded of the power of one of my core values: the Golden Rule. It calls on us to treat others as we want to be treated. That means, to me, that all Americans ultimately should be free to marry the people they love and intend to share their lives with, regardless of their sexual orientation, and that’s why today, after a great deal of soul searching, I’m endorsing marriage equality.

In other Delaware news, it's long Congressperson (the population of the First State is so small that it has an at-large Member of Congress), U.S. Representative John Carney also expressed his support for marriage equality this week. The fact that the entire federal Congressional delegation including Democratic Governor Jack Markell all support marriage equality should help move the pending marriage equality bill through that state's legislature,

Think Progress has a nice graphic containing the face of the 50 US. Senators who support marriage equality

The times, they are a changin'! Anyone else think we'll hit actual majority support in the Senate by the end of the week?

Now There Are 8: PA Sen. Casey Supports Marriage

Well, well! On Saturday I blogged about the nine remaining members of the Democratic caucus in the United States that have failed to announce their support for marriage equality. oday that number fell to eight, with pro-life Bob Casey, Jr., Democrat of Pennsylvania, announcing that since he believes DOMA should be repealed, he feels also that marriage should be legalized for same-sex couples as well:

"I ultimately decided that to make a decision about DOMA was making a decision about marriage equality itself," Casey said.

Casey's public switch comes less than a week after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two landmark gay marriage cases.

[...]

In a statement Casey said he wrote over several days, the senator asks, "If two people of the same sex fall in love and want to marry, why would our government stand in their way? At a time when many Americans lament a lack of commitment in our society between married men and women, why would we want lesscommitment and fewer strong marriages?"

If you're keeping score at home, that is now 48 members of the 100-member United States Senate that have publicly announced their support for marriage equality: 45 Democrats, 2 Independents (Vermont's Bernie Sanders and Maine's Angus King) along with 1 Republican (Ohio's Rob Portman).

When will a majority of the Senate support marriage equality? Will it happen before or after the Supreme Court rules in the DOMA and the Prop 8 cases?

Saturday Politics: Only 9 (D) Senators Not For Marriage Equality

Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware

Last week's Supreme Court arguments in two marriage equality cases forced a number of Democratc senators gave a number of Democratic senators the opportunity to clarify their position on support for marriage equality for same-sex couples. In addition to Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), her colleagues Mark Begich (D-AK), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Jon Tester (D-MT), Mark Warner (D-VA) from red (Alaska, North Carolina, Montana) or purple states (Virginia).

There are still nine members of the Democratic caucus in the United States Senate who still have not endorsed marriage equality:

• Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. Up for reelection in 2018.
• Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Up for reelection in 2018.
• Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida. Up for reelection in 2018.
• Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. Up for reelection in 2018.
• Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware. Up for reelection in 2018.
• Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana. Up for reelection in 2018.
• Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. Up for reelection in 2014.
• Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Up for reelection in 2014.
• Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota. Won't run for reelection in 2014.
  

There are three Senators from blue states who have are on this list: Casey of Pennsylvania (who is anti-choice, so is known to be an outlier on social issues in the Democratic party), Nelson of Florida, and Carper of Delaware. The most curious of these is Tom Carper because not only is Delaware a blue state, but recent polls have shown that a majority of respondents in Delaware support marriage equality 54% to 37%. Two-thirds of Democratic voters nationwide support marriage equality so it is very curious why a Democratic senator from a Democratic state would not announce his support for marriage, especially when he does not have to face the voters for 5 more years?

Inquiring minds want to know!

LOOK: Obama Does Actually Shoot Guns

Do you feel safer now?

POLL: The Top 10 Liberal, Conservative States

Gallup has released a list of the Top 10 most conservative and most liberal states in the Union, measured by the percentage of the population who identify as either liberal or conservative. Unsurprisingly, Alabama is considered the most conservative state, with more than half of respondents identifying themselves as "conservative." Tied for second are North Dakota and Wyoming. Just this week, in fact, the Wyoming state Senate rejected any pro-gay legislation that had made it out of committee, even something as basic as including sexual orientation and gender identity in their state's employment discrimination statutes. In fact, none of the 10 most conservative states have employment non-discrimination statutes that include LGBT people.

The list of Top 10 most liberal states is headed by District of Columbia, followed by Massachusetts, Oregon and Vermont. Interestingly, California does not make the Top 10 list, and that even the most liberal jurisdiction does not have a majority of respondents identifying as liberal: 40.8% is the high-water mark. Another feature of the top 10 liberal states is that 6 of the 10 have enacted marriage equality, with the other four (Hawaii, Rhode Island, Delaware and Oregon) on the list of states which are expected to enact marriage equality in the near future, although Hawaii and Oregon have constitutional amendments which declare marriage is between a man and a woman.

Hat/tip to Talking Points Memo

Queer Quote: James Dobson Laments 2012 Losses

Dr. James Dobson is well-known as one of the fierce warriors in the Culture Wars or kulturkampf that has been raging around the areas of LGBT equality, civil rights, reproductive freedom, secularism and marriage equality in this country for decades. He is the founder of Focus on the Family and has a conservative media empire which hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions) are exposed to his ideas and ideals every day.

He has today's Queer Quote because in the aftermath of the 2012 elections Dobson realizes that his side is clearly losing the culture war and the more than 100 million people who voted in November 2012 delivered withering losses to his team. In his Queer Quote, Dobson laments on his defeat:

Now let me share my heart with you. I'm sure many of you are discouraged in the aftermath of the National Elections, especially in view of the moral and spiritual issues that took such a beating on November 6th. Nearly everything I have stood for these past 35 years went down to defeat.

Dobson goes on to describe the four specific issues which he described as "four shocking components of the 2012 Democratic platform" (which he doesn't acknowledge received 5 million more votes than the Republican platform). These four issues are:

1. Abortion should be legalized through nine months of pregnancy. 

2. Same-sex marriages should be permitted by law in every state in the nation. 

3. Democrats took every reference to God out of their platform during the Convention. 

4. Finally, it was decided that Israel would not be permitted to locate its capital in the city of Jerusalem. 

Notice the order of the issues Dobson is concerned about and the way that he characterizes them in the most extreme way possible. Reproductive freedom, then marriage equality, then secularism and last the Israeli-Palestinian question (with Palestine ignored of course). Steveningen does a good job of responding to these arguments at DailyKos.com so I will not do so here, but I just wanted to note with pleasure how combatants on the other side of the culture war from myself are gnashing their teeth and renting their garments at the overwhelming rejection of their ideology by the voting American populace.

Quuer Quote: Obama Talks About LGBT Progress

Pete Souza

During his interview for Time magazine's 2012 Person of the Year, President Obama has an interesting quote regarding the progress on LGBT issues during his presidency.

One of the things that I’m very proud of during my first four years is I think I’ve helped to solidify this incredibly rapid transformation in people’s attitudes around LGBT issues — how we think about gays and lesbians and transgender persons. A lot of that just has to do with the fact that if you talk to Malia, the idea of making an anti-gay remark at her school is just unimaginable. They just don’t get that. 

And so, there are those attitudinal shifts that make up this new coalition as well. For all the divisions that you read about in our politics — and many of them are real and powerful — the truth is, is that we have steadily become a more diverse and tolerant country that embraces people’s differences, and respects people who are not like us. And that’s a profoundly good thing. That’s one of the strengths of America. It was hard-fought. And there’s been the occasional backlash, and this is not to argue that somehow racism or sexism or homophobia are going to be eliminated or ever will be eliminated. It is to argue that our norms have changed in a way that prizes inclusion more than exclusion. 

And I do think that my eight years as President, reflecting those values and giving voice to those values, helps to validate or solidify that transformation, and I think that’s a good thing for the country. And, by the way, it’s part of what will make America a continued leader of the 21st century — because the world is shrinking, and one of our greatest assets is the fact that we have people from everywhere who want to come here because they know this is an open society, and they know that they will be judged more on their talents and their skills and their commitment to an ideal and a creed, as opposed to what tribe they come from or what God they worship. And that’s something that we should be grateful for.

Yet another sign that the kulturkampf will be over soon, and the bad guys are losing.

UPDATE: Rubio Admits Earth is 4.5B Years Old

As regular readers of this here blog thingy know, we at madprofessah.com are members of the reality-based community. So, when putative 2016 presidential hopeful U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) answered the innocuous question "How old do you think the Earth is?" from GQ magazine with a frankly unacceptable response, I called him on it.

Even crazy old coot Pat Robertson rejects the notion of a "young earth" and encourages others to as well.

Today, the 41-year-old Cuban-American GOP wonderboy admitted he does know how old the earth is to Politico:

Rubio also addressed the controversy surrounding his recent comments to GQ about the age of the earth. 

“Science says it’s about four and a half billion years old and my faith teaches that that’s not inconsistent,” he clarified. “The answer I gave was actually trying to make the same point the president made a few years ago, and that is there is no scientific debate on the age of the earth. I mean, it’s established pretty definitively as at least four and a half billion years old … I was referring to a theological debate and which is a pretty healthy debate.” 

“The theological debate is how do you reconcile what science has definitively established with what you think your faith teaches? For me, actually, when it comes to the age of the earth there is no conflict: I believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and I think scientific advances give us insight into when he did it and how he did it,” he said. “But I still believe God did it, And that’s how I’ve been able to reconcile that and I think it’s consistent with the teachings of my church. But other people have a deeper conflict and I just think in America we should have the freedom to teach our children whatever we believe.”

Really, Senator Rubio? This response just shows how sneaky he can be. He got caught pandering to religious extremists and know he is blathering about a "theological debate." The question was NOT about the theological debate. The question was about a scientifically determined fact, and he answered differently from what he knew was true, in order to not offend people who wish to have a debate (theological or other) about this question. Busted!

And the point about "[I]n America we should have the freedom to teach our children whatever we believe" is just a canard. PARENTS can teach their kids whatever craziness they want to, but public schools, paid from the taxes of everyone can not endorse any parent's religious views and so should just teach the facts. This last point is something fellow Brown GOP 2016 Presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal does not understand either.