Meme Dump

Mother Confronts Her Son's Bullies, and She's Arrested

Hell hath no fury like a Mama protecting her young son.

When Jamie Rathburn found out that kids at Greenbrier Elementary School were calling her third-grade son “gay” and “stupid,” she was upset, but when he came home with bruises and scratches, she was done.

She emailed the school, and then met with school faculty and administrators, who apparently told her “boys will be boys” … who bully and beat up other boys, I’m guessing. The school passed on doing anything, but then Rathburn learned that one of the teachers had to follow her son around the schoolyard, and so she took matters into her own hands.

She entered the school without permission from the front office and confronted a group of her son’s third-grade classmates and their teacher, and recorded a video on her phone:

“I walked right in that school [and] told those children that bullying wasn’t okay. If they wanted to continue, then I needed to talk to their mommas because the school wasn’t doing anything.”

She then cussed out her son’s teacher and the principal, who had done nothing to stop the bullying. After posting the video on Facebook, Jamie Rathburn was arrested and booked into Greenville County jail on a charge of non-student interfering, disrupting or disturbing schools. The district later issued a no trespass order for preventing her from for all Greenville County schools for her illegal entry. If found guilty for the misdemeanor charges carry, she could face a $2,000 fine and up to a year in jail.

All because she wanted to protect her son from bullies at a school that acted like it was no big deal.

Rathburn’s family started a GoFundMe campaign to pay her legal bills, and it has raised $4500 of its $8000 goal.

Beth Brotherton, director of communications for the Greenville school district, said:

“Maybe in her mind she was going there to confront a bully or a couple of children, but in not knowing who those were and choosing to yell at dozens of innocent kids, there is nothing appropriate about yelling at other people’s children’s in a school setting after you’ve snuck in illegally.”

Hey Beth, you ignorant tool, lemme ask you a question. Since we hear all the time about bullied kids committing suicide, and since the school seemed to have a “so what” attitude, and did nothing to stop the bulling, and the physical assault, what exactly did you expect Jamie Rathburn to do?

What would you do if it was your child? Sit back until you come home one day and find your child hanging from a belt in the closet? Sit back until you get a call at work that your bullied son took a gun to school and killed a classmate?

Rathburn does not regret standing up for her child, or the way she did it, and maybe, just maybe, she saved his life.

But hey, it’s not your child … this time.

LGBTQ Nation

Bobservations

So, a 3D printed gun might be available soon because … _____ and NRA.

My question is: when the first mass shooter uses a 3D printed gun, is Congress gonna offer 3D printed "thoughts and prayers"?

David Cooley is a well-known gay businessman—he’s the founder and CEO of West Hollywood gay club, The Abbey—and last week he was flying from New York to Los Angeles when flight attendants told his partner to move from his Premium seat to the main cabin or, wait for it, get off the plane because another couple, a straight couple, wanted to sit together..

Cooley posted about the incident to his Facebook page.

“I have never been so discriminated against while traveling before. ... After my traveling companion and I had been seated in our assigned seats for a while, we were approached by the flight attendant and my companion was asked to move from his premium seat to coach, so a couple could sit together. I explained that we were a couple and wanted to sit together, [but] he was given a choice to either give up the premium seat and move to coach or get off the plane. We could not bear the feeling of humiliation for an entire cross-country flight and left the plane. I cannot believe that an airline in this day and age would give a straight couple preferential treatment over a gay couple and go so far as to ask us to leave. We will never be flying Alaska Airlines or their recently purchased Virgin Airlines Group ever again. Thank you to Delta Air Lines for getting us home safe. If you are an #LGBT person, please spend your travel dollars with an LGBT friendly airline like Delta.”

A spokesperson for Alaska Airlines says:

“When boarding flight 1407 from JFK to LAX, a couple was mistakenly assigned the same seats as another couple in Premium Class. We reseated one of the guests from Premium Class in the Main Cabin. We are deeply sorry for the situation, and are investigating the details while communicating directly with the guests involved to try and make this right. Alaska Airlines has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind, and our employees value inclusion for our guests and each other.”

So, Alaska Airlines admits they made a mistake and double-booked a pair of seats and yet had no problem splitting up a gay couple so a straight couple could sit together?

Funny that, and funny that Alaska Airlines then issued another statement touting their diversity and support of the LGBTQ community.

Nice words, but your actions don’t match.

This week _____ bragged that the Gross Domestic Product [GDP], a chief economic indicator, came in strong at 4.1% growth. Then, the White House Communications Team, under the new direction of former Fox News co-president Bill Shine, posted a graphic to Twitter in which they spelled “United States” wrong:

It remained up for well over three hours.

And the mocking ensued, as when Danny Deraney Tweeted:

“If you include Obama’s leadership, this growth would rank 5th. 

- 5.1% Q2 2014

- 4.9% Q3 2014

- 4.7% Q4 2011

- 4.5% Q4 2009

- 4.1 % Q2 2018”

Followed by Helen Kennedy’s Tweet:

“Also Obama’s White House could spell ‘United States’.”

And then Paul Cambridge who asked:

“Where are the United Sates?”

Look, it’s a typo, but coming from a White House, and a President who misspelled his own wife’s name—Hi Melanie!—it’s pretty high-larious!

At a rally this week _____ said we need stronger voter ID laws because you even need a picture ID at the grocery store.

So, this morning I stopped at the DMV and got my license updated! Now I can buy bread from a store and not from the guy on the corner selling it out of an Impala.

The new GOP … Anne Landman, who said she's upset with _____ about Russia, immigration, and tariffs, created a billboard that went up in Grand Junction, Colorado, where she replaced the ‘O’ in GOP with the Russian hammer and sickle:

"I mean, I’m tearing my hair out over this stuff! How much are we as citizens supposed to take?"

Her plan is to keep the billboards up until the midterms, and says she is being offered all kinds of cash to keep the billboard up:

"Several people have walked cash right up to my front door—one guy dropping off enough in cash to buy a whole week of the board."

The Resistance at work.

In How Stoopid Are They news … the _____ administration is freezing fuel standards put in place by President Obama because they say better fuel economy means people would drive more, and driving more means they would face a higher risk of accident and injury.

No, seriously, that’s what they said.

This breaks my heart … an orca, tagged as J35, and a member of a critically endangered family of orcas, gave birth to a calf last week. only to watch it die within half an hour.

And for two days she grieved, carrying her dead calf on her head, and refusing to let it go. Even when the baby slipped off and sank below the surface, she would dive down and retrieve it, and carry it again.

Just an animal? I think not.

House Freedom Caucus founder Jim Jordan—a conservative wingnut—announced that he'll run for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"Should the American people entrust us with the majority again in the 116th Congress, I plan to run for Speaker of the House to bring real change to the House of Representatives. President Trump has taken bold action on behalf of the American people," his statement continued. "Congress has not held up its end of the deal, but we can change that. It's time to do what we said."

Perhaps he wants the job because he thinks he can spare himself from the scandal about how he handled complaints about a doctor at Ohio State University who is accused of sexually abusing wrestlers that Jordan supervised when he was the school's assistant wrestling coach in the 1980s and 1990s.

While several wrestlers claim Jordan knew that team doctor Richard Strauss groped them, but Jordan, in typical GOP stance, denies any knowledge of abuse.

Uh huh.

I love a good protest, but what I love even more are the signs at the protests. Gone are the days of Make Love, Not War and welcome to the days of …

And, speaking of pervs … last week Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick over sexual abuse allegations that stretched back decades. The Vatican released this statement nonsense:

“Cardinal McCarrick, a prominent Roman Catholic voice in international and public policy, was removed from public ministry on June 20, after an investigation found credible accusations that he had sexually abused a teenager 47 years ago while serving as a priest in New York. Cardinal McCarrick, now 88, said in a statement at the time that he was innocent. Subsequent interviews by The New York Times revealed that some in the church hierarchy had known for decades about accusations that he had preyed on several men who wanted to become priests, sexually harassing and touching them."

Pope Francis accepted McCarrick’s resignation, ordered his suspension from public ministry, and 'sentenced ' him to live in a house for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial.

Um, how about a real trial and then ship the rapist off to prison? No, the Catholic Church would rather put him up in a house until the scandal blows away and then do nothing.

Nothing; exactly what they’re done for decades about child rape. Fuck them all.

Damon Erik Williams plays Linc, the new love interest of Deran Cody, played by Jake Weaver, on Animal Kingdom, and he is steamy.

And nude quite often.

Just sayin.

A Letter from the Mother of a Gay Son

You know, with all that’s going on in the news, like the GOP still holding on to an outdated notion — if they ever read a poll they’d know this — that if they campaign on Hate The gays they’ll get elected, and with people and politicians who Hate The Gays lining up to support a Good Christian Boy who likes to diddle little girls and his sisters,, it’s can be hard out here for a queer.

But then I saw this letter, written fifteen years ago by one Sharon Underwood from White River Junction, in which she expresses her anger at those so-called Christians and hypocrites who inflicted pain on her gay son, and so many other gay sons and daughters, bisexual sons and daughters, trans sons and daughters.

I kinda needed to hear this today:

Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I’ve taken enough from you good people.

I’m tired of your foolish rhetoric about the “homosexual agenda” and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.

My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called “fag” incessantly, starting when he was 6.

In high school, while your children were doing what kids that age should be doing, mine labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure his family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart out of me as he choked out that he just couldn’t bear to continue living any longer, that he didn’t want to be gay and that he couldn’t face a life without dignity.

You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children from the homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and drive children to despair. I don’t know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn’t put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and it’s about time you started doing that.

At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind of subculture out there that people have chosen to join. The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours, and you won’t get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something occurs during a critical time of fetal development, I don’t know. I can only tell you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn.

If you want to tout your own morality, you’d best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I’m puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that’s not the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?

A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for generations. I am heart and soul a Vermonter, so I’ll thank you to stop saying that you are speaking for “true Vermonters.”

You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought on the battlefield for this great country, saying that they didn’t give their lives so that the “homosexual agenda” could tear down the principles they died defending. My 83-year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles of World War II, was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.

He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles, that they did their part and bothered no one. One of his best friends in the service was gay, and he never knew it until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at all. That wasn’t the measure of the man.

You religious folk just can’t bear the thought that as my son emerges from the hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong companion and have a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities that he should request the right to visit that companion in the hospital, to make medical decisions for him or to benefit from tax laws governing inheritance.

How dare he? you say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage.

You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings. There are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant. God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no sin.

The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley News who lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about “those of us who have been blessed with the benefits of a religious upbringing” asks: “What ever happened to the idea of striving . . . to be better human beings than we are?”

Indeed, sir, whatever happened to that?

Yeah, that about sums it up. Have a great weekend, y’all.

Deep South Daily

Photo by Jamiecat (Flickr/cc)

I Like Her! I Really Like Her!!

Sally Field has a gay son, and she’s a proud mother of a gay son. So, in an effort to help the Human Rights Campaign raise $150,000 to combat those ridiculous “religious liberty” — AKA ‘Don’t Serve The Gays — bills around the country, Sally wrote and open letter about her son:

The three things I’m most proud of in my life are my sons, Peter, Eli and Sam. They are kind, loving and productive people. Each with their own list of talents and accomplishments.

Sam is my youngest son, by 18 years, and he’s gay. To that, I say: So what? Growing up, Sam wanted desperately to just be like his older brothers – athletic, rambunctious and even a little bit macho. He wanted to beat Eli at tennis, trounce Peter at computer football and learn everything about every basketball player on the court. But Sam was different. And his journey to allow himself to be what nature intended him to be was not an easy one. When I saw him struggling, I wanted to jump in. But his older brothers held me back. They told me I couldn’t travel that road for Sam. It was his to travel, not mine. I had to wait for him to own himself in his own time. I could make it easier only by standing visibly to the side, clearly loving him, always being there and always letting him know.

Finally, at 20, long after he beat his brothers at tennis and computer games and knew as much as anyone about basketball, Sam was able to stand up proudly and say, “I am a gay man.”

One of the great privileges of my life to have been allowed to be a part of Sam’s journey.

There are people out there – organizations and politicians, strangers who have never even met Sam – who would rather devote themselves to denying his happiness.

Why would anyone want to prevent my son — or anyone’s son or daughter — from having basic legal safeguards like family medical leave, Social Security survivors benefits, or health insurance? It doesn’t make any sense — but it won’t change until people speak out. I’m proud to stand with HRC to add my voice. Will you join me?

Whether you are LGBT yourself, a parent or grandparent of an LGBT child, or just a great person with strong convictions about what’s fair and right, I hope I’ve convinced you to stand with HRC for equality. You’ll be glad you did!’

 I’d only add that if you are a mother, or father, brother, sister, son, daughter, even friend, to a person who is gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or even questioning their orientation, take a page from Sally field’s book: be there, be supportive, love them.

It’s a hard enough road to travel alone, but when you have support along the way it makes the struggle a bit more worthwhile.

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When A Young Boy Met His Boyfriend, Darren Criss

I’ve posted about this Mom and Son before, like the time the son told his mother, when he was seven, that he was gay. And how the mom said, "I love you so much." But this is another tale of that Mom and son, and of Blaine, from that TV show.

A mother asks a son what he wants for Christmas and the son replies, "I want to meet Blaine [from ‘Glee’] and sing and play the guitar with him."

The son has a crush on Blaine, played by Darren Criss [side note: that’s a little something the son and I have in common] and even calls Blaine “my boyfriend” {side note: I do that, too] but what was Mom to do when her son asked for that particular gift?

"Baby, there are some things Mom just can't do …. You can't ask for people for Christmas."

The son seemed to realize that and the conversation dropped.

But then, a few months later, Darren Criss announced he was doing a 16-city concert tour that was coming relatively close to where that little boy lived. And, even knowing it would be an expensive outing, with tickets and motel rooms and gas and meals, Mom decided to take her son to his boyfriend’s concert.

And on the way they talked about Blaine and Darren; one was real, and one was a TV character. When the son first saw Blaine he was six, so the idea that Blaine and Darren could be the same person was foreign to him, but now he was 8, and now he understood.

But still, Blaine/Darren was his boyfriend and he wanted to meet him.

Mom has written many posts for the Huffington Post about her son, and they have become fairly popular, so she sent some emails and made some calls, and Mom had a big surprise for her son: he was going to meet Darren Criss.

The son was anxious, and they arrived at the House of Blues in Chicago very early, before the concert, so they wouldn’t be late. They played games and people-watched, and the son fretted about missing his chance. But finally, the time had come.

The son was nervous and happy and anxious and shy and all sorts of emotions, but Darren Criss, according to Mom, was “charming and lovely.” She won’t tell you what they talked about; maybe the son will share that one day himself, but Mom did get a chance to speak with Darren.

“What could I say to this young man who meant so much to my kid, this young man who, by playing a television character, had helped lead my son to tell me about his orientation and, by extension, helped change the trajectory of my own life toward activism? ‘Thank you’ felt so insufficient, but it was all I had.”

After the chat, it was time for the show. Mom and son settled in to watch, and the son spent a great deal of time taking pictures. But there, in the middle of the show, Darren began to play one of his original songs, "Not Alone" and Mom sang the words to her son:

"Baby, you're not alone,

'Cause you're here with me,

And nothing's ever gonna bring us down,

'Cause nothing can keep me from lovin' you,

And you know it's true.

It don't matter what'll come to be;

Our love is all we need to make it through."

After the show, the son held tight to his mother, and said, "Mom, meeting Darren Criss was all the trillions times better than a hotel with a pool."

And that meant the world to Mom.

Every gay kid needs a Mom  like that, and every gay kid needs someone to look up to, and admire, and maybe have a little crush on, who treats them as sweetly as Daren Criss treated that boy.

I'm more than a little bit jealous.

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A 16-Year-Old Boy Received A Love Poem .... From Another Boy

There isn't a lot I could add to this, so I'll post it as I found it.

From Mommyish.com:

It’s always sort of adorable and sad when your kid starts attracting attention from would-be suitors. Your little baby is growing up and as a parent, you have to accept the fact that one day they will find someone and fall in love and move away from you and you will no longer get to boss them about what shirt to wear with what sweater.

My eldest son came home from school to inform me that he thought one of his schoolmates liked him, because they slipped a self-authored poem to him in the hallway. And even though it’s not really surprising, his admirer was also a boy.

Awwww. I would have found this act touching and sweet from a kid of any gender, but there is something to be said for a kid who has the bravery and gumption to express his feelings in poetry form, because even though the world has gotten somewhat gentler towards homosexuals, we are talking about a teenage boy here. Who wrote a poem. And gay kids are still bullied in school, in horrible, heart-wrenching ways, in ways that make me lose sleep at night.

My son asked if I wanted to read the poem and I declined, because it’s personal, and it wasn’t meant for me. He did say that he wouldn’t share it with anyone else and I agree with him, love letters are not to be passed around and shared with people they aren’t meant for. He was very flattered and touched by the poem and the footnote at the bottom, where the boy expressed his feelings for my son, and even though my son likes this boy and values his friendship, my son is not gay.

I panicked, of course, because this is how I would react when my kid had to reject the feelings of any other kid, but this is somehow more fraught, because teenage boys are assholes, and even though my son is not an asshole, I wanted to make sure he had declined the offer of romance in the right way. I shouldn’t have worried. I have raised a good kid.

What did you say?

 I told him that I’m not gay.

 But you didn’t make him feel bad, you weren’t a jerk about it, you didn’t make a big deal out of it right?

God Mom, do you think I’m a moron? I don’t care if he is gay. If I were gay I would date him, I like the guy he is my friend. I’m not going to hurt his feelings. I’m not a jerk mom.

My son has had girlfriends. I’m sure he will continue to date people throughout his high school career, and I will continue to worry about a million things, breakups and hookups and the delicate and not-so-delicate ways these relationships begin and end. He will reject people, and they will reject him. I just hope all of these rejections end as graciously as they did with his friend, and that his friend meets another boys to compose poems for. Because any teenager who pulls a cool move like that, they deserve to meet someone pretty special.

If this is the future, the future looks very bright, and very equal, indeed.

Good News Friday: Minds Can Change

Shari Johnson is author of the forthcoming book, "Above All Things". This is her story, and her daughter's:

My Lesbian Daughter, the Bible and Sex

Regarding Pastor Mark Driscoll’s Fox News.com opinion piece, “What the Bible Really Says About Sex,” dated January 3, 2012, I agree with him on many points. There was a time when I agreed with him on all points. 

I am an evangelical Christian who, I am sorry to say, used to be one of the "don’t-confuse-me-with-facts-because-my-mind-is-made-up" type of Christian. 

My world was rocked to its core the night my 37-year old daughter called to tell me she is gay. Did I run out to find a gay parade to march in? No. It was a painful process for both of us. 

In my beating on Heaven’s door, telling God He had to change her, He instead changed me. It seems that He was far more disturbed about my lack of love than He was about her homosexuality. I have had to rethink many things since starting this journey, including some things I knew (or thought I knew) about the Bible.

Pastor Driscoll shares “seven sex essentials from the Bible,” and I would like to address “3. Marriage is for one man and one woman by God’s design,” and “5. Sex outside of marriage is a sin.”

When I hear terms like “God’s design” and “Biblical marriage” I have to wonder who decides these things. 

Our cultural adaptation of marriage has certainly evolved through the ages—had God not intervened, Joseph could have had Mary stoned to death for being pregnant with a child that was not his. (An engagement at that time was considered the same as a marriage.) 

That is just one example—so many books could be written on the history of marriage. Yet we keep a death grip on the scriptures that suit us—and the translation of those scriptures becomes more a matter of tradition, opinion and convenience than the Word of God. 

The hypocrisy of a Christian parent who shrugs her shoulders over one child’s “living in sin” and says, “What’s a mother to do,” but goes to pieces when she hears of her daughter’s homosexuality, is appalling. I was that mother.

If one can find anything amusing in all this, it is that those who are upset about sex outside of marriage are the same ones who are opposed to marriage equality. 

The principles for heterosexual marriage are the same for same-sex marriage—love, commitment, faithfulness, loyalty, honor and respect. How can we deny that to anyone? 

My daughter and her partner were married in 2004 and I couldn’t ask for a better spouse for my daughter, or daughter-in-law for me. However, my attitude traveling to the wedding was far different from my attitude on the trip home. God attends gay weddings. Who knew?

People have debated scriptures over the issues of gay marriage and homosexuality until they are red in the face—red because both sides are so angry. 

When I asked a wise friend how she reconciled the scriptures with her daughter’s homosexuality, she said, “I can’t. So I just let God sort it out.” I took her advice and I learned things about God I would never have known if I were still telling Him what His scriptures mean.

If we spent as much time obeying God’s two greatest commandments, which are that we love Him and love our neighbors as ourselves, and less time policing everyone who is different from us, imagine what a world it would be. 

Two years ago, after 39 years as a Christian who thought she knew the meaning of the scriptures and the mind of God, I asked myself a serious, life-changing question. What if I’m wrong?

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