I Didn't Say It ...

Jim Obergefell, on how he hopes his case — which resulted in marriage equality everywhere — is seen by future generations:

"I would like future law students to know that my case as well as the cases of the other plaintiffs that really it was about love. Telling our government that our love is just as worthy as any other love. The fact that standing up for that love led to such a momentous change proves that it’s a very powerful force. Although the law can be antiseptic and divorced from emotion, the fact that ours was based on love - I think it improved the law because they could look at us and recognize that we deserve the same amount of respect as anyone else."

We didn’t fight because we hate Christians; some of us are Christian.

We didn’t fight to ruin traditional marriage; some of us grew up in houses with traditional marriage as our example.

We didn’t fight because we wanted to destroy anything; we fought because we want to be recognized as equal, to have our love recognized as equal.

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Ted Cruz, proving once again he is unfit for public office:

"Let me do a little psychoanalysis. If you look at Star Trek: The Next Generation, it basically split James T. Kirk into two people. Picard was Kirk’s rational side, and William Riker was his passionate side. I prefer a complete captain. To be effective, you need both heart and mind. The original Star Trek was grittier. Kirk is working class; Picard is an aristocrat. Kirk is a passionate fighter for justice; Picard is a cerebral philosopher. The original Star Trek pressed for racial equality, which was one of its best characteristics, but it did so without sermonizing. I think it is quite likely that Kirk is a Republican and Picard is a Democrat."

Seriously? He spends his time trying to decipher the political leanings of fictional TV characters and he wants to be president? Oy.

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Cory Booker, New Jersey Senator, on the Equality Act:

"Almost 50 years ago, a couple tried to purchase a home in suburban New Jersey in a neighborhood they loved, but found their efforts thwarted when the house they wanted was inexplicably pulled off the market. The couple later learned from fair housing advocates who had investigated on their behalf that the home was made unavailable to them because of their skin color. The couple's names were Cary and Carolyn Booker. They were my parents. You'd think this problem is relegated to the history books. But in 2015 — today — a couple can try to purchase a home and in 31 states be told it is not available to them on the basis of their sexual orientation. More than half a century after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal government has yet to pass a large-scale law that protects Americans from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. It's time for that to change."

Civil rights should be for everyone, and to have to continue this fight — and why it’s a fight I  still don’t know — is just ridiculous. It should be the law that you cannot discriminate. How hard is that?

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Raven-Symoné, criticizing Caitlyn Jenner for her trans advocacy:

“When I came out, I didn’t go hardcore and be like, ‘I’m going to save the world for LGBT!’ You’ve got to learn it first. And she’s not, really. I appreciate all that she’s going to do for the community, I think it’s wonderful. I just am surprised how many girlfriends that she has all of a sudden. I’m so surprised at how much she’s showing these stories all of a sudden. And I’m not faulting you because, yes, we need you, but it felt like, ‘Oh, so now you are, so now you represent … It’s too fast, too soon.”

Bad enough we have straight people bashing the LGBT community, but now we have an L telling a T how she should be acting, and how she should advocate.

Raven, honey? Why don’t you stick to worrying about which hair color to choose today and let people who choose to advocate do the advocating, m’kay? It doesn’t matter how, or when, you come to be an LGBT advocate, it’s a matter of just doing it, and you don’t. Butt hat's your choice.

You rarely mention your sexual orientation and, in fact, the few times I’ve seen you on The View — growing more horrible with the addition  of you as a host — you seem to talk more about the time you dated boys.

Boil it down: Caitlyn Jenner chooses to be an advocate; you choose not to. Sit down. Shut up.

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Caitlyn Jenner, on trans suicide:

“And it’s not because trans people are somehow inherently unstable – it’s because we live in a world that makes it very, very difficult to be trans. Many people, especially kids, can’t see how they can live as their authentic selves and keep their family, their jobs and their homes.”

And, Raven, honey, there you have it. 

Caitlyn Jenner, upon transitioning, learned how serious a problem suicide is in the trans community and is trying to do something to help.

She deserves our attention, Raven-Symoné does not.

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Candace Cameron Bure Defends Discrimination Because ... God

I don’t watch The View regularly, though I do catch a snippet of it on occasion and cringe at what passes for intelligent discussion, or different “views,” as it were. And I didn’t see this exchange on TV though it came to me via Facebook and a simple Google search, so let’s dig in …

Candace Cameron Bure is known for three things … well, two things really. She was on Full House decades back, and will be on the Full House reboot coming soon to a channel near you, and is the sister of Kirk Cameron, another former child star turned religious wingnut who has taken his faith and his ideas about faith to a whole new low.

Candace is also a Christian, just so you know, and on the show recently she and fellow child star, and co-host, Raven-Symoné, got into it over that Oregon bakery that was fined $135,000 for refusing to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding.

Raven called it discrimination:

“To me, it's the same exact thing that they did back in the day, saying that black people couldn't do certain things because 'it's my religious belief.’”

Candace vehemently disagreed:

“I don’t think this is discrimination at all. This is about freedom of association, it’s about constitutional rights, it’s about First Amendment rights. We do have the right to still choose who we associate with. They didn’t refuse to bake the cake because of their sexual orientation, in fact they’ve baked cakes for them previously. They had a problem with the actual ceremony, because that, the ceremony is what conflicted with their religious beliefs.”

And we’ll stop … it’s not discrimination? Telling a client at your business that was opened to serve the public that you will not bake a cake for their wedding ceremony because you don’t believe in same-sex marriage is discrimination against The Gays because, unless I have this whole gay thing figured out wrong, the only people having same-sex marriages are The Gays; which means discrimination if you refuse to bake my cake.

And, as Whoopi said, putting it quite simply:

“But were they invited to the ceremony?”

And that answer would be ‘No.’ And I would ask Candace Cameron Bure how she might feel if she went to a bakery and asked for a cake and was denied service because she’s a Christian; is that an okay thing to do? I mean, if we can all deny services to anyone we choose if we just decide that we don’t like them, or their lifestyle or the color of their skin or their faith, then where are we? Who are we?

And it brings up this meme which made its way around Facebook, which, on its face, might seem kinda ridiculous, but let the idea sink in for a spell:

You are a baker, you bake cakes. I am a client; I order a cake for my same-sex wedding. Does the baking of the cake mean you have celebrated my wedding? Does it mean you have condoned it, partaken in it, been a part of it? See, if that’s the case, then every single business owner who provides any kind of service, is part of the act that results from the purchase.

As would be the case with a gun shop owner who sold me a gun and then I shot someone. That owner, by the very nature of the Bure’s, and the baker’s train of thought, took part in what I did with my purchase.

If we used that idiotic logic that Bure spouted; luckily, we don’t. We simply ask that people be treated equally, and that people of faith, who have a right to their faith, don’t interject that faith into every nook and cranny of the world, because then religious folk can deny The Gays any and every service anywhere in the world and just because they cry God we have to endure the discrimination.

It ended, as this conversation does from those with a religion-only POV, with Bure saying that we should really just respect all views; except, she doesn’t think those Christian bakers need to respect the views of that gay couple who just wanted a cake.

And so Raven shut her down with this:

“But I also think that if you’re going to be a religious party, or if you’re going to be somebody that believes in an almighty being, you should be respectful from the get go.”

Mic drop; because I hear all these Christians demanding respect for their beliefs while denying The Gays respect for being gay. And here’s just one more thing that Bure, with all her opinions and her faith, behind her, does not understand:

The United States Constitution protects freedom of religion, but it does not protect those who use their religion to deny equal protections to others.

In your home you can do and say and discriminate all you want, but if you open a business to the public then its open to the public, all of the public, and in Oregon its quite clear that you cannot discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation and if these women were denied service because they are having a same-sex wedding ceremony, which they are having because they are of the same sexual orientation, then the bakers broke the law. 

Addicting Info

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Minute Rant: The View Replaces Crazy With Crazy

Okay, so I figured The View, which is losing co-hosts almost as fast as they’re losing viewers, couldn’t dig up a crazier co-host than Sherri Bible-Thumper Shepherd, who once famously claimed that because she believed every word in the Bible, she wasn’t sure that the Earth wasn’t flat — I guess my Bible missed the chapter on Flat Earth. And I kinda wished she’d tried to prove her point by walking to the edge of Earth and jumping off.

And then The View hired Jenny McCarthy who hasn’t uttered a coherent sentence in her entire life, and thinks bug-eyes and guffaw teeth are comedy gold, and Rite-Aid readers are a sign of intelligence.

The show bounced those two, and replaced them with Nicole Wallace, the token GOP, Rosie Perez, the token Latina, and Rosie O’Donnell, the token gay or the token crazy. Rosie O left the show a couple of months in because her third Minute-Marriage was ending, and so The View began auditioning co-hosts and this week they announced that they’d scraped the bottom of the barrel and found one:

Raven-Symoné. I know. They’ve replaced Dumb and Dumber, and lesbian, with, well, here are a few things Raven has said while auditioning:

“I never said I wasn’t black, I said I wasn’t African American — to me that’s a difference. Thank you to Ancestry.com for sending me my DNA test … I am from every continent in Africa except for one and I’m also from every continent in Europe except for one.”

All together now: Africa is made up of many continents, and so is Europe. And someone, please send Raven a book of maps. 

Then there was the time she took some guy from Univision to task for comparing Michelle Obama to an ape:

“Michelle, don’t fire me from this right now, but some people look like animals. I look like a bird. So can I be mad if somebody calls me Toucan Sam?”

WTF? She doesn’t even get the idea of that racist Univision remark? She should’a traveled to that last continent on Africa and taken a class or something.

For her part, Raven said this about her new job:

“The Disney Company has made another one of my dreams come true! Being a part of ‘The View’ family will be a wonderful growing experience for me. The cast and crew are warm and welcoming and has made the transition into daytime talk easier. I have a lot to learn within this new arena, but being the apprentice of these spectacular women will only make me a better person and talk show host. I want to thank ABC, ABC News and The Disney Company for believing in me and my potential! Let’s have some fun!”

Um, before fun, howsabout a little education? A little thinking before you speak? Oh hell, she’ll stay because the show needs stupid … and because they haven’t announced yet who the fifth co-host might be.

I’d like to suggest a friend of mine I call Cancellation.

h/t Dlisted

I Didn't Say It ...

Ted Olson, who, along with fellow AFER attorney David Boies, represented Timothy Bostic and Tony London in their suit against Virginia, on the SCOTUS announcement:

"It does seem to suggest, if I was a federal judge, I would read today’s decision as saying that the opponents, if they still exist, on the Supreme Court of marriage equality have decided they don’t want to get into this and they sort of feel that the federal judges — one after the other, after the other, after the other — are getting it right and at this point they ought to just leave it alone. We believe, those of us who have been involved in this effort, that the Supreme Court having decided not to overturn or not to even review the decisions of these circuit courts ultimately will grant that same right and that same privilege to people all over the United States. To see the United States Supreme Court recognize in this way the love of these individuals and the happiness that they will soon be able to experience is the highlight of my life.”

It started as a trickle and may end as a landslide.

As it should …

Wade Davis Jr., former profession football player who came out as gay in 2012, on being gay, and his own journey to acceptance: 

"I did not want anyone to think I was gay, I started to perform more hetero norms of masculinity. I would go to strip clubs and when I did go to nightclubs, I made sure I left with a female. I was looking at my identity through the eyes of others. ... When you look at me, Jason Collins or Michael Sam, we show up with a certain type of masculinity that is typically accepted in this country. We can walk into a room and you'll think those guys are probably straight. We must make sure that any person can show up with any level of masculinity and be accepted."

An effeminate man, gay or straight, is still a man; two men in a relationship are still men — I loathe when anyone asks me or Carlos who the woman is in our relationship.

Gay men are men, get used to it.

Yvette Schneider, ex-ex-gay, meaning now she's not not gay, I guess, on the ex-gay movement and its demise:

"I think the ex-gay movement will be dead within the next 10 years. As churches become more gay-affirming, parents and church leaders won’t seek parachurch ministries to 'fix' in gay Christians what isn’t broken. The fact that the ex-gay movement has been a monumental failure with no real, lasting change in those who have sought to negate same-sex attractions and become heterosexual will become more and more apparent to the average lay Christian. This is especially true in the age of social media, when information spreads like wildfire and can’t easily be suppressed. I’m sure there will be pockets of people here and there who will still try to change someone’s orientation. But the movement as a relevant entity in the push for LGBT rights will be defunct."

Good. Haw damaging it is to try and force someone to suppress their true self because their family, or even they themselves, think being gay is wrong.

Raven-Symoné, on how it happened that she didn’t become Lohan:

"What I’ve learned is it’s unnecessary to go to the most popular restaurant in the world when you have a scandal on your head and then get mad that someone’s going to take a picture of you. That’s your fault, boo boo. Stay in the house.” 

Word. And snap.

Frank Bruni, writing in the New York Times, about the glut of folks working in Catholic schools fired for getting all same-sex married:

"Repeatedly over the last year and a half, I’ve written about teachers in Catholic schools and leaders in Catholic parishes who were dismissed from their posts because they were in same-sex relationships and — in many cases — had decided to marry. Every time, more than a few readers weighed in to tell me that these people had it coming. If you join a club, they argued, you play by its rules or you suffer the consequences. Oh really? The rules of this particular club prohibit divorce, yet the pews of many of the Catholic churches I’ve visited are populous with worshipers on their second and even third marriages. They walk merrily to the altar to receive communion, not a peep of protest from a soul around them. They participate fully in the rituals of the church, their membership in the club uncontested. The rules prohibit artificial birth control, and yet most of the Catholic families I know have no more than three children, which is either a miracle of naturally capped fecundity or a sign that someone’s been at the pharmacy."

Once again, he cuts through the muck and madness and shows the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church.

Ben Whishaw Comes Out .... Raven-Symoné, Too

Ben Whishaw has always been one of those actors who value their privacy, and rarely, if ever, has spoken about his personal life. But sometimes the news is so good you want to shout it from a rooftop.

Whishaw is out and proud, and has entered into a civil partnership with his partner, Australian composer Mark Bradshaw.

The two men met on the set of Jane Campion’s 2009 film Bright Star, where Whishaw played John Keats and Bradshaw composed the score. Whishaw was last seen as the quirky, nerdy tech wizard in the last Bond film, Skyfall.

Whishaw’s sexual orientation has been the subject of internet debate in recent years, sparked by an interview he gave to Out magazine last year while playing a homosexual character in an off-Broadway play, The Pride. When asked whether it was important for young gay people to have positive role models, Whishaw replied: ‘I feel in my heart that it’s important, but I don’t quite know yet the way to go about that. Maybe that’s the transitional thing I feel I’m in the middle of at the moment.’

Now, however, he wants to share the news: he’s a gay man.

And as such, he will be receiving a copy of the Gay Agenda as well as the obligatory Coming Out Toaster Oven.

Welcome out, Ben; I found you delicious in Skyfall and wondered about you ….

Welcome out.

Raven-Symoné has been dodging questions about her sexuality for a few years now because, well, it’s no one’s business. Last year, the National Enquirer printed a story saying she was gay, and Raven responded:

“I’m living my PERSONAL life the way I’m happiest. I’m not one, in my 25 year career to disclose who I’m dating. And I shall not start now. My sexual orientation is mine, and the person I’m dating to know. I’m not one for a public display of my life. However that is my right as a HUMAN BEing whether straight or gay. To tell or not to tell. As long as I’m not harming anyone. I am a light being made from love. And my career is the only thing I would like to put on display, not my personal life. Kisses!”

But now, I guess since the DOMA Death and the Prop H8 Smackdown, Raven is ready to tell the world, by Tweeting:

She says she’s not getting married anytime soon, but “it is great to know I can now, should I wish to.”

Welcome out, Raven.

And, as soon as we get the presses back up and running here at HOMO HQ, we’ll be sending a copy of the Gay Agenda—which is simple: equality—along with the Coming Out Toaster Oven.

It doesn’t matter when, or how, or where, you come out, it just matters that you do.

Welcome out.

Random Musings

Well, The Next Food Network Star is back again, and again, I'm hooked. They've changed the format this year, breaking it into three teams, each with a Food Network mentor: Giada De Laurentiis, of the blazing white teeth and oh so perky personality; Bobby Flay, arrogant douche; and Alton Brown, who, and call me crazy, I find absolutely adorkable.

He’s nerdy; he's cute; he's very smart, very nice, and wears bow-ties.

OMG....he's Carlos!

That explains that.

I thought this had already happened, I mean, it's the 21st century and all, but this week Adam Lambert's new album "Trespassing" debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200, and #1 on the Billboard Digital Albums Chart. 

It's Lambert's first #1 debut, and also the first time ever, that an openly gay singer has had an album debut in the top spot. Elton John and George Michael, each had top spot records, but not before they came out, and, oddly enough, they haven't had a top spot record since coming out.

So, congrats to Adam Lambert for another first.

Lots of gossip this week about former Cosby Show cute kid Raven-Symoné being a lesbian and living in NYC with her girlfriend. It was all over the Twitter and the Facebook, until Raven came out, pardon the pun, to say that her private life is her private life and she will not comment on whom she is dating or with whom she might be living.

So, is she gay? I dunno. If she is, good for; but bad for her for staying in the closet because a lot of young Black girls, who are struggling with coming out could be helped by Raven's story.

If she isn't gay, well, good for her, too.

Speaking of Is she gay or is she straight....

Queen Latifah performed at the Long Beach Gay Pride last weekend and apparently told the crowd that she was proud to be among "her people."

Instructing her audience "to conquer hate with love" and to "let their inner light shine in the world," Latifah, long rumored to be a lesbian, admitted, "I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time."

But she didn't say those two words, I'm gay, that people have expected. So, is she testing the waters? Is she just gonna go Jodie Foster or Jim Parsons and be known as a gay celebrity until one day it's just mentioned in passing.

Again, if Latifah came out she'd certainly be helping a lot of people struggling with coming to terms with their orientation.

So, Forbes magazine named JLo as the Most Powerful Celebrity in the world. Seriously. JLo.

I guess being on Idol, selling Fiats, hawking her “clothing line” at Kohl’s, being a spokesperson for hair color and makeup and, well, anything else, plus schtupping a backup dancer young enough to be her son, is Forbes definition of power.

Sadly, Oprah toppled from the top of the list, though she is rumored to have made $165 million last year.

But her network, OWN, which I’m not sure she really OWNS reportedly lost another $330 million.

So, even if she OWNS a third of OWN she took quite fall.

I caught a bit of The View this week and again I am wondering: Isn't it time for Babs to retire?

See, they were discussing the wedding of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, to his longtime girlfriend, And the discussion turned to the fact that the marriage took place after Facebook went public, and how Zuckerberg might have planned it that way because if he and the new missus get a divorce in the future, his earnings from before the marriage are untouchable.

Okay, so maybe he did it that way and maybe he didn't. No one really knows except the Zuckerbergs. But, Batty Babs Walters claimed that Zuckerberg did plan to marry after the stock went public so he wouldn't have to share that pot of gold. She claimed it as gospel.

Funny, but, how does she know that? I mean, the first status updates Babs ever made was etching into a cave wall: Today Daddy dragged home a brontosaurus for dinner.

Someone make her retire already.

Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers student who, with friend Molly Wei, pushed Tyler Clementi toward suicide because they videotaped him having sex with another man, was sentenced to thirty days in jail this week.

Now, I understand that he was actually charged with eavesdropping, and not murder, but when your eavesdropping leads to someone killing themselves, maybe thirty days is the wrong sentence?

Just sayin'.

Battleship. The movie.

B-one. G-seven.

Seriously? 

I mean, the alien bullets are shaped like the peg pieces from the actual game.

And, really? Rihanna?

Are there no new ideas anymore?

Did no one learn from Clue: The Movie?

You gotta love a politician who says it like it is.....

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, long rumored to be a potential vice presidential candidate alongside Mittsy, wasn't mincing words when he was asked about it yet again: “If I thought that call was coming, I would disconnect the phone,” Daniels said in an interview with Fox News.

And last week former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty told the Minnesota Star Tribune: “I'm going to take my name off the list, so if ... you're a journalist, an observer, remove my name from the list,” It gives me the giggles that more people are saying Don't pick me than are saying I'll do it.

In fact, only loons like Santorum and Gingrich seem interested.

Poor Mittsy, your own party doesn't think you have a shot.

Flipping channels I caught some of the American Idol finale last night.

Such a trendy show.

Neil Diamond!

Chaka Khan!

Reba McIntyre!

And Idols dressed in white like an old episode of The Brady Bunch, when they tried to be like The Partridge Family.

Yikes.