Long time until November...

Of Steers and Queers

Perry and a group of Boyscouts at the Boyscouts Of America
Annual Report Conference.

Is The Gay Community Ready For Another Texan Presidency?

"It shaped my view of the area and taking a hint from Lot’s wife, I vowed never to look back. I felt really bad for the entire state. I couldn’t quite imagine a life without culture, diversity or pride. It seemed to me that even the livestock almost looks down their noses at people in Texas."

Allen West and Debbie Wasserman Schultz - Together At Last?

If you're looking for any evidence that the Debt Ceiling Vote was truly a compromise for both Democrats and Republicans, you needn't look any further. Both Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Allen West (R-FL) have both voted in favor of the legislation.

What's ironic about this pair falling on the same side of our nation's most contentious debate this year is that they've been sparring over this very issue with vigor unmatched by any other dueling legislators.

According to the Schultz camp, West is a "sexist" and waging a "war on women and the elderly". According to Allen West himself, Schultz is "not a lady" and therefore doesn't deserve his respect.

Another unlikely pair of legislators to fall in line with each other for obviously very different reasons would be Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Bachmann, a Tea Party member like West, is the legislator who championed the idea of not raising the debt ceiling in the first place. Both Hastings and Bachmann voted against the debt ceiling compromise bill.

If these two (Allen West and Debbie Wasserman Schultz) can agree on a compromise - there is indeed hope for the rest of us... Or is there?

Recently, the Wilton Manors Business Association (WMBA) was forced to cancel an invitation for Allen West to speak at their event on August 8th. The speaking engagement was first championed by Celeste Ellich, the owner of a real estate agency, who is currently President of the association.

A number of association members were unhappy about West being asked to speak at the engagement and a few threatened to withdraw their membership. Some boycotts were haphazardly started and a petition began circulating.

According to sources close to Ellich, she even claimed to be receiving "death threats" over the situation. This claim of death threats has not been verified by anyone.

So why were the businesses so upset? Evidently, a lot of it has to do with West's anti-gay rhetoric and disrespect for women - particularly Schultz. In fact, a non-partisan organization made up of business owners and community activists in the Fort Lauderdale area has been set up to continue carrying the torch against West's rhetoric at future events.

As a disclaimer, I joined this coalition yesterday.

The following is the organization's only official statement to the press thus far:

A non partisan group of community and business leaders was formed
today, entitled 'The Coalition for Equality and Fairness (CEF)', to create
an organization designed to protect citizenship diversity and stand up to public
officials who are bullying the LGBT community in order to advance their
own political and personal agendas.

The first order of business for the CEF will be to conduct an open and public educational rally next Monday, August 8, at 6 p.m., in Wilton Manors, entitled 'Allen West: In His Own Words'. Our purpose is not to censor anyone; it is rather to censure those who attempt to abuse us.

The Coalition will be issuing a mission statement on Wednesday evening defining and
articulating its purpose and objectives, at which time the venue for the community rally and gathering will also be announced.

To participate in the rally or the initial organizing efforts of the CEF, please send an expression of interest to norm@normkent.com, co-ordinating outreach at the present time.

Has Obama Changed Washington (or has it changed him)?

I am writing this note to my friends (and their friends) today because I want you to think about the long arduous battle we have ahead of us in 2012. Thanks to the conservatives on the Supreme Court, there will be an influx of campaign cash in our politics like we've never seen before. In a ruling called "Citizens United V. The Federal Elections Commission", Supreme Court Justices like Scalia, Roberts and Thomas basically opened up Pandora's Box for corruption and propaganda at its worst.

Moderate and Independant voters will be faced with the age old question, "Republican or Democrat?" and conventional wisdom tells us that they are inclined to lean toward Republicans. To make matters more ominous for Democrats, state level politics experienced an influx of hard-right Republicans in the 2010 elections and this includes Governors and State Houses that will be re-rigging the voting laws, the way the districts are drawn and even the processes by which votes are counted in key states.

What Democrats need right now is a strategy and a clear message... We need to be on the offense and the defense simultaneously. Mostly, we have to bring something to the table. Voters are no longer interested in Kennedy's sentiment that they should "ask what they can do for their country". They now sing a tune more akin to the Janet Jackson song, "What have you done for me lately?"

We must attempt to answer this question for voters because it just happens to be the Achilles Heel for conservatives and Republicans... The truth is, what little the Democrats have been able to accomplish has aired on the side of the working middle class... the side of the voters. Republicans cannot truthfully claim anything of the sort. Here are a few examples that are actually quite impressive:

• 1) Barack Obama is the first American President to issue a "Taxpayer's Reciept".


• 2) The United States under leadership of Obama captured and killed the terrorist responsible for collapsing the World Trade Center.


• 3) Democrats alone trailblazed a path for making healthcare a fundamental aspect of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.


• 4) Thanks to President Obama and the Democratic Party, Gays & Lesbians can openly serve in the armed forces while knowing that they are protecting true freedom without exceptions made for personal prejudices.


• 5) Thanks to President Obama and the Democratic Party, the mother of a hate crime victim will have her anguish validated by the law when she buries her son or daughter. The Government will not tell her that it's her fault.


• 6) President Obama has given options to Native American Women who are the victims of rape and violent attacks on their reservations so that they may access law enforcement and see justice for the first time.


• 7) It is Democrats, NOT Republicans, who continue to insist that the Government protect consumers from predatory banks, lenders and credit card companies.


• 8) Both civilian casualties and armed services casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are (from what I can tell) about 30% of what they were yearly under the leadership of George W. Bush. The ongoing occupations seem to be slowly turning into the "peace-keeping" missions that Republicans promised but could never manage to deliver.


• 9) Women who do the same work as men at their jobs must now be paid equally according to the law for the first time in America's History and once again... that was Democratic legislation.


• 10) For the first time since the crisis began, our Federal Government has a strategy to treat HIV/AIDS in the United States and to prevent new infections from increasing in frequency.

Rick Santorum Is A Mortal Sinner by Vatican Standards

My hope for gay rights activists going into 2012 is that we can focus our protests and actions on those who richly deserve to be protested and acted against.

Too many activists, it seems, are going off on tangential facebook rants about Barack Obama’s lackluster non-support of gay marriage. This ignores the culpability of Congress in not passing legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which Bill Clinton signed into law not too long ago. DOMA is an unconstitutional law because it dictates standards for marriage to all of the 50 states – a power that the Federal Government cannot have. The United States Constitution says verbatim:

Amendment 10 - The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people.

Since marriage is not one of the enumerated powers of the Federal Government, it MUST belong to the States or the People. It is the responsibility of the Congress to admit their mistake and pass a repeal law. When they do this, it will be Obama's responsibility to sign the repeal law as he did with repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT). Many people in Congress are failing us right now because they are disobeying the Constitution every moment that they do not repeal DOMA.

One such person is former Senator Rick Santorum who frequently cites the Constitution of the USA in other debates. He relies on his Catholic upbringing for his argument against gay marriage, however.

Interestingly though, Santorum’s allegiance to Catholicism might be his downfall in his current run for President of the United States. Why? It is because in the process of campaigning, he has already committed two mortal sins.


In 2008, The Holy See under leadership of Pope Benedict XVI added seven “new sins” to the list of mortal or “deadly” sins to make a total of 14. While such a decision strikes non-Catholics as somewhat arbitrary, the Holy See is not to be disrespected or defied by practicing Catholics and the rules stand. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into Hell”.


The Vatican made it quite clear that “promoting torture” is a mortal sin because “torture, which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity.” Thus, in respect to the 5th Commandment, the verbal promotion of torture or cruel experiments by a Catholic media person or politician creates what the church calls “scandal”.

Scandal, in Catholic terms, is about as bad as it gets – it means that you are “wolf in sheeps clothing”. The Bible says of one who creates religious scandal that they’d be better off to tie a stone around their neck and drown themselves than to deal with the Lord himself.

Here is a link to Rick Santorum being disingenuous about and promoting torture: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55140.html

Another mortal Sin that Santorum has flippantly ignored his culpability in is promoting pollution of the environment.

According to Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti of the Holy See, “environmental blight” is a particularly grave sin because it affects so many people globally who cannot defend themselves. The Archbishop cited climate change specifically on this matter.

Here is a link to Rick Santorum shamelessly denying that Climate Change (Global Warming) even exists at all:
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/06/24/253389/santorum-theres-no-such-thing-as-global-warming/

Now, obviously, some will argue that the mere promotion of policies which may or may not lead to such sins is a murky area in moral law and that the Santorum should not be held religiously accountable for his words… Its fine for a non-Catholic to hold that opinion but the Catholic leadership totally disagrees.

It goes back to the Holy See’s staunch refusal to support Scandal… Sins which are promoted on a mass scale via media or social networking are considered Scandal and for a Catholic to commit these acts… Well, there’s always the stone-around-the-neck routine…

Catholic Democrats have been denied Communion in the United States on more than one occasion due to their perceived “promotion” of abortion and stem-cell research. Being denied Communion is basically the Catholic Church’s way of saying “Go to hell”. John Kerry, a Presidential candidate like Santorum was one such person in 2004.