Despite the best efforts of Sean Kennedy’s mother, Elke, and many others to stop the early release of Sean’s murderer, Stephen Andrew Moller (”who called him ‘faggot’ while punching him so hard that he broke every bone in Sean’s face. Sean fell to the pavement; the impact caused his brain to separate from his brain stem”) was allowed to plea-bargain down to involuntary manslaughter, earning him a five-year sentence — suspended.
Now Moller has been released. And Elke Kennedy learned about it through an automated phone message.
I’d send you directly over to the original source, but it’s actually easier to understand what’s going on if you read the summary from QNotes first, and then follow the link from there:
An openly lesbian 2008 South Carolina Democratic candidate for Congress has called out three Palmetto State Republicans for being closeted gays in an interview for a progressive Democratic blog.
The bombshell statements were made in a FireDogLake interview on June 1 from Linda Ketner, an openly lesbian 2008 Democratic candidate against South Carolina’s First Congressional District incumbent Henry Brown.
“We have more gay people serving in South Carolina than probably in anyplace in the United States; they’re just not out of the closet,” she told blogger Howie Klein. “We have an awful lot of people in the closet — Lindsey Graham, Glenn McConnell who’s our Senate president pro tem, our Lt Governor [André Bauer].”
Later in the comment section of the website, Ketner clarified her remarks, “By the way, in Howie’s intro, he quoted me as saying several members of state and U.S. government were gay,” she said. “I don’t know that for sure having never been intimate with any of them. Those are the rumors.” …
Blogger and activist Michael Rogers, who has worked for years outing anti-gay, closeted politicians, said individuals should be careful making accusations without certainty or proof. …
No kidding. Not too smart to set yourself up for a lawsuit, Linda — not that we think you’re wrong or anything, but still. That’d be like us saying Jodie Foster is a lesbian, without having, like, any proof, you know?
Last semester, I taught the close friend of a young man named Sean Kennedy. … Sean is dead. In May 2007, he was assaulted in Greenville, S.C., by a young man who called him “faggot” while punching him so hard that he broke every bone in Sean’s face. Sean fell to the pavement; the impact caused his brain to separate from his brain stem.
“Shortly after driving away, Sean’s killer left a message on the cell phone of one of Sean’s friends: “Tell your faggot friend that when he wakes up he owes me $500 for my broken hand.”
Sean Kennedy’s family will never see justice done for Sean. Because of the inadequacy of South Carolina murder laws and the lack of hate crime statutes, his killer, Stephen Andrew Moller, could be out of prison as early as February. We must protest this injustice and ask the parole board to make Moller serve the remainder of his sentence.
Moller was plea bargained down to involuntary manslaughter and received a suspended 5 year sentence for his crime. Because of the credit he received for time he served before his sentencing, the longest possible time he will have to serve in prison is until September 2009. Despite the violence of his crime, he could be eligible for parole by this coming February, meaning that he will have served only 8 months since his sentencing in prison.
The parole board is currently conducting an investigation to decide whether to allow him to have a parole hearing, so it is critical that they hear from you that Stephen Andrew Moller violently murdered Sean Kennedy and should serve the remainder of his sentence!
Please consider writing a letter to the parole board and ask them to deny Stephen Moller parole and serve out his sentence. In your letter, please remind the board of the violent and unprovoked nature of Moller’s offense and the pain and suffering it has caused in the lives of Sean Kennedy’s family and friends. If you have the time, please write a personal letter by hand or by computer, as those will be the most effective, and if you knew Sean or his family personally, please include that information.
Also, please let Elke* know if you send a letter and if possible, send her a copy of the letter, so she can have copies to take with her to the parole hearing.
Be sure to include Moller’s full name and ID number: Stephen Andrew Moller - SCDC ID # 00328891.
Send your letters to: Department of Probation Pardon and Parole Services 2221 Devine Street, Suite 600, PO Box 50666 Columbia SC 29250
Please forward to your contacts, friends and family.
Role Of Religion In Presidential Campaign Heads 2008 ‘Top Ten’ List Of Church-State Stories
The role of religion in the presidential campaign tops the 2008 “Top Ten” list of top church-state stories, according to the editors of Church & State.
The monthly magazine, published by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is the nation’s only news periodical devoted exclusively to the intersection of religion and government.
Said Church & State publisher Barry W. Lynn, “It was a wild and crazy year. To tell you the truth, I’m glad it’s coming to a close. I’m hopeful 2009 will be a lot better.”
After studying the past 12 months of news, the editors selected the following 10 stories as the most important and most interesting church-state developments for the year.
1. The Role of Religion in the Presidential Campaign: Not since 1960 when John F. Kennedy the first Roman Catholic president was elected, has religion played such a large role in a presidential campaign. News media representatives grilled candidates on what sins they had committed and what their favorite Bible verses were. Barack Obama fought false rumors that he is secretly a Muslim, and Mitt Romney’s Mormonism became a controversial topic. Candidates were held accountable for the incendiary comments of their pastors and their clergy supporters, such as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and TV preacher John Hagee. Many observers thought the whole thing was an unholy mess, especially in a nation that separates religion and government.
2. The Resurgence of the Religious Right: While pundits and progressives have proclaimed the demise of the Religious Right, the fundamentalist political movement remained extraordinarily powerful. Republican John McCain found it necessary to name evangelical Sarah Palin as his running mate to mollify the GOP’s restive religious base, and Religious Right forces rammed through bans on same-sex marriage in California, Florida and Arizona. Moderate evangelical Richard Cizik was forced out as government affairs representative at the National Association of Evangelicals after coming under fire from Religious Right forces.
3. The Battle Over Gay Marriage: Bans on same-sex marriage were approved in California, Florida and Arizona with conservative religious forces leading the drive. California’s approval of Proposition 8, with massive funding from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was particularly contentious. The Mormons, joined by the Roman Catholic hierarchy and evangelical Protestant congregations, were successful in passing a constitutional amendment that takes away the right of same-sex couples to marry and reflects church doctrine in civil law. The issue now moves back to the state Supreme Court.
4. The Ascendancy of Rick Warren: Once known primarily as a mega-church pastor and best-selling author (The Purpose Driven Life), the Rev. Rick Warren has rapidly moved into position as the nation’s most prominent preacher, despite right-wing views on reproductive freedom, gay rights and church-state separation. Warren, a Southern Baptist who heads Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., is viewed by progressives as Jerry Falwell in a Hawaiian shirt with an ace PR team. After hosting a presidential debate stacked toward John McCain and being asked to give the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration, many think Warren seems destined to be the new Billy Graham.
5. Religious Right Influence at Justice Department: Religious Right influence at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was exposed this year. According to an internal DOJ investigation reported in the media in July, senior aides in the department used religious and political criteria to hire staff members for non-political positions. Monica Goodling, a top adviser to the attorney general, checked to see if job applicants were “pro-God in public life” and held right-wing views on abortion, homosexuality and other issues. (Goodling is a graduate of TV preacher Pat Robertson’s Regent University.) DOJ also posted a legally dubious memorandum this year insisting that the federal government may give grants to “faith-based” social service agencies that discriminate in hiring, even if Congress has explicitly banned such bias.
6. Battles Over Creationism in Public Schools: New battles have erupted over the teaching of evolution in public schools. Blocked by the courts from teaching fundamentalist religious concepts directly in biology classes, Religious Right forces are trying a backdoor strategy. They are demanding that schools teach the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution, a euphemism for creationist ideas. Over the heated objections of educators, scientists and civil liberties activists, the Louisiana legislature approved an “academic freedom” law encouraging such instruction in the state’s schools. Now the Texas State Board of Education is debating a similar proposal as part of its 10-year review of science standards.
7. Church Politicking Plot: The Religious Right’s dream of building a fundamentalist church-based political machine took a big step forward in 2008 when more than 30 pastors used their pulpits to endorse Republican political candidates. They acted at the behest of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a wealthy Religious Right legal outfit that wants to challenge the federal tax law ban on partisan politicking by tax-exempt groups. The ADF, which was founded by TV preachers and other religious broadcasters, hopes the Internal Revenue Service will revoke participating churches’ tax exemptions leading to a court showdown.
8. Defeat of Jeb Bush Referenda: Florida Gov. Jeb Bush saw his school voucher subsidies for religious and other private schools overturned by the state Supreme Court in 2006. Undeterred, the now former governor’s allies on an obscure tax commission engineered two measures onto the November 2008 ballot that would have repealed the state constitution’s ban on public funding of religion as well as diluted its provision for a strong system of public schools. To Bush’s dismay, the state Supreme Court on Sept. 3 struck the referenda from the ballot, derailing the scheme.
9. Blocking of ‘Christian’ License Plate: The South Carolina legislature unanimously approved a special “Christian” license plate featuring a bright yellow cross, a stained-glass church window and the words “I Believe.” Backed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, four local clergy and two minority faith groups challenged the government favoritism toward one faith. On Dec. 11, a federal district court blocked issuance of the plates. The judge’s action may forestall similar sectarian plates under consideration in other states.
10. The Christmas Wars: It has become an annual holiday tradition Religious Right groups and their allies in the right-wing media launch a yearly crusade to stop the alleged secularization of Christmas and to pressure government to include Christian symbols in the holiday mix. They rail against stores’ use of the term “Happy Holidays” and insist that advertisements say “Merry Christmas” instead. This year, much of the attention focused on a Washington State battle where an atheist Winter Solstice sign was positioned near a Christian Nativity scene in the state capital. Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly and an array of Religious Right scolds lambasted Gov. Christine Gregoire for allowing the anti-religious sentiment. Ironically, credit for the atheist display actually should go to the Alliance Defense Fund, a Religious Right legal group that sued Gregoire last year, insisting that the Capitol is an open forum where a Nativity scene (and all other forms of speech) must be allowed.
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom. Americans Unitied for Separation of Church and State Links: Homepage; Americans United (Press Center); Americans United (Action Center)
As thrilled as we are to hear that X-thousand people came out in San Francisco and New York and Chicago for Saturday’s nationwide Proposition 8 protests, we’re even more impressed by the smaller cities and towns where a hundred people, or just a dozen, gay and straight, braved brutal climates, of both the environmental and the anti-gay varieties. It’s not easy to stand on a street corner and absorb the hate even when you’ve got 2,000 people on your side; we can’t begin to imagine what it’s like to do the same thing when your group numbers a few dozen — or just a few.
So, let’s look at a quick rundown of the best numbers I could find for the “big” protests, and then take a moment to appreciate some brave souls who took up the mantle of equality for all in places you might least expect anyone to do it.
The Big Protests: 2,000 People or More
New York - ? (I’ve heard everything from 4,000 on up.)
Several dozen protested in downtown Anchorage Saturday afternoon. …
Alaska was the first state in the nation to constitutionally ban gay marriage, back in 1998, when voters approved the change by a more than a two-to-one margin.
About 25 gay rights advocates held up signs in front of Fairbanks City Hall…
Voters in Alaska approved a ban on gay marriage 10 years ago.
An Army wife organized the gathering in Fairbanks, which started at 9:30 a.m. and involved waving signs in front of passing motorists on Cushman Street.
One sign read, “Love is love.” Another: “Equal rights for all.” A man held a sign saying, “I am Sarah Palin’s gay friend.”
Kristen Magann, the organizer, described herself as heterosexual, happily married and a believer that sexual preference should not determine civil rights.
“I want to make this message heard,” she stated in an e-mail, “that all people no matter their sexual orientation should be allowed the same rights under the law.”
More than 100 people rallied on the corners of East Magnolia Street and Cornwall Avenue in Bellingham the morning of Saturday, Nov. 15, to protest California’s recent ban on gay marriage.
Chants of “It’s about love not hate,” and “Hey mister president, what do you say, don’t hate families because they’re gay” filled blocks of downtown Bellingham during the two-hour protest. …
The protesters in Bellingham were outside the Federal Building from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. A smaller group continued the protest outside the Bellingham Farmer’s Market after noon.
The ironic marquee of the Empress Theatre on Virginia Street served as an appropriate backdrop to a Proposition 8 protest Saturday night.
On one level of the marquee, the Empress Theatre advertised an upcoming gay and lesbian night, while one line below it advertised the Latter-day Saints Concert series.
The Saturday concert was what prompted about 75 people to gather in front of the theater chanting and demanding a return of same-sex marriage rights that the passage of Prop. 8 eliminated.
Solano County is the only Bay Area county where voters approved Prop. 8.
About 75 people showed up to a Fairfield rally organized by Fairfield High School student Crystal Nievera, 16.
“Not everyone voted yes on 8 (in Solano County),” said Nievera, who feared a small showing based on what her Facebook group told her.
The protesters met at Fairfield City Hall and marched to Solano County Municipal Court, where they would be more visible on busy Texas Street.
The young organizer invoked the spirit of slain Fairfield councilman Matt Garcia, a strong supporter of youth before he was gunned down in September at age 22.
“This is why today, I’m trying to make a difference,” Nievera said.
Toni Pinck stood quietly next to Chauvin, holding a “No on Prop. 8” sign. Her son was married in San Francisco Aug. 15.
“I’m here to show support for people that are still fighting for their civil rights,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to vote for Proposition 8 if it weren’t for people who fought for the woman’s right to vote many years ago.”
Marina Martinez and Evelyn Iraheta, also Tracy residents, were married Oct. 24 in Stockton. They said they thought their neighbors were supportive of their marriage before Proposition 8 was introduced in June, until the “Yes on 8” signs began to appear. …
Demonstrators also took to the streets of Salinas against Prop 8. The Salinas march happened to take place on the same day an event at Hartnell College called for the strengthening of families.
. . .
The latest returns in Monterey County show the Proposition 8 race was much closer, than Santa Cruz County. No on 8 collected 52% of the total vote.
Young gay students, middle-aged white and Latino couples and community activists came together Saturday on the city’s streets to protest passage of Proposition 8. …
“We are here because we need to remind people we live in a nation under civil law and Prop. 8 forces some to live according to the religious views of others,” said Randall Lopez, an organizer with the Inland Empire Human Rights Coalition, which held the local protest. …
On Saturday morning, about 30 people gathered in front of Colton City Hall to kick off the rally. …
Nicolas Daily, 19, of Redlands, who described himself as a gay black man, stood high on the steps urging the group to join him in singing “Let it Be” and “Somewhere over the Rainbow.”
“I honestly just want people to know this is not going to go away,” he said. “We are going to be out here until we get our rights.”
Cherie Stevens, Mother of gay son: “We want our son to have the very same rights as his straight brothers.”
Cherie and her husband were among a group of 60 individuals at the Bonneville County Courthouse who all wanted to make their voices and opinions heard. They say our country was founded on the idea of equality and will now just take some time before this rings true for everyone.
Jamee Greer took charge of a sizable crowd that united and protested Saturday in favor of gay marriage rights, a group pulled together in Missoula by the Internet and text messages.
He gave the group its marching orders, announcing the rules of the road, as the protesters carried signs and prepared to march from North Higgins Avenue to the Missoula County Courthouse.
“This is about basic human rights and civil rights not being met here at home in Montana,” said Greer…
In Missoula, Brian Cook wore a picture of his 21-year-old gay son, Andrew Sullivan-Cook, who was in Dallas marching with Join the Impact protesters. “I’m here, not only in support of my son’s rights, but it’s simply the right thing to do,” said Cook. “Even if my son wasn’t gay, I’d be here.”
Cook said his daughter, and 15-month-old grandson, would be marching in Dallas alongside his son.
About 65 people are gathered in front of Grand Forks’s Town Square this afternoon to protest the passage of Proposition 8 in California…
The group first came together at about 12:30 p.m. in front of Grand Forks City Hall. The protest is part of a nationwide event in 300 cities, according to jointheimpact.com. The Grand Forks event is scheduled to run until 3:30 p.m.
At about 1:30 p.m., the group left their spot in front to move to Town Square at the corner of DeMers Avenue and Third Street.
Horns were honking for several hours early Saturday afternoon, supporting about 120 gay rights activists with signs and flags who were protesting the recent approval of California’s Proposition 8. …
There were many supportive honks throughout the afternoon, said John McClelland, president of the Stonewall Democrats of Denton County, a gay and lesbian political organization.
Jack Harnstrom and Jon Hill have been partners for 14 years, but when California was set to vote on banning same-sex marriages, the Duluth residents raced to Palm Spring, Calif., to be wed.
Their wedding ceremony was Nov. 3, a day before California voted to take away that right. On Saturday afternoon, the couple joined about 75 others at a gay rights rally against California’s Proposition 8 at Lake Avenue and Superior Street in downtown Duluth.
More than 120 people lined the street in front of the Federal Building Saturday afternoon to protest the recent passage of a California ballot proposal banning same-sex marriage.
Signs reading “Stop the Hate” and “Equal Rights for All” attracted honks as passing motorists showed support. The crowd stretched nearly a full block along West Michigan Avenue.
They were among about 100 people who attended the rally in front of MSU Auditorium.
Organized by MSU Alliance of Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgendered and Straight Ally Students, the protest was one of hundreds that took place Saturday nationwide.
Among the nationwide turnouts Saturday was a gathering of about 40 people at the corner of Main and University streets in Peoria. The group protested the decision that affected an estimated 18,000 California couples seeking the legal distinction. …
“This is a more conservative area, and we know that. Everybody knows someone who is gay. A lot of times it’s just not talked about. But we still participate in the homeowners’ associations, or neighborhood watch groups. … We buy Girl Scout cookies from neighbors’ kids.
“I do what I can to support my neighbors and their families. Why not support me and my family, my relationship?”
University students and Champaign-Urbana families took to the streets Saturday to protest the recent passing of Proposition 8 in California which bans gay marriage. …
The event in Campustown was sponsored by the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Resources and was organized by Brooke Elliot, senior in Education, and Virginia McCreary, graduate student.
Elliot said they planned a protest on campus because many people were not able to get to Chicago for its protest. …
About 80 protestors stood on the corners with colorful signs. Some cars driving down Green Street honked in support of the cause.
At 1 p.m. the protestors had a moment of silence which was broken by a car honking in support of the protest. The protestors then marched down Green Street to Fourth Street and back again shouting their message and waving their signs.
The protestors were met with little resistance.
On two occasions, groups of students walking past the protestors made remarks in opposition of the protest.
One worker at Potbelly Sandwich Works opened the door as the protestors were walking past and said, “Good job guys!”
Every time a car honked, they cheered. A group of about 20 people stood at the corner of Main Street and Jefferson Boulevard in downtown South Bend on Saturday, waving signs in support of same-sex marriage. …
“It sets a precedent,” said Mandy Studdard, who helped organize the South Bend rally. “People say ‘If the rest of the country doesn’t want this, why should we have it here?’ We’ve got to set a different precedent. That’s not how it’s supposed to be.”
About 50 people protested in Jackson outside the state capitol…
“[W]hen people see protests happening around the country, they’ll understand that this isn’t just an issue that’s happening somewhere else, this is an American issue happening everywhere, because it affects all of us,” organizer Brent Cox said.
A mixed group of students and local activists marched in protest today as part of a national day of action against the passage of California’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Nearly 100 students and residents joined for a march from the drill field around campus and back chanting slogans, bearing signs and waving and cheering at passing cars.
“We’re in southwest Virginia, we want to improve the LGBT community’s visibility and we want people here to know we exist,” said organizer Tami Grossman.
About 35 people gathered in front of Greenville City Hall on Saturday afternoon to protest voter passage of California’s Proposition 8, a referendum that reversed a state supreme court ruling allowing gay marriage. …
The group protested peacefully and without incident, displaying signs and flags representing gay pride. They sang songs of protest, led by Georgia Winfree, of the group Someone’s Sister, then marched together along Fifth Street where an occasional passing car honked in response.
In Macon on Saturday, more than 50 advocates for Join the Impact, an international organization supporting equal rights for people who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, protested the California Proposition 8 vote outside City Hall.
Protesters waved signs reading “What Would Martin Do?” “Fight the H8” and “Would You Rather I Marry Your Daughter?” …
“Today’s protest is a small piece of the puzzle,” said Alex Webb, organizer of the Macon rally. “This started off as an online movement and has become a national and international phenomenon. There are people in London standing with us right now … standing with us against our treatment as second-class citizens, standing for equal rights for all.”
150 people came out on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon to show support for same-sex marriage and solidarity with gay and lesbian people in California. …
Protesters gathered at the corner of Elmwood Avenue and Bidwell Parkway with signs that advocated equality under state marriage laws for all people. The event began at 1:30pm and also featured remarks by local activist Kitty Lambert and New York State Assembly member Sam Hoyt.
Standing on the steps of City Hall, more than 70 gay men, lesbians and their supporters yesterday protested a California vote banning same-sex marriage and called for all states to provide civil marriage “equality.” …
A steady stream of drivers crawling across usually crowded Main Street honked their horns in support of the crowd. Many drivers yelled out “Yes” and “Way to go” or waved their fists in solidarity. For at least the first hour of the demonstration, no passers-by said or did anything in opposition to the gay-marriage cause.
“Westchester is a very, very affirming place to live,” said Scott Havelka of Rye Brook, interim executive director of The Loft, a gay community services center in White Plains, which supported the rally.
About 100 supporters of marriage equality for same-sex couples stood in a steady drizzle outside Burlington City Hall on Saturday to register their disappointment with the outcome of the Proposition 8 vote in California Nov. 4.
Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force field director Robyn Maguire rallied the crowd, insisting that Vermont could do better than California.
“We want Vermont to reclaim its role in this important civil rights issue,” Maguire said. “It’s been eight years and it’s time for us to move forward. Now more than ever does Vermont matter.”
Gay marriage proponents united Saturday in grass-roots protests around the country — including one in Market Square. …
“It’s a matter of equality,” said Forest Stone, a Portsmouth resident, as she stood in the rain Saturday among nearly 100 other sign-touting, umbrella-gripping demonstrators.
Like dozens of others, Stone and her 6-year-old daughter Annalie both held bright signs facing traffic in front of the North Church, while some people in passing cars encouraged the efforts with honks and shouts.
“We’re small but mighty,” said protest organizer Jennifer Rowe today.
Rowe, along with Amanda Zuke, Kyle Cardoza, Liz Laplante and two other concerned citizens, gathered outside Sault Ste. Marie’s Civic Centre to protest the recent adoption of California’s Proposition 8, outlawing same-sex marriage.
“We’re here to show our support for those in the United States who are fighting to get same-sex marriage recognized and for human rights across the board,” Rowe told SooToday.com. …
“The battle may have been fought and won in Canada to allow people to marry whoever they want, but being respected just as another human being is still a problem,” said Rowe. “There’s still a long way to go in some cases.” …
Rowe says she’s already started planning something to happen locally in support of Join the Impact’s fight.
FORT MILL, S.C. — Fort Mill Mayor Danny Funderburk says he was “just curious” when he forwarded a chain e-mail suggesting Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama is the biblical antichrist. “I was just curious if there was any validity to it,” Funderburk said in a telephone interview. “I was trying to get documentation if there was any scripture to back it up.” …
The e-mail, which has circulated in the last six months since Obama secured the Democratic nomination, claims the biblical book of Revelation says the antichrist will be in his 40s and of Muslim ancestry.
There is no such scripture. And Obama is not a Muslim. …
The urban legend Web site Snopes.com first exploded the myth in March. Funderburk forwarded the e-mail this month.
When asked if he believed Obama was the antichrist, Funderburk replied, “I’ve got absolutely no way of knowing that.” …
“I am curious about current events and their connection to the Bible,” he said.
We’re also curious about whether or not Funderburk’s brain stem goes all the way to the top.
It looks like Chad Prosser, director of South Carolina’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, is a big, fat liar* — and that some poor schmuck fell on his sword to cover Prosser’s butt.
In late June, Amro Worldwide announced a poster campaign to lure gay travelers from the U.K. to various destinations across the U.S., with the tagline Atlanta — or Boston, or Las Vegas, or wherever — is “so gay.” (We like it — it’s cool that somebody decided to co-opt the phrase “so gay” as a positive rather than a negative.)
At the time, South Carolina Tourism spokesperson Kirsty Dillury said:
“South Carolina has a lot to offer gay travellers, and we think that people may be surprised to see our destination reaching out to the gay market,” said Ms Dillury. “We are delighted to be involved with the ‘So Gay’ campaign in particular as it sends a powerful positive message to everyone that there is nothing wrong at all with a destination being described as ’so gay’. For our gay visitors it is actually quite wonderful for them to discover just how much South Carolina has to offer — from stunning plantation homes to miles of wide sandy beaches.”
South Carolina’s tourism agency has slapped the wrist of its ad manager and is refusing to go ahead and pay for a campaign to attract gay tourists from Britain.
The state employee who gave the OK for the ad campaign resigned Friday.
“[He] exercised extremely poor judgment in approving participation in the program,” state Parks, Recreation and Tourism director Chad Prosser told the State newspaper.
Prosser said the department will require more review in the future.
It was too late to stop the ads that proclaim “South Carolina is so gay”. They’ve already gone up in the London subway to take advantage of gay pride in the British capital.
But Prosser said Friday the state will refuse to pay the $5,000 cost of the ads. …
Today, WSPA-TV reveals that Prosser himself had essentially approved the “so gay” campaign — or, rather, he was for it before he was against it:
…PRT emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that, on July 3, Prosser told his staff the state would take part in the campaign. The email to London says, “Per Chad’s direction as of 4:40 p.m. today, (July 3) DO NOT ask the vendor to remove South Carolina from the campaign.”
Prosser told reporters after the story broke that upper management at PRT never approved the posters, and other emails back that up. He says it was approved by a lower-level employee who resigned after lawmakers, the governor and members of the public questioned the use of tax dollars for the ads.
One email, from PRT Communications Director Marion Edmonds, says, “I’m praying this little story doesn’t jump the pond.” His email was in response to one from another PRT employee’s friend who was traveling in London and sent a cell phone photo of the South Carolina poster. “I hadn’t seen the photo of the poster,” he writes. Prosser says he also had not seen the actual ad until he was forwarded the same email with a photo of the poster in the London subway.
What a… Well, you find your own word for what Prosser is.
Meanwhile, we can’t make heads nor tails of the gobbledygook excuse Prosser offered WSPA:
Asked why he directed staff not to ask the vendor to remove South Carolina’s poster from the campaign, Prosser told News Channel 7, “These were not our ads. We did not place them, so we didn’t have the authority to pull them.” …
Prosser says his initial reaction was, in fact, to pull the ads. But once he found out the ads were done by Amro, not PRT, he decided not to ask that they be pulled.
“Asking for ads that we weren’t paying for, that we didn’t place, to be pulled would’ve been difficult,” Prosser says. And there was another reason. “We found out by that point that the campaign was extremely limited in time and the ads were already scheduled to come down, so there was really nothing that we could do to speed that process up,” he says.
Oh, puh-leeze.
* No libel here: We said it looks like Prosser is a big, fat liar — “big” and “fat” being purely figurative, as we have no idea what he looks like.
I haven’t finished the first part of project mentioned here, but it’s getting there. In the meantime, while I continue to dig into the ugly depths of the anti-gay movement, here’s a quick rundown of what’s happening in our world:
Speaking of The Presumptuous Nominee, Queerty notes that Florida’s gay Democrats are disappointed with the Obama campaign, and quotes a report from Florida Capital News: “The leader of the Florida Democratic Party’s gay caucus, declaring that ‘I’m sick and tired of getting table scraps,’ complained Saturday that Sen. Barack Obama offended a large and faithful voting bloc by not sending his wife or another top campaign surrogate to the group’s annual meeting.”
Now, before anybody resorts to the tired old argument that ignoring gay groups is consistent with Obama’s refusal to pander to any single “interest,” we say: If Saint Barry can find the time to pander to hard-right Christian fundies — like he’ll be doing (again, and this time along with John McCain) at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church — then he can at least send his compulsive gum-flapper of a wife to talk to the Florida Democratic Party’s gay caucus. This isn’t like ignoring local gay press; this is an official caucus of the Democratic Party.
Back in the reality-based world, we’re happy to hear that activists in San Diego aren’t taking Doug Manchester’s campaign of anti-equality lying down — especially in one of Manchester’s beds. (Backstory here and here.) Just before San Diego Pride Saturday, between 150 and 200 people rallied in protest outside the Manchester Grand Hyatt (and were countered by about 75 bigots).
As for the San Diego pridefest itself, while Wendy Fry was bemoaning the fact that straight men just can’t wear boas and sequins the way gay men can, the “internationally renown anti-Scientology activism group Anonymous” was marching in its own contingent in the parade. If I were Anonymous, I’d remain anonymous, too. Those zany Xenuists scare the bejeebers out of my quivering little body thetans.
Tourism experts are “puzzled” since five grand is such a measly price to pay “for such a lucrative niche market.” We’re not puzzled at all; hysterical homophobia always trumps common sense. Look at Jamaica, where they’d rather murder us than prop up their own barely-on-life-support economy with our Big Gay Dollars. We say: Screw ‘em — both Jamaica and the Jamaica of the United States, South Carolina. Let them eat dirt.
Also, my dear Gaytheist shines the light on yet another example of masking bigotry behind “deeply held religious beliefs,” in the case of a gay-hatin’ British cop: What’s the Matter With the UK Lately?
(Speaking of dumb cops, one of the San Diego Harbor Police shot to death a go-go boy who fell off a pride-cruise boat, and got physical with his rescuers. I don’t care what the guy did — when you’ve got one suspect surrounded by a bunch of armed police officers, there can’t be any excuse for failing to subdue him without killing him.)
Elsewhere on the international front: We’re glad that Iris Robinson, wife of Northern Ireland’s First Minister, and Ignorant, Sour-Lemon-Faced, Mad Old Cow whose sunken, empty eyes are only accentuated by a criminal sense of makeup application (see the picture at the link), lives half a world away from us, so we don’t have to listen to her vile nonsense about how much worse homosexuality is than child sexual abuse.
And here are the rest of the headlines that caught my eye today — I’ll leave you to them while I get back to the dirty work of digging into the incestuous circle of money and hate behind the Proposition 8 campaign:
Young, Gay and Murdered Kids are coming out younger, but are schools ready to handle the complex issues of identity and sexuality? For Larry King, the question had tragic implications.
South Carolina’s tourism agency has slapped the wrist of its ad manager and is refusing to go ahead and pay for a campaign to attract gay tourists from Britain.
The state employee who gave the OK for the ad campaign resigned Friday.
“[He] exercised extremely poor judgment in approving participation in the program,” state Parks, Recreation and Tourism director Chad Prosser told the State newspaper.
Prosser said the department will require more review in the future.
It was too late to stop the ads that proclaim “South Carolina is so gay”. They’ve already gone up in the London subway to take advantage of gay pride in the British capital.
But Prosser said Friday the state will refuse to pay the $5,000 cost of the ads. …
That’s how 365Gay.com’s reading of the story goes. Now let’s take a look at the State article itself, the headline of which positively spits with venom at those nasty, nasty homosexuals they don’t want in their stupid state:
South Carolina’s top tourism agency has canceled an overseas advertising campaign targeting gay tourists. …
After learning last week the state had agreed to spend tax money on the campaign — and spurred by a post on The Palmetto Scoop blog — the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism said Thursday it would not pay the tour operator. …
The agency will not pay the roughly $4,942 fee to take part in the campaign.
Employees “exercised extremely poor judgment in approving participation in the program,” Prosser said. PRT, he said, will require more review of future overseas advertising, as it does with domestic advertising. …
Prosser said the employee, who works for an overseas contractor, was not authorized to speak on behalf of the agency. The agency is reviewing how, if at all, to discipline the employees who signed off on the program.
Some lawmakers were shocked to learn about the campaign, with state Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, calling for an audit.
Joel Sawyer, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, said using tax money to support a social or political agenda is inappropriate.
“Our state tourism dollars should be talking about the beaches and attractions of South Carolina,” Sawyer said. …
“Attractions”? There’s nothing “attractive” about rank bigotry and blatant offense.
Well, don’t worry, boys — as soon as word gets around the queer blogosphere, we won’t be spending any of our juicy, disposable income in S.C.
By the way, Sawyer, being gay isn’t “political,” or even “social,” for that matter, any more than being black is. Would y’all be so horrified and pissed about a tourism campaign targeting the African-American travel market? How about Jewish tourists? Women?
Actually, come to think of it, you probably would — you just wouldn’t be able to say so in public.
I swear, one day your descendants are going to be as ashamed of you as if you’d been high mucky-mucks in the KKK.
Never mind that Saint Barry didn’t dare breathe the word “gay” alongside “young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Latino and Asian” in his South Carolina victory speech tonight (and why should he, when it’s our backs bearing his muddy bootprints as evidence of the way he trampled us in order to win SC in the first place?).
Rather, I am compelled to quote what he said about religion in his speech, which caused all three residents of my home to emit spontaneous shrieks of incredulous laughter (and two of us to shout something a little less polite than “Baloney!” at the television):
And what we’ve seen in these last weeks is that we’re also up against forces that are not the fault of any one campaign, but feed the habits that prevent us from being who we want to be as a nation. It’s the politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon.
Forget the Republicans — you, Senator Obama, made religion a wedge among Democrats in this campaign. You used gay Americans as a wedge to woo rabidly homophobic Southern evangelicals who would have voted for you anyway. You opened a fissure the size of the San Andreas Fault between black fundamentalist Christians and gay and lesbian voters — a fissure that may never heal. You continue to employ the politics of division.
Also worth noting:
There are those who will continue to tell us we cannot do this. That we cannot have what we long for. That we are peddling false hopes.
There he goes again, with the meaningless “hope and change” rhetoric — as he steadfastly refuses to tell us what he hopes to change, and how.
Empty words, empty rhetoric, empty suit — all held afloat by the politics of division.
(And no, I’m not bitter about Obama’s SC win; I knew that was going to happen, and I don’t care. What’s important is Super-Duper Tuesday, when the big states vote. And, unless something unforeseen happens — like some crazed Obama supporter dropping LSD in the nation’s water supply — February 5th should fix Obama’s little red wagon, once and for all. I certainly hope so, anyway; I’m sick of hearing his empty promises, and sick of writing about his ruthless steamrolling of the American gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered community.)
1. Kirbyjon Caldwell — spiritual adviser to George W. Bush, pastor of Houston’s Windsor Village United Methodist Church, and senior pastor of “ex-gay” brainwashing program Metanoia Ministries — announces his endorsement for Barack Obama, and says he plans to campaign for Obama, apparently with the blessings of the Obama campaign: “I have been in contact with the Obama campaign team,” he said. “I will be making visits on his behalf.”
3. I receive an email from a reader called “dbdors” whose panties are all in a twist because the link to Caldwell’s anti-gay ministry page (in this post) doesn’t work. Twisted-Panty Reader accuses me of lying, and concludes, predictably, that I must just be a Hillary supporter anyway:
It is a sad day in America when people resort to lies and plain fraud to discredit someone becasue of their choice of canditate.
Could you please explain why I cannot link to this website via www.kingdombuilders.com??? When I go to “care groups”, there is no such site.
Why is it that a Google search brings back a bad link? I know, it’s because you made this up!!
Why is it that I can’t register for the blog and leave a comment? I know, you don’t want any facts posted!!!
You want Hillary elected really bad don’t you!!
I read the email out loud to my better half, and as soon as we finish laughing, I reply to the Obamabot, mostly because I want to know what the heck “care groups” are. (So far, my hysterical little correspondent hasn’t responded.) I also explain that s/he did just leave a comment. Duh!
(P.S. to “dbdors”: You should be grateful I don’t sue your butt off for libel, twerp.)
4. I check the link to Caldwell’s anti-gay ministry page, and find it missing. Or, more accurately, it’s been scrubbed — deleted, suicided, tossed into the memory hole, gone — *poof!* — as nonexistent as Obama’s plan for a workable healthcare system.
6. But, thanks to the wonders of The Wayback Machine, I resurrect the original page from the dead. Some of the images are broken, so I check the properties of each broken image, figure out its original URL, copy the missing images directly from the live Kingdombuilders site, and reconstruct the page completely. I then tuck away the reconstructed page in case it’s no longer available on The Wayback Machine.
I also discover that the text of the original page is still on the Kingdombuilders site, in PDF form. (I save a copy of that, too.)
I also discover that a linked MSN Group (which may or may not have been affiliated with Caldwell’s church — but they liked it enough to link it), “The African American Recovery Corner” — has also mysteriously vanished.
Still, a directory listing at CrossDaily.com shows us the description of the group, presumably submitted by whoever ran it:
Site URL: http://groups.msn.com/TheAfricanAmericanRecoveryKornerTheArk Title: The African American Recovery Korner Description: An Christian support group for those seeking freedom from homosexuality. Although we believe that no one chooses to have homosexual desires, we do believe that you can choose to change your identity. Top Category: Ministries & Organizations Subcategory: Support Groups City: Riverside State/Prov./Region: California Country: United States Start Date: February 2, 2006 (719 days)…
(Heh… Couldn’t get enough momentum to keep your self-loathing homophobe group going a whole year, eh? *snort*)
I decide to search for other scrubbed pages, but before I start, I see that, in the meantime…
7.John Aravosis writes about the Caldwell dust-up, but concludes that there’s nothing to see here, so move along — and adds that “on this one we can give him [Obama] a pass” (I disagree, but I’ll take that up some other time):
I’ve talked to the Obama campaign about this, and they assure me of a few things:
1. Caldwell has not, and will not, be asked to do anything for the campaign (and this means, we hope, that Obama won’t be doing appearances with the man any time soon).
2. Caldwell was simply wrong when he told the papers this weekend that the campaign asked him to travel around the country on their behalf. In other words, Caldwell was freelancing when he called the paper for an interview.
My Skept-O-Meter is tweaked. I don’t doubt a word John says, but something smells fishy, and it’s coming from the Obama camp — where the people who run things either have a very short memory, or think you do. From the Washington Post, October 29, 2007:
“He’s more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ,” said Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Houston pastor who was on the tour and is backing on Obama.
The “he” Caldwell was talking about was Barack Obama. The “tour” was — you guessed it — Obama’s “Embrace the Homophobia Change” gospel tour.
“So?” the Obamaites will cry in unison. “It was one concert! Caldwell probably just got all fired up over Obama and went too far in saying he was ‘campaigning’ for Obama, when he’s never campaigned for him before!”
“Then,” I’ll respond, “I guess you’d better write to Washington Times reporter Christina Bellantoni and ask her if she was lying when she wrote this on December 3, 2007 — after the gospel tour, and before the South Carolina primaries”:
Religious leaders to hold Obama event
I hear that Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign will be doing a big event in Charleston, S.C., with several prominent black religious leaders in the morning.
Among them will be Kirbyjon Caldwell, the Methodist minister who delivered the inaugural prayer for President Bush and is a longtime friend and spiritual adviser to the president. Mr. Caldwell has been campaigning for Obama all year.
Ahem.
No, we’re not done with this Obama-Caldwell matter yet. There are more interesting things I’ll share with you shortly, but I want to get this entry up now.
I tell you, ‘though: The more I dig, the curiouser and curiouser this story gets.
A post on a mydd.com blog was re-posted on another message board (which, because I genuinely like the board admin and don’t want to embarrass him any more than he’s already been by the mere presence of said post, shall remain nameless), under the subject line:
“This is what the Obama ‘movement’ is all about…”
Here’s the original post:
THE BAM”… PASS IT ON AT THE NEXT OBAMA RALLY!
Having caught “Obama fever” like so many others rallying in support of Barack, I experienced something at a Barack Obama Rally on Thursday, January 10 at the College of Charleston here in Charleston, South Carolina, which I felt was both inspirational and spontaneous!
As Barack worked the line following the close of his speech, there was a surge of people moving forward hoping to get close enough to shake Barack’s hand. Since I was standing about 20 feet back from center stage in the crowd, I felt the crowd down front tighten as many of us stood on our toes, stretched our bodies forward while reaching out to Barack. I noticed that a six foot tall guy who was standing in front of me had stretched far enough above the crowd and shook hands with Barack. As the guy drew back his hand I asked him, “You shook his hand didn’t you?” Happily the guy said “Yes.” I then said, “give me some of that” and the guy shook my hand with the same hand he had just clasped with Barack’s. A woman friend of mine who was standing next to me saw me shake hands with the guy. I turned to her and said “He [the guy] just shook hands with Barack,” to which she responded…”Hey, give it up.” We then shook hands. She then turned to the person next to her and shook hands. This chain of hand shakes went on for about five or six more persons.
I did not know the tall guy in front of me; he is white, I am black. But at the moment we shook hands, I felt some solidarity with this stranger, consummated by a handshake and signifying some unspoken agreement presumably about Barack Obama and his core message of UNITY!
I call this hand-shake scenario the “BAM” because, descriptively, it takes a bit of Obama’s name and it’s the sound of a collision, of People Coming Together!
My reaction:
If that’s “what the Obama ‘movement’ is all about” — the blind frenzy of a mob clamoring to touch the hem of his garment — then the Obama camp is scaring the absolute crap out of me.
What next? Obama raises the dead? Where does the line start to worship a fragment of The One’s sandal?
“Give me some of that”? Jesus Christ, people, GET A GRIP! Obama is NOT GOD!
“You don’t get it! Why do you hate hope? Why do you hate change? Let Obama change your life…!
Holy crap. Ho. Lee. Crap.
Oh, yes, I “get it” — which is precisely why it scares me. The writer sounds like every “est” convert I ever knew in the 1970s. And I remember People’s Temple, and Heaven’s Gate, and Waco, much too well not to be shaken to the bone by this blind madness over Obama.
This is beyond 1960s-era teenyboppers spending a precious five dollars on a one-inch square of bedsheet that one of the Beatles supposedly slept on. This is the guy in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert wearing a vial containing the holy relic of an ABBA turd. Neither Anni-Frid nor Agnetha — nor Obama — is the Second Coming of Christ!
To the writer, and especially to the rest of the adoring throngs blinded into a froth:
How do you expect the rest of us “non-believers” to take you — or your candidate — even half-seriously when all you can offer is this kind of cult worship I thought died out with the 1970s?
And people think Kucinich is nuts for admitting to seeing a UFO? This craziness dwarfs any UFO talk — by light years.
And: Do you have any clue whatsoever as to the fodder you’re providing far-right sites that exist solely for the opportunity to point out how wacko Democrats are? Do you even care how embarrassing posts like that are? I don’t know if such lunacy makes me more ashamed to be associated with the message board to which the message was cross-posted, or with the entire party.
Thank God I’m as dissociated from Obama and his apostles as I ever can be!
Somebody, somewhere, said that the Obama-McClurkin fiasco was being ignored by the MSM.
Well, guess what? It’s been picked up by AP, and, as this is being posted, is the number-one story on CNN Politics:
Obama’s gospel concerts raise hornet’s nest of a dilemma
Democratic Sen. Barack Obama kicked off a series of local outreach gospel concerts Friday in Charleston, South Carolina, that unexpectedly came back to bite his campaign.
The concerts were meant to boost black voters’ support for his presidential nominee bid — the kind of events that would normally fly under the national radar.
The ensuing controversy highlighted that Obama’s desire to unite disparate voting blocs — especially religious voters — under his umbrella of “change” is not without some serious pitfalls.
. . .
When the story bubbled up into the mainstream media, it took the Obama campaign by surprise.
. . .
The campaign has vigorously promoted the candidate’s faith … Campaigners have run three radio ads, one of which called Obama a “Christian family man,” that aired on gospel stations across the state.
. . .
But on Tuesday, Obama was forced to confront the uncomfortable truth that some Christians and gays are a little more than just strange bedfellows, especially among blacks. …
Obama Explains Why He’s the Best Candidate for LGBT Americans
When the Obama campaign announced that Donnie McClurkin would be among the featured singers on the presidential candidate’s gospel tour in South Carolina this weekend, it inadvertently ventured into the void between African-American Christians and gays and lesbians.
. . .
For LGBT people, it prompts the question, Weren’t Obama and, by extension, the people who run his campaign versed enough in the pain of the people he calls his “gay brothers and sisters” to see the McClurkin land mine before they rolled over it?
And can Obama really, as he claims, create the “big tent” movement he’s been selling, where voters who vehemently disagree on something as fundamental as what constitutes love put aside their differences to rally around a single candidate?
The Advocate: How did this happen? Was Mr. McClurkin vetted?
Senator Obama: Obviously, not vetted to the extent that people were aware of his attitudes with respect to gay and lesbians, LGBT issues — at least not vetted as well as I would have liked to see.
Having said that, we viewed this simply as an opportunity to have a gospel concert as part of our overall outreach, and since he was singing at a concert along with a number of other artists, as opposed to being a spokesperson for us, probably it didn’t undergo the same kind of vet that someone who was serving as a surrogate for me might have.
Some black gay activists I’ve spoken to say this doesn’t make them question Obama the senator, but it does make them question the campaign — do they really understand the nuances of these issues, are they really sitting down and talking with gay folks, because it seems like this decision came purely through the lens of faith?
Look, these kinds of issues are going to crop up inevitably through the course of campaigns. It’s important to recognize that these are issues that every Democratic candidate who has African-American ministers as supporters may have to confront. It just so happened that it popped up on the screen in this particular instance. But I assure you, I am not the only candidate who’s got a black minister or a white minister who’s supporting them prominently who subscribes to similar views.
Part of the reason that we have had a faith outreach in our campaigns is precisely because I don’t think the LGBT community or the Democratic Party is served by being hermetically sealed from the faith community and not in dialogue with a substantial portion of the electorate, even though we may disagree with them. …
And then he goes on to tell us how “Black folks in South Carolina frequent barbershops and beauty shops…”
Oy vey! How much worse can it get?
“hermetically sealed from the faith community”?! He believes that? Shows how much he knows about the LGBT community (newsflash: there are queer Christians, and lots of them) — and at this point, we don’t think he knows much about the Democratic Party, either.
Nice work, Obama: You’ve not only alienated the LGBT community — you just insulted Christian Democrats!
At issue is the question of whether or not Mr. Obama will go forward with plans to have a gospel singer by the name of Donnie McClurkin, who has written about being an ‘ex-gay’ and openly condemned homosexuality, perform at a series of fundraising concerts scheduled to be held in South Carolina this weekend.
. . .
It’s quite a predicament the Obama camp has gotten itself into. On the one hand you have a candidate sweeping through a very conservative Christian state with a “40 Days of Faith & Family” campaign that has the kind of marquee value destined to appeal to the state’s core voters. It seems like a smart enough move. On the other hand you have a campaign committing political suicide by allowing a character as controversial as McClurkin to slip into the well orchestrated-mix… a move that threatens to alienate a significant segment of the gay constituency.
Now if Obama backs down and cancels this McClurkin character’s appearance, he runs the risk of coming out too strongly in favor of gay and lesbian issues. That may not sit well with the very group of people for whom this forty day song and dance has been designed to appeal. Meanwhile, if he doesn’t back down, the Senator from Illinois will have shown himself to be as much a panhandler for the votes of Christian right as his Republican counterparts. Oh dear. What to do?
. . .
Yes, there is a lot riding on this decision from Obama, because as far as I’m concerned, it could be like pulling a thread and watching an entire seam unravel. Gay and lesbian support is too important to Obama’s campaign. …
. . .
More importantly for me though, this is a test of character.
. . .
Either the Senator from Illinois respects and values human rights in general and the gay and lesbian community in particular or he just sees both as pawns to be played to his advantage in a political game where winner takes all.
How the Senator handles this situation is likely to indicate how he will handle similar trials in the future. Will he stand for what he says he believes in, or will he kowtow to the shifting interests of whatever constituency he happens to be addressing at the time? One way or another, by the end of this weekend, we will have our answer.
Despite the best efforts of Sean Kennedy’s mother, Elke, and many others to stop the early release of Sean’s murderer, Stephen Andrew Moller (”who called him ‘faggot’ while punching him so hard that he broke every bone in Sean’s face. Sean fell to the pavement; the impact caused his brain to separate from his brain stem”) was allowed to plea-bargain down to involuntary manslaughter, earning him a five-year sentence — suspended.
Tweet This Post! 
How much worse can it get?
