Republican Senator's Teenage Son on Gays, Blacks and Jews

Ahhh, it's those little things in the news you don't hear about too often.  Republican Senator, Jeff Flake had to publicly apologize for his son, Tanner, because he obviously didn't know his son was racist, anti-semitic or homophobic.  And to think he raised a boy for 14 or 15 years without ever realizing any of this... hmmm...

So the boy starts off by saying that a faggot stole his dirt bike from a church parking lot.  He goes on to say he will find him, and beat the crap out of him.  He jokes about a friend stealing one-liners because he's Jewish and loves to play "Fun Run" on Facebook with his favorite screen name, "n1ggerkiller".

“I’m very disappointed in my teenage son’s words, and I sincerely apologize for the insensitivity. This language is unacceptable, anywhere. Needless to say, I’ve already spoken with him about this, he has apologized, and I apologize as well,” Sen. Flake

Seriously, how much you want to make a bet, there's many more of them?  Racist, homophobic, teenage sons from Republican Senators.

And Tanner Flake's You Tube comments reveal something even more sinister... He hates Mexicans. LOL.  But I'm going to say anyone with dark skin at this point.

“a reader sends in a sampling of Tanner Flake’s comments from YouTube.”

“you faggot retard pussy piece of crap i hope you die in a hole slowly and painfully”
“you gay fag ni**er go shoot yourself because no body likes you”
“Mexicans are the scum of the earth.”
“Then some ni**er started rapping and I looked at her album art and saw that it was Flo Rida.”
“IT’S THE NI**ER FAMILY!!!!”
“Stupid little ni**er”
“go die in a hole you stupid ni**er”
“The black guy always fails first…”
“Yes, because one white dude goes nuts. No. Black people do crap like this all of the time.”
“When he called himself a cheap jew i loled hard”

 via The New Civil Rights Movement

Kiss of the Week - Issue No. 027 - Romans 2:1

Saturday Morning Coffee Break: The Closet

Today's Saturday Morning Coffee Break is another great film I posted back in 2009 on Peter's Daily Blog.  At under 3 minutes, the film is really strong and shows how a short film such as this can still make quite an impact.  

I fell in love with it then and still in love with it now.

In the film an old man recalls the moment that defined his life, in which his attraction and friendship with a neighboring boy is crushed by the boy's homophobic father.

If you wish to look back at some previous issues, click my logo below and enjoy.   

Make sure to check out Saturday Morning Coffee Break every Saturday for another classic or current gay short film.

Are People Really This Stupid? Issue No. 35 - Facebook is Full of Them - Part II

Ahhh, the lovely world of Facebook.  Are people really this stupid?  Pick one that's not like the other. LOL.

And if you haven't had enough, there's always Facebook is Full of Them - Part I

Saturday Morning Coffee Break: Define Me

I'm going out of the norm for today's issue of Saturday Morning Coffee Break.  I'm featuring a music video by singer/ songwriter, Ryan Amador that is absolutely amazing.  He sings alongside Jo Lampert in a duet that is both powerful and moving.  The song is titled, "Define Me".   

Trust me, making you cry is not something I want to do, but this will be especially emotional for those who have ever been bullied or blasted with gay slurs growing up.  And this will be emotional for those straight folks with a heart and soul, who may have contemplated saying these things once, and regret ever doing so. But finally, this is for those Christians who know loving your fellow brother is something Jesus asked them to do, and yet, don't understand why their fellow worshipers are so full of hate and contempt for those who wish them no harm.

The video features Amador and Lampert stripping down to their underwear revealing gay slurs and negative stereotypes across their arms, legs, and chest.  It ends with them washing away the words and sharing a smile.  

Once again, it is absolutely amazing; I just love it.  And this why it is today's Saturday Morning Coffee Break.  And rightly so.

Grab your java, sit down and enjoy.

Published on Apr 18, 2013

http://www.ryanamador.com/
http://www.ryanamador.bandcamp.com/

Ryan Amador (featuring Jo Lampert)
"Define Me"
Director Tom Gustafson
Editor Cory Krueckeberg
DP Sergei Krasikov
Add'l Camera Jacqueline Patchen

The song DEFINE ME was released exclusively on Ryan Amador's bandcamp (http://www.ryanamador.bandcamp.com/) in conjunction with Ryan's live performance at the True Colors LGBT Youth Conference on March 22nd. It was produced by David Baloche for Grove Street Studios. 100% of its proceeds will be donated to organizations actively involved with the LGBT equality campaign. http://www.ryanamador.com/

Tom Gustafson (Director) is the director of the award-winning films WERE the WORLD MINE & MARIACHI GRINGO and founder of SPEAKproductions.

If you wish to look back at some previous issues, click my logo below and enjoy.   

Make sure to check out Saturday Morning Coffee Break every Saturday for another classic or current gay short film.

Cyanide and Happiness: Afraid To Show It

My Christian Thoughts - Issue #2 - The Subway Preacher

In today's My Christian Thoughts I'd like to talk about a video I saw last week.  The issue hits close to home, because I remember portraying the pastor or preacher in this video.  The debauchery that takes place really upsets me and it does so, because who are we to judge other people?  Who are we to tell other people what to do?  I understand teaching or sharing The Word, but I don't agree with forcing it down a person's throat.  In the end, we will be judged individually by a higher Being if this is what we choose to believe, and for those who don't - more power to you.

I lost countless of friends in high school and in college, because I was preaching to them - telling them they were going to hell, because they didn't belong to the true "Church of Christ".  Imagine me going up to a Catholic, a Baptist, a Presbyterian, a Methodist or a Mormon, telling them, "you, your mom, sister, brother and family are going to hell - all of you!  And if you don't change your religion soon, you will feel the fire deep in those pits!"

Yep, that was me.  Don't get me wrong, I believe in God - a loving and beautiful God who made me who I am.  Who is there beside me every day, and will be, until the day I die.  And this is what I choose to believe.  It's not your or anyone else's job to tell me it's not gonna happen.  My transformation took time, and I am so grateful to God that it happened, but that's another story - another issue of "My Christian Thoughts."

What is so remarkable about the video is the response the gay man receives after being chastised for over two minutes. 

[Excerpts from the video]
Instead of attempting to ignore a "preacher" spewing homophobic rants, a gay New York City subway rider decided to confront him.

On Saturday, a street preacher went on an anti-gay tirade on one of NYC's subway lines, according to New York Mag's Daily Intelligencer. The preacher yelled about society's poor influence on children, likened gay men to pedophiles and claimed "Michael Jackson died because he was gay" to a crowded subway car.

But one stranger wasn't having it.

"You teach hate," the man, wearing a khaki coat and a large fur hat, responded. "You are false. You are a false prophet. Do not listen to this man. He's scared. He's full of hatred."

The man continued to stand his ground and revealed that yes, he is gay, and yes, God still loves him. "I'm a man. And I'm a good man," he said. "And I'm a gay man and Jesus loves me! Jesus loves me!"

The gay man's eloquence moved his fellows riders so much that it was met by a rousing round of applause. 

My Christian Thoughts - Premiere Issue: Alfie's Home

Honestly, this has got be the most atrocious thing I have ever seen in my entire life.  We start today's new series, "My Christian Thoughts", with a book titled, "Alfie's Home".

It's a Sunday and most people are at church.  I know, I know.

Ironically enough, I used to be a frequent church-goer as a child - and way into my teenage years.  Taught Sunday School, led hymns even gave one sermon.  I wore a suit and tie often, carried around my Bible and even spread the Word of God to fellow school mates in and out of school.  What happened, you ask?  Nothing happened, I just realized the truth.  God created me as I am, and he loves me as I am.  He made me who he wanted to be.  I've said this many times before, I didn't wake up one day when I was four years old and say, "I think I want to be Gay today".

It's people like the author of this book that terrify me.  And I'm sorry to say this, but most Christians & Republicans believe in this manner.  No, I'm not sorry - most Christians & Republicans DO believe this way.

Earlier this month, PFOX (Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays) and the Family Research Council submitted a brief  that states that gays and lesbians shouldn't be a "protected class" under the law because homosexuality is something that can be changed or corrected.  So to show evidence, they provided this children's book.  I about threw up.

Alfie’s Home was published in 1993 by Cohen’s International Healing Foundation. [Image Excerpt Source]

The book starts with a picture of the protagonist on a boat with his dad.

But it goes bad fast, going right for the right-wing myth that homosexuality is caused by childhood sexual abuse…

…and by insufficiently attentive parents:

Eventually, Alfie seeks help and takes part in the “touch therapy” advocated by Cohen…

…which leads him to “realize that I’m not gay” and start dating a woman:

Oh and by the way, I was raised by two loving parents who were both excellent teachers and the most amazing people in the world. They taught me to cook, clean, change the oil, work on farm, write, read and most importantly love. And while some gay boys are molested as children and teenagers, most are not.  So to hell with this author - along with the images and story he's trying to convey.

Worldwide Homophobia

This chart is really fascinating.  Not in the sense that I'm glad America isn't in that horrible, deep-pink and purple category, but glad that our country has come a long way.  Sure we have thousands, if not millions of people who continue to hate us - like that ignorant school teacher in the news lately.  But to think that Ryan and I could be incarcerated, or better yet, put to death in all those countries is mind-boggling to me.  It's crazy!!! 

So if you're thinking of taking a trip to any of those places - good luck.

click to enlarge

Documentaries To Watch: Always My Son

When I first saw this video 2 years ago I was struck by how close it hit to home.  It was hard enough being hispanic in a country where we're considered a minority.  But I also had to lie to keep my homosexuality a secret from the people I cared most about, and it tore me up inside. I would pray to God every night hoping he would fix me.  Little did I know, he couldn't fix what he had created.

Here you have a father who's an ex-marine, a devoted christian, and a loving husband and he has to come to grips with the fact that he has a gay son.  As you watch the video below you will come across one of my favorite parts of the documentary - when the boy's father realizes God couldn't possibly condemn his son.  "I thought to myself inside that everything I've ever been taught that it's an abomination and yes, he's going to hell, but I also quicky thought.... my son, he's a beautiful kid, he's compassionate, he's warm, he cares for people, he's respectful, he's kind. How? If we have such a loving God, How could God condemn my son to hell?"

Always My Son is one of a series of short documentary films that were being produced by the Family Acceptance Project to help ethnically and religiously diverse families decrease their LGBT children's risk for suicide, substance abuse, depression, HIV, homelessness and placement in foster care or juvenile justice settings -- by increasing family support.[source] [source]

It's Okay To Be A Bully, So Long As It's For Religious Reasons

Jacob Rogers

Yep, the good 'ol south - you gotta love'em. It hasn't even been a month since a local gay teen in Tennessee was buried that a new law allowing kids to bully is being proposed by the State Legislature.  I know, you're thinking I'm trying to push some liberal agenda, that no conservative would ever do such a thing.  But guess what, it's true!

As local news channel WSMV is reporting, the proposed law change by state lawmakers would allow students to speak out against homosexuality without punishment if that's what their religious beliefs call for. [source]

So in other words... if my child is walking through the halls, minding their own business, and a religious kid comes up and tells him or her they are going to hell, they're a sinner or sodomite, they will have every right to ridicule them and belittle them?  Yes, this new law will allow that.  You mean to tell me, if they tell my child "you're a fag and are going to burn in eternal fire," and my child might not even be gay - that will be okay? YEP.

It's true and it's sad, but this type of behavior is what led many of us to contemplate suicide when we were younger.  I would often find myself praying myself to sleep asking God to make me normal, asking him why would he made me this way if I was his child.  Depression kicks in, and everything you're taught to believe in this world turns out to be a lie. You start to believe that everyone, and every thing is a lie!

In correspondence with the Tennessee Equality Project, the state's main gay rights group, state Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, claimed gay people commit suicide at a higher rate than others and suggested Jacob's sexuality itself drove him to kill himself. Ragan asked whether the suicide could have had "more to do with his own proclivities and behavior than anything to do with schoolmate bullies ..."

Blaming the victim is necessary to prevent Jacob's death from damaging chances for passage of Tennessee's 2012 state legislative priority—a bill to make it easier for young bigots to mistreat gay schoolkids. This legislation brought by conservative Christians who oppose special protections for gay people actually gives special protections to homophobic bullies. [source]

I Quote That - I Think You're Just Homophobic

Homophobia Sucks!

I believe I posted this on Facebook a couple of years ago, but I'm not quite sure. In either case, now is a perfect time as any to re-post it.  Our friends, family or people you may have seen or read about on the news have all faced homophobia in one form or another. 

I am the boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die because two straight men wanted to "teach me a lesson"

If you guessed, Matthew Shepard, you're right.

Feel free to read the rest, they're sad, but very true.

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.

I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.

I am one of the lucky ones, I guess. I survived the attack that left me in a coma for three weeks, and in another year I will probably be able to walk again.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.

I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the woman who died when the EMTs stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual. (yes, this actually happened)

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didnt have to always deal with society hating me.

I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don't believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.

I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

I am the person ashamed to tell my own friends im a lesbian, because they constantly make fun of them.

I am the gay male student that had to switch to another high school on my senior year, because I told my teachers that I was gay. One said that I was going to hell the other wanted to cure me.

Post Secret Fridays - Issue 079

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

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