Posts by Pam Spaulding

Pam Spaulding blogs at Pam's House Blend.

Washington Times Is Confused About Children of LGBT Parents
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend on May 8, 2008 at 10:26 AM.

I don't usually respond to drivel from the ultra-right, but this one got to me. The Washington Times, in an article titled "Growing Up Confused," reported Sunday on the memoir "Out From Under: The Impact of Homosexual Parenting," by Dawn Stefanowicz. Stefanowicz is the daughter of a gay father who was married to her mother. She says that because of her father's sexual orientation, she "experienced insecurity, depression, anxiousness, sleeplessness and sexuality confusion, and her psychological well-being and peer relationships were affected."

Stefanowicz has been speaking up for the ultra-right for several years now. The book itself reads like a text for the Family Research Council, whose vice president for policy, Peter Sprigg says "It's a very moving, brutally honest, first-person account of what it is like to grow up with a homosexual parent." Perhaps one of them, but let's not overgeneralize here.

The Washington Times relates:

[Stefanowicz] "thinks that monogamy is not typical in gay relationships. . . . Mrs. Stefanowicz's father, president and owner of his own executive recruiting service, wanted the normality he thought marriage could bring, using it as a cover for his homosexual lifestyle, she said. He brought her along to gay meeting spots and porn shops, though she was still a child, and introduced her to explicit sexual practices and exposed her to the health risks of the gay lifestyle, she said.

Ugh. The article uses Stefanowicz's individual experience to give voice to the likes of Sprigg and Arthur Goldberg, secretary for the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). The paper does quote Steve Ralls, director of communications for PFLAG, who says:

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Philly Police 15 on 3 Beat Down "A Bit Beyond the Pale"
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pandagon on May 8, 2008 at 3:25 AM.

Apparently in the City of Brotherly Love the police training for cadets includes how to act like a punks in a schoolyard. I guess we have to be pleased that the Taser wasn’t whipped out as well for good measure. These men in the car may or may not have been guilty, but they certainly don’t look like they are resisting other than to stop the ass-kicking. Why do these officers have to whale on suspects in this manner when the person is already down on the ground?

Fifteen police officers were taken off the street as authorities investigate a video showing three suspects being kicked, punched and beaten after they were pulled out of a car during a traffic stop.

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Teacher Fired for Refusing Loyalty Oath
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pandagon on May 7, 2008 at 5:48 AM.

From the Golden State, a bizarre and ridiculous firing of a teacher for not signing a loyalty oath.

When Wendy Gonaver was offered a job teaching American studies at Cal State Fullerton this academic year, she was pleased to be headed back to the classroom to talk about one of her favorite themes: protecting constitutional freedoms.

But the day before class was scheduled to begin, her appointment as a lecturer abruptly ended over just the kind of issue that might have figured in her course. She lost the job because she did not sign a loyalty oath swearing to “defend” the U.S. and California constitutions “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

The loyalty oath was added to the state Constitution by voters in 1952 to root out communists in public jobs. Now, 16 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, its main effect is to weed out religious believers, particularly Quakers and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

This arcane requirement offended Gonaver, who is a Quaker. She in fact offered to sign the oath if she could also submit a statement explaining her objection, something commonly offered in other states under circumstances like this. That didn’t fly either.

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Mildred Loving Passes Away
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend on May 6, 2008 at 5:36 AM.

Those of us eagerly waiting for the day when same-sex marriage is finally legalized across the land owe a debt of gratitude to Mildred Loving, whose 1967 case (Loving v. Virginia) resulted in a landmark Supreme Court decision that broke down a major social and legal barrier - interracial marriage.

Mildred Loving, a black woman whose challenge to Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down such laws nationwide, has died, her daughter said Monday.

Peggy Fortune said Loving, 68, died Friday at her home in rural Milford. She did not disclose the cause of death.

...Richard Loving died in 1975 in a car accident that also injured his wife.

In a rare interview with The Associated Press last June, Loving said she wasn't trying to change history - she was just a girl who once fell in love with a boy.

"It wasn't my doing," Loving said. "It was God's work."

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NC Robo-Call Investigation Broadens - NAACP Files Complaint
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend on May 5, 2008 at 11:32 AM.

As I said last Tuesday, "Stop messing with my primary!" and "All I know is that this better not be connected to the Clinton campaign." That was a desperate wish for it to be some right-wing scheme to suppress votes. You just don't want to deal with an internal problem of this nature.

I posted the above statements before it was revealed by Facing South's investigation that the source of the misleading and illegal robo-calls in NC was the progressive DC non-profit Women's Voices Women Vote. It's still not clear what on earth really went on, but WVWV has been on a swift offensive to dispel any suggestion that there was purposeful deception.

Be that as it may, the NC attorney general is investigating, and over the weekend, Sue Sturgis of Facing South reported that the NC NAACP filed a complaint against WVWV.

The North Carolina NAACP has filed a formal complaint of possible voter suppression against Women's Voices Women Vote, the D.C. nonprofit that as we revealed earlier this week was behind the deceptive and illegal robo-calls made to state residents. The N.C. NAACP hand-delivered its complaint today to state Attorney General Roy Cooper and State Board of Elections Executive Director Gary Bartlett. It's also alerted the U.S. Department of Justice that it's collecting more information from its national network and is contemplating filing a formal complaint with that agency.

N.C. NAACP President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (center in photo) announced the filing of the complaint at a press conference held this afternoon outside the N.C. Department of Justice. He was joined by his group's attorney, Al McSurely (left), and Bob Hall (right) of Democracy North Carolina. The state Attorney General's office is already investigating Women's Voices, but the N.C. NAACP and Democracy North Carolina want to be parties to that investigation.

"When you mess with the right to vote, you're messing with everything that is fundamental in our democracy," Barber said.

Here is the full text of the very detailed complaint, which recounts the facts at hand. Another serious aspect of this topic is below the fold.

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Ohio Judge: Bro Wasn't Tased
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend on May 5, 2008 at 6:13 AM.

Need I say more? Now it's come down to official scrubbing the use and abuse of Tasers by law enforcement. From Ohio, a look at where the police state is going.

A Summit County Common Pleas judge ordered the county medical examiner to delete any reference that Tasers contributed to the deaths of three Ohio men.

All three men were in an 'agitated' state and 'on drugs' when police officers shot them with Tasers, and the judge ordered their deaths be ruled 'accidental' also that any reference to "homicide or "electrical pulse stimulation" should be deleted from death certificates and autopsy reports."

Five sheriff's deputies had been indicted on charges related to the death of one of the men, who also had a history of mental illness. The judge further ordered that man's death be ruled as "undetermined" and to "delete any references to homicide and the death possibly being caused by asphyxia, beatings or other factors."

Wow. Not only the Taser reference is scrubbed, but all the other kinds of abuses common in police brutality cases! My, my. And yes, someone from Taser International had something to say about the ruling. It's after the jump.

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LAPD report: 320 racial profiling cases and none had merit
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pandagon on May 3, 2008 at 3:26 PM.

Uh huh. Here’s yet another reason why there is distrust out there about law enforcement “protecting and serving” everyone equally.

Los Angeles Police Department officials announced Tuesday that they investigated more than 300 complaints of racial profiling against officers last year and found that none had merit — a conclusion that left members of the department’s oversight commission incredulous.

It is at least the sixth consecutive year that all allegations of racial profiling against LAPD officers have been dismissed, according to department documents reviewed by The Times.

I’m sure the vast majority are claims that cannot be proven since you have to prove the officer’s intent to say, pull over a black driver more often than a white one. But the LAPD has a sorry history, and that makes it difficult for some to believe the outcome of the report.

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Are Misleading Robocalls in NC Voter Suppression?
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pandagon on May 1, 2008 at 7:32 AM.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper cracked down on the misleading and deceptive robo-calls by Women’s Voices. Women Vote that implied voters had to wait for and fill out a registration packet before they could vote. He stated that the calls are breaking state law. (Audio of the call here).

What is particularly egregious is that the calls went out after the registration deadline for the presidential primary — and were targeting minority neighborhoods, using a fictitious caller named “Lamont Williams.” In a measure of damage control, a press release landed in my inbox from WVWV in the late afternoon yesterday. A snippet is below the fold.

This is the explanation:

“We understand concerns have been raised about the source of phone calls placed by Women’s Voices, Women Vote. These calls were our sincere attempt to encourage voter registration for those not registered for the general election this fall. We understand North Carolina’s primary registration effort deadline was April 11. We apologize for any confusion our calls may have caused. Our intent and purpose was solely to call attention to the registration applications we hope will be completed and returned to the Board of Elections office making thousands more North Carolinians participants in one of the most important elections of our lifetimes.

Women’s Voices. Women Vote has been in contact with the North Carolina State Board of Elections to work together to resolve any confusion regarding our voter registration efforts.

Obama delegate and board member of Women’s Voices, Women Vote, William McNary, also spoke up in defense of the organization.

I have seen up close the work of Women’s Voices. Women Vote and know well the commitment, passion and leadership our organization has shown in helping make the voices of unmarried women and other underrepresented voters heard. There may have been mistakes made in this particular registration drive in North Carolina, but Women’s Voices, Women Vote’s motives were not malicious or intended in any way to confuse voters. Ironically, just the opposite. I know the staff is making every effort to right the situation.

Yet something still isn’t right about this story. Take a look at this:

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Is Senator Clinton Beholden to an Anti-Gay Demographic?
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pandagon on April 30, 2008 at 6:51 AM.

So why didn’t my outgoing governor just go ahead and say “faggot“?

ABC News’ Eloise Harper Reports: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton received the endorsement of North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley Tuesday morning in Raleigh, NC. After touring a bio-manufacturing training center, Gov. Easley, First Lady of North Carolina Mary Easley and Clinton held a ceremony at NC State University. The Governor formally expressed his support saying that there was “nothing I love more than a strong powerful woman.” Easley concluded his remarks saying Clinton — “makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy“.

Note that Hillary, who was right there with the NC gov, said nothing about his remark. Of course Easley infamously received the endorsement of Equality NC in his re-election bid, then in a debate said he’d sign a marriage amendment if it hit his desk, so why should we be surprised. And who is Hillary trying to court here — the “traditional Southern conservative.” Take the homo money and run, as it were. (The Politico):

Easley is a meaningful ally in the culture war she’s waging against Senator Barack Obama, as she seeks to cast him as a hopelessly unelectable liberal elitist and to persuade the Democratic Party leaders who will decide the nomination – the “superdelegates” – to choose her instead.

Both of the Dem candidates for governor here have endorsed Barack Obama, btw. I don’t see Easley’s nod to Clinton as significant; what matters are mayors and state reps, and the majority have publicly endorsed Obama as well.

Hillary Clinton was backslapping laughing with the NC governor. The same Hillary Clinton who has sucked millions of dollars out of the LGBT community. The same Hillary Clinton who cannot use the words gay or lesbian in front of general audiences, the same Hillary Clinton who has a web site where there’s no way to find any information on her LGBT positions.

Activist Phil Attey, former Human Rights Campaign staffer and online strategist, had a lot to say. It’s below the fold.

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Not Enough Evidence for Hate Crime Charge in Student Slaying
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend on April 29, 2008 at 4:34 PM.

This is a follow up to a post from last September, "Is the Newark triple murder an anti-gay hate crime?". At the time there was a call to investigate whether the execution-style slaying of Terrance Aeriel, 18, Dashon Harvey, 20, and Iofemi Hightower, 20, was motivated because of the orientation of one or more of the victims.

Leaders in the LGBT community as well as law enforcement have found that the families don't want any part of a perception that their children might have been gay. This is just sad.

A New Jersey prosecutor last week said investigators have yet to find sufficient evidence to classify as a hate crime the execution-style slayings of three college students in a Newark schoolyard last August hours before they planned to attend a Gay Pride festival.

...Gay activists said representatives of the families of the victims have told them they did not support efforts to publicly identify the murders as an anti-gay hate crime.

"We were told that anything related to the victims' sexual orientation should remain a private matter," said James Credle, co-president of Newark Pride Alliance, a gay group. "They made it clear that they didn't want the case to go in that direction," he said.

Credle said speculation that the killings might be an anti-gay hate crime has been unsettling to many, including family members of the victims, in Newark's large black community, where homosexuality remains a sensitive issue.

All of the victims in the slayings were black. Credle, whose Newark Pride Alliance advocates on behalf of black gays, said the group has been struggling to persuade city officials and the black community that authorities should determine whether the murders were based on the perception that the victims were gay, even if some were not.

"My concern is whether the prosecutor would consider the preference of the families to be political pressure or not," Credle said after Thursday's arraignment. "Because the families clearly don't want this to be noted."

How horrible a stain is black homophobia that families would not want to see the alleged killers of their children tried to face the maximum extent of the law rather than have anyone think their loved ones were gay.

Hat tip, Lena.

DNC's Daughtry: LGBTs will have 'seat at the table' at the convention
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend on April 28, 2008 at 5:24 AM.

Leah Daughtry, chief of staff of the Democratic National Committee delivered prepared remarks at the National Black Justice Coalition's The Power of Us conference this weekend supporting the inclusion of LGBTs at the DNC convention this August. (Washington Blade):

"We made a commitment under Gov. Dean's leadership that we wanted to do something different," she said. "We wanted to make sure, make a way so that people from various communities, and particularly the GLBT community, would have a seat at the table, would have a voice, would have a vote when we nominate our president of the United States."

...Daughtry, who's been criticized over allegations that she opposed quotas for gay delegates at the DNC convention, said that she welcomed the inclusion the rules are poised to yield.

"We are expecting record, historic numbers of GLBT members at the convention as delegates, and I think that is so important," she said. "You know, it's hard to have - we are the big tent party and we pride ourselves on diversity, but you can't talk about diversity if you're not willing to do the work to make diversity happen. And I know you know that making diversity happen is work because it requires tilling up soil, busting through doors, breaking through ceilings to make things that have been the status quo change."

...Daughtry also called on the audience to work collaboratively to obtaining "free, full and abundant rights" for all, because "all families deserve respect, deserve opportunity and deserve the protection of our government."

"We've got to work together, regardless of who the president is, but with the president's leadership to end the stereotypes and misconceptions that separate us and keep us from achieving our full potential and our God-given rights in this country," she said.

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Day Of Silence Is Wrong Because Gay Sex Kills?
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend on April 24, 2008 at 12:24 PM.

He's at it again. This time the "like-minded man" with Concerned Women for America is comparing homosexuality to smoking, drinking, toking and hitting the crack pipe. This, friends, is how he objects to the Day of Silence.

Can you imagine officials at a middle school, junior high or high school setting aside a day to promote "tolerance" for heavy smoking and drinking among children?  How about a day where teachers encourage kids to "embrace who they are," pick up that crack pipe and give it a stiff toke?

Neither can I.  The public would go ballistic, and for good reason.  

But that hasn't stopped officials in thousands of schools across the country from promoting other politically correct and socially "in-vogue" behaviors that - both statistically and manifestly - are every bit as dangerous as the aforementioned frowned-upon behaviors.

That's exactly what the homosexual activist "Day of Silence" is all about - advancing, through clever, feel-good propaganda, full acceptance among children of the homosexual lifestyle.

He goes on to cite a study to bolster his claim.

To the consternation of "gay" activist flat-earthers and homosexual AIDS holocaust deniers everywhere, one such study - conducted by pro-"gay" researchers in Canada - was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology (IJE) in 1997.  (see the study here: http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/26/3/657.pdf )

While the medical consensus is that smoking knocks from two to 10 years off an individual's life expectancy, the IJE study found that homosexual conduct shortens the lifespan of "gays" by an astounding "8 to 20 years" - more than twice that of smoking.

...This morose reality makes a strong case for a fitting redefinition of so-called "homophobia," that being "Homophobia: The rational fear that 'gay sex' will kill you!"

The fact that we don't have mandatory surgeon general warnings on the side of condom wrappers is a testament to the power and influence wielded by the radical homosexual lobby.  (Warning: Male-male anal sodomy has been proven to shorten your lifespan by up to 20 years.)

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The Post-Substantive Debate
Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend on April 18, 2008 at 4:02 AM.

I didn't bother turning on the presidential debate held in Pennsylvania tonight; thank goodness I didn't. Based on the blow-by-blow, the majority of it involved ignoring actual issues -- oh, say Iraq, health care, the economy. Apparently ABC's Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos thought it would inform viewers more about where either candidate would take the country if they dredged up the various bloody political battles/scandals/bloopers of the campaign for deeper analysis.

For those who did watch, did they bring up the latest flap over Hillary's 1995 comments about lunch-bucket Dems (the demo she's cozying up to these days):

Should the administration make overtures to working class white southerners who had all but forsaken the Democratic Party? The then-first lady took a less than inclusive approach.

"Screw 'em," she told her husband. "You don't owe them a thing, Bill. They're doing nothing for you; you don't have to do anything for them."

That surely would have given George and Charlie an on-air woody.

Think about this -- ABC News has millions of Americans watching, the economy is in the sh*tter, Iraq is a mess, healthcare is in shambles, and you have 2 hours to discuss the issues of the day with the candidates. Look at the selection of topics and framing of questions. This is journalism?

**********

Dredging up the dumb running mate question...

GIBSON: There have already been many votes in many states, and you have each, as you analyze the vote, appealed disproportionately to different constituencies in the party, and that dismays many in the party. Governor Cuomo, an elder statesman in your party, has come forward with a suggestion. He has said, look, fight it to the end.

Let every vote be counted. You contest every delegate. Go at each other to the -- right till the end. Don't give an inch to one another. But pledge now that whichever one of you wins this contest, you'll take the other as your running mate, and that the other will agree if they lose, to take second place on the ticket.

So I put the question to both of you: Why not?

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