Matthew Shepard and Bishop Budde

Thanks to my truckbuddy Frank for passing along this poignant news about Matthew Shepard's interment in the Washington National Cathedral.  I don't know why I never heard of this before.

Click to enlarge.

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Bishop Gene Robinson: "God called me out of the closet"

I had wondered whatever happened to Bp. Gene - CBS Sunday Morning ran an update on his life and faith yesterday:

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Matthew Shepard: 12 Years

Yesterday was the twelfth anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death, which for a time seemed to galvanize the attention of the nation on the problem of homophobia.  Perhaps the recent teen suicides will have a similar effect.  Matthew's mother Judy Shepard speaks on this topic:

OMG: The Foxx-Floyd Connection Revealed

Why didn't I see this before now?  It's so perfectly obvious.  But first, let me fill you in:

Pam Spaulding reports that Congresswoman Virginia Foxx - you know, the bitch, and I use the word advisedly, who claimed on the floor of the House that Matthew Shepard's heinous murder was not a hate crime but a "hoax" - well, Foxx is whining now like an unrepentant schoolgirl that the President delivered "another lecture" to her party at that Republican caucus last week.

Which didn't stop her one bit from gleefully tweeting to all her followers that she did manage to get the President's autograph afterwards.  Little schizophrenia there, ya think?

Well now we know why.  Kudos to PHB commenter Kat Rose for uncovering the mystery.  Foxx represents Mt. Airy, North Carolina, birthplace of Andy Griffith, and the real-life basis for the town of Mayberry in Griffith's eponymous series from the early 1960's.

In that series, a regular character was the goofy, garrulous, few-bricks-short-of-a-load Floyd the Barber.  Fans of the show will recall that once or twice Floyd makes a passing reference to a wife, but she is never seen, nor any of their presumptive progeny.

There's a reason for that:

As Paul Harvey would have said:  Now you know . . . the rest of the story.

Newsbites

The good, the bad, and the WTF:

D.C. Council Passes Equal Marriage Law:  By 11 to 2.  Now, unless the mayor or Congress scuttle it, gays could start marrying in the nation's capital as early as March; and not only D.C. residents, but couples from anywhere in the country.  Of course, their marriage will disappear the moment they leave the District, unless they live in one of the states that recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages.  But still, a tiny bit of good news to offset the recent disappointments in Maine and New York.  Black Christianists in D.C. are still fuming, though:  "God's war has just started," one church leader said, vowing to continue efforts to torpedo the new law.

Another African Antigay Bill:  The parliament of Rwanda, a next-door neighbor of Uganda, is now considering a bill to criminalize homosex or the encouraging of it, with a penalty of five to ten years in prison.  Bloggers are pointing fingers at - you guessed it - Rick Warren, whose Saddleback Church has had operations in both countries.  I'm not saying he's behind this bill, just reporting what Pink News says.

Teen Kidnapped and Raped in West Texas:  Last Sunday, a 19-year-old man was kidnapped by two older men outside a bar in Terlingua, near the Texas-Mexico border, repeatedly sexually assaulted, and his car set on fire.  He managed to escape from the private residence where he was being held by running three miles across the desert to a highway.  The suspects have been arrested and charged, but the Brewster County sheriff isn't replying to inquiries from the Dallas Voice.  Equality Texas director Randall Terrell says that although all the facts aren't yet known, "it sounds like Matthew Shepard all over again."

Roosters in the Hen House:  The famed Shady Lady brothel out in Nevada (the only state where prositution is legal) plans to add men to its roster.  Owner Bobbi Davis, who's already received four applications for the job, says they don't have to be muscle men but should be in good shape, and able to perform once or twice a day:  "Some guys can. Some guys can't."  Dan Savage says a legal, regulated market for male prostitutes would be a good thing; and your Head Trucker agrees. 

Hey, it's honest work:  you can't get a better example of a "service industry" than that, now can you, fellas?  And no middleman.  Unless you pay extra.

Oral Roberts Dead at 91:  Finally. The multimillionaire grandaddy of the "prosperity gospel" movement, who famously threatened in 1987 that "God could call Oral Roberts home by March" if his followers didn't cough up enough dough ($8 million) to fund his medical center in Tulsa. They did, and he lived, but became the butt of a thousand comedians' jokes. Your Head Trucker remembers watching his big tent-revival show as a little kid, and the people coming down front to be touched and "healed" by him - right there on TV - and then how he would pray for the viewers' needs - "You, yes, you! Just put your hands on the television set and pray with me . . . " he would say. I'm not making this up.

Bonus:  Honk to Joe.My.God. for posting this revelation of the really, really nasty mind of Oral Roberts - who spent a lot of time, obviously, pondering all the many parts of the body where you can or can't place the male organ:  "Not in the ear, not in the nose, not in the navel . . . ."

Matthew Shepard Video Surfaces

A blog called Joshalot has posted a short video of Matthew Shepard and then-boyfriend Lewis Krider, filmed at Catawba College in North Carolina sometime in the mid-90's.  Though brief, it preserves for posterity the voice of an ordinary, friendly college kid - whose fate was to end up beaten to death and crucified on a wooden fence one dark, freezing Wyoming night.  The vid can't be embedded, but you can see this moving clip here.

More about Matthew and his parents' noble struggle for understanding, compassion, and acceptance on behalf of all LGBT people can be found at the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

A Moment to Remember

As frustrated as we are with the President's footdragging on gay rights issues, it's important to realize the actual progress that is being made now, step by step.  David Mixner:

Traveling to Washington for the reception at the White House for the Shepard/Byrd - Hate Crimes Bill signing, I understood the historic significance of the day. For the first time in my life and I guess anyone's life - the President of the United States was going to sign into a law a piece of positive legislation about LGBT rights. For years, I have grown used to past presidents signing such bills as DOMA and DADT or the oppressive Jessie Helms amendments from the 1980's. So the reality of such a historic first was actually hard to intellectually comprehend. . . .

First Judy and Dennis Shepard with their son Logan entered with two members of James Byrd's family (the African American man who was brutally slain by being dragged behind a truck in Jasper, Texas). They stood behind President Obama as he made his usual eloquent and powerful remarks about hate, the consequences and his zero tolerance for it. For me, while appreciating his remarks, I could not get the Shepards and Byrds out of my mind. Here were two families ripped apart by the worst brutality one can imagine and now they were honored guests in the White House and on stage with the president. The sight was so emotional and overwhelming especially as the two families hugged and co-mingled. In that moment, the hate that resulted in the deaths of their loved ones was vanquished to the dark pages of history where it belongs.

Full text of the President's remarks below the jump.  Despite what I said in an earlier post, they are well worth reading.  (Memo to Russ:  don't make smartass remarks about somebody's speech until you've actually read it.)

One Down, Three to Go

Yesterday, Congress passed the hate crimes act with a final vote in the Senate, and the President has repeatedly pledged to sign it into law.  According to the Human Rights Campaign,

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act gives the Justice Department the power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence where the perpetrator has selected the victim because of the person's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

It provides the Justice Department with the ability to aid state and local jurisdictions either by lending assistance or, where local authorities are unwilling or unable, by taking the lead in investigations and prosecutions of violent crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury that were motivated by bias. It also makes grants available to state and local communities to combat violent crimes committed by juveniles, train law enforcement officers, or to assist in state and local investigations and prosecutions of bias motivated crimes.

This legislation was first introduced in the 105th Congress. Today’s vote was the 14th and final time there has been a floor vote on this historic legislation.

This is a historic moment; the first of the four big hurdles has been crossed.  Now on to ENDA, DADT, and DOMA.

Take a minute to check out these videos from HRC's new site, Love Conquers Hate.  They're pretty moving; share 'em around, might touch a few people's hearts that haven't been reached before.

Maddow Talks with Judy Shepard

Visit the Matthew Shepard Foundation - which deserves your support.

My truckbuddies know that I've several times wondered out loud in this blog, how exactly does a hate-crime law protect anyone? Andrew Sullivan quotes a reader over at his place on this subject:

I believe the left has abandoned its principles here in same way that the right abandoned it's principles on torture. Outside of the issue of hate crimes, you will find progressive thinkers opposed to slapping on more jail time as a solution to everything. This is why, they say, you will find overcrowded prisons costing the state in terms of upkeep and lost economic potential. Moreover, they say, long prison sentences automatically imposed (by such laws as the three strikes rule) take justice out of context and only contribute to the problem.

Why, then, do these same people suddenly want to throw away the key for those who inflict pain on others from prejudice? Is it because they think the prison system works for bigots where it fails everyone else? This is a profound contradiction that at least requires explanation.

Sullivan responds:

There is a real debate about the 20/20 story and, for the sake of balance, you can read the critiques of it here and here. I should be clear: I do not for a minute believe that the bigotry behind the Matthew Shepard murder was a hoax. I think it was murkier and more complicated - i.e. more human - than some want it to be. Of course, if you believe that his murderers deserved the maximum sentence because they brutally murdered someone, and not because they were meth-fueled bigots, it doesn't matter. I want the same laws against the same acts enforced equally on everyone. If police don't enforce the law equally, get on their case. But leave the laws alone.

Which of course raises the question that Sullivan conveniently leaves to the reader's imagination: how exactly do you "get on their case" and who exactly would do that?

Maddow in her introduction suggests that the federal hate-crimes law gives the feds - presumably through the Justice Department, it's lawyers, investigators, and marshals - the power to "get on the case" where civil rights are ignored by local police and prosecutors. Does it really work that way? I'll have to do some more reading and thinking on that.

Today in Gay Rights: Backwards and Forwards

In Congress, the House today passed the hate crimes bill (formerly known as the Matthew Shepard Act) by 249-175; Ted Kennedy has introduced the companion bill in the Senate, and the President has said he will sign it when it reaches his desk.

To be honest, fellas, I'm still not certain exactly and precisely how a hate crimes bill protects anyone from being beaten or murdered; but I am certain that the right-wing bigots are furiously against the measure. As witness Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) calling Matthew Shepard's murder a "hoax," claiming he was merely a robbery victim, not targeted because of being gay, which is utterly false, by his killers' own admission. Later in the day, Foxx put out an oily apology for using the word "hoax," but kept up her opposition.

--Meanwhile, in New Hampshire today, the state Senate unexpectedly passed an equal marriage bill already approved by the state House; now the bill goes to committee to iron out minor differences between the two versions.

--In Virginia, a major precedent was set for transgender people: U.S. District Judge James Robinson ruled Tuesday that Diana Schroer (formerly David) was entitled to nearly half a million dollars in damages because of sex discrimination, after she was turned down for a position with the Library of Congress. The judge said that's sex discrimination under the civil rights statutes, and threw the book at the government.

--But in Iowa, where same-sex marriage became a reality this week, a Des Moines couple published an editorial and this video about the terrible, terrible dangers of being caught up in the "homosexual cult" - yup, cult - on behalf of the Iowa Family Policy Council. Up till about the 5-minute mark, you think it's going to be a sweet, heartwarming memorial about their late son; but listen to the ending. You need to watch this so you're prepared when righteous Aunt Betty brings it up at the next family gathering:

And also notice how many times the subject of money comes up, and how important that is to them; oh yeah, I know the type of toxic parents who speak that kind of language - the type who are usually very controlling and very rejecting. My parents weren't that way, thank God, but I've known of several who were that way among my friends' families.

And I can picture the scenario: after many years in the closet, he finally got the nerve to come out; but then he got sick and very scared; oh no, God's judgment on me; and back home, dying, under the reproachful eyes of Mom and Dad, like a good prisoner he recanted his queer misdeeds and told his tormentors exactly what they wanted to hear, so he could die in peace. Maybe he even worked himself into believing that the nonsense he was saying was true; anything to get right with God and the parents before it's too late, and the fiery pit looms.

And notice how, even in death - their son still isn't good enough for them. He still doesn't measure up. He still hasn't earned their love - and never will.

They're ashamed of their own son, who defied them for a short time and lived his own life, disobeying the rules. They still haven't forgiven him, or accepted him.

They even look like the couple in Grant Wood's American Gothic. And just as cold. They didn't love their son, they owned him. How fucking pathetic.

--On a positive note, here's a brilliant refutation of Christianist lies about same-sex marriage by a guy named Rob Tisinai. Never heard of him before, but hope to hear a lot more from him. He's good.