Eideard

An openly gay woman has been elected leader of the Scottish Conservatives after the membership rejected her leading rival’s radical proposals to create a new centre-right party.

Ruth Davidson, 32, widely seen as David Cameron’s favourite, was chosen to lead the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party by a comfortable margin after the most bitterly-fought and divisive leadership campaign in party history.

Officials in London believe that Davidson, a lesbian and the youngest of the four candidates, will be able to freshen up the Tories’ faltering appeal to Scottish voters…

Her victory saves the prime minister from the embarrassment of watching the UK party being split by Davidson’s rival for the leadership, Murdo Fraser.

In a statement released on her election, Davidson said: “With the radical, generational change that I represent, this is a unique opportunity for us to rebuild the party and to once again become a powerful, meaningful and relevant force in Scottish politics and in Scottish life.”

A former Territorial Army officer and kick-boxer, Davidson campaigned vigorously against Fraser’s dramatic proposals to scrap the party and replace it with a new “progressive” organisation which would be independent of David Cameron’s Tories…

Bravo for a gender and sexual orientation victory.

I can’t find my old t-shirt, anyway – that said “don’t blame me I didn’t vote Tory” in Gaelic. But, I’d still nudge my perpetually conservative kin in Scotland to support her achievement.

Today marks the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell“. The law is repealed. From this day forward Gay and Lesbian soldiers may serve in our Army with the dignity and respect they deserve. Our rules, regulations and policies reflect the repeal guidance issues by the Department of Defense and will apply uniformly without regard to sexual orientation, which is a personal and private matter.

Click on the link above for the whole statement.

Overdue.

They are crap spilling over the rim of the overstuffed garbage can of history.

 
Several Apple employees have appeared in a video for the It Gets Better project, which is part of The Trevor Project, an organization out to prevent suicides in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youths.

Alarmed by evidence that gay and lesbian students are common victims of schoolyard bullies, many school districts are bolstering their antiharassment rules with early lessons in tolerance, explaining that some children have “two moms” or will grow up to love members of the same sex.

But such efforts to teach acceptance of homosexuality, which have gained urgency after several well-publicized suicides by gay teenagers, are provoking new culture wars in some communities.

Many educators and rights advocates say that official prohibitions of slurs and taunts are most effective when combined with frank discussions, from kindergarten on, about diverse families and sexuality.

Angry parents and religious critics, while agreeing that schoolyard harassment should be stopped, charge that liberals and gay rights groups are using the antibullying banner to pursue a hidden “homosexual agenda,” implicitly endorsing, for example, same-sex marriage.

If you want to understand how the Taliban thinks, you need look no further than America’s fundamentalist army of fanatics. Free thought and education are meaningless to ideological cave-dwellers who would not allow processes that differ with their “revealed” cant.

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A lesbian couple who say they were asked to leave a North Carolina shopping center after sharing a kiss and a hug met with the center’s property manager on Saturday.

Caitlin Breedlove

“We welcomed the opportunity to sit down with the women and offer our sincere regrets over last week’s incident,” said George York, president of York Properties, which manages the Cameron Village shopping center in Raleigh, North Carolina. The incident took place Wednesday at Cameron Village.

Caitlin Breedlove told CNN Raleigh affiliate WRAL that she and her partner were being affectionate, but appropriate with one another, when a security officer asked them to leave the shopping center.

The officer told the couple that they were being inappropriate and that “nobody wants to see that here at Cameron Village,” Breedlove said…

On Saturday, York said his company is planning additional sensitivity training for its security personnel.

“We apologized that the women were offended, and we affirmed that Cameron Village and York Properties have no tolerance for discrimination of any kind and believe all people deserve the right to be treated fairly in their work, homes and daily lives,” York said in a statement.

His additional statement of “Phew!” was unrecorded.

It’s difficult enough finding a mall cop who’s truly useful. Having one who is a pantywaist bigot strutting around offending customers – should be sent to work for the competition.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

A federal judge has ordered the reinstatement of an openly lesbian former Air Force major who was dismissed from the military under the government’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

Judge Ronald Leighton of Tacoma, Washington, made his ruling Friday. It is the latest legal and political setback for the Obama administration, which is seeking to end the policy through a legislative and executive solution.

Uh, I would have to interject, here, that Obama is trying to dump it off on Congress. He knows, you and I know, that will accomplish nothing. Especially before the fall election. There is nothing “executive” happening.

And he apparently hasn’t the integrity to live up to his promises to the Gay and Lesbian community made during his presidential campaign.

Maj. Margaret Witt, a decorated flight nurse with 20 years of service, had sued to return to the Air Force Reserve. She was honorably discharged in July 2007 on the grounds that she had a six-year relationship with another woman, a civilian…

“Her discharge from the Air Force Reserves violated her substantive due process rights under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. She should be restored to her position as a flight nurse with the 446th AES as soon as is practicable,” wrote the judge…

She was described in employee reports and by trial witnesses as an “exemplary officer” who was an effective leader, caring mentor, and skilled clinician. She had hid her homosexuality for years…

Witt’s lawyers from the ACLU argued the Spokane native’s sexuality never led to any problems within her unit. Several members of her squadron had testified they would welcome her back.

“Today we heard the hammer of justice strike for Major Margaret Witt,” said ACLU of Washington Executive Director Kathleen Taylor. “We look forward to the day when all members of our military can serve our country without invidious discrimination. To discharge her simply because of her sexual orientation was entirely unfair to her and unwise for the military, which needs her significant skills.”

The saddest thing is that the Democrats and Obama are a slightly better alternative to the intellectually and ethically corrupt thugs in the Republican Party and their teabagger Brown Shirts. On some issues.

I can’t be moved to vote for the evil of two lessers.

A nearly 25-year study concluded that children raised in lesbian households were psychologically well-adjusted and had fewer behavioral problems than their peers.

The study, published…in the journal Pediatrics, followed 78 lesbian couples who conceived through sperm donations and assessed their children’s well-being through a series of questionnaires and interviews…

The answers were coded into a computer and then analyzed. This data was compared with data from children of nonlesbian families. The results surprised Dr. Nanette Gartrell.

“I would have anticipated the kids would be doing as well as the normative sample,” she said. “I didn’t expect better.”

Children from lesbian families rated higher in social, academic and total competence. They also showed lower rates in social, rule-breaking, aggressive problem behavior.

The involvement of mothers may be a contributing factor, in addition to the fact that the pregnancies were planned, Gartrell said.

The children “didn’t arrive by accident,” she said. “The mothers were older… they were waiting for an opportunity to have children and age brings maturity and better parenting.”

This also could have occurred because “growing up in households with less power assertion and more parental involvement has been shown to be associated with healthier psychological adjustment,” Gartrell wrote in the study…

“This study shows that the 17-year-old adolescents who have been reared by lesbian families are psychologically happy and high functioning,” said Gartrell, a Williams distinguished scholar at the UCLA School of Law. Restrictions of child custody and reproductive technologies based on sexual orientation are not justified, she said.

CNN’s article covers its buns by dragging in bible-based moralists and a few others who have an axe to grind whenever science and reason provide positive information and analysis. That – to me – is part of the silliness that rules American politics.

Now that spadework has turned up surprising results – bona fide scientists will lead the way to discovering why and how the differences exist.

Groups like the Southern Baptists could never tolerate such a simple message here. After all, it’s a lot easier to apologize for supporting slavery after slavery is long gone than to begin treating people with dignity and respect whom you are mistreating today.

Which leads to the question, how much longer will we keep catering to prudes and bigots?

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

The Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly lesbian bishop Saturday in the face of objections from some conservative Anglicans.

Mary Glasspool is the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church since Gene Robinson took office in New Hampshire in 2004. Episcopalians instituted a temporary ban on gay bishops after Robinson’s ordination but revoked that ban last summer…

Bishop Jon Bruno of Los Angeles called Glasspool, an ordained priest for 28 years, a “highly qualified and experienced” cleric. “She’s not afraid of conflict and is a reconciler,” Bruno said, according to the Episcopal Church website. He added that Glasspool and her partner of 19 years, Becki Sander, are an example of living service and ministry…

Glasspool’s consecration drew opposition from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who said Glasspool’s ordination would deepen rifts in the Church…

The Church of Ireland also issued a strong condemnation…”We wish to express sorrow that Mary Glasspool, a person who is living in a same-sex relationship, is to be consecrated,” the Church of Ireland said in a statement. “The elevation to senior church leadership of a person whose lifestyle is contrary to the will of God revealed in scripture is both wrong and disappointing.”

I’m not about to repeat more of such Stone Age stupidity. “Revealed” scripture means some dude – or a collection of like-minded dodos – wrote down what he figured he could hustle his True Believers with to get ‘em to fork over their worldly goods in return for promises of a happy life after death.

Science, reason, plain and simple good will refutes this crap.

Rumors were rampant when Christian music artist Jennifer Knapp walked away from a successful career seven years ago.

After selling about a million records and winning at Christian music’s prestigious Dove Awards in 1999, the Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter simply vanished in 2003 — leaving fans wondering where she had gone. There were countless theories as to why Knapp checked out, including the possibility of illness.

But the one that raised the most ruckus among her die-hard fans was the one which proved to be true: Jennifer Knapp is gay.

This week Knapp burst back onto the music scene with news of a comeback and a coming out. Her new album will be released in May, and she has revealed that she has been in a same-sex relationship for the past eight years.

The revelation rocked the Christian music scene, where Knapp was a darling of fans and critics before her self-imposed exile. The intensely private singer said she’s not at all surprised by the shock waves.

“I’m aware that the evangelical community has problems with divorce and many other facets of their artists, let alone homosexuality,” Knapp said. “I really felt a strong obligation to be able to address that because for many people, it was really clear that they wouldn’t participate in buying a record because it was against their beliefs.”

“I think some Christians will totally avoid [Knapp] and say that she is the devil and all that, but there are some that are more open who will embrace her new material,” Lexi said. “Then she will find a new audience.”

One with brains, an education beyond Bible verses and less hypocrisy – would seem inevitable.