Friday, April 24, 2015

Dear Right Wing Nutjobs... Here is why you are losing.

As we get closer to the dates for oral arguments on the legalization of marriage equality before the US Supreme Court , the anti-civil rights conservative wingnutosphere has, (not unexpectedly)completely lost their minds.    

The brilliant Matt Baume over that the American Foundation for Equal Rights brings us up to date on the latest fun and frolic from the good peoples of Teabagistan.


What has become all to clear over the past few weeks is  the "Culture Warriors" on the American political and social Right Wing, are stunned, angry and generally unhinged that they are losing the battle to keep LGBT Americans as the one group it is still safe to hate.   

Between the backlash over attempted "Religious Freedom" laws,  (designed  only to allow for legalized discrimination against Gays and Lesbians in public accommodation,)  to the anticipated SCOTUS ruling widely expected to invalidate discriminatory marriage laws nationwide;  Spring has not been a season of much joy for Anti-Gay bigots.

Then this past week three little news items popped up that pretty much say it all.   The first was a new  ABC News/Washington Post poll that put support for marriage equality at nearly   60%, and opposition to it below 40%,  for the first time in American History

 
Next we had news from the world of pop culture.  A good bellwether of national tends has always been youth culture.  Popular Movies, Television shows and music have long since embraced the idea of LGBT equality.  One other time-tested canary in the coal mine of bigotry is, not surprisingly, comic books.
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Click to enlarge
(From The Huffington Post)

Original "X-Men" member Iceman is set to make a big revelation this week: he's gay.  

The iconic character makes the surprise declaration in the All-New X-Men #40, which is available in stores and online April 22. Pages from the new book show an intimate conversation between a young Iceman, or Bobby Drake, and pal Jean Grey.

After Iceman comments on how hot he finds his female teacher, the telepathic Jean sees right through her friend's thinly-veiled declaration and tells him outright that she knows he's gay.
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The announcement caused televangelist Franklin Graham to take his case of the vapours to the Facebook thing on the interwebs,   to make sure all the kids know how upsetting this is for him.

The Religious Right leader took to his Facebook page to lament that Marvel is using Iceman in an attempt “to indoctrinate our young people to accept this destructive lifestyle.”

(Graham has previously praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for criminalizing speech that is perceived as pro-gay propaganda” directed at young people.)

I have a news flash for Frankie;   the Kids are just fine, and they don't care who he  thinks they should hate.  I know social conservatives are not big fans of facts.  But here are a few interesting ones that are hard to ignore.

-  The Millennial generation is 80 million, the largest in history. And for Millennials who lean right, gay marriage is an area in which they disagree with their party.
 
-  A 2014 Pew poll found that 61 percent of Republicans under 30 support gay marriage.
 
-  According to Data Science polling, 64 percent of self-identifying Evangelical Millennials support same-sex marriage.
 
-  And the most recent survey of incoming freshman at UCLA found that 44.3 percent of students who considered themselves “far right” believe same-sex couples should have the right to legally marry.
 
So lets set aside the fact that the  overwhelming majority of American voters under age 30 disagree with the American Taliban.  
 
The real wake up call for 2016 is that  the  majority of conservative American voters under 30 disagree with the WingNut Right on the issue of  LGBT rights.
 
Not that I enjoy kicking bigots when they are down, but this one last little news item from Las Vegas pretty much sums up where  America, The Next Generation is at on this issue...
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From The Huffington Post

This Straight Guy Just Asked His Gay BFF To Prom With The Most Adorable Promposal
As a student council member at his high school, Anthony Martinez is often tasked with planning school dances. But the 17-year-old, who is gay, says that he “never [gets] asked.”
Until now, that is.

Martinez, who attends Desert Oasis High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, shared on Twitter this week that he was asked to prom by someone entirely unexpected. It was his best friend, Jacob Lescenski -- who is straight.

For the promposal, Lescenski (wearing camouflage pants in the photo above) created a banner with the words: "You're hella gay, I'm hella str8. But you're like my brother. So be my d8?"
Lescenski told New Now Next that he had decided to surprise Martinez with the promposal after seeing his friend tweet about wanting a date for the event.

“I decided on going to prom alone because my original date idea didn’t work out so well,” he said. “Then one night I saw Anthony, who is my best friend, tweeting about wanting a date. So, I came up with the poster idea, asked my friend Mia to make it and asked him that next day … It was a giant surprise to everyone, especially Anthony!”

A thrilled Martinez expressed his gratitude to his BFF on social media.

“He’s my best friend, and a real man given the fact he has the guts to fulfil my gay student council dream of always helping out planning dances, and never getting asked. I couldn’t ask for a better person in my life,” the teen wrote on Tumblr. “Thank you Jacob, can’t wait for May 2nd!”
Lescenski’s promposal has gone viral this week, and netizens everywhere have praised the teen for his awesome gesture of friendship.

“It's an adorable story -- boy meets boy -- with a 2015 twist,” wrote Mic.com of the promposal. “As being an ally becomes more and more a part of the high school experience, it's inspiring to see."
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So over the next few weeks, expect Tony Perkins, Pat Robertson, Bryan Fischer, Maggie Gallagher and all the other assorted gargoyles of hate,  to stamp their feet and scream about how unfair it is that people they don't like are going to be treated equally under the law.

Yet clearly the future of America is one where homophobia, like its historical cousins racism, and segregation is, as Ronald Reagan would say; destined for the ash heap of history.

Hella cool...
 


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