And so it begins...

[Jarlaxle]

Not HIV although my memory tells me that it did require it once upon a time.

Yes, HIV was required from the late 80s until around 2010; I believe in addition to the venereal diseases, that a TB test must be run and the immigrant must be examined by an approved physician for evidence of other communicable diseases as well as proof of vaccinations. Not sure why syphilis/gonorrhea are included as there have to be far more dangerous and infectious diseases than those (not to mention that they are, for the most part, treatable), but I guess it's a bow to our puritanical culture.

Darren--I always thought that course was called how to be a pompous, self important jerk--the ass part comes naturally.

Bureaucracy and inertia, probably.

[rubato]

Untreated syphilis is lethal, can cause permanent and severe neurological damage and it can be passed to the baby in childbirth and cause blindness. And that's as serious as a heart attack. As they say.


yrs,
rubato

[Darren]

Untreated syphilis is lethal, can cause permanent and severe neurological damage and it can be passed to the baby in childbirth and cause blindness. And that's as serious as a heart attack. As they say.


yrs,
rubato

Syphilis and gonorrhea are the new come back kids. Looks like we're going to have a big increase in the death and blind population.

[Scooter]

Nazis are thrilled that Trump has ‘declared open season on faggots’

US neo-Nazis are praising Trump for “declaring opens season on faggots” after alarm was raised over an order the President signed this week.

The US President this week signed a Presidential proclamation on religious freedom that appeared to back the freedom to discriminate against LGBT people. 

It says: “Unfortunately, not all have recognized the importance of religious freedom, whether by threatening tax consequences for particular forms of religious speech, or forcing people to comply with laws that violate their core religious beliefs without sufficient justification.

“No American — whether a nun, nurse, baker, or business owner — should be forced to choose between the tenets of faith or adherence to the law.”

The proclamation also praises the actions of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has systematically worked to undermine civil rights protections for LGBT people.

And neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer could not be more thrilled.

The extremist propaganda outlet, which is very supportive of Donald Trump, put out a piece today with the headline: “Trump Declares Open Season on Faggots with Religious Freedom Declaration”.

It adds: “The Alt-Right has a bog and rooftop-based policy when it comes to the homo question. And while this is still ways away from being fully implemented, we’re being given the next best thing to tide us over: depriving perverts of gay cakes.

“This is being driven by the Trump administration under the guise of ‘religious freedom’, which is a euphemism for allowing normal people the right to discriminate against homos.”

“Yes, forcing normal people to make anal-themed cakes against their will is definitely ‘eroding’ our freedoms. ‘Freedom’ is being redefined by the slime-people as ‘forcing people to do things for you against their will’.”

The website added: “Needless to say, the faggots and their bugmen allies are showing maximum butthurt.

“Hopefully, this is just a prelude to much greater things to come.” 
Just last month, Trump’s administration told the Supreme Court that it should be acceptable for businesses to put up signs denying service to same-sex couples.

Trump’s Solicitor General was supporting Jack Phillips of Colorado’s Masterpiece Cakeshop, who launched a legal challenge to the state’s anti-discrimination laws after refusing to serve a gay couple.

The baker turned away David Mullins and Charlie Craig after he found out they were getting a cake to celebrate their wedding.
Phillips has claimed that Jesus Christ would discriminate against gay people, and continues to insist his religion requires discrimination against gay people.

Elsewhere this week a new rule from the Trump-Pence administration could allow health workers to discriminate against patients by refusing to provide reproductive care to women, denying care to transgender individuals, or refusing to prescribe HIV medication or birth control.

Reps for the Democratic National Committee said: “Once again, women and the LGBTQ community are under attack from the Trump-Pence administration.

“Days before the anniversary of the Women’s March, Republicans are giving health workers a license to discriminate against women and members of the LGBTQ community.

“It wasn’t enough to try to strip transgender Americans of their right to serve, roll back access to birth control, and attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.

“Now Trump, Pence, and their Republican cronies want to allow health care workers to discriminate and rip away access to medical care. This rule is unethical and dangerously undermines public health.

Still don't believe that tattoos and concentration camps are close behind? When POTUS promotes the idea that Christian Talibangelist EMTs should be permitted to let LGBT accident victims bleed to death in the middle of the road, how far behind can it be?

[ex-khobar Andy]

Scooter wrote:

When POTUS promotes the idea that Christian Talibangelist EMTs should be permitted to let LGBT accident victims bleed to death in the middle of the road, how far behind can it be?

I have seen this as speculation as something which could be possible, but I haven't seen it as a position from Trump. Do you have a reference? I know that there is this new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division but I have not seen that it plans to allow discrimination against LGBTQ for healthcare.

[Scooter]

Unless and until any proponent of these so-called "religious freedom" laws and proclamations makes explicit exceptions to prevent denial of lifesaving or health preserving care, they must be presumed to be included.

[Scooter]

Report Shows Massive Increase In Anti-LGBTQ Violence Since Trump Took Office

The New York City Anti-Violence Project’s annual Crisis of Hate report shows a remarkable upsurge of hate-based killings of LGBTQ people.

According to the report, an 86 percent increase in hate violence homicides in the U.S. last year makes 2017 the deadliest year yet for the LGBTQ community. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, a coalition of 40 community-based anti-violence groups, noted the escalation toward the end of the presidential election cycle, and it shows no signs of slowing, according to Beverly Tillery, executive director of the project.

President Donald “Trump won the election by saying it was time to take back America for people feeling pushed out by LGBTQ people, immigrants and people of color,” Tillery told HuffPost.

“It was a tactical move to attack those communities,” she added. “It worked, and there are more instances of violence because the climate in the country has changed. It has given an opening for people to feel like they can commit acts of hate-based violence without much repercussion.”

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs recorded 52 LGTBQ hate-based homicides in 2017 ― an average of one each week. That’s a sharp increase from 28 single-incident anti-LGTBQ homicides in 2016. (The Pulse Nightclub massacre, which killed 49 people in 2016, is not included when calculating single-incident homicides.)

As in previous years, LGBTQ people of color appear to have borne the brunt of the violence. Of the total number of homicides last year, the report indicates 71 percent of the victims were people of color, and 23 percent were white. Victims were overwhelmingly transgender women and queer, bi, or gay cisgender men.

While the impact of hate crimes transcend all state borders, more than half of the homicides occurred in Florida, Georgia, New York, Louisiana and Texas, according to the report.

[Burning Petard]

Atheism is a religion in the same way that not collecting stamps is a hobby.

Scooter, I have to object to your tag line, on the basis of basic definitions. Please give me the appropriate noun ending " . . . ism" that applies to not collecting stamps. Atheism is a religion in that it is a system of unprovable (in the Karl Popper sense) assertions about the origin of reality and morality. It has adherents who act as if it is very important for the good of society as a whole for others to agree with them.

Yes there is much variation in the beliefs of self-identified Atheists about the personal actions such beliefs subsume. But the same can be said about Christians, Buddhists, or Animists.

If you used 'agnostic' in your tagline, I could agree.

snailgate

[Scooter]

Please give me the appropriate noun ending " . . . ism" that applies to not collecting stamps.

Non-philatelism (a rarer form of the more common non-philately). A person who does not collect stamps is a non-philatelist.

Atheism is a religion in that it is a system of unprovable (in the Karl Popper sense) assertions about the origin of reality and morality.

Perhpas you could point to some treatise that is seen by at least some, if not most or all, atheists as an authoritative exposition, and provide quotations of some of these alleged assertions about the origin of reality and morality.

It has adherents who act as if it is very important for the good of society as a whole for others to agree with them.

"Adherents" in this context is a loaded word that serves only to beg the question.

If you used 'agnostic' in your tagline, I could agree.

Then perhaps your issues have more to do with etymology of English words, rather than with what atheists do or do not believe.

If you care to continue this discussion, move it to another forum; it doesn't belong in Politics.

[Scooter]

Meet the new, anti-gay, US International Religious Freedom Ambassador

LGBTI advocates in the US have criticized Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s new appointment. He’s been made International Religious Freedom ambassador-at-large.

The Senate voted along party lines and was split 49-49. The deadlock was broken yesterday evening by Vice President Mike Pence, who cast the deciding vote in Brownback’s favor.

Pence said he was ‘proud to cast the tie-breaking vote’. He called Brownback ‘a principled man of faith who will help the Trump Admin advance support for persecuted religious groups around the world.’

Brownback was first nominated for the position seven months ago by President Trump. Brownback tweeted his thanks to Pence, President Trump and the others who had supported his appointment.

‘Thank you to @POTUS, @VP, and all the Senators who supported my nomination. I’m looking forward to starting my new position as Ambassador and working hard for the American people and religious freedom around the world.’

Republican Brownback, 61, a former lawyer, has been Governor of Kansas since 2011.

The role of International Religious Freedom ambassador at large was created in 1998. It is intended to promote ‘religious freedom as a core objective of U.S. foreign policy,’ according to the US State Department.

Brownback has long been an advocate for religious freedom at the expense of the LGBTI community. In 2016, he signed the Campus Religious Freedom Bill, which allows religious student groups to block membership based on ‘religious beliefs’. This includes discriminating against LGBTI students from joining.

Previously, he signed laws protecting clergy who do not participate in same-sex marriages, removed protections for LGBTI state employees, and attended an anti-marriage equality rally.

Because of the LGBTI policies Brownback helped introduce in Kansas, California banned state-funded and sponsored travel to the state, along with North Carolina, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

‘For decades, Sam Brownback has attacked the LGBTQ community and worked to undermine fairness and equality. His extremist, anti-LGBTQ actions should disqualify him from representing the people of the United States,’ said HRC Government Affairs Director David Stacy in a statement.

‘Donald Trump and Mike Pence are stacking the administration with anti-LGBTQ politicians determined to carry out their harmful and discriminatory policies. We are deeply disappointed that the Senate has chosen to confirm Brownback’s nomination.’

Sarah Kate Ellis President and CEO of GLAAD, also slammed Brownback’s appointment. She said ‘There is a vast difference between combating the real and horrific persecution facing religious minorities across the globe and Brownback’s own record of distorting religious freedom to promote anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

‘Brownback now joins the ranks of an administration fully committed to promoting religious exemptions as a weapon of discrimination against LGBTQ people and other vulnerable communities.’

Lambda Legal also tweeted about Brownback’s appointment. ‘”Concerning” is an understatement.’

[Scooter]

Billings church gets hit again with swastika, anti-gay graffiti



A week after someone left a stack of anti-gay pamphlets at a gay-friendly church in Billings, more messages appeared in and around the building, including swastikas and a hastily scrawled “No gays” on the sign board outside.

Grace United Methodist Church has been a vocal advocate of LGBT issues and rights, organizing support for the city's ultimately unsuccessful nondiscrimination ordinance and hosting gatherings.

Pastor Sarah Beck called the recent acts “unacceptable,” and said the congregation had been concerned, not just for the church but also for the people responsible.

“That is a sign of some seriously dark stuff,” she said. “We’re going to pray for those people.”

On Sunday, the church hosted a public forum to speak out the against anti-gay literature placed inside the church Jan. 25. The event also addressed last week’s graffiti spree that left swastikas, penises and profanity spray-painted on the outside of Lewis and Clark Middle School, Senior High School and homes and cars on the 10 block of Burlington Avenue.



Roughly 150 Billings residents gathered for the event.

Then on Thursday, as volunteers were tidying rooms, a volunteer discovered a swastika painted on the choir room door and more anti-gay literature pinned to a bulletin board inside the room.

Outside on a church sign that reads, “Open doors, open hearts,” someone had scribbled, “No gays,” said Angie Buckley, the church council president.

Beck, the pastor, said the timing of the second incident was discouraging.

“It’s certainly an attempt at intimidation,” she said. “But it’s not going to work. We’re not going to shrink away from being who we are in the community, as a congregation.”

The incident has been reported to the Billings Police Department and the FBI.

Beck has been pastor at the church for three and a half years and said in that time nothing like this has happened at Grace United.



Beck said that as a high school student in Illinois she had heard about Not In Our Town, a response by Billings residents after a rash of hate crimes in 1993. The movement gained national attention.

Billings is a place that knows how to react to hate messages, Beck said.

“We are determined to continue doing what we believe in and what God’s called us to do,” she said.

[rubato]

I recall the original incident around Christmas time in 1993 and the response of the community was powerful and very moving. After some anti-semitic threats and graffiti a huge proportion of people put lit menorahs in their windows in solidarity.

We should do the same for anti-muslim haters.

yrs,
rubato

[Scooter]

U.S. anti-Semitic incidents soared 57 per cent in 2017, the largest single-year increase on record, report says

The Anti-Defamation League is reporting a 57 per cent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. last year, the highest tally that the Jewish civil rights group has counted in more than two decades, according to data it released Tuesday.

The New York City-based organization found 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents last year, up from 1,267 in 2016. That’s the highest total since 1994 and the largest single-year increase since the group began collecting this data in 1979.

The ADL said the sharp rise includes 952 vandalism incidents, an increase of 86 per cent from 2016. The group also counted 1,015 incidents of harassment.

ADL national director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said the “alarming” increase appears to be fuelled by emboldened far-right extremists as well as the “divisive state of our national discourse.”

“Less civility has led to more intolerance,” he told The Associated Press.

Greenblatt also acknowledged that heightened awareness of the problem likely led to increased reporting of anti-Semitic incidents.

Anti-Semitic incidents at schools and on college campuses nearly doubled for the second year in a row, with 457 such incidents reported in non-Jewish schools last year, the ADL report says.

The ADL and other groups have reported a surge in the number of incidents in which far-right extremist groups have posted racist and anti-Semitic flyers on college campuses. ADL spokesman Todd Gutnick said the report’s tally only counts incidents in which flyers had explicitly anti-Semitic messages.

[rubato]

I looked in at David Duke's website and got the impression he is more anti-semitic than anything else. The generalized racism is still there but somewhat softened.


yrs,
rubato

[Scooter]

Texas newspaper edits son's same-sex marriage out of mother's obituary

When Brenda Light died last month, her obituary in a small-town Texas newspaper included a wealth of biographical details. But one important family connection was missing – the fact that her son is married to another man.

The obituary submitted to the Olton Enterprise included the line “Those left to cherish her memory include her son, Barry Giles, and his husband, John Gambill of Dallas”. But there was no mention of Gambill or the union in the published version.

“It wiped John completely off the picture like he didn’t exist,” Giles told Fox 4 local news.

It was evidently not an oversight on the part of the newspaper, which is based in a town of about 2,200 residents more than 350 miles north-west of Dallas.

The publisher, Phillip Hamilton, doubles as a Baptist pastor. He told the station in a statement: “It is my religious conviction that a male cannot have a husband. It is also my belief that to publish anything contrary to God’s Word on this issue would be to publish something in the newspaper that is not true.

“The newspaper respects the first amendment rights of those who express such opinions. The newspaper’s decision to edit the obituary is both ethical and lawful. It would be unethical to publish a news item that is known by the editor to be false. Based on the truth found in the Word of God, I could not in good conscience identify Mr Gambill as the husband of Mr Giles.”

Giles and Gambill – a trained funeral director – have been together for 31 years, according to the Dallas Voice, and Light moved from Olton to Dallas after her husband died and lived only a mile from the couple. “We spent holidays together. We did what a family would do,” Gambill told the Voice.

So he wasn't even honest enough to refuse their business; instead, he took their money and then edited the text by stealth so that it conformed with his bigotry. No doubt he believed he was doing the "Christian" thing by perpetrating this fraud and inflicting pain on this family in mourning.

[BoSoxGal]

[rubato]

They should sue to get their money back plus damages and/or force the paper to run the obituary as submitted.


yrs,
rubato

[RayThom]

Which party paid for the obit... was it Barry Giles?

If Giles paid for it I'd assume that the money exchange would constitute a binding contract -- which the editor/pastor made a conscience decision to breach. I imagine nonperformance could be argued in a court of law. I think it would be hard arguing damages other than forcing the paper to run the original, unedited, obit.

On the other hand, it does contain aspects of Obergefell v. Hodges, so it could have some merit being tried in a higher court.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I think the guy did wrong and should offer restitution. A real conviction on the word "husband" should have resulted either in a compromise (partner, perhaps) or an outright rejection if compromise was not possible. That is, as Scooter pointed out, at least an honest response rather than the cowardly and cheating act of omission that this chap perpetrated.

[[Excusing nothing in his action, he is correct in terms of language. There is no 'husband' and no 'wife' in a homosexual partnership, of either gender. Spouse, partner, significant other .... those are fair enough descriptors for all persons to be able to use. People are of course free to refer to themselves in whatever terms they wish, but others should not be required to concur.]]

[Big RR]

Meade--I am not 100 percent sure, but my recollection is that the term "husband" is not gender specific, but derives from some Germanic roots meaning "head of the household"; wife is gender specific and derives from words for "woman". For example, animal husbandry relates to the management of a farm and not the gender of the manager. thus, I would think there could be one or two "husbands" in a homosexual marriage regardless of gender, but that a wife would have to be female. We have used the term commonly to mean the male spouse, but there is no reason that it is exclusively so and related to one wedded to a woman.

That being said, I agree with the remainder of your post.