Sometime last year, I read about the murder of Sean William Kennedy. A 20 year old living in South Carolina, Sean was murdered because he was gay. At the time, I remember thinking what a senseless tragedy it was and how the perpetrator, himself just a teenager, had thrown his life away. For I trusted justice would be done. And so, just as quickly as the story entered my life, it was forgotten.
Until today. Until tonight.
The outcome of this sordid tale has now come to my attention - an outcome which makes me white hot with rage.
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I'll be frank, my previous diary on school bullying touched a nerve both here on DailyKos and also at Pam's House Blend. I want to share these comments with my readers and also use this opportunity to respond. Emotions were (rightfully so) very raw on this issue, and to understand the full context I do encourage all readers to check out Part I of this pair of diaries for background. I want to thank every single commenter for sharing their thoughts. More than anything else, I appreciate your time and thank you for adding to this very important discussion.
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I have never endured a more difficult experience than the cliquey, judgemental, make it or break it middle school crowd of my childhood years. I'll be perfectly honest, at 20 years old, those memories are quite fresh in my mind. I'm sure you can relate in some way.
I know, I'm well aware of the demographics of Dkos, however I also am aware of the universality of assholes, bullies and jocks throughout time, culture and class. If not middle school, then high school or certainly college. So many of us Kossacks can recall those dark experiences of school harassment in the form of intimidation, humiliation and sometimes violence.
Some of us, like me, remember those days as perpetrators. I know it may be hard to imagine, but for us reformed bullies, the experiences can sometimes be far worse than anything we dished out. Please allow me to explain.
This guest diary came to us at The Bilerico Project from Minnesota Congressional candidate Ashwin Madia. He wanted to share with us his experiences fighting against discrimination in the military and ask for the blogosphere's help in his competitive race to take a Republican's seat. More info below the fold.
I am a Marine Corps veteran, an Iraq war veteran and the Democratic candidate for Congress in Minnesota's Third District, so I hear a lot about patriotism these days. But real patriotism sometimes means taking on the system if you know what you're doing is the right thing. As a Marine Corps lawyer, I was one of the first attorneys to successfully defend a gay Marine from discrimination by the military.
Ryan learned about the honor Monday, when she and her partner of 30 years, Carol Adair, arrived home from the Aspen Ideas Festival ...
The next day was a busy one, because she and Adair were scheduled to be remarried, having married the first time in 2004 at City Hall in San Francisco. "We'll have to get the rings re-engraved with the new date," she said.
I could be wrong. I hope I'm wrong. I hope it's just a really, very,
extremely strange coincidence. Or a bad camera angle/lighting. But today, I saw what might be the biggest pander ever, to the point it's almost comical. Sam Nunn, the VP hopeful with the anti-gay track record, went into a press conference wearing a rainbow tie. Yes, rainbow, as in the full-on bright red, yellow, green, and purple kind of rainbow. I took the below screenshot from CNN.
Oh dear. Someone had better tell the conservatives of the GOP base, who don't quite trust John McCain anyway, that he has changed his tune from the other day and now apparently favors adoptions by gay couples.
"Sen. McCain's expressed his personal preference for children to be raised by a mother and a father wherever possible," the statement added. "However, as an adoptive father himself, McCain believes children deserve loving and caring home environments, and he recognizes that there are many abandoned children who have yet to find homes. John McCain believes that in those situations that caring parental figures are better for the child than the alternative."
Hardly a ringing endorsement for adoptions by gays, but certainly a change from two days ago when he unambiguously said, "I don't believe in gay adoption." Of course he may come back tomorrow and say that he meant only if the alternative was being boiled in oil, because after all, when it comes to the straight talker, you never know who he's going to be pandering to next.
Mr. McCain, who with his wife, Cindy, has an adopted daughter, said flatly that he opposed allowing gay couples to adopt. "I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption," he said.
McCain is now a born again Christian. Praise Jesusland we must get their vote.
Asked if he considered himself an evangelical Christian, Mr. McCain responded, "I consider myself a Christian."
"I attend church," he said. "My faith has sustained me in very difficult times." Asked how often he attended, he responded: "Not as often as I should." He has recently been photographed going to church as his campaign has begun to make public the times he attends services.
Via the Huffington Post, "It has been rumored by some time that the U.S. Army has had to lower its standards to get enough recruits for its expanded war-fighting needs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now firm evidence has emerged, and it is not pretty."
The urge to speak no ill of the dead is a powerful one. And it was on full display this week as former Senator Jesse Helms was laid to rest.
The media glossed over almost all of Helms' ugly history as the last unapologetically racist politician of the segregation era. Largely ignored was how Helms stirred the pot of bigotry and hatred to win elections and further his political goals. The people Helms hurt throughout his career deserve better.
Apologies for the very short diary, but I have to run out and haven't seen this story anywhere:
Troy King, University of Alabama graduate and McCain campaign chair for the state has been caught in a gay sex scandal a la Larry Craig. Full story here at Pensito Review.
The folks at Pensito Review have been doing a little research this afternoon... Seems Walnuts McCain's camp has completely scrubbed their website of any and all mention of Troy King. Hmph.
I am a gay white man. The focus of this diary is on HIV/AIDS in a minority population that although I am not a member of, it is a population that I interact with often. \
The topic of HIV and AIDS is of course so large one could write any number of diaries about it a day each year and not cover each and every topic. So please forgive me for not covering every topic it is not my intent.
I view the Reagan years as a horrible blight upon the history of this nation for his do nothing policies on HIV/AIDS. I have lost friends and partners to AIDS back in the 80s. Great people, old and young, of all races, of all demographics, well Ronnie sat back and did nothing.
fishbowlAMERICA:The state of Alabama remains abuzz over just what is going on with these Troy King resignation rumors. The Republican Attorney General, who succeeded William Pryor after his controversial appointment to the federal bench, has been seen by many as a potential gubernatorial candidate when current Governor Bob Riley leaves office.
There are some who believe the initial source of the rumors are those from Riley himself. It has long been rumored that Riley's reason for running for Congress, and later Governor, was to pave a path for his son Rob Riley, a former SGA president and leader of the Machine at the University of Alabama. Rob Riley was on the infamous conference call with GOP operative Bill Canary and Dana Jill Simpson, when it was inferred that Canary would use Karl Rove and the Justice Department to investigate Riley's former opponent, Governor Don Siegelman.
WSFA, Montgomery's WSFA affiliate told some bloggers who inquired about the station running a story on King, said that King was going through a divorce, and that they wouldn't be running a story of such a private matter.
FishbowlAmerica.com:The rumor mill in Montgomery is swirling of news of a potential resignation by Republican Attorney General Troy King, amid rumors that he was caught by his wife having sex with a male aide and subsequently banished from his home by his wife.
King, a potential GOP frontrunner for Governor in 2010, succeeded Bill Pryor, one of George W. Bush's most controversial judicial nominees. In addition, King was also an early endorser of John McCain.
While at face value it smells of a whisper campaign on the internet, much like the recent whispers about MO governor Matt Blount, a number of reputable Alabama blogs are reporting, in the very least, that the rumors are there and widespread.
As someone who grew up in North Carolina during the 80's and 90's, it is hard to find words to convey the role has Jesse Helms played in my worldview. One of the first memories I have of Helms is being told that he had said "vulgar and common" things about my grandfather, Thad Stem, a poet who wrote liberal columns for the Raleigh News & Observer at the same time Helms was a political commentator on a Raleigh television station.
Jesse Helms’ death comes as no surprise, since his health had rapidly declined after he retired from the U.S. Senate in 2002. Yet it’s fitting that he died on the Fourth of July.
Helms was a disgrace to North Carolina and the nation, and what better time to celebrate our independence from the bigoted, hate-filled politics he stood for.
During Helms’ heyday, the question on many people’s minds about North Carolina was how could its citizens keep re-electing an extreme right wing, unrepentant segregationist, self-proclaimed "redneck" like Helms? The perception was that the state was filled with racists, or that Helms’ voters were ignorant and uneducated. The reality is more complex.
