Stephen Colbert's fake commercial against gay marriage.

Stephen Colbert's show is one of my favorites to watch late at night, and this "fake commercial" that opposes gay marriage made me laugh. I have to share it because it just might be that you have not seen it! Watch all the way to the end!

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Colbert Coalition's Anti-Gay Marriage Ad
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

...just a small bruise on my hand...and gay marriage

I looked at the back of my hand and I saw a small bruise. I'm only 56, and I don't get "old people bruises." At least, not yet. I must have hit it on something - you know, the kind of bruise that just shows up? Some questions ran through my mind - like, where did that come from? when did I hit my hand? but it was not a big deal at all.

I showed it to Ray when he visited for Easter. It was just a little bruise - not a worry or care. I just showed him because I knew he'd listen to me. And then I felt this awful loss - that he's not here all the time.

There are so many times when that happens, and I never even think about it. But it was a holiday - when I used to expect all my kids to sit in church with me. I always dressed them up when they were little - as much as son Phil would allow me to - but the traditional "Easter outfits" would be cause enough to take a picture outside with the daffodils, or tulips, or whatever was blooming when Easter occurred. And I felt a connection to other springs, and the connection always felt good.

But back to the bruise...

I've always figured that if I'm feeling something, there must be someone, somewhere, who is feeling that same emotion. I'm not sure how to relate this except by example. For example, one time at a Full Gospel Businessmen's dinner, I was seated with strangers while Ray was at the "head table," with the speakers. (Never mind that women never sat up there!) As hard as I tried to fit in with my table-mates, it just didn't happen. I wondered how many others came to that meeting, hoping to find a friend or connect with others, and left feeling ostracized, alone.

Another time I was immediately offended by a guest speaker at church, and I went to him at the end of the service and asked some pretty direct questions about his delivery. I got nowhere. It wasn't until months later, but I did find that other people also had issues with this [deleted]...um...jerk. (He nearly ruined the church, btw, but that is another story.)

These days I feel for the glbt community, and I think about when I feel like they do. I looked at that bruise on my hand, and I felt alone. And I think about all the other people who are denied the partnership of the ones that they love. Some say that gay people should, "deny their sexual feelings," but it isn't all about that. It's about that small bruise that you want to show, and to have a loved one say, "awww, what happened?"

There are all the times when we have others around us, when we have a daughter, or husband, or son, or mom or dad, and we just want to tell them about our day - and we don't want to be alone. We want to have someone to help with dishes, share a sandwich, or admire the dog's ability to go for a stick thrown on a spring day. Why can anyone deny this to another human being? How can you oppose loving relationships, just because someone is gay? This issue that is facing so many in our country today is NOT all about sex - it's about companionship, going through life together, and about love. It's about a little bruise on the back of the hand, and caring that it simply happened, and that it will heal.

Happy Easter - and the White House Egg Roll is Inclusive!

Happy Easter to all - and my ham is baking, it smells delicious, and I have family coming for dinner. There are some eggs that the Easter Bunny needs help to hide outside since it's a beautiful spring day, and I have had time to upload some photos to facebook. All at the same time, I saw this video: http://www.comcast.net/data/fan/html/popup.html?v=1088584173

And I'm thinking, "What is this woman thinking?" She says, "A child is a child, and they should get to enjoy that event. But please, do not show preferences. It's just not fair." From the editing and narration, it seems like she agrees that every child should be able to attend and have a good time - but then she makes it like a backhanded "allowance," saying there's preference - and doesn't like it. It isn't FAIR? I came close to cussing - but I'm biting my tongue.

At least I have a blog to say this: A family is a family, and they should enjoy THIS event. Enough of discrimination of families who have same-sex parents. In the past we used to bar divorced women or black families, and I'm sure there are a myriad of types that were dis-included from all types of public participation. Let's make up for it by INCLUDING ALL FAMILIES with children who get to be part of a fun event - The White House Egg Roll!

I have read that it was in 2006 that gay families first made their presence known, by waiting for tickets, in line with a lot of other folks. They refused to be backed into the darkness and showed their faces and their families by wearing rainbow leis. This year, the Obama administration included gay families in the distribution of tickets - and this was the big change that the woman in the video opposed.

Yay for a President who sees the importance of making the Easter Egg Roll at the White House a truly inclusive family affair! Yay for the staff who are carrying out the wishes of a socially progressive president.

Ray Boltz - a concert reviewed, Abilene, Texas

Despite a lot of uproar last week prior to the concert, Ray Boltz sang in Abilene, Texas, to a welcoming audience. What a relief that there were no signs or hecklers, because there were sure enough comments in the local newspaper. Thankfully there were old fans as well as new ones, and I have it on good authority that Ray had a good day.
(Reporter-News photo by Nellie Doneva)

Here is the new review:

Boltz mixes old faves with new songs
Nearly 200 turn out for Paramount concert

By Emily A. Peters peterse@reporternews.com
Sunday, April 5, 2009

Ray Boltz sang some old Dove Award-winning favorites at a free concert Sunday while mixing in some soul-baring ballads from a forthcoming album that allude to his recent coming out as a Christian homosexual.

About 160 adults with about a dozen children came to Abilene's Paramount Theatre to hear Boltz, who said Abilene is the smallest city he's played since coming out in September.

"That's a little nerve wracking," he admitted before the show, but he said he understands why he might not draw the same crowd that has attended his multiple Abilene shows over his two-decade career as a nationally known Christian recording artist.

"When I came out, I knew the church wouldn't accept me being gay, and I couldn't expect all my old fans to just say everything is cool five minutes later," he said. "They've seen you one way for so long, so I respect the people (who didn't come), and I don't have any bad feelings toward them."

Monica Warn, a longtime member of the Exodus Metropolitan Community Church that sponsored the Boltz show, sang along with some of the old favorites at Sunday's concert, such as "I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb" and "Thank You."

But she also found a spiritual thread in his newer songs, which Boltz says will be on an album he's finishing next week.

The new songs include lyrics such as "Don't tell me who to love. Don't tell me who to kiss." Another lighthearted retrospective song recalls how he felt freedom when he went to a seventh-grade dance and left the group of wallflower boys to join the girls on the dance floor, "kicking up my heels; finally letting go."

"His new songs are wonderful," Warn said. "You can still hear the voice of God in his new songs. They are about acceptance and finding out who you are, and that has a lot to do with God's love."

That's the message Boltz said he hopes to convey with his new album, which he will soon send to record companies to gauge interest.

"I'd say these songs are less religious, but there are still spiritual truths," Boltz says.

One new song expresses his struggle to keep his homosexuality a secret with the lyrics: "God knows I tried, God knows all the pain I kept inside. He's seen every tear I've cried." Another haunting ballad tells about a young boy who was always teased for being different and was eventually found dead at the bottom of the swimming hole.

But the old Gospel Music Award-winning favorites are what drew Dentler Stutts, a member of a local Baptist church who said Boltz's homosexuality had new effect on her desire to come and bring her 2-year-old granddaughter.

"His old songs were played at the funerals of my mother and nephew," she said. "He's got a God-given talent and an incredible voice. This place should have been packed today, being as Abilene is such a Christian town."

Some local Christian radio stations have removed Boltz from their playlists in the last year, and in recent weeks, representatives of some Abilene churches vocalized their disapproval of Boltz's homosexuality.

The concert venue drew no protesters Sunday.

"People of Abilene will tell you what they think, but when it comes to it, they are people of faith, so we really didn't have anything to fear," said the Rev. Margaret Walker, senior Pastor of Exodus Metropolitan Community Church.

Walker teared up and closed her eyes as Boltz sang her favorite, "Watch the Lamb."

Sam Robles, 29, came all the way from Midland with his girlfriend to hear the Ray Boltz songs of his childhood. He said this concert came at a good time in his spiritual life since he just recently started going to church again at God's Rainbow Promises Fellowship in Midland,

"This is what I pretty much grew up listening to," Robles said. "To see him here years and years later is a blessing. I shook his hand and took a picture with him."

Boltz said that his songs are still coming from the heart and that he'll release the album online if the record companies don't bite.

"I think I've always written songs that expressed what I was going through, and this is just current," he said. "This whole thing has affected me in that I have a lot of questions now. I don't claim to have all the answers, but I'm writing songs about where I am, and that's just being honest."

Several fundamentalists (from preachers to local radio hosts) spoke and had warned their listeners and congregations of the event, some of which I quote from the local paper (Abilene, Texas Reporter News).

- KGNZ's own station manager Gary Hill said [the listeners] "are struggling since Boltz revealed he was gay"

and he had made statements that he said were simply to inform, but they no longer play Ray Boltz songs on their station.

Chuck Farina, pastor of New Hope Church in Abilene, devoted part of a letter to his congregation about the upcoming concert.

"There are many who might excitedly attend the event without being aware of the changes in Ray's beliefs and practices," he said.

In the letter, Farina called Sunday's concert an attempt to "'bridge the gap'" between the straight and gay communities and to "promote the homosexual lifestyle here in Abilene."

It seems like they didn't want to appear homophobic, but they did sound that way to me.

Meanwhile, Kim McLaughlin, the local president of PFLAG (Parents/Families of Lesbians & Gays) had spoken to Farina - and called him on the letter he sent regarding the concert. She called it "hurtful and painful." Also, from the article, McLaughlin,

"she did not believe God would discriminate against anyone based on their sexual orientation.

"I was born straight, white and female, and there was never a time in my life that I thought I had a choice regarding my race, my gender or my sexual orientation," she said. "We've made a lot of progress based on not discriminating against people on their race or gender, but we still have a long way to go when it comes to sexual orientation."

I agree with McLaughlin.

Thankfully, the concert went off and there were no signs or loud protests. I'm thankful for that - because I think it would actually be a GOOD thing if the two "sides" came together!

house plant?

Along with a lot of people who can now enter into legal marriage with the one they love (and with whom they have mutual, adult, sexual attraction) I was happy with Iowa's decision to legalize gay marriage. I see no reason not to make it LEGAL for adults to establish their commitment to one another.

I have, like so many other people who will write about this, heard most of the arguments that claim "logic," and then proceed to compare male-male or female-female partnerships to animals (dogs, goats, etc.) or reptiles (box turtles). What was new was this one: a house plant. “Marriage, of course, by its very spiritual, historical and biological nature, requires binary compatibility. It is no more discriminatory to disallow two men from marrying each other, than it is to prohibit a man from marrying his house plant.”

quote from Matt Barber, who has several titles associated with Liberty University. (hat tip to Jim over at Box Turtle Bulletin)

In reality, does Matt Barber see a two-way, adult relationship as that simplistic? From what I know, most plants that I grow are pretty innocuous, they wait to be watered and fertilized, sit in the appropriate window to receive sunlight and I expect them to give off some oxygen and look pretty. Kind of like this one...


Even if the bigots and sociophobes disagree with gay marriage rights, surely they can just be honest and declare that their literal adherence to the Holy Bible holds all their reasoning. It seems that these people will say almost anything that they presume to be logical, when in reality they want us to have a theocracy, which the United States of America is NOT.

Comparing two gay adults who wish the right to marry to non-human, inanimate objects is just disrespectful to those adults AND to the ones who make the statements.