The story of a sports coach sacked from a New Zealand Christian school for being gay has been big news in the gay press this week following a ruling that they must pay him undisclosed compensation, apologize and that board members from Middleton Grange School must also attend courses on human rights awareness.

A coach for the girls’ netball team, the coach was fired from his position once the board was made aware of his sexual orientation, something he said he not only found belittling but also very difficult to deal with as “It’s hard enough to go through finding yourself and accepting yourself and being ‘out’ in the first place. Having to go through discrimination doesn’t help”.

Depressing enough as an isolated case, the sacking of teachers due to their sexual orientation is sadly though far from a one off seen by these five cases of dismissals from teaching positions focused on the negative influence that their sexuality could have on the children….. because acking someone based on their sexuality sends out such a positive signal….

1. Lisa Reimer

Teaching at Little Flower Academy, an independent Catholic school Lisa Reimer was told in April 2010 that the school not longer wanted her to come in to work and fulfil her contract that ended on June 30th because parents were unhappy with the fact she was gay and felt there was the potential that their daughters might “follow (her) lead”.

Speaking about her firing, Reimer said that she was shocked at the decision as the school themselves had seemed to be fully supportive of her when she’d announced back in December that her and her partner were having a baby together.

(via Wish You Were Queer Girls)

2. Joe Quigley

Fired in May of 2009 for apparently neglectign his duties and not following school policies, Oklahoma teacher Joe Quigley challenged the decision saying that he was fired for speaking out against anti-gay bigotry and showing a movie about anti-gay hate crime. The Oklahoma City School District never responded to these claims but did back down on the firing and promised that he would be reinstated though wouldn’t say at what school it would be.

(Via Advocate)

3. Johan Strydom

Following his firing from the Dutch Reformed Church’s art academy in 2005, Johan Strydom took the church to the Pretoria high court for lose of income and impairment of his dignity.

Speaking about how he was called into a meeting by his supervisor who questioned him on his sexuality following an anonymous phone call, Strydom said he’d refused to attend knowing what the outcome would be saying he felt that his sexuality should not have been an issue as he was a lecturer and not a member of the congregation.  The church denied that there was ever any real employment agreement between them and Strydom.

(Via Independent Online)

4. Sandra Cecilia Pavez Pavez

Fired from her religion teaching position after 23 years after admitting to church authorities that she was a lesbian Sandra Cecilia Pavez Pavez was told not only to seek psychological help, but also have her teaching certificate taken away leading her in early 2009 to file a lawsuit against the Chilean state and justice system.

(Via Pink News)

5. Jeff Crouse

A teacher of philosophy and film studies at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Jeff Crouse was sacked after posting his sexual orientation on MySpace something which the school said was in breach of his contract because he was “maintaining, by word or action, a position contrary to the ordinary teaching of the Catholic Church”

(Via Catholic News Agency)

Photo credit: Bonnie Brown

The news that Jennifer Keeton, a student at Augusta State University is filing a lawsuit against her university for trying to make her change her anti-gay views is quickly becoming one of the most reported stories in the gay press, and a lot of that comes down to the fact that it’s an attention grabbing story that is guaranteed to go viral for sounding so plain ridiculous as well as stir up emotions that will see the word “homophobe” and “bigot” fill the air. And as quickly as it was there, it will be gone and forgotten about as another homophobic story takes its place. However personally I feel that this is too big a story to be just thrown away like yesterday’s news. This isn’t just a story of a few homophobic thoughts. This is a story about how dangerous these thoughts are, and how far from being a personal issue for Keeton have much larger and more widespread consequences.

Now Miss Keeton obviously feels very hard done by because she was told to change her beliefs or be expelled from her counselling course. She feels that it goes against the core of who she is and what she stands for. She doesn’t like the feeling of her true self being suppressed. And she most certainly isn’t happy with being told that she needed to change her views and adapt to what the majority were doing if she was going to remain part of the community that is her counselling class.

Sound familiar? Of course it does, and that’s because it’s exactly what the LGBT community has had to deal with for decades. We have been told who we are is wrong. We have been told that we need to hide who we are in order to be able to live our lives. But you know what’s different in the case of the LGBT community? There wasn’t any hatred that was being suppressed. Of course we’re not going to take too friendly towards homophobes, but as an LGBT community we weren’t coming from a starting point of hating the heterosexual community for who they are. Keeton is.

Keeton, who is a Christian has admitted that she believes homosexuality is immoral and a “lifestyle choice”, and she hasn’t just told people in secret. She has told them both inside and outside of the counselling classes she is taking part in. She has claimed that despite all this she would be able to counsel LGBT patients.

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but let’s start at the beginning. Here we have a woman who says that she would be able to counsel LGBT patients despite her beliefs, maybe because she thinks she can suppress how awful we are when talking to her. Well maybe she could, and maybe, just maybe if she’d kept her beliefs to herself and just got through the course she would have got her dream job of being a school counsellor helping today’s youth become tomorrow’s powerful, confident and strong adults.

Now this can’t ever happen, and Augusta State University telling her she needs to change her views to be able to carry out her work isn’t to blame. Keeton is. Counselling is all about keeping confidences. It’s about knowing what to say and what not to say. It’s about having the skills to deal with situations in a proper and mature way. From the moment Keeton decided to announce to everyone that she was anti-gay she proved that she doesn’t have these skills, and she’s only gone on proving it. Taking her University to court for treating her unfairly has made sure that Keeton has got one thing. A whole lot of publicity. Everyone now knows who she is, what she looks like and most importantly of all what she thinks. That isn’t what being a counsellor is about. A counsellor should be the person you don’t have to worry about telling things to. They’re the non judgemental person in your life that allows you to talk about all the worries and anxieties you have without fear of judgement.

Now if Keeton wanted to be an adult counsellor then that would be bad enough. People would see her, recognise her face and immediately know that this is a person who has strong opinions, strong enough that she will challenge anyone who tries to suppress them. Now that’s going to be off-putting enough for any client of hers, but for an LGBT one it’s definitely not going to put you at ease however well she tries to hide it.

But the thing is Jennifer Keeton doesn’t want to become any old counsellor. She wants to become a school counsellor. She wants to be counselling young adults at the point where they are most uncertain about their sexuality. She wants to be helping them develop into the strong, confident adults that all children deserve to be. How on earth does she think she is going to be able to do that when they approach her anxious about the feelings they’re having for people of the same sex and recognize her as the woman who thinks being LGBT is immoral and a choice. There’s a simple answer to that she won’t be able to.

And that is the very sad thing about this case. Whatever happens someone loses. If Keeton loses, she misses out on her dream career because she wasn’t able to open her mind up to change. If she wins the LGBT students that have to face her, or avoid her because they know her views, are going to be the ones who really lose out. Personally for me, there’s no question which way I want it to go. If Keeton isn’t even up open to seeing if tasks, such as attending diversity sensitivity courses, could act to make any difference to the way she thinks about the LGBT community then I don’t see how she could ever be open and understanding enough to even begin to be able to deal with a LGBT patient, and I most certainly wouldn’t want her to.#

Photo credit: striatic

The ever so not so lovely Mel Gibson has been getting himself in plenty of trouble of late after his rants at former partner Oksana Grigorieva were leaked to the media. Filled with anger and aggression at his ex-girlfriend and mother of his child, the secret recordings see Gibson tells Grigorieva that not only does she deserve to be raped because she provokes men by the way she dresses, but also appears to not only own up to hitting her but seem proud of the fact because she “deserved it”.

Not the happy go lucky man we see in the films is it… and it’s also far from a one off as it was only a few years ago that Mel was ranting again, this time in homophobic style telling Spanish newspaper El Pais in response to a question about him being worried about being seen as gay because he was an actor that:

“They take it up the ass….This is only for taking a shit.”

“I became an actor despite that. But with this look, who’s going to think I’m gay? It would be hard to take me for someone like that. Do I sound like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them?”

Offensive yes, but if he really wanted to get the Oscar for most homophobic speech ever made this actor needs to try harder as he’s got nothing on these five homophobic rants:

1. Deadspin on NBA’s  LeBron James Move

Deadspin obviously wanted to make a statement about NBA player LeBron James and how they felt he’s not deserving of all the admiration he get. They could have done it by being articulate and constructing a strong argument that proved their point and gained them respect. Instead Deadspin obviously decided to enter the “how many homophobic statements can we make in two short sentences”.

It doesn’t matter where he opts to go. If he goes to Chicago, he’s a cocksucker. If he goes to Miami, he’s a cocksucker. Even if he goes back to Cleveland, he’s a goddamn cocksucker. He’s a self-aggrandizing sack of shit, and ESPN is a bunch of pussy-whipped enablers for giving him a free hour of airtime tomorrow night and inevitably using 55 minutes of it to let Stu Scott give him a rimjob.

Via S. Crowolf

2. Oklahoma Republican Sally Kern On Well Everything Gay

It might not have the venom of Deadspin but Kern’s speech is still no doubt packed full of homophobia with it’s accusations which include the belief homosexuality will kill the United States, that the LGBT community is worse than terrorism and kids lives are being ruined just because some of us are gay. Rant loudly, rant quietly, it makes no difference to us, you’re still being homophobic.

The homosexual agenda is destroying this nation, okay. It’s just a fact. Not everybody’s lifestyle is equal. Just like not all religions are equal. The very fact that I’m talking to you like this today puts me in jeopardy, okay. I’m not anti, I’m not gay-bashing, but according to God’s word that is not the right kind of lifestyle. It has deadly consequences for those people involved in it. It has more suicides. They’re more discouraged. There’s more illness. Their lifespans are shorter. You know, it’s not a lifestyle that is good for this nation. It’s a matter of fact, studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades. So it’s the death nail for this country. I honestly think it’s the biggest threat, even in our nation. Even more so than terrorists, or Islam, okay.

Cause, what’s happening now, they’re going after, err, in schools, two year olds! You know why they’re trying to get early childhood education? They want to get our young children into the government schools so they can indoctrinate them. I taught school for close to 20 years and we’re not teaching facts and knowledge anymore, folks, we’re teaching indoctrination, okay. And they’re going after our young children, as young as 2 year of age, to try to teach them that the homosexual lifestyle is an acceptable lifestyle.

You know, gays are infiltrating city capitals. Did you know, Eureka Springs, anybody been there? Have you heard that the city council of Eureka Springs is now controlled by gays? There are some others, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kensington Maryland, Vermont, Oregon, West Palm Beach, Florida and lots of other places in Florida. What’s happening?

They are winning elections, one of the things I deal with in our legislature, I tried to introduce a bill last year that would notify parents, err, schools had to let parents know what clubs their students were involved in and the reason I did that bill, primarily, was this: we had the gay-straight alliance coming into our schools. Kids are getting involved in these groups, their lives are being ruined, the parents don’t know about it.

So I introduced a bill that said you have to notify all the clubs participants’ parents. A colleague said: we don’t have a gay problem in my community, that’s why I’m not going to release that bill. You know what, to me, that’s so dumb, if you’ve got cancer or something in your little toe, do you say I’m just going to forget about it because the rest of you is fine? It spreads, okay. And this stuff is deadly and it’s spreading and it will destroy our young people and it will destroy this nation.

Via About Womyn

3. Retired NBA Star Tim Hardway On What He Thinks About Gay People

Ah the (not very) lovely Mr Tim Hardaway, a man whose really in touch with his feelings. His very homophobic feelings

“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known,”

“I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.

Via ESPN.

4. Reverend Dr Peter Mullen, Church of England rector and LSE chaplin On Adding Health Risk Notices On Gays

Religion and homosexuality have never sat too comfortably together,  but with being understanding and respectful to others at the core of all of the major religions you’d at least expect those within the Church to treat the LGBT community with some respect. Not so with this Church of England clergyman.

“Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan SODOMY CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH and their chins with FELLATIO KILLS.”

Via Telegraph.

5. Rush Limbaugh on Aborting Gay Babies

Let’s be honest Rush Limbaugh is basically just on one life long homophobic rant, but sometimes he truly does surpass himself as this example shows.

“…let’s say we discover the gene that says the kid’s gonna be gay. How many parents, if they knew before the kid was gonna be born, [that he] was gonna be gay, they would take the pregnancy to term? Well, you don’t know but let’s say half of them said, “Oh, no, I don’t wanna do that to a kid.” [Then the] gay community finds out about this. The gay community would do the fastest 180 and become pro-life faster than anybody you’ve ever seen. … They’d be so against abortion if it was discovered that you could abort what you knew were gonna be gay babies.”

Via The New Civil Rights Movement.

Photo credit: Darkpatator

1. Republican Senator Roy Ashburn

Doing his very best to spend every hour of his 15 year political life fighting against any gay rights legislation that passed by him, it all fell apart for this Proposition 8 supporter when he was pulled over by police for drunk driving in a state issued car following a night out at a gay bar. Admitting he was gay soon after to a local radio show, Ashburn said that the only reason he’d put so much effort in fighting gay rights laws was because he didn’t wish to offend his conservative constituents. Nice to see he cared so much…. about the wrong people.

(Free Thinker )

2. Dr George Rekers, founder of Family Research Council

A Baptist minister and author of many a book on how to make sure your child grows up straight, Reker has long been committed to fighting against any forms of gay rights. Strange then to see him take a recent trip to Europe with a young man called Lucien. A young man called Lucien he “hired” to carry his bags from a gay site called Rentboy. Reker denies that anything happens, and that it’s perfectly normal to hire bag carriers from a gay website. Lucien says lots happened and Reker is a “homosexual who paid him to provide body rubs once a day in the nude“.

(New York Times)

3. Florida State Representative Bob Allen

A supporter of anti-gay adoption legislation, and co-sponsor of an unsuccessful bill that would have imposed penalties of behaviour such as indecent exposure, Bob Allen found his non gay cover blown when he decided to approach an undercover cop in a public park and offer him $20 for a blowjob. His defence? He was scared of the black man and didn’t want to become another statistic. Umm what statistics are we talking about? The one concerning being racist or the one concerning being a homophobe who is actually gay?

(Fox News)

4. Former Idaho Senator Larry Craig

Look at Idaho Senator Larry Craig’s voting record and you could quite easily assume he was nothing more than a hetero homophobe with his series of anti-gay right votes and support of a 2006 amendment to the Idaho Constitution that would have allowed for gay marriage.

Not so much. Craig proved in 2007 that half of that definition is wrong. Craig is actually a homo homophobe. Arrested in June of that year for attempting to solicit an undercover police officer in Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Craig tried to defend himself by saying he was just picking up a piece of paper. Two months later he realised he wasn’t and changed his plea to guilty.

(Washington Post)

5. Young Republican National Federation Chair Glenn Murphy Jr

Encouraging Republicans to use the issue of gay marriage as a wedge issue to help gain them votes, Murphy didn’t do himself any favours by being trying to sexually assault a 22 year old man. Occurring after the two had stayed over at a house after a party the victim said he woke up to find Murphy trying to perform oral sex on him, something that it was later discovered Murphy had already been accused of with another man a couple of years before….

(News and Tribune)

Most of us with manners tend to follow the idea that if you have nothing nice to say you shouldn’t say anything at all. The American Family Association however obviously missed that lesson on politeness being more than happy to say exactly what they think about the LGBT community and as these five star picks prove one thing it isn’t is complimentary.

1. Home Depot Are Evil For Putting On An Arts and Crafts Workshop For Children

To this end, Home Depot is basically encouraging the attendance of children at events which openly expose them to transvestites, cross-dressers, and homosexual activists. Unfortunately, Home Depot’s participation in the Southern Maine Pride Festival doesn’t stand alone. It has also sponsored and participated in the 2010 Boston Gay Pride parade. Homosexuals often exploit young children in their desire to ‘normalize’ their gay lifestyle. Gay pride events have a long track record for offensive public displays of homosexual conduct. Obviously, Home Depot is OK with the idea of exposing children to an unhealthy and risky environment. So much so, it is willing to also celebrate it by participating in its promotion. Send an email to let Home Depot know you are sickened by their support and approval of children at homosexual events. If you are a customer, please add an additional personal line to our prepared letter to Home Depot. After sending your email, make an extra effort to protect children by calling Home Depot personally. Brad Shaw is the Vice President of Public Relations. His direct number is 770-384-5350.”

Via Back2Stonewall.

2. That 10 Year Will Philips Is A Brain-Washed Child For Supporting Gay Rights

Showing just how low they will go, American Family Association felt that it was perfectly fine to attract Will Philips for his gay rights views even though the boy is only 10. Seriously AFA pick on people your own size.

“It’s shameful that adults would abuse a brain-washed child in this way. He’s obviously just parroting the nonsense he’s been told by manipulative adults.For gay activists to trot out this child and make him the poster child for promoting unnatural sexual expression is a form of child abuse”

Via Towleroad

3. Hitler Was Gay And Recruited Other Homosexuals To Be Stormtroopers Because They’re More Vicious Soldiers

Speaking with great authority and belief that by making things up then saying them makes them true, Fischer acts to convince everyone that anyone who has ever done anything evil did so because they were one thing …. gay.

“Hitler himself was an active homosexual and some people wonder didn’t the Germans persecute homosexuals? And it is true they did, they persecuted effeminate homosexuals but Hitler recruited around him homosexuals to make up his Stormtroopers. They were his enforces. They were his thugs…. homosexual soldiers basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whoever Hitler sent them after”

Via True Slant

4.  Gays In The Armed Forces Is A Form Of Domestic Terrorism

Connecting the fact that a British newspaper had spoken of the Taliban creating bombs made from dirty syringes, Bryan Fischer somehow manages to make this mean that gays in the armed forces will kill everyone because they have gay sex and so could contract HIV and then pass it on to everyone else.

“...if gays are allowed into the military, they will inevitably be put in battlefield situations where donated blood from soldiers may be necessary to save the lives of wounded comrades. An HIV-infected American soldier whose blood is used in those circumstances may very well condemn his fellow soldier to death rather than save his life.“

Via Rightly Concerned

5. Having A Gay Judge Sitting On The Supreme Court Will Bring An End To Equality

Proving the AFA have absolutely no ide what they’re saying we end with Fischer again who believes having a gay judge elected to the Supreme Court would bring an end to equality. Umm…

“With an active homosexual on the bench, Lady Justice will no longer even pretend to be blind. She will be peeking out from under her blindfold to determine the sexual preference of those standing before her, then will let the fold slip back into place before ruling in every case to legitimize sexual deviancy. Bottom line: the American ideal of absolute equality before the law will inevitably be shredded by a homosexual judge. Neither the Constitution nor the American people should be subjected to that kind of judicial malpractice. We can and should expect more from those who occupy seats on the highest bench in the land”

Via JoeMyGod.

According to the author of this lovely letter to the Sun Gazette however Gay Pride is actually nothing to be proud of, and celebrating it is just as ridiculous as celebrating smoking tobacco or alcoholism.

Seriously words escape us. Well apart from Fool. Homophobe and Uneducated.

Celebration Unwarranted

I’m very disappointed in President Obama’s recent declaration of June as Gay Pride Month.

Why would we as a nation want to promote a disease or take “pride” in a condition that destroys our health and kills our friends and family.

Smoking tobacco takes 7-10 years off of ones life. We don’t take “pride” in that. Alcoholism destroys families and kills thousands of Americans every year. The president didn’t declare an “Alcoholic Pride” month.

The facts are clear. Homosexual behavior is a high risk, dangerous, unhealthy lifestyle. Why is the president encouraging it? Homosexuality is the top cause of the AIDS epidemic in America. Why is the president promoting this?

Tom Seaman

Lock Haven

The gay community of Cuba have shown they’re not going to stand for homophobia by taking to the streets in drag and draped in multicolored rainbow flags.

Joined by the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro, Mariela Castro, as they made sure the streets of Cuba were filled with music, dancing and a whole of fun, the LGBT community also made sure the issues of homophobia was not forgotten about with a series of debates and workshops ahead of the May 17 celebration of the International Day Against Homophobia.

Talking about the progress that Cuba had made, Mariela Castro, who is also the leader of Cuba’s National Sexual Education Center said:

“We have made progress, but we need to make more progress,”

Undoubtedly true , it is still important to recognize how far Cuba has come, having been a country in the 1960s who fired homosexuals from state jobs with many imprisoned or sent to work camps, but now has agreed to include sex change operations for transsexuals under its free national health system.

via peoplesworld, photo by (Franklin Reyes/AP)

Irish born actor Colin Farrell has given his support to a new Irish anti-homophobic bullying campaign that has been launched by BelongTo.

Entitled STAND UP! this campaign acts to raise awareness of the issues and problems LGBT youth encounter growing up with Colin speaking out about his brother’s own struggle.

Discussing the abuse his gay brother Eamon faced growing up, Colin said:

Actor Colin Farrell is supporting an Irish campaign against homophobic bullying.

“I can’t remember much about the years of physical and emotional abuse my brother Eamon suffered. I was very small. The thing I do remember though, quite literally, is blood on his school shirt when he came home in the afternoon. The beatings and taunting were very frequent for my him and a constant part of his school years.

“People are often afraid of difference. They feel that anything that causes fear, should be turned away from. My brother represented fear for so many people, but caused joy in my life. From a very young age he made me laugh with his intelligence and wit, made me aspire to his strength and goodness. He was to be embraced.

“To many of the students of his school however he was to be feared. He was to be turned away from. I didn’t understand it then, and I still don’t know.”

Describing bullying as something that should have no place in the world, Farrell’s support  of the first STAND UP! event, which runs from the 9th – 18th April 2010 is likely to bring much needed attention to the issue of homophobic bullying, with the event itself  acting to further push the message home through workshops and other fun activities in youth services around Ireland.

You can learn more about STAND UP! at the BelongTo website.

It would be safe to say that most of us don’t feel too friendly towards Fred Phelps, his family and his Westboro Church who appear to have dedicated their lives to telling everyone just how awful gay people are, and how we’re to blame for just about everything.

However there is one member of the Phelps family who shouldn’t be hated and that is Fred Phelps son Nate.

Estranged from his family, Nate Phelps recently appeared on the Canadian news program The Standard where he spoke out against the beliefs of his family and discussed how they believe living completely by the words of the Bible will give them a better chance of going to heaven, that his father chooses to use terms like “fag” because he has a lack of respect and is looking to trigger the rage instinct in people and how the family believes 9/11 was just another example of God’s wrath for the acceptance of gays.

As well as discussing the views of his father, Nate also revealed the extreme behaviour his father displayed to him and his 12 siblings as well as the fact his father had physically abused both his children and his wife and that he believed that his father may well be mentally ill.

You can watch the interview in full below:

The gay rights group, the Australian Coalition for Equality has written to Tony Abbott, leader of the opposition in the Australian House of Representatives, inviting him to meet with them and other same sex attracted people to show there is no need for him to feel lt “threatened” by homosexuality, which he told Sixty Minutes program on Sunday.

Speaking about their offer, Corey Irlan, the spokeman for the gay rights group, said:

“We hope Mr Abbott will take up our invitation so he can overcome feeling threatened by homosexuality,”

“Mr Abbott can pick any place he feels safe, and we’ll invite ordinary members of the gay and lesbian community to come and talk with him to show him he has nothing to fear from us.”

The group’s motives however aren’t just to change Abbott’s mind, with Irlam saying it proved there was a need for a national law which would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and that:

“The opposition leader can show leadership on this issue by publicly committing the coalition to support federal anti-discrimination laws on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Via Brisbane Times