Asterisk

This video has been bouncing across the gay interwebs at lightning speed this morning, as goddamn well it should. It’s from a Maine Senate Committee hearing in April before the Maine legislature voted to recognize equality in marriage.

I dare you not to cry.

We have two weeks left to fight before the people of Maine and Washington vote. Donate to Maine’s No on One campaign here and Washington’s Approve Referendum 71 here.

(transcript for posterity and search engines. I’ve made a few minor adjustments where Mr. Spooner misread; I’m fairly certain they’re correct.)

PHILIP SPOONER, SR: Good morning, committee. My name is Philip Spooner and I live at [redacted] in Biddeford. I am 86 years old, a lifetime Republican, and an active VFW chaplain. I still serve three hospitals and two nursing homes, and I also served meals on wheels for twenty years. My wife of 54 years, Jenny, died in 1997. Together we had four children, including one gay son. All four of our boys were in the service.

I was born on a potato farm north of Caribou and Perham, where I was raised to believe that all men are created equal, and I’ve never forgotten that. I served in the US Army 1940-1945 in the First Army as a medic and an ambulance driver. I worked with every outfit over there including Patton’s Third Army. I saw action in all five major battles in Europe including the Battle of the Bulge. My unit was awarded Presidential Citations for transporting more patients with fewer accidents than any other ambulance unit in Europe, and I was in the liberation of Paris. After the war, I carried POWs back from Poland, Hungary, and Yugoslavia, and also hauled hundreds of injured Germans back to Germany.

I’m here today because of a conversation I had last year when I was voting. A woman at my polling place asked me, “Do you believe in equality for gay and lesbian people?” I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that; it made no sense to me.

Finally I asked her, “What do you think our boys fought for at Omaha Beach?” I have seen so much blood and guts, so much suffering, so much sacrifice. For what? For freedom and equality. These are the values that make America a great nation, one worth dying for.

I give talks to eighth grade teachers about World War II, and I don’t tell them about the horror. Maybe I have to invite them to the ovens at Buchenwald and Dachau. I’ve seen with my own eyes the consequences of caste systems, and it makes some people less than others, or second class.

Never again. We must have equal rights for everyone; it’s what this country was started for. It takes all kinds of people to make a world. It doesn’t make sense that some people who love each other can marry and others can’t, just because of who they are. This is what we fought for in World War II, that idea that we can be different and still be equal.

My wife and I did not raise four sons with the idea that three of them would have a certain set of rights, but our gay child would be left out. We raised them all to be hard-working, proud, and loyal Americans, and they all did good.

I think if two adults who love each other want to get married, they should be able to. Everybody’s supposed to be equal in this country. Let gay people have the right to marry.

Thank you.

Oh Pat. You miss the point, then you get the point, then you miss it again. All in one minute. (From tonight’s broadcast of The 700 Club, via MediaMatters.)

Pat, recognizing the right of all people to marry (as discussed in Loving v. Virginia) will not cause any harm to any straight person’s marriage, and the values of hatred and bigotry are not authentic products of a Jewish or Christian culture.

You’re absolutely right that we don’t want any “hindrance” to our particular lifestyle (assuming by that you mean s-e-x) or our “particular way of having sex”. That was exactly the point when Lawrence v. Texas made gay sex legal just six years ago, and it’s exactly the point of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

By the way, plenty of people in the straight community share our particular way of having sex. Seriously. Check it out. (As if you haven’t already…)

Generally speaking, Pat, civil rights are not decided by majority vote. If they were, interracial marriage would have been illegal until 1991, according to Gallup.

Kristi, I would simply point out that your taking offense doesn’t make bigotry–and that’s what it is, bigotry–legal or right. Honestly, I’m not sure where you get off passing judgment, what with you being a fresh divorcée and all.

[Transcript for posterity and search engines]

PAT ROBERTSON: I don’t really believe homosexuals want to get married; what they want to do is destroy marriage and some of the other things that we have in our society. There’s been an outright campaign against the traditional moral values that have grown up in a Judeo-Christian culture! And they don’t want any–any–hindrance to their particular lifestyle or their particular way of having sex.

That’s what it amounts to, but whether or not this is going to be something that will, you know, change the country, the country has voted overwhelmingly in favor of traditional marriage. They don’t want homosexual marriage. But you find a few states–Maine, Massachusetts, Iowa–who have voted them in through the legislature. Yet when the people have their say, the people say “no way!” Kristie?

KRISTI WATTS: I tell you what, Pat. And it’s important for us to pray, yes, but we also have to work. We have to raise up our voices too. I’m really getting tired of all these different stories, and everyone’s offended at this and offended at that. I tell you what, Christians need to stand up and say, “Listen, I’m offended too!” Don’t get me started!

Is it just me or has there been an uptick of attacks on LGBT people this year? It’s not me, right?

Regardless, we have news that on Sunday night a gay man was attacked by three people in Tulsa, Oklahoma. First we have a video from local ABC affiliate, KTUL Channel 8:

Then we have report from Tulsa World. (By the way, Tulsa World, you don’t have to use the word “said” in every stinking sentence):

What should have been a 10-minute walk to a friend’s house ended with a trip to the hospital for Brandon Patrick, a Tulsan who said he was severely beaten Sunday night because of his sexual orientation. Three people followed Patrick down the 1300 block of South Rockford Avenue about 11:45 p.m., yelling homophobic slurs and threats, he said.

Click for more pictures from Queerty.com

Patrick, who is gay, said he ignored the group until they closed in and then asked why they were accosting him without provocation. The assailants then started beating, biting and slashing at Patrick with a blade, he said, leaving him with several cuts on his head and body.

The 23-year-old has been peppered with insults before, but he said he never thought they would escalate to violence. “I’ve never felt scared or feared for my safety before,” he said. “You brush it off and walk on. That’s what you’re taught to do. This time, it didn’t work.”

Jenkins noted that the state [hate crime] law excludes sexual orientation from the qualifiers for a hate crime. As a result, police are investigating the case only as an assault and battery. Designation as a hate crime would allow for punishment beyond what would be imposed for the assault.

Brandon Patrick’s attackers have not been caught.

Remember, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is still hung up in the Senate (again) where rumor has it that it’ll pass.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill earlier this month that would make assaulting someone because of his or her sexual orientation a federal crime. The Senate is expected to approve the measure, and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law. Patrick said it’s frustrating that race and ethnicity are taken into account by state lawmakers but sexual orientation is not.

Let’s get this one done, senators. Today.

I recently had a post linked to by about a thousand people, which is awesome. It’s important that the information get out there, and I’m glad it is. Seriously. That’s awesome.

On the other hand, comments have asploded on that post. While I love seeing readers get involved in the discussion, it’s gotten way off topic and pretty out of bounds a few times. Therefore, I finally find it time to remind people of the comment rules. You can read them here. I’ve also taken this occasion to add a new rule number one, originally from Raphael Bob-Waksberg, aka Boring Old Raphael. Do me a favor and click on over to read his stuff. He’s hella funny, but he’s also 100% right in his post from July 29, 2009.

Rule Number One is Don’t Be A Dick.

Basically, what this means is, yeah, okay, technically you have a point, but, come on, man. Don’t be a dick.

Don’t Be A Dick is Rule Number One, and it supersedes all other rules. This is because other rules have loopholes, but Don’t Be A Dick has no loopholes.

Don’t say something mean just because it makes you look clever. Don’t not lend a hand just because you don’t have to. Don’t get so distracted by chasing your own happiness that you forget about everyone else. Stop allowing yourself to hurt others just because they are Not You.

Don’t always assume that other people are going to cheat you and take advantage of you, because if they’re also following Rule Number One, they won’t.

Give people the benefit of the doubt, even when you know — you know — they don’t deserve it. Don’t hold grudges. Forgive and forgive and forgive.

Call your grandparents. Remember people’s birthdays. Say God Bless You when people sneeze. You should always be struggling to be the best person you know.

Yes, hypothetically there might be some problems that just not being a dick won’t solve. People can have honest disagreements, things can break down, even when everyone really truly has the best of intentions. It’s possible that at some point, we’ll need a Rule Number Two.

But maybe let’s master Rule Number One first, and then we can talk.

So that’s my new Rule Number One. I expect it to be followed in comments.

P.S. The sudden and awesome influx of readers has also caused some periodic instability. I’m working on a solution, so hang tight with me. If you want regular updates, why not subscribe to my RSS feed? It’s easy and free and saves you some headaches.

I feel like I need a palate cleanser after all the increasingly offensive news last week. Here’s an awesome video about gay marriage from Bryan Safi of infoMania. The video is several months old, but I haven’t seen it in any of the popular haunts, so what the heck.

Okay. That was funny, but it didn’t quite do the trick. Here’s one about gay characters in commercials.

Oooh, there it is. Oh yeah. Do it. You do it. Yeah, that’s right.

(Thanks Bryan Safi and infoMania. You guys are the best.)