Redd Braden posted the following movie preview on his excellent Homosecular Gaytheist blog. It’s another reminder to those of us in the minority here in the U.S. that religously inspired hate can kill.

The assassination of Harvey Milk was no less an act of terrorism and political murder than the killings of Martin Luther King or Bobby Kennedy. A mentally unstable individual motivated by inner demons and the warped attitudes instilled by religious belief took the life of an man who committed no crime, who was guilty only of being different.

I plan on watching this movie. I hope a lot of people see this movie. Americans need to be reminded that religious ignorance isn’t just sad, it’s a threat to those who dare to think for themselves and live openly as who they are.

Ten years and a day ago Matthew Shepard was murdered by young men filled with religiously inspired hatred for homosexuals.

Matthew Shepard

I’ve participated in a number of debates concerning the damage done to society by religious belief. Frequently mentioned is the inability of an atheist to be considered a qualified candidate for public office, the desire of the ID/Creationist crowd to shoehorn their theistic philosophies into science classes in schools, the nearly constant mischaracterization of the atheistic stance on reality by the religious.

But we should never forget that religion kills. Religious texts endorse the killing of those who disagree with the faithful. From stoning disobedient children to hanging gay youths, horrendous murders are taking place throughout the world in the name of one god or another.

Religion is far more than a simple delusion, it’s a dangerous philosophy that allows its followers to distance themselves from the rest of humanity and think that their intolerance and bigotry are sensible. It is a mindset that prohibits critical thinking and encourages belief without question. It promotes hate, divisiveness and prejudice.

Not much has changed in the last ten years. For humanity’s sake, we need to speak out against religiously inspired violence. We need to not be afraid to hold religion accountable for its failure to promote peace, acceptance and inclusion.

Let us never forget Matthew Shepard and the reason he died. Let’s do all we can to assure that never happens again.

(A tip of the hat to vjack for his compassionate post and the Matthew Shepard Foundation link)

Our position on California’s No on 8 campaign

9/26/2008 03:23:00 PM

As an Internet company, Google is an active participant in policy debates surrounding information access, technology and energy. Because our company has a great diversity of people and opinions — Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all religions and no religion, straight and gay — we do not generally take a position on issues outside of our field, especially not social issues. So when Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot, it was an unlikely question for Google to take an official company position on.

However, while there are many objections to this proposition — further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text — it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 — we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.

Posted by Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology

Let’s talk this up so that the rest of California understands that this proposition is nothing more than another attempt to inflict religion upon the secular government. California, don’t be evil.

Self-abuse is just having a sexual encounter with the person you love most in the world.

Still, self-molestation is close to self-rape. One shouldn’t take advantage of one’s self when you aren’t a willing participant. Nor can I support young children who become self-pedophiles.

Just because it’s you doesn’t excuse you from being considerate and mindful of your feelings. Woo yourself. Take yourself out to dinner. Just don’t get too frisky with yourself in public. Some people don’t understand.

 Tip of the hat to bellman8or for the image

Personally I cannot consider Islam a religion of peace.

Iran hangs gay teens

I’ve seen this image of gay boys in their teens being hung by the neck in public for the crime of being homosexual. They hadn’t assaulted anyone, their relationship was consensual and most likely innocent by our standards. They had committed no crime, simply an offense to a popular imaginary concept. They offended Islam so they had to die.

Peaceful? No, not even humane.

I knew as soon as I saw this image what the caption had to be, and I wasn’t wrong.

I also had to laugh. I’ve been there.

I used to stop for a couple of beers at a topless bar in Maryland about 2 in the afternoon. The girls had to be there but weren’t doing anything since I was almost always the only guy there at that hour. I liked that bar because it had one of the first bartop electronic poker machines. I was an addict for those things. Since I was a regular and no one else was there, the bartender would let me have all the tokens I wanted while I drank my two beers and talked with the topless babes.

I was dating a girl at the time, my heterosexuality taking the lead as it has several times before. So I could claim that I never took the situation too seriously was because even then it was well understood; you do not mess around with the girls during working hours.

Or I could just admit to the truth of that poster.

Either way, that picture is funny and the caption damned witty.

It’s almost painful to read the endorsement of the McCain-Palin ticket by the Log Cabin Republicans.

“Log Cabin Republicans is a grassroots organization and our membership overwhelmingly supports endorsing Sen. McCain,” said Log Cabin Board Chairman Pete Kingma. “Our board and staff members have spent recent months getting input and feedback from our members. The consensus among our members is strongly in favor of an endorsement because of his inclusive record. Our members also support him because he’s a maverick; a trait most recently on display with his decision to select Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.”

(Note: this single mention of Palin gives no indication of approval or disapproval)

I felt a little better reading Andrew Sullivan trying to make the best out of what even he has to admit is a ticket that guarantees the rights of homosexuals will not just be a low priority. They’ll be off the radar.

What we have learned about John McCain from his selection of Sarah Palin is that he is as impulsive and reckless a decision-maker as George W. Bush. We know this not because of what we have learned about this Pentecostalist populist since she exploded on the scene last Friday morning (and God knows we have learned more than we ever wanted). We know it because of how McCain made the decision. He wanted his best friend, Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic vice-presidential candidate for Al Gore. That pick would have been remarkable for its bipartisan nature, would have impressed independents, and signaled a centrist presidency centered on foreign policy. It would have been bold while not being rash.

But McCain is in charge of a party that is now, at its core, religiously motivated. Joe Lieberman, for all his political talents, is Jewish, pro-choice on abortion, gay-inclusive, and domestically liberal. McCain faced an insurrection in his party base if he picked him. Without the evangelical base, he wasn’t going to win.

So last week, McCain picked someone he had only met once before. I repeat: he picked someone he had only met once before. His vetting chief sat Palin down for a face-to-face interview the Wednesday before last. It’s very hard to overstate how nutty and irresponsible this is. Would any corporate chieftain pick a number two on those grounds and not be dismissed by his board for recklessness?

The recklessness was much more fatal in the new media world than in the old one. In the old media world, the Republicans could try to control the flow of information, browbeat the press and prevent the entire weird family background and series of scandals and rumors of quite incredible events from getting into the mainstream. But those days are over. Within minutes of the announcement, everyone reached for Google. I recommend for starters the two following stories that appeared in the Anchorage Daily News last March and April. Story 1 / Story 2

WIthin hours, the McCain campaign was under siege, as the vetting process the professionals didn’t do was done by thousands of bloggers and citizen journalists. Palin’s reality show family life, her vendetta against her ex brother-in-law, her endorsement of a mayoral candidate who ran against her own mother-in-law, her attempt to ban books in her local library, her friendship with one of her husband’s former business partners, and on and on: this was the first major campaign event that was covered by the underground media before it reached the mainstream. The American mainstream press spent a large part of last week wondering how much truth the public could bear to hear.

Who does John McCain think he’s kidding? And what on earth was he thinking? This was a rash, impulsive, reckless pick. We have no idea where it’s headed – and i wouldn’t hazard a wild guess what we will have found out about Palin in a week’s time. Maybe it will win some votes from evangelicals. Maybe Palin will reveal herself as something more than a former sportscaster who can deliver a speech. But it shows a deep unseriousness about governing the most powerful nation on earth at a time of great peril.

If you thought a president who went to war on flawed intelligence with no plan for the aftermath was reckless, then I have news for you. You haven’t seen anything yet. Imagine the kind of decision-making McCain has just demonstrated applied to ife-and-death decisions with respect to Iran and Russia.

Yes, you have permission to be afraid.

Too much of an issue has been made in this election of faith. All the attention paid to fundamentalist Christian interests has bestowed upon it a credibility it doesn’t deserve.

For the same reason I wonder how gays can be Christians (Muslims, whichever theistic hate group you can name) I wonder how any self-respecting gay person can vote for McCain/Palin. Hell yeah, we want to be treated like dirty perverts. We want everyone to think we all have AIDS and molest kids. We enjoy being less than human. Perhaps Palin can get gay-bashing accepted as an Olympic sport.

I’m not saying all gays should vote Democratic. This is not an endorsement of Obama. It’s a well-considered, passionately intentioned unendorsement of McCain/Palin. If you’re a member of, family to or friend of the LGBT community, consider well what that ticket would mean to you or the ones you love.