Sounds Like Just Robbery to Me

ABC news just aired a 20/20 documentary purporting that the murder of Matthew Shepard may not have been an anti-gay hate crime, but just a robbery gone awry. Aaron McKinney, convicted with Russell Henderson of Shepard's murder, claimed he only planned to "beat [Matthew] up and rob him" when he was gripped by an unbiased meth-induced rage.

Aaron McKinney, sealed his own conviction, however, in a taped confession to the Laramie sargeant Rob DeBree, less than three days after the crime, before any line of defense had been established by legal counsel:

DeBree: Okay, where do you go after you leave the Fireside [the bar where Matthew Shepard met his killers]?
McKinney: Some kid wanted a ride home.
DeBree: What's he look like?
McKinney: Mmm, like a queer. Such a queer dude.
DeBree: He looks like a queer?
McKinney: Yeah, like a fag, you know?
DeBree: Okay. How did you meet him?
McKinney: He wanted a ride home and I just thought, well, the dude's drunk, let's just take him home.
...
McKinney: We drove out past Walmart. We got over there, and he starts grabbing my leg and grabbing my genitals. I was like, "Look, I'm not a fuckin' faggot. If you touch me again, you're gonna get it." I don't know what the hell he was trying to do, but I beat him up pretty bad. Think I killed him.
...
DeBree: What was the first thing that he said or that he did in the truck that made you hit him?
McKinney: Well, he put his hand on my leg, slid his hand like as if he was going to grab my balls.

What antigay bias? Sounds like just robbery to me.

Thankfully, GLAAD has released a viewer's guide and a take action page to combat the sensationalism of the 20/20 broadcast. Also, Judy and Dennis Shepard (Matthew's parents) have released a statement about the 20/20 program.
- read the full post -

Chum-Guzzlers

The Daily Show: Birds of a Feather

I recently came across this video of my all-time favorite Daily Show segment ever, a Samantha Bee exposé about gay penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York City. In it, she interviews the infamous Paul Cameron, a controversial researcher and chairman of the anti-gay Family Research Institute. Samantha Bee has so many hysterical lines in this one, and she delivers each one flawlessly.

Gay penguins were also the subject of a number of other reports from more legitimate news sources, including a New York Times article and a CNN video (I had trouble viewing it in any format other than WMV). Somehow, The Daily Show video seemed more insightful. I still bristle at the zoo keeper's heterosexist comment in the CNN video about one of the two female penguins being "the guy" in the relationship.

Perception vs. Reality

Eleven states endorsed amendments banning gay marriage in the 2004 elections. Eight of the eleven amendments also banned civil unions. Supporters of the amendment argued that changing the state constitutions was necessary to "protect" traditional marriages from the implied threat of same-sex monogamy. Yet voters showed no such urgency in states where legal recognition of gay unions is a reality, rather than an exaggerated unknown.

The citizens of Massachusetts, for example, nearly a year after the ground-breaking Goodridge decision, showed little apprehension over same-sex marriage at the polls. Much to the contrary, every lawmaker who voted against a proposed gay marriage ban was reelected, despite vows from anti-gay groups to unseat them.

Likewise, exit polls in Vermont, where civil unions are allowed, showed a staggering 77% of voters support legal recognition (civil unions or marriage) for same-sex couples as compared to just 60% of national exit poll respondents.

Kris Mineau, leader of the Massachusetts Family Institute, seized the outcome of the recent elections to criticize same-sex marriage in his state:

Our state is certainly totally out of step with the rest of the nation. Massachusetts residents must be beginning to ask themselves, "How come we're different than the rest of the country?"

Here's a hint, Kris: because myths don't pose a threat to the people who know the truth.

Gay Bat Signal

Dave H: you should make a gay bat signal of some sort
Dave H: i'll leave you to think of the symbol but the possibilities are infinite
Dave H: and hilarious

The Gay Agenda

Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank:

The fact is ... we do have an agenda. And here it is: We think we should be able to fight for our country ... and serve in the military.

We believe, revolutionary as it may sound, ... we believe people ought to be able to be hired for a job and be judged solely on how well they do the work and not on what somebody else thinks about who they are.

We go so far as to believe that a 15-year-old who is different in a lot of ways sexually from others ought to be able to go to high school without being beaten up. I admit it, we believe that.

And we even believe, it's true, that when two people are in love and they are willing to be morally and legally committed to each other and financially responsible to each other, that if they are prepared to get married, it's a good thing for the stability of society.