Rights Aren’t Just For The Righteous!


I (along with an estimated 3,000 others) attended the Austin area’s Join the Impact rally and instead of writing something clever here, I’m going to ask you to look at the pictures (click to see them engorge), and listen to the speakers talk from the heart about how much it means for them to get married, not only as citizens of the United States, but as tax-paying citizens of the United States. One this I will say is that they were classier than I would have been. They asked that certain groups not be demonized nor targeted for their beliefs, whereas I would have laid blame where blame belongs. Nevertheless, “classy”. Two regrets: my camera ran out of juice before I could get a picture of 10-year old Mason becoming Austin’s new Marriage Equality spokesperson and my not making a sign that would have read Atheist 4 the REAL Jesus. [audio:http://www.orthocomics.com/files/National%20Day%20of%20Protest%20(Austin).mp3]









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It’s a good day to be gay and not Christian (well, the kind who are obsessed with what i do with my tacohole).

Shareholders Reject Bid To Strip Gay Protections At Wells Fargo
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

(San Francisco, California) A motion by a Wells Fargo shareholder to remove protections for LGBT workers from the company’s non-discrimination policy was defeated this week at its annual meeting.

Wells Fargo & Co. is the fifth largest U.S. bank by assets.

The motion called for the company to “to formulate an equal employment policy …that does not make reference to any matters related to sexual interests, activities or orientation.”

It said that homosexuality has been “condemned by the major traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam for a thousand years or more”.

The motion was crafted by Pro Vita Advisors, a group that helps promote conservative values.

The motion said that “While the legal institution of marriage between a man and a woman should be protected, the sexual interests of, inclinations and activities of all employees should be a private matter, not a corporate concern.”

The proposal was easily defeated.

Nearly 90 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have non-discrimination policies.

Conservative groups have attacked Wells Fargo for the past three years over its “pro-gay policies”.

In 2005 Focus on the Family withdrew its funds from Wells Fargo.

“Focus on the Family has elected to end its banking relationship with Wells Fargo, motivated primarily by the bank’s ongoing efforts to advance the radical homosexual agenda. These efforts are in direct opposition to the underlying principles and purpose of Focus, and thus a decision of conscience had to be made, and a stand taken,” said a statement from FOF at the time.

Focus said Wells Fargo had donated more than $14 million to pro-gay organizations in the last two decades.

Similar shareholder challenges to non-discrimination policies that include gays have been fought and lost at Ford Motor Company.

The only way Wells Fargo could have made me happier would have been if their response simply read “Get stuffed.”