Delayed for Now

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More. LGBTQ activists have been supporting the proposed Equality Act, which would explicitly include LGBT Americans in the Civil Rights Act, providing protection from housing, employment and public-accommodations discrimination under federal law. The Equality Act also includes a provision revoking any protection that religious objectors might enjoy under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

In that regard, including sexual orientation and gender identity under Title VII would be preferable to the damage to liberty rights that the Equality Act would impose.

In July I wrote The Civil Rights Act and Sexual-Orientation Discrimination.

Also, from last October, The Rejection of Compromise: Take Two.

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Tolerance Is Not a One-Way Street

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A word of caution from Andrew Sullivan, an early, forceful advocate of marriage equality and supporter of Barack Obama:

The freedom of any baker to express himself is, in this respect, indistinguishable from that of any gay person to do so — a truth that our current tribalism blinds so many to. I hope, in other words, that the baker prevails — but that the Supreme Court decision doesn’t turn on religious so much as artistic freedom.

More. The response from many on the LGBTQ+ progressive left has been fear-mongering, with little to no empathy for religiously conservative small business owners and often dismissive of religious liberty itself and the right not to be coerced by the state, on pain of losing one’s livelihood (or worse), to engage in expressive activity that violates deeply held religious belief.
Slate: How Clueless Straight White Guys Excuse Religious Homophobia.

What the left keeps getting wrong:

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Not Just Off the Shelf

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The Wall Street Journal opines:

At issue is whether baker Jack Phillips, who opposes same-sex marriage out of sincere religious beliefs, can be compelled to custom design a cake for a gay nuptial. …

While some on the left liken Mr. Phillips to hotel owners in the Jim Crow era, there’s no evidence of invidious discrimination. Mr. Phillips and others who have denied wedding services to same-sex nuptials have consistently served gays in other contexts. Mr. Phillips said he would sell the gay couple other baked goods—simply not a custom wedding cake.

As the editorial notes, the issue pits the government’s interest in social equality against an individual’s constitutional right to express his beliefs.

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Jim Nabors, RIP

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Interesting that the Fox News story leads with “husband,” with relationship details below after professional info. The Hollywood Reporter mentions his “longtime partner” up front, but toward the end says that they’d been married.

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Not a Parody

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(image via Reddit)

As advertised by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, but perhaps soon to make its way down to the states.

That’s lesbian, gay, genderqueer, bisexual, demisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, intersex, queer, questioning, asexual, allies, pansexual, polygamous.

The flyer says: “Our goal is to become more familiar with current language, sensitive to current issues, and to share best practices in supporting our LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP peers & students.”

That’s a lot to cover in one hour!

More. Andrew Sullivan blogs on LGGBDTTTIQQAAPPWHAT? and asks, “Is the gay-rights movement effectively over?” (second item):

For most of the straight people we need to engage, it feels like a near-parodic example of hair-splitting victimology and grievance-mongering. And to me, and many who once thought of ourselves as supporters of gay equality, it feels like an unpronounceable and impenetrable congeries of literally everything … and therefore nothing.

He adds:

My point is that a political movement makes sense in a liberal society because it advances certain policy proposals, and not because it spends its time constantly defining and redefining who is or who is not part of it, or sees itself as just one sliver of a broader movement dedicated to an ideology a very hefty chunk of the gay world simply doesn’t adhere to or believe in.

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Too ‘Gay’?

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The Facebook embed cuts off the full comment, but what the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., posted was:

We confirmed today the Washington film festival “Reel Affirmations” actually rejected “The Lavender Scare” for screening this fall. What film was their “Centerpiece” selection? “Apricot Groves”, an Armenian/American trans drama/romance–“Aram returns to Armenia to propose to his girlfriend….” ! After more than 50 screenings nationwide, from Tampa to Fresno, with TEN “Best of Festival” awards, and a major focus on Frank Kameny’s advocacy, “The Lavender Scare” has yet to be screened in Washington, DC.

Today’s dominant view:

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