LGBT People To Hold Tax Day Events Across Country

As tax day approaches it provides another reminder of the discrimination LGBT people face on a day to day basis. When Prop 8 passed rock star Melissa Etheridge made a statement that she would not pay her California taxes this year. She felt since her right to marry was taken away and she was being treated as a second class citizen then why should she be expected to pay.

Well I don't know if Etheridge plans to follow through on that statement but for most of us we can't afford the legal consequences of that type of protest. But we can hang out near post offices while others are dropping off their taxes. The following media alert was released to announce events all across the country.

Tax Season Serves as a Reminder How the “Defense of Marriage Act” Harms Same-Sex Couples and Costs Taxpayers Billions of Dollars

Take action by visiting www.taxday2009.com

WASHINGTON – As millions of Americans file their income taxes, a coalition of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy groups call attention to the tax inequities facing same-sex couples as a result of the state and federal laws that refuse to  recognize or extend civil marriage protections to same-sex couples.  Marriage Equality USA, Join the Impact and the Human Rights Campaign have collectively organized a series of events at U. S. Post Offices across the nation to highlight the ongoing moral and financial costs of denying marriage equality to same-sex couples—as well as the consequences paid by all Americans as a result of these discriminatory state and federal laws.

“Each tax season, same-sex couples sit at their dining room tables and are forced to live a legal lie by checking ‘single’ despite their decades together and then arbitrarily dividing up their joint household’s income, expenses, and dependents,” said Molly McKay, Marriage Equality USA Media Director.  “Then we write checks to the IRS for social security taxes, knowing that when we die our families will not even have access to any of the family ‘safety net’ benefits provided in the form of social security survivor benefits, estate tax deferral, and other programs that we help fund through our tax dollars and that only heterosexual couples and their children will enjoy.”

“The tax inequities faced by loving, committed same-sex couples make them less able to care for each other and their families,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.  “Even same-sex couples in states that do legally recognize their unions are penalized by the federal government simply for building a family with the person they love.  This is an injustice that can and must end.”

“Whether couples are married, civil unioned or have no state protections under state law, all same-sex couples in the United States are treated as ‘single’ under federal law.  The U.S. Census has declared that they will not recognize married same-sex couples as “married” in the 2010 Census.  We cannot allow our community to be erased,” said Amy Balliett, co-founder of Join the Impact.  “Tax season is yet another time where same-sex couples are reminded that despite abiding by the requirements of American citizenship by paying our taxes, we are still are treated as second class citizens.”  

A study produced by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) debunks the myth that granting same-sex couples the freedom to marry would cost the government money. In fact, it would save taxpayer dollars.  Same-sex couples are not the only ones paying for marriage discrimination, all taxpayers fund this discrimination which amounts to as much as $1 billion nationwide. To read the CBO study, visit www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=5559&sequence=0.

Founded in 1998, Marriage Equality USA is a national grassroots organization whose mission is to secure legally recognized civil marriage equality for all, at the federal and state level, without regard to gender identity or sexual orientation .  For more information go to www.marriageequality.org

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

Join the Impact is a national grassroots organization whose mission is to empower grassroots direct action across the nation.  For more information go to www.jointheimpact.com

Merry Christmas To All

Some Christmas songs for your enjoyment

John Mellencamp - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus




Melissa Etheridge - Blue Christmas

Melissa Etheridge Talks About Rick Warren on the Thom Hartmann Show

Melissa Etheridge performed the other night at an event for the Muslim Public Affairs Council. It just so happened that Pastor Rick Warren was scheduled to speak at the same event. Melissa asked to speak to Warren and a surprising thing happened. Melissa came away feeling good. She seems to think there is hope in bringing different sides together through Warren. In fact she wrote quite an amazing endorsement of him for the Huffington Post.

While I am still skeptical she is one of my favorite people and she was on one of my favorite radio shows talking about it. So any excuse to put Melissa with Thom Hartmann on my blog is a good one.

Time will tell just how good Melissa's read on Warren is...

Pastor Warren Has Saddelback Website Updated - But Not Enough

On Friday this screen shot from the Saddleback Church website really got the gays angry

And now it's gone. Apparently after all the heat put on him for comparing homosexuality to incest and pedophilia he has decided to take a look at exactly what it is he is saying. This weekend both he and Melissa Etheridge were an event for the Muslim Public Affairs Council. According to Etheridge in her piece at the Huffington Post Warren had this to say,

He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays.

Ok so it appears that progress is being made. However, many gays are still upset that he didn't take the opportunity to say that in a public statement to just to a famous gay person while getting an autograph. Whatever his motive is at least it's out there and there is a chance that the shift has begun.

So then why is this what they are teaching. Below is a clip from the Saddleback website under sexual purity.

Don't you know that those doing such things have no share in the Kingdom of God?  Don't fool yourselves.  Those who live immoral lives, who are idol worshippers, adulterers, or homosexuals will have no share in His Kingdom.  Neither will thieves or greedy people, drunkards, slanderers, or robbers.  1 Corinthians 6:9-10 TLB

The King James wording is

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."

 There is actually quite a bit of trouble getting people to agree on the translation here. In "What does 1 Corinthians 6:9 teach about sexuality, and how should we live in response?" Robert L. Brawley of the McCormick Theological Seminary seems to sum up what many people think.

But is it really so clear that 1 Cor 6:9 is about “homoerotic practice” and is it really so clear who is excluded from being heirs of God’s kingdom? I suggest that there is actually a lack of clarity. The lack of clarity shows up in several ways. One is in the variety among translations. Another is the difficulty we have in making direct correlations between biblical texts and the way we construe reality today. Most importantly, however, the argument about clarity does not adequately consider the context in 1 Corinthians 6, and this context is eye-opening with respect to how Paul deals with sexual behavior among the Corinthians.

Translations. Though malakoi literally means soft, it is often used in Greek to describe effeminate men, and many interpreters suggest that this identifies receptive partners in same-sex erotic behavior among males. One would be hard pressed to deduce anything about a receptive partner from the King James translation which simply says “effeminate” or from Luther’s translation quite literally as “weakling.” The Revised Standard Version combines the two terms malakoi and arsenokoitai into one translation as “sexual perverts,” a questionable move in translating, which the New Revised Standard Version tries to “correct” by reverting to two terms. With respect to malakoi the NRSV translation is “male prostitutes.” When the translation tradition moves between the extremes of “weakling” and “male prostitutes,” this indicates lack of clarity in our understanding of the term. Simply the variety in translations is one indication that the church has no sustained tradition of clarity about the meaning of malakoi in 1 Cor 6:9.

The problem of clarity is perhaps even more difficult with arsenokoitai. 1 Cor 6:9 is the first place we know of in all of Greek literature in which this term is used. Paul apparently coined it. So how does one know what a word means the first time it ever appears? Granted, we know some things from the formation of the word. It is compounded from a term for “bed” and a term for “male” with an agency ending—implicitly one who beds a male. Again, a quick review of
translations shows the uncertainty in the meaning. The King James Version has “abusers of themselves with mankind”; Luther has an equivalent of “violators of boys,” perhaps implying pederasty; and the NRSV introduces “sodomites,” an astonishing innovation in the translation tradition.

Religioustolerance.org goes on to say,

Although "homosexual" is a very common translation, it is almost certain to be inaccurate:

If Paul wanted to refer to homosexual behavior, he would have used the word "paiderasste." That was the standard Greek term at the time for sexual behavior between males.

There are many more places that say the use of homosexual in this passage is incorrect. So if Pastor Warren is so progressive and as he says "loves gays and straights" then why not choose to use a more correct and up to date translation on his site? I am starting to like this pick of Obama more and more. If Warren really is interested in being "America's Pastor" and he truely feels he helps gays by all the work he does with HIV/AIDS then maybe he can learn how the words he chooses are more important than ever at this time.

Hopefully, he'll also start to make his appologies and changes more public instead of just to the rich and famous.