SCOTUS Rules That Businesses Can Discriminate Against Gay People, Ryan Field Books

 SCOTUS Rules That Businesses Can Discriminate Against Gay People

SCOTUS seems to be on a roll lately, making decisions that will set us all back at least 50 years. It's by no means a fair and balanced court, and the rulings are proof. 

Now the court has ruled that web designers can discriminate against gay people. And once again, it's based on some conservative Christian Colorado web designer who didn't want to do web designs for gay people. She claims it's all about her religious beliefs. It's also about how she disapproves of gay marriage. 

This is how is went down with SCOTUS...

In the majority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote: “The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees.”

Here's more. Justice Sotomayor said it is "heartbreaking." The article goes into more detail, but the bottom line doesn't change. They can, and they will, continue to discriminate against us. 

Amazon Link 

 Uncertainty on Amazon

“A wonderful story that I loved. The characters were well developed and strong. Gus: A sweet young man. Doing something for all the wrong reasons. Craig: his boyfriend, he’ll go along with anything Gus say. Henry: Gus father a no-nonsense man, who’s husband died last year. I enjoyed this story.”



What readers said about “Altered Parts”
“Best Gay Novel In Years. This story will stay with you and you will feel you know every character and the beauty of their home in the mountains of North Carolina.”
In paperback or e-book. #gayromance #Wednesday

Altered Parts

The Wizard of Pride

 How to Be a Good Gay Bottom 

 Amazon

Gay Couples Just Like Straight Couples Last a Lifetime in Their Marriages, Ryan Field Books

 Gay Couples Just Like Straight Couples Last a Lifetime in Their Marriages

It always amazes me that straight people seem so shocked to find out that gay couples have relationships/marriages that last just as long, or longer, than their straight relationships/marriages. In fact, I've known so many older gay couples who've been together for many years I've lost track. So for those of you who don't know this, we are not all Will and his Grace. Not all of us have a best girlfriend. Our husbands (or wives for Lesbians) are our best friends.

This article I'm linking to right now shows 7 gay couples who've been together for a long time. It gets into the fact that gay relationships endure for many reasons. One thing they did mention I found interesting that a lot of relationships would have lasted longer if it hadn't been for AIDS. 

And then it goes on to show 7 gay couples who've lasted for many years. In my own marriage to Tony, we've been together for 30 years this December. We met in college. And the years have passed so quickly I can't believe it. They have lesbian couples, too. And I have known more than a few women who've been together just as long as men. I also love the before and after photos with some of them. 

Here's a link to read more. 

Amazon

Uncertainty on Amazon

“A wonderful story that I loved. The characters were well developed and strong. Gus: A sweet young man. Doing something for all the wrong reasons. Craig: his boyfriend, he’ll go along with anything Gus say. Henry: Gus father a no-nonsense man, who’s husband died last year. I enjoyed this story.”



What readers said about “Altered Parts”
“Best Gay Novel In Years. This story will stay with you and you will feel you know every character and the beauty of their home in the mountains of North Carolina.”
In paperback or e-book. #gayromance #Wednesday

Altered Parts

The Wizard of Pride

The Straight Pride Parade

 How to Be a Good Gay Bottom 

LGBTQ Abuse Continues in Qatar In Spite of World Cup Event, Gay Cuban Couples Can Now Marry, Ryan Field Books

 LGBTQ Abuse Continues in Qatar In Spite of World Cup Event

I've posted about the abuse and homophobia in Qatar earlier this month, and now it's making news again. This time is because Preventive Security forces in Qatar are now arresting LGBTQ people in public places at random. 

Human Rights Watch has been documenting what's been happening and so far they have at least 6 cases of LGBTQ abuse and Qatar is forcing conversion therapy on some. 

It's really very disturbing. You can read it all, here.  I can't believe they will still hold the World Cup there. That's so wrong. 

Gay Cuban Couples Can Now Marry

On a much lighter note, under a brand new law, gay Cuban couples will now be allowed to marry just like straight Cuban couples. 

You see, Cuba has a new family code that is now allowing gay marriage and even surrogate mothers. And the public voted on this, too. Cuba is now the 9th country in Latin America to legalize same sex marriage. 

Here's more. It's hard to believe that some members of the LGBTQ community were against voting "yes" for these changes because they don't believe they need a piece of paper to validate their relationships. And how stupid is that? It's more than a piece of paper, you ding dongs. It makes us equal with straight people, not to mention the benefits of being a married couple in the legal sense. 

A Different Kind of Southern Love Story

What readers are saying about “Uncertainty”

Amazon

“A wonderful story that I loved. The characters were well developed and strong. Gus: A sweet young man. Doing something for all the wrong reasons. Craig: his boyfriend, he’ll go along with anything Gus say. Henry: Gus father a no-nonsense man, who’s husband died last year. I enjoyed this story.”



What readers said about “Altered Parts”
“Best Gay Novel In Years. This story will stay with you and you will feel you know every character and the beauty of their home in the mountains of North Carolina.”
In paperback or e-book. #gayromance #Wednesday

Altered Parts

The Wizard of Pride

The Straight Pride Parade

 How to Be a Good Gay Bottom 

Thousands of Homophobic Right Wing Activists March Through Serbia's Capital to Stop LGBTQ Pride, Ryan Field Books

 Thousands of Homophobic Right-Wing Activists March Through Serbia's Capital to Stop LGBTQ Pride

On the global front, hate and homophobia continue to happen in Serbia. Serbia is a landlocked country in central Europe. The most interesting thing is that if you look up Serbia the internet will tell you how safe it is to go there. I guess they mean for straight white privilege. Because LGBTQIA people can't go there feeling safe anymore. 

Here's just a small sample of the hate. 

"They want to desecrate the sanctity of marriage and the family and impose an unnatural union as a substitute for marriage," he told the crowd.

Here's more. Serbia is also an ally of Russia, so you know what that's all about. A lot of them were waving Russian flags in support of Putin. 

Disgusting. 

 How to Be a Good Gay Bottom 

A Different Kind of Southern Love Story

What readers are saying about “Uncertainty”

Amazon

“A wonderful story that I loved. The characters were well developed and strong. Gus: A sweet young man. Doing something for all the wrong reasons. Craig: his boyfriend, he’ll go along with anything Gus say. Henry: Gus father a no-nonsense man, who’s husband died last year. I enjoyed this story.”



What readers said about “Altered Parts”
“Best Gay Novel In Years. This story will stay with you and you will feel you know every character and the beauty of their home in the mountains of North Carolina.”
In paperback or e-book. #gayromance #Wednesday

Altered Parts

The Wizard of Pride

The Straight Pride Parade

This Gay Man Was Skeptical About Gay Marriage, Ryan Field Books

 This Gay Man was Skeptical About Gay Marriage

This is one of those gay stories to which I truly cannot relate. For me, gay marriage meant that my long-term relationship with my "husband" was finally validated and we were legal. To me, gay marriage meant neither one of us would have to pay inheritance taxes. To me, it represented years of fighting for equal rights. To me, it made me equal with straights who are married. And I never ever took it to the lengths this gay man took it. Of course, there is the love factor, but I have also always focused on the more pragmatic legal aspects of gay marriage. It protects us.  

As young queers at university, we had followed the fashionable discourse about how marriage was a “heteronormative construct that shackles us all” and how, as gay people, we were liberated from such arcane traditions, following our own path of true autonomy and forming relationships outside the Hallmark romance framework that has brainwashed the world.

Here's more. I agree with him on some things, but not everything. For one thing, I don't identify as queer. I identify as gay. And that's fine. Gay men have always been a diversified group with different opinions. I wonder how he feels about straight male actors gay-baiting and playing gay for pay in films and on TV. Or about straight women authors writing gay content. Cultural appropriation is a much more important concern right now.

Once Upon a Castle by Ryan Field

A Different Kind of Southern Love Story

What readers are saying about “Uncertainty”

Amazon

“A wonderful story that I loved. The characters were well developed and strong. Gus: A sweet young man. Doing something for all the wrong reasons. Craig: his boyfriend, he’ll go along with anything Gus say. Henry: Gus father a no-nonsense man, who’s husband died last year. I enjoyed this story.”



What readers said about “Altered Parts”
“Best Gay Novel In Years. This story will stay with you and you will feel you know every character and the beauty of their home in the mountains of North Carolina.”
In paperback or e-book. #gayromance #Wednesday

Altered Parts

The Wizard of Pride

The Straight Pride Parade

Switzerland, Gay Marriage, Public Vote; Sharon Osborne on Rosie O'Donnell's Daughter; Sam Smith Nominated

Switzerland, Gay Marriage, Public Vote

This article is exactly why I didn't want gay marriage put to a public vote here in the US. I don't want my fate decided by a segment of the public who doesn't know how to separate religion from government. And I support religion completely. I'm not an atheist by any means. I can be very conservative on many issues, not fitting into the typical gay stereotype. I also support religious freedom as long as it doesn't stand in the way of equal rights. 

This is happening in Switzerland.

Switzerland could become the first Western European country to block gay marriage through a referendum changing its constitution.

On 28 February 2016, Swiss citizens are called to vote in a referendum on four confederate bills; one of them, titled For Marriage and Family – against the marriage penalty, could block marriage equality.

Initiated by the Christian Democratic People’s Party of Switzerland (CVP), part of the Swiss coalition government, the civil initiative seeks to add a paragraph into the federal constitution defining marriage as being between man and woman.

I am curious to see how it turns out. According to US polls, support for same sex marriage in the US is continuing to rise. However, the LGBT+ community is still a minority, not a majority. And I don't think it's fair to have a public vote on the rights of a minority. In the US, this is why we have a constitution and laws protecting everyone from discrimination. It's a system that works.  

You can check this out here.

Sharon Osborne on Rosie O'Donnell's Daughter

The only reason I'm following up on this is because I posted about Rosie O'Donnell's daughter disappearing and that story was extremely sketchy. Frankly, I'm not a huge Rosie fan and I can live without Osborne, too. Rosie lost me on The View years ago. I've always believed dirty laundry is for the hamper, not twitter.

In any event...

Sharon Osbourne is speaking out passionately in defense of Rosie O’Donnell whose daughter complained in a recent interview that O’Donnell smokes pot, has a short fuse and delegates a lot of her parental duties up to nannies.

‘It’s just one of those ugly, horrible situations – the heartbreak that Rosie must be going through,’ Osbourne said on The Talk, the daytime show on which she is a co-host. ‘These arguments, it’s horrible when they go public.’

You can read the rest here, if you care. 


Sam Smith Nominated

Now here's a guy I love, Sam Smith. He's hard-working, excellent at his craft, and he's taken some of the worst punches I've seen in a while with complete grace. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen anything negative coming from him.

Taylor Swift may have gotten the most American Music Awards nominations today with six but Sam Smith had a strong showing with three AMA nods.

The openly gay British singer-songwriter was nominated in the Artist of the Year, Favorite Album and Favorite Male Artist categories.

Well done.

You can check that out here. 

The Rainbow Detective Agency

The Wedding

 on Amazon

Gay Marriage, Schools and Taxes; The Rainbow Flag and Hate; Hillary's Pride Month Video

Gay Marriage, Schools, and Taxes

This is something I never realized until I read this article. Conservative religious schools in the US are worried about legalized same sex marriage for monetary reasons, not the religious reasons you hear about all the time.

The religious schools are concerned that if they continue to ban gay relationships, the Internal Revenue Service could take away their tax-exempt status as a violation of a “fundamental national public policy” under the reasoning of a 1983 Supreme Court decision that allowed the agency to revoke the tax-exempt status of schools that banned interracial relationships.

In a recent letter to congressional leaders, officials from more than 70 schools, including Catholic high schools and evangelical colleges, said that a Supreme Court ruling approving same-sex marriage would put at risk all schools “adhering to traditional religious and moral values.”

You can read the rest here. Now I'm starting to wonder what else might be challenged if SCOTUS rules in favor of same sex marriage this week.

What I still don't get is how these religious people think their religious and moral values are going to be compromised if LGBT people get the same equal rights as everyone else in the US. It's not as if gay men will become gay Catholic priests. THAT would be unthinkable...because you NEVER see a gay Catholic priest, said no one ever. 

The Rainbow Flag and Hate

I think this next article I'm linking to shows how some people feel about left wing gay activism. It's about the rainbow flag, but it goes far deeper. They equate the rainbow flag with hate and other things that gay activists have been accusing them of doing for years.

Under the banner of what is dishonestly called a gay pride or gay “rights” flag, hate, fascism, and intolerance has festered for years, specifically against Christians and conservatives.  Under the auspices of a “rights and equality” symbol, Leftists have been on a rampage to take way the rights of others through bullying, lies, and online terrorism.

The list of misdeeds and victims resulting from an increasingly emboldened Big Gay Hate Machine continues to grow.
 
Under this banner of hate, people are outed against their will,  terrorized out of business merely for being Christian, bullied and harassed for thoughtcrimes; moreover, “hate crimes” are being manufactured to keep us divided, Christians are refused service, death threats are hurled, and Christianity is regularly smeared as hate speech.

You can read the rest here. The author also mentions he wants the confederate flag taken down, too. So I have to wonder what's going on beneath the surface of all this.

Hillary's Pride Month Video

This is the first time I'm seeing this. Hillary Clinton who is running for President released a video that celebrates same sex marriage.

Speaking over footage of marriage proposals or of wedding ceremonies, Clinton says: ‘Being LGBT does not make you less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights. And human rights are gay rights.’

You can watch it here. Say what you will, but she's paying attention and she's going down on the right side of history with this one.  You just can't take that away from her on this issue no matter how hard you try to twist, spin and turn.

The Rainbow Detective Agency 

Box Set Series $5.99

You can check it all out here, on Amazon.