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    2013 - 05.19

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    Today’s Forum carries an interesting story where a number of couples were interviewed regarding their plans for the future now that Minnesota has made same gender marriage legal.

    Minnesota Marriage

    There were a number of interesting stories, and a number of interesting challenges faced by young couples that Ricky and I never encountered. For example, the parents’ names going on a birth certificate when the child is born to a same gender couple is very complex and quite expensive.

    Interestingly, I was interviewed for this article but not quoted.

    Ricky and I had a very different point of view. When asked if we planned to move to Minnesota, I told the reporter Kyle that we married in Canada a number of years ago. We have lived in our south Fargo home for 8 years and really like it. We have the best trust attorney money can buy. Our employers provide domestic partner benefits.

    For right now, we’re okay.

    And after we work another ten years, we’ll sell this house and take our money and go to our home in Boca.

    Which of course, got me to thinking: I think there are a huge number of same gender North Dakota  couples who will be doing basically the same thing.

    Who is going to take our place?

    My first thought was that no single gay person, and certainly no gay couple would make North Dakota their first choice to live.

    Maybe not even their 37th choice of where to live. Which is probably not that big of a deal. So 50 gay couples decide not to move to North Dakota. There would be a certain faction of people cheering that news. They might even start some recruiting efforts to attrack gay-haters to North Dakota as a place where discrimination is not only legal; it’s constitutionally protected!

    But then I got to thinking about how the current generation for the most part just does not care about gay people. In fact, many shrug their shoulders, roll their eyes and wonder what is the big deal.

    And I wonder if those people will ever make North Dakota their first choice of places to live?

    Don’t have the answer to that one. For the time being, North Dakota is swimming in money. We are so wealthy we can take on ridiculously expensive lawsuits to force certain legislators religion on the state and possibly the nation.

    But what about 20 years from now, when all the old homos have taken their money and long since left?

    Will North Dakota still be one of the most politically backward states in the US? Will North Dakota still be the last choice a gay person would want to live; and a generally unattractive place for any young person to choose to live?

    Today’s Gay Agenda: The oil and the money always dry up. Just ask Midland Texas. Or Tulsa Oklahoma. The smug arrogant attitude of North Dakota legislators is doing nothing to protect the long term interests of the citizens. Maybe the new billboards in Moorhead should read: North Dakota is open for business, closed to homos. Have a nice day!

     

    Minnesota Marriage

    2013 - 05.09

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    I’ve always been proud to be from Minnesota, even though I’ve called Fargo home for the past 15 years or so. Today, however I’m even more proud.

    Minnesota Marriage

    Unlike the sideshow put on by our North Dakota legislators, much of which played out on a national level; law makers in Minnesota are stepping up and doing the right thing by allowing existing laws to apply equally to all loving couples.

    It’s hard for me to even come up with  one of my usual snarky wise-cracks. Ricky and I married in Canada in 2006, and not a single one of our neighbors has gotten divorced, nor has one parent or the other been forced to leave their household because we’re married.

    Our grandkids know us as Grandpa and Poppa B. That’s all they’ve ever known, and all they ever will know. Poor Ricky is stuck with me for the long haul ’cause I’m never giving him up.

    Now it’s up to the Senate, and conventional wisdom is there’s more support there than in the house.

    Today’s Gay Agenda: Thank you Minnesota Legislators. You are leaders of honor and character that puts the well being of its citizens above partisanship and religious dogma.

    Let’s go Camping!

    2013 - 04.07

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    A few weeks ago,  I found out something very disturbing: North Dakota legislators are working to secure abandoned school buildings to function as interment facilities for gay men, so they can be quarantined until it’s verified they do not have AIDS and thus are not spreading it to the general population.

    Gay men are notorious for promiscuous sex and an overwhelming desire to destroy the human race.

    I’m told empty schools in New Rockford, Galesburg, Gwinner and Alice are already being retrofitted with bars on the windows and electrified fence.

    There’s an on-line survey being prepared so North Dakota citizens can submit the names of known or suspected homosexuals to the state, because obviously homos aren’t going to come forward willingly. The goal is that they can be detained until it’s proven they a) don’t have AIDS, or b) don’t like man-sex.

    Those that do have AIDS will be detained indefinitely as a means of protecting the citizens of North Dakota, and those that like man-sex will have extensive repairative therapy using the left over materials abandoned by the now nearly defunct Exodus International, the former pray-the-gay-away organization that went bust.

    Alright. I made all that up.

    But I made it up for a really, really good reason. The North Dakota legislature is completely out of control and must be stopped!

    Today’s Forum carried a letter in which one of our legislators indicated a goal of Planned Parenthood is to legalize post-birth abortion. (I don’t even know what that is, but it sounds horrible) And she made this statement not once, but twice in her letter.

    Earlier today I wrote a post calling this out, and after literally HUNDREDS of hits to my site, there was not one single shred of verification to this claim, save for some  examples of rogue characters making outrageous claims about late term abortion.

    I suspect had I taken the time, I could have rounded up some characters who support abortion until the child is 24 months of age.

    As I stated earlier today, saying it or even believing it doesn’t make it so.

    There will always be a willing audience of people clamoring for someone to say what they want to hear.

    The people willing to fill that role need to remain televangelists, talk show hosts, or in some cases preachers

    Today’s Gay Agenda: Republican and Democrat citizens of North Dakota deserve better. Enough is enough.

     

    Need some documentation on that one, please

    2013 - 04.07

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    Today’s Forum carries a well written letter that outlines the point of view of Bette Grande and why she is using her position of influence to force her religious beliefs on the citizens of North Dakota.

    She makes some interesting points and many are probably accurate. But then she wraps it up with this statement:

    After-birth abortion is not new, it is not fringe, it is the goal of Planned Parenthood. I wonder how many of the well-intentioned North Dakotans supporting abortion are aware of that goal.

    Seriously?

    That’s a pretty inflammatory statement. A statement so outrageous that I think we all deserve some documentation to back that up. A mission statement, meeting notes, secret videos, stolen e-mails ANYTHING that would make people like me join forces with her.

    (Think Mitt Romney and his true feelings about half of America)

    But I suspect the only back up would be from some fundamentalist religious organization who quotes some former abortion mill director who has found religion and mended her evil ways.

    Ricky has said for years society pays people to tell us what we want to hear. The likes of Rush Limbaugh make a very good living doing that. I have said for years that religious fundamentalists have a pathological belief that the moment words leave their mouths they become truth.

    And sadly, there are scores of people just waiting to believe that truth.

    Today’s Gay Agenda: It’s unfortunate that Mrs Grande’s point of opening dialog and discussion may have already had a desired effect of reducing abortion was lost. That seemed reasonable and perhaps even valid. In my opinion, there were scores of North Dakotans reading the paper and reflecting on her statements who then realized she’s just another crazy religious fundamentalist.

    Times they are a-changin’

    2013 - 04.04

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    Three years ago when I started writing TGA one of my goals was to advance understanding of the reality experienced by same gender couples. Except for cleaner cars and greener lawns, were pretty much like everyone else; with the same hopes, dreams, fears and insecurities.

    With buffed nails and great hair-cuts of course.

    Back then, I never thought it would be only three years until I read this:

    “Government’s role is to protect the individual,” Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Red Wing, said Wednesday, adding that a bill authorizing civil unions he is introducing today would do just that.

    When I was a young man, most conservative politicians either denied the existence of gay people; used them as props to demonstrate their moral superiority; or ridiculed them as fancy-nancy boys.

    Today a Republican politician in MN introduced a bill to authorize civil unions, which would grant existing MN legal protection to any couple who purchased the document.

    While this gesture does nothing to ensure the protection of federal laws to same gender couples in MN, it’s an advancement a million miles ahead of where our local culture was a few years ago.

    Rep. Kelly, while your bill falls short of supporting equal protection of all laws, rather than only MN laws, it’s very much a step in the right direction, and it’s something your predecessors would have never dreamed of doing.

    Today’s Gay Agenda: Always remember, victory comes through a series of small successes. The introduction of this bill is one of them.

    In your Easter Bonnet, 3

    2013 - 03.30

    Category Uncategorized | 7 comments

    *For some reason I will never understand, this is the most popular post ever on TGA. It’s been read over 4,200 times. I decided to add photos I took after writing this.

    Enjoy. Happy  Easter!

    Here’s what Ricky and I are doing this Easter weekend to advance the gay agenda of destroying American society and traditional families:

    I will spend Saturday afternoon digging out Ricky’s mother’s wedding china, sterling and crystal as well as my mother’s wedding china; various linen table cloths and napkins from long gone grandmothers and setting our tables in such a way Martha Stewart would be envious, or at least approve. Yes, I realize it’s stereotypical we each have our mom’s wedding china, but all our sisters (we have 3 between us) acknowledge we entertain alot, and we entertain BIG, so if they’re going to enjoy mom’s china, they know it will probably happen at our house.

    Ricky’s mother’s wedding china

    My mother’s wedding china

    Sniffer will go to the Pretty Puppy Parlor @ 2 p.m. for a shampoo and set.

    Saturday evening we will have dinner with my daughter and her new gentleman friend. He’s a young man I’ve known since his birth and comes from a great family. Although he’s 27 and she’s 21, I understand as kids get older age difference isn’t quite as critical. (Ricky is 6 years older than I–we met when I was 39 and he 45)

    Easter Sunday Ricky will sing in the church choir while dinner for 14 bakes in the oven. We’re doing a list of favorite family recipes from our mothers and grandmothers. Back in the day, everything went in the oven. Nobody knew what it meant to saute something, in fact everyone probably thought saute was a dirty word.

    Sunroom table set with Ricky’s mother’s china

    Dining room table set with my mom’s china

    We will then host Ricky’s son and wife, our two grand kids; Ricky’s daughter; their mother (that’s right–family holidays are not about whether Brad and Ethel can be in the same room); my mother; my sister & her gentleman friend and my sister’s 16 year old daughter.

    Alert the Minnesota Family Council as well as James Dobson & Focus on the Family—this is what two very determined gay guys are doing to destroy your family and bring about the downfall of society as we know it. Expect fire and brimstone around 4 p.m.

    Today’s Gay Agenda: Recognize our vanilla suburban life isn’t filled with nearly as much debauchery as the fundies would expect. Say an extra prayer of thanks at Easter service for this odd conglomeration of people we love and who love us right back.

    A Good Friday, Indeed

    2013 - 03.29

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    Each day when I open the newspaper, I shudder to think what new low the North Dakota Legislature has sunk.

    Today didn’t disappoint. How sad a statement is that?

    In spite of the fact North Dakota ranks amongst the top states in per capita binge drinking,  and fully 1/2 of all highway fatalities involve alcohol, our legislature decided the $250 fine for a first DWI offense is just fine.

    In a shocking demonstration of common sense, the legislature put their foot down to guns in schools, but agreed that places of worship are fully appropriate for deacons to be packing heat. Perhaps the Sunday usher volunteer roster will need to include a ‘armed’ or ‘not armed’ check box.

    Kevin Kramer is no longer Public Service Commissioner since we decided he was of such moral character that he was the man to represent us on a national level. Today it was announced the Congressman became so frustrated at the stupidity in the room that he indicated the he’d like to ‘wring their necks and slam them against the wall’ in reference to some governing board that represented them.

    A totally appropriate comment at a conference regarding assigning accountability to those who abuse women and children.

    After all, it’s a proven fact that the one thing all abused women have in common is ‘they just won’t listen!’

    Today’s Gay Agenda: Can you imagine the state we’d be in if the Family Values and Personal Accountability Party weren’t ruling?

    Mom? Dad?

    2013 - 03.28

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    The new popular argument against same gender marriage is “children need a father and a mother” along with “which parent can a child do without, a mother or a father?”

    This argument is so flawed it’s hard to know where to begin.

    But I’ll try.

    First of all Ricky’s children and my children both have a mother and a father. Ours are children of divorce as are tens of thousands of children in the United States. Unfortunate and unpleasant to be sure, but a sad reality.

    Keeping gays from marrying is not going to keep straight families from getting divorced.

    The other point seems to be a concern that children of same gender parent households fare worse than others.

    I’ve talked about that a number of times. I speculate that same gender couples have to invest such an incredible amount of resources in having a child that they’re actually better parents, statistically speaking, than straight parents.

    The other flaw is the assumption that the moment gays get married they’re going to add children to the household.

    The common sense response to this argument is that making ability to pro-create a requirement for marriage causes way too many problems for straight people.

    They seem to get annoyed at restriction on who or even if they can marry. Imagine that?

    Today’s Gay Agenda: Even anti-gay marriage forces are conceding an expectation DOMA is going to be severely edited if not eliminated. A June opinion is expected. I think they’ll make the announcement the third Friday in June. You know, the launch of Gay Pride weekend.

    Rollercoaster Ride

    2013 - 03.27

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    These past two days have been a wild rollercoaster ride in terms of civil liberties and equal protection under the law.

    Yesterday around 1 p.m. news broke that Governor Dalrymple signed into law some of the most anti-female legislation written in decades. Even though sensible heads on both side of the argument agree these laws will never stand, the fact is ND legislators never miss an opportunity to remind women, minorities, gays and poor people that they are lesser citizens.

    And they’d much rather spend my tax dollars fighting lawsuits defending statutes based on certain legislators religion than educating disadvantaged preschool children or ensuring school children have adequate nutrition.

    Being a citizen of ND is truly shameful these days.

    But then, as reports started coming out early this afternoon, all indicators are that the US Supreme court is going to strike down Section 3 of DOMA and allow over 1,100 existing laws apply equally to all married couples, not just certain ones.

    US Supreme Court and DOMA Section 3

    Those of you who’ve read TGA for a while know I really don’t care about the word ‘marriage’. We can call it ‘Alfred’ for all I care.

    I also believe those against same sex marriage don’t care about the word marriage any more than I do. It’s simply a pleasant ruse trying to mask their intent to make sure gays remain lesser citizens.

    It ain’t over ’til it’s over, and the fat lady leaves the room. However, I’m pretty confident that by this time next year, Ricky and I will be able to check the ‘married’ box on our federal tax returns.

    Today’s Gay Agenda: I think the state of ND should sue the legislators who came up with this waste of time any money to recover the cost of litigation ND citizens are going to be forced to pay.

     

    Oh Bette, it’s time to Sitte down and be quiet

    2013 - 03.21

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    The past few days, I’ve not been able to get an interview on gun control legislation done by Bette Grande out of my mind.

    Something about the remarks made smacked of hypocrisy, but I didn’t know what it was.

    Then I figured it out.

    Mrs. Don Grande (how we should respectfully address our legislator, since she’s a religous fundamentalist conservative) indicated that we need no further gun control legislation because reality is, criminals do not obey laws anyway.

    Makes sense. Everyone knows criminals don’t obey laws. That’s why they’re criminals. Duh.

    Mrs Don Grande, you railed against gun control legislation on the platform that those who storngly desired a specific outcome would do whatever it takes to achieve that outcome.

    Then later that day you worked to deny the availability of legal reproductive health services to infertile couples and women in crisis pregnancy situations because you believe enacting laws does, in fact, affect behavior.

    Which is it?

    Mrs Don Grande, perhaps you’d like to clarify.

    Because as is characteristic of most religous fundamentalists, you appear to believe the moment a statement leaves you mouth it becomes truth.

    Those in need of legal reproductive health services will find a way to recieve those services. And your attempt to force your religious point of view on the state will simply create more disadvantaged households you and your party complains about supporting.

    Today’s Gay Agenda: OMG, for the first time ever, I’m all about the little women staying home, being submissive to their husbands and keeping their uneducated mouths shut.

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