by Karen on April 13, 2009
Amazon has apparently stripped the sales rankings of books on feminism, human sexuality and books for and about LGBTs for their “adult” content.
The books, such as Jessica Valenti’s Full Frontal Feminism, do not appear in searches and are blocked from showing up in certain lists.
Amazon is claiming that it was a glitch and it’s been fixed, but a quick search for Jessica’s book failed to bring it up. Here’s a list of books that have been stripped by Amazon.
Check out #amazonfail on Twitter for more.
by Karen on December 6, 2007
Negotiations have ended and come June 1, 2008 – the Boy Scouts will have to have vacated Beaux Art Building.
For three years the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America held its ground. It resisted the city’s request to change its discriminatory policy toward gay people despite threats that if it did not do so, the city would evict the group from a municipal building where the Scouts have resided practically rent free since 1928.
Hailed as the birthplace of the Boy Scouts, the Beaux Arts building is the seat of the seventh-largest chapter of the organization and the first of the more than 300 council service centers built by the Scouts around the country over the past century.
But over the years the fight between the city and the Scouts was about more than this grandiose structure in Center City.
Municipal officials said the clash stemmed from a duty to defend civil rights and an obligation to abide by a local law that bars taxpayer support for any group that discriminates. Boy Scout officials said it was about preserving their culture, protecting the right of private organizations to remain exclusive and defending traditions like requiring members to swear an oath of duty to God and prohibiting membership by anyone who is openly homosexual.
This week the Boy Scouts made their last stand and lost.
I, for one, say good riddance. Any group that discriminates against any member of the American public for any reason should not receive official public support. It really is that simple. The scout leaders, being the paragons of responsibility they are, are blaming the city.
“With an epidemic of gun violence taking the lives of children almost daily in this city, it’s ironic that this administration chose to destroy programming that services thousands of children in the city,” Mr. Jubelirer said. [emphasis added]
Yes, it’s the city’s fault that the Boy Scout leaders chose to defend bigoted practices knowing full well that a defeat would impact their ability to help children, well at least children who are heterosexual theists. I think this irritates me most of all. They could at least have the courage of their convictions.
by Karen on September 26, 2007
If there’s one thing that ticks the Christians off lately it is what they consider the “unfair” verbal butt whipping of the alleged “nice” Christians. They often can’t seem to understand why anyone would treat them in the same manner as the explicitly hateful Christians. Well, speaking directly for myself – here’s a pretty damned good reason. The leaders of the U.S. Episcopalian church has decided to throw it’s gay members under the bus. Gay Episcopalians can no longer be ordained and the church will no longer recognize their marriages.
The Episcopal House of Bishops reaffirmed its decision to “exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.”
The church leaders also pledged “not to authorize or use in our dioceses any public rites of blessing of same-sex unions until a broader consensus emerges in the Communion or until (the) General Convention takes further action.”
Of course, this official shunning of gay members shouldn’t be seen as the complete waffling by the “nice” Christians as the leaders have sworn to do something about “actions or policies that does violence to them, encourages violence towards them or violates their dignity as children of God”. Excuse me while I snort, but these folks don’t have the balls to treat their gay members with an ounce of mere respect – what the fuck are they going to do when someone takes an an action that causes it’s gay members to suffer ‘violence’ – coddle ‘em to death? And don’t even get me started on how they plan to do something about actions or policies that “violate their dignity”.
