I love Girl Scout cookies, but I usually forget cookie season until it’s too late and all the treats are gone. This year I’m making sure to buy a few extra boxes because a mean California Girl Scout named Taylor is urging a nationwide boycott of Girl Scout cookies over Girl Scouts USA admitting transgender girls into their troops.

In her YouTube video [which has now been marked Private], Taylor–who has been in the Girl Scouts for eight years–raises the trope of bathrooms and sleeping accommodations. And Taylor cites this statement from Rachelle Trujillo, vice president for communications of the Colorado Girl Scouts as the reason she’d like to see everyone stop buying Thin Mints:

We accept all girls in kindergarten through 12th grade as members. If a child identifies as a girl and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout. If a child is living as a girl, that’s good enough for us. We don’t require any proof of gender.

That statement alone equals a purchase of two extra boxes of Savannah Smiles, plus a box each of Dulce de Leches and Samoas as a thank you to my dude roommate for putting out the garbage cans.

Taylor’s video is posted on HonestGirlScouts.com, a site which froths over with anti-LGBT and anti-sex education links, and demands that Girl Scouts USA:

(1)
ELIMINATE SEXUAL EDUCATION FROM GIRL SCOUT PERMISSION AND CURRICULA, leaving that aspect of life to each girl’s respective parent / family / guardian.

(2)
BREAK ALL ASSOCIATION, MEMBERSHIP AND FUNDING FROM WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts), as they clearly demonstrate a friendship with International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) and its worldwide agenda of explicit sexual education for young children.

HonestGirlScouts.com also wants an end to cooking funds being used to pay

New Age consultants to train Girl Scout executives.

Transphobic Taylor cites a Girl Scout publication that says all girl-activities allow you to

Be yourself

Look how you want to look

which is exactly why transgender girls might wish to join their local troop. Girl Scout’s Rachelle Trujillo told the Baptist Press that:

Transgendered children are currently serving in Girl Scout troops in the U.S.

though she did not give details.

As my friend Victoria said in email:

Little bitch! Guess we will have to buy extra cookies this year,

a sentiment reflected in many of the comments on Taylor’s video. So support your local troop, Girl Scouts and transgender children by buying Girl Scout cookies.

Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s play 8 covering the Proposition 8 hearings and starring Morgan Freeman, Anthony Edwards, Cheyenne Jackson, Christine Lahti, Rob Reiner, Yeardley Smith and Marisa Tomei hits Broadway on September 19th in a one-time staged reading at the Eugene O’Neil Theater to benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Tickets start at $500.

AFER was formed specifically to fund the legal challenge against Proposition 8. A previous fundraiser, featuring a full length concert with Elton John was held earlier this year in Los Angeles.

8 is based on the California Supreme Court trial transcripts, and Milk screenwriter Black, who spent six months writing the play, told the New York Times:

I mined the best arguments on both sides, trying to capture everything on their side that was a winning point and anything on our side that was a winning point.

Luckily Black didn’t have to deal with these kind of arguments found on Facebook.

Wow, what’s next, blaming gays for hurricanes? Oh wait the heterosexual Rick Perry’s buddy/partner in Jesuspalooza, James Hagee has already done that.

8 will also be staged at Carnegie Mellon University, Northwest, and the University of Michigan.

[Thanks, Pam Spaulding for FB tip; h/t OnTopMagazine]

photo: creative commons, Mary McTavish

In the midst of the coverage about Anders Breivik’s murderous spree on Utoya is story of bravery, one that has gone under-reported in mainstream media.

Hege Dalin and her spouse Toril Hansen, a legally married lesbian couple, rescued 40 children who had jumped in the lake to escape Breivik’s rampage. Hearing the shots andscreams, the couple revved up their boat and scooped up children from the bloody water, returning to the island four times, despite bullet holes in the side of the boat. They saved 40 children.

While the story has received coverage in LGBT media, why hasn’t it been picked up by MSM which reported other rescues?

Talk About Equality quotes  the women’s story in Helsinki’s largest daily newspaper, Helsingin Sanoma

We were eating. Then shooting and then the awful screaming. We saw how the young people ran in panic into the lake.

In the aftermath, the couple said:

We did not sleep last night at all. Today, we have been together and talked about the events.

Now it’s time for all of us to talk about the bravery of a couple who repeatedly chose to risk their lives to save 40 children, a couple who have been seemingly overlooked, perhaps because they don’t fit into the comfortable stereotypes of heroes. Perhaps because they are lesbian and married.

I hope that’s not the case, because it would suck if the media is that narrow minded and fearful of celebrating true heroism.

Thank you, Hege and Toril. Thank you. And thank you, Norway for legalizing gay marriage in 2009.

Declaring today July 13, a “Day Against Discrimination,” the global gay rights group AllOut.org will hold flashmob dance in front of the Frankfurt Football stadium before the opening whistle of the FIFA Women’s World Cup semi-final.

AllOut also launched a petition urging suspensions for any and all FIFA football coaches who discriminate against LGBT players. AllOut has already gathered 45,000 signatures in support of their position and are endorsed by key sport federations such as the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF), the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association (IGLFA) and the Federation of Gay Games (FGG).

Last week the New York Times outlined soccer’s  homophobia citing comments by Nigerian women’s head  soccer coach Eucharia Uche including  Uche’s admission of having used religion in an attempt to rid her team of lesbianism, which she has called a

a dirty issue…spiritually, morally very wrong..

Uche was also quoted by the Times as saying:

The issue of lesbianism is common…I came to realize it is not a physical battle; we need divine intervention in order to control and curb it. I tell you it worked for us. This is a thing of the past. It is never mentioned.

In a press release, AllOut.org’s co-founder Andre Banks said:

Anyone who has played or watched football knows that there are consequences for breaking the rules of the game. It is time for FIFA to finally cry foul and give Coach Uche the red card, sending a strong message that discrimination against lesbian and gay players will not be tolerated on or off the field.

(photo: creative commons sierraromeo [sarah-ji] )

The Michael Steele trainwreck is a thing of the near past, and his misdeeds are now eclipsed by a double  wallop: An expensive fundraiser for GOP freshmen Congress people, and what at least is being speculated on as being a warming towards the LGBT community.

The GOP fundraiser designed to feather the nests of  GOP freshmen for the 2012 elections was conceived by incoming Rep. Jeff Denham of California, a two-time State Senator,  and features House Speaker-elect John Boehner on the invite– though the dandy-but-manly Orange Crush will not be attending the $2,500 per person ticket affair to be held at the W Hotel reports Politico. However lobbyists will be attending, along with political action committee members and other GOP supporters who will be gobbling the canapes. And some may even shell out for the $500K package that includes tickets for eight and a VIP suite at the W (was that hotel chosen to make the location easy to remeber or as a tribute to the two former presidents/POTUSES/POTI?).

Denham of course will benefit from the fundraiser since it helps fill his reelection coffers as well as those of the 86 other wet-behind-the-ears Congresspeople.  Denham has been working with the National Republican Congressional Committee to help raise dough for the newcomers and created a leadership PAC which funneled $100K to the NRCC. Only eleven newbies have joined the committee, and a number have declined the offer.

Wait, $2,500 aticket? That’s 2.5x higher than Nancy Pelosi’s 2008 freshman prom where tickets were $1000. Okay, yeah there’s the increased cost of living,  but seriously I didn’t think things were that out of control!  And aren’t the Republicans supposed to be all about austerity and stuff like government spending?  Oh, but it’s okay to spend a lot to get into government. I see…and granted  the GOP has proposed $35 million spending cuts in the Congressional budget, which will reduce staff size and office supplies, but still that

Well, what do you get for that ticket? A performance by that anti-GOP-envisioned family values singer LeAnn Rimes who recently performed a number of songs (including one in a sexy Santa outfit) with the Gay Mens Chorus of Los Angeles and earlier this year confessed to an extra-marital affair. Hey, maybe it’s the GOP’s way to lure more free thinkers and libertines into the Grand Old Party.

Several news sources (including my own local teevee channel KTLA which  has great coverage of car chases) have speculated that Sarah Palin may becoming more free thinking in her views of the LGBT community.  She retweeted the following message from openly lesbian NRA member and conservative commentator Tammy Bruce:

Bruce says she was not commenting on DADT, but rather tweeted this remark in response to the recently publicized videos shown aboard the USS Enterprise several years ago, made by now-recently-relieved-of-command Navy Capt. Owen Honors when he was aircraft carrier’s second-in-command. The videos included gay slurs, homoerotic shower scenes,  and really dumb bad acting by creepy Capt Honors himself.

(Side note: if the diversity-dishonoring Honors was second-in-command, how did the first-in-command feel about the videos? Why did he allow Honors to continue to make them? Isn’t that giving tacit okay on that attitude, and what has happened to him?).

Conservatives4Palin are making the case that Bruce’s tweet is more a comment on society and psychology than of stance on DADT, DOMA, ENDA and other LGBTQ issues.

The people Bruce is mocking are those on the right and the left who spend every waking hour of their day thinking about homosexuality. In the same way that someone is not necessarily anti-gay if he or she opposes repeal of DADT and civil unions, someone isn’t necessarily endorsing homosexuality if he or she supports repeal of DADT and civil unions.

Speaking of psychology, here’s a  clue for Conservatives4Palin: “Complaining about” is very different than “thinking about.”

On December 23, Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern signed the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010, legislation recognizing gay couples and allowing civil unions  in the Irish Republic. The law, which secures a range of rights over shared homes, maintenance payments and pensions, goes into effect January 1.

But under Irish law all couples, whether gay or straight, must give three months’ notice to their local registrar, so the first ceremony is expected to be in April. The waiting period, however, can be waived under extenuating circumstances such as illness. Any couple wishing to legally unite must also pay a notification fee of €150.

Justice Minister Ahern said:

Gay couples, whose relationships have not previously been given legal recognition by the State, may now formalise their relationships in the eyes of the law and society at large. Their relationships will be legally recognised and protected.

From GetEqual. This quote from Barack Obama applies to so many issues aside from DADT,  ENDA and DOMA.

The only way to bring about change is if the American people are holding the people in office accountable.

Register. Vote. Call your Congress members. Call your state legislators.

Actress Kelly McGillis, who starred opposite Tom Cruise in the 1980s war-is-good-fun-and-gets-you-laid propaganda film melodrama Top Gun (whence issueth the phrase “wingman”), married her long-time girlfriend Melanie Leis in a New Jersey civil ceremony.

The actress, who has two children with her ex-husband Fred Tillman, came out in 2009 after her children had left for college, telling the New York Times this week:

That was one of those moments when somebody asked me a question, my kids had gone from home, so I really didn’t have to protect anyone by skirting the question, and I just decided to be absolutely honest.

Here’s to a happy marriage. And the hope that one day, that everyone can have civil marriage equality with full benefits state and federal, and express who they are without fear of repercussions.

On Sunday Lady Gaga went to the Video Music Awards with former members of the armed service who left/were discharged over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and who are part of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Today Lady Gaga tweeted her nearly 7 million followers and asked them to call Harry Reid and schedule a Senate vote on the repeal of DADT. Reid must have gotten the messages. He responded via Twitter:

And now, for your Late Night pleasure, Christopher Walken interprets Lady Gaga:

Amazon has lifted their ban on carrying John Roecker’s documentary “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Gay Porn Stars” after first declining it for content. Amazon carries a lot of adult material, gay and straight, as well as plenty of indie films and small documentaries.

When the mega-online retailer’s stance was made public, people emailed and called the company, and Amazon now stocks the two disc set.

Let’s see what happens with Target now that it’s come out about their donations to anti-LGBT candidates because the PAC that supports Michele Bachmann and Tom Emmer is “good for business.”