via boingboing

For decades, George Alan Rekers has been a general in the culture wars, though his work has often been behind the scenes. In 1983, he and James Dobson, America’s best-known homophobe, formed the Family Research Council, a D.C.-based, rabidly Christian, and vehemently anti-gay lobbying group that has become a standard-bearer of the nation’s extreme right wing. Its annual Values Summit is considered a litmus test for Republican presidential hopefuls, and Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter have spoken there. (The Family Research Council would not comment about Rekers’s Euro-trip.)

He has also influenced American government, serving in advisory roles with Congress, the White House, and the Department of Health and Human Services and testifying as a state’s witness in favor of Florida’s gay adoption ban. A former research fellow at Harvard University and a distinguished professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of South Carolina, Rekers has published papers and books by the hundreds, with titles like “Who Am I? Lord” and “Growing Up Straight: What Families Should Know About Homosexuality.”

“While he keeps a low public profile, his fingerprints are on almost every anti-gay effort to demean and dehumanize LGBT people,” says Wayne Besen, a gay rights advocate in New York City and the executive director of Truth Wins Out, which investigates the anti-gay movement. “His work is ubiquitously cited by lobby groups that work to deny equality to LGBT Americans. Rekers has caused a great deal of harm to gay and lesbian individuals.”

more HERE and  “there were others escort says”

The picture says it all really.

A Christian Florida hate group used the picture on the left to describe a couple that was allowed to adopt a family member’s child they had been fostering. FFPC says it was a ‘mistake’.

More Here , Here and Here

(Via Feministing)
Students at John Carroll University in Ohio protested during a school basketball game over the school’s unwillingness to include sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy.

From a student statement on YouTube:

John Carroll’s mission is to create people for others. That means support, protection, love, and understanding for all people without regard to color, creed, sexual preference, gender, age, or other personal factors. That’s the goal of a Jesuit institution.

By not explicitly voicing its support of LGBTQ students, faculty, and alumni, John Carroll’s administration is breaking those unspoken bonds of trust that make JCU a community.

Despite support from the faculty union to include sexual orientation in the policy, the school’s administration is holding firm. JCU President Robert Niehoff issued a statement saying that the policy wouldn’t be changed because it goes against “traditional Catholic moral teaching.”

The nondiscrimination policy is the university’s promise to employees and faculty that the institution will not discriminate based on gender, religion or race. In his message earlier this week, Niehoff issued a lengthy explanation of his views that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people should be welcomed and respected at the university. He stopped short of recommending that the policy be changed, however, instead offering a “community standards statement” as a supplement to the policy.

Planning to overthrow the US Government?

If yes, and you live in South Carolina, you must pay a five-dollar subversive registration fee. (Via BoingBoing, Via The Agitator)

The Banned Librarian has put together a clear concise guide to both current issues surrounding the Patriot Act, and the sections that are scheduled to sunset in December of 2009.

It includes:

HISTORY & BACKGROUND

• The PATRIOT Act Itself
• Treatises on the Law
• Helpful Articles
• Oversight & Watchdog Reports
• Prior Cases

STAYING CURRENT

• Pending Bills to Reform
• Outstanding Cases
• Useful Websites for Staying Current

Download the pdf HERE

For over a year a prison in Virginia segregated women they perceived as masculine or butch (those with short hair or ‘baggy clothes’), in order to separate them from their ‘girlfriends’. The Associated Press and civil rights advocates questioned the practice, with the warden stating that no such move was made, as that would be unconstitutional.

Trina O’Neal, left, and Casey Lynn Toney were two of the inmates placed in the so-called “Butch Wing” at Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Troy, Va. “I have been gay all my life and never have I once felt as degraded, humiliated or questioned my own sexuality, the way I look, etc., until all of this happened,” stated O’Neal, 33. “Women sent to wing 5D — also called the “little boys wing,” “locker room wing,” and “studs wing” — told the AP they were verbally harassed by staff there, and taken to the cafeteria first or last to keep them separated from other inmates. Three guards confirmed the charges.”

Read more HERE & HERE

I first heard this on NPR and then was reminded by the Provisions Library Blog (which is excellent).

The White House has created a new office, one of Social Innovation & Civic Participation, and has named Sonal Shah, who was in charge of global development at Google, as the lead. I haven’t heard as much about this as I’d like to, but apparently the office will identify “the most promising, results-oriented nonprofit programs” “that have had proven success in tackling social problems, such as homelessness and joblessness” and will fund them hopefully with a combination of  50,000,000 earmarked in the 2010 budget & matching funds from philantropists and large organizations. Ironically, the first hit under Google News on the new office  is from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, but only for subscribers..

I’m sad that I found out about this through Boing Boing, but I am so glad that they posted on this.

Paul Williams is a terrific writer who I was lucky enough to meet many years ago. A champion of the then booming and vibrant San Diego music scene, Paul befriended us all, and we were always happy to see his big grin out in the audience at shows. He was a biographer of Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Neil Young, created the seminal Crawdaddy magazine, and was a friend and supporter of Phillip K Dick, writing about him in Rolling Stone and eventually serving as Dick’s  literary executor after his passing. You can thank Paul for the fact that nearly all of Dick’s work is still available.

I for one spent an entire year waking up every morning to read one page of Waking Up Together, and still have the battered copy he inscribed to me. In 1995 he had a horrible bicycle accident that caused traumatic brain injury. Although he recovered amazingly, regaining speech and the ability to walk, his health has been steadily declining since then. The last time I was at his house, he seemed unable to get out of bed–I have been out of touch with both he and Cindy for many years & am so dismayed to hear that he continues to struggle, and that the impact on his family has reached the point where they are now asking for help. Please take the time to visit the site set up to support him and his family, even if you don’t have the ability to donate to his family to help with his care.

Unless you have been reading this blog for at least five years, you may not know much of the history behind it. It was started many years ago (8? 10? More? I honestly can’t remember) by some friends of mine as a grand experiment. The experiment concerned fair use, music, language and more — you can find a full explanation of the ethic and idea HERE. They asked me to join late in 2003, and I was really happy to do so. Back then I was concentrating on under-reported news, scouring indymedia sites and other tiny blogs, looking to re-post and hopefully spread the word on things that were important to me–immigrant and women’s rights, gender etc… After I started library school, I started posting more news on, yes, libraries and information.  Over the past few years, most of the original contributors have fallen away, and now it really is just me. The funny thing about this, is that I have nothing to do with the design of the site, and it hasn’t been changed in quite some time. It doesn’t ‘belong’ to me, but it feels like mine all the same, even though I rarely write true personal commentary about my life. The reason I bring this up now, is that I’ve been named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker, which is a lovely honor– and best of all, I was nominated by my very favorite partner in crime (and crime fighting), Char Booth. I have long thought that what Char touches turns to gold, and I am currently feeling pretty shiny. Thank you to all of my friends & colleagues who make me a better person, and in turn a better librarian. I’m not sure if theexperiment will continue to evolve in to a more library-centric, lia-centric place, but if you have an opinion either way, I hope you’ll let me know.

You can find my UC blog HERE , on Twitter I’m piebrarian, and I’m Lia Friedman on FB. I’m also on Goodreads & Flickr , but I keep those a tiny bit more private, which doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to see you there.

The American Library Association has pulled out all of the library related hoo ha from the Stimulus Package, which was nice of them. You can find it HERE.

Thanks to the NPR Librarians blog (…as a matter of fact)  for letting me know.