Rad Geek People's Daily

Four gay activists visiting the Florida state capitol in Tallahassee were told by a veteran lawmaker that the country has lost a lot because of gay and lesbian activities and that their lifestyle is at odds with Christian principles. I told them I disagree with what they’re doing and I think they’re headed in the wrong direction, said Rep. Allen Trovillion, a Winter Park, Fla., Republican and World War II veteran. [Daily news 04/11/01 on Advocate.com]

What a flaming jackass!

Paul H. Rosenberg posted an excellent article to the L.A. Independent Media Center which both puncture’s David Horowitz’s hollow martyr pose and makes a strong case against his claims about reparations in the "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea for Blacks – and Racist Too" ad. Among other choice tidbits, Rosenberg points out:

Of course, Horowitz himself is an old hand at silencing people he disagrees with. In the late 1980s he spearheaded the campaign to shut down the news program "South Africa Now," carried on many PBS stations. His rationale? It was "communist propaganda," because its producers worked with members of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress, which included communists in its ranks. (Southern segregationists in the 50s and 60s used the same tactics against Martin Luther King.)

Just in case you don’t have enough reasons for hating Ford Motor Company yet, three women workers have charged Ford with liability for sexual harassment over a period of nearly three years.

The New York Times has an interesting-looking review of On Hostile Ground, a documentary which gives credit where credit is due, by showing the heroic actions of three abortion providers who put their lives on the line every day to make women’s reproductive rights a reality.

History was made April 1 in Amsterdam when three couples of gay men and one couple of lesbians were married under the world’s first law allowing legal marriage between same-sex couples [Advocate.com]. I suppose this is a positive development, but given my serious reservations about the gay marriage issue, I mark it with reserved applause at best. It’s not that I think gay people should be denied the privileges that str8 couples get. It’s that I don’t think that the government has any business extending or denying benefits to people on the basis of who they’re sleeping with–whether that person is a member of the same sex, a member of the opposite sex, transgendered, intersex, or anything else. So, yay for civil liberties / equal access being extended. Boo for the continued State privileging of marriage.