Laura Benedict defining who we are.

Mr. Putin, an open letter.

Mr. Putin,

    You have placed the Russian people into the dark ages. You single handedly robbed your citizens of the basic civil right to choose whom they love. You have jeopardized the safety and sanctity that the International Olympics offers to athletes around the world. You see Mr. Putin, The rest of the world is moving forward and accepting the diverse and eclectic community known as LGBTQ. Our community does not judge others for their choice in spouses, partners or companions. Our community is growing, prosperous, and self sufficient.

    In our country, the United States of America, we are making huge strides in the civil rights of our citizens. Sure, we have areas where we need improvement, but I wouldn't live anywhere else in the world. We have our share of wingnuts, homophobes, and racists but for the most part we are united in our efforts to improve the lives of all. We don't require our citizens to keep quiet. There is no "don't ask, don't tell" requirements. We are proud of who we are and we will shout it from your roof tops as we do ours. Your bully tactics and threats of arrest are reminiscent of a bygone era where the Soviet Bloc aligned itself with the likes of history's most despicable monsters.

    Mr. Putin, I ask you to re-think your stagnant non productive position on our LGBTQ community. If for no other reason, do it for the Olympics.

John & Laura Benedict
Southern Nevada Bisexuals

A compelling story of love, a book review

Companions Nich’ooni by Jed A. Bryan is a compelling story of love, devotion, and self-preservation. The central characters are paired together by a traditional duty to their church. This pairing has little to do with compatibility and everything to do with whom and to where the Mormon Church chooses. They are interested in membership not relationships.

Set in 1968, a time when very few were brave enough to come out to their own families that they were gay, these Elders were thrust together to deal with their own fallibilities. Jed brings these characters to life. I could feel crisp clean mountain air stinging my lungs. I felt the dirt beneath my feet. The vivid details will put you deep within Navajo country.  I could sense the contempt these boys felt when their feelings betrayed their upbringing. Jed uses the Navajo language to punctuate the cultural differences between Geoffrey and Johnny.

Their tumultuous beginning melted into a caring, loving relationship. Geoffrey’s family never comes to grips with his outing, nor the apparent flamboyancy of his uncle Ho. Their untimely outing to the church seemed to spark their intent to show the world that they were out and quite content about it.  Unfortunately, the atmosphere in that day and age didn’t lend itself to diversity and tolerance. As with many in the LGBT community today, they were forced to flee for their own safety. Fortunately uncle Ho understood their needs and took them in.

This story was based on true events in the author’s life. I applaud Jed’s tenacity and his attention to details. I encourage you to curl up to your wood burning stove amid your Hogan and read this book. And finally, all of us can appreciate the need for our very own uncle Ho.

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Companions-Nichooni-Jed-Bryan/dp/1300192038/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376162548&sr=8-1&keywords=companions+nich%27ooni

Can gays help save marriage?

 

The following story was gleaned from the Las Vegas Sun.

 

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/aug/06/can-gays-help-save-marriage/#.UgEpQu-uVKg.facebook

 

 

Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013 | 2:02 a.m.

 

E.J. Dionne

The rapid evolution of attitudes toward gay marriage is a wonder to behold. On few issues has public opinion moved as quickly or decisively. Many who are against the formal recognition of homosexual unions are now resigned to the reality they will eventually become commonplace.

The main drivers of this transformation are obvious. Most Americans now know that people they care about are gay or lesbian, and empathy can do wonderful things. Partly because of this, younger Americans overwhelmingly favor same-sex marriage. They will dominate the electorates of the future.

But another factor deserves more notice: steadily increasing numbers of Americans have come to believe that gays and lesbians are not social revolutionaries looking to alter the nature of marriage. Rather, they are seen as simply wanting to be part of an institution that is already open to their straight fellow citizens. This shift in perspective has been essential in normalizing the idea of gay unions.
That finding comes our way courtesy of a series of surveys that have been conducted by Third Way, a policy organization close to moderate Democrats, and the Human Rights Campaign, one of the country’s leading gay rights groups. Overall, their latest poll found that 53 percent of Americans now favor “allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally,” while 40 percent are opposed.
The two organizations have been tracking this question: “Do you think gay couples who want to get married are trying to change the institution of marriage or join it?” In 2009, Americans were closely divided on this: 50 percent said gay couples wanted to join marriage, while 41 percent said these couples wanted to change it.
In the survey the groups will release this week as part of their aptly named “Commitment Campaign,” 58 percent said gays and lesbians wanted to join marriage and only 27 percent said they were looking to change it.
This suggests that an increasing number of Americans reject the culture-war frame when it comes to gay marriage and that fewer see it as threatening their own values.
The survey was also striking in showing that Americans make careful distinctions around the religious freedom questions raised by granting gays and lesbians access to marriage.
On the one hand, 61 percent of Americans say churches and clergy members should have the right to refuse to perform a marriage ceremony for a gay or lesbian couple. Only 28 percent said they should not. But when it came to nonreligious market transactions related to weddings — involving caterers, florists, restaurants and the like — respondents took a very different view. Substantial majorities said that providers of such services should not be able to withhold them from homosexual couples.
The public’s broad sensitivity to the specific rights of religious institutions is quite different from an endorsement of a wholesale right for individuals to discriminate against gays seeking marriage.
Social conservatives especially should take note of where Americans are heading. Because the desire of gays and lesbians to live in publicly committed relationships is seen increasingly as an endorsement of marriage as it has long been understood, there are new opportunities to defend marriage itself.
We need to lay down arms in the culture wars and face up to the urgency of strengthening families.
One person who hopes we will take this path is David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values. Once a strong foe of same-sex marriage, Blankenhorn has dropped his opposition and urged that we turn our attention instead to a disturbing development: Well-off Americans are far more likely to be in stable marriages than the less affluent. This creates a damaging social cycle — economic inequality is breeding family instability even as family instability is deepening economic inequality.
We could, of course, replace one divisive fight with another and start arguing about whether the problems families face are caused primarily by personal choices or economic challenges. Instead, we should follow the advice of Robert Putnam, a Harvard professor who is deeply alarmed by the expanding American class divide.
Putnam says we should be able to accept the “red truth” that family structure matters and the “blue truth” that declining economic opportunities are, for so many Americans, worsening family difficulties — a point his colleague, William Julius Wilson, has long been stressing. There is a role for personal responsibility and a role for government social policy.
The end of rancor over gay marriage should mark the beginning of an effort to save marriage itself.

E.J. Dionne is a columnist for The Washington Post.

Until Someone Gets Hurt: The Multi-Layered Crime Spree and Murder by a Master Criminal Enterprise

Sherrie Lueder, Tyson Wrensch and their entire literary staff really brought this story to life. The details were precise. The story lines segwayed from one lie to the next. Layers were peeled like onions. These criminals built one con after the other. Some of them overlapped so often that the criminals had to check with each other to keep their lies straight. Tyson, stepped up and helped put an end to this growing criminal enterprise. These guys did so many things wrong, that I had to double check the back of the book to be sure that it was a true story. If you like "dumb" criminal crime stories, this one will top them all. The real kicker is that it's all true. Buy this book!!

http://www.amazon.com/Until-Someone-Gets-Hurt-Multi-Layered/product-reviews/1484819853/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Until Someone Gets Hurt: The Multi-Layered Crime Spree and Murder by a Master Criminal Enterprise

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The LGBTQ genderbread "person" !!!