The Republican War On America's Hungry Children

This Friday, because of the Republican House, there will be significant drop in the funding of SNAP (food stamps). Now poor people in America will have to make do on $1.40 a meal. Just remember that one in four of the people in America that are poor and hungry are our children. Even a quarter of a million kids would lose their free school lunch every day!
While all sorts of ear mark funding is being put forward by the Republicans they have decided to make their fiscal responsibility 'stand' on the backs of America's hungry kids.
Journalist Elizabeth Drew reported on this issue in Rolling Stone Magazine. It is an extraordinary article not only on the food stamp issue but the hidden right wing extremist workings of the House. This is a must read. Here are some excerpts from her "The Republican War on Food Stamps". Be sure to read all of it.

The way the program to provide the poor with the bare minimum of daily nutrition has been handled is a metaphor for how the far right in the House is systematically trying to take down the federal government. The Tea Party radicals and those who either fear or cultivate them are now subjecting the food-stamp program to the same kind of assault they have unleashed on other settled policies and understandings that have been in place for decades. Breaking all manner of precedents on a series of highly partisan votes, with the Republicans barely prevailing, the House in September slashed the food-stamp program by a whopping $39 billion and imposed harsh new requirements for getting on, or staying on, the program. The point was to deny the benefit to millions. 

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Alabama Judge Restores Lesbian Mother's Visitation Rights

The Southern Poverty Law Center called the ruling "a first in Alabama". The group has just finished representing Chelsea Hughes in Mobile County court. Hughes separated from her then-husband after following him to Mobile from Seattle, due to a military transfer. Once the couple separated, her ex-husband denied her access to her four children, due to the fact that she had chosen to be with a woman after the divorce. She subsequently enlisted the help of SPLC, and filed for visitation rights. Unfortunately, as was noted by the group, gay parents (who are just as, if not more, competent at raising families than straight parents) face an uphill battle when filing for visitation rights in Alabama:

"A circuit judge approved favorable visitation rights in a July 25 order. Although similar rulings may have occurred in Alabama where such orders are not widely published, this appears to be the first time an Alabama trial court has approved standard visitation rights for an avowedly lesbian or gay parent. Overnight restrictions – sometimes referred to as 'paramour' restrictions – especially burden same-sex parents who are still prohibited from marriage in Alabama."

Senior staff attorney Sam Wolfe hailed the ruling as a groundbreaking victory:

"This sets the right precedent for LGBT parents – and any unmarried parent in Alabama because LGBT people and unmarried parents have just as much right to their children as heterosexual couples...Parents should never have to choose between their children and an unmarried partner. LGBT parents have faced serious mistreatment in Alabama and it has got to stop."

Luckily, last week's ruling marks a step in the right direction.

Film Documents Mormon Family's Journey to Accept Gay Son

The Montgomery family

A short documentary premiering this weekend at Frameline, San Francisco’s LGBT filmfest, chronicles a Mormon couple’s journey from campaigning for Proposition 8 to accepting and supporting their gay son.

Californians Wendy and Tom Montgomery say they didn’t know their son Jordan, now 14, was gay when they were working for Prop. 8’s passage in 2008. When Jordan came out to them, they found out he had considered suicide because he feared being gay would mean he’d be cut off from his family for eternity.

“To be honest, before my son came out, I didn’t know any other families who had gay kids,” Wendy Montgomery told ABCNews.com. “It’s one of the things that’s not talked about in my church, which makes it so much harder to deal with and know who to go to for help.”

She eventually found help from the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University, which produced the documentary about the Montgomerys, Families Are Forever. “It felt like a ray of sunshine in the middle of the darkest period of my life,” she said of the Family Acceptance Project. “It gave me hope.”

She added, “I am a better person for having a gay son. I love differently, and I love more openly. I didn’t realize the judgment I had before I realized that having a gay son was a great blessing and not a burden.”

Families Are Forever will screen as part of a program of short documentaries Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the Victoria Theatre; watch the trailer below For more on the festival, which opened Thursday and continues through June 30, click here.

Kindergarten Class Sends Emotional LGBT Pride Message with Cyndi Lauper's 'True Colors'

Oh. My. God. Conservatives were actually right on this one. The "gay agenda" is infiltrating our public schools! And you know what? It's absolutely fabulous.

My talented kindergarteners at Olympic Primary Center in the Los Angeles Unified School District—who found online success earlier this year with their outstanding film adaptation of the beloved book "Miss Nelson is Missing"—celebrated the end of an eventful school year by performing Cyndi Lauper's classic anthem, "True Colors." In the video above, you can see how as they sing, they use American Sign Language while the audience reflects on the statements "You Are Good" and "You Are Perfect." Combine that with rainbows, messages of love, and a great pop song and you have a touching performance that represents what my students have learned.

The lesson: love yourself, and always show love, kindness, and respect towards others no matter who they are. Regardless of ethnicity, sex, gender, religious creed, or sexual orientation, EVERYONE is worthy of love.