Queers for the climate

I finally have a functioning calendar on my computer. I'm using the calendar half of an email program I considered, but had to reject because of incompatibility with my internet provider. So I'm back to the same kind of setup as on the old computer, using one email program for email and another email program for my calendar.



News of the week...

I mentioned before that Colorado's same-sex marriage ban had been struck down. Weddings are now taking place in Denver. This is in addition to weddings done by the renegade county clerk in Boulder. And in that case a judge denied the state AG's request to get her to stop.



A new study from the University of Melbourne in Australia says that children raised by same-sex couples are happier, that they rated higher than kids of straight parents in the areas of physical health and social well-being. The big reason for this is that in same-sex families the roles and work is distributed according to skills instead of gender stereotypes. That leads to more harmonious families.

Critics respond by saying, the kids may be fine now but what about when they grow up? Besides, the lead researcher is gay, so the study must be biased. Meaning they don't have a substantial objection.



A new activist group has formed – Queers for the Climate. Their tagline is “Save the Straights (oh, and the planet too).” They say they want to harness the political success and energy that was brought to gay rights and same-sex marriage battles over the last 20 years. Then add to that the fabulous creativity seen in pride parades. So, yeah, their aim is to save the straight (white men), the ones who are destroying both the climate and our democracy, and save them from themselves. Since the House is in control of the fossil fuel lobby, action turns to the state level. The gay community can be tapped both as an example of how that is done and as workers with existing political skill.



My dad sent an article by two United Methodist pastors in North Carolina who have a proposal in hopes of preventing a denominational split. I summarized it and included my response in my brother blog.