Budapest Pride was banned and 180,000 came

The June 3 episode of Gaslit Nation hosted by Andrea Chalupa is titled Putin is Dead Man Walking and came shortly after Ukraine pulled off that amazing drone attack that damaged key airplanes in Russia’s fleet and did it in bases far from Ukraine. The guest in this episode is Lionel De Lange of South Africa. He is a conservationist, saving animals from neglect from private zoos. He believes nature is a healing force in the world. He now visits the front lines of Russia’s position in Ukraine to save humans. They discuss the claim of white genocide in South Africa, something the nasty guy made a big deal when the South African president visited the White House. Yeah, white people have been murdered, but far more black people have been murdered. Also, there are about 60 million people in South Africa and 1.5 of them are white. If the blacks wanted to wipe out the whites that would have been done already and done very quickly. That drone attack in Russia happened in part because Ukraine is afraid of falling support from the US and the West. Yes, the planning of the attack happened while Biden was still in office, but even he wasn’t giving Ukraine all the help they wanted, as generous as he was. So Ukraine said we’ll do it ourselves. Ukraine paid for the successful attack through ongoing nights of Russian missiles firing on Ukraine cities. In the 11 years that De Lange has been in Ukraine he has noticed a lot of difference. The people now respect each other, no longer shoving each other in supermarkets. Now they’re more polite, greeting others on the street and ready to help when needed. But one must still be careful of propaganda. In addition to rescuing animals, and he has stories about that, De Lange also rescued humans. That meant he was exposed to Russian drone attacks. After accident at Chernobyl the humans evacuated. The animals and plants thrived, not affected (perhaps made stronger) by the radiation. De Lange wanted to turn the region into a nature park. Alas, with the war it didn’t happen. When Russia invaded many of its soldiers dug trenches in the Chernobyl region. Most of them have now been hospitalized and a few died of radiation poisoning. Russia attempted to cause an explosion at the Chernobyl plant in hopes of breaching the radioactive container. They wanted to send the radiation across Ukraine and Europe (and some across Russia too). They did not succeed. And Ukrainians were quick to repair the damage. Ukraine is protecting us as well as themselves. They’re holding back Russia that would invade Europe after it took Ukraine. We need to pay closer attention and provide more help to Ukraine. Poland narrowly elected a deeply corrupt figure similar to the nasty guy, one who is staunchly against LGBTQ rights. He capitalized on all the Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Other minorities, including Jews, feel they have a target on their heads. This will not be helpful to Ukraine. De Lange said Putin has been meddling around the world. He’ll soon try to meddle in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Putin’s downfall will be like Hitler’s, fighting on too many fronts. That will be the only way he gets wiped out. Alas, millions of people will die before he is stopped. De Lange said Putin can’t walk away even if everyone promised there would be no charges against him. Between the Ukraine war (and that successful attack by Ukraine), his international meddling, and the horrible Russian economy Putin is dead man walking. In Russia changing the guy at the top is frequently violent. I don’t know how accurate De Lange is in his predictions. Two week’s later the June 17 episode was titled Putin’s Sledgehammer. That’s part of the title of a book by Candace Rondeaux. She’s a reporter and an expert on global security and the future of warfare. The full title of the book is Putin’s Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia’s Collapse into Mercenary Chaos. June 23, a couple days after this episode was posted, marked the two year anniversary of Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner group getting within 125 miles (200 km) of Moscow. The book is about Wagner and that crack in Putin’s power. Exactly two months later Prigozhin’s plane exploded. The Wagner group was created because Russia’s conventional warfare capacity has always been challenging. The Wagner group could be more agile in situations like Syria while giving the Russian state plausible deniability. The Wagner group had a brand identity of violence and aggression. The Wagner group, and other groups dealing in mayhem, would record their excessive violence and post it on social media. In a sense it was displaying their trophies. These groups got such a reputation of terror that their targets would empty out to avoid the violence and sadism. The title of the book comes from the group beating a guy with a sledgehammer while others filmed it. Guys beating the devil with a sledgehammer became the group’s logo. I’m so not interested in the brutal details of the Wagner group that I stopped reading less than halfway through. My Sunday movie was the documentary Casting By. I watched it through Kanopy. It is about the role of the casting director in making movies. More accurately, most of the film is about the first great casting director Marion Dougherty. In the Hollywood Studio system the person in charge of casting essentially looked over the list of contract actors and assign them to parts based mostly on looks and assumed character type. When TV came along the early directors were more interested in acting ability and personality than looks. Dougherty got a casting job because a friend invited her to be the assistant. Soon she was the person in charge. She would attend New York theater productions, Broadway and not, looking for great actors. She had quite an eye for talent. Her earliest big successes were Naked City and Route 66 that needed new actors for every episode. Some of the talent she discovered and promoted were James Dean, Gene Hackman, Glenn Close, Al Pacino, Diane Lane, Dustin Hoffman, Bette Midler, and Robert Redford. Many of those actors and their directors are in this documentary to describe what their relationship with Daugherty did for their careers. There were times when Dougherty had a particular actor in mind for a particular role and she did a lot of convincing to win over the director. Some of her wins are now iconic performances rewarded with Oscar nominations and wins. Daugherty’s roster of known talent was so vast that when she was asked to cast The Sting, which came out in 1973, she went down the list of characters and assigned the actors. She actually auditioned for only one character. The movie spends some time with the casting of Lethal Weapon, released in 1987. In one of the two major roles Daugherty recommended Danny Glover. The director said, hold on, he’s black. Her response was, so? The director later admitted she had opened his eyes to his internal racism. There were some regrets in her long career. In the 1990s many studios were bought by conglomerates, some of them foreign. Again, casting decisions were made according to the actor’s looks and whether the studio wanted to promote an actor from this TV series for that movie. That pretty much ended Daugherty’s career, though several of her protégés are still going strong. Another regret was while Oscars are given out for scenery, costumes, and editing, there isn’t one for casting. And casting can make a big difference in how a movie comes out. The Oscar snub is more annoying because there is an Emmy for casting. Lisa Needham of Daily Kos wrote a good summary of all five cases for which the Supreme Court issued decisions last Friday, the last day of their term. Only one of the five is good for democracy. I’m glad Needham wrote the summary because most other news outlets reported on only one or two. The nasty guy’s executive order banning birthright citizenship went before the Court, but not to get a decision on that question. The case, Trump v. CASA asked the Court to rule instead on whether lower courts can issue injunctions against the government that apply nationwide. The Court ruled they can’t. That means when a person, group, or state wins a case in a federal court the ruling affects only the people who brought the suit. This means overturning an executive order that contradicts the Constitution is much harder. Every state has to pursue a case (and some stated won’t) or an organization has to go through the extra effort to certify they represent a class of affected people. That could mean until the Supremes rule on birthright citizenship some states will follow it and some won’t. And that raises a big legal mess, such as whether a baby born in Minnesota is a citizen if the family moves to Texas. This means the nasty guy can issue an executive order undoing part of the Constitution and the legal system has a much harder time stopping him. In the meantime he gets to continue doing his unconstitutional thing until the case gets to the Supremes and they get around to acting on it. I heard today that the ACLU is assembling a class action suit over the birthright citizenship issue. In Mahmoud v. Taylor the Court decided schools need to allow students to opt out of a classroom lesson if their parents object. The case went all the way to the Supremes because a school district tried it and found it unworkable. The particular case involved books with LGBTQ content, but could be expanded to cover evolution or science in general. Justice Sotomayor wrote in her dissent that the decision “threatens the very essence of public education.” The conservative justices probably think that’s a good thing. The case Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is a case brought against the Attorney General of Texas. The decision means internet porn sites are required to see a government issued ID to verify the person is an adult. All this is about “sexual material harmful to minors.” Yes, the Court added an exception to the First Amendment. And conservatives could expand the definition of “harmful” to include discussions of transgender issues and many other things. The case is Kennedy v. Braidwood is nominally about conservative Christian business owners objecting to pay for health insurance that covers such preventive care things as PrEP, the medication that prevents the transmission of HIV. Behind that is an attack on the US Preventive Services Task Force, which recommends what things should be covered by insurance. The good part is the PSTF care recommendations remain. The bad part is its members were declared to not need Senate confirmation, which means Heath Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. can replace them with people who agree with his conspiracies. The last case is FCC v. Consumers’ Research. The Federal Communications Commission requires internet and phone carriers pay into a fund to subsidize access in rural and poor area. Consumers’ Research argued a technicality to say the fund is illegal. Six justices – the liberals plus Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Barrett – kept the agency’s authority to institute the fund. Since the justices have gutted other federal agency authorities, this seems like a vulnerable win. Kos of Kos reported last Thursday evening that the Department of Justice is coming after Daily Kos. The DoJ went after ActBlue and Media Matters, so attacking Kos to silence the nasty guy’s enemies isn’t a surprise. The details of the case can’t be disclosed (yet?). Even so Kos asked readers to donate to the site’s legal defense fund. By Friday at 1:00 Kos reported readers had donated over $50,000. He is humbled by the support of the Kos community.

Because this has never just been about me. Or even Daily Kos. It’s about what we’ve built together over the past 23 years: a space to fight for democracy, for decency, for a government that serves people—not authoritarians. And just as importantly, it’s become a community—a place where people who care about those things can find each other, lift each other up, and know they’re not alone in this fight. What you gave on Thursday wasn’t just financial support—it was a reminder of how deeply connected we are. That when one of us is under threat, the rest of us show up. That we have each other’s backs. I’m getting emotional just typing that. (Who am I kidding? I’ve been an emotional wreck writing this entire piece.) [Deep breaths, composing myself …] It’s proof that this community is strong. That it’s kind. And that it’s ready to stand together, no matter what.

Now for some beautiful stories. TheCriticalMind of the Kos community reported that in April Hungarian dictator Victor Orban’s Fidesz party passed an amendment to the Constitution requiring recognition of only two genders and restricting LGBTQ events, citing “child protection.” Yeah, we know that’s a fake reason. However, it means Pride parades are banned in Hungary. And the one in Budapest was one of the best. Pride organizers in Budapest renamed it “Budapest Pride Freedom” in honor of Hungary’s return to freedom when Soviet troops left in June 1991. Not that anyone was fooled. Organizers anticipated 35,000 to 40,000. TheCriticalMind quoted a report from The Guardian:

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Budapest in defiance of the Hungarian government's ban on Pride, heeding a call by the city's mayor to "come calmly and boldly to stand together for freedom, dignity and equal rights", writes Lili Rutai in Budapest and Ashifa Kassam. Jubilant crowds packed into the city's streets on Saturday, waving Pride flags and signs that mocked the country's prime minister, Viktor Orbán, as their peaceful procession inched forward at a snail's pace. Organisers estimated that a record number of people turned up, far outstripping the expected turnout of 35,000-40,000 people. "We believe there are 180,000 to 200,000 people attending," the president of Pride, Viktória Radványi told AFP. "It is hard to estimate because there have never been so many people at Budapest Pride."

See the photo at the top of the post. Also see the photos in a Bluesky tweet by valentine. He says the attendance topped a half million. From the photos I believe a half million is possible (not that I know what a half million people looks like). Budapest Pride is still one of the best. I scrolled down the replies to that tweet and saw an image of the Sydney Opera House lit up in Pride colors. Bridgette Redman for Between the Lines reported the Presbyterian Church of Okemos, Michigan held a baptism rededication service for 16-year old Zach Nawyn-Hellinga, transgender, so that he would be baptized with his new name, leaving his deadname behind. Before the service there were discussions with Rebecca Mattern, who led youth ministry, pastor Rev. Lisa Schrott, and the church’s governing body. “Everyone expressed enthusiasm.”

On Jan. 12, Nawyn-Hellinga was joined by his family at the front of the congregation where Mattern, Schrott and the Clerk of Session asked him the questions of his reaffirmation and led the congregation in a responsive liturgy. “The congregation just resoundingly said, ‘We see you,’” Mattern noted. “They said it loud and with confidence, and several of the members of the congregation had tears in their eyes. If I hadn’t processed it and cried before I got there, I would have been crying, because we are in a time where there is a concerted effort to erase trans people. They’re being told that they don’t exist, that they’re predators. Their parents are being told they’re grooming. It is the job of the church, and the calling of the church, to say to those who are in the margins, 'We see you and we love you.' No matter what the world says, you are a beloved child of God.” Schrott said they added their Clerk of Session because they wanted it to be clear that it was an action of the church, not a rogue pastoral choice.

And one just for fun. Sarah Bricker Hunt of Between the Lines reported the Motor City Bears did their 17th annual car wash. They raised almost $1,700 for Affirmations and Ruth Ellis Center. In gay jargon a “bear” is a large hairy gay man. And many do the car wash wearing only a speedo (and I hope a great deal of sunscreen). They liked to joke, “your car is so dirty, so dirty.”

A purple church

In an era where political affiliation closely matches which church one attends, White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, NC is one that tries to be a purple church, bringing together both red and blue. Tom Gjelten of NPR visited the church.

Senior pastor Christopher Edmonston says they have to be purple to be open and welcome to any person who wants to come. That means, however, the pastor tends not to speak out on political issues. Alas, that included when the state passed a “bathroom bill” restricting which restroom a transgender person could use. But if he speaks out he feels members will find another church with a pastor that agrees with them.

This effort to be non-political was a big problem when in 22015 the Presbyterian denomination told each congregation it needed to make its own decision on same-sex weddings. They had to deal with it.

The hosted speakers on both sides of the issue. They invited members to express their views. Some tried to convince the rest. Others talked about the gay grandson or nephew. Still others wanted to be heard. The board eventually voted and approved same-sex weddings and the margin of victory was intentionally not reported. Edmonston said:

If you would have reported that it was 54 to 2 for marriage inclusion, the people who didn't want it to happen would have gotten the message "We really are out of step here." And if we would have reported that the vote was 30 to 26, the people who were really for it may have thought, "This place isn't as open-minded as I thought it was."

When reporting the new policy to the congregation Edmonston pleaded with them to stay united. Some – maybe 1% – did leave. And many of those came back. They missed the sense of community they had at White Memorial.

Traditionally a man and a woman

The 1.8 million member Presbyterian Church USA is divided into 171 regions. To change the church constitution a resolution must be approved by a national convention and then by at least half of the regions. Though more than 30 regions have yet to vote, 86 regions have now approved the resolution to change the denomination's definition of marriage from "a man and a woman" to "two people, traditionally a man and a woman." Yay! That little bit about "traditionally" could have been left out, but if that was what it took to get it passed, go for it. The change does not require conservative pastors to officiate at same-sex weddings. There were 41 regions that voted to oppose and one vote was tied.



Texas has set a record for the greatest number of anti-gay bills in one session of a legislature. At least 20 such bills have been filed. That tops Oklahoma's 16 bills. How worried should we be? Already, 15 of Oklahoma's bills have died. And Equality Texas says the state view of sexual minorities has changed in the last decade and today a lot of businesses will push against the bills because they don't want to damage the "Texas brand."

Rep. Cecil Bell, leading the Texas charge with 4 bills, says it is all about states rights, as he plugs his ears against the words tyranny of the majority.

Luxembourg!

As part of my ongoing efforts to get ready for a new computer I downloaded the Libre Office suite and I'm writing today's posts on it. There are a few things I wish it did differently, but it opens all the files it should. As for the rest of the migration efforts, email is still the big issue.



On to the news of the week.

The US Senate has approved two nominees for federal courts at the district level. They are Darrin Gayles in Florida and Staci Yandle in Illinois. The significance (beyond the Senate actually filling court vacancies) is that both are black and openly gay. In addition, Gayles is the first openly gay black man to be confirmed.



The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals has declared a ban on gay sex to be unconstitutional. Um, yeah, the Supremes did that more than a decade ago. But this is progress. Eleven states still have such unenforceable laws on their books (including Michigan) and two months ago Louisiana voted to keep their law even though it can't be enforced – it is still useful for intimidation.



A while back in the same-sex marriage case in Wisconsin I had wondered about the legal definition of “injunction.” Now I know. An injunction is the part of a judge's ruling that says what the losing side has to do to fix things. In the Wisconsin case the original ruling didn't come with an injunction. She declared the state's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, but she didn't say what the state should do about it. Instead, she asked the state and plaintiffs what they thought should be done. On hearing that the clerk's offices weren't sure what they were supposed to do. Most offered marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a few did not. It's official now. The injunction was issued along with a stay. And I know what that means.



Luxembourg has approved same-sex marriage! It's passage through Parliament took two years, though it passed 56-4. I think the hold-up was making sure the related adoption laws permitted both closed and open adoptions by same-sex couples, just like straight couples. Though in a country where the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister are both openly gay one would think passage would have been more swift.



The Presbyterian Church (USA) voted at their national gathering to allow clergy to perform same-sex weddings. The vote was 76% in favor, quite the change from two years ago when the resolution failed by 1%. The resolution now goes to 172 regional assemblies for confirmation.



An increasing number of gay advocacy groups are declaring they are against the version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that was passed by the Senate (and won't be touched by the House). The reason is the religious exemptions are too generous. It can be summarized this way: if the exemptions are different from those for race, gender, or disability then the non-discrimination act is discriminatory.



I had written about the HBO documentary The Case Against 8 and how worthwhile I thought it is. Jacob Combs of Towleroad interviews the makers of the film, Ben Cotner and Ryan White.



Newsweek has an article on the GOP Establishment v. Tea Party. Though the Tea Party won big ousting Eric Cantor it has lost most of the other races where it fielded candidates. But the Tea Party isn't conceding defeat because most of the Establishment candidates are much more to the right than before the Tea Party got into the fray. Some are so far right they are doing a pretty good imitation of Tea Party candidates.

Signs of the battle's progress

Timothy Kincaid posted a series of articles on Box Turtle Bulletin titled "You know that you've lost the 'protect marriage' battle, when…"

The individual posts complete the sentence this way:

"… you sue the State of New York because Republicans conspired to pass marriage equalty." The suit said some GOP senators violated the open meeting rules when they met with Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg behind closed doors. The court ruled against them.

"…less than 10% of Republicans in Iowa consider overturning gay marriage to be a high priority. And when people who consider themselves “social conservatives” and Rick Perry supporters endorse marriage equality." Polls show that if the GOP manages to regain the state legislature and to get a marriage protection amendment on the ballot sometime after that, the amendment would probably lose.

"… the Presbyterian Church (USA) comes just narrowly votes down allowing same-sex marriages (338 to 308) and everyone knows that it will pass in two years." No marriage equality yet, but delegates recognize the younger, more pro-gay, representatives will have a stronger hand next time.

"… the United Methodist Church in Washington votes to endorse the marriage referendum, Referendum 74." This referendum would approve marriage equality. The endorsement came from the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference. We may have failed a the international level, but at the state level we're doing just fine.

Presbyterians!

A few years ago (summer of 2008?) the Presbyterian Church (USA) held a General Assembly and as part of their work voted to allow gay clergy. The change had to then be approved by each of the 173 Presbyteries (regions) of the denomination. The majority of the regions did not approve it.

In 2010 the national General Assembly tried again. The regions began voting earlier this year. This time 19 of them who had voted no last time changed their vote. Yesterday, The region including Minneapolis and St. Paul approved (by a wide 205 to 56!) allowing gay clergy. They became the 87th region to do so. The proposal passed and the ban will disappear.

Back at the end of March I wrote about Murray Richmond, a Presbyterian pastor who, over his pastorial career of 17 years changed his mind about homosexuality. To mark yesterday's vote Richmond told his tale on the NPR program The Story. His segment is the last 20 minutes of the show. There is a listening link at the bottom of the show's page.

The denomination's work isn't done. They don't yet allow officiating at gay marriages.

Support because of beliefs

Today in the Detroit area the weather is definitely spring. It was sunny and the high was in the mid 60s. I was on my bike for nearly two hours this afternoon. Lots of trees, shrubs, and gardens are in bloom. I probably overdid it, but it was a great afternoon.

I went to see Prairie Home Companion last evening in Detroit's Fox Theater. Yes, I've enjoyed this radio show for a couple decades and it was a treat to see it live, especially in such an enthusiastic crowd. The place has more than 5000 seats and all of them were filled. When something pro-Detroit was mentioned (which Garrison Keillor does in each city he visits) the audience could get loud. I usually wouldn't mention this but for one important part of the show -- this is the first time (that I know of) in which the News from Lake Wobegon featured a lesbian couple. One of them was a daughter of the town café owner and was described as "the only lesbian Republican in Montana." The audio is up on the show's website. If the 5/7 show is no longer in the Audio Highlights in the middle of the first page, check the archives.



In My Shoes is a half hour video in which kids with gay, lesbian, and transgender parents tell their stories. These are pretty articulate kids. They are raised by pretty cool parents.



Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin has an easily understood essay about Catholic Charities in Illinois threatening to be defiant. Now that the state allows civil unions these Catholic adoption providers are claiming they will have to stop offering their services. The Massachusetts branch has already done so. Kincaid responds by saying if Catholic Charities want to place Catholic babies in the hands of Catholic families and do so using Catholic funding that's perfectly fine with him. But use state money? Kincaid refuses to allow his tax dollars to contribute to his own discrimination.



Kincaid has a second thoughtful essay about the Presbyterian Church USA. That denomination revised their rules on who may be ordained and serve in a church, essentially allowing a gay pastor who has a partner. The rule change is now before regional affiliations. There must be 87 regions that approve the change, 80 have done so already and 30 more are yet to vote (he doesn't say how many voted to not approve).

Kincaid says churches are in a tough spot. Those who push for gay acceptance in the denomination don't want to push the bigots out. How to include all people? Those denominations that succeed in this puzzle and change their rules have made a change that is real and permanent. They support us not despite their beliefs, but because of their beliefs.



How old is straight, one man-one woman, marriage? Claims range from 2000 to 6000 years. If the Bible is to be taken literally, why can't these various claimants agree?

Mixed message

Rev. Jane Spahr of the Presbyterian Church violated denomination rules by officiating at actual same-sex marriages in Calif. during the window when they were legal. She would have been within the rules if she had only blessed the union rather than be the presiding pastor.

Her church trial just concluded. The presiding commission, a mix of clergy and laity, ruled by essentially saying, "We're really sorry about all this. Since you did break the rules, we'll have to convict you of the charges. However, we really like the witness you offer to the rest of the denomination and wish we didn't have to punish you for it."

The response was as expected. Those on the right were happy unity and purity were upheld. The pro-gay side was annoyed with the mixed message.