Afternoon Greg: House passes LGBT inclusive hate crimes bill; Howard Stern advocates gay marriage

Another blogging session here at the Insomnia Cafe. The place is packed! Tried to work from home today but crews were cleaning the upstairs apartment and making a lot of noise – too much really. But it made me realize that the guy who lived upstairs the past year or so was, I think, the sixth tenant in there in the 8.5 years I have lived in Park LaBrea. I’m friendly with some neighbors but for some reason, whoever has lived upstairs over the years has never been someone I’ve said more than “hello” to. Only in LA.

Anyway, I have a lot to tell you about this afternoon. There’s some good news out of Washington DC that the US House of Representatives passed an LGBT-inclusive federal hate-crimes bill  – known as the Matthew Shepard Act – Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 249-175.

Shepard was a gay college brutally beaten and tortured by two men and left to die in a Wyoming field more than a decade ago.  His mother Judy Shepard has been a tireless advocate since then for LGBT-inclusive hate crines legislation.

The Senate version of the bill was introduced Tuesday. If that also passes, President Barack Obama has pledged full support of a law that will enable the U.S. Justice Department to investigate and, if need be, prosecute bias-motivated violence against a person based on actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

That’s the good news.

But something really loathsome happened during the House debate that reminds us of what true idiots can be elected to public office.  As Judy Shepard looked on to the House floor from a gallery, North Carolina Representative Virginia Foxx called her son’s brutal death “a hoax.”

Foxx said “we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn’t because he was gay. This – the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it’s really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.”

Lady, don’t vote for the bill if you don’t want to. But don’t you dare say stuff like that and expect people to not be thoroughly pissed off. Outrageous. This woman disgusts me. Towleroad.com has the video of her spouting this bile.

HOWARD STERN’S SUPPORTIVE WORDS: Since I have enjoyed Howard Stern’s radio show over the years, I know that this “shock jock” is really a cool human being and certainly gay friendly. Howard and his sidekick Robin Quivers and their quirky radio family are no longer a daily habit since they switched to Sirius radio but I still love ‘em.

Howard had some insightful things to say on his show today about gays and about the role straight allies can play in helping them gain more acceptance: “My feeling about gay people is that we have a responsibility not only to make gay marriage acceptable and to make gays feel accepted as much as heterosexuals…Gay people are downtrodden They are beaten. They are abused for their sexuality, and it goes across race. In the white community and the black community gay people are the bastards of the world. And in order for things to change, because any one of you could have gay children, or gay relatives, or gay friends…we have a responsibility to make this acceptable, to get all this bullshit so that some gay kid going to high school doesn’t get the shit beaten out of him just because he’s gay…I’m as heterosexual as they come. What is this hang-up about gay marriage? Who cares? Get on with your life!”

Well said, Howard.

And finally, here is a keeper: today’s Morning Man Ryan Reynolds and fellow movie star hottie Hugh Jackman at last night’z screening of X-Men Orgions: Wolverine in Hollywood.  It’s a pity they are both so unattractive!