Jon's Blog

Earlier this past week when I was back near Boston, I learned that House Republicans back here in Iowa were working on a funding bill that under-funded our public schools and introduced an amendment that would negatively affect the collective bargaining rights of Iowa's teachers in the process. I watched as the House of Representatives debated and defended these amendments and could do much more than send an email to my own representative and urge her to support our schools and our teachers.

One of the things that frustrated me while I watched was the level of bored inattention to these concerns by various House Republicans. For example, Rep. Clel Baudler spent the debate watching programs on Netflix.

But the one who really got my goat was Rep. Ross Paustian, who got caught by the Des Moines Register kicking back with a copy of Sex After Sixty during the legislative discussion. Progress Iowa posted some commentary on Facebook, and I ended up posting a screen-grab of that on Twitter.

My Twitter post was fairly popular, compared to other tweets that I've made over the years. Several have favorited it and several more retweeted that image. But then people moved on to bigger and better things.

I learned this morning that my Rep. Paustian/Sex After Sixty tweet got used in Washington Post piece on this latest attack on collective bargaining rights. That puffed up my ego for a few moments. But then I realized that this was more of a win for the Des Moines Register and Progress Iowa, so serious props to them both.

By the way, did you ever wonder why Rep. Paustian was reading Sex After Sixty while the Iowa House was working hard to disenfranchise Iowa's teachers?:

The Des Moines Register reported that Rep. Ross Paustian (R-Walcott) opened the book when Democratic lawmakers were introducing amendments to the bill and quoted him as saying that the book had been passed around among members. It also quoted him as saying: “We could all use a laugh around here.” Meanwhile, other lawmakers engaged in other activities, and teachers were unamused.

The Iowa House ultimately approved these changes on a 56-41 party line vote, but it's unclear if Iowa's Senate will go along with them.

I learned of an 11-person family in Hartford, CT, earlier this week on Facebook whose home is being jeopardized by zoning regulations.

Let me step this back a bit and define this family. They aren't adult siblings and they aren't a poly household. They are a group of 11 people consisting of three couples, three children, and two single people. They are all longtime friends who have bonded together to jointly purchase and maintain their home:

"I think there's a real extension of our values as people," English teacher Kevin Lamkins said. "The values I'm speaking of are sustainability, cooperation, living more, living well but within your means. Being connected to other people and not being in a silo, so to speak."

The group of friends includes three teachers, a grants manager and a mental health therapist. "It's not a cult, there's no religion, there's no intermingling," Julia Rosenblatt said. "We're really living like most people are, you know, we are just doing it together."

They purchased the nine-bedroom home and moved in last August. They have a legal partnership agreement and a shared bank account to pay expenses. The group has spent $30,000 so far to repair the home which was built in 1921.

Neighbors have complained to the city, which has asserted that no more than two unrelated people in this area. Meanwhile, this family has unsuccessfully appealed this decision and is now considering a lawsuit. Either that, or they will have to sell their home and dissolve their functional family.

I understand why these types of zoning laws exist, but I really question if the city of Hartford, CT, is truly better off by forcing this group out of their collective home.

The Indiana legislature just passed a bill that will allow businesses and individuals to legally discriminate against anyone in the name of religious liberty. People are trying to get Gov. Mike Pence to veto this legislation, which is a pipe dream.

Several states -- mostly Republican led -- are introducing these bills with varying levels of success this year. I know that I should be worked up about it, but I'm not.

First, it just reminds us that the GOP and that religious conservatives aren't friends of the Friends of Dorothy. I almost never forget this, but some people need periodic reminders.

Second, it seems like social and religious conservatives need the ability to withhold services from us. They really want to tell us that they disagree with us and our families and that they don't want our money. So why give it to them?

They might have the legal ability to discriminate against us, but we will still retain the ability to publicly shame them using social and news media -- as well as word of mouth -- with our friends and family.

#BoycottDolceGabbana didn't result in these fashion designers issuing public apologies to their customer base because they violated some anti-discrimination law. It worked because people learned that the founders of D & G were hostile and catty towards the children of same-sex couples and others who've chosen IVF treatment (as well as gay adoptive parents) and they expressed outrage as the notion that our kids are viewed as "synthetic children." Now Dolce & Gabbana are synonymous with anti-gay zealots like NOM, the 700 Club, and the Family Research Council.

I'm okay with businesses and government employees being publicly shamed for being rude to unsuspecting LGBT people and allies. We don't need to take people to court or to file complaints against these places to make a point.

We just need to know which businesses don't want our money. And we need to tell our friends and family to avoid those businesses. And we also need to support those businesses who have our backs.

Faith UCC's Ann Zerkel / WAGE THEFT

My church, Faith United Church of Christ in Iowa City became the first UCC church in Iowa to adopt a covenant for Economic Justice last June. Basically, we pledged to learn about and work towards a more equitable economic reality -- both on a personal, congregational, local, national, and global scale.

I totally missed it, but Faith Works -- Faith UCC's committee is charge of programming specifically related to our Economic Justice covenant -- led a shared ministry worship service on January 11, 2015. This is how it was reported on the Economic Justice section of Faith UCC's website:

Following an Economic Justice worship service led by Faith Works on January 11, at which Ann Zerkel presented ideas from the newly formed UCC Economic Justice League, Faith Works hosted an Adult Education discussion featuring a Wage Theft Comic Book produced by Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), the national organization with which Center for Worker Justice (CWJ) is affiliated.

When talk turned to tipping in restaurants, the discussion became quite alive. DON’T TIP ON YOUR CREDIT CARD (IT MAY GO STRAIGHT TO THE OWNERS!) GIVE THE SERVER CASH AS A TIP, AND ASK WHETHER S(HE) IS ALLOWED TO KEEP IT!

When Ann Zerkel ordered the comic books she was quizzed by IWJ staff on how she would use them. She wrote a report, was interviewed by phone, and Faith UCC will be featured in the next IWJ quarterly newsletter. Copies will be sent to Faith for us to see.

Note the final paragraph, because Faith United Church of Christ did indeed receive a copy of the "Your Faith Works" newsletter from the Interfaith Worker Justice recently and they featured an article about Ann and our church congregation's study of the WAGE THEFT comic books:

Remember Harper Lodge? She is a relatively new Archie Comics character. She is Veronica Lodge's famous cousin from out west. She is a clothing designer. She writes children's books. She writes an advice column called "Dear Jewel." And she is physically disabled. She originally appeared in ARCHIE #656, where she impressed the Riverdale Gang and literally knocked Reggie Mantle off of his feet! She has made two cameos since then (here and here), but she regained much of the spotlight in ARCHIE #665.

It seems that Harper is in Riverdale so that she can visit her cousin Veronica and so that she can work with Chuck Clayton on her latest writing project -- a graphic novel called "The Powers That Be," which features new superheroes patterned after Harper and her friends. Harper's superhero identity is The Gem. It seems that she wears a powerful gem on her ring-finger, which acts as some sort of cosmic key for her wheelchair. She can transform the wheelchair into all sorts of different vehicles and weapons, plus it can time-travel.

Harper also creates a series of "handi-capable" heroes, each designed after one of her disabled friends. I noticed that none of the designs were patterned after a person with an intellectual disability. Hopefully, that's something that can be addressed during the upcoming ARCHIE reboot!

Much of the drama involves family tension between Harper and Veronica. Basically, Veronica is a snoop. She comes across a script that portrays her as an ugly villain, which causes her to rage for a while -- before discovering that Harper purposely created a fake script because she knew that her cousin is a snoop.

There's also romantic tension as Reggie tries to cope with jealousy over another guy in Harper's life!

Lastly, we briefly met Harper's parents. It was obvious from the beginning that Veronica's cousin isn't the most Caucasian of characters. There was speculation about her racial heritage in the comments section of these two blog posts (here and here). It turns out that her mother is of Indian heritage. So now we know!

Harper & Parents

The Big Question: Will Harper Lodge fade away once ARCHIE reboots? I hope not. I understand that the nature of Archie Comics' primary titles will be changing soon, but I really like this character. It would be nice if she had a recurring presence in the relaunch. But it would be even cooler if she continued having adventures in the various digest magazines too!

"Writer's Blockheads" was written and penciled by Dan Parent, inked by Rich Koslowski, lettered by Jack Morelli, and colored by Glenn Whitmore.

I noticed this last week while I was away on vacation, but just got reminded about this exciting moment on “Let’s Make A Deal.” The game got paused for a second while one of the contestant proposed to his boyfriend in front of a cheering audience:

In case you couldn't tell, his boyfriend said, "Yes!"

Check out the video here:

Marvel Comics has been working over the past few years to make the Inhumans into something bigger than they had been. Basically, they don't have the rights to the X-Men when it comes to making movies (and making money off the movies). Marvel Comics still likes its mutants, but they realized that they could do movies that essentially tell the same tales of societal alienation and prejudice in their own studios using Inhumans instead. So they blew up a big Terrigan bomb over New York City and caused thousands of unsuspecting humans worldwide to suddenly realize that they have Inhuman blood coursing through their veins.

I've been reading INHUMANover the past year, which has introduced us to several of these NuHumans. Some, like Inferno and Nur and Ms. Marvel, interest me. Others, like Naja and Iso and Reader, bore me. I like the concept behind the Inhumans and behind INHUMAN itself. INHUMAN suffers from shifting story focus and inconsistent artists. IMHO, as always. But I keep reading.

Marvel Comics recently announced that a second Inhumans-themed title will be published soon: UNCANNY INHUMANS. The line-up was revealed earlier today: Medusa, Triton, Inferno, Naja, Iso, and... the Human Torch??

I'm not sure what I think of this line-up. There is a lot of repetition in appearances and powers with this line-up, plus we're already seeing all of these characters -- excluding Johnny Storm -- over in INHUMAN. So why not draw in some fresh characters in UNCANNY INHUMANS??

Here are some characters I would have liked to see on this team:

*Crystal from the Royal Family. She has pretty much disappeared over the past year, with the exception of some recent appearances in ALL NEW X-FACTOR.

*Talon from the Guardians of the Galaxy (90s team). Has has claws and agility, plus he knows some wicked magic!

*Yeti from MARVEL: THE LOST GENERATION. He's a wild creatures who's been cut off for years from the Inhumans. He's a wild card, which is always fun on a team!

*Geldhoff. He's a NuHuman who was introduced in one of the X-MEN annuals. He has pretty powerful energy powers and is a little shifty. Did I mention that he is from Latveria? What better excuse to utilize Doctor Doom as an occasional villain??

*Red Raven: She's the winged daughter of the original Red Raven. She's from a secret society of Inhuman bird-people, which fits in with the current theme of hidden societies of Inhumans. Plus, every team needs a winged member!

*One of the Alpha Primitives -- or possibly some new NuHuman who's taken it upon him/herself to liberate the Inhumans' slave race. Let's face it. The existence of the Alpha Primitives makes the Inhumans look like a bunch of jerks. Now imagine that the Inhumans are being integrated amidst humanity and it's discovered that they have slaves. I don't imagine that this would be received well.

But I wasn't consulted when the actual UNCANNY INHUMANS were conceived.

What do you think of the new team? And what do you think of Johhny Storm's presence on the team? I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments section!

I was watching a clip from CBN's "700 Club"earlier this week and discovered a new segment called "Bring It On." Basically, people email questions to Pat Robertson and seek his answers. This segment addressed the subject of gay men adopting children:

Question: We start with an interesting question from Jacob. He says: “My son recently got married to another man, and now he and his husband are trying to adopt a child. I feel like this would be unfair for the child. What should I do?”

Pat Robertson: I think you ought to pray about it and I think you ought to speak out about it. If you sincerely feel as I do that this is wrong -- it is violating the Scriptures – they need to know it. This so-called lifestyle… I just can’t believe it. They have tried to destroy marriage. Marriage is between a man and a woman and they’ve now brought cases to the Supreme Court saying the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. So what should you do? You better get on your knees and pray and let the Lord take care of it because there isn’t a whole lot else you can do.

You can check out the whole clip here:

Don't get me wrong. I totally expected this type of answer from Pat Robertson.

I just think it's worth noting that Jacob is on a journey that will -- if he doesn't turn things around -- lead to the destruction of his father/son relationship. If he hasn't already done that. LGBT people tolerate an awful lot of grief from our parents when they act standoffishly towards us. We will grit our teeth when our parents criticize our "so-called lifestyle."

But when the grandparents begin mistreating our kids? That's when our protective instincts kick in and we begin to disengage from anti-gay family members -- even grandparents.

Just a word of unsolicited advice to Jacob.

This was a huge week for new comic books coming out of Archie Comics. I ended up getting three digests plus one regular comic book. And that's not even counting my Marvel Comics books and my online Charlton Comics/PIX-C Web Comics! I thought I would start out this week's reviews with the BETTY AND VERONICA COMICS DOUBLE DIGEST #232!

This digest features a brand-new lead story featuring Betty & Veronica (who else??). It stands out a bit to me because I recently watched my first episode of "Dancing With The Stars." This story starts with B&V watching their favorite dance program on the Lodge's big-screen TV. The show appears to be a cross between "DWTS" and "American Idol," because fans are encouraged to try out their moves on the show.

This leads to a frenetic and kinetic story where Veronica hires Riverdale's best choreographer and Betty recruits Riverdale's finest teen dancers for dual crash-courses in dance moves!

I'll leave it up to you to pick up your copy of the digest (filled also with several retro stories featuring Betty, Veronica, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch) to see if either girl makes their audition!

By the way, check out some of the competing dance moves from B&V's favorite dance program? Those are either some of the worst dancers or some of the best dancers ever!

"Dippy Dancings" is written by Alex Simmons, penciled by Dan Parent, inked by Jim Amash, lettered by Jack Morelli, and colored by Digikore Studios.

I just finished reading ARCHIE'S FUNHOUSE COMICS DOUBLE DIGEST #13, which features tons of classic reprints featuring Archie, Raj Patel, Little Archie, and Josie & the Pussycats! But it also begins with a new short story featuring Archie. It seems that Archie and Veronica are constantly fighting.

Archie decides that he's figures out the cause for their fights: Him. He just can't stop himself from making stupid comments that end up upsetting Veronica. He comes up with a plan to protect Veronica from any more fighting: He has taken a vow of silence in order to avoid any fights!

Archie quickly realizes that he can't simply avoid problems by keeping his mouth shut. Jughead gets mad at him because Archie fails to warn him of an approaching skateboarder. Reggie gets mad at him because Archie ends up passing him an innocent note during a test. Archie can't catch a break!

Of course, things go from bad to worse when Reggie figures out a way to capitalize on Archie's newly zipped lip. Maybe this will give you a hint?

Do you think Archie will keep his vow?

"He's Quiet a Guy" is written by Angelo DeCesare, penciled by Dan Parent, inked by Jim Amash, lettered by Jack Morelli, and colored by Digikore Studios.

As anticipated, Indiana passed its controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law, signed and sealed by Gov. Mike Pence. And as anticipated, the shame of this new law has already proven difficult for the state to cope with.

George Takei has threatened a boycott of Indiana over SB101. Gen Con has threatened to pull out of the state. The Disciples of Christ have threatened to pull their annual convention from the state. Angie's List has canceled a $40 million expansion of their Indiana HQ over SB101. Salesforce.com has canceled all corporate-related travel to the state of Indiana. Thousands of Indiana citizens protested yesterday on the streets of Indianapolis.

And now Gov. Mike Pence has blinked:

Gov. Mike Pence, scorched by a fast-spreading political firestorm, told The Star on Saturday that he will support the introduction of legislation to “clarify” that Indiana’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act does not promote discrimination against gays and lesbians.

“I support religious liberty, and I support this law,” Pence said in an exclusive interview. “But we are in discussions with legislative leaders this weekend to see if there’s a way to clarify the intent of the law.”

The governor, although not ready to provide details on what the new bill will say, said he expects the legislation to be introduced into the General Assembly this coming week.

Asked if that legislation might include making gay and lesbian Hoosiers a protected legal class, Pence said, “That’s not on my agenda.”

Amid the deepest crisis of his political career, Pence said repeatedly that the intense blowback against the new law is the result of a “misunderstanding driven by misinformation.”

He adamantly insisted that RFRA will not open the door to state-sanctioned discrimination against gays and lesbians. But he did acknowledge that Indiana’s image — and potentially its economic health — has been hurt badly by the controversy...

Behind the scenes, Pence and his team have been scrambling to mitigate that damage — both to the state and to the governor’s political career...

I asked the governor if he had anticipated the strongly negative reaction set off by the bill’s passage. His response made it clear that he and his team didn’t see it coming.

“I just can’t account for the hostility that’s been directed at our state,” he said. “I’ve been taken aback by the mischaracterizations from outside the state of Indiana about what is in this bill.”

In defense of the legislation, he noted that 19 other states and the federal government have adopted RFRA laws similar to Indiana’s. And he pointed out that President Barack Obama voted for Illinois’ version of RFRA as a state senator.

You can read SB101 here. Indiana's RFRA law is different from other versions in that it provides a legal defense of religious belief even if the state is not party to the case. In other words, this would allow a business owner to use their religious beliefs to justify refusing services to same-sex couples or whomever -- essentially superseding any municipal nondiscrimination laws protecting specific classes of people.

And despite what Gov. Pense says about RFRA not being about anti-gay discrimination and about this being a distortion from leftists, social and religious conservative proponents of SB101 have already admitted that RFRA should be used as a tool to justify anti-gay discrimination.

Back in 2008, I watched a show on BBC America called "Survivors."It was a post-apocalyptic science fiction program that told about a small group of people who survived a fatal form of the flu. There were no zombies or walking plants. There was no nuclear fall-out to contend with. There weren't even any demons or talking apes to contend with. It was a group of people struggling to deal with a disease that managed to kill off roughly 99% of humanity -- and pretty much every comfort of modern society in the process. Oh, and there was a shadowy corporate group that menaced everyone in their search for a cure to treat the disease that they created. That show lasted two seasons and eventually ended -- with a cliffhanger, no less(!!) -- in early 2010.

Sometimes since then, I learned that this wasn't the first Survivors television program. The BBC teamed with Terry Nation and Terence Dudly back in the mid-70s and created three seasons of the program. Most of the characters and plots from the 2008 series originated with their earlier program. I purchased a DVD collection of all three seasons and gradually watched all 38 episodes and generally enjoyed this earlier version of the program much more than the more recent version.

I recently realized that the original Survivors program would be celebrating its 40th anniversary next month. I toyed with developing a panel about Survivors' 40th anniversary at a Brit-themed convention this summer, but scuttled this plan after my son asked if the convention was about old TV shows that nobody knew anything about. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that D' had a point about Survivors -- not the convention -- so I decided to forget about the panel and come up with a weekly blog series about Survivors.

Starting next weekend, I will do reviews of each episode of the first season of Survivors. I plan to introduce the characters and review the storylines, sprinkled with a bit of commentary. I will likely take a bit of a break between seasons, but hopefully I will complete reviews of all 38 episodes by the end of 2015.

The point of today's blog post is to introduce the concept and to commit myself to this project. But I also want to introduce the concept behind the series.

Survivors begins much like Stephen King's The Stand, though the players are different. Plus there's no supernatural "good versus evil" in this television program. The TV show never really explores the origins of the plague within the storylines, though the opening sequence reveals how the plague began.

It appears that Survivors' deadly plague has its origins in China. A government scientist is working on a reddish chemical in a flask. And then he drops the flask, causing it to shatter on the ground. We then see the scientist taking off on an international flight. Shortly after that, the scientist collapses in the airport.

Of course, he's managed to infect everyone around him, who have infected everyone around them, who in turn have infected everyone around them! And that is how the Death managed to spread through the world of Survivors.

We will review episode one of Survivors ("The Fourth Horseman") next weekend.

So there's the whole Indiana "Religious Freedom Restoration Act" and fall-thing thing going on. Remember that? (here and here) I'm already tired of hearing about it on the various radio programs and podcasts that I routinely listen to. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind that citizens are protesting their state government. I don't have a problem with businesses who are second-guessing their economic involvement with the state.

But now I'm hearing about local and state governments who are boycotting official business with the State of Indiana over this law?? We're talking about Connecticut and Washington and New York and Portland. I vaguely remember more, but these were the easiest to find.

Do we really want to set this precedent? What happens when Indiana boycotts Iowa for being a marriage equality state?

Like it or not, we are part of a shared nation. Our chunks of government need to work with other chunks of government. Even when we don't fully agree on everything. Because we're a shared nation and because we don't want to start another civil war.

In other words, New York and Washington and Connecticut and Portland and whomever else needs to get over themselves. These municipal boycotts are just grandstanding efforts and they're not good for America.

I finally picked up my copy of THE BLACK HOOD #2, the first title in Archie Comics' new Dark Circle line of comic books. I really enjoyed issue #1. We met Officer Gregory Hettinger, a Pittsburgh cop who interrupted a fight between the previous Black Hood and a bunch of thugs. Officer Hettinger managed to kill the Black Hood, but not before getting half of his face shot off. What followed was a dark story of one man's descent into depression and prescription drug addiction. He began stealing drugs from street criminals and then basking in the high while wearing the Black Hood's bloodied mask.

Nice guy, eh?

By the way...

This blog entry contains spoilers. If you don't want to know what happens in THE BLACK HOOD #2, then stop reading now. You have been warned.

I'm back...

I mentioned last time that Hettinger was much more sympathetic in his book than I'd previously envisioned from the preview interviews. He's much less sympathetic in Issue #2.

Hettinger spent much of this issue beating up and shooting drug dealers and then basking in his high. It didn't matter if he was wearing his mask or his badge. He was pretty hardcore. Of course, it makes it difficult to maintain a secret identity when you're the only cop with a massively scarred face. That said, I'm not sure if people have linked Hettinger and the Black Hood together yet.

Some big kingpin starts pulling strings amongst the crooked cops at the top of the police force and amongst his operatives to destroy Hettinger. This leads to a bit of collaboration, which ultimately leads to the very public arrest of Greg Hettinger... and his private vow of revenge against his enemies.

In case you think otherwise, I really like THE BLACK HOOD. We were never promised a warm and cuddly superhero when this title was originally announced. But it's still jarring to adjust to a title character who wears a blood-stained mask and beats up other junkies in order to steal their drugs.

I can't wait to see what happens next!

"The Bullet's Kiss Part Two" is written by Duane Swierczynski, penciled/inked by Michael Gaydos, lettered by Rachel Deering, and colored by Kelly Fitzpatrick.

ABC 57 News out of Indiana did a story last night about a small-town pizza restaurant that wants same-sex couples to know that they won't cater your wedding parties:

The O'Connor family, who owns Memories Pizza, says they have a right to believe in their religion and protect those ideals. “If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no,” says Crystal O'Connor of Memories Pizza. She and her family are standing firm in their beliefs... “We are a Christian establishment,” says O'Connor.

The O'Connor family prides themselves in owning a business that reflects their religious beliefs.“We're not discriminating against anyone, that's just our belief and anyone has the right to believe in anything,” says O'Connor...

“I do not think it's targeting gays. I don't think it's discrimination,” says O'Connor. “It's supposed to help people that have a religious belief.”

Memories Pizza won't kick out a same-sex couple if they want to share a meal within the restaurant, but they want the world to know that they absolutely will not cater any same-sex weddings. And it's not about discrimination or targeting gays, even though it's everything to do with discrimination against gays. Or gays who want their weddings catered with pizza.

I will credit this restaurant with doing something that most other anti-gay businesses won't do when they become known for refusing to work with gays because of their religion. They actually have a sign in their restaurant that quotes scripture and indicates that employees will pray together at the beginning of their shifts.

I wrote about Memories Pizza earlier today. This is a small-town pizza restaurant somewhere in Indiana that decided to out themselves as a business that would refuse to cater at any hypothetical gay wedding. Like there are tons of couples -- gay or straight -- who want their wedding receptions catered with pizza.

I have no clue why they put themselves out there like this. Maybe they just wanted to make a name for themselves. Which they did. But not in a good way. Memories Pizza has been all over the Internet and on blogs. A couple of the podcasts that I listen to were mocking the business.

And then tons of people began going onto online review websites like Yelp to give the business bad reviews. Which is something I really hate. I hate it when people go onto Yelp and mess with business' ratings, especially if they have never been there before and they have no intention of ever going there.

And then somebody bought the domain name for Memories Pizza's business website. They have pranked the business and linked it to gay porn.

Now the owner of Memories Pizza has decided to close until things calm down a bit.

Why do people have to be such jerks? Was it necessary to close down this business by calling them and taking over their website? What do these actions make supporters of LGBT rights and marriage equality look like? We just validated their fears that the big gay boogeymen are gonna come and destroy their lives!

Most of us will never and would never have the opportunity to visit this restaurant. So why should we care so much about their opinions that we will take them out?

I'm really not happy with my community today. Not at all.

Georgia is working on its own Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which people are seeing as a way to discriminate against LGBT people (and presumably others) under the name of religious liberty. Which seems silly because Georgia (much like Indiana and Arkansas, both of which have been criticized for their own RFRAs) doesn't have any anti-discrimination laws that address sexual orientation or gender identity, except for a few local communities within those states. Regardless...

CNN decided that it would be fun to travel to small-town Georgia to interview five different florists and see if they would be willing to provide floral arrangements to a hypothetical same-sex commitment ceremony. All of them said "NO!":

Gary Tuchman of CNN: If you had gay customers come in here to buy flowers and they said, "We want you to come to our commitment ceremony and bring the flowers -- marriage is not allowed in the state yet -- would you do it?

"Flower Shop Employee" Jennifer Williams: No. I couldn't...

"Flower Shop Employee" Melissa Jeffcoat: I would respectfully tell them that I'm sorry, that I just don't want to do it because of my beliefs.

Gary Tuchman of CNN: But right now, while Georgia is considering a law to make that legal for you to do that, it is not. You can get in trouble for doing that. (JON'S NOTE: LIE!!! IT IS NOT ILLEGAL FOR GEORGIANS TO DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION.)

"Flower Shop Employee" Melissa Jeffcoat: I understand that.

Gary Tuchman of CNN:So you would be willing to take that risk?

"Flower Shop Employee" Melissa Jeffcoat: He died on the cross for me so that's the least I could do for him.

That's right. Jesus had nailed pounded into his hands and feet and was hung on a cross for many agonizing hours before dying a painful, horrifying death and then he traveled through Hell and rose from the dead so that Melissa Jeffcoat of Georgia could avoid selling flowers to a local lesbian couple on their wedding day.

But there's more:

Gary Tuchman of CNN: You know the Ten Commandments, it says you cannot commit adultery. It says you need to honor your father and your mother. If someone didn't honor their parents or committed adultery, would you serve them?

"Flower Shop Employee" Melissa Jeffcoat: Yes.

Gary Tuchman of CNN: Well, why would you serve them but not serve someone who's gay?

"Flower Shop Employee" Melissa Jeffcoat: It's just a different kind of sin to me and I just don't believe in it.

I guess Jesus didn't die on the cross 2000 years ago so that Melissa Jeffcoat of Georgia could avoid selling flowers to a local adulterer on her wedding day. His sacrifice only goes so far.

This is the time within the whole Religious Freedom Restoration Act debate when media outlets are traveling around and testing various bakeries to see if they want deny services to gay people. CNN was trolling yesterday in rural Georgia and some guy named Steven Crowder was going around earlier this week in Dearborn, MI. Of course, he used hidden cameras to do his research and he targeted Muslim-owned bakeries. Because he wanted to make a point that Muslims hate gays just as much as Christians do.

Several businesses turned him away with his efforts to purchase wedding cakes for him and his made-up husband. Which, like Indiana and like Arkansas and like Georgia and like several others states, is actually legal for them to do in Michigan. Because discrimination based on sexual orientation is not prohibited in Michigan. Remember? We went over this a couple months when that nasty doctor refused to treat a baby because she has two mommies and everyone noted that it was completely legal. The same thing applies here. Unlike Iowa, for example, which does prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

He did note that several Muslim-owned bakeries were willing to meet his made-up wedding cake order, by the way.

I'm sure we'll see many more stories like this in the future.

Six years ago today, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the state's DOMA law was unconstitutional and led to the legalization of same-sex marriage within the state of Iowa:

Six years ago on April 3, 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court made history with a unanimous decision granting the freedom to marry to gay and lesbian couples across the state. Iowa was the third state in the nation to embrace marriage equality. Since then, over 6,000 same-sex families have sought out Iowa as a marriage destination, acting both as a major tourism boom and a message of hope to the rest of the nation.

It was announced on a Friday morning. I distinctly remember being at the gym when it was announced. I must have had the day off, because I cannot remember being at work that day. It was a day of celebration and planning, as several long-term gay couples like myself and Husband Mark immediately began debating whether we wanted to line up later that month at the courthouse or if we wanted to wait a bit.

We chose the latter.

Congratulations Iowa!

The Iowa City Fire Department was called out to the Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center late last night to handle a trash fire. The fire was contained and smothered within about two hours.

According to a email communication from the City of Iowa City:

The Iowa City Fire Department responded to the Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center, 3900 Hebl Avenue SW, for a report of a grass fire at 9:08 p.m. Friday, April 3. Upon arrival, it was determined that the burning was limited to garbage in small area of the landfill.

Resources from the Hills, Tiffin and North Liberty Fire Departments were called in to assist with suppression efforts. Landfill personnel assisted with covering the burning garbage in an effort to smother the fire. Johnson County Ambulance Service and the Iowa City Police Department were also on the scene.

The fire was quickly suppressed and all crews were cleared at 11:05 p.m. The exact cause has not been determined. There is no immediate indication the fire was set intentionally.

The city was quick to note that this fire was not anything like the 2012 landfill fire. Back then, a fire spread to the rubber tire aggregate liner of a new garbage cell. That fire lasted for weeks and costs us millions of dollars.

The Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center is open for business as normal.

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