Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum Called Out By HRC On Gay Rights Statements

Mitt Romney's and Rick Santorum's gay rights statements have been called out by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest gay rights advocate.

Romney and Santorum said during Sunday's NBC News-Facebook GOP presidential debate that they are opposed to discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“I made it very clear we should not discriminate in hiring policies, in legal policies,” Romney answered when asked about his 1994 statement in support of gay rights.

Santorum echoed a similar sentiment, but added that he opposes gay marriage and the adoption of children by gay couples.

HRC took exception to the comments in a statement released after the debate.

“Both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have signed the National Organization for Marriage's extremist anti-LGBT pledge,” the group said. “According to the pledge, Romney and Santorum, if elected, would set-up a McCarthy-like commission to investigate alleged incidents of 'harassment' against NOM's supporters, defend the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), push for a federal marriage amendment and appoint anti-gay judges.”

“Romney's record on protections for LGBT Americans does not match his rhetoric,” the group added, noting that the GOP candidate opposes federal workplace protections for gay workers and repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”

The group added that Santorum's anti-gay “vitriol has become his life's work.”

NYC 2011 Slut Walk: Against Women's Classification as Sluts after Rape

Thousands marched through lower Manhattan yesterday at Slutwalk 2011, an event meant to encourage women to report rape and to denounce "slut shaming." The walk got its start in Toronto after a local cop told women to stop "dressing like they want to be raped." A similar thought was voiced just this week by Brooklyn police who are seeking a rapist in Park Slope. Many more photos and a video at the link.

One woman, Holly Meyer, explained why she was marching in a post on the Daily Kos:

One night in January after a lot of dancing at a friend’s house party in Brooklyn, a male neighbor and I made our way back to our building less than a mile away. We’d both consumed alcoholic beverages but nothing unusual for twenty-somethings on a Saturday night. My roommate had a new love interest at home with him, so to give him some privacy I went back to the neighbor’s apartment to crash, which I’d done several times before. I felt safe going back there as I’d spent a lot of time with this neighbor in a Will & Grace, Glee-watching, Katy Perry-listening kind of way. He’d had a homosexual relationship for more than a year prior to our being neighbors and for all intents and purposes I thought of him and treated him like a gay, male friend.

The next thing I know I’m feeling my pants being pulled down off my body. I heard the neighbor mutter, “Time to take charge of this situation.”

You can read most about Meyer's awful experience here—she adds, "When I finally felt able to tell people what happened, I was asked numerous times about what I had been wearing and if I had anything to drink. The fact that I was wearing grey pants and a black sweater and had consumed alcohol that evening should not have any bearing on what happened to me that night in January."




One woman, Holly Meyer, explained why she was marching in a post on the Daily Kos:

One night in January after a lot of dancing at a friend’s house party in Brooklyn, a male neighbor and I made our way back to our building less than a mile away. We’d both consumed alcoholic beverages but nothing unusual for twenty-somethings on a Saturday night. My roommate had a new love interest at home with him, so to give him some privacy I went back to the neighbor’s apartment to crash, which I’d done several times before. I felt safe going back there as I’d spent a lot of time with this neighbor in a Will & Grace, Glee-watching, Katy Perry-listening kind of way. He’d had a homosexual relationship for more than a year prior to our being neighbors and for all intents and purposes I thought of him and treated him like a gay, male friend.
The next thing I know I’m feeling my pants being pulled down off my body. I heard the neighbor mutter, “Time to take charge of this situation.”

You can read most about Meyer's awful experience here—she adds, "When I finally felt able to tell people what happened, I was asked numerous times about what I had been wearing and if I had anything to drink. The fact that I was wearing grey pants and a black sweater and had consumed alcohol that evening should not have any bearing on what happened to me that night in January."
One woman, Holly Meyer, explained why she was marching in a post on the Daily Kos:

One night in January after a lot of dancing at a friend’s house party in Brooklyn, a male neighbor and I made our way back to our building less than a mile away. We’d both consumed alcoholic beverages but nothing unusual for twenty-somethings on a Saturday night. My roommate had a new love interest at home with him, so to give him some privacy I went back to the neighbor’s apartment to crash, which I’d done several times before. I felt safe going back there as I’d spent a lot of time with this neighbor in a Will & Grace, Glee-watching, Katy Perry-listening kind of way. He’d had a homosexual relationship for more than a year prior to our being neighbors and for all intents and purposes I thought of him and treated him like a gay, male friend.
The next thing I know I’m feeling my pants being pulled down off my body. I heard the neighbor mutter, “Time to take charge of this situation.”

You can read most about Meyer's awful experience here—she adds, "When I finally felt able to tell people what happened, I was asked numerous times about what I had been wearing and if I had anything to drink. The fact that I was wearing grey pants and a black sweater and had consumed alcohol that evening should not have any bearing on what happened to me that night in January."