Laying aside the merits of the proposed change to the state's civil rights law as advocated by the newspaper, The Star's editorial board continues to ignore the fact that the most important law, the federal Civil Rights Act, does not include protection for persons based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, leaving one to believe Indiana is an island of intolerance among the 50 states. That's the law most people rely upon for protection against discrimination since state and local discrimination laws have no real teeth. Ask the newspaper to tell you how many people have filed complaints with the City of Indianapolis alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity under the City's human rights ordinance since its enactment a decade ago compared to other forms of discrimination. Those numbers don't lie.
Ferguson Fuson also seeks to assure The Star's readers the newspaper's editorial positions don't impact the reporting of its news staff:
One important point we want to make clear: Our newsgathering remains independent from any editorial positions we take. Our newsroom is structured to ensure that reporters and key editors have no involvement in decisions made by our Editorial Board. Those journalists are expected to pursue coverage that is unbiased, accurate and highlights the range of views that surround important issues affecting our city and state. Their credibility rests on that independence; they would not have it any other way.
In our Editorial Board mission, we will continue to be transparent with you. That includes saying editorial campaigns are not new. Newspapers have championed important causes for as long as newspapers have existed, fighting for their communities, fighting for what they believe is right.That assertion is laughable. The news pages of the newspaper are totally shaded to reflect the view of the newspaper's editorial views. How else can you explain their news reporters' reluctance to report on all of the corruption surrounding crony capitalism deals our elected officials are using to steal our tax dollars and public assets to line the pockets of their political cronies?
25 comments:
So, where is their list of invitees?
In most states, you can get married on Saturday, post your wedding photos to Facebook on Sunday, and then get fired on Monday just because of who you are. Its wrong. And I support granting some basic employment protections to our gay and lesbian neighbors and children. And almost every major corporate employer in the State also supports this. So who hates the idea? The same conservative, Christian base that opposed marriage rights. But they don’t want you to call them bigots.
When your business is open to the public you serve the public. That is the legal way and the Christian way.
You know this Kentucky clerk that still refuses to issue marriage licenses to gay couples despite a ruling from the federal appeals court; because of her deeply held religious beliefs on marriage? Its reported today that she has been married four times. Apparently Matthew 19:9 doesn’t apply to Kentucky Christians. Oh wait. Its just hypocrisy.
There is a southern baptist minister who is now preaching that true followers of Jesus who continue to witchhunt gays by opposing every piece of legislation intended to ease their plight are not true Christians and will not go to heaven. Are you listening Bosma? Because I think this sermon was meant for you.
Fuson mentions "journalists" on The Star give me a break. They are stenographers pure and simple. The Star has long even back to the Pulliam Era used so called experts to pitch their position. Opposing viewpoints are simply ignored.
Ballard and the local Republicrat Party has provided what would be to real Newspaper a never ending stream of issues worth their weight in gold for real investigative journalism. The Star is intellectually vacant when comes to critical thinking. They have a story to pitch for the Crony-Capitalists and like Pravda from the Soviet Union days the sole goal for Star is to disseminate the propaganda.
The Virginia killer had a LGBT rainbow flag in his house. No surprise.
The Star has no business supporting a the murdering, racist, heterophobic intolerant LGBTs, and the LGBT rainbow flag must be brought down everywhere in America, as murdering, racist, heterophobic symbols have no place in America.
Immediately cancel your Star subscription to boycott this disgusting purveyor of racism, murder and intolerance.
We also need to petition the City to get the Star removed from street corners. Racist, intolerant publications are not entitled to publicly funded distribution space.
If a store sells the Star, that store might as well be itself murdering people, committing racism and engaging in discrimination. Boycott that store.
Hey, hey, ho, ho. Indy Star has got to go.
Professionally & therefore ethically, that inbred-itorial is an inarticulate / incoherent dodge; abdicating the journalistic obligation to present all sides. Views for dues under the bannered guise of "news," is jour-nihilism. They deliberately produce a non-investment grade, defective product, which ought be subject to the very liability standards that apply to their shrinking advertisers; fleeing a poor or non-business model / ROI & perhaps related issues of culpability. In response to the Scar's statist mission; the free market has apparently rated them a "bye."
Gannett is out of touch with Hoosier Values. It is clear the company has a Liberal political agenda. Calling its staff journalists may be an incorrect term. Perhaps "Propaganda Ministers" is more appropriate.
I get a kick out of bloggers who want to accuse the newspaper of of being communist propaganda ministers. There aren’t many communist governments left anymore, and China does a terrible job of censoring true public opinion. The worst propaganda offenders are the religious right governments. Iran. Isis. The worst of the African nations. They feed propaganda thru the press, and if you try to disagree with them, they kill you in the name of their God. There is no disagreement with their God. You either toe the line or die. This is the face of modern zealotry. China, the modern face of communism, may have issues, but not the kind of barbarism you get from the religious theocracies. The worst decisions are made based on religious mandates. You would think that message would sink in. But no. Religious zealots are everywhere. Online they celebrate the throwing of gays from rooftops. They only live for Jesus. I couldn’t care less. But I don’t want them making policy. Just keep them out of government. A good strong separation of church and state. 78% of Americans favor employment discrimination protections for the gay community. It will pass and it will pass with help from a few progressive Republican members of Congress with broad based support from the corporate community. Most of these religious zealots here and abroad are poorly educated and lower class. They cling to their religion based on sermons from their mostly uneducated, poor ministers. Its sad, but they never seem to move forward. In Afghanistan they think their religion is compelling them to throw acid on the faces of girls who want to go to school. And Isis is cutting off the hands and feet of 12 year old boys who won’t fight for their religion. I live near a minister who is the most hateful man you’ll ever meet. He’s simply horrible. So keep your religious based arguments to yourself and stop calling progressive thought communist. I support the newspaper on this legislative call, and you zealots be damned.
There are about 10 noisy people running all over the Mile Square and in the same few blogs yelling "debacle," "debacle," "debacle." They sound like a joke.
The other 6 million people in Indiana are just fine with protecting religious freedom, and they've about had it with Marion County radical liberal homosexuals trying to wreck the state.
Anon 12:45: There is no gay or straight, white or black, asian or hispanic, community. Communities are jurisdictional realities & not political factions which are designed to divide them. FYI: The First Amendment guarantees religious freedom; but is not a religious mandate, as you assert in error.
Progressive thought resides in the minds of those who tolerate others who disagree with them, a matter of sovereignty; not the same sex sharia or cultural card check of what's really faux-gressivism.
Get real Anon 1:14. You live in a dream world if you think the majority supports "religious freedom" if that means discrimination, or did you miss out on the Pence misfire. In case you missed it, even here in Indiana you can't get an rfra passed without specifically saying it won't be used to discriminate. Indiana can install statewide non-discrimination protections like the rest of the country is installing or it can have them mandated for them by the Courts the way marriage came to us. Its your choice. But the younger electorate supports inclusion, and you old white guys are dying off. Sorry. But you don't have to be a radical homosexual to support equality and fairness. I think you have to be an old Christian to support hatred of homosexuals and bigotry. And Anon 12:45, I don't know where you did up your stuff, but you really sound kind of impaired, and I give you a D on your written skills. For the record, there is a gay community, it comprises about 4% of the Indiana population, and it isn't going to be pushed around by you Christian bigots anymore. The newspaper wants to help, that's great. At least they stopped talking about mass transit. This is a much more affordable cause.
For crying out loud, even the Mormon Church endorses discrimination protections for lgbt people. If you’re right of the mormons, time to make sure you aren’t slipping into Taliban territory.
Anon 2:14: Use of the term "gay community" is patently separatist; an inorganic, political sub-division or notion. Maps are the appropriate reference for the reality that is community. SCOTUS recent fooling or so called "ruling" is devoid the requisite scholarship for making a legitimate ruling; relying instead on 3/5's illogic to placate emotively impaired refugees, self confined, within DeCeit's hyperbolic chamber.
Anon 2:36: While you're taking a shot Mormons, why leave out Catholics? http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/08/28/half-a-million-catholics-urge-pope-to-reaffirm-tradition-marriage/ For a real world understanding of religious extremism, you need to do more reading; as you learn Mormons, Catholics & other Christians aren't committing these atrocities: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2937217/Killed-gay-Man-blindfolded-thrown-tower-block-Syria-stoned-death-SURVIVED-fall.html
Anon 2:36 - Your shrill hysteria is the a big part of the reason that most of us will never support queer rights. This is not a civil rights issue. It is a self indulgence issue, and you're diatribes are wearing mighty thin son. Grow up. Not everything is all about you and your sexual perversion.
We don't care if you support queer rights, Anon 3:25, because the U.S. Supreme Court is doing it for you. You see, you're just like the good old boys in Mississippi and Alabama in the fifties. Talking about self indulgence and uppity blacks, waving your Bible and telling us how God is ok with slavery. So now you're just the same. You think you can tell me its not about me and my "sexual perversion." I'd like to see you say it to my face, cause I'm six foot four 240lbs and I have a hot temper. You're mighty brave on paper, old man, but I'm not trying to convince you of anything. Indiana has already proved itself backwards on the gay marriage front, but the Supreme Court slapped you down, and it will happen again and again until your opinions don't matter at all, because you christians are bigots, and my grandmother used to tell me bible thumpers were the worst hypocrites and bigots of all, so they knew the truth about people like you a long, long time ago. And we know it today. You're the only one who doesn't get it. Run back to your church little man.
Look at 4:56 getting himself in way too deep and making all gays pay for him sticking his neck out too far.
You want your side to engage in force and have the gays and straights play Cowboys and Homosexuals? You won't like how it ends up.
From the 60's to the early 00's homosexuals lived in cities without problems. The gays had their areas, and each side respected the social boundaries. For over 40 years, gays were not seen as an enemy to be opposed, ostracized and driven out, and gays didn't try to destroy the family. People got along. This crop is upsetting the balance, and that's not smart.
"I'd like to see you say it to my face, cause I'm six foot four 240lbs and I have a hot temper."
Hahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go ahead, run your mouth, taunt the other side, and set off a war. Do you really think you can win this? The thing that's been protecting homosexuals for so long is Christianity, and you're attacking it. Really dumb. If you manage to get large portions of society to deny the limiting influence of Christ, well, there's not much holding them back from acting on their desires regarding you, is there?
Perhaps you'll be successful in attacking Christianity, and the spiritually unmoored may find a welcome harbor following the Prophet. Islam is very clear on how you're to be treated, and Islam isn't very impressed by a secular court ruling from the most immoral country on earth. How does the Islamization of America look for you? You call Whites old. America's Islamic populations are younger than you. Oh, how things may look in 40 years...
If this were another country, including some developed ones, your statements would be seen as an attack against God and social morals; your IP address would be traced; you'd be located, hauled out of bed, imprisoned, tried, convicted, and hanged or beheaded. This would all happen very quickly. The lesser developed would skip the intermediate steps, and you'd have hours to live once your identity was established.
Christianity is your best friend.
"You're mighty brave on paper, old man"
Bit of advice for you. This is Indiana. Don't threaten someone physically here, because when they defend themselves and you're carried out on a slab, the prosecutor won't bring a case against the person you attacked, because a jury might pat the guy on the back. If you're insulted, just turn, and walk away.
In fact, with you being "six foot four 240lbs" and suffering from a "hot temper," you've given anyone you threaten reasonable fear for their safety. Not smart.
How many 6'4", 240 lb. hot-temper homosexuals are there in Indianapolis?
Look at the Christians acting like they win any of these arguments. In case you haven’t noticed, we gays serve in the military, marry, obtain security clearances and have advanced on every front socially and politically. The U.S. Supreme Court has raised the bar for challenging these rights, and the Christians whine about it but they have, essentially, lost every argument in Court. But the most important loss was the Court of public opinion. The nation, and particularly the young, have chosen to include gays in their lives. And they are rejecting the old bible bigot ways. You can’t even find young evangelical Christians who don’t support more inclusion of gays. So the arguments are moot. There will be further legislation passed and it will be anti discrimination legislation to prevent rabid Christians from discrimination against gays. You’ll howl and whine about how everyone is infringing on your faith, as if your faith grants you the right to discriminate, and then after you lose yet another fight everything will settle down. What you Christians don’t realize is that the internet is full of clips of your evangelical preacher/fundraisers saying the most horrible, hateful, bigoted things, and the young generation has opened their eyes. They see you for what you are. Boring. Stupid. Zealots. You think you can hold people down with your talk of sin while you do whatever you want. How many divorces do you think you can have and still preach to me about marriage morality? The Bible proscribes so many things that we ignore. There are food rules, rules about your daughter going to the market. Gluttony. These things don’t seem to matter to you. Just gays. In essence, you’re just tired, old sexually repressed busy bodies obsessed with gays, and the modern world doesn’t care about your silly peaching.
Anon 7:20: Truly meaning no offense (if it were my intent- I'd leave no doubt in your mind), your "logic" is tortured. While I don't like fighting words, Anon 9:37 is right about Christian tolerance; the idea being hate the sin & love the sinner, which applies to everyone, beyond subdivisions of politicized category.
There are no "bible bigot ways," the book wasn't written for any such purpose; irrespective of the arrogance that would generate such a statement. Yes, these are the times of our lives, but there's nothing hyper-relevant about the period in which we live. The Bible's principle message is explicitly love; which is hardly boring, stupid or somehow reserved for zealots. Christ's message is one of spiritual liberation; from the chains of this world.
Fallen Christians are no revelation to believers, themselves impure / fallen, living their struggles in a fallen world & relying on God's grace for salvation; which can't be "earned" but requires acceptance of / submission to, His will. The Christian identity is not one of superiority; but one of humility, seeking salvation.
Every matter of decision / selection, is one of discrimination, at the exclusion of other options; a function of sovereignty / self determination / free will. The LGBT political subdivision is leveraging divisive tactics of statism; to claim categoric privilege in excess & therefore violation, of human rights.
The interest of Christians in their own faith is simply that; not an obsession with the lives of fellow citizens. You have a right to disagree with them; not control their lives.
And the heterochristophobe voice of tolerance, inclusion, and open mindedness is heard.
http://inpolicy.org/2015/08/the-outstater-the-secret-indy-star/
No, Mr. Boggs, you're quite wrong. The Christian churches have been preaching a fire and brimstone message about homosexuals, and to homosexuals, for a long time now. They raise more money off this issue than any other. Focus on the Family and a dozen others are homosexual obsessed. And they couldn't be more hateful if they tried. You try to paint a picture of Christians going about their ways, not meddling at all in the ways of others, with a gentler, benevolent religion there for everyone. But it isn't that way. And it hasn't been for a long time. Rather, its a hateful religion where your faith leaders seek to outdo each other in their condemnation, where money is raised to keep the gays from ruining God's message, and so on. "God Hates Fags" read the signs. And Court clerks swear they will die before they will let the gay men marry. And conservative evangelicals preach against our evil ways, certain to destroy your families, so certain they are that we are unfit to raise children, teach school or serve in the military. They fight every bit of legislation meant to help us, tooth and nail, and they still do. Republican lawmakers often tell our groups that they would vote for us but the evangelicals are so powerful they won't permit it. The Republican party shuns us. The CPAC convention won't even let our gay Republican group have a table. Your religion is hardly benign. Its hateful, purposeful, and political. Its the very enemy. You are the 96% We are the 4%. Yet your leaders whine that we are hurting your practice of religion, your traditional marriage. Its the bully crying out because the bullied is fighting back. So no, you're quite wrong in your opinions and so very out of the loop. The time has come for change, and gay people don't care what Christians think about them any longer. We will marry. We will serve in the military. And you will not fire us. And if you find our message shrill, we find your message hateful. Tomorrow, perhaps, I will be less shrill. Bigoted, homosexual hating Christians. In case you hadn't noticed, its a thing now. You guys are officially the voice of bigotry and hatefulness. You think you're about love. But no. Very few people think that way about conservative Christians any more. They have changed their message.
Anon 11:00: You act / sound as if there aren't heterophobes & christophobes within the LGBT culture- do you actually believe that?!? Your message is shrill & narcissistically myopic; unimaginatively limited to but a few categories of bigotry.
Evil in the form of bigotry seeks only transactional excuse, categories for which are mere excuses, to mistreat others. However, the right to disassociate (also the right to associate) or disagree is not bigotry- that's PC BS.
The Old Testament wasn't written by Christians, but a part of the faith along with the New Testament. Your mischaracterization of Christians doesn't make them something they aren't. You're consumed with misguided notions about people that I doubt you know very well.
There are people within the LGBT community who are pro-life, support traditional marriage, recognize rights of people to agree & disagree, associate or disassociate. Don't think they exist either?!?
Ladwig:
It's more sinister than that. They have no pure motives to which they are applying unprofessional coercive means. The entire edifice is a for-profit enterprise, and the printed daily paper is their blackjack.
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