Category: Fred Karger

Bradley Cooper No Tongue; #Spirit Day; NOM Against Gays in Russia

Bradley Cooper No Tongue

This article is a little dated, but I keep google alerts for certain topics and this one popped up with something else and I thought it was interesting. Evidently, in a kiss scene from Sex in the City with Sarah Jessica Parker, Cooper was told no tongue kissing because SJP doesn’t do that.

“And then right before we shot the scene, this guy came up and I think he said, ‘SJP does no tongue. No tongue, man’. And I was like, ‘Who’s SJP?’ So she kisses me, then straddles me in the front of the car and all I kept thinking about was keeping my tongue as far back in my mouth as possible. It was nightmare. But she wasn’t — she was great,” he said.

This might be one of the fundamental differences between gay men and most (not all) straight women…at least with regard to kissing Bradley Cooper. It reminded me of an old Designing Women rerun I saw once where the character “Mary Joe” claimed that kissing, especially tongue kissing, was even more personal to her than actual sex. Of course that’s paraphrased. But WTF? I never forgot that comment, and to this day still can’t figure it out.

#Spirit Day

On October 17th we’re being asked to wear purple, or go purple online in some capacity or another to support Spirit Day, which is a day set aside to stand against bullying.

Getting involved is easy: Wear purple or go purple online on October 17th and help create a world in which LGBT youth are celebrated and accepted for who they are.

You can find out more about it here.

The Hot in Cleveland cast is going purple that day, including Betty White. There’s a video with the link above.

Bullying gay youth…and gay adults…is still a serious issue all over the place, including online. Too bad there isn’t a day set aside for bullying gay fiction. There seem to be a lot of censorship issues coming up lately. I’ve been dealing with a few issues myself on Smashwords.

NOM in Russia

NOM (National Organization for Marriage…they believe marriage is between one man and one woman, not gay marriage) president, David Brown, was in Russia allegedly trying to push legislation that’s geared toward keeping interested foreign couples from adopting children in Russia. 

Now, Brown is coming under fire by Fred Karger, President of Rights Equal Rights, who claims that Brown’s actions to help pass this legislation with Russian officials violates The Logan Act, a federal statute that states that it is a crime for a U.S. citizen to confer with foreign governments against the interest of the United States or without authorization of the American government.

I’m sure everyone who knows about gay people knows Fred Karger made gay history in the past general election by being the first gay man to run for President of the United States, and he did this on the Republican ticket. If not, I posted about it here many times.

Since then, Karger has been working tirelessly to expose many of the alleged illegal dealings associated with NOM, like this issue in Russia.

Karger wrote this in a letter:

The presentations by NOM’s Brian Brown were apparently very effective. Five days later, the Duma passed a ban on the adoption of Russian children by same-sex couples and by single people living in countries that allow marriage equality.

Immediately after Mr. Brown’s meetings and testimony in the Russian capital, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a severe crackdown on LGBT rights, affecting all LGBT visitors to Russia to include Americans.

If Mr. Brown did travel to Moscow with French religious leaders with the express intention of furthering discrimination against LGBT Russians and all LGBT travelers to Russia, this could be in direct conflict with current United States laws.

The saddest part of all is that so many children will be denied good homes, with good families.

Photo above is in the public domain.  

SCOTUS Overturned Ban on Interracial Marriage, Too

On Tuesday, March 26th, SCOTUS will listen to arguments that could overturn California’s Proposition 8.

One thing among many things significant about this is that in 1967 SCOTUS overturned a ban on interracial marriage. Yes, for those who don’t know, back then this was happening with mixed race couples. At that point in time…pre-Stonewall…you didn’t even admit you were gay for fear of all kinds of negative repercussions.

It’s interesting to see how history does, indeed, repeat itself. We now have a mixed race President. Maybe forty-five years from now we’ll see an LGBT President.

The above advertisement came from my inbox earlier today, and was in The Washington Post today as well. It’s supposed to get over 220,000 views. The e-mail below was signed by Fred Karger, who made history last year by running on the Republican ticket as the first openly gay Presidential candidate in the history of the United States. And most recently he’s been running Rightsequalrights.com spearheading a movement to legalize same sex marriage.

Also from my inbox:

Rights Equal Rights (formerly Californian’s Against Hate) has paid for this ad in the Washington Post to run for five days beginning today. Rights Equal Rights was founded nearly five years ago to help make same-sex marriage the law of the land.

We are now on the cusp of full equality for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. The United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments to overturn California’s Proposition 8 on Tuesday, March 26th.

Help us continue to run this powerful ad all over.

Please send in $25.00, $50.00 or even $100.00 to make this crucial argument, that full marriage equality means just that.


SCOTUS & Gay Marriage; Amway Boycott and Jane Lynch: Provincetown Film Society Auction

There’s been a lot written about SCOTUS and gay marriage, so this is from my inbox from Freedom to Marry:

Just moments ago, the U.S. Supreme Court set the clock ticking on the important work we need to do to secure our next wave of wins in 2013.

The Court announced that it will hear a challenge to the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law that discriminates against legally married same-sex couples, and to California’s Proposition 8.


Ryan,it is urgent that we now create the climate that will embolden the Supreme Court to strike down DOMA and Prop 8 as unconstitutional. We know from the Roadmap to Victory national strategy exactly how to do that: win more states and win over more hearts and minds.

Please join us in this essential work by making a donation today:
http://freedomtomarry.org/SCOTUS

These big steps in the Supreme Court cap a transformative year in which we paved the pathway for President Obama’s support, led the campaign to secure a freedom to marry plank in the Democratic Party platform, and won the freedom to marry at the ballot in Maine, Maryland and Washington while defeating an anti-marriage amendment in Minnesota.

We now must turn this irrefutable momentum into more wins.

Help us make 2013 – like 2012 – a year of triumph and transformation by bringing down DOMA and Prop 8. Make a donation today and make your voice heard in the Supreme Court in the most powerful way possible – with more wins.
http://freedomtomarry.org/SCOTUS

Thanks for all you do,

Evan Wolfson
Founder and President, Freedom to Marry

I’m on the fence about boycotts, only because I’m not sure they work. But it seems to be something getting attention, so here’s an e-mail I got from Fred Karger about Jane Lynch and the Amway Boycott:

I hope you can see that. Here’s more:

The Amway Boycott covers all holdings of the DeVos family and are listed on: www.BoycottAmway.com They include all Amway divisions, the Orlando Magic NBA team, all 26 Fox Automotive Group Dealerships, MVP and RDV Health Clubs and all the hotels owned by the DeVos family including the Amway Grand Plaza, J W Marriott and the Marriott Courtyard all in in Grand Rapids, Michigan.


Jane Lynch and 3 Elected Officials Say “Boycott Amway”

Actress and Out Magazine “Entertainer of the Year” Jane Lynch endorsed the Amway Boycott recently. She is joined this week by South Dakota’s first openly gay elected official State Representative Joshua Boschee and Chapel Hill, North Carolina Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and City Council Member Lee Storrow. All three signed Boycott Amway postcards addressed to Amway owner Doug DeVos.

The postcard campaign launched in September has resulted in a deluge of the bright yellow cards mailed in to DeVos, according to Amway Boycott founder and Rights Equal Rights President Fred Karger.


“Multilevel Marketing” Postcard Campaign
to Amway Owner Doug DeVos


Following the Amway model, Rights Equal Rights has expanded its Postcard Campaign by asking Amway Boycott supporters to get their friends, family members, neighbors and coworkers to send in the colorful postcards to Amway CEO Doug DeVos. Our supporters will in turn will ask their friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers to join the Boycott and take similar action. According to Karger, we have already sent in hundreds and hundreds of the bright yellow cards to Doug DeVos asking him to match his $500,000 contribution to NOM by contributing an equal amount to LGBT organizations.

“Every single day we mail a batch of our Boycott Amway postcards to Mr. DeVos. We will continue to take actions in order to bring more attention to the Boycott in 2013,” said Karger. “During California’s Prop 8 campaign we boycotted four of the largest contributors to the Yes on 8 campaign and we settled two of them when the companies gave equal amounts or more to LGBT organizations.”

“The Manchester Hotels Boycott was never settled, but owner Doug Manchester, who gave $125,000 to Yes on Prop 8, publically admitted that his Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego was losing $1 million per month because of the boycott. He has since sold that hotel, apologized for his contribution through a spokesman and said that he would never give money to take away same-sex marriage again.


If You Don’t Like Chick-fil-A — You’ll Really Hate Amway

“We will be reaching out to many more organizations and individuals to join the Amway Boycott utilizing the theme, “If you didn’t like Chick-fil-A (for all of owner Dan Cathy’s big anti-LGBT contributions and statements) just wait until you hear about Amway,” said Karger.


And here’s something from my inbox from the P’town film society auction:

The Provincetown Film Society Auction closes on December 9, 2012 at 11:00 PM EST.

If you’ve got your heart set on a special item… you still have time to win!

Check Out These Great Buys…
You can still bid on any of the special items in our auction right up to the final seconds of this exciting event. Every tick of the clock brings us closer to the finish line. This may be your last chance to win that special item or to grab a great bargain. So don’t miss out… BID NOW!

Spread the Word!
Remind your friends the end is almost here! Just Refer your Friends so they have the chance to offer their support and get some great last-minute deals.
Don’t Forget: Every bid supports the Capital Campaign for the renovation and new equipment at Waters Edge Cinema!

Karger in DC During Election Week

I will admit that I don’t always understand what motivates highly political people, but I do like what I see and read about Fred Karger.

So being that I’ve been posting about Karger (You can do a blog search.) from the beginning when he ran as the first openly gay candidate for President on the Republican ticket, I’m going to continue to follow him to see where he’s going.

This is from a recent e-mail, and here’s a link to Karger’s web site. To not explore the possibilities of an openly gay person running for President is something I don’t understand, especially when no one else seems concerned about equal rights or fighting for same sex marriage. I’m starting to wonder in more ways than one, and I’m also beginning to question many of the things I’ve supported in the past.

WASHINGTON, DC – Political pundit and former GOP presidential candidate Fred Karger will be making the rounds this weekend and early next week in Washington, DC. Karger, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2012 as the first ever openly gay candidate from either major political party, will be available for interviews and commentary from Friday, November 2 through Wednesday, November 7, 2012.

Karger was a frequent guest on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” Thomas Roberts’ “MSNBC Live,” Chris Matthews’ “Hardball” and Lawrence O’Donnell’s “The Last Word” during his campaign. Over the years Karger has been interviewed and done political commentary for hundreds of television and radio stations, newspapers, magazines and blogs.

Karger spent over 30 years as a partner with the Los Angeles political consulting firm the Dolphin Group where he worked as a senior consultant on campaigns for President’s Ford, Reagan and George H. W. Bush. He worked on six other presidential campaigns and managed dozens of state, local and other federal races.

How NOM Works Against Marriage Equality by Fred Karger

I was going to share this FB post about how NOM (National Organization for Marriage) works against marriage equality in a Huff Po piece written by former Presidential candidate, Fred Karger, but then decided to post it here on the blog because I’d like it to get more exposure. And I don’t want it getting mixed up with so many stupid facebook political status updates by ill-informed people who can’t seem to focus on anything other than slamming political candidates in one direction or the other. We get it: you don’t like Obama. We get it: you don’t like Romney. But stop putting it in our faces. Go tell someone who cares and start doing something positive for a change.

But I digress (smile). I’m focused on a few issues, and marriage quality is one of them. In the article to which I’m linking Karger goes into detail about how NOM actually hinders marriage equality, and with a great deal of money.

The LGBT community and everyone who cares about fairness and equality face four crucial votes next Tuesday in Maryland, Maine, Minnesota and Washington State. All four elections are the doing of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).

NOM has an unlimited amount of money at its disposal and is hell-bent on hurting millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans every conceivable way possible, especially at the ballot box.

In 2009 the Maine State Legislature passed and the Governor signed a historic bill allowing marriage equality in the Pine Tree State. On the first day possible NOM hired professional signature gatherers to qualify a referendum to repeal it. NOM was successful.

I’m not going to elaborate on this because Karger did a better job than I could ever do. If you care about marriage equality, I suggest you read the article in full. And feel free to share it. It’s a lot more positive than sharing touched up photos of Donald Trump’s hair flying around in the wind.

Fred Karger Files Charges Against Anti-Gay Marriage Group

I post these things primarily because most people aren’t going to read about them or hear about them in the mainstream. Evidently, Fred Karger, an openly gay man who ran on the Republican ticket for President this year, is seeking the names of private donors who have been helping to fund a private anti-gay marriage group called The National Organization for Marriage….NOM.

Yes, you heard that correctly. Karger is openly gay, a Republican, he supports gay marriage, and he ran for President. Will wonders ever cease. Pardon my sarcasm, but let’s face it. The only thing we hear about these days with regard to equal rights is what’s posted on the Internet by small groups with good intentions. Or small blogs like mine that average about 1,000 hits a day. You don’t see anyone else talking about it, not Democrat or Republican.

In any event, this is what Karger wants:

Fred Karger, a California-based gay-rights activist and unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate, has sent a letter to U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby asking him to find NOM in contempt of court for failing to disclose individual donors in the current election cycle, as possibly required by recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the case.

Karger also sent letters to the American Bar Association and its state-level counterparts in Maine, California and South Dakota asking that NOM chairman John Charles Eastman, a constitutional lawyer and law professor, be disciplined for the same reason.

This is why he might not get what he wants:

NOM maintains this year’s contribution came entirely from its general treasury. Under Maine law, the organization is not required to disclose the sources of such donations, provided the funds were not solicited for a specific political purpose.

The federal court rulings have “not required that NOM disclose donors to its general treasury, any more than the Supreme Court and other courts have required disclosure of donors to the ACLU or Human Rights Campaign, which are supporting Question 1,” Eastman said in a statement earlier this month.

“NOM is in absolute compliance,” says Carroll Conley Jr., co-chairman of Protect Marriage Maine, which received the organization’s $250,000 donation. “The Supreme Court did not require them to reveal the names of their donors who gave to their general fund.”

You can read more here.

I recommend reading the entire article because it gets more complicated than this. It’s been alleged that NOM is not in full compliance. But there’s an ongoing investigation to determine this.

At least Karger is doing SOMETHING. Because no one else in the LGBT political landscape seems to be doing a single thing to help advance same sex marriage and equal rights.

Fred Karger Ends Campaign

I just received an e-mail from the Fred Karger staff informing me that he’s ended his campaign for President. It’s been interesting to watch. I’ve enjoyed posting about it for significant historical reasons. Here’s the e-mail below as I received it.

Statement by Fred Karger LAGUNA BEACH, CA – “After 2 ½ years of campaigning as a candidate for President of the United States I am officially ending my historic campaign today June 29, 2012. It’s been one hell of a ride, and I want to thank the thousands of people across this country who volunteered, contributed, opened their homes, came to our events and cheered me on. Special thanks to the thousands more who shared their stories with me in person, via email, facebook, twitter, etc. Every one of you kept me going. It’s been the experience of a lifetime. I’ve made many new friends and undoubtedly picked up a few more detractors. I hope and trust that my discussion of the key issues helped to open dialog on fixing the economy, balancing the federal budget, creating jobs, education reform, the environment, immigration reform, ending the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and fighting for full equality for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. We must move forward on these issues and many more. A big thank you goes out to our incredible campaign team, most of whom have been around for nearly the entire 2 ½ years. Your dedication, spirit and great ideas made all the difference. I plan to rest up for awhile and then I will be back at it to help in the fight for LGBT equality. We will let you know as soon as our exact course is determined. We closed our Utah Primary campaign with a big bang by airing the hard-hitting commercial “STOP THE HATE!!!” aimed at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church). It was produced and directed by Melanie Marden of MM Films, LLC. CLICK HERE to Watch.

Fred Karger, Latter Day Saints, Stop Hate


Fred Karger has been in Utah recently, and the ads he’s running seem to be targeting the Latter Day Saints more so than his oponent, Mitt Romney (who happens to be a Mormon). Karger made a video to which I’ll link below. But here are a few things I thought were interesting.

Karger has been waging his crusade against the church’s electioneering since he helped co-found Californians Against Hate in 2008 to battle efforts to repeal California’s amendment allowing same-sex marriage. Keeping an eye on campaign money coming from out of state, Karger first drew attention to large donations coming from the LDS Church and helped a Wall Street Journal reporter break the story of the church’s involvement in the election.

Who could forget that year? I know I can’t. We all took one step forward and two back. And though I’ve posted about Karger running for office many times here on this blog I didn’t know he was this passionate about this topic.

In April 2011, Karger largely self-funded a campaign for the presidency that he acknowledged from the beginning was more about sending a message than winning—or even coming close to winning.

The message Karger sent was twofold: that a gay, Republican candidate could start a dialogue about how the party views gay members, and that the LDS Church and, by proxy, LDS presidential candidate Romney, should be held accountable for campaigning against same-sex marriage.

And that’s what I was waiting to see somewhere in this article. For those who have not been following this, you can read more here. It’s a long article and I believe worth the time.

Are There Gay Christians?


I know a lot of people wonder if there are gay Christians. So this should be interesting. I read that Fred Karger, gay presidential candidate, will be on Bryan Fischer’s conservative Christian radio show.

From Buzzfeed:

Karger reached out first to Fischer, who responded with a voicemail to Karger’s assistant Kevin Miniter saying he would “love to have Mr. Karger on.”

The interview is set to air on Thursday.

From Fred Karger’s Timeline:

I’ll be a guest on Bryan Fischer’s radio show this Thursday (June 21) at 2:15pm CT.

I honestly don’t even know if I get this show where I live. But I will check it out and try to listen.

What always surprises me is that the LGBT community is sometimes portrayed as being anti-Christian when I know for a fact that many in the LGBT community do consider themselves Christian. Though I’m not very religious, I have very good friends who go to a very liberal Episcopal church right here in New Hope where there is a huge LGBT congregation. I know others from my area who go to weekly services at a Unitarian Church near Princeton, NJ. Most of whom are all former Catholics.

GOP Chairman Willie Billings’ Wife Has Fanatical Melt Down with Fred Karger


Fred Karger, a gay man running for president I’ve posted about many times this year, met with Utah Washington County GOP Chairman Willie Billings. Allegedly it was a good meeting without any problems. Then a few hours later Fred Karger allegedly received this letter from Chairman Billings’ wife, Nanette Billings. This brings new meaning to the old phrase “No-no, Nanette.”

From: nanette Billings (email address removed) Subject: running for president

Message Body:

you are an idiot. You met with my husband Willie Billings today about you being on the Utah ballot. He brought your frisby, and tshirt home and it is now out in the trash. I never want to hear from such a radical idiot again. you think you are conseritave? conseritave means you beleive in the values of founding fathers and God. Do you know you cant procreate right? Well thank goodness for that. Nanette Billings

This mail is sent via contact form on Fred Karger for President http://www.fredkarger.com

Notice how No-no Nanette doesn’t cap letters when sentences begin all the time. That says something about her background and upbringing. Even if she’d fired the e-mail off in a rage…which I’m sure she did…most literate people read e-mails like this twice and check for mistakes.

Karger said this in the Huff Post:

It felt like a knife had been twisted in my stomach. Was it real? Was she serious? Two journalists called Mrs. Billings and what she said about me to them was even nastier. Here is some news coverage:

Then he added links to reputable news agencies to back him up. You can read more here.

I would recommend reading the entire article to get the full impact. This isn’t the first time Karger has been allegedly attacked by people like No-no Nanette Billings. According to Karger, the head of the Iowa Christian Alliance did something similar. And now Karger is trying to meet with the head of the Mormon Church in order to find peace and some common ground.

It’s interesting to me not because of the religious aspects. What really interests me is that an openly gay presidential candidate is doing this right now and I’m one of the few talking about it on a small publishing/author blog that only averages 8,000 hits a week. Something is seriously broken somehwere in the LGBT community and I wish someone would explain it to me. Even if you aren’t for Karger and will never vote for him what he’s doing right now trumps almost anything since we’ve seen the likes of Harvey Milk. I was too young to remember Milk. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to miss this history in the making.