Episode 242 – The One Where Jim Takes Pride In His Gruyereaivoyance!

In This Week’s Show, episode 242, we’re finishing up Pride month with a rainbowlific quiz – it’s gonna be fabulous!

Episode 242 – The One Where Jim Takes Pride In His Gruyereaivoyance!
Episode 242 – The One Where Jim Takes Pride In His Gruyereaivoyance!

In This Week’s Show, episode 242, we’re finishing up Pride month with a rainbowlific quiz – it’s gonna be fabulous!

Now, grab a beer and help us test the god hypothesis — because, while Iris (the Greek goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods) hasn’t struck us down yet, we are trying her patience!

Shea’s …

… playing a doubleheader of softball.

In the rain.

So much wet Yeti smell…

Jenn’s Actual Lesson

This week I learned that Shea plays softball.

Jim’s Good Gay News

In case you’ve missed it, it’s the end of Pride month! And I finally have internet restorer at Queen Acres, so it’s time to taste the rainbow, bitches!

But before we get to all that, let’s have a beer!

This Week’s Beer

Fat Randy’s IPA | Holidaily Brewing Co.

NOT Donated by Steve E.

  • BA Link: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/44203/213693/
  • BA Rating: 3.66
  • Style: American IPA
  • ABV: 7%
  • Aaron: 4
  • Jenn: 3
  • Jim: Vodka!
  • Steve: 3

This Week’s Show

Round Table Discussion

Aaron had a birthday and didn’t die.

Thank you, Eli for being most fantastic

This Week’s Stories

Detective Dickhead Wants Cops to Kill the Gays https://www.advocate.com/religion/2019/6/12/tennessee-cop-turned-pastor-urges-execution-gays

We want you to sign up for http://patreon.com/w4w so you can hear about how terrible he is!

A sermon in which a minister who is also a sheriff’s detective with 20 years of service called for the execution of LGBTQ people has led to an investigation by authorities in Knox County, Tenn. Grayson Fritts gave the sermon June 2 (the first Sunday of LGBTQ Pride Month) at All Scripture Baptist Church in Knoxville, where he is pastor. Because a Bible and a badge are two great tastes that go great together.

His sermon was titled “Sodomite Reprobates” and based on the King James Version of the Bible – Leviticus 20:13, to be specific. This is one of the 9 “clobber passages” that are often trotted out to suggest that being gay is and always has been a sin. Nevermind the documented history and linguistic translations that contradict this… But it’s the same book that says gawd hates shrimp and you should be stoned for wearing a nice cotton-poly blend. I doth quote: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”

Some quotes:

  • Where’s the irony? He was ranting about Taylor Swift and then went down the rabbit hole, saying “I’m sick of sodomy getting crammed down our throats.” My first thought was “that’s not how sodomy works,” but then I remembered that many state sodomy laws include oral sex, even for heterosexuals, so Fritts and zealots like him might be “sodomites” without even realizing it.
  • “The Bible says the powers that be are ordained of God, and God has instilled the power of civil government to send the police in 2019 out to these LGBT freaks and arrest them and have a trial for them, and if they are convicted, then they are to be put to death … do you understand that? It’s a capital crime to be carried out by our government. Not Christians, unless you’re a policeman. Know what I mean? If you’re a policeman it should be your responsibility to carry these things out.”
  • “Those were the laws civil government would enforce. Just like we have laws now… Murder, rape, kidnapping, adultery…they were punishable by death.”
  • “Pride parades? Man, hey, call the riot teams, we got a bunch of ’em, get the paddy wagon out here, we got a bunch of ’em going to jail, we got a bunch of them we’re gonna get convicted because they’ve got their Pride junk on and they’re professing what they are, they’re a filthy animal.”
  • “If they were being arrested, and they were getting their trial, and you were able to prove that this individual is a Sodomite, which is not hard these days. You can go to the grocery store or the Lowe’s and they’re flamboyant, and they’re out there just showing everybody. Walking around like a bunch of Twinkies. Guys wearing girl’s clothing and stuff, it wouldn’t be hard.” Shhh…don’t tell him about Drag Queen Bingo. Also, they’re called Twinks. Twinkies are delicate sweet things with a golden tan and a cream filling that never seem to age. Okay, I see your confusion.
  • “But once that gets proved, and the judge says you’re guilty? The Bible says that sentence should be carried out speedily.”

GLBTQ activists in Tennessee correctly pointed out that “this is why we celebrate Pride.” Sterling Field, a Tennessee Equality Project chairman for three counties said “We’ve had police brutality in the past. Pride started with the Stonewall uprising 50 years ago as a group of folks trying to assert that they deserve to be alive and deserve to have dignity and respect.”

It seems he’s not stupid enough to believe there wouldn’t be consequences for this kind of hateful rhetoric, since he requested early retirement from the Knox County Sheriff’s Department a few days before delivering the sermon. The Sheriff there won’t fire Fritts because of the possibility of lawsuits, but he is on paid sick leave until his July 19th retirement date. The Sheriff seems to understand, however, and commented “I want to be very clear that it is my responsibility to ensure equal protection to all citizens of Knox County, Tenn., under the law, my oath, and the United States Constitution without discrimination or hesitation. Rest assured that I have and will continue to do so.”

The County Attorney was looking into the matter, but it’s not likely to result in charges because of free speech. Fritts also tried to defend his comments in a later sermon. “I’m not calling anybody in here to arms,” he said. “I’m not calling anyone here to violence. I’m saying it’s the government’s responsibility, is what I said.” Translation from Bigot-ese: I have to clarify that I’m not inciting violence to avoid criminal charges, but the government should round up these millions of people and put them to death based on an arbitrary moral judgement, and it’d be helpful if the general populace agreed with this…solution. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…

And this public attention may be a pain that will linger for Frittsy-poo. He and his “church” had planned a meeting later this month at a local Cracker Barrel. Although the Tennessee-based company used to be extremely anti-gay in the 90’s (like, Chick-Fil-A anti-gay), they have turned the church away due to their company’s zero-tolerance policy for “discriminatory treatment or harassment of any sort.”

Cracker Barrel said it is not affiliated in any way with Fritts his church “and we disagree strongly with their statements of hate and divisiveness. We serve everyone who walks through our doors with genuine hospitality, not hate, and require all guests to do the same.”

So if anyone asks you why we need Gay Pride, or says that “there’s not really any persecution these days,” feel free to tell them about Detective Brain-on-the-Fritts and his suggestion that cops should commit homo-cide. And while I don’t recommend polluting your brain by watching the video, know that there were plenty of people in the pews agreeing with him and cheering him on. By the way, the anniversary of the Pulse Massacre was June 12th, lest you wonder why some people don’t come bursting out of the closet without a care in the world.

First Lady or First Lesbian? https://www.advocate.com/women/2019/6/21/new-book-details-first-ladys-longtime-lesbian-relationship

There’s been a lot of talk in the news about how if “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg is elected, his husband Chasten would become the “first gentleman.” Many people are aware that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had a longtime love affair with journalist Lorena Hickok. But do you know who the first “First Lesbian” was? (pause for wacky guesses from the crew)

A new book reveals that a first lady from the 19th century — Rose Cleveland, who served in the role for her brother, President Grover Cleveland — went on to have a lengthy same-sex relationship. When Cleveland was inaugurated for his first term in 1885 he was an almost 50-year-old bachelor, and “protocol for unmarried or widowed presidents called for a female relative to fill the role of first lady.” So his sister Rose stepped into the role. This was especially important because (entirely true) rumors that Grover had fathered a child out of wedlock almost ended his campaign. So Rose “was seen as an important counterbalance to her brother’s scandalous baggage,” the Washington Post reports. She was respectable, well-educated, a former teacher at a women’s seminary and the author of serious books.

The new book (Precious and Adored: The Love Letters of Rose Cleveland and Evangeline Simpson Whipple, 1890-1918) details Rose’s relationship with another woman, a widowed heiress. They met in the winter of 1889-1890, probably in the popular vacation destination of Florida – no doubt at Maralago. Cleveland was no longer first lady at this time; she gave up the role after 14 months when her brother got married and he left office in 1889. That was probably okay with her since she was frustrated with public scrutiny of her necklines (like Michelle Obama) and a ban on her going to private dinners or public markets (like Melania).

The ladies quickly fell in love and began corresponding when they returned to their respective homes in New York and Massachusetts. One of Rose’s early letters to Eve reads “My Eve! Ah, how I love you! It paralyzes me … Oh Eve, Eve, surely you cannot realize what you are to me. What you must be. Yes, I dare it, now, I will not longer fear to claim you. You are mine by every sign in Earth & Heaven, by every sign in soul & spirit & body — and you cannot escape me. You must bear me all the way, Eve …” Racy stuff for the turn of the century, eh?

Eve’s letters weren’t saved, but Rose sometimes quoted them. Such as “Oh darling, come to me this night — my Clevy, my Viking, My — Everything, Come! God Bless Thee.” It wasn’t uncommon at the time for women to have “romantic friendships,” especially wealthy white women. This sometimes just meant emotional and intellectual intimacy, but the researchers are pretty sure these ladies were full-on lovers due to references to “long rapturous embraces” that “carry us both in one to the summit of joy, the end of search, the goal of love!”

After six years, however, the ladies separated when Eve married an Episcopal Bishop in 1896. Rose pleaded with Eve not to marry him, perhaps because he was 34 years older than Eve, but it happened anyway. (Lest you doubt that creepy dudes in the priesthood is a new thing.) Rose went on an extended tour of Europe with a “woman friend,” though we don’t know if they were lovers – say, in the back of a car stored in the bottom of the ship like a really long John Cameron film. She kept writing to Eve, but the letters weren’t quite so schmoopy. When Eve’s bishop husband died five years later, the ladies picked up where they left off.

In 1910 they moved to Italy to care for Eve’s ailing brother, and settled down there after he died. They helped refugees in Italy during World War I, but Rose died of Spanish flu in November 1918 shortly after the war ended. Eve wrote to a relative, “The light has gone out for me. … The loss of this noble and great soul is a blow that I shall not recover from.” She lived another 12 years, authoring a book on Tuscany and dedicating it to Rose. They’re buried side by side

Rose’s letters were in a collection of papers donated to the Minnesota Historical Society in 1969 by one of Bishop What’s-his-name’s descendants. When staff members realized they provided evidence of a lesbian relationship, they decided to hide the letters from the public, but they reversed that policy in 1978 after getting too many complaints. I guess they were worried that just reading about a woman who once loved another woman long ago would be enough to convert the general populace. You know…radi-gay-tion, like the warning from the surgeon general: prolonged exposure may cause bad poetry and the destruction of American family values.

Jim’s SuperGay W4W Quiz

16 questions – Round robin multiple choice. Two points for correct answer to your question, one point for a steal on someone else’s

  • Pause at 28 min
  • resume at 31

Next Week’s Beer

Rubeas Raspberry Beer from Founders

ACTUALLY from Steve E(??)

Faith In Humanity Restored

https://www.advocate.com/pride/2019/6/17/man-gives-free-dad-hugs-pride-asks-parents-accept-lgbtq-kids

Scott “Howie” Dittman gave out free hugs at Pittsburgh Pride and says that as a parent he can’t wrap his head around exiling a child because they’re gay. You may have heard of FreeMomHugs.org – which was started after its executive director Sara Cunningham (the Christian mom of a gay child) went viral for offering to stand in as a mom at same-sex weddings whose families refused to attend. Howie saw that one of his friends was going to a FreeMomHugs event at Pride, and thought maybe dad hugs would be wanted too…since dads often have a harder time accepting their GLBTQ kids.

So Dittman bought a “free dad hugs” tee and headed to Pride. “I went out on Amazon Prime and ordered a shirt and went down on Sunday just to try to put a smile on people’s faces. You’d see people that were completely happy in the middle of this festival and then they’d see that ‘free dad hug’ shirt and it was like a switch was flipped.” He also made a Facebook post asking parents to accept their LGBTQ kids.

A photo of Dittman went viral, with a quote from his Facebook post: “Imagine that your child feels SO LOST FROM YOU that they sink into the arms of a complete stranger… just because that stranger is wearing a shirt offering hugs from a dad.” It turns out that one of the people he’s hugging in the photos is a man whose parents kicked him out of the house when he was 19 for being gay. That happened 30 years ago, but it still affects the man today…because they excommunicated him and haven’t spoken to him since.

Dittman is a member of the group Helping Butler County, and according to Dittman “We just try to identify needs in the community and fill those needs. We don’t start with labels or end with labels. We just try to do good human things.” A quick check of the page includes small acts of kindness like delivering a stove to a family in need, helping someone fill a job opening, or helping a woman find an exterminator after a storm revealed her house was infested with termites. Small acts to help others in his local community, but things that can change a life.

He gave out over 700 hugs in just two and half hours. He also pointed out that he was just part of a ripple effect. First Sara Cunningham started the Free Mom Hugs group when she heard about parents who wouldn’t go their own kid’s wedding. Then his friend Denna RSVP’d to the event, and gave him a ride after he decided to step up. All of that was just people reaching out to help others in a small but meaningful way. You don’t have to put up a billboard or walk around with a neon sign to raise awareness or make a difference. You just have to show up, and you could help restore faith in humanity like Howie!

Join The Discussion

We’d love to hear from you!

To comment on a show or suggest a brew visit our web, twitter or Facebook pages. As always, we’d love to get a good rating on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher!