Houston Chronicle Pulls Endorsement of Candidate Over Anti-Gay Flyer

On Sunday, Brandon posted about Manuel Rodriguez, Jr., who is running for another term on the board of the Houston Independent School District.

Rodriguez Jr. had sent out a flyer suggesting folks should vote against him because he might be gay.

The Houston Chronicle pulled its endorsement of Rodriguez Jr.:

Earlier this campaign season, we endorsed Manuel Rodriguez Jr. for another term on the board of the Houston Independent School District. We now retract that endorsement in the race for HISD Position III trustee.

A last-minute campaign flier for Rodriguez displays appalling homophobia. The flier urges recipients not just to vote for Rodriguez, but to vote against his opponent, Ramiro Fonseca, because he has been endorsed by the Houston GLBT Caucus, "the South's oldest civil rights organization dedicated solely to the advancement of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights." The flier further states that Fonseca has "spent years advocating for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender rights … not kids," and winds up with a pair of bullet points noting that he's 54 years old with no children and has a male partner.

That's obvious gay-bashing, of the kind that HISD rightly prohibits on the playground. It has no place on HISD's board.

Manuel Rodriguez, Jr.: My Opponent Might Be Gay, So Vote For Me

Take a good look at the above. That's a slice of a campaign advertisement from Houston Independent School District trustee Manuel Rodriguez, Jr., who's running for his job against Ramiro Fonseca -- a man who, who knows, could be gay. And Manuel Rodriguez, Jr., who knows, could be a small-minded cur whose permnent abode is the moral low road; who exhibits contempt for certain kinds of families in his district, and who deserves to be whipped out of office by the first semi-competent mammal with half an urge to run against him. Hard to tell! Political ads can be so misleading!

[HT: Dallas Voice]

The Soft Side Of Christopher Hitchens, And The Brilliance Of Mason Crumpacker

Mason Crumpacker is a ridiculously smart 9-year-old girl who became moderately famous this month after chancing into a conversation with Christopher Hitchens at a get-together of freethinkers in Houston, TX. Hitch was there to receive the Dawkins Award, and after a brief speech took a moment to answer questions, even though a Q&A wasn't part of the program. Mason, then eight, left her mum's side to wander through the thousand-strong crowd in search of the emcee. She seized his mic, and asked the ailing eminence:

What books should I read?

Hitchens seemed charmed, and asked to speak with the girl after the presentation. There, at a table surrounded by Hitchfans, the two spoke for a quarter of an hour. (You can read the Hitchensian reading list AFTER THE JUMP.)

No one's really explained why the encounter's so lit up the blogosphere. It probably has something to do with Hitchens' health, and something to do with seeing such a typically prickly personage instantly tenderize when confronted with a child. But it also has to do with Mason's precocity, which was evident to everybody gathered around that table in Houston. 

So evident was it that the Dallas News this week dispatched a reporter to interview the girl. Her responses are mindblowing. She's nine!

Dallas News: Why did you decide to go to an atheist convention?

Mason: I thought it would be interesting to meet different freethinkers and see what they thought about the world. I just wanted to boost my intellectual curiosity.

If someone invited you to a Christian convention, or a Buddhist convention or Hari Krishna convention, would you go?

Probably. I’d like to experiment with different religions. I just like to see what they believe and see if they make sense or not.

What do you think is the role of religion in people’s understanding of right versus wrong?

Religion is a way to get their children to behave. The world is kind of scary without religion, for them because they don’t know what is going to happen.

How does a religion have to “make sense”?

If someone questions [a religious belief] and just says, how do you know this is right? The priest says: Well, it’s in the Bible, isn’t it? Everything revolves around the Bible. Some people believe that if the Bible says it, it’s true, completely true. If I do decide to believe in something, they should have further proof.

Why did you decide it was important to ask a question of Hitchens?

Because I had just found out that he was dying, and he’s a brilliant man. And I felt that his knowledge of the world shouldn’t be wasted, and that someone should continue what he started.

Where will he go when he dies?

Nowhere.

Did he answer you the way you expected to be answered?

Yes. He was very honest to me and very, very nice. I think all adults should be honest to kids with their answers and take them seriously. They’re living people, too. I especially hate when adults dumb it down for me.

You can read the whole exchange at Why Evolution's True. (At the Dallas News it's behind a pay wall.) And you can see the Hitchensian reading list below ...

Mayor Annise Parker Advancing Insidious 'LGBT Agenda', Warns Houston Pastor: VIDEO

Dave Welch, Executive Director of the Houston Area Pastor Council, who has been after out lesbian Houston mayor Annise Parker since she was running for office in 2009, is targeting Parker again with an ad that tries to prove, as the Dallas Voice notes, that she "has engaged in an insidious plot" to advance the LGBT agenda. He's encouraging area pastors to play the video at their churches.

See, she's kissing her partner of 20+ years Cathy Parker on the cheek!

The paper adds: "Early voting in the Houston mayoral race started Monday. Early numbers show historically low voter turnout with only 2,557 people voting in person. That’s down almost half from the 4,089 people who voted on the first day of early voting in 2009 when Parker was first elected."

Watch Dave Welch's attack video, AFTER THE JUMP...

Southwest Pilot Suspended for 'Fag' Rant Broadcast Over Air Traffic Control Frequency: LISTEN

A Houston-based Southwest Airlines pilot has been suspended after his cockpit microphone transmitted a lengthy rant to control towers and other aircraft over an area of hundreds of miles. The transmission blocked other communications on the frequency, KPRC reports.

Pilots within certain altitude guidelines over that entire geographic area were unable to communicate with Houston Center air traffic controllers for the entire four-minute duration of his conversation since his headset microphone was stuck.

Terry Maxon at the Dallas Morning News explains:

The theme of his profanity-filled comments was his disappointment at the lack of available dating partners among flight attendants. He said of 12 flight attendants he flew with during a certain period, 11 were gay and one was a "granny."

"Think of the odds of that. I thought I was in Chicago, which was Party Land. After that, it was a continuous stream of gays and grannies and grandes," the pilot said.

"Six months, I went to the bar three times - three times! Once with the granny and the fag, and I wish I hadn't gone. At the very end, with two girls, one of them that was probably do-able. But we ended up going to the bar and then the crew room in St. Louis and all these women wanted to do was, one wanted to berate her sister and the other wanted to bitch about her husband. Literally. For three hours, me and the FO. When that was done, 2:30, got back to my room, I'm like, 'Why the **** did I stay up?'"

The rant goes on. Listen below.

RAW AUDIO (warning: language):

Watch KPRC's report on the incident HERE.

LGBT Stories: Houston Mayor Annise Parker Shares Personal Story Of Young Love

NATHAN MANSKE

Nathan Manske and Marquise Lee just finished a 4 month, 50 state tour of the United States collecting stories for their I'm From Driftwood site. We'll be sharing some of the stories they collected along with some of the insight into what they saw. They're still encouraging people to submit their written stories via IFD.

Before meeting the mayor, we met and spoke with her chief of staff, Janice, who wanted to make sure Mayor Parker had the right idea about what we were looking for. "Any story, right?" "That's right." "It doesn't have to be about politics?" "Nope. Any true story from her life involving her being a lesbian." "Even before her time as Mayor?" "Yes. Any story, from any time, about anything involving her being a lesbian." It seemed as though Mayor Parker was eager to share a story about love--both the ups and downs--but only wanted to if it was okay. I thought it was both charming and courageous.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...