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Skipping to the Piccolo
  • Home
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    • Merchandise
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    • The Rainbow Kingdom
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Posts / View All
  • New York City Skyline as seen from Jersey City. Photo by David W. Shelton

    Remembering the September 11, 2001 attacks

    September 12, 2019
  • Unification: Rise of the Thunderblade

    Unification: Rise of the Thunderblade

    May 8, 2019
  • Battlestar Galactica and the quest for a great story

    May 6, 2019
  • Image copyright by CBS/Paramount Pictures.

    Lessons from Star Trek are timeless

    March 9, 2019
  • Star Blazers: The power of a great story

    March 5, 2019
  • Finger pointing at viewer while holding a Bible

    “I am a Christian, therefore…”

    February 26, 2019
  • Same-sex marriage rights under attack again in Tennessee

    February 17, 2019
  • The Irony of “Keep Christ in Christmas”

    December 22, 2018
  • GLAAD poll finds LGBTQ support slipping

    January 28, 2018
  • Adam West (1928-2017)

    June 10, 2017

Same-sex marriage rights under attack again in Tennessee

By David W. Shelton On February 17, 2019 · Add Comment · In Gay Marriage, Gay Rights
The Tennessee legislature will consider a new bill that would nullify all existing same-sex marriages and deny new licenses for gay couples in Tennessee.
Read More »

The Only Choice for Gays is Integrity

By David W. Shelton On June 17, 2015 · Add Comment · In Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, General Commentaries
Anti-gay rhetoric insists that being gay is a choice, but the reality is that the only choice for LGBT people is the choice of whether or not to be honest with themselves and everyone around them.
Read More »

District Judge declares Oklahoma Marriage Equality Ban Unconstitutional

By David W. Shelton On January 14, 2014 · Add Comment · In Gay Marriage, News
The Human Rights Campaign has reported that United States District Judge Terence Kern has ruled that Oklahoma's ban on marriage equality is unconstitutional. Unlike Utah, though, the ruling is stayed pending an almost guaranteed appeal to a higher court.
Read More »

What the Duck? Why the Right Wing has Totally Quacked

By David W. Shelton On December 21, 2013 · 33 Comments · In Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, General Commentaries, Hate Groups, podcast
Yes, we are all tired of the Phil Robertson and Duck Dynasty “controversy.” My own posts on Facebook on the topic drew fever-pitched debates and even resulted in one person un-friending me because I insisted that it has nothing to do with “Freedom of speech.” Once I stopped reading and rolling my eyes at the ridiculous comments on the whole ducking issue, I realized that if this was the front line of today’s culture war, then it was nothing more than a distraction of where the real battles were being fought.
Read More »

It IS a Choice.

By David W. Shelton On October 5, 2013 · 13 Comments · In Gay Rights, General Commentaries

One of the most critical elements of our political discussion over LGBT equality has been the constant battle over whether or not sexual orientation is an inherent part of a person’s life. Anti-equality activists even make the claim that they would possibly relent on their work to deny us our rights if — if — science were to somehow prove without any doubt that sexual orientation is, in fact, genetic.

Then, they say, they would finally have the evidence they require to treat us as human beings. Until then, they steadfastly hold that our sexuality is a choice we make, and is nothing more than “behavior.” The bottom line is that in their eyes, behavior does not deserve legal protection.

But let’s be clear. They don’t care if there is a choice.

Read More »

How Will the Supreme Court Rule on Marriage Equality?

By David W. Shelton On June 19, 2013 · Add Comment · In Gay Marriage
Those of us who support marriage equality are anticipating two rulings from the Supreme Court of the United States.
Read More »

The Real Source of Division in Pro-Gay Politics

By David W. Shelton On December 21, 2012 · Add Comment · In Gay Rights, General Commentaries, podcast

Last week, District 14 County Commissioner Tommy Vallejos made a series of false, distorted, and wrong statements in opposition to including sexual orientation and gender identity in the City’s nondiscrimination policy. It was a laughable, nonsensical, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink rant, where his “facts” were little more than regurgitations of long-dismissed myths. He invoked a law that specifically says in the law that it wouldn’t apply to this kind of internal policy. He made the silly implication that just because people change their “sexual practices” that their sexual orientation is changed, and others (which will be addressed in future posts).

Because his five minute, pre-written script has so many distortions, and so many blatant untruths, it’s pure candy to someone like me who has real facts and history in my corner. One of these sweet little nuggets of nonsense was a claim that “this kind of law is divisive.”

Read More »

Awash with the Sting of Defeat, and Into the River of Denial

By David W. Shelton On November 8, 2012 · Add Comment · In Gay Marriage, General Commentaries, podcast
The 2012 election has proven to be one for the record books, proving that simple math will ring true amidst a sea of puffery, rhetoric, and partisan politics. President Barack Obama won another term with both a majority of the popular vote and the Electoral College. An anti-gay “marriage protection” constitutional amendment failed in Minnesota. Marriage Equality laws were passed in three more states. Yes, Democrats and liberals had a good run through most of the country — but does it indicate a turning of the tide, or is it an anomaly as those on the far right claim?
Read More »

American Churches Will Not Be Forced to Marry Gays

By David W. Shelton On August 29, 2012 · 2 Comments · In Christianity, Gay Marriage, podcast, Politics
How to sell a lie: First, convince your audience that you, and only you have the truth. Then feed them half truths and manipulated data to build their trust and make them reliant on your teet for every single bit of information they receive. Then bring out the big lies. This is how the far right has been convinced that churches will be forced to marry gays — there's not a single shred of evidence to support this claim, yet every single wingnut pundit and commentator says this without impunity. Not only is there not a single shred of evidence to support the claim, there's not a single gay rights group or a single activist that even remotely WANTS to force churches to marry gays.
Read More »

Explaining Marriage Equality: Easy as Pie

By David W. Shelton On August 7, 2012 · 1 Comment · In Gay Marriage, General Commentaries, podcast
I want to thank Facebook for inspiring me on the topic of marriage equality. One man commented about the prevailing “pie” mentality among conservatives on the issue of marriage equality — and it really got me thinking. Imagine for a moment that marriage is a pie. A fresh, out-of-the oven, cooling on the rack, perfectly baked pecan pie. Here in the South, you know, we call it a pea-can pah. For many Americans, that pecan pie was the norm. It was a pie that was only made for a man and a woman. It was as perfect as could be.
Read More »

President Obama endorses marriage equality

By David W. Shelton On May 9, 2012 · Add Comment · In Gay Marriage, Politics
President Obama announced his support for marriage equality during an interview with ABC News this afternoon:
"I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together; when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that 'don't ask, don't tell' is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married," Obama told Roberts in an interview to appear on ABC's "Good Morning America" Thursday.
Interestingly, right-wing Republicans who said they would never vote for him have declared... that they would never, ever, ever vote for him. Of course, the religious right and hate groups are all declaring their utter outrage. Thank you, Mr. President. This is going to be an interesting election year.
Read More »

Austin Peay State University to host a reading of ‘8’

By David W. Shelton On May 8, 2012 · Add Comment · In Gay Marriage, News
Austin Peay State University Theatre & Dance, with license from the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact, is proud to announce a one-night-only reading of “8,” a play chronicling the historic trial in the federal constitutional challenge to California’s Proposition 8, written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter and AFER Founding Board Member Dustin Lance Black.
Read More »

The Myth of “Defending Marriage”

By David W. Shelton On April 4, 2012 · 13 Comments · In Gay Marriage
As the battle for marriage equality continues is long path toward inevitability and fairness, anti-gay groups have ramped up their attacks in an effort to “defend marriage.” After all, this poor, defenseless institution is apparently at risk of being completely unhinged because a small number of people throughout the western world want to take part in it. The gays are threatening a sacrament, they say. Marriage must be defended. We must not redefine it, they say.
Read More »

To disagree or to oppress?

By David W. Shelton On March 2, 2012 · 12 Comments · In Gay Marriage, Gay Rights
One of the most frequent, yet egregious lies told in any discussion regarding gay rights is that equality opponents say they’re labeled as bigots merely because of their “disagreement.” Nothing could be further from the truth. At this point, it’s become quite obvious that opponents to equality know full well that they are attempting hide from the rest of us the reality that “disagreement” is really a code word for “I don’t want to think about gay sex, so I’ll fight against your basic human rights with every ounce of my being.”
Read More »

Anti-gay marriage talking points and the facts that debunk them

By David W. Shelton On February 13, 2012 · 43 Comments · In Gay Marriage, General Commentaries
Throughout the debate that surrounds same-sex marriage rights in America, several themes have been consistent among those who engage to “protect” traditional marriage. To date, six states presently have legalized same-sex marriage. Washington State just became the seventh now that their marriage equality bill was signed into law by Gov. Gregoire this morning.
Read More »
 
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    David W. Shelton is a writer, graphic designer, activist, and business owner. He currently lives in Clarksville, TN, and has had works appear in The Leaf-Chronicle, The Advocate, The Tennessean, and Impact Magazine.
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