gotta find a new place where the kids are hip

“I’d rather have a dead son than a gay son.” These words, recently spoken by a prominent member of Congress as an appeal to Brazil’s “family values,” made Eleonora Pereira angry.

Eleonora’s son, Jose Ricardo, was murdered a year ago—victim of a rising tide of homophobic and transphobic hate crimes in Brazil.

”My son, my best friend, was killed in a hate crime last year. Now I’m filling that emptiness with the fight against violence, homophobia and discrimination.” — Eleanora

There’s a petition at the end of the article. Please sign. Originally alerted to this via willindermaur

Youcef Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor in Iran, stands accused of apostasy. His “crime” – forgive the sarcastic quotes – is having once been Muslim, but now being Christian: from turning from one monotheistic Abrahamic religion which recognises Jesus Christ as a holy figure, to another monotheistic Abrahamic religion which recognises Jesus Christ as a holy figure. He has been asked three times to recant his beliefs, but has refused. If he refuses a fourth time, he could be executed at any time; he will be asked again today, and could die tomorrow.

It’s easy as a secularist to focus on the little things that go wrong in countries that are mostly right: attempts in the US to blur the line between church and state, or prayer in school here in Britain. When some daft medievalist tries in a futile fashion to impose their idea of religious morality on the country – I’m thinking of the ghastly Stephen Green of Christian Voice, or the little band of Islamists who want to impose Sharia in British courts – we get panicky: but we often forget the real, brutal theocracies in other countries. Here in Britain, secularism, mercifully, has by-and-large won: you can worship who you like and what you like, and, up to a point, mock others for what they believe, too. That is important. But in Iran, and Saudi Arabia, and Yemen and Pakistan and a handful of other Islamic states, the brand of God you choose to believe in can be a matter of life and death.

Listen! If you have 5-10 minutes to do this, please do. It’s sponsored by the White House under Obama’s “We The People” Program. Sign it please? I know so many people who could use this because it’s so hard to find a job these days even WITH college experience.

Forgiving student loan debt would provide an immediate jolt to the economy by putting hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of extra dollars into the hands of people who WILL spend it - not just once, but each and every month thereafter - freeing them up to invest, buy homes, start businesses and families. This past year, total student loan debt finally surpassed total credit card debt in America, and is on track to exceed $1 TRILLION within the next year. Student loans themselves are responsible for tuition rates that have soared by 439% since 1982 and for saddling entire generations of educated Americans with intractable levels of student loan debt from which there is, seemingly, no escape. Relieve them of this burden and the middle class WILL rebuild this economy from the bottom-up!