Americans Are Tired of the Politics of Personal Destruction, Says TWO
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out criticized the on-going smear campaign that anti-gay organizations and politicians are orchestrating against Kevin Jennings, who is serving as the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools.
“We are witnessing a disgraceful political hit job filled with baseless allegations, ugly innuendo and outright homophobia,” said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Kevin Jennings is a hero that has saved the lives of many students and is eminently qualified for his position. Thanks to his work, countless gay youth were able to concentrate on scholastic success instead of basic survival or even suicide.”
The groundless attacks intensified after fifty-three House Republicans signed a letter to the Obama administration asking for the dismissal of Jennings. “As the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, Mr. Jennings has played an integral role in promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America’ schools –an agenda that runs counter to the values that many parents desire to instill in their children,” the lawmakers write.
“Jennings “real agenda’ was promoting tolerance and stopping children from essentially getting mugged in schools because of their real or perceived sexual orientation,” said Besen. “These attempts to slime Jennings have nothing to do with his exemplary record or qualifications. Instead, extremists are trying to use Jennings as a proxy to further their culture war.
“When America elected Barack Obama,” Besen continued, “they wanted to end the politics of personal destruction and transcend politics as usual. People are tired of the lies, distortions and roaring rhetoric and it is time that anti-gay activists retire such tactics.”
The smears began when right wing media outlets irresponsibly reported that Jennings counseled a fifteen-year-old student who was allegedly having a relationship with a twenty-four year old man. They claimed he instructed the young man to use a condom, while he should have reported the illegal relationship to the authorities.
However, the truth is, the young man was actually 16, the legal age of consent, and no sexual relations actually occurred. The suggestion of condom use, if the young man had chosen to be sexually active, was appropriate, given the alternative was that he may have contracted HIV if he was ignorant on how to protect himself.
Media Matters tracked down the young man in question, Brewster, who said:
“In 1988, I had taken a bus home for the weekend, and on the return trip met someone who was also gay. The next day, I had a conversation with Mr. Jennings about it. I had no sexual contact with anybody at the time, though I was entirely legally free to do so. I was a sixteen year-old going through something most of us have experienced: adolescence.
“I find it regrettable that the people who have the compassion and integrity to protect our nation’s students are themselves in need of protection from homophobic smear attacks. Were it not for Mr. Jennings’ courage and concern for my well-being at that time in my life, I doubt I’d be the proud gay man that I am today.”
“It is beyond ridiculous that Jennings is being criticized for giving advice on a legal relationship that never even occurred,” said TWO’ Wayne Besen. “These abusive attacks are immoral and despicable and show that the modern Republican Party must resort to below the belt politics to hold onto its dwindling support.
“It is surreal that the GOP is once again posing as the party of family values,” continued Besen “One would think they were too busy walking the Appalachian Trail or applauding the “family values’ of Sens. David Vitter and John Ensign to even notice Jennings. Why is a party that is a billboard for bad behavior still preaching to America? Jennings is an outstanding educator and upstanding citizen. He should be left alone to do his job and educate America’ children.”
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that counters anti-gay propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life. For more information, visit TruthWinsOut.org.
The antigay parents group P-FOX is demanding that the Walt Disney Company offer special protection for non-existent ex-gay employees who are already protected, in any event, under existing antidiscrimination policy covering sexual orientation.
According to TowleRoad, P-FOX also falsely claims (again) that the Superior Court of the District of Columbia ruled that “former homosexuals are a protected class that must be recognized under sexual orientation non-discrimination laws.”
In fact, the city court merely held that mutability of characteristics may not be used under the city’s Human Rights Act as a pretense exclude persons from protection under the city law. The ruling has no effect outside Washington, D.C., due to the extreme breadth of that city’s antidiscrimination law.
Sexuality is not a right, according to OneNewsNow, which cites the Orange County (Calif.) Board of Education as its authority on the subject.
The Christian Rightists of the American Family Association’s media organ might make exceptions for you — if you’re an evangelical heterosexual Republican and you ask them nicely.
“Homosexuality is not a civil right,” board chair Alexandria Coronado emphasizes. Nor is heterosexuality, unless it is preapproved by a Christian Rightist authority.
Exodus International board member Don Schmierer will be pleased to learn that his role in a Uganda campaign to imprison and kill homosexuals is bearing fruit.
Legislative efforts launched at Schmierer’s March 2009 ex-gay conference in Kampala have resulted in a pending bill that goes beyond Uganda’s current punishment of life imprisonment for LGBT Ugandans.
According to an official Uganda media organ New Vision, the new bill requires the death penalty if either partner is HIV-positive, regardless of any safer-sex precautions. The bill also requires imprisonment of five to seven years for anyone who funds or sponsors efforts to protect free speech about sexual orientation or to oppose antigay bullying.
Schmierer and Exodus continue to offer no public opposition to events transpiring in Uganda as a result of their participation in the March conference. In fact, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas yesterday defended Schmierer and affirmed Exodus’ silent complicity in a comment at the blog of Warren Throckmorton. His only objection to the legislation: Minors shouldn’t necessarily be executed for same-sex activity.
Unfortunately for Exodus, Human Rights Watch is loudly protesting both the new legislation and an ongoing campaign of vigilantism and murder that was launched by the same conference.
“This draft bill is clearly an attempt to divide and weaken civil society by striking at one of its most marginalized groups” said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “The government may be starting here, but who will be next?”
The bill would criminalize the legitimate work of national and international activists and organizations working for the defense and promotion of human rights in Uganda. It would also put major barriers in the path of effective HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, the groups said.
Human Rights Watch also points out that the new draft bill includes a provision that could lead to the imprisonment for up to three years of anyone, including heterosexual people, who fails to report within 24 hours the identities of everyone they know who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or who supports human rights for people who are.
Janet Boynes Ministry is challenging Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) as an organization “ministering” to parents who have GLBT children. According to Boynes’ newsletter:
“Janet Boynes Ministries is pleased to launch our new blog, Parents Reaching Parents, to assist parents in finding support from other parents in the midst of this journey. May this blog be a blessing to you.”
I can’t blame Boynes for wanting to supplant PFOX as the primary organization alienating parents from their GLBT children. PFOX is basically a sham group that serves as a front for anti-gay legal organizations to sue people or schools. It has attracted bizarre activists, such as Richard Cohen, Anthony Falzarano and Greg Quinlan, who represent about the worst faces the ex-gay industry can put forth.
While Boynes is friendly and well intentioned, she is terribly misguided and will most certainly separate parents from their kids. This is especially sad as we approach the holiday season, when loving families should be together, not divided and driven apart because of religious extremism.
According to Boynes’ website:
Janet Boynes Ministries (JBM) is a non-denominational outreach dedicated to evangelism by preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. JBM will also minister to individuals who question their sexuality or who wish to leave homosexuality. JBM will seek to inform and challenge churches and society about the issues surrounding sexuality and teach how to minister to the homosexual community. These goals will be accomplished through promotion of family values, public speaking events, distribution of media, and coordination with individuals, churches, ministries, and organizations.
Just what America needs – yet another professional “ex-gay” seeking the limelight and peddling false tales of change for profit. I suppose it is a good gig while it lasts – until the almost inevitable “fall”. But, I suppose this is an improvement over PFOX, the most reprehensible and creepy organization in the nation.
Raw Story reports that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) opposes a hate crimes bill in Congress that would help protect against gay bashing because he believes homosexuality is not an innate characteristic.
His spokesman says, Boehner is against the bill because he “supports existing federal protections (based on race, religion, gender, etc) based on immutable characteristics.”
First, it is extraordinarily rare to find one who claims to have changed his or her sexual orientation who is not on the payroll of an anti-gay organization. Second, millions of people change religions every day. For example, a born again Christian or convert has newly embraced the Christian faith.
Of course, Boehner’s position is as illogical as his obvious prejudice against GLBT people. I strongly suggest Boehner watch a recent gay bashing in Queens and then reconsider his vacuous position.
Minnesota Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann loves controversy and is a regular on cable news. The New York Times reports, however, that she is severely and habitually truth challenged and has trouble separating fact from fiction.
Bachmann is a fan of conspiracy theories, such as this doosie reported in the Times article:
And in April, Ms. Bachmann told an interviewer that she found it interesting that “it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter.” She added, “And I’m not blaming this on President Carter; I just think it’ an interesting coincidence.”
As it happens, the scare of the 1970s came in 1976, PolitiFact found. Gerald Ford, a Republican, was president.
Needless to say, when you are as nutty as Bachmann, you are probably anti-gay. According to the congresswoman.
“If you’re involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’ bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement.”
Yes, entering relationships that are emotionally, physically and spiritually satisfying is “bondage”. While marrying someone out of convenience or religious guilt is “healthy” for both partners. Typical Bachmann “logic”. Interesting how this dishonest Bible-thumper never brings up the “false witness” section of the Good Book.
Bachmann also believes GLBT relationships are are larger problem than a failed health care system, an absence of new jobs and even terrorism. On March 20, 2004, Bachmann said on a KKMS-AM radio program, “Prophetic Views Behind The News”:
[Same-sex marriage] is probably the biggest issue that will impact our state and our nation in the last, at least, thirty years. I am not understating that.”
Bachmann is also an End Times enthusiast, saying on the same KKMS program:
“We’re in a state of crisis where our nation is literally ripping apart at the seams right now, and lawlessness is occurring from one ocean to the other. And we’re seeing the fulfillment of the Book of Judges here in our own time, where every man doing that which is right in his own eyes‚Äîin other words, anarchy.”
I suggest that everyone read today’s New York Times articles about Bachmann’s aversion to honesty. This is not a brave woman who speaks her mind. But a intellectually dishonest person who sows fear and division to drive her political career. That Republicans take this individual seriously, shows how far they have strayed from the mainstream in recent years.
It was thrilling to participate in the National Equality March (NEM) in Washington on Sunday. The event, although smaller than in past years, achieved the desired goal of drawing the nation’ attention to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration were also put on notice that an anxiety-filled GLBT community demanded action, not just flowery words.
While this was my third march, it was inspiring to see this event through the fresh eyes of Jamie, (left, in red) my partner. He is thirty years old and grew up in a small town in rural Nebraska (population 700). From his vantage point, the march was an extraordinarily life-affirming event. He shared the same look of awe and empowerment that was on the faces of the energetic youth in DC, who will one day become our leaders.
The NEM occurred over the objections of Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass), who said that the spectacle was a “waste of time.” If I were Frank, I’d be more concerned about not delivering on GLBT issues while the Democrats control Washington. This may cause disillusionment, leading some people to believe that voting is a “waste of time.”
Frank believes that instead of marching, GLBT people should organize more efficiently and effectively by becoming more like the National Rifle Association (NRA) or the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).
He is correct that we should organize into a political force, but get real. The GLBT movement can’t be compared to organizations that possess immense constituencies. Botox notwithstanding, we all grow old and that is why AARP has thirty-five million members. America loves guns, which is why even city slickers like John Kerry and Mitt Romney feel compelled to purchase varmint guns and tromp though the fields to whack squirrels. (Read More)
Four members of San Francisco’ gay community met this afternoon for 40-minutes with Jamaican singer Buju Banton in Larkspur, up in Marin County, to discuss his troubling history with gay people.
At the meeting were gay leaders Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who arranged the meeting, Rebecca Rolfe, executive director of the SF gay community center, Andrea Shorter of Equality California and myself. Also present was Supervisor Eric Mar, a progressive straight leader in the Asian community, and, of course, Buju and Tracii McGregor, president of his music company. About ten minutes into the meeting in the hotel lobby of where the singer is staying, some of his p.r. people joined the conversation.
On October 10, 2009, President Barack Obama spoke to the Human Rights Campaign about GLBT issues. On Oct. 11, 2009, Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director, Wayne Besen, commented on the speech and the National Equality March that took place later that day.
