1. It’s outrageous and nauseating, that there is a political party where this kind of rhetoric is acceptable, applied to human beings.
2. Said party also happens to host Religious Right figures like Bryan Fischer, Peter LaBarbera, Matt Barber, et al., who regularly say things every bit as grotesque as this about LGBT people.
For the eleventieth time, y’all: the beliefs that lead a person to scaremonger about gays raping children, about schools becoming hotbeds of “indoctrination into the homosexual lifestyle,” about how gays should be deported (looking at you, Peter Sprigg), are rooted in the same family of paranoid fear and fundamental hatred that leads Pat Bertroche, a Republican congressional candidate in Iowa, to say the following:
Instead of building a border fence to help stem illegal immigration, the U.S. government should implant microchips into immigrants before deportation, much like what is done with pets, Pat Bertroche, an Urbandale physician and one of seven Republicans running in the 3rd District Congressional primary, said Monday.
While speaking at a Tama County Republican forum, Bertroche made it clear that he wasn’t joking when he suggested treating undocumented immigrants like pets.
From the Cedar Rapids Gazette:
“I think we should catch ‘em, we should document ‘em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going,” said Pat Bertroche, an Urbandale physician. “I actually support microchipping them. I can microchip my dog so I can find it. Why can’t I microchip an illegal?
“That’ not a popular thing to say, but it’ a lot cheaper than building a fence they can tunnel under,” Bertroche said.
It’s not a “popular” thing to say because you have to be a frightened, racist, hateful wingnut of the worst kind to suggest that we microchip human beings like housepets.
The more we understand this — that wingnuttia is a hotbed of many strains of a similar xenophobic, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, ultimately anti-life virus — and the more we point it out, the more the sane people in the “movable middle” will truly see them for what they are.
U.S. radio-station conglomerate Clear Channel refuses to warn its audiences that youth callers to a show’s helpline were misled to seek help from a network of sexually and emotionally abusive activists.
Tom Lang of Know Thy Neighbor has protested the “Dawson McAllister Live” show’s “Hopeline,” which until last week counseled youths with sexual concerns to contact Exodus International, a network of “ex-gay” activists that has a well-documented history of treatment failures, involuntary detentions, and sexual abuse.
The Hopeline bowed to pressure and removed Exodus from its referral list — but retained Focus on the Family, which also refers youths and young adults to Exodus’ abusive local programs and promotes the damaging myth that homosexual orientation is caused by bad parenting or molestation.
Lang tells Truth Wins Out that Clear Channel’s Boston affiliate, KISS 108, has since banned Lang from Matty in the Morning, the Facebook page of its most popular show, leaving audiences largely unaware of both the past bad referrals and the ongoing risk of abuse and verbal harassment by bigoted allies of Focus on the Family.
McAllister’s show airs nationally on XM Satellite Radio and from 10 p.m. until midnight or later, local time, in 130 cities.
In each city, youths are encouraged to call between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. CDT to share their personal problems with McAllister’s counselors. The advice that youths receive seems rooted more in conservative conventional wisdom than in sound mental health.
Instead of addressing critics’ well-documented concerns about client abuse, Exodus responded by attacking the critics and crediting McAllister as a spiritual godfather of the ex-gay movement: an arbiter of the political correctness which Exodus passes off as “truth”:
Dawson McAllister’ show is not overtly religious, just truthful. McAllister may know the source of all truth but he does not promote Christianity on his show.
However, if a listener calls in the HopeLine, he may be prayed for. He may be counseled to seek God. He may be directed to a Christian ministry like Exodus International, for it is only in Christ that we have any hope.
In other words, McAllister drives youth away from mental health professionals and into the hands of evangelists with an axe to grind. To them, youths are little more than chits on a scorecard of “saved” souls.
So long as McAllister’s advice is rooted in the philosophy of James Dobson, and so long as he refers youths and their parents to abusive and ignorant ex-gay activists at Focus on the Family, his show poses a health threat.
Please listen to the program, then call in seeking advice, and finally contact your local affiliate and demand that they stop airing McAllister’s show until he halts youth referrals to unaccountable and abusive activists at Focus on the Family. (Many affiliates have Facebook pages, but calls directly to the station may have a stronger impact.)
Do not accept station referrals to Clear Channel or to Premiere Radio; it is the responsibility of the local station to vet its shows for content that may harm families and communities. McAllister is entitled to free speech like anyone else; but free-speech rights do not require that a private media corporation give one man an exclusive slot on a national radio show.
Families deserve access to reputable mental health professionals — not hucksters who blame parents, put youths at risk, and damn people to Hell if they don’t comply with Focus on the Family’s rigid and self-serving ideology.
At minimum, if Clear Channel is committed to diversity as it has often claimed, then McAllister should include mainstream mental-health professionals frequently in his programs regarding sexuality, and should provide referrals to PFLAG and local gay-straight alliances.
A grim reminder of extremism gone too far. This is why we must remain vigilant and monitor those on the fringe who promote hate, intolerance, exclusion and violence. Here is a key to find out what each Nazi symbol means.
Nationally syndicated call-in radio program Dawson McAllister Live has come under fire recently after reports emerged that the show’ representatives were directing teens struggling with their sexuality to Exodus International, an “ex-gay” program that purports to “reverse” homosexuality through prayer and Christian-based therapy.
Truth Wins Out, a national program that counters the “ex-gay” industry, has also been vocal against McAllister’ ties with Exodus. “Dawson McAllister Live is sending LGBT youth to programs that have damaged many people and have caused much harm,” said Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out. “If he wants to dole out religious advice contrary to every respected medical and mental health organization in the nation, he should be relegated to fundamentalist radio. It is outrageous and insulting that mainstream radio stations would give him a platform to pose as secular while offering medically unsound and sectarian advice.”
Question for readers: Should Dawson McAllister Live be taken off the air, since it is posing as secular show – when it secretly has a fundamentalist agenda?
Students from at least three rural, mid-Michigan high schools participated in an event they dubbed “straight pride day” last Friday. And while the events were without disruptive incident, they were not without controversy or concern. Students, parents and school officials spoke to Michigan Messenger about the event in the days leading up to it.
Treyton Gregg, a 17-year-old junior at Laingsburg High School where the event was evidently centered, said he was worried about the event, particularly in light of how some of his peers responded to the estimated 50 student who participated in the Day of Silence event the previous week, an annual event when students protest anti-gay bigotry by staying silent for the day.
“I was called fag too many times to count,” says Gregg, a tinge of anger and hurt in his voice. “It bothered me. It hurt. These are people I’ve gone to school with for years.”
Asked if he had been called “fag” in the past, Gregg said he had, “but not so frequently.”
Read FULL STORY from Todd Heywood at The Michigan Messenger.
The Bishops and Elders Council, convened by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, is meeting this week in Washington, D.C. It will hold a noontime vigil, Tuesday, April 27, to support Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
Uganda is considering the “Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” which would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment or even death. Leaders from across the world have expressed outrage at this measure. There has been criticism of some U.S. evangelicals, such as anti-LGBT and anti-abortion extremist Lou Engle of The Call Ministries, (Video Above) who are accused of exporting homophobia to Uganda. Engle is slated to go to Uganda on May 2 for The Call Uganda, a mass evangelical stadium rally.
What:
Vigil of clergy in robes and stoles will speak out in support of LGBT people in Uganda and challenge the export of homophobia by U.S. evangelicals.
When:
Tuesday, April 27, noon
Where:
National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle, NW, Washington, D.C.
Who:
Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, Faith Work Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Bishop Yvette Flunder, Presiding Bishop, The Fellowship; Rev. Nancy L. Wilson, Moderator, Metropolitan Community Churches; Rev. Roland Stringfellow, Baptist Minister & Director of Welcoming Churches CLGS; and Harry Knox, Director of Religion & Faith Program, Human Rights Campaign.
This is an interesting interview. Try not to cringe in the second section when, for some unknown reason (CNN, y’all really are batting a thousand, you know), King’s producers thought it would be a good idea to bring on a bigoted pastor to sit and talk about how sorry he feels for Jennifer. Props to Jennifer, though, for holding her tongue all the way through his entire ignorant, concern trolling tirade. Of course, there’s a hilarious moment at around 5:35 when Larry asks the pastor whether he made a “choice” to be a heterosexual, and he responds “I did!”
For the record: Pastor Bob Botsford of Horizon Christian Fellowship of San Diego could just as easily have been super gay, had that been what he wanted, and it wasn’t, so shut up.
In fairness, Larry mops the floor with the idiot pastor. So does Jen. So maybe they only brought him on for laughs.
In this segment, for some reason I cannot possibly put my finger on, they invite Ted Haggard on to give his perspective.
Oh boy, Rosie really takes Mike Huckabee to task and gently, ever so gently, exposes him as a moron. In this clip, Rosie is talking to him about his lack of support for gay parenting, and over and over, he says he doesn’t “judge” gay families, but that we are not the “ideal.” Rosie calls that out as the coded dogwhistle language it is.
Tom Lang of Know Thy Neighbor has protested the “Dawson McAllister Live” show’s “
Students from at least three rural, mid-Michigan high schools participated in an event they dubbed “straight pride day” last Friday. And while the events were without disruptive incident, they were not without controversy or concern. Students, parents and school officials spoke to Michigan Messenger about the event in the days leading up to it.
