You see, this is why Focus on the Family and their affiliated wingnut devotees are victims at this very moment: The New York marriage equality law that passed included exemptions for religious organizations in all areas directly pertaining to the practice of their religion. Therefore, for instance, a church doesn’t have to marry gay couples [they wouldn't have to anyway, but wingnuts are idiots and you have to spell it out for them]. But fundamentalist Christians, unfortunately, have a really disturbingly wrong sense of the meaning of their “religious freedom.” They think it means that they should never have to be confronted, in the public sphere, with anything that hurts their fee fees or that scares them. So here, watch as Bruce Hausknecht and Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family cry, cry, cry about how their “rights” are being violated. Did you know that a Christian wedding photographer might have to photograph a gay wedding?! It’s true! Fundamentalist Christians not getting a pass to be abhorrent bigots, and simply having to abide by the laws of the places where they live, is surely a sign of Kirk Cameron’s rapture and the End of the World.
Stupid or lying? Lying or stupid? That’s always the question.
The Bible says that if you judge others you will be jusdged in the same way. Im sure God cringes every time he sees HIS children sreaming out judgement like this.
The answer to that question is “Yes and yes.”
Oh, boo-hoo, you two fucktards; gay people in N.Y. are finally going to be able to get married !
Stuart, you self-loathing queen, STFU, and take your buddy with you!
If a “Christian” photographer doesn’t want to contract with a couple that are mixed race it is no different. If they make an issue of it they are inviting trouble why don’t they just say they are booked etc.? A hissy fit is a terrible thing to waste. They should be having fits over starving children, unemployment caused by 8 yrs of G.W. Bush, the trillion dollars in war expenses and other things that as Christians they are called to do something about.
why is it that wingnuts always behave like babies every time gay rights advance, But when we lose we keep moving forward?
Hah, the fools.
They know they’re in the minority now.
Comments on the video? Disabled.
Ratings on the video? Also, DISABLED.
The whining imbeciles obviously think they need protection from dissenting opinions.
On another note, lol @ “PARENTAL RIGHTS” and schooling.
Because we all know that gay marriage is going to be indoctrinated to your little devils in Pre-K.
Because we all know that if little children hear about the possibility that two people of the same sex being able to wed, they will be forced into “that lifestyle”, blah blah blah.
They just don’t get it, and I almost feel like there’s no point in my frustration, because people at and who support FOTF, FRC, NOM, etc, are stubborn mules.
What radical anti-gay activists seek is a loop hole for equality. They want to create a “right” to refuse service to gay customers based on “conscience.” In other words, anyone anywhere could refuse us services based on their “conscience.” This would create a situation in America where anyone could refuse services to anyone else. Don’t like Mexicans? Refuse to sell them flowers based on your “conscience.” Don’t like Asians, refuse to sell them groceries, based on your “conscience.” Don’t like Muslims? Refuse to sell them a home based on your “conscience.” In order to get America back to the 1950′s where businesses could refuse service to any minority, anti-gay activists begin with gay Americans and claim it’s only about their “religious beliefs.” It’s about so much more than that and many Americans are endangered by it.
Is Bruce gay? He sure has the gay vibe and look!
Good point, Michael.
But watch them scream bloody murder when they are refused service for being Christian, based on “conscience”.
A local Christian weekly newspaper puts out a Christian “Yellow Pages ™” every year; I make it a point to get a copy so I’ll know who NOT to give my business to. Ditto with any business that has the “fish” symbol in its regular Yellow Page ad. 1) I figure that they don’t want my money, since I’m gay and 2) if they did take my money, they would probably contribute at least part of it to anti-gay causes, whether directly or indirectly.
Do Christian judges have the right to not grant divorces? I don’t think so. And of course they lie about the situation in a Massachusetts kindergarten.
And of course these whiners who claim discrimination against themselves want to stop the law from taking effect. They so much want to interfere with our rights. The victimizers turn things around and claim to be the victims. What slimy hypocrites.
I am so g*****n tired of the religious haters and their constant whining. They get exemptions (which should not have to have been spelled out but the idiots have apparently never cracked a civics textbook) and it isn’t ENOUGH for them. They want to make this country into a theocracy. I am so tired of them thinking their “rights” trump ours.
[...] TWO: Focus on the Family Whining About Religious Exemptions in NY Marriage Law. View video [...]
Make up your mind, already! Are you constantly “winning” (as Sheen would say) this oh-so-important fight for “equality” or are you perennial victims of the prejudices of “homophobes”? If it’s the former, then stop whining and admit private contractors (like wedding photographers) can refuse who they want. If the majority is on your side, such people’s business will suffer for it. Or are you forever helpless little intolerant victims who need the state to mandate your “equality” for you, and F*** religious liberty rights? Which is it???? JUST STOP WHINING!!!!!
No, actually, if the law says you can’t discriminate, you can’t discriminate.
Now, it is true that most Christian wingnut wedding photographers, for instance, won’t have to deal with gay couples, because we don’t tend to drive that far out into the low property value cookie cutter suburbs, with their mega churches and Wal-Marts and trans fat addicts, in order to do business. The issue will occasionally come up in places one might call “creative deserts,” where there are simply not enough people and the only choice available is a barking mad wingnut.
But…you’re kind of projecting here, as it was the nelly boys from Focus whining in the video — not us — and it is you, obsessing early in the morning (wife still asleep after another sexless night, AC?) by coming to gay blogs to b***h and moan, who are continuing the whining.
OH, AC, The IRONY of your words! LOL!!!!
Stop playing the victim when its people like you who push their values on everyone else. At this point, you just sound kind of pathetic
AC you are a brainwashed religionista fool. Waht is your level of education, and what did you study?
AC– nice try, but I don’t think you understand the issue.
I’m a wedding photographer myself. And from my experience, the couple that sued I suspect was trouble from the start. And astute photographer learns to recognize them. Elaine didn’t. Likewise, an astute event photographer knows that the only face a client should ever see is friendly, pleasant, polite, and caring, no matter what you might feel about it. Telling people that you don’t approve of them or their lifestyle (I’m using the word consciously here) is not a way to make them happy. so on top of everything else, Elaine was rude.
As a wedding photographer, I can tell you there are plenty of people whose weddings I do not want to shoot. I would be very foolish to tell them why. You just say you’re booked, and you refer them on, if you can. Not that I would do so for illegal reasons, but because I flat out don’t like them, or think they will be trouble, or difficult to deal with. I would even shoot a Mormon wedding– though at this point, I would probably donate the money to marriage equality in honor of their wedding and let them know that I did.
Nevertheless, there is something else to consider here. The wedding photographer in New Mexico violated a law that said that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is illegal. The same law that protects blacks, whites, and even Christians. The same law that says discrimination on the basis of RELIGIOUS belief is not acceptable.
As a Jew, I reject the Christian story, and as a thinking human being, I reject Biblical morality. This bothers the religious beliefs of no one but the most rabid fundamentalist, nor would any but the most clueless dare say so in public for fear of rightly being called a religious bigot. But let me say that I’m gay and reject just this tiniest part of conservative Christian belief, and suddenly, religious beliefs are offended, the people who hold them are “persecuted”. What is the difference?
Does Elaine do Jewish weddings or Hindu weddings? Theoretically, if she does not, she could cite her religious beliefs as the basis for her opposition. Why this different?
It amazes me that religions disagree about the nature of God, and their history is written in blood. But gay people–well, they finally have it right. So, to say that she is entitled to reject these women as clients because they are gay, but not entitled to because they are Jews, represents a logical inconsistency.
The word bigotry comes to mind, a bigotry that any gay person knows exists. Just because it is your religious belief and it is about gay people, doesn’t make it right.
Frank Schaeffer, author of ‘Crazy for God’ and ‘Sex, Mom & God’ and son of the late Xtian apologist Francis Schaeffer has coined the phrase ‘Jesus Victims’ for fundies & evangelicals who are perennially ‘persecuted’ & ‘victimized’ by the big bad gays & the equally bad liberals. Focus on the Family’s Jim Daly came out last month saying that the “culture war for marriage was lost”. Now they are back pedaling like crazy as they beg on air for money & support. Tough luck for them.
These people are rather paranoid, to say the least!!
I’m gay, but I think that people should have the choice of who their clients are. That’s their right. If they don’t feel comfortable with me and my boyfriend, then I don’t want them at my wedding, much less taking pictures of it.