So the various townships in New Hampshire have mostly voted against a warrant article calling for the statehouse to allow a vote on same-sex marriage. This, you may recall, was instigated by the kook pews after New Hampshire became the sixth state to allow same-sex marriage…this time via the statehouse rather then the courts. You’d think that since legislators are accountable to the voters this would satisfy the wingers who keep bellyaching that the push for same-sex marriage is anti-democratic somehow, in that it has mostly relied on equal rights lawsuits. And never mind that a rule of law is essential for democracy.
But “the right of the voters to have their say” is just so much empty rhetoric that homophobes employ to dress up what is, at its core, a profoundly anti-democratic agenda. If you had any doubts about that, just read this little nugget in the Seacoast Online…
A remarkable event occurred at the Greenland Town Meeting yesterday (March 13). More than six hours into the meeting (with no lunch break!) we finally reached the final item of business. Article 30: To see if the town will vote to approve the following resolution to be forwarded to our state representative, state senator, etc. … “resolved: the citizens of New Hampshire should be allowed to vote on an amendment to the New Hampshire Constitution that defines ‘marriage.’”
The article had been requested by petition and required a secret ballot. After four speakers, voting began. Voters turned in their voting cards, submitted their ballots and most of the voters then left the meeting. The town moderator then called the results: the “no” vote won. Apparently, Greenland voters trust their legislators to legislate and do not feel that gay marriage is such a threat to our society that we need to amend the Constitution to prohibit it.
But the opponents to gay marriage will stop at nothing. This is what happened next: One of petitioners asked the moderator to call for a reconsideration of the vote. Because the Town Meeting had not yet been officially closed, it is apparently legal to call for a re-vote, even though almost all the voters had left! However, just because something is legal does not make it right or fair. Proponents of this marriage amendment are so desperate they are willing to subvert the voters’ will to get their way.
Dig it. They waited until almost all the voters had left and then called for another vote. How much do you want to bet that this particular tactic was crafted by and sent out to the grass roots by NOM, or someone working with them. But at least in this one case, the tactic seems to have backfired…
How did it end? We then had the opportunity to vote on whether to reconsider, and all, except the petitioner, voted against reconsideration. Two people stated that they had voted for the initial resolution, but felt it was wrong to have a re-vote.
(Emphasis mine) Perhaps this opened a few eyes to the moral character of the anti-gay crusaders in their midst. The essential nature of bigotry is that it is a kind of cheating, a seeking of cheap advantage over others. The color of your skin, the land or ethnic group you were born to. Your gender. Your religion. Something, anything, you didn’t actually have to work to achieve, that you can demand respect for without having to have actually done anything worthy of respect. The essential nature of the bigot is of a cheat and a coward. So of course, rules don’t matter. Rules are for other people. Expect them to cheat, because cheats they are.
It would be interesting to see in how many townships where the vote was in favor of the warrant, which of those yes votes came on the second ballot, after the others had left the meeting and it was mostly just the true believers left in attendance.
The website Ranker lists the “Top 10 Anti-Gay Activists Caught Being Gay”. I’m not sure how they left off John Paulk, but even with this horrid mistake, the list is fun to read. Truth Wins Out also has a list of infamous ex-gay scandals.
Ex Gay Watch revealed in an investigative report that Light House World Evangelism, Inc. will close. This ministry has been run by Matthew C. Manning, who claims God had cured him of AIDS and homosexuality. Although, his claims seem doubtful, considering he was arrested on three separate occasions for soliciting men. He was also banned from a popular gym after improper sexual advances were made on a 22-year-old heterosexual male.
According to Ex-Gay Watch, Manning had a revelation from God during the Winter Olympics to close up his sodomy shop, um, I mean, ministry.
“During the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, the torch was extinguished, and the flame was symbolically given to the next host country. At the very moment the flame was extinguished in Canada, God said to me, ‘The Flame the Anointing the Presence and Power of My Holy Spirit, will no longer reside over LightHouse World Evangelism, Inc., rather it is being transferred to a new ministry that I am calling you and your family to.”
We can only look forward to Manning’s next venture. Maybe he will open a fundamentalist gym, now that he has no place to pump….iron.
Because Satan can only be so many places at once, you see.
“The devil tempts everyone — people in politics, in economics, in sport. And naturally, he tempts, above all, the religious leaders, so you shouldn’t be surprised if the devil tempts those in the Vatican. That’s his job.”
Father Gabriele Amorth isn’t speaking metaphorically when he says that. The 85-year-old priest means people can be tempted and literally possessed by Satan.
(…)
And as the chief exorcist of the Roman Catholic Church, it’s his job to expel the devil when someone is possessed. Amorth, the founder of the International Association of Exorcists, has performed more than 70,000 exorcisms in his career, he estimates.
But there is a difference between possession — where the devil takes hold of someone’s body and actions — and temptation, where Satan lures a person into doing evil, he said.
As a child abuse scandal sweeps across Europe, with accusations being made against priests in Ireland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, Amorth said the pedophiles are tempted, not possessed.
He has never done an exorcism on a child molester, he said.
“I have carried out exorcisms on some priests who had been molested by the devil,” he said, without going into details.
“But cases of pedophilia exorcised, no. … Pedophiles are not possessed by the devil, they are tempted by the devil,” he said.
Setting aside the utterly insane idea that people’s bodies are possessed or inhabited by invisible evil spirits for just a moment…
So, this exorcist (oh, to be paid throughout life for doing nothing) has done his monkey business on priests who have been “molested by the devil”?
I wasn’t aware the devil was into guys.
Any-hoo, I think it’s great that the Roman Catholic Church continues to talk about these things, because they just keep saying crazier and crazier things! And none of it is moving an inch toward exculpating the thugs! As far as I can see, it’s having the opposite effect, and each day and each new grotesque revelation are doing their part to continue chipping away at the moral authority of the Catholic Church, and the faster that happens, the better off the world will be.
A United Nations Aids [sic] agency complains that homosexuals, drug users and prostitute [sic] don’t seek help because of laws that criminalize their practices.
Michel Sidibe of UNAIDS is quoted as saying it is unacceptable that 85 countries still make homosexual conduct illegal, but Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), does not accept that thinking.
“They’ve got everything backwards,” he contends. “Rather than have a campaign – for example an anti-sodomy campaign, an anti-prostitution campaign, an anti-drug abuse campaign that targets the bad behaviors themselves – instead they target countries that are trying to implement conservative policies that target homosexuality.”
In compatibility with his logic, Sidibe suggests that laws against the immoral behavior be changed.
“Mr. Sidibe is just completely confused,” LaBarbera notes. “He says that in states where there are not repressive laws, HIV is contained. Then he goes on to express shock that more than 50 percent of infections in the United States are among homosexuals. So he contradicts himself.”
Peter: stick to leather porn. The grown-ups who are experts on AIDS prevention will handle the grown-up issue of AIDS prevention.
Today, “60 leaders of religious orders representing 59,000 Catholic nuns” sent a letter to federal lawmakers urging them to pass the Senate health care legislation. They decried the “false” information floating around about abortion provisions and said that the bill’s “historic new investments” for pregnant women are the “REAL pro-life stance.” The nuns’ letter was a significant and unusual break with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which continues to denounce the legislation. This afternoon, Stupak dismissed the nuns, saying that he listens to only male religious figures and far-right religious organizations:
Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Mich, responded sharply to White House officials touting a letter representing 59,000 nuns that was sent to lawmakers urging them to pass the health care bill.
The conservative Democrat dismissed the action by the White House saying, “When I’m drafting right to life language, I don’t call up the nuns.” He says he instead confers with other groups including “leading bishops, Focus on the Family, and The National Right to Life Committee.”
That a member of the Democratic Party is listening to groups like Focus on the Family or National Right to Life is pathetic. It would be one thing if he were a Republican, because you could at least say “Well, in that echo chamber, there’s probably not anyone smart enough to break through the paranoid wingnut version of reality and lead the Congressman along to smarter, more honest people.” But as a Democrat, Stupak has no excuse.
But as was pointed out when Bart Stupak became a household name among misogynists and those of us who fight against them, no one has ever accused Bart Stupak of being intelligent, and as long as he keeps listening to the windsocks at Focus, that accusation will likely continue to steer clear of him.
UPDATE: Here’s a little perspective from Wonkette’’s “Jim Newell” character, on the split between Stupak, Focus on the Family and the obnoxious Catholic bishops holding up healthcare reform, and the 59,000 nuns who support it:
Don’t know about you people, but we trust America’s old virgin nuns much more than we do the Catholic Bishops, who just run an ancient kiddie-rape cult, since they can’t have sex with the virgin nuns and are also pedophiles.
I know that’s right.
It’s funny how the NUNS aren’t all hot and bothered about the abortion provisions in healthcare reform (that don’t even exist unless you’re a liar, stupid, or on hallucinogens) the same way the bishops are, isn’t it? (No. It’s because the nuns are women and women don’t tend to support misogyny the same way men do. Crazy, I know!)
It apparently extends all the way up to Pope Hitlerpants himself.
As Joe Sudbay said when he posted this, I’m sure Bill Donohue will be wetting his garanimals in Jon Stewart’s general direction before the evening, if he isn’t already.
More on the disgusting state of the Catholic Church directly below.
On a personal note, sorry blogging is light right now! Things are a bit crazy, but I promise I’ll catch up soon!
As hundreds of new allegations of sexual abuse surface in the German church alone, a top Vatican official acknowledged Tuesday that, with only 10 people handling such cases, his office might not be adequate for the task. The ratio of 10 people handling 300 cases a year did not go over well in some quarters. “It seems like an extraordinarily paltry effort, given the scope of the crisis,” said David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
It is amazing that the Catholic Church had the manpower and funds to vehemently oppose marriage equality in Maine and other places, yet they only have 10 people to investigate the avalanche of sexual abuse charges. This is all you need to know about the sexual morality and priorities of this Pope. It is absolutely insulting and disgraceful for the Vatican to throw money at marriage referendums, while underfunding child abuse investigations. Shame on the Pope.
The head of Ireland’s Catholics has apologised for his role in mishandling the case of a serial child abuser.
As a priest in 1975 Cardinal Sean Brady was at meetings where children signed vows of silence over complaints against paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
He said he wanted to apologise to “all those who feel I have let them down”.
Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI has announced that on Friday he will sign his long awaited pastoral letter dealing with paedophilia in Ireland.
He said in recent months the church in Ireland had been “rocked by the crisis of abuse of minors” and hoped his letter would “help repentance, healing and renewal”.
And these people are going to preach to me about sexual morality? Please.
Hiram Monserrate, who was expelled from the State Senate after being convicted of assaulting his girlfriend, was defeated on Tuesday by José R. Peralta in a special election in Queens for Mr. Monserrate’s former seat.
Peralta won with 66 percent of the vote and Monserrate got 27 percent. The Republican candidate, Robert Beltrani came in third with 7 percent.
It was wonderful to see the abusive, anti-gay bigot go down in flames. Knowing that his lack of morality and character were a major liability, Monserrate tried to make this race about marriage equality. The girlfriend beater laughably positioned himself as a defender of the family and insulted LGBT people.
Empire State Pride Agenda, Queer Rising, Marriage Equality New York, the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City and Fight Back New York all played roles in Peralta’s victory.
Indicative of Monserrate character, the Times reports that the scoundrel stopped at a senior citizens’ center in Corona that served as a polling site.
Apparently ignoring election rules that prohibit candidates from campaigning within 100 feet of polling stations, he walked in, shook hands with the men, hugged the women and danced salsa with students taking a class until the center’s director persuaded him to leave.
It is good to see this self-absorbed, arrogant, hypocrite get ousted from politics. He can now pack up his disgraceful anti-gay circus and go home.
When the opposition polls veterans, they tend to rush for the nearest nursing home, since they know that they have no prayer of making a case against openly gay troops when they ask the actual men and women who are fighting for our country right now. It shows an alarming lack of disrespect for their sacrifices when Elaine Donnelly and her viper-tongued brethren do this, but she’s not a moral person, so we shouldn’t be surprised.
A new poll, of veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, tells a more accurate, a more current story:
As the Pentagon prepares to survey soldiers about President Obama’s decision to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a new poll of military personnel who served in the Afghanistan or Iraq wars has finds that sexual orientation is “not a burning issue that overwhelms veterans’ lives.”
The new poll, commissioned by The Vet Voice Foundation and conducted jointly by Republican and Democratic pollsters, finds that most veterans are “comfortable around gay and lesbian people, believe that being gay or lesbian has no bearing on a service member’s ability to perform their duties, and would find it acceptable if gay and lesbian people were allowed to serve openly in the military.” Fifty-eight percent of veterans said they served alongside gays or lesbians, and only 22 percent thought they had not:
– 60% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans believe that being gay or lesbian “has no bearing on a service member’s ability to perform their duties.” Only 29% disagree.
– 73% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans say it is “personally acceptable to them if gay and lesbian people were allowed to serve openly in the military.” Only a quarter (25%) would find it unacceptable.
– 73% Iraq and Afghanistan veterans say “they are personally comfortable in the presence of gays and lesbians.” Only a quarter (23%) is uncomfortable, and hardly anyone is very uncomfortable (only 7%).
Much as it might chap Elaine Donnelly’s behind, those numbers aren’t going back their way either. There’s simply too much education out there nowadays, and the great majority of younger people in this nation know that the Religious Right’s anti-gay fearmongering has been simply much ado about nothing.
By the way, the poll sample included more than twice as many self-identified Republicans as it did Democrats.
Hiram Monserrate, 
