Note: this article was originally posted on Bilerico.

So Dan Savage was glitterbombed yesterday for the third time by LGBT activists. I can’t tell you how much this dismays me.

It’s true that Dan Savage has made offensive remarks in the past. I’m not denying, explaining, justifying, or defending that, because a.) it’s not my place to speak for him, and b.) Dan has already addressed them himself. I’m also not in any way trying to minimize or downplay what I have no doubt is the very real, acute pain that anti-trans bigotry causes, or the way anti-trans language, regardless of intent, reinforces that bigotry. Look: as a gay man, not to mention a married one, I am keenly aware of the sting of bigotry. I feel it every day, both through my own life experiences and those that many of you share with me and the rest of us here at Truth Wins Out. As much as anti-gay bigotry hurts, though — as heavily as it weighs on my heart, and as much as I abhor the construction of a hierarchy of oppression — I recognize the privilege that I possess as a white, cisgender gay man. I simply cannot fathom the magnitude of the journey my trans kinfolk are on, nor do I possess a vocabulary sufficient to convey my admiration for the courage it takes each and every one of my trans friends to be true to hirself and to own, embrace, and love that truth.

But Savage’s glitterbombing still disturbs me profoundly. The reason? Dan Savage is not the enemy. As Bil Browning, another veteran LGBT activist, points out, trans people are not alone in their journey. All of us cisgendered individuals — even those of us in the LGBT movement — are on a journey too, into an ever-greater understanding of the perspectives and experiences that our trans siblings bring to the table and the unique issues, circumstances, and difficulties they face. Our movement is most effective when we fight forcefully for our human rights and dignities against those who oppress us while at the same time dispelling misconceptions by telling the stories of our lives, educating people about our orientations/identities/expressions and the injustices we face because of them, and awakening in all of us the realization of our common humanity and the fundamental rights and protections to which that humanity entitles us.

Even the most outspoken and well-intentioned of us have warts. But Dan Savage is not a trans enemy. Warts and all, his heart is in the right place and he is an ally in the struggle for equality on behalf of our entire community — lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. What’s more, Savage is one of the most visible members of our community. He has a high profile that almost none of the rest of us have, and that enables him to be an especially forceful advocate for the LGBT movement. Absolutely nothing is gained by attacking him; if anything, those who engage in these repeated attacks run the serious risk of silencing one of our most powerful assets.

All of us, including the so-called “trans mafia,” should take care to remember who our real enemies are. It shouldn’t be too hard; there are plenty of them. Instead of directing our frustration and anger inwards at obviously supportive and well-meaning community members who have a less-than-immaculate record on every single LGBT issue, we need to direct it outwards and upwards towards the Tony Perkinses, Rick Santorums, Keith Ablows, and Laura Ingrahams of the world. Instead of vilifying people for what they don’t fully understand, we need to meet them where they are and bring them further.

Circular firing squads cut all of us down, and guess what? After the last shot is fired, our enemies are still standing.

Let’s be better than that. Our rights and our lives depend on it.

Postscript: I’d like to encourage readers of this article to head over to Bilerico and read this brilliant piece written by Austen Crowder, titled “The ‘Trans Mafia’ Stifles Allies.”

(Weekly Column)

There is something seriously wrong with a political party where it is more controversial and exotic to speak French than in tongues. Given this acid trip facsimile of reality, it was inevitable that the Republican presidential primaries have come down to the Slickest vs. The Sickest.

On the slick side is Newt Gingrich, the career politician who got rich off lobbying and switched wives and religions three times, yet is running as a “family values” Washington outsider.

Mitt Romney also personifies slick with his perfectly coifed hairdo and a propensity to take more positions than a triple-jointed hooker. He keeps talking about personal responsibility and demanding that Americans take a spoonful of castor oil, even as the silver spoon dangles from his mouth. Today, Romney admitted that he pays an effective tax-rate of only 15%, much lower than middle class Americans, and significantly less than President Barack Obama who paid just over 26% on his 2012 tax returns.

Romney, the pampered patrician, keeps pretending he’s slumming but we all know he’ll be “summering” if he doesn’t get the nomination. During one debate in Iowa, he foolishly challenged Gov. Rick Perry to a $10,000 bet as if it were pocket change. Today he solidified his “out of touch” image by saying,

“I got a little bit of income from my book, but I gave that all away… I get speakers’ fees from time to time, but not very much.” The New York Times reports, however, that Romney earned $374,327.62 in speakers’ fees from February of 2010 to February of 2011, at an average of $41,592 per speech.

Romney’s gaffe is reminiscent of George H.W. Bush who looked disconnected from real Americans in 1992 when he came across a grocery store scanner for the first time. The New York Times wrote about the incident in a story headlined, “Bush Encounters the Supermarket, Amazed”:

As President Bush travels the country in search of re-election, he seems unable to escape a central problem: This career politician, who has lived the cloistered life of a top Washington bureaucrat for decades, is having trouble presenting himself to the electorate as a man in touch with middle-class life.

Today, for instance, he emerged from 11 years in Washington’s choicest executive mansions to confront the modern supermarket…he grabbed a quart of milk, a light bulb and a bag of candy and ran them over an electronic scanner. The look of wonder flickered across his face again as he saw the item and price registered on the cash register screen.

Obviously, Bush lost his race and I suspect that President Barack Obama will be able to defeat a man who believes that $374,327 is little more than Monopoly Money.

When it comes to “The Sickest,” obviously we are talking about Rick Santorum, since Michele Bachmann has dropped out of the race. If he actually mattered, we could also be talking about Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who invokes Jesus’ name so often that he makes Tim Tebow look like Dr. Richard Dawkins.

In his infinite wisdom, Perry wants a part-time Congress so House and Senate members can go back to their home states and get “real jobs.” Which will work out fine until we have to hold off on declaring war against an enemy state because the night manager at Waffle House won’t let Congressman X leave the late shift to return to Capitol Hill. Indeed, we already had a part-time president in the endlessly vacationing George W. Bush and look how well that turned out.

Back to the Opus Dei loving Santorum — he’s just plain nuts.  Consider the infamous fetus in a jar situation:

In his Senate office, on a shelf next to an autographed baseball, Sen. Rick Santorum keeps a framed photo of his son Gabriel Michael, the fourth of his seven children. Named for two archangels, Gabriel Michael was born prematurely, at 20 weeks, on Oct. 11, 1996, and lived two hours outside the womb. Upon their son’s death, Rick and Karen Santorum opted not to bring his body to a funeral home. Instead, they bundled him in a blanket and drove him to Karen’s parents’ home in Pittsburgh. There, they spent several hours kissing and cuddling Gabriel with his three siblings, ages 6, 4 and 1 1/2. They took photos, sang lullabies in his ear and held a private Mass.

This story is remarkable considering Santorum’s wife had previously dated a well-known abortion doctor forty years her senior! With her incredible flip-flopping on abortion, maybe she should have married Mitt Romney?

Most of the media is afraid to admit the obvious: The GOP contenders are loopy clowns selling a field of schemes. The Religious Right ensures that one can only get the nomination through insanity (Santorum) or by faking insanity (Romney). Until this radical special interest group is permanently expelled from the Republican Party, the fringe binge will continue and Ron Paul will often look like the sanest one on-stage.

Wow. Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt (Remember him? The one who turned the Catholic Mass and that church’s holiest sacrament into a weapon with which to bludgeon LGBT people?) does NOT want dissent within the clerical ranks when it comes to same-sex marriage.

In a dictatorial move, Nienstedt essentially told the priests of his diocese that when it came to the Minnesota Catholic church’s campaign to pass a constitutional marriage discrimination amendment, they had two choices: help out or shut up.

It is my expectation that all the priests and deacons in this Archdiocese will support this venture and cooperate with us in the important efforts that lie ahead. The gravity of this struggle, and the radical consequences of inaction propels me to place a solemn charge upon you all — on your ordination day, you made a promise to promote and defend all that the Church teaches. I call upon that promise in this effort to defend marriage. There ought not be open dissension on this issue. If any have personal reservations, I do not wish that they be shared publicly. If anyone believes in conscience that he cannot cooperate, I want him to contact me directly and I will plan to respond personally.

Writing for the American Independent, crack reporter Andy Birkey revealed yesterday that Nienstedt’s authoritarian remarks were delivered in a private speech to priests last October. Just to make sure his message reached every priest under his jurisdiction, the archbishop later sent the text of that speech to all priests who were unable to attend. (According to Birkey, Nienstedt’s remarks are only coming to light now because someone within the church leaked the speech to a group called the Progressive Catholic Voice, who released it to the media.) In the same address, Birkey reports that Nienstedt also spoke about sending teams consisting of “a priest and a married couple” into Catholic schools to discuss marriage discrimination with schoolchildren.

Minnesota Catholics: if you put money into the collection plate on Sundays, this is what you’re supporting. Yes, Nienstedt’s bigotry is out of step with the vast majority of Catholics. Yes, the Catholic church provides important services to poor and disadvantaged people. But there are dozens if not hundreds of charitable organizations providing the same services as the Catholic church without the spiritual bullying. When you donate to your local parish instead of these other charities, though, you give tacit approval to Nienstedt’s reprehensible persecution of your LGBT family members, friends, neighbors, and congregants.

Money talks. Assuming that the Catholic church will change its position on marriage equality or even ease up on its anti-gay attacks without significant incentive to do so is the height of folly.

Intimidating priests whose consciences might compel them to take a position on Minnesota’s marriage amendment different from that of the institutional church. Sending teams of adults into Catholic schools to teach children that only some of them will be worthy of marriage when they grow up. Ordering priests to organize grassroots political committees in their parishes for the express purpose of drumming up support for marriage discrimination. Producing and shipping DVDs attacking same-sex couples and families to every Catholic household in the state. Composing a prayer for divine help in the quest to write a divisive and discriminatory religious teaching into the civil constitution, then tying that prayer to the central act of unity in the Catholic tradition.

I can’t think of a more repulsive distortion of everything that a church is supposed to represent, and I couldn’t imagine supporting it with my hard-earned nickels and dimes. Minnesota Catholics, do you want this on your conscience?

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Wednesday announcement that she is ending her White House bid comes as no surprise. While the Minnesota congresswoman was one of the first GOP candidates to experience a surge in the polls last summer as the party’s base searched frantically for a conservative alternative to Mitt Romney (she even won the Iowa straw poll in August), her campaign had been dogged by a series of high-profile missteps.

They included: suggesting that cervical cancer vaccines cause “mental retardation,” pledging to close the non-existent American embassy in Tehran, reassigning the location of the “shot heard ‘round the world” to New Hampshire rather than Massachusetts, and confusing movie star John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

The withering heat of the presidential vetting process also yielded an embarrassing and disturbing revelation about Bachmann: The “Christian counseling” clinic that she co-owns with her husband, Marcus, offers so-called “ex-gay therapy” that purports to turn clients from gay to straight.

The Bachmanns had long denied that their clinic endorsed this form of “therapy,” which has no basis in research, inflicts substantial harm to patients who are falsely told they can “pray away the gay,” and is denounced by every mainstream professional medical and mental health organization. However, working for the LGBT rights group Truth Wins Out and at the behest of founder Wayne Besen, I conducted an undercover, hidden-camera investigation last summer that provided incontrovertible proof of reparative therapy taking place at Bachmann & Associates.

TWO’s investigation disrupted the momentum of Rep. Bachmann’s campaign, highlighting the congresswoman’s virulently anti-LGBT views and the extent to which those views are out of step with those of most Americans. It helped to define the public perception of Michele and Marcus Bachmann as religious extremists, drew attention to her long legislative record of anti-LGBT bigotry, and made it more difficult for her to recast herself as a mainstream presidential candidate.

Equally important, it cast a glaring spotlight on ex-gay therapy and helped reinvigorate the ongoing national conversation around this issue.

However, we shouldn’t kid ourselves into thinking that today’s announcement will mean we’ve heard the last from Michele Bachmann. She will return to Congress, where she will undoubtedly remain a forceful opponent of any and all efforts to advance LGBT equality. Bowing out of the presidential race allows Bachmann to focus her time and effort on her upcoming congressional re-election campaign in Minnesota, where it’s probable that she’ll lend her now-amplified voice to the effort to pass a proposed constitutional amendment banning any recognition of same-sex marriages or civil unions in that state. And Rep. Bachmann will most likely intensify her homophobia now that she no longer has to concern herself with attempting to appear presidential.

Finally, let’s not forget that the field of remaining presidential candidates is littered with homophobes, including a now-surging Rick Santorum, who most recently stated that his administration would attempt to forcibly divorce legally married same-sex couples.

So while the end of Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign is undoubtedly a positive development for America’s LGBT community, it’s definitely not cause for complacency. To the contrary, our efforts to protect and expand upon the victories we’ve achieved must intensify, because in this election year, our opponents are just getting started.

Note: this op-ed was written for, and initially appeared at, the Advocate.
Screen shot: Andy Towle

(Weekly Column)

When Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Francis George recently compared the LGBT community to the Ku Klux Klan he probably thought that there would be limited push back against his offensive remarks. Instead, his ugly smear was immediately met head-on with outrage and disgust. The way in which the LGBT community rapidly responded is a textbook example of successful advocacy and should be used as a model of how the movement takes on its opponents.

Windy City Times editor Tracy Baim got the ball rolling in a powerful editorial: “In comparing the LGBT community to the Ku Klux Klan—in his remarks about the potential disruption and inconvenience of the new Pride Parade route and start time—Cardinal George has gone too far, and he should graciously apologize, and step down from his post.”

My organization, Truth Wins Out, started a Change.org petition calling for George’s resignation that has been signed by more than 5,300 people. We helped keep the controversy alive during the holidays with a full-page Chicago Tribune ad headlined, “Hey, Cardinal Francis George, Gay is not Like the KKK.”

The Chicago Tribune editorial page called the comparison to the KKK a “bizarre analogy.” Robert McClory blogged at the National Catholic Reporter: “If he sees this latest broadside as an effective argument, he has badly missed the mark. Critics have suggested that George’s rash comments do more to spread anti-Catholicism than do the pronouncements of those who do hate the church.”

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Esther Cepeda body slammed the Chicago Archbishop: “George expressed an opinion that reinforces one of the many reasons Catholics leave the church. One out of every 10 Americans is an ex-Catholic — like me — and if they didn’t run away screaming because of the Church’s stance on abortion, birth control, divorce or the inadequate prosecution of priests who have sexually abused children, it’s because of its attitudes toward women and sexual orientation.”

George’s primary defenders were the Illinois Family Institute and the Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, both deemed hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Even troglodyte William Donahue of the Catholic League has so far not pounced on this issue, preferring to spend his time defending the Vatican’s handling of pedophile priest cases.

The juxtaposition of the Ku Klux Klan and law abiding LGBT citizens was simply too great a mental leap for all but the most ardent gay bashers. It would be nice if George apologized or stepped down, however if he does neither, the Cardinal has still lost the battle of public opinion. To mainstream Americans, including Catholics, he appears alarmist and extreme. His intransigence has only further tarnished his legacy and damaged the image of the Roman Catholic Church.

George can still escape from his self-inflicted bind if the LGBT community overplays its hand. This issue exploded after George went on Fox News Chicago and said that the gay-rights movement was at risk of morphing “into something like the Ku Klux Klan, protesting in the streets against Catholicism.”

On the cusp of victory, Chicago LGBT activist Lair Scott called for – you guessed it – a protest in the streets of Chicago against the Catholic Church. The demonstration will occur during Sunday mass at the seat of the Chicago Archdiocese. Lair is best known for his controversial Change.org petition demanding that PBS, “Let Bert and Ernie Get Married On Sesame Street.”

The Gay Liberation Network and the Rainbow Sash Movement, an organization of LGBT Catholics, have backed this protest, which has all the makings of a potential PR disaster. If the controversy switches from a debate over George’s KKK remarks to a FOX-fueled media frenzy about Bert and Ernie our message has been lost. If the protest becomes unruly, disrespectful, blatantly anti-religious, or if mass is disrupted the support of the sympathetic middle that believes George went too far will evaporate.

I’m not necessarily against a demonstration if it will keep the issue alive. However, let’s be honest and acknowledge that it is a risky venture that must be carefully planned and exquisitely executed or it could horribly backfire. Do we really want to hand FOX News and the Vatican a gift on a silver platter?

In the past, the Gay Liberation Network has organized important demonstrations in Chicago. Indeed, I worked with them on a successful protest against the Radio Hall of Fame when it inducted Focus on the Family’s James Dobson. They are good people who care very much about the LGBT community. Rainbow Sash also appears to have our best interests in mind.

I am sure that both organizations comprehend the gravity of this situation and understand the global ramifications if events spin out of control. While Cardinal George is fully responsible for sacrificing himself at the altar of idiocy, poor choices by the LGBT community could sadly lead to his unlikely resurrection.

(Weekly Column)

The Roman Catholic Church’s toxic obsession with homosexuality manifests itself in countless ways. The most recent anti-gay outburst came from the Chicago Archbishop, Cardinal Francis George, who foolishly compared the LGBT community to the Ku Klux Klan.

George’s offensive remarks came during a dispute over the scheduled starting time of the annual LGBT pride parade. The June 2012 event was originally set to begin at 10am, but a priest bitterly complained that this would interfere with morning services.

In an interview with Fox News in Chicago, Cardinal George said: “Well, I go with the pastor. I mean, he’s telling us that they won’t be able to have Church services on Sunday, if that’s the case. You know, you don’t want the Gay Liberation Movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.”

Cardinal George’s outrageous comparison of the LGBT community to the Ku Klux Klan was so degrading and hurtful that apologizing will not be sufficient. He has crossed so far over the line of basic decency that he couldn’t see it with a pair of binoculars. His only road to redemption is handing in his resignation. If George has a shred of dignity and a sliver of class he will immediately step down. To help influence his decision my organization, Truth Wins Out, launched a petition that has already been signed by more than 4,000 people.

First, bringing the KKK into a logistical discussion over a parade’s starting time is as brazen as it is bizarre. Especially, when the problem had already been resolved in good faith by changing the jump off time to noon. With no logical reason to bring this hate group into the mix, it is fair to assume that the nasty analogy was a cheap shot and a low blow designed to slime the LGBT community. If George’s intention was to play demagogue by unfairly pairing the LGBT community with vile imagery, he should have simply gone all the way and thrown in the Nazis, Charles Manson, Jim Jones, and Osama bin Laden. These odious examples would have made as much sense as the Klan comparison.

Second, how does one compare a peaceful movement of non-violent tax paying families to a group with a unique history of terror in the United States? Can the good Cardinal provide examples of masked homosexuals showing up at Catholic Churches and burning crosses or other objects on their lawns? Can George show us evidence that LGBT people are lynching people of faith? Are their choirboys and nuns hanging from trees that we don’t know about? Apparently, he can’t back up his irrational position and this is why he refused to appear on Chicago’s WGN radio to discuss his remarks, as I did on Tuesday morning.

Third, George falsely claimed that the LGBT parade was about “demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.” This far out assessment is simply paranoid and delusional. While the rabidly homophobic positions of Rome have rightfully angered many LGBT activists, the vast majority of parade marchers and spectators don’t go to make a political statement, but to have a good time. Such parades also include a large number of LGBT Catholics and organizations that represent the gay faithful.

It is a mark of George’s solipsism that he thinks we are as obsessed about the Roman Catholic Church as it is about our lives. Despite the Vatican’s best efforts to harm our families, most LGBT Catholics choose to follow the lead of their straight counterparts and ignore the more medieval and extreme proclamations from Rome.

For instance, the Public Religion Research Institute showed “nearly three-quarters of Catholics favor either allowing gay and lesbian people to marry (43%) or allowing them to form civil unions (31%). Only 22% of Catholics say there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship.”

Such polling may explain why George tried to backtrack on Christmas day: “Obviously, it’s absurd to say the gay and lesbian community are the Ku Klux Klan, but if you organize a parade that looks like parades that we’ve had in our past because it stops us from worshipping God, well then that’s the comparison, but it’s not with people – it’s the parade.”

Obviously, this is another ridiculous response. Parades are not simply unattended rolling floats and hovering balloons – but events that are defined by the people marching. George’s dissembling continues when he says such parades “stops us from worshipping God.”

I’d like examples of where George was prohibited by the LGBT community from worshiping. Of course, he won’t provide any – because this is more about George’s dishonesty and hyperbole than it is about reality. At this point, the best George can do is to proclaim that he meant to say “gay, gay, gay” and it mistakenly came out KKK.

(Weekly Column)

Anti-gay crusader David Caton is back in the news and this time he is targeting Islam. The New York Times’ Samuel Freedman reports that Caton is going after advertisers of the show All American Muslim. He apparently thinks that the show is a plot to mainstream Muslims who are surreptitiously trying to trick Americans into thinking they are normal, when they are actually organizing to destroy wholesome Christian families.

In my budding activism years in Florida in the early 1990’s, the LGBT community’s chief foe was Caton of the American Family Association and later the Florida Family Association. Caton, an admitted porn addict, wrote a self-help book and fancies himself an expert who dispenses such sage advice as: When talking to women, avoid looking at the mouth and instead focus on the nose.

I’m not sure if this works or just causes a nose fetish.

Equality Florida’s Executive Director Nadine Smith has sparred for years with Caton and describes him as a “less original cross between the Westboro Baptist Church (the “God Hates Fags people) and the ‘minister’ who likes to burn Korans.”

According to Smith: “In the ’90s he would spout all kinds of wild claims about the consequences of passing anti-discrimination policies that included gay people.

He said business owners would be helpless as gays began having sex on the job.

Teachers would alternate dressing one day as women, the next as men…He even proposed that people entering gay bars be photographed and their pictures be posted at the post office or other public square.”

According to a 1993 Orlando Sentinel article, Caton said: You don’t see abortionists out recruiting people into a lifestyle. It is an orgy, party-crazed lifestyle. I can’t think of any lifestyle that would bring anyone as close to death as the homosexual lifestyle.

What is his evidence? He says a man once sat next to him in a shopping mall and put a hand between his legs. “My body was grabbed in a public place,” he said.

First, while such behavior is inappropriate, it mirrors tawdry behavior by some heterosexuals. In fact, it sounds very similar to accusations leveled against Herman Cain. Second, the odds of a gay man randomly fondling Caton at a Florida mall without probable cause are infinitesimally small. It can be embarrassing or even physically dangerous to make random public passes at heterosexual men. This is why it almost never occurs in the real world.

Caton’s activism seems driven by his lack of self-control. Hillsborough Commissioner Pat Frank once blasted Caton for working to pass an anti-nudity ordinance.

“That’s going to cost us money that we can ill afford to spend to try to keep Mr. Caton’s temptations away from him,” Frank said. “And that’s what this amounts to … He’s on a one-person crusade to satisfy himself.”

Like Caton, many of the vilest homophobes are now throwing their hat in the anti-Islam ring. While they are portraying these innocent, tax-paying Americans as terrorists, the only terrorizing that is taking place comes from these right wing activists who are panicking the rubes that give them money.

For instance, evangelist Lou Engle just brought his stadium revival, The Call, to Detroit’s Ford Field in an effort to target the areas large Muslim population. Leading up to the massive rally, Apostle Ellis Smith, Engle’s local “point person” for The Call, referred to Islam in a sermon as a “false,” “lame” and “perverse” religion.

The Christian Action Network (CAN) used to attack Gay Days at Disney and created a videotape allegedly showing that the event was an “orgy of depravity.” (Having been to the event, the long lines to get on the rides was the only thing depraved)

Now, CAN is promoting a new documentary “Islam Rising” highlighting the supposed dangers of Islam in America. The group’s website asks, “Do you live near Islamberg?” and ominously warns about the, “Pro-Islam bias in public schools.”

I happen to agree that Sharia law is dangerous and any government run by fundamentalist clerics is a real threat to individual liberty. But it is beyond ridiculous to argue that Islamic law is a realistic danger to Alabama and Oklahoma and all of the other fundamentalist Christian enclaves.

Entrepreneurs like David Caton and organizations like The Call and CAN represent the opportunistic underbelly of America. When one minority, such as LGBT people, begins to gain societal acceptance, these professional haters simply redirect their depravity, pivot their prejudice, and morph their meanness into the latest vulnerable minority.

Even in this ailing economy, bigotry is one business that seems to be booming.

Just when you thought Minnesota’s Catholic bishops couldn’t sink any lower into the cesspool of anti-gay bigotry, Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt posts a letter to the local diocesan website that injects a prayer for marriage discrimination into the Catholic Mass itself.

Nienstedt writes that he is “pleased” to offer the following prayer, “meant for use within the Holy Mass as part of the Prayer of the Faithful,” for the explicit purpose of “assist[ing] in the strengthening of our state-wide efforts to defend marriage in our civil constitution:”

Heavenly Father,

Through the powerful intercession of the Holy Family, grant to this local Church the many graces we need to foster, strengthen, and support faith-filled, holy marriages and holy families.

May the vocation of married life, a true calling to share in your own divine and creative life, be recognized by all believers as a source of blessing and joy, and a revelation of your own divine goodness.

Grant to us all the gift of courage to proclaim and defend your plan for marriage, which is the union of one man and one woman in a lifelong, exclusive relationship of loving trust, compassion, and generosity, open to the conception of children.

We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, who is Lord forever and ever. Amen.

The archbishop’s letter also “encourage[s] the posting of the prayer within Eucharistic Adoration chapels, along with an encouragement to adorers to pray for the success of the amendment and all efforts to strengthen marriage.”

There is absolutely no defense on any level for this kind of malicious, disgusting hatred. Nienstedt’s text is anything but a “prayer,” but instead is an overt attempt to cloak a set of anti-gay political talking points with the mantle of faith. The Archbishop even stoops so low as to use the Eucharist, which is sacred to LGBT and non-LGBT Catholics alike, as a weapon in the fight to exclude loving same-sex couples from marriage in Minnesota. This latest affront is religion-based bigotry in its most putrid, vile form.

This isn’t the first time that Minnesota’s Catholic bishops have specifically encouraged their priests and congregants to use parish time, facilities, and resources to push for the passage of the state’s proposed ban on same-sex marriage. In September 2010, the bishops produced and mailed a DVD attacking marriage equality to all registered Catholic households. And in another letter this fall, Nienstedt directed parish priests to form committees in their churches devoted “…to educat[ing] the faithful about the church’s teachings on [marriage], and to vigorously organiz[ing] and support[ing] a grass-roots effort to get out the vote to support the passage of this amendment.” The Archbishop called it “imperative that we marshal our resources” in this fight.

And as a side note: Archbishop Nienstedt’s contemptible “prayer” is just the latest example of Catholic churches and dioceses engaging in nakedly political activity in violation of the Internal Revenue Code. The tax-exempt status of these serial lawbreakers needs to be revoked. Exactly why aren’t they being investigated already?

(Weekly Column)

In June, I penned a column, “The Fall of the Ex-Gay Myth,” which predicted that so-called “ex-gay” programs would crumble from internal rot. “It’s time for the discredited ‘ex-gay’ myth to simply go away and be rightfully viewed as an experiment that was tried and failed,” I wrote at the time.

In the months since this column was written the decline of these “pray away the gay” organizations has only accelerated. Here are the Top 10 ex-gay-related stories of 2011:

1) Bachmann Scandal: Nothing brought the idiocy of reparative therapy into the spotlight more than Truth Wins Out’s undercover operation that proved the clinic of Marcus Bachmann, husband of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), practiced this form of discredited therapy. Prior to the investigation, Marcus had lied to the American people by denying his practice engaged in such quackery. The story made a mockery out of such practices and was featured in media across the globe.

2) John Smid: Love in Action “ex-gay” ministry leader John Smid went public with a startling confession: “I’ve never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual.” The honest words of this “ex-gay” poster boy sent shockwaves through the entire “ex-gay” industry. Observers of these groups asked: “If Smid’s hardcore regimen of prayer and therapy did not work for him, whom would it work for?”

3) Exodus SOS: Ex-Gay Watch’s David Roberts reported that a Nov. 16 secret summit took place in New York City, where Exodus President Alan Chambers desperately plotted how to “keep Exodus International from social and financial oblivion.” The report discussed how an ill-advised real estate deal and increasingly convoluted messages have brought Exodus to the precipice of total failure.

4) Rekers Study Unmasked: Prior to getting caught with an escort from RentBoy.com, Dr. George Rekers was the “ex-gay” industry’s most prominent therapist. Much of Rekers reputation was based on a study where he cited the alleged sexual conversion of a boy named “Kraig.” Box Turtle Bulletin’s Jim Burroway undermined this claim by discovering that “Kraig” had grown up to be a gay man and his family alleged the therapy with Rekers led to his suicide. This story, covered in an excellent CNN AC360 series, demolished a key pillar of “ex-gay” research.

5) Exodus iPhone app: Exodus International created an “ex-gay” iPhone app to promote people using their mobile phones to “pray away the gay.” It was so obnoxious that the website Fierce Mobile Content listed it in the Top 5 most offensive apps of 2011.  Fortunately, Truth Wins Out launched a 160,000-signature Change.org petition drive to persuade Apple Inc. to remove the “ex-gay” iPhone app.

6) Lisa Miller Saga: Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins had a Vermont civil union in 2000 and Miller then gave birth to a daughter, Isabella, conceived through artificial insemination. Miller became a born again Christian and fled to Virginia with her daughter. When a judge handed custody of Isabella to Jenkins, Miller fled the country with her daughter. Kenneth L. Miller, 46, of Stuarts Draft, Va., was recently arrested for assisting Lisa Miller as she absconded to Nicaragua. This story is not yet finished and may ensnare anti-gay figures that may have aided and abetted international kidnapping. Keep your eye on this story!

7) Sergio Viula: This man was the leading provider of “ex-gay” quackery in Brazil. In an interview he gave to the Secular Humanist League of Brazil, Viula  called such programs “brainwashing” and said, “In fact, ex-gays don’t exist – it’s pure self-suggestion.”

8) Ex-Gay Goes International: As the “ex-gay” industry fails at home, they are opportunistically searching for fresh markets to exploit overseas. A perfect example occurred in Hong Kong, which hired a therapist, Hong Kwai-wah, to cure gay people by urging them to take cold showers when aroused. The controversial hire caused protests from Hong Kong to New York City.

9) Dr. Warren Throckmorton: This Christian therapist from Grove City College has surprisingly emerged as a leading critic of “reparative therapy.” A former member of The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), his knowledge of this topic has made him a ruthlessly effective foe of NARTH’s quack-like theories. Even more damaging, he has created a competing therapy model that gives LGBT Christians the option to come out of the closet or hold onto their fundamentalist beliefs – but it does not lie to them by promising that they can pray away the gay.

10) PFOX Lawsuit: Greg Quinlan, President of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX), appeared on television and fabricated an incident that never occurred: “Truth Wins Out if you look further, including Wayne Besen. He’s asked for people, you know, somebody needs to run Greg over. He needs to be hit with a bus. Somebody should inject him with AIDS.” As a result of Quinlan’s fake story, I am preparing a defamation lawsuit against PFOX that will play out in 2012.

There are many more possibilities I could have chosen — but these 10 stories really impacted the “ex-gay” issue in 2011 — which was a really bad year for such programs.