Hey, Porno Pete [new readers, see addendum below], whatcha doin?

AFTAH in the News: ABC uses homosexual activist’s mocking slogan, “Pray Away the Gay”

Well, no, the hate group Americans For Truth About Homosexuality wasn’t in the news. Pete seems to be trying to ride the proverbial coattails, here.  Peter:  We may have given you your special name, but that does not mean you get to come with us everywhere we go.

But yeah, “pray away the gay” has become shorthand for the abusive, hateful, damaging, thoroughly discredited practice known as reparative therapy. They could have always used “beating the pillow with a tennis racket…away the gay,” but Porno Pete’s friend Richard Cohen just isn’t a part of this story.

Folks, it sure didn’t take long for the liberal media to go into Christian-bashing mode against GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). Watch this almost comically biased hit-piece by ABC’s Brian Ross — featuring the militantly anti-Christian homosexual organization Truth Wins Out.

We’re going to have to let our Christian writers and affiliates know that we are “militantly anti-Christian.” I’m sure they would like to know!

(TWO denies the reality that people can leave homosexuality behind; I call them “Focus on the Failures” because their nonsensical argument seems to be that since many practicing “gays” fail in their quest to change, transformation away from homosexuality is a myth.)

This is absolutely the first time you have ever called us “Focus on the Failures,” Pete. Why you would draw attention to the fact that most people who go through “ex-gay” programs come back more damaged than before, and still gay, is beyond me.  [The others tend to make lots of ca$h by working for "ex-gay" companies, or they write books and, you know, make ca$h.]

Incredibly, ABC even went so far as to title its piece “Pray Away the Gay at Bachmann Clinic?” — recycling TWO founder Wayne Besen’s mocking and bigoted attack-slogan for the idea that people can overcome homosexual desires through faith in God.

“Incredibly.”

Shouldn’t it have occurred to Ross to sit down with and interview a SUCCESSFUL former homosexual like Janet Boynes…

Hmmmm, yeah, they should have pretended that there are two sides to every single story, I suppose.

Dinosaurs: prehistoric creatures from long ago or Heaven’s most vicious Muppets?! We report, you decide!

I don’t have much hope of changing ABC…

Pray away the ABC! [Pete seems to be saying...]

So all of this from hate group leader Porno Pete was a prelude to a piece by another bizarrely unhinged anti-gay activist, Cliff Kincaid, who is notable for defending Uganda’s genocidal anti-gay legislation. Let’s play with him a minute:

Once a greatly feared investigative reporter, Brian Ross has been reduced to recycling left-wing material from the homosexual lobby.

Translation: any reporting on gays that I don’t like is “recycled left-wing material.”

But the pathetic hit job he narrated on Monday’s ABC Nightline show on GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has backfired in a big way.

Not that I’ve seen.

The charge was that the Bachmann family counseling service engages in terrible things by teaching homosexuals how to leave their disease-ridden lifestyle.

Aside from the fact that the suggestion that homosexuality is inherently “disease-ridden” is a flat out lie, yes, the charge is that the Bachmann clinic uses discredited, disproven and harmful methods to try to de-gay people. This is quite a revelation in the Western world in the year 2012. It’s important to interpret the news through the lens of reality that exists, rather than the one Cliff Kincaid imagines to exist.

Ironically, however, he presented evidence that ex-homosexuals do in fact exist…

Nah, he showed Janet Boynes, who is basically a charlatan selling a book and has no actual “success stories” to present.

Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth says the phrase, “pray away the gay,” is intended to ridicule Christians and comes directly from homosexual activist Wayne Besen’s group, Truth Wins Out. LaBarbera asks, “Why are the major media repeating these hateful attack slogans by radical gay activists?”

He’s baaaaaaack.

He explains, “We don’t mock the idea of leaving drug addiction or alcoholism with God’s help. Why is it acceptable to mock faith in God to overcome unwanted behaviors like homosexuality in their lives?”

No one is mocking anything. We’re simply shining a light on the lie of reparative therapy. Grown-up mental health and medical associations agree that drug addiction and alcoholism are problems in need of solutions. They also agree that homosexuality is not a problem, that it is perfectly normal. The fact that somebody believes an unscientific book says otherwise is really not relevant to our discussion, here at the grown-up table.

To make matters worse, the ABC hit piece was largely recycled leftist material. Ross borrowed heavily from Truth Wins Out (TWO) and an article in The Nation magazine, in order to concoct the shaky story.

In this case, he is using the term “recycled” to refer to the original print versions of the story, which came out in the days just before the television report. Far from being “recycled,” any journalism student could explain to Cliff and Peter that Brian Ross’s report is known as “breaking a story on television.”

The apparently shocking advice to the undercover homosexual operative was that heterosexuality is natural and homosexuality is not. This is what passes for “investigative journalism” these days.

Yep, Cliff, it’s a significant story because the idea that “heterosexuality is natural and homosexuality is not” is a disproven lie. This is not complicated stuff…

Anyway, the rest of Cliff’s piece is a random non sequitur, and a completely undeveloped one at that, about how Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi is mean.  Cliff kinda veers off the road sometimes when it comes to his train of thought in print.

This is just the response from a couple of hate group leaders to the Bachmann clinic story.  Responses from other detractors have been pretty weak as well.  More on that in a minute.

ADDENDUM: If you are new to our organization, a little back story is in order.  Peter LaBarbera is the leader of the SPLC-certified hate group called Americans for Truth About Homosexuality [AFTAH].  Wayne Besen dubbed him “Porno Pete” a few years back on account of his strange affinity for either himself infiltrating [or sending "reporters" into] fetish sex events which cater to people of varying sexual orientations, but which are nonetheless outside of the mainstream of American sexual activity, gay or straight.  While people who are comfortable in their own skin but who may not be particularly interested in such fetish events may be content to shrug their shoulders and say “eh, different strokes for different folks!” and go about the chores of their daily lives, Pete has always set himself apart by posting pornographic pictures on his hate group’s blog [americans for truth dot com], and then using said images in an effort to broadbrush all gay Americans as sick perverts.  Most casual observers find this to be extremely bizarre behavior.  This strategy is of course as disingenuous as it is stupid, and many Religious Right leaders have privately told gay activists [most notably Jeremy at Good As You] that they are very embarrassed by his actions, as they hurt the anti-gay movement by making them look sensationalistic, dishonest, pathetic and approximately as bigoted as a common KKK initiate.  While many on the anti-gay side of the fence may indeed have loving and honest motives, but yet are sadly and terribly misinformed on issues of science, human sexuality and reality, Peter has always revealed himself a little bit too much by also being unable to report on gay human beings without using sophomoric anti-gay slurs and digs which are only funny to the quickly dwindling/dying-off segment of the population which still agrees with him.  He will wax melodramatic, but not really poetic, on a regular basis about how our use of the term “Porno Pete” proves that we are the REAL hate group here, but we rest secure in the knowledge that A., We don’t lie and B., the causes we fight for actually help people, as opposed to raising the national gay teen depression and suicide rate, which is far too often the end result of the activities of the Religious Right in this nation.

We all know that when Cliff Kincaid takes pen to paper, you’re about to come face to face with a level of mouth-foaming crazy that mere haters like Tony Perkins can only dream of. In that spirit, Cliff Kincaid has released a “report” (I’m sure he used the hell out of that scientific method) which claims that the repeal of DADT will put American troops’ lives in danger. Apparently, in Cliff Kincaid’s mind, our troops are weaker than the Israeli, Canadian, and British militaries, and all of the other militaries where gays serve openly. Why does Cliff have so little faith in our troops?

A change in policy would put our soldiers in a confrontation with another deadly enemy — not the homosexuals themselves, but the health problems and life-threatening diseases associated with their lifestyles,” says Cliff Kincaid, the veteran journalist who heads the public policy group, America’s Survival, Inc. (ASI). The 60-page ASI report, written by writer and researcher Dale O’Leary, is available at www.usasurvival.org.

Wait, what? First of all, sexually transmitted diseases are not caused by the “homosexual lifestyle,” and you’ll find no actual doctor (who actually abides by their Hippocratic oath) who’ll support that idea. Secondly, is Kincaid’s hired wingnut saying that if you allow gay troops in, the straight troops will naturally have sex with them? Are we gays really that powerful? Again, why do these men think our troops (gay or straight) are such milquetoast pansies?

Kincaid asked, “How can gay men be admitted into the Armed Forces, where they might be called upon to save the lives through blood transfusions of their fellow soldiers, when they are already prohibited from donating blood because it might be tainted?”

Uh, somebody military help me out here. Does the United States Military have a policy of just giving out blood transfusions all willy nilly? And of course, Kincaid is using the fact that gay men still cannot donate blood (a policy that should have been changed yesterday at the very latest) to insinuate that all gay men have tainted blood. Well, guess what? Mine’s clean, as is the blood of most gay men I know. And I still wouldn’t donate blood if I knew Kincaid might benefit from it.

The report demonstrates that:

• Numerous large well-designed studies have found that gay men and lesbians are far more likely than the general public to have a number of psychological disorders.

Which have been shown time and time again to be the direct result of societal stigma of the kind fostered by Cliff Kincaid, which trickles down into average well-meaning wingnut families, whose rejection of their gay kids sends those kids into spirals of depression, my god! Put more simply — if anti-gay wingnuts stop being anti-gay wingnuts, depression in the LGBT community will go way down.

• Gay men and women are far more likely to have substance abuse problems.

See above, re: depression.

• Cruising, bathhouses, circuit parties, Internet hookups, prostitution, pornography, and Tearoom sex are all defended by gay men as essential to their identity and freedom.

WTF? Defended by which gay men? Because I’m pretty cute and I’ve never been to a bathhouse or a circuit party or to a “cruising spot” or hired a whore. I’ve looked at porn, but then again, all men look at porn. The ones who say they haven’t are lying. Also, what is Tearoom sex?

• Changing the rules on sexual minorities or sexual orientation could open the door to the transgendered and transsexuals.

Oh, and what would happen then? A transgender person would then be able to kill someone with her bare hands, and yet Cliff Kincaid would still be hiding under the bed?

“A change in current policy is not worth the risk,” Kincaid said. “A policy change made in the face of this overwhelming scientific [sic] and medical [sic] evidence will be done for political reasons, in order to appease a special interest group. It could cause lasting damage to our Armed Forces.”

Yeah, like the way it’s destroyed the Israeli military, known to most as the fiercest fighting force in the world.

Fail, dumb wingnut, fail.

Oh, one more thing: I just Googled “tearoom sex,” and found out that it’s the kind that goes on in public restrooms. Um…most of the people who engage in that kind of anonymous sex, or the “public park” kind, or whatever else, identify as straight, and are married to women. In other words, they’re more likely to be friends with Cliff Kincaid than they are to be friends with me or any of the other writers at Truth Wins Out.

(h/t Right Wing Watch)

As Joe Jervis points out, GOProud are “complete douchenozzles,” which is true, but I agree that the hysteria over their presence at CPAC from the usual suspects is a good thing, as it separates the wingnuts from the, er, other less harmful wingnuts. Here’s Cliff Kincaid, typing with angry fingers:

GOProud’s commitment to constitutionally protected homosexual sodomy (i.e., anal intercourse) is not a position that appears on the agenda of any conservative groups. Hence, using the term “gay conservative” to describe these people is either a deliberate deception or an oxymoron that doesn’t stand up under scrutiny.

(…)

GOProud, the organization at the center of the storm, claims to be “conservative” but supports the Obama policy of putting active and open homosexuals in the military, supports homosexual marriage, and even advocates a foreign policy of promoting acceptance of sodomy abroad. The latter is referred to as “Standing strong against radical regimes who seek to criminalize gays and lesbians.”

These “radical regimes,” such as the Christian-dominated government in Uganda, are trying to prevent the spread of AIDS and protect traditional moral values by toughening laws against homosexuality.

Under these “gay conservatives,” one can imagine gay soldiers being deployed to overthrow “homophobic” regimes.

GOProud also says it wants to “defend the Constitution” in the U.S. by “Opposing any anti-gay federal marriage amendment.” It doesn’t explain how protecting the country against out-of-control judges legalizing gay marriage without a vote of the people is unconstitutional.

Giggle. So angry.

Note that he’s defending the Ugandan anti-gay genocide bill again. Take note, SPLC.

Later in the piece, Cliff shares that Ryan Sorba wants to debate Rachel Maddow and Andrew Sullivan, in reply to which we can only spit our collective coffee at the computer screen, laughing, and say “PLEASE?”

Because it’s funny to watch stupid closeted white men intellectually overpowered by gays and lesbians with PhD’s.

Cliff Kincaid is a peach. Really. He’s one of the only Radical Christian Imams who is honest about the fact that he wants gay people dead. He made his original statements last week, and now he’s gotten on the internet again to flesh out his explanation for why gay people should be dead. He also has some harsh words for Senator Tom Coburn, who has joined up with Al Franken and Russ Feingold in drafting a Senate bill condemning the Ugandan legislation. (Absorb that last sentence before I go on, will you? Coburn has joined with Franken and Feingold. That’s how universal the disgust over this bill really is, among evolved, sentient human beings. Lambs are lying down with wingnuts, for god’s sake. Apparently Cliff Kincaid is not an evolved, sentient human being, at least not by any rational definition.) So let’s have a look at what Cliffy has to say:

Echoing the claims of liberals in the media, who have targeted Uganda for isolation and a denial of foreign aid for considering the legislation, Coburn has called it “an absurd proposal to execute gays” that somehow threatens progress against AIDS. Lesbian MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow has repeatedly referred to the legislation as the “Kill the Gays bill.”

But as AIM has reported in a series of articles, this is deliberate distortion. Maddow and her media collaborators, such as Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post, have tried to obscure the fact that the government of Uganda is considering passage of the anti-homosexuality bill because of the growing concern by officials and religious leaders that foreign homosexuals and special interest groups are trying to spread homosexuality throughout the country and undermine the country’s return to traditional moral values. Campaigns and groups promoting the rights of “sexual minorities” have emerged in Uganda and other African countries, with funding from billionaire George Soros, a major financial supporter of “gay rights” in the U.S.

Sadly, no. It’s too bad Cliff Kincaid is an unrepentant pathological liar, but he is. There is no distortion in the reporting. Any literate human being (sorry to exclude you, Cliff) can read the bill. The fact that certain Christian leaders in Uganda are fools who either truly believe that “foreign gays” are invading Uganda, or are deliberately manipulating the people in order to distract them from the real problems facing that nation is not a proof that the reporting on the legislation is any less than factual. What’s sad is that Cliff Kincaid apparently is just as easily spooked by gay people as the Ugandan religious leaders, what with all the factual information at his disposal.

Of course, you know you’re dealing with a nutcase when they bring an issue back to George Soros. The fact that this one billionaire who happens to support progressive causes (like the Right doesn’t have any parallel figures) has become such a villainous boogeyman for much of the American Right exposes just what scaredy-pants ninnies right-wingers really are.

Uganda emphasizes abstinence and monogamy in its fight against AIDS, in contrast to the reckless “safe sex” approach popularized by “progressives” in the U.S. who want to avoid finding homosexuality itself to be a dangerous “lifestyle.”

Uh, actually, the safe sex (scare quotes not necessary for things that actually exist, Cliffypants!) approach is the effective approach. Uganda used to be a model for HIV/AIDS prevention, but their numbers have actually plateaued (and may be rising) over the last several years, as the emphasis on abstinence began to overshadow a comprehensive approach. So, wrong again, Clifton!

The Ugandan bill does provide for harsh measures against homosexual conduct, including the death penalty for such practices as pedophilia, facilitating homosexual activity, and deliberately spreading AIDS. As such, however, Ugandan Christian ministers see the legislation as a necessary and continuing part of Uganda’s successful anti-AIDS effort.

Well, if Ugandan Christians think it’s necessary, far be it from us to question them, right, Cliff? I mean, there’s nothing wrong with a little genocide, as long as the leaders have a rationale, right?

Conservatives were shocked to see Coburn, a conservative leader and medical doctor, jump into bed with Feingold and Franken and other liberals to attack Uganda’s legislative process and pro-family political leaders and activists.

Uh, what conservatives were shocked, Cliff? It’s not a good idea to refer to yourself in the plural, sir. It’s a good indicator of mental illness.

Uganda was once ruled by a homosexual pedophile King named Mwanga, who tortured and murdered Christian youth who refused his sexual advances. Their sacrifices are celebrated every June 3, Martyr’s Day in the nation. This terrible period in Uganda’s history has never been forgotten.

Relevance? The Mwanga thing has been repeated by Scott Lively as well. Here’s the thing: As usual, these men are lying. Even when they keep the general parameters of the story correctly intact, they lie. Here are the actual details of the Martyr’s Day history. The young men were killed for their Christian faith. The timeframe for this was 1885-1887. Mwanga was born in 1868. This means that his time of “pedophilia” happened when he was ages 17 to 19. The martyrs ranged in age from 18-25. There is no scenario under which sexual advances toward grown men can be considered “pedophilia,” especially when the supposed pedophile is younger than them!

The extent of Cliff Kincaid’s pathological lying is truly stunning.

Anyway, he goes on and on and on, and it gets boring after a while, but at no time does he express any personal problems with the idea of genocide against gay people, and he continues to condemn Coburn for speaking out against it, so we must only assume that Cliff Kincaid actively desires the death of gay people. I hope the Southern Poverty Law Center* is paying attention.

(h/t Right Wing Watch)

*Incidentally, we reported the other day that the Illinois Family Institute had been put back on the list of SPLC anti-gay hate groups, because they had. Jeremy Hooper also reported it. But now their name is mysteriously missing from the list again, and I’d like to know why. More when I find out.

Ugh.

Pam Spaulding and Joe Jervis have already rebutted this thoroughly, so go read them.

Cliff Kincaid is a buffoon. That’s all you need to know.