Donald W. Wildmon, chairman of the rabidly anti-gay American Family Association, stepped down today, citing an illness resulting from a mosquito bite.
“The resignation comes following several months of hospitalization,” reads an AFA press release. “A bite from a mosquito carrying the St. Louis encephalitis virus caused Wildmon’s illness.”
Under his 30-years at the helm, the Tupelo, Mississippi-based AFA became obsessed with gay people and was a sponsor of 1998’s notorious ex-gay Truth In Love Campaign. The organization made a video with Truth in Love star Michael Johnston, who discussed on the video how he had prayed away the gay after he became HIV+.
In 2003, Johnston was exposed for meeting multiple men on the Internet and having sexual relations with them. The AFA acknowledged the scandal saying that Johnston had a “moral fall.” Amazingly, the AFA continued to sell “It’s Not Gay” and never bothered to tell viewers that the poster boy featured in the video was living in a sex addiction facility in Kentucky. (Indeed, the organization continues to sell the video and peddle the fiction that gays can go straight.)
In all my years in activism, the AFA is one of the most dishonest and hateful organizations we have dealt with. The group does nothing to support families, but spends its time gay bashing. Wildmon’s exit will, if anything, make the organization more radical and extreme. Donald’s son, Tim, will be apparently taking over.
AFA’s first big splash came when it accused Mighty Mouse of snorting cocaine. More recently, the group launched failed boycott’s against Disney, McDonalds and Ford, while also vigorously supporting California’s Proposition 8 to prohibit marriage equality.
Bryan Fischer is about six hours and one bad stool away from declaring that Christians are victims of a new holocaust at the hands of the homosexicals. Truly, he’s that hysterical. It’s sort of funny to watch:
As a culture, we must choose between the homosexual agenda or the Constitution because we can’t have both.
Further proof comes from the abjectly pathetic decision of the chaplains’ office at Andrews Air Force Base to rescind a long-standing invitation to Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council. Perkins had been invited to give a non-political talk at a prayer luncheon on the base yesterday, but was abruptly dis-invited for one simple reason: he supports the current law which makes homosexuals ineligible for service in the United States military.
(…)
The days of Dred Scott have returned. Christians now are the ones are being confined on the plantation, and warned about being too uppity … McCarthyism has now struck the U.S. military with a vengeance. The question now that the military is asking is this: “Are you now, or have you ever been, a supporter of traditional morality?” If the answer is yes, you go on our blacklist, and we deprive you of your freedom of religion, speech and military service.
Uhhhh.
Who, exactly, is suggesting that Christians can’t join the military? Or can’t practice their religion freely? And um, I thought Tony Perkins was a pastor/talking wingnut, not a member of the military.
Anyway, why rebut all of this when there’s a handy picture available to expose Bryan Fischer’s unnecessarily soiled undies in all their glory?
UPDATE: Lookit, the American Family Association ALSO needs your help to decide whether or not gays should be able to serve in the military. GO HELP THEM!
A fundamentalist Christian couple are accused of murdering their adopted daughter and severely injuring another through a Fundamentalist Christian “parenting method” in California:
OROVILLE — A fundamentalist religious philosophy that espouses corporal punishment to “train” children to be more obedient to their parents and God is now being investigated in connection with the death of a young Paradise girl and serious injuries to her sister.
(…)
Ramsey said he is also exploring a possible connection to a Web site that endorses “biblical discipline” using the same rubber or plastic tube alleged to have been used to whip the two young ridge girls by their adoptive parents.
In court Thursday, a judge granted a two-week postponement before the children’s parents, Kevin Schatz, 46, and Elizabeth Schatz, 42, enter a plea to murder and torture charges that could carry two life terms in prison.
Oy. Here’s the thing. If we were like the anti-gay public mouthpieces we deal with on a daily basis, we would immediately use this as an example of how the Fundamentalist Christian Agenda is dangerous for children. But we are not they. Should we be?
Prosecutors allege the two victims were subjected to “hours” of corporal punishment by their parents on successive days last Thursday and Friday with a quarter-inch-wide length of rubber or plastic tubing, which police reportedly recovered from the parents’ bedroom.
Police allege that the younger girl was being disciplined for mis-pronouncing a word during a home-school reading lesson the day before she died.
Wow. But no, we won’t take the dishonest angle Fundamentalist Christian mouthpieces use to smear gay parents, because we are better than they are. And of course, if we did, we’d be missing a larger discussion.
In my experience with Fundamentalists (and I have quite a lot), I find that most of them actually mean well. They may be highly misled as to the facts, on many issues, but most of them feel that they are acting out of love. But this, to me, is an example of how extremist rhetoric, and an extremist worldview, can permeate and percolate throughout a religious community, to the point that certain people take it to an entirely new, entirely violent level. Because though these parents may claim that they were merely adhering to their deeply held religious beliefs, they are sadists. Only sadists would “discipline” their children this way.
The article points out that there is disagreement over corporal punishment in the Fundamentalist Christian world, and I’ll grant that. I don’t personally believe in spanking, but at the same time, I don’t believe that all parents who spank their kids are necessarily scarring them for life either. Normal, well-meaning people of all stripes can have honest disagreements about this sort of thing. But here’s where it gets sketchy: You take two parents who believe in spanking, and then you combine that with an authoritarian worldview where “Father Knows Best” (whether the human father, the version of God the father that the religion sells, etc.) and children are meant to be obedient soldiers to their parents’ orders, and in some cases, you’ll have a recipe for a situation like this one. Among your garden variety Evangelicals and Fundamentalists, the ones who truly are well-meaning, the most extremist elements of the religion won’t manifest. (Yes, they can still hurt people, as the LGBT community well knows, but I’m getting to that.) But there will be certain mentally unstable people, sick people, who take the dogma in its most literal form and run with it.
Think of the difference between conservative Muslims and those who actually strap on bombs and blow themselves up; think of the difference between regular “pro-lifers” and those who pick up a gun and murder abortion providers. And, of course, think of the difference between regular old “pro-family” people who simply want to “protect marriage,” and the disturbed people who end up beating/maiming/killing LGBT people. Do you see what I’m getting at? The common thread is that these are ideologies which lend themselves to this kind of violence, for certain people.
In the aftermath of Prop 8, the Religious Right has been bitching and moaning about supposed “violence” that’s been done to them by the big bad gay community, but the worst thing they’ve come up with is an old lady who got knocked over in a mob of people. Oh, and there was that one time a lady who ran a restaurant lost some customers because they learned that she voted yes. (Boo…hoo?) But there’s a reason that most of their tales of woe and lamentation are sort of boring — because we all know that it’s highly unlikely that the LGBT community is going to start beating or killing Fundamentalists. It’s just not gonna happen!
And why? It’s quite simple. The entire point of coming out is living with integrity; the entire point of fighting for our equality is bringing us up to the same level as everyone else! We’re not seeking to take anything away from anyone. Our motivation isn’t a distaste for anyone else, but rather a love for ourselves and a belief in our inherent dignity. The endgame of the LGBT civil rights movement is displayed proudly on our sleeves, for god’s sake. We simply want to live our lives with the same rights, responsibilities and freedoms as everyone else.
But this is not so in the Fundamentalist world. They want to take away women’s rights to make their own reproductive decisions. They want to take away children’s rights to be educated in actual science, in order to prop up their creation myth. They want to keep LGBT people in the closet (or worse), in order to not disrupt the tenuous grasp the patriarchy still holds in Western society, where the man of the house is elevated above all others. Children free to learn and grow as individuals, women with minds of their own, and all consenting adults living freely and passionately with those that they love? That’s just a bridge too far for them.
I’ve said it a million times, but the elevated place in society held by Fundamentalist Christians is not merited. They have done nothing to earn it. They are not paragons of moral virtue. In fact, they’re no better than the rest of the population. They’re not producing our great thinkers, our great artists, our great writers, or anything else “great.” And they know it. They know the jig is up. They’re watching their young adult children leave their shackles in droves, and they’re looking everywhere but inward for someone to blame. As their influence wanes (slowly — they’re so politically entrenched that it will be a long time before their political influence matches their dwindling numbers), they’re going to turn up the volume on their rhetoric and on their actions.
We’re already seeing this in the LGBT community, as certain Religious Right figures don’t seem all that bothered by the anti-gay legislation in Uganda, while others, like Bryan Fischer and Peter Sprigg of AFA and PFOX are openly calling for the criminalization of homosexuality. We’re seeing this in the aftermath of George Tiller’s assassination, as Randall Terry of Operation Rescue is loath to actually denounce Scott Roeder’s actions, and in fact, lends them rhetorical support every time he opens his mouth in public. We’re seeing this in Texas, as a band of Fundamentalists seek to destroy children’s educational opportunities by intentionally altering their textbooks to reflect a worldview that reflects a fantasy world of their own creation.
And as the rhetoric grows, there will, unfortunately, be more and more people who are pushed to the breaking point of insanity, and they’ll do more and more to hold on to the thread that is their completely debunked worldview. The tough thing is that it’s hard to tell who’s going to snap. It’s hard to tell which Fundamentalist parents will become so overwhelmed by fear and dogma that they literally control their children to death. It’s hard to tell which rejected men will translate their rage against women into a pulled trigger and the death of another abortion provider. It’s hard to tell which frightened, closeted person will try to kill off that which they hate in themselves by killing a gay person. It’s just hard to tell.
But it does represent a teachable moment, because again, I may take some flak for this (and you might be surprised to hear it from me, the resident atheist), but I do believe that the majority of Fundamentalists are well meaning people. And really? The ball’s in their court. They’re not going to listen to us anyway. But to any who might be reading this from that side of the fence, I say only this: You need to weed your backyard. You need to fumigate your rhetoric. And you need to control your own. Because again, over on this side of the fence, we don’t pose any threat to you. Oh, occasionally, little radicals pop up here and there, but the difference between this side and that side is that we marginalize the hell out of our extremists. (Bash Back, I’m looking at you.) But it seems that these days, Fundamentalists marginalize their freaks less and less. And that’s scary, not just for the LGBT community, but for civil society. Religiously-motivated murderers, abusers, rapists, etc. — they don’t exist in a vacuum. They have to be propped up by someone, whether it’s whatever crazy Fundamentalist website that motivated the couple in California, or MassResistance or the American Family Association or Liberty University or whoever. Someone motivates the people who commit these acts of religious violence.
In the wake of the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer getting a serious case of diarrhea of the mouth over the past week or so, suggesting that homosexuality should be criminalized just like drug use, I’ve been issuing the necessary smackdowns. But now Jesus’ General has issued the ultimate smackdown, and it deserves to be highlighted:
It looks like your suggestion that homosexualists be prosecuted caught the Southern Poverty Law Center’s attention. They’re basically calling you an idiot for comparing same-sex lovers to intravenous drug users. They note that while drug abuse is illegal, the courts have ruled laws against homsexualism to be unconstitutional. The SPLC also destroys your health threat argument by pointing out that “there has never been a confirmed case of female-to-female HIV transmission in the United States.”
Now, I know what your thinking: “Not-men can’t be homosexualists. They don’t have ‘little soldiers’.”
Yes. You will want to read the entire thing. The last line is genius.
As the title of Jeremy Hooper’s post on this suggests, the AFA is beating the same old dead horse about the terrifying prospect of gays being in the military showers with straight people. Well, first of all, as Jeremy points out, homos are already in the showers with heteros in military showers. And the other newsflash, which I cannot stress enough, is that there are already lots of gay people serving openly, at least within their own chain of command. It really comes down to the luck of the draw these days. Some end up serving with people who know, are cool with it, etc., and choose to ignore DADT. Others use the law as their excuse to exercise their bigotry, and those servicemembers get kicked out.
The Christian Right’s fixation on this is so bizarre, because gays are in the same showers as straight people in lots of situations! If Tony Perkins has ever been to the gym (and I think he has), he’s been in the shower with gay people, unless he’s so genuinely frightened that a man might see him naked that he refuses to use them. High school sports teams? Gays. Check. Collegiate sports teams? Check. Showers. Gayness. Professional sports? Check. Gays. Sky not falling.
And here’s the other thing. As has been stated so many times before, most people in the military are already comfortable with gay people, and a growing number of them know for sure that they serve alongside gay people! So are we really having this conversation, for the sake of the small percentage of military men and women who are simultaneously completely oblivious to gay people around them AND so afraid of gay people that they can’t get in the shower for fear of catching the gay? AND! And and and and and! If we’re having this conversation for the sake of those people, are we saying that these “morally” minded soldiers and sailors and airmen, etc., who are that afraid of gay people, are our bravest?! I mean, really! Which leads me to this quote from the AFA’s piece: (Read More)
Laws proscribing homosexual conduct can be found in the Middle Assyrian Law Codes dating back to 1075 BC. To my knowledge, the Middle Assyrians have never been part of the vast, right-wing conspiracy, which gives the lie to the myth that only blue-nosed prudes who believe in the Judeo-Christian tradition have ever found fault with sodomy.
Hello straw man argument! Hello completely manufactured myth!
Every state in the Union at the time of the Founding had laws which made homosexual behavior illegal. In fact, that noted icon of the left, Thomas Jefferson, wrote a law for the state of Virginia that mandated castration as punishment for two men apprehended for male-to-male friskiness.
Thomas Jefferson, that paragon of sexual virtue…but please, let’s keep appealing to history, long before the evil science started refuting centuries of ill-informed bias. The good old days, as far as fundamentalists are concerned.
Sodomy was a felony offense in all 50 states as recently as 1962, and was still a felony in the other 49 states ten years later. Still today, 12 states have sodomy statutes on the books, although our meek acquiescence to judicially activist rulings from the Supreme Court have rendered those unenforceable.
That judicially activist court that somehow wasn’t judicially activist when they issued the Citizens United v. FEC ruling, or any other ruling that wingnuts like.
By the way, it’s silly to criticize a law just because it’s old and antiquated. The First Amendment has been around for 219 years, and I don’t hear anybody saying we’ve got to get rid of it because it’s so out of date. The issue is not how old a law is but how right it is.
Correct! And that’s why the judicial system is catching up with the idea of LGBT equality. The First Amendment stands on its merits, based on all the facts available, and bigoted anti-gay laws do not!
This raises the question, then, as to whether sodomy laws should be, or legitimately have been, repealed just because they are rarely enforced.
The answer to this is a clear and unequivocal “No.”
Based on Bryan’s tenuous grasp of reality, I’m having a hard time figuring out how the words “clear” and “unequivocal” could be appropriate, considering the utter lack of evidence for his arguments.
Think for a moment of the current social controversies that could potentially be avoided if homosexual conduct was still against the law.
Imagine there’s no gayness…it’s easy if you try…no Ellen on my teevee…and no guys kissing guys…
Gays in the military: problem solved. We shouldn’t make a place for habitual felons in the armed forces. End of discussion, end of controversy. If someone objects, ask them which other felonies the military ought to overlook in screening recruits.
Then Bryan wouldn’t have to worry about the fact that men like Lt. Dan Choi are stronger, more valiant, and more manly than he ever will be.
Gay marriage: problem solved. We should never legalize unions between any two people when the union is forged specifically to engage in felony behavior. Would we sanction, for instance, the formation of a corporation whose stated purpose was to import illegal drugs?
Yeah, and then fundamentalist Christians could continue to have their gay sex the natural way: off AOL chat, on business trips, behind their wives’ backs…
Gay indoctrination in the schools: problem solved. We don’t want to raise a generation of schoolchildren to believe that felony behavior is perfectly appropriate. That’s why we spend so much money warning students about the danger of drugs.
Bryan’s reliance on this drug parallel is frankly silly. People who use drugs aren’t born that way. All reputable professional mental health and medical associations acknowledge that homosexuality is not a disorder, and that it’s a perfectly natural characteristic of some people. A more appropriate parallel for Bryan’s argument is to change the word “gay” to “black” in each of his arguments.
Hate crimes laws: problem solved. We wouldn’t throw a pastor in jail for saying that illegal behavior is not only illegal but also immoral. For instance, he’s free to say that murder is not only contrary to man’s law but also to God’s law. End of the threat to freedom of religion and speech.
Lyin’ Bryan. Sheesh, these people will continue to lie about anything and everything, as long as it serves their purpose. It’s really funny, because the Biblical command against lying gets a lot more prominent spot than any limited condemnation of same-sex behavior. But fundamentalists really only pretend to acknowledge nine commandments. I’m surprised they haven’t had that part scrubbed, to be honest. Pastors are only liable if they incite violence. They can preach whatever knuckle-dragging disproven crap they want, as long as they’re not actively encouraging their demon sheep* to go assault or kill gay people. Good lord. It’s sad that we have to keep saying it, because the texts of these laws are easily accessible to anyone with a 7th grade reading level.
Special rights for homosexuals in the workplace: problem solved. No employer should be forced to hire admitted felons to work for him. End of the threat to freedom of religion and freedom of association in the marketplace.
The right to be hired for a job based on our qualifications is, to Bryan Fischer, a special right. What jobs should we be allowed to have, pray tell? God knows.
This list could actually be extended, but you get the point.
There was a point? Beyond the fact that Bryan Fischer is a deeply disturbed little man who is so frightened of gay people that he wants us out of every aspect of American life? That his faith is so weak that he can’t handle the sight or sound of people who think differently from him? That he’s a Christo-fascist of the highest order, and that, if we’re to believe the Gospel accounts, the Jesus depicted therein would spit him out like like the little Pharisee he is?
If you want more Bryan (you masochist), Alan Colmes interviewed him last night. I haven’t listened to it yet, but Kyle at Right Wing Watch reports that it was pretty meandering, as Alan kept trying to get him to justify his “logic,” and Fischer evaded his every question. Also, Alan apparently used the word “weasel” a lot, which seems appropriate.
“No, I didn’t mean imprison gays, I just meant make it illegal to be gay!”
Before getting to his clarification, let’s back up to his original statement:
If you believe that what drug abusers need is to go into an effective detox program, then we should likewise put active homosexuals through an effective reparative therapy program.
Aside from the fact that a “effective reparative therapy” is on the same level as faked moon landings and unicorns as regards its connection to reality, forced reparative therapy can reasonably be interpreted as imprisonment.
I nowhere in my blog said we should lock homosexuals up in prison. What I said is that our public policy toward homosexual conduct should be the same as our public policy toward intravenous drug abuse.
My position is that homosexual behavior represents a severe threat to public health, and is even more dangerous to human health than intravenous drug abuse. Because of the health risks involved, curtailing homosexual behavior should be as much a public policy concern as curtailing intravenous drug abuse.
Well, you’re wrong about “homosexual behavior represent[ing] a severe threat to public health,” Bryan. Unprotected sex with multiple partners is a threat to public health. Your opinion is not valid, as it is not backed by adults with facts. That said, lesbians’ incidence of sexually transmitted disease are far lower than heterosexuals, so I guess Bryan’s not talking about lesbians. (They never are, because straight Christian men’s neurosis about homosexuality usually stems from their own masculinity issues.)
The Food and Drug Administration is hardly a part of the vast right-wing conspiracy, and is not the research arm of the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, or Focus on the Family. Yet the FDA will not allow a male to donate blood if he has had sex with another male even one single solitary time since 1977.
That is true. It is also an antiquated, misguided policy.
The FDA states quite explicitly that “male-to-male sex is associated with an increased risk for the presence of and transmission of certain infectious diseases, including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.”
“Associated with” is not the same thing as “the cause of.” The FDA is merely stating that HIV has been particularly hard on the gay community. They are not saying that gay male sex causes AIDS. Words are hard, I know.
And further cementing my argument, the FDA will not allow “intravenous drug abusers” to donate blood either, for exactly the same reason: “Intravenous drug abusers are excluded from giving blood because they have prevalence rates of HIV, HBV, HCV and HTLV that are much higher than the general population.”
Yes, and again, you’re not making an argument against all gays. You’re making an argument against gay men, Bryan, who have promiscuous unprotected sex.
I argue that my position, since it is identical with the FDA’s, is no more “discriminatory” than theirs.
Yeah, but the FDA isn’t calling for gays to be put into forced reparative therapy (because they’re adults), and you are, so you’re a biased bigot, Bryan.
Bryan Fischer spends several more wordy paragraphs quoting CDC and FDA statistics in order to deflect attention from his original words and in order to obscure the facts further, because let’s face it, his audience isn’t smart. Then he “sums it up” with these words:
The neutral observer must conclude that homosexual behavior is extremely risky, dangerous and unhealthy, and represents an even greater risk to public health than intravenous drug abuse. This is highlighted by the fact that male homosexuals comprise perhaps 2-4% of the American population.
No, Bryan. A neutral observer who also happens to be a bigot might conclude that, but not a neutral observer with the ability to read and more than a passing familiarity with reality.
It is obvious, then, from the information gained from the FDA and the CDC that homosexual behavior represents and enormous threat to public health. Quite simply, if intravenous drug use is against the law, homosexual behavior should be too. It’s a simple matter of common sense, sound public policy, and a concern for public health.
Again, no. See above.
Now once we have agreed that we have a serious health problem on our hands here, the best public policy will contain the same kind of sanctions toward homosexual behavior that we have established toward intravenous drug abuse. Whatever we think we should do to curtail injection drug use are the same sorts of things we should pursue to curtail homosexual conduct. And that’s the place for the discussion to begin.
Shhhhh, Bryan. There’s no place at the table for intellectually challenged liars. The grown-ups will continue to handle this.
The place for the discussion to continue, as it’s already been happening for years, is at the baseline that any kind of unprotected sex with a partner you don’t know well can be risky, heterosexual or homosexual, and that the best way to handle this is by making sure people have adequate access to affordable healthcare, adequate access to information on how to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, and adequate access to condoms, so that when people make their sexual choices, they will be armed to the hilt, so to speak, in the fight against STDS.
There is no place in the discussion for moralistic, bigoted scolds who think they have a right to set up camp in our pants and read Bible verses.
So what kind of cute clarification are we going to get from Peter Sprigg?
The Liberty Counsel — the lawsuit-friendly organization that helps Exodus International and other Christian Rightists sue defenders of religious freedom — is defending the new president of the United Nations General Assembly, former Libyan Foreign Minister Ali Abdussalam Treki, who on Sept. 15 disagreed with a 2008 General Assembly statement by 66 nations urging decriminalization of homosexuality.
According to PrideSource, Treki said: “As a Muslim, I am not in favor of that. I believe it is not accepted by the majority of countries (and) it is not really acceptable by our religion, our tradition.”
In an Oct. 24 statement to American Family Association’s OneNewsNow propaganda service, Matt Barber of the Liberty Counsel rose to defend Treki, who rose to his position at the U.N. through the sponsorship of Libya’s longtime terror mastermind Muammar al-Qaddafi. Barber said Treki’s views on criminalization were in tune with much of the world.
On that count, he may be right:
Private consensual homosexual behavior is punishable by imprisonment in 70 of 195 nations.
But Treki’s statement is contrary to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Act.
Barber’s public support for imprisonment of gay people worldwide might be considered refreshing by cynics; his allies at Exodus continue to offer discreet support to vigilantism and imprisonment in Uganda and Barbados, and they refuse to offer an official public statement condemning imprisonment and vigilantism.
According to the AFA, Barber says that groups which voice disagreement with Treki and imprisonment…
“…are completely intolerant of other people’s belief systems [and] of other cultures,” says the Christian attorney. “We hear talk of cultural diversity — [but] there is no cultural diversity as far as the left is concerned and as far as homosexual activists are concerned. It’s either their way or the highway.”
Barber’s support for tolerance of terrorism, imprisonment, and vigilantism against LGBT people takes the Christian Right’s notion of “tolerance” to a whole new level.
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: Anti-gay organizations have a profound disrespect for their followers. It is accurate to conclude that they believe their flocks are stupid and can be counted on to not think for themselves. Thus, we see these sheep force fed obvious lies and distortions – and the membership of such anti-gay groups appear to eat it up.
To the point, the American Family Association put out a breathless article basically making stuff up about hate crimes legislation winding its way though Congress. According top the AFA:
Here’s what wrong with the “hate crimes” bill:
AFA: It criminalizes thought. For the first time in American history, criminal penalties are being attached to thoughts, not actions. Perpetrators will receive extra punishment not for what they did but for what they were thinking when they did it.
FACT CHECK: No one will be prosecuted simply for what they think or say. The law only applies if violent action is also involved. One would think that a “Christian” group would approve of this – but apparently, the AFA is opposed to all efforts to stop anti-gay violence. Furthermore, hate crime legislation is not new, it has existed for years in several states and the federal level covering categories, such as race, national origin and religion. All the current legislation would do would add sexual orientation and gender identity these other categories. The AFA would have more credibility if it worked to strip religion from existing hate crime laws.
AFA: It endangers freedom of religion and speech. Everywhere in the world “hate crimes” laws have gone into effect, they have quickly been used to harass, intimidate, silence and punish people of faith. Your pastor could go to jail if even a tenuous link could be established between a sermon on homosexuality and some act of violence.
FACT CHECK: According to the Human Rights Campaign, all but five states (Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Wyoming) have laws addressing hate crimes. Indeed, 36 states have hate crime laws that include sexual orientation. In these states – representing the vast majority of Americans – the dire warnings by the AFA have not come to pass. In other words, if you are an AFA follower, this group is lying to you and trying to scare you into giving them money.
AFA: It destroys the American principle of equality under the law. It creates a judicial caste system, in which some victims get more legal protection than others. It actively discriminates against heterosexuals by giving them less protection in law than victims who engage in non-normative sexual behaviors.
FACT CHECK: As stated above, several classes – including religion – are already covered by state and federal hate crime laws. So, the only people suffering inequality are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans who are not yet covered. The passage of this new law will change this injustice.
AFA: In a devious maneuver by Democrats, it’s attached to a Defense Appropriations bill. Our military deserves a stand-alone vote on funding.
FACT CHECK: Attaching small measures to larger bills is the way Washington works. If the AFA has an issue with it, they can’t just speak up and whine when it is bill that will protect gay people. To do so reveals that AFA is a narrow special interest group with an anti-gay agenda.
The bottom line is, if I sent such inaccurate, anti-intellectual garbage to the Truth Wins Out membership, they would laugh in my face and quit the organization. Yet, the members of The American Family Association are continuously mocked and disrespected by the AFA – yet they keep sending money and support.
Folks, get educated and think for yourself, it will change your life.
helen32: Please sign this petition if you want to help:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/include-johnny-weir.html
We need answers from Smucker's and Stars on Ice....
Merlyn: I suspect she meant every word of what she said in that email. She just wants to sweep it under...
Michael: The problem for those using God to buttress and support the evil anti-gay agenda is that young people don't buy...
Wayne Besen: Are you kidding. What next, banning a gay guy from the aerobics tour?...
Yomzy: America may not be perfect but it is a great place to be. The values and trues that it stands...
Donald W. Wildmon, chairman of the rabidly anti-gay American Family Association, stepped down today, citing an illness resulting from a mosquito bite.
