Oklahoma state legislator Sally Kern claims that the Oklahoma City chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) misquoted her positions on discrimination, sin, and civility after a meeting between her and PFLAG representatives.

But PFLAG’s fact-checking reveals that it is Kern who has misrepresented PFLAG’s carefully worded account of their meeting. Kern’s latest volley of strawman arguments and uncivil vitriol against the families of gay people suggests, at the very least, that she has ensnarled herself in her own tangled web of hate speech against parents and Christian clergy.

After all, why should Kern bother to calmly discuss what she or PFLAG actually said, when it’s so much easier to rant breathlessly about what Kern imagines herself, others — or God — to be saying?

Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Robert L. Jamieson Jr. visited Exodus speaker Ken Hutcherson at his Seattle-area megachurch recently and today offered observations about Hutcherson’s betrayal of his own victory over discrimination — and Hutcherson’s exploitation of “ex-gays”. (Read More)

Update: ‘Repent America’ Leader Guilty: Michael Marcavage, whose Philadelphia-area band of followers uses megaphones to shout down public events, was found guilty of disorderly conduct for shouting down a Halloween festival last year in Salem, Mass. Previously, Exodus officially defended Repent America’s megaphone raid against a Philadelphia gay event as a matter of religious expression. (American Family Association) (More: The Salem News)

Focus on the Family Undermines Couples to ‘Save’ Marriage: Focus on the Family says that states must keep traditional families intact. How? By discriminating against all other families. Focus is upset at a same-sex couple that is suing the University of Hawaii after being excluded from married student housing on campus. Focus accuses the couple of “attacking marriage” by seeking respect as a couple and by honoring marital commitment. (Focus) (Update.)

Focus on the Family Thwarts Evangelicals, Defends Global Warming: Rejecting the guidance of the National Association of Evangelicals regarding creation care and environmental stewardship, Focus on the Family cheered a gathering of industry researchers and religious conservatives who blame climate change on ordinary cycles in the Earth’s history. (Focus)

Protest Planned against Ex-Gay Charlene Cothran: Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network will protest on March 13 against “ex-gay” Venus magazine publisher Charlene Cothran, who is developing an inflammatory new project: a speech entitled “How Homosexuality Destroys Families, Not Just Values.” (Queerty)

Hutcherson and the Legacy of MLK: On the Wallbuilders Live radio program, Exodus speaker Ken Hutcherson expands his campaign against his daughter’s school to include attempts to shut down the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance and end the school’s participation in The Day of Silence. Hutcherson warns that the school faculty should be glad he’s not still committing acts of violence against whites, but adds: “If they don’t fire these teachers, I’m going to sue ‘em and I’m going to ask them for their dreams. And then they’re going to mess around and laugh and I’m going to take their tongue out.” So much for Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of nonviolent social unity and equal opportunity. (Right Wing Watch)

Lighter Side: Who cares what overpaid, over-blowdried anchors think? Anderson Cooper doesn’t — and doesn’t think the public should, either. (Romenesko)

Exodus International president Alan Chambers said last week that the ex-gay network had halted its aggressive antigay political advocacy as of August 2007.

Exodus youth activist Mike Ensley, however, vows to continue using his position in the ex-gay network as a soapbox to silence gay students, withhold accurate information from heterosexual peers of those students, and deny the existence of intersexed persons.

(Read More)

Ken Hutcherson is selling tickets for a culture-war voyage from Seattle to Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Hutcherson boasts:

New Encounter with God!

This time together will be an outstanding opportunity to stand for righteousness and renew our commitment to God as individuals, as couples, and as a group.

God has called us to be salt. Do you know what that really means? During our time together I will help you understand through the Scriptures what it really means.

Got [sic] wants to make sure your salt doesn’t stay in the shaker so let’s get shakin’ for Christ! Let’s run the race and reach for the prize.

Pastor Hutch

Feeling righteous? Reserve your tickets now — $659 for a deluxe stateroom — for Oct. 3-6, 2008. It isn’t clear whether unrighteous individuals are welcome on the cruise — but non-smokers clearly are not very welcome. Not only is smoking allowed in most public lounges and deck areas, it is also allowed in all staterooms — there are no non-smoking rooms.

Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family declared March 3 that there is a “clear consensus” among anthropologists that “a family is a unit that draws from the two types of humanity, male and female.” Focus suggested that anthropologists are opposed to gay marriage, falsely stated that anthropologists agree that “traditional” marriage is best, and claimed that gay people are trying to change the definition of marriage “because they say the traditional definition is irrational and bigoted.”

After Box Turtle Bulletin contacted several anthropologists, the American Anthropological Association wrote directly to Focus to correct Focus’ false statements:

(Read More)

TruthWinsOut.org expressed concern today over a Reuters news story about a drug-resistant strain of MRSA bacteria that is more prevalent among gay men in urban centers, such as Boston and San Francisco. The organization also slammed extremist groups for exploiting the news in order to smear the GLBT community and advance an agenda of pure prejudice and discrimination.

“The comments by Concerned Women for America is hatred in its rawest and ugliest form,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of TruthWinsOut.org. “These wing nuts wasted no time seeking the spotlight and creating a climate of panic and fear. They are factually wrong, morally wrong-headed and tragically addicted to bigotry.”

Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues with Concerned Women for America, used the news to viciously attack gay people. “Citizens, especially parents, need to stand up and say, ‘No More! We will no longer sit idly by while politically correct cultural elites endanger our children and larger communities through propagandist promotion of this demonstrably deadly lifestyle,’” Barber said.
(Read More)