Sen. Lindsey Graham’s has charged that the White House engaged in “seedy Chicago politics” to get its health reform bill passed.

“It was definitely a cheap shot and completely unwarranted,” Valerie Jarrett, one of several Chicagoans who came to Washington with President Obama, said of the South Carolina Republican’s recent remark on CNN.

I suppose Graham would prefer seedy South Carolina politics – such as a family values governor, Mark Sanford, claiming he walked the Appalachian trail, while he was flying to South America to shack up with his mistress. And, who can forget Rep. Joe Wilson who screamed “you lie” at President Obama during his State of the Union address. Such decorum and southern hospitality.

Or, how about when John McCain lost to George W. Bush in the 2000 Republican South Carolina primary, after the Bush campaign insinuated that McCain had an out-of-wedlock black baby?

Let’s not forget that for decades, Republican presidential candidates were forced to pander to racist Bob Jones University if they hoped to get the nomination. It is sad to say, but the absurd Confederate Flag issue is still a big deal politically in this state.

Of course, the most corrupt, sleazy political operative of all, Lee Atwater, perfected his craft in South Carolina. And, let’s not even get into the career of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Sen. Graham, please spare us the disingenuous, sanctimonious  lecture on the morals of South Carolina politics. This type of opportunistic regionalism is obnoxious and divisive.

For the record, I’m not picking on South Carolina. I am from Miami, not exactly a hotbed of political ethics. But, Graham just looks plain foolish insulting Chicago, when political corruption and immorality in his state is at least as bad, if not worse. The last thing we need is this windbag insulting the Windy City.

Several hundred people protested in front of the Renaissance Hotel this evening in downtown Chicago against the Radio Hall of Fame for inducting Focus on the Family’s James Dobson. Focus on the Family had spent $800,000 on Proposition 8 to stop gay people form marrying in California.

It is mind-blowing, that the Radio Hall of Fame honored a leader of Proposition 8. Dobson put his Media Empire and vast amounts of money into the service of denying equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. And, the Radio Hall of Fame reacted by giving this demagogue a trophy. Truth Wins Out and the Gay Liberation Network thank all who attended the rally this evening.

The demonstration made national news.

Coalition To Protest Awards Dinner If Undeserved Award Is Not Rescinded

NEW YORK — Truth Wins Out (TWO) launched a new website today, DumpDobson.com, that calls on the Museum of Broadcast Communications to reverse its decision to honor Focus on the Family’s James Dobson in its Radio Hall of Fame. Unless the museum withdraws its pledge to induct Dobson, TWO will join Equality Illinois and the Gay Liberation Network to protest the awards ceremony, Saturday, Nov. 8, (5:30 PM – 7:30 PM), at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel.

“There is still time to reverse the reckless and irresponsible decision to honor James Dobson in the Radio Hall of Fame,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “It is simply unconscionable that the Museum is giving its imprimatur to a demagogue who has profited from divisive and discriminatory rhetoric. If the museum wants to regain its respect and credibility, it will choose to dump Dobson.”

“We believe that you and your associates at the museum must be aware of Dobson’s contribution to anti-gay hate, and yet you chose to ignore, or perhaps even applaud, his harm to our community,” wrote Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network in an open letter to Bruce DuMont, president of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. “Museums should be places that celebrate the best of human endeavor, not the worst.”

To fight back against this offensive decision, DumpDobson.com is asking fair-minded people to take four actions.

1. E-Mail Radio Hall of Fame CEO Bruce Dumont, brucedumont@museum.tv, and urge him to withdraw Dobson’s honor.
2. Sign our letter to the Radio Hall of Fame urging them to reverse their foolhardy decision to celebrate Dobson’s shameful and ignoble career.
3. If you live in the Chicago area, please sign up to participate in our protest.
4. Donate to Truth Wins Out or Donate to the Gay Liberation Network to help us fight back.

Dobson’s ugly rhetoric is so polarizing that former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) said that, “Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies.” Focus on the Family co-founder Gil Alexander Moegerle said that, “I believe Dobson-style politics have been inept, simplistic, exclusionary, divisive and alarmingly sectarian…James Dobson’s political style has been one of relentlessly demonizing his adversaries.”

Dobson told The Daily Oklahoman on Oct. 23, 2004 that, “Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth.” Dobson also told the Daily Oklahoman that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is “a God’s people hater. I don’t know if he hates God, but he hates God’s people.”

In the past two years, at least seven researchers have accused Dobson of manipulating or cherry picking their results to back his anti-gay teachings. Letters and videos documenting the concerns of these respected professors can be viewed on RespectMyResearch.org.

Dobson also profits from intolerance. He founded a ministry, Love Won Out, that promises to “cure” homosexuals – even though the so-called “ex-gay” leader of Love Won Out, John Paulk, was photographed in a gay bar. Dobson continues to promote dishonest psychological theories about gay people that are rejected by every respected medical and mental health association in America, including the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association.

Truth Wins Out, which operates DumpDobson.com, is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life. For more information, visit www.TruthWinsOut.org. The Gay Liberation Network is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered direct action group

It has been 10 years since Matthew Shepard was savagely murdered. Shepard was the University of Wyoming student who was brutally beaten and left to die on a fence in a frozen Wyoming field - simply because he was gay. Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen was the featured speaker at a memorial rally in Chicago hosted by the Gay Liberation Network. The march drew an estimated 400 people and it was covered by the local NBC and ABC television stations.

“This senseless violence does not happen in a vaccum,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “There is a multi-million dollar anti-gay industry that dehumanizes us every day. They pump millions of dollars into making GLBT people appear to be moral monsters and then act surprised when hate crimes occur. We marched to speak out against this poisonous rhetoric that has harmed so many families.”

Besen amd GLN’s Andy Thayer were also on the popular “Feast of Fools” podcast to discuss the march.

Gay activists are pledging to protest the induction ceremony for the National Radio Hall of Fame this November in Chicago if it goes ahead with plans to put one of the country’s leading anti-gay fundamentalists in the hall.

“It is an affront for the Radio Hall of Fame to honor James Dobson, a right-wing demagogue who built his radio empire on the backs of gay and lesbian people,” said Wayne Besen, a longtime Human Rights Campaign official who left HRC in 2006 and launched Truth Wins Out to counter misinformation efforts by anti-gay groups.

Dobson is founder and head of Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based religious organization that’s grown into one of the country’s largest and most profitable broadcasting and publishing empires. Much of that growth has been fueled by Dobson’s strident anti-gay messages, delivered throughout the country on a daily radio broadcast and often accompanied by fundraising appeals.

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Extremism Won Out With Demagogue to Be Honored, Says TWO

NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out (TWO) assailed The Museum of Broadcast Communications today for announcing they would induct right wing extremist James Dobson into its Radio Hall of Fame. TWO vowed to protest the annual awards dinner, the second Saturday in November, to inform the world of Dobson’s shameful and bigoted record.

“It is an affront for the Radio Hall of Fame to honor James Dobson, a right wing demagogue, who built his radio empire on the backs of gay and lesbian people,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “We vow to stand up and protest this outrageous insult and let the world know that Dobson is a dishonest, hatemongering ideologue.”

Dobson told The Daily Oklahoman on Oct. 23, 2004, “Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth.”

In the past two years, at least seven researchers have accused Dobson of manipulating or cherry picking their results to back his anti-gay teachings. Letters and videos documenting the concerns of these respected professors can be viewed at TruthWinsOut.org and RespectMyResearch.org.

Dobson also profits from intolerance. He founded a ministry, Love Won Out, that promises to “cure” homosexuals – even though the so-called “ex-gay” leader of Love Won Out, John Paulk, was photographed in a gay bar. Dobson also continues to promote dishonest psychological theories about gay people that are rejected by every respected medical and mental health association in America, including the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association.