Posted November 6th, 2008 by Michael Airhart
A day after constitutional bans on marriage for gay people passed in three U.S. states, Kevin Ivers — formerly of the Log Cabin Republicans — writes:
I beg all of you with any energy left in you to wake up. I beg you to stop deluding yourselves about what it’s going to take to really change our situation in the United States. Stop believing promises and start demanding action. Stop scapegoating, and blaming ‘enemies’ and shifting responsibility for all our failures onto others, and take responsibility for everything we face. Stop living the reality show and start living in reality. And if you were active in this election cycle, don’t delude yourself into thinking that the fight is “won.” It is, in fact, almost completely lost as of this moment if you stand down now. Do more than just “know hope” — think different.
I’m not a fan of the Republican Party, but I agree with Ivers that the Democrats — and Barack Obama in particular — did too little to oppose the antigay marriage amendments in California, Arizona, and Florida.
Among pro-marriage, anti-amendment groups, outreach to African-American moderates and religious communities seems to have been inadequate. And gay people were virtually invisible in TV ads.
Members of sexual minority groups must stop waiting for benevolent leadership from above, and start asserting themselves.
Posted August 12th, 2008 by Wayne Besen
Focus on the Family plucked a video from its Web site today that urged people to pray for “rain of biblical proportions” during Barack Obama’s Aug. 28 appearance at Invesco Field at Mile High to accept the Democratic nomination for president. This, of course, would be about as effective as their attempts to have people “pray away the gay” at their “ex-gay” Love Won Out freak shows.
Stuart Shepard, director of digital media at Focus Action, the political arm of Focus on the Family, said the video he wrote and starred in was meant to be “mildly humorous.” But complaints from about a dozen Focus members convinced the organization to pull the video, said Tom Minnery, Focus Action vice president of public policy.
“If people took it seriously, we regret it,” Minnery said Monday.
Who is Focus on the Family kidding? They are a nasty group that portrays God as a right wing bully who is molded in James Dobson’s dictatorial image. The only joke here, was that Focus on the Family is covering up their true colors by portraying their ugliness as a parody.
You can only feel bad for people who have such an authoritarian, hideous view of spirituality. I hope, even pray, that they get the help they need to escape this miserable mindset in which they are trapped.
