Several things to mock in this latest missive from Tony Perkins, from yesterday’s broadcast of Today’s Issues put out by the hate group called the Family Research Council. Let us do so because Tony Perkins is truly low-hanging fruit:
I think it’s time for us to occupy. Not going down and setting up tents out in front of city hall, but it’s time for us to be gainfully involved in boldly proclaiming truth and not backing down in the face of intimidation, whether it be from a school principal, kids if you’re listening obviously talk with your parents first, and parents, don’t be intimidated by school officials, don’t be intimidated by the ACLU.
Um, Tony, you all already “occupy” a lot of places. That’s why gay kids end up getting the message from bullies and the fundamentalist religious leaders who enable them that they’re not worthy of living. I’d hate to see the bodycount if Tony Perkins stepped up the FRC’s “occupying” activities.
Pastors, I’m gonna have a pastor hopefully on the program maybe this week or next week from Oklahoma who spoke out at city council and now he’s gotten death threats, well you know what, we’ve got to stand up to this. We cannot allow this to go on, allow them to intimidate us into silence.
Should we be angry? No. But we should understand that it is the truth that sets people free and those in the homosexual community that are looking for fulfillment, that are looking for the approval that they are trying to get by forcing society to embrace homosexuality, they will never get it that way. They’ll only get it when they come to grips with the truth, that they are created in the image of God and God has a plan for their lives, and it’s not the destructive path that they’re on.
Oh, so delusional. You see, people like Tony Perkins live in a weird, bizarre echo chamber outside of reality where the only thing they know and understand is their own lies. Just as creationists can look at fossils from millions of years ago and simply stick their fingers in their ears clinging to their cult belief that the earth is Brand New, Tony Perkins and his fellow anti-gay bigots [also creationists!] simply cannot compute the fact that there are millions of gay people who happy and fulfilled, and not on destructive paths at all. The truth of the matter is that it is those LGBT people who are most influenced by fundamentalist religion who end up destroyed. Their families end up destroyed, their lives are destroyed, sometimes they commit suicide…and for what? The approval of unworthy malcontents like Tony Perkins? My god.
The Family Research Council has a quiz up on its website for us to take! Because Truth Wins Out readers are grounded in reality, as opposed to Tony Perkins’ weird, disturbed lie- and hatred-based worldview, you will all fail it miserably, but then again, that’s okay, because you all actually know the definition of “family values,” whereas the FRC does not.
The part about how ENDA would force Christians to remove family pictures from their workplaces is so batsh*t stupid/hilarious I don’t even know how to react. Fundamentalists are such victims.
Yesterday, the bill to repeal DOMA passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 10-8. This is making the Religious Right whine a lot. Brian at Right Wing Watch compiled a bunch of their reactions, and you should hop over there and read all of them, but my favorite is the fact-free whining from hate group leader Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council:
Today the Senate Judiciary Committee passed S.598, Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) bill that would completely eradicate the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the protections it affords taxpayers and the majority of state’s voters who have decided to define marriage as between one man and one woman.
The misnomer medal of the month might have to be awarded early! S.598, the misleadingly titled “Respect for Marriage Act” not only disrespects American’s across the country who want to protect traditional marriage–and have done as much in the 31 states which have passed statewide referendums in favor of marriage–it will also require your tax dollars go to pay for the federal benefits and subsidies of gay couples, irrespective of where they live, who have gotten “married” in 6 states that allow it.
Marriage is not some prize that liberals can award to a small, vocal and already well off special interest group. Marriage between one man and one woman was created prior to the formation of any governments and is given benefits by governments because it uniquely contributes to a productive society. Trying to change the definition to fit some misguided concept can only cause harm to society.
Oh, boo-hoo, it “disrespects” Americans who want to “protect traditional marriage” from a “special interest group.” Also, his concept of the history of marriage is pathetically stupid. Here, let Al Franken explain that for you, as he did yesterday during the hearings. As Kirsten at Wonkette points out, it was kind of sad that he had to spell this out so slowly and nicely for the idiots, but it’s still necessary, unfortunately:
As for Tony’s blathering about state referenda and ‘Murkans who want to defend tradishnul murrge, here is a picture I found yesterday, of Rachel Maddow explaining these sorts of things to people who are dumb:
Vanderbilt University, one of the finest schools in the South and indeed, in the nation, has a strong anti-discrimination policy in place, which applies to all organizations on campus. There has been controversy recently, stemming in part from a Christian fraternity’s decision to kick a member out for being gay. Vanderbilt has no problem with religious organizations — indeed, there are thirty-six of them on campus — but is standing firm against pressure to allow certain groups to discriminate against students based on their beliefs:
“Student groups that wish to practice their faith are welcome at Vanderbilt; however, it is incumbent upon them to decide whether they wish to become registered student organizations at the university,” the statement read. “One of the requirements to be a registered student organization at Vanderbilt is that student organizations’ constitutions be in compliance with the university’s nondiscrimination policy and that they sign a statement that they will comply with the policy.”
There are 380 recognized student organizations at Vanderbilt, 36 of which are religious student groups. A university review found that 32 of those religious groups are in compliance with the school’s diversity policy. The remaining four have been placed on provisional status while the university review continues.
Vanderbilt’s review of its student organizations comes a year after a gay student accused a campus Christian fraternity of dismissing him because of his sexual orientation.
The above link notes that even the Congressional Prayer Caucus, including Tennessee’s shame [one of them], Rep. Marsha Blackburn, is exerting pressure on Vanderbilt, a private university, to give these four groups a special pass to discriminate.
The president of the College Republicans at Vanderbilt, of course, has been whining:
Siao also said he believes Vanderbilt is using the nondiscrimination policy to specifically target religious and conservative groups.
“I think what they’re trying to do is be a national leader on a progressive issue to get Vanderbilt’s name out there and show it’s not the school it used to be,” said Siao, “But I think it’s going to harm our community and the Christian faith.”
Siao also stated, “There are many devoted Christians on campus. They should have the right to govern their own clubs and assemble.”
Of course, but when 376 out of 380 organizations are able to comply with the policy, and 32 out of 36 religious organizations, perhaps the problem is the wingnut organizations, rather than the school’s policy.
This story has been brewing for a while — both of the above links are from the past couple of months — but the reason I bring this up now is that the Tennessee Equality Project has started a petition on Change.org, to support and encourage Vanderbilt in their decision to stick by their principles. Here’s what TEP has to say about it:
Tennessee Equality Project wants Vanderbilt University to know that people from all over the country support them in their decision to apply their non-discrimination policy consistently to all campus organizations. We have been hearing that the Board of Trust is under intense pressure to scale back the application of the policy. The Congressional Prayer Caucus and Family Action Council of Tennessee have criticized the University. We ask Chancellor Nick Zeppos to pass along our views to the Board of Trust at their meeting this week.
Of course the Family Action Council of Tennessee is involved. You’ll remember, from yesterday, that FACTn is a wang of the national hate group Family Research Council, and that it was recently revealed that they used a state senator, essentially, as a puppet, in the passage of the recent bill which disallows Tennessee’s cities from setting strong nondiscrimination policies, a direct attack on the LGBT people of the state. While I doubt that the overlap between FACTn donors and Vanderbilt parents is significant, far be it from a Religious Right organization to mind its own damn business.
Recently, Tennessee passed a bill which prohibited its cities from setting their own non-discrimination policies, or rather policies which are stronger than the state’s own pathetic non-discrimination law. It was pushed solely by the Family Action Council of Tennessee, a wing of the Family Research Council hate group, as an attack on LGBT people and our families. Regular readers might remember us posting a video of the extremely fey FACTn leader, David Fowler, wearing a pink shirt in a playground gloating about the passage of the law. A lawsuit has been filed to overturn the law, and the documents now being exposed, related to the passage of that law, are illuminating:
To satisfy attorneys in the gay rights lawsuit against the state last week, conservative Christian lawmakers coughed up 2,200 pieces of correspondence related to their wonderful new statute that overturned Nashville’s nondiscrimination ordinance in the last legislative session.
[...]
Just for fun, we pulled the filed marked “Sen. Mae Beavers” first and, right off the bat, we were delighted to discover an email to her from David Fowler—the Ralph Reed of Tennessee’s Christian Right and the driving force behind the state law. In this email, Fowler shockingly treats Beavers like a puppet on a string (do lobbyists really run things in Nashville?) and instructs her precisely what to say about the Tennessee Family Action Council’s bill. He obviously views Beavers as not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but useful just the same as his bill’s sponsor.
“The bill itself is not that complicated,” Fowler writes. “We don’t need more regulation of business and business sure doesn’t need the 348 different cities coming up with their own ideas of what a discriminatory practice is. That’s the line and you just repeat it like Glen Casada did last night when the bill passed the House 73 to 24.”
“Will the homosexuals be upset?” Fowler then asks. “Sure. But to be honest, they seem to be rather resigned on this bill.”
Ha, well, I know some of “the homosexuals” who filed the lawsuit, and they are anything but “resigned.” Or as the Nashville Scene writer put it:
Whoops! Fowler misread the temperature of gay activists there. Outraged by his law, they launched a campaign to embarrass just about every major corporation in Tennessee into renouncing it. When that was done, they filed their lawsuit painting the state legislature as a bunch of bigots.
Yep!
The truth of the matter is that Senator Mae Beavers probably isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but it’s interesting to see just how much our opponents on the Religious Right view their elected officials as puppets. “We bought you, now read this word for word,” seems to be the order of the day.
The linked piece points out that, in order to prevail, those who filed the lawsuit must show that the bill was passed strictly out of bias against gay people, rather than to make it “easier to do bidness in Tennessee,” so it’s helpful that many of Tennessee’s major corporations are now squarely against the law. Reading the documents in Ms. Beavers’ file, showing e-mails spanning the wingnut diaspora, from the garden variety house-wingnut all the way up to Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, thanking her for standing up against ‘dem homoseckshuls, should give those involved in the lawsuit a hint as to what was really going on when one of Tennessee’s resident hate groups decided to lobby for special access to discriminate against LGBT people in the state.
Yesterday, speaking to the wingnuts at the so-called “Family Research Council,” a Southern Poverty Law Center-certified hate group, GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann had this to say about the unemployed (in addition to her usual gay bashing and crazy-eyed fear of “socialism”):
“Our nation needs to stop doing for people what they can, and should, do for themselves. That revives the principle of a national work ethic that we have sadly forgotten. That means an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. Self-reliance means, if anyone will not work, neither should he eat.”
I wonder if the god she worships — presumably the same god who is commanding her to run for President — gave her a divine dispensation to ignore the whole “feed the hungry” thing.
It’s funny when they accidentally forget their messaging and just come right out with their weird, shame-induced belief that all sex is dirty.
But when you’re a fundamentalist leader, you’re much more worried about keeping your ideology pure and wishing upon a star that all people’s naughty bits might somehow be under lock and key for all time*, than you are about keeping your kids STD and teen pregnancy free. Look at the teen pregnancy rates in the more fundamentalist states to see how well that works.
*except for those terrible times when a Fundamentalist husband and wife must engage in terrible, disgusting, shameful sex in order to have a baby.
Wow, this one comes from Joplin, Missouri. A teacher, whose name is not being released, allegedly posted these remarks on Facebook in response to a story about gay kids committing suicide:
How grotesque. There’s a news video here on the incident, which I can’t seem to embed over here.
Joe noticed that one of America’s Most Vicious Hatemongers, Tony Perkins, is defending the teacher. What’s a little laugh over child suicide among fundamentalist wingnuts, am I right?
Sometimes people think we’re exaggerating when we say that, as we have now reached the tipping point, the majority position in the United States is to support full equality for gay people, and the bigots’ opinions are becoming completely socially unacceptable, those bigots are very likely to become more and more extreme and possibly violent. Watching one of the most well-known “pro-family” leaders in the country defend a person laughing about children committing suicide should open people’s eyes to the true character of our opposition. These are their true colors.
Southern Poverty Law Center to Hold Press Conference Outside Values Voter Summit
The Southern Poverty Law Center will hold a press conference this Friday, Oct. 7, to release a report on the Family Research Council (FRC) and American Family Association (AFA), two groups that spread false propaganda that demonizes the LGBT community. The FRC is hosting the annual Values Voter Summit this weekend Washington, where many prominent public officials will be speaking. The AFA is a major co-sponsor.
WHO: Mark Potok, Director, Intelligence Project, Southern Poverty Law Center
Wayne Besen, Truth Wins Out
WHEN: Friday, October 7
8 a.m. (EDT)
WHERE: Omni Shoreham
2500 Calvert Street NW (at Connecticut Ave.)
Washington, DC
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The Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Alabama with offices in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. For more information, see www.splcenter.org.
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
Several things to mock in this latest missive from Tony Perkins, from yesterday’s broadcast of Today’s Issues put out by the hate group called the Family Research Council. Let us do so because Tony Perkins is truly low-hanging fruit:
