Thanks to amazing The Cross Eyed Iguanas for this witty little ditty about Porno Pete LaBarbera. I think they did a pretty darn good job capturing the essence of this bizarre, sexually stunted man. For the unacquainted, Porno Pete is an anti-gay activist who goes “undercover” to gay sex clubs and leather conferences to expose alleged naughtiness.

What people find odd is that he goes to the same exact events year-after-year, as if he will find something new. But, as far as I can tell, leather looks the same in 2009 as it did in 1999. So, why does this man keep returning to the same venues?  I suppose it is possible that he may find it titillating, on some level. Revealingly, he never goes to heterosexual events that have a similar level of debauchery. Indeed, one rarely finds him pictured with the opposite sex and, for some unexplained reason, it appears he is exclusively fixated on the homosexual arena.

If I were advising President Barack Obama, I would tell him to pay as much attention to the ornery jeers from protesters outside the Human Rights Campaign’s Oct. 10th Washington dinner as the cheers coming from inside the ornate ballroom.

“The last thing we need is more flowery rhetoric in front of rich, self-effacing gays and lesbians dressed up like penguins,” said Andy Thayer of the Gay Liberation Network, who plans to picket the event.

The cross mood expressed by Thayer is indicative of the restlessness felt by the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender grass roots in the early stages of Obama’s presidency.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) deserves a heaping helping of praise for furnishing a primetime platform for Obama to impart his message. But, the President and HRC must realize that the stakes are even higher than the price of the steaks served in the ballroom of the black-tie affair. While no one will likely yell, “you lie” in the middle of his remarks, there will be a collective sigh if all we get is a pretty speech.

Let it be known that the GLBT community is no longer interested in being pals with the powerful or having the famous tell us we are fabulous – unless it leads to action. If the goal of this evening were simply to provide an interesting dinner guest, Meryl Streep or Michael Moore would have sufficed.  What we want from Obama, however, is a fighter working to set us free. We need signed paper in the form of laws, not paper-thin promises and illusive signs of hope. Unless a concrete vision is offered at this event, Obama’s speech will sink like concrete in the Potomac River. (Read More)

Exodus International is the nation’s foremost organization claiming to use Christianity to turn LGBT people into “ex-gays.”

And while Exodus says it “loves” gay people, the Gay Liberation Network says Exodus’ fake attempts to change gays into straights is rooted in their “hatred of gay people.” GLN points out that Exodus opposes all civil rights for LGBT people; in just the past few months, Exodus has taken extreme actions to oppose the human rights, health, and safety of same-sex-attracted people.

In March, Exodus board member Don Schmierer traveled to Uganda to keynote a conference which declared that life imprisonment for homosexuals is too lenient and that tougher laws should be accompanied by involuntary detention in ex-gay re-education camps. More recently, Exodus joined the religious-right “Freedom Federation” which promotes the myth that conservative Christian freedom requires that liberal and non-Christian Americans be denied their own freedom and equality under the law. Exodus opposes laws that would require that violent crimes against gay and transgender persons be punished just as harshly as violent crimes committed on the basis of the victim’s race or religion; Exodus claims that the punishment of violent crime threatens the “freedom of speech” of antigay pastors, even though such laws contain safeguards for religious speech. Finally, Exodus refuses to publicly oppose ex-gay exorcisms performed against a 16-year-old youth by an amateur pentecostal church in Connecticut.

Every major professional mental-health association has denounced Exodus’s efforts to suppress and lie about individuals’ sexual orientation as potentially very damaging to the very people Exodus claims to “help.”

As the American Psychiatric Association notes: “The potential risks of ‘reparative therapy’ are great, including depression, anxiety and self destructive behavior, since therapist alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self hatred already experienced by the patient. Many patients who have undergone ‘reparative therapy’ relate that they were inaccurately told that homosexuals are lonely, unhappy individuals who never achieve acceptance or satisfaction. The possibility that the person might achieve happiness and satisfying interpersonal relationships as a gay man or lesbian is not presented, nor are alternative approaches to dealing with the effects of societal stigmatization discussed.”

GLN invites Midwesterners to help expose the “ex-gay” fraud, and help show young LGBT people that there is an alternative to the damaging quack “therapy” that Exodus International promotes.

The Gay Liberation Network is organizing a protest against the opening of Exodus International’s annual “Freedom [from Gay Equality] Conference” and it invites you to join them:

6:30 PM
Tuesday, July 14
Wheaton College
500 College Avenue
Wheaton, Illinois
Related Facebook group

GLN is organizing transportation from Chicago to the protest, and may be able to offer it from some suburban locations. If you need transportation or are willing to offer it, please email LGBTliberation@aol.com.

Half-Finished Building To Be Sold In What Museum of Broadcast Communications Calls, “A Very Disappointing Development”

NEW YORK – A month after protesters picketed its annual dinner for inducting Focus on the Family’s James Dobson into its Radio Hall of Fame, the Chicago-based Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) announced today that it was selling its half-finished building.

“It is with deep regret that I announce the MBC board on December 10th voted to sell its half-finished building at State and Kinzie in downtown Chicago,” said Bruce DuMont, Founder, President and CEO of the MBC. “This is a very disappointing development.”

“Pandering to extremists doesn’t pay and the Museum of Broadcast Communications suffered a catastrophic blow to its reputation by honoring Focus on the Family’s James Dobson,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out (TWO). “Bruce DuMont hoped to cash in by catering to the deep pockets of the religious right, but his prayers weren’t answered. Truth Wins Out wants to thank the hundreds of people who came out to protest in freezing weather – your efforts and determination paid off.” (Read More)

On Nov. 8, Truth Wins Out and the Gay Liberation Network joined a coalition of local, state and national groups to protest Focus on the Family’s James Dobson’s induction into the Radio Hall of Fame.

A crowd of several hundred people came out to demonstrate on a frigid night in Chicago. They were also energized by Proposition 8 being passed in California, which prohibited same-sex couples from marrying.

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.