Frank Talk is the blog of Frank Neudecker, a city councilman in Jackson, Tennessee.  As such, one would expect that, even if not everybody agrees with the content, he would maintain a level of discourse appropriate to civil society.  Of course, as we all know, that’s a pretty low bar.

We don’t even necessarily expect politicians to use their social media outlets for important news and information.  After all, Texas governor Rick Perry seems to use his Twitter mostly for the purpose of posting pictures of puppy dogs!   It’s a whole different animal though [see what I did there?] when politicians instead allow people to post viciously ignorant, racist, homophobic vitriol and call it “commentary.”  Forthwith, here are some choice words from “Linda Hunnicutt,” in a post titled “ROFLMAO.” Again, this is on the website of an elected official:

Take a good look at where all of this tolerance has gotten us.. it has given us years of Hillary Clinton, Barney Frank, Nancy and Harry and now dead Teddy. Lord how blessed these people have made us. Now we have a Muslim President who isn’t even a citizen and his following of little tolerant dingleberrys touting Tolerance oh yes we have to be so tolerant of this slug… this infiltrator, this Trojan horse’s ass and his ill mannered, ugly, in bred looking bride wearing her $600 blinking sneakers, oh what class this first lady brings to the white house. I bet Jackie Kennedy is rolling about in her grave.

Tolerance has given us a country where the white people are so brain damaged and cultured they tolerate being controled by the likes of people we laughed at as nutty a few years ago.. Remember the little fatty fuzzy haired kook Richard Simmons? Now he is a common fixture and so respected.. uck… Our schools, courts, everything is being taken over by the homosexuals who have been bred to make us all a UNISEX nation it seems. Years ago we tolerated these so called people as entertainers ( even then they weren’t really funny, just funny looking ) remember Liberace? Oh my goodness how wonderful he and his little brother were and how they honored their Mommy… The only thing I can say about him he was good at the piano but then what else could he possibly do? The only good thing about these freaks is they will not be reproducing. The problem is that is not stopping the growth of perverts and humans that don’t know which way to swing. They are in the schools where they are now the respected and revered teachers of our children teaching TOLERANCE….The TV, Movies and educational systems have made it more acceptable and attractive to become a homosexual than to be normal now in the schools, Kids are so easily led by the advertising media, music and in general icons of acceptance.

Time out. When is the last time you saw Richard Simmons on television? Does anyone else get the feeling this piece was written by Rip Van Wingnut, having just awakened from her years-long slumber, still trying to figure out which parts of her fever dreams actually happened?

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It was tabled just a few weeks ago due to lack of support, but now it’s back:

This morning, the [Memphis city] council’s personnel committee passed a resolution requesting the administration conduct a study of discrimination in city employment. The survey will include sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, but it won’t be limited to those issues. The city’s human resources department will conduct the survey.

The committee also passed the non-discrimination ordinance, and it will go to full council for a first reading on Tuesday, November 9th. A similar ordinance was withdrawn by its sponsor/council person Janis Fullilove in August at the request the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP). At the time, TEP cited a lack of support from Mayor A C Wharton and bias on the council.

People on both sides of the issue crowded the committee meeting room this morning, but there seemed to be more ordinance supporters wearing TEP stickers than opposition sporting “one man, one woman” stickers. TEP’s Jonathan Cole spoke on the need for workplace protections for LGBT city workers.

“Memphis is at a crossroads. Memphis cannot afford to send a mixed message to its residents or the rest of the world,” Cole said. “Will Memphis be the city of choice that we’ve heard so much about? A city that welcomes people of diverse backgrounds? Or will Memphis choose to send a message of exclusion, a message that diversity, fairness, and equality are not valued here?”

For their part, the opposition’s spokesman, Josh Davis, from the cutely named Family Action Council of Tennessee [FACT] [sic] had this to say:

“[A] workforce is more productive and manageable when a person’s sexuality and sexual practices are left out of the workplace and confined to their personal, private lives.”

True.  It’s a lot easier to do that when you can’t be fired for going home to a spouse of the same sex.  Or for mentioning your spouse at work.  Things straight people, those flaunters of sexuality, do every day.

In the 167 hours since a court ruling suspended the U.S. armed forces’ antigay personnel policy, the Palm Center has carefully counted the following enormous consequences from the policy suspension:

The Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) and Memphis city councilwoman Janis Fullilove have just pulled a proposed, inclusive non-discrimination ordinance, scheduled for a second reading today, from consideration.  The process began smoothly, but quickly devolved on the first reading into a textbook example of why nondiscrimination ordinances are necessary in the first place.  From TEP’s Jonathan Cole:

At the request of the Tennessee Equality Project Councilwoman Janis Fullilove withdrew the Employment Non-Discrimination Ordinance that would provide inclusive workplace protections for City of Memphis employees based on religion, race, national origin, ethnicity, age, sex, political affiliation, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression. The withdrawal is designed to save Memphis City Government and the larger community from becoming a national disgrace in the movement to create an inclusive community that welcomes people from diverse backgrounds.

On the first of three readings of the Employment Non-Discrimination Ordinance (ENDO) on Aug. 10, the Mayor of Memphis and the Memphis City Council made it clear that proposed legislation would not receive a fair hearing.  City Attorney Herman Morris announced that Mayor AC Wharton reversed his position supporting LGBT-inclusive workplace protections. Mayor Wharton pledged his support for LGBT-inclusive workplace protections during his campaign and again when working with the Tennessee Equality Project through the City Attorney’s office to write the proposed ordinance.

Also on August 10, the Memphis City Council displayed an unexpected bias against the proposed legislation that is rarely demonstrated on other matters brought before the Council.

Cole then goes on to detail the petulant behavior of Memphis City Council members Barbara Swearengen Ware and Bill Morrison at the first reading, as well as the betrayal of Memphis mayor A. C. Wharton, who had previously supported the ordinance.  Connecting the dots, Cole concludes:

Some Council members and critics claim there is no bias or discrimination in City Government against LGBT people. But the first reading of the ENDO demonstrates that anti-LGBT bias starts at the top. The LGBT community and City employees were not given the respect and consideration by the City Council normally afforded to others in our community. These preemptive measures were deployed to silence public debate and prevent a fair hearing of the legislation.

Since LGBT citizens and City employees were treated like second-class citizens by the Memphis Mayor and City Council, TEP does not believe that Memphis City Government is serious about making Memphis a real City of Choice for all job seekers, entrepreneurs and business leaders. Memphis will be considered a City of Exclusion as long as its citizens are treated with disrespect and fear. TEP looks forward to returning to the Mayor and the City Council with legislation protecting all employees from unfair discrimination when a fair hearing is possible.

The anti-gay forces in Memphis are, of course, trying to spin this as a victory for their side.  Leading the opposition to the ordinance was Bellevue Baptist Church pastor Steve Gaines, who is best known for protecting a pedophile in his congregation, and who readily admits that he does not actually live in the city of Memphis.  Michelle Bliss, vice chairwoman of the local chapter of the Tennessee Equality Project had this to say about the opposition’s “victory,” in an exclusive statement to Truth Wins Out:

“As some of the opposition to the Ordinance left, they were celebrating. They act like it is a victory that discrimination won out over fairness today, and they act like it is a victory that a group of hardworking, taxpaying citizens is treated like second class citizens and marginalized by the city leadership that is elected to represent all Memphians. Only in a sick, twisted mind could this be considered a victory.”

Indeed.  I would also add that, for this to be happening in a city that used to be trailblazing, the city that nurtured the most pivotal elements of the Civil Rights Movement, is shameful.

Every few years, Memphis’s political leaders start trumpeting some new plan to make Memphis a “world-class city,” with pipe dreams of becoming an “aerotropolis,” or whatever buzzword is currently sending a thrill up their legs.  But then, consistently, when they’re asked to perform the most rudimentary tasks they’re elected to do, such as working to ensure that Memphis not only protects all its citizens, but also has the laws and institutions in place to attract people and investment, they fail.  In this case, they failed while looking like hateful, undereducated little children.

Some people just aren’t ready to be grown-ups.

The ordinance will be reintroduced at a later date.

In its CitizenLink political-action newsletter yesterday, Focus on the Family laughably characterized President Barack Obama as a homosexual activist — and then criticized Obama for denying ex-gay political activists access to federal “faith-based” handouts:

Although Obama has pledged allegiance to the gay and “transgender” agenda, he refuses to support those who are dealing with unwanted same-sex attractions.

His Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will not provide funding to faith-based organizations if they are working to help people overcome unwanted homosexuality.

Equality advocates promote the values of education, fitness, and self-reliance; they don’t seek “faith-based” handouts from taxpayers, and neither should those ex-gay political activists who promote sexual dishonesty, denial, compulsion, depression, and sectarian religious beliefs.

While P-FOX seeks federal bailout money for antigay parents in the United States, and the Assemblies of God seek government support for their ex-gay Teen Challenge programs, a Dutch official has revoked a handout to one of two antigay Christian groups that sought to raid the pockets of that nation’s taxpayers.

According to NRC Handelsblad:

[Dutch minister for education, culture and equality Ronald Plasterk] said that the Onze Weg (Our Way) foundation was in fact attempting to ‘cure’ homosexuality. Protecting minority interests is part of Plasterk’s portfolio.

Earlier in the week Plasterk had defended his decision to subsidise the organisation, prompted by written questions from two opposition members of parliament. Boris van der Ham of the left-wing liberal party D66 and Anouchka van Miltenburg of right-wing liberal VVD, quoted an article in the Revu weekly that claimed the group is targeting homosexuals in order to alter their sexual orientation. The organisation is mainly active among evangelical Christians and was granted a 50,000 euro subsidy in September 2008.

Another ex-gay organization, RefoAnders, received a government subsidy of 84,000 euros, according to Religious Intelligence. That handout is now being reconsidered.

According to Rene van Soeren, who commented at Ex-Gay Watch last year:

Onze Weg and RefoAnders are both closely linked to Different [an orthodox Christian foundation] — and that foundation is a member of Exodus International.

Both organizations falsely claimed to be gay Christian organizations.

The web site of the Exodus Global Alliance profiles Johan van de Sluis, 70-year-old board member of Onze Weg, who thanks Exodus for helping move European ex-gay organizations out of isolation.