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.
Herman Cain with CNN’s Piers Morgan (h/t: Rex Wockner)
On issues from evolution to climate change, the members of the GOP presidential class of 2012 (with one notable exception) have demonstrated a shocking contempt for science, dismissively tossing aside research-tested, reality-based scientific consensus and deciding instead to stick their collective heads in the sand in order to please their increasingly deranged, reactionary base. Concerned people from across the political spectrum, from Jon Huntsman to Paul Krugman, are alarmed by a Republican Party that is, to quote Mr. Krugman, “aggresively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge.”
This certainly holds true where LGBT issues are concerned. The current crop of Republican candidates have practically tripped over themselves in a quest to outdo each other in the homophobia department. Michele Bachmann, who has made opposition to LGBT rights the central pillar of her entire political career, co-owns a clinic that claims, in the face of the overwhelming medical and scientific evidence to the contrary, to be able to “pray away the gay.” Newt Gingrich and RickPerry are both enthusiastic supporters of the American Family Association, a Southern Poverty Law Center-certified hate group that actively promotes the idea that sexual orientation can be changed. Rick Santorum, whose name will be forever linked with homophobic bigotry thanks to Dan Savage, most recently raised the horrifying specter of gay soldiers showering with other soldiers as a reason to reinstate the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and publicly embraced “ex-gay” propaganda.
The GOP’s current flavor of the month, Herman Cain, has eagerly jumped onto the anti-science, gay-hating bandwagon. Earlier this month, Cain told The View’s Joy Behar that he believes homosexuality is a personal choice and issued a challenge:
“You show me the science that says that it’s not [a choice], and I could be persuaded. Right now it’s my opinion against the opinion of others who feel differently. That’s just a difference of opinion.”
Truth Wins Out, Think Progress, and other groups hit back with the facts: sexual orientation is not a choice and cannot be changed. Ours isn’t an opinion, but scientific fact.
But apparently, to Cain, facts don’t matter — he’d rather cling to his anti-gay bigotry, thank you very much. In an interviewlast night with CNN’s Piers Morgan, Herman Cain reiterated his Stone-Age, anti-science views on homosexuality: “Although people don’t agree with me, I happen to think that [homosexuality] is a personal choice.” When Morgan told the candidate that his comments were just as ridiculous as a gay person telling Cain that he chose to be black, Cain bristled: “You know that’s not true. I was born black;” he added that race “doesn’t wash off.”
Herman, Herman, Herman. I, along with most LGBT people I know, happen to be a big fan of regular bathing. Trust me: I’ve bathed over 9,700 times in my 26 years and it hasn’t washed off — I’m still gay.
Mr. Cain thinking he’s entitled to an opinion on a matter of scientific fact is quaint at best. When one considers that he’s a member of an oppressed minority group turning around and contributing to the oppression of another minority group, Mr. Cain’s bigotry seems tragic, hypocritical, and profoundly sad. When one remembers that Herman Cain is seeking the office of the Presidency of the United States, it becomes a cause for alarm. His dangerously unscientific views about LGBT people render him unfit for that office.
Today we were making our usual rounds, monitoring hate group websites, when we noticed something very peculiar: when we tried to access the website of Peter LaBarbera (AKA Porno Pete)’s organization, the so-called Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), we received an error message. Repeated attempts yielded the same result, so now we’re wondering: has Porno Pete gone out of business?
It’s been a rough year for Porno Pete. In March, AFTAH was designated an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In July, Pete sent out a tweet that seemed to suggest he was moonlighting as a Starbucks barista. The following month, the news broke that the IRS revoked AFTAH’s tax-exempt status back in 2010. And now his website is down. It appears that would-donors are none too enthusiastic about subsidizing Porno Pete’s gay porn addiction, anti-gay misinformation campaigns, and “undercover” operations at leather events.
I wonder if the lights are even on at Porno Pete’s dungeon AFTAH headquarters…
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
###
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.
MSNBC’s Hardball this afternoon clarified false claims made Monday on the program by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.
Host Chris Matthews belatedly told viewers the truth: That FRC based its antigay defamations not on findings by the legitimate American Academy of Pediatrics, but rather on the quackings of a tiny, antigay, Christian Right front group called the “American College of Pediatricians.”
As Truth Wins Out has often noted, the ACP was formed in 2002 as an offshoot of the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family. The ACP’s purpose is to confuse the public about professional medical research regarding sexuality, reproduction, and child mental health.
Its board has included several discredited and scandalous individuals, including zealous antigay ideologue George Rekers — the man caught returning from Europe with a rentboy early this year.
Unfortunately, Hardball’s admission comes too late: Few of the FRC and Focus fans who watched Monday’s program were watching today.
Apple has apparently removed an app from its iTunes store which rails against gay marriage and LGBT rights. The app, created by a Christian group, disappeared from the online store after media attention, first reported on PinkNews.co.uk. It was based on the Manhattan Declaration, a manifesto released in 2009 by Christian and Catholic leaders which rails against the “erosion” of marriage.
The question remains, will Apple forbid the so-called “ex-gay” hate group Exodus International from building a planned App?
The answer is YES if Truth Wins Out has anything to do with it. After all, it will not be very difficult to show Apple that Exodus is a hate group that demeans and dehumanizes LGBT people.
Exodus should really stop wasting time and money on an App that will most likely be doomed. Truth Wins Out will do everything in its power to make sure that this abusive, rabidly anti-gay App never sees the light of day.
TWO Pledges To Help Educate The World Bank About PFOX’s Record of Hate and Harm
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out today praised the World Bank’s plan to eliminate matching funds for the “ex-gay” hate group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX), and called it a “positive step in the right direction.” The bank took this extraordinary step after learning more about PFOX’s reprehensible record and strong objections from staff who were upset PFOX had been included on the World Bank’s list of approved charities.
“We are grateful that the World Bank ensured that taxpayers will not be subsidizing PFOX’s anti-gay campaign,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We pledge to continue educating the World Bank on this vital issue. The more they learn about PFOX’s history of hate and harm, the less likely they will consider PFOX a legitimate charity.”
Last week, Metro Weekly’s Chris Geidner discovered that a small number of anti-gay staff-members at the World Bank had recommended PFOX as a charity for this year’s Community Connections Campaign. World Bank matching funds were to be given to the chosen charities. Depending on the level of employee participation, the bank’s matching funds are either 50 percent or 100 percent of the employee donations.
Truth Wins Out and Change.org launched an online petition to drop PFOX from the list of charities. World Bank staff also made a persuasive case against using taxpayer funds to assist PFOX. The World Bank decided to take another look at PFOX and elected to change their guidelines. According to the new rules:
Bank-matching funds will be provided to those organizations that have, through prior participation, established a track record of support with staff. Organizations that have come on the list this year will not be offered matching funds in this year’s campaign, though the Bank will match any contribution that has been made to this latter group prior to today, November 15, 2010. We will review the new organizations after one year, to see if they have the staff and community support to warrant a match in the FY12 campaign.
Truth Wins Out preferred that PFOX be completely dropped from the list this year, but is satisfied with this interim measure that starves the hate group of taxpayer funds. In 2011, TWO will disseminate key information to World Bank staff and management to ensure they are aware of PFOX’s dubious record.
“It is a shame that other first time charitable organizations will have to suffer because of PFOX’s unseemly presence,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “Sadly, the PFOX baby is so toxic that the bathwater had to be flushed to avoid contaminating the entire program’s reputation.”
In August, two key members of PFOX spoke at the “Truth Academy”. The conference was hosted by Americans For Truth About Homosexuality’s founder Peter LaBarbera, whose website was listed as an official “hate site” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
At the Truth Academy, PFOX Board President Greg Quinlan raised eyebrows with an offensive speech. Quinlan explained how he allegedly went from gay-to-straight, and found support from an Assemblies of God Church that accepted him because he allegedly was not effeminate.
“I wasn’t your flaming faggot, you know,” Quinlan told the chuckling crowd. “I can say that because I’ve been there and done that. You know, the one’s whose wrists are so limp that when the wind blows they slap themselves in the face. I wasn’t one of them.”
At the same conference, Arthur Abba Goldberg, the convicted Wall Street thief who runs PFOX’s speakers bureau, demonstrated PFOX’s unscientific use of stereotypes.
“By the way, did you notice that a lot of gays who remain in the gay lifestyle also do a lot of body building,” said Abba Goldberg. “They will be in the gym a lot trying to build up their pecs…Because they have these body image issues and don’t feel they are masculine enough.”
“PFOX is a dangerous organization that traffics in ugly slurs and crass stereotypes,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “Given PFOX’s level of vitriol, it would seem reckless and irresponsible to give this group charitable status in the future.”
PFOX’s former board President is Richard Cohen, who still serves as the “therapy” guru of the organization. Cohen runs the International Healing Foundation and sent his protégé, Caleb Lee Brundidge, to Uganda. The result of his visit was the introduction of the deadly and draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Cohen was permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association on March 23, 2002 for multiple ethics violations.
PFOX is an anti-gay political organization founded in 1998 by Anthony Falzarano with the help of an $80,000 Family Research Council grant. Falzarano once called University of Wyoming hate crime victim Matthew Shepard a “predator to heterosexual men.” He also said on CBS News that, “AIDS comes directly from Satan. He uses homosexuals as pawns and then he kills them.”
“PFOX likes to claim that they ‘love’ LGBT people,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “But their syrupy rhetoric does not match their record, nor reality. From the moment this organization was founded, it showed open hostility and extreme animus towards LGBT people.”
There are also lingering questions as to whether PFOX should have been listed as a charity, given that to be included in the World Bank’s Community Outreach Program, an organization is required to have, “a substantial local presence in the Greater Washington metropolitan area.”
PFOX fails to fulfill the criteria. The organization is based in Reedville, VA — placing PFOX 127 miles — and a two hour and forty minute drive — southeast of the nation’s capitol. PFOX also does not list any legitimate chapters in DC or Virginia. The only “contact” e-mail listed in DC or VA is that of the national organization based in Reedville.
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that defends the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community against anti-gay misinformation, counters the so-called “ex-gay” industry and educates America about the lives of LGBT people. Our goal is to fight for a world where LGBT individuals can live openly, honestly, free of discrimination and be true to themselves.
Please, just go read this. It will make you smile and also, it will make you laugh and laugh at a lady named “Sandra Rodrigues” and her crazy angry protest group, “America Forever” (an SPLC-certified anti-gay hate group), which went so far as to hold a town hall in Logan to tell everybody that all of the city council members were secret gay activists who hated children and cooked AIDS burgers in the backs of diners. Or something.
In the hall after the vote, Rodrigues repeatedly called out to others filing out, “We know what you’re up to. Boo.”
Sharp as a bag of wet hair, she is.
Again, go read it all. I don’t even have to snark this one, because s.z. at World O’Crap already did it for me. There’s a hilarious twist ending, which I will not ruin.
The Traditional Values Coalition’s linking of ENDA to “religious liberty” and children — illogical, disingenuous and disgusting as it is — still resonates with voters and politicians. TVC launched a new campaign in March called “ENDA Hurts Kids”
Last week, Metro Weekly’s 
