Brad Dacus of the extremist Pacific Justice Institute is complaining about a bill in California which would prevent kids from being victimized by “ex-gay” therapy. Here is a brief overview of the bill:
The law does not outright ban all ex-gay therapy, but it does prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from undergoing sexual orientation change efforts. It also requires that any prospective patient sign an informed consent form that includes the following disclaimer:
Having a lesbian, gay, or bisexual sexual orientation is not a mental disorder. There is no scientific evidence that any types of therapies are effective in changing a person’s sexual orientation. Sexual orientation change efforts can be harmful. The risks include, but are not limited to, depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behavior.
Medical and mental health associations that oppose the use of sexual orientation change efforts include the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Counseling Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.
Bills like this are a reflection of the reality-based community, where we know with 100% certainty that “reparative” therapy is not effective, and is often harmful. This is why no adult medical or mental health organization supports it.
Here is Brad Dacus, screaming about it:
Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), one of several groups who testified against the bill last week, said the bill’s anti-conservative bias was extreme even by California’s standards.
“I can honestly say this is one of the most outrageous, speech-chilling bills we have ever seen in California – and that’s saying a lot,” said Dacus, who told LifeSiteNews.com that the bill is “a child’s welfare issue.”
Dacus pointed out that clinical evidence has shown that sexual molestation and other trauma at an early age can lead to sexual confusion. “To deprive these young people of quality psychiatric counseling and therapy is a gross and outrageous violation against humanity,” he said.
If using proven facts to prevent people from hurting kids amounts to “anti-conservative” bias, so be it. Just as Christian Scientist parents can be held accountable for not getting their kids treatment for things like cancer, this is an important step toward protecting kids from being subjected to potentially life-destroying “therapy,” simply because their parents can’t handle the real world. The bill is indeed a “child welfare issue,” Brad — it’s protecting kids from people like you.
One more thing. Let’s take a moment to lambaste the shoddy journalism of Kathleen Gilbert, who wrote this article for LifeSiteNews:
Dr. Robert Spitzer, who was in charge of the DSM change, reversed his position on therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction nearly 30 years later to support such therapy based on his own research.
Yes, Kathleen, and just a few weeks ago, he retracted that study as being scientifically unsound and full of holes. One would think an honest journalist would want to inform her readers of that little tidbit of information.
This is supposed to be shocking, as Dan talks about the Pope’s silliness in proclaiming that marriage equality will destroy the human race. I actually post this video for two reasons. Wait, three:
1. It’s funny.
2. Porno Pete is over at his blog posting things like this, which are supposed to just be appalling, but do you hear how much the audience is laughing? Do you hear how the next generation of college students simply doesn’t include people like Porno Pete, at least not in any sort of significant numbers? Do you hear that sound? It’s the sound of of the culture war that we’ve won.
3. This is also the talk, at Elmhurst College, that Porno Pete got kicked out of, because he doesn’t know how to behave in public. Then he lied about why he got kicked out. Then he got busted, on Twitter, by Dan himself. Hilarity ensued.
Out of all of NOM’s failed campaigns of late, this one will be the biggest failure:
You’ve heard about leading gay marriage activist Dan Savage’s vile attack on Christian teens at an anti-bullying assembly at a Southern California high school this week.
But did you know that President Obama has endorsed Dan Savage and his “It Gets Better” campaign as a core part of the official White House campaign against school bullying?
Is this what stands for “anti-bullying” inside the Obama White House?
Please take a moment right now to tell President Obama that Savage’s hostility toward Christians has no place in an anti-bullying campaign.
They actually have a pre-printed letter that you can send to President Obama:
But I was appalled by the hostile anti-Christian rant recently unleashed at a Southern California high school by Dan Savage, founder of the “It Gets Better” campaign.
I see that Savage’s “It Gets Better” campaign is prominently recognized on the White House website as a model for anti-bullying programs across the nation. Is this truly the sort of example that your administration wants to hold up for a model to the nation?
It got so bad as Savage cursed the Bible that a number of students quietly got up and walked out of the auditorium. This isn’t the sort of “bully pulpit” our nation needs.
Of course, you’re free to edit their letter, so if you’d like, take a moment to send President Obama a letter, through NOM’s website, thanking Dan Savage for the tireless work he’s done to help LGBT teens.
Joe points out that all of this is really much ado about nothing, as the walk-out was very likely staged. The more I watch the videos, the more I tend to agree. Fundamentalists are nothing if not constantly dishonest people:
As I’ve mentioned here before, this so-called “walkout” was very likely staged and prearranged by Focus On The Family, whose anti-Day Of Silence event was also taking place on April 19th and who that very day posted quotes from the involved students. For those unaware, FOTF asked Christian parents to keep their kids out of school on the annual day for observing anti-bullying campaigns.
If you watch the clips closely, you’ll see that students begin to get up and leave before Savage even says his first sentence about religion. You’ll also note that FOTF strategically placed a high-rez camera to capture the three rows of the audience of 2800 that walked out. These students, who exited with smirks and at least one “thumbs-up” to the camera, didn’t feel “bullied” or “offended,” they were asked in advance to attend and then walk out. Faked fakery, but quite well executed considering the result.
As I said, I think Joe’s right. If so, congratulations, Focus on the Family, on using teenagers to pull off a well constructed lie.
Same old story. The Romney campaign hired Richard Grenell as a foreign policy spokesperson. Grenell is a wingnut who thinks John Bolton has good ideas. Grenell is also gay. So, of course, the frothing pitchfork gang on the Religious Right went after him, led by Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association hate group, whose mental health I am beginning to seriously call into question.
Richard Grenell, the openly gay spokesman recently hired to sharpen the foreign policy message of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, has resigned in the wake of a full-court press by anti-gay conservatives.
In a statement obtained by Right Turn, Grenell says:
I have decided to resign from the Romney campaign as the Foreign Policy and National Security Spokesman. While I welcomed the challenge to confront President Obama’s foreign policy failures and weak leadership on the world stage, my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign. I want to thank Governor Romney for his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team.
According to sources familiar with the situation, Grenell decided to resign after being kept under wraps during a time when national security issues, including the president’s ad concerning Osama bin Laden, had emerged front and center in the campaign.
At the above link, the official statement from the Romney campaign is posted, where they assert that they actually tried to persuade him to stay.
Never one to let a little detail such as that stand in his way — The Romney campaign probably was keeping him under wraps for a minute just hoping that the wingnuts would stop barking — Bryan Fischer is over the moon about how important he thinks he is now:
Today, during the second hour of Fischer’s daily radio broadcast, the news broke the Grenell had in fact resigned from the campaign and Fischer could barely contain his glee, declaring it a “huge win” for the Religious Right because it means that they have forced Romney to back down and taught him that he cannot do anything like this again.
Haha, okay, Bryan, keeping telling yourself that, at least until the next time the establishment GOP jams something in the Religious Right’s eyes, like they’ve been doing for decades, because they never really have respected you. Enjoy your little dance on the grave of Grenell’s job.
I hesitate to give today’s dispatch from Porno Pete’s Haus of Leather Photography, Sadness and Funyun Crumbs the title of “stupidest thing he’s ever posted,” because the second I do, somebody will e-mail me a long-forgotten post from 2008 or something, that easily outshines today’s post in the “dumb” department. But let’s just agree that today’s post is among the dumbest things he’s ever posted. I will now show you why. This is going to be a long post, because there is so much crazy to deconstruct, but I’m in the mood to do this, and I’m having fun, so bear with me. [NOTE: While I was writing this, I didn't realize that Bruce had already commented on one piece of it. Both pieces stand, though, as we take them in two entirely different directions. Check his out too!]
The post starts with this picture, from Glee, which Porno Pete censored because he believes it is “indecent”:
To which I reply:
Got yer nose! My laptop came with Paint too, dude.
Now, on to the content of the piece, which was not written by the Peter, but rather by a wingnut whose name I had forgotten completely, so absent has his voice been from even Porno Pete’s low level of wingnuttia in years of late:
Ooh, we are going to hear about men that a “coach” thinks are manly, in Maine! Aren’t we excited?! We already know that the wingnut definition of “manly” tends to correlate strongly with large tires and a propensity for hysterical shrieking homophobia, so this should be good. Also, readers should know that “Coach” uses that title because he used to be a high school football coach before he was forced out of that position for pushing his religious views onto his players. Now he’s the “coach” for “God’s team,” or something of that sort, as per his website.
Anyway, on to the Coach’s homage to the hottest guys in Maine:
The boys are back in town.
Not that they ever went anywhere.
False alarm.
But Mike Heath
Oh, actually, Mike Heath did go somewhere. He conveniently resigned from the mainstream anti-gay movement in Maine when even his own allies were put off by his strange, prurient style of political gay hatin’. He’s a lot like Porno Pete, actually, which is why they are friends. Now he is back, trying to hurt gay people in Maine again, and we on the side of equality and fairness are actually kinda thrilled. The more extremist voices like Pete’s and Mike’s are elevated, the more we win, 100% of the time, as their message repels sentient beings.
and Paul Madore
Also a buddy of Porno Pete’s. A few years ago when Maine’s wingnut leaders were lying to/scaring Maine voters into repealing marriage equality there, Peter, Paul and some Mary or another were very obviously upset that the higher-ups in the anti-gay movement didn’t want their voices to be heard, so they had their own little sad press conference.
are teaming up once again to take on the sodomites in Maine.
That is bad news for the gay-rights thugs, and they know it.
No seriously, mister coach guy, we think it’s great. Again, the more that people like Mike Heath and Paul Madore get to talk, the more we win. I promise Maine’s gay rights activists are thrilled to see this kind of Hail Mary pass from the bigots in their state.
Heath and Madore are like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
They are the homosexual movement’s worst nightmare.
Again, if this is our worst nightmare, bring on the REM sleep.
For the seventh time in recent history, there is an attempt by the deviant-left to foist “sodomy-based marriage” onto the grandchildren of the citizens of Maine.
This is specifically about the grandchildren? Huh. I hadn’t heard.
When does “no” mean no?
Not when almost 58% of Mainers support marriage equality, according to the latest polls. This is why we think that Laverne and Shirley’s entry into the anti-gay side of the fight is so great, as they will push even more moderates to our side with their weird message, which “Coach” will elaborate on shortly. Until then, schlemiel, schlemazel!
Six times they have tried, and six times this dynamic-duo has helped push them back. It hasn’t been easy, and it hasn’t come without a cost. They both have the scars to prove it.
Oh, they are such victims. When does the part about “manly men” happen, again?
But at least they have scars. Rare is the man willing to take the arrows that come for standing publicly for what he believes. With all due respect to homo-queen Elton John, Madore and Heath can sing “I’m still standing” as they enter the ring in what they believe is the final round against the sodomy crowd.
Yep, according to the poll I just cited (and the other credible ones that have come out lately), this likely will be the last stand for Donny and Marie.
“We are going for the knockout,” Heath recently told me. “We are going to turn them back with a 70 percent vote. It will be a long time before the homosexual activists get off of the canvas in Maine.”
“It is time to get serious with the society on the issue of homosexuality and the practical effects that are very harmful to society that this distorted and perverted lifestyle will have. It is time to take the gloves off. Good people just keep moving the line back in regards to homosexuality. But not any more,” says Madore.
Three cheers for being delusional. Why do I get the feeling these guys spend a lot of time gazing at Matt Barber’s boxing photos?
“For 30 years we have bought the lies and we have played by the Homosexual’s rules. We have tried the “nice” approach to Christianity and have continually lost ground. For me, and this ministry, it is not about a political referendum. I spent a career depending on politicians and it took me awhile to see the light. This is not a political issue. It is a moral issue. Our goal is to re-stigmatize sodomy. To paint a picture in the mind of Mainers exactly what it is that sodomites DO. We want to make the thought of sodomy abominable once again,” Heath says.
“So we, two grown men, are going to run around the state of Maine graphically describing how other people have sex in the privacy of their own homes, at least our perceptions of it, and people are not going to think that we’re weird at all!”
These guys play to win.
Unfortunately they’re Tebow-ing passes at the wrong end zone.
Heath used to run with the “big dogs” in the pro-family movement. Although his name is not as nationally known, he was at the table with James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Ralph Reed and the boys as the fight for culture has been waged over the years.
And then they got rid of him because even they thought he was kinda weird?
He saw the emergence of the unholy alliance as the Christian leadership slowly morphed into Republican lapdogs.
The Christians held a seat at the table, but the “Republicans” are the ones who called the shots.
Truth be told? The Republican establishment has never been comfortable with the partnership.
They loved the Christians’ votes, but not their issues. After three decades, what do the Christians have to show for the hundreds of millions of dollars that the grass roots donors have trusted them with?
Nothing. We’ve been saying that for years, that fundamentalists have always been the useful idiots of the Republican party, but they don’t like to hear it.
Sad, isn’t it? Most Christian organizations are proudly endorsing Mitt Romney in the battle between the “Morman [sic] and the Muslim [sic].” Their only hope is that the arm of the Republican Party can defend Christians better than the hand of the Lord. But I am sure those donations are still rolling in…
Mike Heath knows how Dr. Dobson feels. After 25 years, he too, was forced out of his position at the Christian Civic League of Maine. What was his crime? He played to win. He recognized that it was war and he understood the stakes. Unfortunately, others didn’t.
Okay, Revisionist McGee, but actually the people who forced Mike Heath out of his position DID win that battle, because they found a new way to lie to and scare Mainers. Mike Heath might play to win, but he’s not playing any game the rest of us recognize.
In a recent press release “the boys in the suits” at the National Organization for Marriage (NOM, which just endorsed Romney), [NOM President Brian Brown] said, “We reject attempts to make this campaign [over homosexual "marriage" in Maine] about the morality of homosexuality.” Homosexuality is not a moral issue, huh?
Yep, we have lost a lot of ground but have sure looked polished doing it. Most national pro-family organizations have modeled the church. They want to be nicer than Jesus. Well Heath and Madore want to win.
Yeah, forget that lame-O “Jesus” guy their religion is named after! This isn’t a time for Christian love!
Here is their plan.
Madore is Rocky Balboa. Heath is his trainer Mickey.
Madore is Angel. Heath is Spike. Neither of them have souls right now, so they will join forces and defeat Buffy once and for all!
Together, these defenders of the Faith are going to take sodomy head-on.
I’m going to let you readers absorb that sentence on your own, as many times in a row as it takes you all to stop giggling.
I read the following in a recent newsletter I received.
“The issue is not marriage. The issue is not “rights.” The issue is not “fairness.” The issue is sodomy. Homosexuality is not a lifestyle. Homosexuality is a behavior. ‘Sodomy is most commonly legally defined as any contact between the genitals of one person, and the mouth or anus of another’.” Gaylib.com.
Permit me to clarify the definition. Sodomy is one MAN inserting his genitals into the mouth or anus of ANOTHER MAN.
Actually, dingus, the first definition was correct. However, and this is where things get dicey…only an idiot can read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and then pull out a concordance to read everything else the Bible says about that event, and still come to the conclusion that it had anything to do with homosexuality. It’s actually not difficult Biblical scholarship. Sure, it knocks a leg off the homophobe’s stool, and I know that they have so few to stand on, but it’s pretty simple. The reason the word came into use is because bigots over the years misread that passage, over and over and over again, due to bigotry.
Say it again. Say it out loud so your ears hear it. Picture it in your mind. Picture Barney Frank and Elton John in action…Barney Frank putting his genitals into Elton John’s…
The men that wingnuts choose to fantasize about amuse me. You’ll never see them saying “picture Ricky Martin popping open a bottle of wine while Neil Patrick Harris runs a bubble bath…”
Haha.
That is what they want to tell us is normal…no wait…tell our children is normal. Into that “union” they are asking permission to place children. Would you let them put YOUR grandchild into a sodomy-based family? Why would you let them do it to someone else’s child? Have normal people lost their minds?”
Actually, it’s you guys you are obsessing over how people have sex. Adults of all sexual orientations tend to keep their sex lives in the bedroom. I’m really not worried about what happens in any of my neighbors’ bedrooms. Oh, but wingnuts are. They think about it all day, every day. And what is this about “YOUR grandchild?” I would assume that if “YOUR grandchild” is being raised in a same-sex household (like it or not, there is no such thing as a “sodomy-based household”), that came about as a result of YOUR child being gay, falling in love and choosing to raise children with his/her spouse.
Rev. Mike Heath and “Mr. Maine” Paul Madore are taking the gloves off.
Heath is Zack Morris. Madore is A.C. Slater. Together they will sneak out of Bayside without Mr. Belding finding out! The rest of the gang is already at The Max!
They are putting the pictures on mobile trucks and are taking the truth of sodomy to every city, every school, and every home in Maine. Here is the picture they will put on the trucks that they will drive throughout Maine.
Here is the picture they’re putting on the trucks, unless Porno Pete’s link was bad:
Yet another reason Heath and Madore are going to help win this for OUR side. You see, normal people who aren’t obsessed with sex look at that picture and see two guys who love each other. Heath, Madore, “Coach” Daubenmire and Porno Pete see it and run away screaming about sodomy. We win, in a landslide. PLEASE put that picture on your bus.
Oh, how the pigs will squeal. The sodomites will cry “hate” as if the truth of a picture can be hateful.
Nope, guys, again, if anyone squeals when they see that picture, it’ll be because they’re saying “AWWWWW!” That picture went viral for a reason, and it wasn’t because it disgusted people for the most part. In fact, it immediately was compared to and put side by side with another iconic photograph:
So again, please put that on your bus, wingnuts. Images of love are transcendent, and they affect people in positive ways. The wingnut bus will go down the highways and by-ways of Maine, quietly telling the story of two men whose devotion and love for one another shines through in one beautiful photograph.
I will say, though: the picture of the Marines is the first thing I’ve read in Daubenmire’s column that has anything to do with manly men. It’s certainly not Heath and Madore.
The Christians in pretty suits will cry “mean” as if being nice ever won a war.
“Coach” sure is obsessed with Brian Brown’s clothes.
It is God who first called them sodomites. If it is good enough for Him then it should be good enough for us.
Yes, but actually no. Again, read the Bible passage about Sodom and Gomorrah with a concordance handy and preferably at least a seventh grade education in English. We’ll wait a few years.
It is time to take off the gloves. It is time to get down and dirty. It is time we fought like we wanted to win.
You already said that.
Hey! Listen to me!
It’s rare that wingnuts actually type out their cries for help so literally.
Send them some money!! They are on the front lines. They know the people of Maine. They are battle tested and uncompromising. David taking on Goliath. Put some gas into their tanks. Redirect all of your giving from the “national ministries” to the two manly men in Maine. Their gloves are off. This is Clay against Liston III, Lewiston, Maine 2012.
Heath is Lucy. Madore is Ethel. Hijinks ensue!
If you trust me, trust them. I wouldn’t steer you wrong. Help deliver a knockout to the homosexual agenda. Your gifts are NOT Tax deductible. Helping Hands is not a corporation. It is a church.
Trust me! Waste your money! The polls are already showing a landslide victory for equality, but give them some money, even though it’s not tax deductible!
Goooooo, Team Wingnut!
Congratulations, “Coach” Daubenmire, I do believe that my thesis from the top of this piece, that this is at least among the dumbest things Porno Pete has ever posted on his blog, has been proven correct.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council hate group is veering dangerously close to Porno Pete Land when it comes to yakking melodramatically about things that don’t matter. Like candy. Yes, you see, the latest way that Fundamentalists are Professional Victims has to do with the brutality inflicted by Mike & Ike:
These days, you can’t get a sugar high without experiencing a cultural low.
Not clever.
Hello, I’m Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. There’s trouble in candy land.
Still not clever.
After more than 70 years together, Mike & Ike are calling it quits. The duo is staging a gay divorce as part of a new ad campaign to draw in younger customers.
They should stay together! Do vows mean nothing?!
In this society, even candy has an agenda! From Facebook to Tumblr, the fruity pair
Even Tony knows he’s phoning it in right now.
says, “The rumors are true. We just couldn’t agree on stuff anymore.” Starting this summer, the company will spend $15 million on billboards and TV commercials that poke fun at the breakup. It’s just another subtle example of society chipping away at the value of marriage.
Because candy is getting divorced.
And I don’t know what’s more disturbing–that advertisers think divorce appeals to kids
Maybe they’re just being silly.
or that sexualizing candy
“Sexualizing candy.” Tony Perkins (or one of his minions) typed “sexualizing candy.”
will make people buy more. After a year-long build-up, the company will reveal if the couple reconciles. Until then, look for Mike & Ike to have a distinctly liberal flavor.
And if they stay together, they’ll be gay, still married married, and, er, conservative?
This has been Tony Perkins Dramatically Yelling At A Snack Machine.
Jennifer Rubin, one of the many conservative columnists at the Washington Post, is just appalled at the Religious Right reaction to Mitt Romney’s hiring of the openly gay Richard Grenell. She cites Ben Smith’s report on the backlash, centered on Bryan Fischer’s response:
A leading anti-gay figure in the Republican Party attacked Governor Mitt Romney for hiring an openly gay spokesman, sending a shot from the GOP’s socially-conservative base across the nominee’s bow.
Bryan Fischer, the director of issue analysis for the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association, is probably the most straightforwardly anti-gay Republican to appear regularly in the party’s mainstream. Presidential candidates including Rick Santorum have appeared on his radio show, and he spoke at the Values Voter Summit in Washington in October.
He responded yesterday to Romney’s decision to hire an openly-gay — “out & loud gay,” in Fischer’s terms — foreign policy spokesman, Richard Grenell by calling it a “message to the pro-family community” of “drop dead.”
Ben Smith’s piece goes on to point out that Grenell is close to John Bolton, which should eliminate him from contention for any job more difficult than walking cats, but that’s neither here nor there.
Jennifer chimes in:
There plainly is a debate generationally, as I have reported, within the GOP on gay marriage. But while this goes on, there should, one would hope, be a consensus that animus toward gays and toward hiring gays to work in government (or anywhere else) is beyond the pale. Pols like Rick Santorum and social conservative groups who don’t want to endorse Fischer’s brand of hate shouldn’t associate themselves with him.
Yes, “one would hope” that blatant, naked homophobia should be off the table, but this is the modern Republican party we’re talking about, which has been overtaken by the same crazies the “insiders” used to cynically use for usefully stupid votes. We are aware that, yes, it does freak Beltway conservatives out that these people — the teabaggers, the Religious Right — have risen to positions of influence and are controlling many of the levers, but the party has been going that way for a while now. But I’d suggest that it’s highly naive to assume that politicians like Rick Santorum “don’t want to endorse Fischer’s brand of hate.” Of course they do! They’re not particularly happy that their associations with people like Bryan Fischer get reported far beyond the echo chamber walls of Wingnuttia, as it destroys their chances with moderates, but just the same, you’ve got to dance with them that brung ya, and for far too many figures in the modern Republican party, “them that brung ya” are misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic voters yearning for an America that only ever existed in their minds.
It would be a positive thing for the party and our country if it was crystal clear there is no place in civil discourse for those fanning the flames of hatred toward gays and egging on fellow conservatives to discriminate against gays in hiring. Unfortunately, not everyone on the right agrees.
Nope, they don’t. This election is going to be fun to watch.
Look, it’s more from the folks who created that wingnut Two Minutes Hate movie about homosexuals, the one where they claim that we are a big iceberg and poor, poor American conservatives’ boats have run square up into us, which is causing them to sink, due to leakage. The group, if you will remember, is called Truth in Action Ministries, and they have made a new fun video for everybody!
Let’s make fun of it in its entirety! Live-blog of video below:
0:00-0:17ish – Host Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy argues that people are being “conned” by the gays! Damn us, for wanting people to treat us with dignity, when all we’re dealing with is a little “moral opposition” from bigots like Jennifer, “moral opposition” which is based on absolutely nothing certifiably real.
0:17 – Now there is a guy on the screen, “Jerry Newcombe,” who is really, really surprised that his historic bigotry is finally being called into question! But they have the message of “deliverance for homosexuals,” he says! However, he does not prove that homosexuals need to be “delivered” from anything at all. It’s just his bigotry wrapped up in faux-loving religious language.
0:55 – Video of Hillary Clinton’s historic speech on LGBT rights worldwide! So nice to see. This makes the wingnuts in the video VERY ANGRY. How dare she say that homosexuality shouldn’t be a criminal offense?!
1:23 – Oh good, here is Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council hate group, to rebut this silly notion that gayness is okay.
1:34 – Even better, here is Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention [who has had a horrible few days, due to his complete lack of ethics and his surplus of racism] claiming that it’s “insulting” to tell Third World countries they should stop just cold killin’ gays. Christian love, Southern Baptist-style!
1:45 – Peter Sprigg is back to complain about the State Department withholding foreign aid from nations that won’t de-criminalize homosexuality. Once a hate group spokesperson, always a hate group spokesperson.
1:57 – Somebody’s voice claims that not criminalizing/killing gays [if any wingnut reading this thinks I'm exaggerating, stop writing your comment and do some research on the nations that Hillary Clinton was speaking in regards to, thanks] is a “gay activist standard.” Uh, actually, no, bigot, it’s a human rights standard for the entire developed world. I know that “developed world” and “fundamentalist Christianity” don’t go very well together, but sorry. Y’all lost that fight during the Enlightenment.
2:05 – the end: More Richard Land talking about how God is “judging America” for not hurting gay people, but somehow isn’t judging Richard Land for plagiarizing other peoples’ work and saying really disgusting, racist things regarding the Trayvon Martin murder. Then he uses the phrase “sexual paganization,” which I’m pretty sure is completely meaningless.
And then it’s over. So there you have it! One spokesperson for a very large hate group and one spokesperson for a very large Christian denomination going to bat for countries who like to jail and kill gay people. I’m glad Sprigg, Land et al., are wearing their hatred on their sleeves these days. Makes the fight for equality go faster, it does!
And they will whine viathese handy flyers! Here, schoolchildren, some bitter adults would like to complain in your general direction. If you’re a gay kid, it will feel like being bullied by adults you’ve never met, but don’t worry, that’s how it’s supposed to feel [click to embiggen]:
“Thousands” of people is an uncorroborated number, since most people who go through “ex-gay” programs end up in one of four places: 1. Back out of the closet, living happy lives, 2. Still in the closet, more depressed than they were when they went in, 3. Suicidal or 4. On the payroll of an “ex-gay” corporation like Greg Quinlan. Moreover, there is no proof of any alleged discrimination, unless Greg Quinlan is arguing that straight people are the true victims of discrimination in this society. I mean, “ex-gays” are supposed to be straight now, right? Joe points out that Quinlan has a failed “heterosexual” marriage to prove it! And that last part — what are “ex-gays” denied “equal access” to? Grindr?
If only “one part of you” has gay feelings, and it’s the part of you that has sexual feelings, then yes, you’re probably gay. That being said, the idea of “your whole life” being gay-identified is a straw man argument. No one is defined solely by his or her sexual orientation. But it’s like that old adage about sex in relationships — if your sex life is good, it’s about 10% of your relationship. If it’s not, it’s somewhere between 50% and 90%. Likewise, if you’re healthy and happy in your sexual orientation, it’s just a small piece of your life, albeit an important piece. If you’re running away from your sexual orientation like it’s a demon you have to slay, you may feel that you’re doing well in other areas of your life, but at the end of the day, you’re just a big closet case.
My favorite part of that section, though, is the part they accidentally left out. After “thousands of ex-gay men and women had those very same feelings when they were in school,” the PFOX people forgot to write, “And they still do!”
Anyway, it never ceases to amaze me how, while we’re over here trying to help create a world where all kids feel loved and accepted, Religious Right loons never stop trying to hurt one special subgroup of kids. It’s sick.
Chris Matthews, are you listening? Because there is no association too strange for a Religious Right hate group leader to make when smearing LGBT people, Tony Perkins went on Janet Mefferd’s radio program yesterday, where he claimed that the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was directly related to the incident involving Secret Service agents soliciting prostitutes in Colombia:
Mefferd: You know one issue that I think has not gotten as much attention as it deserves to get is the homosexuality issue. A lot of people have talked about Mitt Romney and what he did with the gay marriage issue and so forth in Massachusetts, but even Politico and the New York Times have talked a lot about the increasing number of top Republicans who are donating to pro-gay causes, the extent to which the GOP doesn’t want to fight on this issue anymore. But we as Christians can’t stand stop fighting on this issue, Tony, so what do we do when we’re faced with a race where maybe we feel like the candidates are way too similar on this and both of them are wrong?
Perkins: Yeah, you know that’s a great point. Just for a moment step back and look at the implications of this, over the weekend we saw the news of the President’s Secret Service detail in Colombia and the issue of them hiring prostitutes and now the White House is outraged about that. Actually in a meeting this morning my staff asked, ‘why should the President be upset’? It was actually legal; it was legal there to do that, so why should we be upset? Well, the fact is we intuitively know it’s wrong, there’s a moral law against that.
The same is true for what the President has done to the military enforcing open homosexuality in our military. You can change the law but you can’t change the moral law that’s behind it. You can change the positive law, the law that is created by man, but you can’t change the moral law, it’s wrong. So what you have is you have a total breakdown and you can’t pick and choose. Morality is not a smorgasbord; you can’t pick what you want. I think you’re absolutely right, this is a fundamental issue going forward because if we say ‘let them do what we want,’ what’s next? You cannot maintain moral order if you are willing to allow a few things to slide.
It makes perfect sense. Indeed, the phenomenon of American troops soliciting prostitutes while serving abroad just started last year as well. Before that, if a hooker approached an American sailor who had just come into port, he said, “no, ma’am,” but now that DADT has been repealed, that sailor is much more apt to say, “well, Carlos has a picture of his husband in his bunk, so I might as well let this lady entertain me!”
