A new project from the Human Rights Campaign:

The GOP field is shaping up to be a disaster of epic proportions. Other than openly gay long shot Fred Karger, the rest of this motley crew is virulently anti-gay, or pretending to be in an effort to kiss up to social conservatives in Iowa and South Carolina. This sorry batch of embarrassing contenders will only degenerate further if Sarah Palin gets into the race — as it seems like she is likely to do.

In terms of the the GOP field, there is no silver lining, no hope, and no pro-LGBT Republican savior. This is the truth and it is reality for those who choose to embrace it.

It is clear that Barack Obama is the obvious choice for the Human Rights Campaign, the LGBT community’s national lobby. Their early endorsement is wise because it sends a strong signal that the community will organizeand mobilize to reelect the most LGBT supportive contender in the race — one with a fairly good record on LGBT rights. While far from perfect, Obama did work to repeal Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell and used his bully pulpit effectively, even making an “It Gets Better” video. Whatever his shortcomings (No ENDA or DOMA repeal etc.) he is light-years ahead of his Republican counterparts.

Anyone who argues otherwise is naive, obtuse, or in denial — which brings us to the pathetic press release put out by homosexual Republican group GOProud:

“Today, the Human Rights Campaign chose to endorse Barack Obama’s re-election even though the field running for President in 2012 isn’t even set yet. This pre-emptive endorsement ends HRC’s charade of bipartisanship.

“LGBT people who are interested in putting policy before partisanship now know that HRC is little more than a puppet of the Democratic National Committee and an organization that has one goal – to elect more Democrats.”

So, the sophistic and shallow storyline put forth by GOProud is essentially that Republicans are willing to support LGBT equality, but have become anti-gay only because they have been snubbed by HRC. They are only throwing anti-gay tantrums and have horrible voting records because they have hurt feelings and are not getting the respect they deserve.

Sadly, there are naive or politically illiterate liberals who are buying this hogwash and questioning the timing of HRC’s endorsement. They foolishly wonder if such a quick endorsement will deplete the leverage of the LGBT lobby.

Um, what leverage?

The hard truth is that the GOP presidential candidates desperately do not want HRC’s endorsement and would see it as the kiss of death. Imagine trying to win the Iowa caucuses as a Republican with a Human Rights Campaign endorsement. It would end one’s chances faster than endorsing universal healthcare!

Another silly argument postulates that in order to be more effective, the LGBT movement has to be truly bipartisan. I agree that we would be so much better off if we had the support of both parties — because it would give us enormous leverage with Democrats who have sometimes taken our money while placing our issues on the back burner.

Unfortunately, true bipartisanship at this moment in time is a pipe dream. The GOP has consciously chosen to embrace fundamentalists as a key part of its base. During the next election cycle they will do nothing to upset this crucial constituency and candidates will pander in any Iowa or South Carolina fundie church that will let them in the door. Anyone who doesn’t understand these obvious political dynamics should not be working in the LGBT movement.

This, of course, doesn’t mean we should stop working to gain the support of Republicans. Indeed, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a marvelous speech in favor of marriage equality at Cooper Union on Thursday. But, let’s be honest and acknowledge that this is the exception and not the rule. Indeed, even as we have seen elite Republicans endorsing equality, we have not witnessed many political leaders in positions of real power or the grassroots change course. I wish I could report otherwise — but the facts do not lie.

This is a critical election. The Republicans already run the House of Representatives and have a good chance of taking over the Senate. Imagine the nightmare of Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney or, God forbid, Michele Bachmann occupying the White House with a Republican Congress?

Please, do not scoff at this horrifying possibility. Any student of history understands that the world is full of examples of unthinkable political outcomes that have caused havoc in the lives of vulnerable minorities. If by some chance unemployment rises another 3-5 points, the electorate will be in a foul mood and may be willing to rock the boat in unfathomable ways.

If Republicans control DC, they will be answering to those that brought them to the big dance — namely the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and sundry fundamentalist organizations. They would likely pass all kinds of horrendous anti-gay bills — many that would presumably be unconstitutional. Unless, of course, President Palin gets to pick one or two Supreme Court justices who would whiz through the Senate confirmation process.

What about the filibuster? Does any thinking person truly believe it would survive this lawless bunch that has no respect for precedent and history? This legislative option would disappear as fast as LGBT rights.

At times, Truth Wins Out has been harshly critical of the Obama administration. As a nonpartisan group we will continue to hold the president accountable, as we do all elected officials. However, let’s stop the game-playing and pretending that the Republicans have put forth palatable candidates. The entire bigoted batch is a disgrace to this nation and anyone who feigns otherwise should not be taken seriously as a political commentator.

Truth Wins Out does not endorse candidates. But, we think the LGBT community should stop the hand-wringing and childish game-playing and embrace HRC’s bold decision. The more time HRC has to organize and mobilize, the better off our community will be.

This is how fringe the National Organization for Marriage really is:

The National Organization for Marriage, the nation’s leading anti-gay group whose stated mission is to stop same-sex marriage, is actively working to defeat the passage of the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act (SB 1716) in Illinois.

This bill would allow same-sex couples to enter into a legal civil union in the state; it does not provide for same-sex marriages. A vote on the bill is expected soon in the Illinois legislature.

“NOM’s opposition to civil unions for gay and lesbian couples shows how far out of the mainstream it truly is,” HRC President Joe Solmonese said. “This new battleground plainly reveals NOM’s deep-seated enmity toward the LGBT community, with no regard to public support.”

Two-thirds of Illinois voters, according to an October 2010 poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, support either civil unions or marriage equality. A Chicago Tribune poll registered 57 percent of Illinoisans approve of civil unions, compared to 32 percent who disapprove.

Like…they’ve completely lost this battle in Illinois, and yet they’re going to waste their donors’ money trying to keep gay couples from having legal recognition of any kind in that state.

They must assume their supporters are functionally retarded* as well, considering the fact that they fought against the marriage law in Maine specifically because Maine already had civil unions, which NOM claimed were just fine!  We have always been at war with Eastasia, etc.

Hypocrites.

*All wingnut organizations believe this about their donors.  By the way.  From the teabaggers to the social conservatives, and everywhere in between.  Just do a little research on how easily and casually groups like NOM lie to their followers, secure in the knowledge that said followers are too brainwashed to do simple Google searches on their own.

This is, admittedly, kind of strange.  From Politico, this morning:

Two gay troops’ groups will announce today that they’d support breaking off DADT repeal if doing so would help the defense authorization act pass – but they’ll keep pushing for repeal in the lame-duck Congress, Morning Defense has learned. The statement from OutServe and Knights Out is just one prong in a complex offensive planned for lawmakers’ return to Washington this week, organizers said.

“On behalf of the more than 1,000 active duty gay and lesbian service members and 500 gay and lesbian veterans we represent, we respectfully urge Congress to pass the FY 2011 National Defense Authorization Act to fund the aircraft, weapons, combat vehicles, ammunition and promised pay-raises for all troops, whether or not the repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell is included,” the statement will say. “To be clear, we will continue to fight for our integrity as gay and lesbian service members and we hope that legislative action in Congress can be taken in 2010 to lift the ban.”

Meanwhile, Servicemembers United responded:

It has been the position of the organizations that actually work on repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ to strongly oppose stripping the repeal language out of the defense authorization bill. That position has been based on the reality of the vote count, and those facts on the ground here in Washington have not changed. Servicemembers United, which is the nation’s largest gay troop and veteran group by far, strongly agrees with the White House that stripping DADT out of NDAA is simply a non-starter.

Then three other groups echoed SU’s sentiments:

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Servicemember Legal Defense Network (SLDN), Servicemembers United (SU) and the Center for American Progress (CAP), today united to send one strong and consistent message to senators as they return for the lame duck session: repeal the unjust and discriminatory law known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this year. Under no conditions should DADT repeal be stripped from the underlying Defense Authorization bill; that is simply a non-starter.

Here’s what I take from this: I have no doubts that there is strategy on both sides, and as active-duty military groups, Knights Out and OutServe probably are looking at things a bit differently, but this is what I’m talking about when I say that part of the problem over the past several years has been that the gay community is not lobbying with one voice, and that makes us weaker. Whatever strategies and individual perspectives are in play here, it makes us look disorganized, weak and powerless when the major players involved in fighting for LGBT equality don’t even seem to be in the same chapter, much less on the same page.

Many thanks to Pam Spaulding for compiling all of these press releases into one handy post.  She’s got more over at the Blend too.

Even if you don’t like your own personal Democrat, you should still be voting for the Democrats to retain control of Congress.  Why?  The simple numbers are out, and according to the HRC’s new scorecards:

Republican congressional opposition to gay issues, such as repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” strengthened over the last two years and will likely continue in the next Congress with more conservative GOP lawmakers being elected. The Human Rights Campaign, the top gay lobby, has issued a score card that graded 32 Republican senators and 139 House members with a zero on gay-issue voting. By comparison, 17 Senate and 91 House Democrats scored 100. Overall, the average score for all 435 House members was 50.8; among the 100 senators, it was 57.3.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me. Follow the above link to see the scorecards for yourselves.

I mean, by all means, if it makes you feel better to Teach Your Democrat A Lesson by handing power to bigots who have also proven their incompetence on most other issues*, knock yourself out, but if you’re a serious voter, those are the cold, hard facts.

*YES, other issues exist!

From the American Family Association’s hilarious “news” arm, OneNewsNow:

A prominent pro-homosexual group isn’t satisfied with benefits already being offered by 337 major American businesses to their homosexual employees.

General Motors, Bank of America, IBM, Ford Motor, AT&T, Walgreen Co., Target, Citigroup — those companies (and scores more) got a 100-percent favorable rating on the 2010 Corporate Equality Index [PDF], an annual business ranking published by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest homosexual activist organization in the country. [Caution: The previous link goes to a pro-homosexual website]

OMG! Caution! What if the rubes who read OneNewsNow for informational purposes accidentally clicked a clicky and fell under the spell of gayness?!  Caution:  the above link goes to one of the most unintentionally funny websites on the entire internet.  Proceed with giggles, y’all!

But HRC is now demanding those corporations offer unlimited healthcare coverage for transgender employees — or lose the highest ranking offered under the Corporate Equality Index. Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality tells OneNewsNow the group is simply escalating “its blackmail campaign against businesses.”

“In order to get a 100-percent rating, you now have to provide funding for sex-change operations for transsexuals,” he explains. “So…they keep ramping up the demands to get the 100-percent rating, knowing that companies are bragging about having the rating.”

If companies brag about having the rating, that implies that they know it’s good for their business to have a good rating from the HRC, and Peter LaBarbera, as a conservative, should understand that businesses in the Free Market should never be criticized for doing things that influence their bottom line in a positive way.*

Here’s another funny part from the ONN piece:

In an interview with CitizenLink, the president of the National Association for Research and Therapy for Homosexuality urged caution regarding HRC’s costly new requirement. “Medical treatments for transgender issues are very risky procedures — and it’s an irreversible path to take,” said Dr. Julie Hamilton. “There should be a lot more research done before these types of procedures become the main path to take.”

Um, shouldn’t the president of NARTH be spending a little bit more time monitoring her board members’ for signs of Luggage Lifting and spending a little less time pretending she represents a respected medical association?  I mean, really, guys…

Joe Jervis got a response from the Human Rights Campaign on this issue:

The new CEI requirement is for insurance coverage to pay for medically necessary treatment for transgender people including sex affirmation surgeries. These surgeries are medically necessary according to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and have been endorsed by the AMA among others. It is our hope that the new CEI criteria will make a difference in the lives of transgender people.

Funny, how their response cites endorsements from grown-up medical organizations.  Oh wait, no it’s not.  Science and medicine are always on our side in these battles.

*Oh, shush, you know I’m just playing Devil’s Advocate and pointing out how inconistent and stupid conservatives are when it comes to understanding their own purported ideology.

Let’s see, what’s he mad about?

Enough is enough: from my Facebook page: No shame: HRC and other homosexual groups are exploiting the tragic suicides of sexually confused kids to attack religion.

Oh.

Peter LaBarbera is mad at the Human Rights Campaign for telling the truth and drawing the very short line between churches and politicians [and the blurry line between] who spend their lives engendering hatred against gay people among the most easily led, least educated members of our society, and the easily predictable result — that gay kids end up getting the message very early, and so do their bullies, that they’re worth less than the rest of the population, that God made them evil, etc., which leads to a much higher depression and suicide rate among gay teens.

So, I’m guessing Peter is saying he doesn’t like having this blood on his hands?

Well, there’s one simple solution for that:  Millions have left the fundamentalist Christian lifestyle, and they’re happier, more well-rounded, more loving, and simply better people for it.  Just pray this simple prayer:

“If I only had a brain…”

God I’m sorry, that’s a song from The Wizard of Oz, not a prayer.

My bad.

Here’s Kathy Griffin explaining how the bigotry and hatred that comes from places like the Mormon church turns into “trickle down homophobia,” which ends with dead children’s bodies.  It’s very simple, and unlike “trickle-down economics,” it actually exists!

Good news, handy lesbians, gays, and all other nice people: The two or three hundred most obnoxious Home Depot customers have decided to take their business elsewhere! So if you have any handy home projects you’ve been meaning to work on, this would be a good time to visit your local Home Depot and buy what you need.  I was going to buy a couple of bookshelves next week, BUT MAYBE NOW I WILL WHITTLE THEM OUT OF WOOD, WITH TOOLS.

Also, give your local Home Depot a call and let the manager know how grateful you are for their support for the rights and happiness of ALL their customers.

Note to wingnuts:  If you start going to Lowe’s or something, that’s fine, but they offer domestic partner benefits, so you run the risk that the money you spend on lumber to build your Home School Intelligunt Desine Classroom could potentially go to pay for health insurance benefits for one of their gay employees.  Also, note to wingnuts doing home improvement projects in general:  If you, in the course of fixin’ something, get a boo-boo, you need to know that ALL major drugstores (Walgreen’s, CVS, Rite Aid) are pretty decent supporters of LGBT equality, so you should probably abstain from purchasing any medicine for said boo-boo.  AND if the boo-boo heals on its own without turning gangrenous and you find yourself hungry, you probably should avoid The Olive Garden, which is probably one of your favorite Fancy Places, because they’re pretty high on the equality list.  And if you’re thirsty during your meal, continue to avoid all Coke and Pepsi products.  AND SO ON.  Click here to see all the things AFA wingnuts can’t do anymore, if they have an ounce of integrity.

(h/t Jeremy)

Weekly Column

A couple of weeks ago I wrote, “The war over gay rights in America and other modern nations has been largely won. Too many people have come out of the closet and will never go back in for the clock to be turned back.”

This trend towards acceptance has only accelerated since my column and may have reached a tipping point. New York Times columnist Charles Blow wrote about a new Gallup Poll that found, for the first time, the percentage of Americans who perceive “gay and lesbian relations” as morally acceptable has crossed the 50 percent mark. Also, for the first time, the percentage of men who hold that view is greater than the percentage of women who do.

Blow attributes these advancements to LGBT people coming out and the realization that it is primarily weirdoes and socially stunted hypocrites who are obsessed or threatened by homosexuality.

“Virulent homophobes are increasingly being exposed for engaging in homosexuality,” wrote Blow. “Many heterosexual men see this, and they don’t want to be associated with it. It’ like being antigay is becoming the old gay. Not cool.”

Blow is correct. Normal, healthy, functional heterosexuals do not become paranoid or fixated on homosexuals. It is primarily people with sexual hang-ups, extreme religious indoctrination or deep, dark secrets that are preoccupied and consumed by the sexual orientation of others.

Of course, this does not mean that all supporters of civil rights for LGBT people are comfortable with the idea of gay sex. The good news is they don’t have to be. While speaking across the nation I have found an easy way of diffusing this issue. I ask the crowd to look at people they assume are heterosexual in the audience. Then, I ask if they would want to see all of the people they stared at having sexual intercourse.

The answer is inevitably and resoundingly, “No”. Then, I simply make the point that there are many people, heterosexual and homosexual, they would not want to witness in bed. And, they never have to unless they elect to do so — making any objections in terms of the “ick” factor moot. As simple as this sounds, it works and audiences “get it.”

Adding momentum to the LGBT struggle for equality is a cute McDonald’ television commercial in France that dealt with a teenager who had not yet told his father he was gay. The message of the campaign is, “come as you are, just leave a little fatter.” Okay, I added the last part.

While such an ad is not likely to air in the United States anytime soon, it does not have to in order to have a positive impact. Thanks to the Internet and talk shows, millions of people will see the ad and associate the message with their beloved Golden Arches.

Speaking of the impact of social media, in Newsweek, Joshua Alston made the case that websites such as Facebook are accelerating the demise of the closet. He wrote about the, “painstaking labor that goes into being secretly gay in the age of information sharing.” His advice to a friend who was outed by a seemingly innocuous tweet: “if you want to be in the closet, you can’t be on Facebook and Twitter.”

Crucial to the sudden surge of success is the falling of ugly stereotypes, such as the old canard that LGBT people are a threat to children. This week, the research journal, Pediatrics, published a study by Nanette Gartrell, a professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco and Henry Bos, a behavioral scientist at University of Amsterdam. The article discussed a landmark study that measured the long-term affects on children who were raised by lesbian parents.

“We simply expected to find no difference in psychological adjustment between adolescents reared in lesbian families and the normative sample of age-matched controls,” says Gartrell. “I was surprised to find that on some measures we found higher levels of [psychological] competency and lower levels of behavioral problems. It wasn’t something I anticipated.”

Finally, The Human Rights Campaign reports that Kaiser Permanente updated its Patients’ Bill of Rights to fully protect LGBT patients and their families from discrimination. These changes make Kaiser Permanente the first large health network to have a fully inclusive non-discrimination policy for LGBT people.

Sure, full legal equality may take two decades and the battle against bigotry will last forever. But, there is no denying that the LGBT movement is on the move like never before. The homophobes are finally the minority and appearing more secluded and deluded by the day. It’ not time to crack open a bottle of champagne, but feel free to treat your self to a cold beer and appreciate the progress.

He’s even gotten one of his readers to cancel his policy! The reader wrote a letter to Progressive in which he admitted that his homophobia was programmed into him, rather than a result of any sort of rational thought:

The GLBT movement seeks to pursue a public campaign, whose primary goal is to re-define what I am naturally programmed to believe.

Too funny.

Anyway, so if you need car insurance, and you’re one of the ever-increasing masses of people who support LGBT equality, then give Progressive a call, I guess? Browsing the HRC Corporate Equality Index, I notice, though, that the average HRC rating for the entire insurance industry is a solid 88 out of 100, which makes Peter’s jihad even dumber.

If he had any integrity, he’d be encouraging his readers to go without insurance of any kind. Progressive scores a perfect 100, but so do these companies under the “insurance” heading:

AAA Northern California, Nevada, and Utah

Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America

The Allstate Corp. (Haha, you’d think with his undying love for Bam Bam, he would be issuing fatwas against Allstate. Maybe this is just a childish overreaction to a billing dispute Peter’s having with Progressive or something.)

Chubb Corp.

CNA Insurance

Esurance, Inc.

The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.

ING North America Insurance Corp.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance

MetLife

Nationwide

New York Life Insurance Co.

Pacific Life Insurance Co.

Prudential Financial Inc.

Sun-Life Financial, Inc.

Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund

So…yeah. State Farm and Mutual of Omaha score 80′s, so there’s room for improvement. The lowest score on the list of insurance companies is AEGON USA, which fully supports 40% of the Great Big Keeps-Peter’s-Bed-Wet-At-Night-Homosexical-Agenda.

Also, according to the HRC website, GEICO offers domestic partner benefits, so no gecko for the gay-hating wingnuts.

Again, AFTAH reader[s]: if you have an ounce of integrity, you’ll stop using most services, because most real companies are doing all they can to be inclusive, not out of any special love for the LGBT community, but because it’s good business. They really don’t care if three dingbats write them butt-hurt letters from their AOL accounts.

Oh wait, excuse me, Peter’s reader says their numbers are stronger than that:

Progressive Insurance: It may appear that I am merely one man … but my message resonates within the hearts and minds of millions, upon millions, of Americans who firmly believe what I believe. For every ONE GLBT member that you support, there are FOUR HUNDRED more of us, standing together, in opposition.

FOUR HUNDRED more? If there are 400 homophobes for every LGBT American citizen, that adds up to somewhere between five and twelve billion homophobic Americans, but then again, he might be using some kind of jacked up Creation Math, so we probably shouldn’t analyze it too hard.

Maybe they’re counting their multiple personalities.