On October 12, Peter LaBarbera (Porno Pete) upbraided blogger Joe Jervis for pointing out that the Ku Klux Klan agreed with LaBarbera on a particular issue. In a typical tizzy, Porno Pete had this to say:
I jest, of course. But Joe is serious–that’s the sad part. (Apparently he didn’t get the memo that the first one to call the other guy a “Nazi” in a debate is the automatic loser)
Actually, it was the Klan, not the Nazi Party. However that’s just a minor detail with the main point being that Porno Pete has a big issue with Nazi comparisons. (Although Porno Pete goes surreptitiously into gay leather events with his camera to smear an entire community, precisely the same way the Nazis filmed in the Polish ghetto for the movie “The Eternal Jew.”)
It is clear that Porno Pete believes that Nazi comparisons are for losers.
This is interesting because as Evan pointed out, Porno Pete’s buddies at the Liberty Counsel compared gay activists to Nazis on the radio this week. They did so after a cement block was thrown through a window — allegedly by LGBT activists — where Porno Pete was honoring Scott Lively, another hate group leader.
Staver: Well, when you go out and label somebody a hate group you think of the KKK …
Barber: It emboldens these people …
Staver: It also, it begins, you know, it’s the same thing that happened in the Nazi Holocaust where they start to just demonize and stigmatize and then at some point in time you don’t even think that someone’s human and then, you know, we look at it and our consciences are shocked but if you look at how it ultimately began where they began to just demonize and dehumanize them, that’s what’s happening with this labeling of hate groups.
So, where is Porno Pete? Why isn’t he denouncing the analogy made by Staver? His hypocritical silence is deafening.
Peter LaBarbera, leader of the hate “group” known as Americans for Truth [sic] about Homosexuality, is very upset that GLAAD has given an award to the Joe.My.God blog, which routinely makes fun of Peter LaBarbera! Tone matters, you guys! [No link, you know where Peter's Online Leathersex Amusement Park is.]
Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), today assailed the blatant hypocrisy of GLAAD, a homosexual “anti-defamation” organization, for giving an award to Joe Jervis – who runs a viciously anti-Christian blog.
First off, Joe is an atheist. This is not in and of itself a breach of tone, as religion is not above criticism. EVEN Fundamentalist Christianity is completely fair game when it comes to criticizing religion. Guess who else is an atheist? I AM.
GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) gave its 2011 Media Award for “Outstanding Blog” to Jervis, a New York-based homosexual atheist and creator of the blog “Joe.My.God.” – a daily compilation of homosexuality-related news. JMG is filled with name-calling and nasty barbs directed especially at religious conservatives who oppose homosexuality.
Yeah, but Joe doesn’t actually advocate taking fundamental constitutional rights away from unhinged wingnut conservatives. He just makes fun of them, like I do.
But if GLAAD, like AFTAH, is against hateful name-calling (AFTAH has condemned Fred Phelps of “God Hates Fags” notoriety)
Bully for you. You hold the exact same beliefs as the Phelps clan, so the difference in your rhetoric — Phelps says “God Hates Fags,” whereas you, Peter, are more wordy and annoying about it — is of little consequence.
For example, Jervis routinely uses the atheist term “Jeebus” in the place of Jesus to mock Christians…
Again, religion is not above criticism. Moreover, he’s not lying about Christians, and neither do I. Moreover, he doesn’t broadbrush all Christians with the same stripe, because he understands, as I do, that the idea that Peter LaBarbera speaks for all, most, or even half of Christians is pathetic wishful thinking.
Jervis delights in referring to former Senator and potential GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum as “Frothy Mix” – repeating a malevolent smear concocted by another Christian-bashing homosexual activist, Dan Savage, who meanly “redefined” Santorum’s last name as the filthy byproduct of anal sex.
Santorum deserved it. He fired the first shot when he decided to compare gay love to “man-on-dog sex.” I find it hilarious how much wingnuts are still smarting from Savage’s campaign to redefine “Santorum.” Creative activism! Oh, and santorum only occurs when you’re having anal sex wrong. That’s the double-insult in the name that fundamentalists don’t understand.
Said LaBarbera: “GLAAD’s slogan is ‘words and images matter.’ We at AFTAH agree. Jervis’ published words reveal him to be an inflammatory, anti-Christian bigot who resorts to ‘defamatory’ smears, lies and despicable, crude putdowns to belittle people of faith. (Jervis smears LaBarbera as “Porno Pete,” falsely implying he is homosexual.)
“Porno Pete” started HERE, dangit! And we call you that, not because you may be a closeted self-hating homosexual, but because you made your “name,” such as it is, photographing leather sex events from sea to shining sea, events which are as straight as they are gay.
“Through its Media Award, GLAAD joins itself at the hip with Jervis’ brand of malicious, demeaning, anti-religious bigotry,” LaBarbera said. “This is the flip side of GLAAD’s ongoing campaign to shut down the voices of pro-family Christians – e.g., ex-“gay” Americans like Richard Cohen – from being heard in the media.
Ha ha, we LOVE it when Richard Cohen is heard in the media! He is the best “ex-gay” of all time! Let’s watch him on teevee right now. Later, Pete.
Today, Truth Wins Out threw a fun protest in Philadelphia! The occasion was the annual convention of NARTH [National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality], which is most famous for having a board member named George Rekers, who was caught coming back from a European Holiday of some sort with a young male escort procured through Rentboy.com. Other than that, they have contributed very little to the national discourse, at least from an educational or scientific perspective. Anyway, as you can see in these pictures, fun was had by all, and if you hop over to JoeMyGod, you’ll see that Joe has a great round-up of today’s events, and a lot more pictures. He even has a lovely photo gallery of the douchebags who came there because they inexplicably support NARTH, like Christopher Doyle, and Matt Barber, who has the same goatee I have! The only difference is that I’m cute. Oh, and I’m not a professional liar? There is that.
Joe’s comment on Christopher Doyle is awesome, so I have to quote it here, because it made me LOL:
The tall bald guy is Christopher Doyle, an “ex-gay” who is on the board of PFOX and who is on staff with “ex-gay” whackadoodle Richard Cohen as a “Sexual Reorientation Coach” at the International Healing Foundation. If that wasn’t enough for this professionally “former” c*cksucker, he writes newspaper editorials arguing against the Day Of Silence. Anyway, I don’t think pillow-whacker Richard Cohen has totally gotten Doyle is touch with his “natural masculine nature,” because when I kept taking photos, Doyle put his hand on his hip and hissed, “I don’t need this. Why don’t you just sssssssstop!”
And that is why we like to invite Joe to do things.
Anyway, enjoy these pictures and then click on over to JMG.
Let’s start out our week with something light and fun, i.e. checking in with Peter LaBarbera’s last few posts to see who/what has him all mad ‘n’ sad.
1. Personal attack on Jeremy Hooper: Peter is really, really excited that there are still a couple newspapers left that defend bigotry and hatred, so when he heard that the Manchester Union-Leader in New Hampshire was sticking to discrimination by refusing to print same-sex marriage announcements, he got a tingle in his no-nos and wrote a piece about it! Of course, to illustrate that piece, he used Jeremy Hooper’s wedding photo and slapped the word “perversion” on it.
Peter (presumably) has his own conscience and shame system to answer to. Nothing I could say here would exacerbate the questions that surely (or at least should) weigh on his and his loved ones’ minds.
2. Personal attack on and straight-up lies about Autumn Sandeen: Pete really, really doesn’t like Autumn. He dislikes her so much that he willfully and repeatedly twists the facts of her story to serve his agenda, claiming that Autumn “left [her] wife and children,” despite the fact that Autumn has repeatedly corrected the story. This is the set-up for a piece where Pete uses juvenile slurs against transgender people and sticks his fingers in his ears, referring to a genuine, widely recognized medical condition and its treatment as “sickening.”
Autumn responds thoroughly here, and ends like this:
I hope no one ever manages to shut LaBarbera up. He has the right to free speech, for sure, and he should be free to exercise it. Beyond that though, I find his over-the-top style of writing quite entertaining. And, he makes a good case, by the negative example of his bigotry of trans people, as well as lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, of the real world need for LGBT people to be treated with dignity and respect by both government and corporate America.
3. Evan Hurst and Joe Jervis are sooooooo mean. In case you missed it, Joe Jervis pointed out that Peter is on the same side as the Ku Klux Klan on a very specific issue: that of Jennifer Keeton of Augusta State University, who, like a child, wants the counseling department at the school to adjust their degree requirements for her “special needs,” i.e., her religion-based bigotry against gay people. The school told her, “No, dear,” so now, of course, she’s a Religious Right cause celebre. Peter turned Joe’s post into something it really wasn’t, as all Joe did was point out the similar goals of the two entities on the issue. I agreed with Joe.
Here comes the fun part: Peter is trying to “get back at us” by saying that Joe and I are on the same side as NAMBLA when it comes to openly gay scoutmasters. Of course, this is not true, as Joe explained on our Truth Wins Out Facebook page, and which I will explain now: Though it is distasteful and wrong that the Boy Scouts don’t allow kids’ fathers who happen to be gay to be scoutmasters, thus depriving those dads and their kids of the same opportunities that kids with straight dads have, they are a private organization and are thus completely within their rights to discriminate. The Country Club near my house is a nice little Slice of the Confederacy, as the only faces of color you’ll see on that golf course belong to employees in white suits, or possibly the Mayor on a special occasion, and they’re not too keen on Jewish members either. Is it gross? Yes. Is it a stain on our otherwise lovely neighborhood, its only benefits being its scenic nature and what its proximity does to the property values in our historic district? Yes. Are they within their rights as an exclusive private organization? Surely.
And that, children, is what you call a “nuanced position.” Wingnuts do not have nuanced positions. Everything them to them is childlike: good vs. evil, black vs. white, made-up words like “Judeo-Christian” vs. Big Mean Outside World, etc.
The rest of Peter’s piece involves taking an interesting piece written by Johann Hari, about gays in fascist movements [interesting because there have never been any heterosexuals involved in fascist movements -- it's a purely gay thing, y'all], spices it up with a little revisionist [completely made up] history from notorious bigot Scott Lively, who has his paws on more hate groups [the real, certified kind, not the "Peter things these people are mean" kind] than you’d expect imaginable from one human, and who basically handed Ugandan homophobes the rhetorical gun they needed in their campaign against gays in that country, and then he attempts to sum it up:
Homosexual radicals’ deranged attempts to link pro-family conservatives to racist fringe groups are part of their larger goal of demonizing and marginalizing “homophobic” Christians and social conservatives.
Uh, it’s really not a big leap: ”Pro-family conservatives” tend to be more defined by who/what they hate than what they actually support, and it tends to come in the form of condemnation of large groups of people. Irrational fear and hatred of other races is very, very similar to irrational fear and hatred of sexual minorities. It’s no coincidence that social conservatives cynically exploit race in their fights against reproductive health, while simultaneously believing/being worried that every Muslim is a possible terrorist, while simultaneously imagining that gay people they’ve never met having equal rights will affect their lives in any way. The only thing our equality will ever change is white fundamentalists’ self esteem, because their self-created pedestal over society, which they have enjoyed for decades, is being eroded by the advancement of minorities. The only thing that is happening is that slowly but surely, their unearned status is being brought down to size with the rest of us. And I’m sure that messes with ‘em somethin’ fierce, as we Southerners say. But their status was never merit-based in any way! There is nothing special or worthy about Fundamentalists that suggests they should have the keys to society. Indeed, when one looks at the statistics, one finds that on most “moral questions,” fundamentalists do no better than anyone else, and often do much, much worse.
Anyway, he rambles for approximately 1400 paragraphs, and even figures out a way to talk about fisting, which is like, his favorite subject besides that photographer in New Mexico who [tragedy!] had to abide by the same laws as everyone else as a business owner, who he also mentions. Oh, and he takes some time to cry and lie some more about Catholic Charities being “forced” out of business in Massachusetts. Of course, they freely chose to close up shop, unwilling as they were to follow the same laws as everyone else. [Sensing a pattern here? It's sort of like dealing with preschoolers who don't like to share, and moreover, have not had good naps that day.] It’s kind of a Wingnut Fever Dream Greatest Hits.
Finally, he asks, “Could the American state become a national, homo-fascist agent?”
Uh, I don’t know Peter. Could unicorns come to life and force us all to eat sparkly cupcakes? Could pie be any more delicious? Could puppy fur BE any softer? These are all questions, to be sure. I don’t know what kind of questions they are, but they’re certainly questions.
Read his entire million word piece if you have nothing better to do with your life.
There’s not much to this story, except that Peter LaBarbera is reacting hysterically to the fact that Joe Jervis pointed out the other day that, in supporting Augusta State University grad student Jennifer Keeton, the Ku Klux Klan is on the same side as Peter LaBarbera. This is a true statement. Indeed, this is his entire statement that referred to LaBarbera:
Peter LaBarbera and the KKK, both on the same side of hate. Feels like a perfect match.
Wow. The analytical powers of atheist, homosexual perversion-defender Joe Jervis’ (of the Joe. My. God. blog) are in full display as he exposes the sinister, long-concealed ”truth” that AFTAH has been trying to hide for decades — that we are aligned with the … KKK … yeah, that’s it … the KKK! Joe alone had the analytical skills to pull together the story: AFTAH (and by extension FRC, AFA, Liberty Counsel, ADF, PFOX, etc.) have partered with the Klan to stop gay equality!!
Wow, like…I know you are but what am I?
Joe didn’t say Peter was “aligned” with the KKK, nor did he say that they had “partered” with him. He merely pointed out, as I have, that they are on the same side on this issue, and that groups like Peter’s and PFOX are working with approximately the same moral authority as the Ku Klux Klan.
But I guess Joe’s words struck a nerve.
I jest, of course. But Joe is serious–that’s the sad part. (Apparently he didn’t get the memo that the first one to call the other guy a “Nazi” in a debate is the automatic loser
The Nazis were from Germany, Peter. They’re different from the Ku Klux Klan, who agrees with you more than they disagree. Watch this, because it’s funny:
He’s of course talking about the time Wayne stood outside a meeting where “ex-gay” leaders had just come back from Uganda, where they spread the bile that has contributed to the terrible situation for gays in that nation. Peter likes to pretend Wayne was “screaming into a church service or something,” but that’s called lying, and lying is wrong.
Also: I must have missed it in my history books, but I don’t think the Nazi Party was known for its peaceful, legal protests against oppression.
He’s so nervy here:
Such finely-honed logic. Such depth of reasoning and discernment. The nuances alone are worth pondering and studying for years to come. Joe, here’s the deal: your hatred of Americans For Truth and this writer (but more important, for the God who lovingly created you) is getting the best of you. Next time you set out to discredit AFTAH, try using a line of argumentation that wouldn’t embarrass a smart 5th-grader if he or she tried it.
Eh, again, Peter, all he said was that you and the KKK are on the same hateful side. This is true.
Perhaps this would be a good time for the leader of one hate website to reflect on why he finds himself in such strong agreement with one of the most notorious hate groups in American history.
Contact: Wayne Besen
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@TruthWinsOut.org
Demonstration Against ‘Ex-Gay’ Group Takes On New Urgency Following LGBT Teen Suicide Crisis
PHILADELPHIA – Truth Wins Out launched the website, Lift My Luggage.org, today and announced a Saturday, Nov.6 protest against the “ex-gay” organization, The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), at their annual convention in Philadelphia.
The notorious “ex-gay” group is hoping that Americans have amnesia and won’t remember that its most “prominent” board member, George Rekers, was forced to resign in May. Rekers stepped down from NARTH after he was caught vacationing with a male escort he met on Rent Boy.com. When asked why he had hired the young man, Rekers said it was to, “lift his luggage.”
“As the infamous quacks at NARTH gather for their annual convention, let’s remind America that NARTH is a pseudo-scientific organization that is more about luring Rent Boys than conducting legitimate research,” said Truth Wins Out’s founder Wayne Besen. “In light of recent gay teen suicides, we must stand up and show how NARTH’s lies harm LGBT youth and create an intolerant climate where persecution, bullying, and violence occur.”
The Lift My Luggage demonstration is co-sponsored by the Equality Forum, The William Way LGBT Community Center, MCC Philadelphia, Pam Spaulding (Pam’s House Blend), Joe Jervis (Joe.My.God) and Jeremy Hooper (Good As You), Zack Ford (Zack Ford Blog). If your organization would like to consider co-sponsoring this event, please contact Wayne Besen, wbesen@truthwinsout.org.
Protest Information:
What: Protest of NARTH’s annual convention. We are asking that you bring your own luggage to the demonstration (pink luggage would be ideal).
Please consider attaching signs to the luggage such as:
NARTH = Junk Science
“Ex-Gay? No Way”
“Rent Boy Rekers”
Where: Renaissance Philadelphia Airport Hotel
500 Stevens Drive
Philadelphia, Pa.
Stephenson Billings at Christwire has created a set of pictures based on 1950′s pulp novels, meant to visually depict the various ways liberals in the year 2010 are taking us further and further down into a hellish gutter of gluttony and utter sexiness.
They. Are. Wonderful.
I think the LGBT bloggity reading community will appreciate this one particularly:
To his credit, this was a decent move. Chambliss is still a homophobe, but at least he seems stung by the fact that this happened, and that it came out of his office.
Joe doesn’t have an exact transcript, but relays the basic gist of what was said over at his place.
In case you missed this story somehow, a staffer in Saxby Chambliss’s Atlanta office left a comment on JoeMyGod which said, “All faggots must die.” It made the national news. Somebody is probably going to lose his/her job.
Saxby Chambliss’s office has admitted it. Here’s Joe Jervis with the latest from this crazy story that started this afternoon:
I’ve just gotten off the phone with Atlanta Journal-Constitution political writer Jim Gallaway who says that Sen. Saxby Chambliss has confirmed that the “All faggots must die” comment left here on JMG earlier today did indeed come from his Atlanta office. Galloway reports that Chambliss told him his office is now conducting an internal investigation.
“We have seen the allegations and are moving quickly to understand the facts. This office has not and will not tolerate any activity of the sort alleged,” Chambliss spokeswoman Bronwyn Lance Chester said. “Once we have ascertained whether these claims are true, we will take the appropriate steps.” The comment was posted on Joe.My.God., a blog dedicated to gay and lesbian issues. “All [gays] must die,” wrote a commenter identifying himself as “Jimmy.” Blog author Joseph Jervis of New York City used the Internet Protocol address attached to the comment to trace the slur to “the neighborhood” of Chambliss’ office in Atlanta. Readers quickly helped. “Among the fields in which gay people are over-represented is the IT field,” Jervis said. The office of U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson is in the same area. But a spokeswoman for Isakson said his staff quickly ascertained that the message did not originate with them.
Crazy, crazy.
Also: the person who did it will probably be identified by tomorrow, but let’s just go on record right now saying that whoever the person was who did it is not only a bigot, but also mindnumbingly stupid. From a Senate computer?! Really?! My god.
He seems to be genuinely burned by the fact that he’s being held accountable for his words and deeds over the past years, his Americans For Truth [sic] website having been newly classified as a hate site by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The designation, of course, was a long time coming, and as Jeremy Hooper has been reminding us, this is not the first time Peter LaBarbera’s dishonesty and vitriol has been recognized by the SPLC:
Back when Peter was the executive director of the Illinois Family Institute, Pete gave what the SPLC called a “full-throated endorsement of [Paul] Cameron” when he, in a piece on the discredited researcher’s work, said: “Paul Cameron’ work has been targeted for ridicule by homosexual activists, and he’ been demonized by the left”…”but this should not discount his findings.“). This endorsement of Cameron earned the IFI a place on the SPLC’s dubious “hate groups” list in the anti-gay category: Solely because of Peter’s actions. After current IFIer Laurie Higgins (a major LaBarbera pal) took down the offending piece and pressed the SPLC for removal, the civil rights group did eventually remove IFI from their list. Because as we said: The SPLC’s threshold is not willy-nilly, designed add anyone who does anything anti-gay. A group or person has to do something particular, and in the case of IFI it was Pete’s action that did it.
Right. And Peter STILL defends Paul Cameron. Not only that, but he also has defended the perpetrators of the anti-gay genocide legislation in Uganda, pleading that those of us who have shone a light on the goings-on in that country are afflicted with “activist arrogance.”
But you see, this is Peter’s game: He says godawful things, he maligns an entire community of people based on trumped up accusations against a few, he lies and tells his readers (whoever they are) that being gay, itself, is a danger to society, etc., and then when he’s called it on it, he cries “But I’m just a nice boy who loves Jesus!”
Give us all, collectively, a break, Peter.
Now let’s go through his post and see what he had to say. As I mentioned in the headline, Peter thinks we at TWO should be on the list too, based on well, one time Wayne yelled on a megaphone, you see, and this is just as bad as the Holocaust, because…
Energetic ideological debate is one thing ‚Äî and pointed and colorful rhetoric flows in both directions (it’ not called a “Culture War” for nothing) ‚Äî but I can’t even imagine screaming through a bullhorn into the window of a “gay” church. Yet this is precisely what homosexual activist Wayne Besen did in Boston last year ‚Äî to protest an ex-gay seminar designed for pastors. Are you investigating his group, Truth Wins Out, as a potential “hate” group? If not, why not?
Oh, he’s playing so innocent, and so cute with the facts. It’s been covered here before, but since Peter posts his favorite picture of Wayne Besen In Shorts With a Megaphone once a week or so, and since he never tells the story of what was actually happening there, let’s just cover it again. This is from our press release on the event, last year:
Truth Wins Out joined local Boston GLBT advocates to demonstrate against Exodus International, which hosted a training seminar on Tuesday to teach people to “pray away the gay.” The protest was held at the site of the “ex-gay” symposium — the Park St. Church.
“We thank Join the Impact MA for coordinating an effective response to the damaging misinformation Exodus International peddles to vulnerable people,” said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Speaking up and educating the public is the first step in exposing the ex-gay myth. I was honored to be part of this bold action.”
The protest, at one point, moved to the burial grounds of some of America’ Founding Fathers, which was next to the church where the seminar was held. The radical, anti-gay organization, Massachusetts Family Institute (FMI) filmed a poorly shot video of the protest. Interestingly, their own video shows that protesters had not “desecrated” the graveyard, as they had stated in a press release.
“It is amazing that people who claim to represent ethics and morality would not only lie — but capture their dishonesty on videotape,” said Besen. “What the Massachusetts Family did was reprehensible and they should be ashamed of their blatant lies.”
Indeed, MassResistance (ANOTHER SPLC hate group — nice company, Pete keeps, isn’t it?) reported the protest in utter hysterics:
Tuesday afternoon, April 28, several major homosexual activist figures, including a prominent state employee, led a screaming demonstration to terrorize a downtown Boston church while it was holding a peaceful religious training event inside. Using a bullhorn, they illegally trampled through an adjoining Revolutionary War-era cemetery in order to be directly outside the church’s windows. Despite numerous apparent violations of the law, the Boston Police talked with them but refused to make any arrests.
(…)
And the Boston Police Department went right along with it. There were obvious violations of the law, including at the very least (1) a clear violation of the Massachusetts Civil Rights statute (2) holding a demonstration (in the graveyard!) without a permit; and (3) creating a public disturbance. But the one uniformed Boston Police officer and two plainclothes officers who were there made no effort to arrest anyone. The uniformed officer asked them a few questions and went on his way (see our video). The Boston Police Department told us yesterday that there were no arrests in the incident.
Uh…huh. No arrests were made. But MassResistance (again, a certified hate group) gnashed their teeth, beat their breasts, and wailed that it was all a conspiracy, because the Boston Police went along with it! Right. Everyone is out to get them, surely.
Or could it just be that protests are not illegal on public property, and that it was non-violent, so the police had no reason to arrest anyone?
Note that these hysterical hate groups accused the gay protesters of “desecrating” a cemetery, and let what they’re really saying sink in: that the mere presence of gay people on public property is, itself, desecration. Does that sound like a hate group to you? Because it sounds like a hate group to me.
So, to sum up, the protest had the following characteristics:
1. Was legal.
2. There was no church service going on, but instead a meeting of leaders from Exodus, who had just come back, incidentally, from the anti-gay conference in Uganda where Scott Lively (ALSO on the hate group list) stated that gays caused the Rwandan genocide.
3. Those protesting were on public property.
4. No arrests were made.
Oh, by the way, would you like to know what Wayne was saying into that megaphone that day? “Uganda!”
Considering what’s happened over the past year with “Uganda,” would you say Truth Wins Out is looking more hateful or less hateful than the man who is currently bitching about being recognized as a grade-A hatemonger?
Anyway, that’s that. Let’s look at the outline of Pete’s letter to Mark Potok of the SPLC.
Playing nice nice:
Am I and Americans For Truth opposed to homosexual behavior and any activism seeking to advance homosexuality/bisexuality/transsexuality as normative and acceptable? Absolutely. Do I “hate” people? Not at all. In fact, I am constantly responding to (often vicious) emails from pro-gay activists who write in to AFTAH via our website with my message that we can disagree with hating each other. That is the essence of civility and true tolerance, IMO [in my opinion] ‚Äî i.e., tolerating opinions with which we disagree while continuing to aggressively debate our viewpoints.
Neglects to mention that he posts the meanest letters he gets as a way to broadbrush LGBT people as “the reel haturs,” yet never posts these nice conversations he supposedly has.
Concern trolling:
I don’t expect you to sympathize with AFTAH’ views, but from a practical standpoint, you must know that your credibility is waning among people whom the SPLC needs to reach to stay viable. America is a center-right country (perhaps many liberals would say centrist) ‚Äî and while you may have success in fund-raising by reaching out predominantly to the Left, you cannot build credibility with unfair, politicized attacks on religious conservatives that appeal to base, uninformed stereotypes.
Oh yes, that’s right. Peter is so concerned for the credibility of the SPLC. Additionally, his suggestion that he’s just like the other evangelical groups who oppose LGBT people is asinine. There’s a reason Focus on the Family is not on the list, while AFTAH and MassResistance are. Focus is obnoxious, and they play cute with the truth, but they don’t tend to cross the line into the sort of bilious hatred Peter spews out on a daily basis. (Do I need to provide a corroborating link for that, or do you just want to set up a Google alert with his name and see what the hell he says every time he gets on the computer?)
As Pam Spaulding would say, protect your keyboards for this next part, folks:
What about the hateful rhetorical attacks against me and AFTAH and nasty shibboleths that come routinely from the Left? “Porno Pete”? Honestly, this is the type of malicious, hateful slander I experience on a daily basis (it is analogous in its ugliness to Phelps’ use of the term “Fag”).
OMG. He’s comparing “Porno Pete,” a silly name that we sometimes use, because “Pete” has an insane predilection for posting albums full of photographs of leathersex events (as a way to smear, again, all LGBT people) which are decidedly Not Safe For Work, all the time, to the term “fag,” which, as Jeremy Hooper points out, is used in virtually every gay bashing attack:
The word “f*g” is among the most heinous on the landscape, used in most every gay bashing to ever occur. To relate it to a silly web nickname that applies to a supposed affection for pornography (something that many would gladly own up to)? And to compare those who use the silly name to the Phelps family from Westboro Baptist, who protest people’s funerals and tell the parents that their child is burning in hell?!?! That is completely out-of-line!
Peter and his pal Matt are trying with all of their might to spin the script so that gay activists are the “haters.” It is a completely futile exercise. Not a single one of us who fight for equality want to be doing this. We do this because folks like Pete have demanded it of us, and we’re scared of where we’d be if we didn’t resist the onslaught! The on the socially conservative side declared this so-called “culture war” against our inclusion in the spectrum of normalcy, which puts them in the aggressor seat from day one. Some folks like Peter, who so things like personally attack people’s weddings, have just taken it to a whole other level!
Uh yeah. And if you don’t know what Jeremy is talking about when he says “personally attack people’s weddings,” it was Jeremy’s wedding, and Peter sent him a personal attack e-mail the week of. Click the clicky to read about it.
Peter needs to get over it. He earned the nickname “Porno Pete,” and a silly nickname is not “hatred.” It’s a silly nickname. Let us know when it’s used as a slur against an entire group of, um, Porno Petes.
Anyway, Peter also wants the SPLC to investigate Joe.My.God as a hate group, because Joe makes fun of Peter sometimes. Oh, and also ACT-UP, which really wouldn’t have had to exist if the Reagan administration and social conservatives hadn’t been absolutely evil in their misinformation and neglect of the HIV/AIDS issue as it arose suddenly in the ’80s.
More faux-victimization:
In fact, over the years there have been numerous assaults by pro-homosexual militants against people of faith and churches ‚Äî do you recall the attack against Hamilton Square Baptist Church in San Francisco in 1993 in which pro-gay activists were literally pounding on the doors of the church? What about ACT UP’ invasion of St. Patrick’ Cathedral in New York City in 1989, or more recent attempts by homosexual activists to intimidate supporters of Prop 8 and traditional marriage?
Goddammit, does Peter even know what the word “assault” means? Because banging on the doors of a church doesn’t leave a trail of blood. We on the pro-LGBT/pro-equality/pro-human side can, unfortunately, provide a list a mile long of LGBT people who have been beaten and murdered simply for who they are. And Porno Pete is going to bitch about the fact that a couple of church services were disrupted?
There’s a bit of wishful thinking as Peter brings his letter to a close:
Rest assured that SPLC’ reckless mischaracterization of AFTAH has touched off deep resentment within the pro-family, conservative community.
Actually, no. Peter is upset that there is very little resentment among the part of the greater “pro-family” community that retains a semblance of respect in this country. Peter has seen over the past year, up close, that he’s unwanted in his own movement, that he embarrasses his movement. Peter and his friends were shoved to the sidelines during the anti-gay fight in Maine, because they were deemed too embarrassing to be associated with. In fact, that was probably Yes on 1′s smartest play. That they misrepresented their own views in an effort to appear un-hateful to Mainers, that they shoved their most embarrassing players (Peter, Mike Heath, etc.) into Siberia, may be why they were able to inch over the top. It’s no longer socially acceptable in this country to espouse the kinds of views Peter LaBarbera emits onto his keyboard every day. Peter is upset because he knows that being on the SPLC list pushes him even further into Siberia from his own movement.
But he deserves the honor. Aside from Matt Barber (who’s probably not too far away from being on the list himself, but I won’t conjecture), the only people in the “pro-family” movement who will even have Peter are the others on the hate group list. He’s in the company he deserves, and in the bed he’s made for himself.
That’s why he’s literally begging to be taken off the list. Not only is his zealous hatred of gay people passionate, but it’s also his livelihood.
But the fact that Peter can’t control himself enough, can’t restrain his own hatred, his lies, his fake victimization — none of that is our fault. It’s not the SPLC’s fault. It’s not Joe Jervis’s fault. It’s not Jeremy Hooper’s fault. It’s not Wayne Besen’s fault. It sure as hell isn’t my fault.
It’s Peter’s fault.
UPDATE: Joe Jervis has also responded to Peter’s desire for Joe.My.God to also be on the hate group list:
LaBarbera clearly doesn’t like my near-daily habit of “smearing” Christian conservatives by quoting their idiocy verbatim. They hang themselves by their own words, Petey, and I rarely need to do more than provide a photo and a headline. If that’s hate, you need to speak to my team of writers: Matt Barber, Tony Perkins, Brian Brown, Harry Jackson, Pat Robertson, James Dobson….and YOU.
Let’s start out our week with something light and fun, i.e. checking in with Peter LaBarbera’s last few posts to see who/what has him all mad ‘n’ sad.
