As Jeremy points out, this is at best, pathetic, and at worst, an illustration of just how much contempt people like Tony Perkins have for their own followers. Basically here is what had happened was: yesterday, Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi added a non-controversial amendment to a defense authorization bill which clarified that military chaplains are free to refuse to marry same-sex couples. Though gay rights advocates have never fought to force any clergy to perform weddings they don’t want to, for whatever reason, the following video features Roger Wicker speaking to hate group leaders Tim Wildmon [AFA] and Tony Perkins [FRC], declaring this very non-controversial amendment a “victory.”
I am aware that the Religious Right is winning basically nothing when it comes to gay rights these days — and thank heavens for that — but that they are declaring this a victory is hilarious. Jeremy also points out that there was basically no opposition to this, because it’s already Pentagon policy, and no one cares.
Think about it: why on God’s green earth would any gay couple want to go to Reverend Bubba the Bigot to perform their ceremony?! Weddings are happy occasions, people. No need to have a gross old homophobe on the guest list, much less at the pulpit.
Here’s the video:
When I said above that people like Tony Perkins and Tim Wildmon have absolute contempt for their own followers, those are my words, not Jeremy’s. But let me expand on that a bit. The Religious Right [and indeed, the Republican Party] would not have the donors and followers they have if they weren’t exceptionally crafty when it comes to lying to and scaring the shit out of their sheep. There is no liberal or gay-friendly parallel to this. On this side of the fence, journalists, bloggers and non-profit organizations are well aware that our average readers/listeners/supporters are pretty smart people, and moreover people who are willing and able to research issues for themselves. Therefore, aside from the fact that we have absolutely no reason to mislead people, we wouldn’t make it very far with the people who support us if we played cute with the facts like the Religious Right does.
Sadly, and I know this is a broad over-generalization, but Tony Perkins knows it too, the Religious Right is simply not that kind of crowd. So beholden to fear and authority are they that the “daddy figures” they choose to trust are viewed as impenetrable and beyond reproach, even when the words coming out of their leaders’ mouths defy all logic, reason and civics knowledge. Tim Wildmon, being sort of a fringe, regional figure, might be so dumb/uninformed that he believes what he’s saying, but Tony Perkins is inside the Beltway. He knows full well when he’s lying to his people in order to keep their fear-based ca$h a-rollin’ into the FRC’s coffers. Aside from the fact that the man leads a well-known and detested hate group, it’s grotesque to realize that a large part of his influence comes from the fact that he lies to his own people.
That’s how you end up with a situation where these men are able to go on to AFA radio and boldly claim “victory” on an issue that literally, nobody cares about. If their followers acted like liberals and decided to check for themselves whether or not gay couples wanted to force awful wingnuts to perform gay marriage ceremonies, they’d discover that Tony and Tim and Roger are lying to them. But they won’t, and those men know it, so the lies will continue.
Check out this op-ed from Der Spiegel correspondent Mark Pitzke. It’s brilliant. Sometimes outsiders looking in can see things more clearly than those of us on the inside.
I’ll include a couple of snippets below in order to hopefully entice you into reading the entire article. Pitzke is right on: the outlandish extremism on the American right is frightening and dangerous — to a world facing the inevitability of climate change and shifting geopolitical power, and to religious, ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities, including LGBT people.
It’s true that on the road to the White House all sorts of things can happen, and usually do. No campaign can avoid its share of slip-ups, blunders and embarrassments. Yet this time around, it’s just not that funny anymore. In fact, it’s utterly horrifying.
It’s horrifying because these eight so-called, would-be candidates are eagerly ruining not only their own reputations and that of their party, the party of Lincoln lore. Worse: They’re ruining the reputation of the United States…
Gingrich claims moral authority on issues such as the “sanctity of marriage,” yet he’s been divorced twice. He sprang the divorce on his first wife while she was sick with cancer. (His supporters’ excuse: It’s been 31 years, and she’s still alive.) He cheated on his second wife just as he was pressing ahead with Bill Clinton’s impeachment during the Monica Lewinsky affair, unaware of the irony. The woman he cheated with, by the way, was one of his House aides and 23 years his junior — and is now his perpetually smiling third wife…
On October 7, 2011 Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) President Greg Quinlan was interviewed on News-Plus with Mark Segraves (WDCW-TV). Throughout the show, Quinlan distorts reality and flat out lies on many subjects. However, at the 10:38 mark he commits slander. According to Quinlan:
“Truth Wins Out if you look further, including Wayne Besen. He’s asked for people, you know, somebody needs to run Greg over. He needs to be hit with a bus. Somebody should inject him with AIDS. Those are the things that Wayne Besen and Truth WIns Out says about me. That’s pretty hateful rhetoric.”
Unfortunately for Quinlan nothing he said about me or Truth Wins Out is true or accurate. What he said was outright libel and a complete fabrication that he invented out of thin air. It speaks to Quinlan’s character that he lies so easily and simply makes things up. As for me, I’d be more than happy to take a lie detector test or a NoLie MRI to prove that I’ve never said such vile words. Will Quinlan also take these tests to prove the “veracity” of his calumny?
Truth Wins Out is exploring its legal options. Do our readers think that we should sue PFOX and Quinlan for libel and defamation?
The Family Research Council has a quiz up on its website for us to take! Because Truth Wins Out readers are grounded in reality, as opposed to Tony Perkins’ weird, disturbed lie- and hatred-based worldview, you will all fail it miserably, but then again, that’s okay, because you all actually know the definition of “family values,” whereas the FRC does not.
The part about how ENDA would force Christians to remove family pictures from their workplaces is so batsh*t stupid/hilarious I don’t even know how to react. Fundamentalists are such victims.
In this video, Matt Barber is whining about DOMA repeal. He says that Democrats are going to be “held accountable” for trying to repeal DOMA, even though more than half of Americans support marriage equality, and that kids raised by gay parents are eight times more likely to be gay [citation please, Bam Bam?], which means that they’re all going to get AIDS, the end. It’s sad that these people believe their own lies, but hey, it takes so little skill or intelligence to be a hate group spokesmouth, and since that AllState Insurance thing didn’t work out so well for Bam Bam…
Warren Throckmorton has changed quite a bit over the years. Having become disillusioned when he realized what a motley crew of science-denying liars he was surrounded by in the Religious Right, he has increasingly spoken out against harmful “ex-gay” corporations and the anti-gay bigotry of the Religious Right. As a college professor, he was uniquely positioned to make this change, as his job description requires actual thinking, as opposed to people like Tony Perkins and Porno Pete, who are only expected to bark out anti-gay catchphrases, lie a lot, and in the case of Porno Pete, keep an encyclopedic photographic catalogue of what goes on at fetish sex events.
Porno Pete is upset that Warren has gone over to the “dark side” of thinking, analyzing and generally not being a reactionary, fearful wingnut, and he is asking him to apologize:
This morning I sent the following public letter to Grove City College professor and homosexuality-affirming blogger Warren Throckmorton, as well as dozens of pro-family leaders. Note that Throckmorton, a frequent critic of conservative evangelical leaders, has been singled out for praise by the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center — the same SPLC that outrageously labeled AFTAH, Family Research Council, American Family Association and other mainstream pro-family organizations as “hate groups.”
I am sure this letter was the highlight of everyone’s day.
In another post we will publish Prof. Rob Gagnon’s response to Richard Cohen’s new and curiously “gay”-affirmative approach to the homosexual issue.
So here is the letter. Let us correct its grammar and ideas:
Warren,
I certainly don’t think Richard Cohen or anyone needs to apologize for stating the obvious truth that “Change [away from and rejecting homosexuality] is possible.” If we were to apologize for everything that “offends” hardened LGBT activists, we’d be apologizing 24/7.
Probably should get on that then. Of course, we’re not just talking about offending “hardened LGBT activists,” we’re also talking about destroying the families of gay people who end up killing themselves, having been so abused by the messages that come from people like Peter LaBarbera and Richard Cohen.
The question is, when will YOU apologize for affirming homosexuality as an acceptable (or innocuous) identity — while claiming (falsely) to uphold biblical orthodoxy?
“When will you apologize for pulling your head out of the sand and embracing reality, Warren? You don’t seem to be taking religious fundamentalist, reality-denying, pathetic, fearful wingnuttery seriously AT ALL. I am beginning to question your commitment to Sparkle Motion!”
When will YOU repent for working hand-in-hand with “gay” activists who are diametrically opposed to the Christian worldview on homosexuality as an overcomable sexual sin (and an abomination) — by actively discrediting the need AND potential for wholesome change away from same-sex behavior and indulging same-sex desires?
“When will YOU repent for telling the truth and not having a psychological problem, like my friends and I have, that compels us to give a hateful, knee-jerk response to everything that isn’t just like us? And you haven’t come and visited my photographic leathersex archives in a long time, and I’ve been texting you about it, like, a lot!”
You should either publicly apologize for undermining Scriptural (and observable) Truth — or renounce your claims to be faithful to historic Christian sexual teachings. This request is made more urgent by your employment with an evangelical institution, Grove City College, which purports to be “authentically Christian” — something few biblically-faithful observers of your recent flirtation with pro-”gay” advocacy would accuse you of being.
“While I am aware that my reference to ‘observable Truth’ is hilarious to all but the dumbest American citizens alive, I still feel the need to stand up and attack you and shame you in front of your employer, from my dark cubbyhole in the Chicago suburbs. This is actually my job! I am the leader of a hate group of one!”
I can document all the above statements concerning your conduct and “gay”-affirming advocacy, which has caused widespread consternation and confusion in Christian circles, and within the pro-family movement. You (or anyone) may publish this if you wish.
“I have the internet, just like everyone else does! Why, why, why won’t you call me?”
Oh, Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown, would either of you know the truth if it smacked you across the face and sang you a big gay showtune?
Rachel Maddow reported last night on NOM’s latest ruse, a pathetic effort to make it appear as if their campaign to repeal marriage rights in New Hampshire has broad popular support — as Rachel points out, supporters of the law outnumber those who want to rescind equal marriage rights by two to one. It seems that Jeremy discovered that, in a sad, sad attempt to make it look as if they have friends people are on their side, the NOMsters have resorted to photoshopping Barack Obama’s crowds to make them look like they’re watching Brian Brown speaking.
As grotesque as it is bitter, as lonely as it is hilarious, these are the actions of losers. Losers who lie a lot.
If I’m what Mission America priestess of hatred Linda Harvey considers evil, I don’t want to be good. Linda Harvey brought a woman who almost equals her in unbridled, unreasonable, unmitigated, dishonest hatred, Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute hate group, onto the radio with her for the purpose of wah wah wah:
Higgins: Homosexual activists are deceptive in terms of concealing information. They know full well that Queer Theory, which emerges from the homosexual community, says homosexuality is not fixed, it’s not hereditary, and it’s mutable, and it’s flexible, particularly among women. So not only can they not marshal in the evidence to prove the ‘born that way’ theory there’s a lot of at least anecdotal evidence to suggest it’s not fixed and it’s not immutable and certainly there’s no genetic or biological research proving that they are ‘born that way.’ So they’re not even honest about that, they know what I’ve just said. The problem is, the mainstream public doesn’t know.
Harvey: Well and the mainstream, homosexual person on the internet who believes these evil bloggers, they are evil, these people are evil and they are purposefully deceptive. I get my comments edited all the time. These folks will believe a smidgen here and a smidgen there and think, ‘oh it’s been settled,’ it hasn’t been settled, check it out! That science is not at all settled and in fact there’s tons of evidence that people are not born that way.
A numbered list because these women don’t deserve prose:
1. Queer theory isn’t mainstream even among the mainstream gay community. Though it has interesting things to say, this writer finds a lot of it tedious and just plain wrong. Unlike fundamentalist Christians, though, gays are not a borg of groupthink, and rather feel free to argue with one another. However, it should be pointed out that Queer Theory is a very different thing from SCIENCE (!!!!), which does, yes, tend to state that homosexuality is not a choice, that it’s hereditary and that efforts to change it through outside means are ineffective and often harmful. The fact that women’s sexuality is often more fluid than men’s is in no way an argument for Linda & Laurence’s belief that homosexuality is eeeeeeeeeeevil and must be stopped. Only the truly stupid would make that connection in their heads.
2. Oh, we are so evil, making fun of you and trying to stop you from driving your own children to suicide, like you all do on a regular basis. As I’ve said before, pig ignorant bigotry is one of the only forms of “trickle-down” that actually works, and the blood on the hands crusts over thickest at the top.
3. Neither one of you has ever had your comments edited here. Indeed, one major difference between the religious right and the eeeeeeeeeeeevil (boo!) gay bloggers is that we have open comments sections, because we know that our ideological opponents are so phenomenally intellectually unequipped to handle reasoned argument that they will make fools of themselves all on their own. Moreover, we quote you people directly in our own posts, all the freaking time, and just let you damn yourselves with your own words. Why would we censor people who accidentally help our side of the culture wars with their vicious uninformed nonsense?
Awwww, this is too bad. Poland unfortunately lags behind the rest of the European Union when it comes to abandoning medieval views about sexuality, so Joseph Nicolosi and NARTH were able to book one of their weird little “Reparative Therapy: How To Without Leaving Visible Wounds” conferences at a medical school in that country. But then the school canceled. The source article is LifeSiteNews, so you’ll have to filter this out of wingnut speak and into grown-up reporting in order to get the gist:
A conference on the treatment of homosexuality has been denied use of facilities at a medical school in Poland, after the school had initially given approval for the event. The decision by the Medical School (UM) Foundation not to host the September 16 Reparative Therapy Conference, featuring psychologist Dr. Joseph Nicolosi of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), followed front-page criticism of the conference by leading Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.
“We received a reservation request for the organization of this conference and we granted it,” said UM Foundation President Roman Dworzynski at the time. “I see no (problem). (Reparative therapy) is a scientific theory like any other … When Louis Pasteur spoke about the existence of bacteria, no one believed him.”
Obviously Roman Dworzynski hasn’t been introduced to the wonders of Google or he would understand why he sounds like a product of the Texas school system with that remark.
Gazeta Wyborcza’s (GW) coverage of the conference has stressed that the American Psychological Association (APA) expresses concern about the effects of treatment for same-sex attraction. The APA also states, however, that there is “insufficient evidence” to either approve or discredit such therapy.
Actually, the APA resolution moreso says that there’s insufficient evidence to approve the therapy. The “discredit” part is really you all being cute with language. But again, we’re used to crappy reporting from right wing sources.
Here’s the female Polish wingnut version of Joseph Nicolosi, whining about censorship:
The Foundation for Health and Psychotherapeutic Education head, psychologist Bogna Bialecka, said that her Poznan-based organization has been planning the conference for several months so that Nicolosi could share his professional experience helping men deal with their unwanted same-sex attraction.
“The decision of the Medical University’s governing body is a sad example of censoring the freedom of speech,” she said.
Yes, well, Ms. Bialecka, in the United States we have a word for people like you: quack. She showed up in the comment section to the piece and said this:
It’s still hard time. We are fighting for the right to free speech. And happygael is right. The worst part of it are thousands of homosexuals who don’t identify with gay activism, who are looking for change, but can’t receive it, because of lack of trained, fully professional reparative therapists.
No, you’re fighting for the right to hurt people based on your own bigoted, uneducated, ill-trained notions of psychology. And without unqualified hacks like you and Joe Nicolosi, spamming the public with your perpetual nonsense on sexuality, there wouldn’t BE “thousands of homosexuals” who are unhappy with their sexual orientation. People like you must first inject hate into the discourse for people to be unhappy with their natural sexuality. That said, Bialecka’s complaint about “trained, fully professional reparative therapists” and the “lack” thereof are not the result of censorship of free speech, but more about the fact that no such thing exists.
This crap might fly in Poland, but ask your friends at NARTH how well they’re doing in the United States.
I can only presume that Bam Bam is really upset about being passed over for the new season of Dancing With The Stars in favor of Chaz Bono, because he is full metal emo today about how much Christians are “persecuted” by mean old gays:
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it right now. The sexual anarchist lobby, this radical, militant lobby, wants three things in this order: they want to see those of us who hold traditional values and have a biblical view of sexual behavior and sexual morality; they want to see us behind bars. Absent that, if that doesn’t work, they want to see us discredited, our licenses, my law licenses revoked, unable to teach in schools and so forth. They want us completely discredited and marginalized to the fringes of society. Finally and included in that is the inability, they want to see people like us not able to make a living. And that’s why they’re going after these organizations and they’re using economic terrorism, for lack of a better phrase.
I’ll say it right now, in this order:
1. No, you twit, we don’t want you behind bars. Stop whining and be a man.
2. Discredited, yes. You, and by “you,” I mean the institutional Christian Right, are pretty much proven liars, and also you inject an inordinate amount of hate into the public discourse, and by “inordinate,” I mean, “an inordinate amount for a group whose numbers are going down faster than a Republican senator showing his butthole on Grindr.”
3. That’s right, we want to deny you the right to make a living. Give me one link from a gay organization that proves that scurrilous assertion, or even suggests that we want to deprive you the right to make a living, or shut up.
Good lord. It’s funny because one of their own [Bryan Fischer] suggested recriminalizing homosexuality yesterday, and we all know about that time Peter Sprigg suggested gays be “exported” from the United States. Oh, and the fact that these theocratic goons support laws that allow employers to fire people for being gay.
I don’t think these people would know the truth if it slapped them in their whining jowls.
