In one corner, we have DL Foster, the “ex-gay” who thinks Dan Savage should be arrested for trying to help gay kids, presumably because DL believes that the gay kids themselves are to blame for committing suicide. In the other corner, we have Linda Harvey, the most vicious, uninformed bigot in the United States. She’s like Porno Pete, but without the silly sideshow antics. And thanks to Right Wing Watch, we have the transcript of them talking to each other on the radio!

Harvey: The threat as I see it is to the entire body of Christ but particularly both younger in the faith and younger, chronologically-aged wise, believers; our kids are being fooled like crazy about this. I’ve had people call me and tell me their son or daughter who was raised as a Christian is in college and suddenly believes he’s gay and is still calling himself a Christian. What do we do?

Um, trust your child to know that they’re gay, that it’s not a sudden collegiate development, and to still value their faith? I mean, I know Linda doesn’t like real world reactions to real world things, and she’d rather see families torn apart than suffer one gay person to live peacefully and happily, but come on. Here’s DL Foster’s bizarre answer to her question:

Foster: You know the religious gay movement is a mirror image of the political gay movement, there is little difference at all. I simply call it — homosexuality in the church — blackface . Any false movement that uses or employs false teachings is deceptive at its core and of course young people are the most vulnerable, they’re the most at risk because they’re minds have not yet matured, particularly Christian youth in our faith. Sometimes they go to churches where doctrinal issues are not taught, we issue doctrine, we think it’s bad, we try to keep our kids away from it and thus they do not grasp the fundamentals of our faith which allow them to be discerning when people bring to them false teachers like, ‘you can be gay and Christian.’ For that reason many of our young people who call themselves Christian have been deceived, this is a very serious thing because we know that the youth are not going to be the future, they are the future, so this is why it’s such an important thing to shed light into expose this so that hopefully not only Christian leaders but Christian post-secondary educators can prepare young people to deal with this threat.

Um. What about African-American gay Christians? Are they also wearing “blackface,” DL? Moreover, do they have weird blogs which do little more than serve as online outlets for their own seething self-hatred, or is that just you, DL?

Anyhow, no need to get too upset about these weird comments. There are untold numbers of gay Christians out there, and every one of them is a living negation of everything Linda Harvey and DL Foster believe.

The great thing about this hilarious list from Jesus’ General, of Republican scientific beliefs, is that it’s probably not all that far off from what the Peter LaBarberas, the Tony Perkinses and the Linda Harveys of the world really believe. They just couch it in language that at least sounds intelligent to them. Here are a few of my favorites:

Preborn girls are created when a sperm person gives up one of his ribs.

A man’s uterus is the only organ that can function outside of his body.

Gravity is a lie. We all have angels pushing down on our heads. Sometimes Catholic priests and protestant youth ministers have to help the angels push down on heads.

OUCH. Click over to read the rest.

They just don’t get it. Joe tips us off to this piece by Concerned Man Mario Diaz of the Concerned Women for America, where he tries desperately to find the balance between condemning gays to a fiery damned hell with a plastic fundamentalist smile on his face and, you know, actual hate. I never know how Fundamentalists actually define “hate” if they can’t see it in themselves. Let’s go through his piece and see what we find:

Some who fight for homosexual “rights” accuse Christians of being hateful because of their support for the traditional definition of marriage.

Some who fight for the “rights” of black people to be free accuse slaveowners of being “hateful” because of their support for the traditional definition of “slavery.” (See what I did there? I see what I did there. They’re the SAME ARGUMENT.)

But there is a fundamental problem with that equation. A Christian, by definition, cannot hate homosexuals.

Oh my goodness, what definitions and equations is Mario using here? Because his fundamentalist cohort show on a daily basis that, yes, indeed, they can hate homosexuals, and moreover, they’re quite good at it!

Christians follow the teachings of Christ. And Christ summarized all the law with two simple rules: (1) “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and (2) “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Well, in theory…but we still haven’t talked about the Concerned Women for America/hate group-y kind of Christian. They don’t follow Christ’s teachings at all.

The truth is that if anyone hates homosexuals then they cannot call themselves a Christian. Hate towards neighbors and Christianity are mutually exclusive.

Ha, well then. Porno Pete, Linda Harvey, Tony Perkins, Peter Sprigg, Greg Quinlan, DL Foster, Bryan Fischer, Laurie Higgins, and all the rest of you, come on down! Mario of the Concerned Women has summarily excommunicated you all. Please return your Christian name-tags on the way out and be off.

It is true that Scripture even calls us to “love our enemies.” Yet, I am hesitant to use that passage in this context, because I do not want to suggest that homosexuals are somehow our enemies. They are not.

Is CWA going liberal? I’m still waiting for Mario to start twisting language and throwing Get Out Of Jail Free cards.

Now, that’s all well and good in theory

In theory. Did I not say “in theory,” just above? I did. I promise I didn’t read the article before I started writing. Here comes the justification for a special supposedly Biblical sort of hate:

but how does this look in practice? Well, I can say that I have in my life, just like most of the readers, close friends and family members who describe themselves as homosexuals. And I love them.

They “describe themselves as homosexuals.” And he loves them. Warm fuzzies. Go on?

They know where I stand on the issue of marriage and homosexuality. They know I believe that government should not promote their lifestyle. I have shared what I believe God’s grace can do in their lives. That they are not slaves to their desires.

Aha, so he “loves them,” therefore he’s foisted his weird, unfortunate, disproven beliefs about sexuality on them, sharing the Good News about how, if they really loved God, they’d live out their lives all alone, never experience romantic love, etc. There’s that Fundamentalist Christian “Love” I’m so used to. I love you, you’re perfect, now change, or you’re going to burn in hell with all the other unsaved heathens! Warm fuzzies getting warmer.

We’ve talked about it privately, and I write about it publicly. Some have even gotten mad at me because of something I have said or written.

Yeah, and they probably talk behind your back about how unfortunate that it is that you’re a bigot.

But our friendship goes on, because it goes beyond homosexuality. They are much more than that.

I am committed to pray for them, and not only about salvation, as some seem to think. They have many worries in life (as we all do) and I pray for those, especially when they ask me to.

Even gays have other worries in life beyond whether we’re going to hell? Tell me more, Mario!

I won’t lie and say my heart doesn’t hurt for them. They truth is that many of their struggles are centered on their lifestyle. And the great majority carry enormous hurt from their past.

That’s my favorite kind of loving friend: the one that publicly writes about how much they pity me. Warm fuzzies now warmest! Let me guess: the enormous hurt from their pasts was inflicted by, for the most part, rejection from the Fundamentalists they were erroneously trained to trust?

So I pray for peace, joy, and mercy in their lives. That’s the Christian approach. That is, at least, for those who follow the teachings of Christ.

Hate who they are, pray for them and tell them to change, while waxing poetic about “love.” Sounds about right.

The bottom line is a Christian must behave like a Christian. Or he or she is not a Christian at all. We stand for God’s model for marriage and the family alone, and we love our homosexual neighbors. There is nothing incongruent about that.

Especially when “love” is a euphemism for something else entirely.

What’s going on with the most hateful woman in the United States of America? Well, she’s rolled out ten reasons why parents should keep their kids home truant during the “Day of Silence,” which is intended to educate students about the issues facing LGBT kids, including but  not limited to the bullying and suicide problem. But, you see, the Religious Right wants to protect only the kids who are willing to adopt their malignant, disproven worldview wholesale, and that decidedly doesn’t include gay kids, as they are expendable to people like Linda Harvey.

Let’s look at her ten reasons why it’s okay to teach your kids to be bigots on the Day of Silence by keeping them home, but first, here’s a bit of her intro:

The Day of Silence goal is not, as I am told frequently by outraged emails from misinformed students, to help end all bullying. The goal is to exploit the tender sympathies of kids to promote homosexuality and gender confusion. The agenda is everything; Judeo-Christian morality is the enemy; and sadly, kids are the tools.

Hm. What’s more likely? That an unhinged bigot who just got added to the SPLC’s list of hate groups is right, or that kids who actually grew up knowing gay kids are right? Of course, we’ll quickly note the incorrect use of the term “Judeo-Christian,” which conservative Christian hate group leaders use in order to pretend to themselves and others that their movement is not limited to the most backwards of fundamentalist Christians.

GLSEN teaches students that homosexuals and gender-confused people are “silenced” and under persecution by those who object to this behavior, and that traditional moral concerns cause bullying.

Because they do. Any gay kid who grew up in the hell of the fundamentalist Christian world can attest to this. Their concerns are, of course, not important to people like Linda, because again, anyone who doesn’t toe the patriarchal fundamentalist line on these issues is expendable to them.

No hard, objective data exist to support this contention

No hard, objective data that Linda is willing to read, anyway. Lots of studies have been done which support our contentions, but blinders are blinders, and Linda’s are permanently affixed to her eyes.

Okay, on to Linda’s “reasons.” I will rebut each with one simple sentence, as this kind of drivel merits nothing more:

1. A silent protest in support of immoral, God-dishonoring behavior is in itself profoundly deceptive. All sexual behavior outside man/woman marriage is sinful in God’s eyes. Why should Christian students and teachers be in the position of accommodating this flagrant violation of their principles?

Public schools exist to educate children, and are not beholden to the backwards, disproven, toxic beliefs of Fundamentalists.

2. Any explicit or implicit message encouraging teens and even younger students to experiment freely with homosexual behavior is not “social justice” or “tolerance,” but actually, child corruption.

No one is “encouraging” anyone to “experiment freely” with anything, but rather they are trying to create an environment unacceptable to Linda, one where gay kids don’t hate themselves with every fiber of their beings.

3. Allowing classroom silence to honor the Day of Silence unleashes tremendous peer pressure for students and even teachers to endorse sexual immorality, or be considered “enemies” of those peers and teachers proudly involved in homosexuality. This puts people of faith in the position of violating Christian doctrine through tacit approval (Romans 16:17-18; Ephesians 5:11). They are also intimidated into self-censoring their First Amendment rights.

No one’s being intimidated into anything and no one’s rights are being threatened, but if it encourages just one bigot to keep her mouth shut in order to create a safer environment for her students, so be it.

4. The Day of Silence encourages students to nurture prejudiced, hostile and bigoted attitudes against Christians and others with traditional moral beliefs, and to spread inaccurate and harmful information.

Linda, you do not have a corner on the word “Christian,” and in fact your beliefs put you squarely somewhere out in space compared to the vast majority of Christians in this country.

5. Using legitimate concerns about bullying and teen suicide to advance the promotion of homosexuality in schools is educational malpractice. It’s totally unnecessary to stop bullying and prevent harm to students, and Christians should not be a party to this gross distortion of a genuine problem. No one needs to embrace homosexuality or gender confusion in order to prevent bullying, but GLSEN routinely takes this deceitful position.

Anti-gay bullies wouldn’t bully gay kids into depression and, worse, suicide, if they didn’t first hear that it was okay to hate and abuse gay kids from fundamentalist religious people, as that sort of unhinged bigotry and fear is a learned behavior.

6. Teachers know harassment when they see it. They can simply say, “Cut it out!” But GLSEN and the Day of Silence pressure teachers to amend this to, “Cut it out, because you are only permitted to say good things about homosexuality!” When did we all sign up to become public-relations agents for the good reputation of homosexuality? This viewpoint discrimination forces an untruthful and ungodly agenda on staff members, when stopping verbal harassment can be accomplished without becoming champions of “gay” behavior.

“Cut it out!,” said the teacher who walked in on the straight “Christian” jock beating the shit out of the gay kid in the hallway, failing to prevent the action from happening in the first place and failing to address why it’s not okay to beat the shit out of kids for being gay…

7. There are legitimate lessons students should learn about prejudice and bias. But Day of Silence promoters deceptively link moral objections about homosexuality to racial discrimination or anti-Semitism in an attempt to legitimize the pro-homosexual agenda and portray homosexuals as perennial victims, while disguising the harmfulness and risk.

The reasoning behind racism and anti-semitism is linked to the reasoning behind anti-gay bigotry because they all share a few things in common: none of them make any sense, none of them are rooted in sort of discernible reality, yet the purveyors of all three kinds of hatred wouldn’t believe or act the way they do if the “adults” in their lives didn’t first model said behavior.

8. Teachers have used the DOS to inappropriately become classroom advocates and models of this deviant behavior. In one Ohio school, a teacher used a PowerPoint presentation to tell students about her “gay” support and even disclosed to students that she was a lesbian, without prior notice to parents or permission from her principal.

It’s okay for a teacher, who isn’t beholden to fundamentalist Christianity in either her life and DEFINITELY not in her job, to refrain from abusing children with indoctrination into right-wing Christian bigotry, and it’s also okay for a teacher to let her students know that she has a wife, as children in public school are being educated into the realities of the world, rather than the pretend reality of Linda Harvey.

9. The health and lifestyle risks of homosexuality are virtually never shared on the Day of Silence. Instead, students are given the deceitful impression that homosexuality is just as safe and worthy an identity as heterosexual dating and marriage.

Generally, it’s better to teach kids reality, rather than the a-scientific ramblings of disgraced “researchers” like Paul Cameron.

10. The DOS message inhibits Christians from witnessing to their peers caught up in homosexuality or gender confusion. There is salvation through Jesus Christ and the hope of leaving this sin behind. Calling homosexuality a sin on the Day of Silence would be considered “hateful,” when it is actually God-honoring and respectful to the hearer. It may lead them to an eternal home with God. But that won’t happen if the truth is suppressed, which it always is on the Day of Silence. Stay home that day, and choose to witness on another, where perhaps you will have a fair chance of being heard.

You call it “witnessing,” people who actually care about children and the gay kids themselves call it bullying.

And done! A one-sentence rebuttal for each, and now I go have dinner.

As our regular readers will know, the Southern Poverty Law Center released an expanded list of anti-gay hate groups earlier this week as a part of a wide-ranging report on the state of hate groups across America. The report found an alarming increase of nearly 60 percent in the number of active anti-gay hate groups between 2010 and 2011.

Organizations joining the ranks of SPLC-certified hate groups include Mission America, founded by Linda Harvey, whom TWO has dubbed “the most homophobic woman in America;” Public Advocate of the United States, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia and headed by Eugene Delgaudio, whose anti-LGBT bigotry is so extreme that he refers to the Student Non-Discrimination Act – which would protect LGBT students against bullying and discrimination in public schools – as the “Homosexual Classrooms Act;” and Minnesota’s notorious You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide ministry, fronted by radically anti-gay pastor Bradlee Dean, a hair-metal rocker who travels to public schools across the country delivering vitriolic “faith-based” anti-gay lectures to teenagers.

The latest edition of the SPLC’s Intelligence Report also contains an authoritative article detailing the hate and misinformation coming from the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), an “ex-gay” junk science group. This group is headed by radical extremist Joseph Nicolosi, whose theories on sexual orientation are so bizarre that he actually believes Bozo the Clown can turn people gay. NARTH has become the primary source for the faulty research and scientific distortions used by the religious right to justify their continued opposition to LGBT equality at a time when public opinion is swinging dramatically in the other direction. TWO’s Wayne Besen told the SPLC’s Ryan Lenz, “There’s no other play in the playbook except going back to the fire and brimstone.”

Minnesotans should take special note of the newly-expanded list. The inclusion of Bradlee Dean’s You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide International as an anti-LGBT hate group is notable because of the close ties between Dean, his organization, and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Before Dean dumped the notoriously anti-gay former presidential candidate for allegedly “going to the left,” she famously prayed for Dean’s traveling youth ministry to “multiply ten-fold,” helped the group raise funds, and made a guest appearance on Dean’s television show. Both Dean and Bachmann — whose husband’s Christian counseling clinic was busted for offering “pray away the gay” therapy last year by a Truth Wins Out hidden-camera investigation — are outspoken supporters of a proposed amendment that would write marriage discrimination into the Minnesota state constitution.

So-called “ex-gay” organizations have been at the forefront of the push for marriage discrimination in Minnesota, as documented in a recent report by Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent. Exodus International, the nation’s largest “ex-gay” umbrella group, has also decided to weigh in this summer, bringing its annual conference to St. Paul from June 27-30 – at exactly the same time that the debate over the proposed anti-gay amendment is expected to reach a fever pitch.

This is no coincidence. Truth Wins Out plans to be on the ground in Minnesota during Exodus’s road show, and we look forward to collaborating with local and state organizations to fight back against ‘ex-gay’ lies.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Wayne Besen
Phone: 917-691-5118
Email: wbesen@truthwinsout.org

New List Includes Notorious “You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide” Ministry Run by Hate Pastor Bradlee Dean

BURLINGTON, Vt – Truth Wins Out applauded the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) today for releasing an expanded list of anti-gay hate groups earlier this week as a part of a wide-ranging report on the state of hate groups across America. The report found an alarming increase of nearly 60 percent in the number of active anti-gay hate groups between 2010 and 2011.

Organizations joining the ranks of SPLC-certified hate groups include Mission America, founded by Linda Harvey, whom TWO has dubbed “the most homophobic woman in America;” Public Advocate of the United States, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia and headed by Eugene Delgaudio, whose anti-LGBT bigotry is so extreme that he refers to the Student Non-Discrimination Act – which would protect LGBT students against bullying and discrimination in public schools – as the “Homosexual Classrooms Act;” and Minnesota’s notorious You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide ministry, fronted by radically anti-gay pastor Bradlee Dean, a hair-metal rocker who travels to public schools across the country delivering vitriolic “faith-based” anti-gay lectures to teenagers.

“We commend the Southern Poverty Law Center for so vigilantly monitoring anti-LGBT hate in America,” said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Truth Wins Out also congratulates the eleven extremist organizations newly added to the list of officially-certified hate groups, because we know all too well how hard each of them has worked to earn this dubious designation.”

The latest edition of the SPLC’s Intelligence Report also contains an authoritative article detailing the hate and misinformation coming from the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), an “ex-gay” junk science group. This group is headed by radical extremist Joseph Nicolosi, whose theories on sexual orientation are so bizarre that he actually believes Bozo the Clown can turn people gay. NARTH has become the primary source for the faulty research and scientific distortions used by the religious right to justify their continued opposition to LGBT equality at a time when public opinion is swinging dramatically in the other direction. TWO’s Besen told the SPLC’s Ryan Lenz, “There’s no other play in the playbook except going back to the fire and brimstone.”

The inclusion of Bradlee Dean’s You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide International as an anti-LGBT hate group is notable because of the close ties between Dean, his organization, and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Before Dean dumped the notoriously anti-gay former presidential candidate for allegedly “going to the left,” she famously prayed for Dean’s traveling youth ministry to “multiply ten-fold,” helped the group raise funds, and made a guest appearance on Dean’s television show. Both Dean and Bachmann — whose husband’s Christian counseling clinic was busted for offering “pray away the gay” therapy last year by a Truth Wins Out hidden-camera investigation — are outspoken supporters of a proposed amendment that would write marriage discrimination into the Minnesota state constitution.

“Minnesotans should take special note of the SPLC’s newly-expanded list,” said John Becker, TWO’s Director of Communications and Development, who went undercover at Bachmann & Associates last year. “Virulently anti-LGBT extremist groups like the one led by Bradlee Dean will never be satisfied with simply excluding loving same-sex couples from marriage. These hate groups won’t stop until LGBT people are beaten back into second-class status in every aspect of society.”

So-called “ex-gay” organizations have been at the forefront of the push for marriage discrimination in Minnesota, as documented in a recent report by Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent. Exodus International, the nation’s largest “ex-gay” umbrella group, has also decided to weigh in this summer, bringing its annual conference to St. Paul from June 27-30 – at exactly the same time that the debate over the proposed anti-gay amendment is expected to reach a fever pitch. “This is no coincidence,” said TWO’s Becker. “Truth Wins Out plans to be on the ground in Minnesota during Exodus’s road show, and we look forward to collaborating with local and state organizations to fight back against ‘ex-gay’ lies.”

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.

– 30 –

Oh, Linda. You really are the biggest bigot in the Western Hemisphere. This isn’t even coherent:

The question is sometimes asked, how would same-sex marriage harm your marriage? There are several simple answers. One, it changes what is considered normal and legal throughout our culture and therefore what is taught and modeled to our children and grandchildren. Do we want little Morgan in second grade to learn that when she grows up she might marry a boy or might marry a girl and either one is perfectly fine and she won’t know until she’s older which she prefers, but that’s OK.

Yes. That way, if Morgan is indeed a lesbian, she won’t grow up with the seething self-hatred modeled by people like Linda Harvey. If she’s straight, she’ll grow up to be a decent human being who doesn’t judge people for whom they love, and she probably won’t devote her career to hurting people.

Do you think Morgan will develop with a secure and stable idea about her identity as a girl and woman with this shaky and morally irrational guidance?

Yes. Morgan will be fine. Much better than if she were raised in Linda’s church, which I assume contributes more than its fair share to make sure that gay kids grow

No wonder our kids are anxious, stressed out and feel they have nothing to believe in sometimes, they are being told what they can see themselves is foolishness and being told to swallow these lies and stay quiet if you don’t agree.

Uh. No. Kids pretty much just want to be loved, accepted and nurtured. Also, when they’re raised without irrational, dung-slinging bigotry, they seem pretty okay with the concept that sometimes a prince grows up to marry a princess and sometimes he grows up to marry another prince. Simple.

Until  next time Linda says something hurtful and stupid. [About an hour from now?]

A few years ago, I attended a conference in Orlando, FL by the Presbyterian “ex-gay” group, OnebyOne. The group’s affable leaders showered me with attention and tried really hard to convince me that I had wrongly portrayed them as haters, when they were actually just a cuddly bunch of love muffins.  Today, we learn that OnebyOne lied to me because they have invited Linda Harvey, “The Most Homophobic Woman in America,” to speak at their Pittsburgh gathering in July:

Presbyterian Ex-gay group OneByOne will host Linda Harvey at their luncheon, Tuesday, July 3 (12:00 – 1:30 pm)

Speaker: Linda Harvey: Founder of Mission America “Same-Sex Marriage: The Destructive Impact on America’s Youth” Tonic Bar and Grill 917 Liberty Avenue (one block from the main entrance of the Pittsburgh Convention Center)

So, they love us, but we are destroying America’s youth?

That OnebyOne group is a  a cynical bunch of two-faced, truth challenged scoundrels, who have invited a heinous individual who lacks a conscience to slime the LGBT people. Do you feel the love? I sure don’t.

One of Harvey’s recent screeds warns naïve mothers about the “threat” of openly gay doctors and nurses treating their children.

“There are a few homosexual doctors treating kids, there are far more nurses, LPNs, technicians and other health care workers in these lifestyles so you may want to consider writing a letter that you file with your pediatrician that should your child ever be hospitalized, you do not want your child to be treated or cared for by one of these members of the Children’s Hospital gay employees group except in the case of an emergency situation.”

Harvey is also opposed to openly LGBT schoolteachers and claimed on her website that that, “These teachers then become role models, in-house activists, and possible confidants for students who want to start homosexual behavior. Student molestation becomes a real risk.”

Here are just a few studies showing that Harvery has no clue what she is talking about:

A 2000 study by Dr. Michael R. Stevenson concluded, “A gay man is no more likely than a straight man to perpetrate sexual activity on children.” A 1994 study by Dr. Carole Jenny found that less than one-percent of the children in her study were abused by a gay man or lesbian. In 1978, Drs. Nicholas Groth and Jean Birnbaum found that none of the 175 molesters in their study had an exclusively homosexual adult orientation.

Harvey’s work is truly disgusting and I am appalled that OnebyOne is enabling her to spread her ridiculous rubbish. It is particularly hypocritical for OnebyOne to invite Harvey, when you consider that they have a document on their website listing “The Top Five Myths About Ex-Gay Ministry,” with myth number three being, “Ex-Gay Ministries Promote Guilt and Condemnation.”

Obviously, the “most homophobic woman in America” is a fountain of unending guilt and shame. OnebyOne has lost whatever shard of credibility that it had with this despicable and immoral guest booking. It is also worth noting that OnebyOne lists JONAH convicted felon, Arthur Abba Goldberg, on its speaker’s bureau, without giving relevant details about his criminal past. What kind of sleazy outfit omits such pertinent information? Don’t people booking speakers for allegedly “moral” institutions have the right to know about the real Arthur Abba Goldberg?

(This reminds me of Exodus International’s similar efforts to appear loving and mainstream — yet, we just learned that Exodus activist Joe Dallas is speaking at the notorious and noxious PFOX organization. Do these sleaze merchants ever tell the truth? Are they even capable of it?)

If you feel like I do, please express your feelings to OnebyOne’s Jeff Winter:

JWinter777@aol.com.

So this happened today, apparently. Porno Pete brought all his worldly friends together to go down to the SPLC and cry:

A coalition of African American pastors and pro-family Christian and Jewish leaders is holding a press conference at noon tomorrow (the day after Martin Luther King Day) outside the headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center — to protest the SPLC’s smearing of pro-family groups that oppose homosexual activism as “hate groups”:

Ooh, Porno Pete got to go on vacation! Of course, the SPLC doesn’t brand groups as “hate groups” simply for opposing gay people. They have to be known liars and slanderers. Porno Pete = one of those.

Scheduled speakers:

Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), Chicago, IL (the SPLC has smeared AFTAH as a “hate group”);
Dr. Patrick Wooden, pastor, Upper Room Church of God in Christ (COGIC), Raleigh, NC;
DL Foster, founder, Gay Christian Movement Watch, Atlanta, GA;
Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs, Liberty Counsel, Lynchburg, VA;
Tim Johnson, Fredrick Douglass Foundation, Washington, D.C.;
Rachel Conner, representing Abiding Truth Ministries (smeared by SPLC as a “hate group”)
Pastor Glen Sawyer, New Mt. Zion Church of God in Christ, Elizabeth City, NC
Pastor Wil Nichols, Victorious Praise Fellowship COGIC, Durham, NC
Pastor Jon Robinson, Kingdom C.O.M.E. Ministries, Clairton, PA
Pastor Kenneth Jefferson, Greater Harvest COGIC

The following pro-family leaders and groups will issue supporting statements:

Rabbi Yehuda Levin, Rabbinical Alliance of America;
Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute (smeared as “hate group”)
Arthur Goldberg, author, “Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change”;
Linda Harvey, Mission America, Columbus, OH
Brian Camenker, Mass Resistance, (smeared as “hate group”)

Awwwww, Porno Pete got to go on vacation and Matt Barber was there! Did the wives come along? Just curious. Let’s see…so Rachel Conner was there, representing the most vicious, dishonest male anti-gay hatemonger in the country, Scott Lively. D.L. Foster, the purported “ex-gay”  who blames gay kids for their own depression and suicide, was there. I’m not familiar with the others, but my thinking is that the only thing the SPLC was confronted with today was the integrity of their own work.

Looking at the supporting cast, we have ol’ Yehuda Levin, probably the most unhinged rabbi in the United States, Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Association, who would be the most vicious, dishonest female anti-gay hatemonger in the country if Linda Harvey would ever step aside and let her talk, convicted felon Arthur Goldberg, and Brian Camenker, who holds the title of Peter LaBarbera’s Jewish Friend.

These are the leaders of your anti-gay movement, ladies and gentlemen. Quite a stellar cast of characters. I will say, though, that we should appreciate their work, in a way, because we wouldn’t be gaining quite as much public support as we are if people like those above weren’t spreading their hate around on a daily basis. Sadly, their work does embolden some of the most violent, uneducated hicks in this country, which leads to a higher gay teen bullying/suicide rate, but normal people hear the words of the people at that press conference today and it nudges them a little bit closer to our side.

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth, which is sponsoring the press event, recently interviewed Pastor Wooden, who said that the SPLC’s gambit of labeling mainstream pro-family groups that oppose homosexual activism as “hate groups” is seriously damaging the SPLC’s credibility.

No it isn’t.

Wooden also debunked the “civil rights” analogy used by “gay” activists, saying it is wrong to compare “my beautiful blackness” with homosexual perversion.

I simply cannot make that quote better.

LaBarbera said the SPLC is engaged in a thinly-veiled, one-sided campaign to demonize adherents of traditional Judeo-Christian morality. He noted that despite the considerable hatred and anti-Christian bigotry emanating from homosexual activists (e.g., Dan Savage’s vile hate-site, Santorum[dot]com), the SPLC has never labeled a “gay” organization or website as “hateful.”

Because we don’t:

1. Lie about you people. We let your words speak for themselves.
2. Advocate for denying you wingnuts your constitutional rights, and instead defend your right to believe whatever bullroar you want, as embarrassing as it must be for your ancestors.
3. Embolden people who would want to hurt bigoted Christian wingnuts — indeed, it’s widely recognized that our side is STILL the only one with a bodycount in this “culture war.”

We do:

1. Report your words verbatim.
2. Make fun of you sometimes. Grow up.
3. Correct the constant, alternate-reality lies perpetuated by extremist religious fanatics who are unwilling to live as adults in a world where not everybody is the same as they are.

Linda Harvey of the small hate outfit Mission America pretty much thinks about one thing and one thing only, namely her visceral and unreasonable hatred toward gay people. Indeed, it seems, as with her friend Porno Pete, to be her job. So right before Christmas, she took to the intellectual wasteland known as WorldNetDaily with her top ten list of the things that gays did this year that upset her. Let’s take a gander at it:

So, No. 10 on my list is the growing number of incidents where homosexuals are trying to put Christians out of business, get them fired, get them expelled from college programs and so on. Example: A bed and breakfast owner in Illinois is being sued for refusing to rent out his facility for a homosexual civil union ceremony and reception.

No, homosexuals are not putting “Christians” out of business or get them fired, but there are a handful of situations where fundamentalist Christians are trying to use their belief systems as an excuse to not perform the expected duties of their jobs. In the case of “getting them expelled from college programs,” it’s the same thing. Fundamentalists want special rights, special passes, that allow them to do substandard work and get away with it because they believe it’s what God would want. Sorry.

No. 9 is the assault of the sex change agenda on our children. Two lesbian women in California are raising their adopted 11-year-old son as a girl, a process they started when he was just eight. These twisted adults with their own apparent issues have lined up tragically misguided doctors to give this boy hormone -blocking drug therapy. We should all pray for this young boy and his adoptive parents.

I’m not too familiar with that story, but I do know that professional mental health associations are recommending several approaches when it comes to kids who identify as transgender, one of which is a therapy which staves off puberty for a while, so that the kid can make the most informed decision when the time is right. [By the way, most transgender people know they're transgender at a very young age, just as most gay people know at a very young age.]

My No. 8 incident of homosexual abuse is Macy’s Department Store and its cooperation with sex-change anarchy. The clothing store fired an employee in San Antonio, Texas, who refused to let a man use the women’s fitting room. She claimed her religious rights under employment law; Macy’s claimed transvestite rights superseded faith. What happened to the Constitution? And what’s happening to America? I hope America avoids Macy’s after this anti-Christian, anti-family, anti-woman decision.

The old “men using women’s fitting rooms/bathrooms” ooga booga canard. It relies on people’s fundamental/ist ignorance of what transgender actually means and what it doesn’t. This allows immature people like Linda to get away with childish taunts about “transvestite rights,” without her readers realizing just how much she’s phoning it in right now.

No. 7 includes a new arrow in the “gay” activist quiver: unapologetic violence. Vandals were caught on the security camera in an Oct. 15 attack against the pro-family group, Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, or AFTAH. Chunks of concrete with a threatening note were hurled through the window of the Christian Liberty Academy in suburban Chicago the morning before an AFTAH conference was held at the school. A homosexual radical claimed responsibility on the Internet, yet no arrest has been made. This frightening incident would have been headlines if the victims had been homosexual, but the media mostly ignored it.

That, dear readers, was most likely a hoax. Since that is Linda’s only example, I’ll simply point out that the remainder is zero, while the teachings, words and deeds of people like Linda Harvey are a big part of the gay teen suicide problem. I’d call that violence.

And abuse No. 6 is the slander and libel against New Jersey teacher Viki Knox. Last fall, special education teacher Viki was very troubled by a pro-homosexual bulletin board display at the high school where she taught. She shared her dismay based around her Christian principles with a few close friends on Facebook. Before she knew it, her comments were headlines in the New York Times, she was suspended from her job, and state and national homosexual pressure groups were leading anti-”hate” demonstrations at the school calling for her dismissal.

Pretty typical story. Woman says ignorant things on internet. Woman is in position of authority over children. Reasonable people see that her beliefs about an entire minority are bigoted, hateful and dangerous to children. Etc. Whatever. Linda links back to her own story about the incident, though, and it’s one of the best examples of “waaaaaah, we are the real victims!” I’ve ever seen, so y’all should read it.

So that’s half of her list. So far we’ve just got a bunch of whining from somebody who wants special rights not granted by the Constitution based on her chosen, unnatural bigotry. I wonder what the rest of the list is like!

Now, here’s No. 5: the passage of S.B. 48 in the state of California. This fact-free legislation that no one ever thought we would see in America, calls for sweeping pro-homosexual indoctrination in the public schools beginning Jan. 1, 2012.. Children will be compelled to learn about homosexuality, and those lessons must affirm this negative, high-risk lifestyle. California parents are outraged at such a discriminatory mandate, but short of repeal, their option is to remove their children from the schools or exit the state.

That law is actually about the contributions of LGBT Americans throughout history, but Linda never lets facts get in the way. How many gay teens committed suicide last year, Linda?

No. 4 on my list is the global homosexual agenda of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Just a few weeks ago, the White House and Secretary Clinton announced that United States foreign aid and support will be related to how well a country pushes homosexual behavior as a so-called “human right.” This agenda is not backed up by U.S. law, and is another example of warped priorities and inappropriate use of authority by this administration.

Oh, I KNOW, Linda, it’s terrible seeing the United States catch up with the grown-up nations of the world, instead of hanging back in the anti-gay gutter with Uganda and Iran. Why can’t we be more like they are?!

No. 3 is the deceptive “It Gets Better” video campaign organized by Dan Savage, a homosexual writer known for his sleaze and vulgarity, extreme even for a “gay” activist. This campaign exploits vulnerable children, as celebrities, regular folks and teens themselves post videos with the goal of discouraging suicide. That would be a worthy objective, if not combined with “gay” rights mythology. Kids are encouraged to stay the course, adopt a homosexual identity and thereby expose themselves to lifelong risk. Even the president has jumped into this effort, mischaracterizing this propaganda as an “anti-bullying” effort.

Considering Linda is one of the most vicious writers in the country when it comes to feeding anti-gay hate into the public discourse, hate which, unfortunately trickles down to kids [the only "trickle-down" system that actually works, I've said], I don’t think I need to spend much time defending Dan’s work here. Linda’s version of an anti-bullying policy would include special rights for fundamentalist Christians to abuse gay people, as long as they’re doing it in service of their deeply held religious beliefs. Of course, the truth of the matter is that without those deeply held anti-gay religious beliefs, regular schoolyard bullying of gay kids wouldn’t have much of a foundation, now would it? Linda’s brand of fundamentalist hatred is the root system of the gay teen suicide tree, lovely readers, not a random branch.

No. 2 is the attack on the federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA. Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have announced they won’t defend this federal law against lawsuits initiated by homosexual activists. Who knew that presidents get to choose which federal laws to protect and defend? Obama even told the “gay” pressure group, Human Rights Campaign, that he favors repealing DOMA.

Indeed, I have never heard of a President changing a law, or opposing a law, especially one like this one, which is widely viewed [by smart people, not bigots] to be unconstitutional. Again, Linda’s phoning it in for readers whose brains have been asleep for a long, long time.

And the No. 1 abuse of homosexual activism in the United States in 2011, was the implementation of the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” allowing open homosexual behavior in our military. No one can yet know how damaging the repeal of the ban on sodomy will be – we can only guess – but there’s no question that it will damage the character of our armed forces and undermine their effectiveness.

Dare I say the obvious? We need non-effeminate men in the military. Does anyone really believe that a prancing drill sergeant won’t detract from readiness? Where women are serving, they should be women of high character, not those who embrace homosexual conduct and publicly declare a “sin” identity. These folks have truly lost their way, their shame, their innate sense of God’s touch on and design for their lives.

Hahaha, I love it that she pulls out the “we need non-effeminate men” thing. Aside from the fact that gay soldiers have fought and died valiantly over the years to protect Linda’s right to shame-scowl at the American public from behind her computer, it’s interesting to me that she actually believes that gay soldiers are inherently effeminate. This goes against her buddies Bryan Fischer and Tony Perkins, whose fear of super-hero homosexual soldiers with magical masculine powers strong enough to upend the entire military is well-documented and quite funny. Of course, it does reveal just exactly how unqualified Linda Harvey is to make any pronouncements on gay people whatsoever, considering the fact that her idea of us is apparently one stereotype that I assume got passed down to her by another, older bigot at some point.

Of course, her statement that “no one can yet know how damaging the repeal” will be is stupid, as it is an already answered question. The strong, brave, smart men and women of the United States Military have a lot thicker skin and stronger constitutions than Linda and her milquetoast ilk, and they have greeted repeal with a collective shrug. Even the Marines, Linda! They simply are no longer in need of your concern trolling.

Anywho, that’s Linda’s list. I hope the rest of you out there will see this as an example of why it looks pathetic to make lists of “the top ten things I want to complain about this year,” especially if they’re all complaints about a minority group. It’s just not adult behavior, and I know folks throughout Christendom who could explain that screeds like hers are the antithesis of Christianity.