The other day a video from a young kid named Jonah Mowry, where he told the story of the relentless bullying he experiences on a daily basis, went viral. Here’s that video again if you haven’t seen it:
When I posted it, I described Jonah as a specific example of a kid that Linda Harvey and the rest of the Religious Right refuses to protect, and asked what was more valuable: that child, or their dogma?
Christian writer John Shore took that idea a lot further than I did, and he took the gloves off. Quoting it almost in its entirety, because John likes me and won’t get mad:
Tell me that your belief system didn’t help put the hot tears on this kid’s cheeks. Tell me that the bullies who torment this kid aren’t in any way encouraged or empowered by your tacit approval of their actions. Tell me that the shame this kid feels about himself has nothing to do with the shame that you believe all gay people should feel for themselves.
Tell me that you can’t comprehend the connection between your conviction that God finds homosexuals repulsive, and the fact that this kid finds himself so repulsive that he habitually cuts his own flesh.
Tell me, please, how you love this kid. Tell me how you understand his pain. Tell me how when he cries, you cry.
Tell me how you want to do everything in your power to make sure that no one, ever again, feels free to in any way victimize a young gay person.
A Christian myself, I am pleading with you to be honest with me about this.
Tell me, please, how none of this kid’s anguish has anything to do with you.
I’m listening. I really am.
We all are.
All ears. You first, Linda Harvey. Then Tony Perkins. And then we can go alphabetically through America’s bigot leaders after that. Explain how your bigotry is worth more than this or any other child’s suffering.
‘We’d Be Delighted to Expose Her Bigotry in a Court of Law and the Court of Public Opinion,’ Says TWO’s Wayne Besen
BURLINGTON, Vt. – Truth Wins Out responded today to a frivolous lawsuit threat by Linda Harvey, an anti-gay talk radio host and the president of Mission America. Harvey warned Truth Wins Out of possible legal action in a Twitter post this afternoon. Harvey was upset about a column that TWO’s Executive Director Wayne Besen wrote about her titled, “The Most Homophobic Woman in America.” She was also angry that the column linked her to supporting Uganda’s draconian “Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” which includes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”
“Bring it on,” says Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We hope that such a case would be aired on television so we can expose Harvey’s vile words in a court of law and in the court of public opinion. It’s bizarre that Harvey is upset because we quoted her verbatim, which tells me that on some level she is ashamed of her own hateful rhetoric.”
Truth Wins Out has obtained the services of notable Fort Lauderdale attorney Norm Kent, who is also the publisher of South Florida Gay News. Kent says it is likely that Harvey’s threat is empty because her claim has no merit.
“Linda Harvey’s legal threats are frivolous and if they rested on any shakier legal ground they would be measured by the Richter Scale. I can only surmise her tweets are a pathetic and desperate ploy for attention,” said attorney Norm Kent. “We look forward to her next move and will take appropriate action.”
The centerpiece of Harvey’s tweet was that she “never advocated for killing anyone” in Uganda. While it is true that Harvey never explicitly said, “I want to kill gay people in Uganda,” she admits during a March 2010 speech at Grosse Pointe, Michigan tha
t she and anti-gay activist Scott Lively actually worked on the anti-homosexuality bill, which would imprison and murder LGBT people in that country. According to Harvey’s speech:
“The fact they are re-criminalizing homosexuality is (a) their business, (b) it is patronizing for white Westerners to be telling these folks — they are seeing George Soros funded gay groups going into Uganda. They are all through the schools, lots of promotion to kids. Poor kids, poor kids are being offered money and favors and gifts to have sex. That’s exploitation. That’s sex trafficking. And it’s being done mostly homosexually. By Western homosexuals coming in and trying to get involved in Uganda.”
“Harvey was either remarkably ignorant or clearly lying through her teeth at the Michigan event when she falsely claimed that the intent of Uganda’s ‘Kill the Gays’ bill was only to punish pedophiles,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “In reality, LGBT people could be murdered by the state for a charge called ‘aggravated homosexuality’ which basically means they were accused of having sexual relations on more than one occasion. In her talk, Harvey clearly supported imprisonment and possibly capital punishment for LGBT people in Uganda when she flippantly stated that, ‘The fact they are re-criminalizing homosexuality is (a) their business.’ Obviously, the business she breezily refers to is the hunting down of innocent LGBT Ugandans for the purpose of imprisonment or worse.”
Truth Wins Out’s Evan Hurst and John Becker compiled a short list of quotes from Harvey so readers can see the deep intensity of her anti-LGBT views.
According to her bio: Harvey hosts a radio show on the Salem Network station in Columbus, OH, (WRFD 880 AM), and airs a weekly commentary on the Moody Radio Network. She is also a frequent guest on talk shows coast to coast, a regular columnist for World Net Daily and is interviewed by state and national media outlets. Harvey has been a conference speaker at numerous pro-family meetings including conferences held by Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family, Heartbeat International, American Family Association, Americans for Truth, and XChange. In addition, Mrs. Harvey has spoken on Capitol Hill and testified numerous times before state legislative committees. She serves on the National Pro-Family Forum and the Ohio Pro-Family Forum.
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism and the “ex-gay” myth. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
Linda Harvey is just a frail, sweet flower, you guys! She would never be hateful, dishonest, disgusting or homophobic!
For instance, she wasn’t giving aid and comfort to the Ugandan authors of the infamous “kill the gays” bill when she lied thusly [except it sort of seems like she is!]:
Linda Harvey, leader of Mission America, claims legislation pending in Uganda , the anti-homosexuality bill, does not include a death penalty provision for homosexuality. Instead, Harvey says, the bill was designed to stop “Western homosexuals” from exploiting Uganda children.
“This has been mis-portrayed– and please clear this up. Uganda is criminalizing rape of children, and I think that a lot of people would say hmmm maybe death penalty for rape of children — heterosexually or homosexually,” Harvey said in an interview following the speech in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
“The fact they are re-criminalizing homosexuality is (a) their business, (b) it is patronizing for white Westerners to be telling these folks — they are seeing George Soros funded gay groups going into Uganda. They are all through the schools, lots of promotion to kids. Poor kids, poor kids are being offered money and favors and gifts to have sex. That’s exploitation. That’s sex trafficking. And it’s being done mostly homosexually. By Western homosexuals coming in and trying to get involved in Uganda.”
Now, I am always willing to consider the possibility that Fundamentalists are illiterate. Because even a perfunctory reading of the Uganda bill, or an honest desire to understand the bill, easily shows that part of the bill clearly stated that the death penalty could be given for “aggravated homosexuality,” which was decidedly not “child rape.” Warren Throckmorton explains all that here. Here is the thing, though: in that same interview, she said that she “loves” Scott Lively and had worked with him on that very bill! Seriously, go up to the top and click on that link. That was a Truth Wins Out exclusive audio-recorded interview, folks.
Here are some other examples of Linda Harvey being totally not hateful, homophobic, disgusting or dishonest:
1. On the subject of anti-bullying programs and GLSEN, Linda Harvey, who gives aid and comfort to the people who bully gay kids to death, whether they are adults or children, says this:
“GLSEN poses as a ‘gay rights’ and ‘anti-bullying’ group for youth, going to bat for them on issues like discrimination. But GLSEN is actually a threat to children, unless parents don’t care about their kids being drawn into early deviant sexual activity, or learning to approve of sinful, God-defying behaviors without the parents’ knowledge. To put it bluntly, when you think GLSEN, think ‘children and bodily fluids.’ Yes, it’s that bad. Behind GLSEN’s window-dressing rhetoric about safe schools, bigotry, ‘homophobia’, oppression, and concerns about harassment, lies the reality: advocacy of actual homosexual sex, sometimes implicit, sometimes very explicit, even for young kids. And sometimes it’s with adults.”
2. Here is Linda Harvey claiming that gay people don’t exist, based on absolutely no science at all:
“Once you buy into the ‘born that way’ idea then self-delusion is not that far behind. There’s no evidence there are different humans called LGBTQ people, these are sinful behaviors, not in-born identities. And people do not have to cower in fear or depression or shame, if you truly love God you accept His will knowing it’s best for your life and it’s His design that will make you happy. God’s grace can and will help anyone who resolves to go beyond these feelings, to put them aside, and decide that He is sovereign.”.
3. Here is Linda Harvey sticking her head even further into the sands of reality-denying Christian Fundamentalist Ignorance, on the same subject:
“There’s one big fact that’s not backed up. There is no proof that there’s ever anything like a gay, lesbian or bisexual or transgendered child, or teen or human. One of the other things you’re gonna see as I mentioned is a big campaign GLSEN’s gonna roll out this year calling for ‘respect,’ respect! Not just for people, but for homosexual lifestyle. The PR campaign to hold up gay as a good thing: the lifestyle, not the person, because there are no such humans.“
4. Here is Linda Harvey saying that gay people shouldn’t be allowed to be teachers:
“Kids should not be put in the confusing position of having a teacher they like and respect in many ways who’s also known to be practicing homosexual behavior. Of course that’s where many of our children in public schools today find themselves because the National Education Association not only allows but applauds and defends openly homosexuality and even transvestite teachers. The fact is that no homosexuality should be in our schools, period. When people leave that behavior behind, then they might be qualified for a job involving children. Out and proud homosexuals should not have jobs that involve children. I know that’s not the current policy in many schools but it should be.”
Amusing that she acknowledges that kids might like their gay teachers. WHO DO NOT EXIST, remember.
5. Now, we’re going off into full on tin-foil hat, black helicopter DSM-IV territory, as we have Linda Harvey claiming that teachers’ unions are paying for kids to be turned into gays:
“The group’s website says they raise money for teen scholarships given to those kids who consider themselves homosexual. The past few years the scholarship winners have not simply been young people persuaded to be in this deviant lifestyle, but are students who have unfortunately bought the party line and become involved in activism projects like homosexual clubs and the pro-homosexual Day of Silence in their schools. And so now kids are given financial incentives to be actively engaged in both the political goals of homosexuals as well as the risky behavior. This is appalling. In these tough economic times many kids will be struggling to get money together for college and here we have a really sleazy connection for them to make. It’s just one more outrageous thing going on with our teachers’ unions.”
6. Jumping further over the shark, Linda Harvey once claimed that gays caused the mortgage crisis. No, stop laughing, you guys! This is a very serious woman! With a serious passion! For hating people! Who don’t exist!
“Just as a child is far less likely to suffer abuse in the home of his/her married, heterosexual parents, so the opposite is true. Where the structure is sin-based, other sins are more likely to scurry in through the cracks. Substance abuse and self-destruction accompany sexual deviance. And some of this means poor decisions about finances.”
Ooooookay. You want more? Okay, there’s more!
7. How terrifying is marriage equality in New York? THIS terrifying, according to Ms. Linda:
“This ‘freedom’ will include much more than a perpetual pansexual pagan party. It will, and already does, include libel, slander, intimidation, corruption of youth, revolt in congregations, suppression of parental rights, revision of language, disease, loss of employment and loss of life. Oh, and did I mention public sex, the porn explosion and public nudity? Welcome to entitlement sex. The New York crowd was on board with this concept, too, erupting into applause for Obama at all the appropriate moments. And why not? They live in a city that has already earned its Good Sodomizing Seal of Approval. More than 36,000 men who have sex with men in New York City are currently living with HIV/AIDS. This bleak prognosis casts a shadow on these ‘marriages,’ but no one wants to think about that.”
Perpetual Pansexual Pagan Party! You see, not only does Linda cower in fear of gays and claim to have a hand in working on legislation that includes a death penalty provision for gays, she also writes tongue twisters, you guys! Life of the party!
I still haven’t seen the “porn explosion” that marriage equality has brought to New York, but I find it rude that she’s using “explosion” language about New York so close to the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
8. Eight Is Enough. Did you know that all liberals hate everything “Judeo-Christian?” According to Linda, liberals also hate the West! Even though most of us live here and the West wouldn’t include most of the First World countries on the planet without liberalism. Also, we hate Jesus, and the more liberal we are, the more we…wait for it…your brain will fry if you try to find the “logic” in this, so just accept it for the wingnut stupidity that it is…LOVE RADICAL ISLAM. Yeah, it’s that whole “the enemy of my enemy” crap, and it works on low information voters [i.e. fundamentalists] because they’re frankly woefully ignorant of liberalism, feminism, sexuality and radical Islam. All they know is that they’re afear’d of all of those things. Stupid is as stupid does, y’all:
“[People on the left] all hate the actual Judeo-Christian heritage and those who uphold it. They hate the West… they hate the freedom. And… it’s a spiritual thing. They hate Jesus Christ. And so this is why you have the homosexual and pro-abortion feminists remaining silent or actually being apologists for radical Islam. Hello — they would be the first people that, you know, in an Islamic state would come under some level of oppression. Why wouldn’t they be afraid of these people? Because they all hate Jesus Christ and his followers.”
So there you have it: a Children’s Treasury of Linda Harvey being totally, completely NOT hateful, homophobic, disgusting or dishonest. Except that she really, really is all of those things. Constantly. This is why Wayne branded her The Most Homophobic Woman in America this week.
Why this post? Oh, she’s whining about suing Wayne for being mean to her by giving her actual words a wider audience than her little wingnut radio show has ever had previously.
Several recent posts by Truth Wins Out have documented Linda Harvey’s efforts to promote antigay violence, defamation, and denial of access to health care.
It’s amazing what one ostensibly Christian woman can accomplish on just $29,000 per year.
Harvey’s IRS filings are incomplete and sketchy. According to Guidestar, Mission America is missing from the IRS’s most recent list of tax-exempt organizations, yet the group’s tax-exempt status apparently has not been revoked.
From the available information, we see that Harvey claims to work 20 hours per week, claims to collect no income, and yet somehow spent almost $27,000 on a weekly AM radio show for which she is the host.
According to her filings, Harvey’s four main supporters in 2010 were:
Thomas W. Harvey, same address as Linda
Fieldstead & Company, the asset management company of right-wing philanthropist Howard F. Ahmanson. This same company employs Exodus director and financier Don Schmierer as program officer.
George Edward Durell Foundation, Westerville, Ohio
The IRS filing implies that each foundation gave no more than $5,000 directly to Mission America, but altogether, these four sources can single-handedly supply Harvey with most of her annual revenue.
If Harvey keeps promoting antigay violence, then it’s only a matter of time before she appears on official lists of U.S. hate-group leaders.
In the meantime, we can ponder why Don Schmierer, a key director of Exodus and its holding entity, is so closely tied to one of Linda Harvey’s primary sources of cash.
The field of contemptible anti-gay activists has long been overcrowded, like a room full of teenagers frenetically rushing a concert stage. In this cacophony of crazy it is quite a feat to rise above the din. Yet radio host and Mission America President Linda Harvey is making a name for herself by fast becoming the most homophobic woman in the nation.
Unlike her more sophisticated counterparts, Harvey is a zealot without a filter who appears unable to finesse her fanaticism. She is outright paranoid of an imagined gay menace that in her diseased mind is lurking to corrupt children on every street corner. For example, Harvey’s latest screed 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.”
The Mission America leader is so obsessed with bashing LGBT people that she even took a swipe while commenting on the mortgage crisis: “But back to our main point, probably few such households are homosexually-headed, because few homosexuals want to settle down to any kind of permanence.” (Has she seen the latest census figures or actually met any gay couples?)
Harvey is so extreme that she believes she has the right to control the lives of LGBT people: “Our President has launched a broad scale attack on traditional values,” Harvey said on her radio program.“If homosexuals and transgenders are allowed to live and love as they see fit, we would have a whole societal mess on our hands, which is already starting to happen in some areas.”
Exactly what does Harvey mean when she says, “If homosexuals and transgenders are allowed to live and love as they see fit?” Is Harvey suggesting that she and her fundamentalist friends have the right to dominion over our existence? Does she think that she has the authority to deny us life, liberty, and freedom?
Harvey answered these questions at a March 2010 speaking appearance in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. At the event she flat out lied about Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill and even expressed her support for the deadly legislation: “The fact they are re-criminalizing homosexuality is (a) their business, (b) it is patronizing for white Westerners to be telling these folks — they are seeing George Soros funded gay groups going into Uganda. They are all through the schools, lots of promotion to kids. Poor kids, poor kids are being offered money and favors and gifts to have sex. That’s exploitation. That’s sex trafficking. And it’s being done mostly homosexually. By Western homosexuals coming in and trying to get involved in Uganda.”
It is absolutely abominable and shameless that Harvey peddled such unsubstantiated propaganda about LGBT westerners coming to Uganda to exploit children. In reality, the Westerners who are actually going to this nation are fundamentalist Christians who are exporting homophobia in an effort to take over Uganda though business contracts and the funneling of US taxpayer money into this repressive, rogue state.
More disturbing, it seems that Harvey thinks it’s okay to terrorize, imprison, and even murder LGBT people in any country that would allow it. One wonders if she would deem it a local matter if the legislation in Uganda were called the “Kill the Christians Bill.” And one also questions if her support for such brutal punishment would apply to American states had they the ability to pass such punitive anti-gay laws.
Finally, Harvey is so mean-spirited that she even gives succor to school bullies by attacking Dan Savage’s laudable It Gets Better campaign: “It’s supposed to encourage kids, that’s great,” says Harvey. “Encourage kids, say, you know if you’re having trouble, you’re getting bullied, you feel despaired, don’t give up. That would be a worthy goal if they stop there. But no they tag on to it approval of homosexuality and the implication that anybody who objects is just like those bullies out there and they’re leading you or others into suicide. That’s just wrong, it’s evil, it’s dark…”
If one wants to witness evil and darkness, look no further than the ignorant mind, cruel heart, and empty soul of Linda Harvey.
If Linda Harvey had her way, I surmise, gay people really wouldn’t be allowed to do much of anything. Unfortunately for her, lots of the best doctors in the country are gay — indeed, I would venture a guess that a gay doctor has cared for Linda at some time or another, which means, according to her logic here, that she has been influenced by the Cootie of Gay. Here is Linda Harvey of the surely-about-to-be-named-a-hate-group Mission America, commenting on how the sexuality of physicians is more important than the health of children:
How do you feel about open homosexuals tending to your child in a health care setting? Do you think these folks provide good role modeling at a time when your child is very vulnerable? I was thinking about this recently when I heard that Children’s Hospital in Columbus has a homosexual employees group called NCHARGE, which stands for Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Advocates Representing Gay Employees. The meeting minutes of this groups reveal that they participated in last June’s gay pride parade, that they participated in a health expo on adolescent health this summer and that they’re concerned about same-sex partner benefits. They’re also planning to be identified with rainbow lapel pins.
But let’s say your eleven year-old has broken her leg rather badly and needs to be in the hospital a few days, which would you prefer: a nurse who’s proud of her lesbianism, who has rainbow identifiers on her work clothing, or a nurse who does not?
I would like to suggest that parents think long and hard about this. If you want your children to admire people who proclaim a homosexual lifestyle, they’re involvement with your child during a hospital stay is sure to be an influence. And let me be clear that folks involved in these behaviors can be certainly competent workers but they are tacking on to their workplace identity one that is highly offensive to many people and can be erroneously influential to children who won’t, or shouldn’t, see the whole picture of how this behavior really manifests itself.
Here’s what parents can do: select your pediatrician very carefully, first of all. 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. But for routine in-hospital care where contact with your child would be required, your values should be respected.
Um, yeah. Along the same lines, I would also suggest that Fundamentalists stay true to their beliefs and only see doctors who believe in Creationism. I mean, it’s not like evolution is the freaking foundation of biology or medical science or anything. Here’s the video if you’re bored to death or something:
Dan Savage points out that Linda does make an exception to this rule, which truly makes me question her commitment to Sparkle Motion*:
Harvey notes that straight parents should clearly communicate that it’s okay for gay and lesbian doctors and nurses to treat their children in “emergency situations,” which can be seen as either tremendously gracious on Harvey’s part—”Well, okay, that lesbian nurse can save my daughter’s life”—or as the kind of wishy-washy moral relativism that is destroying the moral fabric of this great nation.
ANYWAY, so now you know. Fundamentalists really need to be more concerned with who their doctors and nurses sleep with at night, rather than whether they have the expertise required to care for their sick or injured children. Priorities!
*Oh, my god. I had never thought of that before. THAT is who Linda Harvey reminds me of! If you haven’t seen Donnie Darko, watch this clip, then Netflix the movie.
Linda Harvey is one of the most sanctimonious, poorly educated, hateful Fundamentalist leaders in Christendom. Kathy Baldock is a nice Christian woman who has a particular heart for trying to find the human side of LGBT issues in the church, and is a fierce advocate for LGBT equality. Kathy thought she would reach out to Linda as a possible guest on Linda’s radio show, for the purposes of at least having a conversation. Linda Harvey’s abscessed mind responded the usual way, by leaking in Kathy’s general direction. Fun was had by all. Here is part of Kathy’s description of what had happened was:
Not unlike a two-year old, Linda Harvey is covering her eyes and gay people have gone away in her world.
[...]
She has recently said some really awkward things:
“They (the gays) all hate Jesus Christ and his followers.”
“There’s one big fact that’s not backed up. There is no proof that there’s ever anything like a gay, lesbian or bisexual or transgendered child, or teen or human.”
Haha, I love Kathy’s spirit. And my god, Linda is so stupid. So anyway, Kathy reached out and got this response from Linda:
“Kathy:
I do appreciate your writing me. After reading your blog, I have to tell you, we are not going to agree, mainly because your writings reveal you have adopted essentially the world’s view on this and not what is expressed in Scripture as God’s.
There are not “gay” people; there are people involved in homosexuality, but they are not a biologically different human type than Joe hetero on the street. So please stop using that inaccurate term, one that also belies your lack of faith in what God has told us.”
Let us review for a second. Linda Harvey is not a scientist. She probably believes that the earth is 6000 years old. She also probably thinks that the English translations of the Bible are the most reliable, because hello, those are the only ones Linda knows how to read.
Even if she were an expert on Hebrew and Greek [ha ha], she is so blinded by her sad, sad bigotry that she wouldn’t be able to perform any sort of exegesis on the texts, even if her life depended on it. So when she tries to “correct” Kathy on her terminology, she is talking directly out of her…well, you know.
Here is another Harvey gem:
“There are some ex-homosexuals who have this (being celibate and no longer homosexual) testimony.”
As Kathy points out, it is quite inconsistent for Linda to believe that “homosexuals” aren’t real, but that “ex-homosexuals” are.
Now we will move on to Kathy’s commentary:
Linda, the game of peek-a-boo is over. You are a grown Christian woman now. What would Jesus do if He encountered His gay neighbor? Would He cover His eyes or stick His fingers in His ears like a child practicing avoidance?
Linda’s version of Jesus probably would. Her version of the Christian god is a weak schoolmarm with pursed lips.
Kathy then exhorts her Christian readers thusly:
If you want her to know she does not speak for you or, if you are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender and do indeed exist, here is her e-mail address that is public information: lpharvey@missionamerica.com
Truth Wins Out readers are free to do that as well. Or if you just want to sign her up for all kinds of mailing lists, you can do that too. I dun’ really care.
I’ll leave you with Linda’s final self-righteous reply to Kathy:
Kathy:
Sorry–I encountered such obfuscation in seminary. It’s all baloney, frankly, all meant to prop up sin. If I believed this, I’d discard God’s truth and go back to being a rationalizing liberal.
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?
Sometimes I’m amazed by the rapid success of the gay rights movement. Homosexuality, the love that dare not speak its name, is now spoken freely, while homophobia has quickly become the hate that dare not speak its name – at least if one is running for higher office.
On ABC’s This Week, presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann was asked about a statement she made in 2006 calling homosexuality “personal bondage, personal despair, and personal enslavement.” Bachmann declined to say whether she still believed her previous tirade: “I am not running to be any person’s judge. And I give — I ascribe dignity and honor to all people, no matter who they are. And that’s how I view people.” She continued equivocating on NBC’s Meet the Press: “I don’t judge them. I don’t judge them,” she told host David Gregory. “I’m running for the presidency of the United States.”
For her entire political career Michele Bachmann practically walked around in a black robe and slammed LGBT people over the head with a gavel. Now this modern day Anita Bryant suddenly isn’t judgmental? Bachmann’s incredible copout is about as believable as Joan Rivers running for president and suddenly claiming that she never told jokes.
Her husband Marcus was just as disingenuous during a heated exchange with Iowa State University professor Warren Blumenfeld: “I do not use reparative therapy, none of our clinic therapists do. What we do is we counsel; we talk to [patients] about whatever they want to talk about….There is not anything that comes close to reparative therapy.”
It is not surprising to hear the Bachmann’s dissemble. After all, lying comes as easily to them as breathing. What is shocking is that they now view outright anti-gay bigotry as detrimental to winning national office. Even in a virulently anti-everything GOP presidential primary, candidates like Bachmann are toning down the overt gay bashing.
The Bachmann family is not alone. Christine O’Donnell, occasional witch and former Delaware Republican Senate candidate, appeared on CNN’s Piers Morgan Show and refused to answer questions on her past anti-gay extremism, which included running her very own “ex-gay” ministry called Savior’s Alliance for Lifting the Truth (SALT).
When asked about marriage equality, she obfuscated and then robotically repeated that she was there to “talk about the issues I chose to talk about” in her new book. When pressed by Morgan, she accused the host of being rude. It wasn’t too long ago that O’Donnell would have accused Morgan of being discourteous if he had not asked her about her signature issue. As the polls change, however, so do the interests of ambitious politicians who want to be seen as mainstream.
At the very moment conservative politicians are running away from the gay, Religious Right activists are becoming more extreme. For example, Linda Harvey exemplified the radicalism this week on her radio show: “We could also close down homosexual bars and bathhouses, that would be a start. God never created people to engage in these unnatural acts.”
Tony Perkins, leader of the Family Research Council, a certified Southern Poverty Law Center Hate group, attacked President Barack Obama last week for his participation in Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better Project,” which is designed to keep bullied LGBT youth from committing suicide.
“It’s disgusting,” Perkins wrote in a fundraising letter, “And it’s part of a concerted effort to persuade kids that homosexuality is okay and actually to recruit them into that ‘lifestyle.’”
The big question: how long will these fringe activists continue to nod and wink, before they think slick politicians like Bachmann and O’Donnell stink?
We already saw the first evidence of backlash from The Media Research Center’s L. Brent Bozell who called O’Donnell a “buffoon” that “made an ass of herself.”
It is easy to see why candidates are beginning to inch away from the more insane positions of anti-gay activists. In a recent New York Times op-ed, two political scientists wrote that the Tea Party “is even less popular than much maligned groups like ‘atheists’ and ‘Muslims.’ Interestingly, one group that approaches it in unpopularity is the Christian Right.”
And what is the Christian Right if not a group defined by its opposition to abortion and disdain for LGBT people?
The delicate dance between GOP candidates and fringe activists will continue to play out. Pollsters are imparting to candidates that remaining stealth on gay issues is better for their long-term political health, while socially conservative organizations are making the case that gay bashing is better for their political wealth in terms of money and enthusiastic voters.
Attacking LGBT people is not yet a third rail of politics. It is also clear that it is no longer the Holy Grail for electing Republicans that it once was in the not too distant past.
Right wing and Christian activist Linda Harvey announced on her radio show that the best way to stop the spread of HIV is to close down gay bars.
Harvey, who is a regular columnist for World Net Daily and hosts a local show in Columbus, Ohio, showed no signs of accepting any sort of same-sex interaction.
“So what could we do to make a serious dent in the HIV and syphilis disease track?” she asked. “One obvious approach is to stop promoting homosexual behavior to kids and falsely calling it an identity like race. We could also close down homosexual bars and bathhouses, that would be a start. God never created people to engage in these unnatural acts. “
That’s real American of you, Linda. Instead of suggesting that adults should be able to choose who they have consensual sex with, and encouraging people to have safe sex and get tested and all of those grown-up solutions, the theocratic moron thinks we should close gay bars.
I have a better idea. If Linda is so concerned about the health and well being of gay people, she should be very concerned about the fact that many gay kids don’t make it to adulthood because they take their own lives, due to the bigoted messages they receive from fundamentalist churches and religious organizations like Mission America.
Maybe we should close those.
Oh, am I infringing on your religious freedom?!?! Go off and whine like a victim about it now.
It’s amazing what one ostensibly Christian woman can accomplish on just $29,000 per year.
Harvey is so extreme that she believes she has the right to control the lives of LGBT people: “Our President has launched a broad scale attack on traditional values,” 
