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.

Not everything can be “talked” out.

Hope God opens your eyes.

Linda

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?

It goes without saying that people like Linda Harvey of Mission America and Gary Glenn, head of the Michigan outpost of the hate group known as the AFA, contribute nothing of value to society.  Their words poison the discourse, offend intelligent people and contribute to the climate that causes far too many of our kids to be bullied, and to attempt or complete suicide.  So it’s more than a little bit cute that, in a time of high unemployment, these ne’er-do-wells took to the radio to suggest that they somehow know more about hiring decisions than actual corporations which hire people:

Glenn: Herman Miller, which is a major employer and corporation in Holland [Michigan], a furniture company, supported this so-called gay rights ordinance on the claim that it allowed them to attract the best and brightest.

Harvey: Here we go, yeah we heard that before.

Glenn: What ridiculous folly to suggest that only those individuals who engage in homosexual behavior given all of its severe medical consequences constitute the best and the brightest. It’s not really bright to engage in behavior that puts you at dramatically higher risk of mental illness and substance abuse and AIDS and cancer and hepatitis, and according to various sources, premature death. So to suggest that engaging in that type of behavior defines someone as the best and brightest, which seems to be the line coming out of corporate America, is just ridiculous.

Harvey: You’re right. And higher rates of domestic violence and unstable relationships. I would not think of a homosexual person as a good employment risk, I just wouldn’t.

Part of wingnut hatred of gay people [and of all liberals] comes from their very real jealousy at the idea that millions of people around this country live more interesting lives than they do, are happier than they are, and are smarter, more productive and more creative than they are — and that they’ve done all this while rejecting dumb Religious Right notions of patriarchy and the social order. Indeed, it makes them seethe that absolutely no corporation is trying to find ways to attract more fundamentalist Christians under the headline of “best and brightest.” They just hate it.

So instead they spew their usual litany of lies — because they’re liars, of course — partially to make their sheep feel better, but partially also to make themselves feel better. Being gay is not the cause of mental illness or substance abuse or AIDS. All sane, intelligent people know that. Only the truly brainwashed and stupid are susceptible to such silly notions. The only offensive thing here is that the actual scientific study on the subject has shown that it’s precisely people like Linda and Gary, and their accompanying spiteful, pig ignorant worldview, that leads to higher rates of depression in gay youth. There’s even a good bit of data that has shown that people are more likely to put themselves in dangerous situations with drugs and unsafe sex when they don’t have the support of friends, family, church and society. And who keeps that cycle going? Again, people like Gary and Linda.

But they don’t see the blood on their hands. That would require humanity, honesty, self-awareness and integrity, and, well…those things in short supply on the Religious Right, aren’t they?

The Religious Right likes to pretend that they’re trying to protect societal institutions, to preserve the natural order, to look out for the best needs of children, and so on.  They continually assert that they don’t want to hurt gay people, per se, and they like to pretend that they respect our freedoms to live our lives as we choose.  They just want to protect the institution of marriage, for instance.  They’re lying, of course, because they’re liars, but it’s nice to see one of America’s queen bigots, Linda Harvey of Mission America, lay her hateful agenda out for all to see, without euphemisms.  Linda is basically a snake, so it’s no surprise that she’s willing to hiss out words like this.  On the radio today, she said this:

Our President has launched a broad scale attack on traditional values. 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. We’re already seeing the denial of liberty, intimidation tactics, and flat out dirty tricks in the effort to silence concerned citizens, especially Christians. And I’m sure many of you are as dismayed as I am over our hyper-sexualized culture, well homosexual activism only puts that trend on steroids.

…

It’s not a rights issue, its cultural revolution, where homosexuality is declared acceptable, the harm and detriments disguised, and no other views are allowed. And that’s not human rights, friends, it’s anti-family tyranny. We need someone else as President, don’t you think? Someone who loves and honors God, His design, and truth itself.

If we are allowed — ALLOWED — to live and love as WE SEE FIT.

Linda Harvey is not a cultured woman.  She’s not an intelligent woman.  But she thinks that, due to her pigheaded, stunted obeisance to a disproven worldview that is purportedly attached to a book she couldn’t truly understand if her life depended on it, she has the right to decide how a portion of the society — a portion, I might add, that has no desire to meet her in whatever suburban Wal-Mart infested trans fat zone where she dwells — lives our lives.

Sorry, Linda.  You’re not a greater citizen than we are.  The laws are finally being changed to reflect that.  You’re free to live out your life screaming at the homosexuals in your head, but otherwise, you’d best learn to deal with reality.

Appreciate the honesty, though.  That’s rare when dealing with fundamentalists!

Do you know who is to blame for America’s mortgage crisis?  If you said “greedy, unregulated bankers colluding with Wall Street to create massive instruments of bullsh*t designed to make greedy, unregulated bankers and Wall Street very rich very quick, with no regard for the actual homeowners being hurt in the process,” you would be wrong, wrong, wrong, because Linda Harvey, the pathetic little ball of hate who runs “Mission America,” who insanely claims that the “gay agenda” is to blame for gay teen suicide, states that the cause of the mortgage crisis is, of course, gay people.  No,  rilly, she is saying this:

The foolish man builds his house on sand ( Matthew 7:26) or even, builds his house with sand. What is being embraced is the sin-based family.

Families constructed around sexual deviance stand in defiance of God’s eternally –revealed truth. No matter how “conservatively” and faithfully two men or two women operate as they consider themselves a marital union, the structure is still in defiance of God’s created order of male and female as the framework for marriage.

Citation needed, from an actual authority. No, not your bigoted reading of an old book you’re not smart enough to understand. Try harder, Linda.

As Jesus told us in Matthew 19, a man and a woman constitute what He considers marriage. Humans are not created in a possibly “wrong-sex” body, as the transgender lobby would have us believe

And as medical science has actually confirmed…

but were designed as male and female “from the beginning”—and Jesus should know, since as the eternally- existent Savior who was God on earth, He was present at creation.

Citation needed, again.

So from the get-go, the same sex union is structurally unsound.

You have proven nothing, Linda. Back to the drawing board with ye!

Functionally, the intentions can be the best, but the homosexual humanists who have created their own law will live and die by it, because God has made His standard clear.

That’s probably the first time Linda has ever put the words “homosexual” and “human” next to each other.

Many say that divorce is a much greater threat to the family than homosexuality, and it’s true, but it’s a different problem with a different solution. In divorce, the problem is function, not structure. With counseling, and a change of heart and behavior, one can fix a troubled heterosexual union.

Uh, not always?

But let’s take two men, trying unsuccessfully to “consummate” their relationship. It is impossible. Forgive the graphics here, but neither oral nor anal sex, nor mutual masturbation will ever unify them structurally.

You have obviously never had gay male sex, Linda.  Wishing reality wasn’t there doesn’t actually make it go away.  It just teeters you ever closer to the edge of DSM-IV territory.

In fact, actual anatomical damage can occur through anal sex.

Well, if you’re having sex wrong, you can cause anatomical damage with vaginal sex too!  Moral of story:  have sex properly!  And don’t ask Linda Harvey for advice, because heaven knows she has no idea.

The other big clue is the lifelessness. No new life can ever come from a homosexual relationship. Those few who do desire children (a minority) always have to involve at least a third and possibly a fourth party. The options are adoption, artificial insemination, or inclusion of children from a previous marriage: yes, a heterosexual, fruitful one, back before the discovery of “inborn” homosexuality.

Uh, Linda? Words have meanings. Use them. A happy gay relationship is not “lifeless,” any more than a happy straight relationship between two people who don’t want children is “lifeless.” Moreover, gay couples who DO have children and create happy homes are no worse off than straight couples who have children and create happy homes. Oh, and a marriage between a closeted gay person and a straight person is not “fruitful.” Indeed, that’s the only relationship you’ve described which could be accurately called “lifeless.” I suggest that before you write your next column, you invest in a dictionary, Linda.

The awesome privilege of creating, with God’s help, new life from the love of two humans, is only available to male and female.

You all bring your deity to bed with you? Now that’s a weird threesome.

Even Japanese Buddhists or Native American shamans–those who don’t believe in God—- understand this structure.

Shhhh, nobody tell Linda about Native American beliefs on “two-spirited” people. She doesn’t like reality, and it doesn’t like her.

Sometimes it is violated by polygamy—usually multiple women with one man.

Like in the Bible.

Again, we turn to on function. What about the leaky roof? What about the abusive husband, the alcoholic wife? This functional flaw can be fixed and often is, through adherence to biblical standards of conduct. In stable communities, it’s the other dads and husbands who keep abusive men accountable, or the other women who encourage the substance abuser to get her act together.

Uh, it’s really cute when fundamentalist Christians, whose divorce rates are actually worse than the general population, lecture the rest of us on how to fix “functional flaws” in abusive marriages. Adorable, really. When will these people ever grasp the fact that their way of life is being rejected by more and more people every year because it’s inferior?

You’re probably wondering when we’re going to get to the part about the mortgage crisis, but Linda is extremely verbose, boring and mostly unreadable. Let’s skip a bunch of crap and head straight to that part:

The mortgage crisis was the sin of temptation being offered by those who relaxed legitimate standards, offered to those without the personal standards to resist. This easy-pay physical structure was too good to be true, and appealed to an increasingly covetous segment of our culture. Sexual and material covetousness are usually sin siblings. It would be interesting to study the families who have defaulted on mortgages for the correlations between structural and/or functional weaknesses like infidelity, divorce, gambling or porn addictions, job instability, credit card default, domestic abuse, sexual deviance, and criminality. There is also a high likelihood that poor or no church attendance would show up as a factor as well.

Uh, actually, the bankers preyed on homebuyers, the elderly, minorities and all manner of other people. Moreoever, Linda, you have no evidence for your insipid suggestion that those who defaulted on their loans were probably really big sinners in other areas, or that they didn’t go to church. But this is textbook Linda Harvey: spew a bunch of hateful, unproven/disproven crap, let the leeches who actually respect her [all twelve of them] read it and find targets upon whom to manifest their rage, and call it a day’s work of serving “The Lord.”

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

Citation needed, you troll!

Many unmarried mothers of children born out of wedlock are on public assistance, which means they are unlikely to have had a mortgage. So when we look at the mortgage crisis, we could analyze it as a shift in the American family, but these families would not begin to reflect where the greatest structural weaknesses already exist.

Or Linda could just do a bit of reading and find out where and how the mortgage crisis sprang into being…but nah. Reading is hard. So is Googling. Keep on writing dumb crap, Linda. It’s the only thing you know how to do.

[h/t Brian @ Right Wing Watch]

Confession time:  I do not listen to Peter LaBarbera’s “radio show.”  It is just one of those things that I, as a sane human being, have decided is not worth my time.  I also believe that it’s simply not wise to absorb people like Peter LaBarbera via too many of the five senses.  Sight is enough.  I don’t want to hear him, and I’m fairly certain that touching, tasting or smelling him would induce retching.  Besides, the guys over at Right Wing Watch listen to it, which they surely view as a mitzvah to the greater LGBT activist community.

But it seems I missed a good one, as Peter had one of his favorite hate activists, Linda Harvey, on recently to talk about [what else?] the gay menace.  You will remember Linda from several months back, when after the spate of gay teen suicides, she reacted so callously, so soullessly, that you could almost smell the blood under her fingernails and between her teeth.  In short, Linda cares much more about her [disproven, discredited, asinine, childish] worldview than she does about children, and gay teens rank even lower than that.

Anyway, so here’s a word problem:  If one Crazy Train leaves Station A and another Crazy Train leaves Station B, and they choo-choo toward each other at ever increasing speeds, how long before they’re suggesting that Fox can turn men and boys homosexual within the space of a one hour weekly television show featuring musical numbers and witty writing?  Not long. To the transcript please:

Harvey: These people are masters at demonic manipulation; I mean I have to put it that way, because that is what the homosexual agenda directed to that age group does. Kids don’t know what they’re going to turn out to be, kids can be secretly wondering and doubting if they are homosexual without a parent ever knowing. Because of A) what they get in schools, and B) what they get on the Internet.

LaBarbera: And then Hollywood, I talked about at our conference about this Glee kiss which is just, as I said at the conference, it shocked my soul. This romantic Glee kiss between two teenage boys depicted on the show, popular characters, one of the most popular if not the most popular TV show that young people watch, and here they had a romantic kiss between two teenage boys, I thought, what, how many young men and boys decided right there that they’re gay?

The Glee kiss shocked his soul!  How many young men and boys decided to be gay when they saw Kurt and Blaine kissed?!  I have the answer, Peter, due to the fact that I have the password to the secret online gay agenda where we report these things and “muwahahaha” to ourselves, but I’m not tellin’.  But it was a lot.  At least enough to fill up a Chick-Fil-A!

Anyway, I am fascinated to learn that this is because we LGBT peeps are, according to Linda, “masters at demonic manipulation.”  Who knew that simply telling kids who are already starting to figure out that they’re gay that they’re okay, and that they’re not going to hell, and that they need not torture themselves throughout life [like Linda's worldview actually proscribes] simply for who they are, is Demonic Manipulation?  We are very sorry, Linda, that fewer and fewer gay kids will kill themselves for failing to live up to your pigheaded, bigoted ideal, but hopefully you will learn to live with it?  Try hard.

If you want to hear the entire whack-job-a-palooza, head on over to Right Wing Watch.

Oh, he doesn’t say it in those words, but that’s the basic gist.  If schools teach that bullying people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity is bad, it will conflict with the religious bullying that comes from the pulpit, from kids’ wingnut families and from their little miniature minions, who otherwise might not be able to tell gay kids that they’re going to hell. From his press release:

“Schools administrators and teachers must ensure a safe and protective learning environment for all students, but they can do so without injecting divisive ‘sexual orientation’ and radical ‘transgender’ politics into the classroom,” LaBarbera said. “There is a real danger that ‘anti-bullying’ policies will be used to curtail any speech in schools critical of homosexuality, and create curricula that discriminate against religious students who believe homosexual behavior is morally wrong.”

[...]

LaBarbera also opposes a federal bill, the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA) — supported by Senate Democrats and lone Republican Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) — as “a Trojan Horse that would push politically correct agendas about homosexuality and ‘transgenderism’ in schools in the name of stopping bullying.”

LaBarbera said a key anti-bullying watchdog — BullyPolice.org — specifically recommends AGAINST “defining victims” in bullying legislation: “Defining victims will slow the process of lawmaking, dividing political parties who will argue over which victims get special rights over other victims,” states a BullyPolice document suggesting a model anti-bullying law.

Hold up. Peter is playing with words here, because he knows his readers are stupid. The document in question does indeed recommend against defining victims, but their point is very different from Peter’s.  BullyPolice is saying that all cases of bullying, for whatever reason, need to be treated equally.  Peter is trying to protect the rights of religious bigots to spiritually bully LGBT kids on campus.  It should be noted [because liars won't] that BullyPolice, on their front page, specifically congratulates New Jersey for their new, update anti-bullying law, which they give a grade of A++.   Indeed, the new law had the fervent support of all the major LGBT equality organizations in the state, and was passed in the wake of Tyler Clementi’s suicide.

As an addendum to the press release, Peter says this:

AFTAH is joining Mission America April 1-2 in Columbus, OH to co-sponsor an educational “Truth Academy” on how to respond to the aggressive homosexual-bisexual-transsexual agenda; the theme is: “The Hate Labeling of Christians: Why it’s Happening and What We Can Do.”

Let’s save Peter a trip to Ohio. Why is the hate labeling of no, not “Christians,” but fundamentalist extremists like Peter, happening? Because they’re rank bigots. What can they do? Stop being bigots.

There. Saved you some money. Take your family to the Creation Museum instead, where they can learn about how Adam and Eve had pet dinosaurs and the debbil plants fossils in the backyard to deceive people.

As well they should be.

No, scratch that.  If they had any decency in their hearts or humility in their bones, they would be on their knees with tears in their eyes, repenting to the god they claim to worship.

Here’s a new press release from Linda Harvey.  Let’s see what it says:

A coalition of pro-family leaders today urges Christian families to be faithful to biblical morality and discerning in the face of false and irresponsible accusations. Christianity and traditional values are not the cause of teen suicides, and attempts to link the two are deceptive and will ultimately harm children.

Actually, they’re directly related.  This is a no-brainer to anyone with a reality-based view of the world.  Hell, 72% of Americans see the connection.  72% vs. the knuckle-draggers who wrote this press release.

“Gay” activists nationwide are fueling an effort to indict traditional moral values as “guilty until proven innocent” in some bullying incidents involving teens. Their proposed solutions end up sexualizing teens at young ages into known high-risk behaviors and silencing concerned parents.

No, Linda. Guilty because already proven guilty. Nobody is trying to “sexualize teens.” In the real world, kids hit puberty somewhere between 11 and 14, and they figure out their sexual orientation around that time. No matter how much Linda Harvey’s pursed face hates it, kids start having Those Feelings in adolescence. What we’re trying to do is send honest messages of support and hope to kids who find that they’re different. Linda would rather torture their souls into oblivion.

“Just say no” to these outrageous and unsubstantiated claims, said Buddy Smith, Executive Vice President, American Family Association (www.afa.net). “Bullying can be prevented without endorsing homosexual behavior. Activist adults essentially are saying that American parents who want their kids to avoid high risk homosexual sex acts and remain abstinent until traditional marriage, are harming kids. This is preposterous, and local parents and communities need to resist enforced political correctness.”

Actually, you can teach abstinence to gay kids if you want. But you can’t keep your kids from being gay, if they’re gay, and the idea that gay kids should ever look to “traditional marriage” as a goal betrays a fundamental seething hatred for those kids and their eventual spouses.  But with the Religious Right, it’s never about caring for actual, individual people.  It’s about keeping the disproven worldview intact.  There is no end to the reality-denial of these Religious Right leaders, is there?

1. Homosexual behavior is always a sin, God’s plan for sexuality is male/female marriage, and God has not changed His mind about this (Genesis 19; Leviticus 18:22; Matthew 19:4-6; Romans 1:24-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

2. Jesus described marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and that humans were created male and female “from the beginning.” Gender change is a defiant and ungrateful sin against God’s direction and design (Matthew 19:4-6)

3. Violence against children is wrong. Jesus was very clear in his protection of children and also had harsh words for those who would forbid children from knowing His truth and love ( Luke 17:2; Luke 18: 15-16). “Gay” activists want to keep children from knowing, loving and following the real Jesus Christ. At the very least, schools must not interfere in the desires of parents to raise their own children to follow Christ and live out biblical morality.

Your bible verses have no place setting policy in my secular nation, Linda. You do not live in a Religious State. If you don’t like that, create one and stop soiling the USA. I hear there’s a lot of space in Antarctica. And indeed, as we know all too well, many gay kids come from fundamentalist Christian homes. We’re just trying to protect those kids as much as we can, from the hateful and detestable messages they hear at home.

God forbid Linda Harvey ever has a gay child, really. That kid would be scarred for life.

4. School boards aid child corruption and insult faithful families when they allow “gay-straight alliances,” homosexual indoctrination programs, permission for use of opposite sex restrooms, and any of the other ridiculous demands of the “gay” lobby.

Translation: school boards make Linda’s fee fees itch when they treat gay and lesbian kids as full human beings, and they interrupt her disturbed need to make sure these kids hate themselves as much as is humanly possible.

“None of this is related to the real issue of bullying,” said Linda Harvey, president of Mission America (www.missionamerica.com), who has been monitoring the homosexual agenda directed to youth for fifteen years.” Any incidents of bullying and name-calling can be punished without forcing acceptance of offensive behaviors. Communities must not allow themselves to be manipulated into supporting pro-homosexual bullying prevention plans, and believers in Jesus Christ need to stand up against this corruption of youth.

Translation: we can stop kids from hitting each other without, god forbid, giving gay kids any hope. How will they be susceptible to our poisonous, disproven, self-loathing belief system if they hear the message that they’re good, loved and wanted?

“Traditional morality is not responsible for harassing speech. Are healthy nutrition programs or the First Lady’s anti-obesity initiative responsible for slurs and insults to overweight students? Of course not,” Harvey said. “Bullies act for a variety of reasons, and schools need to punish the behaviors, not become the thought police. Administrators who use good judgment will refuse to aid and abet false accusations.”

Stupid parallel, because obesity is recognized by the medical community as an actual problem. Natural human sexuality, be it hetero-, bi-, or homosexual, is not.

“It’s time that extremists stop exploiting tragedy to push a selfish political agenda,” said J. Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs of Liberty Counsel (www.lc.org). “Liberal pressure groups have been shameless. They use talk of ‘bullying’ as a Trojan Horse to silence traditional values. Yes, anti-bullying policies are appropriate and necessary, but we a need broad, comprehensive anti-bullying strategy; not legislation rooted in segregation and discrimination, which singles out one special interest group for preferred treatment over others. Ironically, this unseemly political push actually amounts to ‘Bull Connor bullying’ on the part of homosexual activists.”

Whine all you want, Bam Bam. We can still smell the blood on your boxing gloves.

Traditional values always help families and students, not the opposite, as extremists are trying to claim.

And by “help,” she means, “make sure that the gay kids do everything they can to suppress their natural sexual orientation, whether that means living long lives of misery or, unfortunately, becoming the collateral damage of our movement at the end of the barrel of a gun.”  And really, there are no statistics that show that “turdishnul valyews” help anyone, much less gay kids.  In documenting the “ex-gay” industry for years, Truth Wins Out has scads and scads of evidence that “turdishnul valyews” are at the root of myriad psychological and mental health problems for the poor souls who find themselves in the paws of those predators.

These pro-family leaders have signed on to this statement:
Buddy Smith, Executive Vice President, American Family Association
Phil Burress, President, Citizens for Community Values
Mathew D. Staver, Founder and Chairman, Liberty Counsel
Peter LaBarbera, President, Americans for Truth
Gary Glenn, President, American Family Association of Michigan
Diane Gramley, President, American Family Association of Pennsylvania
Micah Clark, American Family Association of Indiana
J. Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs, Liberty Counsel
Rena Lindevaldson, Associate Director, Liberty Center for Law & Policy
Matt C. Abbott, Catholic columnist,RenewAmerica.com

Let’s see: hate group leaders, bigots, “lawyers” who support kidnappers…yeah, sounds like a stellar group of individuals. Personally, if any of them were ever near my children, I’d loudly say “Stranger danger!” and pull my kids to safety.

But again:  72% of Americans understand that these sorts of religious messages are part of the problem, and either you’re part of the problem or you’re part of the solution.  You can’t be both.  This press release is a convenient proof that the names above are committed to being part of the problem.

Weekly Column

In a self-righteous, moralizing speech in Michigan last week, right wing radio personality Linda Harvey blithely offered this gem when questioned about discrimination against LGBT partners who want to marry.

“They can still marry someone of the opposite gender,” Harvey said.

This flippant response was not surprising. Self-styled “family values” activists have long turned a blind eye to the destruction caused by such “arranged” marriages. There are support groups, such as The Straight Spouse Network and Gay Husbands/Straight Wives, to pick up the pieces after these unions implode.

In her propaganda-laced presentation, Harvey (pictured) portrayed gay men as living an unhealthy existence. She cherry-picked medical data while blithely ignoring the positive affect marriage would have on the health of LGBT people. In the New York Times, conservative columnist David Brooks wrote about what social science has to say about the affects of marriage:

“According to another [study] being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year,” writes Brooks. “If you have a successful marriage, it doesn’t matter how many professional setbacks you endure, you will be reasonably happy.”

If Harvey and others of her ilk were genuinely concerned about the health of LGBT couples, they would be in favor of allowing them to marry. Instead, such hypocrites smugly mask their contempt with transparently saccharine professions of concern. They even offer “help” for LGBT people who are unhappy — while simultaneously working to undermine relationships that might bring joy. Is this not a conflict of interest?

Today’s New York Times science section has an article, “No Matter What, We Pay For Others’ Bad Habits”, that highlights a plethora of factors that determine health:

“Unhealthy habits are one factor in disease, but so are social status, income, family dynamics, education and genetics.”

Homosexuality is not a habit, of course, while homophobia is. Indeed, this preoccupation with prejudice by religious extremists directly affects several of these key measures of health. Every time an LGBT person is rejected from his or her house of worship, this has a tangible impact on their social status. When gay and lesbian couples are taxed at discriminatory rates it affects income.

Gay youth who drop out of school because they are bullied or kicked out of their homes have both their education and family dynamics torn apart. San Francisco State researcher Caitlin Ryan found that, LGBT “Teens who experienced negative feedback [when they came out] were more than eight times as likely to have attempted suicide, nearly six times as vulnerable to severe depression and more than three times at risk of drug use.”

One would think that priggish proselytizers such as Harvey would read these alarming statistics and oppose bullying in schools. Instead, her organization, Mission America, is dedicated to attacking the “Day of Silence,” an annual event where students remain quiet for a day to show their support for LGBT peers.

Instead of insightful views from a faith perspective on Mission America’s website, Harvey’ organization offers manipulative questions designed to incite students against their LGBT classmates. These include:

• Is there any room for finding homosexuality‚Äîdare we say it‚Äîrepulsive? Or is that response now going to be viewed as “hate”?
• Is a student allowed to say a firm “no” to a homosexual advance?

• Is the Day of Silence really a back-door way to silence valid criticism and gain approval for questionable lifestyles?

So, the unctuous Harvey is concerned for our health, but portrays LGBT teenagers as repulsive predators with a furtive political agenda. I’d hate to see what Harvey is capable of saying if she did not love us so much.

Harvey also prattled on in her presentation, and website, about the supposed dangers of homosexuality – particularly contracting HIV. Not surprisingly, Harvey actively promotes abstinence-only “education” in schools, which is proven to be ineffective. She recklessly presents HIV as a gay disease — when it can be contracted by anyone who fails to take adequate precautions.

It is important to note that even if a gay man contracted HIV today, he still might outlive judgmental religious extremists who are so quick to condemn. Bible-Belt states are generally the fattest, have the highest concentration of smokers, have the most divorces and are even more likely to have traffic accidents due to aggressive driving.

While these busybodies worry about our hearts and happiness, their own children may one-day die prematurely of heart attacks by inhaling Happy Meals. In conservative areas, the fast food drive-thru might as well be a drive-by-shooting.

Isn’t it time our foes stopped obsessing about narrow-minded “morality” and spent more time addressing their own mortality caused by gluttonous and destructive lifestyles? Averting their obsessive gaze from the gays to focus on their own families is quintessentially a “pro-life” position.

Radio host, ‘Christian’ activist met by crowd of 200-plus LGBT people in Michigan appearance

She Applauds Holocaust Revisionist Scott Lively and Claims To Have Worked On Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill

By Todd A. Heywood

GROSSE POINTE, Mich. — 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.

(Audio recording of the interview, 13 minutes)

“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.”

The actual bill includes a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality,” which is described in part as “serial homosexuality” or multiple convictions. There is nothing in the legislation which specifically addresses the alleged “exploitation” and “sex trafficking” Harvey claimed.

Harvey said the Southern Poverty Law Center was wrong when it recently classified several anti-gay groups, including Scott Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries, as “hate groups.”

“I can’t stand the Southern Poverty Law Center. They are such a hypocritical organization. They don’t cover any of the violence that happens to any of the conservatives.I love what they do with the Klu Klux Klan and racial issues, . They need to go back stay out of this other stuff. They need to get out of classifying hate groups, family groups. I mean I am a normal ordinary person I just happen to have conservative values. I don’t hate anybody. I don’t go on anybody’s websites. I don’t picket funerals. I can’t stand Fred Phelps. I think he is funded by the gays,” Harvey said. “I think he is.”

She said she and Lively have both worked on the anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda, and that she “loves” Lively.

Harvey also launched into a spirited defense of abstinence-only education. She said such programs did work — even though nearly every study has shown otherwise — and that they did not discriminate against gay youth. When confronted with the fact the message is abstain from sex until marriage was in itself discriminatory to LGBT youth, as most are not allowed to be married in the United States. She said that was untrue.

“They can still marry some one of the opposite gender,” Harvey said.

In addition, Harvey painted a picture of gays as being disease riddled. Specifically, she focused on CDC numbers. She used the following quote from a recent CDC report on HIV cases in the U.S.

“The data, presented at CDC’s 2010 National STD Prevention Conference, finds that the rate of new HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) is more than 44 times that of other men and more than 40 times that of women.”

What Harvey did not mention, or discuss, was that same study’s conclusion about why the HIV numbers in men who have sex with men are so high.

“Research shows that a range of complex factors contribute to the high rates of HIV and syphilis among gay and bisexual men. These factors include high prevalence of HIV and other STDs among MSM, which increases the risk of disease exposure, and limited access to prevention services. Other factors are complacency about HIV risk, particularly among young gay and bisexual men; difficulty of consistently maintaining safe behaviors with every sexual encounter over the course of a lifetime; and lack of awareness of syphilis symptoms and how it can be transmitted (e.g., oral sex). Additionally, factors such as homophobia and stigma can prevent MSM from seeking prevention, testing, and treatment services.”

Harvey also touted the number of men dead in California from HIV, a number she put at 69,000. Asked what role the Reagan administrations failure to act on the HIV epidemic in the first six years and its impact on those numbers, Harvey brushed that off and focused on new infections– which do not necessarily translate to deaths with improved medications and understanding of HIV infections.

Harvey came to Grosse Pointe from her Ohio home on Thursday to speak to a Christian group called Point of Relevance. Her speech was billed as a discussion on the gay agenda. But when local activists and groups got wind of her appearance, they launched a Facebook campaign to fill the War Memorial room where she was speaking. Nearly 200 pro-LGBT activists showed up. But Harvey and Point of Relevance decided that with so many LGBT people in the audience, they were better off witnessing to the group, then proceeding with the program as advertised.

For her part, Harvey stood up and told how she went from being a liberal to a conservative, how she had worked for Planned Parenthood, and her work in the health care field as an advertising and marketing executive as the AIDS epidemic ratcheted up. She was questioned several times by audience members about presenting her powerpoint presentation, “Homosexuality: Is the Debate Over,” and she said she didn’t think it was right for “this audience.”

Harvey and Point of Relevance explained to the audience that they change in program was because they were “moved by the Holy spirit.”

After nearly two hours of delay — including 30 minutes of music worship — Harvey finally launched into her powerpoint, speeding through it and only presenting a portion of the entire hour long program. She ended on a slide introducing the Day of Silence, saying “I am sure you all know what that is.”

The dialog Point of Relevance had advertised for the evening consisted of three questions from the audience.

“Southern Poverty Law Center does amazing work and they should keep their eye on people like her,” said Alicia Skillman, executive director of Triangle Foundation, an LGBT rights group in Michigan. “I think it’s horrible that she is working in Uganda on the bill for the killing of LGBT people.”

Skillman said, “Her argument was basically change then we’ll love you.”

CDC link: http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/Newsroom/msmpressrelease.html