Jeremy brings us the story of North Carolina bumpkin state senator Jim Forrester, who apparently referred to the city of Asheville, North Carolina, as a “cesspool of sin” in the lead-up to the unfortunate vote for hate that just happened in that state.  Now he has clarified his anti-Asheville comments!  Bumpkin say what?

“It was kind of brought up in a church meeting we had and I don’t know what prompted me to say that, but I distinctly remember a couple of weeks ago they were all out baring their breasts and everything up in Asheville,” Forrester said. “They have a lot of very liberal people. They have a lot of homosexuals that live in the Asheville area.”

Forrester continued: “I think, it used to be you think of Wilmington with all the movie people down there would be the worst place in the state or Chapel Hill where they have a lot of liberal people and so forth. But Asheville is just doing a lot of things that I don’t like and I don’t think a lot of people in the Asheville area like.”

Boo hoo hoo, whiny yokel. But here is why I find this funny. Here are three pictures of Asheville, North Carolina, if you have never had the good fortune to go there:

In short, Asheville, North Carolina, is one of the nicest, most beautiful places in this entire country, not to mention in North Carolina. Ooh, but wingnut no likey the Asheville, due to gays.

If you’re not familiar with Chapel Hill, it’s recognized as one of the nicest small towns in America, and is the home of UNC-Chapel Hill. Read more about it here!

I’m not as familiar with Wilmington, the third place Wingnuts McGee was whining about, and I don’t feel like looking it up right now, but you see the running theme here?

To draw a contrast, Jim Forrester’s district features a lot of race cars turning left, and also two interstates cross there.  Stop me before you get too excited.

The reason I bring this up is that it reminds me of the constant bitching and moaning that the Right does about “coastal elitists” and whatnot.  They sit in their La-Z-Boys in Nowheresville, America and lose their minds about lib’rul places like Boston and New York whar people just don’t act right.  And when you read or hear their words enough, you start to notice an undercurrent:  jealousy.  The idea that somewhere out there, smarter, better educated people are having more fun and living happier lives.

So Jim up there is free to call all the places he doesn’t like “cesspools of sin.”  The rest of the country will continue to call them “the nicest places in North Carolina.”  [And no offense if you live in another part of NC that is also nice!  There are actually lots of nice places in that state, as it is a bit like Tennessee and has a fairly strange combination of cool, cosmopolitan cities and beautiful scenery, and amidst all of that, thousands of lifelike replicas of the cast from Deliverance.]

Two things.  First of all, bigots in North Carolina are trying to push through a constitutional amendment banning marriage or any other legal arrangements for gay couples.  If you’ll remember from your geography classes, North Carolina is in the South.  Guess what?  A majority are opposed to said amendment:

According to a Public Policy Polling survey released on Wednesday, 55 percent of respondents would vote against the proposed amendment, 30 percent would vote for it, and 15 percent said they were not sure.

Oh crap. That’s gotta give some North Carolina wingnuts tremors.

Another recent poll shows how much ground the hate group set has lost among their own offspring:

The poll, released in late August by the Washington-based Public Religion Research Institute, found that nearly half (44 percent) of young evangelicals between the ages of 18 to 29 favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry.

By contrast, the white evangelical community as a whole (even counting those relatively liberal young adults) is solidly opposed to same-sex marriage, by slightly more than 80 percent.

More broadly, the poll found “at least a 20-point generation gap between millennials (age 18-29) and seniors (65 and over) on every public policy measure in the survey concerning rights for gay and lesbian people.”

The poll also found that a slight majority of all Catholics (52 percent) favor same-sex marriage, despite the energetic teaching of their church to the contrary.

Ouch. More pain for the wingnuts! A majority of Catholics support equality, which I’m sure chaps the behinds of the Catholic front group known as the National Organization for Marriage. But even more than that, this poll basically shows that among Evangelicals, the fight is lost as soon as the older generations hand the torch to the younger ones. Those younger Evangelicals are only going to get more liberal, and those who are not yet 18 will be more liberal than the current 18-29 set.

Wingnuts need to give it up and do something with the remainder of their lives, I think.

The thing about wingnuts is that they have very little in the way of humanity or compassion toward other human beings:

North Carolina state Rep. Larry Brown (R), whose controversial comments have offended members of the gay community in the past, has announced plans to remove HIV/AIDS treatment from state-funded medical coverage.

“I’m not opposed to helping a child born with HIV or something, but I don’t condone spending taxpayers’ money to help people living in perverted lifestyles,” Brown told the Winston-Salem Journal.

Brown told the Journal he doesn’t believe HIV/AIDS patients should be covered for diseases caused “by the way they live,” saying that any patients who contracted such illnesses “sexual behavior or drugs” should pay the full cost of treatment themselves.

Nice. No further commentary is necessary here, as people like Larry Brown damn themselves with their own unfiltered words in the eyes of sane people.

Writer Matt Comer performed an excellent and difficult task for LGBT North Carolinians last week when he exposed a pattern of hate and incitement to violence by antigay activist Michael Brown.

Brown, who is a rising star on the ex-gay and antigay conference circuit, has organized a Christianist rally of 1,000 people to surround gay North Carolinians during pride celebrations this weekend.

Please listen to Comer’s appearance online July 23 on Michael Brown’s Christian radio talk show, appropriately titled “Line of Fire.” [Audio link updated July 24.]
(Read More)

Exodus International and Focus on the Family take their exgay-for-pay road show, “Love Won Out,” to Charlotte, N.C., on Feb. 21.

The event’s timing was suspicious, as it coincided with the Human Rights Campaign’s Carolinas Gala and a conference of the gay-affirming Metropolitan Community Church and Unity Fellowship.

The Charlotte Rainbow Action Network plans a series of events Feb. 14-21 to raise public awareness about the ex-gay organizations’ ongoing acts to divide families and churches and to replace school science lessons with sectarian religious rhetoric. Truth Wins Out is among the invited participants.

According to Q-Notes:

In his presentation, “Pray Away the Gay,” Besen will discuss the myths and lies of “ex-gay” organizations like Exodus International. The event will be held at 7 p.m. at Charlotte’ Lesbian & Gay Community Center.

A press conference will follow the next day. Media has been invited to the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Charlotte where Besen will unveil a new Truth Wins Out/Lambda Legal booklet “Ex-Gay & the Law.” The new publication offers resources for those who might have been victimized by unscrupulous “ex-gay” ministries and therapies.

On Saturday, Feb. 21, the grassroots group’ efforts will culminate in a non-violent, silent protest of the Love Won Out conference. Members and supporters will be present outside Central Church of God on Sardis Road from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Other invitees for the events countering Exodus and FOTF include Lambda Legal, the Human Rights Campaign and Faith in America, and local and state groups such as One Voice Chorus, Gay Men’ Chorus of Charlotte, Charlotte Coalition for Social Justice, UNCC Pride and EqualityNC.

By Wayne Besen

In one of the best articles on the ex-gay myth in years, the Times of London captured the true essence of these dangerous programs when the newspaper went undercover at Exodus International’ 2007 annual conference in Asheville, NC. The article cut through the spin, painted an accurate portrait of what Exodus is about and offered a genuine glimpse of the pain and suffering caused by sexual engineering programs.

Reporter Lucy Bannerman did her homework and rightfully highlighted the false advertising of Exodus that leads people to believe that they can pray away the gay. The counterfeit hope and unrealistic expectations are made clear when Exodus’ leader Alan Chambers triumphantly appears at a pep rally.

“How many of you are in need of some hope here tonight?” A murmur passes through the dark auditorium, pleasing Chambers, the man with the microphone. Heads nod. “How many of you are at the end of your rope?” he continues. “How many are ready for an encounter with the Lord?”

Later in the expose, “an amazing week of breakthroughs, transformations and healings,” is promised. And, an Exodus sexual engineer tells the reporter that she will have a “very impactful” experience. The reporter also points out that an Exodus’s affiliate in the United Kingdom, Re-alignment Ministries, uses the slogan “reinventing people.” Anyone who says that Exodus is not misleading people with pie-in-the-sky promises of heterosexuality is simply not telling the truth. (Read More)