Last week, when Washington DC started issuing marriage licenses, the Washington Post printed the picture at the right, of Jeremy Ames and Taka Ariga, happily kissing as they went for their license, on the front page. For non-sadsack wingnuts, it was no big deal, but of course, the knuckledraggers of our society always show themselves at times like these. Here’s a bit of what WaPo ombudsman Andy Anderson had to deal with:
A few of the readers have engaged in rants, often with anti-gay slurs. One called me to complain about “promoting a faggot lifestyle.” Another complained about the photo in an e-mail to the two Post reporters who wrote Thursday’s story about the licenses: “That kind of stuff makes normal people want to throw up. People have kids who are being exposed to this crap. I will be glad when your rag goes out of business. Real men marry women.”
(…)
Wrote Lee Miller of Columbia: “I would appreciate it if your cover pictures would not be so disturbing where my kids can see it easily on the kitchen table… please don’t shove this “Gay” business in our face. This is something that should have shown up on an inside page or two (without the picture).”
In comments to the ombudsman’s call-in line (202.334.7582), one reader said, “the picture of two guys kissing makes me cringe.” Another called it “ridiculous,” adding: “Put it on page 10 or page four, put it in the paper, but I do not like it right there where I can’t avoid looking at it.”
Many threatened to cancel their Post subscriptions, and more than two dozen did.
Ah don’ lahke seein’ dem faggot men kissy-kissy in mah mornin’ paper, ah’llbedamned!
So, quite rightly, the ombudsman ended his piece by insulting those readers’ for their ignorance and irrational fear:
News photos capture reality. And the prominent display reflects the historic significance of what was occurring. The recent D.C. Council decision to approve same-sex marriage was the culmination of a decades-long gay rights fight for equality. Same-sex marriage is now legal in the District. The photo of Ames and Ariga kissing simply showed joy that would be exhibited by any couple planning to wed – especially a couple who previously had been denied the legal right to marry.
There was a time, after court-ordered integration, when readers complained about front-page photos of blacks mixing with whites. Today, photo images of same-sex couples capture the same reality of societal change.
Ha ha, who says these same complainers ever accepted the black/white photographs? ASK ‘EM ABOUT THOSE, IN 2010.
Touché, Jim. You probably should also click that clicky to read Jim’s summary of this same article. I would quote it, but I don’t think I can do that at a dot org, you know?
The Archdiocese of Washington has decided to drop its foster care program over a dispute on pending same-sex marriage law with the District of Columbia.
The decision, posted late yesterday on the archdiocese’s Web site, announced that the archdiocese had ceased its 80-year-old program Feb. 1, the day the city’s contract expired with Catholic Charities, the church’s social services arm.
(…)
Catholic Charities, which runs more than 20 social service programs for the District, transferred its entire foster-care program — 43 children, 35 families and seven staff members — to another provider, the National Center for Children and Families.
Priorities! It’s amazing to me that the Catholic Church still laughably considers itself the one true church, because they don’t seem to know their Bibles very well at all! The Bible mentions same gender marriage exactly, um, zero times, and gay sex six times. Even then, the condemnations involve rape, coercion, domination, and tribal practices, so it’s not really “sexytime” they’re talking about anyway. But that same book has a whole buncha verses about caring for the downtrodden, with a particular emphasis on orphans.
But then again, I guess if the Catholic church can’t keep the kids under close priestly supervision, they’d rather not deal with them at all.
Can we finally stop pretending they’re a moral authority on any subject?
Keep repeating this until the hypocrite walks away, head bowed in shame.
As far as I know, there has never been a huge, multi-decade scandal of gay activists molesting children. No GLBT community centers raided and shuttered. No billion dollar lawsuits against gay bars for abusing children.
Sure, one can always find a rotten apple, but the GLBT barrel – for the most-part – is stocked with the organic, red, shiny, healthy variety.
The same cannot be said of the Roman Catholic Church.
According to a new report released today that was ordered by Ireland’s government, Catholic leaders in Dublin, in collusion with the police, spent decades protecting and covering up the illegal, sinful behavior of pedophile priests.
What went on – for decades – was so incredibly sick and downright evil, that it borders on satanic. Dublin’s current Archbishop, Diarmuid Martin, said he felt deep shame and sorrow for how previous archbishops handled the child abuse.
Today’s 720-page report focused on why church leaders in the Dublin Archdiocese did not tell police about a single abuse complaint against a priest until 1995. Yet, there had been at been at least 100 parish priests who had sexually molested children since 1940. Those files had remained locked in the Dublin archbishop’s private vault.
The investigators also uncovered a paper trail documenting the church’s clandestine insurance policy, taken out in 1987, to cover potential lawsuits. Dublin church leaders publicly denied the existence of the problem for a decade afterward but since the mid-1990s have paid out more than $15 million in settlements.
The report cited documents showing how church officials learned about some cases only when Catholic police received complaints from children or their parents, but handed the investigation back to church leaders so they could engage in cover-ups.
It is hard to believe, but this high level of pious pathology, ethical corruption and sin occurred under the “leadership” of THREE Dublin archbishops: John Charles McQuaid (1940-72), Dermot Ryan (1972-84) and Kevin McNamara (1985-87).
The commission found that these moral luminaries eschewed public scandals by shuffling the abusers from parish to parish and overseas to U.S. churches – where no doubt a few of these heinous hypocrites are still loudly opposing the freedom to marry for gay couples.
Seriously, I refuse to hear lectures on wholesome values and the meaning of family from anyone affiliated with a church that engaged in such shocking and outrageous behavior. The Catholic Church has, indeed, lost its right to discuss such issues and expect thinking people to keep a straight face.
Just to reiterate, the Bishop’s and Archbishop’s have zero credibility to even discuss my healthy relationship. At least my boyfriend isn’t an altar boy.
My advice to these priests is to take their condemnation of my relationship and lock it in a private vault in the Archdiocese, along with the secret records of rampant child abuse.
Finally, I want to make it abundantly clear that this is not an attack on the millions of Catholics who are good people and oppose the handling of these child abuse cases. There are also many Catholics who support equality for all people, including a gay couples’ right to marry. This is not meant for the wonderful, charitable people who have clothed the naked, cared for the sick and fed the hungry.
However, the church hierarchy has surrendered its high ground on moral issues and must work to regain the respectability and trust it has clearly lost. Considering the behavior it has practiced, it certainly has no right to preach to those of us who have obeyed the law.
Court Favors Mob Rule By Allowing Majority to Dictate Basic Rights
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out expressed deep dismay over the California Supreme Court’s split 6-1 ruling today that upheld Proposition 8, a ballot measure which abolished the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. The court did, however, allow the 18,000 marriages that took place in California, while marriage equality existed, to stand.
“This was a shameful day that will live in infamy,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “It was a heartbreaking loss that established the tyranny of the majority as the law of the land in California.”
Today’s ruling defies a string of marriage equality victories and a trend of societal acceptance. In the past few months, Vermont, Maine and Iowa granted same-sex couples equal marriage rights. New Hampshire’s legislature also passed a bill supporting marriage equality. According to the Human Rights Campaign, twelve states plus Washington, D.C. have laws providing at least some form of state-level relationship recognition for same-sex couples.
“Our movement is resilient and stands ready to fight on until full equality is achieved,” said Besen. “This ruling is merely a speed bump that will not deter us from ultimate victory. We must turn disappointment into determination and pain into progress.”
What a week: Marriage Equality in Iowa and Vermont. Recognition of all legally married couples in Washington, DC. Pastor Rick Warren is backing off of his Proposition 8 stance. And now, “Dr.” Laura Schlessinger, the notorious right-wing talkradio host, seems to be softening her views against gays too.
On the April 9 “Larry King Live,” the arch-conservative advice-giver did not give her support to the idea of “gay marriage” and claimed to have no opinon about the recent marriage decisions. For once, King didn’t let the matter drop:
Larry King: But you’ve always favored that marriage must be between a man and woman.Laura Schlessinger: I’m very big on human beings finding love, attachment and commitment and being faithful to it, because there’s more to benefit when there is real true commitment and faithfulness to it. I still believe, as just every president has, and all the people who ran for office, that marriage is a sacrament between a man and a woman. So not calling it marriage works for me. But that two people would have that sort of commitment to me is very healthy and very positive thing in their lives and society as a whole.
King: So, you favor marriage between a man and a woman, but you applaud the fact that even people of the same-sex can have that kind of commitment to each other.
Schlessinger: That’s a beautiful thing and a healthy thing.
Must be awfully frosty in Hell today. And truly, the cause of equality must be moving forward.
Be warned: Those new National Organization for Marriage anti-GLBT actor auditions videos Wayne reported about this week are gone. NOM noticed that its evil ruse had been exposed and demanded that YouTube take them down. Even a clip of a recent MSNBC Rachel Maddow clip that included the audition tapes is gone. NOM’s reason: copyright infringement.
YouTube has to develop a bigger pair. The fact that a national organization is working to deny equality under law to millions of certain citizens makes the story newsworthy. Showing at least excerpts is fair use — under law.
Why are people so afraid of the anti-equality crowd? It’s so obvious that the organized fundies are the ones to fear. NOM was willing to lie, manipulate, and terrify the ignorant segment of the public, low-info types who can be compelled en masse to do what is right for their brand of Christianity, but wrong for anyone who really believes in basic American ideals. The tactic is cynical, selfish, immoral, and destructive. And it works: Remember Proposition 8?
At HuffPo, Lambda Legal’s Evan Wolfson provides a description opf the ads and refutes their vicious claims, so that at least some of those unable to view the outrage can see clearly the threat with which we are dealing. It’s a long excerpt, but it is an important one:
Consider what the actors in the NOM ad pretend to be:
A doctor who wants to discriminate against her patients, despite civil rights laws and medical ethics that the California Supreme Court upheld – in a case having nothing to do with marriage.
An officer of a New Jersey group that for years voluntarily operated a beachside pavilion with special tax-breaks that required it be open to the public – but then tried to turn down a lesbian couple. The case did not turn on marriage, since New Jersey doesn’t yet allow gay couples to marry, but, rather, basic civil rights laws about open access to public accommodations.
A Massachusetts parent who sought to dictate public school curriculum about the diverse families children will need to be aware of to thrive in a diverse world, and then wanted to remove her child from classes in a way that would have disrupted class and imposed unreasonable burdens on the school and other kids.
The law in California, as elsewhere, is that doctors can’t discriminatorily refuse to treat patients — Christian, Muslim, or Jewish, gay or non-gay; that has nothing to do with marriage, and yet NOM incites fear. The law in New Jersey, as elsewhere, says that organizations running public accommodations such as restaurants or rental halls cannot discriminatorily exclude people — African American, Latino, or Asian, gay or non-gay; that has nothing to do with marriage, and yet NOM says that the discriminators are somehow the victims. The law in Massachusetts, as elsewhere, of course allows parents to teach their kids whatever they want, and even to send them to private schools or do home-schooling. The law also rightly sets rules for determining public school curriculum without having every parent, or special interest with an agenda, coming in and imposing their views on everyone else’s kids — yours or mine, gay or non-gay.
I encourage you to read Wolfson’s entire piece — he has worked on the front lines of this fight and knows the terrain. And he’s a lawyer.
National Organization for Marriage may believe that its copyright trumps our right to know the truth, but the group is wrong. Here is an opportunity to dtake action and do some good: Anyone with a thirst for a truly equal US will share descriptions of the ad — along with the truth about marriage equality and the fact that is is no threat to anyone, save those who need legal supremacy — with everyone they know. It is particularly urgent that we talk with those who question the need for civil-marriage equality. If we can’t trust YouTube to stand up to transmit the truth, we must do it.
Here is a debate between NOM’s Maggie Gallagher and Human Rights Campaign Joe Solmonese on CNN’s “Hardball,” where the HRC chief handily obliterates his opponent’s position using truth and fact.
Only ten years ago, it looked like gay people would not be able to marry until the cows came home. With an Iowa Supreme Court victory and the state legislature approving marriage in Vermont, gay couples will soon be coming home to their cows — with marriage licenses in hand. The farm teams have brought us major league victories and reinvigorated the GLBT marriage movement.
“Today we have overridden the governor’s veto,” Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin said in a written statement released by the Human Rights Campaign. “I have never felt more proud of Vermont as we become the first state in the country to enact marriage equality, not as the result of a court order, but because it is the right thing to do.”
It feels odd to be partying like it’s 1999 in 2009. Just several long months ago, the GLBT movement suffered a stinging marriage defeat in California. But, our short period of tribulation was swiftly followed by surprising jubilation. It was downright shocking to see hog-wild homosexuals dancing in the streets of Des Moines. For anti-gay organizations, the once easy game of whack-a-marriage is feeling more like whack-a-mole. They can’t be sure where marriage equality will pop up next. (Read More)
Evangelical Leader Takes Heat For His ‘Shift’ On Same-Sex Relationships
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out praised the National Association of Evangelicals’ top lobbyist today for resigning in a storm of controversy after he said on a Dec. 2 “Fresh Air” NPR broadcast that he had shifted his position on gay relationships. The Associated Press reported that he told Fresh Air, “I’m shifting, I have to admit. In other words, I would willingly say I believe in civil unions. I don’t officially support redefining marriage from its traditional definition, I don’t think.”
“We applaud Rich Cizik for opening his mind and speaking from his heart,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “It would have been easier for Cizik to have remained silent and continued collecting a paycheck. Instead he did what he thought was right and one can only admire such courage.”
Not surprisingly, Focus on the Family said they were glad Cizik was stepping down. “It was time for him to go,” Tom Minnery, a Focus on the Family senior vice president, told the Associated Press. “He no longer represents the view of evangelicalism. He has not represented those views for some time.”
“Focus on the Family is going to find that support for their outdated position on gay and lesbian equality is eroding, even among evangelical Christians,” said Besen. “As more gay people come out, Americans can see that we are their friends and family members – and certainly no threat to their lives.”
On Thursday, Truth Wins Out placed a hard-hitting full-page ad in The Salt Lake Tribune, under the headline, “Lies in the Name of the Lord.” It was in response to an ad in last Friday’s New York Times, that portrayed protests against Proposition 8 – a ballot measure in California that prohibited same sex couples from marrying – as mob violence. One of the people criticized by TWO was Cizik, who signed the ad.
“If I someone would have told me that I would have ended the week praising Rich Cizik, I would have told them they were living in a dream world,” said Besen. “But, Cizik’s evolution on this issue shows that we should never make blanket assumptions that individual evangelical Christians don’t support fairness and equality. I call on more fair-minded evangelicals to speak out in the name of equality and fairness for gay and lesbian people, as this courageous man has done.”
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life.
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Contact: Wayne Besen
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
Web: www.TruthWinsOut.org
‘We Refuse To Allow Anti-Gay Activists To Rewrite History and Pose As Beacons of Religious Tolerance,’ Says TWO
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out (TWO) unveiled a hard-hitting full-page ad today that will be published in The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday, under the headline, “Lies in the Name of the Lord.” TWO’s provocative advertisement is in response to an ad by anti-gay activists in last Friday’s New York Times, that falsely portrayed protests against Proposition 8 – a ballot measure in California that prohibited same sex couples from marrying – as mob violence. The TWO ad also criticized the culture warriors who ran the Times ad under the name, “No Mob Veto,” for their disingenuous claim of religious tolerance and their posture as staunch defenders of the Mormon Church.
“These anti-gay activists are crying wolf on the Proposition 8 protests, but they actually are a wolf in sheep’s clothing that preaches religious tolerance while practicing the most defamatory form of religious bigotry,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “We refuse to permit this orchestrated campaign to rewrite history, nor will we allow some of the most notorious Mormon bashers in America to pose as friends of the Latter-day Saints.”
TWO exposes “No Mob Veto’s” hypocrisy, after the group wrote in the Times, “Beginning today, we commit ourselves to opposing and publicly shaming anyone who resorts to the rhetoric of anti-religious bigotry, against any faith, on any side of the cause, for any reason.” In its ad, TWO agreed to take the signers of the “No Mob Veto” ad at their word, including convicted felon Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship; Rich Cizik, National Association of Evangelicals; and William Donohue, The Catholic League, and remind America of their past incendiary statements against other religions, particularly the Mormon church.
“Activists like Colson, Cizik and Donohue must decide if they are ‘people of faith’ or ‘people of fibs’ – they can’t be both,” TWO proclaimed in its ad. “Lying is wrong, especially when it’s done in the name of God.”
“There is a concerted and ongoing effort by anti-gay forces to portray peaceful marchers exercising their First Amendment rights as violent troublemakers,” said Besen. “We hope to set the record straight and refuse to let No Mob Veto get away with their blatant lies.”
Singer Pat Boone contributed to the “Big Lie” this week when he wrote a column in World Net Daily that compared nonviolent Proposition 8 protesters with the terrorists who wantonly murdered nearly 200 innocent people in Mumbai.
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life.
With a gift of $35 to Truth Wins Out, you can receive an autographed copy of "Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth."
Last week, when Washington DC started issuing marriage licenses, the Washington Post printed the picture at the right, of Jeremy Ames and Taka Ariga, happily kissing as they went for their license, on the front page. For non-sadsack wingnuts, it was no big deal, but of course, the knuckledraggers of our society always show themselves at times like these. Here’s a bit of what WaPo ombudsman Andy Anderson had to deal with:
What a week: Marriage Equality in Iowa and Vermont. Recognition of all legally married couples in Washington, DC. Pastor Rick Warren is backing off of his Proposition 8 stance. And now, “Dr.” Laura Schlessinger, the notorious right-wing talkradio host, seems to be 
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out praised the National Association of Evangelicals’ top lobbyist today for resigning in a storm of controversy after he said on a Dec. 2 “Fresh Air” NPR broadcast that he had shifted his position on gay relationships. The Associated Press reported that he told Fresh Air, “I’m shifting, I have to admit. In other words, I would willingly say I believe in civil unions. I don’t officially support redefining marriage from its traditional definition, I don’t think.”
