A mayoral election in the Republican stranglehold stronghold of San Diego is underway, and two of the Republican candidates for mayor are also openly gay. Voters don’t care:
Two of the top Republican candidates for mayor of San Diego are openly gay and voters have barely registered it. According to the Associated Press, the issue just doesn’t come up at campaign appearances or in local news coverage. That’s because lesbian district attorney Bonnie Dumanis and gay city council member Carl DeMaio haven’t made their marks as LGBT activists, which, say political watchers, may help explain why their sexual orientation has been a non-issue even among social conservatives.
The article goes on to point out, though, that the question that remains is whether or not the Republican party will actually give one of the gay candidates their full backing. Supporting gay candidates is not historically one of the GOP’s strong suits.
UPDATE: Okay, so nobody reads James Hartline’s blog, but I was perusing it a second ago, just to see what else the crazy lady was up to, and what do you know? I found out that James Hartline believes that Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin have prophetic messages from God embedded in one of their songs. Again, Hartline believes that Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin have, yes, prophetic messages from God embedded in one of their songs. Here, let James tell you:
The Hidden Prophetic Last Days Message of Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin in their performance of “Until You Come Back To Me.” Their land is calling, calling them to reclaim their promised destiny after 400 years of captivity. They came as slaves, but they shall leave as Kings and Princes, and Empowered Spiritual Royalty.
And:
There are many revelations that I have received from God that I have never discussed in public. The time is coming to reveal those matters. There is going to be a mass exodus in the years ahead of Americans returning to Africa, the homeland of their ancestors of slavery.
Uh huh.
And:
In this video you will hear a prophetic message encoded in the song by Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin that cries out about God’s desire after centuries of waiting for the return of His people to the African continent with wealth, resources and the spiritual understanding to destroy the ancient satanic forces of the devil. As Joseph was sent to Egypt to prepare a way for Israel to grow into a powerful Jewish nation fit to conquer the promised land, African slaves were sent to America to rise up after 400 years with wealth and ability to return to Africa to conquer their promised land.
San Diego City Council candidate Lorie Zapf has apologized for past comments in which she said “homosexuality is a sin” and that she wanted to keep gays out of public office.
A relative unknown, Zapf is distinguishing herself from the five-candidate field to replace outgoing Councilwoman Donna Frye, but not in the way she intended.
In a June 6, 2006, e-mail to anti-gay activist James Hartline, Zapf said, “I absolutely want to keep homosexuals out of public office and not be allowed to influence our schools, textbooks, altering marriage, children and on and on.”
Well, that’s not very nice, Lorie Zapf!
Hartline said he distributed the e-mail to media outlets this week because Zapf was not living up to his anti-gay standards.
Well, that’s predictably two-faced behavior from James Hartline!
“I chose my words poorly because clearly I don’t believe that gays should be kept from office because I have supported and endorsed candidates who are gay, strongly and publicly,” Zapf said. “Have you ever had an e-mail that you sent that, you know, pops up years later, and it was a hastily written e-mail? … My words were hurtful.”
I hate it when I write something that I totally don’t believe and then send it to James Hartline, and then get caught later when James sees a prophetic message in his Cinnamon Toast Crunch which tells him to publish it in his (EXCLUSIVE!!) report.
Haven’t we ALL been there?
“I do believe homosexuality is a sin,” Zapf wrote. “I have three homosexual first cousins. I love them all and would “be seen’ in a photo with them. I believe they all live in sin and frankly all are very unhappy people and had horrible childhoods as well.”
She added later, “For whatever reason God allowed people to choose homosexuality. So, there must be a reason for it, although I don’t get it, like so may (sic) other things that don’t make sense.”
I don’t even think she’s thought through why she doesn’t like gay people. Because that doesn’t make any sense.
Anyway, so to sum up:
Dingus lady wrote anti-gay e-mail to anti-gay gay man dressed as prophetess named James Hartline, Hartline forgot about it until he saw a prophetic message in his breakfast cereal, got mad at the dingus lady for not hating gays enough, and now he’s barking about it in the press. If you’re familiar with James, you know that the next step is public stigmata of some sort, probably in May, because San Diego in May is gorgeous.
TBogg thinks Zapf needs to atone a little bit more for her sins:
I think after she called her cousins big faggy loserfags who are going to faghell because God gave them a choice and they totally blew it, she should have said “Bless their hearts” because that would show empathy and voters love empathy… as long as it doesn’t cost anything.
Exactly. TBogg understands that real Americans act like Southerners.
TWO’ Executive Director, Wayne Besen, was in San Diego last week to join nationally recognized gay and lesbian advocates to oppose Exodus International’ “ex-gay” road show, Love Won Out, which took place in La Mesa’ Skyline Church on Saturday.
On the same day as the Exodus event, a counter-conference was held, Just Love, which exposed the ex-gay industry and educated people about the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Just Love took place at St. Paul’ Episcopal Cathedral.
“We thank Rev. Canon Albert Ogle (pictured) and Mike Tidmus for their outstanding leadership in organizing a terrific forum,” said TWO’s Besen. “As a result of their hard work, we were able to educate and inform people about our lives as LGBT Americans.”
The San Diego Union Tribune covered the dueling events. (Although they misquoted me saying the word “lifestyle”, which I would never say.)
Truth Wins Out also held its first San Diego fundraiser on Friday at the lovely home of Bryan H. Wildenthal and Ashish Agrawal. Best selling author of The Front Runner, Patricia Nell Warren, (Pictured Left) was joined by TWO Founder Wayne Besen at the event, which raised more than $1,600.
“We thank Bryan and Ashish for a wonderful event and a memorable evening,” said TWO’s Besen. “Their generosity and commitment to our work allowed TWO to speak out against the ex-gay myth in San Diego and help educate people about these dangerous programs.”
If you are interested in hosting a fundraising event for Truth Wins Out, please contact the organization at wbesen@truthwinsout.org.
TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen to Appear at Just Love Counter-Conference on Saturday, March 6
Truth Wins Out’ Executive Director, Wayne Besen, will join nationally recognized gay and lesbian advocates to oppose Exodus International’ “ex-gay” road show, Love Won Out, which travels to La Mesa’ Skyline Church on Saturday. On the same day as the Exodus event, a counter-conference will be held, Just Love, which will expose the ex-gay industry and educate people about the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
“Sexual orientation is not a choice, but thanks to conferences like Love Won Out, some people do choose to embrace prejudice and discrimination,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out and author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth. “You cannot pray away the gay and the sooner people learn to accept themselves, the better off they are.”
On September 19, 2000, Besen photographed the ex-gay founder of Love Won Out, John Paulk, in a gay bar in Washington, DC. He also has shadowed Love Won Out, organizing or participating in protests or counter-conferences wherever Love Won Out’ road show appears. The last one was in Birmingham, Alabama in November 2009.
Just Love will take-place at St. Paul’ Episcopal Cathedral (2728 6th Ave)from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Sessions will be conducted by experts including the former co-founder of Exodus International, Michael Bussee, who is now an outspoken critic of the group he helped start. Other notable speakers include, ex-gay survivor Daniel Gonzales, Jim Burroway, Editor of Box Turtle Bulletin and Amity Buxton, founder of the Straight Spouse Network (SSN), which supports straight spouses whose partners came out as gay. There will also be a session for leaders of the faith community led by Louise Brooks of California Faith for Equality and the Human Rights Campaign.
“We refuse to be defined by misinformation, junk science and religious bigotry,” said TWO’ Besen. “Just Love will set the record straight on the ex-gay industry and provide factual information on our lives. We will dispel stereotypes, shine a bright light on the lies and send the message that gay people are fine just the way they are.”
AP writer Lisa Leff reports on Mayor Jerry Sanders’ testimony in the Prop 8 trial in the mayor’s hometown newspaper, The San Diego Union-Tribune:
The mayor of San Diego testified Tuesday that his views on same-sex marriage evolved after he learned one of his daughters was a lesbian.
Mayor Jerry Sanders took the witness stand on behalf of two same-sex couples suing to overturn Proposition 8, California’s voter-approved gay marriage ban.
“I had been prejudiced,” he said. “I was saying one group of people did not deserve the same respect, did not deserve the same symbolism of marriage, and I was saying their marriages were less important than those of heterosexuals.”
During Sanders’ testimony this morning, the video of the Republican mayor’s reversal of his position on marriage equality was played.
During an emotion-laden press conference in 2007, Sanders revealed that several members of his staff and his daughter, Lisa, are gay. Said the Mayor, “In the end, I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships ‚Äî their very lives ‚Äî were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife, Rana.”
When San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera asked Sanders why he was so emotional in the video, Sanders replied, “I felt I came very close to making a bad decision. I came very close to showing the prejudice I obviously had toward my daughter to my staff and to the people of San Diego.”
“If government tolerates discrimination against anyone it is very easy for citizens to do the same thing,” said Sanders.
Pro-Prop 8 attorney Brian Raum seemed intent on convincing Sanders that his earlier position in support of civil unions was not a hostile one and didn’t communicate hatred toward the LGBT community ‚Äî the crux of the trial.
Sanders replied, “I feel like my thoughts were grounded in prejudice, but I don’t feel like I communicated hatred.”
In March 2009, during the city’ Eve of Justice rally the night before the California Supreme Court began considering Proposition 8, Mayor Saunders announced the engagement of his daughter, Lisa Sanders, to her partner, Meaghan Yaple. They were married by a justice of the peace in Vermont last December.
If you’re an anti-gay pastor watcher like me, you’re well aware that San Diego area radical clerics Miles McPherson and Jim Garlow relish both the spotlight and the media attention that comes hand-in-hand with being two of California’s better known anti-LGBT advocates.
When he’s not mentoring young Christians like former beauty queen turned soft-porn celebrity Carrie Prejean, Pastor McPherson of San Diego’s Rock Church is happy to take the stage to preach against LGBT rights, as he did in November 2008 at TheCall ‚Äî an anti-marriage-equality extravaganza held at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego shortly before the 2008 election. McPherson, according to Jeremy Hooper, writing at the Good As You blog, claimed “he and his followers are not ‘freaks’ who hate gays. They are really exterminators called upon to rid the world of satanic roaches.” (Read More)
Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin reports today that San Diego hotelier Doug Manchester, whose $125,000 donation to support California’ Prop 8 sparked a boycott against his Manchester Hyatt and San Diego Marriot hotels, is divorcing his wife of 43 years. He cited his Catholic faith to justify his large Prop 8 contribution.
Perhaps, he thought that the clunker program meant he could return his wife for a newer model? It could be only a matter of time before we see Disco Dougie cruising the nightclubs in San Diego, while zooming to the valet in an exciting, new convertible red Corvette.
As Burroway pointed out, the Pope would frown upon his sinful lifestyle and his wanton disregard for the sanctity of marriage. But why let a little thing like religion stand in the way of doing what feels good?
Ex-gay activist James Hartline has convinced San Diego council member Ruth Sterling to retract her support for San Diego LGBT Pride.
Without substantiation and without attending an event, Sterling wrote to the event organizers: “Never having seen one of your parades/celebrations I was shocked and shaken to my core to learn of the lewd and lascivious behavior and unconscionable activities portrayed.”
The mayor and pro-equality activists subsequently criticized Sterling for caving in so easily to Hartline’s unsubstantiated bigotry.
Last week, so-called “ex-gay” activist James Hartline tried to swift boat me on an op-ed I wrote about race and Proposition 8. I responded by pointing out that he was nuts. He had claimed to have prayed away AIDS and is so extreme that he once attacked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as “one of the biggest anti-christian supporters of homosexuality and abortion in the American government.”
Well, today he sunk to new depths of dementia by claiming protests against Proposition 8 are the cause of wildfires in California. According to Hartline:
God keeps trying to get their attention. They, for their part, are shouting so loud for the acceptance of homosexuality, that they cannot hear the thunderous warnings of God: ‘Repent! For the judgment comes soon!’Each time homosexual activists attempt to force their agenda on California, there have been raging, massive, incinerating fires sweeping across the California landscape.
The sad thing is, Hartline is what passes for an ex-gay “leader.” With this bizarre post, Hartline’s small shred of remaining credibility has now been turned to ash.
TWO’ Executive Director, Wayne Besen, was in San Diego last week to join nationally recognized gay and lesbian advocates to oppose Exodus International’ “ex-gay” road show, Love Won Out, which took place in La Mesa’ Skyline Church on Saturday.
TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen to Appear at Just Love Counter-Conference on Saturday, March 6 
