Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) is the latest Republican who has chosen to skip this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over its inclusion of a pro-gay group.
“With leading conservatives organizations not participating this year, Senator DeMint will not be attending,” Wesley Denton, a spokesman for the senator, told CNN. “He hopes to attend a unified CPAC next year.”
Yes, unified against gays, because he’s an unreconstructed bigot…
Leading conservative organizations? Well, Heritage isn’t participating. That’s about the only leading conservative organization I can think of that’s passing on the event. Seems some of those supposedly leading groups are up in arms that GOProud is participating organization.
Heh. I agree that groups like CWA and FRC need to, you know, get a hold on their delusions of grandeur and realize that they represent a demographic that’s rapidly, um, dying off. In fifteen or twenty years, the FRC will be lucky to get a kiosk in the lobby.
Addressing a group of conservative voters on Friday, Sen. Jim DeMint, reiterated his belief that openly gay people and unmarried straight women who sleep with a partner shouldn’t teach children.
[...]
DeMint said he was cast as a pariah in Washington for once saying that openly gay teachers and women who have sex outside of marriage should not teach in a classroom.
“[When I said those things,] no one came to my defense,” he said, according to the report. “But everyone would come to me and whisper that I shouldn’t back down. They don’t want government purging their rights and their freedom to religion.”
I don’t particularly want uneducated fundamentalists teaching my children either — I mean, I’d like to raise literate children, thank you — but I’m an American, so I’m not going to try to infringe upon their freedom to become teachers if they want.
And that’s the difference between normal Americans and Jim DeMint.
What can be said about this week that doesn’t involve either Christine O’Donnell or Lady Gaga? Very little, so let’s not try.
Lady Gaga went to the VMAs with soldiers discharged under DADT; then she carried it further by calling on her “Little Monsters” to call their Senators, so they did; then she taught everybody a civics lesson, explaining to an uninformed American public what a “filibuster” is; and then she talked directly to the Senate via a recorded video, and encouraged people to continue calling their Senators.
Music this week comes from Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, for two reasons: A. Sharon is awesome. If you like neo-soul/blues/whatever, and ladies with big voices, you will like Sharon. B. I’m going to see her live this weekend, and I’m giddy with anticipation. The songs we’ll start with are “How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?” and “Tell Me.” The first one has shown up in a Late Friday Random Ten before, and I try not to repeat things, but I don’t care, because I make the rules. So let’s listen to these two amazing songs, and then we’ll hit shuffle on the second one and see what the iTunes [which crashed this week, which caused me to have about three panic attacks as I rebuilt the library] does. More videos after the jump.
If you were planning a party for the National Federation of Republican Women in South Carolina, what would you do? Well, of course, you would throw a Confederate costume party! And what kind of Confederate costume party is it, really, without a few black people there dressed as slaves!
Oh, my god:
The National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW) held its annual fall Board of Directors meeting in Charleston, S.C. last weekend – a decision the organization is likely regretting after several controversial pictures from one of the meeting’s sponsored events began surfacing on the internet.
One of the pictures shows S.C. Senate President Glenn McConnell – who FITS readers will recall enjoys dressing up as a Confederate General – posing in his Rebel garb with a pair of African-Americans dressed in, um, “antebellum” attire.
The event in question – dubbed “The Southern Experience” – was held last Friday evening at the Country Club of Charleston. Hosted by the South Carolina Federation of Republican Women, it was included on the national conference’s official itinerary.
In addition to McConnell, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford attended (and spoke at) the event – although it was not listed on his weekly public schedule. S.C. Republican Attorney General nominee Alan Wilson also attended.
Focus on the Family protested a federal judge’s ruling that South Carolina license plates may not give favored treatment to Christianity at the expense of the state’s Jews, other faiths, and atheists.
In an article published yesterday, writer Nima Reza called the opponents of religious freedom “pro-family.”
Focus made no effort to direct readers to the actual facts of the case, which were reported by Agence France Presse.
The truth is, Christian Rightist enemies of religious freedom deliberately wasted public funds advancing a blatant attack upon minority religious perspectives.
The lawsuit against South Carolina was filed on behalf of four local clergy — three pastors and a rabbi — the Hindu American Foundation and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State said:
“Some officials seem to want to use religion as a political football…. That’s an appalling misuse of governmental authority, and I am thrilled that the judge put a stop to it.”
Christian Rightists have created a profitable industry by declaring themselves to be victims as they deprive everyone around them of their equality under the law.
Evangelical antigay lawmakers in South Carolina have amendeda bill originally intended to stop teen dating violence, so that the legislation excludes gay teens.
The bigots’ reasoning: Any effort to discourage domestic violence in gay teen relationships would implicitly acknowledge the existence and dignity of gay teens and would lessen the pressure upon teen-agers to pretend to be heterosexual or ex-gay.
Exodus International has two activist organizations and two member churches in the state — none of which have protested the exclusion of gay teens from antiviolence legislation, and none of which support antibullying programs in the state’s schools.
If you live in South Carolina, please let these activists know, politely, that those who tolerate or affirm violence against gay youth in your state betray fairness, justice, morality, and Christian values.
Jim DeMint is a special kind of bigot, really, but 
