Bryan Fischer is about six hours and one bad stool away from declaring that Christians are victims of a new holocaust at the hands of the homosexicals. Truly, he’s that hysterical. It’s sort of funny to watch:
As a culture, we must choose between the homosexual agenda or the Constitution because we can’t have both.
Further proof comes from the abjectly pathetic decision of the chaplains’ office at Andrews Air Force Base to rescind a long-standing invitation to Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council. Perkins had been invited to give a non-political talk at a prayer luncheon on the base yesterday, but was abruptly dis-invited for one simple reason: he supports the current law which makes homosexuals ineligible for service in the United States military.
(…)
The days of Dred Scott have returned. Christians now are the ones are being confined on the plantation, and warned about being too uppity … McCarthyism has now struck the U.S. military with a vengeance. The question now that the military is asking is this: “Are you now, or have you ever been, a supporter of traditional morality?” If the answer is yes, you go on our blacklist, and we deprive you of your freedom of religion, speech and military service.
Uhhhh.
Who, exactly, is suggesting that Christians can’t join the military? Or can’t practice their religion freely? And um, I thought Tony Perkins was a pastor/talking wingnut, not a member of the military.
Anyway, why rebut all of this when there’s a handy picture available to expose Bryan Fischer’s unnecessarily soiled undies in all their glory?
I am not a gay conservative…to say the least. And I’ve questioned in the past the wisdom of GOProud, the gay conservative group, participating at CPAC along with groups that want to legislate away their dignity. I still question that wisdom. They’ve been sending out reports from CPAC along the lines of “Nobody has beat us up yet, so that means conservatives aren’t bigots after all!” They’re also stupidly suggesting that because Dick Cheney got a standing ovation, that the wingnuts are somehow supportive of gays because Dick Cheney supports gays.
It’s pathetic. Newsflash: Wingnuts like Dick Cheney because Dick Cheney is a torture-mongering ghoul, and wingnuts are weak people, so they feel strengthened by the idea of torturing people, as long as they don’t have to personally exhibit any strength or courage of their own.
Anyway. I don’t care how nice people are to the gay CPAC-ers; what matters is what policies they support. Lots of people are nice to people they hate, especially Southerners, who I would imagine are overrepresented at Winguttapalooza. It’s so ingrained in our culture that we have code phrases that express disdain while always being able to claim the mantle of gentility. (”Bless her heart.”) So personally, the fact that the gay conservatives haven’t been shot at yet at CPAC isn’t impressive.
Also, they’re dealing with the fact that the GOP line on their dignity and existence is that they shouldn’t have any. Consider this quote from Chris Plante, who’s running the National Organization for Marriage (nom nom nom) booth just a few feet away:
“Gays and lesbians have the right to live as they choose, but they don’t have the right to redefine marriage for the rest of us,” Plante said.
Uh huh, right. And believe me, NOM is more welcome there than GOProud is. Again, I don’t care now nice and polite CPAC-ers are to the gays in their midst. The fact that gay conservatives are impressed and excited to be included without having to wear pink triangles is pathetic and reveals the self-loathing and the deeply ingrained beliefs in their own inferiority that we’ve always seen in them.
Meanwhile, an insane press conference happened, featuring Elaine Donnelly, Queen of the 101st Chairborne Brigade, and Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family (who apparently can’t pronounce the word “debacle”), who projected their pathetic Fear of the Gay onto our brave troops as they came out in opposing DADT repeal. Also speaking were know-nothing Tony Perkins and David Keene, who organized the entire conference. Oh, also, there was an old retired admiral who probably had to be helped onto the stage, testifying about his 1930’s version of reality. Watch it if you want, but you’ll lose a few brain cells.
All of that being said, though, this video of Jimmy LaSalvia, the King of the Gay Wingnuts, is pretty funny:
ZING! The boys at the NOM booth are total pansies! On that, we agree.
Anyway, so there you go. Jimmy LaSalvia made a funny and nobody’s been gay-bashed yet at CPAC. Glad to see, again, that they’re persevering in their quest to win the gay rights battles of the 1970’s.
UPDATE: Okay, so all of that being said, this video is also funny. Ryan Sorba, a hysterical and likely closeted anti-gay activist, decided to take to the stage and condemn CPAC for inviting GOProud to the event, and he was received poorly by some in the room. What I notice is that at the beginning, some were booing him, and some were cheering him, but as his childish tantrum grew more hysterical, the boos got louder. Mike Madden at Salon’s War Room opened his report on this by saying, “Turns out CPAC isn’t quite the place for insane jeremiads against homosexuality.” I would suggest, rather, a more balanced reaction, because if you click on the link above to watch the aforementioned press conference, you’ll see that there is indeed a place for insane jeremiads against homosexuality at CPAC. It seems to me that what’s become socially unacceptable, even in CPAC, is the kind of frothing, unhinged anti-gay ranting that’s the hallmark of Ryan Sorba’s “career.” I guarantee you that, for a lot of people in that room, their issue is not the content of Sorba’s tirade, but rather the unfiltered nature of it, because they know that their bigotry is not acceptable in intelligent society. So NOM and Elaine Donnelly and Tom Minnery are fine with them. The rhetorical equivalent of playing with your dingleberries on stage, as exhibited by Ryan Sorba, is not.
As the title of Jeremy Hooper’s post on this suggests, the AFA is beating the same old dead horse about the terrifying prospect of gays being in the military showers with straight people. Well, first of all, as Jeremy points out, homos are already in the showers with heteros in military showers. And the other newsflash, which I cannot stress enough, is that there are already lots of gay people serving openly, at least within their own chain of command. It really comes down to the luck of the draw these days. Some end up serving with people who know, are cool with it, etc., and choose to ignore DADT. Others use the law as their excuse to exercise their bigotry, and those servicemembers get kicked out.
The Christian Right’s fixation on this is so bizarre, because gays are in the same showers as straight people in lots of situations! If Tony Perkins has ever been to the gym (and I think he has), he’s been in the shower with gay people, unless he’s so genuinely frightened that a man might see him naked that he refuses to use them. High school sports teams? Gays. Check. Collegiate sports teams? Check. Showers. Gayness. Professional sports? Check. Gays. Sky not falling.
And here’s the other thing. As has been stated so many times before, most people in the military are already comfortable with gay people, and a growing number of them know for sure that they serve alongside gay people! So are we really having this conversation, for the sake of the small percentage of military men and women who are simultaneously completely oblivious to gay people around them AND so afraid of gay people that they can’t get in the shower for fear of catching the gay? AND! And and and and and! If we’re having this conversation for the sake of those people, are we saying that these “morally” minded soldiers and sailors and airmen, etc., who are that afraid of gay people, are our bravest?! I mean, really! Which leads me to this quote from the AFA’s piece: (Read More)
In an email forwarded to me today by a transgender activist contact, Tony Perkins – head of that infamous opponent of gay rights and equality the Family Research Council, callously violated the bounds of common decency and proposed a direct assault on the human rights and dignity of the gay and trans community in America. Yes, I live in South Africa and it doesn’t directly affect me – but the things said by him are an affront to gay and trans people everywhere. It was one of those emails that had travelled from person to person within a very short time, mainly because its content is so outrageously homophobic and transphobic that it angers every fair-minded person who reads it.
For those who don’t yet know the Family Research Council, it was founded by James Dobson (of Focus on the Family infamy) and unfortunately, is not yet listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center – but in my humble opinion, because of its relentless and often tasteless attacks on the pink community, and its liberal application of the propaganda supplied by its stable-mate, the Family Research Insititute (which IS), it should be. The FRC is known for its “Christian boycotts” of chain stores such as McDonalds or American Airlines for daring to hire gay people and treat them like human beings – and thus “furthering the homosexual agenda“.
Perkins’s letter is insultingly titled “Stop Obama’s Crossdresser Protection Bill” and it is an appeal to conservative Americans to oppose the ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) which is intended to bring equal employment opportunities to people normally discriminated against in the job-market on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Pretty much the same paranoid hysterical tone in the letter is echoed on the FRC website. The text of the letter is included below: (Read More)
No, not for movies or whatever, but (I think?) those are coming soon.*
Peter LaBarbera has been nominating people for his inaugural “Gay Grinch” award**. He’s picked all kinds of people, like our own Wayne Besen, some couple in California whose Halloween decorations aren’t to Pete’s liking, Rachel Maddow…just, you know, random people who have messed with Peter’s mind over the past year. Or whenever. The meaning of the Grinch reference isn’t clear, unless, in Peter’s mind, it’s actually the gays who have stolen Christmas. Anyway, it’s boring, who cares?
The point is that Joe Jervis (another Grinch nominee) is having his own contest, and unlike The Peter, Joe believes in deciding the winner democratically, so here are your choices for the Anti-Gay Douchebag Bigot of 2009:
Bishop Richard Malone
Carrie Prejean
Harry Jackson Jr.
Maggie Gallagher
Matt Barber
Peter LaBarbera
Pope Benedict XVI
Tony Perkins
Now, they’re all fame-seeking malcontents, obviously (especially Ratzi), so we don’t really want to encourage them, but this is funny, so GO VOTE.
*I know, I know, I need to turn in my gay card and be put on probation.
**Ceremony to be held at some hitherto unannounced bathhouse/leather convention, I presume. Stay tuned, I guess?
Here, it’s more evidence that the Religious Right has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the financial interests which control the Republican Party:
Oy.
Tony Perkins and pals don’t have any expertise to speak of on macroeconomics or anything else that involves book larnin’, but they’ve perfected “Dance, monkeys, dance!”
Also, this is the closest Tony will get to being on “Glee,” so you have to factor that into his decision-making.
Free-lance journalist Rex Wockner reports that about 15,000 antigay Californians attended an anti-marriage rally in San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium Nov. 1. Rally officials falsely claimed attendance of 33,000.
James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council headlined the event. At least one Exodus ex-gay activist, Yvette Cantu Schneider, spoke against the rights of gay couples. Good As You has audio clips of Dobson, Perkins, Schneider, and others talking in patronizing and pitying tones about homosexuals and trivializing the subject of sexual orientation.
The crowd prayed, sang, spoke in tongues, prostrated themselves, sobbed (for California, for marriage, for the homosexuals) and, on numerous occasions, whipped themselves into a true frenzy.
Lots of words came into my head during my hours there: Cultlike. Brainwashing. Frenzied. Frightening. Depressing. But, interestingly, there wasn’t really any hate on display. They seemed to just want to “save” marriage. And, as for the homosexuals, they love us, they pray for us, they want us to be set free from sin and demons.
Wockner took numerous pictures which depict a crowd abandoning fact and reason in favor of self-flattering religious prejudice and false piety. (Read More)
