Thursday, August 20, 2009

Videos, blogs key to exposing religious right lies



You've probably already seen this video by Rob Tisinai on how the Traditional Values Coalition manipulates numbers on hate crimes.

If you haven't, take a look because it's an awesome breakdown. If you have, take a look again and jot down some notes.

Not just on what Rob is saying but on what he is doing.

It's the key to what I have been talking about. In exposing the lies of the religious right, we need to break it down on a level that calls attention to how they distort data.

When we appeal to the emotional or religious level, we give them an out. It's easy for the religious right to say "we don't hate you, just your sin."

But very few times (if any at all) have they been confronted with the facts on their reliance on junk science or the manipulation of studies.

And the point is not to convince them that they are wrong. I'm sure many religious right organizations intentionally distort facts and figures.

The point is to bring attention to what they are doing. The point is to put it in the public eye. When I write on my blog, when Rob creates his videos, when the rest of us bloggers and youtubers do our thing to bring attention to the lies of the religious right we aren't doing it for their courtesy or benefit but to put something out there to counter their nonsense.

It's like I have said before: sometimes we think that responding to their lies is beneath us. And this frame of mind has allowed them to go unchallenged as they have built up a wall of lies about the lgbt community.

Now we've got to break down that wall - all of us.

I would love to see more efforts like Rob's video. You can view his entire collection here.




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Maine Equality ad rules!!!, Fox News thinks that Barney Frank is a meanie, and other Thursday midday news briefs

Now THIS is a good ad:



Court upholds Boseman adoption - Good news out of North Carolina regarding lgbt adoption rights.

Anti-gay group to fight marriage efforts in D.C. - Where the hell is the National Organization for Marriage getting their funding?

Fox thinks it's "quite rude" to slam anti-Obama Nazi attacks - What Congressman Frank did was NOT rude. Now THIS is rude - FOX NEWS CAN KISS MY !*@% . . . on second thought, never mind. Why should Fox News be rewarded for being such biased nicompoops?

Lutherans adopt more open view on homosexuality - Look out because here comes the whine from One News Now. I want you to pay attention to a particular comment this article received. It may not be on the site later:

"You know who should be the only ones commenting on issues like this?? LUTHERANS. If this isn't your particular flavor of Christianity mind your own business. Try to remember how you feel when someone from outside passes judegement on YOUR particular faith. The world doesn't always bend to your will. Sometimes you have to share real estate with those of many different beliefs and ideaologies. "




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Anti-gay One News Now distorts study on gay mental health counseling

Lately, the phony news service One News Now was so focused on denigrating President Obama and spreading lies about his health care reform that I, as a member of the lgbt community, was beginning to feel left out.

It usually makes us the subject of its one-sided messes masquerading as news articles.

Well I no longer feel omitted, thanks to an article published today:

A new study shows that homosexuals and lesbians seek mental health counseling far more than heterosexuals.

The UCLA School of Public Health found that to be true in California, but there have been other studies with similar results. Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality says homosexuals usually respond that they would not have so many problems if society would simply accept their behavior as normal.

"You can't just keep going back to homophobia and societal stigma to account for this huge difference between straights and homosexuals with regard to various pathologies," he contends. "First of all, we're talking about California, where there's a much greater tolerance for homosexuality -- so you can't keep pointing to the stigma."


That's basically the gist of the article. A lead in talking about the UCLA study and then Peter LaBarbera rambling on as he does about us "nasty, evil, sinful homosexuals."

Now a credible news service would give more information about the study.

But then again we are talking about One News Now, the supposed Christian news service which used to be a sounding board for Paul Cameron's discredited studies when it was known as Agape Press.

But speaking of the UCLA study, I found some facts which were omitted from the One News Now article. This is from a UCLA press release:

Researchers collected data on 2,074 people, who were first interviewed in the California Health Interview Survey, in a new survey known as the California Quality of Life Survey. They found that 48.5 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals reported receiving treatment in the past year, compared with 22.5 percent of heterosexuals. Overall, lesbians and bisexual women were most likely to receive treatment, and heterosexual men were least likely.

While men and women, regardless of sexual orientation, who had an alcohol and/or drug disorder showed no significant differences in treatment rates, the study found that lesbian and bisexual women who had not been diagnosed with mental and drug disorders were more likely to seek mental health counseling than heterosexual women. This is consistent with emerging findings from national surveys showing that many individuals who receive mental health treatment do not have a diagnosable disorder but may have other symptoms, such as psychological distress or impairments in functioning, that lead them to seek care.

The researchers considered several factors that may explain these findings. Discrimination, violence and other stressful life events may be greater among sexual and gender minorities, they said, and homosexuality and issues associated with it may be construed as mental health problems — particularly among racial and ethnic minorities — which may encourage people to seek treatment. Further, in gay and lesbian communities, therapeutic services are considered appropriate places for coping with the stresses associated with being a sexual minority.(Editor's note - I highlighted that part to show what One News Now omitted.)

So three things to remember:

1. The study never said that homosexuality is a mental disorder (but watch how some folks will misconstrue this point).

2. The researchers did say that discrimination (i.e. stress caused from discrimination) may play a part in their findings, and One News Now omitted this part.

3. You would have better luck with trying to get Rush Limbaugh and Hilary Clinton together as a couple than finding truth in a One News Now article.

Related articles:

Dissecting a One News Now article




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