Friday, December 07, 2012

Know Your LGBT History - The Puppy Episode

I have a real treat for everyone tonight as I present the 1997 television episode of Ellen which helped to change it all when it comes to gay visibility and made Ellen DeGeneres a gay icon - The Puppy Episode:

 

 


Past Know Your LGBT History posts:

'Anti-gay group angry at Ellen DeGeneres for filming Christmas commercial' and other Friday midday news briefs


Ellen DeGeneres Ad: One Million Moms Angry Over JC Penney Christmas Commercial - For those who pretend to don't know a thing about anti-gay bigotry, I present to you Exhibit A. The anti-gay group One Million Moms is angry at Ellen DeGeneres for a perfectly innocent commercial she filmed for JC Penney. And why? Simply because she is a lesbian. It's no different than racists getting angry at an African-American for filming a commercial with white people.  

Gay Paternity Leave: How To Do It - In spite of the ugly claims to the contrary organizations like the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research Council, same-sex families are NORMAL families and thus should have as much positive how-to information as possible.

NOM Is Already Complaining Maryland Wedding Businesses Aren’t Free To Discriminate - Sorry but churches and religious-oriented business who don't take taxpayer dollars, yes. Private citizens running secular business? Hell no! That's a nasty can of worms.

NOM hitches its desperate boat to far-right, exceedingly anti-intellectual military meme - NOM believes in 'religious liberty' as long as its those on its side who are protected.

Anti-gay group pushes junk science while talking about God's love

Through this flyer, the right-wing Liberty Counsel (home of arch-homophobe Matt Barber) is channeling the "homosexuality is more dangerous than smoking" lie:

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The Liberty Counsel is the latest religious right group to push that lie and it has been a mistake of the gay community to not challenge it aggressively.

Not to refute this lie, mind you, because the notion is ridiculous.

Rather, all the gay community has to do is reveal where this "homosexuality is more dangerous than smoking" lie came from. And then watch members of the religious right stumble over each other in an effort to retreat from the charge.

It was a 2007 study published by discredited researcher Paul Cameron.

 It was Cameron who in the 80s came up with the idea of aggressively using science to prove that homosexuality is a “dangerous lifestyle.” The problem is to do this, Cameron attained a reputation for either distorting legitimate science or distorting his own work to gain the conclusions he wanted from his “studies.” He has also been discredited and censured by many group and individuals on the left, the right, and in the middle due to his bad research techniques. Several of his studies have been criticized for such errors as having small sample sizes, showing an anti-gay bias in interviews, and not having enough responses to establish a suitable analysis.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, who has designated Cameron's group The Family Research Institute as a hate group because of his history of deliberately putting out fraudulent information on the gay community, Cameron created his study via the following specious means:

First, Cameron presents it as a given that the average gay life span is 43 years, citing his own 1995 study as evidence. Then he compares 43 years to the average life span of smokers to conclude that having gay sex is far more dangerous that cigarettes.


Every time the gay community allows this lie to be repeated without saying where it comes from is a missed opportunity to connect the religious right groups to their tendency to rely on junk science in order smear us.

As for the Liberty Counsel, it's rather brazen for the organization to talk about Jesus and God's love while at the same time breaking one of the Ten Commandments by "bearing false witness" against the gay community.

There is an old saying in the African-American community that's very appropriate here.

When members of the Liberty Counsel die, they are going to bust Hell wide open.