Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
Apparently we lgbts in the United States and Europe are to blame for the harsh anti-gay laws they are trying to pushing in Uganda.
At least that's the case according to anti-lgbt activist Scott Lively.
An article with the right-wing LifesiteNews.com said the following:
While a proposed and much-criticized anti-homosexuality law in Uganda is definitely too harsh, the law comes as a direct response to the heavy-handed pressure from international gay-activist politicians on Uganda to accept homosexuality as normal, according to one Christian expert who was recently in the African country to testify against the current wording of the bill. In fact, as Dr. Scott Lively, the President of Defend the Family pointed out, the preamble to the bill, and the bill itself contain numerous references to stopping international pressure on Uganda to accept Western sexual values that are abhorrent to Ugandan culture.
. . . Dr. Lively, a pro-family activist and attorney based in California was in Uganda in March to testify before Ugandan legislators now considering the legislation. In an interview with LifeSiteNews (LSN), Dr. Lively explained that the impetus for the bill was "a lot of external interference from European and American gay activists attempting to do in Uganda what they've done around the world - homosexualize that society." One of their main concerns, explained Lively, "are the many male homosexuals coming in to the country and abusing boys who are on the streets."
Of course Lively provides no evidence of his charges, especially the claim about gays coming into Uganda to rape street children. And I still can't shake my shock at the implications of his statements.
So we are to blame because we are "forcing" people to "accept homosexuality."
This particular bit of news has been covered in the past by a few pro-lgbt blogs. But as the furor over the Ugandan anti-gay bill grows (and it should), it's worth remembering.
Anti-gay activist Scott Lively is busy trying to extricate himself from the situation which he helped create in Uganda regarding that anti-gay bill.
It was Lively who was one of the Americans who spoke in Uganda about the so-called "dangers of homosexuality" during a conference last year. The bill was introduced several months after this conference.
Now as the furor gets larger, Lively is trying to duck the much deserved blame due his way. He told ABC News in a recent news cast that he never saw the bill coming and he would support it if the death penalty portion was dropped.
But according to the words on his own web page, The Pro-Family Resource of Abiding Truth Ministries (for the sake of modesty, I will refrain from editorial comments about the words "pro-family"), Lively has been advocating laws against homosexuality as far back as 2007.
. . . criminalize the public advocacy of homosexuality. My philosophy is to leave homosexuals alone if they keep their lifestyle private, and not to force them into therapy if they don't want it. However, homosexuality is destructive to individuals and to society and it should never publicly promoted. The easiest way to discourage gay pride parades and other homosexual advocacy is to make such activity illegal in the interest of public health and morality.
So Lively makes it a point to tour foreign countries, tell a bunch of lies about gays and lesbians, and advocate laws against homosexuality.
But then when one country follows suit, he claims that he never saw it coming.
Why don't you tell me the one about the Easter Bunny next?
I don't think anyone with a modicum of sense believes that Lively didn't see Uganda's reaction to his conference coming. If he were a real Christian, he would be truthful about his responsibility in the creation of that awful bill.
And for the sake of modesty, I will also refrain from editorial comments regarding Lively's alleged Christianity.
Although I feel my fellow bloggers and readers won't be so nice.
Very few individuals epitomizes the vileness and absolute absence of moral integrity of the religious right more than Scott Lively.
For the uninitiated, Lively is a long-time foe of the gay community who wrote a discredited book linking gays with the Nazi Party. However, his reputation for homophobia reached new depths after he and a bunch of other American homophobes traveled to Uganda and stoked the country up against the gay community by pushing the false notion that gays are trying to "convert" children.
We all know what happened next. Now Uganda is attempting to pass an ugly bill which would make homosexuality a crime punishable by death.
The blowback from the international community over this infused Lively with a schizophrenic approach towards gay equality. There are times when he claims to want to get away from the entire war over gay rights. And then there are times when he hits the homophobia full throttle.
His recent appearance in Springfield, Missouri was very much part of the latter:
Standing next to a sign reading “Human Rights Commission is a Trojan horse for the gay agenda,” Scott Lively told his audience of nearly 70 that a culture war currently raged between those fighting for sexual anarchy and those fighting for family values.
And with the chairman of the mayor’s human rights commission listening intently in that audience, the noted anti-homosexual rights activist and president of Abiding Truth Ministries exhorted listeners to kill a proposed ordinance extending civil rights protections to gay, lesbian and transgendered people.
“Don’t let this anti-discrimination ordinance go through,” said Lively during his Friday night presentation at The Library Station on North Kansas Expressway. “It’s like chicken pox. It’s in your system forever. You’ve got to kill this thing before it goes in.”
. . .Lively, who said he paid his own way to Springfield to share this message, argued that homosexual activists have capitalized on what he called the black civil rights movement by bundling their rights with those he called “legitimate ethnic minorities” and riding their coattails to social legitimacy.
“Since when is sodomy a civil right,” said Lively, who lives in Springfield, Mass. “It’s a ridiculous, preposterous notion! There’s absolutely no correlation between sodomy and skin color.”
The grand irony of Lively's talk is when he said that the city should have a "family first commission." Of course we all know that if this were the case, Lively wouldn't necessarily think that gay families should be a part of this commission.
It would seem, however, that Lively's talk may have backfired on the folks attempting to keep the ordinance from passing. According to the article, George Davis, chairman of the Mayor's human rights commission was there, but he walked out after hearing Lively's words. And apparently he wasn't one of the only ones. Davis, however, pointed out the myriad of contradictions in Lively's talk:
Davis pointed out that Lively repeatedly said that sex should take place only within the confines of marriage, but he opposed allowing gay and lesbian people to marry. He said Lively argued that society should fight to protect families, but he didn’t believe gay and lesbian people should be able to adopt. He said Lively seemed to suggest that Springfield was overrun with gay activists, but continually asserted to the audience that they were in the overwhelmingly Christian and conservative majority.
Just when I thought I had seen it all from the American Family Association's One News Now, the phony news service finds new ways to astound me with its lack of judgment and good taste.
Children in California are already required to learn about the social contributions of African-Americans, women, Asians, Native Americans, and a host of other groups. And a new bill will include lgbts to that list.
The bill would also prohibit prevent school officials to make negative comments about lgbts, which is nothing out of the unusual because schools are already prohibited from adopting classroom material which reflect negatively on anyone's race, sex, color, creed, disability, national origin or ancestry.
However, as we've seen with Obama's anti-bullying initiative, some from the religious right feel that lgbts shouldn't be respected like other groups. In this case, One News Now pushed a one-sided hatchet job against the California bill, which isn't a surprise.
It's who the publication decided to quote as its only source for the story which is a shock:
Dr. Scott Lively, president of Defend the Family International, tells OneNewsNow that now is the time for Christians to voice their concern.
"And politics is a part of every church, it's part of every family -- and frankly, the reason we're suffering the consequences that we are is because the church has abdicated its responsibilities to be stewards of civil society."
The bill would mandate that teachers, textbooks, and materials present a positive image of the LGBT lifestyle.
"This isn't about tolerance. This isn't even about acceptance," Lively emphasizes. "This is about celebration and even goes further than that -- the next step after that is forced acceptance; you're coerced into being pro-gay."
This is the same Scott Lively who went to Uganda in 2009 and spread a mess of lies about lgbts. These lies created a aura of persecution which led to the vicious murder of gay activist David Kato, not to mention that dreadful "Kill the gays" bill which may be debated on as recent as this week.
This is the same Scott Lively who in the past has:
helped write a highly discredited book which claimed that the Nazi Party was the creation of the gays in Germany,
blamed lgbts in America and Europe for Uganda's ugly homophobic bill rather than the lies he and others spread there, and
advocated "criminalizing homosexuality"as far back as 2007. In a piece entitled Letter to the Russian People, Lively had this to say:
My philosophy is to leave homosexuals alone if they keep their lifestyle private, and not to force them into therapy if they don't want it. However, homosexuality is destructive to individuals and to society and it should never publicly promoted. The easiest way to discourage gay pride parades and other homosexual advocacy is to make such activity illegal in the interest of public health and morality.
So this man is the person whom One News Now felt is a reliable source that a pro-lgbt bill in California is a danger?
It certainly tells a lot about the supposed Christian mindset of One News Now, doesn't it? Especially in light of the fact that the publication didn't even make mention of Lively's "work" in Uganda.
Seems to me that One News Now just made the case for the California bill. If Lively opposes it, then it must be a good thing.
Scott Lively acts surprised and alarmed that Uganda is trying to pass a hugely Draconian anti-gay bill. But based on this video of anti-gay conference in Kampala, Uganda on March 5-7, 2009, I say Lively knew exactly what would happen.
■ Lively’s defense against being labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (Ex-Gay Watch has posted a longer unedited video segment of his defense),
■ Lively’s equating homosexuality with Nazism and fascism, and blaming the 1994 Rwandan genocide on gay people,
■ Lively’s reinforcement of the false stereotype of gay people as child molesters,
■ Lively denouncing foreign influences to “promote” homosexuality,
■ Lively describing AIDS as just punishment for homosexuality,
■ and the aftermath of Lively’s “nuclear bomb” in Uganda.
I've been insistently covering the Hallmark Channelcontroversy because it presents something we should never forget. Behind their self-victimization and cries about persecution and accusations of "the radical gay agenda," the aim of religious right groups is to either erase the humanity of our community or confine us into their false definitions of who we are and what our lives are comprised of.
Lo and behold comes a long-time anti-LGBTQ activist by the name of Scott Lively to further illustrate this point. To the lucky who have never heard of him, Lively is an extreme homophobe. He wrote and published discreditedbook, The Pink Swastika, which accused gays of creating the Nazi party in Germany.
But Lively's biggest claim to infamy was going overseas to Uganda in 2009 with other religious right figures and railing against the LGBTQ community with such vitriol that Ugandan officials proposed the infamous "Kill the Gays" bill. If this bill had become law, people could have been legally executed in the country for being LGBTQ. Before it died in 2014, the part about execution was changed to long prison sentences.
Wednesday night, Current TV’s Vanguard series will be talking about the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill in a documentary that, if it's as powerful as its trailer, needs to be seen, sent to members of Congress, all of the media, lgbt included, and remembered for posterity.
The press release is as follows:
CURRENT TV’S VANGUARD PREMIERES “MISSIONARIES OF HATE” WEDNESDAY, MAY 26 AT 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT
Episode Chronicles Increasing Strength of Anti-Gay Movement in Uganda, and the American Influence on Uganda’s Laws and Attitudes
New Bill Would Increase Penalties Against Homosexuality, Make Homosexuality Punishable by Imprisonment or Death
LOS ANGELES – May 21, 2010 — The fourth season of Current TV’s Vanguard continues with “Missionaries of Hate,” premiering Wednesday, May 26 at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Uganda to delve into reasons behind the increasing strength of anti-gay sentiment spreading throughout the country, which prompted the creation of a proposed law that would severely increase penalties against homosexuality, making the practice punishable by imprisonment or death.
“Missionaries of Hate” explores the impact American Evangelicals have had on the movement, and features exclusive video of American Evangelical Lou Engle’s visit to Uganda on May 2 to support the major backers of the proposed legislation. Mariana van Zeller also interviews Pastor Martin Ssempa, one of the most famous religious leaders in Uganda and an anti-gay crusader, whose preaching methods include showing gay pornography in church. She also talks to Ugandan citizens (both gay and straight) about their feelings on homosexuality, the new proposed law, and the effect it will have on their lives.
It hasn't even aired yet and there is already speculation that it has Scott Lively, one of the people who led Uganda to consider this awful bill, trying to push up a defense. The following is from his webpage:
Friends,
I’m looking for a good Christian media source to interview me on film on the Uganda issue for posting online. I intend to get off defense and counter-attack the false witnesses with hard facts about Uganda and the dishonest way the media has addressed the story. Please forward this to any pro-family journalists you know and ask them to contact me at sdllaw@gmail.com.
Personally I want to see who takes up his request.
Based upon his past actions, I'm curious to see who fits his definition of the word "pro-family."
"Many Christians are only now awakening to the seriousness of the threat to our society posed by the homosexual movement. But, unfortunately for us all, it is only the sounding of the victory trumpets by "gay" activists that has stirred Christians from their slumber. The watchman's walls have been broken and breached, the village is in flames, and triumphal "gay" culture warriors are leading a long string of young prisoners by their necks into the woods. Most disturbingly, many of the captives, including some of the children of these still sleepy-eyed Christian parents, seem happy to go."
The above ramblings is paranoid homophobic bigotry of the highest order. And it would be hilarious except when one realizes who it is coming from.
And it is pretty much the same vein of trash which Lively has made a living in declaring - i.e. claiming that gays are secretly plotting to take over America, "indoctrinate children," and cause all sorts of mayhem.
It's the same trash one would hear from folks like Matt Barber and Peter LaBarbera, except for one thing. As odious as LaBarbera and Barber are, neither person has the death of an innocent on their heads.
Based on 30 years of ministry fighting the LGBT agenda, I believe pederastic recruiting is the single greatest cause of male homosexual dysfunction – just as heterosexual male abuse of girls is the primary cause of lesbianism (both forms of predation being examples of dysfunctional male sexuality exacerbated by the societal abandonment of Judeo-Christian sexual ethics). That so many molested boys then embrace the "gay" identity without questioning its legitimacy only showcases the bird-like "imprint" power of sex-related brain chemistry in pubescent boys. In my view this is why God so harshly condemns male homosexuality from Genesis to Revelation, while discouraging lesbianism in just one verse (Romans 1:26).
The moron behind this inanely humorous comment is long-time homophobe and failed anti-LGBTQ activist Scott Lively. While many in the anti-LGBTQ industry have moved on from outright and openly accusing gay men of "recruiting" children and other gross actions, Lively simply can't do without the "classics." I bet if you googled his name, you will also find him talking about all of the alleged intricacies of gay sex in a supposed disgusted manner.
Not that I'm implying anything, mind you.
In this particular situation, Lively is exploiting a scandal with a Republican group, The Lincoln Project, to push the old and unfortunately more-undead-than-Jason Voorhees claim that us gay men simply live for hitting on young boys. Apparently we need them to "refreshen the ranks of our lifestyle."
I find it weird how people such as Lively get "gay agenda" memos but I have yet to get one since getting turned gay during that summer of 1983 when I viewed The Music Man on PBS three consecutive times.
Even though a few people still believe this drivel (as evidenced by the comments section under Lively's post), I don't feel the need to make an attempt to refute it. For one thing, one closeted gay guy making sad sexual solicitations to young guys does not mean you can draw a net of accusations on the entire community.
It is a well-known fact that homophobe Scott Lively's exploits in Uganda played a huge part in that country nearly passing that dreadful "kill the gays" bill.
Lively faced a lot of deservedly negative feedback because of his actions, especially in light of the fact that Ugandan gay activist David Kato was viciously murdered because of drama Lively helped to cause.
However in a recent issue of the American Family Association's One News Now, Lively seems to have had a breakdown akin to that of Humphrey Bogart's character in The Caine Mutiny.
The only way to describe what you are about to read is that it's a free-flowing, existential rant from a man whose naked hatred of lgbts should make him pitied more than feared:
Lively says the goal of many homosexual activists is not only to gain a vote in favor of homosexuality, but to punish those who are in opposition.
"They're really the driving force behind all the different elements of what we call 'the culture war,'" he shares. "They haven't been visible in doing this, but they've been the driving force -- because their essential goal as a movement is the overthrow of the biblical model of family."
Lively explains that the city of San Francisco has a high concentration of homosexual power, and the city has taken direct action against the Catholic Church and against businesses that do not support homosexuality. He expects the same radical agendas to be prevalent throughout the state in the near future.
He points out that during the signature collection process for Proposition 8 -- a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman -- those who penned their support for the initiative were openly targeted. "They posted [the names of supporters] on the Internet," he exclaims. "They encouraged all their activists to go after those people -- and that's before they even have consolidated power entirely."
Supporters of Proposition 8 were criticized and labeled as hateful and discriminatory, and some employees were fired for supporting traditional marriage. The battle against homosexuality, Lively notes, is a politicized battle like no other.
I have a certain classification when it comes to homophobes I talk about.
Peter LaBarbera is fun to laugh at. Matt Barber is a useful idiot. Paul Cameron is stewing in a sauce of irrelevancy. Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown are fishes who soon will be hooked by their own carelessness. Peter Sprigg and Tony Perkins are bumbling fools.
But when it comes to Scott Lively, I think of crosses, garlic, and holy water.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Ugly situation in Uganda intensifies
Anti-gay spokespeople from the United States went to Uganda for a "conference" and the next thing you know, villification of the lgbt community in that country intensified:
Two newspaper (so far) and three television stations in Uganda have reported on a sensationalistic press conference organized by Stephen Langa, director of Kampala-based Family Life Networks, which appears to be the start of a fresh public anti-gay vigilante campaign.
The lie of recruiting children has been (and continues to be) a staple in anti-gay hysteria, especially in this country. But imagine, if you will, having the full brunt of the media and the government behind these lies:
Ugandan news media have been issuing regular reports of that conference and two follow-up meetings which have been held on successive Sundays since then. The latest one from Uganda Pulse reported on a press conference held today:
Parents in Uganda have expressed concern over the increasing levels of homosexuality, defilement and sexual harassments of children. The parents under the Family Life Network (FLN) says that information revealed from several reliable sources indicates that many children in schools are facing horror, frustration, mental and psychological torture for being cajoled into homosexuality.
FLN’s Executive Director, Langa Steven say [sic] that there are agents involved in recruiting children into homosexuality and lesbianism. Langa says that these suspected groups take advantages children by using deception, manipulation and coercion.
Pastor Joseph Male who addressed a press conference in Kampala with Langa also says that findings show that immorality groups are recruiting children into homosexuality. He says these homosexual promoters hide behind human rights organization and claim to be protecting sex minorities Uganda.
Pastor Male claims that these groups spend about 2,000,000 per week to recruit university students into homosexuality and lesbianism.
And this only scratches the surface of what they are doing over there. My prayers go out to my lgbt brothers and sisters in Uganda.
Big props to Box Turtle Bulletin which has published a brilliant report on anti-gay activities in Uganda:
For those who are not aware of this fact, the first speaker at .09 seconds is Scott Lively, the head of Abiding Truth Ministries. Abiding Truth Ministries is an officially declared hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and mostly because of Lively.
A while back, Lively wrote a book, The Pink Swastika, which incorrectly affiliated the Nazi Party in Germany with the lgbt community. The book has been repeatedly discredited, including in 2005 and in 2007:
Stephen Feinstein, director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota, said the book was "produced by a right-wing Christian cult and is as correct as flat earth theory."
In addition, Lively has been known to sanitize the reputation of the discredited researcher Paul Cameron even to the point of lying about Cameron's work being published peer-reviewed journals (it wasn't) and claiming that Cameron's critics have no scientific merit to criticize him (they do):
While Cameron has been the subject of intense, unrelenting criticism (and mockery) by “gay” activists and their allies, he has produced an impressive body of work related to the homosexual issue, much of it published in peer-reviewed journals, and I do not believe the criticism of his work is merited on scientific grounds.
(Lively) is associated with not just one, not two, but three of just eleven organizations identified by the SPLC as a hate group (He co-founded Watchmen on the Walls, founded Abiding Truth Ministries, and he is now the leader of the School of Christian Activism). If that weren’t enough, he spoke at a banquet last winter for a fourth SPLC hate group, Mass Resistance.
This year, Lively was amongst the number of anti-gay figures who journeyed to Uganda for a three-day conference. In this conference, Lively helped to stoke a myriad of anti-gay lies and myths.
And anti-lgbt sentiments in Uganda are totally different than they are in America in terms of how the government embraces them.
. . .lifetime imprisonment on conviction of homosexuality, and defines a new category called “aggravated homosexuality” with provisions for the death penalty upon conviction. Among the factors which can lead to “aggravated homosexuality” is if one partner is HIV-positive. This bill would mandate HIV testing to determine eligibility for “aggravated homosexuality.”
The bill also pushed :
a complete ban on all LGBT activities — including blogging — which could be construed as “promoting homosexuality.”
So even after all of that, Lively didn't get arrested for what he said Monday. It's further proof that religious right claims about hate crimes legislation is inaccurate.
But it still bugs me how he tries to make himself into a noble soul during his speech when he goes on about how he will continue to say that homosexuality is wrong regardless of whether or not he gets arrested.
He needs to focus on his eagerness to lie.
Or does he think lying is okay.
One would think so based upon his history.
More than anyone could ever do, Lively puts the absolute hypocrisy of these folks on center stage. He is a perfect example of the old adage that action speaks louder than words.
The type of love that he and his cohorts claim to have is the type that no one needs.
I generally post news briefs at this but I ran across something that's totally unbelievable. Only the religious right would sanitize the reputation of a man who makes up stories about gays castrating children.
Author of a discredited book that tries to link the Nazi Party with the lgbt community (The Pink Swastika) Scott Lively has really reached the lines of lunacy.
In a One News Nowarticle, Free handbook on preserving traditional family values, Lively talks about a "textboook" he has authored, Redeeming the Rainbow: A Christian Response to the Gay Agenda:
According to Lively, the book is a useful tool for families with children in the junior high to high school range. He adds that the book takes a close look at how the homosexual movement pushes its agenda.
"Understanding the terminology that the gay movement has used to gain power and how that language has been used as a form of actual psychological manipulation of the public," Lively explains some topics the book covers.
This book is a 200+ page hot mess. It is a basic rehash of the same distortions, half truths, and anecdotes that the religious right have used to plague the lgbt community since the 1980s, including the Michael Swift lie and the "Overhauling of Straight America" lie.
But I noticed something else about Lively's book.
This isn't the work of an ignorant wannabe Christian activist blinded to the obvious because of his or her strident belief in the nobility of "the cause."
This book is created by someone who knows that he is telling refuted lies and distortions. A perfect example of this is not only Lively's usage of the discredited work of Paul Cameron but his sad attempts to rationalize the usage. The following passage is found in the "textbook":
Additional material may be found at www.familyresearchinst.org, the website of Dr. Paul Cameron. While Cameron has been the subject of intense, unrelenting criticism (and mockery) by “gay” activists and their allies, he has produced an impressive body of work related to the homosexual issue, much of it published in peer-reviewed journals, and I do not believe the criticism of his work is merited on scientific grounds.
First of all, Lively is lying. Much of Cameron's work has been published in pay-for-pay publications.
And while it's easy for Lively to dismiss repudiations of Cameron to the "nefarious work" of "gay activists and their allies," he conveniently does not mention a few facts:
"Right now, here in Lincoln, there is a 4-year-old boy who has had his genitals almost severed from his body at Gateway in the rest room with a homosexual act… It’s really awkward. I could see where Gateway would want to suppress this. I could see where the parents would want to suppress it. It could be just a rumor. But enough things have happened recently so that such a thing doesn’t have to be invented.” - Paul Cameron told this story to a group in 1982 in Lincoln, NB in an attempt to kill a human rightsordinance. The police discovered the story to be false but the ordinance was defeated.
And let's not forget the condemnations rained down on him by the medical community:
“(Cameron) misrepresents my findings and distorts them to advance his homophobic views. I make a very clear distinction in my writing between pedophilia and homosexuality, noting that adult males who sexually victimize young boys are either pedophilic or heterosexual, and that in my research I have not found homosexual men turning away from adult partners to children . . . I consider this totally unprofessional behavior on the part of Dr. Cameron and I want to bring this to your attention. He disgraces his profession.” - Dr. A. Nicholas Groth in 1984 after discovering that Cameron distorted his work.
"Paul Cameron (Nebraska) was dropped from membership for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists - American Psychological Association, 1983
The science and profession of psychology in Nebraska as represented by the Nebraska Psychological Association, formally dissociates itself from the representations and interpretations of scientific literature offered by Dr. Paul Cameron in his writings and public statements on sexuality. Further, the Nebraska Psychological Association would like it known that Dr. Cameron is not a member of the Association. Dr. Cameron was recently dropped from membership in the American Psychological Association for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists - Nebraska Psychological Association, 1984
Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism" - American Sociological Association, 1985
The Canadian Psychological Association takes the position that Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism and thus, it formally disassociates itself from the representation and interpretations of scientific literature in his writings and public statements on sexuality. - Canadian Psychological Association, 1996
And while we are at it, let's not forget those on the right who dismiss Cameron's work:
"Given what I now know, I believe there are flaws with Paul Cameron's study. One cannot extrapolate from his methodology and say that the average male homosexual life span is 43 years." - former Ronald Regan Cabinet member William Bennett criticizing Cameron's "gay lifespan study." - New Republic (1998, February 23, page 4)
The groups run by Cameron and Lively (The Family Research Institute and Abiding Truth Ministries), by the way, are considered anti-gay hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They have this classification not because they believe that homosexuality is a sin.
According to Mark Potok, the director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center:
“ . . .we don’t ordinarily list groups that say homosexuality is wrong or see it as a sin; we list very few anti-gay groups. They have to be very extreme in their views. We see Lively the same way we see Paul Cameron; the two of them in our view consciously promote easily provable false defamations. They don’t seem to care at all what the truth is.”
If you want to read Lively's "textbook," the One News Now article has a link where you can receive it. I refuse to link to such a nasty piece of propaganda.
Recently, lgbt activist and radio host Michelangelo Signorile conducted an interview with infamous anti-gay activist Scott Lively.
It went as well as one could expect and if you have a desire to listen to the entire thing, check out this Huffington Post link.
However, one section really caught my ear:
Asked about his comments on a radio program in which he suggested
President Obama is the “anti-Christ,” Lively laughed and denied saying
anything of the kind.
“I did not say that Obama is the
anti-Christ,” he flatly replied. But then when the tape was played for
him, in which Lively talks of the anti-Christ being the leader of the
“largest superpower in the world,” he revised his answer.
“No, no — that’s Obama,” he admitted, adding, "but the context of that show was laying out a hypothetical situation.”
In other words, Lively lied, got caught on it, and tried to explain it away.
Of all of the 36 anti-gay pundits on GLAAD's Media Accountability Project, I would say that Scott Lively has done more than enough to make the list and then some.
The following are his stats:
Former state director for the California branch of American Family Association, which Southern Poverty Law Center named a Hate Group, and formed anti-gay Watchmen on the Walls group based in Latvia.
Facts
- Called for the criminalization of "the public advocacy of homosexuality."
- Is directly linked to anti-gay legislation in Uganda, which makes simply being gay punishable by death.
- Because of his intense influence and work in Uganda, has been blamed for the death of equality advocate David Kato.
- Is now advocating for anti-gay activism in Moldavia.
However according to Lively, he is being attacked for supposedly telling a basic truth. At least that's what he implies in a recent piece on his Defend The Family webpage. He wrote the piece after a lawsuit was announced against him in federal court for his "activities" in Uganda.
(The 2009 Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters Misinformers of the Year awards are coming later today - provided I can shake this ugly seasonal thing I've got.)
Yesterday, the New York Times came out with a sensational article about the Ugandan anti-gay bill. It was short, precise and linked Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundidge, and Don Schmierer to the bill, making sure to note that their "teachings" that homosexuality can be cured has been discredited in this country and also noting how the bill came to pass because of a conference the three took part in earlier last year in Uganda.
And in the article, they come across exactly as they are -anti-gay charlatans who are now cowardly backtracking after the world sees what they have done.
For three days, according to participants and audio recordings, thousands of Ugandans, including police officers, teachers and national politicians, listened raptly to the Americans, who were presented as experts on homosexuality. The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how “the gay movement is an evil institution” whose goal is “to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.”
Now the three Americans are finding themselves on the defensive, saying they had no intention of helping stoke the kind of anger that could lead to what came next: a bill to impose a death sentence for homosexual behavior.
One month after the conference, a previously unknown Ugandan politician, who boasts of having evangelical friends in the American government, introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, which threatens to hang homosexuals, and, as a result, has put Uganda on a collision course with Western nations.
Personally I don't buy their huge mea culpa. When you demonize lgbts as predators, just what do you think would happen? Was there some belief that folks would welcome lgbts with open arms after being told that they want to rape children (and bear in mind, I said "rape," which is bad enough. The fact that Lively and company actually took the time to spin exact details on how gays supposedly rape children - via sodomy - is even worse.)
Last week, anti-gay activist Scott Lively whined in a local Boston newspaper that he is being unfairly criticized for his stances against the lgbt community, including playing a huge role in the creation of the infamous "kill the gays" bill in Uganda.
After an incident in Uganda yesterday, he may want to keep his mouth shut:
An outspoken Ugandan gay activist whose picture recently appeared in an anti-gay newspaper under the headline “Hang Them” was beaten to death in his home, Ugandan police said on Thursday.
David Kato, the activist, was one of the most visible defenders of gay rights in a country so homophobic that government leaders have proposed to execute gay people. Mr. Kato and other gay people in Uganda had recently warned that their lives were endangered, and four months ago a local paper called Rolling Stone published a list of gay people, and Mr. Kato’s face was on the front page.
At press time, the police do not view Kato's murder as a hate crime, but a robbery. However some lgbt activists in Uganda disagree:
Gay activists . . . said Mr. Kato was singled out for his outspoken defense of gay rights. “David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S. Evangelicals in 2009,” said Val Kalende, the chairperson of one of Uganda’s gay rights groups, in a statement. “The Ugandan government and the so-called U.S. evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood!”
Mrs. Kalende was referring to visits in March 2009 by a group of American evangelicals who held anti-gay rallies and church leaders who authored the anti-gay bill, which is still pending, attended those meetings and said that they had worked with the Americans on their bill.
One of the those activists was Scott Lively He even bragged that the 2009 visits created a "nuclear bomb against the gay agenda in Uganda."
Kato's death comes almost a month after the arrest of Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa on conspiracy charges. Ssempa, a chief pusher of the country's "Kill the Gays" bill and also for his penchant for showing "scat porn" in church is among eight people who was either detained or sought after an "alleged conspiracy to injure the reputation of Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral, Kampala."
Ssempa and eight others had been charged with spreading rumors that Kayanja was gay, which is supposedly a common way to settle political scores in Uganda, but has deadlier implications since the controversy about the anti-gay bill.
David Kato was a spokesperson for Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and one of the plaintiffs (or applicants) in the successful lawsuit seeking a permanent injunction against the Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone (no relation to the U.S. publication of the same name). Kato was one of three applicants who had been named by the tabloid under a headline tagged “Hang Them!” His photo appeared on the tabloid’s front cover.
LGBT Ugandans have lived under a menacing atmosphere for more than a decade. The anti-gay hysteria has increased significantly since the introduction of the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill into parliament in 2009. That bill, which remains under review Parliamentary committee, would impose the death penalty on LGBT Ugandans under certain circumstances and criminalize all advocacy by or on behalf of LGBT people. It would also criminalize even knowing someone who is gay if that person fails to report their LGBT loved one to police within 24 hours. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for February 18, and the bill is expected to be considered after Parliament returns for a lame-duck session before the new Parliament begins in May.
Now in all honesty, we do not know the truth behind Kato's murder at the present, so it may be unfair to blame Lively. Certainly he never told people to kill anyone. And according to him, he never agreed with the death penalty facet of the Ugandan anti-gay bill.
But he did fan the flames of hatred towards lgbts in Uganda and that's the funny thing about fanning flames.
They always get out of hand and sooner or later, someone gets burned.
Remember when homophobe and supporter of the Uganda "kill the gays" bill Scott Lively complained in January about how he was being "persecuted for his Christian beliefs? Remember how in that same month some folks on the right - particularly Peter LaBarbera ran to his defense against us supposed mean-spirited activists who pointed out how Lively's rhetoric may have led to the needless murder of Ugandan activist David Kato?
This following video putS everything in a new perspective. It's allegedly Lively giving a talk about homosexuality while in Uganda. But regardless of where it took place, what Lively says gives serious room for pause for anyone who would call him a "Christian activist." It should give serious room for pause for anyone who call Lively a decent human being:
Randy Short don't like the LGBTQ community or the National Black Caucus
As if the LGBTQ community doesn't have enough to deal with how the Trump Administration is empowering overt attacks on us and our families, even the dregs of bigotry are attempting to take wild shots.
Imagine an anti-LGBTQ gathering that included remarks by a trio of aggressively anti-gay activists—Scott Lively, Peter LaBarbera, and Brian Camenker—and now imagine that none of them was the most ridiculous, obnoxious or extreme speaker. Such was the scene at the National Press Club on Tuesday afternoon, where a new group calling itself “Gone Too Far” introduced itself with tirades against the LGBTQ equality movement, the proposed federal Equality Act, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus who support it.
Three right-wing African American pastors—Randy Short, Stephen Broden and E.W. Jackson—are part of the group’s organizing committee, as are Lively, LaBarbera, and Camenker. (Notably, the latter three were all part of a group of Religious Right leaders who defended Rep. Steve King when he was punished by his House colleagues for his most recent racist comments.) Additional organizing committee members include Arthur Shaper, head of the California branch of Camenker’s MassResistance; Paul Blair, president of Reclaiming America for Christ; and his Oklahoma clergy colleague, Dan Fisher. Blair is also a promoter of “nullification”–the notion that the individual states hold the power to nullify federal laws.
The press conference began with the blowing of a shofar, prayer, the singing of “Jesus Loves the Little Children” and “God Bless America,” and the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. When Short took to the podium, things went downhill quickly.
Earlier this week, I wrote a post about how anti-gay activist Scott Lively claimed on ABC News that he didn't envision Uganda pushing for that draconian anti-gay bill even though he had:
a. visited the country earlier that year during a conference and told negative stories about the gay and lesbian community and
b. had been going to foreign countries as far back as 2007 (i.e. Russia) and advocating that they "criminalize homosexuality."
How about a little visual aid in regards to his technique courtesy of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The above video is him speaking at a WOTW conference in Novosibirsk, Russia in 2007. There are two things I want you all to notice.
1. How he makes the American gay community sound like a criminal syndicate from a James Bond movie.
2. A story he tells about the murder of a gay man in Sacramento. The following transcript of what he says is from Box Turtle Bulletin (an excellent site which chronicles, among other things, the how the Ugandan anti-gay bill came into being). It starts at 0.15
Now, I’ve been working with the Russian community in Sacramento. And I want to tell you this is an example of how bad things are in the United States. Because we’ve come to a place in the United States where the homosexuals have achieved very high power. And they’ve begun to punish… They’ve begun to cause the political powers to punish anyone who says that homosexuality is wrong.
There was a situation in Sacramento a few weeks ago in a public park. There was a group of homosexuals and they were very drunk and one of the homosexual men was taking off his pants. And there were children in the park. And a Russian man went over to these homosexuals and he was rebuking them and there started a fight. And the Russian man punched the homosexual. [The audience starts to shout and applaud.] No, no, no, don’t… The man was very drunk… the homosexual was very drunk. He was very drunk and he fell down and he hit his head and he died. [Some in the audience start to applaud and laugh] No…. no…
Now the Russian man has been accused of murder and the FBI is seeking him. And all of the powers in Sacramento have been accusing all of the Russian community of being murderers. And the goal is to silence everyone who speaks against homosexuality. And this is a very dangerous situation because we don’t want homosexuals to be killed. We want them to be saved. Amen?
The transcript does not lie. When they are told that the gay man died, members of the audience did start to laugh and applaud and Lively did signal that it was not appropriate.
Of course I am not making this clarification to somehow exonerate Lively in any fashion. His comments to the audience about how it's not right to laugh at the murder of a gay man is the equivalent of an arsonist setting a fire and then yelling at the fire to die down.
This audience is obviously rabidly anti-gay and Lively is instigating more anti-gay hysteria by falsely claiming that gays are corrupting the United States. The implication is obviously "if you don't do something, this corruption will happen to your country."
And again it accentuates my point. I personally refuse to believe that Lively did not know that the Ugandans would react so negatively to his lies about the gay community by creating that bill.
But even if by some chance he was telling the truth, does it lessen his guilt?
By the way, the murder which Lively spoke about so callously was committed against Satendar Singh. It happened like this:
A group of Slavic men picnicking with their families at the lake allegedly noticed that Satendar did not have a female date, and that he danced with both women and men in his party. Witnesses reported that the attackers began hurling anti-gay and racist invectives. As things escalated, the attackers sent their families home and called for backup. When a new group of men showed up, the party tried to leave, but was blocked by the attackers. One of the men struck Satendar, who fell unconscious, his head bleeding profusely. As the attackers went to their cars to get away, they hurled bottles at the members of Satendar’s party, which included a young woman who is 6 months pregnant.
Satendar Singh was taken to Mercy San Juan hospital, where tests indicated no brain activity. Over 100 family members and friends went to the hospital to be with him in his final days, and he died on July 5th.
Aleksandr Shevchenko, the man charged with a hate crime after fatally beating Satendar Singh at Lake Natoma, California, in 2007. When a jury deadlocked in Shevchenko’s trial, the court instead convicted Singh’s killer for disturbing the peace and simple assault. The court sentenced Shevchenko to 150 days in jail. An August 2, 2008, article published by the Sacramento Bee reported the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office will not retry Shevchenko on the hate crime charge. Because of the verdict, the value of Satendar Singh’s life has been reduced to approximately five months in jail.
So much for having "high power."
And how about one more bit a footage to gall your gut. The following video from an anti-hate crimes rally held in November of last year. At .09 is Lively speaking. His words about being ready to go to jail if arrested for proclaiming that homosexuality is wrong takes on a certain irony when one takes into account his actions in Uganda and Russia, don't they?:
One more thing - the woman standing behind him is Janet Porter, the religious right spokesperson who during a conference last week demanded that God give "Christians" like herself control of the media.
Makes you wonder just who are the heroes and who are the villains around here, doesn't it?
Apparently we lgbts in the United States and Europe are to blame for the harsh anti-gay laws they are trying to pushing in Uganda.
