Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
Silence of the Lambs actor Ted Levine: Trans villain was 'f*cking wrong' - Even though it was stated several times in the film that he was not actually trans, I can understand why folks still feel negative towards the character. Like someone in the article said, it was some people's first introduction to what could have been perceived as a trans character. And it was NOT a good one.
“I vetoed a nearly identical bill to this one last year,” said Gov. Ayotte, according to The New Hampshire Bulletin. “I made it clear this issue needed to be addressed in a thoughtful, narrow way that protects the privacy, safety, and rights of all Granite Staters. Unfortunately, there is minimal difference between Senate Bill 268 and the bill I vetoed last year, which [Republican] Governor [Chris] Sununu vetoed the year prior.”
When Gov.(Kelly) Ayotte vetoed a similar bill last year, she said, “I believe there are important and legitimate privacy and safety concerns raised by biological males using places such as female locker rooms and being placed in female correctional facilities. At the same time, I see that [this bill] is overly broad and impractical to enforce, potentially creating an exclusionary environment for some of our citizens.”
Republicans Want Nothing to Do With Conservative Efforts to Ban Gay Marriage- This isn't surprising seeing how popular gay marriage (same-sex marriage) is. And besides its popularity, we now have a generation raised with the reality that same-sex couples can legally marry and no one can offer any reason to them why this should suddenly become illegal. Same-sex marriage has become normalized in the fabric of the American experience. BUT that doesn't mean we should slack off or rest easy. Hard fought rights taken for granted are always rights eventually lost.
Hat tip to Joe Jervis for supplying the above link. Here is the link to his post for those who want a shorter breakdown of the above article.
A judicial strategy focused on the supposed harm to children caused by marriage equality.
A public relations campaign to change public opinion, which is currently solidly in favor of marriage equality.
A campaign to turn churches into “a child-centered fighting force.”
As you can read, the strategy relies on the same tactics and lies which lost them the fight in the first place. The way to fight this is to continue to marry, continue to be happy, and above all continue to amplify our families and the stories of our families and marriages.
In a recent tweet, prominent conservative pastor Franklin Graham accused Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny of having a 'sexualized agenda.' He also praised Kid Rock who has in the past sang about sex with underage girls. Responders to his tweet were very vocal about his hypocrisy.
Sunday is the Superbowl and MAGA conservatives are upset that Puerto Rican superstar and recent Grammy recipient for 'Album of the Year' Bad Bunny is headlining the halftime show. So, to counter it, far-right group Turning Point USA (associated with the late Charlie Kirk) is putting on its own halftime show.
This show will feature has been rock star Kid Rock.
Since the announcement that Bad Bunny would be the Super Bowl’s headlining act, conservatives have criticized the choice by pointing to his previous comments on President Donald Trump. At last Sunday’s Grammy Awards, Bad Bunny also spoke out against ICE’s immigration enforcement in the U.S.
In response to the conservative outcry, Turning Point has organized an alternative show for those not interested in the Spanish-speaking artist.
TPUSA’s show will also include Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.
In a video posted by Benny Johnson, Kid Rock hinted at what he’ll be bringing to the table Sunday night:
But I think one thing important that I would like to get out there and say to everyone is that I think I speak for us all at Turning Point, the other artists that are performing, when I say that in no way, shape or form, don’t let the left twist this around. Like, in no way are we approaching this with any hate in our hearts. We’re simply gonna go play some great songs, like I’ve said, for our base, people who love football, love America, love good music, love Jesus. It’s pretty much that simple.
It’s unknown just how many people will tune in to Turning Point’s show, but prominent conservatives have vowed to boycott the NFL’s. Samaritan’s Purse CEO Franklin Graham claimed on X/Twitter that he’d be watching the former — complaining that the NFL show has been “pushing moral boundaries.”
Graham's tweet is below:
Like most Americans, I’ve enjoyed watching the Super Bowl. But the halftime shows began pushing moral boundaries and have become more and more sexualized. This year, they’re having Bad Bunny perform. The @NFL leadership is pushing this sexualized agenda. Thank you, @TPUSA and…
Here is where the story gets deliciously interesting.
All of this Superbowl attention has created a renewed interest in Kid Rock's past songs, particularly one song named Daddy Cool in which he talked about sex with underage girls:
His song "Cool, Daddy Cool" with rapper Joe Calleja, or Joe C., includes lyrics in which Kid Rock sang, "I like 'em underage," referring to women.
"Young ladies, young ladies, I like 'em underage, see. Some say that's statutory," Kid Rock sings in the song.
"But I say it's mandatory," Joe C. sings in response.
Graham's hypocrisy about Bad Bunny and Kid Rock did not escape notice. Responders to his tweet proceeded to call him out and figuratively drag him all over Twitter. As for myself, I found the entire thing amusing that after all of these years of falsely accusing LGBTQ people of sexualizing kids, Franklin Graham has the gall to publicly praise someone who actually sang about sexualizing kids.
Well, Elmer Gantry, Kid Rock -does- sing the new anthem of the Republican Party.
Your hypocrisy isn’t even startling any longer, but it gets more pathetic every day.
Neither of you are Christians. As a born Catholic , I resent you and those like you using the Lord as a cheap political pawn and misrepresenting his teachings. SHAME https://t.co/GIF156cmdm
You’re a man of God? Judgmental much? Perhaps this picture will enlighten you as it pertains to Bad Bunny. I also suggest u read kid rock articles. pic.twitter.com/dv1gE7GLrf
'Greater Than,' an anti-gay marriage campaign, was caught falsely implying that former President Barack Obama supports its efforts. The campaign, run by white conservatives, is also using racist tropes against white gay fathers. (click on the picture to enlarge it)
Campaign to end gay marriage falsely claims Barack Obama’s support -You can simply smell the desperation with these folks. First, they took grabbed a quote Obama made in 2010 and deliberately mischaracterized it to make give the impression that he opposes marriage equality when in fact:
Barack Obama publicly declared his support for same-sex marriage in a May 9, 2012 interview with ABC News, making him the first sitting U.S. president to do so. He also appointed two Supreme Court justices — Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — who both voted in favor of the landmark 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
And then there is this naked appeal to racist tropes involving Black children (as if these liars ever cared about Black children):
Greater Than’s website also features what appears to be an AI-generated image of a Black teenage boy looking sad and troubled, while his oblivious and uncaring white gay dads hold hands in the background.
It’s notable that a campaign seemingly entirely run by white Christian conservatives would misrepresent the only Black president’s words and then fabricate a computer-generated photo-realistic image of a Black boy menaced by gay men in order to gain sympathy from Black community members and people who care about children’s well-being; essentially treating Black people as puppets and props.
Carolina LGBTQ+ community member dies unexpectedly - R.I.P. to a wonderful friend who I've known ever since my college days at Winthrop University. He made a positive impact on our community during his time here.
Extremely anti-trans (and very public about it) SC Congresswoman Nancy Mace is the subject of what many are calling an explosive expose in a New York Magazine profile. And it's not pretty.
The title alone, Nancy Mace Is Not Okay, gives you an indication of where the article is going.
By focusing on her recent questionable behavior (such as causing a huge scene at a Charleston airport last year and then accusing SC Attorney General Alan Wilson of plotting against her) and interviews with former staff members, it paints the picture of an erratic and unbalanced lawmaker.
The publication cites several former staffers, including a former top consultant to her gubernatorial campaign, who described her behavior as erratic and accused her of being abusive. Mace’s office fiercely denied the claims made in the piece and trashed its author in a statement to NYMag.
The picture painted by the former employees detailed some of their concerns with Mace, who was first elected as a representative in 2021. Supporters of the congresswoman argue that Mace instead is a victim of ex-staffers’ axe grinding.
“We were scared of her,” one former staffer told NYMag. “She would make staffers cry. She would threaten to fire them, take their money away, not give them raises, not to give them days off, religious days.”
Another former staffer detailed how early in her career Mace would push for appearances on national and local TV to help her brand. Her staffers thought she had potential, even if her behavior had them questioning her actions.
“Something’s broken. The motherboard’s fried. We’re short-circuiting somewhere,” a staffer told the magazine.
Former staffers said Mace treated them like maids after she arrived in Congress in January 2021, ordering them to clean the multiple properties she was renting out on Airbnb, including her Washington townhouse. Ahead of election night in 2022, Mace instructed her staffers to spiff up her $3.9 million home in Isle of Palms, South Carolina, for a watch party, a former staffer with direct knowledge told New York magazine.
Mace also started dispatching staffers on late-night runs for alcohol to keep parties going at her home. “Look, when I worked for her, our poor scheduler was getting calls at two o’clock in the morning to come bring her bottles of tequila,” one former staffer told New York magazine.
. . . One staffer alleged Mace’s excessive drinking and marijuana use became an issue. They recalled an incident in 2022 when Mace wanted to fire an aide for “doxxing” her because the aide told reporters she was out of the country, even though Mace had already announced her trip to a group of supporters just days before.
“She would definitely do it excessively,” the staffer said of the congresswoman’s drinking and marijuana usage. “And again, not to say that most members don’t or most staff don’t, but it got to the point where it was an issue.”
Mace infamously transformed herself from an LGBTQ ally to one of its loudest and meanspirited opposers in Congress, often publicly slurring trans women during hearings. She blames transgender Americans for supposedly changing her mind, particularly the election of the first trans woman to Congress, Sarah McBride. In doing so, Mace also utilizes ugly and untrue tropes about transgender women in bathrooms and locker rooms to justify her change.
A lot of folks have claimed that she was being opportunistic. Perhaps there is more to the story.
Forty-seven conservative and anti-LGBTQ groups are teaming up in an effort to overturn the 2015 SCOTUS decision which legalized gay marriage. There is one interesting roadblock in their efforts, though. Their goal is to change public opinion by utilizing the same tired lying narrative of "gays are dangerous to kids" which led to their defeat.
Forty-seven right-wing organizations have joined together to try to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell ruling that found same-sex couples have the same rights and responsibilities to marriage as different-sex couples. The coalition’s focus is to change national public opinion on same-sex marriage by declaring that children are “Greater Than” equality.
“We’re all going to speak with one voice, and it is ‘don’t touch the kids,’” the group’s founder, right-wing activist Katy Faust, told American Family Radio, as People for the American Way reported.
“Faust made it clear that the campaign will continue a long and dishonorable legacy of anti-LGBTQ forces smearing gay people and couples as threats to children,” PFAW added. “She called parenting by same-sex couples a ‘destructive state-sanctioned gaslighting experiment on children.'”
According to The Daily Signal, which was launched by The Heritage Foundation, Faust also said that since the Obergefell ruling, children have been “deprived of the unique love and guidance only a mother and father can provide.”
Numerous studies have shown that children raised by same-sex parents fare at least as well as children raised by different-sex parents.
A large 2014 study found that children raised by same-sex couples were happier and healthier than their peers raised by different-sex couples.
In 2023, The Guardian reported on a study that also found that “children of same-sex couples fare just as well, if not better, than those of heterosexual couples.”
“The findings chime with several other studies, including three decades of research from Australia that revealed children raised by same-sex parents do as well emotionally, socially and educationally as their peers in heterosexual families.”
This, however, doesn't seem to deter Faust nor anyone else on the video which you can view above as they spew generalized nonsense about the virtues of heterosexual couples raising kids. They offer no proof that children are damaged by living in married same-sex households or same-sex households in general.
While the video has received the bulk of the attention so far, it’s the campaign’s website that actually deserves a closer look. Because surely there’s evidence that children with gay parents suffer, right?
Nope. There are no studies cited on the website. There’s no proof of any sort offered anywhere.
On a Q&A page that asks “Don’t studies show that children with same-sex parents fare just as well as those raised by their mother and father?” the response is that any study affirming that notion… must be a bad study.
Studies of same-sex-headed households — which are always missing a biological parent, maternal or paternal love, and in which the child has suffered parental loss — largely suffer from poor methodology.
And then there is this one:
There’s another question that asks “Do you believe gay people are bad parents/don’t love their kids?”
Instead of saying “Yes” or “No,” the website just repeats the conservative talking point that same-sex couples can’t provide kids with what they need:
A woman who identifies as a lesbian can be a loving mother, but she cannot be a father. A gay man can be a loving father, but he cannot be a mother. Children need, deserve, and have a right to both.
Faust and company are using an embarrassingly fraudulent game plan and based upon the timidity shown on their webpage, it's obvious that they don't believe it themselves.
Same-sex parenting isn't an experiment nor is it seen as such by the American public. It's a fact. Back in the day before gay marriage, or marriage equality, it may have been categorized as an "experiment," but now is completely different. Many more people personally know gay couples raising children. They don't see anything wrong with it. And they definitely don't buy the idea that a gay couple raising a child is somehow depriving a child of anything.
While we have seen the anti-LGBTQ industry garner tremendous success with transforming their anti-gay tropes to harm the trans community, the idea that they can circle back and reuse these lies against gay couples and families is doubtful. At least for now.
But a little advice from me to you, Katy Faust. If your mantra is "don't touch the kids," then you should follow your advice and leave our families and OUR KIDS alone.
