I should but I won't cause it's Black History Month
I should talk more about the Greater Mount Calvary situation. But I won't.
There are soooooo many things I could say, but I choose not to for now.
In reading all I could about the issue, the only thing I could come up is this adage dealing with the gay men who still attended that church after being psychologically bashed:
People will stop getting slapped when they no longer want to be slapped.
But tomorrow (or today, all depending on the hours) is the start of Black History Month and that is what my focus is going to be on.
On the lower right side of this blog are the names of African-American lgbts who left their mark. Some you may have heard of, others you have not heard of.
And I am sure that there are some on that list that you did not know were lgbt.
Whatever the case, all of these folks (and many others) deserve to get their due. So listing them is my little way of making sure I never forget their names.
You can find out more about these folks if you click on the names.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Well I was rested, then all hell broke loose
As soon as I was done posting my last entry, I caught something that just blew me away:
Outing campaign roils D.C. black Baptist church
More than 100 members named as gay in e-mails to pastor, congregation
By LOU CHIBBARO JR. Jan 30, 2:14 PM
One of Washington’s largest black Baptist churches was rocked by a female member of its choir who sent separate e-mail messages to the pastor in December and January outing more than 100 church members as gay, mostly male choir members.
The outings added to the inner turmoil experienced by a large number of gays who attend services at the 7,000-member Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church, located on Rhode Island Ave., N.E., according to a gay former member who provided copies of the e-mails to the Blade.“I will be leaving the choir at the top of the year because 80 percent of the tenors are homosexuals and act more like a female in choir rehearsal than I do,” the church choir member said in one of her e-mails to Bishop Alfred Owens Jr., the church pastor.
The e-mail, sent in December, identifies about 45 fellow church members as gay.
She sent a second e-mail to Owens on Jan. 2 identifying another 62 church members as gay.“The following people I am asking you to monitor very closely and my prayer is that you will sit them down from their ministries,” she told Owens in the December e-mail. “
Because they are ushering in the presence of sin, lies, a spirit of homosexuality and sexual spirits.”She sent a copy of her e-mails to a Yahoo list group that goes to more than 300 church members, the gay former church member said.
The gay former church member redacted all of the names from the copies of the e-mails he sent to the Blade, including the name of the choir member who orchestrated the outings.Officials with the National Black Justice Coalition, a Washington-based group that advocates for African-American gays, and the D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Men & Women, said they have seen or spoken with people who have seen un-redacted copies of the e-mails.
Pam Spaulding's site has more on this mess.
I would be shocked but it's a classic case of the chickens coming home to roost.
Oh I will be watching this mess unfold.
As soon as I was done posting my last entry, I caught something that just blew me away:
Outing campaign roils D.C. black Baptist church
More than 100 members named as gay in e-mails to pastor, congregation
By LOU CHIBBARO JR. Jan 30, 2:14 PM
One of Washington’s largest black Baptist churches was rocked by a female member of its choir who sent separate e-mail messages to the pastor in December and January outing more than 100 church members as gay, mostly male choir members.
The outings added to the inner turmoil experienced by a large number of gays who attend services at the 7,000-member Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church, located on Rhode Island Ave., N.E., according to a gay former member who provided copies of the e-mails to the Blade.“I will be leaving the choir at the top of the year because 80 percent of the tenors are homosexuals and act more like a female in choir rehearsal than I do,” the church choir member said in one of her e-mails to Bishop Alfred Owens Jr., the church pastor.
The e-mail, sent in December, identifies about 45 fellow church members as gay.
She sent a second e-mail to Owens on Jan. 2 identifying another 62 church members as gay.“The following people I am asking you to monitor very closely and my prayer is that you will sit them down from their ministries,” she told Owens in the December e-mail. “
Because they are ushering in the presence of sin, lies, a spirit of homosexuality and sexual spirits.”She sent a copy of her e-mails to a Yahoo list group that goes to more than 300 church members, the gay former church member said.
The gay former church member redacted all of the names from the copies of the e-mails he sent to the Blade, including the name of the choir member who orchestrated the outings.Officials with the National Black Justice Coalition, a Washington-based group that advocates for African-American gays, and the D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Men & Women, said they have seen or spoken with people who have seen un-redacted copies of the e-mails.
Pam Spaulding's site has more on this mess.
I would be shocked but it's a classic case of the chickens coming home to roost.
Oh I will be watching this mess unfold.
Wednesdays are hell
Not a long post tonight. I am all MRSAed out.
I hope folks don't think that I dwelled too long about the situation. But just in case there are folks who do feel that way, remember:
The Watergate controversy didn't happen in a short time. It took over a year for Woodward and Bernstein to get the pieces together and find the corruption that dominated the Nixon White House.
Patience is a virtue. Diligence is a Godsend.
But anyway, I took the time to update my other webpage, Anti-Gay Lies and Liars. I added more entries for the year of 2008 and a few for 2007.
I am still in the process of fine tuning it so please bear with me and don't hold any errors in form against me.
And before I forget (shameless plug) - buy my book. You can find out more information here.
Not a long post tonight. I am all MRSAed out.
I hope folks don't think that I dwelled too long about the situation. But just in case there are folks who do feel that way, remember:
The Watergate controversy didn't happen in a short time. It took over a year for Woodward and Bernstein to get the pieces together and find the corruption that dominated the Nixon White House.
Patience is a virtue. Diligence is a Godsend.
But anyway, I took the time to update my other webpage, Anti-Gay Lies and Liars. I added more entries for the year of 2008 and a few for 2007.
I am still in the process of fine tuning it so please bear with me and don't hold any errors in form against me.
And before I forget (shameless plug) - buy my book. You can find out more information here.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Keep it up, Peter, keep it up. Sink deeper into that hole
Peter LaBarbera continues try and whitewash his lie about the MRSA infection.
And he continues to step in his own mess. Let's talk about today's entry:
Here’s an e-mail I sent last Wednesday to one fellow who requested that AFTAH “correct our website”:
Richard, they [gay activists] created a straw man, and then tore it down. It’s ridiculous. I talked [in the AFTAH story] about other people getting MRSA at the hospital, etc. Now, I did say that this story had eerie reminders of the initial days of AIDS, and in saying that I was referring to the fact that BEHAVIORS were linked to that disease’s spread. I’m a pretty direct person, as you might have deduced (much more so than even many in the conservative, pro-family movement): if I wanted to call [MRSA] the [new] “gay plague,” I would have wrote a headline like this: ‘Is MRSA the Next Gay Plague?’ — which I didn’t.
Most of the media took the same interpretation as I did, minus the anti-gay-behavior editorializing, of course. I hope you’ll grant that we have the right to do that since, after all, we are opposed to homosexual BEHAVIOR. To read the actual MRSA [study] (have you read it?), you’d almost have to have the editorial instincts of an old Soviet Pravda editor to assert that it does not implicate reckless gay male behavior. Guess what: I’ll bet the researchers’ “sins” were grossly overstated, too! [homosexual activists have assailed researchers for overstating the MRSA-gay link]. As for Matt [Barber] and CWA, he’s a big boy and more than capable of defending himself. Best–pl
So now, he is clarifying what he said. But check out the semantics. No he did not call MRSA infection the new "gay plague" per se. But he did infer as much. Repeating what he said via a press release sent out by him on January 15, 2008:
Is this not an eerie reminder of the initial stories 25 years ago about AIDS -- then called GRID (Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease)? It is unfathomable that after that plague, disease specialists and the media are now surprised at the correlation of new infections with homosexual behavior;Wake up, medical and political establishment: homosexual behavior is unhealthy -- no matter how many secular sermons you preach against "homophobia." Due to liberal political correctness, which treats aberrant -- even deadly -- behaviors as a "civil right," we as a society don't seem to have learned much from the AIDS pandemic - LaBarbera: New MRSA Staph Risk Spread by Gay Men Shows Risks of 'Second-Hand Sodomy'
The words may not be exact but the connotation is there. Peter is weasling big time. And while he is talking about what the study said in order to prove his point, he omits the statements from the authors of the study and the CDC repudiating what he and Matt Barber (Concerned Women for America) said about the study.
By the way, I keep hearing from him and Barber as to how "homosexual pressure groups" bullied the researchers. But they have never produced proof. As Jeremy from Goodasyou.org pointed out, HRC wrote a letter castigating anti-gay industry groups for distorting the study. They never attacked the researchers.
And I just love this part:
Try this: do a quick Google search on syphills, gonorrhea, chlamydia, hepatitis, anal warts, anal cancer, etc. — combined with the word “gay” — and you’ll come up with a host of articles, some written by pro-homosexuality websites, that implicate homosexual behaviors in the disproportionately high incidence of said maladies among “gay” men.
What bullshit. I am sure that if I typed those words and combined with the word "women" or "African-American," I would find articles talking about how these diseases affect those population. To make a leap like Peter just did pretty much illustrates how the anti-gay industry finds data to distort.
Lastly, I noticed that Peter mentions John R. Diggs. Now unlike the article I talked about yesterday, Peter did mention that ridiculously fradulent paper Diggs wrote (The Health Risks of Gay Sex). For those who bought my book, you can read the long version of what I say about Diggs's paper.
But for those who have not read my book, let me give you an excerpt:
Twice, John R. Diggs includes the study done by Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg in their book, Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women, as indicative of the entire gay population. In one passage, he even refers to it as “a far ranging study of homosexual men . . .” But Bell and Weinberg never said that their findings were indicative of all gay men. They actually said “. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlikely that any investigator willever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”
Diggs cites a Canadian study twice in order to claim that gays have a shorter lifespan than heterosexuals. But his citation of the study is a mischaracterization. In 2001, the six original researchers (Robert S. Hogg, Stefan A. Strathdee, Kevin J.P. Craib, Michael V. O’Shaughnessy, Julion Montaner, and Martin T. Schechter) who conducted that study have gone on record saying that religious conservatives (like Diggs) was distorting their work.
In another section entitled Physical Health, Diggs claims that gays are victims of “gay bowel syndrome.” The term is an obsolete medical term. exist and even the CDC does not use it. In fact, if one was to look at the endnotes of Diggs’ study, he would find that two of the sources he quoted concerning “gay bowel syndrome” were from articles in published in 1976 and 1983, which is consistent with the years that the term existed. One last source was a letter to the editor printed in 1994 but Diggs does not make it clear as to whatwere the circumstances surrounding it.
Diggs generalizes convenience sample studies as indicative of the gay population at large. Diggs takes studies done in foreign countries and claims that they are indicative of the gay population at large.
Diggs claims that there are five distinctions between heterosexual and homosexual populations including levels of promiscuity, physical health, mental health, lifespan, and monogamy. However, he spends very little time comparing the two dynamics. He uses all of his time castigating gay populations.
Diggs uses an out of date book, The Gay Report (published in 1979) to claim that gays are engaging in deviant sexual practices. Only once does he attempt to tie the alleged deviant practices of gays in 1979 to present day; and to do so, he cites two events that took place regarding bondage workshops. However, there is a strong indication that heterosexuals took part in these events as well as gays. Diggs ignores this dynamic.
In other words, it's anti-gay industry crap but in a different wrapper. What Diggs wrote is no different from what Timothy Dailey of the Family Research Council wrote, or Robert Knight wrote when he was with Concerned Women for America, or what Glenn Stanton from Focus on the Family wrote.
It is the same standard lies and distorted studies repeated over and over again. The big crime is that someone probably paid Diggs to write his hot mess when they could have easily slumped over to the Family Research Council's webpage and gotten it for free.
But back to Peter: it is apparent that he recognizes what mess he made. And even if it's not an apology, to see him flail is rather nice.
Peter LaBarbera continues try and whitewash his lie about the MRSA infection.
And he continues to step in his own mess. Let's talk about today's entry:
Here’s an e-mail I sent last Wednesday to one fellow who requested that AFTAH “correct our website”:
Richard, they [gay activists] created a straw man, and then tore it down. It’s ridiculous. I talked [in the AFTAH story] about other people getting MRSA at the hospital, etc. Now, I did say that this story had eerie reminders of the initial days of AIDS, and in saying that I was referring to the fact that BEHAVIORS were linked to that disease’s spread. I’m a pretty direct person, as you might have deduced (much more so than even many in the conservative, pro-family movement): if I wanted to call [MRSA] the [new] “gay plague,” I would have wrote a headline like this: ‘Is MRSA the Next Gay Plague?’ — which I didn’t.
Most of the media took the same interpretation as I did, minus the anti-gay-behavior editorializing, of course. I hope you’ll grant that we have the right to do that since, after all, we are opposed to homosexual BEHAVIOR. To read the actual MRSA [study] (have you read it?), you’d almost have to have the editorial instincts of an old Soviet Pravda editor to assert that it does not implicate reckless gay male behavior. Guess what: I’ll bet the researchers’ “sins” were grossly overstated, too! [homosexual activists have assailed researchers for overstating the MRSA-gay link]. As for Matt [Barber] and CWA, he’s a big boy and more than capable of defending himself. Best–pl
So now, he is clarifying what he said. But check out the semantics. No he did not call MRSA infection the new "gay plague" per se. But he did infer as much. Repeating what he said via a press release sent out by him on January 15, 2008:
Is this not an eerie reminder of the initial stories 25 years ago about AIDS -- then called GRID (Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease)? It is unfathomable that after that plague, disease specialists and the media are now surprised at the correlation of new infections with homosexual behavior;Wake up, medical and political establishment: homosexual behavior is unhealthy -- no matter how many secular sermons you preach against "homophobia." Due to liberal political correctness, which treats aberrant -- even deadly -- behaviors as a "civil right," we as a society don't seem to have learned much from the AIDS pandemic - LaBarbera: New MRSA Staph Risk Spread by Gay Men Shows Risks of 'Second-Hand Sodomy'
The words may not be exact but the connotation is there. Peter is weasling big time. And while he is talking about what the study said in order to prove his point, he omits the statements from the authors of the study and the CDC repudiating what he and Matt Barber (Concerned Women for America) said about the study.
By the way, I keep hearing from him and Barber as to how "homosexual pressure groups" bullied the researchers. But they have never produced proof. As Jeremy from Goodasyou.org pointed out, HRC wrote a letter castigating anti-gay industry groups for distorting the study. They never attacked the researchers.
And I just love this part:
Try this: do a quick Google search on syphills, gonorrhea, chlamydia, hepatitis, anal warts, anal cancer, etc. — combined with the word “gay” — and you’ll come up with a host of articles, some written by pro-homosexuality websites, that implicate homosexual behaviors in the disproportionately high incidence of said maladies among “gay” men.
What bullshit. I am sure that if I typed those words and combined with the word "women" or "African-American," I would find articles talking about how these diseases affect those population. To make a leap like Peter just did pretty much illustrates how the anti-gay industry finds data to distort.
Lastly, I noticed that Peter mentions John R. Diggs. Now unlike the article I talked about yesterday, Peter did mention that ridiculously fradulent paper Diggs wrote (The Health Risks of Gay Sex). For those who bought my book, you can read the long version of what I say about Diggs's paper.
But for those who have not read my book, let me give you an excerpt:
Twice, John R. Diggs includes the study done by Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg in their book, Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women, as indicative of the entire gay population. In one passage, he even refers to it as “a far ranging study of homosexual men . . .” But Bell and Weinberg never said that their findings were indicative of all gay men. They actually said “. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlikely that any investigator willever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”
Diggs cites a Canadian study twice in order to claim that gays have a shorter lifespan than heterosexuals. But his citation of the study is a mischaracterization. In 2001, the six original researchers (Robert S. Hogg, Stefan A. Strathdee, Kevin J.P. Craib, Michael V. O’Shaughnessy, Julion Montaner, and Martin T. Schechter) who conducted that study have gone on record saying that religious conservatives (like Diggs) was distorting their work.
In another section entitled Physical Health, Diggs claims that gays are victims of “gay bowel syndrome.” The term is an obsolete medical term. exist and even the CDC does not use it. In fact, if one was to look at the endnotes of Diggs’ study, he would find that two of the sources he quoted concerning “gay bowel syndrome” were from articles in published in 1976 and 1983, which is consistent with the years that the term existed. One last source was a letter to the editor printed in 1994 but Diggs does not make it clear as to whatwere the circumstances surrounding it.
Diggs generalizes convenience sample studies as indicative of the gay population at large. Diggs takes studies done in foreign countries and claims that they are indicative of the gay population at large.
Diggs claims that there are five distinctions between heterosexual and homosexual populations including levels of promiscuity, physical health, mental health, lifespan, and monogamy. However, he spends very little time comparing the two dynamics. He uses all of his time castigating gay populations.
Diggs uses an out of date book, The Gay Report (published in 1979) to claim that gays are engaging in deviant sexual practices. Only once does he attempt to tie the alleged deviant practices of gays in 1979 to present day; and to do so, he cites two events that took place regarding bondage workshops. However, there is a strong indication that heterosexuals took part in these events as well as gays. Diggs ignores this dynamic.
In other words, it's anti-gay industry crap but in a different wrapper. What Diggs wrote is no different from what Timothy Dailey of the Family Research Council wrote, or Robert Knight wrote when he was with Concerned Women for America, or what Glenn Stanton from Focus on the Family wrote.
It is the same standard lies and distorted studies repeated over and over again. The big crime is that someone probably paid Diggs to write his hot mess when they could have easily slumped over to the Family Research Council's webpage and gotten it for free.
But back to Peter: it is apparent that he recognizes what mess he made. And even if it's not an apology, to see him flail is rather nice.
Monday, January 28, 2008
And the lies continue
Why can't they just admit what they did and apologize?
While the rest of us are caught up with the election, Heath Ledger's death, and the rest of the world's affairs, members of the anti-gay industry are consistently trying to cover up their big gaffe concerning the MRSA infection.
Recap: Members of the anti-gay industry (especially Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America and Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth) distorted a study regarding a drug resistant MRSA staph infection. Because the study found that there was a number of gay men who received in the infection in San Francisco, Barber and LaBarbera went out press releases inferring that the infection was a result of "homosexual behavior" and could possibly be seen as AIDS was in the early 80s.
When the Centers for Disease Control and the authors of the study repudiated Barber and LaBarbera's ridiculous notions, they whitewashed their past comments through straw arguments and the "blame game" on "homosexual pressure groups."
Today's piece in right-wing CNS News.Com is a continuation of this whitewash. Jeremy from Goodasyou.org breaks it down rather nicely.
But let me throw a little piece into the situation. There are things I noticed about today's article:
1. "We never suggested that it was a sexually transmitted disease," CWA's Barber countered. "We only talked about the specific behaviors that are causing this infection to spread."
Oh really, Matt? What do you make of this statement?
“The medical community has known for years that homosexual conduct, especially among males, creates a breeding ground for often deadly disease. In recent years we have seen a profound resurgence in cases of HIV/AIDS, syphilis, rectal gonorrhea and many other STDs among those who call themselves ‘gay."
"The human body is quite callous in how it handles mistreatment and the perversion of its natural functions. When two men mimic the act of heterosexual intercourse with one another, they create an environment, a biological counterfeit, wherein disease can thrive. Unnatural behaviors beget natural consequences."
In recent years our culture has adopted a laissez faire attitude toward sexual deviancy. Television shows like Will and Grace glorify the homosexual lifestyle while our children are taught in schools that homosexuality is a perfectly healthy, alternative sexual 'orientation.' 'Stay out of our bedrooms!' we're often commanded by militant 'gay' activists.
"Well, now the dangerous and possibly deadly consequence of what occurs in those bedrooms is spilling over into the general population. It's not only frightening, it's infuriating.
"Citizens, especially parents, need to stand up and say, 'No More! We will no longer sit idly by while politically correct cultural elites endanger our children and larger communities through propagandist promotion of this demonstrably deadly lifestyle.' - Epidemic Feared - 'Gays' May Spread Deadly Staph Infection to General Population, January 15, 2008
2. I also noticed that Peter LaBarbera wasn't quoted in today's article. And maybe that was intentional. You see, if you read my last post you would know that Peter did in fact make a very interesting assumption about the MRSA infection and AIDS.
This was a press release sent out by him on January 15, 2008:
Is this not an eerie reminder of the initial stories 25 years ago about AIDS -- then called GRID (Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease)? It is unfathomable that after that plague, disease specialists and the media are now surprised at the correlation of new infections with homosexual behavior;Wake up, medical and political establishment: homosexual behavior is unhealthy -- no matter how many secular sermons you preach against "homophobia." Due to liberal political correctness, which treats aberrant -- even deadly -- behaviors as a "civil right," we as a society don't seem to have learned much from the AIDS pandemic - LaBarbera: New MRSA Staph Risk Spread by Gay Men Shows Risks of 'Second-Hand Sodomy'
So wouldn't these two facts make Barber's statement a lie? I think so.
3. This was also included in today's article:
Internationally known infectious disease specialist Dr. John Diggs is siding with the conservatives. The Massachusetts-based physician said treating any infection in a politically correct manner could be dangerous. Treating MRSA that way could prove fatal.
The article continues with a long interview with Diggs. But what it does not do is to inform readers of Diggs's history.
Diggs has a very interesting history in anti-gay distortions. A study he wrote, the Health Risks of Homosexuality, is included in my book as an example of a legitimate physician distorting medical research.
Diggs even appeared in Florida supporting Mayor Jim Naugle in his ludicrous crusade against the gay community there.
Please bear in mind that my problem is not with Diggs. Even though his work is fradulent, my problem is with the article. Peter Winn, the author, had a duty to inform the reader of Diggs's history. But he does not, making it seem that Diggs is an objective voice in this matter.
And I can't help but wonder whether or not that was intentional.
But really, it amazes me that the more Barber and company tries to whitewash their lies, the deeper they sink. While they may convince others sharing their beliefs of their side of the story, in the long run, this situation is going to get a lot worse for them.
Wouldn't it have been more Christian for them to have apologized?
Why can't they just admit what they did and apologize?
While the rest of us are caught up with the election, Heath Ledger's death, and the rest of the world's affairs, members of the anti-gay industry are consistently trying to cover up their big gaffe concerning the MRSA infection.
Recap: Members of the anti-gay industry (especially Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America and Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth) distorted a study regarding a drug resistant MRSA staph infection. Because the study found that there was a number of gay men who received in the infection in San Francisco, Barber and LaBarbera went out press releases inferring that the infection was a result of "homosexual behavior" and could possibly be seen as AIDS was in the early 80s.
When the Centers for Disease Control and the authors of the study repudiated Barber and LaBarbera's ridiculous notions, they whitewashed their past comments through straw arguments and the "blame game" on "homosexual pressure groups."
Today's piece in right-wing CNS News.Com is a continuation of this whitewash. Jeremy from Goodasyou.org breaks it down rather nicely.
But let me throw a little piece into the situation. There are things I noticed about today's article:
1. "We never suggested that it was a sexually transmitted disease," CWA's Barber countered. "We only talked about the specific behaviors that are causing this infection to spread."
Oh really, Matt? What do you make of this statement?
“The medical community has known for years that homosexual conduct, especially among males, creates a breeding ground for often deadly disease. In recent years we have seen a profound resurgence in cases of HIV/AIDS, syphilis, rectal gonorrhea and many other STDs among those who call themselves ‘gay."
"The human body is quite callous in how it handles mistreatment and the perversion of its natural functions. When two men mimic the act of heterosexual intercourse with one another, they create an environment, a biological counterfeit, wherein disease can thrive. Unnatural behaviors beget natural consequences."
In recent years our culture has adopted a laissez faire attitude toward sexual deviancy. Television shows like Will and Grace glorify the homosexual lifestyle while our children are taught in schools that homosexuality is a perfectly healthy, alternative sexual 'orientation.' 'Stay out of our bedrooms!' we're often commanded by militant 'gay' activists.
"Well, now the dangerous and possibly deadly consequence of what occurs in those bedrooms is spilling over into the general population. It's not only frightening, it's infuriating.
"Citizens, especially parents, need to stand up and say, 'No More! We will no longer sit idly by while politically correct cultural elites endanger our children and larger communities through propagandist promotion of this demonstrably deadly lifestyle.' - Epidemic Feared - 'Gays' May Spread Deadly Staph Infection to General Population, January 15, 2008
2. I also noticed that Peter LaBarbera wasn't quoted in today's article. And maybe that was intentional. You see, if you read my last post you would know that Peter did in fact make a very interesting assumption about the MRSA infection and AIDS.
This was a press release sent out by him on January 15, 2008:
Is this not an eerie reminder of the initial stories 25 years ago about AIDS -- then called GRID (Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease)? It is unfathomable that after that plague, disease specialists and the media are now surprised at the correlation of new infections with homosexual behavior;Wake up, medical and political establishment: homosexual behavior is unhealthy -- no matter how many secular sermons you preach against "homophobia." Due to liberal political correctness, which treats aberrant -- even deadly -- behaviors as a "civil right," we as a society don't seem to have learned much from the AIDS pandemic - LaBarbera: New MRSA Staph Risk Spread by Gay Men Shows Risks of 'Second-Hand Sodomy'
So wouldn't these two facts make Barber's statement a lie? I think so.
3. This was also included in today's article:
Internationally known infectious disease specialist Dr. John Diggs is siding with the conservatives. The Massachusetts-based physician said treating any infection in a politically correct manner could be dangerous. Treating MRSA that way could prove fatal.
The article continues with a long interview with Diggs. But what it does not do is to inform readers of Diggs's history.
Diggs has a very interesting history in anti-gay distortions. A study he wrote, the Health Risks of Homosexuality, is included in my book as an example of a legitimate physician distorting medical research.
Diggs even appeared in Florida supporting Mayor Jim Naugle in his ludicrous crusade against the gay community there.
Please bear in mind that my problem is not with Diggs. Even though his work is fradulent, my problem is with the article. Peter Winn, the author, had a duty to inform the reader of Diggs's history. But he does not, making it seem that Diggs is an objective voice in this matter.
And I can't help but wonder whether or not that was intentional.
But really, it amazes me that the more Barber and company tries to whitewash their lies, the deeper they sink. While they may convince others sharing their beliefs of their side of the story, in the long run, this situation is going to get a lot worse for them.
Wouldn't it have been more Christian for them to have apologized?
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Anatomy of a lie
An email sent to me by Peter LaBarbera (Americans for Truth) on January 25, 2008:
Never called it a "Gay Plague," the New AIDS, etc., and you know it . . . The study itself was ABOUT gay and MRSA.We wrote about the study.
An press release sent out by Peter LaBarbera (Americans for Truth) on January 15, 2008:
Is this not an eerie reminder of the initial stories 25 years ago about AIDS -- then called GRID (Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease)? It is unfathomable that after that plague, disease specialists and the media are now surprised at the correlation of new infections with homosexual behavior;
Wake up, medical and political establishment: homosexual behavior is unhealthy -- no matter how many secular sermons you preach against "homophobia." Due to liberal political correctness, which treats aberrant -- even deadly -- behaviors as a "civil right," we as a society don't seem to have learned much from the AIDS pandemic - LaBarbera: New MRSA Staph Risk Spread by Gay Men Shows Risks of 'Second-Hand Sodomy'
I apologize if I have been dwelling on this issue too much but I believe in constant reminders. We should never forget how the anti-gay industry tried to distort news of the MRSA staph infection.
And we must make sure that they never forget it too.
An email sent to me by Peter LaBarbera (Americans for Truth) on January 25, 2008:
Never called it a "Gay Plague," the New AIDS, etc., and you know it . . . The study itself was ABOUT gay and MRSA.We wrote about the study.
An press release sent out by Peter LaBarbera (Americans for Truth) on January 15, 2008:
Is this not an eerie reminder of the initial stories 25 years ago about AIDS -- then called GRID (Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease)? It is unfathomable that after that plague, disease specialists and the media are now surprised at the correlation of new infections with homosexual behavior;
Wake up, medical and political establishment: homosexual behavior is unhealthy -- no matter how many secular sermons you preach against "homophobia." Due to liberal political correctness, which treats aberrant -- even deadly -- behaviors as a "civil right," we as a society don't seem to have learned much from the AIDS pandemic - LaBarbera: New MRSA Staph Risk Spread by Gay Men Shows Risks of 'Second-Hand Sodomy'
I apologize if I have been dwelling on this issue too much but I believe in constant reminders. We should never forget how the anti-gay industry tried to distort news of the MRSA staph infection.
And we must make sure that they never forget it too.
Friday, January 25, 2008
WAAAAAAAAAAAH! THE BIG BAD GAY ACTIVISTS ARE PICKING ON US!!!
I knew that mea culpa was bullshit.
Earlier this week when faced with the reality that they misrepresented a report on a skin infection (unfairly linking it to the gay community), Concerned Women for America and other anti-gay industry groups sent out a press release saying that they wanted to work together with gay rights groups in order to stop the spread of the infection.
And their platitudes were not believed, mostly because they did not mention one word of apology regarding how they first lied about the infection.
Now it is looking like those who didn't believe their bullshit had good justification.
You see the mea culpa was just a tactic strategy. The second part of said tactical strategy came today via a column written by Matt Barber (Concerned Women for America.)
The column blames the so-called gay pressure groups for "bullying" the researchers behind the story. Of course Barber does not go name the pressure groups in question nor does he say how the bullying took place.
He totally mischaracterizes the statement by the CDC about the infection; omitting the part of the statement that says conclusions cannot be drawn about all gay men based on the gay men in the study.
And he cited an book written over 10 years ago as proof of how his original bullshit about the infection was accurate.
But where his column appears is the most important part of the story. It appeared on Townhall.com, a right wing webpage. That in itself may not seem like a big thing, but it is.
You see Barber doesn't have to work too hard there to convince readers of his bullshit. From the comments I have seen (including references to Paul Cameron's research), readers there already have a preconceived notion of homoseuxality and it ain't good.
It only goes to show that Barber's column was written as part of a plan. I hope I do not seem paranoid when I say this, but I am guessing that Barber and other members of the anti-gay industry (i.e. Peter LaBarbera) recognized that they really screwed up here.
So much so that they called in reinforcements. I was surprised to see that Barber's predecessor in Concerned Women for America, Robert Knight, was taking part in some of the damage control.
And joining together (probably email and cell phone), they have crafted this plan of retreat while throwing bombs at the enemy.
Well maybe for Matt, Peter and company, it will have to do. And maybe they can get a little traction by claiming yet again that the "invisible but POWERFUL gay lobby" strong armed them, but a retreat is still a retreat.
And a loss is still a loss. And you may convince minds at Town Hall and other right-wing webpages that you did nothing wrong.
But they are the only ones you can convince of your so-called innocence.
UPDATE 1:
Slowly but surely Matt Barber's nonsensical column is being featured on several webpages including Renew America. How long will it be before Peter features it. In interviews, Barber is playing innocent:
"They're saying that we're saying that this is the new HIV ... gay disease," said Matt Barber, policy director of Concerned Women for America, on Thursday. "We never said that. We simply reported what this study has reported – that there's an outbreak among certain segments of the homosexual community," he added. - Conservatives Fear Gay Outcry Downplays MRSA Outbreak, January 25, 2008
But just a few days beforehand:
“The medical community has known for years that homosexual conduct, especially among males, creates a breeding ground for often deadly disease. In recent years we have seen a profound resurgence in cases of HIV/AIDS, syphilis, rectal gonorrhea and many other STDs among those who call themselves ‘gay.’
“The human body is quite callous in how it handles mistreatment and the perversion of its natural functions. When two men mimic the act of heterosexual intercourse with one another, they create an environment, a biological counterfeit, wherein disease can thrive. Unnatural behaviors beget natural consequences.
"In recent years our culture has adopted a laissez faire attitude toward sexual deviancy. Television shows like Will and Grace glorify the homosexual lifestyle while our children are taught in schools that homosexuality is a perfectly healthy, alternative sexual 'orientation.' 'Stay out of our bedrooms!' we're often commanded by militant 'gay' activists. "Well, now the dangerous and possibly deadly consequence of what occurs in those bedrooms is spilling over into the general population. It's not only frightening, it's infuriating.
"Citizens, especially parents, need to stand up and say, 'No More! We will no longer sit idly by while politically correct cultural elites endanger our children and larger communities through propagandist promotion of this demonstrably deadly lifestyle.' - Epidemic Feared - 'Gays' May Spread Deadly Staph Infection to General Population, January 15
True, Matt didn't say that the infection is the new AIDS crisis (way to set up that straw man argument, Matt) but the language he used goes far beyond simply reporting a story.
Nice try, Matt but neither you nor Peter nor Concerned Women for America is going to easily wash THIS egg off your face.
UPDATE 2: Bullshit in action
The following is a perfect example of how anti-gay industry distortions of legitimate science can in fact harm the lgbt community.
Imagine if you will, the MSRA infection brouhaha being used to make the case against lgbts adopting children. I found the following on a blog. Regardless of whether or not this blog has significant readership, the fact of the matter is that it serves as an example of how folks try to manipulate science against us:
In addition, the recent revelation that gay men are much more susceptible to drug resistant MRSA "gay" flesh-eating bacteria because of their propensity for anal intercourse should provoke additional caution. This strain is so virulent that a gay dad could spread it to his kid merely by touch.
Unbelievable.
I knew that mea culpa was bullshit.
Earlier this week when faced with the reality that they misrepresented a report on a skin infection (unfairly linking it to the gay community), Concerned Women for America and other anti-gay industry groups sent out a press release saying that they wanted to work together with gay rights groups in order to stop the spread of the infection.
And their platitudes were not believed, mostly because they did not mention one word of apology regarding how they first lied about the infection.
Now it is looking like those who didn't believe their bullshit had good justification.
You see the mea culpa was just a tactic strategy. The second part of said tactical strategy came today via a column written by Matt Barber (Concerned Women for America.)
The column blames the so-called gay pressure groups for "bullying" the researchers behind the story. Of course Barber does not go name the pressure groups in question nor does he say how the bullying took place.
He totally mischaracterizes the statement by the CDC about the infection; omitting the part of the statement that says conclusions cannot be drawn about all gay men based on the gay men in the study.
And he cited an book written over 10 years ago as proof of how his original bullshit about the infection was accurate.
But where his column appears is the most important part of the story. It appeared on Townhall.com, a right wing webpage. That in itself may not seem like a big thing, but it is.
You see Barber doesn't have to work too hard there to convince readers of his bullshit. From the comments I have seen (including references to Paul Cameron's research), readers there already have a preconceived notion of homoseuxality and it ain't good.
It only goes to show that Barber's column was written as part of a plan. I hope I do not seem paranoid when I say this, but I am guessing that Barber and other members of the anti-gay industry (i.e. Peter LaBarbera) recognized that they really screwed up here.
So much so that they called in reinforcements. I was surprised to see that Barber's predecessor in Concerned Women for America, Robert Knight, was taking part in some of the damage control.
And joining together (probably email and cell phone), they have crafted this plan of retreat while throwing bombs at the enemy.
Well maybe for Matt, Peter and company, it will have to do. And maybe they can get a little traction by claiming yet again that the "invisible but POWERFUL gay lobby" strong armed them, but a retreat is still a retreat.
And a loss is still a loss. And you may convince minds at Town Hall and other right-wing webpages that you did nothing wrong.
But they are the only ones you can convince of your so-called innocence.
UPDATE 1:
Slowly but surely Matt Barber's nonsensical column is being featured on several webpages including Renew America. How long will it be before Peter features it. In interviews, Barber is playing innocent:
"They're saying that we're saying that this is the new HIV ... gay disease," said Matt Barber, policy director of Concerned Women for America, on Thursday. "We never said that. We simply reported what this study has reported – that there's an outbreak among certain segments of the homosexual community," he added. - Conservatives Fear Gay Outcry Downplays MRSA Outbreak, January 25, 2008
But just a few days beforehand:
“The medical community has known for years that homosexual conduct, especially among males, creates a breeding ground for often deadly disease. In recent years we have seen a profound resurgence in cases of HIV/AIDS, syphilis, rectal gonorrhea and many other STDs among those who call themselves ‘gay.’
“The human body is quite callous in how it handles mistreatment and the perversion of its natural functions. When two men mimic the act of heterosexual intercourse with one another, they create an environment, a biological counterfeit, wherein disease can thrive. Unnatural behaviors beget natural consequences.
"In recent years our culture has adopted a laissez faire attitude toward sexual deviancy. Television shows like Will and Grace glorify the homosexual lifestyle while our children are taught in schools that homosexuality is a perfectly healthy, alternative sexual 'orientation.' 'Stay out of our bedrooms!' we're often commanded by militant 'gay' activists. "Well, now the dangerous and possibly deadly consequence of what occurs in those bedrooms is spilling over into the general population. It's not only frightening, it's infuriating.
"Citizens, especially parents, need to stand up and say, 'No More! We will no longer sit idly by while politically correct cultural elites endanger our children and larger communities through propagandist promotion of this demonstrably deadly lifestyle.' - Epidemic Feared - 'Gays' May Spread Deadly Staph Infection to General Population, January 15
True, Matt didn't say that the infection is the new AIDS crisis (way to set up that straw man argument, Matt) but the language he used goes far beyond simply reporting a story.
Nice try, Matt but neither you nor Peter nor Concerned Women for America is going to easily wash THIS egg off your face.
UPDATE 2: Bullshit in action
The following is a perfect example of how anti-gay industry distortions of legitimate science can in fact harm the lgbt community.
Imagine if you will, the MSRA infection brouhaha being used to make the case against lgbts adopting children. I found the following on a blog. Regardless of whether or not this blog has significant readership, the fact of the matter is that it serves as an example of how folks try to manipulate science against us:
In addition, the recent revelation that gay men are much more susceptible to drug resistant MRSA "gay" flesh-eating bacteria because of their propensity for anal intercourse should provoke additional caution. This strain is so virulent that a gay dad could spread it to his kid merely by touch.
Unbelievable.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
When so-called good people create media events
I won't post a big entry today because I am resting. Mother goes in for surgery EARLY tomorrow morning and I have to make sure I can get her up when the morning comes.
But I do want point out something courtesy of Equality Loudon. It seems that the anti-gay industry group there is getting so desperate for folks to sign their petition that they are creating media events:
Well, it seems that the story of “the man wearing a blue ruffled skirt” in the ladies’ locker room has badly unraveled. That didn’t take long.
According to two reports on the Teach the Facts blog, here is what folks have discovered:
It turns out that a woman named Theresa Rickman, spokesperson for the group “Citizens for a Responsible Government” (which has previously gone by at least two other names as the group adjusted its mission, so they are now known as CRWhatever) was actually in the lobby of the health club when the stunt happened. One of the many suspicious things about this incident from the beginning was that CRW had apparently called Channel 7, and was being interviewed within an hour of the initial complaint. A manager at the health club confirmed the presence of “an activist” who she assumed to be associated with a group that sure sounds like CRW (”the people at the grocery store with petitions”). It’s not stated why the manager recognized her as such - has she encountered Rickman at the grocery store? Was Rickman distributing propaganda in the lobby? - but she did.
I won't post a big entry today because I am resting. Mother goes in for surgery EARLY tomorrow morning and I have to make sure I can get her up when the morning comes.
But I do want point out something courtesy of Equality Loudon. It seems that the anti-gay industry group there is getting so desperate for folks to sign their petition that they are creating media events:
Well, it seems that the story of “the man wearing a blue ruffled skirt” in the ladies’ locker room has badly unraveled. That didn’t take long.
According to two reports on the Teach the Facts blog, here is what folks have discovered:
It turns out that a woman named Theresa Rickman, spokesperson for the group “Citizens for a Responsible Government” (which has previously gone by at least two other names as the group adjusted its mission, so they are now known as CRWhatever) was actually in the lobby of the health club when the stunt happened. One of the many suspicious things about this incident from the beginning was that CRW had apparently called Channel 7, and was being interviewed within an hour of the initial complaint. A manager at the health club confirmed the presence of “an activist” who she assumed to be associated with a group that sure sounds like CRW (”the people at the grocery store with petitions”). It’s not stated why the manager recognized her as such - has she encountered Rickman at the grocery store? Was Rickman distributing propaganda in the lobby? - but she did.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Pathetic mea culpa courtesy of Concerned Women for America
I have been interested in how the anti-gay industry will attempt to quell this new controversy they helped to create regarding the MRSA infection.
After their platitudes that this infection could be the new AIDS crisis and the very verbal smackdown they received from the Centers For Disease Control as well as the authors of the study, just what were they going to do?
We got our answer today, and jeez it's a biggie:
Because Concerned Women for America (CWA) cares deeply for the health and well being of all Americans, CWA is sending letters inviting the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, GLAAD and Lambda Legal to put aside profound ideological differences with CWA — for the sake of the lives and health of their members — and to call for commonsense steps to help curb the spread of a potentially deadly strain of Staph infection.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA bacteria, is infecting men who have sex with men in major cities at an alarming rate. A study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found that "gay" men are 13 times more likely to contract the infection.
The study determined that the spread of MRSA, "among men who have sex with men is associated with high-risk behaviors, including use of methamphetamine and other illicit drugs, sex with multiple partners, participation in a group sex party, use of the internet for sexual contacts, skin-abrading sex, and history of sexually transmitted infections." But ultimately, the study warned that, "Having male-male sex seems to be a risk factor for [MRSA]."
Dr. Binh Diep, the researcher who led the study, told Reuters, "Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable." The study found that the "[MRSA] epidemic probably started in San Francisco and has been disseminated by the frequent cross-coastal travel of men who have sex with men."
Matt Barber, CWA's Policy Director for Cultural Issues, said, "We now have a wonderful opportunity for ideological opponents to come together for the common good. Steps must be taken to keep this MRSA outbreak, which is occurring within certain segments of the homosexual community, from becoming a more widespread epidemic.
I know I am repeating probably what every gay blog has been saying when reading this press release, but I want to say this to Matt Barber and the CWA in my own way:
YOU MUST BE OUT OF YOUR MOTHER#^&@* MIND!!
Where the hell is your apology? After spending days incorrectly linking this infection to lgbts, you want to all of the sudden take on the form of Florence Nightingale and "come together with us" to stop it.
You will forgive me for not trusting you. I have a sneaky suspicion that this cry to come together is phony. You know damned well that for all of their faults, the lgbt leadership isn't stupid.
And when they either ignore you or tell you to go screw yourselves in a nice, polite way, you are going to act all shocked. Most likely you will send out press releases and appear on Fox News lying about how the gay leadership has no interest in fighting disease in our community.
I beg to differ. And I don't blame the gay leadership (and lgbts in general) for having no interest in coming together with group who tries to fuck us without giving us the courtesy of a reacharound.
Okay that was totally wrong of me but believe me when I say I didn't write half the stuff I wanted to.
But in my defense, come on!!!! I think this is the most galling thing I have ever seen from the anti-gay industry.
And I really thought I had seen it all from them.
I have been interested in how the anti-gay industry will attempt to quell this new controversy they helped to create regarding the MRSA infection.
After their platitudes that this infection could be the new AIDS crisis and the very verbal smackdown they received from the Centers For Disease Control as well as the authors of the study, just what were they going to do?
We got our answer today, and jeez it's a biggie:
Because Concerned Women for America (CWA) cares deeply for the health and well being of all Americans, CWA is sending letters inviting the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, GLAAD and Lambda Legal to put aside profound ideological differences with CWA — for the sake of the lives and health of their members — and to call for commonsense steps to help curb the spread of a potentially deadly strain of Staph infection.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA bacteria, is infecting men who have sex with men in major cities at an alarming rate. A study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found that "gay" men are 13 times more likely to contract the infection.
The study determined that the spread of MRSA, "among men who have sex with men is associated with high-risk behaviors, including use of methamphetamine and other illicit drugs, sex with multiple partners, participation in a group sex party, use of the internet for sexual contacts, skin-abrading sex, and history of sexually transmitted infections." But ultimately, the study warned that, "Having male-male sex seems to be a risk factor for [MRSA]."
Dr. Binh Diep, the researcher who led the study, told Reuters, "Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable." The study found that the "[MRSA] epidemic probably started in San Francisco and has been disseminated by the frequent cross-coastal travel of men who have sex with men."
Matt Barber, CWA's Policy Director for Cultural Issues, said, "We now have a wonderful opportunity for ideological opponents to come together for the common good. Steps must be taken to keep this MRSA outbreak, which is occurring within certain segments of the homosexual community, from becoming a more widespread epidemic.
I know I am repeating probably what every gay blog has been saying when reading this press release, but I want to say this to Matt Barber and the CWA in my own way:
YOU MUST BE OUT OF YOUR MOTHER#^&@* MIND!!
Where the hell is your apology? After spending days incorrectly linking this infection to lgbts, you want to all of the sudden take on the form of Florence Nightingale and "come together with us" to stop it.
You will forgive me for not trusting you. I have a sneaky suspicion that this cry to come together is phony. You know damned well that for all of their faults, the lgbt leadership isn't stupid.
And when they either ignore you or tell you to go screw yourselves in a nice, polite way, you are going to act all shocked. Most likely you will send out press releases and appear on Fox News lying about how the gay leadership has no interest in fighting disease in our community.
I beg to differ. And I don't blame the gay leadership (and lgbts in general) for having no interest in coming together with group who tries to fuck us without giving us the courtesy of a reacharound.
Okay that was totally wrong of me but believe me when I say I didn't write half the stuff I wanted to.
But in my defense, come on!!!! I think this is the most galling thing I have ever seen from the anti-gay industry.
And I really thought I had seen it all from them.
Monday, January 21, 2008
I cannot stand that “I Have A Dream” speech.
Every year around this time, Americans come together to celebrate the life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And every year around this time, I am overwhelmed people citing that one speech he made in 1963.
You know the speech
What I want to know is why do people want to define Dr. King by that one speech? And why do they always do this while forgetting the fact that if it weren’t for the sacrifices of a dedicated OPENLY GAY BLACK MALE (now there is a phrase you hardly ever see), the speech probably wouldn’t have even taken place.
And I have had enough. In fact, I hate that speech.
Here in South Carolina, we have a march to the state capital every year where we hear speeches from various public officials.
I didn't go this year. I really didn’t want to go mainly because if I hear the call and response of “Fired up! Ready to go” one more time, I am liable to make a detour from the march to nearest mental hospital. Or some other place where I can render myself deaf.
This holiday gets on my nerves. More to the point, I cannot stand how we have simplified King and the effect he had on American society.
I cannot stand the fact that one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century has been whittled down to a single simplistic speech that does not even begin to scratch the surface of the complexities behind the man.
King was more than a reverend. He was more than a speaker. The man was a visionary who was just coming into his own just before he was assassinated.
So in what should be the true spirit of this holiday, let me do something different.
For you see, I too have dreams. And while they may not be rooted in the American Dream, they are rooted in the single universal dream that people will one day stop wasting time bullshitting and get down to the downs that’s keeping us all down.
I have a dream
that when I open a gay-themed magazine, I will not be told how much I should fight for lgbt rights while at the same time be made to feel less than substantial just because I can’t afford some ridiculous doodad like a $300 crocodile leather case for my “ipod."
I have a dream
that the Advocate magazine can get through one year without putting the following on the cover - Melissa Etheridge, Ellen DeGeneres, Lance Bass, Tammy Lynn Sigler, or some “hot”white guy who happens to be straight.
I have a dream
that BET will no longer show the following movies: Soul Plane, Next Friday, Menace II Society, Baby Boy, Leprechaun N Da Hood II
I have a dream
that the media stops paying attention to Britney Spears and her mother takes the guise of a stereotypical black mother and slap some sense into the child.
I have a dream
that our gay children stop emulating and worshipping the next ingenue coming down the pike.
I have a dream
that we get to November 2008 as quickly as possible and elect someone who can begin to start undoing the damage.
I have a dream
that people start recognizing just how overrated and preachy South Park is and pay attention to the Boondocks, a much better program.
I have a dream
that people stop carrying whether or not Clay Aiken is gay
I have a dream
that it will be discovered that more conservative Republicans have out-of-wedlock black daughters.
Finally, I have a dream
that people will pick up a book about Dr. King and read about just how complex the civil rights movement was. Stop simplifying Dr. King. In fact, stop simplifying period. Use your damned brains for once.
Every year around this time, Americans come together to celebrate the life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And every year around this time, I am overwhelmed people citing that one speech he made in 1963.
You know the speech
What I want to know is why do people want to define Dr. King by that one speech? And why do they always do this while forgetting the fact that if it weren’t for the sacrifices of a dedicated OPENLY GAY BLACK MALE (now there is a phrase you hardly ever see), the speech probably wouldn’t have even taken place.
And I have had enough. In fact, I hate that speech.
Here in South Carolina, we have a march to the state capital every year where we hear speeches from various public officials.
I didn't go this year. I really didn’t want to go mainly because if I hear the call and response of “Fired up! Ready to go” one more time, I am liable to make a detour from the march to nearest mental hospital. Or some other place where I can render myself deaf.
This holiday gets on my nerves. More to the point, I cannot stand how we have simplified King and the effect he had on American society.
I cannot stand the fact that one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century has been whittled down to a single simplistic speech that does not even begin to scratch the surface of the complexities behind the man.
King was more than a reverend. He was more than a speaker. The man was a visionary who was just coming into his own just before he was assassinated.
So in what should be the true spirit of this holiday, let me do something different.
For you see, I too have dreams. And while they may not be rooted in the American Dream, they are rooted in the single universal dream that people will one day stop wasting time bullshitting and get down to the downs that’s keeping us all down.
I have a dream
that when I open a gay-themed magazine, I will not be told how much I should fight for lgbt rights while at the same time be made to feel less than substantial just because I can’t afford some ridiculous doodad like a $300 crocodile leather case for my “ipod."
I have a dream
that the Advocate magazine can get through one year without putting the following on the cover - Melissa Etheridge, Ellen DeGeneres, Lance Bass, Tammy Lynn Sigler, or some “hot”white guy who happens to be straight.
I have a dream
that BET will no longer show the following movies: Soul Plane, Next Friday, Menace II Society, Baby Boy, Leprechaun N Da Hood II
I have a dream
that the media stops paying attention to Britney Spears and her mother takes the guise of a stereotypical black mother and slap some sense into the child.
I have a dream
that our gay children stop emulating and worshipping the next ingenue coming down the pike.
I have a dream
that we get to November 2008 as quickly as possible and elect someone who can begin to start undoing the damage.
I have a dream
that people start recognizing just how overrated and preachy South Park is and pay attention to the Boondocks, a much better program.
I have a dream
that people stop carrying whether or not Clay Aiken is gay
I have a dream
that it will be discovered that more conservative Republicans have out-of-wedlock black daughters.
Finally, I have a dream
that people will pick up a book about Dr. King and read about just how complex the civil rights movement was. Stop simplifying Dr. King. In fact, stop simplifying period. Use your damned brains for once.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Intentionally Causing Chaos
Yeah I know everyone is concerned over Mike Huckabee’s bullshit. And to a degree, I am too.
But I have to say something else about this staph infection mess that been in the news for the past couple of days.
I think the voices in our community have responded well to this nonsense, but I also think more needs to be said.
The first thing is that this exploitation of crucial medical information by the anti-gay industry is nothing new:
1979 - Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg publishes Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women. This was a study looking at gay men in the city of San Francisco in the early 1970s. Over 30 years later, the anti-gay industry cites the book as a correct representation of the sexual habits of the entire gay community. They do this despite the fact that Martin and Weinberg clearly said - “. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlikely that any investigator will ever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”
The Gay Report is published. This book, looking at the sex habits of gays and lesbians, was based on 1,900 sex survey responses from gay men; 1,000 from lesbians; and 2,500 responses from a gay magazine questionnaire. The authors even say, “We agreed at the outset not to pretend that these percentages represented the practices and views of all gay people—they reflected only our respondents.” However, just like Homosexualities (see above entry), The Gay Report will be used to generalize about the sexual habits of all lgbts even 30 years after its publishing.
1994 - Joanne Hall, Ph.D. of the University of Tennessee’s College of Nursing publishes a study looking at the patterns of behavior for 35 lesbians who had self-identified alcohol problems. Her study is later used by various anti-gay industry groups to claim that lesbians in general have a problem with alcohol abuse and that gay adoption is not a good idea. Hall later writes a letter of complaint to one of the groups distorting her study (the Family Research Council). Her complaint is ignored.
2001 - Six researchers (Robert S Hogg, Stefan A Strathdee, Kevin JP Craib, Michael V. O’ Shaughnessy, Julio Montaner, and Martin T Schechter) write a letter to the editor to the International Journal of Epidemiology accusing the anti-gay industry of distorting a study they published in 1997 in order to claim that gay men have a short life span. They said they were speaking of a hypothetical outcome that would take place if there were not better practices regarding safe sex in that particular area. They also said that conditions have improved; therefore the outcome they predicted (i.e. gay men not reaching their sixty-fifth birthday) had been averted.
So there is a history of the anti-gay industry distorting credible medicinal information. And I am concerned as to what it can lead to.
Dealing with medical matters is walking a very thin tightrope. There is a fine line between informing segments of the public and demonizing them. And if that line is crossed, it builds mistrust.
For the most part, the medical community have done all they can to inform and educate about this staph infection without demonizing the lgbt community.
Then people like Americans for Truth (in name only), Concerned Women for America and the rest of the phony “pro-family” groups stick their dirty fingers into the situation.
These groups don’t care about the potential danger of the staph infections. Let’s face it; if there was not a gay angle, these groups wouldn’t care. They are only interested in the fact that gay men are affected; the better for them to hint Paul Cameronesque lies about gay man, anal sex, and feces.
I wonder how long it will before they start referring to gerbils?
To tell these groups to keep their shrill voices quiet probably wouldn’t do any good. I hate to say it, but a part of me thinks that they know what they are doing.
Part of me thinks that they are intentionally trying to sow seeds of mistrust between the lgbt and medical communities.
Many studies show that it is the lack of access to good healthcare information that spreads disease in the lgbt community. At the root of this mistrust is a fear coming from lgbts as to how their physicians will react if they out themselves.
Where there is no trust, there is no dialogue. Where there is no dialogue, there is no access to good healthcare. Where there is no access to good healthcare, there is disease.
That old adage about “for want of a nail” plays on an extreme level here.
And meanwhile, the anti-gay industry stands to benefit as they divest themselves from the self-actualizing dichotomy they have caused.
Very Machiavellian, but not very Christian.
UPDATE - Way to go, Centers for Disease Control!!!
The CDC has issued a statement on the staph infection. Part of it reads as follows:
CDC Statement on MRSA in Men Who Have Sex with Men
MRSA is a common cause of skin infections throughout the United States. These infections occur in men, women, adults, children, and persons of all races and sexual orientations, and are known to be transmitted by close skin-to-skin contact. In this issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, Diep et al looked at isolates of MRSA - USA300 strains containing a particular plasmid associated with additional drug resistance. The paper shows that multidrug-resistant USA300 has emerged as an important source of disease among men with have sex with men in 2 geographically distinct communities.
The strains of MRSA described in the recent Annals of Internal Medicine have mostly been identified in certain groups of men who have sex with men (MSM), but have also been found in some persons who are not MSM. It is important to note that the groups of MSM in which these isolates have been described are not representative of all MSM, so conclusions can not be drawn about the prevalence of these strains among all MSM.
Yeah I know everyone is concerned over Mike Huckabee’s bullshit. And to a degree, I am too.
But I have to say something else about this staph infection mess that been in the news for the past couple of days.
I think the voices in our community have responded well to this nonsense, but I also think more needs to be said.
The first thing is that this exploitation of crucial medical information by the anti-gay industry is nothing new:
1979 - Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg publishes Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women. This was a study looking at gay men in the city of San Francisco in the early 1970s. Over 30 years later, the anti-gay industry cites the book as a correct representation of the sexual habits of the entire gay community. They do this despite the fact that Martin and Weinberg clearly said - “. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlikely that any investigator will ever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”
The Gay Report is published. This book, looking at the sex habits of gays and lesbians, was based on 1,900 sex survey responses from gay men; 1,000 from lesbians; and 2,500 responses from a gay magazine questionnaire. The authors even say, “We agreed at the outset not to pretend that these percentages represented the practices and views of all gay people—they reflected only our respondents.” However, just like Homosexualities (see above entry), The Gay Report will be used to generalize about the sexual habits of all lgbts even 30 years after its publishing.
1994 - Joanne Hall, Ph.D. of the University of Tennessee’s College of Nursing publishes a study looking at the patterns of behavior for 35 lesbians who had self-identified alcohol problems. Her study is later used by various anti-gay industry groups to claim that lesbians in general have a problem with alcohol abuse and that gay adoption is not a good idea. Hall later writes a letter of complaint to one of the groups distorting her study (the Family Research Council). Her complaint is ignored.
2001 - Six researchers (Robert S Hogg, Stefan A Strathdee, Kevin JP Craib, Michael V. O’ Shaughnessy, Julio Montaner, and Martin T Schechter) write a letter to the editor to the International Journal of Epidemiology accusing the anti-gay industry of distorting a study they published in 1997 in order to claim that gay men have a short life span. They said they were speaking of a hypothetical outcome that would take place if there were not better practices regarding safe sex in that particular area. They also said that conditions have improved; therefore the outcome they predicted (i.e. gay men not reaching their sixty-fifth birthday) had been averted.
So there is a history of the anti-gay industry distorting credible medicinal information. And I am concerned as to what it can lead to.
Dealing with medical matters is walking a very thin tightrope. There is a fine line between informing segments of the public and demonizing them. And if that line is crossed, it builds mistrust.
For the most part, the medical community have done all they can to inform and educate about this staph infection without demonizing the lgbt community.
Then people like Americans for Truth (in name only), Concerned Women for America and the rest of the phony “pro-family” groups stick their dirty fingers into the situation.
These groups don’t care about the potential danger of the staph infections. Let’s face it; if there was not a gay angle, these groups wouldn’t care. They are only interested in the fact that gay men are affected; the better for them to hint Paul Cameronesque lies about gay man, anal sex, and feces.
I wonder how long it will before they start referring to gerbils?
To tell these groups to keep their shrill voices quiet probably wouldn’t do any good. I hate to say it, but a part of me thinks that they know what they are doing.
Part of me thinks that they are intentionally trying to sow seeds of mistrust between the lgbt and medical communities.
Many studies show that it is the lack of access to good healthcare information that spreads disease in the lgbt community. At the root of this mistrust is a fear coming from lgbts as to how their physicians will react if they out themselves.
Where there is no trust, there is no dialogue. Where there is no dialogue, there is no access to good healthcare. Where there is no access to good healthcare, there is disease.
That old adage about “for want of a nail” plays on an extreme level here.
And meanwhile, the anti-gay industry stands to benefit as they divest themselves from the self-actualizing dichotomy they have caused.
Very Machiavellian, but not very Christian.
UPDATE - Way to go, Centers for Disease Control!!!
The CDC has issued a statement on the staph infection. Part of it reads as follows:
CDC Statement on MRSA in Men Who Have Sex with Men
MRSA is a common cause of skin infections throughout the United States. These infections occur in men, women, adults, children, and persons of all races and sexual orientations, and are known to be transmitted by close skin-to-skin contact. In this issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, Diep et al looked at isolates of MRSA - USA300 strains containing a particular plasmid associated with additional drug resistance. The paper shows that multidrug-resistant USA300 has emerged as an important source of disease among men with have sex with men in 2 geographically distinct communities.
The strains of MRSA described in the recent Annals of Internal Medicine have mostly been identified in certain groups of men who have sex with men (MSM), but have also been found in some persons who are not MSM. It is important to note that the groups of MSM in which these isolates have been described are not representative of all MSM, so conclusions can not be drawn about the prevalence of these strains among all MSM.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Anti-gay industry grabs on to story about bacteria and don’t let go
or
Homophobia In Action
To paraphrase one of the most excellent writers of all time, Rod Serling, submitted for your approval, a difference between two agendas.
One encompasses demonizing and other encompasses informing.
It is relatively easy to guess which is which. But just in case you can't guess, I drop a hint or two:
A so-called Christian newswire site in Canada:
SAN FRANCISCO, January 15, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new medical study appearing in the Annals of American Medicine shows that homosexuals are spreading a new, highly-infectious and extremely dangerous bacteria amongst themselves, most probably through anal intercourse.
The bacterium, called MRSA USA300, is impervious to front-line antibiotics and can only be treated with rarer drugs, primarily Vancomycin. Researchers say that the bug, which is a type of staphylococcus, is primed to develop immunity to that drug as well. Infected patients may have inflammation, abscesses, and tissue loss in the affected areas. Although the bacterium does not literally "eat" the body, it manufactures toxins that can cause "necrosis" - the death of surrounding tissue.
The study's authors note that the strong link between unhealthy behavior, particularly among homosexuals, is the driving force behind the disease. "Spread of the USA300 clone among men who have sex with men is associated with high-risk behaviors, including use of methamphetamine and other illicit drugs, sex with multiple partners, participation in a group sex party, use of the internet for sexual contacts, skin-abrading sex, and history of sexually transmitted infections," the authors write.
"The same patterns of increased sexual risk behaviors among men who have sex with men - which have resulted from changes in beliefs regarding HIV disease severity with the availability of potent antiretroviral therapy - have been driving resurgent epidemics of early syphilis, rectal gonorrhea, and new HIV infections in San Francisco, Boston, and elsewhere," add the researchers.
The study, which focused on clinics in the San Francisco area, found that in some cases up to 39% of patients had the MRSA USA300 infections in their genitals or buttocks, although the disease can be spread by general skin-to-skin contact and can even be picked up from surfaces.
Observing that "Infection with multidrug-resistant USA300 MRSA is common among men who have sex with men," the study timidly concludes that "multidrug-resistant MRSA infection might be sexually transmitted in this population," and counsels "further research."
It is estimated that in San Francisco's Castro District, which has the highest concentration of homosexuals in the country, the infection rate is 1 in every 588 residents. One in every 3,800 residents of San Francisco are infected. Homosexuals are 13 times more likely to be infected than others in the city.
The disease is not only spreading in San Francisco, but also Boston, New York and Los Angeles. In addition to homosexuals, people who are ill or have weakened immune systems are particularly susceptible. MRSA and other types of staphylococcus bacteria, often spread in hospitals, kill more than 19,000 Americans each year, a rate higher than deaths due to AIDS.
Peter LaBarbara (yes they mispelled his name), president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, is hoping that the revelation of yet another homosexual epidemic will have an impact on the public's perception of homosexual behavior. "I think that the media, and Hollywood, and a lot of our policy makers and certainly academia are in a world of 'let's pretend' with regard to homosexual behavior and its consequences," he told LifeSiteNews. "They don't want to focus on the special risks that homosexual behavior, especially between men, have in the public health arena, and issues like this keep coming up."
However, LaBarbara acknowledges that the major media will "invariably spin things in a homosexual direction."
"We saw the identical thing happen 25 years ago with the reporting on AIDS," he said, "but ironically the whole AIDS crisis strengthened the homosexual lobby in this country."
The New York Times:
A new, highly drug-resistant strain of the "flesh-eating" MRSA bacteria is being spread among gay men in San Francisco and Boston, researchers reported on Monday.
In a study published online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the bacteria seemed to be spread most easily through anal intercourse but also through casual skin-to-skin contact and touching contaminated surfaces.
The authors warned that unless microbiology laboratories were able to identify the strain and doctors prescribed the proper antibiotic therapy, the infection could soon spread among other groups and become a wider threat.
The new strain seems to have "spread rapidly" in gay populations in San Francisco and Boston, the researchers wrote, and "has the potential for rapid, nationwide dissemination" among gay men.
The study was based on a review of medical records from outpatient clinics in San Francisco and Boston and nine medical centers in San Francisco.
The Castro district in San Francisco has the highest number of gay residents in the country, according to the University of California, San Francisco. One in 588 residents is infected with the new multidrug-resistant MRSA strain, the study found. That compares with 1 in 3,800 people in San Francisco, according to statistical analyses based on ZIP codes.
A separate part of the study found that gay men in San Francisco were about 13 times more likely to be infected than other people in the city.
The San Francisco researchers suggested that scrubbing with soap and water might be the most effective way to stop skin-to-skin transmission, particularly after sexual activities.
MRSA, for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was once spread chiefly in hospitals. But in recent years, a number of healthy people have acquired it outside hospitals.
Nearly 19,000 people died in the United States from MRSA infections in 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported.
The infection can cause unusually severe problems, including abscesses and skin ulcers. The bacteria can invade through the skin to produce necrotizing fasciitis, giving them the popular name of flesh-eating bacteria. They can also cause pneumonia, damage the heart and produce widespread infection through the blood.
Among gay men in the study, MRSA was spread by skin contact, causing abscesses and infection in the buttocks and genital area.
The new strain is closely related to earlier ones. Both are known as MRSA USA300.
The strain is much more difficult to treat because it is resistant not just to methicillin, but also many more of the antibiotics used to treat the earlier strains, said Dr. Henry F. Chambers, an author of the new study.
The new strain contains a plasmid called pUSA03.
"This particular clone is resistant to at least three other drugs, clindamycin, tetracycline and mupirocin," Dr. Chambers said in a telephone interview.
Of the alternatives recommended by the C.D.C. and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim), clindamycin and a tetracycline, "this strain is resistant to two of those three," he added. "In addition, the new strain is resistant to mupirocin, which has been advocated for eradicating the strain from carriers."
or
Homophobia In Action
To paraphrase one of the most excellent writers of all time, Rod Serling, submitted for your approval, a difference between two agendas.
One encompasses demonizing and other encompasses informing.
It is relatively easy to guess which is which. But just in case you can't guess, I drop a hint or two:
A so-called Christian newswire site in Canada:
SAN FRANCISCO, January 15, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new medical study appearing in the Annals of American Medicine shows that homosexuals are spreading a new, highly-infectious and extremely dangerous bacteria amongst themselves, most probably through anal intercourse.
The bacterium, called MRSA USA300, is impervious to front-line antibiotics and can only be treated with rarer drugs, primarily Vancomycin. Researchers say that the bug, which is a type of staphylococcus, is primed to develop immunity to that drug as well. Infected patients may have inflammation, abscesses, and tissue loss in the affected areas. Although the bacterium does not literally "eat" the body, it manufactures toxins that can cause "necrosis" - the death of surrounding tissue.
The study's authors note that the strong link between unhealthy behavior, particularly among homosexuals, is the driving force behind the disease. "Spread of the USA300 clone among men who have sex with men is associated with high-risk behaviors, including use of methamphetamine and other illicit drugs, sex with multiple partners, participation in a group sex party, use of the internet for sexual contacts, skin-abrading sex, and history of sexually transmitted infections," the authors write.
"The same patterns of increased sexual risk behaviors among men who have sex with men - which have resulted from changes in beliefs regarding HIV disease severity with the availability of potent antiretroviral therapy - have been driving resurgent epidemics of early syphilis, rectal gonorrhea, and new HIV infections in San Francisco, Boston, and elsewhere," add the researchers.
The study, which focused on clinics in the San Francisco area, found that in some cases up to 39% of patients had the MRSA USA300 infections in their genitals or buttocks, although the disease can be spread by general skin-to-skin contact and can even be picked up from surfaces.
Observing that "Infection with multidrug-resistant USA300 MRSA is common among men who have sex with men," the study timidly concludes that "multidrug-resistant MRSA infection might be sexually transmitted in this population," and counsels "further research."
It is estimated that in San Francisco's Castro District, which has the highest concentration of homosexuals in the country, the infection rate is 1 in every 588 residents. One in every 3,800 residents of San Francisco are infected. Homosexuals are 13 times more likely to be infected than others in the city.
The disease is not only spreading in San Francisco, but also Boston, New York and Los Angeles. In addition to homosexuals, people who are ill or have weakened immune systems are particularly susceptible. MRSA and other types of staphylococcus bacteria, often spread in hospitals, kill more than 19,000 Americans each year, a rate higher than deaths due to AIDS.
Peter LaBarbara (yes they mispelled his name), president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, is hoping that the revelation of yet another homosexual epidemic will have an impact on the public's perception of homosexual behavior. "I think that the media, and Hollywood, and a lot of our policy makers and certainly academia are in a world of 'let's pretend' with regard to homosexual behavior and its consequences," he told LifeSiteNews. "They don't want to focus on the special risks that homosexual behavior, especially between men, have in the public health arena, and issues like this keep coming up."
However, LaBarbara acknowledges that the major media will "invariably spin things in a homosexual direction."
"We saw the identical thing happen 25 years ago with the reporting on AIDS," he said, "but ironically the whole AIDS crisis strengthened the homosexual lobby in this country."
The New York Times:
A new, highly drug-resistant strain of the "flesh-eating" MRSA bacteria is being spread among gay men in San Francisco and Boston, researchers reported on Monday.
In a study published online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the bacteria seemed to be spread most easily through anal intercourse but also through casual skin-to-skin contact and touching contaminated surfaces.
The authors warned that unless microbiology laboratories were able to identify the strain and doctors prescribed the proper antibiotic therapy, the infection could soon spread among other groups and become a wider threat.
The new strain seems to have "spread rapidly" in gay populations in San Francisco and Boston, the researchers wrote, and "has the potential for rapid, nationwide dissemination" among gay men.
The study was based on a review of medical records from outpatient clinics in San Francisco and Boston and nine medical centers in San Francisco.
The Castro district in San Francisco has the highest number of gay residents in the country, according to the University of California, San Francisco. One in 588 residents is infected with the new multidrug-resistant MRSA strain, the study found. That compares with 1 in 3,800 people in San Francisco, according to statistical analyses based on ZIP codes.
A separate part of the study found that gay men in San Francisco were about 13 times more likely to be infected than other people in the city.
The San Francisco researchers suggested that scrubbing with soap and water might be the most effective way to stop skin-to-skin transmission, particularly after sexual activities.
MRSA, for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was once spread chiefly in hospitals. But in recent years, a number of healthy people have acquired it outside hospitals.
Nearly 19,000 people died in the United States from MRSA infections in 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported.
The infection can cause unusually severe problems, including abscesses and skin ulcers. The bacteria can invade through the skin to produce necrotizing fasciitis, giving them the popular name of flesh-eating bacteria. They can also cause pneumonia, damage the heart and produce widespread infection through the blood.
Among gay men in the study, MRSA was spread by skin contact, causing abscesses and infection in the buttocks and genital area.
The new strain is closely related to earlier ones. Both are known as MRSA USA300.
The strain is much more difficult to treat because it is resistant not just to methicillin, but also many more of the antibiotics used to treat the earlier strains, said Dr. Henry F. Chambers, an author of the new study.
The new strain contains a plasmid called pUSA03.
"This particular clone is resistant to at least three other drugs, clindamycin, tetracycline and mupirocin," Dr. Chambers said in a telephone interview.
Of the alternatives recommended by the C.D.C. and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim), clindamycin and a tetracycline, "this strain is resistant to two of those three," he added. "In addition, the new strain is resistant to mupirocin, which has been advocated for eradicating the strain from carriers."
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Going for blood out of the gate
My mother is doing well.Thanks to everyone expressing concern.
In the middle of yesterday's drama, I noticed the following:
A new variety of staph bacteria, highly resistant to antibiotics and possibly transmitted by sexual contact, is spreading among gay men in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles, researchers reported Monday.
The study released online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found the highest concentrations of infection by the drug-resistant bug in and around San Francisco's Castro district and among patients who visit health clinics that treat HIV infections in gay men in San Francisco and Boston.
My eyes rolled for two reasons. First I get spooked when I hear of any new calamities that are out and could potentially affect us all.
The second reason is because I knew what would happen next. I was just telling a friend today that we can expect an one-sided article from One News Now. The article will most likely cite quotes from a so-called "pro-family" leader while omitting comments from any lgbts or anyone directly involved in the situation.
But of course our friend, Peter LaBarbera, had to be first on the list with his comments. I imagine him chomping at the bit as he wrote the following:
Is this not an eerie reminder of the initial stories about AIDS — then called GRID (Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease) – 25 years ago? It is unfathomable that after that plague, disease specialists and the media are now surprised at the correlation of new infections with homosexual behavior.
Wake up, medical and political establishment: homosexual behavior is unhealthy — no matter how many secular sermons you preach against "homophobia." Due to liberal political correctness, which insists on treating aberrant — even deadly — behaviors and lifestyles as a "civil right," we as a society don’t seem to have learned much from the AIDS pandemic. This latest news begs some serious questions:
Why aren’t all schoolchildren being taught that there are special health risks associated with homosexual behavior and that they should "just say no" to homosexuality? (Instead, schools are willy-nilly working to spread the PC idea among youth that certain people are naturally "gay," and that this is a harmless identity);
Why won’t the news media make the common-sense connection between these frequent stories about (male) homosexual behavior and disease — to the idea that perhaps it’s probably not smart for society and pop culture to celebrate homosexuality and bisexuality ?;Why isn’t there a concerted government effort — akin to the current anti-smoking campaigns — to reign in homosexual promiscuity – beginning with closing down all sex businesses (bathhouses) that facilitate homosexual perversion? (Of course, we favor closing down straight prostitution businesses as well.) We know that bisexual behavior (men on the "down low") help spread dangerous diseases to the general population: how many deaths and illnesses have to result from "second-hand sodomy" before authorities take corrective action? (Curiously, even President Bush’s White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, recently abruptly cut off a question by reporter Les Kinsolving critical of homosexual bathhouses);
If any other behavior were as closely linked to death and disease as male homosexuality, would we be so careful not to criticize it – or would we offer healthy alternatives to it like abstinence and the ex-"gay" movement?
Well I am one never to get alarmed at a snake when he acts like a snake, so Peter's exploitation of this situation to promote his political bullshit does not surprise me.
But it does bother me a little.
I would suggest everyone read the entire San Francisco Chronicle article and not just Peter's rehashing of it. Amongst other things, it says the following:
Just why the new, more drug-resistant variety is concentrated among gay men is not yet known. Patients infected with HIV appear to run a higher risk of infection, but the study suggests that gay men are being infected with the staph germ regardless of whether they are HIV-positive.
One factor that could be in play is a medical history of heavy use of antibiotics, which creates conditions for breeding drug-resistant strains. Any patient, HIV-positive or not, who has had high previous exposure to antibiotics might be more susceptible.
The good news is that, once the public is aware of the risk, there are ways to prevent the spread of drug-resistant staph. It can be as simple as soap and water.
"Taking a shower after sexual contact may minimize contamination," said Dr. Chip Chambers, director of infectious diseases at San Francisco General, a co-author of the study. "Ordinary soap will do. It dilutes the concentration of bacteria. You don't need antibacterial soap."Chambers stressed that some people, no matter how fastidious, could be more prone than others to staph infections.
They could have unknown genetic traits or a history of antibiotic use that raises the risk. "Despite one's best efforts, it is still possible, of course, to get a staph infection," he said. "This is why if one has a cut or open wound that it is important to clean it out and keep it clean."
Peter is quick to point out the early history of AIDS and HIV.
He, however, conveniently omits that the demonization of lgbts via Anita Bryant's crusade, the Briggs Amendment, and various other petty correalations between homosexuality and anti-social behavior were small but crucial factors in the spread of HIV.
Some gays beaten down by those lies had no credibility in objetive information coming out telling them about HIV and AIDS. They viewed them as yet another attack.
And this a huge problem when it comes to lgbts and disease prevention, particularly in the case of STDs. Many times, while heterosexuals are given adequate care to prevent sexuallytransmitted diseases (STDs), the gay and lesbian community finds itself being blamed for the outbreak of STDs.
The anti-gay industry, in particular, blame gay sexual orientation rather than the sexual behavior of individual people or how societal rejection contributes to the sexual behavior of individual gay men.
This can contribute to a stumbling block to gay men receiving adequate health care.
According to the article Health Care Screening for Men Who Have Sex with Men, gay men can be at a high risk for preventable diseases for a number of reasons, including:
the patient being fearful to come out to his or her doctor, the personal discomfort the doctor may feel about having a gay or lesbian patient, possible open hostility of the doctor to having a gay or lesbian patient, and concern that the patient’s employer may learn his or her orientation and terminate their employment.
I would sincerely hope that no one takes Peter's nonsense seriously. No one, that is, except for the usual suspects. After all, isn't that what we have come to expect from them?
UPDATE - And it looks like all of the dipsticks are coming out the woodwork.
My mother is doing well.Thanks to everyone expressing concern.
In the middle of yesterday's drama, I noticed the following:
A new variety of staph bacteria, highly resistant to antibiotics and possibly transmitted by sexual contact, is spreading among gay men in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles, researchers reported Monday.
The study released online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found the highest concentrations of infection by the drug-resistant bug in and around San Francisco's Castro district and among patients who visit health clinics that treat HIV infections in gay men in San Francisco and Boston.
My eyes rolled for two reasons. First I get spooked when I hear of any new calamities that are out and could potentially affect us all.
The second reason is because I knew what would happen next. I was just telling a friend today that we can expect an one-sided article from One News Now. The article will most likely cite quotes from a so-called "pro-family" leader while omitting comments from any lgbts or anyone directly involved in the situation.
But of course our friend, Peter LaBarbera, had to be first on the list with his comments. I imagine him chomping at the bit as he wrote the following:
Is this not an eerie reminder of the initial stories about AIDS — then called GRID (Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease) – 25 years ago? It is unfathomable that after that plague, disease specialists and the media are now surprised at the correlation of new infections with homosexual behavior.
Wake up, medical and political establishment: homosexual behavior is unhealthy — no matter how many secular sermons you preach against "homophobia." Due to liberal political correctness, which insists on treating aberrant — even deadly — behaviors and lifestyles as a "civil right," we as a society don’t seem to have learned much from the AIDS pandemic. This latest news begs some serious questions:
Why aren’t all schoolchildren being taught that there are special health risks associated with homosexual behavior and that they should "just say no" to homosexuality? (Instead, schools are willy-nilly working to spread the PC idea among youth that certain people are naturally "gay," and that this is a harmless identity);
Why won’t the news media make the common-sense connection between these frequent stories about (male) homosexual behavior and disease — to the idea that perhaps it’s probably not smart for society and pop culture to celebrate homosexuality and bisexuality ?;Why isn’t there a concerted government effort — akin to the current anti-smoking campaigns — to reign in homosexual promiscuity – beginning with closing down all sex businesses (bathhouses) that facilitate homosexual perversion? (Of course, we favor closing down straight prostitution businesses as well.) We know that bisexual behavior (men on the "down low") help spread dangerous diseases to the general population: how many deaths and illnesses have to result from "second-hand sodomy" before authorities take corrective action? (Curiously, even President Bush’s White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, recently abruptly cut off a question by reporter Les Kinsolving critical of homosexual bathhouses);
If any other behavior were as closely linked to death and disease as male homosexuality, would we be so careful not to criticize it – or would we offer healthy alternatives to it like abstinence and the ex-"gay" movement?
Well I am one never to get alarmed at a snake when he acts like a snake, so Peter's exploitation of this situation to promote his political bullshit does not surprise me.
But it does bother me a little.
I would suggest everyone read the entire San Francisco Chronicle article and not just Peter's rehashing of it. Amongst other things, it says the following:
Just why the new, more drug-resistant variety is concentrated among gay men is not yet known. Patients infected with HIV appear to run a higher risk of infection, but the study suggests that gay men are being infected with the staph germ regardless of whether they are HIV-positive.
One factor that could be in play is a medical history of heavy use of antibiotics, which creates conditions for breeding drug-resistant strains. Any patient, HIV-positive or not, who has had high previous exposure to antibiotics might be more susceptible.
The good news is that, once the public is aware of the risk, there are ways to prevent the spread of drug-resistant staph. It can be as simple as soap and water.
"Taking a shower after sexual contact may minimize contamination," said Dr. Chip Chambers, director of infectious diseases at San Francisco General, a co-author of the study. "Ordinary soap will do. It dilutes the concentration of bacteria. You don't need antibacterial soap."Chambers stressed that some people, no matter how fastidious, could be more prone than others to staph infections.
They could have unknown genetic traits or a history of antibiotic use that raises the risk. "Despite one's best efforts, it is still possible, of course, to get a staph infection," he said. "This is why if one has a cut or open wound that it is important to clean it out and keep it clean."
Peter is quick to point out the early history of AIDS and HIV.
He, however, conveniently omits that the demonization of lgbts via Anita Bryant's crusade, the Briggs Amendment, and various other petty correalations between homosexuality and anti-social behavior were small but crucial factors in the spread of HIV.
Some gays beaten down by those lies had no credibility in objetive information coming out telling them about HIV and AIDS. They viewed them as yet another attack.
And this a huge problem when it comes to lgbts and disease prevention, particularly in the case of STDs. Many times, while heterosexuals are given adequate care to prevent sexuallytransmitted diseases (STDs), the gay and lesbian community finds itself being blamed for the outbreak of STDs.
The anti-gay industry, in particular, blame gay sexual orientation rather than the sexual behavior of individual people or how societal rejection contributes to the sexual behavior of individual gay men.
This can contribute to a stumbling block to gay men receiving adequate health care.
According to the article Health Care Screening for Men Who Have Sex with Men, gay men can be at a high risk for preventable diseases for a number of reasons, including:
the patient being fearful to come out to his or her doctor, the personal discomfort the doctor may feel about having a gay or lesbian patient, possible open hostility of the doctor to having a gay or lesbian patient, and concern that the patient’s employer may learn his or her orientation and terminate their employment.
I would sincerely hope that no one takes Peter's nonsense seriously. No one, that is, except for the usual suspects. After all, isn't that what we have come to expect from them?
UPDATE - And it looks like all of the dipsticks are coming out the woodwork.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Okay, who the hell has roots on me . . .
I would love to address several things today, including the following I found on goodasyou.org
And I would like to announce and further elucidate on the fact that I posted a huge update on my other web page's time line.
But I won't.
My mother and I just came back from the hospital. She slipped earlier today and broke her ankle in two places.
She is fine right now. She is at home and resting. And I am very grateful that her injury wasn't worse.
So please forgive me for taking a break tonight. I will be back tomorrow.
I would love to address several things today, including the following I found on goodasyou.org
And I would like to announce and further elucidate on the fact that I posted a huge update on my other web page's time line.
But I won't.
My mother and I just came back from the hospital. She slipped earlier today and broke her ankle in two places.
She is fine right now. She is at home and resting. And I am very grateful that her injury wasn't worse.
So please forgive me for taking a break tonight. I will be back tomorrow.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters featured in Carolina lgbt publication
Q-Notes, a newsmonthly dealing with lgbt issues in the Carolinas, ran an article about my book. .
Click here if you are curious as to what I look like.
Don't laugh too long.
S.C. author takes on the anti-gay industry
Alvin McEwen’s new book details the Religious Right’s distortion tactics
by Jack Kirven . Q-Notes staff
Alvin McEwen put years of research into the tactics and strategies employed by the anti-gay industry to exploit misinformed and religion-based stereotypes about LGBT people.
There is a distinction between spirituality and bigotry based on “sacred” prejudices. This point is the focus of author Alvin McEwen’s new book, “Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Exposing the Lies of the Anti-Gay Industry.”
Boiling the work down to a central thesis, McEwen says “there has been a consistent war waged on the gay community by people who hide behind their pseudo-religious beliefs.”McEwen posits that because it is not possible in this country to create laws that purely further religious thought, opponents of LGBT equality seek other means to demonize our community.
“Once these groups dehumanize LGBT people it then becomes easier to create a sense of need for regulations based on assumed religious justifications.”
In other words, by creating a notion that there is a “dangerous lifestyle” present, a need is then created to suppress that “danger.”McEwen does not use the term Religious Right. He prefers “anti-gay industry.” For good reason, too. The people and organizations who campaign the most furiously against LGBT equality make large amounts of money doing it. It is an industry, one that caters to fear and sells discredited research to people of faith who often do not have a chance to put a human face on LGBT family, friends and colleagues. Professional gay-bashers generate enormous amounts of cash to repay their efforts at fostering hate.
McEwen decided to examine the issue of institutionalized homophobia after he read a magazine article that quoted an hysterical mother who expressed concern for her children’s safety. In the middle of his own coming out process, McEwen was “upset that a woman whom I didn’t know would spout that kind of hate about me. She was telling lies about me. I was vulnerable at that time and I thought about it a lot. I realized how dangerous misinformation can be to LGBT people.”
After following stories in such publications as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, and various medical and scientific journals reporting that researchers are upset by the ways their studies are misused by hate mongers, McEwen realized that the anti-gay industry employs six primary distortion tactics. As detailed in his book, these deception tactics include: misinformation, repetition, conspiracy theories, dire consequences, phony experts and dehumanizing semantics.
“Understanding how the industry deceives people gives us a means to counter their tactics,” he says.
Misinformation
This includes taking studies out of context, purposefully misreading information, applying data to unrelated topics and other forms of abusing reputable studies by respected scientists.
One example that employs all of these strategies concerns a study that focused on approximately 35 lesbians with pre-existing alcoholism. The findings were misused by the anti-gay industry to argue that lesbians are more likely to develop addictions and express violent behaviors. This was, in turn, used to argue that lesbians should not be allowed to care for children.
Repetition
This tactic requires little explanation. As George W. Bush said in Greece on May 24, 2005, “See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”
Conspiracy theories
This tactic is commonly used as the dreaded “Gay Agenda.” “By telling people that our country is a Christian country, and telling them what good Christians believe, it then becomes possible to say that someone who does not believe as you do is trying to take all that away from you,” says McEwen.
This tactic plays on social and political fears and usually focuses on extrapolations with no basis in reason or fact (i.e., the argument against same-sex marriage that says people will then be able to marry their dogs).
Dire consequences
This is a strategy that seeks to predict a terrible outcome after a chain of cataclysmic events arise from some undesirable change. An example might include the claim that the Roman Empire collapsed because homosexuality became universally practiced and accepted. To further the distortion, homophobes would equate current problems in the U.S. with that completely unrelated historical situation.
Phony experts
This tactic is exactly what it sounds like. Discredited researchers, outdated studies and disgraced leaders are quoted incessantly, despite the fact that they have no authority or credibility. An example is Michael Johnston’s continued appearance on the cover of the American Family Association’s (AFA) “ex-gay” video “It’s Not Gay.” In 2003, after the video’s release, Johnston was revealed to be participating in unsafe sex at drug-fueled, same-sex orgies without disclosing his HIV-positive status. He is still the “ex-gay” face used to sell the AFA video.
Dehumanizing semantics
The anti-gay industry’s use of language plays on assumptions and is tailored to exploit ignorance concerning the LGBT community. “If someone says, ‘…and this is because gay men live a destructive life,’ it is based on the assumed notion that God created heterosexuality, He disapproves of homosexuality, homosexuality is evil and therefore gay men are destructive,” explains McEwen.
In his book, McEwen highlights quotes from religious leaders that utilize dehumanizing semantics. Such as one evangelist who claims that Christians have been “bullied into submission” by the “aggressive homosexual agenda” that’s taking over public schools.
“Ultimately,” says McEwen, “as a person of faith I would tell people to not take the word of an outsider. Pray, talk directly to God yourself to find out what He has to say about your sexuality. We can’t dialogue with the anti-gay industry, but we can talk to other people of faith. The bigots will expose themselves soon enough. People can hear a lie only so many times before it begins to sound untenable to them. We need to educate ourselves and be informed about our enemies.
“For my part, I am documenting our history so that one day a young person can pick up from our first steps and go even further.”
info: For more information, visit http://www.holybullies.com/,
http://www.holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com/
AntiGayLiesAndLiars.blogspot.com
“Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters” is available for purchase at http://www.amazon.com/.
Q-Notes, a newsmonthly dealing with lgbt issues in the Carolinas, ran an article about my book. .
Click here if you are curious as to what I look like.
Don't laugh too long.
S.C. author takes on the anti-gay industry
Alvin McEwen’s new book details the Religious Right’s distortion tactics
by Jack Kirven . Q-Notes staff
Alvin McEwen put years of research into the tactics and strategies employed by the anti-gay industry to exploit misinformed and religion-based stereotypes about LGBT people.
There is a distinction between spirituality and bigotry based on “sacred” prejudices. This point is the focus of author Alvin McEwen’s new book, “Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Exposing the Lies of the Anti-Gay Industry.”
Boiling the work down to a central thesis, McEwen says “there has been a consistent war waged on the gay community by people who hide behind their pseudo-religious beliefs.”McEwen posits that because it is not possible in this country to create laws that purely further religious thought, opponents of LGBT equality seek other means to demonize our community.
“Once these groups dehumanize LGBT people it then becomes easier to create a sense of need for regulations based on assumed religious justifications.”
In other words, by creating a notion that there is a “dangerous lifestyle” present, a need is then created to suppress that “danger.”McEwen does not use the term Religious Right. He prefers “anti-gay industry.” For good reason, too. The people and organizations who campaign the most furiously against LGBT equality make large amounts of money doing it. It is an industry, one that caters to fear and sells discredited research to people of faith who often do not have a chance to put a human face on LGBT family, friends and colleagues. Professional gay-bashers generate enormous amounts of cash to repay their efforts at fostering hate.
McEwen decided to examine the issue of institutionalized homophobia after he read a magazine article that quoted an hysterical mother who expressed concern for her children’s safety. In the middle of his own coming out process, McEwen was “upset that a woman whom I didn’t know would spout that kind of hate about me. She was telling lies about me. I was vulnerable at that time and I thought about it a lot. I realized how dangerous misinformation can be to LGBT people.”
After following stories in such publications as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, and various medical and scientific journals reporting that researchers are upset by the ways their studies are misused by hate mongers, McEwen realized that the anti-gay industry employs six primary distortion tactics. As detailed in his book, these deception tactics include: misinformation, repetition, conspiracy theories, dire consequences, phony experts and dehumanizing semantics.
“Understanding how the industry deceives people gives us a means to counter their tactics,” he says.
Misinformation
This includes taking studies out of context, purposefully misreading information, applying data to unrelated topics and other forms of abusing reputable studies by respected scientists.
One example that employs all of these strategies concerns a study that focused on approximately 35 lesbians with pre-existing alcoholism. The findings were misused by the anti-gay industry to argue that lesbians are more likely to develop addictions and express violent behaviors. This was, in turn, used to argue that lesbians should not be allowed to care for children.
Repetition
This tactic requires little explanation. As George W. Bush said in Greece on May 24, 2005, “See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”
Conspiracy theories
This tactic is commonly used as the dreaded “Gay Agenda.” “By telling people that our country is a Christian country, and telling them what good Christians believe, it then becomes possible to say that someone who does not believe as you do is trying to take all that away from you,” says McEwen.
This tactic plays on social and political fears and usually focuses on extrapolations with no basis in reason or fact (i.e., the argument against same-sex marriage that says people will then be able to marry their dogs).
Dire consequences
This is a strategy that seeks to predict a terrible outcome after a chain of cataclysmic events arise from some undesirable change. An example might include the claim that the Roman Empire collapsed because homosexuality became universally practiced and accepted. To further the distortion, homophobes would equate current problems in the U.S. with that completely unrelated historical situation.
Phony experts
This tactic is exactly what it sounds like. Discredited researchers, outdated studies and disgraced leaders are quoted incessantly, despite the fact that they have no authority or credibility. An example is Michael Johnston’s continued appearance on the cover of the American Family Association’s (AFA) “ex-gay” video “It’s Not Gay.” In 2003, after the video’s release, Johnston was revealed to be participating in unsafe sex at drug-fueled, same-sex orgies without disclosing his HIV-positive status. He is still the “ex-gay” face used to sell the AFA video.
Dehumanizing semantics
The anti-gay industry’s use of language plays on assumptions and is tailored to exploit ignorance concerning the LGBT community. “If someone says, ‘…and this is because gay men live a destructive life,’ it is based on the assumed notion that God created heterosexuality, He disapproves of homosexuality, homosexuality is evil and therefore gay men are destructive,” explains McEwen.
In his book, McEwen highlights quotes from religious leaders that utilize dehumanizing semantics. Such as one evangelist who claims that Christians have been “bullied into submission” by the “aggressive homosexual agenda” that’s taking over public schools.
“Ultimately,” says McEwen, “as a person of faith I would tell people to not take the word of an outsider. Pray, talk directly to God yourself to find out what He has to say about your sexuality. We can’t dialogue with the anti-gay industry, but we can talk to other people of faith. The bigots will expose themselves soon enough. People can hear a lie only so many times before it begins to sound untenable to them. We need to educate ourselves and be informed about our enemies.
“For my part, I am documenting our history so that one day a young person can pick up from our first steps and go even further.”
info: For more information, visit http://www.holybullies.com/,
http://www.holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com/
AntiGayLiesAndLiars.blogspot.com
“Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters” is available for purchase at http://www.amazon.com/.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Why can't Peter LaBarbera stop misrepresenting
I have talked to Peter LaBarbera via email and I can tell you this: he truly believes that homosexuality is a sin.
And there is nothing wrong with believing this.
However, Peter crosses the line when he stoops to misrepresentations to further his beliefs.
Today's post on his Americans for Truth (in name only) page further accentuates this point.
Peter takes a bunch of quotes from gay authors and columnists (many over 10 years old) to further the lie that lgbts on the whole are promiscuous and that we want to destroy the institute of marriage.
First of all, the opinions of a few lgbts do not speak for the entire community. Anyone with a small shred of common sense knows this.
But I guess Peter thinks that common sense don't matter when one is fighting a "holy war."
And to make matters worse, he misrepresents big time. I want to talk about two.
The first is when he pulls a quote from noted gay author Micheangelo Signorile:
“[Legalizing “same-sex marriage”] is also a chance to wholly transform the definition of family in American culture. It is the final tool with which to dismantle all sodomy statutes, get education about homosexuality and AIDS into public schools, and, in short, usher in a sea change in how society views and treats us.”–Michelangelo Signorile, “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do,” OUT magazine, May 1996, p. 30.
The misrepresentation of this quote is nothing new and Peter is not the first to do it. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition used the same quote to claim that lgbts want to destroy marriage:
“Traditional marriage is under attack. Homosexual activist Michelangelo Signorile, writing in Out! in its Dec./Jan. 1994 issue, says that homosexuals should ‘fi ght for same-sex marriage
and its benefits and then, once granted, redefi ne the institution of marriage completely to debunk a myth and radically alter an archaic institution.’”—Lou Sheldon, Traditional Marriage Is Worth Protecting!, The Traditional Values Coalition
Signorile was quick to cry foul. The following passage is from my book, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters:
As it turns out, Sheldon’s usage of Signorile’s quote is a distortion. Signorile complained about it in a column entitled Opponents Peddling Selective, Defective Readings. He said the quote in question was written about a same-sex marriage controversy in Hawaii in 1993.
Signorile said he had interviewed people in the gay community with different opinions on same-sex marriage. He also said he quoted those who said same-sex marriage was oppressive and that gays should not attempt to partake in it. Others he talked to said marriage is a good way for gays to civilize and assimilate themselves.
He further said:
“Both of these positions, I found were pretty extreme. I looked at still other points of view and I also proposed what ‘might’ be a compromise— I didn’t even say whether or not I agreed with it or not—stating that redefining the institution of marriage to change its negative aspects while demanding full marriage rights was one way to go.”
In other words, Sheldon (and LaBarbera) took Signorile's comments out of context.
Now let's look at this second misrepresentation:
“Take sex. Traditionally, a commitment to monogamy — to the extent that it was not simply an adjunct of property law, a vehicle for guaranteeing property rights and succession — was the chief mode of sacrifice imposed upon or adopted by married couples as a means of showing their sacred valuing of their relation. But gay men have realized that while couples may choose to restrict sexual activity in order to show their love for each other, it is not necessary for this purpose; there are many other ways to manifest and ritualize commitment. And so monogamy (it appears) is not an essential component of love and marriage. The authors of “The Male Couple” found that:
[T]he majority of [gay male] couples, and all of the couples together for longer than five years, were not continuously sexually exclusive with each other. Although many had long periods of sexual exclusivity, it was not the ongoing expectation for most. We found that gay men expect mutual emotional dependability with their partners [but also believe] that relationship fidelity transcends concerns about sexuality and exclusivity.
The big question here is what exactly is The Male Couple and why didn't Peter give more information regarding the book.
Probably because The Male Couple was published in 1984 (over 20 years ago), which would make it an out-of-date source.
Also, the authors of The Male Couple, McWhirter and Mattison, said that their book should not be generalized to represent the entire gay community:
“We always have been very careful to explain that the very nature of our research sample, its size (156 couples), its narrow geographic location, and the natural selectiveness of the participants prevents the findings from being applicable and generalizable to the entire gay
male community.”
Maybe Peter missed that part.
Or maybe he just doesn't give a damn. You tell me.
Now his last quote is a hoot:
Make Anti-Gays Look Nasty
“We intend to make the anti-gays look so nasty that average Americans will want to disassociate themselves from such types.”–Marshall K. Kirk and Erastes Pill, “The Overhauling of Straight America,” The Guide (homosexual) magazine, November 1987.
Well Peter, when you lie as pathetically as you did in this column, you make our jobs easier.
I have talked to Peter LaBarbera via email and I can tell you this: he truly believes that homosexuality is a sin.
And there is nothing wrong with believing this.
However, Peter crosses the line when he stoops to misrepresentations to further his beliefs.
Today's post on his Americans for Truth (in name only) page further accentuates this point.
Peter takes a bunch of quotes from gay authors and columnists (many over 10 years old) to further the lie that lgbts on the whole are promiscuous and that we want to destroy the institute of marriage.
First of all, the opinions of a few lgbts do not speak for the entire community. Anyone with a small shred of common sense knows this.
But I guess Peter thinks that common sense don't matter when one is fighting a "holy war."
And to make matters worse, he misrepresents big time. I want to talk about two.
The first is when he pulls a quote from noted gay author Micheangelo Signorile:
“[Legalizing “same-sex marriage”] is also a chance to wholly transform the definition of family in American culture. It is the final tool with which to dismantle all sodomy statutes, get education about homosexuality and AIDS into public schools, and, in short, usher in a sea change in how society views and treats us.”–Michelangelo Signorile, “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do,” OUT magazine, May 1996, p. 30.
The misrepresentation of this quote is nothing new and Peter is not the first to do it. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition used the same quote to claim that lgbts want to destroy marriage:
“Traditional marriage is under attack. Homosexual activist Michelangelo Signorile, writing in Out! in its Dec./Jan. 1994 issue, says that homosexuals should ‘fi ght for same-sex marriage
and its benefits and then, once granted, redefi ne the institution of marriage completely to debunk a myth and radically alter an archaic institution.’”—Lou Sheldon, Traditional Marriage Is Worth Protecting!, The Traditional Values Coalition
Signorile was quick to cry foul. The following passage is from my book, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters:
As it turns out, Sheldon’s usage of Signorile’s quote is a distortion. Signorile complained about it in a column entitled Opponents Peddling Selective, Defective Readings. He said the quote in question was written about a same-sex marriage controversy in Hawaii in 1993.
Signorile said he had interviewed people in the gay community with different opinions on same-sex marriage. He also said he quoted those who said same-sex marriage was oppressive and that gays should not attempt to partake in it. Others he talked to said marriage is a good way for gays to civilize and assimilate themselves.
He further said:
“Both of these positions, I found were pretty extreme. I looked at still other points of view and I also proposed what ‘might’ be a compromise— I didn’t even say whether or not I agreed with it or not—stating that redefining the institution of marriage to change its negative aspects while demanding full marriage rights was one way to go.”
In other words, Sheldon (and LaBarbera) took Signorile's comments out of context.
Now let's look at this second misrepresentation:
“Take sex. Traditionally, a commitment to monogamy — to the extent that it was not simply an adjunct of property law, a vehicle for guaranteeing property rights and succession — was the chief mode of sacrifice imposed upon or adopted by married couples as a means of showing their sacred valuing of their relation. But gay men have realized that while couples may choose to restrict sexual activity in order to show their love for each other, it is not necessary for this purpose; there are many other ways to manifest and ritualize commitment. And so monogamy (it appears) is not an essential component of love and marriage. The authors of “The Male Couple” found that:
[T]he majority of [gay male] couples, and all of the couples together for longer than five years, were not continuously sexually exclusive with each other. Although many had long periods of sexual exclusivity, it was not the ongoing expectation for most. We found that gay men expect mutual emotional dependability with their partners [but also believe] that relationship fidelity transcends concerns about sexuality and exclusivity.
The big question here is what exactly is The Male Couple and why didn't Peter give more information regarding the book.
Probably because The Male Couple was published in 1984 (over 20 years ago), which would make it an out-of-date source.
Also, the authors of The Male Couple, McWhirter and Mattison, said that their book should not be generalized to represent the entire gay community:
“We always have been very careful to explain that the very nature of our research sample, its size (156 couples), its narrow geographic location, and the natural selectiveness of the participants prevents the findings from being applicable and generalizable to the entire gay
male community.”
Maybe Peter missed that part.
Or maybe he just doesn't give a damn. You tell me.
Now his last quote is a hoot:
Make Anti-Gays Look Nasty
“We intend to make the anti-gays look so nasty that average Americans will want to disassociate themselves from such types.”–Marshall K. Kirk and Erastes Pill, “The Overhauling of Straight America,” The Guide (homosexual) magazine, November 1987.
Well Peter, when you lie as pathetically as you did in this column, you make our jobs easier.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Oh Lawd, not again!
No this column isn't about Ken Hutcherson.
Some may think that in light of the election primaries, what I am about to say is trite, but I disagree.
This Friday, there will a movie starring rapper Ice Cube and comedian Tracy Morgan entitled First Sunday.
It is a comedy about two men who decide to rob a church. It looked interesting.
And that is saying a lot from a person who has seen his share of African-American comedies.
But then comes the "required scene."
Not too many folks are aware of this but there seems to be an ugly standard of operation in many African-American oriented comedies to make fun of lgbts.
If the character is a gay man, then he is usually an oversexed man with a name like "Flame" or "Peaches" and he is portrayed as a nonthreatening flamboyant entity who is a part of the congregation of women gathered at either the hair saloon or other places that black women hang out.
If the character is a lesbian, she is portrayed a threatening figure who cannot figure out that she is a woman and therefore is required to wear something flimsy that highlights her tits or ass. In other words, she is a "threat" to "true black men."
But the worse stereotypes are reserved for our transgender sisters.
They are portrayed as deceivers who are always trying to "trick" black men into being intimate with them. The joke is that when the "luckless victim" discovers the ruse, he rushes out in disgust, eliciting extreme laughter from the audience.
This last degree of disrespect features prominently in the previews of First Sunday.
Now I could say something that is long, thoughtful, but I am too tired.
I am too tired from work and am especially tired of being asked to support movies that make fun of my orientation.
I don't care if the screenplay writer is black, the director is black, the majority of stars is black, etc. etc.
As I am concerned, First Sunday will never be on my menu.
And I sincerely hope that one day, more lgbts of color will feel the same way I do.
No this column isn't about Ken Hutcherson.
Some may think that in light of the election primaries, what I am about to say is trite, but I disagree.
This Friday, there will a movie starring rapper Ice Cube and comedian Tracy Morgan entitled First Sunday.
It is a comedy about two men who decide to rob a church. It looked interesting.
And that is saying a lot from a person who has seen his share of African-American comedies.
But then comes the "required scene."
Not too many folks are aware of this but there seems to be an ugly standard of operation in many African-American oriented comedies to make fun of lgbts.
If the character is a gay man, then he is usually an oversexed man with a name like "Flame" or "Peaches" and he is portrayed as a nonthreatening flamboyant entity who is a part of the congregation of women gathered at either the hair saloon or other places that black women hang out.
If the character is a lesbian, she is portrayed a threatening figure who cannot figure out that she is a woman and therefore is required to wear something flimsy that highlights her tits or ass. In other words, she is a "threat" to "true black men."
But the worse stereotypes are reserved for our transgender sisters.
They are portrayed as deceivers who are always trying to "trick" black men into being intimate with them. The joke is that when the "luckless victim" discovers the ruse, he rushes out in disgust, eliciting extreme laughter from the audience.
This last degree of disrespect features prominently in the previews of First Sunday.
Now I could say something that is long, thoughtful, but I am too tired.
I am too tired from work and am especially tired of being asked to support movies that make fun of my orientation.
I don't care if the screenplay writer is black, the director is black, the majority of stars is black, etc. etc.
As I am concerned, First Sunday will never be on my menu.
And I sincerely hope that one day, more lgbts of color will feel the same way I do.
Monday, January 07, 2008
That "sweet" smell of politics in the air
Even Robet Duvall would probably gag if he ever took a whiff of the air when an election season rolls around.
Even though it's only the primaries, the 2008 election promises to be very interesting.
I am taking a sort of Machiavellian outlook on the entire process. I won't say who I am supporting.
But if you think I am support anyone Republican, you are insane.
After eight years of Super Shrub, I echo the tone of the Obama campaign (which when you really think about it, is rather smart) - change.
I will, however, admit that it is fun to watch the Republican candidates cannibalize each other. Teflon Rom and Bibleman Huckabee seems to be an excellent match.
But seriously, unless something serious happens, I am going to post as I always do on this site, but the majority of my energy will be devoted to updating my other webpage.
I will be updating that page at least once a week. And news of updates will on this blog as well as on the other page.
Look for a big update to come this weekend.
I tend to think that the Republican candidates are too busy attacking each other to focus on any interesting attacks on us.
By the time they put it in their heads to amass their base by telling lies on lgbts, I should have a good time line ready to throw truth on their claims.
Even Robet Duvall would probably gag if he ever took a whiff of the air when an election season rolls around.
Even though it's only the primaries, the 2008 election promises to be very interesting.
I am taking a sort of Machiavellian outlook on the entire process. I won't say who I am supporting.
But if you think I am support anyone Republican, you are insane.
After eight years of Super Shrub, I echo the tone of the Obama campaign (which when you really think about it, is rather smart) - change.
I will, however, admit that it is fun to watch the Republican candidates cannibalize each other. Teflon Rom and Bibleman Huckabee seems to be an excellent match.
But seriously, unless something serious happens, I am going to post as I always do on this site, but the majority of my energy will be devoted to updating my other webpage.
I will be updating that page at least once a week. And news of updates will on this blog as well as on the other page.
Look for a big update to come this weekend.
I tend to think that the Republican candidates are too busy attacking each other to focus on any interesting attacks on us.
By the time they put it in their heads to amass their base by telling lies on lgbts, I should have a good time line ready to throw truth on their claims.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
The day after . . .
Thanks to everyone who made my new webpage a success.
But apparently not everyone is happy. Our friend Peter LaBarbera (who swore up and down that he would not read my "silly" page) is high HIGHLY upset over the comparison I included of Anti-Semitic speech and homophobic speech.
Get over it, Peter. No matter how angry you get, it still holds up.
(UPDATE - My bad! Apparently Peter is not mad at the comparison on my webpage. He is upset over what I said to him via email. You see, Peter and I had been emailing each other last night concerning my page. I wasn't about to give him the last word. He got angry about my following statement:
That truth will come out and nothing will ever change that. You made mention to Nazis in your response. When it is all said in done, in the eyes of many, people won't know the difference between you, your cohorts and them. Because really there is no difference, is there?
Well I stand by that comment. And looking at the rhetoric that Peter and his side uses, I can back it up.
And speaking of our friend Peter, apparently he is not done exploiting that 14-year-old who wrote him recently. Another pal of Peter, Laurie Higgins, wrote the child a letter.
Naturally Peter prints it on his site.
She repeats the usual nonsense about homosexuality. But there is one thing she said that I found hilarious:
Our bodies are not designed for homosexual sex. They are exquisitely designed for heterosex.
Apparently Higgins is channeling that same nonsense that is repeated constantly in anti-gay language (and I make reference to it on my other page):
That anal sex is "homosexual behavior." That train of thought is a serious lie.
All gay men do not have anal sex. But some heterosexuals do.
Does that make those heterosexuals gay?
And Higgins claims that she cares that others are teaching children lies.
Apparently she is not above telling a few herself.
Thanks to everyone who made my new webpage a success.
But apparently not everyone is happy. Our friend Peter LaBarbera (who swore up and down that he would not read my "silly" page) is high HIGHLY upset over the comparison I included of Anti-Semitic speech and homophobic speech.
Get over it, Peter. No matter how angry you get, it still holds up.
(UPDATE - My bad! Apparently Peter is not mad at the comparison on my webpage. He is upset over what I said to him via email. You see, Peter and I had been emailing each other last night concerning my page. I wasn't about to give him the last word. He got angry about my following statement:
That truth will come out and nothing will ever change that. You made mention to Nazis in your response. When it is all said in done, in the eyes of many, people won't know the difference between you, your cohorts and them. Because really there is no difference, is there?
Well I stand by that comment. And looking at the rhetoric that Peter and his side uses, I can back it up.
And speaking of our friend Peter, apparently he is not done exploiting that 14-year-old who wrote him recently. Another pal of Peter, Laurie Higgins, wrote the child a letter.
Naturally Peter prints it on his site.
She repeats the usual nonsense about homosexuality. But there is one thing she said that I found hilarious:
Our bodies are not designed for homosexual sex. They are exquisitely designed for heterosex.
Apparently Higgins is channeling that same nonsense that is repeated constantly in anti-gay language (and I make reference to it on my other page):
That anal sex is "homosexual behavior." That train of thought is a serious lie.
All gay men do not have anal sex. But some heterosexuals do.
Does that make those heterosexuals gay?
And Higgins claims that she cares that others are teaching children lies.
Apparently she is not above telling a few herself.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
I now present:
‘Holy Bullies’ author expands fight against anti-gay lies
New webpage will include a time line of distortions
January 2, 2008—South Carolina author Alvin McEwen is taking his fight against anti-gay rhetoric to another level with the launching of a new webpage.
In August 2007, McEwen published Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Exposing the Lies of the Anti-Gay Industry. The book chronicled how the religious right, or anti-gay industry as McEwen refers to them, distorts studies and semantics to demonize the gay community.
"I have had tremendous success with my book," McEwen said. "But I want to create a wider understanding of the tactics of the anti-gay industry and their history of distortions.
The webpage page, Anti-Gay Lies and Liars, spotlights six distortion techniques of the anti-gay industry, the top lies they use against gays and lesbians, as well as a comparison between Anti-Semitic and homophobic language.
Central to the webpage is a historical time line of distortions, scientific complaints about religious right data, faulty media campaigns, and other things that McEwen say is crucial to the religious right’s war on gay America.
"And the time line isn’t done yet," he said. "It will be a continued work-in-progress. I want to include every lie and every distortion the anti-gay industry commits. I want to include information about Anita Bryant , Paul Cameron, every distorted study, every discredited study. If the anti-gay industry has lied about it, I want to include it."
McEwen calls the webpage a handy guide for anyone looking to disseminate religious right propaganda.
"The next time a press release or statement comes from these phony pro-family groups, I challenge anyone to not find at least two points of propaganda from my list," McEwen said.
He also said knowing religion right propaganda techniques are crucial if the gay community wants to win this so-called culture war.
"Simple functions like an office worker putting a up picture of his significant gay other or a child reared in a same-sex household writing a report about her family take on sinister undertones of an alleged conspiracy to shut down values," McEwen said. "And that is the big lie the anti-gay industry tries to sell to America. That ordinary things gays and lesbians do, things which make us no different than anyone else, are somehow insidious points of attack in a huge plan of invasion.If we are to refute this lie, then we need to educate ourselves on their tactics."
The address of McEwen’s new webpage is http://antigayliesandliars.blogspot.com/
Anyone wanting to reach McEwen can email him at CharleKenghis@aol.com
‘Holy Bullies’ author expands fight against anti-gay lies
New webpage will include a time line of distortions
January 2, 2008—South Carolina author Alvin McEwen is taking his fight against anti-gay rhetoric to another level with the launching of a new webpage.
In August 2007, McEwen published Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Exposing the Lies of the Anti-Gay Industry. The book chronicled how the religious right, or anti-gay industry as McEwen refers to them, distorts studies and semantics to demonize the gay community.
"I have had tremendous success with my book," McEwen said. "But I want to create a wider understanding of the tactics of the anti-gay industry and their history of distortions.
The webpage page, Anti-Gay Lies and Liars, spotlights six distortion techniques of the anti-gay industry, the top lies they use against gays and lesbians, as well as a comparison between Anti-Semitic and homophobic language.
Central to the webpage is a historical time line of distortions, scientific complaints about religious right data, faulty media campaigns, and other things that McEwen say is crucial to the religious right’s war on gay America.
"And the time line isn’t done yet," he said. "It will be a continued work-in-progress. I want to include every lie and every distortion the anti-gay industry commits. I want to include information about Anita Bryant , Paul Cameron, every distorted study, every discredited study. If the anti-gay industry has lied about it, I want to include it."
McEwen calls the webpage a handy guide for anyone looking to disseminate religious right propaganda.
"The next time a press release or statement comes from these phony pro-family groups, I challenge anyone to not find at least two points of propaganda from my list," McEwen said.
He also said knowing religion right propaganda techniques are crucial if the gay community wants to win this so-called culture war.
"Simple functions like an office worker putting a up picture of his significant gay other or a child reared in a same-sex household writing a report about her family take on sinister undertones of an alleged conspiracy to shut down values," McEwen said. "And that is the big lie the anti-gay industry tries to sell to America. That ordinary things gays and lesbians do, things which make us no different than anyone else, are somehow insidious points of attack in a huge plan of invasion.If we are to refute this lie, then we need to educate ourselves on their tactics."
The address of McEwen’s new webpage is http://antigayliesandliars.blogspot.com/
Anyone wanting to reach McEwen can email him at CharleKenghis@aol.com
(Bear with my page guys because it is a work-in-progress which I hope can be used to educate and inform. By all means look it over, take the information in, and spread the word. Thanks!)
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
From the department of stupidity . . .
Still working on my project. Hope to have it finished by tomorrow evening.
But something I noticed today, that I have to put down something on.
Our friend Peter has reprinted a letter sent to him by a 14-year-old:
Please read the letter below, which we received Saturday from a 14-year-old atheist boy who hates Americans For Truth. Nothing makes my heart grieve more than a confused young person rejecting God and embracing an unnatural sexual identity (”gayness”) built around ungodly behavior that up until a few decades ago was viewed as so immoral that it wasn’t even discussed in public. I don’t know Joe, but I can safely say that his tragic life choice was made easier by the organized homosexual movement. This is the saddest end result of “gay pride” — corrupting the hearts and minds of young people and helping to put them in grave physical, emotional and spiritual danger:
To put it bluntly, I probably hate you more than anything else in the world. Like many others, I believe you have the moral equivalent of a modern-day KKK: hating people for being different and having opposing beliefs. I am a liberal, gay, atheistic 14 year old boy, and I believe I have more morals than you. You are a disgrace to humanity. I’m sorry that I am being so childish in my "argument” which is turning out like hate mail, but I just cannot put in words how much I disagree with you. Homosexuals should have rights because they are humans, capable of thinking logically and making decisions, just like you and me. And why does what other people do sexually concern you at all? I want you to tell me, from a non-religious standpoint, exactly how homosexuals are hurting you? Because if they are not negatively affecting you in any way (which is what a suspect) then you should have no problem with them. Most of America knows the truth about homosexuality, which is that it is a preference, not a choice, just like a favorite food to put it in simple terms. You like it, because it pleases you, not because you choose to like a certain food. I’m sorry that this message has stretched so long, and I would like a reply and a rebuttal to my claims. USING LOGIC, not religion. -Joe [————-]
The letter is not as dramatic as Peter makes it out to be. Seems to me that the child is just venting, as all children do.
I do kind of feel sorry for the child because I recognize a little of myself in him. When I was just coming out, I used to call the 700 Club, yell at the person on the other line and then hang up.
Such behavior is juvenile. This is not to say that the letter was inconsiderate. I am sure that it is more polite than some of the other letters Peter has been sent.
My point is that Peter refuses to recognize the fact that his rhetoric and lies created this situation. Don't blame gay pride or the "homosexual movement."
It isn't gay pride or the "homosexual movement" that dehumanizes and attacks the lives of lgbts on daily basis.
That's you, Peter. And that young boy's anger is your fault.
Still working on my project. Hope to have it finished by tomorrow evening.
But something I noticed today, that I have to put down something on.
Our friend Peter has reprinted a letter sent to him by a 14-year-old:
Please read the letter below, which we received Saturday from a 14-year-old atheist boy who hates Americans For Truth. Nothing makes my heart grieve more than a confused young person rejecting God and embracing an unnatural sexual identity (”gayness”) built around ungodly behavior that up until a few decades ago was viewed as so immoral that it wasn’t even discussed in public. I don’t know Joe, but I can safely say that his tragic life choice was made easier by the organized homosexual movement. This is the saddest end result of “gay pride” — corrupting the hearts and minds of young people and helping to put them in grave physical, emotional and spiritual danger:
To put it bluntly, I probably hate you more than anything else in the world. Like many others, I believe you have the moral equivalent of a modern-day KKK: hating people for being different and having opposing beliefs. I am a liberal, gay, atheistic 14 year old boy, and I believe I have more morals than you. You are a disgrace to humanity. I’m sorry that I am being so childish in my "argument” which is turning out like hate mail, but I just cannot put in words how much I disagree with you. Homosexuals should have rights because they are humans, capable of thinking logically and making decisions, just like you and me. And why does what other people do sexually concern you at all? I want you to tell me, from a non-religious standpoint, exactly how homosexuals are hurting you? Because if they are not negatively affecting you in any way (which is what a suspect) then you should have no problem with them. Most of America knows the truth about homosexuality, which is that it is a preference, not a choice, just like a favorite food to put it in simple terms. You like it, because it pleases you, not because you choose to like a certain food. I’m sorry that this message has stretched so long, and I would like a reply and a rebuttal to my claims. USING LOGIC, not religion. -Joe [————-]
The letter is not as dramatic as Peter makes it out to be. Seems to me that the child is just venting, as all children do.
I do kind of feel sorry for the child because I recognize a little of myself in him. When I was just coming out, I used to call the 700 Club, yell at the person on the other line and then hang up.
Such behavior is juvenile. This is not to say that the letter was inconsiderate. I am sure that it is more polite than some of the other letters Peter has been sent.
My point is that Peter refuses to recognize the fact that his rhetoric and lies created this situation. Don't blame gay pride or the "homosexual movement."
It isn't gay pride or the "homosexual movement" that dehumanizes and attacks the lives of lgbts on daily basis.
That's you, Peter. And that young boy's anger is your fault.
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