Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
You will get a kick out of this. Apparently my piece on Bill Maher's birther monologue got a real rise from one birther. You gotta read his comment. After all, he broke out of the insane asylum to post it. Go here and pan down to the comments.
When you stop laughing, check out the following other news briefs.
South Carolina is such an embarrassing place to live - I don't know what's worse - having a hypocritical governor, zany elected officials, a statute at the State House commemorating the life and times of bloodthirsty racist Ben Tillman, or the fact that John Stewart eviscerates the state for only two of those things:
October’s march on Washington leaves some activists perplexed - I've said it once and I will say it again - NO MORE DAMNED MARCHES! No more going to marches where we hold dumbly decorated signs, say silly slogans, and then go home and not know what the hell we need to do next. I say stay home and support your local lgbt communities!
Please forgive me for not including any news briefs today. But a video of a Bill Maher monologue has been on my mind.
He was talking about the birthers but his words leads me to say the following:
Sometimes I feel that any points of progression made by the religious right are in part the fault of the lgbt community.
We have the resources to expose their lies, their reliance on Paul Cameronesque studies and their constant stigmatization of us on a large scale. And we have the numbers of support to back us up when we do.
But many of us don't believe in talking about these things. I think our community on the whole has an ego problem.
There are some of us who have this idea that to focus any attention on organizations like the Family Research Council or Concerned Women for America or wacky religious right talkings heads such as Peter LaBarbera or Linda Harvey is beneath us.
Some of us have this idea to do so would give the religous right more attention than they deserve. And that is part of the problem. That mindset is egotistical and if we don't get our noses out of the air and to the grindstone, the lgbt community will never get to where we need to be.
But Bill Maher says it much better than me. Below the video is the transcript. Again, he is talking about the birthers, but his words can relate to the lgbt community. We have allowed lies about us to grow and spread. And now we need to mow down a shitload of crabgrass:
TRANSCRIPT: Never underestimate the ability of a tiny fringe group of losers to ruin everything. For the past couple of weeks we've been laughing heartily at the wacky antics of the "birthers", the far-right goofballs who claim Obama wasn't really born in Hawaii and therefore the job goes to the runner-up, Miss California Carrie Prejean.
And you know there is nothing you can do to convince these people, you can hand them in person the original birth certificate with the placenta, and have a video of Obama emerging from the womb with Don Ho singing in the background, and they still would not believe it.
"Hey birthers, wanna hear my theory? My theory was that Obama was born in America and you were born with the umbilical cord around your neck. I don't know what his mother was doing when she was pregnant, but I'm pretty sure your mom was drinking."
Oh, I kid the birthers, there's one thing that makes me think they could be right. We're Americans, of course we're gonna hire an illegal alien to clean-up.
I'm joking, of course. And laughing it off has also been the reaction from Democratic leaders so far. Proving that Democrats never learn. But if you don't immediately kill errant bulls**t, no matter how ridiculous it can't grow and thrive like crabgrass or Cirque du Soleil. This birther stuff might be a deluded right-wing obsession, but so was Whitewater and look where that ended up: "What are they gonna do, keep expanding the case until they impeach the President over a blowjob?"
Yes.
I'm telling you that in America there is no idea so patently absurd that it can't catch on. Have you ever met a Mormon?
Or, more recently, we had the Swift Boat allegations against John Kerry, making him, a genuine war hero, a coward in a race against the guy who never left Texas. It was so stupid Kerry refused to even discuss it and we all know how well that worked out.
Well, you may ask, how something as inane as Whitewater or Swift Boats or the birther-thing gains traction? Well I'll tell you how, the same way that the story of Elton John almost dying from ingesting too much of Rod Stewart's sperm gained traction in my high school, dummies talking to other dummies.
It's just easier now because of the internet. And because our mainstream media does such a lousy job of talking truth to stupid.
Lou Dobbs said recently, "People are asking a lot of questions about the birth certificate." Yes, the same people who want to know where the Sun goes at night and where to put the stamp on their e-mail. And Lou, you're their new king.
Which is why it is so important that we, the few, the proud, the reality based, attack this stuff before it has a chance to fester and spread. This is not a case of Democrats versus Republicans. It's sentient beings versus the lizard people.
And it is to the lizard people that I offer this deal, I will show you President Obama's birth certificate when you show me Sarah Palin's high school diploma.
I have a question for Concerned Women for America, Americans For Truth, the Family Research Council, the Traditional Values Coalition, and all of the other so-called pro-family groups.
For years, you all have looked to foreign countries to supply you with proof that giving lgbts the right to marry, passing hate crimes legislation in our favor, or generally supporting us in any way would lead to the downfall of this country.
You have manipulated incidents in places like Sweden, the Netherlands, and Canada to make the case that we are trying to destroy the goodness of society.
Are you going to learn from this incident in Tel Aviv? Are you going to understand that the constant labeling of lgbts as "the scary other," the "monster under the bed," or the "boogeyman in the closet" has recriminations that aren't necessarily Christian?
Are you going to cool the lying rhetoric?
Who am I kidding? They probably won't. Former ad executive and former lgbt expert Linda Harvey (head of Mission America) just released a statment about the attack in Tel Aviv:
"We are deeply saddened by this violent act and the deaths of these young people, and pray for the perpetrator to be found and brought to justice.
"At the same time, it is deplorable this incident is already being used by the homosexual community to blame this act on those holding a traditional moral viewpoint. Israelis, just as anyone else on earth, should still have the right to oppose homosexuality for religious or other reasons without being called accessories to murder. The motive is still unknown; why engage in slanderous speculation?
. . . "It's tragic that any teens go to these centers, and we remain unequivocally opposed to their purpose, which is to legitimize this behavior and draw young people into claiming a homosexual identity, often without parental involvement or knowledge. " Harvey said . . . "No one needs to be involved in homosexuality, but unfortunately, these two young people can no longer hear that message."
And I have just received an email from the American Family Association. Apparently they are angry at Triple AAA for offering family memberships to lgbt couples:
The American Automobile Association (AAA) has begun offering "Family Memberships" to homosexual couples, recognizing the homosexual couple as being "married," according to a homosexual activist organization in Florida.
Thirty states have overwhelmingly voted to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Yet AAA is treating homosexual couples as if they are married.
The homosexual couples need only state that they are married to receive the family benefit. In the eyes of AAA two homosexuals living together constitute “marriage” and make a "family." All they have to do to get the "family membership" benefits is to say "we are gay and married."
Diane Gramley, president of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, is unhappy that Murphy, a married father, recently held a news conference in Philadelphia with a radical homosexual group to launch his campaign to push for the passage of H.R. 1283, which would end the ban.
According to Gramley, Murphy is exploiting his Iraq war service to advance that agenda. "He is an Iraqi war veteran, and it almost appears as if he's using that position to drum up the support he thinks he needs to overturn this law," she says.
Gramley admits she sent a letter to Murphy, pointing out the national security risks of changing the policy. "It's a national defense issue, and we mentioned that in the letter. Because if you get homosexuals in the military, you are then putting additional pressure upon our troops because they're being housed in very intimate situations with individuals who are sexually attracted to them," she adds.
