Religious right anti-hate crimes rally featured person from actual hate group

Submitted for your approval and laughter, scenes from the anti-hate crimes rally:



For those who are not aware of this fact, the first speaker at .09 seconds is Scott Lively, the head of Abiding Truth Ministries. Abiding Truth Ministries is an officially declared hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and mostly because of Lively.

A while back, Lively wrote a book, The Pink Swastika, which  incorrectly affiliated the Nazi Party in Germany with the lgbt community. The book has been repeatedly discredited, including in 2005 and in 2007:

Stephen Feinstein, director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota, said the book was "produced by a right-wing Christian cult and is as correct as flat earth theory."

In addition, Lively has been known to sanitize the reputation of  the discredited researcher Paul Cameron even to the point of lying about Cameron's work being published peer-reviewed journals (it wasn't) and claiming that Cameron's critics have no scientific merit to criticize him (they do):

While Cameron has been the subject of intense, unrelenting criticism (and mockery) by “gay” activists and their allies, he has produced an impressive body of work related to the homosexual issue, much of it published in peer-reviewed journals, and I do not believe the criticism of his work is merited on scientific grounds.

Also, according to Box Turtle Bulletin:

(Lively) is associated with not just one, not two, but three of just eleven organizations identified by the SPLC as a hate group (He co-founded Watchmen on the Walls, founded Abiding Truth Ministries, and he is now the leader of the School of Christian Activism). If that weren’t enough, he spoke at a banquet last winter for a fourth SPLC hate group, Mass Resistance.

This year, Lively was amongst the number of anti-gay figures who journeyed to Uganda for a three-day conference. In this conference, Lively helped to stoke a myriad of anti-gay lies and myths.

And anti-lgbt sentiments in Uganda are totally different than they are in America in terms of how the government embraces them.

Last month, the Uganda government was pushing an anti-gay bill which favored :

  . . .lifetime imprisonment on conviction of homosexuality, and defines a new category called “aggravated homosexuality” with provisions for the death penalty upon conviction. Among the factors which can lead to “aggravated homosexuality” is if one partner is HIV-positive. This bill would mandate HIV testing to determine eligibility for “aggravated homosexuality.”

The bill also pushed :

a complete ban on all LGBT activities — including blogging — which could be construed as “promoting homosexuality.”

So even after all of that, Lively didn't get arrested for what he said Monday. It's further proof that religious right claims about hate crimes legislation is inaccurate.

But it still bugs me how he tries to make himself into a noble soul during his speech when he goes on about how he will continue to say that homosexuality is wrong regardless of whether or not he gets arrested.

He needs to focus on his eagerness to lie.

Or does he think lying is okay.

One would think so based upon his history.

More than anyone could ever do, Lively puts the absolute hypocrisy of these folks on center stage. He is a perfect example of the old adage that action speaks louder than words.

The type of love that he and his cohorts claim to have is the type that no one needs.

More information about Scott Lively and Uganda can be found here at Truth Wins Out.

Family Research Council attacks Obama appointee with sliced footage and other Wednesday midday news briefs

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Catholic Report: Homosexuality Not a Factor In Clerical Sex Scandals - A surprise to everyone but us.

Transgendered aide turns to law she helped pass - A bad situation involving an online friend of mine. Give em hell, girlfriend!

DC Elections Board Rules Against Prop.-8 and Question 1 Style Ballot Initiative - Harry Jackson and company loses another one.

Join the group 'Expose religious right’s history of anti-gay junk science'

Expose religious right’s history of anti-gay junk science is a facebook group that I am helping to start.

When we talk about lgbt rights, we sometimes forget to emphasize the fact that for over 30 years, religious right groups have either relied on junk science or distorted legitimate research to weave an inaccurate anti-lgbt narrative.

We don't emphasize, among other things, their continued reliance on the studies of discredited researcher Paul Cameron nor do we mention the large number of physicians and researchers who have in the past complained about the distortion of their work by these groups.

Subsequently, these groups (i.e. the National Organization for Marriage, the Traditional Values Coalition, the American Family Association, etc.) and their spokespeople are not questioned or called to the carpet for their lies as much as they should be.

A lot of us know that these groups are phony but we aren't doing enough to emphasize the point.

It is because of our lack of attention that religious right groups are either able to push the phony notion that they are somehow upholding "traditional values" while distorting science or push tacit approval of vile  homophobic images, such as the above Concerned Women for America endorsed comic book (of which several pages are present on the facebook group). 

This group is meant to be a call to action. It's a call for the lgbt community to start changing the narrative in the fight for our equality.

Seems to me if organizations are either deliberately relying on junk science or truncating legitimate science, they should be the ones whose credibility should be questioned rather than the people who are the victims of their inaccurate invectives.

As we have seen with Monday's silly sideshow rally against hate crimes legislation, we are dealing with organizations who will push a point even after said point has been continuously proven wrong and refuted.

And while we laugh this time at religious right groups falling on their faces in public embarrassment, let's not forget the times when their tenacity to push inaccuracies have harmed the lgbt community.

The point of this so-called culture war is not lgbts having to explain why we are deserving of basic rights. The point should be why are these so-called moral groups lying to deny lgbts our basic rights.

Click here to join.