Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Dec 11, 2009

Friday, December 11, 2009

Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show

Editor's Note - I am taking a very short break from the "Jennings County Wars." However the following links are for those looking for recent information about the newest smears against Kevin Jennings:

AIM Apologizes For Jennings Falsehoods -- Then Tries To Smear Him Again

Morrissey Should Have Been Silent On Jennings And Just Been Thought A Fool

Though some may disagree with my assessment, the Ricki Lake Show did a lot of good for lgbt visibility.

When the talk show, hosted by actress Ricki Lake, first appeared in 1993, it was a bit different from the powerhouse shows like Oprah and Donahue in the fact that it was very youth-oriented, particularly when it came to focusing on the lgbt community.

When lgbt issues were generally discussed in a talk show setting, the narrative seemed to always be making gays and lesbians look like pitiful creatures begging for society's "tolerance."

The Ricki Lake Show did deal with topics about how ignorance of gays and lesbians can affect families, such as the following:

The show also had topics that dealt with the lgbt community as we are and not some sad prototypes needing to appeal to an idea of normalcy or caged creatures looking for "tolerance."

The Ricki Lake Show presented the lgbt life as it was, with warts and all but with an appreciation of our culture:

Ugandan bill defended and criticized, attacks against Jennings flopping?, and other Friday midday news briefs

Ugandan MP Defends “Kill Gays” Bill - Paul Cameron's lies are global.

TWO Praises Pastor Rick Warren for Speaking Out Against Anti-Gay Uganda Bill - So he finally did it. Real men of God don't wait for outcry to publicly attack injustice. They are usually the ones leading the outcry.

Another Californian, another Speaker milestone - The news ain't all bad today.

The Jennings smear = the latest right-wing "scandal" to flop in the mainstream - The attacks on Jennings seem to be flopping. No one should be blamed for it. Reasonable people generally don't like sticking their hands in a hot mess of lies.

Nearly half of New Jersey Catholics support gay marriage - How is that for a shocker?

Bouncers bop gay dancer: cops - What kind of mess is this?

Latest smear against Kevin Jennings revists familiar lie - 'Little Black Book'

Gateway Pundit continues to tell its Mass Resistance fueled lies on Obama appointee Kevin Jennings.

This time the site is claiming that Jennings and the organization he founded to help lgbt children, GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network), passed out a guide encouraging children to have sex with strangers in public parks.

It's the latest in the plethora of lies pushed against Jennings.

Let's look at the list of lies before hitting on the new one:

Gateway Pundit falsely claimed that Jennings and GLSEN were encouraging students to read explicit books. This was a serious misrepresentation of the facts.

The site brought up the Fistgate lie irregardless of the fact that this story had been refuted

It propagated a lie that Jennings had led the way to the passing out of "fisting kits" to children. The kits had nothing to do with "fisting" and they were created by Planned Parenthood.

Gateway Pundit made the false claim that Jennings and GLSEN passed out an explicit sex guide "Little Black Book" to students at a conference in 2005. This was another falsehood. Fenway Community Health officials said they accidentally left about 10 copies of the ''Little Black Book" on an informational table they rented at the conference. Furthermore, no students actually got copies of the book.

That last lie is important to remember because the new lie Gateway Pundit is pushing is linked to it.

You see, the guide that Gateway Pundit is claiming that Jennings and GLSEN distributed to children encouraging them to have public sex with strangers is "Little Black Book:"