Gay Rights, Special Rights - A nauseating history lesson

Take enterprising anti-gay film company, footage from various parades, comments taken out of context, and you have a history lesson which is sorely needed.


Gay Rights, Special Rights - which is still selling in various places - is a vile documentary created by Jeremiah Films in conjunction with the Traditional Values Coalition in the 1990s. It was partly designed to drive a wedge between the lgbt and African-American communities.

Though this video is over 20 years old, it needs to be viewed and discussed. It needs to be particularly viewed by the young lgbts so they can get a sense of where we have come from.

Things have gotten much better for us, but we should never forget how it was and the fact that those who wanted it that way are still around.

Doctor testing to 'prevent' lesbianism and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Doctor testing drug to ‘prevent’ lesbianism, interest in ‘male careers’ - If I had not read it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it.

Reeling it back, hoping we were born yesterday - National Organization for Marriage (NOM) now playing damage control.

NOM Strategist Louis Marinelli's Hate Speech Moratorium Not Going So Well - But the man in the center of the NOM controversy just can't shut up.

Related post - Message to Maggie Gallagher: associating with bigots does make you a bigot

The Hypocrisy At The Heart Of The Right's Complaints About "Judicial Activism" - Isn't hypocrisy the heart of a lot of things they do?

TWO Special Report: ‘The Stealth Bombers Meeting’ [Dispatches from Lou Engle's Gateway House of Prayer 6/22/10] - What is it about lgbts which make some people go bonkers?

Mike Huckabee Ties Marriage Equality to Gay Sexual Acts - Or as I call it -The Lament of the Homophobe. They think every lgbt issue has to do with sexual intercourse. It's pitiful, really.

Forget the language, Porn Pete. You're just plain offensive

Fulfilling the very definition of the word "bottom feeding," our old friend Peter LaBarbera is trying to attach himself to the judicial hearings of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan:

For the last few weeks I’ve been working with Mass Resistance’s Amy Contrada, who has pulled together a wealth of information about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s time at Harvard University, where she served as Dean of the Law School. Many will be shocked at just how extreme Harvard has become — and the radical sexual/gender policies advanced by Kagan. Kudos to Contrada and our friends at Mass Resistance for doing the reporting that most in the liberal media refuse to do (because too many agree with Kagan’s left-wing social agenda).

No, I will not link to the report,  “How Elena Kagan Helped “Queer” Harvard Law School (Will she now help “queer” the US Supreme Court’s decisions?), because like all other things of Mass Resistance - an SPLC labeled hate group - it's a homophobic hot mess.

I've talked about Mass Resistance on several occasions because the organization has a long history of demonizing the lgbt community and even stooping to coordinating phony moral panics, including:
Manufacturing a phony panic about "schools teaching children about homosexuality,"

Making a claim in 2006 that "gays were trying to get legislation passed to allow sex with animals" in Massachusetts,

Continuing a vindictive campaign of misinformation against the transgendered community (whom the organization refers to as "men in dresses),

Creating a venomous smear campaign against Obama appointee Kevin Jennings 

But hey, Mike Huckabee likes them.

And the person LaBarbera has been working with - Amy Contrada - is a real gem. Inside lgbt circles in Massachusetts she is known for an interesting, but disgusting incident during a 2007 Youth Pride Celebration in Boston:

After Youth Pride Amy headed over to the BAGLY Prom where she showed her true colors. When Trevor Wright, organizer for the Prom and blogger for QueerToday, yelled at her to move she became infuriated. During their interaction, Amy hastily asked Trevor if he knew what "cum vomit" was. She insisted she read about "cum vomit" on the GLSEN web site, and that we were brainwashing young people to be "crazed homosexuals."

Later she claimed that there was no real difference between a pedophile and a homosexual. She insisted sex and "depravity" were going on inside the BAGLY Prom, and demanded to be allowed inside. The obvious truth is there is an adult volunteer for every 10 youth in the Prom, and as the BAGLY web site indicates all sex, drugs, and violence are banned.

Love the company you keep, Peter.

An interesting and thought-provoking take on lgbt pride

An interesting and thought-provoking video on lgbt pride from the folks at infomania. Watch, learn and feel free to comment.

Only one problem. The part about Eminem totally omitted his tendency to show his ass.

I mean come on now. I'm not saying anything about Eminem's sexual orientation but I've seen his ass more times than those of all five of my boyfriends combined.

Just saying . . .

Past infomania posts:

Elena Kagan 'plays softball like a lesbian'

Conversion Therapy - a video with George Rekers in mind

Advice to closeted politicans - How to keep from being exposed

Why the phrase 'No Homo' is highly needed

Reasons why the 'sanctity' of proms MUST be preserved from Constance McMillen

Why gay marriage is 'wrong'   

Montana GOP wants to outlaw 'homosexual acts' and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Montana GOP seeks to ‘keep homosexual acts illegal.' - These folks think about sex more than me.

Kagan: A Fake John Roberts, A Radical Homosexualist, and a Sign of The End Times - The far right's version of the Elena Kagan hearing. Lawd, give us all strength!

Christian chaplain and crack team to investigate little girls’ room goings-on - and it gets worse. Imagine Mass Resistance, Peter LaBarbera, and several other religious right nuts teaming up to stop Kagan by "investigating her." Talk about your Legion of Doom without the sense of coolness.

FYI: They're watching - When religious right groups make errors or are shown to be hypocrites, there is no such thing as a public mea culpa for them. They make "changes" when they think no one is watching.

Credibility FAIL: FRC's Tony Perkins to testify during Kagan confirmation hearing - By the time some of you read this, he will have probably already testified. But the question remains what in the hell is this man who should have no credibility at all doing testifying in front of Congress?

Cuccinelli: 14th amendment not designed to protect lgbts

Maybe Virginia's attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, just plain don't like lgbts.

From ThinkProgress:

In March, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) told the state’s colleges and universities to rescind policies that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, arguing that schools have no legal authority to adopt such statements. On Friday, Cuccinelli appeared at Boys State, where a high school student asked him, “How is that not a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment?” Cuccinelli responded by suggesting that the amendment was not designed to protect gay men and women:

“State universities are not free to create any specially protected classes other than those dictated by the General Assembly,” Cuccinelli said. “Your question is, why is that not a violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. Frankly, the category of sexual orientation would never have been contemplated by the people who wrote and voted for and passed the 14th Amendment,” he said.

“There are judges who think these things ‘evolve,’ is the word they like to use,” Cuccinelli said, but the correct approach to making such a change would be a constitutional amendment, he said.

I feel safe in saying that Cuccinelli's statement goes so far that I don't envision any religious right head or organization coming to his defense. But man, wouldn't it be fun if they tried!

Igor Volsky of ThinkProgess's Wonk Room disputes Cuccinelli's statement and does it very well:

It’s certainly true that the authors of the 14th amendment may not have “contemplated” protecting gay people from discrimination, but the Supreme Court has. Despite Cuccinelli’s rather arrogant attempts to dismiss legal precedent and impose his own vision of the Constitution on America, the Court has found that laws motivated solely by anti-gay animus are unconstitutional — and Cuccinelli is bound by that case whether “the people who wrote and voted for and passed the 14th Amendment” “contemplated” about gays or not.

In 1996’s Romer v. Evans the court ruled that a Colorado law called Amendment 2, which rescinded recently anti-discrimination measures, violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause because animus towards a certain group of people does not constitute “a legitimate governmental purpose.”


“‘[I]f the constitutional conception of `equal protection of the laws’ means anything, it must at the very least mean that a bare . . . desire to harm a politically unpopular group cannot constitute a legitimate governmental interest.’ Department of Agriculture v. Moreno, 413 U.S. 528, 534 (1973),” the Court wrote. “Amendment 2, however, in making a general announcement that gays and lesbians shall not have any particular protections from the law, inflicts on them immediate, continuing, and real injuries that outrun and belie any legitimate justifications that may be claimed for it.”

Message to Maggie Gallagher: associating with bigots does make you a bigot

Gay marriage advocates believe there isn't any difference between two men in a sexual union and a husband and wife, and those of us who see this difference are blinded by hatred and prejudice. They delegitimize opponents, brand us as haters, and then try to strip us of our rights. - Maggie Gallagher, The Core Civil Right to Vote for Marriage

The shtick of Maggie Gallagher, founder of the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, is to play the victim.

She consistently whines that people like herself and her organization are being unfairly attacked and called "bigots" simply because they want to defend the supposedly "time-honored" belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Her constant complaints are really nothing more than a cynical ploy to divert attention away from the fact that in reality she has no logical arguments to oppose marriage equality.

And it reveals an ugly degree of selfishness indicative of many who oppose marriage equality. In Gallagher's world, it's not the lgbt couples being denied their rights that matter, but only herself and those like her who stand against marriage equality while claiming to be besieged and scandalized by "pushy, aggressive, radical homosexual activists."

However, if Gallagher wants to continue this charade, she really should address the company that she keeps and supports such as The Traditional Values Coalition, who is listed as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

And bear in mind that this distinction isn't simply because the group believes that homosexuality is a sin. According to SPLC, anti-gay hate groups:

. . . have engaged in the crudest type of name-calling, describing homosexuals as "perverts" with "filthy habits" who seek to snatch the children of straight parents and "convert" them to gay sex. They have disseminated disparaging "facts" about gays that are simply untrue — assertions that are remarkably reminiscent of the way white intellectuals and scientists once wrote about the "bestial" black man and his supposedly threatening sexuality.

When it comes to this description, TVC passes with flying colors. Among other things, the organization has:

claimed that the passage of ENDA would lead to the sexual abuse of disabled veterans,

continued to intentionally mix the term "sexual orientation" with "paraphilias" in another attempt to lie about ENDA,

used bad research  in YET another attempt to lie about ENDA, including distorting marketing statistics, and

claimed that a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a bad idea by asking, amongst other silly questions, how would the military " handle sodomy in battlefield situations,"

Yet this is the same group which Gallagher's group (NOM) freely cited as a credible source in regards to a recent Republican primary in California.

And now via Goodasyou.org and blogger Matt Algren comes news that NOM has been aligning itself with one Louis J. Marinelli III.

Marinelli identifies himself as a "NOM strategist" and will also be working on the organization's 2010 Summer for Marriage Tour.

He is also a man who has never met an anti-gay distortion he didn't like. According to Goodasyou.org, his past tweets have been very interesting:

there was a retweet that declared all gays to be single. There was the time that Mr. Marinelli said that Peter LaBarbera and his fringe "Americans For Truth" group merely "tell the truth about homosexuality." There was the determination that marriage equality is "a mockery and a hijacking of the civil rights movement." There were times when he flat-out called us an abomination, citing Leviticus. There was this one: "Deviance" describes actions or behaviours that violate cultural norms - homosexuality is far from a cultural norm. Therefore, it is deviant." And this: "Homosexuality and gay marriage are wrong and harmful to society." And this: "#iaintafraidtosay that there shouldn't be any recognition of homosexual relationships because that is saying that homosexuality is OK." There was this one, accompanied by a smile: "What they do is blantantly [sic] immoral. :)" There were times when Mr. Marinelli compared our unions to that which might exist between a sterile brother and sister. And other times when our very character was assaulted: "#nevertrust activists of the homosexual agenda - they are deceitful people who care only about themselves and not what's best for society."

And Marinelli also creates anti-gay videos including one in which he claims that:

. . . the homosexual agenda is really about the 3 Ps: prostitution, pedophilia, and polygamy.

Gallagher has no room to claim that the she is unfairly being called a bigot when she and her organization chooses to associate with those who freely and unapologetically stigmatize the lgbt community.

It's the equivalent of beaning people with rocks and then hiding your hands when they come to investigate.

In their zeal to defend the "time-honored" definition of marriage, Gallagher and company seems to have forgotten the "time-honored" definitions of truth and integrity.

Big hat tip to Goodasyou.org and blogger Matt Algren.

UPDATE - Marinelli's video was public until learlier today when it was "suddenly" marked as private, which means only Marinelli's youtube friends can view it.

Supreme Court ruling WILL make the religious right see red and other Monday midday news briefs

Anti-Bias Rules Upheld - BAM! Supreme Court rules that public colleges and universities may require religious organizations seeking recognition or funds as campus groups to comply with anti-bias rules.

Gay man claims Parkersburg officers beat him - In MY state of South Carolina? There will be more about this as news filters in. Apparently this happened in Charleston, WV. Still it's an ugly incident.

'Wow, what a long engagement that was!' - True love DEFINITELY waits.

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Outbreed 'Em - You just KNOW that the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer includes the lgbt community in this diatribe. But doesn't he know that heterosexual parents create lgbt children?

Gee thanks, Kansas City Star - No wonder we can't get the media to cover SC Black Pride. There isn't anyone running around "nekkid"!

The Boondocks makes fun of 'going to prison and getting anally raped'

I semi-forgave the television show The Boondocks for it's homoerotic take down of African-American playwright Tyler Perry last week.

This week's episode, A Date With The Booty Warrior, may be a bit more difficult to forgive.

In this episode, Tom Dubois, a character in The Boondocks, takes several students to jail as a part of the "Scared Straight" program, where inmates warn troubled students to either change their ways or end up in jail.

Problem is that in this particular program, the inmates are more concerned with telling the students about raping and being raped in prison.

I won't even talk about the peanut butter and jelly scene.

One of the prisoners is shown in this opening scene raping Chris Hansen of To Catch A Predator:



Now two other things complicate this scenario:

A. Tom Dubois has a serious fear of - in the words of the series - "going to prison and being anally raped."

B. The inmates decide to start a rebellion. In the middle of this rebellion the prisoner in the above sequence decides to go after Tom:



I understand comedy is sometimes x-rated and I really do like the Boondocks, but is making fun of male rape appropriate?

What do you think?

UPDATE - It turns out that Tom's nemesis is based upon this man:

Horrible case of abuse highlights the cluelessness of 'pro-family' groups

The recent CNN special report Gary and Tony Have a Baby - about a gay couple seeking to adopt a child - is the subject of much discussion. While some in the lgbt community either praised it for showcasing lgbt families or criticized it for not enough diversity, some religious right leaders have been extremely negative with their comments.

Such as Family Research Council's Tony Perkins:

Equally tragic, one of the men said that no one has ever given him a reason why their lifestyle choice is harmful. Here’s one–they are deliberately and permanently depriving this child of a mother. CNN seems content to tug at the heartstrings rather than report the news. They imply that the “love” or affection that these men feel for each other and for the baby that they’ve manufactured is enough. Love is important, but it isn’t sufficient. Social science proves that children suffer from not having a married mom and dad, so why is CNN promoting two people who would deliberately put their baby in that situation?

Actually, Perkins continues to delude readers. He bastardizes the studies which compared two-parent heterosexual households to single parent heterosexual households to make a phony judgment on same-sex households.

He doesn't tell his readership that other studies, including the recent peer-reviewed one on lesbian households which Perkins and other religious right leaders have been attempting like mad to debunk, clearly shows that living in a same-sex household doesn't negatively affect a child.

But a recent horrific story of abuse highlights the intentional cluelessness of not only Perkins but others who rail against same-sex households while unfairly pushing up the "Ozzie and Harriet" model of family:

A California couple were charged with child abuse after police said they hit, starved and tied up the woman's two sons.

Cheryl Ann Stuart and Mario Alberto Colin of Santa Ana, Ca, allegedly caused malnutrition and dehydration to the two boys, aged 2 ½ and 5. The younger of the two boys had lips so dry and cracked that they bled, and his head was severely bruised, the Associated Press reported.

"She tied the kids to their beds using bandages, shoelaces or chains to keep them from taking off while she slept," Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, a spokesman for Santa Ana police told the AP. "She didn't feed the boys, especially the 2-year-old, because she was potty-training him" and was tired of changing his soiled sheets.

Stuart was giving the children two cups of water a day. She admitted to beating the two children, but said she didn't' think she was striking them excessively hard.

Colin is not the father of the two boys. He is married, with two children of his own. His wife did not even know of Colin's affair with Stuart.

 If this had been a same-sex household, Perkins and company would be putting out press releases, being interviewed for either One News Now or Fox News, and sending out action alerts.

But since this is a heterosexual household, you won't be hearing anything from the FRC about it. And this is a shame. You see in this case, some neighbors were quoted as saying that they blame themselves for either not paying attention to what was going on or not getting involved when they suspected the abuse.

 Will Perkins send out an action alert advising his readership to report anything they suspect as child abuse with as much fervor as he attacks a gay couple for daring to adopt a child?

Probably not.

For that matter, other than implying that same-sex households are dangerous for child, the Family Research Council, to my knowledge, never done anything in regards to fighting or speaking out against child abuse, domestic violence, or any other problems that would actually harm a child's home environment.

My mistake. There is an interesting report on the organization's web page which advocates spanking a child.

Know Your LGBT History - Noah's Arc

In celebration of SC Black Pride, I want to focus on a television which really didn't get it's due - Noah's Arc:




From Wikipedia:

Set in Los Angeles, the show features the lives of four black gay friends dealing with everyday trials, tribulations, triumphs and tragedies. Noah's Arc premiered on October 19, 2005, on the Logo television network. The series was Logo's most popular program. Season 1 was filmed in Los Angeles, and Season 2 was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The show rose from humble beginnings. The pilot was produced independently; and, to assist in funding each episode, the show was originally envisioned as a DVD subscription series. During the pilot filming, Rodney Chester's (who portrays Alex) own truck was used for the actors to have their make-up, hair, and wardrobe fittings. Logo pursued the series after the pilot was well received at film festivals, independent circuits, and special screenings. Some scenes from the original pilot were either re-shot or removed for airing on Logo. The original pilot is included in the Season 1 DVD release. The opening credits theme song is "Remember The Love" (Samba Mix) by Adriana Evans.

In the summer of 2008, BET J, the spin-off cable television channel of BET, showed all episodes of Noah's Arc. The creator of the show Patrik-Ian Polk announced the broadcast schedule via MySpace. He hopes that the episodes air again in primetime on the BET network.

Shortly after the Season 2 finale cliffhanger aired, LOGO announced the show's cancellation. Surprised by the negative reaction of the show's fans, the network stated that the program may return if the film was a success. At the time of LOGO's announcement, however, none of the cast had yet been contracted for the film. "Noah's Arc" was said to be the network's highest-rated original series. The film had an opening weekend per screen average of $30,336 and narrowly came second for top per screen average by the Clint Eastwood/Angelina Jolie film Changeling, which opened in limited release the same weekend and averaged $32,601. Theaters playing the film opening weekend reported, by mid-December, it had taken just over $532,000 at the US box office, even though the film received little or no mainstream marketing support and never played on more than seven screens at once during its seven-week theatrical run. Despite the success of the film, LOGO failed to bring the program back to air and was criticized by African-American and LGBT communities as it represented a needed diversity in mainstream media.

I enjoyed this show. Another show, Queer As Folk, got a lot attention and was even featured on the cover of The Advocate. If you pardon me for saying so, Noah's Arc was a better and more positive show whose characters didn't come across as oversexed, self-absorbed, and vindictive. It should have gotten more respect.

Past Know Your LGBT History postings 

Know Your LGBT History - Ode to Billy Joe

Know Your LGBT History - Adorable Adrian Adonis

Know Your LGBT History - The Night Strangler

Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family

Know Your LGBT History - Tongues Untied

Know Your LGBT History - The Celluloid Closet

Know Your LGBT History - Querelle

Know Your LGBT History - Theatre of Blood

Know Your LGBT History - Strange Fruit

Know Your LGBT History - Designing Women

Know Your LGBT History - The Children's Hour

Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester

Know Your LGBT History - Once Bitten

Know Your LGBT History - The Boys in the Band

Know Your LGBT History - Christopher Morley, the crossdressing assassin

Know Your LGBT History - Midnight Cowboy

Know Your LGBT History - Dracula's Daughter

Know Your LGBT History - Blacula

Know Your LGBT History - 3 Strikes

Know Your LGBT History - Paris Is Burning

Know Your LGBT History - The Women

Know your LGBT History - Soul Plane

Know Your LGBT History - The Player's Club

Special Know Your LGBT History - Fame

Know Your LGBT History - Welcome Home, Bobby

Know Your LGBT History - Barney Miller

Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show

Know your lgbt history - Martin Lawrence and that 'gay guy' on his show

Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show

Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up

Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps

Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware

Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks

Know your lgbt history - Mannequin

Know your lgbt history - The Warriors

Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover

Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame

Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes

Know your lgbt history - California Suite

Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)

Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue

Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay

Know your lgbt history - Windows

Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla

Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles

Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son

Know your lgbt history - In Living Color

Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords

Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?

Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street

Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys

Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy

Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George

Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda

'Know your lgbt history - Cruising

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil

The Jeffersons and the transgender community   
 

AFA's attack on 10-year-old and family gets them nowhere and other Friday midday news briefs

Fayetteville, Arkansas, to American Family Association: “No thank you!” - This what you get when you pick on 10-year-old children and their families.

The gay 'Brady Bunch' family - A much needed focus on African-American lgbt families

Screw this: When it comes to tools, it's nuts how many will bolt - Bear in mind this poll was taken by World Net Daily, the SAME publication which pushes the theory that President Obama is an illegal alien who had sex in a limo with a crazy white man while he and Damien Thorne was plotting to take over the world while messily eliminating everyone who got clued in to their secret while at the same time tricking children into being gay by noting the fact that there was only three female Smurfs present in Smurf village with a whole bunch of male Smurfs while . . .

At Chicago gay pride parade, some troops will be out and proud - Too bad I'm going to miss this.

Situation on 'The View' demonstrates need for Black prides

As many of you know, it's  Black Pride week here in South Carolina.

Now rather than go into detail in terms of why black prides are needed for the lgbt community, allow me to point out an incident which I think best suits the situation - a Call To Action by GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation):

On the June 22 broadcast of ABC's daytime talk show "The View," host Sherri Shepherd and guest host D.L. Hughley perpetuated dangerous myths about African American gay and bisexual men.

While discussing the FDA's ban that prevents gay and bisexual men from donating blood, Shepherd and Hughley communicated misinformation about the causes of increased HIV rates among African American women and used the phrase "down low" to describe men who have sex with men but publicly identify as heterosexual.

Here are excerpts from a transcript of the segment:

Hughley: When you look at the prevalence of HIV in the African American Community, it's primarily young women who are getting it from men who are on the down low. That's the thing.

Shepherd: The down low is black men who've been going out. They are having sex with men and they're not telling their girlfriends or their wives that they're gay and their husbands, as well. And it's very prevalent with African American women because they come home and have sex with their wives or their girlfriends. And they're not telling them that they're gay.

Shepherd: It's so big in the Black community with women because they're having unprotected sex with men who have been having sex with... with men.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), however, has debunked the dangerous myth that Shepherd and Hughley cited on the program. Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention talked about his research to NNPA News in October 2009. Fenton said that the CDC "has looked to see what proportion of [HIV] infections is coming from male partners who are bisexual and found there are actually relatively few," and goes on to attribute most infections to other factors.

Read Fenton's entire interview.

I applaud GLAAD for shining a light on this awful display of ignorance by Hughley and Sheppard. I don't think their ignorance about the situation is intentional. Rather it's indicative of why we need more visible lgbts of color.

That's why black prides are important - to encourage and inspire more lgbts of color to be visible, take their rightful places in the lgbt community and also take ownership of their stories.

When you are not allowed to speak for yourself - and many lgbts of color do not have this right in the black community - others take it upon themselves to speak for you and in the case of Hughley and Sheppard, they get your story wrong.

GLAAD is encouraging everyone to take action:

Call on "The View" to issue an on-air apology and correct Sherri Shepherd and D.L. Hughley's misrepresentation of African American gay & bisexual men. This program reaches millions of viewers and ABC must ensure that its platforms are not used to perpetuate dangerous falsehoods that put our community in harm's way.

ABC Contacts:

Brad Jamison, Vice President Corporate Initiatives
ABC Television Network
818-460-6120
Brad.Jamison@abc.com

Julie Hoover, Corporate Communications Vice President        
ABC Television Network
(212) 456-6641                      
 julie.t.hoover@abc.com

Bill Geddie, Executive Producer
ABC "The View"
(212) 456-0910     
bill.geddie@abc.com

GLAAD Contacts:

Cindi Creager
Director of National News
(646) 871-8019
creager@glaad.org

Richard Ferraro
Director of Public Relations
(646) 871-8011
ferraro@glaad.org

Focus on the Family's Daly gets 'schooled' on the concept of family

In a piece today in The Washington Post, Focus on the Family's Jim Daly became the latest member of the religious right to criticize Obama's Father's Day proclamation for - you guessed it - acknowledging same-sex households:

In elevating and equating the influence of a two-father family to that of all other traditional forms, the administration is, perhaps unknowingly, depriving children of the opportunity to have the very thing the president has so strongly and eloquently suggested they need most: A mom and a dad.

As the product of a fatherless home myself, I am keenly aware and extremely sensitive to the harsh realities of a life that is less than ideal. In fact, the president and I share this common background, and so I immediately identify with his compassion and his desire to use the bully pulpit to ease suffering and meet the needs of the neediest among us.

But the fatherhood "effect" is not cumulative - two daddies are not better than one -- nor is a mother dispensable or replaceable. Instead of expending precious (and finite) energy and resources on selling the merits of two- father or two-mother families, the administration would be wise to invest and encourage the loving presence of both a mom and a dad.

However, Daly is being seriously schooled by many of the folks who left comments under his piece. The following are just a few:

Of all the things I disagree with on Obama, this is one thing I do agree with. Christianity imported homophobia into the America's with the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500's. Before then, many American Indian tribes supported the idea of a 3rd gender, and families that loved them. It wasn't until Christians used this to determine Indians "savages" and then subsequently killed them all off, that Indians were reprogramed in Christian "Indian Schools". Christians are murderers who stole Judiac ideals to meet their own ends. Jesus himself was a gay man, who never once married, but lived his entire life with other men. Until Christians accept this little fact of life, then well, they should stay out of deciding what is right in God's eyes.

As long as people consider themselves "conservatives" and "liberals" and NOT AMERICANS FIRST, they are nothing more than the original stuff they use to fertlize lawns. How abjectly INHUMANE of you to criticize some poor kid who lives in a same-sex household, or the same-sex couple that devote their lives toward bringing that same child up into the world. "Societal norms?" Gimme a break. It was a societal norm for black people to be in slavery. It was a societal norm for people to stone Jewish people and deprive them of their homes and property. It used to be a "societal norm" for men to steal women and forcibly take them to marry. What an unbelievably heartless Philistine you are. I fervently hope in your next life you are born gay so that you can experience first hand the bigotry you seek to uphold in the name of beliefs generated by the nomads of the Levant more than 2,000 years ago. I hope your doctors use their medical beliefs to treat you! These "Christians" are such shining examples of humanity!

Lots of GLBT parents seem to do a better job than straight parents. Many time they actually plan for and have to work hard at having children rather than the all to often hetero:"Whoops,honey guess what we're pregnant... what are we gonna do now we aren't so sure we really wanna have (another ) kid."

. . .Daly's argument implies that parents who are gay should enter into straight marriages for the sake of their children, or remain in such marriages. One could make a case that children raised by unhappy, miserable parents in loveless marriages are generally worse off than if their parents had gotten divorced. In any case, the burden of proof is on Daly to show how children under the care of opposite-sex parents would lose this care if same-sex-parent families were not treated as abnormal.

Mr. Daly, you had me at "The Obama administration is actively changing the cultural norms of our country." More power to him. The days of your bigotry are numbered.

I don't think "The Obama administration is actively changing the cultural norms of our country." What is normal in our country's culture today is two people, of the same sex and in a loving relationship, raising children together in happy, heathy homes. I find it offensive that the Post is providing a national forum for Mr. Daly to promote discrimination and incite hatred. If others want to read this outdated and hurtful nonsense they are free to go to the FOTF website--but the Post shouldn't be complicit in promoting Mr. Daly's incendiary diatribe.

My same sex partner and I have raised a son that is the envy of our straight friends. He is extremely successful, compassionate and a contributor to his community. I find it ironic if not somewhat sad that many of our opposite sex couple friends are constantly battling with their children to at least try to finish school, call them once and a while and quite living off the their parents and the government. Maybe we need more same sex parents.

One good thing about the so-called controversy involving Obama mentioning same-sex parenting in his Father's Day proclamation is how it is bringing the issue of lgbts raising children to the forefront.

It's an issue which needs to be discussed thoroughly. And as much as members of the religious right try to control this issue, their singular talking point of "a child needs a mother and a father" can't overcome the fact that too many people know that raising a child takes more than the "Ozzie and Harriet" concept of family.

Raising a child takes love, support, and sacrifice and many folks are providing this, whether they be heterosexual single parents, or lgbt parents.

My advice to Daly and other members of the religious right who continue to fight Obama on this is to give it up. You are only digging yourself deeper in a hole. 

Your talking points are incredibly polished but even talking points sometimes fall to reality. And the words that come out of your mouth, no matter how pretty they sound, can't stand up to the successful lgbt families that people see every day.

American Family Association picking on 10-year-old and his family and other Thursday midday news briefs

Arkansas: American Family Association's Tim Wildmon stoops to an Action Alert against a 10 year old - So having a mother and father in the home is the best thing for a child, the religious right tells us. Unless the family is lgbt-supportive and participates in lgbt events. THAT is tantamount to child abuse, they tell us. Can you say horse @!%, boys and girls? I knew you could.

Court refuses to keep petitioner IDs private - The religious right loses BIG TIME and all is good in the world.

You can’t even buy a right - Great analysis of a nasty juxtaposition. In Philadelpha, the Boy Scouts can use a building paid for by tax dollars even though they discriminate against lgbt taxpayers. Meanwhile in Minneapolis, a gay pride paid the city a tidy sum for the use of a park for its festival, but city is trying to prevent them from keeping an anti-gay evangelist from coming in and causing confusion.

Focus on the Family to America: Listen to Price or pay the $ame! - So according to some folks, celebrating June as Gay Pride Month will cause God to turn His back on America. Listen, if God hasn't turned His back on us after that awful Jersey Shore reality tv show and the Donald Trump/Omarosa hot mess reality tv show on cable, I think it's safe to assume that America is somewhat home free.

Liberty Counsel's Odd Definition of "Fit Parent" - Meanwhile, the Liberty Counsel is still arguing on behalf on bad parent Lisa Miller even AFTER she kidnapped her and Janet Jenkins's daughter.

Wis. court: Gay parents do not have equal rights - Excuse the hell out of me! Hopefully this decision will be appealed again.

False study proves Family Research Council's anti-gay animus

I was looking over a "study" published by the Family Research Council which supposedly proves that there is a "significant problem of homosexual misconduct in the military."

 FRC announced the study in May and no one really paid attention to it because the organization's bias against the lgbt community is commonly known.

But the study does need to be observed, not because it's credible but because it demonstrates how low FRC will stoop to malign the lgbt community.

The main point of the study is the following:

Homosexual activist groups themselves have admitted that less than three percent of Americans are homosexual or bisexual.

FRC has reviewed the "case synopses" of all 1,643 reports of sexual assault reported by the four branches of the military for Fiscal Year 2009 (October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009). Our startling finding was that over eight percent (8.2%) of all military sexual assault cases were homosexual in nature. This suggests that homosexuals in the military are about three times more likely to commit sexual assaults than heterosexuals are, relative to their numbers.

Or as it is put in a footnote on pg. 16:

134 of 1,643 reported assault synopses involved homosexual assault, or 8.2%. There were 124 male-on-male cases and 10 female-on-female cases.

By the way, the rest of the study is nothing more than details of the alleged sexual assaults written in a way that is so salacious, I'm sure  Peter LaBarbera has a published copy under the guise of "research."

Let's ignore the time consuming discussion of how many lgbts there actually are - no doubt FRC wouldn't mind to have the issue sidetracked by such discussion - and focus on how the group is manipulating via percentages.

The organization has chosen to play a silly game of percentages not unlike the one played by white racists when informed that the majority of people on welfare are not African-Americans.

"Well percentage-wise, black people do utilize welfare more," they say.

Or more to the point, FRC's phrase - homosexuals in the military are about three times more likely to commit sexual assaults than heterosexuals are, relative to their numbers - seems to be carefully worded parlor trick meant to push the claim that a high number of military gay men are committing sexual assaults in spite of the fact that the actual numbers don't back it up.

FRC's tactic reminds me of a passage in a situation comedy between a man and his date:

Man: Some folks say I look like Denzel Washington . . .

(His date looks at him in disbelief)

Man: . . . when I squint my eyes . . .

(The man's date still looks with more disbelief)

Man: . . . when there aren't that many lights on . . .

The man's date: I'm starting to see the resemblance!

FRC's study is not going to look credible no matter what the group does because all the lights are on for a change.

Peter Sprigg, One News Now defy logic to attack lgbt families

I hope you will forgive me for not focusing on Mike Huckabee's newest shuck-and-jive attempt to explain his homophobia.

Sorry but the words "Mike Huckabee" and "gay sex" used in the same sentence of paragraph is akin to psychological castration to me.

Instead, allow me to clue you in on something which you may not be aware of.

It would seem that the American Family Association's phony online news site One News Now no longer accepts comments.

I was aware of this for a while but I was waiting for a good moment to talk about it. And a piece published on the site criticizing President Obama for acknowledging lgbt families in his Father's Day proclamation is the perfect time to talk about this about-face by One News Now.

The article is so bad, so inaccurate that I was practically drooling to leave at least one small comment. But unfortunately, I could not.

Still, allow me to spotlight the inherent stupidity and meanness of the piece, which is best shown by this passage:

Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council (FRC), tells OneNewsNow the president should have used the proclamation to celebrate the existence of fathers in the lives of their children rather than promote a controversial political and social agenda.

For the record, that's Peter (we should export gays when we are not criminalizing homosexuality) Sprigg.

But the funny thing is that I thought celebrating the existence of fathers in the lives of their children is exactly what Obama did via his proclamation. Didn't he say the following:

Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a step father, a grandfather, or caring guardian. We owe a special debt of gratitude for those parents serving in the United States Armed Forces and their families, whose sacrifices protect the lives and liberties of all American children. For the character they build, the doors they open, and the love they provide over our lifetimes, all our fathers deserve our unending appreciation and admiration.

Sounds like celebrating the existence of fathers to me. So what's the problem.

Oh now I get it. President Obama included gay fathers and that's wrong because we know that gay fathers and lgbt parents in general don't exist even though according to a report by Gary Gates, Lee M.V. Badgett, Jennifer Ehrle Macomber, Kate Chambers of the Urban Institute:

* More than one in three lesbians have given birth and one in six gay men have fathered or adopted a child.

* More than half of gay men and 41 percent of lesbians want to have a child.

* An estimated two million GLB people are interested in adopting.

* An estimated 65,500 adopted children are living with a lesbian or gay parent.

* More than 16,000 adopted children are living with lesbian and gay parents in California, the highest number among the states.

* Gay and lesbian parents are raising four percent of all adopted children in the United States.

After all, who needs facts when you have "Jesus" on your side.

Another pastor supports 'criminalizing' lgbts and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Lou Engle Supports Criminalization of Homosexuality - Lord, please protect us from those who claim to follow you!

Live and let learn: NY bullying policy dots its i's without crossing its T's - Good news out of New York.

Obama's Plan to Help End Homelessness Among Gay Youth - We will see. The proof is always in the pudding. And IF the religious right has a problem with this, we need to publicize their words.

The War On Norquist Gets Personal - When the religious right can't get their way, they show their nasty true faces.

The White (House) Party With The Prez - 'nuff said.

The single most ridiculous argument against lgbt parenting that you will ever hear

President Obama's acknowledgment of lgbt parenting has members of the religious right scrambling as they offer ridiculous opposition to the simple fact that lgbt families exist.

But now I present to you possibly the dumbest, the most INANE comment on lgbt parenting by Focus on the Family's senior director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy Carrie Gordon Earll.

The segment featuring her comment begins at 2:00:

Transcript:

ANNOUNCER: The President included gay families in his Mother's and Father's Day proclamation saying, "nurturing families come in many forms . . . a father and  mother, a single father, two fathers . . ."

Not so according to Carrie Gordon Earll.

EARLL: My husband is a great dad and we just celebrated that on Father's Day. But he's a lousy mom.

I'm sorry for what I am about to say because I try to have respect for opinions which I don't agree with, but Earll's comment was stupid.

There is no other way around that fact. So her husband is a "lousy mother." What the hell does that have do with anything.

Why is it that when these so-called pro-family spokespeople are asked to comment on the issue of "family," they make statements which makes one not only question their actual commitment to the concept of "family," but in the case of Earll, the concept of "common sense."

The fact that Earll's husband makes a "lousy mother" is not the point. The fact that he sounds like a "great parent" is the point.

You see that's what it's about - good parenting.

This isn't complicated. This isn't rocket science.

Some families do not have the "Ozzie and Harriet" mode. Not all family units contain a mother and father. That's just the way it is. Not all families are alike in that matter, but the vast majority of families are alike in the fact that they provide love and support.

And if Focus on the Family and these other religious right groups even cared about "family" or "reality," they would support all family units, not just the ones they think are superior.

One would think that an organization with the word "family" in its name would be more concerned with doing this rather than trying to create a caste system.

Of course one would also think that someone with a prestigious sounding title like senior director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy wouldn't come across as being completely clueless.

Focus on the Family is 0 for 2 on those points.

Related posts:

Home Depot attacked for supporting THE GAYS

A Father's Day lesson in bigotry

An ugly flashback courtesy of Anita Bryant

A Facebook friend pointed this out to me so all credit goes to him.

This is an interview with the infamous Anita Bryant from 1990. It's important that the entire lgbt community, particularly the younger generation, take in and remember our history, whether it be good or bad.

What strikes me is Bryant's continued ignorance. She falsely accused gays of being pedophiles and claimed that it was her "Christian duty" to do such. Who knew Jesus dealt in lies.

The more things change, the more they stay the same when it comes to folks in the religious right, don't they?

One more thing: Bryant's career is still in tatters and probably will never recover. Not celebrating, mind you. Just pointing that out..

More on the AFA's attack on Home Depot and lgbt families and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Love your dads, become part of an AFA condemnation - Apparently there is more to the story than what I posted this morning about the American Family Association's attack on Home Depot. Long story short - those pictures used by the AFA in it's attack, particularly the one with the child who is proud of his two dads, were meant to be positive images of lgbt families. This means the AFA, in the name of "morality" and "truth" exploited those pictures to present a false image of the lgbt community. Kind of makes you angry, doesn't it? It should.

Gay and Transgender Youth Homelessness by the Numbers - There simply is NO EXCUSE for this.

Gays will get leave to care for partner's sick child - Almost forgot about this bit of good news.

Costs prompt AIDS expert to close S.F. practice - This ain't good.

Dispatches from Greg Quinlan’s Crazy Space - Just when you have seen it all, supposed "ex-gay" Greg Quinlan produces a new spin on Obama Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

Home Depot attacked for supporting THE GAYS

I received the following "action alert" from the American Family Association via an online friend of mine:

According to the 2010 Southern Maine Pride website, Home Depot signed on as a major sponsor of its 2010 Gay Pride events. But simply financing and marching in the parade wasn't enough for the big box chain.

Home Depot also signed on as a "festival" vendor, conducting Kid's Craft Workshops for children in the midst of loud and boisterous gay activities.

To this end, Home Depot is basically encouraging the attendance of children at events which openly expose them to transvestites, cross-dressers, and homosexual activists

. . . Gay pride events have a long track record for offensive public displays of homosexual conduct. Obviously, Home Depot is OK with the idea of exposing children to an unhealthy and risky environment. So much so, it is willing to also celebrate it by participating in its promotion, as demonstrated in these photos from the 2010 Maine and Boston events.

And do you want to see the two photos which the AFA claims is proof that children are being exposed to danger during gay pride? Here they are:

Oh the horror! Someone call Batman. Unfortunately this isn't the first time that the religious right have attacked Home Depot for sponsoring a Pride event. Last year, the Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber made the same illogical argument. And it probably won't be the last.

Unfortunately some pride parades do have the reputation of being a bit risque, but not all pride are the same.

It's like I said last year at the time of Barber's attack on Home Depot:

a. many same-sex families include children

b. not all Pride events fit the stereotype of half naked men and women running around in open areas dancing to disco music and bumping and grinding into each other.

Down here in Columbia, SC, we are proud of the fact that our lgbt festivals (including Black Pride held this week) are highly family friendly.

The American Family Association's diatribe proves just how the religious right want to paint us into a corner when it comes to children. They are always quick to imply that we harm children but never address the fact that we are raising children.

Think about it. When folks like Maggie Gallagher and Barber talk about how same-sex marriage will hurt children, they never acknowledge the fact that lgbt families have children.

It's not an unintentional oversight.

Related post:

Matt Barber's ignorance is a blast from the past

A Father's Day lesson in bigotry

A simple message on Father's Day by President Obama has some religious right organizations up in arms:

Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a step father, a grandfather, or caring guardian. We owe a special debt of gratitude for those parents serving in the United States Armed Forces and their families, whose sacrifices protect the lives and liberties of all American children. For the character they build, the doors they open, and the love they provide over our lifetimes, all our fathers deserve our unending appreciation and admiration.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, in accordance with a joint resolution of the Congress approved April 24, 1972, as amended (36 U.S.C. 109), do hereby proclaim June 20, 2010, as Father's Day. I direct the appropriate officials of the Government to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on this day, and I call upon all citizens to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. Let us honor our fathers, living and deceased, with all the love and gratitude they deserve.

The part which is making religious right groups see red is the acknowledgment of gay fathers. The usual cast of characters have responded with the same degree of vitriol with which the lgbt community has come to expect, including:

Peter LaBarbera:

“Gay parenting is a selfish social experiment whose long-term effect on children has not yet been determined — biased homosexual-authored studies notwithstanding,” he said. “We know that dad-and-mom-led homes are the best for children. That is the timeless brand of fatherhood that Obama should be promoting.”

 and Tim Wildmon:

"This is the first time in our nation's history that a president has used Father's Day as an excuse to promote the radical homosexual agenda and completely redefine the word 'family,'" said AFA president Tim Wildmon. "Virtually all Americans have the common sense to recognize that children need both a mother and a father. Rudimentary biology tells us it's impossible for a child to have two fathers. But here we have the leader of our nation and the Democrat Party celebrating sexual behavior which is contrary to nature and pushing a household structure that we know is harmful to children. This is a sad day for the American family.

Also, the National Organization for Marriage falsely implied that through his proclamation, President Obama was saying that fathers didn't matter.

Meanwhile, the Family Research Council pushed an "offensively cute" graphic (seen on the left) meant to denigrate lgbt families.

One has to ask what's with all the vitriol on the supposed Christian right about the President's proclamation? The answer is very simple.

The fact that some lgbts are parents - and good parents at that - is a constant thorn in the side of religious right groups. It throws a monkey wrench in their goal of pushing a false image of lgbts on American society (oversexed, selfish, and hedonistic) while at the same time holding back more truthful and positive images of lgbts under the phony guise that such images interfere with their "Christian sensibilities."

As you can see, truth has a way of pushing itself forward no matter how many ignorant hands are trying to hold it back. And the truth in this case is that gay fathers contribute positively to a child's upbringing.

Furthermore, the ideas that acknowledging the existence of gay fathers is somehow a slap in the face to heterosexual parenting or that lgbt parenting in general is an automatic detriment are simply the products of a prejudiced mind.

There is no need for competition here between heterosexual and lgbt parents. Certainly that wasn't in President Obama's mind and it's not in the mind of the millions of parents - be they lgbt or straight - who care for, nurture, and sacrifice for their children on a daily basis without asking anything in return.

 The only folks pushing competition are America's supposed moral guardians on the right.

 But there is something sinisterly wrong with the desire to eliminate or disrespect the presence of lgbt parents under the guise of "morality."

And there is something equally vindictive in claiming - with no proof at all - that somehow lgbt parents will harm their children.

The preponderance of studies clearly show that this is not the case. And if you don't believe me, just look outside your door. Many of us know lgbt couples who are raising families.

We need to ask ourselves do the images we see match the ravings that lgbt parenting is a "dangerous concept."

The fact of the matter is that some folks just plain don't like lgbts. And that's fine because it is their right.

But it's bigotry, pure and simple, for one group to tell another - "we don't like you, so you don't exist."