The 30 Dirty? Why can't the religious right stop lying about ENDA?

Earlier this week, I pointed out the similarities between the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC)'s lies about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and those of a racist group concerning HIV and black men as proof of how racists and homophobes rely on fear and stereotypes instead of facts for their arguments.

TVC had inaccurately said that ENDA would force children to be "trapped" in classrooms with "drag queen teachers."

Today the group outdid itself in the "sparking fear" department:

In the next few weeks, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and their homosexual and transgender allies will attempt to ram through the so-called Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

What you may not know is that ENDA normalizes and provides special federal protection for 30+ bizarre sexual orientations listed by the American Psychiatric Association – the so-called “Dirty 30.” These 30+ fetishes include behaviors that are felonies or misdemeanors in most states.

ENDA’s “Dirty 30” includes such bizarre criminal acts as incest, pedophilia, prostitution, beastiality, and cross-dressing. If we don’t act today, Obama and Pelosi will normalize these disorders by federal law on April 21!

 . . . If Obama, Pelosi, Hastings and the Congressional Democrats pass ENDA, co-workers will be forced to work alongside individuals with these bizarre sex fetishes. Christian businesses will be directly impacted by ENDA. They would be forced to hire or retain cross-dressers and individuals who engage in these sinful behaviors. Students will be indoctrinated that “alternative lifestyles” are no different than traditional lifestyles. Young children will be forced to learn about these bizarre sexual fetishes – and you will have no say in the matter.

There are lies, damn lies, and obscene lies but there needs to be a new category of lies to describe to what TVC is attempting.

According to the site Religious Tolerance:

The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) has created a unique definition of the term "sexual orientation" that differs greatly from the meaning used by others. They state:

"A person's sexual orientation can include sexual attraction to children, animals, feet, and a whole range of bizarre behaviors that are listed in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). In fact, there are 30 sexual orientations listed in the DSM."

This is a definition apparently created by TVC whose purpose may have been to confuse legislation and legislators. Both the ENDA bill, and bills covering hate-crimes offer protection to every American on the basis of their sexual orientation, whether they be heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual. By enlarging the number of orientations to 30 the bills become meaningless.

The first sentence in the quote is in error. The DSM defines three and only three sexual orientations. The American Psychiatric Association describes the three sexual orientations both in their DSM and in their "Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives" web site.

What TVC has done is to redefine the DSM's 30 sexual paraphilias as additional sexual orientations. Paraphilias are activities causing sexual arousal in response to sexual objects or situations, including incest, necrophilia, pedophilia, bestiality, masochism, sadism, voyeurism.

And according to the Human Rights Campaign:

What ENDA Does

• Extends federal employment discrimination protections currently provided based on race, religion, sex, national origin, age and disability to sexual orientation and gender identity
• Prohibits public and private employers, employment agencies and labor unions from using an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity as the basis for employment decisions, such as hiring, firing, promotion or compensation
• Provides for the same procedures, and similar, but somewhat more limited, remedies as are permitted under Title VII and the Americans with Disabilities Act
• Applies to Congress and the federal government, as well as employees of state and local governments

What ENDA Does Not Do

• Cover businesses with fewer than 15 employees
• Apply to religious organizations
• Apply to the uniformed members of the armed forces (the bill doesn't affect the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy)
• Allow for quotas or preferential treatment based on sexual orientation or gender identity
• Allow a "disparate impact" claim similar to the one available under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Therefore, an employer is not required to justify a neutral practice that may have a statistically disparate impact on individuals because of their sexual orientation or gender identity
• Allow the imposition of affirmative action for a violation of ENDA
• Allow the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to collect statistics on sexual orientation or gender identity or compel employers to collect such statistics.
• Apply retroactively

And again, if a racist group repeated a list of lies about ethnic groups (be they African-Americans, members of the Jewish community, etc), their fear tactics would be repudiated.  What's the difference between a racist group and the Traditional Values Coalition other than the misappropriating of the designation of being a Christian?

It's a question that needs to be asked often and not only about the Traditional Values Coalition but other so-called morality groups who claim to stand for Christian principles while they tell lies on the lgbt community.

Related article:

A novel, conservative Christian definition that includes 30 behaviors

Maggie Gallagher and company channels Paul Cameron and other Thursday midday news briefs

TinyU-R-Gay: @NOMupdates limits gay lives to less than 140 characters/years - National Organization for marriage channels Paul Cameron. Why should be we surprised?

Birds of a Feather Do Not Always Flock Together - Okay you KNOW you are in bizarro territory when you become hateful that even the Ku Klux Klan repudiates you.

Houston Clergy at Arms Over Lesbian Mayor's Orders - They will get over it, but unfortunately not before pulling the "men in women's bathrooms" card.

Santa Rosa council approves gay and lesbian retirement community - But I thought lgbt seniors didn't exist. Ain't that right, Tony Perkins?

Beck admits he doesn’t give ‘a flying crap about the political process. … We’re an entertainment company.' - Soooo all the crying and whining about how he loves America is a big fraud. Geez who knew? Not necessarily an lgbt issue per se but worth remembering. Sometimes people get taken advantage of because they allow themselves to. Pay attention, tea baggers.

African gays and lesbians becoming victims of 'corrective rape'

It's interesting that this story came to my attention yesterday:

An annual report by the US State Department on human rights in Zimbabwe has said that gays and lesbians in the country face harassment and rape by people trying to 'cure' them.

It said that lesbians were sometimes raped, even by their family members, to try and turn them straight, while gay men were forced into heterosexual sex.

Associated Press reports that Amanda Porter, political officer at the US Embassy in Harare, said yesterday: "Some families reportedly subjected men and women to corrective rape and forced marriages to encourage heterosexual conduct."

Sodomy is illegal in Zimbabwe and punishable with up to a year in prison or a heavy fine.

Although there have been no recorded prosecutions in recent years, gays and lesbians say they face harassment and stigma in the community.

The country's only gay group, Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ), has warned that gays live in fear and are driven underground.

It's interesting for two reasons.

My piece appeared in the Huffington Post last night and already it is besieged by pseudo intellectual individuals who claim that being black and being gay are different.

Secondly, this piece provides a bit of grounding. Whenever organizations like the Family Research Council pull up specious anecdotes about how some "Christian" was supposedly unfairly fired of THE GAYS, it helps to be reminded what real persecution looks like.