NOM needs to stop peddling in fantasy and face reality about same-sex families

Brian Brown, head of the National Organization for Marriage, published a Christmas message on the group's blog featuring a picture of him and his family:

Brown looks like he has a wonderful family and he has every right to be proud of them.

But something is bothering me. What's the difference between his family and these families:

None of these families are any different except for the sexual orientation of the parents. Yet it is this one little thing which propels Brown, NOM, and other members of the religious right to oppose not only same-sex marriage, but also same-sex households.  I could cite many studies which easily demonstrate that there is nothing with same-sex households, but sometimes I just feel like I don't need to.

At what point do we recognize the fact that same-sex families having to always have to "prove" themselves is a basic insult?

The truth is we all know of same-sex households which include children and we all know that these children are happy and healthy.  We all know that these households provide children with the love, support, and structure they need to get through life.

To claim that same-sex households are harmful or even push the cynical talking point that same-sex households is an "untested experiment" is an insult to basic intelligence. 

The question that those on the right, Brown included, never seem to want to answer is what makes them the arbiters of what constitutes a "good family." What gives them the right to create a caste system for families who doesn't fit their narrow idea of an "idealized situation?"

An "idealized situation" is not reality. It's a fantasy.  Reality is the fact that two-parent heterosexual families are not always the best place to raise children. Reality is that sometimes children thrives in single parents households or even same-sex households.

If Brown and company really cared about families or children, they would do something more about the reality rather than to manipulate the fantasy.

By writing this, I mean no disrespect to Brown and I certainly don't mean any disrespect to his family. But it is patently obscene to me that someone will show pride in his family while attempting to deny others the chance to have the same privilege simply because he does not agree with their sexual orientation.

Teachers who bullied gay student sues school district and other Thursday midday news briefs

Teachers who engaged in anti-gay bullying now suing school district - Whatever happened to the "good old days" when teachers could make fun of lgbt students without reprisal, huh? This story got me so upset that I stopped reading it several times. I can tell you that if the student was me, my mother would given a new meaning to the term "raising hell."

Video: A pack of Savages - I take back my negative opinion of Dan Savage as of now. Any man who can tell it like it is about GoProud and piss off Peter LaBarbera at the same time is a hero in my book. And that's not even counting the awesome work he started this year with the "It Gets Better" project.

Peter LaBarbera Spreads Gordon Klingenschmitt’s Lie Further - And speaking of LaBarbera, apparently he really adores discredited anti-gay sources.

Our complicated relationships with the john - The issue of lgbt equality should not be reduced issues of bathroom usage, but we need to get a handle on this nonsense before the religious right can exploit it.

Apple rejects "Manhattan Declaration" app for second time - DEAL with it, religious right! Your homophobia has been rejected again.

The 2010 Five Most Embarrassing Moments of the Anti-Gay Right Caught on Video

One thing that I will never forget about this year is how members of the religious right and the right in general made complete fools of themselves in their zeal to oppose lgbt equality.

And luckily we have the best moments on video and audio. So without further comment, I present the 2010 Five Most Embarrassing Moments of the Anti-Gay Right Caught on Video.

Honorable Mention: Peter LaBarbera loves Paul Cameron

Okay this isn't exactly a video moment, which is why it gets an honorable mention. Yes I am cheating but I want folks to remember this. Our friend, Porno Pete LaBarbera in an interview with Concerned Women for America's Martha Kleder freely admits to using the discredited research of Paul Cameron in order to demonize the lgbt community. Not only is he not ashamed of it, but he claims that gays don't take Cameron's work seriously because we flat don't like him. This is true. We don't like Paul Cameron. Maybe it has to do with all of those censures and rebukes he has gotten from legitimate groups (i.e the American Psychological Association, the American Sociological Association) for his awful research techniques:




5. Martin Luther King, Jr. supported imprisoning gays?

 In February, Molotov Mitchell of World Net Daily gives an absolutely ridiculous defense of the Ugandan "kill the gays" bill, including the part about the death penalty.  But the most offensive item from this video comes at 3:00 when Mitchell actually evokes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to justify not only this bill but his labored defense of it:  

"Like the great Dr. King told us, 'the moral arm of the universe is long but it bends towards justice.' Ugandans, stay on the right side of history."

First of all, it's not "arm," but "arc" you dumbass.

It's bad enough that Mitchell sullies King's good name by actually thinking that he would have supported this  travesty of a bill. He compounds his homophobia and stupidity by getting the quote wrong:




4. Barney Frank owns phony journalist

In December,  DADT was repealed. However the conservative CNS News tried to trip up Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) by reducing the issue to that of heterosexuals "being forced" to shower with gays. What happens next is one of the reasons why Frank is one of my heroes. It begins at 3.50: