Hate group leader doesn't want gays to serve on juries

Brian Camenker

If you give the members of the religious right enough rope, they tend to hang themselves.

That's why I am a huge proponent of letting them talk freely because sooner or later, they always wind up with their foot in their mouths. You can set your watch to it.

A perfect example would be Brian Camenker, the leader of the Southern Poverty Law Center declared hate group Mass Resistance.

Mass Resistance has that title of a hate group for the following reasons:

In 2006-2007, Mass-Resistance pushed for an amendment of the 1996 statute that would have required that parents be notified of any discussion of gay or lesbian issues in the schools. The group proposed language that lumped sexual orientation (which includes heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality) in with criminal behaviors like bestiality and polygamy. During legislative testimony supporting the amendment, Camenker falsely claimed that no homosexuals died in the Holocaust and that the pink triangle the Nazis forced imprisoned gays to wear actually signified Catholic priests. The amendment did not pass.

Camenker, who has long focused on the purported “homosexual agenda” in the schools and frequently claimed gays are dangerous to kids, has repeatedly cited discredited claims from organizations like the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality that link homosexuality and pedophilia.  

Allow me include that additionally, Camenker and a local parent David Parker orchestrated a two-year long moral panic by first falsely claiming that Parker was arrested for merely wanting his son to be opted out of classroom discussions of homosexuality and then claiming that his son was physically assaulted by the children of lgbt household for his father's stance.

In 2008, another person affiliated with the organization, Michael Olivio, was arrested after he was caught taking pictures of children at a local middle school school. He and Camenker claimed that he meant to take pictures of students at a high school because the state Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgendered Youth had held a meeting there (taking pictures of gay students is another sideline of Mass Resistance).

And last but not least, it was Mass Resistance behind repeated smears of Obama appointee Kevin Jennings, including the phony "fistgate" scandal.

As hard as it is to believe, the subject of today's post, Camenker goes around yet another bend of homophobia. He was being interviewed by the phony news service One News Now on the possibility of gay jurors. According to One News Now, here is the scenario:

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has heard arguments that challenge a prosecutor's decision to remove a lesbian juror from a case involving Daniel Osazuwa, a homosexual Nigerian immigrant convicted of assaulting a guard when he hugged him. When the guard reacted, he fell to the ground, and Osazuwa toppled on top of him. Osazuwa contends that this greeting is a friendly gesture in Nigeria.

And the following is what Camenker said:

"There are a million reasons why someone might want to not include someone who is a practicing homosexual from a jury, especially [from a case] that has to do with homosexuality," the MassResistance spokesman points out. "This is very dangerous, I think."

Camenker goes on to warn that the Ninth Circuit's decision in this case will set precedence for future similar cases. And he contends that if the court rules in favor of the lesbian juror, it would secure special protection for homosexuals.

Camenker is right. Why if gays are allowed to serve on juries, particularly in cases involving gay issues, the next thing you know, they will get uppity and want to be treated like regular human beings.