It has been announced that the National Organization for Marriage is teaming up with several organizations and noted individuals in a bus tour across Iowa next week.
Supposedly, the Values Bus Tour will cover 1,305 miles in four days with events in 22 cities. The tour will pass through 47 of Iowa's 99 counties.
However, based on the participants, I am curious to know just what values is NOM pushing.
A member of the tour will be Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council. FRC has been named as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because its tendency to spread junk science and propaganda about the gay community, such as the inaccurate notions that homosexuality is linked to pedophilia or how gays have a short lifespan.
Perkins, in particular, when he is not distorting legitimate studies or comparing gays to terrorists, busies himself pretending to not understand why SPLC called out his group.
Also participating:
Former Minnesota governor and current presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty, believe it or not, used to be an ally of the gay community. That, of course, was before he found it more advantageous to rail about "cross-dressing school teachers" and veto bills which would allow surviving same sex partners from recovering damages in the case of wrongful deaths and execute their deceased partners' funeral wishes.
U.S. Rep. Steve King, who once said that allowing gay marriage would turn Iowa into the "Gay Marriage Mecca," a comment which he did not mean in a positive manner. King also said that gays wouldn't face problems of discrimination if they would just not "project" their homosexuality. When King is not talking smack about gays, he has some interesting comments about African-Americans. Last year, he accused President Obama of unfairly "favoring" African-Americans. Later that same year, he labeled government settlements given to black and Native American farmers who suffered decades of discrimination as "slavery reparations."
One wonders how King's participation will play to African-Americans whom NOM always seeks out in its endeavours against marriage equality.
Former Pennsylvania and another current presidential candidate Senator Rick Santorum (check out the link to his last name), will also be on the bus tour. Santorum has based his career on being on a warpath against the gay community - including same-sex households. However, for some reason, the idea of marriage equality seems to really drive him nuts, as the following quotes prove:
And the piece de resistance in NOM's bus tour - U.S. Rep and current presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. What can be said about Michele Bachmann that hasn't been already uttered? One could talk about her husband's fraudulent clinic's attempts to "cure" homosexuality. Or how, in 2005, she viewed a gay pride parade while hiding behind the bushes (maybe she thought gays would give her cooties or that the music blaring would cause her feet to do a bad "white girl dance" on their own accord). Then there was that 2004 comment connecting gays to Satan. Or these various other homophobic comments:
All in all, NOM's "Values Bus" tour ought to be interesting in a nauseatingly sort of way. And I know that there are many in the lgbtq community hoping for some type of "Road to Damascus" conversion by some of the attendants or at the very least, a complete bus break down in the middle of lonely road in the blazing heat or even better - in the dead of night (i.e. a recreation of the horror movie Jeepers Creepers 2).
It's aint gonna happen, folks. But if former NOM member Louis Marinelli's accusations are accurate, there should be a lot of expensive steak dinners and perhaps some gambling on this tour.
I wonder what Gallagher, King, Santorum, and Bachmann look like trying to "make it the hard way."
Supposedly, the Values Bus Tour will cover 1,305 miles in four days with events in 22 cities. The tour will pass through 47 of Iowa's 99 counties.
However, based on the participants, I am curious to know just what values is NOM pushing.
A member of the tour will be Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council. FRC has been named as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because its tendency to spread junk science and propaganda about the gay community, such as the inaccurate notions that homosexuality is linked to pedophilia or how gays have a short lifespan.
Perkins, in particular, when he is not distorting legitimate studies or comparing gays to terrorists, busies himself pretending to not understand why SPLC called out his group.
Also participating:
Former Minnesota governor and current presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty, believe it or not, used to be an ally of the gay community. That, of course, was before he found it more advantageous to rail about "cross-dressing school teachers" and veto bills which would allow surviving same sex partners from recovering damages in the case of wrongful deaths and execute their deceased partners' funeral wishes.
U.S. Rep. Steve King, who once said that allowing gay marriage would turn Iowa into the "Gay Marriage Mecca," a comment which he did not mean in a positive manner. King also said that gays wouldn't face problems of discrimination if they would just not "project" their homosexuality. When King is not talking smack about gays, he has some interesting comments about African-Americans. Last year, he accused President Obama of unfairly "favoring" African-Americans. Later that same year, he labeled government settlements given to black and Native American farmers who suffered decades of discrimination as "slavery reparations."
One wonders how King's participation will play to African-Americans whom NOM always seeks out in its endeavours against marriage equality.
Former Pennsylvania and another current presidential candidate Senator Rick Santorum (check out the link to his last name), will also be on the bus tour. Santorum has based his career on being on a warpath against the gay community - including same-sex households. However, for some reason, the idea of marriage equality seems to really drive him nuts, as the following quotes prove:
“This is an issue just like 9-11, we didn't decide we wanted to fight the war on terrorism because we wanted to. It was brought to us. And if not now, when? When the supreme courts in all the other states have succumbed to the Massachusetts version of the law?"
"[The] right to privacy…doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution."
“[I have] a problem with homosexual acts, as I would with what I would consider to be acts outside of traditional heterosexual relationships . . . if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery.”
And the piece de resistance in NOM's bus tour - U.S. Rep and current presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. What can be said about Michele Bachmann that hasn't been already uttered? One could talk about her husband's fraudulent clinic's attempts to "cure" homosexuality. Or how, in 2005, she viewed a gay pride parade while hiding behind the bushes (maybe she thought gays would give her cooties or that the music blaring would cause her feet to do a bad "white girl dance" on their own accord). Then there was that 2004 comment connecting gays to Satan. Or these various other homophobic comments:
"You have a teacher talking about his gayness. (The elementary school student) goes home then and says “Mom! What’s gayness? We had a teacher talking about this today.” The mother says “Well, that’s when a man likes other men, and they don’t like girls.” The boy’s eight. He’s thinking, “Hmm. I don’t like girls. I like boys. Maybe I’m gay.” And you think, “Oh, that’s, that’s way out there. The kid isn’t gonna think that.” Are you kidding? That happens all the time. You don’t think that this is intentional, the message that’s being given to these kids? That’s child abuse.”
“This is a very serious matter, because it is our children who are the prize for this community, they are specifically targeting our children.”
“Don’t misunderstand. I am not here bashing people who are homosexuals, who are lesbians, who are bisexual, who are transgender. We need to have profound compassion for people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life and sexual identity disorders.”
All in all, NOM's "Values Bus" tour ought to be interesting in a nauseatingly sort of way. And I know that there are many in the lgbtq community hoping for some type of "Road to Damascus" conversion by some of the attendants or at the very least, a complete bus break down in the middle of lonely road in the blazing heat or even better - in the dead of night (i.e. a recreation of the horror movie Jeepers Creepers 2).
It's aint gonna happen, folks. But if former NOM member Louis Marinelli's accusations are accurate, there should be a lot of expensive steak dinners and perhaps some gambling on this tour.
I wonder what Gallagher, King, Santorum, and Bachmann look like trying to "make it the hard way."
"the music blaring would cause her feet to do a bad "white girl dance" on their own accord"
ReplyDeleteI was raised to believe dancing is a sin, and never learned how. I didn't even try until I was grown. I laugh at my own efforts, why shouldn't you? I'm white and still recognize dance done well. I respect it.
A party at the RNC doesn't do it for me. I would be too distracted by all the awful to recognize the good dancers.