'American Family Association overlooks adultery and supports Gingrich' and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Same chestnuts, same fire: NH's new anti-equality head gears up to roast equal rights - Pay special attention to this link. The leader of New Hampshire's Cornerstone Policy Research - Wendy Warcholik - is claiming that out-of-towners forced gay marriage in New Hampshire. Then she says the following:

Put succinctly, “Gays and Lesbians have a right to live as they choose, they don’t have the right to redefine marriage for all of us."

Now we all from which out-of-town group that phrase comes from. And of course Warcholik conveniently omits how this same group stole photos from Obama rallies to fake support for its phony efforts to repeal marriage equality in NH. Meanwhile, other members of  the anti-marriage equality crowd are attacking same-sex families. It's ugly.

And in other news:

Newt Gingrich Secures Endorsement Of Anti-Gay ‘Family’ Group He Helped Fund - Apparently the American Family Association is overlooking that "adultery thing."

Homeless for the Holidays: Portraits of New York City's Homeless LGBT Youth (PHOTOS) - When lying, sanctimonious talking heads and phony pro-family groups dominate the airwaves, critical stories like this tend to get lost in the shuffle.

He Just Makes Stuff Up - You mean a religious right "expert" actually makes thinks up? Gasp and swoon!

Anti-Gay Marriage Leaders Endorse Rick Santorum - Irrelevancy embraces irrelevancy.

NOM accused of distorting controversy in Canada

Looks like the National Organization for Marriage may have just made a major boo-boo in Canada. From CTV News in Canada:

The head of Vancouver's School Board and a city councillor claim two other school board trustees used the U.S. group National Organization for Marriage to attack the board's anti-homophobia policies.

Board chair Patti Bacchus and Councillor Tim Stevenson say they want an apology after two disturbing videos recently surfaced, raising questions about the conduct of trustees Ken Denike and Sophia Woo.

Denike agrees he spoke out about the booklet because parents should be concerned, but said he was misled about the interview and had no idea it would be featured on the group's website.

Deinke also said that he is consulting with lawyers to get the video removed. But it appears that Deinke - and Woo - are in a huge amount of trouble over this

Anti-gay lawsuit loses on appeal

Blame Chuck Norris for me not getting this out yesterday.

The following is an excellent piece of news. It wasn't unexpected, but it is still  news worthy of dancing from the rooftops:

 A federal appeals court has upheld the right of Augusta State University to enforce standards of its counseling graduate program -- even when a religious student objects to requirements to treat gay people in a nondiscriminatory manner.

 . . . The student, Jennifer Keeton, argues that her religiously motivated beliefs are being challenged by Augusta State's policies -- and that a public university may not do so. Keeton was expelled when she declined to participate in the remediation plan, and she asked a federal district court and the appeals court to order her reinstatement in the program.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit found that Augusta State had legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons to enforce its rules. The counseling program's accreditation depended in part on adhering to a code of conduct, and faculty members believed it was their responsibility to train students to work with a wide range of clients, the court found. The decision placed the counseling department's actions at Augusta State in the broader context of faculty members training professionals who must pay attention to the ethics of various fields.

Keeton has initially sued the university last year and lost.  In ruling for that decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals was very direct in speaking against Keeton's efforts.