Monday, March 12, 2012

SPLC's newly designated anti-gay hate groups deserve the 'honor'

Linda Harvey
How could I have missed this?

Last week, the Southern Poverty Law named 11 new anti-gay hate groups, including one which you may recognize. From Think Progress comes the list:

  • United Families International (Gilbert, AZ): This group backed the sodomy laws ruled unconstitutional in the Lawrence v. Texas case and has argued “No one is ‘born that way.’ Policies that would normalize homosexuality by equating homosexual behavior with innate characteristics such as race or ethnicity should be opposed.”
  • Save California (Sacramento, CA): The group is leading the charge to repeal California’s FAIR Education Act, hoping to stop teachers from “kidnapping the brains of kids” by teaching about the contributions of LGBT Americans. Save California’s head, Randy Thomasson, blamed a bullied and murdered gay teen for his own death.
  • Sons of Thundr (Faith Baptist Church) (Luthersville, GA): The church’s website feautures a “sodomites can be saved” section which claims “ALL HOMOS ARE: SICK, BRAIN DAMAGED, PERVERTS!”
  • You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide (Annandale, MN). Bradlee Dean, the group’s president and CEO, has said, “The gay ‘movement’ is part of a sexual revolution that has stripped sexuality of all moral significance for an entire generation. We cannot accept the physical prosecution of homosexuals and we cannot accept the proposal that homosexuality is either private or moral,” but notes he is opposed to actually executing LGBT citizens.
  • Parents Action League (Champlin, MN): A small group of parents in the bullying-riddled Anoka-Hennepin School District want to require schools to teach that AIDS is a gay disease and to promote harmful and ineffective ex-gay therapy.
  • Jewish Political Action Committee (Brooklyn, NY): This group claims that marriage equality in New York State has created a “surge” of child molestation and distributes signs that say “G-d sent AIDS to punish male gays.”
  • Windsor Hills Baptist Church (Oklahoma City, OK): The church’s pastor, Tom Vineyard, argued against an employment non-discrimination proposal by making the bizarre claim that half of all murders in large cities are by gay people.
  • True Light Pentecost Church (Spartanburg, SC): On the church’s blog, it warns that “The sub-human culture created by the anti-christ and magnified by the Sodomite/Lesbian movement,” has “brought end-time prophecy to a final state,” and encourages followers to “fight the great sodomite/lesbian army.”
  • Tom Brown Ministries (El Paso, TX): Pastor and exorcist Tom Brown led the charge in El Paso to rescind an employment non-discrimination law he felt was “condoning immorality.” He also preaches that “homosexuality is actually an emotional, psychological disorder brought on early in childhood.”
  • Public Advocate of the United States (Falls Church, VA): Run by Loudoun County, Virginia Supervisor Eugene Delguaido (R), this group is infamous for its over-the-top anti-gay fundraising letters, including comments like, “As homosexuals die off due to AIDS, the remaining AIDS carriers prey on children to replenish the ‘Homosexual Community.’”

Even as I write this, You Can Run But You Can't Hide is embroiled in an ugly controversy in which it was invited to speak at a Dunkerton, IA high school assembly. Apparently the principal was not aware of the group's reputation. However, he - and the students - became swiftly aware when Dean began spinning lies about the lgbtq community, i.e. the usual Paul Cameronesque nonsense about us not living past 42. And that itself is ironic seeing Dean once conducted an interview with the discredited Cameron in which they traded homophobic conspiracies.

Needless to say neither the principal, nor the students, nor some parents were appreciative of Dean's homophobic vigor. (For video footage of this hot mess, see the site of one of my favorite bloggers, the Arn Anderson to my Tully Blanchard, Jeremy Hooper)

However, these groups are simply cocktail canape to the last group named by SPLC as an anti-gay hate group. We all knew it was coming sooner or later:

 Mission: America (Columbus, OH): Lead by Linda Harvey, who has been dubbed “the most homophobic woman in America,” this group has discouraged the hiring of gay and lesbian employees and claimed that “there is no proof” that gay, lesbian or bisexual or transgendered people even exist.

Oh Linda, Linda, Linda. You finally made the big-time so to speak. You now are in company with the huge homophobic groups such  as the Family Research Council and the American Family Association.

And if you ask me, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving individual. I leave you with probably the main reason why Harvey got the designation, i.e. her admonition against gay and lesbians health practitioners:



Transcript:

How do you feel about open homosexuals tending to your child in a health care setting? Do you think these folks provide good role modeling at a time when your child is very vulnerable? I was thinking about this recently when I heard that Children’s Hospital in Columbus has a homosexual employees group called NCHARGE, which stands for Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Advocates Representing Gay Employees. The meeting minutes of this groups reveal that they participated in last June’s gay pride parade, that they participated in a health expo on adolescent health this summer and that they’re concerned about same-sex partner benefits. They’re also planning to be identified with rainbow lapel pins.

But let’s say your eleven year-old has broken her leg rather badly and needs to be in the hospital a few days, which would you prefer: a nurse who’s proud of her lesbianism, who has rainbow identifiers on her work clothing, or a nurse who does not?

I would like to suggest that parents think long and hard about this. If you want your children to admire people who proclaim a homosexual lifestyle, they’re involvement with your child during a hospital stay is sure to be an influence. And let me be clear that folks involved in these behaviors can be certainly competent workers but they are tacking on to their workplace identity one that is highly offensive to many people and can be erroneously influential to children who won’t, or shouldn’t, see the whole picture of how this behavior really manifests itself.

Here’s what parents can do: select your pediatrician very carefully, first of all. There are a few homosexual doctors treating kids, there are far more nurses, LPNs, technicians and other health care workers in these lifestyles so you may want to consider writing a letter that you file with your pediatrician that should your child ever be hospitalized, you do not want your child to be treated or cared for by one of these members of the Children’s Hospital gay employees group except in the case of an emergency situation. But for routine in-hospital care where contact with your child would be required, your values should be respected. 

I know what you are all thinking because I am thinking it, too. PLEASE Family Research Council, come to the rescue of these groups. I double dare you!




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'Homophobic priest punished for behavior at funeral' and other Monday midday news briefs

Priest Who Denied Communion to Lesbian Woman Is Removed from Parish Ministry - Score on for the good guys.

Perkins Labels LGBT-Rights Initiative a 'Radical' Push for 'Special Rights for Homosexuals and Homosexuality' - Awwww poor phony Christians in other countries. It's a crying shame when they can't jail lgbtqs and their families or "correctively rape" lesbians. I swear it's just a shame.

Related post - Rejected ad on anti-gay hate group becomes massive hit - I cannot emphasize this particular post enough. The post above is a perfect reason to call MSNBC to the carpet for featuring Perkins without directing attention to the homophobia he espouses and the junk science his group - FRC - pushes. If you haven't written to MSNBC expressing your displeasure, click on this link to find out how to. And if you have written to MSNBC already, do it again and get your family and friends to do it. It's not about censorship. It's about the integrity of the news media.

Blinded by his Hatred of the SPLC, Barber Defends Patriot Militias - Trash is as trash does.

Cardinal Dolan Rewrites History: Catholic Church Leaders Were ‘Burned’ In New York Marriage Vote - I don't believe a word the Cardinal says and frankly he needs to get over it.




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Rejected ad on anti-gay hate group becomes massive hit

I happy to report that the Faithful America ad which calls MSNBC to task for its featuring of Southern Poverty Law Center -designated hate group leader Tony Perkins has gone viral in big way. Check it out here:



With over 28,000 hits in just a few days, it's obvious that the ad's message is resonating

Meanwhile, Perkins has shown that he is aware of the ad and is playing the familiar role as victim. During an interview with the American Family Association president Tim Wildmon (AFA is another SPLC-designated hate group), Perkins had this to say:

Perkins: You might remember the Episcopal Bishop Eugene Robinson who split the Episcopal Church because he’s openly gay and wanted to marry his lover or whatever you call it, and he gathered 20,000 signatures and presented them to MSNBC demanding that they keep me off of MSNBC because you know I’m on there you know talking about politics or whatever and usually it’s nothing to do with homosexuality, they just don’t want anybody who does have views that are counter to theirs.

Wildmon: I’ll tell you what, you’re in good company, the other day Kirk Cameron went on Piers Morgan on CNN, and man, Piers Morgan asked him a question about homosexuality, he said it was ‘unnatural,’ he just got torched.

Perkins: I talked to Kirk, I talked to him yesterday actually I was actually interestingly enough I was coming out of MSNBC where I was on yesterday with Martin Bashir, and I would actually encourage folks to go watch that interview that I did with him—they have it on their homepage; at least they did this morning on MSNBC—and thank them for allowing a balanced discussion. Obviously Martin did not agree with me but we had a very civil discussion on the issues and I tell you what I have to respect MSNBC for allowing debate and not buckling under the pressure of a loudmouth, Soros-funded group that is simply trying to silence the public debate over important public policy issues, so I will have to come to the defense of MSNBC for not buckling under that pressure.

The fact that Perkins isn't talking about gay issues per se only proves the point that maybe MSNBC doesn't necessarily see him as an expert on the subject.

But the entire issue is about news integrity. Would MSNBC have David Duke on its program talking politics even if he wasn't commenting on African-American issues? Would it have a Holocaust denier talking political issues?

The irony is that for all of his talk about a "debate," Perkins has had the luxury of not debating the issue his organization is famous for defaming - i.e. gay equality.

Other than one debate with Mark Potok of SPLC (in which he was caught citing a sham medical organization) and extremely friendly question-and-answer sessions on Fox News, neither Perkins nor other FRC spokespeople have been taken to task for their attacks on the lgbtq community or their usage of junk science and cherry-picking of legitimate science.

At the most, there should have been a roundtable discussion on it conducted by someone like Rachel Maddow or Howard Kutz and at the very least, it would have been nice for Keith Olbermann to devote a commentary on it.

The lack of attention to this issues sends a negative message to my lgbtq brothers and sisters; that those who cause us problems through lies and junk science are handled with kid gloves by the news media.

Therefore, I propose that we take the homophobic bull by the horns and slam it down.

For all those who are interested (and I hope everyone reading this is interested), this link is the contact page to MSNBC.

The subject line allows you to contact any show featured on MSNBC. I suggest that you go to either Chris Matthews or Rachel Maddow. When writing your comment, please be polite but firm. Ask why does MSNBC give Tony Perkins a platform or demand that more attention be paid to how his organization demonizes the lgbtq community.

If you need citations of these lies go to the SPLC page on the Family Research Council or cite anything from my post 16 reasons why the Family Research Council is a hate group

For those seeking more direct contact with the powers-that-be at MSNBC, the following people are the best targets:

Jeremy Gaines, Vice President for Communications at MSNBC, at (212) 664-5133
Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC, at (212) 664-2456. 
Ann Klenk, producer for MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. To reach Ann, call (202) 885-4030 and ask for her extension.


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