Michelle Shocked claims her anti-gay tirade was misunderstood

The Michelle Shocked controversy has dominated the week but I haven't really paid attention. The lgbt community is angry that the folk singer went full blown homophobic on stage at a concert and with good reason. Her outburst - heard below, starting at 4:37 has to be heard to believed.  She is now saying that she was misunderstood. Editor's note: Hat tip to John Becker for the audio.

However, while not excusing anything she said, it sounds like to me that she had a Michael Richards type meltdown. No matter what the reasons, her career is suffering big time because now her concert tour is canceled. However, if she can pull off the explanation of being "misunderstood," girlfriend deserves some type of award.



 

NOM's Morse wants you to forget that lgbts of color exist

In the years which I have observed the religious right, the thing which always disturbs me the most regarding their talking points and claims is how they always attempt to manipulate the world to suit their purposes. In other words, anyone who doesn't fit their narrative or refutes their narrative is omitted and excised as if they don't exist.

We've seen how organizations like the Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage are deliberately careful not to mention same-sex families and their children when speaking against marriage equality. This is because they don't want to admit that same-sex couples are just as good when it comes to being parents as the two-parent heterosexual dynamic they hoist on a pedestal.

But same-sex couples and their children aren't the only ones who receives this nasty treatment.
The following clip below courtesy of Equality Matters features Jennifer Morse of NOM's Ruth Institute speaking for the African-American community and proclaiming how black people in general get offended when lgbts supposedly compared the gay equality movement to the African-American civil rights movement:

 

Morse makes a small point. There are some African-Americans - ignorant African-Americans - who seem to think that the black civil rights movement and the gay civil rights movement aren't the same. However, please note that I said "some." There are others who see the similarities in both. And more importantly, Morse didn't mention the category of people whose existence unites both movements, lgbts of color, like the following:

 

No matter how neat Morse's divide and conquer strategy is, it will always fail when it runs into the brick wall called reality.

'Religious right groups produce weak, insipid brochure' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Anti-Gay Organizations Refuse To Address Questions About Same-Sex Families - This is BEYOND pitiful. The Family Research Council, the National Organization for Marriage, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Heritage Foundation team up for a slick brochure explaining why marriage shouldn't be "redefined" and it's filled with hackneyed Maggie Gallagheresque talking points and points to only one study to boost its point - the refuted Regnerus study. And what's more, it deliberately ignores the existence of same-sex families and children. I'm almost insulted, but then I realize that probably the reason why this silly brochure contains no studies is probably due to the painstaking work of bloggers like myself who refuted the junk science and cherry-picked studies that the religious right included in past brochures.  

FRC, NOM, ADF, Heritage issue sleek new brochure; sleekness can't polish this discriminatory turd - Jeremy Hooper describes the brochure in another way.

 LGBT Teen To Senators: ‘I Am Not Broken, I Am Not Confused, I Do Not Need To Be Fixed’ (Video) - Preeeach!  

Farah: 'Dangerous and Totalitarian' Gays Seek 'the Active Recruitment of Children' - Folks, if gays could recruit, forget the children. We would recruit people with money, like Warren Buffet and (gasp) Donald Trump.

Coy Mathis, Colo. Transgender Child Banned From Using School Bathroom, Ignites Debate Over Anti-Discrimination Laws - This is ridiculous. A silly overreaction based upon fear and ignorance of the transgender community!

Editor's note - and finally, I am pleased to announce that my booklet How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America is the third most read political book (4-100 pgs) on Scribd this month! 'How They See Us' is also the 22nd most read political book (4 - 100 pgs) of all time on Scribd!  I am currently working on a Facebook page! Thank you to everyone for my booklet's continued success.

Anti-gay group angry at Madonna for speech at GLAAD awards

Madonna's appearance last weekend at the GLAAD Awards got many tongues wagging.

 She was there to present Anderson Cooper with an award, but practically stole the show by wearing a Boy Scout uniform and making very articulate speech regarding the Scout policy of not allowing gays to join.

Needless to say, the Family Research Council was not happy. In voicing its displeasure, the organization made it seem that Madonna came to the awards frothing at the mouth:

Maybe they call her the "Material Girl" because Madonna always gives the press something to write about. If so, she delivered this past weekend. Dressed head-to-toe in a Boy Scouts uniform, the controversial pop star appeared at the GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Awards to lash out at the BSA in a profanity-laced tirade that tried to discredit the organization's 103-year track record of American service and character-building.

When she wasn't swearing, the singer (who said her idea of scouting is "scout[ing] for boys!") compared the group's beliefs to terrorists'. "[I]t's no different than a white Supremacist hanging a black man from a tree before the civil rights movement. OK? It's no different. It's no different than a member of the Taliban shooting a young girl in the head for writing a blog about the importance of [getting an] education... I don't know about you, but I can't take this [expletive] anymore." At one point, the same Madonna with song titles that couldn't be read aloud on network television, even invoked Christ. " [I]t's so absurd. What did Jesus teach? 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' "
It has always amazed me how people who have done everything possible to push God and His standard from our country feel free to invoke this passage of scripture. It only works when they insert their definition of "love" not the biblical definition of love  . . . In this conflict of values, Madonna is the face of the other side. As a mom or dad, whose moral compass would you want your kids to follow: a performer who strips on stage (when she isn't bashing the military) or an organization devoted to public service and character development?

Let the Boy Scouts know that Madonna doesn't speak for America. If you've already signed FRC's petition encouraging the Scouts to stand strong on their convictions, another way you can help is by completing the comment form that the BSA has distributed to its members. You can read the survey questions here. If you are a member of the Scouts, or have a son who is, please ask your local Scoutmaster to send you the survey if you have not yet received it. If you have friends who are in Scouting, make them aware of the need to complete the survey, too. When you send in your survey, be sure to write something like, "Homosexuality is incompatible with the tenets of Scouting and should not be introduced to the boys entrusted by their parents to Scout troops. Keep the current policy."

Just in case you are interested in viewing, here is Madonna's speech in its entirety.  Please note that it's not even close to the wild tirade FRC made it out to be: