NOM video links marriage equality to slavery, segregation

William Owens, NOM's fake civil rights leader

In 2012, it was discovered that the National Organization for Marriage was planning to divide the lgbt and African-American communities on the subject of marriage equality.  According to a court document:

The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks - two key democratic constituencies. We aim to find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage; to develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; and to provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots. No politician wants to take up and push an issue that splits the base of the party.

Even though they were caught red-handed in this cynical attempt to play both communities like chess pieces, NOM persisted to the point of teaming up with a group entitled the Coalition of African-American pastors (CAAP). CAAP is led by a man named William Owens who claimed that he is a veteran of the civil rights movement. He also claimed that the lgbt community was exploiting the civil rights movement.

However, there are certain things you need to know about Owens and CAAP:

 NOM was using CAAP in a failed attempt to sabotage President Obama's African-American support during the 2012 election after the organization (NOM) had endorsed Obama's opponent, Mitt Romney

Owens has admitted to being paid by organizations like NOM ($20,000), the Family Research Council, and the American Family Association to be a shill.

And to make matters worse, there have been serious questions - which Owens has never answered - as to whether or not he actually marched or participated at all in the Civil Rights Movement.

These are facts you should keep in mind when watching the following video by CAAP which connects slavery, segregation, and the indignities perpetrated on African-Americans to marriage equality in anticipation to NOM's upcoming supposed "March for Marriage:"

Never mind that this march is crap because the arguments are now in the courtroom and it would serve NOM and those who are against marriage equality better to bring up cohesive arguments which could sway judges.

They won't do that of course because they don't have any cohesive arguments to justify denying marriage to gays and lesbians. Therefore, they are going back to the standard plan of all demagogues, i.e. divide and conquer. And the potential victims will be the gay and black communities. Just how many news programs, specifically on African-American networks, will Owens be invited to in order to pitch the false division between the lgbt and black communities on marriage equality? How many will entertain his bombastic statements about not marching an inch in the civil rights movement to see gays marry instead of challenging the notion that he marched at all in the civil rights, much less scratched his nose when hearing that MLK was speaking.

Lastly, how many program will dissuade going for the "sexy angle" of conflicts between blacks and lgbts and instead focus on the following fact that marriage equality is an African-American issue. According to a study published last year:

 . . . there are more than one million African-American LGBT adults in the U.S. Of those individuals, 84,000 are in same-sex households with about 34 percent of couples raising children. These numbers come about a year after a Gallup report that found African-Americans make up the largest share of the LGBT community.

The report also said that 58 percent of the couples are female and the majority of all of these couples live in areas with high populations of black residents, but these areas have yet to have passed any laws which protect these couples.

These are the people whom NOM is hurting. African-Americans who just happen to be lgbt. If you ask me, it's people like Owens who are the real dangers to the African-American community, not marriage equality And certainly not the lgbt African-Americans who will most likely suffer because of pay-for-play pastors such as Owens and the others appearing in the above video and the coming march.

Hat tip to Jeremy Hooper.

'NOM facing day of reckoning, Fox News guest gets sacked after mass shooting remark' & other Tuesday midday news briefs

Maine’s battle with National Organization for Marriage is worth it - Tomorrow morning, the full Maine Ethics Commission will be voting on the punishment the National Organization for Marriage will receive for breaking its election laws. Will we finally see full disclosure of NOM's funders? Could be. 

WATCH: Fox News Guest Blames Mass Shooting On 'Homosexual Impulses' - An ugly mess took place over the weekend and it was exacerbated by this Fox guest. I report on this because I have just received a statement from one of her employers, Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC (from Scott Wooledge who contacted the company via Facebook): 

Dr. Robi’s comments on the tragedy in Santa Barbara do not represent the opinions of Coldwell Banker. Therefore at this time we feel it best to part ways with her as our lifestyle real estate correspondent. 

 It's Time We Exposed the Media's Lies About Transgender Kids - Amen and about the transgender community in general.  

Extremely tacky NOM co-opts extremely reverent day for own extremely discriminatory cause - Good grief, NOM. On Memorial Day? Tacky! 

 Census to change the way it counts gay married couples - It's about time!

The Passion of Little Frankie Graham

It was a long weekend so by now, a lot of us have heard about the recent speech from Franklin Graham at the Family Research Council's Watchmen on the Walls conference in which he said that pastors must be willing to "get their heads chopped off" for opposing lgbt equality and that he loves gays so much he is willing to tell them to "stop what they are doing." He even added the old customary inference of "don't get angry at him because God said so."

There are so many things to be said that I think I shall comply a list:

1. Pastors are free to oppose lgbt equality and at no time will anyone have to fear getting martyred for it. Of course we all know this but that never seems to stop folks like Graham from conjuring up that image constantly.

2. What exactly are gays doing that Graham is opposed to. Is he talking about SEX? In that case, I haven't a thing to worry about. And I say that in a depressed tone of voice.

3. The last I checked, potential martyrs never sat in exquisite ballrooms, dressed in nice clothing, and listening to men in expensive suits and large bank accounts talk about how they will be persecuted.

4. SPEAKING of number three, I have never heard of a man dressed in an expensive suit and a large bank account (courtesy of his prominent family) talk of being a martyr. In fact, I have never heard of anyone make a speech about becoming an martyr to an unfair situation and then reaping the benefits of the speech without said "benefits" being arrest, torture, and execution.  Let's put it another way - John the Baptist, Simon Peter, and Paul of Tarsus were all executed for their faith. At the very least, Graham will receive a rebuke from blogs like this for his hubris. Oh yeah. THAT'S balance.

5. Most importantly, what is the deal with the Christianity practiced by Graham and the folks who applauded him? What's up with any type of religion in which making assumptions about the nuances of someone else's life before examining your own is acceptable? What type of Christianity encourages a person to condemn someone else to hell for supposed behavior in front of enthusiastic audiences while ignoring the things that Jesus actually talked about such as basic human kindness, forgiveness, and most importantly the type of love in which you give and expect nothing in return. The type of love Graham claims has for lgbts is the type which makes one see an analyst every week. It's a type of love we can all do without.