Anti-gay clerk fails again in court, other anti-gay clerk says he will die fighting marriage equality

Kim Davis loses again

Word has come down that anti-gay Rowan County Kentucky clerk Kim Davis has lost another round in her refusal to give marriage licenses to gay couples.:

According to the AP:

A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling ordering a Kentucky county clerk to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.
  
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis objects to issuing same-sex marriage licenses for religious reasons. She stopped issuing marriage licenses the day after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned state bans on same-sex marriage.
  
Two gay couples and two straight couples sued her. A U.S. district judge ordered Davis to issue the marriage licenses, but later delayed his order so that Davis could have time to appeal to the 6th circuit. Wednesday, the appeals court denied Davis' request for a stay.
  
An attorney for Davis said he was disappointed in the ruling and that Davis could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said he did not know how Davis would react to the ruling.

I know how she is going to react. She is probably sewing her martyr dress. She has start doing her complete job on Monday and I have a feeling girlfriend won't do it.

Casey Davis (no relation) .

Meanwhile, another Kentucky clerk, Casey County clerk Casey Davis (no relation to Kim) just went full fledged drama queen over his refusal to give out marriage licenses to gay couples.

According to Right Wing Watch:

On Monday, Casey County Clerk Casey Davis (no relation) appeared on Huntington, West Virginia’s “The Tom Roten Morning Show” to discuss how he similarly plans to defy the courts if ordered to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples … even to the point of death.

Please ignore your eagerness to make fun of the man's accent. Just be spellbound at his ignorance.

No one fought and died for you to refuse to do your job, my friend. And for God's sakes, NO ONE wants you to lose your life over this matter.

Davis (the Mr.) illustrates the truth about this present so-called idea of religious liberty. Without any prodding, he is already channeling Joan of Arc, Anne Boleyn, all of the Hugenots and various martyrs throughout history.

All gay couples want is for him and Ms. Davis to abide by our LAWFUL right be married or step aside so that someone else can do it.

So PLEASE stop with the phony histronics and do the right thing. It's not about you clerks. It's about US, the gay folks who fought and won the right to marry fair and square.

'Chris Christie bucks GOP 'religious liberty' talking point' & other Wed midday news briefs

Editor's note - There's just no word for this morning's madness. My prayers go out to all involved, especially the family  and friends of the victims. When things like this happen, there is always one thing I am reminded of:

Let's try to get some news briefs going:

Chris Christie

 Watch: Surprise gay marriage proposal at church receives standing ovation - Amid the ugliness, there is still beauty in the world and one shred of beauty is always the sign that we haven't completely gone off the deep end.

 Chris Christie Bucks Party, Opposes Using ‘Religious Liberty’ To Justify Anti-LGBT Discrimination - I'm impressed. Christie shows a momentary sign of gumption. 

 Ted Cruz Encourages Gay Florists To Turn Away Evangelicals - While Ted Cruz continues to go down crazy train. Can you imagine a host of businesses turning away customers for discriminatory reasons? Just madness.

 Pentagon poised to end trans ban in May - Of next year that is. Still, it's progress.

 The New York Times' Stumbling, Problematic Transgender Coverage - The media anti-lgbt boogie. You take two steps forward and they draaaaag you back one (apologies to "Willona" from "Good Times")

Family Research Council still fighting marriage equality via lies & distortions

Family Research Council can't stop lying about marriage equality

Editor's note - The most effective and tiring techniques of anti-gay propaganda is repetition. No matter how many times something they cite has been refuted, anti-gay groups and personalities will repeat the citation. A perfect example of this is a Family Research Council "paper"entitled Ten Arguments From Social Science Against Same Sex Marriage, which the organization claims is "trending" on its webpage. I am reposting the 2011 refutation of this monstrosity because knocking down anti-gay distortions is like cooking oatmeal. Every time a lump reappears, you beat it down:

In the piece, Family Research Council is basing the argument against gay marriage on the claim that "children need both a mother and a father."

FRC makes the claim that lesbians household "raising children without a father" is wrong because according to them:

Among other things, we know that fathers excel in reducing antisocial behavior and delinquency in boys and sexual activity in girls.

And gay households "raising children without a mother" is wrong because:

fathers exercise a unique social and biological influence on their children. For instance, a recent study of father absence on girls found that girls who grew up apart from their biological father were much more likely to experience early puberty and a teen pregnancy than girls who spent their entire childhood in an intact family.

However, very little (if any at all) of the literature/studies FRC cites to make these conclusions have anything to do with same-sex households.

When the organization does address the studies involving same-sex households, it throws out an insulting addendum:

A number of leading professional associations have asserted that there are "no differences" between children raised by homosexuals and those raised by heterosexuals. But the research in this area is quite preliminary; most of the studies are done by advocates and most suffer from serious methodological problems. Sociologist Steven Nock of the University of Virginia, who is agnostic on the issue of same-sex civil marriage, offered this review of the literature on gay parenting as an expert witness for a Canadian court considering legalization of same-sex civil marriage:

Through this analysis I draw my conclusions that 1) all of the articles I reviewed contained at least one fatal flaw of design or execution; and 2) not a single one of those studies was conducted according to general accepted standards of scientific research.

This is not exactly the kind of social scientific evidence you would want to launch a major family experiment.

There is a huge problem with FRC citing Nock's testimony. He gave it in 2001. Since that time, there have been numerous other studies , as well as personal stories from children in same-sex households which back up the conclusion that same-sex households are a perfectly fine place to raise children.

Also, Nock's testimony was rejected by other researchers. (*see below)