Family Research Council tries to squeeze out a little support for Trump's 'plan' to decriminalize homosexuality across the globe

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council

Sometimes, some folks need to keep their mouths shut.

Recently, the Trump Administration announced a goal of attempting to decriminalize homosexuality in countries where LGBTQs face persecution. Many in the LGBTQ community looked at this announcement with extreme trepidation because of how the administration has undermined our equality here in America.

And with Trump's showing that he was basically clueless about this policy on Wednesday, it turns out that we were right to be skeptical.

But what really takes the cake is how hate group - and Trump ally - the Family Research Council attempts to show support for Trump's policy.  I should remind folks that the reason why FRC is considered a hate group is how it has continuously smeared the LGBTQ community via junk science and horror stories of us doing awful things, particularly "recruiting" children.

And it has also gone on record supporting other countries criminalizing homosexuality, i.e. the Uganda "Kill the Gays" bill. So it's interesting to read the following from FRC president Tony Perkins:

On February 1, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, wrote in an opinion piece in the German newspaper Bild that “government officials must . . . demand that U.N. members decriminalize homosexuality.” The piece got little attention until this week, when an “exclusive report” from NBC News said, “The Trump administration is launching a global campaign to end the criminalization of homosexuality.” There’s just one problem – besides the ambassador, it doesn’t seem that President Trump – or anyone else in the administration – authorized this “campaign.”. 

Our own criminal laws against homosexual conduct were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 in the case of Lawrence v. Texas. Despite what some on the Left claim, we are not advocating for their return. But that does not mean we should engage in “cultural imperialism” by imposing policies that were imposed upon us by our Court on other countries with different cultures, traditions, and values.. 

For the last eight years, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bludgeoned foreign capitals with “diplomacy” designed to advance an LGBT agenda around the world and in the United Nations—doing damage to our relations with many countries as a result. The Trump administration should be ending such efforts, not making them a priority.. 

Now the tide has turned. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo articulated the proper way to think about all this at his confirmation hearing last year. When asked by Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) whether he thinks “LGBTQ rights are human rights,” Pompeo responded: “I deeply believe LGBTQ persons have every right that every other person has.”. 

As our own Travis Weber points out, some may try to argue that protecting LGBT rights is a way of protecting human rights. Yet this misleadingly implies “that same-sex-attracted and transgendered persons do not currently enjoy human rights protections…” As Travis observes, “The [Universal Declaration of Human Rights] and [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights] protect every individual from arbitrary arrest, torture, and extrajudicial killing by the State, because all humans have human dignity, regardless of their sexual attraction or gender preference.”. 

Family Research Council vigorously opposes acts of violence against anyone because of their sexuality. According to NBC, there are eight countries which permit the death penalty for homosexuality—most of them also known as abusers of religious freedom and other rights, and supporters of terrorism. An end to those laws, and other physical punishments such as flogging, is a legitimate goal.. 

Let’s find common ground in calling for an end to all forms of physical violence against homosexuals -- but refrain from imposing the values of the sexual revolution on the rest of the world..

This is long-winded crap which shouldn't have been written. It only demonstrates the ignorant audacity of FRC to even think that it could get away with such a fractured piece of bipolar garbage.

New election in NC. Anti-LGBTQ pastor will not be seated in Congress

Mark Harris

Meanwhile, in the non-Jussie Smollett world, i.e. the real world,  anti-LGBTQ pastor,  Mark Harris, who Karen Pence campaigned for in a successful election to Congress, will not be seated just yet after all. The North Carolina state board of elections voted unanimously to hold a new election. This took place a day after explosive testimony from Harris's own son in which he told of warning his father not to hire the shady character who ended up being the center of this scandal of what appears to be severe absentee ballot fraud.

From Right Wing Watch:

North Carolina’s state board of elections has spent the week hearing testimony in an investigation of suspected absentee ballot fraud that prevented the board from certifying what had appeared to be a narrow 2018 election victory for Religious Right candidate Mark Harris in North Carolina’s ninth congressional district. Late on Thursday the board voted to hold a new election to fill the seat. 

One dramatic high point of the hearings came on Wednesday, when Harris’s son John testified that he had warned his father against hiring the campaign operative at the center of the fraud allegations. Another came on Thursday, when Harris eventually reversed his previous efforts to be seated in Congress and said he believed a new election should be held. WBTV’s Nick Ochsner live-tweeted the proceedings. 

Harris is a pastor and a Religious Right favorite who was supported by Karen Pence, “historian” David Barton, Christian nationalist David Lane, and Trump-promoting “prophet” Lance Wallnau, among others. 

John Harris testified that he had repeatedly warned his parents that Bladen County political operative McCrae Dowless was a “shady character.” When Mark Harris took the stand on Thursday, and was asked how to reconcile his son’s testimony with his previous public statements that no one warned him about Dowless, Harris said “I did not believe John’s emails to be a warning.” Responded one board member, “It’s painfully clear your son meant, ‘Daddy, don’t mess with this guy.’”

Harris has a long history of anti-LGBTQ actions and rhetoric.

What Smollett did was wrong, but MAGA Trump supporters aren't innocent. They helped to sow this ground.

I interrupt today's news briefs to talk about the Jussie Smollett situation. Now that it is looking like he faked the incident because he wasn't happy about his salary on 'Empire,' I am of course saddened and angry.

I am saddened because of how difficult this makes it for actual victims of hate crimes (homophobic, racist, or otherwise) to come forward. Those not inclined to believe have further ammunition not to. Hate crimes are real. The vast majority of them aren't hoaxes. This incident involving Smollett doesn't diminish that.

 And of course, if this pans out the way it is looking, I am furious at Jussie Smollett.

You dumbass!!

And now (putting on Vaseline on my face, putting my tennis shoes on my feet, sharpening my claws, and making sure I have my razor) let's get real.