Anti-LGBTQ religious right pushing passive-aggressive support of Trump's attempted election coup

Gary Bauer (top pic) and Tony Perkins (bottom pic) are just two members of the anti-LBGTQ religious right giving passive-aggressive support to Trump's attempt to steal election from Joe Biden.

How does the anti-LGBTQ religious right stand on Trump's attempt to cheat his way to second term in spite of the fact that he clearly lost the election to Joe Biden?

Do I even have to ask? 

On Thursday, Trump's legal team, led by former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani, held a press conference about the matter. It was panned as bizarre and surreal but totally devoid of any proof that Trump had been cheated out of a second term.

According to one Mediate article:

Not even Vincent LaGuardia Gambini could successfully litigate the groundless voter fraud cases being brought to various state courts by President Donald Trump’s campaign. But that isn’t stopping Rudy Giuliani from trying — by summoning the spirit of the titular lawyer from the ’90s comedy classic My Cousin Vinny, no less. In an utterly bizarre sequence during a Thursday news conference in Washington, the former New York mayor channeled his Big Apple compatriot, actor Joe Pesci, in an effort to claim that Trump campaign representatives were stationed too far away to meaningly observe the ballots being tallied. (The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected this claim on Tuesday.) 

 And Giuliani wasn't the only one called out for oddball behavior:

Rudy Giuliani got things off to a wild start at the press conference held by President Donald Trump’s legal team, but Sidney Powell was next up to speak, and she cranked things up a notch…or several. Powell, known for representing Michael Flynn before Trump, spoke days after after claiming that the CIA is involved in the Dominion voter fraud conspiracy theory, which has been embraced by Trumpworld since the 2020 election ended. She began by claiming that the “massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba, and likely China” is the reason why Joe Biden won.

And besides Twitter, several members of the media were highly critical. CNN's Jake Tapper called it a "hot mess" while Fox News's Kirsten Fisher played fact-checker supreme by pointing out the many lies Giuliani and company told

However at One News Now, a "news source" run by anti-LGBTQ hate group the American Family Association, the reaction to the press conference was, shall we say, a bit more positive to Trump's point of view. Not only that, but the article included comments from various religious right figures which left me wondering just what press conference had they viewed:

"I just found myself hoping and praying that enough Americans were hearing [this new conference] because through the filter of the news, many of them will never know any of that. And I think no matter what side you're on, you're going to be concerned if you hear the evidence that Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell laid out about the corruption in this election." - Sandy Rios, American Family Association 

 "We haven't seen the evidence yet – we today heard it described and it's very troubling … and I certainly believe that Donald Trump and Mike Pence won the presidential election. But courts are going to be very reticent to take the risk of throwing out legitimate votes because other votes were illegal or produced from fraud." - Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families 

 "The Trump campaign conference this morning gave me hope: hope that there are still some truly great Americans who love this country enough to go to the mat to save it." Janet Mefferd, Christian radio talk-show host

And it gets more interesting. 

Family Research Council attempting to whitewash Trump's lack of leadership during coronavirus pandemic

With what we know about how Trump has been bungling the response to the coronavirus pandemic, I don't necessarily think it's a good thing to portray him as some type of unfairly overburdened leader. But that's what the Family Research Council and its president, Tony Perkins, are attempting to do:

There's hardly a busier, more burdened man in America right now than President Trump. And yet on Friday, when he heard that Vice President Mike Pence was about to jump on an FRC conference call with 700 pastors, he asked if he could join. Hearing his voice was a surprise, even to me -- but hearing his earnest desire to stand with the faith leaders of America in crisis certainly wasn't. 

"When I told the president I was going to be speaking to all of you," Mike explained, "[he was] in the midst of an extraordinarily busy day. [But] he looked at me and said, 'I have to find time. I need to find time.'" To the president, he went on, "the prayers of the people on this call mean [everything] to him..." So despite everything facing America, the two most important leaders of this nation stopped everything to pray with the people on the ground, who are ministering to their communities. 

It's a "wild world," the president started. The virus, he said, "came upon us so suddenly. And we were doing better than we've ever done before as a country in terms of the economy -- and then, all of the sudden, we got hit with this. So we had to close it down," he said wistfully. "We're actually paying a big price to close it down. Never happened before." But, President Trump insisted, "I think we're going to come back stronger than ever before."

I apologize to those who will accuse me of being petty, but I don't intend to change. It's not right to use prayer requests as an attempt to absolve Trump from the mess he helped make, including not challenging his inaccurate statement that the coronavirus came suddenly.

In fact, its downright sleazy.

Pray for our nation if you want. And by all means pray for Trump if you feel the need. But don't even attempt to write off, push away, or ignore the many ways he mismanaged this disaster. Don't even attempt to pretend that Trump had this situation under control from the beginning when he kept shifting positions from claiming that his administration had this problem under control, to claiming that it was a Democratic hoax, to finally acknowledging the seriousness of the situation.

And don't even pretend that he didn't attempt to absolve himself from the responsibility which came with him being elected - and I swear I will never EVER know why - as the commander-in-chief of this nation.

We aren't stupid In spite of the purveyors of propaganda working overtime, the majority of Americans aren't going to buy this attempt to transform Trump from Mr. Magoo to Abraham Lincoln.

 If Trump wants prayer, maybe he should publicly acknowledge his lack of leadership thus far. If he can't do that - and we all know he can't -  then at least FRC shouldn't aid and abet any attempt to make him look like a credible leader.

Because that's the one thing he hasn't been throughout this mess.

Family Research Council angry at Amazon's 'deeply held beliefs' opposing 'ex-gay therapy' books

Amazon has decided to stop selling books pushing the fraudulent idea that people can change their sexual orientation. Hate group the Family Research Council and members of  Congress are angry about it:

If one of the country's biggest retailers is going to ban books, it had better have a good reason. Amazon didn't. The authors it blacklisted weren't inciting violence or promoting terrorist jihad -- they were offering hope to men and women suffering from sexual bondage. But to LGBT activists, it didn't matter what the books actually said or how many people they helped. All the extremists care about is that these authors might undermine their agenda and therefore must be silenced. 

Of course, to most Americans, the intolerance is nothing new. We've all watched Google, Twitter, YouTube, and others crack down on conservative speech for years. But banning books that could give people freedom? That's taking the intolerance to a whole new level. Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), who's been horrified at the fast pace of censorship in this country, refuses to let Amazon get away with it. "Everybody is entitled to information," she told me on Monday's "Washington Watch." "And what Amazon has done is [block] people from having access to information that they're seeking and that they want. And it's just not right." Censorship, she said, should have no place in a country that values free speech.

"We don't want to start having a society where, on controversial issues, people will only have access to one viewpoint.... That's what's made America different than others. [Sexual orientation change efforts may be] an emotional topic, but we need to have more information out there for people so they can make decisions. [U]nwanted sexual attraction is a very difficult thing.... This isn't just a topic that we should throw around the political sphere. We have to remember these are individuals... And if people are struggling with something so personal, and they want more information, they should have access to a book... [to] get some potential help... or see if [it's] something they want to pursue or not. To just to have one group say, 'No, our way is the only way, and we're not going to let any other American hear about another alternative way to think about a condition or a subject' -- that's what we've seen in other countries in the past, and that's a scary place to go."

Apparently FRC and its Congressional allies,  particularly Rep. Vicky Hartzler (who has been known to freely funnel any lie FRC tells her), is relying on hysterical connotations about "intolerance" and "censorship" to tell boldfaced lies. When FRC says that those books aren't inciting violence, the group is clearly lying.

Religious author says evangelical silence about Trump's racism proves they made 'a deal with the devil'

Franklin Graham (top), Robert Jeffress (middle), and Tony Perkins (bottom) have been called out for enabling and then being silent about Trump's recent racist comments against four members of Congress.

The House of Representatives just voted 240-187 to condemn Trump's racist attacks on four of its members. Only four Republicans joined the Democrats in that vote.

Meanwhile, conservative evangelicals have been mostly silent throughout the entire thing. Franklin Graham, who seems to be never at a loss for words when tweeting attacks on the LGBTQ community, has been especially evasive.

And don't think that it hasn't been noticed. John Fea, religious author and professor of American history at Messiah College, posted about this on Tuesday:

Trump is simply calling upon an old tradition in American history. Sadly, we have been telling people to “go back to your country” since the birth of the republic. None of this is new. Trump appeals to the darkest parts of our past. This is what demagogues do. Today he refused to rescind his comments because apparently a lot of people like them. 

But America has always had its better angels. We have always had men and women who have tried to consistently apply our country’s ideals to matters of race, immigration, and injustice. Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr. Jack Graham, Tony Perkins, Paula White, Ralph Reed, Gary Bauer, David Barton, Jim Bakker, Lance Wallnau, Steven Strang and the rest of the court evangelicals do not fall into this category. 

Sadly, the court evangelicals have chosen to side with darkness over light. They are sycophants, incapable of speaking truth to power because they have made a deal with the devil (who apparently has come in the guise of a new King Cyrus). They have enabled Donald Trump. The silence speaks volumes.

The entire piece is short but on point and deserves your full attention.

 

Hate group Family Research Council plans weak tea opposition against the Equality Act

Far be it from me to amplify the anti-LGBTQ industry but I don't know what's worse about this clip from Donald Trump's favorite propaganda network, One America News Network - the news personality with spooky eyebrows and the glowing eyes (I'm probably gonna catch it for that one) or the weak tea opposition to the Equality Act by hate group Family Research Council. A mean letter from "religious leaders," including Franklin Graham. I'm spooked already. Come on guys, we know that McConnell probably won't let the Equality Act get out of the Senate, but you can at least try to pretend to put up a fight.

Family Research Council blasted on twitter for attack on children's show featuring same-sex wedding

Here is a pleasant piece of news as we begin the week. Recently, the PBS animated series Arthur featured a same-sex wedding when one of its characters, Mr. Ratburn, came out and got married.

Naturally, this has gotten the anti-LGBTQ industry angry, with many crying about the so-called "indoctrination" and "recruitment" of children into the "homosexual lifestyle."  One of these groups, the Family Research Council, took to twitter to say so:

Children are not asking for their cartoon characters to be gay -- activists in the entertainment industry are forcing it on them. Now more than ever, parents have to be vigilant about the media their children consume. @cathyruse https://t.co/PVicS0HPgE

— FRC (@FRCdc) May 19, 2019

All of the times the LGBTQ community tried to destroy America before the Equality Act (sarcasm intended)

It is an attack on parental rights, women's sports, but to the millions of people of faith in this country, it is an egregious attack on the freedom to believe and live according to those beliefs. It would position the government to lord over churches and other faith-based institutions, dictating potentially who they hire, how their facilities are used and even punishing them for not falling in step with a view of human sexuality that directly contradicts orthodox biblical teaching. 

 No institution or person of faith, be it school, church, synagogues, mosque, business, or nonprofit will escape the Orwellian reach of the Equality Act. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act will be committed to the "memory hole," and we will then experience a catastrophic loss of religious freedom in America. - Hate group leader Tony Perkins (Family Research Council) lying about the Equality  Act.

On Friday, the House of Representatives will vote on the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing civil rights legislation which already prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, or natural origin. Interestingly enough, no one says that there should be a religious exemption for discrimination with regards to these latter categories. They feel differently about sexual orientation and gender. Tony Perkins and his group the Family Research Council (whose brand has encompassed attacking and demonizing the LGBTQ community since its founding) and other anti-LGBTQ groups and supporters have been sounding the alarm like they always do when pro-LGBTQ laws or actions are considered.

Its their consistent modus operandi to attempt to scare other Americans that we are coming for them, their rights, their freedom, their religion, or their children.  Even though they know that if the House passes the Equality Act, it has very little chance even getting a vote in the Senate, Perkins and company still won't miss an opportunity to fundraise and scare people about the "dreaded homosexual horde." They've done it so many times in the past.

Whether it was about allowing the gays to serve openly in the Boy Scouts:

Hate crimes legislation (which they claimed would cause pastors to be arrested in the pulpit and the Bible to be declared "hate speech):

Anti-LGBTQ leader says she isn't homophobic because she has a gay son

Kay Coles James

Kay Coles James is the president of the Heritage Foundation. According to Media Matters, this organization has a long history of anti-LGBTQ lobbying:

The group has railed against LGBTQ equality for decades, including by supporting discrimination against LGBTQ people under religious exemptions, supporting the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on LGBTQ scoutmasters, and opposing marriage equality. Just this year, the group has hosted five anti-trans panels that pushed misinformation about trans people in an attempt to sway public discourse about trans-inclusive policies like the Equality Act. Furthermore, Heritage employs several extreme anti-LGBTQ figures, including Ryan T. Anderson.

Media Matters also pointed out that James also served as vice president of the Family Research Council, an SPLC-designated hate group due to its constant attempt to undermine and denigrate the LGBTQ community via junk science, cherry-picked science, and out-and-out lies. Recently FRC accused PBS of attempting to targeting children simply because a children's show on the network, Arthur, showed a same-sex wedding. Days before that, the organization falsely implied that transgender children are predators out to harm other children in school bathrooms.

James was recently embroiled in a controversy involving Google. The company invited her to be a member of its Artificial Intelligence ethics board. However, her inclusion was protested so venomously by Google employees and other people that the company ended up disbanding the board. James was interviewed earlier this month by Shannon Bream of Fox News because of the Google controversy. She claimed that she wasn't homophobic because she has a gay son.

Homophobe? I don't think so. You know, I, I, I've never talked about it publicly, but I have a gay son whom I love beyond all measure. And he and his community have welcomed me, have helped me grow, have helped me to understand. There’s no hatred there. That’s my child you are talking about.

One has to ask what growth and understanding is she talking about, particularly when viewing tweets she has sent against the Equality Act.

The page James links to spins all sorts of lies and horror stories about what could happen (but of course won't) if the Equality Act becomes law. The prediction of mayhem if a pro-LGBTQ law is passed is an old, but effective talking point of the anti-LGBTQ industry. But as it pertains to James, for someone who claims to have been welcomed and embraced by the LGBTQ community, she seems to be tone deaf as to the problems we face when it comes to discrimination. It's even worse when one sees how she is passing along information designed to undermine efforts to combat this discrimination.

Discredited physician claims the Equality Act will end Christianity

Michelle Cretella

The hyperbole and false horror stories doesn't stop with the anti-LGBTQ industry when it comes to the upcoming Equality Act vote.

From Right Wing Watch:

Michelle Cretella, the executive director of an anti-LGBTQ pseudo-science organization, said that the Equality Act should actually be called the “Death to Christianity Act.” 

May 10 episode of Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, guest host Sarah Perry, FRC Action’s Director of Partnerships, and Cretella, executive director of the American College of Pediatricians (a right-wing group not to be confused with the professional organization, American Academy of Pediatrics), shared their opposition to the Equality Act, which would seek to add protections for sexual orientation and gender identity into existing anti-discrimination laws. The duo claimed that the proposed legislation would take children who believe they may be transgender and force doctors to “do harm to these kids.” 

“I think it’s really super important for all listeners to realize this law, if it passes, if this bill becomes law, it impacts everyone. And a better name for it is the ‘Death to Christianity Act.’ OK? That’s going to be the umbrella. … Christianity, it will cease to be publicly practiced. It’ll become against the law,” Cretella said.

Right Wing Watch goes to point out that Cretella's group, the American College of Pediatricians, is a SPLC-designated hate group due to how it pushes homophobic cherry-picked and junk science as legitimate research.

Family Research Council smears transgender children as predators

With the vote for the Equality Act coming in the House of Representatives possibly this week, it's no wonder that conservatives and members of the anti-LGBTQ industry have been firing up the propaganda cylinders to spin all sorts of horror stories about what would happen if it were passed.

And leave it to the hate group Family Research Council to really spin a most vile horror story via this tweet:

This is  vulgar lie on so many levels, particularly how it smears transgender children. As a matter of fact, a recent study has shown that it is  transgender children who are in danger of sexual assault when attending schools which attempt to force them to use bathrooms not aligned with their sexual identities.

Family Research Council tries to protect Trump by lying about Mueller investigation

FRC head Tony Perkins 

I was wondering when hate group the Family Research Council would dip itself into the drama of Robert Mueller's report on the Russian interference in the 2016 election. For those not aware,  Mueller was investigating whether or not Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia  and did Trump attempt to obstruct the investigation

Using the same cherry-picking, sins of omission, and basic distortions it has over the years to denigrate the LGBTQ community, the Family Research Council is attempting to twist the outcome of Mueller's investigation in order to protect its cash cow of "access," Donald Trump. Apparently this requires more than a simple "mulligan."

FRC's distortions of Mueller's investigation is best shown in three paragraphs of a piece its president, Tony Perkins, wrote:

The spectacle at Wednesday's hearing wasn't lost on the liberal media either. While the rest of the country pleads with Democrats to move on from this humiliating ordeal, even commentators are saying they don't have the public's support to continue this charade. "The most straightforward procedural suggestion for addressing executive branch noncooperation is to subpoena documents and testimony and, if they aren't produced, hold the responsible individuals in contempt of Congress. This, it turns out, is not such a great idea," warns Suzanne Garment at NBC News. 

 For starters, Americans are tired of watching Democrats beat this dead horse of Russian collusion. Most of them want to know: when will this political circus end? Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) understands -- because he's one of them. I guess it ends, he told me on Wednesday's "Washington Watch," "when the Democrats a suffer at the ballot box because it doesn't look like anything short of that is gone to deter them. The Mueller report is out there for everybody to read. It's 448 pages. It finds that there was no conspiracy, there was no coordination, there was no collusion and there was no obstruction. And, and now Attorney General Barr has testified before multiple committees... And that's the end of it. And it's time now that the Democrats and moved on and we actually get to work with the business with the country." 

 But there's also the legal side of this, which is that Attorney General Barr cannot release grand jury material without being held personally responsible. There's intelligence information in that report, and there are matters of national security that prevent him from complying with the Democrats' request. House liberals know that -- and yet, they're trying to punish Barr for following the law (which, I might point out, is not why Eric Holder was held in contempt). And ironically, they don't need him to publicly release the unredacted report to read it. As members of Congress, they can go to a private, classified setting and access every word. Of course, there wouldn't be any television cameras in that room for Democrats to continue their theatrics.

There are so many lies in just these three paragraphs.

1. While the rest of the country pleads with Democrats to move on from this humiliating ordeal, even commentators are saying they don't have the public's support to continue this charade.

 Truth - Actually the view of the investigation is bit more split. According to a May 1 NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, 48 percent of Americans want more investigations while 46 percent thinks they should end. In all honesty, impeachment hearings still remains to be an unpopular idea.

2. FRC cites a piece by Suzanne Garment to enhance the claim that the public doesn't support more investigations.

Truth - But her piece had nothing to do with public sentiment. It was about the different ways the Democratic party can obtain testimony and documents for the investigation which Trump refuses to release.

3. For starters, Americans are tired of watching Democrats beat this dead horse of Russian collusion.

Truth - FRC cites a February 15 poll from right-wing leaning Rasmussen which says only 29 percent of Americans favor investigation and only IF Mueller doesn't find anything.  This was before the Mueller report was even released. Again, a more recent poll found that 48 percent of Americans want investigations to continue.

4. FRC quotes GOP Senator Josh Hawley: "when the Democrats a suffer at the ballot box because it doesn't look like anything short of that is gone to deter them. The Mueller report is out there for everybody to read. It's 448 pages. It finds that there was no conspiracy, there was no coordination, there was no collusion and there was no obstruction. And, and now Attorney General Barr has testified before multiple committees... And that's the end of it. And it's time now that the Democrats and moved on and we actually get to work with the business with the country."

Truth -  The investigation did not find any conspiracy between Trump campaign and Russia. However Mueller  found 10 instances of possible obstruction by Trump.  He said he couldn't fully exonerate Trump of obstruction. Over 800 former federal prosecutors and Department of Justice attorneys who worked for Democratic and Republican administrations signed a letter saying that if Trump wasn't president, he would face charges of obstruction.  Lastly, it has been reported that Trump himself is walking back from the claim of "no obstruction."

Truth - Attorney General Barr has testified only once about Mueller's report and that was to Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1. He refused to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee.

5.  But there's also the legal side of this, which is that Attorney General Barr cannot release grand jury material without being held personally responsible. There's intelligence information in that report, and there are matters of national security that prevent him from complying with the Democrats' request. House liberals know that -- and yet, they're trying to punish Barr for following the law (which, I might point out, is not why Eric Holder was held in contempt).

Truth - Zack Ford of watchdog group ThinkProgress said this:

The Mueller report redacted four kinds of content: grand jury material, classified intelligence, matters related to ongoing investigations, and private information about “peripheral third parties.” It’s true that members of Congress cannot see the grand jury material, but they have every right to see the content redacted in the other three categories, as well as all of the underlying evidence that accompanies the report’s claims. And that’s what the subpoena asks for. 

As for the grand jury material, Nadler explained that Democrats had asked Barr to work alongside them to petition a judge to turn over those documents to Congress in a closed setting, the only way the material can be released. The request therefore does not compel Barr to break the law.

Family Research Council's Tony Perkins spins deluded hellfire over SCOTUS decision

FRC's Tony Perkins

If liberals should be anything, it's worried. When it comes to marriage, time is not on their side. Deep down, the Left knows it needed the Court to force same-sex "marriage" on America before more people saw the fallout for Christians like Aaron and Melissa Klein. Or sportscasters like Craig James. Or CEOs like Brandon Eich. Ask them if same-sex "marriage" is just about two people who love each other. For them, it was about losing their business, their livelihood, and their freedom.

If the Supreme Court thinks America isn't ready for same-sex "marriage," they're right. As more states are forced to recognize it, people will see the ensuing attacks on religious freedom. They'll feel the wedge driven between parents and their children when school curriculum is changed to contradict the morals moms and dads are teaching at home. They'll shudder as more people lose their jobs because they refuse to celebrate (not just tolerate) same-sex "marriage." Maybe then they'll realize that the true goal is not about the marriage altar -- but fundamentally altering society. - Family Research Council president Tony Perkins' deluded statement  about the recent SCOTUS decision

Talk about your sore losers.