Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Sometimes one doesn't have to look far in the past to find hideous images of lgbts in movies and television. This monstrosity (which I won't even dignify with a back story) came out in 1998

The scene in question (beginning at 2:37) just defies description. And the sad thing about it is that BET (Black Entertainment Television) was showing this movie Wednesday with the scene included. Of course the network blocked out the profanity and racial slurs.

Too bad it didn't do the same thing with the disrespetful lgbt images.

Friday midday news briefs

Gay Teen Receives Prom Queen Crown - It's the story everyone is talking about (it's driving the folks at Free Republic nuts), so I figure what the heck.

Black Leaders Step Up for Equality - I love this story, particularly what Maya Angelou did. Her actions should send a message on how we should fight for not only marriage equality but lgbt rights in general in the black community.

Widespread Acceptance of Gay Marriage Just a Matter of Time - And I hope it comes in time for me to buy my outfit and pick my groom.

Plane silly: Kick and screaming for bias - This is a damn shame. I usually emulate crazy sistas. I don't think I will emulating this one (okay except for the part about being carried by two hunky men).

Palin's Hometown Newspaper Declares the Antichrist Will Be Homosexual - Okay who told them my secret? Well if something should happen to anyone involved with that newspaper (such as hanging themselves at a birthday party, getting staked in front of a church, getting thrown out of a hospital window, getting decapitated, having a crow pecking out their eyes right before getting hit by a truck on a lonely highway, getting caught between two freights of a train, getting cut in half in an elevator) I didn't do it. Editor's note - if you saw The Omen and Damien Omen II then you should get this joke

LaBarbera, Americans for Truth having money problems

One of our favorite anti-gay activists, Peter LaBarbera and his group Americans for Truth seem to be having money problems.

Now before you continue to read this, stop your laughing and get that smile off of your face. It's not that I feel sorry for LaBarbera. I just don't want anyone to take what's happening lightly. If LaBarbera's group is truly having money problems, then I'm glad because it's one less liar the lgbt community has to worry about.

For years, LaBarbera via various groups (Americans for Truth is only the latest) has unfairly attacked and maligned the lgbt community under the guise of Christian values. This situation is truly a case of karma biting him in the ass.

However, I am reluctant to talk about it. I don't our reaction to elicit sympathy for LaBarbera and thereby generate a way for him to get out of his alleged financial hole.

But since this blog is mostly geared on the lies of the religious right, I will steer towards this story, albeit slightly cautiously.

LaBarbera's piece was supposed to be about civil unions. But apparently he included a rambling plea for money by saying the following:

Dear Readers,

I am writing to ask your help to lift Americans For Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) out of a financial crisis, but also to you to do your part to lift America out of her moral crisis. If you support Americans For Truth, it’s probably because you appreciate our direct approach to the problem of homosexual activism. We at AFTAH don’t play politically correct games by trying so hard not to offend anyone that we water down Truth. No, we just tell it like it is, and the homosexual activists hate us for it.

Every day, I receive vicious letters like this from an e-mail containing the name Seth Yatovitz (who gave his e-mail name as “Jesus”) [WARNING: VULGAR]:

Thank You ….For letting me know who you are so I can ream you in your ass even though I am straight. Burn in Hell Father [F–ker]! God loves everyone, even gay people like Jesus! I will be saying prayers for your enlightenment even though you disgust me more than any deviant sexual act ever could. Gays are NOT child molesters, they are the children of God.

Day in, day out, Americans For Truth gets bashed by hate-filled bloggers who strangely see themselves as “tolerant.” Of course, there is the childish name-calling (”Porno Pete”) and the lies (I’m a self-loathing, secret homosexual, you know). One godless “leatherman” was so angered by AFTAH’s role in exposing and closing down a homosexual “pig sex” orgy in a Washington, D.C. hotel that he posted a piece titled, “Peter LaBarbera Wants to Have Sweaty Mansex with Every One of You”

Someone should tell LaBarbera that Maggie Gallagher has already cornered the market on the "gays are unfairly calling me names" talking point.

LaBarbera then continues to play the victim and accuses the lgbt community of "destroying" people who speak out against us:

. . . it’s hard to stay committed to truth and principle knowing that a tiny but powerful army of homosexual militants will target you as a “homophobe” and a “bigot” — and try to destroy your career — if you publicly disagree with them. This is precisely what they did to Rick Warren (who appears to be caving), Dr. Laura Schlessinger, and – back in the 1970’s – a brave Christian woman named Anita Bryant.

Maybe that statement reveals why Americans for Truth is having monetary problems. Anita Bryant was a homophobe and a bigot.

For the benefit of the young folks who may not know, Bryant led a successful repeal of a pro-gay ordinance in Florida during the 1970s. Calling the campaign, Save our Children, Bryant used fear and ignorance to unfairly link gays to pedophiles. She consistently said statements like the following:

"As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children"

Bryant villified thousands of lgbts through her ignorance and hatred. Some of us are still angry over what happened as we should be. For LaBarbera to call her a brave Christian doesn't get me angry. It makes me sad that he considers the standard for being a Christian to be so low.

I guess LaBarbera thinks the commandment about not bearing false witness is irrelevant when fighting the alleged gay agenda.

LaBarbera even promises a gift to those who send money:

If you will help Americans For Truth with a tax-deductible gift of $25 or more, we will send you a free copy of the hard-cover book Homosexuality: A Freedom Too Far, by the late Charles Socarides, a man who dedicated his life to understanding homosexuality and helping people overcome it.

He would have done better to offer a free album like Jim Bakker used to do at PTL. At least that would have been more credible.

For the record here are a few facts about Socarides that LaBarbera will never tell you:

- he helped to found NARTH (National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality) which is mostly ignored by the scientific community because of its advocacy of reparative therapy (i.e. ex-gay therapy) and its members' tendency to distort credible information.

- he had suggested that serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was an extreme example of a gay man, writing "Every homosexual who wants to incorporate the body of his male lover is utilizing the same mental mechanism: incorporation. Most homosexuals are content to do this symbolically. Dahmer was psychotic; he took his homosexual disorder beyond the limits."

- for all of his talking about "curing lgbts," Socarides's son was not only openly gay but also special assistant to President Bill Clinton and White House liaison to the gay community.

In short, no one took Socarides seriously.

Something LaBarbera can no doubt empathize with.

Thursday musings

This is a slow, lazy day so I'm going to make a few quick comments regarding lgbt issues and world issues in general

- First, a word to President Obama:

Dear President Obama, please address the situation regarding Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Proposition 8, or any of the promises you made regarding lgbt rights. I mean really -I'm starting to feel like Bart Simpson in that episode of about Camp Krusty.

And stop cracking side jokes. You screw up every time you attempt it.

- I'm convinced that Maggie Gallagher and NOM is a sleeper organization for lgbt rights. I haven't gotten the latest memo from national headquarters but I will stake all of my Bette Davis and Joan Crawford movies on it.

- Matt Barber of Liberty University - since I suspect that you google your name from time to time to see how many webpages have mentioned you (don't be ashamed because I do it too), this is for your benefit. Despite the fact that you are absolutely morally wrong on the issue of lgbts and have told many lies, you are a cutie . . . SIKE!!!!! I may be gay but I will never be desperate . . . in daylight hours that is.

- I suspect that pretty soon, Republicans will be blaming hopefully soon-to-be Supreme Court justie Sonia Sotomayor for the American Idol/AT&T scandal. I happen to know for a fact that she didn't do it. She was busy plotting against Carrie Prejean.

- Food for thought: This is one of the comments from the One News Now phony story, TX 'hate crimes' bill targets children:

Do we not remember the story of Saddam and Gomorrah?

And here I thought we were just blaming him for weapons of mass destruction

Finally, the following is too funny for words. Just watch it:

NOM blows it again and other news briefs

National Organization for Marriage blows it again!



This is funny. Not only did the National Organization for Marriage distort the facts in this commercial (i.e. the situation in California where students went to the same-sex wedding of their teacher got permission from their parents to be there - the commercial conveniently omitted that fact), but at the end of the commercial, there are several typos:



Hat tip to Goodasyou.org - Sorry Jeremy but I had to borrow it. It's just too funny to keep on one site.

Okay stop laughing and pay attention to the other news briefs:

Footage From May 26, 2009 California Marches And Rallies - This footage is awesome. There is nothing like a galvanized community working to change things the right way.

RI poll: 60% support marriage - They support it in Rhode Island. The elected officials need to get with it.

TX 'hate crimes' bill targets children - A new lie about hate crimes protections courtesy of One News Now.

Matt Barber - no hate crimes protections for ANYBODY

The question that always seems to be ignored by the religious right is if hate crimes legislation is not a good idea for the lgbt community, then what about in cases of religion and race - two categories that do have hate crimes protection.

Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber has finally answered that question via a column in Town Hall.

Apparently he believes in a scorched earth policy, i.e. if sexual orientation and gender identity have to be protected under hate crimes legislation, then there should be no hate crimes legislation at all:

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle - in Washington and around the country - should not only reject S. 909, but should also begin working toward repeal of all state and federal hate-crimes laws.

. . . When the 1968 federal hate-crimes bill passed, there were multiple and verifiable cases of local prosecutors refusing to indict whites for violent crimes committed against blacks. This was the justification for the law at the time.

We've moved well beyond those days, and FBI statistics bear out that reality. In today's America, every citizen, without fail, is both guaranteed and granted equal protection of the law regardless of race, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, dominant hand, favorite color or "American Idol" pick. This renders all extraneous hate-crimes laws woefully obsolete and fatally discriminatory.

And he, of course, continues to repeat that lie that Matthew Shepard was not targeted and murdered because of his sexual orientation.

It's not a challenge anymore to refute Barber on this point. His constant inaccurate statements about Shepard's death is like someone saying that the sky is not blue during a sunny day.

In layman's terms - NO ONE BELIEVES YOUR LIES, MATT! Every time you tell that lie about Shepard's death, you lose the little bit of credibility that you do have.

Heck, even the commentators aren't interested in Barber's bleatings. Usually Town Hall columns elicit a plethora of responses. Barber's column at last count has only 12.

I wonder if the rest of the religious right will echo Barber's scorched earth policy.

Hat tip to People for the American Way's Religious Right Watch. Also, check out how the site refutes Barber's lie about the number of hate crimes perpetrated against lgbts.

My column on black prides to run in The State newspaper

This is the good news I hinted about last night:

Last week, I received word that a column I wrote regarding black prides will run in the State newspaper. Most likely the column will appear next month just in time for SC Black Pride (June 18-21). The column will run as either a daily Online Extra or part of the State's online Saturday Opinion Extra package.

I have told only a few friends and was going to announce it on this blog last week. But then the Proposition 8 thing happened and I held back.

The last thing I needed was someone to spoil my good news by saying that my column running in the State is not as important as the Proposition 8 case.

But it is important. As far as I know this will be the first time that the State newspaper will address lgbt issues from an African-American gay man's perspective on its editorial pages.

They also wanted a picture of me to appear with the column. And I should tell you that it's not one of my best but I like it for that reason. I don't look like the usual gay activist one sees in the magazines and on television. My glasses are huge, my hair is wild and I don't look "All-American," so to speak.

Another thing that's important about this column is that it totally avoids the distractive issue of comparing the black civil rights movement to the gay rights movement. It focuses solely on how lgbts of color are ignored in the mainstream African-American community and how this endangers us. I made it a point to address this issue several times, including calling out hypocrisies and expressing the "Native Son" theory of community self esteem made by black author Richard Wright.

So despite the Proposition 8 decision, I continue to be in a good mood. I personally think a step forward has been made.

I will let you all know when the column is published.