Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Monday, August 24, 2009

The Freepers want to see President Obama's 'manhood,' transgender woman fights discrimination, and other Monday afternoon news briefs

Freeper birthers want to see the wingwang of the POTUS - Help me, Jebus!

2 teens charged in beating of gay Portage teen - This has gotta stop!

The Gender Police Strike Again - I almost missed this story. It's a shame and a disgrace how some folks are treated just because some want them to conform to their stupid ideas of normalcy.

Utah Transgender Woman Takes Action Against Workplace Discrimination After Losing Job - Good for her!

Anti-Obama article reveals depth of Christian corruption

Allow me to forego today's news briefs for the time being. Something I read this morning has been on my mind. And you know when that happens, I have to write about it.

Anti-gay phony news service One News Now has been doing all it can to help various groups derail President Obama's idea for health care reform.

But a recent "article" reveals more about the nature of One News Now and it's "Christian" audience than it does about the President.

The piece Healthcare for illegals part of Dems' plan, lays out the assertion that the President supports healthcare for illegal immigrants. The article does admit that Obama has said that his health plan does not support illegal immigrants.

But then the article says the following:

However, he also said during a radio interview that he has no problem with illegal immigrants receiving emergency room care in certain situations under his plan.

The article then quotes Congressman Spencer Bachus (Republican of course) taking the President and the Democrats in Congress for this position.

So the President thinks that illegal immigrants should be allowed to receive emergency room care in certain situations. What in world is wrong with that?

Would any self-respecting physician turn anyone away needing emergency room care? I don't think any physician would do this and I think that all reasonable people would agree with the position that anyone needing emergency room care should receive it.

But then again, this "article" is standard fare for One News Now.

One News Now articles generally aren't geared to showing both sides of an argument but to reinforce a position of exclusion.

And yet this news service is supposed to speak for the American Christian community?

So it's come to this. From "thou shalt love your neighbor as you would thyself," to the Good Samaritan stooping down to ask the man robbed and beaten on the lonely road his "legal" status before administering health care.

Really this isn't about the President's position, "illegal immigrants," or even health care in general. It's about how One News Now embraces an ugly form of Christianity in this country; a form that no one wants to talk about.

There is much spotlight on the most extreme nature of Islam, i.e. those who think that the religion advocates violence. And this is a good thing. However, I would like to see some attention devoted to just how some political/religious leaders have corrupted Christianity in this country.

Granted, they don't endorse violence, but their actions are insidious. They reduce Christianity to a coldblooded clique that embraces the desire to be the majority and also the desire to "take America for Christ."

This form of Christianity embodies megachurches full of precisely coiffed people in expensive suits who mistake wealth and position as evidence of God's favor rather than His grace.

It embodies having the "right" political and social affiliations, where people are brainwashed to think that there is a verse in the Bible saying "And Jesus said pick up your cross and follow me and I will give you a nice car, a nice house, 2.5 kids and a Republican President and Congress."

This form of Christianity not only embraces but encourages the use of the Bible as a weapon for passing judgement, explaining away blatant hypocrisies, and covering up lies told about various communities who are not the approved "chosen people."

It's this bastardized form of Christianity that gives all Christianity a bad name. If people have a negative view of the religion, it's not the fault of President Obama "illegal immigrants," the lgbt community or the other supposed forces of " Godless humanism."

It's the fault of organizations like One News Now and those whom the phony news service speaks to and whose causes it embraces.

It's time for One News Now and its allies (i.e. the religious right organizations, conservative bloggers, and various so-called pro-family spokespeople) to stop blaming everyone else for what they are causing.

The Bible itself tells Christians "no weapons formed against you shall prosper."

But it also says that "pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

If you ask me, Christianity in this country has entered a freefall.

Anti-gay Peter LaBarbera proves 'trash is as trash does'

This weekend, "our friend" and reliable anti-gay crusader Peter LaBarbera seems to be on a tear about the bisexual community. On his Americans for Truth webpage (which is the biggest oxymoron in the history of the world), LaBarbera is focusing on the recent BiSummit, which was held downtown in Chicago in conjunction with the 2009 National LGBTI Health Summit.

The purpose of the summit was to "shed light on the alarming health disparities this large segment of the GLBT community faces."

Unfortunately, in the hands of LaBarbera, the information coming from the summit as well as the summit itself will be used to bash bisexuals and by extension, the lgbt community as a whole.

A perfect example is his absolutely ridiculous (I'm sorry but that's the word that comes to mind) interpretation of the following sentence:

The day began with an overview of the current research on bisexual health. Research shows that bisexual people—who make up about half of those who identify as GLB—face huge health disparities.

Now to LaBarbera, that sentence gives him license to put out this headline - Half of Homosexuals are Bisexual: Homosexual Newspaper.

It's a total inaccuracy that's only enhanced by his intentional omission of the passage that follows:

According to bisexual health researchers Cheryl Dobinson and Stewart Landers, compared to both gays, lesbians and heterosexuals, bisexuals report higher rates of alcohol and tobacco use, substance abuse, depression and anxiety, suicidal thoughts, physical and sexual abuse and self harm, among other issues.

With LaBarbera, it's not even funny anymore how he will distort information in his crusade against the lgbt community.

No doubt he will take other information from the summit and twist it to suit his purposes.

And it's sad that in the hands of a supposed Christian, information gathered to help a community will be used to hurt it.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

From the Archives: Jesse Dirkhising and Mary Stachowicz : Pawns in the game

From July 18, 2007 :

In 1999, a 13-year-old boy by the name of Jesse Dirkhising was raped and murdered by two men

In 2002, mother of four, Mary Stachowicz, was viciously raped and murdered.

These two crimes are terrible in and by themselves but the repercussions continue to be felt by people who had nothing to do with the cases.

You see, the men who killed Dirkhising were gay. And the man who killed Stachowicz was allegedly gay. Supposedly he killed her after she continued to question his orientation.

There is no excuse for the murders of Dirkhising and Stachowicz. Having lost my father to violence, I know the grief and pain of having a murdered love one. I know that no matter how many years passes, these emotions never go away.

But like I said in a past column, I would be angry if my father's death was used to distort world views. And unfortunately, since my father's murderers were African-American (like he and myself), I am sure that there are some racists out there who have used his murder to denigrate black people on the whole.

When Dirkhising was murdered, he became a cause celebre to the anti-gay industry.

Rather than focus on the fact that a child was murdered, they focused on the orientation of the murderers.

They claimed that because the murderers were gay, the media were hesitant to pursue the story. This was a lie of course, but when have you ever known the anti-gay industry to be truthful about our community.

Our friend Peter LaBarbera had field day with the case, even devoting a special web page to the sordid affair, complete with a picture of Dirkhising.

Please bear in mind that since Dirkhising's death, there have been several high profile cases of murdered children, including that of Samantha Runnion and Dantrell Davis; the latter one happening when Davis was caught in gunfire while walking to school.

Strangely enough, the anti-gay industry did not talk about these stories.

Probably because the perpetrators weren't gay.

Nor is it known whether or not they have pushed for laws that would protect children from predators, whether these predators are gay or heterosexual.

And I definitely know that none of them have vocal on gang violence, except for that recent ridiculous moral panic on "lesbian gangs."

But just as he hysterically pushed the Jesse Dirkhising case as an example of the "gay menace" towards children, LaBarbera is claiming that Mary Stachowicz murder proves that lgbts should not be added to hate crimes legislation.

Never mind that the case had nothing to do with hate crimes, but of a young mentally ill young man who took his aggression out on an innocent women.

But who cares about the facts when you have something you can exploit.

And what else can you expect from a man who has a page on his web site devoted to the "Victims of Homosexuals Murderers."

Don't forget to ask for donations, Peter.

It's sad when someone's life is taken away due to violence.

It's even worse when someone uses those crimes to attack people not even involved.

And it's equally sad that lgbts are not judged by our contributions to society but by the criminal behavior of a few who share our orientation.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Hateful Arizona pastor calls for execution of gays, President Obama, Barney Frank

This is Pastor Stephen Anderson from Arizona's Faithful Word Baptist Church. He doesn't particularly like gays and lesbians.

This sermon exposes the queers for what they really are. All examples of the queers in the Bible they are raping people. In Sodom & Gomorrah they wanted to rape the angels, right off the Ark Noah was raped by his queer son, etc... The truth is God hates the queers & the Bible makes it clear they are reprobates who have lost their chance to be saved.

Leviticus 20:13 "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."
The truth is our government should follow the Bible & enforce the death penalty for the queers & this world would be a much better place.

Now on this blog, I rarely talk about extreme nuts (such as Fred Phelps) who go about calling us names and such.

Usually, the point of this blog is to examine the intricate and covert ways religious right groups demonize the lgbt community.

But every now and then, I run across something that is so disturbing that I simply must post about it so as to make more people aware.

This man astounds me to the point of nausea.

And people wonder why lgbts sometimes seem to be too pushy or strident in pursuit of our rights. It's not just our rights that we are concerned about; it's our safety.

It really doesn't matter if he is speaking to an empty church or a full church. It doesn't matter if he is speaking to five people or five hundred people. What the hell is wrong with America when any nut can masquerade as a pastor?

This is the real "Gathering Storm," Maggie Gallagher.

And it's definitely food for thought the next time members of the religious right whine about "the gay agenda."

And just so you know, Anderson also called for the execution of President Obama and Congressman Barney Frank.

What he says about Barney Frank:

"The sodomites are recruiters and you know who they are after? Your children. They are being recruited by the sodomites. They are being molested by the sodomites. They recruit through rape, they recruit through molestation, they recruit through violation"

"Our country is run by faggots. You know who was the man who was the architect of the bailout? His name is Barney Frank, he is a pedophile..."

"That's who just sold our country into fascism. That's who just sold our corporations to the government. That's who sold out our country, a faggot!"

What he says about President Obama because his stance on reproductive freedom:

"God Hates Barack Obama, I hate Barack Obama. I hate Him. God wants me to Hate Barack Obama." "Someone who commits murder should get the death penalty."

The standard for being a Christian in America seems to be low these days.

A BIG hat tip to Pam Spaulding and Jeremy from Goodasyou.org for their covering this awful man and his nonsense and for supplying me with information.

Log onto their sites if you want more information about him. Have your barf bag in hand.

Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles

I've tried and tried to get angry but I simply can't get offended by Blazing Saddles.

It's the most offensive, most politically incorrect, and the funniest movie I have ever seen. So that makes it a favorite of mine.

Blazing Saddles, directed by legendary comedian Mel Brooks, is a takeoff of Western movies. In a nutshell, it tells the story of a town, Rockridge, and its African-American sheriff (Cleavon Little) who has to fight the forces of corruption looking to evict town residents so that a railroad can be built.

And through telling the story of the struggle between the two parties, Mel Brooks manages to make fun of racism, black people, white people, homophobia, gays, rape, foreigners, Hitler, movie musicals, violence, interracial relationships, women, etc. etc.

There are so many anecdotes connected with this movie, but for the purpose of this blog, let's focus on the huge scene at the end where the climactic battle between the forces of corruption and the townspeople crash a studio lot where a movie musical is being filmed.

Don't ask. Just watch. And I repeat, try as I might, I simply cannot get offended by this because it's too hilarious. Please don't hold it against me:

Protecting our lgbt children, my little piece about President Obama's approval numbers, and other Friday midday news briefs

LGBTs are being bullied. 'Pro-family' denialists are aiding and abetting - Our lgbt children need to be protected. Period.

Tobias Wolff (and Lou Dobbs!) slay NOM's Gallagher on DOMA - Twilight Zone time. Lou Dobbs helps the lgbt community. Calling Rod Serling!

Arizona pastor's sermons call for execution of gays, Barney Frank and the President -We've got too many stupid people in the pulpits.

Fox Nation Thread About McDonald’s Black Website Generates More Racism And Ignorance - How dare McDonalds reveals the fact that black people contributed to the greatness of America!

Faith In Obama Drops As Reform Fears Rise - I'm sorry for this not being lgbt-related per se but I felt the need to put this in here so that I can comment on it's stupidity.

Obama has had a very rough August; the Republicans with their disinformation blew him away on health care reform and it seems that he was taking a wishy-washy approach, but I must remind people that HIS FIRST YEAR AS PRESIDENT ISN'T EVEN UP YET AND ALREADY YOU DUMB ASSES ARE SOUNDING THE SHOFARS (it's a Jewish term, look it up). FOR GOODNESS SAKE, GIVE THE MAN SOME SLACK.

Do you think progress is ever going to be easy? If it were, everyone would be doing it. Sometimes I think the biggest problem of progressives is our need to second guess everything at the first sign of trouble. If you aren't happy with Obama, put a fire under his butt. But for God's sake, sit on your butt just making smarmy comments and grousing about how he is "hurting our causes."