Exodus International, butts, and gays 'ramming their agenda down the throats of Americans'

A quote today from Alan Chambers, the president of the "ex-gay" group Exodus International, caught my attention:

“Criticism is easy to come by at Exodus,” said Chambers. “We are a large and diverse organization made up of many members. Our growth over the years has caused us to not always know what the hand or foot are doing, which sometimes causes us to look like we are ‘all butt’.

Granted, Chambers's admission comes as no surprise to anyone who follows the madness of anti-gay groups, but his verbiage stands up because it brings to mind something that needs to be addressed.

Why do so many homophobic people constantly complain about the so-called "homosexual agenda" being "rammed down their throats?

I kid you not. It's like that adage that every black person knows at least one person who goes by the nickname of "Peaches." I don't remember a week going in a long time by without reading something by someone homophobic claiming that gays and lesbians want to "ram" something "down their throats."

And why is that? Is it a skillful use of semantics? Semantics is a very important part of the religious right's propaganda campaign against the lgbt community. Through skillful phrasing, religious right spokespeople can semantically describe the lgbt community as invaders seeking to rape, pillage, and cause basic havoc, like so:

“But unfortunately, the evangelist observes, many Christians have been bullied into submission on the aggressive homosexual agenda in public schools.” - Evangelist Proposes to Combat Homosexual Agenda in Public Education, Agape Press, May 11, 2005

“Elsewhere in the battle against the homosexual agenda, the Broward County School Board in Florida has voted to allow a pro-homosexual group to indoctrinate its teachers on tolerance.” - Children Adopted by Homosexuals Suffer, Family Advocate Says, Agape Press, April 25, 2002

“The ACLU continues to use a law license to bully school districts and harass parents in order to brainwash their kids abut the ‘normalcy’ of homosexuality.” - Jan LaRue, ACLU Seeks Mandatory Homosexual Sensitivity Training, Concerned Women for America press release, July 14, 2005

.“For the third time in recent years, voters in Maine will go to the voting booth to stop the homosexual agenda being (from) being forced on them by activists and their own legislature” - Maine Activist Condemns Elitist Lawmakers Pushing Homosexual Agenda, the American Family Association, July 15, 2005

“One pro-family advocate feels the ACLU, in its efforts to force the homosexual agenda in American schools, is using the bullying tactics of Chairman Mao to ‘reprogram’ staff and students on the issue of homosexuality.” - Knight: ACLU’s Pro-Homosexual ‘Bullying’ Tactics Reminiscent of Chairman Mao, Agape Press, July 21, 2005

Of course maybe I could be acting needlessly paranoid.

Maybe the Rekers rentboy scandal has me looking to see a secret scared gay or lesbian behind every anti-gay comment.

Maybe sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

See, now they got me talking about stuff to be placed in people's mouths.

Janet Porter: homosexuals and 'baby-killers' are on the same side as the 'enemies of God'

One would think that after her huge string of embarrassments, religious right denizen Janet Porter would learn the definition of either "discernment" or "regrouping."

No such luck.

Today, the lovely Ms. Porter raised "holy hell" in response to being dropped by VCY,  the Christian station which ran her radio program for her disturbing sojourn in the belief of Dominionism (or the belief that Christians are called by God take everything over) even though she was dismissed a few months ago.

And how could Porter be a "respectable" religious right figure if she didn't attack the lgbt community in her diatribe:

We now have two generations who are lost in the lies of humanism, evolution and homosexuality, facilitated into fornication and abortion, trapped in pornography and devastated by divorce. Congratulations.

If you're still having a hard time discerning what to do, here's a helpful hint: if you find yourself on the same side as the ACLU, homosexual activists, the baby killers and the enemies of God, chances are, you're on the wrong side.

Girlfriend, ANY side of any battle you are on is the wrong side.

And for the edification of everyone, the following is the infamous "Oh Lord I demand you take the power of the media from the 'unrighteous' and give it to the 'righteous'" prayer that will probably be seen by future generations as the moment Ms. Porter officially "jumped the shark" :



Actually I'm not angry with any of Porter's actions. She is a needed commodity in this so-called culture war - for the lgbt community that is.

No matter how slick religious right talking points are or how coached their spokespeople are, it's always good to have someone like Porter around to remind us where they really stand.

THIS is what a hate attack looks like!

While religious right groups are crying bloody murder over an alleged incident involving their newest "victim of the so-called homosexual agenda," real crimes being committed against our children, particularly at Mt Si High School in Seattle, WA:

. . . a brutal assault in the boys' locker room is raising questions about the climate for gay students at the school and whether administrators are doing enough to respond to bullying.

The November attack was the culmination of several weeks of taunts about the perceived sexual orientation of a freshman boy, his mother said. The assault victim was another 14-year-old boy who told Snoqualmie police that he was tired of his friend being picked on.

The assault broke his eye socket, two teeth and left him with a concussion. Medical assistance wasn't called for almost an hour, and the boy continues to have problems with dizziness and concentration, according to medical records.

A 16-year-old student, who knew neither of the boys, has been charged with second-degree assault in King County Superior Court and no longer attends the high school. His family declined comment. Another student, who allegedly led the taunts and was seen talking to the assailant immediately before the attack, told police that he didn't know the assailant and hadn't told him to assault the victim.

If that school sounds familiar, then it's nice to know that folks have good memories:

Some who've followed Mount Si's history believe that administrators have not taken a stronger stance in defense of gay students — or those perceived to be gay — out of fear of community backlash.

Outspoken anti-gay rights pastor Ken Hutcherson and a group of parents in 2008 called for cancellation of the Day of Silence. They told the school board that the event was an example of Mount Si teachers forcing their liberal political agenda on students. When the day wasn't canceled, they urged parents to keep their students home. More than 100 held a prayer vigil outside the school.

Box Turtle Bulletin has an excellent history of Hutcherson's anti-gay activities:

For years, Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, WA, has been fighting to make Mt. Si High School a miserable place for gay students. He’s tried to get teachers fired for challenging him on gay issues and threatened to put another on his list. He’s sent his daughter to monitor Gay-Straight-Alliance meetings. He’s preached that God hates effeminate men and “joked” about beating them. He’s spread the message that the Bible opposes tolerance.

Is Hutcherson directly responsible for what happened to the student at Mt. Si? I'm sure there will be good points made by folks on both side of the argument.

But one thing is clear. This is definitely a case of "chickens coming home to roost."

Cherry-picking science? Concerned Women for America ought to know

Research has come out today justifying 200 other studies and basic common sense - children do not suffer from being raised in a same-sex household:

For their new study, published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics, researchers Nanette Gartrell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco (and a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles), and Henry Bos, a behavioral scientist at the University of Amsterdam, focused on what they call planned lesbian families — households in which the mothers identified themselves as lesbian at the time of artificial insemination.

. . . The authors found that children raised by lesbian mothers — whether the mother was partnered or single — scored very similarly to children raised by heterosexual parents on measures of development and social behavior. These findings were expected, the authors said; however, they were surprised to discover that children in lesbian homes scored higher than kids in straight families on some psychological measures of self-esteem and confidence, did better academically and were less likely to have behavioral problems, such as rule-breaking and aggression.

Naturally members of the religious right went apoplectic over the research. Wendy Wright from Concerned Women for America was the first up at bat, attacking the funding sources of the research in a CNN article:

Funding for the research came from several lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender advocacy groups, such as the Gill Foundation and the Lesbian Health Fund from the Gay Lesbian Medical Association.

Dr. Nanette Gartrell, the author of the study, wrote that the "funding sources played no role in the design or conduct of the study."

"My personal investment is in doing reputable research," said Gartrell. "This is a straightforward statistical analysis. It will stand and it has withstood very rigorous peer review by the people who make the decision whether or not to publish it."

...Wendy Wright, president of the Concerned Women for America, a group that supports biblical values, questioned the legitimacy of the findings from a study funded by gay advocacy groups. "That proves the prejudice and bias of the study," she said. "This study was clearly designed to come out with one outcome -- to attempt to sway people that children are not detrimentally affected in a homosexual household."

She also said:

Studies have shown that children thrive having both a mother and a father, Wright said.

"You have to be a little suspicious of any study that says children being raised by same-sex couples do better or have superior outcomes to children raised with a mother and father," she said. "It just defies common sense and reality."

Of course Wright omits the fact that none of the studies she vaguely refers to even looked at same-sex households.

And she also seems to be saying that since the study looked at same-sex parenting in a positive fashion, then it's automatically biased, which is like an anti-Semite saying that a study favoring the Jewish community should be seen as automatically biased, or a racist saying that a study favoring African-Americans should be seen as automatically biased, or . . . I think you get the picture.

People for the American Way puts CWA's attack on this study in proper perspective:

This coming from an organization that has repeatedly cited the "research" of Paul Cameron.

Allow me to put it in another perspective.

In the late 80s, this comic book, Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternate Deathstyle, was published by a man named Dick Hafer and it supposedly gave the "facts" about the "gay lifestyle."

By "facts," Hafer meant Paul Cameron discredited studies and cherry-picked legitimate science enhanced by cartoons of gay men coming out of sewers to sexually accost potential victims, sexually molesting children, and spreading diseases with abandonment.

This book even puts forth the belief that gay men need to be quarantined in their homes so that parents whose children are stricken with AIDS and HIV don't harm them.

So what does this have to do with the Concerned Women for America?

Concerned Women and its president at the time, Beverly LaHaye, endorsed this monstrosity. On the back cover of the comic book are the words:

Americans need to wake up to the facts regarding the Homosexual movement. Dick Hafer exposes the depravity of their lives in his book, Deathstyle. This is a book which needs to be read by all of those concerned about society and our nation.

Now one could say that CWA shouldn't be judged on what it endorsed over 20 years ago. Fair enough.

However, to my knowledge, neither CWA or LaHaye ever rescinded the endorsement of Homosexuality: Legitimate, Alternate Deathstyle.

And it can be argued that CWA continues to push the "gays and lesbians are diseased dangers to society, but to children in general" narrative contained in Deathstyle, albeit in a less "spectacularly provocative" fashion. The group certainly continues to cite Cameron's research, which makes up a huge part of  the booklet.

But basically, it comes down to one question.Who do we trust in regards to lgbt parenting?

A meticulously done study which has stood up to peer reviews?

Or a group who endorses literature which says, amongst other things, that gays should be quarantined to protect them from the families of children stricken by AIDS and HIV?

Hat tip to this webpage featuring DeathStyle. It is not anti-gay but a site which looks at "problem-based comics" from the past.
 

Catholic lesbian: lgbts should be celibate and other Monday midday news briefs

Maggie & Eve: Is celibacy the 'ask' in their shared Eden? - A Catholic lesbian says lgbts should learn to be celibate like her. Repeat after me - SHE MUST BE OUT OF HER COTTONPICKING MIND!

Details Mag - Deliverance: The True Story of a Gay Exorcism - This is just sad.

Better Courts Now: Seeking Judges With a Christian Bias - I miss the good old days when people who did sneaky, underhanded things went about it in a sneaky, underhanded way instead of trumpeting their misdeeds from a mountaintop.

Gay Couples Get Equal Tax Treatment - And what, pray tell, is wrong with this?

Elton John Sings at Rush Limbaugh's 4th Wedding - Sorry, y'all but we lost Elton John around the time of the Eminem incident.

'Gay Days at Disney' reveals ridiculous fears, prejudices

Gay Day at Walt Disney World, which took place last weekend, is an unsanctioned event in which a large number of folk from the lgbt community come to Disney World for a celebration. Attendees generally wear red to let others know that they are lgbt.

Sounds like a fun time and I'm sorry I've never attended. Naturally some folks pull out the "why are gays shoving their agenda down everyone else's throats card" - including some folks who claim to be on our side - and this is nonsense.

It's just a fun time at the park, people. Lgbts are allowed to have fun and so what if we wear red to let folks know who we are?
. It's interesting to me that while this event has been taking place since 1991, the religious right has yet to mount up a serious propaganda campaign against it.

Even our friend Porno Pete hasn't had pictures from the event gracing his site. Then was this comical something last week from One News Now:

"This Saturday, June 5, there will be approximately 15 [thousand to] 20,000 reveling homosexual, lesbian, [and] transgender people in the Magic Kingdom in Orlando," reports David Caton, founder of the Florida Family Association (FFA). "I want to encourage people who have any plans of attending the Magic Kingdom on that date to avoid it. It is a very distasteful event," he adds.

Saturday's observance falls in the midst of Orlando's annual weeklong "Gay Days" celebration that boasts of attracting more than 150,000 "gay and lesbian travelers." Websites report that homosexuals wear red that day at Walt Disney World to identify themselves to others. Caton says that over the years, he has witnessed 2,000 to 3,000 people who have left the park after learning it was packed that day with homosexuals. The event is always staged on the first Saturday of June, and he explains that activists have a reason for that.

Now how does Caton do this? Does he stand at the gate, count the folks leaving and solicits their reasons as to why?

Caton's claim gets funnier:

"There are anywhere between 50 [thousand] and 70,000 children in the theme park on that day, and we believe the reason they're doing this is because they want to have a captured audience of children," he suspects.

The FFA founder says that is part of a homosexual indoctrination process for the children.

As he has monitored the park during the annual homosexual fest at Disney, Caton notes that there have been reports of obvious debauchery involving homosexuals.

What exactly is "obvious debauchery?" Kissing? Holding hands?

Unfortunately the problem with events like this is that if someone sees one couple or one lgbt doing something slightly risque, then all attention is on that one couple - whether it be the right to further stigmatize us or some of us bending over backwards being overly apologetic.

Neither crowd seems to have the sense enough to realize that the attendees of Gay Days, whether risque or polite, cannot and should not taken as a representation of the lgbt community at large.

Nor is everything that lgbts do is a part of a coordinated plan of takeover. Believe it or no, Caton, but maybe Gay Days started because lgbts wanted to organize a group for fun at Disney World.

Someone has obviously been watching too much James Bond

Florida attorney general candidates determined to defend anti-gay adoption law in spite of Rekers scandal

One would think with the scandal surrounding present Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, George Rekers and questions about his veracity to defend Florida's anti-gay adoption law, prospective candidates for attorney general would be reluctant to still defend it.

Think again.

According to the Miami Herald, the three Republican candidates for attorney general said that they would still uphold the ban:

Three Republicans seeking the post -- Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, former state healthcare secretary Holly Benson and former Hillsborough prosecutor Pam Bondi -- all say they would continue to uphold the adoption ban.

"The best home for any child is a two-parent home with a mother and a father,'' Benson said.

Perhaps Benson should address the fact that if this is the case, then why couldn't Florida get a credible expert to prove this point rather than Rekers.


Related post:

McCollum overruled staff warnings about Rekers