Former Navy chaplain claims that homosexuality can be cured through 'exorcisms'

If you give some members of the religious right a voice and enough room, they tend to make themselves look like fools.

And it's shaping up that David Pakman  is becoming an expert on this.

Pakman, who has interviewed such "luminaries as Peter LaBarbera, Paul Cameron, and Bryan Fischer, has just added another notch in his six-shooter with today's interview with former Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt.

First a little background information on Klingenschmitt. He is another phony religious right cause celebre who claimed that his religious beliefs was causing him to be discriminated against. In this case, he claimed that he was kicked out of the Navy because for simply "praying in Jesus's name."

Of course the actual story, which you can read about here, has less to do with prayer and more to do with his being insubordinate for wearing his uniform at partisan and political events, a big no-no.

Klingenschmitt's past lies pale in comparison to what he said during the interview with Pakman today. He truly brought "the crazy:"



Truth Wins Out gives a small recap:

It starts with a normal human-to-wingnut discussion of DADT repeal, but then the wingnut goes off the rails, completely and thoroughly. Check it: he advocates EXORCISM as the one true way to “cure” homosexuality, and then goes off on a long tangent about how gay men are lying when we say we’re gay, and that saying we’re gay is the same thing as claiming we are women!

This is yet another example of the close correlation between a hatred of gay people and a deep hatred of women, as this sort of statement, from a man who doesn’t strike me as the epitome of “manliness” in the first place, must be taken in the context of their belief that women are inherently inferior. But it’s truly amazing in the year 2011 to hear religious extremists refer to “diseases” being caused by “demons.” Is Klingenschmitt aware of scientific advancement in the past 500 years, or is his Dungeons and Dragons belief system just more important to him than reality?

Also, there is a point where he describes a creepy ceremony he held with a lesbian sailor, but I won’t spoil that fer ya.

Personally, I'm all for gay exorcisms if it is to bring the "spirit of gay" into men and I get to choose who gets my hands "laid upon them."

Of course the sad alternative would be the following:

Principal - gay/straight alliances are wrong but gay slurs are okay and other Thursday midday news briefs

Long Island Principal Blocks Gay-Straight Alliance, Says Gay Slurs Aren't Really that Offensive - Any principal who thinks that it's okay to use a gay slur should be dismissed, period.

Truth Wins Out Announces Eleven State Tour Highlighting The Harm Caused by the ‘Ex-Gay’ Industry - One of my mentors fighting the good fight against the lies.

FRC Pressuring House Republicans To Eliminate Marriage Equality in DC - And I thought it was the lgbts who were trying to force their will upon folks. Another lie shot to pieces.

Policy on Gay Adoptions Not on Scott Agenda Yet - That is until he can find a way to sneak it in. I hope not but we are watching, Governor Scott.

Finally, the following were announced as GLAAD Media Award Nominees for Outstanding Blog. This is the first time this award will be given:

The Bilerico Project (http://www.bilerico.com/)
Blabbeando (http://blabbeando.blogspot.com/)
Joe. My. God. (http://joemygod.blogspot.com/)
Pam's House Blend (http://www.pamshouseblend.com)
Rod 2.0 (http://rodonline.typepad.com/)

All VERY deserving. And I especially like the fact that Pam's House Blend - a blog where I also post - is in the running.

It's going to be hard to pick just one for the award. Can't they all get it?

Homophobic presidential candidates and bad research make for an ugly Thursday morning

Apparently I am not the only one alarmed with GOP Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty's attempt to kiss up to anti-gay hate groups.

Republicans are alarmed by it too:

It’s hard to see what Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was thinking when he voiced support on Thursday for reinstating the ban on gays serving openly in the military.  Pawlenty must know that with almost 80% of Americans supporting repeal, he cannot realistically bring back DADT.

Tellingly, Pawlenty did not say he would fight to reinstate DADT or that he would even make it a priority. What Pawlenty said was “I would support reinstating it”, which is quite different from actively working for reinstatement.  I’m sure Barack Obama “would support” a balanced budget, but I don’t expect one from him.

Pawlenty made his statement on the radio program of Bryan Fischer from the American Family Association, a smart choice if you want to sell a book  to social conservatives. Unfortunately Bryan Fischer also has a long track record of inflammatory and untrue statements.  . . .  If Bryan Fischer had made racist or anti-Semitic statements then no respectable Republican would have appeared on his show. How is this any different?

And speaking of homophobic Presidential candidates, I received the following comment regarding my piece on Rick Santorum's attack on same-sex households.

I have evidence that homosexuals are 40 times more likely to molest children. This paper is thoroughly documented. http://www.defendthefamily.com/_docs/resources/6390601.pdf

The following was my response:

Dear Anonymous,

The only reason why I am publishing your comment is to demonstrate your ignorance and homophobia. That link you gave me is chock full of bad citations, including the distortions of several pro-gay books, including the one by Weinberg and Bell (look it up on this blog.) BUT THE BIGGEST PISS POOR distortion is the citation of the work of Mr. George "Lift My Luggage" Rekers. And I haven't even talked about the fact that the author, Judith Reisman is a charlatan who has been literally laughed out of court so many times for her silly attacks on the Kinsey Institute that she has been barred from suing the organization.

If this study is your idea of thorough documentation, I feel VERY VERY sorry for you. 

I hope I didn't come off as too mean. I was reading something from Larry Kramer last night and apparently it may have rubbed off.

Rick Santorum begins an ignorant war on same-sex families

Another GOP presidential candidate seems to be jumping on the homophobia train.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum had a two hour long video with the conservative CNS News. This video, created by People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch, captured his comments about not just marriage equality but gay adoption and same-sex households:



Basically Santorum said that gay adoption shouldn't be allowed because it is "common sense" that we should not "defy nature" just because "a certain group of people want to be affirmed by society"

There are so many things wrong with Santorum's position. First of all, he and the interviewer seem to be implying that children are being taken away from perfectly good homes in order to supposedly suit the "selfish needs" of the lgbt community.

This is a lie. The irony is that Santorum's interview came out the same time as the following:

After a successful fight to overturn Florida’s ban on adoption by gay men and lesbians, the two young brothers adopted by Martin Gill participated in an adoption ceremony in Judge Cindy Lederman's chambers in Miami-Dade County Juvenile Court today, marking the final step in their adoption process. Gill and his partner had served as foster parents to the two brothers for six years. Gill worked with the American Civil Liberties Union to fight for the right to adopt them by challenging Florida’s 33-year-old ban on gay people adopting. As a result of the ACLU lawsuit on behalf of Gill, the ban was ended last year.

“We are thrilled that after so many years, we are officially a family in the eyes of the law,” said Gill. “All children deserve a permanent, loving home. This is a happy day.”

In November 2008, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Lederman held that the statute barring adoption by gay people is unconstitutional and granted Gill's petition to adopt brothers. Last year, the Third District Court of Appeal upheld that decision after the state appealed.

“Martin and his family were instrumental in ending one of the most discriminatory laws in the country,” said Leslie Cooper, staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Project. “Hopefully now, thousands of children in Florida who are waiting to be adopted will be able to know the love and support of having a family.”

To Santorum, no matter how much love and support the Gill family entails, it is inferior to his version of  "family" because the fathers are "dirty homosexuals" who only adopted children in order to "force society to affirm their lifestyle. "

All of that other stuff about children being entitled to a "permanent, loving home" is simply a dodge propagated by National Homosexual Headquarters.

What a load of nonsense.

Perhaps before talking about something which he clearly has no knowledge of, Santorum should educate himself on the simple reality of same-sex households. They are here, they are numerous, and they are filled with love and support, just like every normal household should be.

As for now, Santorum wouldn't know common sense if it grew teeth and bit him on his homophobic rump.

And if he steps anywhere near the White House with that attitude - even for a visit, I suggest a serious fumigation of the premises.

Related posts:

Same-sex families are growing rapidly, can no longer be ignored

NOM needs to stop peddling in fantasy and face reality about same-sex families

Lgbts of color out and proud for MLK Day and other Wednesday midday news briefs

With Black History Month just around the corner, it's time for lgbts of color to get an early jump in making sure that our contributions are NOT forgotten. More on No More Down Low TV

More on those CornerStone Policy Research 'Helpful Links' - Let's not forget to keep the liars in check.

DC Marriage Foes’ Voting-Rights Hypocrisy Exposed - It keeps getting worse for the homophobes in DC.

GSA ban lifted by Halton Catholic school board - A rare case in which comparing us lgbts to Nazis actually worked in our favor.

Hospital visits to extend to same-sex couples - Awesome news and an excellent way to end today's news briefs

Same-sex families are growing rapidly, can no longer be ignored

Not too many people are aware of this, but the idea of same-sex families is the proverbial "third rail" for those who fight against marriage equality.

The very existence of these families does more to negate their arguments about "marriage being about the procreation and protection of children" than anything ever said by the lgbt community and our allies.

Therefore, it's not accidental when organizations like the National Organization for Marriage either ignore these families or trivialize them as "untested social experiments."

However, a recent article in The New York Times is serving NOM and other members of the religious right notice to the fact that they cannot continue to push aside same-sex families. From the article, we learn that not only are same-sex families growing in Southern states, but these families are comprised of people of color:

 . . . child rearing among same-sex couples is more common in the South than in any other region of the country, according to Gary Gates, a demographer at the University of California, Los Angeles. Gay couples in Southern states like Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas are more likely to be raising children than their counterparts on the West Coast, in New York and in New England.

The pattern, identified by Mr. Gates, is also notable because the families in this region defy the stereotype of a mainstream gay America that is white, affluent, urban and living in the Northeast or on the West Coast.

“We’re starting to see that the gay community is very diverse,” said Bob Witeck, chief executive of Witeck-Combs Communications, which helped market the census to gay people. “We’re not all rich white guys.”

Black or Latino gay couples are twice as likely as whites to be raising children, according to Mr. Gates, who used data from a Census Bureau sampling known as the American Community Survey. They are also more likely than their white counterparts to be struggling economically.

Experts offer theories for the pattern. A large number of gay couples, possibly a majority, entered into their current relationship after first having children with partners in heterosexual relationships, Mr. Gates said. That seemed to be the case for many blacks and Latinos in Jacksonville, for whom church disapproval weighed heavily.

“People grew up in church, so a lot of us lived in shame,” said Darlene Maffett, 43, a Jacksonville resident, who had two children in eight years of marriage before coming out in 2002. “What did we do? We wandered around lost. We married men, and then couldn’t understand why every night we had a headache.”

The bottom line is steadily becoming this - in the argument over marriage equality, same-sex couples and the children they are raising cannot be pushed aside or trivialized as "untested social experiments." Whether those against marriage equality and same-sex household like it or not,  there isn't a talking point in existence which will make these families disappear.


Related post:

NOM needs to stop peddling in fantasy and face reality about same-sex families

Is Pawlenty counting on a homophobic backlash to put him in the Oval Office?

Perhaps I am being too paranoid but it's obvious to me that former Gov. Minnesota Tim Pawlenty is counting on history while making his presidential bid.

Remember, it was the backlash against the civil rights movement (some unfairly grouped it with the excesses of the 60s) which led to Nixon's Southern Stategy and subsequently his election as President in 1968.

With the recent victories of the lgbt community over those who would deny us our equality (i.e. the repealing of DADT, overturning the law against gay adoption in Florida, overturning of the Prop 8 vote), some may think that a backlash against us is inevitable.

How else can one explain Pawlenty's recent moves? Last week while on the tour of his book, Pawlenty talked with Bryan Fischer of the American Family Assocation. Fischer has been called out numerous times for his vicious anti-gay comments, including claiming that lgbts formed the building blocks of the Nazi Party.

However, Pawlenty didn't address Fischer's homophobia because he was too busy cozying up to him, even to the point of promising to reinstate DADT should he be elected as president.

Today, Pawlenty took his wooing of the anti-gay forces a bit further. According to People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch:

Pawlenty will continue to court anti-gay leaders by meeting with Iowa’s Bob Vander Plaats and his organization, The Family Leader. Vander Plaats told the Des Moines Register that his group will be “hosting Governor Pawlenty in Iowa” in early February to discuss “pro-family issues, all the way from life and marriage to economic policy and energy policy.”


After losing the race for the Republican nomination for governor, Vander Plaats became a leader of Iowa’s Religious Right after he coordinated a successful campaign to block the retention of three Iowa Supreme Court justices who supported the Court’s unanimous ruling to legalize same-sex marriage. Vander Plaats, who a former aide said is “obsessed with the gay marriage issue,” has since called for the removal of the entire Supreme Court because of the Court's decision in favor of marriage equality. The Family Leader is the parent organization of Marriage Matters, the Iowa Family PAC, and the Iowa Family Policy Center, an organization that attacks “the public health crisis of same-sex activity” and tells church groups that they can “protect your children” from “homosexual activists.”

It's too early right now to see if Pawlenty's efforts will yield any fruition, but it is safe to say that for the 2012 Presidential election, he considers the lgbt community to be food on the menu.