Latest 'It Gets Better' video the best so far

You've probably seen this video, but what the hell. It's so awesome it needs repeated viewing:

NOM accuses gay organization of declaring a 'jihad?' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

A 'jihad,' Maggie? Really?! - Jihad is such a strong word, Maggie Gallagher. For shame. First mingling with birthers and now this. Actually this came before the birther association.


Down to the Wire for Josh & Henry: ICE Refuses to Terminate Deportation Proceedings, Citing DOMA - This ain't good, President Obama. Don't allow this to happen.

Gay Mormon Comes Out on The Voice - You have to admire his moxie.


The Utter Horrors of Gay Parenting - Strap Peter Sprigg down and make him look at this.

Manhattan commissioners to vote on repeal of discrimination ordinance - Oh come on folks! Voting to repeal a non-discrimination ordinance?

National Organization for Marriage refers to birther site in attack on lgbt education

 The National Organization for Marriage is in a good mood because as the organization tells it, a new poll says that a majority of Americans reject "teaching gay subjects in elementary schools:"

Bob Unruh reports:

An overwhelming majority of Americans say elementary school is no place to promote the homosexual lifestyle, and even among liberals there is the strong belief that such lessons should be left outside the door of the classroom, according to a new poll.

The results are from a WND/WENZEL Poll conducted for WND by the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies.

"Whether they object on moral grounds or simply out of concern that many U.S. schools are failing in their core missions of teaching basics doesn't really matter – the vast majority of American adults want this type of curriculum kept out of the classroom," Wenzel chief Fritz Wenzel said.

There is just one BIG problem with that poll. It comes from the site World Net Daily, or more commonly known by some as WingNut Daily.

It is an extremely homophobic site. Among other things:

• A writer on the site, Les Kinsolving, has in the past referred to the lgbt community as the "sodomy lobby." In October of  last year, he called a judge’s order to stop enforcement of the military’s ban on gay and lesbian troops in the military as a "disease ridden judicial decision."

• At its online superstore (yes World Net Daily has a "superstore"), interested individuals can buy a discounted copy of The Pink Swastika, a discredited book which claims that gay men started the Nazi Party.

• In August of last year, the publication dropped conservative writer Ann Coulter as a keynote speaker from a conference it held because she earlier spoke at a conference held by a gay Republican group.

• And in February of  last year, another writer on World Net Daily, Molotov Mitchell, spoke out in favor of Uganda's "Kill The Gays" bill, even evoking Martin Luther King Jr's name in defense of it.

Even the World Net Daily article, which NOM refers, to repeats lies about Obama appointee Kevin Jennings, such as he supports "teaching children about fisting."

So I think its safe to doubt the credibility of this site's poll.

But vicious homophobia doesn't even scratch the surface in regards to World Net Daily's madness.

World Net Daily has also been the leader of birther nonsense, shamelessly implying that President Obama is ineligible to be president. The site has ran over 100 articles regarding this issue, including the following:

Kagan, Sotomayor blew chance to stop eligibility challenge?
Lawyers say Supremes broke rule, failed to respond to recusal motion

Hawaii official now swears: No Obama birth certificate
Signs affidavit declaring long-form, hospital-generated document absent

Questions raised over Obama birth date
Was claim he was 3 months old during 'Bay of Pigs' a slip?

Promises of Obama birth hospital trip vanish
Authors admit no one given tour of president's 'birthplace' in Hawaii

Oprah's half-sister 'has Obama's birth certificate'
Rush Limbaugh clowns about Winfrey's family secret

The site sells birther bumper stickers, postcards, and videos. World Net Daily also created a national billboard campaign asking "Where is the birth certificate."

Ironically, even now when Obama has made his long-form birth certificate public, World Net Daily is still spinning conspiracy theories. On Sunday, the site ran the following:

Online 'birth certificate' document 'was changed'
Analysis raises possibility content of text was altered

Way to go, NOM. I wonder how the African-Americans allies you made in Maryland and you are now making in New York would feel about your citing World Net Daily, a site working actively to delegitimize Obama's presidency.

Perhaps Brian Brown and Maggie Gallagher, NOM's leaders, should remember before they spout off yet again about "unfairly being labeled as bigots" that you are always known by the company that you keep.

Or in this case, the sources you cite.

Related post:

Eleven examples of NOM's bigotry
 

Ex-gay documentary packs a serious punch

From the release:

In the summer of 2005, Zach, a 16-year-old boy from Memphis, Tennessee wrote on his MySpace blog that he had told his parents he was gay. Within days of his coming out, his mother and father would send him to Love In Action (LIA), a fundamentalist Christian program that refers to homosexuality as an addictive behavior. The depressed and fearful teenager shared his feelings on his blog.

"This Is What Love In Action Looks Like" documents the widely controversial and inspirational story of what The New York Times referred to as "A modern day message in a bottle."

In the documentary, former Love In Action director John Smid as well as former adult and teenage clients share their hearts on these experiences. In addition, local bloggers, community activists and classmates of Zach tell their stories of becoming involved with what would become an international news story.

Concerned people around the world awaited news of how Zach was doing during his eight weeks in Refuge. By the time he emerged in late July 2005, there was a barrage of headlines in the international press, including Good Morning America, CNN, The New York Times, Time Magazine and The Advocate among others.

In the years since it began, with all the media coverage and investigations, Zach had declined to tell his story. Until now. The teenager whose MySpace blogs began it all gives an exclusive interview for the documentary.

"This Is What Love In Action Looks Like," is directed by award winning filmmaker Morgan Jon Fox ("Blue Citrus Hearts," "OMG/HaHaHa").

Arizona newspaper features same-sex couple with 12 children and other Tuesday midday news briefs

This video breaks marriage equality down to the matter of common sense. All of that stuff NOM spouts about marriage being about "two halves uniting to create children" is just junk. What would it really hurt allow couples such as this one to get married?

And in other news:


'Little popular support in RI,' says Maggie; 'Stop stealing my gig,' says Pinocchio - Maggie Gallagher tells a blatant lie about popular support for marriage equality in Rhode Island.

2 gay dads, 12 happy kids - Yes! We need more articles in the media like this one.

Peter LaBarbera Thought Matt Barber’s “Joke” Was Funny - Dumb asses of a feather flock together.

Family Research Council clearly ducking debate over hate group charge

"The people who avoid a debate are the ones afraid of losing."

This statement by Family Research Council head Tony Perkins was meant to smear the lgbt community in regards to the recent debacle of the law firm King & Spalding's decision not to defend the DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) in court.

Of course this decision was a bit more complicated than the narrative of a bullying lgbt community, as this Huffington Post article clearly shows.

But I find that Perkins's statement about cowardice relating less to the lgbt community and more to his organization, the Family Research Council.

In November of last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center officially named FRC  - and several other religious right groups - as anti-gay hate groups because they

have continued to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities. These groups’ influence reaches far beyond what their size would suggest, because the “facts” they disseminate about homosexuality are often amplified by certain politicians, other groups and even news organizations.

In response, FRC  launched a huge "Start Debating, Stop Hating" campaign which claimed that SPLC's accusation was a plot to attack FRC's "Christian" stance on gay marriage and homosexuality:

The surest sign one is losing a debate is to resort to character assassination. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal fundraising machine whose tactics have been condemned by observers across the political spectrum, is doing just that.

The group, which was once known for combating racial bigotry, is now attacking several groups that uphold Judeo-Christian moral views, including marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

How does the SPLC attack? By labeling its opponents "hate groups." No discussion. No consideration of the issues. No engagement. No debate!

Perkins said an interview with Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller:

“We’re not afraid to debate the issues,” Perkins said in a phone interview. “We are not running from the debate. We are confident on the issues we advocate for based on empirical, peer-reviewed research.”

The comment is highly ironic seeing that the last time Perkins did have a debate on the issue - on the news program Hardball with the SPLC's Mark Potok - he distorted data to make the inaccurate claim that pedophilia and homosexuality is connected. He also cited an organization, the American College of Pediatricians. It was later discovered that the ACP is not a legitimate medical organization but a sham group created to push religious right distortions about the lgbt community.

Hardball's host, Chris Matthews, was forced to give a clarifying statement regarding the ACP on a later broadcast.

Since that time, Perkins has pretty much avoided debates, appearing on "friendly" news programs such as  Fox and Friends.  Nor has he been directly addressing SPLC's charges.

Now in December of last year, FRC spokesperson Peter Sprigg said the following:

"We will be preparing a more detailed response to (the) charge that FRC spreads “falsehoods” in our well-documented research, which does show that certain harms are associated with homosexual conduct."

Sprigg referred readers to two pieces he wrote - Getting It Straight: What the Research Shows About Homosexuality and The Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality. However, both of those pieces contained serious problems with distorted data and studies taken out of context and included studies that FRC admitted removing from its web page because of outdated sources.

Matt Barber uses Bin Laden's death to be disgustingly homophobic

Comments are coming in from all over regarding Osama Bin Laden's death. Probably the most repugnant comes from a familiar source:

We can always count on the Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber to make one feel morally superior. Remember this tweet on the night of President Obama's State of the Union address:

It would be easy to say something about Barber's obsession with gay sex, but something else needs to be said. It's really sad when someone who claims to represent Christianity and the "love of Jesus" exploits this occasion to make a crass joke about the lgbt community.

Granted this is the same guy who whines about how the lgbt community are anti-Christian bullies.

Barber's conduct leaves me to ask him a question:

The lgbt community are not anti-Christian bullies, but if we were, what would it have to do with you because if one were to judge you on your behavior, you are as Christian as the man whose recent death led to your crass comment.

Hat tip to Truth Wins Out.