It's not enough to call them bigots

 A repost from last year

We know that religious right groups peddle distortions designed to demonize the lgbt community.

However we really should do more than simply declare them bigots.  Members of the right tend to embrace that definition, using it to play the martyr and lie about about how they are being unfairly attacked for simply speaking about their "personally held Christian beliefs."

The lgbt community needs to follow the advice of high school math teachers and "show our work" in proving what needs to be known about these so-called pro-family groups, i.e. that they lie intentionally to create a phony picture of the lgbt community. So I have compiled a pattern of religious right deception which can be broken down to six techniques:

1. Using nonrepresentative or out-of-date studies to make generalizations, or distorting legitimate studies to give misleading conclusions

Example 1 - Religious right talking point: According to the book Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women, 43 percent of white male homosexuals had sex with 500 or more partners, with 28 percent having 1,000 or more sexual partners. Therefore gays have no concept of mongamy and certainly can't be trusted to raise children.

Truth - Homosexualities was a book written in 1978 that only looked a certain portion of the lgbt population (gay men in the city of San Francisco). It also did not look at same-sex households. In addition, the authors of Homosexualities (Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg) said that their book should not be used to generalize about all gays in general:

“. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlikely that any investigator will ever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”

Example 2 - Religious right talking point: Same sex marriage and gay adoption are bad ideas because research shows that the best places to raise children are in homes with a mother and a father.

The truth - The research only looked at heterosexual two-parent households as opposed to single parent heterosexual households. Same-sex households were never included.

Reasons why NOM should be named as a hate group

While the National Organization for Marriage was called out by the Southern Poverty Law Center for attacking the gay community with lies and propaganda, the organization was not declared a hate group by SPLC. However, based upon the following reasons, I think SPLC needs to take closer look at NOM and declare the organization to be an anti-gay hate group:

May 10, 2011 - NOM exploiting children to stop gay marriage in New York - NOM puts out a commercial in New York repeating the variation of the "kindergartners are being taught about gay marriage" lie which was exposed by Politifact in February.

May 14, 2011 - Politifact gives NOM 'Pants on Fire' rating for lying - Politifact catches NOM lying yet again. This time it is about marriage equality in Rhode Island.

May 15, 2011 - Brian Brown reveals NOM's anti-gay game of divide and conquer - At a march against marriage equality in New York, NOM president Brian Brown repeats the lie that  " . . . kids as young as kindergarten are taught in Massachusetts that their parents are bigots because they believe marriage is the union of a man and a woman."

May 16, 2011 - NOM - Homosexuals wants to destroy children's innocence through gay marriage - NOM sends out a flyer claiming that gay marriage will destroy the "innocence" of children.

An inaccurate flyer put out by NOM

May 22, 2011 - MN's chief anti-equality lobby: 'Accepting homosexuals as normal victimizes homosexuals themselves' - It is discovered that NOM's partner to stop marriage equality in Minnesota - the Minnesota Family Council - has material on its webpage falsely accusing the gay community of pedophilia, bestiality, and the consuming of urine and feces.  This material is removed from the webpage, but MFC's president, Tom Prichard, still defends the lies. NOM makes no comment about the controversy and is presently still partnered with the group.

June 28, 2011 - NOM astroturfed 'legal scholars' in New York - During its unsuccessful attempt to stop marriage equality in New York, NOM tried to make it seem that objective legal scholars were claiming that marriage equality in the state will negatively impact those who disagree with it. But NOM omits the fact that these scholars are not objective. They are all against marriage equality. And one of the scholars in question, Robert George, is presently the Chairman Emeritus of NOM.

And if those reasons aren't enough, Equality Matters has a huge breakdown of NOM's exploits which go way beyond simply "expressing Christian faith" or "defending traditional marriage." The following are just a few:

NOM’s Ruth Institute: “It Gets Better” Project “Aggressively Promotes Deviant Sex”

NOM: Homosexuality Will “Hurt You Badly,” “End Your Life Prematurely” 

NOM President Claims Marriage Equality Will “Normalize Pedophilia”

NOM Links Homosexuality To Pedophilia (Again)

NOM Newsletter: Gays Are Engaged In “Jihad,” Want To “Take Away Your Rights”

NOM’s Idea Of “Excellent” Analysis: Calling Homosexuality An “Addictive,” “Learned” Behavior 

NOM Promotes Column Claiming That Normalizing Homosexuality Is “Sexual Anarchy”

And then there are the following past incidents which I have referred to on several occasions.

Know Your LGBT History - The Hotel New Hampshire

Don't even try to ask me what The Hotel New Hampshire (1984) is about. It's a monstrosity of a movie which I am guessing isn't the highlight for the careers of Rob Lowe, Jodie Foster, Matthew Modine, or Paul McCrane.

From Wikipedia:

In the 1950s, Win Berry (Beau Bridges) and his wife (Lisa Banes) have five children, John (Rob Lowe), Franny (Jodie Foster), Frank (Paul McCrane), Lilly (Jennifer Dundas), and Egg (Seth Green). The Berrys decide to open a hotel near the prep school that John, Franny, and Frank attend; they call it the Hotel New Hampshire.

It was originally a John Irving novel which should have stayed as such. I hated it.

But at least it does have a decent portrayal of a gay man (Paul McCrane).And where else can you see a gay bashing, revenge for the gay bashing, nudity, and family acceptance all combined in one scene?

Not for the easily offended:

Mud F***er




The Hotel New Hampshire

— MOVIECLIPS.com

Past Know Your LGBT Posts: 

Refuting anti-gay lies in North Carolina and other Friday midday news briefs

Standing Ovation For North Carolina's James Forrester After Saying Gay People Are 'Unhealthy' - Unbelievable hot mess. And with all due respect, the article merely reported what this man said and offered no refutations. Allow me to. His lie is from either two sources - 1. is the discredited research of Paul Cameron. 2. A 1997 Canadian study. In 2001, the researchers of the study came out complaining as to how the religious right was cherry picking their work to make the phony claim that gay men have a short lifespan. It's not enough to publicized what homophobes say. When we know that they are lying, we need to say this.

Related posts:

Why we should care about Paul Cameron

How religious right groups distort good science in the name of God

In other news . . .

Anti-Gay Tennessee Group Whines About Inclusive Insurance Agency - Poor babies.

Kern Doubles Down On Claim That Homosexuality Is "More Dangerous" Than Terrorist Attacks - But yet when we called Kern out for saying such mess, we were somehow "persecuting" her.
  
Something Rotten In The State Of NOM… - NOM rewrites Hamlet?

Top 20 Things That Owe Their Existence to Queers - Let's end the news briefs with a very good history lesson.

NOM is now attacking same-sex families

According to Equality Matters, the Ruth Institute - a group affiliated with the National Organization for Marriage, is pushing nonsense which attacks same-sex families:

On September 7, the Ruth Institute published excerpts from a column written by David van Gend, a spokesman for the Family Council of Queensland in Australia. Van Gend has previously encouraged gay people to “escape the suffering of same-sex attraction” through so-called ex-gay therapy. Yeah, it’s going to be one of those columns.

In his piece, Van Gend makes clear that it’s not just marriage equality he’s opposed to – it’s any law that allows same-sex couples to raise children:

Obviously there are tragic situations where a child cannot have both a mum and a dad, such as the death or desertion of a parent, but that is not a situation we would ever wish upon a child, and that is not a situation that any government should inflict upon a child.

Yet legalising same-sex marriage will inflict that deprivation on a child. That is why it is wrong, and that is why all laws are wrong that permit single people or same-sex couples to obtain a child by IVF, surrogacy, or adoption. [emphasis added]

Van Gend’s full column is also bursting at the seams with anti-gay misinformation, including:

• Asserting that marriage equality will lead to polygamy
• Citing MassResistance – a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated anti-gay hate group – to support the (thoroughly debunked) claim that kids are being forced to learn about homosexuality in school
• Promoting the (also thoroughly debunked) myth that the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) distributed copies of “The Little Black Book” to high school students

Opposing same-sex parenting, repeating long-disproved anti-gay talking points, and partnering with known hate groups – all in a day’s work at NOM.

They just can't help themselves, can they?  Time to add more reasons to my Why NOM is bigoted list.

Related post:

Eleven examples of NOM's bigotry 

Slur spewing pastor taking center stage in North Carolina

Donald Fozard

Those against marriage equality in North Carolina pushing the race card extremely hard.

Yesterday, the National Organization for Marriage pushed a portion of an Associated Press article which focused on a group of black pastors who supported the upcoming anti-marriage equality amendment.

Today, NOM pushed the below video on its blog claiming the following:

An ABC news video on the North Carolina debate. The black church is taking a leading role, to Democrats dismay.

But when one looks at the video, one sees that the claim is false:




Now Focus on the Family has done the same thing, i.e. pushing the idea that the black church is going to "save" North Carolina from "the gays.":



Focus on the Family’s audio and the video featured by NOM have two things in common. Both omit the fact that the state NAACP has been very vocal in opposition to the amendment. And both feature a pastor named Donald Q. Fozard of the Mount Zion Christian Church. He is the man who is speaking in the FOF audio and the man calling another a “liar” in the video.

From the way Fozard has made himself available to NOM and FOF, one gets the idea that he is trying to be the southern Ruben Diaz.

However, one could say that Fozard is a bit more like Fred Phelps. This is him in 2004:

From this past Sunday's sermon, one would think the Rev. Donald Q. Fozard Sr. likes saying the word faggot. The pastor of Durham's Mount Zion Christian Church hollers the word's last syllable as if he were exorcising a demon, or as if he were a movie star who understands that notoriety rises when you do something incendiary.

"Faggots across the nation, heading churches. Homos on the pianos. Faggots in the choir. What kind of spirit is leading that church?" he asked his 150 worshippers.

. . . Fozard continued with his own spectacular show. "And now? Men with men, women with women? Let me remind you of Sodom and Gomorrah. That sin will bring fire from heaven. I tell the homosexual man: repent, turn and get a woman. I tell the woman who wants to get married: get yourself a man."

(If Fozard stresses the last syllable of "faggot," he sounds out each vowel and consonant of "homosexual".) "The Reverend Al Sharpton says it doesn't matter who you sleep with?" he said. "I'll tell you one thing: the Reverend ain't no Reverend. All of them are running around saying it doesn't matter who you sleep with! They want that little 1 percent of faggots that go to vote."

I assure you that this is no joke. Thanks to NOM and those who are trying to stop marriage equality in NC, a slur speaking awful excuse for a reverend has now taken center stage.

This mean unfortunately that yet again the religious right - particularly NOM - is exploiting the black community. And yet again the black church is allowing itself to be used as a tool against its own people.

But most specifically what will a young African-American lgbtq think after seeing this?

That seems to be the one thing which no one thinks about – not the gay community in its justified anger, not the black church in its self-righteous pose, not the black pastors who spew such vitriol in pursuit of attention and monetary gain (because if you don’t think money has changed hands when black pastors come out against gay equality, you are fooling yourself), and certainly not the organizations like NOM or FOF instigating this mess.

For every "faggot" or "liar" that comes out of Fozard's mouth, I see a young lgbtq of color pushed deeper into the closet, sneaking out at night, and engaging in unsafe behaviors because he or she feels that they are going to hell anyway so why bother being careful.

Or even worse, moping in their rooms making unnecessary prayers to God about changing their sexual orientation instead of looking at it as a gift from Him - which it is.

You wanna know why HIV and AIDS is affecting the black community at a high rate? Listen to pastors like Fozard, who seem to be so concerned with the spotlight that they are pushing our children to their doom with their hateful  rhetoric.

Well as long as you get camera time and a chance to primp in front of your congregation, who gives a care?

Right, Mr. Fozard?

 Hat tip to Pam's House Blend and Good As You.

What the heck is a 'Gay Zombie' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Maryland Governor O’Malley: Marriage Equality Is About Protecting Children - Truer words were never spoken.

Gay Zombies Want Brains Of Children - And there are people who actually believe this hot mess. I wonder if George Romero will be making a movie about it.

NOM EXPOSED: FEC Filing: NOM gives nearly 50k to defeat David Weprin - Pretty soon, NOM's gravy train will come to a halt and we are going to know who is funding it.

Medical schools not teaching gay health issues - This is not good. It does add to the problem of the gay community not getting adequate health care.

Maryland Del. Burns pressures churches, blacks to oppose marriage-equality bill - Check the brotha's palms for grease.

NOM's 2009 victory in Maine comes back to haunt the organization - It's kinda rare for me to refer to a morning post in the news briefs, but I enjoyed writing this so much that I want other folks to read it. Mark my words on this one, folks.