The Family Research Council vs. Reality

I, and so many others, are of the opinion that the Family Research Council is a deceptive hate group which exploits Christianity in order to gain power and hide its anti-gay animus. However, let's allow the group to defend itself:

Isn't it cute how that video tugs at the heart strings. However here are some things the Family Research Council left out:

 

Know Your LGBT History - My Beautiful Laundrette

There are those who once claimed that playing a gay character would destroy an actor's career. Even in light of the suppose new open-mindedness in Hollywood, some still believe this.

However, not to many people remember that even at the time when this could have been seen as true, there was an exception to this rule - Daniel Day-Lewis.

In 1985, four years before he won his first of three Oscars for Best Actor (which is an Academy Award record),  Lewis portrayed a gay man in a movie which I personally thinks still holds up even to the stuff out today.

My Beautiful Laundrette was  comedy-drama set in London during the Margaret Thatcher era. It tells the story of a British Pakistani young man (Gordon Warnecke) who hopes to make a success out of a rundown laundrette.  There are tensions with right-wing Londoners who don't like Warnecke's ethnicity. Amongst them is a man he recognizes as an old school mate (Daniel Day-Lewis).

It's later which we find out that they had a relationship in school when they choose to continue to the relationship in spite of all of the stuff going on.

My Beautiful Laundrette is a refreshing movie in that it treats a gay relationship with no pretension at all. It also presents the tension between British Pakistanis and right-wing Londoners without any shred of apology or moralizing.

Best of all - and folks hate me for doing this but I feel that lgbts should know when movies pertaining to us have happy endings - it all works out for Lewis and Warnecke. In spite of the fact that they have to hide their relationship from Warnecke's parents and Lewis's friends (who would probably kill Lewis if they knew that he was gay), there is a happy ending. It's not one of those stand up and cheer moments.

Rather, it's a nice and quiet acknowledgement of the simplicity of love.


Past Know Your LGBT History Posts:

'AFA cuts ties with anti-gay group leader Austin Ruse after comments supporting murder of university leaders' and other Friday midday news briefs

No matter how they attempt to twist it, it's nasty images and claims like above which is a main reason why organizations like NOM is losing in their war against marriage equality and lgbt families. Desiring a family and the taking care of children is not a competition between the lgbt and heterosexual community. It's a simple fact that all of the false talking points and junk science can't erase.

In other news:  

American Family Association Cuts Ties With Austin Ruse After He Called For Professors To Be Shot - Damn! You know you must be really out there if the American Family Association (who employs the insanely homophobic Bryan Fischer) thinks you are too extreme to be associated with.  

Why The Most Often Cited Anti-Gay ‘Expert’ Has Nothing Useful To Say About Same-Sex Marriage - Speaking of anti-gay junk science, Zack Ford of Think Progress completely decimates Mark Regenrus' infamous junk study on same-sex families and children.  

Porno Pete Upset About Nice Honey Maid Ad Featuring Wholesome Gay Family - Gasp! How dare an ad show a normal gay family!  

The State of Black LGBT People and Their Families - Cause you just KNOW that neither Roland Martin nor the rest of the heterosexual black media will talk about this crucial issue.

 Obama Administration Orders Some Insurers To Cover Gay Spouses - Slowly but surely, equality will happen.

Anti-gay group leader Austin Ruse flees twitter after controversial comments about shooting university leaders

Ruse

Oh you "mean, intolerant" progressives and liberals! What did you do to "poor" Austin Ruse.

Yesterday,  Ruse - president of the SPLC-designated anti-gay hate group the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute - made the wild comment that university leaders should be lined up and shot.

Earlier today, he wrapped himself up in ghetto- fabulous bravado, alternating between claims that he made the comments as a figure of speech, he made the comments to get the liberals upset, and it doesn't really matter because "dumb liberals" are trying to silence him:

I guess he got the message that no one was buying his ridiculous explanations because Ruse later took his profile off of twitter completely.  I really can't blame him for this. I would catch his occasional twitter comments today and he was getting blitzed by folks either angered or alarmed at his rhetoric.

Anti-gay group president Austin Ruse makes sad attempt to explain away his call to violence against university leaders

Austin Ruse

Yesterday Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute  - one of the newest additions to SPLC's list of anti-gay hate groups -  made the following shocking statement as he raged against a Duke University student who just revealed herself to be a porn actress:

That is the nonsense that they teach in women’s studies at Duke University, this is where she learned this. The toxic stew of the modern university is gender studies, it’s “Sex Week,” they all have “Sex Week” and teaching people how to be sex-positive and overcome the patriarchy. My daughters go to a little private religious school and we pay an arm and a leg for it precisely to keep them away from all of this kind of nonsense. I do hope that they go to a Christian college or university and to keep them so far away from the hard left, human-hating people that run modern universities, who should all be taken out and shot.

In a later twitter conversation (initiated by me), Ruse attempted to explain away his comments in between insulting another blogger and myself:

@holybullies Your poor sap. You think you can give me a big audience? Right. You are your two readers. a huh..
— Austin Ruse (@austinruse) March 12, 2014

@austinruse u poor thing. is that the best u got? i'm disappointed. u wanna talk about Russia now?
— Holy Bullies (@holybullies) March 12, 2014

@holybullies Poor sad hater....
— Austin Ruse (@austinruse) March 12, 2014

Family Research Council ally against SPLC has odd history of 'attacking' anal sex

Rep. Bob McDermott

Below this post is one explaining how the Family Research Council, with the help of a state representative in Hawaii is attacking the Southern Poverty Center for a workshop held for teachers regarding tolerating differences in classrooms.

The post goes into detail as to how this is actually a vendetta against SPLC for naming the Family Research Council as a hate group in 2010. However, there is more information regarding the state Rep. Bob McDermott, who is leading the charge against SPLC.

Apparently he is known for his bizarre attacks against a sexual education program which he feels talks too much about anal sex. Earlier this year, he held a press conference complaining about the program, Pono Choices. According to the Honolulu Civil Beat:

Bob McDermott, it seems, is obsessed with anuses.

In particular, the state legislator believes that the anus is not the same as a penis or a vagina because it isn't involved in making babies.

Public schools should not teach kids in grades 6-8 that anal sex is appropriate behavior — something the Republican representing Ewa, Ewa Beach and Iroquois Point, argues is part of the "agenda" of a Department of Education sex-ed program called Pono Choices.

"The anus is presented as genitalia, just another sex organ," he informed reporters at a press conference at the Capitol Thursday. "This is another example of forced 'equality' by ignoring the natural function of the rectum and anus. Therefore 'political' correctness dictates that the male rectum and the female vagina are 'equal' in terms of being sexual organs. This totally ignores the obvious facts of human biology and reproduction."

McDermott wants the DOE to pull Pono Choices from schools or revise it to his liking because, he contends, it is not medically accurate or age-appropriate, and it does not adequately warn of the dangers of sex between gay men. 

Anti-gay group Family Research Council continues silly vendetta against the Southern Poverty Law Center

Tony Perkins of FRC

Imagine my weariness when I opened my email to yet another notice from the Family Research Council about the false controversy involving the Southern Poverty Law Center workshop in Hawaii:

What's the going rate for political groups to buy classroom time these days? InHawaii, it's $250. At least that's what the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is paying teachers for the opportunity to present its radical message to kids as young as six and seven. The pay-to-play scheme is getting plenty of attention in the state, as more reporters dig deeper into the stipend scandal that lured teachers to take SPLC's two-day "Tolerance" workshop. While the Department of Education investigates the ethics complaint filed by State Representative Bob McDermott, more information is surfacing about the stipend scandal. Turns out, the $250 paid for a lot more influence than people originally knew. On top of the initial kickback, teachers were eligible for more money "if they implemented and submitted one lesson stemming from what they learned at the workshop, wrote up five implementation logs and agreed to be observed teaching the anti-bias material in the classroom." In other words, SPLC is paying teachers for access to students -- and worse, its employees will be fanning out in classrooms across Hawaii for "observation."

Oh clutch the pearls! However, don't be fooled. This is yet another much ado about nothing. From the Hawaii News Now:

A state lawmaker has filed an ethics complaint against the Department of Education because he said it broke the law by allowing an outside nonprofit to pay teachers stipends for attending a controversial anti-bias workshop. The Department of Education held the two-day training session at Wist Hall on the University of Hawaii Manoa campus a couple of weeks ago to help social studies and English teachers work anti-bias and multicultural lessons into their teaching.

The curriculum was created by the Southern Poverty Law Center for the workshop attended by 28 public school teachers.

State Rep. Bob McDermott (R- Ewa, Ewa Beach) said it went far beyond teaching tolerance. 

"It goes into forced acceptance, affirmation and celebration of behaviors that people of faith or creed or moral code find objectionable," McDermott said.    

McDermott is upset that suggested reading lists for children in kindergarten through 2nd grade include a short story called "10,000 Dresses," about a little boy who likes to wear dresses. 

There's a second story about two gay penguins.  

"Why does a first grader need to know about two homosexual penguins? Please, tell me.  Are we trying to indoctrinate, brainwash them?" McDermott asked. 

In other words, there is no controversy other than a state official raising a fuss over a workshop while being spurred on by FRC's hysterical notices.  It wouldn't be a surprise should it be discovered that McDermott and FRC are in "close contact" with each other about this situation.