Poor Family Research Council can't come up with any new arguments against marriage equality

FRC's Tony Perkins

One would think that in the face of the consistent number of victories the lgbt community have been winning when it comes to marriage equality, anti-gay groups would at least make an attempt to come up with new, albeit still bogus, talking points.

Guess again.

According to the Family Research Council, the piece Ten Arguments From Social Science Against Same-Sex Marriage, is trending on its webpage.This is not a new piece. It came out in 2011. And I would know this because I took extreme delight in calling out the numerous deceptions and evasions in the piece.

So I guess today's post can be considered as a revisit and a reminder of how empty FRC's arguments against marriage equality actually are:

In Ten Arguments From Social Science Against Same-Sex Marriage, Family Research Council is basing the argument against gay marriage on the claim that "children need both a mother and a father."

FRC makes the claim that lesbians household "raising children without a father" is wrong because according to them:

Among other things, we know that fathers excel in reducing antisocial behavior and delinquency in boys and sexual activity in girls.

And gay households "raising children without a mother" is wrong because:

fathers exercise a unique social and biological influence on their children. For instance, a recent study of father absence on girls found that girls who grew up apart from their biological father were much more likely to experience early puberty and a teen pregnancy than girls who spent their entire childhood in an intact family.

However, very little (if any at all) of the literature/studies FRC cites to make these conclusions have anything to do with same-sex households.

How Matt Barber's anti-gay BarbWire is proving the case for lgbt equality, acceptance

Matt Barber, creator of BarbWire

I want to devote today's midday news briefs to make a special announcement:

It's safe to say that  Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association has been partly supplanted as our resident go-to anti-gay activist when we want to dispel the anti-gay right's claim that they don't hate the lgbt community and their homophobic actions are the result of  "concern and love."

Granted, we can always count on Fischer to say something outrageous which moves the needle forward towards lgbt equality. But if we want maximum jet propulsion, let's point to Matt Barber and his publication, BarbWire.

Barber, who no doubt considers himself as Barbara Streisand of the anti-gay industry in that he writes columns, is a dean at the extremely conservative Liberty Counsel university,  and published one ridiculous book on his anti-gay activism, seems to have outdone himself with the founding of online publication, Barbwire.

According to Barber, he began the publication - which speaks in extreme terms against the lgbt community - because supposedly he is at "war with Satan." Based upon the articles published by BarbWire, Barber seems to really believe this junk:

BarbWire: Obama, Pro-Gay Rights Christians Are 'Servants Of Satan'  

BarbWire: 'Al-'Gay'Da' And 'Lezbollah' Terrorists Brought Down Mozilla CEO
 
Barber: World Vision Has Clearly Fallen Under Satan's Deception  

Right-Wing Pundits Call Gay Rights Advocates 'Rainbowshirts,' 'Terrorists' And 'The New Nazis'  

BarbWire Blames Gays For Child Rapist’s Light Sentence 

 BarbWire: 'Gay-KK' Will 'Lynch' Christians BarbWire: 'Don't Negotiate With Queer Terrorists'  

BarbWire: Gay Rights 'Has Its Roots In Hell,' Championed By 'Godless Human Minions Of Satan'

BarbWire: 'Homo-Maniacal' Gays Will Put Christians In Cattle Cars 

 
I personally say Barber is half baked and three fries short of a Happy Meal. Others may call him a genius because there is a segment of the population which eats up BarbWire's intense homophobia like pigs at a trough.

Whatever the case may be, I appreciate Barber's oblivious candor.

Those who call Barber a genius for exploiting the ignorance of a segment of the population forget that when some people carry themselves like pigs at a trough, there is always another segment - usually larger than the former - who get quite disgusted at what they see.

In other words, in a backdrop of a world where we are seeing more acceptance (not enough, mind you) of lgbt people and families and a basic understanding of our issues because we are becoming more out and vocal , the last thing the anti-gay right needs is hyperbolic screechings of "Nazis" and "Satan." This screeching only serves to prove our point that those who oppose our equality aren't operating from a religious point-of-view, but one of hatred and fear.

Of course, I doubt that any of this will register to Barber and his minions at BarbWire. Therefore, like Crash Test Dummies, they will continue to bang into the wall of homophobia; a wall they freely created.

Have fun guys. I will be around to point out your ignorance and hatred every time you bang into that wall.

Hat tip to Right Wing Watch for its information on BarbWire.

Arguments opposing marriage equality, interracial marriage are VERY similar

No matter how many times the opponents of marriage equality say that their opposition is not similar to that of interracial marriage, reality always smacks them in the face

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

As the judge listened to the attorney explain the state’s interest in barring the couple from marrying, he had a question: Are you saying there is scientific evidence that shows some children will be harmed by such marriages? 

The question posed to R.D. McIlwaine III, assistant attorney general of Virginia, came from U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren on April 10, 1967.

The case, of course, was Loving v. Virginia, which ended bans on interracial marriage.

On Thursday, 47 years to the day after Warren posed his question, 10th Circuit Judge Jerome A. Holmes, who is black, brought the Loving case squarely into the same-sex marriage debate as he asked the attorney representing Utah, how is a line drawn on gender any different from one that divided races when it comes to the right to marry?

“You have a man who wants to marry another man, the only thing that bars him from getting married is sex, gender,” Holmes said. “So why is that any different than Loving when you are drawing a line that is based on a protected classification?”

Attorney Gene C. Schaerr has argued in court filings that a decision affirming U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Shelby’s Dec. 20 ruling that the state’s ban is unconstitutional would be a “judicial wrecking ball” rather than “the Loving of our age.”

Schaerr told Holmes last week in Denver, that the difference was that the Loving decision didn’t “intrude into the state of Virginia’s definitional authority over marriage. The exclusion of mixed-race couples was a regulatory exclusion.” And it left intact man-woman marriage, he said.

“The whole presumption in Loving was talking about man-woman marriage,” he said, which is “fundamental to procreating and maintaining the human race.”

But from its inception, the Loving case was framed not around gender but race, and in language and principles that parallel those used today in the same-sex marriage debate: procreation, what’s best for children, what’s natural and traditional and what’s in keeping with God’s will.

Doesn't that last paragraph sound familiar to you? For the rest of this article, read Experts: Gay marriage opponents echo mixed-race arguments.

'Transgender teacher reinstated' and other Friday midday news briefs

BREAKING: Transgender teacher says she’s been reinstated by Lumberton school district - A continuation from yesterday's news briefs. I do so love a happy ending. 

Anti-gay crusader Peter LaBarbara detained in Canada under ‘hate propaganda’ law - The irony is rich. LaBarbera feels that foreign countries should have the autonomy to imprison their own lgbt citizens but apparently not to bar his hate speech. He is appealing the case today and if he loses, it's "get the hell out of Canada" for LaBarbera.  

FRC blatantly lies to U.S. Senators - It's nothing new when the Family Research Council lies but we must never become so blase as to not point it out.  

Anti-Gay Group’s Fundraiser Compares Marriage Equality To Slavery - Feel free to start laughing.

 The Five Worst Religious Right Claims About Safe Schools Initiatives - Today is GLSEN's Day of Silence 2014. It's a day which highlights the problems our lgbt children have to deal with and these awful claims play a huge part in creating these problems.  

Virginia Attorney General Files Brief Supporting Gay Marriage - Oh this is goooooood!

Matt Barber's homophobic dilemma or . . . is Liberty University in league with 'Satan?'

Matt Barber

Liberty University Dean and arch-homophobe Matt Barber was interviewed today by the equally vile Cliff Kincaid. Naturally with those two together, one can easily guess the subject - those "evil homosexuals."

From Right Wing Watch:

During the program, Kincaid asked Barber about his new BarbWire website and why he felt the need to start this new project, to which Barber replied that it was built because "we are at war" with Satan and so the website was designed to play a key role in waging "spiritual warfare." "We are going to take a firm position," Barber explained, "we're not going to take even an inch step backward in this culture war. We recognize that we are at war here with the radical progressive left in the United States of America and so we are going to cut through all of their nonsense, all of their propaganda, the lies of the enemy; you know, as a Christian site, the enemy being the Prince of the Earth, Satan himself, that's what we're up against here. And this is very much spiritual warfare":

Hyperbole is nothing new for Barber. But this time, I think it's safe to say that he is now in the middle of the largest contradiction of homophobia thus far in 2014. You see, it's ironic that Barber implies that fighting the lgbt community is like fighting against Satan when his employer, Liberty University is presently in the middle of a controversy involving a gay man it hired to choreograph a play.

'Teacher suspended for merely being transgender' and other Thursday midday news briefs

WATCH: Texas Teacher Suspended for Being Transgender - This is a load of junk. Parents complained because they didn't want to explain to their children the subject of being transgender. It's been my experience that children generally handle discussions like these better than parents. 

Breitbart Texas Smears Teacher Suspended For Being Transgender - And crap like this doesn't help anyone.

Dayton Approves Tougher Anti-Bullying Law - Minnesota passes and its governor signs a very strict anti-bullying bill after "some folks" tried to filibuster it. 

Utah Distances Itself From Mark Regnerus’ Anti-Gay Study It Previously Cited - I am so not gloating here but "he he he he!" 

 Mike Huckabee Denies History Of Anti-LGBT Vitriol - Mike Huckabee likes to swear up and down that he is not homophobic when it comes to his anti-gay statements. He claims he is simply "defending his faith." Mike Huckabee is that rare breed of person who will lie in your face with the hope that you have a short memory. We don't and neither does Equality Matters.

SC legislator Garry Smith - gays were plotting to 'recruit' children until he stopped them

SC Rep. Garry Smith

If this blog had a "tacky shit-o-meter," the following item would be number one this week. One of the South Carolina legislators attacking state colleges for assigning books with gay-themes actually sent out a fundraising letter with claim so nauseating that Anita Bryant would tell him to tone it down.

I hope you haven't eaten before reading this snippet from Rep. Garry Smith:

Dear Friend,

Radical leftists constantly try to assert that political conservatives, cultural traditionalists, people of faith — basically anyone who doesn't agree with their agenda — are "intolerant." But let's step back and take a good look at who's being intolerant.

I'm Rep. Garry Smith, and I've recently taken a bold stand that has put me squarely in the crosshairs of some of the most intolerant people in American today — the far-left militant homosexual community...

There is a concerted effort to push anti-American, anti-Christian, and non-traditional values onto our children at their most intellectually vulnerable stages — as they're learning in our public schools and universities. I've been watching this phenomenon unfold for years and, finally, a recent event pushed me to the breaking point.

When the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina-Upstate required that college students read blatantly pro-homosexual and pornographic propaganda without any alternative or counter-balancing view being offered, I said, "Enough is enough!"

As legislators, we have limited power to stop this nation's cultural slide, but one thing we do control are the purse strings of our public schools. That includes our K-12 schools and our public colleges and universities. I will not stand idly by and allow our tax dollars to be used to fund radical leftists' and militant homosexuals' propaganda machine.

I led the charge in the South Carolina legislature to strip funding from the public institutions of learning that are pushing this garbage on our students — and that's what it is, GARBAGE!

You can imagine the reaction that is now sweeping our part of this great nation. For taking a stand and saying, "You're not spending my tax dollars and those of my constituents to push this garbage on our children," and now, I'm being threatened and called every name in the book.

It's the usual bullying routine you see whenever someone who holds to traditional values takes a stand against the radical left. The true hatred, bigotry, and intolerance that exists in this country comes out and the individual carrying the flag for traditional values is targeted with vicious verbal attacks, smears, threats, and intimidation.

You can read the rest at Charleston City Paper. By the way, Smith is so full of crap that you can smell him with both nostrils closed. He is running unopposed.

Now ain't THAT scary?