Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
For someone who likes to quote the infamous Dred Scott decision in defense of his opposition to marriage equality and of Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, Mike Huckabee doesn't seem to know pertinent things about it.
While defending Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis’s
refusal to issue marriage licenses out of her religious opposition to
same-sex marriage, Mike Huckabee said Wednesday that the Supreme Court’s
1857 ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford — which held that all
blacks, free or enslaved, could not be American citizens — is still the
law of the land even though no one follows it.
Radio host Michael Medved quickly pointed out to the former governor
of Arkansas that the decision was overturned by the 13th Amendment.
(Although the 13th Amendment ended slavery, the birthright citizenship
clause in the 14th Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision.)
And if you ask me, when describing the branches of government, Huckabee was deliberately vague on the duties of the Supreme Court. That tells me he knows that he is misleading people.
If you ask me, this Kim Davis situation seems to be making a 180 degree turn. The anti-gay right wanted to use her for a symbol of how lgbt equality would supposedly cause the suppression of Christianity. Not only did this prove to be false, but as it turns out, the more they exploit her, the more America sees the duplicitous face of the so-called traditional values movement.
A perfect example would be a recent interview that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly conducted with the Family Research Council head Tony Perkins seen below courtesy of Right Wing Watch .
To put it nicely, the portion below went bad for Perkins and ended with him telling a HUGE lie about Kim Davis (which I took the liberty of highlighting):
Transcript:
Kelly: You know the argument on the other side though. What if somebody goes in there and says, my sincerely held religious beliefs and now we're back in 1952 say, blacks and whites shouldn't get married. And therefore, I don't care that the Supreme Court said it's legal, I object and therefore, no.
Perkins: Well, it's much different. You have a long standing orthodox view about marriage in the Bible. The issue of interracial marriage is very difficult to point to in scripture. Are there some that hold that view? Yes. But it is --
Kelly: What about Muslims? What about Muslims who say, a Muslim man may not marry a Christian woman and therefore you applying to me on the Muslim clerck? I'm not giving you that marriage license.
Perkins: If -- are you saying if there is a Muslim and clerk that --
Kelly: The Muslim clerk says, I want a religious accommodation -- how many accommodations can we grant?
Perkins: Right. In this particular case. What you have are the voters of this district, of this region of the country that elected her as the clerk. If they don't like what she is doing they can kick her out. It is not up to some unelected judge to impose his views on her and hold her in contempt of basically whatever he wants.
Kelly: And she may yet be if somehow she interferes with future licenses to be issued by the deputies although it doesn't sound like she is going to do that if they changed the issue.
Perkins: Well, here is all she wants. All she wants is to have her name off the license. She is not saying nobody in my office can issue this. She's saying, I just don't want my name -- -
That is a huge lie. Perkins conveniently omitted that Davis DID say that other clerks in her office could not issue marriage licenses. Right Wing Watch supplied a link to a New York Times article which validated this:
Ms. Davis’s appearance before Judge Bunning, and her subsequent
detention, was a signal development in a case that surfaced soon after
the Supreme Court’s ruling in June. Faced with the ruling, Ms. Davis, an
Apostolic Christian, directed her office to stop providing marriage
licenses to any applicants.
Furthermore, now that Davis has been released, she has not indicated that she won't give the same order she did as before. However if she does, one clerk said he would not follow her order.
So the bottom line is perhaps Perkins should stop obsessing over the so-called sin of homosexuality and focus on his own deliberate sins.
One thing is clear about yesterday's monstrosity of an event "celebrating" Kim Davis - Mike Huckabee's reputation seems to be taking a serious beating in the press. He wasn't that popular to begin with in general but the way he bent over backwards to upstage Ted Cruz - and even Kim Davis herself - has been duly noted.
Huckabee Aide Physically Blocked Cruz From Getting Into Kim Davis Money Shot - Then there is THIS. The single event which epitomized not only yesterday but the hypocrisy of the anti-gay right. Just my opinion by the way, but if you THINK that aide took this action without prior instructions from you-know-who, you are naive.
So Kim Davis has been released from jail with some provisos and though she and her supporters may act as if they won, and people like Mike Huckabee and Brian Brown may act like something great has happened, it's still a loss for them.
Marriage equality is still legal and if Ms. Davis interferes with other clerks granting marriage licenses, then back to jail she goes. In other words, I doubt this is over because of the obstinate nature of anti-gay activists, something which I spent quite a number of years studying.
But today, I really despise Kim Davis. Granted, her crusade was bad enough, but now she has personally offended me. Twice today, I've had to compliment someone from Fox News for telling the truth about her controversy. This morning was a panel calling out Davis and her Liberty Counsel attorney.
And now is Fox News journalist Shepard Smith with a few words which practically nails what this madness is all about:
Editor's note - I'm tired of Kim Davis. I KNOW you are tired of Kim Davis, but it is very important that we keep our guard up and assert our legal right to marriage equality regardless of anything. The narrative belongs to us, not people like Kim Davis or Mike Huckabee, That's why I am bringing this news to you. Please don't feel that I am overwhelming you, but the truth is we cannot ignore this situation:
A Tragic Love Story In 30 Pictures - A reminder of what so many lgbt couples face around the world and symbolically what we here have faced. Warning - it's brutal.
If you are still reading, thank you. Enjoy the clip below from a wonderful show of my childhood, The Electric Company. To answer your question, yes that is Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno:
Unfortunately, the Kim Davis saga continues with no sign of abating. The good news is no matter how they try, those supporting the jailed Kentucky clerk can't use any talking points to get past the fact that she is breaking the law. The bad news is that their failure doesn't mean they are going to stop trying. Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will be having a rally this afternoon in support of Davis.
Watch how quickly this rally, with its bussed-in participants, will be less about Davis and so-called "religious liberty" and more about bashing SCOTUS and whining about marriage equality.
So in advance, let me say sorry folks. There is no such thing as a "do-over" with Supreme Court decisions. Gays went through the proper channels and won the right to marry fair and square.
And we aims to keep it.
Meanwhile, check out how this recent Fox News panel just tears apart Davis's lawyer, Mat Staver at the Liberty Counsel, for the awful advice he has been giving his client:
