Anti-gay right, fake Christians exploiting children to attack transgender community

Earlier today, I posted the following ad from an anti-gay Houston group seeking to overturn that city's lgbt ordinance:

As I said before, for all of their talk about "Biblical values," some right-wing evangelicals never seem to have an argument to oppose lgbt equality, so they are always quick to exploit fears via the demonization of lgbts as predators. And believe it or not, as shocking at this ad is, it was not the first time. In 2008, an anti-gay group in Gainesville, FL



The sad irony is that nothing like what you have seen has ever happened. Twice, the group Media Matters has proven this. Last year, the organization consulted law enforcement officials, government employees, and advocates for victims of sexual abuse in 12 states. All of them debunked the above scenarios.

Most specifically last year, Media Matters debunked the fear tactics of exploiting transgender-inclusive bathrooms and included this handy graphic:

What would Jesus do, indeed? Certainly not this. The next time folks like Mike Huckabee or Franklin Graham or any of these evangelical handwringers start about the "decline of values in America," I suggest they look in the mirror if they want to find the culprit.

'Houston anti-gay group run video labeling transgender community as sexual predators' & other Wed midday news briefs

The ghost of Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children"  campaign rises in Houston. You ever notice that when anti-gay forces can't come up with any logical explanations for their homophobic positions, they pull the "lgbts are out to harm children" card. It happens over and over again. Proving that no matter how you clean up a pig, you just can't keep it from rolling around in the mud and crap. More about this monstrous ad at Think Progress.

Mike Huckabee Got Pretty Racist While Live-Tweeting The Dem Debate - Apparently nothing says "warrior for Christ" better than a seriously racist tweet.
 

Kim Davis' Lawyers: No Need to Change Marriage Licenses After Controversy - Is Kim Davis silently giving up her crusade? Who knows but after the double embarrassment of lies her own lawyers at the Liberty Counsel put her through, who can blame her?

Kicked Out of the Closet: How Two Letters Changed My Life - Wonderful story of how you always can use family support when others attack you for coming out. 

 Rafael Cruz Joining Anti-Gay World Congress of Families At Utah Conference - I've been reluctant to call out Sen. Ted Cruz's father no matter how homophobic and crazy he has gotten. But this is BEYOND the pale. This isn't just words. He is actively joining a group whose global mission is lgbt persecution.

Anatomy of an anti-gay lie - Day three

FRC is now fully embracing the anti-gay distortion I posted about on Sunday.

For three days, I have been tracking an anti-gay distortion regarding the SCOTUS ruling for marriage equality.

To recap - Last week,  statement from a right-wing think tank, the Americans Principles Project, claimed that over 60 "prominent scholars" signed a statement claiming that Obergefell v. Hodges , the case which legalized marriage equality, should be ignored because it was inaccurately decided.

The Americans Principles Project omitted to say that many of these "prominent scholars" were individuals aligned with groups who have opposed marriage equality from the beginning, such as:

 Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University, Founder of American Principles Project (George is one of the founders of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes marriage equality. And he was also one of the main arranger of the funds given to Professor Mark Regnerus to conduct a study on gay parenting study, which has since been discredited. The study was created as an attempt to sway the Supreme Court against marriage equality. )

John C. Eastman, Henry Salvatori Professor of Law & Community Service, Dale E. Fowler School of Law at Chapman University (the present chair of the National Organization for Marriage)

George W. Dent, Jr., Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law (Dent supplied the discredited information which the defenders of DOMA used in court to unsuccessfully defend that law.)

 

I have been tracking this distortion not out of concern that it will do any damage, but simply because I want to see how long will it take before it becomes a widely repeated falsehood by members of the anti-gay right.

Today, it just took another step in that direction. In my last post concerning this distortion, I related how the Family Research Council retweeted it from another source, CNSnews.

As of now, FRC has the distortion as a full article on its webpage. An excerpt follows as such:

Last week, a number of scholars and law professors released a statement calling on all officeholders to resist -- within the grounds of their own constitutional authority -- the Supreme Court's illegitimate and groundless ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. The scholars' statement points to the grave consequences of letting this decision continue to be treated as legitimate and binding precedent on the entire nation, and urges public officials to exercise their independent authority to follow the Constitution regardless of Obergefell's dubious claims:

One lacking anything remotely resembling a warrant in the text, logic, structure, or original understanding of the Constitution must be judged anti-constitutional and illegitimate. Obergefell should be declared to be such, and treated as such, by the other branches of government and by citizens of the United States.

The authors of the statement remind us that the Supreme Court is not the only branch of government granted authority by the Constitution. While the Supreme Court has the authority and responsibility to decide cases and controversies between parties, it does not have the authority to declare entirely new doctrines of law binding on parties not before the court.

Conveniently, FRC doesn't even include the names of the statement's signers (Not to worry, though. I left a comment on its webpage giving a short description of why the statement is a distortion.)

So in the past week, the distortion has moved from the Americans Principles Project to the National Organization for Marriage's webpage to the vile anti-gay Barbwire webpage to the CNSnews webpage and has stopped for now at the Family Research Council's webpage.

And that's not counting pit stops at other right-wing sources such as Free Republic and various other conservative blogs.

If it ever breaks through to Fox News, either by television or online news site, I think I will create a chart.

Related posts:

Anti-gay right sloppily dredge up 60 'legal scholars' to oppose Obergefell decision

Anti-gay right continues to push the anti-marriage equality 'scholars' distortion

Anti-gay activist turns drama queen in pulpit over marriage equality

In the video above, courtesy of Right Wing Watch, Vision America's Rick Scarborough  is STILL angry about marriage equality. He no doubt thinks that he is making a wonderfully dramatic statement in the pulpit. If you ask me, I think he is auditioning for an Ed Wood movie. Three points which I have to make about it, though. What's with the disrespect of the Supreme Court, when exactly did God define marriage, and what exactly is a "God hater?"

'Desperate Ted Cruz disrespects transgender soldiers' & other Tue. midday news briefs

Sen Ted Cruz disrespects transgender military.

Cruz blasts efforts to lift trans military ban - Sen. Ted Cruz is picking on transgender soldiers and he is using the phrase that anti-gay folks use when they want to create the false idea that our presence or existence is out of the ordinary - "social experiment." They said the same thing about same-sex families, even though lgbts have been raising children for YEARS. The semantics are so annoying. 

Gay Man Kicked Out Of His Church For 'Embracing The Homosexual Lifestyle' (Video) - A few years back, we had sort of the same situation at a church in my area. Some members came to the pastor wanting to kick out gay members. He told them to forget it because it was wrong to keep people away from God. And this was a black church. It's a shame that one hardly ever hears about these incidents of bravery.

 Transgender foster kids in California can now go to homes that match their gender identity - Wonderful!!  

Little Red Riding Hood And The Big Bad Gay Wolf - Proving how SOME people have too much time on their hands, an anti-gay activist transforms the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood into a cautionary tale about the lgbt community.  

Trans Activist On Keisha Jenkins Murder: 'It Feels Like I'm Next' - This is a spooky situation and needs more attention.

Anti-gay right continues to push the anti-marriage equality 'scholars' distortion

Sunday evening, I posted an article about how anti-gay groups and personalities were claiming that over 60 "prominent scholars" had declared that the SCOTUS decision legalizing marriage equality shouldn't be followed because it was decided in the wrong fashion.

These "scholars" were mostly comprised of individuals who dedicated a lot of money, influence, and effort in stopping marriage equality from day one; a fact that many touting this development omitted.

Monday evening came the following "announcement" courtesy of the conservative site CNSnews by way of anti-gay hate group The Family Research Council's twitter:

As you can see, the "prominent scholars" distortions has swiftly moved from its original spot on the webpage of the Americans Principles Project.to the twitter and webpage of two other conservative, anti-gay groups.

 The big question I have as I track this distortion is how many channels will it move through?  Will it appear as an item courtesy of Fox News personality Todd Starnes? This sort of lie is just his speed.

Or better yet,  can't you just picture Megyn Kelly coddling interviewing  FRC head Tony Perkins in which he is allowed to repeat this distortion without any push back. And let's not forget Ryan T. Anderson and his many resources at the Heritage Foundation and the Witherspoon Institute (who, coincidentally, employs someone who signed this statement.)

Let's raise the stakes a little bit more. How much attention would the truth behind this distortion garner if it were repeated by someone like Mike Huckabee or Sen. Ted Cruz?  Or read by someone like Rep. Louie Gohmert in the halls of Congress? Probably none.

The point is not the statement itself because the statement is useless. It is  the equivalent of a weak fist beating against a steel wall.

The point is acknowledging what the lgbt community is up against in our fight for full equality. While we have won marriage equality, there are a lot other issues we need to take care of, i.e. ENDA, the rights of the transgender community, the safety of our lgbt children.

And it's time we take into account the entire power of those who oppose us.

They are united, numerous, and have access to many resources. We defeated them regarding marriage equality because in spite of all of that, truth was not on their side. However, it took a number of years.

Given how connected these folks are, how long will it be before we can win the other fights?

Whatever the case may be, I will continue to track just how much of a stake anti-gay groups and personalities are willing to put in this distortion about "legitimate scholars." At the very least, it will give a wonderful view as to how low they will stoop to lie.

Bisexuality is . . . Bisexuality isn't . . . - stopping the stereotypes

One myth which the lgbt community perpetuates - and I despise with a passion - is that we are of the same mind and have the same knowledge of our community.

Unfortunately ignorance knows no sexual orientation, just as it knows no color, gender, religion, etc. We tend to be ignorant of each other because some of us are content with creating a bland stew of the lgbt identity. We are all different and embody all facets. With that in mind, enjoy the video below in which members of the bisexual community dispel myths and stereotypes about their orientation: