'Iowa legislator on witch hunt against lgbt youth group' & other Fri midday news briefs

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NOM's Brian Brown - use religious liberty laws to undermine marriage equality

Brian Brown

Supporters of religious liberty laws contend that these laws protect the businesses, livelihoods, and integrity of Christians by keeping them from facing possible legal consequences of discriminating against married gay couples.

However, some of us believe that these laws have a more sinister purpose than merely "protecting Christians," and thanks to National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown, we have a bit of confirmation about this.

Where else but yesterday at the World Congress of Families (i.e. Legion of Homophobia) conference did Brown put his foot in his mouth.

From Right Wing Watch:

Brian Brown from the National Organization for Marriage followed (Cathy) Ruse (of the Family Research Council) and matched her tone of defiance against “our unelected masters.” The Supreme Court didn’t change the definition of marriage, he said, it “put a lie into the law” — just like slavery and the Dred Scott decision. Brown said that there’s no time for activists to be depressed. Citing the history of Christian martyrs, abolitionists and civil rights activists, he mocked people who don’t want to take a stand because some of their Facebook friends might say mean things about them.

“Instead of being depressed, we should savor the fact that we live at a point in history, like those times before, in which we can stand for the truth, make a difference, and God has put us here for some reason. This fight is not over. It has just begun.” 

 Brown proposed four goals for the anti-marriage-equality movement:

Affirm continually and publicly that marriage is by nature a union of a man and a woman.

 Reject the Supreme Court’s decision as illegitimate

Overturn the decision, perhaps through decades of struggle or perhaps with new Supreme Court justices appointed by a Republican president elected in 2016

Contain the damage in the meanwhile by passing laws that allow public officials and businesspeople to refuse to have anything to do with gay couples’ marriages.

Brown's goals are laughable, but number four is the one we should pay attention to because it confirms all of the negatives lgbts and allies have been saying about religious liberty laws.

Religious liberty laws are not about protecting faith. Faith has nothing to do with it but be a diversionary ploy. When you strip the diversion away, you are left with the same message segregation gave African-Americans, i.e. that they are inferior and have no right to dignity.

By that same token, religious liberty laws are not to designed to keep a bakery or a flower shop from participating in something that's against the owners' faith.  Rather, these laws are designed to send a message to gay couples that their marriage is and will always be inferior or nonexistent in the eyes of some people.  Now anyone can have this personal opinion about marriage equality, but attempts to enshrine this nastiness by way of law is just plain wrong.

And exploiting faith to undermine any couple's love and legal rights is simply ugly.

'Peter LaBarbera admits anti-gay movement sees him as a liability' & other Thur midday news briefs

LaBarbera

Peter LaBarbera Laments That He's Too 'Anti-Gay' For Rest Of The Politically Correct Anti-Gay Movement - I've heard rumors about this for a long time and now "Porno Pete" just confirmed it. To a movement attempting to drift away from blatant homophobia and a direct reliance on junk science and cherry-picked science to  very false portrayals of "persecuted Christian family advocate victims," activists like LaBarbera are now liabilities. Much like racists claimed not to be "anti-black, but pro-white," the anti-gay industry is now claiming that they aren't "anti-gay, but pro-family," but LaBarberas of that bunch are helping to ruin the game because they are too stubborn to change or move out of the way." Stand your ground, "Porno Pete!" 

Dear Ben Carson: Actually, You Are a 'Homophobe' If You're Opposed to Marriage Equality Now - An answer to Ben Carson's mea culpa that the lgbt community has heard SO MANY TIMES from anti-gay folks.  

Spotted: Ben Carson’s PAC Joins Anti-LGBT World Congress of Families Conference - And then there is this teaming up with the "Legion of Homophobia" which NO ONE in the media will probably EVER ask him about.

 Wherever does Robert George find the time to do anything for Princeton University? - Speaking of well connected anti-lgbt groups and personalities, while we fix too much attention on public faces, people like Robert George are building nasty alliances behind the scenes. We need to pay attention to stuff like this.

Lesbian Couple Files Lawsuit After Hawaii Cop Arrested Them For Kissing - Not the last we will be hearing of this case.

GOP presidential candidate's father - LGBTs want to legalize pedophilia

Who else but Rafael Cruz, father of Sen. Ted Cruz:



The above video comes from the duo efforts of Right Wing Watch and Political Research Associates:

Ted Cruz’s father and campaign surrogate Rafael Cruz addressed today’s convening of the anti-LGBT World Congress of Families in Salt Lake City, where he told one attendee following his remarks that one of the goals of the LGBT community is to legalize pedophilia. The elder Cruz, who has previously claimed that gay members of the Boy Scots are “potential sexual predators” and criticized gay rights as a demonic, dangerous and anti-American agenda, said in a video posted by Political Research Associates that “the thing that they’re going to push is to try to legalize pedophilia.” He made the comments while speaking to J. Lester Feder of BuzzFeed News, who asked him about similar statements he had made linking the gay rights movement to pedophilia earlier that day. When the questioner asked if he thought “the LGBT community is going to push that,” Cruz replied, “Yes I believe so.” PRA told us that the question initially posed to Cruz was: “During the panel, several speakers alluded to a connection between LGBT people and pedophilia. Do you think that’s true?” 

And it gets better. According to Feder, WCF attempted to distance itself from Cruz's statements:

 In a statement, Janice Shaw Crouse, the executive director for the World Congress for Families IX, distanced the organization from Cruz’s remarks, writing, “While Pastor Cruz’s remarks may represent his opinions, they are not those of the World Congress of Families. Collectively, the World Congress of Families’ agenda advocates for life and the natural family in a civil, constructive and transparent way.”

The grand irony of this incident is that yesterday, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins and FRC spokesman Peter Sprigg were claiming that lgbts want to "silence" the WCF conference.

Are they kidding? I haven't had this much fun spotlighting the anti-gay right in a long time. Let them talk some more.

'Flashes of truth plague anti-gay conference' & other Wed midday news briefs

Another truth bomb from yesterday's session of the anti-gay World Congress of Families (i.e. Legion of Homophobia) conference courtesy of  Brian "The Weasel" Camenker from the anti-gay hate group Mass Resistance. When I'm done, WCF are going to be so sorry they invited him to speak.  

Meet The Anti-Gay Foundation Behind The Utah World Congress Of Families - Surprise! The World Congress of Families receives funding from the same source which paid for the discredited Regnerus study. If I had no scruples, I would declare that I am in the wrong business. Yes, I'm on the right side of history, but this queen has a fascination with faux fur coats and those suckers don't come free. 

Editor's note - The Human Rights Campaign has an entire page devoted to WCF. Check it out. 

 Utah Agrees To Pay $24,000 To Same-Sex Couple It Denied A Joint Birth Certificate - Give it up! Turn it loose!

 Justice Kennedy: Public officials who refuse to follow the law should resign - That means you, Kim Davis! 

 Former Major League Baseball Player Brags He Paid Investigators So He Could Blackmail Gay Umpires - Put this fool UNDER the jail!

World Congress of Families conference participant - It's okay to insult and degrade the gay community

The World Congress of Families, a "supergroup" of anti-gay organizations who are attempting to globalize homophobia (which is why I call them the "Legion of Homophobia") is having their ninth conference in Utah even as I write this.

Thank goodness I don't have to cover it. I'm very thankful for sites like Right Wing Watch for having the stamina to deal with these idiots.

Thus far the conference is sparsely attended by the same anti-gay participants collecting the same big paychecks by repeating the same junk they have repeated for pver the past decade. I especially despise the "love the sinner, but hate the sin"  self-righteousness they attempt to push

But through every veil of nonsense always comes a degree of truth in terms of how these folks feel about us. In this case, we should point to Brian Camenker of the anti-gay hate group Mass Resistance for providing it when he says it is okay to be insulting and degrading to lgbts.

I had the "luck" of meeting Camenker publicly once and just so you know, he is more weaselly looking and acting in person.

To paraphrase "Star Wars," we will be observing his homophobia this week with much interest.

For more about the WCF conference, see Right Wing Watch.

The anti-gay right and their exploitation of children

As many of you already know, I am working on an update of my 2013 online booklet, How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America.

I had wanted How They See Us to be a booklet that anyone could pick up and begin to understand the inner workings of anti-lgbt propaganda. I'm of the opinion that our community and leaders have not fully done the right job of educating the masses (instead of our cliques and circles who seem to approach this material with an annoying jadedness) as to what exactly is anti-gay propaganda and how do the purveyors of this propaganda exploit people of faith.

I think I accomplished just a little of this. My booklet was a huge smash with over 50,000 hits and downloads. With this update, I hope to excise some things, add new things, and in general talk about marriage equality and the religious liberty farce.  I'm not going for shock with this update, but I don't intend to hold anything back. I make NO promises that I won't offend some folks on our side of the spectrum with some of the images I will show. Nothing violent, mind you. But I want a reaction. Anything which can yank some of us out of our apathy about anti-lgbt propaganda.

Don't worry regarding Kim Davis. I'm trying not to include much of her because we've seen enough of THAT woman already. However, one thing we haven't talked about enough is how anti-gay groups, personalities, and their supporters exploit people's fear of lgbts around children. That's one subject we really need to discuss because the hallmark and center of almost every anti-lgbt campaign is the lie that gays want to recruit, indoctrinate, have sex with, or basically harm kids.

One of the additions to the update will be an entire page devoted to images over the years of this  lie. Below are just a few of the images I will be presenting, as well as some words of truth from an anti-lgbt leader himself about how the folks on his side are clearly lying. But I won't tell you about those words. Just look at the images. Even in rough draft form, they make me ill. And about that last image from the Equality Ordinance fight in Houston? The image which demonizes the transgender community? Oh, it will be used.