Jeff Sessions' support of anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom condemned in blistering video

I have to give props to the Human Rights Campaign for this video which blasts Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his support of anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom. It's a wonderful way to keep attention focused on this issue, with us controlling the narrative.

 For more information as to why the Alliance Defending Freedom is a hate group, read these links:

ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM

The extremism of anti-LGBTQ powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom

The many ways Alliance Defending Freedom is fighting against transgender student equality

Masterpiece Cakeshop was just the beginning. ADF is pushing several other license-to-discriminate cases through the courts.

Alliance Defending Freedom is working to keep LGBTQ people from adopting children

'Landscaper denies service to gay couple, then trolls them online' & other Mon midday news briefs

Landscaper denies service to ‘perverse’ gay couple and trolls them on Yelp - What a landscaper did to a gay couple is mess which cannot and shouldn't be hidden or obscured by claims of personally held religious beliefs. But it can be an aspect of the future if anti-LGBTQ groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom has anything to say about it. 

Scott Lively Loses Appeal To Reword Judge’s Ruling That Calls Him Abhorrent, Pathetic, And A Crackpot Bigot - No matter how bad things may seem, I will always be comforted by the fact that a nasty, homophobic bigot can't change the facts about him being a nasty, homophobic bigot.

These adults are plotting a hate crime against a transgender 12-year-old - This right here is a nasty shame.

Straight British Comic Jack Whitehall is Playing Disney’s First Openly Gay Character and People are Pissed - A fascinating debate which didn't start with this and certainly won't end with it. I'm highly undecided about this sort of thing, except for when it comes to the transgender community. I can see where the transgender community is coming from about anger over not getting trans actors to portray trans characters.

Ruby Rose Leaves Twitter After ‘Batwoman’ Critics Say She’s Not Gay Enough - But I'm generally undecided because of mess like this.

Human Rights Campaign demanding answers regarding 'religious liberty' task force' & other Fri midday news briefs

HRC wants answers from DOJ and Jeff Sessions about the 'religious liberty' task force.

HRC's Chad Griffin: We're Going After Sessions's Christian Task Force - The Human Rights Campaign has officially submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for all records associated with Jeff Sessions' "religious liberty" task force. Okay, I know some LGBTQs have a negative view of the Human Rights Campaign, but I think in this case, we need all of our ducks in a row.  We can have disagreements, strong disagreements in fact, with each other while at the same time putting forth as much unity as we can. Me personally? I'm not interested at this very point in rehashing problems. We have an out-of-control Attorney General conspiring with anti-LGBTQ hate groups to possibly weaponize the Department of Justice against those fighting said anti-LGBTQ hate groups. I think they deserve more of our ire right now.

Right-wing media pastor and GOP-backed congressional nominee favorably remembered when “homosexuality was once criminalized” - Exhibit A to the first news brief post. This guy is running for a United States House seat. 

Exclusive: Florida Wants To Help Bullied Kids — Unless They’re Gay - To the surprise of no one.

Some transgender drivers are being kicked off Uber’s app - What kind of nonsense is this?

Caitlyn Jenner Says Trump Has ‘Not Been Doing A Very Good Job’ - Really? Uh no shit, girlfriend.

Jeff Sessions insists Alliance Defending Freedom not a hate group in spite of extensive proof which says otherwise

Attorney General Jeff Sessions (top) insist that the Alliance Defending Freedom (logo at the bottom) is not a hate group in spite of extensive proof which says otherwise.

Wednesday night, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he does not believe that the Alliance Defending Freedom is a hate group even though it has been proven that, among other things, the group has falsely conflated homosexuality with pedophilia and worked to imprison gays in foreign countries simply for being gay.

Sessions said these comments during a speech at the ADF's Summit for Religious Liberty. He also blasted the Southern Poverty Law Center, the organization giving ADF the designation:

"I wanted to come back here tonight partially because I wanted to say this: You are not a hate group," Sessions told attendees (video below) at the ADF's Summit on Religious Liberty, as Towleroad reports. 

 "When I spoke to ADF last year, I learned that the Southern Poverty Law Center had classified ADF as a ‘hate group.’ Many in the media simply parroted that as a fact," Sessions charged. "They have used this designation as a weapon and they have wielded it against conservative organizations that refuse to accept their orthodoxy and choose instead to speak for their conscience and their beliefs. They use it to bully and intimidate groups that fight for religious freedom, these constitutional rights of the American people."

Via  his speech, Sessions performed the modus operandi of ADF and other religious right groups which SPLC have called out, i.e. playing the victim and using the "religious liberty" card in hopes of diverting attention from what caused them to be labeled as hate groups in the first place.

In the case of the Alliance Defending Freedom, the organization has a long history of demonizing the LGBTQ  community, working to undermine LGBTQ equality, and using the force of the law against the LGBTQ community. In his speech, Sessions claimed that SPLC has no proof to back up its claim that ADF is a hate group.

He lied.

SPLC has extensively documented research from the time of the Alliance Defending Freedom's founding to the present, making sure to point the numerous times the group attacked the LGBTQ community.

Hypocrisy and deliberate paranoia defined - Franklin Graham when marriage equality was legalized

As nauseating as the following the video is, there is so much to unpack from this Fox News interview which Todd Starnes conducts with Franklin Graham. It took place three years ago  when marriage equality was legalized.

Three interesting points to make:

1. No pastors have been attacked, put in jail, or forced to perform gay weddings. Of course we knew that wasn't going to happen.

2. The idea of gays targeting so-called Christian businesses was definitely a narrative created by folks like Graham way before all of this ado about "religious liberty." It was, and still remains a way to cover up their sour grapes over the fact that they lost the marriage equality fight.. On the whole, however, that fearmongering about marriage equality bringing in anti-Christian persecution was bull. Of course Starnes and Graham most likely knew that at the time.

3. It's amazing how Franklin Graham went from "America has a moral crisis" back then to the now excuses of Donald Trump isn't "president perfect" and his extramarital affairs are "no one's business." 

Apparently a little power brings out the hypocrisy in some people.

'SPLC refutes Jeff Sessions and his 'religious liberty' task force' & other Wed midday news briefs

Richard Cohen of  SPLC

SPLC refutes Sessions’ comments about hate group designations - When Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced his "religious liberty" task force, he made veiled comments attacking the Southern Poverty Law Center for designating several religious right groups as anti-LGBTQ hate group. Earlier week, SPLC president Richard Cohen responded with a two page letter to Sessions which basically says (and pardon the vernacular) "ain't nobody scared of you or your ratchet task force."

You can read the letter here. 

From the archives - 16 reasons why the Family Research Council is a hate group - And because I'm an evil little queen who has been itching for a fight about this issue LONG BEFORE the Southern Poverty Law Center began naming certain religious right organizations as hate groups, here is a post I published in 2011. 

Christine Hallquist May Become America’s First Openly Transgender Governor - Oh! This would be sweet! 

A Republican Lawmaker Seeking Reelection Once Compared Gay People To "Rapists" And Other Criminals - Lovely . . . 

16-year-old is first minor prosecuted by Russian 'anti-gay propaganda' laws - Remember when Franklin Graham said he supported these laws because it would keep gays from "recruiting" children?

Religious leaders calls out hypocrisy of Jeff Sessions' 'religious liberty' task force

How did I miss this?

 Last weekend, religious leaders, Rev. Dr. William Barber and religious speaker, writer, and pastor Jonathan Wilson-Hartgove, appeared on AM Joy and blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions's recently announced 'religious liberty' task force.  Barber, specifically wasn't having it, so to speak. He labeled the idea as hypocrisy in view of Trump's immigration policy. He also said that the task force was only for what he called "Trumpvangelicals."

Also appearing was Robert Jones, CEO with Public Religion Research Institute with some polling data on what people feel about the idea of "religious liberty" as defined by conservative evangelicals, i.e. the right to refuse service to LGBTQs.  Barber was very pointed about how he felt about that concept. He said it was the same rationale that segregationists used against African-Americans.

Hat tip - The New Civil Rights Movement