'The Right's New Target: LGBTQ Children' & other Tue midday news briefs

The Right’s New Target: LGBTQ Children - We have to let it be known as well as do something about it.

Trump-endorsed news outlet says it’s God’s “judgment” that a gay activist died from coronavirus - Disgusting and sleazy as hell.

16 great LGBTQ movies to stream during self-isolation - Yep! Cause we need to keep our spirits up.

Miley Cyrus quit church because gay friends 'weren't being accepted' - Good for her for being supportive/

Family Research Council attempting to whitewash Trump's lack of leadership during coronavirus pandemic

With what we know about how Trump has been bungling the response to the coronavirus pandemic, I don't necessarily think it's a good thing to portray him as some type of unfairly overburdened leader. But that's what the Family Research Council and its president, Tony Perkins, are attempting to do:

There's hardly a busier, more burdened man in America right now than President Trump. And yet on Friday, when he heard that Vice President Mike Pence was about to jump on an FRC conference call with 700 pastors, he asked if he could join. Hearing his voice was a surprise, even to me -- but hearing his earnest desire to stand with the faith leaders of America in crisis certainly wasn't. 

"When I told the president I was going to be speaking to all of you," Mike explained, "[he was] in the midst of an extraordinarily busy day. [But] he looked at me and said, 'I have to find time. I need to find time.'" To the president, he went on, "the prayers of the people on this call mean [everything] to him..." So despite everything facing America, the two most important leaders of this nation stopped everything to pray with the people on the ground, who are ministering to their communities. 

It's a "wild world," the president started. The virus, he said, "came upon us so suddenly. And we were doing better than we've ever done before as a country in terms of the economy -- and then, all of the sudden, we got hit with this. So we had to close it down," he said wistfully. "We're actually paying a big price to close it down. Never happened before." But, President Trump insisted, "I think we're going to come back stronger than ever before."

I apologize to those who will accuse me of being petty, but I don't intend to change. It's not right to use prayer requests as an attempt to absolve Trump from the mess he helped make, including not challenging his inaccurate statement that the coronavirus came suddenly.

In fact, its downright sleazy.

Pray for our nation if you want. And by all means pray for Trump if you feel the need. But don't even attempt to write off, push away, or ignore the many ways he mismanaged this disaster. Don't even attempt to pretend that Trump had this situation under control from the beginning when he kept shifting positions from claiming that his administration had this problem under control, to claiming that it was a Democratic hoax, to finally acknowledging the seriousness of the situation.

And don't even pretend that he didn't attempt to absolve himself from the responsibility which came with him being elected - and I swear I will never EVER know why - as the commander-in-chief of this nation.

We aren't stupid In spite of the purveyors of propaganda working overtime, the majority of Americans aren't going to buy this attempt to transform Trump from Mr. Magoo to Abraham Lincoln.

 If Trump wants prayer, maybe he should publicly acknowledge his lack of leadership thus far. If he can't do that - and we all know he can't -  then at least FRC shouldn't aid and abet any attempt to make him look like a credible leader.

Because that's the one thing he hasn't been throughout this mess.

'Drag My Dad' allows families to connect, bond, and accept each other

 I ran across these videos on youtube and they really put me in a good mood. I hope they do the same for you. In these troubled times, we all - LGBTQ people especially -  need something to make us smile and to remind us that there are positive aspects and values in the cultures we embrace.

We all know about Drag Queen Story Hour and what it does for our children and families in spite of the ignorant backlash it has faced. But did you know that drag can also be used to help fathers and mothers reconnect with, accept, and bond with their LGBTQ children?

It all happens via Drag My Dad, an MTV show streamed on Facebook, where fathers, mothers, and/or their children are made up as drag queens. It sounds simple, but the stories as to why these families are participating is where the complexities lie. If the above episodes doesn't pull your heartstrings, you need to check your pulse.

Family Research Council gives Trump tone deaf praise for his handling of coronavirus outbreak

Fox News and Donald Trump are rightfully blamed for their actions during this coronavirus outbreak as these two videos show:

But there is a third party which deserves at least some blame for where we are now - conservative evangelical groups. During this crisis, a lot of them -  folks and groups who have defended Trump in spite of every lie, insult, and episode of bad behavior or awful leadership - having been laying low.

Conservative evangelical claims coronavirus is God's punishment for marriage equality and abortion

In spite of his stunning incompetence in dealing with coronavirus outbreak, Trump hasn't lost the support of the most loyal members of his base - white conservative evangelicals. 

According to The Huffington Post:

About 7 in 10 white evangelical Christians approve of the way Trump is handling issues related to the coronavirus outbreak, including 52% who strongly approve of his performance, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted over the weekend. In contrast, only 45% of all American adults surveyed said they strongly or somewhat approve of how Trump is handling the outbreak. Seventy percent of white evangelicals also approve of the way the U.S. government is managing the outbreak. Only 47% of all respondents surveyed said the same. The data suggests that the president’s most loyal religious supporters are standing by their man despite reports of infighting and indecision at the White House as the pandemic unfolded.

It's all about rationalization with these people. They can always point the finger at someone else, such as the media. Or, like this guy in the above video, can blame abortion and marriage equality.

From Right Wing Watch:

When right-wing pastor Perry Stone held a prayer service at his church in Cleveland, Tennessee, earlier this week, he declared that the current COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in America is a “reckoning” brought on by the nation’s rejection of God and its embrace of reproductive rights and marriage equality.

Why is there a reckoning?” he asked. “Because we have by law forced God out of our country and basically told him, ‘In public places, you’re not welcome.’ You’re not welcomed in our schools, so our schools are now shut down. No prayer in public school, no Bible reading in public school. Now they’re telling kids to stay home for who knows how long, so our schools are shut down.” 

 “Then we have said to God, ‘The infants that you put in our wombs, we don’t respect them, we don’t want them, we will get them out of our bellies through abortion,'” Stone continued. “If you watch the women who are pro-choice, the majority of them have a spirit about them where there is no love.” 

“The Bible talks about going after ‘strange flesh,'” Stone added, as he recounted the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah. “There is a reckoning because the courts of the land passed a law to take an infant’s life, that it was OK, and for marriage as we have known it to be changed into something we have never known. Both of their laws, biblically in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, are what God calls an abomination. And the Bible teaches us that God is long-suffering, he is not willing that any perish, he wants everyone to come to repentance, but there will be a time when the Lord says, ‘Enough is enough.'” "

Yesterday it was hate group the Family Research Council speaking against a coronavirus relief bill because of the possibility that it could help same-sex couples. Today is this fool with the tired nonsense which we have heard before about God punishing the world for abortion and marriage equality.

It's a rather cold comfort to know that regardless of how dire any situation can get, we can always count on certain people to be the self-righteous, homophobic braying jackasses we always knew they were.

Coronavirus outbreak relief takes backseat to the Family Research Council's 'gay baiting'

Tony Perkins (bottom) and his group are exploiting the coronavirus to again attack LGBTQ people.

One would think that during this coronavirus pandemic, certain groups would cease their usual gay baiting. Yes, one would think and hope. But if one did so, he or she would be living in a fool's paradise. Particularly when it comes to Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council:

"We're going big." Those were the president's words heading into a Senate debate over the latest coronavirus response. In Congress, where the bills are changing faster than the infection map, the White House is racing to strike the right balance between protecting America's economy -- and helping yours. Unfortunately, fiscal matters aren't the only concern as liberals echo what Rahm Emanuel, the former chief of staff for Barack Obama, said, "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before. 

Seizing the opportunity is exactly what Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and company tried to do by turning the virus package into a radical grab bag of abortion funding and LGBT messaging. Being in the minority Republicans had their work cut out for them. Thankfully, the White House was with them -- every step of the way. First, House Democrats tried an end-run around the Hyde amendment, the ban on taxpayer-funded abortion. "We got that back," a relieved Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said. But it wasn't too long before liberals turned their fire on something else: the family. 

In what would have been the first time in federal law -- ever -- Democrats tried to equate "domestic partnerships" with marriage by adding benefits for anyone in "a committed relationship." Of course, as Congressman Biggs pointed out Friday, "the problem with that is that it's really hard to define a committed relationship... so they've tried to put in, in my opinion, kind of a [vague] definition. But that leaves it wide open -- and then, they [can] expand on that. So two provisions that have nothing to do with the coronavirus are basically thrown into this thing. And that's just par for the course for the for the activist Left." 

FRC worked through the weekend reading the evolving language looking for problems just like this. Understanding that in emergency situation, Emanuel's declaration is standard operating procedure for the Left. They're counting on the fact that with such a tight turnaround time, most members won't have the chance to give the language a detailed read. Fortunately, our team is reading the small print and warned the White House that liberals were using this bill to water down marriage. The president's staff took those concerns seriously, telling leaders at the negotiating table that the language had to go. It did. The section was fixed and sent on.

First of all, when it comes to abortion, FRC's entire narrative is a lie.

Anti-LGBTQ Congressman voted against coronavirus testing bill because it 'redefined family' & other Wed midday news briefs

Congressman Andy Biggs

Anti-gay Republican voted against coronavirus testing bill because it “redefined family” - Aw man, this is insane.

Idaho lawmakers ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports - In the middle of a coronavirus pandemic, Idaho legislators take time out to pass a ridiculous and unnecessary bill. Bigotry never sleeps.

Anti-LGBTQ media laid the groundwork for Idaho to legislate against trans athletes - I reiterate.

Rush Limbaugh Stand-In: S.F. In Coronavirus Lockdown Because It’s ‘A Big Gay Town’ - Sick, vile person.