Friday's news posts

Fiery plane crash in upstate NY kills 49 people - No words. Only prayers

Details in gay student's slaying are revealed in prosecution brief - On the first year anniversary of the murder of Lawrence King, details are emerging. And it's about time too. For a while, this was beginning to look like another case of the "gay panic defense." The prosecution's case includes this tidbit:

"Witnesses said King was usually not the aggressor. But after months of teasing by McInerney and other male students who called him "faggot," he had began to retort, according to prosecutors."

Christian TV special being stifled - There they go. You can set your watch to the lies the AFA tells.

Gays and the black church - show some honesty or at least some dignity

In light of what has happened regarding the son of Pastor T.D. Jakes, I think it may be time for the lid to be taken off of something.

Not that I am outing anyone but there is a paradox that must be addressed.

We have seen how the religious right plays the black and lgbt communities against one another. And sometimes their ally has been the black church.

Well to me, that is the height of irony because of one thing.

So many "mainstream" (i.e. white) lgbts say that they cannot find any gays and lesbians of color who will be open.

The reason is that many of them are in the church. Many of them are prominent in the black gospel music scene (Yes that includes BET and the Stellar Awards).

As an lgbt of color, I am privy to many things and I can honestly tell you that the main ones hooping and hollering in church and on the gospel records tend to do so for more than reasons of salvation.

A lot of it is guilt. But I really don't blame them as much as I blame the black community at large for its intentional inability to address the needs of lgbts of color.

So let me throw out a few suggestions:

Stop giving speeches about the evils of homosexuality when you know that you are on the dl or know of someone on the dl.

Stop making comments about not comparing blacks to gays when you are engaging in the same behavior that white racists did to African-Americans - i.e. the stigmatization of an entire group of people based on stereotypes and Biblical interpretations of God's words.

Stop puffing out your chests because you support endeavors to end AIDS/HIV when it isyour lack of support of lgbts of color that is the very thing which can lead to new cases of the disease.

What happened to T.D. Jakes's son may be the subject of juicy gossip amongst "upstanding church folks," but we all know that it is part of a larger problem - the intentional dehumanization of the lgbts of color in the black community.

When is the black community going to get off of its collective asses and work on solving it?

T.D. Jakes' Son Charged With Indecent Exposure

I post this not as a way to make fun or gloat. If the story turns out to be true, I hope that the African-American community (who will no doubt be talking about this in huge masses) will take it as a hint to address the fact that lgbts of color are marginalized in the black community. Let's face it - folks say the black church opposes homosexuality but if it wasn't for black gays, the black church probably wouldn't exist in the form that it does now.

Jermaine Jakes, son of Dallas pastor T.D. Jakes, was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure in January, 2009.

According to a Dallas Police Department arrest warrant affidavit obtained by CBS 11 News, Jakes exposed himself to two undercover vice detectives at Keist Park on January 3.

The affidavit says Jakes walked up to one of the detectives at the park with his pants unzipped. Jakes then began to masturbate while making eye contact with the detective, according to the affidavit.

The detectives arrested Jakes on a charge of indecent exposure.

Late Wednesday evening, CBS 11 News received a statement from Faith Johnson, an attorney for Jermaine Jakes. The statement read:

"We are aware of potential allegations involving Jermaine Jakes and are undertaking our own investigation of these allegations at this time. Given an apparent government investigation, we have no further comment at this time."

More here.

The American Family Association's fascination with fradulent documentaries

I haven't seen in yet but I'm sure the American Family Association is cooking up a response to a Michigan TV station putting the kibosh on the showing of Speechless: Silencing Christians, a one-hour piece of propaganda pushing the usual inaccurate talking points of an anti-Christian conspiracy on the part of lgbts.

I find the entire thing interesting because Speechless was made over a year ago and had been shown on "Christian" stations. In addition, it is offered on youtube and also on the AFA's webpage .

So to make any inference that the program is being censored would be a lie.

I guess it speaks to the audacity of the organization. And it fills me with dread.

How many other stations have been asked to run this mess? And how many of them will comply?

And then I am bothered by something else. On the AFA's webpage is the video It's Not Gay.

This video supposedly tells the story of "ex-gays" or people who feel that they have been delivered from the alleged "homosexual lifestyle" through the power of God. Featured in the video (and he is on the front cover) is a man named Michael Johnston.

Johnston was a prominent ex-gay spokesperson who claimed that he was delivered by God after catching HIV. However, in 2003 it was discovered that he was having clandestine sexual encounters with men in hotel rooms.

Since that time he has been been sequestered out of the limelight.

This isn't the first time Johnston has come up. Wayne Besen exposed the story. Box Turtle Bulletin exposed the story. Countless bloggers have continued to talk about the Michael Johnston story from time to time.

But the AFA continues to sell the tape even after its errors have been pointed out.

So this organization, which seems to have no problem selling a fradulent dvd, is complaining that the are being silenced because they are Christians.

Well if this is the way the AFA spreads the Gospel of Jesus, they have bigger problems than so-called "radical homosexuals." And maybe any resistance they are running up against is God's way of telling them to stop their nonsense.

Silencing Christians? Hardly

Apparently there was a controversy over that American Family Association video, Speechless: Silencing Christians, I talked about earlier this week.

It was set to air on Monday in Grand Rapids, MI right before President Obama's press conference. However the television station wanted to reset the airing to another time. Since they received no word from the producers, the station decided to rescind the offer.

The silence you are aware of now stems from the AFA in closed door meetings with other religious right groups as they plot to turn this into another phony case of "Christians being discriminated against."

First of all, the station did not refuse to air tthe program, although I think it would have more than enough reason to. It merely wanted to set the program for another time.

And for the record, Speechless: Silencing Christians, is a one-sided piece of garbage that pushes the usual religious right propaganda against the lgbt community with the usual cast of characters - Matt Barber, Robert Knight, Concerned Women for America, Janet Parshall, etc.

It's possible airing received a strong response. The Human Rights Campaign said the following:

Make no mistake: this is the opening salvo in a coming battle over pro-equality legislation.

Just as we are on the cusp of historic change – a federal hate crimes law, protections for LGBT workers against job discrimination – extremist groups like the AFA are launching a well-funded national campaign of hatred and fear to halt our progress.

This program recycles familiar lies: that hate crime laws will "do away with our freedom of speech," or that pastors will be "criminalized for sharing the love of Jesus Christ." (In fact, the proposed federal hate crimes law explicitly states that it only applies to violent acts – not speech.)

The "anchor" of this faux-news program, which may have already aired in smaller markets, is controversial talk show host Janet Parshall, who in 2006 suggested Matthew Shepard's lifestyle was responsible for his murder and called gay adoption "state-sanctioned child abuse."

We cannot let this bigotry go unanswered. We can't let it scare voters, force LGBT people back into a place of shame and hiding, or create an atmosphere of intolerance or hate.

Before the AFA starts their nonsense, let me say that this is not a case of silencing Christians. And what Speechless was going to do is par for the course for the religious right - present a bunch of unchallenged lies, anecdotes and misconceptions about the lgbt community. They never really want to debate us on their lies. They seem to want to present them in an arena where the rules have been predestined to be in their favor.

I just can't believe that they had the temerity to attempt to it on a regular network.

No doubt the Obama regime has gotten them desperate and scared.

Folks, this is a headless monster in the making. Let's kill it before the religious right can gain traction from it.

The problem with Speechless is that it exploits the feeling of entitlement that some Christians have in this country. They have had their minds filled by James Dobson and company with the idea that America is their country and the rest of us are here by their will and pleasure.

That idea of entitlement makes them susceptible to any anecdote or lie that comes down the pike about them being silenced. We have seen this so many times with the religious right taking incidents and manipulating them to claim that lgbts are out to get Christians. A perfect example is the Ocean Grove Pavilion. The religious right claimed that the church who owned this pavilion was "forced" to allow gays to have marriage ceremonies there. However the true story was that the church was getting tax breaks for the pavilion and a requirement of those tax breaks was that the facility should be open to all.

The program that was to air is filled with half truths like this. If I were a Christian, I would be less worried about being "silenced by lgbts" and more worried about the untruths put out by those who claim to also be Christians.

Parole DENIED for murderer of gay man

Not necessarily a victory but still not a bad thing

I have just received word via email that Stephen Moller, the man who murdered Sean Kennedy in 2007, has been denied early parole.

Here are the facts:

Sean William Kennedy, 20, was attacked in the early morning of May 17, 2007 outside the former Brew's Bar in Greenville, South Carolina. His assailant, Stephen Andrew Moller, pulled up in a car, threw one punch after reportedly yelling anti-gay slurs, and fled. Kennedy died about 17 hours later from the brain injury he sustained, and friends and family believe he was targeted at least in part due to his sexual orientation.

Since South Carolina has no hate crime statute, no enhancement was available for Moller's June 2008 sentence of five years in prison on a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter. The judge reduced the sentence to three years with credit for seven months' time served and ordered Moller to seek help to manage anger and substance abuse.

There was a huge possibility that Moller could have gotten out on parole this month. Elke Kennedy, the mother of Stephen, and the SC Progressive Network organized a letter drive geared to persuading the parole board not to let Moller out early.

Yesterday (and I did mention this as the event I had attended), there was a candlelight vigil held at the State House:

Friends and family of Kennedy met at the State House at 5:30pm to protest an early release for Stephen Moller and to hold a candlelight memorial for Kennedy.

There are no hate crime laws in this state, and Kennedy's family is working to change that.

It was just the kind of night Sean's mom says her son would have lived for.

"He always said, 'when I get older, I'm gonna change this, make sure people are treated equally,'" says Elke Kennedy.

But the fact is, Sean Kennedy's death brought many people together.

"This is my mission. Sean's death, in order for it not to be in vain, my job is to do whatever I can to change things so it doesn't happen again," says Kennedy.

Sean's death in Greenville was never deemed a hate crime, because hate crimes aren't recognized in this state.

But if you ask the folks at the rally, they happen.

"In high school, I was accosted constantly, dragged into a bathroom, had my face beat up and lost three teeth from it," said one person.

"We're not here to get revenge," said Kennedy. "This is about social justice, every citizen in South Carolina deserves protection."

Kennedy wants her son's killer to stay in prison. She took her concern to the parole board, asking for him to stay longer than eight months.

Whether it was a hate crime or not, she says its a light sentence for a heavy loss.

"As a matter of fact he is here, he is with us tonight. Maybe that's why we have such a beautiful evening," she said.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center there are 45 listed hate groups in the state, one of the highest numbers in the US.

In addition, over 400 letters were written to the parole board asking that Moller not be paroled.

This isn't a victory per se. Sean won't be coming back and nothing can take away Elke's pain. She lost her child due to a senseless act.

But since the time of Sean's death, Elke has been speaking out around the state in efforts to bring attention to the need for hate crimes legislation as well as the need to stop the violence that plague lgbt youth.

She should be commended for all that she has done. And although this isn't a victory per se, I hope that she takes solace in the fact that so many are listening to her message.

And continuing the "they hate us and are out to get us" lie - Mike Huckabee

Huckabee: Stimulus is 'anti-religious' - All I can say is thank goodness this man never got anywhere near the White House.

To me, Huckabee is one of the worst propaganda spreaders out there, particularly how he addresses the lgbt community.

"They want tolerance, but they won't show tolerance" meme seems to be his main point in talking about our community. That tactic works when he is on shows like The View and can take an anecdotal incident out of context with no one to challenge him on it. (i.e. Phyllis Burgess)

Or if he ever got around to inviting an lgbt spokesperson on his talk show, I suspect he would pull the "I'm just trying to be compassionate" nonsense.

For those who are not familiar with that tactic - it would comprise of interrupting the guest when he or she is trying to make their point, speaking in a pseudo calm and reassuring manner with a tone that infers that you are addressing an irrational person, and steering the conversation from the needs of the lgbt community to "why does the lgbt community think that everyone hates them."

The tactic is designed to unnerve the guest with a phony sort of kindness and put him or her on the defensive.

That tone is more insulting than that of Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber. At least with those two, you know where you stand.

Tuesday's news briefs

I apologize for not having a complete post today. I was at an event that I will most likely be talking about tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

Fox passes off GOP press release as its own research -- typo and all - In the great scheme of things, people have come to expect this from Fox News. But it's awesome as hell just the same.

As predicted, the professional anti-gay forces plan to descend on NC - The LGBT community in North Carolina deserve much praise for holding out so long against the anti-gay marriage forces.

Tax dollars for homosexual adoption - gov't 'at its worst' - My news brief logs are never complete without a shout out from phony news service One News Now. This article is interesting in that it doesn't contain the usual lying talking points about the so-called "dangers of the homosexual lifestyle." And what's more interesting is the fact that the article has received a 2.5 (out of five) rating from readers. Naturally One News Now won't show the comments. Shame too cause I think our side is winning.

Now for something highly unusual . . .

Taxi: Elaine's Strange Triangle 3/3 - A hobby of mine is to examine episodes of old television shows that feature lgbt characters. This episode of Taxi won an Emmy. In it, the main female character, Elaine, falls for a young man. However, the young man likes another character, Tony.

The main character of the show, Alex, tries to get to the bottom of it. This is the scene that won the episode the Emmy. And it begs the question - did gay men really dance that bad back then?

More on phony expert John R. Diggs

In my last post yesterday, I talked about how the American Family Association is utilizing the services of phony expert John R. Diggs in a new video with the familiar whine of "Christian persecution."

In the video, Diggs pushes the old factoid about "homosexuality being a dangerous lifestyle."

I think the AFA relied on Diggs because a while back, he published a study called The Health Risks of Gay Sex.

If that study sounds familiar it's probably because it is almost identical to the Family Research Council's The Negative Effects of Homosexuality, even to the point of using some of the same sources and citations.

You will remember, however, that the Negative Effects of Homosexuality was removed from FRC's webpage because it contained "outdated sources."

Naturally, Diggs's study has some of the same errors and a few of its own. Here are just a couple:

Twice, John R. Diggs includes the study done by Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg in their book, Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women, as indicative of the entire gay population. In one passage, he even refers to it as “a far ranging study of homosexual men . . .” But Bell and Weinberg never said that their findings were indicative of all gay men. They actually said “. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlikely that any investigator willever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”

Diggs cites a Canadian study twice in order to claim that gays have a shorter lifespan than heterosexuals. But his citation of the study is a mischaracterization. In 2001, the six original researchers (Robert S. Hogg, Stefan A. Strathdee, Kevin J.P. Craib, Michael V. O’Shaughnessy, Julion Montaner, and Martin T. Schechter) who conducted that study have gone on record saying that religious conservatives (like Diggs) was distorting their work.

In another section entitled Physical Health, Diggs claims that gays are victims of “gay bowel syndrome.” Gay Bowel Syndrome is an obsolete medical term and even the CDC does not use it. In fact, if one was to look at the endnotes of Diggs’ study, he would find that two of the sources he quoted concerning “gay bowel syndrome” were from articles in published in 1976 and 1983, which is consistent with the years that the term existed. One last source was a letter to the editor printed in 1994 but Diggs does not make it clear as to the circumstances surrounding it.

Diggs uses convenience sample studies, like those conducted in STD clinics, claiming that they are indicative of the gay population at large.

Diggs claims that there are five distinctions between heterosexual and homosexual populations including levels of promiscuity, physical health, mental health, lifespan, and monogamy. However, he spends very little time comparing the two dynamics (heterosexual and homosexual populations.) He uses all of his time castigating gay populations.

Diggs uses an out of date book, The Gay Report (published in 1979) to claim that gays are engaging in deviant sexual practices. Only once does he attempt to tie the alleged deviant practices of gays in 1979 to present day; and to do so, he cites two events that took place regarding bondage workshops. However, there is a strong indication that heterosexuals took part in these events as well as gays. Diggs ignores this dynamic.

Time for AFA to pull out the 'persecuted Christians' card

Pam's House Blend alerted me to this mess:

This is all the American Family Association has left, folks, but it's slickly produced bile. When homo-hating, illegal pistol-packing state legislator Sally Kern cited the book After the Ball as the proof of the Homosexual Agenda last week at a fundnut fest in OKC, it should have been no surprise that the AFA has been propagandizing this nonsense with its web site and hour-long video, Silencing Christians.com.

The premise is that Christians are under assault by homosexualists, enabled by state and local governments and schools, to force them to accept LGBTs as -- gasp -- human beings deserving of civil rights! They are careful to mention "former homosexuals" and those struggling with "unwanted same-sex attraction" in order to soothe and absolve the target audience of "Christians" that their motivations are rooted in compassion, not bigotry.

You can watch the video on Pams House Blend. It made me positively ill.

It's a bunch of one-sided anecdotal nonsense with the same claptrap i.e. yet more isolated incidents anecdotes taken out of context, and out-and-out lies which push the same message - homosexuals are nasty oversexed radicals who want to force their beliefs on everyone and silence Christians.

For the record, Matt Barber is in it, so is Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle. But the person who really caught me by surprise was phony expert John R. Diggs.

I've talked about him several times on this blog. He wrote The Health Risks of Gay Sex, a piece of anti-gay propaganda so worthless that no one but members of the religious right cites it. Tomorrow morning, I will repost the errors I found in Digg's piece .

This constant complaint about being persecuted will only backfire on the AFA. You saw it last week when it and other religious right groups tried to claim that a simple wording of something in President Obama's stimulus package would lead to the persecution of Christians. Despite their planning and despite enlisting the help of Sen. Jim DeMint to push the lie, they were shot down in Congressional debates.

How long will it be before the AFA's (and religious right's for that matter) consistent lie about being persecuted evoke images not of Roman arenas and lions but cynical politicians. Or wild haired men on street corners with huge display cards.

Soon, I hope.

And by the way, if you want a real view of persecution, check out this via One News Now:

TN: Adoption by married couples best for children

Shades of Arkansas no doubt. But the state Congressman pushing for this travesty may have put his foot in his mouth with his explanation of the proposed law:

"We were having a lot of [unmarried] individuals apply to adopt children from state custody....And while single people can make very good parents, what we were finding is that some of those individuals were in same-sex relationships," he points out. "And we just thought it was not advantageous to have children who are the responsibility of the state being placed in such homes."

So the law is about denying lgbts the right to adopt children and not just keeping unmarried couples from adoption.

Of course the law will probably have no incentives for married couples to adopt children, therefore the Congressman's premise is faulty.

But neither lies nor faulty premises have ever stopped the religious right. After all, what's truth when you are trying to remake America in "God's" image?

What if you held a protest and no one gave a damn?

With Peter LaBarbera, the laughs keep coming.

As I understand it, he continued his protest against Winter Wickedness with a small number of protestors this weekend.

If you blink, you will miss it because no one covered it - that is except for a newspaper in Columbus who had a very interesting point of view of the entire thing:

Our neighborhood in old Worthington is a close-knit, tolerant and faithful community. So it was shocking this morning on the drive home from grade-school wrestling practice, to see a small group of protesters lined up outside of the Holiday Inn on Wilson Bridge Road waving “God Hates Fags” signs.

Try explaining to your first grader “what’s a 'fag'?” then explaining that, number one: we don't say 'fag' and God is love, and number two: if God has a problem with somebody, he’s got the resources to work it out on his own—you don’t have to worry about judging anyone, son.

And all this before my third cup of coffee. Yeah, it would piss you off, too.

So I returned to the protesters, notebook in hand, to find out why these three had such a giant bug up their collective ass. After introducing myself, I asked what they were protesting and why they were doing so from Holiday Inn’s side lawn.

“Is it a homo paper?” asked a scruffy 50+ man who spoke broken English with an Appalachain twang. In one hand he waved a large sign with the anagram “Gross Anus Yearning Sodomists” (whatever in the world that means) and in the other, he had two naked Ken dolls taped together in the position commonly referred to as “doggy style”.

All I can say is Lawd Hammercy!!

I’m not down with the maps

I’m going to come out and say it - this recent idea regarding the use of maps to show who donated to anti-gay marriage amendments is a BAD idea for us to pursue.

I didn’t feel comfortable when it began in California and I don’t like that it's being used in regards to the Florida vote.

Proposition 8 was a travesty. What happened in Florida was a travesty. Any time lgbts are denied fairness through lies, fear tactics, and propaganda is a travesty.

But some of us, in our anger, will not grasp the fact that we are teetering over a precipice. While I may not agree with where individual people donate their money, it just doesn’t sit right with me to call them out in the manner that these maps do.

While we may not intend it to be such, the map effort could border on intimidation. It could also end up biting the lgbt community in the ass.

What if we won a vote against a referendum and religious right organizations use the map idea against us? We would have no grounds to complain because we started this notion of tracking donations via zip codes. The opposition would be simply following our lead.

And in a practical sense, this method of tracking individuals donors is counterproductive i.e. yet another way for the right to control the argument.

Never mind the lies that were told to pass Proposition 8, never mind the families who are being told that they are inferior, and never mind the possible future problems for lgbt couples because the talk shows (such as those of O’Reilly and Hannity) will be spotlighting religious right spokespersons and the “All-American families” as they spin stories of intimidation by the “radical homosexual lobby” via these maps.

All of our arguments about the unfairness of anti-gay marriage initiatives will mean nothing in the wake of that onslaught.

We fall in this trap so many times:

Religious right organizations organize their followers and push for a law or referendum

The lgbt community, unorganized and unprepared, lose the vote.

We get angry and some of us act irrationally. We may say stupid things and some of us may lash out in inappropriate manners (i.e. sending allegedly threatening messages via blogs or seemingly accosting people who voted for the law/referendum).

The religious right (having monitored the blogs and our reactions to the vote) uses our anger against us in talking points, press releases, and on talk shows.

Subsequently, we end up on the defensive.

I’m tired of feeling like a dog chasing his own tail so I want to present a few notions.

Maybe it’s time we did some soul searching. Lgbts should have our full rights, undiluted by someone else’s religious beliefs or stereotypes. But are our actions (like this map thing) the product of our own laziness - like that of a high school student who suddenly remembers the exam he is supposed to take an hour before classes start?

Are we trying to gain something by quick cramming rather than steady and meticulous action? Why do we sit on our asses or play Dynasty games with our circle of friends until things are done to us and then act precipitously with the incorrect belief that our anger alone will get us what we need?

A protest here. A march there and presto. We have our rights.

It simply doesn’t work like that.

And why are we so quick to write off religious right organizations and their supporters as “homophobic simpletons?” Some of those “homophobic simpletons” control the media (i.e. Mike Huckabee) and are elected officials (i.e. Sally Kern). Like it or not, they have power.

And specifically, they organize, study, and plan. Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to point out their ignorance but rather study their dedication to their cause. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to copy that dedication.

Sometimes I hesitate to ask these questions because a few of my lgbt brothers and sisters get so caught up in their “anger” that they lash out and attack their own.

But that’s okay. You don’t agree with what I’m saying? That’s fine. Tell me so. But remember that while we may disagree we should not be disagreeable.

Get angry by all means but realize that anger is only a first step to getting things done. Transitory visibility is fleeting and acts of temporary empowerment are just that - temporary. But it can also have negative long term consequences.

The Religious Right's Big Lie Stategy

People for the American Way has just come out with a more detailed account of the religious right's attempt to scare the Senate into stripping away a portion of the stimulus bill that they inaccurately claimed discriminates against religion.

It's an excellent read. An excerpt is as follows:

On Thursday, February 5, the U.S. Senate took up an amendment introduced by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) to strip church-state protections from the stimulus bill. The amendment failed 43 to 54 after DeMint repeated the inflammatory claims he had been making all week and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) swiftly and effectively refuted them.

The creation of a phony crisis that DeMint’s amendment was supposed to solve is a case study of Religious Right leaders’ strategic use of false alarms about threats to religious liberty – and of the willingness of right-wing media and elected officials to play along. . . . in the wake of the amendment’s defeat, for Religious Right leaders to use the vote as “evidence” that Democrats are hostile to people of faith and to try to undermine support from religious Americans for the new administration.

Wildly alarmist rhetoric from DeMint and right-wing leaders accusing the Obama administration and congressional Democrats of hostility to faith and public prayer was especially ridiculous coming in the week that President Obama spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast and announced the creation of a multifaith advisory panel for his office of faith based and community initiatives. But stoking fears about anti-Christian “persecution” and claiming that liberal politicians are out to destroy religious liberty is a fundraising and organizing tactic that the Religious Right cannot seem to give up.

Here’s how it played out, as documented in near-real time by People For the American Way’s RightWingWatch.org.

And here I thought it was the GAYS who are persecuting Christians.

Sooner or later, that argument of religious persecution is going to get old.

Nice try Peter LaBarbera, but no dice

Sometimes it's nice to see folks like Peter LaBarbera twist in the ropes of their own nonsense.

Earlier this week, Peter took it upon himself to expose an alleged upcoming sadomaschistic hotel orgy.

Just one problem - this alleged event seems to have been heterosexual, which would not big deal in the matter except for the fact that LaBarbera has, in the past, made a name for himself by going to gay subcultural events such as Folsom Street Fair, taking pictures and posting them on his webpage, and going on talks shows decrying about how "gay culture" is indicative of these events.

In this case, Peter seems to have out trumped himself. Lgbts have nothing to do with this upcoming event.

So what does he do now?

A. Let the situation die out, allowing it to add another dubious chapter to his reputation as Porno Petey.

B. Admit that he has been unfairly generalizing about all lgbts based on the alleged behavior of some gay men at a subcultural event?

C. Try to link this heterosexual orgy to lgbt culture irregardless of the fact that the orgys's very existence negates all of the bullshit he has been spouting about gays in the past.

If Peter had done anything but "C," I would have admired his new found maturity.

But, as I have come to expect from him, Peter picked the choice that not only deepens the wound but makes me wonder just how low can his reputation sink.

LaBarbera is actually trying to link this heterosexual event to lgbt culture by claiming that we "led the way" to sexual misconduct:

While homosexuals certainly cannot be blamed for the entire, sordid Sexual Revolution, the “gay pride” (GLBT) movement has paved the way for a perversion explosion among “heterosexuals.” For if it’s perfectly acceptable for men to sodomize other men in the name of “love” — and lesbianism and bisexuality and now transsexuality to be treated as OK (while it’s NOT OK to judge them as wrong) — then what on earth is stopping other perverts like Tristan Taormino (above left) from pursuing the same popularity and acceptance? And ditto for “poly rights” in the law.

So a bunch of heterosexuals decide a big sadomaschistic orgy in a hotel and it's not their fault. It's the GAYS who put the idea in their heads. It's the GAYS who started the entire thing.

I don't know what's funnier. The idea that LaBarbera actually believes this stuff or his insistence to sneak something about gay sex into the piece.

Sometimes I think he dwells on sodomy more than gay men.

If LaBarbera keeps this up, I'm going to have stop posting about him.

Exposing the lies of the religious right is one thing but dwelling on a man who seems to be melting down in the contradictions of his own nonsense is something else entirely.

And I'm not that sadistic to give an audience to it.

A lesson in evasion brought to you by One News Now.

But first, some news briefs to tide you over on this Friday.

Gay lawmaker says she was left off family committee in Missouri

Obama's faith-based council includes openly gay appointee

Fundie message to young people of color: thou shalt not master your domain

And now, my friends, I present to you the difference between good report and partisan spearing:
From One News Now - Hilda Solis - another 'taxing' embarrassment for Obama?

From Reuters UK - Obama labor secretary-nominee faces tax questions

Now the issue in question has to do with tax liens put on the business of Solis's husband.

This is how Reuters UK addressed the issue:

The White House indicated Solis was in a different category, with spokesman Robert Gibbs saying she was not involved in her husband's business and should not be punished for the tax lapse.

"We reviewed her tax returns and her tax returns are in order," Gibbs said. "She's not a partner in that business, so we're not going to penalize her for her husband's business mistakes."

Asked if Solis' husband paid the taxes at the prompting of the White House, Gibbs said: "I think he paid the liens back because he owed the taxes. ... The White House believes that if you owe taxes, you should pay them. But at the same time, this obviously is a business that she's not a partner in and we're not going to hold her responsible for."

This is what One News Now says about the issue:

Hans von Spakovsky, a visiting legal scholar at The Heritage Foundation, says it is hard to believe Solis was not aware of the tax liens while she was profiting from her husband's business.

"I think there is a problem when we have a recurring pattern here. You know, she says that she doesn't know about these tax problems. She also failed to reveal on those same disclosure forms that she was the treasurer of this outside organization, which I think is kind of a little bit difficult for her to not remember or really claim she made a mistake," he contends. "If it wasn't a recurring pattern, there might be more credibility to that claim -- but I think this is an accumulating problem that she has."

There is no word on whether or not One News Now even tried to seek a response from the Obama Administration.

Also, I find it highly ironic who the phony news site chooses as a legimate person to cite in this article. Spavoksky isn't exactly an objective individual.

But apparently he is adequate enough for One News Now.

The state of Christianity in this country is SAD.

What the hell is wrong with ABC News

First, a continuation of the post from yesterday.

It appears that despite the wranglings, press releases, hyperbolic nonsense, and the intervention of Senator Jim DeMint, the religious right lobby against part of the stimulus package that they say discriminates against Christians has failed:

Right Wing Zombie Lies Fail in Senate February 5, 2009 - God Bless America.

This next issue isn't exactly lgbt related per se, but it gives a good reason why it's difficult for us to win the p.r. argument:

ABC: Obama Is Hypocritical For Limiting Wall Street Pay While Having A ‘Lavish Lifestyle’:

Yesterday, President Obama instituted a pay cap on bailed out businesses after it was revealed that Wall Street doled out an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses last year. “If the taxpayers are helping you, then you’ve got certain responsibilities to not be living high on the hog,” he explained.

In what appears to be an attempt to call Obama a hypocrite, ABC’s Scott Mayerowitz “reports” today that the President also has a “lavish lifestyle.” Under the title: “Obama’s Perks: Private Jet, Chef Tax-Free,” ABC notes that Obama earns $400,000 dollars a year and even has a private jet

Unbelievable. And here I thought Obama was the President of the United States and leader of the free world who will constantly be on call for at least four (I'm hoping eight) years.

Must have been my mistake.

The big question is will the religious right and other conservatives actually run with this article? Or will they show restraint for a change.

The religious right and the precision of their lies

Earlier this week, while I speculated on the power of the religious right echo chamber, People for the American Way did me one better.

The organization is following an actual case demonstrating just how the religious right is able to successfully push distortions and lies.

The following increments is taken from PFAW's Religious Right Watch:

ACLJ Demands Non-Existent Threat Be Stripped from Stimulus Bill - Feb. 3, 2009 - The right wing American Center for Law and Justice inaccurately claims that President Obama's stimulus package contains a threat to religious activities on colleges and universities.

DeMint Lends Voice to Bogus Controversy Over Stimulus Bill - Feb. 4, 2009 - My Senator from South Carolina, Jim (gays shouldn't be allowed to teach) DeMint gets involved.

Bogus Stimulus Outcry Grows as Liberty Counsel and TVC Hop on the Bandwagon - Feb. 4, 2009 - the Liberty Counsel and the Traditional Values Coalition get involved. Also, the lie gets a shout-out from Fox News due to this unbelievably biased framing of the issue - "Democrats in Congress have declared war on prayer, say conservative groups who object to a provision in the stimulus bill that was passed by the House of Representatives last week. "

ACLJ's Zombie Lie Becomes Official Right Wing Talking Point - Feb. 5, 2009 - Now the Family Research Council gets involved.

The Zombie Lie Lumbers On - Feb. 5, 2009 - And now the Christian Anti-Defamation League get involved. You remember that group, don't you? They were the ones who accused President Obama of bashing Christians simply because he has a different view of the religion.

Sen. DeMint Spews Zombie Lies on Senate Floor, Compares Opponents to George Wallace - Feb. 5, 2009 - And now, Senator DeMint has been handed the ball and he is running with it. By the way, the defintion of irony alert - South Carolina Senator DeMint evoking the image of a racist George Wallace while the Confederate Flag hangs at the SC State House along with a statue dedicated to a virulent racist (Ben "Pitchfork" Tillman) who bragged on the Senate floor about murdering African-Americans.

And that, my friends, is how it is done.

While I certainly can't give the religious right points for integrity, they get a '10' in precision.

See how they lie

Jeremy from Good As You pointed this out and I just want to piggyback on it.

Yesterday, I wrote how Peter LaBarbera is going on another crusade against an alleged bondage/sadomaschistic event at a hotel.

Usually LaBarbera goes after gay subcultural events and tries to use them to generalize about all lgbts.

However, this event in question has to do with heterosexuals, not lgbts. Even LaBarbera's screechings about the event emphasizes this point.

But today comes the news that this doesn't stop World Net Daily from proclaiming the following:

Another homo-sex-fest set for hotel'

Winter Wickedness' to include 'sadomasochistic perversion'

What can you say about a "Christian" news source that will tell such a blatant lie?

Say it with me now - GO AWAY SALLY KERN!

I never did like the controversy regarding Oklahoma legislator Sally Kern.

I didn't like the way she consistently relied on bad information from Paul Cameron and the religious right to make her case that lgbts are as bad as terrorists.

I didn't like the way she hid behind her so-called Christian religion when questioned about her comments.

And most of all, I didn't like how the lgbt community pretty much let her get away with it.

We wasted time speculating on whether or not her son was gay or talking about what Ellen DeGeneres said about the situation. The fact that Sally Kern was a good example of how the religious right flim flams guillible people of faith into believing the worst about lgbts was a point that got lost in all of the controversy.

I was glad when the controversy died down. One wonders if Kern was because she keeps making an ass of herself:

Speaking at the Clouds Over America conference, run and organized by the John Birch Society in Oklahoma City, Kern told a welcoming crowd that she found the elusive gay agenda between the pages of Marshall Kirk's and Hunter Madsen's 1990 book After The Ball: How America Will Conquer Its fear & Hatred Of Gays In The 90s. Its authors mostly argue in 432 pages that gays and lesbians will most likely be accepted once they are liked by the general public.

Oklahoma Gazette, the Oklahoma City alternative weekly, reports Kern spoke to a packed crowd.

“You know,” Kern said, “I've done a lot of reading on this. I wish I could describe to you their behavior. I will not because I would be redder than this suit. It's their behavior that we oppose.”

Here we go again. Gays are following a six point plan to take over America. It's a standard urban legend in religious right dogma.

From time to time, the religious right will claim that the lgbt community is using the book After the Ball as a sort of blueprint to allegedly force acceptance. Then they will point to certain incidents that somehow "connect all of the dots."

To a lot of us, these incidents (i.e. more visibility and a little more acceptance for lgbts and our families) mean nothing more than positive evolutionary steps of the human existence. To the religious right, these steps are the result of planning by a group of evil geniuses intent on conquest.

Apparently they got us mixed up with their efforts to ban same-sex marriage nationwide.

For the record, the vast majority of lgbts have never heard of After the Ball - not that it matters to Kern and folks who agree with her.

The real question is will our community finally bring more attention to the fact that the religious right is intentionally putting out bad propaganda about lgbts?

Somehow I doubt that this will happen.

To some of us, it's much more fun to focus on issues such as Kern's age or weight.

The religious right's Biblically nice rhetoric

First, one little matter.

I noticed Michelle Malkin saying that due to the Tom Daschle situation, President Obama's transition has been a disaster.

Oh stop it already. Like I'm actually shocked that Malkin is criticizing Obama. She would call his State of the Union address a disaster if he coughed briefly while giving it.

If she wants induce shock, she would give President Obama credit for something.

I don't think it's a big deal. Clinton had Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, Bush had Linda Chavez, and now Obama has Tom Daschle.

It happens and it's called getting a feel for the office.

Now onto other matters - I ran across a hilarious bit in One News Now by former Concerned Women for America spokesperson and now director of Cultural Affairs at Liberty Counsel and 2008 Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters Misinformer of the Year Matt Barber.

And what is he talking about? Why lgbt folks yet again in a piece entitled Homosexuality & the laws of moral physics.

So now being a phony expert gives one expertise in "moral physics." I guess it's not enough for the religious right to fake credentials in legitimate sciences; they are now creating imaginary ones.

Anyway, it's a rather long and ponderous piece of mumbo jumbo in which Barber cites Biblical texts talking about homosexuality (and naturally excluding the parts that say homosexuals should be executed, which is highly ironic seeing that he complains about people cherry picking the Bible).

But I noticed what isn't there. Where is the "homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle" lie that I have come to expect from folks like him? Where are the discredited studies or the studies taken out of context?

I know. Wishful thinking.

Paul Cameron and gerbils still have a place in religious right lies about lgbts.

But I think there will be some subtleties played from now on.

This emphasis on the "religious wrongness of homosexuality" will probably be a recurrent theme. And the minute that President Obama tries to push something pro-lgbt forward, count on the religious right to use this theme to get them over in the African-American community.

It's not as farfetched as one thinks. The minute hate crimes legislation or ENDA comes up, expect the religious right to put on their consoling faces and try to be the heterosexual black community's best friend (despite months of inferring that black folks are racists for supporting Obama). Expect them to exploit the idea that black folks are highly religious and therefore disapproves of homosexuality in a high number.

As a black gay man, I can tell you that the notion is bullshit. It's the inability to talk about lgbt issues in the black community that has led the notion to flourish. But that's irrelevant right now.

What will most likely happen next will be the following - the black community will be too proud to admit that it is being used and the lgbt community will be too angry to realize that the religious right is counting on it to behave irrationally. Neither side will unite against the common enemies of ignorance and fear.

This will thereby lead to the end result - black folks will be angry, gay folks will be angry, Obama will be humbled, the religious right will have more press, and lgbts of color like myself will end up feeling like Gloria Vanderbilt after that custody trial.

Geez, I almost miss the Paul Cameronesque rhetoric already.