Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
Of course the religious right still cites his work, but are very careful not to mention him by name. Of course there are some, such as Peter LaBarbera, who will deliberately cite Cameron's work, even though he knows that the work is flawed.
Cameron found himself in the news recently for comments he made regarding President Obama's recently announced support of marriage equality. During an interview with Christian radio station, Cameron asserted that Obama was gay. He also said that one of the prime goals of the gay rights movement was to introduce homosexual sex acts to children.
Naturally, Pakman pressed him on these claims, revealing an interview which is was at times pathetic, infuriating, and sad. Cameron, in an offhand and flippant manner, reveals a terrible childhood incident which most likely put him on the road to destroying so many lives in the lgbtq community with his lies. And although the interview did not delve into the specificity of these lies in a manner which I would have liked to, it is still an excellent job by Pakman at deconstructing the sad mind of a man consumed with reducing the gay community to wanton sex acts.
I came out of it feeling a twinge of pity for Cameron, but not enough pity to ignore the damage he has done to the lgbtq community over the years:
PFOX Complains to School Board - Imagine that. Suing a school district so that you can peddle inaccurate and negative information about the gay community to children.
Congressman Maintains It Should Be Legal To Fire Someone For Being Gay, Attacks ThinkProgress - Think Progress got him dead to rights and yet he still says he was unfairly attacked. And now he says he is being threatened. Blah, blah, blah. Bear in mind that I am not trying to trivialize any threats but come on now. That's always the defense of homophobes. - i.e. that they are being attacked for beings "Christians" and then "someone" is threatening them.
Earlier this month, the Portland Press Heraldannounced the creation of a third anti-gay group fighting this November’s voter initiative to legalize same-sex marriage in Maine – the Maine Marriage Allies PAC, which will be a project of the ironically named Maine Equal Rights Center (MERC). On its Facebook page, MERC is described as a “grass roots campaign to educate voters on same sex marriage.”
Equality Matters also points out that while this group is fighting marriage equality, its presence may actually help the cause of marriage equality because of the information it is trotting out to smear the lgbtq community:
MERC’s website, however, is a deluge of misinformation, confused political analyses, and some truly cringe-worthy writing.
The website is organized into a number of tabs meant to provide visitors with information about the proposed marriage initiative. Each tab varies wildly in content and tone; some inexplicably focus on criticizing the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) while another includes an image of President Obama riding a unicorn.
That would be this picture:
Equality Matters also points out that the founder of this group, Erik Bennett, is a failed politician with a penchant for bizarre youtube ads and vicious homophobic slurs:
One wonders what the National Organization for Marriage thinks about Bennett. All in all, it promises to be a very interesting time in Maine.
As usual, David’s done his homework, calmly citing, among other things, the oeuvre of prominent Yale historian John Boswell, who wrote prolifically about the intersection of LGBT issues and religion. Brown’s only response is to dismiss Boswell completely, because after all (as Brown says), he “practically died of AIDS.”
And it only goes downhill from there. When Pakman challenges Brown’s tired (and totally discredited) talking point about the immutability of the historical definition of marriage, Brown resorts to condescension. Check out the video below — he tries to lecture Pakman on how to prepare for an interview, seizing the opportunity to hawk his self-published book (which, apparently, must be a respectable source, despite the fact that no publishing house — reputable or otherwise — would print it, because it includes “1500+ endnotes and massive research.” (Hmmmm, overcompensating much?) When Pakman presses Brown further to cite the specific sources he drew upon to formulate his exclusionary “historical definition of marriage,” he suddenly chickens out remembers that he has something else to do, saying that he didn’t realize this wasn’t a “serious interview” and mischaracterizing Pakman as a ‘gotcha’ journalist out to “[set] people up for quotes.” Then, after essentially telling Pakman again to read his book before he interviews him again, Brown hangs up.
It just goes to show that when religious right figures are asked serious questions about their claims, they can't handle the pressure
The increasingly obvious danger in mag-bombing black barbershops - Oh look. Matt Barber thinks he knows the black community. Sorry guy, but don't let folks like Harry Jackson fool you. Our beliefs are nuanced and an interloper like yourself will have no bearing on how we vote.
Right after he and Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) practically teamed up to annihilate the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins on Hardball, Chris Matthews joined MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell to further call attention to Perkins' inaccuracies concerning families and the lgbtq community:
Apparently Obama's support of marriage equality is pulling all of the homophobes out of the closet, so to speak, including this one:
Transcript:
Well, the timing is I think miserable for his reelection. I would have expected him, as you did, to wait until he was the new president and say, “Guess what? I’ve changed my mind,” or, “I’ve evolved.” But homosexuality is the one sin, or the one habit, that is 24/7. It is homosexuality all the time. And actually, while I’m not sure about the claims by the various people who have reported that Obama has at least participated at times with them in homosexual acts, this certainly lends some credence.
. . . Mark my words clearly; the long term goal of the homosexual movement is to get every little boy to grab his ankles and every little girl to give it a try. They will not rest until every one of our children at least gets to try, has the opportunity and maybe is forced to at least once experience homosexual acts. There is no retreating from that, they made it very clear earlier on—now they don’t take about it—but that’s what they want, they will not be happy until they get it, marriage is just a step along the way.
Those who are regular followers of my blog know this man. He is Paul Cameron, a man whom I consider to be the grand daddy of all religious right distortions involving the lgbtq community. At one time, he was the go-to guy for all anti-gay distortions used by the religious right. He is the man is responsible for pushing the following myths about the gay community:
Lesbians are more likely to die in car wrecks,
Gay men molest children at a high rate and are more likely to be serial killers,
Gay men stuff gerbils up their rectums,
Gays and lesbians in the military are more likely to rape their heterosexual counterparts.
Of course the religious right still cites his work, but are very careful not to mention him by name. Of course there are some, such as Peter LaBarbera, who will deliberately cite Cameron's work, even though he knows that the work is flawed.
And there are othesr, like the National Organization for Marriage, who, when caught citing Cameron, will turn backflips in order to distance themselves from him (sorry Maggie Gallagher, but a link is in fact an endorsement).
For me, Paul Cameron is old news. He doesn't even shock me anymore.
But not one time, at least to my knowledge, have any of these groups ever been questioned regarding their usage of Cameron's work on any news program.
Getting Tony Perkins, Maggie Gallagher, or Peter Sprigg to answer questions regarding the usage of Cameron's work on a program such as Hardball sounds like a new project to me.
Editor's note - Those who are my friends on facebook are advised to de-friend me as Alvin McEwen. That address has been hacked (do not click on the picture of the shoes!). Please friend me at Charle King.
Patrick Wooden
Those who are against marriage equality are constantly pushing this "victim complex," i.e. claiming that they are being unfairly vilified for their opposition to marriage equality.
This is a lie. It's not their opposition to marriage equality, per se, but the distortions they engage in to fight marriage equality.
And unfortunately, often times, the media is their ally in how it frames the argument.
A perfect example of this sad fact is a recent New York Times article, Churches split over gay marriage. All in all, it is an excellent article which makes a good point in showing that the fight of marriage equality is not necessarily a fight which pits the gay community on one side and the religious community on the other. The article demonstrates that religious beliefs dictates both sides of the issue.
However, it also sugarcoats the reputation of a certain North Carolina minister:
At a black Pentecostal church in Raleigh, N.C., the Rev. Patrick Wooden entered the sanctuary on Sunday to a standing ovation, exulting that God’s “high hand” had led voters last week to pass a statewide amendment banning same-sex marriage. He took to the pulpit and denounced President Obama for taking a stand “in support of sin,” and “in opposition to the biblical model of marriage.”
. . .On Sunday, after Pastor Wooden quieted the standing ovation in his sanctuary in Raleigh, a sea of pink hats and dresses in honor of Mother’s Day, he went into a sermon that portrayed the fight for the same-sex marriage amendment as a divinely ordained cause.
Quoting from Exodus, he said God had led people to the polls with a “high hand,” just as God led the Israelites out of Egypt. Mr. Obama went “against God,” the pastor said. He invoked the New Testament passage from Romans in which men turn away from women and burn in their lust, “men with men.”
Pastor Wooden’s 3,000-member congregation, the Upper Room Church of God in Christ, is part of an African-American denomination that declared in 2004 that it would “never allow” or bless same-sex unions. The declaration cited passages from Scripture: that God created “the woman for the man,” (I Corinthians 11:9), and that “marriage is honorable” (Hebrews 13:4).
Pastor Wooden was in the forefront of the political fight over the marriage amendment in North Carolina, serving on the executive committee for the campaign and voicing radio advertisements heard around the state. He said that he had been raised by a single mother, and that he believed children needed both a mother and a father.
Those of us who know Wooden know that this isn't the only thing he said in regards to the gay community. He has made deliberately untrue comments regarding gay men and sex:
To omit - and I think this was by accident by the writer - Wooden's history of demonizing the gay community via slander and the bearing of false witness is serious mistake on two accounts. For one, it sanitizes Wooden as a simple pastor rather than exposing the entirety his homophobic animus and the article misses a chance to delve into a key complaint by the lgbtq community in regards to those who oppose marriage equality, i.e. that they are quick to vilify us amongst each other, but in front of the press, they act innocent as lambs.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council have been hitting different spots in the media in response to President Obama's announced support of marriage equality. Though Perkins has been having a rough go at it - and it's about time too - the following video montage is the basic reason why we need to constantly remind the media to continue to ask Perkins and representatives of FRC tough questions whenever they appear:
You have probably seen this video already. But if not, God help you for watching it.
The following is not a joke. It is testimony at a Lincoln Nebraska City Council hearing this week to review a proposed LGBT protection ordinance. There is nothing I can say which will prepare you for this, but I will say that sometimes homophobia is so bad that it's funny:
Editor's note - Reportedly the woman on this video has mental health issues, something which was not known at the time of its posting. This piece of knowledge should cause further discussions when it comes to mental health, but in all honesty, how many times has the lgbtq community heard these statements - albeit in a more coherent fashion - from religious right organizations and figures? Us laughing at this woman's testimony should be not be seen as insensitivity on our part. For one thing, we didn't know she mentally ill when the video was originally posted. For another, many of us saw her statements as "here they go again."
For all of the talk about the division between homosexuality and the Black church, no one talks about how much gays and lesbians have influenced gospel music.
Gospel performer and singer who is widely acclaimed among the greatest soloists in gospel history. Clara Mae Ward, daughter of evangelist Gertrude Ward was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in April of 1924. Like so many of her contemporaries, she gained her first musical experience singing in the church. As gospel music began to reach a wider audience in the first half of the twentieth century,Ward started singing professionally with her mother and her sister Willa with the Ward Trio (1934-1937). Later as the group enlarged its membership and became the Ward Singers, the Clara Ward Specials and finally the Clara Ward Singers which became very popular. The group included such outstanding individuals such as gospel great Marion Williams and appealed to audiences both sacred and secular. In the 1950s, the group was at the height of its power, appearing at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival and other prestigious venues. Under Ward's direction the group later broadened its appeal and became very show biz oriented which caused her to be shunned by some gospel singers for obvious religious reasons.
Despite her career success, Ward's life was an unhappy one. Financial hardships caused her and her family to move 19 times before her adulthood. Sexually abused in childhood by a cousin and relentlessly driven as prime breadwinner by her mother throughout her life, Clara's life was one of constant work and little joy. According to her sister Willa, Gertrude Ward recognized Clara's exceptional musical ability when Clara was a child and controlled and manipulated her throughout her life. In her biography of Clara, Willa attests that Gertrude worked to prevent Clara from forming any romantic attachments. Although Clara eloped as a teenager (at age 17 in 1941), her mother forced her to tour and the strain caused the always frail Clara to have a miscarriage. Her marriage ended after only one year. Willa describes Clara as explaining her occasional lesbian encounters as the sexual expression likely to escape her mother's notice. Her only real happiness seems to have come from her longtime romance with Rev. C. L. Franklin (with whom the Ward groups extensively toured), the famous Detroit-based preacher and father of the legendary Aretha Franklin.
Also known as "Little Axe," "Wilbur," "Willie," and "Wilmer," was an African-American hard gospel quartet singer. A tiny man with glasses and a high, powerful tenor voice, he worked and recorded with many of the most famous and influential groups of his day.
Broadnax was born in Houston in 1916. After moving to Southern California in the mid-40s, he and his brother, William, joined the Southern Gospel Singers, a group which performed primarily on weekends. The Broadnax brothers soon formed their own quartet, the Golden Echoes. William eventually left for Atlanta, where he joined the Five Trumpets, but Willmer stayed on as lead singer. In 1949 the group, augmented by future Soul Stirrer Paul Foster, recorded a single of "When the Saints Go Marching In" for Specialty Records. Label chief Art Rupe decided to drop them before they could record a follow-up, and shortly thereafter the Golden Echoes disbanded.
In 1950, Broadnax joined the Spirit of Memphis Quartet. Along with Broadnax, the group featured two other leads -- Jethro "Jet" Bledsoe, a bluesy crooner, and Silas Steele, an overpowering baritone. This was one of the most impressive line-ups in quartet history. The Spirit of Memphis Quartet recorded for King Records, and Broadnax appeared on their releases at least until 1952. Shortly after that, however, he moved on, working with the Fairfield Four, and, in the beginning of the 60s, as one of the replacements for Archie Brownlee in the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. Until 1965 he headed a quartet called "Little Axe and the Golden Echoes," which released some singles on Peacock Records. By then, quartet singing was fading as a commercial phenomenon, and Broadnax retired from touring, though he did continue to record occasionally with the Blind Boys into the 70s and 80s.
Upon his death in 1994, it was discovered that Broadnax was female assigned at birth.
Pastor: We suffer more under marriage equality 'than we would have under segregation' - Introducing the single most ignorant comment in regards to marriage equality by a black pastor this year. Yeah I said. Forget the lgbtq community, my heterosexual black brothers and sisters need to get mad at the predominantly white wannabe Christian publications which provide a forum for black pastors to make fools of themselves.
Queer Theologian & Comic Peterson Thomas Toscano reveals the hilarious reason that distracts some folks from effective conversation about LGBT issues & lives:
The following video is openly gay Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) debating Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council on Hardball about Obama's support of marriage equality.
President Obama's announced support of marriage equality yesterday seems have the media running towards everyone who considers themselves an expert on marriage.
The Huffington Post just published an interview with National Organization for Marriage founder Maggie Gallagher in which she claimed that Obama's position on marriage equality would help his opponent, Mitt Romney.
It's to be expected that she would say that. But what she didn't talk about, or rather choose to evade, during the interview is something which caught my eye.
Lila Shapiro, the Huffington Post reporter, asked Gallagher directly about the scandal which erupted when it was discovered that NOM had planned to exploit the difference of opinion between blacks and gays on the subject of marriage equality:
Shapiro: Were you involved in drafting the National Organization for Marriage's internal documents recently unsealed in the court case in Maine? Do you think that the president's announcement will effect the "wedge" strategy laid out in the section "Not a civil right project"?
Gallagher: I think African-American church leaders will continue to teach Christian understanding of sex and marriage to their flocks. African-Americans in their flocks may well continue to vote for Pres. Obama and also oppose gay marriage. NOM did not create these divisions. I'm happy to apologize for the aggressive sounding tone of that long-ago memo, but not for the project which involves white, suburban, Republican girls like me reaching out to people of all races, creeds and colors on the marriage issue. Marriage truly forges a unique political coalition.
Gallagher did not really answer the question. If her explanation sounds rehearsed then trust me when I say that it is not your imagination. This is what she said when the controversy broke in March:
"The documents used language which I would call 'inapt' - - in part because it's tremendously vain to think that I or NOM or any other white Christian conservative can manipulate black and latino church leaders. I don't think so. They speak out of their own convictions and become subject to tremendous vituperative for doing so."
So in March, Gallagher said the language was inapt. Now she is saying that sounded too aggressive. The language is as follows:
The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks - two key democratic constituencies. We aim to find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage; to develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; and to provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots. No politician wants to take up and push an issue that splits the base of the party.
And Gallagher continues to miss the point, deliberately no doubt. It doesn't matter that NOM did not create the division between the black and gay communities over the subject of marriage equality. It matter that NOM is trying to exploit the division.
For a long time, many on my side of the spectrum have been raising holy hell at news organizations like MSNBC and CNN for giving the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins a platform even though his organization is an SPLC-declared hate group for the way it demonizes gays through lies and cherry-picked research.
I differed with those on my side who didn't want to see Perkins being interviewed at all. For me, it wasn't the fact that he was interviewed, it was the fact that he was not challenged on his views or the behavior of his organization.
Journalists treated Perkins like a pundit or an expert when he is neither.
But finally, one journalist, Soledad O'Brien of CNN did what other journalists have not done - she neither let Perkins soft pedal his way through, nor did she let him go on a monologue. O'Brien asked him the tough questions and challenged some of his assertions.
The two discussed whether allowing same-sex couples to marry would ultimately redefine the institution of marriage.
“When government takes a policy position on marriage, it has an effect,” Perkins said.
O’Brien pressed him over what the consequences would be for gay marriage. Perkins said it went back to the 1960s with no-fault divorce and adoption.
“We’ve seen the consequences of that and have over 40% of children being born out of wedlock. We have a decline in marriage, the rise in cohabitation. The social costs of that are tremendous,” he said.
“When government took a position, let’s say, against the ban on interracial marriage it had an effect too, right? It brought legal marriage to blacks and whites,” O’Brien noted.
Perkins disputed the basis of O’Brien’s question.
“You’re talking about redefinition,” Perkins said. “There is no rational reason to keep people of different races that were of opposite sex to marry. They met the qualifications of the definition of marriage. What we’re talking about here is a further redefinition of marriage…”
“But hasn’t marriage been redefined and redefined?” O’Brien interjected.
NOM's Hypocrisy on Civility - I just had to run this post about how NOM tries to keep its hands clean while allowing its allies to do the "dirty work."
Log Cabin And GOProud: WTF? - To paraphrase Ms. Joan Crawford, "there is a word to describe the Log Cabin Republicans and GoProud right now, but it isn't used in high society, outside of a kennel.
For me, however, it proves a notion I have had in regards to the National Organization for Marriage.
Have you ever noticed that every time NOM receives a major victory over marriage equality, it comes back to bite the organization in the ass?
In 2008, it led the charge to pass Proposition 8 and in part galvanized the gay community. That loss led to a lot of new gay activists and just as many recharged ones.
In 2009, NOM again led the charge, this time overturning marriage equality laws in Maine. But in the wake of that victory, organization lost court case after court case in its attempt to fight that state's disclosure laws, finally leading up to a very public smackdown by the Supreme Court, causing many people to ask the question just what is NOM hiding. Maine's victory also gave America embarrassing peak into NOM's inner workings when court documents revealed that the organization was deliberately attempting to pit the gay and black community against one another.
And now this. Fresh off of an ugly victory in North Carolina, the organization finds itself slapped down by none other than the leader of the free world. What worse insult is there than having the President of the United States stand against your efforts?
It would seem to me that when it's all said and done, history will point out that while NOM's goal was the stop marriage equality, all the organization did was hasten it.
Certainly this is not to praise NOM.
NOM is like a predatory virus going from community to community, exploiting people's beliefs, fears, and prejudice until every thing reaches a fever pitch. When it's all over, NOM feeds off of the results and leaves the community in turmoil while it searches for its next victim.
But like I said earlier, today proved something to me.
The gay community is not only on the right side of this but maybe some of those folks like NOM who claim to be speaking for God got their circuits mixed up.
