Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Friday, April 16, 2010

Know Your LGBT History - Designing Women

Generally, this is the time when I post my weekly Know Your LGBT History segment. Before I do today, I want to make a short mention of three items I may be posting about this weekend:

Judge strikes down adoption ban - Voters in Arkansas voted this law in specifically to keep lgbt couples from adopting. When the "will of the people" goes against the Constitution, then the "will of the people" needs to lose.

National Institutes of Health Director condemns anti-gay pediatrician group - That's three rebukes for the American College of Pediatricians (counting the ones from Dr. Gary Remafedi and the American Association of Pediatrics). I want more and I want to make them ALL known.

Lafferty: ENDA Will Allow The VA To Molest Our Disabled Veterans - How low can Andrea Lafferty go?" God! That's YOUR child.

Now onto Know Your LGBT History:

I got a request last week for Designing Women before one of the stars, Dixie Carter, passed away.

This show is legendary amongst the gay community because of its astute portrayal of the trials and tribulations of four Southern women and designing firm they own.

This particular episode (airing in 1987) is one of the most famous and is actually the first episode of Designing Women I ever saw. Naturally after it, I was hooked. It's called Killing All the Right People and it's about a friend of the women hiring them to decorate his funeral. You see, he is dying from AIDS.

At the same time, another one of the characters, Mary Jo (Annie Potts) has to speak at a PTA meeting advocating the position of teaching complete sex education and condoms in schools

The two storylines mix when a "friend" of the women gives her unsolicited opinion of the young man dying from AIDS:

The tirade she received from Dixie Carter's character (Julia Sugarbaker) was indicative of the nature of the show. Ironically, Carter was a bit more conservative than her character and she made a deal with the producers. For every tirade her character voiced, she got to sing in a later episode.

That's not to say that Carter was not supportive of the lgbt community because she was. And if you ask me, viewers got a doubly good deal. Carter was an excellent singer and her character's tirades were awesome. What the hell, here are a few:

Family Research Council accuses gays of pedophilia without any proof

Yesterday, Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council had this to say about the abuse of children in the Catholic Church:

While activists like to claim that pedophilia is a completely distinct orientation from homosexuality, evidence shows a disproportionate overlap between the two. About a third of all child sex abuse cases involve men molesting boys--and in one study, 86% of such men identified themselves as homosexual or bisexual. Try as they might, gays and lesbians can't shrug off the link. This is a homosexual problem.

Only one thing. Perkins never gave a name of the study. He supplies a link to an abstract of a 1988 Netherlands study but the link does nothing to either prove or disprove Perkins's claim.

The abstract says the following:

Despite intense interest in the problem of child sex abuse, base rates for different offense characteristics are poorly defined. The likelihood of otherwise uncorroborated allegations of sexual abuse could be assessed in light of known frequencies of alleged behaviors, if such were available. This paper reviews the current literature on the topic of the specific behaviors of child molesters, along with other epidemiological characteristics, and provides new data drawn from experience with 229 convicted child molesters.

It's ironic that Perkins choose to delve into the territory of claiming that the majority of pedophiles are gay. His organization, the Family Research Council, has a history of distorting research to prove this claim and being called out for it. According to author Mark E. Pietrzyk:

The Family Research Council’s analyst Timothy Dailey, who argues that there is a link between homosexuality and child molestation, admits that pedophiles who target boys may also have sexual relations with women. However, he implies that such men are merely closet homosexuals and refuses to admit that heterosexual men may well be attracted to women and to underage boys at the same time. This tactic leads Dailey to again distort the work of a reputable researcher, W. L. Marshall. Marshall's paper, “Sexual Offenders Against Male Children: Sexual Preferences,” discusses the results of a study of the sexual orientation of a sample of male sex offenders against boys. Marshall measured the sexual orientation of the offenders by means of a plethysmograph, a device which measures arousal responses. Marshall found that out of his sample of 21 offenders against boys, two‑thirds of the offenders were predominantly heterosexual in their adult orientation. Yet Dailey completely omits this result, and cites Marshall's paper as evidence for the notion that sex offenders against male children are invariably homosexual.

In fact, Marshall's study found that not only could heterosexual males be attracted to women and young boys simultaneously, the heterosexual males were more inclined to be attracted to the very young, whereas the homosexual offenders chose older victims

Then there was the 1992 controversy with A. Nicholas Groth, former director of the Sex Offender Program at the Connecticut Department of Corrections. Dailey distorted Groth's work to draw the conclusion that gay men molest boys at a high rate, when Groth's research said the opposite.

Needless to say, Groth wasn't happy about this and he wrote a letter to FRC saying so (I have an original copy of the press release with the letter if anyone wants to see it):

Dear Dr. Dailey:

On the web site www.frc.org you reference my work in your article on "Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse". I am writing you to object to my name and research being associated in any way, shape, or form to lend legitimacy to the views proposed in your paper.

If you are, in fact, familiar with my research, you must realize that my studies have indicated that homosexual males pose less risk of sexual harm to children (both male and female)--from both an absolute and a percentage incidence rate--than heterosexual males. Your statement that "the evidence indicates that disproportionate numbers of gay men seek adolescent males or boys as sexual partners" appears to come from the assumption that if an adult male is attracted to a male child, this adult male's sexual orientation is ipso facto homosexual.

Since your report, in my view, misrepresents the facts of what we know about this matter from scientific investigation, and does not indicate that my studies on this topic reach conclusions diametrically opposed to yours, I would appreciate your removing any reference to my work in your paper lest it appear to the reader that my research supports your views.
Yours truly,

A. Nicholas Groth, Ph.D.

So taking all of this in, I think I understand why Perkins conveniently didn't give the name of the study which he claims proves his point.

How many times can an organization suffer the embarrassment of having it's face cracked and on the ground?

Rachel Maddow pokes fun at Mike Huckabee's hypocrisy

Good luck to all of the schools and students participating in today's Day of Silence.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow weighed in on the recent controversy involving Fox News's Mike Huckabee in a hilarious fashion. Her take on the situation is both truthful and amusing. But one thing disturbs me. It turns out that Huckabee was paid $20,000 for the interview. Whatever happened to being interviewed without being paid?

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Traditional Values Coalition stoops to lowest level of fraud in new attack on ENDA

Just what is it about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that scares Lou Sheldon and the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) so much?

I can't help but to ask this question after viewing the organization's latest endeavour, a web page called endahurtskids.com

Via this web site, TVC repeats past lies its told about ENDA, including the following:

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is the lesbian, gay, and transgender movement’s “holy grail.” It is prized precisely because it will foist the LGBT agenda into our public schools as a federally-protected right. Once this happens, every homosexual, bisexual, and transgender teacher will have free reign to indoctrinate our children into accepting these “alternative lifestyles” as normal and good.

Currently, 38 states do not make “gender identity” into a protected minority under law. But once Obama signs ENDA, this will change. Every state will be forced to make cross-dressers, drag queens, transsexuals, and she-males into protected classes. These states will be forbidden by law to reassign any cross-dressing teacher because this would be considered “discrimination.” Thus, children will be trapped in classes taught by men who dress as women and students will be indoctrinated that it’s normal behavior.

Doesn't TVC remind you of Anita Bryant when she sought to overturn the ordinance in Dade County, FL by claiming that gays want to recruit children in order to "freshen their ranks."

TVC's webpage gets worse in the section, ENDA Will Discourage Schools From Telling Facts About:

It is clear that promoting LGBT behaviors is dangerous to students’ mental and physical health. The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) has just launched a new web site called Facts About Youth to inform students, teachers, and parents about the serious problems associated with the LGBT lifestyle.

This professional medical group has compiled numerous research papers about homosexuality and Gender Identity Disorders (GID).

The ACP just sent a letter to school districts throughout the United States to announce the launching of Facts About Youth. The ACP warned these superintendents that their schools should not tell students that same-sex attractions should be accepted. Studies indicate that such feelings go away by the time a person reaches 25 if not affirmed. In addition, students who have a Gender Identity Disorder (GID) usually lose these feelings if not affirmed by those in authority. (A person with GID thinks he or she is the opposite sex.)

Please bear in mind that it has been revealed on numerous occasions that the American College of Pediatricians is not a professional group but a shell organization designed to give legitimate cover to religious right propaganda about the lgbt community (via the Facts About Youth web page) such as:

Some gay men sexualize human waste, including the medically dangerous practice of coprophilia, which means sexual contact with highly infectious fecal wastes.

Furthermore, the American College of Pediatricians received a rebuke this week from a legitimate medical group, the American Academy of Pediatrics. Also, Dr. Gary Remafedi, M.D., M.P.H., a University of Minnesota researcher wrote the group a letter accusing them of distorting his work.

Between you and me, however, I really don't think that the TVC cares about Remafedi's rebuke. The group itself misuses Remafedi's work in another cited link on its anti-ENDA web page, Gays Recruit Public School Children.

Basically every lie that TVC pushed against ENDA in the past fewdays are included on its web page including:

the inaccurate labeling of paraphilias as sexual orientations, and

Andrea Lafferty's distortions of incidents involving transgender teachers.

To make matters worse, TVC also pushes past distortions regarding Obama appointee Kevin Jennings (i.e. Fistgate).

But the inherent dishonest of TVC's anti-ENDA web page lies in the link, The Gay Report: A Survey Of Homosexual Sex Habits.

As I said many times before, The Gay Report, published in 1979, was based in part on 2,500 responses from a questionnaire in a now defunct soft core porn magazine, Blueboy. TVC claims that the study proves that gays and lesbians are not only highly sexually irresponsible, but also have a negative view of monogamy:

“One respondent to this part of the sex survey noted: ‘Promiscuity is a heterosexual concept which is used to attack us. I find it dehumanizing, sexist, and ultimately damaging to the psyche. If you speak in terms of ‘sexual freedom’ and sharing of sensual experience, it can be a fine thing. I guess it all depends upon motives.’”

So how did the Traditional Values Coalition attempt to connect a book talking about the alleged sexual habits of gays and lesbians over 30 years ago to the lives of gays and lesbians in the present?

That in itself is interesting.

While all of the sexual habits and alleged quotes from gays and lesbians taken from The Gay Report took up over one and a half page of TVC’s report, the linking of present day gay sexual behavior in the section of the report, Sex Habits Remain Essentially Unchanged Today, took up less than a quarter of a page and isnot as thorough. It did not include statistics on the present day sexual habits of gays and lesbians, only anecdotes of unfortunate incidents in which gay men were infected with HIV due to reckless behavior, such as
“barebacking.” But TVC offered no proof that “barebacking” is the norm in the gay community rather than the anomaly that many have claimed that it is.

When TVC did attempt to prove the notion that gays and lesbians are engaging in the same habits as they allegedly were in 1979, it cited an earlier study it published entitled Homosexual Behavior Fuels AIDS and STD Epidemic.

This study:

“. . . quotes Dr. John Diggs, who published ‘The Health Risks of Gay Sex’ for the Corporate Resource Council. Diggs notes that homosexuals typically engage in oral and anal sex, rimming (mouth to anus contact), fisting (insertion of the fist and arm into the anus), golden showers (urination), sadomasochism, and the insertion of such objects as bottles, flashlights, and even gerbils into the rectum.”

Diggs's paper has several problems regarding accuracy but for the purpose of the point which I am trying to make here, the main problem with Diggs's paper as somehow validation of the data in The Gay Report is this:

In order to gain information for his report, including the above excerpt regarding gay sexual behavior, Diggs received his information from The Gay Report.

Therefore in essence, TVC is citing the same book (The Gay Report) twice while attempting to make the citations sound as if they come two different sources.

Now none of TVC's claims on its web page have anything to do with the real purpose of ENDA, which is to protect the lgbt community from workplace discrimination. But it has everything to do with exploitations of fear and ignorance.

It's funny because I never knew exploiting fear and ignorance through lies and fraud were Christian values.

AFA: Gays can't serve on Supreme Court because they are deviant felons, and other Thursday midday news briefs

AFA's Fischer: Gays Are Biased, Sexually Deviant Felons And Can Never Serve On the Supreme Court - So much for Christian love or truth.

OUT Magazine’s LGBT Power 50 - He'p me law. It looks like Matt Drudge may be listed.

3rd Grade Class saved from the evils of *GASP* Crossdressing! - a ridiculous controversy which Day of Silence nearly got embroiled into.

Police Investigate Burned Flag At LGBT Center - This ain't good.

Should LGBT media use male beauty to attract readers? - Well hell, what about us intelligent homely folks? Our community needs to aspire to a higher plain.

Religious business owners should not have the 'special right' to discriminate

Matt Barber of the Liberty Counsel just gave the real reason why religious right groups oppose the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

And it has nothing to do with "drag queen teachers" or any other fear story drudged up by his colleagues in other religious right groups such as the Traditional Values Coalition.

It has to do with giving religious business owners special rights.

Barber spelled out this position in a Washington Times piece:

ENDA would force - under penalty of law - Christian, Jewish or Muslim business owners to adopt a secular-humanist viewpoint, ignoring all matters surrounding sexual morality while making hiring and firing decisions. Unlike race or sex, homosexual and cross-dressing behaviors are both volitional and mutable. Nonetheless, and despite the reality that such conduct is in direct conflict with every major world religion, thousands of years of history and uncompromising human biology, ENDA would compel business owners with 15 or more employees to leave sincerely held religious beliefs at the workplace door and submit to the demands of the homosexual activist lobby.

You got that? Barber said nothing about churches or other religious institutions, which ENDA has exemptions for. He is talking about a business owner's personal beliefs, even if they are trying to make money via a commercial business.

Barber's attempted stance against ENDA again reveals the religious right's need for nice sounding talking points designed to obscure facts but his carefully positioned words cannot hide the fallacies behind his argument.

Barber's opinion is that a restaurant owner, who calls himself a Christian, Jew, or Muslim should be allowed to discriminate in practices of hiring and firing.

But why stop there? If business owners of a secular enterprise can discriminate in cases of religious beliefs, then why not race or gender?

For the record, I don't think any business owner should be allowed to discriminate in cases of race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation irregardless of his or her personal "deeply held beliefs."

Or as EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum eloquently stated:

Once an individual chooses to enter the stream of economic commerce by opening a commercial establishment, I believe it is legitimate to require that they play by certain rules. If the government tolerated the private exclusionary policies of such individuals in the commercial sector, such toleration would necessarily come at the cost of gay people’s sense of belonging and safety in society. Just as we do not tolerate private racial beliefs that adversely affect African Americans in the commercial arena, even if such beliefs are based on religious views, we should similarly not tolerate private beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity that adversely affect LGBT people.

No matter how noble Barber tries to make his position sound, it all adds up to special rights for religious business owners and discrimination against those who don't share their beliefs.

And neither concept has any place in this great country.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Andrea Lafferty spins lies against transgender teachers to hurt ENDA

In the latest attack on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Traditional Values Coalition's Andrea Lafferty again spins the phony claim that ENDA will force children to be trapped in classroom with "drag queen teachers."

She goes into even more offensive detail in a One News Now article:

Every state will be forced to make cross-dressers, drag queens, transsexuals, and she-males* (male-female hybrids) into protected classes. Therefore, every school district in America will be forbidden by law to reassign any she-male teacher because this would be considered "discrimination." Thus, children will be trapped in classes taught by men who dress as women, and students will be indoctrinated to affirm that this is normal behavior.

To prove this theory, Lafferty pulls out three instances in which she claims that transitioning teachers were allowed to continue teaching over the objections of parent, thereby endangering children.

Lafferty tries to use these three examples as proof of her point. However, she only proves that one must never take the words of religious right spokespeople as fact without investigation.

Lafferty's first claim:

• In 2008, students and parents were outraged to learn that a female music teacher at California's Foxboro Elementary School underwent surgery to become a man. Parents were not informed about this so-called sex change in advance so they could remove their children from her class. In addition, the kids were required to refer to her as "Mister." The school district refused to notify parents about this she-male's so-called sex change because of "privacy laws" – that is, federal HIPPA laws.

Truth - According to this article on the ABC news site, some parents were upset about not being informed, but for the most part, many of the parents allowed their children to remain in the class. Furthermore, the children did not seem to have a problem with it.

Lafferty's second claim:

• In 2006, students in New York's Batavia High School were forced to remain in the class of a male teacher who was undergoing so-called surgical transition to female. Parents were refused the right to opt their children out of his class because he claimed protection under New York's disability laws, and, therefore, had to be accommodated by the school district.

Truth - According to this article in the New York Times, parents objecting to the teacher were in the minority. Of the more than 100 students assigned to the teacher, only the parents of five objected. Furthermore, some students were very supportive of the teacher.

Lafferty's third claim:

• In 1999, Minnesota music teacher Alyssa Williams underwent a so-called sex change operation from male to female while teaching at a Middle School in the Anoka-Hennepin School District. Parents were angered when their children were subjected to this man's bizarre sexual transformation. The school superintendent said they could not reassign the man to another position because it would have violated state law which gave special protected rights to transgendered individuals.

Truth - There was a lot of controversy involving Williams (seeing that it was over 10 years ago) which possibly led her to eventually resign. But according to this article, much of it didn't come from students, but outside interests:

After she (Williams) voluntarily disclosed her transgender status, parents staged student walk-outs, TV news trucks took up residence in front of Blaine's Roosevelt Middle School, The American Center for Law and Justice threatened legal action, and a group of about three dozen parents - several who had no children in the district - became fixtures at monthly school board meetings.

And yet the numbers were always in Williams' favor. Of the roughly 445 sixth- and seventh-graders who passed through Williams' music classes, the parents of only 25 of them took advantage of the district's offer to transfer their children out of her classes.

The article goes on to say that some in the community were furious that the attention led Williams to resign.

So basically, Lafferty's claim that ENDA (and transgender teachers for that matter) would endanger children is a bunch of nonsense.

In all of these cases (which Lafferty outrighted distorted), it was the children who probably acted more mature than the adults.

But again, I guess some consider truth and integrity as honorable casualties when one is trying to stop those "evil homosexuals."

Related posts:

The 30 Dirty? Why can't the religious right stop lying about ENDA?

Religious right groups can't make up their minds when lying about ENDA

No wonder the Traditional Values Coalition is considered a hate group

Family Research Council exploiting Amanda Simpson's appointment to stop ENDA

Family Research Council head misrepresents credible information to hurt ENDA

Bathrooms, Church Exemptions, and Lies: Five ways the religious right misrepresents ENDA

Focus on the Family flip flops on openly lgbt Supreme Court nominee and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Their Focus on the Family is firm -- unless Peter LaBarbera wishes to adjust it - Sooo Focus on the Family backtracks and says that they will oppose an openly lgbt Supreme Court nominee. Why does this remind me of the historical time when the insane head of the Spanish Inquisition Torquemada convinced the Queen Isabella of Spain to not allow the Jews living in the country to live in peace. Call me a historical buff.

Gainesville, Fla. elects gay man mayor - Don't pull out the champagne yet. The low number of victory (by 35 votes) will cause a recount.

Christian Star Knapp Is Gay - Good for her!

Maine's Mike Heath, Self-Appointed and Newly Anointed Head of AFA-ME, Now Running For Governor? - Just what we need. Another nut in public office.

Phony medical group receives numerous rebukes for anti-gay web page

Yesterday, I posted that University of Minnesota researcher Dr. Gary Remafedi, M.D., M.P.H. accused the American College of Pediatricians of distorting his work on its anti-gay web page, Facts About Youth.

Today, the group is facing another rebuke for its site and this time it's from a more legitimate medical group, the American Academy of Pediatrics.

According to Truth Wins Out, the group released a statement which said:

In 2008, a diverse coalition of 13 national organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) joined in a renewed effort to protect the safety and emotional well-being of students, including those who are at higher risk because of their sexual orientation. This group of education, health, mental health and religious organizations developed and endorsed Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel and sent the resource to public school superintendents across the US.

On or around March 31, 2010, school superintendents may have received another letter from the American College of Pediatricians, which is in no way affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics. The letter promotes another campaign titled “Facts About Youth,” which professes to offer guidance to educators on “approaches to students experiencing sexual orientation and gender identity confusion.” Their campaign does not acknowledge the scientific and medical evidence regarding sexual orientation, sexual identity, sexual health, or effective health education.

The AAP encourages school administrators and officials, teachers, parents, and youth to become familiar with and utilize the AAP developed and endorsed resources on this issue for reliable, sound, scientific, medical advice:

Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel – A guide for employees who confront sensitive issues involving gay, lesbian and bisexual students. It is intended to help school administrators foster safe and healthy school environments, in which all students can achieve to the best of their ability. “Just the Facts” includes the most recent information from professional health organizations, as well as up-to-date information on the legal responsibility of school officials to protect students from anti-gay harassment.

Sexual Orientation and Adolescents – A clinical report from the AAP Committee on Adolescence.

Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Teens: Information for Teens and Parents – Questions and answers from the AAP for teens and parents about sexual orientation.

Gay and Lesbian Teens – Information on sexual orientation from the AAP’s Caring for Your Teenager.

Gender Identity and Gender Confusion in Children – Information on gender identity, sexual stereotypes, gender confusion, and sexual orientation from the AAP’s Caring for Your School Aged Child: Ages 5-12.

While not as full of fire as I had hoped, the statement, coupled with Remafedi's complaint (and a blistering review from professor Warren Throckmorton of Grove City College, a conservative Christian) does more than enough to expose the holes and faulty research of Facts About Youth and the American College of Pediatricians in general.

However, as Truth Wins Out points out, the ACP has not corrected its site and religious right groups continue to push the site's research as if it's credible.

Why should anyone be surprised? I guess they figure when one is fighting for God, truth and integrity are expendable casualties.

Hat tip to Truth Wins Out

Related posts:

American College of Pediatricians, NARTH pushes new site featuring old anti-gay lies

The American College of Pediatricians and the Laundering of Junk Science

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Fox News creates sloppy coverage of GLSEN's Day of Silence

Friday will mark the 2010 Day of Silence in which students across the country will not speak in solidarity of lgbt youth and in protest of the problems they face regarding school bullying and lack of support.

Unfortunately the Day of Silence, sponsored by GLSEN -the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network- will have to deal with the usual flotsam of religious right groups claiming that the event is just another way to "indoctrinate children into the so-called homosexual lifestyle."

Religious right groups have over the years ran unsuccessful attacks against the Day of Silence, first by banding together and asking that parents keep their children out of school during that day, and then trying to push a poor alternative, the Day of Truth, where they encourage students to repeat religious right distortions about the lgbt community in the name of love.

I have no doubt that this year will be the same as the years before - the Day of Silence being a huge success while the religious right alternatives fall flat.

However, an online buddy sent me two very interesting articles from Fox News about the Day of Silence which give me pause.

The first article, Gay Day of Silence a Waste of Tax Dollars, Critics Say, is extremely poor. Rather than go into detail, I will say look at the headline because it underscores the article writer's sloppy work.

The headline implies that those who oppose the Day of Silence is concerned by its alleged waste of tax dollars, but this claim isn't addressed in the article. All of the Day of Silence critics who are quoted do is repeat the usual "we don't want our children indoctrinated" nonsense. The claim about the Day of Silence and tax dollars is eventually addressed in the article however. Most specifically, in the article's last sentence:

GLSEN does not currently receive any federal or state funding, according to a spokesman for the group. The non-profit is funded by charitable foundations, teachers' unions and a host of corporations.

That sentence makes the headline inaccurate, doesn't it?

Apparently having to deal with blow back from a recent interview in which he compared allowing gay marriage to drug abuse and then totally disrespecting lgbt families, Fox Network personality Mike Huckabee is claiming that he is the victim of an overeager journalist who took him out of context. On his web page, he said the following:

The young college student hopefully will find a career other than journalism. I would ask that he release the unedited tape of our conversation. I believe that what people do as individuals in their private lives is their business, but I do not believe we should change the traditional definition of marriage. Not only did he attempt to sensationalize my well known and hardly unusual views of same-sex marriage, he also inaccurately reported my views on Michael Steele as GOP chairman - I offered my support and didn't "Rip into Steele" as his article asserted. I had a candid and frank conversation with the group about health care, education, the economy and national security while the young journalism student, instead, chose to focus on the issue of same-sex marriage and grossly distort my views.

Is it just me or is Huckabee giving us all the "runaround?" Not only did he say nothing about his crude comments regarding lgbt parenting, but his defense of his statements about gay marriage are confusing. Just how was his views sensationalize?

The College of New Jersey newspaper where Huckabee's interview was published, The Perspective, isn't backing down in the face of Huckabee's charges. It published the following on its site:

It is telling that nowhere in his statement did Huckabee suggest he was misquoted in the article, and rightfully so; we have the audio and transcripts to prove that everything reported is accurate.
Huckabee's problem seems to lie more in the focus of the article, which is centered partially on LGBT issues. We feel that same-sex marriage, laws prohibiting gays and lesbians from adopting children, and 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' are legitimate policy concerns about which to question national political figures. Gov. Huckabee may disagree.

The following is a portion of the interview. You be the judge:

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

This controversy is far from over and I'm eager to see how it plays out. But whatever the case may be, someone should tell Huckabee that his phony "aw shucks" image is wearing thin.

Hat tip to the Huffington Post

Related posts:

The friends of Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee attacks gay families, compares them to people raising puppies

Barney Frank provides invaluable lobbying advice to the lgbt community and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Gays' right to live and learn in peace: Not a 'but on the other hand...' back-and-forth! - The Day of Silence for 2010 is almost here, which means the religious right will push their phony 'Day of Truth' event.

Barney Frank: lobby like the NRA; President's already nixed 2010 DADT repeal - Barney Frank is correct. We are big on venting via blogs and online but are very uncoordinated when it comes to lobbying. It takes discipline to become a viable political force and we can do this. But we have to start somewhere.

Pope's No. 2: Pedophilia linked to homosexuality - Well this sucks. Let me guess. God told him.

Science Needs To Get Off The Sidelines - This is personal for me. I've found so many instances in which credible researchers and physicians have complained about how the religious right distort their work. But the complaints and the needed blowback from these complaints are uncoordinated. We need more coordination with this as well as provide a list of all of the offenses. I've tried to do so and am still compiling the list.

Researcher: the American College of Pediatricians distorted my work

The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) claimed last week that they sent out a letter to over 14,000 school superintendents inviting them to peruse and use information on a new site the group created, Facts About Youth.

However, the web page does nothing more than repeat the same lies and junk science that religious right groups have been pushing against the lgbt community for over 30 years.

Also, the American College of Pediatricians is nothing more than a shell group designed to give these same distortions a degree of "scientific credibility."

Much of their information, much like the information on the Facts About Youth web page, is the result of the distortion of credible research.

And now, one of those researchers is crying foul.

The watchdog group Truth Wins Out has published an exclusive letter from Dr. Gary Remafedi, M.D., M.P.H., a University of Minnesota researcher to the American College of Pediatricians accusing them of distorting his work. It reads in part:

I have previously encountered and confronted the problem of misrepresentation of research from other advocacy groups such as yours. However, this episode is especially troubling and egregious because it is led by colleagues within my own profession— who certainly have the ability, education, and experience to access, review, and accurately summarize the Pediatric scientific literature.

Our professional code demands of Pediatricians nothing short of the highest standards of ethical conduct in medical education, research, and patient care. Knowingly misrepresenting research findings for material or personal gain is a flagrant violation of this code of conduct. Implicating me in this chicanery is doubly damaging to my professional reputation and career by holding me accountable for misstatements and by associating me with a cause that most ethical Pediatricians will recognize as misguided and hurtful to an entire class of children and families.

Please immediately remove any reference to our work from the website. As a suitable remedy, I also would urge you take the following actions:

1) Publicly retract your references to our research with a written statement posted on the home page of your website;

2) Until then, any donations made to your organization since the “Facts about Youth” website was launched should be either returned to the donors or contributed to the LGBT youth research fund of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.

I personally don't think Remafedi should hold his breath waiting for an apology. It's been my experience that when religious right groups are caught in a lie, they generally ignore complaints and repeat the deceptions as if they are facts.

Still, Remafedi's angry letter is worth remembering when one has to assess the non-existent validity of the ACP.

Related posts:

American College of Pediatricians, NARTH pushes new site featuring old anti-gay lies

The American College of Pediatricians and the Laundering of Junk Science

Monday, April 12, 2010

Religious right head admits to not being able to prove 'men invading women's bathrooms' fear story

In attacking anti-discrimination laws and ordinances which would give lgbts equal protection in instances of housing and employment, religious right groups are quick to use the claim that such laws would endanger the safety of women and children.

The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) already published various inaccurate pieces including one claiming that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would lead to students being "forced" to be taught by drag queen teachers.

It's just a simple a matter of time before TVC and other religious right group pull out the "ace card" in opposing all non-discrimination ordinances in general, i.e. the claim that such laws would lead "male predators" dressing as women and invading women's bathrooms and locker rooms in order to assault prospective victims.

However before any right-wing religious group makes this claim, they would do well to read the words of Concerned Women of America's president, Wendy Wright.

Concerned Women for America is another religious right group which opposes any and all pro-lgbt non-discrimination ordinances and the organization does like to use the "men in women's bathrooms" claim. But Wright, while defending the usage of this claim in an article with the Missoulian (while attacking a pro-lgbt ordinance in Missoula), demonstrated a degree of candor in her comments about this claim:

Even one of the most staunch opponents of those laws can't point to increases in frivolous lawsuits or sexual predation. Still, Concerned Women for America president Wendy Wright said such ordinances lead the country down the wrong track.

"We have a constitutional protection for religious freedom in our First Amendment," Wright said. "There is not a constitutional protection for sexual orientation, and yet judges and city councils and others are acting as if sexual orientation trumps religious freedom."

. . . Wright couldn't point to places that have counted increases in sexual offenses because of such laws, but she said such data is beside the point.

"It doesn't go back to numbers," Wright said. "It goes back to the issue that people will have legal rights that will trump other people's rights. The right of a woman or a girl to feel safe in a fitting room, a locker, a restroom, their rights will be trumped by a person who is claiming their sexual orientation right has legal protection."

While there should be some appreciation of Wright's admittance that the "men in womens bathrooms" argument is without proof, she shouldn't be able to get away with claiming that the lack of proof is beside the point, mainly because the lack of proof is the point.

In the next sentence after she admits the inaccuracy of the "men in women's bathrooms" claim, she says that that the right of women or girls to feel safe would be trumped by pro-lgbt laws.

But Wright's concern leaves me scratching my head. Didn't she just admit that she doesn't know of any example in which the safety of women and girls would be threatened?

Wright further admits why CWA opposes pro-lgbt non-discrimination ordinances and of course it has nothing to do with "safety issues."

Wright said one big reason Concerned Women opposes such laws is because the group does not want local ordinances to be used as stepping stones toward making gay marriage legal and teaching it in the public schools.

In other words, lgbts having the right to be free from discrimination is just another way to "force gay marriage."

Oh the horror!

It's sad that Wright and the CWA sees so many blissfully wedded lgbt boogeymen that they have to stoop to fear tactics which they freely admit aren't rooted in reality.

It's not very Christian, is it?

Hat tip to People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch.

R.I.P. Dixie Carter and other Monday midday news briefs

Conservative Dixie Carter on her gay fans - Much has been said about the late actress Dixie Carter's conservative beliefs and how they were opposite to the beliefs of her character Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women. But were the two women really that different? I like them both. Julia was the Terminator, plain and simple. But Carter was the essence of the best part of the South and Christianity. She is up front about her trepidation regarding marriage equality but at the same time, she recognized lgbts as people capable and giving and receiving love. No talking points, no semantic games of crying victimhood. In general, no phoniness. She had her beliefs but also had enough humility to recognize love when she saw it.

PFLAG is to 'hate group' as peeing on a flag is to patriotic - PFLAG a hate group? Talk about overreaching cries of victimhood.

HRC's Cuc Vu: Why we need to build a cadre of LGBT organizers and leaders of color - I totally agree.

Vehicle of Bigotry: Lies of the Truth Truck - Another reason why it's good to let some on the opposing side talk freely. They tend to show their true hateful color.

Boyfriends Chase and Jordan get to go to their proms!! WOOHOO! - The reason why mothers are so cool

Even dead gay men aren't safe in some African countries

I read this article with a huge amount of shock and sadness:

Even death cannot stop the violence against gays in this corner of the world any more.

Madieye Diallo's body had only been in the ground for a few hours when the mob descended on the weedy cemetery with shovels. They yanked out the corpse, spit on its torso, dragged it away and dumped it in front of the home of his elderly parents.

The scene of May 2, 2009 was filmed on a cell phone and the video sold at the market. It passed from phone to phone, sowing panic among gay men who say they now feel like hunted animals.

. . . In the last year alone, gay men have been arrested in Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. In Uganda, lawmakers are considering a bill that would sentence homosexuals to life in prison and include capital punishment for 'repeat offenders.' And in South Africa, the only country that recognizes gay rights, gangs have carried out so-called "corrective" rapes on lesbians.

And according to the article, Diallo is the fifth man to be done this way:

In the past two years, at least four men suspected of being gay have been exhumed by angry mobs in cemeteries in Senegal. The violence is especially shocking because Senegal, unlike other countries in the region, is considered a model of tolerance.

Supposedly, increased visibility of Senegal's gay community is leading to a backlash in Islamic communities.

It has been said that a backlash is a sign of progress. To some, it means that a community who have been on the outs of society has the powers-that-be so scared that they act irrationally.

I guess it's something to remember if you attempt to pull a positive out of this situation. But I don't think that notion should make anyone feel better right now.

There is a certain degree of hatred which goes into abusing the body of a dead man. I've read how some Haitians dug up the body of their late leader "Papa Doc" Duvalier and how some Italians viciously abused the body of the late leader Mussolini after he was executed.

In those cases, these folks were acting out on the hatred they felt after being abused and victimized by the corrupt governments of Mussolini and Duvalier.

Maybe someone can tell me what exactly have gays done to be treated like hateful dictators.

Related posts:

African gays and lesbians becoming victims of 'corrective rape'

Lesbians in South Africa getting raped as a corrective measure? What the hell?

'I would kill a gay son'

Martin Ssempa claims to be misunderstood

Sunday, April 11, 2010

The friends of Mike Huckabee

Yesterday, a post pointed out rude comments Mike Huckabee said about lgbt parenting:

He also affirmed support for a law in Arkansas that prohibits same-sex couples from becoming adoptive or foster parents. "I think this is not about trying to create statements for people who want to change the basic fundamental definitions of family," Huckabee said. "And always we should act in the best interest of the children, not in the seeming interest of the adults."

"Children are not puppies," he continued. "This is not a time to see if we can experiment and find out, how does this work?"

The picture above should give a good idea of why Huckabee has such a low opinion of lgbt families. That's him with Brian Camenker at the right-wing "Take Back America" conference held late last year. Camenker is head of Mass Resistance, a viciously anti-gay group in Massachusetts.

Or should I echo the words of the Southern Poverty Law Center and call them an anti-gay hate group?

Camenker bragged on his meeting with Huckabee on the group's webpage:

When told Brian was from MassResistance, Gov. Huckabee said, "I know. I get your emails."

Mass Resistance has a long history of demonizing the lgbt community and even stooping to coordinating phony moral panics, including:

Manufacturing a phony panic about "schools teaching children about homosexuality,"

Claiming in 2005 on Comedy Central's Daily Show that if given time, he would be able to connect gay marriage in Massachusetts to the "reduction" of the quality of life in the state, a spike in homelessness rates, or and a lowering the quality of the air in the state, or

Making a claim in 2006 that "gays were trying to get legislation passed to allow sex with animals" in Massachusetts.

Continuing a vindictive campaign of misinformation against the transgendered community (whom the organization refers to as "men in dresses) .

Most recently, the organization was key in manufacturing inaccurate claims about Obama appointee Kevin Jennings in an attempt to get him dismissed. The watchdog site Media Matters published a list of the lies Camenker and Mass Resistance spread about Jennings.

In one post, Media Matters goes on to say:

. . .conservative commentator Dean Barnett has stated that the organization "verges on being a hate group." Camenker himself reportedly denied that gays and lesbians were targeted during the Holocaust and has compared the gay rights movement to the Nazis.

It's no wonder that Huckabee has such a low opinion of lgbt families, seeing whom he chooses to associate with. He tries to come across as cordial and warm even with those he disagrees with, but it is always good to remember that the most dangerous forms of ignorance and hatred are those which are wrapped in a soft glove.

Related post:

Brian Camenker, Matt Barber create anti-gay hot mess

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Repost: More 'words of love' - Seven more anti-gay statements and personalities

This is a repost of the sequel to a popular post I created, Words of Love? When I create a part three (and I will), Mike Huckabee's recently expressed sentiments about lgbt families will be included.

This is to remind people that the narrative of lgbts being pushy, angry, hypocritical, intolerant folks is a myth. We weren't exactly the ones who started this mess. And though Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, the folks at the National Organization for Marriage, Peter LaBarbera, and other various groups and entities like to portray us as the aggressors, as the following will demonstrate, they aren't exactly innocent or blameless.

Pat Buchanan - Buchanan, the "respected" journalist and former White House employee who probably single-handedly gave the 1992 Presidential election to Bill Clinton after his "culture war" speech at the Republican National Convention held that same year hasn't exactly been a friend to the lgbt community

In all honesty, Buchanan, as the link shows, doesn't seem to care for anyone not fiting his "specifications" of a true American, but his verbal attacks on the lgbt community gone beyond the pale of ugly. They are best typified by this missive thrown at those suffering from HIV/AIDS in 1983:

The poor homosexuals -- they have declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution (AIDS)."

or 1990:

"With 80,000 dead of AIDS, our promiscuous homosexuals appear literally hell-bent on Satanism and suicide,"

or 1993:

"AIDS is nature's retribution for violating the laws of nature."

Donnie McClurkin - Don't act shocked. You know I was going to include him. After his recent uncalled for attack against the lgbt community last week, McClurkin definitely makes this list. His comments against young gay men of color were as follows:

“I see feminine men, feminine boys, everywhere I go … No, don’t applaud ‘cuz it ain’t funny. It’s because we failed. I see them everywhere.”

I'm having flashbacks of that little boy in the Sixth Sense.

Of course in his screed, McClurkin didn't want to leave the sistas out. He had this to say about young lesbians:

"These young girls are just as bad as the boys in homosexuality, you don't see it. They can hide . . . but there are some evil young hard butch girls."

McClurkin has in the past claimed that he was molested and that led to him being gay. He has also said that through the "power of Jesus," he is no longer gay.

I say two things.

1. When someone like McClurkin says that they have been "delivered from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ," that usually means they are going to go through life more celibate than a monk in coma.

2. If by chance McClurkin ever announces that he is dating a woman or about to marry a woman, I suggest that we all stop what we are doing and start looking for Rod Serling. Because we will definitely be in the Twilight Zone.

Matt Barber - And then there is the Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber, the author of the following statement on why anti-discrimination protection for lgbts would be a bad idea:

“Imagine, if you will, a 280 lb linebacker who likes to wear a dress and high heels and lipstick, you know comes to church wanting a job at the front desk as a receptionist and they turn him away because they don’t feel that that represents their values or the image that they’re trying to hold at that church, under ENDA they could be held accountable for discrimination against that individual.”

In 2005, he lost his job at AllState Insurance in part for penning an anti-gay column. Since that time, the story was spun that he was fired due to his beliefs and he has parlayed that narrative into cinchy gigs with Concerned Women for America, the Liberty Counsel, and a book deal. However, like all religious right stories of gay persecution, there are details omitted (such as Barber using AllState Insurance equipment to write his column or him identifying himself as an employee of AllState in the same column). To paraphrase critic Mary McCarthy's famous statement on playwright Lillian Hellman, just about all of Barber's tale of being a victim of the "gay agenda" is a lie including the words "and" and "the."

But seeing that he predates Carrie Prejean as a religious right figure of alleged gay persecution, let's all pray that no freaky videos or pictures of Barber pop up.

Despite what they say, gay men are not that desperate to see naked flesh.

In an interview with the College of New Jersey newsmagazine The Perspective, Fox News host Mike Huckabee seems to go all out against the lgbt community, attacking not only same-sex marriage but also lgbt families:

"I think there's been a real level of being disingenuous on the part of the gay and lesbian community with their goal of civil unions," he alleged, referring to LGBT activists who first claimed that their goal in several states was to enact civil unions, but subsequently launched efforts to implement full marriage rights.

Huckabee went on to draw parallels between homosexuality and other lifestyles that are considered by some to be morally aberrant. "You don't go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal," he said of same-sex marriage. "That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let's go ahead and accommodate those who want who use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them."

If anyone is being disingenuous, it's Huckabee. Drug abuse is a crime because it damages the physical and mental state of those in ensnares. Now some on Huckabee's side of the argument have tried to make the same case about the lgbt orientation, but as it has been pointed out countless times, their attempts are grounded in an intentional distortion of research.

In addition, drug abuse and addiction lead to other crimes, i.e. drug abusers do sometimes steal in order to fund their habit and those behind the drug trade do sometimes engage in "turf wars" which have led to countless murders.

Following Huckabee's tangent to it's logical conclusion, I guess one could say that allowing same-sex marriages will lead to desperate gay men stealing television sets to fund their weddings and wedding planners shooting each other over "turf wars" regarding who gets the larger share of gay marriages.

Ridiculous isn't it? And the comment about incest and polygamy is ridiculous also. You simply cannot compare two adults wanting to share their lives together with a man molesting his daughter or another man creating a stable of wives like a farmer herds cattle.

But strangely enough, those like Huckabee who make such comparisons never think these things out. They tend to repeat a talking point which sounds good but really means nothing.

Now Huckabee's comment about lgbt families was way beyond the realm of good taste:

He also affirmed support for a law in Arkansas that prohibits same-sex couples from becoming adoptive or foster parents. "I think this is not about trying to create statements for people who want to change the basic fundamental definitions of family," Huckabee said. "And always we should act in the best interest of the children, not in the seeming interest of the adults."

"Children are not puppies," he continued. "This is not a time to see if we can experiment and find out, how does this work?"

Allow me to inform Huckabee of a few facts:

According to a report by Gary Gates, Lee M.V. Badgett, Jennifer Ehrle Macomber, Kate Chambers of the Urban Institute:

* More than one in three lesbians have given birth and one in six gay men have fathered or adopted a child.

* More than half of gay men and 41 percent of lesbians want to have a child.

* An estimated two million GLB people are interested in adopting.

* An estimated 65,500 adopted children are living with a lesbian or gay parent.

* More than 16,000 adopted children are living with lesbian and gay parents in California, the highest number among the states.

* Gay and lesbian parents are raising four percent of all adopted children in the United States.

* Same-sex couples raising adopted children are older, more educated, and have more economic resources than other adoptive parents.

* Adopted children with same-sex parents are younger and more likely to be foreign born.

* An estimated 14,100 foster children are living with lesbian or gay parents.

* Gay and lesbian parents are raising three percent of foster children in the United States.

* A national ban on GLB foster care could cost from $87 to $130 million.

* Costs to individual states could range from $100,000 to $27 million.

And even if these figures were not available, for Huckabee to make that statement demonstrates willful ignorance. I say willful because I am of the opinion that Huckabee isn't totally ignorant when it comes to lgbt families. He is a former governor of Arkansas as well as a former presidential contender. I'm sure he must have met at least one or two lgbt families during those times.

But despite all of that, he chooses to paint all lgbt families with a broad discriminatory brush. While Huckabee doesn't come out and say it, the nasty implication is clear - lgbt families are inferior because lgbts are incapable of giving love and support to children. Furthermore, lgbts don't really want the children. They just want to further their "agenda."

Perhaps he should talk to the Gill family out of Florida - two gay men and their adopted children whom they have raised since 2004. They are just one of countless number of lgbt families who provide love and support to their children.

You see, Huckabee is right about one thing. Children aren't puppies but lgbt families aren't freaks and they certainly aren't out of the norm. And even if they were, should it matter? Anyone who has the means, the desire, and the heart to parent a child should be encouraged, not discouraged.

After all, that would be the Christian thing to do.

Huckabee should know better and the sad thing is that I think he does.

His attack on lgbt families is certainly something to remember should Huckabee choose to run for President again - something to remember and fear.

Anyone who attempts to create a caste system for American families has no place near the White House, even at the front gate.

Hat tip to Media Matters