Ugandan community speak about anti-gay bill

Breaking the Chains from Alyssa Eisenstein on Vimeo.

This video is the very essence of bravery. It is required viewing for everyone, especially those who make awful claims about the lgbt community and specifically for anyone claiming to be an lgbt activist. From Breaking The Chains:

A year ago, three American Evangelicals traveled to Uganda for a conference on “the gay agenda” to speak about curing homosexuality. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill was proposed just a few months later and introduced some of the harshest punishments in the world for homosexuals. It calls for lifetime imprisonment for all LGBT people, death to homosexuals who are HIV positive and prison for any Ugandan who fails to report LGBT Ugandans within 24 hours of the Bill passing.

Despite the security risks, Ugandan activists are raising the alarm about this human rights abuse. Recent Northwestern University graduate Alyssa Eisenstein traveled to Uganda this spring to hear from these inspiring men and women. With interviews from LGBT activists, legal and political authorities, university students, village leaders and even a traditional healer, "Breaking the Chains" profiles these activists as they tell this story in their own words. 

Hat tip to Box Turtle Bulletin.

Did Rekers 'rentboy's scandal cost Bill McCollum the election? and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Rekers Failed To Lift McCollum’s Luggage - The story of how a rentboy cost the Florida Attorney General the chance to be the state's governor.

The Ex-Gay Industry Hits The Skids - We can only hope so.

No judge left behind: Even deeply GOP Bush appointees earn 'activist' ire -Perhaps instead of railing against the alleged "homosexual agenda," the religious right should watch out for Republican appointed judges.

WaPo Endorses MD Delegate Candidate Dr. Dana Beyer - An intelligent woman whom voters would be stupid NOT to elect to office.

Jennifer Keeton Appeals Right To Be Anti-Gay Ruling - Guess who's not going away anytime soon. Ugh.

Two ways One News Now picks homophobia over accuracy

The American Family Association led phony news service One News Now seems to be on a tear about the lgbt community right now.

There are two articles in today's edition about us and both of them are slightly twisted.

The first one is about Jennifer Keeton, the Augusta State University graduate student who unsuccessfully sued the university claiming that she was forced to compromise her beliefs about homosexuality in order to receive her degree.

What it boiled down to was the fact that Keeton didn't want to read material on counseling gays nor did she want to counsel gays at all.

Of course One News Now makes her sound like a martyr:

Dr. Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America sees judicial activism in action.

"The really horrendous part is that one single judge is able to make a decision that influences so many different aspects of our culture. And we're seeing it over and over again where that judge is imposing his own personal views -- which is such a contradiction and is so ironic when this young woman's rights are being taken away from her."

The judge has placed a gag order on the case. But in an interview last month, Keeton's attorney -- David French with the Alliance Defense Fund -- said one of the elements in the remediation plan called for Keaton to attend a "gay-pride parade" and write about her feelings. He called it "ridiculous."

"She should be free from thought reform," the attorney argued. "She should be free from sensitivity training merely because she holds Christian beliefs. Just respect her First Amendment rights."

Of course the article omits the fact that during deliberations, Keeton neither testified on her own behalf nor offered up any witnesses to prove her case.

The second article involves Bradley Manning, the solider in the middle of the Wikileaks scandal.Wikileaks is a site which has displayed classified documents of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Manning, a 22-year-old soldier suspected of leaking documents to Wikileaks. He is currently awaiting court martial.

In the midst of this scandal, there is a claim, propagated by anti-gay activist Cliff Kincaid, and pushed by One News Now, that Manning is an angry gay activist who leaked information because he was angry at the military's policy on gays in the military. This was from the One News Now article from a couple of days ago:

The British newspaper Daily Telegraph first reported that Private 1st Class Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, was not only openly homosexual but also considering a sex change. Manning could face more than 50 years in prison for passing secret documents to WikiLeaks, whose founder Julian Assange has an anti-American and anti-military bent.

But the Daily Telegraph never reported that Manning was seeking a sex change operation.

The claim about the sex change, as well as the entire narrative of Manning being "an angry gay soldier who leaked documents because he is mad at military's policy on gays and lesbians" is a concoction of Kincaid.

Today has been a slight change to One News Now's pushing of the article:

Cliff Kincaid, president of America's Survival and editor of Accuracy in Media is concerned about reports that Manning had been blatantly open about his homosexuality for more than a year and apparently held a grudge against the U.S. military because of its ban on homosexual military service. He thinks the military should have recognized that Manning was a security risk.

There is no mention of a "sex change" operation and no claim that the "Bradley Manning is an angry gay activist" narrative is being pushed by the Daily Telegraph. Nice change, but the inaccurate narrative of Manning being an angry gay soldier, i.e. a security risk, is still present.

It's a shame that One News Now feels that truth and accuracy are allowable casualties when it comes to defending the so-called opinions of God.

What the heck does Glenn Stanton know about gays and lesbians anyway?

I must be on a tear when it comes to responding to anti-gay ignorance today.

This morning it was Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America and her sad attempt to demonize lgbt households by using data having nothing to do with them.

This afternoon, it's Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family.

The point of annoyance for me is an article in today's USA Today talking about how Hollywood is  showing more lgbt characters and families.

Stanton, along with the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer, is quoted as the voices who disagree with this increased visibility.

Now Fischer has a history of making asinine anti-gay comments (which unfortunately the article did not talk about) so there is a paper trail which destroys his credibility as a rational voice on the matter.

But Stanton is a bit more problematic. He tries to make himself sound reasonable but comes across as insulting:

"When actual gay and lesbian weddings are shown on TV (as in news coverage), we win. When they're shown through the lens and creativity and artifice of Hollywood, we don't. Hollywood is succeeding, but they're doing so by not representing reality."

First of all, Stanton's statement is gibberish. Secondly, as far as I know, Stanton is not gay so the question has to be just who is he to decide what is reality when it comes to the lgbt community.

Furthermore, I really don't understand the USA Today can push him as an expert when he has clearly gone on record saying the following:

I don't know of anyone who has referred to me as an "expert" on homosexuality. I have never referred to myself on this, simply because I am not. But I would describe myself as an expert on the issue of same-sex marriage. I have published a book and had many of my articles on the subject republished in numerous mainstream volumes.

I don't mind being critiqued, but at least get it right.

Apparently part of Stanton's "expertise" on same sex marriage is to push inaccurate data on the lgbt community like he did in his piece Why Homosexuality Falls Short of the Ideal.

This piece,  Stanton not only cites the work of the discredited Paul Cameron (via secondhand through Thomas Schmidt) but he also says the following:

In addition, because of the extremely high rate of incidence among homosexuals, a group of rare intestinal diseases have been grouped together under the title "gay bowel syndrome."

There is no such thing as "gay bowel sydrome." In the late 70s, there was a belief that there a series of intestinal disorders which was supposedly related to male sexual activity. However as time went on, it was discovered that the problems that made up "gay bowel syndrome" were not specific to homosexuals, not confined to just the bowels, nor did the term itself meet the medical definition of a syndrome.

There are a myriad of cases where this term has been expunged from usage in various places from the New York Times to the National Institutes of Health.

However, people like Stanton, i.e. phony religious right experts, continue to push the term to the ignorant and unassuming.

But that is the crux of the religious right's war on lgbt America. It's not enough for them to have a negative view of the lgbt community. They seek to force that view on society, even if it means beating back the voices of the lgbt community.

It's pretty much the equivalent of allowing a Klansman to dictate the public images of the African-American community.

Hat tip to People for the American Way.

Ex-gay organization facing financial troubles and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Exodus International Lays off Staff, Cuts Benefits - I hate the fact that people are losing their jobs, but what they are selling is a hideous lie.

Calif Senate approves ending effort to 'cure' gays - What took them so long?

What Rush Limbaugh and Peter LaBarbera Have In Common - Don't you dare. Just read the piece.

True To Misogynistic Roots, NOM Blames Ted Olson’s Liberal Wife for His Support for Gays - And we should be surprised because?

Black males aren't graduating like they should? Blame the gays

A column I read this morning in the American Spectator by Concerned Women for America "senior analyst" Janice Crouse had me reeling due to its audacity to deceive.

The goal of Crouse's piece was probably to demonstrate just how the recent Proposition 8 decision and gay marriage in general is hurting the black community.

However, what she accomplished was showing yet again how some on the right, especially the religious right, dishonestly manipulate facts and figures.

In her piece, Why Young Black Males Are Not Graduating High School, Crouse seems to be trying make a correlation between a recent report by the Schott Foundation (in which the overall 2007-08 graduation rate for Black males in the U.S. was only 47 percent) and the recent Prop 8 ruling:

Nancy Pearcey, in an article on American Thinker, identified certain "facts that Judge Walker claims are now established by the 'evidence' presented in his courtroom." Those "facts" presumably will be deemed as "truth" far beyond the courtroom. Among those "facts," the following three are especially relevant for young black boys' futures:

• "Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage."

• "The gender of a child's parent is not a factor in a child's adjustment."

• "Having both a male and a female parent does not increase the likelihood that a child will be well-adjusted."

Those three general false principles that Judge Walker supposedly established in his arguments in favor of so-called "same-sex marriage" are equally faulty when applied to the more than 40 percent of today's children who are born to single mothers. They are doubly relevant when the majority of those children are black.

What Crouse is doing is a tactic done by many on the right after the Prop 8 ruling went down - cherry picking parts of Judge Walker's statements to imply that he said "fathers don't matter" and then using data having absolutely nothing to do with his decision or same sex marriage in general to make an unfair correlation.

It's a diversionary tactic designed to take attention away from the fact that the Prop 8 folks lost because their case was poor.

To a bigger extent, Crouse sad piece is a part of a grander tactic by the religious right to unfairly brand same-sex parents as selfish or to imply that lgbts who seek to parent children are causing these children to be "denied" something vital and important despite the fact that studies have shown just the opposite.

Crouse lists a number of problems facing black youth including poverty, bad schools, and family breakdown. Same-sex marriage and equality didn't make the list, but it doesn't stop Crouse from trying to push it in as best as she can.

The irony is that Crouse actually does provide an excellent solution:

Common sense tells us that there is no surer recipe for the child to lag behind in learning than having to contend with the strain and disruption of a broken, dysfunctional family, where the parent or parents are so focused on themselves and their needs that they have little emotional energy to spare for the child's needs. Before we can address the problems of public education, we have to address the problems of marriage and family. Only then can we begin the massive overhaul of cultural values that will be necessary to close the educational gaps in America.

Too that good point got obscured by a bunch of anti-gay garbage.

Is Jennifer Keeton being left out in the cold by her anti-gay allies?

It may be too early for such speculation, but I find it interesting that it's been a couple of days since Jennifer Keeton lost her lawsuit against Augusta State University and not one religious right talking head has commented on it.

Keeton, a graduate student, sued the university because, as she put it, it would have forced her to compromise her "Christian beliefs" on homosexuality.

It really came down to the fact that Keeton didn't want to read material on counseling gays nor did she want to counsel gays period.

The courts ruled against her on Friday.

Seeing that it's Monday, I would have thought to hear at least the usual slate of anti-gay lies from our friend Peter LaBarbera, but he seems to be on an Elizabeth Hasselbeck/Ann Coulter kick.

One News Now has been silent about the Keeton case. And there isn't even a statement from her lawyers at the right-wing Alliance Defense Fund.

Before the case went to court, we were bombarded with lies about how Keeton was unfairly targeted, how she was forced to choose between her Christian beliefs and her degree.

Now that the courts ruled against her, all we are hearing are the crickets.

Maybe the folks are in shock over the loss. Or could it be that they have deserted Keeton because they recognize just how ridiculous her case was (and they wouldn't be alone in this regard because Keeton neither offered witnesses nor testified.)

Only time will tell. 

Ugandan official proud of his persecution of gays and other Monday midday news briefs

Ugandan MP: Homosexuality is an abomination punishable by death - Sad, sad, sad.

Gay Muslims exist, and they need solidarity too - Amen.

Hong Kong Residents: Beware Of Fraudulent Information By Discredited Ex-Gay Therapy Group - Junk science is global my friends.

Coulter on fundie Take Back America confab: 'They're a bunch of fake Christians' - Well duuuuh.

Tensions Rise in Guadalajara - With the Catholic church unfortunately leading the way.

Breaking the taboo over the mental health crisis among Britain's gay men - And when the religious right manipulates this information, they always conveniently omit how homophobia causes these things.

One News Now and Cliff Kincaid demonstrate homophobia, ability to lie

The sad thing about homophobic lies (or any lie in general) is the ease which people repeat them even after they have been refuted.

Take the case of Bradley Manning, the soldier in the middle of the Wikileaks scandal. Wikileaks is a site which has displayed classified documents of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Manning, a 22-year-old soldier suspected of leaking documents to Wikileaks. He is currently awaiting court martial. The fact that Manning is allegedly gay has brought the wolves out, so to speak. This is from this morning's edition of One News Now:

An conservative activist and author says members of the Senate need to made aware that the U.S. soldier accused of leaking classified information to the WikiLeaks website is an open homosexual who apparently held a grudge against the U.S. military for its law excluding homosexual military service.

The British newspaper Daily Telegraph first reported that Private 1st Class Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, was not only openly homosexual but also considering a sex change. Manning could face more than 50 years in prison for passing secret documents to WikiLeaks, whose founder Julian Assange has an anti-American and anti-military bent.

Cliff Kincaid, president of America's Survival and editor of Accuracy in Media, says that information is finally getting some notice.

But the Daily Telegraph never reported that Manning was seeking a sex change operation.

The claim about the sex change, as well as the entire narrative of Manning being "an angry gay soldier who leaked documents because he is mad at military's policy on gays and lesbians" is a concoction of Kincaid.

And basically, anything Kincaid says about the lgbt community should be taken with a grain of salt.

He leads the right-wing group Accuracy in Media, the same group which had to retract a blog post falsely accusing a gay Obama appointee, Kevin Jennings, of being a pedophile. Kincaid has also made the vile claim that disease-tainted gay blood threatens our troops.

In addition, Kincaid has unashamedly defended Uganda's infamous "Kill The Gays" bill.

As we have seen last week with the situation involving Peter LaBarbera, Glenn Beck and Chai Feldblum, little things like accuracy usually get pushed out of the way when there is an anti-gay meme to be repeated.

And it's up to the lgbt community to beat down these memes before they can become the "official story."

Insanity defined: Man is accosted for 'looking like a Muslim'

This anti-Muslim sentiment in this country is heading to a level of insanity and the above video proves it.

At the anti-Islamic Center rally held today in New York, a man walking through the crowd of protesters gets mistaken for a Muslim and madness ensues.

Luckily no one gets hurt but it's still sad.

It reminds me of the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar where a mob of citizens is looking for a certain group of men to murder. They come upon an innocent poet and butcher him because he has the same name as one of the men they are looking for.

If this country doesn't pull back from hysteria and those chosen by whatever "powers-that-be" to be leaders and spokespeople don't stop feeding into this hysteria (i.e. Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, etc.), then someone is really going to get hurt.

Enough already.

Hat tip to the Political Carnival and my online pal Evan Hurst.

Second 'I don't want to counsel gays' lawsuit struck down by the courts

How did I miss this one:

Augusta State University's requirement that a graduate student read material about counseling gays and increase her exposure to that community after she objected to counseling homosexual clients was "academically legitimate," a federal court judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Randal Hall's decision enables university officials to expel Jennifer Keeton if she does not follow the remediation plan, which professors designed to "address issues of multicultural competence and develop understanding and empathy."

Hall said the case is not about "pitting Christianity against homosexuality," but rather the constitutionality of the school's requirement.

This denunciation comes at the heels another case in which a student claimed that she was "forced" to choose between her religious beliefs and her vocation. Last month, the courts ruled against Julea Ward, a student at Eastern Michigan University who claimed that she was removed from the school's counseling program because of her strong religious views against homosexuality.

Ward has refused to counsel lgbt clients because of her beliefs. In the ruling, U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh said:

" . . .the university had a rational basis for requiring its students to counsel clients without imposing their personal values.

In the case of Ms. Ward, the university determined that she would never change her behavior and would consistently refuse to counsel clients on matters with which she was personally opposed due to her religious beliefs -- including homosexual relationships."

Keeton and Ward were both made as cause celebres by the religious right as victims of a so-called "gay agenda" which would punish Christians for expressing their beliefs.

However many others, myself included, disagree.

My feeling is that if you can't do the job completely and for everyone then we have a serious problem, especially if you are seeking to be a healthcare worker.

And those who seek to make Keeton and Ward into martyrs would be advised to remember that this sort of thing has a habit of coming back in a nasty way.

If people are allowed exemptions in the counseling of the lgbt community today, who's to say that tomorrow exemptions won't be given in the counseling of the African-American or Latino communities?

Or even the Christian community?

UDPATE:  The article also going on to say something which should be remembered should Keeton's name come up in religious right talking points (and it will) - the university presented three professors as witnesses but Keeton presented no witnesses. And she didn't even testify.

Hat tip to Daily Kos.

Related post:

Court knocks down latest religious right cause celebre

Know Your LGBT History - Stewardess School

Stewardess School (1986)was one of those tired 1980s ensemble comedy movies where a group of outsiders band together to show the world that they can make something of themselves.

It's a formula that was repeated with Stripes, Hot Dog: The Movie, Hamburger: The Movie, Revenge of the Nerds (which may be an upcoming feature of this blog), etc. etc.

Stewardess School was one of the worst ones. In this particular case, we have a female wrestler (despondent because her meek boyfriend can't handle her occupation), a nearsighted cute guy and his annoying friend (played by Happy Days's Donny Most), a clumsy woman, a ditzy blonde, and overweight oddball (the late Wendy Joe Sperber seemed to specialize in this type of characterization), a sexy, SEXY prostitute trying to reform (how strange is it that va va voom actress Audrey Landers puts in the funniest performance in this movie), and for the purpose of this site, the gay guy:




Emmy award winning actor Rob Paulsen (Pinky and the Brain) takes flamboyantly gay to an annoying level. By the way, I do apologize for such a brief clip. There is another, long, EXTREMELY offensive clip of Paulsen's performance. However, the person who posted it doesn't want it embedded. I can't say I blame him/her.

However, if you want to see it (and please have your barf bag in hand), go here.

Past Know Your LGBT History posts:

Know Your LGBT History - Up the Academy

Know Your LGBT History - Don't be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Know Your LGBT History - A Different Story

Know Your LGBT History - Victim

Know Your LGBT History - The Color Purple

Know Your LGBT History - Making Love

Know Your LGBT History - A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge

Know Your LGBT History - Noah's Arc

Know Your LGBT History - Ode to Billy Joe

Know Your LGBT History - Adorable Adrian Adonis

Know Your LGBT History - The Night Strangler

Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family

Know Your LGBT History - Tongues Untied

Know Your LGBT History - The Celluloid Closet

Know Your LGBT History - Querelle

Know Your LGBT History - Theatre of Blood

Know Your LGBT History - Strange Fruit

Know Your LGBT History - Designing Women

Know Your LGBT History - The Children's Hour

Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester

Know Your LGBT History - Once Bitten

Know Your LGBT History - The Boys in the Band

Know Your LGBT History - Christopher Morley, the crossdressing assassin

Know Your LGBT History - Midnight Cowboy

Know Your LGBT History - Dracula's Daughter

Know Your LGBT History - Blacula

Know Your LGBT History - 3 Strikes

Know Your LGBT History - Paris Is Burning

Know Your LGBT History - The Women

Know your LGBT History - Soul Plane

Know Your LGBT History - The Player's Club

Special Know Your LGBT History - Fame

Know Your LGBT History - Welcome Home, Bobby

Know Your LGBT History - Barney Miller

Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show

Know your lgbt history - Martin Lawrence and that 'gay guy' on his show

Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show

Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up

Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps

Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware

Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks

Know your lgbt history - Mannequin

Know your lgbt history - The Warriors

Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover

Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame

Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes

Know your lgbt history - California Suite

Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)

Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue

Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay

Know your lgbt history - Windows

Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla

Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles

Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son

Know your lgbt history - In Living Color

Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords

Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?

Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street

Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys

Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy

Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George

Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda

'Know your lgbt history - Cruising

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil

The Jeffersons and the transgender community 
 

Fight for lgbt equality has gone global and other Friday midday news briefs

Man this is a slow and dull Friday. But as a self-described "radical gay activist," I shall soldier on:

Shifting attitudes take gay rights fight across globe, experts say - You better believe it!

Fischer: Ann Coulter Is The "Ashley Dupre of the Conservative Movement" - Did he just call Ann Coulter a "ho?"

Obama Appoints Gay Man to HHS - Okay religious right, what's wrong with THIS appointee?

Video: Paper, personal objections, and fear = non-binding anti-equality - Because "standing against gay marriage" is more important than job creation, crime prevention, etc.

Dr. Laura Knows Black Person, Gay Person - Well I guess that makes her no longer a homophobe who freely uses the "n-word."

Lgbts and Muslims are in the same boat, whether we like it or not

Earlier this week, I wrote a piece comparing how the cultural center in New York is being used as a hot button issue by those on the right in the same manner they used gay marriage in 2004.

Some folks didn't agree with me by claiming that the lgbt community shouldn't care what happens to the Muslim community because of its "homophobia."

The lgbt community would be making a huge mistake in doing this. And no one demonstrates this better than right-wing phony news service, the American Family Association's One News Now:

A ministry leader says a high school in Michigan is conforming to President Obama's political correctness and Islamic sentiments by altering its schedule to accommodate its Muslim students.

Fordson High School in Dearborn is holding its football practices in the middle of the night in order to give special accommodation to Muslims on the predominantly Islamic squad. The team feels the nocturnal regimen is a way for players to eat and drink while observing the month of daytime fasting known as Ramadan. The August heat has also played a factor in Coach Fouad Zaban's proposal to reverse the clock for a week of two-a-day practices.

Cutting practice was not an option at football-crazy Fordson, which is coming off a one-loss season, but nobody wanted to lessen the significance of Ramadan in the Detroit suburb that is dominated by Muslims.

Now the only person quoted in the article, Jan Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries, claims to know why this is taking place:

She believes Muslims have clearly become a specially privileged group in the U.S. and beyond. "There are clearly favors that are done to certain special-interest groups, particularly homosexuals and Muslims," the Messianic Jewish leader observes. "Christians and Jews, we just don't have that kind of privilege."

She doubts a practice would be moved if a group of Christian players objected to training that would interfere with a Christian holiday.

Yeah, I'm sure the players will be practicing on "Christmas."

Seriously, other than a ridiculous linking to President Obama (shades of the "our president is an evil Muslim meme), this article proves the point that there are some entities who see the lgbt and Muslim community as "the other," i.e. communities who seek to change or basically overthrow the so-called "American Way" of life.

Whether the lgbt or the Muslim community likes it or not, we are now all in the same boat. Any sniping should be reserved to those who are trying to place us in the boat and not each other.

And by the way,  more credible article about the practices in Fordson High School had this to say:

The response from players has been positive. And we’re told even the non-Muslim players are ok with the overnight sessions.

David Blankenhorn didn't mess up Prop 8 defense because it was already messed up

It's so interesting to watch members of the religious right try to recreate the Prop 8 trial so as to make themselves look like the victims of the verdict.

The latest attempt is byJennifer Roback Morse of the Ruth Institute in regards to a witness called by the Prop 8 side, David Blankenhorn:

. . . After beginning to read Judge Walker’s opinion this morning, I am even less willing to second guess the Protect Marriage team. In particular, I have a renewed respect for David Blankenhorn, the one witness the Proponents of Prop 8 called to testify on the social purpose of marriage.

To answer one preliminary question that I have been asked many times: yes, the Prop 8 legal team did consider using me as an expert. I talked at some length with one of them, and several of the attorneys for the ADF are friends of mine. They certainly know about me, and respect me. The team decided not to use me when they realized that I had been a spokeswoman for the Prop 8 campaign. They concluded (correctly) that the court would not take my opinion seriously no matter what I had to say, or how credibly I said it. Events proved them to be correct.

Reading the judge’s opinion makes it clear that he defines “expertise” so narrowly that no one but the plaintiffs’ witnesses could meet the definition of expert. The Proponents of Prop 8 called in a political scientist, for instance, to argue that CA gays and lesbians are not politically powerless. Living in CA since 1996, I find it hard to believe that anyone doubts the power of the Gay Lobby. But, the plaintiffs attacked him because he had not studied gay politics in particular, just political parties and initiatives in general. The Judge completely bought the Plaintiffs’ assessment and found the “Miller’s opinions on gay and lesbian political power are entitle to little weight.” (pg 54 of the opinion)

But the Plaintiffs’ abuse of David Blankenhorn, and the Judge’s acquiescence in that abuse, was really something awful. David has mastered an expansive amount of data from a variety of disciplines on the impact of fatherlessness on children, on the significance of family structure, and on the importance of marriage to society. More than any single individual, David brought the issue of fatherless families to the attention of the public. Given academic specialization, no one person could have produced all that material, which is the standard that the Judge seems to require.

I can very easily read between the lines of Walker’s opinion, and see him trying to trap David into admitting things which sound damaging. For the most part, these “damaging” admissions are remarks taken out of context, often a context in which David was trying to be generous to his opponents, and trying not to overstate the applicability of the data before him. The Proponents’ attorneys extracted comparable admissions from the Plaintiffs’ witnesses, but somehow none of those admissions damaged their credibility in Judge Walker’s eyes. He finds that the “opinions of Blankenhorn to be unreliable and entitled to essentially no weight.”

So according to Morse, Walker had the "fix" in and was determined to smear any pro- Prop 8 witnesses and Blankenhorn turned out to be the "sacrifcial lamb."

Poppycock. Of course Morse doesn't go into details as just how Blankenhorn was "trapped" and it doesn't surprise me. Folks on her side of the argument never deal with the concrete, only the idealistic.

As we all know, the case put forth defending Prop 8 was weak. Darla Lithwick from The Slate said the following:

It's hard to read Judge Walker's opinion without sensing that what really won out today was science, methodology, and hard work. Had the proponents of Prop 8 made even a minimal effort to put on a case, to track down real experts, to do more than try to assert their way to legal victory, this would have been a closer case. But faced with one team that mounted a serious effort and another team that did little more than fire up their big, gay boogeyman screensaver for two straight weeks, it wasn't much of a fight. Judge Walker scolds them at the outset for promising in their trial brief to prove that same-sex marriage would "effect some twenty-three harmful consequences" and then putting on almost no case.

Walker notes that the plaintiffs presented eight lay witnesses and nine expert witnesses, including historians, economists, psychologists, and a political scientist. Walker lays out their testimony in detail. Then he turns to the proponents' tactical decision to withdraw several of their witnesses, claiming "extreme concern about their personal safety" and unwillingness to testify if there were to be "recording of any sort." Even when it was determined that there would be no recording, counsel declined to call them. They were left with two trial witnesses, one of whom, David Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values, the judge found "lacks the qualifications to offer opinion testimony and, in any event, failed to provide cogent testimony in support of proponent's factual assertions." Blankenhorn's credentials, methodology, lack of peer-reviewed studies, and general shiftiness on cross examination didn't impress Walker.

Sorry Morse. You can't recreate the truth with a tissue of lies.  Blankenhorn was on a sinking ship from the very beginning and all he did was bore more holes into the hull.

Will Homocon feud show us 'the real Ann Coulter?' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Ann Coulter Smacks Back: WorldNetDaily Editor Joseph Farah Is “Swine” and “Publicity Whore” (UPDATED) - The feud with Ann Coulter and the speech at "Homocon" vs. World Net Daily has been fun to watch. And it reminds me of the following from The Boondocks. One wonders is it the "real Ann Coulter:"



And in other news:

NOM borrows two cents from Ohio waitress' tip - Okay it's stuff like this which caused the pro-Prop 8 side to lose.

UK: Adoption charity can't ban gay couples - If a good home can be provided for a child then why prevent it? It's not about an abstract idea of "family" but the reality that we must support all good families.

Anti-Gay Group Sues To Kill Wisconsin Domestic Partnership Registry - This is just meanspirited.

After GOP Rebuke, Jeremy Walters Apologizes For Anti-Gay Comments - Just more proof that there are too many self-appointed secretaries of God running around.

Surprise! Surprise! National Organization for Marriage doesn't like same sex families

Another video from the National Organization for Marriage's failed summer tour. This time, the president of NOM, Brian Brown is interviewed. Or rather not interviewed. It's contentious to say the least. But as I watched the interview, I consoled myself with the fact that Brian's so-called feisty attitude yet again underlines why the Prop 8 folks lost in court. You can't be feisty in front of a judge in lieu of having facts.

But one thing which strikes me is how Brown dances around the question of same-sex families. Apparently they seem to not to count as "regular families" to him.


Past related posts:

Satan is behind gay marriage - gotta love those lovely National Organization for Marriage supporters

' Gay families aren't real families' - a NOM supporter further sinks their phony guise of love

A little ' state-sanctioned sodomy' for your Sunday night 

Lesbian appointee caught in crossfire between Peter LaBarbera and Glenn Beck

Apparently Peter LaBarbera is angry at Glenn Beck.

Recently Beck said he doesn't see gay marriage as a threat to America.

And of course this comment sent LaBarbera into orbit. He  posted two pieces that he claims proves Beck to be wrong.

Personally I could care less. You all know how I feel about LaBarbera. And I am totally indifferent to Beck. I see him as a circus clown willing to say or do anything to get the paycheck.

But as it is in arguments like these, innocent parties get smeared. Like the EEOC's Chai Feldblum.

LaBabera evoked her name to prove that somehow if gays get married, the rights of Christians will be up for revoke:

 . . . the prospect of State-sanctioned homosexual “marriage” will lead to the systematic, forced imposition of pro-homosexualist ideology on young and old Americans alike — and will engender innumerable lawsuits by homosexual activist attorneys who believe that their “right” to be affirmed and celebrated in the culture supersedes YOUR right to live according to YOUR beliefs.

Who could put it any better than lesbian legal activist Chai Feldblum, former law professor at Georgetown University and President Obama’s recess appointee to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC)? Regarding what she calls the “zero-sum” game that exists between homosexual legal “rights” and the freedom of religious/moral Americans to oppose homosexuality, Feldblum stated: “Gays win. Christians lose.” We hope her prediction  is wrong, but the lesbian prof’s secular “rights” formula is clearly advanced every time the noble institution of “marriage” is perverted to legally sanction ignoble, sinful conduct.

There is one problem with LaBarbera's claim. There is no record of Feldblum ever saying this.

Mike Huckabee and Bill McCollum: One homophobe endorses another

How is this for unsurprisingly nauseating? From Mike Huckabee:

Huck PAC and I are proud to endorse Bill McCollum for Governor of Florida. Bill McCollum first served our country and the people of Florida as an officer in the Navy JAG Corps, then as a member of Congress, and most recently as Florida’s Attorney General. A native Floridian, Bill not only understands the issues facing Florida but he has the experience needed to make real positive changes for the state.

Bill’s top priorities reside at the core of true conservatism: creating jobs, strengthening Florida’s economy, cutting spending, lowering taxes and implementing significant tax reform. Bill opposes Obamacare – in fact, he is joined by 19 other states filing a lawsuit declaring penalizing individuals for failing to purchase insurance is unconstitutional.

Bill shares our traditional values and is a pro-life, pro-family conservative that received a 100% rating from the National Right to Life Committee during his time in Congress. Bill is also an advocate for our Constitutional right to bear arms and will work tirelessly to stop any attempt to change that.

Gladly, I’ve already cast my ballot for Bill McCollum and I hope you’ll join me in supporting him. Let’s make sure Bill McCollum is our next Governor.

For the sake of those not up on such matters, that's Mike Huckabee endorsing Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum for the state's gubernatorial seat.

Huckabee has in the past:

• aligned himself with Southern Poverty Law Center - identified hate group Mass Resistance whose leader Brian Camenker once made a claim in 2006 that "gays were trying to get legislation passed to allow sex with animals" in Massachusetts,
• attacked lgbt families by comparing them to people raising puppies,
• bent over backwards to assure Ann Coulter that he wasn't  "pro-gay" and "pro-sodomy."

McCollum is the same guy who spent over $100,00 of Florida taxpayers' money on a phony expert (George Rekers) to defend the state's law against gay adoption even after his staff gave him warnings about Rekers's credibility problems.

Rekers's testimony not only hurt the state's case but later it was revealed that Rekers had dubious relationships with a "rentboy" or male escort.

And even after that embarrassment, McCollum still wants to keep gays and lesbians from adopting children.

For two guys who don't exactly care for the lgbt community, McCollum and Huckabee make quite a couple, don't they?

Hat tip to People for the American Way.

Ann Coulter dropped for being pro-gay? and other Tuesday midday news briefs

The Slapfight Continues: World Net Daily Dumps Ann Coulter Over Homocon Gig - I know the world is not total blacks and whites, but still can we eliminate the crazy colors?

Warning of God's Judgment, Hutcherson Wants Promotion of Homosexuality Banned - So Ken Hutcherson is the latest to pull the "homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle" lie. Been there, done that, got a t-shirt, used the t-shirt to clean my bathroom.

Historic Prop 8 ruling prompts ‘rare’ discussion about gay rights at Dallas Log Cabin meeting - A gay political group rarely discusses gay rights? ONLY the Log Cabin.

Lesbian teen sues Mississippi school district over yearbook photo - And I hope she wins too.

Gay and lesbian college presidents 'plotting evil radical activist agenda,' whatever THAT is

For those who think that fear of American Muslims and fear of the lgbt community are two separate things, check out this from American Family Association's phony news service, One News Now:

News that several "gay" and lesbian-identified college and university presidents met recently to organize a push for the homosexual agenda is drawing the ire of pro-family organizations.

Nine presidents of higher-education entities recently gathered in Chicago and decided to form a new organization called LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Education. The group agreed that a top priority should be "to push higher education to include issues of sexual orientation when talking about diversity."

Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs with Liberty Counsel, calls the meeting "bizarre," but he is not surprised by the strategy.

"This group of higher-ups within academia [is] going to be, from the top down throughout our universities around the country, pushing the political agenda of the radical homosexual activist left; we are going to see that from them," Barber warns.

In the long run, it doesn't matter why these lgbt college and universities presidents (whose names have been supplied generously by the phony news article) are meeting because folks like Matt Barber and entities like One News Now will spin it as a nefarious plan to overturn American values, just like Islamophobes will spin anything those of the Muslim faith will do as some sort of plan either to destroy America or "celebrate 9/11."

Fear doesn't need a reason to exist or rationality, just ignorance and hate as a fertile ground.

It's just as well though. If Barber and company pay too much attention to this meeting, they will miss the important conclave of us radical gay activists to be held in December.

During that time, I will be giving a lecture on how to give homosexual subliminal messages to children via the Smurfs, Popeye, and Bugs Bunny.

Satan is behind gay marriage - gotta love those lovely National Organization for Marriage supporters

Another video courtesy of the National Organization for Marriage's failed summer tour. Mercy, this is a good one from Washington D.C. Did you know that this fight is about "species" and that Satan is behind gay marriage?

One day, someone has to put all of these lovely videos together in a neat package.

More posts about those "Godly" protectors of marriage:

' Gay families aren't real families' - a NOM supporter further sinks their phony guise of love

A little ' state-sanctioned sodomy' for your Sunday night

The Alliance Defense Fund seeks to 'save marriage' with the help of a perky blond white woman

I'm try to get angry at this video by the right-wing Alliance Defense Fund. I'm trying to get some passion about the phony claim about how the Prop 8 decision will "force" people to accept same-sex marriage. And I'm trying to draw some internal rage over the lie that gays are "intentionally" trying to "deny children of a mother and a father."

But two things stand out.

1. Seems to me if the other side had invested more time with finding more credible witnesses as they did in filming this commercial, they would have won the case.

2. Isn't this blond woman so damned perky?

One more thing - it's a gay thing that I have to say this. Her ensemble has got to go. Didn't they budget for clothing?

Religious right blames victim for his own murder and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Exclusive: 'Pro-family' radio host Penna Dexter blames 15-year-old for his own shooting death - An innocent gay child is shot and who do the religious right blame? The innocent gay child.

The 10 Dumbest Maggie Gallagher Quotes - Is NOM's Maggie Gallagher a secret mole agent working for our side?

Moral Scolds Freaking Out As Conservatives Increasingly Abandon Gay Issue - Gives new meaning to the phrase "rats deserting a sinking ship."

Deranged: American Family Radio's Bryan Fischer: 'No More Mosques, Period.' - and speaking of ships, lgbts and the Muslim community may be in different ships in terms of beliefs but we are all in the same boat now when it comes to the religious right.

Innocent picture sparks nasty homophobic reaction

According to one of my blogger buddies, Rod 2.0, this nondescript picture is causing a nasty reaction online and demonstrates not only basic homophobic but how terrible it is for men, especially black men, to show a little affection:

The image was snapped of two young men apparently on Atlanta's MARTA and the Twitpic is entitled "No Excuse: I Don't Give a F-ck How Sleepy You Are." So far, the image has 12,400+ views and has produced  three pages of mostly cruel, homophobic and hateful comments. There are dozens more comments across Twitter and the Twitpic has migrated to gay-baiting black gossip blogs. One perennial gay-baiting blogger has slammed the two young men as "homo-thugs", ranted about HIV/AIDS and complained that "it's become nearly impossible to distinguish heterosexual men from down low thugs." Are "down-low" thugs hugged up on public transit? Probably not ...

It's a very sweet and innocent photo. According to the comments, it seems the young men's primary offense, in addition to seemingly being gay, is that they are "normal looking" and apparently in love. More power to them. It's too bad more people don't have the courage to be themselves.

Amen, Rod. There would be less ignorance and less fear if not only folks chose to be themselves but others didn't give them hell for it.

' Gay families aren't real families' - a NOM supporter further sinks their phony guise of love

One thing that has been deliciously excellent about the National Organization for Marriages' failed marriage tour is it showed NOM supporters in their true homophobic light.

Yesterday, we saw the "state-sanctioned sodomy" guy. Today, its another NOM supporter in Harrisburg.

Watch the entire thing, especially his comparison of gay marriage to pedophilia. But keep a special eye out on his nasty words about gay families and single mother families.

So much for that phony NOM love.

Hat tip to Joe.My.God.

Related post: 
 
A little ' state-sanctioned sodomy' for your Sunday night

National Organization for Marriage lays double goose egg and other Monday midday news briefs

Photo: At his age, my biggest activism involved freeing enslaved princesses - When a child demonstrates more sense and kindness than adults.

A Successful Counterprotest to NOM in Harrisburg, PA (with Photo Gallery) - The National Organization for Marriage bombs in Pennsylvania.

Images From A Sideshow Running Away With The Circus… - The National Organization bombs in Washington, but this time they bring black folks.

Ensign cites harassment in call sign choice - This is a damn shame.

Stop Gay Marriage Or Say Goodbye To Christian Civilization - Shhhhh! Stop giving away our secret plans!

Islamic centers, gay marriages, and the ease of picking electoral scapegoats

Gay marriage has been replaced by the Islamic community as the whipping children of the electorate.

Remember in 2004 when the backlash against gay marriage became a huge election issue galvanizing voters and members of the religious community? That’s nothing compared to what’s happening now.

This controversy over the Islamic center blocks away from Ground Zero has gone into overdrive, which some are hoping will be a huge issue in the fall elections this year.

Never mind that Al Qaeda attacked us and not Muslims in general. Never mind that many Muslims lost their lives during 9-11 due to those awful attacks. Never mind that when Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma, no one even thought of blaming Christianity on the whole for his twisted beliefs. Never mind the Islamic center isn’t even going to be located at “Ground Zero.”

Never mind any of that because there is a situation ready made to be exploited. And like in all situations like this, we have so many throwing their worthless two cents into the controversy,  from a failed half termed governor (Sarah Palin) trying to be the “voice of America” when no one really asked her, to an  insane Congressman (Louis Gohmert) spinning tangents about “terror babies.”

Not to mention that there is a lot of fertile, scared, and ignorant minds to be exploited. New York is not the only place where people are fearing the Islamic community. In Tennessee, some residents not only oppose the building of mosques, but were also hinting about digging up the graves and tracking the “community activities” of other Muslims.

It’s sad really and it makes me wonder if the terrorists who attacked on 9-11 did in fact win.

We have been constantly told that they hate us because of our “freedom.” But that’s not totally true.

Some of them hate us  because they think we are hypocrites; that we give big talk about freedom and equality, but with the drop of a hat we abandon both concepts. That one minute, we are waving flags and singing the praises of living in a diverse community and the next, braining  people over the heads with flag poles while justifying a fear of those who are different with the least shred of shame.

Someone tell me, what exactly do you call this controversy other than exactly what those terrorists believe?

Osama Bin Laden is in a cave somewhere laughing himself silly.

A little ' state-sanctioned sodomy' for your Sunday night

This video is from the National Organization for Marriage's abysmal flop of summer tour.

The stop is in Harrisburg, PA. While NOM's Brian Brown is in the background claiming that those on his side of the argument have been "very, very good about the speaking the truth in love," a supporter of his organization and its "summer tour" doesn't mind not hiding behind any pretenses of love. This is just too, too, Freudian in regards to what NOM claims it's trying to do (i.e. "defend marriage") and the mindset of those who support the organization's efforts.

Big hat tip to Matt Algren for bringing this to my attention.

Pat Robertson's correspondent smears lgbts, won't publish correction post

I have been blogging for four years (this month is my fourth year anniversary) and I have discovered that I have serious pet peeve. I hate it when someone pushes bad studies regarding the lgbt community.

So you can just imagine how I felt yesterday when I read, via Pam's House Blend, that Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network war correspondent Chuck Holton posted an entry on his blog,  "Boots on the Ground" detailing just why gays shouldn't be allowed to serve openly in the military. Specifically, it is this part which caught my attention:

1. The military is, by necessity, an environment where members are encouraged to be strong and healthy. The military strongly discourages smoking these days, because anything that hurts a soldier's health ultimately makes him a liability to his unit. The homosexual lifestyle has been proven to lower a man's life expectancy by as much as 20 years - why would we encourage this, then?

2. The Gay subculture is one of the most violent subcultures out there. Government studies show gays are 20 times more likely to be abusive or abused in their personal relationships. This reflects an inherent emotional instability that is not conducive to good order or discipline.

3. Giving Blood: US FDA regulations exclude "men who have had sex with another man even once since 1977" from giving blood at blood banks. In combat, any one of your buddies might be called upon to donate their blood to keep you alive if you get wounded. Gays should never donate blood. End of story.

4. Suicide: The military is already having problems with troop suicides these days. Gays commit suicide, or attempt it, six times more often than heterosexuals. Is this the kind of American we want to entrust with a weapon?

Bottom line: Homosexuals, by their own choices, disqualify themselves from military service. For the pentagon to be even considering allowing them to serve openly only shows an appalling lack of common sense on the part of our elected leaders and military brass.

How is this piece wrong? Oh let me count the ways.

And I did to, in a response to his post which should have been published on the blog yesterday.

But it wasn't. And my guess is that since comments are "moderated" there, it still won't be published.

But this is what I said:

You made many errors in this piece. 

For one, you cited a 1997 study but omitted that in 2001 those same researchers complained about how their work was being distorted to push the false idea that gays have a short lifespan - http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/...
 
Furthermore, you cited a Netherlands study (about gay suicide) without giving more details. Dr. (Theo) Sandfort, who conducted the study, said more work needs to be done and that he was not aware his conclusions was indicative of the gay community in other countries. 

On your claim about "the gay subculture," you take a 12 page study - published 10 years ago - which talked about violence against women (in general) -  and made a poor singular statement which encompassed all gays and lesbians. The way you do this is no different than racists using the study to make the same judgment about African-Americans.

It's apparently that Holton and by extension Roberston has learned nothing from the Prop 8 verdict because they continue to push the same lies about the lgbt community.

But as long as folks like them keep pushing these lies up, the lgbt community needs to continue knocking them down.