Slur spewing pastor taking center stage in North Carolina

Donald Fozard

Those against marriage equality in North Carolina pushing the race card extremely hard.

Yesterday, the National Organization for Marriage pushed a portion of an Associated Press article which focused on a group of black pastors who supported the upcoming anti-marriage equality amendment.

Today, NOM pushed the below video on its blog claiming the following:

An ABC news video on the North Carolina debate. The black church is taking a leading role, to Democrats dismay.

But when one looks at the video, one sees that the claim is false:




Now Focus on the Family has done the same thing, i.e. pushing the idea that the black church is going to "save" North Carolina from "the gays.":



Focus on the Family’s audio and the video featured by NOM have two things in common. Both omit the fact that the state NAACP has been very vocal in opposition to the amendment. And both feature a pastor named Donald Q. Fozard of the Mount Zion Christian Church. He is the man who is speaking in the FOF audio and the man calling another a “liar” in the video.

From the way Fozard has made himself available to NOM and FOF, one gets the idea that he is trying to be the southern Ruben Diaz.

However, one could say that Fozard is a bit more like Fred Phelps. This is him in 2004:

From this past Sunday's sermon, one would think the Rev. Donald Q. Fozard Sr. likes saying the word faggot. The pastor of Durham's Mount Zion Christian Church hollers the word's last syllable as if he were exorcising a demon, or as if he were a movie star who understands that notoriety rises when you do something incendiary.

"Faggots across the nation, heading churches. Homos on the pianos. Faggots in the choir. What kind of spirit is leading that church?" he asked his 150 worshippers.

. . . Fozard continued with his own spectacular show. "And now? Men with men, women with women? Let me remind you of Sodom and Gomorrah. That sin will bring fire from heaven. I tell the homosexual man: repent, turn and get a woman. I tell the woman who wants to get married: get yourself a man."

(If Fozard stresses the last syllable of "faggot," he sounds out each vowel and consonant of "homosexual".) "The Reverend Al Sharpton says it doesn't matter who you sleep with?" he said. "I'll tell you one thing: the Reverend ain't no Reverend. All of them are running around saying it doesn't matter who you sleep with! They want that little 1 percent of faggots that go to vote."

I assure you that this is no joke. Thanks to NOM and those who are trying to stop marriage equality in NC, a slur speaking awful excuse for a reverend has now taken center stage.

This mean unfortunately that yet again the religious right - particularly NOM - is exploiting the black community. And yet again the black church is allowing itself to be used as a tool against its own people.

But most specifically what will a young African-American lgbtq think after seeing this?

That seems to be the one thing which no one thinks about – not the gay community in its justified anger, not the black church in its self-righteous pose, not the black pastors who spew such vitriol in pursuit of attention and monetary gain (because if you don’t think money has changed hands when black pastors come out against gay equality, you are fooling yourself), and certainly not the organizations like NOM or FOF instigating this mess.

For every "faggot" or "liar" that comes out of Fozard's mouth, I see a young lgbtq of color pushed deeper into the closet, sneaking out at night, and engaging in unsafe behaviors because he or she feels that they are going to hell anyway so why bother being careful.

Or even worse, moping in their rooms making unnecessary prayers to God about changing their sexual orientation instead of looking at it as a gift from Him - which it is.

You wanna know why HIV and AIDS is affecting the black community at a high rate? Listen to pastors like Fozard, who seem to be so concerned with the spotlight that they are pushing our children to their doom with their hateful  rhetoric.

Well as long as you get camera time and a chance to primp in front of your congregation, who gives a care?

Right, Mr. Fozard?

 Hat tip to Pam's House Blend and Good As You.

What the heck is a 'Gay Zombie' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Maryland Governor O’Malley: Marriage Equality Is About Protecting Children - Truer words were never spoken.

Gay Zombies Want Brains Of Children - And there are people who actually believe this hot mess. I wonder if George Romero will be making a movie about it.

NOM EXPOSED: FEC Filing: NOM gives nearly 50k to defeat David Weprin - Pretty soon, NOM's gravy train will come to a halt and we are going to know who is funding it.

Medical schools not teaching gay health issues - This is not good. It does add to the problem of the gay community not getting adequate health care.

Maryland Del. Burns pressures churches, blacks to oppose marriage-equality bill - Check the brotha's palms for grease.

NOM's 2009 victory in Maine comes back to haunt the organization - It's kinda rare for me to refer to a morning post in the news briefs, but I enjoyed writing this so much that I want other folks to read it. Mark my words on this one, folks.

NOM's 2009 victory in Maine comes back to haunt the organization

 The National Organization for Marriage loses another round in court against Maine's disclosure laws. Meanwhile, a soon-to-be released documentary threatens to expose the questionable tactics of those the organization employed to defeat Maine's marriage equality law.

Don't be fooled by the National Organization for Marriage's public bravado and supposed unstoppable appearance.

Behind the facade,the organization seems to be ever so slowly but surely heading towards a precipice and the thing nudging it along the way is the state of Maine.

NOM was successful in its ballot initiative to overturn Maine's law allowing marriage equality in 2009. But it was a messy win which is turning out to be a pyrrhic victory (a win which ends up biting the victor in the ass) for the organization.

NOM continues to fight against the state's public discloure laws, losing at every turn. The latest loss for NOM came yesterday:

A federal appeals court is denying a request for a new hearing in a public-disclosure case stemming from Maine's 2009 same-sex marriage campaign.

The appeal came after a 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston a month ago rejected the National Organization for Marriage's challenge to Maine's political action committee laws, and upheld Maine's law requiring disclosure of independent expenditures in candidate elections.

In a decision Wednesday, the court denied NOM's request for a rehearing.

NOM was the primary donor in 2009 to Stand for Marriage Maine, a political action committee that helped repeal Maine's same-sex marriage law.

According to the website NOM Exposed:

NOM provided more than $1.8 million of the $3 million spent by opponents of marriage equality to pass Question 1 – but it illegally failed to disclose where the money came from. Public disclosure laws create transparency by informing voters who is behind a campaign effort. Maine’s law does this by requiring that any funds raised to support or oppose a ballot question be made public.

 . . . Based on an initial complaint filed by Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate, the Maine  Ethics Commission launched a formal investigation into NOM’s fundraising tactics in late 2009. NOM has refused to cooperate with the state inquiry each step of the way, stonewalling requests to turn over documents to the Ethics Commission. The Commission’s executive director defended the inquiry in February 2010: “NOM donated almost $2 million in support of the referendum. The Commission needs to understand how NOM solicited the funds in order to determine whether campaign finance reporting was required.” In June 2010, the Ethics Commission unanimously denied NOM’s latest request to dismiss the state investigation into the organization’s finances.

NOM has also attempted unsuccessfully to halt the state investigation in court, suing to prevent release of its Maine campaign donors and, in a far-reaching effort, to dismantle Maine’s campaign disclosure laws. A federal district judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit have soundly rejected NOM’s attempts to evade the ethics investigation and ordered NOM to produce records to the state.

And if questions about its flouting of Maine's disclosure laws isn't bad enough, there is a soon-to-be released documentary which will shed light on NOM's questionable tactics. Filmmakers Joe Fox and James Nubile convinced both sides of the Maine marriage equality fight to give them "fly on the wall" access during the campaign.

What they filmed is the basis of Question One: the Battle for Same-Sex Marriage in America. As we all know, NOM and its supporters won that fight. But it's Marc Mutty, the head of the campaign against Maine's marriage equality law, who has become the documentary's lightning rod

In the documentary, Mutty voiced extreme displeasure with how his group was attempting to sway people to vote against marriage equality. According to the Iowa Independent:

The film begins with Mutty describing his role in the campaign as that of the “chief cook and bottle washer,” but in the campaign’s final weeks, it’s Frank Schubert, president of California-based Schubert Flint Public Affairs -– the same publicity firm used to defeat same-sex marriage in California in 2008 –- who is calling all the shots, telling reporters he’s the chairman of SMM, making himself marketable for a future anti-same-sex marriage campaign.


At one point in the film, Mutty admits to being upset over two ads pushed by Schubert Flint, which Mutty admits “when I saw it, I cringed,” because of their insistence that civil marriage in Maine will lead to teachers instructing first-graders about gay sex. The longer version of the ad, which Mutty opted not to use, discussed sex toys. In the car, a visibly frustrated Mutty tells Schubert in clipped tones that his staff signed off on the ad. He then slams his cell phone shut and mutters, “So Frank wins the day again.”

The documentary also reveals that Mutty was forced to run the campaign:

On screen, Mutty says he never wanted to run the ‘Yes on 1′ campaign, but that his boss, Bishop Richard Malone, wanted the diocese to handle it, and Mutty felt as though he had no choice. In the early days of the campaign, he jokes around with his small staff in their Yarmouth, Maine, headquarters and appears to take his position — one he describes as being “impossible” — in stride. But by the campaign’s end, Mutty often appears agitated, saying things like: “This has been a mother-f***ing son of a bitch.”

And according to a piece written by Peter Montgomery of  Religious Dispatches, the documentary reveals that Mutty may have been simply a figurehead but not really calling the shots in the campaign:

The documentary exposes several myths promoted by the opponents of marriage equality in Maine, including that it was a Maine-based campaign when California-based Schubert-Flint was clearly calling the shots; and that it wasn’t about homosexuality, when religious objections to homosexuality were clearly a driver for many of the activists and leaders. At one campaign rally, for example, a speaker portrays the campaign as a spiritual battle against the devil himself.

One press conference orchestrated by Schubert-Flint used teenagers as props, including one who claimed that at her public school she was made to feel like a second-class citizen for being straight. It seemed like a ludicrous assertion, so I asked filmmaker Joe Fox who told me that those teens were brought out to read their scripted statements, then declared off limits for follow-up questions.

Question 1 is scheduled to have a limited release in the fall and a national release in January. One wonders how NOM will handle damage control then while continuing to fight the disclosure laws not only in Maine but in also several other states.

As far as I'm concerned, these troubles couldn't have happened to a nicer group of folks.

NC homophobes pulling religious, racial, and anatomy cards against marriage equality

The battle for or against marriage equality (whichever you prefer) in North Carolina is heating up as the following video shows. Folks who are pushing the anti-marriage equality amendment are pulling out all of the stops, i.e. the religious argument, the racial argument, and even the anatomy argument:




I'm not going to say a word about that lock and key thing. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you haven't seen the video.

And in the midst of this is a little deception from the National Organization for Marriage. NOM pulled the following portion from a larger Associated Press article on the issue:

Several black ministers who spoke at a later news conference said it's contrary to the Christian faith and the Bible for same-sex couples to marry. They called on the Legislature to let the public vote on adding the prohibition to the constitution to protect the institution of marriage. The Rev .Johnny Hunter of Cliffdale Community Church in Fayetteville said gay rights activists have offended black people by equating the efforts to support gay marriage with civil rights activities in the 1960s to remove racism from the law books.

"Blacks know what real discrimination is all about," said Hunter, referring to slavery and Jim Crow-era laws that preventing blacks from voting. "They're disrespecting ... the foot soldiers of the civil rights movement.

The comment itself is ignorant and offensive in that Mr. Hunter and those ministers have taken it upon themselves to speak for the black community, including gays and lesbians of color who would be hurt by the amendment. The comments are even more offensive in the context that NOM is pushing them, i.e. making it seem that the black community as a whole in NC does support marriage equality.

But the state NAACP does not support the amendment. The following is the portion of the article which NOM omitted:

 . . . the Rev. William Barber, president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the sponsors of the amendment bill, who are overwhelmingly Republican, are actually trying to take civil rights backward with the amendment.
"No matter our color or faith traditions, those who stand for love and justice are not about to fall for this amendment trick," Barber said in a statement released by the state NAACP.

Finally to add to the mix comes the anti-gay hate group, the Family Research Council:

The Family Research Council has released a series of radio ads in North Carolina, calling for the state legislature to place a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality for gays and lesbians on the ballot this November. North Carolina already prohibits same-sex marriage by statute, but the FRC says it’s not enough, warning, “Our laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman could be overturned.” Organizers of the marriage amendment have called marriage equality an evil plot concocted by Satan and said an amendment is needed to “put a big letter of shame on the behavior.” According to findings from Public Policy Polling published today, while 61% of state voters oppose legalizing same-sex marriage, just 30% support the constitutional amendment.

Great. How long will it be before NOM comes out with their "gay marriage is a way to harm children" flyers or FRC's Peter Sprigg pushes his distorted studies.

And I thought the folks in Minnesota were going to have issues dealing with NOM's mess.

Apparently the good folks in NC are going to have the same issues with NOM and FRC.

Pray for 'em.


Related posts:

16 reasons why the Family Research Council is a hate group


From one black man to the black community - stop the homophobic madness!

NOM's people can't stop comparing gays to pedophiles and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Does Minnesota For Marriage liken gays to pedophiles and/or Hitler? Because their pal Brad Brandon does - NOM's people can't stop comparing gays to pedophiles Part 1.


NOM Promotes Column Claiming That Normalizing Homosexuality Is “Sexual Anarchy” - NOM's people can't stop comparing gays to pedophiles Part 2.

Focus on the Family Doubles Down On Their Fight Against Anti-Bullying Programs - Focus on the Family is having money problems. With crap like this, I see why.

Appeals Court Unanimously Overturns Arizona Effort To Deny Health Benefits To Domestic Partners - BOOM!

Obama Administration Finalizes LGBT-Friendly Hospital Policy - Good for them!

NC: The Truth About the Discriminatory, Job-Killing, Harmful, Family-Unfriendly, Divisive, Anti-LGBT Marriage Amendment - North Carolinians are putting up one hell of a fight over a unnecessary amendment.

NOM loses badly at Minnesota State Fair

If a poll at the Minnesota State Fair is a preview of things to come, then the National Organization for Marriage has a lot of work to do in its effort to completely ban marriage equality in the state.

Even after a controversy which saw the NOM backed group, Minnesotans for Marriage (as long as it excludes THE GAYS) get a booth in the fair while the organization fighting NOM's effort not able to retain a booth, NOM received some interestingly bad news.

According to the Minnesota Independent:

The Minnesota House of Representatives conducted its annual poll of legislative issues at the Minnesota State Fair this year, and among the questions was how fair-goers would vote on an amendment to the state constitution limiting marriage to one man and one woman and barring same-sex marriage for future generations. Poll respondents rejected the amendment with 29.8 percent voting “yes” and 66.5 percent voting “no.”

According to the House, the poll “is an informal, unscientific survey of issues discussed in prior legislative sessions.”

Both sides of the debate over the amendment rallied their troops to the fair to vote in the poll. Minnesota for Marriage, which supports a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, and Minnesotans United for All Families, which opposes the amendment, sent email alerts to activists during the fair urging them to take the poll.

The poll had by far the highest turnout ever: 12,549 people took the poll compared to 9,926 last year.

Of course NOM hasn't said a word about this on its blog. If the organization ever gets around to addressing this slap in its face, expect to hear platitudes about how "30 states voted to oppose gay marriage," or how "the only vote that really matters is at the ballot box."

But don't be fooled. No doubt the folks at Minnesotans for Marriage (as long it excludes The GAYS) will be plotting their next move in response to this poll.

According to NOM Exposed, they have already call in the churches. How long will it be before they start pulling the "if gays get married, children will have to learn about homosexual relationships (i.e. gay sex)" card, even though this claim has been continuously proven to be a lie.

Make no mistake about it. For the folks in Minnesota, this is going to be a long year.

Related posts:

NOM exploiting children to stop gay marriage in New York

NOM's Minnesota game plan involves money, churches, and martyrs

Maggie Gallagher's hypocritical whine about corruption

NOM loses attempt to hide its funders in Minnesota

The Five White Characters in every Tyler Perry movie

Today marks my blog's fifth anniversary. That's five years of talking about and exposing the religious right. I've made some headway in accomplishing my goals. But I am not even halfway there in terms of the things I am trying to get done with this blog. Still, I am immensely proud of the stuff I have churned out and the progress I have made in helping to educate folks about religious right lies.

However, in honor of this blog's fifth anniversary, I am not going to talk about the religious right. I want to do something more relevant in terms of what I feel people need right now.

I want to make people laugh. I just feel that every now and then, folks need to laugh. It clears up the clutter in your heart. So enjoy!:

The 5 White Characters in Every Tyler Perry Movie -- powered by Cracked.com

Rap artist urges those in the closet to come out

In an interview with website VLADTV.com, The Game says he believes there are a number of big-name rap stars who are homosexual and he feels they should be out and proud about their sexuality.

“I think there are several rappers that are in the closet and gay. They are the only type of gay people that I have a problem with,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with gay people. Gay people are everywhere and rightfully so, it’s a free country.

“Game has no problem with gay people, Game has a problem with people who are pretending not to be gay. The number one issue with that is that you can be fooling somebody and you could give them AIDS and they can die. So that in the closet s**t is real scary.

“We got to get into the seriousness of it. If you’re gay just say you’re gay, so be cool and be proud.”

Asked if he thought he had recorded with any secretly gay rappers, Game said: “Possibly, yeah. And not being just full-out gay, just pretending he loves girls and lives the rap lifestyle, but really he’s a man fan.

“There’s a lot of man fans out there in hip-hop. I see how you n****s be looking at n****s you’re around too. They be looking at n****s crazy.”

Now some folks may get offended by the comment he made about being in the closet and catching AIDS. He does seem to be saying that being gay is the same as having AIDS.

However, I beg to differ. I think he is saying that if you are closeted, you are more likely not to be as careful in regards to sexually transmitted diseases. Just like you are more likely not to be honest with your physician about your sexual history.

And there are studies which bear this out.

I sincerely hope that the comments by rap artist The Game causes a much needed discussion about the need for not just gay rappers but African-American members of the gay community to come out whenever they can. I also hope that this discussion actually includes African-Americans lgbtqs for a change instead of us being conveniently omitted by African-American media voices.

Whenever there is a discussion regarding gay issues in the African-American community, African-American media voices - i.e. Roland Martin, Tavis Smiley - seem to go out of their way to exclude us lgbtqs of color while talking about us like dog dirt.

I have a hard time thinking this is accidental or that they can't find lgbtqs of color to interview.

But that is a subject for a future post.

Hat tip to Eurweb.

Religious right group having serious money problems and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Financial Troubles For Anti-Gay Focus On The Family Persist - Liars always end up getting bitten in the ass. Focus on the Family is the same group which houses Tom Minnery - the same bozo who Sen. Al Franken embarrassed at a Congressional hearing this year .

Tammy Baldwin Announces Senate Run In Wisconsin - This is BIG. If Baldwin wins, she would be the first openly gay member of the U.S. Senate in history.

Perkins Assails ABC For Having Chaz Bono In 'Dancing With The Stars'- Chaz Bono will appear on Dancing with the Stars and the religious right lose their collective little minds.

Religious Groups Push for Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill Revival - This ain't good AT ALL.

Gay, Straight Couples Becoming More Monogamous - Here is a study the religious right won't talk about.

The dumbest comment Maggie Gallagher ever uttered

Maggie Gallagher

How do you brighten up a boring debate? Apparently Maggie Gallagher of NOM thinks that a comment about terrorists killing South Carolina government officials will do the trick.

I know that there was a Republican debate in South Carolina yesterday. And I also know that the National Organization for Marriage had a hand in putting it on.

I was trying to avoid it. After all, why ruin a good holiday.

From what I understand, in spite of all of the hype, it was the run-of-the-mill debate. Although, NOM claims that "the issues of marriage took centerstage," that's really not true.

But what caught my attention was a comment published by Maggie Gallagher on NOM's blog. I think it gives an indication why she has settled herself into the background of the organization:

The debate will go live in 5 minutes. The panelists just walked in. Sen. DeMint is introducing the honoraries in the audience (like the NH Speaker of the House).

The South Carolina delegation is particularly impressive. Let me put it this way: if the terrorist attack the convention center right now, it looks like the South Carolina government would be decimated!

Geez, Maggie. Way to go with the dumb comments.

My guess is that she meant to highlight Sen. Jim DeMint supposed political power in South Carolina. What she accomplished, however, was giving folks another reason to wonder about her callousness.

I guess when you push the "oh please pity us because we are being targeted" card so long, it's hard to stop even when such a thing is unnecessary.

How religious right groups distort good science in the name of God

 A repost for Labor Day

Chinese general Sun Tzu in The Art of War once said:

It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles . . .

With that thought in mind, I have tried to educate myself and others on the manipulations of the religious right. You see it's not enough to call them "homophobes" or "haters" anymore than it is not enough for a prosecutor in a trial to point at a defendant and call him guilty.

There must be some proof of the charges.

I have a theory that in this so-called cultural battle, our fight isn't totally with those who have a personal religious belief that homosexuality is a sin. It's not an idea that I prescribe to but I am of the opinion that people with differing beliefs can co-exist up to a point.

Granted there are some people who are rabidly anti-gay, but this piece isn't about them.

My theory and all of my focus have been on the religious right organizations who manipulate people's religious beliefs and personal fears to make the lgbt community the boogeymen or the "big nasty other" in American society.

I've posted in the past about their distortion techniques. I've posted about discredited researcher Paul Cameron and his relation to the religious right as to how these groups continue to use his bad data.

Today, I want to show how these groups have their own ways of distorting credible research.

I have read countless religious right papers and studies and have discovered that in many if not all of them, many of the same studies are being distorted.

It’s as if the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, the American Family Association and other affiliate groups have some type of file cabinet with an assortment of legitimate studies that they can pull out and distort. I want to show you just a few. Some you have already seen these before but a refresher course never hurts anyone:

Distortion - Lgbt homes are not ideal homes to raise children because gay supportive researcher Judith Stacey said so in her study:

“A study conducted by Judith Stacey and Timothy Biblarz, sociologists at the University of Southern California, revealed that children raised by homosexual couples ‘seem to grow up to be more open to homoerotic relationships.’ The study showed that 12 percent of girls raised in lesbian homes became active lesbians themselves—increasing the likelihood of lesbianism by more than 400 percent.” - Fast Facts, Gay Adoption, Coral Ridge Ministries

Researcher Judith Stacey thinks that children do well in homosexual homes. She says her study found that girls brought up by lesbians show greater interest in masculine activities and dress and seek non-traditional female jobs. Boys in lesbian homes are more feminine and more nurturing. Children in these homes also become sexually active with same-sex partners. - Children In Homosexual Homes Become Sexually Confused, Traditional Values Coalition

Truth - Judith Stacey had gone on record numerous times decrying how her research in lgbt homes have been distorted. According to respectmyresearch.org:

. . . Stacey and Biblarz noted preliminary evidence of some “modest and interesting” differences between children raised by heterosexual parents and children raised by lesbian and gay parents, but they affirmed that “parental sexual orientation has no measurable effect on the quality of parent-child relationships or on children’s mental health or adjustment.”

In addition, via this link, she calls Focus on the Family to the carpet for distorting her work.

Distortion - Lesbian and gay relationships are generally violent Part 1:

A study in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence examined conflict and violence in lesbian relationships. The researchers found that 90 percent of the lesbians surveyed had been recipients of one or more acts of verbal aggression from their intimate partners during the year prior to this study, with 31 percent reporting one or more incidents of physical abuse.” - Comparing the Lifestyles of Homosexual Couples to Married Couples, Family Research Council

There is a higher rate of violence in lesbian and homosexual relationships than in married, heterosexual relationships. A study in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence examined conflict and violence in lesbian relationships. The researchers found that 90% of the lesbians surveyed had been recipients of one or more acts of verbal aggression from their intimate partners during the year prior to this study, with 31% reporting one or more incidents of physical abuse. - Same-Sex Parenting is Harmful to Children Says REAL Women of Canada, Lifesite News

Truth - According to the Journal of Interpersonal Violence’s own web page:

The Journal of Interpersonal Violence offers the most up-to-date information on domestic violence, rape, child sexual abuse and other violent crimes . . . Focusing on both victims and perpetrators, the journal examines theoretical links between all types of interpersonal violence, exploring the similarities and differences between these types of crimes.

In other words, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence tracks domestic violence, as well as other violent crimes.

Those surveyed in journal articles are the victims of violence, verbal or otherwise, because this is what the journal is designed to track.

However, what religious right groups are doing here is the equivalent of taking a study of domestic violence in the African-American community published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence and using it to allege that black relationships are indicative of violent behavior.

Know Your LGBT History - The Crying Game

It's one of the most successful gay themed movies of all time,  was nominated for six Oscars (winning one), and its title song was considered to be a comeback hit by former Culture Club lead singer Boy George.

However, based upon the reactions of some of my facebook friends, some folks don't remember The Crying Game (1992).

The Crying Game is a psychological drama which combined the exploits of I.R.A. terrorists with issues of sexuality, love, and redemption to make a movie that arguably still stands up today as one of the best.

Stephen Rea stars as Fergus, an Irish Republican Army terrorist whose group kidnaps a black British soldier (Forrest Whittaker). When the demands of Rea's group aren't met, he is ordered to kill Whittaker.

Rea can't however, because he has already bonded with the soldier. Sensing this, Whittaker tries to escape but is hit by a British armored personal carrier coming to attack Rea's group.

Before he dies, Whittaker talks Rea into looking in on his girlfriend to make sure she is okay.

Rea meets the girlfriend, Dil, and is enraptured by her.

And here is where the movie makes a huge turn.

You see, Dil (played by Jaye Davidson) is a non-op transgender woman. This is revealed to Rea's character AND the audience at the same time (because this was Davidson's first film) during a scene which leaves nothing to subtlety or the imagination.

Rea is at first repulsed, but then continues to be captivated by Dil and continues to see her. He lets it slip that he was involved in the death of Dil's boyfriend. This causes Dil to initiate a chain of events which leads to a bloody confrontation between her, Rea, and Rea's IRA buddies.

The Crying Game used a very clever ad campaign asking audience members who saw the movie to not to reveal it's "secret."

Of course this generated a lot of buzz. But here is the surprise. Even after they knew the "secret," the audiences still came because they were captivated by the excellent story and the characters.

The Crying Game was a massive hit with both audiences and critics. It received six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Neil Jordan), Best Actor (Rea), and Best Supporting Actor (Davidson). It won Best Original Screenplay.

The title song was also a massive hit for Boy George, garnering him a Grammy nomination.

But much of the credit for The Crying Game's success has to belong to Davidson, the emotional center of the movie. As as I said before, this was Davidson's first movie. However you would think that he was an old pro.

He embodies the character of Dil with so much innocence and purity that even after the violent confrontation, which she initiates, plays a huge role during, and decisively brings to a conclusion, you still can't help but to root for her.

There are so many scenes in which Davidson just takes this movie and makes his own. However, the scene which stands out for me has to be when he confronts one of Rea's IRA buddies (played by Miranda Richardson)  because Dil knows that she lured Whittaker to his death.

The confrontation is unnervingly violent but still poignant because Dil's words to Richardson during the scene implies that she blames herself for Whittaker's death, perhaps feeling that her supposed "lack of authenticity" as a woman led him to seek someone else.

And even when the violence ends (sorry folks but you know how I am about the need to let gay folks know when movies involving us contain happy endings), Dil still maintains enough innocence to put Rea's character  - because both her and him come out alive when it's all over - on the road to redemption.

I will only say that it's a long road but as the movie ends,  you get the feeling that they will both make it to the end together.

Davidson, by the way, took the new found success The Crying Game gave him in stride. He secured an agent, got a huge pay day by playing the villain in the science fiction film Stargate, and then returned to the fashion industry where he was originally discovered.

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that his short sojourn in the cinema made it a much better place.

Go see The Crying Game . . . immediately.

Past Know Your LGBT Posts:

Religious right hypocrisy for your Labor Day weekend and other Friday midday news briefs

Courtesy of Americablog Gay:




In other news:

Hypocrisy Unlimited: Anti-Gay Groups Denounce Boycott - How dare gay groups show them how to boycott when they have been doing it too!

North Carolina House Majority Leader Shares Marriage-Banning Optimism With Two Hate Groups - Here's hoping that the folks in North Carolina don't give in to the lies. And keep pressing that point that these so-called pro-family groups are actually hate groups. Never stop.

Megyn Kelly Breaks With Fox News, Actually Defends Transgender Americans - I'm as shocked as you.

Mistrial In Lawrence King Case — ‘Gay Panic’ Wins - $#!@!* ;! That's all modesty allows me to say for now.

Ghana’s Growing Gay Pride Faces Now-Familiar Evangelical Backlash - Pray for our brothers and sisters in Ghana.

NOM's Brian Brown still smarting over disastrous Fox News debate

On the National Organization for Marriage's blog, NOM president Brian Brown is raising a fuss about a disastrous debate he had on the Fox Network show Stossel two weeks ago:

Brown's biggest adversary wasn't the person he was debating, David Haryansi, but host John Stossel and the audience. And this week, Stossel continued to criticize Brown's argument and performance in a column.

Concerning that column, Brown said:

. . . don't get me wrong: I love John Stossel, and he's a voice for sanity on fiscal issues in TV Land.

But what do you say to a man who, when you point out that the reason the government is involved in marriage is that taxpayers and society have a key interest in bringing together mothers and fathers to raise their children together, responds this way:

"Again, so what? I don't care if there are three fathers and six mothers. If it's a stable relationship and the kids are connected with their parents, that's great."

That's a fantasy, not a proposal to take children's needs for their mom and dad seriously.

For the record, I'm really not a fan of Stossel. I think that he is the personification of a once proud journalist who gladly handed over his integrity at the sight of his first big paycheck.

And I really don't buy his "Im a libertarian" nonsense. I am of the opinion that calling himself that is merely a way for him to rationalize what he has become.

Having said that, Stossel rightfully panned Brown. And I am not saying that simply because I don't agree with Brown's position in the first place.

Matt Barber has pedophilia on the brain

Matt Barber likes to talk about gay sex . . . a lot.

I will say one thing about phony religious right cause celebre turned anti-gay talking head Matt Barber - he certainly knows how to milk a controversy, even if said controversy is as phony as his career.

Last week, I wrote about how he and discredited researcher Judith Reisman attended a symposium of a group who is supposedly trying to "reduce the stigmatization and stereotyping of people attracted to children."

Ever since they attended this symposium, Barber has steadily been attempting to connect this symposium to either the American Psychiatric Association - even though no one from the body attended this symposium - or Barber's favorite target - the gay community.

Of course there is absolutely no connection between the symposium and the gay community. But one can count on Barber to attempt to create one.

Barber has been either writing columns about the symposium or making the rounds of religious right radio shows.

Today, according Right Wing Watch, he not only made an appearance on "Porno Pete" LaBarbera's radio show, but he also wrote a very venomous column in World Net Daily. Part of it reads as follows:

Make no mistake: Children are the target of what I call the "sexual anarchy movement." Whether it's the movement's pedophile wing that seeks to literally rape children, or its radical pro-abortion, homosexualist and feminist wings, which seek to rape the minds of children, the larger sexual anarchy movement has a shared goal: Attack, corrupt and destroy God's design for human sexuality. Children are just collateral damage.

Sexual anarchists know that to own the future, they must own the minds of our children. Hence, groups like B4U-ACT, GLSEN (The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network), Planned Parenthood and the like utilize academia from pre-school to post-graduate to brainwash and indoctrinate. Still, sexual anarchists are not restricted to the world of not-for-profit perversion advocacy. They also permeate the Obama administration.

Consider, for instance, that the official website for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently linked to "parenting tips" that referenced children as "sexual beings" and suggested that they should experiment with homosexuality and masturbation.

. . .Bolstered by support from the National Education Association, GLSEN has access to your children through sex education curricula it provides thousands of public schools across the country, and via adult sponsored "Gay Straight Alliances," hosted in those same schools.

Alas, we live in a post-Kinsey America wherein our culture, along with our Judeo-Christian heritage, rots in the heat of the day. The stench of sexual anarchy is masked by the soaring, disingenuous rhetoric of "tolerance," "diversity" and "comprehensive sex education."

This need by Barber to reduce the gay community to matters of "sexual behavior" is probably not by accident nor is it pathological.

During a September 2009 religious right conference, Barber advised some attendees:

. . . to focus on the “ick” factor around gay sex and on claims that homosexuality is a health threat, which he called the movment’s “Achilles heel.”

That means every chance he gets, no matter if the issue is about same-sex households, the bullying and suicides of our lgbtq children, or probably even the issues of elderly members of the gay community, expect Barber to pull out the "gay sex" card.

This is because he has no other cards. Barber can't win the argument through logic so he is a hard advocate of the notion that "it's better to nauseate than educate."

Pathetic.

Homophobe Rick Santorum having a deservedly bad time and other Thursday midday news briefs

Conservative politics, seasoned with pro-criminalization Sprigg - Let us not forget that the Family Research Council's Peter Sprigg also expressed Bryan Fischer's wish about the "criminalization" of homosexuality.

Bigoted GOP Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum gets mad at Piers Morgan for asking him about bigotry - My heart bleeds for the Santorum.

Penn State Students Grill Alum Rick Santorum On Marriage Views - Santorum also got grilled to the ground on his statements at Penn State. Watch how he tries to attack same-sex households. And watch how students won't accept this madness. The good part starts at 8:30.

Scott Lively: Gays Will Use Prop 8 Tapes To Intimidate Christian Witnesses - What witnesses? They were too chickenshit to testify because the cross examination would have revealed that they lied in many, if not all of their claims about marriage equality.

NOM Raises Pathetic Fraction Of $100K Fundraising Goal - I'm sure that those secret funders NOM fights like mad to hide will make up the difference.

The reason why the American Family Association is a hate group

 Due to the amazing success of a recent post - 16 Reasons Why The Family Research Council is a Hate Group, I rewrote and retitled this piece as a part of an ongoing series focusing on the language and lies of many of the groups named by the Southern Poverty Law Center as anti-gay hate groups


Last year when the Southern Poverty Law Center declared certain anti-gay organizations to be hate groups, they went apoplectic. They claimed that they were being "persecuted" for their faith and being picked on by so-called radical left-wing forces.

They even got members of Congress  to help them push that false notion, dodging the fact that their rhetoric, their intentional lying, and pushing of propaganda fueled SPLC's actions.

But one man took it upon himself to be so bullheaded that he had to speak his mind about the gay community - not matter how ignorant and hateful his words were, thereby  proving these organizations to be dodging liars and giving the gay community and our supporters one of many things to point out about the contradictions in the religious right's phony claim of persecution.

That man - Bryan Fischer - Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association. The AFA is one of the organizations declared as a hate group by SPLC and Fischer's rhetoric is a main reason for this designation.

Yet those defending AFA and other religious right groups conveniently omit any talk of Fischer or the comments he made. Such as:

when he said that gays created the Nazi Party:




or that homosexuality should be criminalized:




or that gay sex is like terrorism:




And it bears mentioning that Fischer isn't seen as a loon by many on the right. He is dead center in their mainstream. Many individuals, such as various Republican presidential candidates have appeared on this man's radio show. So maybe, in a strange way, the gay community owes some sort of debt of thanks to Fischer. Because you see, every time someone like Peter Sprigg or Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council claim that they are being "picked on" because of their "faith," we can remind them of this:




And if those video clips aren't enough for you, then consider when Fischer:

tried to refute SPLC's list of 10 lies the religious right tell about the gay community. Not only did SPLC answer him back - embarrassing the hell out of him, but I got some kicks in myself.

Lastly, there was the interview with David Pakman in which Fischer really made an ass of himself. The following are just some of the highlights:

“We're the ones telling the truth about the link between homosexuality and pedophilia.”

“Active participation in the homosexual lifestyle will deprive a male of anywhere between 8 and 20 years of his life expectancy” - a Paul Cameron lie.

“There is ‘no such thing as a monogamous homosexual relationship’”

“The rectal wall is one cell thick” - now Fischer is quoting Paul Cameron almost verbatim.

“We need to take our cue from gay porn actors”

“Those homosexual activists that are so intent on normalizing homosexual behavior...they must be harboring some deep seated longing to be straight”

“...homosexual activists must be latently heterosexual”

The fact that the AFA actually allows Fischer to use its name is more than enough reason to give the organization "hate group" status.

If anyone disagrees, please tell me why. Your reasoning is going to be highly enjoyable to hear.

Equality California calls out the Family Research Council's lies

From The New Civil Rights Movement comes a lesson in knocking the religious right on its ass:

Equality California (EQCA) today released a video attacking Tony Perkins, head of the certified anti-​gay hate group Family Research Council, for his ties to the KKK, and calls out Perkins’ lies about SB 48, California’s FAIR Education Act that ensures the LGBT community, minorities, and the disabled are fairly included in public school education lessons.

The EQCA video replays Perkins’ FRC video, noting often the “lies lies lies” Perkins tells.
There is a very strong movement under way to stop SB 48, which become effective in January. One group, Stop SB 48, has been very effective at organizing and regularly send out fundraising emails and “notes from the field.”

Last month, opponents of SB 48, the FAIR Education Act, were allowed to collect signatures as a first step to put a repeal referendum on the ballot. Like marriage equality in Maine, SB 48 could be repealed before ever going into effect.

Fortunately, EQCA has put together a strong coalition to protect SB 48, but its a very tight battle.

The rest of the story is at The New Civil Rights Movement webpage, but below is the video and it is awesome:

Religious right cause celebre backfires and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Students of Florida’s Barfing Teacher Come Foward - The religious right thought they had the perfect cause celebre when Florida high school teacher Jerry Buell was fired for comments he made about marriage equality and then was reinstated. And now, it is slowly but surely backfiring in their faces.

NC: Republicans hold court at press conference touting anti-gay marriage amendment legislation - Will this madness finally prevail in North Carolina?

Let’s Face it – Homophobia is so Gay- Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out ruminates over the latest scandal involving an anti-gay politician's questionably gay behavior. Is there like one every week? Warning, this link contains a blurred, yet still graphic picture.

Focus On The Family: Basic LGBT Info Is ‘Sexualizing Our Schools’ - Focus on the Family was one of the few major anti-gay organizations not given hate group status by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Watch how the organization attempts to rectify this.

'Porno Pete' LaBarbera tries to correct me and fails miserably - Sorry but I simply HAVE to include my post from this morning because the entire thing is hilarious. A certain religious right leader publicly calls me out and you know I had to respond with the facts. He besmirched my honor and if my "honor" is going to be besmirched, it will be by a man with a HEAVY bank account. LOL

'Porno Pete' LaBarbera tries to correct me and fails miserably

Peter LaBarbera is angry at me.

The American Family Association's One News Now is probably spooked with me.

It's an interesting controversy which has brewed over a comment I made on One News Now's site.

On the particular piece, the author, Jerry Newcombe, said the following:

I know a man (Matt Barber) who was fired from a job with a Fortune 500 company a few years ago because on his own time, on his own computer, at his own home, he posted a blog expressing his own opinion, opposing same-sex “marriage.” He was confronted by his boss at the office and asked if he was the same Matt Barber as on the blog. He was.

Now those who follow this blog know the story of Matt Barber, who is now affiliated with Liberty University. He was originally employed with AllState Insurance before being fired for writing an anti-gay column while using a company computer and also identifying himself as an employee of the company. Barber was able to become a religious right cause celebre and soon, an active player in this so-called culture war as an employee of Concerned Women for America and now the Liberty Counsel.

I wrote a comment to Newcombe's piece saying the following:

Sorry but Mr. Newcombe is inaccurate about one part. Matt Barber used his company’s computer AND identified himself as an employee of the company [Allstate] in his column. That’s why he was fired.

I should have known that it was strange when not only my comment but the ability to leave any comments was eliminated from the article.

And now I see why. This morning on his site, "Porno Pete" LaBarbera (apparently he hates it when I call him that) put the following comment on his website:

Below is a longer version of an article I posted in Facebook responding to homosexual activist Alvin McEwen, who repeated an oft-used bit of “gay” misinformation about Allstate’s 2005 firing of pro-family advocate Matt Barber. (Barber sits on the Americans For Truth Board, is Associate Dean at Liberty University School of Law, and is Director of Cultural Affairs for the Liberty Counsel.) Alvin is a bitter fellow who — although purporting to factually correct alleged pro-family falsehoods — regularly dishes them out himself (go HERE to see him viciously slander me as “Porno Pete”). In posting a response to an AFA column by pro-family writer Jerry Newcombe (reprinted at bottom), McEwen writes:

Sorry but Mr. Newcombe is inaccurate about one part. Matt Barber used his company’s computer AND identified himself as an employee of the company [Allstate] in his column. That’s why he was fired.

Here is my correction of Alvin’s tendentious “correction”:

Matt Barber is a good friend of mine, a Christian man of high integrity, and a Board Member for my organization, Americans For Truth. As one living in Illinois who was intricately familiar with Matt’s case, I want to set the record “straight” here and correct the lies that homosexual activists like Alvin McEwen repeatedly spew about his unjust firing.

Barber was fired after writing a column (which was published by conservative websites) against the homosexual agenda — on his home computer, on a Saturday. He did NOT identify himself as an employee of Allstate, but a third-party blog publisher did so by mistake. A staffer with the homosexual lobby group Human Rights Campaign then “reported” Barber’s web article to Allstate’s HR depart, and Matt immediately was called in on a Friday afternoon. Ironically, he was told that Allstate “celebrates diversity,” and that his (traditional) values did not reflect those of Allstate. Barber was suspended and informed that he likely would be fired for writing the column. He was then escorted by Allstate security guards off the corporate grounds. Monday morning, Barber was canned over the telephone.

The Illinois Department of Employment Security [see graphic above] investigated the firing and found Barber innocent of misconduct; IDES made this judgment (emphasis theirs): “The claimant was discharged from ALLSTATE INS. CO. because AN OUTSIDE ORGANIZATION HAD COMPLAINED ABOUT AN ARTICLE HE HAD WRITTEN WHILE ON HIS OWN TIME.”

Furthermore, even if Barber had used his company laptop for personal use (which he did not), Allstate policy allowed such personal use — especially for employees who traveled frequently, as did Barber.

Barber sued Allstate and as the trial date approached, Allstate frantically contacted Matt’s attorneys and begged for a cash settlement so that the details of his discriminatory firing would not become public.

Needless to say, Allstate had to pay Barber a very significant sum of money to make the embarrassing scandal go away. Had the case gone forward, Allstate’s blatantly anti-Christian (and anti-conservative, anti-family) employment policies would have been exposed. This would have included Allstate’s self-serving lies designed to discredit Barber, which were disseminated to the media — and which Alvin McEwen cynically regurgitates here. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth.

First of all, let's look at this charge from LaBarbera:

The Illinois Department of Employment Security [see graphic above] investigated the firing and found Barber innocent of misconduct; IDES made this judgment (emphasis theirs): “The claimant was discharged from ALLSTATE INS. CO. because AN OUTSIDE ORGANIZATION HAD COMPLAINED ABOUT AN ARTICLE HE HAD WRITTEN WHILE ON HIS OWN TIME.”

 
"Porno Pete" even has a copy of the letter on his site, which I won't reprint here. You can go there to read it if you want. However, that letter had to do with Barber receiving unemployment benefits. The Illinois Department of Employment Security found that Barber did not commit willful misconduct, so he was therefore able to receive benefits.

But in relation to whether or not AllState was correct in firing Barber, the letter is irrelevant.

During the controversy, AllState contended that Barber was fired "because he used the company's information technology systems and other resources for his personal journalism activities, many of which took place on company time."

Peter Sprigg's definition of 'love' includes lying, bearing false witness

Peter Sprigg (FRC) routinely publishes misleading studies about gays

Peter Sprigg, a spokesman for the Family Research Council, recently made the following statement on a radio show:

People are afraid of the homosexual activists and they’re particularly afraid of this character assassination that comes in the form of the word ‘hate.’ Nobody wants to be accused of participating in ‘hate’ and so throwing that word ‘hate’ around becomes a trump card even when nothing that we have done can reasonably be called ‘hate.’ On the contrary, everything we do is motivated by love for the people who are hurt by this lifestyle.

Bear in mind that this is the same man who said that he wants to deport gays and lesbians out of the United States:




And also wants to pass laws designed with leading the way to put gays and lesbians in jail:




Right Wing Watch (who provided the transcript and video of Sprigg making his comments) also pointed out several other ways Sprigg has demonstrated his "love" of the gay community:

• Lobbied to make it harder for students to join Gay-Straight Alliances because “homosexuality is harmful to society.”

• Argued that gays and lesbians shouldn’t be judges because a gay judge can’t “be held up as a role model.”

• Linked homosexuality to pedophilia even when scientists rejected their correlation.

• Opposed allowing same-sex partners or their adopted children from collecting their deceased partner or parent’s Social Security benefits.

Now Sprigg has said and done all of these things because he claims that homosexuality is a "dangerous" lifestyle.

This, of course is a lie, but Sprigg's role in furthering this lie needs more examination.

Sprigg, you see, has personally published misleading studies about the gay community

If one took a look at many of these studies (which I have on many occasion and the links are below), you would find a disturbing pattern of a distorting legitimate studies and research and an intentional omission of crucial portions of these studies which would serve destroy Sprigg's thesis of the supposed "dangers of homosexuality."

Sprigg has committed these offenses in studies and papers such as


Getting It Straight: What the Research Shows About Homosexuality ,

The Top Ten Harms of Same Sex Marriage,

Federal Report Confirms 'Nuclear Family' Best for Children's Health

His piece, The Top Ten Myths about Homosexuality demonstrates a specific example of Sprigg's sleight-of-hand behavior. Amongst other egregious errors, Sprigg takes pro-gay health information totally out of context. Check out this passage by Sprigg:

Even the pro-homosexual Gay & Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) acknowledges:

• “Gay men use substances at a higher rate than the general population . . .”
• “Depression and anxiety appear to affect gay men at a higher rate . . . .”
• “ . . . [G]ay men have higher rates of alcohol dependence and abuse . . . .”
• “ . . . [G]ay men use tobacco at much higher rates than straight men . . . .”
• “Problems with body image are more common among gay men . . . and gay men are much more likely to experience an eating disorder . . . .”

The GLMA also confirms that:

• “ . . . [L]esbians may use tobacco and smoking products more often than heterosexual women use them.”
• “Alcohol use and abuse may be higher among lesbians.”
• “ . . . [L]esbians may use illicit drugs more often than heterosexual women.”

Homosexual activists generally attempt to explain these problems as results of “homophobic discrimination.” However, there is a serious problem with that theory—there is no empirical evidence that such psychological problems are greater in areas where disapproval of homosexuality is more intense.

Now compare what Sprigg said as opposed to what GMLA actually:

Sprigg:

“Depression and anxiety appear to affect gay men at a higher rate . . . .”

GMLA:

Depression and anxiety appear to affect gay men at a higher rate than in the general population. The likelihood of depression or anxiety may be greater, and the problem may be more severe for those men who remain in the closet or who do not have adequate social supports. Adolescents and young adults may be at particularly high risk of suicide because of these concerns.

Sprigg:

“ . . . [L]esbians may use illicit drugs more often than heterosexual women.

GMLA:

Research indicates that lesbians may use illicit drugs more often than heterosexual women. This may be due to added stressors in lesbian lives from discrimination. Lesbians need support from each other and from health care providers to find healthy releases, quality recreation, stress reduction, and coping techniques.

I hear that Sprigg is also a minister, so he should have a better idea than most about lying in God's name and bearing false witness.

And if he truly loved the gay community, he would apologize to us for both offenses.

The anti- marriage equality lies begin in Minnesota and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Flier belier: Debunking MN For Marriage's latest handout - Here we go again. They are beginning their anti-marriage equality campaign in Minnesota with a bunch of lies. Jeremy Hooper debunks every last one.

Marriage Equality - Simple answers to NOM's complicated lies - here is something folks in Minnesota and other places can use, courtesy of Hooper and myself.

El Paso Priest: Calling Gays “Putrid” Constitutes “True Pastoral Care for Homosexuals” - Don't you just love it when folks demonstrate how much they "love" the gay community?

Why Opponents Of Marriage Equality Are Trying To Block The Release Of The Prop 8 Trial Tapes - That's a good question. What are they afraid of?

Fischer: Make Homosexuality "A Criminal Offense" - Somehow I have a feeling that the American Family Association won't lose that hate group status any time soon.

Rick Perry Doesn’t Like Romney Because He’s Too Gay Friendly - Surprising? No.

Unfair attack on Charlotte Pride does not go unanswered

Last Saturday, Charlotte held its Pride event and it was very successful.

Of course, like so many gay pride events, it did have its protestors. An area minister, Michael Brown, sought to interrupt the event with something he called "God Has A Better Way," in which he and a large number of folks wearing red t-shirts infiltrate the pride event, try to preach to the folks there, and generally attempt to disrupt the festivities.

The attendees at Charlotte Pride have learned to take Brown and his nonsense in stride, not allowing his nonsense to interrupt their day of fun and self-awareness.

Needless to say, Brown had some very pointed comments about this year's Charlotte Pride which he published in the American Family Association's One News Now.

Did I say pointed? I meant to say hilarious. The title of the piece, When Drag Queens Lead the Way gives you a clue as to what direction Brown is headed:

. . . At the Wells Fargo Plaza, drag queens lip-synced to pop music for a cheering crowd. One in a hot pink wig and matching knee-high boots danced to Katy Perry's 'California Girls.'" Say what?

How many other community groups feature prominent performances by drag queens at their events? Can you imagine crowds at an Hispanic Pride event, or Black Pride event, or Asian Pride event -- just to name a few -- being entertained by men wearing dresses (or less), hot pink wigs, and matching knee-high boots? And this is part of the LGBT's strategy "to promote acceptance"? How telling. And how telling that, unmentioned by the Observer, there was a large truck stationed next to the festival offering "Free HIV Testing." Yes, just another typical community event.

 . . .  It is also a bit disconcerting to watch young men greet each other with exclamations of "Hey girl!" before exchanging pecks on the cheek. (Does your average child find it confusing to hear men call each other "girls"?). There were also other men who were, quite sadly, all too conspicuous. They walked around Pride Charlotte in various stages of their sex-change journey, with long hair, female breasts, and undeniably male features -- and all this at an event designed to "promote acceptance" in the wider Charlotte community.

To say the least, I am disappointed with two things. I was unable to attend Charlotte Pride and that's a shame because it sounds like they had a very good time.

Secondly, I am uninspired by Brown's prose. In the immortal words of songstress Peggy Lee - "is that all there is?" If it were "Porno Pete" LaBarbera talking, he would have at least added something sexual.

What's wrong with drag queens wearing hot pink wigs and matching thigh high boots? The important thing is that they match. Can't have a drag queen who doesn't know about color coordination.  And what's wrong with lip-synching to Katy Perry? We don't all do Judy Garland impressions (although between me and you, I do a mean Nina Simone).

And while we are on the subject, Charlotte Pride lasted for several hours. I know that there were speeches and other entertainment besides the very talented drag queens. It's interesting that Brown focuses so much of his animus on them. 

Also to answer Brown's question, SC Black Pride had quite a few number of drag queens performing this year and they were all good.

Lastly that comment about young men greeting each other with exclamations of "Hey Girl" before kissing each other on the cheeks simply cannot be true. He forgot to mention that after we kiss each other on the cheek, we  finger snap in Z-formations.

Now those with common sense, after reading Brown's very vapid interpretation of the events at Charlotte Pride, would simply laugh themselves silly. Brown is obviously attempting - rather pitifully - to claim that the Charlotte Gay Pride event - and by extension - the lgbtq community- are somehow dangers to America and especially children.

He packs his piece with almost every anti-gay stereotype imaginable. Even his snark about HIV testing (which is a very good idea to have at any public event) was a backhanded way to infer about the supposed promiscuity of the gay community. I'm surprised he didn't try to push some nonsense about "recruitment." Or is he saving that for next year?

But Brown's piece has its defenders.

Recently, One News Now - in an effort to drum up more hits to the site - has allowed readers to post comments after articles which would then be filtered to Facebook. Some readers of Brown's piece have expressed shock over the supposed absolute chaos and calamity started by people dancing to folks imitating Katy Perry and gay men greeting their friends. Naturally their comments also question the lgbtq identity in general.

And then there are others, like myself, who are being, what I like to call, the ambassadors of common sense and asking "why is this even a big deal" or "If Brown doesn't like gay pride so much, then why did he go?"

It's a fun discussion. Read it or even better - give your opinions of Brown's piece. In a respectful manner of course.