The nonsensical controversy about Drag Queen Story Hour and kids has been created by a bunch of clout chasing, hateful, money-drooling wannabe influencers who rely on personal ignorance and prejudices to make names for themselves.
And these losers feed off of a larger bunch of losers who have false preconceived notions of drag queens and LGBTQ people in general. No matter how "tolerant" they claim to be, they choose to see our ENTIRE lives in the shadow of sexual intercourse. And thus everything about our culture has to do with sexual intercourse. In their eyes, that is.
Our desire to date, get married, be fairly treated at our places of employment, public areas, the techniques and the culture we've created to survive their decades of ignorance - all of that gets crushed, whittled down, and reduced to risque bits about sex, sex, sex.
That's neither our fault nor concern. It's their fault and if they were reasonable adults, they would handle their ignorance in a mature manner instead of throwing tantrums simply because LGBTQ people will not dissect our lives in accordance to their wishes and illusions of entitlement.
Other than innuendoes given to them, i.e. clipped videos and pictures taken out of context, I doubt they have actually been to or seen a Drag Queen Story Hour event. That is other than protesting outside with their signs, their guns, and dime store military paraphernalia, which are nothing more than sad attempts to fill the emptiness in their pathetic lives by pretending that they are doing something noble like "saving children."
The video above is what actually happens at a Drag Queen Story Hour event.
Shocking, isn't it? Or not.
Drag Queen Story Hour is a perfectly innocent event enjoyed by kids AND their parents. The controversy about Drag Queen Story Hour isn't coming from the drag queens or books they are reading. It's coming from the sad sacks attempting to profit monetarily and spiritually from disrupting the event.
Seems to me that if they found a more honest way to make money or actual fulfillment in their lives, they would stop bothering Drag Queen Story Hour.
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| Long-time opponent of LGBTQ community, Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler can only weep at the end of her speech while unsuccessfully attempting to keep The Respect for Marriage Act from passing the House. |
The House passed Respect for Marriage Act today and President Biden will sign it soon. But the moment folks are talking about is below:
Here’s Vicky Hartzler crying as she urges Members of Congress to oppose rights for gay and interracial couples.
— Equality PAC (@lgbtequalitypac) December 8, 2022
Tears of joy for discrimination.
This is the Republican Party in 2022. pic.twitter.com/PKbXy1ERh3
Anti-LGBTQ+ U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri started crying on the House floor Thursday as she begged her fellow representatives to vote against the Reflect for Marriage Act, which will write marriage equality into federal law. “I’ll tell you my priorities,” said Hartzler, a Republican. “Protect religious liberty. Protect people of faith. And protect Americans who believe in a true meaning of marriage. I hope and pray that my colleagues find the courage to join me in opposing this misguided and this dangerous bill.” She teared up toward the end of her remarks.
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| Kirk Cameron's latest attempt to market his 'Christian' brand is deceptive and highly cynical. |
Here we go again with far-right evangelical victimhood.
From RadarOnline:
'90s sitcom star Kirk Cameron claimed he was banned as a featured author at over 50 libraries across the public system, in addition to being prohibited from presenting his new faith-based children's book at a storytime event. Cameron was allegedly told his book's contents did not "align" with one library's values, RadarOnline.com has learned. The child actor-turned-writer/producer, along with his publisher, Brave Books, condemned the banning and claimed the refusal was a threat to "our kids" and "this country."
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| Florida State Rep Joe Harding |
Editor's note - The one thing I will NEVER stop loving about this blog is the support I receive. Many folks know what I am trying to accomplish here, so they support me with their readership, words of encouragement, ad sales, and tips such as the one below.
From The Associated Press:
The Florida lawmaker who sponsored the controversial law critics call “Don't Say Gay” has been indicted on charges of defrauding a federal coronavirus loan program for small businesses, officials said Wednesday. Federal prosecutors said Rep. Joe Harding, 35, illegally obtained or tried to obtain more than $150,000 from the Small Business Administration in pandemic aid loans. He is being charged with two counts of wire fraud, two counts of money laundering and two counts of making false statements.
The indictment, unsealed Wednesday night, alleges that between Dec. 1, 2020 and March 1, 2021 Harding used the dormant companies on applications for loans on the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications, including using false bank statements as supporting documentation. . . . Harding, 35, was formally indicted on Tuesday. He had a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, and was
Harding, a Republican, became nationally know this year over his sponsorship of a law that forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, as well as material that is not deemed age-appropriate.
A portion of the bill originally said that school officials must out LGBTQ students to their parents unless "a reasonably prudent person would believe that such a disclosure would lead to abuse, abandonment, or neglect . . ."
In a change suggested by the bill's sponsor, Rep Joe Harding, school officials would be required to out LGBTQ kids to their parents regardless of whether or not it would lead to abuse, abandonment, or neglect.
I amplified a video such as this before and I got a lot of positive comments. The LGBTQ community has a lot of ugliness thrown at us right now. People are organizing to undermine our rights and the safety of our kids by falsely calling us groomers. We got some idiotic group called the Proud Boys feeding their egos by disrupting our events. We got legislators and other government officials plotting to either erase us or undermine our healthcare.
But we also have truth on our side and as long as we stand up for truth in spite of all of the evil and lies thrown at us, we will not lose. That's what these folks in the video should remind us all about. To combat evil and lies, first you have to stand up to hate and combat it face to face. Never back down.
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| Russian President Vladimir Putin |
From CNN
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed into law a bill that expands a ban on so-called LGBTQ “propaganda” in Russia, making it illegal for anyone to promote same-sex relationships or suggest that non-heterosexual orientations are “normal.”The ban was rubber-stamped by Putin just days after a harsh new “foreign agents” law came into effect, as the Kremlin cracks down on free speech and human rights as its military operation in Ukraine falters. The new laws significantly broaden the scope of a 2013 law which banned the dissemination of LGBTQ-related information to minors. (Editor's note - italics added by me)The new iteration extends the ban on promoting such information to adults as well. The new laws make it illegal to promote or “praise” LGBTQ relationships, publicly express non-heterosexual orientations or suggest that they are “normal.” The package of amendments signed by Putin include heavier penalties for anyone promoting “non-traditional sexual relations and/or preferences,” as well as pedophilia and gender transition.Under the new law, it will be banned across the internet, media, books, audiovisual services, cinema, and advertising. As Russia struggles in Ukraine, repression mounts at home Under the new law, individuals can be fined up to 400,000 rubles ($6,370) for “LGBT propaganda” and up to 200,000 rubles ($3,185) for “demonstrations of LGBT and information that encourages a change of gender among teenagers.” These fines rise to up to 5 million rubles ($80,000) and 4 million rubles ($64,000) respectively for legal entities.
People need to recognize before things get worse.
From The Texas Tribune:
A Texas man was arrested Friday on a federal charge that he left a threatening voicemail message for one Boston doctor who provides care to the transgender community, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Massachusetts. The man, Matthew Jordan Lindner, 38, of the Hill Country town of Comfort, was charged with one count of transmitting interstate threats. Comfort is in Kendall County, about 50 miles northwest of San Antonio.Lindner, whose company Lindner Ammo was a federal firearms license in 2019, is accused of leaving a voicemail message on Aug. 31 threatening to kill the doctor who works at the Boston-based National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center. Following the phone call to the Boston doctor an FBI agent stated in an affidavit that Lindner called two other phone numbers assigned to a Rhode Island university where the doctor is a faculty member.The calls were made from his company’s number, according to AT&T phone records cited by federal investigators. Lindner was arrested Friday morning and made an initial appearance in the Western District of Texas. He is being held without bail . . .
NBC News previously reported that social media accounts such as LibsofTikTok have fanned the flames in recent weeks, making numerous claims including that Boston Children's Hospital is providing gender-affirming hysterectomies to children younger than 18. Conservative influencers have shared the allegations with their millions of followers without evidence. The medical facility has denied that it provides such care to children under 18 and multiple fact-checking organizations have debunked the claim.
Many have pointed that the Fox News Network mimics the language and narratives of white supremacists but without the label of "white supremacy." I think this video makes a very good case. It is from The Daily Show and compares things said by Fox News personalities to things said by infamous white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Fuentes has been in the news lately because of a recent dinner he had with Donald Trump.
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| Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council |
Tuesday's 61-36 victory in the Senate for the Respect for Marriage Act has gotten many conservative groups and leaders all out of sorts.
Good.
But leave it to Tony Perkins, president of SPLC-designated hate group the Family Research Council to win major awards for whining.
"Republicans clearly acknowledged by their support of the Lee, Lankford, and Rubio amendments that this legislation is a threat to the First Amendment freedoms of individual Americans. And yet 12 of 12 Republicans still chose to vote for the (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act. The (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act makes people prime targets for government harassment, investigation, prosecution, even civil action. This bill is a club, with which the Left will attempt to beat people of orthodox faith--who believe in marriage as God designed it and history has defined--into submission to their destructive sexuality ideology."My experience as a former chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has shown me that religious freedom's greatest threat is not a military force that eradicates or suppresses religious freedom, although that has certainly occurred. The greatest threat are policies like the so-called Respect for Marriage Act. They are what curtails the exercise of religious freedom-- which leads not to a violent overthrow of this fundamental freedom, but to its systematic suppression and eventual loss. In other words, the government has declared open season on anyone who believes in marriage as it's always been, the union of a man and woman.
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| Justin Wells, the gay man helping Tucker Carlson ramp up hatred against the LGBTQ community. |
As the Respect for Marriage Act makes it through the Senate, back to the House, and eventually on President Biden's desk to be signed into law, I want to address something which I have been thinking about for a long time.
Those who are followers of this blog probably think that I am going to be talking about the anti-LGBTQ industry and their tantrums about the Respect for Marriage Act.
Not this time.
Instead I want to remind folks what this is all about. Even as we attain the rights we are owed, there exist an argument within the LGBTQ community. Some in the community have accused others of attempting to copy heterosexuals, i.e. adjusting our lives to be just like that of heterosexuals. This mindset to some peoples includes dreams of a life as a Norman Rockwell painting with 2.5 kids, a nice home in the suburbs complete with a white picket fence, and other tokens of a stereotypical idea of the Leave It To Beaver television show. The only difference of course is it's Ward and Ward or June and June leading the family instead of Ward and June.
The folks against this image say that such aspirations are a slap in the face because they imply that LGBTQ people are okay so long as we act like heterosexuals. And this supposedly means a forgetting of our roots, when we were - and still are - the outcasts because of our inability to fit the supposed ideas of normalcy. What's the use of fighting for LGBTQ equality if you think that the goal is to act just like the heterosexuals?
And then there the accusation that the movers and the shakers of the LGBTQ community are wanting this Norman Rockwellian image so much that they sacrifice the push for equality in LGBTQ communities of color and particularly the transgender, bisexual, queer, and other communities which don't fall under the umbrella of "normal." The desire for marriage rights is in some ways seen as a cop-out or a desire to be like heterosexuals because internally there is some self-homophobia afoot.
Well I don't like getting into those discussions because often times, they result in ridiculous tangents in which people go so far in different directions that they end up being angry with each other over something said or the desire to get the last word in.
I'm a 51-year-old gay man. Over 25 years ago when I was coming to grips with my sexual orientation, what pained me to the point of so much misery was that other people, who didn't even care to know me, were making decisions about how my life would be. From the legislators like Jesse Helms or Sam Nunn trying to undermine my future through the legislative process , to preachers like Jerry Falwell telling all sorts of lies about me in the pulpit, to organizations like the Family Research Council pushing along bogus research papers and making speeches about my so-called radical agenda.
These folks never knew me but the things they said and did affected me in an extremely negative sense. Based upon their beliefs and false ideas of entitlement, they told this young gay man - me - that I have no rights to a future decided my wishes and desires. They were telling me that I don't get to pick my path. They, on the other hand, get to tell who I am, who I can love, how I can love, and what my future will be as decided by their parameters. I had no say on anything. Instead, they got to determine my future. They had the first, middle, and last about my life. And if I didn't like it, then too bad.
You see, that's what it's all about to me, whether it be the fight for marriage rights or any other rights in the LGBTQ community. It's not about wanting to be just like heterosexuals or forgetting where you came from. It's about the ability to make our own choices. I feel this way - if you are an LGBTQ person who wants that Norman Rockwellian dream, then you have a right to have it. If you are an LGBTQ person who wants something else, then you have that right to make choices.
You have that right to determine which direction your life will go, not some conservative legislator, preacher, or anyone else wanting to reduce your choices. They don't have that right. It doesn't belong to them. And no laws, ordinances, or religious books gives them that right either.
That's what the Respect for Marriage Act, marriage equality in general or any other LGBTQ right is to me - the power of self-determination.. Your power to make choices unencumbered by someone else's prejudice, religious beliefs, or ignorance. Marriage is not the only right LGBTQ people should have. It's one of many. And instead of arguing about it, we should get busy in yanking more rights out of the hands of those who falsely think they should have to power to dole them out to us.
Jamie Michell, founder of 'Gays Against Groomers' has a documented history of promoting white supremacist ideas and personalities.
Editor's note - This revelation took place the day before Thanksgiving, which may explain how it went under the radar. But now that Thanksgiving has passed, I am hoping that it will receive more attention.
We all know about the hateful group Gays Against Groomers and how it is an outlet to funnel terrible lies against the LGBTQ community. But here is something you may not know. According to The Wrap, an online publication covering the media and entertainment, the founder of Gays Against Groomers, Jamie Michell, has a history of promoting white ideas and personalities.
This revelation came as part of a larger story of how Michell appeared on Tucker Carlson's show to discuss the recent shooting at Club Q in Colorado which took five lives and left 25 others injured. Michell - with no pushback from Carlson - blamed the victims of the crime for what happened.
"It shouldn’t have to be said, but what is anti-LBGTQ that these people need to understand, and what is putting our community in great danger, it, you know, claiming that all of us support this and just associating all of us with this. You know, saying that ‘groomer’ is an anti-LGBTQ slur,” Michell said. “That is doing irreparable damage to us as a whole, and it’s putting a really large target on our backs. And unfortunately, the tragedy that happened in Colorado Springs the other night, you know, it was expected, predictable. We all within Gays Against Groomers saw this coming from a mile away, and sadly I don’t think it’s gonna stop until we end this evil agenda.”
Michell identifies as Jewish and denies any affiliation with Nazism. But she has a long, documented history of association with white supremacist ideas. She is known to follow several openly white supremacists on Twitter, she has promoted the work of white supremacist Vincent James Foxx and she has openly called for political violence, among other things.Old accounts owned by Michell on YouTube and Flickr contained explicit Nazi imagery, something Michell blames, variously, either on an ex-boyfriend or on being hacked, though she has never actually identified who her ex was. Read more about all that here.
Those people attempting to ban books and erase LGBTQ people in public schools tend to get too much attention. So much so that the people who take a stand against such hatred are ignored. We rarely see them in the media or hear the words they say to school boards because I guess it's more lucrative to give the haters the lion's share of attention.
But those taking a stand against banning books and erasing LGBTQ people in public schools are very vocal and very eloquent. They may not have right-wing money fueling them, but the truth of their words will always win in the end.
Editor's note - I've always believed that knowledge is power, no matter how distasteful it is. That's why I am posting this.
One would think that after the recent shooting at Club Q, certain personalities would engage in some sincere introspection about the many ways they have smeared LGBTQ people with false claims that we are "grooming," "sexualizing," and "mutilating" kids.
Think again.
Apparently to these folks, sincere introspection is for losers and doubling down on the lies you tell is the way to go.
Kurt Schlitcher is a writer at the conservative site Townhall (whose political editor is an openly gay conservative by the name of Guy Benson). Schlitcher has over 454,000 Twitter followers:
Tim Pool is a podcaster with 1.4 million Twitter followers and 1.3 million Youtube subscribers.
Pool is referring to an all ages drag show which would have taken place the next day. Calling it a 'grooming' event is a straight-up lie. Pool is yet another conservative who has weaponized the word "grooming" in order to stigmatize LGBTQ people and minimize our culture into one solely about sexual intercourse. It's an updated version of the Anita Bryant claim from the 70s that "gays have to recruit kids to replenish their ranks."
Steve Crowder is an Apple podcaster with over 1.9 million Twitter followers and 5.88 million Youtube subscribers.
You can probably tell by looking at Crowder that in spite of his talk about being "armed," if someone handed him a gun, he'd "make lemonade and fudge" in his pants.
Let's be clear about a few things:
Drag shows are not inherently sexual.
Many drag shows are rather tame.
Children are not being sexually groomed by drag queens or Drag Queen Story Hour events.
Healthcare for trans kids is not mutilation.
And most importantly:
People aren't reacting violently because these things are happening. They are reacting violently because they are being led to believe these things are happening by Pool, Schlitcher and Crowder. And I genuinely don't think that Pool, Schlitcher and Crowder actually believe what they are spewing.
This is what the LGBTQ community - particularly the transgender community - have been trying to tell the so-called mainstream all along. We aren't dealing with people who have simple difference of opinion or a "sincerely held religious beliefs." We're dealing with posers, clout chasers, and people who simply don't give a damn about who gets hurt by their lies. Just as long as they get what they want.
Five people are dead and 25 others are wounded. And while the shooter's motives is not yet known, the manner in which these three bozos closed ranks, actually justifying the shooting, says a lot.
From Media Matters:
At least five people are dead and 25 are injured after a shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Club Q had planned to host an “all ages drag brunch” on the morning after the shooting to celebrate Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual day of mourning for trans people whose lives were lost to violence. Right-wing media have focused obsessively on drag shows in recent months, falsely portraying them as a threat not just to children, but to civilization as a whole.
Club Q has asked that people interested in donating to victims and the local community do so through a contribution to the Colorado Healing Fund, available at this link.
Some people simply don't when to shut up:
Colorado lawmaker demands Lauren Boebert 'stop' demonizing LBGTQ+ communityEditor's note - I know some of you would ask why am I "elevating" such vermin? I agonized about this post but I simply have to say something. Being quiet like this is like sour milk in my stomach.
What you are reading is how some right-wing gay folks are exploiting the Club Q shooting in order to denigrate the entire community.
Let's first talk about their gaslighting game. It's comprised of pointing fingers at people in our community, blaming them for bigoted rhetoric and hateful actions aimed at us:
"If only those gay people acted normal, heterosexuals would accept us instead of trying to harm us."
"Those transgender people are attaching themselves the gay community and are dragging the rest of us down."
Folks, I was a believer of that junk a long time ago. That is until I got older and wiser. I came to the realization that no matter what you do to please bigots and homophobes, they won't ever accept you. They scapegoat LGBTQ people because of their own ignorance and hate. Not because of anything we do or say.
All of that should go without saying, but here is a sad truth about this particular situation. These two tweets don't come from a place of basic ignorance and ill information. They come from a place of cynical manipulation in which people are capitalizing on the Club Q tragedy to gain attention and money for their brand.
"Gays Against Groomers" is a group capitalizing on the lie that LGBTQ people are "grooming" or "sexualizing" children. And being a group supposedly comprised of LGBTQ people themselves, it leverages credibility in far-right circles, while also asking for "donations" and spewing all sorts of lies, such as comparing gender affirming healthcare to Nazi experiments.
And the young man sending out the other tweet, David Leatherwood, is supposedly a "board member" of 'Gays Against Groomers' and a members other far-right LGBTQ groups (OutSpoken USA) whose sole aim is bending over backwards to either pretend that right-wing bigotry against the LGBTQ community doesn't exist or blaming LGBTQ people themselves for the bigotry.
The irony is that Leatherwood also claims to be a member of Turning Point USA, a group infamous for embracing all sorts of bigotry from racism to homophobia.
Earlier this year, according to Media Matters:
The host of Turning Point USA’s daily show Frontlines, Drew Hernandez, has spent the first half of June targeting the LGBTQ community and Pride Month, referring to it as “groomer month” and calling LGBTQ people “mentally ill.” Publishing videos to TPUSA’s half a million-plus YouTube subscribers, Hernandez has called for parents who bring their children to Pride events to be arrested.
In addition, the founder and executive director of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk has attacked the LGBTQ community with hysteria-driven claims including:
Gays want to corrupt children,
Trans people are to blame for inflation,
and the "trans movement" is trying to turn people into machines.
People like Leatherwood and Gays Against Groomers attempt to portray themselves as "normal" LGBTQ people outraged by the supposed excesses of the LGBTQ left-wing. But by the company they keep and the levels they stoop, it's apparent that their idea of 'normalcy" is stomping on other LGBTQ people for the almighty dollar and a little bit of clout.
And unfortunately, there are others out there with same goals in mind.
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| While the motive for the recent shooting at Club Q is not known, Colorado Times Recorder writer Heidi Beedle posted a Twitter roll of articles showing how the demonization of LGBTQ people as "child groomers" could have easily played a role in getting us to this point of tragedy. |
We had an AWFUL day today.
I won't go into details because I think you already know about the shooting at the gay bar Club Q in Colorado which left 5 people dead and 25 injured. Some fool came in shooting and caused havoc before he was brought down by patrons who risked their lives to end his madness
And while the motive behind this creature's shooting spree isn't officially known, it doesn't take a palm reader to know that all of the sh!t we've had to deal with from Matt Walsh, Libs of Tik Tok, Christopher Rufo most likely got us to this point.
All of the lies, all demonizing and smearing us as child molesters who are trying to mutilate children seems to have done its work. From idiots screeching about 'grooming' at school board meetings, from wannabe influencers posting taken out of context footage of kids and drag queens, to fools lying about healthcare for trans kids and issuing bomb threats to children's hospitals, to idiotic Proud Boys screaming threats at our events, it all comes down to the same thing.
As the days go by, we will no doubt talk about this even more. But here is a portion I hope you don't forget. It wasn't all about national faces and voices like Walsh or Libs of Tik Tok. There were more involved.
Heidi Beedle, a writer at the Colorado Times Recorder took it upon herself to create a Twitter thread of articles, when put together, could have predicted the shooting which went on at Club Q. It's scary when you take into account the motivations and actions of those whose deliberate smears of LGBTQ people possibly led to this.
Salam, here is your unroll: https://t.co/ghr3QBZJ0E See you soon. 🤖
— Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) November 20, 2022
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| Conservative Republicans and the religious right are claiming that the Respect for Marriage Act will cause Christians to be persecuted in America. However, they have a bad track record when it comes to predicting how pro-LGBTQ legislation will harm Christians, such as when they falsely claimed that hate crimes legislation would cause pastors to get arrested in pulpits for preaching against homosexuality. Hate crimes legislation was passed and that claim didn't come true. |
Wednesday's crucial vote of the Respect for Marriage Act has made conservatives, Republicans, and the religious right all lose their collective minds. According to Peter Montgomery of People for the American Way, they have been lobbing all sorts of hysterical claims about the act. But if you ask me, their hearts don't seem to be in the effort.
In spite of the historic support for the Respect for Marriage Act from the Mormon Church, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah dismissed the bill’s religious liberty provisions, telling the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins that the legislation would lead to “the destruction of religious liberty in America.”Sean Feucht, the missionary musician turned right-wing political activist, warned the church to “Prepare For Persecution!” and claimed that passage of the bill would signal “an attack on the church.”Liberty Counsel, a religious-right legal group that branched out into anti-vaccine conspiracy mongering during the COVID-19 pandemic, may take the cake for most desperate-to-get-clicks claim that “This Depraved Law Would Allow Pedophiles to Marry Children.” That claim was given a boost by the Pentecostal-oriented media outlet Charisma.Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center warned that the legislation “disrespects the religious liberties of millions of Americans who may face judicial assault if they refuse to oblige the left’s tyrannical narratives.” The Freedom Center’s Ryan Helfenbein retweeted its claim, adding his own warning that “We are opening the door for massive religious persecution on a scale never seen before in America.”Concerned Women for America called it an “attack” on people “who affirm Biblical morality when it comes to marriage and sexuality.”Pundit Todd Starnes denounced the Republican senators who “just declared war on the church” by voting to allow the bill to move forward, and he claimed that the bill would “put a target on every Christian church in America.”Under the utterly false headline, “Mitt Romney pushes Polygamy on all 50 states, ”religious-right activist and former Colorado state legislator Gordon Klingenschmitt claimed that the bill would “legalize Polygamy, child-marriage, and Gay ‘Marriage’ in all 50 states.”
Consider, for example, the frenzied opposition to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which passed Congress in 2009 and was signed into law by President Barack Obama. The legislation strengthened an existing federal hate crimes law by including crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.If the apocalyptic warnings from far-right religious and political leaders during debate on the bill had any grounding in truth, the years since then would have brought about the criminalization of Christianity, prisons filled with pastors who preached against homosexuality, and conservative Christians piled into boxcars and sent to concentration camps. Influential Christian nationalist “historian” and serial liar David Barton told a California church that sponsors of the hate crimes law—which explicitly targets violent crimes—wanted to make it a federal crime for preachers to read Bible verses denouncing homosexuality. Religious-right leaders and far-right members of Congress falsely claimed, without the slightest evidence, that the law would create legal protections for bestiality and pedophilia.More than a decade later, of course, none of that has happened. No preachers were dragged from their pulpits. Far-right Christian leaders are still quite free to rage against legal equality for LGBTQ people, and political operatives are free to run political campaigns that smear us with dishonest propaganda. Freedom has survived, and the campaign against the federal hate crimes law has been exposed as a lie.
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| Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council love portraying themselves as victims of persecution. |
By now you've heard that the United States Senate advanced the Respect for Marriage Act, hopefully assuring its passage. The Act is supposed to give married gay couples a bit more protection should the Supreme Court try to overturn the Obergefell decision, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2015.
I'm sure there will be a lot of discussion on whether or not this bill adequately protects same-sex couples should it become law. But I want to focus on the negative response lodged by Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council. Maybe I'm being petty here. FRC and Perkins are still in shock about last week's midterms in which Democrats managed to keep the Senate. They are definitely caught off guard by the Respect for Marriage Act.
But not too off guard not to play the victim. Perkins posted a hysterically nonsensical piece claiming that this Act would mean the persecution of Christians. Ironically, he cited examples of alleged persecution from foreign countries. But he still managed to play the drama queen rather well with passages like such:
“We’ve all heard of people being cancelled, thrown off social media, even fired from jobs … But how many years before a Christian minister [who speaks] on marriage and sexual orientation is reported [to] a government anti-terrorism program?” For Reverend Dr. Bernard Randall, that time has already come. The chaplain of a Church of England School was suspended, fired for gross misconduct, and reported to child protective services simply for restating what the Church of England believes. If his story sounds like a distant outlier, it’s not. Randall’s nightmare will be every Christian’s nightmare if our Senate passes the Respect for Marriage Act.
“I was doing my job as per the job description,” Randall told a roomful of religious liberty advocates this July. Yet for being a Christian in a Christian school, he was painted “as a potential violent extremist [who] might draw others into violent extremism.” This, despite the U.K. Human Rights Act that declares, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion” (Article 9, 1998). How long is it going to take for this to happen in the United States, he asked? “Is it under Biden? Is it under a second term of Biden-Harris?”
If congressional Democrats get their way, it happens now.
Oh please. To paraphrase the words of Thelma Ritter from All About Eve:
"What a story. Everything but the hounds snapping at his rear end."
Folks like Perkins are always claiming that there will be negative repercussions if LGBTQ people get any type of support. It's always something with them
In the 70s, they claimed that if gays got rights, they would "sexually recruit" kids.
In the 80s, it was all about fear tactics undermining the fight against AIDS and HIV.
Then there was "gays want special rights" claim
After that came "we have to protect marriage from gays."
And of course there was "giving LGBTQ people rights will put the rights of Christians in danger. We need to protect religious liberty."
Now it's "we have to protect women and girls in locker rooms, bathrooms, and in sports competitions from trans women and girls who are actually predators with an unfair advantage in sports."
And in the midst of this latest argument, they've reverted back to the "we have to protect children from them" lie by combining hysterias to create a type of "Anita Bryant on steroids" narrative that LGBTQ people want to sexually groom kids in schools and then subject them to dangerous "surgeries" in an attempt to change their gender.
People like Perkins have dragged the LGBTQ community through all of these lies because of one thing. They have a religious belief that being an LGBTQ is a sin. The only reason why they've manufactured all of these bogus reasons against LGBTQ people throughout the decades is because they cannot admit to themselves that they have no right to force the rest of us to conform to their religious beliefs
It's perfectly fine for them to believe that LGBTQ people are living in sin. The problem lies with how they attempt to assert this belief in the creation of public policy. Laws in this country should never be made based upon the belief that certain people are living in sin and therefore deserve no legal protections. That's why they've manufactured other "reasons" why LGBTQ rights should be undermined.
In reality Perkins seems to think that not making people live their lives in accordance to his religious beliefs is persecution.
If Perkins wants to know what persecution actually is, he should have a talk with the families of trans kids who had to flee Texas when its governor declared war on them for simply being supportive and affirming of their kids.
Or the teachers who were fired because demagogues used the power of social media to falsely claim that they are "sexually grooming" children.
Or various children's hospitals across America having to deal with bomb threats because the same demagogues are trying to undermine trans kids receiving basic healthcare.
Or trans kids in various states having to defend their right to receive healthcare in the face of idiots spreading lies and lawmakers believing the lies instead of doing their damn jobs to protect these kids.
That is persecution.
What Perkins is actually mourning is the death of his privilege. And he really should get over it because the privilege shouldn't have been his to begin with.
