NOM-affiliated pastor calls gay families 'discombobulated Frankenstein structures'

I don't think Jeremy Hooper will mind if I steal this one from him. I want to get this clip out to as much people as possible because it underlines a basic hypocrisy about the National Organization for Marriage and their supporters.

They seem to always whine about being unfairly labeled as "bigots" because they believe that marriage should solely be between a man and a woman. This is a lie and NOM bought-and-paid for pastor, Bishop Harry  Jackson proves this point with what can only be called an unprovoked, nasty attack on same-sex families. This is totally uncalled for and the only reason why Jackson and NOM gets away with stuff like this is because NO ONE presses the issue. Not the mainstream media or OUR media.

 We've got to stop letting them get away with this mess. People like Jackson and the folks I talked about in the post this morning are attacking our families and we should be pointing attention to that simple fact every chance we get. They don't want to simply "preserve" the supposed traditional definition of marriage. They are unfairly attacking same-sex families who have never done them any harm.

When is someone is going to ask folks like Jackson and company questions like - "If you don't want to seem bigots, then why are you attacking same-sex families?

'Supreme Court Justice Scalia would criminalize being gay' and other Monday midday news briefs

Thought police: One Million Moms blasts a yet-to-be-filmed concept - Whatever happened to waiting for something to air before attacking it. This Jennifer Lopez project doesn't even have an IMDB page yet. Geez! 

 No, Justice Scalia, Overruling Roe, Criminalizing Sex and Killing Inmates Are Not ‘Absolutely Easy’ Cases - Sorry but Scalia is a bigoted moron. He refers to gay lives as "homosexual sodomy." One would have to ask what does he think of "heterosexual sodomy."

“Ex-Gay” Plaintiff Spoke At NOM’s Student Conference - Surprise! Surprise! One of the plantiffs in the case against California's ban on "ex-gay" therapy is affiliated with NOM.

 LGBT History Month Icon Of The Day: Manvendra Singh Gohil - This man deserves accolades because he has guts! It must be heck to be India's first openly gay crown prince. 

NOM compares potential gay parents to rapists, sexual predators

Pay attention, gay folks. There is seems to be a quiet war going on against our rights to be surrogate parents.

Via the NOM blog, I found this highly offensive piece, The New Sexual Predators. In it, the author, Alana S. Newman compares gay couples and older woman to human traffickers out to steal the eggs of younger women.

Every portion of this piece is gag-worthy drivel:

Young women now have to defend themselves not only from stereotypical sexual predators, but also from older women and gay men who seek their eggs.

 . . . there are new predators on the scene, for whom we do not have a script. There are new characters eager to exploit our daughters’ bodies, who enjoy unsullied reputations, passing detection even as they blatantly hunt for eggs and wombs with checkbooks in hand. And historically they have been the people women should fear the least. These new players vying for access to young women’s bodies are older or infertile women, and gay men—quite often our friends and members of our family.

 . . . Our gay friends and family members may now also be after our daughters’ bodies. These are the only men in the world we thought we could trust because they weren’t interested in our bodies. That is, until they grew older and discovered they wanted to be parents. Today, more and more often, gay men are using egg donors and surrogates to create motherless children on purpose. Toleration of these attempts to create families follows a timeline of slipped slopes and fallen barriers. If heterosexual couples can use sperm donors to create children who are separated from their biological fathers, so the logic goes, then lesbians should be able to do the same thing. To them, it’s not biology that matters—kids just need two parents. And if lesbians use sperm donors to create fatherless children, then it’s only equal and fair for gay men to be able to use egg donors and surrogates to create motherless children too. Because again, it’s not biology that matters; kids just need two parents. At present, all those who believe in gender equality rather than gender complementarity are being urged to accept this often violent (against women) form of third-party reproduction. 

It's not just the the piece itself which we should be paying attention to but also who is promoting it. Yet again, the National Organization for Marriage undercuts its false claim of simply attempting to protect marriage and having "intelligent and decent" discussion on marriage. By promoting this piece on its blog,  it is now even more apparent that NOM has declared war on same-sex families.

Secondly, and most importantly, Newman's piece was published by the Witherspoon Institute. That is the organization which approached Texas researcher Mark Regnerus to create a study claiming that same-sex families are inferior to two-parent heterosexual families. The organization gave him a $695,000 "grant" to complete said study, which since then has been embroiled in a huge scandal in regards to a multitude of errors. In fact, over 200 professors and researchers signed a letter condemning it.

If we do not recognize what seems to be a consistent effort by NOM and the Witherspoon Institute to undercut our right to be parents, we may find those rights diminished, or worse, extinguished.

If you are an African-American who refuses to vote in November, read this

In the past months, there have been some" filthy entities" (for lack of a better word which would not be  as vulgar) hired by other forces designed to play the black and gay community against one another.

 These "entities" have been spreading a message that due to Obama's support of marriage equality, African-Americans should withhold our votes from him in November. Bear in mind, they did not say vote for the other guy (Romney), but withhold our votes. In other words, don't vote at all.

Before you take the words of these "entities" to heart, please view at least one of the following videos:

Bloody Sunday - Between 1961 and 1964, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had led a voting registration campaign in Selma, the seat of Dallas County, Alabama, a small town with a record of consistent resistance to black voting.

When SNCC’s efforts were frustrated by stiff resistance from the county law enforcement officials, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) were persuaded by local activists to make Selma’s intransigence to black voting a national concern. SCLC also hoped to use the momentum of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to win federal protection for a voting rights statute. During January and February, 1965, King and SCLC led a series of demonstrations to the Dallas County courthouse. On February 17, protester Jimmy Lee Jackson was fatally shot by an Alabama state trooper.

In response, a protest march from Selma to Montgomery was scheduled for March 7. Six hundred marchers assembled in Selma on Sunday, March 7, and, led by SNCC and SCLC, crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River en route to Montgomery. Just short of the bridge, they found their way blocked by Alabama State troopers and local police who ordered them to turn around. When the protesters refused, the officers shot teargas and waded into the crowd, beating the nonviolent protesters with billy clubs and ultimately hospitalizing over fifty people.

Legendary Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer rocked the 1964 Democractic National Convention with the story of the brutal beating and sexual assault she and others endured for merely seeking the right to vote. The beating left her with physical problems which plagued her until the end of her life.

Transcript:

Mr. Chairman, and to the Credentials Committee, my name is Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, and I live at 626 East Lafayette Street, Ruleville, Mississippi, Sunflower County, the home of Senator James O. Eastland, and Senator Stennis. It was the 31st of August in 1962 that eighteen of us traveled twenty-six miles to the county courthouse in Indianola to try to register to become first-class citizens. We was met in Indianola by policemen, Highway Patrolmen, and they only allowed two of us in to take the literacy test at the time. After we had taken this test and started back to Ruleville, we was held up by the City Police and the State Highway Patrolmen and carried back to Indianola where the bus driver was charged that day with driving a bus the wrong color.

After we paid the fine among us, we continued on to Ruleville, and Reverend Jeff Sunny carried me four miles in the rural area where I had worked as a timekeeper and sharecropper for eighteen years. I was met there by my children, who told me the plantation owner was angry because I had gone down -- tried to register. After they told me, my husband came, and said the plantation owner was raising Cain because I had tried to register. And before he quit talking the plantation owner came and said, "Fannie Lou, do you know -- did Pap tell you what I said?" And I said, "Yes, sir." He said, "Well I mean that." Said, "If you don't go down and withdraw your registration, you will have to leave." Said, "Then if you go down and withdraw," said, "you still might have to go because we're not ready for that in Mississippi." And I addressed him and told him and said, "I didn't try to register for you. I tried to register for myself." I had to leave that same night. On the 10th of September 1962, sixteen bullets was fired into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Tucker for me. That same night two girls were shot in Ruleville, Mississippi. Also, Mr. Joe McDonald's house was shot in. And June the 9th, 1963, I had attended a voter registration workshop; was returning back to Mississippi. Ten of us was traveling by the Continental Trailway bus.

When we got to Winona, Mississippi, which is Montgomery County, four of the people got off to use the washroom, and two of the people -- to use the restaurant -- two of the people wanted to use the washroom. The four people that had gone in to use the restaurant was ordered out. During this time I was on the bus. But when I looked through the window and saw they had rushed out I got off of the bus to see what had happened. And one of the ladies said, "It was a State Highway Patrolman and a Chief of Police ordered us out." I got back on the bus and one of the persons had used the washroom got back on the bus, too. As soon as I was seated on the bus, I saw when they began to get the five people in a highway patrolman's car. I stepped off of the bus to see what was happening and somebody screamed from the car that the five workers was in and said, "Get that one there." And when I went to get in the car, when the man told me I was under arrest, he kicked me. I was carried to the county jail and put in the booking room. They left some of the people in the booking room and began to place us in cells. I was placed in a cell with a young woman called Miss Ivesta Simpson. After I was placed in the cell I began to hear sounds of licks and screams. I could hear the sounds of licks and horrible screams. And I could hear somebody say, "Can you say, 'yes, sir,' nigger? Can you say 'yes, sir'?" And they would say other horrible names. She would say, "Yes, I can say 'yes, sir.'" "So, well, say it." She said, "I don't know you well enough." They beat her, I don't know how long. And after a while she began to pray, and asked God to have mercy on those people. And it wasn't too long before three white men came to my cell.

One of these men was a State Highway Patrolman and he asked me where I was from. And I told him Ruleville. He said, "We are going to check this." And they left my cell and it wasn't too long before they came back. He said, "You are from Ruleville all right," and he used a curse word. And he said, "We're going to make you wish you was dead." I was carried out of that cell into another cell where they had two Negro prisoners. The State Highway Patrolmen ordered the first Negro to take the blackjack. The first Negro prisoner ordered me, by orders from the State Highway Patrolman, for me to lay down on a bunk bed on my face. And I laid on my face, the first Negro began to beat me.

And I was beat by the first Negro until he was exhausted. I was holding my hands behind me at that time on my left side, because I suffered from polio when I was six years old. After the first Negro had beat until he was exhausted, the State Highway Patrolman ordered the second Negro to take the blackjack. The second Negro began to beat and I began to work my feet, and the State Highway Patrolman ordered the first Negro who had beat to sit on my feet -- to keep me from working my feet. I began to scream and one white man got up and began to beat me in my head and tell me to hush.

One white man -- my dress had worked up high -- he walked over and pulled my dress -- I pulled my dress down and he pulled my dress back up. I was in jail when Medgar Evers was murdered. All of this is on account of we want to register, to become first-class citizens. And if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America? Thank you. 

The bottom line is this - vote for who you want to vote for, but please vote. These "entitites" who claim that African-Americans should withhold our votes because of the President's support of marriage equality do a larger disservice to the community. By using such a petty reason in order to persuade African-Americans to not vote, these "entities" who are supposed to be our brothers and sisters have thrown their lot with the vicious mindset which in the past used violence to keep us from voting and now in the present are using Voter ID nonsense and other bastardizations of the law to keep us from the ballot box.

And before you vote, ask yourself just who is doing the black community a disservice - gays who simply want their idea of equality or people who are telling you to spit on the spirits of Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers, and a host of others by not taking advantage of what their sweat, toil, and blood gave you.

Don't be persuaded by fools with platitudes of sincerity on their faces while they have thick wads of dirty cash in their back pockets. It's not the gays who are trying to use African-Americans. It's these people. Recognize your true enemies and vote.

Know Your LGBT History - Coming Out

Today, I'm not focusing on a historical figure but a process in which every lgbt has gone through - Coming out.

Via these movie clips - some delightful and others hard to watch - we see a multitude of reactions to this difficult but eventually rewarding process:



 Past Know Your LGBT History posts:

'Paul Ryans promises to fight against gay equality' and other Friday midday news briefs

Paul Ryan promises Focus on the Family that he will fight gay equality - Reason one million and one to not vote him and Mitt Romney into office. But hey! GoProud loves them!  

NOM Geography #FAIL - Good grief! If you are going to bash us verbally, at least get your geography right. You know that we will make fun if you don't.  

Second Ex-Gay Lawsuit Claims Some Parents Can’t Love And Affirm A Gay Child - Is that the fault of child or the parents, dumbasses? 

 Tea Party Congressman Announces Support For Bill That Makes It Illegal To Fire Someone For Being Gay - I'm as shocked as you are. 

NC diaper pastor too bigoted to vote for any presidential candidate

The North Carolina diaper pastor, Patrick Wooden recently appeared on a radio show where he had some pointed things to say about the presidential election. This is what he said about President Obama:

My position is African Americans are people also, we want the same things that all other Americans want, we are a part of this country, we have built this country, so we should be counted also and considered. Our families, our homes have been decimated, and with the things that have happened in our community, do we need to add to it a President where little black boys and little black girls are hearing this great man in the most powerful position in the land say ‘I believe same-sex marriage is the direction that the country ought to go in.’ Then that same little black boy or little black girl looks to the heroes in the black community at the local level which are the preachers and the community leaders and the NAACP leaders and then they see the leaders line up and follow this man. What kind of message are we sending our children? And we’re the most vulnerable.

Wooden asks what kind of message is Obama sending little black boys and black girls? I can answer that question. President Obama is saying that people should be treated equal regardless of sexual orientation.

I happen to love that message. For one thing, it's much better than Wooden's past statements accusing gay men of having so much sex that they wear diapers and butt plugs or that they shove cellphones and baseballs bats up their rears.

But his interview gets even more interesting when he talks about Romney:

The same God of the Bible who will not allow me to vote for the most pro-abortion, same-sex marriage president that we’ve ever had will not allow me to vote for a bishop in a cult. 

So basically Wooden is too bigoted to vote for anyone.

I don't know but maybe we should be happy about that.

Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.

'Boxer Orlando Cruz comes out of the closet' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Orlando Cruz Comes Out: Boxer Says He Is 'A Proud Gay Man' - And Cruz is a successful boxer, unlike a sad religious right talking head (Matt Barber): 

 

For my Christmas present, I want to be present when and if someone tries to gay bash HIM.

In other news:

FRC links DADT repeal to military's 'slipping sexual standards' - Yet another example of the Family Research Council scapegoating the gay community.  

WaPo’s Garrison Covers California’s “Pray Away the Gay” Ban - According to a Washington Post columnist, the folks pushing against California's ban of "ex-gay" therapy have no case. Duh.  

Rob Anders' Transgender Washroom Visits Petition Sparks Twitter Outrage - What the hell? Another bathroom meme against the transgender community! 

Hate group doesn't have the guts to sue Dan Savage

Dan Savage

It seems that Dan Savage has started a war with Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council.

Recently, Savage said the following:

"every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council" and that "Tony Perkins sits on a pile of dead gay kids every day when he goes to work"

 While I wouldn't have made the point so gruesomely, Savage is somewhat right.

FRC and Perkins have contributed - whether intentional or not - to the problem of depression and other negative behaviors amongst gay youth (lgbts in general) with their pointed attempts to undermine pro-gay information and visibility. Then they exploit these problems of negative behaviors by claiming that they are indicative of being gay rather than the results of homophobia. Homophobia, by the way, which is shielded by their efforts under the guise of religion.

Needless to say, Perkins was not happy. On the Mike Huckabee show, he said the following:

As my teenagers would say, he has some issues. He is a man with some real deep-seated issues ... and Dan Savage is nowhere near, he's a hundred and eighty degrees from the positions that we have taken. It's wrong and I will tell you this, we are pursuing everything possible to deal with him because he is out of control.... This is the bottom line, Mike: is that if you don't embrace and celebrate homosexuality and everything associated with it, then you are intolerant. And the truth of the matter is, let's just be very, very truthful, and that's what we deal in is the truth, that even is society embraced homosexuality, there would never be that sense of self-fulfillment because it's outside the way God created man and woman. And that's the bottom line. They cannot erase that, even if they get every law on the books changed, it will never change that. 

And there lies Perkins' dodge. It's not about "celebrating homosexuality," it's about not lying and spreading propaganda.

The fact of the matter is that if you do lie on gays (which FRC has done on many occasions) and you do spread hateful propaganda about gays (which FRC has also done), you are in fact intolerant.

No matter how many times you cling to God's name, you can't get away from that simple fact.

Savage was quick to address that point (using one of my posts, by the way):

I have issues with people who would deny me and other LGBT people our full civil equality for no legitimate reason. I have particular issues with high-profile haters who encourage parents to reject their LGBT kids, doubling their already quadrupled risk for suicide. I have issues with people who say that LGBT people are "pawns of the devil." I have issues with people who compare LGBT people to terrorists. I have issues with people who falsely link homosexuality and pedophilia. I have issues with people who suggest that a law calling for the execution of gay people merely "upholds moral conduct."

Sue me, Tony. I'd love to see you talk about my "issues" on a witness stand.

I realize that this isn't how you think the world is supposed to work, Tony. You believe—and you're old enough to remember a time when—people like you were free to say vile and disgusting things about people like me without anyone objecting. Certainly people like me weren't allowed to call people like you out. You still believe you should be free to lie about me and other LGBT people with absolutely impunity—we're all pedophiles and terrorists and Satanists—and that we should have to shut up and take it because... well, I'm not sure why you think we're not allowed to respond when you lie about us. Maybe that's something we could get to the bottom of during the depositions.

Personally, I think Perkins is just bluster. He wouldn't dare take on Savage in a court of law.

But still, I can always hope.

Expedia video of father going to his daughter's same-sex wedding is a tearjerker

This video will make you cry. It cuts through all of the nonsense thrown at our relationships and families by the religious right:

Expedia is doubling down on its proclaimed support of same-sex marriage with a poignant wedding-themed video.

Titled "Find Your Understanding," the clip -- which was produced as part of the online travel company's ongoing "Find Yours" campaign -- tells the story of Artie Goldstein, a retired business owner who admits to feeling apprehensive before attending his daughter Jill's same-sex wedding in California.

 "My expectations of what Jill's life was going to be included a husband," Goldstein recalls. "So when Nikki came to ask permission to marry our little girl, that startled me. I told her, 'This is not the dream I had for my daughter.' I didn't say yes, I didn't say no."

Stunning footage of Jill and Nikki's nuptials accompany Goldstein's emotional narration. "You come to terms with it...it's supposed to be this way," Goldstein observes. In an email statement to HuffPost Gay Voices, the blushing brides said they were "truly humbled" by Expedia's decision to feature their story as part of the campaign.

 "Our hope is that all families can experience this type of closeness and support, regardless of sexuality," Nikki and Jill Weiss-Goldstein said. "We are extremely proud of our father and his personal journey that has led him to his understanding."

'Discredited author - Obama murdered his gay lovers' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Jerome Corsi Continues his 'Obama is Gay' Crusade - According to discredited author Jerome Corsi, President Obama had gay lovers whom he had murdered. Lord Hammercy! And the worse part about this? Corsi probably is more financially secure for peddling this junk than most of you reading this post.

 Bill Nemitz: Group returns to spit on law, set Mainers straight - Maine newspaper destroys NOM for hiding its funders.  

Dan Cathy, Chick-Fil-A President, Stresses Company's Support Of 'Biblical' Families - No word yet about did he mean King Solomon and his 1,000s of wives. 

 Former NFL commissioner donates $100,000 to Md. marriage campaign - Good for him!

 California's 'Ex-Gay' Reparative Therapy Ban Details Sought, Shared In Other States - YES! I'm all for it! 

Pastors are NOT in favor of endorsing candidates in the pulpit

A religious right groups are heavily pushing an event which calls for pastors to endorse candidates in the pulpit. Oct. 7 is the event they are calling Freedom Pulpit Sunday and according to the Huffington Post:

An army of more than 1,000 pastors from around the country will take on the IRS this coming Sunday by participating in what's being called "Pulpit Freedom Sunday." Under the Johnson Amendment, tax-exempt organizations, including churches, are not allowed to endorse any candidate running for elective public office.

. . . Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian organization behind Pulpit Freedom Sunday, says it's unconstitutional and pastors are being censored, and the church across America is being silenced. They're encouraging pastors to preach politics this Sunday, and to record the sermons and mail them to the IRS. The group is hoping the IRS will follow through on its threats of removing the tax-exempt status of a church caught preaching politics, so it can bring the matter to a judge to decide, because they say a judge is likely to see it as a clear violation of the First Amendment.

It promises to be an interesting event in churches across America. However, according to a survey, a certain group is heavily against it - pastors. According to One News Now  (which is a source I generally criticize, but this revelation is interesting):

LifeWay Research surveyed roughly 1,000 Protestant pastors on various aspects, and director Scott McConnell says his group learned that three-fourths of pastors disagree that the election cycle has been too religious and do not see the election as a referendum on religion.

"We asked them whether pastors should endorse candidates for public office from the pulpit, and almost nine out of ten pastors disagreed; and in fact, 71 percent strongly disagreed that pastors should be doing that," McConnell reports.

"Pastors clearly respect the sacred desk of the pulpit enough to discourage its use to affect elections." The survey also asked pastors if they had endorsed political candidates outside their role as pastor. "Less than half the pastors indicated that they had done that this year -- just 44 percent," the LifeWay Research director notes. "But it appears that two-thirds of them have to some extent, because only 33 percent 'strongly disagree' that they've endorsed candidates from the pulpit." 

We already know that religious right groups give the false impression that they speak for a majority of Christians, so why should we be shocked that they commit the same offense when it comes to pastors?

Group's video claims that contraception leads to homosexuality

The following video is proof that some people should shy away from Youtube:



According to the Huffington Post:

Produced by a group of Roman Catholic nuns calling themselves the Children of Mary order, "You Deserve to Know the Truth: Contraception” pairs some puzzling statistics with generic clip art. The often unintentionally humorous, low-budget clip also cites a 1970s-era study in which a male monkey became "confused" when female monkeys were injected with birth control drugs, and began to have "sexual interactions" with other males in the tribe. "With the prevalence of contraception, it's no wonder adultery is on the rise, as is promiscuity, homosexual behavior, and even abortion due to failed contraception," the narrator proclaims. 

Catholic Church's new anti-marriage equality spokesman gets challenged on his points

Matt Birk, Baltimore Ravens Center, Makes Anti-Gay Marriage Ad For Catholic Church - Yesterday, Mr. Birk wrote an editorial and I recognized NOM terminology. Today, he makes a video for the Catholic Church (who many think is funding NOM.) Looks like the organization has found their new spokesmodel. HOWEVER, he isn't going unchallenged:

 Kirk's stance quickly drew a response from Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, who has since been in talks with Minnesotans for Equality, a Minnesota-based LGBT rights advocacy group urging voters to beat back the state's ballot initiative that could ban marriage for gays and lesbians in the state constitution this November.

Acknowledging Birk as "a smart, funny person," Kluwe notes, "If you want us to understand why same-sex marriage is bad for kids, you need to provide some sort of substantial evidence. Tell us that children from same-sex couples are more likely to grow up broke and miserable and alone and will end their days starving in a gutter."

In other words, when folks like Birk go on about the "special relationship between a husband and wife" and misdirect the argument about a supposed fear of being "labeled as bigots," they conveniently omit the following:

 


And in other news:

 Banned Book Week: 10 Books That Are Way Too Gay To Read! - Takes notes and check out this pro-gay literature.

 Bruce Springsteen Stars In Gay Marriage Social Media Campaign - Go Bruuuuuce! 

California's ban on 'ex-gay' therapy causing controversy, will be challenged in court

The law created by California legislators to ban "ex-gay" therapy for minors (and signed Sunday by Gov. Jerry Brown) is already causing a ruckus.

 A perfect example of this is a recent - and satisfyingly contentious debate on the topic by CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin, senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, and “ex-gay” therapist Dan Pickup.

As you will see, the interview got explosive with Pickup snapping at Baldwin:



During the interview, Pickup alluded to the fact that the religious right group, the Liberty Counsel, will be challenging California's law in court. Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver said the following yesterday:

 "The California governor and legislature are putting their own preconceived notions and political ideology ahead of children and their rights to get access to counseling that meets their needs," Staver said in a statement. "A number of minors who have struggled with same-sex attraction have been able to reduce or eliminate the stress and conflicts in their lives by receiving counseling of their choice which best meets their needs and religious convictions." According to Staver, who is also dean of the Liberty University School of Law, the bill and the ethical codes of the state's licensing boards in California are on an "inevitable collision course." He added that the bill would "harm children, stress families, and place counselors in a catch-22, because they will be forced to violate their licensing ethical codes."

 If anyone believes that the Liberty Counsel is filing this lawsuit because they care about minors OR physicians, then they are simply fooling themselves.

The Liberty Counsel is fighting this law because of anti-gay bigotry, pure and simple. One would hope that in the coming media spotlight which the Liberty Counsel will enjoy because of its potential lawsuit, Staver or anyone else from the organization will be asked about the Liberty Counsel's anti-gay animus. This animus is best demonstrated by Staver himself and another member of the Liberty Counsel, Matt Barber:



 

 

It's wishful thinking on my part, but wouldn't it be absolutely wild if the Liberty Counsel's suit made it to court and lawyer defending CA's law called Staver or Barber as a witness to talk about the Liberty Counsel's bigotry?
 

Bigot tells me to get some female 'tail' so that God is no longer disgusted with me

I received the following "comment" from someone who did not appreciate my posts on being black and gay. It's NSFW (not safe for work):

 If the choice is between GOD and your fetish you lose. You already know in your heart that homoism disgusts GOD and is an insult to HIS PERFECT DESIGN. Men were created to mate with women.Design determines function. Homos operate in a dysfunctional manner.they are defective. Homos think they are smarter than GOD.the end for unrepentant folk will be worse than than their imaginations coul(d) ever conceive. Blacks have nothing in common with gays. Really. Some blacks (have) such low self esteem they will even become gay to be accepted. Man go get some pussy.

To my mysterious fan who has a very strange view of language used in defense of God's "perfect design," I have one thing to say.

Educate yourself:



One more thing - If you think that having "relations" with a woman is going to change my sexual orientation, then you've got higher hopes than the ant in that Frank Sinatra song that tried to move that rubber tree plant.



Editor's note - I looked for a video showcasing famous African-American transgenders and unfortunately could not find any. If someone finds such a video, please send it to me and I will post it.

'Supreme Court knocks NOM on its behind again' and other Monday midday news briefs

Supreme Court Denies National Organization For Marriage Appeal - Face it, NOM. The Supreme Court's just not into you.
 
Bryan Fischer refers to LGBT kids as 'mentally disordered'; further connects animus to his movement - Bryan Fischer is the type of person who makes you forget the Biblical verse "suffer the little children" and instead focus on the other meaning of the word "suffer."

 NFL punter Chris Kluwe does it AGAIN! Awesome must-read response to homophobe!- I'm starting to REALLY like this guy.

  Rmdr: Minnesota For Marriage's star has admitted she's against 'the lifestyle' - Again, how NOM's folks pleads niceties in from of the camera while throwing down the fire and brimstone while no one is looking. 

2012 LGBT History Month Icons are an excellently diverse group

Equality Forum is out with a detailed list of the 2012 Icons for LGBT History Month (October, after all, is LGBT History Month). Check out who was chosen:



 As usual when it comes to lists like this, there will be some folks vocalizing about who was or wasn't chosen. In a general  sense, I like the list. And  I especially would like to see more lgbt children viewing this video so that they can know that their God-given sexual orientation is not a curse, but a blessing. Anything which can inspire lgbt children to know that success is not the enemy of being openly gay is always a plus in my book.

By all mean, please let me know- via the comments section - who you think should have made the list. And why.

Bill protecting gay children from 'ex-gay' therapy signed by CA Gov Brown

This good bit of news needs only to be posted as is. It needs no further additions on my part:

On Saturday California Governor Jerry Brown signed a historic bill that will protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) minors from "reparative" therapies administered by mental health professionals aimed at altering sexual orientation or gender identities and expressions.

Senate Bill 1172, which the National Center for Lesbian Rights notes was co-sponsored by the NCLR, Equality California, Gaylesta, Courage Campaign, Lambda Legal, and Mental Health America of Northern California, and supported by dozens of organizations, is the first law of its kind in the United States and will become effective on January 1, 2013.

"Conversion" or "reparative" therapies, which can include a wide variety of techniques from counseling to shock therapy to -- in extreme cases -- exorcism, have long been used in an attempt to "cure" individuals of their homosexual and transgender orientations and identities. However, in recent years even those who once championed the idea that someone can convert to heterosexuality have admitted that viewpoint is flawed.
In April Dr. Robert Spitzer, author of a landmark 2001 study that claimed gay people could be alleviated of their homosexuality, admitted that, "In retrospect, I have to admit I think the critiques [of my study] are largely correct... The findings can be considered evidence for what those who have undergone ex-gay therapy say about it, but nothing more.”

SFGate.com notes that Governor Brown said, "This bill bans non-scientific 'therapies' that have driven young people to depression and suicide. These practices have no basis in science or medicine and they will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery."

'Slut-shaming' President Obama's mother can make you a lot of money

Dinesh D'Souza smiles because stupid people get him PAID.

This isn't necessary a gay issue, but someone needs to shout ENOUGH! 

An excellent piece in The Daily Beast has caught my eye and raised my nerves because of the following passage:

D’Souza argues that part of the reason Ann Dunham sent Obama to live with her parents in Hawaii was so she could pursue affairs with Indonesian men. “Ann’s sexual adventuring may seem a little surprising in view of the fact that she was a large woman who kept getting larger,” he writes. On the next page, he continues, “Learning about Ann’s sexual adventures in Indonesia, I realized how wrong I had been to consider Barack Obama Sr. the playboy … Ann … was the real playgirl, and despite all her reservations about power, she was using her American background and economic and social power to purchase the romantic attention of third-world men.” 

The woman in this passage is Ann Dunham, President Obama's mother.

And the man who wrote those unproven and highly ugly comments about her is Dinesh D'Souza, a conservative writer and columnist. That passage came from the most recent entity in his anti-Obama trilogy, Obama's America.

In 2010,  he wrote a nonsensical book called The Roots of Obama's Rage, which pushed the hilariously ugly theory that Obama fosters a secret hate of America. Thanks to conservative and right-wing hype, that book was a "success." This year, he published a continuation piece called Obama's America, which is a companion piece for a movie he produced called Obama 2016. Both of these entities, with more help from conservative and right-wing hype, are also successes. However they, like his original book on Obama, have been roundly condemned by mainstream media as crackpot nonsense with a phony intellectual glaze.

Now I try not to allow conservative so-and-so's like D'Souza or Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, and the other assorted denizens (I want to call them worse but it would ruin the integrity of this piece) to bother me.

I don't watch them. If any of them are on my television, I turn the channel.

These folks make a living off of wingnut welfare and think tank money. Their lifeblood is funding by mysterious wealthy individuals with Napoleon complexes and more money than common sense. And their food is resentment and chaos. Every angry American is like $100 in their bank accounts.

But this is going too far. To D'Souza, it's as if Obama is a succulent piece of meat on a dinner table which he has picked clean. However failing to be satiated, D'Souza now seems to be busying himself with breaking the bones of the meat and sucking out the marrow in loud, repulsive slurps.

One has to ask who else in the Obama family will he go after while under the false veneer of "pursuing the truth?"

Of course this is Dinesh D'Souza who makes his money as an "analyst" for various right-wing think tanks such as the Hoover Institution and the American Enterprise Institution. And he is the same man who wrote The End of Racism, a book so outrageous that it offended black conservatives because it claimed that "black culture" was inferior to "white culture," that segregation was misguided paternalism, "based on the code of the Christian and the gentleman" and intended to protect blacks, and that parts of the Civil Rights Act should be repealed.

So why should we be surprised with how low he has stooped here?

Also there is a HIGH degree of Obama Derangement Syndrome out there. The same Daily Beast article says that another film about the president, Dreams from my Real Father, not only pushes a ridiculous theory that Obama's real father was a black communist, but that his mother modeled in 1950s bondage and fetish porn.  Allegedly, millions of copies of this film is being sent out to voters in several states including Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Nevada.

So again, why should we be surprised when there seems to be a market out there for lurid beliefs about Obama.

It's understandable that many of us are desensitized to this stuff. In all truthfulness, these videos and D'Souza's books  probably won't have any effect on the electorate who should be used to Obama being called everything including the Anti-Christ.  At least let's hope not.

But consider this - D'Souza at the very least has been featured on legitimate news program such as CNN hawking his visual and literary firewater without any form of shame.

And all in the name of the false equivalency of supposedly presenting both sides of a "political argument."

When is the media going to dispense with this nonsense and call bullshit for what it is - bullshit. It would be nice to see D'Souza subjected to a moment not unlike the ending of the tale "The Emperor's New Clothes," when all it took was the innocence of a child to break through the pretext of nonsense which was going on.

Would it have hurt for someone with a mainstream news reputation to tell D'Souza the equivalent of the statement, "you know you are so full of shit, right?" (Editor's note - in all honesty, HBO host Bill Maher did actually do this but it really didn't resonate in the media like it would have if someone like Soledad O'Brien had done it)

I honestly feel embarrassed by asking this question but how does it feel to be members of the most powerful nation in the world and instead of discussing the pertinent issues which confront us, being forced to listen to idiots push ludicrous theories on whether or not the president's mother was either an overweight slut or a freak who engaged in fetish porn?

If you don't feel a little ashamed at this, then check your pulse because you may be dead.

EXTRA: It has been pointed out by Rational Wiki the distortion techniques used by D'Souza.

1. D'Souza has an aggressive and rhetorical speaking and debating style, which makes him sound forceful and convincing. He uses the Gish Gallop frequently and effectively, rebuffing his opponent for not addressing every point he makes. 
2. He frequently employs caricatures and strawmen of atheist positions. He presents these positions so as to make them sound whimsical or silly, while presenting his own statements with an air of utmost gravity, no matter how lunatic or far-fetched they may be.
3. He is a big fan of quote mining. Not content with simply taking his opponent's statements out of context, he will take a quote about a topic completely unrelated to the one under discussion and re-frame it to make it sound as if his opponent is uninformed or delusional.
4. A main weapon in his debating arsenal is the emotional appeal, where he paint his opponent's position as false because some of its implications may be distasteful to certain members of the audience.
5. He enjoys painting his opponents as vicious critics of innocuous policies and events, and himself as a paragon of intellectual virtue. While not going as far as character assassination (at least not in a face-to-face debate), he does subtly attack the character of his opponent.
6. He often says that an assertion by his opponent, or even the opponent's entire position, is invalid because it is not intuitively or obviously true. He paints this as a "common sense" argument, where he calls upon the audience to evaluate an assertion using their own intuition. In reality, this is a denial of the obvious fact that many things are counterintuitive and require expertise beyond the experience of the average person (but don't take our word for it; ask your neighbor about quantum mechanics or the economics of sub-Saharan Africa). This is a particularly effective tactic, as it shifts audience opinion to his side.
7. Thanks to his wide repertoire of tactics, he rarely is forced to allow a point by his opponent to pass unchallenged. This projects the illusion of competence, whereas most of his rebuttals are intellectually dishonest and completely invalid.
8. When all else fails, he will spout outright lies and half truths, pulling facts and statistics out of thin air to give his argument some credibility. This amounts to an argument from authority, which he seems to derive from his public "reputation" as a political commentator, academic and writer.
9. Lately, he appears to carry around a sizable library of books to debates, frequently flashing them at his opponent and at the audience, while stating that they completely prove his own, or disprove his opponent's points. These are usually self published works by fringe lunatics (which are not worth the toilet paper they are printed on). This is argument from authority on steroids, since no one except him has read the book. Therefore, his opponent cannot call him out on it, and is forced to let the point go without comment.