NOM-affiliated lawyer cites Paul Cameron. What would Maggie Gallagher say?

Does NOM-affiliated Charles LiMandri actually believe that gays ingest blood and feces during sex? What would Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown say to that?

By now, everyone knows that former Ms. California Carrie Prejean is suing pageant officials for libel, slander and religious discrimination.

But there are some things you don't know about her counsel.

According to Jeremy from Goodasyou.org, she is being represented by the National Organization for Marriage's counsel Charles LiMandri.

Goodasyou.org further says that LiMandri has a history of anti-gay "activism."

Jeremy also posts one of LiMandri's position papers, The Impact of Same-Sex Marriage On Religious Freedom.

I downloaded a copy and looked it over.

You have to see it to believe all of the discredited and misused studies LiMandri uses. Allow me to break down a few of his inaccuracies:

From pages four to 11, he lists anecdotes of incidents in which Christians are allegedly discriminated against because of a "gay agenda." Not only do a lot of these incidents have nothing to do with same sex marriage, but LiMandri gets the facts wrong.

Included in LiMandri's examples is my favorite, the David Parker incident, as well as the Repent America incident in which a group of people protesting a gay pride celebration were arrested in Pennsylvania after they wouldn't comply with the police at the scene. LiMandri claims that they were "peacefully protesting."

LiMandri lists another case of so-called persecution:

The Oakland city government found the words "Marriage the foundation of the natural family and sustains family values" to be a hate crime and reprimands a group ofOakland city government employees for using these words on a flyer in the workplace.

LiMandri is obviously distorting the case. Oakland city government did not say that those words were a "hate crime." What happened was this:

Gay employees working for Oakland's government formed a group. In response, two Christian employees formed their own group. In the flyer advertising the Christian group, terms like "integrity" and "natural family" were used in ways that attacked the gay employees.

The Christian group was told to revise the flyer. They refused and sued the city of Oakland. They subsequently lost their case.

LiMandri even has the temerity to mention the initial controversy with Matt Barber. You will remember that before Barber became an anti-gay spokesperson, he was fired from AllState for using the company's equipment to write anti-gay columns as well as including his employment at the company in his bio. LiMandri omits that fact but makes sure to note that Barber wrote the pieces while away from work.

But the "real choice meat" of LiMandri's work comes after those inaccurate anecdotes.

In the rest of the 31 pages of his piece, LiMandri manages to reconstitute and rehash the most popular anti-gay propaganda out there, including:

Family Research Institute, “Medical Consequences of What Homosexuals Do” by Paul Cameron, Ph.D, www.familyresearchinst.org

That's right. LiMandri is citing Paul Cameron's discredited work as a link that people can use to "stay informed." And not just any Paul Cameron work, but the one that accuses gay men of ingesting blood and using gerbils and feces as sexual instruments.

Other bits and pieces from Cameron's distortions are throughout LiMandri's paper including claims that lgbts are more likely to molest their children.

Also, LiMandri uses the following from the Family Research Council:

“Homosexuality and Child Abuse”

This study is no longer on the Family Research Council's webpage because, as I was told in this link, the studies used in it are outdated.

Other distortions in LiMandri's paper include:

1. The distortion of Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women by Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg as a correct assessment of gay men's sexual behavior even though it was published in the late 1970s. Homosexualities looked at gay men in the city of San Francisco in the early 1970s and the authors even said that their work could not be generalized to include all gay men:

“. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlikely that any investigator will ever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”

2. The life expectancy at age 20 for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men - The distortion of the 1997 Canadian study that claims that gay men have a short life span. In 2001, the authors of this study complained about how it was being distorted.

LiMandri did not say where he got this statistic but odds are the 1997 Canadian study was the place. The only other place he could have gotten this was the discredited Paul Cameron study on the supposed gay life span.

3. Citing The Health Risks of Gay Sex by John R.Diggs even though it uses some of the same distortions that LiMandri used in his paper (i.e. the Bell and Weinberg book and the 1997 Canadian study distorted to claim that gays have a short life span. So in essence, LiMandri is inaccurately double dipping.)

The most comical of LiMandri's claims when he says lgbts "demonized" certain people for saying that homosexuality is immoral, including Anita Bryant, Dr. Laura and Michael Savage.

For the record, even though there were a lot of protests against Dr. Laura's show, it failed because it bombed with audiences, Bryant's rhetoric (gays are trying to recruit children) eventually became her undoing because it turned off a lot of fair-minded people

And (I was saving the best for last) Michael Savage lost his television show after he said he wished that a caller would catch AIDS and die.

Basically, Carrie Prejean's lawsuit is as vapid as her continued pursuit of the spotlight and NOM's exploitation of her controversy.

But the lgbt community needs to look past Prejean and take the fight to NOM.

Its head, Maggie Gallagher has made an artform out of turning the argument of marriage equality on its head.

According to her, the argument about same sex marriage is not about protecting lgbt couples or lgbt families in general. Gallagher claims that the argument is about keeping her and those who believe like her (i.e. that only correct family structure is the "Leave It To Beaver" family image) from being "unfairly" labeled as "bigots."

NOM is no different than any other religious right group. Beneath its veneer of family, faith, and traditional values that are a lot of lies, discredited studies, misused studies, and appeals to fear and ego.

And there are many unanswered questions as to where the organization is getting its funding.

The lgbt community has done a lot of laughing at NOM because of the missteps the organization has taken, especially with its "Gathering Storm" video. But as NOM continues to make its presence known in same sex battles across the country, it is time we stop laughing and start asking questions and demanding answers.

And the first question we should ask is why is the organization affiliating itself with a person who puts out such filthy lies about our community?

Ms. Gallagher, if you are knowingly affiliating yourself and your organization with someone who thinks that gays are a threatening horde of interlopers who engage in dangerous sexual practices and molest their children, then you are, in fact, a bigot.

Sex scandal number three brewing in South Carolina?

I interrupt today's news briefs to ask a very pointed question:

What in the hell is with my state of South Carolina?

After weeks of a sex scandal involving Governor Mark Sanford (who admitted cheating on his wife and calling his paramour his "soul mate") and after rumors of a closeted Lt. Governor comes more news of a conservative politician who may have deep tire tracks in their pure as the driven snow image:

Kristin Maguire, Governor Sanford's appointee to the State Board of Education and it's chairwoman has resigned.

According to FitsNews.com:

Kristin Maguire, an Upstate evangelical and one of South Carolina’s most respected social conservatives, has been one of the governor’s closest education policy advisors for years.

Maguire has also homeschooled her four children.

The scuttlebutt was that she resigned to devote more attention to her family.

However, more news is coming out. Maguire is supposedly:

the prolific author of hardcore erotic fiction on the Internet, according to documents provided to the governor’s office earlier this summer and later obtained by FITS News.

Maguire, a professed Christian who home-schools her four children, declined to comment for our story but did not deny that she had previously frequented websites that feature such X-rated material. Maguire believes that a former friend is leaking the information to the media in an effort to ruin her political career.

As for the specific writings alleged to have flowed from Maguire’s pen, most have been deleted from the Internet.

FITS was able to use conversations in various Internet chat rooms, however, to link at least two “erotic stories” to Maguire’s alleged pen name, “Bridget Keeney.” From there, numerous similarities between “Bridget” and Maguire emerged, including commonalities in age, geographic location, engineering background, hobbies (knitting, for example) and number of children. One comment left in an erotic chat room by “Bridget” even reveals the name of a professor who was at Clemson University’s College of Engineering at the time when Maguire was a student there, while another comment references a specific medical procedure that Maguire underwent several years ago.

More information here

Fits News was quick to point out that nothing Maguire allegedly did was illegal and it also did not coincide with her tenure as Chairwoman of the State Board of Education.

But the blog also says:

Maguire’s involvement in S.C. politics goes well beyond her leadership of the S.C. Board of Education or her involvement with the Sanford administration. She is an executive committeewoman of the S.C. Republican Party, as well as the woman responsible for drafting the party’s education platform.

Prior to being elected Chairwoman, Maguire led the panel responsible for approving education standards taught in South Carolina classrooms, including what textbooks were to be used and how teachers were to be certified. She has been a strong supporter of “abstinence only” sex education, as well.

When Maguire was elected to lead the S.C. Board, her appointment was hailed as a victory for social conservatives and feted on Christian blogs and websites across the Southeast.

And now there seems to be more writings.

Now if these allegations are true, again Maguire did nothing illegal and to some people's eyes, nothing unethical.

But in light of the Sanford controversy, the rumors about Bauer and the Bible belt image this state portrays, one has to wonder like I asked, what is going on with South Carolina.

If you ask me, this state suffers from a Blanche DuBois complex. You know Blanche DuBois, don't you? She is the character from the Tennessee Williams play, A Streetcar Named Desire. She is the character who put up the fascade of innocent Southern purity while seething with repressed white hot passion just below the surface.

I'm a little scared of what other South Carolina public official may face sexual scrutiny.

Guys, you need a lesson in hiding your proclivities!

Or at least tell me again just why it would be a bad idea to allow lgbts to marry?

Liberty Counsel uses bad logic to deny lesbian the right to see her child

I will have updates on the Andre Bauer thing as soon as they come. For the time being, however, I need to focus on other equally important situations regarding the lgbt community and the religious right.

Maybe Liberty Counsel's Matt Staver is working too hard.

How else can one explain how he maybe thought he could pull a fast one in the latest religious right update of the Lisa Miller/Janet Jenkins custody case.

A little background - Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins entered a relationship. Miller had a child, Isabella, and the two agreed to raise her together.

However when Isabella was 17 months old, the couple split up with Miller becoming a "born-again Christian" and "ex-gay." Since that time, she has refused to allow Jenkins to see Isabella, even though she initially agreed to allow Jenkins to see the child. Jenkins was even paying child support.

Courts have consistently ruled against Miller, even though she had engaged in ugly tactics in an attempt to deny Jenkins her rightly visitations, including moving to another state.

Enter the religious right. You see, Miller retained Liberty Counsel lawyers for her counsel and they and other members of the religious right have continuously milked this case for propaganda purposes, making it seem that Jenkins has no right to any parental claims.

Meanwhile they continue to drag this case through the courts from hearing to hearing.

Which comes to the crux this post. In his latest update of the case courtesy of One News Now, Staver says the following:

Meanwhile, Staver believes Janet Jenkins' purpose in the custody battle is to push the homosexual agenda -- not to gain a relationship with her former partner's daughter.

"The last time that she wrote a letter or tried to call [Isabella] was five years ago when she was age two," he notes. "She's never tried to send a card of any kind for any reason to Isabella. She has never sent her an e-mail. She has never come to any of her church recitals or plays or Christmas programs."

For one thing, it's ironic that Staver is implying that Jenkins isn't trying to gain a relationship with Isabella. And here I thought Staver's group was saying that Jenkins has no right to a relationship with the child.

And secondly, and this is confirmed by the Newsweek article and the Liberty Counsel itself, the couple split up when Isabella was 17 months old. And since that time, Miller has been engaging in chicanery to keep Jenkins from seeing Isabella.

Maybe that's why Jenkins hasn't been able to come to any of Isabella's church recitals or plays or Christmas programs?

And no one knows whether or not Jenkins sent Isabella a card. It stands to reason that if she did, Miller would have kept Isabella from receiving it.

Lastly, Staver's point about email is just plain dumb. Isabella isn't even 10-years-old. How many children under the age of 10 have their very own email accounts? Or anything computerwise that isn't supervised by their parents or guardians (in this case that person would be Miller - the very person who is keeping Jenkins from seeing Isabella.)

Staver is trying to argue insignificant points to obscure the big picture. Of course Jenkins cares about Isabella or she wouldn't be fighting this long and drawn out (thanks to the Liberty Counsel) case to try and get at least visitation time with the child.

And I hope she gets it for not only her sake but for the sake of little Isabella.

South Carolina Lt. Governor Andre Bauer outed?

I was in the middle of writing something good about the Carrie Prejean situation but then I got knocked on my ass by the following:

A South Carolina politician with a lengthy antigay voting record who has denied that he is gay is lying, according to blogger Mike Rogers.

Rogers, whose work outing closeted politicians who vote antigay figures heavily into the documentary Outrage, reports that South Carolina Lieutenant Andre Bauer has reportedly flirted with several gay men, and one source has admitted to having sex with him.

Two former Bauer staffers said the Lt. Governor spent hours alone with young men in hotel rooms on at least three occasions. The staffers also said the men he spent time with were not staff members with no particular reason to spend time with him.

Bauer, who is unmarried, told The State newspaper in June that he was not gay.

"One word, two letters. 'No.' Let's go ahead and dispel that now," he said in the interview. "Is Andre Bauer gay? That is now the story. We're a long way from where we were a week ago. We have diverted what the real topic should be here: Is the governor capable for carrying on the duties for which he was elected?"

However, openly gay South Carolina legislator Linda Kentner has been vocal about the secrecy of such gay lawmakers in her state who prefer to keep quiet... like the Lieutenant Governor.

More here

Being an lgbt resident of South Carolina and therefore privy to certain things . . .

I ain't saying jack until things are confirmed. I'm too pretty to be sued.

Okay - just one thing but not necessarily about Bauer. Being an lgbt resident of this state, I am privy to information regarding many public figures who are in the closet. Some discussions may be just rumors, but trust me when I say that there are a lot of closeted public figures in this state. Some names will shock you.

It's a bizarre conundrum

Don't worry. My piece on Carrie Prejean's counsel will be coming soon. But being a resident of South Carolina, this was too good not to mention.

More attention means more trouble for anti-gay group and other Monday midday news briefs

NOM finds out that more attention isn't exactly a good thing:

Fine-toothed combs scour NOM's unfair hair

NOM's 2007 tax return...and who is behind 'consultant' Common Sense America

The two posts are from Goodasyou.org and Pams House Blend. I wanted to put them both in one location to focus attention on how much attention the National Organization for Marriage is getting. No doubt at first the group thought that the recent Washington Post profile on one of its leaders, Brian Brown, was a good thing. It's nice to see them learn the flipside of attracting attention, especially when you are doing something morally wrong and potentially shady.

New impetus for bill banning anti-gay bias at work - ENDA could pass this year and I know the religious right is just chewing on the bit to oppose it. I'm chewing on the bit to oppose them. Let's get it started!

Congregation embraces transgender minister as his secret is revealed - Here is a positive story you don't hear about every day.

MA: First out black lesbian mayor in the U.S., Denise Simmons, marries partner - It probably won't make BET, Jet or Ebony magazine - the %!*#!

Getting rebuked in the name of Jesus and called a twit - is this the best the anti-gay folks can do?

I got two interesting negative letters that I want to share with you. After almost three years of doing this thing, it's nice to see my work paying off (sarcasm alert).

Liar !

I don't see how you learned through prayer to accept being gay, because i know GOD never told you it is ok for you to be gay. You need to STOP misleading people in GOD's name because he never told you to accept homosexuality otherswise he would be a liar and you can't make a liar out of GOD. I rebuke you in Jesus name for the lie you told.

When I opened my email and read this message, I nearly fell out laughing. I didn't quite do so because I was busy trying to remember just exactly what I did to garner such an interesting response.

Then I remembered the email I wrote on youtube answering someone's question as to how I was so sure that God had accepted me as a gay man. Apparently someone didn't share my views.

The person didn't elaborate just what happens when one is rebuked in Jesus's name. My guess is that I win some lifetime supply of polyester leisure suits or get eternally strapped down in a doorless room and forced to continously listen to the Osmonds "One Bad Apple."

Either would be pure hell.

My other letter comes from one of my favorite anti-gay spokespeople (and yours), Peter LaBarbera. Apparently he is not appreciative of my latest piece, Peter LaBarbera - the self-destruction of an anti-gay activist.

Now in all honesty, his comments didn't come unsolicited. I emailed LaBarbera my column in order to garner a response. This is what he said:

You are officially a twit, Alvin. You can't even recognize that your own obsession betrays your argument. Adios.

Between you and, me, this is LaBarbera's second or third time with answering my email by calling me a "twit" and using that words "adios" as a signal that he will not return any of my emails.

And yet he continues to answer my emails. I guess he doesn't "know how to quit me."

This is the same guy who allegedly has more gay porn than most people. So you can understand why I'm spooked.

If anyone would know about being obsessed, it's him.

Peter LaBarbera - the self-destruction of an anti-gay activist

What if you gave a press conference attacking the President of the United States and no one showed up, especially the media?

What if you sue a major hotel chain and no one cares, except for those who oppose you and they only take note to laugh at you?

Such is the lot of self-proclaimed anti-gay activist Peter LaBarbera.

One thing that the lgbt community doesn't seem to be giving that much attention to (with the planning of marches, fighting against anti-gay marriage laws, etc.) is the rapid and continued fall of LaBarbera from steadfast anti-gay activist to man with a serious problem.

The bio on his Americans for Truth webpage brags about his participation in groups such as Concerned Women for America, the Family Research Council, and his short stint as leader of the Illinois Family Institute.

It also talks about how many times he was interviewed by the national media and show such as James Dobson's Focus on the Family.

LaBarbera has gone from those so-called extreme highs to the lowest of low - featuring obscene pictures on his webpage.

Those pictures are what he is known for. They are why he is referred to in some circles as "Porno Petey."

No matter how many changes and nuances the religious right goes through, the lgbt community can always count on LaBarbera to attend leather events and "street fairs" with his camera, looking for "filthy images" to publicize on his webpage as an example of the so-called real face of lgbt America. And he always makes sure to give "loving detail" to the acts featured in the pictures.

I'm not one to usually make psychological judgements on people, so don't hold it against me when I call LaBarbera a living breathing Freudian slip.

I would love to know how many have looked on LaBarbera's page and moved from disgust over the pictures to wondering just what is in the mind of the person who took the pictures.

I guess it's better than wondering how many folks looked at LaBarbera's page in attempts to "pleasure themselves." I'm sure there are some of those out there.

LaBarbera is also a perfect example of how stridency can backfire. Uusually when someone falls in the mud, they lift themselves up and try to wipe the mud from their bodies.

LaBarbera has not only remained in the mud, but he has taken the iniative to rub it all over clean parts of his body.

And it is having an effect on his reputation amongst his peers, whether they want to admit it or not.

LaBarbera claims to have spent many, many years fighting the alleged gay agenda but it was the hate group Mass Resistance that was invited to lead a workshop on this so-called agenda during next month's conservative conference, Take Back America.

Also, notice how quickly another anti-gay spokesperson, Matt Barber, has moved up in the religious right food chain.

Barber has gone from fired AllState employee to a spokesperson of Concerned Women for America, to a "dean" at the conservative Liberty University and a promiment position at the equally conservative Liberty Counsel. And to top it off, every now and then, he writes a column for the widely read Town Hall.

And all the while this was happening, the most LaBarbera has accomplished is to fish for donations for his Americans for Truth webpage.

LaBarbera is an embarrassment to the religious right. He is their "Bull Connor," throwing a monkey wrench into their fascade of "love the sinner, but hate the sin."

The only places he is taken seriously is One News Now (which probably publishes his comments out of pity), various conservative blogs (which are as strident as he), and blogs like mine, Goodasyou.org and Pams House Blend (in actuality, we don't take him that seriously. He is good for a laugh or pointing out the hypocrisies of the religious right).

Deep down, I like LaBarbera . . . as a relic.

No matter how bad things seem, his bleatings and single minded attempts of "digging deep" into the so-called gay subculture is a reminder of how far we have come as a people. And provides a good laugh amongst me and my friends.

But by no means should the lgbt community dance on LaBarbera's grave. LaBarbera is inflicted with that type of steadfast crazy seen only in horror movies where the monster continues to stalk even after being shot, stabbed, karated, etc.

In other words, he doesn't know when to quit and he doesn't know when or how to change. The lgbt community might as well get used to it and work it for our own purposes.

But all in all, I envision a future where LaBarbera is an old man sitting on a stoop somewhere, his body bent and quivering with age (and hopefully his chin drooling unwiped spittle and corn mush) while muttering about those "damn homosexuals."

Mentally, I think he is already there.

Picture taken from Pams House Blend.