Ignoring your hate group status won't make it go away

For now, the groups (i.e. the American Family Association, the Family Research Council) just added by Southern Poverty Law Center to the list of anti-gay hate organizations seem to be silent on their new status.

But other folks aren't.

Lgbt activist and author Dan Savage is making sure that this designation isn't being ignored.

Savage (who came up with the idea of the "It Gets Better Project" to combat the problem of gay teen suicides) took CNN to task yesterday during an interview for how the network gives a platform to these groups:

The Southern Poverty Law Center labels these groups as hate groups and yet the leaders of these groups, people like Tony Perkins, are welcomed onto networks like CNN to espouse hate directed at gays and lesbians. And similarly hateful people who are targeting Jews or people of color or anyone else would not be welcome to spew their bile on networks like CNN and then that really -- we really have to start there. We have to start with that type of cultural reckoning.

Meanwhile, a person whose presence was noted several times on SPLC's profile of these groups, Robert Knight of Coral Ridge Ministries, has come out with a new book claiming to tackle the so-called "harmful effects of same-sex marriage."

One wonders if he cited the work of the discredited Paul Cameron in this book like he has done several times in the past, including as a Congressional witness in 1994 when he spoke against ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act).

One thing is certain. Even before SPLC's citation, he wasn't so eager to talk about Cameron. In June of this year,  Knight, through his representative, declined to have an interview with me about the subject.

This is a far cry from the conversation I had with him in 2004 when he came to the University of South Carolina to have a debate with former Human Rights Campaign head Elizabeth Birch.

During the conversation after the debate (a conversation I recounted in my 2007 book Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters), I was able to question Knight as to why he used Cameron's work even though it had been discredited several times.

His answer to me was:

“Yes we have used his research. So what?”

But Knight and others listed by SPLC do have their defenders.

William A. Jacobson, Associate Clinical Professor at Cornell Law School, didn't care for SPLC's list. He is especially angry that the National Organization for Marriage is on the list (Editor's note - SPLC does not consider NOM as an official anti-gay hate group, but did profile the organization):

The inclusion of NOM on this list really is outrageous, and typical of how SPLC seeks to demonize a mainstream conservative (and in this case, constitutional) view.  The explanation SPLC gives for including NOM is flimsy and filled with innuendo.  

Jacobson also said about SPLC's list in general:

Most of these groups are unknown to me,  although a couple are well-known Christian groups, such as American Family Association and Family Research Council (both of these entities will be on SPLC's upcoming Hate Group list).  I don't defend or not defend these groups because I don't know much about them, but based upon SPLC's past performance, the burden should be on SPLC to make the case for including a group on a hate list.

Unfortunately that leads one to think that Jacobson didn't read SPLC's breakdown of these groups at all. The organization gives very detailed reasonings as to why these groups are profiled as well as the inaccurate things they say about the lgbt community.

Jacobson - and many responders to his blog post - were conveniently silent about these inaccurate claims, instead choosing to play the victim and complain about "liberal conspiracies" against Christians.

THIS is the DADT repeal ad that Fox News refused to run

Earlier today, I mentioned in my news briefs an article talking about how Fox News refused to run a DADT repeal ad.

Well just because those so-and-so's won't run it doesn't mean that I won't. I found the ad to be an excellent piece:

'Ex-gay' group targeting middle school students and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Notorious ‘Ex-Gay Group Plans to Target Middle School Students in 2011 - And they like to claim that we target children.

Fox News rejects ad featuring gay troops discussing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” - And this shocks us because?

PFOX Board Member Cited As Key A Reason The Family Research Council Is a SPLC Certified Hate Group - Sometimes it is about who you know.

NJ Assembly approves tougher bullying law - Excellent!

Bogus study claims that fatherless homes leads to lesbians

In a huge show of audacity, the recently named anti-gay hate group the Family Research Council just came out with a study of its own on the lesbian community. And of course, this "study" has been propped up by another anti-gay hate group the American Family Association via its phony news publication, One News Now:

A recently released study shows a link between childhood family structure and the rate of female homosexuality -- undermining the claim that sexual orientation is genetic or biological.

Family Research Council (FRC) looked into the family lives and worship rates of 7,643 women between the ages of 14 and 44. Pat Fagan, senior fellow and director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute at FRC, co-evaluated the data and tells OneNewsNow about the findings.

"Once the girl grows up in a home in which her father is not present, it's about three times" more likely she has had or will have homosexual partners, he says -- but when she is raised by parents who are married and "always intact, it's about a four-percent rate." Moreover, he explains that rate is "slightly higher in the always-intact-but-cohabitating parents -- that's parents who never married."

Statistics are also higher with step-families, the cohabiting step-family, and the single divorced parent, adds the FRC spokesman.

In keeping with what I said yesterday, I am going to keep this short and sweet.

I wouldn't believe the Klan if they came out with a "study" about African-Americans, so why should I or anyone else believe a study about lgbts by a group who not only has a known bias against lgbts but has been known to play loose with the facts.

It's all about credibility and in this case, the Family Research Council doesn't have any.

However, if you feel so desired to read an excellent take down of this ridiculous piece of work, check out this post by my online buddy, Zach Ford.

Family Research Council, American Family Association named as anti-gay hate groups

Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center added five more groups to its list of anti-gay hate groups, including some names that are long overdue.

The new groups are:

1. American Family Association
2. Americans for Truth About Homosexuality
3. Dove World Outreach Center
4. Family Research Council
5. Illinois Family Institute

This brings the total of anti-gay hate groups to 18 and all of them are profiled in exact detail by SPLC.

Other groups profiled by SPLC but not designated as official hate groups are:

1. Christian Anti-Defamation Commission
2. Concerned Women for America
3. Coral Ridge Ministries
4. Liberty Counsel
5. National Organization for Marriage

And as an added bonus SPLC also has a page in which they debunk 10 anti-gay myths. And I am sure you have heard of all them before (i.e. gays molest children at a higher rate than heterosexuals, gay have a short lifespan, you can "cure" homosexuality.)

And one thing that cannot be repeated enough is SPLC's reasons to list these organizations as anti-gay hate groups:

Even as some well-known anti-gay groups like Focus on the Family moderate their views, a hard core of smaller groups, most of them religiously motivated, have continued to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities. These groups’ influence reaches far beyond what their size would suggest, because the “facts” they disseminate about homosexuality are often amplified by certain politicians, other groups and even news organizations. Of the 18 groups profiled below, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) will be listing 13 next year as hate groups (eight were previously listed), reflecting further research into their views; those are each marked with an asterisk. Generally, the SPLC’s listings of these groups is based on their propagation of known falsehoods — claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities — and repeated, groundless name-calling. Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations for listing as hate groups.

The last sentence was emphasized by me because it needs to be remembered. Unfortunately when the inaccuracies of various religious right groups are pointed out, the conversation tends to go on a religious direction and this is a mistake.

When we go to the religious direction, we give these groups a chance to cover themselves. "These are merely our personal religious beliefs," they say. 

Religion is immaterial. The bad acts that theses groups commit in the name of religion is the point we should focus on and hammer consistently.
Keep our message short and sweet - these groups knowingly lie about lgbts in attempts to demonize us.

My advice to everyone is to read SPLC's profiles, memorize them, and pass them around to your friends and neighbors.

These groups and their spokespeople are liars and we need to call them as such. We need to hammer that point over and over and over again until it is drilled into the head of America.

Hat tip to People for the American Way and Truth Wins Out

Related posts:

The American Family Association must address Bryan Fischer's hateful comments

10 reasons why Americans for Truth is a hate site

Christian Anti-Defamation Commission defends exorcists and hate groups from the 'scary gays'

Why doesn't Robert Knight want to talk about Paul Cameron? 

National Organization for Marriage needs to address hate in its own ranks 
  
The top 12 lies of Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council

Joint Chiefs chairman want DADT repealed as soon as possible and other Monday midday news briefs

Employing discrimination as an act: Far-right back to pushing the 'ENDA will tie our hands' charade - Gary Cass strikes again. Making sure everyone has the fair right to work? Not such a good idea. Defending discredited researchers and churches who want to exorcise "homosexual demons" out of children? Super.

Pentagon to Release the Fabled DADT "Study" a Day Early - This promises to be interesting. The momentum continues to be on our side.

Navy Chief Praises DADT Survey, Isolating McCain Further - Another good sign.

Joint Chiefs chairman: Congress should end gay ban as soon as possible - The final bit of good news. Get cracking folks.

NJ senator introduces college anti-bullying law - More good news for us.

Benilde student wants to start gay advocacy group - I love it when the next generation is proactive.

The American Family Association must address Bryan Fischer's hateful comments

 (Editor's note - An online buddy, mentor, and one of my all-around favorite people Pam Spaulding is having surgery this morning. Pam is a truly awesome individual to whom I owe a lot to in terms of getting this blog off of the ground and noticed.  My prayer is that she has a successful operation.)

There is this constant talking point, or rather whine, by many who are involved with conservative Christian groups (i.e. the religious right) that they are under attack by so-called "Godless forces of radicalism" or that they are unfairly called bigots because they simply want to defend "Christian values."

The American Family Association is one of these groups. According to its own webpage, the AFA:

works to promote decency and morals in American culture,
1. to restrain evil by exposing the works of darkness and to promote virtue by upholding that in culture which is right, true and good;
2. to convince men of sin and drive them to Christ's grace and forgiveness; and to
3. to guide and encourage Christians to live-out the new holy identity that is theirs as citizens of Christ's kingdom.

These are seemingly nice qualities for an organization to have, except when one actually listens to the words Bryan Fischer, an employee of AFA:

• Homosexuals comprise less than three percent of the population, yet are responsible for one-third of all child sex abuse cases. There is an overwhelming correlation between homosexual preference and pedophilia. This is further evidence that homosexuality is in fact sexual deviancy. For this reason alone, no homosexual should be elevated to the United States Supreme Court. 

• If we connect the dots here, the inescapable conclusion is that gay sex is a form of domestic terrorism. 

• Bottom line: every Muslim who enters the United States carries within his bosom the seeds of sedition. It is dangerously foolish for the United States to invite folks inside our borders whose god orders them, through his holy prophet, to murder American infidels. 

• “Hitler discovered that he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders, but that homosexual solders basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whomever Hitler sent them after. So he surrounded himself, virtually all of the Stormtroopers, the Brownshirts, were male homosexuals. 

• . . .the illegitimacy rate among Hispanic women is over 50%. I’m not sure pro-family values are as strong in the Hispanic community . . .

Fischer is AFA's Director of Issues Analysis and his statements have caused much consternation amongst many people. But his latest statement, criticizing the awarding of the National Medal of Honor to Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, took the proverbial cake.

Giunta recently received the National Medal of Honor for saving members of his squad during the War in Afghanistan on October 25, 2007.

However, Fischer said:

We have feminized the Medal of Honor.

. . .When we think of heroism in battle, we used the think of our boys storming the beaches of Normandy under withering fire, climbing the cliffs of Pointe do Hoc while enemy soldiers fired straight down on them, and tossing grenades into pill boxes to take out gun emplacements.

That kind of heroism has apparently become passe when it comes to awarding the Medal of Honor. We now award it only for preventing casualties, not for inflicting them.

So the question is this: when are we going to start awarding the Medal of Honor once again for soldiers who kill people and break things so our families can sleep safely at night?

Fischer's comments about Giunta has received a lot of deserved negative attention from many voices, except for one - that of the American Family Association.

As far as it is known, the AFA has said nothing about Fischer's comments regarding Giunta nor any of his other outrageous statements. Nor has any other religious right group, even though Fischer has been sought as a speaker to various religious right functions such as the Values Voters Summit this year, which was also attended by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

By the way, none of these individuals, some who are possible 2012 presidential candidates, have said a word about Fischer's comments.

But it would appear to me that the most important voice in this matter should be the AFA because it is the organization which gives Fischer a platform.

The folks at the AFA seem to be playing dumb in hopes that if they don't acknowledge the controversy, then it will go away.

This behavior has certainly worked for them in the past when the organization was caught selling a video featuring a man who falsely claimed to have been "delivered from homosexuality." (The AFA is still selling the video by the way.)

But for the American Family Association to remain silent about Fischer's comments contradicts everything the organization claims to stand for - truth, virtue, decency, and morality.

Hatred and bigotry lodged in God's name is still hatred and bigotry.

Many, myself included, have on several occasions accused religious right groups of working in the name of a bad facsimile of God which is perverted by their own egos, prejudices, and selfish desires of conquest.

If  the AFA continues to be silent about Fischer then they will prove our point better than we have ever hoped to imagine.