AFA - Stay out of the 'culture wars' unless you are taking our side

This morning, the American Family Association's phony publication, One News Now, is railing on the corporations who filed briefs asking for the elimination of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act).

With the headline Businesses have no business in culture war blaring in bold letters, One News Now doesn't make any bones as to the direction it is going in the article. And this point is further made by the one person the author's article, Charlie Butts, chooses to quote in the article - longtime homophobe Matt Barber of the Liberty Counsel:

Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel Action finds it unfortunate to see the firms "alienate a large percentage of their customer base" by choosing sides in a very polarized culture war, and he is especially disappointed to see CBS advocating for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act "when CBS purports to be an objective news agency." But he decides the network's part in the lawsuit "kind of reveals them and really underscores and supports what we all know -- that in the mainstream media ... liberal bias runs amok."

Barber also extends a special bit of venom to Starbucks:

You know, there was a scandal a while back where they were putting pro-homosexual propaganda on some of their Starbucks coffee cups," he recalls. "There was an uproar, but now we see that Starbucks is again emboldened and again carrying the water for radical homosexual activist organizations."

Barber contends that Starbucks needs to "get out of the business of pushing radical San Francisco-style social policies, and instead get about the business of making good coffee."

So with the help of Barber, One News Now seems to be making the point that companies should stay out of the fight for gay equality.

Too bad One News Now doesn't have the same frame of mind when it comes to companies fighting against gay equality. Remember this jewel in January:

A pro-family organization that works to equip churches to transform the culture is defending a privately held, family-owned chicken restaurant that is under fire for providing lunches for a recent marriage seminar.

In addition to closing on Sundays to allow worship and family time for its employees, Chick-fil-A and many of its franchise owners across the U.S. have pledged to contribute to everything from marriage seminars to retreats and counseling for the employees of its 1,200 locations. The perk has gone largely unnoticed until recently.

"A local Pennsylvania Chick-fil-A decided to donate some box-lunches to a seminar called 'The Art of Marriage: Getting to the Heart of God's Design,'" reports Family Research Council (FRC) president Tony Perkins. "Since then, the fast-food chain has come under attack from liberals, who say these sandwiches are somehow a political statement against homosexuality."

Of course that's not the entire story. The marriage seminar was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Family Institute, a conservative research and education organization associated with Focus on the Family. And both of these groups are vehemently opposed to marriage equality.

Furthermore, it was discovered by an investigation via Equality Matters that Chick-Fil-A has a long history of donating to anti-gay groups and causes to the tune of $1.1 million. Futhermore, the company has not only partnered with some of these groups but on some occasions have sponsored them.

So the question here is does One News Now hold Chick-Fil-A to the same standard that it does with business who are pushing for gay equality? Does One News Now think that Chick-Fil-A should stay out of the so-called culture war and concentrate on making "good chicken?"

Who are we kidding? We all know the answer to that question.

CA court rules that Prop 8 supporters have a right to humiliate themselves again

No doubt we have all heard the ruling by the California Supreme Court today that the defenders of Prop 8 have a right to defend the law in court.

Prop 8, for the uninitiated, is the ballot initiative which outlawed marriage equality in CA. It passed via a referendum in 2008 and was struck down in 2010.

And now those who are for it, after trying to make California government officials appeal this decision, are trying to defend Prop 8 themselves.

Today's decision said that they can appeal the 2010 decision which overturned Prop 8.

And I am all for today's decision.  After all, we all remember why they lost last year.

Let me remind you.

They had no case. At the very best, their case was weak. Many of those pushing for the law demurred when it came to testifying as to why the law was needed. They only could get two witness. One, David Blankenhorn, under cross examination made the case against Prop 8. Also, during closing arguments, proponents of Prop 8 said that they didn't need any evidence to prove their case.

So to me, all of the religious right folks rejoicing over today's ruling is the equivalent of a football team celebrating their only touchdown in the closing seconds of a game in which the other team has already scored 20 touchdowns.

We all know how this is going to end. The final decision on Prop 8, and thus the final decision on marriage equality, is headed towards the Supreme Court.

I know it. You know it. And most of all, those defending Prop 8 knows it. The following comment was lodged by Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage, an organization heavily involved in the passage of Prop 8:

“With this victory in hand, it is time for the Ninth Circuit to move the Prop 8 litigation forward to its eventual decision by the US Supreme Court,” Brown said. “We fully expect the Ninth Circuit, the most overturned court in America, to invalidate Prop 8, finding some phony right to same-sex marriage in the US constitution. However, once this case gets out of San Francisco and reaches the US Supreme Court, we fully expect to be victorious.”

Victorious you say, Brian? Not with the sorry defense your side has lodged thus far.

We are all anxious to see if you can do any better. And we doubt that you can.

'Nurse removed after alleged anti-gay charges' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Farah Blames Penn State Scandal On Growing Acceptance Of Homosexuality - As perverse as it is to say this, the fact that these morons have been dancing around in their attempts to connect the gay community to the Penn State tragedy is an indication of how far the society has come. It used to be that they would have made the connection in no uncertain terms and right out of the box.

After Antigay Charges, VA Nurse Removed from Patients - Sounds like a phony victim who NOM won't be canonizing any time soon.

116: Number Of Transgender People Murdered In 2011 - Folks, this ain't good.

Tell a lie long enough and it…no, it's actually still bullcrap - Geez, NOM. Are we really wearing you down so much that you can no longer lie with any finesse?

When Conan O'Brien Married Us on Live TV - Awesome post from a happy couple. Hope they have a long future together with much happiness.

People of the Year: The Out 100 Picks - The Advocate picks its 100 people of the year and guess what little black blogger from Columbia, SC didn't make it? The meanies! Seriously though, congratulations to those who did.

The religious right never wants to talk about same-sex families

You want an idea of what's wrong with some folks when it comes to gay issues, check out this tantrum by minister Matthew Hagee:

Transcript:

Hagee - We are at a tipping point when the Church can watch the homosexual agenda be advanced in public schools and we sit back and whine about it. Recently the California legislature decided that homosexual history in America will be taught to kindergarteners; that will be happen next year in California. And the Church goes, ‘Oh, that’s so sad.’ No, it’s shameful. It’s shameful that the homosexuals can get a curriculum in the public schools and the children of God cannot. It’s shameful when they will work tirelessly, when they will act relentlessly, when they will not stop until their will is pressed upon the majority, and we the children of God who are called to be salt and called to be light will whine but we won’t overcome. You need to know the Church was not put on this planet to whine, we were placed here to win.

It's so easy to inflame people by implying that children "being taught how to be gay." Of course the bill, SB48, isn't as dire as Hagee makes it out to be. But why explain things in a truthful manner when you can get a better reaction by appealing to their ignorance, fear, and sense of entitlement all at the same time?

Mostly though, it's all about entitlement. When those in the religious right whine about the so-called gay agenda corrupting children, particularly in public schools, they always omit the fact that gay children attend public schools and that same-sex families have children attending public schools. They always omit that both of these groups deserve lesson plans which speak to them and their family situation.

And let's not be naive. That omission is intentional.

To Hagee and the audience which applauded his drivel, it will never be about us. To folks like Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, and Rick Santorum, the idea of family never includes us. And to organizations like NOM and the Family Research Council, ideas about improving marriage and family has nothing to do with our needs because to them, we are "pretend families."

When they rail against us, they are merely throwing tantrums because we aren't buying into their idea of  entitlement. And we should never. 

One more thing. The last time I checked, lgbtqs are also children of God. Apparently Hagee not only wants to excise the gay community from our rightful place in society, but also our rightful place in God's eyes.

Hat tip to  Right Wing Watch.

Maggie Gallagher continues to mistake bigotry for victimhood

Maggie, Maggie, Maggie!

Even though she is no longer chairwoman of the National Organization for Marriage, Maggie Gallagher continues with this same whiny line:

"It's becoming increasingly clear that the gay rights movement, the gay marriage movement, really does believe you're like a racist if you think marriage is the union of husband and wife."

I've done this so many times and it warrants repeating yet again. I apologize to folks who have read this piece in other forms but don't blame me. Madame Gallagher is playing the Scarlett O'Hara game of thinking that if she places her fingers in her ears and ignores past events which have transpired in which NOM has been caught in unscrupulous behavior, she can plead victimhood.

The comical thing that this argument got literally laughed out of courts.

But Gallagher's argument has power amongst the very gullible, so as long as she plays that game, I will run the following reminder.

To whit, no one considers Gallagher or NOM bigoted for believing that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. Gallagher and NOM are bigoted because of their unscrupulous tactics. Let me repeat the history complete with new instances:

May 10, 2011 - NOM exploiting children to stop gay marriage in New York - NOM puts out a commercial in New York repeating the variation of the "kindergartners are being taught about gay marriage" lie which was exposed by Politifact in February.


May 14, 2011 - Politifact gives NOM 'Pants on Fire' rating for lying - Politifact catches NOM lying yet again. This time it is about marriage equality in Rhode Island. 

May 15, 2011 - Brian Brown reveals NOM's anti-gay game of divide and conquer - At a march against marriage equality in New York, NOM president Brian Brown repeats the lie that  " . . . kids as young as kindergarten are taught in Massachusetts that their parents are bigots because they believe marriage is the union of a man and a woman."

NOM exploits Penn State tragedy against gay community in completion of vile circle

Since the awful situation concerning Penn State and the molestation of children broke, various religious right spokespeople and groups have been tiptoeing around connecting the situation with homosexuality.

And now the National Organization for Marriage is doing some tiptoeing of its own via the organization it sponsors, the Ruth Institute.

From Equality Matters:

In a November 15 blog post, NOM’s Ruth Institute posted an excerpt from an article by anti-gay activist Michael Brown titled “What could end Rush Limbaugh’s career?” The article focused on a recent incident on Limbaugh’s radio show during which the conservative commentator toyed with the idea of saying what “nobody’s got the guts to say” about the Penn State scandal, but then backed away out of fear that voicing his thoughts would “end” his career.

Brown, of course, had his own theory for what Limbaugh was referring to:

He takes on the president, the Congress, and the media (not to mention his derisive attacks on foreign leaders and even radical Muslims), but there's one group he won't take on, one subject he won't touch.

What is it that, in his words, could end his career? What is it about the Penn State scandal that is "glaring; it's right in front of everybody," and yet "Nobody has the guts to actually give the explanation for what was going on and why there was trepidation in reporting it"?

Could it be that the sex abuse scandal involved a man allegedly abusing boys, meaning that the acts were homosexual in nature? And could it be that even Rush Limbaugh didn't have the guts to address this? (Contrary to the protestations of some, a man who is sexually involved with boys is a homosexual pedophile; a man who is sexually involved with girls is a heterosexual pedophile.)

The implication is absolutely tasteless and even more so when one takes into account that the Ruth Institute earlier this week attacked gay adoption by implying that gays are stealing children from the African-American community.

Now in all honesty, it would be a cheap shot for me to bring to attention the irony of the Catholic-affiliated groups NOM and the Ruth Institute trying to pin the acts of a pedophile on the gay community in light of numerous scandals involving the Catholic Church and priests who have been called out for molesting children.

I am not trying to paint the entire Catholic Church with a broad brush.

I just want it noted that it's simply highly ironic.

'Huffington Post honors queer youth with awesome photo spread' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Sometimes we forget that this is what it's all about. Our time on this Earth is short so we must make sure that we do the right things while here. And one of the best things we can do is equip the next generation with mentoring and role models. These things are crucial in getting them to see the need to never give up on themselves and as well as convincing them to make the right decisions about their lives.

Chaz Bono's appearance on Dancing with the Stars may seem trite to some folks, but to others, it was the light at the end of the tunnel.

And in other news

Queer Kids (PHOTOS) - Speaking of which, check out this awesome photo display on the Huffington Post about the next generation of lgbtqs. I applaud and salute these kids on their bravery and fierceness.
  
HUD Secretary Becomes Highest Administration Official To Support Same-Sex Marriage - Not bad. Not bad at all.

Noebel Blames Gay Rights Advocates For Penn State Abuse Scandal - Another day, another fool.

Gay-bashing 'Prophetess' Can't Stay Out of Jail - Can it be? A family crazier than the Phelps clan.

So Marcus Bachmann Called Yesterday… - Guess who wants to be paid for nothing?