North Carolina expose on anti-gay group NOM should be required reading for us all

Okay while this isn't as glamorous as a Lady Gaga song or as shocking as Neil Patrick Harris (or NPH for those who want to perpetrate like they know him)'s slur against the transgender community, an expose published today by the North Carolina gay publication QNotes on the National Organization for Marriage  and its campaign against marriage equality in the state is very important and very vital for us all to read.

Enough of the "we already know this" chatter.  The fact of the matter is that many of us don't know the things we should know about NOM and a lot of us who do aren't taking the time to educate our friends and families, or making a loud enough stink about it,  or supporting the publications which bring this information out (full disclosure - I contributed to this expose):

In past campaigns, NOM has been caught pushing obvious misinformation, lies and spin.

This year, the group came under fire for misrepresenting supposed “legal scholars” opposed to marriage equality. Each of the several scholars cited by the organization were extremely biased and one, Robert George, is a former NOM board chairman.

NOM has also regularly exploited children in their political quests.

Also this year, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Politifact knocked the group for their repeated claims that legalization of same-sex marriage in New York would lead to kindergarteners learning about same-sex relationships.

The group has also attempted to link homosexuality to pedophilia — not once, but twice. The NOM-affiliated Ruth Institute has also claimed that homosexuality is a “learned” and “addictive” behavior.

In August, NOM accused gay activists of engaging in “jihad” to take away anti-gay Christians’ rights.

One of NOM’s first campaigns featured a billboard comparing a marriage equality supporter to Judas and Benedict Arnold. The group reincarnated the theme this year for mailers targeting pro-gay legislators in New York.

Equality Matters has provided a more in-depth run-down of NOM’s efforts in New York.

And here is where I am quoted:

South Carolina blogger and anti-gay watchdog Alvin McEwen told qnotes that he expects a strong NOM presence in the lead-up to the May 8, 2012, vote on the amendment.

How NOM goes about instituting their campaign strategy is a question still left unanswered. McEwen said the group’s past rhetoric and actions provide some clues.

“Look for them to push that nonsense about how ‘the best research says that children belong in a home with a mother and father,’” McEwen said. “Also, I expect them to push the lie about the Catholic Charities ‘being forced’ to give up helping to place adoptive children. The thing about NOM and other religious right groups is that they are big on ambushing people with anecdotes and horror stories about situations that allegedly happen because of marriage equality and the like. The big thing is to remember that they never tell the entire story.”
NOM’s campaigns often take a three-pronged approach, McEwen said.

“My guess is that NOM is going to target three angles — ‘gay marriage will harm children,’ ‘gay marriage will destroy religious liberty’ and ‘gays are trying to piggyback off of the Civil Rights Movement.’”

The entire expose is here.

Sometimes our community takes things for granted. In order to defeat NOM, we must expose the organization's lies every chance we get, as well as support the publications which do the same thing.

'Michele Bachmann gets schooled on same-sex families' and other Monday midday news briefs

Rep. Bachmann's Twisted Logic On Support For LGBT High School Kids - What bothers me about Bachmann's recent comments is that very few challenged her on the insult of reducing same-sex relationships and families to sexual intercourse.

BREAKING - As the video shows, Bachmann meets a child in one of those families she reduced to sex acts. It's doubtful that she will give this family and other like it the respect they deserve, but it's still nice to see her schooled:



 And in other news:

How he became a she - A very impressive feature expose on the transgender community.

If Newt Gingrich is the nominee, the GOP loses the marriage debate - No comment on whether or not I'm rooting for Newt. I don't want to jinx it.

DELAWARE: For state's same-sex couples, end of wait near - January promises to be interesting for Delaware.

Outrage – Church tells HIV+ patients to stop taking meds, claiming they were ‘healed’ - And the "healing process" was nauseating.

NOM lands in North Carolina, allies already pulling the pedophilia card

According to the North Carolina gay publication, QNotes, I have some interesting neighbors up north:

A referendum committee formed by several anti-gay religious groups is among the latest official campaign organizations set up for an impending ballot initiative on an anti-LGBT state constitutional amendment banning marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.

The committee, Vote for Marriage NC, was formed last week by a coalition of groups including the N.C. Baptist State Convention, Christian Action League, NC Values Coalition, a coalition of African American pastors and the National Organization for Marriage.

 . . . “We very much look forward to a dialogue with North Carolina voters about the importance of preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of NC Values Coalition, said in a release. “The marriage amendment ensures that voters and not activist judges will decide the definition of marriage in our state. Marriage as the union of one man and one woman has served North Carolina well since before we were a state, and it’s time we respected the institution of marriage enough to protect it in our state constitution.”

Fitzgerald is a former lobbyist for the Christian Action League and N.C. Family Policy Council, groups affiliated with national organizations named as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Fitzgerald’s NC Values Coalition led the fight for legislative approval of the amendment, which came in September. The group has provided the new committee’s first $1,000 in funding.

 . . . “We are going to keep it on a positive note: keeping marriage as marriage and keeping it from being redefined,” she told the paper.

Of course we all know it means when anti-marriage equality folks say that they want to "keep the discussion on a positive note."

Should they accuse gays of wanting to corrupt children,  wanting to imprison Christians, or maybe both?

Luckily, however, QNotes is already starting to raise questions about the finances of this group in light of the fact that NOM continues to hide its donors - in violation of the law - in several other states. (Full discloure - this blogger is quoted in that article).

As for "positive discussion," according to Pam Spaulding, that nonsense has already been thrown out of the window after a debate yesterday on a radio show between two African-American community leaders - Dr. Patrick L. Wooden, Sr. of the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, NC who supports the amendment and Rep. Marcus Brandon (D-60, Guilford County), who opposes it

I'm willing to bet that Wooden is a part of that newly-formed coalition. According to Pam, Wooden made a number of interesting statements:

He stated statistics (providing no source) that gay men in relationships have 8 partners outside of relationship. Too bad no one asked him about Herman Cain’s fidelity. (Editor's note - Wooden is distorting the Netherlands study which looked at casual relationships between gay men in the years before gay marriage was legalized in that area. It excluded lesbians and gay men in monogamous relationships).

He compared same-sex marriage to pedophilia.

. . . My favorite howler from Wooden: ”They are going to have to teach anal sex in the public school classroom” if gays can marry.

In contrast, Brandon came off as reasonable (hell, a badly bleating horn would come off as reasonable compared to Wooden):

Marcus Brandon did an excellent job of addressing the hypocrisy of the religious objection, noting Wooden has not called for an amendment to ban adultery and divorce, two sins that are in the Bible, as well as throwing back in Wooden’s face charges that the black civil rights movement has nothing to do with LGBT rights, saying ‎“these are all false arguments; Rosa Parks was tired because she was treated differently…That is what the civil rights movement was about.”

Whatever the case may be, the question of marriage equality in NC is heating up. And it would do the gay community well to start preparing now. As idiotic as Wooden sounded, he was getting those statistics from somewhere. And we are probably going to be hearing more of them.

It's not going to be pretty. But then again, the best victories are never pretty.

What about the gay members of Eddie Long's church?

The situation with Eddie Long and his wife continues to get interesting. Long is the minister of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in GA embroiled in a scandal which led to him paying off four young men who claimed that he sexually coerced them. Yesterday, Long's wife said she plans to file for divorce. She then retracted the statement.

Now, it has been announced that the plans for divorce is on again.

It's a sad situation regarding hypocrisy in the black church which no one wants to address. The black church will knowingly embrace gang members, drug dealers, people who have sex outside marriage while attending church. But an upstanding openly gay or lesbian is enemy number one to it. To this day, there is have been no adequate discussions on this conundrum.

Long's scandal is also a case of possible kismet. He benefited immensely from his very public stances - including a huge rally - against marriage equality, even to the point of conveniently getting some of that "faith-based initiative money" doled out by the Bush Administration.

Long's ministry received over $1 million.

But now Long is losing more than just money. He has lost his name, his reputation, and standing.

However, there are victims in this situation in which no one is talking about - the African-American gay and lesbians members of Long's church and other churches like his.

Let's focus on them for a change.

The following interview is from when the scandal began with a gay member of Long's church. It's hard to watch, particularly when he states the reason why many gay men still attend the church.

His words underscore the fact that the reason why black gays and lesbians flock to negative environments like Long's church because it's difficult for them to find any support or positive reinforcement in regards to their sexual orientation from any other place - even those which are supposed to be "gay-friendly."

The interview with this young man should send a message to the lgbtq community at large that we need to do more to embrace our all of own, even those who don't fit the stereotypical "white-bread" supposed normal definition of being gay in America:



Related posts:

Eddie Long wants his money back

Eddie Long's accusers speak out even after settlement

Anti-gay pastor Eddie Long's fifth accuser in lawsuit

Eddie Long scandal underscores failure of the black church

Eddie Long scandal - Chronology of what has happened and where we are now  
 

Know Your LGBT History - Shameless

One of the problems with having to deal with negative gay images on television and in the movies is that it taints efforts to push three-dimensional images.

No one is completely good nor evil, and the images we see should reflect that. However when a group is faced with having to see nothing but negative images, it makes them hypersensitive to the point that they rail against any image deemed negative while totally forgetting that a good two-shoes image of the gay community is as debilitating as a negative image.

With that in mind, I bring you Shameless, a Showtime television drama which is based on a British drama of the same name.

It tells the story of a dysfunctional family led by an alcoholic father. All of the characters are interesting, to say the least.

However for the purpose of this blog, I want to focus on one of the children, Ian.

Ian (Cameron Monaghan) is a 15-year-old gay young man working at a grocery store. He is having an affair with his employer, the Muslim owner. He is also messing around with the local thug, Mickey.

He is a perfect example of what I was talking about earlier. Ian is a very complex character.  One could say that he is the anti-Glee character. No doubt, he would give both folks on the left and the right in this so-called culture war extreme palpitations.

I personally like the characterization. He is merely a young man dealing with life has thrown his way, whether it be a dsysfunctional family life, or a gay orientation.

The following clips shows several scenes in Ian's life, particularly his relationship with Mickey. The thing I really like about this relationship is how it's not sugarcoated. Pay special attention to 2:30 to 4:10. Some folks may find it a bit intense:



Past Know Your LGBT Posts:

'NOM pushing phony google polls' and other Friday midday news briefs

NOM Fail: 'What sound does cash make?' edition - The irony is rich. NOM attacks Cuomo for getting campaign donations due to his push for marriage equality while it continues to hide ITS donors.

Nicolosi Retracts Claim of Gay Cure through Antidepressants - Another anti-gay lie down the drain.

Minnesota for Marriage pushes “polls” via web ads - So NOM is now pushing phony push poll ads in Minnesota. Love what that secret money can buy. Of course the goal of these ads is not to gauge response but to push NOM's phony talking points into the minds of Minnesotans.

Anti-Gay Justice To Georgia: ‘You Can’t Discriminate’ Against A Transgender Person - Holy smokes! You have to read this one.

AFA Warns That Same-Sex Marriage Leads to Building, Car and Dog Marriage - Ugh, I say. UGH!

'Porno Pete' tries to besmirch World AIDS Day

Yesterday was World AIDS Day and while there were much necessary information put out there, there was also some unnecessary nonsense.

Our friend, Porno Pete LaBarbera is exploiting the day to whine about the supposed "high risk" of being gay.  It's really nothing we haven't heard before. We all know it's his obsession with gay sex.

And following that obsession, LaBarbera is into demonizing gays and throwing out his idea of what exactly gay sex is rather than solving the problem. Let's break down the fallacies of his points:

1. LaBarbera:  

Recognize HIV/AIDS as a predominantly “gay disease” in the USA (as some LGBT leaders like Matt Foreman have admitted)

Problem - LaBarbera distorts Foreman's call for gays to do more to stop AIDS. What Foreman said is no different than what Phil Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, wrote in this brilliant piece, part of which reads:

There are many reasons why we are so disproportionately impacted by AIDS. But, chief among them is that we've not taken ownership of the AIDS epidemic and responsibility for ending it. Many of us continue to believe that AIDS is someone else's problem. Even as our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, get infected with HIV, develop AIDS and die.

I get the sister from the Black Philanthropy conference's concern about stigma and image. But we can't be more concerned about 'our image' than we are about our lives. Having a raging epidemic run through our community unchecked is actually the last thing we need.

Wanting something to not be so is not the same as it really not being so or doing something about it. AIDS in America today is a Black disease ... unless we do something about it.

Or when Julian Bond said the following:

It is time for the African-American community "to face the fact that AIDS has become a black disease" and find ways to defeat it, the chairman of the NAACP said at the international AIDS summit.

This speaks to another point. LaBarbera cites a CDC fact sheet on AIDS which shows that new infections are higher among young black men than they are among younger white men.


2. LaBarbera:

Stop pretending that all lifestyles are at equal risk for AIDS – because HIV is NOT behaviorally- or lifestyle-neutral. Instead, teach students in school health classes the DOCUMENTED REALITY that certain behaviors, especially male homosexual sex, are especially high-risk for contracting HIV (and other STDs like hepatitis).

 LaBarbera conveniently omits the reasons why people are at risk. The CDC flyer which LaBarbera cites above also says that lack of proper information and social discrimination leads some MSMs (men having sex with men) into high risk behaviors. LaBarbera seems to be saying "stop gays from having sex" when the problem is a bit more complex than that.