NOM's attack on gay families subtle but dangerous

For an organization created to supposedly "defend marriage," the National Organization for Marriage seems to be going into hyper drive in an effort put the disappearing dust on same-sex families.
Check out three recent posts on its blog:

UK Survey Aims to Make Pre-School Classes "Gay Friendly"

French Primary School Kids to Get Lessons in Gay Parenting

Ontario Judge: Parents Have No Right to Know What Gay Activist Taught Their Children

The claims made by these headlines and the articles they are talking about are highly specious, coming from what appears to religious right sources. For example, take the one about UK survey attempting to make pre-school classes "gay friendly." NOM links the story from The UK Christian Institute and it is as follows:

Parents in the East End of Glasgow were shocked to be asked about their sex lives, so that their pre-school children would get “gay-friendly” lessons. Mums and Dads were offered free theatre tickets in exchange for answering a survey about their sexual orientation. The study was carried out by a local arts group which is part-run by the city council. The aim of the Platform charity’s questionnaire, was to help “monitor the degree to which our programmes are gay-friendly”. 

Please note that the article claims that parents were being asked about their sex lives but in reality, they were asked about their sexual orientation. Two other publications verify that the question asked was merely about sexual orientation, not sexual activity. Unfortunately however, both publications also featured hysterical and inaccurate headlines about sexual activity.

What's happening here is subtle but nonetheless dangerous. NOM is conflating any questions designed to help same-sex families to that of scurrilous questions about sexual activity.

Granted, I can understand a tad the trepidation some may feel about being asked about their sexual orientation. But to automatically assume that these questions are a gateway to being asked about sexual activity is an extreme stretch.

NOM's 'victim for hire' calls Obama the 'Terrorist-in-Chief'

How did I miss this one? It seems that one of the National Organization for Marriage's "victims for hire" wasn't happy with Obama's re-election.

In fact, he called the President a terrorist. Equality Matters gives us the full story:

Damian Goddard – spokesperson for NOM’s Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance (ADA) – published a post on his blog chastising Americans considering moving to Canada as a result of President Obama’s reelection. In his November 8 post, Goddard urged conservatives to stay in America and fight against Obama, who he called “the Terrorist-in-Chief”:

[S]top your complaining.  Please.  For the love of God.

You live in the freest country ever known to mankind.  As the anthem states, America is the land of the free but freedom comes with bravery, not running and hiding.   Your job is to stay.  And fight.  For the battle is still ongoing.

You leave, the terrorists win.  And heck, isn’t that what the Terrorist-in-Chief wants, anyway?

For those who are not aware, Damian Goodard was a Canadian sportscaster who was let go from his job. Goodard claimed that it was because of a tweet he sent out against marriage equality. However, the company that fired him, Sportsnet, denied that this was the case.  The company said he was fired for personal matters which it will not reveal because of its policy to not talk about personnel matters to the press.

Since the time of his firing, Goodard has made a name for himself by teaming up with NOM as a supposed victim of marriage equality:



Goodard's vicious attack on President Obama is not surprising. Instead it rather fits in well with the hypocrisy that is NOM's Anti-Defamation Alliance.

I suppose Maggie Gallagher and company will now label Goodard a larger victim. After all, whatever happened to the good old days when one could label the president as a terrorist with impunity?

 

'Uganda to pass homophobic law as Christmas gift?' and other Monday midday news briefs

Uganda to pass anti-gay law as 'Christmas gift'? - Stop the celebration. Looks like we've got work to do.  

NOM rounds out losing week by admitting intent to stir up international animus - Just in time for NOM to exploit international homophobia.  

How the Minnesota marriage amendment was defeated -- money, passion, allies - Read and take notes. We are going to need to do this again and again. 

 Veterans Day Highlights Persisting LGBT Inequities In The Military - Let's honor our veterans for the sacrifices they have made for our freedoms. ALL of our veterans. 

Dan Savage dares Tony Perkins, Family Research Council to sue him

Say what you will about Dan Savage, he is doing what needs to be done here.  For too long, members of the lgbt community - especially those in positions of power - have dodged taking on the Family Research Council and all of the other anti-gay groups for whatever reason.

They seem to ignore the old adage that a good defense is always an offense. In other words, we tend to wait until Perkins and company call us out before engaging them in a discussion or, what I like to call, a much needed verbal war.

Our path to equality will not be shortened by ignoring FRC, NOM, or any of the other groups who deliberately peddle homophobic junk science. They are the roadblocks and sometimes you need to confront roadblocks without provocation with the expressed goal of knocking them out of the way.

Dan Savage is trying to do that here and it is my hope that others follow in his footsteps.

Know Your LGBT History - The Stonewall Riots of 1969

As we celebrate the hard-earned victories we attained this week, let's not forget those who paved the way for us to reach this point. While gay history began millenniums before the Stonewall Riots, this incident in 1969 was the beginning of the American gay rights movement, when we first learned the sweet taste of satisfaction which comes from standing up for one's self in the face of oppression.

Past Know Your LGBT History posts:

'Ex-gay counselor arrested for molesting patients' and other Friday midday news briefs

Rev. Ryan J. Muelhauser, Ex-Gay Counsellor, Arrested For Molestation Of Two Young Men - Absolutely fiendish. Something to remember the next time Linda Harvey and that bunch start whining about the CA law prohibiting the subjection of our children to ex-gay therapy.  

New NOM talking point: It wasn't a fair fight - For once NOM was right, but not in the way it thinks. They had more access to money and resources and still got their asses kicked.

 Rep. Mark Ferrandino: Colo. Democrats Pick State's 1st Gay House Speaker - Sweet! And the gold from Tuesday keeps raining down.  

How Major State Newspapers Covered The Fight For Marriage Equality - State newspapers aren't doing the job they need to when talking about anti-gay groups. And to me, the main reason this is happening is because we aren't doing a better job of exposing them. Don't wait for them to do stuff to us. Put THEM on the defensive for a change. We have enough information on these groups, i.e. how they lie and distort science. The problem is that the only folks who are pushing this info are the bloggers like myself. Where are the supposed "A-list" gay journalists?  Maybe if many of them stop disrespecting and hating on gay bloggers and work with us instead, a lot can be accomplished.

Hate group leader predicts violent revolution because of marriage equality

One of the delicious side effects to Tuesday's monumental marriage equality victories is watching the opposition freak out and prognosticate how the gay community will lead to America's destruction. In the following clip, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, still stinging from the gay community's victories in Minnesota, Maine, Maryland, and Washington state, predicts revolution if the Supreme Court ultimately rules in favor of marriage equality:



Whatever, Tony. There will be a revolution, just as sure as the passage of lgbt-inclusive hate crimes legislation led to pastors being arrested for publicly calling homosexuality a sin. Or the overturning of DADT would led to folks leaving military service because they can't fight off sexually aggressive gays and lesbians in their units.

Oh wait. Neither of those things - predicted by FRC and other anti-gay groups - never came true.

That's the thing with Perkins and FRC. They are always eager to predict negative outcomes if gay equality is advanced, but are never called to the carpet when their dire predictions don't come true. And their predictions never come true.

Most likely when the Supreme Court does declare marriage equality legal (and I hope that they do), there will be some anger, but for the most part, Americans will shrug their shoulders and go about their business. Leaving Perkins and company with egg on their faces yet again.