A good gay = pedophile lie NEVER dies

With news from coming in that the Boy Scouts may rethink its policy of keeping gays out, it didn't take long for the religious right to start pulling the pedophile card.

Allow me to decode what they are saying via Right Wing Watch:

Bryan Fischer from the American Family Association:

Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council:

"The Boy Scouts of America board would be making a serious mistake to bow to the strong-arm tactics of LGBT activists and open the organization to homosexuality. What has changed in terms of the Boy Scouts' concern for the well-being of the boys under their care? Or is this not about the well-being of the Scouts, but the funding for the organization?

"The Boy Scouts has for decades been a force for moral integrity and leadership in the United States. Sadly, their principled stances have marked them as a target for harassment by homosexual activists and corporations such as UPS which are working to pressure the Boy Scouts into abandoning their historic values.

"The mission of the Boy Scouts is 'to instill values in young people' and 'prepare them to make ethical choices,' and the Scout's oath includes a pledge 'to do my duty to God' and keep himself 'morally straight.' It is entirely reasonable and not at all unusual for those passages to be interpreted as requiring abstinence from homosexual conduct.

In other words:

 Lies unchallenged never change and they never die. Don't be fooled by the mock concern of Perkins and Fischer. I would bet my paycheck that when they heard of what the Boy Scouts were considered , they rubbed their hands thinking about the fundraising they are going to do off of it.

And trust me, they will fundraise. Why let a good gay = pedophile lie go to waste?

'Politifact TORCHES NOM' and other Monday midday news briefs

Politifact: NOM's Pants Are On Fire - The National Organization for Marriage is a sleazy organization which gets away with its continuous lies because the lgbt community and media is too blase to care and therefore the mainstream media follows suit. I mean really, how many of you just yawned while thinking of a snarky comment about NOM being caught in a lie again? We have to take this stuff more seriously and point it out every chance we get.  

Boy Scouts Of America Forces Local Troop To Remove LGBT-Inclusive Nondiscrimination Clause - Well that sucks.  

Non-discrimination bill passes in Va. Senate - Good for the Virginia Senate. But the Virginia House isn't necessarily looking in our favor.  

Family to memorialize slain trans woman - We need to stand up for our transgender brothers and sisters.

Maryland Marriage Equality Leads To Big Paydays For Wedding Vendors - Sweeeeeet!

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s niece makes wild claims about Obama, NAACP

Alveda King

According to Alveda King, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s niece, African-Americans are angry at Obama and the NAACP for their stances on abortion, contraception, and, of course, marriage equality.

In fact, she is claiming that African-Americans are taking drastic action. King said the following in an article in the American Family Association's One News Now:

 King says the NAACP could turn itself around, but only through repenting. The movement of African-Americans calling for repentance from the NAACP is growing. "African-Americans are coming out and burning membership cards to the NAACP," King says. "Thousands of African-Americans across this land have spoken out against the president's agenda, which includes homosexual marriage, abortion, contraceptives."

It is sad that national figures seem to always be followed by family members who do nothing more than ride their coattails to fame.

Former President Jimmy Carter had Billy Carter and former President Bill Clinton had Roger Clinton.

Fortunately, President Obama doesn't seem to have that problem with a personal relative. But, as a proxy, Martin Luther King, Jr's niece seems to be wanting to fill in the role.

Last year, I had to check Ms. King because I suspected that she told a blatant lie about Bayard Rustin, an openly gay aide to MLK and the coordinator of the 1963 March on Washington. At the time, she claimed that Rustin tried to persuade MLK into supporting gay equality and when he refused, Rustin resigned.

As a black gay man whose sees Rustin as a role model, I couldn't let that claim pass without calling her out. Subsequently, my demands for the truth led to a personal interview with Ms. King. This interview led me to believe that she was not only being deceptive about Rustin, but also her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. She tried to talk over me when I asked her questions and ended the interview by hanging up on me.

This time, I don't think anyone needs an interview to refute Ms. King's charges about Obama and the NAACP. After all, Obama was elected with a landslide of electoral college votes as well as the popular vote. And an enormously large part of that was the black community.

Furthermore, just how many African-Americans are burning their NAACP membership cards? One person? Two people? Three? And just where is this "growing" movement of African-Americans calling for the NAACP to "repent?"

Ms. King seems to be speaking in generalities but if one asked her for particulars, I doubt she could point out any of them.

She really should give it up because she is fooling no one but the willfully ignorant. She is a poseur and a fake. And not even a good one.

WOW! NOM posts a rude pic, wants to make ugly history

From my online buddy Jeremy Hooper comes something from the National Organization for Marriage which is just so (my Julia Sugarbaker voice)- STUPID:

It's stupid because it's half-sighted. So a man and a woman copulating creates a child. But it says nothing about the well-being or caring of the child.

Any man or woman can make a child, but it takes a real mother or father to be a parent. And in that respect, the gay community has done very good for itself.

But this ridiculous poster from NOM enhances the sad fact of how the organization is attempting to play heterosexual households and same-sex households who are raising children against one another.

The raising of a child is not a competition. It is a blessing which belongs to everyone who can partake in it.

By the way, boys and girls. I hear that NOM is planning a national march on Washington at the same time the Supreme Court will be deliberating on DOMA and Prop 8.

You realize that if this happens, NOM will make history.

Generally, marches on Washington are about attaining rights which are deserved but not given, such as the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington (organized by a gay man by the way - Bayard Rustin) and the several marches for gay equality. Marches on Washington are about bringing attention to an injustices such as war and poverty.

With NOM's march, this will probably be the first time there will a march on Washington demanding that  inequality, discrimination, and second-class status be foisted on a group of Americans (lgbts).

Go figure.

Know Your LGBT History - Tales from the Crypt - 'The Assassin'

 Let's have a little fun today. Having a character in a movie or tv show being revealed as lgbt is always a good plot twist, even though sometimes it's not necessarily a positive one for the community.

Check out this episode of Tales from the Crypt entitled  "The Assassin" and tell me what you think. The plot twist is probably easy to tell, but I want to know how do you feel about it?

Is it offensive, empowering, or just a plot twist which shouldn't be made a big deal out of.


Past Know Your LGBT History posts:

'Prop 8, DOMA Supreme Court briefs distorts parenting study' and other Friday midday news briefs

Anti-gay legal briefs ‘mischaracterized’ parenting study - Well will you look at this. Lawyers defending Prop 8 and DOMA distorted a study to claim that same-sex parents are less able to raise children than heterosexual parents. This distortion is in  briefs they submitted to the Supreme Court. And this news comes from the organization who conducted the study via The Washington Blade:

 “We have pointed this out repeatedly, yet to our dismay we continue to see our 2002 research mischaracterized by some opponents of same-sex marriage.” - Carol Emig, president of Child Trends.

My beautiful gay community, this is huge and if it does not receive as much or more attention than Jodie Foster's speech at the Golden Globes, well then I guess we can point out a problem as to why things are so difficult in the fight for equality.  

Editor's note - Distorting legitimate research for their own ends is an unfortunate hallmark of religious right groups. Pages 8 - 10 of my booklet, How They See Us, spotlights 12 times in which religious right groups have engaged in this specious practice.

In other news:

Alveda King claims marriage equality as facet of 'reproductive genocide' - Jimmy Carter had Billy Carter. Bill Clinton had Roger Clinton. And now the Martin Luther King, Jr. family has Alveda.

Russian Parliament Advances National Bill Banning ‘Propaganda of Homosexualism’ - Oh brother!

If You Could Refrigerate Homosexuality, It Wouldn't Be A Sin - I. . . I just can't comment on this. I just can't.

Do religious right groups really care about placing children in homes at all?

The above graphic supplied by my blogging comrade Jeremy Hooper has me thinking about children and the religious right

It is from the National Organization for Marriage and encompasses a standard religious right talking point used when the organization attempts to stymie marriage equality, i.e. claiming that allowing gays to marry would deprive children of the "right" to have a mother and a father.

I have heard that same talking point used extensively by other religious right organizations such as the Family Research Council and politicians and public figures who carry their water, so to speak, such as Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee.

I am of the personal belief that a child needs a good home, regardless of whether that home encompasses the mother/father dynamic, single parent dynamic, or the gay parent (s) dynamic. No matter how much research groups like NOM can manufacture or cherry-pick, the fact is a home with love and support is what matters most.

And it's better than no home at all, which brings me to my point.

According to several groups involved in the adoption of children, there are over 120,000 children waiting to be adopted. In fact, one group, Children Awaiting Parents,  says:

Most are school-aged or older. There are brothers and sisters who need to stay together. More than 60% of the children come from minority cultures. The majority are boys. Many have emotional, physical, learning disabilities or mental retardation. All are waiting for the love and security that only a permanent family can offer. 

For all of their pronouncements that "every child has a right to a mom and a dad" and "children need homes with mothers and fathers,"  I am not aware of any effort by NOM, FRC, or any religious right group or their supporters working to get children out of the foster care system and into that mother/father dynamic they preach so fervently about.

No initiatives. No sponsorship of legislation. Nothing

The only time I hear these groups and individuals suddenly care about children having decent homes at all is when they are attempting to them away from gay households.

That tells me either these religious right groups and their supporters are willfully forgetting children in foster care or that they don't really care about whether or not children actually are placed in good homes.

Just as long as they aren't placed in gay homes.