'SC judge takes himself off of marriage equality case' and other Friday midday news briefs

EXCLUSIVE: Judge bows out of SC gay marriage suit - Well this is interesting. The judge overseeing the SC marriage equality case has himself removed because as a member of the executive board of the Indian Waters Council of the Boy Scouts of America, he voted for the policy to admit gay Boy Scouts, but not gay Scout leaders. It should give you an indication to just how HOT this case is going to be.  

Illinois Bishop Will Offer Exorcism For Marriage Equality - I won't do it but by all means, feel free to make snide comments about the lack of exorcisms when came to Catholic priests molesting children. 

John Boehner Clearly Doesn’t Understand Why ENDA Is Necessary - Uh, Boehner is bull@#!ing.

California anti-trans coalition has no plan for transgender protection - And this surprises whom? Nobody. 

Houston's Harris County adopts sweeping policy aimed at protecting LGBT inmates - This is a good thing. 

How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America - In light of my morning post regarding anti-gay groups in America trying to seek what they can out of Russia's anti-gay law, this link is highly important regarding their claims and lies. If you have a problem downloading it, email me at charlekenghis@aol.com and I will email you an adobe acrobat copy.

Religious right groups want to 'study' Russian anti-gay laws

Sen. Mark Kirk

The bad news - there is a group of American religious right organizations supportive to Russia's anti-gay laws and looking to replicate that madness in the United States.

The good news - Illinois Senator Mark Kirk canceled their access to a room in the United States Senate where they were going to have a Friday event. Kirk's office later issued a comment - “Sen. Kirk doesn’t affiliate with groups that discriminate.”

The bad news - see item one and get spooked:

Late Thursday, Illinois Senator Mark Kirk’s office abruptly canceled access to a Senate meeting room for a Friday event scheduled by a social conservative organization that is supportive of Russia’s “homosexual propaganda” ban, event organizers told BuzzFeed.

LGBT activists were outraged to learn that the World Congress of Families, which is currently planning a global summit of supporters of the “traditional family” to be held in Moscow in 2014, would be holding an event in a meeting room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The WCF is a project of the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society, based in Rockford, Illinois.

“Shame on you, Senator Kirk, for allowing vocal radical sexual minorities to drown out the voices of the natural family and faith that have made our nation free, prosperous, and stable for more than 200 years,” said Larry Jacobs, managing director of the World Congress of Families in an email to BuzzFeed. “Obviously Senator Kirk doesn’t care about families and children and freedom and has chosen to side with the policies of decline, death and disease promoted by the Sexual Radicals.”

A spokesman for Kirk, Lance Trover, told BuzzFeed on Thursday night, “Sen. Kirk doesn’t affiliate with groups that discriminate.”

WCF convened a planning meeting in Moscow last month that brought together leading American LGBT-rights opponents — including Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage and Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family — with top Russian supporters of the anti-propaganda law and social conservatives from several other countries. The event scheduled to be held Friday in the Dirksen building was billed in a WCF press release as a discussion of “what can our pro-family legislators learn — positively and negatively — by studying our colleagues’ actions abroad.”

  . . .The panelists include Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Senior Fellow at the Concerned Women for America’s The Beverly LaHaye Institute, and Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute. It was scheduled to be hosted by Howard Center President Allan Carlson. 

Go to Buzzfeed for the rest of this story and see this document via the Human Right Campaign for the anti-gay backgrounds of the panelists.

Throwback Thursday - The Electric Company

I now interrupt the regularly scheduled denunciation of religious right lies with clips of songs from that old 1970s series 'The Electric Company.'

The usual scheduled program of religious right refutations will be back tomorrow morning:

 

 

 

'Anti-gay spokesman implies that potential gay parents lust after babies' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Klingenschmitt: Photo Of Gay Couple With A Baby 'Looks To Me A Little Bit Like Lust' - If the above video gets you mad, then GOOD! It's why I do what I do. We cannot be taken in when the religious right groups and personalities make themselves appear to be innocent and credible. Behind every Tony Perkins is a Gordon Klingenschmitt. And behind every innocuous statement about the "gay lifestyle" and "religious liberty" is tripe like this. Don't get so disgusted that you forget that in the fight for lgbt equality, we have to spotlight the hatred of the other side, no matter how nauseating that hatred is.  

FRC priorities: Pray for marriage inequality, discriminatory photographers, and, oh yeah—the typhoon victims too - If you were praying to God, what would dominate your prayer? Concern for the folks caught up in that awful typhoon in the Philippines or a reverse and defeat pro-lgbt laws like ENDA, and marriage equality. What if you were the Family Research Council? 

REPORT: LGBT Workers Of Color Face Many Barriers In The American Workforce - Something you probably won't see or hear about on African-American networks or news programs. And that's a real shame.  

Daily Caller Publishes Racist, Ableist Op-Ed To Attack Protections For Transgender Students - There is something to offend everyone in this piece.

It's official! Hawaii is a marriage equality state

It's official. Hawaii is now a marriage equality state as of yesterday when Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed the bill into law. And as the video below shows, the final vote in the Senate was contentious. But it should inspire the lgbt community.  Things worth having are worth fighting for, no matter how hard the fight to come may be.

Bryan Fischer and the 'ex-gay Neo Nazi porn star' who was 'swallowed by Satan'

So while Hawaii becomes the 15th marriage equality state (to be followed by Illinois), Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association chose to interview man who claims to be an ex-gay Neo Nazi porn star who was "swallowed by Satan."

What does all of this mean? Other than the fact that moderate Christians need to step up and speak out against these crazy people before more people turn against their religion, I don't know. I'm still scratching my head over this one:

'Fox News bungling coverage of lgbt discrimination' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Fox News' Disastrous Coverage Of LGBT Discrimination Case - How Fox News continues to distort stories regarding lgbt equality should be a front page article in all of the lgbt publications. But it won't be because we are desensitized. 

238 Trans People Murdered Worldwide In The Past Year - This here is a terrible development. We often forget about our transgender brothers and sisters. 

Meet The Anti-LGBT Extremists Behind The Campaign To Repeal California's Transgender Protections - And I put the blame on ignorance expressed in this article. 

Congress Votes To End The Outdated Ban On HIV Organ Transplants And Research - Holy smokes! Congress did something useful. Well it did kinda snow in South Carolina last night. 

 Rios: Report On Gay Waiter Who Received Anti-Gay Message A 'Ruse' To Help ENDA - Okay, who leaked this to Rios? Whoever did gets dropped in my shark tank.