Obama signs executive order, anti-gay right nail themselves to their crosses

Yesterday, President Obama signed an executive order expanding protections for lgbt federal workers and prohibits contractors dealing with the federal government from discriminating against lgbts. There were no religious exemptions.

It's not a total ENDA, but it will do for now.

However, to hear some members of the anti-gay right tell it, Obama just gave the go ahead to begin "anti-Christian" persecution across the country.

Matt Barber, no stranger to hysterical hyperbole, had this to say:

Here we have this president acting and ruling as the imperialist president – circumventing Congress, circumventing the separation of powers in order to force his radical, leftist agenda on the rest of America – and targeting and discriminating specifically against Christian companies in order to do so.

Not to be undone, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council reached waaaay back and brought up stereotypes about lgbts:

This order gives activists a license to challenge their employers and, expose those contracted employers to threats of costly legal proceedings and the potential of jeopardizing future contracts. The order further burdens contractors by stripping away their right to set dress and grooming standards. All this amounts to viewpoint blackmail and bullies into silence those contractors and subcontractors who have moral objections to homosexual behavior. 

In spite of the false weeping and portents of doom, what President Obama did was legal and very appropriate. And it shouldn't have to come through executive order.

It should be a given that if you have business with THIS country, you shouldn't be allowed to discriminate, period.

Anti-gay activist Matt Barber has FINALLY gone too far

No one has ever claimed that the Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber has ever observed simple rules of good taste and decorum in his attacks on lgbt equality. However, it is extremely safe to say that the image below, accompanying his post on The Coming Christian Revolt goes way beyond anything - a rainbow flag superimposed behind a photo of African-American protestors being sprayed with water hoses during the Civil Rights Movement:

It's not only a personal insult to me as an lgbt but also an African-American that Barber would exploit what I consider sacred images in order to make a false point.

There will be no "coming Christian revolt," Mr. Barber because no Christian in this country is being discriminated against. Being told to treat everyone the same is not discrimination.  Providing goods and services to people whose taxes pay for the safety of your business is not discrimination.

Your disagreement with the fact that lgbts should have the same rights as heterosexuals is just that - YOUR disagreement. You have a right to believe that, but you don't have a right to codify it into law, particularly if your codification involves junk science, cherry-picked science, or out-and-out lies.

You are not entitled to anything, Mr. Barber. If you are, please educate me. And by all means, please tell me how the elimination of your entitlements ranks next to being denied the right to vote, segregation, lynching, being called "boy" or "gal" as a deliberate sign of disrespect. And if that's too difficult for you, then answer me this:

'Religious liberty' the latest buzzword for homophobia

The more I think of this bogus argument of  "religious liberty" or "religious freedom," the more angry I become about how the entire debate is being conducted with no perspective. "Religious liberty" is merely a new anti-gay buzzword. It is the latest in a long line of concepts and claims used to justify anti-gay animus and discrimination.  It's nothing new and it shouldn't be debated as if it is a new concept. Allow me to elucidate with the use of words and visuals from various anti-gay spokespeople in debates throughout the years:

1970s: Gays are pedophiles - "As a mother I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children. Therefore, they must recruit our children." - Anita Bryant

1980s - The AIDS crisis  ''The poor homosexuals -- they have declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution.'' - columnist and Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan

1990s: Gays in the Military -  "Homosexuals are a very unstable group . . . They are restless in their contacts, lonely, jealous, and neurotic depressive. As a category of people, homosexuals have a greater indiscipline problem than heterosexuals . . ." - Robert (Bob) McGinnis, columnist, present employee with the Family Research Council

 

2000s: Marriage Equality - "Same-sex unions are not marriages. Political regimes based on lies about human nature cannot last. Same-sex marriage takes a sacred institution, with deep roots in human nature, and tries to turn it into the plaything of politicians, a creature of the state, a bundle of rights to be tossed about between adults. Something so feebly rooted, so fragilely constructed and imposed cannot last." - Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage

2010s:  Religious liberty - “I’m beginning to think, are re-education camps next? When are they going to start rolling out the boxcars to start hauling off Christians?” - Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council

NOM's best argument against marriage equality is just TOO sad

Thank you everyone for having patience with me and my lack of posts due to my attendance at Netroots Nation. I should also tell you that I have been "going through it" with other matters so this particular trip was a figurative "fire baptism" of all sorts of problems including a lost I.D., a mistaken canceled prescription, and a break down.

It's not all bad though. Due to my personal issues, I have approached by producers to star in a  new production of Bette Midler's The Rose.

Seriously, please bear with me as I continue to post intermediately about several things.

Today, thanks to Jeremy Hooper, I caught attention to a pitiful argument by your - and mine - favorite organization, NOM.  If one wonders why anti-marriage equality forces are losing in the courts (and now in Oklahoma), consider the fact that this is probably their strongest argument:

Okay. In the face of the couples harmed by not having marriage equality, stand up in a court room and make THAT argument.

If the judge begins laughing, those that mean it's okay for others to laugh, too?

Lgbts 'bossing around' Bryan Fischer is just giving him FITS!

Knee deep in the middle of sessions at Netroot Nations, I wasn't going to post until later day.

But Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association is one of the only people who can divert me momentarily from the sessions. Fischer is pitching a hissy fit because he is so tired of lgbts of "bossing him around:"

According to a survey released by the Centers for Disease Control today, less than three percent of the US population identifies as gay, lesbian, or bi-sexual, which prompted Bryan Fischer to declare that it is bizarre that American society has allowed itself to be forced into accepting homosexuality by a "tiny little minority" of belligerent, intolerant bullies.

 "They are belligerent, they are intolerant, they are bullies," Fischer declared, "and we have been meekly capitulating to this tiny little cluster of belligerent bullies now for a couple of decades and it's time that we stop with all of that!"

Fischer says Christians need to stand up and declare that they will not accept this "sexual deviancy" by urging gays "to turn yourself over to God." "It's almost comical," he continued, "that we have allowed these people to have so much power in our culture where they can force their deviant lifestyle into the public sphere and compel so many sectors of society to recognize this and to celebrate it as some kind of normal lifestyle":

Is this fool for real? Fischer accusing lgbts of being "intolerant belligerent bullies," is like Satan kicking a lesser demon out of hell for being too mean to the "inmates."

In other words:



To put it Fischer's hypocrisy in even simpler tones:

'Group planning 40-day fast against marriage equality' & other Monday midday news briefs

Editor's note - beginning tomorrow, my postings will less on schedule than usual due to my attending the Netroots Nation conferences. But I will have things up, so please check back now and then when you can.

Christian Group Plans 40-Day Fast Against Marriage Equality - Oh for Pete's sake! I am not against this sort of thing (Gandhi would fast for a cause) but don't you think that fasting so that lgbts and their families don't receive rights defeats the noble notion of the practice?

  The Woman Who Helped Change How Police Treat Transgender People - A genuine hero gets her due.

 Former Congresswoman Apologizes For Requesting Religious Exemption From LGBT Protections - Fine. Just don't let it happen again.

 Comic book icon Archie to be killed off while protecting gay friend - Sorry but I simply DO NOT agree with this. 

 Will criminalization of HIV transmission hinder or help prevention efforts? - And Uganda shoots itself in the foot with its homophobia.

The new anti-gay argument - marriage equality will lead to incest

Just preparing folks for the newest anti-marriage equality argument that you will most likely hear:

An Australian judge will be investigated for his "appalling" comments on incest, in which he reportedly said sex between siblings was gaining social acceptance just like homosexuality, authorities said on Friday.

New South Wales state Attorney General Brad Hazzard said he was "extremely concerned" about District Court judge Garry Neilson's alleged comments in a case where a man was accused of repeatedly raping his younger sister, which were reported in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"In my view the community would be rightly appalled at his reported comments," Hazzard said in a statement.

"Incest is completely reprehensible, unacceptable, disgusting and criminal." 

Neilson was quoted as saying communities might no longer see sex between siblings as "unnatural" or "taboo", likening a change in mindsets to how homosexuality was now socially accepted despite being criminalised in the past. 

That last sentence (highlighted by me) is what unfortunately connects this awful situation to us. I have already read references to it on many anti-gay sites and more are sure to follow.

Granted, the case has nothing to do with lgbts or our fight or marriage equality, except for in the mind of one foreign judge.

But to a crop of desperate anti-gay groups and spokespeople who have been on the losing end of the marriage equality fight for quite a while now, any case or offhand quote coming from the case is fodder.