Anti-gay American Family Association defends idiotic full-page SCOTUS ad with even worse explanation

Okay, here is a secret about anti-gay groups which you probably already know.

It is almost impossible for them to admit that a course of action they have taken was wrong, misguided, or too extreme.

No matter how stupid it is, or how much criticism they receive, they won't back down. It's a somewhat admirable trait sometimes. But not all of the time. We are all human and, as such, tend to make mistakes. When we do make mistakes, we do need to acknowledge such.

So why am I saying all of this? Because of today's absolutely bat-crazy full-page ad in The Washington Post by the American Family Association. The ad implied a warning of damnation to the Supreme Court if  it rules for marriage equality later this year:

The Supreme Court hasn't even heard the case as of yet and AFA is implying eternal damnation should it rule the so-called wrong way.

Real smart, guys. And the usage of the famous painting "The Creation of Adam" was almost a nice touch. We'll just forget the fact that the artist, Michelangelo, was reputed to be gay.

And like I hinted  before, the AFA refuses to back down.. According to Right Wing Watch, its president, Tim Wildmon, issued a defiant (and scatterbrained) defense of this idiotic full-page ad:




Real nice guys. I hate to see what plans you think of to get your agenda across when you ARE using your brain.

'Anti-gay group tries to 'move' Supreme Court with full-page ad against marriage equality' & other Tuesday midday news briefs

American Family Association ad

Look: AFA Threatens Supreme Court To Decide Marriage Biblically In New Washington Post Ad - Cause threats of Biblical damnation have ALWAYS moved the Supreme Court. Really . . . I swear . . .

Ted Cruz Announces Presidential Campaign At Religious Right School Stacked With Anti-Gay Activists - Yesterday, many of us laughed at the idea of Sen. Ted Cruz running for president. Today, let's look at Liberty University, the so-called Christian school where he made his announcement. I feel sorry for these students and you will too when you read who is employed there.

Russia’s Bid To Curtail LGBT Benefits At The UN Fails - Yeesh! What IS Russia's problem?

 Michigan Planet Fitness Sued By Woman Who Claims They Are Too Kind To Transgender People - Girlfriend, you KNOW that is a frivolous lawsuit!

 About those children of fractured families who keep blaming same-sex parenting for their issues... - I HIGHLY recommend this post to ANYONE who thinks that same-sex couples raising children is somehow a danger. Just a simple masterpiece of love and joy.

 Pat Robertson: Denying Service To 'Ungodly' Gays Like Refusing Idol Worship - Pat Robertson . . . Lord . . . Pat Robertson.

Indiana passes very broad 'religious freedom' bill. We've been here before.

We will probably be seeing and hearing more from Lambda Legal.

And the latest phase of lgbt equality begins:

In a landslide 63-31 vote, the Indiana House of Representatives alarmed LGBT advocates Monday by passing a sweeping religious freedom bill that allows private parties — including businesses open to the public — to invoke a religious defense in legal cases.

The bill cleared Indiana’s senate in February.

Gov. Mike Pence resisted calls to veto the bill Monday evening, issuing a statement that said the measure “is about respecting and reassuring Hoosiers that their religious freedoms are intact. I strongly support the legislation and applaud the members of the General Assembly for their work on this important issue. I look forward to signing the bill when it reaches my desk.”

 . . .  The bill’s prime sponsor in the house, Republican Rep. Timothy Wesco . . . said the law is “modeled” after the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Passed by Congress in 1993, that law and others like it at the state level prevent government from burdening a person’s exercise of religion.

. . .  However, the Indiana bill is broader than federal law. While the Indiana bill says that a “governmental entity may not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion,” it also applies those rules to businesses and interactions between private parties “regardless of whether the state or any other government entity is party to the proceeding.”

You can read the full story on Buzzfeed.

However, before any of you become angry, discouraged, or upset in any way, it's best to put this in perspective.

We've been here before. Before we could even fully celebrate the overturning of the sodomy laws at SCOTUS in 2003, the anti-gay right bombarded us with statewide anti-marriage equality bills. The irony was at that time, a lot of us (me included) didn't even conceive the idea of gays and lesbians getting married.

It took a while - quite a long while - but many of us got in engaged in the struggle for marriage equality and thanks to our perseverance and the tendency of our opposition to either go too far, underestimate us, or over overestimate themselves, we are looking at the possibility of a huge victory this year.

This is not to say that we should take these "religious freedom" bills lightly.  They are certain to pass in several other states and we are going to have to dig down and fight against them.

It's just a matter of perspective. The late social reformer and civil rights activist Frederick Douglass once said "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." 

We've been here before.
 

Kerry Washington gives stirring speech at Saturday's GLAAD Media Awards

Many positive things have been said about Kerry Washington's speech at Saturday's GLAAD Media Award when she received the organization's Vanguard Award.

Here is her speech in its entirety:



' Now to play "devil's advocate," some folks did make some good points about her comments regarding African-Americans. A good friend of mine, Viktor Kerney, had this to say:

Here’s the tea, we (African-Americans) are not overly homophobic. In fact, if we were so homophobic, we would be leading these state and national charges to take rights away from us. Black folks are not leading the National Organization for Marriage, Focus on the Family, the American Family Association, the Concerned Women of America, or Million Moms, and we’re not so drenched in hate that we can’t see.

So, again, Kerry… I feel you, but please give Black folks more credit than that.

I, personally, would go far as to say that behind every African-American prominently manipulating the black community against lgbts or marriage equality is a white hand emanating from a conservative or anti-gay group and giving out cold hard cash.

I think the discussion needs to go to a deeper level than homophobia in whichever certain community.

Let's talk about the money.

'Look out, lgbt community! Ted Cruz is running for President' & other Monday midday news briefs

Ted Cruz 'Imagines' Government Defending 'Sacrament Of Marriage' In Presidential Speech - Sen. Ted Cruz's speech announcing his candidacy for president in 2016 is what just about everyone is talking about. Naturally Cruz isn't planning to be a friend of the lgbt community. 

GLAAD Awards: Kerry Washington, How to Get Away with Murder, Transparent Among Winners - Congratulations to all of the GLAAD Media Award winners (unfortunately I was not one of them, but kudos to Autostraddle for receiving 'Outstanding Blog')  

The new attack on same-sex families is nasty and rude . . . but will still fail - This morning's post is literally burning up reddit. We need to pay attention before the anti-gay right starts pulling more "folks who were raised in same-sex household" out of the woodwork to bash us.  

Idaho Lawmakers Call On Congress To Impeach Judges For Marriage Equality Rulings - Why? Aw heck, why not?

  Monday 3/23 Marks Five Months Since Andre Gray Disappeared in Pittsburgh - PLEASE provide any help that you can. 

 German Couple Talks About Life Together And Being Gay In Germany - I personally recommend this piece.

The new attack on same-sex families is nasty and rude . . . but will still fail

Same-sex families provide much love and support.

The groups backing up  Lopez, Stefanowicz, Warwick, etc. don't provide homes. They take away homes. They don't offer solutions. Instead they trot  out pretty boxes of perfect family lives to the American people. Unwrap those boxes and you will find an emptiness with an echo as loud as the one in their chests, where their hearts, souls and integrity should be.

Already in 2015, we have seen surreptitious, but nonetheless, vulgar attacks on same-sex families.

Earlier this year, anti-gay groups and spokespeople rallied behind four individuals who filed an amicus brief to the federal courts speaking against marriage equality. What was different about this brief was that these four individuals are adults who were allegedly raised in same-sex households.

According to Zack Ford from Think Progress:

All four are in the spotlight now for their amicus briefs urging federal courts to uphold state bans on same-sex marriage. In these briefs, they explain how having a gay parent scarred them for life. They missed out on a “vital dual-gender influence,” they argue, and allowing same-sex marriage will similarly harm other children because “the gay community” doesn’t put children first, instead using them as “props to be publicly displayed.” In turn, “children lose forever their rights to know and be raised by their married biological father and mother.”

In addition to their briefs — which they are expected to replicate for consideration by the Supreme Court — their own additional writing is attracting a lot of attention. One of the four, Katy Faust, published a piece at conservative outlet Public Discourse . . . asking the Supreme Court to consider her experience. It has been shared about 150,000 times and even crashed the site due to its traffic. Brittany Newmark Klein, writing under a pen-name, followed suit at The Federalist.

Ford also pointed out that the four (Robert Oscar Lopez, Dawn Stefanowicz, Brittany Newmark Klein, and Katy Faust) are known for either their anti-gay rhetoric or aligning themselves with anti-gay groups over the years (Editor's note - click on the above links to read past statements and posts about Lopez and Stefanowicz).

As if that isn't enough, a "child's right activist" by the name of Heather Barwick published a column this month presumptuously called  Dear Gay Community: Your Kids Are Hurting. In this piece, which was  published by The Federalist (the same publication which published Klein's piece), Barwick claimed that she was raised in a lesbian household, and thus was deprived the love of a father:

Same-sex marriage and parenting withholds either a mother or father from a child while telling him or her that it doesn’t matter. That it’s all the same. But it’s not. A lot of us, a lot of your kids, are hurting. My father’s absence created a huge hole in me, and I ached every day for a dad. I loved my mom’s partner, but another mom could never have replaced the father I lost.

Together these five, as if by coincidence, repeat anti-gay dogma that same-sex households raising children cause harm because they allegedly deprive children of the "traditional mother and father dynamic."

And they also omit or ignore the mitigating factors which led to their alleged "deprived upbringings," such as the Barwick's father abandoning her or Stefanowicz's father being an all-around negative individual which was independent of his sexual orientation.

'Wonderful response to anti-gay attacks on same-sex families' & other Friday midday news briefs

Dear Heather Barwick, Don't Blame the Gay Community - VERY IMPORTANT PIECE. Recently, Heather Barwick, a woman supposedly raised in a same-sex household, published a piece condemning such households. The piece took a  deceptive "gentle and kind" tone. Anti-gay groups and personalities have been pushing the piece hard. THIS is the answer back courtesy of someone whom we can verify is being raised in a same-sex household. It's simple but powerful. 

 Navy Debunks Fox News' Defense Of Anti-Gay Chaplain - Todd Starnes, Fox News, the Family Research Council, and the rest (sounds like a homophobic version of the Gilligan's Island song) are peddling a story of "religious persecution" in our Armed Forces. Turns out the truth is a bit more complicated and it continues the unfortunate idea that citing your "religious beliefs" is a "get out of jail free" card to all sorts of ugly behavior. 

Uganda spent 600 million on PR to deal with anti-gay law backlash - See, if Uganda didn't pass that law in the first place, the country would have those shillings to spend on something worthwhile.  

An Imperfect Spokesperson: The Transgender Backlash Against Zoey Tur - A wonderful article by my friend Zack Ford of Think Progress. It serves as a lesson to not only the transgender community, but also the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community as to who is out in the media as our "spokespeople." As African-American author Zora Neale Hurston once said, "All my skinfolk ain't my kinfolk."  

Org that infamously vowed to 'drive wedge between gays and blacks' equates marriage rulings with slavery - The National Organization for Marriage is pulling the "Dred Scott" card again, y'all. I would love to be in that board room when their leaders think up these ideas. 

 Texas Attorney General Sues Feds To Stop Same-Sex Spouses From Taking Care Of Each Other - Oh come on! Let's not be so cruel.