Texas legislator refuses to meet the gay constituent to discuss anti-gay bill

TX state rep. Molly White

One Texas state legislator seems to think that her "religious freedom" allows her to be rude to voters. Not only is she proposing anti-gay legislation, but she has also refused to meet with a gay constituent in order to discuss it.

According to Raw Story:

 State Rep. Molly White (R-Belton) has proposed legislation that would allow businesses to refuse to serve customers on religious grounds. The first-year Republican lawmaker has also proposed legislation seeking to make the state’s ban on same-sex marriage immune from court rulings.

  . . .  But White’s staff has said trying to discuss the issues with her “would be a waste of time." The Temple Daily Telegram reported last week that White’s staff had initially greeted Frank Carlson of Equality Texas, before turning him away upon learning who he represented.

Her staff told Carlson, who works on behalf of the largest LGBT rights organization in Texas, to “drop off your literature and leave.” White’s staff informed Carlson that the lawmaker “is against anything LGBT.”

“I conveyed that the representative has stances on some issues and that she isn’t likely to change her mind on them,” White’s chief of staff Hannah Bell told the Temple Daily Telegram. “We try to be a transparent office and I told them that they needed to meet with individuals that shared their viewpoint.

'Marco Rubio's Top 10 Anti-Gay Statements' & other Monday midday news briefs

Sen. Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio's Top 10 Anti-Gay Statements - According to reports, Sen. Marco Rubio will soon announce that he is running for president. As if he is any different from Cruz or Santorum. Boy do I feel sorry for lgbt Republicans.  

David Barton Once Again Claims That The Bible Says There Will Never Be An AIDS Vaccine - Because fake historians who pass along lies about America are ALWAYS right. And (surprise, surprise), Barton is distorting research to conjure up THIS lie. 

FRC's sixth day of fasting-for-discrimination: Where to even begin with this one?! - Isn't this lovely? The Family Research Council is in the middle of a 21 day fast against marriage equality. Yeah. FRC spends a majority of its time and energy relying on junk science and cherry-picked studies to beat down the lgbt community. And suddenly it thinks if it fasts for 21 days, all of that shadiness will be forgotten. God don't like ugly, folks.  

Discovery Life's 'New Girls On The Block' Explores Transgender Identity - Fascinating!  

Bill Maher On Anti-Gay Christian Views: 'They Literally Believe This Stuff' - Yes, a lot of them do. And then there are some earning paychecks by exploiting these beliefs.

Anti-gay activist gives outrageous testimony in front of Texas legislators

From the Texas Freedom Network comes the words from an anti-gay activist which gives an indication why folks like him are losing the fight against marriage equality.  But as they are losing, their language is getting less guarded and more offensive:

Where to begin with Steven Hotze? The Houstonian and head of Conservative Republicans of Texas last made headlines a few weeks ago when he brought Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore to the Texas Capitol for a rally in defense of this state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Hotze was back in Austin on Wednesday to appear before the Texas House Committee on State Affairs to speak in support of House Bill 4105 by state Rep. Cecil Bell, R-Magnolia. HB 4105 would prohibit state or local funds from being used to issue a same-sex marriage license or acknowledge a same-sex marriage in any other way — regardless of whether the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the ban on those unions in Texas.

During his testimony, Hotze, one of the most vicious anti-gay activists in all of Texas, got into a lengthy exchange with state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston. Just in the four-minute clip you can hear above, Hotze:

• Portrays the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples as morally equivalent to the Nazi’s mass murder of Jews

• Argues that Texans should actively subvert any U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage

• And, for the extremist cherry on top, equates gay people to alcoholics, murderers, adulterers, perverts, pornographers, rapists and embezzlers. In that order.

'Gays are waging a 'jihad?' Who knew?' & other Friday midday news briefs

Ted Cruz: Gay Community Waging 'Jihad' Against Religious Freedom - We are? I failed to get that memo. Well that's ONE anti-gay Republican candidate for president . . . 

Santorum Says He'll Be A Strong Leader Because He Backed Gay Sex Bans - And when Santorum declares that he is running (cause you know he will), that will be TWO anti-gay Republican candidates for president.

 What The Religious Right Envisions As An Endgame After Losing The Fight Against LGBT Equality - And they will be two of the many reasons why the lgbt community and our allies can't start celebrating any victory. Regardless of how SCOTUS rules on marriage equality, the fight for total LGBT equality will be far from over.

 In SCOTUS brief, Idaho's GOP gov. claims marriage equality brings 'long-term harms to same-sex couples, their children, and society' - Speaking of which, here is another faulty SCOTUS brief just chock full of discredited junk by the folks who don't want marriage equality to become legal. 

 The absolute and abject humiliation of anti-gay activist Paul Cameron - a lesson for all anti-gay activists - Repeating this morning's post. Hopefully this will be the ultimate fate of many an anti-lgbt activist (or am I being too mean for wishing this?)  

Florida House Overwhelmingly Passes Religious ‘License To Discriminate’ Adoption Bill - And these folks aren't being the least bit shy as to why they passed this awful thing. Hopefully it will fail in the Senate.  

Obama applauds LGBT advocate during Jamaica speech - Go, President Obama!!

The absolute and abject humiliation of anti-gay activist Paul Cameron - a lesson for all anti-gay activists

In the 1980s, 90s, and even in the early years of this century, anti-gay activist Paul Cameron was the go-to guy for all sorts of anti-gay "research."

During that time, he was quoted in countless magazines, newspapers, and appeared on quite a few national programs such as Geraldo and Donahue. Even though organizations such as the Family Research Council and the American Family Association, probably knew that he had been discredited and exposed (by organizations such as the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association) for his faulty research techniques and wild generalizations about the lgbt community, they still cited his research  or distorted other research in order to justify his negative theories about the lgbt community.

But these days, things are different.Cameron's long record of shoddy work and lies against the lgbt community have made him somewhat of a pariah and a laughing stock.

While "true believers" such as Bryan Fischer, Peter LaBarbera, or Gordon Klingenschmitt have no problem with interviewing him or citing him by name, the more sophisticated anti-gay groups, such as the National Organization for Marriage, avoid him like the proverbial plague that he is.

Not that Cameron minds in any way, shape, or form. He still goes on whatever show will have him while pushing the same nauseatingly homophobic generalizations which made him popular over 30 years ago.

And based upon the above clip above, I mean any show. It is from January of this year on a radio  talk show called The Doghouse with host JV and Elvis.

'Mike Huckabee support group teaming up with anti-gay hate group for SCOTUS brief' & other Thursday midday news briefs

Mike Huckabee has questions to answer about a 'support group.'

In SCOTUS brief, Mike Huckabee support group insists homosexuality is 'significant public health risk' - The Family Research Institute is an SPLC-designated anti-gay hate group. This is mostly because its founder and head, Paul Cameron has been kicked out of or censured by several medical groups over the years, including the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association, for the blatantly hideous methodologies he uses to smear the lgbt community.  Among other things, Cameron claims that:

• Lesbians are more likely to die in car wrecks,

• Gay men molest children at a high rate and are more likely to be serial killers,

• Gay men stuff gerbils up their rectums,

• Gays and lesbians in the military are more likely to rape their heterosexual counterparts.

So why is a Mike Huckabee "support group" teaming up with this group to submit a brief  to SCOTUS against marriage equality?  It's definitely yet another thing to put on the list to ask Huckabee should he start again with the "intolerant, radical gay" lie. Or better yet, if he should run for president.

In other news:

Catholic students stage walkout to protest school’s refusal to hire gay teacher - I do LOVE the next generation.

White House supports bans on ‘ex-gay’ conversion therapy - This was announced last night. Isn't it awesome? 

Why Don’t We Have a National Ban on ‘Ex-Gay’ Therapy Yet? - Just in case you wondered . . . 

Sorry, GOP: Most Americans Support Gay People Over Businesses That Use Religion To Discriminate - And of course some people are trying to spin that poll another way.

 LGBT, Trans Organizations Call On News Networks To Improve Transgender Coverage - YES they should!

James Dobson, other anti-gay activists scared out of their skins about 50-state marriage equality

James Dobson

From People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch comes proof that the anti-gay right is panicking over the possibility of the Supreme Court ruling for marriage equality later this year.

James Dobson, the founder of the Religious Right behemoth Focus on the Family, warned in a recent conference call with fellow anti-gay activists (Editor's note - according to Right Wing Watch, this call included Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, Rick Scarborough of Vision America and Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality) that a Supreme Court ruling in favor of marriage equality could lead to a full-blown civil war. After Janet Porter, the creator of a new “documentary” about how the gay rights movement will outlaw Christianity, discussed her “restraining order” campaign to convince Congress to strip the Supreme Court of its authority to rule on marriage cases, Dobson said that his fellow activists “need to be realistic about what we’re up against here.”

It gets even better as Dobson goes through a one-man rambling, hand-wringing spiel, divulging all sorts of good information about the supposed fear of Congress to tackle the marriage equality issue and who is opposed to the idea of calling for a "constitutional convention" should marriage equality become legal via SCOTUS.



Basically what we are seeing here is a man who helped to orchestrate the 2004 backlash against marriage equality (a backlash which got Bush re-elected) bearing witness to the possible collapse of all of his efforts. It's sort of like that Greek play, Oedipus the King, in which the main character Oedipus realizes that the actions he took to prevent a situation actually caused the situation to take place

One wonders if Dobson has any shred of introspection to realize that his massive efforts to stamp out marriage equality in 2004 actually helped the issue to become more prominent and worth fighting for by the lgbt community.

I doubt it. Most anti-gay activists are totally incapable of introspection, They are so busy pointing out the faults of others or engaging in fear mongering that they don't have time to examine their own faults or fears.