Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
Late last week, the Human Rights Campaign announced a new project calling out the transphobic lies of infamous former Johns Hopkins professor Paul McHugh. McHugh has been a long-time opponent of the transgender community. His anti-transgender claims have been criticized for lack of veracity, but the religious right and their supporters still cite him.
. . .the HRC Foundation launched McHugh Exposed, a website that pulls back the curtain on the anti-LGBTQ myths and junk science being peddled by Dr. Paul McHugh, the go-to ‘expert’ for anti-equality extremists. The resource includes a detailed timeline of how McHugh’s hateful and damaging essays have been used to target and attack LGBTQ people and a new video featuring renowned LGBTQ health expert, Dr. Tonia Poteat. It can be found at www.McHughExposed.org.
McHugh’s false, non-scientific assertions have been used by anti-equality activists in state legislatures and courtrooms to defend discrimination against LGBTQ people.
. . . “Paul McHugh’s writings continue to dangerously undermine the safety, security and wellbeing of LGBTQ people, and particularly transgender youth, across the country,” said Mary Beth Maxwell, HRC Vice President for Research, Training, and Programs. “McHugh’s junk science is still being referenced in legislative and legal battles despite the fact that Paul McHugh has no academic expertise in either gender or sexual orientation, and actively avoids publishing any of his anti-LGBTQ pieces in peer-reviewed journals. Policy makers, informed citizens and parents deserve to know that this is junk science and personal opinion - not at all in the mainstream of current medical and academic research and not endorsed by Johns Hopkins regardless of how McHugh uses his title to suggest credibility or expertise.”
HRC also launched a wonderful video (seen above) which throws "shade" at religious right groups and their phony "policy experts," i.e. the spokespeople they employ to go on news programs and in front of state and federal legislative bodies to spread their homophobic talking points.
This overall project by HRC is the latest endeavor by progressive and lgbt organizations to expose conservative and religious right groups who push lies and junk science against the lgbt community behind the facade of "religious liberty."
One of the pleasures of having this blog is the ability to amplify the issues of those in our community who deserve as much visibility as I can give them.
Such as our kids. Friday marks the annual GLSEN's Day of Silence in which high school students across America take a vow of silence to bring attention to how lgbt students are bullied . To me, this year is more poignant because of who-shall-not-be-named being our president and how he turned his back on our transgender kids while the religious right are busy portraying them as predators.
And I am glad to hear that this year's Day of Silence will culminate in an effort to urge state governors to push for full lgbt inclusive policies with an emphasis on protecting transgender youth.
More than ever, our lgbt, especially our transgender youth, need ways to make their faces be seen, their voices be heard, and to know that we have their backs.
Magic Johnson (top photo) accepts his gay son. Lavell Crawford (bottom photo) is an example of the ignorance uttered when lgbt of colors have little to no visibility in the black community.
Topping today's news briefs is a look at lgbts in the African-American community, positive and negative:
So basically this is what needs to be learned. It's all about who is being heard and seen in the black AND lgbt community, just like other communities. While I think Crawford is an idiot, before anyone starts going on a tangent about the supposed homophobia in the black community, answer this question. How many high profile lgbts of color do you see or hear, if any, in both the black AND gay communities. They are there, but are you paying attention to them? Or better yet, is there ANY focus on them. Yeah, yeah yeah. RuPaul, etc. BUT who else? And is there a diversity in the black lgbt voices and faces you see and hear? Not all of us are entertainers or singers. Some of us are community organizers, intellectuals, etc. Also, before you ask the dreaded "how can blacks be oppressive when they were oppressed themselves" question, let me ask you a question. Why do you fail to acknowledge the fact that some people are both black and gay? We aren't talking about separate communities. Unfortunately, we are talking about two communities which, either overtly or covertly, will not recognize the fact that lgbts of color exist. As long as neither community will acknowledge their commonality, i.e. lgbts of color, ignorance like Crawford spewed will be prevalent in the black community because there will be very few to challenge it. An lgbt of color doing this would have more resonance and credibility in the black community. Instead, white lgbts will wring their hands and speak ugly about the black community without realizing such thoughts and words only add to the problem.
So while anti-lgbt hate group the Family Research Council is celebrating Neil Gorsuch becoming a SCOTUS judge, helping to cause all sorts of anti-transgender mayhem in Texas, and basically indulging in its usual attempts to make the lgbtq community second-class citizens under the guise of "religious liberty," one of its spokesman is going on a bizarre fact-free ramble about gays and witches populating DC.
Earlier this month, Family Research Council senior fellow Robert Maginnis appeared on SkyWatchTV to discuss “the occult influence on D.C. elites.”
Maginnis warned that even the most well-intentioned people who go to Washington, D.C. to work in public service are susceptible to the evil forces that he said dominate the city, citing both witchcraft and homosexuality.
“If you look around Washington, you have Dupont Circle, famous for being the center of homosexuality in Washington, you have all sorts of activities down there that are pretty souring,” he said. “You have a lot of witchcraft. You have a lot of hedonism. You have all the issues that—when I think of Sodom and Gomorrah, I often think of Washington, D.C. in the same thought.”
Hey Robert, isn't your organization (Family Research Council) situated in DC and "have a lot of power" in the Trump Administration? Just asking.
Twitter Hashtag Reveals Just How Damaging Expectations Of Masculinity Can Be - Interesting piece which resonated with me. There were and still are certain expectations of me as as male which are a drag. What am I? An uncaring, unfeeling commodity for someone's idea of bliss? Some uber masculine black "stud" reject from a 1970s blaxploitation movie?
