Anti-LGBTQ talking head wants gays to be next group kicked out of the military

According to Right Wing Watch, members of anti-LGBTQ and religious right groups are practically giddy with happiness over Trump's decision to kick transgender soldiers out of the United States Armed Forces.

Matt Barber

If you are a glutton for punishment, you can read the link. To me, however, one comment stood out. It was from Matt Barber, a spokesman for the anti-LGBTQ hate group Liberty Counsel and editor of an online crapfest called BarbWire:

Next step? Prohibit all open sexual deviancy in the ranks of the armed services. The military is no place for extremist San Francisco-style socio-political activism. Such social engineering destroys national security, troop morale and unit cohesion. It also violates natural law, settled science, and God's moral law. President Trump did the right thing today by prohibiting those suffering from the gender dysphoria mental disorder. Individuals with other mental disorders and even flat feet cannot serve in the military. It's a privilege not a right.

For those asking, yes Barber means eliminating gays from the military. Barber has a long,ugly history of demonizing the LGBTQ community in some of the worst ways possible, including:

telling other religious right activists that they must talk in all sorts of awful terms about gay sex, claiming that the "ick" factor of it is the "Achilles heel" of the LGBTQ equality movement.

sending out the following disgusting tweet during Obama's 2011 State of the Union address:

and sending out this equally hideous tweet protesting the inclusion of gays in the Boy Scouts:

I've learned not to discount the audacity of the anti-LGBTQ right so I say with all seriousness that I have no doubt that some of them are dreaming about eliminating gays from the military.

But even if Barber's desire is only a pipe dream, the fact that Trump empowers homophobes like him remains. That in itself is a danger to the LGBTQ community in every realm of American life.

News brief special - Trump sloppily bans transgender community from serving in the military

So much for Trump being the LGBTQ community's friend

The dumbass struck again.

In a tweet this morning, Trump banned transgender men and women from serving in the military in any capacity in spite of the fact that many are already serving. The religious right is ecstatic, a large majority of us are pissed (as well we should be) and the Department of Defense was caught off guard by it. I don't expect that they are happy. Mattis may go through the roof.

Here is the story as of now via various news articles and tweets:

Donald Trump Says Transgender People No Longer Allowed To Serve In Military - The skinny.

Trump Administration Official Admits Decision Banning All Transgender Service Members Is Purely Political - Not gonna even try to hide it. 

What does transgender mean? - The people whose service Trump just spit on.


How many members of the military are at risk? A huge number:

RAND estimates that over 4,000 transgender Americans currently serve in the military. Trump wants to kick them out. https://t.co/Y7LUeCEh93 pic.twitter.com/DOsLZ8zShH

— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) July 26, 2017

According to members of the press, the Pentagon wasn't even consulted, which means Trump may have lied in the tweet when he said he consulted with "his generals." And I wonder just what "experts" he spoke with:

Trump announced transgender ban while his Defense Secretary was ON VACATION. Essentially confirms a political decision from WH, not DOD led

— Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) July 26, 2017

Pentagon "didn't know anything about" POTUS transgender ban decision reports @barbarastarrcnn

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) July 26, 2017

Pentagon Policy on Trump Total Ban of All Transgender Service Members: 'Call the White House'- Yep. This decision was made without input.

GOP lawmaker on Trump transgender military ban: No one should be prohibited from serving - It's not just Democrats not happy with this.

Trump’s Transgender Military Ban Another Check On The Religious Right’s Policy Wish List - And they are practically pissing on themselves with happiness.


Various religious right comments from an article I REFUSE to link to:

"It's about time common sense comes to the Pentagon. The president obviously has been consulting with the top leaders in the Pentagon, who are grounded in common sense, and they made recommendations to end it. So the president [has decided to] not go down that path that the Obama administration paved regarding political correctness." - Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis (USA-Ret.) Senior fellow for national security Family Research Council 

 "[There likely will be legal challenges, but you can examine] Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the First Amendment – there are no federal government protections for people based upon their sexual inclinations [toward] the same sex or because they are sexually confused and struggle with a mental disorder wherein they believe they are the opposite sex."  - J. Matt Barber, attorney Founder, Barbwire.com 

 "Pleased to hear that @realDonaldTrump shares my readiness and cost concerns, & will be changing this costly and damaging policy #readiness." - Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler (Missouri) (author of defeated amendment to NDAA that would have ended military funding for sex-change operations for active duty service members) 

 "AFA applauds President Trump for his courageous decision to end the usage of our military for social engineering and political correctness. American families deserve a military that is focused solely on readiness and national defense." - Tim Wildmon, president American Family Association

 "The military can now focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars rather than being used to advance the Obama social agenda ... The last thing we should be doing is diverting billions of dollars from mission-critical training to something as controversial as gender reassignment surgery. However, the cost to readiness, recruitment, retention, morale and cohesion would have been even greater under the Obama policy." - Tony Perkins, president Family Research Council

Before Trump banned transgender people from serving in military, here's who praised him as pro-LGBTQ - I hate to be "that guy," but those who made this claim deserve all of the crow shoved down their throats.

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson hosts group that claim gay men 'sexualize' feces

Tucker Carlson

According to Media Matters, Fox News personality Tucker Carlson hosted the head of a fake medical group (and an SPLC-designated hate group) on his show to spin lies about the transgender community:

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson hosted Dr. Michelle Cretella, president of the anti-LGBTQ hate group American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds), on his show to attack transgender children, their parents, and their doctors. During the appearance, Cretella spread anti-transgender junk science and said transgender children are “engag[ing] in magical thinking” and that treating them is “child abuse.” ACPeds is a small, deceptively named hate group, with only a few hundred members, meant to be confused with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) -- a 60,000-member group comprising “leaders in the professional field.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), ACPeds hides “under the veneer of its professional-sounding name and claims” in order to “defame and discredit LGBT people, often by distorting legitimate research.” ACPeds began when a “small group of anti-LGBT physicians and other healthcare professionals broke away” from AAP after it began supporting the right of same-sex couples to adopt and foster-parent children. ACPeds has been relentless in its claim that it’s dangerous for children to identify as LGBTQ; its blog has suggested that “P for pedophile” should be a part of the LGBT acronym, and the ACPeds president sent a letter to more than 14,000 school district superintendents advocating for conversion therapy and outlining the so-called “health risks” of “claim[ing] a ‘gay’ identity.” Conversion therapy is a dangerous practice that has been “rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health organization for decades.”

Needless to say,  I was not happy when I heard this. A long time ago, I said that the Fox News Network was especially dangerous to the LGBTQ community because sooner or later, it would allow phony medical groups to repeat homophobic junk science unchallenged. And now we are seeing it come to pass. No doubt some folks will complain and if the complaints become numerous, Carlson will play the "We are merely having a debate. What's wrong with debating the issues" card. 

Fair enough. Let's have that debate. And let the subject of the debate be the history of ACPeds because I've written in the past about this group's efforts to shove homophobic lies into the realm of legitimate science.

In a 2010 Huffington Post article, I wrote about how the organization peddled to school districts nationwide  a webpage entitled Facts About Youth  . ACPeds portrayed Facts About Youth as a way to help youth by combating the so-called "politically correct" view of science which serves to "affirm unhealthy lifestyles as normal behavior."

That's merely a fancy way of saying ACPeds is about to hit you with all sorts of homophobic nonsense like the following:

Some gay men sexualize human waste, including the medically dangerous practice of coprophilia, which means sexual contact with highly infectious fecal wastes.

The above statement is still on the webpage.

It gets more interesting. I pointed out at least six major errors in ACPeds' Facts About Youth webpage, including:

1. Facts About Youth repeats the lie that a Canadian study proves that gay men have a short life span, even though in 2001, the researchers of the study said their work was being distorted.  

2.  Facts About Youth repeats the lie that the Robert Spitzer study proves homosexuality to be changeable, excluding the fact that Spitzer has said on more than one occasion that his research was being distorted.  

 3. Facts About Youth repeats the claim that Dr. Francis Collins stated that homosexuality is not hardwired by DNA. The truth is Francis Collins never said this. In fact, Dr. Collins said his words were being distorted.

And sadly, none of these errors have been corrected.

I doubt Carlson will have the journalistic integrity to have an actual debate regarding ACPeds and I'm sure that Fox News will be interviewing other representatives from phony medical and anti-LGBTQ groups in general.

So I guess this post is to serve notice. Every time Fox News attempts to give these homophobes any authenticity, there will be a push back of facts. Facts never stay buried.

'Trump's anti-LGBTQ 'evangelical team' running interference against Russian investigation' & other Tue midday news briefs

Robert Jeffress (top picture) and Jerry Falwell, Jr. (bottom) - members of Trump's 'evangelical team.'

Trump’s Evangelical Team Defends Kushner Against Russian ‘Nonsense’ - The white evangelical sell-out of America is complete. I guess God smiles on possible unscrupulous actions to win an election when you are trying to save a country from "evil liberals" and the "oversexed homosexual agenda." Check the list in the link. Many of these folks on Trump's evangelical team' have spoken out against the LGBTQ community. I personally think they should have stayed out and let the investigation play out. Instead they chose to interject so as to sway people against it.

Gay Basher Now Claims Self-Defense in Horrific Philadelphia Hate Crime Case - Girlfriend, you might as well just stop. 

89-Year-Old Man Tearfully Recalls Impact UK’s Anti-Gay Laws Have Had on His Life: VIDEO - Our history must always be told. All of it. 

Catholic Parents’ Story Reveals the Love, Struggles of Having Transgender Child - Wonderful post!

 Rose McGowan's new short film, Ruth, tells the story of Ruth Coker Burks, an Arkansas woman who cared for hundreds of dying gay men. - I love this!

SPLC puts the Alliance Defending Freedom's long history of anti-LGBTQ bigotry on public blast

This book helps SPLC make the case against The Alliance Defending Freedom

SPLC "pulled out the receipts" on The Alliance Defending Freedom

Media Matters just published an article detailing how religious right and other groups are targeting the Southern Poverty Law Center in a below-the-board, but coordinate campaign.

The organizations, such as the Family Research Council, are angered that SPLC designated them as hate groups. This latest attack on SPLC was precipitated when the group called out the Alliance Defending Freedom, another religious right group, for its efforts to stamp out LGBTQ equality, including supporting the criminalization of homosexuality in several countries.

'I get some of the 'loveliest' threats' & other Mon midday news briefs

Editor's note - From time to time, I get "lovely" messages:

 . . .you are distorting and even justify it by claiming they hide homophobic behavior, that is itself a distortion and a spin. You should clean up your own house and look at your own bigoted nature. In fact not only do I now have your IP address I will be posting your name and address as a militarized homosexual bigot who is full of hate towards a religious people he follow the teachings that tell them homosexuality is an abomination and do not take part in it, yet you demand they put their religious convictions aside to appease you. I'm not really posting your name and address although that is what has been done by the ADL and ilk, shameful.

Nice to see someone "appreciates" my work.

Hate groups hide years of extremism behind baseless "fake news" accusations - Speaking of which, Media Matters cites my work in calling out anti-LGBTQ hate groups. 

Chris Christie signs two pro-transgender bills into law - When people aren't looking, Christie can be a rather nice guy. 

Five Things That Can Help Us All Better Understand Transgender Childhood - Yes! Yes! A million times, yes! 

Bryan Fischer: Opposition To LGBTQ Rights Is A Test Of Who Can Govern When Jesus Returns - Oh Bryan, I have missed you, you homophobic shit. 

 Moonlight and Magic: Where is the Black LGBTQ representation in media and Hollywood? - Preach!!!

Trump has the religious right & white evangelicals in his hip pocket

Don't expect the religious right and white evangelicals to step up as Trump's "moral conscience" as we all get immersed in his scandals. They are too busy trying to reap the benefits of kissing his behind.

From Newsweek:

"(The Trump Administration) not only on our speed dial, we’re on their speed dial. In my opinion, it’s good for America,” says (Christian businessman Johnnie) Moore.  

Evangelical Christians have unprecedented access to President Donald Trump’s White House and are “on speed dial” with the administration, according to an activist who prayed over the president in the Oval Office. The evangelical community overwhelmingly backed the Republican in November’s election, and Trump has been quick to repay it. The president has signed an executive order on religious liberty and cut funding to abortion providers overseas. Now, it appears that the president is rewarding one of his most important support bases with a hotline to the White House and some of the most senior officials in the administration. . 

. .This support has continued throughout Trump’s first six months in office, according to Paul Djupe, an associate professor at Denison University who specializes in religion and politics. Djupe says he has collected data in recent months that shows that aside from traditional hot-button issues for evangelicals like abortion and religious liberty, the community has backed Trump through the scandals his administration has weathered. For example, evangelicals mostly supported Trump’s decision to fire ex-FBI director James Comey and do not believe that the multiple investigations into alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia will uncover any wrongdoing, says Djupe. “Evangelicals, really, from the beginning of Trump’s campaign, have been working in symbiosis with the administration. They clearly have their own interests but they are all aboard the Trump train,” says Djupe.