Sorry Alliance Defending Freedom, but Kelvin Cochran did not win his case

Kelvin Cochran's 'religious freedom' martyrdom failed in the courts.

No matter how much prestige it may receive or how thick  the cloak of morality it may drape itself with, an organization dedicated to undermining  LGBTQ equality via lies and misdirection will always show itself as the brazen nest of hypocrites it is.

I speak of the anti-LGBTQ hate group the Alliance Defending Freedom. Today it claimed a victory in court regarding a fired Atlanta fire chief. However it turns out that their cheering was a simple misdirection:

A federal district court ruled Wednesday that city of Atlanta rules which led to the termination of Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran are unconstitutional. The court found that the city’s policies restricting non-work speech, like a book for Christian men that Cochran wrote, are too broad and allow city officials to unconstitutionally discriminate against views with which they disagree. 

“The government can’t force its employees to get its permission before engaging in free speech,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot, who argued before the court on behalf of Cochran last month. “In addition, as the court found, the city can’t leave such decisions to the whims of government officials. This ruling benefits not only Chief Cochran, but also other employees who want to write books or speak about matters unrelated to work. Atlanta can no longer force them to get permission or deny them permission just because certain officials disagree with the views expressed.” 

With regard to the city’s “pre-clearance” rules, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia wrote in its decision in Cochran v. City of Atlanta, “This policy would prevent an employee from writing and selling a book on golf or badminton on his own time and, without prior approval, would subject him to firing. It is unclear to the Court how such an outside employment would ever affect the City’s ability to function, and the City provides no evidence to justify it…. The potential for stifled speech far outweighs an unsupported assertion of harm.” 

The court added that provisions within the rules “do not set out objective standards for the supervisor to employ.” “This does not pass constitutional muster,” the court concluded. 

Cochran wrote a 162-page devotional book on his personal time that briefly mentions his Christian views on sex and marriage. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed suspended Cochran for 30 days without pay and announced that he would have to complete “sensitivity training.” Reed then fired him, even though a city investigation concluded that he did not discriminate against anyone.

This press release by ADF omitted a lot of information as to what the court actually said. In truth, Cochran won on only two claims he filed. However, he lost on the claims of free speech retaliation, viewpoint discrimination, and association.

News brief special - Trump, religious right team up in attempt to devastate LGBTQ equality, health, and wellness

Before the election, Trump said he would be an advocate for the LGBTQ community if he won.

Now that he is in The White House, Trump is giving unfettered access and power to those "faith leaders" who gained prominence undermining LGBTQ equality while labeling the LGBTQ community as "pedophiles," "confused people,"
"tools of Satan," and purveyors of a "dangerous lifestyle." 

Trump’s Judicial Assault on LGBT Rights - "Trump’s record speed and the alarmingly high number of nominees with anti-LGBT records whom he is advancing is triggering a growing judicial crisis for LGBT people. Nearly one-in-three have records that demonstrate hostility towards the rights of LGBT people. While several of these nominees are anti-LGBT activists who have openly denigrated LGBT people and families, others have more quietly undermined LGBT rights and protections."

CDC’s Banned Words Would Be Deadly For LGBT Americans - Could be if we give in to fear and not be ready to fight like hell.

HHS under fire for proposal overseen by former anti-LGBTQ hate group employee - Repeating my post from last night. Banning words is not the only mischief that Trump seems to be planning for the LGBTQ community.

Trump administration ‘misled court’ about need for transgender military ban - Of course they did. Why are we surprised.

Trump Is Forcing the Military to Lie in Court About the Transgender Troops Ban - More on this situation.

The Year The Religious Right Moved Into The White House - Just in case you didn't see this, a wonderful break down of the many ways the anti-LGBTQ/evangelical right has taken advantage of its power in the Trump Administration. An excerpt:

February 2: Trump gathers conservative leaders, including representatives from the NRA, the Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Tax Reform, along with the Susan B. Anthony List’s Dannenfelser, Concerned Women for America’s Nance, National Right to Life’s David O’Steen, Charmaine Yoest of American Values and, of course, Paula White, to personally thank him for the Gorsuch nomination and to discuss the confirmation fight ahead.

February 23: The departments of justice and education withdraw protections for transgender students in public schools that had been implemented by the Obama administration. Religious Right groups express their gratitude.

March 13: HHS announces its intention to eliminate “questions seeking to identify gay, lesbian and bisexual elders in a U.S. health survey.” The plan is later dropped. 

March 24: ProPublica reports that the Trump administration has “quietly appointed” former Heritage Foundation official Roger Severino to head the HHS Office for Civil Rights. 

March 29: The Census Bureau proposes and then quickly un-proposes counting LGBTQ people in the 2020 census. 

April 7: Neil Gorsuch is confirmed to the Supreme Court.

April 10: Nance and Dannenfelser go to the White House to celebrate with Gorsuch.

HHS under fire for proposal overseen by former anti-LGBTQ hate group employee

Shannon Royce, head of HHS's Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, is causing a controversy over a proposal which could negatively affect the health of women and the transgender community. In addition, eyebrows are being raised as to how public comments deemed negative to the proposal are being allegedly censored by HHS. Lastly, Royce's former tenure as chief operating officer of the anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council has to be factored in on both the fairness of the proposal and the accusations regarding the comments.

Editor's note - I'm running this post early because I figure after that final vote on that awful GOP tax bill, our minds will be caught up elsewhere.

The Department of Health and Human Services is now under fire for a decision which could negatively affect women seeking abortions and transgender men and women seeking medical care.

And it looks like a former employee of  anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council is linked to it.

From Politico:

HHS is defending its decision to withhold more than 10,000 public comments on a proposal that could affect access to abortion and care for transgender patients. 

“There has been a voluminous response to the [request for information], and the center’s team is working through a review of the submissions,” Shannon Royce, who leads the agency’s Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and is overseeing the proposal, said in a statement on Monday night. 

The Trump administration in October sought public comments on its plan to reduce HHS' regulations for religious and faith-based groups. Allies and opponents of the plan say the stakes are high: Loosening the current requirements could allow such groups to cite religious exemptions and deny certain services and care. For example, Catholic hospitals could gain new protections to refuse to provide abortions. 

 . . . While HHS received 10,729 comments on its proposal, the agency has only posted 80 comments — less than 1 percent of all submissions — that overwhelmingly back the administration’s anti-abortion policies or attack regulations advanced by the Obama administration, such as a rule forcing health care providers that accept federal funding to provide services to transgender patients. Sources with knowledge of HHS' decision say the agency hand-picked the comments that it released.

According to the article, lawyers from all sides are bickering over whether or not this is illegal, with some saying that it really doesn't matter at all.

However, the article also contains an item which, if we lived in a world where people weren't so oblivious about certain things which are so obvious, would properly explain the fears some have about this policy and especially how it is being presented.

The person overseeing the proposal, Shannon Royce, served as chief operating officer the Family Research Council  until May of this year.

Politico calls Royce an anti-abortion activist and the Southern Poverty Law Center has called the Family Research Council an anti-LGBTQ hate group because it spreads negative and false narratives about the LGBTQ community (such as claiming that gay men molest children at a high level or implying homosexuality itself is a public health hazard).

 In recent years, FRC has aimed a lot of its efforts in denigrating the transgender community, including creating false policy papers filled with dubious claims and nasty rhetoric or lying about transgender troops serving in the military.

So to cut through all of the blather, this is the controversy:

HHS is issuing a proposal which could negatively affect a woman's access to an abortion and the transgender community's access to medical care in general because of the "religious liberty" argument.  The agency invited the public to give comments on this proposal but published less than one percent of the comments, with the majority being from people who support the proposal.

And the proposal is being overseen by a person who opposes abortions and, until very recently, was a high ranking officer in an organization who is known to have spread false stories and dubious claims about the transgender community.

It's safe to say suggest that this proposal and the seemingly unscrupulous way it is being handled has nothing to do with fairness, safety, or health. Unfortunately, it's all about ideology.

'The press must stop being so compliant with anti-LGBTQ hate groups' & other Tue midday news briefs

The Alliance Defending Freedom was able to hide its anti-gay animus under the monikers of 'conservatism' and 'religion.'  

A compliant press helped bring Alliance Defending Freedom's anti-LGBTQ hate back into the mainstream in 2017 -I totally agree. The media must give full nuances about groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom by giving their entire history of undermining the LGBTQ community. When they have representatives of these groups on their shows, they need to ask the penetrating questions about their actions.  It's especially up to our community, leadership, and press to aggressively school everyone on the issue of anti-LGBTQ hate groups. Stop falling for their narratives, stop getting sidetracked with off-tangent discussions on religion et al, and stop allowing them to lead the debates. This is about anti-LGBTQ propaganda and hatred in a general sense, not singular pitched battles over bakeries, cakes, and florist shops.

Catholic Bishops spearhead letter encouraging parents to reject their transgender kids - At what point will people stop using religion as an excuse to denigrate different groups of people and especially children?

Scott Garrett, Most Recent Dangerous Anti-LGBTQ Trump-Pence Nominee, Rejected By Committee - Sweet! Another anti-LGBTQ Trump nominee has been rejected.

Internet a 'lifeline for LGBTQ people': Advocates slam net neutrality repeal- How ending net neutrality could harm our community's way of communicating with each other and getting the proper services we need.

The Family Research Council dishonestly defends Trump's banned word list

Family Research Council head Tony Perkins and his group applauds Trump banning words.

To the surprise of no one who has followed the pseudo-Christian organization, the Family Research Council is applauding the Trump Administration's banning of seven words and phrases ("vulnerable," "diversity," "entitlement," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based," and "science-based.") for use by the Centers for Disease Control and other government agencies in official budget documents.

In fact, FRC calls it "standard procedure" and a move to "bring the country back to reality"

For once, it's not what the Trump administration is saying that's raising the media's eyebrows -- it's what they aren't saying. Heading into the weekend, the Washington Post sparked an interesting debate over the power of words when it reported that officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) were asked to avoid certain terms in their budget requests. 

The Post treated the news as if it were an unusual -- and even troubling -- development. Among the taboos, reporters write worriedly, are words like "diversity," "transgender," "entitlement," "fetus," "evidence-based," and "science-based." As usual, the liberal media ginned up plenty of outrage over the changes, despite the fact that this is a standard practice of every administration. President Obama understood better than anyone that if you control the language, you control the debate. In fact, we've watched the far Left use this strategy for years on everything from religious liberty to life. "Abortion" became a "choice." "Liberals" are "progressives." And suddenly, it's not "same-sex marriage" but "marriage equality."

An open letter to the conservative gay man who called my blog 'anti-Christian'

I'm not familiar with Chad Felix Greene, except that I blocked him for some reason.  Based upon what he posted about my blog on Friday, blocking him was a good idea. However since he called me out, I think it's my duty to answer back.

From the looks of him, Mr. Greene seems to be one of those bougie individuals who isn't negatively touched by homophobia as much as us so-called "plain queers." His routine seems to be allowing himself to be used by conservative publications and groups in order to tell us LGBTQs that we are hysterical victims of "leftist leaders." exploiting us for personal benefit.

And on this occasion, he had the hypocrisy to make this argument for The Federalist, a right-wing publication who is obviously exploiting him. The particular piece I am talking about is a self-righteous piece of tripe called No, Lifting ‘Net Neutrality’ Doesn’t Hurt Gay People, in which makes the argument that lifting net neutrality (even though it has caused alarm in many circles) isn't harmful to gays.

To Green, it's the people  sounding the alarm about lifting net neutrality who are the actual dangers. And in his post, the following the part which sent me into orbit, so to speak:

The final layer of argument relies on the idea that those who pay more will get a faster lane than those who pay less. Alvin McEwen of the anti-Christian LGBT blog titled “Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters” described this as an intentional way to keep LGBT people ignorant and afraid. Again, given the current social climate, this is preposterous.

 This is what I tweeted him back:

My friend, I read your post about net neutrality. While I disagree with all of it, I take GREAT offense with you calling my blog anti-Christian. My blog focuses on the lies told about the LGBTQ community by whose who hide behind a religious veneer. It seems that the only reason why you label me anti-Christian because you think that white conservative evangelicals have the patent on the word "Christianity." It always amazes me how people like you want to bogart the argument on faith but then portray yourselves a victims because someone else won't let you do it.  

I am not anti-Christian because I don't think that true Christians bear false witness against a community, use junk science & out-and-out lies to denigrate a community, such as people on your side of the spectrum and your newspaper has done. The fact you consider me anti-Christian because I demand integrity from the anti-LGBTQ evangelical right is sad. The fact added on that you are a gay man doing this is abominable. 

I am a black gay man from the South. That means unlike you, I do not have the luxury 2 hide behind pseudo-intelligence and a self-righteous ignorance to denigrate my own people.. You are only where you are because you've made yourself useful. When you are no longer useful, you will find out that all of your pretentious attitudes and lies mean nothing. Until then, in spite of what you think u have accomplished, you are nothing more than a shoe shiner, but eagerly stooping lower than most.

And he sent me back an ugly comment:

'Anti-LGBTQ evangelical right worried that Roy Moore support made them toxic to America' & other Fri midday news briefs

Some right-wing/anti-LGBTQ evangelicals are worried that support of Roy Moore has made them toxic in the eyes of other Americans. Ya think?

Has Support for Moore Stained Evangelicals? Some Are Worried - Uh oh. Watch this. The anti-LGBTQ/evangelical/religious right are having a serious "come to Jesus" moment over their support of Roy Moore. Please. They missed several "come to Jesus" moments when they decided to smear the LGBTQ community time after time again. What you are watching now is akin to the slow sinking of the Titanic. I wonder if I can add a few extra holes.

After Trump and Moore, some evangelicals are finding their own label too toxic to use - I personally think the LGBTQ community should use this moment to point out the myriad times these folks attacked us and our families and tried to eliminate our equality and dignity. Let's be honest about something (and it needs to be repeated) - People like Franklin Graham and Robert Jeffress, groups like the Family Research Council or the Heritage Foundation don't give a damn about America, nor our diversity or rules of law. They just want conservative justices to eliminate abortion and gay marriage and leaders who will build up their egos. Everything else, including their integrity, is expendable. 

These Schools Get Millions Of Tax Dollars To Discriminate Against LGBTQ Students - Your "religious liberty" does not mean you have a right to steal my tax money while disrespecting me.

Kevin Swanson Blames Roy Moore’s Loss On Alabama’s Love Of Pornography - "On his radio program yesterday, extremist anti-LGBTQ pastor Kevin Swanson reacted to Roy Moore’s loss in the Senate election in Alabama earlier this week by blaming it on the state’s love of pornography, which he also warned is turning children gay." - I don't think I can write a better sentence than that so I just took it verbatim from the post.