'Trump, evangelical anti-LGBTQ right make National Day of Prayer into a ridiculous sham' & other Thur midday news briefs

Evangelical anti-LGBTQ right celebrate National Day of Prayer with their 'replacement Jesus.'

Tweets and posts serve as reminders that Trump and the evangelical anti-LGBTQ right are making the National Day of Prayer into a ridiculous sham:

Last night his lawyer said Trump knew about a hush money payment (which he repeatedly lied about) to a porn star so she wouldn't publicize their adultery. #Values #GOP #Hypocricy pic.twitter.com/SF1LkS6RxJ

— paul marvin (@PaulMarvinArts) May 3, 2018

A guest at the White House for the National Day of Prayer event tells me I am “pitiful and disgusting” for reporting that President Trump reimbursed his attorney for the $130,000 he paid a porn actress. I think you’re gonna have to take that up with Trump, sir.

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 3, 2018

To the Family Research Council, anti-Christian persecution is bad but anti-LGBTQ persecution is appropriate - And other than trying to ignore the Stormy Daniels controversy is this. Days before the National Days of Prayer, only The Family Research Council would have the audacity to slam the Obama Administration's efforts to keep the LGBTQ community safe from international persecution a day after it praised Trump for keeping Christians safe from the same thing.

This Southern judge from Georgia just came out as bisexual - Good for him!

Mandatory LGBT history lessons for schoolchildren approved by the Illinois Senate - This headline makes it sound like coercion but personally I think it's a good idea.

HISTORIC: New Hampshire Approves Transgender Non-Discrimination Bill - Way to go, New Hampshire!

To the Family Research Council, anti-Christian persecution is bad but anti-LGBTQ persecution is appropriate

Someone needs to tell the Family Research Council that fighting religious persecution and fighting anti-LGBTQ persecution is not an either/or situation

On Tuesday, the Family Research Council praised Trump for supposedly calling out Nigeria for its persecution of Christians:

As toxic as our culture can be, Americans still take going to church safely for granted. In places like Nigeria, the simple act of showing up to worship can be deadly. Late last month, the world was horrified to read that another remote village in the African country lost another 19 people to a mass shooting at church. Radical Islamists walked into the service and opened fire, killing two priests and 17 others. The ones who survived watched helplessly as the Muslim herdsmen set fire to more than 50 of their homes. And the violence shows no sign of stopping. 

Yesterday, in a joint press conference with the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, President Trump called out Buhari for not making more of an effort to protect the country's men and women of faith. "We are deeply concerned by religious violence in Nigeria including the burning of churches and the killing and persecution of Christians. It's a horrible story," Trump said bluntly. "We encourage Nigeria and the federal state and local leaders to do everything in their power to immediately secure the affected communities and to protect innocent civilians of all faiths including Muslims and including Christians." 

It was a bold move to challenge Buhari publicly -- one that proves the president's deep sincerity on the issue of religious liberty. Although Nigerian officials have taken the threats of ISIS and Boko Haram more seriously, the Fulani herdsman are proving to be more deadly than either. The situation becomes even more delicate when you consider that Buhari is Fulani and also Muslim, which has led several people to wonder if he's trying hard enough to end the bloodshed.

Don't get me wrong. If this happened the way the Family Research Council claimed it did, then good for Trump. People shouldn't be imprisoned, murdered, or persecuted in any way for their religious beliefs.

 And the same goes for sexual orientation. Too bad the Family Research Council doesn't feel that way.

2011 Flashback - 16 Reasons Why the Family Research Council is a Hate Group

Barring any changes, due to real world events, there will be no midday news briefs Wednesday. With that in mind, I decided to pull a post out of the archives which is very pertinent to current events. In 2011, I wrote '16 Reasons Why The Family Research Council is a Hate Group ' and since that time, many reasons can be added. However, these reasons (from falsely accusing GLSEN of exposing children to explicit sexual material to comparing gay men to pedophiles to time and time again distorting credible studies to denigrate the LGBTQ community) are sufficient enough to make my point of just how dangerous FRC is to the equality and safety of the LGBTQ community. Particularly when one takes into account that due to Trump, the  group currently has a more influential hand to create policy than it did in 2011.

August 15, 2011 - GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) issues a cease-and-desist letter against the Family Research Council demanding that the organization remove video falsely accusing GLSEN of distributing an explicit safe-sex guide to children. FRC subsequently changed the video, tacitly admitting that it was pushing a falsehood against GLSEN.

June 13, 2011 - Two years after claiming to remove "studies" from its website because they contained "outdated material," FRC sneaks the studies back on its website. One of the studies includes citations to the work of Paul Cameron, a highly discredited research.

February 28, 2011 - In order to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), FRC distorts research in order to compare gay men to pedophiles.

February 16, 2011 - FRC spokesman Peter Sprigg makes the claim that same-sex households are inferior to two-parent heterosexual households by using studies which have nothing to do with same-sex households. Sprigg, by the way, has earlier voiced opinions that gays should be exported out of the United States:

'Drag queens planning mass protest for Donald Trump's visit to Britain' & other Tue midday news briefs

Donald Trump to be met with mass drag queen protest when he visits Britain - Hey, go for it! Promises to be very interesting.

Third of LGBT employees hide their sexual orientation at work - Unfortunately, this is very necessary.

Family Research Council paints its hypocrisy in glowing colors with attack on Michelle Wolf, WHCD - Reposting last night's blog entry.

Two transgender residents sue Wisconsin over discriminatory Medicaid rule - Gotta fight for your rights.

Family Research Council paints its hypocrisy in glowing colors with attack on Michelle Wolf, WHCD

Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council are oblivious to their own hypocrisy.

I want to be blunt here.

A lot of the pearl-clutching, hand wringing, and jockeying for the moral high ground with regards to Michelle Wolf's performance at the recent White House Correspondent's Dinner (WHCD) is some major bullshit. Why do I say this? Because the Family Research Council has gotten into the  act.

The following is only part of the nonsense spewing from FRC president Tony Perkins and it's dripping with rotten, seven-month old sanctimony:

 Michelle Wolf may have been listed as a comedian at Saturday's White House Correspondents Dinner, but no one is quite sure why. Her monologue, an abusive personal attack on the women of this administration, was spectacularly unfunny. And by the program's end, the only joke -- liberals agreed -- was that Wolf was ever invited in the first place. 

After a string of especially vulgar lines, the Comedy Central contributor couldn't help but notice the uncomfortable silence that followed. "Yeah, you shoulda done more research before you got me to do this," she cracked. That was certainly the consensus on both sides of the political aisle after a performance so biting that some people got up and left. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders took the brunt of the savagery, sitting quietly on the same stage as Wolf, listening as the woman at the podium derided everything from her character to her eye make-up. 

"I love you as Aunt Lydia in 'The Handmaid's Tale,'" Wolf said, referring to an evil character on the show. "Every time Sarah steps up to the podium I get excited because I'm not real sure what we're going to get -- a press briefing, a bunch of lies or divided into softball teams. I really like Sarah, I think she's very resourceful. She burns facts, and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Maybe she's born with it... maybe it's lies." In an especially cringe-worthy moment, Wolf compared Sanders to Uncle Tom. "I'm never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Is it Sarah Sanders, is it Sarah Huckabee Sanders? Is it Cousin Huckabee? Is it Auntie Huckabee Sanders? Like what's Uncle Tom for white women who disappoint other white women?" 

And Sanders wasn't the only target. Wolf called the president's daughter, Ivanka, "as helpful to women as an empty box of tampons." She took on Kellyanne Conway, a key White House advisor, insisting she was an inveterate liar, and asked: "If a tree falls in the woods, how do we get Kellyanne under that tree?" 

For the media, who's already in an uphill battle for Americans' trust, Saturday's dinner didn't exactly help matters. "If the #WHCD dinner did anything tonight, it made the chasm between journalists and those who don't believe us even wider," tweeted the AP's Meg Kinnard. MSNBC co-host of "Morning Joe," Mika Brzezinski, was one of the dozens of horrified Left-leaning reporters to come to Sarah's defense. "Watching a wife and mother be humiliated on national television for her looks is deplorable." She’s right. Not only was the profanity inappropriate for this kind of public forum, but the harassment of Sanders made more than a few of us wonder: what happened to all of those anti-bullying crusaders?

I'm not even going to mention how FRC and Perkins chose to omit the fact the Wolf went after both Democrats and Republicans and how she also had some zingers about the Washington media in general. I'm simply enthralled by how FRC attempts to create  a scene of martyrdom with both Sanders and Ivanka Trump tied to the stake and Wolf leading the the press with lighted torches. Apparently in its attempt to recreate 'The Passion of Joan of Arc,' FRC failed to practice a little self evaluation. Isn't this the same organization which has made its name and gathered its coins by daily conjuring up a false image of the LGBTQ community as slobbering, child-snatching, Christian-hating sex maniacs,.This organization, right here, which now has the temerity to scold on vulgarity?

'Trans ban proving to be a mistake which may trap Trump, Pence, & religious right' & other Mon midday news briefs

Attempts to ban trans troops is proving to be a mistake which may trap not only Trump, but also Pence and the religious right

A Growing Problem for the Military Transgender Ban — Facts - Make no mistake about it. Trump's attempt to ban transgender soldiers is a smoldering powder keg just waiting to blow up in his face and in the face of the religious right. I've got my fingers crossed and my nails sharpened for when it happens. Why? Check out the next news brief. 

Family Research Council whines, fundraises off subpoenas from trans servicemembers lawsuit - This article was published last week but it signifies what's going on. The Family Research Council is silently running scared because its usage of junk science and cherry-picked studies to smear the LGBTQ community may receive a much deserved spotlight. And this possibility may harm Pence as well as Trump.

‘Big Win’: Bryan Fischer Celebrates The Firing Of The House Chaplain - More proof that when folks like Bryan Fischer whine about "religious freedom," they only mean themselves.

Schools Struggle to Support LGBTQ Students - Teachers want to help our LGBTQ kids but don't know how. And you just know certain entities want to keep them from learning how. 

Ghana’s Christian lawmakers insist homosexuality won’t be legalized anytime soon - A reminder that our struggle for equality and safety is worldwide. 

Hawaii Moves To Ban Gay Conversion Therapy For Minors - Sweet!!

The Top 10 Ridiculous 1980s Music Videos (you just KNOW LGBTQs are included)

As I've noted before, in this age of Trump, the LGBTQ community finds itself fighting tooth and nail for the rights we recently won and also not to be pushed back in the closet. And we are going to win, too. 

But with that in mind, there needs to be some time where we can cool off and laugh. This is why from time to time on this blog, I am going to feature things designed to be totally fun and frivolous, such as this video, which had me laughing and going back to memory lane at the same time.

This countdown of the Top 10 ridiculous music videos of the 1980s is simply brutal but it is on point as it calls out the bad dancing, shoved down your throat symbolism, silly homoeroticism, and how an idea of using gay men as a bad big reveal was just stupid.

I will give you a hint about the number one video. I featured it on this blog years ago because it infamously ruined a musician's career.