'Anti-LGBTQ hate group leader Tony Perkins already 'picking out drapes' for America' & other Fri midday news briefs

FRC's Tony Perkins don't know how my community can use our 'receipts.' He will learn.

Tony Perkins: We Can Do For Gay Rights What We’ve Done To Abortion Rights - So Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council is already picking out drapes to go with his version of America that he thinks Trump's pick for Kennedy will bring. We are deep into the second stage of what happens when the anti-LGBTQ right get a huge victory - them planning victory parties before the battle has even started. They learned nothing from their behavior and what it led to in 2004 after Bush was re-elected and they won several anti-marriage equality referendums in the same election. Or more to the point - if one of the largest anti-gay hate groups in America with a list of documented offenses a mile long - including relying on the work of a discredited researcher who once claimed that gay men stuff gerbils up their rectums - THINK it is easily going to take away our equality without a long, bruising fight in which folks like myself are now scouting where we can lay the deepest blows on its overall integrity, then it has some serious surprises coming. I do not say this to advocate violence and I am certainly not talking about violence. I simply mean certain "Christian" groups are damaging their brands even as I speak with their behavior. And all we have to do is deepen the holes they are poking into their own credibility. 

DISCRIMINATION IN S.C.: Legislature Sends Appropriations Bill with Anti-LGBTQ Provision to Governor - And just like that, my backyard has fallen victim of one of those "let the adoption agencies smear gays while taking their tax money" bills. There will be a resolution to this and it will go in our favor.

The Day My Dad Kicked Me Out For Being Gay Changed My Life Forever - By deliberate design, anti-LGBTQ groups dehumanize us as a mindless horde out to force issues on people and destroy America if we don't get what we want. This man's story is the reality.

‘Queer Eye’ Stars Have Different Takes On Masterpiece Cakeshop Owner - One of them makes a wonderful point. Why should we give people like that cakeshop owner a piece of OUR platform under the illusion of being "civil." 

Conservatives hope an ampersand will help defeat marriage equality - A dumb campaign.

We should never forget what Fox News did to President Obama . . . and we should never forgive either

This isn't an LGBTQ issue per se. But then again maybe it is. Being an African-American, I was very ecstatic when Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States. And I was also disgusted by the ways in which Fox News chipped away at him throughout his eight years in office by constantly labeling him as hating America and defining even the smallest of his actions as attempts to harm the country. It was deliberate. And it probably helped foster the vile attitudes among voters which led to Trump winning the Oval Office and all of the horrors coming with it, including a possible erosion of LGBTQ rights by whomever he selects to fill Kennedy's seat on SCOTUS.

History will NOT be kind to Fox News. And neither should any freedom-loving American.

'Groups giddy about Kennedy retirement, while bigot 'educates' about 'male butt sex'' & other Thur midday news briefs

Before diving in the news briefs, check out this video for a wonderful laugh. Anti-LGBTQ activist Dave Daubenmire resurrects the language and tone abandoned by "respectable" anti-LGBT groups, i.e. he melts down talking about "male butt sex." 

Ecstatic’ Religious Right Sees Kennedy Resignation As Chance To Overturn Roe, Obergefell - Meanwhile, the rest of the religious and evangelical right are having a public orgasm over the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy.

5 reasons why Anthony Kennedy’s retirement is a major blow for LGBTQ rights - What we may lose because Kennedy is retiring. 

Here’s why the GOP going after Roe v. Wade, LGBT and civil rights is a really bad idea for them - This opinion piece does bring up a good point which no one talks about - the religious and evangelical right are eager to undermine LGBTQ equality but probably fear the idea of a nation of pissed-off gay folks. It's no joke. There is an element of fear there which they hide quite expertly.

'Civility' is the best friend of anti-gay hate group Alliance Defending Freedom

In "honor" of the retirement of Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy, one thing I intend on doing is to double down on exposing the anti-LGBTQ hate groups which are trying to undermine LGBTQ equality under the guise of freedom and religious liberty.  Make no mistake about it  no matter what they say, the goal of the ao-called pro-family and morality groups is the destruction of LGBTQ equality and safety.

One group which I haven't actually focused on thoroughly is the Alliance Defending Freedom. That group is a bunch of trained right-wing lawyers working behind the scenes to craft arguments against LGBTQ equality.  They don't get as much public attention as groups like the Family Research Council or the American Family Association, but they are very good at what they do.

According to Media Matters, ADF has its hooks in many attempts to curtail LGBTQ equality from undermining the rights of transgender students, to attempting to keep gays from adopting children, to pushing Trump's anti-transgender troop ban.  It's a juggernaut of quiet, but carefully planned, highly skilled  homophobia and bigotry.

 Media Matters also said ADF has been active in countries like Jamaica and Belize to keep homosexuality criminalized. And it gets worse. Journalist Sarah Posner pointed out that the organization has infiltrated the American judiciary via its alumni members. Because of all these things, the Southern Poverty Law Center has declared ADF to be a hate group with a long history.

However, the organization continues to get away unscathed, even racking up recent victories arguing in front of the Supreme Court. How does ADF get away with it?

'Defenders of 'civility' disappear as homphobes protest the Red Hen' & other Wed midday news briefs

Can Jared Polis win in November?

WATCH: Anti-Gay Opponents of The Red Hen Protest With Signs Reading ‘Let God Burn Them (LGBT)’ - When the Red Hen restaurant refused to serve White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, we got all sorts of lectures about "civility." Then the lecturers went away when this crap happened with homophobes protesting the Red Hen. The irony is that the LGBTQ community has dealt with protests like this and being called ugly names long before the Red Hen incident and NO ONE then talked about "civility." 

Ohio conservatives consider ‘license to abuse’ bill for parents of transgender kids - Expose our transgender children to extreme danger. Just as long as you do it while observing "civility."

Jared Polis could become America’s first openly gay elected governor - Polis won the Democratic primary in Colorado last night. And I hope he wins in November. One of the MAIN ways the LGBTQ community can hold our own and work towards equality in spite of the Trump era is when we run for and win elected office. Polis's victory would be wonderful for a number of reasons.

Sharon Brackett Becomes First Transgender Woman Elected To Public Office In Maryland - Meanwhile, Sharon Brackett also makes history.

Almost Half Of LGBTQ Employees Are Closeted At Work, Report Finds - A sad situation which many of us are more familiar with than we would like to be.

Even on its best day, the Family Research Council spins distortion about transgender troop training

The Family Research Council spins a bad distortion about the Army and transgender troop training/

Unbelievable.

Even on a day in which SCOTUS gives a part of their agenda (against women's health and right to abortions) a nod, the evangelical right has to push a distortion about the LGBTQ community.

According to a Washington Update from The Family Research Council, the United States Army is supposedly abandoning training about transgender troops:

Finally, the military is announcing a kind of transitioning we can support! For the first time since President Trump overturned Obama’s transgender military policy, the Army is shifting away from the focus on politically-correct topics like gender and back to the issues it should be concerned about -- like combat. 

In a message no one could mistake, the memo makes it clear: “Transgender training is complete across the total Army.” From now on, sensitivity classes and lessons on gender transitions will be 100 percent optional. “The move, Army leaders argue, is designed to relieve stress on the overburdened troop training regimen and refocus on soldiers’ ability to fight in combat.” In a nod to the hundreds of wasted hours spent on ridiculous topics like “male pregnancies” and “off-duty drag” the chief of the Army’s training program explained, “It was all the other [training] requirements that we levied on ourselves, or we had levied from other places” that took away from military readiness. 

Like a lot of commanders, he told the Washington Times that the trainings Obama handed down as part of the integration of people who identify as transgender “served as barriers to maximizing time… to build readiness and lethality.” Of course, this is the argument that experts like FRC’s Lt. General Jerry Boykin had been making all along. The military is a fighting force, not a gender clinic. “Talk to any service member today and you will find that a majority of them will express great frustration with the amount of time that they spend in these lectures at the expense of preparing for war,” he argues. “They spent all their training time in classrooms listening to lectures on diversity, tolerance, and inclusion instead of the Military Code of Conduct.” 

That’s time our military can never get back. Every hour (and dollar) our troops waste on the social engineering of the last administration is time they could have been on the range or practicing combat maneuvers. “When do you train for battle when you’re bogged down with these politically-correct mandates?” General Boykin asked. “You don’t. You go out and crash ships or get captured by Iranians, because you were never prepared for war.” 

Fortunately, the Army is putting an end to two years of this P.C. nonsense. “One of the things this [change has done] is reinforce to commanders out in the field that you have the authority and responsibility to ensure your units are as highly trained as humanly possible” to carry out combat operations,” Colonel John O’Grady said. And sexual politics aren’t the only thing getting the boot. Branch leaders are also paring down on other non-essential trainings. It’s about time, say most troops, who were overwhelmingly opposed to the idea anyway. With the growing number of global threats, we need our servicemen and women focused on what matters: making America safe again.

Hold your anger, shock, or disappointment for just a second. It should be no surprise to anyone who knows the modus operandi of the Family Research Council or has followed how this blog has called the group out for multiple distortions over the years that the entire story hasn't been told.

FRC took an article from The Washington Times and embellished many details to suit its lies against transgender troops.  First of all, making something optional isn't the same as abandoning it, yet that is the title of FRC's Washington Update - Army Gives Trans Training the Boot.

The Top 10 LGBT Anthems (do you agree or disagree?)

Anthems are a call to order and a way to unite folks behind a message. I present this video with caveats. It was created in 2015 and some may disagree with the songs on the list, whether because they never heard of them, disliked them, or really hated the video. Still, I'm posting the video to create discussion and to send the message that no matter how bleak things look, a community united (even a little bit) can never be defeated.

We survived worse than Trump. We will survive Trump and the entourage from hell which clings to him.