West Virginia religious right group sinks low - I mean real low
I'm disappointed with the West Virginia Family Foundation.
Usually when a religious right group stands against pro-gay legislation, it has the decency to disguise its endeavors as something wholesome.
But not this group:
West Virginia Legislators have introduced multiple pro-homosexual bills to mandate West Virginians to accept the homosexual lifestyle as a "civil rights” protected class in WV Code.
SB-134 & SB-238 would grant “civil rights” status within the WV Human Rights Act, West Virginia Fair Housing Act, and West Virginia employment regulations, for bi-sexual, homosexual and gender identity (sex change) lifestyles. The House liberals have sponsored similar bills such as HB-2454, HB-2925 and HB-2954.
This legislation, if passed, would remove the rights of West Virginia employers not to hire, and West Virginia land owners not to rent to, transvestites, openly homosexual individuals, and others with a perverse sexual orientation.
So to this group, employers and land owners have a right to discriminate against gays and lesbians and the bill would remove that right.
We certainly wouldn't want that to happen (that was sarcasm.)
Interestingly enough, the bills have an exemption for churches and other religious organizations. In addition, they have been endorsed by Catholic and Episcopal clergy.
So how can the West Virginia Family Foundation demonstrate that these are "bad bills?"
On the top of its webpage, the group has two pictures of what it seems to think that the bills will allow - i. .e men in in drag and leather.
Only thing is that I don't think those pictures are of gays in West Virginia but of the Folsom Street Fair in California.
The fact that this group couldn't find any negatives pictures of gays in its own state is probably a good thing - which would give more creedence to the bills.
But the group's usage of California pictures in an attempt to stop pro-gay bills in West Virginia ranks right up there with using pictures of Playboy centerfolds to keep women away from military combat.
It's funny in that respect, but still dishonest.
UPDATE - One of the bills have passed through the State Senate!!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Robert Knight pops up again
Some religious right members never seem to go away.
Fresh being let go from the Media Research Institute, former Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America and frequent Paul Cameron studies user Robert Knight is now at Coral Ridge Ministries as a "senior writer."
That's the group started which once employed one of our favorite religious right spokespeople Janet (a vote for Obama is a vote against God) Porter.
Knight should feel right at home - from one asylum to another.
And he is not wasting time either as this quote from a Fox News article about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" would attest to:
"The ban is in place for a reason -- open homosexuality poses many problems to good order, discipline and unit cohesion," says Robert Knight, a senior writer for Coral Ridge Ministries and former head of the Culture and Family Institute in Washington.
"There is going to be some be some very heavy pushback from people in the military and civilians (on this) ... this is a train wreck waiting to happen."
That's quite a switch. In 2004, Knight was blaming the policy for terrorism and gay acceptance in general for Iraqi prison abuse, the beheading of prisoner Nick Berg and Muslim dislike of the U.S. in general:
“We were told homosexuality is harmless and normal, and the military should live with a ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy that allows homosexuals to stay in the barracks. We were told that men ‘marrying’ men and women ‘marrying’ women is inevitable not only for America, but for the world,” wrote Knight, whose Culture & Family Institute is part of Phyllis Schafly’s Concerned Women for America.
“Imagine how those images of men kissing men outside San Francisco City Hall after being ‘married’ play in the Muslim world. We couldn’t offer the mullahs a more perfect picture of American decadence. Businessman Nick Berg, who was beheaded by a group claiming revenge over the prison abuses, is the first victim, and we can only pray he will be the last.”
For the record, I'm glad Knight is back.
I was getting tired of lightweights like Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber.
Some religious right members never seem to go away.
Fresh being let go from the Media Research Institute, former Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America and frequent Paul Cameron studies user Robert Knight is now at Coral Ridge Ministries as a "senior writer."
That's the group started which once employed one of our favorite religious right spokespeople Janet (a vote for Obama is a vote against God) Porter.
Knight should feel right at home - from one asylum to another.
And he is not wasting time either as this quote from a Fox News article about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" would attest to:
"The ban is in place for a reason -- open homosexuality poses many problems to good order, discipline and unit cohesion," says Robert Knight, a senior writer for Coral Ridge Ministries and former head of the Culture and Family Institute in Washington.
"There is going to be some be some very heavy pushback from people in the military and civilians (on this) ... this is a train wreck waiting to happen."
That's quite a switch. In 2004, Knight was blaming the policy for terrorism and gay acceptance in general for Iraqi prison abuse, the beheading of prisoner Nick Berg and Muslim dislike of the U.S. in general:
“We were told homosexuality is harmless and normal, and the military should live with a ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy that allows homosexuals to stay in the barracks. We were told that men ‘marrying’ men and women ‘marrying’ women is inevitable not only for America, but for the world,” wrote Knight, whose Culture & Family Institute is part of Phyllis Schafly’s Concerned Women for America.
“Imagine how those images of men kissing men outside San Francisco City Hall after being ‘married’ play in the Muslim world. We couldn’t offer the mullahs a more perfect picture of American decadence. Businessman Nick Berg, who was beheaded by a group claiming revenge over the prison abuses, is the first victim, and we can only pray he will be the last.”
For the record, I'm glad Knight is back.
I was getting tired of lightweights like Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber.
We win in Florida and other news briefs
Judge Gives Green Light to Florida High School Gay-Straight Alliance - One of the few places where we have been able to consistently smack down the religious right have been when lgbt students want to form clubs and support groups. Thank goodness for the Equal Access Act.
Choice quote of the week - RNC Chairman Michael Steele: " . . . you just can’t simply say, oh, like, “Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being gay.” It’s like saying, “Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being black.”
I wonder what Ken Hutcherson and Harry Jackson have to say about that one?
Gay Candidate Anthony Niedwiecki Elected to Oakland Park City Commission - and he is going to be Mayor in 2011! I wonder if he is dating. I always wanted to be a political husband.
Lawsuit ignores voters' verdict on parenting - A day without a bullshit article from One News Now is like a day without sunshine.
Judge Gives Green Light to Florida High School Gay-Straight Alliance - One of the few places where we have been able to consistently smack down the religious right have been when lgbt students want to form clubs and support groups. Thank goodness for the Equal Access Act.
Choice quote of the week - RNC Chairman Michael Steele: " . . . you just can’t simply say, oh, like, “Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being gay.” It’s like saying, “Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being black.”
I wonder what Ken Hutcherson and Harry Jackson have to say about that one?
Gay Candidate Anthony Niedwiecki Elected to Oakland Park City Commission - and he is going to be Mayor in 2011! I wonder if he is dating. I always wanted to be a political husband.
Lawsuit ignores voters' verdict on parenting - A day without a bullshit article from One News Now is like a day without sunshine.
A little comedy brought to you by World Net Daily
Ever since President Obama was elected, rightwing site World Net Daily has been working a stealth campaign of trying to undermine him.
From pushing stories about President Obama not being a United States citizen to publishing whatever other rumor comes down the pike about him, it's clear that World Net Daily doesn't exactly find President Obama to be their favorite person.
One of World Net Daily's efforts involves encouraging its readers to print the questions they would like to ask President Obama.
From the look of some of these questions, World Net Daily's readers seem to be a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal:
By what right, under what authority, do you deem yourself qualified to decide who is to live and who is to die? The pro abortion policies you are pushing and endorsing would be laughable if they weren't so horrifying. I thought the Nazis were defeated, but I guess they just morphed into the liberal leftist former Democratic party here. I hope you will stop trying to play God here, because frankly I can't think of anyone less qualified.
Mr. Obama,
For the first time in my life I can not call the person in this office by the title that has been given to you, primarily due to the fact that you have yet to satisfy the requirements of the office through the presenting of particular documents which would determine your eligibility to be in the office you currently occupy. You have made history by being the first person of your race to be elected to the office of the President of the United States, you also appear to be struggling to make additional history and taking your place among such noted figures in history as Marx and Lenin. My question for you this day is why are you so bent on turning this once republic (now democratic republic) into a communistic state? When the citizens must rely upon the state for health care, jobs, food and direction they are no longer free and the form of government is no longer a republic... this is a communistic socialist state, why do you wish to destroy freedom?
Are you deliberately trying to destroy America so you can install a Socialist Government?
Why don't you be a man and stand up for what you are? Go ahead and tell all that you are a Socialist and want to break the country down. That way everyone will be broke, homeless and hungry. Then you and your Socialist can act like your the "Godsend" and make all think your our "Buddy" (sic). Your a coward, a thief and a phony we will NEVER respect a Socialist. REAL AMERICANS want you EMPEACHED!
Do you beleive in an 'End Of Days'? Do you believe that Jesus, The Christ, will return to Earth and that God will decend upon this planet to cast his judgement? What do you believe will save you from His judgement?
I bet you admire Hitler don't you? God help us,I shudder to think what you are going to do to this country.
I can't help but notice when you are on stage addressing the masses, that you strike a pose, looking out and above at the horizon,(a favored look in a lenin-esque dictatorial kind of way). What are you looking at? Are you anticipating the arrival of the 'mother-ship'?
There are more here if you want a good laugh.
Ever since President Obama was elected, rightwing site World Net Daily has been working a stealth campaign of trying to undermine him.
From pushing stories about President Obama not being a United States citizen to publishing whatever other rumor comes down the pike about him, it's clear that World Net Daily doesn't exactly find President Obama to be their favorite person.
One of World Net Daily's efforts involves encouraging its readers to print the questions they would like to ask President Obama.
From the look of some of these questions, World Net Daily's readers seem to be a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal:
By what right, under what authority, do you deem yourself qualified to decide who is to live and who is to die? The pro abortion policies you are pushing and endorsing would be laughable if they weren't so horrifying. I thought the Nazis were defeated, but I guess they just morphed into the liberal leftist former Democratic party here. I hope you will stop trying to play God here, because frankly I can't think of anyone less qualified.
Mr. Obama,
For the first time in my life I can not call the person in this office by the title that has been given to you, primarily due to the fact that you have yet to satisfy the requirements of the office through the presenting of particular documents which would determine your eligibility to be in the office you currently occupy. You have made history by being the first person of your race to be elected to the office of the President of the United States, you also appear to be struggling to make additional history and taking your place among such noted figures in history as Marx and Lenin. My question for you this day is why are you so bent on turning this once republic (now democratic republic) into a communistic state? When the citizens must rely upon the state for health care, jobs, food and direction they are no longer free and the form of government is no longer a republic... this is a communistic socialist state, why do you wish to destroy freedom?
Are you deliberately trying to destroy America so you can install a Socialist Government?
Why don't you be a man and stand up for what you are? Go ahead and tell all that you are a Socialist and want to break the country down. That way everyone will be broke, homeless and hungry. Then you and your Socialist can act like your the "Godsend" and make all think your our "Buddy" (sic). Your a coward, a thief and a phony we will NEVER respect a Socialist. REAL AMERICANS want you EMPEACHED!
Do you beleive in an 'End Of Days'? Do you believe that Jesus, The Christ, will return to Earth and that God will decend upon this planet to cast his judgement? What do you believe will save you from His judgement?
I bet you admire Hitler don't you? God help us,I shudder to think what you are going to do to this country.
I can't help but notice when you are on stage addressing the masses, that you strike a pose, looking out and above at the horizon,(a favored look in a lenin-esque dictatorial kind of way). What are you looking at? Are you anticipating the arrival of the 'mother-ship'?
There are more here if you want a good laugh.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Kentucky anti-gay adoption/foster care bill is DEAD for now
Editor's note - despite what the opposition says, bills like this one are meant to target gays and lesbians. And that talking point about "children doing better in a home with Mom and Dad" is just insulting. None of these bill even guarantee that children in foster care will receive homes, whether two-parent or single.
Adoption, foster-care bill is dead for session
Some contend measure targeted gay couples
The sponsor of a controversial bill to ban unmarried couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents acknowledged yesterday that the bill is dead.
"It's too late," Sen. Gary Tapp, R-Shelbyville, said of Senate Bill 68, which was voted out of committee last week but still hasn't been called for a floor vote. "It didn't go anywhere this session."
Tapp said he didn't know why the Senate's Republican leadership didn't schedule a vote on SB 68.
"I quit asking," he said.
Neither Senate President David Williams nor Majority Leader Dan Kelly, the chamber's top leaders, could be reached for comment last night.
Even if the bill were to win Senate approval, it would still need to be passed by the House. And there is little chance of that happening with only three scheduled days for passing bills remaining in this year's session.
Opponents of the bill -- including those who said it was aimed primarily at gay couples -- were relieved to hear that SB 68 won't advance.
"We're encouraged," said Chris Hartman, executive director of Louisville's Fairness Alliance, which held a Feb. 25 rally at the Capitol to oppose the proposal.
Hartman said he hoped the numerous calls, letters and e-mails to lawmakers from opponents have "driven home the message that hate legislation should never be passed in the commonwealth."
The rest of the story is here.
Editor's note - despite what the opposition says, bills like this one are meant to target gays and lesbians. And that talking point about "children doing better in a home with Mom and Dad" is just insulting. None of these bill even guarantee that children in foster care will receive homes, whether two-parent or single.
Adoption, foster-care bill is dead for session
Some contend measure targeted gay couples
The sponsor of a controversial bill to ban unmarried couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents acknowledged yesterday that the bill is dead.
"It's too late," Sen. Gary Tapp, R-Shelbyville, said of Senate Bill 68, which was voted out of committee last week but still hasn't been called for a floor vote. "It didn't go anywhere this session."
Tapp said he didn't know why the Senate's Republican leadership didn't schedule a vote on SB 68.
"I quit asking," he said.
Neither Senate President David Williams nor Majority Leader Dan Kelly, the chamber's top leaders, could be reached for comment last night.
Even if the bill were to win Senate approval, it would still need to be passed by the House. And there is little chance of that happening with only three scheduled days for passing bills remaining in this year's session.
Opponents of the bill -- including those who said it was aimed primarily at gay couples -- were relieved to hear that SB 68 won't advance.
"We're encouraged," said Chris Hartman, executive director of Louisville's Fairness Alliance, which held a Feb. 25 rally at the Capitol to oppose the proposal.
Hartman said he hoped the numerous calls, letters and e-mails to lawmakers from opponents have "driven home the message that hate legislation should never be passed in the commonwealth."
The rest of the story is here.
Open Letter to the Exodus International Board of Directors
We, the undersigned organizations, have monitored the ex-gay industry for more than a decade. To our great horror, prominent members of the ex-gay organization Exodus International participated last week in a conference in Uganda that promoted shocking abuses of basic human rights. This included draconian measures against gay and lesbian people such as forced ex-gay therapy, life imprisonment for people convicted of homosexuality and the formation of an organization designed to “wipe out” gay practices in Uganda. The conference also featured Scott Lively, a holocaust revisionist who at the event also blamed the 1994 Rwandan genocide on gay people.
The facts incontrovertibly show that Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, was aware of the list of speakers and abhorrent content prior to the conference. Exodus board member Don Schmierer, who spoke in Uganda, made no objections to the radical and dangerous platform offered. Instead, these mortal threats to the lives of gay and lesbian people were met with a deafening silence. Exodus, in effect, gave this insidious conference its tacit approval.
Today, we take the unprecedented step of joining together to demand that Exodus International’s Board of Directors take immediate action to hold accountable those who used the Exodus brand to promote an atmosphere conducive to serious human rights abuses. The accountability must begin with reasonable and responsible action by Board Chair Bob Ragan, including:
Dismissing Exodus President Alan Chambers for his knowing role in using Exodus to promote human rights abuses
Removing Board member Don Schmierer for speaking at a hate conference that promotes physical harm and psychological torture against GLBT people
Boldly articulating Exodus’ policy against human rights abuses including forced therapy
Promising to end future participation in all conferences that call on the persecution and criminalization of gay and lesbian people
We do not take this call to action lightly. These steps are necessary and commensurate with the massive breach of ethics and trust by the Exodus leadership. Clearly, Exodus has lost credibility and its claim to “love” gay people in the aftermath of Uganda seems duplicitous and insincere. As long as Chambers and Schmierer remain at Exodus, the organization is hopelessly compromised and even complicit in grave human rights abuses. It is time for the Exodus Board, led by Bob Ragan, to assert its moral authority by appointing new leadership and taking the organization in a more humane and principled direction.
Sincerely,
Jim Burroway
Box Turtle Bulletin
David Roberts
Ex-Gay Watch
Wayne Besen
Truth Wins Out
Mike Airhart
Truth Wins Out
More at Truthwinsout.org
We, the undersigned organizations, have monitored the ex-gay industry for more than a decade. To our great horror, prominent members of the ex-gay organization Exodus International participated last week in a conference in Uganda that promoted shocking abuses of basic human rights. This included draconian measures against gay and lesbian people such as forced ex-gay therapy, life imprisonment for people convicted of homosexuality and the formation of an organization designed to “wipe out” gay practices in Uganda. The conference also featured Scott Lively, a holocaust revisionist who at the event also blamed the 1994 Rwandan genocide on gay people.
The facts incontrovertibly show that Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, was aware of the list of speakers and abhorrent content prior to the conference. Exodus board member Don Schmierer, who spoke in Uganda, made no objections to the radical and dangerous platform offered. Instead, these mortal threats to the lives of gay and lesbian people were met with a deafening silence. Exodus, in effect, gave this insidious conference its tacit approval.
Today, we take the unprecedented step of joining together to demand that Exodus International’s Board of Directors take immediate action to hold accountable those who used the Exodus brand to promote an atmosphere conducive to serious human rights abuses. The accountability must begin with reasonable and responsible action by Board Chair Bob Ragan, including:
Dismissing Exodus President Alan Chambers for his knowing role in using Exodus to promote human rights abuses
Removing Board member Don Schmierer for speaking at a hate conference that promotes physical harm and psychological torture against GLBT people
Boldly articulating Exodus’ policy against human rights abuses including forced therapy
Promising to end future participation in all conferences that call on the persecution and criminalization of gay and lesbian people
We do not take this call to action lightly. These steps are necessary and commensurate with the massive breach of ethics and trust by the Exodus leadership. Clearly, Exodus has lost credibility and its claim to “love” gay people in the aftermath of Uganda seems duplicitous and insincere. As long as Chambers and Schmierer remain at Exodus, the organization is hopelessly compromised and even complicit in grave human rights abuses. It is time for the Exodus Board, led by Bob Ragan, to assert its moral authority by appointing new leadership and taking the organization in a more humane and principled direction.
Sincerely,
Jim Burroway
Box Turtle Bulletin
David Roberts
Ex-Gay Watch
Wayne Besen
Truth Wins Out
Mike Airhart
Truth Wins Out
More at Truthwinsout.org
Is Peter trying to get someone fired?
For all of their talk about the alleged intolerance of gays and how we are trying to silence folks and get them fired, some members of the religious right have no problem with engaging in those same tactics when it suits them.
Witness the recent situation involving our friend Peter LaBarbera and one Warren Throckmorton.
As I recall, I have never written about Throckmorton before. He is a professor at Grover City College and is also vocal about the subject of homosexuality. From what I see, there is plenty to disagree with him about but his demeanor is nothing like that of LaBarbera and company. He tends not to froth at the mouth while going on some tangent about "radical gay activists."
And sometimes he disagrees with LaBarbera and company. For example - this Day of Silence Walkout that I talked about on Monday.
Throckmorton posted a piece criticizing the walkout. He says that a walkout would be more disruptive than silence.
Yesterday, LaBarbera posted a reply from phony gay expert Laurie Higgins. What strikes me are the little notes LaBarbera included in the response making what I think are hints that Throckmorton needs to be let go from his job:
Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton has directed his hostile “reporting” at NARTH, “reparative therapy,” former homosexual Richard Cohen, Sally Kern and now the pro-family coalition campaign to boycott the homosexual activist “Day of Silence” in schools (April 17). But Throckmorton doesn’t like it when pro-family critics focus attention on his unScriptural positions, which are presumably at odds with Grove City’s Christian mission.
We will have more in the coming weeks on controversial Grove City College associate professor Warren Throckmorton, who has strayed far from a Biblical worldview on homosexuality, and far from the mission of his employer. (Grove City College’s mission statement affirms that the college “remains true to the vision of its founders. Rejecting relativism and secularism, it fosters intellectual, moral, spiritual, and social development consistent with a commitment to Christian truth, morals, and freedom.”)
We will provide further excerpts of this interview, (editor's note - an interview Throckmorton did with Micheangelo Signorile) and possibly the entire transcript, which we will provide to Grove City College officials (who have already been contacted by pro-family leaders concerning Throckmorton’s controversial statements and tactics).
Bear in mind that LaBarbera is the same one who sounded the horn for Matt Barber and Crystal Dixon, claiming that they were fired for conduct done on their own time, even though the conduct was in direct opposite of their employers' mission (and in both cases, involved their employers).
I guess he won't extend that same courtesy to Throckmorton.
I doubt that his bleatings will have any bearing on Throckmorton's employment, but any day that I can shine a light of LaBarbera's hypocrisies is a good day.
For all of their talk about the alleged intolerance of gays and how we are trying to silence folks and get them fired, some members of the religious right have no problem with engaging in those same tactics when it suits them.
Witness the recent situation involving our friend Peter LaBarbera and one Warren Throckmorton.
As I recall, I have never written about Throckmorton before. He is a professor at Grover City College and is also vocal about the subject of homosexuality. From what I see, there is plenty to disagree with him about but his demeanor is nothing like that of LaBarbera and company. He tends not to froth at the mouth while going on some tangent about "radical gay activists."
And sometimes he disagrees with LaBarbera and company. For example - this Day of Silence Walkout that I talked about on Monday.
Throckmorton posted a piece criticizing the walkout. He says that a walkout would be more disruptive than silence.
Yesterday, LaBarbera posted a reply from phony gay expert Laurie Higgins. What strikes me are the little notes LaBarbera included in the response making what I think are hints that Throckmorton needs to be let go from his job:
Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton has directed his hostile “reporting” at NARTH, “reparative therapy,” former homosexual Richard Cohen, Sally Kern and now the pro-family coalition campaign to boycott the homosexual activist “Day of Silence” in schools (April 17). But Throckmorton doesn’t like it when pro-family critics focus attention on his unScriptural positions, which are presumably at odds with Grove City’s Christian mission.
We will have more in the coming weeks on controversial Grove City College associate professor Warren Throckmorton, who has strayed far from a Biblical worldview on homosexuality, and far from the mission of his employer. (Grove City College’s mission statement affirms that the college “remains true to the vision of its founders. Rejecting relativism and secularism, it fosters intellectual, moral, spiritual, and social development consistent with a commitment to Christian truth, morals, and freedom.”)
We will provide further excerpts of this interview, (editor's note - an interview Throckmorton did with Micheangelo Signorile) and possibly the entire transcript, which we will provide to Grove City College officials (who have already been contacted by pro-family leaders concerning Throckmorton’s controversial statements and tactics).
Bear in mind that LaBarbera is the same one who sounded the horn for Matt Barber and Crystal Dixon, claiming that they were fired for conduct done on their own time, even though the conduct was in direct opposite of their employers' mission (and in both cases, involved their employers).
I guess he won't extend that same courtesy to Throckmorton.
I doubt that his bleatings will have any bearing on Throckmorton's employment, but any day that I can shine a light of LaBarbera's hypocrisies is a good day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)