Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Monday, November 09, 2009

Let the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission wallow in the filth of its own ignorance

Next week, there will be a "challenge" to the new lgbt-inclusive hate crimes bill recently signed by President Obama. The "challenge" is being led by the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission:

On November 16th, CADC, along with other pro-family leaders and ministers, will go to Washington DC for a Rally for Religious Freedom. It will occur immediately in front of the Department of Justice.

Ministers, from various denominations, will preach the truth of the Word of God, especially the “politically incorrect” truth of the sin of homosexuality! We will challenge U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to charge this group of peacefully assembled clergy with a hate crime for simply preaching the Bible.

We will clearly establishing that this law cannot and will not silence God’s servants. We will continue to declare the whole counsel of God both publicly and in our pulpits. If we are arrested, we challenge the law in court.

This bold, public stand for Christ and freedom of speech will cost thousands of dollars. We need to pay for permits, rent a sound system and generators. We will need to send out press releases and get the word out to as many pro-family leaders and ministers as possible. There will be travel expenses and we also need to cover our ongoing overhead.

For those who need a reminder, the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission is that group which defends churches trying to exorcise lgbt children.

It's that same group which defends anti-gay hate groups run by discredited researchers who accuse gay men of molesting children and wallowing in feces.

In short, the CADC is a colossal joke.

And that is how we should treat its protest.

Hate crimes legislation protects free speech and religious freedom. And I don't think that the CADC or any other group who will participate in this protest are actually dumb enough to advocate violent action against lgbts.

At least I hope not.

What CADC and the other groups are doing is ridiculous grandstanding.

However, I think that these groups are attempting to exploit the lgbt community's anger. I think that they are counting on some of us to be there at their "protest." They are counting on us to be extremely angry and extremely vocal. They are counting on us to shout them down so that they can portray themselves as innocent Christians beset by "evil homosexuals."

The solution to this reminds me of a story told to me about when the Ku Klux Klan came to a small town. The community leaders got together and organized a boycott. When the Klan came, no one was there to greet them, shout at them, or allow themselves to be exploited by the ugly words emanating from the hate group.

Certainly I am not saying that we should be absent when the CADC and their allies come to the Justice Department. What I am saying is that we should let them wallow in the filth of their own ignorance.

Everything is on our side here. If they advocate violent action against lgbts, then their Christian guise is eliminated. If they merely speak as to what they say are "Biblical words" about homosexuality and nothing happens to them (which it won't), then there is egg on their faces.

And if any of us is there when the latter happens, I think we should not only take note of the egg on their faces but also remind the nation of it every chance we get.

Related posts:

Christian Anti-Defamation Commission defends exorcists and hate groups from the 'scary gays'

Gaybasher blames God and other Monday midday news briefs

Cops: Beating suspect said 'God made me hate gay people' - Number one of the "now I've heard it all" charts

Conservatives cry foul over Fort Worth policy proposals that are gay-friendly - Oh Heaven forbid!

House Passes Health Reform Bill with Key LGBT Provisions - This is good news!

Providence exhibit examines achievements of gay black men - About time, too. Now others need to follow suit!

Tampa council grants protections to transgender people - Nothing makes me smile more than a huge crop of good news.

Should the right to call a fellow employee 'a deviant' be protected under law?

Last week, I talked abut Peter Vadala, a young man claiming that he was fired from his job at Brookstone (a Massachusetts retailer store) for "merely" voicing his so-called Christian beliefs abut a colleague's legal gay wedding.

Well now many religious right groups and organizations have picked up on the story, making sure to make Vadala seem like an innocent victim. The most lurid headline coming from World Net Daily:

Man fired after saying homosexuality wrong
Accused of 'harassment' even though lesbian approached him

In World Net Daily's usual lying style, the headline gives the inaccurate impression that Vadala was somehow sexually harrassed.

Now this incident has sparked a lot of discussion in the lgbt community. I got into a huge discussion with some folks who felt that either the lesbian employee should have kept her mouth shut or that what Vadala said was not ground for termination.

I'm personally of the opinion that Vadala deserved to have some reprimand for to his actions and if that reprimand was his termination, then so be it.

It bothers me, however, that people want to simply gloss over this for the sake of either being overly nice to Vadala or exploiting his situation for their own purposes.

The question remains was Vadala fired for his beliefs?

No he wasn't.

He was fired for the unprofessional way he expressed his beliefs.

I have a copy of his termination letter, which Vadala provided to the anti-gay group Mass Resistance. Mass Resistance posted the letter on its webpage no doubt thinking that it would help Vadala's cause. In my opinion, it did just the opposite.

From the letter, we learned that (click on the graphics to read the letter):

* Vadala acknowledged calling the lesbian employee "deviant."

* in explaining the incident to a member of the Human Resource Department, Vadala contradicted himself.

* another sales associate offered a written letter saying that while she did not witness the incident, Vadala told her about the lesbian employee marrying another woman and said he hates people like that.

If you look at the letter, you will notice that Mass Resistance adds ridiculous editorial comments disputing several claims in it.

But this is irrelevant. The letter goes on to acknowledge that while Vadala has a right to his religious beliefs, his comments were inappropriate and unprofessional.

I think what is happening here is that people are being blinded by:

* the need to be overly courteous due to a belief that while lgbts seek our rights, we shouldn't seem pushy, or

* the inability to acknowledge that lgbts make up a considerable amount of the American workforce and just like heterosexuals, we deserve the same type of protection.

What if the employee was heterosexual, unmarried, and bragging about her children's success in school. If Vadala had approached her and said something like "you are denying your child a chance to have a father. You and your children are deviants," there wouldn't be any discussion of whether or not he deserves termination.

Until someone explains to me how this situation is any different from the one I described, then I am all for the notion of Vadala seeking other employment.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Words of love? The top ten anti-gay statements as determined by Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

This so-called cultural war is all about perception. Those who are on the front lines of opposing lgbt equality like to claim that their position is either religion-based or based upon love.

Their position based upon ignorance and hate. We know this. The only problem is conveying that sentiment to the population.

So, I've decided to remind everyone of 10 statements which I think encompass the actual mindsets of various religious right groups and personalities

As we relax on Sunday, go to church, or watch football, let's take a trip down memory lane (but watch where we step so we don't get it on our shoes) to remind everyone (ourselves included) of the lovely statements and comments of those who purport to be on the "correct" side of this so-called cultural war.

10. Linda Harvey - the former advertising executive who "found Jesus" and founded the religious right group Mission America. Subsequently this supposedly entitles her to become an "expert" of all things regarding the lgbt community. It allows her to say the following mess:

When people have views supporting homosexuality, they should not be involved with youth in any way, period. Here’s why:
• They will provide inaccurate, misleading information to kids;
• They may limit a student’s opportunity to hear warnings about the behavior;
• They may advocate or model inappropriate behavior;
• They may be directly involved in the molestation of kids themselves; or
• They may be in a position to allow others to do so. - Fairy Tales Don't Come True: Impressionable Kids and Homosexuality

9. Kevin McCullough - conservative columnist, leader of the so-called "Musclehead Revolution" and an all-around strange character who feels that since he is a man who has fathered a son whose skin is darker than the average African American (his exact words), he can tell the black community just how "evil" Obama is.

Hush up y'all about how "right" McCullough may be about Obama. The point is that his ridiculous comments about the President falls in line with the absolutely inane things he has said about the lgbt community in 2003:

The "alphas" in homosexual relationships, be they men or women, are many times recruiting younger partners. A vast percentage of those who enter the homosexual life do so after having been sexually initiated by an older person of their sex – be it consensual or not – it usually has the feel of enticement or seduction. - The 'gay' truth

8. Guy Adams - Rounding out the lower echeleon list of anti-gay nobodies is this mean looking fellow, Guy Adams. If you are not familiar with him there is a reason for that. In 2006, the one-time bodyguard of Alan Keyes said probably the most ugly, rudest thing ever about lgbts. It was so nasty that I don't think that Peter LaBarbera or Matt Barber at their most logically gymnastic could defend it:

The newest thing in Chicago, it's becoming a trend—and you're going to find this hard to believe—sex with infants. It's not enough that they have—you know, when you engage in perversion, and homosexuality is perversion—we don't hate the gays mind you, we don't hate them, we hate what they're doing—pretty soon that perversion is like addiction, it's not enough, so you need to graduate to something else. You need to move on. So now they're having sex with animals, a small group that's getting bigger, sex with infants, sex in the street in Chicago out in the open—it's just getting more and more perverted. So, I just don’t believe that there are a lot of really, really good gays.

After this comment, Adams has since retreated into his cocoon of crazy and I haven't heard from him since.

7. Ken Hutcherson - Of course this list must be multi-racial because ignorant, homophobic comments are like diseases; they know no color, gender, or religion. And who better to put in this list than perennial Microsoft stock threatener Ken Hutcherson. Hutcherson has never met a self-aggrandizing comment that he didn't like.

But the one thing he does not like are polite men because polite men are not macho:

"If I was in a drugstore and some guy opened the door for me, I'd rip his arm off and beat him with the wet end."

Supposedly it was a joke. But Hutcherson comes across as funny as "the itch." And his comments take a deeper resonance when one remembers his past protests against GLSEN's Day of Silence.

6. Chris Buttars - This lovely Utah representative who looks as if he has a low tolerance for gassy people doesn't necessarily like lgbts. But the folks in Utah seem to like him because they keep electing him to office. Maybe some folks like to hear such comments as:

Homosexuality will always be a sexual perversion. And you say that around here now and everybody goes nuts. But I don't care. They're mean. They want to talk about being nice. They're the meanest buggers I have ever seen. It's just like the Muslims. Muslims are good people and their religion is anti-war. But it’s been taken over by the radical side. What is the morals of a gay person? You can't answer that because anything goes. They're probably the greatest threat to America going down I know of."

Tea party-like distraction mess erupts on the floor of Congress

Not an lgbt issue per se, but still an important one.

So now the Republican party is not only encouraging the rudeness of tea party protestors, they are actually emulating them on the floor of Congress.

Regardless of how anyone feels about President Obama or his health care bill, there is no excuse for this type of behavior. What's next? Throwing punches?

More about what's going on here.

Presenting the most stereotypically gay anti-government video EVER

The following video is courtesy of Youth Revolution, which calls itself:

The Voice of a Christian Generation

The group's webpage goes on to say:

Teens and “20 something’s” are on the frontlines of every cultural battle raging today, from secularism in schools to seductive advertising, and social networking to political correctness. Youth Revolution works through the church and youth ministries to better prepare them, through education, training and opportunity to make a difference for Christ in this momentous time.

Apparently this video comes from their efforts. It's a VERY INTERESTING take on how evil the government is by using the same old talking points of how it unfairly taxes people and steals their money.

But with a twist:

Actually VERY INTERESTING is an overstatement. This video is gayer than a drag queen doing a rendition of the number Rose's Turn from Gypsy (don't laugh. I know it by heart.)

According to Pam's House Blend:

YR's Executive Director is none other than Russell Johnson, Director of Governmental Affairs for the Focus on the Family/Family Research Council affiliate Family Policy of Institute of Washington. This is the local organization that helped funnel over $200,000 of James Dobson's Colorado money into Washington's Referendum 71 campaign.

I'm guessing that the star of the video, Tim Hawkins, probably feels that despite the criticisms he is sure to receive, there is no such thing as bad press.

Of course he doesn't because he has his web address plastered at the end of the video.

Maybe or maybe not, but to quote actor Will Smith in Men in Black:

DAMN

Friday, November 06, 2009

Know your lgbt history - Mannequin

I HATE it when good actors do insulting roles.

I'm sure that on almost every actor's resume is a role he or she regrets taking.

And I am also sure that in Designing Women alumni Meschach Taylor's case, it's his interpretation of a gay man in the movie Mannequin (1987).

Mannequin tells the story of an artist (Andrew McCarthy) and the mannequin (pre - Sex in the City Kim Catrail) he creates coming to life.

The premise is silly, the soundtrack was awesome, and Meshach Taylor was simply embarrassing as this clip will show:

Monday, November 09, 2009

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Friday, November 06, 2009