This is a little recap of some of the most interesting (and unfortunate) "hits" of the religious right from last week:
New smear launched against Kevin Jennings using old tactics of omission - As the Deerfield so-called controversy and the newest smear against Kevin Jennings proves, it's so simple how the omission of a few basic facts can unfairly paint someone as a monster out to harm children. The two incidents also show that more scrutiny needs to be aimed at those making such accusations rather than the acceptance of their words at face value.
Matt Barber's slur of Chai Feldblum's name was unnecessary but so very indicative - Barber's juvenile name-calling belongs on an elementary school playground and not in a serious public discussion regarding discrimination. And most of all, definitely not in a publication that considers itself Christian.
Rick Warren continues to lose integrity over proposed Ugandan anti-gay bill - . . . no should be persecuted because of their faith and by that same point, no one should be persecuted because of their orientation. A true man of God would find that commonality.
Martin Ssempa and the Family - Why Rick Warren won't speak out against anti-gay Ugandan bill - MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and journalist Jeff Sharlet recently discussed Uganda's anti-gay bill which, among other things, would push the death penalty for sexually active HIV positive lgbts and imprison any relative, pastor, or doctor who failed to report an LGBT person to police within 24 hours.
Family Research Council's anti-lgbt stance built on distortions - The Media Matters Action post did an excellent job breaking down just how anti-lgbt the Family Research Council is, but I think some specific attention should be paid to just how deceptive they have been in pushing their anti-lgbt stance. The following posts by me and others demonstrate few instances in which the group have distorted facts to make the case against lgbt equality.
Hate group leader joins Manhattan Declaration - So by my count, that's two signers of the Manhattan Declaration who favor jailing lgbts. Maybe some will say that it's only two out of 150,000. But to me that's too many. I wonder how many other signers of the Manhattan Declaration favor jailing lgbts.
Scott Lively: American, European gays are to blame for harsh anti-gay laws in Uganda - No one should be surprised about that last point. According to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, (Paul) Cameron and Lively are two of a kind:
We see Lively the same way we see Paul Cameron; the two of them in our view consciously promote easily provable false defamations. They don’t seem to care at all what the truth is.”
Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Friday, December 04, 2009
New smear launched against Kevin Jennings using old tactics of omission
Dept.of Education official Kevin Jennings is being attacked again. From Mediamatters.org:
Conservative blogs have claimed that Department of Education official Kevin Jennings is unfit as "Safe Schools Czar" because he supposedly promoted "child porn" by allowing an education organization he founded to recommend for students in grades 7-12 books that included sexually explicit content.
. . . In a December 4 post on his Gateway Pundit blog - headlined, "Breaking: Obama's 'Safe Schools Czar' Is Promoting Child Porn in the Classroom" - Jim Hoft wrote that "Scott Baker from Breitbart-TV.com and Co-Host of 'The B-Cast' submitted this shocking report today on Obama's deviant Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings." In the post, Baker wrote that the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which Jennings founded and previously served as executive director, published a reading list for students in grades 7-12 that contained books which included "X-Rated" and sexually explicit content.
But like all the other attacks against Jennings, this one is full of holes.
Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up
Richard Pryor's 1977 movie Which Way Is Up proves that lgbts can be disrespected tremendously even when we are not on the screen.
In this movie, (a vile exercise that was so very beneath the talents of everyone involved), Pryor portrays a man seduced by corporate interests. As he moves up the corporate ladder, he finds himself losing control of his life.
Amongst other things, Pryor's character is juggling two women. Because of a vow he made to his girlfriend, he cannot have sex with his wife.
Needless to say, his first wife and all of their friends think he is gay (and I'm being nice here because they use a slur for gay).
The irony is that when Pryor becomes an outcast, he decides to show his friends his girlfriend and son.
And the revelation impresses them.
You get that? To these men, being gay is something to be ashamed of but having a wife and a girlfriend makes you "the man."
Like I said before, a vile, nasty movie:
Past Know Your LGBT History posts:
Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps
Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware
Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks
Know your lgbt history - Mannequin
Know your lgbt history - The Warriors
Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover
Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame
Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes
Know your lgbt history - California Suite
Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)
Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue
Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay
Know your lgbt history - Windows
Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla
Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles
Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son
Know your lgbt history - In Living Color
Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords
Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?
Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street
Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys
Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy
Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George
Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda
'Know your lgbt history - Cruising
Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones
Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up
Know your lgbt history - Fright Night
Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil
The Jeffersons and the transgender community
In this movie, (a vile exercise that was so very beneath the talents of everyone involved), Pryor portrays a man seduced by corporate interests. As he moves up the corporate ladder, he finds himself losing control of his life.
Amongst other things, Pryor's character is juggling two women. Because of a vow he made to his girlfriend, he cannot have sex with his wife.
Needless to say, his first wife and all of their friends think he is gay (and I'm being nice here because they use a slur for gay).
The irony is that when Pryor becomes an outcast, he decides to show his friends his girlfriend and son.
And the revelation impresses them.
You get that? To these men, being gay is something to be ashamed of but having a wife and a girlfriend makes you "the man."
Like I said before, a vile, nasty movie:
Past Know Your LGBT History posts:
Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps
Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware
Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks
Know your lgbt history - Mannequin
Know your lgbt history - The Warriors
Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover
Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame
Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes
Know your lgbt history - California Suite
Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)
Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue
Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay
Know your lgbt history - Windows
Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla
Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles
Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son
Know your lgbt history - In Living Color
Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords
Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?
Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street
Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys
Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy
Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George
Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda
'Know your lgbt history - Cruising
Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones
Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up
Know your lgbt history - Fright Night
Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil
The Jeffersons and the transgender community
Ugandan bill called genocide, religious right leader warns of D.C. 'bloodletting' and other Friday midday news briefs
Ugandan church leader brands anti-gay bill 'genocide' - Say it again. Louder this time!
FOTF's Citizenlink blog: GLSEN is sexualizing Santa - Okay this is beyond stupid but so typical of Focus on the Family.
Harry Jackson Warns of "Bloodletting" In DC - What in the hell is that supposed to mean?
Matt Barber vs Adam Lambert - I know you all are tired of the "Adam Lambert" thing but this is good. People for the American Way catches the Liberty Counsel in a HUGE lie.
Chase: NOM Ineligible for Charity Contest - Chase smacks down the National Organization for Marriage!
FOTF's Citizenlink blog: GLSEN is sexualizing Santa - Okay this is beyond stupid but so typical of Focus on the Family.
Harry Jackson Warns of "Bloodletting" In DC - What in the hell is that supposed to mean?
Matt Barber vs Adam Lambert - I know you all are tired of the "Adam Lambert" thing but this is good. People for the American Way catches the Liberty Counsel in a HUGE lie.
Chase: NOM Ineligible for Charity Contest - Chase smacks down the National Organization for Marriage!
Is Ugandan anti-gay bill a sign of moral righteousness?
I got an interesting comment on my site last night.
Now while I rarely like to focus attention on those who comment on my posts, this is a special case.
It's about that awful anti-lgbt Ugandan bill:
I suppose, we all know that Uganda can never be USA or EU etc etc. We are all missing the point by trying vilify Ssempa and Rick Warren. These two guys only just became friends recently. Ssempa has been in the strong fight against immorality in his country since 1988. His ministry has hardly seen any downfall in the fight against immorality in Uganda. We should then focus more on how to help Uganda rid out what she doesn't like since homosexualty is a dehumanizing act. In fact in Africa where most of you have never lived for more than a week, homosexuality is absolutely unacceptable. It will always be fought ferociously. There is no room for such here. So let's all join arms and support Uganda in its quest to maintain there moral culture. Thank you.
One more thing, Warren has never funded Ssempa. I was even shocked that the many times Warren has come to Uganda, he has never visited Ssempa's ministry. Ssempa has built up himself on Righteousness, Justice, Dedicated Service to his God and Generosity.
It's amazing how this man sidestepped the content of the bill in order to justify it. I don't see any morality in persecuting a group of people and frankly when I read what he wrote, it reminds me of when the late Ugandan leader Idi Amin persecuted Asians. It's an old but effective formula - scapegoat a group of people for a nation's problem, persecute them via violence or laws, and then claim that you are doing "God's work."
Naturally I gave him an reply but if any of you would like to, feel free. I must say that no matter how angry the letter gets you, please do not stoop to baseless name-calling or attacks on individual heritages.
One more about about the Ugandan bill - For a limited time, Truth Wins Out has an excellent video of Rachel Maddow going into more detail regarding the bill and members of the Republican party.
Related posts:
Martin Ssempa and the Family - Why Rick Warren won't speak out against anti-gay Ugandan bill
Rick Warren continues to lose integrity over proposed Ugandan anti-gay bill
Now while I rarely like to focus attention on those who comment on my posts, this is a special case.
It's about that awful anti-lgbt Ugandan bill:
I suppose, we all know that Uganda can never be USA or EU etc etc. We are all missing the point by trying vilify Ssempa and Rick Warren. These two guys only just became friends recently. Ssempa has been in the strong fight against immorality in his country since 1988. His ministry has hardly seen any downfall in the fight against immorality in Uganda. We should then focus more on how to help Uganda rid out what she doesn't like since homosexualty is a dehumanizing act. In fact in Africa where most of you have never lived for more than a week, homosexuality is absolutely unacceptable. It will always be fought ferociously. There is no room for such here. So let's all join arms and support Uganda in its quest to maintain there moral culture. Thank you.
One more thing, Warren has never funded Ssempa. I was even shocked that the many times Warren has come to Uganda, he has never visited Ssempa's ministry. Ssempa has built up himself on Righteousness, Justice, Dedicated Service to his God and Generosity.
It's amazing how this man sidestepped the content of the bill in order to justify it. I don't see any morality in persecuting a group of people and frankly when I read what he wrote, it reminds me of when the late Ugandan leader Idi Amin persecuted Asians. It's an old but effective formula - scapegoat a group of people for a nation's problem, persecute them via violence or laws, and then claim that you are doing "God's work."
Naturally I gave him an reply but if any of you would like to, feel free. I must say that no matter how angry the letter gets you, please do not stoop to baseless name-calling or attacks on individual heritages.
One more about about the Ugandan bill - For a limited time, Truth Wins Out has an excellent video of Rachel Maddow going into more detail regarding the bill and members of the Republican party.
Related posts:
Martin Ssempa and the Family - Why Rick Warren won't speak out against anti-gay Ugandan bill
Rick Warren continues to lose integrity over proposed Ugandan anti-gay bill
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Matt Barber's slur of Chai Feldblum's name was unnecessary but so very indicative
Earlier today, I made mention of Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber's anti-ENDA piece in One News Now. But I want to talk about it further because it really bothers me.Barber made the usual nonsensical arguments against ENDA, i.e. it should be opposed because religious business owners (not churches, mind you) should be "forced" to hire someone if they feel that homosexuality is a sin:
ENDA would force – under penalty of law – Christian, Jewish, or Muslim business owners to hire people who unrepentantly choose to engage in homosexual or cross-dressing behaviors, despite the fact that those volitional behaviors are in direct conflict with every major world religion, thousands of years of history, and uncompromising human biology.
This is no different than compelling a deeply religious business owner to hire and accommodate an "out and proud" adulterous "swinger." It's a direct assault on the inalienable rights of people of faith. It pits the government directly against the free exercise of religion and is, therefore, unconstitutional on its face.
It's a dumb argument. America is not a theocracy so the alleged views of "major world religions" are irrelevant.
And also, Barber's point leaves him wide open for refutation. What if a Muslim business owner didn't want to "hire and accommodate" a Christian or vice versa?
And on that same token is it right for the owner of a restaurant (a secular endeavor) to be able to higher and fire people based on his personal religious beliefs? Where do we draw the line here? What if the owner of the restaurant had racist beliefs? Should those be accomomdated.
My guess is that Barber didn't think this through because he was so busy attempting to draw a wedge between race and sexual orientation in the last part of his piece.
But his attack on EEOC nominee Chai Feldblum is what really stands out:
Chai Feldblum (pronounced "high" as in "stoned") is a lesbian activist and sexual anarchist attorney who supports legalized polygamy and bisexual polyamory. She has been nominated by President Obama to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). This is like having Michael Moore guard the donuts. In the past, Feldblum – ENDA's chief framer and, if confirmed, one of five commissioners charged with its enforcement – has candidly summed-up the mindset behind the bill.
He forgot to mention that on her off days from planning the lgbt overthrow of America, Feldblum enjoys pulling the tags off of mattresses while making scary faces at babies behind their mothers' back
But what I can't shake is this question - was it really necessary to slur her name?
Barber's entire hot mess of an article is ridiculous but the part about her name was just ugly.
Maybe he thought he was being cute or witty but it struck me as in bad taste and yet another example of the hypocrisy of folks on his side of the so-called culture war.
Barber's juvenile name-calling belongs on an elementary school playground and not in a serious public discussion regarding discrimination. And most of all, definitely not in a publication that considers itself Christian.
If Barber and his allies are the heroes and people like Feldblum are the villains, then we are all in Bizarroland.
Related posts:
The religious right fears Chai Feldblum because she believes in basic fairness
The religious right attacks another openly gay Obama appointee
Anti-lgbt activists have no regrets over Uganda, Matt Barber slurs Chai Feldblum's name and other Thursday midday news briefs
VIDEO: U.S. Ex-Gays Have No Regrets for Launching Uganda Antigay Genocide Campaign - I hope Truth Wins Out forgives my excessive biting on their news today:
Uganda Responds To International Furor Over “Kill Gays” Bill - Apparently WE are over reacting.
Scott Lively: American, European gays are to blame for harsh anti-gay laws in Uganda - An old post from Sunday but VERY apropo to the siuation.
Rep. Alcee Hastings Seeks Immunity For Gay Troops Testifying At Hearings To Repeal DADT - I totally agree with this!
Next CA Speaker of the House is gay - Well this is good news.
The discriminatory 'Non-Discrimination Act' - Matt Barber makes the case against ENDA but also against non-discrimination on the basis of religious beliefs. After all, religion is a choice and not a "non-behavioral characteristic." And don't miss the ugly slur on EEOC nominee Chai Feldblum's name. Only an idiot would link the name "Chai" to ("high" as in "stoned")
Uganda Responds To International Furor Over “Kill Gays” Bill - Apparently WE are over reacting.
Scott Lively: American, European gays are to blame for harsh anti-gay laws in Uganda - An old post from Sunday but VERY apropo to the siuation.
Rep. Alcee Hastings Seeks Immunity For Gay Troops Testifying At Hearings To Repeal DADT - I totally agree with this!
Next CA Speaker of the House is gay - Well this is good news.
The discriminatory 'Non-Discrimination Act' - Matt Barber makes the case against ENDA but also against non-discrimination on the basis of religious beliefs. After all, religion is a choice and not a "non-behavioral characteristic." And don't miss the ugly slur on EEOC nominee Chai Feldblum's name. Only an idiot would link the name "Chai" to ("high" as in "stoned")
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