You lose, Harry Jackson! Now go away! Gay marriage will happen in D.C.!

Excellent news from the Supreme Court today regarding gay marriage in Washington, D.C.:

The Supreme Court has refused to stop the District of Columbia's gay marriage law.

The court on Tuesday turned down requests from gay marriage opponents to stop the law, which will take effect on Wednesday.

Opponents of the law had argued to Chief Justice John Roberts that D.C. voters should have been allowed to vote on the issue. Local courts have rejected the opponents' arguments. Local courts have rejected the opponents' arguments.

The city has said Wednesday probably will be the first day same-sex couples can apply for marriage licenses. Couples still will have to wait three full business days for their licenses before exchanging vows.

The Supreme Court was a last ditch effort of opponents for D.C. marriage such as Pastor Harry Jackson:

Bishop Harry Jackson, along with others opposed to marriage equality coming to Washington, filed a last-minute request at the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, March 1, seeking to stop the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 from becoming law on March 3 so that he can proceed with his referendum effort.

Aided by lawyers from the national organization Alliance Defense Fund, Jackson filed a request for an immediate stay of the law with Chief Justice John Roberts, who is responsible for hearing appeals coming from the District. Roberts has the ability either to make the decision himself or to turn the matter over to the full court for a decision.

Now that he has lost, maybe Jackson will stop trying to exploit the lgbt community in pursuit of the limelight.

Of course, who am I kidding with that wish?

Ugandan anti-gay bill is worse than you think and other Tuesday midday news briefs

My online buddy Rob Tish of the blog Waking Up Now has created a video which breaks down the Ugandan anti-gay bill and introduces some new facts which you may not be aware of it. The bill is more lethal than what we have been led to believe.

460,000 Ugandans sign petition opposing the gay genocide bill - Deal with THAT, Martin Ssempa!

'Stop stealing our act,' says unbiased science's biggest sidestepper - NARTH (the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) is attacking the APA. Good luck with that, boys and girls!(heavy, heavy, HEAVY sarcasm alert)

HRC's Solmonese Signals Softening Of Gay Rights Support - Naturally I'm not happy about this.

Porter's May Day Rally Designed to Break the Curse of President Obama - Someone needs to pray, I mean really pray for Janet Porter. She is so far off the deep end I think she has gills to breath underwater.

Martin Ssempa claims to be misunderstood

Martin Ssempa, the proponent of the Ugandan "kill the gays" bill wrote Pam's House Blend claiming that he has been misunderstood:

Dear Maura and Pams House friends,

I thank you for discussing my blog and the news that I am available online. It turns out we have just got connected to fiberoptic internet..for the first time in History ..and the good news is that we can now talk. I regret that I have been misrepresented but I do hope we can learn more from each other.

First Maura I did respond to your posting on my blog. I hope you got it..The negative birth rates in Western nations shoud concern all of us. For us in Africa, dying without giving birth to a child when it was in your power to produce is a curse. It is a betrayal of the ancestors because we the living are the link to the descendants. That in a sense why homosexuality is deemed as a curse and an abomination. Even before Christianity, our culture abhors anything that does not produce life.

Secondly, the anti homosexuality bill is a Ugandan effort, by Ugandans for Ugandans. A lot has been spoken about the death penalty creating hysteria among some of you that we propose to run around and round up anyone who practices sodomy. No such thing..The death penalty is specifically proposed in cases of aggravated defilement which is the equivalent of statutory rape of minor or a handicapped person against their wish. I do not support or will not support any bill which seeks the death penalty for homosexuals. On the other hand we will not be deterred from making the bill which is intended to protect our children from recruitment and propaganda. Hey now with internet we can talk more on this.

Finally kindly tell your fellow blogger to mind their manners when they are discussing. Continue to challenge their racial bigotry which makes it look like an African cant have a PhD or be able to blog! Some of these comments are vulgar, obscene and totally lacking objectivity with which constructive debate can be engaged in.

Hope you don't mind me joining this great debate.

Martin Ssempa PhD

What Ssempa does here is the equivalent of offering a plate of cow manure covered with icing and trying to pass it off as cake.

Here is what he omits about the bill. It would:

* Expand the definitions for homosexual acts, making conviction easier. Current law requires evidence of penetration. The new law would expand the definition of homosexual activity to”touch(ing) another person with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality.” Touching itself is defined as “touching—(a) with any part of the body; (b) with anything else; (c) through anything; and in particular includes touching amounting to penetration of any sexual organ. anus or mouth.”

* Affirm Uganda’s lifetime imprisonment for those convicted of homosexuality.

* Define a new crime of “aggravated homosexuality” for those who engage in sex with someone under the age of 18, who are HIV-positive, who is a “repeat offender” (so broadly defined as to include anyone who has had a relationship with more than one person, or who had sex with the same person more than once), or who had sex with a disabled person (consensual or not). The penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” is death by hanging.

* Require anyone arrested on suspicion of homosexuality to undergo HIV testing to determine the individual’s qualification for prosecution of “aggravated homosexuality.”

* Criminalize “attempted homosexuality” with imprisonment for seven years.

* Criminalize “promoting” homosexuality with fines and imprisonment for between five and seven years. This overly-broad provision would criminalize all speech and peaceful assembly for those who advocate on behalf of LGBT citizens in Uganda . It would also criminalize any attempt to repeal or modify the law in the future, as those moves could also be seen as “promoting” homosexuality.

* Criminalize “aiding and abetting homosexuality” with seven years imprisonment. This provision could be used against anyone extending counseling, medical care, or otherwise providing aide gay people.

* Criminalize the act of obtaining a same-sex marriage abroad with lifetime imprisonment.

* Add a clause which forces friends or family members to report LGBT persons to police within 24-hours of learning about that individual’s homosexuality or face fines or imprisonment for up to three years.

* Penalize people who run “brothels” with five to seven years imprisonment for renting to LGBT people. However, it defines a brothel as “a house, room, set of rooms or place of any kind for the purposes of homosexuality” instead of the more normal definition of a place where commercial sex work takes place. Anyone’s bedroom would be a “brothel” under this definition, placing landlords and hotel owners in jeopardy for renting to LGBT people.

* Add an extra-territorial and extradition provisions, allowing Uganda to prosecute LGBT Ugandans living abroad. (Editor's note - this means a Ugandan gay or lesbian living in America can be "called back" to Uganda for prosecution.)

* Void all international treaties, agreements and human rights obligations which conflict with this bill.

Oh yeah - that claim about gays recruiting children? It's not true. I also noticed that  Ssempa didn't comment about his penchant for showing pornography in church as a way of stigmatizing the gay community.

But he does take care to "explain" the death penalty. However, his explanation contradicts what is actually said. Plus, it gives me pause and it's something that's been on my mind for a while.

Taking into account Uganda's already oppressive environment towards the gay community, just what would prevent the Ugandan government (if this bill passes) from rounding up a group of gays and lesbians and executing them on the pretense of "aggravated homosexuality?"

Things like this have happened before. History unfortunately is filled with stories of genocide committed on the pretenses of "best intentions" and I'm afraid Uganda will be yet another march in this direction, with Ssempa leading the way.

Ssempa should be aware of the old proverb "it's better to be thought of as a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."

But in this case, the word "fool" should be replaced with "genocidal maniac."

Judge Mathis supports coming out

I'm posting this because it's rare that leaders in the black community talk about gay issues.

I hope Towleroad forgives me for stealing this clip. According to the blog, this is what happened:

Judge Mathis handled a case recently between two men that dealt with one of them possibly being in the closet.

Said Mathis: "If you are [gay] I think you should be up front about it. So many young men and women try to stay in the closet because their family and friends might be biased, or what have you. Forget about them. Be who you are."

Added Mathis later: "Certainly I believe that most sexual orientations come biologically and not by choice."

If only more black leaders were as vocally supportive of the lgbt community.

D.C. to hold largest gay wedding in history and other Monday midday news briefs

Largest gay wedding in history set for Washington DC - I want to go!!!!

'Love' generated for your citizen journalist -- and choosing a path for discourse - Ugly comments were made about Pam Spaulding, a good friend of mine, and I'm still bothered by it. How can the lgbt community progress if we tear each other apart like this?

Exodus’ Day of ‘Truth’ Celebrates School Ignorance, Prejudice - Batten down the hatches!

Quick Fact: Perkins advances myth that DADT repeal could hurt morale, unit cohesion, readiness - Tony Perkins of FRC deceiving folks about DADT repeal again!

Martin Ssempa celebrates his homophobia via a blog

I have trepidations with posting this mostly because I fear how some of us would behave. But it's a item which needs to be made public.

From Truth Wins Out comes the news that Martin Ssempa is blogging.

For those unfamiliar with that name, Ssempa is one of the main supporters of that awful "kill the gays" bill in Uganda.

Recently, Ssempa has been trying to drum up support for the bill in the face of international condemnation. He has even been reduced to showing porn in churches:

A pastor seeking to bolster Uganda's anti-gay laws which already make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment screened gay porn in a Kampala church Wednesday in a bid to drum up support.

The screening was attended by around 300 supporters crammed into an evangelical church in the Ugandan capital after plans for a "million-man march" were thwarted by police.

"We had planned to have a million-man and -woman march in Kampala but unfortunately we were told that we could not march because of security concerns," Martin Ssempa told the crowd.

"The major argument homosexuals have is that what people do in the privacy of their bedrooms is nobody's business but do you know what they do in their bedrooms?," the pastor asked.

Ssempa then displayed a slide show of gay pornographic pictures.

"This one is eating another man's anus (eds: correct)," the pastor said, before going into graphic scatological descriptions.

Via his new blog, Ssempa not only continues his ramblings but also celebrates his ignorance:

Ha ha ha..the homos are scared to death that we have hard evidence of WHAT they do. They are mortally ashamed of the public knowing the totally deviant sexual activities which include the most unnatural, unhealthy and disease prone sexual activities..fisting, anal licking, scat (fecal) games, brown and yellow showers, etc all these are the acts they want to keep secrets. See fisting (R)and the complete deviants dictionary (R) of WHAT they really do. So they now plant stories to bemoan that I am showing "gay porn" to "little children". That now my members in church are wanting to try out being homos! ha ha ha..

As I said before, Ssempa has reached the plateau where people are wondering is he fighting against gays or maybe some hidden urges in himself.

But to compound his nastiness, Ssempa wrote Truth Wins Out this note:

Thank you for your kindness in advertising my blog. But why are you indulging into racism by reading me as the Ugandan Rick Warren? Why is it every time a black man does something good..like a blog, or the anti homosexuality bill, you want to credit a white man ie Rick Warren or some White Americans who visited Uganda? Please go ahead and read my blog as I read yours..and have the kindness to leave a polite comment. Check out the new video of the demo…and the statement on the expose on what homosexuals really do…Thanks and let the truth win out.

So again with trepidation, I publicize the fact that Ssempa has a blog. But as he said, the truth needs to be known . . . about just how ugly and evil his type of homophobia is.

If you go on his blog and leave a comment, PLEASE be polite.

Related posts:

'Kill the gays' bill supporter reduced to showing gay porn in church

Martin Ssempa talks about 'poop' to demonize lgbts

Tea Party activist conjures up 'gay bowel syndrome'

Recently, I posted two interviews with discredited researcher Paul Cameron conducted by Midweek Politics Radio.

The response to these posts have been, in my view, successful. Many people who weren't aware of Paul Cameron became educated on his lies about the gay community.

But then there was a segment who asked why was I giving Cameron attention. They claimed that any focus on Cameron validated him. They were under the impression that if Cameron was ignored, he would go away.

Unfortunately, this mindset also includes other lies told about the gay community by religious right groups.

But what some in our community fail to understand is that these lies aren't going away and ignoring them won't make them disappear. They will continue to  be repeated and will continue to have the power to hurt the gay community. A perfect example is a recent incident during a Minnesota legislative hearing on marriage equality:

Barb Davis White, a Tea Party activist and Republican candidate for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, prompted shocked gasps from the packed hearing room when she said, “Rosa Parks did not move to the front of the bus to support sodomy.” Her testimony involved accusations that the movement for marriage equality is hijacking the civil rights movement.

“There is no difference between a black person and a white person other than their skin color when there’s a tremendous difference between a man and a woman,” said White, who was the GOP’s endorsed candidate against Rep. Keith Ellison in 2008. “Allowing a black woman and a white man to marry does not change the definition of marriage. However, allowing two men or two women to marry would fundamentally change that definition.”

White also garnered some laughs from the audience when she said, “Studies also show that the average homosexual has hundreds of sexual partners in his lifetime… and I repeat hundreds.”
“I’m here today to tell you that homosexuality and lesbian behavior is unhealthy,” claiming that gays and lesbians have higher rates of STDs than anyone else in the world, including “gay bowel disease,” an ailment that does not exist and is often used by religious right figures to paint gay men as diseased.

We as a community cannot cast aside the lies told about us anymore than we should ignore those who speak them. There are some things you can't sweep under the rug. They always have a way of coming back against you.

I think it's time we trot these lies out in the public as examples of  how deceptive religious right groups are. A lie is made powerless not by ignoring it but showering it with the truth.

Whether we realize it or not, all of the phony scare stories, the reliance on junk science, the truncating of public controversies can serve to backfire on religious right groups if  we used them to pose the following question: If these groups are moral and Christian, then why do they feel the need to lie on the gay community?