Anti-gay activist Scott Lively makes a fool of himself on The Daily Show

More proof that if you give members of the religious right enough rope, they tend to hang themselves.

I give you anti-lgbt activist and Ugandan anti-gay law supporter Scott Lively on The Daily Show.

God, I love Jon Stewart:

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How the Family Research Council manipulates legitimate data to hurt the lgbt community

Once religious right groups find an item which can be used to demonize the lgbt community, they repeat this item ad naseum, even if they have to omit some crucial facts which could change the flow of what they are trying to push.

For example this quote by AIDS researcher Ronald Stall:

One of the nation’s leading AIDS researchers, Ronald Stall, has declared, “It may be a fallacy to say that HIV is the dominant, most dangerous and most damaging epidemic among gay men in the United States today. There are at least four other epidemics occurring among gay men that are intertwining and making each other worse. This is called a syndemic.” The “four other epidemics” are “substance abuse, partner violence, depression and childhood sexual abuse.”

That is how the Family Research Council spun the quote while using it to make the case against a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

FRC also manipulated it to use against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) (item 7 with Peter Sprigg).

But like so many other things they use, the Family Research Council distorts the meaning of Stall's words.

The organization is omitting the rest of his quote:

“It may be a fallacy to say that HIV is the dominant, most dangerous and most damaging epidemic among gay men in the United States today,” Stall said. “There are at least four other epidemics occurring among gay men that are intertwining and making each other worse. This is called a syndemic.”

Stall cited the population-based Urban Men’s Health Study, which demonstrated that at least four other epidemics – substance abuse, partner violence, depression and childhood sexual abuse – may be affecting this patient population.

“What do these other factors have to do with HIV infection?” Stall said. “The analysis further demonstrated that men who were most affected by this syndemic were also more likely to have recently engaged in high-risk sex and/or be HIV positive. Therefore, we now have these co-occurring psychosocial conditions that are intertwined and are making each other worse driving an infectious disease epidemic.”

Stall added that other marginalized populations – including ethnic minorities and the urban poor – may also be suffering from a similar syndemic; this may be further exacerbating the HIV/AIDS epidemic in these patient populations as well.

In other words, Stall isn't implying that it is the lgbt orientation causing these problems but the marginalization of lgbts.

How FRC manipulates Stall's words is similar to how the organization manipulated medical information in its  pamphlet The Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality.

In the pamphlet, FRC cited information that listed the medical problems facing the lgbt community (i.e. depression, drug abuse) but omitted the part of the data calling homophobia the cause of these problems.

 It's a cagey thing to do. Not very Christian or moral, but highly cagey.

And one more thing, Box Turtle Bulletin says the following which throws another monkey wrench in FRC's claims:

According to our estimates, the prevalence of HIV is probably below 10% of the total LGBT population. (Those estimates however are fought with unknowable variables, so caution is advised whenever anyone attempts to estimate HIV prevelance in the LGBT population.) All people entering the military are tested for HIV, and all military personnel are retested at periodic intervals. 

Related posts:

Family Research Council using fraudulent pamphlet in anti-gay ad


Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality' Is a Huge Homophobic Fraud

Fox News admits mistake in pushing Sherrod story

It's interesting how the Shirley Sherrod story demonstrates the similarities between the African-American and lgbt communities. Both communities are seeking equality and both communities have to combat forces who seek to dominate the narrative with the idea that they are either overly complaining or attempting to unfairly "change the definition" of normalcy.

For those who have been complaining that Fox News has been unfairly targeted in the Shirley Sherrod debacle comes this item, which as far as I am concerned, is an admittance of a faux pas on the part of the company:

The first mention of the Sherrod video, which surfaced on Monday, July19th on Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com, was made later that day on Bill O'Reilly's 8 p.m. show. O'Reilly later apologized for how he characterized Sherrod.

But FoxNews.com did run a story about the existence of the video, titled "Video Shows USDA Official Saying She Didn't Give 'Full Force' of Help to White Farmer" at 5:58 p.m. on Monday, an hour before the Agriculture Department announced Sherrod’s resignation. And Wednesday, (Fox News Senior Vice President of News Michael) Clemente told POLITICO that was a mistake.

"There was a breakdown in the system, and it is being addressed," he said. "But it must say something about the power of Fox, that a week after she resigned, we're still talking about this."

The breakdown occurred following Fox's afternoon news meeting that day, when Clemente, according to The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz offered the following advice: "Let's take our time and get the facts straight on this story. Can we get confirmation and comments from Sherrod before going on-air. Let's make sure we do this right."

Clemente said he gave the advice in the meeting, not in a memo to staff, and his guidance clearly did not make it down to the reporter and producers who put the story on FoxNews.com.

Clemente was wrong about one thing. It does not demonstrate the power of Fox News that people are talking about the Sherrod incident a week later.

It demonstrates the bullheadedness of Fox News to not admit its error.

Shirley Sherrod critic humiliates himself on definition of 'lynching'

I thought I had seen it all when it comes to the Shirley Sherrod debacle.

At first the incident was an embarrassment for the Obama Administration and the NAACP, but apparently members of the right are getting jealous. Some are obviously trying to outdo both parties in terms of  humiliating themselves:

From Talking Points Memo comes this:

On Monday, former Reagan administration official Jeffrey Lord astonished the left and the right by penning an article in the conservative American Spectator attacking former-USDA official Shirley Sherrod for using the term "lynching" to describe the murder of one of her relative years ago. The problem, according to Lord, was that the victim, Bobby Hall was beaten to death by a blackjack, rather than being hanged by the neck. "It's...possible that she knew the truth and chose to embellish it, changing a brutal and fatal beating to a lynching."

Critics, even at his own magazine, pounced, noting that a lynching is an extrajudicial murder by a mob, whether or not the weapon of choice is a rope.

Lord was referring to the story Sherrod told about the murder of her relatives in the infamous speech which was truncated to make it seem as if she was a racist:

I should tell you a little about Baker County. In case you don't know where it is, it's located less than 20 miles southwest of Albany. Now, there were two sheriffs from Baker County that -- whose names you probably never heard but I know in the case of one, the thing he did many, many years ago still affect us today. And that sheriff was Claude Screws. Claude Screws lynched a black man. And this was at the beginning of the 40s. And the strange thing back then was an all-white federal jury convicted him not of murder but of depriving Bobby Hall -- and I should say that Bobby Hall was a relative -- depriving him of his civil rights.

 Because of the criticism his piece received from both the left and the right, Lord goes farther in his criticism of Sherrod:

 . . . Lord later expanded his critique of Sherrod by arguing that Hall wasn't beaten to death by enough people to constituted a mob, and therefore it couldn't have been a lynching in two different ways. He stands by that assessment.

"Certainly the image in my head of a lynching is rope around the neck," Lord told me. "And when we really got into this, it was quite apparent to me that there was all sorts of other things. That there has to be a mob -- mob action. Well what is a mob? Is it two people? Is it three people?"

Unbelievable. I have always believed that electing a black man  as president would bring all sorts of strange people out of the woodwork.

And here is Jeffery Lord bending over backwards to prove my point. 

Give it another week and they will be saying that Sherrod isn't an African-American.


Related posts:

360 degree turn - Now the right is attacking Shirley Sherrod for calling Breitbart a racist

Andrew Breitbart - the NAACP's best friend and the Tea Party Movement's worst enemy

Peter LaBarbera obsesses about bathhouses (again) and other Tuesday midday news briefs

NJ Library Removes LGBT Book, Calling It “Child Pornography” - For those who think that Glenn Beck's nonsense won't touch the lgbt community, think again.

NOM's hurtful voices: 'One hand, one woman' edition - More proof of the National Organization for Marriage's hypocrisy. It's joining forces with a pastor who lied about "gays teaching children to masturbate."

What Is the Cause of LaBarbera's Ignorance? - Peter LaBarbera thinks about bathhouses more than any gay man I know.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Cracks Lesbian Code - Okay I have NOW officially heard everything.

Sherrod To Speak At Black Journalists Convention; Breitbart Backs Out - Bullies generally chicken out when they are challenged.

Court knocks down latest religious right cause celebre

A religious right cause celebre has been knocked down by federal courts on Monday:

A federal judge today dismissed a lawsuit brought against Eastern Michigan University by a master's student who said she was removed from the school's counseling program because of her strong religious views against homosexuality.

As part of her course work, Ward had refused to counsel homosexual clients, saying she believed homosexuality was morally wrong.

The university removed Ward from the counseling program after determining her actions violated university policy and the American Counseling Association (ACA) code of ethics.

Julea Ward sued the university in 2009, alleging violation of her First Amendment and religious rights.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh ruled in favor of the university and granted it summary judgment.

"The university had a rational basis for adopting the ACA Code of Ethics into its counseling program, not the least of which was the desire to offer an accredited program," Steeh said in a 48-page opinion.

"Furthermore, the university had a rational basis for requiring its students to counsel clients without imposing their personal values.

"In the case of Ms. Ward, the university determined that she would never change her behavior and would consistently refuse to counsel clients on matters with which she was personally opposed due to her religious beliefs -- including homosexual relationships."

The judge said Ward's "refusal to attempt learning to counsel all clients within their own value systems is a failure to complete an academic requirement of the program."

Ward had been touted as the lastest "victim" of the so-called homosexual agenda by members of the religious right, including your friend and mine, Peter LaBarbera.

My feeling is that if you can't do the job completely and for everyone then we have a serious problem, especially if you are seeking to be a healthcare worker.

Let's hope that the court's ruling is the last we hear of this nonsense.



Hat tip to Ray Whiting, one of my new online buddies.

Family Research Council using fraudulent pamphlet in anti-gay ad

The Family Research Council is speaking against broadening an anti-discrimination ordinance in Holland, MI. How the organization has chosen to do so is raising alarm:

A community group that is trying to make Holland more accepting of gay people planned to meet Wednesday, July 28, to decide how to respond to a full-page advertisement in the local daily newspaper that one of its leaders said included "blatant untruths" about gay people.

. . . The ad, which was sponsored by the Family Research Council and Request Foods and published July 23 in The Holland Sentinel, made reference to efforts toward broadening the city's anti-discrimination ordinance to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The Holland City Council has referred the measure to its Human Resources Commission for review.

The ad stated that "pro-homosexual activists" were trying to give Holland gays and lesbians "special protections" under employment discrimination laws and called homosexuality a choice that is "harmful to individuals and to society."

The ad, which can be viewed here, contains the standard religious right propaganda  about the lgbt community, i.e. we are mentally diseased, we don't need protection from discrimination, and people can change their sexual orientation.

But here is where things get interesting. FRC doesn't provide references for any of their claims in the ad except one. On the far lower right corner of the ad is the image of a pamphlet that the ad invites people to consult.

The pamphlet is called The Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality.

And I've talked about this pamphlet before.

To recap, The Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality is a fraudulent piece of work with many problems in regards to veracity including:

1. Ten Myths repeats the lie that the Robert Spitzer study proves that homosexuality is changeable, excluding the fact that Spitzer has said on more than one occasion that his research was being distorted.

2. Ten Myths utilizes the work of  the organization National Association for  Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). The website Truth Wins Out calls NARTH  a discredited "ex-gay" fringe organization that peddles fraudulent "cures" for homosexuality.

3. Most importantly, Ten Myths intentionally distorts information to make it seem that negative behaviors, i.e. drug and alcohol abuse, are indicative of the lgbt orientation. The pamphlet accomplishes this by citing data in regards to the lgbt community and such negative behaviors while omitting the fact that much of the data places the blame on homophobia for these negative behaviors.

It is apparent that in the fictional world inhabited by the Family Research Council, lgbts being able to live without fear of discrimination is a sin, but lying about the lgbt community is allowed.

Hat tip to Truth Wins Out

Related post:


'Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality' Is a Huge Homophobic Fraud