Religious right launches another silly attack on GLSEN

Matt Barber

What is it about GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) that drives the religious right crazy?

One would think that after witnessing how GLSEN publicly spanked the Family Research Council for spreading lies about it, religious right talking heads would steer clear of the group.

But they haven't. As a matter of fact, two of them - Matt Barber of the Liberty Counsel and Linda Harvey of Mission America - are doubling down on the very same technique which got FRC in trouble, i.e. claiming that GLSEN is encouraging pedophilia:

According to People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch, Barber and Harvey spread the following nonsense last Saturday:

Barber: Now let me be very clear for those leftists and sexual anarchists who monitor your program, and you know they do, who are going to try to grossly misrepresent what we’re saying here.

Harvey: Of course they are.

Barber: Are we saying that all homosexuals are pedophiles, of course not.

Harvey: No.

Linda Harvey

Barber: Are we saying the GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight, Education Network, is a pedophile, pro-pedophile movement? Well, yes and no. And here’s what I mean by that, look who the founder is, Kevin Jennings, look who his mentor was, Harry Hay, a pedophile activist. Now GLSEN, I have said the terminology that Harry Hay used was that parents and families and friends of gays should be running interference for pedophiles because the best thing for a kid, for young boys was to have sex with an adult man, this is according to Harry Hay.

Now GLSEN is in keeping with that mentality, they have tacitly as you know all too well Linda, they have tacitly advocated adult-child sex through their recommended reading list for kids in the past that portray in very favorable terms and in a favorable light the idea of boys having sex with men, as you mentioned as part of the empowerment and coming to terms with their in-born sexuality. So again, the left, guys you’re without excuse here if you misrepresent what we’re saying here, but GLSEN cannot get away from the fact that they have recommended reading that portrays in a positive light pedophilia.

For the record, those of us on the "left" don't misrepresent anything Barber says. We generally let him cut his own throat with his dumb comments. And he is in rare form here when he tries to connect Jennings  and GLSEN with pedophilia. The accusation about Jennings and Hay has been around for a while.  In 2009, it was the centerpiece of the religious right's unsuccessful campaign to get Jennings fired when he worked for the Obama Administration.

For the record, Harry Hay started the one of the first gay right groups in 1948. Many decades later while in his elderly years, however, Hay expressed support for NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association), a group that does advocate pedophilia.

Here is the thing which Barber omitted - Jennings expressed his admiration for Hay's earlier work - starting the first gay rights organization. Jennings has never expressed any admiration for Hay's support of NAMBLA.

It's a classic case of bearing false witness. Or if we wanted to follow Barber's point to its logical conclusion:

Christians during the Spanish Inquisition tortured and murdered over 2,000 innocent people, therefore Barber and Harvey - being Christians - supports torture and murder.

And then there is the lie regarding GLSEN's reading list, which was yet another attempt of the right to get Jennings fired.

This time, Barber not only omits a crucial fact about GLSEN's reading list, but he also tells a blatant lie.

First the omission - Barber neglects to mention that GLSEN recommends that adults peruse the books before allowing children to read them because some of the themes are highly mature.

Now the deception - when Barber claims that books portray pedophilia in a positive light, he is shamelessly lying. Some of these books are personal stories; they come from a place of sadness and rejection. They are the stories of how some of our lgbtq children went through a rocky process to a place of love and self-acceptance.


Are some of the books mature? Yes. But they aren't pornography anymore than a personal experience of rape should be considered as pornography.

Studies have shown that isolation and rejection push lgbt children into depressive and self-harming behaviors such as drug use and unsafe sex. And some of the stories in these books bear that out.


These books are not encouraging children to have sex with adults. Some of these books are cautionary guides in that they are letting us know what lgbtq children have to go through when they are isolated from society. They are telling us that we have to do more to keep our lgbtq children out of harm's way.


Not that this sort of thing matters to Barber or even Harvey.  After all, Harvey doesn't even think that gays exist. And Barber seems to be so obsessed with gay intercourse that he can't get through one conversation about the gay community without mentioning sex.

I have a hard time believing that these two liars are Christians. If so, God has an interesting sense of humor.

Hate group urging ice cream boycott and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Schweddy Balls Make AFA Squirm - The irony is delicious. At the same time homophobic groups are whining that gays are complaining to Paypal about the anti-gay hate groups using its services, the American Family Association is urging a boycott of Ben&Jerry's ice cream simply because the name of a flavor - which will send sales through the roof.

Using board to build cross: Chino Valley official seeks 'Godly' teaching, shunning of 'certain lifestyles' - This would be funny if it weren't so mean-spirited. Apparently one of the things this man has a problem with is "children who make two Mother's Day or two Father's Day cards during the holidays." How dare a child talk about his or her same-sex family!

Obama Celebrates End Of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Praises Gay Soldiers - It's a good day for us all!

Mainstream Christians Must Stand Up to the Religious Right - And I hope they do it soon.

Bad Medicine: Fox News Physicians Are A Prescription For Misinformation, Scientific And Otherwise - Apparently Keith Ablow's attack on Chaz Bono only scratches the surface when it comes to bad physicians on Fox.

DADT repeal - celebrate now but remember the enemies at the gate

Elaine Donnelly needs to get another job.

Today's repeal of DADT is a day which many gays and lesbians have been fighting for and waiting to see for a long time.

And of course, there will be a lot of celebrations.

With that in mind, pardon me for being the "one who lapped up the water like a dog " (it's a Biblical reference from the book of Gideon) by checking out what folks on the other side of the DADT repeal feel about this historic day.

First up is Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness. Donnelly has fought tooth and nail over the years against not only the repeal but also against the concept of gays and lesbians serving in the military, period.

The irony being, of course, the simple fact that in spite of the official sounding name of her group and how she is looked at as an "expert" by some, Donnelly has absolutely no military experience.

Naturally, she isn't happy about losing her gig:

The CMR leader predicts litigators for homosexual activists and the homosexual movement are going to have a field day. "Without the law on the books, they will go into court and challenge anything that stands in the way of what they perceive as a civil rights issue," she warns.

Of course Donnelly's comments are nothing compared to the comments from the conservative wolf's glenn, Free Republic. Those folks abandoned rationality for venom a long time ago. However, the repeal of DADT seems to have especially brought out the hate. Don't read the following without a crucifix or holy water handy:

Eleven years ago, an 'ex-gay' leader walked into a gay bar and changes lgbtq equality

While everyone is celebrating the fact that DADT will be officially repealed tomorrow, today marks another anniversary of something in regards to the gay community which is near and dear to my heart.

From Box Turtle Bulletin:

John Paulk

An Ex-Gay Leader Walked Into A Bar: In 1998, the supposedly “ex-gay” John Paulk and his “ex-lesbian” wife Anne were the centerpieces of a massive publicity push by Focus On the Family to promote the pray-away-the-gay therapy offered by Exodus International. They appeared on 60 Minutes and Oprah, as well as in full-page newspaper ads and on a 1998 cover of Newsweek. Their 1999 book, Love Won Out, became the title for a series of promotional ex-gay conferences put on jointly by Focus and Exodus International. Paulk was an employee at Focus, serving as manager of the organization’s Homosexuality and Gender division, and he had also served as Board Chairman of Exodus International since 1995.

John Paulk busted

On September 19, 2000, Paulk traveled to Washington, D.C. on Focus business when he walked into a dark and seedy gay bar known as Mr. P’s in the heart of D.C.’s Dupont Circle gayborhood. A few of the patrons there, employees at the Human Rights Campaign, recognized him immediately and watched as Paulk ordered a drink and struck up conversations with other bar patrons. One of the HRC staffers called Wayne Besen, who was also working at the HRC at the time and who had already written about the ex-gay movement. When Besen finally arrived at the bar 20 minutes later, he found Paulk on a barstool chatting with patrons. Besen confronted Paulk and tried to photograph him, but the bar’s bouncer, citing house rules prohibiting photography, stepped in and asked Besen to leave. Besen waited outside the bar and when Paulk finally came out the front door, Besen snapped another photo as Paulk was leaving.

Desperate bigot rails against DADT repeal and other Monday midday news briefs

Rob Reiner Previews ’8′: Proponents Of Proposition 8 ‘Made Our Case For Us’ - And in other headlines, water is wet.

Peter Sprigg says Prop 8 witness proves gays can change; proves why his side does so poorly on (and fears) witness stands - And speaking of which, Peter Sprigg shows his tremendous degree of ignorance. Uh Peter, you do know that you all lost that case, don't you?

NOM Still Promoting Bogus Link Between Pedophilia And Homosexuality - Ugly habits are so hard to break, isn't it, NOM?

Spiritual community split about gay marriage vote - Meanwhile in North Carolina . . .

Wash. Times Op-Ed Demands Congress "Take Our Military Back" From LGBT Activists - The desperation of bigots is sometimes so much fun to watch.

SC veterans celebrate the end of DADT

An awesomely moving video courtesy of SC Equality:

NOM creating false division between NC NAACP and the black church community

On its blog, the National Organization for Marriage has the following:

Local TV Surveys Battle Lines in NC: Black Church vs NAACP

Now under this headline is a video which is talking about the anti-marriage equality amendment vote in North Carolina (the video is from NOM's youtube site, thus the false headline):



The segment in question which NOM is using for its headline featured a reporter talking to only one pastor - Patrick Wooden of the Upper Room Church of God - who supports the amendment. He made a claim that the "average African-American on the street" supports the amendment.  Wooten also claimed that African-Americans in NC overwhelmingly supports the amendment.

The report then points out that the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP put out a statement opposing the amendment.

That segment of the video starts at 30 seconds and ends at 1:05. There is nothing else in the video which talks about the black church, the NAACP, or the black community in general.

From that very brief segment of the video, NOM is trying to sow division between the NAACP and the NC black church community.

It is a sloppy attempt for a multitude of reasons. Aside from the fact that the video in question doesn't even mention a division between the black church and the  NAACP, one should also remember that the president of the NAACP, William Barber, is a minister himself.

In addition, hundreds of clergy in North Carolina have voiced a letter opposing the amendment. And how many of them are from black churches you ask? Quite a few. As a matter of fact, a wide variety of churches and denominations (Jewish, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, etc.) have been very vocal in opposing the anti-gay amendment.

NOM is discovering that in NC it won't necessarily corner the market on church support, so to speak.

And is probably the reason for the phony claim on NOM's blog.  I think the organization recognizes that the NAACP jumping into the situation is putting a dent in its usual game plan of exploiting the black church and the black community in general.

One more thing. Keep on eye on Wooden because I'm sure that NOM will be trotting him out in front of the cameras. Wooden has a  history of nasty behavior towards the gay community (which I am sure he will say that was done in love), including saying the following in 2004:

"We have to block the use of euphemisms when we talk about homosexuals. They are not gay. We've got to use terms like 'deviant' and 'abomination.' "