Lesbian couple humiliated at the Florida DMV

The religious right would have us to jump through hoops just to get simple validation of our relationships. As this story proves, those hoops don't mean a thing:

'This just in - Satan did not create gays' and other Thursday midday news briefs

House GOP Continues To Misuse Research Of Pro-Gay Rights Psychologist To Argue That Gay Is A Choice - Apparently Republicans are learning from folks in the religious right. Who cares if a researcher complains. Distort the research anyway.

Senate passes ‘license to bully’ legislation - You smell the religious right's smelly hand in this travesty, you would be right. Ain't that so, Gary Glenn?

BREAKING: Bishops’ “Marriage Guy” Retracts Statement That Homosexuality Comes From Satan - Well that's a relief, I guess.

Minnesota For Marriage solicits votes with tantalizing gift card offer - Now I've heard of everything!

NOM hires controversial attorney to fight disclosure laws

Cleta Mitchell

The following just came in from the Minnesota Independent:

The National Organization for Marriage has tapped tea party attorney Cleta Mitchell as the organization’s Minnesota lobbyist during the state’s contentious 2012 battle over a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Mitchell’s expertise is in campaign finance law and Minnesota for Marriage—of which NOM is a member—has already announced plans to challenge Minnesota’s finance law surrounding ballot initiatives.

Mitchell registered as a lobbyist with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board last Wednesday, according to board records. She’s the only lobbyist that NOM has currently registered in Minnesota, although NOM President Brian Brown was registered for a month earlier this year.

Mitchell is a rising star in conservative politics, mainly for her efforts in opposing campaign finance laws and helping candidates and groups exploit loopholes in existing laws. She’s represented a slew of tea party candidates including Sharron Angle in Nevada, Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Joe Miller in Alaska, Sen. Jim DeMint in South Carolina, Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, Marco Rubio in Florida and Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire.

However, even with all of that expertise, Mitchell is repeating the same claptrap which NOM unsuccessfully repeated in California and Washington State:

Mitchell was the author of a letter to the campaign finance board in protest of the state’s disclosure guidelines. In it, she reiterated the complaints offered by NOM, claiming that members of the LGBT community will attack donors if they’re publicly disclosed.

“The board’s sudden attempt to change the law in order to subject the source(s) of NOM funds used to support the Marriage Referendum puts a bullseye squarely on the forehead of every NOM donor, supporter and member if disclosed and any alleged ‘informational interest’ is purely artificial,” wrote Mitchell. “In sum, this newly concocted disclosure and regulatory scheme is unlawful, is not constitutionally sound, threatens NOM members, donors and supporters with personal injury and harm and the Board should cease immediately its efforts to rewrite Minnesota law to achieve this unlawful purpose.”

NOM continues to lose court cases because the organization has yet to show proof of these threats. And no matter how well-connected Mitchell is, she can't make the proof appear out of thin air.

Speaking of which, Mitchell's appearance is yet another reason for NOM's finances to be disclosed. High-powered attorneys never come cheap.

Also, according to a webpage of an NRA (National Rifle Assocation ) watchdog group, Mitchell's past actions will ensure that she fits in well with NOM:

Mitchell led opposition to a decision by the American Conservative Union (ACU) to allow GOProud, a gay conservative group, to participate in the 2011 CPAC conference. GOProud Board Chairman Chris Barron called Mitchell a “nasty bigot” in response to her efforts to shut out his organization.

Mitchell served as an “attack attorney” for many Tea Party Congressional candidates during the 2010 elections, including Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell and Joe Miller. She has suggested that the Democratic Party’s “tricks” include widespread engagement in voter fraud. Mitchell famously wrote a fundraising letter on behalf of Angle where she accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of attempting to steal the election. Mitchell also accused the Democratic party of stealing the 2002 South Dakota senate election, where Senator Tim Johnson was victorious over Senator John Thune. Both Angle and Miller have been involved in high-profile controversies surrounding guns and the Second Amendment.

In 2009, Mitchell spearheaded an initiative to overturn the legalization of gay marriage in the District of Columbia.

Mitchell served as the attorney for the American Issues Project, a group that ran a television ad falsely accusing President Barack Obama of having a close personal relationship with former-Weather Underground member Bill Ayers in the months prior to the 2008 presidential election. Because AIP’s tax-exempt status makes it illegal for the organization to have a mission that is primarily political, the legality of the ad was questioned by elections experts. Laura MacCleery, Deputy Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, called the ad a “clear abuse of federal election law.” Fox News declined to air the spot.

In May 2005, Mitchell served as the Master of Ceremonies at an ACU event honoring U.S. Representative Tom Delay (R-TX), who was embroiled in ethics investigations (and has since been convicted of money laundering). After telling those in attendance that she and other conservatives “love” DeLay, Mitchell claimed he was under investigation only because he is “effective.” She also declared, “The tribute is a statement to him: You're not alone. We'll stand by you. And it's to say to people in this town: If you pick a fight with him, you've got us to contend with.”

Family Research Council wants God to stop gay adoptions

Over the years, I have blogged about many several nasty, underhanded, and mean-spirited things done by the Family Research Council in the name of God.

But the following prayer by the group simply has to take the proverbial cake:

Homosexual Adoption -- Building upon Congress' passage of a pro-homosexual federal hate crimes law, the overturn of the law against homosexuality in the military, and the legalization of homosexual marriage in her home state, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has introduced the Every Child Deserves A Family Act. The Act would end all federal funding for adoption agencies that refuse to place children in LGBT "families." It will punish public and private agencies that act on their view that traditionally married couples are the best candidates to adopt. It will trounce on adoption agencies in the 31 states that have passed marriage amendments. It will put some Christian groups that take federal funds out of business altogether. Moreover, it will subject foster and adoptive children to the homosexual indoctrination and behavior of LGBT "parents"

• May God intervene and stir Americans to resist and stop this effort to advance the radical homosexual agenda and literally to possess our nation's children. May God open our eyes! (Gen 1:26-28; 2:21-24; Lev 18:22-30; Dt 26:7-8; Pr 28:4; Lk 17:1-2; Acts 5:29; Eph 5:31-6:4)

Bear in mind that FRC never even bothered to ask God that children in need of adoption be placed in good homes. The organization didn't even push the phony talking point of "all children need a mother and a father."

It's all about keeping children away from "The GAYS."

There is no other way to put it. That's some coldhearted shit.

And it underscores something vital which very few have ever mentioned. In all of the years in which FRC has attacked same-sex households or gay adoption, the organization has never pushed, suggested, or even slightly initiated any type of  plan encouraging folks in what it claims to be "perfect family units," i.e. heterosexual mother/father households into adopting children.

Again, it's all about keeping children away from "The GAYS."

To FRC, it's all about "The GAYS."  Children are merely collateral damage in its attempts to stamp out lgbtq equality.

And now through virtue of the organization's prayer, God has become collateral damage.

What do you all think? Should this be considered as the 17th reason why the Family Research Council is a hate group?

'NOM's latest victim is another fraud' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Archbishop Dolan Wields Victim Card: Church Should Not Be Criticized For Opposing LGBT Equality - The smallest violin in the world is playing for them.

NOM's latest 'Anti-Defamation' star: Previously Focus on the Family's star, for completely other 'issue' - NOM's latest "victim of the supposed gay menace" is a fraud. Surprise, surprise.

Dan Savage Gets Glitterbombed By Trans Activist During MTV Taping - Sorry but this glittering thing has become stupid. Has become? It was dumb from the beginning. It devotes lots of undeserved attention to frivolous shit. Furthermore it trivializes the lgbtq equality movement as a bunch of kooks doing anything to gain attention.
  
Stop SB 48 campaign: “We’re working on an initiative” - For Pete's sake, guys . . .

CWA: Same-Sex Parents Use Children As "Guinea Pigs" - As offensive as it is, I think it's good when the anti-gay industry shows its animus for same-sex families. Such hatred cannot be hidden behind the guise of "upholding Christian principles."

I get VERY frustrated with the gay community - Apparently the rant I wrote this morning has attained a degree of popularity. Because of such, I am running it again.

I get VERY frustrated with the gay community

I'll let you in on a little secret.

There are times when I get extremely frustrated with some who fight for lgbtq equality.

Yesterday, I was reading an excellent piece on Equality Matters (a really good site), which detailed the fact that Fox News was relying on the supposed expertise of religious right "experts" to comment on a situation involving a seven-year-old transgender girl who was allowed in the Girl Scouts.

The piece pinpointed two of the phony experts - Judith Reisman:

Reisman is actually a long-time peddler of anti-LGBT propaganda. She is a full-throated proponent of the claim that gay people are more likely to engage in pedophilia, as well as the myth that the Nazi party was run by gay men. She has railed against the media for failing to acknowledge “that homosexuality is correlated with disorder.” She’s also accused those who support transgender youth of “chemically violating and numbing the nation’s cruelly and unnaturally traumatized youth.”

And the Family Research Council's Peter Sprigg:

FRC has been labeled as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Sprigg is a good example of the reasons why. Sprigg is the author of some of FRC’s vilest anti-LGBT propaganda, including a pamphlet that links homosexuality to pedophilia, mental illness, disease, and violence while promoting “ex-gay” therapy. He’s stated that he would prefer to “export” gays and lesbians from the U.S. and condemned anti-bullying initiatives for trying to “indoctrinat[e]” children.

Here is the thing, though.

The piece failed to mention that Reisman is a failed researcher who was given a federal grant of more than $784,000 to study 30 years worth of Playboy magazines. These findings were dismissed as "paranoid pseudoscientific hyperbole." Or that she wrote a book accusing sex researcher Alfred Kinsey of child abuse. When the Kinsey Institute easily batted down her charges, she sued it for defamation and emotional distress, claiming that it tried to censor her book. Not only was the case dismissed, but it was dismissed with prejudice, which means Reisman could not re-file it.

The piece also failed to mention that Sprigg's pamphlet in question - The Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality - is filled with distortions, cherry-picked work, and quotes taken out of context created to justify homophobia.

Marine accuses nurse of anti-gay lecture at VA Hospital

I post this entry with an extreme caveat. We don't know the entire story as of yet but if this turns out to be true, it's an awful thing to happen. And I'm just itching to hear how the religious right - particularly NOM - will defend this nurse's actions:

A wounded lesbian Marine veteran who sought mental health treatment at the Dallas VA Medical Center claims she was subjected to an extended anti-gay tirade by a nurse practitioner.

Esther Garatie, 28, a former Marine lance corporal who lives in Dallas, has filed complaints against the nurse practitioner, Lincy Pandithurai of Cedar Hill, with both the VA Medical Center and the Texas Board of Nursing.

Garatie and her friend, Jessica Gerson, have also launched an online petition at Change.org calling for Pandithurai to be fired. By Thursday, Oct. 27, the petition had more than 1,300 signatures.

 . . .  In a three-page written statement about the incident, Garatie alleges that Pandithurai inquired about her sexual orientation at the outset of their meeting. After Garatie responded that she was a lesbian, Pandithurai told Garatie she was living in sin and said that was the reason for her mental health issues, according to the statement.

“She sat down and looked at me, and her first question was, ‘Are you a lesbian?’” Garatie wrote in the statement. “Her second question to me was, ‘Have you asked God into your heart? Have you been saved by Jesus Christ?’ This is when I realized that I was no longer a United States veteran in her eyes, I was just a homosexual.”

The session lasted for more than three hours, with Pandithurai citing the Bible and repeatedly telling Garatie she was living in darkness and would be doomed to hell if she didn’t “come back to ‘the light,’” according to the statement.

Pandithurai told Garatie she could change her sexual orientation. Pandithurai also told Garatie homosexuality was a diagnosable condition until President Barack Obama changed that, the statement alleges.

Penny Kerby, a spokeswoman for the VA Medical Center, confirmed that Garatie’s complaint is under investigation.

More at The Dallas Voice.