Gov. Christie accidentally proves a basic point of marriage equality

Today, in explaining just why he would veto marriage equality legislation and also why he felt it was an issue which should be decided by the voters, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said the following:

"The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South."

If this fool for real? In his ignorance, Christie seems to forget that one of those rights back then was the right to vote.

Needless to say that black lawmakers aren't very happy with Christie's comment:

The comment outraged many African-American leaders in the state, who pointed out that such a referendum never would have passed in the south during the 60s — and that many black people were also disenfranchised at the time.

“People were fighting and dying in the streets of the South for a reason,” Oliver said. “They were fighting and dying in the streets of the South because the majority refused to grant minorities equal rights by any method. It look legislative action to bring justice to all Americans, just as legislative action is the right way to bring marriage equality to all New Jerseyans.”

“The governor’s comment is an insult to those who had no choice but to fight and die in the streets for equal rights,” she added.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) had a similar take. “Dear God, we should not be putting civil rights issues to a popular vote, to be subject to the sentiments, the passions of the day. No minority should have their rights subject to the passions and the sentiments of the majority. This is the fundamental bedrock of what our nation stands for.”

Jerome Harris, chairman of the New Jersey Black Issues Convention, told the Star-Ledger: “The 1965 Voting Rights act was enacted to overcome the systemic, intentional racial suppression of the black vote. It’s certainly a lack of historical understanding about how the expanding definition of who ‘We the People’ are has happened.”

And State Assemblyman John Wisniewksi (D) added: “Rosa Parks didn’t get to the front of the bus through a ballot question and Jim Crow laws weren’t repealed by public referendum.”

I guess we should be thankful to Christie's stupidity though. Regardless of how the gay community or the black community feels about marriage equality, they both agree that no one's rights should be voted on.

'NOM still trying steal marriage equality away from New York' and other Thursday midday news briefs

NOM will take away NY marriage licenses; driver and voter registrations apparently in clear (for now) - NOM is still trying to take away the fairly won right of marriage equality from New York couples.

Targeting Hollywood with Spiritual Warfare - Another prayer group? Oh goody.

Same-Sex Marriage Question To Appear On Maine Ballot - Round two and this time, it's our turn to win.

Harrisville becomes 14th Utah locale to ban anti-gay bias - Way to go, Harrisville!

Coalition at historically black North Carolina Central University opposes marriage discrimination amendment - Take that, Patrick Wooden!

National Gay Straight Alliance Day Seeks To Unite Organizations Nationwide - And we certainly can't forget about this.

Homophobic radio ad gets a pictorial retouch

A very appropriate retooling of a radio ad:

NC pastor - gay men molest gerbils, baseball bats, and cell phones

If the National Organization for Marriage and Vote for Marriage NC - the organization it helped to create to push for an anti-marriage equality referendum in the state - truly want to have a meaningful  and dignified discussion on the amendment as they have claimed, then someone from either group needs to muzzle Raleigh pastor Patrick Wooden.

Wooden will be doing outreach in the African-American community for the amendment.

Last week, he claimed that gay men have so much sex that they require surgery and diapers.

Today he just topped it in the second part of an interview with anti-gay activist aptly named "Porno" Pete LaBarbera:



Wooden: I do not back off or back down from my statements at all. I was giving anecdotal examples that I am personally aware of that have happened as a result of men who have given themselves over to this lifestyle. One man past away, a friend of mine shared this information with me, that where what used to be his anus had become a gaping hole and he literally died in diapers, he literally lost control of himself. There are examples of men who have stretched their anuses, their sphincter muscles so that they could fit objects into themselves that once the sphincter muscle is stretched too much it will not contract. Because the truth is, despite the anger of the homosexual community, the anus is not a vagina. A vagina, a woman can give birth, God so designed it, the hips release can give birth to babies and things return back to normal. The anus doesn’t work that way; this is one of the reasons why many male homosexuals place larger and larger objects in their rectums.

. . . I know of a case where in a hospital a homosexual male had a cellphone lodged in his anus and as they were operating on him the phone went off, the phone started ringing! There’ve been instances where men have put bats, baseball bats, in their rectums!

. . . Even the homosexual lobby knows, those who are pro-homosexual, they know that they cannot win the argument describing what it is that these people actually do to each other, the objects, the animals in certain cases, the little gerbils; thank God I’m a human being! Because if you talk about what it is that these people actually do, they can’t win the argument.

One has to wonder three things. First, was Wooden on any medication which he may have abused before that interview? Secondly how the heck does one put a cell phone up one's behind and thirdly, does it ring if lodged up there?

Wooden is obviously lying and not just about the cell phone. The "gays have dangerous sex" lie is as old as the hills. Take a gander at this 1985 comic (endorsed by anti-gay group Concerned Women for America) called Deathstyle:

It's almost comical until you realize that Wooden will most likely be repeating that mess to get African-Americans to vote for the amendment.

And of course neither NOM nor  Vote for Marriage NC will comment on Wooden's words, even though they will be in full use of his services. And their silence will emphasize the fact yet again that those who seek to stop marriage equality are willing to do it by any mean necessary even while they whine about being "unfairly" labeled as bigots.

Of course the grand irony of the entire thing is that Wooden was one of the pastors who took part LaBarbera's  recent silly protest against Southern Poverty Law Center. SPLC claims that certain anti-gay groups - including LaBarbera's -  are actually hate groups because they spread hurtful propaganda about the gay community.

I would say conducting an interview with a pastor who claims that gay men wear diapers because they molest brooms, gerbils, and cell phones makes LaBarbera into a first class hypocrite.

Don't you?

Editor's note - On his webpage, LaBarbera prefaces the interview with the following:

LaBarbera references a Wikipedia entry on “fecal incontinence” that cites this 1993 study on the ill effects of anal sex. They talk about the SPLC’s racist-tinged release on the AFTAH protest. And when Wooden brings up the heinous “gay” sex practice of “fisting,” LaBarbera recalls the 2000 Massachusetts “Fistgate” scandal at a conference sponsored by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network – in which homosexual youth were given verbal “how-to” instructions by adults on “fisting” (hand-arm-rectal “sex”). LaBarbera notes that GLSEN never issued a sincere, strong apology for the incident — and the media double standard that excuses and ignores scandals on the Left.

Of course LaBarbera never lets anyone know that the study in question was a convenience sample study which looked at gay AND heterosexual men. He also doesn't give the entire story of the phony Fistgate controversy. For that, read 'Fistgate' and President Obama - religious right pushes a pitiful attempt of guilt by association

'Gays take over homophobic twitter hashtag' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Pastor Ken Hutcherson: “The only way to make your enemy a friend is to defeat them or kill them” - Apparently anti-gay pastor Ken Hutcherson doesn't believe in that thing Jesus said about loving your enemies.

Tammy Baldwin’s Anti-Gay Opponent Attacks Her Pro-LGBT Record - Of course cause we don't want no lesbians in Senate. Why they may think that they are Americans too.

#LGBTFacts - Long story short - some fool started posting some homophobic crap on twitter with this hashtag. But WE have taken it over. Come and join the fun.

Chris Christie Gay Marriage Stance: Would Veto Bill Legalizing Same-Sex Unions, Supports Ballot Measure - Now THERE is the Chris Christie that I know and despise.

Gingrich Tells CBN He Will Fight the 'War Against Religion' - ESPECIALLY that religion which says you can't cheat on your wife. Okay he didn't say that, but you know he wanted to.

Hate groups make fools out of themselves at press conference

Video footage is coming in of that disastrous press conference held by "Porno" Pete LaBarbera and his crew of assorted nuts against the Southern Poverty Law Center. The press conference was held to protest SPLC calling so-called pro-family groups out for their deliberate inaccurate rhetoric about the gay community.

And it was just as everyone suspected - it was a colossal bomb. But the most interesting portion is the following. Rochelle Conner, a representative of Scott Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries (an SPLC designated hate group), read a statement from Lively calling for “God himself to destroy” the SPLC:




Transcript - My prayer as one who really does hate irrational prejudice is that the Lord by His sovereign power will remove this dangerous, hate-spreading organization from our nation and its leaders and its members cause them to repent of their wickedness. Finally, to prevent the Southern Poverty Law Center from using my prayer as part of its perpetual fundraising campaign, I want to make clear that I am asking God himself to destroy their organization and I am asking that it be by His miraculous hand and not by human beings just so as with Sodom and Gomorrah, they will know that God will get the glory, and not man.

By the way, you will notice that standing next to LaBarbera - who is the only white male in the small group for those who have never seen him - is "diaper pastor" Patrick Wooden. I heard that they were filming their own press conference, so of course Wooden just had to position himself to be at the forefront of the camera.

My guess - and forgive if I am being sacrilegious here - is that the only reason why God didn't strike these folks down for their lies is because he was laughing so hard.

The press conference was so pitiful that it's not even worth getting angry about. However, I will say one thing.

I love girlfriend's hat. And those boots? Smoking!

NC anti-marriage equality group has already begun lying

According to Think Progress, those pushing that awful anti-marriage equality amendment in North Carolina have wasted no time in pushing lies in order to scare up votes:

Conservatives supporting North Carolina’s proposed constitutional amendment banning recognition of all same-sex relationships have launched a new website called Vote For Marriage NC. The site describes same-sex marriage as a “threat” and  a “new legal orthodoxy” that would “redefine” marriage as “genderless” for all couples, and those who do not agree “will be treated under the law just like racists and bigots, and will be punished for their beliefs.” Unsurprisingly, none of the claims made stand up to scrutiny.

My fellow blogger, Zack Ford who work at Think Progress, breaks it down  He does such an excellent job that it needs to be passed around to as many North Carolinians as possible:

 CLAIM - “Religious groups who have refused to make their facilities available for same-sex couples have lost their state tax exemption.”

 REALITY - The only example conservatives ever cite is a New Jersey Methodist pavilion, and that pavilion did not actually have a religious exemption.

 CLAIM - “Religious groups like Catholic Charities in Boston and Washington DC have had to choose between fulfilling their social mission based on their religious beliefs, or acquiescing to this new definition of marriage.”

REALITY -  Catholic Charities have never been obligated to shut down their services, but have done so voluntarily when they are no longer subsidized by the state because they discriminate.

CLAIM -  “Nonprofit groups are faced with abandoning their historic mission principles in order to maintain governmental contracts (for things like low-income housing, health clinics, etc.).”

REALITY -  Again, no group has been forced to close, though some may lose state funding. In one case, the Maine Catholic Diocese shuttered a homeless support agency as punishment for supporting marriage equality.

Read more of Zack's spectacular break down of the lies here.

Related posts - Marriage Equality - Simple answers to NOM's complicated lies

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