Black church/Gay sensibilities

Allow me to explain the following video and what brought it about.

First let me say that I am NOT implying that ANYONE in this video is gay. 

What I am saying is that I am tired of this constant argument about lgbts and the Black church.

I am TIRED of members of the Black Church speaking loudly against gay equality when they know lgbts in their churches, choirs, and pulpits.

 I am tired of folks quickly grabbing their Bibles to condemn gay folks in the Black church but not taking the time to at least having a one-on-one conversation.

And I am tired of prominent members of the Black community (you know who you are) bending over backwards to make lgbts of color invisible due to their religious beliefs.

With that, I have one question. If the Black church is so against homosexuality, then why is it that some black choirs adopt gay sensibilities when it comes to the performance of their songs? Now some folks may accuse me of generalizing, but to all of the lgbts of color out there, you have seen dance moves like this in and out of church.  Some of us have done these dances ourselves.

So take this video as a symbol of the dual nature or hypocrisy of the Black Church attacking homosexuality. It is a of a gospel choir performing on the Stellar Awards, an awards show devoted to African-American gospel:

'NAACP filed brief against DOMA' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

A strong black voice for gay marriage - NAACP filed brief against DOMA last week. I wonder how many of NOM's bought and paid for "black leaders" are going to raise hell over this one.  

Anti-gay adoption bill reintroduced - One time: if religious adoption agencies receive tax dollars, they have to follow the rules of fairness. No exemptions.

 NOM's Roback Morse: My verbatim audio was 'mischaracterized'; Clementi family should meet me - Mischaracterized my foot! Just apologize already!

FRC Begs For Money To Fight The ‘Danger’ And ‘Disaster’ Of Nondiscrimination Protections - @!*# please! The Family Research Council must be out of its damn mind! I got some monopoly money for the group! 

 A Brand New Reason to Be Terrified of Homosexuals - You'd better believe it, jack!!

'Homosexuality is dangerous and Obama hates mothers!'

Matt Barber

Religious right and conservative groups have launched two distortions against the lgbt community this morning. One has to do with the false claim of the supposed dangers of homosexuality while the other will most likely be a new talking point against the Obama Administration in the upcoming Supreme Court Prop 8 battle.

Let's look at both distortions:

1. The false dangers of homosexuality 

The AFA's Instant Analysis published the following piece this morning:

Earlier research reinforced: Homosexuality is unhealthy lifestyle

A new study comparing same-sex couples to married heterosexuals shows that the former are less healthy than the latter. Matt Barber, vice president of Liberty Counsel Action, tells American Family News the latest numbers were published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. It found that same-sex cohabiting men were 61 percent more likely to report "poor or fair health" than an equitable number of men reporting from heterosexual marriages. Likewise, same-sex cohabiting women were 46 percent more likely to report the same when compared to heterosexual married women.

 . . . "We have known this for a long time," Barber notes. "There have been a number of studies indicating, for instance, that there are increased rates of domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse within the homosexual community, and this is just in keeping with what the International Journal of Epidemiology found in 1997, a Canadian study." In that study, homosexual men were shown to have a lifespan 8-20 years shorter than those who do not engage in that lifestyle. But Dr. Hui Liu of Michigan State University, the professor who led the new study, claims the fact that homosexuals cannot marry, as well as the burden of stress and discrimination, are to blame for the results. Barber does not agree.

Barber and AFA are incredibly brazen here. The study in question does not even say that homosexuality is an "unhealthy lifestyle." Rather, it makes the argument that the denial of the right to marry is keeping the gay community from having better health.

And what's even more brazen? Barber admits that this is the study's conclusion  but says he disagrees with it without offering any proof that the conclusion is in error.

In other words, Barber cherry-picks a portion of the study which suits his views while dismissing the rest of the study which contradicts his views. And he does so openly and without shame.

Even the 1997 study Barber alludes to is a distortion. In 2001, the researchers of that study complained that religious right spokespeople such as Barber were distorting their work. They never said that homosexuality was a "dangerous lifestyle." They were saying that there needed to be better ways to combat HIV.

2. Obama Administration says mothers are not important

According to the conservative CNS News, the Obama Administration's recent brief to the Supreme Court supporting marriage equality bashes mothers:

The Obama Justice Department is arguing in the United States Supreme Court that children do not need mothers. The Justice Department’s argument on the superfluity of motherhood is presented in a brief the Obama administration filed in the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that amended California’s Constitution to say that marriage involves only one man and one woman.

The article then proceeds to attack the Obama Administration and the American Psychological Association to reinforce its claim that somehow mothers in general are being attacked.

Of course this is a lie. Nowhere in its brief did the Obama Administration say that mothers are not important. What the brief, using information from the APA, did was to contradict the claim made by opponents to marriage equality that only a mother and a father in a home can properly raise children.

The brief merely points out that same-sex households are also able to raise properly raise children.

But the meme that the Obama Administration is "bashing mothers" will most likely be a religious right talking point.  The meme is already making its way via several webpages including that of the Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage.

How soon will it be before Matt Drudge and Fox News starts repeating the meme?

The lgbt community should get angry at these two blatant attempts to distort their lives. But they should also keep in mind that these lies betray a certain desperation on the part of religious and conservative groups.

Because both lies are not only brazen but careless and easy to refute, thus reinforcing the fact that when one gets desperate, one starts to make mistakes.

Anti-gay group NOM humiliates itself twice in one day

Today, the National Organization for Marriage not only suffered a double embarrassment, but proceeded to wallow in both humiliations, as if they were nothing.

Meanwhile, enterprising folks like myself are going to do what we can to make NOM's stupidity go viral. But it's not as if NOM isn't helping us.

First comes this item from Goodasyou.org by way of Think Progress:

The National Organization for Marriage is trying its best to rally support for its “March for Marriage” on March 26, which will have a full slate of religious anti-gay speakers. The group is even trying to pretend that inviting people is the same as having people attend to make it look like they have more support. But now it seems that NOM has a particularly despicable partner for the March, Southern Baptist pastor Wiley Drake, who regularly prays for people’s death, including President Obama. Jeremy Hooper noticed not only that Drake is promoting the march, but that he shared an email exchange coordinating his support with the march organizers. In fact, he committed to bringing his Congressional Prayer Conference broadcast to the march, and the event coordinator seemed all too grateful for his support.

And just in case you need confirmation of this prayer, listen to him double down on it when interviewed by news personality Alan Colmes:



And as if that's not bad enough, check out the following tweet from NOM president Brian Brown:

I would say that congratulations are in order except for one MAJOR problem:

There is no such thing as American Urban University.  You will notice that the background where Brown is receiving this "honorary doctorate" resembles a church.

According Laurel Rameyser of Pam's House Blend:

According to Bizpedia, the president of American Urban University was Bishop George D. McKinney from St. Stephen’s Cathedral Church of God in Christ in San Diego, CA.  Bishop McKinney is one of the organizers of Coalition of African American Pastors, the group giving Mr. Brown the honorary degree.However, the university’s corporation status was suspended in 1989.

Not surprisingly, although Bishop McKinney’s biography on the church website mentions the many universities where he has studied and talks about his many accomplishments, it doesn’t mention American Urban University.

And we all remember how NOM tried pitifully to use the Coalition of African-American Pastors to sabotage President Obama's African-American support.

So on the same day that NOM's Brian Brown sends out a tweet of himself receiving an honorary degree from a non-existent university, it is discovered that his group is teaming up with a pastor who prayed for President Obama's death.

When I was young, we had a phrase for when someone embarrassed themselves. We called it "giving up your cool points." If NOM keeps this up, the organization will only be left with "cool stamps."

Hat tip to John Becker.

'Bill O'Reilly continues harassment of gay legislator' and other Tuesday midday news briefs

WATCH: Bill O’Reilly’s Team Harasses Gay Colorado Speaker Over Child Molester Laws - Not content with making wild charges which led this man's 14-month-old daughter to be the subject of vile threats, O'Reilly continues to harass a Colorado gay legislator on those same lies. This isn't journalism. It's demagoguery. Dangerous demagoguery at that. For those who don't think what O'Reilly is doing is dangerous, I have two words for you - George Tiller.  

Carly Rae Jepsen Backs Out of Boy Scouts Jamboree Over Gay Ban - And the group Train also backed out. Key the religious right groups who will whine about how lgbts played the bullies. Whatever.  

NOM confuses ability to extend an invite with actual support - Chalk it up to another failure for NOM. 

‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in the Black Church - Naturally.

 CA lawmaker seeks rights for transgender students - I hope he is successful.

Tyler Clementi's family demands apology for anti-gay exploitation of his death

Tyler Clementi

From GLAAD:

Recently, the family of Tyler Clementi was joined by GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and Equality Matters in calling on Jennifer Morse of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) to apologize for her recent speech to Iowa State University students on February 17, in which she used the story of Tyler Clementi’s death as an example of why it is “not the best thing” to let lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people be friends with other LGBT people, or be supported by the LGBT community.

Clementi, who died by suicide, was a student at Rutgers University when his roommate secretly recorded video of him kissing another man. Morse mentioned Clementi’s story, saying, “There are a lot of situations where people are doing something sexual that’s probably not the best thing for them…” Morse used Clementi as an example of LGBT youth who she claimed are, "… getting help and support from the gay activists who have their own thing that they’re doing which is not necessarily to help the individuals but they’ve got some sort of political vision."

"To exploit our late son's name to advance an anti-equality agenda is offensive and wrong," said Joe and Jane Clementi, the parents of Tyler Clementi. "By doing so, National Organization for Marriage prove that not only is there no low they will not sink to, to advance their cruel agenda - but that neither they nor Ms. Morse have any grip on reality. The very idea that Tyler's tragedy happened because of too much support - instead of not enough - is ludicrous. Shame on them."

"This is among the more reprehensible tactics we've seen from NOM, and this is a group whose internal documents touted the use of racially-motivated tactics to pit Black and Latino people against their own LGBT friends, neighbors and family members," said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. "Now they're using Tyler's story to pit young people against their own peers."

"That NOM would invoke Tyler as a part of spreading their hateful messages shows a real lack of moral compass,” said HRC Vice President of Communications Fred Sainz. “This is more proof that NOM is not in tune with mainstream America but instead is driven by the fringe agenda of a few secretive anti-gay donors. NOM should do the right thing and immediately apologize to the Clementi family."

Unfortunately, I don't think NOM will be making any move to apologize. If I know the organization, the demand will be ignored.

Dear NOM, PLEASE, PLEASE allow this guy to speak at your marriage march

I have the perfect speaker for the National Organization for Marriage's upcoming March Marriage - E.T. Williams, the self-described "doctor of common sense."

As a matter of fact, I will probably begin a campaign asking NOM to invite him . . . as soon as I figure out what a "lebesian" is.