Family Research Council defends persecution of gays in African countries

For Tony Perkins, it's not persecution unless it happens to evangelicals.

In a show of absolute hypocrisy, as the Family Research Council pushes the false notion that marriage equality is causing the persecution of evangelicals in American, the organization is simultaneously defending anti-gay persecution in Kenya.

From FRC President Tony Perkins in a recent email message:

When the President travels abroad, there's one thing he never leaves at home: his radical social agenda. Since day one, the Obama administration made it clear that this isn't your parents' version of diplomacy. Instead, the White House has dispatched an army of liberal ambassadors -- all with strict instructions to use their influence to force acceptance of the President's extreme sexual priorities.Now, after seven years of aggressive bullying, the President's crusade hasn't exactly improved relations with America's neighbors (not that it's an administration priority). From Hillary Clinton to John Kerry, the State Department has repeatedly violated the first rule of the diplomatic process: to respect the traditions and beliefs of other countries. In most cases, this forceful approach has made more enemies of nations than friends -- especially in countries as profoundly religious as Kenya.

Like other African and South American nations, they don't appreciate the administration's decision to openly demonize their beliefs and promote homosexuality and abortion as international "human rights." And when the President Obama visits Kenyans this month, they intend to tell him so. Dozens of lawmakers are planning protests during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, where White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest says the President will once again call for "equality" for LGBT Kenyans. "It is important for us as Kenyans to know that the U.S. is not God," one church leader told CNSnews.com. Lawmaker Irungu Kangata was more candid. "We are telling Mr. Obama when he comes to Kenya this month and he tries to bring the abortion agenda, the gay agenda, we shall tell him to shut up and go home." The Speaker of the National Assembly echoed that resolve. "Liberal thoughts are being entertained in some countries under the guise of human rights. We must be vigilant and guard against it. We must lead an upright society and now allow obnoxious behavior as we have a responsibility to protect our children."

I guess it wouldn't mean anything to Perkins to know that gays are persecuted in Kenya. And when I say "persecuted," I am not talking about the lying dross Perkins and his allies in the religious right conjure up about lgbts to scare their ignorant supporters.

Anti-gay groups sowing lies, hoping to reap chaos in wake of SCOTUS marriage equality ruling

As this video above of Kim Davis, an clerk of court in Rowan County (Kentucky), refusing to help a gay couple fulfill their legal right to marry, goes viral, it has me thinking.

We are all being played for fools. Davis, other government officials who are pitifully stalling or outright refusing to marry couples (gay or heterosexual) under the guise of "religious freedom," and the lgbt community are all being manipulated and exploited.

I am sure that this situation and others like it (luckily there are not that many) will end up in our favor. However, the lgbt community needs to recognize that it is not these clerks or other government officials who don't agree with our legal right to marry who are the problem.

We should be aiming a lot of our fire at the anti-gay organizations and personalities who are instigating this mess. Individuals like Tony Perkins and Bryan Fischer and organizations such as the National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, or the American Family Association want a resistance against marriage equality.

They want protests, government employees refusing to do their job, and general chaos. But they aren't going to get their hands dirty. You won't see Tony Perkins or NOM president Brian Brown leading a march of non-complying government officials. You won't see Bryan Fischer standing in front of window of courts clerks in an attempt to bar gay couples.

They reside in the ears of those who think that homosexuality is a sin.  Via mass and social media, they create and repeat inane threats of persecution and false claims that gays want to destroy Christianity. They imply or outright say that hordes of "homosexuals" will be invading evangelical churches, dragging pastors from the pulpits  and tossing them into in prison for refusing to marry gay couples, and probably snatching children on their way out, like some goblin whose name parents speak  when they want to keep their offspring in check.

Like a wannabe puppeteer, anti-gay organizations and personalities are pulling the strings,  buoying the arrogance and recklessness of clerks and various other government officials and  thereby manipulating them to refuse to carry out their duties, while expecting to be paid by the tax dollars of the people whose rights they are infringing upon. And when our community react against these individuals, well that's a part of the plan, too. Anti-gay groups are attempting to manipulate us all into an unnecessary holy war in which they hope to reap the benefits of pointing and saying "see, we told you so."

It proves the point that the more things change, the more they remain the same. When lgbts had no or very little political power, anti-gay groups exploited fears and religious beliefs to keep the boot of oppression on our necks. Even though the lgbt community has amassed much political power over the years, the anti-gay propaganda playbook doesn't change.

And why should it when there are so many folks who can be manipulated by it while the lgbt community as well as lgbt leaders busy themselves with fighting the pawns of that playbook rather than the masters.

'Marriage equality backlash not happening for anti-gay industry' & other Wed midday news briefs

Poor Franklin Graham. Gays getting married gets hm down.

What must drive the anti-gay activists crazy - Jeremy Hooper makes a wonderful point. If anti-gay personalities and the groups were expecting a wide groundswell of anger against the SCOTUS marriage equality decision, they aren't getting it, particularly if one compares the anger they hoped to exploit with that of the lgbt community and allies when Prop 8 was passed. Now THAT was a groundswell of anger.

Why 'Gay Marriage' Is Dead but the Battle Just Became Much Bigger - Signorile, as usual, makes a wonderful point.
 

Op-ed: LGBT Work, Housing Protections Needed Now, Says NAACP Leader - Wonderful point and it is awesome that it's made by NAACP leader Julian Bond. That makes it an extra special point because of the recognition beyond of the lgbt community that these protections are needed.

 Franklin Graham: God May Smite Obama With Lightning In Gay Marriage Punishment - Frankie Graham is still angry over the marriage equality decision and he is milking it on his facebook page. There is the place where some of the anger resides. Folks on their butts commenting on facebook.

Louisiana Justice Refuses To Obey Supreme Court, Writes Opinion Implying Gay People Rape Their Children - The good news is that there was no ruling against the lgbt community here. It was an acknowledgement that Louisiana must obey SCOTUS on marriage equality. The supremely bad news is the fact that there are plenty of folks like this justice around in high office. It's definitely not over.
 

Kansas Recognizes Same-Sex Marriages — But Not Same-Sex Tax Filings - Gov. Brownback screwed up the state of Kansas. Did lgbt couples think they would escape his dumb hands?

How the Family Research Council exploits religion to justify discrimination, bigotry

Tony Perkins exploits religion.

One thing which helps the anti-gay right push the false notion of private religious freedom is their usage of language.

For example, I present to you a portion of a recent fundraising email from Family Research Council president, Tony Perkins:

As predicted, sexual revolution extremists are answering the question, "After they get national same-sex 'marriage,' then what?" Within four days of the U.S. Supreme Court decision imposing same-sex "marriage" on all of America, James Obergefell, one of the plaintiffs in the case, was part of press conferences of LGBT activists who proclaimed the Supreme Court victory was not enough.

He said, "Friday's historic ruling is a victory, but it's just the beginning."

I believe they are wrong . . . if people like you unite and take action now.

One article called the activists' plans "the next frontier."

This "next frontier" includes taking away your religious freedom. Obergefell and the activists called for laws that would:

• Abolish protections for religious employers to hire according to their sincere beliefs . . .
• Erase protections of religious employees to have a workplace not hostile to their beliefs about marriage . . .
• End protections for religious landlords to rent rooms or other property without violating their religious beliefs.

What's interesting about the last part of this excerpt is how Perkins uses dog whistles and evasions to make discrimination against lgbts sound like a noble and religious cause, i.e. religious liberty.

And bear in mind that he isn't talking about churches or religious organizations. Perkins is clearly talking about secular businesses run by people who may have a religious belief that homosexuality is a sin.

 Allow me to put it another way. Perkins is pushing the idea that

• Businesses should have the right to hire and fire employees on the basis of sexual orientation.
• Businesses should have the right to discriminate against lgbt employees if these employees are married. This means not allowing them to post pictures of their loved ones or invite them to company gatherings.
• Landlords should have the right to practice housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Doesn't sound so appealing without the exploitation of religious liberty thrown in, does it? The sad thing is that we are clearly talking about discrimination. If Perkins was talking about discrimination against African-Americans, people of the Jewish faith, or any other group, his exploitation of religion couldn't hide his prejudice or animus.

It is a pity that when it comes to lgbts, Perkins has an available mainstream audience ready to at least take to heart what he has to say even though he is clearly in the wrong.

'SC State Senator who went on wild anti-gay tirade affiliated with Ted Cruz' & other Tues midday news briefs

Just in case you missed or hadn't heard this lovely tirade from SC State Sen. Lee Bright yesterday, here it is. It's interesting how he conflates the issue of keeping the Confederate flag up with that of  stopping marriage equality. Not surprisingly, he is affiliated with Senator Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz: America Facing Destruction Over Gay Marriage, A Hollywood Propaganda Effort – VIDEO - Who you can tell by this video, isn't marriage equality's best buddy. Two things lgbts should think about if they chose to support Cruz.  Neither your money nor your status will protect you. Those who know what I'm talking about know what I'm talking about.

This Is What Happens To Court Clerks Who Refuse To Issue Same Sex Marriage Licenses - They will be fined. It may seem harsh, but clerks are government officials and SHOULD do their jobs. 

Family Research Council, right-wing media caught lying about 'gag order' in anti-gay bakery controversy - Reposting last night's blog entry because we may have won marriage equality, but it hasn't kept the religious right and other folks from lying about us.

‘I deserve relief': County clerk wants taxpayers to help him avoid job duties on same-sex marriage - Actually his idea of filing for marriage licenses online isn't a bad idea, that is if we could trust some folks to not cause the requests to "disappear." 

 Ohio firefighter defends hateful rant against ‘delusional’ gay child: ‘This is Facebook’ - Because picking on gay child scared about his future is the "Christian" thing to do.

 Kobach: Adoption By Gay Couples 'Certainly Not Good For The Kids' - Pay attention. He is the Kansas Secretary of State and a "rising star in the Republican Party." Can you picture someone like him in national office?

Family Research Council, right-wing media caught lying about 'gag order' in anti-gay bakery controversy

Tony Perkins, FRC, right-wing media caught spreading a lie.

It never ceases to amaze me how the anti-gay right will blatantly lie.

According to a recent Family Research Council email:

No wonder people like Cokie Roberts don't think same-sex "marriage" has "tangible, identifiable victims." The victims are being ordered not to talk about it! That's the latest twist in the long and bitter suit against Aaron and Melissa Klein, the young Christian bakers who turned down a lesbian wedding cake order in Oregon -- and have been paying for it ever since.

As prepared as the Kleins were to hear their $135,000 fine had been finalized, nothing could have prepared them for the Bureau of Labor's second punishment: forced silence. Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian decided to put his own stamp on the punishment by ordering the parents of five "to cease and desist from publishing, circulating, issuing or displaying, or causing to be published... any communication to the effect that any of the accommodations... will be refused, withheld, or denied to..."

His order made the Kleins speechless all right -- but not for long. Once the shock wore off, Aaron and Melissa made it quite clear that they wouldn't stop speaking out about their case, no matter what the government threatened. "We will not give up this fight," Aaron wrote on their Facebook page, "and we will not be silenced."

For those who are not aware of the situation, Aaron and Melissa Klein owns a bakery in Gresham, Oregon and they refused to bake a cake for a gay couple in 2013. In accordance to Oregon's non-discrimination law, they are now ordered to pay a $135,000 fine because of the mental and emotional stress their action caused the couple..

The Kleins claimed that baking a cake for the couple would have been against their religious beliefs and as such have become a cause celebre for the idea of "religious liberty," i.e. the belief that businesses can use religious beliefs as an excuse to deny services.

This supposed idea of a gag order only adds to the hysteria propagated by organizations, such as the Family Research Council,  as well as other groups and personalities on the right as they attempt to push the notion that marriage equality and lgbt equality in general will lead to the so-called  persecution of those who believe that homosexuality is a sin.

But the claim about a gag order is a lie. 

Anti-gay activist wants SCOTUS to rehear marriage equality case

It will be a couple of years before the anti-gay right is over our marriage equality victory. Until then, expect to hear stuff like the following from folks like anti-gay activist Janet Porter (creator of a recent and extremely outlandish homophobic documentary):

Janet Porter

Are you upset about what the Supreme Court did to marriage? Now, there’s something you can do about it. We can ask the court to rehear the case because two justices violated the federal law which states, “Any justice… of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” Justices Kagan and Ginsburg both officiated homosexual so-called weddings, which disqualifies them from ruling on the case. Ask Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to file a motion for rehearing the marriage case . . .  because it was illegally rendered. Ask him to call for a motion for rehearing the case.

The belief that Justices Kagan and Ginsburg should disqualify themselves because they officiated gay weddings is a cry which has been floating out there in the extreme right-wing bilgewater  for a while now without much momentum (even with an assist from Fox News).

I don't expect Porter's pathetic cry will amount to much. She would probably object to me calling her an anti-gay activist. Porter would like to refer to herself as a "pro-family" "Christian"  activist. However, based on the video below of her five years ago praying to God for total media control (I am not making this up),  one wonders if her type of Christian "activism" is actually helping the religion: