Rubio's tv ad covertly disrespects same-sex relationships and families

Unfortunately, we should expect more of this.

Presidential candidate Marco Rubio attempts to portray those who stand against marriage equality as victims. It's a non sequitir made famous by former NOM head Maggie Gallagher and a cynical attempt to take attention off of the fact that lgbts won the right to marriage equality fair and square.

It is also an attempt to  erase our families and children from the public debate. Coming out of Rubio's deceptive mouth, the phrase "traditional values" seems to be a buzzword to claim that lgbt relationships and families are inferior.

'Will major anti-gay leader James Dobson endorse Ted Cruz?' & other Mon midday news briefs

Will James Dobson endorse Ted Cruz?

James Dobson: Evangelicals 'Coalescing Around' Ted Cruz Over His Objection To Marriage Equality - And Dobson is claiming that he may endorse Cruz. Cruz is getting closer to the nomination or at least a vice presidential call . . . and all on the back of the lgbt community. 

Religious Right Leader James Dobson To Endorse Ted Cruz - More info and little background on Dobson which underscores that if he does endorse Cruz, run to the other direction . . . and quick! 

 Supreme Court Grants Relief To Lesbian In Alabama Adoption Case - The Supreme Court steps in because Alabama is now playing the "culture war" with same-sex families.

 Anti-gay spokesman's distortions exposed by actual experts on NPR - Just in case you missed this morning's post, Family Research Council spokesman and phony expert Peter Sprigg got caught spewing distortions last week during an NPR debate and I got the transcript to prove it. 

 Rubio Outlines Plan To End Marriage Equality - Because apparent THIS issue is more pressing than other issues to Americans in Rubio's small world.  

Indiana’s Limited LGBT Protections Under Fire By Lawsuit - For those who think the fight for equality is over, if the Rubio piece above doesn't bother you, then check this one out. People actually sit around crafting plans to take away lgbt rights, even if they aren't many. And they are paid good money to do it.

Anti-gay spokesman's distortions exposed by actual experts on NPR

Peter Sprigg's lies got destroyed on NPR

NPR, recently received some criticism for giving a platform to Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council to spread distortions about same-sex parenting.

From Media Matters:

NPR hosted a spokesman from a notorious anti-gay hate group during a discussion of same-sex adoption, giving him a national platform to peddle misinformation about same-sex parenting.

On the December 10 edition of NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, guest host Melissa Ross interviewed Peter Sprigg, Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council (FRC) to discuss legal battles over parenting and adoption rights for same-sex couples.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed FRC as an anti-gay hate group since 2010 due to the organization's propagation of known falsehoods about LGBT people. The group has a history of making wild and inflammatory attacks on LGBT equality while masquerading as a serious policy organization in the media. Sprigg, who served as an ordained Baptist minister before joining FRC, has called for recriminalizing gay sex in the U.S. and suggested LGBT people should be "export[ed]" from the country.

But NPR didn't identify Sprigg as a hate group spokesman, and Sprigg used the platform to peddle misinformation about LGBT equality. Sprigg cited a widely discredited paper to suggest that children raised by same-sex couples perform poorly, and resurrected the long debunked horror story that Catholic adoption agencies have been shut down for refusing to serve same-sex couples. While guest host Melissa Ross did not push back on Sprigg's talking points, fellow guest Emily Hetch-McGowan, Director of Public Policy the Family Equality Council, called out FRC's use of discredited research

I am not one for shutting down views or keeping points of view from being debated, but Media Matters does make a good point. The media cannot ignore the fact that the Family Research Council has an ugly history of spinning distortions and lies against the lgbt community.  And the organization should not be treated as a credible source when it comes to issues of same-sex parenting or any other lgbt issue.

But I'm not totally upset at NPR because, while the network gave Sprigg  a platform to spread more distortions, it also provided a platform for actual experts and people in the know (Hetch-McGowan, Michele Zavos - managing partner and founder of Zavos Juncker Law Group, a metropolitan D.C. area firm specializing in family law, and Martin Gill plaintiff in the lawsuit which overturned Florida's ban on adoption by same-sex couples ) to refute Sprigg and expose him as a liar.

The following are portions of the debate (in transcript form) in which Sprigg was called out:

Ted Cruz quietly becoming the anti-gay right's favorite GOP presidential candidate

Editor's note - Today's news briefs may be either pre-empted or postponed.

Ted Cruz

Here is a scary FACT. While Donald Trump is grabbing all of the headlines and attention, Ted Cruz (a more serious candidate for president) has been quietly grabbing support and endorsements from anti-gay organizations and figures.

From Right Wing Watch:

Ted Cruz won a major victory in his effort to consolidate support from the Religious Right today when he was endorsed by Bob Vander Plaats, who leads the Iowa-based conservative group, The Family Leader. Vander Plaats, a two-time gubernatorial candidate who in the two previous election cycles backed Iowa caucus winners Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, respectively, offers one of the most highly sought after endorsements in the state: Donald Trump reportedly joked that he would turn his plane around to join The Family Leader’s presidential forum if Vander Plaats would guarantee him his backing. Vander Plaats is one of several right-wing figures to coalesce behind Cruz, who has attracted the support of ultraconservative activists like Troy Newman, who wishes the government would execute abortion providers; Ron Baity, a pastor who links gay rights to Ebola; Flip Benham, a convicted abortion doctor stalker who holds protests at gay couples’ weddings; Sandy Rios, a virulently anti-LGBT radio host and hate group official; Dick Black, a Virginia lawmaker with noxious views on marital rape and “baby pesticide”; and Cynthia Dunbar, who thinks gay rights advocacy is “the same type of thing that was done in pre-Holocaust Germany.” 

And then there are these words from Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council via email:

The campaign's intentional effort to win over social conservatives is paying off, as Cruz pieces together a formidable army of support from evangelicals, whose causes he has never failed to champion. While Ted has been effective on an array of national issues, he hasn't strayed from his theme -- which is that 2016 is going to be a "religious liberty election." That continues to resonate with Americans, who open their newspapers every day to a new story of religious hostility -- whether it's the Air Force Academy football team or the University of Tennessee's censorship.

Unlike the ghosts of candidates past, Cruz is not only unafraid of the tough issues -- he's fearless in tackling them. Just this week, the senator blasted the most disliked commander-in-chief in generations, telling a group of black pastors that it's no wonder President Obama has a pathetic level of support (15 percent) from American service members. "You look at the military," Cruz told FRC's E.W. Jackson, "and one of the things we've seen is morale in the military under the Obama administration has plummeted, and it has plummeted because you have a commander-in-chief that doesn't support our soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines." He won't even name the enemy "radical Islamic terrorism," Cruz went on, and is "more interested in promoting homosexuality in the military" than in "defeating our enemy."

I don't know how you feel, but I personally think Cruz is scarier than Trump. Trump is a self-aggrandizing blowhard. Cruz may actually have a shot at being the GOP nominee.

Cincinnati bans fraudulent practice of "ex-gay" therapy

Even though I hope Cincinnati's pro-football team loses to the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend, I must commend the city for taking the right step in ensuring the health of lgbts and particularly lgbt children. And it did this in spite of opposition.

From Cincinnati.com:

Almost two dozen pastors and citizens packed Cincinnati Council Chambers on Wednesday in an organized effort to stop a proposed city ban on so-called "conversion" therapy for gay youth.

In the end, council voted 7-2 to pass the law, which prohibits therapy designed to change sexual orientation or gender identity for minors, and imposes a $200-a-day fine on violators. Cincinnati follows four states – California, Oregon, Illinois and New Jersey – and the District of Columbia banning the therapy, becoming the first city outside of D.C. to do so.

 . . .  "This is about saving the lives of LGBT people," said Councilman Chris Seelbach, who led the effort to bring the ban to the city. He spoke of Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teenager who killed herself last December; her suicide note cited the controversial therapy to which she had been subjected.
"She challenged us to make her death matter, and we’re doing just that," Seelbach said.

Twenty-one people spoke out against the ban during Council's comment period, decrying it as an assault on free speech and freedom of religion.

These folks should be aware of the fact that both freedom of speech and religion have reasonable limits. You can't yell "fired" in crowded theatre and parents can't keep their children from getting proper medical care even if they claim said medical care is against their religion.

And according to several medical organizations; including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the American College of Physicians, "conversion" or  "ex-gay" therapy is not only fraudulent but can pose a serious danger.
 

'Community, school board strike back against Liberty Counsel lawsuit threat' & other Thur midday news briefs

Score one for the good guys.

Conservatives Threatened A School For Supporting A Transgender Student. Their Response Was Perfect. - Wonderful!  When a school in its area is threatened with a lawsuit for having kids read a book about a transgender child, the Mount Horeb Area School District community (Wisconsin) strike back by having a public reading of the book AND the school board unanimously passes full transgender-inclusive measures. This tea is so sweet and lemony when it is sipped.  

Tennessee school wins right to ban gays and women who’ve had sex: ‘This is who we are’ - "For our religious liberty . . . and everything . . ."  

Anti-LGBT Texas Officials Claim They're Being Bullied By Pro-Civil Rights Group - Cue the violin. If you are affiliated with national anti-gay hate groups, you only have yourself to blame for the attention you receive.

Texas Appeals Court Reinstates Convictions Of Hateful, Violent Gay Pride Protesters – Texas is popular today (and not in a good way). 

 Lastly, two posts from the past two days to serve as reminders: 

 Muslims join lgbts as the victims of Family Research Council lies 

  That time when a Family Research Council spokesman wanted to 'export' gays . . .  

The Family Research Council uses junk science and lies to demonize the Muslim community, just like it usually does against the lgbt community. And it wasn't that long ago that a member of that group was talking about "exporting" gays, much like Donald Trump is talking about not allowing Muslim immigrants to come to the United States. It's sad and funny that scapegoating never changes except for the names of the innocents who are targeted.

Muslims join lgbts as the victims of Family Research Council lies

Tony Perkins lies about Muslims the same way he lies about lgbts.

I generally go after the Family Research Council for the lies and distortions it spews about lgbts. However, since Donald Trump's eruption against the Muslim community, all attention seems to be there.

And this includes that of the Family Research Council's.

I wish I could say  that the organization actually shows itself as the Christian group it claims to be - i.e. the reason it claims to be against lgbt equality - by calling out Trump's incendiary and prejudiced rhetoric, but no such luck.

Instead, FRC uses techniques which us lgbts should be used to (citing distorted or junk science and wholesale demonization under the cover of religion) to actually defend Islamophobic prejudice in general.  The following is just a snippet from an email by its president, Tony Perkins:

What most people either don't realize or willfully ignore is that only 16 percent of Islam is a religion -- the rest is a combination of military, judicial, economic, and political system. Christianity, by comparison, isn't a judicial or economic code -- but a faith. So to suggest that we would be imposing some sort of religious test on Muslims is inaccurate. Sharia is not a religion in the context of the First Amendment. Under the framework proposed by Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rick Santorum, America wouldn't vet refugees based on religion but an ideology that's incompatible with American liberty. "I've proposed actual concrete things [like eliminating the visa lottery system] and immigration law that would have -- not the effect of banning all Muslims, but a lot of them," Santorum explained.

The bottom line is this: the U.S. Constitution is an agreement between people about how they'll be governed. What good is it if people immigrate to America with the sole purpose of undermining that contract? We shouldn't be embarrassed to say that we oppose those who want to come to the United States to destroy it. And while most Muslims are not radicalized, Sharia certainly encourages it. Based on polling from the Center for Security Policy, that's the system most would choose. The majority of Muslims in America believe they "'should have the choice of being governed by Sharia [law].' Sharia authorizes such atrocities as murder against non-believers who won't convert, beheadings, and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to Americans, especially women."

First of all, for an organization constantly whining about attacks on religious liberty, it is extremely hypocritical for the Family Research Council to dictate what encompasses Islam. No matter what the organization says, Islam is a religion, just like Christianity. And if one looked at the historical perspective, Christianity  once embraced a military, judicial, and economic code in Europe and in the early days of this country.  Lastly, as much as FRC likes to brag how Christian beliefs encompasses the actions and decisions of its favored legislators and leaders, the fact that the group seeks to pull back and claim that Christianity is merely a "faith" is morally dishonest.