'GLAAD's 'Trump Accountability Project' perfect tool for community, journalists' & other Fri. midday news briefs

GLAAD Launches ‘Trump Accountability Project’ - GLAAD is showing us how to deal with four years under Trump. We've only got two choices - either quake in abject fear of what may happen to our community or jump on that horse and fight him when he and his Administration steps against us while at the same time using their new spotlight as a "sword of Damocles" over their heads to show America that behind their "traditional values" veneer lies a nasty homophobic sheen they can't  even baptize away. You know what choice I've already made. And GLAAD is making the same one: 

 The Trump Accountability Project was conceived in the immediate aftermath of the election and cemented after Trump’s 60 Minutes interview, in which he made statements on LGBTQ issues that differed from things he had said in the past, Ellis says. “We convened and decided that as we started to see possible cabinet members and people that were surrounding Donald Trump,” she says, “We realized that we really needed to create a resource for the media that allowed them to understand where these people actually stood.” The project website already includes pages about Trump as well as Vice President-elect Mike Pence; Steve Bannon, who will be Trump’s chief strategist; future chief of staff Reince Priebus; Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee for secretary of education; attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions; and others. Trump’s page, for example, is comprised of sections titled “on LGBTQ equality,” “on race/religion/national origin,” “a history of attacking women,” “on climate change,” “on civil liberties” and “on vaccinations.” 

Trump Accountability Project - GLAAD's project in living color. Let's dance. 

In other news: 

 An Anti-LGBTQ Hate Group Is Wielding Growing Power On Trump's Transition Team - Media Matters jumps on the Wired magazine article I featured last night. More of an example of why FRC should be afraid. There will be a closer scrutiny on its tactics.  

LGBT groups sign letter opposing Sessions nomination - Wonderful beginning.

 Want to Feel Better About the World? Help an LGBT Senior - Let's end today's news briefs with a kind note because in the end, love is what it's all about. . .  

Why These Moms Chose To Travel A ‘Scary’ Path To Becoming A Family - . . . love for ourselves, our communities, and our families

Video: Trump appointees are potential disasters for the lgbt community

Just how bad are President-elect Trump's cabinet appointees look when it comes to lgbt rights and equality. Let my friend, Matt Baume count the ways. The following video isn't meant to depress you. It's meant to motivate you:

Family Research Council called out for using anti-lgbt junk science

Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council constantly uses junk science.

It took the online magazine Wired only one article to do to the anti-lgbt Family Research Council what I have been attempting to do for over a decade and what our lgbt leaders should be doing on a daily basis

Like I've said many times before, it's not enough to call the Family Research Council bigots and a "hate group." You have to go into detail, like Wired magazine does in this wonderful article, Trump’s Transition Team Is All Tied Up With Anti-Gay Pseudoscience:

The Family Research Council isn’t content to oppose homosexuality on religious grounds; instead, it uses pseudoscience to give its homophobia a flimsy veneer of objectivity. And it could wind up shaping the incoming president’s policies.

 . . . That the FRC has found its way back into a position of influence over the presidency shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. The group has been making political moves since the early 1980s. Since then, it’s grown to become the most successful progeny of an effort among social conservatives to move the basis of their policy recommendations away from Scripture and toward sociology. Not that legitimate sociology is where the FRC has arrived. Rather, the group is to homophobia what the National Policy Institute is to the alt-right—a bland, respectable-sounding, quasi-academic front for a hateful, regressive ideology. It comes packaged in a way that looks like real science but is really just cherry-picked data stitched together to serve its agenda.

 . . . The papers the FRC produces often purport to be meta-analyses—studies of studies. Rather than compiling an accurate synthesis of mainstream scientific inquiry, however, the group mis-contextualizes data to arrive at a desired conclusion. This technique is how the FRC manages to link homosexuality to, among other things, pedophilia and shortened lifespans, despite strong scientific consensus to the contrary. When the group is not twisting mainstream scientists’ numbers, it’s citing organizations such as the American College of Pediatricians, which sure sounds like the American Academy of Pediatrics but is actually a far-right breakaway group with only 200 members.

 It’s pretty much the same story with the research FRC produces itself. “The FRC’s research is just a giant exercise in selection bias,” says Philip Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland. “If being rich makes you more likely to be married, a study that says being married makes you rich will always find that result.”

The FRC has mis-designed many sociological experiments. If you want to study whether children fare better emotionally when raised by heterosexual or homosexual married couples, as FRC purported to do, you would need to make sure all conditions besides the parents’ sexual orientations were the same in order to truly compare them. Instead, the FRC study mostly looked at children of same-sex couples that weren’t married, had pre-existing emotional troubles, and were the offspring of previous marriages that ended when one parent came out. The FRC’s findings don’t even pass a basic scientific smell test, according to the American Sociological Association. What’s more, the group’s work isn’t peer-reviewed.

If there is any time a wake up call is due for the lgbt community, it is now.  It's time we stop playing FRC's game and put them on the defensive for a change It's long overdue.

Related post - .16 reasons why the Family Research Council is a hate group

Hat tip to Right Wing Watch

'World AIDS Day should be commemorated with love' & other Thur midday news briefs

Powerful video shows how far the world has come in HIV treatment - Today is World AIDS Day. It's not a sad day but a bittersweet one. Let us remember those we have lost, those who are touched by this situation, and above all, let's celebrate our universal capacity for strength, resilience, and love.  

These Posters Vividly Document The History Of The HIV/AIDS Epidemic - And let's not forget history. 

Related post - Events for World AIDS DAY  

Also - Resources

Trans students sue school district which bans them from using certain bathrooms - Good going, kids! Stand up for yourselves. I support you fully.  

Family Research Council creates false persecution controversy & defends white supremacist enabling publication - Reposting last night's item. Not only is the Family Research Council attempting to create a new so-called victim of "gay persecution," but at the same time, the group trying to shield white supremacists from criticism in order to protect it's "investment" of Donald Trump.  

Man Pleads Guilty for Role in Same-Sex Parental Kidnap Case - It's been a long time, but we haven't forgotten about the Lisa Miller/Janet Jenkins case.

 Michael Brown: Christians Who Accept Same-Sex Marriage Spread ‘Poison,’ Should Not Be Welcomed Into The Church - Just when did God give Michael Brown the right to decide who should be allowed in "the Church?"

Family Research Council creates false persecution controversy & defends white supremacist enabling publication

FRC is caught distorting two incidents in one article.

Leave it to the Family Research Council to go overboard in the distortion department

The following came from its Washington Update:

HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines were just on the cover of People magazine -- and now, they're the face of something else: a controversy over the fact that their pastor preaches the Bible. For the last few years, the Texas couple has charmed their way into people's hearts -- not just with their talent for renovation, but with their sweet and genuine relationship. Their show "Fixer Upper" has exploded in popularity, and the parents of four have never shied away from their faith -- which they've talked about at length in their books and interviews.

Today, that faith is under fire by a handful of far-Left extremists who've latched onto a sermon the Gaines' pastor, Jimmy Seibert, preached about marriage and sexuality. "If someone were to say, 'Marriage is defined in a different way,' let me just say: They are wrong," Seibert said. "God defined marriage, not you and I. God defined masculine and feminine, male and female, not you and I."

Now, I'm not sure why it's news that a Christian church believes what the Bible teaches about sexuality, but apparently, this is a shock to the liberal media establishment. When reporters contacted the church, the communications director pointed them to Antioch's webpage on "beliefs," where it says: "Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime." That was their belief when the church was founded 17 years ago -- and it's their belief today. And, as recent polling points out, Chip and Joanne's church is hardly in the minority! Fifty-three percent of all Americans (not necessarily Christian) told Wilson Allen Perkins polling this month that despite what the Supreme Court ruled, they still define marriage as the union of a man and woman.

Obviously, the Left is trying to do to Chip and Joanna what they unsuccessfully did to the Robertsons of "Duck Dynasty:" take down a hugely successful program in a show of political force. That's unlikely to happen to a couple like the Gaines, who have no interest in renovating their views to suit a narrow ideology. Hopefully, HGTV has learned since its ousting of the Benham Brothers that religious discrimination doesn't play well with viewers.

You'll notice that while FRC talks about "far left extremists," the groups isn't specific about who these folks are. That's probably because they don't exist.

The sad state of American evangelical Christianity revealed in one poll

President-elect Donald Trump won the "evangelical Christian" vote by an overwhelmingly large number. It's really sad to consider how some of these folks, who are so quick to whine about persecution when lgbts merely want to be treated like other taxpaying American citizens, basically throw away their so-called morality in order to support a man with such an ugly reputation as Trump.

But maybe not as sad the following poll courtesy of One News Now, the fake news publication of the American Family Association:

As of 6:05 p.m, EST, this is the following results:

So to these so-called evangelicals, it is more important to defund Planned Parenthood and nominate a Scalia-like replacement to SCOTUS than it is to grant asylum to other Christians (who are actually being persecuted) in foreign countries.

That really says it all. The idea to defund Planned Parenthood comes from a campaign of lies and the notion that judges like the late Antonin Scalia should be appointed is anathema to our system of jurisprudence, i.e wanting to appoint justices whom you already know will rule in your favor no matter the evidence.

But to the evangelical  Christians who read and support One News Now, both of these acts are more important (by a large number) than saving people of their own faith from countries where  they would be beaten or murdered for their religious beliefs.

That's just sad.

'GOP takes out anti-lgbt provision from defense bill . . . but with a warning' & other Wed. midday news briefs

Republicans Strip Their Anti-LGBTQ Provision From Defense Bill - While this may seem like good news because the provision would have allowed federal contractors to discriminate against lgbts on religious grounds, do not be fooled. The following part of the article is like an intense warning light:

 “Subsequent to the election, new paths have opened up to address those issues. It’s still a very important issue for the members and they intend to pursue those other paths. 

We have been warned.

In other news: 

 Pat McCrory Refuses to Concede Election He's Clearly Lost While 'Slandering Innocent Citizens' Says Top Paper - One good thing coming out of the election is the possible defeat of NC anti-transgender governor Pat McCrory. He is holding on but his grip is slipping as reality set in. Blame HB2. 

 Court won’t stay decision against trans student protections - Well thanks for nothing . . .  

Who Is ‘Naughty’ And Who Is ‘Nice’? Confusion Runs Rampant In The War On Christmas - Funny story. Anti-lgbt groups the American Family Association and the Liberty Counsel don't know who to applaud or attack in their annual "War on Christmas" nonsense.