Anti-lgbtq right conveniently quiet after exoneration of teacher they targeted

Last month, anti-lgbtq organizations and personalities targeted a high school teacher, Lora Jane Riedas, of Riverview High School in Florida. They claimed she bullied Christian students. The fact that she is openly gay was the proverbial icing on the cake to these folks as they implied all sorts of ugly things about her, particularly the story that she made students remove cross necklaces while in her classroom. That specific gem was hyped extensively by various religious right and conservative news sources, facebook pages, and discussion boards. Anti-lgbtq hate group The Liberty Counsel began the chaos against Riedas by sending a letter to the Hillsborough school district detailing the charges. Naturally, the school district investigated..

Via People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch, came news last week that the investigation ended and Riedas has been totally exonerated:

 . . . the school released the results of its investigation and found Liberty Counsel’s claims to be without merit: 

 A teacher at Riverview High School who was accused by a conservative organization of banning crosses while advocating for gay rights has been cleared of wrongdoing after a school district investigation. Lora Jane Riedas, who teaches freshman math and is faculty advisor of Riverview’s Gay Straight Alliance, said she did not allow rosaries, as they are considered gang symbols and not allowed in the school dress code. She said she did not discuss lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in class. All 10 students interviewed by district investigators backed her up on that point, although some contradicted her on the issue of the crosses.  

A letter released by the school examined the allegations made by Liberty Counsel and found no evidence to support any of them.

 Here is the interesting, or rather not to be unexpected part, of this entire controversy. All of these organizations and personalities who made Riedas appear as if she was bullying Christian students have been conveniently silent regarding her exoneration. To my knowledge, there has not been any mention of Riedas's exoneration by any of the groups, figures, or conservative news sources which portrayed her as a huge anti-Christian bigot.

Their convenient silence gives you an actual perspective of their supposed Christian mindset, doesn't it? Seriously, it looks to me that the Liberty Counsel targeted this teacher to create some type of moral panic about lgbtqs targeting Christians. Had it not blown up in the organization's face, my guess is it and several other conservative organizations and groups would have continued to hype the situation up to give a degree of credibility to their "religious liberty" talking points, i.e. justifying discrimination against lgbtqs on religious grounds.

That being the case, we shouldn't be so quick to celebrate just yet. The Liberty Counsel and its cohorts were unsuccessful this time, but I bet they are, probably even as I write this, moving on to a new situation which they hope to exploit the false boogeyman of "anti-Christian gay bullies."

'TX adoption discrimination bill could especially harm lgbtq children' & other Wed midday news briefs

Texas advances bill allowing discrimination against LGBTQ kids and families - Texas again. And this is really bad. Not only could a 'license to discriminate' bill allow adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex families, but according to Think Progress, this bill could also allow agencies to subject lgbtq children under their care to "religious education." I'm so not liking this.

Discrimination in Texas: House Passes Anti-LGBTQ Bill HB 3859 - More info about that awful bill.

Texas bill could keep transgender kids out of high school sports - Seriously, why has Texas declared war on lgbtq children? 

MT Republican: Protecting LGBTQ Americans Is Bad For Business - The intense stupidity of homophobia is such that folks can claim that we don't need anti-discrimination laws because we are rich and well-educated while simultaneously claiming that we are drug-addicted alcoholics. 

Trump’s Army Secretary Pick Is Victim Of ‘Gay Gestapo,’ Right Wing Activists Claim - I thought we were the 'Gay Mafia.' I was kinda favorable to that description of us.

Five years ago, Obama became first president to support marriage equality

I think I'm slightly a day late on this, but I'm still going to note this historical event. Five years ago, President Obama  made a wonderful announcement supporting marriage equality. It's worth remembering, particularly when one thinks of the monstrosity in the White House at the present.

'Family Research Council spokesman wants Senate to question lesbian candidate about her 'homosexual conduct'' & other Tue. midday news briefs

FRC spokesman Peter Sprigg

Peter Sprigg Urges Senate To Grill Lesbian Air Force Nominee About Her ‘Homosexual Conduct’ - Just to be clear - a spokesman of anti-lgbtq hate group Family Research Council- the group which whined about anti-Christian persecution when a candidate for Army secretary faced a backlash for homophobic and transphobic comments he made - is now demanding that the Senate make a candidate for commandant of cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy go into detail about her sexual history simply because she is a lesbian. This situation ALONE raises questions as to why the media calls the Family Research Council a "Christian advocacy" group. 

How The Media Covered Hate Groups Last Week, 5/1/17- 5/7/17 - Speaking of which - some news sources have been really good at calling out these groups. Others? Not so good.  

Another Religious Right Claim Of Anti-Christian Persecution Gets Utterly Debunked - A while back, I posted about how the Liberty Counsel was targeting a lesbian teacher by claiming she was bullying Christian students. Guess what? Another anti-lgbtq lie down the drain.  

Trolls Come For Debra Messing Following Her Message To Ivanka Trump - I HATE trolls . . . they never come for me. All of this "shade" is going to waste.

Mark Green controversy not anti-Christian bias, just 'foot-in-mouth' disease

As to be expected, anti-lgbtq evangelical groups are play the martyr and beating the somber tambourine over Trump's former nominee for Army Secretary, Mark Green. Green withdrew his name last week after a firestorm over comments he made in the past, include comments bashing the transgender community, the Islamic community, and evolution.

However, leave it to anti-lgbtq hate group the Family Research Council to claim that Green was a "victim" of anti-Christian bias:

What does evolution theory have to do with the Army? A lot, if you want to be the branch's secretary. That's just one of the fights the Left picked over Donald Trump's choice to lead the Army. Dr. Mark Green's beliefs on everything from creation to sexuality became the subject of a nasty campaign to discredit the respected flight surgeon -- a campaign, unfortunately, that ended Friday when Green withdrew his name from consideration.

"Due to false and misleading attacks against me, this nomination has become a distraction," Green said. "Tragically, my life of public service and my Christian beliefs have been mischaracterized and attacked by a few on the other side of the aisle for political gain."

LGBT activists, in particular, were upset that Green supported privacy laws like North Carolina's and the view of marriage that Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and even Barack Obama held at one point. To them, that was an unacceptable change from former Army Secretary Eric Fanning -- who not only identified as gay, but openly used his power to advance that agenda in the military. (How convenient that Fanning wasn't put under the same scrutiny when he was nominated!) Green, on the other hand, was maligned, misquoted, and mistreated by liberals desperate to keep a pro-family, pro-gun, pro-freedom, pro-marriage leader from a position of military authority.

But if being a conservative disqualifies Green from public service, then Washington is going to be a pretty empty place. A group of 11 congressmen, led by Marine vet Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), tried to defend Green, writing in a letter to Senate leadership that "Any attempt to politicize personal statements or views that have been expressed by Mark at any point throughout his career must not be allowed to supersede his qualifications or be conflated to create needless uncertainty with his nomination." But it was too late. The Left's crusade against the West Point grad, Tennessee state legislator, and longtime conservative had already taken its toll.

"I think there is a movement to target people of faith who are being nominated," Tennessee Lt. Governor Randy McNally told the Washington Examiner. "They want their own, either agnostics or people who are non-Christians. 'They' being the Democratic Party." FRC's own Army vet, Lt. General Jerry Boykin (Ret.) knows what it's like to be in the cross-hairs because of your Christian views. Sadly, he said, liberals have become "so powerful, and so vicious, that it's getting hard to find good people like Mark Green to run for office or engage in public policy because of the lies and hateful attacks they will have to endure." And the military in particular needs strong leaders with the stomach to stand up for what's right.

Just stop it already. The controversy over Green was not a case of anti-Christian bias. It was, in fact, a case of "foot in mouth" disease. Let's be honest about this situation. Green basically said dumb things which rightfully caused people to question his ability to lead.  Green wasn't done harm by anyone except for his inability to keep his ego in check. He practically made it easy for people to call him out, as the videos below prove. When viewing them, ask yourself is this the type of person you want leading the Army?  A man who inaccurately characterizes a group of people as a "disease." and says he wouldn't follow a SCOTUS ruling simply because he didn't like it?

'LGBTQs shouldn't celebrate after Trump's empty religious liberty order' & other Mon. midday news briefs

No, LGBTQ Americans Aren’t In The Clear After Trump’s Religious Liberty Order - Michelangelo Signorile has been very accurate with predictions of how the lgbtq community would fare in the "Age of Trump." In this day and age, his pieces should be required reading for anyone worried about our future. And he is again with another good assessment of our situation.

Former University of Iowa athletics administrator wins $1.43 million in Title IX lawsuit - Under the radar but just as important.

Support LGBTQ Muslims - Yes, LGBTQ Muslims exist and they deserve our support. We are all family and must lift each up other. That's how we defeat hate.

History Shows Why LGBTQ People Shouldn’t Support the Far-Right - A necessary history lesson for all of you gay Milo Yiannopoulos supporters out there.

How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America - Now is a perfect time to revisit the 2013 booklet I published online. Before Trump taking the White House and the anti-lgbtq right was pushing the "radical homosexuals want to persecute Christians" talking point, they were heavily pushing lies, anecdotal drivel, and bad science to falsely claim that "homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle." 

Like so:

Groups like the Family Research Council, the Liberty Counsel, the American Family Association, etc. are probably a bit reluctant to revisit those days, so let's reminisce. At the very least, it serves to remind folks that their claim about "protecting Christians" is much in line with the other stuff they used to push with the objective being to stigmatize the lgbtq community and undermine our attempts to gain equality for ourselves, our families, and our children.

Debra Messing, Billy Porter bring passion, fire to the GLAAD Awards

The second half of the 2017 GLAAD Media Awards, held Saturday, will definitely be memorable thanks to fiery speeches by award recipients Debra Messing and Billy Porter. Both speeches reminded the lgbtq community what we are fighting for and why we will eventually win.

YES, @theebillyporter!!! #glaadawards #WeResist pic.twitter.com/FW0G4InSwh

— GLAAD (@glaad) May 7, 2017

The entire list of award recipients can be seen here, including (surprise, surprise) yours truly who was honored to receive the award for 'Outstanding Blog.' I already gave a nice written speech on Facebook but I reiterate my thanks and love for all of you who have supported me through the years.