Discredited physician claims the Equality Act will end Christianity

Michelle Cretella

The hyperbole and false horror stories doesn't stop with the anti-LGBTQ industry when it comes to the upcoming Equality Act vote.

From Right Wing Watch:

Michelle Cretella, the executive director of an anti-LGBTQ pseudo-science organization, said that the Equality Act should actually be called the “Death to Christianity Act.” 

May 10 episode of Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, guest host Sarah Perry, FRC Action’s Director of Partnerships, and Cretella, executive director of the American College of Pediatricians (a right-wing group not to be confused with the professional organization, American Academy of Pediatrics), shared their opposition to the Equality Act, which would seek to add protections for sexual orientation and gender identity into existing anti-discrimination laws. The duo claimed that the proposed legislation would take children who believe they may be transgender and force doctors to “do harm to these kids.” 

“I think it’s really super important for all listeners to realize this law, if it passes, if this bill becomes law, it impacts everyone. And a better name for it is the ‘Death to Christianity Act.’ OK? That’s going to be the umbrella. … Christianity, it will cease to be publicly practiced. It’ll become against the law,” Cretella said.

Right Wing Watch goes to point out that Cretella's group, the American College of Pediatricians, is a SPLC-designated hate group due to how it pushes homophobic cherry-picked and junk science as legitimate research.

'Pat Robertson claims Equality Act will bring God's judgment on America' & other Tue midday news briefs

Poor Pat Robertson has been around for a long time and it shows. He comes across so sad and decrepit here. My comments are not mean to be snarky, but simply observing both right-wing evangelicalism and Pat Robertson seem to be hurtling headfirst down the road to irrelevancy and public shame simply due to a lack of honesty and integrity.

Pat Robertson goes full apocalyptic about the Equality Act: It will "bring the judgment of God on this nation," "the land will vomit you out," and God will "get rid of you as a nation" pic.twitter.com/xsBUFLPCnp

— Brennan Suen (@brennansuen) May 14, 2019

Family Research Council smears transgender children as predators - Post from last night. Someone should ask Robertson will God bring judgment on America for trying to be fair to all citizens or for doing things like falsely painting certain children as predators?

Chips Ahoy Cookies Brutally Mocks Snowflakes Triggered By Their Mother’s Day Video Featuring Drag Queen - Snowflakes.

Donald Trump comes out against LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections law - Surprise! Surprise! Donald Trump stabbed the LGBTQ community in the back again.

Texas House killed ‘Save Chick-fil-A’ bill, but the Senate just revived it - Well that sucks. 

This Bisexual Man Gave His Mom The Surprise Of Her Life On His Wedding Day - Awwww! This is sweet.

Family Research Council smears transgender children as predators

With the vote for the Equality Act coming in the House of Representatives possibly this week, it's no wonder that conservatives and members of the anti-LGBTQ industry have been firing up the propaganda cylinders to spin all sorts of horror stories about what would happen if it were passed.

And leave it to the hate group Family Research Council to really spin a most vile horror story via this tweet:

This is  vulgar lie on so many levels, particularly how it smears transgender children. As a matter of fact, a recent study has shown that it is  transgender children who are in danger of sexual assault when attending schools which attempt to force them to use bathrooms not aligned with their sexual identities.

'Don't let Trump hide anti-LGBTQ record behind 'religious freedom' rhetoric in 2020 race' & other Mon midday news briefs

Don't let Trump hide brutal LGBTQ record behind 'religious freedom' rhetoric in 2020 race - Amen!

Brazil’s homophobic president won’t get a warm welcome when he visits Dallas - The area LGBTQ groups have plenty to say about him.

Indya Moore Is Elle Magazine's First Transgender Cover Star - Good for her!

A Mom Makes Her Case for the Equality Act - The vote is coming this week.

Mike Pence promotes fake martyrdom during Liberty University commencement

On Saturday, VP Mike Pence spoke at the commencement of Liberty University.  In his address, Pence spoke with the same tone deaf self-righteous hypocrisy which has marked his political career:

“Some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have little tolerance for traditional Christian beliefs,” Pence said. “Be ready.” With his wife, Karen, sitting on stage as he spoke, Pence recounted the “harsh attacks” he said they endured when she returned this year to teaching art at a Christian elementary school where she’d worked when he’d served in Congress. Unlike her previous stint, this time Karen Pence faced scrutiny after news reports pointed out that the school bans gay students and teachers. 

“Throughout most of American history, it's been pretty easy to call yourself Christian,” Pence said. “It didn’t even occur to people that you might be shunned or ridiculed for defending the teachings of the Bible. But things are different now.”

I don't know why Pence continues to play the "I'm only trying to follow my faith" game. There is a long paper trail showing that his idea of "Christianity" is undermining LGBTQ equality and safety. Not to mention that his idea of folks, particularly the LGBTQ community, "showing tolerance" to those like him is to allow ourselves to be discriminated against.

But for the record, it never hurts to remind people:

Family Research Council tries to protect Trump by lying about Mueller investigation

FRC head Tony Perkins 

I was wondering when hate group the Family Research Council would dip itself into the drama of Robert Mueller's report on the Russian interference in the 2016 election. For those not aware,  Mueller was investigating whether or not Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia  and did Trump attempt to obstruct the investigation

Using the same cherry-picking, sins of omission, and basic distortions it has over the years to denigrate the LGBTQ community, the Family Research Council is attempting to twist the outcome of Mueller's investigation in order to protect its cash cow of "access," Donald Trump. Apparently this requires more than a simple "mulligan."

FRC's distortions of Mueller's investigation is best shown in three paragraphs of a piece its president, Tony Perkins, wrote:

The spectacle at Wednesday's hearing wasn't lost on the liberal media either. While the rest of the country pleads with Democrats to move on from this humiliating ordeal, even commentators are saying they don't have the public's support to continue this charade. "The most straightforward procedural suggestion for addressing executive branch noncooperation is to subpoena documents and testimony and, if they aren't produced, hold the responsible individuals in contempt of Congress. This, it turns out, is not such a great idea," warns Suzanne Garment at NBC News. 

 For starters, Americans are tired of watching Democrats beat this dead horse of Russian collusion. Most of them want to know: when will this political circus end? Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) understands -- because he's one of them. I guess it ends, he told me on Wednesday's "Washington Watch," "when the Democrats a suffer at the ballot box because it doesn't look like anything short of that is gone to deter them. The Mueller report is out there for everybody to read. It's 448 pages. It finds that there was no conspiracy, there was no coordination, there was no collusion and there was no obstruction. And, and now Attorney General Barr has testified before multiple committees... And that's the end of it. And it's time now that the Democrats and moved on and we actually get to work with the business with the country." 

 But there's also the legal side of this, which is that Attorney General Barr cannot release grand jury material without being held personally responsible. There's intelligence information in that report, and there are matters of national security that prevent him from complying with the Democrats' request. House liberals know that -- and yet, they're trying to punish Barr for following the law (which, I might point out, is not why Eric Holder was held in contempt). And ironically, they don't need him to publicly release the unredacted report to read it. As members of Congress, they can go to a private, classified setting and access every word. Of course, there wouldn't be any television cameras in that room for Democrats to continue their theatrics.

There are so many lies in just these three paragraphs.

1. While the rest of the country pleads with Democrats to move on from this humiliating ordeal, even commentators are saying they don't have the public's support to continue this charade.

 Truth - Actually the view of the investigation is bit more split. According to a May 1 NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, 48 percent of Americans want more investigations while 46 percent thinks they should end. In all honesty, impeachment hearings still remains to be an unpopular idea.

2. FRC cites a piece by Suzanne Garment to enhance the claim that the public doesn't support more investigations.

Truth - But her piece had nothing to do with public sentiment. It was about the different ways the Democratic party can obtain testimony and documents for the investigation which Trump refuses to release.

3. For starters, Americans are tired of watching Democrats beat this dead horse of Russian collusion.

Truth - FRC cites a February 15 poll from right-wing leaning Rasmussen which says only 29 percent of Americans favor investigation and only IF Mueller doesn't find anything.  This was before the Mueller report was even released. Again, a more recent poll found that 48 percent of Americans want investigations to continue.

4. FRC quotes GOP Senator Josh Hawley: "when the Democrats a suffer at the ballot box because it doesn't look like anything short of that is gone to deter them. The Mueller report is out there for everybody to read. It's 448 pages. It finds that there was no conspiracy, there was no coordination, there was no collusion and there was no obstruction. And, and now Attorney General Barr has testified before multiple committees... And that's the end of it. And it's time now that the Democrats and moved on and we actually get to work with the business with the country."

Truth -  The investigation did not find any conspiracy between Trump campaign and Russia. However Mueller  found 10 instances of possible obstruction by Trump.  He said he couldn't fully exonerate Trump of obstruction. Over 800 former federal prosecutors and Department of Justice attorneys who worked for Democratic and Republican administrations signed a letter saying that if Trump wasn't president, he would face charges of obstruction.  Lastly, it has been reported that Trump himself is walking back from the claim of "no obstruction."

Truth - Attorney General Barr has testified only once about Mueller's report and that was to Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1. He refused to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee.

5.  But there's also the legal side of this, which is that Attorney General Barr cannot release grand jury material without being held personally responsible. There's intelligence information in that report, and there are matters of national security that prevent him from complying with the Democrats' request. House liberals know that -- and yet, they're trying to punish Barr for following the law (which, I might point out, is not why Eric Holder was held in contempt).

Truth - Zack Ford of watchdog group ThinkProgress said this:

The Mueller report redacted four kinds of content: grand jury material, classified intelligence, matters related to ongoing investigations, and private information about “peripheral third parties.” It’s true that members of Congress cannot see the grand jury material, but they have every right to see the content redacted in the other three categories, as well as all of the underlying evidence that accompanies the report’s claims. And that’s what the subpoena asks for. 

As for the grand jury material, Nadler explained that Democrats had asked Barr to work alongside them to petition a judge to turn over those documents to Congress in a closed setting, the only way the material can be released. The request therefore does not compel Barr to break the law.

'Study says trans teens in schools with bathroom restrictions at higher risk of sexual assault' & other Thur midday news briefs

Transgender teens in schools with bathroom restrictions are at higher risk of sexual assault, study says - We know who the real predators are and it's not our transgender children.

Biden’s early support for same-sex marriage still remembered for impact - That's right. And we should never forget it.

Polish Activist Arrested Over Image Of Mary And Jesus With Rainbow Halos - Oh come on, folks. How is this wrong? 

Hundreds of sex workers and allies lobby to repeal New York’s ‘walking while trans’ ban - Good!