Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
A wonderful side benefit to Trump no longer being in office is how it has affected some members of the religious right. It's as if Jesus came down from Heaven and slapped them. A lot of it has to do with how much egg many of them have on their faces from the embarrassment of having to explain pre-election day assurances that God said Trump would win. Some admitted they were wrong and others made excuses.
And then there are folks like Pastor Greg Locke of the Global Vision Bible Church in Tennessee.
That last statement is not altogether accurate. I doubt there are any pastors like Locke. He is in a class by himself and that's not necessarily a good thing.
Locked predicted that Trump would win. And now that the election is over, he is still claiming that Trump won.
And it gets better (or worse, or more comical depending on your sense of mood.) During a recent sermon, Locke had some very vulgar things to about President Biden, Vice President Harris, and various Hollywood celebrities. He called them a bunch of sex-trafficking perverts, making sure to single out Harris by calling her a 'Jezebel demon.' Then came the claims that there are child trafficking tunnels under the Capitol and the White House.
Right-wing pastor Greg Locke used his sermon today to allege that there are child-trafficking "tunnels" under the Capitol and White House and accuse Joe Biden, Oprah Winfrey, and Tom Hanks of being "a bunch of pedophiles." pic.twitter.com/hYC864ir8a
And based upon past sermons, Locke is also a rabid homophobe (which really shouldn't surprise anyone.)
Locke’s extremism ranges widely. He is old school religious-right when it comes to LGBTQ people, denouncing Pride Month and marriage equality, saying, “It’s always been about these pedophiles!” https://t.co/9mxYzEGx0O
Earlier today, Franklin Graham and the Family Research Council verbally attacked Olympic athlete Gwen Berry for supposedly disrespecting the American flag. They have yet to comment about Locke and I doubt they will. It's rather indicative of the religious right's sad state of misplaced priorities and inflated sense of importance.
As the sun slowly sets on the June 2021 pride month, let's observe it fading into our memories while sitting on the patio with a cocktail in hand. Or at the very least, while we watch another batch of Saturday Night Live LGBTQ moments guaranteed to make us laugh and raise our spirits.
We can always count on conservatives and the right in general to get their white supporters stoked up about some fake controversy. And these days, it's about Critical race theory. To hear them describe it, Critical race theory is a racist philosophy which teaches that white people are inherently evil and there is a liberal plot to indoctrinate children and America in general with it.
Or something like that.
To those raising hell, the definition always changes and frankly they don't know what they are angry about. The only thing is they are sure is that they are angry because (wait for it), the right-wing propaganda engine and the GOP have been fearmongering about it.
According to Media Matters, Fox News has mentioned "Critical race theory" over 1,300 in the past three and a half months.
Critical race theory is an academic legal framework which examines the systemic impact of racism in the United States. But “critical race theory,” like “cancel culture” and “political correctness” before it, also functions as an umbrella term the right-wing movement uses to turn its mostly white adherents’ racial anxiety into political energy.
In this case, a sophisticated, nationwide network of conservative think tanks, advocacy groups, media outlets, and GOP officials have seized on the term and, in the words of Christopher Rufo -- a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and a key player in the effort -- sought to render it “toxic” and apply to it “the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.” Republicans have proposed or passed a slew of legislation restricting “critical race theory” and hope to use it as a core part of their political strategy in upcoming local, state, and federal elections.
Critical race theory (CRT) is a movement that challenges the ability of conventional legal strategies to deliver social and economic justice and specifically calls for legal approaches that take into consideration race as a nexus of American life.
The movement champions many of the same concerns as the civil rights movement but places those concerns within a broader economic and historical context. It often elevates the equality principles of the Fourteenth Amendment above the liberty principles of the First Amendment.
. . .Some of the basic tenets of CRT rest on the belief that racism is a fundamental part of American society, not simply an aberration that can be easily corrected by law; that any given culture constructs its own social reality in its own self-interest, and in the United States this means that minorities’ interests are subservient to the system’s self-interest; and that the current system, built by and for white elites, will tolerate and encourage racial progress for minorities only if this promotes the majority’s self-interest.
In other words, CRT is an amorphous legal argument which has obviously been selected by those on the right to scare its mostly white supporters into hysterically thinking their children are being "indoctrinated" into a dangerous philosophy. And in spite of the fact that CRT is not being taught in K-12 schools, conservative groups are using the "Critical race theory" name to attack all diversity endeavors, even when they have nothing at all to do with Critical race theory:
One conservative organization, the Heritage Foundation, recently attributed a whole host of issues to CRT, including the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, LGBTQ clubs in schools, diversity training in federal agencies and organizations, California’s recent ethnic studies model curriculum, the free-speech debate on college campuses, and alternatives to exclusionary discipline—such as the Promise program in Broward County, Fla., that some parents blame for the Parkland school shootings. “When followed to its logical conclusion, CRT is destructive and rejects the fundamental ideas on which our constitutional republic is based,” the organization claimed.
And especially endeavors to create safe school environments for LGBTQ students. Recently, a Loudon County school board meeting was inundated with a large group of parents angry about the possibility of Critical race theory being taught to their children. The meeting got so rowdy that it was cancelled and two people ended up arrested. Some parents were also angry at measures which were to be taken for the safety of LGBTQ students. Safety for LGBTQ students and Critical race theory are two separate issues, but SPLC - designated hate group the Family Research Council connected the two issues:
Surveys have shown that overwhelming majorities of parents oppose schools teaching that America was founded on racism and is structurally racist. It's no wonder, then, that Loudoun County parents turned out yesterday by the hundreds to offer their commentary on what that school system is promoting to students. Not only were many parents supportive of Christian PE teacher Tanner Cross, they were outraged by unfair treatment of a student whose parents opted him out of LGBTQ+ lessons for Pride Month. They also overwhelmingly oppose a proposed policy to allow opposite sex students access to bathrooms, locker rooms, and hotel rooms. And while conservative and Christian parents are painted as "out of order" or "unruly," it was the "screaming" parent of a transgender student who accused the "followers of Jesus" of "dripping with hate."
People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch just published the first part of a informative piece which needs to be required reading and sharing for anyone fighting the anti-LGBTQ industry's attack on the transgender community.
Unsportsmanlike: The Right-Wing Attack on Transgender Women and Children is an intensive report which spotlights tactics religious right and conservative groups have undertaken to demonize transgender women and children under the guise of protecting women in general and "saving children" from harm.
An excerpt from the chapter The Message Is Fearpinpoints how certain ugly and untrue narratives about trans women and children are created and spread to invoke fear that trans female athletes are attempting to "cheat" victories and records from cis female athletes:
To experts and activists watching these attacks, the implications are clear—and the portrayal that fundamentally misunderstands who trans people are, purposeful.
“It’s a very tactical argument, right? It’s fearmongering, because what it does is it takes people’s wants to protect their daughters, and it says, ‘This will protect your daughter, here’s all the ways that we trans people are going to hurt your daughters,’” said Schuyler Bailar, an LGBTQ activist, swimmer, and the first trans athlete to compete for a Division I men’s team. “It’s a way to fearmonger people so that they think that trans people are actually just men trying to hurt their daughters.”
The narrative is reminiscent of that used by right-wing groups pushing for the bathroom bills, which were successful for a while with “public conversations start[ing] from a place of fear,” said Arli Christian of the ACLU. “The narrative from the other side was not about trans women, and it never is. It’s about men in dresses, right? Because they don’t understand who trans women are,” she said. “So when we have a narrative that’s based on men joining women’s teams, no one is understanding the issue. When we have a narrative based on men entering women’s bathrooms, no one is understanding the issue.”
Monday's announcement by Carl Nassib, a Las Vegas Raider defensive player, that he is gay is beneficial on so many levels.
For one, though Nassib is the first active football player to come out, his announcement is an opportunity to remember past openly gay football players like Dave Kopay, Jerry Smith, Esera Tuaolo, Michael Sam, and so many others. It's a great time to remember how they paved the way for his announcement. For another thing, positive visibility for our community and potential LGBTQ role models for our kids are always needed.
But then there is the other side of the coin, i.e. those who claim that Nassib has put undue stress on their lives and way of thinking about LGBTQ people simply because he had the audacity to not hide his sexual orientation. And such comments came via the wildly repulsive far-right site Free Republic.
They had a time raising hell about Nassib and their comments were very amusing. Granted you may not think so, but monitoring this stuff for almost 15 years has given me a droll and cynical sense of humor. And I admit that I enjoy reading the bigoted comments coming from the Free Republic when something pro-LGBTQ occurs. It's like observing a zoo where you don't have to feed nuts to the animals because the nuts are the animals.
The following are some of the comments:
Yay, another colon spelunker. Like I care.
We do not care if this person is gay. We do not care if the clerk at your local grocery store is gay. Stop acting like we all need to know what you do in your bedroom. We don’t.
Carl, whoever you are....PLEASE KEEP YOUR SEX SECRETS TO YOURSELF! UGH!
Forty or more years ago there was an All In The Family episode where one of Archie’s professional football heroes hinted at being gay. And I swear the media breathlessly tells us every year of some pro athlete being gay. It’s old news to everyone. They announce these stories to pump their own egos. The MSM buries real news and regurgitates tired “revelations” like this ad nauseum.
Hey, I’ve been meaning to get this off my chest. I’m straight, married to the father of our kids and never cheated. Where’s my historic headlines?
Mr Nassib if you want adulation for enjoying a blood gorged crank up the ass you’ve come to the wrong place.
He has an agenda. And what you think is love is really an attack on your freedoms. Even worse his agenda is targeting your children in school. Teaching them that this aberrant behavior is not just normal and natural, but any opposition is hate speech.
Several times I have had casual acquaintances or people at work announce to me "I am gay" or "I am a lesbian" totally out of the blue and for no reason. Why do they feel the need to do that? I don't need to know and I don't want to know...
It goes on and on like this with each participant spewing equally homophobic and badly unoriginal comments (even to the point of working in the corny "tight end, wide receiver" joke). It was like watching a schizophrenic tennis match with just about half of the comments telling Nassib to stop talking about gay sex (even though he didn't) while the other half going into details about gay sex so lurid that I was tempted to begin taking notes.
Homophobes are so amusing when kept in their cages. And it's a great reminder yet again that LGBTQ people aren't the problem.
