Time for something frivolous and funny. Earlier today, the Christmas card above was sent out on Twitter supposedly from former president Donald Trump.
After much, much derision and vulgar comments (I even contributed a "Winter White House, my black ass!!"), it was determined that the card was a fake.
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| Since losing the fight against marriage equality, Maggie Gallagher has stayed somewhat out of sight. But now, she's back with a new anti-LGBTQ group. |
Last week, People for the American Way's Right-Wing Watch alerted me to the return of an old enemy of LGBTQ equality:
The anti-LGBTQ American Principles Project has launched its first state chapter in the Lone Star State with the goal of mobilizing conservative Texas families in politics and fighting so-called “gender ideology” in schools. APP Texas’ first targets aren’t Democrats however; they’re Republicans. Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican legislators passed anti-trans legislation this fall that APP President Terry Schilling says doesn’t go far enough in discriminating against trans people.Abbott signed House Bill 25 into law on Oct. 25, effectively preventing trans kids from playing on teams that correspond to their gender identity. The law requires kids to play on the sports teams corresponding to the sex assigned to them on their birth certificates, but it only applies to K-12 schools and does not include Texas colleges. That’s likely a result of an NCAA statement made this spring. In April, as scores of anti-trans bills were introduced in state houses across the country, the NCAA released a statement supporting trans athletes and said the collegiate conference would only have games and tournaments in states “where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination.”
Maggie Gallagher is a senior fellow at American Principles Project, and a co-author of the APP reports, Building a Winning GOP Coalition: The Lessons of 2012 and The Case for Politics: Why Conservatives Must Invest Seriously in Politics. She has been a thought leader on life, religious liberty, and especially marriage for more than 25 years. Ms. Gallagher is the author of four books on marriage, including The Case for Marriage with University of Chicago Prof. Linda J. Waite, and her latest book, Debating Same-Sex Marriage, which she co-authored with Prof. John Corvino.After founding and running a think tank on marriage — the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy — Ms. Gallagher went on to co-found the National Organization for Marriage in 2007, which The Washington Post called the “pre-eminent organization” fighting the imposition of same-sex marriage. Her Weekly Standard piece “Banned in Boston” launched a national debate over the religious liberty consequences of same-sex marriage.
Flashback: When #Oregon native Maggie Gallagher gloated that “it’s really fun to win.” She is absolutely right!!! http://t.co/icGhrEjo2e
— Jeremy Hooper (@goodasyou) May 19, 2014
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| Joe Rogan signals America's intellectual downward spiral. |
A recent vote in Canada just demonstrated how progressive a country can be when government officials aren't caught in a strange hold by so-called religiously moral figures and false precepts.
From The Hill:
Canada’s House of Commons on Wednesday voted unanimously to outlaw LGBTQ+ conversion therapy, a rare example of harmony in a Parliament often fraught with discord. The bill, first proposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in March of last year, will now go to the upper Senate chamber for approval. An earlier version of the bill died after the government prorogued Parliament last August and was reintroduced the following October.“There are clearly people in the Conservative caucus who exercised a great deal of leadership on the issue, and I thank them,” Canada’s Liberal justice minister, David Lametti, told reporters Wednesday. “This is what we can do when parliament works together.” "We said we wanted people to be on the right side of history on this issue. No one can consent to torture," Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault, one of eight openly queer, trans, and Two-Spirit candidates elected to Parliament this year, told reporters Wednesday.
The governing Liberals had made repeated attempts to pass legislation banning the practice, which aims to change individuals’ sexual orientation or gender identity, and has been deemed harmful by health experts globally. The Liberals first introduced the bill in March 2020, but it died after the government prorogued parliament. Trudeau’s party reintroduced the bill again but it died when parliament dissolved ahead of the September federal election.The Conservative leader, Erin O’Toole, has become an outspoken proponent of LGBTQ rights since taking control of the party. By voting to fast-track the bill, lawmakers avoid having to record their vote. Previously, 62 Conservatives voted against the motion in June. The bill will now go to the senate for a separate vote before it becomes law.A recent UN report found that conversion practices are performed in at least 68 countries, although experts say some version of conversion practice is still found in all nations. Aversion therapy, where a person is subjected to a “negative, painful or otherwise distressing sensation”– including electric shocks – to create a negative association, has been used in many countries.The vote puts Canada one step closer to joining a small number of nations – Brazil, Ecuador, Germany and Malta – that have outright banned the practice.
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| The conservative evangelicals who supported Donald Trump are a sad bunch. |
The irony of this particular Wednesday is incredibly stark.
Conservative evangelicals finally got a taste of the moment they have been wanting and anticipating for decades - a Supreme Court which may actually overturn Roe v Wade. A court which embraces their view of the so-called sanctity of life - however hypocritical - is something they have been pining for with all of their planning, plotting, and basic maneuvering. It's possibly the same court which could also give the LGBTQ community and our rights - particularly the one to marry - fresh hell after it finishes carving up a woman's right to an abortion.
And they owe it to their canny vigilance and cynical support of Donald Trump. By overlooking his basic faults, making excuses for his tendency to lie, and practically anointing him as a "baby Christian," conservative evangelicals are now in the catbird seat overlooking a moment in history where they may actually get what they want.
And it's on this same day that we learn something else equally nauseating about Donald Trump, the man which they owe their success to. According to his former aide Mark Meadows, Trump was COVID positive three days before his first debate with now President Joe Biden. And this was a day before an event he held with Gold Star military families whom he later blamed for giving him COVID.
So on top of everything else people have reason to despise Trump for, we can possibly mark him as a personal spreader of COVID. And this doesn't begin to account for how his sad governance indirectly caused the pandemic to wreak deadly havoc across the country.
Taking all that into account, you would think I am going to weave a sad narrative about how conservative evangelicals supposedly sold their souls for what looks like a moment of victory. You probably think that I am going to make literary comparison of people like Franklin Graham and groups like the Family Research Council to the legendary Faust, who sold his sold to the devil to gain his heart's desire.
But I'm not going to.
For the comparison to make sense, a soul must first be involved. The pain that comes from attaining your heart's desire at the cost of your innocence must be involved. And the sad realization that what you gained in your deal with the devil isn't worth what you gave up must be acknowledged.
But none of this internal trauma is going to happen with conservative evangelicals. How can it when they obviously didn't have a soul to begin with.
The truth is that they don't give a damn. All they care about is what Donald Trump has done for them. Because of him, they now have a conservative majority on the court and this majority is very close to overturning Roe v Wade. At least for now.
Everything else - the lives lost to COVID, the hypocrisy, the lies, the awful governance - is simply collateral damage to be explained away. Or worse yet, ignored.
