Christians and Guerilla Warfare: Who knew the terms mixed?

Activist and author of Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth Wayne Besen has more gumption than me.

Last week, he actually spent two days observing The Awakening, a religious right conference in Lynchburg, VA.

Besen, who is also the founder and Executive Director of Truth Wins Out, issued a full report which sounds like something from an ecclesiastical version of the Twilight Zone.

First the good news. Apparently the attendees were in a foul mood because their words were no longer resonating with the public :

The symposium revealed that anti-gay rhetoric was on the decline and no longer the far right's number one priority.


"While the sheer number of anti-gay attacks had decreased from past conferences, the remaining rhetoric was vicious and vile, as our desperate opponents see they are losing the battle of public opinion," said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out.

The sullen mood over losing ground was best summarized by Lou Engle of "The Call". During a breakout session on the "LGBT Agenda", he acknowledged that when he preaches against LGBT issues, Christian youth often "rage against him." Engle said that the far right has lost on this issue barring a miracle. One idea floated by Engle to turn the tide was creating an intercession by holding a 500,000 strong youth rally.

"If Lou Engle is wondering how his movement lost the current generation of youth, it is because the hatred and hyperbole spewed by anti-gay activists is incongruous with reality," said TWO's Wayne Besen in the report. "Many teenagers, including evangelicals, have friends who come out of the closet at early ages. They listen to the slurs and the slander at such conferences and know, based on real life experience, that they are hearing lies. Such cognitive dissonance is costing evangelical leaders enormous credibility."

Now comes the strange part:

Another breakout session, "Pastors and Political Activity", urged fundamentalist Christians to use stealth tactics to infiltrate public schools. A man in his 20's spoke up during the Q&A period and claimed that the panelists were not trying hard enough to get into classrooms. He alleged that through his youth ministry, "we've been to 330 schools and only two asked us to leave."


Upon hearing this, Dr. Rick Scarborough, Vision America, cheered these youth and said, "We need more special forces like yourself", and then spoke of the importance of engaging in "guerilla warfare". Rev. Rick Joyner, Morningstar Ministries, chimed in that fundamentalists should "come in undercover." For example, a fundamentalist could go in to speak "as an athlete", but really be in the schools to push a sectarian message.

Forgetting for a second just how ethical that type of behavior is, I have to ask something. Guerilla warfare and Christians? Is it just me or do those two terms not mix?

Like the terms Sarah Palin and President of the United States.

Or Michelle Bachman and sanity.

Or Glenn Beck and intellectual restraint.

Or Rush Limbaugh and . . . never mind. It's no fun when it's too easy.

Yet again it seems that the religious right have forgone the usual Bible and now take direction from the secret one which only they have access to - the one in which Jesus said "take up your cross and smite the hell out of unbelievers with it until they believe the correct way."

For Besen's full reports, go to:

TWO Special Report: Inside 'The Awakening' Conference In Lynchburg

and

TWO Special Report: A View Inside The Right Wing Awakening Conference In Lynchburg

Andrea Lafferty - 'Won't someone PLEASE think of the children.'

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Today, HRC Associate Director of Diversity Allyson Robinson and the Traditional Values Coalition's Andrea Lafferty appeared on CBSnews.com’s program “Washington Unplugged" debating ENDA.

It's interesting how Lafferty admits that TVC are focusing on scaring people by ignoring gays, lesbians, bisexuals component of ENDA and instead focus on how "spooky" trangenders will be "invading" the classrooms.

At first, I was hoping that Robinson would prevent Lafferty from talking over her but luckily it worked in her favor a few times as Lafferty comes across as Helen Lovejoy from The Simpsons.

But let's not be so quick to laugh. We know the game plan and though TVC is an officially designated hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, we also know that they have some Congressional influence.

So let's start making those phone calls.

What's wrong with a 'radical lesbian' judge? and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Traditional Values Coalition Tells Senators To Block Judicial Nominee Because She’s A ‘Radical Lesbian’ - Nothing like unfettered homophobia from TVC to start a Tuesday.

Breaking the silence of depression in the Black gay community - An important issue which doesn't get the attention it deserves.

Sputtering Start to Religious Right's Rebranding - Last weekend's religious right conference was a huge flop. Andrea Lafferty and Matt Barber did provide some good laughs though.

And yes, Mr. Nimocks: Straw men can be fired on the basis of their bullsh*t-iness - More lies about ENDA.

Openly Gay Craig Lowe Wins Gainesville Mayoral Election - Guess who won the recount?

Obama gets heckled about DADT - Call me unimpressed

By now you have heard about how the group GetEqual heckled President Obama during his speech praising Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer.

And to tell the truth, I'm feeling a bit reticent about the entire thing because I question the credibility behind it.

Oh sure, everyone is full of revolutionary fire and anger and those who were involved in the legendary stances of Act-Up and Queer Nation are channeling memories, but is this anger genuine and sustaining and will it bleed over to other fights regarding lgbt equality?

Or can we can count on this fire to catch on for a brief second with so many of us evoking a catchy slogan (i.e. "No More Mr. Nice Gay," or "the Gay T.M. is closed")to conceptualize our anger and then whither and die.

Granted, I'm a pragmatic individual but I see the sense in direct action tactics, unless those tactics are the ends and not a means to an end.

So I can't help wondering just where will this lead? A mention on tv shows? An annoyingly self-satisfied rant of "we showed him" by various activists? Ignorant rants calling Obama a homophobe by folks who let their vitriol take over their common sense?

Meanwhile, religious right groups are covertly doing the things they do to make our lives hell, such as holding conferences, forming phony medical groups, and getting cozy with like-minded Congressional leaders.

Whether we like it or not, religious right groups are our real enemy. They have been that way before Obama came to office and they will continue to be that way after he leaves.

In the argument over lgbt equality, they are the proverbial elephant in the room, so why is it that we don't attack them with as much fervor as we go after Obama?

Where are the protests at the headquarters of the Family Research Council or Concerned Women for America? Where are the slogans aimed at them such as "Stop lying about our lives," or "Jesus never lied"?

Why aren't we disrupting them?

So while I'm intrigued by the recent of heckling of President Obama, I've seen it all before.

And I'm not impressed.

Warning issued about American College of Pediatricians membership

One good thing that has come out of the controversy regarding the American College of Pediatricians (ACP) is the attention now focused on how religious right organizations create shell groups in order to spread their homophobic garbage.

Groups and individuals such as Dr. Francis Collins, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Dr. Gary Remafedi have gone public denouncing the ACP. And now, more critical information about ACP comes from the group TransActive, a group which provides support to improve the quality of life of transgender and gender non-conforming children, youth and their families through education, services, advocacy and research:

The American College of Pediatricians is a fringe organization that promotes social conservatism primarily by distributing misinterpreted and misrepresented information from reputable medical and research sources and discredited and highly questionable "facts" from other fringe individuals, organizations and resources such as the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH).

The primary goal of the American College of Pediatricians, despite claims to the contrary, is the continued marginalization, isolation, denial of equal rights and mutual respect for transgender children, youth, their families and other members of the greater LGBT population.

These lists are taken from both the American College of Pediatricians and NARTH websites. We include background information on some of those listed below where we feel that information might be helpful or useful to families and others visiting this page.

If you are the parent, caregiver, friend or advisor to a transgender or gender non-conforming child or youth, TransActive recommends AVOIDING these individuals as caregivers and to contact us if you become aware of their involvement as so-called "expert witnesses" in legal cases, policy development or other actions involving transgender identity in children and adolescents.

The list is extremely comprehensive and some of the names include

Diamond, Eugene M.D., Chicago, IllinoisEugene Diamond is a member of the Catholic Medical Association. He is on record as being opposed to providing female rape victims access to so-called "morning after" pills to prevent pregnancy as a result of the rape. In his own words, "...in all likelihood the woman is not going to become pregnant in the first place. Thus, what reasons could be given for taking any risk of [aborting a fetus]?"

Quick, Sharon M.D., Bonney Lake, Washington
Dr. Quick serves on the "Scientific Advisory Committee" of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). She has also testified in Washington state in opposition to ESSB 5297 on the grounds that "programs to prevent discrimination... will likely result in normalizing homosexuality in sexuality education." She included in her testimony the statement that, "Consistent play with traditionally opposite gender toys is one of the factors used to diagnose gender identity disorder or childhood, a condition that is associated with later [homosexuality]." To the best of our knowledge, she is no longer a practicing physician.

Ironically, Dr. Quick authored a medical ethics paper entitled "The Stones Cry Out". In this paper she decries, in defense of the unborn, that "Throughout history, people have been discriminated against because of race, religion, nationality, etc." [Apparently, LGBT youth do NOT fall into her definition of "etc."]

 Dean Byrd, PhD, Salt Lake City, Utah
Dean Byrd is the Vice President of NARTH and an Adjunct Professor of Family Studies at the University of Utah. He is the former Director of Clinical Training at LDS Social Services and a former Clinical Professor at Brigham Young University. His training is in genetics, biochemistry and neurochemistry. He is the author of a book published in 2001 entitled "Homosexuality and the Church of Jesus Christ". In the book Dr. Byrd outlines and defends the position of the Mormon church regarding homosexual "behavior". One of the chapters of this book is entitled: "The Degree of Sin That Homosexual Behavior Represents".

Rick Fitzgibbons, MD, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons is the director of the Institute for Marital Healing and a consultant to the Congregation for Clergy at the Vatican. He is also a member of NARTH's "Scientific Advisory Committee" and a member of the Catholic Medical Association. As stated on the NARTH website, Dr. Fitzgibbons is critical of many programs in the public schools that portray the gay lifestyle as healthy: "Many of these educational programs attempt to mask their true goals by the use of names such as diversity, tolerance or 'no name-calling weeks' when, in fact, they attempt to undermine the Church's teaching on marriage, human sexuality and, now child-rearing."
 
Arthur Goldberg, JD, CRS, BCPC, Jersey City, New Jersey
Arthur Goldberg serves as co-director of JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Homosexuality). Red Heifer Press in Los Angeles published his recent text on homosexuality, psychology, and biblical principles entitled "Light in the Closet! Torah, Homosexuality and the Power to Change". 

Trayce Hansen, PhD, San Marcos, California
Dr. Hansen consults on legal cases and has testified in both deposition and court hearings related to her professional expertise. She authored an article entitled "Children Raised by Openly Homosexual Parents More Likely to Engage in Homosexuality" that was featured on the Anglican Mainstream website. In that article she states: "No one knows for sure by what complex mechanisms homosexual parents disproportionately rear homosexual children. But regardless of how, it appears they do. The public needs to be made aware of the findings of these studies so that when courts adjudicate and citizens vote on issues related to homosexuality, they're fully informed as to the possible consequences of those decisions on children."

The full list is here.



Hat tip to Truth Wins Out.

Has Sen. Lindsey Graham been outed by his own people? and other Monday midday news briefs

Greenville, SC Tea Party rally calls out GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham for being gay - Has Senator Lindsey Graham been outed?

Wayne Went to the Gatherin’ O’ the Crazies at Liberty University; Peter LaBarbera Reports! - Wayne Besen attended that crazy conference held at Liberty University last week. And he did it without the courtesy of holy water.

Duke College Republicans chairman claims he was ousted over sexual orientation - Whoops!

FRC Calls for Impeachment Over National Day of Prayer Ruling - Cue the violins.

Focus on the Family's ME outpost: Gay tolerance will destroy America, just like it did the World Trade Center - Tastless. just pure tasteless.

Elderly gay couple robbed of companionship, possessions, and dignity

In spite of their platitudes about how gay marriage could unfairly define the word "marriage" and thereby ruin the concept of the term for so many people, neither Maggie Gallagher, the denizens at the National Organization for Marriage or Mike Huckabee can point to a case where gay marriage led to the dehumanization and destruction of a family.

And no I am not talking about hypothetical distortions about how gay marriage in the Netherlands led to more out-of-birth wedlocks.

On the other hand, the lgbt community can point to a myriad of cases where a lack of marriage protection for the couple involved spelled disaster,  such as this sad case in Califona courtesy of the National Center for Lesbian Rights:

Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place—wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health.

One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold’s care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes.

Ignoring Clay’s significant role in Harold’s life, the county continued to treat Harold like he had no family and went to court seeking the power to make financial decisions on his behalf. Outrageously, the county represented to the judge that Clay was merely Harold’s “roommate.” The court denied their efforts, but did grant the county limited access to one of Harold’s bank accounts to pay for his care.

What happened next is even more chilling: without authority, without determining the value of Clay and Harold’s possessions accumulated over the course of their 20 years together or making any effort to determine which items belonged to whom, the county took everything Harold and Clay owned and auctioned off all of their belongings. Adding further insult to grave injury, the county removed Clay from his home and confined him to a nursing home against his will. The county workers then terminated Clay and Harold's lease and surrendered the home they had shared for many years to the landlord.

Three months after he was hospitalized, Harold died in the nursing home. Because of the county’s actions, Clay missed the final months he should have had with his partner of 20 years. Compounding this tragedy, Clay has literally nothing left of the home he had shared with Harold or the life he was living up until the day that Harold fell, because he has been unable to recover any of his property. The only memento Clay has is a photo album that Harold painstakingly put together for Clay during the last three months of his life.

With the help of a dedicated and persistent court-appointed attorney, Anne Dennis of Santa Rosa, Clay was finally released from the nursing home. Ms. Dennis, along with Stephen O'Neill and Margaret Flynn of Tarkington, O'Neill, Barrack & Chong, now represent Clay in a lawsuit against the county, the auction company, and the nursing home, with technical assistance from NCLR. A trial date has been set for July 16, 2010 in the Superior Court for the County of Sonoma.

People can ruminate about God and the religious views of homosexuality all they want. But I dare any decent Christian to justify what happened to Harold and Clay.

Marriage equality is not a Machivellian concept introduced to "force acceptance." It's a way to ensure that lgbt couples are afforded the rights and dignity they deserve as American citizens.

You probably won' t see Harold and Clay on any news shows. They most likely won't be appearing in columns or right-wing town hall meetings and conferences with a throng of people praying over them, but you know what?

Who cares.

We are still talking two humans whose lives have value and whose happiness have been attacked through the plots of people who obviously don't care to see them as human beings.

What happened to Harold and Clay was a travesty and has no business happenning again. We all deserve respect and decency for ourselves and our loved ones.

One would hope that  respectable Christians would agree.

Day of Silence success leaves religious right sputtering

The 2010 Day of Silence has come and gone.

According to reports here:

At Willamette High School in Eugene, Oregon students march together-- their mouths covered by masks, their silence bringing attention to anti-LGBT harassment. Similar protests involving as many as 8,000 students also occurred in Green Bay and Missouri, at the University of Richmond and other centers across the country.

 here:

190 students signed up to support the Day of Silence at CECI, organized by the school's Gay Straight Alliance.

"Their core goal is to promote an environment of open acceptance," Girard said.

and here:

More than 200 Chillicothe High School students took a vow of silence Friday.

CHS was one of more than 6,000 middle and high schools nationwide that participated in the annual Day of Silence. Participation at CHS began three years ago when the Gay Straight Alliance formed.

the day was highly successful.

But if you want to really judge the event's success, check out this article via the American Family Association's One News Now:

(Illinois Family Institute's Laurie)Higgins worked at a public high school for several years and exposes the real truth about the Day of Silence. According to her, teachers and students alike are not too fond of the annual event.

"Most teachers, even those who are politically left of center, hate the Day of Silence -- they don't like it," she shares. "They don't like divisive political action in their classroom; they're just there to teach -- and they don't like having to revamp their lesson plans to accommodate student silence.

"And many, many students -- even students left of center -- dislike this day for the same reason," she concludes. "They don't like the divisive atmosphere it creates."

That's the article, folks. Basically we are to believe that the Day of Silence is an unpopular distraction simply because Laurie Higgins says so.

Now that's pitiful.

Andrea Lafferty: ENDA will lead to the molestation of disabled veterans

The gay community has been accused of destroying civilizations, corrupting morals, and yes even molesting infants, but Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition has officially reached the zenith of homophobia with her new accusation - pro-gay laws will allow the VA to molest disabled veterans.

Lafferty's new line of craziness took place during the Freedom Federation's "Awakening" conference and it continued the same inaccurate line of attack she and her organization (the Traditional Values Coalition) have continued against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that Congress will possibly be voting on in the coming weeks.

ENDA would protect the lgbt community against employment discrimination. However, Lafferty and TVC have been pushing the phony assertion that ENDA would protect behaviors such as pedophilia, prostitution, bestiality. This video, courtesy of Right Wing Watch has to be seen to be believed. (the audio is not that good so turn up the volume on your computer):



Transcript:

Lafferty: What are those "isms" and "philias"? You can be aroused by stumps of amputees. And we brought that up during the hate crimes thing because what if you have an employee working at the VA and someone has just come back from Iraq and they have this orientation. You can't fire them. What about the family that's upset that they've been aroused by their family member? It's disgusting. And it's tragic for the victim.

Um, men that want to rub their bodies up and down women. That's on the list, that might become a protected class.

Fecal matter. Their involvement with fecal matter. Or urine. Transvestism. The list goes on, I'm not naming all of them. Children. Animals. And so we really need to draw a line in the sand.

At this point, another participant in the panel discussion, Matt Barber of the Liberty Counsel joins in. Barber, who once described gay relationships as one man violently cramming his penis into another man’s lower intestine and calling it "love," proceeds to give off a rambling and inaccurate description of the gay community, making Lafferty seem like Albert Einstein for the briefest of seconds.

Barber: Let me just dovetail off that, just for a moment, something that recently occurred to me. If I asked everyone in the room, if I say "what is the opposite heterosexuality?" what pops into your head?

For most people, it's homosexuality.That's by design. That myth has been created. The opposite of heterosexuality is not homosexuality. The opposite of heterosexuality is asexuality, is no sexuality.

Heterosexuality is normative - they can be politically correct all they want, but it is biologically correct. Homosexuality is one among a litany, as Andrea was just talking about, of sexual deviances. It is a deviation from the norm, that's why you call it "deviant sexual behavior." It's not a pejorative. We're not saying "you're a deviant." We're saying "your sexual behavior is deviant."

So homosexuality is not the opposite of heterosexuality. It is one of many deviations of natural sexuality, one of many aberrant, unnatural deviations from natural sexuality. Andrea was going through the list of some of them and it shocks the conscience to hear a lot of this, a lot of people don't even want to imagine the mechanics involved in homosexual conduct, must less strive, as Andrea, myself, Rena, and others do to defend against the wholesale promotion of that same conduct.

In the past few days, Lafferty and the TVC have made various unsubstantiated claims about ENDA, including it will hurt children by forcing them to be trapped in classrooms with "drag queen teachers" and that it would protect over 30 various sexual behaviors.

TVC even created a web page pushing these claims. The web page also included information by the fraudulent group the American College of Pediatricians (ACP). However, the ACP has come under intense fire by legitimate medical organizations and researchers for what has been termed as intentional distortions in its information. The most recent rebuke came courtesy of Francis Collins, National Institutes of Health Director.

But Lafferty and TVC continue to soldier on with their lies about ENDA seemingly in hopes that mindless repeition will trump truth. 


I don't know what's worse about TVC's attack on ENDA -that it's been nothing but lies from day one or with the utterance of a new lie, the integrity of Christianity slides down a notch.

Christians in America needs to ask themselves do Lafferty and TVC speak for them. If the answer is yes, then they have bigger problems than an alleged "gay agenda."

Know Your LGBT History - Designing Women

Generally, this is the time when I post my weekly Know Your LGBT History segment. Before I do today, I want to make a short mention of three items I may be posting about this weekend: 

Judge strikes down adoption ban - Voters in Arkansas voted this law in specifically to keep lgbt couples from adopting. When the "will of the people" goes against the Constitution, then the "will of the people" needs to lose. 

National Institutes of Health Director condemns anti-gay pediatrician group - That's three rebukes for the American College of Pediatricians (counting the ones from Dr. Gary Remafedi and the American Association of Pediatrics). I want more and I want to make them ALL known. 

Lafferty: ENDA Will Allow The VA To Molest Our Disabled Veterans - How low can Andrea Lafferty go?" God! That's YOUR child.

Now onto Know Your LGBT History:

I got a request last week for Designing Women before one of the stars, Dixie Carter, passed away.

This show is legendary amongst the gay community because of its astute portrayal of the trials and tribulations of four Southern women and designing firm they own.

This particular episode (airing in 1987) is one of the most famous and is actually the first episode of Designing Women I ever saw. Naturally after it, I was hooked. It's called Killing All the Right People and it's about a friend of the women hiring them to decorate his funeral. You see, he is dying from AIDS.

At the same time, another one of the characters, Mary Jo (Annie Potts) has to speak at a PTA meeting advocating the position of teaching complete sex education and condoms in schools

The two storylines mix when a "friend" of the women gives her unsolicited opinion of the young man dying from AIDS:



The tirade she received from Dixie Carter's character (Julia Sugarbaker) was indicative of the nature of the show. Ironically, Carter was a bit more conservative than her character and she made a deal with the producers. For every tirade her character voiced, she got to sing in a later episode.

That's not to say that Carter was not supportive of the lgbt community because she was. And if you ask me, viewers got a doubly good deal. Carter was an excellent singer and her character's tirades were awesome. What the hell, here are a few:












Thanks for the memories, Dixie. ;p

Past Know Your LGBT History postings

Know Your LGBT History - The Children's Hour

Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester

Know Your LGBT History - Once Bitten

Know Your LGBT History - The Boys in the Band

Know Your LGBT History - Christopher Morley, the crossdressing assassin

Know Your LGBT History - Midnight Cowboy

Know Your LGBT History - Dracula's Daughter

Know Your LGBT History - Blacula

Know Your LGBT History - 3 Strikes

Know Your LGBT History - Paris Is Burning

Know Your LGBT History - The Women

Know your LGBT History - Soul Plane

Know Your LGBT History - The Player's Club

Special Know Your LGBT History - Fame

Know Your LGBT History - Welcome Home, Bobby

Know Your LGBT History - Barney Miller

Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show

Know your lgbt history - Martin Lawrence and that 'gay guy' on his show

Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show

Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up

Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps

Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware

Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks

Know your lgbt history - Mannequin

Know your lgbt history - The Warriors

Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover

Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame

Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes

Know your lgbt history - California Suite

Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)

Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue

Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay

Know your lgbt history - Windows

Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla

Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles

Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son

Know your lgbt history - In Living Color

Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords

Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?

Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street

Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys

Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy

Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George

Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda

'Know your lgbt history - Cruising

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil

The Jeffersons and the transgender community    

Family Research Council accuses gays of pedophilia without any proof

Yesterday, Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council had this to say about the abuse of children in the Catholic Church:

While activists like to claim that pedophilia is a completely distinct orientation from homosexuality, evidence shows a disproportionate overlap between the two. About a third of all child sex abuse cases involve men molesting boys--and in one study, 86% of such men identified themselves as homosexual or bisexual. Try as they might, gays and lesbians can't shrug off the link. This is a homosexual problem.

Only one thing. Perkins never gave a name of the study. He supplies a link to an abstract of a 1988 Netherlands study but the link does nothing to either prove or disprove Perkins's claim.

The abstract says the following:

Despite intense interest in the problem of child sex abuse, base rates for different offense characteristics are poorly defined. The likelihood of otherwise uncorroborated allegations of sexual abuse could be assessed in light of known frequencies of alleged behaviors, if such were available. This paper reviews the current literature on the topic of the specific behaviors of child molesters, along with other epidemiological characteristics, and provides new data drawn from experience with 229 convicted child molesters.

It's ironic that Perkins choose to delve into the territory of claiming that the majority of pedophiles are gay. His organization, the Family Research Council,  has a history of distorting research to prove this claim and being called out for it. According to author Mark E. Pietrzyk:

The Family Research Council’s analyst Timothy Dailey, who argues that there is a link between homosexuality and child molestation, admits that pedophiles who target boys may also have sexual relations with women. However, he implies that such men are merely closet homosexuals and refuses to admit that heterosexual men may well be attracted to women and to underage boys at the same time. This tactic leads Dailey to again distort the work of a reputable researcher, W. L. Marshall. Marshall's paper, “Sexual Offenders Against Male Children: Sexual Preferences,” discusses the results of a study of the sexual orientation of a sample of male sex offenders against boys. Marshall measured the sexual orientation of the offenders by means of a plethysmograph, a device which measures arousal responses. Marshall found that out of his sample of 21 offenders against boys, two‑thirds of the offenders were predominantly heterosexual in their adult orientation. Yet Dailey completely omits this result, and cites Marshall's paper as evidence for the notion that sex offenders against male children are invariably homosexual.

In fact, Marshall's study found that not only could heterosexual males be attracted to women and young boys simultaneously, the heterosexual males were more inclined to be attracted to the very young, whereas the homosexual offenders chose older victims

Then there was the 1992 controversy with A. Nicholas Groth, former director of the Sex Offender Program at the Connecticut Department of Corrections. Dailey distorted Groth's work to draw the conclusion that gay men molest boys at a high rate, when Groth's research said the opposite.

Needless to say, Groth wasn't happy about this and he wrote a letter to FRC saying so (I have an original copy of the press release with the letter if anyone wants to see it):

Dear Dr. Dailey:

On the web site www.frc.org you reference my work in your article on "Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse". I am writing you to object to my name and research being associated in any way, shape, or form to lend legitimacy to the views proposed in your paper.

If you are, in fact, familiar with my research, you must realize that my studies have indicated that homosexual males pose less risk of sexual harm to children (both male and female)--from both an absolute and a percentage incidence rate--than heterosexual males. Your statement that "the evidence indicates that disproportionate numbers of gay men seek adolescent males or boys as sexual partners" appears to come from the assumption that if an adult male is attracted to a male child, this adult male's sexual orientation is ipso facto homosexual.

Since your report, in my view, misrepresents the facts of what we know about this matter from scientific investigation, and does not indicate that my studies on this topic reach conclusions diametrically opposed to yours, I would appreciate your removing any reference to my work in your paper lest it appear to the reader that my research supports your views.
Yours truly,

A. Nicholas Groth, Ph.D.

So taking all of this in, I think I understand why Perkins conveniently didn't give the name of the study which he claims proves his point.

How many times can an organization suffer the embarrassment of having it's face cracked and on the ground?

Rachel Maddow pokes fun at Mike Huckabee's hypocrisy

Good luck to all of the schools and students participating in today's Day of Silence.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow weighed in on the recent controversy involving Fox News's Mike Huckabee in a hilarious fashion. Her take on the situation is both truthful and amusing. But one thing disturbs me. It turns out that Huckabee was paid $20,000 for the interview. Whatever happened to being interviewed without being paid?



Related posts:

Mike Huckabee attacks gay families, compares them to people raising puppies

The friends of Mike Huckabee

Traditional Values Coalition stoops to lowest level of fraud in new attack on ENDA

Just what is it about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that scares Lou Sheldon and the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) so much?

I can't help but to ask this question after viewing the organization's latest endeavour, a web page called endahurtskids.com

Via this web site, TVC repeats past lies its told about ENDA, including the following:

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is the lesbian, gay, and transgender movement’s “holy grail.” It is prized precisely because it will foist the LGBT agenda into our public schools as a federally-protected right. Once this happens, every homosexual, bisexual, and transgender teacher will have free reign to indoctrinate our children into accepting these “alternative lifestyles” as normal and good.


Currently, 38 states do not make “gender identity” into a protected minority under law. But once Obama signs ENDA, this will change. Every state will be forced to make cross-dressers, drag queens, transsexuals, and she-males into protected classes. These states will be forbidden by law to reassign any cross-dressing teacher because this would be considered “discrimination.” Thus, children will be trapped in classes taught by men who dress as women and students will be indoctrinated that it’s normal behavior.

Doesn't TVC remind you of Anita Bryant when she sought to overturn the ordinance in Dade County, FL by claiming that gays want to recruit children in order to "freshen their ranks."

 TVC's webpage gets worse in the section, ENDA Will Discourage Schools From Telling Facts About:

It is clear that promoting LGBT behaviors is dangerous to students’ mental and physical health. The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) has just launched a new web site called Facts About Youth to inform students, teachers, and parents about the serious problems associated with the LGBT lifestyle.

This professional medical group has compiled numerous research papers about homosexuality and Gender Identity Disorders (GID).

The ACP just sent a letter to school districts throughout the United States to announce the launching of Facts About Youth. The ACP warned these superintendents that their schools should not tell students that same-sex attractions should be accepted. Studies indicate that such feelings go away by the time a person reaches 25 if not affirmed. In addition, students who have a Gender Identity Disorder (GID) usually lose these feelings if not affirmed by those in authority. (A person with GID thinks he or she is the opposite sex.)

Please bear in mind that it has been revealed on numerous occasions that the American College of Pediatricians is not a professional group but a shell organization designed to give legitimate cover to religious right propaganda about the lgbt community (via the Facts About Youth web page) such as:

Some gay men sexualize human waste, including the medically dangerous practice of coprophilia, which means sexual contact with highly infectious fecal wastes.

Furthermore, the American College of Pediatricians received a rebuke this week from a legitimate medical group, the American Academy of Pediatrics. Also, Dr. Gary Remafedi, M.D., M.P.H., a University of Minnesota researcher wrote the group a letter accusing them of distorting his work.

Between you and me, however, I really don't think that the TVC cares about Remafedi's rebuke. The group itself misuses Remafedi's work in another cited link on its anti-ENDA web page, Gays Recruit Public School Children.

Basically every lie that TVC pushed against ENDA in the past fewdays are included on its web page including:

the inaccurate labeling of paraphilias as sexual orientations, and

Andrea Lafferty's distortions of incidents involving transgender teachers.

To make matters worse, TVC also pushes past distortions regarding Obama appointee Kevin Jennings (i.e. Fistgate).

But the inherent dishonest of TVC's  anti-ENDA web page lies in the link, The Gay Report: A Survey Of Homosexual Sex Habits.

As I said many times before, The Gay Report, published in 1979, was based in part on 2,500 responses from a questionnaire in a now defunct soft core porn magazine, Blueboy. TVC claims that the study proves that gays and lesbians are not only highly sexually irresponsible, but also have a negative  view of monogamy:

“One respondent to this part of the sex survey noted: ‘Promiscuity is a heterosexual concept which is used to attack us. I find it dehumanizing, sexist, and ultimately damaging to the psyche. If you speak in terms of ‘sexual freedom’ and sharing of sensual experience, it can be a fine thing. I guess it all depends upon motives.’”

So how did the Traditional Values Coalition attempt to connect a book talking about the alleged sexual habits of gays and lesbians over 30 years ago to the lives of gays and lesbians in the present?

That in itself is interesting.

While all of the sexual habits and alleged quotes from gays and lesbians taken from The Gay Report took up over one and a half page of TVC’s report, the linking of present day gay sexual behavior in the section of the report, Sex Habits Remain Essentially Unchanged Today, took up less than a quarter of a page and isnot as thorough. It did not include statistics on the present day sexual habits of gays and lesbians, only anecdotes of unfortunate incidents in which gay men were infected with HIV due to reckless behavior, such as
“barebacking.” But TVC offered no proof that “barebacking” is the norm in the gay community rather than the anomaly that many have claimed that it is.

When TVC did attempt to prove the notion that gays and lesbians are engaging in the same habits as they allegedly were in 1979, it cited an earlier study it published entitled Homosexual Behavior Fuels AIDS and STD Epidemic.

This study:

“. . . quotes Dr. John Diggs, who published ‘The Health Risks of Gay Sex’ for the Corporate Resource Council. Diggs notes that homosexuals typically engage in oral and anal sex, rimming (mouth to anus contact), fisting (insertion of the fist and arm into the anus), golden showers (urination), sadomasochism, and the insertion of such objects as bottles, flashlights, and even gerbils into the rectum.”

Diggs's paper has several problems regarding accuracy but for the purpose of the point which  I am trying to make here, the main problem with Diggs's paper as somehow validation of the data in The Gay Report is this:

In order to gain information for his report, including the above excerpt regarding gay sexual behavior, Diggs received his information from The Gay Report.

Therefore in essence, TVC is citing the same book (The Gay Report) twice while attempting to make the citations sound as if they come two different sources.

Now none of TVC's claims on its web page have anything to do with the real purpose of ENDA, which is to protect the lgbt community from workplace discrimination. But it has everything to do with exploitations of fear and ignorance.

It's funny because I never knew exploiting fear and ignorance through lies and fraud were Christian values.

AFA: Gays can't serve on Supreme Court because they are deviant felons, and other Thursday midday news briefs

AFA's Fischer: Gays Are Biased, Sexually Deviant Felons And Can Never Serve On the Supreme Court - So much for Christian love or truth.

OUT Magazine’s LGBT Power 50 - He'p me law. It looks like Matt Drudge may be listed.

3rd Grade Class saved from the evils of *GASP* Crossdressing! - a ridiculous controversy which Day of Silence nearly got embroiled into.

Police Investigate Burned Flag At LGBT Center - This ain't good.

Should LGBT media use male beauty to attract readers? - Well hell, what about us intelligent homely folks? Our community needs to aspire to a higher plain.

Religious business owners should not have the 'special right' to discriminate

Matt Barber of the Liberty Counsel just gave the real reason why religious right groups oppose the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

And it has nothing to do with "drag queen teachers" or any other fear story drudged up by his colleagues in other religious right groups such as the Traditional Values Coalition.

It has to do with giving religious business owners special rights.

Barber spelled out this position in a Washington Times piece:

ENDA would force - under penalty of law - Christian, Jewish or Muslim business owners to adopt a secular-humanist viewpoint, ignoring all matters surrounding sexual morality while making hiring and firing decisions. Unlike race or sex, homosexual and cross-dressing behaviors are both volitional and mutable. Nonetheless, and despite the reality that such conduct is in direct conflict with every major world religion, thousands of years of history and uncompromising human biology, ENDA would compel business owners with 15 or more employees to leave sincerely held religious beliefs at the workplace door and submit to the demands of the homosexual activist lobby.

You got that? Barber said nothing about churches or other religious institutions, which ENDA has exemptions for. He is talking about a business owner's personal beliefs, even if they are trying to make money via a commercial business.

Barber's attempted stance against ENDA again reveals the religious right's need for nice sounding talking points designed to obscure facts but his carefully positioned words cannot hide the fallacies behind his argument.

Barber's opinion is that a restaurant owner, who calls himself a Christian, Jew, or Muslim should be allowed to discriminate in practices of hiring and firing.

But why stop there? If business owners of a secular enterprise can discriminate in cases of religious beliefs, then why not race or gender?

For the record, I don't think any business owner should be allowed to discriminate in cases of race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation irregardless of his or her personal "deeply held beliefs."

Or as EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum eloquently stated:

Once an individual chooses to enter the stream of economic commerce by opening a commercial establishment, I believe it is legitimate to require that they play by certain rules. If the government tolerated the private exclusionary policies of such individuals in the commercial sector, such toleration would necessarily come at the cost of gay people’s sense of belonging and safety in society. Just as we do not tolerate private racial beliefs that adversely affect African Americans in the commercial arena, even if such beliefs are based on religious views, we should similarly not tolerate private beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity that adversely affect LGBT people.

No matter how noble Barber tries to make his position sound, it all adds up to special rights for religious business owners and discrimination against those who don't share their beliefs.

And neither concept has any place in this great country.

Andrea Lafferty spins lies against transgender teachers to hurt ENDA

In the latest attack on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Traditional Values Coalition's Andrea Lafferty again spins the phony claim that ENDA will force children to be trapped in classroom with "drag queen teachers."

She goes into even more offensive detail in a One News Now article:

Every state will be forced to make cross-dressers, drag queens, transsexuals, and she-males* (male-female hybrids) into protected classes. Therefore, every school district in America will be forbidden by law to reassign any she-male teacher because this would be considered "discrimination." Thus, children will be trapped in classes taught by men who dress as women, and students will be indoctrinated to affirm that this is normal behavior.

To prove this theory, Lafferty pulls out three instances in which she claims that transitioning teachers were allowed to continue teaching over the objections of parent, thereby endangering children.

Lafferty tries to use these three examples as proof of her point. However, she only proves that one must never take the words of religious right spokespeople as fact without investigation.

Lafferty's first claim:

• In 2008, students and parents were outraged to learn that a female music teacher at California's Foxboro Elementary School underwent surgery to become a man. Parents were not informed about this so-called sex change in advance so they could remove their children from her class. In addition, the kids were required to refer to her as "Mister." The school district refused to notify parents about this she-male's so-called sex change because of "privacy laws" – that is, federal HIPPA laws.

Truth - According to this article on the ABC news site, some parents were upset about not being informed, but for the most part, many of the parents allowed their children to remain in the class. Furthermore, the children did not seem to have a problem with it.


Lafferty's second claim:

• In 2006, students in New York's Batavia High School were forced to remain in the class of a male teacher who was undergoing so-called surgical transition to female.  Parents were refused the right to opt their children out of his class because he claimed protection under New York's disability laws, and, therefore, had to be accommodated by the school district.

Truth - According to this article in the New York Times, parents objecting to the teacher were in the minority. Of the more than 100 students assigned to the teacher, only the parents of five objected. Furthermore, some students were very supportive of the teacher.


Lafferty's third claim:

• In 1999, Minnesota music teacher Alyssa Williams underwent a so-called sex change operation from male to female while teaching at a Middle School in the Anoka-Hennepin School District.  Parents were angered when their children were subjected to this man's bizarre sexual transformation. The school superintendent said they could not reassign the man to another position because it would have violated state law which gave special protected rights to transgendered individuals.

Truth - There was a lot of controversy involving Williams (seeing that it was over 10 years ago) which possibly led her to eventually resign. But according to this article, much of it didn't come from students, but outside interests:

After she (Williams) voluntarily disclosed her transgender status, parents staged student walk-outs, TV news trucks took up residence in front of Blaine's Roosevelt Middle School, The American Center for Law and Justice threatened legal action, and a group of about three dozen parents - several who had no children in the district - became fixtures at monthly school board meetings.

And yet the numbers were always in Williams' favor. Of the roughly 445 sixth- and seventh-graders who passed through Williams' music classes, the parents of only 25 of them took advantage of the district's offer to transfer their children out of her classes.

The article goes on to say that some in the community were furious that the attention led Williams to resign.

So basically, Lafferty's claim that ENDA (and transgender teachers for that matter) would endanger children is a bunch of nonsense.

In all of these cases (which Lafferty outrighted distorted), it was the children who probably acted more mature than the adults.

But again, I guess some consider  truth and integrity as honorable casualties when one is trying to stop those "evil homosexuals."

Related posts:

The 30 Dirty? Why can't the religious right stop lying about ENDA?

Religious right groups can't make up their minds when lying about ENDA

No wonder the Traditional Values Coalition is considered a hate group

Family Research Council exploiting Amanda Simpson's appointment to stop ENDA
  
Family Research Council head misrepresents credible information to hurt ENDA

Bathrooms, Church Exemptions, and Lies: Five ways the religious right misrepresents ENDA
 

Focus on the Family flip flops on openly lgbt Supreme Court nominee and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Their Focus on the Family is firm -- unless Peter LaBarbera wishes to adjust it - Sooo Focus on the Family backtracks and says that they will oppose an openly lgbt Supreme Court nominee. Why does this remind me of the historical time when the insane head of the Spanish Inquisition Torquemada convinced the Queen Isabella of Spain to not allow the Jews living in the country to live in peace. Call me a historical buff.

Gainesville, Fla. elects gay man mayor - Don't pull out the champagne yet. The low number of victory (by 35 votes) will cause a recount.

Christian Star Knapp Is Gay - Good for her!

Maine's Mike Heath, Self-Appointed and Newly Anointed Head of AFA-ME, Now Running For Governor? - Just what we need. Another nut in public office.

Phony medical group receives numerous rebukes for anti-gay web page

Yesterday, I posted that University of Minnesota researcher Dr. Gary Remafedi, M.D., M.P.H. accused the American College of Pediatricians of distorting his work on its anti-gay web page, Facts About Youth.

Today, the group is facing another rebuke for its site and this time it's from a more legitimate medical group, the American Academy of Pediatrics.

According to Truth Wins Out, the group released a statement which said:

In 2008, a diverse coalition of 13 national organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) joined in a renewed effort to protect the safety and emotional well-being of students, including those who are at higher risk because of their sexual orientation. This group of education, health, mental health and religious organizations developed and endorsed Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel and sent the resource to public school superintendents across the US.

On or around March 31, 2010, school superintendents may have received another letter from the American College of Pediatricians, which is in no way affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics. The letter promotes another campaign titled “Facts About Youth,” which professes to offer guidance to educators on “approaches to students experiencing sexual orientation and gender identity confusion.” Their campaign does not acknowledge the scientific and medical evidence regarding sexual orientation, sexual identity, sexual health, or effective health education.

The AAP encourages school administrators and officials, teachers, parents, and youth to become familiar with and utilize the AAP developed and endorsed resources on this issue for reliable, sound, scientific, medical advice:

Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel – A guide for employees who confront sensitive issues involving gay, lesbian and bisexual students. It is intended to help school administrators foster safe and healthy school environments, in which all students can achieve to the best of their ability. “Just the Facts” includes the most recent information from professional health organizations, as well as up-to-date information on the legal responsibility of school officials to protect students from anti-gay harassment.

Sexual Orientation and Adolescents – A clinical report from the AAP Committee on Adolescence.

Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Teens: Information for Teens and Parents – Questions and answers from the AAP for teens and parents about sexual orientation.

Gay and Lesbian Teens – Information on sexual orientation from the AAP’s Caring for Your Teenager.

Gender Identity and Gender Confusion in Children – Information on gender identity, sexual stereotypes, gender confusion, and sexual orientation from the AAP’s Caring for Your School Aged Child: Ages 5-12.

While not as full of fire as I had hoped, the statement, coupled with Remafedi's complaint (and a blistering review from professor Warren Throckmorton of Grove City College, a conservative Christian) does more than enough to expose the holes and faulty research of Facts About Youth and the American College of Pediatricians in general.

However, as Truth Wins Out points out, the ACP has not corrected its site and religious right groups continue to push the site's research as if it's credible.

Why should anyone be surprised? I guess they figure when one is fighting for God, truth and integrity are expendable casualties.

Hat tip to Truth Wins Out

Related posts:

American College of Pediatricians, NARTH pushes new site featuring old anti-gay lies

The American College of Pediatricians and the Laundering of Junk Science

Fox News creates sloppy coverage of GLSEN's Day of Silence

Friday will mark the 2010 Day of Silence in which students across the country will not speak in solidarity of lgbt youth and in protest of the problems they face regarding school bullying and lack of support.

Unfortunately  the Day of Silence, sponsored by GLSEN -the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network- will have to deal with the usual flotsam of religious right groups claiming that the event is just another way to "indoctrinate children into the so-called homosexual lifestyle."

Religious right groups have over the years ran unsuccessful attacks against the Day of Silence, first by banding together and asking that parents keep their children out of school during that day, and then trying to push a poor alternative, the Day of Truth, where they encourage students to repeat religious right distortions about the lgbt community in the name of love.

I have no doubt that this year will be the same as the years before - the Day of Silence being a huge success while the religious right alternatives fall flat.

However, an online buddy sent me two very interesting articles from Fox News about the Day of Silence which give me pause.

The first article, Gay Day of Silence a Waste of Tax Dollars, Critics Say, is extremely poor. Rather than go into detail, I will say look at the headline because it underscores the article writer's sloppy work.

The headline implies that those who oppose the Day of Silence is concerned by its alleged waste of tax dollars, but this claim isn't addressed in the article. All of the Day of Silence critics who are quoted do is repeat  the usual "we don't want our children indoctrinated" nonsense. The claim about the Day of Silence  and tax dollars is eventually addressed in the article however. Most specifically, in the article's last sentence:

GLSEN does not currently receive any federal or state funding, according to a spokesman for the group. The non-profit is funded by charitable foundations, teachers' unions and a host of corporations.

That sentence makes the headline inaccurate, doesn't it?

Mike Huckabee claims comments about gays were taken out of context

Apparently having to deal with blow back from a recent interview in which he compared allowing gay marriage to drug abuse and then totally disrespecting lgbt families, Fox Network personality Mike Huckabee is claiming that he is the victim of an overeager journalist who took him out of context. On his web page, he said the following:

The young college student hopefully will find a career other than journalism. I would ask that he release the unedited tape of our conversation. I believe that what people do as individuals in their private lives is their business, but I do not believe we should change the traditional definition of marriage. Not only did he attempt to sensationalize my well known and hardly unusual views of same-sex marriage, he also inaccurately reported my views on Michael Steele as GOP chairman - I offered my support and didn't "Rip into Steele" as his article asserted. I had a candid and frank conversation with the group about health care, education, the economy and national security while the young journalism student, instead, chose to focus on the issue of same-sex marriage and grossly distort my views.

Is it just me or is Huckabee giving us all the "runaround?" Not only did he say nothing about his crude comments regarding lgbt parenting, but his defense of his statements about gay marriage are confusing. Just how was his views sensationalize?

The College of New Jersey newspaper where Huckabee's interview was published, The Perspective, isn't backing down in the face of Huckabee's charges. It published the following on its site:

It is telling that nowhere in his statement did Huckabee suggest he was misquoted in the article, and rightfully so; we have the audio and transcripts to prove that everything reported is accurate.
Huckabee's problem seems to lie more in the focus of the article, which is centered partially on LGBT issues. We feel that same-sex marriage, laws prohibiting gays and lesbians from adopting children, and 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' are legitimate policy concerns about which to question national political figures. Gov. Huckabee may disagree.

The following is a portion of the interview. You be the judge:


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

This controversy is far from over and I'm eager to see how it plays out. But whatever the case may be, someone should tell Huckabee that his phony "aw shucks" image is wearing thin.

Hat tip to the Huffington Post

Related posts:

The friends of Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee attacks gay families, compares them to people raising puppies