NOM creating false division between NC NAACP and the black church community

On its blog, the National Organization for Marriage has the following:

Local TV Surveys Battle Lines in NC: Black Church vs NAACP

Now under this headline is a video which is talking about the anti-marriage equality amendment vote in North Carolina (the video is from NOM's youtube site, thus the false headline):



The segment in question which NOM is using for its headline featured a reporter talking to only one pastor - Patrick Wooden of the Upper Room Church of God - who supports the amendment. He made a claim that the "average African-American on the street" supports the amendment.  Wooten also claimed that African-Americans in NC overwhelmingly supports the amendment.

The report then points out that the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP put out a statement opposing the amendment.

That segment of the video starts at 30 seconds and ends at 1:05. There is nothing else in the video which talks about the black church, the NAACP, or the black community in general.

From that very brief segment of the video, NOM is trying to sow division between the NAACP and the NC black church community.

It is a sloppy attempt for a multitude of reasons. Aside from the fact that the video in question doesn't even mention a division between the black church and the  NAACP, one should also remember that the president of the NAACP, William Barber, is a minister himself.

In addition, hundreds of clergy in North Carolina have voiced a letter opposing the amendment. And how many of them are from black churches you ask? Quite a few. As a matter of fact, a wide variety of churches and denominations (Jewish, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, etc.) have been very vocal in opposing the anti-gay amendment.

NOM is discovering that in NC it won't necessarily corner the market on church support, so to speak.

And is probably the reason for the phony claim on NOM's blog.  I think the organization recognizes that the NAACP jumping into the situation is putting a dent in its usual game plan of exploiting the black church and the black community in general.

One more thing. Keep on eye on Wooden because I'm sure that NOM will be trotting him out in front of the cameras. Wooden has a  history of nasty behavior towards the gay community (which I am sure he will say that was done in love), including saying the following in 2004:

"We have to block the use of euphemisms when we talk about homosexuals. They are not gay. We've got to use terms like 'deviant' and 'abomination.' "

Know Your LGBT History - Gay documentaries, past and present

You want an example of how far the lgbtq community has come? Check out documentaries looking at our lives.

The Homosexuals (sounds sinister, doesn't it?) was a CBS documentary which premiered in 1967. I will just break it down in two words - it stunk.

From Wikipedia:

Three years in the making, "The Homosexuals" went through two producers and multiple revisions. The episode included interviews with several gay men, psychiatrists, legal experts and cultural critics, interspersed with footage of a gay bar and a police sex sting.

As you can tell, it was not a fair documentary to our community. In all honesty, though, we are talking about 1967. Harvey Milk hadn't even come on the scene yet. And the Stonewall Riots were two years away.

Still, as the following clips shows, there is a reason why Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out called this documentary "the single most destructive hour of antigay propaganda in our nation's history."



If you closed your eyes, Wallace would remind you of Peter LaBarbera or Peter Sprigg.

Now take a look at a clips from a documentary which will be premiering next week to commemorate the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell:




The phrase "as different as night and day" is a cliche, but in this case, it is a very apt cliche to use.

We have come a long way, haven't we? And we haven't even finished accomplishing what we are going to accomplish in this world. Don't let the haters get you down. Always fight and never give up.


Past Know Your LGBT Posts: 

Boehner's DOMA problems, Rick Perry's prayer event lies, and other Friday midday news briefs

Boehner Claims Homosexuality Is A Choice In Effort To Preserve ‘Defense Of Marriage Act’ - More and more, the case for DOMA is becoming a repeat of the case for Prop 8. I hope that the outcomes will also be similar.

Perry's Prayer Rally, The AFA, And Champion The Vote - Rick Perry lied when he said that his prayer event wouldn't be political.

New York Clerk Could Face Lawsuit for Marriage License Refusal - The religious right no doubt wants this. I say bring it on!
  
New analysis shows startling levels of discrimination against Black transgender people - And folks, this does not look good.

NC's leading 'protect marriage' group: Homosexuality is 'unnatural', 'biologically destructive', caused by 'abuse or acquired taste', 'changeable' - Ugh, I say. Ugh!

Social Security Ends ‘Gender Matching’ For Employee Records - Let's end with a bit of good news.

Why Americans for Truth is an anti-gay hate group

Americans for Truth about Homosexuality is one of the so-called "pro-family" organizations labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Of course the leader of this group, Peter LaBarbera (otherwise known as "Porno Pete") takes offense to this label. He said the following in a recent interview:

"They're treating pro-family groups like pariahs," the AFTAH founder compares. "It's a very dirty tactic, because we're not about hate; we're about loving people enough to tell them the truth . . ."

LaBarbera at the time was whining about how the media wasn't covering the fight between groups like his and the gay community as he thinks it should be covered, but let's look at his claim about "telling the truth."

The following are LaBarbera's idea of "telling the truth":

This is a badly doctored photo of openly gay Congressman Barney Frank. LaBarbera posted it on his site to accompany a ridiculous claim that gay TSA agents are getting their thrills by groping men.

No doubt Labarbera claims that it was a joke, but it's  a rather tasteless attack on the gay community and its par for the course for LaBarbera.

Other things LaBabera has done to earn his organization's hate group status includes:

1. attempting to smear GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) days before its annual Day of Silence event via a fake controversy involving pictures on a facebook page not even associated with GLSEN.

2. Smearing gays via a CDC report on an increase on HIV while intentionally downplaying the part of the report which clearly places the blame on this increase on homophobia (while at the same time implying that the report "dispels the homophobia causes AIDS propaganda")

New site spotlights heterosexual youth bullied into suicide by gay peers

I'm speechless.

There has been a lot of attention given to gay youth who have been bullied by their peers into either suicidal thoughts and actions.

And now it seems that the "worm has turned," so to speak. There is now a webpage focused on how many heterosexual youth have been bullied into suicide by members of the gay community.

Check out the site, Bullied by Gays, for more information.

The site is well-made and to the point. Like I said before, when I saw it, I was rendered speechless.

Hat tip to Think Progress.

Republican presidential candidates attending hate group summit and other Thursday midday news briefs

'Values Voter' catering: Canapés on the tray, animus on the slate - The Republican presidential candidates attending a summit by the Family Research Council, a hate group. How nice.

Related post - 16 reasons why the Family Research Council is a hate group

GOP Makes Last Ditch Effort To Postpone Repeal Of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell - My heart bleeds for these folks. Really it does.

A Christian Parent in Support of the CA FAIR Education Act - This is something which should get more press. Much more press.

Fischer Wants Departments of Education, Transportion, Agriculture, and HHS Eliminated - And replaced with the "Department to get rid of all of those pesky homosexuals." Okay that last part is not true. But then again, this IS Bryan Fischer we are talking about.

Religious right doom - DOMA trial a repeat of the Prop 8 trial?

According to Equality Matters, the government's case for the Defense of Marriage Act (taken up by Speaker of the House Boehner after the Obama Administration refused to defend the law) may be a repeat of the the disastrous Proposition 8 defense in 2010.

That defense was so pitiful that those defending Prop 8 (the law that outlawed gay marriage in California) could only muster two witnesses and both witnesses actually helped the case against the law.

Equality Matters breaks the similarities of the two cases down in three ways, bringing up information which the gay community should take note up (don't worry - I highlighted it):

Same Old Arguments

Last month, Paul Clement – the lead attorney hired by Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) to defend DOMA in federal court – filed two motions to dismiss the case of Windsor v. United States, one of several current legal challenges to the 15-year-old marriage law. The briefs revived a long list of typical anti-gay talking points: children need a mother and a father, ‘traditional marriage’ is necessary to encourage procreation, etc.

These arguments are nothing new: many of them are the same ones that were used (and rejected) in the 2009 First Circuit case Gill et al v. US Office of Personnel Management, which found Section 3 of DOMA unconstitutional. 

They’re also the same arguments put forward by proponents of Proposition 8 in the 2010 district court case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger. In Perry, each of those arguments was thoroughly dismantled, first by the plaintiffs’ attorneys and eventually by U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s “factual, well-reasoned, and powerful” 136-page decision. Walker found that, even under the most deferential standard of judicial review, there was no rational basis for denying gay and lesbian couples the right to marry. 

( Editor's note - I published a post earlier looking at the pitiful junk science Clement is using to defend DOMA)

Same Old Non-Witnesses

In the Windsor case, Clement has had a difficult time securing credible experts and witnesses to provide testimony in defense of DOMA. As AMERICAblog’s Joe Sudbay has noted, Clement tried to rely on the ‘work’ of anti-gay activists like Maggie Gallagher. Windsor’s lawyers filed a motion to strike Maggie’s work from the record, citing their lack of an opportunity to cross examine her in court. 

A similar situation arose during the Perry trial. Defense attorney Charles Cooper found himself unable to put forth more than two ‘expert’ witnesses – one who was quickly dismissed as lacking “the qualifications to offer opinion testimony” and another who’s testimony was given “little weight.” Cooper’s inability to find credible experts to support Prop 8 eventually led Judge Walker to ask:

Seven million Californians, 70 judges and this long history that you described. Why did you present but one witness on this subject?

(Editor's note - For all of Maggie Gallagher's talk of "protecting marriage," why won't she allow herself to be put in a position to be cross-examined. The fact that the gay community has allowed this crucial contradiction to slip by unexploited - yes I said "unexploited" - is a huge problem in our fight for marriage equality.)

And Now, Same Old Shame


Monday it was reported that the House’s Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) would oppose video recording the courtroom proceedings in Golinski v. United States, another case challenging DOMA’s constitutionality in federal court. BLAG’s opposition effectively ensures that the proceedings won’t be videotaped, as all parties must agree before the arguments can be recorded. 

BLAG’s position is reminiscent of the ongoing battle to prevent the public from viewing the footage of the Perry trial.  

For months, Prop 8’s proponents have been fighting “tooth-and-nail” to prevent the release of the trial footage, claiming that their anti-equality witnesses might be harassed and targeted for opposing same-sex marriage. This claim makes little sense: transcripts from the trial are publicly available, and both anti-equality witnesses had national profiles well before the Perry trial began.

As the American Foundation for Equal Rights – which represented the plaintiffs in the Perry case – has pointed out, it’s much more likely that Prop 8’s defenders are embarrassed about what happened during the trial. The defense’s witnesses admitted to lacking specific knowledge on a number of issues, contradicted themselves, and on several occasions, even agreed with the arguments made against Prop 8.

If these trends continued to hold, then we will probably be seeing a repeat of what happened last year when Prop 8 was overturned - i.e. the gay community dancing in the streets while the religious right and their supporters trying to cover up their faulty case by blaming the judge.

I'm already shopping for my dancing shoes

Hate group leaders think they know who God will judge

Tony Perkins, Family Research Council

The prize for blatant chutzpah has to go to the Family Research Council head Tony Perkins and American Family Association head Tim Wildmon. During a recent AFA radio program, they claimed that God will "judge" America because of the gay community and legal abortion:

Perkins: You and I Tim as Americans have been given a very unique role in the history of mankind to be a part of that process and choosing our leaders, but with that opportunity comes a responsibility and an accountability. I think we’ll give an account for who the leaders of this nation, who the leaders are, and the policies that they adopt. We can’t simply wash our hands and say ‘oh just because we have a pro-abortion president, a Democratic president, we don’t have anything to do with that.’ No my friends, we do. When only fifty percent of the church-going population is registered to vote and only half of them are actually voting, I have some really somber news: I believe God is going to hold us accountable for the death, the destructive policies of this country that have devalued human life and are redefining marriage.
…
Wildmon: Folks keep in mind the overarching principle here we need to look at is a Biblical one, in that it is immoral, it is evil, it is wrong in the eyes of God to kill unborn babies.

Perkins: And as long as it’s happening in the United States we’re a party to it.

Wildmon: We’re a party to and we are being and we will be judged and held accountable for it, as a country.

Tim Wildmon, the American Family Association

Are they serious? While Wildmon is busy pointing the finger at gays and legalized abortion, he conveniently forgets the action of his group, the American Family Association, which include:

• inaccurately linking lgbts to pedophiles (a classic case of bearing false witness),

•  employing the rabid Bryan Fischer who has- when he's not claiming that gays made up the Nazi Party in German:

• made an ugly racial slur about President Obama, 

• viciously attacked a Medal of Honor recipient, and 

• wrote a ridiculous piece about the supposed lack of morals of Native Americans;

• and continuing to sell the fraudulent video "It's Not Gay," featuring the testimony of supposed "ex-gay" Michael Johnston (even though Johnston, an HIV-positive man, was discovered in 2003 to be having unprotected sex with various men). The AFA, by the way, is still selling the tape (seen here with Johnston's face is on the cover in this link).

And Perkins and the Family Research Council aren't exactly slouches in the bearing false witness or hypocrisy departments themselves.  I had trouble narrowing the number of lies they tell down to 16.

But the lies include distorting research, making false claims about GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network), which FRC was forced to take back after GLSEN handed them a cease-and-desist letter, and relying on the junk data of a discredited researcher who believes that gays stuff gerbils up their rears.

These are the main reasons why the Southern Poverty Law Center named both FRC and AFA as anti-gay hate groups.

If you ask me, I think that both Wildmon and Perkins need to worry less about how God will judge others and worry more about He will judge them.

NY clerk needs to do her job or resign and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Ledyard, New York Town Board Fails to Uphold NY Marriage Equality Act - This does not need to be long and drawn out. There is no paradox to this nor is this woman's actions noble. Either do the job you were ELECTED to do or resign.

AP: 53% support equality; future moving one decided direction - More proof that NOM's money can buy them spin but not truth.

General Foresees Muted Response To Gay Ban Repeal - That ought to cheese off the religious right.

Justice Dept: Bullying Complaints On the Rise - This is NOT good. Or rather the bullying isn't good. That folks are complaining about it more is good.

Gay candidates win in Conn., N.C., and N.Y. - Yesterday wasn't all bad.

NOM's sad attempt to steal credit in the New York special election

  . . .when it looked as if Turner would win - he was leading in the polls coming into the final stretch - the hogs came to the trough. And the lead hog was the National Organization for Marriage.

Last night, Republicans won a special election in New York to replace former Congressman Anthony Weiner. Weiner had to resign after a ugly scandal regarding him allegedly sending lewd pictures over twitter.

This victory is considered an upset because it was supposed to be an easy victory for Democrats. Of course this is a ridiculous notion. There is no such thing as an easy victory in politics.

But still, folks didn't count on the Republican, Bob Turner, capturing the seat over David Weprin. And when it looked as if Turner would win - he was leading in the polls coming into the final stretch - the hogs came to the trough.

And the lead hog was the National Organization for Marriage. Weprin had voted for marriage equality earlier this year when the state passed the law allowing it. And now NOM wanted payback for that vote to the tune of $75,000 it spent on Turner's campaign. The organization also utilized a series of mailing and robocalls attacking Weprin.

But more than payback, NOM was trying to foster a claim that a vote for marriage equality in New York will get come back to haunt politicians. Brian Brown, NOM's president, had this to say after Turner's victory:

"NOM played a major role in this election, helping to organize the Jewish and Hispanic communities to coalesce with Republicans, conservative and other pro-family voters. We mounted the first and largest independent expenditure campaign in the race to make marriage a key issue, and we succeeded. David Weprin is not going to Congress for one reason: he listened to Andrew Cuomo, Michael Bloomberg, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and a few billionaires on Wall Street and went along with them to redefine marriage.

. . .Our message to the rest of the politicians in Albany who voted to redefine marriage is this: 'You’re next.' Once again voters have said: 'Don’t Mess With Marriage!"

Very few people are buying NOM's statement, seeing the organization as trying to salvage the embarrassment of losing the fight to stop marriage equality in New York, as well as trying sow seeds in its campaign to repeal the law.

Brown's statement omits several things. One was the fact that Turner was clearly leading before NOM interjected itself into the race. Secondly, the prevailing feeling is that the New York vote was decided not about marriage equality but sending a message to President Obama.

The Advocate had this to say:

Ask any analyst, and they will say the special election turned on the economy, opinions about President Obama, and to a lesser extent, U.S. policy toward Israel (a theme stirred when former New York City mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat for marriage equality, endorsed Turner in July to warn Obama to be a better friend to America’s closest ally in the Middle East). One week before the election, a Siena Research Institute poll showed Turner in the lead by six points, where 30% of voters listed the economy as their primary concern, followed by federal entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare at 28%, with Israel at a distant 7%.

Of course the retort would be that "The Advocate is a pro gay publication. Of course it will play down the marriage equality issue." But that opinion about this race was also expressed by the right-wing One News Now via an Associated Press piece:

Voter frustration over the sour economy and President Barack Obama's policies made the improbable a reality, as a Republican political novice, Bob Turner, scored an upset victory in a special election Tuesday over David Weprin, a Democratic assemblyman from a prominent local political family. The surprising results in the Brooklyn and Queens-area district portend a perilous national environment for Obama as he prepares to seek re-election next year.

NOM is simply trying to take credit for a victory that was already in the bag before it dropped its much-moneyed tentacles into the mix.

We will probably hear about it for a while. But like so much of its other claims, NOM taking credit for Turner's victory is a false narrative.

Marriage equality is a reality in New York and that's the bottom line.

It's time for the 'we need to protect marriage' con to die

Here we go again.

The North Carolina Legislature has passed a bill to allow its citizens to vote on a state constitutional amendment against gay marriage.

The majority of folks in NC are against this amendment but that is considered a minor detail by the organizations and people pushing it.

They are always quick to point out that other states which have polled against state constitutional amendments against gay marriage passed them when voters had the chance to register their opinions via the ballot box.

Of course the truth is not that simple. The untold narrative usually goes like this:

People in the targeted states are so generally worried about more pressing issues that they allow their legislatures to be the first salvo in what can be called an invasion, i.e. laying the groundwork by passing  a bill, thereby forcing constituents to vote on the matter.

Then an organization – usually the National Organization for Marriage – is the second part of the invasion via its virtually unlimited funds supplied by secret donors (which the group has fought tooth and nail not to reveal), that pays for the inundation of robocalls, mailers, and commercials spinning a multitude of lies about gays harming children or gays persecuting Christians, or gays causing all sorts of mayhem in general if the amendment is not passed.

At the same time, the organization stroke the egos of area pastors and public leaders. The organization, combined with these pastors and public leaders, gain votes by:

• picking a needless war with the gay community over the definition of “civil rights,”

• spooking people into thinking that God will literally send the Angel of Death to smite them if they don’t vote for the amendment,

• and scaring people into thinking that gays are going to knock down their front doors and cart them off to jail or convert their children if they don’t vote for the amendment.

The organization – again usually NOM – wins the vote and while it brays about how “the community stood up to protect marriage,” the community in actuality deals with strife, hard feelings, broken families, and generally not understanding why their votes to “protect marriage” hasn’t put food on their tables,  more money in their paychecks, or made their lives better.

It’s like some religious version of that Simpsons episode about the monorail. But instead of a faulty monorail, people are being sold a faulty premise that the biggest harm to their marriages are their gay and lesbian neighbors and if they make it difficult for these folks to marry, then somehow the real things that harm marriages – i.e. lack of communication or poverty (a subject none of these "we need to protect marriage" groups seem to ever address) will suddenly disappear.

It's time for this "we need to protect marriage" con to die. And it will. It could happen in North Carolina or Minnesota. Both states are facing anti-marriage equality votes next year. Or it could happen before then. But rest assured, it will happen.

As our economic crisis looms and Republicans go tete-a-tete with the President, people are starting to get hip to these distracting  amendment pushes which exploit their religious beliefs while doing nothing to solve the problems they have gaining employment, feeding their families, or paying their mortgages.

They say that a lie travels around the world before the truth has time to put on its shoes. What they always forget to mention is that when truth does put on its shoes, it usually makes up for lost time.

In the case of these phony “protect marriage” votes, I have a feeling that truth is just about to slap on its sneakers.

Ten years ago, gays were blamed for 9/11 and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Happy 10th Anniversary Of Being Blamed For 9/11 - Ten years ago, the late Jerry Falwell blamed gays for 9/11. Ugly anniversary.

She shares my name, not my support. Does she get to share my enthusiasm? - Unbelievable. NY Rep who voted against marriage equality in the state trying to take credit for its passage.

Anti-Gay Marriage Forces Converge On NY-9 - And speaking of New York, there is a special election today to replace Anthony Wiener in Congress. It looks like the Republican may win. NOM and the Family Research Council have been spinning a false narrative - and spending a lot of money - to claim that the Democrat's vote for marriage equality in the state legislature is leading to his possible loss. Of course this is a lie, as the article points out.

Bill To Repeal DOMA Attracts Record Number Of Co-Sponsors - Great news!

Sad State of Affairs in Africa - Things don't look good for us in the Mother Land.

Oregon GOP Removes Anti-Gay Language From Party Platform - Good news out of Oregon.

Racists and homophobes use the same lying tactics

Those on the right claim that opposition to marriage equality and opposition to interracial marriage is like "comparing apples to oranges."

If that's the case, then why do folks who oppose both use the same tactics?

Many who oppose marriage equality, like Bob Vander Plaats of the Iowa Family Leader, say that their opposition is because of the supposed "health risks" of homosexuality:



Just like racists (The Nationalist Coalition) who made the following video claim that interracial dating is wrong because supposedly African-Americans are a high risk group for sexually transmitted diseases.



Apples and oranges my foot. Strip away all of the lies and cherry-picked science and what you are left with are lies and fear tactics manipulated to exploit people's ignorance.

There is no difference.

Religious right group helped to craft NC anti-gay legislation

Some people - specifically in the gay community - underestimate the religious right. They fail to see how much power these groups have in spite of the wild words coming out of the mouths of their representatives. If you want a clue to the power of these groups, the following tidbit should give you an indication. The North Carolina legislature is presently debating an anti-marriage equality amendment. If it pass the legislature, it will be voted on in Nov. 2012. There has been a lot said about this amendment, which has just passed the House and now moves on to the Senate. But here is something you should remember:

Majority Leader Paul Stam (R) said the “public won’t get to speak because they will get to speak at the ballot box.” The proposed ballot initiative has been rescheduled to a May vote because Speaker Thom Tillis (R) wanted to remove the argument that the amendment was politically motivated by being on the November ballot.

During the Rules Committee debate, Stam acknowledged that he worked with lawyer Austin Nimocks in developing the language of the amendment. Nimocks works for the Alliance Defense Fund, an anti-gay Christian group, and he recently testified before Congress in defense of the Defense of Marriage Act.

According to Think Progress, the Allied Defense Fund has been known to spread falsehoods about marriage equality, including how it supposedly harms children and will lead to religious persecution.

But that doesn't matter, does it? All that matters is that the Alliance Defense Fund was able to work with NC legislators on this awful amendment in spite of its propensity to lie.

That's why it's necessary that the gay community work to expose the lies of religious right groups every chance we get. We need to make this exposures public and not assume that the public won't care. Sunlight is always the best disinfectant.

We need to start making the argument about them rather than us. The question should never be is the gay community deserving of equality. The question should be why are these supposed Christian groups engaging in lies and deception to keep that equality from becoming a reality.

Related post:

It's not enough to call them bigots

Gays in the military will cause Jesus's return? and other Monday midday news briefs

Retired Gen. Jerry Boykin: The DADT Repeal Will Cause The Rapture! - Forget war and famine. THIS will be the thing to bring Jesus back to Earth - gays in the military. But this statement confuses me. I thought folks like Boykin WANT Jesus to come back. If that's the case then shouldn't they support gays in the military?

NAACP Joins Maryland Marriage Fight - In Maryland as well as North Carolina, the NAACP is attacking the divide and conquer strategy of the anti-gay industry.

Minnesota Priest Advocates Ex-Gay Therapy, Compares Homosexuality To Adultery, Crime, And Addiction - Meanwhile, the homophobes try to carry on in Minnesota.

Anti-gay marriage amendment campaign hires communications director - I wonder how many "gays want marriage to corrupt children" commercials and flyers will he okay?

Wikileaks: Ugandan First Lady “Ultimately Behind” Anti-Homosexuality Bill - The sick source behind the possible genocide of the Ugandan gay community.

NC NAACP strongly rebuke the gay vs. black divide and conquer game

William Barber

Time after time, we have seen the forces against marriage equality play the black and gay communities against one another. The divide and conquer game has brought them a lot of success. With this in mind, they are now trying it in North Carolina as they attempt to push an anti-gay marriage amendment through that state's legislature.

However, the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP simply is not being silent. In fact, the organization is very vocal in its stance against the amendment.

NC NAACP President Rev. William Barber wrote an open letter to North Carolinians last week in which he not only strongly rebukes the potential amendment but the hypocrisy of the parties involved in pushing it. Part of this letter is as follows:

Our research shows that today shadowy money with connections to ultraconservative think-tanks and millionaires are financing a cynical move to trick some North Carolina voters in next year’s election by trying to place a state constitutional amendment onthe issue of “Same Sex Marriage” on the presidential election ballot. The Family Research Council has reportedly paid for radio ads, targeting both African American and White legislators who have large African American constituencies. The millionaires who fund these election tricks could care less about who marries whom. But they invest their money in issues that will affect who votes for whom. They tried to cut back on early voting and to make everyone wait in line at the DMV to get a picture ID before they can vote. Now they want to forever write discrimination into the N.C. Constitution as a means of affecting the presidential vote. The millionaires’ purpose is simple: They want to distract voters’ attention from our pressing economic problems to a personal issue of conscience–a matter best dealt with in our houses of worship and our consciences. This is a matter of conscience, not constitutions.

. . . The issue of same sex marriage is a matter of conscience — a matter of religious or moral perspective. It should be worked out within one’s conscience, within one’s faith, and within one’s own heart and faith community. The North Carolina legislature is not the modern day Council of Nicaea — and we should not want it to be. Public policy, not personal morality, is what we ought to address in the legislature. How should the government address the public policy challenges of abject poverty, unemployment, poor education, economic justice, caring for those without health care, and equal protection under law? 

These are the questions that the legislature should be addressing. We should not allow my tax dollars, and my beloved state of North Carolina, to put their beliefs into our state’s most important document, to dictate to the consciences of other people here. This is a matter of conscience, not constitutions

A vote on the same sex marriage amendment has nothing to do with your personal opinion on same sex marriage but everything to do with whether or not you belief discrimination should be codified and legalized constitutionally.

We need to stop for a minute and remember the history of amending the U. S. Constitution. Our nation had to fight a long and bloody civil war that our Constitution, on paper at least, began to expand its protections to all persons. The 13^th Amendment abolished slavery; the 14^th Amendment guaranteed all persons equal protection under the law, the 15^th Amendment provided voting rights regardless of race or previous condition of servitude, the 19^th guaranteed voting rights for [White] women, the 23^rd provided voting rights in presidential elections for residents of the District of Columbia, the 24^th eliminated discriminatory poll taxes in federal elections, and the 26^th provided voting rights for younger Americans. None of the other amendments ever restricted the rights of any persons, except the two that established, then repealed, prohibition. Similarly, the North Carolina Constitution has always expanded and extended the equal rights of all persons that is in the First Section quoted above. When we look at the history of our U.S. and N.C. Constitutions, there has never been an amendment to narrow their protections, but always to expand their protections to all persons, and to remedy past injustices.

The real insult to the Civil Rights Movement is that same regressive ultra conservative tea party type folks suing to overturn the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which many historians consider the most important achievement of the Civil Rights Movement, re-segregate and rob our public schools of valuable resources, block workers’ rights to organize, force us all to get photo ID’s to exercise our right to vote, cut back on the time to vote, and repeal the Racial Justice law, now somehow think the sons and daughters of the Civil Rights Movement can’t see through their Trojan Horse trick.

The ultra-conservative sponsors push their anti-gay amendment with one hand, and their restrictions on our voting rights with the other. They would write discrimination into our Constitution with one hand, but violate it by withholding enough funds for children to get a sound basic education.

It's not enough to call them bigots

 A repost from last year

We know that religious right groups peddle distortions designed to demonize the lgbt community.

However we really should do more than simply declare them bigots.  Members of the right tend to embrace that definition, using it to play the martyr and lie about about how they are being unfairly attacked for simply speaking about their "personally held Christian beliefs."

The lgbt community needs to follow the advice of high school math teachers and "show our work" in proving what needs to be known about these so-called pro-family groups, i.e. that they lie intentionally to create a phony picture of the lgbt community. So I have compiled a pattern of religious right deception which can be broken down to six techniques:

1. Using nonrepresentative or out-of-date studies to make generalizations, or distorting legitimate studies to give misleading conclusions

Example 1 - Religious right talking point: According to the book Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women, 43 percent of white male homosexuals had sex with 500 or more partners, with 28 percent having 1,000 or more sexual partners. Therefore gays have no concept of mongamy and certainly can't be trusted to raise children.

Truth - Homosexualities was a book written in 1978 that only looked a certain portion of the lgbt population (gay men in the city of San Francisco). It also did not look at same-sex households. In addition, the authors of Homosexualities (Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg) said that their book should not be used to generalize about all gays in general:

“. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlikely that any investigator will ever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”

Example 2 - Religious right talking point: Same sex marriage and gay adoption are bad ideas because research shows that the best places to raise children are in homes with a mother and a father.

The truth - The research only looked at heterosexual two-parent households as opposed to single parent heterosexual households. Same-sex households were never included.

Reasons why NOM should be named as a hate group

While the National Organization for Marriage was called out by the Southern Poverty Law Center for attacking the gay community with lies and propaganda, the organization was not declared a hate group by SPLC. However, based upon the following reasons, I think SPLC needs to take closer look at NOM and declare the organization to be an anti-gay hate group:

May 10, 2011 - NOM exploiting children to stop gay marriage in New York - NOM puts out a commercial in New York repeating the variation of the "kindergartners are being taught about gay marriage" lie which was exposed by Politifact in February.

May 14, 2011 - Politifact gives NOM 'Pants on Fire' rating for lying - Politifact catches NOM lying yet again. This time it is about marriage equality in Rhode Island.

May 15, 2011 - Brian Brown reveals NOM's anti-gay game of divide and conquer - At a march against marriage equality in New York, NOM president Brian Brown repeats the lie that  " . . . kids as young as kindergarten are taught in Massachusetts that their parents are bigots because they believe marriage is the union of a man and a woman."

May 16, 2011 - NOM - Homosexuals wants to destroy children's innocence through gay marriage - NOM sends out a flyer claiming that gay marriage will destroy the "innocence" of children.

An inaccurate flyer put out by NOM

May 22, 2011 - MN's chief anti-equality lobby: 'Accepting homosexuals as normal victimizes homosexuals themselves' - It is discovered that NOM's partner to stop marriage equality in Minnesota - the Minnesota Family Council - has material on its webpage falsely accusing the gay community of pedophilia, bestiality, and the consuming of urine and feces.  This material is removed from the webpage, but MFC's president, Tom Prichard, still defends the lies. NOM makes no comment about the controversy and is presently still partnered with the group.

June 28, 2011 - NOM astroturfed 'legal scholars' in New York - During its unsuccessful attempt to stop marriage equality in New York, NOM tried to make it seem that objective legal scholars were claiming that marriage equality in the state will negatively impact those who disagree with it. But NOM omits the fact that these scholars are not objective. They are all against marriage equality. And one of the scholars in question, Robert George, is presently the Chairman Emeritus of NOM.

And if those reasons aren't enough, Equality Matters has a huge breakdown of NOM's exploits which go way beyond simply "expressing Christian faith" or "defending traditional marriage." The following are just a few:

NOM’s Ruth Institute: “It Gets Better” Project “Aggressively Promotes Deviant Sex”

NOM: Homosexuality Will “Hurt You Badly,” “End Your Life Prematurely” 

NOM President Claims Marriage Equality Will “Normalize Pedophilia”

NOM Links Homosexuality To Pedophilia (Again)

NOM Newsletter: Gays Are Engaged In “Jihad,” Want To “Take Away Your Rights”

NOM’s Idea Of “Excellent” Analysis: Calling Homosexuality An “Addictive,” “Learned” Behavior 

NOM Promotes Column Claiming That Normalizing Homosexuality Is “Sexual Anarchy”

And then there are the following past incidents which I have referred to on several occasions.

Know Your LGBT History - The Hotel New Hampshire

Don't even try to ask me what The Hotel New Hampshire (1984) is about. It's a monstrosity of a movie which I am guessing isn't the highlight for the careers of Rob Lowe, Jodie Foster, Matthew Modine, or Paul McCrane.

From Wikipedia:

In the 1950s, Win Berry (Beau Bridges) and his wife (Lisa Banes) have five children, John (Rob Lowe), Franny (Jodie Foster), Frank (Paul McCrane), Lilly (Jennifer Dundas), and Egg (Seth Green). The Berrys decide to open a hotel near the prep school that John, Franny, and Frank attend; they call it the Hotel New Hampshire.

It was originally a John Irving novel which should have stayed as such. I hated it.

But at least it does have a decent portrayal of a gay man (Paul McCrane).And where else can you see a gay bashing, revenge for the gay bashing, nudity, and family acceptance all combined in one scene?

Not for the easily offended:

Mud F***er




The Hotel New Hampshire

— MOVIECLIPS.com

Past Know Your LGBT Posts: 

Refuting anti-gay lies in North Carolina and other Friday midday news briefs

Standing Ovation For North Carolina's James Forrester After Saying Gay People Are 'Unhealthy' - Unbelievable hot mess. And with all due respect, the article merely reported what this man said and offered no refutations. Allow me to. His lie is from either two sources - 1. is the discredited research of Paul Cameron. 2. A 1997 Canadian study. In 2001, the researchers of the study came out complaining as to how the religious right was cherry picking their work to make the phony claim that gay men have a short lifespan. It's not enough to publicized what homophobes say. When we know that they are lying, we need to say this.

Related posts:

Why we should care about Paul Cameron

How religious right groups distort good science in the name of God

In other news . . .

Anti-Gay Tennessee Group Whines About Inclusive Insurance Agency - Poor babies.

Kern Doubles Down On Claim That Homosexuality Is "More Dangerous" Than Terrorist Attacks - But yet when we called Kern out for saying such mess, we were somehow "persecuting" her.
  
Something Rotten In The State Of NOM… - NOM rewrites Hamlet?

Top 20 Things That Owe Their Existence to Queers - Let's end the news briefs with a very good history lesson.