Former MN legislator regrets her DOMA vote in powerful testimony

Forget that crazy man I was talking about earlier today who gave insane testimony to stop marriage equality in Minnesota. THIS testimony is the most powerful. It's from Lynne Osterman, a former legislator who voted for DOMA and now regrets her vote:

'MN marriage equality hearing witness talks anal sex' and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Courtesy of Joe.My.God., a "concerned citizen" speaking against marriage equality during a hearing this morning in Minnesota. Lord hammercy! 



In other news:

 Minnesota Legislator Interrupts Proceedings To Introduce Ex-Gay Friend - Speaking of those hearings - yesterday, legislator tried to pull a fast one.  

NARTH Loses Tax Exempt Status - NARTH is an anti-gay junk science group. I say a lot more of them need to lose their tax-exempt status.

 Video: FRC hopes SCOTUS confuses us for a theocracy, society of junk science - Another junk science-ridden anti-gay video, Family Research Council? Really? Y'all know what to do.

One last thing:

I got this interesting message from someone who wished to be anonymous:

Please do not assume that the faculty and students at UT support Regnerus's false work. Many have avidly spoke out against him, written about his article, and signed petitions against him. While the institution has been remiss to do anything against him, that is not the same thing as the faculty and students who have opposed his craptacular explosion of feculence. Many have apologized in public to their LGBT alum for what he has done to the name of Sociology at UT. Go after the institution but not the faculty and students who have dedicated themselves to undoing the damage Regnerus has caused to the department and school. 

It's nice to know that folks at Regnerus' university are as disgusted with his "study" as we are. Remember to tweet the National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, the University of Texas (Austin) and House Speaker John Boehner. Demand that they comment on the new allegations regarding the Regnerus study.  No rude comments and no threats.

@NOMupdate

 @FRCdc

@spriggfrc

@SpeakerBoehner

@UTAustin

And speaking of how to contact Mark Regnerus, I have been told that the following is his religious blog with an open comment section. Or you can reach him from his webpage by emailing him at  regnerus@prc.utexas.edu. (I am unsure whether or not you should include that last period). The same applies for him as the others.  Demand that he comment on new allegations regarding his study. But no rude comments or threats. Always respond to injustice with dignity.

Time to twitter bomb the right, Boehner about the Regnerus study

Regnerus

Seems to me that if I were a professor and my work and credibility had been questioned, I would respond.

 If I were a member of highly connected organization in Washington, DC or a member of Congress and a study cited in a brief to the Supreme Court which I supported had been called into question, I would respond.

But I am not University of Texas (Austin) professor Mark Regnerus nor am I connected with the Family Research Council or the National Organization for Marriage. And I am definitely not a member of Congress.

So instead of responding in this scenarios, I sit back and scratch my head at the silence.

Last year, when Regnerus' study was published, the religious right and their cohorts went press crazy, announcing to every news organization who cared that Regnerus' study made the case against marriage equality, gay adoption, and same-sex families in general.

They even ignored the pesky fact that the study was extremely flawed, choosing instead to overwhelm truth with repetition fueled by a very good media campaign. 

These groups, and the Republicans in the House of Representatives, even cited the study in briefs to the Supreme Court to defend anti-gay laws (DOMA, Prop 8).

But now, two days after the Huffington Post and the American Independent published an article bringing to light shocking allegations against Regnerus and his study, these folks haven't commented.

Not a word has been said from the right or Regnerus. Not even a cough.

It's not by accident of course.  The silence is deliberate because they are hoping that the story passes through the news cycle without so much as a peep. And when that happens, they will poke their heads out and continue to spout nonsense about traditional morality and family, as if nothing has happened.

Don't let them get away with it. Here is what you can do.

The following are the twitter addresses of the National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, the University of Texas (Austin) and House Speaker John Boehner. Demand that they comment on the new allegations regarding the Regnerus study.  No rude comments and no threats.

@NOMupdate

 @FRCdc

@spriggfrc

@SpeakerBoehner

@UTAustin 

I looked for Regnerus' twitter address but couldn't seem to find it. If anyone has any way of contacting him, please inform readers in the comments section below.
 

When a black gay man is brutally murdered . . .

Marco McMillian

I hate stories like this:

Marco McMillian was poised to make history as the first openly gay man to run for public office in Mississippi. Instead, supporters are coping with his shocking death. 

 McMillian was brutally murdered and it has been confirmed that it was because of his sexual orientation. Naturally his murderer is claiming the "gay panic defense," but is also taking it much further. He is claiming that McMillian tried to rape him. Where have we heard this before (I will give you a hint - David Kato, Billy Joe Gaither, Matthew Shepard) in which someone who viciously murders a gay man claims that he panicked because the gay man was "hitting on him." My God, this is going to get ugly.

 I just can't talk about it further.

Two good friends of mine, Viktor Kerney and Rod McCullom, have covered this story for Ebony magazine and their blogs. Check out their work and enter the world of what black gay men have to deal with in American society:

 MURDER IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA - An excellent overview of the entire ugly thing and how it reverberates throughout the entire community.

 No Mention of Marco McMillian's life as a Gay Man at Funeral - Truly sad.  

Does the Black Community Care When Its Gay Members are Killed? - No comment.

 REPORT: Suspect Claims Marco McMillian Tried to "Rape" Him - That's what the murderer's family is saying. It sounds fishy. Sorry but it does.

'Controversy over Regnerus study heats up BIG TIME' and other Monday midday news briefs

Controversy over new allegations about the Regnerus anti-gay parenting study and how much its funders had to do with its results continue to grow. Check out the following just revealed this morning:

 Mark Regenerus and Witherspoon collaboration - For those interested, here is a document dump of information regarding the Regenrus study and how it contradicts with the original story Regnerus told about the involvement of his funders. Page 11 shows something very interesting. On Aug. 22 of 2011 (Editor's note - this post originally had the inaccurate date of Aug. 22 2012), Mark Regnerus and a few other researchers met to discuss a public relations/media plan for the study. One of the researchers was Glenn T. Stanton from Focus on the Family. Stanton is not necessarily a pro-gay advocate. To the contrary, he is on record saying many untrue things about the gay community, including calling marriage equality a "lie of Satan."

‘More managerial than intellectual’: How right-wing Christian money brought us the Regnerus study - Philip Cohen of Family Inequality gives a good summary of entire mess.

Meanwhile, Tom Reller, the company spokesman for Elsevier, the company which published Regnerus' study, has a very spirited exchange with writer Scott Wooledge. Reller calls the Huffington Post article "nonsense":

In other news:

Harvey: Church Must Fight Against Homosexuality Like Slavery - Linda Harvey is ALWAYS good for a laugh.  

New York Times Puff Piece About Focus On The Family Ignores Its Regular Anti-LGBT Rhetoric - More news which should raise eyebrows as to why Regnerus was collaborating with FOF's Stanton to promote his study.

LGBT community needs to get angry over Regnerus study manipulations

Since the news broke last night about how the funders of the Regnerus anti-gay parenting study had more influence on its findings than originally claimed, the reaction from lgbt community has been interesting.

While some have been justifiably angry, there is that annoying set of folks who have acted either jaded or blase about these new discoveries.

Several have made comments like "The right-wing manipulates another study? Nothing to see here folks" or "So, just how does that prove the study is flawed."

First to answer that last question, the fact that the study is flawed was determined a long time ago. And it was accentuated by the recent brief to the Supreme Court by the American Sociological Association.

This new information proves just why the study was flawed and it brings up further questions. Why wasn't Regenrus truthful about how much influence the study's right-wing funders had on its results?  Why did they expected the study to be a negative against the lgbt community before it was even put to paper?

And while some have made a good point by pointing out that in the long run, this study's claim (regarding same-sex households being inferior than heterosexual households when it comes to the raising of children) may not matter in the DOMA and Prop 8 cases before the Supreme Court, the reality is that the shady facts behind the study yet again points out how the religious right manipulates and cherry-picks science for its own purposes.

And that's an issue which needs more attention instead of folks yawning and turning their backs.

I've said before that an asset to the religious right is the jaded "we have seen it all so you really have to reach to get our attention" attitude of some members of the lgbt community. What's sad is that some of these same individuals  get angry when they see FRC's  Tony Perkins or some other religious right spokesperson touted as "experts" on news programs or when they see flawed work such as the Regnerus study being pushed as legitimate.

My friends, if you demonstrate that you really don't care about phony religious experts and the flawed work they tout (such as the Regnerus study) then why expect anyone else to care?

So my advice? Pull your heads out of your asses, stop acting like a snobby patron in a high-price restaurant, and pay attention to the big picture and the long game for a change.

BREAKING!!! Anti-gay parenting study a false manipulation from the start

Mark Regnerus

This is huge.

According to the American Independent, via The Huffington Post, the Regnerus study - which cause a huge controversy because it said that children raised by same-sex families encounter problems - was created specifically to sway Supreme Court decisions on marriage equality. And the funders of the study knew what the study would "prove" before the work on it began:

The conservative funders who bankrolled a flawed and widely cited academic study that's critical of gay marriage choreographed its release in time to influence “major decisions of the Supreme Court,” documents show.

The documents, recently obtained through public-records requests by The American Independent and published in collaboration with The Huffington Post, show that the Witherspoon Institute recruited a professor from a major university to carry out a study that was designed to manipulate public policy. In communicating with donors about the research project, Witherspoon’s president clearly expected results unfavorable to the gay-marriage movement.

The think tank’s efforts paid off. The New Family Structures Study came out just in time for opponents of gay marriage to cite it in multiple federal cases involving marriage equality – including two cases soon to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

James Wright, editor of Social Science Research, which published the study’s findings last summer, said he was not aware of the funders’ intentions to use his academic journal to sway the Supreme Court.

“So far as the Supreme Court is concerned, I consider marriage and adoption rights for GLBT people to be a matter of civil rights, i.e., a legal question, not something to be ‘resolved’ by empirical research, and I resent having social science data and research drawn into such debates,” Wright, a University of Central Florida sociology professor, said in an email.

In a study slammed for its methodology, funding, and academic integrity, University of Texas associate sociology professor Mark Regnerus found that children who grew up in households where one parent had a same-sex relationship (regardless of whether the children lived with that parent or that parent’s supposed same-sex partner) were more likely to experience negative social, psychological, and economic outcomes than children raised by a married heterosexual couple

Records show that an academic consultant hired by UT to conduct data analysis for the project was a longtime fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, which shelled out about $700,000 for the research. Documentation about University of Virginia associate sociology professor W. Bradford Wilcox’s dual roles contradict Regnerus’ assertions that the think tank wasn’t involved with how the study was designed or carried out. 

To put a long story short, before this study was even put to paper, those funding it had already decided what it would "prove" and how they would "use" it. Many of us lgbtq bloggers and activists (i.e. myself, Scott Rose, Jeremy Hooper, Wayne Besen, Rob Tisinai, and a vast number of others) knew something was phony about the Regnerus study at the time in which it was publicized. And now the Huffington Post and the American Independent confirms it:

 . . .when Regnerus first published his New Family Structures Study in the July 2012 issue of Social Science Research, he made a point of saying that his conservative funders had not played a role in designing the research or analyzing the data.

“The NFSS was supported in part by grants from the Witherspoon Institute and the Bradley Foundation,” he wrote. “While both of these are commonly known for their support of conservative causes — just as other private foundations are known for supporting more liberal causes — the funding sources played no role at all in the design or conduct of the study, the analyses, the interpretations of the data, or in the preparation of this manuscript.”

He reiterated this statement in his follow-up analysis of the study, again writing that “[n]o funding agency representatives were consulted about research design, survey contents, analysis, or conclusions.”

Regnerus’ assertions come into question in light of revelations last year that Wilcox had been hired on contract by UT to assist Regnerus with the data analysis of the study. During part of that time, Wilcox was also the director of Witherspoon’s Program on Family, Marriage, and Democracy, out of which the study was conceptualized and Regnerus was recruited. Wilcox had been a fellow with Witherspoon from 2004 to 2011, and he has said that he worked as a paid consultant on the study from October 2010 to April 2012. 

The excerpts above only scratch the surfaces. Go to this link, read the article, and prepare to be PISSED!

Know Your LGBT History - Outing

Outing is the controversial practice of revealing someone's sexual orientation without their permission. It's usually done to celebrities and politicians. It's controversial because some feel that it is an invasion of privacy while others feel that it is necessary to bring more visibility to the problems of lgbts forced in the closet or combat the hypocrisy of secretly gay lawmakers who publicly and actively campaign against lgbt equality. After watching these videos, tell me what you think:



 

 

Past Know Your LGBT History posts:

'Homophobe claims not to know how gays 'consummate' marriage' and other Friday midday news briefs

Love this! Had to post it! The photo is from an anti-gay marriage equality rally yesterday in Minnesota

In other news briefs:


LaBarbera: 'How Do Two Guys Consummate Their Marriage? Yuck.' - When I read this, I just HAD to put it in the briefs. As much gay porn that 'Porno' Pete LaBarbera is rumored to have as "research," I think he knows the answer to his question.  

Ernie Banks, other Chicago sports legends back marriage equality - Not bad. Not bad at all.  

Insurance Agency Reverses, Agrees To Cover Transgender Student’s Treatment - Kudos and special thanks to the young man's fraternity who at the time was raising money to cover his part of his gender transition surgery when he was initially denied by the insurance company. Say what you will, this story destroys almost every negative stereotypes out there about fraternities.

 Tebow at Liberty University; Fox says facts are 'bullies' - Awwww! Fox News gets angry at lgbts when we bring facts out about anti-gay organizations and universities. I guess they miss the scared lgbts. 

 FRC’s Tony Perkins Lies His Ass Off About ENDA In Fundraising Appeal - A point-by-point take down of anti-ENDA lies. Although between u and me, the words "Tony Perkins" and "ass" in the same sentence makes me nauseous.  

Family Research Council clearly lying about scientific evidence and gay parenting - Speaking of Perkins' group, the Family Research Council, I am including a post I wrote last night because it's just unbelievable to me that these folks thought they could lie about the scientific evidence of gay parenting and not get called out about it. I mean just BRAZEN!

Black university proves arguments against marriage equality, interracial marriage are similar

Those who complain about how the lgbt community is unfairly comparing itself to the African-American community in terms of the struggle for equality are probably not going to be happy to hear this news, so I want to tell it as soon as possible.

Howard University - a historically black college - made a very interesting comparison between the laws against interracial marriage and those against marriage equality. The university said arguments used to justify laws against interracial marriage (which were struck down by Loving vs. Virginia) and arguments used to justify laws against marriage equality are "strikingly similar."

Lawyers for the university made the connection in a recently submitted brief to the Supreme Court for the upcoming Prop 8 trial. According to Think Progress:

The brief goes on to highlight five distinct arguments that transcend the debates between marriage equality for interracial couples and marriage equality for same-sex couples:

• SOCIAL ORDER: Marriage equality is a threat to the social order and would “introduce a form of pollution to marriage.” 

• SEXUALIZATION: The people who want to get married have relationships that are purely sexual, promiscuous, and “deviant.” 

• PSEUDOSCIENCE: Researchers have distorted research to raise fears about supposed consequences of marriage equality. 

• JUDEO-CHRISTIAN VALUES: The Bible forbids recognizing these relationships. 

• CHILDREN: These relationships will cause physical and psychological damage to the children they raise.

Think Progress continues with an excellent summation of the Howard University brief.

No doubt the National Organization for Marriage and others who want to exploit the alleged black vs. gay divide will most likely ignore this briefs and the facts put out in it.

I say we don't let them.

Family Research Council clearly lying about scientific evidence and gay parenting

Kenneth Blackwell of the Family Research Council

I've said it once and I will say it again. Once the religious right finds a factoid or meme to use against the lgbt community, they will continue to repeat it even though the factoid or meme has been refuted.

 Earlier this week, I wrote about how the Family Research Council was repeating a lie that the Obama Administration declared war on mothers in its Supreme Court brief against the California anti-marriage equality law, Prop 8.

Yesterday, FRC took that lie further via an employee, Kenneth Blackwell, in a recent piece he wrote, Obama Drops His Family Friendly Mask:

Last week, President Obama dropped the family friendly mask. He sent his Solicitor General, Donald Verrilli up the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court with a simple message:

Dump Dads. Lose Moms.

That's because the Solicitor General speaks for the President. In the most august and formal way, it is this officer who carries the President's deepest convictions to lay them before the nation's High Court. What the Solicitor General actually said was this:

"As an initial matter, no sound basis exists for concluding that same-sex couples who have committed to marriage are anything other than fully capable of responsible parenting and child-rearing. To the contrary, many leading medical, psychological, and social-welfare organizations have issued policy statements opposing restrictions on gay and lesbian parenting based on their conclusion, supported by numerous scientific studies, that children raised by gay and lesbian parents are as likely to be well adjusted as children raised by heterosexual parents."

"The weight of the scientific literature strongly supports the view that same-sex parents are just as capable as opposite-sex parents."

Actually, the weight of scientific evidence proves no such thing. All the work of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute (www.marri.org) shows that children do best in a family where mother and dad are married and where the family worships regularly.

As for children raised by two adults of the same sex, the most extensive study ever done was that of Dr. Mark Regnerus. Dr. Regnerus of the University of Texas conducted the largest, most rigorously controlled study in history. Here's what the U.T. study found:

The results of the NFSS [National Family Structures Study]research revealed that the "no differences" claim -- the claim that children raised by parents in gay or lesbian relationships fared no worse and in some cases better than children raised by intact biological parents -- was not true. On the contrary, the children of these households, on average, did worse than children raised by their biological, still-married parents.

The weight of scientific evidence -- as opposed to Donald Verrilli's politically correct posturing -- shows that his statements before the High Court are "not true. Remember, we are talking about the well-being of the children, not whether the adults in these relationships are well-satisfied with their domestic arrangements.

Mr. Blackwell omits a lot of truth to reach the point of this passage.

He said the weight of scientific evidence does not prove that same-sex parents are just as capable as opposite-sex parents in the raising of children. 

Mr. Blackwell conveniently forgets that the Obama Administration brief he tears down clearly cited both the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics as well as the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry as proof that same-sex parents are just as capable as opposite-sex parents in the raising of children (page 21 of the brief).

Furthermore Mr. Blackwell did not mention that independent from the Obama Administration brief, the APA submitted another brief to the court saying the same thing (i.e. same-sex parents are as capable as opposite-sex parents in the raising of children). And joining them in this brief was the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the California Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association and the National Association of Social Workers.

Finally, it is very ironic that Mr. Blackwell cites the Regnerus study as proof that his scientific proof that same-sex parents are not just as capable as opposite-sex parents because of the following simple fact:

The American Sociological Association condemned the Regnerus study in its brief submitted to the Supreme Court. In the brief, the ASA also said that same-sex parents are just as capable as opposite-sex parents when it comes to the raising of children.

So when Mr. Blackwell says that the weight of scientific evidence does not prove that same-sex parents are as capable as opposite-sex parents in the raising of children, he is clearly not being truthful. Not even a little bit.

Do me a favor, folks. Don't shake your head, suck your teeth and go "there they go again" at yet another time you have seen the Family Research Council blatantly lie about the gay community. Demand that more time and knowledge be invested in uncovering how organizations like FRC distort science or push blatant lies against the lgbt community.

Organizations like the Family Research Council don't rely on truth. They rely on repetition. They repeat a point while deliberately ignoring the simple fact that the point has been refuted by those who know better.

And they also rely on the gay community and others becoming blase or jaded about their constant lying.  The Family Research Council and other so-called "pro-family" groups can't use facts against the gay community, so they hope to beat us down through the constant repetition of lies.

It's not necessarily the Christian thing to do, but I guess they figure God will turn a blind eye because they feel that they are lying on His behalf.

You see, this is the problem. This is the reason for the lgbt community's anger towards groups like FRC who claim to uphold  their version of Christian values. It's not that we are intolerant of their beliefs or views.

We are just intolerant of their lies.

'Meet one of the youngest married gay couples in America' and other Thursday midday news briefs

David Harris And Tre'Darrius Anderson May Be The Country's Youngest African American Gay Couple To Marry - Meet the youngest African-American gay couple to marry and it begs a good question which will hopefully come up more in the future in the lgbt community. Is 19 an appropriate age for anyone to marry?

Ever-deceptive FRC twists 50+ yr old hit piece into supposed battle plan - This is low even for the Family Research Council. More desperation. LOL 

 Opposition To Marriage Equality Concentrated Among Elderly, Evangelicals, And Non-College Educated - Opposition getting smaller and smaller. 

Vocal on Gay Issues, Dean Goes Beyond Classroom - Who says gays can't hold top positions?

Here is some black gay comedy to lift you up

After last night's "filibuster," I am in a mood for something a bit more loose and different (especially seeing that the religious right has jumped on the "we love civil liberties" bandwagon. Where the hell were they when the Patriot Act was passed? Hell, if they are for civil liberties, then why are they giving lgbts to so much hell) So I apologize to folks who may not appreciate the following videos, but they are of one of my favorite comedians, openly gay Sampson. Definitely not safe for work and he may be a bit offensive:




 

Black church/Gay sensibilities

Allow me to explain the following video and what brought it about.

First let me say that I am NOT implying that ANYONE in this video is gay. 

What I am saying is that I am tired of this constant argument about lgbts and the Black church.

I am TIRED of members of the Black Church speaking loudly against gay equality when they know lgbts in their churches, choirs, and pulpits.

 I am tired of folks quickly grabbing their Bibles to condemn gay folks in the Black church but not taking the time to at least having a one-on-one conversation.

And I am tired of prominent members of the Black community (you know who you are) bending over backwards to make lgbts of color invisible due to their religious beliefs.

With that, I have one question. If the Black church is so against homosexuality, then why is it that some black choirs adopt gay sensibilities when it comes to the performance of their songs? Now some folks may accuse me of generalizing, but to all of the lgbts of color out there, you have seen dance moves like this in and out of church.  Some of us have done these dances ourselves.

So take this video as a symbol of the dual nature or hypocrisy of the Black Church attacking homosexuality. It is a of a gospel choir performing on the Stellar Awards, an awards show devoted to African-American gospel:

'NAACP filed brief against DOMA' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

A strong black voice for gay marriage - NAACP filed brief against DOMA last week. I wonder how many of NOM's bought and paid for "black leaders" are going to raise hell over this one.  

Anti-gay adoption bill reintroduced - One time: if religious adoption agencies receive tax dollars, they have to follow the rules of fairness. No exemptions.

 NOM's Roback Morse: My verbatim audio was 'mischaracterized'; Clementi family should meet me - Mischaracterized my foot! Just apologize already!

FRC Begs For Money To Fight The ‘Danger’ And ‘Disaster’ Of Nondiscrimination Protections - @!*# please! The Family Research Council must be out of its damn mind! I got some monopoly money for the group! 

 A Brand New Reason to Be Terrified of Homosexuals - You'd better believe it, jack!!

'Homosexuality is dangerous and Obama hates mothers!'

Matt Barber

Religious right and conservative groups have launched two distortions against the lgbt community this morning. One has to do with the false claim of the supposed dangers of homosexuality while the other will most likely be a new talking point against the Obama Administration in the upcoming Supreme Court Prop 8 battle.

Let's look at both distortions:

1. The false dangers of homosexuality 

The AFA's Instant Analysis published the following piece this morning:

Earlier research reinforced: Homosexuality is unhealthy lifestyle

A new study comparing same-sex couples to married heterosexuals shows that the former are less healthy than the latter. Matt Barber, vice president of Liberty Counsel Action, tells American Family News the latest numbers were published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. It found that same-sex cohabiting men were 61 percent more likely to report "poor or fair health" than an equitable number of men reporting from heterosexual marriages. Likewise, same-sex cohabiting women were 46 percent more likely to report the same when compared to heterosexual married women.

 . . . "We have known this for a long time," Barber notes. "There have been a number of studies indicating, for instance, that there are increased rates of domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse within the homosexual community, and this is just in keeping with what the International Journal of Epidemiology found in 1997, a Canadian study." In that study, homosexual men were shown to have a lifespan 8-20 years shorter than those who do not engage in that lifestyle. But Dr. Hui Liu of Michigan State University, the professor who led the new study, claims the fact that homosexuals cannot marry, as well as the burden of stress and discrimination, are to blame for the results. Barber does not agree.

Barber and AFA are incredibly brazen here. The study in question does not even say that homosexuality is an "unhealthy lifestyle." Rather, it makes the argument that the denial of the right to marry is keeping the gay community from having better health.

And what's even more brazen? Barber admits that this is the study's conclusion  but says he disagrees with it without offering any proof that the conclusion is in error.

In other words, Barber cherry-picks a portion of the study which suits his views while dismissing the rest of the study which contradicts his views. And he does so openly and without shame.

Even the 1997 study Barber alludes to is a distortion. In 2001, the researchers of that study complained that religious right spokespeople such as Barber were distorting their work. They never said that homosexuality was a "dangerous lifestyle." They were saying that there needed to be better ways to combat HIV.

2. Obama Administration says mothers are not important

According to the conservative CNS News, the Obama Administration's recent brief to the Supreme Court supporting marriage equality bashes mothers:

The Obama Justice Department is arguing in the United States Supreme Court that children do not need mothers. The Justice Department’s argument on the superfluity of motherhood is presented in a brief the Obama administration filed in the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that amended California’s Constitution to say that marriage involves only one man and one woman.

The article then proceeds to attack the Obama Administration and the American Psychological Association to reinforce its claim that somehow mothers in general are being attacked.

Of course this is a lie. Nowhere in its brief did the Obama Administration say that mothers are not important. What the brief, using information from the APA, did was to contradict the claim made by opponents to marriage equality that only a mother and a father in a home can properly raise children.

The brief merely points out that same-sex households are also able to raise properly raise children.

But the meme that the Obama Administration is "bashing mothers" will most likely be a religious right talking point.  The meme is already making its way via several webpages including that of the Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage.

How soon will it be before Matt Drudge and Fox News starts repeating the meme?

The lgbt community should get angry at these two blatant attempts to distort their lives. But they should also keep in mind that these lies betray a certain desperation on the part of religious and conservative groups.

Because both lies are not only brazen but careless and easy to refute, thus reinforcing the fact that when one gets desperate, one starts to make mistakes.

Anti-gay group NOM humiliates itself twice in one day

Today, the National Organization for Marriage not only suffered a double embarrassment, but proceeded to wallow in both humiliations, as if they were nothing.

Meanwhile, enterprising folks like myself are going to do what we can to make NOM's stupidity go viral. But it's not as if NOM isn't helping us.

First comes this item from Goodasyou.org by way of Think Progress:

The National Organization for Marriage is trying its best to rally support for its “March for Marriage” on March 26, which will have a full slate of religious anti-gay speakers. The group is even trying to pretend that inviting people is the same as having people attend to make it look like they have more support. But now it seems that NOM has a particularly despicable partner for the March, Southern Baptist pastor Wiley Drake, who regularly prays for people’s death, including President Obama. Jeremy Hooper noticed not only that Drake is promoting the march, but that he shared an email exchange coordinating his support with the march organizers. In fact, he committed to bringing his Congressional Prayer Conference broadcast to the march, and the event coordinator seemed all too grateful for his support.

And just in case you need confirmation of this prayer, listen to him double down on it when interviewed by news personality Alan Colmes:



And as if that's not bad enough, check out the following tweet from NOM president Brian Brown:

I would say that congratulations are in order except for one MAJOR problem:

There is no such thing as American Urban University.  You will notice that the background where Brown is receiving this "honorary doctorate" resembles a church.

According Laurel Rameyser of Pam's House Blend:

According to Bizpedia, the president of American Urban University was Bishop George D. McKinney from St. Stephen’s Cathedral Church of God in Christ in San Diego, CA.  Bishop McKinney is one of the organizers of Coalition of African American Pastors, the group giving Mr. Brown the honorary degree.However, the university’s corporation status was suspended in 1989.

Not surprisingly, although Bishop McKinney’s biography on the church website mentions the many universities where he has studied and talks about his many accomplishments, it doesn’t mention American Urban University.

And we all remember how NOM tried pitifully to use the Coalition of African-American Pastors to sabotage President Obama's African-American support.

So on the same day that NOM's Brian Brown sends out a tweet of himself receiving an honorary degree from a non-existent university, it is discovered that his group is teaming up with a pastor who prayed for President Obama's death.

When I was young, we had a phrase for when someone embarrassed themselves. We called it "giving up your cool points." If NOM keeps this up, the organization will only be left with "cool stamps."

Hat tip to John Becker.

'Bill O'Reilly continues harassment of gay legislator' and other Tuesday midday news briefs

WATCH: Bill O’Reilly’s Team Harasses Gay Colorado Speaker Over Child Molester Laws - Not content with making wild charges which led this man's 14-month-old daughter to be the subject of vile threats, O'Reilly continues to harass a Colorado gay legislator on those same lies. This isn't journalism. It's demagoguery. Dangerous demagoguery at that. For those who don't think what O'Reilly is doing is dangerous, I have two words for you - George Tiller.  

Carly Rae Jepsen Backs Out of Boy Scouts Jamboree Over Gay Ban - And the group Train also backed out. Key the religious right groups who will whine about how lgbts played the bullies. Whatever.  

NOM confuses ability to extend an invite with actual support - Chalk it up to another failure for NOM. 

‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in the Black Church - Naturally.

 CA lawmaker seeks rights for transgender students - I hope he is successful.

Tyler Clementi's family demands apology for anti-gay exploitation of his death

Tyler Clementi

From GLAAD:

Recently, the family of Tyler Clementi was joined by GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and Equality Matters in calling on Jennifer Morse of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) to apologize for her recent speech to Iowa State University students on February 17, in which she used the story of Tyler Clementi’s death as an example of why it is “not the best thing” to let lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people be friends with other LGBT people, or be supported by the LGBT community.

Clementi, who died by suicide, was a student at Rutgers University when his roommate secretly recorded video of him kissing another man. Morse mentioned Clementi’s story, saying, “There are a lot of situations where people are doing something sexual that’s probably not the best thing for them…” Morse used Clementi as an example of LGBT youth who she claimed are, "… getting help and support from the gay activists who have their own thing that they’re doing which is not necessarily to help the individuals but they’ve got some sort of political vision."

"To exploit our late son's name to advance an anti-equality agenda is offensive and wrong," said Joe and Jane Clementi, the parents of Tyler Clementi. "By doing so, National Organization for Marriage prove that not only is there no low they will not sink to, to advance their cruel agenda - but that neither they nor Ms. Morse have any grip on reality. The very idea that Tyler's tragedy happened because of too much support - instead of not enough - is ludicrous. Shame on them."

"This is among the more reprehensible tactics we've seen from NOM, and this is a group whose internal documents touted the use of racially-motivated tactics to pit Black and Latino people against their own LGBT friends, neighbors and family members," said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. "Now they're using Tyler's story to pit young people against their own peers."

"That NOM would invoke Tyler as a part of spreading their hateful messages shows a real lack of moral compass,” said HRC Vice President of Communications Fred Sainz. “This is more proof that NOM is not in tune with mainstream America but instead is driven by the fringe agenda of a few secretive anti-gay donors. NOM should do the right thing and immediately apologize to the Clementi family."

Unfortunately, I don't think NOM will be making any move to apologize. If I know the organization, the demand will be ignored.

Dear NOM, PLEASE, PLEASE allow this guy to speak at your marriage march

I have the perfect speaker for the National Organization for Marriage's upcoming March Marriage - E.T. Williams, the self-described "doctor of common sense."

As a matter of fact, I will probably begin a campaign asking NOM to invite him . . . as soon as I figure out what a "lebesian" is.