Trump put the right amount of 'money on the dresser' to gain white conservative evangelical support

One thing definitely proven by Trump being in the White House is in spite of all of their talk about morals, integrity, Christianity, etc., white conservative evangelicals are just as for sale as a lot of  other groups peddling their wares in DC.

And they have no problem whoring themselves out. According to a column in Rolling Stone (by way of Raw Story), it wasn't that difficult for Trump to get them on his side. It was just a matter of putting the right amount of 'money on the dresser.'

In a column for Rolling Stone published this Monday, Alex Morris tries to shed some light on this contradiction.

According to Morris, it all started with a September meeting in 2016, six weeks before the election, where an audion recording of the meeting revealed how evangelical leaders handed Trump a mandate that he promised to fulfill. 

“He would end the contraception mandate of Obamacare; … he would select only anti-choice judges; … he would do away with the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt entities from endorsing politicians; … he would support prayer in school; … he would oppose any bill that pulled funding from Christian schools that were charged with discrimination; … he would keep transgender people from using the ‘wrong’ bathrooms and locker rooms; … and he would protect Israel, following the biblical pronouncement that nations that do so would be blessed (‘[Obama’s] been the worst thing that’s happened to Israel …” 

Despite Trump’s newfound allies in the evangelical movement, he never bothered to put out the image that he was a true believer. But that didn’t matter — it was Trump’s perceived devotion to their cause that had evangelicals sold. As Morris points out, close to 81 percent of white evangelicals cast their ballots for him on election day. Fast forward to 2019, 82 percent of evangelicals would vote for Trump if the election were held today. “Two-thirds believe that he has not damaged the decency of the presidency, 55 percent agree with Sarah Huckabee Sanders that ‘God wanted him to be president,’ and 99 percent oppose impeachment,” Morris writes. 

Their eagerness to anoint Trump as some sort of messenger of God shouldn't be all that surprising. Remember how they anointed beauty queen Carrie Prejean as some sort of modern day Queen Esther due to her opposition of marriage equality? That is until the controversy regarding her semi-nude pictures.

One would think that after that and their general loss in the marriage equality fight, conservative evangelicals would be wary of counting on unsavory means or people to gain their goals. Then again, their unity with Trump only signifies how they have no trouble selling out the values they claim to uphold for a little political power.

Only time will tell whether or not this will blow up in their face just like their fight against marriage equality eventually did. 

Is Franklin Graham now using his ministry to endorse political candidates?

Franklin Graham seems to be using his ministry to endorse political candidates.

Former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made the news recently by announcing that she may be eyeing the governorship of Arkansas.

And she has already got one high-profile person in her corner:

There's talk about @SarahHuckabee running for gov. She told @NYTimes there’s a difference in someone who wants to be a senator or governor & someone called to serve. We need more people like her who are called by God to serve in positions of leadership. https://t.co/ogeEreWua1

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) November 30, 2019

Trump supporting evangelical leader reportedly felt that AIDS was 'God's punishment'

When Gary Bauer worked in the Reagan Administration, he allegedly undermined the fight against HIV/AIDS because he felt that it was God's punishment.

Editor's Note - On World AIDS Day as we commemorate the lives lost because of HIV/AIDS and those who continue to live with the condition, we should also remember those with power back then who either stood by and did nothing or actually applauded how the disease attacked our community. Gary Bauer who, as far as I know, has never had to answer for his behavior in the Reagan Administration as HIV/AIDS spread in our community. He remains to this day looked upon as a pro-family evangelical leader as he prominently supports the actions of Donald Trump. Trump even appointed him on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The following is a repost from 2014:

The late President Reagan gets a lot of deserved flack for his negligence in the early days of the AIDS crisis. Today, we learned that there needs to be some flack dispensed around because Reagan isn't the only person in his Administration who needs to be called to the carpet.

According to Right Wing Watch:

Anyone who is familiar with Gary Bauer's anti-gay extremism will not be surprised to learn that his bigotry goes way back. Just in time for World AIDS Day, we now know that when Bauer was working in the Reagan White House, he fought hard to keep gay people off the nation’s first AIDS commission.

Right Wing Watch published part of a memo he sent to Reagan regarding this:

 3. Millions of Americans try to raise their children to believe that homosexuality is immoral. In many states homosexual practices are illegal, including sodomy. For you to appoint a known homosexual to a Presidential Commission will give homosexuality a stamp of acceptability. It will drive a wedge between us and many of our socially conservative supporters. 

4. While it is true that homosexuals have been major victims of AIDS, they are also responsible for its spread. Recent students show the average gay man with AIDS has had over 150 different sexual partners in the previous 12 months. 

Bauer proposed instead appointing a relative of someone with AIDS, or a caregiver, or as a last resort, a “reformed” homosexual: “that is, someone not currently living a gay life style. We have identified several individuals that meet that criteria.”

 In the end, Reagan ignored Bauer’s pleadings and appointed Frank Lilly, an openly gay geneticist, to the Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic.

'Homophobic pundit disappears from Trump campaign website after outcry' & other Wed midday news briefs

Trump doesn't seem to be eager to be seen with Clarence Mason Weaver at the present.

Misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ pundit disappears from Trump campaign website following criticism - Making noise instead of being blase tends to work. Of course that doesn't mean he's completely gone, but it does mean a reaction was caused.

Black LGBTQ activists split over Harris, Buttigieg spat - I'm quoted in this and I meant every damn word I said. 

Norterra Canyon Principal Quashed Student Project on LGBTQ Pride - Excuse me? Why?

Anti-LGBTQ activist doesn't think the LGBTQ community should celebrate Thanksgiving

Linda Harvey

How coldhearted and homophobic do you have to be to not want the LGBTQ community to even enjoy Thanksgiving? Let's ask perennially obsessed anti-LGBTQ activist, the once labeled 'most homophobic woman in America,'  Linda Harvey. Apparently she thinks our community shouldn't celebrate Thanksgiving:

The internet is replete with homosexual/transgender hostility toward parents, those who lovingly provided a home, allowance, support, and often college tuition, not to mention the child’s genetic heritage — and receive derision and scorn in return from sexually sinful or gender-deviant children. The tears of these parents could fill a cathedral. God knows their pain. 

 Our current culture applauds the person who “comes out” of the closet, no matter what betrayals result from the pursuit of sinful desires. Recently, I was deeply grieved when a young minister we knew as he grew up declared his homosexual preference very publicly. But it was also stunning to watch those who claim identity as believers gush with applause for his “courage.” This is not courage, but rebellion, indulgence, and pride. Those who embrace homosexual sin or gender rebellion are declaring that God never created them — they create themselves.

Can you imagine how much of a drag it would be at Linda Harvey's house at Thanksgiving.

You would probably have a meal of unseasoned, dry-as-the-dust turkey with bland watery cranberry sauce and macaroni and cheese with raisins. For desert, you wouldn't have any because desert is so sweet that it has to be made by Satan.

Then after washing it down with a glass of lukewarm water, you would settle down for a  watching of some awful z-grade right-wing Christian propaganda movie starring Kirk Cameron and Kevin Sorbo  about some child who dreamed of going to Heaven after being coerced into a low-grade abortion by her evil gay friend plotting to convert her boyfriend into homosexuality while his father, the even more evil Democratic Congressman, plots with the forces of socialism to put the little old Christian lady in jail among drooling lesbians because she refuses to sell flowers for the wedding of the very very evil gay couple who is plotting to adopt two children so they can indoctrinate them to be transgender and set them loose in the area public school so they can "force" it to allow transgender students to use showers and bathrooms of their true gender expression so that the girls would be targeted by predators who will in turn sexually assault them, which will lead one girl's father to come out of retirement and embrace his former occupation as an assassin, where he will be brainwashed into attempting to take Trump out at his next campaign rally.

Or something like that.

Needless to say that some of the comments below Harvey's piece aren't exactly positive towards her point of view. I particularly like the following one so much, I think I will end this post with it:

Respect is a two way street, Linda. This homosexual will be bringing a cheesecake to Thanksgiving dinner celebrated together with my wonderfully accepting father, brothers, sister, sister-in-law, nieces and nephews. The fact that you simply can't imagine people having that in their life is a sad commentary on your own state of mind.

'At Least 22 Transgender People Were Killed In 2019. Here Are Their Stories.' & other Tue midday news briefs

Our fallen sisters

On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we honor the 22 transgender and gender non-conforming people killed so far this year. - So sad. I didn't see this until after Transgender Day of Remembrance. Still, it deserves a larger shout out.

Fox guest Chadwick Moore falsely suggests issues facing trans women of color are manufactured problems - Chadwick Moore is a bottom feeding gay man who is only interested in his sad career, even if he has to tear down his own community for it.

Golden Globes: What a rise in LGBTQ content may mean for awards acclaim - Positive visibility never hurts.

Federal Workers Are “Afraid” After Trump’s Anti-LGBTQ Crusade At The Supreme Court -And I'm pissed that the media hasn't pressed the issue harder.

Poor Roy Moore. Gay men are living rent free (and having sex) in his head

Roy Moore

Removed judge and failed Senate candidate Roy Moore wants to run for the Senate again but can't seem to shake his obsession with gay men. Or specifically how he thinks they are having sex.

From Right-Wing Watch:

Moore spoke recently to the Huntsville Republican Men’s Group, according to the Alabama Political Reporter: “We have got to go back to what we did back in the sixties and seventies back to a moral basis,” Moore said. “We did not have a national healthcare system. You know when Obama passed this thing rising all our costs and business started going down the tube everybody said it was going to be repealed. You never hear anybody in Congress talk about it now. Our indebtedness was $22 trillion. Back in the sixties and seventies it was much lower. It was a sixth of that. Abortion was not legal when I went to Vietnam. It was passed later. It was OK’d later. We had abortion laws in our country and our state. We did not have same sex marriage. We did not have transgender rights. Sodomy was illegal. These things were just not around when my classmates and I went to West Point and Vietnam.”

Moore is not only sadly deluded, but also naive. He claims that sodomy wasn't around when he attended West Point. West Point was all-male when Moore attended.  I am almost certain that sodomy had a nice little corner room at the back of the campus, where it had a number of visitors.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful. I'm simply being real.

But wait. Moore continued to reminisce:

“We have drag queens teaching kindergarten children in this state and this community….in Huntsville in Mobile they taught kids and they dress them up in drag,” Moore told the audience. “Where does this come from? Gender identity is being taught in California to young kids and parents have no choice but to let their kids be taught that.”

It's always entertaining when bigots and homophobes weep for bygone ages in which their mindsets of ignorance ruled the day. It's a wonderful reminder of the battles we have won.

'How Trump is trying to reverse LGBTQ progress in plain sight' & other Mon midday news briefs

Under Trump, LGBTQ Progress Is Being Reversed in Plain Sight - People should read this and take it into account.

In His Bid for Congress, This Gay Doctor Believes D.C. Needs More Medical Professionals Elected - And I agree with him. 

Chicago Area’s largest high school district votes to allow trans students facility access - This is wonderful! 

First transgender Rhodes scholar named in diverse 2020 class - Congratulations Hera!

Things not to say to LGBTQ people.

Sometimes we have to admit that as a community, we don't know each other as much as we should. We don't listen each other and at times, we don't trust each other. And this is a problem in terms of  how we should relate to each other. The videos below aren't simply for the edification of heterosexuals. They are also for us LGBTQ folks. Even if you think the videos are too "politically correct," take a look anyway.

Franklin Graham officially abandons Jesus to become Donald Trump's bitch

Once upon a time, there was a religious leader named Franklin Graham who said he stood for values and morality. In the late 1990s, there was a huge controversy in the United States with regards to its president, Bill Clinton, who got caught having an affair with a White House intern by the name of Monica Lewinsky.

Graham wrote a piece which condemned Clinton. It was called Clinton's Sins Are Not Private. In part, Graham said:

Last week Mr. Clinton told 70 million Americans that his adulterous actions with Ms. Lewinsky were a “private” matter “between me, the two people I love the most–my wife and our daughter–and our God.” 

But the God of the Bible says that what one does in private does matter. Mr. Clinton’s months-long extramarital sexual behavior in the Oval Office now concerns him and the rest of the world, not just his immediate family. If he will lie to or mislead his wife and daughter, those with whom he is most intimate, what will prevent him from doing the same to the American public? 

 . . . As a boy I remember my mother telling me of the consequences of sin. Like a boat, whose wake can capsize other boats, sin leaves a wake. Just look at how many have already been pulled under by the wake of the president’s sin: Mr. Clinton’s wife and daughter, Ms. Lewinsky, her parents, White House staff members, friends and supporters, public officials and an unwitting American public. 

 . . . Mr. Clinton’s sin can be forgiven, but he must start by admitting to it and refraining from legalistic doublespeak. According to the Scripture, the president did not have an “inappropriate relationship” with Monica Lewinsky–he committed adultery. He didn’t “mislead” his wife and us–he lied.

Fast forward over 20 years later to another president, Donald Trump. Trump has not only had an affair (with a porn star named Stormy Daniels) but has also done worse. For some reason, Graham has taken a, shall we say, less Biblical view of these matters. 

These are Graham's responses to some of Trump's "lowlights."

Donald Trump's affair with Stormy Daniels (after it was proven that Daniels was paid $130,000 for her silence):

“I can promise you he is not President Perfect,” Graham replied.  . . "President Trump I don’t think has admitted to having an affair with this person and so, this is just a news story, I don’t know if it’s accurate,” . . . “Now did he have an affair with this woman? I have no clue, but I believe that 70 years of age, the president is a much different person today than he was four years ago, five years ago, ten years ago or whatever and we just have to give the man the benefit of the doubt.”

Trump's ban on refugees and immigrants from countries he claims are high-risk - Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen:

“It’s not a biblical command for the country to let everyone in who wants to come, that’s not a Bible issue,” Graham told HuffPost. “We want to love people, we want to be kind to people, we want to be considerate, but we have a country and a country should have order and there are laws that relate to immigration and I think we should follow those laws. Because of the dangers we see today in this world, we need to be very careful.”

Editor's note - it is a Biblical issue per se. There are 22 Biblical verses about welcoming immigrants, including:

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. - Hebrews 13:1-3

Donald Trump's capacity for lying:

“I don’t think the president is sitting there behind the desk trying to make up lies. I don’t believe that for a second. Has he misspoken on something? Sure. All of us do that. You do it and I do it. And sometimes we get the facts wrong and we say something that later on we realize, we could’ve said it better or it was misrepresented.” (at the time of Graham's statement, Trump has been cited for lying over 8,000 times while in office)

And the pièce de résistance:

The present impeachment hearings of Donald Trump for attempting to get the Ukraine to announce investigations of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in exchange for aide - something admitted to by Mick Mulvaney, Trump's acting chief of staff, Trump himself, and several other witnesses:

So what has changed in over 20 years for Graham? Well he claims that he supports Donald Trump because Trump defends and stands up for the Christian faith.

"What I love about our president is that our president defends the Christian faith," he said. "Our past presidents scolded Christians. This president is defending Christians and he's very open about the Christian faith. "I love that about President Trump and, of course at the prayer breakfast just a few days ago he was tremendous that America is a nation of believers," he continued. "And we're strengthened by the power of prayer, he reminded everyone. He also reminded us that faith is central to American life. It is. It is central to our life as a nation. I'm very thankful that Donald Trump takes this stand."

What a pity.

If Graham had any true faith and trust in God, he wouldn't feel the need to make excuses for the behavior of a lying, lecherous joke of a president. Since I was a child, I was told to always have faith in God. I was also told that this faith included not making excuses for people and actions which are supposed to go against your morals, no matter who much you benefited from said people and actions.

So which is it, Graham? Why are you making excuses for Trump?

 Or was all of what you claimed to have stood for about morality and values simply talk?

'American Medical Association calls for nationwide ban on 'ex-gay therapy'' & other Thur midday news briefs

American Medical Association calls for nationwide ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy - THAT would be wonderful.

Study finds an epidemic of suicide among LGBTQ youth. Most blame “recent politics.” - This Trump geared madness is affecting our kids.

Dad who opposes same-sex marriage wonders why gay son and son-in-law won’t talk to him anymore - Oh really? 

Iran, Qatar, KSA, West Bank, Gaza among most dangerous for LGBTQ tourists - Write this down and act accordingly.

Trump advisory board member thinks schools are training children to be gay

Clarence Mason Weaver (left) is a man Trump is counting on to garner him more black voters. Weaver has some pretty "interesting" views on the LGBTQ community and women.

On probably the single worst day of Trump's presidency, far be it from me to be a "basic bitch" and rub stuff in.

Oh who am I kidding. From Media Matters:

Clarence Mason Weaver, who was recently named to an advisory board position in President Donald Trump’s campaign, is a right-wing commentator who believes that homosexuality is “evil” and an “abomination.” Weaver has said that people have “got to worry about homosexual training” in schools and questioned, “What is wrong with being homophobic.” He’s also said he has a problem with gay co-workers and would “not appear on a program with a homosexual host and pretend like that’s normal.”

. . . In November 2018, he posted a video complaining about an advertisement featuring a woman in a same-sex marriage. He related that he told his granddaughter that “homosexuality is a abomination. Not just a sin. It’s abomination.” He later criticized people who try to find “common ground” on the issue, saying, “How can you find common ground with evil and sin?”

Weaver added that he “can work with homosexuals. I've worked with a lot of homosexuals. Worked with a lot of them. Political and social things. But I’m not going to stand there and pretend like that’s not a sin. Like you would not -- I would not pretend like I don’t sin. I would not pretend, I’m not going to try to fool God to make you feel comfortable.” He added: “I appear on programs all the time with homosexuals. I will not appear on a program with a homosexual host and pretend like that’s normal.

 And of course, the kicker:

 Weaver also said that he’s homeschooled his kids in part because he wanted to “get them out” of an environment where “we got to worry about homosexual training.”

Either way, his comment about "homosexual training" gets me angry.  On one hand, it's ludicrously homophobic. On the other, if there were some remote truth to that, I missed all of that training. And the thought of that would really gets me upset. I think I would have really excelled if there were "homosexual training" in gym class.

'Survey: depression, anxiety rates alarmingly high among LGBTQ Southerners' & other Wed midday news briefs

Depression and anxiety rates ‘alarmingly high’ among LGBTQ Southerners, survey says - Yes,lawd!
 
Transgender kids express their gender the same as other kids of their gender identity - Confirming what we already know.

Today it’s discrimination against LGBTQ people. Tomorrow they might ban non-Christians. - Spooky but not far from the truth.

W. Va. library pulls LGBTQ-themed children’s book after complaint by pastor; could remove it permanently - Give me a break!

Trump Administration's anti-LGBTQ healthcare 'conscience rule' suffers third court loss

 It is now 0 for 3 for Trump's "healthcare conscience" rule as a court in CA has ruled against it.

From Courthouse News:

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said the latest rule broadens protections “beyond what Congress intended and will hamstring the delivery of health care.”  

 In his ruling, Alsup cited an example raised at a hearing last month by a lawyer for the city of San Francisco suggesting an ambulance driver could actually expel a patient en route to a hospital for an emergency abortion. “Such harsh treatment would be blessed by the new rule,” Alsup said.  

“Although this order does not accept all of plaintiffs’ criticisms, this order holds that the new rule conflicts with those statutes in a number of ways and upsets the balance drawn by Congress between protecting conscientious objections versus protecting the uninterrupted effective flow of health care to Americans.” Alsup said the HHS went too far in promulgating the rule, which none of the current statutes grant it authority to do. 

Earlier this month, a federal court in New York and another one in Washington State both ruled against Trump's announced rule. Since being announced in May, the rule was considered to be very controversial with many pointing out that healthcare workers could exploit it to deny care to members of the LGBTQ community based upon religious beliefs.

According to The Advocate earlier this year:

Many fear the new rule will not only engender confusion but encourage conservative doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health professionals to deny contraception services, transition-related care for transgender people, and even drugs like PrEP, an HIV prevention regimen. The situation could be incredibly dire for women and LGBTQ people in rural areas, where there are much fewer service providers than in urban areas.

In the New York decision, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer pointed out that the Trump Administration was not being truthful as to the need for this rule.  Roger Severino, director of HHS' Office for Civil Rights, had said earlier this year that were hundreds of complaints which demonstrated the need for the new rule. The exact number he used  was 343. 

However, it was discovered that the number of complaints specifically dealing with the rule was only 20.  The other complaints had nothing to do with the religious beliefs of healthcare workers.

Related post:  Who faked the justification for Trump's anti-LGBTQ healthcare 'conscience' rule?

Pat Robertson plays the 'Satan card' against the LGBTQ community (again)

Long-time conservative evangelist Pat Robertson attacked the LGBTQ community again on Monday, this time highlighting a ridiculous notion that Satan is behind the transgender community. The only thing which keeps me from fully laughing at the video above is Robertson's age. Part of me would feel guilty at being disrespectful (even though Robertson is spewing hateful bile) while another part of me is angry at those who would put him on television in that condition.

But even so, it's amazing how Robertson has played the" Satan card" over the years when it comes to the LGBTQ community:

March 2012 - Pat Robertson Says Satan is Behind Homosexuality and Abortion Rights

March 2014 -  Pat Robertson: The gay rights movement is Satan's doing

February 2019 - Televangelist Pat Robertson: Satan is spreading rumours that Jesus was gay

And before the LGBTQ community feels too special, remember that Robertson has pulled the "Satan card" in other situations:

'Several LGBTQ public figures make 'Time's 100'' & other Tue midday news briefs

Gay rapper Lil Nas X is just one of the many LGBTQ public figures who made the 2019 edition of  'Times's 100' 

From Lil Nas X to MJ Rodriguez, TIME's 100 Next List Is Pretty Queer - What took Time magazine so long.

The POZ 100: Celebrating Transgender, Gender-Nonconforming and Nonbinary Advocates - Another group of folks getting the recognition they deserve. 

Conservatives Furious After Chick-Fil-A Ends Funding To Anti-LGBTQ Christian Charities - I've got a wait-and-see attitude about Chick-Fil-A but I am enjoying the feedback.

DMV humiliates trans woman by forcing her to remove makeup with hand santizer - This sort of crap is plain evil.

Chick-Fil-A's pledge to stop funding anti-LGBTQ groups leaves Mike Huckabee with egg on his face

Mike Huckabee

Unless you've been totally unconnected in the LGBTQ community, you have heard about Chick-Fil-A's change of heart with regards to funding anti-LGBTQ causes.

From The Advocate:

Chick-fil-A has pledged to finally stop funding anti-LGBTQ organizations after years of protests against the brand. The popular fast-food chain's foundation has donated millions of dollars to groups such as Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army. Both organizations have long histories of being anti-LGBTQ and will now allegedly no longer receive money from the company. 

“We made multiyear commitments to both organizations and we fulfilled those obligations in 2018,” a Chick-fil-A spokeswoman said Monday, according to CNBC. The company says it will now be focusing on three pillars of giving, involving education, homelessness, and hunger.
 The company has faced criticism in the past for its charitable donations as well as the CEO Dan Cathy’s public comments opposing marriage equality. And as Chick-fil-A has recently attempted to expand outside the U.S., activists have put pressure on the company and forced quick closures of some locations.

While the LGBTQ community have been mostly reticent about the entire situation (many of us have either chosen a "wait and see" or "we don't believe it" attitude), Chick-Fil-A supporters such as right-wing spokesman and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee voiced their anger and feelings of betrayal.

In Aug 2012, I coordinated a national @ChickfilA Appreciation Day after they were being bullied by militant hate groups. Millions showed up. Today, @ChickfilA betrayed loyal customers for $$. I regret believing they would stay true to convictions of founder Truett Cathey. Sad.

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) November 18, 2019

In 2012, Huckabee initiated a huge campaign designed to show support for Chick-Fil-A and to issue a figurative middle finger in the face of  LGBTQ protests And the campaign (Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day) was hugely successful with reported record breaking sales for the fast food restaurant. Many lined up at Chick-Fil-A to show their support for the restaurant's supposed "Christian" values.

At the time, Huckabee said the following:

"People are voting with their feet today. I guess you could also say they are voting with their faces, they are stuffing them with chicken sandwiches, those lovely Chicken sandwiches from Chick-fil-A."

So at the present, Huckabee probably feels like a real dummy because that's what Chick-Fil-A's possible change of heart makes him look like.

A real dummy.

On that score at the very least, I think Chick-Fil-A's alleged change of heart is a success for the LGBTQ community. Anything making Mike Huckabee look like the fool that he is has to be a positive in my book.

'There are more LGBTQ characters on television than ever before' & other Mon midday news briefs

There are more LGBTQ characters on television than ever before - This is wonderful. We deserve this visibility.

Pope Francis compares leaders persecuting LGBTQ people to Hitler, Nazis - Nice, but it's like hot and cold with this guy.

‘Paris’ will ‘burn’ again, now with unseen footage - One of the greatest documentaries ever made. This time with an hour of unseen footage. 

Pete Buttigieg is struggling with black voters — and not just because he's gay - This is true. He has a lot to work on.

'Transphobic White People Can't Rap' & other ways anti-LGBTQ activists made public fools of themselves

Before we dip into another week of Trump led mess (because whether we have impeachment hearings or not, with Trump in the White House, it's always a hot mess), I wanted to provide yet another moment of levity.

In America and Canada, where we love our freedom of speech, some folks have used this principle to speak out against what they call the "gay agenda." They do it by repeating bad information or by making complete public asses out of themselves in an attempt to be "hip." Bad for them, but good for us. It always helps when someone makes a colossal fool out of themselves when attacking the LGBTQ community. It helps proves our point about their ignorance. And at the very least, it's downright comforting to watch someone's attempts to denigrate us blow up in their faces.

So, pulled from past posts on this blog and Youtube, I present 'Transphobic White People Can't Rap' & other ways anti-LGBTQ activists made public fools of  themselves.

4. We gotta save the kids from men kissing with size 14 shoes kissing each other on the moufs. - In 2015, Birmingham, AL minister Cedric Hatcher was very upset that there were public gay marriage ceremonies on the first day that marriage equality became legal in the state. And he gets so caught up that he really never finishes his point when complaining about it at a city council meeting. It would be insulting, except it's simply so funny to hear him ramble.

3. OOOOOOO! Homosexuals just makes me so mad! - North Carolina pastor Flip Benham is known around that state for his anti-LGBTQ activism. One thing he used to do was to show up at Charlotte City Council meetings and just rail on how homosexuality is causing so many problems. He likes to rail in front of an audience until his face turns red. In this 2016 video, he is blaming the passage of an LGBT rights bill for a police shooting:

VP Mike Pence's office unhappy with NBC article about Trump's anti-LGBTQ adoption rule

Mike Pence

VP Mike Pence's office called an NBC reporter requesting that he change an article regarding a proposed Trump Administration rule. This rule would allow faith-based adoption and foster care agencies to receive tax dollars which refusing to work with potential LGBTQ parents.

The article, Pence praises rule that would let adoption agencies exclude gay parents, said in part:

During an event celebrating National Adoption Month, Vice President Mike Pence praised a proposed Trump administration rule that would allow federal funding to flow to adoption agencies that refuse to place children with LGBTQ families, among others. 

"We’ve reversed the rule implemented in the closing days of the last administration that jeopardized the ability of faith-based providers to serve those in need by penalizing them for their deeply held religious beliefs," Pence said at an event Tuesday at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington. "We will stand for the freedom of religion and we will stand with faith-based organizations to support adoption." 

Pence said he "couldn't be more proud" of the "decisive action" taken at "President Trump's direction" on this issue.

The article also focused on the negative effect the rule would have on the LGBTQ community and children seeking adoption and foster care.

On Thursday afternoon, the article's author, Tim Fitzsimons, tweeted out the following:

I asked Katie Waldman the following question:

Fitzsimons: "This allows groups that decline to place these children with same-sex parents to receive federal money. Am I incorrect there?"
Waldman: "No."

She went on to claim reverse discrimination.

— Tim Fitzsimons (@tfitzsimons) November 14, 2019

While Fitzsimons didn't indicate what the vice president's office wanted changed, from his description of the conversation he had with Waldman, Pence's press secretary, it appears to center around what exactly Trump's rule would do. Perhaps Pence's office isn't happy that the article focused in part on how the rule would harm the LGBTQ community and children, instead of attempting to make it sound like a victory for religion and faith, like Pence attempted to do.

And Waldman's claim of reverse discrimination is odd. Is she saying that not allowing faith-based adoption and foster care agencies to discriminate against the LGBTQ community, while having access to LGBTQ tax dollars, is some sort of "reverse discrimination?" The idea is an illogical stretch of the definition of discrimination.

But then again that illogical stretch would be coming from the Trump Administration. And if there's one thing we all should have learned after three years is to not put anything past Trump or anyone who works for him.


Editor's note -Fitzsimons also made another point with regards to Waldman. Take it as you will:

https://t.co/5gOjLdUMnL More on Waldman here

— Tim Fitzsimons (@tfitzsimons) November 14, 2019