“The people who stir up the fringe never take responsibility. But I’d like to say on this day after a man was murdered in cold blood for preforming [sic] abortions that I — and the people I worked with in the religious right, the Republican Party, the pro-life movement and the Roman Catholic Church, all contributed to this killing by our foolish and incendiary words.
“I am very sorry.”
Stunning piece from Frank Schaeffer, son of “the late Francis Schaeffer, a Reformed Presbyterian … influenced by Reconstructionism,” whose “widely distributed books and films of the 1970s and early 1980s are generally credited with providing an important catalyst for evangelical involvement in anti-abortion politics”:
If this could learn to parrot anti-gay talking points, it too could be Miss California.
As new (and more revealing) nude photos of “Biblically correct” Miss California Carrie Prejean hit the Web this morning (link after the jump), Donald Trump let Prejean keep her Miss California crown. In short, Trump called her “modeling” pictures “beautiful” and “lovely” (twice, mind you), and, anyway — get this — “we’re in the 21st century.”
In short, the consensus among more than a few very influential, high-profile Christian Right insiders is this:
“We screwed up. We’ve lost the culture wars, and it’s our own fault. Not because we were wrong — we are never wrong! — but because we thought we could jam our 14th-century morality down everybody else’s throat through the Republican Party, and we screwed up by compromising our ‘values’ in order to function as an extension of the Republican Party. With nowhere else to turn, maybe we ought to give up on political lobbying — without disengaging politically altogether, mind you — and go back to concentrating on ’service, prayer and education’ just like — gasp! — real Christians.”
Is the Christian right finished as a political entity? Or, more to the point, are principled Christians finished with politics? …
The older generation, represented by such icons as James Dobson, who recently retired as head of Focus on the Family, has compromised too much, according to a growing phalanx of disillusioned Christians. Pragmatically speaking, the Christian coalition of cultural crusaders didn’t work.
For proof, one need look no further than Dobson himself, who was captured on tape recently saying that the big cultural battles have all been lost.
Shortly thereafter, in late March, Christian radio host Steve Deace of WHO Radio in Iowa aggressively interviewed Tom Minnery, head of the political arm of Focus on the Family … whom Deace described as “the Karl Rove of the religious right”…
It wasn’t exactly a Limbaugh-Obama matchup, but it was confrontational, and corners of America’s heartland and Bible Belt have been buzzing ever since.
Deace’s point was that established Christian activist groups too often settle for lesser evils in exchange for electing Republicans. He cited as examples Dobson’s support of Mitt Romney and John McCain, neither of whom is pro-life or pro-family enough from Deace’s perspective.
Compromise may be the grease of politics, but it has no place in Christian orthodoxy, according to Deace. …
[E. Ray Moore, founder of the South Carolina-based Exodus Mandate, an initiative to encourage Christian education and home schooling, who considers himself a member of the Christian right] thinks the movement is imploding.
“It’s hard to admit defeat, but this one was self-inflicted … In the modern era of the Christian right, we have traded these proven methods for a mess of pottage … and often in a shrill and nagging manner, which makes our God look weak in the eyes of the world.”
Amen to that, says [columnist Cal Thomas, a former vice president for the Moral Majority]…
“I’ll always remember him as a sweet, young boy. But I’ll also remember him as that young boy who was trying to change into a man and trying to find his manly identity. That’s hard to do today.”
— Tony Dungy, eulogizing his 18-year-old son, Jamie, 2005 Boston Globe, November 4, 2007
Sometimes I’ve got nothing for you but my gut feeling, and most of the time (believe it or not), if I haven’t got hard facts, I keep my gut feeling to myself. But sometimes, something eats at me so much, I’m compelled to share it with you:
Back in late 2005, we were saddened to hear of this story regarding James Dungy, the 18 year old son of NFL coach Tony Dungy. Why would such a fine young man abruptly kill himself? It was sad, it was tragic, and there seemingly were no answers.
But knowing Coach Dungy and his constant religious pontificating, my gut told me that his son was hiding a deep secret. My instinct told me James was gay, and if you understand the parallel universe that Christians operate in, sometimes death might be preferable to the *insert shriek here* horror of being gay.
Now my instincts are being reconfimed as I read this report in the Indianapolis Star, as Dungy was the keynote speaker at a banquet the other night for some nut group called the “Indiana Family Institute”. This organization is apparently fighting to adopt legislation to ban same-sex marriage in Indiana and also rescind hard won equal rights initiatives in the state.
“IFI is saying what the Lord says,” Dungy said. “You can take that and make your decision on which way you want to be. I’m on the Lord’s side.” …
A year or so ago when Jamie Dungy, Tony Dungy’s 19-year-old son, committed suicide, I was close friends with a co-worker who belonged to Dungy’s Northside New Era Baptist Church. Naturally we talked about the tragedy; and I was told that it was understood by some New Era members that Jamie killed himself soon after his father learned that Jamie was gay. My friend didn’t don’t know exactly what Coach Dungy said to his son, but one can imagine. My friend believes that a beautiful young man took his own life because his father refused to accept him. Ever since then, the sight of Tony Dungy makes me ill. It is one thing to believe homosexuality is wrong; it is quite another to be so rigid in that belief as to refuse to accept one’s own son. But to go public with his anti-gay self-rightiousness after what happened to Jamie is absolutely unforgivable.
His son who committed suicide was invariably described as “sensitive” and “personable”. The son was reportedly every mother’s favorite among his friends. The son was raised in a very strict overtly religious home. He was only eighteen and struggling with unidentified “problems”. It sounds like too many I knew when young, a few (thankfully few) who committed suicide because they could not reconcile their sexual orientation with their father’s representation as the ultimate outwardly successful straight man. Suicides are unbelievably painful for those that remain. It appears that his son’s death has only reinforced the father’s religiousity of intolerance.
“I’ll always remember him as a sweet, young boy. But I’ll also remember him as that young boy who was trying to change into a man and trying to find his manly identity. That’s hard to do today.”
The White House has invited recently retired NFL Coach Tony Dungy, whose outspoken Christian faith fueled his 2007 support for a gay marriage ban and has won accolades from evangelical leaders, to join its Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, U.S. News has learned. The invitation is likely to draw praise from conservative evangelical groups and criticism from liberals and gay rights activists.
Dungy has long been active with evangelical Christian charities like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Prison Crusade Ministry, along with other nonprofit groups, including Big Brothers Big Sisters and the United Way. Leading the Indianapolis Colts in 2007, he became the first black coach to win the Super Bowl.
The White House press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Officials with the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships would not confirm the invitation to Dungy, but his publicist said rumors of the invitation in Washington were true. …
The soft-spoken Dungy sparked controversy in 2007 by endorsing an Indiana ballot initiative to ban gay marriage and similar legal arrangements for gay couples. “I feel like telling people when they look at this issue of same-sex marriage . . . I’m not on anybody’s side,” Dungy said at a 2007 banquet sponsored by the Indiana Family Institute, a conservative Christian group associated with Focus on the Family. “I’m on the Lord’s side.”
At the event, Dungy said he “embraced” the Indiana Family Institute’s support for the gay marriage ban. “IFI is saying what the Lord says,” Dungy said, accepting the group’s Friend of the Family Award. “You can take that and you can make the decision on which way you want to be.”
“We’re not trying to downgrade anyone else,” Dungy added. “But we’re trying to promote the family—family values the Lord’s way.” …
I don’t give a damn how well-liked Dungy might be — he’s one mean, cold, smug, arrogant, delusional, homophobic bigot.
And as for Obama… What can I say that I haven’t already said? A lot, but after spending more than a year trying to open people’s eyes, I gave up on worrying about anything Obama does unless it directly impacts me. (That’s not selfishness talking; I mean, I finally conceded the fact that whatever he’ll do, he’ll do, and nothing I say will ever change that — he doesn’t care what I think — so why waste the effort?)
And there’s plenty I’d like to say to however many remaining Obama worshippers there are out there, but I don’t see much point to that either. They’ll either finally admit that those of us on the Left — the real Left — were right about Obama and his to-hell-with-the-gays policy from the beginning, or they’ll continue to stick their fingers in their ears and run the ol’ “You’re just a racist!” diversion.
And why not? I’m sure — no, actually, I know — there are plenty out there still stuck in the groove of “It’s only ONE SONG!” and “It’s just a TWO-MINUTE PRAYER!”
GLAAD Identifies Worst Anti-Gay Defamation of 2008
NEW YORK, January 7, 2009 — The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) today identified the worst anti-gay and anti-transgender voices of 2008.
“In 2008, our community saw our issues and lives receive unprecedented visibility and discussion. We saw more lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) characters on broadcast TV than ever before; movie audiences saw our lives in a new way through films like MILK; and we saw fair and accurate images in the media of loving couples getting married in California and Connecticut, even as we experienced setbacks in California, Arizona, Arkansas and Florida on Election Day,” said GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano.
“Unfortunately, anti-gay activists and media pundits continued to make outrageous claims about our community, and many media outlets persisted in using problematic and defamatory language that affects the way that people view the LGBT community. That’s why now, more than ever, we need to capitalize on our community’s momentum, make our voices heard and work towards more fair, accurate and inclusive representations of our lives.”
GLAAD works with media outlets by responding to defamation and advocating that media coverage of the LGBT community and issues is fair, accurate and inclusive. GLAAD’s work to combat the worst anti-LGBT voices in 2008 and examples of their defamation are below.
Bill O’Reilly, who frequently appears on GLAAD’s monthly “Best and Worst of National News,” led a one-sided and inaccurate discussion of marriage equality on May 15 with Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly, who compared marriage for same-sex couples with polygamy and incest. Earlier this year, O’Reilly said Americans don’t want to see “homosexual behavior legitimized” in reference to Whoopi Goldberg briefly kissing Katy Perry on The View on July 31, and he criticized Heinz for a TV commercial that included a kiss between two men on June 20. Most recently on December 10, he referred to the staff of the Los Angeles Times as “pinheads” for endorsing the Day Without a Gay protest against Proposition 8.
The Yes on Proposition 8 campaign filled the airwaves with deliberately misleading commercials about Proposition 8, which eliminated the right to marry for loving and committed same-sex couples in California. The ads relied on scare tactics and spread inflammatory lies, including that the defeat of Proposition 8 would mean changes in schools and churches. These ads used misinformation to shape public opinion and helped sway voters to pass the discriminatory ban, in spite of various legal experts and mainstream media outlets uniformly denouncing the dishonest approach.
FOX News Channel’s late-night show Red Eye continued to feature sophomoric jabs at LGBT people. On May 20, host Greg Gutfeld and his guests grossly misrepresented serious medical concerns faced by transgender youth and laughed as one of his guests referred to transition as “turning a hole into a pole.” Then Gutfeld criticized Ellen DeGeneres for announcing her upcoming wedding, saying Ellen should “shut the hell up about it.” In his September 17 blog, Gutfeld ranted about diplomats saying, “These bloated bureaucrats would learn more in two days ducking for cover in Liberia, than two weeks trying to pick up transvestite hookers in Times Square.”
A national media platform gave airtime to an anti-gay activist when James Dobson, founder of anti-gay organization Focus on the Family, appeared on an episode of CNN Headline News and made false claims about Proposition 8, including that if the proposition failed, there would be a “spate of lawsuit against churches” and “all textbooks would have to be republished” and “everything in schools will change.” The Museum of Broadcast Communications chose to honor Dobson by inducting Focus on the Family into the Radio Hall of Fame, despite his history of anti-gay rhetoric and lies. GLAAD produced a viral video to raise awareness of Dobson’s attacks on the LGBT community and released a Call to Action against the Museum for honoring Dobson’s lies and distortions aimed to hurt and marginalize LGBT people.
During the November 6 broadcast of the nationally syndicated radio program The War Room with Quinn & Rose, co-host Jim Quinn made highly offensive and ignorant statements including “[G]ay marriage doesn’t produce anything that the state has an interest in. Gay sex produces AIDS, which the state doesn’t have – or should have an interest in. They should charge homosexuals more for their health insurance than they charge the rest of us.” Despite numerous complaints from GLAAD’s Call to Action, Clear Channel refused to issue an apology and has not disciplined Quinn for his disgusting and unacceptable remarks.
Fox News Radio Host John Gibson was responsible for making made several tasteless, juvenile anti-gay jokes on his program. GLAAD first issued a Call to Action after he mocked the passing of actor Heath Ledger by making anti-gay jokes about his role in Brokeback Mountain on Fox News Radio’s The John Gibson Show. As a result of the response by GLAAD’s members, Gibson apologized for these remarks, but continued using anti-gay jokes on May 2. During a clip of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who is openly gay, Gibson cut to an audio clip of someone saying, “Oh, lesbians! Yummy!”
Transgender people were repeatedly used as punching bags by Fox News Channel and guest Laura Ingraham, even as violence and harassment against transgender people continued with disturbing frequency throughout 2008. While guest hosting Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor on February 8, Ingraham interrupted a guest by saying that a transgender conference was “killing the culture.” Earlier this year on The O’Reilly Factor, she questioned how parents of a transgender youth “aren’t embarrassed” by their child, and most recently, on December 11, she alluded that being gay is a “bad choice” when discussing a Newsweek feature on marriage for same-sex couples.
In 2008, the New York Post continued its long history of sensationalistic treatment of LGBT people and issues with two highly problematic headlines. On January 25, the tabloid printed the headline “Evil Lesbian Mom Left Toddler to Die Slow Death: DA,” despite the fact that such a gratuitous description would not have been used were the subject straight. Additionally, on February 7, the Post dehumanized the transgender community by publishing the egregious headline “Axis of She-Vil” and sub-headline, “Death to Gays But Free Ops For Irani Trannies.”
Rick Warren has a history of using the media as a platform to spread divisive anti-gay rhetoric. Warren spread inaccuracies about Proposition 8, saying that it would “prevent him from getting up on the pulpit and speaking out against same-sex marriage” on Dateline. He also participated in a video interview with The Wall Street Journal on December 18 where he said that marriage for gay and lesbian couples was the equivalent of “having a brother and sister be together,” “an older guy marrying a child” and “one guy having multiple wives.” After President-elect Obama chose Warren to lead the invocation at the Presidential inauguration, GLAAD distributed instances of Warren’s anti-gay defamation on glaadBLOG as a resource for journalists and bloggers.
Oklahoma Representative Sally Kern made headlines in March after telling a group of supporters that “the homosexual agenda is destroying our nation” in a gathering of Republicans outside the Capitol. She went on to say that the gay community is “the death knell in this country” and “the biggest threat that our nation has, even more so than terrorism.” GLAAD provided media training and media outreach support to local Oklahoma groups to ensure that LGBT advocates were included in local media coverage and balanced the harmful effects of such hateful remarks from an elected official.
The New York Post and cartoonist Sean Delonas, who has been the subject of three GLAAD Calls to Action, continued juvenile treatments of LGBT issues in an editorial cartoon that ran after openly gay actor George Takei announced his upcoming marriage to his partner in California. Delonas drew crew members from Star Trek, which Takei appeared on as Sulu, looking on in disbelief as Takei exchanged nuptials with a man. One character was drawn saying “Totally Illogical, Captain.” GLAAD placed a Call to Action to demand that the New York Post stop printing such immature items on their editorial pages.
About GLAAD: The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org.
LOS ANGELES — January 8, 2009 — Fred Karger, Founder of Californians Against Hate today issued the following statement in response to the federal lawsuit filed by Protect Marriage and the National Organization for Marriage:
After taking away marriage equality from millions of Californians and millions more in the other 29 states where they have successfully passed laws banning same-sex marriage, the proponents of Proposition 8 are appealing for pity by filing a federal lawsuit today to keep the names of their contributors secret. They raised over $30 million dollars to take away marriage equality in California last year, and now want to hide the names of many of the over 60,000 contributors who gave all of those millions. This should never have been put on the ballot in the first place, but since that was their decision, they need to comply with all California reporting laws.
These very organizations who were major funders of Yes on Prop 8 like Donald Wildmon’s American Family Association ($500,000) and James Dobson’s Focus on the Family (($623,000) and their allies have been boycotting and blacklisting companies for decades who dared to support the rights of Gays and Lesbians. Companies have been targeted for advertising in gay publications, supporting gay business organizations, giving equal benefits to gay employees, allowing their facilities to be used for gay events, and in the case of Hallmark this past summer, just for making a same-sex greeting card. They have been trying to ruin companies big and small to stop equal rights and fairness.
Well, the Gay and Lesbian community and all of our friends and families are rightfully upset with the over 60,000 contributors to Yes on Prop 8 led by the Mormon Church which raised nearly $25 million from its members. It is completely understandable that we don’t want to spend our hard earned money at businesses whose ownership gave so enthusiastically to take our civil rights away. Our opponents have been trying to bury us for the past 16 years since Utah, led by the Mormon Church, became the first state in the country to ban same-sex marriage in 1993. Well, now we are fighting back and they aren’t too happy about it.
The federal government and nearly every state in the nation have political campaign reporting requirements, most of which were put into effect after the Watergate scandal in the mid 1970’s. Full disclosure is the law of the land and it keeps our political process honest.
For over 30 years, Gay and Lesbian donors have risked repercussions by contributing to fight anti-gay initiative campaigns. Our contributions have been used to identify us, but we have never asked that the law be changed to hide our identities.
These very contributors to the Yes on Prop 8 campaign have spent months gloating about their enormous contributions to take away the rights of a minority and write discrimination into the California Constitution. And now they want to keep these names secret? This is despicable.
The Mormon Church is currently under investigation by the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) for not reporting vast amounts of non-monetary contributions to the Yes on 8 campaign. The Salt Lake City based church ran out of state phone banks, established web sites, produced slick commercials, videos and satellite simulcasts, printed campaign materials, bussed in thousands of church members into California from Utah and other states and apparently failed to report these activities. Now the Mormon Church and their allies are hoping to keep secret all of their contributions; this is crazy.
We trust that the courts will see this frivolous law suit for what it is and dismiss it immediately.
Did Mitt Romney really say it? No matter — Tom Minnery, James Dobson’s radio sidekick, says he did. Which only reaffirms the thing that always gets many magic underpants into a terrible twist: The fundy-gelicals who sweet-talked the Mormons into doing their anti-gay bidding have never thought Mormons are Christians — only useful idiots. Of course, you knew that. We knew that. In fact, everybody knew that — except the Mormons themselves, who just can’t accept the truth that they’ve been had.
Chino found this enlightening 19 seconds of video:
Before I was halfway through reading the second sentence of the following article aloud to my lovely and insightful wife, she stated with “I told you so” conviction that would singe the the big, gay goatee right off Rick Warren’s double chin:
“I warned [the Mormons] not to be the Radical Right Wing’s bitches, because as soon as they stopped being useful [to the evangelicals], they’d go right back to faux-Christian/cult status.”
Yes, they’ve been playing friendly for the past few months or so and at the moment they’re all but fawning over the LDS church. But as soon as the Mormons cease to be a useful tool in their war against gays it will be right back to Mormons are a cult that we don’t even recognize as Christians. I realize feeling like heroes for a few months is a grand thing, but is it worth it just to play butt-monkey to people like Dobson, Colson, Donohue, et. al.?
The only thing all these groups agree on is that gays are bad and should be persecuted and legislated out of society without recourse, through all the ballot measures money can buy. And … nobody involved in the anti-gay crusade realizes they’re all just chumps (Chino Blanco’s apt word) for the same ugly little man behind the curtain. And when all is said and done, they’ll all go back to hating one another again.
Repeatedly.
We just didn’t think our words would bear out quite so quickly.
From that bastion of right-wing mania, WingNutDaily (bold emphasis mine):
Christian ministry cites its failure to alert readers author is Mormon
Focus on the Family, the evangelical organization founded by Dr. James Dobson, has removed from its website an interview with former CNN host Glenn Beck following complaints over the politically conservative TV personality’s Mormon faith.
The original article about Beck’s best-selling new book, “The Christmas Sweater,” appeared on the ministry’s CitizenLink website on Dec. 19, but three days later an article published on ChristianNewsWire criticized Focus for promoting a Mormon “as a Christian.”
“While Glenn’s social views are compatible with many Christian views, his beliefs in Mormonism are not,” writes Steve McConkey of Underground Apologetics on ChristianNewsWire. “The CitizenLink story does not mention Beck’s Mormon faith, however the story makes it look as if Beck is a Christian who believes in the essential doctrines of the faith.”
The article has since been pulled from the CitizenLink website. …
The Christian Post reports that Pastor Dustin S. Seger of Shepherd’s Fellowship of Greensboro, N.C., writes in his blog Grace in the Triad, “They use Mr. Beck’s story as a way to show that hope can be found in God, which is true enough; the problem is that Mr. Beck’s god is not the Triune God of the Bible nor is his Jesus the Jesus of the Bible.”
“Through the years, Focus on the Family has done great things to help the family,” writes McConkey of Underground Apologetics. “However, to promote a Mormon as a Christian is not helpful to the cause of Jesus Christ. For Christians to influence society, Christians should be promoting the central issues of the faith properly without opening the door to false religions.” …
More at the link.
Told you so, Mormons. Dobson and his ilk used you like a condom.
And you thought Proposition 8 was your ticket to mainstream acceptance. You deliberately harmed total strangers to make LDS, Inc., look “normal” to Christian fundamentalists who will pat your pretty little heads as long as you do what you’re told, but who will never, ever accept you as equals. (Gee, now you know how it feels, eh? Not that you’ll ever learn from it.)
Letter to Pres-Elect Obama on Choice of Rev. Rick Warren to Deliver Invocation at 56th Presidential Inauguration
WASHINGTON, D.C. — December 17, 2008 — Today the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, sent the following letter to President-elect Obama on the selection of anti-gay reverend, Rick Warren, to deliver the invocation at the 56th Presidential Inauguration set to take place on the West Front of the United States Capitol on January 20th.
The letter is as follows:
Dear President-elect Obama:
Let me get right to the point. Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans. Our loss in California over the passage of Proposition 8 which stripped loving, committed same-sex couples of their given legal right to marry is the greatest loss our community has faced in 40 years. And by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table.
Rick Warren has not sat on the sidelines in the fight for basic equality and fairness. In fact, Rev. Warren spoke out vocally in support of Prop 8 in California saying, “there is no need to change the universal, historical definition of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population … This is not a political issue — it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about.” Furthermore, he continues to misrepresent marriage equality as silencing his religious views. This was a lie during the battle over Proposition 8, and it’s a lie today.
Rev. Warren cannot name a single theological issue that he and vehemently, anti-gay theologian James Dobson disagree on. Rev. Warren is not a moderate pastor who is trying to bring all sides together. Instead, Rev. Warren has often played the role of general in the cultural war waged against LGBT Americans, many of whom also share a strong tradition of religion and faith.
We have been moved by your calls to religious leaders to own up to the homophobia and racism that has stood in the way of combating HIV and AIDS in this country. And that you have publicly called on religious leaders to open their hearts to their LGBT family members, neighbors and friends.
But in this case, we feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination. Only when Rev. Warren and others support basic legislative protections for LGBT Americans can we believe their claim that they are not four-square against our rights and dignity. In that light, we urge you to reconsider this announcement.
Golly, Mormons, y’all were so eager to pile on in the comments before the election, and now, no matter what we say, you’ve all run off like bunnies with their little cottontails on fire. What, you don’t have anything to say to us anymore about your great and wonderful church? I know you’re reading — we get an awful lot of traffic from Utah every day (nah, I decided not to block Utah; let ‘em learn something).
Oh, well, I’ll just keep asking you to explain yourselves, and even if you don’t respond, I’ll be comforted by the knowledge that you have plenty to think about.
Like this question — one I find reason to ask you with monotonous regularity lately:
Are you still convinced the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wasn’t responsible for stripping me of my civil rights in California? If so, how do you explain this big, fat thank-you-for-screwing-the-gays petition sponsored by Maggie Gallagher’s brand-new anti-gay Web site, BelowThePondScum.com, a.k.a. AboveTheHate.com?
More than 3,000 people, including long-time Mormon critic James Dobson of Focus on the Family, have signed an online petition aimed at thanking the LDS Church for its efforts on behalf of California’s traditional marriage initiative known as Proposition 8.
“Anyone who participated in this process has come to admire the competence, diligence and moral courage that so many members of your faith community displayed as part of this coalition effort — as Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons, and people of other faith communities all came together to fight this great battle for marriage,” says the petition, which is addressed to LDS President Thomas S. Monson.
The petition condemns recent protests against Mormon temples and members, saying, “it is deeply unfair, and contrary to the best American traditions, that any faith community, much less a minority one, should be singled out and attacked in this way by powerful, well-funded political forces determined to ‘make them pay’ for participating in the normal political processes of democracy.”
The online effort was created by the National Organization for Marriage, a non-profit group in Princeton, N.J., organized to lobby, organize and collect donations on behalf of ballot measures defining marriage as solely between a man and a woman.
Yeah, we know the NOM, the anti-gay hate group headed by Gallagher, whose real problem I’ve been meaning to detail in depth; in a nutshell, the root of “Christian” homophobia, as put forth by Gallagher and all her anti-equality pals, primarily the straight female ones, isn’t gays, per se, but straight men. Yes, you read that right: The whole problem with gay marriage is straight men. The real reason for Gallagher’s anti-gay hysteria would be just pathetic and somewhat amusing if our very quality of life weren’t at stake — which makes it all just plain pathetic. Rest assured that once you understand what “protect marriage” really means to these nutballs, you’ll see how all their arguments unravel, and how the entire crusade can be melted under the harsh light of day (and with the aid of a good magnifying glass) — and you’ll understand just what needs to be exposed, and to whom. But I digress, as usual. I’ll get into all that at a later date, and just let it lie there for now.
So, about that thank-you-for-screwing-the-gays petition: The signature list reads like a Who’s Who in Hate, including:
…Donald Wildmon, American Family Association, Charles Colson of Prison Fellowship, Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, Paul Weyrich of Free Congress Foundation, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and Gary Bauer of American Values.
Yeah, big surprises all — not. Me, I’m jonesin’ to start digging deep into the not-so-well known signatories, most of whom include their business names (heh!), which will be ever-so-helpful as a supplement to our new database of Prop 8 donors and associated warriors against freedom. (Yep, it’s getting closer to launch; I toldja much of the work I do is tedious grunt work, and there’s a lot of back-end stuff that needs to be locked down. Hang in there!)
Well, Mormons? If y’all weren’t responsible for murdering my civil rights in cold blood, how do you explain the Radical Righty petition thanking you for doing just that? Are Gallagher and Dobson and all the rest lying about your involvement? Could it be that they’re trying to shift blame onto you, making you the fall-guy (as I’ve said all along they would anyway)? Or could it be that, by golly, Mormons really are bad guys, just like Dobson and His Merry Band of Gay Slayers?
Well, which is it, Mormons?
And if you ever finally confess to your sins against gay and lesbian Americans, then where the hell is your apology? Or do we have to wait a hundred years or so, like African-Americans did, for some future “prophet and revelator” to have some holy “revelation” before the church says, “Gee, looks like we did screw you guys. Sorry about that!” - ?
Last Friday (November 14, 2008), in a highly unusual move, the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) issued a press release out of the Church’s Newsroom in Salt Lake City, Utah. President Thomas S. Monson called for “Respect, Civility in Public Discourse.”
The very next day the New York Times broke a story on the Church?s involvement in the campaign entitled “Mormons Tipped Scale in Ban on Gay Marriage.” It detailed church campaign plans from a leaked memo. The memo discussed training and guidelines for Church members to follow in order to pass California’s Proposition 8. It’s quite a story by Jesse McKinley and Kirk Johnson.
President Monson asks demonstrators to respect their places of worship. These places of worship were serving as campaign headquarters just two weeks ago. We have heard that this is where Mormon Church members would go to get lawn signs, campaign materials, and voter lists for walking and calling registered voters. All summer and fall they were using these places of worship to actively campaign against Prop 8, and often directly from the pulpit.
They produced fourteen campaign commercials, two Web sites, ran phone banks from Utah and Idaho, sent direct mail, ran a speakers bureau, printed campaign literature, organized thousands of precinct walks and even transported people to California to work on their behalf.
In a weekend newspaper interview, Yes on 8 campaign manager Frank Schubert said that Mormons contributed $15 to $20 million to the Yes on 8 campaign. If that’s what he’s admitting, we’re sure that it’s way more. Mormon Church leaders know to the penny how much their members gave to Yes on 8. The Wall Street Journal reported that they had church members send their donations to a post office box so they could track how much LDS money was coming in. It was then bundled and sent directly to the campaign. That was spelled out in Mark Schoofs’ Wall Street Journal story of September 20, 2008.
So with all these memos and admissions and all the evidence that we presented in our filing of last week, we are hopeful that the California Fair Political Practices Commission will launch an investigation to determine why the Mormon Church did not file reports of their numerous non-monetary contributions to Yes on 8. A Church spokesman said that they filed four reports with the California Secretary of State detailing all these non-monetary expenditures. We could only find one. It was filed four days before the election on November 1, 2008, for $2,864.21. They did an awful lot of campaigning for only $2,864.21.
Demonstrations, Rallies and More Demonstrations
Last Saturday (November 15, 2008), there were hundreds of demonstrations held in cities and towns all over the county in support of full equality for gays and lesbians. This was the largest outpouring of support in our long civil rights movement. Many of these cities had never had demonstrations for LGBT equality before. From the coverage we saw and the demonstrations that we attended, they were very mixed with gay and straight supporters of same-sex marriage all standing side by side. At the San Jose Rally, a speaker told everyone to go to the Web site of Californians Against Hate to view our Dishonor Roll of over 800 contributors to Yes on 8 who gave a minimum of $5,000. We will continue to update the list as we get more information, and we have received quite a bit of new information via email from many supporters. Thank you for the tips. Our Web site, which averaged about 350 visitors a day, has jumped to up to over 13,000 visitors per day! That keeps us very busy around here.
National Media Coverage of our FPPC Filing
It was the filing heard ’round the world. We’ve seen over 100 television, radio, magazine, newspaper and blog reports on the sworn complaint that Californians Against Hate filed against the LDS Church last week. The coverage included; NPR, Time Magazine, USA Today, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Diego Union-Tribune, The Salt lake City Tribune, The Deseret News and lots more. We have most of the links up on our blog, http://californiansagainsthate.blogspot.com.
Here are links to some of the magazine and newspaper coverage:
There is a Web site that began in July that allows Mormons to quit the Church publicly over all its support for Prop 8. It’s called Signing for Something. It is very interesting. Check it out.
More Reporting Questions on Yes on 8 Donors
One of our crack researchers discovered that several major contributors to Yes on 8 had put down “retired” or “homemaker” under occupation when in fact they appear to be employed. In many instances these contributors show up as owners or CEOs of their companies. Also, when checking more closely there is an unusually high number of homemakers making five- and six-figure contributions to Yes on 8. Could it be that their husbands did not want their names connected to the Yes on 8 campaign?
Steve Largent’s Wife Contributed $2,000 to Yes on 8
A good example of spouses contributing is the $2,000 contribution of Terry Largent. She is the wife of former Congressman and Seattle Seahawks football star, Steve Largent. Steve Largent is now the President & CEO of CTIA The Wireless Association. CTIA is the Washington, DC based international lobbying and trade association for all the major wireless phone companies. The Largents live in Arlington, Virginia, and Steve joined the Board of Directors of James Dobson?s Focus on the Family in 2003 after he left Congress.
Wife of Sharp Healthcare’s CEO Gave $2,350 to Yes on 8
Mike Murphy heads San Diego’s largest hospital and biggest employer. His wife Sandra gave four separate contributions to Yes on 8 between March 10 and October 24, 2008 totaling $2,350. She listed her occupation and employer as “none.” Maybe this was done in order to not draw any attention to her husband.
James Dobson’s Focus on the Family Lays Off 202
Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado was one of the leaders in the qualification of Prop 8 last winter and spring. They gave $539,643.66 and another $83,000 in non-monetary contributions. They just cut 20% of their workforce. There is an excellent story on what is happening with this mega-ministry in the Colorado Independent by Cara Degette.
Please Support Our Crusade
We have never asked for financial support since our inception in July of this year. I pledged that we would self fund our small volunteer operation, and not take any resources away from the No on 8 campaign. And we did just that. Utilizing volunteers, we accomplished much. We certainly drew a lot of attention to all the major donors to Yes on 8. We conducted demonstrations in San Diego, Rancho Santa Fe, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, DC. We called a few boycotts, continuously maintained our now famous Dishonor Roll of all contributors to Yes on 8 of $5,000 and over, and talked bluntly about the hate that was coming our way from so many of these big contributors. We tracked all the money coming in every day for four months, and were the first to discover the Mormon money pouring into the campaign coffers of Yes on 8 to the tune of $514,000 per day during most of August and September. Now we need your help to pursue our activities, including our filing before the California Fair Political Practices Commission.
We hope to continue our efforts and act as a truth squad to track the organizations and individuals who are out to deny us our civil rights and full equality.
Ministry spent more than $500,000 to defeat[promote] California’s Prop. 8 gay marriage ban
Focus on the Family is poised to announce major layoffs to its Colorado Springs-based ministry and media empire today. The cutbacks come just weeks after the group pumped more than half a million dollars into the successful effort to pass a gay-marriage ban in California.
Critics are holding up the layoffs, which come just two months after the organization’s last round of dismissals, as a sad commentary on the true priorities of ministry.
“If I were their membership I would be appalled,” said Mark Lewis, a longtime Colorado Springs activist who helped organize a Proposition 8 protest in Colorado Springs on Saturday. …
In all, Focus pumped $539,000 in cash and another $83,000 worth of non-monetary support into the measure to overturn a California Supreme Court ruling that allowed gays and lesbians to marry in that state. The group was the seventh-largest donor to the effort in the country. The cash contributions are equal to the salaries of 19 Coloradans earning the 2008 per capita income of $29,133. …
In addition to promoting socially conservative issues such opposition to abortion and gay rights, and supporting abstinence-only education, the evangelical Christian ministry is a purveyor of Christian books, CDs and DVDs. Two months ago, citing Wal-Mart and online retailers as having cut into its product market, Focus announced that 46 employees would be laid off from its distribution department. Late Friday, Focus spokesman Gary Schneeberger confirmed that more layoffs are in store, but said the ministry will not release details until Monday afternoon. Schneeberger hinted that some programs may be eliminated entirely, but declined to elaborate. …
Schneeberger also refused to discuss the funding priorities that Focus made this fall, including pumping money and in-kind contributions into Proposition 8.
This is the third year that Focus has laid off employees due to budget cuts. …
In September 2005, nearly 80 employees were reassigned or laid off in an effort to trim millions of dollars from its 2006 budget. …
In September 2007, amid a reported $8 million in budget shortfalls, Focus on the Family laid off another 30 employees; 15 more were reassigned within the company. …
…Lewis, the Colorado Springs activist [who is straight], wonders whether the families who donate to the nonprofit ministry, realize where their funds really end up. …
More at the link, including some choice quotes from our friend Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate.
If you didn’t think acceptance by “mainstream” Christian denominations was a big carrot for LDS, Inc., as the key to increasing Mormon political power, think again. I really don’t want to waste any more time saying “I told you so” when Mitt Romney comes dangerously close to kicking Barack Obama out of the White House in 2012, so pay attention.
• Evangelicals are rushing to defend the Mormons from “attacks” by those mean, scary homosexual activists.
• Professional anti-gay preacher Jim Garlow is “hosting an event in which Catholics and Evangelicals are meeting with LDS officials so that we may affirm their role in the campaign and . . . discuss how to defend the LDS from the scurrilous attacks upon them, and the mob-like frenzy that is being stirred by those who cannot accept the will of the people on Prop 22 and Prop 8.”
• Garlow sent an email to 7,200 pastors (who, he doesn’t say) directing them to “defend” Mormons from the pulpit, and to direct their congregations “to speak out in defense of the Mormons.”
• The Radical Right’s plan is to step up the anti-gay rhetoric on their vast media network — Christian radio and the like.
• They’re hoping to diffuse (not de-fuse, but diffuse) our protests by giving us multiple targets; i.e., why aren’t we protesting the Catholics or the evangelicals as fiercely? (Answer: Because, dummies, Mormons FUNDED 40% of the hate campaign against us, on the orders of the Mormon church itself. God, these people are dense. But don’t worry — we know exactly what the Knights of Columbus did. And anyone who doesn’t know we’ve been fighting the James Dobson-led anti-gay crusades since day one just hasn’t been listening.)
• The blogger who offers all this insight opines at length, finally dismissing Andrew Sullivan’s dead-on review of the Jerry Falwell-Mitt Romney team-up to attack the spectre of marriage equality in California before it happened (which is crucial to understanding how the religious radicals pulled this off, so read it) as a “flight of fancy,” downplaying any anti-gay conspiracy between evangelicals and Mormons — right on the heels of explaining the current conspiracy (code word: “solidarity”) between evangelicals and Mormons!
• The only funny part: The blogger has a sudden stroke of conscience and apologize for “creedals” calling Mormonism a cult. I guess when your party platform has been reduced to “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” you have no choice but to pretend you don’t ridicule Mormonism as “false Christianity” behind their backs.
— James Dobson at “The Call,” a stadium rally of 15,000 evangelicals determined to strip gay and lesbian Californians of the fundamental right to marry
Do these “Christian” wingnuts have any clue how much they look like their second most hated enemy, Muslims, prostrating themselves toward Mecca at prayer?
Rex Wockner attended the Pray The Gays Away rally in San Diego this weekend — and has lots of stomach-turning photos:
It’s too strong to say that attending this national Christian event in support of Proposition 8 today at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium made me feel raped or like a Jew touring a camp.
Why would you say that’s “too strong,” Rex? I don’t see much difference between this…
…and this:
But I did have those thoughts. It was certainly painful. …
TheCall’s PR guy told me there were 33,000 people there, counted by clickers utilized at the entrances. In journalism school, I took a module on how to estimate crowd sizes. I’d say 15,000. And another journalist and I never saw any clickers.
The stage featured James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, ex-homosexuals telling their odd stories, a really good Christian rock band, and a barrage of other opponents of same-sex marriage. The event lasted 12 hours.
The crowd prayed, sang, spoke in tongues, prostrated themselves, sobbed (for California, for marriage, for the homosexuals) and, on numerous occasions, whipped themselves into a true frenzy.
Lots of words came into my head during my hours there: Cultlike. Brainwashing. Frenzied. Frightening. Depressing. …
I really wonder what they think we gays are going to do to marriage. Nothing worse than usual has happened to marriage in the years Massachusetts has had same-sex marriage, and nothing worse than usual has happened to marriage in California in the 4 1/2 months we’ve had it here. They don’t ever actually say what they think will befall marriage as a result of same-sex couples marrying. …
Instead of explaining what it is that gays are going to do that will harm marriage, they talk about schools indoctrinating children and about churches losing their freedom-of-religion rights. …
More at the link.
By the way, do the “Christians” at Qualcomm Stadium realize that Qualcomm donated $5,000 to defeat Proposition 8?
Blue Texan from Firedoglake asks: “Does this mean that Sarah Palin believes that without God’s intervention the McCain-Palin ticket will lose? Awesome!”
Press Conference Announcing Ad Campaign To Address Radio Hall of Fame’s Planned Induction of James Dobson
Campaign Kicks-off With Full-Page Ad in the Chicago Tribune on Friday
What: The Dump Dobson Coalition, a partnership of local and national gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender (GLBT) organizations, is holding a press conference on Thursday, Oct. 16, (11AM) to denounce the Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) for its plan to honor James Dobson in its Radio Hall of Fame. The awards ceremony is planned for Nov. 8., and the Dump Dobson Coalition is strongly urging MBC Founder Bruce DuMont, to rescind the award or face a protest outside of the dinner.
The Coalition has launched a website, DumpDobson.com, and will unveil a new ad campaign at the press conference, which will debut with a full-page in the Chicago Tribune on Friday, Oct. 17. This will be followed by a robust “signature ad” campaign in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media. The Dump Dobson Coalition is headed by the The Gay Liberation Network and Truth Wins Out and has so far been joined by Equality Illinois, SoulForce and the National Youth Advocacy Coalition.
“Bruce DuMont would never honor a Don Imus, disgraced for his anti-African American remarks,” said Bob Schwartz of the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network. “Nor would 1930s radio icon Father Charles Caughlin — the widely syndicated pro-Nazi and anti-Semite — be feted. Yet, in honoring James Dobson, Mr. DuMont appears to promote a ‘gay exception’ to the standards of public civility and decency rightly accorded other groups of people.”
“There is still time to reverse the reckless and irresponsible decision to honor James Dobson in the Radio Hall of Fame,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “It is unconscionable that the Museum is giving its imprimatur to a demagogue who has profited from divisive and discriminatory rhetoric. If the museum wants to regain its respect and credibility, it will dump Dobson.”
Where: Outside of the Renaissance Chicago Hotel (1 West Wacker Drive) 11 AM
Who: Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network Wayne Besen, Truth Wins Out Other Speakers TBA
Background: The Museum of Broadcast Communications opened up its Radio Hall of Fame balloting to allow people on the Internet to vote. James Dobson used his Focus on the Family show, which runs on 3,000 radio stations, to essentially stuff the ballot box. As a result, the Radio Hall of Fame is now honoring an anti-gay bigot who has built his radio empire on the backs of GLBT people. Honoring this ideologue is especially troubling during an economic downturn, which allows people like Dobson to scapegoat and promote discrimination. Dobson once said that allowing gay people to marry will “end the earth.” Seven scientists have accused him of distorting their work to support his anti-gay teachings. It is outrageous and unacceptable to reward a man who has lied, deceived and caused so much needless pain and suffering. The Dump Dobson coalition was formed to educate people about the danger of honoring Dobson and to urge the MBC to take prudent and responsible action.
‘I hope gay and lesbian Americans will give full consideration to supporting me’
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Oh, sorry, couldn’t help that. Let’s do go on.
Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told the Blade in an exclusive written interview this week that he appreciates the Log Cabin Republicans’ decision to endorse him, and he hopes “gay and lesbian Americans will give full consideration to supporting me.” …
BWAHAHAH—! Damn. Sorry.
McCain reiterated his long-held position that he would leave it up to military leaders to decide whether the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law should be retained or repealed. …
Yeah, and he said he’d leave marriage to the states, too — until he realized he needed to suck James Dobson’s Bible bookmark a lot harder to win over the evangelamentals.
Washington Blade: What personal experiences or friendships in your life have shaped how you view gay issues?
John McCain: I have known former Congressman Jim Kolbe for 25 years.
That punk?! Mr. Forced-Out-of-the-Closet, who won’t even co-sponsor the UAFA because he’s got the connections to keep his Panamanian lover in the U.S. as long as he wants? That Jim Kolbe?
Don’t make me laugh — Jim Kolbe isn’t gay — he’s just a homosexual. And he’d still be a Larry Craig-style homosexual if he hadn’t been outed by Kurt Wolfe.
… When he came out in 1996…
Was forced out.
…there was no question that I would stand by him. He’s a friend and a patriot and has been an admirable public servant, and a good example of why someone’s sexuality should not be relevant in public life.
I have also known former Tempe Mayor [Neil] Giuliano for many years.
A Log Cabinette. A Jew for Hitler.
He headed Mayors for McCain in our 2000 campaign. …
Like I said, a Jew for Hitler.
Blade: Do you have any role models who are openly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender?
McCain: I had the humbling experience of speaking at Mark Bingham’s funeral after the attacks on Sept. 11. Mark had supported me during the 2000 campaign.
That’s sad to hear.
Unfortunately, I barely knew him, but our country learned about him after 9-11. He was one of the heroes on 9-11 who tried to retake control of United Flight 93. His efforts along with the other brave patriots could have saved hundreds of lives. I honor and respect Mark. …
What, a queer has to die saving his country before you can “honor and respect” him? You sure don’t “honor and respect” those of us still alive and living with your party’s vile attacks on us every day of the week.
Blade: Would you decline to nominate a qualified Supreme Court justice, cabinet member or other appointed position just because the person is openly gay?
McCain: I have always hired the most qualified and competent people — regardless of their political party, race, gender, religion or sexual orientation.
Blade: Would you decline to nominate a qualified Supreme Court justice or cabinet member who had a history of anti-gay rulings?
McCain: I will nominate judges who interpret the Constitution, not judges who legislate from the bench. Legislators pass laws; judges interpret them. Unfortunately, too many judges have become confused [about] their role. …
Just the answer I expected: a non-answer.
Translation: “I’m gonna pack SCOTUS with all the Scalias and Thomases I can dig up, and there’s not a damned thing you can do about it, so kiss your ‘rights’ goodbye, pansies.”
Then he pats himself on the back for supporting PEPFAR, and then he avoids the question of whether he’d have a LGBT liaison in the White House:
I have already publicly stated that there will be no White House Office of Political Affairs in my administration — professional politics should be at the party committees, where it has a rightful place, not in the White House. I intend to be a President for all Americans. …
Except gay ones.
He also won’t give a straight answer on ENDA or DADT (you expected him to?).
Blade: Would a McCain administration be willing to meet with and work with gay leaders to discuss matters of interest to the gay community?
McCain: I have met with leaders of Log Cabin Republicans in my campaigns. I am always willing to listen to all viewpoints and that will continue if I become President.
Dog whistle: “I’m only willing to meet with fag— er, Uncle Tom— er, Republican homos. The rest of you can bite me.”
Next, he says he appreciates the endorsement of the Log Cabinettes, and then delivers the punch line:
I hope gay and lesbian Americans will give full consideration to supporting me. The stakes are high in this election. I will have an inclusive administration and I will be a president for all Americans.
My Aunt Fanny you will.
Next, he goes back to paying lip service to “states’ rights” and marriage equality, driving his homophobia home for the benefit of the religious extremists:
However, at the same time, my own view is that marriage should be reserved for a man and a woman. That’s what I supported in Arizona. I realize this is a controversial issue and we must conduct this debate in a way that respects the dignity of every person.
There’s no “debate” on equal rights — you’re either for equality, or you’re against it. It’s clear where you stand, McCain.
And you wouldn’t recognize the “dignity of every person” if it bit you in the ass. (Tell me, have you stopped using the word “gooks”? And do you still stand by “I will hate them as long as I live”?)
He then points out that he voted against the FMA, because “this should be a state matter, and not one for the federal government — as long as no state is forced to adopt some other state’s standard.”
Next, the Blade corners him on his opposition to LGBT adoption:
Blade: Regarding adoption by same-sex couples, you have been quoted as saying you don’t believe it’s appropriate. Can you elaborate?
McCain: I hope my comments are not misinterpreted. I respect the hundreds of thousands of gay and lesbian people who are doing their best to raise the children they have adopted. As someone who adopted a child, Cindy and I know better than most couples the amazing satisfaction that comes from providing love to an unwanted child. I believe a child is best raised by a mother and father because of the unique contributions that they make together to the development of a child. …
Taking your talking points from Maggie Gallagher then, are you?
As I did in my home state of Arizona, I support the effort in California to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. However, the people of California will ultimately decide this issue, and I’ll of course respect the decision of the voters.
Homophobic little jerk.
Lots more of the same, and then:
Blade: Del Martin died on Aug. 27. She and Phyllis Lyon, her partner of 55 years, got married in the first legal gay union in California in June —affording Phyllis many of the basic protections and rights granted to married couples, such as hospital visitation and estate planning issues. Do you envision a time when all GLBT citizens will have similar basic rights? During your administration?
McCain: I respect that Del and Phyllis spent a lifetime together. As I stated earlier, however, I believe that issues regarding marriage and family laws are best decided by the states and not the federal government.
Never mind that Del and Phyllis were far more successful at marriage than you could ever hope to be, McCain. Jealous much?
Next, he tries (and fails) to justify voting against the Matthew Shepard Act, and finally dodges a Boy Scouts question.
Now, all you homos and ‘phobes voting for McCain, raise your hands — I want to know who you are so I can avoid getting the stink of you on me.
“Things got very intense around here in the ’90s — the culture war was very hot here,” Bess said. “The evangelicals were trying to take over the valley. They took over the school board, the community hospital board, even the local electric utility. And Sarah Palin was in the direct center of all these culture battles, along with the churches she belonged to.” …
Pat O’Hara, a journalist who served on the Wasilla school board for twelve years, remembers how the religious right made her feel like a stranger in her own community. …
It wasn’t until the 1990s that local churches like the Wasilla Assembly of God, which Palin grew up attending, became aggressively political. A few years before Palin became mayor, a group of preachers confronted the school board with questions about social issues that had never before surfaced in local politics, according to O’Hara, who wrote first for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman and then for the Anchorage Daily News. “They started asking me, ‘Would you allow a homosexual to teach in schools?’ and ‘Do you favor abortion?’” she said. “At the time, I didn’t know what was coming. I said, ‘This is not a school board issue. We have overcrowding. We have funding problems.’” The last time O’Hara ran, conservative pastors mounted an effort to defeat her, saying she favored hiring homosexuals, but they failed. Nevertheless, in 1996, feeling increasingly alienated in a place she’d lived for twenty-five years, she quit the school board and moved to more liberal Anchorage.
“The whole community changed,” she said. “It became extremely rigid and intolerant, and you can see that in every election since.” Palin, said O’Hara, “represents the worst of those values. She feels that because she’s a member of the right church, she’s chosen by God to inflict her values on everyone.”
With her vice presidential nomination, Sarah Palin has become the ultimate religious-right success story. Ever since the Christian Coalition was formed using the infrastructure of Pat Robertson’s 1988 presidential run, the movement has focused on building power from the ground up, turning conservative churches into little political machines. …
She has not always governed as a zealot; in fact, she’s a bit of a cipher, with scant record of speeches or writings on social issues or foreign policy. Nevertheless, several people who’ve dealt with her say that those concerned about church-state separation should be chilled by the idea of a Palin presidency. …
Palin’s nomination, and the energy she has injected into the GOP, show that, once again, reports of the death of the Christian right have been greatly exaggerated. …
Palin — who opposes gay rights, believes abortion should be banned even in cases of rape and incest, and supports the teaching of creationism — wasn’t known as a leader in Alaska’s religious right, but she clearly had ties to it, and to some of the more extreme fundamentalists in the United States. …
[Curt Menard, mayor of Mat-Su Borough (which includes Wasilla)] and his wife, Republican State Senate candidate Linda Menard — the former director of the Miss Wasilla pageant — have known Palin since she was in third grade. … They clearly adore Palin, and when Curt Menard describes her connections to the religious right, he doesn’t intend to be critical.
Echoing Pat O’Hara’s account, he recalled that the area had been solidly Democratic until the rise of politicized right-wing religion. …
When Palin ran for governor in 2006, Christian conservatives mobilized to help elect her — the Alaska Family Council, a group that formed that year and is loosely affiliated with Focus on the Family, distributed a voter guide showing Palin’s alignment with its ideology. …
Like McCain, Palin appears to believe that the United States is a Christian nation. As governor, she signed a resolution declaring October 21-27 Christian Heritage Week in Alaska, in order to remind Alaskans of “the role Christianity has played in our rich heritage.” Written in the mode of some right-wing revisionist historians, it describes the nation’s founders — including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson — as “Christians of caliber and integrity who did not hesitate to express their faith.”
The conviction that America is a Christian nation could be especially worrisome when coupled with the kind of apocalyptic beliefs espoused by the Wasilla Assembly of God, since the combination suggests a profoundly messianic foreign policy. …
Much more at the link to send a “ninety-mile-an-hour Alaska north wind” down your spine.
In a nutshell, per WaPo: “Rather than wait for the IRS to investigate an alleged violation, the [Alliance Defense Fund] intends to create dozens of violations and take the U.S. government to court on First Amendment grounds.”
Churches That Violate Law on Pulpit Politicking Will Be Reported to the IRS, Vows Americans United
Church-State Watchdog Group Condemns Religious Right Plan to Politicize Pulpits This Sunday
WASHINGTON — September 24 — Houses of worship that flagrantly violate federal tax law by taking part in a Religious Right-led effort to politicize America’s pulpits this Sunday will be promptly reported to the Internal Revenue Service, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a Religious Right legal group based in Arizona, is urging pastors to endorse or oppose candidates from the pulpit on Sept. 28, even though IRS regulations forbid tax-exempt groups from intervening in political campaigns. Reportedly, about 30 churches will participate.
“Taking part in this reckless stunt is a one-way ticket to loss of tax exemption,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “We’ll be watching, and pastors who violate the law can expect their churches to be reported to the IRS the first thing Monday morning.”
Since 1996, Americans United has sponsored Project Fair Play, an effort designed to educate religious leaders about the requirements of federal tax law. AU has filed complaints to the IRS about 85 houses of worship and religious non-profits. One church lost its tax exemption, some have been audited and others have received IRS warnings.
Lynn noted that tax exemption is a privilege and it comes with certain limitations.
“Houses of worship exist to enrich people’s spiritual lives, not act like political machines that issue marching orders to voters,” Lynn said. “They are tax-exempt because their work is religious and charitable, not political.”
Earlier this month, prominent Washington tax attorneys and former IRS officials Marcus Owens, Mort Caplin and Cono Namorato told the IRS that the ADF’s scheme is a “mass violation of federal tax law” and clearly violates the ethics rules governing practice before the IRS. They called for an IRS investigation and appropriate penalties for the ADF.
Meanwhile, Americans United is circulating a letter to churches advising religious leaders on the rules governing tax-exempt entities and politics. Churches should not participate in the ADF’s “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” scheme if they want to hold on to their tax exemption.
Many clergy have opposed the ADF’s plan for this Sunday.
Archbishop John C. Favalora of Miami released a statement indicating that none of his Catholic churches or priests will participate in the initiative.
The Rev. Eric Williams of North Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus, Ohio, urged clergy all over America to give sermons in support of church-state separation and against partisan politics in houses of worship.
Americans United’s Web site, www.projectfairplay.org, educates pastors, laypeople and others about the requirements of federal tax law. It also serves as a place to report tax law violations to Americans United.
Added Lynn, “Pastors who are thinking of joining the ADF’s gambit still have time to change their minds and I urge them to do so.”
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
Do whatever you want in your churches — endorse all the candidates you like — but you will not use the taxpayer’s dollar to do it.
This is not a First Amendment issue; no one is telling any church what it can or cannot preach. This is a matter of a bunch of radical religionists who want you, Mr. or Ms. Taxpayer, to keep paying for their upkeep, no matter how far they go to impose their religious beliefs on our government.
The only reason churches enjoy tax-exempt status is that they’re supposed to be using the money they would have paid in taxes for religious and other charitable purposes — not, as Barry Lynn so aptly puts it, to “act like political machines that issue marching orders to voters.”
Frankly, we hope this backfires on the ADF, and all churches lose all tax exemptions. We’re sick to death of making up for the taxes churches don’t pay, while those very churches enjoy the luxury — on our dollar — of brainwashing their followers into believing that anyone who doesn’t believe as they do is a demon infidel who must be converted, or eradicated.
So, go for it, ADF — with the U.S. economy in the toilet, this is the perfect time to bring attention to the fact that religious organizations exploiting their tax-exempt status — their privilege, their special rights — are nothing but welfare queens.
Congress could scrap any future plans to cut taxes for the poor and middle class, because we wouldn’t need that extra six hundred bucks for a credit card payment if churches were forced to pony up their share to pay for the burden of living in a country where they’re free to say anything they like.
And when the deep-pocketed Mormon and Catholic churches start complaining, we’ll suggest to Mr. Monson and Mr. Ratzinger that they can start auctioning off their golden temples and their priceless art collections.
After all, when you, Joe or Jane Blow, have to scrape together a payment to the IRS, what do you do? You don’t have vast holdings, so you sell your TV, sell your car, stop going to the movies, start buying the generic mac-and-cheese…
But do you ever think about how your sacrifice is directly supporting churches that want even more out of you? Do you think they give a damn that your kid had to go without new sneakers for gym? Nope — they’re just sitting back and enjoying the fruits of your labors, while planning how to drain the public coffers dry — the coffers that you, by law, are required to keep filling.
My daily Google Alert for “mean-spirited, ignorant, and/or deliberately misleading homophobes who want to permanently classify me as three-fifths of a person, probably because they can’t do it to African-Americans anymore, and LGBTs are the last group they can piss on to make themselves feel better about their sorry, narrowminded existence you couldn’t pay me enough money to live through, and if I’d been born them, I’d shoot myself in order to make the world a better place”…
I’m kidding. It wasn’t anything in my Google Alert (for, simply, “Proposition 8″) that caught my eye this morning, but a Google query in my server logs that didn’t fit in with the thousands of hits from queries for “how stupid is sarah palin” and “black lesbians” and “why does kkk vote republican” (although there haven’t been any searches yet for “folsom street leathermen video whip beat naked,” so I guess Petey LaBarbera — or “Porno Pete,” as NGblog calls him — hasn’t sat down at his computer today):
More and more, the No crowd is using public schools as propaganda engines. The defeat of Proposition 8 will ensure continual indoctrination.
Okaaaaaaaaaaay.
Never mind that Mark Leno introduced A.B. 2567 back in February — three months before the California Supreme Court overturned the state’s ban on marriage equality — and never mind that Harvey Milk Day has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with equal marriage, Proposition 8, Proposition 22, or the man in the bloody moon for that matter.
I shouldn’t be surprised that any anti-gay crusader would grasp for the most vacuous evidence of “indoctrination” (If my children have to breathe the same air as homosexuals, they will be indoctrinated!) — such are the unthinking, singleminded robots, fools, and downright liars fueling the idiocy of all anti-gay propaganda, from “Six Consequences If Proposition 8 Fails” to Fred Phelps’ conviction that “God hates fags” because America refuses to kill queers to Jerry Falwell’s certainty that “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America” were responsible for a bunch of freedom-hating Saudi religious extremists (gosh! the irony!) of flying planes into the World Trade Center and killing 3,000 people.
So, I figure, if this anti-equality blogger will go as far as trying to connect Harvey Milk Day to the downfall of civilization, there ought to be some other real turd nuggets in the rest of this genius’s posts.
And, I thought: I bet I find “Mormon” written all over this blog.
It didn’t take long to confirm that conclusion:
August 29, 2008
I recently read The Divine Institution of Marriage…
Ah, yes, “The Divine Institution of Marriage” — the Mormon church’s attempt to clarify its full-frontal attack on gay and lesbian couples, which is essentially based on a single argument, repeated in more ways to put you into a coma than a year’s worth of “Lawrence Welk Show” reruns: that same-sex marriage is inferior because it cannot result in the production of biological children, and that Mormons should oppose same-sex marriage because children should only be raised in homes with one male parent and one female parent.
Yep, you read that right: The LDS’s alleged rationale is that same-sex marriage is bad because it does not produce children — and those children that can’t exist in the first place belong in straight households.
(Hey, it’s their knuckleheaded argument, not mine.)
August 27, 2008: The blogger links to a Mormon anti-marriage video on YouTube.
And, throughout the rest of the blog (which has been in existence only since August), the blogger notes the days he’s gone door-to-door to canvass for Prop 8.
If this guy’s not a Mormon, he should be.
Oh, but don’t get the idea that this dude is a homophobe — he’s got close, personal friends who are gay, so he can’t be a homophobe!
Rrrrrrrrrrright.
But now we come to the real poop in the pool: “Summary of Potential Legal Consequences of SSM,” in which Mister “Some of My Best Friends Are Gay” quotes “an amicus brief filed by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in an Iowa lawsuit which provided the court with an explanation of what dangers SSM poses to religious liberties.” Since he got his ass kicked by Tom Bestor in the comments section after posting the “Six Consequences” lies (I posted a comment too, and invited the blogger to surprise me by approving it), I guess he had to find something that hasn’t been debunked point by point, and sounds, you know, reeeeeal official-like, being an amicus brief and all, which is, you know, italicized, so it must be the ultimate authority, right?
Let me tell you about that amicus brief.
First, let’s get our terms straight (so to speak): An amicus curiae — “friend of the court” — brief is an opinion filed by a person or (usually) an organization, often not a party to litigation, but who believes he/she/it has certain information that may help the court render a decision in a specific case, and/or believes his/her/its own interest may be affected by that decision. (As I always say, I’m no lawyer, but I know my basics.)
The case in question is Varnum v. Brien, described most succinctly by the NCLR:
Six Iowa same-sex couples brought suit seeking the right to marry under the Iowa constitution. In August 2007, the Iowa District Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples access to marriage. The opposition filed for an appeal and a “stay” on the decision the next day, which were granted. The case is now pending before the highest state court in the state court system. Lambda Legal represents the couples. NCLR submitted an amicus brief with co-counsel McGuire Woods LLP and Joseph Barron, Esq. on behalf of several professors of family law in support of the couples, addressing the use of social science research in constitutional cases.
The Court concludes that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that Plaintiffs are entitled to judgment as a matter of law but Defendant is not. Because $595.2(1) violates Plaintiffs’ due process and equal protection rights for the aforementioned reasons including, but not limited to, the absence of a rational relationship to the achievement of any legitimate governmental interest, the Court concludes it is unconstitutional and invalid. Couples, such as Plaintiffs, who are otherwise qualified to marry one another may not be denied licenses to marry or certificates of marriage or in any other way prevented from entering into a civil marriage pursuant to Iowa Code Chapter 595 by reason of the fact that both persons comprising such a couple are of the same sex.
$595.2(1) must be nullified, severed and stricken from Chapter 595 and all remaining provisions of Chapter 595 must be read and applied in a gender neutral manner so as to permit same-sex couples to enter into a civil marriage pursuant to said chapter.
ORDER
It Is Therefore Ordered, Adjudged, and Decreed as follows:
1. Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment is GRANTED and Defendant’s opposing motion for summary judgment is DENIED.
2. Iowa Code §595.2(1) is hereby nullified, severed and stricken fiom Iowa Code Chapter 595.
3. All remaining provisions of Iowa Code Chapter 595 are to be interpreted in a gender-neutral manner so as not to exclude couples of the same sex from eligibility for a marriage license.
4. Defendant is hereby enjoined from refusing to issue marriage licenses to Plaintiffs or any other same-sex couples who a) are otherwise eligible for said licenses pursuant to Chapter 595 as amended and interpreted by this order, and b) who properly apply for such licenses.
5. Court costs are hereby taxed to Defendant.
Dated this 30th day of August, 2007.
[signed] ROBERT B. HANSEN, JUDGE Fifth Judicial District of Iowa
In other words, the blogger is quoting an amicus brief that presented “no genuine issues of material fact,” in a case in which equality won, and the anti-gay side lost.
Our little friend states, with no qualifiers, that this brief is an “explanation of what dangers SSM poses to religious liberties.” If you read the entire brief, you’ll see it’s little more than the same fearmongering and unsubstantiated projections underlying the “Six Consequences” propaganda (Christians will be persecuted! We’re all going to get suuuuuuuuuuuuuuued by the homos!) — and is probably the original basis for “Six Consequences.”
It’s a steaming load. But it’s worth the read if you’d like to see how lawyers with an agenda try to prop up the anti-gay attacks with a lot of hot air — and lots of boring footnotes so that it all looks real important and legal-like.
Wait. How can I assume the lawyers who wrote this brief have an agenda?
Because it was written by Anthony R. Picarello, Jr., and Roger T. Severino.
Picarello is general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The experience of legalizing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, and of civil unions elsewhere, cannot be ignored. It shows that, even with the best of intentions, legalizing same-sex marriage will seriously undermine the religious freedom citizens have enjoyed since the founding.
Although the First Amendment protects dissenting houses of worship from being forced to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies against their will, that is not the end of the story — it is barely even the beginning.
Simply changing the definition of marriage opens the door to a flood of lawsuits against dissenting religious institutions based on state public accommodation and employment laws that prohibit marital status and sexual orientation discrimination.
Additionally, religious institutions that refuse to recognize a new state-imposed definition could be stripped of access to government programs, have their tax exemption denied and even lose the ability to solemnize civil marriages.
We need only look at Massachusetts for a preview of what to expect. There, in 2004, justices of the peace who refused to solemnize same-sex unions due to religious objections were summarily fired.
It did not matter that other justices of the peace were available to do the job because, by Massachusetts law, same-sex unions were now entitled to equal treatment. A religious belief became a firing offense. …
Picarello and Severino wrote the Varnum v. Brien brief on behalf of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which bills itself as a “nonprofit, nonpartisan, and interfaith” “public interest law firm protecting the free expression of all religious traditions.”
…worked for the Reagan administration handling church-state matters in the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel under Samuel Alito, whom he calls a “stickler for the law.”
…and who insists that the “right answer” to the war between the Christian Right and secularists is “the Catholic answer. It’s natural for us to seek the true and the good — to seek God. The religious impulse to seek God flows from the human intellect and the human heart. Therefore, religious expression is natural to human culture.”
So, in Hasson’s world, “religious liberty” doesn’t extend to liberty from religion.
Hasson is also a hypocritical flip-flopper. In the 2006 interview linked above, he stated:
“The Becket Fund is different from everything else out there. We defend religious liberty and only religious liberty. We don’t get involved in the marriage issue, pro-family stuff or pro-life cases.”
Oh, really now? Then why did the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty just publish an entire book — Same-Sex Marriage: Emerging Conflicts — and in pushing the book, conclude that “legalization of same-sex marriage poses a direct threat to the civil liberties of religious Americans who oppose homosexuality”?
(Just guess who one of the three editors of Same-Sex Marriage: Emerging Conflicts is? Yep: Anthony R. Picarello, Jr.)
If you’d like to read the last chapter of Same-Sex Marriage: Emerging Conflicts, it’s available in PDF right here.
Granted, the issue is explored from both sides — but why publish such a book if you have no intention of getting involved “in the marriage issue”?
Sounds like the Becket Fund is neck-deep in “the marriage issue.” Well, why not? It’s a great way to sell books.
The punch line to all this would be pretty funny if we LGBTs weren’t the target of this crusade:
The only thing all these groups agree on is that gays are bad and should be persecuted and legislated out of society without recourse, through all the ballot measures money can buy.
And all these groups (except for Jews, who are largely out of the picture, and don’t believe in hell anyway) think they’re right and everybody else is wrong and going straight to hell, and nobody involved in the anti-gay crusade realizes they’re all just chumps (Chino Blanco’s apt word) for the same ugly little man behind the curtain.
And when all is said and done, they’ll all go back to hating one another again.
Politics, as they say, makes strange bedfellows. But it should come as no surprise to anyone that such natural enemies as the Mormons, the Catholics, and the born-again-Taliban would band together for the sole purpose of attacking gay people, because this is what they do.
This is what religious extremism is: Forging an identity through a common bogeyman.
I keep urging you to read Chris Hedges, and I hope you have by now. My dog-eared copy of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America is the only thing that’s saved my sanity when trying to figure out how the fervently religious can preach the love of Jesus yet be so damned hostile to us, and attack us, aggressively, and repeatedly — when we have never done anything to them, much less engage in all this imaginary “Christian persecution” they keep screaming about.
Now I understand why. The path to understanding is what I imagine it might be like to consume a lot of drugs and alcohol, stay awake for a week, get abducted by a UFO, and then stay up another week and watch Eraserhead fifty times in a row. It’s that convoluted and unbelievable — but the final, chilling, horrifying truth is very, very simple:
They need somebody to hate, or they don’t know who they are.
…the hatemongers are determined to make themselves happy by stripping us of our equal rights in California.
Read the following we just received from No On 8, Equality For All, and then please make a monetary contribution. Even if you don’t live in California, this battle does affect you, and will have a ripple effect throughout the country, and throughout the world. If you want to see equality in your state, and in your lifetime, we need your help here.
We — all of us — have got to put a stop to the Radical Right’s ongoing campaign to inject their twisted religiosity into our government, and our lives.
What are we doing? Aside from all this blogging, talking to everyone we know, displaying our No On 8 yard signs, giving away No On 8 buttons and bumper stickers, and asking our friends to donate to the cause in lieu of wedding gifts, my wife made a hefty donation a couple of weeks ago, and today, as soon as I make this post, I’m donating money that, if I believed in providence, I might think was put in my hands at just the right moment:
Just yesterday, I received a check from the IRS for an earned income credit I didn’t take in 2007 — $428 — and I’m giving it all, plus another $72 to make it an even $500 — to No On 8. That is $500 I need, and cannot afford to spend — but I really cannot afford to let James Dobson, the Mormon church, and every other deep-pocketed, bigoted liar relegate us to permanent second-class citizenship, and continue their crusade to bulldoze the wall between church and state.
And neither can you.
Remember, whether you’re gay or not, as long as you aren’t a theocratic Christian member of the bigot brigades, you and your loved ones may very well be the next target in their crosshairs, no matter where you live.
Please. Please. I’m normally much too proud to beg for anything, but I am begging you to donate to the No On 8 campaign, even if it’s just five bucks. Please do it. Don’t let the bastards tear our families apart. Yours may be next.
Dear Joyce,
Did you hear that the right-wing has now raised $16 million to pass Prop 8? $5 million of this has been raised since September 1! They’ve used this money to buy massive amounts of air time to run ads for Prop 8 as early as late September. Soon endless ads will flood the airwaves with the goal of eliminating marriage rights for same sex couples.
We need your help now more than ever — because we are behind. The Yes on 8 campaign is out fundraising our side at a pace of 3 to 2. We must match what is raised dollar for dollar with the right wing; if we do not, we are at serious risk of losing this November.
We must raise $200,000 in the next 48 hours to meet our fundraising goal. Contribute today!
You’ve probably heard that the polls show our side ahead. Some are saying that victory for our side is a sure thing. Don’t be fooled! This race is too close to call. The ugly truth we have learned from defeat after defeat in states across the country is that people lie on polls, especially about how they feel about LGBT people. In contest after contest, from Wisconsin to Colorado, we have gone into election day with polls showing our side with 7 to 10 points more support than we actually received at the ballot box.
And, these polls do not factor in the media battle that is about to unfold here in California. We know that between 15% – 20% of California voters remain undecided on Prop 8. We can persuade them to vote no, but only if we reach them first and often with our message. Reaching them via TV will be vital to winning. Right now the opposition may out-campaign us over the airwaves. We must be competitive on TV or we risk losing undecided voters to the other side.
We must even the odds against Prop 8 now. Donate to No On 8 today!
We must raise more money now to stay competitive. And we need your help to do so. If you’ve given before – thank you – we need you to dig even deeper for our fight. If you’ve not yet given, now is the time to act. Give today to help us meet our ambitious $200,000 fundraising goal.
P.S. Don’t take our freedom for granted! Eight years ago, some said Prop 22, the same sex marriage ban, could never pass in California. Yet we lost 61% – 39%. Don’t let it happen again. Give today to No on 8.
Coalition to Hold Educational Forum Thursday to Counter “Ex-Gay” Program
ANCHORAGE, AK — September 10, 2008 — Truth Wins Out (TWO) today urged GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin to speak out about her church’s support for an “ex-gay” conference that will be in Anchorage on Saturday. Palin is scheduled to be in Alaska today and should use her visit as an opportunity to inform Americans whether she agrees with her church that homosexuals can be cured through prayer, says TWO.
“It is time Sarah Palin lets the American people know whether she shares her church’s view that being gay is a choice that can be prayed away,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Voters are entitled to know who Palin is and what her views are on this issue before they go into the voting booth. Palin’s visit to Alaska is an opportunity for her to address whether she supports the goals of Focus on the Family’s divisive anti-gay conference.”
The controversy began when Time Magazine discovered that Wasilla Bible Church, where the Palins worship, had a Sunday morning program insert advertising an upcoming Focus on the Family conference on curing homosexuality in Anchorage called Love Won Out.
Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director, Wayne Besen, is now in Anchorage to oppose this anti-gay symposium. He will speak at a forum on Thursday evening in Anchorage with local religious and community leaders to discuss the danger of so-called “ex-gay” ministries. The “God Loves You Just as You Are,” symposium is sponsored by the Metropolitan Community Church (7208 Duben Avenue) and will take place at 7:00 p.m.
“We appear wherever Focus on the Family spreads lies and fear,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “Love Won Out distorts gay life and conflates stereotypes with science, while selling false hope to vulnerable people. We are looking forward to working with Alaskan advocacy groups to counter Focus on the Family’s false and destructive messages.”
John Paulk, an “ex-gay” leader who was on the cover of Newsweek, originally founded the program. Love Won Out suffered a major setback after Paulk was photographed in a Washington, DC gay bar in 2000. Besen is the author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the “Ex-Gay” Myth. TWO shadows this anti-gay seminar across the nation to ensure that the public is armed with the facts and aware that Focus on the Family is deliberately disseminating misinformation about gay and lesbian people.
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life.
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