LOOK: Westboro's Chilling Response To Child's 'Lemonade For Peace' Sale

TW: gay slur

The Westboro Baptist Church has responded to one little girl’s campaign to raise money for peace the only way they seem to know how: with a homophobic jab. Over the weekend, the story of Jayden Sink and her lemonade stand went viral online, with thousands of people sharing news of how a 5-year-old took on the Westboro Baptist Church. As The Huffington Post previously reported, Jayden is the daughter of Jon Sink, founder of the philanthropic arts group FRESHCASSETTE - Creative Compassion. The two decided to sell lemonade outside the Equality House — a rainbow-colored dwelling owned by nonprofit Planting Peace that campaigns for human rights, gay rights and anti-bullying efforts — to raise money for peace and love Saturday.

The Equality House sits across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church’s Topeka, Kan., compound, and the anti-gay, quasi-religious group was none too happy with Jayden’s event. Members from the group apparently attempted to call the local police and later stooped to yelling profanities at lemonade drinkers. On Monday, Westboro members took things to a new low when they posted an anti-gay message on their marquee, reading: “FAGS & ENABLERS ALL BURN IN HELL LEMONADE WON’T COOL ANY TONGUES.”

A sign outside the Westboro Baptist Church compound. Story continues below. 
westboro baptist church responds

Davis Hammet, Director of Operations at Planting Peace, is not surprised Westboro rejected Jayden’s message. The group’s messages of hate have been directed at many more people than just Jayden. Just a few days ago, that same marquee had a message thanking God for killing the children in the Oklahoma tornado.

“We don’t hate the Westboro Baptist members, we pity them,” he told The Huffington Post in an email correspondence Monday. “We see their hateful signs every day and they remind us how important it is to take a stand for equality and justice. The nasty things they say come from a very dark place. We truly pity them and are thrilled that many members are finding their way out of this hate group.”

Of course, we all know who the real winner is. To date, Jayden has helped raise more than $16,000 for Planting Peace and the Equality House with an online campaign through Crowdrise. She plans to set up her stand outside the Equality House on more hot summer days in the future. Planting Peace founder Aaaron Jackson wants everyone to remember this is a story about peace and not about retribution, he told HuffPost in a separate email Monday. Jayden simply sought to spread goodwill, something Westboro chooses not to do.

“I believe that Jayden’s story of spreading love and peace by raising awareness and money by way of a little pink lemonade stand is why so many people have embraced the story and felt compelled to take part in the movement.”

S.E. Cupp Defends the Family Research Council Over Hate Group Designation (video)

holygoddamnshitballs:

In what was an otherwise very informative segment discussing the rise in the number of hate groups in America in the wake of the recent shootings in Texas and questions as to whether there are links with a white supremacist prison gang, the audience of MSNBC’s The Cycle were treated to conservative co-host S.E. Cupp playing concern troll for right-wing gay-hating fundamentalists, who are none too happy about being designated as hate groups by the SPLC.

US radio host: Beware of plan to ‘homosexualize the Scouts’ through ‘boy-on-boy homosexual promotion’

A US radio host has spoken out against the Boy Scouts of America’s (BSA) recent announcement that it may lift its ban on gay members, but retain its ban on gay scout leaders, to say it would be “dangerous”, and would “homosexualize” the organisation.

Tony Perkins: Don't Give Money to GOP Until It's More Antigay

The reason the Republican Party isn’t winning elections, according to Tony Perkins, is it just isn’t antigay enough.

BY LUCAS GRINDLEY

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Reince Priebus, Tony Perkins

The head of the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, who once bragged that he’d written the antigay portions of last year’s Republican Party platform, is now telling his followers to boycott. Perkins wants payback for suggestions by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and others who say the GOP should spend less time talking about “traditional” marriage.

“Until the RNC and the other national Republican organizations grow a backbone and start defending core principles, don’t give them a dime of your hard-earned money,” Perkins wrote to followers in a newsletter on Thursday. He suggested that instead they send checks directly to FRC because, “At least then you can relax, knowing that your money will be spent advancing faith, family, and freedom!”

Perkins is unmoved by analysis suggesting the party is alienating young voters, who polls show overwhelmingly support marriage equality.

“Instead of trying to appease millennials, Republicans should try educating them on why marriage matters,” he wrote.

It’s not like Priebus is suddenly in favor of marriage equality. Perkins is reacting to his calls for tolerance and a shift of priorities. “I don’t believe we need to act like Old Testament heretics,” he told the Detroit Free Press. Still, the RNC will vote today during a meeting in Hollywood on a resolution that reiterates the party’s opinion that marriage should be limited to a man and a woman while also calling on the Supreme Court to rule against LGBT activists in two landmark cases it heard in March.

WATCH: Justice Lectures NOM on How the Legal System Works

The National Organization for Marriage is trying to fend off an investigated in Maine for possibly funneling money illegally.

BY LUCAS GRINDLEY

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Kaylan Phillips

The National Organization for Marriage is appealing to keep its donor list secret, but at least one of Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court justices is skeptical.

“You have said, trust us, we did not do anything,” observed Justice Leigh Saufley, challenging NOM’s lawyer Kaylan Phillips during a hearing on Thursday. Saufley said NOM is essentially telling the judiciary that “you’re simply going to have to rely on our word.” But, she lectured, “that’s not how litigation works in the United States.”

The exchange was recorded on video by the Kennebec Journal. The state wants to investigate allegations that NOM illegally funneled money — up to $1.9 million — into a campaign to stop Maine from legalizing same-sex marriage. But NOM continues to insist it has the right to keep its donor list a secret because of the way it solicited the donations. NOM concedes that much of its fundraising was handled in direct conversations, not merely through email. Phyllis Gardiner, assistant attorney general, said the state shouldn’t be restricted in its investigation to “one party’s version of the conversation.”

Although the U.S. Supreme Court had already denied NOM the chance to appeal once again at the federal level, it’s still working its way through the state appeals process. Read The Advocate’s recent investigation of NOM’s fundraising practices, “Dirty Money,” by reporter E.J. Graff. 

Click the header link to watch the video.

WATCH: Evan Wolfson Shoots Down Tony Perkins' Standard Nonsense

A message from Evan Wolfson to all the worried right-wingers: “The gay people are not going to use up all the marriage licenses.”

BY LUCAS GRINDLEY

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Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, on Face the Nation

With the Supreme Court set to hear marriage equality this week, Tony Perkins was back on TV claiming the end of society is upon us. But this time Freedom To Marry’s Evan Wolfson was sitting next to him to counter. As a guest on CBS’s Face the Nation, Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, warned that if the court were to use its power to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states, then religious people would lose their “rights.” Catholic Charities would be forced to end all adoptions, parents would “no longer being able to determine what their children are taught” in schools, and small business men would end up “losing their right” to discriminate.

“You want to talk about rights, let’s talk about rights,” he said. “This ultimately is not about marriage. It’s not about the marriage alter. It’s about fundamentally altering society.”

The FRC is listed as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of its continual spread of misinformation about LGBT people. And Wolfson didn’t accept the notion that marriage should be defined by one set of religious beliefs.

“You asked the question about religion, and the reality in the country is Government doesn’t issue bar mitzvah licenses,” he began. “It doesn’t issue communion licenses, but it issues marriage licenses because marriage is not only a religious entity in which religions are free to decide for themselves who may marry.” Wolfson used the phrase “civil marriage” repeatedly and argued that letting more people marry strengthens families. “It’s not about telling any religion what it must do.”

But then Wolfson moved in with a zinger to rebut the standard line that LGBT activists want to “redefine” marriage, and that it would lead to hurting the institution of marriage.

“Marriage is not defined by who is denied it,” he said, according to a transcript. “When gay people share in the freedom to marry, it doesn’t change your marriage. It doesn’t change Tony Perkins’ marriage. My marriage is my marriage, and it means I’m able to share in the same aspirations of commitment and love and support and dedication and connectedness, and that my parents are able to dance at our wedding and that our family and friends are able to support and celebrate and hold us accountable for the commitment we’ve made to one another. That takes nothing away from anyone else.”

His final point: “The gay people are not going to use up all the marriage licenses.”

Click the header link to watch the video.

FRC's Peter Sprigg Suggests Kidnapping Laws Shouldn't Protect Gay Parents

SUBMITTED BY Brian Tashman 

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins hosted senior fellow Peter Sprigg on Washington Watch yesterday to discuss the sentencing of pastor Kenneth Miller for aiding Lisa Miller (no relation), who kidnapped her daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins. Perkins recently praised Kenneth Miller’s “courage” in aiding the kidnapping scheme. Lisa Miller disobeyed a court decision that gave Isabella’s other mother, her former partner Janet Jenkins, visitation rights and, as a result, the courts eventually transferred custody to Jenkins. Miller then fled the country with Isabella to a Mennonite compound in Central America.

Sprigg told Perkins that Jenkins, who was in a civil union with Miller at the time of Isabella’s birth, should not be considered Isabella’s parent because she is not biologically related and therefore shouldn’t be protected by the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act.

According to Sprigg, paternity and kidnapping laws should only apply to heterosexual couples.

In normal marriage between a man and a woman the presumption of paternity was a presumption of something that is almost always true. But the Vermont court, which has allowed these civil unions, granted them all the legal rights of marriage, has converted that into a presumption of parentage whereby you are presuming something that cannot be true, something that is biologically impossible. That just shows how in the same-sex marriage debate we are flipping logic on its head.

And another aspect of this is that the law that Lisa ran afoul of and that Kenneth Miller, this pastor, ran afoul of is something called the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act. It was designed again normally for the context of heterosexual marriages that break up, where there is a divorce and perhaps a custody battle between two parents who are both the biological parents — the biological mother and the biological father — who have divorced each other and it’s designed to prevent someone from taking a child and crossing state lines to another jurisdiction in order to get a more favorable court ruling. So the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act was designed to protect the rights of a biological parent so that they cannot have their rights violated by the other biological parent. But here you have the rights of the biological parent being violated by someone who is not the biological parent at all. So again, the original purposes of these laws are being turned on their head in this case.

Family Research Council Argues in Favor of Discriminating Against Trans People

As Maryland weighs protections for transgender people, the FRC puts its two cents in.

BY NICK PACHELLI

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Peter Sprigg

To make its case against banning discrimination of transgender people, the Family Research Council is calling trans Marylanders delusional and in need of psychological help, according to ThinkProgress. The Maryland Senate is considering the Fairness for All Marylanders Act, which would add gender identity to the state’s anti-discrimination policy, adding a layer of protection in the workplace and housing. FRC’s Peter Sprigg testified against the bill on Tuesday by arguing trans people need therapy, not protection.

“The solution is compassionate counseling aimed at helping the individual to uncover the psychological roots of their gender identity problems,” Spriggs said, according to an excerpt posted by ThinkProgress. “This bill would force the state… to officially and legally affirm the very delusion that puts these suffering individuals at odds with reality.”

Sprigg finished by saying the bill would not make the lives of transgender people better and that it would actually prevent them from getting the help they need.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story did not attribute the source of the news and quotes to ThinkProgress.