TW: biphobia, monosexism, anti-gay rhetoric
The name of a UKIP candidate has appeared on an election leaflet that mocks bisexuals, blasts the government’s same-sex marriage bill, and warns that it will lead to explicit Homosexual Sex Education.
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.
The Boy Scouts of America will vote on a resolution that will allow gay youth to participate in the organization, but will maintain its ban on gay and lesbian parents. Tell them to end the ban on gay scouts AND leaders: http://www.glaad.org/denmother
Alan Keyes is out with a new column today arguing that Christians should not shy away from violence in the face of the “gruesome violence [that] is being done to Christians.” He also argues that the U.S. government may soon join in on the anti-Christian “genocidal threats,” perhaps as a result of the gay rights movement.
“[I]t’s not at all unreasonable to see, in certain recurring reports, signs that the U.S. government is preparing our military forces to do violence against Christian denominations that refuse to abandon God’s Word on matters like homosexuality,” Keyes writes, urging Christians to “be prepared to execute God’s law” and “release the power of God’s Word against the perpetrator of evil.”
Read Keyes’ deranged douchery.
Today the Boy Scouts of America announced a proposal to lift its ban on gay youth, while continuing to hold its ban on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender adult leaders. The decision will still need to be ratified by a vote of BSA’s National Council. In response, Equality California Executive Director John O’Connor issued the following statement:
“As we are for full equality and nothing less, the proposed Boy Scout policy change is alarmingly inadequate. Equality California is sponsoring Sen. Ricardo Lara’s Youth Equality Act, which eliminates special tax exemptions for any youth organization in California that discriminates — not just the BSA — now or in the future, against adults as well as youth in those organizations. This bill remains relevant regardless of what the Boy Scouts decide.”
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A Republican senator from northern Iowa said homosexual lifestyles pose a health risk to him and his family in comments that drew a sharp rebuke from an openly gay Democratic senator.
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Dr. Ben Carson won’t be speaking to the graduating class of Johns Hopkins University this May, reports the Washington Post. Carson, who serves on Johns Hopkins’ faculty, announced today that he will not serve as the University’s commencement speaker after students protested his controversial statements on Fox News in March comparing marriage equality to pedophilia and bestiality. Carson half-heartedly apologized for his statements last month, citing his Christian beliefs and claiming he had no intention to offend anyone.
But even in announcing his withdrawal, Carson struck a defiant tone.
“Given all the national media surrounding my statements as to my belief in traditional marriage, I believe it would be in the best interests of the students for me to voluntarily withdraw as your commencement speaker this year,” Carson told Johns Hopkins Medical School dean Paul Rothman in an email. “My presence is likely to distract from the true celebratory nature of the day. Commencement is about the students and their successes, and it is not about me.”
Carson also played the victim card in his email, claiming he is being unfairly silenced by an overzealous drive for political correctness.
“Someday in the future, it is my hope and prayer that the emphasis on political correctness will decrease and we will start emphasizing rational discussion of differences so we can actually resolve problems and chart a course that is inclusive of everyone,” Carson wrote.
While students called for Carson’s removal, Rothman issued a statement April 5 condemning Carson’s comments as “offensive,” according to the Post.
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.
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.
“Anything outside of that is morally wrong,” he said.
“We love people, period, but there are certain principals we must stand on,” said Bishop Willie James Campbell, of the Chicago-based Church of God in Christ. “We are biblically, spiritually against it. The Bible is our guide, our road map.”
“We are people who love our congregation. We are people who love people, no matter where they come from,” Davis said. “Nature and the Bible dictate our stance today. It is not our personal opinion about the lifestyles of any individual that comes in our church or outside of our church. It is merely based upon the word of God.”
Dave Agema, the Republican National Committee member former Michigan state representative who has been roundly criticized for a recent antigay Facebook post, has drawn his “facts” about homosexuality from some extremely disreputable sources — including a Holocaust denier, reports MLive.com. Last month Agema posted an essay titled “Everyone Should Know These Statistics on Homosexuals” by a writer identified as Frank Joseph, a physician. The article is also available with footnotes on several right-wing websites, and one footnote credits a pamphlet called “Is Homosexual Activity Normal?” by Edward R. Fields.
Fields, reports MLive.com contributor Ken Braun in an article posted today, is identified by the Anti-Defamation League as a nonpracticing chiropractor from Georgia who is not only antigay but a white supremacist and Holocaust denier. One “dubious bullet-point” the essay drew from Fields, Braun notes, is “The median age of death of lesbians is 45 (only 24% live past age 65). The median age of death of a married heterosexual woman is 79.” Other “Fields facts” from the piece are “similarly outrageous,” Braun reports, including “37% of homosexuals engage in sadomasochism,” “60% say they have had sex with strangers in bathhouses,” and “Homosexuals are 100 times more likely to be murdered.”
“Having chosen to use the work of Dr. Fields, the author of the pamphlet Agema posted is — at best — a highly reckless and inflammatory hack whose drivel is nonetheless doggedly defended by an elected officer of the Republican Party,” writes Braun, a political consultant and former legislative aide to a Michigan Republican lawmaker.
Braun joins a chorus of voices calling for Agema to resign his position as a member of the RNC, calls that Agema has so far resisted.
by Jeremy Hooper
I’ve done my share of media, be it friendly, hostile, or somewhere in between. When the callers and host are clearly on the other side, it can certainly be frustrating. However, you have to take a breath, but your tongue, or whatever you need to do in order to retain your composure. The first rule of politics is “do not harm,” and the surest way to do harm is to let the opposition ruffle you into a tizzy. That’s my advice to NOM’s Communications Director, Thomas Peters. Last night, Peters concluded his radio chat with Mark Levine about as poorly as a pundit could possibly end an on-air conversation. He refused to answer the question, he proceeded to talk over the host and guest, and he turned the perfectly calm and measured guest (with a strong personal stake in the matter) into some sort of hostile whose simple raising of points was somehow unfair. And then he just, um—hung up.
Listen in:
FULL INTERVIEW:Debating Marriage Equality [LM]
**By the way, Thomas has more than demonstrated his animus toward homosexuality in general. That’s the obvious reason why he didn’t want to answer the direct questions.
Whether or not Southern Baptist Convention president Fred Luter believes advances toward LGBT equality are to blame for North Korea’s threats to the U.S. apparently depends on who he’s talking to. Luter, interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN this week, backtracked on a statement he’d made to a conservative Christian radio host that “I don’t think it’s just a coincidence” that Kim Jong Un is threatening to attack the U.S. at the same time the Supreme Court is considering marriage equality cases and the Boy Scouts of America is weighing whether to drop its ban on openly gay members.
Luter claimed he said he didn’t see any connection, but Cooper pressed him on it and played a recording of the radio interview, and Luter finally said he misspoke. “There is no connection,” he told Cooper. Cooper also called Luter out on appearing to say marriage equality was as bad a thing as mass shootings and his claim that churches will eventually be forced to perform same-sex marriages.
Click the header link to watch the video.
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New York City, 5/16/13.
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