Anti-gay 'poo-poo pastor' Martin Ssempa charged with conspiracy

Martin Ssempa, a pastor in Uganda infamous for being a chief pusher of the country's "Kill the Gays" bill and also for his penchant for showing "scat porn" in church is among eight people  who was either detained or sought after an "alleged conspiracy to injure the reputation of Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral, Kampala."

According to the site Box Turtle Bulletin:

The eight are being charged with filing false accusations against Kayanja, in a bizarre conspiracy to accuse Kayanja of sodomy. As we reported last year, the conspiracy unfolded this way:

Other pastors are jumping onto the “outing” bandwagon to settle scores as well, and the rivalries are so complex that it takes some diagramming to keep it all straight. Here goes: Pastor Solomon Male of Arise for Christ Ministry accused Pastor Robert Kayanja of the Rubaga Miracle Center Cathedral of being a homosexual, along with “a group of other pastors.” Kayanja’s Rubaga Miracle Center is a very large and prosperous megachurch in Kampala. (Controversial American faith healer Benny Hinn will present a “Fire Conference” at that church on June 5th and 6th.) But an apparent friend of Kayanjka, Pastor Joseph Serwadda of the Victory Christian Centre, another megachurch in the Ndeeba section of Kampala which operates two FM stations, accused Male of of being an impostor, saying that he doesn’t even have a church.

Kayanja’s personal aide, Chris Muwonge, was allegedly kidnapped and tortured by armed men and held for five days. His captors allegedly wanted him to make a video statement accusing Kayanja of molesting young boys. Kayanja accused his rival, Pastor Michael Kyazze of the Omega Healing Center of being behind the plot. Kyazze’s assistant, Pastor Robert Kayiira was arrested earlier for trying to sneak a laptop computer into Kayanja’s Miracle Center. His close friend? Pastor Solomon Male. Kayanja reportedly believes that Martin Ssempa is involved in the allegations against him as well.

Regarding Ssempa, the Daily Monitor said he is:

accused of hiring Robson Matovu to blackmail Pastor Kayanja. Court heard that Pastor Male reportedly gave Mr Matovu a signed and stamped affidavit implicating Pastor Kayanja while Samson Mukisa was reportedly promised necessities on condition that he would speak publicly on how Pastor Kayanja had sodomised him.

A police report indicates that complaints of sodomy against Pastor Kayanja did not reveal any evidence the offences. “In retracting their statements, the complainants said they had been mobilised to make false accusations against Pastor Kayanja in order to tarnish his name,” reads a report.

The controversy definitely throws a monkey wrench into the claim of those who support the anti-gay Ugandan bill. Supporters, such as Ssempa, have said that the bill was created to protect Ugandans, particularly children, from "gay recruitment."

However, Box Turtle Bulletin said the following:

Public charges of sodomy are a common way to settle political and other scores in Uganda. Should the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill become law with its death penalty and other heightened penalties for advocacy on behalf of LGBT people or failure to report gay people to police, such conspiracies will increase and carry far greater dangers.

Besides Ssempa, the others who have been detained or sought after are city advocate Henry Ddungu, pastor Moses Solomon Male, Bob Robert Kayiira, Michael Kyazze,  lawyer David Kaggwa, Deborah Kyomuhendo, and David Mukalazi.

UPDATE -  According to the Ugandan newspaper New Vision, the police are now looking for Ssempa, but so far, he has eluded them.

Related posts:

Martin Ssempa claims to be misunderstood

Martin Ssempa celebrates his homophobia via a blog

'Kill the gays' bill supporter reduced to showing gay porn in church

Martin Ssempa talks about 'poop' to demonize lgbts 

Martin Ssempa's obsession with gay sex . . . and poo?
 

DADT repeal 'traps limp-wristed enlistees' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Fischer: DADT Repeal Means "Limp-Wristed Enlistees" Now Stuck In the Military - AFA's Bryan Fischer strikes again.

FRC staffer likens U.S. to Sodom and Gomorrah; we wonder if Biblical city had universal healthcare - There is nothing like the classic homophobic condemnations.

Parents of gay Rutgers student who committed suicide may sue school - This continues to be a sad story.

Alberta Delists Homosexuality as a Mental Disorder - What took them so long?

The 'evil, radical, nefarious' gay agenda revealed by Barney Frank

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) reveals our "agenda" for America. Dammit! I'm calling National Headquarters because he wasn't supposed to do that!

Family Research Council defends itself with distorted studies . . . again

It's a regular comedy of errors with the Family Research Council.

In the organization's zeal to defend itself from the charges of being an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, it continues to make huge missteps.

And the latest just happened today.

Now SPLC contends that FRC - and other so-called morality groups - either deliberately rely on junk science, distort legitimate science, or push propaganda to make the lgbt community seem like the dreaded "other" out to destroy American values.

FRC contends that SPLC is unfairly attacking them because they stand against gay marriage even though SPLC has made it clear that this isn't the case.

FRC spokesman Peter Sprigg, who has gone on record wanting gays and lesbians exported out of the United States and  "homosexual acts" to be made illegal, said the following about SPLC's charges in a blog post today:

For the record, FRC believes that every human being, including those who experience same-sex attractions and those who engage in homosexual conduct, is created in the image of God and is loved by Him. How this qualifies as “hate” is a mystery.

We will be preparing a more detailed response to Cohen’s charge that FRC spreads “falsehoods” in our well-documented research, which does show that certain harms are associated with homosexual conduct. Those wishing to examine that research in the meantime can refer to the FRC book Getting It Straight: What the Research Shows About Homosexuality or to our recent pamphlet, The Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality.

For Sprigg's information, I have done just that several times in the past and have found a bunch of errors in both works he cited.

I've talked about these errors in several blog posts, but they bear repeating.

Let's look at the brochure The Top Ten Myths of Homosexuality.

What's the deal with the religious right and gay sex anyway?

This nonsense from conservatives and the religious right about the DADT repeal "forcing heterosexual men to shower with gay men" has me thinking. What is the deal with the religious right and "gay sex" anyway. Truth be told, I wish I was having as much sex as they accuse gay men of having:

"One study determined that homosexual males have from between 20 to 106 sexual partners per year. It's no wonder that homosexual men account for over 50% of all hepatitis cases, and still account for over 50% of all AIDS cases despite the fact that they only make up 1-3% of the population." - The Gay Agenda vs. Family Values, Matt J. Barber

"Fidelity is almost unheard of in homosexual relationships; the average number of partners for each person is eight. These relationships are not open--they are wide open. A homosexual publication, The Advocate, reports that 57 percent of its homosexual readers claimed they had sexual relations with 30 or more partners. Twenty-nine percent of their readers had anonymous bathhouse sex. A 1991 study of homosexual men in New York revealed an average of 308 sexual partners per man." - Supremes Ruled Wisely: Arizona Can't Afford Same Sex Marriage, The Arizona Conservative

An article in USA Today in November 1984 reported that homosexuals have an average of 50 different sexual partners each year. - Offering Hope to Homosexuals - http://www.firststone.org/articles/topic/homosexuality/offering_hope_to_homosexuals.htm

"Homosexual activists claim their lifestyle, which in some cases includes thousands of sexual partners, should be sanctioned, protected, and granted special rights by society. Would you critique this stance?" - a biased question on the Focus on the Family web page

I have an idea. Why don't they just show the following:



Idiotic, isn't it? Trying to reduce the lives of millions into fevered thoughts of sex acts is the very height of idiocy. But it's a tactic which has served the so-called Christian right well on many occasions.

You will remember that they claim to oppose ENDA and other anti-discrimination laws because it might lead to "men dressing up as women and harassing ladies and children in locker rooms and restrooms."

These tactics are not rooted in logic, but fear and prejudice - two very un-Christian characteristics.

Why is Senator McCain teaming up with a hate group? and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Just in case you missed it:



McCain Joins FRC Against DADT Repeal – The Politics of Slander Are Now His Values - It's sad how low Sen. John McCain has fallen.

Family Research Council: We'll Sue To Stop DADT repeal - speaking of which, the hate group's single-minded pursuit of fighting the DADT repeal will do wonders for convincing Americans just how homophobic they are.

The Catholic Church's $400,000 Fax Machine - Being a homophobic SOB certainly pays well.

Gay advocates win victory at UN - Let's end Wednesday's news briefs with some excellent news.

Religious right strategize to undermine DADT repeal

There has been a lot of talk regarding the Southern Poverty Law Center either declaring certain religious right groups as anti-gay hate groups or profiling them for their tendency to demonize the lgbt community.

The groups claim that they are simply trying to show "Christian" opposition to homosexuality and gay marriage in general. This of course is a lie and what better way to prove it than to showcase the words of members of these organizations.

In today's issue of the *American Family Association's One News Now, Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel - one of the groups profiled by SPLC - had this to say about the DADT repeal:

"As we move forward in 2011, we're going to ask the House of Representatives to de-fund any implementation of this repeal," he reports. "We believe that Congress, the House of Representatives, can de-fund any implementation, and thus the repeal would essentially be meaningless. Then we also believe that as we move forward in 2011 [and] 2012, we're going to remember those individuals in the House and the Senate who betrayed our military and America."

You got that? Who cares if Congress voted to end DADT. Staver and company are determined to undermine the will of this vote simply because it benefits the lgbt community.

And then there are the words of Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, which was declared  an official hate group by SPLC:

"Obama and gays have shown that they care more about the sensitivities of gay and lesbian soldiers than they do about the privacy rights of the majority of normal soldiers."

You see that's hatred. That's homophobia so stark that no one can call it anything different. To LaBarbera, the sacrifice of soldiers like Eric Alva, who became the first American wounded in the war in Iraq and lost his leg because of the wound, mean nothing.

And why?

Because to LaBarbera, soldiers like Alva aren't "normal." They are "dirty homosexuals."

How is this any different than the mindset of those who opposed President Truman's desegregation of the Armed Forces in 1948? 

I don't think these efforts will be successful but they do reveal a lot about those behind them. These aren't Christian people. These are pathetic haters who mask their lies and homophobia behind Christian beliefs.

The only thing good about their words is that they clearly show these haters so filled with hubris that they don't realize how deep they are cutting their own throats.


*The American Family Association was also declared an anti-gay hate group by SPLC.

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Last ditch attack on DADT repeal fails, reveals Republican flaw

One thing is assured in politics.

When the Democrats take over Congress, they face criticism of not knowing how to govern. But when Republicans take over, they tend to overdo things, going too far with the tactics which got them into power to the point of either alienating or scaring folks.

We saw it with the Clinton impeachment trials and the case of Terri Schiavo. And we are seeing it again in the case of the DADT repeal. In an absolutely silly attempt to stop the repeal of DADT after the Senate voted, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell makes an ass of himself:

A last-ditch effort by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to complicate the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was blocked Tuesday night after Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) objected, Senate aides said.

McConnell attempted to add an amendment to the so-called stripped-down defense authorization bill that would have required the consent of the military service chiefs to proceed with "don't ask" repeal. Under legislation passed by the Senate last week, certifications are required from the president, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. All the incumbents in those positions support repeal.

"It was a McConnell proposal," a GOP aide confirmed. "There was an attempted to get unanimous consent for it to be included in the defense bill and someone objected."

McConnell's amendment, which Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other GOP senators have been urging for months, called for certifications from the four service chiefs. All of the incumbents in those positions have expressed at least some reservations about repeal at this time.

Repeal advocates have long viewed such an amendment as a poison pill. Presumably, this is what prompted Lieberman's objection. A spokesman for the senator did not immediately respond to an e-mail query Tuesday night. The stripped-down defense bill is proceeding on a unanimous consent basis after most of the controversial aspects were stripped out. Even if such a bill somehow passed with an amendment that threatened "don't ask" repeal prospects, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would likely refuse to bring it to the floor.

Of course, any such amendment, or even the prospect of it, could be seen as an effort to upstage President Barack Obama as he prepares to sign the conditional repeal bill into law on Wednesday morning.

Geez guys. Can you wait to get into power before you mess yourselves up. At least that's what Republicans did in the past.

Barney Frank knocks down idiotic question about DADT and men in the showers

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) is awesome. The right-wing Media Research Center-owned website CNSNews.com tried to trip him up with a question about the repeal of DADT. Of course the question had to do with "straight men being forced to shower with gay men." And Frank made the questioner look like a dummy. From Media Matters:

Frank saw this coming from a mile away. As CNS reporter Nicholas Ballasy slowly got out the words “shower with homosexuals,” Frank let out an exaggerated gasp and responded, “What do you think happens in gyms all over America?” After calling it a “silly issue,” Frank added, “What do you think goes wrong with people showering with homosexuals? Do you think it’s the spray makes it catching? ... We don’t get ourselves dry-cleaned.”

Frank then turned the tables on his interviewer by quizzing Ballasy: “I know you’re looking for some way to kind of discredit the policy. Do you think that gyms should have separate showers for gay and straight people? I’m asking you the question because that’s the logic of what you’re telling me. You seem to think that there’s something extraordinary about gay men showering together. Do you think gyms should have separate showers for gay people and straight people?” Ballasy wouldn’t answer, insisting that he was “just quoting the recommendation.” Frank responded: “Don’t be disingenuous. You’re quoting those you think may cause us some problems. You’re entitled to do that, but you shouldn’t hide behind your views.” Frank again asked the question of Ballasy, who again wouldn’t answer, trying to change the subject: “So that’s the question you would pose to people who have an issue with that part of the report, the recommendation?” Frank made his point one more time, and that’s where the CNS ends the video.

Say what you will about Frank but I for one am glad he is on our side.

Gay community CANNOT let the religious right take over the word 'family'

I want to post something I read from the Southern Poverty Law Center's webpage which speaks to what this so-called culture war about lgbt equality is all about:

The Family Research Council (FRC), a hate group that spreads demonizing lies about gay men and lesbians, claims that it’s simply a pro-family organization.

But don’t gay men and lesbians have families, too? Don’t their families count?

We recently received an email from a supporter that raised just this issue. With his permission, we’re sharing it here. It’s one of the many letters, emails, postings and tweets we’ve received in support of our work since we’ve exposed the FRC’s hateful lies.

-Richard Cohen


Dear SPLC,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for finally branding the Family Research Council a hate group. I am a 36-year-old gay man and when I hear these people say they are "pro-family" or for "family values," I want to scream at the top of my lungs, "I have a family too! I have a mother and father and brother and sister and a partner, and they love me and I am part of that family! I am not a threat to that family; I am a full-fledged, cooperating member of that family!"

These hateful groups have so appropriated the idea of "family" we barely blink when we hear their exclusionary discourse; they are timeworn at this point. But when you sit and think about this way of describing gay people (a threat to "family"), it starts to sink in that this is one of the most intimate and emotionally violent forms of social oppression. Homophobia seeks to literally wedge itself between gay people and their parents and siblings. It also seeks to second-guess and demonize the loving relationships that gay people form between each other.

I have been lucky enough to find the love of my life. It's a rare gift in this world, to find another person who feels like home, who makes you smile, just by being themselves. There is so much more laughter and joy in my life because of him. I feel so blessed to have found this man. And how frightening that the FRC would call that love "sickness," "disorder," "perversion" and "sin." Not only would they label it as such, they would try to convince me to put myself through a process of self-denying psychological torture ("conversion therapy") that could endanger my long-term mental health in order to pry me apart from my partner and destroy what they call "sickness."

I'm writing to you in hopes that my words show you the emotional impact your heroic defense of gay people has on the lives of actual gay people. Homophobia literally seeks to strike "close to home," and because of your actions my home and my family feel a little bit safer. Tonight I'll give an extra hug to my boyfriend on your behalf.

Sincerely,
David Hanbury

Mr. Hanbury say it all, doesn't he? 

'Porno' Pete LaBarbera and his hate group gets called out by Chicago news station report

Anti-Gay Chicago Groups Make 'Hate List': MyFoxCHICAGO.com

The national media doesn't seem to get it when it comes talking about anti-gay hate groups and the Southern Poverty Law Center. But the local media seems to be getting it.

The local media in Chicago, Fox Chicago News, recently presented an excellent report about our friend, (and Paul Cameron enabler) Peter LaBarbera and his hate group, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. Words can't do this report justice but I will try. The report is clear, concise, and gets to the heart of  the matter. Just watch it and spread it around online.

Editor's note - Another reason to love this report? LaBarbera is NOT happy with it.

Religious right plan to reinstate ban on gays in the military and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Yea NOM? It's just about marriage? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight - Because you know the National Organization for Marriage don't like same-sex households either.

False Equivalence in Media Debate over Antigay Military Ban - Just more proof that if the media won't do the job in exposing anti-gay liars, it's up to us to do it. And we must do it every chance we get without apology.

Staver Lays Out Religious Right's Plans for Fighting DADT Repeal - Okay this is a DUMB move by the religious right. The American people aren't on their side with this one.

Cupcakegate: The finale - Another religious right cause celebre is shut down.

Robert Knight: DADT was repealed because Republicans wouldn't get gross about homosexuality

For some, the need to stigmatize the lgbt community based on their constant desire to remind folks about gay sex never goes away.

Robert Knight of Coral Ridge Ministries has made a career out of spreading anti-gay propaganda and lies, even to the point of citing the discredited Paul Cameron in front of Congress. And in a recent piece in The Washington Times - one of the only places that will publish his nonsense -  Knight is claiming that Don't Ask, Don't Tell was repealed because Republicans refused to get nasty about homosexuality:

Instead of using the military debate to bring to light many suppressed facts that could cripple the homosexual juggernaut if Americans only knew, they played by their opponents' rule book.

In "After the Ball," a 1989 gay-strategy manual, two Harvard-trained public relations experts warn that "the public should not be shocked and repelled by premature exposure to homosexual behavior itself. Instead, the imagery of sex per se should be downplayed, and the issue of gay rights reduced, as far as possible, to an abstract social question." Elsewhere, the authors say, "first, you get your foot in the door by being as similar as possible; then and only then ... can you start dragging in your other peculiarities, one by one. You hammer in the wedge narrow end first ... allow the camel's nose beneath your tent, and his whole body will soon follow."

For the record, the majority of lgbts never heard of After the Ball, but for some reason, the religious right continues to claim that the lgbt community is using this book as some sort of manual to take over America by utilizing tactics, i.e. planning groups, money, secret organizations, that the religious right themselves are guilty of.

Knight then proceeds to catalog a bunch of things he feels Republicans should have brought up:

* Flawed science has been misused mightily. From Alfred Kinsey's fraudulent research in the 1940s to UCLA Prof. Evelyn Hooker's cooked psychological studies in the late 1950s to misreported "genetic" studies of the 1990s, the public has been browbeaten into ignoring biology, common sense and thousands of years of moral teaching about human sexuality.

* The obvious threat to the military blood supply. According to the Centers for Disease Control, men who have sex with men are 44 times more likely to have HIV and 46 more times to have syphilis. Even if gay men enter the services testing negatively, they're going to have sex in the most likely pool in which to become infected.

* Data compiled by the Family Research Council showing that homosexuals commit a disproportionate number of sexual assaults in the military, even with the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

Notice how he never says just how the studies of Kinsey and Hooker were flawed, how he gives himself an out in talking about the blood supply by the "even if" addendum, and how he cites the Family Research Council's useless study, which no one else cited. Knight conveniently forgot to mention the "coincidence" of the discredited Paul Cameron coming out with the same type of study a week before FRC did.
 
The irony of Knight's position is the realization that 17 years ago, Republicans and those who didn't support gays and lesbians serving openly in the military did pull out the horror stories. They talked about "gay sex," "the gay agenda," "fisting," and even pulled the "gay assault" card.

But things have changed.  Homophobia still exists but for the most part, more of us are out and unashamed of who we are despite the efforts of those like Knight. Americans know more of us and the lies about us being an invading horde of Godless creatures just isn't resonating like they used to.

The sad thing is that no one told Knight. But I don't think he would care if anyone did tell him. He seems to be willfully stuck in the past.



Editor's note - In the Southern Poverty Law Center's profile of anti-gay hate groups, Robert Knight's name comes up many times.

Southern Poverty Law Center is making wingnut Matt Barber delirious

You want to hear the funniest reaction from the religious right to the Southern Poverty Law Center profiling them for their anti-gay lies? Check this out:

Sometimes the most effective way to deal with a bully is to simply pop him in the chops. While it may not shut him up entirely, it usually gives him pause before he resumes flapping his toxic jaws. It also has the effect of showing the other kids in the schoolyard that they have nothing to fear. Though the bully struts about projecting the tough-guy image, he's typically the most insecure pansy on the block.

Such is the case with the bullies over at the fringe-left Southern Poverty Law Center. Having been recently "popped in the chops," if you will, for a series of hyperbolic and disingenuous "anti-gay hate group" slurs against a dozen-or-so of America's most well respected Christian and conservative organizations – the SPLC now finds itself publicly struggling, outside of an extremist left-wing echo chamber, to salvage a modicum of mainstream credibility.

In response to the SPLC's unprovoked attacks, a unified coalition of more than 150 top conservative and Christian leaders across the country has launched a shock-and-awe "Start Debating, Stop Hating" media blitz to educate America about the SPLC's ad hominem, politically driven smear campaign.

The mainstream pro-family conglomerate already includes presumptive Speaker of the House John Boehner, former presidential contender Mike Huckabee, four current U.S. senators, three governors, 20 current or newly elected members of the House of Representatives and many more.

As the controversy wears on and the facts become public, the moribund SPLC has understandably become increasingly defensive, strongly suggesting that it has come to regret this gross political overreach.

That passage is by the right-wing Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber in a recent column published by World Net Daily.  It's obvious that Barber has obsessed over gay sex so much that he is losing leave of his senses.

Barber's entire piece is empty hyperbole from a man claiming to win a poker game while he is playing with a dud hand.

What Barber calls a media blitz is an ignorant campaign by groups who don't want admit their wrongdoings teaming up with a bunch of shortsighted legislators and conservative leaders who themselves have engaged in ugly spin doctoring against the lgbt community . Their campaign hasn't resonated anywhere except for the lgbt community where we are rubbing our hands with glee while salivating over the notion that these individuals so easily (and stupidly) have put their necks on the chopping blocks and are waiting for us to come down with the axe at our leisure.

You see for the first time, the issue is not about whether or not lgbts have the right to equality. That's something which never needed to be argued. The issue is now, and deservedly so, why are these so-called moral groups saying these untrue and thereby unChristian things about the lgbt community.

Not exactly "shock and awe," is it?

But what's even more hilarious is the fact that Barber actually accuses the SPLC of taking comments out of context:

. . . the SPLC has begun to grease the skids. Quotes cherry picked, taken out of context and misapplied are a powerful tool of the propagandist. Such are the Maoist techniques of the SPLC.

It's interesting how Barber uses that opening to claim that SPLC distorted a comment he made about hate crimes. But he conveniently ignores how the SPLC calls him out regarding the following comment he made:

There is nothing "conservative" about "one man violently cramming his penis into another man’s lower intestine and calling it 'love'";

I would love to hear how that comment is a distortion. Or how about these from other religious right groups profiled by SPLC:

•Homosexual behavior ought to be outlawed;

•Gay sex ought to carry criminal penalties;

•Gays ought to be prohibited from serving in public office;

•Gay sex is domestic terrorism;

•"Hitler recruited around him homosexuals to make up his Stormtroopers ... [because] homosexual soldiers basically had no limits [to] the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict."

Then Barber does the standard religious right dodge - citing statistics from the CDC and other health organizations regarding health issues affecting the lgbt community.

Of course Barber conveniently omits the fact that the none of these organizations ever said that the lgbt orientation is indicative of bad health. They have said that homophobia leads to lgbts not getting the information or health care that they need. What Barber is doing is no different than a racist citing health organizations to claim that the African-American community is inferior.

Finally, Barber says the following, which pretty much nails down the fact that he has gone delusional:

Indeed, the SPLC and its allies are flailing violently as they swim upstream against a torrent of settled science, thousands of years of history and the unwavering moral precepts of every major world religion.

It's little wonder they've resorted to childish name calling.

Well Barber ought to know about name-calling. And the irony that he actually talks about "settled science" when he and his organization has gone against "settled science" when demonizing the lgbt community is the very height of audacity.

But lastly, Barber seems to have his fingers in his ears and his eyes closed.  It's sad really. While the Family Research Council tries to fight SPLC, Barber has actually convinced himself that the SPLC and the lgbt community is retreating in this controversy.

Hardly.

The lgbt community has had an excellent year. In courts, we've beaten DOMA and Proposition 8, gay adoption in Florida is now allowed after over two decades, George Rekers, a peddler of anti-lgbt propaganda was taken down, then there is that very interesting that happened this weekend. What was it? Oh yeah, the repeal of DADT after 17 years.

The lgbt community, nor the SPLC, aren't swimming upstream. We are coasting on a hot wave.

And you and your side are coasting, too.  But in the other direction. All of your phoniness about being moral and pro-family while engaging in a 20+ year of lies and propaganda against the lgbt community is finally coming to light.

You aren't just flailing. You are already dead on the water.

Republicans threatening START treaty in revenge for DADT repeal

All I can say is petty, petty, petty. From the Huffington Post:

The repeal of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy over the weekend was a major victory for the White House, but it is now imperiling a chief priority: the ratification of the nuclear-arms-reduction pact with Russia known as the New START Treaty. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had promised the White House early last week that they would deliver the votes necessary to ratify the START treaty if the administration would pull the repeal of the military's DADT policy off the lame-duck agenda, according to Democratic aides familiar with the pair's offer.

The White House declined the offer and pushed ahead with repeal; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) brought it to the Senate floor Saturday, where it won 63 votes to defeat a filibuster, and 65 votes on final passage.

Now that DADT has been repealed, Graham is signaling he'll no longer vote for the treaty. "If you really want to have a chance of passing START, you better start over and do it in the next Congress because this lame duck has been poisoned," Graham said on CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

I'm posting this for two reasons: just underscoring how petty some members of the Republican party is. I have a feeling that this is going to be their Achilles heel. Playing hardball is a good tactic but so is knowing when to play hardball and when to give it a rest.

Secondly, this situation is something to remember for those accusing the Obama Administration, and especially the President, of having no fight in him. He could have done compromised with Republicans on this, but he said forget it.

Isn't that a show of guts? 

Religious right freakout over DADT repeal continues and other Monday midday news briefs

Socarides, Eleveld join new media 'rapid response' initiative EqualityMatters.org - This is BIG news. We need an organization like this one to battle the lies.

Right Wing Delegate Seeks to Ban Gays From Virginia National Guard - Religious right freak out over DADT repeal continues.

US senator: Gay ban may doom Russia treaty - Sooner or later, being that party of No will backfire.

Sen. McCain Ain’t No Goldwater - Sen. John McCain is pitiful.

Civil Rights Movement legend John Lewis stands up for the equality of gays and lesbians

Sometimes I wish the African-American community should not only recognize the similarities between the black civil rights movement and the lgbt fight for equality but also the fact that those claiming to defend the legacy of black people against "radical homosexuals," i.e. the religious right, don't really care about them. After all, where are religious right voices when it comes to issues like education, poverty, and socioeconomic inequality.

Sorry, I am rambling. Blame the following speech for getting me on that path. It's from last week when the House of Representatives was discussing the issue of DADT. This is John Lewis (D -GA), a legend in the African-American civil rights struggle. He served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), helped organize the first lunch-counter sit-in in 1959 at the age of 19, and was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington. In May 1961, he participated in the initial Freedom Ride, during which he endured violent attacks in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and Montgomery, Alabama. In 1964, he helped to coordinate the Mississippi Freedom Project, and, in 1965, he led the Selma-to-Montgomery march to petition for voting rights where marchers were brutally confronted in an incident that became known as "Bloody Sunday."

Recently, he has been named as one of the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. If anyone can rightfully talk about the legacy of the African-American civil rights movement, it is him. And THIS is what he said about the repeal of DADT:

In wake of DADT repeal, homophobes just can't stop talking about 'gay sex' and the 'gay agenda'

If you want the typical rightwinger reaction to yesterday's excellent repeal of DADT, look no further than the Town Hall column of Kevin McCullough.

McCullough, supposedly the leader of what he calls the "Musclehead Revolution" had the following to say:

1. What happens to housing, on base and in theater?

If it is morally questionable to have men and women housed together because of the sexual tension that exists between primarily men who would be predatorily interested in the women they might shower with or frequently be seen in the act of dressing and undressing on a regular basis, why is it any different if you have identified the predatory homosexual male who might have an unrequited "thing" for a fellow service member? If it is proper to keep men and women housed separately do we now go to four sets of housing. Men who don't engage in homosexual activity, Men who do, Women who don't, Women who do? Practically speaking Mr. President how do you get past the fundamental sexual tension that will be present the minute some make it known?

2. Do you expect the military system or the civilian courts to deal with the influx of phony sexual harassment cases to follow?

Oh brother. With this monstrosity of a column, McCullough unites two of his favorite targets of ridicule  - President Obama whom he feels he has a right to criticize because he is a man who has fathered a son whose skin is darker than the average African American (his exact words) and the lgbt community, whom he swears up and down are created by older, lecherous gay men molesting younger men:

The "alphas" in homosexual relationships, be they men or women, are many times recruiting younger partners. A vast percentage of those who enter the homosexual life do so after having been sexually initiated by an older person of their sex – be it consensual or not – it usually has the feel of enticement or seduction. - The 'gay' truth

Is The Washington Post helping religious right groups lie about hate group designation?

We are extremely happy with the victory yesterday with regards to the Senate repealing DADT, but as the following incident demonstrates, the so-called culture war isn't over yet.

One of the most annoying things about religious right groups is despite their claims to stand for truth and morality, humility and admittance of wrongdoing in the face of obvious evidence is something foreign to them.

And it doesn't help when they are aided and abetted by those who should seemingly know better.

On Friday, Matthew J. Franck is Director of the William E. and Carol G. Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, NJ, wrote a piece in The Washington Post about the controversy regarding the Southern Poverty Law Center naming and profiling several religious right organizations as hate groups.

The title of the piece, In the gay marriage debate, stop playing the hate card, should give you some indication of where Franck is going.

Franck criticizes SPLC for naming the Family Research Council and other religious right organizations as hate groups. And according to him, it is because of their stance against gay marriage:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a once-respected civil rights organization, publishes a "report" identifying a dozen or so "anti-gay hate groups," some for no apparent reason other than their vocal opposition to same-sex marriage. Other marriage advocacy groups are put on a watch list. 


  . . . The SPLC's report on "hate groups" gives the game away. It notes that no group is listed merely for "viewing homosexuality as unbiblical." But when describing standard expressions of Christian teaching, that we must love the sinner while hating the sin, the SPLC treats them as "kinder, gentler language" that only covers up unreasoning hatred for gay people. Christians are free to hold their "biblical" views, you see, but we know that opposition to gay marriage cannot have any basis in reason. Although protected by the Constitution, these religious views must be sequestered from the public square, where reason, as distinguished from faith, must prevail.

But Franck's entire argument is inaccurate. SPLC has said on more than one occasion that opposition to gay marriage was not the reason why these groups were named as anti-gay hate groups or profiled. The organization has made it clear that the designation is because these groups have deliberately spread lies and junk science about the lgbt community. Lies such as:

• gay men molest children at a higher level than heterosexuals,
• gay men have a shorter lifespan,
• gays contributed to the Holocaust in Germany.

Conveniently, Franck's piece doesn't even address these lies. He tries to make the controversy strictly about gay marriage.

And to be honest, Franck's stance is not accidental. His lie is as deliberate as those of religious right groups when they demonize lgbts.

And here is my problem with The Washington Post giving him room. Franck's piece is not an honest opinion commentary.  The piece uses talking points and phrases that seem to be derived from FRC's  press releases about the controversy, even down to the part "honoring" SPLC for its past work against racism.

In short, Franck's piece is an ad for the Family Research Council's anti-SPLC campaign, sounding as if it came less from his heart and more from a board room.  Perhaps FRC's board room?

The piece is certainly in line with FRC's campaign of trying to make the issue one about gay marriage rather than one about how the organization and several other religious right groups spread lies about the lgbt community in the same manner that racists spread lies about the African-American community.

Certainly any newspaper has an obligation to push both sides of an argument but, for lack of a better phrase, The Washington Post got "punked."

In attempting to be objective, the Post became the victim of a campaign of misinformation that did not only a disservice to itself and its readers, but also to the concept of journalism itself.

American Family Association distorts Associated Press article on DADT repeal

 The American Family Association's One News Now has already begun distorting an Associated Press article about the DADT repeal:

One News Now version:

Despite warnings of a serious disruption in military operations and concerns over prejudice against Christians, the Senate has bowed its knee to homosexual activists and voted to repeal the military ban against gays known as 'don't ask don't tell.'

The Senate agreed on Saturday to do away with the 17-year ban on openly gay troops and sent President Barack Obama legislation to overturn the Clinton-era policy.

Obama was expected to sign the bill into law next week, although changes to military policy probably wouldn't take effect for at least several months. Under the bill, the president and his top military advisers must first certify that lifting the ban won't hurt troops' ability to fight. After that, the military would undergo a 60-day wait period.

The actual Associated Press article:

In a historic vote for gay rights, the Senate agreed on Saturday to do away with the military's 17-year ban on openly gay troops and sent President Barack Obama legislation to overturn the Clinton-era policy known as "don't ask, don't tell."

Obama was expected to sign the bill into law next week, although changes to military policy probably wouldn't take effect for at least several months. Under the bill, the president and his top military advisers must first certify that lifting the ban won't hurt troops' ability to fight. After that, the military would undergo a 60-day wait period.

Also, One News Now omitted portions of the Associated Press article not conducive to the point of view it is trying to push. Portions like the following:

More than 13,500 service members have been dismissed under the 1993 law.

What makes the situation even worse is that One News Now includes the byline of the AP writer Anne Flaherty, thereby making it appear that she wrote the article as it appears on the phony news organization's site.

Oh well, it's not like anyone figured that the American Family Association, or any of the other religious right groups for that matter, would "go gently into that good night" about the DADT repeal.

But it's so predictable. When you can't add anything to the discussion but lies, you become boring. And right now, AFA is making me yawn.

DADT is DEAD!

The Senate voted today by a vote of 65-31 to end the awful policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, thereby assuring that gays and lesbians can serve openly in the military.

Granted, President Obama and Secretary of War Gates needs to sign the bill and it will go into effect after 60 days, so this is by no means the end.

The religious right will try to fuel a backlash (and I am waiting for that with my literary Louisville slugger), and there will be some bumps on the road as those who still have a problem with gays and lesbians serving openly in the military will have to deal with the change.

So while we all dance in the streets tonight, let's be mindful of the work that begins tomorrow in order to ensure our hard earned rights.  And let's not forget to thank all of those who worked their asses off to get us to this point.

But at the same time, let's not forget the importance of what just took place. This day should teach the lgbt community to never be discouraged and never to deter from the path of legitimacy.

Today is a huge victory for not only the lgbt community, not only America, but for the spirit of hope, change, and the belief that regardless of how things look, goodness and truth will always win in the end.

Senate giving DADT a swift kick in the ass!!!!!!!!

17 year ago . . .

while I was in college, a young man told me that gays don't deserve to be in the military because too many of us engage in "fisting,"

Leaders in the Armed Forces distributed copies of the religious right video "The Gay Agenda," containing the discredited research of Paul Cameron, and

Democrat Senator Sam Nunn led the fight against gays serving openly in the military.

All of this led to that awful policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.


Today . . .

Sam Nunn, now a former Senator, thinks gays should serve openly in the military,

Paul Cameron is suffering a well-deserved public disgrace and his former religious right cohorts are fighting a losing battle against charges of being anti-gay hate groups,

And now, by a vote of 63-33, the Senate has advanced the repeal of DADT, pretty much assuring that gays and lesbians will now be able to serve openly in the military.

Can I get an "amen" for progress?

My only "regret" is that Elaine Donnelly of the so-called Center for Military Readiness will have to find a new job. Oh well, there are plenty of other things she can distort about gay community.

Know Your LGBT History - Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia

Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) was a huge box office and critical flop at the time it premiered. However it's now a cult classic.

Regardless, it's still an ugly nihilistic little film about a Mexican drug lord who offers to pay $1 million for the decapitated head of the man who impregnated his daughter.

Naturally when word of this gets around, it attracts all sorts of uglies out of the woodwork, filtering down to grizzled Benny (Warren Oates), a retired military man who is now a bar manager and piano player at a Mexican dive.

It just so happens that Benny finds out from his girlfriend that Alfredo Garcia is already dead, the victim of a car crash. So all that's left to do is dig up his grave and collect his head.

Easy money, right? Wanna bet.

This film was partly created and totally directed by the late Sam Pecknipah, a filmmaker renowned of his grittiness, realism, and umcompromising view of the world. And if you ever saw any of his other films (particularly The Wild Bunch), then you just know that Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia will be an orgy of violence, blood, and unsavory characters pushed by their greed to unhappy endings.

And for the purpose of this blog, let's talk about two of these characters; two of the Mexican bandit's hitmen who just happens to be a gay couple. Sappensly (Robert Webber) and Quill (Gig Young) are brutal, hateful characters as the following scene demonstrates. But at least their being gay is an incidental thing to their nastiness. (Editor's note - if you hate extreme violence, do not watch this scene):



Past Know Your LGBT History Posts

Know Your LGBT History - Dirty Laundry

Know Your LGBT History - The Willie Witch Project

Know Your LGBT History - Spartacus

Know Your LGBT History - Caged

Know Your LGBT History - The Birdcage

Know Your LGBT History - Maude

Know Your LGBT History - That Certain Summer

Know Your LGBT History - Boat Trip

Know Your LGBT History - Staircase

Know Your LGBT History - Beautiful Thing

Know Your LGBT History - Armed and Dangerous

Know Your LGBT History - The Proud Family

Know Your LGBT History - Suddenly Last Summer

Know Your LGBT History - Gay TV Now

Know Your LGBT History - Stewardess School

Know Your LGBT History - Up the Academy

Know Your LGBT History - Don't be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Know Your LGBT History - A Different Story

Know Your LGBT History - Victim

Know Your LGBT History - The Color Purple

Know Your LGBT History - Making Love

Know Your LGBT History - A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge

Know Your LGBT History - Noah's Arc

Know Your LGBT History - Ode to Billy Joe

Know Your LGBT History - Adorable Adrian Adonis

Know Your LGBT History - The Night Strangler

Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family

Know Your LGBT History - Tongues Untied

Know Your LGBT History - The Celluloid Closet

Know Your LGBT History - Querelle

Know Your LGBT History - Theatre of Blood

Know Your LGBT History - Strange Fruit

Know Your LGBT History - Designing Women

Know Your LGBT History - The Children's Hour

Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester

Know Your LGBT History - Once Bitten

Know Your LGBT History - The Boys in the Band

Know Your LGBT History - Christopher Morley, the crossdressing assassin

Know Your LGBT History - Midnight Cowboy

Know Your LGBT History - Dracula's Daughter

Know Your LGBT History - Blacula

Know Your LGBT History - 3 Strikes

Know Your LGBT History - Paris Is Burning

Know Your LGBT History - The Women

Know your LGBT History - Soul Plane

Know Your LGBT History - The Player's Club

Special Know Your LGBT History - Fame

Know Your LGBT History - Welcome Home, Bobby

Know Your LGBT History - Barney Miller

Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show

Know your lgbt history - Martin Lawrence and that 'gay guy' on his show

Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show

Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up

Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps

Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware

Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks

Know your lgbt history - Mannequin

Know your lgbt history - The Warriors

Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover

Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame

Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes

Know your lgbt history - California Suite

Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)

Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue

Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay

Know your lgbt history - Windows

Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla

Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles

Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son

Know your lgbt history - In Living Color

Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords

Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?

Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street

Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys

Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy

Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George

Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda

'Know your lgbt history - Cruising

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil

The Jeffersons and the transgender community   

Gay father receives White House honor and other Friday midday news briefs

White House Invites Father at Center of Adoption Victory - I love this!

SPLC myth #4: Homosexuals don’t live nearly as long as heterosexuals - Warren Throckmorton takes the religious right to task for the gays don't live as long as heterosexuals lie. I've talked about the lie several times but Throckmorton adds some information even I wasn't aware of.

Maybe Brian thinks if he spins hard enough, the thumbs down will reverse? - Jeremy Hooper schools the National Organization for Marriage's Brian Brown. Go get 'em Jeremy!

Council of Conservative Citizens To Boycott "Thor" Over Casting of Black Actor - Apparently before Tony Perkins joined the anti-gay group the Family Research Council, he used to hang out with racist hate groups.

Rachel Maddow Takes Gay Republican Group to Task: Video - Point blank, Rachel Maddow is probably the best journalist on television today. She is not rude, she does not dumb down her intelligence, and she doesn't NEED to take cheesecake photos. Here is a game you can play - match the Fox blonde female anchor out the three choices (Laura Ingraham, Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson) with the offense.

Family Research Council plans to go on tour against the Southern Poverty Law Center

Another interview with another "friendly" publication and the Family Research Council puts its foot in its mouth.

The organization and its leader, Tony Perkins is still steaming over the anti-gay hate group designation given to it and several other religious right groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. This week, the organization ran full page ads in Politico and the Washington Examiner calling the designation into question but conveniently not directly addressing the charges that they deliberately spread anti-gay propaganda and junk science to smear the lgbt community.

The ads also had the signatures of over 150 conservative leaders, including over 20 members of Congress.

Yesterday during an interview with Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller, FRC's Perkins made an interesting comment:

“We’re not afraid to debate the issues,” Perkins said in a phone interview. “We are not running from the debate. We are confident on the issues we advocate for based on empirical, peer-reviewed research.”

The comment is highly ironic seeing that the last time Perkins did have a debate on the issue - on the news program Hardball with the SPLC's Mark Potok - he distorted data to make the inaccurate claim that pedophilia and homosexuality is connected. He also cited an organization, the American College of Pediatricians. It was later discovered that the ACP is not a legitimate medical organization but a sham group created to push religious right distortions about the lgbt community.

Hardball's host, Chris Matthews, was forced to give a clarifying statement regarding the ACP on a later broadcast.

Since that time, Perkins has pretty much avoided debates, appearing on "friendly" news programs such as  Fox and Friends.  Nor has he been directly addressing SPLC's charges.

That seems to have been left up to the other anti-gay groups listed by SPLC. But unfortunately, their spokespeople haven't been doing such a good job.

This week during an interview with the Concerned Women for America's Martha Kleder, Peter LaBarbera (head of Americans for Truth, another organization cited as a hate group) actually admitted to citing bad studies in order to smear the lgbt community.

Meanwhile, Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association (yet another group cited by SPLC's for its spreading of anti-gay propaganda) has made statements during interviews and columns that have, to many, justified SPLC for calling his organization and several others out.

During the same Daily Caller interview, Perkins said the organization plans to go on a nationwide tour to get more signatures for its letter. He also said:

We’re going to full-speed but not in the direction they want us to. The left wants to say these issues are beyond debate. If we, as a country, decide there is no debate, it becomes a totalitarian state.” 

 SPLC didn't respond to the Daily Caller's request for a comment * (see below), but the organization already put out a statement regarding the Family Research Council's campaign:

(FRC's letter) was a remarkable performance, given that it was precisely the maligning of entire groups of people — gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people — that caused the SPLC to list groups like the FRC.

. . .  Despite the claims made in today’s statement, the SPLC’s listings are not in any way intended to suppress these groups’ free speech. We’re not asking that these groups be silenced or punished in any way. What we are doing is calling them out for their lies. There is nothing wrong with labeling an organization a hate group based on what they say. A simple example illustrates the point: If a neo-Nazi group said all Jews are “vermin,” no one would argue with our characterizing it as a hate group.

Neither are we mounting an attack on individuals or “groups that uphold Judeo-Christian moral views,” as today’s statement suggests. In fact, as we say in our article dissecting the views of these groups, “Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations for listing as hate groups.” Instead, as we explained there, “the SPLC’s listings of these groups is based on their propagation of known falsehoods — claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities — and repeated, groundless name-calling.”

Personally, I am all for FRC taking their letter on tour.  That would give the lgbt community the opportunity to ask them several questions such as:

Please explain how the following statements are an example of upholding "Judeo-Christain" moral views:

•Gays should be exported from the country;

•The federal government must be overthrown if it allows gay marriage;

•"Moral perverts" need to be kept out of the military;

•There is nothing "conservative" about "one man violently cramming his penis into another man’s lower intestine and calling it 'love'";

•Homosexual behavior ought to be outlawed;

•Gay sex ought to carry criminal penalties;

•Gays ought to be prohibited from serving in public office;

•Gay sex is domestic terrorism;

•"Hitler recruited around him homosexuals to make up his Stormtroopers ... [because] homosexual soldiers basically had no limits [to] the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict."

Hat tip to People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch.

* Even though SPLC didn't respond to the Daily Caller's request for a quote, the site had an obligation to at least report the fact that SPLC did address FRC's letter. That's what a credible journalist would have  done. Or have I answered my own question in terms of why the Daily Caller didn't report on SPLC's reponse to FRC?