Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Friday, January 01, 2010

Fox News lies about Kevin Jennings coverage

Fox News has just released its list of "stories that the mainstream media missed."

There are nine of them. All have the central theme of demonizing President Obama and implying that the "mainstream media" are in cahoots with him

Naturally the situation involving Obama appointee Kevin Jennings is on the list:

President Obama's "safe schools czar," Kevin Jennings, is a former schoolteacher who advocated promoting homosexuality in schools and was forced to admit he had poorly handled an incident in which a student told him he was having sex with older men. Jennings has since been tied to a pornographic suggested reading list for 7th graders that was designed by the organization he founded and directed for over a decade, and dozens of members of Congress have called for his ouster.

And that, my friends, is a clever lie.

Fox News is referring to the recent psuedo controversies put together by the webpage Big Government, the anti-gay hate group Mass Resistance, and several other "entities" (I'm being nice) to smear Jennings.

Bear in mind, I said "recent."

You see the media did cover Jennings earlier last year, although I doubt Fox News would want anyone to remember this coverage. It was when the network and other entities were falsely claiming that Jennings contributed to the statutory rape of a child.

I am referring to the so-called Brewster incident in which a student confided in Jennings about an encounter he had with an older male. Fox News and its cohorts, hungry for more Obama appointee blood after the resignation of Van Jones, went after this tip with a huge amount of fervor, claiming that Jennings broke the law by not reporting what the student told him.

And their claims blew up in their faces.

The young man, Brewster, was of legal age at the time of the incident.

He provided a statement to Media Matters praising Jennings for his advice during that time of his life. He also provided Media Matters with his I.D. proving that he was 16 at the time of the incident. Sixteen is the legal age of consent in Massachusetts, the state where the incident took place.

By the way, Brewster also said that he did not have sex with the older male; a statement that everyone seems to forget.

Brewster's statement proved that Jennings did not contribute to any statutory rape of any form or type.

And the media did cover the entire brouhaha, including CNN:

and (wait for it) . . . Fox News.

Fox News even corrected the claim that Brewster was underaged:

Fox News corrects inaccurate Jennings article. Politico does the same

Fox News Corrects False Claims About Gay Obama Education Adviser — Will Hannity Do The Same?

But after this acknowledgement by the network, one of its talk show hosts, Sean Hannity, continue to smear Jennings:

Hannity "not convinced" of timeline conclusively debunking his smears of Jennings

After statutory rape smear disintegrates, Hannity attacks Jennings with fabricated NAMBLA link

Hannity continued to push "statutory rape" smear even after Fox reporter questioned story's accuracy

So basically when Fox News says that the "mainstream media" missed covering Kevin Jennings, the news organization is lying. The media, including Fox, did cover the lies lodged against Jennings and found them to be lacking.

Just because members of the media (except for Fox News) took later attempts to smear Jennings for the nonsense they were and ignored them is not a bad thing.

It's good journalism.

Perhaps Fox News should take the hint.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

My last post of 2009 starring Barney Frank and Rachel Maddow

2009 was a busy year - busy, tiring, and in some ways annoying. I intend to recap the year with my 2009 Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters Misinformers of the Year awards (coming this weekend).

However for now, I am going to wish you a Happy New Year and leave you with two of my favorite memories of 2009 courtesy of Barney Frank's very satisfying destruction of a someone comparing President Obama to Hitler and Rachel Maddow's even more satisfying destruction of so-called ex-gay Richard Cohen.

Don't party too hard tonight:

Jenkins/Miller custody case, Rick Warren's problems, and other Thursday midday news briefs

Missing person report filed for child - The Janet Jenkins/Lisa Miller case gets sadder and sadder. We need to pray all involved.

The Purpose Driven Schadenfreude - Is it the usual push for donations are is Rick Warren's group really having financial difficulties?

Oregon High School with Ugandan sister school plans protest against Uganda's gay genocide bill - And yet again the children shall lead them.

Argentina hosts Latin America’s first gay marriage - Boom!

Attacks against Kevin Jennings becoming sad parodies

Though the noise has faded a bit, members of the right are still attacking Obama appointee Kevin Jennings.

I've been pretty much ignoring the new attacks because they have gotten stupid.

The right-wing site Big Government has continuously attacked Jennings with a series of National Enquirer type articles filled with bad innuendoes and lies.

And the site makes sure to give each attack the clever name of "Fistgate (choose your number here), making reference to the original attack on Jennings, i.e. that he supposedly taught children how to "fist" - a charge that has been continuously refuted.

Now you will remember the huge ado about the suggested reading list that GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network - the group that Jennings founded) had suggested for students.

That's the reading list which contained some books with mature themes; so much so that GLSEN advised that adults peruse the list of books and make choices regarding reading material for students.

Well the website Big Government isn't letting the pseudo controversy over the list go without putting it to good use. The website seems to be intent on taking every book from the reading list, outlining some of the most graphic material, and then presenting what it found as a "new controversy."

Choices from the suggested reading list have been the basis for several recent "Fistgate" "articles."

We are up to "Fistgate 13," the most pathetic of them all.

Racism in Columbia has me bummed out. Time to call The Boondocks

I interrupt the regularly scheduled takedown of the religious right to announce something.

I am bummed out.

News about that ridiculous racial slur painted on the wall of Columbia's City Hall reminds me again of how ugly things have gotten.

So I'm going to not post tonight and put up a couple of videos dealing with racism from one of my favorite shows, The Boondocks.

It may make you angry, it may make you laugh. But it will make you think (if you think it's funny, it's okay to laugh. I won't tell the NAACP):

(Editor's note - if you still want to see some really wacky religious right nuttery, check out this bit from Goodasyou.org about Linda Harvey)

Racial slurs painted on Columbia City Hall and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Racial slur spray painted on side of City Hall - First Columbia pass gender-inclusive non-discrimination laws and now black folks think that they can run for public office. Just WHAT is this world coming to?

Don Belton Murdered - The black and gay community both loses a leading light thanks to a senseless murder.

Older gays hit by the blues - A problem that needs to be addressed.

Lawbreaking ‘Ex-Gay’ Mother’s Supporters Encourage Disappearance, Kidnapping - Unbelievable.

Janet Jenkins/Lisa Miller custody case still not resolved despite judge's orders

The custody case between Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller has taken an ugly turn.

From Religious Right Watch:

We've written a few posts in the past about the custody battle being waged between Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins, a Vermont couple who had a daughter together in 2002 but eventually separated and soon became locked in a custody fight after Miller moved to Virginia, became a Christian active in Jerry Falwell's church, and sought sole custody of their daughter, Isabella, with the representation of the Falwell-founded Liberty Counsel.

The fight has dragged on for years and earlier this month, a Vermont judge ordered Miller to transfer custody to Jenkins due to the fact that Miller had repeatedly refused to abide by court-ordered custody arrangements.

Miller was ordered to do so by Jan. 1, 2010, but it looks like that might not happen because nobody seems to know where Miller and Isabella are

For those not aware of this case, allow me to recap again.

I covered the following facts here and here:

When they were a couple, Miller and Jenkins decided to raise Isabella together.

When they split, Miller agreed to let Jenkins have visitation rights. Jenkins was even paying child support.

Miller refused to allow Jenkins to have unsupervised time with Isabella, claiming that Jenkins was harming Isabella. The Virginia Child Protective Services investigated and found the charges to be false.

Since that time, the two have been in and out of court for years (with Miller keeping Isabella away from Jenkins) until the case finally reached its apex in November due to Miller's constant refusal to follow the law:

Senate approves nation's first gay marshal and other Tuesday afternoon news briefs

America Is Cursed By God For Electing Barack Obama - Crazy Janet Porter strikes again.

Senate approves Lubinski, nation’s first gay U.S. Marshal - Congratulations Ms. Lubinski!

Gays, lesbians should be able to serve openly in the military - I agree with the Washington Post.

Gay Groups Win 25K Grants - Shhh! Don't tell Andrew Breitbart.

Religious right cheer abandoning pro-lgbt portion of U.N. resolution

I found this monstrosity via One News Now:

Homosexual activists have failed in an effort to impose acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle on the world.

The United Nations General Assembly voted to delete language from a proposed resolution that claimed that two new anti-discrimination categories exist: sexual orientation and gender identity.

"What this body is trying to do is to elevate the homosexual agenda to a global right that governments are treaty-bound to accept," explains Austin Ruse, head of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). "There was an attempt to have this reinterpretation officially accepted by the General Assembly, and it was defeated."

One News Now does not provide details regarding the resolution but another right-wing publication, Lifesite News, does:

The deleted reference was to General Comment 20 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The ICESCR was adopted by the UN on December 16, 1966, and declares that states that are part of the agreement will "undertake to guarantee that the rights enunciated in the present Covenant will be exercised without discrimination of any kind as to race, color, sex, language, religion ... or other status."

General Comment 20 states that the phrase "other status" includes "sexual orientation" and "gender identity." This means, according to the Comment, that members of the ICESCR "must ... adopt measures, which should include legislation, to ensure that individuals and entities in the private sphere do not discriminate on prohibited grounds."

This state of affair accentuates the problem for lgbts worldwide.

Even in the midst of all of this madness in Uganda, the raping of lesbians in South Africa as a "corrective measure," the recent arrest of a Malawi gay couple for getting married, and a host of other facts regarding the mistreatment of lgbts in other countries, there are some people still clinging to the notion that lgbts are trying to "indoctrinate people."

That by merely wanting to conduct our lives in peace, we are trying to "force acceptance,"

And that somehow we aren't deserving of basic human dignity.

Austin Ruse, the man cited in the article further said:

"Most countries have a very traditional view of human sexuality, of marriage, [and] of the family, so when these ideas percolate through from radicals in the United States and the European Union, and they eventually get to the General Assembly where a lot of traditional people are represented, they get defeated," Ruse notes.

Someone should ask Ruse just what is his view of "traditional human sexuality and people."

Does it involve hanging children like they did to those two innocent boys in Iran?

Or how about butchering innocent activists like what was done in Jamaica?

Or what about the laws in 30 Islamic countries that make homosexuality a criminal offense. In most cases punishment range from floggings to life imprisonment. In Mauritania, Bangladesh, Yemen, parts of Nigeria and Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, convicted homosexuals can also be sentenced to death.

Ruse and those who stand with him not only have a warped sense of tradition but also of right and wrong.

And it leads me again to say while I love and fear God, I have a serious concern about those who claim to represent Him.

The Peter Vadala controversy was a major victory for lgbt community

As we remember major lgbt stories in 2009 like Maine and Carrie Prejean, let's not forget the so-called minor stories.

One in particular I would like to point out because it was a victory for the lgbt blogging community.

Remember Peter Vadala?

He was the former employee of Brookstone (a Massachusetts retailer store) who was fired for supposedly expressing his Christian beliefs.

As we learned more about Vadala, it turned out that him "expressing his Christian beliefs" amounted to telling a lesbian employee that she is a "deviant" for simply talking about her upcoming wedding. Gay marriage, by the way, is perfectly legal in Massachusetts.

At first glance, the incident looked like a perfect cause celebre for the religious right. A young Christian attacked by the supposedly intolerant and invisible homosexual lobby - a perfect fundraising tool if there ever was one.

But it flopped.

What made Vadala's story different than say the story of Repent America when a supposed religious group was arrested at Philly Pride in 2004 or the group of city workers who filed a lawsuit against the city of Oakland when they were told to remove an anti-gay flyer from their workplace?

Anti-gay video of the year - NOM's The Gathering Storm

Pending something major, many bloggers are either playing it low-key or having a fond look back at some moments in 2009.

For me, it will be time for the 20009 Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters Misinformers of the Year Awards in which I look back at some of the highlights (and lowlights) of anti-lgbt hysteria.

I can tell you right now that there will be a few surprises because unfortunately some of our own went out of their way to help the religious right in their anti-lgbt endeavors via unnecessary ugly words or abandoning an lgbt leader before he even had a chance to defend himself.

But it's still all in fun. And in that spirit, let me announce one award now:

The Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters Video of the Year award (or the Ed Wood Memorial Video Vanguard Award) goes to . . . oh come on, as if you would be shocked:

National Organization for Marriage's Gathering Storm Ad

In April of this year, the National Organization for Marriage launched an ad campaign claiming that gay marriage will have negative consequences for people's freedom and rights. Central to this campaign was a commercial. Naturally, this commercial recycled a bunch of lies about current events involving cases of lgbt rights and families.

But all of that took a backseat because the commercial was bad. I mean just plain awful. Valley of the Dolls bad, Heaven's Gate bad, Plan 9 from Outerspace bad.

See for yourself:

Instead of anger, the ad elicited laughter and a huge amount of parody ads, as well as ads which served to correct its phony claims. Among the funniest and most informative were:

Then there was Stephen Colbert:

via videosift.com

And just when it looked like things couldn't get any funnier, it came out that the people in the "Gathering Storm" ads were actors. We know this because somehow their audition tapes got released on youtube, thereby further revealing the abject phoniness of the entire campaign:

The fight for marriage equality has had some major victories and setbacks in 2009. However the "Gathering Storm" controversy was a watershed moment. It demonstrated the weakness of the argument against marriage equality and also demonstrated that all the money in the world and backing can't replace the integrity of your position.

If you don't have integrity, you will fall on your face.

Related posts:

No California Doctors Were Harmed In The Making Of This Commercial

Why the National Organization for Marriage ad failed

NOM lies about David Parker controversy

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show

I hope everyone had a happy holiday. Back to the @!& as they say.

A couple of weeks ago, this segment focused on the Ricki Lake Show and how it did much for positive lgbt visibility.

Now comes the flipside. The Jerry Springer Show is a twisted ongoing train wreck. It actually started out as a legitimate talk show but struck it big by focusing on guest fights and other outrageous topics.

And unfortunately the lgbt community was victimized by this. I can't count how many times the talk show focused "poor straight men" who was "tricked into sex" by trangendered women. And often these segments would end violently for all parties involved.

Or the following segment which features a "former" gay man trying to keep his gay brother away from another gay man.

Now I've heard that the show is staged and the guests are actors, but that's besides the point. The negative lgbt images showcased by the Jerry Springer Show was just flat out wrong:

Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Chrismas courtesy of Miss Piggy

One of my favorite Christmas memories:

Don't you just love the way she flings her hair.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Giving props to Media Matters and talking about my new book

Media Matters has done a lot this year to fight right-wing nonsense.

They were very helpful in fighting the lies against Kevin Jennings (helpful? Hell, a lot of my information came from them) as well as other lies pushed by some those on the right who seek to exploit ignorance and fear.

So with that in mind, I want to throw out props to the group and encourage you all to support them. Lgbt issues are just one of the things they deal with:

Now secondly, some of you may have noticed that I have been hinting about a second book.

Well to give you more information, I have been working on a second book. But this one won't be as detailed as Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, my first book.

I want to break down religious right distortions in a manner that conveys their nastiness as well as shining a light on the entities who spout them. My goal is to bring more attention to the historical hypocrisy of these so-called pro-family groups.

That's all I am going to tell you for now.

Father forces son to be with prostitute to cure 'alleged gayness' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Heterosexual Menace: Father forces sex on son - This mention is not meant to bash heterosexuals. Lord knows if lgbts were the offending party, this incident would be in a religious right email as well as a "news item" on One News Now. This mention is just to show the depths of ignorance people can stoop to about us.

Reason #4,543,019 why FRC should stop shunning gays: Access to better choreography!- Yes there are no words cause we are busy vomiting.

‘Ex-Gay’ Mother Loses Ground in Bid to Topple U.S. Family Court System - This is a sad story for all involved.

Members of U.S. Congress Invoke their Faith to Oppose Ugandan anti-Gay law - Well this is good news

Lesbian lawyer Julie Kamps files $50M sex harassment & discrimination lawsuit vs. her firm - And I hope that sister girl wins.

Teabagger has weepy breakdown over 'misdirected prayer'

Every now and then, a situation takes that place that's so strange, it diverts my attention away from focusing on the religious right.

During the mad battle over health care reform, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) recently gave a speech on the Senate floor hoping that a senator would not make the vote. He encouraged prayer on the matter:

What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can’t make the vote tonight. That’s what they ought to pray.

Now some people thought the Senator he was implying about was 92-year-old ailing Robert Byrd (D- West Virginia). Coburn's comment got much criticism, including from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois):

I have been trying to reach Sen. Coburn. … This statement troubles me, and I’m trying to reach him come back to the floor and explain exactly what he meant about a senator being unable to make the vote tonight. … I’m reaching out to Sen. Coburn. I’ll be on the floor for the next 45 minutes, and I hope that he will join me there.

As far as it is known, Coburn did not clarify what he meant by his statement.

In an interesting case of irony, when a vote did come up, a senator missed it - Republican James Inhofe.

And all of that led to this mindboggling, bizarre call to CSPAN from a teabagger who not only thought Sen. Inhofe was dead but that his prayer caused it.

Personally I prefer on-camera breakdowns to be done by either Joan Crawford or Maggie Smith.

Don't worry, by the way. Senator Inhofe is not dead - he just didn't make the vote.

But I don't know what's so weirder about this video - the fact that it reveals yet again the abject cluelessness of these teabaggers or the fact that both the CSPAN host and Senator John Barasso (R-Wyoming) kept a straight face throughout the entire thing:

Transcript:

CALLER: Yeah doctor. Our small tea bag group here in Waycross, we got our vigil together and took Dr. Coburn’s instructions and prayed real hard that Sen. Byrd would either die or couldn’t show up at the vote the other night.

How hard did you pray because I see one of our members was missing this morning. Did it backfire on us? One of our members died? How hard did you pray senator? Did you pray hard enough

HOST: Senator Barasso, he was referring to Senator Inhofe, who was not part of the round of voting this morning.

BARASSO: The votes today, they needed 60 votes in favor of the bill. Senator Inhofe is opposed to the bill, and whether he was there or not didn’t make any difference. There was no way that Jim Inhofe was going to vote for the bill, the senator from Oklahoma. So that’s why he wasn’t there this morning.

HOST: Do you know where he was, senator, why he wasn’t able to make the vote this morning?

BARASSO: No, I don’t know.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Hey Peter LaBarbera! Take a good look at one of your fans

Despite the fact that some of us consider Peter LaBarbera to be a laughing stock and a useful @^!* in this so-called culture war, there are some people who support him.

Such as the creator this site.(click at the risk of getting righteously indignant).

Please note that the site owner took LaBarbera's Grinch of the Year post (in which he did not nominate me . . . the bitch!) almost word for word and added his/her own interesting headline:

Who are the faggot and dyke Grinches this year?

And so that you don't miss it, check out the lovely side graphics about African-Americans. Or if you don't want to get on that nasty site again, I incorporated one for you:

I won't even talk about the comments regarding President Obama.

Some may disagree with me giving this blog attention. However, I just want to remind people that a lot of times, homophobia and racism are indistinguishable.

If you hate one group, it's easy to transcribe that hate to another.

And if LaBarbera thinks he is aiming for Heaven when he attacks the lgbt community, then he really should take another look.

If he is on the side of the angels, then why is he attracting this devil?

Hat tip to my online buddy who did not express that I reveal his name in this post. If he does, then I will reveal it.

Ugandan anti-gay pastors mad at Rick Warren and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Ugandan pastors demand apology from Rick Warren - timid hypocrites can't please anyone

Mich. Dept. of Corrections ‘looking’ into ex-gay ministry affiliation with prisons - A story under everyone's radar.

Grasping At Straws - How dare Peter LaBarbera not nominate Joe Jervis or Pam Spaulding for one of his grinch awards. Come to think of it, neither Pam nor any other woman got a nomination. Hmmmm. I ought to pull a Kanye on him.

Scarborough Needs Money To Stop The Sodomites - Yes he actually said "sodomites."

Gov. Tim Pawlenty - saving us all from 'cross-dressing' third grade teachers

Now that Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is running for president (unofficially that is), he is backtracking from pro-gay legislation he signed:

To borrow a phrase, have your views evolved over time?
In 1993 I voted for a bill prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodation, housing, and employment. That was 16 years ago.

Yes, gay-rights activists regarded you as a pretty cool guy at the time.
We overbaked that statute, for a couple of reasons. If I had to do it over again I would have changed some things.

Overbaked?
That statute is not worded the way it should be. I said I regretted the vote later because it included things like cross-dressing, and a variety of other people involved in behaviors that weren't based on sexual orientation, just a preference for the way they dressed and behaved. So it was overly broad. So if you are a third-grade teacher and you are a man and you show up on Monday as Mr. Johnson and you show up on Tuesday as Mrs. Johnson, that is a little confusing to the kids. So I don't like that.

Has the law been changed?
No. It should be, though.

So you want to protect kids against cross-dressing elementary-school teachers. Do you have any in Minnesota?
Probably. We've had a few instances, not exactly like that, but similar.

For the record, there have been cases of teachers who have returned to class after gender reassignment surgery, although I am not sure that any of them occurred in Minnesota. After initial fears and some trepidation, the schools, students, and parents adapted to the situation. And there have been cases of transgendered students who are as young as six.

So certainly the issue is complicated but the way Pawlenty tries to trivialize it as a way to flip flop on his earlier pro-lgbt stance is rude. It reveals not only a misrepresentation of non-discrimination laws but also a cynical willfulness to exploit ignorance of the transgendered community.

2009 - The year of Glenn Beck and the anti-lgbt crazies

Just a precursor to my own 2009 Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters Misinformer of the Year awards. Can last year's champion Matt Barber hold on to his title or will he be outdone by a group effort not unlike the one that gave the Saturday Night Fever album the Grammy award in 1978? Stay tuned for more details.

Media Matters (who will probably be sending me a bill) has just announced their 2009 Misinformer of the Year award and to the surprise of no one, it's Glenn Beck:

Now while Beck gets the major award, Media Matters also gave a host of minor awards for outrageous statements.

And again to the surprise of no one, many of those statements had to do with comments made against the lgbt community:

In addition to a sustained assault on Department of Education official Kevin Jennings, right-wingers made outrageous attacks based on sexual orientation:

Of course I'm disappointed that the Media Matters list omitted the dust-up between Matt Barber, Peter LaBarbera, and Exodus International which recently came up.

However, it just occurred to me that our biggest strength in this so-called cultural war is the mouths of our opposition. Give them enough time and they verbally hang themselves.

And in this case, a public hanging is just what we need. After all, why keep the craziness of the religious right to ourselves. In the spirit of holiday generosity, everyone needs to see just how crazy these folks are.