Take a look at the 'Christians' who support NOM and its upcoming march

With the National Organization for Marriage planning its big march (March4Marriage) and taking the guise of a group whose followers "supports marriage between a man and a woman," the flyer below, comprised by the site NOManiacs, shows otherwise.

'How NOM doomed itself to collapse' & other Friday midday news briefs

How the National Organization for Marriage Doomed Itself to Collapse - According to Slate writer Mark Joseph Stern, the National Organization for Marriage is imploding before us all for a simple reason which has nothing to do with homophobia. While I don't like to pronounce the end of any anti-lgbt equality group before they are in the grave, Stern makes an excellent point. However, I have to disagree with him on this point:

After its success in California, the group took its tactics on the road, successfully batting away marriage equality in Maine and North Carolina while exacting revenge on judges who dared to uphold legal equality. Through these campaigns, NOM rewrote the modern anti-gay playbook, demeaning the LGBTQ community as promiscuous, predatory, diseased, and disordered. 

That's simply not true. NOM merely followed the same playbook that Anita Bryant and others did when attempting to defeat pro-lgbt laws and such. It's an old playbook and I wish the community would get serious about analyzing it in a manner which can broken down in simple terms. Wait a minute. Some of us have.

In other news

  Seriously? What Marriage Equality Opponents Are Saying - Another reason why anti-marriage equality groups are losing is because you simply can't introduce these arguments in a court of law.

Tony Perkins Says Gay Rights Advocates Want Anti-Christian Holocaust, Will 'Start Rolling Out The Boxcars' - Have you ever heard of something so stupid that it refutes itself? Say hello to THIS argument.  

Edie Windsor Now Plans To Focus Her Efforts On Homeless LGBT Youth - The more I hear about Edie Windsor, the more I absolutely LOVE THAT WOMAN!

'Professional ex-gay industry' to hold 2nd 'awareness month'

Remember that lovely big flop of an event last year - 'Ex-Gay Awareness Month - which got canceled because of a lack of interest, and then rescheduled with the same disastrous results?

Guess what? It's back:

Say what you want, but with a line-up like this, I don't think they will have a lot of success, but lawd, the speeches will be  . . . . something

Hat tip to Jeremy Hooper.

Video demonstrates why anti-gay activist is called 'Porno Pete'

If anti-gay activist Peter LaBarbera hates it when we call him "Porno Pete" then why does he give us such juicy reasons such as what he said in the following video courtesy of Right Wing Watch:

'NOM loses suit against IRS' & other Thursday midday news briefs

US District Court judge essentially ends NOM's ridiculous IRS lawsuit - And I almost forgot. NOM also lost its lawsuit against the IRS. You will remember that the group accused the IRS of leaking its financial information. That's two losses in two days for NOM.

Another view of NOM's loss courtesy of The New Civil Rights Movement

Texas Republican Party Drafts New Platform Advocating For Ex-Gay Therapy - Next they will be supporting lobotomies.  

High School Principal Comes Out As Gay While At Pride Event With Students - Good for him! Now in terms of being truthful in the face of nonsense, this man is a role model. 

 Fox's Hasselbeck On Court Order To End Anti-Gay Discrimination: "Is That Freedom?" - Uh yesssssss.

 Audio: Richard Land equates serving a gay couple with serving a KKK induction ceremony - I won't say that I've heard everything because give these folks one minute and they always manage to top their present verbal nonsense with a new humdinger.

Anti-gay article refutes its own claim about pride parade

On the American Family Association's fake news site, One News Now, there is a story alleging about "immoral activities" during a gay pride parade.

The headline is provocative:

Where were police during vulgar 'gay pride' parade? In it, of course

The charge - that the police were present while gays during a pride parade were supposedly being vulgar but did nothing about it - is also there:

A traditional values leader in Ohio found out where the police are when immoral activities are happening in homosexual pride parades. At issue are homosexual pride parades in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio although they happen nationwide. Phil Burress, who heads Citizens for Community Values, tells OneNewsNow that what occurs in the parades shouldn't be described, and certainly children shouldn't be exposed to it, he says. "You have women and men parading around in their underwear, and in Cincinnati it's not near as bad as it is in Columbus," he says. "In Columbus, women have actually gone topless before, and the signs and things are just totally inappropriate."

And the article actually includes a video of a Cincinnati gay pride parade . . . and that's where everything goes south for the article in rapid fashion. The video doesn't show any supposed vulgarities during the gay pride parade. In fact, the video contradicts the claims.

After all, who would walk around in their underwear in the rain:



I live for refuting religious right lies about lgbts. But there is a special joy which comes when they do the job for me.

Supreme Court torpedoes NOM's Oregon marriage stay request

This just in from Buzzfeed:

The U.S. Supreme Court has given NOM's Brian Brown a new reason to cry

The Supreme Court denied the National Organization for Marriage’s attempt to stop same-sex couples from marrying in Oregon.

NOM has appealed the trial judge’s decision not to let the group, which is opposed to same-sex couples’ marriage rights, to intervene in the lawsuit challenging Oregon’s ban on such marriages.

The appeal of the intervention denial now continues at the 9th Circuit, but same-sex couples will continue to be able to marry during the time that is happening.

The 9th Circuit, which is hearing that appeal, denied NOM’s request to stop the trial court decision striking down the ban from going into effect during the appeal. NOM then went to Justice Anthony Kennedy to ask him to stop the marriages while that appeal is pending before the 9th Circuit.

Kennedy, who hears procedural matters brought to the court from the 9th Circuit, referred the request to the full court, which denied the request without comment on Tuesday. NOM’s appeal of the denial to intervene is the only matter left pending in the case because Oregon state officials had not fought the lawsuit, having agreed with the plaintiffs that the ban is unconstitutional. They had said that they would not appeal the decision if U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane struck down the ban.

''Christian' writer picking on transgender child' & other Wednesday midday news briefs

BarbWire Pundit Says Transgender Boy Is Possessed By Demons - Because the "Christian" thing to do is always pick on the transgender child.  

Um, not sure I'd use the phrase 'drive a wedge' when defending a NOM event - NOM's fake black civil rights group is getting serious pushback on its video comparing marriage equality to slavery and segregation. Good. 

Top Christian Activist: Gay Rights Transforming US Into ‘Totalitarianism’ Of Hitler’s Germany - Oh yeah. You can just see it by the way folks like Tony Perkins are free to make such evil comparisons. After all, the Nazis were always one for NOT viciously stamping out those who complain about them.  

Southern Baptist Minister Explains Why He Changed His Mind On Homosexuality - Progress! Sweet, sweet progress! 

 On Fox, The Gay Marriage Revolution Has Not Been Televised - Ignore marriage equality victories, but if Fox News can push a false story of gays supposedly "persecuting" folks, stand back!

FRC's Tony Perkins deserves special award for his latest anti-gay lie

Ken Blackwell

Ken Blackwell, a spokesman with the Family Research Council, recently caught a lot of heat for blaming marriage equality for the recent awful mass killings in Isla Vista, CA.

According to People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch:

Family Research Council senior fellow Ken Blackwell yesterday linked the Isla Vista mass killings to marriage equality laws, which he claimed are destroying the culture. Speaking with FRC president Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch,” Blackwell blamed the shooting on “the crumbling of the moral foundation of the country” and “the attack on natural marriage and the family.”

“When these fundamental institutions are attacked and destroyed and weakened and abandoned, you get what we are now seeing,” Blackwell said, arguing that people who are “blaming the Second Amendment” are “avoiding talking about what is at the root cause of the problem.”

In the face of this controversy, FRC has chosen to ignore Right Wing Watch, and the with the help of a site called TruthRevolt, attack a second party who reported the story, Media Matters. The following is from an email sent by FRC president Tony Perkins as a part of his Washington Update:

If you can't beat 'em, smear 'em. That seems to be Media Matters's far-Left M.O. for intimidating people who make compelling cases for conservatism. Its latest target? FRC's Ken Blackwell. In an interview last week, Ken talked about the latest shooting spree at the University of California and pointed back to the "crumbling of the moral foundation of the country" as a contributing factor to the recent spate of violence. Media Matters, a pet project of multi-billionaire George Soros, went on the attack -- accusing Ken of blaming same-sex "marriage" for the murders.

TruthRevolt immediately fired back at the wild distortion. "Blackwell never mentions same-sex marriage. Not once. His discussion... revolves around the generalized breakdown and destruction of sexual values. Blackwell's main point is with the hyper-sexualized, porn-obsessed society that we live in, Elliot Rodger's perception of what a relationship between a man and a woman comes from the "development of human sexuality in our culture."

I don't know what the heck TruthRevolt is supposed to be, but both it and the Family Research Council are attempting to pull a fast one.  Let's look at what Blackwell actually said (and this exact quote is from Truth Revolt. The audio is from Right Wing Watch):

Transcript: 

When you see there's a crumbling of the moral foundation of the country, you see the attack on the -- on natural marriage and the family that has been a part of the, not only the moral foundation and the upbringing of our children but the teaching of sexual roles and the development of human sexuality in our culture. When these fundamental institutions are attacked and destroyed and weakened and abandoned, you get what we are now seeing and that is a flood of these disturbed people in our society that are causing great, great pain. And as opposed to dealing with the foundational problems, we look for ways of blaming the Second Amendment, or blaming knives or blaming cars when they are used. At the end of the day, you have just underscored the problem. This is a convenient way of avoiding talking about what's at the root cause.

So yes, Blackwell was talking about marriage equality or "same sex marriage," even though he didn't mention it by name.  And he was blaming it in part for the mass killings. To say otherwise when one has access to the original audio and the transcript is a bold-faced lie.

And to claim that Blackwell wasn't talking about marriage equality in his comments is an even bigger bold-faced lie if you just happened to have been there when he made the statement, isn't that right, Mr. Perkins.

You see, the other person on the audio with Blackwell was in fact Tony Perkins, i.e. the same person who is now claiming that Blackwell was not blaming marriage equality for the Isla Vista mass killings. And one has to ask why would Perkins cite a second party (i.e. TruthRevolt) in a sad attempt to absolve Blackwell when he was present at the time of Blackwell's statement?

I can't say much for his honesty, but Perkins deserves some type of special recognition to lie this brazenly.
 

While family accepts transgender child, ignorant folks just can't handle it

Excellent video, excellent family. More like them are needed:



Of course, according to Equality Matters, SOME people (such as Fox News' Keith Ablow) are being nasty about the situation:

“From a personal, not a professional standpoint, were my daughter to assert that she were a boy, not a girl, there is no chance we would be headed to a surgeon’s office without a trial of anti-psychotic medication,”

Equality Matters points out that Ablow has no expertise in sexuality issues.  Equality Matters also points out:

 According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, gender identity is usually established by the age of four. Medical professionals note that denying medical treatment to transgender children can be harmful; Dr. Norman Spack of Children’s Hospital Boston, for instance, states that many children who don’t receive treatment resort to self-mutilation in an attempt to change their anatomies. According to Spack, the earlier children deemed to need treatment start receiving it, the easier of a time they'll have passing as the gender with which they identify and the less likely they'll be to require more radical treatments later in life.

The American Psychological Association has stated that it is “not helpful to force [a transgender child]  to act in a more gender-conforming way.” Family rejection of transgender youth has been linked to a series of negative health consequences.

'16 heartbreaking confessions about coming out' & other Tuesday midday news briefs

Transgender Man Sues New York City After Being Refused Access To Pool Locker Room - Folks like to claim that transgender men and women will cause disturbances in locker rooms. Seems to me that it's not the transgender men and women causing the problems. 

 16 Heartbreaking Confessions About Coming Out - These confessions will break your heart but they are necessary stories. 

 Gay Tea Party Group GOProud Definitely Shutting Down — Director Admits He Lied - Sorry but GoProud did nothing but suck up all of the good air in the room. If that organization accomplished ANYTHING, someone please let me know.  

British Judge Denies Catholic Parents’ Request To Block Their Children’s Adoption By Same-Sex Couple - Well MAYBE if these parents didn't have their children taken away because of abuse, they wouldn't have this conundrum. 
 

Pioneers In Illinois Gay Marriage Lawsuit Ready For Wedding Bells After 50 Years Of Waiting - Marriage or no marriage, 50 years together is a damn good thing.

Hey NOM! Are these the type of people you want at your 'marriage rally?'

The National Organization for Marriage is pushing their upcoming  "March for Marriage" extremely hard.

Of course, as I said before, if the organization could prove to the courts that gay couples shouldn't be married, such a march designed to gain headlines wouldn't be necessary.

However, one has to ask what type of people will be there. Certainly there will be some people who have an ignorant view of the situation because they have been brainwashed by slogans like "every child needs a mother and a father" (the irony being that NOM has done NOTHING to push adoption) and horror stories of being "called a bigot."

But then there will be these individuals who have supported NOM in the past. The following videos are courtesy of NOM Tour Tracker:

 

 

Granted, these videos were shot in 2010 but NOM continues to push the same message since 2010. Do you actually think the mindset of the organization's supporters have changed any iota?

Illinois couples celebrate first day of legalized marriage equality

The following video is tonic for a tiring day. Marriage equality became officially legal in Illinois yesterday and of course you know what that means - Mass wedding in Chicago!!:



According to the video's description:

On the first day of marriage equality throughout the state of Illinois June 1, 2014, Unity in Chicago hosted "Married in Unity," an all-inclusive, non-denominational group wedding ceremony in the Unity garden at the church. Rev. Heidi Alfrey, the church's senior minister, officiated the ceremony for 40 same- and opposite-sex couples. Among them were couples making commitments without legal documentation and married couples renewing their vows.

Go here to see other videos from this wonderful event.

'Bryan Fischer - gays are our new slavemasters' & other Monday midday news briefs

American Family Association senior analyst says gay activists have brought back slavery, refers to us as 'massa' - I think I'm going to be sick. Being called "massa" by Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association is SO not a turn-on!

 Is NOM's March for Marriage an anti-gay event? Let's turn to the facts. - All of the uglies about NOM's upcoming march. Be still your stomach. 
 

To be gay, Christian and black in Harlem - A fascinating and much needed article. 

 Anti-Gay Uganda Politician Will Soon Preside Over UN General Assembly - Well @%!#&;%!

 I Am Loveworthy: How a Transgender Woman Found Love - You better believe it! ALL of God's children are loveworthy.

Anti-gay activist furious over recognition of lgbt history

LaBarbera

We're going to teach our kids and our citizens that homosexuality is a civil rights issue when it's not," he laments. "It's a human misbehavior issue. It's just a sin movement – and we're elevating it to civil rights icon status. . . . I fear for our country, because when a nation starts celebrating sexual immorality as the norm and as a social good, then that nation cannot survive in the long run," he explains. "Every other civilization has been brought down for sexual immorality as part of the factors bringing it down, and I think the United States of America will not be an exception in that regard." - 'Porno' Pete LaBarbera

LaBarbera was reacting to the news that the National Park Service will now be identifying places and events associated with the history of lgbt Americans for inclusion in the parks and programs of the National Park Service as a part of its Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay,  and Transgender Initiative.

Maybe one of these days, people like LaBarbera will recognize that acknowledging lgbt history is not a part of a plot or a "sin movement" (which is a phrase I have NEVER heard before), but a way to recognize that lgbts exists and that we have a diverse history.

But that is the problem with folks like LaBarbera, isn't it? The fact the lgbts exist.

'Laverne Cox makes history by being on the cover of Time magazine' & other Friday midday news briefs

Why Time’s Profile Of Laverne Cox Is A Big Step Forward For Transgender Equality - History has been made as Laverne Cox becomes the first transgender person to make the cover of Time magazine. And the sets of articles in Time magazine in this issue are awesome, too.

'State And Union' Follows The Hardships Of Alabama's Lesbian-Led Families - VIDEO - Excellent! We need more focus on lgbt-led families.  

Audio: 'Unbiased researcher' (ha, ha, ha!) Mark Regnerus plays anti-equality pundit, adviser - History will remember how the lgbt community quickly and mercilessly dismantled the lies of Mark Regnerus as an example of us learning quickly about the dangers of allowing junk science study purveyors to spread their nonsense unchallenged. (After all, we are still cleaning up the lies of Paul Cameron decades later). 

 Alan Keyes Claims Gay Rights Will Lead To 'Self-Inflicted Genocide' And 'Suicide For Humanity' - And when history also remembers that it was Alan Keyes who President Obama thrashed in the race for the Illinois U.S. Senate seat and that victory helped pave his way to the White House, a huge cry of THANK GOOOOOOD!! will be heard from future generations. 

Texas Religious Right Leader Warns LGBT Protections Will 'Terrorize Women And Children' - OR how the religious right lies in the name of God.

Anti-gay talking head gives out inaccurate info on assaults in military to attack idea of gay Scoutmasters

Matt Barber

Former Secretary of Defense and new head of the Boy Scouts of America Robert Gates recently said he would have allowed openly gay Scoutmasters but does not wish to revisit the issue just yet.

And like they always do when it comes to issues involving lgbts, some anti-gay activists heard what they wanted to hear and proceeded to go ballistic about it:

Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel Action, and founder of Barbwire.com, says Gates should have seen the impact of repeal of the ban on open homosexuals in the military.

"With homosexual assaults on men in the armed forces particularly skyrocketing," says Barber. "Since 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' was lifted, upwards of more than a third increase in sexual assaults – male on male."

 . . . "I have said all along that they will eventually cave," says Barber, "because the homosexual activist juggernaut simply will not be daunted. And they are demanding nothing less than absolute affirmation and allowing fully, openly out and proud homosexual men to take your boys on overnight camping trips." 

There is just one problem with Barber's assessment of the situation. There has been no correlation between the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the rise of male-on-male assaults in the military. Notice that I said male-on-male assaults. Barber is of the inaccurate mindset that when a man assaults another man, the assaulter identifies as gay.

According to a June 23, 2013 New York Times article, the problem of male-on-male assault in the Armed Forces has been going on decades before DADT was repealed. What is going on now seems to be that more men are having the courage to report the incidents.

The article also says that ironically, the policy about gays being barred from the military was one of the reasons why men didn't report the incidents.

Last, but certainly not least, the article refutes Barber's ridiculous claim about gay military men assaulting other men in the Armed Forces:

Many sexual assaults on men in the military seem to be a form of violent hazing or bullying, said Roger Canaff, a former New York State prosecutor who helped train prosecutors on the subject of military sexual assault for the Pentagon. “The acts seemed less sexually motivated than humiliation or torture-motivated,” he said. 

It's a shame that Barber is so obsessed with fantasizing about gay men taking boy scouts on overnight camping trips that he exploits a genuine problem impacting our men and women in the Armed Forces in pursuit of his obsession.

Anti-gay 'news site' runs ridiculously biased poll about lgbts and children

How homophobic is the American Family Association's fake news site One News Now? In article about lgbts supposedly "recruiting" children (cue the spooky music), readers were invited to vote in the following poll:

I think it's safe to say that lgbts won't turn out the winners in this vote.

Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.

'Gay couple kicked out of restaurant, told that 'f@!s are not served' & other Thursday midday news briefs

Texas Restaurant Bans Gay Couple Because ‘We Do Not Like Fags’ - You would be surprised that this sort of thing may be perfectly legal. If it blows up, count on groups like the Family Research Council to stand behind this restaurant, even to the point of defending the use of the anti-gay slur.

Audio: Sen. Hatch (R-UT) admits marriage equality inevitable, praises 'excellent judge' who ruled in favor of equality - Anti-gay heads will pop over this one.

 Family Research Council Prays To Stop LGBT Pride Month - So apparently FRC is having a big event during LGBT Pride Month and are all upset about it. I don't suppose a collaborative event is in the question.

Laverne Cox Talks to TIME About the Transgender Movement - Laverne Cox makes the cover of Time Magazine. SWEET watershed moment!  

Urgent Stop Ugandan Foreign Minister from Becoming President of UN General Assembly - Anyone leader from this awful country which freely persecutes lgbt has NO business in any leadership position anywhere.

Houston City Council beats back lies, fears and passes pro-lgbt ordinance

After a long, contentious meeting, the city of Houston, TX passed an ordinance protecting the rights of lgbts.

From the Houston Chronicle:

After nearly nine hours of discussion, punctuated by opponents chanting outside City Hall and by emotional supporters' personal stories of discrimination, the Houston City Council on Wednesday passed an ordinance extending equal rights protections to gay and transgender residents.

Public dissension has persisted for weeks, but the final vote was 11-6, a count that matched guesses made months ago when Mayor Annise Parker - the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city - said she planned to bring the measure forward.

The approval was greeted with applause from the audience, largely full of supporters by the time of the vote, and chants of "HERO," for the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance. Opponents vow to gather the signatures needed to trigger a referendum to repeal the law this November, and others say they plan to seek recall elections against some council members who supported the measure.

 . . . The measure bans discrimination based not just on sexual orientation and gender identity but also, as federal laws do, sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, pregnancy and genetic information, as well as family, marital or military status. The ordinance applies to businesses that serve the public, private employers, housing, city employment and city contracting. Religious institutions are exempt. Violators could be fined up to $5,000.

The ordinance vote gained nationwide attention and even commentary from groups such as the anti-gay Family Research Council as opponents threw out the standard memes of "bathroom bills" and "religious liberty," such as:

but those supporting the ordinance were firm and had their facts together:



Still, this issue is far from over. My guess is that opponents of the bill will continue to be stirred on by their homophobia, fears, and outside groups such as the Family Research Council. However, I also believe that Mayor Parker and the supporters of the ordinance are going to dig in and give them one hell of a fight.