Today's Cultural Warfare Update

Fox News reports GOP to run against gays, abortion rights, and flag burning in mid-term elections;

White House makes unannounced ticketing policy change to move gay families out of Easter Egg Hunt opening ceremonies and (therefore) out of media view; FamilyPride intelligently ducks controversy, saying they're just happy to be "a part of this national tradition";

Focus on the Family story/ACTION ITEM; they're starting a big church campaign, handing out one million postcards for congregations to sign. They're working with other fundamentalist and evangelical church groups on the effort;

FotF story pushing an attempt by anti-gay stockholders to force the company to drop GBLT employment protection; the company has a private policy of not allowing anti-gay discrimination in the workplace, FotF wants it gone;

FotF ACTION ITEM to demand passage of the "Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act," which would dramatically raise fines for "indecency" on television;

FotF condemns participation by lesbian and gay families in White House easter egg roll; moving them out of camera range and keeping them out of the opening ceremony apparently wasn't enough, FotF says they shouldn't have been there at all;

Arizona passes bill mandating that parental-notification forms be notarised;

The ACLU earns a rare moment of appreciation from Focus on the Family for dropping support for HR5052, a bill intended to target misleading advertising by anti-abortion "pregnancy centres"; after going over the language of the bill as introduced, they oppose it on first amendment grounds;

Currently, in Alaska, four ounces of marijuana for personal use isn't illegal; there's abill to make it a misdemeanor; Focus on the Family urges passage of the bill;

Concerned Women for America's Janice Crouse writes an essay against independent women, uses this strange bear analogy to say that women raising children alone will produce "very deadly predators";

CWA's Robert Knight condemns the idea that respectable political figures shouldn't gaybash;

HealthDay: British medical journal The Lancet calls for wider use of condoms to prevent AIDS spread; the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that the Bush administration approach (abstinence-primary) is causing major problems out in the field; Concerned Women for America condemns the report, saying the report is "more wedded to an ideology of pushing condoms than to actually saving lives";

CWA re-runs Linda Harvey's condemnation of the GLSEN/Christian Educators Association agreement on how to talk about GBLT issues, calling it a "victory for homosexual activists";

Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM against California bill SB1437, which would require that lesson plans in public schools not be anti-GBLT; they make other claims, like saying it would censor "the Christian point of view"; see previous CWUs for more on this bill;

Family Research Council press release urging Colorado senator Salazar (of Colorado) to support the anti-marriage Federal amendment;

Family Research Council ACTION ITEM against California bill SB1437;

FRC ACTION ITEM to demand higher broadcast indecency fines; they applaud Howard Stern's decision to flee to satellite radio as an example of what "an empowered FCC can do";

FRC ACTION ITEM to support an anti-marriage-rights amendment in Pennsylvania; it's currently in the state House;

American Family Association/Agape Press story on the Kentucky college that receives state money but expelled a gay student for being gay; his boyfriend says that there are a _lot_ of GBLT students there, and also a lot of students having sex, which is also just as much a violation but isn't enforced at all; mostly I'm including it because of the amazingly gratuitous - and hilarious - scare-quotes around words like "boyfriend" and "dating";

AFA condemns church-state separation, friendly-quotes an anti-separation rally about how it's time to tear down the wall of separation between church and state; they have this amusing picture that does this lovely job of pretending the 14th amendment doesn't exist;

Jerry Falwell heaps praise on Senator McCain, attacks Rudy Guliani - apparently McCain's smoochies with the fundies are getting some traction. I am very sad. In other news, AFA friendly-quotes Americans for Truth's condemnation of gay and lesbian families "crashing" the White House easter-egg hunt;

Faith and Freedom Network's "Talking Points X" against marriage rights compares same-sex relationships to child rape, incest, says it will inevitably lead to polygamy. I include my usual set of rebuttals. Also, I got paper mail begging for donations; it's pretty much just a straight "we have to do this because God wants it, give us money" letter, so I'm not transcribing it.

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