Today's Cultural Warfare Update (1/2)

WorldNetDaily columnist Donald Hank calls GBLT rights "Big Sodomy," in one of the weirdest anti-GBLT screeds ever, saying that "ex-gays" will "bring down" queers the same way that the health dangers of smoking brought down "Big Tobacco," and suggests a class-action lawsuit against GBLT rights groups. Reframing a debate has never been so stupid. Link courtesy elfs;

WorldNetDaily condemns GLAAD for speaking out against the Fox News/O'Reilly Report fake "story" alleging "hundreds" of lesbian gangs going around killing straight men; they note GLAAD's - correct - commentary that there was not one shred of evidence to support the story, then relies on former Concerned Women for America wonk Peter LaBarbera (now heading "Americans for Truth," an anti-gay organisation) as a "fact" source supporting the article. The "facts" mostly consist of assertions that queers are used to having it "their way" in the media, with no actual facts provided - only references back to the original stories that GLAAD pointed out were wrong, repeated as authoritative, "This isn't fraud! It says it's not!";

I'm... not sure what culture is in favour of this crap, but: judge bars use of the terms "rape," "sexual assault," and all other terms implying force in a rape trial; the victim will now be required to describe being raped as "sexual intercourse" or "sex," which, of course, imply permission. I don't see any theocrats being for this - and WorldNetDaily is even on the right side, for once - but because of the huge "what the hell?!" nature of this, I'm including it; link courtesy kathrynt;

American Family Association protests prompt three Operation Save America (formerly Operation Rescue) activists to disrupt the first Senate opening prayer by a Hindu religious figure; they condemn it as "an abomination";

On the off chance you think that Operation Save America/Operation Rescue might have any complaints about this, here's their press release condemning the arrest, calling the Senate "violated" by the "false god of Hinduism" and praising the protesters as having "the courage to stand and proclaim, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me'";

There is video of the incident, of course, hosted on YouTube;

Amnesty International statement on their position on abortion;

Mr. Bush's Surgeon General nominee denies being anti-gay and disclaims his 'homosexuality as a pathology' paper, even admitting it had no scientific basis; I don't trust him; this courtesy Queerty, a blog with which I have no experience but which was linked to by Andrew Sullivan;

Mike Gravel (Democratic presidential candidate) blasts Human Rights Campaign for not inviting him to their Democratic presidential candidate debate; he's the most vocally pro-GBLT of the candidates, according to many (including himself); HRC, however, wants Ms. Clinton to get the nomination. On the other hand, if you're wondering why the HRC has no Republican debate, it's because only one or two of the candidates even bothered answering their query letters, and even those were not willing to attend; the theoconservative base would destroy them for showing up with t3h qu33rz;

Time Magazine has a large article on "How the Democrats Got Religion." Yay, now everybody will be waving around their Jesus Penises; I can has new party nao plz?;

Box Turtle Bulletin is a three-person blog that monitors the same groups I do from an exclusive GBLT-issues related standpoint. They go into more depth within their focus; they don't provide quite as much original source, quoting from within articles rather than linking to articles in their entirety. That said, they're really good at what they do. Here are a few of their current articles:

Bill O'Reilly broadcasts a Paul Cameron statistic, this one being the "lifespan" stat claiming that queers live two and a half decades less than straights; it's fraud, of course, like all of his work. This comes on the heels of the "Lesbian Gangs" story, which was also bullshit;

BTB has a story on local-ministry "Ex-Gay" people, contrasting them to the national image presented by the large fundamentalist organisations;

BTB's article, "Paul Cameron's World," ties famous fraud Paul Cameron's writings on GBLT people - he's the author of The Death Penalty for Homosexuality, amoungst other missives - with Paul Cameron's own disturbingly favourable writings about the Nazi party's handling of queers in Germany during the Third Reich. He also points out direct parallels between Cameron's writing and Nazi writing on other details of GBLT people. Yikes;

BTB maintains a list of individuals and organisations citing Paul Cameron's work;

BTB documents the dissemination - often by fraud - of Paul Cameron's latest "study," the fraudulent "lifespan" study mentioned above - and the one cited without challenge on The O'Reilly Factor;

Here's Paul Cameron again, just for old time's sake, on his own Family Research Institute web site; the article is "Stop Gay Rights," condemning GBLT people being legal at all, as he does. He also blames "homosexuality" for the rise of Hitler in Germany - but will eventually go on (see above) to praise the Nazi regime's treatment of GBLT people. Yay;

Back on Mr. Bush's surgeon general nominee Dr. James Holsinger, Concerned Women for America calls questioning him about his anti-gay paper a "religious litmus test," saying that you can't oppose someone for public office for being anti-gay for that reason. (However, you can, obviously, support someone that way.) CWA's Matt Barber says that "Dr. Holsinger has objectively placed scientific substance over political correctness relative to the high-risk nature of homosexual behaviors," apparently just before Dr. Holsinger admitted that his paper had no scientific basis. They also praise Dr. Holsinger for describing GBLT people as "unnatural" and "unhealthy." "Essentially what these radical special interest groups and like-minded senators are saying is that Christians need not apply for public service. This is both hateful and discriminatory";

Focus on the Family: New Mexico Town Plans Tens Commandments Display, with help from the Alliance Defense Fund;

FotF displeased with Massachusetts governor for cutting "abstinence-only" sex ed. funding;

FotF has a quadruple-threat story about Plan B, the morning-after birth control pill; they falsely declare it, per usual, as a potential abortifacient; they note sales are expected to double next year; they declare it a health risk (via quoting the sockpuppet Family Research Council); and proclaim it has "the potential for abuse." I wonder what that abuse would be? Birth control, perhaps;

Focus on the Family claims abstinence-based sex education is the cause of a 7% drop in self-reported sex by high school students; somehow this is retroactive back to 1991, but hey;

At the ground level, Focus on the Family would really rather prefer that women stayed in the home; this shows up a lot of ways. One of the ways that this shows up is that they regularly rerun a variation on the same story, "More Moms Say They'd Rather Be Home," saying that women would rather not have to work. Gosh. I wonder how many man would rather not have to work for a living, either? But that, somehow, never shows up, and there's a reason for that;

Focus on the Family promotes "assets not connected to morally questionable activities" run by Stewardship Partners Investment Counsel. It's kind of like a commercial, but it's pretending to be a news story. I wonder if they got paid for it;

Focus on the Family newsbrief notes Ohio state rep. Tom Brinkman (Brinkman? Brinkmanship? Irony is so ironic) introduces a comprehensive abortion ban bill, including "the distribution of abortion-inducing drugs"; what's interesting about that is that as far as the fundamentalists are concerned, that includes emergency birth control (Plan B, which is not the same as RU-486) and, according to some fundamentalists, all forms of chemical birth control, and some which aren't. I wonder what definition is being used here;

Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to support bans on "sexually explicit businesses," lists Troy, Michigan as an example, and! links to lawyer Scott Bergthold's web site where he offers services in helping draft such laws. Again, is this news, or a commercial? I don't know;

FotF condemns Florida library for accepting GBLT-themed collection that includes "pornographic" material. The collection will be restricted to adults only, but that's not good enough;

Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to oppose adding GBLT people to Federal hate-crimes law, calling it, as they do, "special protections for homosexuals"; normally they use the phrase "special rights," so that's an interesting shift. I guess their polling has found that people respond more negatively to "special protections" for queers than "special rights";

Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to complain to The Detroit Press that their coverage of an American Psychological Association committee's decision to consider whether it is possible to offer therapy - presumably "conversion" therapy :-p - to "patients who are dissatisfied living homosexually" is "bias, cut and dried" against ex-gay bullshit and for queers; according to the story below, it has mostly to do with considering religious beliefs of patients in therapy. In the article below, it's a theocon-based drive to get this considered; see more in Part 2 of today's CWU;

( Articles and Excerpts Below )

Today's Cultural Warfare Update (2/2)

Focus on the Family article on the American Psychological Association committee being formed; they worry that it will actually come out with a harder line against ex-gay bullshit;

FotF urges extension of abstinence-only sexual education funding; [Very silly typo fixed, oops *^_^*;]

Focus on the Family's book promotion is for "Restoring Sexual Identity," an "ex-lesbian" book. One of Focus on the Family's core efforts is to separate the idea of sexual orientation from the person, to pretend that it's not integral but is instead an affliction that can be cured, that is separate from the person. This is core to all of Focus's "ex-gay" efforts, really;

FotF: "ACLU Challenges Arizona Tuition Tax-Credit Program";

FotF praises NFL coach Dungy (Indianapolis Colts) for being a fundamentalist; they've previously praised his anti-gay commentary;

Focus on the Family story, "University Sued for Refusing to Recognize Christian Group," points out another theoconservative meme; if they aren't allowed to discriminate against people (in this case, women and non-Christians), then they are being oppressed. In this case, the University of Florida is refusing to recognise a student group because it bans women and discriminates on the basis of religion, both explicitly, and as part of its charter. Focus on the Family calls this anti-Christian discrimination, a "disgrace," and is supporting the lawsuit (Christian Legal Society and Alliance Defense Fund lawsuit) against U. Florida;

Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to "restore decency" on broadcast TV; it's a pair of amendments by Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS);

FotF story condemning "Homosexual Conference" on GBLT rights overseas quotes Peter LaBarbera supporting Jamaica's outright criminalisation of GBLT people. (Peter LaBarbera is a former Concerned Women for America wonk who is now with the anti-gay group "Americans for Truth.") FotF seems fine with this. Also, part of the condemnation includes blasting the conference for exporting "immoral American standards" to the rest of the world. I look forward to seeing Focus on the Family Canada, Focus on the Family Mexico, and Focus on the Family Latin and South America branches' commentary on this story;

FotF promotes their Washington Briefing theocon confab;

Focus on the Family unhappy that most Americans don't consider children the most important key to a successful marriage, and unhappy most Americans think marriage keys include "personal happiness and commitment";

Focus on the Family story on the Massachusetts man who failed the state bar exam in part because he refused to answer a question about same-sex marriage law in the state because he decided it was a violation of his religious beliefs. Focus on the Family is sympathetic. Note again the meme: anything that doesn't conform to their religious beliefs, be that antidiscrimination or standing law, must conform to them or be declared anti-Christian religious discrimination;

Focus on the Family commends Missouri banning Planned Parenthood from presenting information about sexual health in state public schools;

FotF: Kansas forms committee to review state abortion law; it's another attempt to Get Tiller, more or less;

Focus on the Family's Tom Minnery condemns Sen. Obama (Democratic presidential candidate) speech on Christian compassion.

( Articles and Excerpts Below )

Pear Blossoms

Pear Blossoms