Blogging for Truth

Flesh and Blood Truth

2009-08-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

These two quotes have been rolling around in my head now for over a week:

The first from Lauro Aguirre: "Truth for the tyrants is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings, it is like and incandescent iron falling across their chests, and it is even more agonizing than hot iron for that only burns the flesh, while truth, burns it's way into the soul..." and from Robert Louis Stevenson: “Truth, even in literature, must be clothed with flesh and blood, or it cannot tell its whole story.”

They tie into my last post and what Jendi Reiter wrote for us last May. One particular series of statements from her writing has continued to haunt my mind and grow in scope: Some conservatives address the problem by redefining what homosexuality is. It's an immoral choice, it's a curable neurosis, it's a perversion. It has to be, because the text says so.

This is the rhetorical move that frightens me. "We know you better than you know yourself: your love is only lust, your identity is confusion, and if you can't change, it's because you're not trying hard enough." Basically, the conservative church is saying to GLBT people that they can't trust their own perceptions of reality, even concerning the contents of their own minds and the feelings in their bodies."....

....Other conservatives would acknowledge that same-sex orientation may be innate and unchangeable, but they argue that the Bible calls all people so afflicted to live celibately. This position at least avoids the necessity of spreading misinformation about GLBT sexuality, but it's still a variation of the same power grab discussed above.

She goes on to point out: All of us "Bloggers for Truth" have stories we can tell about our own partnerships or those of our parents, teachers, pastors and friends--all GLBT people whose lives have been touched by the Spirit. But we also have to make the Scriptural case that stories are truths, on a par with or superior to the truths of abstract reasoning, at least when it comes to practical ethics. Time and time again I hear anti-gay Christians argue that we are biased by our personal desires (either lust or pride) while they are merely following "what the Bible says". Their epistemology doesn't allow for scrutiny of the human element in interpretation, nor of their own emotional biases, because they need the Bible to remain magically exempt from the human condition of partiality and uncertainty.

Where has this been all leading? From now on the focus of this site will no longer be to expose the Anti-Gay's industry's lies and rhetoric, the pieces written here and elsewhere, as well as the findings of the most reputable medical and psychological organizations across the globe, are proof enough that they continue to use bad science, fear and outright lies to spread their vitriol. We know they do. We KNOW they do. Enough of focusing on the negative. I am believing that as we move forward towards our rights, this can become a starting place, hopefully, of affirmation, encouragement and healing. To share our truths with each other and even the world, and see how common our experiences are, to tell why you know you are who you are and how amazing it is to be just that.

Once we have achieved the recognition of the rights that already belong to us as citizens, we will need to accept within ourselves that we do indeed deserve them. Our greatest offense and defense against further oppression is breaking down any lingering doubts of what our hearts and minds already know, we are full citizens, who deserve full civil and human rights.

I would like to encourage any of you who wish to offer an article of your own flesh and blood truth, to email this blog at the contact link on the left.

Your experience is the truth, it is your witness and it is our power. From now on, all of us can come to accept that what we know is true, and no one will ever be able to take that away from us.

“There are certain things that are fundamental to human fulfillment. The essence of these needs is captured in the phrase 'to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy'. The need to live is our physical need for such things as food, clothing, shelter, economical well-being, health. The need to love is our social need to relate to other people, to belong, to love and to be loved. The need to learn is our mental need to develop and to grow. And the need to leave a legacy is our spiritual need to have a sense of meaning, purpose, personal congruence, and contribution." -- Steven R. Covey

Our Life Experience Is What Sets Us Free

2009-08-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

The other day, I picked up a novel, and opened it, and here is what was written as a front piece:
Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. ~ Deuteronomy 4:9

This hit me powerfully because it was one more confirmation of something I am beginning to see is very important to each of us as we grow and heal from years of oppression. I am only now beginning to realize how much our own life experiences are incredibly powerful truths and testimony against the Anti Gay Industry. Talk about scientific studies all you want, but I KNOW with my full intellectual capacity, my heart and even in my soul, how wrong it is to ask someone to change the very soul of their LGBT nature, even if that person wishes to due to societies pressures. I KNOW because for 30 years I tried just that. During that 30 years, it is true, I never acted on my desires, but that was accomplished only by shutting down every one of my very normal, very human emotions. No amount of praying, no amount of pleading with God to take away the very nature I was created in, literally on my face before him, would allow me to be whole. I finally learned it was only the fear of what others believed that caused me to even try to change. It wasn't the will of God that I change who I was created to be after all.

Now and then I run across someone that tries to tell me that if I just would try harder I could learn to be heterosexual......I am sorry, but I could have 30 PhD.'s in heterosexuality as hard as I did try. There are others who have suggested I should just be celibate then, and give it to God, OK, I say, you go first. The look of amazement on their face is priceless. Why are they asking me to do something I have not been called to, especially when neither have they obviously. Physical relations with the one you love is a wonderful gift from God, why should I deny this gift when I have been given it?

Being a lesbian or gay is not about just sex. It is not just about who I want to sleep with, but it is everything about how I react to the world at large, yes it is about who I love, but it is also about having deeper feelings and passions than I thought possible, and not just towards the woman whom I love, but towards humanity and life at large. To deny this, to suppress it, means not only do I go back into the closet, but all that I am, all who I love and all that I do goes back into that closet as well.

Anyone who goes back in takes everything they have to offer to this world back in with them. These are our true colors and we should be proud of them, not ashamed any more, nor should we continue to listen to those who suggest that we return to a life of loneliness and shame once more because their motives are based on fear and discomfort. It is simply their own problem that they must learn to deal with.

I was inspired today, by this video suggested by a friend of mine on Facebook:

There Is Nothing To Fear, But Fear Itself......

2009-08-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety. ~Henry Louis Mencken

Our world is changing, not so very fast that it is too hard to understand. But it is changing and it is scaring the hell out of a number of people. They fear it because they do not understand that change can be a good thing, or is needed in some cases. Those in the United States who fear change the most, seem to have no ideas on making sure the changes are for the better, but instead are resorting to creating more fear, and violence in our country. There are more people joining hate groups, committing violent hate crimes and disrupting meetings to discuss health care reform. The garden of fear was plowed and watered by the mindset coming out of the previous administration, the labors of the past 8 years are now coming into full bloom. Once upon a time, when we faced a crisis in this country we didn't resort to the criminal antics we are witnessing now, we stood up, came together and found real solutions to the problems. What we need now are idea people, and we need them now. Not these weak minded fearful cowards whose voices are screaming the loudest.

It is the lack of real ideas on how to fix health care by those disrupting the meetings, the lack of wanting to seek out the truth and find out what would really work that disturbs me no end. The ignorance that they are already paying for the uninsured in higher medical costs and perscriptions. They don't understand that should they lose their job due to an accident, employer cut backs, or total disability they will become one of the millions of uninsured themselves. This happened to my ex husband 10 years ago, and the waiting period after becoming disabled is 2 years. In that two year waiting period, we incurred over 600,000 dollars in medical bills.

Before he was disabled, he worked 12 hours a day, six days a week, so that I could be a stay at home mom. We had always paid our taxes and took care of our own. He developed artery and heart problems at the age of 42 because of hereditary issues. Once he lost his job because of his disability, we could not afford the 600.00 a month COBRA payment, and my employer did not offer health insurance to him because they considered it pre-existing.

Oh, the 600,000 dollars we owed? You paid it, we couldn't, so the hospital wrote them off, I have recently filed bankruptcy for the rest of them. It has been added to your next hospital stay. It has been added to your next dr.'s appointment.

Quotes about the nature of fear and the importance of overcoming it.

You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith. ~Mary Manin Morrissey

Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. ~Marie Curie

Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop. ~Usman B. Asif

Keep your fears to yourself but share your courage with others. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear. ~George S. Patton

Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them. ~Brendan Francis

There is much in the world to make us afraid. There is much more in our faith to make us unafraid. ~Frederick W. Cropp

There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them. ~Andre Gide

Fear is faith that it won't work out. ~Sister Mary Tricky

Fear is the lengthened shadow of ignorance. ~Arnold Glasow

Fear is the father of courage and the mother of safety. ~Henry H. Tweedy

Fear is the highest fence. ~Dudley Nichols

Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them... they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight. ~Orison Swett Marden

Fear is the needle that pierces us that it may carry a thread to bind us to heaven. ~James Hastings

To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another. ~Katherine Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved

Fear has a large shadow, but he himself is small. ~Ruth Gendler

Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends. ~Shirley Maclaine

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. ~Bertrand Russell

He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Those who fear life are already three parts dead. ~Bertrand Russell

Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself. ~Samuel Butler

Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is. ~German Proverb

If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all thinking, damages his personality and makes him a landlord to a ghost. ~Lloyd Douglas

A cat bitten once by a snake dreads even rope. ~Arab Proverb

Fear prejudices courage. ~Abigail Charleson

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? ~Maurice Freehill

Fear: False Evidence Appearing Real. ~Author Unknown

Fear is a slinking cat I find beneath the lilacs of my mind. ~Sophie Tunnell

I would sort out all the arguments and see which belonged to fear and which to creativeness. Other things being equal, I would make the decision which had the larger number of creative reasons on its side. ~Katharine Butler Hathaway

He who fears something gives it power over him. ~Moorish Proverb

Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death. ~Author Unknown

He who fears to suffer, suffers from fear. ~French Proverb

There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice. ~Mark Twain

Fear can be headier than whiskey, once man has acquired a taste for it. ~Donald Dowes

Fear dances with courage. ~Ever Garrison

The wise man in the storm prays God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals, 1833

Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile... initially scared me to death. ~Betty Bender

To lead is difficult when you're a follower of fear. ~T.A. Sachs

I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change.... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back. ~Erica Jong

The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid. ~Lady Bird Johnson

Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.
~ Arthur Christopher Benson~

The reality is that changes are coming... They must come. You must share in bringing them.
~John Hersey~

We must learn to view change as a natural phenomenon - to anticipate it and to plan for it. The future is ours to channel in the direction we want to go... we must continually ask ourselves, "What will happen if...?" or better still, "How can we make it happen?"
~Lisa Taylor~

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
~Charles Darwin~

Things do not change; we change.
~Henry David Thoreau~

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
~Carl Rogers~

Life is always at some turning point.
~Irwin Edman~

The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.
~John F. Kennedy~

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
~Henri Bergson~

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
~George Bernard Shaw~

Change is the watchword of progression. When we tire of well-worn ways, we seek for new. This restless craving in the souls of men spurs them to climb, and to seek the mountain view.
~Ella Wheeler Wilcox~

I've never met a person, I don't care what his condition, in whom I could not see possibilities. I don't care how much a man may consider himself a failure, I believe in him, for he can change the thing that is wrong in his life anytime he is prepared and ready to do it. Whenever he develops the desire, he can take away from his life the thing that is defeating it. The capacity for reformation and change lies within.
~Preston Bradley~

Readjusting is a painful process, but most of us need it at one time or another.
~Arthur Christopher Benson~

We accept the verdict of the past until the need for change cries out loudly enough to force upon us a choice between the comforts of inertia and the irksomeness of action.
~Learned Hand~

Loyalty to a petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.
~Mark Twain~

He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality.
~Anwar Sadat~

The most significant change in a person's life is a change of attitude. Right attitudes produce right actions.
~Willam J. Johnston~

Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.
~Arnold Bennett~

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy, for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another.
~Anatole France~

He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place.
~Charles Caleb Colton~

The first step toward change is acceptance. Once you accept yourself, you open the door to change. That's all you have to do. Change is not something you do, it's something you allow.
~Will Garcia, person with AIDS~

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
~Helen Keller~

I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back...
~Erica Jong~

Practitioners Should Avoid Telling Clients They Can Change from Gay to Straight

2009-08-06T02:01:00.000-07:00

August 5, 2009 -

APA PRESS RELEASE

August 5, 2009
Contact: Kim Mills
(202) 336-6048 until Aug. 5
(416) 585-3800 – Aug. 5-9

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE THAT SEXUAL ORIENTATION CHANGE EFFORTS WORK, SAYS APA

Practitioners Should Avoid Telling Clients They Can Change from Gay to Straight

TORONTO—The American Psychological Association adopted a resolution Wednesday stating that mental health professionals should avoid telling clients that they can change their sexual orientation through therapy or other treatments.

The "Resolution on Appropriate Affirmative Responses to Sexual Orientation Distress and Change Efforts" also advises that parents, guardians, young people and their families avoid sexual orientation treatments that portray homosexuality as a mental illness or developmental disorder and instead seek psychotherapy, social support and educational services "that provide accurate information on sexual orientation and sexuality, increase family and school support and reduce rejection of sexual minority youth."

The approval, by APA's governing Council of Representatives, came at APA's annual convention, during which a task force presented a report that in part examined the efficacy of so-called "reparative therapy," or sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE).

"Contrary to claims of sexual orientation change advocates and practitioners, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation," said Judith M. Glassgold, PsyD, chair of the task force. "Scientifically rigorous older studies in this area found that sexual orientation was unlikely to change due to efforts designed for this purpose. Contrary to the claims of SOCE practitioners and advocates, recent research studies do not provide evidence of sexual orientation change as the research methods are inadequate to determine the effectiveness of these interventions." Glassgold added: "At most, certain studies suggested that some individuals learned how to ignore or not act on their homosexual attractions. Yet, these studies did not indicate for whom this was possible, how long it lasted or its long-term mental health effects. Also, this result was much less likely to be true for people who started out only attracted to people of the same sex."

Based on this review, the task force recommended that mental health professionals avoid misrepresenting the efficacy of sexual orientation change efforts when providing assistance to people distressed about their own or others' sexual orientation.

APA appointed the six-member Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation in 2007 to review and update APA's 1997 resolution, "Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation," and to generate a report. APA was concerned about ongoing efforts to promote the notion that sexual orientation can be changed through psychotherapy or approaches that mischaracterize homosexuality as a mental disorder.

The task force examined the peer-reviewed journal articles in English from 1960 to 2007, which included 83 studies. Most of the studies were conducted before 1978, and only a few had been conducted in the last 10 years. The group also reviewed the recent literature on the psychology of sexual orientation.

"Unfortunately, much of the research in the area of sexual orientation change contains serious design flaws," Glassgold said. "Few studies could be considered methodologically sound and none systematically evaluated potential harms."

As to the issue of possible harm, the task force was unable to reach any conclusion regarding the efficacy or safety of any of the recent studies of SOCE: "There are no methodologically sound studies of recent SOCE that would enable the task force to make a definitive statement about whether or not recent SOCE is safe or harmful and for whom," according to the report.

"Without such information, psychologists cannot predict the impact of these treatments and need to be very cautious, given that some qualitative research suggests the potential for harm," Glassgold said. "Practitioners can assist clients through therapies that do not attempt to change sexual orientation, but rather involve acceptance, support and identity exploration and development without imposing a specific identity outcome."

As part of its report, the task force identified that some clients seeking to change their sexual orientation may be in distress because of a conflict between their sexual orientation and religious beliefs. The task force recommended that licensed mental health care providers treating such clients help them "explore possible life paths that address the reality of their sexual orientation, reduce the stigma associated with homosexuality, respect the client's religious beliefs, and consider possibilities for a religiously and spiritually meaningful and rewarding life."

"In other words," Glassgold said, "we recommend that psychologists be completely honest about the likelihood of sexual orientation change, and that they help clients explore their assumptions and goals with respect to both religion and sexuality."

A copy of the task force report may be obtained from APA's Public Affairs Office or at http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/therapeutic-response.pdf.

Members of the APA Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation:

Judith M. Glassgold, PsyD, Rutgers University – Chair
Lee Beckstead, PhD
Jack Drescher, MD
Beverly Greene, PhD, St. John's University
Robin Lin Miller, PhD, Michigan State University
Roger L. Worthington, PhD, University of Missouri

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare.

In other words........stop misleading people, stop lying to them and let them become truly whole as human beings!

Who is Paul Cameron and why would anyone believe his lies?

2009-08-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

Paul Cameron is the man responsible for the "legitimization" of many, many anti gay beliefs held by the American public. His debunked science is quoted by many unknowing Churches, politicians and even the public at large, and by the Anti Gay Industry who do know better who is behind them and what his agenda truly is. It is the ultimate agenda of this man to "exterminate" all "unrepentant" LGBT persons. "At the 1985 Conservative Political Action Conference, Cameron announced to the attendees, 'Unless we get medically lucky, in three or four years, one of the options discussed will be the extermination of homosexuals.' According to an interview with former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, Cameron was recommending the extermination option as early as 1983." - Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995.

Paul Cameron, received his doctorate in psychology at the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1966, He co-founded the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality in 1983 after being dropped from the membership of the American Psychological Association . That organization eventually turned into The Family Research Institute. The Southern Law Poverty Center, our nations hate group authority, has officially designated The Family Research Institute a hate group. The FBI uses the SLPC data in it's hate group watch list. Cameron uses The Family Research Institute as a vehicle to publish reports saying homosexuals were more likely than heterosexuals to commit crimes and to molest children as well as most of the false statements made towards the LGBT community. Have you ever wondered what kind of mind would create two groups with the sole purpose of spreading lies about the LGBT community? From Paul Cameron's own words, you can get a pretty good idea.

Though he was kicked out of the American Psychological Association for ethical violations in 1983 (he was alleged to have used unsound methods and misrepresented the work of others, a practice his organization as well as others like his, still employ today, please visit: Respect My Research.org) — and then, after pawning himself off as a sociologist, declared "not a sociologist" by the American Sociological Association — his studies alleging every evil under the sun as coming from gays frequently cited by not only others in the Anti-Gay industry but Churches and the general public include:

"Homosexuality is a crime against humanity."- Paul Cameron's pamphlet "Criminality, Social Disruption and Homosexuality" quoted by Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995. (Outrageous opinion held by many in the Anti Gay Industry)

In a 1981 debate, Cameron claimed a 4-year-old boy had been sexually mutilated in a Lincoln, Neb., mall rest room as part of a "homosexual act" — but police in Lincoln said no such crime had occurred. (Out right lie, there were no newspaper reports or any calls to the police regarding this)

Causes of homosexuality include: "sex with animals"- http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron3.html, What Causes Homosexual Desire and Can It Be Changed?, By Paul Cameron, Ph. D. (Outrageous lie held by many in the Anti Gay Industry)

"At least twice Cameron has advocated the tattooing of AIDS patients on the face, so that people would know when they were meeting with an infected person. The penalty for trying to hide the tattoo would be banishment to the Hawaiian island of Molokai, a former leper colony. In the event that a vaccine were developed to prevent AIDS, Cameron has proposed that homosexuals be castrated to prevent them from 'cheating' on nature." - Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995. (Outrageous opinions held by many in the Anti Gay Industry)

"I think that actually AIDS is a guardian. That is I think it was sent, if you would, about forty years ago, to destroy Western civilization unless we change our sexual ways. So it's really a Godsend." - Cameron quoted by Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995. (Outrageous opinion held by many in the Anti Gay Industry)

"33% [of gays surveyed] ingested feces via anal/oral contact"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron2.html (Made up, not based on fact)

"a large minority of gays engage in torture for sexual fun. Sex with minors 25% of white gays admitted to sex with boys 16 or younger as adults"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron2.html (Made up, not based on fact)

"Cameron also views AIDS as being such a large threat to 'innocents' that he has proposed nationwide testing for HIV and the forcible quarantine of all those testing positive, either by confinement to their homes or in regional detention centers." - Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995. (C. Everett Koop scolded Cameron for this suggestion)

"He has also advocated the outlawing of homosexuality and the forcible closing of all Gay bars; homosexuals would be required to register with government authorities and have their movements tracked." - Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995. (Outrageous opinion held by many in the Anti Gay Industry)

"Older homosexuals often approach the young" - http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron3.html, What Causes Homosexual Desire and Can It Be Changed?, By Paul Cameron, Ph. D. (Opinion while held by many is just not based on fact)

"There is evidence that homosexuality, like drug use is 'handed down' from older individuals. The first homosexual encounter is usually initiated by an older person."- http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron3.html, What Causes Homosexual Desire and Can It Be Changed?, By Paul Cameron, Ph.D. (Again, opinion, not based on fact)

"A quarter of homosexuals have admitted to sex with children and underage teens"- http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron3.html, What Causes Homosexual Desire and Can It Be Changed?, By Paul Cameron, Ph. D. (Outrageous opinion, not based on fact, the facts are, all studies show Gays and Lesbians to have much much lower rates of child predatory behaviors than practicing heterosexuals, the latest show 1/2 the rate)

"Cameron also presented data that homosexuals are disproportionately child molesters. This research was also based on newspaper stories, which he said prove homosexuals are perpetrators in 40 percent of all molestation cases." - The Minnesota Daily, August 22, 1997 (as above, proven false)

"gays who practice oral sex verge on consuming raw human blood"- Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron2.html (Opinion, not based on fact) "gays average somewhere between 106 and 1105 different partners/year"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron2.html (Made up, not based on fact, just how much energy does this man think we have?)

Gays have sex with "bottles, carrots, even gerbils"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron2.html (Opinion, not based on fact. Here is the source of all the gerbil jokes by the way)

"The typical life-span of homosexuals suggests that their activities are more destructive than smoking and as dangerous as drugs."-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron2.html (Opinion, not based on fact, very poor research methods used)

"Those who treat AIDS patients are at great risk"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron2.html (Opinion, facts show otherwise)

"The typical sexual practices of homosexuals are a medical horror story --imagine exchanging saliva, feces, semen and/or blood with dozens of different men each year. Imagine drinking urine, ingesting feces and experiencing rectal trauma on a regular basis. Often these encounters occur while the participants are drunk, high, and/or in an orgy setting. Further, many of them occur in extremely unsanitary places"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron2.html (Made up, not based on fact or even an attempt at research)

"Homosexuals are sexually troubled people engaging in dangerous activities"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron2.html (Opinion, not based on fact)

"Homosexual coupling undermines its participants' health, has the highest rate of domestic violence, shortens life, and is a poor environment in which to raise children."- Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron1.html (Made up, not based on fact)

"homosexual couples have higher rates of domestic violence than do heterosexual couples, especially among lesbians"- Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron1.html (Made up, not based on fact)

"The largest study, and the only one based on a random sample, estimated that less than half of a percent of Americans have had a homosexual parent. Those who did were more likely to: report having had sex with a parent….be sexually molested"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron1.html (Not only made up nor based on fact, but this outrageous lie, hurts real victims of child abuse and prevents LGBT persons from becoming foster or adoptive parents in many states.)

"Homosexual unions are not built around lifetime commitments"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron1.html (Guess he didn't talk to the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of couples who are in relationships lasting 10 years or more)

"Thomas Jefferson said that homosexuality ‘should be punished, if a man, by castration, if a woman, by cutting through the cartilage of her nose a hole of one-half inch in diameter as least.’ " Paul Cameron - Medical Consequences of What Homosexuals Do. (It is true that he proposed this legislation. The problem with the argument though is that it drops the context of the times and intent of Jefferson’s proposal. At this time the punishment for these "crimes" was death (so those that say that Jefferson’s position was too extreme are, in effect, saying that they believe they should have continued to execute homosexuals. Jefferson sought to make the punishment less severe. He did not propose castration out of the blue where no law had existed before.)

The American Psychological Association quickly launched an investigation into Cameron’s methodology after receiving complaints from some of its members. The association sent Cameron a letter in December 1983, saying it had decided to ”drop you from membership” because he had not cooperated with the investigation. Asked if the association still has concerns about Cameron, a spokeswoman, Rhea Faberman, said: ”We are concerned about Dr. Cameron because we do believe that his methodology is weak.”

In 1984, the Nebraska Psychological Association issued a statement saying it ”formally dissociates itself from the representations and interpretations of scientific literature offered by Dr. Paul Cameron.”

The American Sociological Association issued a resolution saying: ”Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism.”

“I’m amazed that he is able to continue to be published,” said Perrin, a professor of pediatrics at the Floating Hospital for Children, Tufts-New England Medical Center. Perrin emphasized that her concern is not just about Cameron, but also about the way his research is quoted by others to justify restrictions on adoption by same-sex couples.

Gregory M. Herek, professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis, who has followed Cameron’s career, said: ”Most members of the public assume that a paper published in an academic journal is a legitimate scientific study. They don’t understand that journals vary widely in their quality and in the rigor of their review process. Cameron’s work is methodologically weak and in many cases the conclusions he draws from his data are not valid.”

Most recently, Cameron has said that “the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has suppressed a new study that concludes homosexuals are involved in criminality more than their heterosexual counterparts.” But Karen Hunter, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the government agency has “never conducted a study of criminal activity among homosexuals versus heterosexuals. If we have never done a study, we would not be able to suppress it.” Cameron responded that his data came from a government drug-abuse survey, but the agency that collected the data said it could not replicate Cameron’s findings.

Cameron’s publisher, Psychological Reports, said it does not reject an article on grounds that it has received a negative review from peers, although it often asks for revisions. As Ammons, the editor, put it, “No opinion of a reviewer will ever veto, by itself, an article . . . We just simply invite them to comment. If they disagree with some aspect, they are free to submit a comment.” “People want to anoint something published in a scientific journal as ‘The Truth.’ It isn’t and it can’t be,” Ammons said. He added that his publication does not have a political agenda, and he said he personally disagrees with much of what Cameron has written but believes he should be
published.

According to The Family Research Institutes own statement: “Those of us at FRI are determined to do our best to oppose these death activists.[what these "scientists" call LGBT persons] As you see, the Internet has given us far more clout than our limited budget and effortscould otherwise hope for.”

In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center described Paul Cameron’s theories on homosexuality this way: "Of all the vices," Cameron concluded in one pamphlet, "only homosexuality constitutes a conspiracy against society." Cameron's "science" echoes Nazi Germany in that these disparaging descriptions of homosexuals are reminiscent of themes found in the ugly history of anti-Semitism, where Jews were historically associated with disease, filth, and child stealing. Cameron has been thrown out of legitimate professional organizations for his crackpot and inhuman science.

According to FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin/March 1, 2003 By John R. Schafer, MA and Joe Navarro, MA The seven-stage hate model: The psychopathology of hate groups, the Definition of Hate is a complex subject, divides into two general categories: rational and irrational. Unjust acts inspire rational hate. Hatred of a person based on race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or national origin constitutes irrational hate.

Both rational and irrational hate mask personal insecurities. Everyone experiences personal insecurities in varying degrees throughout their lives. The more insecure a person feels, the larger the hate mask. Most people concentrate on the important issues in life, such as earning a living, rearing a family, and achieving personal goals. These pursuits give meaning and value to life. Nonetheless, irrational hate bleeds through day-to-day activities.... Not all insecure people are haters, but all haters are insecure people.

On the "Journals" he publishes his reports in:

Psychological Reports et al. Instead of publishing in highly-respected, scientifically rigorous, and highly influential psychological journals (such as those in the top half of the Journal Citation Reports rankings), most of the Cameron group's research reports have appeared in Psychological Reports. Psychological Reports consistently ranks near the bottom of the list for impact. Other approaches to ranking the prestige and significance of journals have similarly ranked Psychological Reports at a low level in comparison to other psychology journals.

Psychological Reports publishes a larger number of articles and has a lower rejection rate than is typical for psychology journals. According to Journal Citation Reports in 1994 and 1995, for example, Psychological Reports was the third largest journal for which statistics were collected, publishing 510 articles in 1994 and 504 articles in 1995.

Psychological Reports is also different from the vast majority of psychology and social science journals in that it requires contributing authors to pay a fee (in recent years, $27.50 per page). The practice of charging a per-page fee or requiring purchase of preprinted copies of the article is rare in psychological and social science journals. Such per-page fees are not charged by the high-prestige psychology journals (e.g., those published by the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science).

As with Psychological Reports, the other journals in which the Cameron group has published have had consistently low rankings over time. Using 1977 SSCI impact ratings to rank 99 psychology journals, for example, Buffardi and Nichols (1981) ranked Adolescence, which Cameron himself once labeled as obscure, 98th out of 99. Another Cameron outlet, the Journal of Psychology, was ranked 79th.

Thus, the Cameron group has published its empirical research in academic journals with low prestige and, at least in the case of Psychological Reports, with a low rejection rate and a publication fee required from authors.

From Queer Science by Mark E. Pietrzyk
Mark E. Pietrzyk holds a Ph.D in political science from the George Washington University. He has been an instructor at DePaul University, a Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, and a researcher for the Heritage Foundation and National Defense University. His articles have appeared in The New Republic, Terra Nova, International Affairs Review, and The American Spectator.

Until 1980 Cameron was an instructor of psychology at the University of Nebraska. When his teaching contract was not renewed, he devoted himself fulltime to a think tank he founded called the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality (ISIS),where he touted himself as an expert on sexuality, particularly on the societal consequences of homosexuality. During the 1980s he published hysterical pamphlets alleging that gays were disproportionately responsible for serial killings, child molestation and other heinous crimes.

Shortly after Cameron made these claims, several psychologists whose work he had referenced -- including Dr. A. Nicholas Groth, director of the Sex Offender Program at the Connecticut Department of Corrections -- charged Cameron with distorting their findings in order to promote his antigay agenda. When the American Psychological Association (APA) investigated Cameron, it found that he not only misrepresented the work of others but also used unsound methods in his own studies. For this ethical breach, the APA expelled Cameron in December 1983. (Although Cameron claims he resigned, APA bylaws prohibit members from resigning while under investigation.)

Unfortunately, the misrepresentations persist. Distortions and sloppy methods continue to shape Cameron's studies. As anyone who has taken a statistics class knows, a survey is valid only if the sample it uses is representative of the whole population. Sex surveys pose a particular problem, since many people who normally would be included in a representative sample are loath to discuss their private lives. That, however, hasn't deterred Cameron from his work.

Consider, for instance, his 1983 ISIS study, a survey of the sexual and social behavior of 4,340 adults in five American cities. Although thousands of heterosexuals allegedly responded to his survey, Cameron could get only forty-one gay men and twenty-four lesbians to respond. The extremely small sample size should have invalidated any conclusions about the sexual behavior of the gay population. In any case, the skewed results of the survey show that Cameron did not get an adequate random sample of heterosexuals either. He claims to have found that 52 percent of male heterosexuals have shoplifted; that 34 percent have committed a crime without being caught; and that 12 percent have either committed or attempted to commit murder. Most people would toss out such a survey but Cameron published the results in several pamphlets and in “Effect of Homosexuality upon Public Health and Social Order," an article in Psychological Reports.

In one pamphlet, Murder, Violence and Homosexuality, Cameron asserts that you are fifteen times more apt to be killed by a homosexual than by a heterosexual during a sexual murder spree; that homosexuals have committed the most sexual conspiracy murders; and that half of all sex murderers are homosexuals. Cameron based these conclusions on a sample of thirty-four serial killers he selected from the years 1966 to 1983. He stacked the deck not only by including phony figures (he counts in his sample the claims of Henry Lee Lucas, who subsequently recanted his boast that he murdered hundreds of people) but by examining only those serial killers with an apparent sexual motive. This allowed him to include John Wayne Gacy and his victims but to exclude the great majority of serial killers who are heterosexual, according to sociologist Jack Levin, the author of Mass Murder: America's Growing Menace.

In Cameron's writings on child molestation, the pamphlet Child Molestation and Homosexuality and two published articles, “Homosexual Molestation of Children/Sexual Interaction of Teacher and Pupil and “Child Molestation and Homosexuality'" he concludes that gays have perpetrated between one-third and one-half of all child molestations; that homosexual teachers have committed between one-quarter and four-fifths of all molestations of pupils; and that gays are ten to twenty times more apt to molest children than are heterosexuals.

These figures are said to be based on the content of other child molestation studies, yet Cameron has distorted those studies to get the results he wants. For example, he defines all adult male molestation of male children as molestations committed by homosexuals, a definition rejected by the very experts Cameron cites.

Groth, among other experts, has explicitly said that most molesters of boys are in fact men who are heterosexual in their adult relationships. These men are attracted to boys, he says, largely because of the feminine characteristics of prepubescents, such as a lack of body hair. (They also had more access to young boys than girls. In child molestation, the perpetrators choose who they are allowed to be alone with, the gender of the child has nothing to do with it.)

Cameron also has provided anti-gay organizations with research indicating absurdly high rates of extreme sex practices and venereal diseases among gays and lesbians. In his pamphlets on these subjects, Cameron has claimed, for instance, that 29 percent of gay men practice “urine sex" and that 37 percent of gay men have sadomasochistic sex.

Gay men, he says, are fourteen times more apt to have syphilis than heterosexual men and are three times more apt to have had lice. Lesbians are said to be nineteen times more apt to have syphilis than straight women and are four times more apt to have had scabies. (the opposite is true) Cameron's findings, however, are based on two sources: his discredited 1983 ISIS survey and other studies that ignore random sampling techniques. Several studies Cameron cites to support his conclusions rely on the responses of gay men who were recruited entirely from V.D. clinics.

A Cameron study that has received perhaps the most attention is “The Lifespan of Homosexuals." It concludes that less than 2 percent of gay men survive to old age; that lesbians have a median age of death of 45 that gays are 116 times more apt to be murdered than straight men and twenty-four times more apt to commit suicide, etc. The source of this material? A comparison of obituaries from gay newspapers with a sample from regular newspapers, a method that would be laughed at by any reputable scholar.

Obituaries in gay papers do not accurately portray deaths in the gay population as a whole. They are not meant to provide a public record of deaths of all gays but to allow members of the urban gay community to express mourning for their peers, particularly those whose lives have been cut short by illness or accident. Gays who die outside these communities or who die of natural causes are much less likely to be written up in a gay paper.

I no longer believe Paul Cameron or his "studies." All I know is that I believe my own life experience, I believe the life experience and witness of my LGBT peers and my own experiences as people who have tried but could not change who we are, who come from every nation and background, every religious community and non religious community, we come from every walk of life and every profession known. From the earliest days we have existed. Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum were ancient Egyptian royal servants. They shared the title of Overseer of the Manicurists in the Palace of King Niuserre during the Fifth Dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs, circa 2400 B.C., and are listed as "royal confidants" in their joint tomb. They are speculated to be the first recorded same-sex couple in recorded history. Surely they were not just the first.

We have brought art, science, beauty and love to the places we have graced and lived. Though the people of the Anti-Gay Industry try to dehumanize us and deny us civil rights and ultimately our lives, they will never succeed because truth and love are always in the end stronger than lies and hate.

Growing Up Gay and Lesbian

2009-08-01T03:56:00.000-07:00

The Legacy of Jerry Falwell

2009-07-16T01:20:00.000-07:00

Jerry Falwell may well be best remembered as the founder of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, Liberty University, a staunch segregationist, the man who said AIDS was God's judgment against homosexuals, that called the purple teletubby, Twinkie Winkie, gay, the "father" of the Anti-Gay Industry, and as the co-founder of the Moral Majority in 1979.

What is not so well known about Jerry Falwell, is that in 2005, two years before his death, he said in an appearance on MSNBC television, that he was not troubled by reports that the nominee for Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, John G. Roberts (whose appointment was confirmed by the U.S. Senate) had done volunteer legal work for gay rights activists on the case of Romer v. Evans.

Falwell told MSNBC's Tucker Carlson that if he were a lawyer, he too would argue for civil rights for LGBT people. "I may not agree with the lifestyle, but that has nothing to do with the civil rights of that part of our constituency," Falwell said. When Carlson countered that conservatives "are always arguing against 'special rights' for gays," Falwell said that equal access to housing, civil marriage, and employment are basic rights, not special rights. "Civil rights for all Americans, black, white, red, yellow, the rich, poor, young, old, gay, straight, et cetera, is not a liberal or conservative value. It's an American value that I would think that we pretty much all agree on."

Jerry Falwell it seems, had begun to see the error of his ways in his waning years. It would, unfortunately, be too late to undo all the damage to the civil rights of countless Americans of color, of the LGBT communities and of our belated response to the AIDS epidemic under Ronald Regan who listened to Falwell's Moral Majority and ignored it for many years. And it was too late to undo the damage done by his false beliefs about race and sexual orientation to the millions of his followers.

In 1979, Jerry Falwell formed the conservative Christian political force he called the Moral Majority. One reason he did so was his opposition to integration of public schools. "If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God's word and had desired to do the Lord's will," he said about the Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision, "I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never have been made.... The facilities should be separate. When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line."

He encouraged his membership to become elected to school boards because as he stated: "That certain teachings in public schools and secular education in general, are breeding grounds for atheism, secularism, and humanism," which he claimed to be in contradiction with Christian morality. He called on the United States to change its public education system by implementing a school voucher system which would allow parents to send their children to either public or private schools. His motives were to decrease the number of children attending public schools until they all would be shut down or taken over by Christian churches that toed his line.

Jerry Falwell wrote in America Can Be Saved that "I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them."

Jerry Falwell always claimed he believed in the inerrancy of the Bible and followed it strictly, he might have done some good for his fellow man had he realized the Old and New Testaments contain a total of 31,156 verses - of which over 6,000 deal with alleviating poverty, defending the oppressed and caring for the widow and fatherless child, while not one verse deals directly with schools, abortion, segregation based on race or gay marriage.

Musings Of A Novitiate Ally: Part 1

2009-07-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

I found this post at Meet Adam and Steve by Hugh Yeman and he graciously has allowed me to cross-post it here:
See after the post for more about Meet Adam and Steve

Musings Of A Novitiate Ally: Part 1

Two weeks ago I was hanging out at Blind Tiger waxing enthusiastic about my new blog. Seth took a look at my flier, saw the words "GAY / LESBIAN / BISEXUAL / TRANSGENDER" and said "I'm not comfortable with transgender people." I shot back "Well, who would be?"

This was an exaggeration. I know that many people are comfortable with transsexuals. The point I was trying to make was "Dude. You get to be uncomfortable." This assertion was high in my constellation of mental talking points for several reasons.

Just a few nights previously I'd hung out at the Ramrod, and you'd damned well better believe I was uncomfortable. Why? Not because I was in a room full of gay guys on the gayest street in the gayest neighborhood I knew of. I was uncomfortable because the bartender was being a big drama queen, loudly telling the customer next to me about his sexual exploits. But I was beginning to realize something else: that I would have been just as uncomfortable with a straight woman saying the same things. Or a straight man - heck, that probably would have made me more uncomfortable because of the misogyny with which such exhortations are almost inevitably marbled. It wasn't that he was gay; it was that he was airing his musky laundry, and that bugs the shit out of me.

So you see, I learned that I'm never really uncomfortable with LGBT folks; I'm uncomfortable with behaviors that I may associate with them, but are actually found throughout humanity. And if I can shed my false discomfort, so can everyone else.

No. Fuck that.

I'm not that much of a happy-happy marginalizing Kumbaya-singin' Pollyanna. That ain't me, babe. Y'know why? Because I believe that we are, as a species, psychotic about discomfort. I mean, for gosh sake, does no one remember the land of the Lotus Eaters? There's a reason why Homer thought that those lazy fuckers missed the existential boat, and it's the same reason James T. Kirk would puke in his mouth at the thought of shunning discomfort. Our discomfort is made of our demons, and Facing our demons makes us mighty. Our discomfort is exactly that which does not kill us, and we all know what that does.

Why is discomfort so important to me? Well..

I went to Cornell from the fall of 1988 until the spring of 1992. During those four years I grew to loathe knee-jerk political correctness, which I later came to see as Nazi mind control. The best way to describe the atmosphere is to recount a short conversation in the dorm lounge. Folks were talking about abortion, and I was trying to articulate my view that the whole question of when a fetus becomes a baby seemed pointless to me: the point was that it was a potential human life, and the thought of cutting that off saddened me, even though I was pro-choice. I never got to that last bit, though. The girl arguing the feminist talking points cut me off with the big liberal conversation-ender du jour: she dismissed me as a man who would never have to make the decision. That I was on her side didn't matter. I wasn't toeing the party line, so I had to be shut up and shut down.

I thought about this for the umpteenth time. Then I thought of the 2004 elections, when some people voted for Bush because their religious leaders said that the liberals wanted to force people into gay marriages. And for the first time, I saw the small kernel of plausibility in those stories. I still say that the people who believed them were gullible fools, but when i think back to the PC mind-control attempts of the early ninetes it becomes understandable.

We are complicit in the backlashes that hurt our movement. We have to own that. We have to be smart: learn from our mistakes, choose our battles, and not try to control peoples' minds! People get to be uncomfortable with abortion. People get to be uncomfortable with homosexuals. I get to be uncomfortable with transsexuals, and if you disagree, then let's reframe this. Here's a short list of people who make me uncomfortable, in no particular order. If I were to sort the list and put transsexuals in, I doubt they would be near the top.

Football players and gym rats
People with lots of piercings
Really fat people (I was really fat)
Orange ladies who are supposed to look tanned
Women with lots of makeup
Young girls trying to look sexy
Inconsiderate people, e.g. cell shouters and people who talk in movies or don't make room for others on the train
People who disguise hate or a desire to win an argument as logic
Ignorant people
Myself, when I see my own ignorance

Being uncomfortable with other humans, not to mention our own inner workings, is part of the design specs of a human. We get to be uncomfortable. So to all you conservatives and religious folks out there: if anyone tells you that you're not allowed to be uncomfortable with homosexuals, you tell them from me - a liberal, fag-loving unbeliever - that they can go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut. No one gets to control your mind.

Last year, when I was going through some bad times, a good friend told me something that his mother had told him as a child: "If someone has a problem with you, it's their problem." This stuck with me, because I know that I worry way too much about what other people think of me. I wouldn't want to go too far in the opposite direction, because I find people who spend their lives proudly exclaiming "I don't give a shit what anyone thinks of me" to be particularly odious. But I could stand a good, heaping dose of "It's their problem." And it works both ways.

If I am uncomfortable with transsexuals it's my problem. If you're uncomfortable with the thought of homosexuality, it's your problem. I ain't a victim by a damn sight, and neither are you; they didn't make us uncomfortable; we just are uncomfortable. And our state of being gives us no more right to reduce another person to a second-class citizen than would an aversion to russet tones justify us in taking a razor to every redhead we saw on the street.

So. You get to be uncomfortable, and the operative word here is "be". Discomfort is a state if being - your being. You get to have your reactions. What you don't get to do is abrogate another person's rights because of your discomfort. You have an immensely powerful processor squelching about in your skull. You are capable of parsing your inner discomforts from your outer sanctions. Figure it out.

The mission statement of Meet Adam and Steve:

Many of you out there don't know anyone (or don’t think you know anyone) who is GLBT because of where you live. Some of you may think that all such people look or act a certain way, but this is simply not true. There are many lesbians that most people don’t recognize as such because they don’t fit the stereotype, and the same thing applies to gay men.

The folks on these pages were kind enough to let me photograph them, and to allow me to share their faces and their stories with you. Click on a few and see them as the normal people they are. I hope that this will help break some barriers, stop some ignorance within people, and help to spread a universal message of love.

-Hugh Yeman

Response to "Silencing The Christians"

2009-07-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

The American Family Association recently showed their film "Silencing The Christians" in Florida. They are attempting to show it across the country. The following is: "I want SEX in public? A rebuttal video to Speechless: Silencing Christians"

As an LGBT activist, I would like to state, I have never read the book discussed in this film, nor do I know anyone who has........

This is who The American Family Association is:

The American Family Association's president Tim Wildmon has praised America Vision founder Gary DeMar as "one of the best writers out there in the Christian community and thinkers."

Gary DeMar on the February 2, 2006 broadcast of Today's Issues, a program of AFA's American Family Radio stated in an interview:

DeMAR: The definition of Christian Reconstruction is simply this: The Bible applies to every facet of life. That means not just the judicial aspects of life, such as civil government, church government, but business, economics -- every facet of society. The Bible has something to say about each area. For example, on homosexuals: We do not believe that homosexuals ought to be executed. The Bible doesn't say that homosexuals ought to be executed. What it says is this: If two men lie together like man and woman, they are to be put to death.
PORTEOUS: What the hell do you think that is?
DeMAR: Well, wait a minute. If a guy comes up to me and he says, "I'm a homosexual," that doesn't mean he's to be executed. If you understand the Scriptures, it says very clearly: If a man comes up to you and says, "I've murdered somebody," that doesn't mean that person ought to be executed.
GONZALES: Oh, so what you are saying, Gary, is, if you catch homosexuals in the act, then the Bible says to execute them.
DeMAR: The Bible lays forth the severest penalty, which would be capital punishment for two men who publicly engage in sodomy. DeMar continued by stating his nominal support for the death penalty for adulterers and abortion doctors:
GONZALES: If, indeed, the Reconstructionist movement ever made it in America, would you advocate these biblical principles being carried out: the execution of the adulterer, the abortionist, and the homosexual?
DeMAR: I'm saying that they could be implemented, yes.

From Wikipeidia:

The AFA defines itself as "a Christian organization promoting the Christian Biblical Ethic of decency in American society with primary emphasis on TV and other media"

It pursues its views and other issues through a number of activism efforts, including boycotts, "action alert" e-mails, publications on the AFA's web sites or in the AFA Journal, broadcasts on American Family Radio, and lobbying. The legal efforts previously promoted by the AFA Center for Law and Policy were eliminated in 2007.

Chief among its efforts were the recognition of Christmas in seasonal print advertisements; the criminalization of homosexuality; lobbying against same-sex marriage, and in opposition of equal-rights and hate-crime legislation that would include sexual orientation and gender identity under categories already protected and advocating censorship of print and electronic media.

The organization has an annual budget of roughly US $14 million and owns 180 American Family Radio stations in 28 states.

The AFA has boycotted multiple U.S. companies for various reasons, most often relating to Christmas controversies, pornography, support of pro-choice activism, and support of LGBT activism, including same-sex partner employee benefits.

These organizations include: 7-Eleven, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Airlines, American Girl, Blockbuster Video, Burger King, Calvin Klein, Carl's Jr., Clorox, Crest, Ford, Hallmark Cards, Kmart, Kraft Foods, S. C. Johnson & Son, Movie Gallery, Microsoft, MTV, Mary Kay, NutriSystem, Old Navy, IKEA, Sears, Pampers, Procter & Gamble, Target, Tide, Walt Disney Company, and PepsiCo.

Although the AFA criticizes the People's Republic of China for its persecution of Christians the AFA has yet to actually move to boycott retailers of Chinese goods. To the contrary, the AFA has urged its members to support retailers such as Wal Mart, which deal mainly in Chinese goods.

On October 19, 1998, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, led by Leslie Katz, wrote a letter to the AFA in response to an advertisement placed in the San Francisco Chronicle by the AFA regarding homosexuality and Christianity. The letter stated:

Supervisor Leslie Katz denounces your rhetoric against gays, lesbians and transgendered people. What happened to Matthew Shepard is in part due to the message being espoused by your groups that gays and lesbians are not worthy of the most basic equal rights and treatment. It is not an exaggeration to say that there is a direct correlation between these acts of discrimination, such as when gays and lesbians are called sinful and when major religious organizations say they can change if they tried, and the horrible crimes committed against gays and lesbians.

CNN story: 'Gayby boom': Children of gay couples speak out

2009-07-03T17:14:00.000-07:00

'Gayby boom': Children of gay couples speak out

CNN -- Jesse Levey is a Republican activist who says he believes in family values, small government and his lesbian mothers' right to marry. Levey is part of the "gayby boom" generation. The 29-year-old management consultant is the son of a lesbian couple who chose to have a child through artificial insemination. He's their only child.

Critics of same-sex marriage say people such as Levey will grow up shunned and sexually confused. Yet he says he's a "well-adjusted heterosexual" whose upbringing proves that love, not gender, makes a family.

It damages the children, says Dale O'Leary, author of "One Man, One Woman: A Catholics Guide to Defending Marriage." She says that all children have a natural desire for a parent of each gender. But children of same-sex couples are forced to repress that desire because their parents won't accept it, she says. Their parents won't acknowledge their children's needs because they don't want to admit that they have caused their children to suffer.

O'Leary says she doesn't personally know any same-sex parents or their children. That's the problem, some children of same-sex children say. So many people are talking about them; not enough are talking to them, they say.

Some gayby boomers say they are tired of hearing that their family isn't legitimate. It's an argument many have heard since they were children. They learned that they didn't fit the definition of the "right" family, and worried how others would react if they found out about their parents.

The result: the children of same-sex couples often lived lives that were more closeted than their parents. "Many of us were so closeted that we didn't know others like us were out there," says Danielle Silber, a 26-year-old fundraiser for the International Rescue Committee, who was raised by lesbian mothers and gay fathers in Takoma Park, Maryland.

"In middle school, because of pervasive homophobia and taunting, I didn't tell any of my new friends in school about my family to the point where I wouldn't invite them to my birthday parties," Silber says. Silber says she didn't tell her parents about her fear of harassment because she was afraid to stand up for her family in school even though she was proud of them.

"Although I would normally turn to my family, I couldn't because I was ashamed that I was ashamed of them," she says.

Shame has now turned to pride for some gayby boomers. Many are now adults. They're writing memoirs, searching one another out online and have even formed their own support and advocacy group.

Please read the entire story at CNN.com

SF Police Officer Speaks To Ft. Worth Dept About Rainbow Lounge Raid

2009-07-03T02:24:00.000-07:00

At approximately 12:30 am on June 28th, the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, members of the Ft. Worth Texas Police Department and the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission arrived to inspect the Rainbow Lounge, a newly opened gay bar in Ft. Worth. The police have said that when they entered the bar the patrons began groping them and making suggestive movements towards them. (if you have ever been to a gay bar, this just doesn't happen, the patrons will part the like the Red Sea when the police arrive, we remember when you could be arrested for just being gay) They arrested several people and Chad Gibson, 26, of Euless wound up hospitalized with a head injury. Depending whom you believe, he either fell or was shoved into a wall and the floor by a beverage commission agent.

This is what a San Francisco Police Officer has to say about the raid:

h/t Dallas Voice

August Provost III Murdered at Camp Pendleton: Possible Hate Crime

2009-07-03T01:38:00.000-07:00

July 2, 2009
According to the Associated Press, the body of August Provost III, 29, was found in a guard shack Tuesday at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, California.

Rose Roy, Provost's aunt, believes her nephew was murdered and she doesn't think the military is telling the family the entire truth about what happened.

Relatives say there is evidence to indicate Provost was attacked because he was gay.

Roy says a friend of Provost called her and said when Provost was found, his hands and feet were tied, he was gagged, shot three times and his body had been set on fire. He was found early Tuesday morning in a guard shack when another person showed up to replace him on duty.

His aunt says he was proud to serve in the Navy. He had been in the military for two years and was stationed at Camp Pendleton near San Diego. Roy says he went into the military to help pay for the remainder of his college education. He had already completed three years, studying to become an architectural engineer.

Navy spokesman Capt. Matt Brown, described Provost as "a rising star in our Navy," who entered the service in March 2008. He had completed basic training and subsequent technical schools and was beginning preparations for overseas deployment.

Update on PA Senator John Eichelberger

2009-07-02T00:25:00.000-07:00

After attempting unsuccessfully to elicit an apology from PA Senator Eichelberger for his remark that he was allowing LGBT's "to exist," The Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents have created a Facebook Group, please click the link and sign up today:

Exist-gate: Gays are allowed to exist AND have a Facebook Group

Senator John Eichelberger commented "We are allowing them to exist" during a recent interview on WHYY in Philadelphia. Eichelberger is the primary sponsor of legislation to amend the Pennsylvania constitution to "protect" marriage, and refuses to apologize for his "exist" comment. Thanks to NGBlog for the video h/t.

Maybe Senator Eichelberger should read the article "Go South, Young Homo" in this month's Philadelphia Magazine. In it, Jessica Remo points out that the area is experiencing a Renaissance and becoming economically revitalized by an influx of gay and lesbian businesses and residents moving in. And the residents and traditional business owners have started welcoming the influx with open arms.

Kevin Gillen, a Penn research fellow, explains that "This is the classic pattern, the artists and musicians are the first to take a risk in an emerging neighborhood. Then come the gay couples, who typically don't have children and so don't have the same worries about safety and school districts as young families."

What she found most amazing was the welcome they were getting from the long time locals and fellow business people. Especially the elderly residents who have lived and raised their families in South Philly all their lives. They are discovering what all our neighbors tend to find out if they give us a chance, we tend to be damn friendly, open and honest, and very good for business. One elderly lady was almost complaining that since a couple moved in next door she has had little time to read her books, as they are often over visiting with her. Another long time resident told of the pierced and tattooed young man who let another resident know she had left her change behind on the counter of the local market.

I bet the residents of South Philadelphia could teach Senator Eichelberger a thing or two about what makes a real community and what it means to be a real neighbor.

Cross posted from Truth And Love After 40

We Are A People With A History

2009-06-27T23:43:00.000-07:00

1431- Joan of Arc is burned at the stake for heresy. Among her "crimes" were cross-dressing and inappropriate relationships with women........

I love history. All history, any time period, history of the Americas, Asian, African, European, Russian, Middle Eastern, Polynesian, you name it and I have studied something about it's peoples. But it wasn't until recently that I discovered the our community, the LGBTQ community, has a rich and diverse history of our own. It spans from the earliest civilizations that kept records of their own history to today. It encompasses every period that is human history, we were and are, leaders, artists, writers, poets, musicians, soldiers, bureaucrats, mothers, fathers, song writers, priests, ministers, sons and daughters, explorers, adventurers and we have made a mark on the history of all humankind.

Today, to honor the 40th Anniversary of The Stonewall Riots, I would like to list some sites that you may want to visit to learn more about OUR HISTORY.

From Wikipeidea: theTimeline of LGBT History

glbtq: An encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, transgender and queer culture.

The ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives houses the world's largest research library on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender heritage and concerns.

People With A History: An Online Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans* History

Lesbian Herstory Archives Dedicated to Lesbian History

The Rainbow History Project Preserving our communities heritage

OutHistory.org A Wiki That you can join yourself and add your history to the history of millions of others.

Women Of The Left Bank Paris, 1900 - 1940

Doug Cooper-Spenser: The View From Here A blog about Black LGBT History

Russian Gay Culture: History, links and commentary

Gender and Sexuality: publishes texts which address gender studies and queer studies, with a particular focus upon discussions of sex, gender, sexual identity and sexuality in cultural practices.

UKBlackOut's Black History Month for the UK Black LGBT community

Gay History And Literature Essays and resources by Rictor Norton, Ph.D. Social and literary historian and writer, specializing in gay history.

About Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, (1825 - 1895) considered the father of the gay rights movement.

Queer Music Heritage "Queer Music Heritage" is both a radio show and a website, and the goal of both is to preserve and share the music of our culture.

LGBT Religious Archives NetworkA resource center and information clearinghouse
for the history of LGBT religious movements.

365gay LGBT History Video Library 365gay.com presents a video course on the people and events that make up LGBT history through this unique collection of bios, documentaries, films, interviews, and coverage of major events.

GLBT Historical Society The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender Historical Society (GLBTHS) collects, preserves, and interprets the history of GLBT people and the communities that support them. We sponsor exhibits and programs on an on-going basis.

GLBT History Month (October) official site.

Brandon Santos Of the Grass Roots Equality Examiner series Today In LGBT History

Black LGBT History Series from the Bilerico Project

Gay Rights An LGBT person's guide to the contemporary history of the United States; 1981 to the present

Google Search Results on LGBT History Millions of pages to feed your history buff.

‘The African Campaign’ Re-Thinking Judgment

2009-06-26T02:24:00.000-07:00

AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose it would be like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save one of Pharaoh's charioteers.-- Jerry Falwell

I remember early on in the epidemic hearing many of our church leaders saying much similar things as Jerry Falwell did about AIDS and gays. I remember asking my journalism professor if they didn't have it wrong, wasn't it more about a judgment on Christians who were not helping these people? Just like those who would not help the sick man laying in the street, but the Samaritan, supposedly a heathen, did? He looked at me kind of funny, and said maybe I was on to something there.

I am sure others had the same thought, I only know I didn't think much more about the ramifications of that thought, or the ramifications of the statements like Jerry Falwell's which spread faster than the HIV virus itself, infecting minds everywhere with the belief that those infected must have some how deserved it so why should we fight it? The fruit of Jerry Falwell's statement has been that all over the world AIDS has claimed more than 25 million lives, and one in six are children. The result of not acting as a "Samaritan" in those early days, will haunt many of us the rest of our lives.

At the end of 2007, there were 2 million children living with HIV. An estimated 370,000 children became newly infected with HIV in 2007. Of the 2 million people who died of AIDS during 2007, more than one in seven were children. Every hour, around 31 children die as a result of AIDS. At the end of 2007, women accounted for 50% of all adults living with HIV worldwide, and for 59% in sub-Saharan Africa. Young people (under 25 years old) account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide. There are nearly 12 million "AIDS Orphans" around the world, children who live largely in the Sub-Sahara regions of Africa. This is the fruit of those who spread their hate. Their forever legacy to humanity.

There is a movie out called 'The African Campaign' by Jersey Number Nine Productions, that has yet to be broadcast in the United States, it puts a new spin on the idea of AIDS as a judgment from God.

Launched in early 2008 in the UK and Europe, ‘The African Campaign’ is the controversial 're-telling' of the most heinous myth surrounding AIDS’ origin. In fundamentalist circles, it is believed that AIDS is a God-caused plague, the result of God’s displeasure with the LGBT lifestyle. Rather than deny this falsehood, the makers of ‘The African Campaign’ choose to change the myth, like Shelley reinterpreted Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’. In ‘The African Campaign’, heroes are those who suffer God’s viral wrath, challenge His hypocrisy, and free themselves to find love elsewhere.

Four friends from the 16th century, who discovered a ritual that empowered them to defy God and his Angel of Death, are forced into an untimely reunion in present-day London when one of them contracts AIDS: God's viral revenge. 'The African Campaign' is the story of their battle. -- Synopsis from Jersey Number Nine website.

You can catch the trailer on YouTube, or see it below, and then contact the LOGO channel or here!TV to ask them to broadcast it if you would like to see more.

Living with rejection and fear causes high rate of depression in LGBT youth

2009-06-24T01:04:00.000-07:00

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6

The fruits of the Anti-Gay Industry continued:

First-of-its-kind survey in North Texas indicates family rejection, religious issues lead to higher rate of depression, thoughts of suicide from the Dallas Voice, June 2009

Youth First Texas recently released the results of a first-ever comprehensive survey of LGBT youth in the Dallas metropolitan area, and it suggests there may be a widespread mental health crisis among that population. YFT officials said the study was born out of a need to determine if the nonprofit organization was meeting the needs of the youth it has pledged to serve.

Judith Dumont, director of administration at YFT, led the youth study. She said, “Any youth service provider that authentically understands their population should have a comprehensive study [of their own youth].” She said there are national studies available, but this one is the only one available “in Dallas, in Texas and even the Southwest.”

The raw data for the study was collected from 100 LGBT and questioning youth and allies, ages 14 to 22, from October through December 2008. The subsequent statistical processing was performed by Jason Mintor, a doctoral candidate at Southern Methodist University.

In terms of sexuality, the survey showed that 46 percent of YFT youth identify as gay, 31 percent as bisexual, 13 percent as lesbian, 9 percent as straight and 4 percent as questioning.

Perhaps the most revealing statistic released was that 55 percent of YFT youth had attempted suicide in their lifetime, and more than 50 percent have considered it in the last year. One out of three had made plans to kill themselves in the last year as well. Dumont, who takes these numbers seriously, also said to keep in mind that there may be “discrepancies between what youth report they are doing and what their actual behavior is.”

Still, philanthropist Mitchell Gold believes LGBT youth are indeed undergoing a “silent epidemic” of depression, a major factor in suicide. His recent book “Crisis” purports to expose “a tragic mental health crisis” affecting “hundreds of thousands of gay teenagers today.”

LGBT youth do report living in a state of continuous fear. And that, Dumont said, can lead to debilitating depression.

About 30 percent of YFT youth report depression and 22 percent report feelings of anxiety, which can originate at school, church or at home. About one quarter of YFT youth report being scared to go to school because of their sexual orientation, and about one fifth report having been assaulted at school for the same reason. Homophobic slurs are being heard on a daily basis by 45 percent of the youth.

Many youth have shifted their religious ties away from the churches in which they were raised, according to survey results. Dumont said, “Many youth were forced to choose between their identities and their church.”

The study shows, for example, that 70 percent of YFT youth were raised as Christians, but only 40 percent of today’s YFT youth identify as such.

Dumont, though, said she is excited that many youth are beginning to reclaim their religious identities by working with accepting churches such as the Cathedral of Hope and the Church of Transfiguration.

From the Cathedral of Hope website:

The Love of Christ

Jesus did a great deal to change many social customs and ideas. He elevated the position of women, and, ultimately, they were his best and most faithful disciples. He did this by example and by commandments that were absolutely inclusive of the rights of all people. Yet, in the name of the Christ whose love encompassed all, the Church has been the most homophobic of all institutions. This should not be surprising when we realize that the Church is still the largest institution which is primarily racially segregated.

The final, and central, message of the New Testament is that ALL persons are loved by God so much that God's Son was sent as a means of redemption from a disease by which we are all afflicted. The cure for this disease cannot be found in any set of actions. Neither homosexuality nor heterosexuality is redemptive. God's love through Christ was given to all people.

The Theological Reflection

For the Christian, sin must be understood as a disease that results FROM a broken relationship with God and that results IN a broken relationship with one another and with ourselves. Hence, Jesus' supreme command is to love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Christianity is not a religion with new rules and laws but rather is a new relationship with God. Those things that the legalists are fond of labeling “sins” are actually just symptoms of the much deeper disease of alienation and estrangement. Much of the energy of the Church has been spent dealing with symptoms while leaving the disease intact. Jesus did not seem overly concerned about the legal transgressions of those to whom he ministered. Rather, he was much more concerned with healing the physical, spiritual, emotional and relational brokenness of people. Perhaps if the Church would again give itself to the healing/reconciling ministry of Jesus, then some of the symptoms about which we are so concerned would begin to disappear.

That brings us to the question: Is homosexuality a symptom of brokenness? In a very few cases, perhaps. Yet, pointing fingers of blame and accusation is not Christ's way. Rather, Jesus accepted people as they were and allowed love and acceptance to work its miracle. However, most lesbians and gays have been lesbian or gay for as long as they can remember. For them, it is a much a natural characteristic as their eye color or their handedness. Kinsey Institute research (University of Indiana, 1981) has suggested that homosexuality may well be genetic or, at least, linked to some prenatal factors. (Sexual Preference, Bell &Weinberg) Certainly most competent psychologists would concur that sexual orientation is set prior to the age of five in most persons. It is, therefore, not a matter of choice, so it cannot be a moral or ethical issue.

Many Christians insist that God can change/cure the homosexual. In the book The Third Sex there are six reported cases of homosexuals whom God has “cured.” Of these six, at least four are known to have returned to their gay lifestyle. (Christianity Today, February 1981) Many lesbians and gays spend most of their lives trying, with no success, to persuade God to change them. It is like trying to get God to change your eye color. What option, then, is left to these persons? They have been told that they can't be gay and Christian. Since all efforts have failed in their struggle not to be gay or lesbian, then their only recourse, according to the Church, is that they can't be Christian. So, the Church has discounted or discarded as much as 10% of the population.

The Anti-Gay Industry Is Now Bearing The Fruits Of Their Work

2009-06-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

Several reports this year have shown a marked increase in violence against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and especially Transgender persons. The most recient comes from The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs 2008 Hate Violence Report:

New York - Violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people increased 2% from 2007 to 2008, continuing the trend of a 24% total increase in 2007, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP)'s 2008 Hate Violence Report. Bias-related murders were at their highest rate since 1999 with 29 known anti-LGBT murders committed in 2008.
Reports of violence in Milwaukee increased 64% and Minnesota and Chicago saw increases of 48% and 42%, respectively. "We are deeply troubled about the 2008 statistics for a number of reasons including the fact that increases in victimization in the Upper Midwest far exceed the national increase of 2%.
With Minnesota's 48% increase in 2008 and continued multi-year trend of such increases, we are concern for the safety of all GLBT Minnesotans even as we continue to work for equality," said Rebecca Waggoner Kloek, Anti-Violence Program Director of NCAVP member organization OutFront Minnesota.

Violence against the LGBT community is nothing new, its official state sanctioned beginnings were in the year 342 when the Christian emperors Constantius and Constans declared same-sex marriage to be illegal. (Yes, ladies and gentlemen, at one time same sex marriage WAS LEGAL and this fact is backed up by the laws overturning it on record in Rome)

In the year 390, the Roman Christian emperors Valentinian II, Theodosius I and Arcadius declared homosexual sex itself to be illegal and those who were guilty of it were condemned to be publicly burned alive. The Christian emperor Justinian I (527-565) made homosexuals a scapegoat for problems such as "famines, earthquakes, and pestilences."

Today, most of the perpetrators of hate crimes against the LGBT community have been lead to believe they are "just doing society a favor" by committing these crimes: In 1988 a Florida judge, trying a case concerning the beating to death of a gay man asked the prosecutor, "That's a crime now, to beat up a homosexual?" The prosecutor responded, "Yes, sir. And it's also a crime to kill them." Altschiller, Donald (2005), Hate Crimes: a reference handbook, ABC-CLIO, pp. 26–28

Just where do they get these ideas? They get most of these ideas from a group of people who are very influential in fundamentalist theology today. The major players in the Anti-Gay Industry have similar roots and early indoctrination into the ideas that grew out of the anti-communist, anti-semitic feelings fueled during the early cold war.

Their actions are influenced by many of the same people, they speak at each others functions, attend the same conferences and preach to the same groups of people through TV, the radio and newsletters. Their mis-information flows out into the greater community and once heard, are often times taken for the truth. It isn't a conspiracy, while each group does have an agenda, it is simply they are out there preaching the same message.

According to a new book out byLeonard Zeskind, called Blood And Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement From the Margins to the Mainstream, during the 1960's Willis Allison Carto an avid anti-Semite and white supremacist published a newsletter, and a magazine called The Spotlight, that appealed to both anti-communists and arch-segregationists.

Among those influenced by Carto and his publications, either directly or indirectly were Jerry Falwell, Pat Buchanan, David Noebel, David Duke, Phyllis Schlafly and Pat Robertson.

"And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead expose them." - Ephesians 5:11------

One of the first and one of the most active behind the scenes players in todays Anti-Gay industry is Summit Ministries. Summit Ministries trains leaders in the "war against multiculturalism, humanism, socialism, communism and homosexuality."

David Noebel, who's anti-civil rights career began as an evangelist with the scandal-plagued Anti-Communist Christian Crusade, also started Summit Ministries in 1962, their first target was Christian college students. Summit Ministries and the Anti-Communist Christian Crusade are both currently headquartered in Manitou Springs, Colorado. David Noebel is still associated with with the ACCC.

Now an unaccredited college of its own, boasting additional campuses in Ohio and Tennessee. Summit graduates more than 1,300 students a year — all of them steeped in both Christian "dominionism" (the idea that Biblical Law should dominate society and politics), fighting communism, thinly veiled white supremacy called anti-multiculturalism and anti-gay politics. In 1977, while still a member of the John Birch Society, Noebel was one of the first to recognize that anti-gay activism could surpass anti-communism as a winning issue for fundamentalists.

The U.S. is "rotting within," Noebel warned, and "homosexuality is only an issue when a nation is rotting morally." Noebel wrote a book called The Homosexual Revolution and gave anti-gay lectures. In 1986, he teamed up with debunked "scientist" Paul Cameron (founder of the Family Research Institute) and then-Summit instructor Wayne Lutton, currently a leader in the white-supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, to write Special Report: AIDS. Pat Buchanan writes, on the back cover "In a healthy society," Buchanan writes, homosexuality is "contained, segregated, controlled and stigmatized."

Bolstered by Cameron's studies alleging that gay people were intentionally spreading the AIDS virus, Special Report proposes a number of means to "suppress" the outbreak, concluding that it might become necessary to "exile" all "active homosexuals" from America.

In 1991 he authored the 900-page Understanding the Times: The Religious Worldviews of our Day and the Search for Truth, a textbook interpreting current intellectual movements, from Biblical Christianity, Secular Humanism, Marxism/Leninism, the New Age Movement, Islam, and Postmodernism.It is widely used among Christian schools, churches and colleges, either in its unabridged or abridged formats.

Summit Ministries continues to preach anti-gay propaganda to the next generation of fundamentalist activists, with Mike Haley, an "ex-gay" campaigner who is Focus on the Family's "youth and gender specialist" and author of a book called Straight Answers: Exposing the Myths and Facts about Homosexuality, currently on the faculty. Summit Ministries is heartily endorsed by Focus on the Family's James Dobson, who, according to SPLC: "No one has spread the anti-gay gospel as widely, or with as much political impact, as James Dobson."

Why do Americans continue to listen to these people?

Pennsylvania Republican Is Allowing Us To Exist

2009-06-20T01:32:00.000-07:00

State Senator John Eichelberger, who introduced a bill that would amend the Pennsylvania constitution to define marriage as being between only a woman and a man, told Philadelphia radio station WHYY today that gays are “They're [gays] not being punished. We’re allowing them to exist, and do what every American can do. We’re just not rewarding them with any special designation.”

Keystone Progress, has created a petition demanding an apology.

Below is a partial transcript from the show:

21:15
Leach: How would he [Eichelberger] want to encourage stability in gay couples?

Eichelberger: I wouldn’t. I mean they can practice whatever sexual activity they like to practice, but there’s no reason to give them special consideration. We don’t give them special consideration in Pennsylvania for any reason. Why in the world would we allow them to marry?

22:05
Leach: How would he want to encourage stability in gay couples?

Eichelberger: There is no reason to encourage that type of behavior in Pennsylvania.

24:20
Eichelberger: That comes back to the definition of family and that’s where we differ. We can call all kinds of things families. I mean, we can say a 3 party marriage is a family, or 7 or 8 people or marrying younger and younger children these days .

25:00
Host: Are you saying that by their very nature homosexual relationships are dysfunctional?

Eichelberger: [Pause] Ummmm. I guess I would say that. I would say that.

38:50
Eichelberger: This changes the definition of marriage, allowing same-sex, and then like I said, 5-10 years from now it’ll be polygamy, marrying younger people, it’ll be whatever…It won’t be a 6 year old, it’ll be a 15 year old, then it’ll be a 14 year old, then it’ll be a 13 year old.

49:40
Leach: Should our only policy towards [same-sex] couples be one of punishment, to somehow prove that they’ve done something wrong?

Eichelberger: They’re not being punished. We’re allowing them to exist, and do what every American can do. We’re just not rewarding them with any special designation.

It is worth hearing the entire broadcast as State Senator Daylin Leach, a Democrat representing Montgomery County, who has introduced a bill to amend the Pennsylvania ban on same-sex marriage to offer “full and equal marriage rights” to same-sex couples, voices wonderful truths.

They don't tell you, but they say it to each other........

2009-06-13T03:25:00.000-07:00

Cut and pasted from a thread on Mormon Apologetics.org:

Mormon Apologetics & Discussion Board > Welcome & Come On In! > LDS Dialogue & Discussion

Corky Wallace

Jun 6 2009, 06:38 PM

Post #1

Seasoned Member: Separates Light & Dark

Group: Members
Posts: 562
Joined: 12-February 05
Member No.: 1403

One thing I've appreciated about growing older is my imagination is no longer held captive all day by a beautiful woman who smiles & says hello. Much easier to get back to work, be productive, without having "flash backs" of what might potentially be. The old diminishing sex drive has its benefits! LOL

More seriously, is chemical castration an option for LDS gays? I mean, if you're faithful LDS & accept that for whatever reason the Lord has put you on Earth as a "eunuch" (best case, if you can stay strong), why should you have to struggle with incessant thoughts that are not just inappropriate now, but will be inappropriate in the next life, too, only serve to pervert any desires to have children in a celestial relationship in the next life. There is zero point to having homosexual thoughts, it's not as though they're a normal part of the procreation process - they're just an annoying, perverted form of biology, entirely worthless.

Does the handbook have information on this?

BoMan

Jun 7 2009, 12:13 AM

Post #19

Newbie: Without form, and void

Group: Members
Posts: 70
Joined: 6-May 09
From: Las Vegas, NV
Member No.: 15464

QUOTE(annewandering @ Jun 6 2009, 09:11 PM)

How about solving all our problems with a few drugs? I am wondering if we were to voluntarily do this would it mean we would have to learn control after we die or would taking the drugs voluntarily be counted as controlling our physical body?
Something like this is really getting into pretty dangerous territory, both spiritually and physically. Willingly subverting freewill just seems wrong on the surface but we take medicine for depression and other psychological conditions fairly freely. If we decide the one is bad does it condemn the rest?

I am a psychiatric social worker. I have considered this dilema for years, but don't think much of it these days. "What is, is; what ain't ain't." Persons with sever mental illness do take medications, necessarily so! They take them with informed consent, voluntarily, and with increasingly greater success. If there are medications, which there are, that can help an alcoholic check his/her drinking should we suggest that the alcoholic not take the medications based upon the idea that it robs him of moral agency? What about the diabetic? I have seen diabetics, craving sugar, eat themselves into various stages of neuropathy. Medication can help stave off those cravings. Can we possibly suggest that because it would rob them of moral agency a diabetic should not take medications? In my view it would be immoral for those responsible not to do everything possible to get the person so sticken to take the medications that will provide the help they desperately need. If there is a chemical solution to help a chronic adulterer or a gay man acheive sexual sobriety, and worthy entrance to the temple, I AM ALL FOR IT. I don't remember questions on the temple recommend interview asking the kind of medications I take or why I have to take them. Do you?

At least one member is calling it for what it is!!

The Nehor View Member Profile	Jun 7 2009, 12:51 AM Post #21
Death, Destroyer of Worlds Group: Members Posts: 4628 Joined: 26-November 03 Member No.: 19	I think this thread is akin to the thread from a while back asking if we should kill babies to help them reach Celestial glory. Stupid and inflammatory. If NCMO had succeeded this thread would have been closed and all participants chemically castrated.

PBS To Air Beyond Hatred June 30, 2009, 10 pm

2009-06-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 30 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes)

In September 2002, three skinheads were roaming a park in Rheims, France, looking to "do an Arab," when they settled for a gay man instead. Twenty-nine-year-old François Chenu fought back fiercely, but he was beaten unconscious and thrown into a river, where he drowned. The acclaimed French vérité film Beyond Hatred is the story of the crime's aftermath; above all, of the Chenu family's brave and heartrending struggle to seek justice while trying to make sense of such pointless violence and unbearable loss. With remarkable dignity, they fight to transcend hatred and the inevitable desire for revenge.

You may preview the film by clicking POV - Beyond Hatred

From Variety's review by Leslie Felperin:

"Point of the film is not to explore the homophobic attack itself, but its aftermath. Core arc concerns Chenu family's feelings as they evolve from anger and despair toward an almost saintly recognition of how the killers' own deprived backgrounds led them to this horrible act. The father of one of the killers, an alcoholic who tried to destroy evidence, and another attacker's aunt, are also interviewed and treated with the same even-handed sympathy by the filmmakers.

Viewers expecting daytime-TV style histrionics from such emotive material will be struck by the quiet, contained dignity of Chenu's family, none of whom ever raises his or her voice."

Meet Rhythm Turner : Hate Crime Survivor

2009-06-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

Rhythm Turner, 25, singer and guitarist in local band, Rhythm and The Method believes she was the victim of a hate crime when Vincen Matthew Williams, 21, assaulted her, after she hugged her girlfriend, outside Canes Bar & Grill in Mission Beach on Thursday, May 14, 2009.

“I was assaulted because of my sexual orientation, because I choose to want to give my girlfriend a hug,” Turner said.

The men who assaulted her became angry when the men wanted them to kiss in front of them, the women refused...... from the Gay And Lesbian Times

“Because we are lesbians, are we automatically victims of any male who wants to see us perform sexually in front of him, and is it OK for that male to then attack us when he doesn’t get what he wants?”

Homosexual parents: all in the family.

2009-06-09T02:34:00.000-07:00

There are over 10 million children being raised today in the United States by Gays, Lesbians, Bi-Sexuals and Transgender persons. The Anti Gay Industry have made various claims that such parents try to influence their children's sexuality. As far back as 1995, studies have shown that this is just not the case:

From the Science News January, 1995

An increasing number of homosexual men and women in the United States raise children, whether as a result of artificial insemination, adoption, or winning custody of youngsters conceived during previous heterosexual relationships. Considerable social and legal controversy surrounds this, trend, much of it focused on whether homosexual parents can raise well-adjusted children.

Three new studies, published in the January Developmental Psychology, suggest that neither the absence of a father nor the presence of homosexual parents interferes with a child's emotional development. Moreover, a large majority of the sons of men who now classify themselves as homosexual are themselves heterosexual, contrary to popular notions that homosexual parents groom their offspring for a corresponding sexual orientation.

The latter finding comes from a study of 55 homosexual or bisexual men who reported the sexual orientation of their 82 sons age 17 or older. J. Michael Bailey, a psychologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and his coworkers recruited the fathers through ads in homosexual publications and also contacted 43 of their sons. The sons' self-ratings of sexual orientation nearly always agreed with their fathers' ratings of them, so Bailey's group included in its analysis all of the fathers' ratings (except for those of seven men who were uncertain of their sons' sexual orientation).

Of the 75 sons included in the analysis, 7 (9 percent) were homosexual or bisexual. This proportion exceeds the 2 percent to 5 percent rate of homosexuality thought to occur in Western societies, but it falls far below levels of homosexuality found in male identical and fraternal twins (SN: 1/4/92, p.6). An inherited influence on sexual orientation may slightly boost the incidence of homosexuality in sons of homosexuals, the researchers propose.

Homosexual sons had not lived longer with their fathers than had heterosexual sons. Thus, imitation of homosexual fathers or parental encouragement to try homosexuality apparently played no role in sons' sexual orientation, the scientists hold.

The second study, directed by psychologist David K. Flaks of St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, N.J., found healthy and largely equivalent emotional and behavioral adjustment in 3- to 9-year-old children of 15 lesbian couples and 15 heterosexual couples. Both groups of parents reported largely satisfying relationships and substantial knowledge of effective parenting skills. Lesbian couples were located through a lesbian-mother support group and, like the heterosexual couples, consisted mainly of two wage earners.

The third investigation involves 26 lesbian couples with 4- to 9-year-old children conceived through artificial insemination. Psychologist Charlotte J. Patterson of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville reports that the women display a high degree of satisfaction with their relationships, based greatly on an equal division of household tasks and responsibility for family decisions. Still, the biological mothers spent more time at home and fewer hours at paid employment than their partners.

Patterson also notes that children of these lesbian couples show good psychological health, compared to same-age children in 11 heterosexual couples with similar backgrounds and incomes.

"Studies to date show few differences among children of lesbian, gay, and heterosexual couples," writes Diana Baumrind, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, in an accompanying comment. However, the data remain limited, since investigations focus on small numbers of couples who have not been selected at random and who have not been interviewed extensively or observed interacting with their children, Baumrind cautions.

Overcoming the Lies Within Ourselves

2009-06-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

In the United States, many of us are brought up to believe that Homosexuality is a sin, it's wrong, it's a perversion and so on. We have been taught this by our churches, our family and friends, the media, and especially the legal system. Until 1970, every state in the U.S. except for Illinois criminalized homosexual sex between consenting adults in a private home.

An adult convicted of the crime of having sex with another consenting adult in the privacy of his or her home could get anywhere from a light fine to five, ten, or twenty years—or even life—in prison. In 1971 twenty states had 'sex psychopath' laws that permitted the detaining of homosexuals for that reason alone. In Pennsylvania and California sex offenders could be locked in a mental institution for life, and in seven states they could be castrated.

Castration, emetics, hypnosis, electroshock therapy and lobotomies were used by psychiatrists to attempt to "cure" homosexuals of their desires throughout the 1950s and 1960s. While we may not have been fully aware of these laws as children, the homophobic feelings they fostered would have been very noticeable to us. Not all of these "therapies" have gone away either. The Ex-Gay or Reparative Therapy advocates still use hypnosis and have even added aversion therapy among others.

Things didn't begin to change until 1969 an event happened that we now just call "Stonewall." The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. They are frequently cited as the first instance in American history when gays and lesbians fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted homosexuals, and they have become the defining event that marked the start of the modern gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.

Slowly, individual states began to repeal these laws, by 1989 "only" 26 states had "anti-sodomy" laws. It wasn't until 2003 that the US Supreme Court found the remaining laws unconstitutional. Incredibly, 15 states still had these laws on their books. 2003......yes, just 6 years ago.

Until we come into contact with accurate information and meet other lesbians and gays to challenge these negative beliefs, we often believe the bad things we have been told. This is called "Internalized Homophobia." It usually means that we basically hate ourselves. The self hate manifests itself in that we have low self-esteem and try to hide or suppress our sexuality. Some of us are outwardly homophobic. We may not even be aware that this is going on within us, and it may manifest itself in different ways.

Since we have been actively bombarded with anti gay rhetoric we need to actively combat these feelings they produce in us. There are many things you can do to change your own self image:

Read materials to help you get rid of your internalized homophobia - to challenge all the negative beliefs. Amazon has quite a few. Download and read "The Blue Book" a manual written as a gift to the congregation of The Presbyterian Church, Mt. Kisco, New York, in recognition of the love and support that their church members have given to individuals and families whose lives have been touched by the issue of homosexuality.

The process can be even more difficult for those of us who have developed harmful ways of coping with the suppression of their true sexual orientation. I am talking about using drugs and alcohol to help cope. It is important to understand that this strategy will seriously hinder not only your developing positive lesbian identities, but your positive self image as humans. Understand that the more accepting you are of yourself, the more your own self esteem rises, and the reasons for continuing to use drugs and alcohol decrease. But we cannot always stop using them on our own, if you can honestly say you have a problem, I suggest you start by visiting the Pride Institute to get the help you need.

Finding other LGBT folks to just be friends with is another very important part of learning to accept yourself. You can meet people at an affirming church, at support groups, even queer bars and online.

Remember to be the healthy, complete human being that you were created to be, you'll need to do quite a bit of work emotionally in order to undo all the negative stuff you've internalized. The longer you've suppressed your true sexual orientation the more time it will take. If you're ready to take that step, good luck but remember it is ALWAYS worth it! And SO ARE YOU!!!

Partially cross posted from Truth And Love After 40

Thank You All!

2009-06-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has the data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit fact." - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Blogging For Truth Week officially ended yesterday. But the search for truth is a never ending one, so don't be surprised to see a new post now and then until next year!

I want to personally thank each and every one of the following bloggers for participating and for continuing to blog about what is true and what is love. Their blogs are always worth reading:

The Bi Avenger from Cowtown Bisexual

All the United Queers at Queers United

Jay from Jay Says

Jendi Reiter from Reiter's Block

Bridgeout from Burning or building bridges in the community?

Kittredge Cherry from Jesus In Love

Goombah from Goombahs Rainbow

Truthspew from Spewing Truth in the face of Lies

The Surprised Dyke from Ramblings of the Surprise Dyke

WeLoveTea from Love With The Hands Wide Open

Ceara from The Lesbian Said What?

MJ, Kim and Jude from It Is Always Today.

Furtive Life from The Furtive Life

BioGal from Panoptifier: Making all things visible...

Miss Katherine from Katherine's Activism A student who created a blog, solely so she could participate!

LLnL from Love,Lust and Life

Truth and Love After 40 and those two delicious ladies who write it.

And I want to thank the following sites for promoting Blogging For Truth to their readers:

PopMaxNow

The Blue Door

SheSquared
Selected highlights from some of the posts:

People who hate cannot accept those who love, but people who love CAN accept those who hate. That is our true power. Love is stronger than hate. -- Kittredge Cherry

All of us "Bloggers for Truth" have stories we can tell about our own partnerships or those of our parents, teachers, pastors and friends--all GLBT people whose lives have been touched by the Spirit. But we also have to make the Scriptural case that stories are truths, on a par with or superior to the truths of abstract reasoning, at least when it comes to practical ethics. Time and time again I hear anti-gay Christians argue that we are biased by our personal desires (either lust or pride) while they are merely following "what the Bible says". Their epistemology doesn't allow for scrutiny of the human element in interpretation, nor of their own emotional biases, because they need the Bible to remain magically exempt from the human condition of partiality and uncertainty. -- Jendi Reiter on Reiter's Block

What goes through the mind of someone who is gay? If you listen to the Christian right, somewhere there is a magical place where people wait in line for hours to sign up to be gay. Because it’s a choice, right? “Hmm. I’ll choose the life where I will face discrimination, fear, loneliness, rejection, lack of rights and possibly risk my life. Yea, that one sounds better.....”

"......If you are straight and reading this, contemplate for one minute how it would feel to have these feelings every day. Every minute. Could you endure this? The shame, the fear, the loneliness? This is what homophobia and anti-gay speech is doing to real human beings. They are daughters, sons, brothers and sisters. They are your neighbors. Are you the kind of person who wants to make people feel this way?" -- Jude on Jaysays

I regret none of my relationships with men, but if I'd understood the role of attraction in sexuality I might have rejected the idea that all girls were meant to respond to the advances of boys. I didn't understand that attraction was not supposed to be something separate from my relationships with men, so it took me too long to understand my cultivated sexual relationships with men weren't normal as I'd always assumed, and what I was meant to feel with a man was what I felt with women. -- Furtive Life

I am a Christian who not only accepts but values the gay community (LGBTQ or whatever other letter you want to use to describe it). I don’t feel threatened by that community (which is actually OUR community, not some separate community, as that phrase might suggest). I don’t feel that by accepting that community’s right to exist, I am somehow degrading my own (straight) sexuality. That community includes friends and family who mean the world to me, who are beautiful people, who deserve a medal for the courage it takes for them to stick up for themselves in ways large and small on a day-to-day basis. -- WeLoveTea

You can call me naive, whatever. I don't care. Hate and anger just breed more hate and anger. I'd rather take the high road and while I might not change that particular person, maybe it will influence someone who is observing that maybe, just maybe, we are good people-just like them. -- The Surprised Dyke

An Open Letter To The LGBTQ Community

2009-05-31T14:37:00.000-07:00

This blog was conceived as a place to shed some light onto the lies that are spread by those who seek to push us back into the closet. It was conceived as a place to be used for healing as well. I wanted to include all of our alphabet soup.

Right now we are seeing some amazing accomplishments for our civil rights, for marriage in Iowa, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and I am waiting today to hear if the Nevada Assembly will override our 'governors' veto for our own domestic partnership bill. The Senate did so last night. At least one Senator who had voted against the bill originally reversed his vote due to the calls he received from the Anti-Gay "Christians" threatening to do him harm if he voted to overturn the veto. Love wins over hate.

In Florida, their Appellate Court overturned the ban on gay adoption. Arkansas is looking at their anti adoption law. More and more states are passing laws to protect us in our places of employment, our homes and with the passage of the Matthew Shepard Act, there is great hope that the free license so many haters feel they have to beat, maim and kill us will be curbed. Corporations are moving to include sexual orientation AND even gender identity as protected from discriminatory hiring and firing practices. Love wins over hate.

From the time I was about 8, when my grandfather paid me 10.00 (1960's money) to read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and explain my understanding of them, AND to memorize the first 10 amendments, I have believed with all my heart and soul that ALL are created EQUAL and ALL have unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I have believed that while we have the potential to be the greatest country in the world we often fall short.

BUT I have come to notice that it has ALWAYS been the oppressed and downtrodden that have shaken our complacency to the roots and have FORCED US TO LIVE UP TO OUR FOUNDING IDEALS.

It has been the Blacks brought in slave ships against their will, who survived untold horrors to somehow remain sane, to raise families and to find love, education, to finally demand from this country the rights they as humans were already guaranteed. It too has been the Women who knew those rights belonged to them, the original peoples of the many tribes, because they also, from birth, were endowed with the same guarantees, it has been the Asians, the Irish and the millions who have come here from every corner of the globe because they believe in those ideals sometimes more than we do who were born here.

I remember that during the civil rights movement of the 1960's there were opposing voices from some black leaders. They felt that Dr. King was causing trouble. That the whites would listen better if Malcolm X would shut up and move out of the limelight. We could have full equality if you just don't include the Nation of Islam. Or the Black Panthers. I remember those who opposed Muhammad Ali when he gave the Black Power sign at the Olympics. Don't protest they said. Don't say that they said. "They" will come after us, they said, there will be more lynchings, more beatings, more cross burnings if you keep that up Dr. King.

I hear the same voices in our community today. If we would only ignore the Transgender community we will have full rights already. If we mock the Bisexuals, call them "posers", "confused" the Anti-Gays wouldn't have so much ammunition against us. If those gay men would quit holding hands in public, if those lesbians would stop acting so dyke, if we would just shut the hell up so they don't get mad anymore and beat us and kill us and call us names.............If, if, if.........what you are really saying is: IF we only discriminate against those who we see as making it harder on the rest of us and embarrass us WE WOULD HAVE OUR FULL RIGHTS ALREADY!!! Hate produces hate, even within our own community.

NO WE WON'T.

We WILL only then be the haters and the discriminators and oppressors. Just as hate produces hate everywhere it has produced it in some of us.

I want to post some excerpts of something I have posted before, in January of this year at Pam's House Blend:

The daily hypocrisy of the Anti-Gay Industry has ceased to shock me. It does however feed this feeling within me that right now is the time we all lay down our differences of opinion and claim our human rights that as American citizens, we already have.

Each of us need to believe that these truths do indeed apply to us just as they apply to every human being; "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Is not marriage the pursuit of Happiness? Is not a job, a decent home and the knowledge that our persons will not be attacked simply for how we were created? Is it not also for our children's security and happiness that we wish our relationships to be legalized?

What concept of full civil rights are parts of our family not understanding? How can we accept that any one of our family be thrown under the bus? Some have the opinion that if we get marriage first, it will make us seem less different. Some think the repeal of DOMA is the first step. Others want the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." Some feel if we could just not have to worry about the "trans-folk" or confusing "bi's" we would get everything we ask for.

When one is talking about human rights we should not cut it up just to make it easier for the oppressors to swallow. What message are we sending? That they, maybe, just maybe have the right to keep on oppressing us as long as we are able to take what crumbs are offered?

Oh, I know how things get done in politics, we compromise, we cajole and we plead. With the vitriol spewing from the far right and the Anti Gay increasing, we need to be coming together like no group before us. And realize that if/when Prop H8 is overturned it will only increase. We need to take a unified, forceful stand now, at this time. If there ever was a time for an oppressed group to demand full and complete equality with no one thrown under the bus, it is this time, here and now.

No more compromise, no more empty promises, simply FULL equality.

I think we need to let the Equality Summit, HRC, GLAAD, Join the Impact and all our allies know that this is what needs to become the first, the only and the actual "Gay Agenda."

There is something like this now, it is called The Dallas Principles. I am excited and cautious at the same time. I am excited because with those of us who are grassroots and not penthouse, it is a place to start. I am cautious because it is headed up by some the same folks who sometimes in the past have wanted to toss some of us under the bus. Who attend cocktail parties for equality and served under the Clinton administration who did more damage to our rights than many of us will admit. Maybe they have learned, maybe they are trying. I myself have signed the Principles. I believe those words they have written. I intend to be one who HOLDS THEM TO IT.

My Own "Feeling The Hate"

2009-05-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

Crossposted from Truth and Love After 40:

When the idea for Blogging For Truth came to me, that maybe we should discuss what the hate really does, I didn't realize at the time, but I was going through a season that was the direct result of "feeling the hate." I started to notice the loudest, cruelest, most violent voices against the entire LGBTQ community were coming from my so called fellow Christians.

I am a firm believer that God is always our defense. But I forgot I believed that for a while. I forgot to keep my eyes on the Lord, and instead started looking at the faces who where shouting at us the loudest.

I listened to their voices and not God's. I watched their faces twisted in hate and not God's. I took in their words and not God's and because of this I began to doubt in God, because God was starting to look a lot like Maggie Gallagher.

I started to think that all Christians were like that, and if they were and we are to "know them by their fruits," then all of religion was fetid fruit indeed. For the first time since I first really, really believed in 1973, I began to question if there even was a God above. I started to respond to the hate with hate in my own heart. I couldn't think clearly, I felt depressed and I didn't know why I felt so angry about everything all the time.

Because I wasn't listening anymore to God, but the voices of hate around me, in the news, on the TV, blogs, online news outlets, and You Tube, He had to speak to me in other ways. I started getting books to work on with titles like "How God Changes Your Brain" by neurosurgeon, Andrew Newberg, M. D. and "A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story" by Diana Butler Bass. Then, I ran across something I had never seen before, called The Didache and finally He took me back to SisterFriends Together, specifically to a post called More Jesus, Less Religion. And He spoke to me through Lorrie more often than she will ever know, because He knows I can't help but listen to her.

The Didache I came across early in the winter, it is THE early new testament. It was handed out to nearly every new convert during the first few centuries. It was either written by or dictated by the Apostolic Fathers in common. It has never been disputed as authentic cannon but had not been chosen to be included in what we now call "The Bible" because many believed it was inelegant and had been widely distributed already. It is everything the Christian way of life was supposed to be.

The major point in How God Changes Your Brain, to me, was when Dr. Newberg explains how much believing in God and worship, and meditation on God improves our mental well being, functions and overall health. That certain areas of our brain actually grow, our reasoning functions and higher thinking abilities increase in other positive areas. He shows how there are measurable physical differences between believers and non believers and how people who are religious and who hate, suffer actual brain damage. Irreversible brain damage. The hate damages core areas in the brain that are needed for reason and higher thinking. I have always believed God speaks to each of us in ways that will personally touch us. ( or get through our thick skulls?) This book spoke volumes to me, not the least being I better let go of the hate before it was too late.

What I read in A People's History of Christianity reminded me that believing in Jesus is a way of life, that there is a whole history of "after" Jesus that as a people we have forgotten and that Jesus' teachings have always been inclusive, enlightened, personal and most assuredly revolutionary. It isn't the Systems of Belief that are preached from many a pulpit, it is about a simple way of life that is highly spiritual, loving, sometimes difficult and always committed.

Lastly I came upon the post "More Jesus, Less Religion." In it, Anita says nearly the same thing about the way of life and she says: "So this is my year to walk a new path, to take the fork in the road; not away from God but away from name-brand Christianity, a Christianity that has become a distraction and obstacle to experiencing an authentic encounter with God and engaging in a life of radical grace and love that was and remains the watermark of the earthly life of Jesus, the Son of God. -- During this year I’m choosing to no longer self-identify as a Christian but as a follower of Jesus. Before the early Christians were known as Christians they were called the People of the Way."

It seems it isn't my year to walk away from God either, but to start following The Way, and I think after escaping the hate, I can see how easy it is to fall into that never ending cycle of it.

I am so thankful that it is "....the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent." (John 6:29), because otherwise I think I would have lost to and been consumed by the hate. I am thankful because He is faithful even when those who call themselves by His name are not, I am thankful He knows how to talk to me even when I am hard hearted (and headed) and don't want to listen, I am grateful He gave me Lorrie to listen to, learn from, to love and be loved by.

Psalm 91 [personalized]

She who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD,
“He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
He will cover me with his feathers,
and under his wings I will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be my shield and rampart.
I will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.

If you make the Most High your dwelling—
even the LORD, who is my refuge-
then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
“Because she loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue her;
I will protect her, for she acknowledges my name.
She will call upon me, and I will answer her;
I will be with her in trouble,
I will deliver her and honor her.
With long life will I satisfy her
and show her my salvation.”

Same Sex Marriage IS Traditional

2009-05-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

When Marriage Between Gays Was a Rite
From The Irish Times
by Jim Duffy - August 11, 1998 Dublin, Ireland

The very idea of a Christian homosexual marriage seems incredible. Yet after a twelve year search of Catholic and Orthodox church archives Yale history professor John Boswell has discovered that a type of Christian homosexual "marriage" did exist as late as the 18th century.

Contrary to myth, Christianity's concept of marriage has not been set in stone since the days of Christ, but has evolved as a concept and as a ritual.

Professor Boswell discovered that in addition to heterosexual marriage ceremonies in ancient church liturgical documents (and clearly separate from other types of non-marital blessings of adopted children or land) were ceremonies called, among other titles, the "Office of Same Sex Union" (10th and 11th century Greek) or the "Order for Uniting Two Men" (11th and 12th century).

These ceremonies had all the contemporary symbols of a marriage: a community gathered in a church, a blessing of the couple before the altar, their right hands joined as at heterosexual marriages, the participation of a priest, the taking of the Eucharist, a wedding banquet afterwards. All of which are shown in contemporary drawings of the same sex union of Byzantine Emperor Basil I (867-886) and his companion John. Such homosexual unions also took place in Ireland in the late 12th / early 13th century, as the chronicler Gerald of Wales (Geraldus Cambrensis) has recorded.

Unions in Pre-Modern Europe lists in detail some same sex union ceremonies found in ancient church liturgical documents. One Greek 13th century "Order for Solemnisation of Same Sex Union", having invoked St. Serge and St. Bacchus, called on God to "vouchsafe unto these Thy servants [N and N] grace to love another and to abide unhated and not cause of scandal all the days of their lives, with the help of the Holy Mother of God and all Thy saints". The ceremony concludes: "And they shall kiss the Holy Gospel and each other, and it shall be concluded".

Another 14th century Serbian Slavonic "Office of the Same Sex Union", uniting two men or two women, had the couple having their right hands laid on the Gospel while having a cross placed in their left hands. Having kissed the Gospel, the couple were then required to kiss each other, after which the priest, having raised up the Eucharist, would give them both communion.

Boswell found records of same sex unions in such diverse archives as those in the Vatican, in St. Petersburg, in Paris, Istanbul, and in Sinai, covering a period from the 8th to 18th centuries. Nor is he the first to make such a discovery. The Dominican Jacques Goar (1601-1653) includes such ceremonies in a printed collection of Greek prayer books.

While homosexuality was technically illegal from late Roman times, it was only from about the 14th century that antihomosexual feelings swept western Europe. Yet same sex unions continued to take place.

At St. John Lateran in Rome (traditionally the Pope's parish church) in 1578 a many as 13 couples were "married" at Mass with the apparent cooperation of the local clergy, "taking communion together, using the same nuptial Scripture, after which they slept and ate together", according to a contemporary report.

Another woman to woman union is recorded in Dalmatia in the 18th century. Many questionable historical claims about the church have been made by some recent writers in this newspaper.

Boswell's academic study however is so well researched and sourced as to pose fundamental questions for both modern church leaders and heterosexual Christians about their attitudes towards homosexuality.

For the Church to ignore the evidence in its own archives would be a cowardly cop-out. The evidence shows convincingly that what the modern church claims has been its constant unchanging attitude towards homosexuality is in fact nothing of the sort.

It proves that for much of the last two millennia, in parish churches and cathedrals throughout Christendom from Ireland to Istanbul and in the heart of Rome itself, homosexual relationships were accepted as valid expressions of a God-given ability to love and commit to another person, a love that could be celebrated, honoured and blessed both in the name of, and through the Eucharist in the presence of Jesus Christ.

Pictures worth thousands of words........

2009-05-30T00:03:00.000-07:00

How to really protect your children from sexual abuse....

2009-05-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

It is a dangerous lie to say that gays overwhelmingly sexually abuse children, it is dangerous because it could lead a parent to believe that in order to protect their children from sexual abuse is to just keep them away from gay people. Approximately 35% of ALL Americans, male and female have suffered directly, as victims, from this heart-breaking crime. It affects not only the victim but the families of the victims, it affects the victims future marriages, future children and entire lives. This is an issue that needs to be addressed in this country with complete honesty and openness and IT CAN NO LONGER BE USED AS A PLOY BY THE ANTI GAY INDUSTRY TO ADVANCE THEIR AGENDA. Too many lives are at stake.

Pedophiles and sexual abusers of children, are adults who prefer to have sex with children. Much of the time they do no care if the child is male or female, they only care if their victim is a child. The child is chosen by the predator mostly based on opportunity to commit the act with out disruption or chance of being caught.

The perpetrators of child sexual abuse are overwhelmingly men; very few women are offenders. The abuser is usually a member of the child's family or someone known by the family. Pedophiles, men who have a complete sexual preference for children, constitute 1% of the adult male population but each pedophile will abuse an average of 122 children in their lifetime. Pedophiles are quite distinct from adult gay men and adult heterosexual men who prefer adult sexual partners. Studies have shown no correlation between a man's sexual orientation and a tendency to sexually abuse children

Homosexual pedophiles are considered a perversion of the normal homosexual man in the same way that heterosexual pedophiles are also a perversion. They are first and foremost pedophiles. Heterosexual men are twice as likely to sexually abuse children as homosexual men are. There is solid evidence that over 92% of child abuse cases, including same gender sexual abuse, are perpetrated by heterosexuals. Again, abusers prefer children, and it is opportunity in most cases that determines the sex of the child. For example, the pedophile priests had more opportunity to spend time alone with boys than with girls. Pedophiles seek out positions where they will have contact with children.

The number of reported child abuse cases have increased over the past ten years. It is crucial that we address the issue of child sexual abuse objectively and recognize that this abuse is occurring behind to many closed doors in so-called traditional family homes, it is in all churches not just the Catholic Church, it is in many homes and organizations.

If you really want to protect your kids from Sexual Abuse, I suggest you either buy or check out the new book by Robin Sax. It is the first book to be awarded the Amber Alert Book of the Year Award:

PREDATORS AND CHILD MOLESTERS
What Every Parent Needs to Know to Keep Kids Safe
A Sex Crimes DA Answers 100 of the Most Asked Questions
By Robin Sax

This book answers every question you ever thought of about how to protect your kids and many you never thought to ask. Instead of using scare tactics, Ms. Sax offers balanced, practical advice in techniques and strategies that will actually work in the real world. - Heather Steele

“There are certain things that are fundamental to human fulfillment. The essence of these needs is captured in the phrase 'to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy'. The need to live is our physical need for such things as food, clothing, shelter, economical well-being, health. The need to love is our social need to relate to other people, to belong, to love and to be loved. The need to learn is our mental need to develop and to grow. And the need to leave a legacy is our spiritual need to have a sense of meaning, purpose, personal congruence, and contribution." -- Steven R. Covey

Pilate Is Laughing. A Post From Reiter's Block,

2009-05-29T01:06:00.000-07:00

by author, poet Jendi Reiter

Crossposted from Reiter's Block

As Pontius Pilate famously asked, "What is truth?" Who gets to tell it, and about whom? The debate between affirming and non-affirming Christians is fundamentally about the relationship of truth to power. For that reason, it should concern all Christians, whether or not they have a personal stake in GLBT rights.

The way I see it, one side has an egalitarian model of truth-telling, and the other, an authoritarian model. This leads to different ways of resolving the apparent conflict between anti-gay Biblical texts and the evidence of positive, loving, spiritually fruitful gay partnerships.

Some conservatives address the problem by redefining what homosexuality is. It's an immoral choice, it's a curable neurosis, it's a perversion. It has to be, because the text says so.

This is the rhetorical move that frightens me. "We know you better than you know yourself: your love is only lust, your identity is confusion, and if you can't change, it's because you're not trying hard enough." Basically, the conservative church is saying to GLBT people that they can't trust their own perceptions of reality, even concerning the contents of their own minds and the feelings in their bodies.

To me, that sounds like the first step toward mental illness, as well as an open door for all kinds of physical and emotional abuse. The virtue of humility is not the same as radical self-doubt. The former restores the individual to his or her proper place in a community of others with equally valid rights and feelings. The latter makes him or her a slave of other human beings--because, of course, he or she is not allowed to doubt their ability to perceive the truth.

Other conservatives would acknowledge that same-sex orientation may be innate and unchangeable, but they argue that the Bible calls all people so afflicted to live celibately. This position at least avoids the necessity of spreading misinformation about GLBT sexuality, but it's still a variation of the same power grab discussed above.

Here, human authority figures are "discerning a vocation" for an entire class of people, without knowing anything about their unique gifts or what call they themselves have heard from God. Instead of undermining their confidence in their everyday sense perceptions, the church is undermining GLBT Christians' power to communicate with God directly, without human intermediaries--the essence of Protestantism, I might add.

There is simply no support in Scripture for the notion that God created two classes of people, one able to reinterpret old traditions in response to God's self-revelation in their lives, the other forced to defer to second-hand interpretations. On the contrary, the New Testament in particular is a record of hermeneutic revolution, as all sorts of marginalized people are suddenly speaking for God in ways that confound the religious authorities. "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings"--and eunuchs, women, Gentiles, slaves and demoniacs. St. Paul, who spent the first half of his life persecuting the church that he died for, is an unlikely role model for the "We Haven't Changed" crowd.

If same-sex couples are not supposed to be capable of discerning that their relationships are a conduit for God's grace, it calls into question their entire ability to perceive God's presence or God's will. Again, the Bible doesn't support this radical suspicion of one's own experience (see, e.g., Luke 1:1-4, 1 John 1:1-4). In the New Testament, personal testimony is frequently prioritized over abstract reasoning from texts and traditions. The gospel writers are, in effect, asking their fellow Jews to credit their eyewitness accounts ahead of centuries-old beliefs about monotheism and the messiah. There isn't a sense that we must avoid error by enforcing a presumption against change. "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God" (1 John 4:1); "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thess. 5:21). Taking personal responsibility for our faith commitments in this way keeps our potential sin and error always before our eyes, which leads to day-by-day conscious dependence on God's grace.

The validity of personal testimony has political implications. It radically equalizes everyone who claims to speak for God. Spiritual hierarchy seems disfavored in the Gospels. Thus, I would suggest, any theological position (such as the refusal to reexamine apparently anti-gay texts in light of evidence that they cause suffering to innocent people) that creates a hierarchy of access to God should be viewed with suspicion.

Because Jesus was acutely aware of the social position of everyone he addressed, so should we be. To say that truth is situational is not to say that it is relative. Rather, it is to recognize that we cannot truly pass judgment on another's actions without considering the power relations between us. Do we really know the truth about this person, unclouded by our own fears and desires, and do we have the right to speak it--to speak about them or for them, without questioning how we got that power?

All of us "Bloggers for Truth" have stories we can tell about our own partnerships or those of our parents, teachers, pastors and friends--all GLBT people whose lives have been touched by the Spirit. But we also have to make the Scriptural case that stories are truths, on a par with or superior to the truths of abstract reasoning, at least when it comes to practical ethics. Time and time again I hear anti-gay Christians argue that we are biased by our personal desires (either lust or pride) while they are merely following "what the Bible says". Their epistemology doesn't allow for scrutiny of the human element in interpretation, nor of their own emotional biases, because they need the Bible to remain magically exempt from the human condition of partiality and uncertainty.

Truth-as-objectivity is a modernist position, and ironically, one that has historically been used against religious believers since the Enlightenment. Religion's despisers have argued that the "truths" of religion are tainted by emotion, not universally accessible, not severable from the accidental personal history of the believer. This is supposedly in contrast to the self-evident truths of reason (whether scientific or philosophical), which should not vary based on the identity of the observer.

In response, postmodern Christian authors such as Lesslie Newbigin and Luigi Giussani have argued that all knowledge is situated knowledge, and that in fact it would be inappropriate to approach so personal a matter as one's spiritual destiny as if one had no personal stake in it. We find truth not by suppressing awareness of our own position, Giussani writes in The Religious Sense, but by cultivating humble openness to whatever the quest for truth reveals, i.e. by letting reality speak to us instead of telling it what it must be: "Love the truth of an object more than your attachment to the opinions you have already formed about it."

If there is a legitimate Christian argument against affirming same-sex relationships, it can't be that texts trump experience, or that the impersonal is superior to the personal. Tying ourselves to the mast of that sinking modernist ship means giving up on religion's claim to truth. Somewhere, Pilate is laughing.

Fighting Hate By Understanding The Haters

2009-05-28T00:36:00.000-07:00

When Coretta Scott King stated that "Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group." She was spot on. Newer scientific evidence is showing that what is generally called homophobia, is not so much that, but is more akin to racism and bigotry of all types. Once someone has become deeply entrenched in their anti-gay feelings, those feelings tend to remain regardless of the amount of evidence that their beliefs are completely unfounded.

the Penguin Dictionary of Psychology defines hate as a "deep, enduring, intense emotion expressing animosity, anger, and hostility towards a person, group, or object." Because hatred is believed to be long-lasting, many psychologists consider it to be more of an attitude or disposition than a (temporary) emotional state.

In order to combat hate on many levels the FBI released the following bulletin in 2003 to assist law enforcement identify possible hate groups or groups of people who may be falling into the trap of hate. While this model was developed using skinhead groups as the subject matter, the seven stage model, according to the FBI profilers, would seem to hold true in all haters, in all forms of hate towards other people.

The seven-stage hate model: The psychopathology of hate groups
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin/March 1, 2003
By John R. Schafer, MA and Joe Navarro, MA

Definition of Hate

Hate, a complex subject, divides into two general categories: rational and irrational. Unjust acts inspire rational hate. Hatred of a person based on race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or national origin constitutes irrational hate.

Both rational and irrational hate mask personal insecurities. Everyone experiences personal insecurities in varying degrees throughout their lives. The more insecure a person feels, the larger the hate mask. Most people concentrate on the important issues in life, such as earning a living, rearing a family, and achieving personal goals. These pursuits give meaning and value to life. Nonetheless, irrational hate bleeds through day-to-day activities in the form of racial barbs and ethnic humor. Not all insecure people are haters, but all haters are insecure people.

With respect to rational hate, haters do not focus as much on the wrong done to them or others, but, rather, on their own helplessness, guilt, or inability to effect change. The object of rational hate often is despised or pitied. In the same way, irrational hate elevates the hater above the hated. Many insecure people feel a sense of self-worth by relegating a person or group of people to a lower status.

Stage 1: The Haters Gather
Irrational haters seldom hate alone. They feel compelled, almost driven, to entreat others to hate as they do. Peer validation bolsters a sense of self-worth and, at the same time, prevents introspection, which reveals personal insecurities. Further, individuals otherwise ineffective become empowered when they join groups, which also provide anonymity and diminished accountability.

Stage 2: The Hate Group Defines Itself
Hate groups form identities through symbols, rituals, and mythologies, which enhance the members' status and, at the same time, degrade the object of their hate. For example, skinhead groups may adopt the swastika, the iron cross, the Confederate flag, and other supremacist symbols. Group-specific symbols or clothing often differentiate hate groups. Group rituals, such as hand signals and secret greetings, further fortify members. Hate groups, especially skinhead groups, usually incorporate some form of self-sacrifice, which allows haters to willingly jeopardize their well-being for the greater good of the cause. Giving one's life to a cause provides the ultimate sense of value and worth to life. Skinheads often see themselves as soldiers in a race war.

Stage 3: The Hate Group Disparages the Target
Hate is the glue that binds haters to one another and to a common cause. By verbally debasing the object of their hate, haters enhance their self-image, as well as their group status. In skinhead groups, racist song lyrics and hate literature provide an environment wherein hate flourishes. In fact, researchers have found that the life span of aggressive impulses increases with ideation. In other words, the more often a person thinks about aggression, the greater the chance for aggressive behavior to occur. Thus, after constant verbal denigration, haters progress to the next more acrimonious stage.

Stage 4: The Hate Group Taunts the Target
Hate, by its nature, changes incrementally. Time cools the fire of hate, thus forcing the hater to look inward. To avoid introspection, haters use ever-increasing degrees of rhetoric and violence to maintain high levels of agitation. Taunts and offensive gestures serve this purpose. In this stage, skinheads typically shout racial slurs from moving cars or from afar. Nazi salutes and other hand signals often accompany racial epithets. Racist graffiti also begins to appear in areas where skinheads loiter. Most skinhead groups claim turf proximate to the neighborhoods in which they live. One study indicated that a majority of hate crimes occur when the hate target migrates through the hate group's turf.

Stage 5: The Hate Group Attacks the Target Without Weapons
This stage is critical because it differentiates vocally abusive haters from physically abusive ones. In this stage, hate groups become more aggressive, prowling their turf seeking vulnerable targets. Violence coalesces hate groups and further isolates them from mainstream society. Skinheads, almost without exception, attack in groups and target single victims. Research has shown that bias crimes are twice as likely to cause injury and four times as likely to result in hospitalization as compared to nonbias crimes.

In addition to physical violence, the element of thrill seeking is introduced in Stage 5. Two experts found that 60 percent of hate offenders were "thrill seekers." The adrenaline "high" intoxicates the attackers. The initial adrenaline surge lasts for several minutes; however, the effects of adrenaline keep the body in a state of heightened alert for up to several days. Each successive anger- provoking thought or action builds on residual adrenaline and triggers a more violent response than the one that originally initiated the sequence. Anger builds on anger. The adrenaline high combined with hate becomes a deadly combination. Hard-core skinheads keep themselves at a level where the slightest provocation triggers aggression.

Stage 6: The Hate Group Attacks the Target with Weapons
Several studies confirm that a large number of bias attacks involve weapons. Some attackers use firearms to commit hate crimes, but skinheads prefer weapons, such as broken bottles, baseball bats, blunt objects, screwdrivers, and belt buckles. These types of weapons require the attacker to be close to the victim, which further demonstrates the depth of personal anger. Attackers can discharge firearms at a distance, thus precluding personal contact. Close-in onslaughts require the assailants to see their victims eye-to-eye and to become bloodied during the assault. Hands- on violence allows skinheads to express their hate in a way a gun cannot. Personal contact empowers and fulfills a deep-seated need to have dominance over others. (most hate crimes are committed with knives, fists, baseball bats etc.)

Stage 7: The Hate Group Destroys the Target
The ultimate goal of haters is to destroy the object of their hate. Mastery over life and death imbues the hater with godlike power and omnipotence, which, in turn, facilitate further acts of violence. With this power comes a great sense of self-worth and value, the very qualities haters lack. However, in reality, hate physically and psychologically destroys both the hater and the hated.

Model Application
Anecdotal evidence suggests that this hate model has a wider application. For example, when a coworker becomes a hate target for reasons other than race, sex, or national origin, the hater immediately seeks out others in the office who dislike, or can be persuaded to dislike, the hated coworker
(Stage 1). The group establishes an identity using symbols and behaviors. They use a lifted eyebrow, a code word to exclude the hated coworker from a lunch invitation, or any number of other actions to demean and isolate. The haters even may adopt a name for their group
(Stage 2). At this point, the haters only disparage the hated coworker within their group
(Stage 3). As time passes, the haters openly insult the hated coworker either directly or indirectly by allowing disparaging remarks to be overheard from afar
(Stage 4). One morning, the hated coworker discovers his desk rearranged and offensive images pasted over a picture depicting his wife and children
(Stage 5). From the sophomoric to the terroristic, acts of hate have the same effect. Eventually, the haters sabotage the hated coworker's projects and attempt to ruin the individual's reputation through rumors and innuendos
(Stage 6). In so doing, the haters make the work environment intolerable for the hate target (Stage 7). Scenarios like this occur every day across America and, indeed, around the world. The targets of hate may change, but the hate process remains constant.

Advice on how to address the young haters: The FBI report suggests that you do not ask a young hater questions such as "Why do you hate?" "Can't you see what you're doing is wrong?" "How would you like it if someone picked on you because of your race [sexual orientation, etc.]?", they have pat answers, they are proud of their hate and feel justified. Instead the report suggests asking about their families, their future plans, their educational goals and employment plans. These answers can often give insight into their own self worth and it also forces the young hater to see them selves as they really are, making them less resistant to rehabilitation.

LGBT Lessons for Straight People: Words of Hate on Prop 8.

2009-05-27T03:39:00.000-07:00

By geekgirl crossposted from jaysays.com

Tuesday, May 26th, the California Supreme Court will announce it’s decision at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Today (May 25th) I looked at two websites. The LA Times and the Independent Mind. As usual, reader comments are all over the board. I’ve selected some of the negative comments and I have highlighted, in red, the words that reveal the hatred, bigotry, lies and ignorance of the people making these posts. I have copied these comments exactly and I have not corrected any spelling or grammatical errors. I welcome every reader to link to this blog, copy the words to your own blog and share this blog with your friends.

I can’t help but ask myself. If these individuals were face to face with a gay person, would they say these words? The Internet provides anonymity. That has its positives - because all of us want to stay safe. It also has its negatives. We say things we would probably never say directly to a person. If you can’t say it to someone’s face, maybe you shouldn’t say it? For those of you that share the feelings that you are about to read, I challenge you to take the time to read some facts. I challenge you to open your heart and think what if you were in the shoes of a gay person. Don’t judge a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes. If your positions are correct, it shouldn’t hurt you to listen to the other side.

I’m not gay. I have many gay friends and they are are good people. Do you know someone who is gay? If not, I challenge you to purposely meet someone. For those of you that are unable to listen to why gay people deserve the same rights as straight people, hear this. Gay people are not going to shut up. They are being denied rights. You want to stop hearing about it? Give everyone equal rights and let everyone get on with their lives.

And now, on to the comments.

It’s not about giving or denying gay rights… but about demoralizing what a healthy, house & family is all about. Most of people endorsing gay marriages, don’t want their children to be educated in a gay home. This is hypocrisy! Church Ministers will be forced by law to celebrate gay marriage. Is this fair?

Posted by: Marcel | May 24, 2009 at 02:47 PM

No minister will be forced to celebrate gay marriage. Today, a minister can deny performing a wedding service to anyone. Besides, a church wedding isn’t needed to make marriage legal. It has nothing to do with civil marriage. Don’t believe me? Ask your clergyman. Or the county courthouse.

Facism is Facism. The “No on Prop 8″ supporters have embraced FACISM! Their Mantra is “GAY FACISM UEBER ALLES!”

Posted by: Steve | May 24, 2009 at 07:38 AM

I have no clue what this means. But I think it’s from someone who is crazy.

You know what? I think that everyone who is unhappy with the outcome of Prop 8 should leave California immediately. Obviously you are very unhappy and you should live elsewhere that will accommodate any perversion you want. Frankly, I’m looking forward to the Supreme Court upholding the will of the people to determine what their society will look like. This isn’t a race thing so don’t give me that. This is a sexual perversion thing and I’m glad the people of California had the guts to say NO MORE! Others States who are having this issue crammed down their throats will rise up and follow suit. You watch! It will happen

Posted by: CAPearl | May 22, 2009 at 05:14 PM

I always love this solution. Don’t like how I think? Move. That’s intelligent. Crammed down their throats? I have lost count of the number of times that a religious person has knocked on my door, wanting to come in and preach to me. Never, not once, has a gay person, anywhere, tried to invade my home or what I think. Why? First, they are only interested in living their own lives. Second, someone like you might answer the door and kill them.

Gays have their Civil unions and domestic partnerships. This minority of deviants should never have the authority or power to redefine marriage or our society based on their perversions. We chose to honor male and females in marriage. We said it twice to the gays in elections. What part of “No” and “Get lost” do you not understand? Leave marriage alone. You don’t need our tradition. Make your own. And don’t beg us for validation.

Posted by: jeffrey hepler | May 22, 2009 at 04:47 PM

For the ten billionth time, this isn’t about tradition, it’s about legal rights. Civil unions and domestic partnerships cover a small fraction of the legal benefits of marriage. There are 1138 rights given to married people scattered throughout Federal Law. Look it up. And what part of equal rights and Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You don’t you understand?

Gays and Lesbians will have no choice but to abide by the law whether they like it or not. Gays and Lesbians Do Not have the right to disturb the peace or to threaten anyone who disagrees with no on Prop. 8 or their sexual orientation.

Asking for rights is disturbing the peace? It might be disturbing your narrow view of the world. Go in the closet if it bothers you. See what that is like.

Marriage is not a right to anyone, and Gays and Lesbians need to get it through their heads. If Gays and Lesbians continue to persist, they will bring on the hate and suffer the consequences of those who will not tolerate their behavior.

Marriage is a right for heterosexuals but not for gays and lesbians ,and heterosexuals need to get that through their heads. Thanks for the warning about the hate but it’s already here. Your side has not been shy about holding back. But I do thank you for having the courage to put your hatred and threats in writing. Are you willing to say these things publicly to a gay person to their face?

From Independent Minds

PUT THE GAYS IN HOSPITAL WHERE THEY BELLONG!

copycat7 wrote:

Monday, 25 May 2009 at 08:57 am (UTC)GAY IS A MENTAL ILLNESS AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH!. MANIPULATIVE PERSONALITY, NO INHIBITIONS, SPITEFULL BEHAVIOR TO ALL WHO SPEAK AGAINST THERE BEHAVIOR, OBBSESSION WITH SEX, GENERAL IMATURITY, IN NEED OF ATTENTION DRAMA QUEENS, EXAGERATORS, PERSECUTION COMPLEX PARANOIA, SHALLOW MATERIALISTIC SHOPPING HABBITS, WIMPISH BEHAVIOR, ETC ETC…WELL ITS NOT THE AVERAGE STRAIT PERSON IM TALKING ABOUT NOW IS IT!.

GAYS DISGUSTS ME BECAUSE OF HOW MOST OF THEM BEHAVE NOT BECAUSE OF THE LABEL GAY!. THE STEREOTYPE DID NOT COME FROM NOWHERE!

You’re kind of late copycat. The American Psychology Association removed homosexuality as a mental illness thirty years ago. They disgust you? Just curious. Do you KNOW a gay person? Just one? I challenge you to open your mind long enough to attempt to get to know someone who is gay. Actually, you probably do know someone who is gay. They are just smart enough to know that coming out to you would be dangerous.

Re: Copycatis hate crime

zahradelaplata wrote:

Monday, 25 May 2009 at 12:34 pm (UTC)what marginality? The only marginal ones are gays. They are nothing but 3% of world population, and they try to force the rest of us, the real normal people, to accept’them as normal ones. They are not. Never will be. 97% is straight, that shows that the mere 3% is the exception to the rule, and definitely not the norm, hence, nothing normal or any need to accept their agenda. It’s unbelievable how some minuscule groups force the majority, and brainwash society, just because they have the media and enough money to push these issues. You want to live your life? OK, do so between the walls of your bedroom, and leave the rest of us alone. Don’t expect the majorities (like the one in California), accept or bend to your whims. See what you gays are trying to do in California. YOU LOST a democratic vote. DEAL WITH IT. But nooo, you just can’t, right? You have to terrorize normals, use your economic muscle, your media capacity to force the majority to change what they decided in a ballot. That shows you what is the real frame of mind of gays. They don’t just want their so called rights, they have to stomp over the opinions of others, and force them to their whims. What’s next? Promoting homosexuality in schools, so you can harvest new kids for your zoo sooner? And we’ll have to accept it, right? Riiiight.

Mormons are 1.7% of the population. In fact, most of us are in a minority for something. What does a percent have to do with anything? What percent would it take to convince you they are normal? Terrorize? Gay people want the same rights as the rest of us. I have an idea. Keep your hatred and bigotry inside your house and leave the rest of us alone. Harvesting kids? People are born gay. Or did you go through some agonizing process of deciding to be straight?

it’s wrong wrong wrong

joshuacohen2003 wrote:

Monday, 25 May 2009 at 02:02 pm (UTC)Gays are just wrong in every sense of normal rational behaviour.
forget the religious aspect because that’s plain and simple and clearly obvious. No religion on earth condones homosexuality.

However lets look at it from an atheistic, scientific, logical, rational point of view. It’s still glarignly obvious to anyone with a few brain cells that being homosexual is just idiotic nonsense. nature created males and females.

end of argument.

Dear Joshua Cohen. Your lack of scientific education and knowledge of religious texts is stunning. There is a growing body of evidence that sexual orientation has biological origins. Go to Entrez Pubmed and search the REAL scientific literature. Religion? There are groups in every faith that welcome LGBT members. Jews, Christians, Catholics, Buddhists, even Muslim. The religious aspect is anything but obvious. People wrote ancient scriptures 2000 plus years ago. The words have been misinterpreted and the cultural context lost. Why do these words hold more convincing power than modern day science? I’m sorry, that makes no sense to me.

These comments are not only factually wrong, they hurt real people. People who are daughters, sons, brothers and sisters. Real humans who are the same as me and you. I find these comments so unethical, so filled with unfounded prejudice, so unAmerican that I am ashamed. Dehumanizing others so that we don’t have to face our biases, so we don’t have to feel that they are as human as we are, is a slippery slope, the same slope that led to slavery and the Holocaust. Haven’t we learned anything from our own history? Our world history? We look back now and are ashamed of the discrimination in our nation’s past. The next generation will look back on the fight for gay rights the same way. It is already happening. In the end, hate always loses.

The Big Gay Agenda by Lori Hahn

2009-05-27T03:29:00.000-07:00

by Lori Hahn
AWOP GLBTQ Contributing Editor
Author of Hahn at Home Blog

"As we meet secretly in our covens of queeriosity, plotting the ultimate demise of the American way, I thought it only fair we provide fair warning. As we decide how we will damage future generations of children making books like Heather Has Two Mommies available, we are needling our way into every facet of American life, determined to crush not only every religious institution known to man, but also banish forever wearing white shoes after Labor Day and Crocs as a positive fashion choice. It’s known by many that we have set up recruiting stations alongside the fall school registration table at all the local elementary schools, but our plan is much grander. I mean our agenda has been alluded to by the “other side” and yes, it’s true, we have one......."

To read the rest of Big Gay Agenda in it's entirety, cruise on over to A World of Progress TeamZine

Today, The California Supreme Court Decides

2009-05-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

Update:

CA Supreme Court Upholds Prop H8, But does not invalidate ones in place

The California Supreme Court has upheld Prop 8, but it will not overturn the 18,000 marriages already in place.
The supporters of Equality, will take the case higher.
One thing the CA Supreme Court has certainly managed to do with this ruling, is create separate but equal issues....on to the US Supreme Court I would say.........it would be nice if it takes some time though, the make up of the court is still too right leaning.....
There is live video by the way on CNN.com

Today, The California Supreme Court Decides...

They get to decide if 18,000 marriages remain in place, to decide if more couples can join them or not, to decide on something that in my opinion these men and women should never have needed to consider. Does marriage include all couples over 18 who should be free to make up their own choices who to love or not. Or does it include only who religion has said it should include? Then they need to go through their books and see it includes a lot of people they say they don't approve of already.

I don't envy the Court, but my heart goes out to not only the 18,000 but to the thousands more who want to get married and only an unconstitutional law is stopping them.

My heart goes out to those who have faced an increase in violent hate crimes against them because somehow the haters saw last November's passage of H8 as an excuse to act out. And my heart goes out to those of us who keep hoping someday this will be a non-issue because love will win out in the end.

And it isn't just my heart but my fight too, they aren't just my neighboring state, they are my brothers and sisters in a battle for equal rights. I won't give up the fight no matter the decision, I know they won't either.

I pray that reason will win out in the end. I believe in the end it will, life is often unfair, but in the end, it is always just. We wait with you California.

Sex. It happens in your brain

2009-05-25T08:02:00.001-07:00

Sex. It happens in your brain. That’s what Dear Abby, Ann Landers and Dr. Ruth all used to say. They were on to something.

Hello, my name is Jude, aka geekgirl on jaysays.com. I’m straight and I’m a molecular biologist. I’m fascinated by all things biological, especially the human brain. I would like to introduce you to just one of many research articles addressing the question of sexual orientation. I was delighted to see Truth and Love devote a week to gathering real facts on this very important topic. Are gay people born this way? More and more hard evidence is accumulating that points in this direction. Science has moved beyond asking people what they feel.

Researchers in Sweden studied the symmetry and connectivity of the brains of straight men, straight women, gay men and lesbians. This work was published in April 2008 in the very prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

The original reference is: PET and MRI show differences in cerebral asymmetry and functional connectivity between homo- and heterosexual subjects. Authors Ivanka Savic* and Per Lindstro¨m Stockholm Brain Institute, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden. PNAS April 2008.

The study itself is highly technical and not easy reading for us every day folks without this level of training. However, it can be translated into terms we can all understand. The researchers asked two main questions. Are the two halves of the brain symmetrical or asymmetrical? Are there differences in functional connectivity between the two halves of the brain? In the words of the authors, “

The choice to measure amygdala connectivity was based on several reports about sex differentiated amygdala lateralization in processing of emotional memories (with an activation of the right amygdala in men, and the left amygdala in women and potential neurobiological correlates to sex and sexual orientation. In addition, the amygdala is a key structure in the limbic networks and exhibits high density of estrogen and androgen receptors.”

The study used ninety subjects. 25 heterosexual men, 25 heterosexual women, 20 homosexual men and 20 homosexual women. The difference in the number of subjects is not statistically significant. The brains were analyzed using PET measurements of blood flow to measure functional connections between the two halves of the brain.

In this case, a picture is able to replace a lot of words. Take a look at the photo and compare the brains. See the red and yellow areas? In the left amygdale, the heterosexual male brain looks very similar to the homosexual female brain. And the heterosexual female brain looks very similar to the homosexual male brain. The right amygdale does not show this clear cut pattern but it is clear that there is a difference between heterosexual and homosexual men.

If we were using photos of our brains to tell us gender, instead of our genitalia, who would you call a boy or a girl? The researchers also looked at the volume of each half of the brain using MRI. The paper shows the variation in the data and the statistics proving the differences.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll just include the result. Left Half HeM 25 624 612 These are significantly different. HeW 25 581 581 These are not significantly different. HoM 20 608 609 These are not significantly different. HoW 20 548 543 These are significantly different.

The authors concluded that “The present study shows sex-atypical cerebral asymmetry and functional connections in homosexual subjects.

The results cannot be primarily ascribed to learned effects, and they suggest a linkage to neurobiological entities.” Now, does this study prove that these differences are the cause of sexual orientation? One study alone doesn’t do that. But it is very clear that the brains of straight people and gay people are different. Not only different, but straight men and lesbians share similarities and straight women and gay men share similarities.

2009-05-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow kicks off Blogging For Truth! It only requires one post for the whole week or you can make a new post everyday! Thank you to everyone already participating!
Let's fight the lies with the truth!

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2009-05-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

I watched a documentary the other night called Family Fundamentals. It was about LGBT children of different faiths whose families or friends were not only fundamentalists but held anti-gay beliefs.

The pain on both sides was palpable, parents rejecting their adult children and the children trying to understand that rejection and live with their pain as best they could.

I think what saddened me was not only the hurt and pain on both sides, but that the "religious" would not only not listen to their children's stories about deciding to come out, and how they couldn't live their lives in a lie, but wouldn't research to try to find out the truth about what they perceived solely as sin, no ifs ands or buts. They sent tracts and literature about the ex-gay reparitive therapies to their children and lectured them on going to hell or cut off nearly all contact with them.

As I follow the state supreme courts decisions in Iowa and Connecticut and the votes in the legislatures of Nevada, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, I am struck by the comments of those who have voted for equality. Almost all of those for equality have discussed their own prayers and research they have done not only into the law, but into the lives of the LGBT community.

These men and women have chosen to look at the facts and not the myths and in doing so have come to the realization that our nature is unchangeable. And as such have discovered it IS A MATTER OF EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW. Not a matter of sin.

I can only hope and pray the families of those portrayed in the documentary begin to open their hearts and minds to do the hard work of discovering the truth for themselves in time for real healing to begin.

Why The Anti-Gay Industry Tries To Minimize Our Numbers

2009-04-26T21:36:00.001-07:00

It is a favorite theme of the Anti-Gay Industry to say we are "only 1% or 2% of the population." They say it so you won't feel so bad if we are discriminated against. I mean, who does it hurt if it is only 1% of the population? Right? 1%, that's not very many, obviously not a legitimate minority, right?

The truth is, United States Census in 2000 placed our number at 4% (approx. 12 million persons) of the population, with an asterisk: "it is difficult to get an accurate count because many fear discrimination if they disclose their orientation, especially on government forms." Does it matter if we are 1%, no, it shouldn't, no group should be discriminated against, but we aren't 1% and it is just one more lie of the Anti-Gay Industry that needs to be exposed.

Let's look at some other Census figures: Those who call themselves Polish-Americans are "only" 3.2% of our population, Scottish-Americans "only" 1.7%. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islander-Americans numbered 426,194 in 2006, or "only" 0.14% of the population. The American Jewish population was estimated to be "only" 5,128,000 or (1.7%) in 2007. When you discriminate against these groups, you are rightly considered a bigot.

I don't think being less than 5% of the population qualifies any group as a target of discrimination. Do you?

Young and Gay in the Bible Belt: A new study By Bernadette Barton, Ph.D.

2009-04-18T23:42:00.000-07:00

Bernadette Barton, Ph.D. has been conducting research on the experiences in the Bible Belt of this country lived by LGBT teens and adult, her findings are horrifying. Some exerpts from her article Young and Gay in the Bible Belt: "My mom came after me with a butcher knife!"

Barton has discovered what 10's of thousands of our youth already know; "Home is not a haven for many Bible Belt gays. Home may be more dangerous than the streets. A 2006 National Gay and Lesbian Task Force study found that of homeless teens, 42 percent identify as gay. If one considers that the most generous estimates of the percentage of gay people in the general population is 10 percent, such a statistic illustrates an alarming over-representation of gay kids among the homeless....

After traveling around parts of the Bible Belt collecting the stories of lesbians and gay men, I believe that gay children and adolescents are the victims of institutionally sanctioned child abuse....

People in the Bible Belt, gay and heterosexual, learn that homosexuals are bad, diseased, perverse, other and inferior within a number of social institutions. Like a creepy, mirrored fun house, abusive language about and threatening actions toward homosexuals on the playground, from the pulpit, in the bar, at work and during family dinner amplify and reinforce one another.

Thus, parents who exclude gay youth and family members who ostracize gay relatives are only mimicking behaviors modeled in churches, schools and the military. Not only then do local officials and local institutions fail to protect gay children and adolescents from maltreatment, in their worst manifestations they teach homophobic families how to abuse their gay children."

The whole article is worth reading and can be accessed HERE!

Bernadette Barton (Ph.D. University of Kentucky 2000) is associate professor of sociology and women’s studies at Morehead State University. Barton’s current research project examines the experiences of gay men and lesbians, and is the focus of an upcoming book, Pray the Gay Away: Religion and Homosexuality in the Bible Belt.

FYI alert, the first comment to this post is from an Ex-Gay advocate. All the links he offers will only lead you to a site with nowhere to comment or respond. As the APA and the AMA both have clearly stated; the idea that one's sexuality can be changed is mentally harmful and often times when the "program" fails, it ends with suicide.
I personally am living proof that if one is truly LGBT, your nature cannot be changed, I tried for over 30 years and even subjected myself to assorted treatments including exorcism. Only until I was lead away from the lies and hate did I find true freedom, peace and happiness in my life.
I know, I do not "feel", we are all wonderfully created and will only find happiness and love when we accept ourselves as such.
--Rebecca

The Truth About Maggie Gallagher,

2009-04-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

Maggie Gallagher is trying to scare you but Queerty is calling her on her tactics... "There are bigots and then there's Maggie Gallagher, President of the National Organization for Marriage, a conservative group that serves as a front for anti-gay discrimination which put out an ad this week that's riddled with fear and manipulation– as well as some entertaining storm footage. Gallagher has become the last-best hope for the anti-gay rights movement, which in itself is pretty laughable."
I think the best quote about Maggie is "That Gallagher's made it her life quest to keep Americans from being a more tolerant and caring people is infuriating, for sure, but at it's core, it's just sad." and I think it applies to the whole Anti-Gay Industry.

For a great read and the rest of the story, check out Queerty's "Why We're Totally Intolerant of Maggie Gallagher."

Be a Friend, Be an Ally

2009-04-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

To all our Allies and Friends, who have no other reason to support us than human decency; We Thank YOU with all our hearts!! You are our heroes.

Fighting the Anti-Gay Industry

2009-03-30T18:44:00.000-07:00

When the Anti-Gay Industry speaks to the American public in support of its agenda, they speak of protecting our children, they speak of traditional family values, and they usually show images of a man and a woman with children, looking like something straight out of the Donna Reed Show.

Publicly, they equate homosexuality to incest, bestiality and child abuse. Since Anita Bryant, they feel free to say we are recruiting children. The happily proclaim we are incapable of long term relationships. They quote scriptures saying we are an abomination and that homosexuality should be outlawed and we should not receive full and equal civil rights, nor should we be included in hate crimes laws.

These are just their public tactics. What do they say to each other about us? What is the whole story? Autumn Sandeen, in one of her posts, suggested we study our enemy, so we can know how to fight them. I have been studying, mostly what they say to each other. They all say the same thing to each other.

They say they want to re-criminalize homosexuality; it is top on their priority, that is why they fight same sex marriage and the inclusion of LGBT in hate crime laws, that is why they marginalize us by claiming we are only 1% of the population.

They want do this for a number of reasons:

1. First and foremost they wish to send us back into the closet, to scare us into retreating in our battle for civil rights. This is what the average, person on the street Anti-Gay wants, and if some of us spend time in jail, it will just teach the rest of us a lesson.
2. Secondly, they wish to have judges consider Ex-Gay therapy as an option. James Dobson, Mike Ensley of Exodus International, The Peter LaBarbera, James Hartline, Sally Kern, Mr. Steve (Sally’s Husband) Kern, Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association, Beverly LaHaye of Concerned Women for America, Martin Mawyer of the Christian Action Network and the rest of the Anti-Gay Industry have claimed at various times and in various ways to support this idea.
3. The end result of their agenda is this: They wish to make homosexuality a capital offense. When they are speaking to “their audience” and each other, they do not mince words. They do not pull punches. They flat out say that the penalty for homosexuality must be death, it is what the Bible and the Quran require.

You may think I am being a little paranoid with that third statement. I think you need to read these pieces below. They are out there on the internet; they are included in their pamphlets and brochures that they send out to members, on their forum posts and in their newsletters.

We don’t need to be paranoid, we need to let our congressmen and senators and even President Obama know that these ideas aren’t the fringe in the Anti-Gay Industry, they are The Anti-Gay Industry. And when they say homosexuality means a death sentence, they aren’t talking about not making it to the after life.

Introducing the Anti-Gay Industry and what it preaches:

The American Family Association [AFA]:

Founder: Don Wildmon; President Tim Wildmon

In its 1994 booklet Homosexuality in America, the AFA claims:

"[p]rominent homosexual leaders and publications have voiced support for pedophilia, incest, sadomasochism, and even bestiality."

AFA's direct-mail appeals are particularly shrill:

"For the sake of our children and society, we must OPPOSE the spread of homosexual activity! Just as we must oppose murder, stealing, and adultery!" says one such recent fundraiser letter. "Since homosexuals cannot reproduce, the only way for them to 'breed' is to RECRUIT! And who are their targets for recruitment? Children!"

In one October 2004 article, the AFA Journal suggests that gay influences are leading to a

"grotesque culture" that will include "quick encounters in the middle school boys' restroom."

AFA has 21 state directors, including California's Scott Lively, co-author of The Pink Swastika, a book that claims "homosexuals are the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities"

America Vision:

Founder: Gary DeMar, AFA president Tim Wildmon praised him as "one of the best writers out there in the Christian community and thinkers."

Gary DeMar on the February 2, 2006 broadcast of Today's Issues, a program of American Family Radio, a network of nearly 200 radio stations owned by The American Family Association (AFA).

DeMAR: The definition of Christian Reconstruction is simply this: The Bible applies to every facet of life. That means not just the judicial aspects of life, such as civil government, church government, but business, economics -- every facet of society. The Bible has something to say about each area. For example, on homosexuals: We do not believe that homosexuals ought to be executed. The Bible doesn't say that homosexuals ought to be executed. What it says is this: If two men lie together like man and woman, they are to be put to death.
PORTEOUS: What the hell do you think that is?
DeMAR: Well, wait a minute. If a guy comes up to me and he says, "I'm a homosexual," that doesn't mean he's to be executed. If you understand the Scriptures, it says very clearly: If a man comes up to you and says, "I've murdered somebody," that doesn't mean that person ought to be executed.
GONZALES: Oh, so what you are saying, Gary, is, if you catch homosexuals in the act, then the Bible says to execute them.
DeMAR: The Bible lays forth the severest penalty, which would be capital punishment for two men who publicly engage in sodomy. DeMar continued by stating his nominal support for the death penalty for adulterers and abortion doctors:
GONZALES: If, indeed, the Reconstructionist movement ever made it in America, would you advocate these biblical principles being carried out: the execution of the adulterer, the abortionist, and the homosexual?
DeMAR: I'm saying that they could be implemented, yes.

In 1993, American Vision helped county commissioners in Cobb County, Ga., pass an anti-gay resolution so strongly worded that it sparked a national controversy. Cobb County Commissioner Gordon Wysong spoke at American Vision's annual fundraising banquet the following year, saying of gay people, "We should blame them for every social failure in America

DeMar is a leading promoter of an extremist theology called Christian Reconstructionism, also known as Theocratic Dominionism, which, according to journalist and author Frederick Clarkson, "argues that the Bible is to be the governing text for all areas of life -- such as government, education, law, and the arts, not merely 'social' or 'moral' issues like pornography, homosexuality, and abortion." In his essay, "Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence," Clarkson stated that under a Christian Reconstructionist government,

"[w]omen would be generally relegated to hearth and home. Insufficiently Christian men would be denied citizenship, perhaps executed. So severe is this theocracy that it would extend capital punishment beyond such crimes as kidnapping, rape, and murder to include, among other things, blasphemy, heresy, adultery, and homosexuality."

The Alliance Defense Fund:

Founders: D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family, William Bright of the Campus Crusade for Christ more than 30 other Christian ministries, as a response to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Their purpose is to defend "family values." ADF's major focus is strategizing and coordinating with hundreds of lawyers and right-wing groups to defend what they define as "Christian legal issues." Examples include anti-gay cases like Boy Scouts of America v. Dale and Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network, and a national strategy to "protect marriage," following Vermont's decision to allow same-sex civil unions. According to the People for the American Way;

"ADF's founding groups are influential members of the Right, they are pro-life and anti-gay and their ultimate goal is to see the law and government of the US enshrined with conservative Christian principles."

In 1994, ADF solicited funds on Christian radio with an ad claiming,

""Pro-life demonstrations may soon be illegal. ... Religious broadcasting may soon be censored. Hiring homosexuals in Christian schools, churches, and even as Sunday School teachers may soon become the law of the land. ... Don't let Christianity become a crime."

In 2003, President and Chief Council, Alan Sears and ADF Vice President Craig Osten expanded on that theme in The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom, which ties homosexuality to pedophilia and other "disordered sexual behavior."

On November 22, 2004, ADF lawyers filed suit on behalf of Stephen Williams against the Cupertino Union School District in Cupertino, California. Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek Elementary School, had been told not to use class handouts that proselytized for Christianity. His suit alleged that his First Amendment rights had been violated. Because one of his handouts included excerpts from the Declaration of Independence making reference to God, the ADF's press release about the case was headlined "Declaration of Independence Banned from Classroom". Fox News and other conservative outlets gave heavy play to that distorted version of the story. Alan Keyes also repeated ADF's spin:

"Someone was mentioning to me that there is a school district now in America where they will no longer teach the Declaration of Independence to the students. Why? Because it mentions God. ...Now we’re being told that on account of some doctrine that has been promulgated by the courts, it is now unconstitutional to teach our children about the Declaration."

The truth, as pointed out in an answering press release from the school district, was that "The Declaration of Independence, sections of the United States Constitution, and other historical documents are re-printed in our textbooks, displayed in some of our school buildings, and taught in our social studies curriculum and lessons."

Alan Keyes also believes that Gay adoptions promote incest [5:40]:

Christian Action Network

Founder: Martin Mawyer, longtime editor of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority Report

In his "dirty and dangerous" battle against "militant homosexual groups," Mawyer has not held back. In 1997, after Ellen Degeneres came out as a lesbian on her TV sitcom, Mawyer accused her of

"DUMPING HER FILTHY LESBIAN LIFESTYLE RIGHT IN THE CENTER OF YOUR LIVING ROOM!! ... If we allow the tidal wave of gay and lesbian smut to continue to pour into our homes, it will utterly consume us in no time at all!"

In 1999, he asked the Federal Communications Commission to put an "HC [homosexual conduct] warning label" on TV programs with gay characters.

The following year, CAN caused a national stir when TV stations refused to air its inflammatory ad attacking Hillary Clinton, who was then running for U.S. Senate.

"It is rumored that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian. It is rumored that Hillary Clinton supported homosexual marriage. It is rumored that Hillary Clinton will leave her husband upon taking office. ... Sometimes, rumors are true. Shouldn't you know the truth? For more information on traditional family values, please contact the Christian Action Network."

More recently, CAN protested "Gay Days" at Disney World and other theme parks — events that Mawyer's wife and CAN partner, Bonnie, says demonstrate "the true intent of these homosexuals: they are after our children!!"

A 2000 Mawyer mailing incorporated militia-like paranoia:

"I am not ready to give this great nation over to one-world government extremists ... radical, disease-carrying homosexuals ... anti-family lesbian feminists ... or anti-American U.N. globalists!"

CAN activists today are familiar faces at Gay Days, videotaping "bad behavior."

In 2003, CAN turned its footage of "homosexual kissing, hugging and fondling" into a video tour of the Southeast, warning parents about the perils of Gay Days and warning that "homosexuals live in a pattern of sin and debauchery."

Christian Street Preachers Alliance:

Founder: Jim Rudd also publisher of “The Covenant News.” The Christian Street Preachers Alliance also known simply as The Christian Alliance and is considered the heir to the Christian Coalition. Jim Rudd has published numerous articles seeking our government to make homosexuality a capitol offence. Below are exerpts from just two of his articles.

Homosexuality Is A Crime By Jim Rudd The Covenant News ~ December 9, 2008 When ministering to homosexuals, one of the first things we let them know is that there is no such thing as a right to commit sodomy...... Homosexuality is a crime (Lev. 20:13), and for Christians to publicly refer to this criminal activity as "gay" or as a "life style" is an anti-Biblical presupposition that suggests to the public, and to our civil officials, that the laws against sodomy can be ignored. To ignore what God says is to mock God, and for Christians to suggest that it is permissible for civil officials to ignore the Commandments of God is iniquity -- anomia -- Greek for lawlessness (Matt. 7:23). Homosexuality is not a light or transient crime. It is an abomination (Lev. 18:22). It is the culmination of man's apostasy and hostility toward God and His Church (Rom. 1:18-32). For civil officials and judges to approve of homosexuality brings eternal damnation upon themselves (Rom. 13:2) and God's righteous judgment of death on the society as a whole (Gen. 19:24, II Pet. 2:6)...... Not only should Christian men fight for the safety of their families by demanding that these civil officials repent, or resign from office immediately, Christians should be demanding the strongest laws and punishments against homosexuality be put into effect so as to cleanse the pestilence from our society. (Lev. 20:13)

Again, in Rudd's article: Put Homosexuals To The Sword - By Jim Rudd - The Covenant News ~ June 7, 2006

America is a cursed nation (John.7:49) and "defending marriage" does nothing to cut off the curse. The marriage amendment does nothing to protect the people of the United States from the wrath to come-because of homosexuality. The word of God commands that sodomites are to be executed, and God gives our civil officials the sword to do the job. Until our civil officials turn from their wicked way by administering Justice, we can only be judged with the most depraved pagan nations in history: "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude 1:7). If you hate your children's guts, then do not teach them how to administer Justice in the land (Eph.6:4). Just sit back and let the lawless be damned (Matt.7:21-23)

There are a number of commentators on The Covenant News including Chuck Baldwin, Baldwin is the American founder-pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida, and was the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election.

Concerned Women for America

Founder: Beverly LaHaye, wife of Christian Reconstructionist Tim LaHaye, author of Left Behind series.

Concerned Women for America thinks college health clinics shouldn’t provide contraceptives and that young women should marry early and make “their husband and children their priority.” The organization promotes the idea that people can be de-gayed through belief in Jesus and that hate crime laws “threaten religious freedom”. LaHaye’s activism is centered on making the American legal system more directly based on a fundamentalist reading of Christian ideology. She encourages women to be strong and courageous, but only in a manner consistent with their God-ordained roles as wives and mothers.

Beverly LaHaye pins blame for the "radical crusade" on gay people. In 1992, LaHaye said gay activists "go after boys by becoming teachers and Boy Scout leaders." In 1998, CWA called homosexuals "people who make lewd phone calls, expose themselves to others, and engage in prostitution." (Who knew? I thought it was heterosexuals who do that.)

In 2001, LaHaye hired two of America's most prominent anti-gay propagandists, Robert Knight and Peter LaBarbera, to launch CWA's Culture and Family Institute. LaBarbera, a former Washington Times reporter and editor of an inflammatory anti-gay journal called The Lambda Report on Homosexual Activism, had earlier been thrown out of the American Psychological Association due to his faulty "science." He also produced CWA's 11 Ways You Can Fight the Homosexual Agenda manual. Peter LaBarbera has moved on to the "bigger and better thing of attending gay leather events."

Knight, produces reports like "Sexual Orientation and American Culture," which warns that accepting "sexual orientation as a civil right" will lead to "a loss of stability in communities, with a rise in crime, sexually transmitted diseases and other social pathologies."

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, CWA accused same-sex partners of those killed of "trying to hijack the moral capital of marriage." In 2004, CWA raised a ruckus over a gay Canadian couple that wanted to visit the U.S. together, calling the men "a new threat to border security" and "the latest pair of 'domestic terrorists.'"

Coral Ridge Ministries/Center for Reclaiming America:

Founder: D. James Kennedy

Below taken from Souther Poverty Law Center:

Beginning in the early 1960s, the Rev. D. James Kennedy turned conservative Coral Ridge Presbyterian into a mega-church that now claims 10,000 members. In 1974, Kennedy branched out with Coral Ridge Ministries, which has since become one of the largest fundamentalist enterprises in America with some 160 employees, several divisions including a Washington-based Center for Christian Statesmanship, and radio and television studios producing shows that reach a combined weekly audience of 3 million.

In his book Stranger at the Gate, evangelical minister Mel White (see A Thorn in Their Side), who produced a popular film for Kennedy called "Like a Mighty Army," says Coral Ridge "practically funded its television outreach on ... disgusting, inflammatory antigay propaganda."

In one typical newsletter, Kennedy published a photograph of two sweet-looking children under a headline reading, "Sex with Children? Homosexuals Say Yes!" Elsewhere, he has written that "homosexuals prey on adolescent boys" and "take America's children."

After Kennedy cited bogus claims about AIDS transmission, U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, himself a conservative evangelical, attacked his statement as "reprehensible" and "homophobic." "I just cannot believe the poor scholarship of so many Christians," Koop said, adding that Kennedy refused his subsequent offer of a briefing on the facts of AIDS transmission.

Kennedy denies that he subscribes to the extremist ideology of Christian Reconstructionism, which calls for killing "practicing homosexuals," but he is tied closely to leading Reconstructionists.

Kennedy has described the works of Reconstructionism founder R.J. Rushdoony, which are laced with anti-black racism and anti-gay vitriol, as "essential." His ministry has sold a book by leading Reconstructionist George Grant that laments the abandonment of legal codes prescribing death for homosexuals.

And he certainly holds theocratic views closely related to Reconstructionism, as reflected in the name he chose for Coral Ridge's political outreach arm: the Center for Reclaiming America (CRA). Since its founding in 1996, the CRA has brought together fundamentalist groups in campaigns like "Truth in Love," a million-dollar 1998 ad campaign that promoted "ex-gay" ministries offering discredited methods of "curing" homosexuals.

CRA sponsors an annual conference, Reclaiming America for Christ, that has featured leading Reconstructionists like Grant (who is also a former Coral Ridge vice president) and Gary DeMar (see American Vision), along with anti-gay stalwarts like Robert Knight (see Concerned Women of America).

Coral Ridge also has been a generous supporter of deposed Alabama Chief Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, the "Ten Commandments Judge" who in a 2002 "special concurrence" court opinion suggested that the state could impose "physical penalties, such as confinement and even execution" to protect children from gays and lesbians.

Moore's new Alabama outfit, the Foundation for Moral Law, is being partly bankrolled by Coral Ridge.

There are many more in The Anti-Gay Industry, most have been blogged about extensively here on Pam's House Blend, such as

American's for the Truth About Homosexuality Founder: Peter Labarbera

Oklahoma Representative, Sally Kern and her husband Steve Kern

And then there is of course James Dobson who founded Focus on the Family According to SPLC, No one has spread the anti-gay gospel as widely, or with as much political impact, as James Dobson, the former child development professor and spanking enthusiast who founded Focus on the Family (FOF) in 1977.

Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council "Perkins doesn’t just represent a minority of radical right-wing religious conservatives. He also represents a trend of anti-intellectual propaganda perpetuated by organizations pretending to have religious principles but ultimately end up falling in line with Republicans on fiscal issues as well as social ones. Perkins’ outlook promotes bad public policy and pushes the economic and social disparities further apart."

Paul Cameron - debunked "scientist" Cameron is a researcher who was dismissed from the American Psychological Association in 1984 after it was discovered that he was misrepresenting the work of his colleagues to demonize the gay community.

Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) is a small but influential organization that appears to consist mostly of the Rev. Lou Sheldon and his daughter Andrea Sheldon Lafferty. Both are mainstays on the conservative circuit, though their reputation has been damaged by revelations that Lou Sheldon took money from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to help kill an anti-gambling bill that would have hurt one of Abramoff's clients.

They all spew the same hate, day after day, it gets quoted in newspapers, blogs, on network and cable news shows. Their representatives get interviewed on talk shows. Can you imagine the KKK or Joe McCarthy getting interviewed as much today? They aren't experts or scientists and I wonder how they get away with being called Christians.

I think we shouldn't just be sending this stuff to our legislators, both federal and state, but we should be sending it to the MSM, and blogging about it like crazy. Not just the "family values" pieces, but the literature right off their sites. We should be asking everyone, "why are we listening to these people?" They are causing families to be broken when they influence parents to throw out their LGBT children, they encourage hate crimes with their preaching, they are causing suicides through the perpetuation of Ex-Gay therapy, and their real agenda is our criminalization and executions.

Why do WE still listen to them? Why don't we expose their agenda and just shut them up?

Thanks to Southern Poverty Law Center, Wikipedia, Right Wing Watch, Ex-Gay Watch, and The Radical Religious Right for giving me all kinds of information. And I want to thank the Anti-Gay Industry for unashamedly publishing their agenda.
Cross Posted as Part II of What We Can Learn From Joe McCarthy: Fighting the Anti-Gay Industry on Pam's House Blend

Lurleen's answer to the false statements regarding Washington State's SSB 5688

2009-03-26T14:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday one of the Blenders at Pam's House Blend posted this diary directly answering the distortions of those who seek to deny Domestic Partnerships to couples in that state. I felt it wonderfully shows how they twist their facts and outright lie to continue the discrimination against LGBTQ:
Let us Examine the Lies and Distortions, One by One
by: Lurleen
Wed Mar 25, 2009 On Pam's House Blend
On Monday, March 23rd, the Washington State House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on SSB 5688, the Domestic Partnership Expansion Bill of 2009.

Not surprisingly, delegates from The Washington Hate Coalition repeated their same tired lies and distortions. As I listened to their testimony, I decided that we need to produce a sheet of concise responses to these lies, because we all know that they will keep repeating them until people accept them as the unquestioned truth. Below is my transcript of the testimony of the two main Hate Coalition members to testify. I have numbered their statements to facilitate our responses. My responses are embedded within the transcript and are in green typeface. I look forward to your comments.

1.Um, of course same-sex couples are not the only deviation from marriage as we have always defined it in this state, and I have yet to hear articulated any reason why any other relationship involving loving consenting adults, ah relationships that are not currently recognized by the State of Washington should be excluded if we uh begin to extend marriage-like benefits in every respect. Um as I'm sure most of you are aware, ah relationships involving close relatives, ah people who are already married and minors are also not recognized by the state of Washington.

This is the old "slippery slope" argument. To the extent there is a slippery slope, it was created by heterosexuals when they decided to reserve special legal rights for only their families in a country whose Constitution guarantees equal protection of the laws and due process.

For the rest of the story, Click Here: Pam's House Blend

As suggested on The Blend, if you do something similar that is targeted at legislators in your state, make a nice print-out and mail it to them.

A Battle Hymn for Equality

2009-03-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

By D. Allan Kerr

Published March 18, 2009
Seacoastonline.com
Reprinted in full by the gracious permission of the author.

There’s a segment of our society which would suggest homosexuals are my enemy; this same segment tells homosexuals I do not believe in their cause. These are individuals who believe other people should be prevented from exercising the same rights they themselves enjoy – even if these other people pay their taxes, contribute to society, and obey the laws of the land.

A bill recently introduced into the Maine legislature would allow residents to marry someone of the same sex, presumably if they are both consenting adults. Now those supporting and opposing the measure are each marshalling their forces for battle in the months ahead – the battle for your heart, your mind and your vote. Both sides will claim to speak for the majority, but in the end you will most likely have the opportunity to speak for yourself.

I have nothing to gain from this proposal. I am euphorically heterosexual, married to a partner who is quite literally the woman of my dreams. We have three strong sons and a little girl with the twinkling face of an angel, who will celebrate her first birthday this very weekend.

Our life is pretty good now, although we’re struggling through the economy like most people. If this gay marriage bill is defeated, our life will probably remain unchanged.

If the bill passes, our life will probably remain unchanged – despite what some might suggest. So truth be told, none of this is any of our business.

Except for this:

If we stand by while friends and neighbors are denied a basic human right, I don’t know how we would be any different from good German citizens who looked the other way while Nazi thugs persecuted those who didn’t fit the ideal of a "master race." We would be no less ignoble than those who stood by while black citizens were denied the dignity allotted to their white neighbors, or those who remained silent while individuals suspected of supporting a Communist ideology were deprived of their livelihoods.

Is it unfair to compare the prohibition of gay marriage to the destruction of six million Jews? Maybe. But see, I can’t really say for sure because I’ve never been forbidden to marry the person of my choosing. In fact, as a straight, white, middle-class Anglo-American Protestant male I’ve NEVER been made to feel I was one iota less than everyone else around me. But you know what? I’m pretty sure it sucks.

I don’t imagine it’s encouraging when people try to portray you as some sort of subspecies which shouldn’t be allowed to marry, adopt, teach children or serve in uniform. I can confirm, however, how maddening it is to hear these critics attempt a position of superiority over people who surpass them in compassion, articulation, generosity and intelligence.

Because I am a family man, these opponents will try to impale a wedge between me and the gay community. They will try to convince me that two women marrying each other will somehow destroy or undermine what my wife and I have built. I value the institution of the family above all else, and will defend it with word, pen, fist or stone. So what I say now I don’t say lightly – if my household cannot withstand the legal marriage of two people belonging to the same sex, it deserves to crumble.

Fortunately, our foundation is much too strong for that. Suggesting that the American family unit will disintegrate upon the legalization of gay marriage is disingenuous fear-mongering manufactured for the ignorant and the weak. It is a crock. And it could succeed.

Opponents will say gay couples shouldn’t marry because God does not want them to. Although our laws prohibit the imposition of one’s religious beliefs over others, they will use the arguments of their church to try to strike down the efforts of those who do not share those beliefs. Never mind that clergy members in Maine have formed a group in support of the bill (the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry) and are already campaigning for support among the state’s lawmakers. Or that clergymen like my father, a retired United Methodist minister, would happily preside over gay weddings.

Never mind that professing to know for a certainty the will of God is the ultimate arrogance.

Opponents will say the Founding Fathers provided no allowance for marriage of citizens of the same sex and therefore its prohibition is not a violation of civil rights. But the Declaration of Independence, the most celebrated document of our short history, insists that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." No one among us today has the moral authority to deny a fellow citizen of these rights.

Again, to assume otherwise is a supreme arrogance.

The bill was introduced by state Sen. Dennis Damon of Trenton, but one of the co-sponsors is Sen. Peter Bowman, who represents southern York County. Bowman is a retired Navy captain and former Portsmouth Naval Shipyard commander. I can tell you for a fact that the U.S. military is not historically encouraging of the homosexual lifestyle, but Bowman has been quoted as saying support of gay marriage is "the only fair thing to do."

Bowman told this newspaper he believes homosexuality is "hard-wired" into certain people and our society needs to honor that. I lack the scientific background to assert whether the gay lifestyle is a matter of personal choice or genetic construction, and I don’t really care. The actions of consenting adults who do not seek to harm others in any way should be of no concern to anyone else.

During the November election, gay rights proponents gathered signatures from voters approving same-sex marriage. They hoped for 10,000 names and wound up with 33,000. Now there are those who say even if the bill passes in the legislature the matter could be put to a referendum in November.

If that happens, all of us living in Maine can make our voices heard loud and strong, and we can make it clear that we will not stand for discrimination against fellow Americans in the 21st century.

According to Seacostonline, D. Allan Kerr is a struggling novelist and former newspaper reporter who now spends his days wrestling with lobsters. They need to add "A Noble Man" to this bio......

Some Answers.....

2009-03-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

An Answer To: Why Must They Flaunt Their Sexuality?

This is the same as saying to my husband that he can’t hold my hand in public because we will be flaunting our heterosexuality. What an absurd thing to say. Of course we can hold hands in public. Why not, we are a couple in love. So why can’t my gay boys walk hand in hand with someone they love. Because society doesn’t like it. But the only way this will change is for it to happen and people get used to it. Gay people are not doing anything we heterosexuals don’t do. They are being themselves. Showing and receiving affection from someone you love is very important for our well being.

In fact many gay people are more likely not to show affection in public because of the negativity that it may bring.....This may look like flaunting but again it’s just being themselves.

From Gay Family Support.com

This is an example of what Blogging For Truth looks like........

More information about Blogging For Truth.

2009-03-17T18:41:00.000-07:00

Dear LLnL, In answer to your comment, here is the scoop on Blogging For Truth, May 25-31, 2009:
During the week of May 25th through the 31st, all you have to do is write one, or more articles using information that shows how untruthful the Anti Gay industry is in their efforts to deny LGBTQ people their rights, such as, but not exclusively, marriage protections or protection under the hate crimes laws. As well as to offer personal stories as to how we are affected by the hate filled rhetoric of these organizations.

The Anti Gay Industry is real, they receive their donations (and their salaries) by spreading lies and fear about the LGBTQ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Queer) The idea is that they have had 30+ years relatively unchallenged, instilling false facts into the American public's mind. They have almost exclusively used the widely debunked "science" of a Mr. Paul Cameron, if you click on his name, you can find the Wikipedia page on this man.
Additional resources can be found at Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation on Paul Cameron's claims.

My motivation in this? I have always had a deep seated belief, that humans deserve to be treated with dignity and respect even when sides disagree. I believe that even if you are .001% of the population in the United States, or anywhere else in the world, you deserve every human right afforded to you by simply being born. The only way these rights can be taken from you is if you voluntarily give them up by committing a crime against another human being.
My hope is that if we can get enough bloggers, blogging more facts, pointing out the hypocrisy of these groups, then maybe more people will question what they say, and think about the human rights aspect of things like "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" the Defense of Marriage Act, the anti-marriage amendments, and the anti adoption amendments.

The couple of quotes on the left show the real agenda of the Anti-Gay Industry. It isn't to protect your children, it isn't even because the Bible tells them homosexuality deserves death, although a number of those in the Anti-Gay Industry have called for just that. Most wish, like Mr. Card says that LGBTQ would just go back into the closet, mostly to stop making them uncomfortable. Some, like Mr. Dobson would like to have homosexuality re-criminalized so that we may be sentenced to "Ex-Gay" camps such as Exodus, or once more subjected to elecro-shock treatments to "cure" us.

As quoted from Religious Tolerance: "A study in 2001 found that Only 34% of born again Christians favored legalization of same-sex activities. Most feel that sexually active homosexuals should be imprisoned. We suspect that approximately the same percentage of conservatives from other religions -- Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, etc. -- would probably agree."

Blogging For Truth

2009-03-08T01:20:00.001-08:00

"Beginning May 25 through the 31st, 2009 LGBTQ bloggers and all allies are invited to write articles about the truth of our existence and lives. To blog facts and the results of real scientific studies carried out by real scientists.
For over 30 years there have been organizations dedicated to spreading lies and false studies about our lives, our loves and our persons. These same organizations in the United States now seek to remove all rights and privileges afforded us as American Citizens, they ultimately seek to re-criminalize our love and our existence. In other parts of the world our brothers and sisters face prison, torture and even death for being "sexual deviants."
We believe it is time to shine the light on these false witnesses. It is time to end the hate."
Let me know if you wish to participate by leaving your URL/Blog address at the bottom of this post in the comment section, I will then add your link to the blog roll on the left. If you DO NOT HAVE A BLOG, let me know that too, and you can be an author of this blog and post on here.

Resources:
Here are some of what the Anti-Gay industry says:

"They're destroying the moral fibre of our country"
"They want special rights"
"They need to recruit in order to increase their number"
"They want to influence children and other people to become homosexual"
"They are a feature of a decadent society"
"They are against the family, against family values"
"The family is the fundamental building block of society"
"They are responsible for AIDS"
"None of them really has a faithful relationship."
"What they do is disgusting."
"They want to shove their sex lives in our faces."
And probably the single most hurtful lie: "They are child molesters."

More blame out of the Uganda Conference:

Gays blamed for the rise of Nazism in Germany. A book, The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, claims that Nazi movement was, at its core, a homosexual movement. Despite the historical record to the contrary, the author Lively blames gays for the rise of Nazism and for the Holocaust itself, and claims that “the connection between homosexualism and fascism is not incidental.”
Gays blamed for the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. In The Pink Swastika, Lively claims that “homosexuals are responsible for 68% of all mass murders in America.” In Uganda he recently extended that charge by blaming gay men for the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, which borders Uganda just to the south.
Parents blamed for their children’s homosexuality. Don Schmierer presented his contradictory list of fourteen “signs that an adolescent may be struggling with gender issues.” But his focus appeared to have been on one suggested cause: it’s the parent’s fault. He reportedly told participants that one of the biggest causes of homosexuality is the lack of “good upbringing” in families. In other words, good parents make straight children; bad parents, gay children.

Below are profiles of a dozen of today's most influential anti-gay groups. Groups designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center are marked with an asterisk. The link will take you to the SPLC's descriptions of each.

Alliance Defense Fund
American Family Association
American Vision*
Chalcedon Foundation*
Christian Action Network
Concerned Women for America
Coral Ridge Ministries/Center for Reclaiming America
Family Research Council
Family Research Institute*
Focus on the Family
Summit Ministries
Traditional Values Coalition

Links to other Anti-LGBTQ sites:
American's for truth about homosexuality
Where my title idea came from.....Because "The Peter" AKA Peter LaBarbera, is so eloquent: At AFTAH, we preach Christian mercy and have denounced Talibanesque capital punishment for homosexuals in countries like Iran. But we also believe that if states and localities here in America (and governments abroad) wish to ban sodomy, they have every right to do so — notwithstanding polemical U.S. Supreme Court decisions inventing newfangled “constitutional rights” and influenced by inaccurate homosexual activist amicus briefs.
The Truth Sets You Free

Sites dedicated to the truth: (feel free to make suggestions in the comments of great sites to add)
HRC's END THE LIES WALL
GLSEN 2007 School Climate Report
Equality Federation Links Page
SoulForce
Ex-Gay Watch
Homophobia The Fear Behind the Hatred
Religious Tolerance
A Letter to Louise
Queers United
G-A-Y Good As You
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
PFLAG
Family Equality Council

Feel free to download and use these badges. Or you can use the direct link listed below each one.