Bigots and Haters at FOTF Send Out Action Alert on Hate Crimes

As I have noted countless times, part of me is always amazed - but not surprised - at the lengths to which the professional Christians will go in knowingly disseminating lies and total untruths about LGBT Americans and any legislation which would give us legal rights or protections enjoyed by other citizens. It's as if the Commandment against lying and bearing false witness simply did not exist. The willingness of these people to lie with impunity is what to me shows their utter moral bankruptcy and hypocrisy. Among the most disingenuous liars is James Dobson and his henchmen at Focus on the Family who are in near hysteria over the House of Representative's passage of the Matthew Shepard Act. Consistent with their past lies, FOTF is sending out the following action alert:

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The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote soon on legislation that would create a new class of crimes based on the traits of the victim, including "sexual orientation" and "gender identity."

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Under "hate-crimes" laws like S.909, pastors could be prosecuted for preaching the biblical view of homosexuality. Similar laws have been used to prosecute religious speech in the U.S. at the state level and abroad.Please tell your senators that every human being deserves to be equally protected. Ask them to oppose S.909.

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Dobson's equally dishonest ally, Janet Folger Porter, has equally outrageous and untrue statements over at Wingnut Net Daily where she about blows a gasket while venting. Here's a sampling of Folger-Porter's lies:

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I've written extensively about how this bill would criminalize Christianity and turn those who disagree with the homosexual agenda into felons, but criminalizing Christianity is just the beginning of what this bill would do. It would also elevate pedophiles as a special protected class – since the term "sexual orientation," which has been added to the "hate crimes" legislation, includes them in the American Psychiatric Association's definition of various "sexual orientations" (30 of these APA "sexual orientations" are listed in a fact sheet provided by the Traditional Values Coalition).

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If a mother hears that their child has been raped and she slaps the assailant with her purse, she is now gone after as a hate criminal because this is a protected class. There are other protected classes in here. I mean simple exhibitionism. I have female friends who have told me over the years that some guy flashed them, and their immediate reaction was to hit them with their purse. Well now, he's committed a misdemeanor, [and] she has committed a federal hate crime because the exhibitionism is protected under sexual orientation.

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Of course, the claim that pastors or a mother in the quoted example could be prosecuted is totally untrue, but when have Dobson, Folger-Porter ever let the truth get in the way of their anti-gay, pro-theocracy agenda (personally, I believe God has a special place in Hell for Dobson and Ms. Porter and those like them who have made a career out of marketing hatred of others). Autumn Sandeen at Pam's House Blend - who I had the pleasure of meeting at the Blogger Summit last December - has some great commentary on Daddy D and his fellow haters:

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There is a paragraph in it that angered me immensely: "There is no evidence of an epidemic of sexual-orientation 'hate crimes' in this country," said Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst at Focus on the Family Action. "So, what's the real reason for this bill? Gay activists want to silence those who speak out against homosexuality."

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Well, Ashley Horne, federal hate crime legislation isn't about wanting to "...silence those who speak out against homosexuality," unless it's speech connected to violent crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, with the victims over these violent crimes selected specifically because the victim is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.

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"So, what's the real reason that Ashley Horne of Focus On The Family and her conservative 'Christian' cohorts? Conservative 'Christians' like Ashley Horne want to protect the 'free speech' of convicted killers like Allen Ray Andrade. They want people like Andrade to be able to safely terrorize lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual people with their bias motivated, violent crimes, with 'free speech' statements connected to the violent crimes, such as Andrade's 'Gay things must die' and 'It's not like I went up to a schoolteacher and shot her in the head or ... killed a law-abiding straight citizen.'"

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I increasingly see the Christianists like Dobson and Folger-Porter as a cancer on society that seeks to poison hearts and minds with hate driven viciousness against those who are different or who refuse to live by the perverted religious beliefs of Christianist nutcases. They are NOT nice or good people and the sooner the larger public realizes this the better off we will be as a nation