New Hampshire GOP Llawmaker Calls Catholic Bishop "Pedophile Pimp"

Click on image to enlarge.
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LOL! This is too funny! Typically, Republican elected officials engage in the equivalent of political fellatio when it comes to pandering to anti-gay hate groups and child rapist protecting members of the Catholic Church hierarchy. Never mind that many of the "princes of the Church" ought to be behind bars for obstruction of justice and covering up crimes against children and youths. Apparently, Rep. D.J. Bettencourt, the Republican leader of the New Hampshire House did not get the GOP memo on pandering. On Friday on his Facebook page (a screen shot is above via the Concord Monitor), Bettencourt called Roman Catholic Bishop John McCormack a “pedophile pimp” who should have been led from the Statehouse in handcuffs. Here's what Bettencourt said:

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“Bishop John McCormick (sic) of the Catholic Diocese of NH told the crowd, ‘It’s a moral concern (because) the vulnerable take priority in our society.’ Would the Bishop like to discuss his history of protecting the “vulnerable”? This man is a pedophile pimp who should have been led away from the State House in handcuffs with a rain coat over his head in disgrace. He has absolutely no moral credibility to lecture anyone.”

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As both the Concord Monitor and the Youngstown News report, before being named bishop of Manchester in 1998, Bishop McCormack was a top aide to Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston - where the Catholic sex-abuse scandal first exploded in the USA - where McCormack was in charge of investigating sexual-misconduct allegations. We all know what kind of job McCormack did and it certainly did not involve giving a damn about the safety of children and youths.

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Here's this from the Youngstown News as to how McCormack avoided having his disgust ass hit with criminal charges:
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In 2002, McCormack averted criminal charges against the New Hampshire diocese by agreeing that it had harmed children by moving abusive priests from parish to parish.

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The Concord Monitor also has this:
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“Bishop McCormack was assigned, when he worked under Cardinal Law, reassigning priests who they had knowledge were sexually abusing children,” Bettencourt said. “What he did is he shuffled them from church to church, knowing that they had this history.”

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Kudos to Bettencourt. Would that there were more Catholics and Republicans who were willing to speak the truth about the Church hierarchy.

More Saturday Male

Memorial Scholarship In Memory of My Parents.

The last five and one half years have been a financial Hell for me beginning with being forced from a larger local law firm for being gay, followed by a divorce from Hell where an anti-gay judge - who actually note that being gay was a "choice" - stripped me of pretty much everything I owned, and finally ended with me being forced into bankruptcy because of the former happenings. With the loss of my mother earlier in the year, I will soon - hopefully within a week or two - come into enough of an inheritance to clear up the last of the debts plaguing me and pay off in full amounts owed to my former wife under the divorce decree and finish repaying loans made to me by the boyfriend without whom I would not have survived in more ways than purely financially. It will also allow me to do something to permanently honor the memory of my parents (pictured at right on their wedding day): establishing a scholarship fund in their names. The scholarship will benefit graduating LGBT high school students in Virginia seeking to continue their education at a college or university.
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I am working with the Hampton Roads Community Foundation which will manage investing the scholarship fund (HRCF currently administers 55 scholarship funds) and the application administrative process. I hope to promote additional future contributions to the scholarship fund through HRBOR (HRBOR's name will also be attached to the scholarship) and other organizations as a tax deductible charitable vehicle to provide assistance to LGBT youth who often face difficulties in backward states like Virginia and who may have lost family support because of their sexual orientation. With the support of others, it is my hope than the scholarship can grow to eventually serve multiple students each year in perpetuity.
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Education was always important to both of my parents and played a role in the lives of myself and my siblings. As I have written about in the past, both immediately and unwaveringly supported me when I came out my often turbulent coming out journey. With this scholarship perhaps it will be a vehicle for youth who were not as lucky as I was in terms of parental acceptance.
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The HRBOR - Hampton Roads Business OutReach - name will also be attached because founding HRBOR has been a labor of love and did much to replace the supposed circle of "friends" who largely abandoned me when I came out nearly a decade ago. Attaching the HRBOR name will also underscore that members of the LGBT business community - even in generally reactionary areas such as Hampton Roads - can and do make a difference and improve the community, one of HRBOR's goals.
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Once the scholarship is fully in place - the first award should be in May/June, 2012 - I will do a follow up post with details and how tax-deductible contributions can be made to the fund.

The Next America - Is the GOP Committing Long Term Suicide?

Today's Republican Party is largely defined by two things: (1) religious extremism as exemplified by the party's anti-gay jihad, and (2) racism and anti-immigrant and anti-minority bigotry. No one within the GOP seems to be noticing that long term, these twin pillars of the party are a recipe for political suicide. The younger generations are increasingly turned off by the religious bigotry of the Christianist base of the GOP and population increases are surging in the demographic groups that the GOP and Tea Party love to demonize. The days when this will be a strategy to win national elections are thankfully waning. An article in the National Journal looks at the phenomenon and the analysis ought to be troubling to rational Republicans, admittedly a vanishing breed in a party where objective reality matters less and less. Here are some highlights:
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The next America is arriving ahead of schedule. And it could rattle assumptions about the coming presidential election. Last week’s release of national totals from the 2010 census showed that the minority share of the population increased over the past decade in every state, reaching levels higher than demographers anticipated almost everywhere, and in the nation as a whole. If President Obama and Democrats can convert that growth into new voters in 2012, they can get a critical boost in many of the most hotly contested states and also seriously compete for some highly diverse states such as Arizona and Georgia that until now have been reliably red.
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Even as the growing minority population creates new opportunities for Democrats, however, the party faces persistent challenges within the majority-white community. In November’s midterm elections, Republicans won 60 percent of white voters—the highest share of whites they have attracted in any congressional election in the history of modern polling.
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These twin dynamics suggest that in many states the key question for 2012 may be whether Republicans can increase their advantage among whites enough to overcome what’s likely to be a growing share of the overall vote cast by minorities, who still break preponderantly for Democrats. In Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Virginia, and other key states that have experienced substantial minority growth, a National Journal analysis shows that Obama can win next year with a stunningly small percentage of the white vote—if Democrats can translate the minority-population growth into commensurate increases in the electorate.
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[I]n more racially diverse states, NJ’s analysis suggests, Republicans may need to win an implausibly high percentage of whites to prevail, unless they can also reduce Obama’s advantage among minorities.
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In releasing its final 2010 national results last week, the Census Bureau sent Americans a postcard from the future. From every angle, the results showed that the nation’s transformation into a “majority-minority” nation is proceeding even faster than expected. Nationally, the overall share of the non-Hispanic white population dropped from 69.1 percent in 2000 to 63.7 in 2010, a greater decline than most analysts anticipated. In a mirror image, the minority population grew from 30.9 percent in 2000 to 36.3 percent in 2010. The change over the past decade was especially dramatic among young people. In the new census, 46.5 percent of people under 18 were minority, a dramatic jump from 39.1 percent in 2000.
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The census numbers are “telling us about our future,” Frey says. “I see this as a pivot decade. This decade what we’re seeing is, these Hispanics and Asians are really crucial to our country because they are juxtaposed against an aging white population.
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The increasingly nonwhite tilt of the youth population has profound implications for American politics into the distant horizon. The young, increasingly minority population is likely to view public investment in schools, health care, and infrastructure as critical to its economic prospects, while the predominantly white senior population might be increasingly reluctant to fund such services through taxes. The trends could portend a lasting structural conflict.
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If the minority share of the vote increases in 2012 by the same rate it has grown in presidential elections since 1992, it will rise to about 28 percent nationally. By itself, that could substantially alter the political playing field from 2010, when the minority vote share sagged to just 22 percent. It means that if Obama can maintain, or even come close to, the four-fifths share of minority votes that he won in 2008, he could win a majority of the national popular vote with even less than the 43 percent of whites he attracted last time.
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To win the presidency, Republicans must capture states that Obama won in 2008. And few GOP strategists would probably want to bet the White House solely on holding down Obama’s vote among whites to the levels the NJ analysis suggest might be required for the GOP to retake enough of those states to reassemble an Electoral College majority. So even if Obama’s support slips among whites, Republicans will face a tough uphill climb if they cannot capture more minority votes.
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Given Latinos’ growing electoral importance and the GOP’s sharp right turn on immigration issues, some senior Democrats privately say they would not be surprised if Republicans try to solve their challenge in a single stroke by picking a Hispanic vice presidential nominee in 2012.

Saturday Male Beauty

Stand Up! - Don't Stand for Homophobic Bullying

BeLonG To Youth Services, an Irish organization has launched a new video appeal as part of its annual Stand Up! LGBT Awareness Weeks which will be held 4 – 15 April 2011, and will take place in schools and youth services organizations around Ireland. The video clip -which is wonderfully done - is set out below. Can you imaging the convulsions and spittle that would be flying amongst the Christianists in this country if something so decent and refreshing were aired in our public schools?

Cry Baby Catholics -They Dish Out Lies But Cannot Deal With the Truth

Just like FRC pouts and shrieks like a petulant child when its called out for its lies and bigotry, Roman Catholics in the Miami archdiocese can dish it out, but they sure cannot take when someone dishes it back to them. Exhibit 1: corpulent anti-gay windbag Thomas Wenski, the Archbishop of Miami, who recently wrote a diatribe against gay marriage in the Sun Sentinel and his followers. Wenski said among other things the following:
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Those who see "same sex marriage" as progress towards a more "tolerant" society will, with characteristic intolerance, label their opponents as "intolerant," "bigoted," "homophobic" and so on. However, to defend marriage as a monogamous union between one man and one woman is not bigotry. Nor are the efforts of those who seek to enshrine in state or federal constitutions the "traditional" understanding of marriage intolerant.
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In our nation's culture wars, the two sides are fighting about the understanding of man and his relationship to truth and reality. One side — and today, "gay marriage" is its poster child — holds that anyone can essentially create his or her own reality. This side holds for a radical autonomy by which truth is determined not by the nature of things, but by one's own individual will. The other side holds men and women are not self-creators, but creatures. Truth is not constructed, but received and thus must reflect the reality of things. Or, as the Book of Genesis says: "Male and female, He (God) created them." (Genesis 1:27).
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Like most Christofascists, Wenski forgets that the government of this nation is a SECULAR government with a constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion for all citizens. That means that the days of the Inquisition imposing Catholic religious doctrine into the CIVIL laws is over. He also suffers from the revisionist history that pretends that marriage has always been in its heretofore current form in this country and elsewhere. This inconvenient reality seems to always be beyond the intellectual skills of the Christianists. In any event, Wenski's column prompted columnist Brandon Thorp to write a rebuttal in the Broward/Palm Beach New Times wherein he wrote among other things the following:
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Just to be clear, Archbishop Wenski believes that a virgin gave birth to a deity who was nailed to a piece of wood to save us from the wrath of his father; and who rose from the dead, floated in the air, and ascended through a magic portal to heaven. I mention this not to cast aspersions on Wenski's faith -- I'll do that in a moment -- but to underline what Wenski means when he asserts that it's his side of the culture wars that is concerned with the "reality of things," and the other side that is full of fantasists.
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A few brief responses:
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Wenski accusing the gay-marriage-crowd of intolerance is almost pure gibberish, akin to saying that blacks who opposed Jim Crow were intolerant of Southern whites, or that women who fight for wage equality are intolerant of sexist CEO's. Both statements are technically true, and both statements make useless hash of the word "tolerance." The argument would have some bite if gay activists were trying to force Catholic clergy to perform same-sex marriages, but they're not. Catholic clergy ought always be free to marry whomever they choose, and no one argues otherwise.
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Wenski's second point, that queers should be grateful that the world's decent folk aren't monitoring and punishing their bedroom activities, is even less sensible than his first. As it happens, queers are grateful for the strides that have been made towards equality, and our memories are long enough to remember who opposed those strides. Wenski seems to suggest that the outcome of the Supreme Court case which legalized consensual sodomy, Lawrence v. Texas, was an example of Catholic compassion and moral largesse. That's not the case. If Wenski and his co-religionists had their way, private, consensual homosexual acts would still be illegal.
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•It really could be said that the purpose of marriage is to create environments in which children may be healthily reared, and Wenski is more than welcome to his opinions about what such an environment might comprise. But the child-rearing argument is really a moral one, and its validity is inherently subjective. For example: Most heterosexual married couples -- including those for whom the Archbishop performed the nuptials -- would insist that their marriages are about a great deal more than child-rearing. And whose opinions are more trustworthy? Those of actual married couples, or those of an unmarried, self-proclaimed virgin?
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You'll note that Wenski implies, but doesn't quite say, that these monogamous, heterosexual marriages have been the norm in recorded history. Wenski doesn't quite say it because it's a lie. Wenski's own holy books document a long history of polygamy, most of which was approved by Wenski's god. The biblical David, the shepherd boy who felled Goliath and became king, had eight wives, and his nuptials predated those performed in Wenski's churches by several millenia. What could be more traditional?
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Wenski has a platform in the Sun Sentinel not because of his stature as a journalist, or as an essayist, or as an ethicist, but because he has risen to prominence in an organization which has institutionalized and then lied about the rape and torture of tens of thousands of children. To treat such a man as a moral authority is laughable. If he possessed any true moral authority, he'd have cut and run long ago -- or, at the very least, have the decency to use his Sun Sentinel platform not to pontificate, but to apologize.
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Thorp was on the mark on every point. However, the truth did not sit well with many of the sheeple in the local Catholic pews or Catholic media. No sir! They did not like hearing the truth. In fact, they went berserk and attacked Thorp as a "homosexual bigot" among other things. Historical fact can be ever so inconvenient and Thorp came back with a follow up editorial responding to his critics. Here are some additional highlights from the response:
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Both the Zuhlsdorf and the Peters article suggest I am an anti-Catholic bigot. Let me be clear: Of the various monotheisms currently mucking up the planet, Catholicism is one of the least odious, and I would happily debate theology with its adherents in a civil manner. But Archbishop Wenski was not arguing theology in his Saturday column. He was proposing that his sect's views of matrimony be adopted as public policy, affecting believers and nonbelievers alike. This is bullying, and it brings out my claws.
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More to the point: Peters ought to learn his history. He mocks the idea that the Catholic Church has condoned the burning of women and that Catholic missionaries have subjugated native populations. Incredibly, he even pokes fun at my assertion that the Bible contains deity-approved polygamy.
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Peters disregards my claim that the church bears responsibility for the burning of women with a flip reference to the "First Council of Salem." It's hard to believe he's serious. Pope Innocent VIII wasn't joshing when he wrote the Summis desiderantes in 1484, proclaiming a worldwide witchcraft epidemic. Since the issuance of that papal bull, there has seldom been a corner of the world in which Catholics haven't been burning "witches." The practice continues still.
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I hesitate to even link to this video, which documents a recent witch burning in Nyamataro, a village in the Catholic district of Kisii, Kenya. It's the most vile thing I've ever seen. Watch if you've the stomach, and then read this article, also from Kenya, in which Catholic clergy attempt to inflame the public's fear of witchcraft. This is murderous irresponsibility from men who claim to regularly stand in persona Christi.
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WARNING - The video is very disturbing. Sadly, it's a testament to the evils done in the name of religion and religiosity.

Family Research Council Continues to Play the Presecuted Victim Role

Few allegedly "Christian" and "family values" organizations spread more deliberate lies and strive harder than the folks at Family Research Council ("FRC") to denigrate LGBT citizens on virtually a daily basis. FRC mouth pieces, particularly its head man, Tony Perkins recite discredited data, twist and pervert legitimate data and manufacture outrageous lies that depict LGBT citizens as diseased, a threat to children - indeed a threat to western civilization itself. It was with good reason that the Southern Poverty Law Center ("SPLC") registered FRC as an anti-gay hate group. Interestingly enough, while whining incessantly about that designation, FRC has NEVER attempted to refute the basis on which the SPLC designation was made. The reason, of course, is obvious - the SPLC charges against FRC are true and cannot be rebutted. Nonetheless, FRC continues to disseminate missives to its Kool-Aid drinking followers whining and ranting about how the mean nasty gays are persecuting "godly Christians" like Tony Perkins. Never mind the fact that when Perkins' lips are moving his lying. Oh, and don't forget Perkins' racist ties. Here's a sampling of the batshitery going out to the sheep like followers:
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Human Rights Campaign (HRC) leader Joe Solmonese's called upon homosexual activists everywhere to wage war against Tony Perkins for writing that Christian compassion requires speaking the truth about homosexuality; then the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) asserted and continues to assert that FRC is a "hate group" because it publishes social science data with which some homosexual activists disagree. Now, Media Matters, according to its founder, David Brock, is waging an all-out campaign of "guerrilla warfare and sabotage" against FOX News and other conservative groups.

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May God defeat those who seek to hinder free speech and undermine legitimate, open discourse by using dirty tricks. May God's people prevail in prayer in the spiritual warfare behind today's unseemly debates. May the Truth be made manifest! (Neh 2:19-20; Ps 35:36-38; 91: all; Is 1:18-20; 54:17; Mt 10:19-28; Acts 4:20)

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Like Maggie Gallagher and similar professional Christians, Tony Perkins make the most tawdry whore look like a pillar of honesty and virtue. With the polls showing that the general public is increasingly supportive of LGBT rights, it looks like FRC's prayers are being answered and God is defeating FRC and its lying allies.

Friday Male Beauty

Mike Huckabee: A Clear and Present Danger

For those who may think I'm anti-religion because I try to point out the lies, hypocrisy and abject meanness and hate that are the predominant attributes of conservative Christianity, Bob Felton at Civil Commotion cuts the Christianists even less slack than I do. And generally rightly so. Like me, he sees the Christianists as a threat to America's constitutional form of government which was formed on Enlightenment principles, not Christianity. Indeed, should the Christianist like Mike Huckabee ever succeed in taking over the government - that is their true objective - the regime that would arise would be no less extreme than that of the Taliban at its height in Afghanistan. People need to really listen to what these Christianists are saying and not be fooled by the disingenuous efforts to hide behind patriotism and Americana images. In a post today, Bob looks at recent statements made by Huckabee that ought to scare the living Hell out of gays, Jews, non-Christians and anyone who doesn't want to live under a 12th century style theocracy. Here are highlights from Bob's post:
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Mike Huckabee, Holy Man and likely presidential candidate, shows his colors — and they ain’t the good ol’ Red, White, and Blue.
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I just wish that every single young person in America would be able to be under his tutelage and understand something about who we really are as a nation.
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I almost wish that there would be, like, a simultaneous telecast, and all Americans would be forced — forced at gunpoint no less — to listen to every David Barton message, and I think our country would be better for it. I wish it’d happen.
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David Barton is a copiously documented liar who teaches that America was founded as a Christian Nation, to glorify God, et cetera, et cetera.
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Huckabee is the same man, recall, who once complained that the Constitution needs to be brought into alignment with the Bible.
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You’ll never convince the Southern Baptists who are Huckabee’s natural constituency, or any of those other disaffected who think America’s big problem is a nigra moozlim in the White House, but these remarks bespeak a deeply anti-American outlook. This should surprise no one, for Christianity’s demand for “an allegiance that exceeds any earthly commitment” — on pain of eternal torment — precludes absolutely the Enlightenment ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

A Glimpse at the Mormon 'Gay Cure' Study to Take Away the Gay

While some of the worse physical abuse attributes (torture might not be a bad description) of the "ex-gay" ministries and "therapies" may be largely a thing of the past, the psychological and emotional abuses continue to this day with the Mormon Church, the Roman Catholic Church and certainly the Southern Baptist Convention regularly sending a message to often fragile youths that being gay is akin to murder and that being gay makes one "inherently disordered." Of course those who are evil and inherently disordered are those preaching the anti-gay message, but to many youths and even many adults fail to figure this out. Instead, their lives are plagued with self-loathing and all to often that the best solution is suicide since that's the only fool proof way to make one "ex-gay." ABC News has coverage on just how cruel such "cure" programs can be. The subject of the report is a Mormon program, but the sick and brutal practices were hardly confined to Mormon affiliated groups. And again, the psychological damage being inflicted on LGBT youth continues unabated not withstanding disingenuous statements such as those put out by the Vatican that LGBT individuals should be "treated with dignity." Here are some report highlights:

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John Cameron said he was a naive and devout Mormon who felt "out of sync" with the world, when he volunteered to be part of a study of "electric aversion therapy" in 1976 at Utah's Brigham Young University.
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Twice a week for six months, he jolted himself with painful shocks to the penis to rid himself of his attraction to men. "I kept trying to fight it, praying and fasting and abstaining and being the best person I could," said Cameron, now a 59-year-old playwright and head of the acting program at the University of Iowa.
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"I was never actively gay, never had any encounters with men -- never had moments when I failed and actually had sex with other men," he said. But his undercurrent of feelings put him in direct conflict with the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints (LDS) and its principles.
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"As teens we were taught that homosexuality was second only to murder in the eyes of God," he said.
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A mercury-filled tube was placed around the base of the penis and the students were shown alternating slides of men and women in various stages of undress. When participants responded to images of men with an erection, the closed electric circuit was broken and they received three-second electrical shocks at 10-second intervals. Each session lasted an hour. Participants set their own pain levels.
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Homosexuals were seen as a "prurient, expendable population," according to Cameron. "To admit homosexuality in 1976 was the kiss of death. You could be targeted, lose your job, lose your income, lose everything."
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And those weren't the only attempted cures that were used in that era. Others allege they were given chemical compounds, which were administered through an IV and caused subjects to vomit when they were stimulated. Psychologists confirm those harsh experiments were used in a variety of medical settings by scientists of all faiths.
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"They thought they were doing something to help me," he said of the experiment. "I can't fault them for that. But now that they are educated, now we know homosexuality is not a choice, people are born this way. The church doesn't still have to be threatened by homosexuality.
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Connell O'Donovan, who now works at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told ABCNews.com he was sent to BYU in 1976 for vomit therapy, but couldn't go through with it. BYU said its counseling services never conducted such treatment, but O'Donovan counters that he was evaluated by Joseph Smith Family Living Center, another service on campus.
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In 1986, he said he volunteered for "extremely debilitating hypnotherapy" through another Utah counseling center, He said a Mormon intern hypnotized him, splitting him into "Gay Connell" and "Straight Connell."
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"He then had me visualize Jesus coming down through the ceiling and utterly destroying Gay Connell to dust and then 'a mighty wind' blowing all the dust away," said O'Donovan. "This is the single most emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually crippling experience of my entire life." "Some 18 years later I am still healing from that traumatic "therapeutic" experience," he writes in a 2004 essay on his journey.
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Charles Silverstein, a clinical psychologist with New York City's Institute for Human Identity, said every psychiatric and mental health organization opposes aversion therapy.
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Silverstein was recently given the American Psychological Association Lifetime-Achievement Award for helping to remove "homosexuality" from the list of illnesses in psychiatry's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" in 1973.

"There is no treatment for homosexuality today in the professional community," said Silverstein. "All of them are on the record as saying that homosexuality is within the normal range of human behavior."
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Of his clinical patients over the years, he said those who were Mormon "suffered the most." David Melson, president of the advocacy group Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons, said anecdotal information suggests suicide rates among gay Mormons may be higher than in the general population.
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"It is very hard to track this sort of thing because family members, the church and well-intentioned hospital staffs will often tend to not report a death as a suicide," Melson said.
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It is obscene to me that so much torment and cruelty continue to be the hallmarks of many denominations' treatment of LGBT individuals. So much evil and all done in the name of God. It is beyond disgusting.

More Thursday Male Beauty

House GOP Group Working to Put D.C. Marriage Law to a Vote

The economy is still in horrific condition, millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, housing prices in many regions have dropped to a ten year low., and states are struggling with massive budget gaps. So how do the Congressional Republicans spend their time? On job creation? Stabilizing the housing market? Of course not. No, instead they want to put the same sex marriage law in the District of Columbia up for a referendum. I f there was any need for proof that the GOP has become a sectarian party controlled by the Christian Taliban, this legislative effort is pretty good proof. Especially after the U. S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge of the D.C. Council's refusal to place the matter up for a referendum. The country is falling apart - mostly due to 8 years of misrule under Chimperator Bush - but all that concerns the Congressional Republicans is licking the boots of the likes of Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Chuck Colson, et al, whose stock in trade is peddling hatred towards others. Also, one has to wonder when we'll see Rep. Jim Jordan (pictured above) who is pushing this effort outed like former Congressman Ed Scchrock. Time and time again, the more homophobic these guys are, the more likely it is they're out cruising for gay sex. on the down low. Here are highlights from Think Progress:
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After the Supreme Court declined a request to hear a lawsuit intending to allow a voter referendum on Washington DC’s same-sex marriage law in January, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) — chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC) — told The Hill that he will push for a vote to establish a referendum to overturn the law. Now, Congressional Quarterly is reporting that Jordan is drafting the proposal and expects “to draw strong support from House Republicans
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The level of Republican support is difficult to gauge as the GOP leadership attempts to keep the focus on the economy and remains weary of weighing in too heavily on LGBT issues. In this case, not only does a majority of Americans now supports same-sex marriage, but a Congressional intervention into the D.C. law undermines conservatives’ efforts to present their campaign as a local effort to give DC residents the right to vote on the issue. Any additional focus on anti-LGBT issues could also bolster the presidential candidacies of Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) and Rick Santorum, who would face the steepest road in a general election.
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D.C.’s marriage law was enacted in 2009, after the D.C. Council passed two measures to recognize marriages performed outside and inside the District. Both bills passed though a mandated congressional review period without challenge, even though several conservative Republicans sponsored bills to ban same-sex marriages in D.C.

The 11th Hour Repreive of Derek Morado - Why DADT Needs to Be Declared Unconstitutional

One hundred days since President Obama signed repeal legislation supposedly ending DADT the military continues to persecute and process discharge proceedings against LGBT service members. It's a case of religious based bigotry at its worse - other than religious base prejudice DADT has no basis in fact - yet Obama has issued no executive order to suspend ongoing witch hunts against LGBT service members. Once again, Obama proves himself to be to be a false "fierce advocate'" for LGBT Americans. Instead he our president seems more concerned about offending the sensibilities of Christianists - who will always despise him regardless of what he does. - rather than upholding the constitutional rights of citizens. Either the man is incredibly stupid or he's lying to the LGBT community. Sadly, I suspect that it's the latter and that we only see action from the White House when pressure from LGBT activists becomes merciless and unrelenting.
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Daily Kos has a piece that looks at what was the ongoing persecution of Derek Morado (pictured above) who faced discharge from the military until a short while ago today even as DADT is supposedly grinding to and end. Faced with this hypocrisy and double speak, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) has filed an amicus brief pushing for an appellate court ruling rendering DADT unconstitutional. It is truly the only way to drive a wooden stack through the heart of DADT and the bullshit propaganda of its Christofascist supporters. once and for all . First these highlights from Daily Kos:
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Petty Officer – 2nd Class Derek Morado joined the navy at the age of 17, and six years later, he is facing a discharge under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". He was notified of the investigation into his sexual orientation in November, just before "repeal" passed. He was outed by somebody who read his MySpace page:

"In November I was told I was going to be administratively separated under the terms of "Don't Ask, Don't tell"... due to what they find is enough evidence to separate me based on a social networking website called My Space," Morado said.
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Just to be clear. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has not been repealed. Congress has authorized it's repeal, but it hasn't happened yet. Although Sec. Gates banned investigations launched by anonymous tips, third-party outings are still--today--causing gay servicemembers to be discharged.
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The piece goes on to urge readers as follows:
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If you want your gay dollars to make a difference, ignore the latest "give us money and we'll get ENDA passed" gimmick from Barney Frank and Gay, Inc. Sign the petition and donate to GetEQUAL.
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It is a sad reality that only when the LGBT community raises Hell and threatens to shut off the money spigot to Democrats does anything ever seem to happen. Indeed, the last minute action on repeal is a case in point. Too many of our supposed allies in the Democrat Party care nothing about our lives or our rights until the LGBT ATM is on the verge of a shutdown.
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As for SLDN's amicus brief, here are highlights from a press release from earlier today:
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Army Veteran and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis today announced the filing of an Amicus Curiae brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the Log Cabin Republicans in its ongoing constitutional challenge to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
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"We believe the September 2010 decision by Judge Philips should be affirmed," said Sarvis. "Though the repeal process is underway, this discriminatory and unconstitutional law continues to place service members in danger of discharge, has a negative impact on recruitment, and sends a contradictory message to active duty service members who are now being trained on what open service will look like."
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"This training is not rocket science, and we believe strongly that the Services can get this done by April 30th," said Sarvis. "The repeal legislation established only one requirement before the President, Secretary of Defense, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs could certify that the armed forces were ready for repeal - that the Pentagon had prepared the necessary policies and regulations. A hundred days later, this relatively straightforward task has not been completed, and we're tying up our courts and handicapping our military as we continue to enforce a law that's been rejected by the American people."

Thursday Male Beauty

GOP Presidential Contenders - An American Embarrassment

There was a day when the Republican Party was synonymous with the educated country club set and rational conservatives. Indeed, one need not have been concerned that admitting to be a member of the GOP would make listeners immediately perceive one as a racist, homophobe, know nothing, bigot or all of the foregoing. Those days are gone and within the GOP the race appears to be on as to who can be the most ignorant, superstitious, and foul in their view of others. The current crop of would be contenders for the GOP presidential nomination is a case in point. These people are down right scary and ought to be an embarrassment to all sentient Americans. Joe Klein has a piece in Time that looks at this sorry state of affairs. Here are highlights:
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It is always an education to watch our American writhings from overseas. It is particularly excrutiating watching the Republican Party presidential candidates who, on a daily basis, pronounce some ignorant racist or irreligious twaddle...which--amazingly enough--manages to be heard around the world.
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[T]oday's example primo is Newt, who really needs to get back on his meds . . . . And then there is Herman Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza who is pretending to run for President, proving that a black man can be as gutter-cheap bigoted as anyone.
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I mean, what are these guys smoking? (Nothing so benign as marijuana, I would venture to say.) This is my 10th presidential campaign, Lord help me. I have never before seen such a bunch of vile, desperate-to-please, shameless, embarrassing losers coagulated under a single party's banner. They are the most compelling argument I've seen against American exceptionalism.
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And so I plead, as an unflinching American patriot--please Mitch Daniels, please Jeb Bush, please run. I may not agree with you on most things, but I respect you. And you seem to respect yourselves enough not to behave like public clowns. Please, in the name of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, run.

Vatican: The Internet Sparks Surge in Satanism; Satan Attacking Church Via Sex Abuse

There are times I wonder what mind altering drugs the bitter old queens at the Vatican are imbibing. The sheer lunacy of official statements and commentary suggests that either the folks at the Vatican are just batshit crazy or in some seriously altered mental state. They clearly do not stop to think how bizarre their pronouncements will sound to normal, rational people. As the Telegraph is reporting, the loons in dresses are now blaming the Internet for a surge in Satanism and a corresponding increase in demand for exorcisms. Oh, and the worldwide sex abuse scandal and the criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice orchestrated from the Vatican, that's all Satan's fault. Funny, I always though Benedict XVI looked a lot like Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars movies. I did not realize that it was really Satan that he resembled. I'm glad the Vatican has clarified this point. Here are some details from the Telegraph's coverage:

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Exorcism is the subject of a six-day conference being held this week at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome, which is under the Vatican's authority.
"The internet makes it much easier than in the past to find information about Satanism," said Carlo Climati, a member of the university who specializes in the dangers posed to young people by Satanism.
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"In just a few minutes you can contact Satanist groups and research occultism. The conference is not about how to become an exorcist. It's to share information about exorcism, Satanism and sects.
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Organizers say the rise of Satanism has been dangerously underestimated in recent years. "There's been a revival," said Gabriele Nanni, a former exorcist and another speaker at the course.
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The Vatican's chief exorcist claimed last year that the Devil lurked in the Vatican, the very heart of the Catholic Church. Father Gabriele Amorth said people who are possessed by Satan vomit shards of glass and pieces of iron, scream, dribble and slobber, utter blasphemies and have to be physically restrained.
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He claimed that the sex abuse scandals which have engulfed the Church in the US, Ireland, Germany and other countries, were proof that the anti-Christ was waging a war against the Holy See. He said Pope Benedict XVI believed "wholeheartedly" in the practice of exorcism.
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Remind me again, why does anyone take these bitter old men seriously in a modern world?

Washington State to Recognize Marriages from Other Jurisdictions

Washington State has voted to recognize same-sex marriages from other states as legal domestic partnerships under a bill approved by the state Senate. Meanwhile, here in Virginia, one's ownership of a dog or cat is afforded more legal recognition than a life commitment between same sex couples. Heavens forbid that the Virginia GOP offend the Christian Taliban at The Family Foundation. The vote in Washington State will obviously make that state more competitive for the best and brightest in the work force regardless of the sexual orientation. My son has moved back to Washington State - he could not stand Virginia's social and cultural backwardness - and one of my daughters will soon be headed there to be with her boyfriend. Naturally, the boyfriend and I will be making a visit out there later in the year. The Seattle Times looks at this legislative development and here are some highlights:
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Washington would recognize same-sex marriages from other states as legal domestic partnerships under a bill approved by the state Senate Wednesday. The Senate voted 28-19 to pass the bill, HB 1649. It now heads to Gov. Chris Gregoire to sign into law. The bill would not authorize same-sex marriage in Washington, but such marriages from elsewhere would be eligible for the rights granted to domestic partnerships in this state.

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Currently, five states, the District of Columbia and Canada allow same-sex marriages, according to The Associated Press.

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“This bill is about making sure that people who love one another - and that love and friendship respected and honored in another state or another country - when they come here they have the same opportunity,” Sen. Kevin Ranker, D- San Juan Island, said on the Senate floor.

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The bill, sponsored by Rep. Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, cleared the House with a 58-39 vote earlier this month.
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Note the wide margins for passage in both houses of the legislature. Here in Virginia a gay friendly bill cannot even get out of committee in the House of Delegates which might as well be called the House of Christofascists. My advice to LGBT couples thinking of moving to Virginia continues to be: don't do it.

More Wednesday Male Beauty

The Correlation Between Conservativism and Ignorance and Economic Backwardness

Richard Florida - who has done studies on the so-called "creative class" and entrepreneurship and economic vitality has done another study that seems to demonstrate a direct correlation between the economic well being of states and the level of conservatism of the states' residents. Also directly tracking the level of conservatism in states is the level of education of residents. The more poorly educate a state's population, the more conservative the state. Yes, ignorance and bigotry does seem to have a high and direct price. Unfortunately, states that are politically lurching to the right are the antithesis to long term economic success and vibrancy. The chart above from The Atlantic also shows a direct correlation with between religiosity and lack of education to the Bible Belt. As for the "average" ranking for Virginia, the study obviously failed to fully factor in the maleficent influence of The Family Foundation and the Virginia Republican Party. Here are some highlights from Richard Florida's article in The Atlantic:
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[S]tates with more conservatives are considerably more religious than liberal-leaning states. The correlation between conservative political affiliation and religion (the share of state population for which religion is an important part of daily life) is considerable (.63).
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Conservative states are also less well-educated than liberal ones. The correlation between conservative affiliation and human capital (that is, the percent of adults who have graduated college) is substantially negative (-.53).
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States with more conservatives are less diverse. Conservative political affiliation is highly negatively correlated with the percent of the population that are immigrants (-.59) or gay and lesbian (-.66).
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Conservative states are more blue-collar. Conservative political affiliation is strongly positively correlated with the percentage of the workforce in blue-collar occupations (.73) and highly negatively correlated with the proportion of the workforce engaged in knowledge-based professional and creative work (-.61).
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Conservatism, more and more, is the ideology of the economically left behind. The current economic crisis only appears to have deepened conservatism's hold on America's states. This trend stands in sharp contrast to the Great Depression, when America embraced FDR and the New Deal.
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[L]ong-term danger is economic rather than political. This ideological state of affairs advantages the policy preferences of poorer, less innovative states over wealthier, more innovative, and productive ones. American politics is increasingly disconnected from its economic engine. And this deepening political divide has become perhaps the biggest bottleneck on the road to long-run prosperity.
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I have noted before that the biggest threat to the USA's future is not liberalism, gay marriage or diversity. Instead, it is individuals and states that embrace ignorance and backwardness by choice. Yes, its those like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann and the Tea Party crowd and similar know nothings that are the real threat to America. As the USA slides towards regression, the rest of the world marches forward.

Same Sex Spouse Deportations Resume

Sadly, the Immigration Department has already rescinded the temporary halt of deportation proceeds against foreign spouses in same sex marriages. So much for suspending proceedings pending a resolution of the validity of DOMA in the courts. I'm sure the Christianists are rejoicing. Meanwhile, it sickens me. The Advocate has details on the about face by the Immigration officials. So does Andrew Sullivan who gets to the underlying purpose of DOMA: treating gay Americans as sub-human in their needs and wants and rights. What is distressing is the fact that should DOMA eventually be struck down, it will likely not undo the deportations that have already occurred. And the lives of the couples involved will have been turned upside down with American citizens having to leave the USA to remain with their spouse. It's a case of religious based discrimination at its worse. Here are some highlights from The Advocate:
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Immigration officials say they will no longer put a hold on the cases of binational married gay couples, just two days after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that action on such cases would be halted pending further legal guidance.
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“It’s business as usual,” Bentley said.
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"This regrettable decision reverses a policy of abeyance that was already in place in at least two USCIS District Offices. While DOMA remains the law of the land, the policy of holding applications by married gay and lesbian bi-national couples in abeyance is the ideal interim remedy to provide necessary protection to those bi-national couples and is consistent with enforcing DOMA," immigration attorney Lavi Soloway told The Advocate in a statement.
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And as for what's really at work here, these comments from Andrew Sullivan which I concur with 100%:
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The US recognizes the marital and familial bond as the most sacred factor in deciding immigration questions. Why? Because it is understood that the right to marry whomever one chooses is an elemental human right, and that a government that insists on breaking up such marriages, or forcing those in them to leave their own country, is violating basic human rights.
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Which means to say that the US government regards gay Americans as sub-human in their needs and wants and rights. Their loves and relationships mean nothing under the law every time they encounter federal authority. Aaron and I are total strangers to one another in the eyes of federal law. And because we are legally married, I am paradoxically more vulnerable to being deported than I would be if I were single - because it's plain that I intend to reside in the US indefinitely, even though my visa has an expiration date.
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If this isn't wrong, what is?

Wednesday Male Beauty

Matt Barber: Gay Teens Kill Themselves Because They Know They are Immoral

Matt Barber has made a career out of doing all in his power to make life a living Hell for LGBT individuals both here in the USA and elsewhere. No lie is to foul and no fabricated "research" to bogus to escape Barber's use to dehumanize and denigrate others who are simply living their lives as God - assuming their is one - made them. I can think of few people more immoral than Barber and similar hate peddling prostitutes of the Christian Right. They make a living (often a very, very nice living: Maggie Gallagher and Bill Donohue both make well into the six figures) off of hate and bigotry. There really is no other way to objectively describe their actions. Now, Barber has taken his denigration of gays to a new level. According to Barber, gay teens are killing themselves because they recognize their own immorality. It's not the hate, bullying and constant assault from folks like Barber. No, it's because gay teens are immoral - and apparently in Barber's view deserve to be dead. Once again, Right Wing Watch has details on just how sick and disgusting these supposed Christians like Barber are in fact: * Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber took to the airwaves to bash President Obama and organizations working towards bullying-prevention, joining other Religious Right opponents of anti-bullying programs. Along with Shawn Akers, who like Barber works for both Liberty University and Liberty Counsel, Barber railed against the alleged use of “a ‘Trojan Horse’ strategy, using language of bullying and violence and creating safe schools” to implement “a homosexual activist political indoctrination agenda and a curriculum of pro-homosexual propaganda.” Barber also said that Obama is “furthering a separate but equal policy” that supposedly favors gay and lesbian students * Barber concluded by claiming that “kids who are engaging in homosexual behavior often look inward and know that what they are doing is unnatural, is wrong, is immoral, and so they become depressed and the instances of suicide can rise there as well.” * It's yet another example of hate-filled Christians blaming the victims of their own propaganda and intolerance. Once again, I find myself agreeing with Anne Rice. If Barber is an example of what it means to be a Christian, then I do NOT want to be called a Christian in any form shape or manner.

More Examples of "Christian Love" from the Far Right

I often remark that the far right Christianists - and now their kindred spirits in the Tea Party - are best defined by who they hate. From following "Christian" and "family values" groups' websites for well over a decade, it is clear to me that gays are a preferred target for denigration. But we are not alone. Along with us, these folks hate blacks - the racist Tony Perkins is but one example of this type of hater - Hispanics, non-Christians of all stripes, and basically anyone else who doesn't fit their white conservative Christian model. That's not to say that targets of their hate are not often cynically used to further the Christianists' goals. Ignorant and homophobic Black pastors are a prime example as time and time again they carry water for the descendants of those who wanted to keep blacks enslaved and/or subjected to the Jim Crow laws. Now, some leaders of the Tea Party is in full cry against the alleged coming extinction of the “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant" (WASP) population in America. Here are some details from Right Wing Watch:
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This morning, Tea Party Nation sent out an email to its members with the headline “Destroy the Family, You Destroy the Country!” from an article by Dr. Rich Swier, a contributing editor to the anti-Muslim group Family Security Matters. Writing for Tea Part Nation, Swier says that “The title of this column is a direct quote from Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the first leader of the former Soviet Union. Lenin's vision was for the state (Communism) to replace the family as the provider of all things necessary for life and happiness. What Lenin did not foresee was his political policies leading to the eventual extinction of Russian civilization.” Swier goes on to lament the falling birthrate of native-born Americans compared to immigrants, and warns that “American culture” will soon perish since the “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) population is headed for extinction”:
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There are those in America who are continuously attacking the family, bent on redefining marriage and have established anti-family government programs. This has led to downward pressure on our national total fertility rate. All of these actions are done in the name of various causes such as: reducing unwanted pregnancies, delaying child bearing to further career goals and even promoting childlessness and promoting adoption as a better option.
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Child bearing has become something distasteful to many women, an unwanted and painful experience to be avoided rather than embraced.
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All of these programs, ideals and ideologies are doing one thing and one thing only - reducing America core TFR to the point of no return. The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) population in America is headed for extinction and with it our economy, well-being and survival as a uniquely America culture.
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I find it frightening that these individuals cannot see beyond one's skin color or sexual orientation and time and time again refuse to see that we all share a common humanity. I find it hard to believe that the Christ of the Gospels would be pleased with those who claim to be his followers.