The incredible Gullibility of Trump Supporters/the Right

Idaho white vigilantes.

As I have noted many times, I continue to amazed - shocked might be a better term - at the willingness of Trump supporters, evangelical christians (lower case "c"), and the far right in general to believe every Trump lie and far fetched lie put out by extremist groups or just as likely Russian bots. Fact checking is seemingly an unknown concept to many of these people and they share falsehoods on social media and have near apoplexy over "news stories" that are not even true - often not even legitimate.  I truly do not comprehend a mindset so eager to believe the worse about others or believe any and ever inflammatory lie. Are they simply ignorant and too lazy to fact check, bigots or some mix of the two?  This gullibility and mindlessness was recently illustrated by events in a town in Idaho that were based on a social media myth that bore no relation to reality.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at the manner in which armed white vigilantes/residents were played for fools while endangering the rest of the public.  Here are article excerpts:

Protesters had only begun assembling peacefully in Idaho when a Facebook page for retired police officers advised its followers to stay on high alert. “We will protect our neighborhoods,” it vowed.

So when early reports about potential violence surfaced a day later — claiming “ANTIFA agitators” were storming the state this week — scores of residents took to the streets. Armed with military-style assault rifles, they stood guard in places such as Coeur d’Alene, a resort town of 50,000 on a lake in northwest Idaho.

“Enough of us swung into action, and put the word out on social media and elsewhere, that we were able to deploy and meet any violent elements that might come here from out of state,” said Trevor Treller, a sommelier and one of the armed locals. Treller, 48, said he mobilized after hearing from trusted voices that “antifa types” were on the move.It would not prove to be true.

As vigils and protest actions unfolded in Idaho this week, local officials across the state confirmed that not a single participant was known to have defiled a home or storefront in the name of “antifa,” a loose label attributed to far-left activists. Many of the rumors about violent protests originated from dubious Facebook posts, often shared widely and rarely debunked, residents there said.

The raft of myths and misstatements that triggered visceral reactions throughout Idaho illustrates how long-standing grievances have fused with the vast reach of social media during protests that have swept through the country — in big cities and rural towns — after the killing of a black man in the custody of Minneapolis police last week.

As President Trump militarizes the government’s response to the roiling demonstrations, armed civilians across the country are taking matters into their own hands. They have engaged in preemptive acts of escalation, often in response to imaginary threats, raising tensions at demonstrations touched off by the death of 46-year-old George Floyd and intensified by the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic collapse, which have disproportionately affected black Americans.

Such actions are particularly visible in Idaho’s Treasure Valley, long a hotbed of the anti-government militia movement and a magnet for disaffected whites fleeing more-diverse and increasingly liberal enclaves, experts said. The mobilization of counterprotesters, these observers said, offers stark evidence that rising calls for racial justice are echoing across the country at the very moment that white resentment is also flaring.

“It’s combustible,” said Todd Shallat, a historian at Boise State University. “The local acts of vigilantism show how a rising population of discontented whites is reacting to the increasingly visible claims of minority groups.”

There’s so much implicit bias about black people’s criminality that some people assume there’s going to be violence or infiltration when we gather,” said Whitney Mestelle, a local activist in Boise who helped organize a peaceful vigil Tuesday. “They may even have good intentions, but it doesn’t make me feel more comfortable to see people open-carry.”

[D]iscussion about antifa has reverberated especially widely across Facebook, including on a page that bills itself as “North Idaho News.” The page acknowledges in fine print that it is “not affiliated with any real news company.” On Monday, though, it claimed to have “credible information that violent rioters, not just peaceful protesters, have plans to come to Coeur d’Alene.” Reached Wednesday via Facebook message, the unidentified operator of North Idaho News declined to comment.

The post quickly gained widespread attention, troubling the likes of Chris Dawson, a retired police officer from Santa Clarita, Calif., and the president of the ex-law-enforcement group on Facebook that put its members on high alert. His Facebook page shared the notice, and Dawson said he had been “given information that antifa would be coming in from Portland or Seattle.” Amplifying their fears was the destruction that marked some demonstrations in neighboring states.

Soon, armed members of local militia groups began patrolling the streets of cities including Coeur d’Alene, said David Hagar, a captain in the city’s police department who described the gatherings as peaceful. Asked whether antifa-affiliated individuals had targeted the city, Hagar said, “Not that we’ve identified.”
“I think a lot of it was fueled by social media,” Hagar said.

Similar rumors gripped Payette County, a rural expanse on Idaho’s western edge. One post shared widely on Facebook said antifa had dispatched a “plane load of people” arriving from Seattle, targeting Idaho’s rural regions. “The sheriff in Payette has already spotted some of them,” the notice continued.

Phone calls soon flooded the sheriff’s office, leaving local law enforcement perplexed.

The false notion continues to have traction with local paramilitary groups, including the far-right Three Percenters, who draw their name from the disputed claim that just 3 percent of American colonists were fighting at any one time during the revolt against the British crown. An Idaho branch said in a Facebook post Sunday that it had “credible intel” about plans for an antifa-induced riot in Boise. No such riot took place.

What is truly frightening is that people this ignorant and bigoted are walking around with military assault style weapons.  They would appear to be a bigger threat to public safety than mythical leftists.

2 Year Old Kills Concealed Weapons Carrying Mother

The idiocy - at least in my view - of the nation's gun laws continues despite the increased frequency of mass shootings and statistics that show that having a gun in the home increases the likelihood of gun deaths within the home.  Sadly, the NRA and idiots in the public that drink the gun manufacturers' Kool-Aid continue to bar sane and rational gun control laws and a reduction of huge number of weapons held by private citizens.  A story out of Idaho illustrates how having a gun (no doubt for "protection") can end one's life rather than save it.  Here are details from MSN News on the accidental shooting of a woman with a concealed hand gun by her two-year old child:

A 29-year-old woman described as a "beautiful, young, loving mother" was fatally shot by her 2-year-old son at a northern Idaho Wal-Mart in what authorities called a tragic accident.

The little boy reached into Veronica J. Rutledge's purse and her concealed gun fired, Kootenai County sheriff's spokesman Stu Miller said. The woman was shopping Tuesday with her son and three other children, Miller said.

The woman had a concealed weapons permit. Miller said the young boy was left in a shopping cart, reached into his mother's purse and grabbed a small-caliber handgun, which discharged one time.  Deputies who responded to the Wal-Mart found Rutledge dead, the sheriff's office said.

Hayden is a politically conservative town of about 9,000 people just north of Coeur d'Alene, in Idaho's northern panhandle.

There do not appear to be reliable national statistics about the number of accidental fatalities involving children handling guns.

In neighboring Washington state, a 3-year-old boy was seriously injured in November when he accidentally shot himself in the face in a home in Lake Stevens, about 30 miles north of Seattle.

In April, a 2-year-old boy apparently shot and killed his 11-year-old sister while they and their siblings played with a gun inside a Philadelphia home. Authorities said the gun was believed to have been brought into the home by the mother's boyfriend.

Idaho lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year allowing concealed weapons on the state's public college and university campuses.

I don't mean to sound heartless, but from the news reports, seemingly, Rutledge was intelligent and not some white trash redneck, yet she apparently believed the lies and propaganda of the gun lobby - it cost her her life.  We need serious gun control and a huge reduction in the number of  guns in the hands of those obviously not responsible enough to have them in their possession.  The NRA claims another life. 

The Idaho "Gay Marriage Victim" Frauds

Faux Christian martyrs Donald and Evelyn Knapp

Facts and objective reality never matters to the Christofascists who mix the truth and fantasy - and a huge dose of lies - into the story lines needed to promote the myth of Christian persecution.  In courts of law, however, facts and objective reality do matter.  What am I talking about?  The Hitching Post, a Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, wedding business that has become the latest supposed Christian martyr to homo-fascists out to destroy Christianity.  Waiting to have an outpatient procedure this morning - the clinic, by the way did not have to meet hospital standards like Virginia abortion clinics even though the procedures performed are more dangerous than abortion procedures - I had to listen to Fox News talking heads hyperventilate about "Christian pastors" being forced to perform gay marriages or else face criminal charges under the local public accommodations law.  The truth, however, is something quite different.  The Hitching Post has never been a "Christian chapel."  No, it been a for profit business with no restriction of only performing Christian marriages.   Blogger friend Jeremy Hooper has the goods on the lies and hypocrisy of the folks at The Hitching Post and its legal counsel, the lunatics at Alliance Defending Freedom.   Here excerpts from Jeremy's first post:

Back in May, I wrote about a place called The Hitching Post, a Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, business that marries couples for profit. At the time, I opined about how the ordained minister who owns the business has every right to not perform same-sex marriages, if he so chooses. However, if he is going to make that choice, then he is going to lose that right to run a for-profit, "all comers welcome" business that says it marries opposite-sex couples in civil ceremonies, regardless of faith.

And in May, when that business owner, Donald Knapp, first started going to the press with this vow, that's exactly what his business claimed to do. These are the screen caps I used in my initial post: 

 

But get this. In the wake of marriage equality coming to Idaho, the Alliance Defending Freedom is attempting to turn Mr. Knapp and his business into the latest "victims" of the marriage equality push. The ADF is championing a lawsuit against the city of Coeur d'Alene, and to make the case, all involved are claiming that the business is made up of "ordained ministers" who are being told "to act contrary to their faith." They are making it sound like this is an instance of a pastor being forced to perform a religious ceremony in a church, which is a fear they would love to play up as a reality. Several other conservative groups and outlets have run with that spin. 

Now here's where it gets interesting. In order to make this case of supposed religious persecution, someone has gone into the very website that I used as basis for my spring commentary and changed the text so that all the mentions of civil weddings no longer appear. Here is how the very same screens that I showed you above look today: 

 

"Ordained ministers" who perform a "traditional, religious ceremony"? And only "for couples who desire a traditional wedding ceremony"? This is revisionist history of the highest order! Now that this business needs to make a case for "religious persecution," they are pretending like they didn't operate in the way that they totally used to operate. They are pretending like civil ceremonies and ceremonies outside of their own deeply held faith were never on the table so that they can make it seem like they have always been convicted in and committed to one specific kind of religious wedding. They have up and changed the rules that they themselves had laid out (i.e. no church, no faith, no problem) so that they can now make the case that they and their far-right spinmeisters are itching to make (i.e. only church, always church; we're the victims).  It's gross! And I caught ya.

The real shocker?  The Hitching Post's promotion of its "civil marriage" services was unchanged online as recently as October 9, 2014.  That's right, it changed just in time for the ADF' disingenuous and ridiculous lawsuit.   Jeremy notes as follows in a follow up post:

The fact is that this business was, according to its own website, fully willing to move forward with civil weddings that they themselves may not have supported, but now—suddenly and seemingly without any announced change in business plan—they are not. They have always operated as a public accommodation with an "all comers welcome" position statement, and now they are trying to act like a de facto church that could not conceive diverging from their faith. And that is the issue. 

 The Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the couple at the center of this controversy, is claiming that the business owners are now being asked to "violate their religious convictions and ministerial vows." If this business, up until two weeks ago, was perfectly willing to marry atheists, the previously divorced, and a whole host of couples that they might not personally condone, then their current claims to be wholly faith-driven are at least lessened, and more likely demolished.

 This whole faux persecution stunt underscores why I hold utter contempt for so many "godly Christians."  They are liars and hypocrites and make the biblical Pharisees seem like nice upstanding people.  I hope the court issues sanctions against ADF for this fraudulent lawsuit.

Federal Judge Strikes Down Alaska Marriage Ban

In a somewhat unusual move, a federal judge in Alaska released his ruling today striking down Alaska's ban on same sex marriage.  Given that Alaska is located within the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which struck down the laws in Nevada and Idaho last week, the defenders of anti-gay discrimination have nowhere to appeal the ruling since this week's 9th Circuit ruling is binding precedent for Alaska.  One can just imagine what batshitery will likely come from the lips of Sarah Palin, a/k/a the White Trash Cretin from Anchorage.   Alaska Dispatch News has details.  Here are excerpts:

A federal judge ruled Sunday that Alaska’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, paving the way for gay couples to begin marrying in the state for the first time.

“The court finds that Alaska’s ban on same-sex marriage and refusal to recognize same sex marriages lawfully entered in other states is unconstitutional as a deprivation of basic due process and equal protection principles under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,”  U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess wrote in a order in the case Hamby v. Parnell, released Sunday.

The Hamby suit was filed in May by five same-sex couples. It challenged the state’s constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman, approved by voters in 1998.

The ruling comes less than a week after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to overturn similar marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada. Same-sex marriage advocates said the 9th Circuit ruling would likely lead to the quick overturn of Alaska’s ban on gay marriage because the bans were similar and Alaska also falls under the jurisdiction of that court.

9th Circuit Strikes Down Marriage Bans - 5 More States to Join Marriage Equality Column

Yesterday and today have been devastating days for Christofascists and their sleazy political whores in the Republican Party.  Between the U.S. Supreme Court action yesterday which tacitly affirmed the rulings of the 4th, 7th and 10th Circuits and today's ruling of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals striking down same sex marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada, when all the dust settles the number of states where same sex marriage is legal will surge from 19 states to 35 states (including Alaska and Montana).  Should the 6th Circuit rule the same way, then the gay marriage states will number 38 - far more than those that had legalized interracial marriage prior to the ruling in Loving v. Virginia.  The 9th Circuit ruling can be read here. There obviously must be much wailing and gnashing of teeth in hate group headquarters (not that these folks will surrender and seek real jobs).  Metro Weekly looks at today's 9th Circuit ruling.  Here are highlights:

A federal appeals court struck down same-sex marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada Tuesday in what is the latest of a series of victories for marriage equality just this week.

In a 3-0 opinion authored by Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found bans on same-sex marriage in Idaho and Nevada violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“To allow same-sex couples to adopt children and then to label their families as second-class because the adoptive parents are of the same sex is cruel as well as unconstitutional,” the ruling states. “Classifying some families, and especially their children, as of lesser value should be repugnant to all those in this nation who profess to believe in ‘family values.’ In any event, Idaho and Nevada’s asserted preference for opposite-sex parents does not, under heightened scrutiny, come close to justifying unequal treatment on the basis of sexual orientation.”

Monday’s decision by the Supreme Court also impacts states under the jurisdiction of the 4th Circuit, 7th Circuit and 10th Circuit Courts of Appeals, meaning same-sex marriage will likely soon be legalized in West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming. On Tuesday, Colorado’s attorney general ordered county clerks in the state to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. When the other states impact by the Supreme Court’s decision comply, 30 states, plus D.C., will allow same-sex couples to marry.

Should Tuesday’s ruling by the 9th Circuit be petitioned to be heard by the Supreme Court, it seems unlikely the justices would hear the case following Monday’s decision to reject cases striking down same-sex marriage bans in five states. As such, the 9th Circuit’s decision will likely impact other states in the circuit that ban same-sex marriage, including Arizona, Alaska and Montana, but not immediately.

“Today’s decision from the Ninth Circuit brings to 35 the number of freedom to marry states, and 64% of the American people now live in a state where gay people will soon share in the freedom to marry,” Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry, said in a statement.

 When I came out 13 years ago, I never thought I would live to see this day.  In fact, when I came out, even consensual same sex sexual relations could land one with a felony conviction here in Virginia.  Thankfully, Lawrence v. Texas ended that constant worry and now my husband and I are fully legally married in Virginia.   Not to sound cruel, but I have zero sympathy for the Christofascists who have inflicted so much harm on so many for so long.  Hopefully, they will soon become a scorned and largely irrelevant minority.

Ninth Circuit Eviserates Marriage Equality Opponents

Judge Marsha Berzon

While on vacation I was largely out of the loop and writing few blog posts due to the horrifically bad satellite Internet available aboard the Norwegian Jade.  I spent several hundred dollars for it and it was a challenge to even be responsive to client and office e-mails.  Thus, some things I will write about over the next few days may be "old news," but topics I want to put in my two cents on.  One such story is the berating that the GOP/Christofascist opponents of marriage equality took during oral arguments at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week.  It is wonderful, in my view, to see the defenders of religious based bigotry finally being openly ripped apart by appellate court judges.  Towleroad has a great run down portions of which are quoted below:

A soft-spoken attorney representing Idaho started his state's anti-marriage equality argument by suggesting that allowing gays to marry violates the "bonding right" of children that they will be raised by their biological mothers and fathers. It took Judge Marsha Berzon just 15 seconds to ask her first question: "What is that word you're using before 'right'"? Judge Berzon can hear just fine; it's just that she had never heard anyone make such a ridiculous claim before today. The rest of the hearing followed similarly.

[I]n a nearly two-hour long interrogation of attorneys from Idaho and Nevada that may not have been as bombastic as Judge Posner's treatment of attorneys from Wisconsin and Indiana in the Seventh Circuit, a hearing which resulted in a marvelous unanimous victory ("Go figure!"), but was every bit as damaging to the forces opposed to marriage equality.

It also brought marriage equality full circle. Judge Reinhardt was the judge that wrote the first decision from a federal appellate court on marriage equality, affirming District Judge Vaughn Walker's pioneering rejection of California's Prop 8. We all know how that case turned out.

And we know what's happened since: a Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor striking down the Defense of Marriage Act and a long streak of pro-marriage equality decisions from the lower federal courts, including several appellate courts.

The judges' questioning was direct and they expressed a similar, though less visible, frustration with the misdirection and misleading statements from the anti-equality attorneys as Judge Posner. The tone of the hearing suggested that marriage equality supporters are finally out of the closet, following a tidal wave of an emerging consensus of the legitimacy and morality of marriage freedom for all.

Judge Berzon asked the most direct questions, sifting through the muck of Idaho's nonsensical argument about children needing to be raised by their biological parents.

"But heterosexual men and women aren't going to enter into same-sex marriages. So, what's the issue?" she asked. Indeed. Idaho was trying to avoid the reality that what the state wants to do is not really create a situation where kids are raised by their biological moms and dads, but just ban gays from marrying. These are two very different and clearly unrelated things.

But the message of the man-woman marriage is that we need to create a stable bond that is in the best interests of the child, argued the Idaho attorney. Huh, Judge Berzon wondered. How is it, she asked, supportive of stable marriages and a benefit to children to have them raised outside of supportive same-sex marriages rather than inside supportive same-sex marriages?

After several agonizing stutters: The worst thing the state can do to undermine the message of stability is to create something new--namely, "genderless marriage."  With that, Judge Berzon had it. She called out Idaho on its argument that man-woman marriages provide the added benefit of complementary parenting styles and skills, an argument that is not only sexist and based on traditional notions that women nurture and men discipline, but also a completely unconstitutional basis for discrimination.

The greatest, and most revealing, line came during Idaho's rebuttal, in which Judge Berzon brought up the parallel of Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 case that outlawed bans on interracial marriage. As we all know, similar arguments were raised by Virginia: we just don't know what will happen, we worry for the children of mixed-race couples, those households will be unstable, the verdict is out on whether they are good parents, and the state has debated and made the decision, though the democratic process, to ban the prospect.

Judges are willing to call out the anti-equality side on their bald lies and misleading statements.

In the end, this was a rough day for those opposed to marriage equality. Three progressive judges, though more muted in their questioning than Judge Posner was at the Seventh Circuit, were no less skeptical of the homophobic, ahistorical, misleading, misdirected arguments against allowing gays to marry. The hearing was a testament to how far we have come since the last time marriage equality was before Judge Reinhardt. 

Idaho Marriage BanRuled Unconstitutional, No Stay Issued

I try not to write just about same sex marriage - even as my husband and I continue to savor the marital after glow of our marriage in the District of Columbia - but some days it seems almost impossible.  Even as analysis of the oral arguments before the 4th Circuit was being written, a federal judge in Idaho struck down that state's anti-gay marriage bans.  It is almost humorous to see the Christofascists reeling after one defeat after another in the various U.S. District Courts (all together, some 70 court cases are pending challenging anti-gay animus based laws and constitutional amendments).   The Idaho Statesman has details.  Here are highlights:

BOISE — U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale has ruled Idaho's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.

In her 57-page decision, Dale stated, "Idaho’s Marriage Laws withhold from them a profound and personal choice, one that most can take for granted. By doing so, Idaho’s Marriage Laws deny same-sex couples the economic, practical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of marriage, relegating each couple to a stigmatized, second-class status. Plaintiffs suffer these injuries not because they are unqualified to marry, start a family, or grow old together, but because of who they are and whom they love."

Gov. Butch Otter responded in a written statement: "In 2006, the people of Idaho exercised their fundamental right, reaffirming that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. Today’s decision, while disappointing, is a small setback in a long-term battle that will end at the U.S. Supreme Court. I am firmly committed to upholding the will of the people and defending our Constitution.”

The court's injunction is effective 9 a.m. Friday.

www.idahostatesman.com/2014/05/13/3183291/judge-rules-idaho-gay-marriage.html?sp=/99/101/#storylink=cpy

Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry: "Today's ruling from the federal court in Idaho is the latest in more than a dozen rulings unanimously holding marriage discrimination unconstitutional. From Idaho to Arkansas, Utah to Michigan, the courts are affirming that there is no good reason for government to deny marriage to committed couples. As gay couples and their families begin to share in the joy and security of the freedom to marry, hearts and minds are opening, discrimination's barriers are falling, and we're moving our country to the right side of history. As the federal appellate courts now take up these marriage cases, America is ready for the freedom to marry."

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/05/13/3183291/judge-rules-idaho-gay-marriage.html?sp=/99/101/#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/05/13/3183291/judge-rules-idaho-gay-marriage.html?sp=/99/101/#storylink=cpThe court's injunction is effective 9 a.m. Friday.

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/05/13/3183291/judge-rules-idaho-gay-marriage.html?sp=/99/101/#storylink=cpy

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Idaho Joins List of States Seeking to Legalize Anti-Gay Discrimination

Lynn Luker - the face of hate

If nothing else, the Christofascists and their whores in the Republican Party are consistent in their efforts to secure special rights that would allow Christofascists to disregard non-discrimination laws at will and even allow doctors, nurses, police officers and others to refuse to treat or aid gays.  Thankfully, a similar bill in Kansas appears headed for defeat, but that doesn't mean that the Christofacists and prostitute like GOP politicians such as Idaho Rep. Lynn Luker (pictured at left) will not keep trying to introduce and pass such measures.  Patheos looks at this disgusting development.  Here are article excerpts:

Other states are reiterating, legally, that you can’t discriminate in America.  For followers of the supposedly most loving religion in Idaho, this is just not good news.  Something must be done, and Republican Lynn Luker is just the person to do it.

Rep. Lynn Luker outlined a proposal Tuesday backed by his conservative Christian allies to shield religious people from the threat of losing their professional licenses for refusing service or employment to anyone they conclude violates their religious beliefs.

“This is pre-emptive,” said Luker, a Boise Republican. “The issue is coming, whether it’s 10 years, or 15 years, or two years.”

Yes, we’re approaching a time when gay people are guaranteed the same legal protections from discrimination as racial minorities.  If there’s one thing Jesus can’t stand…

He cited efforts by LGBT activists in other states to end discrimination against them – including two cases where same-sex couples in Oregon and New Mexico were denied service at a bakery for their wedding cake or wedding photographs – as his motivation to act quickly in Idaho.

Unlike those two states, Idaho’s Human Rights Act offers no protections for LGBT people, and Republican lawmakers have resisted efforts to include them.

The Cornerstone Family Council is backing Luker’s proposal, which is now awaiting a full hearing, to prevent the state from passing laws to block people from “living out their faith.”

If your faith demands you discriminate against people, then there should be legal prohibitions against you living out your faith. If somebody’s religion demands they sacrifice their first child, they don’t get to whine that the law blocks them from living out their faith.  Ditto, if your religion says you have to put a “Straights Only” sign over your drinking fountain, your religion must take a back seat to equality.

However, Luker noted, emergency personnel couldn’t refuse to treat someone and does not authorize the “the intentional infliction of emotional or physical injury.”

Yes, so if being treated like a pariah by elected leaders along with all the Christians in your town results in psychological damage then you can be guaranteed treatment once the problem reaches a critical point.  Up til then?  Fuck you.  Love of Chriiiiiiiiiiiist!

My contempt and loathing for "conservative Christians" increases by the day!  They simply are NOT nice and decent people.

Anti-Gay Mormon Senator Mike Crapo Arrested For DUI

There's more news in the hypocrisy department: Idaho Senator Mike Crapo - a Mormon known for his anti-gay positions - was arrested for DUI early yesterday morning in Alexandria, Virginia.   As Joe My God notes, Crapo has a perfect track record of voting against LGBT rights: He twice voted for a federal constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, voted against both the Hate Crimes Act and the repeal of DADT, and has a 100% rating from the Christian Coalition and a 0% rating from the Human Rights Campaign.  CNN has more on Crapo's arrest.  Here are highlights:

U.S. Sen. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho, was arrested early Sunday morning in Alexandria, Virginia, and charged with driving under the influence, according to the town's police department.

Jody Donaldson, an Alexandria police spokesman, said Crapo was arrested by an officer at 12:45 a.m. ET after the officer noticed Crapo's vehicle running a red light.

"Sen. Crapo was identified as the driver and arrested after failing several field sobriety tests," Donaldson said in a statement. "He was taken into custody without incident and transported to the Alexandria Adult Detention Center where he was released on a $1,000 unsecured bond."

Crapo released a statement through his office Sunday, saying: "I am deeply sorry for the actions that resulted in this circumstance. I made a mistake for which I apologize to my family, my Idaho constituents and any others who have put their trust in me.

A court date was set for January 4, according to Donaldson, who added that Crapo's blood alcohol level was .110 at the time of his arrest. The legal blood alcohol level for drivers in Virginia is .08. Donaldson also said Crapo was alone in the car at the time.

Crapo has represented Idaho in the Senate since 1999. Before that he served in the U.S. House of Representatives for six years. He was re-elected in 2010 with 71% of the vote. He's a member of the Senate's "Gang of 8."

According to his official biography on congress.gov, Crapo is also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which prohibits the use of alcohol among its members.

Idaho Fundies Reject Hallmark's Same-Sex Cards

True to form, Christianist business owners in some areas - including those in one area of Idaho, home of toe-tapping gay sex cruiser Senator Larry Craig - are rebuffing Hallmark's effort to reach out and meet the needs of a lucrative consumer market niche. While Idaho offers amazing natural beauty, personally, I would never spend money visiting an area that is strongly anti-gay. It's bad enough living in a backwards area. Why would I want to visit one that's even worse in terms of intolerance? I hope LGBT citizens will vote with their wallets and avoid Idaho like the plague. Here are some highlights from KBCI-TV in Boise, Idaho:

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NAMPA (AP) - A manager says seven Hallmark greeting card stores in the Treasure Valley will not carry the company's new same-sex marriage cards.Cassi Jacobsen, an assistant manager for the Jordan's Hallmark store in Nampa's Karcher Mall, says the family that owns the seven area stores has decided against carrying the new line of greeting cards. She said the owners were out of town and not immediately available for comment.

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Reaction to the cards has been mixed. Idaho Family Values Alliance Executive Director Bryan Fischer sent out a press release Thursday calling for local-area Hallmark stores not to carry the cards. But Delmar Stone of Nampa, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers Idaho Chapter, called the cards "wonderful."Jody May-Chang, the Boise editor of the gay rights Web site PrideDEPOT.com, called the decision a bullying tactic.

Idaho Underworld - A Past Boise Gay Sex Scandal

I found the link to this December 12, 1955, Time Magazine story (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,711877,00.html) on Andrew Sullivan's blog. It shows that Larry Craig is not the first "respectable" Idahoan to have legal problems involving gay sex. Boise (pictured above) apparently has a history of clandestine gay sex:

Boise, Idaho (pop. 50,000), the state capital, is usually thought of as a boisterous, rollicking he-man's town, and home of the rugged Westerner. In the downtown saloons of the city a faint echo of Boise's ripsnorting frontier days can still be heard, but its quiet residential areas and 70 churches give the city an appearance of immaculate respectability. Recently, Boiseans were shocked to learn that their city had sheltered a widespread homosexual underworld that involved some of Boise's most prominent men and had preyed on hundreds of teen-age boys for the past decade.

In a succession of arrests and hearings that rocked Boise, those formally charged included Joe Moore, 54, vice president of the Idaho First National Bank, Attorney Paris T. Martin, 44, John Calvin Bartlett, 28, a high-school teacher in a nearby town, as well as a clerk in a haberdashery, a hospital orderly, a liquor salesman, two interior decorators, a warehouseman, and a buyer for a women's store. Last week Ralph Cooper, 33, a shoeshine boy and ex-convict, was sentenced to life in prison. Interior Decorator Charles H. Gordon, 40, got 15 years. Two other defendants pleaded guilty to committing "infamous crimes against nature." Other arrests and hearings are expected this week.

Many of the boys wanted money for maintenance of their automobiles (Idaho grants daylight driving permits to children of 14, regular licenses to 15-year-olds). The usual fees given to the boys were $5 to $10 per assignation.