Mike Pence Hires New Homophobic Chief of Staff

Homophobe Marc Short.

While writers at the Washington Post were manufacturing attacks on the First Lady of Virginia, Vice President Mike Pence was hiring a new chief of staff who has a history of outspoken homophobia.  A piece in LGBTQ Nation looks at the past bigotry of Marc Short, Pence's new chief of staff as well as Pence's own long history of homophobia, attacks on LGBT citizens, and obstruction of efforts to curb HIV/AIDS which is increasingly a heterosexual problem in the black (of, course, Pence is anti-black as well).  The take away is that Short and Pence would happily see LGBT citizens simply die and disappear. Here are article highlights:

Mike Pence’s incoming chief of staff Marc Short has come under fire for a homophobic column he wrote about a man living with HIV.

Writing in his college newspaper at Washington & Lee University in Virginia, Short denounced, “the propaganda campaign ignited by gay activists and carelessly perpetuated by journalists whose intent is to scare all heterosexuals into believing they are prime targets for” HIV and AIDS.

“The campaign’s purpose is both to lobby Congress for more federal funding of AIDS research and to destigmatize the perverted lifestyles homosexuals pursue.”

The column, entitled “AIDS & The Heterosexual,” appeared in The Spectator, a student newspaper that Short co-founded and edited.

His column was ostensibly a response to an interview that appeared in the main student newspaper with Edwin Wright, a Washington & Lee alum who talked about watching several of his friends die from complications from AIDS and his own pending death.

Short said that he had “sympathy” for Wright, but “that does not mean that we glorify homosexuals’ repugnant practices of frequent anal intercourse nor should we consider them brave for coming out of the closet.”

“Homosexuals who pursue unhealthy lifestyles and engage in high risk sexual behavior, specifically anal intercourse, may very well end up like Mr. Wright.”

“Rhetoric like that killed us,” said Peter Staley, an ACT-UP activist who appeared in the documentary How to Survive a Plague. “Guys like him wanted us to die. And they had an effect.”

Pence has yet to comment on Short’s column. Pence himself has a long history of opposing LGBTQ rights both in the U.S. House and as governor of Indiana, even supporting federal funding for conversion therapy in 2000 as a means to fight HIV.

“His boss [Mike Pence] is responsible for enabling the single worst outbreak of HIV and AIDS in the history of Indiana due to his irresponsible and universally-criticized effort to end funding for needle exchange programs and HIV and AIDS testing centers. Mike Pence has spent his career attacking LGBTQ people and building a record of undermining HIV awareness and prevention initiatives.”

“After all this and being in the inner circle of Mike Pence for the past decade, the hiring of Marc Short is not surprising.”

Virginia Republicans Need to Learn What Not to Do From Indiana

Despite a new governor who wants Virginia to be "open for business" and welcoming talent from wherever it may come, since the beginning of the 2018 legislative session, Virginia Republicans, especially in the Virginia Senate are demonstrating that (i) the learned nothing from their party's shellacking in the 2017 elections, and (ii) they will go to any lengths to thwart legislation that would grant LGBT Virginians a shred of equality in civil rights and non-discrimination protections.  Del. Bob Marshall may be gone from Richmond, but his spirit lives on amongst knuckle dragging Republicans.  A piece in LGBTQ Nation looks at how a similar mindset in Indiana has likely killed Indianapolis' chances to be the site of Amazon's new headquarters.  Would that Virginia Republicans would learn from Indiana's mistakes and cease striving to make Virginia toxic to companies like Amazon.  Here are article highlights:

Despite overwhelming support for a proposed hate crimes law, Indiana Republicans have squashed the idea to appease their religious right supporters. Indiana is one of only five states without a hate crimes law.

While Indianapolis was named one of twenty finalists for Amazon’s “HQ2” offices that would bring thousands of high paying jobs to the area, the Fortune 500 company was crystal clear that it would choose a location that values diversity and equality. Experts had already expressed reservations that Indiana would land the prime development and today’s decision only adds another nail to the coffin.

The state is still reeling from former Governor Mike Pence’s disastrous attempt to legalize discrimination against LGBT people, but now state Republicans have completely surrendered to the demands of a small minority that demands complete obedience. Pence infamously went on national television to defend the law he signed while surrounded by the state’s most vociferously anti-LGBT activists and refused to say whether he thought LGBT people should be discriminated against.

“Republicans reinforced just how out-of-touch they are with the majority of Hoosiers, blocking a policy nearly two-thirds of Hoosiers support and 45 other states have enacted,” Indiana Democratic Party Chairman John Zody said in an emailed statement.

“Today’s action proves Statehouse Republicans are more than willing to jeopardize Indianapolis’ shot at landing Amazon’s second headquarters to appease shadowy special interests. [Governor Eric] Holcomb’s inaction and Republicans’ appeasement of special interests may have just cost Hoosiers 50,000 good-paying jobs.”

Given the lunacy of both the GOP base in Virginia and the insanity of far too many Republicans in the General Assembly, it will be a crap shoot as to whether Virginia can enact legislation that will show that Virginia values the diversity and equality that companies like Amazon demand.  

Donald Trump and the Incurious Mike Pence:

While The Donald is claiming that he has not yet selected his VP running mate, most speculation is that it will be Indiana governor Mike Pence - a man who is no friend to the LGBT community and who set off a fire storm with corporate America when he signed Indiana's falsely named "religious freedom" law last year.  Naturally, given the GOP's most extreme and anti-gay platform every, Pence is the choice of most Christofascists, including those here in Virginia who often rally under the flag of The Family Foundation, a hate group in all but formal designation.  A piece in Salon looks at Pence and why he is a perfect fit for Trump's racist and xenophobic agenda.  Here are excerpts:

A lowly pool has been reduced to four B-list candidates: Mike Pence, Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie, and Jeff Sessions, three of whom found their way to Indianapolis on Wednesday (Christie reportedly spoke with Trump over the phone). You could make a case for all four. As I wrote last week, both Newt and Christie are plagued by scandals (much like Trump) and have bottomed out as politicians. Neither has much to lose at this point, which makes joining Trump’s dumpster fire campaign less risky. Sessions is a largely unknown conservative senator from Alabama. An anti-immigration culture warrior, he was among the first Republicans to publicly endorse Trump. But he’s the obvious outsider here. Of the final four, Sessions seems least likely to get the nod.

Although it’s still unofficial, The Washington Post is reporting that Pence is the pick. If true, that makes the most sense for Trump, and here’s why.
 First, we have to remember that Trump’s campaign is essentially a TV production. As such, he needs a hype man, someone who can pump propaganda without overshadowing the star of the show. . . . The Republican nominee wants an “attack dog,” but not someone who can upstage him. Both Gingrich and Christie, in their own ways, are capable of this.

Pence, however, appears quite comfortable playing second fiddle, and he clearly wants the job. He’s prostrated himself before Trump, lobbying about as hard as any candidate I’ve seen. And his Twitter feed is littered with over-the-top pleas. . . . Normally, VP nominees feign indifference, dismissing inquiries or referring reporters to the presidential candidates. The idea is to express interest without careening into desperation. But this is not how Pence rolls. . . . Right out of the gate, Pence lavished praise on Trump, making it all about him.
 If Pence believes Trump is the greatest leader since Reagan, why did he endorse Ted Cruz for president 10 weeks ago? Trump “never turned his back on Main Street”? We know Trump loves “the poorly educated,” but I doubt that’s what Pence means by “Main Street.” We know Trump has outsourced much of his labor in order to cut costs and avoid paying American workers a livable wage. Was that a boon for “Main Street?” We know that Trump inherited $40 million dollars from his father and has now convinced hordes of working-class whites that he feels their pain and knows their struggle. Perhaps that’s what Pence is referencing here. . . . The goal was to show Trump how effectively he can wag the pom poms. On that score, he succeeded. There’s another, perhaps more obvious reason why Pence wants this job: He might lose his. After his disastrous attempt to impose the anti-LGBT Religious Freedom Restoraction Act on Indianans in 2015, Pence’s popularity has plummeted. Even the business community turned against him. According to a May poll, his approval rating is down to 40 percent, with only 60 percent of Republicans supporting his re-election. The Indiana GOP would be happy to dispense with Pence and make way for a more attractive candidate.

In any event, a man this shameless in his pursuit of the nomination suits Trump well. Trump likes lackeys, and he appears to have found one in Pence. And because he’s staring down defeat in his home state, a VP nomination is an escape hatch for the Indiana governor, a chance to skirt failure and boost his national brand. Pence is also a safe pick with less baggage than Newt and Christie and a fair amount of experience on Capitol Hill. In addition to bowing to Trump, he’ll appeal to social conservatives and bring message discipline to a campaign without any.

So Pence might not be the sexiest pick for Trump, but he’s the safest. And considering the paucity of respectable candidates willing to stand on a stage with Trump, this is as good as it gets.

Ted Cruz Drops Out of Presidential Race - What Now for the Establishment?

After losing decisively to Donald Trump in Indiana, Ted Cruz announced tonight that he was dropping out of the GOP presidential nomination contest.   As a reader commented today on an earlier post, in someways, despite Donald Trump's demagoguery and flirtations with outright fascism, Cruz was the more frightening candidate given his religious extremism and apparently belief in a Christian Dominionist agenda that in effect longs for a right wing Christian theocracy in America.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at Cruz's announcement which comes after a day of insanity of the GOP side of the aisle, including Trumps's claim that Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of JFK.  Here are highlights (Politico also has coverage here):

Ted Cruz, the insurgent Texan whose presidential campaign was fueled by disdain for Washington, dropped out of the 2016 race Tuesday night, removing the last major hurdle in Donald Trump’s quest to become the Republican nominee for president.

Cruz’s decision came after losing overwhelmingly to Trump in the Indiana primary, all but ensuring that real estate mogul will claim his party’s mantle at the Republican National Convention in July.

“I said I would continue on as long as there is a viable path to victory. Tonight, I’m sorry to say, it appears that path has been foreclosed,” Cruz told a small group of supporters here Tuesday night. “Together we left it all on the field in Indiana. We gave it everything we got, but the voters chose another path.”

Cruz also said he would “continue to fight for liberty,” but did not address whether he would support Trump as the nominee.

In his last day on the campaign trail, Cruz unloaded on Trump, calling the businessman a”pathological liar” and a “narcissist” who was proud of being a “serial philanderer.” The attacks were reminiscent of the broadsides Sen. Marco Rubio launched against Trump in the waning days of his own presidential campaign — and a far cry from the lavish praise Cruz heaped on Trump for most of 2015, declaring, “I like Donald Trump.”

Meanwhile, moderate Republicans and the GOP establishment are now faced with the prospect of whether to support Trump, hold their noses and vote for a Democrat, or simply stay home and not vote.  If they chose the latter, many down ballot GOP candidates will likely be defeated.  Another piece in the Post looks at this dilemma. Here are highlights:

Anti-Donald Trump Republicans are starting to consider whether their opposition to a Trump presidency is so strong that they would be prepared to fight him in the general election — even if that means helping put an avowed enemy, Hillary Clinton, in the Oval Office.

One strategy under discussion is to focus on helping down-ballot GOP candidates while sitting out the presidential race under the belief that Trump will lose to Clinton no matter what. A more drastic and difficult option: rallying support for a third-party candidate who could uphold traditional Republican positions but would almost certainly steal votes from Trump.

“You have to bet on sanity,” said GOP strategist Stuart Stevens, who helped lead the campaign of 2012 nominee Mitt Romney. “If this is one of those moments in history where for various reasons the party has to play out nominating someone who is completely unelectable . . . so be it.”

The dilemma came into focus Tuesday night, when Trump scored a decisive victory in Indiana over Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas

“Indiana further confirmed the ‘stop Trump’ efforts didn’t work and spending even more resources in an effort keep him from the nomination will just be expensive political therapy or theatre at this point,” former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, a former Marco Rubio backer who is now neutral, said in an email.

“The GOP is going to nominate for President a guy who reads the National Enquirer and thinks it’s on the level,” tweeted Mark Salter, a former aide to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Then he added a Clinton campaign slogan: “I’m with her.”

For some Republicans, the prospect of a President Clinton is more palatable than a President Trump — not because they like Clinton, but because they could fight her on familiar terrain, rather than watching an unpredictable Trump use the power of the White House to remake the GOP.

The Implosion of Ted Cruz

I find the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency to be frightening.  That said, Ted Cruz in the White House is just as frightening given his loathsomeness and bigotry - and willingness to utterly prostitute himself to the Christofascists in the GOP base as underscored by his ongoing anti-transgender lies.  In deed, Lindsey Graham described the choice between Trump and Cruz as akin to deciding whether to be killed by a gunshot or poisoning.  Now, with Indiana voters going to the polls today, it appears that Cruz has begun to implode.  A column in the Washington Post looks at "Lucifer's" decline.  Here are excerpts:

In a case of exceptionally bad timing, Fiorina hitched herself to Cruz at precisely the moment his candidacy began to implode, as polls showed him fading in must-win Indiana before Tuesday’s vote. Fiorina’s previous criticism of Cruz and her checkered record at HP were again in the news.

It’s not Fiorina’s fault that news broke just after her “nomination” was announced that former House speaker John Boehner, still a popular figure in nearby Ohio, had called Cruz “Lucifer in the flesh” and a “miserable son of a bitch.” Nor was it Fiorina’s fault that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Friday gave Cruz such a tepid endorsement — he said that he “will be voting for Ted Cruz” but that “I particularly want to commend Donald Trump” — that Pence attempted a do-over in the form of an op-ed in the Indianapolis Star.

But if Fiorina picked investments the way she picked her candidate, you can see why HP stopped requiring her services. She bought Cruz at the peak, when polls showed him close in Indiana. But an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll Sunday found Trump up 15 points.

And now Cruz and Fiorina have to explain all those things she used to say about him: that “Cruz is just like any other politician”; that “there’s no honor in charging a hill that you know you can’t take, only casualties, although Ted Cruz maybe got name recognition and money”; and that it was “odd that Senator Ted Cruz did not renounce his dual Canadian citizenship until 2014.”

Cruz now also has to defend Fiorina’s record at HP, where she let go thousands and sent jobs to India and China. “Will the Cruz-Fiorina team do the same thing to Indiana that she did to Hewlett-Packard?” Fox News’s Chris Wallace asked Cruz on Sunday.

Fiorina was not standing at his shoulder later Monday, when he waded bravely into a group of Trump supporters outside his event. Cruz bravely tried to engage them in calm discussion. “Donald Trump is deceiving you. He is playing you for a chump,” Cruz said.

The Trump supporters taunted Cruz: “Do the math. . . . Time to drop out. . . . You are the problem, politician. . . . Where’s your Goldman Sachs jacket? . . . Lyin’ like you always do. . . . Are you Canadian?” America, one said, would be a better country “without you.”

If Cruz hadn’t established himself as a singularly unlikable candidate, one could almost have felt sorry for him in that moment. He needed urgently for Fiorina to sing more Ethel Merman . . . 

Ted Cruz Continues to Spread Anti-Transgender Lies

Not only is Ted Cruz physically repulsive, but he is morally repulsive as well as he continues to use anti-transgender fear mongering in a desperate attempt to goad the Christofascists to turn out and vote for him in the upcoming Indiana primary.  Cruz cares nothing for the truth and cares nothing about the harm he does to others in his power mad quest.  Towelroad looks at the latest vicious lies Cruz is utilizing.  Here are highlights: 

Even though the right-wing myths about what happens have been debunked many times (as recently as last week by FOX News anchor Chris Wallace), Ted Cruz continues to hammer home his fear-mongering about the consequences of transgender “bathroom bills” and according to the NYT, the strategy is working for him, at least in Indiana.

Said Cruz on Meet the Press Sunday:

“Donald Trump came out on television agreeing with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that grown men should be allowed to use little girls’ restrooms. Now I view this issue as a matter of basic common sense. I don’t think it’s a right or left or Republican or Democratic issue. It’s common sense. Look, I’m the dad of two little girls. It doesn’t make any sense to allow grown adult men – strangers – to be alone in a bathroom with a little girl – and virtually all Americans understand that. And it is only the height of political correctness that refuses to acknowledge this.”

Chuck Todd then asked about Caitlyn Jenner’s recent stunt in which she used the bathroom in a Trump Hotel in New York City and then emerged with a message directed at Cruz: “By the way Ted, nobody got molested.”

Replied Cruz:

“If you pass a law that says any adult man can go into a girl’s restroom if he feels like a woman at that minute… Look the real danger is not people who are transgendered it’s people who are predators. People who are predators who use that law as an excuse to go target our kids. … The reason Donald Trump’s comment is so revealing…he said a few months ago, ‘I can be the most politically correct person on earth’. This is political correct nonsense. People want someone who tells the truth. Donald is playing a role and pretending to be something he’s not. I’ve been the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”

Anti-Gay Indiana GOP’s House Leader Resigns in Sex Scandal

Indiana GOP House Leader Jud McMillin has proven yet again that when it comes to hypocrisy and false religiosity it is almost always the "family values" Republicans who win the prize.  McMillin, who pushed Indiana's falsely named religious liberty bill has resigned after a sexually compromising video him cheating on his wife was sent to all of the people on his cell phone “Contacts” list.  I swear to God that one could not make up stuff this good if you tried!  Salon looks at McMillin's much deserved political death.  Here are highlights:

The controversial House Majority Leader in Indiana — he cosponsored the state’s “religious freedom” law — resigned suddenly on Tuesday after a sexually compromising video was sent to all of the people on his “Contacts” list, the Advocate’s Bil Browning reports.

After news of the mass-texting began to circulate, Representative Jud McMillin (R) claimed that his “phone was stolen in Canada and out of my control for about 24 hours. I have just been able to reactivate it under my control. Please disregard any messages you received recently. I am truly sorry for anything offensive you may have received.”

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But his “Canadian girlfriend stole my phone” defense apparently didn’t convince many of his “Contacts” — or at least, not the ones who mattered — and so Tuesday night he released a statement in which he said that the “time is right for me to pass the torch and spend more time with my family.”

During his five years in the legislature, McMillin has crusaded to “protect the integrity of the institution of marriage,” but the Advocate reported that the woman on the video he texted was not, in fact, his wife. According to his campaign website, he claimed that “the family has always been the foundation of our strength of community” and that “[i]n these times of turmoil the rest of the country could learn something from our example.”

It’s unclear what the rest of the country could learn from his example at this time, other than — perhaps — opposing LGBTQ rights across the board could have karmic implications for conservative Republicans with a proclivity for taking videos of themselves cheating on their wives.

South Bend Mayor: Why Coming Out Matters

Pete Buttigieg (pictured above), who is the mayor of South Bend Indiana - not a particularly gay friendly state -  is the youngest mayor of a city with more than 100,000 residents in America.  Yesterday, Buttigieg, age 33, came out as gay in a powerful essay published by the city's local newspaper on Tuesday.  In the op-ed, Buttigrieg made the case as to why coming out is so important, both for one's own well being, but also for the larger LGBT community.   It is easy to hold prejudices against those that one does not know - or thinks one doesn't know.  When suddenly the class despised and condemned by religious extremists and bigots is discovered to include friends, neighbors and family members, it is much more difficult to continue to hang on to the hate and bigotry peddled primarily by the "godly folk."  If EVERY gay were to come out of the closet completely and cease living a furtive, closeted or semi-closeted life, we would have secured full equality long before now.  Here are excerpts from Buttigrieg's column:

Any day now, the Supreme Court will issue a decision on same-sex marriage that will directly affect millions of Americans. It comes at a time of growing public acceptance and support for equal rights. But no matter what the Court does, issues of equality are hardly settled across the country. Today it remains legal in most parts of Indiana (though not South Bend) to fire someone simply for being gay, and bullying still contributes to tragically high suicide rates among LGBT teens.

Experiences with friends or family members coming out have helped millions of Americans to see past stereotypes and better understand what being gay is — and is not. Being gay isn’t something you choose, but you do face choices about whether and how to discuss it. For most of our history, most Americans had no idea how many people they knew and cared about were gay.

My high school in South Bend had nearly a thousand students. Statistically, that means that several dozen were gay or lesbian. Yet when I graduated in 2000, I had yet to encounter a single openly LGBT student there. That’s far less likely to be the case now, as more students come to feel that their families and community will support and care for them no matter what.

I was well into adulthood before I was prepared to acknowledge the simple fact that I am gay. It took years of struggle and growth for me to recognize that it’s just a fact of life, like having brown hair, and part of who I am.

Putting something this personal on the pages of a newspaper does not come easy. We Midwesterners are instinctively private to begin with, and I’m not used to viewing this as anyone else’s business.

But it’s clear to me that at a moment like this, being more open about it could do some good. For a local student struggling with her sexuality, it might be helpful for an openly gay mayor to send the message that her community will always have a place for her. And for a conservative resident from a different generation, whose unease with social change is partly rooted in the impression that he doesn’t know anyone gay, perhaps a familiar face can be a reminder that we’re all in this together as a community.

Whenever I’ve come out to friends and family, they’ve made clear that they view this as just a part of who I am. Their response makes it possible to feel judged not by sexual orientation but by the things that we ought to care about most, like the content of our character and the value of our contributions.

Being gay has had no bearing on my job performance in business, in the military, or in my current role as mayor.

We’re moving closer to a world in which acceptance is the norm. This kind of social change, considered old news in some parts of the country, is still often divisive around here. But it doesn’t have to be. We’re all finding our way forward, and things will go better if we can manage to do it together. In the wake of the disastrous “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” episode here in Indiana earlier this year, we have an opportunity to demonstrate how a traditional, religious state like ours can move forward.

Like most people, I would like to get married one day and eventually raise a family. I hope that when my children are old enough to understand politics, they will be puzzled that someone like me revealing he is gay was ever considered to be newsworthy. By then, all the relevant laws and court decisions will be seen as steps along the path to equality. But the true compass that will have guided us there will be the basic regard and concern that we have for one another as fellow human beings — based not on categories of politics, orientation, background, status or creed, but on our shared knowledge that the greatest thing any of us has to offer is love.

Towleroad notes these other things about Buttigrieg:

According to his Facebook page, Buttigieg is a reserve officer in the Navy, and a graduate of both Harvard and Oxford universities.

IndyStar.com reports that Buttigieg, a Democrat, is in his first term and faces re-election this year.

Response to Buttigieg's essay on social media has been overwhelmingly positive .

Yes, coming out is terrifying, especially for us older gays, and can be fraught with upheaval.  My divorce was a nightmare and I was wiped out financially for a time.  But I cannot stress how wonderful it is to just be who I am.  No more hiding, no more self-loathing, no more secrets and feeling like an actor on a stage.  If people cannot accept you for who you are, then you are better off not having them in your life be they family members or those you thought were friends.  And remember, if they cannot accept you, it ultimately is because of their selfishness and their refusal to rethink matters and/or let go of ridiculous myths and fairy tales.  Kudos to Buttigrieg.

Big Business is Dragging the GOP into the Future on Gay Rights

I left the Republican Party for a number of reasons, the most important of which was the GOP's refusal to recognize the concept of separation of church and state.  Loosely related to this issue was the GOP's growing insistence to denigrate gays and make LGBT Americans forever legally inferior via so-called "marriage amendments."  Neither of these agendas fit with the Party's supposed allegiance to personal freedom and a smaller, less intrusive government.   As a column in Politico notes, the GOP has lost the battle against gay rights and big business has been a major factor in this defeat.  Moreover, some Republicans - namely, the non-Christofascists - are pleased with the outcome.  Here are some column highlights:

I'm not among those Republicans who have “evolved” on the issue of gay rights. I didn’t need to. I’ve always been attracted to the GOP message of more freedom and less government, but thought it hypocritical and counter to the core of our philosophy that Republicans would not apply those tenets to gay rights. But of course I was often the black sheep in campaign meetings during the 1990s and 2000s.

[T]he wedge issue [of gay rights] has now lost its edge, even, I would argue, in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. No Republican can win the nomination without the support of the business community. And Big Business is now at odds with the social conservative faction of the Republican Party over gay and transgender equality — and Big Business is winning.

Look at what’s happened in four states dominated by the GOP in the past year.

Weeks before the Super Bowl kickoff in 2014, the Arizona Legislature passed a bill allowing businesses to refuse service to gay customers. This “religious freedom” measure made it OK for business owners to kick customers out of their establishments if they opposed homosexuality on religious grounds. Scores of corporate titans in the travel and tourism industry, together with the NFL, opposed the bill. Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed it.

In Indiana this March, lawmakers tried to pass similar legislation, followed by a hell-hath-no-fury response led by Eli Lilly, Salesforce and Angie’s List, which canceled a $40 million project planned for Indianapolis. Marriott’s CEO said the legislation was “pure idiocy from a business perspective.” Gov. Mike Pence modified the bill, but the damage was done. (The state has since hired a global PR firm to resuscitate its image following the brouhaha.)

In Arkansas, same story. Seeing the firestorm that occurred in Indiana, Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson didn’t sign the original bill that hit his desk after calls for him to veto it came from his own son, and from Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, which said the bill ran counter to the company’s values. In the end, the governor signed a less toxic, less controversial bill.

And this week, Texas became the latest to join the fray.  The Lone Star State just wrapped its legislative session, which included two “religious freedom” constitutional amendments. Learning from what happened in the above states, industry groups and major businesses went out pre-emptively — let me say that again: pre-emptively — before such bills made it too far in the Legislature. The conservative state chamber of commerce, the Texas Association of Business, took the lead.

The amendments “would devastate economic development, tourism and the convention business,” said Bill Hammond, TAB’s CEO.

More than 250 Texas companies — American Airlines, Dell, Texas Instruments, Dow Chemical, the Dallas Mavericks — went on record with a general pledge in support of treating gay and transgender Texans fairly and equally under the law — and that welcoming and inclusive communities are essential to their bottom line.

Both amendments in the Texas Legislature died a quick death.

So: four states, same story and same result. If the “religious freedom” strategy can’t work in Texas — the bastion of conservatism and beacon for business — where can it work?

Elections are always about the future, never about the past. And so my advice to GOP candidates is to recognize that since our society has largely moved on, and business has moved on, so should the party of Abraham Lincoln, who fought a civil war over civil rights.

Discrimination is now simply bad for the bottom line and bad for any brand, whether a company’s or a state’s. When it comes to recruitment and retention, the millennial generation, which will be 75 percent of the workforce by 2030, doesn’t have much tolerance for anti-gay anything. In fact, it’s become somewhat of a litmus test. 73 percent of millennials support LGBT nondiscrimination, according to Public Religion Research Institute. Surely, they use it as one criterion when deciding where to work.

Negative national headlines on religious freedom continue to fuel a negative image of the entire party. Both in my private conversations with and in public (and private) polling, conservatives are moving ever closer to supporting full equity for LGBT Americans.

Shockingly, it’s still legal in the United States of America, even as we may be on the brink of having marriage equality in all 50 states, to fire and evict gay and transgender folks — and kick them out of a restaurant — simply for being who they are. This is patently wrong and needs to be fixed.

Democrats and Big Business are at work fixing it, together. That would have been an odd pairing years ago. The GOP position is untenable — and out of step with one of its key constituencies. It’s time to stand up to the social conservative wing and move into the future.

The Far Right’s “Religious Freedom” Push is Just the Beginning

Under the regime of the Shah of Iran, Iran rapidly modernized and embraced education and modernity.   Critics called the Shah's regime brutal and America largely sat back as religious extremists swept into power ostensibly to bring more democracy and freedom - something, that, of course never materialized, and the Shah quickly appeared to be a gentle charity worker compared to those who took control of the country.  Iran symbolizes how religion can drag a country back in time and revive Medieval mindsets.  Here in America, evangelical Christians seek to do something similar as well as grant themselves special rights and privileges.   Their agenda is to undermine the U.S. Constitution and, unfortunately, opportunists and political whores in the Republican Party are only too willing to cooperate as the true concept of religious freedom is under daily attack by the "godly folk" and their sycophants.  A piece in Salon looks at how the problem of the far right is perhaps just beginning.  Here are highlights:

By now, it’s clear that Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act was crafted to empower piously bigoted entrepreneurs and companies desirous of freelancing with their own “Jim Crow for gays” restrictions, and to let them cite as legal justification for doing so their precious religious sensibilities.  The RFRA, said the original text, sought to give judicial succor to those who found that their “exercise of religion . . . has been substantially burdened,” or was just “likely to be substantially burdened” by performing services for people their faith’s sacred credos enjoin them to abhor (gays, in this case). 

The danger, however, has by no means passed.  RFRAs already exist in 21 other states (in three of which, bills are pending to fortify them), and three more are considering adopting similar measures.  The RFRA just passed last week in Arkansas may allow faith-based discrimination; we now await a test case.  

Yet the real menace to our priceless heritage of secular governance comes from the Supreme Court, which a year ago (in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby) ruled that corporations, on the basis of their religious convictions (yes, the Court decided corporations have those), can exempt themselves from the Affordable Care Act’s relevant articles and refuse to pay for contraceptives in their employee health plans.  

RFRAs don’t define religion or specify to which religion they pertain.  But a lot hinges on how we define religion.  Everyone knows what dictionaries say it is.  We’re also all too familiar with another definition, one by which faith is an entirely spiritual affair, a matter of transcendental, miraculously elastic interpretation never to be held accountable for the witless antics, casual brutality and gross atrocities committed by its practitioners. . . . Both definitions lend an aura of dignity and gravitas to what is essentially sordid gibberish that we should dismiss out of hand, as we now do necromancy, phrenology or alchemy, or simply laugh off.

Yet religion is far too dangerous to our liberties to be laughed off or mischaracterized as harmless.  In its Abrahamic strain, it is a triad of antiquated, largely pernicious ideologies of control and exclusion suffusing various “holy” books that detail a phony cosmogony, a fairy-tale version of humankind’s origins, and a plethora of strictures meant to regulate and restrict our behavior. . . . . A fictitious celestial tyrant superintends the almost ceaseless slaughter playing out in the Bronze-Age phantasmagoria of his alleged creation.

His pronouncements are regarded as binding on all humans.  Hence, if the fictitious tyrant says, for instance, that gay sex is an abomination, it just is, and gays have to be abominated, like it or not.  Nothing personal – it’s just what the magic book says.

[U]nknown humans came up with these magic books in a time before people knew what germs were, what gravity was, or that the earth orbited the sun, or that the earth was round.  But the magic books, because they are magic, have to be believed.  Why?  Because the magic books say so.  Failure to believe in said magic books is a great sin.  Why?  So the magic books themselves decree.  According to one of the magic books, those who announce they’ve stopped believing in it deserve to die. 

How would this restaurateur prove to a judge that he actually believes what’s written in his magic book?  After all, most of it is pretty crazy stuff – talking snakes, burning bushes, suns standing still, virgin births, walking dead folk, and so on.  A lawyer for the gay plaintiffs might challenge the restaurateur to present concrete evidence that he really does believe, and so has truly been “burdened.” 

Given that RFRAs don’t specify to which religion they pertain, if they do legalize discrimination, they will do so ecumenically, offering adherents of all denominations a chance to bully both rationalists and believers of other cults.  Presumably followers of the Torah, say, could deny service to those who have performed any of thirty-nine types of activity forbidden on the Sabbath.   . . . Jews and Christians might wish to unite in denying service to Muslims, because, obviously, neither of their magic books recognizes the Islamic magic book.. . . .How long would it be before Christians revive the age-old charge of deicide against the Jews and halt all service to the “murderers of Christ?”  Muslims, in turn, could deny service to Jews and Christians for having rejected the Prophet Muhammad.

Such are the farcical dilemmas and rank absurdities with which religion threatens to swamp us if it infests our judicial system and trumps secular law, as any RFRA legalizing faith-based discrimination would do.  The ghastly morass to which RFRAs will one day probably lead speaks to nothing but the ahistorical ignorance of their drafters. 

The Founding Fathers never meant for religion to play a role in our affairs of state.  . . .
James Madison declared that “An alliance or coalition between Government and religion cannot be too carefully guarded against,” and thought that “Ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects.”

John Adams authored a treaty, signed by none other than George Washington, proclaiming that the United States was “not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.“  

Thomas Jefferson, one of the architects of the Constitution and the author of the “wall of separation between church and state,” had this un-Christian prediction to proffer about Christianity: “the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.“  The Book of Revelation he dismissed as “merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.”

These days, sadly, with the godly on the legislative march, and the Roberts Court sitting in Washington ready to back them up, we find ourselves facing an unprecedented threat to what remains of our democracy. 

Would religious folk, if they succeed in passing laws that empower them to use their faith as a bludgeon, prove restrained in invoking them?

In answer to the last question, one need look no farther than Iran, Saudi Arabia and other countries where religion is joined with the supposed civil laws.  It's ugly and down right dangerous for non-believers and those who embrace knowledge and science.  Yet this is what the "godly folk" and the GOP want to bring to America.  They must be stopped. 

Tom Cotton and the Republican/Christofascist Cavalcade of Hate

One aspect of the controversy over the "license to discriminate laws" being pushed by the Christofascists and their political whores in the Republican Party is that perhaps at last the general public and self-loathing gays who still vote Republican may finally understand just how foul the Republican Party and the "godly folk" have become.  Leading the charge of hate and loathing is GOP Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas who stated that gays needed to "get some perspective" and realize that discrimination should impliedly be acceptable since we are being executed as in Iran.  Meanwhile, after the Indiana GOP and Mike Pence have hurriedly enacted a "fix" to Indiana's "religious freedom restoration act," the godly folk have been spewing anti-gay hate and attacking the businesses that condemned Indiana's foul legislation.  First, here are highlights from The New Civil Rights Movement on Tom Cotton's unbelievable statement:

Freshman Republican U.S. Senator from Arkansas, Tom Cotton, made headlines recently when he convinced 46 of his GOP colleagues to sign an open letter to the leaders of Iran, essentially denouncing President Barack Obama and his attempts to secure a nuclear deal.   That of course ended disastrously for the GOP.

Now, Sen. Cotton is making headlines again, this time for telling gay people they're lucky to be alive.  "I think it’s important we have a sense of perspective about our priorities,” Sen. Cotton told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Wednesday. "In Iran, they hang you for the crime of being gay."

Think Progress, which first reported on the story, notes that "While Cotton is correct that LGBT people in America are not routinely executed, violence against LGBT Americans remains a significant problem."

And in an Editor's blog post titled "Really Stupid People," Talking Points Memo publisher Josh Marshall called Cotton "a one-noter."

Cotton, in his Iran comment, seemingly only stated what the "godly folk" would like to do to gays.   Fanning the flames of hate are some of the usual suspects from "Christian" organizations.  Meanwhile, others in the GOP piled on.  Here is a sampling:

Mike Huckabee:  Huckabee told FRC president Tony Perkins, the host of the program, that the gay community has turned the controversies surrounding “religious freedom” legislation in Arkansas and Indiana into a “phony crisis.”

Perkins contended that gay people who are denied service by a business should simply try to find another shop that will serve them rather than filing a lawsuit against discriminatory business owners. “Where will it stop?” he asked Huckabee.

“It won’t stop until there are no more churches, until there are no more people who are spreading the Gospel,” Huckabee replied, “and I’m talking now about the unabridged, unapologetic Gospel that is really God’s truth.”


Mat Staver: Mat Staver once again compared gay rights advocates to terrorists, telling WND radio host Greg Corombos that the LGBT community won’t stop until it wins a “special, protected, preferred status for homosexuality” and “then if they get that, boy are they going to come and hammer you hard with it.”

“Their agenda doesn’t stop until they are completely dominating anybody who ultimately does not not only agree but promote and affirm their lifestyle,” Staver said. “Their agenda will not stop, it will ultimately result in fines and prosecution. This is an intolerant agenda.” He went on to liken gay rights supporters to the Hamas terrorists.

Pat Robertson: Hampton Roads' own village idiot again shot off his mouth to the embarrassment of the entire region:.   Pat Robertson repeated his criticism of the gay community in the wake of the controversy surrounding a new Indiana law which gives businesses the right to deny service to LGBT customers, among others. 

This led Robertson to a tirade about how gay people will force others to embrace anal sex and bestiality.  “It doesn’t matter what custom you’ve got, it doesn’t matter what holy thing that you worship and adore, the gays are going to get it,” Robertson said. “They’re going to make you conform to them. You are going to say you like anal sex, you like oral sex, you like bestiality.

There are many more chilling and/or insane quotes.  The take away?  There is little wonder that 33% of Millennials have walked away from religion.  Frankly, I cannot blame them.  It is far, far past time that religious belief and the "godly folk" cease to be afforded any deference whatsoever.