Federal Judge Says Conversion Therapy Torture Protected by First Amendment

Judge who would allow child abuse.

Shockingly, a federal judge in Florida has preliminary ruled that Tampa's bar on conversion therapy torture for minors should be blocked by a temporary injunction.  One has to wonder if  Magistrate Judge Amanda Arnold Sansone believes that other felony child abuse laws should be similarly enjoined.  Despite the fact that EVERY legitimate medical and mental health association condemns the practice and labels it as dangerous, Sansome seems to have bought the lies of the vitriolically anti-gay Liberty Counsel and deems children as chattel property of their parents with no right to be protected from parental abuse and fraudulent practices.  One has to wonder how many suicides of LGBT youth Sansone's ruling may have as its result if it stands.  Think Progress looks at this dangerous ruling.  Here are article highlights:

A federal magistrate judge in Florida recommended Wednesday that Tampa’s ban on anti-LGBTQ conversion therapy for minors be halted, which would enable practitioners of the treatment to continue trying to shame kids out of their same-sex orientations.

The anti-LGBTQ hate group Liberty Counsel brought the complaint on behalf of two therapists and a Christian ministry that provide counseling to help “reduce or eliminate same-sex sexual attractions, behaviors or identity.” They argued that because all they provide is talk therapy, their sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) constitute “speech” protected under the First Amendment that cannot be restricted by law. U.S. Magistrate judge Amanda Arnold Sansone agreed, recommending a preliminary injunction.

Sansone concluded that the city could have more narrowly tailored the ban to only restrict “involuntary” counseling, only ban “aversive” treatments like electroshock therapy, or require informed consent. She also agreed that Tampa was engaging in viewpoint discrimination and idea suppression because it “disagreed with the ideas expressed” in conversion therapy.

“The plaintiffs sufficiently demonstrated Ordinance 2017-47’s overbroad prohibition on non-coercive, non-aversive SOCE counseling consisting entirely of speech or ‘talk therapy’ is likely unconstitutional,” she wrote.

The problem with this ruling is that it completely ignores everything major medical organizations have said about conversion therapy. When the American Psychological Association issued its massive report on SOCE in 2009, it didn’t say that some SOCE is harmful and some isn’t. It said that any effort to try to help patients reject or change their sexual orientation risked harm.

Specifically addressing SOCE for minors, the report noted, “SOCE that focus on negative representations of homosexuality and lack a theoretical or evidence base provide no documented benefits and can pose harm through increasing sexual stigma and providing inaccurate information.” It instead recommended affirming treatments that work with families to help them accept their children for who they are and work to address how that sexual orientation intersects with their beliefs and values.

Likewise, even if a minor is given the option to consent, that doesn’t mean they aren’t being coerced into the treatment by their families. One of the primary reasons LGBTQ young people are vastly overrepresented among homeless youth is because they face rejection by their families, which can often take the form of ultimatums to pursue some form of conversion therapy. Sansone’s recommendation does not immediately enjoin the Tampa’s ban, but the case now proceeds to a federal district judge for final consideration.

I hope the ruling is reversed.  As for Sansone, she needs to get her head out of her ass and educate herself about the evil she is permitting. 

Evangelicals Lobby Against Anti-Lynching Law

Evangelical Christianity has become something truly foul and ugly.  The latest example? Liberty Counsel, a hate group masquerading as a "Christian" charity, is leading the charge in opposition to the “Justice for Victims of Lynching Act” that was introduced by the U. S. Senate's three black Senators.  Why the opposition?  Because the language of the proposed act includes LGBT victims (I would also suggest that given the racism of a majority of evangelicals, in my opinion, they support lynching in general).  A piece in LGBT Nation looks at this hate motivated effort by evangelicals.  Here are excerpts:

Proving once again that white evangelicals are no longer a religious group, but a political entity, one of the religious right’s most active organizations has announced they are lobbying against a proposed federal anti-lynching law.

Why? Because it includes LGBTQ people.

“The old saying is once that camel gets the nose in the tent, you can’t stop them from coming the rest of the way in,” Matt Staver, founder of the anti-LGBTQ hate group Liberty Counsel, told the far right outlet OneNewsNow. “And this would be the first time that you would have in federal law mentioning gender identity and sexual orientation as part of this anti-lynching bill.”

Federal law already includes gender identity and sexual orientation in hate crimes protections.

Staver observes, “but this is a way to slip it in under a so-called anti-lynching bill, and to then to sort of circle the wagon and then go for the juggler at some time in the future.”

The proposed legislation passed the Senate in a rare unanimous vote last month. The “Justice for Victims of Lynching Act” was introduced by the chamber’s three black Senators: California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, and New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker.

The bill describes lynching as “the ultimate expression of racism in the United States.”

Staver says his organization is currently lobbying Congress members against the bill before it can pass the House of Representatives.

Liberty Counsel masquerades as a legal charity, but has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It has deep ties to other extremist religious right organizations.

Court Tosses Liberty Counsel’s “Hate Group” Designation Lawsuit Against Rating Site

Many among the grifters, hate merchants and charlatans who make up a who's who of the so-called Christofascist have been highly overwrought by the hate group designations that they have rightly received from the Southern Poverty Law Center ("SPLC") - the same organization that tracks Neo-nazi and white supremacy groups.  That whining and bitching rose to new levels when GuideStar, a charity-information site that discloses to would be donors information of purported charities noted the hate group designation for Liberty Counsel, a viciously anti-gay organization that has disseminated malicious anti-gay lies and disinformation for literally decades.  The Chronicle Of Philanthropy looks at the ruling that was handed down by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk, Virginia.   Here are excerpts:

GuideStar, the charity-information site, scored a major victory as a federal court ruled it was in legal bounds to put a hate label on a nonprofit’s profile.

A federal judge in Virginia dismissed a lawsuit against GuideStar pursued by the conservative Christian legal-defense group Liberty Counsel.

Liberty Counsel sued after a label was placed on its GuideStar profile page noting that the legal organization had been designated a hate group for its anti-LGBTQ stances. Liberty Counsel said the label was defamatory and hurt its reputation. It also charged that the label violated a federal law against unfair competition and false advertising.

Judge Raymond Jackson of the Federal District Court in Norfolk, Va., however, said the designation was “an informative statement” and “not commercial speech” in his ruling— and rejected Liberty Council’s claim that its business was affected. Mr. Jackson also dismissed the legal group’s defamation claim.

Liberty Counsel said in statement Wednesday that it is considering an appeal of the decision.

GuideStar added warning banners last year to the profile pages of 46 organizations, including Liberty Counsel, to notify visitors that the Southern Poverty Law Center had accused the charities of spreading hate. The message directed visitors to the anti-hate group’s website. 

GuideStar announced it was pulling the warning labels last June after the designations caused a firestorm among conservative groups that said they had been unfairly targeted.
The nonprofit information site said it backed away from the labels after its staff members had faced threats to their personal safety from opponents of the labels.

The groups that have received these "hate group" labels  purport to be "Christian" organizations, most claiming the "family values" label.  If anyone questions the hate group label in the case of Liberty Counsel - or Family Research Council and numerous "Christian" organizations, I invite them to visit SPLC's site and look at the documentation.  I defy them to describe the conduct described in any way Christian .  It is also noteworthy that Guidestar backed away from the labels due to threats to its employees by supporters of these bogus charities.  In all of my years of writing this blog, the only death threats I have received has been from "devout Christians."  No Muslims have threatened me - and I am just as hard on Islam as Christianity - nor has anyone else.

Trump To Headline Anti-LGBT Hate Group Event

Remember how self-loathing "gays for Trump" have ridiculously claimed that Trump would be the better president when it comes to protecting gays?  That same Donald Trump is now going to be headlining a veritable hate fest of anti-gay Christofascists in Orlando just two months after the Pulse massacre.  Some of the attendees who will be at this gathering of religious extremists even went so far as to complain that the Pulse shooter didn't kill even more LGBT individuals. I'm sorry, but in my view, if you are a gay Republican you need to either pull your head out of your ass and/or seek a mental health intervention to over come your apparent internalized homophobia.  People for the American Way (which advocates for separation of church and state) had these remarks:

According to news reports today, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump will be attending an American Renewal Project event along with Sen. Marco Rubio later this week in Orlando, scheduled to take place exactly two months after the horrific Pulse nightclub shooting. The event includes some of the most extreme anti-gay activists in the country and is organized by an activist who has said that God would punish the country with “car bombs in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Des Moines” for the LGBT-inclusive program at President Obama’s inauguration.

People For the American Way president Michael Keegan released the following statement:

“That the GOP standard bearer is choosing to rub shoulders with some of the most extreme anti-gay voices in the country speaks volumes about the Republican party today. These are people who revile gay people, calling them ‘demonic,’ and who claim that LGBT rights will lead to the ‘utter destruction’ of our country. But the GOP presidential candidate seemingly has no qualms about casting his lot with these dangerous anti-gay voices.”

 Right Wing Watch also looks at the foul gathering that Trump will be headlining.  Here are excerpts:

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is scheduled to attend a radical anti-LGBT event in being held in Orlando this week exactly two months after the Pulse nightclub shooting, according to news reports from Jenna Browder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News.

As we reported last week, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and a host of anti-LGBT extremists are slated to address the “Rediscovering God in America” event, which is sponsored by the American Renewal Project.

Self-described “political operative” David Lane founded the American Renewal Project as a way to mobilize conservative Christian voters and inspire right-wing pastors to run for elected office. He told Jacobs that he intends to quiz Trump on how he plans to fight “homosexual totalitarianism” and the gay rights “militants.”

Lane, a vocal opponent of LGBT equality, has said that “homosexuals praying at the Inauguration” in 2012 would cause “car bombs in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Des Moines, Iowa” as a sign of God’s judgment and that the “pagan onslaught” of the LGBT rights movement will lead to the destruction of America. 

Local lunatic and professional Christian parasite Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network lauded Trump for attending the hate fest.  Here are excerpts:

We have an exclusive to share with you: GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump will be speaking to hundreds of pastors this Thursday in Orlando, Florida. This is a private event sponsored by the American Renewal Project.

Trump will speak to them about his push to repeal the Johnson Amendment. The law, which has been in place for decades, has made it more difficult for pastors to speak out on political issues and candidates from the pulpit. We should also note that former presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio will also speak to pastors at the two-day event.

Events like this one will be crucial to Trump if he wants to beat Hillary Clinton. The reality is that evangelical pastors are a major key ingredient to mobilizing the masses. They hold great power over a captive audience every week in the pews. Trump needs them engaged. If they are, the flocks will typically follow.

The result? A bottom up approach that will affect turnout exponentially. The top down approach of receiving key endorsements won't do squat unless the evangelicals sitting in the pews are motivated.

Trump shouldn't assume that the anti-Hillary sentiment will be all he needs. No. He needs to do some work and by showing up in Orlando he's well on his way to striking evangelical gold.

Note how Trump wants to grant tax-exempt churches the right to engage in political activities.  Stated another way, Trump wants to force all taxpayers to indirectly subsidize the political activities of churches that seek to take away their civil rights.   

Marco Rubio To Headline Radical Anti-LGBT Event

While the dishonest and delusional Donald Trump continues to claim that he would be a protector of the LGBT community, Marco Rubio - always a self-prostituting sleaze back who makes real prostitutes look virtuous - is underscoring the GOP{'s real approach to LGBT Americans by headlining an event for anti-LGBT hate group Liberty Counsel.   Worse yet, Rubio - who has been rumored to have his own gay history - will be speaking in Orlando, the cite of the worse LGBT massacre in American history.   Right Wing Watch looks at this foul bigotry.  Here are excerpts:

When Marco Rubio cited the deadly attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando as a reason he was changing his mind and running for re-election to the U.S. Senate, many LGBT allies immediately noted that the Florida senator and failed presidential candidate has never been an ally of the LGBT community.

“To be using the tragedy in Orlando as a time to reflect on his Senate career, when his career and his promises on the campaign trail have been anti-LGBTQ consistently, it’s just staggering to think he would be using this moment for his own personal ambitions,” said Jay Brown of the Human Rights Campaign at the time.

It comes as no surprise, then, to see that Rubio is slated to address an event in Orlando next month that will feature some of the country’s most vehement anti-LGBT activists.

The Orlando-based Liberty Counsel Action, an extreme anti-LGBT group whose affiliate is famous for representing Kentucky clerk Kim Davis in her stand against the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision, announced in an email today that the Florida Renewal Project will be hosting an event called “Rediscovering God in America” in August. The event will be headlined by Rubio, who will speak alongside anti-LGBT activists David Barton, Bill Federer, Ken Graves and Mat Staver.

The Florida Renewal Project is an affiliate of conservative activist David Lane’s American Renewal Project, which hosts “Rediscovering God” conferences around the country.

The event will put Rubio in the company of some of the most extreme anti-gay activists in the country:

• David Lane, whose organization is hosting the event, believes that gay rights will lead to the “utter destruction” of the U.S. and “car bombs in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Des Moines, Iowa.” (Learn more about David Lane here).

• Mat Staver, whose Liberty Counsel Action sent out the invitation to the event and who is scheduled to speak, has gained a national reputation by representing Davis and Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore through the affiliated Liberty Counsel. Last month, Staver denounced memorial gatherings for the victims of the Orlando nightclub attack as “homosexual love fests.” Staver has claimed that gay people are “demonic,” seek to abuse children and are similar to terrorists, and has warned that gay rights victories could lead to “forced homosexuality” and “another civil war.” At the same time, he has praised countries that outlaw same-sex relationships. (Learn more about Mat Staver here).

• David Barton, a Republican Party activist who styles himself as a historian, thinks that God is justly preventing a cure for HIV/AIDS because it is a divine “penalty” for homosexuality, and has lamented that public schools try to “force” students “to be homosexual” when homosexuality really should be regulated by the government. (Learn more about David Barton here).

• Maine pastor Ken Graves preaches against “militant homofascism” that he says “seeks to take over our land and make it Sodom” and argues that gay people cannot build happy families because they are “depressed.”

• Bill Federer, a Religious Right activist and conspiracy theorist, believes that gay rights are bringing about the Islamist takeover of America.

Rubio represents the true GOP and his views mirror those of the supporters of Donald Trump and anti-LGBT zealot, Mike Pence.  

•  

The Liberty Council Head Encourages Anti-Transgender Violence

As suggested in the prior post, if one is worried about sexual abuse of minors, then your focus needs to be on "family values" Republicans.   While there have been ZERO reports of sexual misconduct by transgender individuals in restrooms, the same cannot be said for Republican elected officials.  Yet despite the documentation that transgender individuals pose no threat to others, what does the head of so-called "Christian law firm" Liberty Counsel do?  She states that she will be taking a pistol with her to Target stores to ostensibly protect herself from transgender sexual predators and to protest Target's announcement that transgender individuals are welcome to use the restroom of their preference. As an attorney, I find Liberty Counsel to be a despicable organizations for a number of reasons, not the least being the frauds they seek to perpetrate on courts through out right lies and fraudulent experts and deception.  All the while, of course, the organization's charlatans posture themselves as "godly Christians" and demand undeserved deference.  The Raw Story looks at this latest outrage by Liberty Counsel's morally bankrupt leadership.  Here are excerpts:

The president [high priestess] of theocratic law group The Liberty Council announced on the social medium Twitter that she plans to carry a gun with her to the women’s restroom at Target stores so that she can shoot anyone she thinks is transgender.

Blogger Joe My God wrote on Monday, “Liberty Counsel president Anita Staver declared Friday that she will be taking her Glock .45 handgun to Target as protection against assaults by transgender patrons.”

Anita Staver is married to Mat Staver, head of the legal team that defended Kentucky’s outspoken anti-marriage equality county clerk Kim Davis in her effort to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.

Conservative activists have worked themselves into a lather over Target stores’ decision to allow trans customers to use restrooms designated for their expressed gender. The group launched a #BoycottTarget campaign on social media last week.

Tennessee Anti-Transgender Republican Pulls Bill and Kills It

It would seem that despite protestations to the contrary some Republican state level legislators are paying heed to the economic fallout North Carolina is suffering in the wake of the North Carolina GOP's passage of an anti-LGBT bill that in addition to rolling back non-discrimination protections also seeks to force transgender individuals to use the bathroom associated with their birth gender regardless of their transition and amended birth certificates.  Behind these bills are the usual Christian dominionist hate group suspects, Liberty Counsel and the wholly misnamed Alliance Defending Freedom.  The Tennessean looks at the decision of Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet (pictured at left), to pull her misguided bill even as she pretends that the retribution that North Carolina had no role in her decision.  Here are excerpts: 

The House sponsor of a bill that would require students in public school grades K-12 and higher education institutions to use the restroom that corresponds with their sex at birth is killing the controversial legislation.

Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet, said Monday she plans on delaying any action on the highly contentious measure in an effort to further study the issue.

Lynn, who had been an outspoken proponent of the measure as it made its way through legislative committees, said school districts are protecting the privacy rights of all students and she was "confident that things will be OK” until next session.

The Republican lawmaker said the controversy surrounding the legislation, which included threats by some companies to withhold business from Tennessee, did not factor into her decision to halt the measure.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Herbert Slatery issued an opinion saying the state could be in jeopardy of losing more than $1.2 billion in federal Title IX funding if the bill became law. Title IX under federal law bars discrimination in education based on sex.

Lynn said the opinion did not address “exactly what we were looking for.”

The opinion came in response to two questions, which centered around the Title IX issue, that Reps. Mike Stewart, D-Nashville, and Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville, who serves as chairman of the House Education Administration and Planning Committee, asked Slatery to answer. Most schools in the state are offering accommodations to students.

She said if the question had been asked “more accurately” there would have likely been a different answer. Backers of the bill, including sponsors Lynn and Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, said the legislation was needed to protect the privacy of students.
“We just did want to protect children at the state level," Lynn said.

Lynn said that she talked about the controversial legislation with Gov. Bill Haslam, who expressed concerns about the Title IX funding.

Lynn's announcement comes as competing groups descended on Capitol Hill on Monday to continue the battle over the bill, while a panel of senators delayed taking action on the controversial legislation during an afternoon session.

Family Action Council of Tennessee President David Fowler backed the bill and thanked Lynn and Bell for sponsoring it.

Fowler downplayed the possible loss of business and federal education funding and sought to distance Tennessee's proposal from similar legislation passed in North Carolina.

In recent weeks, opposition to the legislation mounted. Last week, executives from 60 businesses, including Cigna, Hilton Hotels, Dow Chemical Co. and Alcoa Inc., signed a letter that was delivered to the Republican leaders of both chambers expressing their concerns about the bill.

While  Lynn claims to only to "protect the children," in reality she doesn't give a damn about LGBT children.

The Gay Hating Pastor Bankrolling Ted Cruz

As noted in previous blog posts, much of Ted Cruz's rise in the polls in Iowa stems directly from the fact that he has garnered the endorsement of virtually every major anti-gay hate group.  In exchange for such backing, Cruz has shown himself more than willing to back efforts to undo the U.S. Supreme court's marriage ruling and to support "religious freedom" bills that would provide special rights to Christofascists in the form of a license to discriminate LGBT individuals.   A piece in The Daily Beast looks at one of Cruz's most scary and extreme backers, Farris Wilks, who has more money that common sense or true morality.  Here are excerpts:

The church is the Assembly of Yahweh, and its pastor, Farris Wilks, happens to be one of the most powerful new players in presidential politics. Farris, along with his brother Dan, made his fortune off the fracking boom and is using part of it to back Sen. Ted Cruz in his bid for the White House.

[W]ealth didn’t dint his commitment to old-time religion—and to the culture war (read: anti-gay) politics that defined George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns. Now, Cruz is taking a page out of Karl Rove’s playbook, looking to galvanize evangelical voters as a way to make the Republican Party competitive again. And Farris Wilks is just the guy to fund that effort.

The Wilks brothers and their wives have given $15 million to one of Cruz’s super PACs—one of the biggest contributions of this campaign cycle, in either party.

Farris Wilks didn’t speak with The Daily Beast for this story, but a visit to the church he pastors may shed light on the way the billionaire’s faith informs his commitment to bankrolling a culture warrior like Cruz.

At the end of December, the brothers hosted Cruz and conservative Christian leaders for a fundraiser at Farris’s homestead in Cisco, as The Washington Post detailed. And it recalls a central element of Cruz’s campaign: He’s said he can win the White House by dramatically boosting turnout among evangelical Christians (never mind that his strategy may have a math problem).

It’s affiliated with the Liberty Counsel, the group that represents Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis. This is no accident, since Farris Wilks supports Liberty Counsel (according to Reuters, which reports he’s given the group $1.5 million). Cruz recently told backers at a private Manhattan fundraising event that marriage wasn’t one of his top three issues, but it gets top billing at his benefactor’s church.  

Like Kim Davis’s Apostolic Pentecostal Church, the Assembly of Yahweh rejects the doctrine of the trinity—that God is one but exists as three persons, the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. Instead, the church teaches that Yahweh is the only god and that Yahshuah (Jesus), is a separate being.

According to sermons transcribed by the liberal group Right Wing Watch, Wilks has preached that LGBT people endanger children. “If we all took on this lifestyle, all humanity would perish in one generation,” he said in one sermon. “So this lifestyle is a predatorial lifestyle, in that they need your children and straight people having kids to fulfill their sexual habits. They can’t do it by their self. They want your children…

[T]he congregation does not observe “the religious holidays of the Gentiles”—including Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, and Halloween. Instead, they celebrate feasts mentioned in the Old Testament.

They follow the Old Testament teachings on eating laid out in Leviticus 11, which means no pork and no shellfish. And the church teaches “[t]hat homosexuality is a serious crime—a very grievous sin.” So is getting drunk. “It is debauchery,” the pamphlet on doctrine says. “Drunkenness is classed with such grievous crimes as robbery, sexual perverts, adultery, and idolatry.  

There's more, but the take away is that Wilks and his parishioners are nuts and way, way out of the mainstream of America.

CBS and AP Cite Liberty Counsel's Hate Group Label

Hate merchants Mat and Anita Staver

It drives me to distraction that all too often the mainstream media gives a platform to hate groups and their leaders - Tony Perkins and FRC are usual examples - and never disclose to readers and/or viewers the ugly reality about these individuals and groups.   Whether it is out of simple laziness or some sick sense of wanting to appear "balanced," the unwary are left with the wrong impression that these are simple "Christian" and/or family values advocates rather than hate merchants. Mat Staver and his equally deranged wife and their utterly misnamed "law firm" have been seeking to ride the Kim Davis circus all the way to the bank.  Thankfully, their effort has led to CBS News and now the Associated Press to look into and expose their sordid, hate filled, and lie filled nature and tactics.  As Joe Jervis notes, Liberty Counsel is finally being exposed for the generate of lies and hate that it has always been.  Here are highlights:

The Associated Press today published a story which rips the Liberty Counsel’s “imaginary” Peruvian soccer stadium story and points out that the SPLC has very good reasons for categorizing them as a hate group. Nothing in the story will be a bombshell to regular JMG readers, but it’s good to see the mainstream national media report on what we have known for years. Some excerpts:

Kim Davis’ lawyer stood onstage in a Washington D.C. hotel and pointed to a photo on the screen. It showed 100,000 people packed into a Peruvian soccer stadium, Mat Staver told the crowd, all there to pray for the Kentucky clerk battling against gay marriage. The crowd erupted. It wasn’t true.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the Liberty Counsel as an anti-gay hate groups for spreading false information. “A group that regularly portrays gay people as perverse, diseased pedophiles putting Western civilization at risk are way, way over the line,” said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the center. The Liberty Counsel has connected homosexuality to higher rates of promiscuity and incest, Potok said, despite scientific evidence to the contrary. The firm opposes laws banning hate crimes and supports discredited conversion therapies that purport to turn homosexuals into heterosexuals. Staver once declared that the Boy Scouts would become a “playground for pedophiles” once it allowed gay troop leaders.

Having followed these "Christian" and "family values" groups for many years, there is literal no one who lies more and spreads knowingly false information about gays and others whom the "godly folk" view as "other."  If one wants a reason to walk away from the label "Christian," look no farther than these individuals and organizations.

The Vatican Rushes to Distance Pope Francis from Kim Davis/Liberty Counsel

Mat Staver and his wife - professional Christian liars and parasites?

I have been pretty hard on Pope Francis since he ascended the throne of St. Peter, but especially so since word of his purported meeting with batshit crazy modern day Pharisee (and 4 times married serial adultery) Kim Davis.  Now, in an unusual step, the Vatican has basically called Davis and her parasitic lawyer Mat Staver liars and totally rejected their version of the fact.  Per the Vatican, Davis was merely in a receiving line thanks to the efforts of right wing extremist US Papal Nuncio Carlo Vigano (a Nazi Pope appointee) - Joe Jervis reports that Vigano may be fired - and that Davis never had any private meeting with Francis.  Personally, having followed Staver's anti-gay activities for over 15 years, if the man's lips are moving, the safest bet is to assume that he is lying.  As for Davis herself, she is living in a fantasy world where her wishes magically become reality.  Further arguing that Davis and Staver are lying is the fact that it has now been confirmed that Francis DID have a private meeting with a gay couple.  This unfolding take down of Davis and Staver has some of the usual suspects (e.g., Ben Shapiro at Breitbart) engaging in shrieks and spittle flecked rants.  The Advocate looks at the Vatican's quick efforts to kick Davis to the gutter.  Here are excerpts:

Papal spokesman Federico Lombardi is disputing Liberty Counsel's version of the meeting between renegade antigay county clerk Kim Davis and the pope, saying people shouldn't read too much into it.

After Davis recounted the experience to ABC News and her attorney, Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver, claimed the pope told the defiant antigay clerk to "stay strong," the Vatican now says Pope Francis did not talk about Davis's defiance of federal law in denying same-sex couples marriage licenses. In fact, the Vatican claims that Davis's audience with the pope wasn't even a private meeting, as she and Staver have repeatedly claimed.

“The pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs. Davis, and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects,” Lombardi said in a prepared statement this morning. “Pope Francis met with several dozen persons who had been invited by the Nunciature to greet him as he prepared to leave Washington for New York City. Such brief greetings occur on all papal visits and are due to the pope’s characteristic kindness and availability. The only real audience granted by the pope at the Nunciature was with one of his former students and his family.”

An unidentified Vatican official told Reuters the Holy See had a "sense of regret" that Pope Francis had any face time at all with the anti-gay clerk. . . . He also rejected Davis's claim that the pope spent 15 minutes speaking with Davis and her fourth husband, Joe. "There simply was not enough time" during the pope's six-day tour of the country, he said.

According to Chicago's WBBM TV, Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich also denied the meeting was requested, and a source inside the Vatican told the television station the pope was "blindsided." According Vatican officials, Davis met the pope as part of a receiving line of "dozens" of people, although Davis's attorney disputes that claim.

Staver, who leads the right-wing Liberty Counsel, a certified anti-LGBT hate group, told the Associated Press that Davis was invited by the papal ambassador and was picked up at her hotel by a car dispatched by the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C.
An adviser to Pope Francis has claimed on Twitter that the pontiff was "exploited" by Davis and her attorneys, calling it a “meeting that never should have taken place.”

This wouldn't be the first time Liberty Counsel has been caught in a fabrication about international support for Davis. Earlier this week, leaders in the right-wing group were forced to admit that a photo they claimed showed 100,000 people praying for Davis in Peru was a fake after ThinkProgress blogger Zack Ford exposed the fraud.

Staver and his wife are enjoying a very nice income peddling hate and bigotry.  Indeed, they make far more each year as parasites bringing bogus law suits for Christofascists than do the majority of decent, honest attorneys.  It should also be noted that, in my view, Staver should have been criminally indicted for his likely involvement in the Lisa Miller kidnapping - something that may have led to his "voluntary resignation" as dean of Liberty University's law school.  My experience in both politics and business has been that no one lies more or is more unscrupulous than "the godly folk" who wear their religion on their sleeve.   One can only hope that the Vatican denunciation helps hasten the end of Staver's snake oil legal practice.

The New York Times has this in part on the role of the Papal Nuncio in setting up the possible ambush fro Francis:

Mr. Staver, for his part, said he had been briefly introduced to Archbishop Viganò in April, when he spoke at a large rally in Washington against same-sex marriage, before the Supreme Court ruled on the issue.

Archbishop Viganò is turning 75 in January, the age at which bishops must submit a formal request to the Vatican asking for permission to resign. These requests are not automatically accepted, and bishops often stay in their appointments well past age 75. But if Archbishop Viganò is held responsible for what is seen as a grave misstep on an important papal trip, he is likely to be removed at the first respectable opportunity, according to several church analysts.

“Nobody in the Catholic Church wants another Regensburg,” said Massimo Faggioli, an associate professor of theology and director of the Institute for Catholicism and Citizenship at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. He was referring to the backlash after Pope Benedict XVI, Francis’ predecessor, gave a speech in Regensburg, Germany, that appeared to denigrate Islam.

[T]he pope has to be able to rely on his own system, and in this case the system failed him. The question is, was it a mistake, or was it done with full knowledge of how toxic she was?”

The meeting with Ms. Davis was clearly a misstep, Dr. Faggioli said, “because the whole trip to the United States he very carefully didn’t want to give the impression that he was being politicized by any side.”

He added, “And this thing is the most politicized thing that you can imagine.”

I and I suspect many others will be watching to see if Vigano's resignation is quickly accepted.  Do I trust the Vatican to be honest?  No, but I trust Staver even less.  He needs to keep in the limelight to keep the cash rolling in. God forbid that he and his wife have to get real jobs. 

 

Fox News Panel: Mat Staver, Kim Davis’ Lawyer is "Ridiculously Stupid"

Given the manner in which Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel has brought endless frivolous cases and urged his "clients" to ignore the law and legitimate court rulings, I continue to be amazed how he has avoided disbarment.  Perhaps it's merely another case of the undeserved deference given to religion and those who demand special rights under the cloak of religious belief.  That said, you know Staver's stock even among wingnuts is tanking when a panel of Fox News experts conclude that Staver and his arguments on behalf of four times married Kim Davis, the now jailed Rowan County Clerk, is "ridiculously stupid." It is rare for me to agree with Fox News, but in this case, the Fox News analysis is 100% on target.  Here are highlights via The Raw Story:

A panel of legal experts on Fox News came to the conclusion on Monday that Kim Davis’ attorney, Mat Staver, was “ridiculously stupid” for asserting that the Supreme Court did not have constitutional authority to strike down same-sex marriage bans. 

On Monday’s edition of Happening Now, trial attorney Chip Merlin pointed out that anyone who violates a judge’s order should “expect to be thrown in jail.”

“She can still practice her faith,” Fox News host Gregg Jarrett noted. “Just not on the job in a way that interferes with the legal rights of the citizens she serves. And in fact, the U.S. Supreme Court said so nine years ago.”

“She’s a hypocrite,” criminal defense attorney Sharon Liko agreed. “She’s applying for the job of a martyr. She wants to practice her faith by not issuing marriage licenses. Yet, she will not agree to let the deputy county clerks issue marriage licenses even if it’s okay with their faith.”

“When she took the job she swore to uphold the law,” Jarrett explained. “We rely on government officials to do that. They can’t just pick and choose what laws they like, which ones they don’t. If they were allowed to do that, wouldn’t that lead to chaos, anarchy and so forth?”

“Whether the Supreme Court has constitutional authority?” the Fox News host said. “Article III Section 2 of the Constitution gives the Supreme Court constitutional authority to decide constitutional issues!” 

Jarrett added that Staver’s statement appeared to be “stunningly obtuse.”  “That’s a very polite way of putting it,” Liko replied. “I would say it’s just a ridiculously stupid statement.

This woman has a choice, she can either follow the law — she can do her job — or she can get out.”

It is far past time that Staver was disbarred and his parasitic con artist vehicle be put out of business.  His is an embarrassment to the legal community. 

Lexington Herald-Leader Agains Slams Liberty Counsel

Anti-gay bigot Mat Staver - when is his law license going to be revoked?

You know that the Christofascists and professional Christian set have lost the so-called culture wars when even newspapers in Kentucky are slamming self-styled Christian martyrs and snake oil merchant Professional Christians like Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel.  Yet that's exactly what a new editorial in the Lexington Herald-Leader is doing in response to four times married County Clerk Kim Davis and Staver's increasingly insane arguments (they don't even merit being called legal arguments).  Here are excerpts from the latest editorial taking Davis and Staver to task:

After her latest legal setback, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has some decisions to make.

If her conscience really won't let her issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, she should resign the $80,000 a year post that has long supported her family.

It's astounding that in almost three decades on the public payroll, Davis never sorted out the roles of government and religion under the U.S. Constitution that she swore to uphold. And it's worth noting that 117 of Kentucky's 120 county clerks are still issuing marriage licenses.

Liberty Counsel — a donation-funded self-described Christian ministry — represents Davis. 

Nothing reveals the absurdity of her position more clearly than her lawyer's response to the latest ruling against her. Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver continues to insist that elected public officials have a constitutional right to pick and choose which of their government duties they will perform based on their religious beliefs — in other words, that public officials can use religion to discriminate against certain citizens. 

Nothing could be more un-American. What he is advocating would destroy the rule of law, a foundation of our republic. And imagine the chaos, given the wide range of religious beliefs.

As Bunning explained, Davis is "free to believe that marriage is a union between one man and one woman, as many Americans do. However, her religious convictions cannot excuse her from performing the duties that she took an oath to perform as Rowan County Clerk."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/27/4008562_rowan-clerk-faces-big-decision.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/27/4008562_rowan-clerk-faces-big-decision.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Why Liberty Counsel chose Kentucky to make its losing stand is not clear; we do have one of the few governor's races this year.

What is clear is that all the citizens of Rowan County are entitled to a full-service clerk's office that follows the Constitution. Davis should provide that or step aside. 

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/27/4008562_rowan-clerk-faces-big-decision.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/27/4008562_rowan-clerk-faces-big-decision.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/27/4008562_rowan-clerk-faces-big-decision.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Lexington Herald-Leader Slams Renegade Clerk and Liberty Counsel

Kim Davis - Face of Hypocrisy

It seems that finally some in the media are belatedly catching on to the hypocrisy of the "godly folk" who wear religion on their sleeve as justification for bigotry against others, particularly LGBT individuals.  Likewise, some are now seeing through the agenda of "Christian" organizations whose real agenda is to make money by marketing homophobia and fanning the myth of Christian persecution.  That's the take away for a main editorial in the Lexington Herald-Leader that slams both the four times married Rowan County Clerk, Kim Davis, and the parasites at Liberty Counsel.  Davis is on her fourth marriage and seemingly has not read the Bible passage that condemns divorce, yet she can cling to a passage in Leviticus.  Davis symbolizes the rank hypocrisy of conservative Christians (something the Millennials are recognizing more and more).  Here are editorial highlights:  

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has chosen to prolong her moment in the limelight by defying a federal judge's order to issue marriage licenses to legally qualifed people who apply for them. 

U.S. District Judge David Bunning kindly but firmly told Davis Wednesday that in our system her religious beliefs don't trump the rights of the taxpayers who pay her almost $80,000 annual salary.

Sharing Davis' glow is Liberty Counsel, which describes itself as a nonprofit that provides pro bono legal representation related to "religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family," funded by tax-deductible donations and grants. In 2012 those gifts reached just over $3.5 million and in 2013 topped $4.1 million, according to IRS filings. 

The husband and wife team who founded and run Liberty Counsel, Anita and Matthew Staver, were paid $137,758 and $153,591, respectively, in 2013. The staff of five ran up $184,479 in travel expenses that year and spent $429,584 on conferences, conventions and meetings. Liberty Counsel paid one independent contractor over $600,000 for "email alert services," and another almost $500,000 for printing and mail services. "Case costs," were reported at $105,487. 

Liberty's attorneys know they can't win the case in Rowan County. . . . .  So, why is Liberty Counsel marching alongside Davis in this losing cause? It takes a lot to keep that marketing machine humming and those executives paid, and the only way to keep those donations coming is to stay in the news. For that purpose a losing cause is just as good as, perhaps better than, a winning one.

[W]e've never heard of a clerk denying a license to a divorced person, a philanderer, someone who's abused a partner or neglected children. It's easy to imagine the outrage and chaos that would ensue if clerks began morality-testing prospective opposite-gender spouses. But that's exactly the right that Davis is demanding. She wants to pick and choose, based on her beliefs, which legally qualified couples will get marriage licenses.

Davis can resign if she's morally unable to issue the marriage licenses while the appeal is pending. Law-abiding, taxpaying Rowan County citizens have been denied their constitutional rights for almost two months while Davis has kept her job and Liberty has ginned up its marketing machine.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/13/3987637_time-for-davis-to-do-her-job-or.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/13/3987637_time-for-davis-to-do-her-job-or.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/13/3987637_time-for-davis-to-do-her-job-or.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Oregon Joins States Barring "Ex-Gay" Theropy for Minors

 

Having hopefully completely lost the marriage equality battle (we will know for sure when the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its ruling in late June), Christofascists and anti-gay extremists are losing other battles as well.  One such front is the right to subject LGBT minors to "ex-gay" torture conversion therapy.  Today, Oregon joined the slowly growing list of states that havebanned licensed therapists - in my view, the bans need to include ANYONE trying to change sexual orientation, including quacks at church "ministries" - from subjecting those under age 18 to so-called "conversion therapy" and "reparative therapy."  Every legitimate medical and mental health association condemns such voodoo like therapy.  Yet the Christofscists continue to push it as part of their propaganda that being gay is a "choice" and, of course to rake in money as their prey on ignorant and homophobic parents and self-loathing gays.  Here are highlights from a press release from National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR):

Today, the Oregon State Senate passed HB 2307, a bill that will protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth from the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy. The bill was overwhelmingly approved by the State House on March 17 and is now heading to the desk of Governor Kate Brown who is expected to sign it into law.

 

When signed into law, Oregon will become the fourth jurisdiction—behind California, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia—to pass legislation protecting LGBT youth from the serious harms caused by these practices, which have been linked to substance abuse, serious depression, and even suicide.

 

"This lifesaving law will protect the health and well-being of LGBT youth in Oregon and ensure that licensed mental health professionals cannot abuse their position of trust to do lifelong harm to children and tear families apart. We applaud Basic Rights Oregon and bill champions Rep. Rob Nosse and Sen. Sara Gesler for their unshakeable leadership in guiding this bill through the legislative process, as well as the courageous survivors who testified on its behalf,” said the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) #BornPerfect Campaign Coordinator and Staff Attorney Samantha Ames.

 

“No young person should be subjected to this extremely harmful and discredited practice that uses fear and shame to tell them the only way to find love or acceptance is to change the very nature of who they are,”  

 

“Psychological abuse has no place in therapy, no matter the intention. While the LGBT youth in Oregon will soon be protected once this bill is signed into law, HRC and our allies are committed to making sure these kinds of protections are secured in every state.”

Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court recently rejected the appeal of New Jersey's law by Liberty Counsel, an extremists "Christian law group" - it was Liberty Counsel's 6th straight loss trying to defend this form of torture.  Ultimately, the only basis for believing that LGBT individuals must change is religious based ignorance and bigotry.    For more information on the dangers of discredited "conversion therapy" go here.

SCOTUS Rejects Liberty Counsel's Appeal Challenging New Jersey "Ex-Gay" Therapy Ban

Mat Staver has to rank among the most hysterical homophobic bigots of the far right "godly Christian" fringe and his organization, Liberty Counsel, is in reality little more than a hate group despite its almost laughable efforts to depict itself as a "Christian law firm."   Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court seemingly recognizes that both Staver and Liberty Counsel live in an alternative universe crazy land where facts, expert medical and mental health care opinions, and so forth mean nothing, and everything is instead ruled by a sick selective reading of the Bible.  The result is that the Court rejected Liberty Counsels appeal challenging New Jersey's legislation barring the use of "ex-gay" or "reparative" therapy on those under age 18.   The rejection continued Liberty Counsel's track record of losing every case challenging "ex-gay therapy" bans.  Gay Star News has these highlights:

The US Supreme Court has upheld New Jersey's ban on gay conversion therapy for minors.  The court refused to hear a challenge to the law today, which means that a ruling made last September by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will remain in place.

The Court of Appeals said that the ban, which was signed into law in 2013, didn't violate the the free speech or religious rights of those who offer conversion therapy to minors in the state.

This is the second time the Supreme Court has refused to hear an argument on such a law, following the court's dimissal of a similar argument against Florida's ban in 2014.

Conversion therapy, also called reparative therapy, is rejected by all major American medical, psychiatric, psychological and professional counseling organizations.

Earlier this year, a New Jersey judge ruled misrepresenting homosexuality as a disorder in marketing conversion therapy services is consumer fraud.

The Christofascists relentlessly defend "ex-gay" conversion therapy because it is critical to their effort to maintain that sexual orientation is a choice and, therefore, not worthy of non-discrimination protections.