Christofascists Exporting Hate and Homophobia to Jamaica

This blog has noted in the past the efforts of American Christofascist to export anti-gay animus and homophobia to Africa even as they are losing the culture wars in America.  But Africa is not the only target of this vile, toxic export effort.  Jamaica - which has a horrible history of homophobia and violence against gays - is also a favorite target, particularly as debate has begun in Jamaica.  Hence the recent visit by Brian Camenker, the founder of MassResistance, a registered hate group that knows few limits to the anti-gay lies and untruths it disseminates.  Not surprisingly, MassResistance supports discredited "ex-gay" ministries and "reparative therapy."   BuzzFeed looks at this effort to prey on citizens of a disadvantaged nation.  Here are highlights:

An anti-gay activist from Massachusetts has warned Jamaicans that repealing the country’s sodomy provision would end freedom of speech and lead to a surge of sexually transmitted diseases during a rally in Kingston.

Brian Camenker, founder of MassResistance, was the keynote speaker at an event organized by the Jamaican Coalition for a Healthy Society in the Jamaican capital’s Emancipation Park on Dec. 10. The organization has led a campaign to preserve the sodomy provision — known locally as the “buggery law” — following Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller’s suggestion just before her 2011 election that she might allow a vote on its repeal.

“I am here to warn you that [repeal of the buggery law] will have terrible consequences,” Camenker said, according to a video of the event uploaded by MassResistance on Saturday. “A law that contradicts God’s law is the beginning of a slippery slope that you cannot imagine.”

MassResistance is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Camenker has previously accused LGBT activists of borrowing techniques from the Nazis and imposing laws reminiscent of Jim Crow segregation.

In Kingston, Camenker denounced efforts to ban treatments designed to turn LGBT children straight.

What about kids who are sexually molested early on and as a result have homosexual or crossdressing feelings. Suppose they want help and counseling to deal with those issues. The radical homosexual movement will have none of that. They’re saying that kids shouldn’t be allowed to get counseling or help because, they say, the kids are really quote born that way and that homosexuality is natural and normal…. It’s a horrible thing to do to helpless kids, but it’s part of the radical political agenda that started with legalizing the behavior.

Camenker also refuted the notion that homophobia was the main cause of violence against LGBT people.
Camenker described a series of events that he said flowed from the decriminalization of sodomy in Massachusetts, including the “indoctrination” of children in schools and the suppression of religious people opposed to LGBT rights.

Camenker’s appearance followed a by another American anti-gay activist, Peter LaBarbera, at a conference organized by the Jamaican Coalition for a Healthy Society on Dec. 7. LaBarbera appeared alongside the British activist Andrea Minichiello Williams, and both argued that homosexuality was a choice and linked to pedophilia.

Santorum-Supporting Hate Group Launches Anti-Gay Robo-Call Attack Against Romney in Ohio

In a move reminiscent of supporters of a GOP candidate here in Virginia who attacked the Democrat incumbent last November by attacking the incumbent as gay friendly, an organization called Christians and Jews Together that backs Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum has launched a robo-call effort in Ohio that alleges that Mitt Romney is soft on gays and supportive of gay rights. As was the case here in Virginia, the Santorum campaign with a wink and a nod denies any connection or affiliation Christians and Jews Together. Once again, it's an example of Santorum using religious extremism and religious based hatred to whip up the most hate-filled and lunatic elements of the GOP base. Here are highlights from MMDNewswire.com:

One day before Ohio's delegate-rich GOP presidential primary election, Super Tuesday's biggest prize, national frontrunner Mitt Romney is getting hit hard on his gay rights record with millions of robo-calls, emails and videos. Aiming for Republicans as well as registered Democrats, who are free to cross over to vote in the GOP contest, an ecumenical group of Jews and Christians supporting Romney's rival, Rick Santorum, released the robo-call script this morning. It reads:

Hi, my name is Brian Camenker; I'm a Jew from Massachusetts.

"And, this is Darcy Brandon; I'm a Christian from California. If you believe as we do that marriage and sexuality should only be between a man and a woman, please help us stop Mitt Romney.

"As Governor, Romney signed 'Gay Youth Pride Day' proclamations, promoted homosexuality in our elementary schools, and unconstitutionally ordered state officals to make Massachusetts America's first same-sex marriage state. Romney supports open homosexuality in the military, the appointment of homosexual judges, and the ENDA law, making it illegal to fire a man who wears a dress and high heels to work, even if he's your kid's teacher. When you vote tomorrow, please vote for social sanity and Rick Santorum, NOT for homosexuality and Mitt Romney.

"Rick Santorum is the ONLY candidate who can be trusted to uphold traditional marriage, a straight military, and the rights of American children to have both a mother and a father. This message paid for by Jews and Christians Together.org and not authorized by any candidate. To get the facts before you vote, visit Jews and Christians Together.org."

That website, urging Ohio voters to "get the shocking facts on Mitt Romney," links to a page called "The Romney Files". . . . . "The Romney Files", assembled by the Boston-based group Mass Resistance.

Brian Camenker, president of Mass Resistance and compiler of much of that Romney research and one of the robo-call voices said, "Mitt Romney would be the most liberal Republican ever nominated for the Presidency. Romney is so far left, he spoke against the right of the Boy Scouts to screen-out homosexuals.

"Rick Santorum signed the Iowa vow last summer while Romney was calling for more gay hiring." Another link at Jews & Christians Together.org connects to a voter guide from Family Research Council that shows Romney in support of ENDA, the proposed federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act "that adds sexual orientation as a protected class." Camenker, the Jewish Romney opponent from Massachusetts, said ENDA "would forbid the firing of transvestite elementary school teachers, open bisexuals, and other bad examples to America's young people."

Sadly, the article fails to note that Mass Resistance is a Southern Poverty Law Center registered hate group. I'd also note that I hope that the parallels with last November's dirty tactics here in Virginia continue to hold true. After the horrible flyers attacking the Democrat incumbent were circulated I was contacted by a reliable male source who advised that the GOP "family values" candidate had slept with him on several occasions some years back. Would that someone would out Santorum! No one is that homophobic unless they got some serious sexual orientation issues of their own.

More Hate and Blaming the Victim from MassResistance

A reader forwarded me an e-mail that had been forwarded to him containing anti-gay propaganda being disseminated by MassResistance, a extremely dishonest and hysterically homophobic organization based in Massachusetts. The organization is so extreme and utilizes such outrageous lies and untruths that it makes Daddy Dobson look relatively rational in comparison. If Daddy D drinks Kool-Aid by the glass, the MassResistance folks drink it by the barrel full. In its latest epistile of hate, MassResistance cherry picks and/or annotates information from a new Massachusetts Department of Public Health report in a manner to depict gays as disease ridden, mentally ill, and by intimation a menace to society. Not surprisingly, if one reads the entire report, the picture is far less dire than MassResistance would have its sheeple followers believe. MassResistance also omits reference to this disclaimer contained in the report:

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There are limitations to the data in this report. First, the cross-sectional design does not allow us to identify trends over time even though changes occurred between 2001 and 2006 including same-sex marriage and the advent of health care reform. Further, all of the data are self-reported and there are no additional state-level sources of data (such as hospital discharge or outpatient) to confirm any of the findings. Finally, although the sample size is relatively robust to answer questions about disparities related to sexual orientation, there is insufficient power to analyze rare outcomes or to provide analysis based on race and ethnicity within sexual orientation identity groups.

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Of course MassResistance - which does all in its powers to denigrate, malign and engender hatred towards LGBT citizens (all in the name of Christ I might add) - totally ignores the fact that in the areas of mental health and alcohol/drug use, the reported findings concerning gays are likely highly influenced by the atmosphere of hate and non-acceptance promoted by MassResistance and its Christianist allies. In short, MassResistance blames its victims for the consequences of the campaign of lies and hate it sponsors. A new study entitled " The Psychological Harm of Anti-Gay Ballot Campaigns" looks at the harm done to LGBT citizens by the Christianist gay bashing initiatives. I know that on a personal level, I felt very depressed initially after learning that all the anti-gay measures had passed on November 5th even though I do not live in one of the effected states. Of course what I find most distressing is that to groups like MassResistance, we are not even human, but rather are regarded as less than animals. Here are highlights of some of the new study findings:

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Sixteen years ago, by a margin of roughly 53-47%, Colorado voters passed a constitutional amendment written to overturn gay rights ordinances in Denver and other cities, and to bar the future enactment of such laws by cities or the state legislature. Amendment 2 was ultimately struck down by the US Supreme Court in 1996 . . . . in its historic Romer v. Evans decision . . .

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Although Amendment 2 was ultimately nullified, Colorado’s gay, lesbian, and bisexual residents nevertheless had to endure the months-long antigay pre-election campaign waged by its Christian Right sponsors. And they had to deal with the knowledge that a majority of their neighbors had voted to strip them of their rights.

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In the wake of the 1992 vote, a research team led by psychologist Glenda Russell conducted a statewide study to assess the psychological well-being of Colorado lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. In her 2000 book, Voted Out: The Psychological Consequences of Anti-Gay Politics, Dr. Russell reports extensive analyses of the data. In particular, she details her group’s examination of the research participants’ accounts of how they experienced the Amendment 2 campaign.

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In those accounts, Dr. Russell’s group detected themes that today are all too familiar to many sexual minority residents of California, Florida, Arizona, and Arkansas. Respondents reported feeling overwhelmed or devastated by the vote. Some were shocked that the measure passed. Many experienced anger, fear, sadness, or depression. Some felt a sense of loss, saying they would never again feel the same about living in Colorado. Some expressed regret at not having done more to prevent the measure’s passage.

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[O]ne of her important findings was that a substantial segment of the sample reported many symptoms that are commonly associated with depression, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and they perceived that these symptoms were a direct result of having lived through the months of antigay campaigning. . . . gay and lesbian and bisexual people living in the targeted states endured rhetorical — and sometimes physical — attacks against themselves and their families.

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In 2006, marriage amendments appeared on the November ballot in 8 states. All of them passed except in Arizona. Given the earlier findings of Dr. Russell’s research team in Colorado, it was reasonable to assume that those campaigns in other states would also exact a psychological toll. That hypothesis is supported by data from a new study to be published early in 2009 in the prestigious Journal of Counseling Psychology. The study, titled Marriage Amendments and Psychological Distress in Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) Adults, was conducted by Drs. Sharon Rostosky, Ellen Riggle, Sharon Horne, and Angela Miller.

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In sum, the findings of Dr. Rostosky’s group support and extend those of Dr. Russell’s research team. By examining the experiences of sexual minority adults residing in different states, and by comparing scores on mental health measures before and after the statewide antigay campaigns, they provide good evidence that marriage amendment campaigns are harmful to the mental health of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals.

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Dr. Rostosky and her coauthors suggest that sexual minority individuals should avoid blaming themselves or accepting antigay stigma and prejudice as valid. Instead, it’s important to remind oneself that the people who foment antigay hostility are the ones who deserve blame.

Southern Poverty Law Center Adds MassResistance to Hate Group List

The Southern Poverty Law Center (“SPLC”) has added MassResistance, an anti-gay organization in Massachusetts that has actively opposed gay marriage and any other legal protections for LGBT citizens for that matter. While MassResistance is a fringe group in many ways, they put out incredibly vile and untrue information on a regular basis and as such, their hate speech should not go unnoticed. The SPLC designation of MassResistance as a hate group will assist in this endeavor. A list of the anti-gay hate groups identified by SPLC can be found here: http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/type.jsp?DT=26. It is noteworthy that among the other identified hate groups are (1) Paul Cameron’s Family Research Institute which continuously puts out outrageously false anti-gay propaganda which is then cited as “expert” opinion by Christianists and nutcases like Sally Kern, (2) Traditional Values Coalition which knowingly puts out false anti-gay propaganda, and (3) Scott Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries (Lively is the author of the “Pink Swastika” which alleges the gays controlled the Nazi regime and were responsible for the Holocaust and that gays were NOT persecuted by the Nazi regime.

The unhinged folks at MassResistance are not too happy with their justly deserved designation by the SPLC and made the following statement on their blog:

MassResistance blog has identified the communist Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a "HATE GROUP" (along with Bay Windows, QueerToday, MassEquality, BAGLY, the Mass. Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, GLSEN, PFLAG, Human Rights Campaign, etc. -- the list is endless...), following SPLC's libel of MassResistance and other pro-family groups, including the Traditional Values Coalition.

No doubt they will also be bemoaning the ongoing “persecution” of Christians as a result of the hate group designation by SPLC, which they call “communist.”