LGBT Equality Bill Sends Christofascists into Hysteria

The usual liars and charlatans from the "Christian Right" are beside themselves over the Democrat backed LGBT Equality Act that would bar discrimination against LGBT individuals in employment, housing and public accommodation on a national basis. And true to form, they are trotting out the same tired lies that have been their stock in trade for decades, including the lie that gays can change their sexual orientation through fraudulent ministries operated by, you guessed, the Christofascists.  Spouting this latter lie is Peter Sprigg of Family Research Council ("FRC") - a certified hate group - who has ZERO credentials when it comes to medical and mental health issues despite his title of "senior fellow" at FRC.  Indeed, until he became a hate merchant at FRC, Sprigg's longest career stint was as a "professional actor and unit leader in Covenant Players, an international Christian drama ministry."  Sadly Sprigg epitomizes the norm of FRC - and Christofascist organization in general - experts, meaning they have no legitimate credentials.   

In a piece in the Christian Post - which discredits itself by carrying article by fraudulent experts - Sprigg cites old, discredited studies claiming conversion therapy has some minimal level of success and ignores more recent studies, and, of course, the findings of all legitimate medical and mental health associations.  Based on this bad science, Sprigg rants about the Equality Act and maintains:

In light of this evidence, the public would be wise to question whether the efforts of the LGBT movement to ride on the coat-tails of “civil rights” can any longer be justified. 

It should be noted that in 2008 when the Obama administration moved to allow LGBT Americans to apply for visas for foreign partners, Sprigg declared that it would be better to “export homosexuals from the United States.”

Joining Sprigg in his conniption fit is Mike Huckabee, who has a long history of anti-gay lies, and whose daughter lies daily for the Trump regime.  In another piece in the Christian Post Huckabee rants as follows:

Redefining gender and sexual identity is the “greatest threat” to the moral fiber of America, said former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, and the fault lies with the Church.

“The biggest threat to biblical principles today is the failure to apply a biblical standard of maleness and femaleness,” Huckabee told The Christian Post during a sit-down interview last week in Anaheim, California. “We are creating this illusion that there is no gender, there is no identity, and I'm blaming the Christian Church.”

“The gender dysphoria we're seeing today is largely due to the fact that the Church has failed to present very clearly the words of Jesus and Genesis 5:2: ‘Male and female He created them.’” 

Huckabee also goes on to equate allowing children to learn about the existence of LGBT individuals much less LGBT inclusive sex education with allowing one's child to play in a busy street. 

What is frightening is that both Sprigg and Huckabee have the ear of those in the Trump/Pence regime who are waging war against the LGBT community.  On the positive side, 40% of Millennials have left organized Christianity in large part due to the Christofascists' non-stop screeds against gays. Hopefully, the exodus will accelerate and individuals like Sprigg and Huckabee will become increasingly irrelevant outside of stagnant backwaters.  Meanwhile, more states are barring conversion therapy.

The Christofascists' New Anti-LGBT Rallying Cry

Mitch McConnell with hate group leader/white supremacist linked Tony Perkins.

Over the weekend Family Research Council ("FRC") - a certified hate group - held it disingenuously named "Value Voters Summit" in the nation's capital.   The key note speaker was Mike Pence - a religious extremist in his own right.  Also addressing the group was Mitch McConnell who disgustingly praised FRC Tony Perkins, a man with well documented ties to white supremacy organizations.  Such is the state of today's GOP that someone like Perkins could have Trump's ear and have McConnell basically groveling to Perkins and assured the Bible thumpers that Kavanaugh would be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court no matter what issues or damning facts might arise. As is the norm for such gatherings of Christian extremists, abortion and gays were the topics of rants and lies.  This year, a new anti-LGBT rallying cry was formulated pursuant to which lies and disinformation will be disseminated.  A piece in Rewire looks at this latest nastiness.  Here are excerpts:

“Gender ideology” took center stage at this weekend’s Values Voter Summit (VVS) in Washington, D.C. And side stage. And student mixer. In each instance, it was used as a handy catchall: Objecting to “gender ideology” allows Christian conservatives to consolidate all their objections to treating LGBTQ people with dignity into one scary talking point.

 This year, Vice President Mike Pence gave the keynote address following evangelical and conservative darlings like the Benham Brothers (house flippers and sons of Operation Save America’s Flip Benham), Michele Bachmann, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, David Daleiden (of Planned Parenthood hit-video fame), Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Masterpiece baker Jack Phillips, and many others. The turn to “gender ideology” marks a change for this conference and for conservative talking points in general, which in the past have focused more directly on bathroom bills and specious fears for the safety of children. If you’re not familiar with the term, that’s not surprising. More popular with European conservatives, “gender ideology” as a conservative rallying cry has only grown in domestic U.S. circles in the past year or two. Among conservatives, “gender ideology” encompasses a broad range of horrors: LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination laws, transgender-inclusive school and ID-document policies, and comprehensive sex education, to name a few. Rather than ginning up support around specific topics, the broader lens of “gender ideology” allowed speakers to talk about a range of theoretical harms to religious freedom if politics are permitted to be overrun by the “new secular orthodoxy” of sexual orientation and gender identity, as Emilie Kao of the Heritage Foundation called it during her presentation on religious liberty.

[O]n Saturday, moderator Peter Sprigg—researcher at FRC and author of many a [anti-gay] blog about LGBTQ people and policies—introduced the panelists to talk about “How Gender Ideology Harms Children.” First up was disreputed former head of Johns Hopkins Department of Psychiatry head Dr. Paul McHugh. In 1977, Dr. McHugh ended Johns Hopkins’ groundbreaking trans-affirmative medical program. Johns Hopkins reversed the ensuing decades of anti-trans pseudo-scientific rhetoric in 2017, when it reopened its Center for Transgender Health. At VVS, Dr. McHugh gave the same speech he’s been giving at conservative conferences since his retirement, comparing transgender people to people with eating disorders: “We work not to affirm their belief [that they are transgender], but to correct it.”

Throughout his remarks, Dr. McHugh cited discredited research, misrepresented data on trans children, and flat-out lied.

Elizabeth Johnston, known for her Activist Mommy blog and her campaigns against comprehensive sex education, was the last to speak from the stage on Saturday morning. Johnston is a fiery speaker who was the perfect closer for an audience primed to hear her lies and misinformation. Schools are teaching our kids “gender confusion” and how to have oral and anal sex, she claimed. She described comprehensive sex education as “sexual abuse and grooming.”

The week before last, a similar panel was held at the World Congress of Families, in Moldova. Peter Sprigg was there too, giving a PowerPoint presentation on “Five Myths of Gender Identity.” Sprigg was joined by several European anti-transgender activists, and the talking points they shared were very similar to those sprinkled throughout VVS on Saturday.

The similarity is no coincidence: Right-wing and Christian conservatives have been trading tactics and talking points across the ocean for several years now as they try to fight the gains made by the LGBTQ community. And the broadening of their rhetoric is also not a coincidence: Framing support for the LGBTQ community as “gender ideology” allows anti-LGBTQ activists to scare, confuse, and galvanize their voters as we move into an important election season here in the United States, and into a crucial moment in political history across the world.

I dealt with and corresponded with Peter Sprigg some years ago.  He has NO legitimate credentials, continually disseminates deliberate lies about LGBT individuals, and has covered up for "ex-gay" frauds whom he knows are not "cured" of their homosexuality.    Combine Sprigg and other bogus "experts" with Tony Perkins' white supremacist ties, and the only values upheld by "values voters" are lies, bigotry, racism and homophobia.

Religious Right Anger At Obama For ENDA Order Reaches New Extremes

As noted in an earlier post, the "godly folk" are going absolutely berserk in response to Barack Obama's signing of a presidential executive order barring that bans federal government contractors from discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity.  The volumes of spittle flying from the flapping jaws of the professional Christian class and hate group leaders is off the charts.  All of the reaction stems from the Christofascists' desire to be above the law and free to harm and discriminate against LGBT individuals without restriction.  The New Civil Rights Movement looks at the batshitery that both depicts "godly Christians" as victims of "persecution" and encourages violence against gays.  Here are highlights:

Calling today's signing "a path toward a new thought-policing state where those who hold traditional values about marriage and family are to be marginalized," National Organization For Marriage president Brian Brown claimed the "fact is that non-discrimination rules like the order issued by President Obama can become a weapon used to punish and harass individuals and groups who support marriage as the union of one man and one woman."

The irony of course is that NOM is crusading for laws, like DOMA, that would enable them and their fellow believers to discriminate against LGBT people.

Fox News religion reporter Todd Starnes writes that Obama's new executive orders amount to "the federal government bullying religious groups that hold viewpoints it deems inappropriate." 

Of course, that's false. The religious right wants to have its cake and eat it too. They want the legal right to fire and harass LGBT people for being LGBT, and they want the federal government to use your tax dollars to support that harassment.

Starnes quotes the virulently anti-gay Pastor Robert Jeffress as well.

“The problem with this executive order is that it paves the way for the next one – which could withhold the tax-exempt status or broadcast licenses for religious organizations holding biblical beliefs with which the administration disagrees,” Jeffress told me.
The Obama administration seems hell-bent on forcing Christians to assimilate to the militant LGBT agenda. Resistance is futile.

And, of course, the Family Research Council's Peter Sprigg.

“If religious organizations cannot require that their employees conduct themselves in ways consistent with the teachings of their faith – then, essentially, those organizations are unable to operate in accordance with their faith,” Peter Sprigg, Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council, told me.

“The mask is coming off of the homosexual movement’s agenda. They really do not believe in religious liberty. They want forced affirmation of homosexual and transgender conduct to trump every other consideration in the workplace – including religious liberty.”

An important reminder here -- at issue is a company's "right" to hire and fire someone for being LGBT. This is what they are fighting for. This is the "deeply-held Christian belief" that the anti-gay religious right is so desperate to retain.

In a separate statement, Sprigg -- who has called for gay people to be deported -- writes that "President Obama has ordered employers to put aside their principles, and practices in the name of political correctness. This level of coercion is nothing less than viewpoint blackmail that bullies into silence every contractor and subcontractor who has moral objections to homosexual behavior.
This order gives activists a license to challenge their employers and, expose those employers to threats of costly legal proceedings and the potential of jeopardizing future contracts." . . . People with deeply held convictions regarding the morality of certain types of sexual behavior should not be bound by the dictates of President Obama's agenda.

As for the credentials of bigots like Sprigg, it is always useful to note that they lack any legitimate credentials  that qualify them for setting social or legal regulations.  Despite the lofty titles they give to themselves, they are little more than far right crackpots who do not deserve to be given the time of day by legitimate journalists.  Her are Sprigg's "qualifications":

Mr. Sprigg is an ordained Baptist minister. Before coming to FRC, he served as pastor of Clifton Park Center Baptist Church in Clifton Park, N.Y. Mr. Sprigg previously served for ten years as a professional actor and unit leader in Covenant Players, an international Christian drama ministry. . . . Mr. Sprigg received the Master of Divinity degree cum laude from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Mass.).

 Only in Christofascist circles would someone like Sprigg be deemed qualified to pontificate on the cause of sexual orientation, child rearing, and constitutional law.  

CNN Also Gives Hate Group a Platform

In an earlier post I complained about CBS's Face the Nation giving a platform to  hate group leader Tony Perkins.  Sadly, CBS is not the only member of the mainstream media that continues to give legitimacy to those who do not deserve it and that blatantly fail to advise viewers and readers about the hate group status of Family Research Council.   While pursuing CNN's website I came across an opinion piece by Peter Sprigg of FRC while claims that the proposed enactment of employment non-discrimination protections for gays "threatens free markets."  Sprigg also trots out the standard canard that gay rights threaten religious liberty:

One concern about ENDA is its impact on religious liberty. ENDA would effectively forbid employers to consider sexual conduct in evaluating the character of their employees or applicants. Although ENDA contains a limited "religious exemption," there remain serious questions as to whether any exemption would be adequate to meet the concerns of people with religious and moral scruples against homosexual conduct.

Sprigg then goes on to claim that sexual orientation is a choice and not worthy of legal recognition as a protected class (demonstrating once again why promoting the "ex-gay myth" is so important to Christofascists):

[T]he question is who decides what is "relevant to job performance" -- the individual employer, or the government? The strong presumption should be in favor of the employer. Of course, federal law already interferes with private employment decisions with regard to a few specific characteristics. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination based on "race, color, national origin, sex, and religion." The first four of these are included largely because they are inborn, involuntary and immutable. While sexual attractions may be involuntary, neither sexual conduct nor transgender behavior meets any of these criteria.

Even secular employers have reason to worry about a possible increase in sexualization of the workplace.  .  .  .  .   The gender identity provisions, meanwhile, undermine the right of employers to impose reasonable dress and grooming standards, by forbidding employers to use the most fundamental standard of all -- that people be dressed and groomed in a way that is culturally appropriate for their biological sex.

ENDA prepares the way for a form of reverse discrimination -- against anyone who expresses disapproval of homosexual behavior. The more open homosexuals become, the more people with traditional values will be forced to conceal their views.

And as the above demonstrates, according to Sprigg, we gays are sexually promiscuous and disruptive by our very existence.    It's more of FRC's continued effort to stigmatize and slander gays - which is exactly why it earned a hate group designation.  Sprigg also demonstrates another phenomenon:  The Christofascist hate groups always love to give their spokesmen lofty titles with a goal of giving them much more credibility than they deserve.  In the case of Peter Sprigg, his title is "Senior Fellow for Policy Studies."  What are his true credentials?  Here's what we find on the FRC website: 

Sprigg is an ordained Baptist minister. Before coming to FRC, he served as pastor of Clifton Park Center Baptist Church in Clifton Park, N.Y. Mr. Sprigg previously served for ten years as a professional actor and unit leader in Covenant Players, an international Christian drama ministry. Prior to his career in ministry, Mr. Sprigg worked in the government and non-profit sectors . . . . Mr. Sprigg received the Master of Divinity degree cum laude from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Mass.) .  .  .

In short, he is anything but an expert on free markets or interstate commerce.  His agenda is all about forcing extreme far right religious belief into the civil laws.  Moreover, he has a history of vicious anti-gay vitriol.  In February 2010, the Family Research Council's Senior Researcher for Policy Studies, Peter Sprigg, stated on NBC's Hardball that gay behavior should be outlawed and that "criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior" should be enforced. In May that same year, Sprigg publicly suggested that repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy would encourage molestation of heterosexual service members.   

Nowhere, of course does any of this important information appear to inform readers of what Sprigg's real agenda is and has been for many years: defaming and stigmatizing LGBT Americans.  For CNN to afford Sprigg an editorial spot is the height of irresponsibility, particularly when no disclaimer is made about Sprigg's horrifically anti-gay past, not to mention the failure to specify that FRC is a hate group.  If CNN wants to be seen as a serious news outlet and stop its ratings slide, it needs to stop acting like the National Inquirer by allowing hacks and hate merchants like Sprigg to have a platform at CNN.

Tony Perkins' Spittle Flecked Comments on Anniversary of DADT Repeal

Remember how the Christofascist whined and convulsed over the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell a year ago yesterday?  Remember all the dire predictions about the collapse of the U. S. military and how it was predicted that straight males would either leave the military or refuse to enlist in the first place?  Naturally, none of the predicted horrors have occurred so hate merchants like Tony Perkins and Elaine Donnelly who used DADT repeal to shake down the ignorant and simply minded are posturing to try to save face.  Now Perkins - a pathological liar and friend to white supremacists - is saying it will take 20+ years for the damage to make itself evident.  I guess he still needs some kind of shtick to keep the money flowing in.  Here's a sample of his batshitery and lies via Joe My God:

"Has America's military completely collapsed in the first year after repeal? Of course not--our service members are too professional to let that to happen. But these challenges are only a non-story because the media won't tell the story. We need only look at no-fault divorce in the 1970s to recognize that radical shifts in public policy take decades to fully manifest.

Let's hope the same isn't true for our brave men and women in uniform."  

A year ago, Perkins indeed was predicting an immediate collapse.   I guess those straight Southern boys enlisting in the military haven't found "teh Gay" to be so terrifying after all.  As Right Wing Watch reports some of the other usual gay-haters were more circumspect in their statements since the experience in the military has not matched their hysterical dire predictions of a little more than a year ago.  Here's a sampling:

On this day last year, the military certified the repeal of the discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy after Congress overturned the policy. Religious Right activists warned that the military will suffer as a result, however, their ominous predictions failed to materialize as studies show that the new policy is working and benefiting the military.

Consequently, it wasn’t a surprise that anti-gay groups were largely quiet today on the anniversary as their warnings about an exodus of soldiers, a drop in enlistments and a return of the draft were clearly wrong.

Ron Crews of the Chaplains Alliance for Religious Liberty released a statement that the “radical sexual agenda in our military” is leading to significant “negative consequences,” citing one example of possible sexual harassment, same-sex ceremonies on bases and the supposed “silencing” of chaplains and DADT supporters

Focus on the Family’s political arm CitizenLink also said in a post quoting Crews and calling for Congress to pass a GOP-backed bill banning same-sex ceremonies on military property, which they said would preserve religious freedom by barring all chaplains from performing such ceremonies.

Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, who predicted an increase in rape if the policy was repealed, pivoted away from his group’s hysterical claims to instead focus on possible same-sex marriages in the military, a result of the “radical sexual and social agenda” pushed by “homosexual activists.” Sprigg also cited a survey from the Military Times, but didn’t mention that the same poll found negative views of the repeal among service members are declining.

He also dismissed claims that the military would have “completely collapsed in the first year after repeal” since “our service members are too professional to allow that to happen,” but FRC president Tony Perkins did in fact predict the reinstitution of the draft and that congressmen who voted for the repeal will have “blood on their hands

The truth is that these individuals and organizations are premeditated liars who have but one agenda: impose their religious beliefs on all Americans like some would be Christian Taliban.

Quote of the Day: Joe Jervis on Brian Brown's Call for "Civility"

In the wake of yesterday's shooting at FRC headquarters, the far right is busy spinning the tragedy to depict gays as would be terrorists and the ones guilty of incivility in discourse.  Joining the disingenuous chorus is Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage which has been exposed as engaging in all kinds of anti-gay lies and propaganda that has nothing to do with stating religious beliefs "protecting the sanctity of marriage."  Joe Jervis sums up Brown's hypocrisy well:

The man who heads an organization that routinely characterizes LGBT people as hellbound sinners and inherently mentally ill child molesters is calling for gay people to show "civility" towards groups that advocate for our imprisonment and brainwashing. HUGE props to the CNN host for demanding that Brown acknowledge the hateful history of the Family Research Council.

The video clip Joe references is set out above.  Meanwhile, Jeremy Hooper has a post with links that lay out the far less than civil statements made by FRC's mouth pieces against gays:

These links, from GLAAD's Commentator Accountability Project, detail just a few of the words that Peter Sprigg and Tony Perkins, FRC's top two voices, have directed at LGBT people. These words include suggestions that gays should be criminalized and exported, that gay kids try suicide because they know they are "abnormal," that liken LGBT advocacy to terrorism, and much, much more. See links here: 

 http://www.glaad.org/cap/tony-perkins
http://www.glaad.org/cap/peter-sprigg

To save readers some time, here's a sampling of FRC's version of "civility":

TONY PERKINS:
 
- Says about gay people: “They are intolerant. They are hateful. They are vile. They are spiteful...pawns of the enemy.” (See 0:43 mark.)

- Says many gays have an "emptiness within them" (:55) because they are "operating outside of nature" (1:09)

- Says that gay young people “have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict; homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal.”

- Despite what health experts have said, insists that pedophilia is “a homosexual problem.”

- The Family Research Council has distributed a pamphlet that erroneously depicts gay men and lesbians as physically and mentally ill pedophiles who can be cured.

- The Family Research Council has distributed a pamphlet that begins by likening the logic behind same-sex marriage to the logic behind man-horse marriage (complete with horse graphic)

PETER SPRIGG:
 
- “I would much prefer to export homosexuals from the United States than to import them into the United States, because we believe that homosexuality is destructive to society.” (See 0:11 mark here.) [*NOTE: A week later, Peter rolled back his statements, saying he "used language that trivialized the seriousness of the issue and did not communicate respect for the essential dignity of every human being as a person created in the image of God"]

- Says he wants to see being gay punished by law: “I think that the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which overturned the sodomy laws in this country, was wrongly decided. I think there would be a place for criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior.”
 
- Sits on the board of and serves as a key spokesperson for an “ex-gay” advocacy group that tells gay people to “change."  Routinely claims no one is born gay.

- Instructs those engaged in marraige conversation to always bring it back to gays "choosing" their behavior

Maryland Schools Finally Say "No More" to Fraudulent "Ex-Gay" Group

For years now the Christianist funded "Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, a/k/a PFOX has been working to disseminate its bogus junk science based ex-gay propaganda in the Montgomery County, Maryland schools.  Never mind that every legitimate medical and mental health association states that the ex-gay myth is a lie and potentially very harmful.  Thankfully, the school division has belatedly said "No" to allowing PFOX's poisonous and fraudulent in the public schools.  This step has required that other legitimate materials likewise be banned from distribution to students, but the school division decided that it was a trade off worth making.  A piece in The New Civil Rights Movement looks at this action which has slammed the doors on PFOX's fraudulent, witch doctor like propaganda.  Here are highlights:

The Montgomery County, Maryland School Board made just such a sacrifice on behalf of their students this summer. An organized band of predators with their own virulent form of creeping crud, is stalking their gay and questioning middle school and high school students. The group, known as PFOX, Parents and Friends of Ex Gays, is actively targeting at-risk kids who are confused about sex and sexuality. PFOX not only tells kids who feel an attraction to someone of the same-sex that something is wrong with them, they tell their parents that sexual preference is a choice, and if they would just turn their children over to the tender mercies of PFOX, they will put them straight; and they do this at the very time in the teen’s life when psychologists say the support of the parent is critical for his (or her) successful future.

The Montgomery School District did not want to be complicit in that message, in fact they required a disclaimer saying nothing about the PFOX program was endorsed by the school, but PFOX had burrowed itself into a legal loophole. Montgomery County schools had a longstanding community outreach program that allowed local businesses and non-profit groups to send home fliers with the students four times a year. It was envisioned as a way local businesses could offer special deals, or groups could organize after school activities. But for six long years, PFOX used the program to send out it’s misinformation fliers, trumpeting their “success” while doing who knows what damage to gay and questioning kids and their families.

Parents complained. Students complained. The local media would run stories about PFOX every time they sent out one of their fliers, causing even Montgomery County residents without school-aged children to complain too. Joshua Starr, the new Superintendent of Montgomery County Schools, called the PFOX fliers “reprehensible” and “deplorable” when a student challenged him on the subject at a meet-the-new-boss town hall meeting. 

[T]his June, the Montgomery school board finally decided it was better that no one be allowed to send out fliers than to continue to allow PFOX to plague the families in the district for another school year. On a 6-1 vote, the school board ended the flier program for all the middle schools and high schools in the district.

Now we wait for the PFOX response. Their leadership is angry. Peter Sprigg, who sits on the group’s board of directors, sniped, “I don’t think censorship is the message that we should be teaching students in a free society.” Sprigg says with a straight face the PFOX message is not homophobic nor is it hate speech, which is the only thing the federal judge told the schools they could reject.

Will PFOX seek revenge by targeting 5 to 11-year-olds? The school flier program is still operating in the elementary schools.   .   .   .   .    So make your predictions. Will PFOX attempt to send their garbage science home through the grade-schoolers? If they try, will the Montgomery County School Board again take a stand to protect the vulnerable kids in their charge? We will certainly be watching when the school bell rings in the next round of this prize fight come September. PFOX and the resistance of the Montgomery School Board, will remain On Our Radar.

One can only hope that the school division will take whatever future actions needed to keep PFOX's lies and deliberate misinformation away from school children.  Subjecting students to such lies is in my opinion nothing short of child abuse.

Is Homophobia Actually Self-Phobia?

I've often noted that the extreme homophobia displayed by some of the leading anti-gay Christianists - and I'd include GOP presidential want to be Rick Santorum in this group - suggests to me that these individuals doth protest too much. Now, a new study from the University of Rochester tends to support the premise that the loudest homophobes hysteria really comes from their own deeply repressed homoerotic feelings. These findings are in line with past findings that homophobic men were most aroused by watching gay porn. As I suggested to Robert Knight years ago, perhaps he simply needs to hire a hot gay escort and face reality. Needless to say, he wasn't amused. But seriously, Knight, Tony Perkins, Matt Barber, Peter Sprigg, Bryan Fischer, and a number of others need to focus on their own screwed up psyches rather than attacking others who are merely living their lives as these men apparently only fantasize about. First some highlights from USA Today on the study:

A new study suggests intense hostility toward homosexuals may be linked to a repressed same-sex attraction, combined with an authoritarian upbringing.

Though such factors are not the only cause of homophobia, the findings suggest those "who have a discrepancy within themselves about their expressed vs. unconscious sexual attraction find gay and lesbian people more threatening and are more likely to express prejudice and discrimination toward them," says University of Rochester psychology professor Richard Ryan, co-author of the study, which is published in the April Journalof Personality and Social Psychology. Also an author is Netta Weinstein of the University of Essex, England.

The blocking of unconscious desires by adopting an opposite view is a well-known psychoanalytic concept, suggested by Freud and others. The new study uses "modern methods that allow us to more reliably peer into these less explicitly available parts of peoples' psyches and see what's arising," Ryan says.

The findings suggest participants with accepting parents were more in touch with their innate sexual orientation. But, Ryan says, "if you come from a controlling home where your parents do have negative attitudes toward gays and lesbians, you're even more likely to suppress same-sex attraction and more likely to have this discrepancy that leads to having homophobia and feeling threatened."

Ryan says the study may help explain the personal dynamics behind some bullying and hate crimes directed at gays and sheds light on high-profile cases in which public figures who have expressed anti-gay views have been caught engaging in same-sex sexual acts. "Some people who are threatened by gays and lesbians and are most vociferous in their opposition to them are suffering internally themselves," he says.

More details on the study findings are available at Newswise.com. Here are a few more details:

Homophobia is more pronounced in individuals with an unacknowledged attraction to the same sex and who grew up with authoritarian parents who forbade such desires, a series of psychology studies demonstrates.

The study is the first to document the role that both parenting and sexual orientation play in the formation of intense and visceral fear of homosexuals, including self-reported homophobic attitudes, discriminatory bias, implicit hostility towards gays, and endorsement of anti-gay policies.

“Individuals who identify as straight but in psychological tests show a strong attraction to the same sex may be threatened by gays and lesbians because homosexuals remind them of similar tendencies within themselves,” explains Netta Weinstein, a lecturer at the University of Essex and the study’s lead author.

“In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this internal conflict outward,” adds co-author Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester who helped direct the research.

People in denial about their sexual orientation may lash out because gay targets threaten and bring this internal conflict to the forefront, the authors write.

“In a predominately heterosexual society, ‘know thyself’ can be a challenge for many gay individuals. But in controlling and homophobic homes, embracing a minority sexual orientation can be terrifying,” explains Weinstein. These individuals risk losing the love and approval of their parents if they admit to same sex attractions, so many people deny or repress that part of themselves, she said.

In addition, participants who reported themselves to be more heterosexual than their performance on the reaction time task indicated were most likely to react with hostility to gay others, the studies showed. That incongruence between implicit and explicit measures of sexual orientation predicted a variety of homophobic behaviors, . . . .

Bottom line, the next time you hear a professional Christian engaged in a homophobic rant, we all will know what is likely really going on. I just wished they would focus their self-hate on themselves and leave the rest of us alone.

Warren Throckmorton: PFOX is Part of the Problem

As noted in the last post, America has its own anti-gay fanatics who dress themselves in the cloak of religious piety even as they peddle hate, lies and untruths about LGBT individuals and, of course, the myth that gays can "change." Never mind that all of the legitimate medical and mental health associations disagree with this politically and religiously motivated claim.Some of these groups have been aptly registered as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center ("SPLC"). Others have not be so registered - at least not yet, but ought to be in my opinion. Even more disturbing is the fact that some of the leaders of these organizations are treated as if they were credible spokesman by news outlets such as MSNBC. One of the merchants of the "change myth" is Parents ad Friends of Ex-gays ("PFOX") which not surprisingly derives funding from and has board members from SPLC registered hate groups. One of PFOX's ongoing battles has been with the Montgomery County, Maryland, school division where PFOX has been striving to disseminate its fraudulent information. On his blog, Warren Throckmortion, a convert from the change myth industry slams PFOX and its dishonest agenda. Here are highlights:

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays has been getting push back over the ex-gay pamphlets sent home with students recently in Montgomery County, MD. Earlier today, Peter Sprigg, who is on the board of PFOX and works for the Family Research Council wrote the Washington Post to criticize a Post article for calling homosexuality “innate.”

What is also troubling about Sprigg’s letter is that he offers an organization as an alternative that does what he accuses the Montgomery Board and the Post of doing – making political statements in place of scientific ones. PFOX has no interest in all of the evidence regarding sexual orientation. Instead, they promote reparative therapy, with the dubious view that parenting and sexual abuse causes sexual orientation. The one PFOX conference I attended several years ago was a sad affair for a group of parents I spoke with after the sessions. Why? Richard Cohen had just finished telling them that lack of love was the culprit behind the gayness of their kids.

As I write this, PFOX is just one of the organizations along with FRC that continues to mislead their constituents regarding current information regarding sexual orientation. They blast those who say that homosexuality is innate or may be a response to pre-natal factors while at the same time promoting bad parenting and trauma as causal factors.

Montgomery County may still be in an ideological war over the factors which cause sexual orientation to take the direction it does, but an answer to that problem is not more “information” from PFOX.

Montgomery County, Maryland Schools to Reconsider Flyer Policy After Backlash to PFOX Flyer

One of the most disingenuous things that the Christianits do - and there are many, many such things - is to work to perpetuate the myth that sexual orientation is a choice, that it can be changed and that "ex-gays" exist. Even Exodus International and former proponents of the change myth such as Warren Throckmorton and Mark Yarhouse of Regent University now concede that any real change is extremely rare assuming it happens at all. Yet we see the Christianist ministries continuing to brainwash tortured and conflicted LGBT individuals and their families - often charging large amounts of money for their witch doctor like therapy. One of the worst proponents of the "change myth" is Parents and Friends of Ex-gays ("PFOX" whose board of directors is a who's who of some of the worst professional homophobes in the nation (e.g., Peter Sprigg and Robert Knight) some of whom are affiliated with registered anti-gay hate groups. Among PFOX's many activities is seeking to disseminate false information to school students - something which, if allowed by school divisions, in my opinion sets the stage for lawsuits against schools stupid enough to allow PFOX to disseminate its lies. One school division that fell for PFOX's snake oil is the school system in Montgomery County, Maryland, adjacent to Washington, D.C. The Washington Post reports on that division's rethinking of allowing false and untrue information to be sent out to students. Here are highlights:

The Montgomery County Board of Education is reconsidering its policy on distributing community flyers, following protests over an announcement sent home with students last month that many found potentially harmful to gay people.

The flyer, which was distributed along with report cards to students at five high schools, came from Parents and Friends of Ex-gays and Gays (PFOX), a Virginia-based organization that advocates that gay people can change their sexual orientation — a view that several national medical organizations contest.

The existing school system policy permits any nonprofit to send flyers home with high school students four times a year, unless the message is considered hate speech. The right was upheld in a court case several years ago.

To remain viewpoint neutral, the school system has to allow any nonprofit — or forbid all nonprofits — from sending home messages. The school board voted Monday night to refer the matter to its policy subcommittee to review and recommend any changes to the full school board this spring.

David Fishback, an advocacy chair for the Metro D.C. chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, applauded superintendent Joshua Starr for speaking out against the flyers. Starr called the actions of the group “reprehensible and deplorable” at a town hall meeting with students.

Peter Sprigg, a member of the board of directors of PFOX, told the board members that it would be “reprehensible, deplorable, and disgusting” if they ultimately decided to “punish” all nonprofits in the county because they disagreed with the messages of some.

Rather than spread medical and mental health lies and untruths, PFOX members and advocates would, in my view, be much better off seeking mental health treatment to help them escape from the emotional and psychological damage they have suffered from their religious upbringings. One can put such baggage behind them. Of course, many of the PFOX crowd seem to have made a profession out of being "ex-gay" for pay. Money apparently means more than objective scientific and medical truth. No one lies as much as the Christianists.

Montgomery, Maryland Board of Education Should Reconsider Fliers Policy After PFOX Debacle

I continue to be amazed by the ignorance of many local school boards that allow themselves to be deceived by, in my view, utterly disingenuous organizations such as PFOX. PFOX, which is a front organization for leading Christianist organization, works to maintain the myth that sexual orientation is changeable and that reparative therapy works. Never mind that ALL of the legitimate medical and mental health associations (i.e., all those not funded by Christianist organizations) condemn reparative therapy and deem it to be unethical conduct for mental health care practitioners. Yet Montgomery County allowed PFOX to send home over 8000 fliers to students thereby giving the appearance that the school board endorsed PFOX's witch doctor like program. I cannot believe that the school board's liability insurance carrier is pleased by this stupid move. It's a lawsuit waiting to happen. The Montgomery Gazette looks at the backlash against the school board action. Here are highlights:

Montgomery’s school board may re-examine its policy on the dissemination of information following the distribution of fliers this month that some critics said were hurtful to gays.

The result might be that the school system no longer will allow groups to send materials home with students, in light of concerns from some community members about the content of the fliers from Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) that were distributed earlier this month, said Philip Kauffman, the board member who proposed re-examining the policy.

PFOX, which is based in Reedville, Va., states on its website that it advocates in favor of individuals who identify themselves as ex-gays and attempts to change public perception about them. It is critical of the idea that being gay or lesbian is innate and describes the ex-gay movement as a civil rights movement.

PFOX distributed 8,000 of its fliers at five Montgomery County schools, NBC4 Washington reported Feb. 7.

A portion of the flier posted on PFOX’s website that was sent home with students read: “No ‘gay gene’ or gay center of the brain has been found. No medical test exists to determine if a person is homosexual. Sexual orientation is based on feelings and is a matter of self-affirmation and public declaration.

The flier also offered to provide students with other information, including ex-gay speakers who would come to schools. The disclaimer at the bottom, required by Montgomery schools, states that the flier is not endorsed by the Board of Education of Montgomery County, the superintendent, or “this school.”

The fliers provoked outrage from some portions of the community, including Superintendent of Schools Joshua P. Starr, who told the Washington Post on Feb. 8 that he found the fliers’ message “deplorable.”

Board Vice President Christopher S. Barclay (Dist. 4) of Takoma Park said that, in such situations, “What you permit is what you promote.” The board’s vote means that its members will vote again on Feb. 27 whether or not to ask its Policy Committee to review its policy governing the fliers.

PFOX board member and Montgomery County resident Peter Sprigg said Tuesday that the group would examine its legal options if the policy were changed or if the group believed it was unfairly being singled out by the school board. “The idea that there is anything offensive in this flier is a complete misunderstanding of its content,” Sprigg said.

For those not in the know, Peter Sprigg is "Senior Fellow for Policy Studies" at Family Research Counsel, a Southern Poverty Law Center registered hate group. FRC describes Sprigg's credentials as follows:

Mr. Sprigg is an ordained Baptist minister. Before coming to FRC, he served as pastor of Clifton Park Center Baptist Church in Clifton Park, N.Y. Mr. Sprigg previously served for ten years as a professional actor and unit leader in Covenant Players, an international Christian drama ministry. . . . Mr. Sprigg received the Master of Divinity degree cum laude from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Mass.). He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from Drew University (N.J.), with a double major in political science and economics.

That's right. As is the norm with the talking heads for the anti-gay Christianist groups, Sprigg has ZERO credentials in the area of medical or mental health care. But he's an ordained minister with a theology degree. And with the Christianists, that's all that matters.

A Coven of Haters and Extremists Arrive for CPAC - Where Were They in the Prop 8 Trial?

As the Washington Post and many main stream news outlets are reporting, a coven of hate merchants and religious extremists have descended on Washington, D. C., for the annual CPAC gathering where the batshitery and far right extremism is off the charts. Barack Obama, gays, liberals of all types are under attack and hate and down right mean spiritedness seem to be the principal hallmarks. As is so often the case with the far right, one is left wondering whether there is anyone that they don't hate. With this week's ruling in Perry v. Brown, however, one has to ask where were these out spoken defenders of "traditional marriage" and "Judeao-Christian morality" when the defenders of Propostion 8 Needed credible witnesses. I suspect that the answer is very simple: they love to rant and spew lies to equally deranged audiences of Christofascists. When they have to testify under oath and the threat of a perjury conviction, they vanish from the scene. Alvin McEwen at Pam's House Blend looks at these self-styled cultural warriors who were missing in action when it came to testifying in the Proposition 8 trial. Here are some highlights:

In celebration of yesterday’s Appeals Court ruling against Proposition 8, I was going to write something uplifting about the perseverance of the lgbtq community. But I decided not to. For one, I am sure that there are so many others who are going to be dwelling on that subject. For another, based upon the reactions coming from the religious right, I feel that another direction is in order, i.e. a missive directed to Maggie Gallagher, the National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, and all of those other folks whining about Tueday’s ruling.

Just where were these folks when the original trial was taking place last year? Why didn’t any of these folks testify as to why Prop 8 was needed? Remember, the pro-Prop 8 side could only find two witnesses and both did a poor job defending the law. One witness, David Blankenhorn, inadvertently made the case for the anti-Prop 8 side! Where were Gallagher, Brian Brown, Peter Sprigg, Tony Perkins, or any of these other folks who put so much work in getting the law passed?

All of this outrage after the fact is bogus. It’s a diversion and a pitiful one at that. It’s an attempt to obscure a basic fact. And that basic fact is that Proposition 8 was built with deliberate lies that Maggie Gallagher, Tony Perkins, Peter Sprigg, and the rest of those pushing it were too fearful to defend in court.

None of these people – not one – had the guts to stand up in court, take an oath, and attest to the veracity of the claims they made regarding what allegedly would happen should marriage equality become legal in California, because they knew that the lawyers attacking the law – David Boies and Ted Olson – would call them out and reveal their deception.

So, Maggie dearest and the rest of you folks, please stop whining. You are not fooling anyone. You dug this hole yourself, so you have no reason to cry out when the dirt comes in to bury you.

Nothing would have been more satisfying than seeing Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, Peter Sprigg, Tony Perkins, et al, testify under oath and be utterly demolished by Ted Olsen and David Boies. Other than hate and fear based religious beliefs, they have NOTHING to support their claims. We know that and they know that. Would that the simple minded and ignorant that they shake down time and time again for money would get the message.

Will Defenders of DADT Be Held Accountable for Their False Predictions?

In the run up to the repeal of the discriminatory - and purely religion derived - Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, the haters of the far right hyperventilated and foamed at the mouth over the supposed dire consequences that DADT repeal would inflict on the U. S. armed forces. A funny thing has happened, however. None of the dire predictions are materializing thus proving that the justifications for the policy were lies. Yep, outright lies. But then, lying seems to be one of the hallmarks of the self-anointed defenders of "family values." The truth always seems to be the first casualty with these folks whether it's their peddling of fraudulent "ex-gay" programs to claiming that gays in the military serving openly and proudly would destroy the military. A piece in Huffington Post written by Nathaniel Frank, author of "Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America", that I bookmarked last week asks the much needed question of whether those who peddled lies and untruths will be held accountable. Here are some highlights:

For years, defenders of anti-gay exclusion in the military have claimed that equal treatment was incompatible with a strong military. For nearly as many years, researchers pointed out that there was no evidence to support this claim that letting gays serve openly would harm cohesion, recruitment, or readiness, and that all the data actually showed the opposite: discrimination and dishonesty were what undermined the military; equal treatment strengthened respect for military law, helped expand the pool of qualified recruits, and removed an impetus for harassment and denigration that are anathema to good order and discipline.

This week . . . . marks three months since the new policy of open service went into effect. So how do we assess the change, and, equally important, now that it's behind us, does it even matter anymore?

in the U.S., fear and anxiety about change had swelled into full-blown paranoia. And this sentiment was being exploited and inflamed by political opportunists. There is even firsthand evidence that military and cultural leaders exaggerated the threat to unit cohesion throughout the debate over "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," in an effort to give credibility to what was, at bottom, simple prejudice.

This is why assessing the ultimate impact of ending "Don't Ask, Don' Tell" matters. And it matters enormously. Throughout our history, opponents of equal treatment have insisted that it would wreak havoc on society, indeed that it would cause such grave disruptions that equality was an unacceptable threat to civilization. This "disruption" theory was wielded against African Americans, immigrants, women, gays and lesbians, and transgender people, to name a few. It is perhaps the sharpest tool in the arsenal of people who refuse to rise above passions and prejudice . . .

For years, we heard that lifting the ban would undermine cohesion, spur a mass exodus of troops from service, hurt military families, and actually cost lives, that it would disrupt our defenses, weaken our country, and threaten civilization. Yet the ban ended three months ago, with little fanfare. Were all the naysayers wrong? Have any of them been held accountable? And will opponents of equality going forward get away with using the same "disruption" theory to convince policymakers to oppose full equality for LGBT and other Americans?

Because that's what they're trying. We hear that letting gay couples marry will disrupt the social fabric of American life, undermine marriage, kill a "culture of life," dry up the Western population, and threaten our civilization. If this is what was said about gay people serving openly (which it was), and if none of it happened, then the lesson is monumental: a culture of anxiety has become a politics of paranoia, which has pulled the wool over our collective eyes in service to maintaining an unjust status quo. Will we let it happen again and again and again? Will anyone be held accountable for steering us so terribly wrong?

The report, "Accountability and DADT," documents -- all in one place -- 60 of the main predictions of disruption that would allegedly result from openly gay service, and the names of the people who made them.

Below are excerpts of some of the most dire predictions. . . . . accountability is essential to justice -- past, present, and future. The next time you have a discussion about the costs and benefits of equal treatment, remember (whatever your position) what history shows: opponents of equality always claim it will disrupt society; almost always, it doesn't. If this holds true for ending DADT, will the naysayers have the courage to say, "I was wrong"?

Sample Predictions of Harm and Disruption Resulting from Openly Gay Military Service (from the new report, "Accountability and DADT"):

"[Lifting the ban] may even prove decisive to the viability of the all-volunteer force. That viability may, in turn, determine our ability to avoid in the years ahead -- as we have for the past four decades -- a return to conscription to meet our requirements for warriors in those conflicts." --Frank Gaffney, Jr., Center for Security Policy, 2011

"[Surveys suggest that if the ban is lifted, a minimum of] 24,000 current members of the armed forces might be lost over and above normal discharge attrition in a one-to-three year period... Because these personnel would be completing one or more terms of service, they would, in fact, represent a hemorrhage of mature, skilled losses from the professional ranks. This is an enormous risk to the viability of our armed forces." --General Carl Mundy, former Commandant of the Marine Corps, 2010, in a letter addressing Congress

"If the law is overturned and open homosexuals are welcomed into the military, the number of homosexuals in the armed forces can only increase -- leading to a corresponding increase in same-sex sexual assaults." --Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council, 2010

Read the full report here to see more of the lies and untruths put forward and the hate and fear merchants who made them. Here's one from the utterly insane Elaine Donnelly:

Lifting the ban would lead to “inappropriate passive/aggressive actions common in the homosexual community,” “forcible sodomy” and "exotic forms of sexual expression.” - Elaine Donnelly, Center for Military Readiness, 2008

Meanwhile, The Christianists Are Livid with Obama and Clinton

As noted in the prior post this morning, the forces of hate and evil who parade around hiding under the cloak of religion are beside themselves with President Obama for issuing his memorandum to U.S. agencies that will conflict with Christianist efforts to export homophobia abroad. Among those leading the way is the registered hate group Family Research Council - which as best I can tell does very little in terms of advancing the Gospel message of feeding the hungry, caring for the sick and aiding the homeless but spends millions on disseminating hate. These "godly Christians" are apoplectic that their anti-gay agenda is being challenged. Joe Jervis at Joe. My. God has details on FRC hysterical denunciation of Obama:

It is noteworthy that FRC henchman, Peter Sprigg, is among those who ardently support the "choice myth" about sexual orientation. His credentials that qualify him for this? None - as is the norm with the Christianist faux experts. Per FRC's own website, his background is as follows: "Mr. Sprigg is an ordained Baptist minister. Before coming to FRC, he served as pastor of Clifton Park Center Baptist Church in Clifton Park, N.Y. Mr. Sprigg previously served for ten years as a professional actor and unit leader in Covenant Players, an international Christian drama ministry." His only academic degree is in political science/economics. Nothing in the area of medicine or mental health credentials. As for one of the many reasons why FRC is a registered hate group, Joe notes as follows:

Remember last year when the Family Research Council paid lobbyists $25,000 to convince Congress NOT to denounce the gay death penalty in Uganda? How fucking DARE the president interfere with their plan to see you dead!

The AFA and FRC Contine to Call for a Re-Criminalization of Gays while Claiming Thy're Not Hate Groups

As often noted on this blog, when every the lips of Christianists are moving, it's pretty much a 99.999999% likelihood that they are lying. The American Family Association ("AFA") is continue to whine and whimper over its designation by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-gay hate group in more or less the same league as the KKK and toxic white supremacist groups when it comes to marketing hatred. The hypocrisy is palpable. On the one hand we see the ever disingenuous Peter Sprigg (who for over a decade has been spinning anti-gay propaganda at various Christianist organizations) disclaiming that Family Research Council and its allies have engaged in any hateful activity towards LGBT Americans even as Sprigg and AFA's Bryan Fischer are on record calling for the re-criminalization of homosexuality. First these highlights from Sprigg's dishonest denials as reported by Right Wing Watch:

Family Research Council senior fellow Peter Sprigg appeared today on The Matt Friedeman Show on the American Family Association’s American Family Radio to discuss the budding controversy over the right-wing “charity” service CGBG. The progressive groups AllOut.org and Change.org have persuaded over 200 retailers to leave the CGBG . . . .

Sprigg: People are afraid of the homosexual activists and they’re particularly afraid of this character assassination that comes in the form of the word ‘hate.’ Nobody wants to be accused of participating in ‘hate’ and so throwing that word ‘hate’ around becomes a trump card even when nothing that we have done can reasonably be called ‘hate.’ On the contrary, everything we do is motivated by love for the people who are hurt by this lifestyle.

Such a claim is hard to believe coming from Peter Sprigg, who:

Said that he would “much prefer to export homosexuals from the United States than to import them into the United States because we believe homosexuality is destructive to society.”

Supported the criminalization of homosexuality.

Lobbied to make it harder for students to join Gay-Straight Alliances because “homosexuality is harmful to society.”

Argued that gays and lesbians shouldn’t be judges because a gay judge can’t “be held up as a role model.”

Linked homosexuality to pedophilia even when scientists rejected their correlation.

Opposed allowing same-sex partners or their adopted children from collecting their deceased partner or parent’s Social Security benefits.

Cheered on Lisa Miller after she kidnapped her daughter and fled to Central America in order to evade court order granting custody to her former partner.

But the LGBT community, Sprigg says, should see all these as acts of love.

As noted, Bryan Fischer is no less driven by contempt and anti-gay hatred than Sprigg. Right Wing Watch likewise looks at the latest anti-gay vitriol from Fischer. Here are highlights as well as a video of Fischer's batshitery:

On his radio show Focal Point yesterday, American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer called on all fifty states to criminalize homosexuality.

Fischer: Both of the cases that went to the United States Supreme Court that dealt with the issue of whether states should criminalize sodomy, and of course they still ought to be able to do it, every state in the union criminalized sodomy until 1962 and then forty nine states until 1972, then they began to fall like dominoes. But by the time of the founding until the late 20th Century, homosexual activity was a felony offense in the United States of America, there is no reason why it cannot be a criminal offense once again, absolutely none.

Why Is CNN Using Hate Groups for "Balance" On LGBT Issues

The Boston Globe - which I commented on recently for its piece on Scott Lively - is unfortunately not the only supposedly reputable news outlet that resorts to using representatives of registered hate groups in the supposed quest of being "fair and balanced" in covering LGBT issues. CNN is another such news outlet that gives the hate groups a constant platform. As noted in the post on the Globe's ass kissing of Lively, if CNN is to be consistent, then each spot on a racial civil rights issue ought to have the Klu Klux Klan as a counterpoint. GLAAD has had enough of this disingenuous bullshit and has started a petition that will be delivered to CNN demanding that this equivalent of yellow journalism cease. I encourage readers to sign the petition here. It is beyond ridiculous that individuals who would NEVER be given a venue/platform on issues of religious or racial discrimination time and time again are given a free rein on gay bashing. Particularly when the individuals represent documented hate groups with records of lies and untruths. Here are highlights from GLAAD's explanation for the petition campaign:
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CNN has long been one of America's most respected journalistic organizations on many issues, but for several years, it has had a giant blind spot when it comes to issues that impact the LGBT community. On December 21, John King USA ran a segment featuring Peter Sprigg from Family Research Council, but there are countless other examples. Out of a desire for 'balance' on these issues, CNN turned - as they often do - to the anti-gay industry to provide the counterpoint. Except all too frequently, the network doesn't book these people because they provide any actual expertise or experience on issues that impact LGBT people; their only qualification is that they are anti-gay.
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Sprigg's qualifications, however, came exclusively from his job at the Family Research Council. There, Sprigg has worked to advance some of the most hurtful, dangerous, and demonstrably false notions about the lives of LGBT people that our country has seen in recent years. And yet, by pairing him with Nicholson in this segment, CNN told its millions of viewers that both of these men should be seen as equally valuable to this discussion.
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The media is elevating their hurtful messages and attitudes to the level of rational discourse. The media is saying that people like Alexander Nicholson, who can speak to real-life experience and firsthand facts, need to be "balanced" by people like Peter Sprigg, whose claim to fame is arguing that being gay should be outlawed. If CNN wants to interview a gay person who believes being straight should be outlawed, THEN Peter Sprigg would be an acceptable "balance."
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I've signed the petition because it is far past time that CNN and other news outlets stop lending an image of credibility to those who lack ant legitimate credentials - Peter Sprigg being but one such example. I hope every reader will do so as well.