Exposing the "Alliance Defending Freedom," an Anti-Gay Hate Group

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The Right's Dangerous Obsession With the "Good Old Days"

One of the obsessions of the far right is the desire the "good old days" - a mythical time that never truly existed save for the fact that white privilege was still at its zenith.  For the Republican Party part of this obsession is restoring the Gilded Age when the excesses of millionaires knew few limits and in a pre-work regulation world, the lives of many workers were brutal and life expectancies were short.  None of these harsh and ugly realities seemingly lessen the far right's desire to restore this mythical time when the few had things good but the masses did not. Donald Trump's greed, racism, worship of money, and indifference to the many embodies some of the ugliest attributes of this far right longing.  A piece column in the Washington Post uses the recent anti-gay incident at Nichols Hardware in Purcellville, Virginia, as a launching point to review just how cruel the past the far right and white supremacists was for most Americans.  Here are excerpts:

From the handwritten receipts to the tin ceilings and worn wooden floors, Nichols Hardware — opened in this small Virginia town in 1914 and still open today, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. — oozes nostalgia.

And that can be a dangerous thing. Because those good old days weren’t so good for many people.

Lynchings were still occurring in the Virginia Piedmont region when the store opened. Women couldn’t vote. Anyone suspected of being gay was regularly fired, arrested, jailed and prosecuted. Ten percent of all babies died in their first year of life, and the average life expectancy was just 54 years. Workplace deaths were common, and there was “virtually no regulation, no insurance, and no company fear of a lawsuit when someone was injured or killed” on the job, according to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on what those days were like 100 years ago.

It can be easy to forget the brutality and cruelty of those old-timey days when we wrap ourselves in a chalk-painted, custom-distressed longing for mason-jar lemonade and a simpler, kinder time that never really was.

One of the employees of the Loudoun County hardware store gave the nation a disturbing reminder of that over the weekend when an aspiring Eagle Scout looking for donations at the store for a project was served up a bygone-era rant about “homos” and co-ed scouting, then “thrown out” of the store, according to the boy’s father.

The employee was reacting to recent news that the Boy Scouts of America now welcome girls, that the organization has changed its name to Scouts BSA and that three years ago, it lifted a ban on all gay members and leaders.

How easily the man forgot the other times the Boy Scouts of America made news, such as when a court ordered the organization in 2012 to release about 2,000 pages of sex abuse reports from its “perversion files,” created in the 1920s in the Scouts’ halfhearted hunt for child abusers preying on boys. . . . . The most consistent part of the reports was the coverup. Parents, kids, leaders all hush-hushing the abuse and moving the abusers along — quietly, Catholic Church-style — to the next group of victims.

[W]ith the termination [of the bigoted employee], the Nichols family firmly reminded folks of how far we’ve come and how absurd it is to gloss over the ugliest pieces of our past.

Historian Stephanie Coontz wrote a book debunking our mythology about the past. The title: “The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap.”

“Knowing there was no golden age of family life, I believed, would enable people to deal more effectively with the problems facing today’s families than if they continued to romanticize the ‘good old days,’ ” she wrote.

Coontz reminded readers that in those romanticized days, half of all mills and factories were filled with child workers, when kids as young as 6 pulled 12-hour shifts. Colonial families were rarely nuclear, as most kids experienced the death of at least one parent. And then there are the white folks who have fond memories of childhoods filled with warm and nurturing black women who had to leave their own children behind to care for them.

There it is, the ability to forget how great America is while longing to make it somehow great again. . . . . What couldn’t happen in those allegedly romantic times?

A black man couldn’t shop at many stores, let alone serve as the town’s mayor — no, three-term mayor — the way Purcellville Mayor Kwasi Fraser, an immigrant from Guyana, has.

868 Estate Vineyards couldn’t tout itself as friendly to LGBT weddings. There would be no LGBT weddings.

There would be no wine. And taking a walk to the Nostalgia boutique would be quite gross, because Main Street was known as Polecat Hollow, an unpaved byway for animal waste.  Not too charming, right?

 The real agenda of the right: to revert to a past time and in the process strip millions of Americans of their civil rights and reinstitute a modernized version of the Jim Crow laws.  All so those clinging to antiquated and perverted theology and racial prejudice can feel superior about themselves. 

Christian Activist Files California Ballot Measure For Executing All Homosexuals

While the "godly folk" have been going to great lengths to condemn the atrocities being committed by ISIS and argued that Christianity has never led to such horrors, one Christofacist activist in California has helped to underscore that the differences between ISIS and Christofascists in reality is only a matter of to what degree they will engage in widespread violence and murder.  When it comes to extremist dogma and putting unreasoning faith in the writings of ignorant individuals (or, in the case of Mohammed, someone who belonged in a mental ward), there really is little difference otherwise.  Here are highlights from the New Civil Rights Movement:

A Christian activist would like to see all gay people in California executed by firing squad, just so the rest of the citizenry can avoid having to endure God's "wrath." Matthew McLaughlin last week paid $200 to file a ballot initiative with the Attorney General in Sacramento that proposes his Sodomite Suppression Act become law.

McLaughlin calls homosexual sex "buggery," and "sodomy," and labels it "a monstrous evil that Almighty God, giver of freedom and liberty, commands us to suppress on pain of our utter destruction even as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha [sic]."

He says that it's "better" that non-gay Californians kill the gays rather than have to suffer God's punishment.

"Seeing that it is better that offenders should die rather than that all of us should be killed by God's just wrath against us for the folly of tolerating-wickedness in our midst, the People of California wisely command, in the fear of God, that any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method."

McLaughlin does not state if minors – say, high school students – would be treated as adults and included in the execution mandate.

And McLaughlin's bill would make it illegal for any gay person to hold public office, be employed by the state, or be granted any benefits, such as welfare, social security, or use any public assets, such as roads.

McLaughlin will have to get 365,000 legitimate California residents to sign up to support the Sodomite Suppression Act in order for it to move forward.

Wonkette has done its research and says that McLaughlin is likely the same person who in 2004 attempted to get the Bible in curriculum studies in public schools, an effort that would probably have been unconstitutional and cost the state about $200 million.

It's not without reason that I refer to folks like McLaughlin as the Christian Taliban.  Perhaps the term needs to be updated to the "Christian ISIS."

Bobby Jindal's Hate Group Relationship

Among the would be Republican presidential nominees the willingness to prostitute themselves to the Christofascist/Tea Party element of the party base seems to no few limits.  But even among these self-prostitution individuals, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal seems to take self-prostitution to new levels.  Hence his agreement to headline a rally organized by The American Family Association, one of the vilest of the Southern Poverty Law Center certified hate groups.  What makes Jindal's pandering all the more disgusting is the fact that he's not some uneducated rube.  He's Ivy League educated but is only too happy to embrace ignorance in the quest for political power.  A piece in Media Matters looks at Jindal's shameless embrace of hate and ignorance.  Here are excerpts:

Louisiana Governor and GOP presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal is the keynote speaker for a rally funded and organized by an anti-LGBT group that has blamed gay people for causing the Holocaust and advocated imprisoning homosexuals.  So why isn't his appearance garnering national media attention?

On January 24, Jindal will keynote a six-hour prayer event at Louisiana State University called "The Response: A Call To Prayer For a Nation In Crisis." The event is sponsored and funded by the American Family Association (AFA), one of the most extreme anti-gay hate groups in the country. It's also being staffed by a number of notorious anti-LGBT activists.

The event has drawn protests from members of the LSU community. On January 22, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution expressing displeasure with the event, and a university spokesperson has clarified that the rental of an LSU facility "does not imply any endorsement."

Jindal has thus far dismissed criticism of the event, according to The Clarion-Ledger:

Asked if he agreed with the American Family Association's agenda, Jindal sidestepped that question and said, "The left likes to try to divide and attack Christians."

Jindal said the protesters themselves should consider joining the prayer rally. He said they "might benefit from prayer."

AFA's status as a hate group is largely thanks to the work of its spokesman, Bryan Fischer, whose anti-LGBT remarks go well beyond mainstream social conservatism. Fischer's inflammatory comments about gay people include:

• Repeatedly calling for the criminalization of homosexuality
• Blaming gay people for the Holocaust
• Linking homosexuality to pedophilia
• Arguing gay people are disqualified from holding public office

[A]side from a few outlets noting AFA's "controversial" stances, national coverage of Jindal's association with the hate group has similarly been glossed over by the media. It's a stark contrast to the tremendous media attention surrounding GOP House Majority Whip Steve Scalise's infamous 2002 speech to a white nationalist group. When it comes to GOP politics, media outlets have a hard time seeing what's newsworthy about a hate group like AFA being used to cement the campaign of a potential presidential candidate.  

The Ugly Truth About the Alliance Defending Freedom

The Alliance Defending Freedom ("ADF") likes to depict itself as a mainstream Christian legal group and, sadly, far too many lazy mainstream media outlets mindlessly parrot ADF's propaganda and never look at why the organization is, in fact, an extremist hate group.  Here in Virginia, ADF was the main proponent of upholding Virginia's foul theocratic backed Marshall-Newman Amendment.  The ugly truth, however, is that ADF not only oppose LGBT civil rights in America, but overseas it is working overtime to criminalize homosexuality and induce ignorant and uneducated populations to embrace its religious based hatred.  It is a very foul organization.   Media Matters looks at the real ADF agenda.  Here are excerpts:

Few anti-LGBT groups get as much media attention as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the right-wing legal organization best known for defending anti-gay business owners who refuse to comply with nondiscrimination laws. But while ADF's "religious liberty" work generates plenty of headlines, few media outlets have highlighted the most extreme facet of ADF's legal agenda: criminalizing homosexuality.

ADF has become a fixture on Fox News, but its involvement in crafting Arizona's license-to-discriminate law in early 2014 attracted coverage from other networks as well. In October, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat apologized after he spoke at an ADF fundraiser.

But aside from a handful of examples, media outlets have failed to highlight just how extreme ADF's anti-gay agenda really is. While the group prefers to talk about its "religious liberty" work when in the media spotlight, ADF is actively working to promote and defend anti-sodomy laws that criminalize gay sex.

United States: ADF's formal support for anti-sodomy laws dates to at least 2003, before the Supreme Court made its landmark decision in Lawrence v. Texas. ADF, which was at the time still known as the Alliance Defense Fund, filed an amicus brief in the case, defending state laws criminalizing gay sex. In its brief, ADF spent nearly 30 pages arguing that gay sex is unhealthy, harmful, and a public-health risk.

In 2003, ADF president Alan Sears co-wrote a book titled The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing The Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today, which warned that eliminating anti-sodomy lawswould lead to the overturning of "laws against pedophilia, sex between close relatives, polygamy, bestiality and all other distortions and violations of God's plan."Th  e Supreme Court disagreed, striking down state bans on gay sex in its Lawrence v. Texas decision.
 
Jamaica:  In December 2012, the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society hosted an international conference titled "Human Rights, International Law and the Family" in Kingston. The event was aimed at discussing how the fight for LGBT equality -- including a legal challenge to the country's anti-sodomy law -- threatened "the traditional, natural family." Jeffrey Ventrella and Piero Tozzi, two senior legal counsels for ADF at the time, spoke at the conference.

Belize: ADF has also worked to help defend Belize's Section 53, a law that criminalizes gay sex. As the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reported in 2013, ADF attorneys offered legal assistance to Belize Action, a local group working to keep homosexuality criminalized.

India: In December 2011, India's Supreme Court voted to restore the country's colonial-era law banning "carnal intercourse against the order of nature." The ruling reversed a 2009 decision by the Delhi High Court, which found the law unconstitutional. Under India's criminalization statute, gay sex is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

In an interview with OneNewsNow, Alliance Defending Freedom Global executive director Benjamin Bull applauded the Supreme Court's decision for not "giv[ing] in to a vocal minority of homosexual advocates"
[I]t matters in terms of the media, which continues to treat ADF as a mainstream group fighting for "religious liberty." ADF has given up on promoting anti-sodomy laws in the U.S. afterLawrence, but the group still aggressively supports imprisoning gay people around the world for having sex. It's an ugly truth about one of the right's highest-profile legal organizations.

Failing to note ADF's support for anti-sodomy laws -- which places it firmly on the fringe of even conservative circles -- paints a grossly misleading picture of the extremism that motivates the group's anti-gay legal work.

Pastor: All Gays Must Be Imprisoned to Assure Christian Freedom

The toxicity of the Christofascists and their whores pawns in the Republican Party seems to increase with every passing day as they more shrilly call for the end of religious freedom for all and a Christofascists run police state where those who reject their hate filled version of Christianity are punished for their non-conformity.  As seems to be always the case, gays are singled out for particularly brutal treatment.  These Christofascists are nothing less than a clear and present danger to America's constitutional form of government, yet politicians and others continue to give them undeserved deference.  What these extremists are calling for is, in fact, a form of sedition.  Right Wing Watch looks at the batshitery that passes for Christian discourse among these people.  Here are highlights:

Colorado-based pastors Kevin Swanson and Dave Buehner were unsurprisingly mortified by a ruling against a Colorado bakery which discriminated against gay customers, leaving Buehner to wonder if schools will soon be “forced to hire Jerry Sandusky when he’s on parole.”

“What I think the homosexuals are doing is pressing into every nook and cranny of civil society,” Swanson said, urging on fundamentalist Christians to “impose God’s laws upon our systems, especially our political systems.”

He called on Christians to advocate for the recriminalization homosexuality…for freedom: “God’s laws require that we prosecute homosexuals who are caught in the act of homosexuality or the act of sodomy on the basis of two or three witnesses. If Christians would do that, if Christian pastors would do that then we would be able to hopefully press back the line upon those who are impressing their rights upon Christians who really need that religious freedom.” 

Note how these selfish, self-centered people are always depicted as the victims even as they trample on the rights of others and victimize others.  As stated before, they are NOT nice or decent people and the larger public needs to open its eyes to this reality.  As Joe Jervis notes, this is not the only anti-gay animus these pastors have displayed:

Kevin Swanson says gays caused the Colorado floods. Kevin Swanson says Christians should tell gay couples that they hope they die on their wedding day.

Head Of Russian Orthodox Church Says Same-Sex Unions Are Portents Of Doom

UPDATED:  BuzzFeed has a compilation of photos here of what is being done to gays in Russia that is must viewing.

Proving again that (i) American Christofascists do not have a monopoly on insanity and (ii) the fruits of religion are most often hate and bigotry, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Kirill, said on Sunday that the recognition of same-sex unions by Western countries is a portent of doom.  Little has changed in the Russian Orthodox Church which has for centuries sought to support the rights and luxuries of the few over the rights and welfare of the many - i.e., previously the Tsars and the aristocracy and now Putin and his circle - and often whipped up pogroms against Jews in Russia.   Huffington Post looks at Kirill's evil and dangerous hate mongering.  Here are excerpts:

Russia has been cracking down on gays and lesbians lately, with harsh legislature making it potentially dangerous to be LGTB-identified in the country. President Putin has signed three anti-gay bills into law, with more to come.

He is supported in his anti-gay mission by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who thinks that the recognition of same-sex unions by Western countries is a portent of doom. The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill said on Sunday after the service in Red Square's Kazan Cathedral, "This is a very dangerous apocalyptic symptom, and we must do everything in our powers to ensure that sin is never sanctioned in Russia by state law, because that would mean that the nation has embarked on a path of self-destruction."
The religious leader called on Russians to block the passage of marriage equality laws, stating, "We face enormous temptations when countries start approving sin and codifying it into law in order to justify it." Putin seems to share his views, as the President has embarked on a shocking campaign against gays and lesbians living in Russia, as Harvey Fierstein explained in a New York Times op-ed on Sunday.  Fierstein comments:

Mr. Putin’s campaign against lesbian, gay and bisexual people is one of distraction, a strategy of demonizing a minority for political gain taken straight from the Nazi playbook. Can we allow this war against human rights to go unanswered? Although Mr. Putin may think he can control his creation, history proves he cannot: his condemnations are permission to commit violence against gays and lesbians.

On July 3, a law banned the adoption of Russian-born children to gay couples as well as all couples or single parents living in countries where marriage equality exists. Despite the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics, Putin signed another law allowing police officers to arrest foreign nationals and tourists they suspect of being gay, lesbian, or "pro-gay," and detain them for up to two weeks. The worryingly vague language suggests that anyone simply accused of being gay, including Olympic athletes, can be thrown in jail.

The 2014 Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held in Sochi, but these new laws are worrying to many who plan to visit Russia in order to see the Games. Human Rights Watch published a letter to the Director General of the International Olympic Committee expressing its reservations about the harsh legislation, stating, "This draft law is clearly incompatible with the Olympic Charter’s promotion of “human dignity,” as well as a blatant violation of Russia’s international legal obligations to guarantee non-discrimination and respect for freedom of expression."

I for one support moving the 2014 games from Russia.  It would be a much needed public rebuke of Putin and his regime.  Russians have a history of wanting to be accepted as a western country and losing the Olympic Games would make the average citizen view Putin's anti-gay agenda as a national embarrassment.