Evangelicals Furious Over Trump Plan to Decriminalize Homosexuality

Trump and Pence with hate merchant, Tony Perkins.

The spittle is flying and shrieks of outrage are echoing form evangelicals over the purported Trump/Pence regime play to push for the decriminalization of homosexuality across the globe.  Most in the LGBT community have yawned and discounted the legitimacy of purported effort in light of Trump/Pence's continuous attacks of LGBT Americans. At this point, most wonder where the purported effort is headed since Trump himself pleaded ignorance about it. If the plan proceeds, it will be one of the few times Trump has failed to deliver on promises to his loyal, misogynist evangelical base.  A piece in The Advocate looks at the evangelical melt down.  Here are excerpts: 

The Trump administration’s push to decriminalize homosexuality abroad — which the president seemed strangely unaware of when questioned by reporters this week —  is drawing the ire of the religious right.

Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany and the highest-ranking openly gay official in the administration, is leading the effort to persuade countries where homosexuality is illegal to change their laws, administration officials said Tuesday. Grenell wrote an article on the plan for a German newspaper, referring to Iran’s reported execution of a man believed to be gay as an example of the harm caused by such laws. The campaign has met with skepticism from LGBTQ advocates, given the administration’s homophobic and transphobic domestic policies.

Religious right activists, while not endorsing the death penalty for LGBTQ people, denounced the push for decriminalization.

“Let’s find common ground in calling for an end to all forms of physical violence against homosexuals —  but refrain from imposing the values of the sexual revolution on the rest of the world.” Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, a longtime supporter of Donald Trump, wrote in his Washington Update column Thursday.

Massachusetts minister and occasional political candidate Scott Lively, always a virulent homophobe, was even more pointed in a column for World Net Daily, a right-wing website. “Reasonable tolerance and sympathy for people who suffer from same-sex attraction disorder is warranted — as is protecting them from violence — but sanitizing homosexuality and transgenderism as if they were morally, psychologically and behaviorally equivalent to sexual and gender normalcy is PC-driven lunacy,” he wrote.
 In a commentary for BarbWire, another far-right site, Julio Severo denounced Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a conservative Christian, for supporting Grenell’s effort, and took the opportunity to accuse LGBTQ people of being a danger to children.

“Such push coming from the Trump administration is a shame.” Severo wrote. “Coming from an evangelical who is the State Secretary, helping homosexual activist Grenell, is a bigger shame, because he is doing exactly what left-wing Protestant Hillary Clinton was doing when she was also a State Secretary.”

“When I think about violence and homosexuality, the first thought coming to my mind is not individuals suffering violence for their sexual lifestyle,” he added. “The first thinking is children suffering homosexual violence — physical and psychological. There is a massive effort to cover up the suffering of children in the hands of homosexual predators.”

Scientists have found no link between homosexuality and pedophilia, but Severo continued to push the assertion that gays are predators, and he blamed gay priests for the widespread abuse of children and teens in the Roman Catholic Church.

The commentators were still reluctant to blame Trump for the decriminalization campaign. . . . Perkins was encouraged that Trump seemed not to know of the campaign when reporters asked him about it Wednesday.

There may be another reason for Trump appearing to be ignorant of the move, however. New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman floated a possible explanation on Twitter: Or he does and doesn’t want to acknowledge on camera because it risks offending portions of his base.

Trump Unaware of Effort to Legalize Homosexuality Abroad

In a recent post I conjectured that the reported Trump/Pence regime effort to decriminalize homosexuality in foreign nations where being gay is illegal (if not the basis for receiving the death penalty) could all be a charade.  Some thought the true goal of the purported initiative was to woo European Union nations into joining in sanctions against Iran, others simply found it lacking in credibility give the Trump/Pence regime's anti-LGBT record since assuming office.  Now, it is being reported that when asked about the effort, Der Trumpenführer knew nothing about it.  As for Pence, he quickly turned the conversation to Iran thereby adding justification for those who saw this as an anti-Iran stunt from the start.  Here are excerpts from the Washington Examiner:

President Trump drew a blank Wednesday when told about his own administration's push to legalize homosexuality across the globe.

A reporter asked Trump in the Oval Office about "your push to decriminalize homosexuality around the world," asking, "Are you doing that and why?"

Trump said, however, "I don't know which report you're talking about. We have many reports."

White House representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Trump was aware of his administration's push to repeal anti-homosexuality laws in 71 countries.

On Tuesday, NBC News reported that the Trump administration was preparing for a global effort to decriminalize homosexuality, which is banned in many African, Caribbean, and Muslim countries.

The push is spearheaded by U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, the most prominent gay official in the Trump administration. Grenell's effort began Tuesday with a gathering in Berlin. 

A piece in the Washington Blade looks at Pence's response for comment.  As noted, Pence quickly turned the conversation to Iran.  As for Pence's true feelings towards gays, his past shows that he is no ally.  I cannot believe the Trump/Pence regime's supporters among the Christofascist are the least bit happy about any effort to decriminalize homosexuality.  Here are highlights from the Blade:

Vice President Mike Pence backs the newly announced Trump administration global initiative calling on nation’s to decriminalize homosexuality, a spokesperson for his office told the Washington Blade on Wednesday.

The global initiative seems aimed at highlighting the human rights record of Iran, a country that punishes homosexual acts with death. Highlighting Iran’s record is an independent goal Pence has made for himself, as evidenced by a speech he delivered earlier this month in Warsaw, Poland.

“The authoritarian regime in Tehran represses the freedom of speech and assembly, it persecutes religious minorities, brutalizes women, executes gay people, and openly advocates the destruction of the State of Israel,” Pence said. “The Ayatollah Khamenei himself has said, ‘It is the mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to erase Israel from the map.’”

Pence’s support for an initiative to decriminalize homosexuality stands in contrast to his long anti-LGBT record as both a U.S. House member and Indiana governor.

As a U.S. House member, Pence voted against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

As Indiana governor, Pence signed into law a “religious freedom” measure widely criticized for allowing individuals and businesses to refuse service to LGBT people. . . . . After an outcry from LGBT rights supporters and the business community, Pence was forced to sign a “fix” limiting the ability to discriminate under the Indiana law.

All in all, I remain a major skeptic about this alleged effort to decriminalize homosexuality across the globe.  I'd love to see it happen, but this effort is diametrically opposite of everything Trump and Pence have done over the past. 

Trump’s Plan to Decriminalize Homosexuality May be a Charade

The Trump/Pence regime is claiming that it is about to launch an initiative to push for decriminalization of homosexuality in the world's nations where being gay remains a crime, often punishable by imprisonment or death. Given (i) Trump's record of lying and not fulfilling promises, (ii) the regime's abysmal record on LGBT issues and Trump's promises to LGBT hating Christofascists and evangelicals, and (iii) Mike Pence's (and "Mother's") own open animus towards gays, it is hard to put much trust in the alleged initiative. Moreover, the effort appears targeted towards Iran in particular and may be a hard, if not impossible, sell to Trump's malignant buddies in Saudi Arabia, another nation where gays face the death penalty. Even further doubt stems from the seeming lack of organization in the effort which will need to encompass Africa, the Middle East and much of the Caribbean.  A piece in Out Magazine makes the case why Trump's initiative may be a charade aimed at rallying European nations to act against Iran.  Perhaps I am too cynical, but I doubt it, especially since many in Trump's evangelical base are deeply involved in whipping up anti-gay hatred in Africa and continue to push back against gay rights in the USA. Here are article highlights: 

The Trump administration [allegedly] is set to launch a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality in dozens of nations where anti-gay laws are still on the books, NBC News reported Monday. While on its surface, the move looks like an atypically benevolent decision by the Trump administration, the details of the campaign belie a different story. Rather than actually being about helping queer people around the world, the campaign looks more like another instance of the right using queer people as a pawn to amass power and enact its own agenda.

It almost goes without saying but the Trump administration does not have a great human rights record at home when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues. Advocacy group GLAAD has kept a record of the many times the administration has harmed LGBTQ+ people, from its transgender military ban to the reversal of plans to include LGBTQ people on the 2020 US census. And prior to his ill-conceived plan to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Trump’s administration had an abysmal record on addressing the virus.  

The most telling detail of NBC News’ report is that his plan centers homophobic violence in Iran, who NBC News calls the administration’s “top geopolitical foe.” The plan has reportedly been spearheaded by the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, who is also the administration’s top-ranked gay official, in response to news that a young gay man was hanged in Iran recently. Grenell has had his eyes on Iran for some time and just a week ago, he was trying to get several European nations to pass sanctions on Iran, unrelated to the country’s stance on homosexuality, to no avail.  

Homosexuality has been illegal in Iran since the theocratic 1979 Islamic Revolution. By at least one Guardian account, since the exit of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2013, enforcement of anti-gay laws has softened somewhat. Homosexuality, according to the writer, is an “open secret” and most queer people fear homophobic reaction from fellow citizens more than the authorities.

Grennell’s sudden interest in Iran’s anti-gay laws is strikingly similar to Trump’s rhetoric after the 2016 Pulse massacre in Orlando, Florida. After the deadly shooting, Trump used the 49 deaths as a way to galvanize support for an anti-Muslim agenda rather than find a way to support LGBTQ+ people. In pushing for immigration restrictions and a Muslim ban, Trump argued, he was the true pro-LGBTQ+ candidate. Rather than honor those who died, Trump used the tragedy as a way to stoke fear among the American people, and Grennell is taking similar actions with Iran — trying to reach an economic goal by painting the administration’s opponent as anti-gay.

“We know Trump is very focused on Iran and is looking for ways to demonize it in the public opinion and this is one area where you know the US and European countries see eye to eye on Iran,” Josh Lederman, who reported the original NBC News story, told Out in a phone interview. “So it makes for them to focus strategically on that rather than sanctions, where there’s been a big gulf between the U.S. and its allies.”

The truth is, this is part of an old colonialist handbook. In her essay, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” postcolonial theorist Gayatri Spivak coined the term “White men saving brown women from brown men” to describe the racist, paternalistic process by which colonizing powers would decry the way men in power treated oppressed groups, like women, to justify attacking them. Spivak was referencing the British colonial agenda in India. But Grennell’s attack might be a case of white men trying to save brown gay men from brown straight men, to the same end.

Lederman says that the sentiment on the ground is that the initiative is “very much a work in progress” and that they made the announcement while “there’s still a lot of strategy being worked out.” However, Lederman did confirm that as of right now, activists from countries in the regions being discussed — from Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean — are not currently being brought to the discussion table.

Though plans may or may not exist to invite local LGBTQ+ advocacy groups to the table, that they are not there at the plan’s inception is dangerous. Inviting European activists to solve problems in the Middle East, African or the Caribbean — which, once again, are not monolithic in the slightest — is a toothless effort, more PR than progressive.

Again, I'd like to be wrong, but I predict that I will not be wrong. As with rebuilding America's infrastructure and addressing the opiod crisis, Trump makes promises but never keeps them.  Indeed, the only promises he has consistently kept has been to Christofascist extremist who want homosexuality re-criminalized right here in America,  I cannot believe these folks support the alleged decriminalization plan, particularly in Africa where they have invested large sums to push anti-gay laws.  

World Psychiatric Association Condemns "Ex-Gay" Conversion Therapy

Even as fraudulent "Ex-gay" conversion "ministries" and the Roman Catholic Church continue to peddle the lie that gays can "change" - lying is, after all, their main hallmark - the World Psychiatric Association has come out and explicitly condemned such conversion "therapies."  Moreover, it has called on all nations to decriminalize homosexuality.  The main obstacle?  Ignorance embracing religions across the globe ranging from Christianity to Islam.   Sadly, many in these religious prefer to cling to myths of talking snakes written by ignorant goat herders in the case of the Bible or the writings of someone likely suffering from what would today be viewed as mental illness in the case of the Koran.  BuzzFeed looks at the development.  Here are highlights:

The largest international organisation for psychiatrists is to publish a statement condemning conversion therapy as unscientific, unethical, ineffective, and harmful, BuzzFeed News can reveal.

In a wide-ranging call to reduce the stigmatisation, discrimination, and resulting worsened mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) will formally announce on Tuesday its opposition to any attempts to turn LGBT people heterosexual – known as “conversion therapy” or “reparative therapy”.

“There is no sound scientific evidence that innate sexual orientation can be changed,” says the WPA’s position statement, which has been supplied to BuzzFeed News.

 

“Furthermore, so-called treatments of homosexuality can create a setting in which prejudice and discrimination flourish, and they can be potentially harmful. The provision of any intervention purporting to ‘treat’ something that is not a disorder is wholly unethical.”

[T]he WPA represents over 200,000 psychiatrists in over 118 countries, many of which criminalise homosexuality and, in some cases, condone attempts to “cure” it.

The WPA’s statement, which will likely be seen as controversial by many of its members, says: “A same-sex sexual orientation per se does not imply objective psychological dysfunction or impairment in judgement, stability, or vocational capabilities.” It continues: “[The WPA] acknowledges the lack of scientific efficacy of treatments that attempt to change sexual orientation and highlights the harm and adverse effects of such ‘therapies’.”

 

The WPA also calls on governments around the world to scrap laws against homosexuality:

“WPA supports the need to de-criminalise same-sex sexual orientation and behaviour and transgender gender identity, and to recognise LGBT rights to include human, civil, and political rights.”

“[The WPA also] supports anti-bullying legislation; anti-discrimination student, employment, and housing laws; immigration equality; equal age of consent laws; and hate crime laws providing enhanced criminal penalties for prejudice-motivated violence against LGBT people.”

It also cites research demonstrating that countries that liberalise laws around homosexuality – and provide equal legal treatment – see a resulting improvement in the mental health of their LGBT citizens.

 

And in a radical move that goes much further than its British or American counterparts, the WPA says psychiatrists have a duty to fight discrimination against LGBT people.

“Psychiatrists have a social responsibility to advocate for a reduction in social inequalities for all individuals, including inequalities related to gender identity and sexual orientation,” it says.

When it comes to the issue of homosexuality, the only choice is whether or not one will embrace ignorance and bigotry over modern medical and mental health knowledge.  Here in America, far to many modern day Pharisee Christians and the Republican political whores have chosen ignorance.   Religion remains a pervasive evil that needs to be eradicated from the world.

Margaret Thatcher "The Iron Lady" Dies at 87

Margaret Thatcher provoked strong reactions and opinions both in life and now in death.  Some worshiped her and others hated her.   That will not change now that she has died of a stroke at age 87.  I am not one to judge the dead, but Thatcher did some good things.  She also did some bad things and often she never apologized for her bad deeds even if she perhaps knew she was wrong.  Some like the singer Morrissey, of the 1980s band, The Smiths, has little good to say about her:

Every move she made was charged by negativity; she destroyed the British manufacturing industry, she hated the miners, she hated the arts, she hated the Irish Freedom Fighters and allowed them to die, she hated the English poor and did nothing at all to help them, she hated Greenpeace and environmental protectionists, she was the only European political leader who opposed a ban on the ivory trade, she had no wit and no warmth and even her own cabinet booted her out. She gave the order to blow up The Belgrano even though it was outside of the Malvinas Exclusion Zone—and was sailing AWAY from the islands! When the young Argentinean boys aboard The Belgrano had suffered a most appalling and unjust death, Thatcher gave the thumbs-up sign for the British press.  .   .  .  .  the people of Argentina will be celebrating her death. As a matter of recorded fact, Thatcher was a terror without an atom of humanity.

UK Gay rights activist Peter Tatchell is perhaps less harsh, but cannot forgive Thatcher for the passage of  Section 28 which was approved as part of the Local Government Act enacted in 1988 and which provided that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship."  Here's a sampling of Tatchell's remarks:

“Margaret Thatcher was an extraordinary woman but she was extraordinary for mostly the wrong reasons. So many of her policies were wrong and heartless. Nevertheless, I don’t rejoice in her death. I commiserate, as I do with the death of any person. In contrast, she showed no empathy for the victims of her harsh, ruthless policy decisions,” said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.

“In 1988, the Thatcher government legislated Britain’s first new anti-gay law in 100 years: Section 28. At the 1987 Conservative party conference she mocked people who defended the right to be gay, insinuating that there was no such right. During her rule, arrests and convictions for consenting same-sex behaviour rocketed, as did queer bashing violence and murder. Gay men were widely demonised and scapegoated for the AIDS pandemic and Thatcher did nothing to challenge this vilification.

A piece in The Daily Beast gives a more positive spin to Thatcher's legacy.  Here are excerpts:

Thatcher’s steely reputation as Britain’s first and only female prime minister, serving for more than 11 years from 1979 to 1990, was based on a succession of showdowns with labor unions, with the terrorists of the Irish Republican Army, with the Argentines in the Falklands War, and with many in the leadership of her own Conservative Party. She was also a devoted friend and counselor to U.S. President Ronald Reagan in his confrontations with the Soviets’ “Evil Empire.” (As recently as a year ago her face would brighten at mention of Reagan’s name, and the memories would flood back.) Thatcher had no problem with what she saw as moral absolutes.

“She was completely uncompromising,” says Lord Peter Palumbo, a close friend and associate for many years. “She had a very, very definite view. She had vision, which politicians, really, all over the world don’t share today. She was one of those people, like Winston Churchill, who gave the country hope. She came in at a very low ebb and singlehandedly turned it around. She felt that, on the whole, the country had 1,000 years of rather glorious history, and everything good that was British should be celebrated. She was unflinching in that view.”

Thatcher had to crash through countless glass ceilings not only of gender but of class. “The Tories played a very risky card in selecting her,” says Palumbo. “They knew it was risky. And having won the election both as leader of the party and as prime minister, I think they rather turned up their nose about a woman who was the daughter of a grocer in Grantham, and I think she took a very hard line because it was survival time. She would have been just run over by the grandees of the party, but she ran over them.”

That pattern was repeated over and over again when anyone underestimated Thatcher. In 1981, Irish prisoners staged a much-publicized hunger strike to protest British rule over Ulster and the conditions under which they were incarcerated. Ten starved themselves to death. “I don’t think any other prime minister would have allowed the hunger strikers to kill themselves as she did,” says Harris.

Andrew Sullivan gushes:

Indira Gandhi and Golda Meir preceded her; but Thatcher’s three election victories, the longest prime ministership since the 1820s, her alliance with the US in defeating the Soviet Union, and her liberation of the British economy place her above their achievements. What inspires me still is the thought of a young woman in a chemistry lab at Oxford daring to believe that she could one day be prime minister – and not just any prime minister, but the defining public figure in British post-war political history.

That took vision and self-confidence of a quite extraordinary degree. It was infectious. And it made Thatcher and Thatcherism a much more complicated thing than many analyses contain.

It should be noted that in the 1960s, Thatcher went against traditional Tories by voting in favor of a law that would legalize homosexuality.  I will let others reach their own evaluation of Thatcher.  She seems to have been multifaceted and not easily pigeon holed.  I know one thing for certain, however: I would NOT have wanted to debate her.  She could give back better than she got.