Mark Morford: Homophobes Need (Gay) Love Too

Mark Morford, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, writes some great columns which while poking fun and those who deserve derision also hit upon many kernels of truth. In a column that reflects on the University of Rochester study that not surprisingly concluded that many extreme homophobes are actually self-loathing closet cases who secretly, whether consciously or not, yearn for the very same gay sex about which they shriek condemnation so often. Interestingly, Morford seems to get the same read on Rick Santorum as I do - the guy's a closet case and all those children are a manifestation of Santorum's quest for self-denial. One of the things I did during my 37 years in the closet was to throw myself into Catholicism in the hope that it would make the gay go away. Of course, it doesn't - a fact that Santorum and those like him will perhaps someday acknowledge. Morford also notes the harm done individuals raised in homophobic and often unloving Christianist homes. Here are some column highlights:

And then came the headline that surprised exactly no one and delighted a great many, even as it openly terrified countless thousands across the deep south and also Utah and Kansas and pretty much the entire GOP. The poor dears.

"Homophobes might be secretly attracted to people of the same sex," is what the headline read, I mean obviously, I mean of course you already know what the researchers discovered, you and every conscious human within a 10,000 mile radius who also snickered, rolled her eyes and then sighed heavily with the obviousness of it all. It is not always the way?

Who among us with the slightest acumen toward self-reflection doesn't fully understand that the more you wail against something, the more violently outspoken or hateful you are against this or that perceived indiscretion, sexual proclivity, perversion, deviance, expression, delight, taste sensation, the more certain it is that said deliciousness secretly attracts you, turns you on and makes you enormously, terrifically scared?

Case after case, priest after priest, GOP senator after megachurch pastor after spittle-flecked Tea Party zealot -- all suddenly caught pants down in a bathroom stall, in a leather bar, gay chat room, in a Grindr hookup app, living out their real and honest selves even as they rail and oppose and thump their Bibles everywhere else. Hypocrisy, thy name is homophobe.

Which is, essentially, exactly what the study found. One's level of homophobia lies, quite frequently, in direct proportion to one's own brutally closeted desire for homosexual sex. Result: self-denial, self hatred, wailing and thrashing and Prop 8-ing against an unfair world.

Behind the humor and the sarcasm, there's a sadness, a brutal truism common to the human melodrama. Shall we have a glance? It goes something like this: Perhaps nasty homophobes are, the study gently suggests, to be empathized with, to be offered a modicum of compassion and understanding, due to the abject tragedy of their ignoble fate. And perhaps this offering, particularly in light of hateful trolls like Rick Santorum and his dark coven, perhaps this is one of the most difficult challenges you can name.

Hatred is, we all know, a learned experience. Someone teaches you that blacks are scary, Muslims are evil, women are lesser. Someone force feeds kids the vile falsehood that gay love is an abomination, as opposed to something obvious and common across every species of animal on the planet. I say 'force,' because kids will never believe it otherwise.

Does this all excuse the homophobe's acts, their nasty legislation, their bilious congressional votes? Does it give Rick Santorum, Rick Warren, Rush Limbaugh some sort of pass? Hell no. Does it give it a hint of understanding, and perhaps empathy, as we all recognize those places in ourselves where we have been similarly programmed, lied to, horribly misled? It might. Depends on your whisky.

Of course, it's not universal. Not all hardcore conservatives secretly wish for a gay romp or ten. Many just act out of purely poisoned souls, or from the unconscious demon telling them that if they're not allowed to express their deepest selves, if they can't live life at a more honest frequency, no one can.

We are taught to ignore our deeper selves in favor of the collective group-think, codified programming, a wrathful and disconnected God. This is the lesson: Do not ask deeper questions. Do not tap into your own genuine needs, sexuality, fierce spiritual magma. Do not dare suggest that most fundamentalist notions of Christian God are sort of detestable and gloomy, the exact opposite of what Jesus actually intended. Do not, most of all, dare to define it all for yourself, as your sex, your soul, your internal ethical slut see fit. What the hell do you think you are, free?

'A Single Man' Highlights Gay and Family Issues

While the movie "A Single Man" directed by designer Tom Ford will likely not be shown in the areas of the country where it is perhaps the most needed, one can nonetheless hope that the movie may open at least some minds as to the common humanity of LGBT Americans and even provoke some thoughts and conversations about the inequity of denying same sex couple marriage rights - particularly those who have been in decades long relationships. Admitted, the goal of the Christianists and homophobes is to keep LGBT individuals viewed as "other" or even sub-human, but movies like this one as did Brokeback Mountain in a different sense may make it more difficult for our enemies to maintain the anti-gay stereotypes they work so hard to promote. As the immediately prior post discusses, the homophobes are in fact very sick people. Here are some highlights from a CNN commentary on the new movie:

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Ford's project is more than just a stylish and thought-provoking film about the crippling loneliness a gay man feels when his partner dies in a tragic accident. It is a timely conversation piece about same-sex rights.
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For the gay community the story of a closeted college professor mourning the death of his long-time lover reflects the history of the struggle to be open about homosexuality in the 1960s. The same struggle continues today as the gay community fights for equal rights and laws allowing same-sex marriage.
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"We're used to movies like 'Brokeback Mountain' that deal with the difficulties of being gay, but this is about the difficulties of being human viewed from the perspective of a gay man," said Aaron Hicklin, the editor-in-chief of Out, the highest-circulation gay monthly. "That's not as common as it should be. As we continue to make the case for full equality, movies like this help balance the negative and stereotypical views of homosexuality that are out there."
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In one pivotal scene in the film, George learns his long-time partner Jim, played by Matthew Goode, has died in a car crash and George is not invited to the funeral, which is limited to family only. Jim's family even keeps the couple's dog. George and Jim had been together for 16 years, but in 1962 such relationships were "invisible," which only makes the grieving process more difficult for George. "Though this movie is set in the 1960s, the same thing can potentially happen to gays and lesbians now," Conrad said.
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"Through Colin Firth's character we come to truly appreciate the tremendous power of love, and of redemption. I can't imagine anyone, whatever their sexual orientation, failing to connect with his humanity," Hicklin said. "The silence and the invisibility the film is portraying was in part why Americans didn't understand the need for freedom to marry when the first cases for the freedom to marry began by 1971," explains Evan Wolfson, the Executive Director of the organization Freedom to Marry and author of "Why Marriage Matters."
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"I think the film shows the price people pay for silence and it shows the common humanity and invites people to ask themselves: How would I feel if I couldn't acknowledge the love of my life?"
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Sadly, situations like that depicted in the movie do still occur - as I know from the calls I receive from the survivors of same sex couples who are being suddenly treated as a stranger by their deceased partners family and are often thrown out of their own homes. It underscores the need for wills, trusts, and medical powers of attorney so that George's sad story does not repeat yet again.

Evangelical Lutheran Leader Suggests Bible not the Final Authority

The Uber-Christians at OneNewsNow - a Christianist faux news website - have their panties in a wad over the statements by the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Mark Hanson. His "sin"? His recognition that the Bible cannot be applied literally and giving room for God to continue further revelations. The obvious truth of the statements are evident to anyone who knows true history and the manner in which the Bible was first compiled and subsequently manipulated by those who prevailed in imposing their spin on the Bible as we know it nowadays. The fact that thinking Lutherans - which excludes the Missouri Synod folks - can recognize the Bible's limitations is one of the things I like about the ELCA as opposed to the mindless, corrupt, power mad approach of the Roman Catholic Church not to mention the Bible thumper crowd. Here are some highlights:

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In a town hall meeting Sunday, Bishop Mark Hanson said, "the understanding we have of homosexuality today does not seem to be reflected at all in the context of the biblical writers." Therefore, he said, Lutherans should consider more modern views on sexual orientation.
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At its churchwide convention in August, the ELCA lifted its ban on partnered gay and lesbian clergy, prompting some traditional congregations to withhold funds and begin forming a separate denomination.
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But Hanson insisted the ELCA can accommodate both views. In his words, "God is still speaking to us." He also suggests that more homosexual-friendly policies may help the denomination grow.
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Obviously, Hanson's statements are heresy to the Christo-fascists even though I believe that they are 100% true. As I have said before, for LGBT Catholics, the ELCA offers a potential church home and is worth checking out.

Catholic News Site Endorses Scott Lively's Take on Uganda Gays

By happen stance I checked out Box Turtle Bulletin this morning and to my horror I saw Timothy Kincaid's piece about LifeSiteNews carry a story largely endorsing the views of Scott Lively, one of the most deranged and hysterically anti-gay bigots on the planet. As Kincaid notes, LifeSiteNews must be read with the understanding that it has a strong sectarian slant and is perhaps best viewed as an unofficial lay voice of the Roman Catholic Church. Its Editor, John-Henry Westen (pictured above right), interviewed Scott Lively and echoed without question his statements about homosexuality in Uganda and the current effort underway to pass legislation to execute HIV positive gay people, incarcerate other gay people for life, and jail those family, friends, or acquaintances who do not report suspected gay people to the government. While Westen’s biases make him ready to believe the worst about gay people, however irrational, it was surprising the extent to which Lively’s word was taken as unvarnished truth. Here is how Kincaid describes Lively (about whom I have written in the past and with whom I had a few nasty e-mail exchanges):

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Scott Lively is an unusual anti-gay activist. He does not stop at moral concern, cultural discomfort, or objection based in ignorance, stereotype, or unfamiliarity. Rather, Lively travels the world marketing in anti-gay lies and myths and seeking to inflame hatred and instigate outrage and social oppression of gay people on an international scale.
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Lively is the author of The Pink Swastika, a book whose premise is that the Nazis were primarily a homosexual organization and that gays were responsible for the Holocaust. While this is a laughable assertion dismissed by historians and holocaust groups, it is read, believed, and treasured in countries where animus against gay people is strong and an excuse to hate gay people is welcomed without question.
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That the Catholic Church is unofficially endorsing the bat shit craziness of Lively is shocking even for the morally bankrupt Church hierarchy. Here's a sampling of the parroting of Lively being put out on LifeSiteNews:

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While a proposed and much-criticized anti-homosexuality law in Uganda is definitely too harsh, the law comes as a direct response to the heavy-handed pressure from international gay-activist politicians on Uganda to accept homosexuality as normal, according to one Christian expert who was recently in the African country to testify against the current wording of the bill. In fact, as Dr. Scott Lively, the President of Defend the Family pointed out, the preamble to the bill, and the bill itself contain numerous references to stopping international pressure on Uganda to accept Western sexual values that are abhorrent to Ugandan culture.
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Dr. Lively, a pro-family activist and attorney based in California was in Uganda in March to testify before Ugandan legislators now considering the legislation. In an interview with LifeSiteNews (LSN), Dr. Lively explained that the impetus for the bill was "a lot of external interference from European and American gay activists attempting to do in Uganda what they've done around the world - homosexualize that society." One of their main concerns, explained Lively, "are the many male homosexuals coming in to the country and abusing boys who are on the streets."
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While the Catholic leadership in the nation has not yet responded publicly to the proposed bill, they have consistently expressed outrage at the attempts of the West to impose acceptance of homosexuality on the country. Last month at the Synod for Africa at the Vatican, bishops from all over the continent noted their grave concerns over the international anti-family pressure.
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Summing up the discussions, the Cardinal Archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, Peter Turkson, said that the Synod had "described in various ways a ferocious onslaught on the family and the related fundamental institution of marriage from outside Africa and attributed it to diverse sources." The bishops, he said, "vigorously denounced the ideology and international programs which are imposed on African countries under false pretexts or as conditions for development assistance."
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As for Lively's purported expertise, he holds a Doctor of Theology degree from a small Bible college and a law degree from the far right Catholic and non-ABA accredited Trinity Law School in California. Because Trinity Law School is not accredited, its graduates can only be licensed in California and are not eligible to take the bar exam in other states. The Catholic faith has sunk to new lows if Lively is taken as a legitimate "expert." Why not quote a tribal witch doctor as an expert on brain surgery?

U.S. Conservatives, African Churches and Homophobia - Part II

Yesterday I wrote here about a new report, Globalizing the Culture Wars: U.S. Conservatives, African Churches and Homophobia, that looks at the toxic efforts of U.S. Christianists to export their hate based perversion of Christianity and homophobia to the third world and Africa in particular. The issue is important to American LGBT efforts for two reasons: (1) it shows Christianist like Rick Warren to be liars - something we in the LGBT community already knew, but which is lost on most voters - and (2) it provides religious Neanderthals in mainline Protestant denominations an ability to break away from the national churches in the USA and affiliate with truly nasty bigots within the African church hierarchies like Nigeria's Peter Akinola. Queerty has a piece that looks at the issue in great depth than I did yesterday and it is something readers should look at to better understand the agenda of our enemies and their goal of making the lives of LGBT individuals around the world a true Hell. Here are some highlights:

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Rick Warren . . . understands that subscription to Judeo-Christian faith in the West is on the decline, and that's a huge impediment to winning his (homophobic) culture war. At least here in America. But the rest of the world? It's fertile ground to the Saddleback Church leader and other religious conservatives. And they're making the African continent their own Ground Zero to persecute, and sometimes eliminate, queers.

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"Last Sunday there were more Christians who went to church in China than all of Europe combined," Warren, 55, told an audience this month at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
And Warren is right: The future of Catholicism lives not in North America or Western Europe, but in Asia and Africa. Which is why you should be even more concerned about American religious leaders working with their counterparts across the world to foster homophobic beliefs. It's not just Uganda
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U.S. conservatives have successfully recruited a significant number of prominent African religious leaders to a campaign seeking to restrict the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. The flagship issue … is the ordination of LGBT clergy by mainline Protestant denominations– particularly the Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches– in the United States….
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As [Project Director Kapya Kaoma, an Anglican priest from Zambia now leading churches in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts] argues, the U.S. Right – once isolated in Africa for supporting pro-apartheid, White supremacist regimes – has successfully reinvented itself as the mainstream of U.S. evangelicalism. Through their extensive communications networks in Africa, social welfare projects, Bible schools, and educational materials, U.S. religious conservatives warn of the dangers of homosexuals and present themselves as the true representatives of U.S. evangelicalism, so helping to marginalize Africans’ relationships with mainline Protestant churches.
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“Just as the United States and other northern societies routinely dump our outlawed or expired chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machinery, and cultural detritus on African and other Third World countries, we now export a political discourse and public policies our own society has discarded as outdated and dangerous,” writes PRA executive director Tarso Luís Ramos in the report’s foreword. “Africa’s antigay campaigns are to a substantial degree made in the U.S.A.”
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The future of conservative-backed bigotry is not in the James Dobsons, Rick Warrens, or even Lou Dobbs, but in cross-continental crusades to encourage the persecution of LGBTs.
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This phenomenon demonstrates why it is so essential that Christianist extremist be shown for what they really are in this country. If they can be defeated here and shown to be the hate filled liars and extremist that we know them to be to the larger public, it may be possible to thin their ranks and ultimately hit them where it hurts them the most- money contributions to fund their foul activities.

The Closet and Harm to Straight Spouses - A Follow Up

UPDATED: For future reference, I have modified the settings on this blog so that anonymous comments will no longer be accepted. Those who lack the courage of their convictions and want to hide behind anonymity will no longer be accommodated.

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As is not all that unusual, I recently received an anonymous comment attacking me for "using others as 'proof' of straightness that does not exist" among other things. As I have stated before, anonymous personal attacks will NOT be published. Anyone who wants to attack me personally, please have the balls to identify yourself and not hide behind anonymity. The attack, however, does raise and issue that I want to address that I believe is relevant particularly in older gays who came of age when homosexuality was still classified as a form of mental illness and before the Internet and other modern communication means provided a way to anonymously contacting others.

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In response to the commenter's assumption that I knew I was gay when I married, the answer is probably not. I say probably not since I had never knowingly been around anyone gay and I had no means of talking to anyone about the issue. In fact, I lived my life not knowing if my attractions to other males was unique to me (was I some lone freak?) or was it something others felt too, yet which did not make them gay. Given my religious upbringing that said gays were going straight to Hell, I certainly did not want to be gay. In fact, I never, ever admitted it to myself until many, many years later after an unplanned event forced me to face the reality.

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From others that I have spoken with who came out later in life after being married, I do not believe what I experienced was unique. Being gay was something seen as so horrible that I and others just convinced ourselves that we were straight and did everything in my/our power to prove it to ourselves. Getting married was obviously part of proving that one was not gay. But so was trying to push away same sex thoughts and many other exercises in denial. I - like I believe many others it seems - finally hit a point/had an experience that made the in retrospect artificial world I had created in my mind collapse. It's not that I wanted it to, but rather it simply did. And I was left in a very self-loathing and emotionally unhinged state. It took lots of therapy to get over issues of religious guilt about being gay. And it took even more years and more therapy to come to a point of accepting myself for who and what I was.

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In sum, I do not believe that I deliberately and intentionally forced anyone to live a lie. As for the commenter, if the prospect of gays marrying straight is upsetting, I recommend that the commenter start working for gay marriage in their home state and speaking out against anti-gay prejudice. An end to homophobia and the possibility of gays being able to marry would do much to avoid situations like the one I found myself in growing up. *

God and Being Gay and Self-Delusion

Joel McDonald at Virginia Beach Progressives - somewhat of an oxymoron given Virginia Beach's status as typically a Republican stronghold - has a post with which I very much identify. It describes his journey coming out and the lengths that he went to trying to convince himself that he wasn't gay. A road I took myself with disastrous consequences in many ways. I sincerely hope that this sad story will become less common as time goes on and as at least some religious denominations embrace modern knowledge and cast aside the homophobia and condemnation of LGBT people that has persisted for so many centuries. Speaking last evening to a retired Lutheran seminary professor he expressed the hope that the ELCA's recent vote to fully accept gay members, including as rostered clergy will be a force for change in other denominations as well. So much pain and hurt and ruined lives flows from a few Bible passages that are used viciously to denigrate gay lives. Here are a few highlights:

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The first time I realized that I might be gay was during my freshman year of high school, in 2000. Because of my faith, I did not allow myself to even consider accepting the possibility that I wasn’t straight. It wasn’t acceptable. It seemed to me at that time that God did not accept homosexuals. I was able to take a conservative path that allowed for safe dating and relationships. After all, sex didn’t matter much when sex was forbidden; right? I’ll admit that I, probably like most who attempt this sort of path, did push the limits a bit; however, it never felt totally natural. It was always forced. I thought it was because my faith was holding me back, like God was pulling me away from going too far. Now I know that wasn’t the case. The problem was that I just wasn’t interested in girls.

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I did alright for the first half of my two year mission. I really did go out focused on the task at hand: teaching and helping to convert people to what the Mormon Church calls the “Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ”. I tried to be a good missionary. I tried to help people. Among other missionaries, I tried to fit in. Fitting in was somewhat a problem.

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You see, even though Mormon missionaries are supposed to follow strict rules that included prescribed hours of study, eating, working, number of lessons they teach, and how they are to associate with missionaries, members of the church, and non-members; they are still mostly young men who are interested in all the things that all young men between the ages of 19 and 22 are interested in. This included girls and sex.

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Things started unraveling for me when I approached the halfway mark of my two year mission. My inner conflicts boiled to the surface and started causing issues with how I approached my work as a missionary and how I treated others. A breaking point occurred one afternoon where a flareup between myself and another missionary led me to request that I be sent home dishonorably. As that time, I told my Mission President that I would not be able to live up to the expectations of missionary life and the expectations the Mormon church had for me after I finished my missionary serviced. I stopped short of telling myself, and telling him that the reason I would not be able to live up to these expectations was that I was gay. I still wasn’t ready to accept it fully.

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Late one night, I knelt down next to the couch in the apartment, and prayed as hard as I had ever prayed. I asked God to change me, to accept the sacrifices I was able to give, and to make me who He wanted me to be. I listened intensely for any inkling of a spiritual whispering or change, and it was during that time that something became clear to me: I was gay. Not only that, but I felt that God did not condemn me for being gay. I felt that I was who God wanted me to be. It was as if a great weight was lifted off of my shoulders when I accepted these things.

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I believe that whether you are gay, straight, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered, or however you identify, God loves you. You are who you were created to be, and God accepts you as you are. I almost gave up on God, until I realized that God didn’t condemn me for who I am. Our culture gets so bogged down with the doctrine and dogma of organized religion, where the ideas of the “moral” majority are allowed to define what is acceptable and what is not. Personally, I don’t believe they speak for God, and I refuse to believe that God would make outcasts of people who just happen to be attracted to and love people of the same sex.

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Would that more religious leaders, judges, politicians and others who market anti-gay hatred could get this simple message.

Explosion of Hate Mocks Christian Values

Since the Iowa Supreme Court ruling a week ago which was soon followed by the legislative triumphs for gay marriage in Vermont and Washington, D.C., the explosion of hate from Christianists and the dehumanizing and untruthful things that they are disseminating about LGBT individuals in my view are a travesty and make a mockery of Christ's message. After all, Christ said that the two great Commandments were to love God and to love thy neighbor as they self. Moreover, the Gospels repeatedly show Christ as condemning the self-righteous and sanctimonious who smugly judged and condemned others in contravention to the command to love thy neighbor. The Christianists claim to believe the Bible is inerrant and must be followed verbatim as "the word of God." Why then do they pick and choose what they want to follow as if the Bible were an al carte menu?

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Let's be candid, from the National Organization for Marriage and it's bogus ad with paid actors pretending to be real ordinary citizens to commentaries in National Review and statements by Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention what we have seen is unbridled hatred for other humans merely because we do not subscribe to a particular set of religious beliefs. The statements are truly hate filled and - in my view - will provide another basis for more citizens to look at the Christian message and walk away shaking their heads in disgust. Andrew Sullivan has it right when he says that these folks hold gay lives in contempt. Here are some highlights of the "love" being disseminated by professed Christians. I begin with the National Review comment:

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Few social goods will come from recognizing same-sex couples as married. Some practical benefits may accrue to the couples, but most of them could easily be realized without changing marriage laws. Same-sex couples will also receive the symbolic affirmation of being treated by the state as equivalent to a traditional married couple — but this spurious equality is a cost of the new laws, not a benefit. One still sometimes hears people make the allegedly “conservative” case for same-sex marriage that it will reduce promiscuity and encourage commitment among homosexuals. This prospect seems improbable, and in any case these do not strike us as important governmental goals.

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Then we have Richard Land at the SBC who is rapidly becoming as extreme a homophobe as Peter LaBarbera and Fred Phelps making Southern Baptists as a whole appear to be a most unloving crowd. Land's official title is "president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention's official entity assigned to address social, moral, and ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on American families and their faith." Here are Land's incendiary statements:

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Once again, it was the judiciary branch of state government rending the nation’s moral fabric, bent on rewriting our country’s social construct. With no residency requirements, the [Iowa] court’s opinion means at the end of April when the order goes into effect, same-sex couples will be free to travel from other states to exchange “vows” in the Iowa Heartland.

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This ruling turns Iowa into a destination for same-sex “marriages.” No doubt there are weekend travel packages already being planned. Iowa will soon be the Las Vegas of same-sex “marriage” for America. And you know those folks won’t be resettling in the Hawkeye State, but will be heading back home–perhaps to your state.

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The Iowa Supreme Court couldn’t have ruled that an amendment to the constitution is “unconstitutional.” If they had done that, then a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” would be imperiled. If the California Supreme Court does this in the case they are currently considering, then we’d have to say that our entire system of government is coming to a tragic end.

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Another comes from the Baptist Press where Eric Schumacher pastor of Northbrook Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, maintains that gay marriage is more catastrophic than a 500 year flood and will"eternal damage" that cannot be repaired and which will "erode" civilization. Here are some highlights:

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On April 3, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a state law limiting marriage to one man and one woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution. Licenses will be issued to homosexual couples April 27. It is not hyperbole to say that this ruling has the potential to be the worst disaster to strike the state of Iowa.

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Flood waters destroy houses, ruin offices buildings and displace families. Yet, recovery happens. Houses are rebuilt. Businesses relocate. Families eventually find housing. Legalized "homosexual marriage," on the other hand, does far more pervasive and irrecoverable damage. Civilization itself is eroded as marriage, the central building block of culture and society, is redefined. Soon, our sons and daughters are confused about what it means to be male and female, as "homosexual marriage" gains both legal status and visibility in neighborhoods and the classroom.

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Flood waters erode the soil. "Gay marriage" erodes the soul. A flood impacts for a decade. "Same-sex marriage" destroys generations. A flood draws a community together. "Homosexual marriage" tears the family apart. Communities recover from floods. The promotion of un-natural unions has an eternal consequence.

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As I have said in prior posts over the nearly two years I have been actively blogging, messages like these are akin to how the Nazi regime dehumanized and denigrated Jews in the run up to the Holocaust. How many people will hear these messages and feel totally justified in violence against LGBT citizens. It is bigotry and religious based discrimination of the worst order.