The Correlation BetweenEducation Levels and Homophobia

Some time back I did a post on a study that correlated levels of education with various Christian denominations. At the upper end of the educational scale were the Episcopal and Lutheran Churches, bot of which are gay accepting, and at the bottom of the educational scale were Christian fundamentalists and Pentecostals, both of which are typically rabidly gay. This result which to some might have seemed to be merely a coincidence is anything but based on the findings of a new University of Florida study which found that levels of homophobia correlated closely with levels of education. The more highly educated were more gay accepting and tolerant while the uneducated and ignorant were more homophobic. Thus, it make sense that church denominations with overall higher levels of education are the ones that accept gays while the more uneducated denominations do not. The findings would also seem to correlate well with the homophobia of the GOP base which, in my opinion, is increasingly made up of uneducated racists and what was once termed white trash. Here are some highlights from the Gainesville Sun:

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The education level of Florida voters, not race, best predicted support for the state's gay marriage ban, according to a new University of Florida study rebutting conventional wisdom. The study found education was about five times as important as race in determining whether a county's residents favored the ban. The results contradict claims that newly registered black voters who cast ballots for Barack Obama were a socially conservative group that can be credited with passing the ban.

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Controlling for political and socioeconomic factors, the study found each additional 1 percent of a county's population with bachelor's degrees correlated with a 1 percent decrease in support for the amendment. In comparison, each 1 percent increase in a county's black population led to two-tenths of a percent increase in support. "There's a lot of evidence showing increased education leads to greater tolerance," Smith said.

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Stated differently, the study shows that if politicians want to embrace ignorance and low educational levels, they should listen to the homophobes. If not, they need to reject the propaganda of the professional Christians and fundamentalist Christian zealots. It aso suggests that blacks need to be attentive to who they allow to manipulate them - uneducated Christian fundamentalist are less tolerant and less likely to support equality for blacks as well as gays.

Indian Government to Support Court Ruling Decriminalizing Gay Sex

In a positive sign that India is coming into the 21st century even while parts of the USA would prefer to remain in the 18th century - think Virginia - the Indian government has confirmed that it will not challenge the ruling by the Delhi High Court that struck down India's sodomy statute which dates back to the imperial days of the British Raj, The court previously ruled that the ban on homosexual acts between consenting adults violated India's constitution. Here are some highlights from The Advocate:

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According to a cabinet note obtained by the CNN-IBN network in India, the government decided not to contest the controversial ruling, which is being challenged in supreme court by antigay opponents including a popular yoga guru who claims that gay people can be “cured.”
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"The correctness of the Delhi high court judgment has been challenged in an appeal before the supreme court,” says the cabinet note. “The government may submit before the supreme court that there does not appear to be any legal error in the judgment and the supreme court may take a final view whether the judgment of the high court is legally correct."

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Government ministers also suggested that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed with their decision not to oppose the lower court’s ruling, according to CNN-IBN. Should the supreme court uphold the lower court’s groundbreaking ruling, the government will add an explanation to the sodomy law, Section 377 of the penal code, saying that it does not apply to consenting adults in private.

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Perhaps Bob McDonnell should read the analysis prepared by the Indian government so that he can hopefully better understand the concept of freedom of religion and separation of church and state.

Our Embassy in Afghanistan Is Guarded by Sexually Confused Frat Boys

As a long time advocate for the repel of Don't Ask Don't Tell, I find the recent revelations about the sexually explicit hazing popular with certain elements of the heterosexual security contractors in Afghanistan most enlightening. The whole alleged purpose behind DADT and the exclusion of LGBT citizens from the military is to maintain morale and unit discipline, yet the conduct of these straights would embarrass most drunk fraternity boys. To me, the whole breaking scandal helps to underscore that the REAL reason behind DADT is the legalization of religious based discrimination and pandering to the Christo-fascists of the far right. The Gawker has a telling article and some very illuminating photos of what gay fearing straights do to one another. Here are some story highlights:

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Wonder what it's like to guard State Department facilities in Kabul? In photos first published by Gawker, security contractors get their kicks peeing on one another, simulating anal sex, doing "butt shots," and "eating potato chips out of ass cracks."

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These photos were provided to us by the Project on Government Oversight, which has just written a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton detailing its investigation into the "Lord of the Flies environment" that has overtaken the private contractors who guard State Department employees in Kabul, Afghanistan. According to POGO, employees of ArmorGroup North America—a unit of contracting giant Wackenhut—get their jollies off by "deviant hazing [that] has created a climate of fear and coercion, with those who declined to participate often ridiculed, humiliated, demoted, or even fired."

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What sort of hazing? The traditional desperately homoerotic frat boy kind, mostly involving eating and drinking things off of other men's butts. Also some nipple-biting, as you can see below. One POGO whistle blower described it thusly [PDF link]: "They have a group of sexual predators, deviants running rampant over there. No, they are not jamming guys in the ass per say [sic], but they are showing poor judgenment [sic]." Most of it appears to have been voluntary, but those who didn't really want to drink vodka shots out of the clenched butt-cheeks of their male co-workers were penalized and reported barricading themselves in their rooms.

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So anyway, these are the people who are guarding our national security in Afghanistan, being paid vast multiples of what soldiers, sailors, and marines get with your tax dollars. Are these guys asking, or telling?

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Honorable LGBT servicemembers get drummed out of the military but this bullshit is allowed? It certainly shows how hollow the arguments in favor of DADT have become when heterosexuals freely engage in such conduct.

The Macaca Thesis - And What Does McDonnell Believe

EDITORS NOTE: Some readers may not appreciate why I am giving so much coverage to the Bob McDonnell thesis debacle. If you have read prior posts that have detailed McDonnell's anti-gay agenda over the last six to nine years, then you know that McDonnell has played a significant role in making Virginia one of the most anti-gay states in the nation. To see McDonnell hopefully spiral down to defeat is a potential huge step in turning Virginia around on discrimination against LGBT citizens. The thought of McDonnell in the Governor's mansion is indeed frightening.

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The Washington Post - which launched McDonnell's nightmare on Sunday - has a good column today that looks at why Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell's 1989 thesis is important and why it needs to remain under high scrutiny and a major part of the campaign for Governor. It highlights everything that I have wanted brought out about McDonnell and his extremism and devotion to the agenda of Pat Robertson and The Family Foundation, the Virginia affiliate of James Dobson's foul Focus on the Family. Here are some column highlights:

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Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, didn't really mean it when he equated homosexuality with drug abuse and pornography as evils that "the government must restrain, punish, and deter."

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Or when he urged that "every level of government should statutorily and procedurally prefer married couples over cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators," adding, "The cost of sin should fall on the sinner, not the taxpayer."

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McDonnell's thesis is a 93-page, 170-footnote "macaca" moment -- and, like that moment, self-inflicted. Had McDonnell not mentioned the thesis to Post reporter Amy Gardner -- he misleadingly described it as an essay on "welfare policy" -- it might never have surfaced. There are so many delicious aspects to the McDonnell uproar:

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The irony of watching a staunch social conservative complain that hot-button social issues are being deployed against him -- this after years of social conservatives revving up their base with this approach. Now that McDonnell needs votes from the bluest part of the state, it's suddenly foul play that Creigh Deeds, his Democratic opponent, "continues to focus on divisive issues."

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The irony of watching what-they-do, not-what-they-say politics flipped upside down as well. Just a few weeks ago, Republicans were focused on a single sentence from Justice Sonia Sotomayor about the "wise Latina." Then, it made sense to focus on Sotomayor's sentence, not her copious judicial record. Now, it's unfair to look at McDonnell's writings when his legislative history is open for all to see.

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[I]t seems just as likely that McDonnell's supposed restraint stems from pragmatic acceptance of political reality as from a marked change in views. There's every reason to think that McDonnell would govern as conservatively as the current politics of the state would allow. His professions of relative disinterest in social issues are unconvincing. As for his efforts to dismiss the thesis as the idle musings of a callow youth: Those are simply insulting to the voters of Virginia.

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The Roanoke Times likewise goes after McDonnell and ask questions that he needs to be forced to answer. If he refuses to answer, then I venture that it is a safe bet that McDonnell still holds the views laid out in his CBN thesis. That would speake volumes to Virginia voters:

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McDonnell, today, flees his earlier writing lest Virginians see through the carefully crafted mask of moderation he wears while campaigning for governor. We were heartened to hear him reject some of the views he once held.

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McDonnell points to his record in the General Assembly and during his partial term as attorney general as proof that he has changed That record is not as flattering as he seems to think, though. Those who have followed his political career found few surprises in his thesis. Several colleagues say he worked zealously to implement many of the proposals he espoused 20 years ago. He twice won the conservative Family Foundation's legislator of the year award.

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McDonnell owes Virginians a more detailed explanation. He might start by answering some lingering questions based on his thesis, explaining where his views have changed, when and why.

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Should abortion be illegal? In all cases, including rape and incest?

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Do political leaders and the Supreme Court still need to "correct the conventional folklore about the separation of church and state"?

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Will you oppose "special rights for homosexuals or single-parent unwed mothers"? Which rights are special? Which are not?

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Do your Democratic friends and colleagues "seek to shepherd a nation of powerless incompetents"?

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Do all your Republican friends and colleagues share a philosophy that "embraces the talents and worth of all people?" Do you?

Wednesday Male Beauty

Chris Matthews: We Couldn't Get Anyone to Come on the Show to Defend Bob McDonnell

Most candidates for Governor in Virginia would love coverage on MSNBC's show "Hardball" - that is unless the candidate is Bob McDonnell and the topic involves the extremism of his views. Sometimes you reap what you sow and McDonnell - who has had a hand in virtually every anti-gay piece of legislation over the last 10 years, including the infamous "Marriage Amendment" - is hopefully beginning to get what he deserves.

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Bob McDonnell: Sex Life May Be Used Against Judges

With Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonald trying to frantically disavow the religious extremism exposed in his CBN University and making claims that his some of his views have change, the Daily Press, which covers the Hampton- Newport News Williamsburg area, has thrown a hand grenade at McDonnell by republishing a January 15, 2003, story that looks at the "lynching" of former Newport News Circuit Court Judge Verbena Askew by McDonnell and his GOP cohorts. I recommend that Virginia readers take the time to read the entire story because it demonstrates that McDonnell still adheres to his agenda for the GOP set forth in his thesis. McDonnell can lie all he wants about the thesis, but this story shows the true story of what transpired. I applaud the Daily Press for reprinting the 2003 story in its entirety with the following Editor's note:

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Editor's note: A spokesman for Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor, told the Washington Post recently that McDonnell had been misquoted in 2003 about his views on whether a person's sexual orientation should be a factor in determining whether a person is qualified to be a circuit court judge in Virginia.

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From the Post story:"One controversy that drew wide attention was an effort in the General Assembly in 2003 to end the judicial career of Verbena M. Askew, a Circuit Court judge from Newport News who had been accused of sexual harassment by a woman who worked for her. As chairman of the Courts of Justice Committee, McDonnell led the effort in the House. He said he was opposed to Askew's reappointment because she didn't disclose, as required, that she was a party to a legal proceeding."

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McDonnell was widely quoted at the time as saying that homosexual activity raised questions about a person's qualifications to be a judge. Spokesman Tucker Martin said McDonnell was misquoted and does not consider homosexuality a disqualifying factor for judgeships or other jobs."Askew, who was not reappointed, denied any wrongdoing and was never found by a court to have harassed the employee."

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The following is the original Daily Press story, in which then-Del. McDonnell is quoted as saying, "There is certain homosexual conduct that is in violation of the law. I'm not telling you I would disqualify a judge per se if he said he was gay. I'm talking about their actions."The story appeared on Jan. 15, 2003. McDonnell never told the Daily Press, at that time, that he had been misquoted.

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Here are highlights from the original Daily Press story which helped earn McDonnell the nickname "Taliban Bob" locally. McDonnell can disingenuously claim his views have changed, but as I have highlighted a number of times his actions speak loudly otherwise:

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A key Virginia lawmaker said Tuesday that engaging in anal or oral sex might disqualify a person from being a judge because both activities violate state law. Del. Robert F. McDonnell, a Virginia Beach Republican who is chairman of the state legislature's House Courts of Justice Committee, also said that while such behavior alone would not disqualify someone from being a judge, "It certainly raises some questions about the qualifications to serve as a judge." Virginia's "crimes against nature" law bans all oral and anal sex regardless of the gender of the parties involved. It has been criticized as an antiquated statute that intrudes into private lives and that is likely to be used only against gay people.

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Asked if he had ever violated the law, McDonnell said, "Not that I can recall. "But the activity is illegal, McDonnell said, and judges must be expected to obey the law."There is certain homosexual conduct that is in violation of the law," McDonnell said. "I'm not telling you I would disqualify a judge per se if he said he was gay. I'm talking about their actions." McDonnell stressed that he does not know whether Askew is a lesbian.

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The executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Kent Willis, said there's no relationship between a person's sexual orientation and whether they would make a good judge."Whether someone is gay or lesbian should have absolutely no bearing on his ability to be a judge," Willis said.Willis said the same standard should be applied to married male judges."Probably 90 percent of the judges are breaking the law," Willis said.McDonnell said it would be just as bad if a heterosexual male judge violated the anti-sodomy law. But he said he's never seen evidence of that and he doesn't plan to start asking.

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Michael Adams, attorney for Lambda Legal, a national organization working for gay rights, said this incident "is one more example of how these unconstitutional laws are used to mistreat people."Adams said using this law acts as a pretext for discrimination."There is no correlation between a person's sexual orientation and their ability to be a judge," Adams said. "The process of choosing judges should be beyond political reproach and beyond discrimination."

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In June of 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Virginia's sodomy statute along with those of 12 other states.

Final Tuesday Male Beauty

Baptist Pastor Plea Bargains Away 50 of 54 Sexual Abuse Charges

I am relentless on the hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic Church for the hypocrisy with which it has tried to shrug off the sex abuse scandal and shielded members of the hierarchy from being held accountable for their misdeeds, cover ups, and enabling of sexual predator priests. The Catholic Church, is not alone in such hypocrisy and crocodile tears as evidenced by this story involving a Baptist pastor, Greg Kirksey, who previously headed up the Arkansas Baptist State Convention and urged leniency on a repeat sexual abuser. The man Kirksey defended is David Pierce (pictured above), the music minister at First Baptist Church in Benton, Arkansas. Benton was on trial for multiple cases of sexually abusing boys. Here is some commentary from Stop Baptist Predators:

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Last week in Arkansas, the longtime music minister at a prominent Southern Baptist church pled guilty to 4 counts of sexual indecency with children. It was a plea bargain deal. He had been charged on 54 counts.

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David Pierce was the music minister at First Baptist of Benton for 29 years, and he preyed on trust-filled boys during much of that time. The prosecutor said there were “many” who claimed to have been victimized by Pierce “during the past two decades,” but that the statute of limitations had run on many of the claims.So, the four charges on which Pierce pled guilty are just the tip of the iceberg. Even the 54 counts on which he was criminally charged are just the tip of the iceberg.

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Then there’s the clincher -- the part that really gets me. Pierce says, “It was never my intention to hurt anyone.”Yeah. I believe that. Pierce’s intent was focused solely on himself. On his own sexual gratification and on the perverse satisfaction he got from controlling others through religious manipulation. But the boys themselves -- those other human beings who were in front of him -- they were irrelevant to Pierce.For Pierce, those boys weren’t soul-filled human beings at all. He didn’t respect their humanity. He simply used their bodies to serve his own ends.

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But of course, Pierce isn’t alone in his denial. The denial of Pierce the perpetrator is supported by the denial of other leaders in the faith community. The church’s former pastor, Greg Kirksey, who was also a 2-term president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, wrote a letter to the judge, asking for “leniency” and essentially telling the judge that Pierce should “not be sentenced to prison.”

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You have to wonder whether Kirksey would ever make the same request for a non-clergy child molester. “Please, Judge, no prison time for this admitted child molester.” How many times do you think Kirksey has done that? Did he do it this time because Pierce was a fellow Baptist minister?

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And here’s what Rick Grant, the church’s current pastor, told the press, “It is hard to see someone you’ve known for years as a friend, mentor and colleague end up in this kind of circumstance.”There it is again -- that minimizing word -- “circumstance.” . . . Pastor Grant still doesn’t get it, does he? That’s what all those boys were trying to do. They were striving to follow God’s will, as it was maliciously brainwashed into them by one of pastor Grant’s staff ministers.

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In my view, it looks like Richard Land and similar homophobes at the Southern Baptist Convention need to focus on cleaning their own house before waisting time trying to keep law abiding gays second class citizens.

What They're Saying About Bob McDonnell

Today has NOT been a good day for Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell based on the growing media focus on the extremism of his 1989 CBN Law School thesis - a thesis that McDonnell has tried to implement during his years in the Virginia General Assembly and while serving as Attorney General of Virginia. I have been complaining for weeks and weeks about the MSM's failure to focus on McDonnell's record. Thanks to the Washington Post story on Sunday, that situation seems to have come to an end and none too soon. The following clip shows just how extensive coverage has been, ranging from Channel 13 locally to MSNBC and Faux News. And that's not counting the growing newspaper coverage across the Commonwealth of Virginia.

What my ultimately do in McDonnell is that now he is caught in the cross fire of the Democrats pouncing on his extreme views as set forth in his thesis while the wingnuts at The Family Foundation - Daddy Dobson's Virginia affiliate - is demanding that McDonnell reaffirm his commitment to the views set forth in the thesis. Indeed, McDonnell may be facing the worse of all possible worlds. And rightly so. His campaign depicting him as a moderate has been a huge lie and has been implemented solely in order that he could dupe voters into voting for him. Here are some highlights from OneNewsNow of what Uber-Christian high priestess and Kool-Aid drinker in chief, Victoria Cobb, has been saying on behalf of The Family Foundation:

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The head of a Virginia conservative group is asking Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell to clarify his stances on traditional values issues in light of his attempt to distance himself from a master's thesis he wrote for an evangelical Christian school 20 years ago.
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Gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell (R-Virginia) appears to be backing away from a thesis paper he wrote at Regent University in 1989 that said Republicans should promote welfare policies that "prefer married couples over cohabitators, homosexuals, or fornicators." In the paper, he also described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family.

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Victoria Cobb is president of The Family Foundation, which once gave McDonnell its "Legislator of the Year" award. Cobb urges McDonnell to be very cautious not to downplay his strong conservative record. "If he is seen as someone who is flip-flopping on issues or backing away, no matter what the issues are, that is always viewed by the electorate as a negative," she contends.

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Cobb says although she understands McDonnell's desire to reach out across the aisle and to other voting blocs, there is no need to distance himself from previous positions. Her organization has sent out a candidate survey to McDonnell and his Democratic opponent Creigh Deeds. The answers to the survey will soon be compiled for a voter guide the group will distribute starting October 15.

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Meanwhile, four former GOP members of the Virginia General Assembly who are backing Democrat Creigh Deeds are contending that voter should pay heed to McDonnell's thesis and call attention to his efforts to implement it while he was in the Legislature. Here are highlights from the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

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Moderate Republicans backing Democrat Creigh Deeds for governor say Bob McDonnell's controversial graduate-school thesis confirms what Virginians need to know: that he's seemingly preoccupied with hot-button social issues.

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In a conference call this morning with reporters, the four Republicans -- all former state legislators who served with McDonnell in the General Assembly -- said McDonnell has always been more interested in such matters as abortion restrictions than job creation and transportation.

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Former Del. James Dillard of Fairfax, who headed the House Education Committee, warned voters of "the total reinvention of Bob McDonnell so he can be governor." Dillard chided McDonnell for opposing a $1.4 billion tax increase for schools, police and social programs enacted in 2004 with bipartisan support.

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I truly hope that the MSM keeps focusing on McDonnell's record and the extremist positions that he has consistently held on abortion, taxation, gay rights, and women as equal citizens.