The Gaytheist Agenda

I previously wrote that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints donated more than $30K to Protectmarriage.com on November 3 despite incessant claims that they’d contributed nothing more than about $2,000 to fly some church officials to a meeting. This is in addition to the tens of millions individual Mormons themselves contributed. Now the LA Times reports that their monetary involvement was significantly more. In excess of $180,000 in fact. My lovely wife has the full story.

So now that the Mormons have bought the California Constitution which state you think they’ll buy next? Whose rights will they decide to eradicate with their bottomless coffers?

Proposition 8 was never about “Freedom of Religion” or any of the other lies people fed the public. It was about eradicating the rights of a minority because of bigotry, plain and simple. And if they can do it to us they can do it to anyone. Even you. Unless people stand up and say to them, “no more”.

 

It’s common knowledge that the Mormon Church spearheaded Proposition 8, the campaign to eradicate marriage rights for same-sex couples in California. The Church handed down orders to its members to donate to Yes on 8 and to advocate for the ballot measure. Websites and multimedia efforts filled with anti-gay propaganda and outright lies (not to mention extortion attempts) were prepared by the Church and by Mormons under the direction of the Church to ensure the passage of Proposition 8. Yet when the measure passed the Mormons played innocent.

Mormons only comprise two percent of the California population! they exclaimed. How can you hold them responsible for passing Proposition 8? They ignored the fact that Mormons contributed at least 40% of the cash to the Yes on 8 campaign (possibly as much as 70%) and had put in significant non-monetary efforts to the fight to eradicate our rights.

The Mormon Church donated nothing other than $2,000 to fly some church officials to a meeting! That was the biggest lie of all and no doubt the primary impetus behind the lawsuit asking for donor’s information to be made private. Yes, they claimed it was because of harassment and threats, but as can be seen by the linked lawsuit there are no valid complaints to warrant their requests. No. They were hiding something, something they desperately wanted to keep under wraps, and what it was is now available for all to see.

On November 3, 2008, ProtectMarriage.com received a contribution of $30,354.85 from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You read that right. The Mormon Church donated more than $30 thousand dollars to eradicate the right of same-sex couples to marry.

One more time now because the audacity of it all is so vile. THE MORMON CHURCH IN UTAH DONATED MORE THAN $30,000 TO ERADICATE THE LEGAL RIGHT OF SAME-SEX COUPLES IN CALIFORNIA TO MARRY.

Liars, hypocrites and shameful violators of IRS laws. They thought they should not only be able to enshrine their bigotry into the California constitution, but then be able to be above the law to suit their own whims. But thankfully Judge Morrison England saw through their games and told them “If there ever needs to be sunshine on a political issue, it is with a ballot measure”.

The time is midnight and the unmasking has finally occurred. The bigots and their misdeeds have been exposed for the world to see. I only hope they get due justice for so viciously attacking people who did nothing to deserve their wrath.

 

A $100 value for only $19.95. But wait–there’s more!

The Gaytheist Agenda is now a year old. Granted if one wants to get technical it was a year old on January 6th but there’s no need for that in this case.

My blogging debut was on Lavender Newswire. It was my lovely wife’s blog, which then became our blog. In a matter of weeks I discovered I wanted to discuss topics that were outside the range of what the Newswire typically covered and with that The Gaytheist Agenda was born. While I still post on the Newswire occasionally this is my primary blogging ground.

The past year has been quite eventful. As to personal highlights, I got engaged, my state entered the 21st century and embraced marriage-equality, and I married the love of my life. Then a few months later our hard won rights were ripped away from us by lying bigots, worse yet, the 18,000 couples who married between June and November were thrown into legal limbo. As of now we still don’t know if our marriage will be considered valid or if we’ll be forcibly divorced. But then forcibly divorcing some 32,000 people would be the perfect way to “protect marriage”, wouldn’t it?

Moving on now…

I’d like to direct you over to a post I’ve put on the Newswire, primarily because it’s one I plan to do there each January. It’s a chronical of anti-LGBT hate crimes, this time for the year 2007 .

 
Now to lighten the mood a bit, the latest from Edward Current:

I’m not at all surprised. Focus on the Family is well known for pushing propaganda, half-truths and outright lies as “facts”. So hiring a known plagiarizer would be par for the course with them. From Truth Wins Out:

Truth Wins Out (TWO) today called Tim Goeglein a perfect hire to be the lead Washington lobbyist for Focus on the Family. He resigned from the Bush White House on Feb. 29, 2008, after ex-Fort Wayne News-Sentinel columnist Nancy Nall discovered that Goeglein, while he wrote guest columns for the newspaper, had plagiarized 19 of 38 columns. According to the Colorado Independent, he had used the works of such luminaries as the Dartmouth Review, Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein and the Pope without credit.
…..
“Instead of hiring a writer with a Pulitzer Prize, Focus on the Family hired one who plagiarized, which reveals the organization’s true character,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Goeglein seems well qualified to work for an organization known for distorting research and confusing fact with fiction. Already the ‘Master of Misquote,’ Goeglein won’t need on-the-job training.”

Focus on the Family is no stranger to controversy surrounding the group’s honesty and integrity. In the past two years, at least seven researchers have accused the organization of manipulating or cherry picking their results to back their anti-gay teachings. Letters and videos documenting the concerns of these respected professors can be viewed at TruthWinsOut.org .
…..

Apparently Focus on the Family doesn’t care how unethical you are or how many Biblical commandments you’ve violated–just so long as you aren’t gay. Perhaps they should focus on their own family and take the moats out of their own eyes, instead of worrying about the specks in the eyes of everybody else’s families.

The RRRW likes to put forth their phony statistics and self-proclaimed “experts” on homosexuality to bolster their claim that LGBT people are flawed, damaged, in need of “fixing” and certainly not deserving of equal rights. They put enormous time, effort and money into their campaign to eradicate marriage rights for same-sex couples in California. They claimed that same-sex marriage was a “threat to traditional marriage” and that “experts” say children fare better with “a mother and a father“–in other words, with straight couples.

But the reality is that genuine mental health professionals do not support what the RRRW shills are dishing out, but instead see homosexuality as a natural, normal expression of human sexual behavior. They condemn efforts to change sexual orientation, otherwise known as “conversion therapy” or “reparative therapy” and have stated that it is both ineffective and harmful. Studies on same-sex parenting show that children are just as healthy and happy with these couples as with opposite sex couples. Once again the RRRW manipulates legitimate studies, omits pertinent details and blatantly lies to achieve their anti-gay agenda.

Recently Psychologists for Social Responsibility released the following statement about same-sex marriage.

In accord with the commitments to individual liberty and equal protection under the law enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR) affirms its support for the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States. Keenly aware of the deeply destructive effects of prejudice, discrimination, and social stigma on unjustly marginalized members of society, PsySR stands opposed to any national or state legislation that seeks to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.

We further believe that psychological research provides compelling support for this clear social justice imperative. After reviewing the empirical evidence, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Social Workers have concluded that (1) the institution of marriage offers social, psychological, and health benefits to couples, (2) lesbian and gay parents are as fit and capable as heterosexual parents, and (3) the children of same-sex couples and heterosexual couples are equally well-adjusted and psychologically healthy.*

Psychologists for Social Responsibility therefore strongly supports efforts by concerned citizens and social justice advocates to reverse current state bans and to advance the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Sadly this won’t stop the RRRW from pushing their own phony “experts” (who have either no training in psychology/psychiatry or whose religious bigotry far outweighs any sense of professionalism they might otherwise have). Nor will it stop them from claiming the genuine experts are under the evil influence of Teh Gays and/or Teh Liberal Left. Nonetheless it’s an important statement that will hopefully carry some impact.

 

Yes, I could simply have a series of such posts much like Fox had When Animals Attack!. Of course I’ll freely admit some Mormons are the kindest, most generous, noblest people you could ever hope to meet. But the ones I typically encounter these days are of the other variety for whom prevaricating is as natural as breathing, particularly when they’re engaged in their anti-gay agenda. This one is a real doozy.

Found the following article on Kingfisher. I liked the picture too, because it expresses how I felt as an activist for traditional marriage during prop 8.

…..

I felt like people were screaming at me, demanding that I agree with them. They wanted me to say: marriage can be a man and a man or a woman and a woman.

So you freely admit nobody was screaming at you . You just want to imagine people were and to put the image in readers’ minds so you can maintain your persecution complex.

But their arguments have no weight. The pressure cooker has cooled, and the Truth glows out even brighter. There is good reason for society to keep marriage exclusive. Maybe someday they’ll succeed, but no matter what they say, scream, yell, whisper, cry, tantrum, beg…

And there was a good reason to keep schools segregated, water fountains separate, the Mormon church whites only?

I’ll calmly respond: Marriage is between a man and a woman.

I’m not about to stop saying True things out loud.

You mean this True thing?

Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 10, p. 110

This True thing?

…Mormon historians concede that celestial and plural marriage were at one time inseparable. According to David John Buerger, “Celestial marriage was applied to and equated with plural marriage until the late nineteenth century”…When compelled by the U.S. government to abandon plural marriage in the late 1800s, LDS leaders redefined celestial marriage. For example, President Heber J. Grant and his counselors stated, “Celestial marriage-that is, marriage for time and eternity-and polygamous or plural marriage are not synonymous terms….

This True thing?

…..
Faithful LDS member and historian Todd Compton has found solid documentation for Smith marriages to 33 women while he was alive. True, many more were sealed to him after his death, but Smith had at least 33 wives while he was alive….But it’s all OK, because an angel with a sword forced him to do it:… Joseph Smith also testified of another angelic visitor, one that came to him repeatedly to command him to teach an eternal principle and commandment. This revelation was so important, the angel threatened Smith’s life if he did not teach and practice it….

This True thing?

THE DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS
OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

SECTION 134
9 We do not believe it just to amingle religious influence with civil government, whereby one religious society is fostered and another proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of its members, as citizens, denied.

This True thing?

Revelation 22:18
18 And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book.

…Then comes “Book of Mormon” which was allegedly “another testament of Jesus Christ”. How does one rectify the BoM with Revelation 22:18? How does one rectify any of the constant revisions the Mormon church/doctrine has gone through (while they proclaim same-sex marriage should remain illegal because of what the Bible says and of “tradition”)?

Oh yeah, all those “divine revelations”. Maybe I should have a few of those so I can get away with whatever I want. After all if god says it it must be true and good.

 

Prop. 8 UPDATE: Militant Homosexual Rights Movement Keeps The Pressure On
by United Families International

…..And now, they’ve crossed the line once again. They have posted maps online that very clearly show the addresses of those who donated money to the Prop 8 cause (supporting traditional marriage), including even small donors who gave $50 or less.
…..

The names, zip codes, employers and cities of residence have always been publicly available to anyone and everyone at the California Secretary of State’s Website. Look up an individual donor, put their information into Google Maps and you can get a map to the address. It’s not rocket science. Teh Gays do not have some secret friends who feed them information that they then make public against the law and the will of the people. This is not some anti-religious conspiracy by the Vast Left Wing Agenda. It’s already public and people are merely putting it out there in various more digestible formats.

Funny how the religionists are forgetting that they used the exact same public information for their extortion efforts during the campaign. But then when they do it I guess it’s OK since they’re religious.

BTW, who cares if donations “even under $50″ are noted on the map? If people were donating to an effort to have your religion banned would it matter to you if they gave $5 or $5,000? An attempt to eradicate your rights is an attempt to eradicate your rights, plain and simple.

The UFI blog has learned that up to 1/3 of the Christmas packages that were sent to Californian missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) were not delivered. The LDS church has been widely criticized by the Militant Homosexual Rights Movement for their opposition to Same-Sex Marriage. It is suspected that the Christmas presents were stolen in retaliation to the passing of Proposition 8.

Learned from whom? Not delivered by whom? Where are the police reports? What evidence do you have that they were stolen at all, let alone “in retaliation to the passing of Proposition 8″. Even the original “blog” cites no sources whatsoever. I should think if 1/3 of the Who’s in Whoville had their Christmas packages stolen off their doorsteps there would have been some mention of it in the (real) media or a police report but there’s been nothing. If I ever saw a story pulled out of someone’s backside to incite faux persecution complexes this is it.

Mormons should have stuck to missions and green jello concoctions. When they decided to be the driving force in the effort to eradicate marriage rights for same-sex couples they gave up any right they had to call themselves innocent bystanders. They’ve never had any right to call themselves Christians or consistent.

 

Prayers for Bobby, based on the true story of the Griffith family, will air on Lifetime tonight. It depicts just how damaging the “ex-gay” movement is with it’s insistence that gay people can and must change.

Bobby Griffith committed suicide because his mother would not accept the truth–that he was gay and nothing was going to change that. It took his death for Mrs. Griffith to realize the truth. You cannot “pray away the gay”, and attempting to shame and coerce LGBT people into pretending they are something they are not is harmful, even deadly.

Sadly the purveyors of “ex-gay” programs keep pushing the claim that their hateful programs work despite the fact that the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association have stated the following:

* Homosexuality is not a mental disorder and the APA opposes all portrayals of lesbian, gay and bisexual people as mentally ill and in need of treatment due to their sexual orientation;

* Psychologists do not knowingly participate in or condone discriminatory practices with lesbian, gay and bisexual clients;
…..

Is It Possible To Change One’s Sexual Orientation (“Reparative Therapy”)?
There is no published scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of “reparative therapy” as a treatment to change one’s sexual orientation, nor is it included in the APA’s Task Force Report, Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders. More importantly, altering sexual orientation is not an appropriate goal of psychiatric treatment. Some may seek conversion to heterosexuality because of the difficulties that they encounter as a member of a stigmatized group. Clinical experience indicates that those who have integrated their sexual orientation into a positive sense of self-function at a healthier psychological level than those who have not. “Gay affirmative psychotherapy” may be helpful in the coming out process, fostering a positive psychological development and overcoming the effects of stigmatization. A position statement adopted by the Board in December 1998 said:

The American Psychiatric Association opposes any psychiatric treatment, such as “reparative” or “conversion” therapy, which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder, or based upon a prior assumption that the patient should change his/ her homosexual orientation.”
…..

Simply put, “reparative therapy”, which is what the “ex-gay” programs are (no matter what they try to bill them as) is a complete sham. It is psychologically, spiritually and even physically damaging to the participant. No reputable therapist would advocate it and typically those pushing it are not licensed psychologists but religious groups. Why do they do so? It brings them great amounts of money, for one. It also helps them push through anti-gay legislation, for another. If they can push the notion that gay people can “change”, they can reason that there is no need for laws protecting our rights. What’s worse is that they use the money gay people give them for “reparative therapy” to fund anti-gay legislation. Quite a beautiful scam they have going there, and yet another reason their sham programs need to be stopped.

 

Watch the movie tonight on Lifetime and do what you can to learn about the insidious nature of the “ex-gay” agenda. Then do all you can to stop them in their tracks.

 

Required reading on the “ex-gay” movement: visit Truth Wins Out.

 

Some people like to claim we’re incapable of knowing right from wrong because we don’t have an “objective morality”. But since when has an atheist done something like this in the name of his/her “deeply held beliefs”?

On the 36th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, a man smashed his SUV into the entrance of the Planned Parenthood office in St. Paul this morning.
…..
“We think it’s intentional because of Roe vs. Wade,” Panos said. “He’s not saying much. He was praying or chanting when the officers arrived.”
…..
Several employees were in the building at the time, said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kathi Di Nicola. She said the SUV hit the front door of the clinic two or three times, damaging the clinic’s front door and surrounding stonework.

When Di Nicola arrived at the clinic, she said the man had gotten out of the SUV and was pacing around it, holding a crucifix and chanting. “He was agitated and he was saying, ’shut down this Auschwitz,’ ” she said.
…..

Funny how you’ll see people like this destroying family planning clinics or harassing women who are seeking abortions. But at the same time you’ll see them voting down funds for social services that would provide supports (health care, after school programs, housing assistance, etc.) for the children they claim to care so much about.

But then I’ve read the Bible and God tended to be quite capricious so why should I be surprised that so many of his followers are?

 

While tooling around YouTube I came across a few good Proposition 8 videos I thought I’d share with you. (No, it’s not ancient history. There are tens of thousands of lives–families–currently held in limbo because of this. ):

 
Proposition 8: What About MY Family.


 
Thoughts on Proposition 8 Protests.


 
Prop 8 Was a Marketing Scam.