The Gaytheist Agenda

Previously I wrote about the RRRW boycott of McDonald’s over their support of Teh Homosexual Agenda. Now it seems that American Family Association has it’s panties in a bunch because not only will McDonald’s not back down, but they have the audacity to speak the truth.

A spokesman for McDonald’s restaurants says those who oppose same-sex “marriage” are motivated by hate.

Earlier this month, the American Family Association (AFA) called for a boycott of the hamburger giant because of the company’s promotion of the homosexual agenda. The AFA took issue with McDonald’s refusal to remain neutral in the culture war.

But in a recent Washington Post article, McDonald’s spokesman Bill Whitman suggested that those who oppose same-sex “marriage” are motivated by hate. However, AFA Founder Don Wildmon disagrees and says McDonald’s has bought into rhetoric used by homosexual activists.
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Well gee, Don. What else would you call it when you oppose equal rights for an entire class of people for no legitimate reason? When you deride, castigate and persecute that group of people as a matter of habit? When you go out of your way to keep that group permanent second-class citizens in their own nation? I myself can’t think of any word other than hate, and it seems many other people find it a fitting term as well.

 

They spread homophobic propaganda on their website, complete with phony statistics from none other than Paul Cameron. They even have the audacity to defend their use of the articles and claim they’re “impartial insurance information”. Riiiiight. (Hat tip to Box Turtle Bulletin.)

 
Addendum: On further research it turns out that the Robert Bland, the Chairman and Founder of Insure.com serves on the board of directors of the Illinois Right to Life Foundation. I’m even more convinced that article is on their Website as part of a political agenda, despite their denials.

 

 

The Radio Hall of Fame Should Not Reward Intolerance and Lies, Says TWO

 
NEW YORK - TruthWinsOut.org (TWO) launched a campaign today to keep Focus on the Family founder James Dobson out of the Radio Hall of Fame. The Museum of Broadcast Communications nominated the anti-gay leader even though Dobson has been accused of distorting research and smearing gay and lesbian people for political gain. For example, Dobson told The Daily Oklahoman on Oct. 23, 2004, “Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth.”

“It is outrageous and insulting that James Dobson would be nominated for the Radio Hall of Fame,” said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We believe that character counts and nominees should have careers based on honesty and integrity - not discrimination, distorting research and outright lying.”

“Incredibly, the Museum of Broadcast Communications has also nominated Dr. Laura Schlessinger to its Radio Hall of Fame and Rush Limbaugh was inducted in 1993. The pattern is clear.”

To fight back against this offensive decision, TWO strongly urges fair-minded people to take three actions. First, sign TWO’s formal request to have James Dobson removed from consideration. Second, contact Museum of Broadcast Communications CEO Bruce DuMont directly, brucedumont@museum.tv, to express your displeasure. Third, as an option, vote for nominees other than James Dobson or Laura Schlessinger (the general public may vote, and the other nominees are Bob Costas and Howard Stern). It is urgent to act now, as voting comes to a close on July 15.

 

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE LETTER!!!

 
In the past two years, at least seven researchers have accused Dobson of manipulating or cherry picking their results to back his anti-gay teachings. Letters and videos documenting the concerns of these respected professors can be viewed at TruthWinsOut.org.

Dobson also profits from intolerance. He founded a ministry, Love Won Out, that promises to “cure” homosexuals - even though the so-called “ex-gay” leader of Love Won Out, John Paulk, was photographed in a gay bar. Dobson also continues to promote dishonest psychological theories about gay people that are rejected by every respected medical and mental health association in America, including the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association.

TruthWinsOut.org is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life. For more information, visit TruthWinsOut.org.

 

I came across this while browsing the news and had to share it. Tom Keegan and Davidson Lloyd have been together 31 years. They’ve had several commitment ceremonies. On July 3rd they finally had one that was legally recognized as marriage by the state of California. Of course the RRRW still refuse to consider their relationship as valid as opposite sex relationships, and if they have their way in November other couples won’t be able to marry as Tom and Davidson did (and as Sapphocrat and I will be shortly). No, the RRRW has no room in their narrow definition of family for Tom Keegan, Davidson Lloyd and their daughter, and that’s where we all lose out.

For Tom Keegan and Davidson Lloyd, “I do” has become a phrase they know very well – a phrase they have proclaimed time and time again during commitment ceremonies, informal weddings and unrecognized weddings.
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No longer will Keegan and Lloyd need to conduct wedding ceremonies that are not recognized by law, such as their first wedding in 1989.
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“Things will be different,” Connor Keegan-Lloyd, the 9-year-old adopted daughter said.
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For this same-sex couple, the private wedding ceremony signified a milestone in their long and public fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights that began 31 years ago when the two first fell in love.
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An endless row of shingled houses lines the street of Indiana Avenue. In this muted Venice suburb, a red and orange house stands conspicuously as the home of Lloyd and Keegan. On this day, July 3, 30 friends and family have come inside for the couple’s wedding.
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We need to defeat the Marriage Ban, #8, in November. It’s about love and equality. It’s about telling the RRRW that they do not get to define for everyone what marriage and family are. And for couples like Tom Keegan and Davidson Lloyd it’s about time.

 

We found out a few days ago that they finally assigned a number to the Marriage Ban Initiative here and it’s #8 on the ballot. In response, my better half pulled an all nighter and created some new designs. Here they are and as always they’re available on a wide variety of merchandise including clothing, hats, yard-signs, bumper stickers, buttons and more.

There’s also this one, which we wore to Pride this weekend. It got lots of attention and has been selling well the past few weeks.

 

So there they are. The latest designs to help beat down the hateful anti-marriage amendment. Enjoy!

 

It’s bad enough when the RRRW has to stick their noses in everything that goes on here, but it goes beyond the pale when they push their homophobia into the lives of our neighbors across the pond. Heinz corporation had this wonderful ad depicting family life where the parents just happened to be two men.

Apparently the folks at American Family Association have decided that even in foreign nations they get to define what a family is, and what goes into commercials. After receiving 200 complaints Heinz pulled the commercial from the air. Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out appeared on CNN to defend the ad.

 
From the Truth Wins Out Blog:

The Headline News segment included Randy Sharp of the AFA, who claimed that the ad promoted a homosexual lifestyle: “What does mayonnaise have to do with homosexuals and their lifestyle?” Sharp claimed that 70,000 AFA supporters in the United States disagreed with the ad.

How is it that 70,000 American AFA supporters in the US even saw the ad to determine that they disagreed with it? I smell BS.

Business marketing analyst Dan Hill said Heinz was right to pull the ad. Hill said:

“In business you can never afford to forget that the bottom line is that ‘family values’ means ‘my family, not your family,’ and I think in the UK most households have traditional family structures.”

Well, perhaps Heinz could rely on “traditional families” to buy their products then since they’re obviously not opposed to throwing us aside to cater to them (which is par for the course really). There are plenty of other brands out there.

 

I wrote previously about a recent study that found differences between the brains of straight and gay individuals. There’s a Slate piece on the same study that goes beyond the Time article I quoted.

So, what’s the common factor? If the study’s design rules out learned influences, and if the results in women rule out genetics, that leaves what the authors call “hormonal influences” or noncognitive differences in the infant environment. According to the Guardian, the same research team has “begun another study to investigate brain symmetry in newborn babies, to see if it can be used to predict their future sexual orientation.” If it can, that will scratch postnatal factors off the list, and the search will narrow to hormones in the womb. Already, the authors point to evidence that homosexuality may be caused by “under-exposure to prenatal androgens” in males and “over-exposure” in females.

There’s the “more research” I was hoping for. It would be wonderful if we could determine whether the brain differences are present at birth or if they form later in life.

But here comes the part that broaches the concern many LGBT people have even in their quest for proof that being gay is innate; the fact that our opponents will do all they can to eradicate it medically, even if it means doing so in the womb. They continue to see us as a flaw, a defect, and still wish to wipe us out at any cost.

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Would hormonal intervention work in humans? Should we try it? Some thinkers are intrigued. Last year, the Rev. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote: “If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use.” Mohler told the Associated Press that morally, this would be no different from curing fetal blindness or any other “medical problem.” The Rev. Joseph Fessio, editor of the press that publishes the pope’s work, agreed: “Same-sex activity is considered disordered. If there are ways of detecting diseases or disorders of children in the womb … that respected the dignity of the child and mother, it would be a wonderful advancement of science.”

If the idea of chemically suppressing homosexuality in the womb horrifies you, I have bad news: You won’t be in the room when it happens. Parents control medical decisions, and surveys indicate that the vast majority of them would be upset to learn that their child was gay. Already, millions are screening embryos and fetuses to eliminate those of the “wrong” sex. Do you think they won’t screen for the “wrong” sexual orientation, too?

Liberals are slow to see what’s coming. They’re still fighting the culture war. The Toronto Star, like other papers, finds a neuroscientist who thinks the new study “should erode the moral judgments often made against homosexual preferences and rebut any argument that it is a mere a lifestyle choice.” Well, yes. But then what? The reduction of homosexuality to neurobiology doesn’t mean your sexual orientation can’t be controlled. It just means the person controlling it won’t be you.

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I’ve seen it coming for some time now. What, with the “ex-gay” movement’s ferocity I knew in a heartbeat that if a biological cause were found for homosexuality the first thing the RRRW would do would be to work on a scientific “cure” for it. If they embraced science for one reason only it would be to rid the world of gay people. I daresay some of them, the most extreme ones, might even give up their anti-abortion stance if it was predicted a fetus was to be born gay. Radical thoughts, yes, but after what I’ve heard and read from some of the more virulent anti-gay contingent I don’t think I’m that far off base.

 


 
Addendum. A comment has arrived. Ebon said:

This stuff always pisses me off. if there’s one reason above all others that I hate the Religious Reich, it’s the perversion of science. If we do find a biological basis for homosexuality and if that biological basis can be manipulated (lot of “if”s there), it still doesn’t mean that we should do it.

All the things that could be done with that kind of technology and they’re fixated on eliminating something that doesn’t even cause any harm? WTF? All the applications research like that could have and the idiots are fixated on narrowing the wondrous variety of humanity down to a dull little box of vanilla. How limited, how insulting, how small a world.

Indeed. It just proves once again that they don’t, as they say, “love the sinner but hate the sin”. They truly hate gay people, for why else would they seek to completely eradicate us by any means possible? (If the language and propaganda they use to demonize us wasn’t enough to convince skeptics this certainly should.)

I can’t help but wonder why I’m always reminded of the eugenics movement when it comes to these people…

 

Kevin said:

Long ago when arguing with some fundie that people were born gay or straight he cameback and said that violent criminals are said to be born that way, does that mean society should let them rampage and hurt whoever they want?

That’s when I realized it just doesn’t matter if science finds an answer to this, politically and socially people have a right to be gay no matter where it came from.

And I agree that those so inflamed over gayness will stop at nothing to stop it if they can, including manipulating the fetus in the womb or even abortion of a gay fetus though they find abortion abhorrent.

Over the years I’ve found there is no logic with these people, just pure, raw emotion, and they can find a way to justify any kind of action. Lying for Jesus is a noble thing to them.

If I had a dollar for every time homosexuality had been compared to murder, rape, theft and the like I’d be rich. Filthy rich. I’m disgusted the way we get likened to literal criminals who commit harmful acts against others, but then look who’s doing the comparisons. It’s not as if they’re a font of compassion or integrity. Then after they spew lies about us they turn around and plot to harm us. Par for the course, really.

The Radical Realist said:

I f***ing love the hypocrisy of that baptist fool. Despite the horror of the possibility of eliminating gay people via the womb, I’m practically rolling on the floor laughing at the hypocrisy. According to his twisted logic, it’s not okay to f*** with god’s will when a poor meth head with 4 kids becomes pregnant with another one, or when a person has been a vegetable for 12 years; yet it is okay to f*** with his will to eradicate homosexuals when it satisfies your irrational fear and hatred of gays. Nice.

Pure comedy.

All life is sacred from the moment of conception, don’t you know, unless that life is L,G,B or T. Then it needs to be “fixed”. Paging Dr. Mengele.

 

This is some of the best news I’ve had recently. This means that the November ballot initiative brought on by the RRRW here in CA may be stopped. Sapphocrat has the story. Head over and read it.

 

It has been a whirlwind of weddings since Monday evening at 5:01pm, which was when same-sex weddings could officially begin here in California. Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon were the first to be married in San Francisco, with Mayor Gavin Newsom performing the ceremony. The couple, age 87 and 84 respectively, were the first to marry 4 years ago when Mayor Newsom began issuing licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of state law. Their marriage, along with many others, was declared invalid shortly after. They were overjoyed to now be legally married thanks to the recent Supreme Court decision. Below is video footage of the lovely brides and other happy couples who tied the knot on Monday night. Also included are scenes of the Phelps family protest (which I didn’t make it to as I was not feeling well) and some other protesters.

Here is a county-by-county rundown of the marriage licenses issued and marriages performed as per the Contra Costa Times. com:

* Contra Costa: Issued 55 marriage licenses Tuesday, 36 for same-sex couples, and performed 22 wedding ceremonies, 21 for same-sex couples. Three protesters picketed for an hour, but no incidents were reported to police.
* San Francisco: As of noon Tuesday, San Francisco received 172 same-sex marriage license appointments and 114 reserved ceremonies and most were for same-sex couples, according to the mayor’s office.
* Alameda: The county married 65 same-sex couples Monday night. On Tuesday, it issued 63 marriage licenses and performed 26 weddings, mostly same-sex.
* Solano: On Tuesday, the county issued 22 licenses, 19 for same-sex couples; officiated eight ceremonies, seven of them for same-sex couples.
* San Mateo: The county married four same-sex couples Tuesday and issued 45 licenses, 34 to same-sex couples. Outside, the Rev. Terri Echelbarger of the Peninsula Metropolitan Community Church based in San Mateo, married five same-gender couples.
* Santa Clara: Santa Clara issued 111 marriage licenses and conducted 32 weddings, mostly same-sex.
* Sonoma: On Monday, officials married 20 same-sex couples and issued 37 licenses. On Tuesday, it issued 42 licenses for same-sex couples and conducted 28 ceremonies.
* Napa: Issued 22 licenses; 13 for same-sex couples and performed six ceremonies, five for same-sex couples.
* Marin: Issued 35 licenses and performed 15 ceremonies Tuesday.

Sapphocrat and I have applied for our marriage license. I’ve been scouting online for wardrobe ideas, we’ll be shopping for wedding bands sometime this week or next, and we already are fairly sure where we’re going to have the ceremony. Very soon we’re going to join the hundreds (if not thousands) of blissfully married same-sex couples here in California.

Let equality ring!

 

Addendum, a comment has arrived. Linda said:

Phyllis and Del - aren’t they just the sweetest things? To think of being together for all those years and only now being able to properly celebrate their commitment. It must have taken so much devotion and courage to stand up against society for so long. I’m a straight, female, anglo - this means that I can go through my day and no one suspects me of being an evil, liberal-minded, atheist. I joined the Marines in the early 70s and I’m sure that at least half of the women were gay - later I joined the guard and finished with a total of 21 years. What this brings me to is how sad it made me that I could openly discuss my husband and how happy he made me while my gay friends had to keep silent.

I hope your wedding will be everything you’ve always wanted it to be.

I’m glad that Martin and Lyon saw marriage equality in their lifetimes. It’s only fitting considering how much they contributed to the lesbian rights movement.

I applaud your sensitivity to your privilege regarding your ability to speak freely about your relationship with your husband. So many straight people claim LGBT people are “flaunting” their orientations/identities if they even mention that they are LGBT, and especially if they talk of their partners. They don’t realize the extent to which they “flaunt” their heterosexuality, such as talking about dates, referring to spouses, gushing about upcoming weddings, keeping pictures of their families on their desks at work, etc. What’s good for the goose is, apparently, not good for the gander with certain people.

 

On June 16th and 17th the Phelps family will be visiting Northern California for a series of “protests”. They’re not too keen on the fact that we have that marriage equality thing. Here’s their schedule:

6/16, 1:00-1:45pm…Monterey, CA. Presidio of Monterey Pacific St. & Lighthouse Ave.

6/16, 4:30-6:00pm…San Francisco, CA. San Francisco City Hall 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl.

6/17, 7:00-8:00am…Martinez, CA. Contra Costa County Clerk Recorder 555 Escobar.

My fiancee and I will be attending the SF protest and sporting our new T-Shirts. We’ll bring a bunch of the matching buttons. Mention this blog post and if we haven’t run out we’ll give you one!