The Gaytheist Agenda

The Hayward, CA, City Council was debating whether or not to take a stance on Proposition 8. Most of them were very much opposed to the ballot measure, but didn’t feel it was an appropriate item for the city agenda. Then Marvin Burroughs took the floor and spoke briefly and eloquently.

Marvin Burroughs, 72, said his partner of 51 years died of a heart attack in 2005.

“Without marriage, I lost his pension, the right to dispose of his body, and my home even with domestic partnership,” he said. “I urge the council to support a no on 8 so that what happened to me won’t happen to anybody else.”

The Hayward City Council has officially voiced it’s opposition to Proposition 8, and is urging residents to vote against it in November.

 
No matter how much opponents may claim the Colored-Only drinking fountains of the 21st Century known as Domestic Partnerships (or Civil Unions) are adequate, they simply aren’t. They make same-sex couples a permanent second class with fewer rights and protections, and deny us what others take for granted. They are inherently morally and ethically wrong. Only fully equal marriage will do.

Do the right thing. Protect marriage by voting NO on Proposition 8.

 

Arizona’s Proposition 102 could enshrine anti-gay bigotry in their constitution by making same-sex marriage illegal. Of course the voters already turned down such an amendment before, but the bigots (the “let the voters decide” types) decided they didn’t like what the voters had decided. So it’s back on the ballot so they have another chance to show gay people just how not-equal they are. I highly suspect we’ll be facing the same nonsense here in CA if Proposition 8 is defeated. The bigots will insist on “letting the voters” decide every two years because they just didn’t get the answer they wanted.

My lovely wife has the story on how the Mormons are pouring hoards of cash into the Yes on 102 campaign (much like they’re spending vast amounts of money to support Proposition 8).

We need to fight bigotry everywhere. Furthermore it would be hypocritical for us to make pleas for support in our fight against Proposition 8 and do nothing for others. Accordingly we each just donated $102 to the Vote No on Prop 102 campaign. It’s not the tens of thousands the rich and powerful Mormons are donating in support of it, but we hope it will help.

 

The Angie Zapata case is moving to trial. The judge refused the defense attorney’s plea to reduce the charges (yes, he actually tried that tired and deceptive gay panic defense). Good on the judge! This case screams hate crime from the rooftops.

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The defense was asking for a lessening of charges, specifically that the bias portion be dropped because this was a crime of passion and that Andrade’s reaction was provoked and caused understandable aggression.
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If anyone doubts that this is a hate crime, just listen to Andrade’s words and actions:

A man accused of beating a transgendered woman to death told his girlfriend in a phone call that he “snapped” and that “gay things need to die.”

The phone calls made by Allen Andrade, charged in the murder of the transgender woman Angie Zapata, while in jail to his girlfriend detailed that something bad had happened and that Andrade had made a mistake.

…The phone calls were also laden with derogatory remarks towards homosexuals, and he stated that people in jail are scared of him because of his reputation for wielding a fire extinguisher, which is the suspected murder weapon.

When Andrade’s girlfriend said her cell phone was dying during a call, he said that was gay and that gay things need to die.

How anybody could claim those actions were understandable and provoked is beyond me. No reasonable human being behaves like that. But then homophobes aren’t reasonable. And that’s what some people fail to grasp. Thankfully more people are finally beginning to grasp the truth, however.

There will come a day when nobody will consider it reasonable to batter another person to a pulp because they don’t approve of who they sleep with or what their gender presentation is. I don’t know if I’ll live to see that day–in fact I doubt it given the current climate. But I can always hope.

And Angie, rest in peace. It looks like Andrade is going to be put away for a very, very long time.

 

As you might have been aware, Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out went to Anchorage, AK to counteract the lies being foisted on the city by Love Won Out, Focus on the Family’s traveling “ex-gay” roadshow. His visit got a good deal of attention including a large feature story in the Anchorage Press

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Except that outside of these ex-gay ministries, virtually no one agrees that homosexuals can be turned straight, or that the “reparative therapy” these ministries offer is anything but damaging.

“There is no published scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of reparative therapy as a treatment to change one’s sexual orientation,” states a report by the American Psychiatric Association.

The American Psychological Association agrees, and has stated that conversion therapy can “do more harm than good.” And an American Medical Association report stated, “aversion therapy… is no longer recommended for gay men and lesbians.”
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But there’s something more basic at work here at the Love Won Out conference. Few, if any, of the attendees offering their “amen’s” seem to be people struggling with same-sex attraction. These churchgoing folks are having their belief that overcoming homosexuality is a choice one can make successfully reinforced. And statistics show that if people believe homosexuality is a choice, they’re more likely to support anti-gay legislation.
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Read that last sentence again. Regardless of all the prattle about love, change and desire to “help” gay people that groups like Love Won Out peddle they have only one true desire. To convince people that being gay is a choice so they’ll support anti-gay legislation, and to actually support anti-gay legislation. That’s all it’s ever been about. Why do you think that Focus on the Family (the people who run Love Won Out) turns around and donates hundreds of thousands of the dollars they get from things like Love Won Out to anti-gay causes like Proposition 8? That’s pretty sick, using money obtained from harming gays to further harm gays. But I’m not the least bit surprised.

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“By and large, these so-called ex-gay ministries are really on many levels a propaganda operation aimed at convincing the public that homosexuality is a choice,” says Mark Potok, executive director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, an organization that tracks extremism and monitors civil rights violations.

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Potok says that he believes that at first, a number of these ex-gay ministries were genuinely concerned with the welfare of the people they were treating. But now, he says, “I think that is less true every day. Every single one of these programs is based on a fundamental lie, which is that homosexuality is a mental disease. This kind of propaganda from the Christian Right has the effect of demonizing individuals and damaging them in serious psychological ways.” He describes Love Won Out particularly as “really noxious.”
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Besen, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, has flown to Anchorage specifically to help organize opposition to Love Won Out. A non-practicing Jew, he tells the congregation the story of when he got a job as a television reporter in Bangor, Maine covering politics—until his co-workers discovered him at a gay bar, upon which he was taken off the political beat and later fired.

“This is what we face,” Besen says, noting that if he holds his boyfriend’s hand on a New York subway he has to look around at the people near him to see he’ll end up in a fight because of it.

“This industry is out there to keep discrimination strong,” he says of Focus on the Family and Love Won Out. “They do everything in their power to make us miserable. They ask you to lie to God, and have lust in your heart forever, while you bury your head in the sand. They need to open their eyes to the damage they’re doing, destroying families in the name of family values.”
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Sadly the RRRW doesn’t seem to care how much psychological, spiritual and even physical damage they inflict on LGBT people and their loved ones, so long as they get their way. It appears, though, that the tide is turning, though it seems to be doing so slowly, and these hateful bigots are a dying breed.

Now that you’ve read the article, watch the video.

This summer same-sex couples in California won the right to marry. In a few short weeks it may be lost thanks to homophobia, much of it from people outside our state. Millions of dollars have been pouring into the state to support Proposition 8, which eradicates the right of same-sex couples to marry. Sixteen million dollars has come in thus far, five million of that since September first. They intend to flood the airwaves with propaganda ads and misleading claims in their attempt to influence voters to vote yes on Proposition 8.

This is how much they hate us and want to eradicate marriage equality.

We need all of the extra help we can get. My wife just donated $500 to Equality for All. I previously donated $300 but have just made an additional $500 donation. It’s going to hurt but it’s worth it. What we are fighting for–marriage equality for same-sex couples in CA–is that crucial.

Please help if you can. Click on the link below and donate any amount you are willing or able to. It’s for an end to bigotry. It’s for justice. It’s for equality for all.

Really, I’m not making this up.

Sabina Guzzanti, a popular actress and comic, had joked at an anti-politics rally that Pope Benedict XVI, known for his hardline views on homosexuality, would “go to hell and be pursued by two big, gay and very active devils”.

Rome’s prosecutor Giovanni Ferrara said he wants to start proceedings against her for “vilification” of the Pope under article of 313 of the penal code. Ferrara said that the offence caused by her comments went beyond satire.
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So why is it that these religious people can say all manner of hateful things about others, including condemning them to hell every little thing imaginable, but if someone does the same to them it’s grounds for legal action? Oh, that’s right. Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech only go one way with some people. Granted this is Italy and not the US, so our Constitution doesn’t apply, but apparently the unilateral nature of the principles still does.

And that “do as I say, not as I do” principle is universal, it seems.

 

If you’ve been reading the Newswire or Truth Wins Out you’re no doubt aware that Wayne Besen is traveling to Alaska today. He’ll be fighting the lies spread by Focus on the Family at their Love Won Out conference in Anchorage.

Of course Peter LaBarbera, of Americans for (the distortion of) Truth had to put his spin on the matter.

Homosexual gadfly Wayne Besen is begging for money to fly to Alaska to embarrass Gov. Sarah Palin and promote the lie that homosexuals cannot change. And Associated Press is happy to parrot Besen’s line ridiculing healthy change for homosexuals.

The lie that homosexuals cannot change? Who exactly is lying here? Let’s see. According to all reputable professional organizations and members of such:

“The most important fact about ‘reparative therapy,’ also sometimes known as ‘conversion’ therapy, is that it is based on an understanding of homosexuality that has been rejected by all the major health and mental health professions. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the National Association of Social Workers, together representing more than 477,000 health and mental health professionals, have all taken the position that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and thus there is no need for a ‘cure.’

“…health and mental health professional organizations do not support efforts to change young people’s sexual orientation through ‘reparative therapy’ and have raised serious concerns about its potential to do harm.” 11

The primer includes a number of quotations from major professional organizations about reparative therapy and other methods of attempting to change individual’s sexual orientation. One example is the American Academy of Pediatrics, which stated: “Therapy directed specifically at changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation.” 11

There is no such thing as “healthy change for homosexuals”. It involves methods that cause psychological, spiritual and even physical harm. Furthermore in the majority of cases no actual change occurs, particularly in the long term, despite the claims of the organizations that tout the “reparative therapy”.

AP also quotes New York City-based homosexual gadfly Wayne Besen: “’I think gay Republicans are going to run away’ if Palin supports efforts like the prayers to convert gays.” Oh well, there go 379 homosexual activist Republican votes for McCain – while millions of pro-family, Sarah-Palin-loving Republicans applaud ministries that offer godly, healthy change to homosexual strugglers.

I’m sure many of them do. Some of them are deluded into thinking the “ministries” are truly helpful to gay people, and some of them can’t see past their hatred of gay people to care how much they harm them. As long as gay people stop acting gay and pretend they’re straight to please God and the Christians that’s all that matters to these people. And do any of theses people, including Peter LaBarbera, ever consider how few “Homosexual Strugglers” there would be if it weren’t for the hideous amounts of bigotry some Christians heap upon them in our society? Then again, I think they like it that way, and rather wish there were more.

But Professional Anti-Christian Activist Besen is not deterred. Oblivious to the thousands of former homosexuals worldwide who live happy lives shorn of their false “gay “identity, he is now begging his followers for money so he can fly to Anchorage to protest a “Love Won Out” conference promoted by Wasilla Bible Church and sponsored by Focus on the Family. LWO conferences – a favorite target of homosexual militants and anti-“Christianists” everywhere — feature “born again” former homosexuals sharing their hopeful testimonies.

I’m sure Peter already knows it–though he’ll never admit it–but most of those “born again former homosexuals” are nothing more than repressed gays who go right back to being gay shortly after the conference. If they actually ever stopped in the first place. Just because you pretend you aren’t gay to please bigots and their god doesn’t make you straight. It makes you a repressed gay person living a lie.

Special message to Peter: If Wayne doesn’t have enough to get back from Alaska I’ll gladly advance him the money. It’s well worth charging up my credit card for that. And I don’t buy that blurb at the bottom of your article where you claim it’s a spoof.

Yes, I know I promised wedding photos but they haven’t come in yet so I’m doing things a bit out of order here. Suffice it to say Sapphocrat and I are happily married and we had a fabulous honeymoon. We started off at Holly’s Place, a beautiful retreat at South Lake Tahoe.

We had a cozy cabin with a private patio. Most nights we grilled on our personal BBQ grill (roasted veggies are the best) and watched DVDs we borrowed from the community room on the premises. A couple of times we paid late-night visits to the lovely hot tub, which remains open 24-hours-a-day. There’s nothing like soaking under the stars while surrounded by gigantic pine trees.

Both of us devoured Rosemary’s Baby, I for the first time and my wife for a repeat read. I then moved on to And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, 20th-Anniversary Edition while she began The Burnt House.

Amidst all of this we did manage to make it down to the lake. It’s positively stunning. Word to the wise; avoid Reagan Beach as it’s dirty and smelly. Stick to the main beach though it’s more crowded and touristy.

We spent our last two nights in Reno at the Peppermill casino and hotel. I did some shopping and reading while my wife gambled, and we enjoyed some delicious food and coffee at the Peppermill’s various restaurants.

On the way home we stopped by Donner Memorial State Park to tour the museum and park. Read a bit about the Donner party here. Below is a photo of me in front of the Donner monument. The stone base indicates the depth of the snow that winter in 1846, just to give you some perspective.

Needless to say we both wish we could have had a longer honeymoon but of course we had to return to reality. One thing we did determine was that we’re going to spend less time attached to our computers and more time doing other things. Our time spent “unplugged” was very precious indeed.

 

This is a must-read article by Carol V. Hamilton. I discovered it on George Mason University’s History News Network. I’ve excerpted some of the finer parts, and you can go here for the entire piece. (BTW, the answer to the question is yes.)

 

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The third branch of American Christianity insists upon the letter of the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament. Its adherents typically describe themselves as “Christian” (rather than “Congregationalist” or “Presbyterian”). Its institutions often describe themselves as “nondenominational.” This third branch seems untroubled by the doctrinal and behavioral differences between Jesus of Nazareth in his benign and tolerant moods and the despotic God of the Old Testament—that jealous and demanding deity who tormented Job and ordered Abraham to kill his son. Yet even in its seemingly unqualified admiration for the Old Testament, Christian fundamentalism studiously ignores certain Bible stories, such as the ones about the relationships of David and Jonathan and of Ruth and Naomi.

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This third branch of Christianity poses a serious threat to our political well-being. Authoritarian, narrow in its scope, rigid in its attitudes, and tautological in its thinking, evangelical fundamentalism has been making war on the founding ideas of the United States. Its belief in submission to authority puts it at odds with a democratic republic. Its hostility to intellectual inquiry—by its very nature an interrogation of authority—causes it to wage war on scientific research and modern medicine. Its valorization of ancient codes of behavior inspires its attacks on feminism and gay rights. Its revisionist attitude toward history—denying the deism, skepticism, and Masonic associations of certain major Founders—is dishonest.

Fundamentalist Christianity is essentially anti-modern. It holds that truth became manifest two thousand years ago, and everything since—Copernicus and the solar system, the work of Galileo and Michelangelo, the scientific discoveries of Newton, Bacon and Locke, Wollstonecraft and the rights of women, the abolition of slavery, Darwin and Wallace, anesthesia, vaccines against smallpox and polio, progress in civil rights and social justice, the invention of the automobile, bicycle, telephone, airplane, radio, television, computer—is of no consequence. Even though most fundamentalist Christians (unlike the consistent Amish) enjoy the advantages of modern discoveries, inventions, and medical care, they do not acknowledge human ingenuity. (If pressed, they will say God is responsible for all material forms of human progress.) The highest achievements in mathematics, music, painting, sculpture, and literature are of no compelling significance or interest. Evolution is “just a theory” —like gravity?—and a blasphemous one at that.

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Its anti-intellectualism makes fundamentalist Christianity not only intolerant and judgmental but also tautological and superstitious—inclined to the kind of circular logic that attributes divine motivation to carefully selected natural disasters while ignoring the innumerable tragedies and disasters that are not amenable to such interpretations. It believes in a divinity that controls every aspect of life, does everything for a (good) reason, and punishes those who disobey ancient prohibitions.

Its insistence on the inferiority and subordination of women, an attitude it shares with other religious fundamentalisms, is undemocratic and anti-modern. And its obsession with salvation and the afterlife makes it indifferent, or even hostile, to modern innovations for the general good and modern notions of social justice when those conflict, as they often do, with ancient traditions. Many of its members hope for an apocalypse in their own lifetimes, much as credulous peasants did as the year 1000 approached.
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Fundamentalists will insist in their blog posts (see the “On Faith” section of the Washington Post) that all you have to do is “read” the Bible—an assertion that ignores the multiple translations the Bible has undergone, both into English and into different idioms of English. For decades literary scholars have argued about interpretations of poems by Yeats; for centuries they have disputed the nuances of sonnets and soliloquies by Shakespeare. Well-educated theologians in Catholicism and the mainstream Protestant denominations know very well that religious scholars have quarreled over interpretations, with some of them risking excommunication or death, yet fundamentalists believe in a single, transparent, unambiguous, and universal Biblical text.

Even more disturbing is the fundamentalist belief that the Bible is the only book you need to read and study. It contains all the answers to every conceivable question. Fundamentalists may attend schools that feature a “Christ-centered curriculum” or be home-schooled in a way that prevents exposure to any subject or argument that conflicts with their 2000-year-old worldview. They may attend “universities,” (a misnomer) whose curricula conform to the views of people who died two millennia ago—back when it was common knowledge that the earth was flat and that the sun rotated around it. Such an education is guaranteed to prevent students from encountering the skeptical views of Jefferson, Freud, Darwin, Frazer, Malinowski, or Mark Twain.

One sign of their ignorance is the popular claim that our legal system originates from the ten commandments. As Bill Maher points out, a number of the commandments don’t correspond to law at all. Actually, the law is probably more involved with property than justice. We don’t arrest people who exclaim “My God!”, fail to buy a gift on Mother’s Day, or covet their neighbor’s Mazeratti. And like other bodies of human knowledge and creation, the law is an ongoing process of arguments, counter-arguments, decisions, appeals, and new decisions. In referring to the legal system, American fundamentalists give no credit to the contributions of Emperor Justinian, Alfred the Great, Henry II, Edward I, and various rebellious nobles, assertive merchants, and unruly peasants.
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Fundamentalist Christianity possesses no such intellectual curiosity, depth, or complexity. Instead, it concerns itself with the moral conduct of American citizens—morality as defined by Biblical precepts and taboos. In so far as it takes any interest in science, fundamentalist Christianity is defensive, attempting either to reconcile the Bible with, or to subvert, science. Its main preoccupations appear to be the control of female sexuality and reproduction (no birth control, no possibility of abortion), the criminalization of homosexuality, access to government funds for its “faith-based initiatives,” and the injection of a primitive Christianity into all aspects of the public sphere, from government ceremonies to first-grade classrooms.
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Much more at the above link, and well worth the full read.

I knew it was only a matter of time before the bigot brigade got their feathers ruffled over PG&E’s decision to donate $250,000 to the campaign to defeat Proposition 8. Of course in addition to rending their garments they’re making fools of themselves. But I repeat myself.

Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, says no public utility should be allowed to take such a position. “They provide power — gas and electricity. They should not be taking positions against ballot measures,” he emphasizes. “That’s like a quasi-government agency taking positions against ballot measures, which is illegal.”

He adds that the money contribution would also seem to make PG&E, which services a large part of central and northern California, “the homosexual marriage utility.”

Churches continuously illegally take positions on elections and that’s fine. But suddenly a utility taking a position on a ballot measure by making a donation is an affront to his values? Thomasson needs to get over himself.

At any rate I welcome the bigots to do what they always do when a company supports equality. Boycott. Come on. I dare you. Boycott PG&E.

Regardless, Thomasson says it is clear business owners and voters must make a decision. “It’s time for businesses to take a stand. It’s either yes or no for natural marriage,” says the pro-family leader. “The voters need to take a stand — yes or no for Proposition 8.” And businesses, he adds, need to take a stand — with their dollars — for the amendment.

Interesting. First Thomasson rants because PG&E chose to donate to the No on 8 campaign, then he claims that businesses need to take a stand. Would he please make up his mind? Of course I know what the thinly veiled message is; businesses need to come to our side, or else.

But as McDonald’s and PG&E are proving, the bigots really don’t have so much bargaining power any more. And that is a very, very good thing.