The Gaytheist Agenda

The Arkansas Society of Freethinkers put in a request, as it did last year, to have a Winter Solstice display at the State Capitol. As was the case previously their application was denied.

Two weeks ago we reported on the efforts of the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers to put up a winter solstice display on the grounds of the state Capitol. Their application had been denied the previous year because the secretary of state’s office said it was not clear on the type of display to be erected. This year, the group submitted a detailed description along with a website, complete with pictures, showing exactly what they had in mind. Their request was, once again, denied.

The reason? Tod Billings, founding member and president of ASF, isn’t so sure. The letter the organization received from Charlie Daniels’ office simply said their request had been denied and offered no further explanation.
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Natasha Naragon, the public affairs coordinator for the secretary of state’s office, said the request was denied because the “tone” of the display was “not consistent with the holiday tone that our office is striving to create on the Capitol grounds during the holiday season.”

When asked what “holiday tone” meant, Naragon said, “You can look at the other decorations that we have on the grounds. That’s clearly what we’ve determined to be appropriate in the holiday tone that we are striving to create. This display, as explained to us, does not fit in with our holiday decorations.” The displays typical have included lights, a Nativity scene maintained by an independent organization and Christmas trees.

Chances are the fact that the proposal was from a freethinker (aka atheist) group was enough to get it nixed. But more disturbingly what Naragon seems to be saying in her statement is that only Christian holiday decorations are considered appropriate (Christmas lights, Christmas Nativity scenes, Christmas trees…). I don’t see mention of decorations for any other groups.

Does Naragon not realize Winter Solstice is a holiday, and an ancient one at that? Winter Solistice is a holiday celebrated by many people including Neo-Pagans, Buddhists, atheists, and others.

I don’t imagine Naragon or those for whom she speaks know that the display they’re shutting out of the State Capitol is much of what Christmas was co-opted from in the first place. Precious few Christians know about the full roots of their own religion.

So my opinion? The answer is “both”. The refusal to permit the Winter Solstice display is grounded in both bigotry and ignorance, which all too often go together.

 

When I say young I mean it. Will Phillips is only ten-years old, but he’s intelligent and has taken on a fight beyond that which is typical of his years.

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It was during one of those drives that the discussion turned to the pledge of allegiance and what it means. Laura Phillips is Will’s mother. “Yes, my son is 10,” she said. “But he’s probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge than a lot of adults. He’s not just doing it rote recitation. We raised him to be aware of what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s fair.”

Will’s family has a number of gay friends. In recent years, Laura Phillips said, they’ve been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades and standing up for the rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors. They’ve been especially dismayed by the effort to take away the rights of homosexuals – the right to marry, and the right to adopt. Given that, Will immediately saw a problem with the pledge of allegiance.
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After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something. On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down. The class had a substitute teacher that week, a retired educator from the district, who knew Will’s mother and grandmother. Though the substitute tried to make him stand up, he respectfully refused. He did it again the next day, and the next day. Each day, the substitute got a little more cross with him. On Thursday, it finally came to a head. The teacher, Will said, told him that she knew his mother and grandmother, and they would want him to stand and say the pledge.
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Will was sent to the office, where he was given an assignment to look up information about the flag and what it represents. Meanwhile, the principal called his mother.
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“They [the kids who don’t support him] are much more crazy, and out of control and vocal about it than supporters are.”

Given that his protest is over the rights of gays and lesbians, the taunts have taken a predictable bent. “In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they’ve been making comments and doing pranks, and calling me gay,” he said. “It’s always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad.”
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What a nation we’re in. Exercise your legal right to abstain from the Pledge of Allegiance for ethical reasons and you’re made the victim of pranks and called names like gaywad. I’m quite proud of Will for standing up to those bullies. The more often people like him do that, the less effective their tactics will be.

It’s sad the prospect that others might have equal rights causes some to become such hateful monsters. But apparently their sense of self-worth is dependent on keeping others down. Thankfully Will Phillips is not one of those people, and that gives me a ray of hope in these bleak times.

 

The Pray-Away-the-Gay groups have been preying on young gay people and their desperate/intolerant parent$ for many years now. National headlines exposed how teens like Zachary Stark and D.J. Butler were forced into “ex-gay” camps by their parents and even subject to abuse in these programs.

Now another young gay man, Bryce Faulkner, has been coerced into participating in an “ex-gay” program by his parents who place religious dogma over the health and safety of their child. From the site Help Save Bryce:

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Bryce Faulkner is a bright young pre-med student who, like many in college, was totally dependent upon his parents for survival. His car, his cell phone, his education, even his job was all connected to his parents purse strings. Bryce was making plans to come out to his parents, but before he had the opportunity to carry out these plans, his mother found his email password and discovered communications between he and his lover Travis Of Green Bay, Wisconsin. As any person from the south, especially those whom have a conservative fundamentalist family and has come out of the closet knows, the family can become quite volatile in their reaction to the news. Bryce is no exception to this. In order to manipulate Bryce into accepting “treatment” for his homosexuality, they took away everything and left him the choice of becoming homeless and destitute or going into therapy. As anyone can imagine, this wasn’t much of a choice. Being in the closet in a small town left him no one to speak to or to seek help to get him through the transition from the closet and into the light of day. His family took away every resource he had and left him with no phone to call for help, a car to drive to any help that might be out there and no money to even take a bus to Wisconsin to be with his lover. The program he is going into is a 14 month program, one of the most severe and intense of these kinds of programs.

Bryce and Travis love one another deeply. The very reason Bryce was going to come out of the closet was in order to move closer to Travis because they wish to spend the rest of their lives together. Anyone who loves another can understand the turmoil and deep pain Travis is feeling right now. Having someone you love manipulated into pretending the love you share is an affront to God and unacceptable. Being manipulated into being cloistered away for over a year of intense brain washing techniques that tell you your homosexuality is a choice, your love is unnatural and you will sent to a place of fire and brimstone unless you submit to their philosophical interpretation of theology. Anyone one who has even the slightest knowledge of programs like those offered by Exodus International (a group that believes homosexuality is a choice and can be changed through prayer and counseling) can be spiritually demoralizing, psychologically destructive and emotionally devastating. As a person who has had someone close to them go through this kind of treatment, I make it my mission to help anyone who is forced to go into this kind of misguided and ill-informed rehabilitation programs.
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Please send any information on his whereabouts to: savebryce@ergonomicalministries.org or use e-mail contact form.

 
There is also a Friends of Bryce Facebook Group. Reportedly there has been no contact from Bryce since he entered the 14-week “ex-gay” program and there is concern for his well-being.

 
To learn more about the “ex-gay” industry and “ex-gay” ministries visit Truth Wins Out

 

Considering the recent passage of Proposition 8, Proposition 102, Proposition 2, the AK Adoption ban and the death of all five LGBT rights bills in Utah this really makes me roll my eyes.

USA joins UN’s LGBT equality pact

At the United Nations’ Durban Review Conference on racism and xenophonia in Geneva this week, the United States has supported a motion to condemn “all forms of discrimination and all other human rights violations based on sexual orientation.”

“The Czech Republic on behalf of the E.U., with the support of New Zealand, the United States, Colombia, Chili on behalf of the South American states, the Netherlands, Argentina and a few others, took the floor in support,” reports UN Watch.
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However, the United States’ support is a large step forward for on LGBT issues in the UN. Back in December, the United States refused to sign up to a similar statement condemning criminal penalties against people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Perhaps the US just doesn’t consider denying equal access to marriage, adoption, employment, housing and other such things to LGBT people discrimination or a violation of human rights. It certainly doesn’t seem that it does considering such things are allowed to go on right here within its borders. Apparently they’re only violations when they occur elsewhere, and only then does the US denounce them.

How very sad.

 

Aye, there’s the rub. Often it’s not until straight people are harmed by the actions of homophobes that people take notice or care, and sometimes even then people don’t notice or care–so long as gay people are kept second class citizens. This time the victim is a 15-year-old boy who has been harassed mercilessly by his peers for the past three years. He’s not gay, but that doesn’t matter to them. They accuse him of being gay in person, behind his back and online. They subject him to myriad forms of abuse based on the mere perception that he’s gay, regardless of how many times he protests that he is not.

A car the color of a school bus pulls up with a boy who tells his brother beside him that he’s going to beat up Billy Wolfe. While one records the assault with a cellphone camera, the other walks up to the oblivious Billy and punches him hard enough to leave a fist-size welt on his forehead.

The video shows Billy staggering, then dropping his book bag to fight back, lanky arms flailing. But the screams of his sister stop things cold.

The aggressor heads to school, to show friends the video of his Billy moment, while Billy heads home, again. It’s not yet 8 in the morning.

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The many incidents seem to blur together into one protracted assault. When Billy attaches a bully’s name to one beating, his mother corrects him. “That was Benny, sweetie,” she says. “That was in the eighth grade.”

It began years ago when a boy called the house and asked Billy if he wanted to buy a certain sex toy, heh-heh. Billy told his mother, who informed the boy’s mother. The next day the boy showed Billy a list with the names of 20 boys who wanted to beat Billy up.

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In ninth grade, a couple of the same boys started a Facebook page called “Every One That Hates Billy Wolfe.” It featured a photograph of Billy’s face superimposed over a likeness of Peter Pan, and provided this description of its purpose: “There is no reason anyone should like billy he’s a little bitch. And a homosexual that NO ONE LIKES.”

According to Alan Wilbourn, a spokesman for the school district, the principal notified the parents of the students involved after Ms. Wolfe complained, and the parents — whom he described as “horrified” — took steps to have the page taken down.

Not long afterward, a student in Spanish class punched Billy so hard that when he came to, his braces were caught on the inside of his cheek.

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The Wolfes are not satisfied. This month they sued one of the bullies “and other John Does,” and are considering another lawsuit against the Fayetteville School District. Their lawyer, D. Westbrook Doss Jr., said there was neither glee nor much monetary reward in suing teenagers, but a point had to be made: schoolchildren deserve to feel safe.

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This is the sort of toxic, dangerous environment people like Sally Kern, Peter LaBarbera and James Dobson perpetuate under the guise of their “deeply held religious beliefs” or “God’s Word”. But it is nothing more than religiously justified bigotry, plain and simple.

Homophobia, Bi-phobia, Transphobia–they hurt everybody. Help put an end to them now and forever.