Thursday, July 25, 2013

SPLC Report: Religious right groups attacking gays in foreign countries

This is not good:

As LGBT people continue making strides toward equality in the United States, hard-line U.S. religious-right groups that have spent decades demonizing them are focusing their attention – and propaganda – on a legal battle over the criminalization of LGBT sex in Belize, the outcome of which could affect criminal statutes in as many as a dozen other Caribbean countries, according to a SPLC report released today.

Dangerous Liaisons: The American Religious Right & the Criminalization of Homosexuality in Belize examines how these groups are working in countries where anti-gay attitudes are strong and violence against the LGBT community is common. Several prominent groups have descended on the tiny Central American country of Belize to prevent Section 53, a statute criminalizing gay sex, from being struck down in court. Their efforts already have intensified anti-LGBT attitudes in the country, where the plaintiff in the case has been threatened and physically assaulted.

“Many of these American religious-right groups know they have lost the battle against LGBT rights in the United States, and they’re now aiding and abetting anti-LGBT forces in countries where anti-gay violence is prevalent,” said Heidi Beirich, report author and director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “These groups are pouring fuel on an exceedingly volatile fire.”

You can read the entire report here.

'NOM ally self-publishing 'very graphic' gay novels' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Robert Oscar Lopez Is Self-Publishing A Bizarre Series Of Gay Fiction Books - In between bashing same-sex families, NOM ally Robert Oscar Lopez is self-publishing gay novels, one featuring 10 graphic gay sex scenes. You trying to tell us something, Robert? 

Listen to new chair of U.S. Commission on Intl Religious Freedom call for 'national rebellion' against marriage equality - NOM's founder has no business being on this commission, much less the chair.

Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber: I'll "Go To Jail" Before I Recognize "Counterfeit Same-Sex Marriage" - Matt, no one cares whether or not you recognize our marriages. However, the idea of you going to jail and forced to marry an inmate named Rocko has distinct interesting possibilities.

Scott Lively Launches Campaign To Create An Amendment To The First Amendment - @!*&*, PLEASE!  

VICTORY: California Transgender Student Guaranteed Equal Access To School Facilities - Sweeeeet!

Religious right ratcheting up vicious attacks on same-sex families

An online friend of mine noticed something and I have to agree. Since losing the court cases over DOMA and Prop8, religious right figures and spokespeople have been viciously attacking not just lgbts but also our families, including our children. I've already talked about NOM's newest patsy, Robert Oscar Lopez, a man who was supposedly raised in a same-sex household.

But apparently he isn't the only one attacking same-sex families. The above clip is Linda Harvey of Mission America and according to Right-Wing Watch:

Harvey  . . . recounted her experience at a Pride Parade this year to rant against same-sex parents, suggesting that their kids intrinsically know something is wrong and are disturbed by their parents’ relationship: “Children know and sense deep deception and most children will sense something is not right with being proud of homosexuality.” She found it “heartbreaking to see homosexuals haul their children proudly in front of thousands of people in the recent Columbus Pride Parade,” particularly a family with an “exploitative sign” which read “I love my two dads.” Harvey hopes listeners tell the kids of same-sex couples that they should urge their parents to become ex-gays: “No one has to pursue a homosexual lifestyle and anyone with sense and genuine love for both the child and for our God and for his plans for us will tell that child the truth: lots of people have left homosexual desires and behavior to live lives consistent with the way God clearly made us.”

I don't know if Harvey has any children of her own. Regardless, she would be best served stop butting into the lives of other families and attend to her own.