Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Who is Janet Porter and why is the GOP out of its mind for teaming up with her on anti-gay issues?

Right Wing Watch has another trailer from the upcoming anti-gay documentary featuring possible GOP presidential candidates and members of Congress:

Radical Religious Right activist Janet Porter has released yet another trailer for her upcoming documentary "Light Wins: How To Overcome The Criminalization Of Christianity," which features a who's who of anti-gay activists as well as several Republican members of Congress and presidential hopefuls Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee. "Like a tank in Tiananmen Square," Porter says, as she walks down the middle of a dark street as a pair of headlights bear down upon her, "the homosexual agenda has been running over people since Anita Bryant's courageous stand in the 1970s." After that, it is nothing but 10 minutes of anti-gay activists calling upon Christians to rise up and fight back against the "homosexual agenda." Among the participants we immediately recognized in this new clip are Huckabee, David Barton, Gary Glenn, Steven Hotze, Robert Knight, Judith Reisman, Stacy Swimp, Greg Quinlan, Rep. Louie Gohmert, Brian Camenker, James Dobson, Bill Donohue, Scott Lively, Frank Pavone, Dutch Sheets, Phyllis Schlafly, Rick Scarborough, Gary Bauer, Mark Crutcher, Jerry Boykin, and Harry Jackson.



 If you don't want see the trailer, I personally understand. All of that homophobia is enough to make anyone sick.

However, the video below is a must view, particularly by those who don't know who Janet Porter is. I could say a lot of things about her, but I think this video of her praying for control of the American media does a better job than describing Porter than I ever could.

After viewing it, remember that she actually got possible GOP presidential candidates and Congressional leaders to appear in her video.



Spooky, isn't it? It makes you wonder just who is being unreasonably aggressive. The lgbt community or Porter and her supporters?

'Coming anti-marriage equality manifesto a BIG EMPTY joke that lgbts SHOULD read' & other Tuesday midday news briefs

Previewing the next anti-marriage equality manifesto - Hold on to your hats (or rather stomachs). I would advise that members of the lgbt community read this manifesto because it is important to see what those who oppose your equality is up to. 

Top Catholics and evangelicals: Gay marriage worse than divorce or cohabitation - And speaking of which, here are a few details about the above item. The "usual folks" are involved - i.e. Maggie Gallagher, Robert George, Rick Warren are amongst the 50 signers. It will be published in the conservative First Things magazine in March. Some have said it reads like a "declaration of war," but it's really a big whine about how folks who oppose marriage equality will be "persecuted" (after years of falsely defining lgbts as family destroyers, stealers of children, and attempting to destroy Christianity). It implies actions of civil disobedience kinda like an ant plays around with a drop dribbling from a very cold glass of water. We all know these folks wouldn't dare engage in civil disobedience. They'd miss out on their salaries. One interesting thing though - supposedly it is an alliance of conservative Catholics and evangelical Protestants. Catholics and Protestants together? If history is indication of what may happen next . . . . well I will be nice.

 Epidemic: Murders of transwomen of color largely ignored - We have a HUUUGE problem here.

Baptist Leader Compares Laws Allowing Gay Marriage To Laws Martin Luther King Jr. Went To Jail To Fight - Comparing pro-marriage equality rulings to laws and rulings which dehumanized African-Americans seems to be a trend all of the sudden.  

Hundreds rally at Kansas Statehouse to protest end of LGBT protections - Hundreds protest the awful "brownbacking" of the lgbt community in Kansas. 

These Are The Brave And Beautiful Faces Of At-Risk LGBT Youth - These are OUR children, folks. Keep them in mind when it comes to all you do for lgbt equality.

Arkansas passes bill which favors anti-gay discrimination

Last week, unfortunately, Arkansas became a sort of ground zero in the future of lgbt equality.

According to The Huffington Post:

On Friday, the Arkansas House of Representatives voted 57-20 in favor of a bill that would bar cities and counties from sanctioning LGBT anti-discrimination laws.

Arkansas state Sen. Bart Hester (R), who sponsored the bill, told BuzzFeed News that creating uniform policies across the state will attract businesses and that he was angered by one city’s repeated attempts to expand rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.

 . . .  Hester told BuzzFeed News that it isn't just LGBT individuals who are singled out for discrimination. “I am singled out as a politician. I am singled out because I am married to one woman … I want everyone in the LGBT community to have the same rights I do. I do not want them to have special rights that I do not have.”

 The bill's stated goal is to improve intrastate commerce by making it illegal for state businesses, organizations or employers to implement or enforce policies outlawing discrimination on grounds not covered in state law. Currently, Arkansas does not have LGBT protections at the state level.

The bill, SB202, had already cleared the state senate the preceding Monday. Gov. Asa Hutchinson has told several news sources that he would not sign the bill but allow it to become law by not vetoing it.

According to Buzzfeed:

Rep. Clarke Tucker, a Democrat, blasted the bill as a “proactive act of discrimination.”
Tucker also challenged the premise that it was good for business, pointing out that the vast majority of Fortune 500 companies protect LGBT employees and may avoid moving their businesses to Arkansas. “If we pass this legislation,” Tucker warned lawmakers, “we will be sending a message that we are out of step with corporate culture today in 2015.”

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the legislation presents a huge problem in how it was written. According to the International Business Times:

Since the bill doesn’t explicitly single out LGBT people, groups like students and veterans may also be set up for discrimination in Arkansas, according to Holly Dickson, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas’ legal director. “In targeting LGBT people, they have cast a wide net and prevented protections for a wide variety of groups,” she said.

However, organizations who have made opposition to lgbt equality their goal disagree with Dickson. In an email sent on Monday, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council said:

 Under a handful of ordinances around the country, local governments have used these proposals as an excuse to trample Americans' freedom of belief -- and punish small business owners like cake makers who morally object to participating in same-sex "weddings." In other places, the measures have become a privacy and safety nightmare for parents, who shudder to think of their daughters sharing public restrooms, showers, and locker rooms with grown men who abuse the "gender identity" language to prey on the opposite sex.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) has already said that he'll let the bill become law, which gives conservatives -- not just a victory, but a roadmap for other states to do the same. Our hats go off to Arkansas leaders for paving the way in the fight to uphold the freedom of every American, regardless of their religious views.

There is a website asking that Gov. Hutchinson veto the bill.  It features a  letter from David Collins, who is the openly gay brother of Arkansas legislator Charlie Collins. Rep. Collins supports the bill.

In the letter, Collins says:

I can speak out against discrimination and ask Governor Asa Hutchinson to veto SB202 on the grounds that it only serves to discriminate and divide Arkansas. I can encourage the people of Arkansas to contact Governor Hutchinson to work toward a better solution. If the goal is, as Bart Hester suggests, “to create consistent policies across Arkansas that will attract business” then show real leadership and veto this bill and work together with my brother to create a bill that protects all workers from discrimination in the workplace which will attract new workers and new companies, instead of repel them.

I can also hope that Charlie understands that the decisions he makes and the votes he takes are not just political, they are personal and they affect people in ways he couldn’t possible imagine because he’s never had to deal with the oppression of a society that treats you differently because of who you are attracted to and who you love.