Tag: anti-gay

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Guido Barilla, CEO of Barilla Pasta, meets with LGBT organizations over recent anti-gay comments

Guido Barilla, CEO of Barilla Pasta, is feeling the heat for his recent anit-gay statements

Well, it appears the idiot CEO of Barilla Pasta – Guido Barilla – is really feeling the heat of his recent anti-gay comments. He recently found time to meet with LGBT rights organizations in Italy to discuss the damage done by his comments:

On Monday, Mr. Barilla met with five different LGBT organizations: Arcigay, Arcilesbica, Famiglie Arcobaleno, Gaynet, and Equality Italia. The meeting was held at the Regione Emilia-Romagna headquarters, where former Arcigay president and now regional councillor Franco Grillini has his office.

In an interview with GayStarNews, Grillini said: “We spoke about the company’s policies and about the impact on the LGBT community worldwide. Mr. Barilla apologized once again and told us they are really worried for the boycotting in North America. The news had a big impact in the United States and they went to the U.S. last week to reinforce their presence in that country.”

Good. I’m glad Barilla sees there are repercussions to discriminatory comments today.

I have no sympathy for him or his company, though. What they actually do next is their move. We’ll see.

However, its sad to know that this is about their bottom line and not a true reading of how he feels.

(via Queerty)

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San Antonio: Homophobic councilwoman Elisa Chan resigns

The San Antonio councilwoman who was secretly recorded spewing anti-gay rhetoric has chosen to resign her seat on the city council:

In a letter to Mayor Julián Castro and council members, Chan said she was proud of San Antonio and “what we have accomplished.” She reflected on her five years on council, saying: “I have done my best to represent the conservative values of these fine people. The people of this district take an active role in deciding policy, giving their input, volunteering their time and listening to the views of their neighbors,” she wrote.

The date was chosen out of an abundance of caution, said Murphy, adding that Chan wanted to make sure there was ample time to pick her successor. She’ll resign before council votes on a proposed rate increase for CPS Energy, scheduled for Nov. 7.

Chan, 47, said she is resigning, per law, to challenge incumbent tea party Republican Donna Campbell to represent Senate District 25.

(source)

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Russia stops all adoptions to Sweden due to marriage equality

Russian officials have decided that, due to same-sex marriage in Sweden, they will no longer allow ANY adoptions by any couples in Sweden to take place:

“It’s terrible. We have 13 children in Russian orphanages today who have been offered to parents in Sweden who they have actually met,” said Jonas Friberg at the Adoptioncentrum agency in Sweden to Sveriges Television (SVT).

Russian politician Vitaly Milonov meanwhile called homosexuals “perverts” in an interview with SVT broadcast on Thursday, arguing that children would be better off staying in Russian orphanages.

“The perverts? No, it is unacceptable. Homosexuals are ‘perverts’ and should absolutely not be allowed to adopt children,” he said. “Children who grow up in that kind of environment are destroyed psychologically.”

(via The Local)

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Bertolli posts pro-gay inclusive ad after Barilla anti-gay debacle

Barilla may be trying to “apologize” – but competitor Bertolli is jumping right in with a message of inclusiveness for all pasta lovers.

Via AdWeek:

Barilla is struggling enough this week without its competitors piling on. But Bertolli doesn’t care.

Seizing on comments made by Barilla’s chairman about how the company would never put gay couples in its advertising, Bertolli Germany quickly posted pro-gay imagery in its social feeds, happily taking advantage of its rival’s misstep.

“Love and pasta for all!” reads the caption on the Facebook photo above.

“We just wanted to spread the news that Bertolli welcomes everyone, especially those with an empty stomach,” a rep for Orca im Hafen, Bertolli’s social-media agency in Germany, tells AdFreak.

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Guido Barilla “apologizes” for anti-gay statements

Barilla Chairman, after starting a shitstorm with anti-gay statements, has posted an “apology” on the company’s Facebook page.

Sorry – I don’t buy it.  He was very clear in his original statements.  This is obviously motivated by a board of directors who are fearful of a boycott.  This has nothing to do with sincere apology.

Says Barilla in the video:

“Yesterday, I apologized for offending many people around the world. Today I am repeating that apology.

Through my entire life I have always respected every person I’ve met, including gays and their families, without any distinction. I’ve never discriminated against anyone. I have heard the countless reactions around the world to my words, which have depressed and saddened me.

It is clear that I have a lot to learn about the lively debate concerning the evolution of the family.

In the coming weeks, I pledge to meet representatives of the group that best represent the evolution of the family, including those who have been offended by my words.”

On Wednesday night, company Chair Guido Barilla told the Italian radio show La Zanzara that the company would never make an ad with gay people and if they didn’t like it they can find another brand of pasta:

“I would never do an advert with a homosexual family…if the gays don’t like it they can go and eat another brand…For us the concept of the sacred family remains one of the fundamental values of the company….Everyone has the right to do what they want without disturbing those around them…”

He then added: “I have no respect for adoption by gay families because this concerns a person who is not able to choose.”

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Barilla Pasta – The gays can go eat another brand

The Italy-based Barilla pasta company has made it clear that they don’t want gay customers. And it looks like they’ll get their way

The Independent reports:

Guido Barilla, whose firm has almost half the Italian pasta market and a quarter of that in the US, told Italy’s La Zanzara radio show last night: “I would never do an advert with a homosexual family…if the gays don’t like it they can go an eat another brand.

“For us the concept of the sacred family remains one of the fundamental values of the company.”

He added: “Everyone has the right to do what they want without disturbing those around them”. But then the pasta magnate upped the ante by attacking gay adoption. “I have no respect for adoption by gay families because this concerns a person who is not able to choose,” he said.

(via Towleroad)

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Scott Lively: Russia’s anti-gay laws are my proudest career achievemenys

Speaking to Bryan Fischer on his radio show, Scott Lively says he believes he played an indirect role in getting Russia to pass anti-gay laws and he says doing so is “one of the proudest achievements” of his career.

Lively is currently facing a lawsuit for crimes against humanity brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG), a Uganda-based coalition of LGBTI rights and advocacy groups.

In the past, among other things:
Lively says God sent meningitis to punish gays. 
Lively cheers Russia’s gay “propaganda” ban.
Lively claims to have exploded a Massachusetts strip club with his prayers.
Lively applauds Uganda’s brutal oppression of gay people.
Lively launches Oklahoma campaign to legalize anti-gay discrimination.
Lively says gay-friendly politicians should be tarred and feathered.
Lively endorses life imprisonment for gay people in Uganda.

(via JMG)

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Anti-gay crackpot Bryan Fischer: Hillary Clinton could be our first lesbian President

Bryan Fischer, of the certified hate group American Family Association, has already stated that Americans would never elect Hillary Clinton as president because she is simply “too old” and “too saggy.”

Now, he has a new reason to oppose Hillary – according to him, if Clinton should win, then she might be the “first lesbian president.”

Right Wing Watch has the details:

Fischer pointed to an interview between Gennifer Flowers and the UK-based Daily Mail in which she claims that Bill Clinton told her that Hillary is bisexual, and therefore it isn’t out of the question that she may be having an affair with aide Huma Abedin.

Since Fischer accepts pure speculation from whatever source as indisputable fact so long as it fits his agenda, it is no surprise that he now claims that “the bottom line is that if Hillary Clinton becomes president in 2016 she will not only be our first female president she could be our first lesbian president.”

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Anti-gay Russian propaganda says gays adopt so they can rape children

A Russian group’s video making the rounds on the Internet uses bad science and homophobic lies against LGBT people, saying, for instance, that they adopt children so they can abuse the children sexually.

Americablog’s John Aravosis found the repulsive anti-gay clip and posted it to YouTube. He writes:

A newly-discovered anti-gay video making the rounds in Russia claims that gays adopt children so that they’ll have a readily available source of kids to rape.

Even more troubling, the video bases its adoption-child-rape assertion on a debunked faux-scientific “study” from Mark Regnerus, a religious right researcher whose “gay parenting” study was roundly rebuked for only including two kids who actually grew up with gay parents. Yes, a whopping review of 2 children makes a scientific “study” of gay parenting.

The “study” was also called “bullsh*t” by an auditor after it was published. Of course, what’s more, even the very anti-gay Regnerus “study” does not conclude that 1/3 of gay parents rape their own kids, which this new video claims.

His study widely denounced, even Regnerus has said his study has been misunderstood, and this week he specifically objected to a Russian legislator for citing it as justification for a proposed law to remove children from gay parents’ households.

Thanks to John Aravosis for bringing this hideous propaganda to light. This is truly sick stuff. Watch the video below if you have the stomach for it.