Tag: anti-gay

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Southern Poverty Law Center adds 11 to list of designated anti-gay hate groups

The American “radical right” grew in 2011, a third consecutive year of extraordinary growth that has swelled the ranks of extremist groups to record levels, contributing to a significant increase in the number of anti-gay hate groups, according to a report issued today by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

Overall, the number of hate groups counted by the SPLC last year reached a total of 1,018, up slightly from the year before but continuing a trend of significant growth that is now more than a decade old.

The report adds 11 groups to the organization’s list of designated anti-gay hate groups.

Those groups are:

  • United Families International
  • Save California
  • Sons of Thundr (Faith Baptist Church)
  • You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide
  • Parents Action League
  • Jewish Political Action Committee
  • Mission: America
  • Windsor Hills Baptist Church
  • True Light Pentecost Church
  • Tom Brown Ministries
  • Public Advocate of the United States

From the Southern Poverty Law Center’s report:

The SPLC report details the growth of hate groups to a record 1,018 in 2011, up from 1,002 the year before and the latest in a series of increases going back more than a decade. But the dramatic growth came in the Patriot movement, which is composed of armed militias and other conspiracy-minded organizations that see the federal government as their primary enemy. These groups saw their numbers skyrocket for the third straight year in 2011, this time by 55 percent – from 824 in 2010 to 1,274 groups last year. In 2008, just before the Patriot movement took off, there were 149 Patriot groups, a number that metastasized to 512 in 2009.

In all, Patriot groups have increased by 755 percent during the first three years of the Obama administration. Their number has now surpassed – by more than 400 groups – the previous all-time high set in 1996, when the first wave of the militia movement peaked shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing that left 168 people dead.

…The hate groups listed in this report include neo-Nazis, white nationalists, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, Klansmen and black separatists. Other hate groups on the list target LGBT people, Muslims or immigrants, and some specialize in producing racist music or propaganda denying the Holocaust.

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Hate Group – One Million Moms – abandons JC Penney/Ellen boycott

Anti-gay hate group One Million Moms (which actually only numbers about 40K) was outraged that JC Penney would affiliate itself with a “high-profile homosexual entertainer” like Ellen DeGeneres, but its attempt to boycott the store has fizzled.

Director Monica Cooley believes “only time will tell,” because the group is now moving on to other issues that require its attention.

The group’s boycott of Toys ‘R’ Us over selling a recent issue of Archie Comics has also failed miserably. The Archie Comics issue they objected to because of its same-sex wedding sold out.
(source)

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Kirk Cameron responds to detractors and “hate speech”

In an email response sent to ABC News, Kirk Cameron has released a statement regarding what he considers the “hate speech” directed at him after he said on Piers Morgan’s CNN show that homosexuality is “unnatural,” “detrimental,” and “ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization.”

“I spoke as honestly as I could, but some people believe my responses were not loving toward those in the gay community. That is not true. I can assuredly say that it’s my life’s mission to love all people.”

“I should be able to express moral views on social issues,” he said, “especially those that have been the underpinning of Western civilization for 2,000 years — without being slandered, accused of hate speech, and told from those who preach ‘tolerance’ that I need to either bend my beliefs to their moral standards or be silent when I’m in the public square.”

He concluded, “I believe we need to learn how to debate these things with greater love and respect,” and added, “I’ve been encouraged by the support of many friends (including gay friends, incidentally).”

So Kirk Cameron uses words like “unnatural,” “detrimental,” and “ultimately destructive” regarding the LGBT community – says that those words are “loving” – and then says HE is the victim of “hate speech” when people react.

Riiiiiight.  Now I get it.

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Kirk Cameron – being gay is “unnatural, detrimental and destructive”

Actor-evangelist and former Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron says he doesn’t support gay marriage and homosexuality is “unnatural, detrimental, and destructive,” during an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan. Cameron, who now makes lucrative Christian-themed movies, appeared on Morgan’s show to discuss several hot button issues, including marriage equality.

“Marriage is almost as old as dirt, and it was defined in the garden between Adam and Eve,” Cameron explains to Morgan. “One man, one woman for life till death do you part. So I would never attempt to try to redefine marriage. And I don’t think anyone else should either. So do I support the idea of gay marriage? No, I don’t.”

Asked his views on homosexuality, Cameron replies, “I think that it’s unnatural. I think that it’s detrimental, and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization.”

Watch the interview.

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Lesbian couple told to leave restaurant – “get a room…”

A lesbian couple in Phoenix were asked to leave the Sheraton Hotel’s District restaurant on Sunday after sharing a kiss during an anniversary dinner, ABC15 reports:

Kenyata White and Aeimee Diaz were celebrating their one-year anniversary Sunday at Sheraton’s District restaurant, inside the downtown hotel, when they were asked to leave. The couple says they shared a simple kiss and they didn’t think anything of it until the manager came up to them and told them to get a room.

The women said the manager told them other patrons had complained to him.

“By no means at all were we doing any inappropriate activity. It was a light kiss a kiss that you could give your friends on the lips. It wasn’t any make out at all and so we were very puzzled as to why we need to get a room,” White said.

After the manager saw how upset they were they say he apologized and offered them free drinks if they would leave and come back another time.

That’s it. “Please leave and make my life easier, and if you do I’ll buy you a free drink…”

I can’t count the number of times I’ve watch heterosexual couples kiss or hold hands in public while consciously aware that I risk being bashed or harassed for the same behavior.

And yes, I did it anyway…

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Teacher fired from St. Louis Catholic School for being gay on his wedding day

Al Fischer, a popular, openly gay music teacher at a St. Louis-area Catholic school, was fired earlier this month after an archdiocesan official overheard him talking with co-workers about his upcoming plans to marry his longtime partner in New York.

To add insult to injury, Fischer’s firing will take effect on March 9 — the day of the couple’s 20th anniversary and their wedding day.

The report from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch makes it clear that Fischer’s sexual orientation was no secret at St. Ann Parish. Fischer directs the local gay men’s chorus. His partner, Charlie Robin, noted that the two attend school functions like concerts and staff parties as a couple.

In a letter he emailed to the school’s parents shortly after receiving his pink slip, Fischer wrote: ”I think the word has been well spread that this is not the fault of St. Ann School or its leadership, and I want to emphasize that I get that, too.” He said further that the school principal and parish priest “are still there for me in a big way.” Parents at the school are said to be very upset.

In the midst of all of this, Mr. Fischer is taking the high road and doing what a good teacher does: thinking not about himself, but about how his very public firing will impact the children he teaches. His letter encouraged parents to talk to their kids, to make sure that they don’t let what’s happened to him make them scared to be themselves. ”A family conversation about whether or not justice was served here could be a great thing. I do not want the lesson from this for the kids to be, ‘Keep your mouth shut, hide who you are or what you think if it will get you in trouble.’”

Read more at Truth Wins Out.

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Boehner and Republicans appeal DOMA ruling

On Wednesday a federal court struck down Section 3 of DOMA as unconstitutional.

Today GOP House Speaker John Boehner ordered that ruling appealed.

In court papers, a group of congressional Republicans defending the federal gay marriage ban revealed they are appealing the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 9th Circuit will become the second federal appeals court to now consider the legality of the Defense of Marriage Act, a 16-year-old law known as DOMA.

The Obama administration has sided with Golinski in the case, arguing that DOMA is unconstitutional.

Republicans, led by House Speaker John Boehner, have jumped in to defend the law, filing the notice of appeal on Friday. With cases unfolding in several federal courts, many experts predict the issue will wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

On and on it goes kids. It’s clear which way history is headed. Clear.

In 50 years, those who want to keep inequality as the law of the land will look as strange and unseemly as the white supremacists and bigots of the last century do now regarding rights for African Americans.

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“You’ve got hate mail”

SRSLY?

I actually got this in email today: an appeal from the “Family Research Council” – which has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. This is part of what they sent:

“They are trying to portray homosexual couples as holding the same values and commitment as traditional married couples–thus deserving of legal marriage.

I believe we can defeat the high-dollar resources of the radical Left’s funding of “The Commitment Campaign.” By God’s grace, we have used your donations in the past to defeat the Goliaths of the opposition. But if we ever needed your financial help, it is now–when marriage and religious freedom are on the line in 2012.”

Lord, help these simple people….

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Tennessee Governor: “Drop the ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill'”

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam (R) has told state lawmakers to drop the now infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill that has made nationwide headlines for the past few years.

The bill would make any discussion or acknowledgment of homosexuality illegal in Tennessee schools.

Via Nashville Public Radio:

Yesterday a committee of state lawmakers put off dealing with so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ legislation. That’s after hearing in private from an official with Governor Bill Haslam’s office.

The amendment that passed the state senate last year would limit all sexual instruction up through eighth grade to quote “natural human reproduction science.” Now some House lawmakers want to add some exceptions, or keep it from interfering with an anti-bullying law passed last year.

Asked about his administration’s reported intervention yesterday, Haslam told reporters he thinks there are simply better things for lawmakers to spend their time on.

“I’ve said before I don’t think that should be a priority of the legislature. I think there’s other things that we can and should be focused on right now, and I’ve been up front about that from the very beginning.”

With Tennessee’s unemployment rate higher than the national average, ranked 39th out of 50 states for child homelessness, plus being ranked 45th out of 50 states for state planning and policy, you have to wonder: is this the most important thing to be debating in Tennessee?

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Gays hitting the haters where it hurts

Anti-gay New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has pissed off her hair stylist to the point where he’s officially abandoning the lawmaker’s hair.

Antonio Darden, a Santa Fe-based hair stylist, refuses to cut Martinez’s hair after learning that the Republican governor is against marriage equality.

“The governor’s aides called not too long ago, wanting another appointment to come in,” Darden said. “Because of her stances and her views on this I told her aides no. They called the next day, asking if I’d changed my mind about taking the governor in and I said no again.”

“I think it’s just equality, dignity for everyone. I think everybody should be allowed the right to be together. My partner and I have been together for 15 years.”

Darden says he worked on Martinez’s mop three times before he launched his protest.
(source)