Tag: anti-LGBT

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Anti-LGBTQ Organizations Signal ‘Religious Freedoms’ To Be Top Priority For SCOTUS Pick

Far-right conservatives are signaling that 'religious freedoms' should be a top issue in Donald Trump's pick to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy
Donald Trump

Since the announcement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, LGBTQ activists and advocates have expressed their deep concern about the community’s rights and protections being threatened by what will be a much more conservative successor.

Over the weekend, in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo, Trump said he was “putting conservative people” on the high court, but “probably not” ask beforehand how those nominees might vote on specific issues.

What he didn’t say in his answer is he doesn’t have to ask. Trump has a pre-selected list of 25 candidates that have already been vetted by the ultra-conservative Federalist Society. It’s a foregone conclusion that all of them have been screened for far-right positions on the law.

While its unlikely that marriage equality would ever be overturned in a wholesale manner, what many legal experts say consider possible is the Supreme Court handing down ‘carve outs’ in rulings regarding ‘religious liberty’ that would allow for legalized discrimination of LGBTQ people.

This morning, hate group leader Tony Perkins, of the virulently anti-LGBTQ organization Family Research Council, made clear on Fox News exactly what his faction of conservatives are looking at in a new Supreme Court justice.

“Given the fact that the left wants to make this all about abortion – I think it’s much bigger, I think we have religious liberty, we’ve got freedom of speech, the First Amendment in the crosshairs of the left.

“But they want to make it about life and if I were the president, I’d say, ‘Game on. I’m going to pick someone that’s beyond reproach.’ I think this supercharges the president’s base to get behind him in his pick and I think that spills over into the midterm election.”

Even though Trump falsely campaigned on the premise he would be an “LGBT ally,” his actions since taking office have demonstrated exactly the opposite.

Buzzfeed’s Dominic Holden has compiled a list of the many ways the Trump administration has worked against the LGBTQ community including:

• Reversed a federal policy that said transgender workers were protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Argued that its legal to fire LGBTQ employees for being

• Supported Colorado baker Jack Phillips at the Supreme Court for turning away gay customers

• Withdrawn guidance that said Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 bans anti-transgender discrimination in federally funded schools

• Proposed banning transgender service members in the U.S. military

• Declined to appoint an LGBTQ liaison for the White House that would help communication between the administration and LGBTQ organizations and advocates

This is clearly a time that we, as a community, have to stay woke. We have to stay vigilant. We have to be involved.

And most importantly, we have to vote.

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SCOTUS Dodges Anti-LGBT Florist Case, Orders Lower Court To Revisit Decision

Barronelle Stutzman
 

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to rule on the case of Washington state florist Barronelle Stutzman who refused to create flower arrangements for a same-sex wedding in 2013.

Although SCOTUS didn’t take the case, the justices instead vacated the 2017 ruling against Stutzman by the Washington state Supreme Court and ordered the state’s top court to take another look at the case and consider the SCOTUS ruling earlier this month regarding Colorado baker Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop.

In that case, SCOTUS didn’t decide the central dispute which is: do anti-discrimination laws in 22 states bar “creative artist” business owners from legally discriminating against people based on their sexual orientation or do “deeply held religious beliefs” trump the rights of LGBTs?

Instead, 7 Supreme Court justices found that the Colorado state commission on civil rights appeared to show hostility towards religion in reaching its decision against the baker. In doing so, SCOTUS reversed the fine ordered on Phillips.

Today, SCOTUS told the Washington state Supreme Court to revisit the Stutzman case to see if similar anti-religious bias existed in coming to its decision regarding the florist.

In 2013, Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed were planning to marry after Washington state legalized same-sex marriage the year before. But when they approached Stutzman for flowers for their event, Stutzman refused citing her Christian beliefs. Washington state’s public accommodation laws ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Stutzman was fined $1,000 and ordered to sell floral arrangements for same-sex weddings if she were to continue selling arrangements for heterosexual weddings.

Although she’s cried about financial burdens due to the ongoing court case, its important to remember that over $174,000 was raised via crowd funding for Stutzman.

GoFundMe eventually shut down the campaign based on the company’s policy that campaigns can’t be used to raise funds for legal cases where formal charges have been filed.

Stutzman was allowed to keep the $174,000.

The American Civil Liberties Union issued a statement in response to today’s decision saying their work for LGBT equality will continue:

“The Supreme Court today asked the Washington courts to re-examine our clients’ case in light of the recent decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop,” said James Esseks, director of ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project. “To be clear, the court made no indication the lower courts ruled incorrectly and made no decision on the case’s merits. We are confident that the Washington State Supreme Court will rule once again in favor of the same-sex couple, and reaffirm its decision that no business has a right to discriminate. Our work to ensure LGBT equality is the law and the norm in all 50 states will continue.”

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Oregon Supreme Court Declines To Review Anti-LGBTQ Bakers’ Case

The Oregon Supreme Court has declined to review the case of Aaron and Melissa Klein, who as Sweet Cakes by Melissa, refused to serve a lesbian couple in 2013.
Aaron Klein of Sweet Cakes by Melissa

The Oregon Supreme Court has declined to review the case of Aaron and Melissa Klein, who as Sweet Cakes by Melissa, refused to serve a lesbian couple in 2013.

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries found that the Kleins were guilty of discriminating against the couple when they refused to sell a cake for a commitment ceremony.

The bakers were fined $135,000 for emotional damages in 2015.

They Kleins took their case to the Oregon Court of Appeals which ultimately upheld that decision.

The business owners’ lawyers now say they intend to head to the U.S. Supreme Court.

While the Kleins exhaust all their options for appeal, the check they wrote for $135,000 is being held.

In the aftermath of the story coming to light, Christian crowdfunding efforts raising over $500,000 to more than cover the bakers’ loses after they decided to stop making wedding cakes for anyone.

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Arizona Appeals Court Upholds Ruling Against Anti-Gay Print Shop

(images screen captured from Brush & Nib promotional video)

In the first court case since the ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court this week regarding an anti-gay baker in Colorado, the Arizona Court of Appeals has rejected the argument that businesses can discriminate against a customer based on their sexual orientation.

In 2013, the Phoenix City Council added sexual orientation and gender identity to an already existing non-discrimination ordinance making it illegal to discriminate in the areas of housing, employment, and public accommodations.

A small printing business in Phoenix, Brush & Nib Studio, which designs and prints wedding invitations, asked a judge to override the city’s ordinance to allow them to legally discriminate against LGBTs.

It’s important to note that NO gay couple had asked Brush & Nib for wedding services.

A three-judge panel today handed down an unanimous ruling citing several federal court rulings from across the nation which upheld laws similar to Arizona’s public accommodation laws.

In the ruling, Judge Lawrence Winthrop wrote, “In light of these cases and consistent with the United States Supreme Court’s decisions, we recognize that allowing appellants based on sexual orientation would constitute grave and continuing harm.”

One of the court rulings referenced in today’s decision is the one involving the Colorado baker who refused to create a wedding cake for a gay couple.

But the ruling from SCOTUS only concluded that the baker had not gotten a fair hearing before the Colorado Civil Rights Board. The high court never addressed the question of whether his religious beliefs allowed him to legally discriminate against same-sex couples.

Back in May 2016, blogger JoeMyGod noted that when the Phoenix lawsuit was filed the company didn’t appear to have a physical address, and the artists’ social media accounts were only months old, making it credible that the company might have been created just to file the lawsuit and challenge the city’s ordinance.

The video below, titled “Getting to Know the Artists of Brush & Nib,” was uploaded to YouTube just days before the lawsuit was filed, and the comments section is closed.

In the video, the two artists make a point to say their teaming up was a “God thing,” “beautiful things just come from God,” and how “special” they view their work on wedding invitations.

Interestingly, the video is listed as “Unlisted.”

Now, why would a business have a “getting to know” video be “unlisted” on YouTube?

Isn’t that weird?

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GOP Congressman Dana Rohrabacher: It’s Ok To Refuse To Sell Homes To “Immoral” Gays

California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher
(image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore)

While engaged in one of the most competitive primaries of his political career, Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of California has informed a key National Realtor group that homeowners should be able to refuse to sell their property to LGBTs.

Rohrabacher told an Orange County Association of Realtors meeting on May 16 in Washington, D.C., “Every homeowner should be able to make a decision not to sell their home to someone (if) they don’t agree with their lifestyle.”

The congressman doubled down on that sentiment telling reporters on Thursday that homeowners should have the right to “choose who they do business with.”

“We’ve drawn a line on racism, but I don’t think we should extend that line,” Rohrabacher said. “A homeowner should not be required to be in business with someone they think is doing something that is immoral.”

Rohrabacher’s comments came during a mid-year lobbying conference in Washington with the real estate professionals who asked him to support H.R. 1447, among other issues.

The legislation would expand the 1968 Fair Housing Act to include anti-discrimination protections based on a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity. The existing law already bans home sellers, landlords and lenders from discrimination based on a person’s race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Jeff Berger, a Florida Realtor and founder of the National Association of Gay & Lesbian Real Estate Professionals wrote to the president of the National Association of Realtors asking Rohrbacher’s support be rescinded.

“When a supposed champion of the Realtor Party outright states that housing discrimination should be lawful, I hope you agree there should be cause for concern,” wrote Berger. “Ignoring the congressman’s comments belies the decades of serious work and progress NAR has made in the area of fair housing.”

Although Rohrabacher had previously been designated as a “Realtor Champion” by the NAR, the trade group has now withdrawn its recommendation that members support Rohrabacher based on his recent statements.

Equality California’s Executive Director Rick Zbur agrees: “Californians decided years ago that we don’t support housing discrimination — not based on race, not based on religion and not based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”

“And while Dana Rohrabacher may think it’s okay to discriminate against people because of who they are or whom they love, Orange County families don’t.” added Zbur.

Harley Rouda, a Democrat who was recently endorsed by Equality California in the race and is the son of a former Realtor association president, called Rohrabacher’s statements “outlandish and unacceptable,” saying everyone should have the same rights to buy and sell a home.”

Rohrabacher’s race is currently rated as a “Toss-Up” by the Cook Report.

(h/t Orange County Register)

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News Round-Up: May 18, 2018

(image via Instagram/Andrew Serkin)

Some news items you might have missed:

• I know its Friday, folks, but the rules are you have to finish your chores (above) before you get to have fun…

• Land Rover took back their sponsored car from rugby star Israel Folau over his anti-LGBT comments saying gay people will go to hell if they don’t “repent of their sins and turn to God.”

• Bill Gates shared with a crowd at a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation meeting that Donald Trump twice asked him if there was a difference between HIV and HPV. “He wanted to know if there was a difference between HIV and HPV,” Gates said of Trump. “So I was able to explain that those are rarely confused with each other.”

• Alabama’s only openly gay state legislator, State Rep. Patricia Todd, has had a job offer rescinded from an LGBT non-profit after she publicly announcing Republican Gov. Kay Ivey is a closeted lesbian.

• This “straight” prison guard was found guilty of repeatedly having sex with 3 prisoners and now faces up to 125 years in jail himself.

• The Peace Corps is removing gay men from the organization who test positive for HIV.

• Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer has signed anti-LGBT adoption legislation making his state the latest to enact a “religious freedom” law enabling taxpayer-funded agencies to deny placement into LGBT homes.

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer
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Mat Staver: Conservative Haters Are “Literally” A Few Months Away From Overturning Gay Marriage

Mat Staver of the anti-LGBTQ law group Liberty Counsel

Mat Staver, founder of the virulently anti-LGBTQ legal outfit Liberty Counsel, told radio host Jim Schneider of VCY America this week that “we are a few months away” from overturning Supreme Court rulings like the Obergefell decision which made marriage equality the law of the land.

From Right Wing Watch:

“The nice thing about what President Trump has done, different from other Republican presidents, is that he is appointing, he’s nominating, so far, judges who are what I would call constitutionalists, originalists, dedicated to the original understanding and interpretation of the Constitution and the statutes,” he said. “On the other hand, Republican presidents in the past, they’ve been hit or miss. President Trump so far has been hitting this on the nail.”

Staver added that social conservatives are “one midterm election away from eventually overturning the Roe v. Wade decision” because “there will be at least one, maybe two more” Supreme Court vacancies during Trump’s first term in office.

But in order for that to happen, he said, Republicans must maintain control of the Senate or Trump will be forced to nominate “somebody who’s palatable to the judicial activist crowd in the Senate.”

If Trump is able to replace any liberal or moderate justice “with someone like Gorsuch,” he said, “that means the abortion decision, the same-sex marriage decision, all of those things that went the wrong way will ultimately be in the balance to be reversed. So literally we are a few months away.”

Listen to Staver boast about overturning our marriage rights below.

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PFLAG Rescinds Award To MSNBC’s Joy Reid Over Reports Of More Anti-LGBT Blog Posts

MSNBC host Joy Reid

MSNBC host Joy Reid says her now-defunct blog from years ago has been hacked and anti-LGBT content inserted into the archives.

From HuffPost:

A cybersecurity expert working with Reid said in a statement to HuffPost on Tuesday that he found evidence five months ago of “suspicious activity” and that the alleged hacking was the subject of an ongoing federal investigation.

Jonathan Nichols, identified as an independent security consultant by a representative of MSNBC, said the posts in question had been “entered with suspicious formatting and time stamps.”

Reid had previously apologized in December for writing homophobic blog posts after Twitter user @Jamie_Maz tweeted screenshots of them. In those posts ― written in 2007 for The Reid Report, a politics blog Reid kept during her years as a morning talk show host in Florida ― she repeatedly accused then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D) of being a closeted gay man.

“As someone who is not a member of the LGBT community, I regret the way I addressed the complex issue of the closet and speculation on a person’s sexual orientation with a mocking tone and sarcasm,” Reid wrote in her statement in December. “It was insensitive, tone deaf and dumb.”

Last week, @Jamie_Maz shared new screenshots that allegedly feature dozens more anti-LGBTQ posts from Reid’s old blog, as Mediaite first reported on Monday. While the blog itself has been shut down for several years, the amateur sleuth allegedly accessed the posts via the Internet Archive, a nonprofit dedicated to building a massive digital library known as the Wayback Machine.

Some of the most damning posts claimed “most straight people cringe at the sight of two men kissing” and that “adult gay men tend to be attracted to very young, post-pubescent types.”

As a result of the newly discovered blog posts, PFLAG National — the nation’s first and largest organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people, their families, and allies — has rescinded its Straight for Equality in Media award to Reid.

Reid has issued this statement about the alleged hacks:

In December I learned that an unknown, external party accessed and manipulated material from my now-defunct blog, The Reid Report, to include offensive and hateful references that are fabricated and run counter to my personal beliefs and ideology.

I began working with a cyber-security expert who first identified the unauthorized activity, and we notified federal law enforcement officials of the breach. The manipulated material seems to be part of an effort to taint my character with false information by distorting a blog that ended a decade ago.

Now that the site has been compromised I can state unequivocally that it does not represent the original entries. I hope that whoever corrupted the site recognizes the pain they have caused, not just to me, but to my family and communities that I care deeply about: LGBTQ, immigrants, people of color and other marginalized groups.

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Liberty Counsel Rep Declares Public School Sex Education “Satanic”

Mary McAlister of the anti-gay Liberty Counsel says public sex education is "satanic"

Without even the limited sex education in public schools, where would young Americans learn the basics about human sexuality and sexual health?

From their parents? #NotGonnaHappen

Which makes a recent appearance by Mary McAlister of the virulently anti-LGBTQ Liberty Counsel even more dangerous as she declared sex education in schools to be “satanic.”

From Right-Wing Watch:

Mary McAlister, who is senior litigation counsel for the anti-LGBTQ organization Liberty Counsel, appeared on Cliff Kincaid’s “USA Survival” program yesterday, where she declared that sex ed programs in public schools are satanic.

McAlister and Kincaid were discussing the upcoming “Sex Ed Sit Out” effort being organized by Religious Right activist Elizabeth Johnston, who is better known as the “Activist Mommy,” which encourages parents to remove their children from school to protest what she sees as “graphic, gender-bending sex education.”

“It’s evil,” McAlister replied. “It’s absolutely evil. God has made us all in his image, he has set out for us rules for living that enable us to live rich and full and healthy lives and all of this that is going on now is directly aimed at tearing all of that down. Well, we know who does that. That’s the Enemy, that’s Satan and his minions.”

Watch the exchange below.

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HRC Reveals “The Real Mike Pence” And His Anti-LGBTQ Policies

As Donald Trump holds court on a daily basis in the nation’s political spotlight, the chant of impeachment has been heard in some corners.

But the reality of a Trump impeachment means an almost certain President Mike Pence.

As the Human Rights Campaign points out, a Pence presidency would present clear danger to the LGBTQ community.

HRC president Chad Griffin said in a statement:

“Mike Pence has made a career out of attacking the rights and equal dignity of LGBTQ people, women and other marginalized communities.

“Now as vice president, he poses one of the greatest threats to equality in the history of our movement.

“With the world distracted by Donald Trump’s scandal-ridden White House, Mike Pence’s nefarious agenda has been allowed to fly under the radar for too long. He has become not only the most powerful vice president in American history, but also the least scrutinized.”

The HRC has compiled a new report on Pence’s woeful history on LGBTQ rights and policies, and assembled the information in a new microsite to shine a spotlight on Pence’s inside-the-White House efforts to continue his decades-long crusade by leading the Trump/Pence administration’s attacks on LGBTQ people, including those who bravely serve our nation in the military.

• Support for the practice of so-called “conversion therapy”

• Support for legalized discrimination against LGBTQ people

• Blocking hate crime legislation and funding for HIV and AIDS prevention

• Efforts to undermine access to health and reproductive care essential to LGBTQ people

Watch the new video below from the HRC which summarizes Pence’s poisonous positions on LGBTQ policies.

And visit the HRC’s new site for more info on “The Real Mike Pence.”

(via press release)