Tag: asshats

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National Organization of Marriage leader “intentionally” lies – again

“The Senate has abandoned society’s most important institution and put their constituents on a collision course with the law. Lawmakers have allowed themselves to be fooled into thinking they have protected people of faith when in fact they have put those who believe in true marriage in the crosshairs of the law and gay ‘marriage’ activists. It won’t be long before the repercussions begin to be felt.”

“For the first time, the state of Rhode Island is saying to its children they do not deserve both a mother and a father, and are backing a law that is designed to intentionally deprive some kids of either a mom or a dad. It’s bad enough when families break down through divorce or death, but it’s unconscionable when a state encourages this through policies that deprive children of the love of both a mother and a father. This is a very sad day for Rhode Island.” – Hate group leader Brian Brown, who continues to walk down the road of life backwards

First of all, marriage equality isn’t about “intentionally” depriving kids of parents.  It’s about equal rights.

Second, it’s not a sad day Brian.  It’s a “skies are blue” fabulous day for Rhode Island.

The wrong side of history, Brian.  The wrong side of history…

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Former “ex-gay” leader rejects and apologizes for promoting “reparative therapy”

I should be better at accepting things like this at face value, but knowing the kind of negative impact this guy has made on people’s lives, I’m just not able to “forgive and forget” too quickly.

John Paulk, the longtime leader of Focus on the Family’s ‘Love Won Out’ ‘ex-gay’ ministry and former Exodus International chair has apologized for the pain and harm he caused. Paulk recently said he no longer supports the “ex-gay” movement but this is his first real apology.

PaulkSays Paulk in a post on Skipping to the Piccolo, in part:

Please allow me to be clear: I do not believe that reparative therapy changes sexual orientation; in fact, it does great harm to many people.
I know that countless people were harmed by things I said and did in the past,
Parents, families, and their loved ones were negatively impacted by the notion of reparative therapy and the message of change. I am truly, truly sorry for the pain I have caused.
From the bottom of my heart I wish I could take back my words and actions that caused anger, depression, guilt and hopelessness. In their place I want to extend love, hope, tenderness, joy and the truth that gay people are loved by God.
Today, I see LGBT people for who they are–beloved, cherished children of God. I offer my most sincere and heartfelt apology to men, women, and especially children and teens who felt unlovable, unworthy, shamed or thrown away by God or the church.
I want to offer my sincere thanks to everyone who encouraged me to take this initial step of transparency. Even while promoting “ex-gay” programs, there were those who called me on my own words and actions. I’m sure I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but they have helped me to realize this truth about who I am.

Not only did this man pretend to “change” his own life, but he made a point to publicly instruct the world that EVERYONE could change sexuality “if they wanted to.” And this gave ammunition to many anti-gay forces.

(h/t Towlroad)

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Iowa: House conservatives want to cut pay for justices who supported marriage equality


From The Gazette: A handful of House conservatives want to reduce the pay of Iowa Supreme Court justices involved in a 2009 decision striking down a ban on same-sex marriages as part of an effort to maintain the balance of power in state government.

“It’s our responsibility to maintain the balance of power” between the three co-equal branches of government, Rep. Tom Shaw, R-Laurens, said Tuesday.

The justices “trashed the separation of powers” with their unanimous Varnum v. Brien decision and implementation of same-sex marriage without a change in state law banning any marriages expect between one man and one woman, added Rep. Dwayne Alons, R-Hull.

Their amendment to House File 120, the judicial branch budget bill, would lower the salaries of the four justices on the seven-member court who were part of the unanimous Varnum v. Brein decision to $25,000 – the same as a state legislator.

It’s not meant to be punitive, Alons and Shaw said Tuesday.

“We’re just holding them responsible for their decision, for going beyond their bounds,” Shaw said.

That’s it – it’s not punitive.  It just punishes the justices who supported fairness and equality.

Mind you, these are the same Republicans who tried to oust these same state Supreme Court justices after their decision.

Read more at TheGazette.com

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Tony Perkins: Boston bombing was practically (almost) gay marriage’s fault

“If Congress wants to stop these tragedies, then it has to address the government’s own hostility to the institution of the family and organizations that can address the real problem: the human heart. As I’ve said before, America doesn’t need gun control, it needs self-control. And a Congress that actively discourages it through abortion, family breakdown, sexual liberalism, or religious hostility is only compounding the problem.” – Hate group leader Tony Perkins

I don’t know how much closer Perkins could get to blaming the Boston bombing on marriage equality, but I do know I’m getting less and less patient with his icky, ugly campaign against the LGBT community.  The nerve of him to invoke the phrase “the human heart” when he himself spends every waking minute making life miserable for so many is appalling.

He loves to double-back and say “I don’t hate gays” but seriously folks, how long can you live every day dogging a whole community of people?

The act’s worn thin….

(via RightWingWatch)

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Bryan Fischer: Homofascists will make Christians wear bigotry patches

Says Bryan Fischer of American Family Association:  “We’re getting to the point where these homofascists are going to force us to wear on our sleeve some kind of identifying marker so people will know who the racists and the homophobes and the bigots are.”

Because Christians are totally being beat up by the mean gays.

SRSLY?

(via JMG)

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Washington: Florist being sued for discriminating against gay couple

So, here’s how I got the story:

A couple of months ago, Baronelle Stuzman, a Washington state florist, told longtime customers, Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed, that she refused to do business with them — or “participate in the wedding,” as she called it — because she believed as a Christian “that marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Freed, 43, pointed out that they never asked her to “participate” in their wedding — just to sell them flowers FOR their wedding. The couple has been buying flowers from the shop for nine years.

In any case, Stuzman hugged her gay customer and merrily went on her way.

Now, she’s now being sued by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, the SeattlePI reports:

Ferguson said he sent a March 28 letter to owner Barronelle Stutzman asking her to reconsider and supply flowers to customer Robert Ingersoll.  Through an attorney, Stutzman declined to change her position.
“As Attorney General, it is my job to enforce the laws of the state of Washington,” said Ferguson.  “Under the Consumer Protection Act, it is unlawful to discriminate against customers based on sexual orientation.  If a business provides a product or service to opposite-sex couples for their weddings, then it must provide same sex couples the same product or service.”

The AG’s office s asking that a $2,000 fine be imposed for every violation in a complaint filed in Benton County Superior Court.

I think it’s important to reiterate that this legal action is not about marriage equality.   The law being cited and sued under, the Consumer Protection Act, was passed years before Washington’s recent marriage equality law.  The same suit could be filed if someone decided they didn’t want to serve African Americans or Catholics.

Of course, the anti-marriage equality folks are already touting this as a “gay marriage” issue.

From the National Organization for Marriage: “Like clockwork, those who disagree with gay marriage are being fined and forced out of the public square — by the state-imposed redefinition of marriage.”

And from Tony Perkins at Family Research Council:

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UFC fighter Mike Mitrione suspended for transphobic rant

Suspended UFC fighter Mike Mitrione

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has suspended one of its fighters after he went on a transphobic rant against transgender fighter, Fallon Fox.

In an interview with The MMA Hour on Monday, mixed martial artist Matt Mitrione went on a tirade against Fox, whom he repeatedly referred to as a man. Fox transitioned ten years ago but came out as a transgender woman earlier last month after facing pressure from a reporter.

When host Ariel Helwani asked Mitrione, “Why do you hate Fallon Fox so much, and why do you keep calling she a ‘he’?”, he responded:

“Because she’s not a he. He’s a he,” he said. “He’s chromosomally a man. He had a gender change, not a sex change. He’s still a man. He was a man for 31 years. Thirty-one years. That’s a couple years younger than I am. He’s a man. Six years of taking performance de-hancing drugs, you think is going to change all that? That’s ridiculous.

“That is a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak,” he continued. “And I mean that. Because you lied on your license to beat up women. That’s disgusting. You should be embarrassed yourself. And the fact that Florida licensed him because California licensed him or whoever the hell did it, it’s an embarrassment to us as fighters, as a sport, and we all should protest that. The woman that’s fighting him, props to you. I hope you beat his ass, and I hope he gets blackballed and never fights again, because that’s disgusting and I’m appalled by that.”

The UFC acted swiftly and decidedly, issuing the following statement later that day:

The UFC was appalled by the transphobic comments made by heavyweight Matt Mitrione today in an interview on ‘The MMA Hour.’The organization finds Mr. Mitrione’s comments offensive and wholly unacceptable and – as a direct result of this significant breach of the UFC’s code of conduct – Mr. Mitrione’s UFC contract has been suspended and the incident is being investigated. The UFC is a friend and ally of the LGBT community, and expects and requires all 450 of its athletes to treat others with dignity and respect.

(via Pink News)

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Virginia: Attorney General Cuccinelli denied sodomy law review

On March 12th, a three-judge panel ruled that a section of Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature” a section of Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature” statute that outlaws sodomy between consenting adults, gay or straight, is unconstitutional based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2003 known as Lawrence v. Texas.

Virginia’s Attorney General, Kenneth Cuccinelli, filed a petition with the 4th Circuit US Appeals Court to reconsider the determination. The petition requests what is known as an “en banc” hearing before the full 15 judges to reconsider the earlier ruling by the three-judge panel.

Yesterday, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond issued an order on Monday denying the petition.

None of the court’s judges requested a poll among themselves to determine which, if any of them, favored Cuccinelli’s request for an en banc rehearing of the sodomy case by the court’s 15 active judges and one senior judge.

Under court rules, if no judge calls for a poll or vote on the issue, the petition for a rehearing is automatically denied in what, in effect, becomes a unanimous decision.

“It’s a pretty resounding rejection,” said Claire Gastanaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. “There really wasn’t any interest in doing this at all by anybody.”

Jon Stewart had fun with the story Tuesday night:

(source)

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Eye roll of the day: Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin, former half term governor of Alaska, says America will eventually default on its debt and claims that the federal government is “stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest” to prepare:

“If we are going to wet our proverbial pants over 0.3% in annual spending cuts when we’re running up trillion dollar annual deficits, then we’re done. Put a fork in us. We’re finished.

“We’re going to default eventually and that’s why the feds are stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest,” Palin wrote in a Facebook message Tuesday.

Via Politico