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News Round-Up: April 19, 2018
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| (via Instagram) |
Some news items you might have missed:
• Sometimes it’s a good idea to look back – as fitness athlete Pierre Vuala (above) makes abundantly clear. #TBT
• The woman who launched a homophobic attack on two female soldiers is now banned from the restaurant where the incident took place, and she’s lost her part-time gig teaching at a local college.
• This gay Canadian man thought losing 70 pounds would bring him joy. Turns out, not so much.
• The cast of the upcoming Broadway revival of Boys In The Band donned pink triangle t-shirts in honor of The AIDS Memorial.
• The first Quinnipiac University poll for this year’s race for Sen. Ted Cruz’s seat in the U.S. Senate is in a statistical dead heat with Rep. Beto O’Rourke (Texas), his Democratic challenger, only 3 points behind Cruz 47%/44%. O’Rourke has raised $6.7 million compared to Cruz’s $3.2 million in campaign donations.
• Lobbyists at the anti-LGBT organizations the Heritage Foundation and Family Research Council were secretly involved in drafting the Trump administration’s policy banning transgender military service members. And now those same folks are hopping mad because their communications have been subpoenaed which could reveal to the world their hateful statements.
• Fraternity brothers at a joint-hosted Phi Gamma Delta and Kappa Sigma Xi-Lambda off-campus party last Friday broke the leg of a gay man in an alleged homophobic attack. Watch the report below.
Anti-Transgender Activist Has No Answer When Asked What Bathroom Trans Folks Should Use
Last night, Travis Weber of the anti-LGBT Family Research Council and Professor Jennifer Finney Boylan of E! network’s “I am Cait” debated transgender bathroom rights in America on MSNBC’s “Hardball” with Chris Matthews.
Poor Travis was not prepared for the most basic question of transgender rights these days: If a transgender woman shouldn’t use the ladies room, what bathroom SHOULD they use?
The FRC spokesman was literally tongue-tied. Matthews, pointing out the obvious, said again and again, “You’re dodging the question.”
Excerpt from the transcript via Media Matters:
CHRIS MATTHEWS (HOST): Travis, tell Jenny what bathroom she should use.
TRAVIS WEBER: Well —
MATTHEWS: Which one should she use?
WEBER: Yeah, I mean I’m not sure, um —
MATTHEWS: Well just answer that question.
WEBER: I think people should be —
MATTHEWS: She said she would not be comfortable or not cause such problem if she walked into a men’s room. Should she walk into a men’s room?
WEBER: I think we can do things the way we’ve done them for decades, and people could use bathrooms according to biological sex with specific accommodation made for people who have a genuine issue. If we look at the North Carolina law, it made an accommodation. People are not happy with that, however. And now the Obama administration —
MATTHEWS: Let’s just talk about transgender people. What should a transgender person who identifies as a woman do? What bathroom should they go to? Just keep it simple.
WEBER: Yeah well there’s an issue of privacy concerns.
MATTHEWS: See no, you can’t answer the question, can you? What should they do?
WEBER: They can use the bathroom of their biological sex, except when there’s a genuine issue and an accommodation can be made.
Matthews did not let it go, though. He went back to Weber more than once,: “What should Jenny do if she was visiting North Carolina right now? Should she go to the men’s room? Should she? You’re dodging the toughest question, which is what do you want people to behave like?” He then asked, “Can you answer the question? Should Jenny go to the men’s room or the ladies room?”
Weber had nothing.
Again, Matthews asked the question Weber couldn’t answer: “It just seems odd to me that you’d want Jenny to show up in men’s room you go to. You think that would be appropriate? You think that would be appropriate? It’s a simple question, should Jenny go to your men’s room? Yes or no.” When Weber again did not answer the question, Matthews said, “See, you’re dodging this question.”
See, the haters can mock and belittle transgender folks when it’s through a press release or talking on Fox News, but when you have a transgender woman on air with you – who CLEARLY should not be using the men’s room – you got nothing. Just your moralistic fear and hate.
Professor Boylan, much to her credit, handled the segment without raising her voice or yelling. She was quite persuasive.
FRC’s Peter Sprigg Gets Schooled By CNN’s Chris Cuomo On Indiana “License To Discriminate”
CNN’s Chris Cuomo delivers an epic take-down of virulently anti-gay Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council over Indiana’s “License To Discriminate” legislation – SB101.
Excerpt via Mediaite:
“There is a picture that’s circulating around of the governor as he signed [the bill],” Cuomo said. “Several of the people in the picture are outspoken critics of gay existence. Now, that’s not a coincidence. It’s not a coincidence why you’re against it. Let me ask you, why do so many Christians these days believe that the exercise of their faith requires exclusion and judgment of others?”
“Some people have a sincere, conscientious belief that marriage is defined as the union between a man and a woman,” Sprigg replied. “In fact the majority of Americans believe that.”
“Popularity is not the ultimate arbiter of what is right and wrong if protecting rights under the Constitution,” Cuomo said. “The question then goes to: why do you need this? What is it about someone being gay or someone wanting to marry someone of the same sex — what is there in that that is keeping you from being the Christian you want to be?…If I said, Mr. Sprigg, you must go marry a man right now, you can say, no, that’s a violation of my faith. Maybe that, you would be able clear this burden. But how is wanting to judge others somehow stopping you from practicing your faith?”
The upshot? We’re not crazy here, kids. Everyone sees this. The haters just don’t want to say it out loud.
Forward.
Tony Perkins Plans To Take “Leading Role” In Religious Liberty Blah Blah Blah
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| Tony Perkins of the anti-gay Family Research Council |
Hate group leader Tony Perkins of the anti-gay Family Research Council announces he will testify at a Senate hearing regarding “religious liberty.”
“One of the benefits of putting conservatives in charge of Congress is that the agendas in most committees change — and issues that weren’t getting as much attention under liberal leaders are now front and center.
“Tomorrow [today], one of FRC’s greatest priorities, religious liberty, will be the subject of a Senate hearing in the Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. As FRC takes more of a leading role in the debate, I’ve been asked to testify before the committee at 2:00 p.m. and hopefully highlight the need for greater engagement on what we see as a fundamental human right.
“With the persecution unfolding before our very eyes in the Middle East and Africa, the United States has an obligation to speak on behalf of religious freedom through every possible diplomatic avenue. After six years of silence, it is up to this Congress to repair the damage done by this administration’s indifference to persecuted Christians and other minorities.
“Our moral voice and supporting actions have been increasingly and noticeably absent with regard to international religious freedom. I’ll encourage the Senate to once again find that voice.”
I think it’s rich that Perkins claims that FRC will be taking “more of a leading role” in the religious liberty debate.
(via press release)
From Last Night’s Hate Rally In Houston
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| (via JoeMyGod) |
Last night, the anti-gay Family Research Council hosted a hate rally to raise opposition against openly lesbian Mayor Annise Parker for passing LGBT protections in Houston.
While the haters keep saying their opposition is based solely on their ‘deeply held religious convictions,’ t-shirts made their way around the rally with the saying “We reserve the right to refuse service to homosexuals.”
But remember, it’s not about the gays – it’s about protecting “religious freedoms.”
Riiiiiiiiight.
Anti-Gay Activist Tony Perkins: Americans Will NEVER Accept Marriage Equality
Virulently anti-gay Tony Perkins, of the hate group Family Research Council, was on yesterday’s edition of “Washington Watch” using the same scare tactics his ilk have used for so long now in trying to deny equal rights to LGBT Americans and insisting that a majority of Americans will never support marriage equality:
From Right Wing Watch:
Perkins said that just as reproductive rights debates are still contentious because legal abortion “runs contrary to nature,” gay marriage will similarly never be “resolved” until it is banned throughout the nation.
“I don’t care what they do, how oppressive government becomes in order to force this agenda through, they will never force Americans to accept this, the majority of Americans to accept it. Won’t happen,” he said. “Some may go silent, some may be carried away but they will not resolve this issue, trust me.”
Note the choice of words – “impose,” “force,” “oppressive.” He really makes equal rights sound chilling, doesn’t he?
And that’s how they work, kids. That’s how they work.
You can listen to his sad diatribe below:
Anti-gay hate group leader cries over 7th Circuit Court ruling for equal rights
Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins rode the waahmbulance yesterday, sobbing over the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals UNANIMOUS decision that both Indiana and Wisconsin’s same-sex marriage bans were unconstitutional:
“I am very troubled that this court failed to recognize the self-evident truth that children need and deserve a mom and dad. The ruling doesn’t appear to allow society to choose to maintain a coherent definition of marriage. The courts have no true constitutional authority to unilaterally change the definition of our most fundamental social institution. Yet this court is engaging in judicial activism unlike yesterday’s federal court ruling which upheld the right of Louisiana voters to preserve natural marriage in their state’s public policy.
“The Seventh Circuit’s radical departure from natural law and the received wisdom of human history continues to undermine the legitimacy of the courts in the eyes of a majority of Americans. Marriage redefinitions imposed by judicial fiat cannot change the truth about marriage, men, women, children, and parenting. Ultimately, the American people will have the final word as they experience the consequences of marriage redefinition and the ways in which it fundamentally alters America’s moral, cultural and political landscape.”
Anti-gay Family Research Council cheers the denial of equal rights in Virginia
The virulently anti-gay Family Research Council cheered the stay issued by SCOTUS regarding same-sex marriage in Virginia:
Today, the Supreme Court put a hold on the Fourth Circuit ruling, allowing Virginia’s law to continue to be enforced while the Fourth Circuit’s opinion is appealed.
We are glad that the Court saw the wisdom of slowing down the judicial process in this instance so that marriages will not be entered into that would later have to be nullified.
Such irresponsible mayhem has been witnessed in Utah, and it resulted in legal chaos for state residents and state officials.
It’s worth noting that the FRC says “marriages that will not be entered into that would later have to be nullified.”
Wrong. We all know which way the tide has turned on the issue of marriage equality.
And it’s not backwards.