Pam Spaulding's Blog, page 8

Breaking: Ex-Gay Org NARTH can no longer provide continuing education to therapists in CA

From SFGate, news that should be music to your ears:

NARTH, which claims that homosexuals can be "converted" to heterosexuality through various forms of therapy, had been an approved continuing education provider since 1998. But as of mid-July, the group has been taken off the California Board for Behavioral Science's list of such providers.

As it stands now, the BBS can't reject a continuing education provider due to its philosophy or even the validity of its scientific claims, executive officer Kim Madsen says, and "that's been a challenge." Instead, as long as the provider "meets the requirements as set forth in current law, we have to accept them." (Those requirements include providing direct or indirect patient care, having qualified instructors and submitting the appropriate applications and fees.)

At its September meeting, however, the BBS will be reviewing those laws and requirements and having a discusssion about what Madsen describes as "long-identified deficiencies in the continuing education model."

Mazel Tov To Avenue Q's Rod And Ricky!

Among the 1,200+ of New Yorkers who finally got to tie the knot on Sunday were Rod and Ricky who met during production of the popular, Tony Award winning show Avenue Q, now playing off-Broadway. Above, the stars discuss love, family and equality for the Family Equality Council.

There's more over at Talk About Equality blog, where Rod, Ricky and Kate talk about GOProud (Rod's a Republican) and Michele Bachmann (no one's a fan).

Rod expresses his hope to be the first puppet President of the United States. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think that ship has already sailed.

May marriage bring all the joy and happiness to Rod and Ricky that Avenue Q brought to me both times I saw it. Best to the odd couple newlyweds!

Broken Hypocrisy Meter entries for the day: Bob Vander Plaats and Bam Bam Barber

I couldn't decide which item was more likely to break the hypocrisy meter, so I'm passing along both.

First, look at this epic FAIL appeal for attention, via Think Progress LGBT: "The Family Leader Uses Anonymous 'Hateful' Comments To Raise Anti-Gay Money"

Bob Vander Plaats, President of the Iowa conservative Christian organization The FAMiLY LEADER, is taking umbrage at random anonymous comments from online threads in a plea to raise money for the group.

...The FAMiLY LEADER thinks it's hateful to be called hateful and feels that random anonymous comments (aside from perhaps "Marc Jacobs") are an "outrageous" destructive force. This, from the group who called being gay a "public health risk" akin to second-hand smoking. Often, bullies who seek allies to vindicate their bullying are implying their tacit awareness of the negative impact they're making.

If Reisetter and Vander Plaats are concerned with "haters" in online feedback, perhaps they should pledge to help monitor and clean up the comment threads on "It Gets Better" anti-bullying videos.

Or how about Right Wing Watch brings you the latest mewlings from "Liberty" Counsel's Matt Barber, who really enjoys self stroking victimization:

Today during Faith and Freedom, Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel said that liberalism is a "rebellion and a hatred toward God." Barber will find himself in good company in the conservative movement, as Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) similarly declared that "at the heart of liberalism is really a hatred for God" and the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer argued that "liberals hate God." While Barber tried to explain that he was only referring to liberal beliefs rather than liberals themselves, he went on to say that "their hearts are hardened, their hearts are blackened, and frankly I just feel sorry for them."

NOM's Grand Scheme To Repeal Marriage Equality In NY

As Maggie Gallagher Mrs. Srivistav of National Organization For Marriage makes the rounds selling her "nutty" "Let The People Vote" campaign, I though we should take another look a legislative mastermind Brian Brown's brilliant 4-year plan for undoing marriage equality in the Empire State.?

Here it is:

Oh wait, that's not it. That's the Underpants Gnomes' get-rich scheme.?

Maggie Gallagher Mrs. Srivistav and Brian Brown's own get-rich scheme fleecing ignorant and hateful people of New York after the fold.?

It it a plan even the The Wall Street Journal called "a case of deceptive advertising" yesterday.
From NOM's blog:

PHASE 1:

Elect pro-marriage majorities next November that will approve a marriage amendment in both the Assembly and Senate during the 2013 legislative session.

PHASE 2:

Protect pro-marriage candidates in the 2014 elections, so that the amendment can receive final legislative approval in the 2015 legislative session.

PHASE 3:

Successfully pass the ballot measure when it goes before voters in November 2015.

A 4-year process seems like a long time-and it is-but it's achievable.

Sure it is. Of course, this can only be accomplished if people give money, give money, give money.?

Laurel already did a little reality check on their plan earlier calling it "nutty." And she was right. Turns out even a right-wing writer at the Wall Street Journal agrees with Laurel and I. Writing about the weekend call to action, Wall Street Journal's James Taranto says:

If the National Organization for Marriage were a commercial enterprise, its "Let the People Vote" campaign would be a case of deceptive advertising.

Taken in whole, Taranto's article is shameful collection of credulous repeating of right-wing talking points, ignorance, and race-baiting rhetoric. It even includes a picture captioned, "The Gay KK" (because gays bullies with insensitive signs are no different from the Klan). The writer also expresses his support that a civil rights issue should go to the ballot. But to his credit, even his obvious sympathy for Maggie Gallagher Mrs. Srivistav's cause and naked animus to gay people won't permit him to deny basic reality. He writes:

Putting a constitutional amendment on the New York ballot requires an act of the Legislature--or rather two acts, in successive legislative sessions. Thus, for the National Organization for Marriage to have its way, many of the lawmakers who enacted same-sex marriage a month ago would essentially have to reverse themselves. The state Senate approved same-sex marriage 33-29, the Assembly 80-63.

[snip]

We searched LetThePeopleVote.com for a description of the procedure for putting a amendment on the New York ballot and couldn't find one. Instead, the language on the site implies that the Legislature acted illegitimately when it "imposed same-sex marriage on New York with no vote of the people." Such a vote is not part of the ordinary procedure for enacting legislation in New York, and it is misleading to pretend otherwise.

But if I may, I'd like to suggest a faster, easier, more realistic alternative plan NOM may consider pursuing:

PHASE 1:?

Obtain a nuclear missile, point it at the moon.?

PHASE 2:?

Issue a directive to the New York legislature and Governor Cuomo demanding marriage equality be repealed immediately or the moon will be destroyed.?

PHASE 3:?

Detonate missile over Fire Island to celebrate victory over teh evil gays.?

Easy.?

Maggie Gallagher: It's Gonna Be A Bloody Mess In NY

Is this how the head of the National Organization for Marriage shows her true "Christian" nature?

Calling it "mission critical", Maggs threatens to take down the republicans who voted for same-sex marriage & reverse the law.

DanNation.com:

NOM's sausage-fingered Maggie Gallagher tells the Christian Broadcasting Network that the fight to overturn NY's marriage equality law is "mission critical" and that it's "gonna be a bloody mess" in the state by the time they are finished.

I am so glad that we've moved past rhetoric that suggests a shoot out when you disagree with someone.

Did Peter LaBarbera Say That Fox News Coverage Of Marriage Equality Is Homosexy? Well, Sort Of

Well, one has to laugh at the choice of abbreviation that Peter LaBarbera chose for "homosexuality":

U know ur a social #conservative when you find yourself frustrated w/ @FoxNews' neutral-to-lib coverage of social issues esp homosex'y.

The joke of his inadvertently identifying Fox News's recent marriage equality coverage in New York, with an abbreviation that can be read as homosexy, seems pretty darn funny to me.

This & That: Open Thread

It's an open thread! Pleeeeease feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread...

So, this is what my cartoon sockpuppet Bookworm Bob have been looking at since our last This & That post -- which was all of Friday.

This is pretty much a trans edition of This & That, minus the Wiener Story of the Day:

• The Advancing Transgender Equality blog Traveling While Trans: Questions Remain With TSA's New Software:

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) released information on new software upgrades for their full-body scanners that could impact transgender people. Scanners will no longer explicitly show images of the person being scanned. Instead, a basic human figure will be shown highlighting areas of the body that may pose security risks. These software changes are being made over the coming months to scanners that use millimeter wave technology, currently a minority of the approximately 500 machines in the field. The TSA has not yet fully tested the software for the majority of machines that use backscatter technology, though it hopes to later this year.

Full-body scanners have provoked outcry from the transgender people because of how they "out" transgender people going through airport security, making travel dangerous. These software changes appear likely to reduce the risk of unwanted invasion of privacy; however, aspects of the new software are troubling. In particular, it's not clear that the software updates will change the fact that transgender people are disproportionately selected for invasive pat-downs.

In this photo from the Los Angeles Times, the pink and blue buttons appear to be used to commence scanning for travelers. It appears that TSA officers need to select a pink or blue "scan" button based on their perception of a traveler's gender. The new software may identify "anomalies" based on gender-atypical anatomy, rather than only targeting foreign objects. This may be a security trigger which would lead to an invasive pat-down, potentially embarrassing questions and in some cases, biased harassment. NCTE urges the TSA to provide greater clarity for the public on how the new scans work...

The blog is the National Center for Transgender Equality's (NCTE's) blog -- there's more in the blog entry found at the link.

• Washington Blade's Emotions run high at vigil for slain trans woman:

More than 200 people turned out Saturday night, July 23, for a vigil to honor Lashai Mclean, a 23-year-old transgender woman who was shot to death three days earlier in Northeast Washington.

The event took place at the site where police say Mclean was gunned down about 4:30 a.m. near the corner of 61st and Dix Streets, N.E. Among those attending were Mclean's mother and other grieving family members and relatives.

...Neighborhood residents and passersby looked on with interest as more than a dozen speakers, including D.C. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Paul Quander, condemned the murder and called on the community to speak out against violence targeting the transgender community.

"To the family and to the community, I want you to know that we are committed to making sure that justice is done, that this life that has touched many of us will be remembered and the life that she led will be remembered," said Quander, whose duties include overseeing city law enforcement agencies.

"We will always be reminded that what happens to one happens to all of us," he said. "Injustice to one is injustice to all of us and that in this society no intolerance will be accepted." ...

• Gender Trender's Sheila Jeffreys: the McCarthyism of Transgender and the Sterilization of Transgender Children:

...I've been writing about how multiculturalism becomes multi-faithism and how there's this requirement in multicultural society is to respect culture- which is of course completely impossible since all cultures are based upon the subordination of women and the creation of two different sexes and two different genders and the construction of oppression out of that. And that- if you walk in any street, just look at the way people are dressed , if you look at anything that's going on the television, the extraordinary length to which the expression of women's subordination and men's domination go is immediately clear to you and that's in major cities of the western world that I'm talking about. So of course the radical feminist critique is about overthrowing that deep, deeply cultural construction of women's subordination. Its perhaps clearest on an everyday level, in what women are required to wear. The showing of their bodies: the short skirts, the shaved legs, the high-heeled shoes. The extraordinary lengths to which they have to go to punish and be cruel to their own bodies and be degraded in public places.

Now that's very, very clearly about male domination as far as I can see. But it cannot be recognized. It simply cannot be recognized. So that, there's a tremendous forgetfulness of the construction of what is these days is called "gender". Of course I would call it "sexual oppression" I think is that is probably a more reasonable way of looking at it. And its strongest manifestation of course takes place in what's called "transgenderism" which is a practice in which persons who do not adhere to the correctly gendered practices that have been placed upon the biological sex are considered to have something called Gender Identity Disorder and they're expected to cross over into the other sex. Not criticize the gendered system as it exists, because that's unthinkable but to make some kind of "journey" by mutilating their bodies and taking dangerous drugs for the rest of their lives in order to supposedly represent the opposite sex.

...So, the problem with transgenderism - which is obviously an expression of men's sexual rights as well of course (it's very much about the right to be sexually excited by female clothing, and subordination and so on). But it also comes out of the gendered system. And it means that in order to support transgenderism , genderhas to be supported. So the subordination of women has to be supported in order for transgenderism to be supported. Transgender as a phenomenon is the clearest possible indication of the strength of the structures of the male domination going on right now. Of course we know that in Iran homosexuals are routinely transgendered because they're not allowed to be homosexuals...

Obviously in planning for my own upcoming surgery, I completely disagree with this point of view. To most trans people, the assertion that trans women are really men, and are transitioning to dominate other women, is offensive -- especially when communicated by a radical lesbian feminist.

• Montreal Gazette's blog Patent Pending blog entry Encounter With Transphobia:

Transphobes know not what they fear.

So sad. But honestly, if they are uptight about transitioned people, it is reasonable to assume they have other prejudices, too. And what woman - trans or not -- would want to date a bigot?

Of course, all my readers know that transitioned women should never have to justify their existence to anyone - except for the shrinks who help us through the process. For anyone else to even question it is a form of discrimination, isn't it. Because it is NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS, and it's totally irrelevant.

Grrrr...

Her piece is lamenting a bit on the difficulties of dating while trans.

• Our Wiener Story of the Day: Wish TV's :

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A new billboard going up Monday near Indianapolis Motor Speedway is warning people that hot dogs can cause cancer.

The billboard, sponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, has an image of hot dogs poking out of a cigarette pack. It says, "Warning: Hot dogs can wreck your health" and urges people to visit The weenie tempts you!" -- cancer and all!

So anywho...It's an open thread! What are you thinking about today, or what books or articles have you been reading the past few days? Wanna share?

And again, please feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread because...it's an open thread! Woo-hoo!

This is what NOM is scared of?

crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Yesterday marked the day that gay and lesbian couples across New York got married. According to The New York Times's Thomas Kaplan, 659 marriage licenses issued in NYC today, according to city officials. 484 marriages performed.

The National Organization for Marriage held their rallies and protests. The Associated Press claimed that thousands showed up. NOM tried to piggyback on that to claim that over 10,000 people showed up for the New York City rally and thousands attended other rallies.

However, pictures from the other rallies, like the one in Buffalo, demonstrate NOM's propensity for stretching the truth. And scenes from the rally show that the group continues to play the black and Hispanic communities against the gay community. And of course NOM won't talk about how it bussed in folks or where exactly did it get the 10,000 number.

But that's not important right now. Yesterday was the most important day for a lot of NY gay couples. And I want to present a video montage of the various couples getting married complete with their families and friends showing their support.

And I also want to ask the simple question.

Why should anyone be scared of this? How do these scenes destroy the idea of marriage?

I dare anyone to give me a good, complete answer. No hypothetical mess derived from board rooms.  No junk about "marriage being the uniting of the two halves of humanity." Give me a concrete reason as to what is wrong with these Americans getting married.

Or can you?

 

Tony Perkins: his latest horsesh*t in defense of the Bachmanns

The "Family" Research Council's Tony Perkins just can't help himself as he continues the meme that TEH EVIL HOMOS are to blame for the bad media currently surrounding the taxpayer-funded "ex-gay" therapy of Marcus Bachmann and anti-gay statements of his wife and 2012 Presidential GOP Clown Car occupant, Michele.

The manure is piled high and steaming in his column, "Intolerant gays target Bachmanns." Just a sampling (hold your nose):

There has been a frenzy of drummed -up controversy about Marcus Bachmann, the psychologist husband of Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann. His "scandal"? A counselor in a practice run by Marcus Bachmann offered a client the service he requested.

Why would this be controversial? Was the client engaged in illegal activity? Was the counselor? No, there was nothing illegal - just very, very politically incorrect. You see, the "client" - actually an undercover employee of a homosexual activist organization - asked for help in changing his sexual orientation.

Taking a page from undercover sting operations against liberal organizations such as ACORN and Planned Parenthood, John Becker, of the grossly misnamed homosexual group "Truth Wins Out," secretly videotaped five one-hour sessions with a counselor at the Bachmann clinic. But while ACORN and Planned Parenthood showed themselves willing to conceal crimes, all the Bachmann clinic did was offer Becker help toward achieving what he asked for: "I told them that I wanted to be rid of my same-sex attractions, to be rid of my homosexuality."

The misinformation and bias in the media's reporting of this story were astounding. Reporters used the sarcastic catchphrases of homosexual activists, such as "pray away the gay" or "gay cure," as though they were objective descriptions of what is more properly called "sexual reorientation" therapy or "sexual orientation change efforts." They described such counseling as resting only on prayer, Bible-reading and "willpower," ignoring the serious therapeutic methods employed. HLN's Drew Pinsky at least explained to Anderson Cooper that "some of these treatments are quite legitimate" - but not, in Pinsky's opinion, to change someone's sexual orientation.

The general theme was that such therapies don't work and are harmful. Major professional organizations, which caved in to pro-homosexual ideological pressure in the 1970s, have been critical of such treatments - but even their statements are more nuanced than most reports indicate. For example, the American Psychological Association's 2009 report on the topic did not say such therapies have been proved ineffective. Rather, it said, "There are no studies of adequate scientific rigor to conclude whether or not recent SOCE do or do not work to change a person's sexual orientation." The APA also did not say such therapies have been proved harmful, noting only "sound data on the safety of SOCE are extremely limited."

In reality, the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality has detailed "125 years of clinical and scientific reports documenting that volitional change from homosexuality toward heterosexuality is possible."

The problem is that NARTH's "research" is tattered together junk science, as barista Alvin McEwen and others have blogged about many times before. But that's no problem for Perkins - he has a bad habit of quoting crap on the air that most reporters/hosts don't bother researching to refute on air.

Congratulations to all of the same-sex couples marrying in New York!

The weddings have begun and congratulations to all of the happy couples who are tying the knot in the Empire State.

Niagara Falls is into the spirit of things...

How about this gem of a flashback, as we contemplate all of the opposite-sex marriages self-destructing as we speak...

National Organization for Marriage president Brian Brown weeps with sadness in the galley after marriage equality passed in the New York Senate.

Blogger Alvin McEwen sums it all up: "There is no getting around the fact that Brown's weeping - an action comparable to that of a spoiled, petulant child throwing a tantrum because he simply can't get his way - epitomizes the entire movement against marriage equality so far."

Photo by: Rich Murray of Queer Rising.