Pam Spaulding's Blog, page 86

Hawaii House Judiciary Committee Sends Trans Protections to Floor, Civil Unions Bill Signing Today

Good morning Blenders, and ALOOOOOOOOHA!!! Hawaii's State government has caught Pele's fire this session, it seems.

Today Governor Neil Abercrombie will sign SB232, a Bill for Civil Unions, at 2 p.m. The ceremony itself is by invitation only, but anyone who wants to watch the live broadcast and then party it up afterward is welcome to head on down to the Queen Kapiolani Hotel or to Hula's Bar and Lei Stand. I wish I could be there with all of you. Much love to everyone in Hawaii who helped make this day a reality.

In addition to the Civil Unions bill, the LGBT community in Hawaii has been working on HB546, which would establish gender identity protections in employment (Hawaii already has those protections in housing and public accommodation). Yesterday, HB546 passed out of the Judiciary Committee, its second committee, with a unanimous vote. The bill now goes to the full House floor. 

Next up, SB934, which concerns bullying and cyber-bullying. Previously, the Senate Committee on Education passed the bill out of committee with a unanimous vote. It will be heard in the Judiciary Committee on February 24th at 9:00 a.m. in conference room 016. For anyone who wants to submit testimony for this bill, click the link and fill in the form.

What a great week for the Aloha State!

National Organization for Marriage makes the case for being an anti-gay hate group

crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

 The constant refrain of the anti-gay group the National Organization for Marriage is that they are unfairly being called bigots and haters "simply" because of their opposition to gay marriage.

But, just like when the Family Research Council makes this claim, NOM isn't telling the entire story. Their opposition to gay marriage only scratches the surface.

Just like almost every organization claiming to stand up for morality and "Judeo-Christian" ethics, NOM is slyly pushing anti-lgbt propaganda which has been consistently refuted.

Take for example, the following piece on its blog:

  If you followed the link provided by NOM's blog, you would find a piece written by Mike McManus published in the Daily Reporter.

The information in his piece is highly flawed. Take this passage for example:

 . . . but one study reports 80% of men and 86% of women have been faithful to their spouses for life.

By contrast, a 1978 study found that 75 percent of white, gay males claim to have had more than100 male sex partners. In fact 15 percent claimed over 500 partners and 28 percent said they have had more than 1,000!

Is this an atmosphere in which children should be raised? I think not. The media portrays gay marriages with children as normal. They are not.

Of course McManus is comparing two different studies - one involving married couple and the other involving gay couples who are not married. And he conveniently does not tell anyone the year of the study involving heterosexual couples. That's because it was published in 1997:

A telephone survey conducted for Parade magazine of 1,049 adults selected to represent the demographic characteristics of the United States found that 81 percent of married men and 85 percent of married women reported that they had never violated their marriage vows.

It would seem that McManus rounded off the numbers.

Now let's talk the 1978 study he cited concerning gay men. As admitted by McManus, the study was published over 30 years ago. The study was a part of a book entitled Homosexualities which only looked a certain portion of the lgbt population (gay men in the city of San Francisco). It also did not look at same-sex households, so  McManus is inaccurate in using it to discredit same-sex households raising children.

“. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlikely that any investigator will ever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”

And if that isn't bad enough, McManus continues to cite bad work:

Second, gay sex is physically harmful. “The medical consequences of gay promiscuity is that gays have a greatly increased likelihood of contracting HIV/AIDS, syphilis and other STDs,” writes Dr. John Diggs Jr. in “The Health Risks of Gay Sex,” published by the Corporate Resource Council.

One study estimated a 20-year-old gay male has a 50 percent chance of becoming HIV positive by age 55. Gay men contract syphilis at 3-4 times the rate of heterosexuals. A Seattle study found that 85 percent of syphilis cases were among homosexuals.

I've written about Diggs's flawed study before so allow me to skip to the main points of why it's bad work:

Diggs cites a Canadian study twice in order to claim that gays have a shorter lifespan than heterosexuals. But his citation of the study is a mischaracterization. In 2001, the six original researchers (Robert S. Hogg, Stefan A. Strathdee, Kevin J.P. Craib, Michael V. O’Shaughnessy, Julion Montaner, and Martin T. Schechter) who conducted that study went on record saying that religious conservatives (like Diggs) was distorting their work.In another section entitled Physical Health, Diggs claims that gays are victims of “gay bowel syndrome.” Gay Bowel Syndrome is an obsolete medical term and even the CDC does not use it. In fact, if one was to look at the endnotes of Diggs’ study, he would find that two of the sources he quoted concerning “gay bowel syndrome” were from articles in published in 1976 and 1983, which is consistent with the years that the term existed. One last source was a letter to the editor printed in 1994 but Diggs does not make it clear as to the circumstances surrounding it.Diggs uses convenience sample studies, like those conducted in STD clinics, claiming that they are indicative of the gay population at large.Diggs claims that there are five distinctions between heterosexual and homosexual populations including levels of promiscuity, physical health, mental health, lifespan, and monogamy. However, he spends very little time comparing the two dynamics (heterosexual and homosexual populations.) He uses all of his time castigating gay populations.Diggs uses an out of date book, The Gay Report (published in 1979) to claim that gays are engaging in deviant sexual practices. Only once does he attempt to tie the alleged deviant practices of gays in 1979 to present day; and to do so, he cites two events which took place regarding bondage workshops. However, there is a strong indication that heterosexuals took part in these events as well as gays. Diggs ignores this dynamic.

You will recognize that in his piece, McManus referred to the same distortion as Diggs regarding the supposed "short lifepan" of gay men.

The irony is that some of the falsehoods in McManus's piece are exactly the reason why the Southern Poverty Law Center  called out groups like the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research Council for passing along anti-gay propaganda.

The National Organization can't have it both ways. Either the organization does aid and abet anti-gay hate groups in pushing homophobic propaganda, and therefore can be labeled as bigoted or the group can disown this propaganda, starting with McManus's piece which it gave a platform to.

There is NO third way.

UPDATE - I emailed McManus asking him to address the charges I made.  We had a short, but very telling email exchange.

Related posts:

National Organization for Marriage called out AGAIN for distortive tactics

PolitiFact catches anti-gay group NOM in a huge lie about gay marriage and children


Big hat tip to Goodasyou.org

On my way to Vegas to see Journey kick off its 'Eclipse' tour

As I'm typing this I am onboard the second leg of my flight from RDU-ATL-LAS, around 12AM ET. I was so angered by the filing of the marriage amendment bill in NC on Tuesday that Ms. Cheepy Blogmistress paid the $4.95 for air wireless to file my post on it. So I'll get my money's worth and get a head start on this much more pleasant topic.

Your blogmistress is traveling to Las Vegas to see her favorite band, Journey, in concert at Planet Hollywood on Wednesday Feb. 23. (Naysayers can move along to the next post lest you be assimilated!) I've been a long-time fan, though unbelievably, this will be the first concert I've attended. I spent the 80s too poor, the 90s too busy working hard, and, well, most of the 2000s either doing too much day job and community work/volunteering, or, since 2004 political blogging. Heck, I didn't even know current lead singer Arnel Pineda joined the band in 2008; I was too busy covering the presidential campaign!

I think the wake up call to do this -- a bucket list item -- was the creeping physical ailments over the last couple of years. The fibromyalgia and nearly disabling chronic and unpredictable pain, the neuropathy in my feet, and in November, the hysterectomy and slow recovery that I'm still going through were all red flags.

I said to myself, "Dammit, I better do this before I'm incapable of going to a concert and enjoying the experience!"

So I saved some scratch, got my director to ok the trip, and paid way more than I should have to get a third row, gold circle ticket to the kickoff show.  Kate couldn't make this trip, but since a little birdie told me that Journey will play in two NC cities this summer, she'll eventually get a chance to see them.

The J-Boys will play three songs from the new album "Eclipse", which won't be released until May 24th, so it will be a real treat to hear a taste of the new CD.

UPDATE: I met a fellow Journey fan, Sachi, who flew all the way from Japan for the concert. She greeted me in the Planet Hollywood lobby.

It's also been my lucky night - upgrade to Biz class on flt, now room upgrade at PH to kick-ass view of Paris Las Vegas & the Bellagio fountains!

More below the fold.
Axe man and J-founder Neal Schon says:

"It sounds amazing. I'm in love with the record, which I haven't said for a long time," he said. "I really fought for this record to be the way it is. It's a rock record. It's built for the places we're about to play. We're playing a lot of big shows - South America and Europe - and we're going to be touring the whole world on and off for two years. So with the addition of Arnel, we've become more of an international band which has been really great."

As was the case with the highly successful "Revelation" album, the 12-track "Eclipse" will be a Wal-Mart-only release in North America. This worked out well for Journey, which is, in fact, now an indy band (classic AOR bands aren't on the big labels anymore -- thank the autotune gen for that -- so you have to find a good distribution chain; and regardless, it's hard to beat the ubiquitous Wally World on that score).

The man behind some of the bands greatest hits to date, keyboardist and composer Jonathan Cain, gave this description of "Eclipse" to the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Cain describes it as "a concept record with some spiritual themes to it. Pretty tough, hard-hitting stuff. This is Journey with big combat boots on. And helmet and a rifle."

Cain's lyrics sustain the band's hopeful themes of "searching for soulfulness and enlightenment and love and all the stuff that Journey's about." But the album also has a larger dynamic sweep with "some darker stuff in there."

"We just felt like it was time to send a message to the world about how we feel about life in general," he says.

The album incorporates Hindu principles of Tantra, "the belief that life is kind of a weave, a circle of energy, a life force that's woven with the universe in all of us. We dove deep into it."

He calls it "one of those headphone records." Should be interesting to hear that. (BTW, my wife Kate is an audiologist, so she reminded me to take earplugs to protect my hearing, lol). I can't wait to rock out to Deen Castronovo - man he's awesome on the skins, and has a wonderful voice to boot.

Blenders might recall my post from last year, "Blogmistress music overload: my Journey immersion weekend," where I took out some time to reconnect with the music, old and new, and delved into th inspiring backstory behind Arnel Pineda's discovery via YouTube by Neal Schon, and his rise from the streets of Manila to become an international rock star. With an enormous amount of pressure on him, he has flourished with the band with his nearly supernaturally powerful pipes and stage presence.

I won't go back over the issue of how poorly some Journey fans have handled the comparison between Steve Perry (love him too!), and Arnel Pineda; you can read that in my earlier post, but it's safe to say that the whole post-racial society claptrap is there in full embarrassing bloom. And I thought it was about the music.

But it is and that's why I'm heading to Vegas. To see Journey.

I don't see why people have to take sides --

1. Steve Perry isn't coming back to Journey, and if even he did, it's with 62-year-old pipes. He's only human. Get over the fantasy, people and pop in an old CD and enjoy the classics.

2. If you want to hear Journey live, and the band is much better and rocks harder live than in studio takes, then go see them on the road and judge for yourself (or just stay away if you cannot bear any other frontman except SP).

3. If SP releases the new material he says he has ready to record, then enjoy it; I certainly will, but don't expect it to sound like 1980s Journey.

With Eclipse this will be the second record with all new material recorded with Arnel Pineda. How hard is it for people to let go and just enjoy the Journey sound?

And I thought the rough and tumble of politics was nuts...

***

One of the wonderful things I can say about Arnel Pineda is he's genuinely grateful to his fans for their support and pops into the site's chat room to gab with the plokkers (the faithful fans over at his web site; I am a member).

If you're ever in the Philippines, his bar, Rockville, is loaded with fan-contributed and designed nameplates, art and contributed vinyl records. Bands compete in contests that showcase Filipino talent and the concerts are streamed; Arnel, prior to returning to the States for the tour, made frequent appearances at Rockville. He also believes in giving back to those who struggle as he once did, through the Arnel Pineda Foundation, Inc. (APFI) for street kids.

There will be a documentary released about Arnel's story, "Everyman's Journey."

***

So you know I'll file pix and video; I'll get things up as soon as the internets allow. :) Make sure to follow me on Twitter (@pam_spaulding) or Facebook for updates.

Game on in NC: marriage amendment bill filed in state Senate; would put it on 2012 ballot

Damn them. With our state General Assembly now under GOP control for the first time since Reconstruction, the bigots in our state Senate, led again by good old boy Gaston County's James Forrester, has thrown down the gauntlet once again. And he knows that this time, the bill will be heard. (QNotes):

The text of the proposed amendment, which has not yet been filed in the House, would ban any recognition of any "domestic legal union" other than a marriage between an opposite-sex couple. If approved by the legislature, the amendment would appear on the November 2012 ballot. Three-fifths of both the House and Senate must approve the amendment before it can appear on the ballot; the governor has no veto authority on amendments.

Forrester is lobbing this bomb into the NCGA for the seventh time . Do you think he has a problem with gay folks? Just a little 411 -- he's an equal opportunity bigot. From last February:

In his latest bigot eruption, Forrester adds overt racism to his dance card, blaming the states increasingly progressive tilt to blacks that dare to vote, as well as the Homosexual Lobby in the state capital of Raleigh.

I kid you not.

"The (state) Senate is as liberal as I've ever seen it," Forrester said at the monthly meeting of the Iredell County Young Republicans on Tuesday night in Mooresville.

"Slick city lawyers and homosexual lobbies and African American lobbies are running Raleigh," Forrester added.

...So it may be viewed with some irony that Forrester said the GOP would likely have taken back control of at least one chamber of the General Assembly in 2008 had it not been for what he called the "Obama Tsunami."

"It brought a lot of blacks out who don't normally vote," he said.

Yes, this is what we have to deal with in NC's GOP and these are the people in charge. As Matt Comer noted in his QNotes piece, all of the co-sponsors of the bill so far are all Republicans. Jerry W. Tillman (R-Montgomery, Randolph) and Dan Soucek (R-Alexander, Ashe, Watauga, Wilkes) are primary sponsors, along with 23 other GOP co-sponsors. Interestingly, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger (R-Guilford, Rockingham) did not sign on as sponsor. Wonder what's on his mind right now as the fringe bigotry in his party calls for its day in the sun.

It will also be interesting to see how many Dems sign on this time (especially now that it has elected a state party chair that is pro-equality; more on that below the fold).

What I do know is that if the GOP wants to play hardball on this issue when we already have a state DOMA (and they need to be working on fixing the economic mess the state is in), I say go for it.

Game on. We will explore every co-sponsor over the next year. The taxpayers have a right to know:

How many times have these lawmakers been married?Who's breaking the sanctity of their marriage vows?Are there closet doors to be kicked open?Who's carousing for same-sex encounters at rest stops?Who has their hand in the till?The voters of NC have a right to know, since these elected officials have decided that they have the right to enshrine bigotry into the state constitution on the basis of two consenting adults having any legal relationship approximating marriage, let alone civil marriage.

Since Charlotte will be the host city for the Democratic National Convention, won't this be a gem of an albatross hanging over the party's neck in the "New South"?

More below the fold.
The amendment text:

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION TO PROVIDE MARRIAGE BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN IS THE ONLY DOMESTIC LEGAL UNION THAT SHALL BE VALID OR RECOGNIZED IN THIS STATE.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1. Article 14 of the North Carolina Constitution is amended by adding the following new section:

"Sec. 6. Marriage.

Marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State."

SECTION 2. The amendment set out in Section 1 of this act shall be submitted to the qualified voters of the State at the statewide general election on November 6, 2012, which election shall be conducted under the laws then governing elections in the State. Ballots, voting systems, or both may be used in accordance with Chapter 163 of the General Statutes. The question to be used in the voting systems and ballots shall be:

"[ ] FOR [ ] AGAINST

Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State."

SECTION 3. If a majority of votes cast on the question are in favor of the amendment set out in Section 1 of this act, the State Board of Elections shall certify the amendment to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State shall enroll the amendment so certified among the permanent records of that office.

SECTION 4. The amendment set out in Section 1 of this act becomes effective January 1, 2013.

SECTION 5. This act is effective when it becomes law.

Our Fierce Advocate surely doesn't want to deal with this mess, nor does the party when they come to celebrate the President's re-election bid. The chair of the NC Dem Party, David Parker, is strongly opposed to such an amendment, and prior to his election he discussed it here on the Blend during a liveblog.

David Parker: The Marriage Amendment is coming to a voting place near you all too soon. This Radical Right ploy is designed to activate their base, agitate their contributors and GOTV....

I would want to get folks to care enough about these issues to be on a blog such as this to help formulate specfics -- which is why I am calling for an LGBT Caucus in NC (we need to parallel every DNC Caucus here in NC)

Part of why the Democratic Party lost touch with the electorate is that it failed to communicate its core values - including personal dignity. Elected officials have to talk about values to get voters out to vote -- that is why, I think, turnout was down this last election -- especially among young voters...

If you live in NC, it's time to write your Senator and politely ask that they not co-sponsor this potential stain on our state constitution.

And if you're inside or outside of NC, it's time to dig up the dirt since the NC bigots (and enablers, since Dems who aren't willing to speak out against it are just as bad) apparently want to go there. I know we have a lots of little birdies willing to sing sweet information into my ears.

Why LGBT Rights Are Workers' Rights

Cross-posted at Daily Kos.

By now anyone who frequents the progressive blogosphere knows what's happening in Wisconsin. A "budget repair" bill is being considered that would effectively kill labor unions, and it has been met with mass peaceful protests since last week. People may or may not know that similar bills are currently being considered by the legislatures in Indiana and Ohio.

The bill put forth by Republicans in Wisconsin (opens as .pdf), at the behest and with the support of Teabagger Governor Scott Walker, is not a "budget repair" bill. First, there wasn't a budget crisis until Gov. Walker put a $140 million tax break in place for his wealthiest donors. Prior to that tax cut, Wisconsin actually had a projected budget surplus. In other words, this whole budget crisis is one of the Tea Party's own making. This bill not only places the financial burden on the backs of those who can least afford it. It's an unprecedented power grab by the Koch Brothers and their obscenely wealthy friends, who supported Walker in his Gubernatorial run, and now own him. This bill would strip unions of their collective bargaining rights. It would put public property and facilities up for no-bid sale to the corporation offering the best price, rewarding the richest corporate doners with yet more authority over the government. It would give DHHS authority to boot 50,000 poor people off of Medicaid without being subject to legislative review or oversight. This bill, and others like it, are an attack on the American people by corporate interests who want to make sure they never see a living wage again.

So what does this have to do with LGBT rights? More than you'd think. Come with me under the fold.

The right to form a collective bargaining unit is under attack in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio. You can bet that there are LGBT people in those unions who are, right now, desperately fighting for their livelihood, and for a way to support their families. You can bet that in Wisconsin there are LGBT people on Medicaid, particularly in view of the fact that in Wisconsin, Fair Wisconsin's Facebook page, or just head on down to the Statehouse in Madison. Wear red.

In Peace and Solidarity.

David Pakman Show: Shirley Phelps-Roper admits Fred physically abused his kids

Was there any doubt that growing up in the Westboro Baptist Church under the guidance of the Cryptkeeper would be anything other than a hellish experience? Shirley Phelps-Roper went on the David Pakman Show to blow off some steam over being targeted for WBC's anti-gay ways, and confirmed that the beatings will continue as part of teaching "the ways of the church." From the DPS press release:

Shirley Phelps-Roper indicated today in an interview with David Pakman of The David Pakman Show that the Westboro Baptist Church has been targeted by Anonymous, the group alleged to have taken down Mastercard and other websites in response to their handling of Wikileaks in recent months. The authenticity is being called into question, and some have denied that anyone representing Anonymous ever issued the letter which circulated over the last few days.

During the interview, Phelps-Roper said that she is not afraid of Anonymous, and denied the claims made by Pakman that the church's website has already been down all day. Phelps-Roper also likened Anonymous to "the Pharaoh of Egypt," adding that "God...already has punished and will punish...Anonymous."

When confronted by Pakman with claims made by her estranged brother Nathan Phelps during a previous interview with Pakman that her father, Fred Phelps, physically abused his children, and that physical abuse is prevalent in the Westboro Baptist Church, Phelps-Roper indicated that hitting children is part of "teaching children exactly like their creator told them to do it," causing Pakman to ask later in the interview whether police involvement was appropriate.

In addition to making ad hominem attacks on David Pakman and Phelps-Roper's estranged brother, Nathan Phelps during the interview, she also added that her newest granddaughter, expected to be born today, February 21, 2011, would start being taught the ways of the church, including their anti-gay views, as soon as next Sunday.

Happy Birthday, Dan Choi!

Lt. Dan Choi turns 30 today; I'm sure that 10 years ago he never envisioned being an activist and one of the faces of the modern equality movement. Thank you for your service and putting yourself on the line in more ways than one - encouraging others to take direct action.

***

At 12:30PM, ET, the world of direct action will be discussed -- attend a virtual panel sponsored by eQualityGiving:

Acting Differently: Civil Disobedience, Direct Action, and More

From a few clandestine organizers that started the Mattachine Society in 1950 to HRC with almost 200,000 Facebook Fans in 2010, our numbers are growing, but to what use? From chaining yourself to a fence, to camping outside a campaign office, to disrupting rush hour at Grand Central Station, direct action is on the rise in the movement towards equality. What happened last year, what impact did it have, and what's next?

Panelists

J. Todd (Tif) Fernandez, JD, LLM. Civil rights activist. Organizer, Grand Central 'Homophobia Kills Die-In', and the QUEER SOSChung-Wha Hong, Executive Director, New York Immigration CoalitionRobin McGehee, Director and Co-Founder, GetEQUALRichard Noble, Civil Rights Activist, Connecting Rainbows Walk Across AmericaBarbra (Babs) Casbar Siperstein, Vice Chair, Democratic National Committee Eastern CaucusQuestion Moderators

Lane Hudson, Director, Brunswick GroupAndy Szekeres, Founder, 3pg Consultin

Family Research Council asks for money instead of answering charges of unethical behavior

crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

The Family Research Council has yet to give a "detailed response" to charges lodged by the Southern Poverty Law Center that it spreads untrue propaganda about the lgbt community by means of either junk science or distorted science.

However, the group did take time out of its day to send out the following email requesting money. I took the liberty of zeroing in on the most pertinent part:

As you may have heard, the ultra-liberal Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) recently declared Family Research Council and a few of our allies as "hate groups."

How do you feel about you and FRC being lumped in with neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, racist skinheads, and other radical organizations?

I am outraged. But more than that, I am concerned. Never before has FRC been slapped with such a false and malicious accusation by an organization claiming to be mainstream.

Thankfully, we have hundreds of good friends who have stepped forward to denounce the SPLC in the strongest possible terms and to declare their support of FRC. The list includes national leaders who signed a Statement of Support.

Now I urge you to show you won't be intimidated into silence. Please follow this link to take your place alongside these leaders and others in defense of FRC by making a tax-deductible donation to support our work.

The SPLC is pressuring major news networks, magazines, newspapers, and online news and opinion outlets to not invite us on their programs, run our opinion pieces, or quote our views. It even hosted an event aimed solely at smearing FRC.

Astonishing, isn't it?

The SPLC is now attacking FRC and other groups that uphold Judeo-Christian moral views, including marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

By labeling its opponents "hate groups," the SPLC is saying: No discussion. No consideration of the issues. No engagement. No debate!

As usual FRC is playing the victim while evading the true story. SPLC said the following about FRC and several other so-called pro-family groups:

. . . a hard core of smaller groups, most of them religiously motivated, have continued to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities. These groups’ influence reaches far beyond what their size would suggest, because the “facts” they disseminate about homosexuality are often amplified by certain politicians, other groups and even news organizations. . . Generally, the SPLC’s listings of these groups is based on their propagation of known falsehoods — claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities — and repeated, groundless name-calling. Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations for listing as hate groups.

The falsehoods in question include the beliefs that:

Homosexuals molest children at far higher rates than heterosexuals,Same-sex parents harm children, andHomosexuals don’t live nearly as long as heterosexuals.
For its part, SPLC has listed detailed reasons as to the inaccuracies of these claims.

 

FRC, on the hand, has yet to fully answer SPLC's charges even though it said two months ago that it would give a "detailed response."

FRC's entire campaign  of  "they are trying to silence us" has been a clever dodge, or a non-sequitir which only serves to cover up that SPLC is in fact pushing for the debate while FRC is avoiding it.

Conveniently absent from FRC’s email - and its other statements - is suitable refutation to SPLC’s charges or any type of refutation at all.

At the times in which FRC did try to address the charges head on, such as when FRC head Tony Perkins went on the news program Hardball or when an FRC employee recommended a piece written by Perkins,  the organization was called out for engaging in exactly the same tactics SPLC accused them of - distorting science to denigrate the lgbt community.

No one wants to silence FRC.

Not SPLC, nor do I, nor does any other person who sent emails to the organization asking for the "detailed response" to SPLC's charges, which FRC promised to give.

All we want are answers. And we have yet to receive those answers.

In the long run, FRC's plea for donations may be successful in terms of monetary benefits.

But what about personal integrity?

If the FRC considers itself a Christian organization, then it needs to act like one.

And somehow I don't think that spreading untrue stories about the lgbt community and then playing the evasion game when called out on this behavior is a Christian virtue.

Stating that you are a moral, Christian group doesn't necessarily make you one. Especially when your actions have been most un-Christian.

Related posts:

Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council just can't stop engaging in duplicitious tactics - Pay attention to this post. In an interview last week, FRC spokesperson Peter Sprigg criticized studies looking at same-sex households in part because the studies in question doesn't compare same-sex households to heterosexual households. However Sprigg's objection is ironic seeing that he freely cites studies that don't compare the two dynamics when he denigrates heterosexual households.

Family Research Council's Tony Perkins pushes George Rekers flavored falsehoods on Hardball

Write Chris Matthews and Hardball to complain about Tony Perkins's lies

SUCCESS! Chris Matthews addresses distortion of Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council

Peter Sprigg won't address hate group charges but will lie about same-sex households

Family Research Council has yet to come out with 'detailed response' against SPLC charges

Will the Family Research Council ever fulfill its promise and address SPLC's charges?

Julian Bond: Maryland must end marriage discrimination

I love it when allies step forward to strongly support us. It's doubly meaningful when that ally is a civil rights legend who knows that discrimination is discrimination; there is no barometer as to how much any minority group has to suffer to deserve basic human rights.

Julian Bond knows this; he has been a steadfast supporter of LGBT rights. In an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun, he makes the case as to why Maryland must end marriae discrimination. A snippet:

As a civil right activist, I have spent my life fighting to make ours a more just and fair society. That's why I urge the Maryland General Assembly to support marriage equality and pass the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act. I firmly believe that this is a matter of civil rights, equal protection and equality. Civil rights are positive legal prerogatives - the right to equal treatment before the law. These are rights shared by everyone; there is no one in the United States who does not - or should not - share in enjoying these rights. Discrimination is wrong no matter who the victim is. We cannot move toward full human rights protection and opportunity without confronting - and ending - homophobia. For it is homophobia that is at the root of denying the freedom to marry to gays and lesbians. As my late neighbor and friend, Coretta Scott King, said in 1998:

"Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood."

And in 2000 she added:

"We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say 'common struggle' because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender or ethnic discrimination."

And raising Coretta Scott King's support for equality is so necessary. As we have seen, Bernice King, her daughter, has been out there using religion-based bigotry to hold an anti-equality position regarding civil marriage. And Julian Bond also drops Loving v. Virginia in there for good measure; those in favor of continuing marriage discrimination know they are on the losing side of the equality argument. You may make our lives miserable along the way, but you will ultimately lose.

Three years ago we celebrated the 40th anniversary of a case aptly called Loving v. Virginia, which struck down anti-miscegenation laws and, many years later, allowed my wife, Pam, and me to marry in the state that declares "Virginia is for lovers." Then, as now, proponents of marriage-as-is invoked "God's plan." The trial judge who sentenced the Lovings said that when God created the races: "He placed them on separate continents. ... The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

God seems to have made room in his plan for interracial marriage. He will no doubt do the same for same-sex marriage.

 

Nothing like starting out the week with a little bomb threat

Just a short post to say that my morning was interesting. I left without my cell phone, which I rarely use at work, but it's irritating not to have it when you need it...like today.

Turns out that over the weekend Duke Power was doing some work at Brightleaf Square in downtown Durham; I work in the north building and staff had to come in and power down our servers. Unfortunately when the servers were brought back online, we had no network services. Sigh.

More fun below the fold.
Our friends at Verizon and Duke Power were, I believe, working on that  problem when all of a sudden we received an emergency evacuation order. It wasn't a fire alarm; that heinous noise goes off when we have those drills.

Anyway, everyone hot-footed it out of the building and across the street to our designated waiting area. Eventually some news trickled out about what happened.

Apparently a package arrived for one of the staff members at the Press, and it had no return address, a misspelled addressee and was strange enough to raise suspicion since there was no package expected by this person. I don't have any more details than this other than to say that we receive a ton of packages every day, so for one to stand out makes me think this was a serious threat.

I drove home to get my phone and to return, figuring it was no big deal. I got a call on my way back in to say everyone needed to go home for safety's sake. The police had expanded the perimeter of the evacuation, so nearby businesses and restaurants also had to leave.

The last word I received is that the Durham Bomb Squad is sending in one of those robots to inspect the package.

Duke Press publishes controversial, thought-provoking academic texts (LGBT/Queer Studies, world politics, etc.), but this is the first time we've had a bomb threat.

Time to reboot that Monday...