Jeremy Hooper's Blog, page 14

Video: Ted Cruz tells viciously anti-gay Family Research Council he's got their back on anti-gay discrimination

Yesterday I told you about some of the extreme speakers who Sen. Ted Cruz is joining/courting at this week's "Watchmen on the Wall conference. Here now, a pertinent part of his speech to the Family Research Council crowd:

[RWW]

I love this "mandatory gay marriage" schtick he keeps doing. Not sure where we're all going to find the time to attend so many ceremonies.

Normally I would suggest that Cruz, a GOP presidential candidate, is pandering to the extreme far-right gathered at this FRC...

Scouts prez seeks long overdue end to offensive stigma

The news of the day:

The president of the Boy Scouts of America on Thursday called for an end to the group’s blanket ban on gay adult leaders, warning Scout executives that “we must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be,” and that “any other alternative will be the end of us as a national movement.”
KEEP READING: Boy Scouts’ President Calls for End to Ban on Gay Leaders [NYT]

Gates did say he'd like religious organizations to remain free to set their own policies for...

FRC prays against Dan Savage 'spewing upon our nation'; I'll let Dan make that joke himself

From the Family Research Council's latest round of prayer targets:

[FRC]

Whoever at FRC wrote "spewing upon our nation" in a post about Savage was clearly trolling his or her employer.

Sen. (and prez candidate) Cruz to join extreme anti-LGBT activists at Family Research Council event (#WOTW15)

Flip Benham refers to gay rights as "the Devil's agenda":

Kenyn Cureton believes that gay people are "poor, deluded souls" who are "simply pawns in the hands of their malevolent master" (i.e. the Devil):

"Who do you think is ultimately behind the efforts to advance the radical homosexual agenda, indoctrinate our children, and ruin our military, now? Who's behind the efforts to get God out of government, Christ out of culture, and faith out of public life? Who's behind it? Well, I think...

'Out' magazine's editor-in-chief makes case against gay 'bullies'; it's shortsighted and here's why

Out magazine has long been known as a magazine more focused on the pop culture side of the LGBT world than the political one. Yet in a post on Out.com (which might be running in the print edition too; I'm not sure), editor-in-chief Aaron Hicklin has chosen to weigh in on some high profile recent events—and has done so in a way that I find devoid of nuance and overloaded with misrepresentation.

Hicklin begins:

For five long minutes I gave serious thought to donating to Memories Pizza in Wal...

Voodoo, snake oil, 'changing' gays: CA congressman to introduce national ban on dangerous anti-science

The bill has only a dozen or so Democratic co-sponsors, and he's introducing it into a GOP-controlled Congress. But good on the congressman for trying to drain the dangerous snake oil, even if gravity's working against him:

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday morning, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California will introduce a federal bill to ban commercial efforts to change people’s sexual orientation or gender identity — often called conversion therapy.
FULL: Democratic House Freshman Aims To Ban LGBT Co...

Shorter Jeb Bush: I'm essentially Santorum on my marriage stance

Forget the more moderate Jeb Bush we heard earlier this year.

So similar to his brother, but even worse. Whereas George was at least acting in a nation where the idea of marriage equality was both more theoretical and controversial, Jeb is speaking after a decade of (benign, peaceful, happy) change that led us to nearly forty marriage equality states and an American public that very much supports it. Even with every real world reason to move to the right side of this issue, he's doubling d...

Video: Marriage victory at SCOTUS will bring violence, says man whose rhetoric couldn't be more inciteful

Bryan Fischer's rhetoric is that of an extremist. That is not news. Fischer is one of those whose voice is so over-the-top that it either no longer factors in the political discussion, or it unwittingly helps us when it manages to crack into the mainstream realm. He's also one of those who I largely now ignore, since he has so clearly already lost the debate.

But some things are worth mentioning. And when a man who has incited such nastiness teases to his American Family Radio audience that v...

Focus on the Family's action arm: Marriage equality will create ghost towns. Or something.

I actually kind of admire how Stuart Shepard tries to think outside the box to address his concerns in a new and creative way. Sadly, when he steps outside that box, he typically steps into an ugly pile of manure which leaves him looking foolish and makes his employer's anti-gay cause smell that much more rancid. The latest:

Frankly, if it meant a little bit of quiet from the nonstop onslaughts that groups like Focus on the Family have waged against us so loudly and for so long, I might ta...

Here's the latest conservative outlet equating gay rights with slavery; yes, slavery, and yes, literally

Writing for the conservative Federalist site (which has gone after me many times), Hillsdale College professor Paul D. Moreno argues that the gay rights movement is not, in fact, a civil rights movement that betters minority freedom and our nation. Instead, it's much more equality to the proslavery movement. No, I'm not making this up:

At the time of the Founding, slaveholders recognized that slavery contradicted the principles of the Declaration of Independence—Jefferson and others repeate...