Jeremy Hooper's Blog, page 33

We're not driven by animus, say groups that are known for showing animus toward gay couples

You guys, the Southern Baptists and other groups who are known for their longheld resistance to anything having to do with gay acceptance, both within their own pews and within public policy, are tired of you accusing them of animus. They say so in a new amicus brief filed in the 8th Circuit:

In the friend-of-the-court brief, the [Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission] and the other organizations say the frequent accusation that defenders of the biblical, traditional definitio...

Video: Onetime LGBT community foe delivers crushing blow to 'religious freedom' (a.k.a. license to discriminate) bills

When he was the state attorney general of Georgia (first as a Democrat and then as a Republican), Mike Bowers acted like a very anti-gay, very conservative politician. You know the Bowers v. Hardwick case of 1986 in which the US Supreme Court upheld sodomy laws across the nation (before overturning them in 2003)? Mike Bowers is the Bowers in that famous case. He also once fired a lesbian attorney simply because she was planning a commitment ceremony with her partner. Not our friend, this guy....

Q. How does Mark Regnerus 'prove' he's not an anti-gay activist?

A. He speaks at one of the most anti-gay activist groups on the planet, the Family Research Council (an SPLC-designated hate group)

[FRC]

When a federal judge described Regnerus' junky work on same-sex parenting as "entirely unbelievable and not worthy of serious consideration," this is the kind of crap he was talking about. Regnerus has always been an activist with a preconceived notion who then worked backwards to undermine families he and his politics always wanted to undermine.

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It's not a 'marriage debate' simply because pro-discrimination lawmakers say it is

I keep seeing local media outlets use some variation on the following headline in their coverage of a go-nowhere, wantonly discriminatory marriage amendment that a couple of conservative Republican lawmakers in Iowa have dreamt up:

[DM Register]

This kind of framing is the embodiment of what is so frequently wrong about conversations like the one we are having on marriage. All too often, media outlets and others with platforms frame something as a debate—one with two sides, similar merits, and...

The AFA's 'Anti-Christian Bigotry Map' is the most unintentionally hilarious thing you'll see today

In an obvious attempt to flip the script on the Southern Poverty Law Center for tracking actually hostile groups that genuinely promote dissemination or worse, the American Family Association, one of the most proudly pro-discrimination organizations on the planet, has released a map purporting to show "anti-Christian bigotry." The basic criteria for being "anti-Christian" is to either be an atheist group, a group that supports clear church/state lines like Americans United, or to be any group...

Exec. Editor of conservative bible 'National Review' signs statement to 'make marriage achievable for all who seek it'

Reihan Salam, executive editor of the conservative movement's stalwart publication, National Review, has joined over one hundred other scholars and leaders (including quite a few conservatives) in signing on to a new statement that marriage equality opponent-cum-proponent David Blankenhorn has spearheaded through his Institute for American Values. The statement, titled "Marriage Opportunity: The Moment for National Action," works off of the following ten propositions:

Executive Summary: Our Ar...

Ginsburg repeats what her 'recuse!'-ers fail to acknowledge: SCOTUS has *already* moved the marriage ball into a new court

In an interview with The New York Times' Gail Collins, Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says the following about marriage equality and its future at the court:

So Ginsburg is planning to be on the bench when the Supreme Court decides mammoth issues like the future of the Affordable Care Act and a national right for gay couples to marry. She says she doesn’t know how the health care case will turn out. But like practically every court observer in the country, she has a strong hunch abo...

Three Notre Dame professors condemn school for backing what majority of US Catholics already support

Three Notre Dame professors have taken to the increasingly hostile Public Discourse site (which is edited by increasingly hostile marriage inequality activist Ryan Anderson) to chastise their own university and its president for extending benefits to legally married same-sex couples. Because to these professors, gay couples have no shot at anything other that immorality:

So extension of marriage benefits to such employees directly incentivizes the making of and persistence in a public commitme...

Scott Lively: Yep, married gays are going to cause Armageddon

This is an actual headline, graphic, and text from an actual conservative pundit person (Scott Lively) on an actual conservative news site

Spiritually speaking, the official endorsement of “gay marriage” by the most powerful and influential nation on earth, and more importantly the only nation in the history of the world (other than ancient Israel) to be established on a Biblical foundation, is an act of rebellion against God not seen since Noah’s Flood. Indeed, the ancient Hebrew rabbis taug...

I kind of love the pro-gay snarkiness of Jeb Bush's new Communications Director (@timodc)

It was announced today that Tim Miller, former exec. director of the conservative America Rising PAC, will be the the communications director for Jeb Bush's upcoming presidential campaign. Miller is an out gay man. But more than that, he loves to mock conservatives who speak about the ills of marriage equality.

For instance, he tweeted this about the fear mongering of groups like the Iowa Family Policy Council:

He also mocked his fellow Republicans who say marriage equality hurts Rob Portman:

He...