Jeremy Hooper's Blog, page 62
October 22, 2014
Just going to another vendor isn't always easy, isn't good basis for sound policy
Every time another one of these deliberately propagandized situations involving a baker or florist or other public accommodation operator who wishes to discriminate against same-sex couples comes into light, people on both sides (but mainly on the anti-gay side) start asking why those couples can't simply move on to the next business. People ask why anyone would want to work with a vendor who doesn't wish to service them. "There are many pro-gay fish in the commercial sea," goes the gist of t...
Pat Robertson: People who believe in fair nondiscrimination law are 'terrorists, radicals, and extremists'
Pat Robertson, a man who is apparently immune from any criticism as he continues to spout out horrid ideas to receptive millions, has a new label for people who believe in fair application of the law as it pertains to gay consumers and public accommodations. We are "terrorists, radicals, and extremists," says Mr. Christian Bible Network:
SOURCE: Pat Robertson: Gay Rights Advocates Are 'Terrorists, Radicals And Extremists' [RWW]
The anti-LGBT movement is out of control. And if they keep it up,...
October 21, 2014
In which another anti-gay group forces politicos to Gladys Kravitz our way into one family's divorce drama
Of all of the stories the fa-right anti-LGBT activists have seized on, this one involving a woman whose husband realized he was gay and sought a divorce is one of the most bizarre I've expert experienced. Here's Focus on the Family's Citizenlink arm doing their part on the "Janna Darnelle" story:
SOURCE: Focus on the Family's Citizenlink
As I said in my initial post on the subject: divorce sucks. It's hard. It's not something anyone wants when they enter into a marriage.
But it happens. And some...
In 2008, the AFA was the same on LGBT rights as President Obama; and I was a flying unicorn
In a post denying that it should qualify for the Southern Poverty Law Center's list of active anti-LGBT groups, American Family Association legal counsel Patrick Vaughn writes the following:
Surprisingly, President Obama stated the same position on homosexual marriage that AFA holds when he first ran for President, but SPLC did not call him a hater.
FULL: Is AFA a Hate Group? [AFA]
Something tells me the AFA will go ahead and leave my comment in moderation limbo:
Although a better comment might b...
The Hitching Post plot thickens in a truly remarkable way
When I first learned about the story of Idaho's Hitching Post, which was suddenly the far-right's latest marriage "victim" for supposedly being threatened by the city of Coeur d’Alene for not marrying a same-sex couple, I thought the whole thing was too coincidental to be true. I didn't focus on it in my last post on the subject since I had the much more newsworthy discovery that the business had changed its website so that they could seem much more faith-driven than they had been operating i...
On Rivka, Robert and their dirty, self-victimizing, anti-intellectual blame game
Anti-equality devotee Robert Oscar Lopez has found yet another anti-gay conservative outlet to publish yet another of the same kind of piece that he keeps writing. The gist: He is the victim of gay activists and anyone who dares make note of his years of public engagement—which includes multiple rally appearances, testifying several times before state legislatures, filing sores of amicus briefs against equality, running a website mostly geared toward opposing LGBT rights/parenting, etc.—is vi...
October 20, 2014
POTUS believes in fifty-state equality, happy with way it's playing out
In an interview with Jeffrey Toobin for The New Yorker, President Obama cited the recent Supreme Court decision to not grant cert to any same-sex marriage cases as the best SCOTUS decision in his tenure:
I asked him to name the best Supreme Court decision of his tenure. When the Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, in 2012? When it struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, a year later? Neither, it turned out.
“In some ways, the decision that was just handed down to not...
But your subjective view of 'real' marriage is factually irrelevant, Ryan
In response to my post about an Idaho wedding business that changed its website in what seems to be a revisionist attempt to cover the fact that it used to perform civil weddings and weddings outside of their faith, the Heritage Foundation's Ryan Anderson, one of the modern marriage inequality movement's biggest stars, writes the following:
Ryan's opinion about our marriages, as offensive as it may be, is completely irrelevant to the facts. The fact is that this business was, a...
Flip Benham (yes, their dad) reportedly protesting outside NC weddings
Considering he's a longtime foe of all things LGBT rights and no stranger to street protests, don't take this as indicative of much of anything. But it is still worth noting the people who are determined to show America just how vicious anti-gay activism can still be:
With gay marriage now legal in North Carolina, it was only a matter of time before Flip Benham of Operation Save America started crashing wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples.
The North Carolina-based pastor, who is the father...
TV's Duggar family continues anti-LGBT activism
Over the years, the Duggars from TLC's hit reality TV show 19 Kids And Counting have become increasingly political. In addition to eldest son Josh joining the extremely anti-LGBT Family Research Council and dedicating his time to efforts to stop marriage equality, mother Michelle has recorded robocalls advocating against LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination laws and the whole family has shown up at rallies that are focused at least in part toward discrimination. Here's the latest, happening today...
