NOM's League Of Bigots

You must click over to Good As You for Jeremy Hooper's excellent bigot-by-bigot breakdown of the fuckweasels in this photograph and all the repulsive, horrible, lying bullshit they've said about LGBT people.

Family Research Council Calls For Hate Group Solidarity Against Filthy Queers

Over at Good As You, activist Jeremy Hooper has somehow uncovered a not-yet issued press release from the Family Research Council in which they call for the nation's anti-gay hate groups to stand in solidarity against the Southern Poverty Law Center's designations of anti-gay hate groups.

In today's second death-of-irony alert, the document is titled Start Debating: Stop Hating. Because according to the Family Research Council, we are the haters in this game.

The surest sign one is losing a debate is to resort to character assassination. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal fundraising machine whose tactics have been condemned by observers across the political spectrum, is doing just that.

The group, which was once known for combating racial bigotry, is now attacking several groups that uphold Judeo-Christian moral views, including marriage as the union of a man and a woman. How does the SPLC attack? By labeling its opponents “hate groups.” No discussion. No consideration of the issues. No engagement. No debate

These type of slanderous tactics have been used against voters who signed petitions and voted for marriage amendments in all thirty states that have considered them, as well as against the millions of Americans who identify with the Tea Party movement. Some on the Left have even impugned the Manhattan Declaration-which upholds the sanctity of life, the value of traditional marriage and the fundamental right of religious freedom-as an anti-gay document and have forced its removal from general communications networks.

This is intolerance pure and simple. Elements of the radical Left are trying to shut down informed discussion of policy issues that are being considered by Congress, legislatures, and the courts. Tell the radical Left it is time to stop spreading hateful rhetoric attacking individuals and organizations merely for expressing ideas with which they disagree. Our debates can and must remain civil - but they must never be suppressed through personal assaults that aim only to malign an opponents character.

You can take action by adding your name to the following statement:

We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with Family Research Council, American Family Association, Concerned Women of America, National Organization for Marriage, Liberty Counsel and other pro-family organizations that are working to protect and promote natural marriage and family. We support the vigorous but responsible exercise of the First Amendment rights of free speech and religious liberty that are the birthright of all Americans.

Over at Right Wing Watch, People For The American Way reminds us exactly who the haters are with a link farm to recent statements by the above-listed groups.

• Gays should be exported from the country;
• The federal government must be overthrown if its allows gay marriage;
• "Moral perverts" need to be kept out of the military;
• There is nothing "conservative" about "one man violently cramming his penis into another man’s lower intestine and calling it 'love'";
• Gay sex ought to carry criminal penalties;
• Gays ought to be prohibited from serving in public office;
• Gay sex is domestic terrorism;
• "Hitler recruited around him homosexuals to make up his Stormtroopers ... [because] homosexual solders basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict."

The Good Guys At The NARTH Protest

Members of NARTH are featured in the slideshow one post down, these photos are all the good guys, the thinkers, those whose minds are unbound by prehistoric religious dogma and twisted unscientific hooey. I think we had about 40 folks willing to sacrifice a beautiful Saturday morning for a schlep out to a remote airport hotel crawling with people who wish them dead. They did this for you. Enjoy their signs.

The Brian Brown Newsreel

Good As You's Jeremy Hooper takes yesterday's gloat-fest from Brian Brown back to the century from which it came.

American Family Association Twists The AP's "Obama Appointees" Story

Good As You points out the American Family Association's ongoing practice of rewriting of the Associated Press stories they post on their OneNewsNow blog, in which they substitute "gay" for (in their minds) the more damaging "homosexual," insert (in their minds) insulting graphics, and rewrite the headlines themselves. The AFA pays the AP to use their stories, and that usage agreement surely stipulates that the articles not be altered. GAY's Jeremy Hooper:

[D]espite multiple attempts to make the Associated Press care about this by both this site and by GLAAD, nothing seems to have been done. The AFA continues to do this sort of thing on an almost daily basis, changing the entire meaning, context, and intent of AP stories so that outdated terms are made to seem like an acceptable journalistic practice here in America of 2010, and pink White House graphics are made to seem like perfectly kosher choices that any AP photo editor would routinely make. We don't know what else to do. But we do know that the AP's blind eye on this is unfair to the national discourse, to its own stable of writers and editors, to its brand, and to LGBT people who are sick of seeing their lives presented as alleged. We'd care, if we were America's most prominent news wire.

Maggie Gallagher On Tyler Clementi

"The suicide of that teen was not only a tragedy it was a crime. The young people who violated laws out of mindless desire to bully or embarrass or whatever the heck kids do this stuff will be prosecuted and probably jailed, I hope. Nothing in the press accounts suggest the kids who did this were motivated by homophobia, and the cruelty of cyberbullying is causing teen suicides among those who are not gay, as well. I do not think the absence of gay marriage is the cause of these tragedies or its presence will resolve them. We can make this a symbol of all our other fights, or we can try to save all our kids, gay and straight, from this kind of ugly and mindless cruelty. My heart goes out to the family of the young man. God bless him and them." - Maggie Gallagher, commenting on NOM's blog.

Jeremy Hooper responds at Good As You: "It doesn't matter what Maggie personally thinks about what will or will not resolve tragedies like the ones we've seen this week. It doesn't matter how heartfelt her personal condolences may be. What matters is the body of her professional work with NOM and elsewhere, and the fallout that we gay folk all-too-well know can stem from these "culture war" activities! Because it is this bias cultivation that changes the molecules in the air. It's this anti-civil rights work that puts heterosexism into everyone's psyches. It's this fear-fostering that foments a world where LGBT people are viewed as different, wrong, or in some extreme cases -- unworthy of life."

SLIDESHOW: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand LGBT Fundraiser In NYC

Last night NY Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, Pam Spaulding, and Jeremy Hooper joined me at Hell's Kitchen's Therapy Lounge for an LGBT fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, an event put together by Out For Kirsten's Todd Beeton. Dropping by were SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile, activist Corey Johnson, former Clinton White House adviser Ricard Socarides, and other homo-politicos. Great night! Full-screen version of the below photos can be found here.

TONIGHT: JMG-Sponsored LGBT Fundraiser For Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

My last reminder: If you are in NYC tonight please consider joining me, Jeremy Hooper, and Pam Spaulding at Therapy in Hell's Kitchen as we co-host a special netroots fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. The event runs 6pm-9pm with a $20 donation. Facebook event page here. And please join Out For Kirsten's Facebook page. Openly gay NY state Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell will attend as well. We hope to see you there! You can follow the event live on Twitter at #OutForKirsten.

THURSDAY: JMG-Sponsored LGBT Fundraiser For Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

REMINDER: If you are in NYC on Thursday, August 5th, please consider joining me, Jeremy Hooper, and Pam Spaulding at Therapy in Hell's Kitchen as we co-host a special netroots fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. The event runs 6pm-9pm with a $20 donation. Facebook event page here. And please join Out For Kirsten's Facebook page. Openly gay New York Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell will also attend this event!

AUGUST 5TH: JMG-Sponsored LGBT Fundraiser For Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

If you are in NYC on Thursday, August 5th, please consider joining me, Jeremy Hooper, and Pam Spaulding at Therapy in Hell's Kitchen as we co-host a special netroots fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. The event runs 6pm-9pm with a $20 donation. Facebook event page here. And please join Out For Kirsten's Facebook page.

Longtime readers will recall that I was somewhat skeptical of Gillibrand's bonafides when she was plucked out of relative obscurity to replace Hillary Clinton, but since then I've been impressed with her performance and in particular, her advocacy on our behalf. I am therefore honored to lend my name to this event. I hope to see you there.

NOM's Hate Bus Uses Fake Families

Good As You's ever-resourceful Jeremy Hooper has shown that the families depicted on the sides of NOM's Hate Bus don't actually exist, they're just actors ripped out of generic stock photos. We know NOM is having a hard time getting people to show up for the Hate Tour, but seriously, they couldn't find ONE real homo-hating family to pose for their bus?

American Family Association Calls For Today Boycott Over Wedding Contest

Screencap courtesy of Jeremy Hooper at Good As You, the man who got the AFA's panties in a wad by pointing out the Today Show's anti-gay bias. Kudos, Jeremy!