Asterisk

Rachel Maddow has continued her reporting on Uganda’s Kill the Gays bill in the last several weeks. Thank goodness she’s on our side, because no one else outside LGBT circles seems to be talking about this attempt at legalized genocide.

Last week Maddow hosted a pair of segments on the ex-gay industry that was the centerpiece of an anti-gay conference in Uganda in March. The second video here was plastered all over the gay blogs last week (and rightly so), but in case you missed it I’m posting it now. Richard Cohen, ex-gay champion and author of Coming Out Straight appeared in an 18-minute segment in which he attempted to defend his dangerous gay cure claptrap.

But first, Salon.com’s Mark Benjamin stopped by to talk about his undercover work at an ex-gay industry retreat. His 2005 four-part series on the industry can be found at the following links: Part 1: Turning off gays | Part 2: My gay therapy session | Part 3: Getting straight with God | Part 4: True confessions.

I should mention that Senator Grassley refused to comment on the Uganda Gay Genocide bill for several days after this segment aired before finally speaking (to Maddow’s audience only) against it late last Friday, during the weekend news dump for news that politicians don’t want in the headlines.

Rick Warren also finally denounced the bill, emphasizing that it prescribes lengthy jail sentences for straight people too.

Okay, now to the main event. Rachel Maddow vs. Richard Cohen.

My thanks to Rachel Maddow for shining a light on the ex-gay industry’s snake oil salesmen. I think she’s right, and I say this completely without hyperbole: Richard Cohen and others in the industry have blood on their hands. Whether it’s Ugandan gays caught in this bill’s genocide or the suicides of their victims, they bear some responsibility.

Last night Rachel Maddow talked about Ugandan government’s proposed law that would *literally* require the execution of gay people and people with AIDS who have gay sex, as well as prison time for people who fail to inform the government of their loved one’s homosexuality. The law also renders advocacy for LGBT and HIV/AIDS causes *literally* illegal.

Box Turtle Bulletin has exhaustive coverage of this story, beginning in March when members of the Exodus International Board and other anti-gay Americans joined a rather frightening conference in Uganda. Very soon after that conference Red Pepper, a Ugandan tabloid, began printing full page lists of gays for people to target, often complete with pictures.

Anyway, it turns out that there’s more of an American connection that we previously knew. Not only are American anti-gays working in advisory roles, not only is Rick Warren (who swears he’s never been political) associate Martin Ssempa a key player, but the bill was written by a member of “The Family”, an arch-conservative religious group that directly targets politicians to turn their hatred into law. Jeff Sharlet, the go-to guy on The Family since his 2008 book, joins Rachel.

I feel like I need a palate cleanser after all the increasingly offensive news last week. Here’s an awesome video about gay marriage from Bryan Safi of infoMania. The video is several months old, but I haven’t seen it in any of the popular haunts, so what the heck.

Okay. That was funny, but it didn’t quite do the trick. Here’s one about gay characters in commercials.

Oooh, there it is. Oh yeah. Do it. You do it. Yeah, that’s right.

(Thanks Bryan Safi and infoMania. You guys are the best.)

The Rick Warren/Prop 8 fiasco continues, now entering its sixth month. Pam Spaulding has reported that the wikipedia entry for Rick Warren has been a subject of some consternation lately. Some contributors, including one recognized as CarverM, have been attempting to whitewash Warren’s involvement with Prop 8 and the controversy surrounding his giving the invocation at the inauguration.

The problem? CarverM turns out to be Mark Carver, the Executive Director of Purpose Driven Church, a clear conflict of interests.

Among suggestions CarverM and other (still unidentified, possibly on the level) whitewashers:

• Warren did not compare same sex marriage to incest, polygamy and pedophilia during his notorious Beliefnet interview.
• Gay and lesbian people have never had the right to marry in California.
• Controversies surrounding Warren’s position on gay marriage are, according to CarverM, “a tempest in a teapot” and unworthy of more discussion than a link to Wikipedia’s Proposition 8 page.

Head over to Pam’s House Blend for the whole article.

For now, the Rick Warren wikipedia page is closed to editing (in an extremely biased state) and the issue brought by Mark Carver is in mediation, with several of the contributers exasperated by the bias Carver and others want to introduce into what is supposed to be objective.

People with long memories will remember Mr. Carver from his involvement in a bit of scandal over the video game Left Behind: Eternal Forces a few years ago. From what I’ve read, he was aware of the objectionable (I’m being charitable) content of the game since the company’s formation in October 2001. He distanced himself only after word got out and people started asking questions.

He fits right in at Purpose Driven!

Oh hey, how about that Rick Warren? It’s been awhile since we checked in on him, and fortunately enough, he happens to be in the news again! And wouldn’t you know, he’s doing what he loves most: Lying.

Rick was on Larry King Live Monday night, and King asked him about the kerfuffle a few months ago when he said that gay people are the same as pedophiles. Here’s the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYIWSyMrhRA

I’m so bored with Rick and his shenanigans. So, so bored. But in the interest of sharing information, here’s some specific refutations. (Full transcript of Larry King Live here)

Yes, you know, Larry, there was a story within a story that never got told. In the first place, I am not an anti-gay or anti-gay marriage activist. I never have been, never will be.

During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never — never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going.

Let’s look past Prop 8, though, and see what Rick said about gay marriage in 2004. Four years ago, he listed gay marriage as one of the five non-negotiable and non-debatable issues for Christians. The pastor of a huge church directed his congregation that if they were okay or even undecided about gay marriage, then they were necessarily bad Christians. That’s some powerful activism, don’t you think?

The week before the — the vote, somebody in my church said, Pastor Rick, what — what do you think about this?

And I sent a note to my own members that said, I actually believe that marriage is — really should be defined, that that definition should be — say between a man and a woman.

Okay, so when Rick here talks about how he “sent a note to [his] own members”, he’s telling a truth. (Shocking, I know!) What he’s not telling you is that there are 22,000 of his “own members”, and that in the video (not note) he encouraged them to re and fwd the heck out of the thing. Here’s the video from October 23, 2004.

Now let me say this really clearly: we support Proposition 8 — and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8. I never support a candidate, but on moral issues I come out very clear.

[...] This is not even just a Christian issue — it’s a humanitarian and human issue that God created marriage for the purpose of family, love, and procreation.

So I urge you to support Proposition 8, and pass that word on. I’m going to be sending out a note to pastors on what I believe about this. But everybody knows what I believe about it. They heard me at the Civil Forum when I asked both Obama and McCain on their views.

(BTW, I addressed the 2% and the “every culture, every religion, 5,000 years” lies last December in this post.)

Back to Monday night:

There were some things said that — you know, everybody should have 10 percent grace when they say public statements. And I was asked a question that made it sound like I equated gay marriage with pedophilia or incest, which I absolutely do not believe. And I actually announced that.

That’s a lie. Rick was not asked a question that made it sound like he equated gay marriage to pedophilia. He came up with that horrible perverse bit of political slinging-quality mud all on his own. From the same post as above:

Rick Warren: But the issue to me is, I’m not opposed to that as much as I’m opposed to the redefinition of a 5,000-year definition of marriage. I’m opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. I’m opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.

Steven Waldman: Do you think, though, that they are equivalent to having gays getting married?

Rick Warren: Oh I do. Most people, you know… I have many gay friends, I’ve eaten dinner in gay homes, no church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church. Kay and I have given millions of dollars out of “A Purpose-Driven Life” helping people who got AIDS through gay relationships. So they can’t accuse me of homophobia. I just don’t believe in the re-definition of marriage.

Beliefnet’s Steven Waldman went in for a clarification and received a hearty “Oh I do.” You can’t lay that one on him, Rick. It’s a little bit unfair for you to try blaming him in the first place, but to do it dishonestly… Ninth Commandment, man. Look into it.

Okay, one more and I’m out.

KING: [Gay marriage is] not high on your road of issues?

WARREN: No, no, it’s very low.

Again, in 2004 gay marriage was the #3 non-negotiable, non-debatable issue. Now that more people are paying attention to what he says, it’s become “very low”.

The best part of all this is that all this damage control isn’t just grabbing the attention of the gay community, but also the Religious Right. One News Now, Donald Wildmon’s anti-gay propaganda machine, has an article today taking Rick to task for lying on CNN. The commenters, never known for their gentility, have been especially savage.

Weird. We agree on something.