Asterisk

On April 1-2, 2011, Mission America and Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) will be cosponsoring the second Truth* Academy in Columbus, Ohio. I thought it might be helpful to see what tone and substance attendees can expect from each of the instructors before the conference begins. You can find all of my Truth* Academy posts at this link.

Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel

Barber writes for several far-right websites, most notably World Net Daily, the birther site that also publishes articles by Truth* Academy instructor Linda Harvey. Here’s a snip from one of his articles published last December:

Sometimes the most effective way to deal with a bully is to simply pop him in the chops. While it may not shut him up entirely, it usually gives him pause before he resumes flapping his toxic jaws. It also has the effect of showing the other kids in the schoolyard that they have nothing to fear. Though the bully struts about projecting the tough-guy image, he’s typically the most insecure pansy on the block.

[...]

It’s little wonder they’ve resorted to childish name calling.

I thought it might be interesting to see how Barber stands up to his own description of a bully. Let’s look at some of Barber’s more recent tweets from his personal account (I’ve removed hashtags, but they are otherwise unedited) to see how un-self-aware he is.

(By the way, Alvin McEwen of Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters deals with this full article in this post.)

!!!WARNING: OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE AHEAD!!!

• January 14, 2011: “Look pal, you won’t be able to ‘ask’ or ‘tell’ if you don’t get your hand off my knee! http://yfrog.com/h4d67zoj
• January 25, 2011: Soldiers, does your foxhole buddy have your back or want to rub it?
• January 29, 2011: Drudge:”Man Subjected To Body Cavity Search At Traffic Stop.” Other News: “Barney Frank Waves Down Police in Traffic.” http://tiny.cc/spo05
• January 30, 2011: DADT repeal implementation underway. “Slap fighting” & “tickle parties” to be added to special forces training. http://tiny.cc/jfcdx
• January 31, 2011: She-male model stirs Brazil fashion show. In other news: Man buys Rolex & discovers it’s a knock-off. http://bit.ly/gxcfVW
• January 31, 2011: SNL skit mocking Tranny inanity has homosexual activists fuming (warning: a little crude) http://bit.ly/ewYd0A
• February 1, 2011: Queering the Marines: From morally upright 2 immorally down-low. From semper fidelis 2 limp-wristed fellas http://bit.ly/fBcuqH
• February 23, 2011: Today’s Army: Trannies, drag queens & she-males, oh my! http://tinyurl.com/6kcrssb
• February 25, 2011: The homofascist bullying & brainwashing begins: “Combat troops to get gay sensitivity training:” http://bit.ly/dKqh4b

That’s just a sampling from six weeks of tweets, and I didn’t include any of his Birther or anti-Muslim nonsense, either.

Then there’s the non-Twitter stuff. I’ll only give you two, but there are plenty more where these came from.

In an article published December 15, 2009, Barber defined homosexuality as: “One man violently cramming his penis into another man’s lower intestine and calling it ‘love.’”

And before that, in 2009 Barber told a room full of anti-gays to focus on the “ick” factor (he took his own advice above), and said that “Christ wasn’t about being nice.”

You can imagine the sort of rhetoric Matt Barber will bring to the supposedly Christian-principled Truth* Academy.

On April 1-2, 2011, Mission America and Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) will be cosponsoring the second Truth* Academy in Columbus, Ohio. I thought it might be helpful to see what tone and substance attendees can expect from each of the instructors before the conference begins. You can find all of my Truth* Academy posts at this link.

Linda Harvey of Mission America

First of all, Linda is a columnist for World Net Daily.

I’m tempted to just stop there, what with World Net Daily (WND) being the home of ultra-ultra-right-wing nutjobs, most notably including the birthers. But in the interest of information sharing, I’ll continue, taking her WND activities last.

Linda is the founder of Mission America, which I’m convinced has a staff of exactly one. The organization is pretty much an also-ran in the anti-gay industry, and also advocates against non-conservative Christian churches, non-Christian religions, and feminism.

Her Mission America radio show is broadcast on WRFD-AM, an ultra-conservative christian radio station in Columbus, Ohio. Just to give you a flavor of her show, here’s audio from the show this past Monday (2/21/11) when she interviewed hate-monger Scott Lively, steering well clear of the fresh Ugandan blood on his hands.

Linda Harvey Interviews Scott Lively

So that’s Linda’s one-woman organization and 22-minute radio show. Let’s turn our attention to her column at WND.

In the past few months, Linda has published the following articles:

• Find sodomy repulsive? Don’t ask, don’t tell, in which Linda laments the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, citing servicemembers’ loss of “their rights to disgust” and draws the bizarre if predictable conclusion that “the rights to freedom of association, to freedom of religion and the rights to privacy of our troops will be sacrificed on the altar of sodomy.” Linda also references the “lavender military” and “lavender special interests.”
• San Fran: Loves sodomy, hates Happy Meals, in which Linda has a problem with a potential San Fransisco law banning Happy Meal toys, not because of any constitutional freedoms issues but because The Homosexuals live in San Fransisco. She also makes the common mistake of correlating high HIV infection rates among gay men in San Fransisco with gay sex (in the butt) rather than risky sex (without correctly using a condom), as well as the fact that LGB kids are completely left in the dark by a “abstinence-only-until-marriage” curriculum. Also, Linda thinks that The Homosexuals shouldn’t be allowed to be around kids because The Homosexuals will molest them.
• Goldman Sachs’ real sin, in which Linda takes the Goldman Sachs people to task for :gasp: contributing to GLSEN, which she calls a “child-corruption network” that “promotes sexual deviance to children,” which, of course, isn’t what GLSEN does at all.
• Is ‘gay’ agenda to blame for teen suicides?, in which Linda despicably mis-attributes last fall’s alarming rise in reported suicides by LGBT teens to The Homosexuals encouraging kids not to hate themselves. In so doing, she quite conveniently absolves herself and other anti-gay propagandists of any guilt.

There are a few more recent articles, and I could go back beyond just the last few months, but I think you get the point. Linda Harvey probably wouldn’t say any of these things to the press if they were to show up at Truth* Academy this April 1st or 2nd. No, it just wouldn’t do to have the general public hear these things from her mouth.

But next time you hear her name, remember that behind her “we don’t hate anybody, perish the thought” public face is a big fat sack of hurtful, untrue, and destructive hate.

Over a year ago, I wrote a post called Too Late to Save Careers of Choi and Fehrenbach? based on some new clues on whether Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal would actually happen. Today, we have the answer for both of these heroes.

For Lt. Dan Choi, DADT repeal came too late. Dan was fired from the Army Reserves in June 2010.

But it’s a new year, and now that the DADT repeal bill has been signed by President Obama, many wondered what would happen to Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach.

On February 7, Rachel Maddow was the first to report that Lt. Col. Fehrenbach has received new orders that included his retirement on September 30, 2011, with his full rank and 20-year pension intact.

According to an article in today’s South Bend Tribune, Lt. Col. Fehrenbach hasn’t decided what comes next for him, but he is considering writing a book, saying “It’s been quite a roller coaster. I would hope it would be inspirational.” I’m hoping Rachel Maddow has him on soon to talk about this unexpected end.

I’m glad Lt. Col. Fehrenbach will be able to retire like this, but one little part is nagging at me. He will serve his last eight months without a discharge hanging over his head, and that is good. But it’s too bad that he won’t be able to fly again. I hope the Air Force finds a way to make that happen.

One more thing. I’m not usually a big fan of the whole NOH8 campaign airbrushed photos (usually of celebrities), but I’m making a rare exception today. When someone works this hard for their sculpted, glistening, hard body with nipples you just want to suckle, arms so strong they could hold you forever, a cleft chin that calls out…… (sorry) we have a responsibility to help them share it. In the spirit of community and out of the goodness of my heart, I have decided to assist him in this way.

His chest tattoo is "Правда"
"TRUTH" in Russian; "JUSTICE" in Serbian

YOU’RE WELCOME, VIC. (Call me!)

December 22, 2010 is a good day.

I had a thousand or so words here, but in their place, here is a picture from the ceremony by White House photographer Pete Souza. The woman is veteran Miriam Ben-Shalom, and this is how I felt this morning.

Tomorrow we can get back to fighting amongst ourselves about completing DADT repeal and which fight comes next. Tomorrow we can talk about who gets the credit for this monumental win and who should have (or shouldn’t have) been at the signing. Tomorrow we can fight the hate groups that call for our persecution and the ignorance that helps them fester.

I have opinions on all of those things (shocking, I know!), but for today, I’m content to know that this time bigotry lost and American ideals won.

Three days before Christmas 2010, America delivered a gift to future generations. And for that, I am glad.

This is big. Big big.

District Judge Ronald Leighton of the 9th Circuit ordered late Friday afternoon that the US Air Force must reinstate DADT victim Maj. Margaret Witt because, in the Court’s words, her discharge was unconstitutional. This is the second time in as many weeks that a federal court has used that word to describe Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

Rachel Maddow had the story and an interview with Maj. Witt, who appeared alongside Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, who is currently fighting his discharge using the new Witt Standard.

(Lots of links up there. If you’re just learning about Witt, Fehrenbach, Dan Choi, and the ultimate defeat of DADT, you need to follow all of them.)

Here’s the ruling.

In support of the Congressional findings underpinning DADT, the government can point to polls and petitions which reflect Congress’ fear that openly serving gays and lesbians will negatively impact military readiness by eroding unit morale and cohesion across the services without regard to any one individual’s billet or job description. Again, these polls are some evidence that some folks would prefer to not serve with admitted homosexuals. That such views may lead to a drop in recruitment or retention is a possibility, just as it was a possibility during the integration of blacks, other minorities and women into the armed forces.

The possibility of such push back is off-set by the known negative impact of DADT upon the military: the loss of highly skilled and trained military personnel once they have been outed and the concomitant assault on unit morale and cohesion caused by their extraction from the military.

Victor Fehrenbach and Margaret Witt, with Witt's partner Laurie McChesney behind on the right

It’s important to understand what makes Maj. Witt’s case so important. As I posted in March, the Witt Standard essentially turns the DADT burden of proof on its head.

Before, the government accepted as a general rule that lesbians and gay men were a threat to the military. It was up to the accused servicemember to prove that s/he was an exception to that rule, an argument that has never been successfully made even in slam dunk cases like Lt. Dan Choi's, in which the entire process was on autopilot, no one wanted him fired, and even the government’s own witnesses said he was an asset to his unit.

Under the Witt Standard, it is the government’s job to prove that each individual accused servicemember is a specific threat to the military before firing them.

And now, at least in the 9th Circuit, a judge has given that new standard some teeth.

Like I said, big big.