Archive for Politics category
The Very Real Fears of a Gay Ugandan
Posted by Matt in Christianity, HIV/AIDS, Hate Crimes, News, Politics on February 4th, 2010
This morning, virulently anti-gay quasi-religious group “The Family” sponsored the National Prayer Breakfast, a long-standing tradition in Washington D.C. National Media paid special attention to the Prayer Breakfast this year because The Family has also been credibly linked to the proposed law in Uganda that would demand the killing of gay Ugandans.
In response to the Prayer Breakfast, a coalition of civil rights groups has begun the American Prayer Hour, which had its first press conference yesterday. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has released video from the press conference.
Speaking were Rev. Elder Darlene Garner of the Metropolitan Community Church, Bishop Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Church, and Harry Knox, Director of Religion and Faith for HRC.
But most importantly, a gay Ugandan identified as “Moses” spoke before the cameras. Fearing for his life, Moses concealed his identity in front of the cameras. He talked about his fears and what life is like for a gay Ugandan.
It’s the most frightful speech I’ve seen in a very long time.
Hopefully this explains why the LGBT community goes to red alert when American conservatives spread fear and call for the criminalization of homosexuality. It’s only one step away.
Lt. Col. Fehrenbach: How is DADT working?
As I heard Senator John McCain and others repeat the claim yesterday that “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is working”, I couldn’t help but wonder how in the world they could come to that conclusion.
Fortunately for me, Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach had the same question, which he asked on The Rachel Maddow Show last night.
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Also from The Rachel Maddow Show, Senator McCain is a big ole hypocrite when it comes to DADT. (He’s a hypocrite in a lot of other ways, but let’s stay on task.)
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Finally, here’s a tweet from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. I cannot overstate the importance of his support yesterday. Neither can I overstate my appreciation for it.
FRC’s Peter Sprigg: We should outlaw “gay behavior”
Posted by Matt in California, DADT, Hate Crimes, Marriage, News, Politics on February 2nd, 2010
Today saw the first hearings on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) in over a decade. It was a fun-filled day that I’ll probably talk about in some depth later in the week, but this video needed to be posted immediately.
Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council (a sister company to Focus on the Family) was on Hardball with Chris Matthews tonight alongside SLDN’s Aubrey Sarvis to talk about DADT. This video should be set to the last thirty seconds of the segment when Sprigg let the cat out of the bag. See transcript below.
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Matthews: Do you think we should outlaw gay behavior?
Sprigg: Well, I think certainly it’s defensible.
Matthews: No, I’m just asking you, should we outlaw gay behavior?
Sprigg: I think that the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v Texas, which overturned the sodomy laws in this country, was wrongly decided. I think there would be a place for criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior.
Matthews: So we should outlaw gay behavior.
Sprigg: Yes. [laughs]
Keep in mind that a year ago, Peter Sprigg said that gays should face more taxes than straight people, and a year before that he went on television to suggest that gays be rounded up and “exported”.
Make no mistake: Peter Sprigg is one of the few anti-gay leaders who actually speaks his mind, and the rest of them are thinking exactly what he says. I shudder to think what he keeps to himself.
Incidentally, I hope someone thinks to enter this video into evidence in Perry v Schwarzenegger, the Prop 8 trial. If ever we had evidence of anti-gay animus being whipped up, this is it.
(Hat tip to Alvin McEwen.)
Reenactment of Prop 8 Trial Released
Posted by Matt in California, Christianity, DOMA, Marriage, News, Politics on January 30th, 2010
Producers John Ireland and John Ainsworth have released the first part of their Prop 8 Trial Reenactment, and what I’ve seen so far is well done!
This is our first chance to see what happened inside the courtroom, using the court’s official trial transcript with help from spectators in the court during the proceedings.
See the official Marriage Trial website for a rundown of the parts and players, plus extra commentary from legal experts.
Stay tuned to Marriage Trial’s youtube channel for future episodes, scheduled for release every few days!
NARTH, William Tam, and the Key to Anti-Gay Hate
Posted by Matt in California, Marriage, News, Politics on January 25th, 2010
William Tam, the Prop 8 author who attempted to withdraw from the Prop 8 trial last week, was soundly eviscerated Thursday by plaintiff’s attorney David Boies.
It was rewarding to watch so many trucks driven through Tam’s (and by extension, other anti-gay leaders) arguments, but there was a nugget of information buried in his testimony that I think most people missed. In fact, I doubt that Tam himself caught the problem.
Here’s the complete transcript (pdf) from January 21, 2009, but I pulled out the two brief quotes, both from pages 1939-1940 (198-199 of the pdf).
Q. (David Boies) And do you believe that the NARTH website is a source of objective scientific information?
A. (William Tam) Well, I believe in what they say.
Q. (David Boies) You thought it was better to get your scientific information about this issue from the NARTH website as opposed to the American Psychological Association. Is that your testimony?
A. (William Tam) Uhm, yeah, I believe in what NARTH says.
Notice that both times, William Tam answered a question of fact with a statement of faith. He knew NARTH was an unreliable source, but he wasn’t looking for reliability. Science and truth were irrelevant, cast aside in favor of someone who would pat him on the back and tell him that pursuing his prejudices was good enough.
He’s not alone in this. By design, campaigns of prejudice are based on the gamble that most people will stop looking for facts if someone backs up their prejudice. That’s why anti-gay industry leaders like NARTH (and in turn, William Tam) rely singularly on extreme statements of emotion and fear.
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