homophobia

Christian Terrorist Cells in the USA

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This week’s Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 249 has a nice roundup of recent domestic terrorist incidents perpetrated by Christian Terrorists within the United States. They gathered the list to contrast with the silly drum-banging that the Bush Administration did recently about the so-called Muslim terrorist cell from Miami — the guys who had no actual weapons, plan, finances or connections and who could no more have bombed the Sears Tower than I could armed with a shovel.

But check out this big fat list of blood-thirsty, fully armed killers, all of whom have at least one thing in common — they hate the hell out of me.

2001: According to the Feminist Majority Foundation in Arlington, Virginia, Over 170 abortion clinics and doctors’ offices in 14 states and the District of Columbia received threatening letters claiming to contain anthrax. The envelopes had return addresses from the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Marshall Service with postmarks from Atlanta, GA; Knoxville, TN; Chattanooga, TN; or Columbus, OH. The envelopes were also marked, “TIME SENSITIVE: Urgent Security Notice Enclosed.” When opened by clinic staff, all letters contained a white powder with a letter stating, “You have been exposed to anthrax. We are going to kill all of you. Army of God, Virginia DARE Chapter.”

2003: A nurse has been charged with firing a shotgun at an abortion clinic in Asheville before it opened on Thursday, according to police. Brenda Kaye Phillips, 44, a registered nurse, was charged a misdemeanor count of damage to property for shooting at the Femcare Women’s Clinic. The same clinic was the target of bomb four years ago.

2003: Klan leader David Wayne Hull was arrested at his Washington County, Pennsylvania, home on February 13 for allegedly planning to blow up an abortion clinic. Federal prosecutors charged Hull, a forty-year-old Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a small Pennsylvania-based group, with receiving, manufacturing, possessing and transferring a destructive device in violation of the National Firearms Act. At a preliminary hearing in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh on February 18, prosecutors accused Hull of trying to buy hand grenades from a witness cooperating with the FBI. According to an unsealed criminal complaint, Hull told the informant he was “going to blow up abortion clinics.” Authorities say that Hull told the informant he made his car a “suicide bomb on wheels.” In July 2002, Hull attended the “Aryan Nations World Congress,” convened by the Pennsylvania faction of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations. He is also a follower of Christian Identity, a racist and anti-Semitic sect whose adherents believe that white people are God’s chosen people, descended from the lost tribes of ancient Israel, and that minorities are soulless “mud peoples.”

2004: A man who was accused of plotting to firebomb abortion clinics, churches, and gay bars was sentenced yesterday to five years in federal prison. Stephen John Jordi, 36, pleaded guilty in February to a single charge of attempted arson of an abortion clinic. Prosecutors had asked Judge James Cohn to sentence Jordi under a federal terrorism law and sought seven to 10 years. Cohn refused, saying federal sentencing rules require that plots have an international component to be considered terrorism. “This crime was strictly domestic and in no way transcended national boundaries,” Cohn said. Jordi and a government informant bought gasoline cans, flares, starter fluid, and propane tanks the day he was arrested last November after casing several South Florida abortion clinics and talking about bombing one in Macon, Ga., according to the FBI. Prosecutor John Schlesinger said he “respectfully disagreed” with the judge’s decision not to sentence Jordi as a terrorist.

2005: A 24-year-old Shreveport woman and her 18-year-old boyfriend have been charged with attempting to bomb an abortion clinic. Authorities say Patricia Hughes and Jeremy Dunahoe were arrested and booked into City Jail. Hughes was charged with manufacturing and possession of a delayed incendiary device. Dunahoe was charged as an accessory. Hope Medical Group for Women wasn’t damaged when someone tossed a Molotov cocktail at it about 10:45 the night of December 12th.

2005: A suspicious fire damaged an abortion clinic, and federal agents launched an investigation, authorities said Tuesday. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined local authorities in the investigation of the blaze late Monday at the Presidential Women’s Clinic. No one was injured. Details on the extent of damage were not immediately available. It appeared that lighter fluid or some other accelerant was used to start the blaze, fire department spokesman Phil Kaplan said. A July 2004 fire damaged another Palm Beach County abortion clinic and a 2003 blaze damaged one in neighboring Broward County.

2006: Evidence teams plan to put on protective gear and seal the room as they search for any clues left behind on a contraption that investigators are calling a “weapon of mass destruction.” Technicians will be looking for fingerprints and any other evidence that may have been left on the device, which was pumping a mix of water and a caustic chemical into a sex shop when neighbors found it Sunday morning, detectives said. The evidence crew will be breathing the air inside the room, but won’t have any unprotected contact with the plastic jugs, duct tape, and hoses that make up the device. In Waldo, people have held prayer vigils and protests aimed at an adult bookstore along US 301, trying to keep the “Cafe Risque” from opening its doors on time.

2006: A man who told police he made a pipe bomb to attack an abortion clinic was arrested Thursday, shortly before the device went off in a friend’s home while authorities tried to disable it, according to court documents. … Weiler faces four federal counts including making a destructive device and possessing an illegal handgun. He was being held Thursday. Phone messages left at Weiler’s home were not returned. A car in the driveway had a frame around the front license plate that read “Choose Life” and “God is pro-Life.”

Notice that emphasized quote above — according to our federal government, a plot has to have an “international component” to be considered terrorism. WTF?!?!

Why? Any political act designed to terrorize a group of people is terrorism, including all the above incidents, all of which meet the definition far better than a bunch of disgruntled Miami dudes who basically sat around talking smack and not much else.

Continue ReadingChristian Terrorist Cells in the USA

The Harrison Center and Anti-Gay Religious Groups

This is extremely disturbing, and not a hoax, despite today’s date. An “Ex-Gay” event will take place in Marion, Indiana, planned and sponsored by a church in our downtown neighborhood — the Redeemer Presbyterian Church at 1505 North Delaware, Indianapolis, IN., which is also home of the The Harrison Center art gallery, run by our neighbor Joanna Taft, who appears to be a member of the board of the church.

According to the Indy Star:

Ministry says it helps gays become straight
Indianapolis Star April 1, 2006

Brad Grammer says he gets 120 calls a year from people asking for help in shaking their attraction to people of the same gender.

As director of Hope and New Life Ministries, a small Downtown operation based in Redeemer Presbyterian Church, he helps the callers find counselors or directs them to churches with support groups.

Grammer’s work is part of a network of “ex-gay” ministries affiliated with Exodus International, a 30-year-old Christian organization built on the premise that gay and lesbian people can change their sexual orientation.

For one week this summer, Exodus will make Indiana Wesleyan University the hub of the ex-gay movement when it brings its 31st Annual Exodus Freedom Conference to the university’s campus in Marion. The event is billed as the largest gathering of ex-gays anywhere in the world.

Exodus says the gathering, which starts June 27, will feature personal stories from people who consider themselves to be ex-gays.

“We are not trying to shove this on someone that is not ready,” said Julie Neils, a spokeswoman for Exodus International, which is based in Orlando, Fla. “We are here to say that change is possible because we have evidence of that, with hundreds of thousands of ex-gays that have come out of homosexuality.”

Leaders in Indianapolis’ gay community are wary of Exodus and its claims. They question whether anyone can turn from an orientation they were born with.

And they say perpetuating the idea that change is possible makes family members and public policy makers insensitive to the real needs of gays and lesbians.

“In my congregation, there are any number of people who had been part of the ex-gay movement,” said the Rev. Jeff Miner, senior pastor at Jesus Metropolitan Community Church, a Northeastside congregation that believes committed gay relationships are not contrary to the Bible. “The stories they tell me is that it was an excruciating time in their life when they were trying to be something they could never be.”

Religious leaders and gay rights groups have for years been locked in highly public battles over same-sex marriage.

Grammer said Christians who believe homosexuality is contrary to the Bible have frequently failed to show love and compassion toward gay individuals.

Exodus International President Alan Chambers agrees. He said Christian groups have spent too much energy pointing fingers at gays and making hostile arguments in the public square.

“The truth is that Christ died for all of us or he died for none of us,” Chambers said. “The way you win the battle is that people are changed when you reach their hearts.”

Some mainstream church denominations have opened their doors to gays and lesbians without challenging their lifestyles. Now, there are tentative signs that churches that don’t condone homosexuality are seeing the need to take a softer tone — not on their doctrine, but in how they welcome gay individuals.

Grammer said at least four such churches in the Indianapolis area have established ministries aimed at helping people who say they want to leave homosexuality. He is trying to develop more.

Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana, a self-described pro-family lobbying group, said churches with traditional beliefs on homosexuality have been slow to get involved in ex-gay ministries. But more are getting interested.

“As homosexuality is becoming more and more acceptable in the culture, even to the point of being hip or chic — particularly among teenagers — churches are realizing that this may be a growing problem that they need to address,” said Clark, whose organization is among those telling churches about the conference.

The conference includes sessions for married couples in which one spouse struggles with being attracted to people of the same sex.

A youth-day event will point conflicted kids toward the path of heterosexuality. And there will be support groups and educational sessions for parents with gay children.

Miner, with Jesus Metropolitan Community Church, said he feels only a “deep sense of sadness” for the people who will attend.

He says few — those with an ambiguous sexuality — ever change, and many more will find only heartache.

“The message I try to give to people in the ex-gay movement is that if this doesn’t work for you, remember it is not your only option,” he said. “You can be both gay and Christian.”

But Chambers, the president of Exodus, says he is a former gay man who is now married with children.

He says hearing the stories of other ex-gays helped him find a way out.

He expects many who come to Indiana Wesleyan’s campus this summer will find it also.

“I had been told prior to that by people in the gay community that I couldn’t change, that there was no hope for overcoming that,” he said.

“The truth, in our opinion, is that people come out of homosexuality.”

Continue ReadingThe Harrison Center and Anti-Gay Religious Groups

More Indiana State Legislature Attacks on Gay People

Bills that affect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered folks in Indiana:

Preference of Marriage Bills
House Bill 1335 (Preference for marriage over other relationships) and House Bill 1202 (Preference for marriage; instruction by schools) – Introduced by Rep. Jeff Thompson (R-Lizton) These two bills, would have Indiana law declare that marriage is preferred, encouraged, and supported over any other domestic relationship. Additionally, it would require that public schools not allow instruction that is contrary to policies established by law concerning marriage. HB 1335 has been assigned to the House Public Policy and Veterans Affairs Committee; HB 1202 has been sent to the House Education Committee. Neither bill is yet scheduled for committee consideration. This legislation appears to be in response to the idea among some social conservatives that schools are “promoting homosexuality.”

Patricia Miller’s Resurrection of “Unauthorized Reproduction” Bill
Senate Bill 0273 (Abandoned embryos and adoption matters) – Introduced by Sen. Patricia Miller (R-Indianapolis) Among other things this legislation calls for the Health Finance Commission to study assisted reproduction, infertility, gestational agreements, and surrogacy arrangements. SB 0273 has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee; however, no hearing date has been set. The proposed study appears to be an attempt by Sen. Miller to resurrect her unsuccessful proposal to make assisted reproduction illegal for same-sex couples, unmarried couples, and single women.

What to do about it
WHAT: “Our Families Count!” rally
WHEN: Thursday, February 9, 2006 1-3pm
WHERE: Indiana Statehouse North Atrium (200 W Washington Street – Indianapolis)
WHO: Indiana Equality & Friends
WHY: Our families are not second-class! The state shouldn’t teach that they are!
Stand up and let your family be counted! Join Indiana Equality at the Statehouse for the “Our Families Count!” rally February 9.

Representatives from many area groups will be on hand. Guest speakers will start at 1:30! We have many great speakers lined up. You won’t want to miss this historic rally for equality!

Continue ReadingMore Indiana State Legislature Attacks on Gay People

Orson Scott Card

Aw, man. I suspected when we were reading Ender’s Game for my book club that mormon Orson Scott Card was a conservative nutjob. Turns out he is indeed: he actually writes an article attempting to rehabilitate the Sith and the dark side, claiming that the Jedis are the force of evil, not Darth Vader. That sucks majorly.

Check out more on the rehabilitation of Darth Sidious and other Right-winger’s attempts to trash the Jedi.

D’oh! After reading on, I gather that Card has written several homophobic articles and essays — googling found me some of them. Fuck. Crap, I wish I hadn’t actually purchased his stupid paperback now. That’s seven bucks I inadvertently gave to a bigotted moron.

Now I don’t feel so bad for making fun of the fucking Mormons and their sideshow religion. If you read “Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith” by Jon Krakauer, you’ll discover a history of Mormonism and of the fundamentalist aspects of the religion — and you discover how easily “mainstream” Mormons slip over into radicalism because of the nature of the religion.

Part of what you learn of their history is that the “founder” of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, was basically a P. T. Barnum character; a shyster con man of a sort that was common in the 1800’s. Like many other snake oil salesmen and salvation show types traveling around, (think of the HBO series Carnivale and you get an idea of the type) he made up his own religion that was part entertainment carnival and part self-serving graft. Smith was actually convicted of running con jobs at one point. He concocted a story about an Angel (named MORONI, no less!) burying golden tablets under a rock, wrote his own side-show version of the bible, and took his story on the road, collecting heaps of cash along the way.

Unlike other con men, though, he accidentally became successful. Unfortunately before he could get out with the cash, he started believing his own hype. In a brazen move, he decided that a young girl he was lusting after should be his second wife, and re-wrote his own religion to allow him to have multiple spouses. Needless to say that was popular with the guys, and he ended up with a bunch of people following him around; people who kept getting into trouble with people over land and territory. Nothing to do but move them out west. And thus from one guy’s wayward penis, an entire nutjob religion was born. And you thought Clinton’s inability to keep it zipped was a problem.

All this makes Card’s criticism of the “Jedi religion” extremely funny:

It’s one thing to put your faith in a religion founded by a real person who claimed divine revelation, but it’s something else entirely to have, as the scripture of your religion, a storyline that you know was made up by a very nonprophetic human being.

Continue ReadingOrson Scott Card

Bash a Fag For Jesus

Shoot, yesterday was the National Day of Silence, and I missed blogging about it. This is a project where high school students, to protest the harrassment and bullying that gay and lesbian teenagers experience at school every day, choose to go through their day without speaking. Started in 1998, it’s swelled into a nationally recognized event.
Now, though, anti-gay Christian Terrorists are targeting the day by calling the day “Bash a Fag For Jesus” (oh, wait, I guess they’re really calling it a “Day of Truth” but my title is more accurate) where they target kids who are participating in the day by wearing T-shirts and handing out gay-bashing flyers.

Continue ReadingBash a Fag For Jesus

We Kissed Inside The Statehouse

Photo Set: 2005 Rally Against SJR-7

We had a wonderful, successful rally at the Indiana Statehouse yesterday! Hundreds of people showed up with extraordinary signs to protest the SJR7 legislation. We were getting people’s contact information, and of the people who agreed to sign up, we got 757 contact addresses. That was about 3/4ths of the crowd, so we had about 1,000 people attending.

What I was really impressed with was not just the fact that I saw tons of people I knew (some of whom I’d never imagine going to a political rally) but I saw tons of people I’ve never seen before in my life. That’s really amazing, because when you’ve been out in the gay community as long as I have, you tend to think it’s really small and that everyone knows everyone else. It takes something like this to make me realize that we have a HUGE gay community in Indiana.

There were excellent speakers, and according to some of the people who lobby regularly, we made a great impression on some of the legislators. Nobody expected the size of crowd we had. At the end of the rally we went inside to lobby, and ran into Eric Miller’s Advance America bigots as they were leaving. Most of Miller’s crowd were home-schooled kids and christian school kids who get extra credit for being bussed into Miller’s rally.

So we chanted at them and basically screwed up the end of their rally. Stephanie and I were by the doors, and a group of bigots who were leaving started to bunch up to trap us inside, chanting and trying to intimidate us. So we kissed in front of them and freaked them out. It was GREAT! They RAN outside to get away from us. A reporter from the IU School Paper snapped our photo while we were kissing, and then interviewed us, so we’re likely to end up in the IU paper. It was really exciting.

UPDATE: Stephanie and I were quoted in the IU paper but they didn’t include our picture.

Indiana Daily News

Other’s Pictures from the Rally

Scott Barrett’s Photos
Marti Abernathy’s Photos
Scott Barnes’ Photos
Wilson’s Photos

Media Coverage of the Rally

Check out this picture of an anti-gay bigot attempting to punch one of the people from our rally:

South Bend Tribune
Another Story of threatened violence from the bigots from a person at our rally: “The Advance America people were filing out —a small group of 5 or 6 young men approached me holding our big IE sign and one said, ‘Don’t you wish we had some torches?!’ The others laughed and they continued on down to the sidewalk.”

NUVO Story: “God hates gays”
Indy Star
WISH-TV
WTHR
The IndyChannel (RTV6)
WXIN – Channel 59 (Indianapolis)
WIBC/Network Indiana
Associated Press
Courier-Journal (Louisville)
Indianapolis Star (Dan Carpenter column) “Inside the anti-gay crusade”
Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne)
Courier & Press (Evansville)
Northwest Indiana Times
365Gay.Com

Continue ReadingWe Kissed Inside The Statehouse

Cheney Tries To Scare America into Voting Against Kerry

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Cheney tries to claim that voting for Kerry will cause another terrorist attack. The terrorist don’t want Kerry in office. They want Bush. He’s the best recruiting tool they’ve ever had, and he has no support from any important country in the world. They also do a lot of business with him through the Saudi Royal Family. Bush makes the terrorist’s job easy, and they’re dying to keep him.
Let me repeat it — you are NOT IN ANY DANGER FROM FOREIGN TERRORISTS. The only terrorists you should be afraid of are the Christian Terrorists the blew up the Oklahoma City building, that set off a bomb at the Atlanta Olympics, that sent Anthrax to Democrats and the So-Called Liberal Media. These are they terrorists that are getting away with it… because they’re Republicans. Of course no one’s looking for them.

Continue ReadingCheney Tries To Scare America into Voting Against Kerry

Republican Alan Keyes calls Dick Cheney’s Daughter a “Selfish Hedonist”

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In case you missed all the really great fun, During an interview with Michelangelo Signorile at the Republican National Convention on Monday, carpetbagger Republican candidate Alan Keyes, who is running for office in Illinois against media darling Barack Obama, was asked about Mary Cheney, Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter. What he answered is causing a firestorm both within the convention and in the media. Here’s what he had to say:

Signorile: “I am speaking with Alan Keyes, and you’ve come to the Republican convention to support President Bush I presume”

Keyes: “Oh certainly, I think that President Bush needs to be reelected for the sake of this countries security, he has provided that kind of leadership that we are going to have to have if we are going to confront and defeat the challenge of terrorism that has already claimed so many American lives”

Signorile: “What did you think of Vice President Cheney last week coming out and saying he doesn’t agree with the President on the federal marriage amendment, seems to be a break with the party, do you think he is sending a mixed signal?”

Keyes: “I don’t know, I think he is entitled to his personal convictions, but I think that the party’s position is the correct one. We have to stand in defense of the traditional marriage institution in order to preserve its basis in procreation and make sure that we retain an understanding of family life that is rooted in the tradition of procreation, of child bearing and child rearing now in the essence of family life.”

Signorile: “Now, Vice President Cheney, of course, has a daughter. She is gay. He used the word gay. He says he has a gay daughter, he seems very proud of his gay daughter. It seems like real family values and certainly seems like preserving the American family. Is his family un-American?”

Keyes: “No, the point of the matter is that marriage as an institution involves procreation. It is in principle impossible for homosexuals to procreate, therefore they cannot marry. It is a simple logical syllogism and one can wish all one might, but pigs don’t fly and we can’t change the course of nature.”

Signorile: “One can wish that Bob and Liddy Dole would have a child but that’s just impossible.”

Keyes: “Pigs can’t fly. That is incidental and point of fact Bob and Liddy Dole can have children. They incidentally face problems that prevent them from doing so. In principle…”

Signorile: “Don’t homosexuals incidentally face problems too?”

Keyes: “No, you don’t understand the difference between incident and essence. Homosexuals are essentially incapable of procreation. They cannot mate. They are not made to do so. Therefore the idea of marriage for two such individuals is an absurdity”

Signorile: “But one or the other in the couple can procreate?”

Keyes: “No the men can donate their sperm, the women can have babies. The definition of understanding of marriage is that two become one flesh. In the child, the two transcend their persons and unite together to become a new individual. That can only be done through procreation and conception.”

Signorile: “But what about a heterosexual couple who cannot bear children and then adopt. They are not becoming one as flesh, they are taking someone else’s flesh.”

Keyes: “They are adopting the paradigm of family life. But the essence of that family life remains procreation. If we embrace homosexuality as a proper basis for marriage, we are saying that it is possible to have a marriage state that in principle excludes procreation and is based simply on the premise of selfish hedonism. This is unacceptable.”

Signorile: “So Mary Cheney is a selfish hedonist, is that it?”

Keyes: “Of course she is. That goes by definition. Of course she is.”

Signorile: “I don’t think Dick Cheney would like to hear that about his daughter.”

Keyes: “He may or may not like to hear the truth, but it can be spoken.”

Signorile: “Do you really believe that Mary Cheney…”

Keyes: “By definition. A homosexual engages in the exchange of mutual pleasure. I actually object to the notion that we call it sexual relations because it is nothing of the kind.”

Signorile: “What is it?”

Keyes: “It is the mutual pursuit of pleasure through the stimulation of the organs intended for procreation, but it has nothing to do with sexuality because they are of the same sex. And with respect to them, the sexual difference does not exist there, and therefore are not having sexual relations.

Signorile: “Mr. Keyes, then how can you support President Bush then, because if something were to happen to him the President would be Dick Cheney, who has a daughter who you say is a hedonist, and a selfish hedonist, and the President would be supporting that at that point?”

Keyes: “It seems to me that we are supporting a ticket that is committed to the kinds of things that are necessary to defend this country and we are all united in that support in spite of what might be differences on issues here and there.”

Signorile: “Thank you for speaking with us.”

Continue ReadingRepublican Alan Keyes calls Dick Cheney’s Daughter a “Selfish Hedonist”

Somebody stole my rainbow Flag

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From in front of my house, for the second time. I’m pretty pissed about it. However, my name is etched onto the pole, and the flag is super-glued to the pole, so whoever has it, if they stole it to put outside their house, won’t be able to display it without me finding it.
I suspect since it has happened twice now, though, that the thief is someone homophobic who doesn’t want the flag displayed. I’m trying to figure out the best way to put a massive flag on my house without anyone being able to do anything. I’m thinking curtains in the front window upstairs, actually. Hmmm.

Continue ReadingSomebody stole my rainbow Flag

Bush Renews Call to Ban Gay Marriage

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I want this man out of my White House. At the very least, the man needs to go back to high school and take a damned civics course, so he can remember how the government, especially the judiciary, is supposed to work.
From the Indianapolis Star:

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — President Bush on Monday renewed his call for Congress to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages.

On the same day that Massachusetts began issuing licenses to gay couples, Bush said in a statement, “The sacred institution of marriage should not be redefined by a few activist judges.”

In the statement, read aboard Air Force One by White House press secretary Scott McClellan while traveling to Topeka, Kan., Bush said that “all Americans have a right to be heard in this debate.”

Noting that he had called on Congress some time ago to pass a constitutional amendment banning such marriages, Bush said “the need for that amendment is still urgent, and I renew that call today.”

Continue ReadingBush Renews Call to Ban Gay Marriage