homophobia

Tony Dungy against same-sex marriage

According to the Indianapolis Star:

Colts coach Tony Dungy said he knows some people would prefer him to steer clear of the gay marriage debate, but he used a speech Tuesday night to clearly stake out his position.

Dungy told more than 700 people at the Indiana Family Institute’s banquet that he agrees with that organization’s position supporting a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

“I appreciate the stance they’re taking, and I embrace that stance,” Dungy said.

Dungy’s comments came in the final three minutes of a wide-ranging, 20-minute speech that recounted stories from the Colts’ Super Bowl run, related his interest in prison ministry and described how he wondered whether his firing in Tampa was God’s signal for him to leave football and enter ministry. He also talked about his efforts to make the Colts more family-friendly by encouraging players to bring their kids to practice.

Local and national gay-rights organizations had criticized Dungy for accepting the invitation to appear at the banquet. The institute, affiliated with Focus on the Family, has been one of the leading supporters of the marriage amendment.

“IFI is saying what the Lord says,” Dungy said. “You can take that and make your decision on which way you want to be. I’m on the Lord’s side.”

The coach said his comments shouldn’t be taken as gay bashing, but rather his views on the matter as he sees them from a perspective of faith.

“We’re not anti- anything else. We’re not trying to downgrade anyone else. But we’re trying to promote the family — family values the Lord’s way,” Dungy said.

Previous IFI banquets had drawn at most 440 guests, according to organizers. But the appearance of the Super Bowl-winning coach to receive the institute’s “Friend of the Family” award set a record.

Sorry, Tony – this is gay bashing. Basically the textbook definition of it. And even if you’re are claiming to only be concerned with the marriage issue – Indiana Family Institute is not just concerned with that. They say they are, but they have written and supported legislation in the past that went far beyond concerns about marriage. IFI was responsible for a draft of state legislation proposing to quarantine gay men and lesbians in camps to ‘protect against HIV and AIDS’ in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Note, they weren’t talking about rounding up just people who had AIDS (although that legislation DID get passed) – they wanted to pull in all groups they considered ‘at risk’ and they felt all gay men and lesbians fit that category. Yeah… logic escaped them. This draft of the bill was quickly suppressed, but not before a copy of it made its way to the gay community by alarmed folks who read it.

This is the group that Tony Dungy is raising money for.

No Colts
Continue ReadingTony Dungy against same-sex marriage

Why do straights hate gays?

By Larry Kramer
March 20, 2007
DEAR STRAIGHT PEOPLE,
Why do you hate gay people so much?
Gays are hated. Prove me wrong. Your top general just called us immoral. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is in charge of an estimated 65,000 gay and lesbian troops, some fighting for our country in Iraq. A right-wing political commentator, Ann Coulter, gets away with calling a straight presidential candidate a faggot. Even Garrison Keillor, of all people, is making really tacky jokes about gay parents in his column. This, I guess, does not qualify as hate except that it is so distasteful and dumb, often a first step on the way to hate. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama tried to duck the questions that Pace’s bigotry raised, confirming what gay people know: that there is not one candidate running for public office anywhere who dares to come right out, unequivocally, and say decent, supportive things about us.

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Mohler Says Gay Gene Should Be Manipulated, If Possible

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From Beliefnet, among many other sources:

The president of a prominent Southern Baptist seminary says he would support medical treatment, if it were available, to change the sexual orientation of a fetus inside its mother’s womb from homosexual to heterosexual.
The idea of a hormonal patch for pregnant women was discussed by the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., on his blog, www.almohler.com, on March 2.
“If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use as we should unapologetically support the use of any appropriate means to avoid sexual temptation and the inevitable effects of sin,” Mohler wrote in advice for Christians.

I’ve waited a few days before writing about this, because I was so pissed off when I read it that I couldn’t quite deal with it. Mohler officially wins the Joseph Mengele award for horrific dystopian ideas. You really don’t need me to explain why this is wrong, do you?
But you do see how extreme homophobes are in their bent psychosis, right?
I suppose it would be inappropriate for me to counter by suggesting that we start treating all people who believe in religion for psycho-paranoid delusions, wouldn’t it?

Continue ReadingMohler Says Gay Gene Should Be Manipulated, If Possible

SJR-7 Assigned to Committee

House Joint Resolution 15 (HJR-15), the legislation formerly known as SJR-7 and the marriage discrimination amendment, has been assigned to committee in the house. It’s been placed in the House Rule and Legislative Procedures Committee.

Please contact the members of this committee (information below) to oppose this legislation – for Democrats, remind them that putting this on the ballot in 2008 will kill the Democratic lead in the statehouse, among other things, and that the second line of the amendment will affect all unmarried Hoosiers. Ask them to change the ambiguous and broad wording.

Chair: Representative Scott Pelath (D)
http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_democrats/repsites/r09/contact.html

Vice Chair: Representative Russ Stilwell (D)
http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_democrats/repsites/r74/contact.html

Rep. Terri J. Austin (D)
http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_democrats/repsites/r36/contact.html

Rep. Earl Harris (D)
http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_democrats/repsites/r2/contact.html

Rep. Bob Kuzman (D)
http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_democrats/repsites/r19/contact.html

Rep. Dennie Oxley (D)
http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_democrats/repsites/r73/contact.html

Re. Matt Whetstone (R)
http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_republicans/homepages/r40/

Rep. Randy Borror (R)
http://www.in.gov/legislative/homepages/R84/

Ralph Foley (R)
http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_republicans/homepages/r47/

Rep. P. Eric Turner (R)
http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_republicans/homepages/r32/

Continue ReadingSJR-7 Assigned to Committee

Schoolyard Taunts

Ann Coulter on Fox News:

“The word I used has nothing to do with sexual preference. It is a schoolyard taunt… It isn’t offensive to gays. It has nothing to do with gays.”

As I’ve said before, there are souls out there in the universe for whom the word faggot was the last word they heard as they were beaten to death.

One of my former roommates was brutally beaten in the alley outside Greg’s Place – and the men who beat him called him a faggot repeatedly while they beat him, before they tried to run over him with their car as they speed away from the scene of the crime.

I was called a dyke and a queer over and over again when I was raped.

These are not simply schoolyard taunts. They are offensive to gay people. That should go without saying, but apparently it doesn’t. They are words of hate, and they have no place in our public discourse. And if CPAC isn’t interested in denouncing Ann Coulter, then they get to take ownership the words of hate she spewed on their stage.

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Ann Coulter’s Offensive Remarks

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Despite the laughter and applause from the conservatives when Ann Coulter called presidential candidate John Edwards a “Faggot” – several GOP presidential candidates are now trying to distance themselves from her.
A bit late; they should have done that from the podium during the event, while the applause was going on. Now it just looks like what it is – spinning because they realized the public reaction was bad.
Edwards initial reaction wasn’t to decry the homophobia or recognize how dangerous to the gay community it is (given the beating death of a 72 year-old man, a man beaten in New Jersey, and a woman in Boulder, Colorado and an apparent hate crime death here in Kokomo, Indiana) – they used the opportunity to ask for money. There was some reaction to that on blogs, and now Edward’s wife has issued a statement specifically denouncing the homophobia.
I’m glad that people are finally getting that there’s a problem – but the fact that people aren’t getting it right first time and having to make course corrections indicates they people still think this is an issue of being “politically correct” – when the issue is about the safety and security of LGBT people in America.

Continue ReadingAnn Coulter’s Offensive Remarks

Ann Coulter Calls Candidate John Edwards a Faggot

Reported in numerous places (see video), yesterday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (in front of a crowd that included 2008 Republican Presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), former Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) as well as Vice President Dick Cheney), right-wing pundit Ann Coulter had this to say:

“I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.”

One of these days, Ann. One of these fucking days.
Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese:

“To interject this word into American political discourse is a vile and disgusting way to sink the debate to a new, all-time low,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Make no doubt about it, these remarks go directly against what our Founding Fathers intended and have no place on the schoolyard, much less our country’s political arena.”
“It is clear that some in the Republican Party plan to run in 2008 the same way they did in 2004, by using discrimination to divide the country and rally their base,” said Solmonese. “But, 2008 is not 2004, and this time the politics of fear and smear will not work. The American people are tired of those who would rather divide than unite.”
“We demand that every single Presidential candidate in attendance at this conference, along with Vice President Cheney stand up and publicly condemn this type of gutter-style politics,” continued Solmonese. “If not, then their silence will be deafening to the vast majority of Americans who believe this type of language belongs no where near the discussions about the future of our country.”

To say the least. This has been mentioned on dozens of sites I read every day, but I have yet to hear any reaction in the mainstream news about it. I can’t imagine how the New York Times could report on the conference and on Coulter’s speech specifically without mentioning the most imflammatory thing she said in it.
The fact that someone as vile and outside the mainstream as Ann Coulter could be introduced at an event like this in the first place is an outrage. And for her to say this and not have anyone immediately stand up after her commentary and distance the event from it says everything that needs to be said about the Republican Party – it needs to cease to exist.
UPDATE: at least it finally hits Andrew Sullivan. About fucking time, idiot. Jesus I’m sick of reading shit like this from right-wing apologists like Sully on everything – the war, the Republican party. As if they were carefully measuring their beliefs and weighing the issues and only now it’s right to come to the conclusion that the war was wrong, that the Republican party is toxic, etc. Some people knew this years ago, wanker. It’s not like people weren’t telling you and offering you proof back then. You were just busy being a contrarian because it got you attention.

Continue ReadingAnn Coulter Calls Candidate John Edwards a Faggot

An Investigation of the Ex-Gay Movement

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Jim Burroway from Box Turtle Bulletin has written a series of articles on his brave move to attend the “Love Won Out” traveling roadshow put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus which are well worth reading to understand the current rhetoric and rationalizations of the Ex-Gay movement.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Some things I thought were very interesting:
The smallest group of attendees are gay or “ex-gay” people. A much larger number of the attendees are Christians attending to get the latest rhetoric and rationalizations about how to go on the offensive towards the LGBT community. And by far the largest group of people attending are family members of gay people who are seeking information about how to “convert” or “fix” their gay family members. So in essence, it’s a bunch of people talking theory about converting gay people, but not actual “converted” gay people.
The people putting on the conference are certainly putting out a great deal of debunked and statistically and scientifically disproved ideas about the “causes” of homosexuality – the same old tired rhetoric that’s been shot down publicly over and over. And it’s distressing to read that they’re continuing with two ancient and completely offensive canards — that homosexuality is caused by bad parenting and/or childhood sexual abuse.
That’s even more disturbing considering that most of the people attending are family members of gay people — people who now blame themselves for something that they had no control over and had nothing to do with. That’s really sad.
For the record – I’ve said it over and over – I was never sexual abused as a child, and while my parents weren’t perfect, they did love us and raise us well. I love and think the world of both of my parents, who worked hard to give us a good life. They certainly didn’t make me gay by the way they raised me, and I resent their being blamed; there’s nothing wrong with me, so there is nothing to blame them for. The idea is offensive, and it makes me angry on their behalf.
Burroway came a way from the conference with a belief that using the word “hate” do describe what the conference is about was the wrong way to see it. I’m not convince by Burroway’s belief that it’s not about “hate.” It may be the case that attendees, especially family members seeking to “fix” their relatives are motivated by love for their families, and a desire to have a real connection with them. Unfortunately, those people just can’t see that the problem is not with themselves or with their relatives, but with society’s blind discrimination towards people who are different.
But the people putting on the conference, the people telling those relatives they’re responsible for the homosexuality of their family members, are certainly motivated by hatred and bigotry, no matter how nicely the terms are in which it’s expressed. I’ve said it time and again – it’s not the open bigotry of people like Tim Hardaway that we really have to be on guard against – it’s the soft bigotry of the anti-gay, “the love the sinner, but hate the sin” terminology that, like the devil quoting scripture, will allow them to continue to make us less than human.
Because there’s just no getting around the fact that my sexual orientation is an intrinsic part of me, the way my eye balls are, the way my thoughts are. You can’t love me but not my “gayness,” any more than you can love me but hate my eyes, or my right-handedness. And a desire to make me over into something other than what I am, to take away my sense of self, autonomy, and personal will, is not motivated by love or the desire to do good, and never has been.

Continue ReadingAn Investigation of the Ex-Gay Movement

Gay Senior Victim of Hate Attack Dies

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This is heartbreaking.

Andrew Anthos, whose dream was to light up the Michigan State Capitol dome in red, white and blue, died Friday of injuries sustained in a Feb. 13 hate beating.
Though Anthos, 72, was visiting with friends as recently as Wednesday, his condition declined rapidly in the past two days and he was administered the last rites late Thursday in Detroit Receiving Hospital.
The attack, which left Anthos paralyzed from the neck down and virtually without speech, shocked the gay community, which reached out to his family with love and support — as well as anger and a resolve for justice.
“There’s going to be a great deal more attention now that this, unfortunately, has become a homicide,” said Jeffrey Montgomery of Michigan’s Triangle Foundation.
“We have worked with prosecutors here for many years, and all the buttons that can be pushed are being pushed right now,” Montgomery said.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has offered to pay for Anthos’ funeral (which was as organized as Sorensen Funeral Home), Montgomery said.
“So many people want to pay their respects,” said Anthos’ niece, Athena Federis, adding that she considers the gay and lesbian people who’ve offered their support “like family.”
The gay, biracial Anthos, known to loved ones as “Buddy,” had been riding the bus that evening from the public library back to his Detroit apartment when another passenger annoyed with his singing approached him and asked if he was gay.
Anthos left the bus and helped a wheelchair-bound fellow passenger through the snow, only to be followed by the assailant, who hit him in the back of the head with a metal pipe and fled.
The wheelchair-using friend was able to provide some information, Detroit Police Detective Sgt. Ryan Lovier said. But police still seek potential witnesses aboard the bus, which would have arrived at the stop near Detroit’s Windsor Towers apartments roughly between 6 and 6:30 p.m.
The assailant is described as a light-skinned black man, no more than 23 years old, about 5 foot 7 and 150 pounds, wearing a dark coat and pants, Lovier said. (Barbara Wilcox, The Advocate)

Continue ReadingGay Senior Victim of Hate Attack Dies

Kill Batty Man – Scary Jamaican Blog

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Joe.My.God points out this scary homophobic Jamaican site Kill Batty Man, hosted on google/blogger for over a year.

The site gleefully advocates violence towards gay people (often referred to as “batty men”) in the country of Jamaica (which has a long history of rabid homophobia, including some recent incidents I’ve noted here) saying while anti-gay violence will “hurt Jamaica” economically, it’s still a “good thing”.

Free speech issue surround this of course, but inciting people to violence isn’t protected free speech. You can flag the site as offensive and contact google to complain.

UPDATE: Google has placed a warning on the site, citing offensive content.

Continue ReadingKill Batty Man – Scary Jamaican Blog