05/13/2008
Gays are anti-religion, says he who works to keep religion anti-gay
Peter LaBarbera and Box Turtle Bulletin's Timothy Kincaid (a frequent and much loved commenter here at G-A-Y) have been having a back-and-forth regarding the way Pete is presenting the "facts" in an alleged hate crime case that realistically put a young gay man in the hospital. But since the debate is their own, we aren't going to address Pete and Tim's spat. And since the actual events of the case are up for debate and are currently being sorted out in court, we're also not going to delve further into the minutiae of the case or speak in the certain terms that those on Pete's side are currently doing. Instead, we want to address a comment that Pete has written on his website regarding the gay activist community's reaction to his own handling of this case.
In a post addressing the matter, Pete makes the following sweeping statement about gay activists:
"Scratch a homosexual activist, find an anti-religious bigot."
A comment that really says so much about the way folks like Pete view this so-called "culture war." For they are so drawn into the idea that one cannot be gay and religious that they simply cannot separate one's resistance to their anti-gay rhetoric from "anti-religious" bias. They are so overconfident about the infallibility of their own personal "Biblical truth" that anyone who challenges their views or lashes out against the unnecessary hostility they hold for the LGBT community is said to be attacking faith in general. This is a mindset that is not only offensive to the gay activist community, but also to the millions of people of faith believe both in God and in the idea that LGBT people are a normal part of Earth's petting zoo.
As with all communities, the gay activist community is not a monolith. There are surely some in the pro-gay world who, due to their own religious study, are hostile to religion. But the point is that one's personal relationship with God is not the same thing as their personal bodily desires, attractions, and capacities for love. Folks like Pete desperately want this to be a battle between Godliness and unrighteousness, which is precisely why they present "Gay" and "Religion" as being in separate corners waiting for the fight bell to sound. The truth, however, is that if you scratch the vast majority of gay activists, what you will find is someone asking society to employ reason in their Biblical outlooks towards a rich, vibrant population sect, rather than to write them all a one-way, non-cancellable, non-refundable ticket aboard Lake of Fire Airways (sitting in coach, no less). We're asking ALL people of faith, gay and straight, to look not only to a scant number of passages whose one-sided interpretations have been ripped out of their historical context and elevated to an exaggerated place of prominence, but also to the reality of the world. And we're asking everyone to employ the gift of analytical thought that was graciously installed into all of our brains, as we think that any God who was capable of creating all this would want us to do.
If Pete is comfortable reducing his opposition to a bunch of unruly Bible haters, then he's free to do so. We, however, will continue to challenge those who affront our lives and loves on the basis of their gay-centric arguments and rhetoric, rather than cast sweeping generalizations vis-à-vis their personal liasions with the big guy.
Hateful Homosexual Spin Machine Ramps up Against Brett VanAsdlen [AFT]
Mike Epps has on mic 'Oops!'
TMZ has caught Mike Epps in a moment of unbridled anti-gayness, with the website's cameras capturing the actor telling a photographer, "You're a fag -- homosexual!" Unfortunately the proprietary TMZ doesn't allow for embedding, so you have to go watch the video at link:
Day-Day Don't Like Gay Gay [TMZ]
::sigh:: We'll never be able to not watch Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins in the same way again.
We're not only open to truth -- we demand it!
Regarding the American Family Outing initiative, through which the gay-accepting Soulforce organization is encouraging dialogue with some of America's megachurches, Jeff Buchanan of the "ex-gay" group Exodus International says the following to Focus on the Family's CitizenLink:
"I would be completely open to having a meaningful conversation, if both parties were humbly submitted in that conversation," ... "I would not enter into a conversation if I knew there was not a sincere openness to the truth."
Okay, let's talk about this lil' quip for a second. Jeff Buchanan is a man who works encouraging the "ex-gay" idea, a notion which has no credible support from any reasoned, objective body of science or medicine, and which is rejected by the VAST majority of LGBT people. Yet despite these facts, Mr. Buchanan's movement presents itself with an aggressively cocksure attitude about their "truth." They boldly state with fact that "gays can change," and they stage conferences and other events in which they encourage such a metamorphosis for anyone willing to listen. Because there is no concrete bio-genetic gay root pinpointed, they take the liberty of stating with certainty that "nobody is born gay." And even more offensively, they are not only saying that gays CAN change -- they are also saying that gays SHOULD or even MUST change in order to be good, moral, Godly people. Their every chess move is guided by the puffed-up, overweening belief that their forty-ish year old socio-politco-religo movement has infallible veracity on their side, facts be damned!
05/12/2008
Video: Does the macho act really impress anyone?
There are certain truisms that reliably come forth from the mouths of "manly man" 'mo foes.
(1) Regardless of what they look like or how they present themselves, they often like to make it sound as if it's only a matter of time before some gay person comes on to them.
(2) They tend to draw a distinction between those who beat up gays and those who just hate them verbally, with it made to seem like the lack of ass-kickings places the non-violent form of bias on moral high ground.
(3) But those who fall in the verbally rather than physically condemnatory camp usually put the justifiable breaking point at the place where they are hit on by a gay (see number 1), as if violence becomes pretty much mandatory at that point in order to reclaim the manliness of which the flirtatious gay robbed them.
(4) They feel like it's alright to say things like "gays are on a one way track to hell" as long as they are clear to state that it's only their opinion. They of course overlook the fact that not all opinions are deserving of equal credence, with them instead painting their personal views as a simple bit of discourse about which we all should just agree to disagree.
This dude, a self-professed redneck, embraces all of the above and more:
Better luck next year, Hatequeers, Alabama
PlanetOut has named Provincetown the number one gay resort town in America, with Key West and Palm Springs serving as runners up:
Provincetown named best gay resort in America [Wicked Local]
Not to be outdone, the PlanetCloseted website has recommended the far reaches of Siberia (during the off season and only with the hotel room's blinds closed) as the vacation spot most conducive to their readers' lifestyles; Planet'Exgay' has chosen anywhere that requires traveling down a straight and narrow path to get there; and PlanetStraightButCurious has given the top spot to any location that has a buffet of oral options that their readers can freely enjoy only after they've imbibed themselves with a three drink minimum.
Choose your vacation accordingly.
Separation of queers and state
Meanwhile, over in Idaho: A Republican candidate for the House, Walt Bayes, has actually gone so far as to suggest that gay teachers and students in the state's public schools should have to use separate restroom facilities from their 'rosexual peers. The Idaho Press-Tribune has more:
Walt Bayes: Schools need separate bathrooms for gay students [Idaho Press-Tribune]
No word on how, exactly, Bayes plans to pinpoint which students have to use which facilities. After all, at the elementary age, the lines of demarcation would be more easily drawn at who has cooties and who doesn't rather than the gay/straight divide.
Oh, and what about bisexuals? Will they do "number one" in the front facility, and do "number two" in the rear?
There are just so many logistics to work out, so little time to mock them all!
Video: Annoyingly, there are some who'd prefer the brothers and sisters to marry each other
It might not earn them the same rights and benefits as those 'rosexuals who get tele-married. But we defy you to find a sweeter, more earnest TV union than the one that aired on last night's "Brothers & Sisters":
Mazel tov, boys. Now go and have yourself a not-suitable-for-broadcast tele-honeymoon!
Kevin & Scotty's Wedding Ceremony on "Brothers & Sisters" [YouTube]
*Earlier: The proposal [G-A-Y]
*See also: GLAAD has a roundup of TV gay weddings [CineQueer]
Would you like bias with that?
To protest what they and their social conservative pals perceive to be a "homosexual agenda" within the company (see earlier stories here and here), the folks at the Family Research Council have created fliers for customers to deliver to their local McDonald's. Just be sure you've fully digested your McMuffin before reading it:
Wasted paper? Nonsensical claims? Excessively discriminatory views? ::sigh:: As if McDonald's workers needed any more empty calories in their midst!
FRC Action Alert [FRC]
