Thursday, April 22, 2010

Andrea Lafferty - I'm proud to be a member of a hate group

From my online buddy Jeremy Hooper comes an interesting comment from the Traditional Values Coalition's Andrea Lafferty.

She was commenting on the fact that the Southern Poverty Law Center designated her group as one of 12 anti-gay hate groups:

The SPLC is the group that wrote a memo used by Obama’s Homeland Security Department claiming that veterans and pro-lifers were dangerous to national security.

Actually, it is a badge of honor for TVC to be listed by the SPLC as a “hate group.” It proves we’re effective in challenging liberalism, socialism, and the LGBT agenda.

That comment about SPLC writing memo a for the Obama Administration is a lie. But since when do you expect a hate group to be truthful. Now it's important to establish what SPLC constitutes as an anti-gay hate group:

Opposition to equal rights for homosexuals has been a central theme of Christian Right organizing and fundraising for the past three decades – a period that parallels the fundamentalist movement's rise to political power.
For Christian Right leaders, the gay rights movement and its so-called "homosexual agenda" are the prime culprits in the destruction of American society and culture. In the words of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, the battle against gay rights is essentially a "second civil war" to put control of the U.S. government in the right hands, meaning those who reject gay rights.

The religious right in America has employed a variety of strategies in its efforts to beat back the increasingly confident gay rights movement. One of those has been defamation. Many of its leaders have engaged in the crudest type of name-calling, describing homosexuals as "perverts" with "filthy habits" who seek to snatch the children of straight parents and "convert" them to gay sex. They have disseminated disparaging "facts" about gays that are simply untrue — assertions that are remarkably reminiscent of the way white intellectuals and scientists once wrote about the "bestial" black man and his supposedly threatening sexuality.

Would this comment from TVC head Lou Sheldon at a 2006 religious right conference do?:

Sheldon demanded laws that treat homosexuality as "a social disorder." Decrying the term "homosexual" as the brainchild of a 20th-century German psychologist obviously sympathetic to gays, Sheldon implored the conferees to return to the 18th century's superior diction. "The word used in America [then] was 'perverted'," he noted. When Sheldon was asked by an audience member what to call homosexuals, he shot out of his chair and shouted, "Call them what they are -- sodomites!" 

Of course Lafferty conveniently didn't mention her father's outburst in her screed. Jeremy lists a couple of other things that Lafferty neglected to mention:

Andrea and her father (TVC prez Lou Sheldon) have willingly set up shot atop this contentious volcano. If Andrea wants to get TVC off of it, then Andrea can vow to be better. She can vow to stop saying that being gay is equivalent to schtooping a toaster. She can stop calling an important piece of legislation the "Barney Frank She-Male Shower Bill." She can stop referring to a collection of transgender people as a "freak show." She can stop putting Jesus on Wanted posters as a way to pit that particular religious figure against gays who support hate crime protections. She can stop directing her worker bees to Photoshop a smiling Barack Obama in front of the burning WTC towers or onto a Nazi propaganda poster. TVC can stop flipping Congressional exchanges so that they are made more convenient for their self-serving purposes. She can stop being untruthful. 

And let's not forget  TVC's tasteless need to attack the transgender community (amongst other things, call them "she-males"), which I have talked about on several occasions via their fight against ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) but best be illustrated by this awful graphic:



In addition, there was the time when the Traditional Values Coalition:

claimed that the passage of ENDA would lead to the sexual abuse of disabled veterans,

continued to intentionally mix the term "sexual orientation" with "paraphilias" in another attempt to lie about ENDA,

used bad research  in YET another attempt to lie about ENDA, including distorting marketing statistics,

made a tacky attack on Obama appointee Kevin Jennings and actor Tom Cruise,

claimed that a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a bad idea by asking, amongst other silly questions, how would the military " handle sodomy in battlefield situations,"

kept a bad study regarding gays and pedophilia on its web page even after a researcher complained about his work being distorted in the study AND telling an outright lie about testimony during Congressional hearings regarding hate crimes legislation. The lie was so bad, it was easily refuted via transcript, which Jeremy Hooper did when he broke the story.

Bottom line - Andrea Lafferty saying that she is proud to be a member of a hate group is a like a cannibal bragging about his table manners.



Big hat tip to Goodasyou.org



Bookmark and Share

Barney Frank, GetEqual, and other interesting Thursday midday news briefs

Shocker: Rep. Frank has contrarian opinions which he's not afraid to share - Naturally Frank totally disagrees with GetEqual's actions. I recently wrote a piece about those actions garnering some ugly comments (a few racially insensitive), but the point of my post was to ask is GetEqual's actions simply venting or will it lead to positive action in the community in other fights for lgbt equality.
And now I pose a new question. Say that GetEqual's actions do cause there to be an immediacy with ENDA hearings. What happens next? We all know the religious right's game plan of exploiting ignorance of the transgender community to kill ENDA. Will direction action tactics be successful during the hearings or can they be seen as counterproductive? I am not devaluing anyone's actions to garner lgbt equality but critical questions need to be asked, period.

Govt softens anti-homosexuality Bill - Not bad. But I'm a cynic. Until this bil is totally killed, I ain't popping any champagne yet.

Hate Group MassResistance Wigging Out Over Massachusetts Governor’s Race - Massachusetts hate group Mass Resistance is asking conservatives to stay home on election day. Promises, promises.

Second Attempt to Recall Adams Fails - Y'all ain't getting rid of this gay mayor. Deal with it.

Senate confirms openly lesbian judge - Ass kickingly awesome!



Bookmark and Share

Black pastor declares war on Democractic party over gay rights while I laugh my ass off

According to the right-wing One News Now, a black pastor is starting a new political action group because  he says the Democratic party doesn't really represent black Americans:

Bishop E.W. Jackson, Sr., has set up the Stand America PAC to challenge members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Jackson tells OneNewsNow that that contingent of lawmakers does not represent black Americans.


"They are pro-abortion, they are pro-homosexuality, they are pro-gay marriage -- and the black community doesn't agree with any of these things...and it is time [those lawmakers] were challenged," he vows. "[O]ur PAC is going to challenge them, recruit candidates, and ultimately see to it that they are defeated, and that the black community has an alternative leadership to look to."

In other words, E.W. Jackson is aiming to be another Harry Jackson, i.e. a black leader claiming to speak for black folks against the Democratic party while surreptitiously propped up by right-wing (i.e. white) money.

Which will probably be the reason that other in his own head and the press releases on the right, this announcement will go over like a burp of an infant - cute and funny but ultimately meaningless.

Granted, I'm sure he will catch attention with the remark about abortion and homosexuality. Folks in the anti-abortion movement have been trying to gain a strong foothold in the black community.

But it's the comment about homosexuality where Jackson fails. He should have just stuck to gay marriage. You see, usually when a black leader of Jackson's, shall we say ilk, talks about homosexuality in the black community, they usually confine the argument to gay marriage.

And that is because they know that the issue of what the African-American community on the whole feels about homosexuality is  complex.

Oh sure, you hear voices telling you how black folks don't agree with homosexuality and how blacks "resent gays," but allow me to let you in on a secret that I'm beginning to discover:

What has been said and believed about blacks and gays isn't necessarily the entire story.

Unfortunately this hasn't been explored as much as it should have and it speaks to how the black community has been shortchanged in regards to media coverage of our issues. Folk on both sides of the spectrum seem to be content with offering inaccurate generalizations of the black community on the whole rather than exploring the intricacies behind the feelings of the black community regarding homosexuality.

But back to Jackson - another reason why he will probably fail is because he doesn't provide any adequate solutions. It's not that the black community are beholden to the Democratic party. Like any other sensible group in the country, we align ourselves with those who we feel can get us to where we need to be.

And frankly I don't see the GOP being that party with its covert support of birthers, tea baggers, Dittoheads and Beckites.

So long story short, Jackson's announcement is cute and amusing but personally, I prefer the baby burp.



Bookmark and Share