Monday, March 24, 2014

Michigan, Mark Regnerus, and John Boehner prove that the going rate for homophobia is over $4 million

Regnerus
University of Texas (Austin)  professor Mark Regnerus and all of the other so-called experts called by the state of Michigan to defend its ban on marriage equality was humiliated during the judicial overturning of that law but I wouldn't worry about their feelings.

As it turns out, they were all well compensated. According to LGBTQNation:
The state of Michigan says it has spent $40,000 on witnesses who testified as experts at a recent trial on same-sex marriage. The state has paid $39,478.75 to experts, and some additional bills “have not yet been sent in,” Joy Yearout, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Bill Schuette, told The Associated Press.

Let's put Michigan's waste of $40,000 in a larger perspective.

Regnerus had already received $90,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and $695,000 from the Witherspoon Institute to fund his now discredited study on gay parenting.  The study was an attempt to sway the Supreme Court in the DOMA and Prop 8 cases and it failed miserably.
Regnerus continued to say that his work was objective, but according to the Huffington Post and the American Independent:

 . . . documents, recently obtained through public-records requests by The American Independent and published in collaboration with The Huffington Post, show that the Witherspoon Institute recruited a professor from a major university to carry out a study that was designed to manipulate public policy. In communicating with donors about the research project, Witherspoon’s president clearly expected results unfavorable to the gay-marriage movement. The think tank’s efforts paid off. The New Family Structures Study came out just in time for opponents of gay marriage to cite it in multiple federal cases involving marriage equality – including two cases soon to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Speaking of which, Speaker of the House John Boehner spent $2.3 million of taxpayers' money in the failed attempt to defend DOMA. Of course this is the same man who won't help pass a bill giving unemployment benefits to Americans out of work, but that's another "pot of potatoes."

'Anti-gay right turns on Chick-Fil-A' and other Monday midday news briefs

With the news that Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy claiming that his company has stepped back from the argument over marriage equality, anti-gay right groups and personalities are turning on him HARD:



Also:

Scott Lively: The Mark Of The Beast Now Looks Like A Chick-Fil-A Sandwich - Well if anyone would know about the "mark of the beast," it's that devil, Scott Lively.

 In other news:

 Read This One Document To Understand What The Christian Right Hopes To Gain From Hobby Lobby - A case you would think has nothing to do with lgbt equality does in fact have something to do with lgbt equality.  

Karen Adell Scot, California Teacher, Comes Out As Transgender - In past cases in which I have seen, having a transgender teacher does not harm children. But the parents freak out like it's the end of the world. I say keep the teacher and let's work on the parents.  

Obama Administration To Take Action In Response To Uganda’s Anti-Gay Law - And hopefully it's an action which will send a message that persecution of any stripe will not be tolerated.