Tag: Professional Homophobes
Only Christians Can Save Christianity
Dan Savage makes the point that liberal Christians who are tired of being lumped together with what he calls “right-wing fundamentalist batshit asshole douchebag Christians” should complain — not to the targets of evangelical hate campaigns like himself — but to the haters who run the hate groups in Christ’s name, like the American Family Association, National Organization for Marriage and the rest.
GOP Hate Group Leader Tony Perkins Cites Research from Dr. George ‘Rentboy’ Rekers’ Phony Group to Justify Anti-Gay Smears
It’s apparent now that the corporate media has chosen to ignore the fact that that the Family Research Center, a group that is openly affiliated with the mainstream Republican Party, has been named to the official list of U.S. hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Unlike representatives from, say, the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nation and other race-based hate groups on the list, FRC openly consults with and lobbies Republican members of Congress. It also sponsors the GOP-oriented “Values Voter Summit” in Washington, which features a must-do presidential candidate cattle call that is open only to Republicans.
Christine O’Donnell made her first public appearance at the Summit after winning the Delaware primary this year, and Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., won the presidential straw poll. But don’t hold your breath waiting for some ace reporter to ask him if he stands by his endorsement by a high-profile hate group.
In a just world, corporate media would shun the FRC, just as it shuns race-based hate groups. After all, it’s been decades since the media felt an obligation to give the Klan or Aryan Nation a national platform for their views. That’s because the media — and our society as a whole — reached a consensus long ago that there really are not two legitimate sides in the debate over civil rights for racial minorities.
Unfortunately, we’re apparently a decade or two away from reaching the same consensus about the gay rights debate.
Case in point: Last night, MSNBC gave a national platform to FRC Pres. Tony Perkins on “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” ostensibly so Perkins could defend his organization and explain why its designation as a hate-group is wrong.
Instead, Perkins chose to double-down on some of the same lies and smears that led to the FRC being named to the hate group list:
Politely But Firmly Boies Calls Anti-Gay Psycho Tony Perkins a Liar on Face the Nation
At around minute 2:50:
DAVID BOIES: It’s easy to sit around and debate and throw around opinions that appeal to people’s fear and prejudice — cite studies that either don’t exist or don’t say what you say they do. In a court of law, you’ve got to come and you’ve got to support those opinions. You’ve got to stand up, under oath and under cross-examination. And what we saw at trial is that it’s very easy for the people who want to deprive gay and lesbian citizens of the right to [marry] to make all sorts of statements in campaign literature — or in debate where they can’t be cross-examined, But when they come into court, and they have to defend those opinions under oath and under cross-examination, those opinions just melt away.
And that’s what happened here. There simply wasn’t any evidence. There weren’t any of those studies — there weren’t any empirical studies. That’s just made up. That’s junk science. And it’s easy to say that on television, but a witness stand is a lonely place to lie and when you come into court, you can’t do that.
And that’s what we proved. We put fear and prejudice on trial, and fear and prejudice lost.