Tag: Gay Politics

Tennessee Hate Group Says Its Top 2012 Priority Will Be Making It Legal for Christians to Bully Gay Kids

Jon Ponder

Nashville Tennessean:

Last session it was the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Now the battle lines are being drawn up over another bill that deals with discussion about homosexuality in schools.

The Family Action Council of Tennessee said in a newsletter emailed to supporters Tuesday that one of its top priorities for 2012 will be passage of legislation that changes the state’s anti-bullying law “to make sure it protects the religious liberty and free speech rights of students who want to express their views on homosexuality.”

The Tennessee Equality Project, a gay rights organization, has already sounded off on the measure, calling it “a ‘license to bully’ that allows them to hide their irrational biases behind an extreme religious belief.”

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Ron Paul Campaign Touts Endorsement by Pastor Who Calls for Executing Gays

Jon Ponder

Phillip Kayser, a virulently homophobic preacher who endorsed Ron Paul
Phillip Kayser, a virulently homophobic preacher who endorsed Ron Paul
How can libertarians be Christians? The two philosophies are polar opposites. Jesus was collectivist who commanded his followers to tend to those in need — to feed the hungry, house the homeless and heal the sick.

Libertarians like Ayn Rand, writer of the teen novel, “Atlas Shrugged,” believe that Jesus’ philosophy is, as she put it, “evil.” Followers of Rand and the libertarian creed believe selfishness is the highest virtue, that we’re all in this alone — every man woman and child for him or herself.

Polling in advance of the Iowa caucuses suggest that Rep. Ron Paul, a Christian libertarian from Texas, will come in first or second there next Tuesday. Paul, who is also a physician, says that, as a libertarian, he believes that the government should not ever interfere with individual freedoms. But, as a Christian, he also believes the opposite: when the individual happens to be a pregnant woman, Big Government should intervene to countermand her free will to choose not to give birth.

Now the Paul campaign has proudly announced that Paul has received the endorsement of a hard-core right-wing Christianist whose views are so out of the mainstream that he advocates the updating U.S. law to reflect Old Testament law, starting with the punishment for homosexuality laid out in Leviticus:

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Gay Couples Paying Marriage Excise Tax Under DOMA

Trish

$6,000

The average amount higher that same-sex married couples pay in income taxes than their man-lady counterparts, even in states where same-sex marriage is legal. The problem is the federal government following the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), put in place under Pres. Bill Clinton and which defines marriage as an arrangement between one man and one woman. The Obama administration has declined to defend DOMA in court but Congress may defend do so and Speaker of the House John Boehner has announced intentions to continue to do exactly that.

Rick Perry: Gay, Gay, Gay

Jon Ponder

The blowback from the hate-filled ad targeting Iowa’s Christian bigot voters that Rick Perry released this week has been pretty hilarious.

photos-rick-perry-teletubby-brokebackIt has spawned all sorts of parodies, including the video above, as well as a Tumblr site and a series of Photoshop jobs in which gay icons like Tinky Winky, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell’s favorite Teletubby, are superimposed behind Perry.

And speaking of gay icons, here is a Dept. of There Are No Accidents alert: In the ad, Perry is costumed in a jacket just like the one worn by Heath Ledger in “Brokeback Mountain.”

But the blowback hasn’t been all fun and games for Rick Perry. On Wednesday, Tony Fabrizio, team Perry’s pollster and strategist, was outed on Twitter — “twouted?” — by Jimmy LaSalvia and Chris Barron, prominent members of GOProud, a Stockholm-syndrome support group for gay Republicans:

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Bachmann Reminds Student That Gay Men Can Marry, As Long As They Marry Women – And She Should Know

Jon Ponder

From the first moment he burst onto the public stage with his jazzy hands, high-pitched feminine voice and sibilant s’es, Marcus Bachmann has registered at about an 11 on a scale of one to 10 on gaydars across the nation.

Marcus Bachmann
Marcus Bachmann
Adding fuel to rumors that he is closeted is the fact that he has made his living, in part, from one of the saddest rackets around: convincing gay Christians that they can be, or need to be, “cured.”

Here’s the rule, and you can take this to the bank: Heterosexuals who are secure about their own sexuality are not obsessed with homosexuality. People who are happily straight are apathetic about the mechanics of gay sex. They do not make it their life mission to suppress gay rights. They don’t spend every waking hour figuring out new ways to oppress gay people, and they never send their families out to picket funerals with signs that say, for example, “God Hates Fags.” And, especially, they don’t try to “cure” homosexuality with “pray away the gay” schemes like Bachmann’s.

Now, in the latest gaffe in her presidential campaign, Marcus’ wife, Michele, appears to have spilled the beans about their marriage. At a town hall in Waverly, Iowa, Rep. Bachmann was questioned about marriage equality by Jane Schmidt, a high school student:

JANE SCHMIDT: Then, why can’t same-sex couples get married?

BACHMANN: They can get married, but they abide by the same law as everyone else. They can marry a man if they’re a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they’re a man.

Hey, it worked for her, right?

Partial Transcript:

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We’re Number One! Los Angeles Leads Nation in Gay Couples (Oh, Wait)

Jon Ponder

map-ss-couples-us

New reports from the 2010 Census show that California has nearly twice the number of gay couples than any other state — thanks for playing, New York and Florida! — and that Los Angeles is home to more same-sex couples than any other city:

The Golden State had 98,153 same-sex couples, followed by New York with 48,932, Florida with 48,496 and Texas with 46,401. North Dakota had the fewest same-sex couples with 559, just ahead of Wyoming with 657 and South Dakota with 714.

Among the nation’s largest cities … Los Angeles was No. 1 with 13,292, followed by Chicago with 10,849, San Francisco with 10,461 and Seattle with 6,537. [San Diego was fifth with 5,910 couples.]

The U.S. Census Bureau this week released revised estimates on same-sex married couple and unmarried partner households: There were 131,729 same-sex married couple households and 514,735 same-sex unmarried partner households in the United States.

But wait — uh-oh. Hold the confetti, L.A. Those are aggregate numbers. […]

W. Mitt Romney – the ‘W’ Stands for ‘Weasel’

Jon Ponder

I happened to catch a few minutes of this interview with Mitt Romney by the editorial board of the Union Leader, a Republican newspaper in New Hampshire, on C-SPAN the other day. It had been a while since I’d heard Romney speak extemporaneously outside the debate setting, and I had forgotten how badly he presents himself. (The stammer is a particularly galling affectation meant to convey earnestness.)

Had I been able to stomach the entire thing, I would have caught a moment of supreme weaselry, when Romney was asked about the active-duty soldier in Iraq who was booed by tea baggers at the Republican presidential debate in Orlando earlier this month:

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Perry, Romney Opt Not to Apologize for Disrespect They Showed Soldier at Fox News Debate

Jon Ponder

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

Here’s an update to this story from yesterday about the disrespect shown to an active duty soldier in Iraq by the entire Republican presidential field at the Fox News debate this week in Orlando, via Steve Benen at Washington Monthly:

Yesterday, Jon Huntsman and Gary Johnson, to their credit, also denounced those who booed Hill, albeit a day late. Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, however, refused requests for comment.

I don’t expect much from guys like Romney and Perry, and neither are likely to ever get a Profile in Courage award nomination any time soon, but if leading presidential candidates aren’t willing to stand up for an Army soldier serving honorably in Iraq, who will they stand up for?

From the ABC News report:

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Professional Homophobe Marcus Bachmann Accosts Openly Gay News Anchor

Jon Ponder
“As both CNN staffers tried to question Bachmann, Lemon said he was pushed by two members of Bachmann’s staff,” reports CNN. “Lemon also said that Marcus Bachmann, the congresswoman’s husband, pushed him.”

Marcus Bachman, the husband of GOP frontrunner Rep. Michele Bachmann, elbowed and pushed CNN anchor Don Lemon during a campaign event in Iowa on Saturday.

Marcus Bachmann has been at the center of a scandal that erupted last month after an undercover investigation revealed that his Christian psychology clinic provided so-called ex-gay “reparative therapy,” despite his assertions that it did not.

Lemon, the CNN anchor, is openly gay.

Video and a report from the The Advocate follow.

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